Da' girls, in Da-lute!

I had a great weekend away with 5 of my dear friends! We were blessed with a whole weekend together in a hotel up in Duluth, MN. Our friend, Jody's husband does a lot of travel with his job. They had a lot of points stored up for hotel stays, and she graciously covered the hotel fees using their points~ thank you so much, Jody!! It was so much fun to go away and be Sarah for the weekend. I did bring little Cole with me, because I am nursing...and he is only 3 months old today! I still can't believe he is 3 months old already! Anyway, my husband came home at about 11 on Friday (April 3rd) and I was getting ready to go. I was the designated driver, because I am one of those cool moms who drive a mini van! ~lol. I first picked up Anna, then Lisa, next Jeannie, and finally Jody and her princess~K. It was a full van with 5 women, 2 babies (and their car seats)...not to mention all of our stuff.

I am the driver, Anna is in the passenger seat, Jeannie is behind me, and in the front of this picture you see Jody on the left and Lisa on the right. Baby K is in between them.
We all did a good job packing lightly, and I have to say I am mightily impressed!
Friday night, we had dinner at the Giant Panda (a Chinese restaurant). We all enjoy Chinese, but I think we were all a bit disappointed with this restaurant. They didn't put in fresh food, or restock what ran out, we didn't get our beverages refilled~ actually the waitress never came back, except with the bill, and their ice cream machine was broken (looks like it had been like that for a long time). I would understand if they were super busy, but that wasn't the case. At least we still had fun and great conversations. I was shocked at this lady that was there, though. She came over to us and wanted to see Cole. No biggie...but then, she squatted down to see him and was touching him over and over. I am very uncomfortable with strangers touching my kids, especially my newborns. I don't mind people admiring my cute kids, but caressing their cheeks, putting their nuk in their mouth, touching his chin and his hair....PLEASE, have some common courtesy. What do you do? Do you tell them to back off and stop touching your baby? She just talked on and on for about 10-15 minutes. I think it was a bit rude, especially since we were all there to socialize. There is something to be said about manners and etiquette.
Anyway...we were off to the Comfort Inn and Suites. We had 2 double beds and a hide-a-bed couch in the room. We also had a refrigerator and a microwave. It was just right for our girls weekend lock-in! We had to snap a few photos of us all giddy. Jeannie had a timer on her camera, so she jumped on the end of the bed to get in the photo for these.
From Left to Right: Lisa, Anna, me, Jody, and Jeannie. See our hands? Yeah, it was planned.
Time to make the kissy faces! We had this on-going teasing about the "control freak" a.k.a. Lisa, but come to think of it, I think I may have stole that role for the pictures...I kept saying, "Now lets do this...."

I love this photo best! I love how happy we look to have such a special weekend away together!
Psst...I didn't have my foot up for this photo, either. Opps, I missed that instruction! :)
This picture is of us in the van driving down the super big hill. You can see Lake Superior from this glance. The lake is HUGE...one of the biggest, and it is beautiful anytime of the year.
This is a photo of the back of the hotel. There are walk paths all over. Duluth is a big-time tourist city. It is a favorite city of mine living here.
The three amigos! We always have a grand time together! I think Jody should get square-shaped glasses, too!
Sweet baby Cole sleeping so soundly. I love watching him sleep! He is so snuggly~
The babies loving on each other. Cole is not going to let her go.
We had a great time, soaking our feet, painting our nails (fingers and toes), and Jody and I died our hair. I gave Jody a hair cut, too! It was fun to pamper ourselves and each other!
Me and Anna!
Miss K, Lisa and I! I love the look Miss K is giving us!
Jody and I!
Jeannie and I! Notice my hair color? This is pretty much my natural color these days. Terry didn't notice, although I really wasn't surprised. It is OK, it just isn't his thing to notice that.
Yep, we had a pillow fight on Saturday night. This was so much fun! Lisa and I had a blast! My favorite was tackling her down on the bed. We even got security to come and knock on our door from the racket! Yes!! We got in trouble!
Two on the bed, and the little one said, "Roll over, roll over...."
Sleeping so peacefully! Doesn't he look snug as a bug?? The beds were very comfortable and great to sleep on. We did get a night in the hot tub. A few of us jumped into the pool~ literally...Jeannie was happily floating a long, and Lisa and I did a cannon ball near her! It was a hoot! I wish I would have had pictures of us gals in the hot tub. None of us thought of it, though.
Here are the little ones on our trip...Cole and K. It was their first weekend in a hotel together. They were so good the whole weekend! They got along great, too!
Brrr....it was chilly, but great to have this photo! We asked a guy who was running by, and he got a bit overwhelmed when we all handed him our cameras. He joked and even said he could go get his camera.

