Mana's photo skills

This morning I went to my Sis-in-law's church for a MOMS TIME event. It was wonderful. I really liked how they set it all up. We had some social time while everyone was arriving. They had a guest speaker. Then we had a discussion time at our individual tables. The table leaders asked questions to get the conversation going. I was at a table with some wonderful ladies in which I have never met. I survived and happen to enjoy listening to the conversations. I have met some of the women before at different times. Some I met when I visited their church with my Sis-in-law, others I met through my Mother-in-law. (Some of her friends attend this church) My Sis-in-law is the MOMS TIME coordinator. She had to speak at the beginning of the event. She did very well. It was a great experience and I am looking forward to the next one.

Our table leader asked us to trace our hand and then put our name in it. Then she told us about Isaiah 49:14 - 16.

14 But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me."

15 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!

16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.

Sometimes, with in the trials we are going through, we think God has forgotten us. He has not. He has engraved your name on the palm of His Hand! How wonderful is that!

One of the points the guest speaker made was that we need to have God so close that we look through Him at our circumstances instead of looking through our circumstances to see Him. Her example was when we a far off from a city, it looks pretty small, but when we are standing at the foot of the skyscraper, it is huge!

After the MOMS TIME event, I went to eat lunch with my Sis-in-law and niece.

I picked up Mana from school and after she got her homework done, I tried to sit down and read my two chapters of "Captivating" again. I took my coughing medicine and it made me sleepy. I decided to take a nap.

Picture of the day....
"My daughter's handy work!" LOL! She tucked me in!

My Heavenly Father

Last night was the second of the Bible study classes "Your God is to Safe". I will have to say that I fully intended to prepare myself better for this class. Don't get me wrong, I read and did my studying. That is not what I am referring to. The anxiety and the worrying about not being able to be in a small group and sharing with women I do not completely know, YET! I didn't talk to my Heavenly Father before going into this class. I was in a hurry. I let life get in the way. I really just forgot the class was at 5 pm and not 6 pm. I got in the class and we had a project. The brain went blank and the tears fell. It was a great project, one I could have done. No one said anything about my not so quietly display of emotions. I got handed a Kleenex, patted on the arm. All wonderful women in this class. The thought in the head was "get up and go to the bathroom and don't come back. I am so embarrassed." I didn't do that! I sat right there at that table facing all the other women in a sort of circle. I got the eyes cleared up and my brain back on track so I could pay attention and learn something in the class. It was a wonderful class, full of insight. You know how, as a parent, you have to let your children go through things so they can learn something and be able to handle things in the future. I realize that is exactly what my Heavenly Father was doing for me. He didn't make it all go away. He let me sit right there, no matter how embarrassed or hurt I felt, He was not going to fix it for me. Instead He was cheering for me! How great is that? How else am I going to grow and be able to handle this in the future if not by enduring it now! He loves me that much!!!! So when you are going through something you wish He would just take away, remember He is your Heavenly FATHER! Sometimes you need to go through those things in order to grow! You love your children, but have to let them go through things. How much more He loves us!

Ice Princess

Today, after church, my friend Heidi came over. She styled Mana's hair and did her makeup so we could do a fun photo shoot. Mana did really well. She let her tease her hair up and put fake eyelashes on her. It was a lot of fun. Here are some of the photos we got out of this photo shoot.

Surprise!

Saturday, Robin's family threw her a surprise party! They had an elaborate plan going. Robin was really surprised! We had blt sandwiches, hotdogs, chips, cake & ice cream. We really had a great time. Mana & I went shopping before the party for Robin's present. Mana picked out everything. She ended up painting her a sign and a jewelry box. She really did a great job on them. Some friends of Robin's taught us some neat games to play. One was with cups and you had to go in a certain pattern and rhythm and pass them around. It was hard, but I got the hang of it. Now that beat is stuck in my head!

Picture of Saturday.... "Robin and the Sign"
Happy Birthday Robin!!

A night of music!

