BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING - 2010

alrighty. i'm just now getting around to writing the blog about my black friday experience. i had every intention of writing it on friday, but it just didn't work out.

so this year my team was very small. however, we were extremely mobile! the team consisted of two people, my sister in law, c, and me, most of the time and a third one, papa bill, came in after 5 a.m.

my sister-in-law, to be called c from now on, usually stays the night with me on thanksgiving night so we can get up bright and early on friday. she arrived at my house about 9:30 p.m. we looked through all the ads and made our lists. i had coupons printed and organized. i knew we were going to at least start out at 4 a.m. at target. however, as we started talking, we contemplated on going out at earlier to hit toys-r-us and target.

okay for those of you who say, "really, are there such great deals out there that you need to go out then?" i would say, "no, not really, but that's not the only reason we go out." so get over that so you can just go along for the ride!

we decided to just go. it was 11 p.m. and we decided to just head to toys-r-us. we had no idea what else we were going to do, but we decided we would hit toys-r-us and then walmart at least. this is us, me and c, before we left happy and excited!

we got to toys-r-us and even though it has been opened for more than an hour there was still a line wrapped around the building. craziness! i asked a lady in the parking lot who was coming out how it was in there. she said it was crazy and that they were only letting in 50 people at a time. well... it was cold that night and we didn't want to stand in that line so we decided to go across the street to walmart.

walmart was crazy too. i don't even think i remembered my walkie talkies in this store. first we ran to find the coffeepots we wanted. they were all gone. next we went back to the kid's clothing. i grabbed several pairs of winter pajamas for my kids and some for presents. you would have thought these pajamas were spun from gold thread. people were ravaging them. you would just see pairs being thrown from one shelf to another. i grabbed what i could and got out of there. there were lines already for the electronics stuff, but luckily we were not in need of those. i grabbed some legos for my daughter for her birthday - the last pink tub. c got some stuff she wanted. she found some pans she thought about getting but then decided against it. we proceeded to the line. this is what it looked like from our view.

crazy no???

after walmart, we decided to head to kohls. i thought k0hls opened at midnight. when we arrived, i realized i was wrong. kolhs opens at 3 a.m. so we have to find something to do for a couple of hours until target opens. we decide to go across the street to another walmart. beat waiting in line outside the target for 3 hours. we went into walmart and found our coffeepots! this walmart was a ghost town compared to the other walmart. there was hardly anyone there. in the other walmart there were items wrapped in plastic in the middle of aisles that people were ripping into. i think some of these things were supposed to wait to go "on sale" until 5 a.m. people were not waiting. however, at this walmart we noticed many of the things were still wrapped in plastic. we went right up to the cashier with no one else in line before us.

it was around 1:20 a.m. i have a picture to prove it. :)

when we were finished, we still had over two hours to go before target opened. you might be asking here since it was now 2 a.m. if we were tired, and we were not. c had had two coffees by now, but she was still going strong.

we decided to head to where else, walgreens. we spent about a little time there getting all the black friday deals they had going. we were going to go to a cvs but we couldn't find one on the way back to target that was open 24 hours.

we drove back by toys-r-us and the line outside was gone. we decided to try it out again. there were parking spots, so this seemed like it was a good time. we went inside and shopped around for a bit. c found a thomas the train departure station and i found a lego radio/alarm clock for $10. thought my son would love this, so we get our purchases and look for the line. it's wrapped halfway around the store, but not only that it's weaving in and out of aisles! oh well, we had an hour and a half to kill before target opened so we hopped in line. we got to know our fellow shoppers a little bit. the lady in front of us took a picture for us. we are still smiles.