Then, we headed home. It was sad to end our time together...but we had a grand time! We definitely want to plan something like this again! It was so refreshing and therapeutic! This is a good portion of ladies from my monthly ladies night out that I talk about. We so much enjoy each other's company. Thank you Jody, for supplying the means to escape life for awhile, and thank you to all of you ladies for a great weekend...and lasting memories!

An Old Fashioned Christmas

Last night, Terry and I went to our annual "Old Fashioned Christmas" at church. This is a fun event where people can host a table. With being a host, they can decorate it as they choose. Then, they invite people to sit at their table. The evening is filled with fun entertainment and catered food. It was a fun evening. This year, we sat at our friend's tables. My dear friends, Lisa and Jody, hosted their tables with their husbands. Another friend that sat at the table was Jeannie. Lisa and Jody made a "girls" table, and their hubby's hosted a "guys" table. It was fun and inventive. They did this last year, and it was such a hit, they did it again. Last year, Terry and I hosted a table. Terry is a big time train hobbyist, and we had a train running around our table. You can see pictures by clicking here.
This was the "guys" table. It was the hunting theme. The "gifts" (hand warmer and beef jerky)was wrapped in duct tape, and I thought that was pretty clever! The salt and pepper shakers was a fish head/tail.
The "girls" table was a pretty snowflake theme. There was a fun winter scene in a glass cake container for the center piece. The lights were candles and blinking snowflakes. I thought it was cute how Lisa put the napkins in a tied ball ornament. She also tied ribbon around the mugs to spruce them up...so creative!
I took pictures of some of the tables, but the one picture I missed taking was of Terry and I. I even said something to him last night, and we just didn't get the photo. Him and I were pretty tired that night, so I think that is why we missed it.

The entertainment was a barbershop men's quartet. They were pretty good. When I think of Barbershop, though...I think of acapella, and they had music. At one point in their performance, they had 2 of our elders and the pastor come up on stage. They sang part of a Christmas carol, and the guys had to sing the next line. I think they did great! Terry was very witty that night, because he had made a few other comical fill-ins to the songs! One that Terry filled in (just singing it to me) was...."All I want for Christmas is my...." to which Terry said, "A good night's sleep!" I gave an AMEN to that one! Unfortunately, Madelyn had a horrible night Saturday night. She was up from about midnight until 4:30 AM. She cried and hollered on and off every 10-15 minutes. She has been waking up a lot in the evenings and we aren't sure what is going on with her. We definitely would love a change with that.

Anyway, the evening was fun...fun to dress up, spend time with friends, have great laughter, eat some great food, and have some entertainment. Thank you Lisa and Jody!

Older yet

Ok, I am officially a day older. Yippee, horrah.

I really think I feel older because I am pregnant with my fourth baby. Kids can make you feel and act younger or they can cause you to feel old and tired. Just depends on the day, ...or time of day for that matter.

Today, my dear friends (from High School)...long time ago....are coming to spend the day with me. Then, tonight we are heading to one of our favorite restaurants for our (traditional) birthday celebrations. I am really looking forward to spending good, quality time with my friends! I treasure my friendships, and I am so glad we are getting another chance to get together! I can't wait to see you ladies!

bummer...I won't be getting to enjoy a Margarita tonight, but maybe next year...
oh well, got a baby blessing going on.

I may not blog much today, but no worries...I will be back.

Pictures from the Beth Moore Weekend

My friend, Jeannie took these pictures from the conference, and she was gracious enough to share them with me, so I can show you glimpses of my weekend. She has some of the same on her blog, so go see her, too. Thanks for sharing Jeannie! It was great to spend time with you this weekend, too!
This is a picture of Beth on Friday night. She is so wonderful. Her stories are captivating, her soul and heart is on fire for God. She is ready to spread the word of God, and that is her mission. She told her husband (before they were wed) that he would have to know that she was going to be totally working for the Lord. She had to explain herself, because usually that meant she would become a nun. ~lol, she didn't know what the Lord had planned for her, but she just knew she would be a servant for HIM.
Beth is a very personable lady. She said it scares her to death to come in front of all these people at the conferences. So, by helping her face that fear head on, she goes out and looks people in the face, and "gets in their face," as they call in down south. (She is in Tennessee). She was kind of picking on this guy, because guys were big time minority for the conference. So, she wanted to know what brought him to the conference.
Here Beth put on her "cheese head" to let WI know that she would be there soon for a conference. Of coarse she got some squeels and applause from a select few in the audience.
This is the worship team. They were wonderful! I loved hearing their voices and seeing them honor God with their talents. They really were wonderful to help lead us to worship God.
This is Travis Cotterell, and he was the worship leader. He has an amazing talent from God. He writes a lot of his own music, and even shared a new one that he wrote with us for the conference. WOW~ he is great, and God shines through him!