The Alabama Symphony Orchestra came to our church for a free concert last night. I loved watching all the kids get into the music. One little boy played his air violin. To cute. Mana was a big girl. I was very proud of her. She paid attention the whole time. It was a wonderful night of music!
Picture of the day...
"Front of the program" (I did)
"After the Symphony"

Doc in the Box

I have been sick for about a week with sinus stuff. I haven't slept well in about four nights. I have that cough that stays with you forever. My friend Debbie kept asking when I was going to the doctor, so I went. I went around 1 pm and got out at 2 til 3 pm. Just in time to go pick Mana up from school. We then went to the pharmacy to fill my medicine. That was the quickest $75 dollars I have ever spent. The medicine was $47 dollars. That's crazy! It sure does work well for $47 dollars. So wwoooooooorrrrrtttttttthhhhhhzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, it! :)

I told Debbie she owed me $75! She said when she won the lottery I would get it back! LOL!

Pictures of the day...
"Fall Scarecrow"
"Fall at the Farmer's Market"
"Peppers"

Look up!

After the morning "See you at the Pole", I went home and finished up the church newsletter. It went fairly well. I do have to say I got a little crazy this afternoon dealing with my mouse. (computer) It hasn't been cooperating lately at all! It double clicks when I single click. It will not hold highlighted text. What do I mean by crazy? Well, let us just say I had to sing a crazy song and act really goofy to keep from losing it in front of my daughter. In stead of screaming, I did a crazy voice. All the things you do to keep your cool in front of your child! Come on..admit it, you have all done it! Mana thought her mom was going insane. That got me tickled! Before I knew it I was finished with all of the newsletter I had to do today!

God has been preparing me this whole week for the "Captivating" Bible study tonight! I have learned to keep my eyes on Him and off myself! I got through the study without shedding a tear. Not one! It was like I was a totally different individual! God kept me from my selfish ways of worrying about how I would feel intimidated in a group and let me sit back and observe what was going on. A flood may come next week, but I know now that it will be alright. It will be connected to an issue of the heart, not a feeling of intimidation! My dear friend Heidi and I had an in depth conversation at supper afterwards. God has showed me a lot of different areas of my life that I know now that I can get through and better yet past, all with His love and help! If you are a self-absorbed individual like myself....Look UP!

See you at the pole

We went to "See you at the pole" this morning at Mana's school. We were ready on time and I thought it was at 7:30 am but it was at 7:15 am! :( We did get there in time to hear some of the presentation one child was giving and the ending prayer! Next year I really need to hang the flyer on the bulletin board so I know what time it is at!

Back to work for me!

Pictures of the day...
"See you at the pole"
"Morning Glory"
They were on my fence this morning!
The strangest thing about this picture is that I did not turn the background black in Photoshop. It came straight out of the camera that way! Don't ask me how?

Fun

To catch up on all the fun things over the weekend:

I went down to my sister's house right after picking Mana up from school on Friday. Mana was so excited to see her cousins. My Dad and Mrs. Jean got to come over that night along with my brother-in-law's family. We had a cookout for my niece's birthday which she is now nine! She is so tall. She takes after her daddy. I can't believe mine will be nine in four in a half months. They grow up so fast. Anyway, we had the usual hamburgers and hotdogs and of course cupcakes. Everything was delicious! My brother-in-law is good at grilling!

Saturday, Jen and I iced my niece's birthday cake for her party. She had chosen a butterfly cake with several bright colors. It turned out very pretty. It was fun to do a cake with my sister again. I use to help her with all of them. I was the one that got her into making cakes. My sister-in-law, Misty, taught me how to do them. I haven't done a cake in a long time. Mainly because Jen would have already had them done when Mana and I would get to her house. Plus Jen has been doing Mana's cakes. She has done them the last two years. She has gotten really good at it. My niece's party was at one of those paint it yourself ceramic places. All the little girls that came did a great job painting. They all got to chose what they wanted to paint. Mana painted a turtle. Very colorful I might add. She named it Patches. It was a lot of fun. Jen said I could paint, but I was having fun just watching the girls paint. That night we watched the Auburn football game. That was awful and to close! Not much of a football fan myself.
Only Alabama...
ROLL TIDE ROLL!!

Sunday, Mana and I headed to her great grandmother's house. Her birthday is Friday! She will be 88! She has the cutest little chihuahua. Mana had a fun time playing with the dog.

We then came home and went to church.

