our little tea party......

this afternoon map and the boys decided to go to tifton to see his dad and the baby girl and i stayed home. i thought since she hadn't had a nap yet that we maybe could take one together. to get her to stay with me and to go along peacefully with te nap idea, i told her when she we woke up we'd have a tea party and she rolled over in the chair with me and in less than 5 mins she was asleep!......so i thought "that was easy, i'll take a nap with her and when she wakes up she'll have forgotten all about it." then that "mother thing" kicked in. i thought 1~ she's NOT gonna forget, 2~there was gonna be a LOT of whinning, 3~that would have put me lieing to her, 4~ i could picture the look on her face when she saw what i had fixed up for the two of us.....#4 is what made me decide to get out of the chair, go into the kitchen and get all of the "party" food and "tea" together....

this is what we ended up with. and it was quiet fun, although we've got to find a smaller tea kettle. it wasn't very easy for her to serve tea! i probably ate 5 of the baby finger sandwiches and she took care of the rest! she LOVED it! and i'm so glad i passed up the nap and did it! i think we;ll do it more often.

i mean, how could i EVER pass up any chance for a smile like that!!??? this is one of the biggest reasons i always wanted a girl....girly things!

this week............a few days worth........

well, well, well, where do i start? this is exactly why i should write on here EVERYday!

i can't even remember what happened last monday...oh yeah, that's right, NOTHING. it was only 2 days after my surgery and i totally overdid it when we went to the agrirama last saturday. tuesday i did a few clothes and vaccumed and picked up. i'm so glad that he didn't put me off til next week. it' would have been a terrible beach trip and even harder to have gotten everything ready to go. i get my staples out tuesday!!!!! oh yeah!

wednesday we (me, mama, rivers, and  the boys) went to valdosta to take baby girl to the dentist. she's been having a hard time with one of her back teeth and come to find out she has to have 3 crowns put on! if i hadn't been told that bad teeth were hereditary, i'd just stop trying. that child would brush her teeth all day if i'd let her. she's so clean, and proper, and girly....anyway, she has to be put to sleep and i'm kinda freakin  out about it. who wouldn't be? i mean, God already told me everything was gonna be fine, but until i get her back in my arms, i'll worry just a tad. she's my baby.

i 'm actually excited about her being able to get it done so soon (we originally though it was gonna be july 2oth) she was in so much pain last week during the day and night that she was crying. she had a little bug during the same time so  she got antibiotics and luckily that helped hurry the bug AND helped her tooth not hurt. HOORAY!  anyway, the medicine runs out wednesday so i figured she'd start hurting agian but now it doesn't matter cause she gets them fixed tomorrow...whew!

took her to her big girl check up thursday (4 years old) got her 4 shots ( DID NOT shed a tear) we had already discussed that the secrets to shots not hurting was 1. when you turn 4 years old, they don't hurt anymore and 2.if you don't look at them when they give it to you  it won't hurt.........and it didn't! YAY~she was so proud of herself and the boys were like, WHAT!? they couldn't believe it!!

friday i got my hair "did". saturday we picked and delivered blueberries and worked on gettin some sweet corn put up. i cooked a good dinner that included meatballs, fresh cream corn, grean beans, rice and gravy and homemade zucchini bread. YUM...and bestie came to join us. 

okay, so saturday, when i went to get the sweet corn from besties dad's house, i invited her out for dinner. she came out later around 6 and we shucked corn, and chatted. after dinner she insisted that we go ride bikes.....reluctantly i , or we, did. it was soooooooo hot that even the kids were complaining. we headed back to the house. map was out in the blueberry patch tryinto get up some orders and i joined him to try and get at least one gallon picked so we could all go in and cool off.

bestie a.k.a. christy was entertaining the kids on the swingset and jake decide to get out one of their fishing poles (complete with a 6 pronged fishing lure) and show christy how ben's new kitten  "smokey" would chase it. BAD IDEA!

