Last Friday I started coughing, no biggy, then last night I was up half the night coughing.  I woke up with an ear ache and was sneezing so hard I had to collect a lung off the floor. I call it, a back to school cold. Ashley has had a runny nose ever since school has started. Happens every year.  I came back home and craweld back into bed, and woke up to find it after 11:00.  No way!!!!!! To add to my misery, when I let the dogs out, they both decided to ROLL.  So I gave them a bath,while the cats watched.  So I said what the heck, and gave them a bath too. Jack has forgiven me and  Holly is still yet to be found. Both took it pretty well. I came out unscathed  Thank goodness.

Yesterday was so much fun. We went boating with our good friends Scott and Donna. The water was still fairly warm and we went swimming. We got home just in time to pick Ashley up from school. Today I'm just doing laundry and the likes. I've got Mamaw's meatlof cooking in the oven. It smells sooooooooooo good. Laura, your missin out. Of course one could say that about potato salad too. HAHA The lady's blog Laura was talking out is truly amazing. So check it out if you get a chance.
I have to go give Harley a bath yet AGAIN. I do believe we have an elephant living in the woods. There is not one white spot left on him. I let Sugar in and he's been out awhile stairing at me, like aren't you going to let me in too. I'm hoping he gets the message. Good thing he's so cute!!!!!!!!!!!

Last week we were going through some things and Bill found a few lost toys. The aquarium was Ashley's when she was a baby. It attached to her crib and lulled her to sleep every single time. Very good investment,because at the time it was $40. They no longer sell that one,but have one that I like for $50 that is a jungle theme. When Bill found the aquarium it was like finding a little treasure and we thought we'd save a few bucks. Much to our dissapointment after 9 years it didn't work.. Being Bill, he tore into it with Ashley's help. He knew he would figure out just what was wrong. He fixed lots of stuck gears and such,but there's one thing that he can't fix without ruining the whole thing. The fish are supposed to be on magnets that are inside the sealed up part. The magnets let them swim around. He got everything else working though.and debating on keeping it or not. Obviousally not as entertaining. It was a cool find and Ashley was really excited in helping try and fix her old toy.

Bill also found this pop up tent. We had promised Ashley we'd go camping. It has been soooooo hot or stormy that it just never happened this summer. We put the little tent together,stuck it on her bed(for comfort) and she had a fun time camping out with her dolls.

Out of the mouths of Babes

Kids can be so funny without realizing it. I'm still giggling about a conversation I had with Ashley yesterday.
"Mom what's you favorite part of the day?" I said, "Picking you back up from school and spending time with you." She smiled and said,"What do you do all day?"  Sigh ,"Clean mostly." She goes,"well you can do what ever you want."  I said, "Such as what?" She said and I quote, " You could be a wild party animal!" I laughed and told her I'd add that to my to do list and probably will throw a party when I get this house just how I want it.

Missunderstanding, the girl I was talking about that lives close is the wrong one. It's another girl in Ashley's class with the same first name as the other one. That I'm grateful for, but still upset about what happened to the other one.

Ashley's first day of school went good. She was a little upset that they didn't learn anything and that she didn't have any homework. She asked me if I'd give her some. I told her yeh ,you can work on cleaning your room, it's at home and it's going to take a lot of work. She didn't think that was very funny. She complained that she could hear Mr. Smiths class learning. I told her if anything they were just reviewing. She really wanted to be in Mr. Smiths class, plus some of her best friends ended up being in there. Personally I'm glad that they are separated. She is at the moment sitting between two of the sweetest twins. They are cute little redheads too, and I know they come from a really great family. Ashley spent the night and had a pool party at their house this summer. I hope they become even closer friends.

Last night Ashley wanted to take her lunch to school in her new lunch box. Bill found one that is deniem cloth with some patches and the letter A on it. Of course we had to get it for her. So last night she put her own lunch together and then this morning was so excited to put it in the bag and carry it to school. You should have seen her. Oh the little things that make her happy. I can't help but smile all the time.

I wish all kids could be so happy and innocent. I just found out last night some shocking news about one of her best friends. I almost started crying in the store. The person just told me out of concern since the two are so close and that they live right around the corner. I asked if it happened with her new Step Dad or her real Dad. She didn't know, but I guess the Mom knew and did nothing about it. I'm thinking it's the Dad, cause why would she still be living here? Regardless I have no respect for the Mom at all. Being a teacher must be the most heartbreaking jobs. I don't know if I could deal with knowing what some kids are sent home too. Ashley doesn't know who, but I told her if anyone told her a  bad secret to let me know about it ASAP.

Back to School

I can't believe it is time to go back to school already. Ashley is so excited. She hardly slept a wink. I got up with Bill and she started talking to me, asking why I was up so early. I told her if she wanted to she could crawl in my bed to try and sleep a few more hours. She tossed and turned the whole time. On top of being sleepy, she has a runny nose this morning. I gave her some meds for it,hopefully won't be sniffing all day. Poor thing. I think after I get some laundry going I'm crawling back in bed myself. I've been up since 4:00. I've got lots to do to keep me busy today. Bill put in the new water heater yesterday,so I have tons of laundry and dishes to keep me busy.

Check out Ashley's cool back to school socks. Every year it's tradition to go to Nashville to the sock store.

She also has her fingernails painted and polka dotted. Thanks to Laura's(I think) neat birthday gift. I've never seen fingernail paint pens before. 

                                                                        Time to go.

We're back home safe and sound. Very sad that we had to leave. Check out Amanda's blog for pictures. At the moment my SD card is MIA. I'm sure Ashley will know. She's like a mini external hard drive for me. She remembers everything. I remember sitting in the car, her wanting to put the new SD card in, Amanda tellling Ashley to hand me the old one and that's where my mind goes foggy. Getting old is rough, soon I'm going to be walking around with a recorder, but I'd probably loose that too. Haha Yesterday was a long drive back. Something happened on I 75. It took an hour to go 5 miles. I was sooooooooooo wishing I had told Mom to pull over earlier instead  of deciding to take a nap. Nap didn't last long, thanks to a storm and just as I was  thinking we should pull over soon we came to a complete stop. You know it's going to be awhile when semi's pull off on the shoulder and the one in front of you let's all the air out( of what I don't know) and you watch it drop 6+ inches. Sounded like a huge sigh. I started looking at the trees,even Mom's cup. I figure if I could hit a dixi cup at Dr's office, this should  be a piece of cake. I started looking at the Garmen for alternative rout,but no exit close by. We crawled until we came to an exit and I told Mom we had to go in. Let me tell you, I've never seen so much trafffic. Hardly any moving room at the only gas station. We patiently waited in a long line to go to the bathroom. Thank goodness 4 stalls. Very unusual. Most times your lucky to ge one. No one had heard what happened, but as I was leaving overheard it was closed down. We jumped in the car,told Mom what I had oveheard and we figured out a way via backroads to get to I 64. Once we got to Louisville we hit another back up, but at least it wan't quite a standstill. It took us I figure an extra 2 hours to get home,but we saw a lot of beautiful sceanry in KY. So glad to be home,just wish could have brought Amanda and Leia home too.