A FUN Weekend

This past weekend was a blast!! Somehow I was off last Friday so I only worked Saturday. Jordan was off Friday-Monday. We got to spend a lot of time together as a family. It was so much fun!! The first thing Carson and I did was go to Dad's Family Fun Day at work. My brother Chance went with us too. We couldn't take any cameras since a lot of things there are classified (he works for the Florida National Guard). I made a caramel apple cheesecake that was scrumptious for the event. We toured the new facility and then ate hamburgers and hot dogs. Carson was too excited about the giant moonwalk to eat. He jumped and jumped and jumped. When he finally came out to get a drink, he got a football "face painted" on his arm (we tried the face and he was not feeling that). So for the rest of the day he would hold his arm out and tell everyone "football". When we left, I figured Carson would fall asleep before we left the base. However, it was a long time before he fell asleep. I was washing dishes when I didn't hear him anymore. I came in the living room and this is what I saw.
I couldn't believe it! He took his juice, got in this little trunk, and fell asleep. He loves to get in the trunk, close it, and pop up. I had never seen him sleep in it though. Friday was our big clean day so that we could have fun the rest of the weekend. We started in our bedroom and didn't make it much farther than that. That's okay though because we went through stuff that we had been keeping for forever and got rid of a lot of it. Saturday we had an Elder's Quorum activity up at the Gomillion's house. It was a BBQ. Even though there wasn't a large turn out it was still a lot of fun to hang out with everyone (the Glanzers, Gomillions, Joe Speed, and us). Sunday after church we were supposed to go to Patsy's for homemade ice cream and brownies. I took a nap and Jordan was supposed to wake me up in time for us to go. However, we all fell asleep from the busy weekend and slept through the homemade ice cream. I was sad that we missed, but my body needed the rest! Monday, Memorial Day, we spent most of the afternoon up at my Dad's house. We brought Carson's big pool that we had never used along with some water balloons. The water was sooo cold, but Carson loved it! Jordan, Chance, and I ended up getting in there too with Carson (that pool is amazingly large). After playing in the pool, we went inside for delicious steaks, corn on the cob, and french fries. It was all so good! Then we topped it all off with a double big cookie that I picked up from Sam's (I LOVE Sam's!) This cookie was amazing!! It was really rich. It reminded me of a Double Doozie from The Great American Cookie, except it was two big cookies with frosting in between. After a belly full of good food, Dad and I picked some blackberries while Chance and Jordan filled up some of the water balloons. Carson napped during this time which was perfect because he would've thrown all of the water balloons as they filled them up. When we were done picking berries, the boys got into a water balloon fight. It was fun to watch. Chance got a massive bruise on his stomach from one. I have never heard of someone getting a bruise from a water balloon. They boys were crazy though because they put some of the balloons in the freezer for just a little bit. Crazy! Throughout the day, Carson kept getting on Dad's John Deere (which would make his other grandpa happy). Finally, Cheryl and Dad gave him a ride on it. He loved it!!
We had a wonderful Memorial Day with family.

~*Domesticated Diva*~

My grandparents always plant a large garden in their backyard. There's squash, green beans, tomatoes, onions, new potatoes, and who knows what else. They put up 34 quarts of green beans two weeks ago. My grandma said they needed someone to pick more green beans or they'd go to waste because they didn't need anymore. So we picked three rows of green beans. Mom took a tiny bit of them and my grandparents took just a little more. Jordan and I were left with a ton!! So we went home and prepped the beans by snapping them and cutting them. The next day we went to my grandma's and canned the green beans. I had never done this or seen it done, so I learned a lot. It was easier than I thought. We ended up putting up 16 quarts of green beans! More to our food storage! I have put up homemade jam and now green beans. I am becoming a domesticated diva!! Stay tuned for more domesticated diva moments!!

The Best Day EVER!!

Holy moly!!! Today has been a spectacular day!! How often do you hear that word...spectacular?? There is no other word to use though. Today I finally cashed in on my Christmas present (with one week before it expired) and got my coveted massage. Okay I have had one before once when I was 17, but it was just back and neck for an hour. This was a full body massage for an hour at Bay Massage. It was AMAZING!! I always tell Jordan to massage my back or rub my shoulders, but I never knew that having my arms, hands, feet, and legs massaged felt just as great. She even gave me a cold water afterwards. (If you go to Bay Massage, ask for Stacy...she rocks!) I could tell that I was pretty much useless for the rest of the day once I stood up after my massage. Everything just seemed to be moving in slow motion. It was wonderful!! Carson is just now taking a nap at 4:30 so I decided to tell you about two Young Women's activities we've done this month that were a blast. At the beginning of the month, we had a mother/daughter spa night up at Pam's house. The girls got everything ready to pamper their moms. All of the mothers, including the leaders (hooray!), got a neck massage, foot massage, and their nails painted. I figured that the moms would do the girls nails too. Some did but most didn't. They just enjoyed sitting around and talking to their moms. It was some great one on one time for them. It was perfect because Mother's Day falls in May. Another great activity we did was combined with the Young Men. We did a fear factor activity. It totally rocked! We had four different activities. The youth divided into two large teams. Each team member had the opportunity to participate at each of the four activities with the chance to earn a coin. Whichever team had the most coins in the end won. Of course just like in fear factor if you did not want to participate, you didn't have to. You also had your team members yelling at you if you didn't participate. It was great! At my activity, the kids had to put their hands behind their backs and dig for five coins in a plate of cold and sticky spaghetti noodles. It was timed too. If you got them all before the time was up, you got a coin.

