Lordy Lordy Amy’s 40

How am I 40 years old?  That doesn’t even seem possible. I remember when my mom turned 40. I cried because I thought she was getting old.

School was out for the summer so that was nice for my birthday. Me and the kids had Mexican for lunch. Then I tried out my new shoes and went walking 4 miles. When Maynard got home we ate at Dave’s steakhouse. That’s where we’ve been going lately for special occasions. Cheaper than Golden Corral too.

We went to my Mom and Dad’s house that weekend for Memorial Day. Mom had me a surprise party.   Which totally wasn’t a surprise, but I’m too nosey for that to happen. Mom got me a Michale Kors purse and Angela made me a pretty sunflower cake. We had a cook out. My Aunt Tammy was there and Jacob was in from Florida so that was nice.

It ended up coming a huge rainstorm. We had to pack everything up and take it inside. The rain left as quick as it came. We all set on the porch and enjoyed the weather. 

Year end school fun, trips, and awards 2017-2018

I'm only 5 months behind.  Doing so good, I know!


In my desperation in getting caught up on my blogs, today I'm going to write about the last days of school while my kids are currently on their fall break for the year 18-19.


LCA attended a field trip to the Ark Encounter as a reward for raising $400 or more for our annual fundraiser.  Maynard was able to take off work and went with us.  It was a fun trip.  I'll basically do a photo drop.  Trust me, I'm sparing you tons of pictures.

We had a great day and was thankful for the opportunity to be able to go to the Ark Encounter.  I recommend anyone going if they get a chance.  There's a lot of reading and history that goes along with it, but if you have your kids (or school kids), you won't be able to read it all.  All the kiddos want to do is pet the animals and ride the camels!!!


We had a few fun days planned to finish up the year.  My kids had field trips and party days.  I helped plan a few fun activities for our middle school class.  We have a big group and field trips are kind of hard to plan so I had to be creative.

We walked over to Sonic one afternoon for half price slushes and ice cream.  Boy!  Wasn't Sonic excited to see us come over!!  Ha Ha


Then we had a silly string war day and we made sno-cones.

 On one of our last casual clothes day, the girls told me to wear Nike.  I showed up wearing Nike and they all had on Under Armour.  These girls are something else!!  Joke was on me.

We also had the ice cream truck come to school a couple of times.  They always look forward to that.

Finally, the last day of school was here!!  Hallelujah!  We were so ready.

Josiah finished up 6th grade and had done really well.  He received awards for Honor roll, scripture memorization, Whopper award (great story teller) Convention participation, and 2nd in most paces completed.

Titus finished up 4th grade!  He had a great year.  He won awards for honor roll, scripture memorization, reading challenge, New testament, Science, and Creative writing.  His character trait was gratefulness, excellent attendance, and participation in Jr Convention.

Amelia finished up her 2nd grade year.  She had a great year as well.  She received awards for honor roll, scripture memorization, reading challenge, citizenship award, math and art academics award, forgiveness for character award, and class spirit award.


I was really proud of them! 


We left school and had our year end celebration lunch at Golden Corral!!

Too soon for another broken bone???

Who knew that 4 months after Amelia broke her foot, I would be getting a phone call from school saying that Josiah has possibly broken his arm?!?!

I was in complete denial as I went to pick him up.  It seems like I was home with Amelia because she was sick that day when they called.

He had been playing kickball outside and went to slide into base and somehow landed on his arm.  Now Josiah is a bit dramatic and those around him quite often have a hard time believing him.  So in all honesty we thought he possibly was being a bit overdramatized.  However, when he showed me his wrist it did look swollen and I could tell that it looked a little more crooked than normal.  I still didn't think it was broken.  Had I placed a bet with anyone I would have lost for sure.  (I don't typically gamble, but you get my point!)

I took him on to the ER because I was too ashamed to show my face at the Urgent Care we had been to with Amelia.

They took him straight back and did an x-ray.  Josiah went on with his show and I couldn't help but giggle at him.  I'm ashamed to say he probably gets that from me more than anyone else.

As we stepped out for them to take the x-ray, I seen the DR look over at it and she said, "Yep, it's broken!"  I couldn't even believe it.  Of course he was as smug as could be then because he told us he was hurt and we didn't believe him.

He got a splint put on until he could get in to see an orthopedic, which was the following afternoon.

He chose a camo cast.  The tech guy who was putting his cast on recognized Amelia and asked Titus which cast he wanted to pick out just so he could save it for him since he was probably next.  Ha

Josiah wore that cast for about 2 weeks.  We were sitting in church when I smelled this awful smell.  Much to my dismay I looked around and realized Josiah had pulled his cast off.  Being the good mom I am, I made him slide it back on.  One to protect his wrist and two, to protect those round him that could smell that terrible smell.

I took him back to the Dr the next day to get a new cast.  They said that was very common because of all the swelling he had had.  

He wore the new cast, which was neon bright yellow, for about 2 more weeks and then got a splint on.  he only had to wear the splint for a couple weeks and then he was good to go.

So being through all that, I'd like to say that if I ever get to chose what bone would be broken again in my kids, I would for sure choose the arm.  Ha Ha  Seriously!  So much easier.  My poor compassion had been exhausted on Amelia and he didn't get much petting.  Good thing it was a broken arm and he could still function.  A broken foot complicates everything!!

I am thankful that he healed quick and I'm trying my best to keep Titus as safe as possible!!!

