Library fun, Allergy testing, and Mother's Day

We love our library and love all the programs they have. They have recently remodeled and now have an amazing building. 

We recently took the kids to Comic Con. They went last year as well and loved it. 

Then we went back for life sized games. 

Candy land. 

Tic Tac Toe

Hoola Hoop fun. 

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Allergy Testing

I am so thankful that Amelia has outgrown all her food allergies. She can eat anything now and doesn't have to have any allergy medicine. 

Titus has been having issues the last few years so they are watching him closely. He was due for more allergy testing so I took him this past week. 

#6 was dust. I dust quite often, but I just seem to have a dusty house. Drives me nuts. 

He also had a bad allergy to shrimp and cabbage. Now what's sad is he decided he loved shrimp and coleslaw in the past couple of months. Why is that you can't be allergic to things you hate?!?!

During the test I told him his #6 was really bad. He said it was probably humans and teachers that he was allergic too. Ha ha 

Josiah is under the care of a Ears, Nose, and Throat specialist. His ears always have fluid in them and we were checking to see if he needed tubes or getting his tonsils removed. The ENT suggested him seeing an allergy DR before they made any decisions about his care. 

The allergist took one look at Josiah and pointed to his eyes. He said he already knew that Josiah had bad allergies from the dark circles under his eyes. 

He was horribly allergic to dust and cats. He started bawling because we have an outside cat and he thought we had to get rid of it. The DR assured him it was fine, but just to keep the cat outside. 

Josiah is terrified of needles and I promised him that it was just gonna be little pricks and not actual needles. 

I had to eat my words. He actually got 24 pokes in his back and 13 actual shots in his arm. 

He done really good, but couldn't help the tears from dripping down his face. 

He is going to have to start allergy shots here in a few weeks. They said he will feel so much better once he starts taking those. I just hope he takes them good. He is terrified of shots and he's suppose to get them 3 times a week. 

He's also scheduled for a hearing test in a couple weeks to make sure his hearing hasn't been affected by all the fluid. 

I took him to lunch after his appointment to reward him for doing so good. 

He chose Frisches and we discussed politics almost the whole time. 

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Mother's Day 2016

Maynard went out of his way this year to try to show me how much I was appreciated. Friday night before Mother's day he told me to choose where I wanted to eat because Sunday would be too crazy. For some reason I had been craving Cracker Barrell, so that's where we headed. 

So on Saturday Maynard and the kids all helped me clean the house. I didn't want a dirty house all weekend and with all their help we had it looking pretty good in no time. 

I didn't have groceries in the house and by 11:00 we were all starving so we got dressed and headed out. Maynard asked me again where I wanted to eat for Mother's Day. I didn't remind him we had already celebrated once. Ha ha

Somehow we ended up at Applebee's and it was so amazing. I ordered ribs. I never eat ribs. They were so so good. We ended up going to several yard sales and then Maynard wanted to take the kids shopping for me. So I got to stay home all by myself in a clean house for about 2 1/2 hours. I wanted a nap, but felt like that would be wasting my precious time. 

They all got back and Titus was begging to go to the park and play catch with his new glove he got at a yardsale. About the time we decided to leave, it started storming. It was a bad storm. Electric was off at places and signs were destroyed. Titus started bawling. We have had aLOT of rain lately and he was so disappointed. I told him I would go to the store and make them a special dessert and buy popcorn. Bad thing about it was the electric was off at all of the grocery stores in London. So we finally found a Family Dollar and got him some popcorn. Poor kid. His evening just didn't get any better. It continued to storm all night long. It was horrible. 

Sunday morning the kids couldn't wait to give me my gifts. They had bought me roses, M&M's (tradition), skirt, cup, dish towels, and a new kitchen garbage can. I ain't ashamed I got a trash can. I asked for it and the dish towels. I wear everything I own out. I had that ugly white trash can for 10 years or more and had the dish towels since our wedding shower 17 years ago. Ha ha. I promise. 

I got so many dish towels at our shower that I saved them all. These were the last ones and were filled with holes. It hurt my heart when I threw them away.   The trash can has the foot pedal so maybe that will make it easier than having to lift the lid for the kids to get their trash in the can. 

I also got goodies from the kids from school and church. 

These are definitely treasures to me. 

Sunday service was nice. All the Mother's were honored. I'm not sure why, but I had the giggles all day. Everyone was supposed to pray with a mother and no one was around me except Maynard so he had to pray with me. I don't know why. I laughed all the way trough it. I have a history of doing that though. It sure didn't help when I heard him ask the Lord to give me money and riches. Ha ha 

After church we had our normal lunch at our favorite Mexican restaraunt and then home for a nap. 