by the time she had gotten out of her mouth for him not to do it, she said "the cat grabbed it with it's paw, it stuck, cat jumed in air and twirled  as if it was havin a seizure and by the time it hit the ground, the hook was lodged in the cat's left ear and it's back right paw!?" OH DEAR, bestie doesn't deal well with cats and  fish hooks and kids and heat and panicing little boys. now don't get me wrong, she's a GREAT babysitter, just don't throw cats and a fishin pole in to the mix.

anyway, whilst map and i were in the blurberry patch, i heard the cat yelp/squawk/squeel? and i was like "what was that?" no answer. then here comes ben and all i could hear was cat. jake. fisin pole. sniff sniff. and killed. the end. i told map jake killed the cat. when we got there. we saw exactly what i told you christy said happened. we all looked at each other thinking probably the same thing "who's gonna pick the cat up?"  i mean really, who wanted to roll up into the er with a cat in hand because you got caught with one or more of the other 4 hooks!!?? so therefore you are stuck to a cat....with a fishin lure!!!!

anyway, map lost. he grabbed up the cat so quickly and tightly that the cats eyes, for just a second, poped out of her sockets (not really, he was just makin sure she didn't go into seizure mode again). i think i actually heard the kitten say "kill me now".

so, i got the wire cutters and clip, clip, she was free. lucky for her the hook went in one side and came out the other. nice and clean. all the while i look to my right and bestie is passed out on the ground with rosie lickin all the sweat off of her face! OMG!!

not really! :) but it woulda been funny and i woulda run inside and got my camera to take a picture to put on here. anyway, here we are.....sunday. been a great day except for the heat but i'm not complaining cause it could be snowing! know what i mean! okay, i'll TRY to post tomorrow after the toothwork. that should be interetin!  

oh yeah, i went there!!

okay, so like i said in an earlier post from when i was at the hospital havin my gallbladdar taken out, i realized i was LONNNNNNGGGGGGGG overdue for a color. so today i went to see the hair guru…….and i went from the top picture…… to this picture. MUCH BETTER!!!! i’m happier now!!  :)  except for the fact that….. i’m 33 years old and I HAVE PINK HAIR!!!! yeah, i went there!! I’ve been threatening to do it for the past 3 years and well, today I ID IT!!! the hair guru has had hers done for some time (although she IS 10 years YOUNGER than me). i would have taken a head on shot but i didn’t have it done/fixed/did. maybe tomorrow. i forget i have it like that til i start gettin “stares”. i’m not gonna say i don’t like it but right now it’s okay. i haven’t been to church in 2 weeks…..hhhmmmmmmm…i hope they don’t think i’ve been out partyin! oh dear! this is the way i look at it: i don’t drink, i don’t smoke, i don’t go bar hoppin, i’m a good and awesome momma (per my babes) and jake thinks i’m EXTRA awesome cause “i got pink hair” and i love that part! ;)  did i mention that it’s pink on BOTH sides? when jake and i were standin at the counter in dairy queen today, i was on the phone with map and i told him not to tell my mom about my hair because she hadn’t seen it yet. the girl at the counter looked at me and laughed and said  “and how old are you?” haha! very funny! oh, and another reason i decided to go ahead and do it is because i was tired of no one noticing when i’d gotten my hair done……THINK THEY’LL NOTICE NOW? my mama sure did!!   :)

Agrirama, Tifton, GA

the day after i had my surgery, we went to map’s annual employee appreciation day at the agrirama in tifton. the agrirama (the alligrama as rivers calls it) is a real life living natural history museum. complete with the littlel old men and ladies dresses in the attire that you’d seen them in way back in the day! if i could pick any era to live in, this would be the one i would go back to, the simple, homemade life. it’s hard to find that these days.  these signs greeted us everywhere we turned. made ya feel kinda special.the babes wanted to start off with face painting, and that was a good thing because later there were sooooo many little kiddies that the line seemed to go on for miles! and i think there were only two ladies doing the painting!? can you guess what rivers wanted?

a pretty sparkly butterfly! and ben? a FISH, of course!! what else?? what about jake?an American flag!  :) then we were off to the rock wall. we tried to get all the HOT stuff done before it got WAY hot! these two were hilarious!!! they only went up like head high because they were afraid that if they made it to the top that when they dropped they would hit the ground!!!! they ain’t stupid!!