i texted my sister, j and papa bill to let them know we were in toys-r-us and that we had been up all night. we shopped as our line moved along. i found a great baby boy outfit on the clearance rack. this was the only time i got a little foggy. it was very warm in the store and just standing there in line moving a couple of spots every couple of minutes was not helping. some people were having food brought into them from mcdonalds, and others were just grabbing it off the shelf to eat. finally a little over an hour later we get to the end of the line. i see my friend, beth, and the end of the line. she tells me she's been there for two and half hours. she had some "5 a.m. sale items" that she didn't realize were 5 a.m. sale items and she either had to put them back or wait in line until 5 a.m. to purchase those items. OY! this must be why we saw sacks of stuff just laying around while we were in line. beth checked for the items were were purchasing in the 5 a.m. ad they had and we didn't see our items. when it was our turn to go to the cashier, i looked at a sale ad they had sitting on the shelf. guess what, my lego clock was a 5 a.m. item. i had the newborn outfit i was going to get and a box of crayons that was free with any purchase, but i couldn't get the clock! i stood in line in the hot toys-r-us store for over an hour to get a newborn outfit that i could have gotten any other time.

it's a little after 4 a.m. and target has finally opened. i don't think target was as crazy as walmart, the first walmart. it was a little crazy getting the last 750 thread count sheets, but i think we got the rest of the things on our list that we wanted to get. more pjs, fleece hoodies, leapfrog games, area carpets, and ladies pj pants.

we got into line. we decided we needed a little pick me up in target, so c stayed in line while i went to starbucks.

there were almost as many people in line at starbucks as there was in the checkout lines. in fact by the time i had gotten our tall mocha and caramel frappachino, c had already checked out.

it was after 5 a.m. by now and sams was having their free breakfast. papa bill had called me to let me know he was out and he met us at sams. the set up this year was not like the other years they have had it, but it still provided us with some energy we needed to go on. papa bill took the picture of us getting the hot sausage biscuits we had to stand in line for.

while were eating our breakfast, papa bill told me he had got my text message. he had heard his phone beep alerting him that he had gotten a text message - at 3 a.m.! oh no! i asked him if it was by his bed and he said no. he had to get up to check it. i felt horrible. i didn't even think that he would hear it and have to get out of bed to check it. i figured he would just read it when he got up at 4:30 a.m. he just laughed it off though. he was very sweet about it. of course, i already knew this about him because he actually woke up at 4 a.m. to take 6 international students up to the mall so they could black friday shop!

after we ate our free breakfast at sams, it was around 6 a.m and we headed to the mall. it seems like it's 12 p.m. it seems like we had just eaten lunch. at the mall, c headed to one store and papa bill and i headed to bath and body works. papa bill helped me out and purchased some things for me so i could use two coupons. i had one purchase, two wallflowers and a body spray. i had a coupon so i would get the body spray for free. papa bill had my other purchase, a pocket antibacterial holder and a full size lotion that i should get free with the coupon. i had to switch purchases with papa bill because he didn't think i would get the lotion and the antibacterial hold for only.54. with papa bill's help i got two full size items, a lotion and body spray, two wallflower refills, and a pocket antibactirial holder from bath and body works for about $11. thanks for your help papa bill.

we walked around to some other stores looking for some pans c had wanted, but didn't find any. finally c's feet were starting to give out and we headed to the food court to get more coffee and a coke.


we sat around and talked. i have to admit my feet were pretty sore at this point too. it hasn't been too crazy yet. walmart had been the craziest place. everywhere was crowded but no one was rude or mean. in fact many people were in good spirits and just laughing it off that we were all out there on that day to begin with.

we decided to hit mardels after the mall. papa bill had some other shopping to do at the mall and he had to pick up the international students at 10 a.m. so decided to stay at the mall. since we didn't find the pans c had wanted at the mall, we went back to the first walmart to get the pans she had originally seen. there were plenty still left and it was a quick in and out purchase.

we spent some time at mardels. i had originally gone for the veggietale it's a meaningful life dvd. it was on sale for $8 and i had a $3 off coupon, but i found some cute t-shirts on sale for $1.99 and a few other little things.