Spring Break 2018

Unbelievable!!  Absolutely insane!  What do my kids have against fun?  Are they allergic to Gatlinburg??  Every time I plan a trip somewhere they get sick and this was no different.  We had rented a cabin in Pigeon Forge with Tara and Reuban.  Already paid for it and it was too late to cancel.  Easter night, I laid in my bed and listened to little feet run up and down the hallway to the bathroom.  I thought I heard one of them being sick.  Before too long I heard more feet.  Thought it was the same feet as before.  NOPE!!  New feet.  Bigger feet.  These feet couldn't quite make it to the bathroom like the smaller feet can.  I was in disbelief as I got out of bed to clean up puke.  All 3 kids were up taking turns throwing up.  I started in on my rant about stuffing themselves full of Easter snacks and candy and shame on them.  Deep down inside, I had hoped that's what was causing the problem.  I soon found out later, that I wasn't that lucky and the kids had a virus.  They cried and boo hoo'd because we haven't taken a fun vacation trip in a good while and here they were sick.  I felt as devastated as they felt.  I had money invested and was excited about going as well.  Tara and Rueban showed up at the house and I had to give them the dreadful news.  We gave them awhile to see if they would start to feel better and they really didn't.  I found some old Phenagren in the medicine cabinet and told them if they took it and kept it down, then we would go ahead and leave.  Somehow that did the trick and we left.  Their prior Easter Baskets were now turned into puke buckets for emergencies.  Luckily, no one else threw up the rest of the trip, but they were extremely nauseated and food was of no interest to them.  Kind of a bummer when your surrounded by so many different places to eat and you end up with popsicles and crackers.

We stayed at a cabin called "The Bird's Den."  It was an older cabin, but it was fine for all of us.  Tara and Reuban got the downstairs area and we took the upstairs.  It had a king size bed, futon, and a bed built into the wall for all of us.  Plus, it's where the pool table was.

The first night we just went to the grocery store and hung out at the cabin.  Amelia started feeling really bad and this time it was her ear.  She had had a cold the week before and I had a feeling she may get an ear infection and so of course she did the first night of our trip.  Luckily, her Dr called her an antibiotic in for her and it seemed to work pretty quickly and I was also thankful for the ear numbing drops I had grabbed at the last minute.  I had packed almost all of my medicine cabinet.  The only thing I lacked was an antibiotic for her.


Tuesday morning the kids seemed more at themselves and even ate a few bites of breakfast.  They said they were up for the trip to the aquarium that we had planned for that day so we headed out.  We loved the aquarium and took tons of pictures.  I'll just post a few here though.

We stayed at the aquarium for a long time and it was starting to get crazy crowded so we decided to walk downtown Gatlinburg.  We grabbed a few chicken tenders at Zaxby's to snack on.  I know it wasn't the best choice for queasy kids, but they were hungry and it was the cheapest way to feed them.
We stopped at a few shops and then Maynard wanted to take the boys into the Car museum.  Amelia and I wasn't interested so we just kept walking.  I took her into a huge candy store thinking she would love it.

Amelia didn't love it and looked queasy.  I was going to buy her something since she didn't go with the boys, but she kept saying, "Candy don't sound that good to me!!"  That's when I remembered she had gotten sick right after eating so much of her candy.  So then I felt sorry for her and I took her to an arcade for a few minutes and bought her a slush from a shop on the street.

The boys really enjoyed the car museum.  They seen lots of cars they recognized and of course their Dad let them touch and sit on every car they wanted too.  I guess that's why Dad is more fun than me when it comes to stuff like that.

We stopped for several photo ops along the way.  The kids wanted to buy t-shirts from a gift shop so we shopped at a few souvenir stores. 


Then it was finally go-kart time.  They have always wanted to ride go-karts, but usually were never tall enough.  Or at least that's what their mean parents always told them.  Ha Ha


They had a blast!!!  They laughed and smiled the whole time.  Amelia rode with Tara.  She was too nervous to drive one by herself.  I, of course, don't have a good record of my own driving go-karts.  I got kicked off one when I was 10 or 12 in Colorado.  They said I was driving way too fast and wasn't paying attention to their flags.  Ummmm, I was a kid.  If you don't want me driving them that fast, then make sure they don't go that fast!!!  (Yes, I'm still bitter!!!)

We were so exhausted that we stopped and picked up a pizza to take back to the cabin.  The kids said they thought they could eat it.  They tried, but wish they hadn't.


The kids played in the hot tub and played pool.  I pretty much sat on the front porch on the swing.  Then I got a wild hair to go by the Island.  So we all got back in the car and drove to the Island.  It was nice.  Glad we did.  No one rode the ferris wheel.  Josiah was the only one who wanted to and we just told him maybe another time.  I let Amelia ride one ride since she didn't go to the car museum with the boys.

We stayed there until it closed.  Loved watching the lights and the water fountains.


The next day we had to leave.  We all wished we had one extra day to stay.  I even tried calling to reserve our cabin an extra night, but it was already reserved.  We did the cleaning and packing up we needed to do and headed back out.  Our kids begged to go on the go karts just one more time.  We had to wait a little bit for them to open, but we let them ride one last time.  This time Amelia got to ride with Maynard and she LOVED it!!

Saying bye to the cabin and finishing up all the popsicles!

So thankful our trip ended up better than it started.  I still begrudge not getting to eat at any good places, but I was on a diet anyway so it was for the best!!!  Loved our vacation and getting to spend time with family, just wish it lasted longer.