Monday, right after I picked Mana up from school, we picked up CJ and Rebecca and went home for art class. I really like the project they are doing now. Can't wait to see it all come together on canvas. We had to call art class short and head out to Mana's grandparent's house for a birthday party for her other great grandmother. I would say we partied all weekend.

Now it is time to work!

Pictures of the weekend...
"Butterfly Cake"
"Mana & Turtle"
"Turtle"
"Aunt Misty tickling Mana"
"Balloon Fight"

Borderland?

I went to another Bible study tonight. This one is "Your God is too Safe" by Mark Buchanan. I have already read my first two chapters we had for homework! It will hit you hard! It did me! So many of the examples about how we view our God hit home! I could see myself in the borderland, just waiting around for my "safe" God to get me unstuck. Yes, I want to hide from Him. That is were I am comfortable. I want to hide from everyone. Why should God be any different? I do not naturally want to step out side of my comfort zone. God you fix it without me having to do this or that! I am not doing that. I might get embarrassed. On and on it goes, all the while I am still sitting around in the borderland. Not getting any closer to Him.

My prayer for now and in the future is I would like to be able to thank God for putting me out of my comfort zone, every day! You are saying I'm crazy?... yes, I very well might be. I want the burning heart, not the slowness of heart that Mark Buchanan writes about!

Writing in this blog...out of my comfort zone! I might not have gotten what I was trying to write across the right way! Oh well! Thank you God, I'm out of my comfort zone!

Now let's move forward!

Trust and Obey

Deuteronomy 4:29 - 31

29 "But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him. 31 For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath."

Today as I was shopping for my niece's and Grandmother's birthdays at Books-A-Million. I was approached by a man that asked if I knew of any women's bible studies he could get for his wife! I happened to have just picked up the "Captivating" daily journal and was standing right in front of the book (which was out of place!). Wow, I thought and handed the book to him. He said thanks and I told him that I was in the bible study now. Then I went on my way to look at other things. A little later he comes up to me again and asked if there was a workbook. I told him there was one, showed it to him and asked if he wanted the one I was holding. It was the only one they had. He said no and I told him that the Family Christian store was across the street if he wanted to look there for it. He did end up buying the book. It is amazing to me that when you trust and obey God He will constantly show you that He is there and working all around you. I am overjoyed that I obeyed and went to the Bible study and that He is still right there with me every step of the way!

On the way home this song was in my mind:

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

The Bible Study

I had posted on facebook that I was excited about a new bible study we were starting at church the other day. Last night, after the bible study I posted that I was not excited about the bible study anymore. A friend of mine on facebook asked me what happened to change my excitement. This was my response...

I am still some what excited about it because I know God will do great things. It is going to be a very emotional study and I am not sure I am completely ready for that in a group of women I do not completely know! I am not much of a social person and God is really working on me about pride. The kind where I am to prideful to look stupid or emotional in front of someone. We are doing the bible study on the book "Captivating" by John & Stasi Eldredge. Just reading it I get emotional and I have a problem being that way in front of people. But I will continue to go to the class because God has made it completely clear that I am to be in this study! Whether I think I am ready for it or not.

My dear Sis in Christ, Jamie, led the first meeting and told us all about the study we would be doing. I have read through 3/4 of the book already so I was not caught off guard or anything. I knew about how emotional and in depth the study would be going into the class. We didn't even get started on the study itself and I had lovely tears rolling down my face during a few times in the talk. All I could think about is how embarrassing this is all going to be for me! (How prideful is that) I have already started this mess! I was not at all ok after walking out of that classroom last night. And the thing I don't get is WHY? I even had one of my dear and close friends tell me that I didn't have to go to the class. (This is how upset I was. It showed all over my face.) I told her that I did have to go back to the class! It was not an option for me! I have to do this! I don't want to and I have told God that several times, but I have to! God has great things for me to learn and experience through this class even if it hurts or is embarrassing. I may not understand what those things are now (except for drawing closer to Him), but I can guarantee it will be great and I don't want to get in the way of what ever it is!

Imperfections

God has never made anything more clear to me as tonight! (Or shall I say, I have not listened as closely and clearly as I did tonight)

I am not to use myself as an excuse for not having a closer relationship with Him anymore!!