I love this picture because it really captures the activity! Another activity was an eating one. The kids drew numbers and had to eat either a pepper, artichoke heart, raw oyster, or ugly fruit. Some kids wouldn't even try it. Some did and it didn't hold down. It was fun though. This picture totally paints the perfect picture of this activity!
The third activity we had was a faith fall. The kids were blindfolded and had to fall backwards into the arms of the Young Men leaders.

Chance makes it look so easy!! The final activity was a race of some sort. I was inside getting the prizes together while they did this. They each had snow cone machines and raced around the church. That's all I know. The kids had a lot of fun. We ended with a refreshment...kitty litter cake. Yum!
These are our kids that showed up that night. The group shots turned out great!

I LOVE being in Young Womens! Speaking of which I need to go finish dinner and get ready for tonight. We're making FHE kits!

Another Month Has Almost Come And Gone!!

I can't believe this month has flown by so quickly!! So much has happened. First off, I had two weeks off in between Spring semester and Summer. Carson and I had a blast!! I LOVED being home with him!! We spent a lot of time just playing outdoors. Carson loves being outside! I learned to love it by bringing a book to read outside with me. Carson could play for hours outside! He's definitely a boy!! After my two weeks flew by, I made my way back to school. I bought my books and made my way to the classroom. The lights were off in the classroom and the computer lab was locked. I saw a girl from school and she said classes didn't start for two more days. It was weird because normally they start on Monday but this semester they began on Wednesday. So, since my class is a Monday/Tuesday class, I didn't have class for another week!!! After feeling stupid, I was excited for the extra week! The next day, Carson and I had a water day. This was the first time Carson had seen or used water balloons. He LOVED them!! We also tried to make it to the beach before I headed back to school. However, the water was still cold so we didn't stay for long. Another thing we did during our little vacation time was go to Kid Fest. Kid Fest is so much fun!! There are vendors and all kinds of things set up for kids to do. I think it was like $5 for the three of us to get in. Carson got to see a firetruck. (He LOVES firetrucks...any truck really.) He got to get on the firetruck with Jordan. Another thing I tried to pack into my little vacation was potty training. I know it's really early for a boy, but Carson is constantly bringing me diapers and telling me he is poopy. So I thought why not?? He LOVES sitting on the potty. He always asks for a book, which is usually Reader's Digest. He's so cute!! The potty training thing has been going pretty well. Some days are better than others. He loves his underwear though and doesn't like his diapers anymore. Sunday, he did go poop without his potty at church. Speaking of church, we had a couple of fun activities this month for the Young Women that I want to share. However, it's getting late so I will post those tomorrow and finish any other updates.

Updates

Okay a lot has happened in the last few weeks. I'm totally slacking off with the pictures...sorry. First off, Nanny got really sick and went to the hospital. She stayed in it for about a week. She had pneumonia. They let her come home to Mimi's. She was in a hospital bed and hospice came to help Mimi. She passed away a week ago as of Friday. The family really came together though. It was weird because Nanny's other daughter hadn't really talked to us or anything for about 7 years. Then, all of the sudden she showed up about 2 days before Nanny died. I am grateful that I got to spend so much time with Nanny. She died at 95.
On a lighter note, I feel so domesticated because I made jam all by myself!! Mom and I went to pick strawberries a couple of weeks ago.
I picked 10 pounds. Mom kept picking on the row next to the one we were supposed to be picking on. She always does that. This time we really did have a crummy row. Carson went with us, but luckily fell asleep on the way there. He didn't wake up until we were almost finished. That was a very good thing because all he wanted to do was eat the strawberries that we had already picked!! When I moved the bucket so he couldn't eat those, he started picking his own to eat. We had to be careful of that. With my 10 pounds of strawberries, I came home and made freezer jam. It was super easy and so good! I ended up making 24 pint size jars of jam with all of my strawberries. Holy moly that is A LOT of jam!!! Good thing we bought a freezer a few months ago! I also felt so creative and artsy when I made my journal jars. They turned out so stinking cute. I was impressed with myself. However, I didn't know that I wasn't teaching that lesson so Sandra gave them out. Still, I was impressed with myself.
Our two newest additions to our home are a treadmill and a piano. We bought the piano and have been playing it since. Carson loves it! Whether its Jordan or me playing it, he always comes up and says, "Move Mama (or Daddy)!" He then proceeds to play it with us. The treadmill is on temporary loan from my mom because she doesn't have room for it. Plus she's a crazy woman with a gym membership and a treadmill at the house. I love her!!
Our other addition is my brother. How fun. Brent is living with us for a couple months so he can make some serious money at the base for the summer. Then he will go back to UWF. Anyway, that's the shortened version of what has been going on in my life lately.