Leaving My Babies

I'm leaving early in the morning for our Mary Kay Seminar in Dallas. I'll be gone until Saturday night. I have never left Porter overnight and I'm really anxious about it. Mike will be here with the kids and I know, next to mommy, that Daddy is the best person to take care of the kids, but still. Porter is so easy and I know he'll be fine, but it's me I'm worried about. I left Rachel with Mike overnight when she was a year old and then went to Seminar that same summer when she was just about 17 months old. She had a blast and that is a time that Mamaw will always remember, I know. This time will be great as well and I know it will be special for Daddy to get that bonding time, but my heart is aching knowing that it's going to be four full days away from my sweet baby boy whom I've never been away from at all. I sat for the longest time holding him and rocking him before laying him in bed tonight. I'm afraid I'm going to miss something. He'll probably have a tooth break through or he'll finally figure out that he can actually go somewhere on his hands and knees without scooting on his belly. I know I'm going to have a great time, as I always do when I go to anything Mary Kay. I just have to focus on that, focus on learning everything I can, get in some good "me" time with no responsibilities, and look forward to lots of hugs and kisses on Saturday. Just pray that I can keep my composure when I get overwhelmed with missing the kids. :)

Mice - God's Most Loathsome Creature

There is a mouse in our house right now. I can't even begin to express how much I HATE mice!!!!!!! I mean, loathe probably isn't even a strong enough word. Mike saw it last night about 10:00 run behind the TV from the kitchen. Needless to say, I got on top of a chair in what could be considered stealth speed. We didn't have any traps, so I left within about 3 minutes and headed to the store to get traps. I brought home 8 traps. We set four of them around the TV because Mike said it hadn't moved from there. I told Mike to try and scare it out from there so it would run into one of those traps. That little varmint passed every one of those traps and ran under the couch. From there, he ran behind the computer. Then he came out of there and now I have no idea where he is. When he came out from under the TV, we let Kramer into the house, but he's no hunting dog, that's for sure, and the most he did was sniff around and get mildly curious. All three of the dogs are in here right now and two traps are still set. I'm in shoes because I can't stand the thought of walking in bare feet when there's a possibility of a mouse running around here. Know of anyone who enjoys hunting mice?

Off to Reunion

We're heading out tomorrow for Mike's family reunion. I'm so excited to go!! I've been looking forward to this for weeks. Now that all the prep is mostly done and we're leaving tomorrow morning, there's nothing on the agenda for the next 4 days! Gosh, I love it. Nothing to do except hang out with family and enjoy catching up with some folks we haven't seen in two years. We'll play cards, probably some Hold 'Em, maybe some Risk, we'll eat a lot, we'll take a nap here and there, and do a lot of just relaxing. Man, I seriously cannot wait!!!!!

We'll have lots of pictures when we come home, so I'll post those when we return. Everyone have a super weekend.

Sparkler Bomb

Last I heard, the 4th of July was supposed to be about celebrating our nation's independance. It's a day where friends and family get together, eat some traditional American cuisine (i.e. burgers and dogs and the fixins), and shoot off fireworks in celebration. Somehow, my husband and our dear friend Jeremy have decided that it's a day to make their own explosives, Arkansas style. Thus we have...... the Sparkler Bomb.

The beginnings.... 600 sparklers.

The assembly..... duct tape.

The getaway....

we're waiting....

And we have the explosion....

Trying to put out the fire....

Had I known exactly how high those flames would have gone, I'd have backed my camera up so that I could have gotten the full effect. Jeremy took some video of the spectacle and after watching the replay, we're pretty sure the flames and sparks reached at least 30 feet in the air. We're going to see about getting it on youtube, so if that happens, I'll be sure to post the link.

Otherwise, we had a very safe 4th and really enjoyed our time with the Thompsons and my mom who got to be here for the weekend. I'll post more pictures of the non-explosive fun later.