Excuses, are we not great at throwing them out there for every little thing. I don't understand what I am reading, I don't comprehend what I'm reading, I don't, I can't, I'm stupid, I'll never be this way or that way. The list goes on and on. All the insecurities! Time after time, all through the Bible, God uses imperfect people!

A friend posted this on her blog and it inspired me! Then I was at Books-A-Million and saw it in the workbook of the Bible Study I am going to be participating in.

"then the time came when the risk it took
to remain tight in a bud was more painful
than the risk it took to blossom"
-Anais Nin

Anggie sent me these:
"Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."- Henry Ford
"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." John Wooden

Air Conditioning...Priceless!!!

Last night, my daughter had a hard time getting to sleep. She had some sinus problems and it kept her up all night! Around 4 am this morning, I finally just got up and went to sit in the living room. She joined me. After sitting there for a few minutes staring at each other (since we were both really sleepy) I realized that she was getting better. I gave her a fourth of a dose of Benadryl and propped up several pillows and told her to go back to bed. By 4:45 am she was asleep!! She got about 2 hours of sleep. She did great all day! I on the other hand, did not! My tiredness hit around lunch time and is still going!

I met Sherry for breakfast at Jack's. She bought mine for my birthday. Still having my birthday a week later.....priceless! :) We went back to her house and she got some of her work done so we could go shopping.

After I picked up Mana we went to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house. Brad changed the oil in my car and looked at my air conditioning! He said he thinks I have a slow leak from my wreak a couple of years ago. All I know is that I am so glad that it is working now! Thanks Brad!! No More Being Hot in Car Line!!!!! YEAH!!! Mana was so excited that she got to go and play with her cousins. We stayed for pizza and the adults watched a movie. Brad was in a super good mood. He has always had a sense of humor, but I have never seen him in this kind of mood. He was quite entertaining. We had a great night over at their house! I am so grateful that I have such a wonderful family on Brian's side! Some people don't get along with their in-laws, but mine are super sweet and fun to be around!

No picture of the day...because I am tired!

Some Crazy Friends! :)

Mana had ballet tonight. During class I walked over to the gym to talk to my friends and they were in the kitchen decorating and preparing for a party! There was a number 40 candle on the table so I was thinking who's birthday did I forget and why didn't Debbie tell me about it earlier today since she knew I was coming by. They just looked at me with a confused expression. I had just walked in on the preparations of my party. NO I am NOT 40! They said a weak Surprise and kind of grinned. By the time Mana got out of class, some more of my friends showed up. We had BLT s, and hot dogs and of course cake! Debbie even got me a Alabama cake and poster. (She is for Auburn) They were all very sweet. I received some great cards and gifts!

Thanks my Crazy friends! It was a lot of fun!
"My Happy Birthday Song"

The Dragons are Done!!

Today Mrs. Millie and I went to finish up on the wall mural in her grandson's room. We are finally done! I know I would not want to sleep in this room. They look scary to me!

Mana just informed me that she left her history review sheet at school. I told her that I hope she gets a good grade! She has to learn not to forget her stuff! Getting a bad grade may be the way she has to learn that! (That hurts to say!) Boy, is this year going to be hard! :(

Pictures of the day...
"Blue Dragon"
"Fire Dragon"
"High School Musical"
Mrs. Millie's granddaughter's wall mural that we did last year.

Pride

Today I put on makeup (not normal for me) and went to get my drivers license renewed. Since it stays with you for four years I thought I should at least look my best! WHY BOTHER!!!??? It still looks bad! I wish I could use the picture that was taken for my church directory! Now that was the best picture I have ever taken. I have gotten a lot of compliments on it. I would like to just plaster it to my face and walk around like that!! :)

