The Verdict

Here's the reason my husband was gone from me for the 2nd half of mother's day....
Free Wings for a Year - it's what the sign said anyways.....let's see what ACTUALLY happened...

Yep - here's 3 of our senior pastors campin' out for free wings!

Rocky, David, Scott

Scott & Rocky's sons were TOTALLY excited about this

Garrett & Matthew

Tents were ready to go....

The whole gang....camped out and waiting...

...and then the wheels came off. Management came out around 10:30 pm and said that it was not actually 250 coupons for free wings (1 order of 6 wings) that you could use as many together as you wanted - like David was told from an employee at the store on Friday. It was actually 52 coupons that were dated for each week of the year - so you could only use 1 coupon a week...basically like a free appetizer. The only way that would be worth it is if you were actually going to go every week. Also, they turned on the big spotlights and turned on the music and said it was going to stay on all night. PLUS, they were going to be coming out all night long and doing a "roll call" for everyone to come collect a "sticker". The only way you'd get the vouchers at opening was if you had woken up to collect all the stickers all night long. The guys decided that it was not worth it to be woken up all night long to get the free appetizer (in essence) coupons. So they all came home around 11 pm. Sad. But they did have FUN - and it was an experience! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Before I even opened my eyes on Sunday morning, Jacob and Josiah were at my side of the bed saying "Happy Mother's Day Mom!" And then Jacob blurted out "we got you a cake and a flower" and there was Josiah holding his gifts. He made them at school on Thursday and HID them in a paper bag under his bed.....

....which is why when he gave me this flower, he said "i think you need to water it. it looks a little sick." Sweet boy. Wanted so badly to surprise me!
...and the cake that was hidden in his backpack and under the bed since Thursday. It was DELISH though! (and came with coupons from Publix!) :)

And look what David got me - it pays to post your wish-lists on your blog if your hubby is a reader!!

I am so blessed. My kids are the best - they totally wear me out alot of days, but I am SO thankful and humbled that God chose me to be their mother. It's a huge job. Way bigger than me. Much harder than I ever imagined. But so very fulfilling.

I appreciate my own Mom so much more now that I have children. She taught me so much and continues to be one of my biggest encouragers. She loves me and loves my family like no one else. I am SO thankful for her!

Squeezing in the Strawberries!

All week long I've been thinking about strawberries. I knew that the farms were open and ready for picking, and I've just been DYING to get out there....but not sure when we were going to be able to go - all 6 of us. It's a tradition - we ALL have to be there. And our Saturdays are full right now with soccer and extra rehearsals for our worship concert. I finally decided I couldn't wait any longer and we just were going to have to squeeze it in on Saturday afternoon. So after a full morning of soccer and before an afternoon of choir rehearsals, we headed out to the farm!!! Hooray!

The happy pickers!! :)
The spectators...
(David's job was Caleb, taking pictures, and watching the clock....we were on a very tight schedule!)

Finding our perfect row....this really is the best strawberry farm ever...and I've been doing this for YEARS and YEARS!!! Every strawberry is the PERFECT one! :)

The boys are professional pickers - they know exactly what to do and go to it!

I think Callie was just happy to be along for the ride. She loves to EAT strawberries, so she wasn't as dedicated of a picker as the boys were! :)

Katy: "David, you know he's not allowed to eat strawberries yet, right?"

David: "I know, I just want a picture of him holding it."

and then....

guess what goes right in the mouth? Sigh....

FINALLY - i get to eat one!

Who put my perfect little baby boy in the middle of a strawberry plant? Poor little guy! This is what happens when David has the camera and the baby!

4 full baskets - done in 40 minutes! I didn't get nearly enough, so the younger kids and I will have to go back sometime next week. But we had our family outing for tradition's sake, so I was happy! :) So fun - just need MORE strawberries!

He's Crossed over to the Dark Side....

You know how people say that the longer you are married, the more you look like each other or act like each other? Well, I'd say that David has officially crossed over to the dark side. I've ruined him. All my crazy, couponing, ways have completely done him in. Why, you ask? Here's a brief tidbit. I have lots more to post from the weekend, but I thought you'd be interested in this little bit. He is camping out, along with 2 of our other pastors that he coerced, in front of the brand new Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant that opens tomorrow. Why? Because the first 100 people there at opening tomorrow get FREE WINGS FOR A YEAR!!! Isn't he the coolest? Love him. And I think it's HILARIOUS that he convinced two of our other senior pastors to do it with him (and their teenage sons who TOTALLY didn't want to miss it!). He has the camera, so stay tuned tomorrow for the results! :) His tent was pitched right in front of the door - he got there and was in the first 20 people, so he's SO excited! :)

Future Kindergartener

What a fun morning I had with Jacob today!! We got to go to school this morning and see all the fun places he'll get to go next year at kindergarten!! He's pretty familiar with alot of it because of Josiah, but this day was all about JACOB! He loved it! His favorite parts were going into the library (and having the librarian show him where all his favorite books are...) and going into a kindergarten class (IN ACTION!!) and seeing all the fun they were having! I was so glad we had the chance to do this. We moved here last summer after school was already out, so Josiah never got to do this. It was so good for Jacob. He loved seeing the kids in their centers - seeing all the very cool things they were doing - he just loved it. He's going to do great too - I loved seeing him experience it all with HIS eyes - knowing that this was all going to be for HIM - not Josiah. After we were done seeing everything, we went and had lunch with Josiah. Both boys were super excited about this because I told them that I was going to have Jacob buy a lunch too. (Trying to avoid the trauma that Josiah had the first time he had to buy his lunch at school:) ). They thought it was very fun to do this together. It was great. I can't believe he's going to be starting kindergarten in the fall. He is really growing up. It's going to be great, I just know it!! :)

wishing for the cake doctor....