after mardels, it was 10:30 a.m. c and i were done. we decided to get some sonic and head back to the house to eat and take a nap. that's what we did. c had to get back to home so we only took a two hour nap. i think we both zone on the way back to my in-laws.

we went to my in-law for thanksgiving. that's where the officer and my kids were. we had a great weekend with them and i'll have to write another post on that. it's been a wierd weekend though because after thursday night, being out literally all night shopping, i have lost my voice. it's been gone since friday night. hopefully i will get it back soon! :)

so if you ask was it worth it going out all night and shopping? did you find some great deals that made it worth it? it was worth it. c and i had a great time!!! something we will never forget. honestly the deals this year were ....ehhh, but it was a lot of fun. of course if you are someone who hates crowds, this is not the time for you to test your tolerance, but it's not as bad as you think. i did get out the walkie talkies in toys-r-us, but since it was just the two of us, we really didn't need them. i think we do need shirts though.

things i want to remember: walmart craziness at one store, but ghost town in the other. texting papa bill at 3 a.m. and then finding out he heard it, and had to get out of bed to read it. everyone around us sweating in toys-r-us but c finally feeling warm in her sweater and coat. trying to find other stores open until target opened. picking good lines in all the stores. papa bill not thinking my coupons would work in bath and body works. he's seen big bertha, yet he still doubts my couponing knowledge. when will he learn. oh yeah i did almost forget, my cousin, julie, texted me throughout the night too. she and her husband also shopped all night. she texted me throughout the night to give me updates on how they were doing.

thanks to the officer for watching the kids. thanks to c for going with me! thanks to papa bill for coming out too and for forgiving me for texting you at 3 a.m. for no good reason. thanks to the officer's family for letting me sleep in until 9:30 a.m. the past two mornings. i think i am almost caught up on my sleep! :)

that's it folks. we'll see you again this time next year, for next year's installment of black friday shopping!

guess what they are doing

can you guess what my kids are doing?

i went into my daughter's room to see what they were up to and this is what i found. i heard them talking and creeped back out to grab my camera.

my kids love to play with stuffed animals. they imagine they are at tae kwon do classes, school, or house all the time. every so often one of the stuffed animals gets a small rip or an arm or leg comes off and you know who has to sew them. that's right, the officer does it with his spiffy foldable military scissors i'm not allowed to touch or use.

anyhow, he mends all stuffed animals (well sometimes so does grandma), but the officer does the trick in a pinch. one of the animals he had to fix was blue monkey. it had lost it's arm. however, the officer decided it was too rotten to fix. blue monkey would have had a significantly shorter arm in order to fix him. we usually throw those animals away, but i guess my son decided to keep him.

back to today, after i took the picture i asked my kids what they were doing.

my daughter replied, "we are having a funeral for blue monkey because he was rotten."

my son added, "yeah he's in the box all taped up. these are his friends." pointing to the wall of stuffed animals.

yep, that's blue monkey along with the indiana jones treasure from my son's birthday party in the "coffin".

the funeral was complete with snoopy playing sad music on the keyboard and all of blue monkey's friends lined up along the wall. more of blue monkey's friends were lined up on the floor. he was well-loved.

is that what you guessed my kids were playing?

getting excited!!!!

it's close folks. black friday shopping. i have looked at some black friday ads but i haven't really scrutinized them and figured out a game plan yet. i really like to do it on thanksgiving day, when i have the paper right in front of me. so i'm basically waiting until tomorrow when i get the paper to make my list and decide whether i will start out at 10 p.m. tomorrow night at toys r us and then midnight at walmart or 4 a.m. at target. these are the things i'm wrestling with now.

if you want to read up on my past experiences with black friday shopping you can do that through these links:

this is a link about black friday etiquette.

this was my first blog post about black friday shopping.

this was last year's black friday shopping.

