HAPPY EASTER! (Lisa is a little ADD so hang in there!)

Happy Easter everyone!

We have had a very productive 3 day weekend! We had baby chicks hatch Friday and Brandon is busy building a chicken coop so maybe this time the dogs won't kill all of our chicks. He helped his uncle and cousin split some wood out f the pasture on Friday. We got our garden planted this weekend too. Brandon said we have had a very productive spring in general. He has put up a new pasture to move the goats over to while the other recovers and we get it ready for a horse we are getting next weekend. We planted 100 pounds of grass seed, put out 300 pounds of fertilizer and 480 pounds of lime on and around the house and back 10. Brandon has sold all of his junk Festivas, John got rid of his junk car, and Brandon's project tractor is benefiting from the extra cash flow. He has got a lot of tractor parts off of ebay and his tractor is starting to look better and better. He says he needs to get some more junk to sale, but I like the way his yard is looking without the junk sitting around!

I got some spring cleaning done too. Nothing in particular that anyone would notice but me, but it makes me feel better. I cleaned out some closets and threw a few things away and stored some other stuff in the attic. I hauled all the wood out of the basement since I don't think we will be needing a wood fire any more this spring. I got some flowers to plant around our house number post. Melly came over Friday and helped me haul rocks for a bed around the post and we got the flowers planted. Emily and Abigail played in their kiddie pool til their lips turned blue. We went down to the river with Melly and Justin Saturday night to eat hotdogs and kiebasa. They have been working around the river to fix their building and deck that was sliding off the river bank. They are getting it ready for the summer months river parties and Melly's September wedding. We went shopping last week for bridesmaids dresses and things seem to be falling in place for them and the wedding.

Emily and Abigail were so excited about their Easter baskets this morning. They each brought one thing at a time to me and Brandon (still in bed) and showed us what all they had. We dyed Easter eggs this morning and the girls did everything by themselves, tablets, vinegar, dipping and decorating!

Now we need to be packing them a bag to go stay with Grandma Ann for a few days. Theys are out of school next week and are hoping to enjoy some grandparent time this week.

Current Events

Nicky and his first birthday cake

Here is a picture of Nicky and Kelly after Nicky's 1st birthday party.

The girls enjoying a sneak peak day of spring at the creek on the back 10

Hello everyone! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We have had a pretty eventful time these past few weeks. Emily and Abigail have both started softball practice and we are busy with that every Monday, Tuesday and Saturday. Abigail is a hoot out there on the field. At her second practice (after she felt more at ease) we saw her cradle and rock her softball glove like an infant, she skipped to first base while the other girl stood on first with the ball, and she of course played in the dirt! She is so funny! She is the teeniest little girl on her team and I think she should be the team mascot instead of a player! Brandon got pulled into helping coach that team and it is a wild mess! There are 15 little 4, 5, and 6 years olds running in 15 different directions and giggling all the way. I will let everyone know when games start so ya'll can come watch the fun.

Our friends Kelly and Ned celebrated their little boy's 1st birthday a few weeks ago and we got to meet up with them and our other friends Steve and Debbie and their 2 kids. We haven't seen them since before Christmas and we were able to sit around and catch up a little. We will get together again soon for Steve and Debbie's little boys' birthday.

Tonight at supper Abigail said, "Momma you fed me too much weed!" She was sitting there eating her grilled asparagus and I thought Brandon would fall over. I am glad she likes weed, but told her not to tell anyone! Oh dear...

I am just glad that Abigail is feeling better. She woke up Monday morning and said she didn't feel good. Emily told her she would have a lot of work to make up if she went to Maw maw Kaye's for the day (remember she is only in Pre-K) and we were able to talk her into going on to school. I thought she was just being sluggish and hard headed. Well, school called an hour later and said she had through up on the bus, in the cafeteria, and in the hallway. So we had to call Maw Maw Kaye for sick duty. She through up for half the day and then Tuesday she went to school, but that night she had diarhea. She is all better today.

