Diet Coke Wishes and Chicken Sandwich Dreams

Since my parents are on a cruise, I took supper to my grandmother tonight after church. Of course out of all the places to eat in Athens, she wanted McD's. As I was watching the closing ceremony of the Olympics, my grandmother asked," Are those men just painted or are they made out of stone?" She was referring to the Asian men dancing that were painted in white. I just looked at her and asked, "Nanny, what do you think?" Later, she informed me that my television would stop working in the year 3000 and I would have to get a new one. I am sure she has been seeing those commercials about T.V. stations going digital next year, but I just told her I didn't care I would be long gone before the year 3000, besides I am sure I would have needed a new television by then anyway. As I watched her put her tomato and cheese, (cheese she sliced herself because sliced cheese is too expensive), onto her sandwich I remembered something from my childhood. We lived just north of Birmingham until I was about five. After that we would take turns during the summer going and staying with my grandmother who still lived there. Every day we would go to Hardee's and every day my grandmother would pack her lettuce, tomato, and cheese before making the two mile trip to go eat. I always wondered why Hardee's didn't offer lettuce, tomato, and cheese on their burgers. I remember thinking I was going to make that suggestion one day and then I would be rich! Not until years later did I realize that Hardee's served lettuce, tomato, and cheese everyday! My grandmother was just too cheap to spend the fifty cents extra to add it to her sandwich. I remember turning around and going back to her house because she realized that she forgot that precious little Tupperware container that held her garnishes inside. She still has that container and still fills it and puts it in her purse when she goes to McDonald's. I don't know if I have told you but when my aunt got sick and came to stay with my grandmother, she forwarded her mail to my grandmother's house. A few weeks after this took place my parents decided to get the mail forwarded to their house (six houses down) because they were paying my aunt's bills and Nanny would get the mail and then lose it. They still have my grandmother's mail forwarded to their house. They are taking care of her bills and it just makes since. It's not like they keep things from her, they just sort the bills and then give her the rest. Anyway, a few weeks ago my parent's found out that my grandmother was walking up the their house and stealing the mail. She got caught because she asked if I received an invitation to a family reunion and said that she and my parents had. My parents never saw the invitation. Well, tonight as I was leaving I told her I was going to go get the newspaper from my parents' driveway. As she was walking back inside she yelled,"If you see any mail up there steal it and bring it to me!" I am beginning to think I should be scared of this woman because as she gets older she gets more sneaky! Okay, there is my Nanny story for the night! This week my DH has been working so hard on our dining room! He has the light fixtures, baseboard and crown molding left and then we can move everything in the room. Thank you Nick for taking your vacation and doing this! Well, I better finish up! Rebekah and I are going waking at five again!

Okay, this will be quick since I told Rebekah I would get up and walk with her at five in the morning. We did it today and I have to say......It was great. Starting your day off like that kind of puts the rest of the day into the right motion. Since my first couple of weeks of Weight Watchers has been a flop (I gained 3 pounds!) I have to do something drastic. Since I have someone counting on me it makes it easier to get out of bed. Tomorrow we brave Northtown. I seriously thought about going to Walmart and buying some pepper spray. Other than the walk, my day has been spent cleaning up after Gabby and helping Nick's parents get their rental property ready to rent. If I don't blog anymore you know it is the result of walking in the semi-bad part of Athens in the dark. Pray for us!! :}

Daddy's Night Out

Saturday was my friend Amanda's baby shower and since her husband and Nick are cousins, Nick's great-grandmother was there. So, Gabby got to meet her great-great-grandmother! Wow, five generations! After the shower we headed to Priceville for a car show Nick had been wanting to see. It was at the Veteran's park and the weather was so nice. I really didn't think I would have a good time but I did! It really doesn't matter where we are as long as we are spending time together and not fighting! It was so funny, Nick grabbed my camera before we left the house. I asked him if he wanted me to blog about it and he just grinned and said, "Well, I thought you might want to." For somebody who thought this was stupid he sure has been checking my blog a lot! So, I am going to try to post a slide show from the car show. I call it, "Nick's Picks". If we had a lot of money these would be the cars he would rebuild. He also told Gabby to pick a type of car she wanted her Daddy to rebuild. By the way, Nick and i decided to change churches. We are now members of the , " Nature's Trail Church " for sportsman. Really, it is a real church, check my slide show. Not really that we are changing churches. Or we might change to the First United Methodist Church of Priceville. They were passing out free bottles of "living water". Nick asked me if this made us members. Afterwards, we met Aunt Shana for supper and then went to see Gabby's Great-Grandmother Keenum. That is who is in the picture. I guess Nick will get to pick our next date since this one went as well as it did. So Nick,I had fun with you baby!! Since I know you are hooked on my blog !! HAHA!

My name is Bond....Gabby Bond

I guess being around those big kids today made Gabby think she was a big girl too! When I turned around to grab a diaper she decided to scale the changing table. It won't be very long till this chick is crawling. Pray for me!

FRIDAY FREE-4-ALL

This afternoon Marian called to see if I could keep the kids while they spent some quality time with Caleb. As soon as the kids got here they hit the door to play outside. Not long after that, Daniel told me we needed to get in my car and go to McDonald's. Since we didn't have enough seats for everybody and 4 kids at a restaurant just didn't appeal to me, they settled on a pizza being delivered to the house.

I bravely agreed to let the boys paint.....

while Whitney played dress up with the Barbies.