what about you are you a black friday shopper? i really don't mind the crowds. i have had very good experiences shopping on that day - but then again i said i don't mind the crowds. one of my friends told me she had someone take something out of her basket and try to put it in hers. i've never had that kind of experience. i enjoy the hustle and bustle and, of course, getting the great deals.

i think my team this year will be very small. my sister who usually goes with me cannot go this year. she has 5 kids and her husband has to work. my other sister is going out of town. i will have my sister-in-law, c, and she's great. i think she would be ready to go if we started tomorrow at 10 p.m. :) papa bill will probably meet up with us at some points. my sister, jessica, will probably go, but probably with her sisters. so... we'll see how it goes. right now i'm off to hobby lobby to find scrapbook paper for birthday party invitations and then back to clean the house so when i come back gorged from thanksgiving food i won't have to do anything.

Welcome to the adventure!

we had my son's birthday party two weekends ago. he wanted an indiana jones birthday party. okay. i can do that. except you know that didn't start planning until the week of his party. slacker. i know.

i knew i wanted to do a scavenger hunt for him. i knew he didn't want any of the gross out things or skulls people usually have for indiana jones parties. so... what to do, what to do. i called my mom to see if she would write the clues (she's a great writer) for the scavenger hunt. of course, she was happy to help me and had all 25 written up and sent to me in the middle of the night.

i went to my mom's and scoured her house for decorations. she had some great decorations. she let me use anything i found. i found an old typewriter, an old looking fan, an old briefcase, old letters, a metal plane, and other decorations. i checked out some indiana jones and archeology book from the library. papa bill make a copy of indiana jones music for the party.

as for the cake, i had no idea. there are NO indiana jones cakes anywhere. i could purchase the topper, but i didn't like what they had. so i was stuck. i had an idea. my son had actually requested cupcakes. he wanted to have some cupcakes without any icing so his grandma could eat them too. i would see if someone could make cupcakes in put them into the shape of a snake.

i went by one our local grocery stores and the bakery lady said, "you want cupcakes and put them into the shape of a snake on a board? that's just a big waste because you have to use a 1/2 sheet cake board and you waste all those supplies." and she walked away from me. okay.... i can make the cupcakes by myself. i make chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, iced them with chocolate icing, gave it lemonhead eyes, used a piece of gum for the forked tongue, and put it on a cardboard box lid. i think it worked well.

i went to my mom's house earlier in the week and we put the scavenger clues in order. my mom was great. she let us have the party at her house, let me use her decorations, wrote the clues, and help me figure out where all the clues would go. she got a very big bucket and filled it with sand, money and glass stones so the kids could do a dig at the party. grandma kathryn and papa bill also dressed up in their indiana jones outfit.

when everyone arrived, we started out with wrapping the mummy! the toilet paper kept ripping so the kids needed a little bit of help.

after the mummy wrap, the kids did the scavenger hunt, which was a big hit. the kids were given paper sack so when they found chocolate coins, glass stones, or candy they had something to put it in. at the end of the scavenger hunt, i had a chest that was full of gold coins, candy, large and small "diamonds", chocolate coins, and glass stones the kids were able to take. for the actual boys my son invited, i had little cardboard treasure chest for the boys to put their stuff in.

we played two more games. the kids went into the garage for the "dig" my mom had prepared. actually papa bill prepared all of that - thanks papa bill! after the that, we played the poison dart game, q-tips blown through a straw into a basket. the kids had a lot of fun, but no one make it. if you ever do this i would suggest shooting them through a hula hoop or something along those lines.

we had cake and ice cream and opened presents. it was a great time, but i never would have pulled it off without the help of my mom, papa bill, and the officer who watched the kids friday night and saturday until the party started. thanks guys!

i can't believe it blog friends. he is 8 years old. it is much easier to imagine him as a grown man now. i see things that could likely be his strengths and his weaknesses. i do not see him as a baby boy anymore. uggg. yes, i know i need to let him grown up and i am. it's just that he's was my first child. my only boy. he's so much like his daddy in every way. in that alone i know he can be a man of character, honor, and respect. i pray for him. i pray he will have a close relationship with God. i pray that he will take that relationship on himself. i don't know when that day will be but you know i'll blog about it when it happens! :) i am also praying for his future spouse and for their marriage. never to early to start that. even though the officer is praying for Jesus to come back before our daughter begins to date, i'm going to go ahead and pray for their spouses in case Jesus waits longer for his return.