I went out to lunch with my sister-in-law Carlye at Jason's Delli. Carlye and I always have insightful conversations when we go out for lunch. I do my best thinking when I am around her. Probably because she sees right through all of my crap. We had a wonderful conversation about my issue I have with pride. You know the type when you are so consumed with how others and yourself perceive you that you are blocking your own view of what God wants! Not the I think I am better then you type!!! It is a constant problem. I do not go to Sunday School for exactly this reason. I do not like being in smaller groups unless I have a close relationship with those individuals. In other words, if I am comfortable just being me with them. This does not come easily or happen fast. It takes time for me to get to know someone so I am able to let my guard down and just be me. I would rather sit in the back of the room and no one know I am there! That does not happen in a Sunday School Classroom. I keep changing classes or not going. Making excuses not to go. Big Church - Love to go - No chance of anyone asking me to talk about anything, express an opinion or read from the Bible out loud or pray out loud. I am totally consumed with ME!! WOW, who would think that someone who so doesn't like much about herself could be so consumed with herself! Strange but true! Now to work on this! I have attended the first class of a Bible study only to not come back because someone asked me to say something about myself and I cried because I couldn't! You know who you are!! :) Well, now that that is out (embarrassing!!) I have a Bible Study I would like to attend that starts next Wednesday night. "Captivating" - This one will be a hard one for me. The description of this book says... that it describes how the feminine heart can be restored, and casts a vision for the power, freedom, and beauty of a woman released to be all she was meant to be. I have read this book and have cried through most of it. Just wait! Here we go again! One class - not coming back! See how I block my own view of God? I am so consumed with the way I react about situations that I am missing the most important lessons that God wants for me to learn!

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:14 (NIV)

Picture of the day... "Painting a Scary Dragon!"

There will be dragons!

I had an extremely fun day! I met Mrs. Millie at the church and followed her over to her son's house to paint her grandson's wall. He wants dragons on his wall. I have finished drawing all of the design out and we started painting. We finished the cave on one wall and a rock mountain on the other. Now it is time for the dragons. There will be two. One looking from behind the cave and one on the mountain. Can't wait to start on them. Hopefully I will finish them tomorrow!

Pictures of the day...
"The Cave"
"The Rock Mountain"

Let the Creativity flow....

Today was a pretty good day. I got some things accomplished! Now I can move on to other projects! I will be helping Mrs. Millie paint a dragon on her grandson's wall in the morning. I think that will be fun!

I taught my first art class for this school year this afternoon. They learned how to block print. They did a very good job, except they were making me nervous with the cutters. They kept cutting toward their fingers!

Pictures of the day...
C.J. and Rebecca
"Cutting Blocks"
"Printing"
"Their Final Prints"

Smile, It's your Birthday!

Today is my birthday!!

We slept late! Of course!
Heidi took Mana and I out to eat for lunch. We then went to her house to play with her puppy "Precious Cutie Princess"! We got to see one of her new puppies. Cute! She baked a delicious apple strudel! Good Times!

Mana and I went to GranMary and Paw Paw's house for supper. We had all my favorites... chicken, fried okra, corn, fried potato chips, and for dessert strawberry shortcake! I got to see my niece and two nephews. The only way this day could have been better is if I got to see the rest of my family! I did hear from most of them! My nieces said Happy Birthday to me really loud over the phone! Loved that! It was an overall nice day!

Pictures of the day...
"Heidi and I at lunch"
"Birthday Cake"

Friday Game Night!

Game Night was a blast! We had 10 ladies there! A pretty good turn out for the first one. We played Rummikub and Scrabble. Meka lead us in a wonderful devotion based on Philippians 4:8.


"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."


Then we played Catch Phrase. Everyone had the best time. I hope more ladies are interested in coming next time. We all would love to have Game Night once a month! That is how much fun we had!


It was raining pretty hard when Mana and I arrived at church so I unloaded the car and went to park it. While I was doing that, she slipped on a wet place on the floor and hit the back of her head. She had a knot as big as a golf ball come up! We went home to put castor oil (helps the swelling go down) on it and to give her some Motrin. She begged to go back, so we did! She is ok now!

Target?

Have you ever had one of those days where you are sure that everyone is out to hit your car? I had one of those today! I went to Hoover today to pick up my camera bag. I must of had around 5 times that someone almost hit me! I was starting to think I had a target painted on my car or a bumper sticker that read "Hit me please!"
So my picture of the day..."What I think others saw today!"

While I was in Hoover, I went to Nails 150 and got my "fake toe nails" off! (refer to older post) My nail technician was named Lydia. She has only been doing nails since April. She was really sweet and did a great job. This was the first time I actually talked while getting my nails done. I found out that she liked to paint and would be interested in our Women's ministry "God's Masterpiece" painting events. I got her email and I really hope she can come on the next one! That date will be Sunday, November 2, if anyone is interested!

