Way back When-esday!

In honor of Todd's 26th (gulp) birthday, here is a pic of him at his 3rd birthday party in 1986. It was a Sesame Street theme and my mom made the cake. Wasn't he adorable?

My Television Debut!

Here is the link to the video!

Here's the story behind the story! (hee hee)We were sitting in church on Sunday morning and Pastor Tim was telling everyone about the items available at the church for donation to help the flood victims. He just said if you need anything, or if you know anyone who does, please make sure to take them. So, I whispered to Keith that we should just load up our car and drive around and see who needs what. So, that's what we did. After church, we loaded the car, picked up Drew (who had spent the night with Todd) and headed out. At first, I thought that we would head over to the Clarkdale Elementary area because that's where I went to elementary school and it's a little dear to my heart. But we never made it over there. Instead, we stopped at a house 5 minutes from our own home where the people had lost EVERYTHING. The husband had to rescue the family (4 kids) at 4:30 am in the thunder and lightening from their house by boat. The waters reached past their second floor and basically everything was ruined. We made our way to a couple more houses and one guy specifically asked for gloves. We had run out (work gloves were a very popular item) so Keith told him we would get more that night after AWANA and bring them out to him. Well, if you know my husband.....you know, he was not about to forget. So after evening church, Keith, my friend from church; Rachelle, Addi and I (Drew went home with Beth) made our way back over there. By the time we got there, it was dark and the people had already left for the night. But WSBTV Channel 2 was parked in the driveway and he asked us what we were doing and when we told him, he asked if he could do a story on it. Ummm......sure, I guess!
So that's the story! When it came on last night, I called Jackie and we all laughed and laughed! It's just bizarre to see yourself on the news.

On a side note, while I was at church...I told everyone about this poor family with the 4 kids and just in a little over an hour, I collected (without even asking anyone, people came and found me) $250, about 4 packs of diapers, wipes and several other things for them. So I have their sizes and some specific needs. If you would like to help this family, please let me know and I will deliver anything to them.

Things Needed:

Diapers Size 4

Wipes

Place to rent in Hiram High district (around $1000)

Gift Cards

Gas Cards

Sizes:

Boy age 2-2T, shoe size 6 1/2-7
Boy age 9 months-12 months
Boy age 16-shirt, large, pants36/32, shoes 13
Girl age 14-Pants-5, shirts, small, shoe-7
Mother-shirt-large, pants-16, shoe-8
Father-shirt-large, pants 34/32 or 34/34, shoes 10 1/2

Birthday Pics!

Just some birthday pics! Drew picked Buffalo's Cafe for his birthday dinner (who woulda thunk). We had a fun time and it would have been complete except Grandma and Papa Kruse were out of town (they came and celebrated with him the week before).

This is Hannah begging to go and spend the night with Bailey (hmmm...not sure why she was begging, I can't imagine Jackie was going to say no).
The girls scarfing eating the dessert!!
Shannon and Taylor! Can you say Prisspots??
Awwww....sweet Addi!
"Uncle" Jim and "Aunt" Beth! According to Drew, "they haven't missed a birthday yet".
I love this pic of Todd and Shannon. It sure does my heart good to see them get along after years of torturing the daylights out of each other.Micah and Holley!
Precious little Bailey. She is so sweet and quiet.....but you can tell she loves being around the gang!
And then the not-so-quiet! I felt sorry for the people at the tables around us.

I just realized there's not one pic of the birthday boy. I'm sure he was in a corner somewhere counting his money!

Oh, I almost forgot.....I made $326.oo on the consignment sale. Whoo Hoo!!

Way Back When-esday!

This is my brother Jeff and his daughter, my niece Jessica. He lives in Alaska and had come into town for a visit. This pic was taken 2/13/06 at a Japanese restaurant in Atlanta.

Who Built The Ark?

Noah, Noah,

Who built the ark?

Brother Noah built the ark.

This little kids song has been playing over and over in my mind since last night. We have had record downpours here for the last few days. Today, school here in Paulding was closed and it will be again tomorrow (much to Drew's delight).

This is what our backyard looked like. Not sure what happened to the trampoline enclosure. Chocolate brown muddy water poured into the pool, causing it to overflow and I didn't even take pictures of our flooded basement. Uggghhh!