Emily was referred to an orthodontist and we went last week to have her evaluated. She is going to have to have 2 baby teeth extracted tomorrow and another (second) opinion visit with another orthodontist next week. By the looks of things she will have to start Phase I of a 2 phase process of braces sometime soon. Her top front tooth and her bottom front tooth meet when she tries to bite together and so she is compensating by pulling her bottom jaw in so they will scissor down past her bottom teeth. This is causing her bottom 4 and top 2 permanent teeth to stay loose and causing a crazy bite. After this round of braces she will wait until all her permanent teeth come in and go through another round of braces to correct any cross bite problems that she has left over. To make a long story short, she has got a snaggle tooth mess! It freaks me out to see a permanent tooth wiggle back and forth knowing that it's supposed to be still! I can't wait for her to have something done because it bothers me to see her like this now that it is confirmed that she has a problem. She is excited about getting braces, but she doesn't want the extractions done. She was hoping that it would cost too much and I wouldn't want to have it done! Yeah, she thinks I'm cheap! She is also worried that the braces are too expensive and I have told Brandon we are not to talk about the cost of it, payments on them, or anything concerning money for dental work areound her. I don't care what it costs, I want to see her teeth fixed! I tried to explain to Emily that I am very careful with money so when things like this come up, it's not a big deal. I think she is feeling better about it.

I went to a Pure Romance party Saturday night at Laura's (the woman renting my old house) My friend Kelly went with me. It was a hoot! There were a bunch of wild slightly drunken lunch ladies there. We had a hilarious time. I would recommend having a Pure Romance party to anyone that just needs a reason to have a party. Laura really knows how to decorate and entertain. Our old house looked wonderful. It looks better now than it ever did when my family lived there! We are so fortunate to have a family living there that take care of it like they do.

Well, have a good week and be glad that you know all about my children's stomach and teeth problems! I will let you all know how things go for Emily and her Snaggle tooth saga!

A Day at the Park

Before this picture was taken Abigail ran behind the wall, stuck her head in and said "Momma, what am I!?" I busted out laughing.

Despite everyone feeling under the weather today we decided to get out of the house and go for a Sunday drive. We ended up going through Gold Hill and up in Rowan county at Dan Nicholas Park. The kids changed their grumpy moods when we pulled in there. They wanted to go see the snake exhibit in particular. We visited the snakes, the wildlife area, rode the carousel, and played on the playground. As always we had to pry them away so we could go home. It would have really been nice outside if the wind hadn't been blowing. We had a pretty good time though. It was good to get out of the house for a while anyway!

Days of our Lives

Sometimes it just seems like a soap opera around here. So much drama... Everyone is getting a little cabin fever. My kids are cheerful one minute and moody the next. What to do, what to do... Here is a picture of Candace holding a goat. If you knew her you would laugh. She is not the goat holding type, but she enjoyed her trip to the Burnette Farm.

I can't wait for spring. One day last weekend the temperature got up over 60 degrees for one day and now this cold wet weather again! Abigail has a double ear infection now and Emily is driving me batty. I would love to be somewhere with blue water and sandy beaches. Why did I procrastinate on booking that trip to Aruba for this winter? I could sure use a break. Oh well, I am stuck driving a delirious Abigail around trying to find a CVS that hasn't shut down there Minute Clinic. When we left one CVS and went over to another one and came back out after seeing the doctor Abigail argued with me about where we parked. I told her we parked in that direction at the other CVS and she was determined I was wrong. She said it was today we parked there and I said yes it was today, but not at this store, it was at the other one. I just could not win so I let it drop with her being right. You would think she had a high fever or something, but she didn't.

