Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Birthdays, Labor Day, and First Day Back

We had a pretty busy Labor Day weekend, filled with lots of family, friends, and laughs.

Saturday we celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday.  We took her to breakfast at a local restaurant called Grandma Hoyt's.  It's owned by some good people and they do all the southern style cooking.  So grits and livermush were on the menu.  Bruce's favorites.
While we were there we ran into Bruce's cousin, Allen.  We sat with him and had some really good laughs.  That guy is crazy-funny.  After breakfast, we took Marie back to her house.  We didn't do a sheet cake for her birthday.  Instead, we bought her this cute cupcake and some Klondike bars.  She loves a little ice cream at night.

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Saturday evening, we celebrated the 50th birthday of a friend at church.  I haven't had that much fun in a long time.  There was skeet shooting, corn hole games, football games on tv, horse back riding, etc.  It was a blast.  They had bbq and hot dogs, and thanks to some other friends in the church we enjoyed some deep fried mushrooms, pickles, jalapenos, potato chips, oreos, and moonpies.  I promise I didn't enjoy all of that.  Just a few things and not much.  I wanted more though, I'll be honest.  Those mushrooms were yum-0-licious!  Anyway, we had a great time. 
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Sunday was promotion Sunday.  Harrison moved up to SIGMA.  *sigh* I'm happy and sad, too.  I no longer have a child in the Patch the Pirate program.  But I'm excited to see what he does in SIGMA.  Hoping he is as motivated as his brother was and that the Lord will grow him Spiritually during these next six years.
This is also Hannah's last year in SIGMA before she graduates.  Another *sigh* moment.  Time has just flown by.  Looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for her.  She has been looking at colleges, so we'll see what happens there.  Exciting things on the horizon, no doubt.
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Monday, of course, was Labor Day.  Bruce and Justin were both off work, so we slept in a little, then took a vote on what activity we were going to do for the day.  Each person wrote down an idea, then we drew two from the pile.  Then a vote was cast on the two.  Funny.... we ended up doing both. lol
We took them to Adventure Landing in Gastonia for a couple games of putt putt.
The kids wanted to find out what the giraffe found so great about those flowers.
"Big Daddy.  Lil' Hannah."
After our first round, we headed inside to cool off and play some arcade games.
 We put our tickets together and gave them to Harrison since he was the only one that really cared about them.
Remember watching the old Wheel of Fortune when they would "shop" with their money?  That's what this moment was like to me.  "I'll take a popper for a hundred tickets.  Vampire teeth for thirty-five tickets...."  It was funny watching him.
And to the winner goes the spoils, so they say.
We had lunch at chick-fil-a.  I had the grilled chicken deluxe on wheat.  It was pretty tasty! 
After lunch, we headed back over to Adventure Landing to start our second game of putt-putt.  But alas, the clouds could hold their rain no longer and on about the fourth hole, they let loose and showered us with buckets of blessings.  The rain felt wonderful. Judging by the clouds, we would have had a long wait to finish the game.  We decided to go on home.  On the way, we stopped and ordered take out for supper so we wouldn't have to go back out later, picked up some things at the grocery store, and headed home for a couple of movies.  We finished up our evening around 11:30.  It was a great day with my family.  Bruce often says on days like this one, "These are the times I live for."  And I agree.
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Today, Tuesday, is our first day back to school for the 2012/2013 school year.  They were up at 7:00, did their chores, and were ready to start school at 8:00.  So far, so good.  Found a graphic calculator app for Hannah's Trigonometry on my kindle.  Worked great.  And somewhere between 2010 and 2012, we have misplaced an ABeka Physics book.  After searching high and low on bookshelves, totes, and under beds (cause you know, things end up under there sometimes) we came to the conclusion it was just gone.  I was able to find an updated edition, however, on Amazon and it was free using my Swagbucks.  I still love my swags.
Harrison woke up sick this morning with sinus issues.  Bless his heart, I've given him medicine but his nose is running like a broken faucet.  He's been able to concentrate on his work, though.  He just feels crummy. 
Other than that, it's been a successful day so far.  Praying for a successful year!