Psalms 127:3-5

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of the warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies at the gate."

it's the little things

today when i got home from a run to the store, i noticed that the trashmen had already come by. before i unloaded the car, i wanted to put the trash bins back where they belong. where we live we have two trash bins per house. i started to pull up the trash bin that was blocking half our driveway when i saw my son at the end of the driveway.

he asked me, "mommy are you going to pull all those trash bins up?"

"yes.", i replied.

"why are you pulling them all up, they are not all ours?", he asked.

"i know they are not all ours, but this is a way we show God's love to our neighbors."

when i turned around from pulling the first trash bin up, i saw that my son had put down his toys and was pulling one of the other trash bins up.

now i don't tell you this little story to brag on my son. quite the opposite really. i tell this story because when i saw him pulling up the other trash bin it immediately convicted me.

my children watch what i do - all the time. am i taking the opportunities to set godly examples for my children? am i being selfish? am i being judgemental? am i being merciful? am i being encouraging? am i being rude? am i being inconsistent? am i being gracious? what am i being? because my children will be more like my actions than my words.

Luke 6:40

"A disciple is not great than his teacher, but everyone when fully trained will be like his teacher."

whether i want to or not, i am training my child.

Matthew 7:16

"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?"

so...... i already know this but there is a reason i tagged this post "things i'm still learning". if my children are being sassy, rude, disrespectful, disobedient, i probably need to look at myself and how i am acting toward the officer, them, or other people around me. am i setting the godly example i want them to be?

geez i thought i was just pulling up the trash bins for the neighbors. :)

what's this for

last week there was an online company, chef's catalog, that i purchased some things from. they had a deal going. with any purchase, you could get free shipping and a complimentary 6 piece bamboo utensil set. i wanted to 6 piece bamboo set for a christmas present (don't be disappointed if you are the one that receives it!).

i purchased some cheesecloth for $3.99. i got the cheesecloth and 6 piece bamboo utensil set for only $3.99 shipped. i posted the deal on facebook and made a comment about having to figure out what to do with the cheesecloth. is this edible (please don't comment, i'm just kidding)? what do i do with it?

i have a friend who said she wanted it so i'm going to give it to her. she is one of those amazing women who make everything from scratch. not just from scratch, but scratch, scratch. you may ask what does scratch, scratch mean? well i figure that making things from scratch means you make a cake with ingredients as opposed to a cake mix. in my terminology, scratch, scratch means you may even make the ingredients you use to make the cake. yeah - that's so far out of my realm of thinking.

anywho, i received the cheesecloth in the mail yesterday. as i was looking at the cheesecloth package, it boasts "100's of uses". really? interesting. the uses they list are as follows:

1. straining - i've only strained pasta, but i'm thinking this is not the straining they are talking about.
2. steaming and blanching - don't even know what blanching is. steaming i understand, but i am not sure what the role of the cheesecloth is.
3. basting poultry - have no idea on this one either, but there is a picture of the cheesecloth on top of a turkey and someone pouring liquid on top of it. why have the cheesecloth there?
4. cleaning and polishing - i just use trusty old washcloths and paper towels.
5. poaching fish - not even going there.
6. preserving salads and cheese - what are those drawers for in the refrigerator for then?
7. staining and refinishing - i know what these are, but i don't do these things either.
8. crab and clam preparation - again don't have any idea about this. it could have been listed with the poaching fish one. there is a picture for this one on the package too. it shows a crab & lobsters tied up in the bag. it indicates the crab and crabs are stinky. it does not help me at all.
9. canning - no idea
10. automobile detailing - i guess i could give it to the officer. would he know what to do with it in the car?
11. spice bags - nothing.