Emily has her first cavity filled last week and the dentist told her she had done well and deserved a good prize, but then they didn't offer her any "prize". She was heart-broken and wanted me to make up for it. I told her she didn't get a special prize for something that resulted from not taking care of her teeth. (It's a hard knock life)

Thank goodness tee ball and softball practice starts next week. Abigail will be practicing on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings. I don't know about Emily's schedule yet. We went last week to buy Abigail a helmet, faceguard, and cleats. I spent $150 on registration and over $100 on new cleats for both of them and Abi's helmet. $40.00 of this was for an outfielders mask they are both going to have to share. I let Emily play without one last year and I just can't stand the thought of one of them getting their teeth busted out by a flying ball, so I broke down and bought one.

Emily brought home a paper the other day titled "What I would do with $100" Let me say up front it wasn't buy supplies for softball! It said something along these lines "If I had $100 I would buy a Mustang GT so I could follow in my dad's footsteps. Then I woud go down to the animal shelter and feed the animals" She is so special... I wish I could stretch $100 that far. I am sure it would feed a lot of stray animals though, although I haven't found a way to feed a stray family of 4 on $100, so I don't know.

Finally some SNOW!!!!

We have had one of the best weekends EVER! We have played til we can't play no more! We had a great time sliding from Brandon's shop all the way down to the creek! Last night after dark when the temperature plummeted and it started sleeting and snowing again the conditions got slick and we FLEW down that hill. I am sore all over from bailing out before I hit a tree or from flipping at 20 mph! It was a little too much for Abigail. She like it more today when it started turning to slush and it still slid, but we didn't risk flipping over or running in the woods (which between me and Brandon we did both with her) Today we also had Kelsey with us. I would imagine this is the first snow she probably has played in and she had a ball too! We are all exhausted and lucky for the kids they don't have school tomorrow, but me and Brandon have to work! Being an adult is no fun when it comes to that! Anyway, I wanted to share some pictures with everyone. So here you go.

Christmas Pictures

Abigail put herself to sleep reading a Disney book Nutter Butter Santa cookies me and the girls made Emily in front of Maw maw Kayes tree

Abigail in front of our Charlie Brown Christmas tree

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. It doesn't really seem like it is already going to be 2010 in 1 more day! I am looking at a 4 day weekend coming up here and I can't wait. Brian and Amy are coming over tomorrow evening for a Guitar Hero New Year's Eve party. Hopefully Ned and Kelly can make it by after they visit family. My house looks like a toy store exploded, but hopefully Amy and Brian can sympathize with me. HAHAHA! I am just going to open a closet and shove all I can in there and hope no one opens the door. Upstairs is a disaster area too, but that's none of my concern right now.

I hope I can get some things organized and thrown away while I am off work this weekend. Why is it that no matter what you do or how long you work at it, things are never just perfect? I wish I could just deal with my minor case of OCD and move on. Happy New Year!

Abi's singing debut

Here is one of Abigail's songs she sang for her school program. I think it is so sweet and I have had her sing it a 100 times because I like her voice so much. She even sang it for the ladies at the public library last night.

Christmas Programs

Here are a few pictures from the kids' Christmas programs. They had to have there picture made with Santa and their bus driver Mr. Mike. Note Emily and her friend Hannah had picked out the same Christmas dress!

Charleston Trip

Every fall Brandon and I take a trip down to Charleston. We have a favorite Oyster Bar we like to visit called Pearlz. We go down there to get our fill on steamed oysters. I think I gained about 4 pounds over the weekend. How in the world does that happen?!?!?!?!?. Desserts, drinks, rich, creamy foods-I know exactly how it happens!

We always stay at the Lodge Alley Inn which is right there on East Bay Street. We don't need our car the entire time we are there because everything is within walking distance. This year we had yucky rainy weather so we didn't take very many pictures. Our room was a very nice loft off of the courtyard. We had a kitchen and dining room that we didn't even use. The dining room did make for a nice backdrop for our picture though.

We started our Christmas shopping on the way home. Tis the season!

The Playhouse

We have been working on this playhouse for about 5 years or so. It had to make the move from our old house over to our new house and then it sat for over a year before we messed with it again. Brandon finally started doing some little things to it. It now has stairs, windows, a front door, and carpet! All we need now is some interior upgrades and cedar shingle siding. Going by our timeline we should have it ready just in time for the girls to sneak their boyfriends over! Ha Ha! I think we may have to bolt it shut when that time comes!

