Tuesday, April 29, 2008

It's ALL Good!

Well the new job is a big hit! Some of the nicest people that I have ever worked with. They are kind of quiet, but I'll break them in. LOL!!

We hear from Tyler daily now. He is in Great spirits since he has started getting letters from family. He is on the Family weekend countdown! We are too!

We have a big weekend planned spending time with him. The only parts that tend to be depressing is the drive (aprox 7 hours) and the cost of gas! But to spend the weekend all together, it's worth every penny.

Those of you who know me know I'm a sucker for family, no matter the cost!

We plan to all convoy together all the way to Kentucky. One thing though, the lead car needs to make sure we stop for bathroom breaks. Otherwise I see in my future a memory that is reminiscent of a situation that happened on Jay's and my honeymoon, when John was leading the way,(he must never need to stop for the bathroom) and I couldn't hold it any longer. We could not get his attention, so finally I grabbed an envelope that one of our wedding cards had been in and a pen and made a sign that read and I quote, "I NEED TO P", then Jay sped up to right beside John & Jennifer's car & I held it to the window! That was pretty funny, which by the way did not help in my situation at the time! Oh well I digress...

We plan a trip to six flags over KY on that Saturday and just a whole lot of relaxing by the pool the rest of the time.

I'm sure that all of you will get more of the details than you were ever hoping for, and probably some pictures too.

The only other news to report is that my sweet little grand daughter is having tubes put in her ears on this Thursday. Bless her heart, it's so sad that she has to go through that but if it will get her past all of these ear infections it will be SO worth it. I'll let you all know how she is doing.

Well that's all for now, check out my future...

Monday, April 21, 2008

New Chapter

Time for a new chapter in my life...
Yet agian changing jobs.

Turns out that staright commission jobs are not all that dependable. The good months are really good BUT the bad months are REALLY BAD!!

All kidding aside, I have had an opportunity to get back to my old stand by of bookkeeping and office manager. It's not all that exciting of a job but certainly has a nice consistant paycheck,which of course is always a good thing. It's a good solid company and the team I'll be working with seems very pleasant and are very excited about bringing me on board. I start tomorrow with a nice small company in Montgomery. I am anxious to get back to the idea of going to work M-F, doing what is expected of me and then leaving it at the office when I leave.

I will still have my insurance license and the ability to pursue that if I choose to at some point but for now I think I'll leave that to the professionals, LOL, and get back to pushing paper and answering the phones.

On a seperate note, we did hear from Tyler agian Friday (April 18th) he says that all is good but he is very anxious to hear from everyone. If any of you did not get the updated address email or call me and let me know. I'll make sure that you have it...

Happy Travels today MOM. Give Owen & Alice big love from Aunt Rhonda.

Thats all for now,
Check out my future...

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Spending the weekend with Nonna & Poppa Jay






























Happy Anniversary Brandy & Josh...
You made it a whole year. CONGRATULTIONS !!
For Brandy & Josh's anniversary we got a present, We had the opportunity to spend the weekend with Aidden!
It sure was fun, exhausting, but fun.
We started the weekend off early by picking him up from daycare at lunch time. The minute he saw Poppa Jay he started dancing in his high chair, you could see his whole little face just light up, and Poppa Jay was just as excited. I promise you I have never seen anything like the connection that the two of them share. It is truley very special...
I took Aidden to the grocery store with me, he was amazing, so good and sweet. He only got a little cranky one time, but it was nothing that a cookie didn't fix.
Since he had not had a nap all day by 7:30 he was down for the count and slept all night waking up in the best mood. One of the first things I heard Saturday morning was him giggeling about something, I'm not sure what had him tickled but he was smiling and laughing and really having a good laugh.
Poppa Jay was due to be gone for the day to the Alabama A-day game but because of the rain he opted to stay home. He went to the store and got them each a biscut. They ate and played all morning.
About 9:30 all 3 of us decided it was time for a nap, at least Nonna & Poppa Jay were in agreement on the subject, Aidden was a good sport and went along with the plan. After about 2 hours of napping Poppa Jay decided it was time to get busy so he went off to Wal Mart and I took the opportunity to get a shower while little man was still napping. Well he woke up while I was finishing getting dressed and blow drying my hair and his first words were "Go bye bye?"
Apparently to him an adult putting on clothes and blow drying hair is the universal signal that we about to take a trip. I thought that was pretty funny, but he insisted that we were leaving the house so I took him over to see his Mawmaw & pawpaw, I thought if Mawmaw wasn't busy we might go to the park with Aidden. Mawmaw had already made other plans so she couldn't go but uncle Tim was thrilled to go, so off we went.
1st things first LUNCH...
Poppa Jay met us at McDonalds and we had the standard fast food with out the fast part. I think the whole concept of quick, and friendly service is a myth that doesn't exist except in our minds.
Aidden ate all of his chicken nuggets and sucked the ketchup off of half his fries. In his happy meal he had a toy, it was this little American Idol figure. When you raise his arm he sings for about 15 seconds. The only problem with that, and those of you who are around Aidden and know his "dance" know that 15 seconds of music isn't nearly long enough and so it requires someone (me) to sit there and lift and lower the little arm on the american idol figure until Aidden is done dancing, which of course I was thrilled to do and did do for the better part of hour on Saturday afternoon when we got home from the park. Thankfully the chicken that dances makes music for about a minute and a half and Aidden can turn it on and off himself so I was eventualy able to move on from Mr. American idol man.
Saturday night after dinner we had a bath. Kayla, Aiddens cousin had come to spend the night so they had a blast playing and running but by 8pm they were both pretty well ready for bed, as was Nonna & Poppa Jay.
Sunday was of course church, so once I caught Aidden (he runs when it's time to dress) and got him in his overalls it was off to church.
When we came home from church Brandy & Josh were already at the house, seems as though they missed Aidden. I certainly understand that...
Lunch was good and most everybody that usually comes over was there. I always enjoy Sunday at the house with all the kids and grandbabies.
Of course Tyler wasn't there, he is still in Kentucky in Basic Training but we have alraedy got 3 letters from him. He is doing well and says that it is everything that he hoped for. He is learning alot and having a great time, but of course misses everyone.
By early afternoon the house had cleared out. Brandy took Aidden home so she could spend some time with him, Jay & Josh did something they rarely get to do, they went fishing LOL.
Amber & John rode with Bethany to take Kayla home, Scotty went to get BIG tires put on his truck and mom had to get home. That left me with Alana, that of course made the weekend complete. We played all afternoon. She is scooting along and crawling everywhere. It was so much fun. We played with toys and played ride the horsey and all of the other little games until her mommy came and got her.
What a wonderful weekend at Nonna & Poppa Jay's.
It's one that will not soon be forgotten.
Thanks to children, there is the precious gift of grandchildren.
What a life...
Thats all for now, check out my future.





Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Jay & Bethany Birthday & Last supper with Tyler

















Happy Birthday To you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Bethie & sweetie happy birthday to you...
We had a cook out to celebrate Bethie & sweeties birthday. Hot dogs and all the trimmings. It was Goooood!
Cricket, Wayne and the boys all came over so we could have another chance to all spend some time with Tyler.
We always have a great time when we all get together. I know our families are blended and will always be and really that is a good thing. To have a blended family that functions as one unit (most of the time) is unusual but at the same time fantastic! We are just one REAL BIG HAPPY FAMILY!!
Other pictures that are included are from when we dropped Tyler off for the last time so he could leave for basic the next morning. We all went to Golden Corral and ate way too much food!
It was ALL good (except the meatloaf, Jay says that was BAD!)
Everyone was holding it together pretty good when we said good bye to Tyler until Bethany had to say bye, Bless her heart she lost it then cried all the way home, which of course got me all choked up. Scotty and Amber both know themselves pretty well and opted out of the hotel goodbye and just quietly said there good byes at the resturant and excused themselves. I guess they are a little sentimentle. (wonder who they take that after? LOL)
Cricket said that she wanted to make sure she didn't cry in front of Tyler, he don't like it when girls cry. She was able to manage that although I'm sure it wasn't easy.
Brandy and Josh and Aidden stayed with us and Tyler until it was finally time that we HAD to leave.
It was difficult to pull away that night because you know that Life as we know it is forever changed, not in a bad way, because you expect that your kids grow up and move on and thats kind of the goal. But life is changed none the less...
We have since heard from Tyler's recruiter that he made it to basic training fine. (note, I said we heard from the recruiter not Tyler, so Tyler, if you are reading this call home when you can and by home I'm talking about call your mom or dad. LOL)
So any way life is good in Titus Alabama, we are all now looking forward to June when we can got to KY and see Tyler graduate. The birthdays are all out of the way for a while and so are the major holidays.
Look for my next post that will include Aidden for the weekend/ Brandy & Josh 1 year anniversary.
Thats all for now check out my future...

Easter/ Tyler's Party































Time sure has flown, I can't believe that I have waited so long to post the Easter pictures and Tyler's party to the web.
We all had a great day. The food was wonderful and plentiful!
After lunch while the babies napped we had a good ole fashioned game of wiffle ball.
Tyler was team captain on one team and Scotty was on the other.
I'd like to say my team won, but since we didn't, I'll just say I can't remember who won. LOL
Everyone had a great time. At one point Jay stole 1st base, the problem was he wasn't the batter he was the 1st baseman. We had to set forth some rules after that. The most important rule was "Have fun", "Don't get hurt", & "all other rules are subject to change."
After the ball game the kids had to go inside while the eggs were hid. We had 260 eggs scattered about and as far as I know all were found except one. It was found the next week by some of moms church friends...
Last but not least was cake, presents and pictures.
Tyler was loveing all of the attention but could have passed on the MUSHY cards... We made him read them out loud so we could all hear.
One of my favorite pictures was of Mom with all of the grandkids and great grandkids. (We just need pictures of Alice and Owen so we can photo shop them in there.)
It was a great day with friends and family. A time that I know I want soon forget as I'm sure all who were there feel the same.
As Tyler is gone now to basic training we hope that should he get a little down or homesick he will think back to the party that we had and all the fun and laughs, and at least for a moment be right back there enjoying himself with family, knowing that we are proud of him and who he is as well as what he is doing...
That's all for now, Check out my future...