i'm just figuring i got a great 6 piece bamboo set and my amazing friend is getting some cheesecloth for free.

oh by the way, when i received the 6 piece bamboo utensil set, the slotted spoon had a significant chip in it. i wrote to customer service at chef's catalog about getting the slotted spoon replaced. they wrote me back and said to not worry about it, they would just send me another new 6 piece bamboo set. yeah!!! i love it when companies stand behind their products and take care of you when something goes wrong!

this week on the island

do you like how i start the "this week on the island" posts at any point in the week? i think i have started on a sunday, tuesday, wednesday, and friday. this week a blur so far and it's only thursday.

today is veteran's day so thank you to all those special people who have served our country in the military. thank you pa. thank you cousin jamin. thank you soldier dave. thank all of you.

tuesday i signed up the kids for a homeschool gym class. it starts next semester. i joined a different homeschool group this year and we haven't done much with them. i will be truthful, it has been nice not "having" to go somewhere one day a week, every week. however, i know the kids will love the p.e. class. sooo..... we will see how it goes.

tuesday i also went to my mom's to finalize some birthday party plans. i told you a couple of weeks ago that we were going with the indiana jones theme for my son's party. i searched the internet for birthday party ideas and found several. however, my son does not like the gross out things (eyeball soup, monkey brains, skulls, and such). so i am trying to figure out how to throw an indiana jones party without all that stuff. we are leaning more toward the archeology aspect of it. i'm sure it will be fun no matter what .

the kids suprised me yesterday. i don't think they have ever done this. we had a playdate planned with my friend, mrs. c. early in the morning (meaning 7:30 a.m.) my kids started their school work all by themselves. they finished it before we left for the playdate. i just figured we would have to do it after we got home, but they decided they wanted to get it done. i was pleasantly surprised.

i told mrs. c i was going to blog about this. she was showing me some pictures of her kids in her email. i noticed her inbox said she had 2,600 emails. did you see that - 2,600 emails? i couldn't believe it. i didn't even know you could have an email inbox like that. she said she just doesn't ever delete anything. however, she only has 10% of her storage filled. i'm the opposite. i don't like my inbox to be full. i immediately delete anything not useful and then empty my trash box once a day. i have folders for things such as coupons, family, friends, and important stuff. i empty those folder often too. what do you do? do you delete your email or keep them all? i just had no idea you could actually have that many emails.

so today is my son's 8th birthday. he was born on veterans day, so that helps me never forget it. time has gone by so quickly. i can't believe it. in some ways it seems like just yesterday that he was smaller than 5 lb. bag of sugar and i spent most of my day holding him. now he's lost his front two teeth. it just goes by in the blink of an eye. you can read about his arrival here. he completely a blessing from God. i will have to post about him later. we have to start school now.

i hope your week is going as well as mine!!!

just a typical monday

it's just a typical monday on the island. i finally took the time to take a picture. the kids are cleaning their room. i am picking up the house before we start school.

oh by the way here's a picture of my daughter. this would be her third change of clothes so far and it's 9:40 a.m.!

she is sporting a nice red velvet dress, with pink and red striped hello kitty socks and her pink barbie skates. she was very proud she picked socks that matched both her red dress and pink skates. fashionista in the making for sure!

i do have to comment about these pink barbie skates. her aunt m gave them to her. my daughter wears a size 11 shoes, but these are a size one. two sizes too big, but it doesn't matter to my daughter. she ties them up tight and skates everywhere in them. this is not an exaggeration. she got them a week and a half ago and with the exception of when we are not home, they are on her feet. she's getting pretty good at it! thank aunt m!

ma, pa & medieval times

sit back and relax because this is a long post with a ton of pictures.