I have probably 1000 cookbooks. (Okay, exaggerating a BIT, but I have a LOT). I love them - all of them. Love to read through them, look over new recipes, I just love them! But there's one cookbook that I don't have - the Cake Doctor cookbooks. My sister Kelli gave one to my little sister for her bridal shower, and it has been haunting me ever since then that I don't have any of her cookbooks. I love the idea behind her books - using a cake mix as the first step to a fabulous dessert recipe. And I have BOXES of cake mix in my pantry (since I can get them on sale and with coupons for 25 cents!!) so now I just need inspiration. I want to take some kind of goody into Josiah's teacher for her appreciation "treat" tomorrow but I'm not sure what yet. I'm tempted to make pumpkin muffins, but it's not exactly seasonal! :) She loved them in the fall though, and I love them so much I'd eat them year round. We'll see if I can come up with something great. :)

way too late....

Stayed up way too late tonight. I'm going to be totally exhausted tomorrow...but I couldn't help myself!! Got my coupons all in order and ready for the Publix shopping trip tomorrow (it's a GOOD coupon week...). Watched American Idol (go Lee!!!). Gave in to temptation and watched Biggest Loser, even though David's going to be mad I watched it without him. (Probably our secret guilty pleasure - we LOVE this show. We can totally relate to their feelings. Okay, so my 60 lbs. that I lost before is nothing compared to these people, but the feeling of accomplishment and pushing through the pain - that I know!!!). It was makeover week for them and I couldn't HELP it! So good. Found out that I can redeem my pampers points and mail in coupons to Diapers.com and will be getting 7 packages of diapers AND a wipes refill box for FREE. TOTALLY FREE. If that's not enough to get you excited, I don't know what will!!! So it's late...but I think it was worth it! :) Good night!

new line item for the budget

hair color. for ME. i am seriously going gray. how is that possible - i'm only 31!!! good grief - i guess these little people are doing it to me!!! I've been highlighting david's hair for 12 years....do i trust him enough to do mine? hmmmm....

just good.

Just a good day. Not too crazy. Not too hectic. Not frantic. Just good - you know what I mean? It felt good too. Aaahhh. ALL the kids and I got to take Josiah to school today since David's at his conference this week, and they get the biggest kick out of that. I stepped it up to Level 2 in my "Shredding" DVD - it about killed me. Mostly because I felt so uncoordinated trying to figure out the new moves. I'm so terribly uncoordinated. Oh well.

After picking up Josiah from school, we headed to a friend's house for an afternoon playdate - for all of us. Caleb took his afternoon nap there and my other 3 had a ball with Jenn's 2 kids - and so Jenn and I had a few hours to just sit on the couch and chat. It felt REALLY good. Came home and had a frozen pizza and breadsticks for dinner (that I got for $2 this week w/my coupons!!), baths, and kids in bed. Good stuff. Hoping to finish folding the 12 loads of laundry that I did yesterday while watching American Idol! :)

Oh, and guess what Josiah wrote on his card that he made for his teacher today (it's Teacher Appreciation Week this week so we're doing something special each day...). He wrote "Dear Mrs. Bickley - I love your math tests! You're a great teacher!". He cracks me up - he really does love school! :)

90s...and it's only May!

We had a hot hot weekend here in SC! Good thing our pool opened! The boys were awfully hot (and so were their spectators) during soccer games in the morning, but we made it through with two victories! (And the chocolate milk was a HUGE hit with Jacob's team! :) ). As we were driving home, the kids were SOOO anxious to get to the pool. I assured them that we would hurry as fast as we could - Jacob even asked if we would drop them off and the pool and then come back with their bathing suits and lunches (as if they could do anything until their bathing suits arrived!). So when we got home, we hurried as fast as we could to get everyone changed, sunscreened up, and lunch packed so we could head to the pool.

It was already 12:30 pm, so I assumed we'd be there maybe until 2 pm - then we'd head back home for naps. The water was bound to still be a bit chilly, and they are always so worn out after soccer. But NO - we were there until 4:30 pm!!! They were all SO excited to be back at the pool!! We enjoyed ourselves quite a bit - even Caleb enjoyed getting to cruise around the wall of the baby pool (I still haven't gotten him his float boat thing....). We hurried home and grilled chicken as fast as we could to get them fed, bathed and in bed. Success! Here's to many more pool afternoons! :)

Today has been a nice, rainy day. A good day for me since Mondays are my clean house and do ALL the laundry day. No, it's not the only day of laundry (sadly), but it's the BIGGIE. So it's been a good day to get all that done and just be home. I did make a quick trip to the post office to get my Mom's mother's day present shipped off, but otherwise we've been home!

My friend Sarah is coming over to join us for dinner tonight. Both of our husbands are gone to a pastor's conference in Atlanta (her husband is the youth pastor), so it will be nice to have some adult company tonight. :) We're looking forward to it!