Satisfied Saturday

I didn't do a Grateful Friday post, so I'm doing this baby.

I've been really grumpy lately, and mean to the kids. I feel guilty about it, but I think it's due to not enough 'me' time and too much 'them' time. That may sound selfish, but that's the honest truth.

So Mark helped in a big way today and took the kids galavanting around so I could have much needed me time.

I'm proud to report that I managed to do the following:

Wash, dry, and fold all the clothes in the house (a huge feat! in this, the house of many females).
Wash the outside of my car and clean out the inside (well, somewhat...)
Clean out 2 kitchen drawers that were a MESS!
Finally give Pearl a flea shampoo and try to totally de-flea-ify her.
Practice pitching with Anna.
Have 2 of the girls' friends over to spend the night.
Play with my boy outside for a long while.

It was a good satisfying day and it was just what I needed. Hope y'all are having a good one too.

Family and Farm

We had a nice weekend filled with family we don't see nearly often enough and farm life that I too often take for granted.

Mark's brothers, from Orlando and Colorado Springs, came in to visit for a few days filled with eating, fishing, baseball and lots of book-reading. John M. took full advantage of having them over to have his favorites read to him.

And he loves to fish. Or at least pet the fish.

Sunday, I rode out to look at the farm. The kids always ride back with Mark and I stay behind to do housework (bo-ring), but I joined in Sunday and it was nice and breezy and green. Thought I'd share some pics with y'all.

One of our neighbors in digging a big pond that I hope we can fish in one day.

Mark had hired some guys to bale the hay and it was fun to watch the bales being dropped.

Okay, we can go off and all hum the tune to 'Green Acres' now.

Flat Busted

Okay, the title could be taken a couple of ways. And today, I meet both of the criteria.

The first way is obvious. Duh.

The second way is because of an expensive past couple of weeks. Can I vent? Here I go.

Our first major expense came two weeks ago when our dog, DeeDee (remember her?) was hit by a car and broke her leg. She's been at the vet ever since. She's doing better and hopefully will recover fully, but I don't want to see the bill. They estimated $600-700 for 1 week and she's been there 2.

Then, came our new house payment book, that we received in the mail this week. Our note had gone up $115/month. WTF? The majority of it being miscalculated escrow. We could reduce the amount by about $75/month by paying close to 900 bucks. So we did.

Then, yesterday, our A/C stopped working. Long story short, 1600 bucks. We are officially flat-busted, in every sense of the word.

I'm rethinking vacation. Sigh.

But, as my friend, Krystal, put it yesterday, 'Look at it this way, at least you can afford to pay for these things and don't have to do without'. True. Way to look on the brighter side. I need to do that more often.

(Reminds me of my friend, Jolie's story of her cat, 'Tripod'. Somehow her cat hurt his leg, and they took it to the vet for the diagnosis. The vet said it would be hard to save the leg and quoted some enormous price for it, like over 1000 dollars. Her boyfriend came back with, 'So, how much for a three-legged cat?' And that's how Tripod came to be named.).

I never did post a picture of Anna in her glasses so I finally am getting around to it. And a couple of the other 2 for good measure.

Hope y'all have a good weekend.

Oh, by the way, my house is infested with fleas. We're on our second round of flea-bombing today. I've had a great week, can you tell?

It's been 11 days since my last post?

How did that happen? I hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day. I had a good one. Mark and the kids gave me a big pot of pretty zinnias and some planters. Emma made me a 'Best Mom Ever' frame (see below) and John M. let me snuggle with him for about 2 hours on Sunday. Can't get a better gift than that, huh?

We enjoyed a nice lunch with my sister and her kids, and my mom at my favorite seafood restaurant, Don's, on Sunday and visited Mark's parents that evening. The kids got to pick veggies from the garden, ride out and pick blackberries and show off their softball skills to Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw. It was a nice day all in all.

To top it all off, John M. got his nail thing going. Doesn't he look excited?

Grateful Friday

I don't like the fact that I haven't been posting much, if anything, between my Friday posts, but life is crazy, so I guess this is just how it'll have to be for now.

I'm thankful today for:

1.) These pretty pictures that my mom took of the boy.

2.) The cute 'little boy' haircut that Mrs. Sam gave John M.

3.) Softball practice getting into full swing (no pun intended). I'm looking forward to both my girls playing softball this year. Emma may even play 1st base!

4.) My new dining room chairs, courtesy of Tar-jay.

5.) Mark helping around the house this week, he's been washing dishes on a regular basis. Not the norm for him.

6.) My agapanthus being a hair away from full bloom. I love those things!

7.) Mark's brothers coming to town in a couple of weeks. They're never all here at the same time.

8.) Not cooking all week! We've been fast food queens this week, but what the hell? It's easy!

Hope everyone has a nice weekend. It's rainy over here, but hopefully we'll see the sun some over the weekend.