Halloween Pictures

Here is my Halloween in a nutshell. We took Kelsey with us. We ended up just going to grandparents and then to my friend Stacey's neighborhood. It really wasn't all that fun without Brandon home with us! Emily and Abigail had to stay with Maw Maw Kaye that day while I worked and I didn't even think to get there picture with my parents before I left that evening! First picture above is with Paw Paw Terry (Brandon's stepdad), second picture is Paw Paw John (Brandon's dad) , third picture is Grand Ma Ann (Brandon's mom), and fourth picture is Kelsey and Kadyn (Candace's babies)

Daddy left us!

Well, we put Brandon on the big bird last night for the flight to Germany. I heard from him twice today. He sounded tired, but he said it was really pretty there. They are staying on a river near some castles that have bullet holes in them from a long time ago. He said they had so really bad turbulence and for about an hour it felt like they were on a roller coster and people all around him were throwing up their supper. He said he got sweaty and his mouth watered really bad, but he never threw up. Emily took the leaving him at the airport pretty badly. She cried for about 20 miles up the interstate before she cried herself to sleep. She was crazy sounding and saying things like "IT'S JUST NOT RIGHT WITHOUT DADDY" and "I DON't WANT TO LEAVE HIM" and I thought she was going to hyperventilate. A bit too dramatic for my taste. About 10 minutes into it Abi is looking calmly over at Emily and says "Emi, you starting to make me feel upset." And then it carried on for a while longer. She recovered, but she still talks about him being gone. We went into Kohls last night and I was telling Emily her face look red and an older woman said, "What's wrong sweetie" and Abigail said "She's been crying because our daddy is gone!" Of course I had to explain. Then today at Footloose skating rink Abi struck up a conversation with a pregnant woman and Abi told her "My daddy couldn't come because he left us!" Abigail has no idea how this sounds to an adult, and the woman looked pitifully at her. I jumped in to explain, but I don't know if the lady believed me or not! It has been crazy! Anyway, we are doing fine and staying busy. Emily has her last 2 softball games this week and us 3 girls have Thursday and Friday off together to do something fun. Probably Nascar Speed Park. Here are a few pictures of the leaves turning around home here. I can't believe how beautiful they are!

Abigail's mean streak

On the 10th day of school Emily came home and told me that Abi got in trouble on the bus and Mr. Mike had to talk to her. Apparently a little girl told Abi to bite her finger and put her finger in Abi's face and Abi bit it. Well, I have spent the last 4 years trying to make Abi do what she is told, so what can I expect? Ha Ha Well, we had a talk and she said she would do better. The next day they came home and Emily said Mr. Mike didn't see this, but Abi had squeezed someone's neck until they couldn't breath. I told her no TV of playing games all week. Then the girls went to the basement to play and Emily came up with her camer/video recorder and showed me what Abi had done. Emily had been using the video recorder and Abi attacked her and choked Emily and it was all caught on tape! MY GOD!! What has happened to my cute little innocent girl? She is an animal! We had another talk and I let her know I was not happy with her.

This child does have a sweet kind heart, I promise. A few days later I was in the basement on the elliptical when Abi wanted to know if everything dies. I told her that they do if they were living to begin with. They she said "I want to know what things feel like." I said "Like touching things to see what they feel like?" She said "No, like I want to know what they feel." She pointed to the wheelbarrel in the basement and said "Like that thing, I wonder what it feels." I suddenly understood what she meant. I told her that it doesn't feel anything because it was just metal. I said if you took a hammer to it, it would not scream, but me or her would if the same was done. We had a lond conversation about this and she now understands between living and non-living. She knows living things usually experience the world with their senses like, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. Abigail and I spend a lot of time together by ourselves in the basement while we are exercising and Emily is reading her book in her own little world. We seem to have these deep conversations at least once a week and it is amazing to follow her cognitive development and watching her put pieces of the puzzle together. She is an amazing little girl and I love hearing her little voice talk about the wonders of the world. Anyway, I hope to continue to have these moments with her because I really enjoy being a part of our discussions. Besides, one conversation like this and a

mother can forget about a choking incident! HA! HA!

