Half-way

Here's a rundown of the trip so far. I'm having a blast. The plane rides were uncomfortable. I sat by strangers which makes even more comfortable. I tried to sleep and was woken up as my elbow slid off my tray which jerked my head into the isle and was then yelled at by the foreign flight attendant "Get out of isle." I'm wishing for a window seat on the way home. The plane made strange noises and for some reason I'm the only one who looked around, I guess they were normal.

Drew lives on a farm but not a farm its hard to explain. There are horses and the prettiest house ever. They have 3 dogs and a bird. Did I mention the house is lovely. I wish I had more time to spend. We went to a place called Frankie's, it was like a Dave and Busters we won lots of tickets 698 to be exact. I won 75 at some kind of gambling game. We won 250 and 102 at Deal or No Deal......That was so fun. We played laser tag where I totally lost, but thought I had won until later I realized I had not and felt stupid for telling them I had even when they said no. Then we went to a Hockey game which is now my favorite sport. I screamed and yelled, everyone laughed at me. A few fights broke out which made it even more exciting. They Canes won! Yahoo! Oh and we made it on the big screen!

Today I got to Ashley's. She came to Raleigh and picked me up and we were so excited to see each other we talked the whole two hour ride home and would start talking about one thing and switch so quick we had so much to say and just kept going we were talking so fast we could not keep up. Andrew got home from school and we went to pick up pictures from wal-mart on our way home we ended up behind Monroe at the red light the got home and waited and waited on Zach to get home and he FINALLY got here and then I gave them the gift I brought. A game called Apples to Apples and then we played while dinner cooked and laughed tell we nearly peed. Ate dinner, played again, nearly peed again. We watched some TV, I of course fell asleep and now everyone is asleep and I'm awake.

Tomorrow Ashley and I are having girl cousin day and driving to Myrtle Beach! I will upload pictures when I get home.

Packing, Packing

I'm waiting on a load of clothes so I can finish packing for my trip. I leave on Monday for North Carolina. I'm going to mom's tomorrow cause Maddi is going to take me to the airport. I'm afraid all that I want to take will not make the cut.

I just finished paying all my bills, I feel so relived that I will not have to worry about any of that while I'm gone and the semester is over. This will be just a FUN relaxing trip. I should just pack jammies, HA.

I fly into Raleigh where I will stay till Wednesday with my buddy Drew. We are going to a Hockey game on Tuesday. I have no idea who is playing. I'm excited cause I hear they get pretty rough. We all know I am not a sports fan but I do get excited if I'm there in person.

On Wednesday I will travel 3 hours to Jacksonville where my cousin Ashley lives and spend the remainder of my time there. Ashley and I are going to take a girls day and go to Myrtle Beach on Thursday and the rest of the time we will just have "THE MOST FUN!" That quote is from an old movie called SHAG that my cousins watched and quoted ALL the time. Finally I was able to see and and now well we all three quote it.

Cookies

We had some friends over on Monday and made Christmas cookies it was lots of fun. Here is a picture before we started Icing them.

Maci and Carson has a blast cutting cookies. I cooked some of them to long and they ended up burning. Then some of them did not even cook long enough. Maci and Carson cut cookies from about 5-6:30. We made LOTS! We also ate LOTS! Gave LOTS away. It was a big mess but very worth it.

Shelby says she wants to work in a pizza place cause she loved playing with the dough. All Addi wanted to do was eat the dough. She didn't get to help long.

Parade and lights

Addi going to Santa's house. He was not home.....:(

On Saturday I went to visit the family and took Shelby and Addi with me. We had so much fun that Addi did not wake up until 1 on Sunday. I played taxi taking kids to lunch, cheer, picking them up and so forth.

My kids for the night. Brie is missing cause she was at cheer practice. We really missed her that night.

When I got there I thought that it was the night of the parade. I called mom and YES it was. I being the most fun Aunt EVER. Loaded up the kids and we went to the parade. We loaded chairs and blankets and went to the square.

Alex and Austin waiting on the parade.




Addi shoving cotton candy in her mouth.

We walked around for a little taking pictures with the decorations. Then we set up our chairs and waited...and waited...and waited. The kids walked across the street for some hot chocolate...THE OLDER KIDS, and came back with COFFEE WHAT????? Yes turns out the place did not have hot chocolate only swirls which were coffee and hot chocolate. I was a little more than mad that the place would EVEN sale coffee to children. I told them they should not drink it. They said it was fine after the parade we walked away with 4 full glasses of Coffee/hot chocolate, cause "It was nasty." I knew they would choose the right.

We had cotton candy and they still walked by and Addi still cried for more. People walked by with glow sticks and I was NOT giving in and buying those useless things. A lady felt bad for Addi and just gave her one.

After the parade we went home and I made dinner and told Selena that since I'm such a cool sister I would keep the kids and she and David could go to dinner. The kids wanted to look at Christmas lights. After Selena left she called and said to meet her at "Land of Lights." Where you drive around and see the lights. We met them there and the kids loaded in the bed of the truck. Addi and I sat inside the warm truck. After land of lights I took the kids to look at house lights. We didn't have much luck finding them. Then we went home tucked the kids in bed. I drove Shelby and Addi home who both fell asleep before we were out of town. It was a great start to the holiday season.

Addi hanging out the window. (I held on to her she was safe). The kids standing in the back probably were not but we were only going 5 miles an hour.

Addi wanting in the back with Brie.

Big kids all bundled in the back...Aleigh got in the truck half way.

The most wonderful time of the year!

My favorite day of the year other than fourth of July is the day after Thanksgiving! I love to go shopping. I usually stand in the lines grabbing good stuff for my sister to give her kids. That's what I did this year. Since the kids read my blog I can't say what I got but it was good. I left the house about 11:45pm. I went to walmart and set up shop in one of the lines inside the store. Jana went with me, her job was to drive around in a cart looking for other good deals. A friend of ours was in line with me so I was able to leave and come back. Shelby and 2 of her friends came along and I cut items out of the sale paper and had them on the lookout for them. Then they ended up waiting in another line for me. The crates were coming out of the sporting good door so one of the girls set up shop watching for certain items. We made friends with other shoppers and were on the lookout for them also.

The lady behind us in line was a NUT and her blood pressure kept rising and she was well just CRAZY. At 5 when the line opened I was second in line and got my items. Since I had everything with me I paid for all of it back there in the site to store area cut through the deserted food isles made my way to the front and out the door. I was home but 5;30 while others were still waiting in line. I grabbed me a change of clothes and headed out the door. I went to Kristi's through her front door to the garage into her car and shopped with her until 1 or 2, took a nap, at dinner, drove home, went to bed, woke up and went to work on Saturday.

It was "the MOST fun."

I only took the necessity's....Sale adds, Phone, and wallet. The phone came in handy Selena and I called each other all day reporting who had gotten what and so forth.

This picture is just cute!