jake looks like he went a lot higher than he did but……..he didn’t!this was the little old lady at the school house. it was exactly like little house on the prarie. we love that show and the kids thought it was pretty awesome that the school house in that show looks JUST LIKE THIS ONE!!!   rivers was peeking out the window tryin to get a little breeze. it was SO hot in there. i don’t know how in the world that little lady didn’t pass out from heat exhaustion!!it was SO SO hot!!!!here are the boys with their little house on the prarie school teacher lady! map would actually like one of these here grillin/ smokin pits. it was old timey but neat! maybe you can read this. it has some interesting facts on it. i love the olden days this was the dining area. jake snuk in this picture. he was finishin up his snow cone in a cup. we downed a lot of these this day! did i mention it was hot out!?   and YES, i would love to have learned of some of the recipes that were made up in this kitchen! this is where all the good stuff originated from. ya know, stuff that has lots of butter and lard and flour and milk and eggs!!!!! YUM!!this was a quilting room and bedroom. did i mention i love quilts too, and i would love to know how to make them BY HAND!!?? this piece was also sewn by hand…so pretty…..nothing made on a machine these days even holds a candle to things that were made by hand long ago. here’s a picture of an old farmer taking a rest in the old horse barn. i really like this picture too.this is the kind of house i’d like to live in now only a little more “fancied up”. it’s just neat lookin. and of course i gotta have the chicken pen out back near my little garden that i would have….that would actually GROW….unlike the one i have in the backyard now!!!! if our food depended on what we grew in our garden, we would be skinny as beanpoles!  we can grow tons on blueberries….but nothing else…..well, blueberries and babes!!   :) can you guess what this is? yep! the train depot! a real life working STEAM engine! everyone wanted to ride this thing! that was the easier way to get around the farn w/out havin to walk! the conductors! john boy walking his dunkey :) another old farmer. he kinda looks amish. i also love the amish way of life. it would take some adjusting but i could do it.fuel for the train!!!! WOW!!! like i said. real life steam engine! too bad cars can’t run on water! the old schoolhouse from the train… another old farmhouse. the little old ladies that work and give tours in these houses will often cook homemade lunch in the kitchens. i remember when we would go here on field trips when i was in school a hundred years ago, they ladies would be making biscuits!! OMG!!! can you imagine!?and this, well, meatloaf, meatballs, hamburger steaks w/ out gravy….. you get the picture….  view from the train on the other side of the pond….the farm the road less traveled…and my ben bob billy boo up there on the left.WOW!! little dirt paths….. grandma, pa, and the babes….. this was a neat little house too. they had a pretty garden here next to the house but i was about to pass out at this time so i snapped quick pix and walked…this is the tift house below….. the fanciest and richiest house on the farm. jake and i were gonna tour it but i couldn’t stand in the heat waiting for the next one to start. jake pointing out that this is made out of lighter wood…..i think he is gonna see if his dad or pa will cut him some wood pieces to try and construct one of these. map definaely wants one of these tillers for the garden.. the garden that WON”T grow! all i know is that this is a tractor… just remember: the anasthesia was still wearing off!!! i’d be broke FO sho  if one of these came around to houses now!!they got good stuff!! really, really really good stuff!! and this is what the boys and girl want their dad to turn their playhouse in to!!! how neat is this  little tiny two story cabin??! lovin this stove!! love the cast iron sittin on the stoves too! oooohhhhhh….here we are….oh to only be able to sew one of these beauties by hand! see…..you can look at the stitchin and tell it’s handmade….every-single-inch-of-it!! these will hold up longer than ANY quilt you buy in the store!! i promise! and how about the immaculate wedding dress and suit!? look at the sheen of the dress! a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y beautiful….and i guarantee this is handmade, too!this is a lacy little girls outfit. can you imagine beach pictures with your little angel wearing this!!??just look at the bustle of this dress! no words! this is a christening gown. i couldn’t get all of it in the picture. it pretty much went all the way to the floor. i can’t imagine being talented enough to make something this extravagant! and of course for the boys……tractors and more tractors……if you aren’t from around here and you come through this neck of the woods, be sure to stop by the agrirama and check out the past “in real life”.   :)