Let the good times roll...

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood for a little walking/jogging with the boys. Actually this photo is not in the neighborhood as we live on an extremely busy road in a semi rural going not so rural area, so we have to walk a good ways to get away from the speeding cars.

Zach and I won't leave home with out our o2gold, arginine and Spark, it does make the workout easier. 

Tomorrow is supposed to be a HOT one...upwards of 94 degrees, hope these boys decide to get an earlier start than we did today.

I don't know about the kids, but I am enjoying summer.

I love summer..

let the good times continue to roll.

Don't forget my give a way for a box of SPARK!

Spark it to me, baby

It's time for another SPARK give-a-way. Do you need energy, and a little mental focus without a crash?
Then a Spark is what you need. AdvoCare has a lot of great products, why not get started with a SpArK?

Simply comment on this blog post to be entered in a drawing to win a free box of SPARK containing 14 pouches of Spark.

Want to be entered twice? Share this blog link on your facebook wall advertising this give a way.
Want to be entered thrice? Share this blog link on your blog.

 Never been Sparked? I'll be happy to send you a sample. Just email me your address. Check out my hubster's before and now photos...His journey to better health started with a  SPARK.

Karl Before AdvoCare...high BP

on AdvoCare products...down 26 lbs ...normal bp...lots of energy

sparku4life.com

It all starts with a Spark. Winner announced on July 3rd.

A Berry Good Day for Berries and Pies

Today my friend Shannon's girls came over to play for the day. 

We decided that since it was such a pretty day, we might just pick some berries in the front yard.

Yep! We found some berries.

We looked high and low and picked every ripe berry we could find.

 We knew we needed at least 4 cups of berries for 2 pies...so we were desperate to find all the ripe ones. AND we kept a watchful eye for snakes that could be lurking, but did not see any, Praise. The. Lord!

It was such a beautiful morning to pick berries with friends.

 Yes! Jolie had to pick berries with her lipgloss!

Look at all those feet in the berry patch, even one in a cast, but that cast didn't slow her down.

We headed home with buckets and bags of berries.. 

We decided on our way back to the house that we really needed to make those pies...

With a little help from Pioneer Woman's cookbook  and her website we made a list for the ingredients we needed and headed to the store to get them.

Before heading to the store, we always tell dad bye, when he's working from home. Jolie told me that I couldn't kiss dad bye, because it was her turn. LOL...so I snapped this photo really quick...and got my bye sugar when she wasn't looking.

When we got home with the ingredients we started to work. We made the crust from scratch.

I found every rolling pin I own, and put the kids to work. Shek and "K" even recited the roll it, pat it and mark it with a B nursery rhyme. They were having a fun time laughing, giggling and rolling dough.

Jolie thought this was "play dough" play to the extreme...

Look! I really was there, supervising.

Chelsea was awesome at rolling out a thin top crust for the pies. She even got fancy with it and used some cookie cutters for a little extra cuteness for our pies.

Karlie was snapping photos and slicing butter for the pie.

ta-da! pie number 1 complete.

I told ya she got fancy with it, this one has mickey faces.

Pie Aftermath! Fun is usually messy.

Here's the cooling pies. I heard more than once, "When can we eat some?"  Finally,we scarfed down one whole pie,and it was finger lickin' good,to quote Col. Sanders, if we do say so ourselves.

My berry pickin' pie bakin' crew.

We had a Berry good time today.

I am Participating in Favorite Photo Friday at
The Long Road to China and back...

My favorite photo is the one with all the kids' feet with the berries. I did nothing fancy with my photos, it was just a special fun day with friends and family that was just too special not to share with others. I love making sweet memories with family and friends.

Father's Day 2012

Father's Day 2012

After Father's Day lunch I had the kids pose with their Dad and Pop. Here they are on Father's Day smiling on the back porch.

My doctor is a rockstar.

Today we headed to the Children's Hospital so that Jolie could have a little dental surgery completed under anesthesia.  I told her on the way that she was going to have that tooth fixed, the one that she points to all. the. time. and says, "It hurts, momma!" 

This is a iphone photo snapped on the way. Jolie does not really perk up until after 9 am. This photo was taken shortly after 8. She's not too thrilled about being up dressed complete with a hair bow and NO breakfast. BUT one can't have anything after midnight and she completely slept through her last chance for clear liquids at 730 am even though we started offering juice at 7 am.... We left earlier than we really needed to because you just never know about the traffic and parking at the hospital is pretty hairy too. On the way, the day surgery nurse called and asked if we could come sooner because there had been a cancellation, she was thrilled when I told her we were already on the way.

She sat in my lap in the waiting room for just a few mins. We arrived at 851. AND just as if an alarm sounded...at 9, she hopped down and went to play with the toys in the waiting area. BUT just in a few moments they called us back, and soon we were changing her into her gown, and she was taking the 'I don't care meds', she didn't like the taste and was holding it in her mouth.

WHERE's Jolie?

peek a boo...

someone is having fun

The last time she had surgery back in September for cleft palate repair...the "i don't care meds" had not completely kicked in and she was quite aware that she was being taken away from me...I. did. not. like.it one bit....but today...she was zonked out almost completely when they came to wheel her back. She was smiling and telling the nurse staff that she was from China. She was very excited to see a Chinese-American nurse as well...