Amelia and I were twinning for Mother's Day. 

We ate at White Castles. Yes, we ate out all weekend. That was part of my gift. 

Amelia LOVES White Castles. We eat ther maybe twice a year. I lost count how many hamburgers she ate. It was more than I or Maynard ate. I know that. So to finish off my Mother's Day weekend, she was up at midnight crying with a bellyache. It seemed like this has happened before on Mother's Day to me before. Oh well #momlife

Amelia and I also attended a Mommy and Me tea party at the library this past weekend. We try to go every year. She always  looks forward to it. Someone gave her a princess dress at a yardsale and that's what she said she was wearing. Nothing was gonna change her mind. So, I let her. This was her special day. 

She ate lots of colorful goodies, made crafts, and got a treat bag including books. 

I'll be so sad when she outgrows this stage. 

I'm thankful for my kids who have made me a Mom. I'm also thankful that I have a good Mom who helped teach me how to be a good one. 

Spring Break 2016

I'm not sure if I have written about this yet or not. After my Mother-n-law passed away and Tara moved away, we inherited their house. It's took awhile to legally get everything switched over and we are finally about there. Since Spring has finally arrived we have gotten ourselves in gear and have started working on the new house getting it ready to move in. We started working on the kid's first day off of spring break. The kids complained and kept telling us where all their friends were going for spring break and all they had to do was work. I told them "Don't worry!  When you go back to school you can tell them that you got to go to the city dump for spring break." Ha ha 

And that's where they went. Not once, but twice. Hauling off stuff that we didn't need in the new house. 

It was a lot of hard work and the kids really helped quite a bit. They would work awhile and play awhile. 

Sometimes they didn't wait for instructions and caused a mess, but at least they were working. 

We worked all weekend and Monday because Maynard had took a vacation day. 

It was never too hard to get them to go to sleep at night when they were busy all day. 

By Tuesday, the kids were pleading and begging not to go back down there to work. It was kind of cold and rainy so we stayed home until 3 while I did some laundry and housework. We stopped at the library for a bit and then I took them to kid's night at Mr. Gaittis. 

Wednesday we decided to go to the park. It was windy and the perfect weather to fly their kites they got for Easter. 

Amelia and her Barbie kite. 

Titus had a ninja turtle kite. 

Josiah had a Star Wars BB8 kite. 

We had fun flying them. They were going really high. Titus got his stuck in a tree, but we were able to get it down and fix it. 

 They played at the park for awhile and it kept getting colder and windier so we decided to leave. They asked to stop by the library which happens to be right next to the park so we did. 

They hadn't been to story time in forever so they were excited about that. 

Thursday was our scheduled fun day. I was taking the kids to Monkey Joe's in Lexington with Heather and her kids. 

Our first stop was Chik-fil-A. Yum!!!!

Then we turned them loose to play. 

They had a blast. I think we were there over 4 hours. Heather and I got to chat and the kids got to play. It was great. 

After playing we made a pit stop to Children's Place to do a little shopping. Our kids nearly gave the clerk a heart attack, but we left the store all in one piece. (I think). 

Heather's crew had to head home, but my bunch was starving. We stopped and had supper at Logan's steakhouse. Then we headed for home before it got dark. Titus asked if we could stop at Goodwills on the way home. Y'all know who's boy that is for sure!!! 

We got back home and the kids showered and headed for bed. They were tired and sore. 

Then in the middle of the night I heard a sound I dread to hear than about most anything. 

Josiah was up puking and had fierce diareah. 

Maynard reminded me that I took the kids to play at a germ infested indoors place. Ugh!  I guess he picked up a virus. Not a good way to finish off spring break. He kept running high fevers and we tried our best to cool him down. Friday we stayed home all day because he felt so bad. They still complained that I wasted their last day of spring break. Sometimes the more I do the more they expect and it drives me nuts. 

By Saturday Josiah felt better. Maynard was off work and we headed to town. We ate lunch and got pizza then headed to a thrift store in Williamsburg. On the way back from Williamsburg, we took a wild hair and drove on to Cumberland Falls. It's kind of ironic because I took the kids there last year by myself during spring break. 

I took these photos to compare. I can kind of only tell that Amleia has changed. They boys kind of look the same. 

I've got several pictures to post. 

(Titus' finger included)

Behind the scenes photo. 

Whatever he was thinking, I'm glad he didn't do it. 

One difference between this year and last year, was the concession stand was open and the kids were begging for ice-cream. 

Amelia wanted a sundae. Her's looked pretty good. 