Cabarrus County Fair

We were cramped for time last week, but we decided to head out for the county fair on Wednesday night. Just our luck that it rained all afternoon and we watched the sky thinking that we may have to cancel. Around 6 pm it stopped raining and the clouds began to clear. We jumped in the car and met daddy at the fairgrounds. We didn't have much time because we were late getting there so we just bought 24 tickets to go along with the 6 that Doug gave us. Then a family leaving gave us 2 more that they hadn't used. So the girls were excited because we figured they each could ride 3-4 rides each before we had to go home and get ready for school the next day. Emily chose to ride the big swings while I took Abi over to the ballon ride. Then they rode the roller coaster together, then the haunted roller coaster ride, then another roller coaster and a safari jeep ride. We were walking around when we saw for $5 you could get strapped into a bungee thing and jump on a trampoline. Emily had seen the bigger version of this at the beach one time and wanted to ride it, but we wouldn't let her. The one at the fair wasn't as scary looking, so we said, what the heck, my as well let her ride. Then Abi was mad because we didn't tell her she could jump, but I hadn't really realized that she would have wanted to. So we gave them each a $5 bill that Maw Maw Kaye and Paw Paw Jerry had given them and they got strapped in. They asked me to stay with Abi, so I didn't get the full picture of her in her apparatus from far away, but hopefully you can get the jist of it. They thought someone as small as her would need help being pulled down to the trampoline to make contact with it to push off, but Abi caught on very fast and really didn't need any help. This thing pulls you up to where you feel almost weightless and then the bouncing keeps you in contact with the trampoline after you get started. They LOVED it and I was wishing we had one at home! After they got off we went and got some fair food. We ended up with a candied apple, a powder sugared funnel cake, a foot long hand dipped corndog, and an ear of corn. Wow! Then we watched the end of one of the kids' fireman's sh0ows. At the end of it they let the kids crawl through the "smoke" house and practice staying low to the ground to avoid smoke inhalation. Abi and Emily got in line and the next thing we know Abi was running back out and away from the side of the house they were supposed to be going in. She ran up to me and said "Is he going to try to suffocate me!?" I explained to her that no he wouldn't and the smoke wasn't real and wouldn't hurt her and she ran back to get in line and then ran back out of line. She wasn't stupid-if a house is smoking and on fire you are NOT SUPPOSED to run INTO it! Makes sense to me! Abi was tired after watching the fireman show and we went home and left daddy and Emily (along with Paw Paw John) there so they could go inside and look at the animals. I took Abi home and gave her a bath and she went to bed.

We had a really good night and I am really happy that we went because I know that fair memories are wonderful and they will always remember this night.

September Daycation!