this past weekend we took a little road trip to texas. besides having to drive around in dallas, we had a great time!!! we went to visit my grandparents, ma & pa. the last time we visited was two years ago. here's ma and pa with the kids. seriously how cute are ma & pa???

we around when the officer got off work, which was about 1:30 p.m. did you notice that time? do you know what that time means? it means we hit dallas at 4:30 p.m., right at the beginning of rush hour traffic. good times. after we made it through dallas, we stopped at a cracker barrel for dinner. the kids, of course, had pancakes for dinner. i ate meatloaf. have i told you i love meatloaf, but never make it because of the whole squishing meat thing? well i love meatloaf, especially if it is burnt and dried out. no, i'm serious, i love it burnt and dried out. cracker barrel's meatloaf wasn't like it but i eat meatloaf when i get the opportunity because i don't get it very often. anywho, we got back into the car and headed the rest of the way to ma and pa's house.

we usually stay in ma and pa's house, but this past year they completed their cabin. it's awesome! pa and papa bill (and i'm sure other people i don't know about) built it with their own hands. the lumber was cut from pa's trees. he has a little saw mill that he uses to cut wood. the cabin has a wrap around porch. a literal wrap around porch. it wraps around the entire cabin. each room (living room/kitchen and two bedrooms) has a door that leads to the outside. the kids had a great time running around it.

here is a picture of the cabin and of the kitchen. pa made the kitchen cabinets and the 10 foot island.

we went up to ma and pa's place to eat meals. she makes the best homemade biscuits ever. even though her oven stopped working before we got there, it worked the entire time we were there! she said, "the Lord has been watching out for me!" one of my favorite things is to hear pa pray. i love it when he says with all sincerity, "Lord you been good to us and i thank you for it!"

while we were there we spent a lot of time visiting. pa told the officer about his time in the war (WW II).

we also spent time cracking pecans. pa has several pecan trees in his yard. he goes around and picks up the good ones, puts them in his pocket and takes them to a basket inside. everyone loved picking pecans. the kids figured out how to crack them open and how to find good ones. my daughter found a fool-proof way. after finding several bad ones in a row, she said, "i know how to find the good ones." "how honey?" i asked. "you just go inside and get them out of the pa's basket!"

we (and by "we" i really mean the officer, the kids, and pa) went fishing. the first night only the officer and pa went fishing in the pond in pa's boat. they caught 21 black croppie. they cleaned them out and we (and by "we" i mean everyone else but me and the kids) ate them the next day for lunch!

my daughter and son actually watched them clean the fish. uggg. yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know i would never survive if i was an ingalls!

the officer took the kids fishing the next day. my daughter caught one fish. my son went out of the boat, but he prefered to play around in the mud and water to fishing.

oh i have to mention here that ma and pa have a dog name sunny. my daughter loved this dog. most of what she was doing had something to do with that dog. she was always wanting to know where sunny was, what sunny was doing, yelling "hey flying sausage" or "hey weenie dog" at sunny. here's a picture of sunny and my daughter.

one of sunny's favorite things to do is ride the four wheeler. so when the officer took the kids for a ride, sunny was either riding along or running beside it.

we would take a back dirt road just a short distance from ma and pa's house to the cabin. on the way there the kids were allowed to not wear their seatbelts (shocker) and hang their heads out the window. this was heaven for them! i captured it in my daughter's face!

here's some other random pictures we took.

my kids played a lot on this white fence that circles ma and pa's house. that is until my daughter went over the top of it and hit her chin on the bottom rail.

we had a great time. it was so relaxing. the weather was great. it was in the mid-30s at night and would get up to 70 during the day. every morning when we woke up there would be fog rising on the ponds and frost on the grass. can't get more perfect weather than that!