We decided to call it a day and went home. 

Josiah started feeling pretty rough again that evening. He started throwing up again and having really high fevers. 

Maynard stayed home with him Sunday morning and the kids and I went on to church. 

By the end of church I was feeling rough. My stomach was killing me. We went straight home and I went to bed and left Maynard in charge. 2 hours later, Titus was throwing up. 2 hours later, Amelia was throwing up. I had fevers, chills, aches and pains, but I never threw up. I could have, but fought it. It was a LONG night. The boys somehow slept all night. Maynard was in charge of them. I had Amelia. She was up every 30 mins or less. Puking and diareah at the same time. TMI, I'm sorry. But it was that BAD. It's so hard to be so sick and still have to take care and clean up messes after your sick kids. Maynard was a HUGE help. If it wasn't for him I don't know what I would have done. He took a vacation day Monday to help out. We were all so bad it's almost comical now. I kept Josiah and Titus home from school Monday and Tuesday. Amelia stayed home until Thursday. I hated for them to miss school, but I don't believe in spreading germs when you know your sick. Come Tuesday night,  I figured we were all on the mend. Amelia still had low fever, but the puking was over with. Well, at least until about 2 a.m. Then it hit me. I thought I was done being sick, but apparently not. 

Today is Friday and as I'm writing this, everyone seems 100% better. Maynard never did catch it it and we are very thankful for that. 

Spring break took a rough turn and they ended up getting an extended break, but I'm sure they would have much rather been at school than in the bathroom those  days. 

Besides all the sickness, I don't think my kids had too bad of a time and they got to go other places besides the city dump after all!!

Easter 2016 and our wedding anniversary

When you don't post as often you tend to, you forget details so instead of going back and blogging about Valentine's Day or St Patrick's  day, I'll just start with Easter while it's fresh on my mind. 

I'll start first with a Pinterest fail. I keep 2 little boys a few days a week and thought it would be fun to dye eggs with them. I found a new way to do it on Pinterest. You could use shaving cream or cool whip. I went with cool whip since my family usually eats the eggs afterwards. 

Gloves on and ready to go. 

Stirring up the food coloring and cool whip. 

Now you roll the egg. 

Time to dry. 

Did it work????

Uh, no!  I was disappointed. 

Later that night we dyed them again with the tried and true way. 

Friday the kids had egg hunts at school and came home with lots of candy. 

We also left for E-town that night to celebrate our wedding anniversary which was actually going to be on Easter Sunday this year. 

My sister Christy volunteered to watch all 3 of my kids while Maynard and I went out for dinner and overnight. 

I have been wanting to try the hibachi grill at a Japanese restaraunt for a long time. Maynard finally agreed to go. 

And as usual he had to be goofy and try to eat soup with chopsticks. 

The food was amazingly delicious. Like it's been a week later and I'm still thinking about it. Ha ha 

We stopped by and picked up a cheesecake to take back to our motel room. It was nice to be away and enjoy our time together. 

Saturday morning Christy took my kids to an egg hunt with her kids, so we spent the morning shopping. I still had a few things I needed to get done before Easter the next day. 

We went and picked up the kids and headed to my parent's house for the Harper  Easter dinner and egg hunt. It was gorgeous outside and the kids pretty much only came in to eat. We had a yummy dinner and then an egg hunt. 

Josiah's many expressions as he realizes he didn't get the lucky egg. No worries. Mamaw passed out dollars afterwards. 

Time for pictures. 

  

All 16 Harper grandkids with their Mamaw and Papaw. Including Tanner, the family pet. 

We left E-town and headed for home a little later than intended. We got home super late and everyone went to bed with out baths or any ironing done. I set my alarm for an hour earlier in order to get everything done before church. 

My kids had already had so much candy that they only got a chocolate bunny in their Easter basket for candy. The rest was beef jerky, cheese sticks, peanuts, kites, band aids, and etc. I wasn't thinking clearly about the Big Red though. Thought I'd have a heart attack when I seen them sipping on it with their nice Easter clothes already on. 

Somehow we managed to get out the door in time and to take pictures. Maynard found this spot in someone's front yard and decided to take advantage of it. 

It did turn out pretty good. 

Pictures done. Run back to the car, quick!!

We had a big crowd at church!

Afterwards, the kids were ready for the egg hunt and then we made them take more pictures. 

And of course I like to include all our Easter collages of previous years. 

We had a great Easter. We ate lunch at Golden Corral where my kids beg and beg to eat there all the time, but we rarely do. Went back to church that night to a wonderful service where the power of God  was so rich and sweet. 

Thankful for a risen savior.