Sunday Snapshot~Boo hoo...summer is going, going gone!

Summer is gone...where did it go? My kids start back tomorrow. We homeschool, but adhere to the county calendar because my kiddos take several classes out and it just makes life easier. During this whirlwind of a summer vacation what did we do:
1: We watched a lot of I love Lucy...seems my kids just discovered this wonderful classic.
2. We went to Atlanta Fest in June...and watched my oldest and his band take 3rd place in the talent search.
3. The bigs went to Church camp
4. We went to the beach.
5. Karl and I celebrated of 21 anniversary.
6. Jolie turned 2, we had our post placement visit to return to China by month 6...we recently reached 5 mo. with Jolie.
7.We went to several doctor appointments to get ready for Jolie's big cleft palate repair
8. Karlie studied and studied and studied and got her driver's learner permit.. Seems like we have watched a lot of NASCAR...my youngest son is a HUGE fan
9. We went to the lake a few times...but not enough
10. We went to the zoo
11. We went to Stone Mountain on July 4th for the laser show and fireworks
12 AND we've bought School supplies.
There's been a lot more stuff I guess...but I am not quite ready for school to go back can we wait till September?

Fun watching Zach at Atlanta Fest

Fun at the beach

Fun at Stone Mountain

Fun at the Lake

Fun at the zoo

Fun tailgating with the Grands at the zoo

Fun with Jolie on her 2nd birthday

Lunch with friends

Fun with dad on the new birthday trike

Picnic in the park with a little 'walking for exercise' thrown in

The lake is a favorite fun place for us

Splashing fun

Fun with friends at 6 flags

Fun with all the grands

Fun in a pool

Summer, please don't run away! 

Pre-op

Jolie had a pre-op appointment on Thursday afternoon. So I grabbed the camera and put it in my bag thinking that I would document the occasion, but the appointment went by so quick I didn't even think about the camera till I got home and had no photos.

We got to the Docs office on the Northside of Atlanta...I really like going to the Northside, it's like a really fun field trip. Karlie, Shek, and Gam went with me. We plugged in the address to our faithful "maggie" the GPS and off we went.

We walked in the door and they gave me lots of paperwork to complete...which I thought I had already done when  I met the Cleft team, but I guess the Doc's office needed their own copy too. Before I had it completed they called us back. So I get Jolie, her blanket, her bag, her milk and head to the back. As soon as her name is called and they open the door to the examining rooms Jolie turns on the waterworks. BUT when we got to the room, the PA had brought her a sticker of a pretty princess with long dark hair and brown eyes! SCORE!...Then the PA asked a lot of questions, and sketched out a drawing of how the Doc would do the surgery in Jolie's mouth...I asked some questions, signed some papers...and then it was time for the examination...
The PA said, "I'm going to listen to Mom's heart first." So she did...all the while, Jolie looking like, "What is this?" then the doc had me open wide and say ahhhh and then Jolie opened her mouth voluntarily...and no crying, screaming or tears during the exam. I told the PA..."Why don't all Docs do that?" Then it wouldn't be so traumatic. She said it usually worked, but not always....Then while I finished completing the paperwork, the PA said, Let's go get a lollipop and Jolie went with her to pick it out...she looked back at me, as if to say can I go without you...I said you can go, I have to finish this...AND she went and came back with 2 lollipops...a green one for her and a brown one for me!....LOL...THIS PA rocked!

 This photo shows just how cute Jolie looked at the Doc's office. Everywhere we went everyone told her how cute her flowers were in her hair. Her hair is long enough for some short pig tails. She always wants one when she sees her sis putting up her hair in a ponytail. Today, after her bath she let me put in two pigtails...and they lasted most of the day and she was quite proud of them too.

Countdown to Surgery

August 10th

She'll stay one or two nights in the hospital.

Please pray for her and us during this time.

Pray for a smooth perfect surgery with no complications, no infections, no holes appearing afterwards no problems. Pray that all the rough places will be made plain...and that we will stand AMAZED! 

To GOD be the GLORY!

Wake up to a good breakfast...

I like to cook....really I do...I  like to eat it too! SO I try not to cook the really good stuff too often because we all know the really good stuff is usually really fattening. Why is that? LOL

Earlier in the summer I cracked out the church cookbook and made my friend Miriam's breakfast casserole. She says that she serves it to her family on Christmas morning...it's their tradition.

 I have had breakfast casserole before, but I had never made one. I decided to try it out on Zach's band. They were spending the night at our house so that they could get up early the next day to participate in a talent search contest. I wanted to send them out with a good breakfast...so I made the casserole the night before just as the recipe suggests and tossed it in the oven early the next morning. Zach told the guys that his mom was making a breakfast casserole, which they said a "casserole?" BUT when they smelled it cooking they asked where breakfast was and they all loved it.

It's definitely a recipe that has been added to my "keeper" list!

The ingredients

Spray the pan

Layer the white bread

Crack some eggs

Brown the sausage

 Pour cheese over the bread

Measure up the milk

Drain the sausage

 pour the milk into the eggs

put the sausage on top of the cheese

 Pour the milk and egg mixture on top of the sausage

 \

Refrigerate overnight

The next morning put it in the oven....and the aroma will wake up your crew...and breakfast will put a smile on their face...