When she got back to me, she wanted to be held and was excited about the apple juice and the purple band aids.  All the nurses bragged on what a great patient she was. Her doctor is a rock star, not because his last name is Bonjovi but because her surgery went by so smoothly and quickly. The first thing she asked for was Shek and then Karlie. She rode out in a wheel chair, but was sure to pause us by the gift shop telling us that she wanted the hello kitty pillow that she saw in the window. She has a hawk-eye for hello kitty stuff even when being half-zonked out on anesthesia meds. I told her we would get one at Target some time soon. 

I think the most traumatic thing of the whole ordeal was having to take out the hello kitty earrings and then putting them back in. She also doesn't like the funny feeling of the new filled teeth and has had me brush her teeth once and she has brushed them a second time. I think she thinks brushing will wipe away that funny feeling.

Baby girl was very hungry and gobbled down some wonton soup and fried rice...she is now relaxing in daddy's lap watching none other than Cinderella.

I am glad we are back home. We are praising the Lord that it went so smoothly ...thanks for the prayers.

a list of 21THINGS because 20 is just not enough

1. Today is our 22nd anniversary.

2.  I have now lived the same amount of years in my current State as I lived in my homestate.
3. Last night was my first experience at the drags. Jolie's and Karlie's too. Jolie said this is AWESOME!

4. Enjoyed the races, just not the crazy people, and their cigarette smoke.
5. Smoke free areas should be everywhere including the race track.
6. Shirts should never be optional for men or women.
7. Jolie's hometown,Wuhan,China, was enveloped with a yellow mysterious fog.

8. No one can explain the fog, or at least they don't want to. I have been to that crane tower in the foggy background in this photo.
9. Zach is all 'orientated' for Belmont. Class schedule complete.

10. Jolie has dental surgery on Monday, and charmed everyone at Preop. This photo snapped when we'd had enough of the wait.

Having fun yet???

11. Driver's Education does not necessarily mean that an instructor teaches you how to drive from scratch.
12. I have seen too many snakes during my exercise treks through neighborhoods lately.
13. 1 snake is 1 too many.

14. I think Christians should not look or act like the rest of the world.
15. Shek lost his wallet, and hounded me constantly asking me where it was.
16. I found the wallet; it went through the wash. He then hounded his dad to take him to the store.

17. Karlie, Jolie and I would like a  pool or for someone to say "Hey, Go use our beach home."
18. I have a hankering to travel, especially when we pass the airport and I see the planes taking off.
19. Karl is taking me to the big city for an anniversary date.

20. VBS was great this week. Karlie and I helped in the same class.

and lastly...

21. School starts after labor day,at least our school year anyway...that's what I'm talking about!

22

22 years ago on June 16, 1990, at quarter past 2 o'clock in the afternoon, I married my Prince Charming...no wonder Jolie insists that I am Cinderella, the Princess.

Happy Anniversary to my Sweet BOY! Love you bunches!
I continue to Bless the Lord for blessing me with you.

FLY!

This week has been a busy week and we're only  at Wednesday.

We've been in VBS this week and the theme was FLY~Trust God. This was the easiest VBS I've ever volunteered for. ALL the guess work had been removed, it was streamlined down to the nitty gritty, there was NO decor competitions between classrooms. IT was smooth, fun, and stressfree...and did I mention it was only 3 days long? AND since we had to go to a pre-op for Jolie yesterday, my family only went 2 times, but it was still awesome fun.

My Karlie girl holding one of our sweet VBS kids...

VBS : "No matter who you are, or wherever you go, you can 

TRUST GOD!"

Since we had a flyin' week this week, and my Karl and Zach were in Nashville for college orientation, the rest of us decided to take a field trip to the barnstormers(a small airport,hanger,museum, restaurant combo) after Jolie's pre-op appointment. It made for a long day, but it was really fun.

First we left for Jolie's pre-op appointment at the children's hospital. It took a long time to find a parking place, but we were not at the usual children's hospital that we usual go to and I didn't know my way around.Jolie was still in high spirits yesterday, singing and entertaining everywhere we went. She was a hit, which is saying a LOT, because she used to scream the entire time we go to any place even remotely looking like a doctor's office. The pre-op appointment was 2 hours long...A long time to wait, but we made the most of it. We played and sang, looked at magazines and took photos of ourselves and posted them on instagram.

This was early on in our appointment...

This was us later on in the appointment when we were tired of waiting and hungry....I have an angry bird look...don't you think? But we were really just goofying off. When pre-op was finally complete, we knew we 

were more than ready for Jolie's dental work op on Monday...and also ready for some FOOD, and adventure. We grabbed the siblings and Gam outta of the waiting room and headed back to pick up Pop and away we flew...not really, I went the speed limit.

My parents found out about a little airport that has an air museum and restaurant attached. The food was great, the atmosphere was awesome, and after eating we went into the hanger and checked the museum. It was a pretty cool place, and the airplanes just went perfect with the vbs theme of the week, don't ya think?

Here's Gam with some of her gk's

Here's pop with some of his hams...I mean grandkids.

The museum had some old music favorites playing...a lot of Bing, my fav.  Jolie loves to dance, and said,

"Pop, dance with me."

 And so they did.