After pizza, playing on the swing set, and taking turns riding around the yard on the four wheeler ( aren't we rednecks!), we heard a faint noise in the distance.

I C E C R E A M !!!

The kids had never had this experience before, so of course they had to get some. It reminded me of when I was little and the ice cream truck came to our neighborhood.

Wow! It looks like a tough job being a kid!

dAzEd & CoNfUsEd

Today I helped Mom and Dad out by taking Nanny to her last eye doctor's appointment after her cataract surgery. First of all, as long as I can remember this woman has worn glasses, all the time. It has only been recently that I have learned that the only thing she needs them for is reading! She has 20/20 vision in one eye and 20/25 in the other w/out glasses! But she insists that now she needs to go get her eyes checked for new glasses. After the appointment she needed to go to Wal-Mart for some groceries. I, being the good grand-daughter I am, told her I would let her out up front then park and meet her inside. It took me twenty minutes to find the woman! What was I thinking?!?! This 87 year old woman litteraly was sprinting thru the store. After I found her it was if I had said, " Okay Nanny, ready, set, go!" Here I was trying to steer a buggy with one hand, throwing what I needed in the buggy with the other, and trying to hang on to Gabby with both, while she took off in front of me. All of this for a half gallon of milk and cough drops. But, one good thing came from this experience. I have found the secret of living forever and looking young. Are you ready?? King size candy bars. Last time I was at her house there were 3 in her freezer and mom says she buys a hand full every time they take her to the grocery store. She bought two today. I know now how she can sprint thru Wal-Mart. She complains that she hasn't been able to sleep lately. Hmmm...could living off chocolate be the reason?? After Wal-Mart we had to go by McDonald's for a $ 1 "chicken biscuit" AKA a chicken sandwich. Imagine our conversation when she found out that they have raised the price of a chicken sandwich to $ 1.29. Oh McDonalds, you have lost a lot of business. She stopped going to Hardee's because they increased the price on their senior citizen drinks. I don't know where she will go now. Finally, we headed back to my house. After she caught me up on Dr. Phil and Britney Spears, yes my grandmother knows all about Britney, she played with Gabby, we ate supper and then I took her home. She says one of her magazines talks about Britney all the time. Now, the last time I checked neither Reader's Digest nor Caper's Weekly discussed the all important topic of Britney.

Weekend Update

Saturday I spent the first part of the day with Nick's family helping make egg rolls. His mom makes some awesome egg rolls! My sister came up to Athens for her high school reunion. While her and her friend were at the reunion, mom, dad, Shana and I took: Gabby, Kynsleigh, Ramah, Anja, Chloe, and Hayden to the Kiddie Carnival. In short, 6 kids 3 and under. I am telling you.....that would be like the best birth control ever! Take some of these teenagers to a place like that and give them 6 kids to look after. It is making me rethink having anymore kids! They really were pretty good. The three oldest kids became instant buddies. Hopefully, I will have some pics to post in a couple of days. I have got to get Rebekah to teach me how to do a slide show. Sunday, Gabby and I met my family at the park for lunch. While we were there the ice cream truck came by. Since Anja had never experienced the whole "ice cream truck" thing, I told her I would buy her some. When we got up to the truck she decided Ramah needed her own. She thinks she is sooooo grown! When she was walking away the ice cream guy asked how old she was. I told him three and then Anja whipped around and put that hand on her hip and said, " I am fixing to be 4 and 5!" She just turned 3 at the end of April!! I think she is going on 13 though. The whole high school reunion thing got me really thinking. I HAVE GOT TO LOSE WEIGHT!!! The egg rolls were a nice parting gift to all the rich and fattening foods. So, starting tomorrow I am really going to get serious about it. I am going to start Weight Watchers and start going to the Wellness Center again. I have had a membership for over a year and have hardly used it. Silly me just thought I could buy a membership and the weight would melt off! :) So, feel free to ask how I am doing that will be good motivation. Unless you are like skinny and beautiful.

Invitation Aggravation

Okay, I warned you in the beginning that I was not good at keeping up with stuff like this. I am going to try to recap the last few weeks in these next few blogs. The main thing that has kept me away is my invitation drama. I am helping throw a baby shower for a friend of mine and it was my job to do the invitations. I thought it would be an easy job. I wanted them to be unique so I planned on having a picture of the ultrasound on the invitation. Yeah.....it was going to be around fifty bucks to do that. Then, I had a copying company do it. Thirty bucks and there ended up being some errors on the invitations so I had to go back and since they could not get them done in my time frame I was back to the drawing board. Luckily, my sister and a friend of hers stepped in and did them but you know what?? After all their hard work I realized that I had given them the wrong address!! After a quick label over the address they ended up looking great! Thanks Shana and Shannon! I can happily say that I am DONE with the invitations! Last weekend the boys came to spend the night. It amazes me how much they have grown! We took them to Cracker Barrel for some "pannycakes" and then to the Kiddie Carnival. I don't know what it is about that place that I love. I think it is the small town atmosphere. Running in to everyone you know and seeing all the kids get so excited about riding on a junky--I mean "antique" carnival ride just their size. I can't wait till Gabby is old enough to enjoy it. We enjoyed the weekend with the boys. I wish we could do it more often. This picture was taken at about eleven o'clock at night. I don't know if they were being their normal silly selves or if lack of sleep played a part. You be the judge.