Breakfast Casserole

6-8 slices of bread, buttered

1 lb. sausage browned and drained

8 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

8 eggs

2 c.milk

Spray pan.  Line pan with bread, buttered side down.  Sprinkle cheese over bread. Add sausage. Blend egg mixture. Pour over top. Place in fridge overnight. Bake at 325* for about an hour.

Can't wait to get on the road again?

Karlie has been studying for her permit test for a while now...even reminding me of the travel laws while I drive...LOL. She was a nervous wreck about taking the test this morning...but we prayed that God would take the nerves away, and recall the information for her.

So we stopped by the Homeschool attendance office to get the form stating that yes, she is current on her attendance, I grabbed her birth certificate and SS number and off we went. 

While she was taking the test, I was sitting with Shek and Jolie, when all of the sudden she came to my seat and said I passed! YAH! HALLELUJAH and Praise the LORD!

I knew I couldn't get away with whipping out the big camera, so I sneakily took a few photos with my phone...

Karlie waiting to get her permit.

Waiting

Karlie is doing the happy dance...

I got her to pose one last time outside of the DMV..

She was on cloud nine when I dropped her off at a swimming party. Now that she has the permit, I know she can't wait to get on the road....

Can't Decide....

I've always wanted one of those family beach photos ever since I saw a photo album filled with beach family photos at a photography studio back when I was getting my two oldest kids' photos made with the lamb and bunny...and that was a looooong time ago.

It's hard getting a good family photo at least for my bunch...either one or more are looking away or someone has their eyes shut, or has a weird look on their face.

So I've narrowed down my choices to these photos...which one do I enlarge to hang on the wall?

 Photo #1

 Photo #2

Photo #3

I just don't know...these are the best of the lot...and one of them will be enlarged HUGE size and placed over the fireplace.

What's your vote?

Fun at the Beach

We are back home from a few days in Panama City Beach.  Everyone in the family said thath they could have stayed a couple of more days....but as we were eating our final lunch at the beach at Pineapple Willy's Pier, we saw some dark clouds and we over heard the waitresses discuss the weather report...RAIN for the next few days...and I heard it rained 3 days before we arrived...I think we hit it just right...PTL

 Jolie's first time in the pool...she started off on the steps.

 She was soon enjoying the pool...even though the water was cold.

Shek and Jolie play in the sand and try making a sand castle. Jolie's word she used when seeing the waves was always, "WOW"....and she has also started using thank you too. After 5 months of us modeling thank you over and over ....she's got it..and it just warms our hearts to hear it.

 Zach and Jolie swimming in the pool.

Say Cheese!

Well, I did want to take a 'before' photo of Jolie's cleft palate...when she throws her head back and laughs out loud, one can see her cleft very well.

Cute photo of some really sweet sisters

Here's a blast from the past photo of Karl and Zach...this was Zach's 1st Beach experience he was about 2 1/2 years old in this photo....

He's grown up a lot since that last photo...I need to find some blast from the past beach photos of Karlie and Shek...the one of Zach just happened to be in a frame and easy to find....I so need to organize and digitize my old photos...now that will be a JOB....but a job for another day.

 Jolie walking in the sand...

Shek wanted his photo made on the jet ski. These jet skis stay busy during the day...we sneaked a photo after hours...

The guys had fun at at the go-kart track.

Sharky's was a fun place to eat right on the beach. I had the shrimp scampi...and Karlie accidentally got a piece of fried oyster with her french fries and liked it so much that she ordered a oyster po-boy the next day...who'd a thought?

 You never know who or what you might see in PCB.

 Shek poses by a Boss Hogg car!

We were excited to find a Hawaiian shave icee place.. YUMMY 

On our last morning there we stopped at Ripley's believe it or not museum. 

 Shek

 Karlie saw this "guy" earlier in the week and gasped...at first she thought it was a real guy hanging off the sign but then saw that it was the Ripley's museum...

 Shek poses by this car covered in gold coins...let's just melt down the gold and help pay folks' social security checks...

 Tallest man...

 We thought she was real at first...

 Pineapple willy's...our favorite eating spot...I loved the sign about not feeding the Seagulls. In the mountains there are signs that say don't feed the bears...at the beach you see don't feed the seagulls...mainly...if it's seafood or keylime pie...I just want to feed me...lol...well, and my family too.

 Love that pretty blue water...and that pretty sweet boy.

 Zach 

 karlie

 Onion ring tower...

 Karl and me at Ripleys..

 Jolie and her sand bucket

 Karlie

Do you like my hat?

 Karlie

 Shek and the boogie board

 Karl

 Headed out in the deep...

Trying the boogie board

Do we have to go home?

The Beach was fun...can't believe school starts back in about 8 days...and even though we homeschool we try to stick to the county calandar....it just makes life easier...but I don't want to start back. Can't we go back to the old schedule and start school the Friday before Labor day...then have a Monday off? Back in my day we went to school for half days for a week because of the Mississippi Summer heat...but that was back in the day of no air conditioner in the schools...you know back in the stone ages. I may not have walked 5 miles up hill in the snow to school, but I did go to school in the heat with no air and only a  red fan in the wall....

The Beach ....I want to go back!