Here is some of the ladies that were from our church that went to the conference. We stayed at the hotel. Friday night, we went walking and ate at 8th Street Grill. It was a good time, and we laughed a bunch. Too bad Jeannie didn't get in on this picture...she is behind the camera.

Tough Day

Today just seemed like it was a challenging day. I got to work at 9:30 AM, so it was a little earlier. Claudia just went down for a nap, so I just had some time with Caleb and Madelyn. Claudia woke up at 10:50. Just before she got up, the smoke detector started beeping...low battery. I think, for some reason, this started the stress. It really wasn't stressful, it was just one of those annoyances. We had a great time, Caleb, Claudia, Madelyn and I...until lunch. Lunch can be a challenging time...especially when I am going solo. I really don't mind feeding the girls and Caleb, but it is definitely work. Between trying to get everyone fed all at the same time, and making sure Claudia keeps the rubber mat that her food is on, attached to the counter...and keeping Hannah (the dog) from snatching food off of Madelyn or Caleb's plate~ Needless to say, I about want to pull my hair out some days. Madelyn and Claudia are at the age where they want to feed themselves, and the floor, without much help from anyone else. Caleb is a picky eater these days, so to get him to sit down to eat a good helping, is a challenge all in it's own category. After lunch, which I didn't clean up until 2:30, the kid's were all getting a bit cranky, and it was very colorful in my two children. Madelyn woke up this morning at 5:00 AM, so she started the day off really early. She had only one nap this morning at about 8:15-9:00 in the high chair. So, she was crabby, and Caleb was crying over pretty much everything. While doing the rounds of diaper changes, Claudia trying to take a bite out of Madelyn's hand. I am not sure how Candace would like me to handle this one, but yes, Claudia is taking a fancy to biting. Then, I got Caleb to lay down~ and after shutting the door, 5 minutes of crying later, he was quietly sleeping. Claudia and Maddie just had the crying issues then and got irritable when the other one walked next to them. Finally, the doorbell rang, and the Baby Signing Time videos arrived that Candace ordered. So, we sat down and watched those.
Claudia then had a very gross diaper...it was pretty much diarrhea. I have a poop phobia, so this helped the stress of my day. I change the diapers because of necessity, not that I want to.
Caleb woke from his nap a crab, so that was another bonus! *Grrr....
Madelyn had all of a 20 minute afternoon nap, so she was a pleasant baby when we were getting ready for supper....NOT!
Anyway...I am over my negative day. As the saying goes, "Tomorrow is a new day...with no mistakes in it~yet" That is a quote from Anne of Avonlea, which is one of my favorite movies!
Tomorrow night, I am going to visit my dear friend, Randi...and we are going to be kid free for the night. I will wear the hat of Sarah, instead of mom for just one night. After the last few weeks we have had....trust me, I am really looking forward to it!

I have been tagged!

Hipmommy tagged me to list 8 Random Facts About Me!
Instructions: When tagged, you have to link to the person who tagged you. Post the rules just before your list, then list eight random facts about yourself. At the end of your post, you must tag and link to eight other people.

1. The Doctor had to break my collar bone when I was born...to get me to fit out the birth canal! OUCH!
2. I put my arm in a ringer washer when I was 5 years old. I really don't have a terrible scar from it...not too noticeable anyway.
3. I have 4 brothers and 2 sisters.
4. The first time I had alcohol was in my parent's basement...Pink Lemonade and Vodka. (I was 16). Then, I didn't touch it again until I was 21...HONEST!
5. My sister and I set our backyard on fire with sparklers one hot summer day.
6. I was raised Baptist.
7. I used to draw cartoon characters...I really miss it!
8. I play piano and flute...need to clear off the dust bunnies and start up again!
9. I lived in Tennessee for 4 months.
10. I love to go camping, but don't get to do it enough.
11. I have been married for 3 years, have had 3 babies (in those years), and lived in 3 houses.
12. I love cats! We don't have one, but I love them!
13. I asked Jesus into my heart at a young age. I even drank communion (left over in the cups) after service.

Thanks HIPMOMMY! That was a fun random list! I hope you all enjoyed it! Happy New Year's Day! Here is who I am tagging:

Our Seven Qtpies

Miss Sniz

Movers4life

Daisy

Canoearoos

I hope you all will play~ It is fun, and more to learn about each other!