I am soon off to the church to be apart of our Women's Game Night! This is our first one and I can't wait to get there! I'll post pictures from tonight later!

NOT by MY schedule!

If you know me at all, you know that I love to have everything scheduled out. The day hardly ever goes that way. Of course! That tends to throw me for a loop most days! Who could ever believe that? LOL! Well, Thursday was one of those days. BUT, I handled it a lot better then normal. Sherry and I were going to get our nails done after breakfast. We did not, which turned out better for both of us. We went to her house afterwards so she could get one of her work projects done really quickly. Her internet was not working correctly and it kept going down. She didn't get much work done. I got to shoot with her camera for awhile during that time, so I was happy! We ended up having a sandwich for lunch and sitting down and talking. (It is always nice to have some adult conversation!) Then we went to pick up the kids. Mana had her first Ballet class. I thought I saw her leotard in her bag a couple of days ago. She goes to get dressed and it was a black shirt in her ballet bag, not her leotard! We finally did find it, but it made us a little off track! I went to Wal-Mart during her class and ended up being late to pick her up. Thank God they were late getting out! Then we went to the church life center to talk about scheduling my art class. We stayed and talked until 8:45 pm! Not good when a certain someone needs to get in bed around 8 pm! She finally got in bed around 10 pm! Debbie, Heidi, Robin and I just can't keep up with time when we start talking. That is the exact reason I am doing the art class at my house right after school this year! Poor Mana would always go to bed late on art class day if we didn't change the time. She has two test on Friday, so I would not be a responsible parent if I did that every Thursday. After she got in the bed I sat down to get those lovely fake nails off. If took me until 2 am to get all but two off. Yes, I gave up and left the last two on. I'll get them off today!

Picture of the day...
"Mana and her Ballet Teacher"
Ms. Johnson just got finished teaching a little girl class. That is why she is all dressed up! She is such a great teacher!

The complete lack of anything...

Today has been uneventful so far. I have been to the church a couple of times to get a poster printed that I have been working on at home. Not done on that yet. Do not have Photoshop there. Do not have a big printer here. So it is back and forth, back and forth. Three times a charm I hope!

I have run out of interesting things to photograph around the house. At least that is what I thought. If I put a regular picture in Photoshop, I can at least make it interesting enough. And it is fun to do! That is what I did for today's picture of the day. One of my friends just got a really great new lens for her camera that she has been wanting for a while. I was surprised because she had seemed to have lost the love of photography. She sounded excited about it. I am trying to talk her into us taking a trip downtown to take some pictures. There are tons of interesting places to get some great shots! We have planned to get breakfast in the morning and then get our nails filled in. Hopefully after that we can go and take some pictures!

Picture of the day...
"Wrought Iron"

Official Card Carrier!

Today after school, I took Mana to the library. She reads like crazy! Just like her daddy! I will buy her a book and she will have it read in one or two days. I think the library will be a more responsible money decision! Just think of all the money I will save! $5.99 or more a book. That adds up quickly! Not to mention the space I will save not to store all of them. I need that space! She decided she wanted to get her own library card. Mrs. Lemley said she could and gave her the paperwork to fill out. She was so excited to have HER OWN!

Pictures of the day...
"Signing HER Card"




"Official Card Carrier!"

Labor Day

Brian is officially in the air now. Praying for him a safe trip! Mana did real well this time. No crying. Just a little pouting. We did not stay at the airport this time until he took off because I wanted to get her home and her stuff ready for school in the morning. We went to Waffle House for breakfast. Brian decided to take us to my sister-in-law's house a back way. We missed our turn and ended up in another county all together. I was laughing, Mana was crying! She thought we were lost for sure! Brian kept naming all these places as we went down the road. I asked him if he was just doing that to throw me off, so I would think he knew where he was going. He said that was what he was doing. How could I tell? We finally got there....30 minutes late! (And only after calling his Mom for directions! LOL!)

We had a fun day! The kids played well together. They always do. My sister-in-law & brother-in-law cooked some wonderful bar-b-que! And we had my nephew's birthday celebration! His birthday is on Wednesday!

Pictures of the day....
"The Fam, Rock Band"









"Mana & her Daddy"
at the airport.