AWOL!

I can't believe that it has almost been a month since I last posted!

  I really don't have an excuse,

 other than I just haven't taken the time to sit down and write.

Sorry!

Let's see if I can catch you up on the goings on around here.

We still are not keeping Ady full time yet, but

we have kept her a couple of times

for 1/2 a day while Melissa

had meetings that wasn't appropriate for her to take the 

baby with her.

Melissa had to take her in for another

weight check the first of February

and the doctor wasn't happy with her 

lack of weight gain.

This time he told us that we needed to 

supplement Melissa's breast feeding

with formula and then bring her

back in a couple of weeks to check her

weight again.

Last Friday, Melissa took her back

and this time she was FINALLY over

9 pounds!  Yeah!

So, it looks like we might have found the

secret recipe.

Here's a couple of pictures of the sweet

little one.

Ady is a happy baby and as cute as a button!

Big sister Lorelai is growing like crazy!

She is talking more and more everyday

and makes us laugh

at all her antics.

She is a BIG help when doing laundry - 

she will load all the clothes in the washer by herself

and then put the clean clothes in the dryer.

All I have to do is add the detergent/dryer sheet and

turn on the machines on.

I haven't taught her how to fold/hang clothes yet,

but I'm sure that won't be too far in the future!!

LOL!!

A couple of weeks ago I went to see

Saving Mr. Banks at one of the theaters

up in Sebring.  Yes, I went by myself since Dan

has difficulty understanding the dialogue with

all the background noise.  I really enjoyed the movie

and plan on going to see something at least

once a month.  Next on the list - Monument Men.

(Maybe this weekend?)

Valentine's Day the kids surprised us with a nice card

and some sweet gifts "from" the girls - Dan got some

candy and I received a gift card to the movies.

I made a special breakfast for Dan and Lorelai

Heart pancakes for Lorelai and I "tried" to make

Dan a "moose" pancake.

It didn't turn out exactly like I wanted, 

but Dan seemed to enjoy it.

I fixed Lorelai some Heart shaped pancakes, 

that I forgot to take a picture of, but

I did get a picture of what was left.

She seemed to enjoy her lunch

Don't you love her "bib"?

Anyone have a guess what it is??

Valentine's night Dan and I enjoyed a nice

dinner for two on the

back porch

and then a nice fire in the fire pit.

It was the first time we used the fire pit

even though we bought it three years

ago - right after buying the house

on Lime Road and getting off the road.

We are still working on doing little

"tweaking" projects here in the house -

I'll share them in a future post.

Lots of organizing and 

purging!

The beginning of this week we were able to take a

trip up to Dowling Park since the kids had to go down

south for Justin's grandfather's funeral.  We went up on

Sunday and came home on Wednesday.

It was great fun seeing all our dear friends there

and we even took a little side trip to

Honey Lake Plantation.

There were many lovely buildings at the plantation.

This is the main building where we had a fabulous lunch.

This is the building where they serve Sunday brunch.

It has a much larger dining room than where

we ate Tuesday.

These are "apartments" that you can rent

or where people stay when they

come to the Plantation for a "hunting expedition".

Really roughing it, huh?

Three of our wonderful friends that went with us.

One of the other buildings that is at the Plantation

is this beautiful church.

The church is located right on the lake and is a beautiful

venue for many weddings

as well as Sunday services.

Beautiful woodwork throughout the entire church.

Can you imagine walking down the aisle and standing in

front of this beautiful setting?

One of the things that make this church so 

pretty are the gorgeous stained glass windows.

Here are some pictures of just a few

of them.

These windows were from an old church in Madison, Florida 

that was being torn down.  

The plantation was able to save them and

installed them in their church to preserve them.

There was one other thing at the church that I thought

was really beautiful, beside the view, the wonderful woodwork, and the incredible windows.

This beautiful bronze sculpture is

located in front of the 

church.

So, that is how we have spent this week.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures

and I'll talk to you soon!

Hugs!

