This & That Thursday

Random stuff...

*I was so excited to receive a "just catching up" phone call from a friend from Robertsdale Tuesday night. Rita and I would get together regularly to run (or half jog/half walk...whatever). The exercise accountability was great and all, but having an hour to talk with a sweet friend is what I miss most about her.  I'm not gonna lie, I shed a few tears when we hung up (and several times later that night)... Loneliness is hard y'all! And this is coming from an introvert!

* Speaking of introvert... Have I ever mentioned that instead of "shy" or "quiet" I jokingly refer to myself as "selectively social?" If I go out of my way to talk to you, consider yourself special. My kids have this tendency too. The 3 of us can get obnoxiously loud, but not until we become comfortable and that can sometimes take a while.

* I worry... A lot... About everything... I worry so much that I keep myself up until the wee hours of the morning just so that I can crash from exhaustion rather than be alone with my thoughts while I fall asleep like a regular person.

Now that we've determined I'm borderline crazy... let's move on to the fabulous kids I've got!

* Audrey won a prize for the robot she built for the library's summer kids program. Go, Audrey!


* Julia found a tick in her hair today. "Mom!!!! There's a bump on my head and it's hanging off a little!!" It was already dead. I removed the other half, cleaned her scalp with rubbing alcohol, and immediately googled the symptoms of Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, because (despite Matt's eye rolls) that is the natural reaction!

* We marked off another item on our summer "to do" list today - homemade ice cream in a bag. It was easy and pretty tasty! :)

*The girls have been helping me a little more often in the kitchen. Audrey cut up strawberries today (to serve on top of the ice cream we made!) and here is Julia dicing potatoes for dinner.

* That's about it - thanks for reading! Blogging makes me feel connected to others. I need that right now.

Home, Sweet, Home

No matter how many times we move, when asked where "Home" is I always think of Tennessee. The girls and I go on a road trip to visit the grandparents every summer and an incredible perk of moving is that this year I was close enough to visit my brother too! In fact, I got to be with my brother, Andy, and his wife, Kelsey, for this special moment:

He or she, what will baby Ford be?

Baby Ford is a boy!

* After swinging through Knoxville to visit Andy and Kelsey, we spent a week in Jackson.

We spent a lot of time outside with Poppa.

We celebrated Pop's birthday with our cousins.

Meme was there too. :)

And we celebrated the 4th of July with Mammy.

We certainly had a super fun week, but we were also glad to get home to see Matt! Maybe he can come with us next time. 

My first trip to South Carolina

Last week I talked about how much I detest Mondays. The beginning of the work week brings too much loneliness for me... usually. This week, I'm admitting that for the 2nd week in a row Monday hasn't been depressing.  Yay! Today, Matt got an extra day off so we decided we'd take a road trip to Greenville, SC.  Our main objective for the day was to visit the Children's Museum. The girls really enjoyed themselves.

 Audrey says her favorite part was this climbing structure.

Julia claims her favorite was the race car.

But the attraction they actually spent the most time at was the Construction Zone. Who would have thought?

 

Afterwards we walked to a local coffee/ice cream shop for a treat. 

 Then, we walked around Greenville's nature park. It was beautiful, but the long walk made Audrey's "feet hurt sooooooo bad" and mean old Mommy refused to carry her. As soon as we were in sight, she ran for the van and promptly fell asleep.

The Bowman family excursion concluded with dinner at Outback. We didn't have one close by in Alabama and have been sitting on a couple of gift cards for years. So, if you happened to give us an Outback gift card for Christmas back in 2009, we thank you for tonight's dinner.   :)