I needed to go to the bank so I got Keith to drive me around to snap a few pics for Project 365! Can you believe this??? OMG!

If anyone knows where we can buy an ark, cheap, please let me know!

Frat Party!

That's what it felt like in our house on Friday night/Saturday morning. Oh my! Other than my house being constantly trashed and boys with loud voices (doesn't mix well when you have a 6 month old trying to sleep)...everything went well. They all got along great and no one wanted to go home. I will say that 11:00 am couldn't get here fast enough and when one mother showed up early at 10:40, I almost kissed her on the lips! Now I know why they invented places like Chuck E. Cheese and Sparkles!

Happy Birthday to my sweet boy. I can't believe you are 9 years old already!

Way Back When-esday!

In honor of Drew's 9th birthday on Saturday, I decided to post a picture of his first birthday. Since Drew is named after my dad (his name is John Andrew...my dad is John), we decided to decorate his room in a train theme which has always been one of my dad's addictions hobbies. So I continued the theme with his first birthday party. We hired a man to bring a train and give the kids train rides and at the last minute, Keith wanted to get a clown. With all of that plus 80 something guests......it was a huge success.

Here is Drew eating his first cake. I'm thinking Addi looks a lot like Drew in this picture, don't you??

Where were you.......

when it happened? How did you first hear? I was taking Todd to school when we heard on the radio that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We were both like, "wow" but didn't really think too much of it. After he got out at school, it was just Drew and I (he was 8 days away from being 1) and then I heard about the 2nd plane. I knew then. I got home as fast as I could and turned on the tv. I was glued to it for the next several days....in disbelief. It is still hard to believe. When I look back at the pictures and videos and think of all of the people who were impacted by the days events.....it makes my heart skip a beat.

I have made it a tradition with Drew that every year on September 11th, we make cookies and deliver them to a fire station. He loves it and starts talking about it weeks in advance. This was Addi's first trip (she loved the lights on the fire trucks). Drew always cons the firemen into a mini tour and he always gets to sit in the fire truck.

So where were you? What were you doing?

(I had this post scheduled for last night but for some reason it didn't post).

Consignment Sale Hell!

This is what my computer room looks like right now. It is a mess. Everything in this picture must go (well, except Addi) so I have lots of work to do to get it all priced, ironed and on hangers. I will let you know how much I make!

Way Back When-esday!

I took these pics of Drew on September 11, 2001 so he would always know where he was when it happened.

Just any ordinary Saturday!

NOT!!! I had a wild hair to go downtown and watch the Dragon-Con Parade. (Please don't judge me). I don't really know why I have a desire to see these freaks people....but for some odd reason, I do. I mentioned it to Keith and he thought I was totally outta my mind (can you imagine?). At first he said no way but the more he realized that I seriously wanted to go...he gave in because he knew he wouldn't win anyway. I asked my friend Teresa if they wanted to go and believe it or not...her husband Phil wanted to go too.

Now until 2 years ago...I knew absolutely nothing about this. We just happened to be downtown in 2007 for the World of Coke and caught the tail end of it......and ever since then I have wanted to see more.

So we went. If you are totally in the dark about this(no pun intended)....picture a Disney parade gone wrong combined with Mardi Gras, on Halloween. That about sums it up. And Drew kinda pegged it too. He said, "You could just get anything out of your closet and be in the parade. Smart boy!

There are a ton of pics posted because I had the hardest time deciding. Each one was more bizarre than the last. You really need to click on some of these to make them bigger..........

The Six Flags guy....I love him!
The Incredible Hulk!!
Puss In Boots??!!??
Told ya, there were Disney characters!
This lady really had her baby in the parade. Check out that blinged out stroller!
This is what nightmares are made up of.
Frankenstein and his bride.
I loved this. It's the Mario Brothers!
After the parade, we walked down to Centennial Olympic Park where ESPN was broadcasting. there was all kinds of fun things going on. Home Depot had their free kid's workshop set up and also a booth where you could make posters to take to the games.
There's Addi, enjoying the festivities!
Like mother, like son. (A few of you reading this will understand the significance of this picture).
There's my girl!
Since we didn't bring Drew's bathing suit...I told him he could just jump through the water in the fountain but not to get wet. Hmmmm....5 minutes later this is what he looked like (he minds so well).
Tired kids riding home on Marta!