Carol

Another Week

It has been quite a week around here.  We finally got some of that really bad weather that the rest of the country had been experiencing. 

Now, we didn't get any snow, but we did a LOT of rain -

four entire days of rain!  Plus the temperatures were down in the mid thirty's (if only it had been a few degrees cooler we might have gotten some of that snow).  Between all the rain and cool temperatures it made for a really miserable week.

Melissa has been able to work from home two days a week for a couple of weeks before going back into the office full time (that will happen next week).  Right now it looks like when she has a meeting outside of the office we will be keeping both babies - but we won't have the little full time for about another six weeks.  Melissa really wants to try and wait until the baby is three months old before we get her full time.  We shall see how that plays out.

Thursday we had to take Adalyn in to have her weight checked again.  The doctor is just not happy with her weight gain.  She is gaining weight, but not at a rate that he is comfortable with.  Thursday she was up to 8 pounds 11 ounces and he was happy with that - we'll see what she weighs in a couple of weeks when she goes in for her two month check up.

Melissa and Justin have been talking about getting a new car for quite a while now, Melissa's car was just not very big (a Jeep Compass) and they were not able to get both car seats, the double stroller, and drive comfortably.  Melissa was having to sit at an awkward angle with the car seat behind her seat.  Since we were out on Thursday, they had decided that she would drive up to Lakeland (really Bartow) to the Ford dealership and look at cars.  There was no way she would be able to do that with both girls by herself, so I went with her.  After an ALL  day excursion - in the rain - with two babies - we drove home in her new car (which is beautiful, by the way).  So many new gadgets and safety features - push button ignition, heated AND air conditioned seats, blind spot warning, park assist, so much I can't remember it all.

She and the girls will certainly have much more room (the trunk is enormous!).

Friday was a normal day with us keeping Lorelai and spending the day playing while finishing up some chores around the house - but something was just off.  I slept until 10:30 am Saturday morning after going to bed around 10 on Friday night - which is VERY unusual for me.  I drank my coffee, took a shower and then Dan and I headed out to the little County Fair down on the circle (sorry, I don't have any pictures).  Saw Marsha, our friend from Michigan, who was our next door neighbor when we lived on Lime.  Then we just walked around a little - I just wasn't in to walking and looking - so we loaded up in the car and headed up to Sebring to go to WalMart to pick up a few things for the Super Bowl (chicken wings) and milk (for Lorelai).  When I got home I told Dan that I just didn't feel good.  I couldn't name the reason why, but I felt bad.

We went to bed Saturday night and I went to sleep with no problem, but I woke up sometime in the middle of the night in intense pain - radiating from my back.  I went into the bathroom then tried to sleep in the guest room, as I didn't want to wake Dan.  I wasn't in the guest room 10 minutes before Jessie came to check on me - followed quickly by Dan.  I told him that I was fine and that I would call him if I needed him.  I was able to doze back off but woke up again - once again in terrible pain - so bad I actually went in and woke Dan.  I tried lying on the couch, on the floor, anywhere I thought I could get that might relieve the pain.  After several trips to the bathroom it finally started to back off.  Dan was ready to load me up in the car and head to the hospital, but I convinced him to hold off.

Well, to make a long story short, the pain finally backed off and I'm doing better.  After doing some research we are pretty sure that I had a kidney stone - which I think I finally passed Sunday morning.  I'm still sore and ache - but I have not had any more of the intense pain.  I'm drinking lots and lots of water and hope that I won't have any other trouble. 

Weather here has warmed back up into the mid 80's and we the forecast for us reports that we will have this type of heat through next week.  I think we jumped from winter to summer!  

Fun!

I'm not even going to talk about the Super Bowl - it was such a disappointment.  While I wanted Peyton to win another title, I really didn't care who won as I like the Seahawks also.  The best part of the game was the commercials - and there really weren't that many good ones.  I really liked the Budweiser commercials (especially the puppy one) and the Doritos commercials were cute - and that's about it.

So, another season is over - and now there is REALLY nothing on TV.  

I'll close with that thought.

Hugs!

Carol