Well, the Burnette's have been at it again! We decided yesterday morning to ride off for the day. We left home at 10:30 and found ourselves hungry just 30 minutes away in Harrisburg. We stopped at Bojangles and had biscuits and seasoned fries. YUMMY! We rode up to Lake Lure to look for a place that our timeshare doesn't "own", but has weeks available at. We asked a lady in sales if we could go look at the properties to see if we might like to book something there in the future and she gave us a window hang tag so we could get through security. I asked if they offered day privledges to Bluegreen owners and she told me no, but that was ok. We rode on in and looked around at the pool, golf course, lake beach area, and wellness center. The girls wanted to swim, but without day privledges we weren't technically supposed to go in. but we were able to walk right in to the pool area with no questions asked. This wasn't what Brandon and I had wanted to start out with for the day, so we talked the kids into going with us over to Chimney Rock to go hiking with a promise of ice cream afterwards and a trip back to the pool before we went home. So we headed down the most curvy road I have ever been on and Brandon had a ball handling his car in S turn after S turn. Emily and I got little carsick feeling, but we were ok. We went up to Chimney Rock and found out that one of the trails we had been waiting all spring and summer to hike was finally open. It was labled moderate to strenuous and not recommended for small children, so we were game! Ha Ha! We had to hike up to the Chimney just to get to this trail because the line for the elevator was long and we could get there faster by hiking. The girls did great and we got there in no time. Once we got up the the Chimney base, we hiked on up to "Exclamation Point" and saw some wonderful views. The weather was picture perfect and we could not have picked a better day to do some hiking. We even stopped to smell the flowers (see picture). We hiked back down to the shop at the Chimney area and Brandon and Emily waited in line for 30-45 minutes just to get us some ice cream. Abigail doesn't like ice cream and she picked herself out a salad with crackers and ranch dressing to eat instead. If you don't believe this, see picture! She said all the walking had made her hungry! She even ate the cucumbers that were in the salad after we doctored them up with salt and pepper! I sat with Abi and watched her eat while Brandon and Emily were in the ice cream line. When it was there turn to order I asked Abigail if she was sure she didn't want some ice cream and she said "No", so I ordered my 1 scoop of Bunny Tracks and 5 minutes later I realized that I had lost all rights to my ice cream cone because she liked it and ate it up! She was hungry! We rode the elevator back down to the parking lot and made our way back over to the pool we had sneeked into earlier. We changed into our bathing suits and helped ourselves to the ice cold pool (it was close to 7pm and the temperature outside was dropping too!) We played and helped the girls practice their swimming skills-Abigail is doing amazingly well and Emily is doing really good too. After all of our lips turned blue we went and changed back into our clothes. I had not packed a comb and by the time we got to Fatz Cafe, Brandon's hair was dried and he looked normal and me, Emily, and Abigail looked like drowned rats we matted hair! Oh well, we were on daycation, it didn't matter! We had never ate at a Fatz Cafe and we loved the rolls! My God, now I know why they call it Fatz Cafe, it can't be good for you! Our food we chose was mediocre, but waitress was nice and atmosphere was good, so we left happy. We rode on back home and finally landed-I mean got home, at around 11:30pm. We had a wonderful time and were so glad that the kids cooperated and were in such good moods for the whole entire day. We are so blessed to be able to take trips like this and enjoy our time together.

Today we are just catching up on lazy time, washing our beach towels and bathing suits, and cleaning up the house a little in anticipation of another work/school week ahead!! Abigail and Emily were listening to the O Brother Where Art thou CD earlier and Abigail came up and told me about the song Down to the River to Pray. She said first they said"Come on sister, then they said come on brother, and then they said come on babysitter let's go down" I thought I would roll! The last chorus actually says, "Come on sinner, let's go down, down to the river to pray." She thought they said sitter instead of sinner and then she told me babysitter instead of sitter. She is so funny. You have to be pretty smart to stay 1 step ahead of your kids so you can figure out their thought processes! Well, I hope you enjoy the rest of Labor Day and good-bye till next time!

Abigail's First Day of Pre-K

Today I put my baby girl on a school bus for the first time! She gets to ride with Emily to Ridgecrest and then she gets taken over to Running Creek for her school day. She was so excited this morning that she didn't even give me a hug before she jumped on the bus and disappeared. I had to call her back so I could at least get a picture. This evening Lacey was here to get her off the bus for me and I asked her how everything went and she sputtered out a whole days' worth of events and excitement. She said "Momma, one boy kept getting in trouble and got put in time out." Later this evening I asked her did the teacher tell everyone her rules and Abi said "Yeah, like Keep your clothes on" I was like "WOW, that has to be a rule? Do they have problems with kids taking their clothes off?" She said "Yeah momma, that's what that one boy was doing that kept getting in trouble." I said "What did he take off?" and she said "His shirt, his shorts, his shoes, he didn't take off his underwear though. I kept looking at the teacher so I couldn't see him" Oh dear I think! She is excited about going back tomorrow, so I guess this is a good thing!