things i want to remember: cracking pecans with the kids, sitting in pa's huge gazebo talking, my daughter saying a shotgun shell is "red on one end, gold on the other and has lots of babies on the inside, baby guns" (the officer told her there were bbs in the inside), my son being afraid of sunny, but loving a big orange dog, clifford, the officer swinging the kids by their arms while sunny tried to bit at their feet, visiting with ma, her stove working the entire time we were there, my son taking 15 pictures of bird tracks he found in the mud, ma saying, "i think skinning the pig is the funnest part, smelling them is good, but skinning the pig is the funnest part" (WHAT????), and watching the kids run and play outside all day long.

we left sunday morning, stopped back by the cracker barrel to eat breakfast on our way back to dallas. yes the kids ate pancakes again, but this time it was actually breakfast time. we made it to dallas about 2 p.m. and had several hours to kill before we had to be at medieval times. when we planned our trip to texas we had decided to go the medieval times. although it is pricey, we were able to get a good deal online.

we were allowed in an hour before the show started. when we entered, they assigned us a table (a color section, ours was red) and gave us red crowns. we were to cheer for the red knight.

when we were seated our waitress (they called her a wench, but we'll just call her our waitress) told us that we were to cheer for the red knight and boo the green knight. she said how loud we cheers determines which knight can win! that's all the officer and i needed to hear. we were going to make fools of ourselves and really get into it.

oh wait, i need to mention the food here. i don't know if you've ever heard of medieval times, but they put on a show and feed you dinner. you have no silverware. you eat with your fingers. here's their menu: 1)what it was and then 2) what they called it.

tomato bisque soup - dragon tail soup
garlic toast - i think they just called it bread
chicken - falcon
1/2 of a herb roasted potato - dragon's egg
1 spare rib - dragon toe

when they gave us our soup, i really figured i would be the only one to try it. i was wrong. i was pleasantly surprised that everyone in my family liked the tomato bisque, oh sorry, dragon tail soup. my daughter liked dipping the garlic bread in it.

and then our waitress comes over and puts one of these on my plate.

now i had remembered from the time the officer and i had been before (before kids) that we had chicken and we had to eat it with our hands. however, i must have blocked out that it was half a chicken. it sat on my plate untouched until the officer tore some meat off the bird for me and my daughter. i may have recently cut up raw meat, but i'm not quite up to eating the meat off the bone. none of us, except the officer, were too keen on eating it off the bone. well maybe my kids would have, except they literally couldn't hold onto it. it was too big for them.

anyway, the show is about an 1 hour and 40 minutes long. the officer and i were cheering every time we saw the red knight and booing just as loudly every time we saw the green knight.


i'm sure our children were a little embarrassed by their parents. maybe not. they didn't want to cheer or boo for about the first 1/2 of the show.

there were several times the knights were given flowers by the princess to hand out to the ladies/little girls in his section. two times the red knight went past my daughter but said he was coming back. the third time he gave me and my daughter a pink carnation. the fourth time he came to our section, he gave my daughter the "queen of beauty and love" red sash. he had handed it to her via his joust, but she just stared at it. she had no idea what was going on. he told her to take it. i had to take it off the joust for her because she was embarrassed.

the kids thoroughly enjoyed the whole show. i took a ton of pictures but most of them didn't turn out because of the lighting. several portions of the show included the horses prancing about. i don't know what else to call it besides that. there was a man with a falcon. he let the falcon fly all over the room. i was hoping the falcon wouldn't poop on my chicken. the knights fought and jousted. the jousting was my son's favorite. halfway through the show the kids completely got into it.

the red knight did win!!! i am pretty sure it was due to me and the officer's cheering. when the show was finished, we were able to go out and meet the cast. my son had his shield autographed by the red knight. my daughter took her picture with the princess. they both had their pictures taken with green knight (who apparently was still in character when we took the picture) and the red knight.

the kids with their souveniours

it was a great little get away. it was relaxing and fun. thanks for letting us visit ma & pa!!!

i am sure there are spelling mistakes and grammer mistakes through out this entire post, but it's almost midnight now and i'm sleepy so i don't care! thanks for sticking it out this long to read it. :)