EIGHT!!! Eight amazing years! Its hard to believe that me and Brian have been "exclusively dating" for almost a decade! Eight years of happiness, tears, smiles, cuddles, romantic nights, crazy days, fun, sadness, sorrow, joy, quiet kisses, happy dances, and a million memories. Heading to the lake this afternoon for an evening of swimming and fishing and super excited! Making a picnic dinner of turkey sandwiches and apples. So happy today! Brian picked up my glasses too, so I guess its official that I will be a four eyd freakazoid now, lmao! Hope everyone has as amazing of a day as me!!!

Its officially hermit season...

and I ain't talking about crabs! No, its that lovely time of the year when to me its really even too hot to go swimming. Oddly enough I am just not into the swimming this summer. I wish I knew why, but I guess because my few trips I have made this summer to the lake have been either swamped with people or for the first time I came home smelling like "the lake" this early in the year. Its been rediculously hot with many days near or at 100* already and we have another week of upper 90s coming....bleh! I think I am ready for that fall weather again!
Was up early this morning, like 4:25 early thanks to Athena pooping in her crate...again. She has decided that if she has to go she just goes, holding it seems to be something she just wont do overnight now if she has to poop. *sigh* So here I am sipping coffee listening to the dogs rumble behind me trying to plan my day...which in a way is good that I am up this early, maybe now I can fall asleep before midnight tonight. I have been trying not to use any sleep meds and have now been without night time sleep aids for over 2 weeks! Thats incredible for me! I am pretty happy about it....even though now I sleep light enough to wear the smell of poop down stairs behind closed doors can wake me up!
I am flabbergasted that this is the last few days of June already! Next month is going to be insane in how much I have to do and how fast it will likely go by. I think its pretty cool, and hardly believable, that on Thursday, me and Brian will be celebrating 8 years together....yes...EIGHT!!! Wow! Thats almost a decade! Very crazy and crazy fast. I guess thats a good sign though, when eight years seems to fly by...they say thats what time does when you are having fun...or popping out babies and living in financial stress 24/7...heehee. Yes, eight years...and to celebrate we decided to go for broke and take a trip (a second one for the year!) to Daytona in September while the kids are out on fall break. We have a nice place already picked out and today I guess I need to remember to call in the credit card number and make things official. I am super excited to see my grandparents and the ocean...the last time we were down as a family, Laci was only 16 months old! So I am stoked to see my kids response to the magnificent ocean and beach and piers! I think for the first time in my life I want to walk over the main street bridge too! So excited!!
But in the mean time, its the daily grind here and every day is a holiday....lol...right? Who's with me? Anyone? Ok well, lol, I guess every day is at least a gift...even if it is wrapped in 99* weather! Hoping to pick up my new glasses tomorrow....yep...yours truly is going to have to wear glasses. Not 24 hours a day...or even 12 for that matter, but for things like driving, and shopping, and watching movies and whatnot so I can see better. Turns out my eyesight was a lot worse than I thought...but that should all be fixed in the next 24-48 hours! Woopie doo! 
Anyhow hope anyone out there reading this is blessed today with happiness and laughter....two of the most simple, but sometimes hardest to obtain things in life. May today give you both....tomorrow you can go to hell though...lmao....I am kidding!!! Ok happy Tuesday!

Monday Monday

Father's day was yesterday....it feels like a flop. I gave Brian his main gift before we left because I was so excited with how great it turned out I didn't want to wait. That was his amazing 135 page photobook of us as a family but revolving around him of the first 8 years of our family. It was gorgeous though and I know he loved it, but that was his big gift...and I gave it to him early. Then everyone is out of town so we didn't have our yearly get together for the day, and then after making him a nice breakfast and giving him his other small gifts and welcome banner, I was struck with a horrific migraine that had me laid up in bed most of the day and late into the night. Brian ended up giving the kids a bath and getting them in bed while I laid down with a cold wet rag over my eyes feeling like I was going to vomit. I then slept like absolute crap last night but even though its is supposed to be "scorching hot" today, I let the kids choose a place to go and a day to go this week, and Christopher chose the Aquarium today and Laci wants Tellus tomorrow....okie dokie then...LOL....then I have to stop for groceries on the way home this affternoon and I am sure I will be wiped out come bedtime tonight...so maybe I will sleep better!


Not much else to report on at the moment, but maybe I will do a part 2 this evening...

OK, here we go!

Home from vacation! Had an amazing time. The cabin was absolutely gorgeous! The bigger cabin really helped having the two dogs and even more stuff since we were staying longer this year. As soon as we walked in an said our "wows" i jumped at brian and gave him a huge hug and kiss. It was just perfect! We unpacked and put the food up and got all organized and then I wasted no time in getting down to the dock and casting in the fishing line! Fishing had its ups and downs, it was deffinately a lot of work to try and fish with the 2 kids. They are not at the age to understand the patience or the volume needed to fish. When you added that to Clover howling and barking up a storm inside throwing a fit because he wasn't outside with us, it was almost a chaotic madhouse at first. But, soon we realized what worked for us and went with it. As expected, the kids were more interested in feeding the brim and crappies at the dock than doing any real fishing...but if I got a good one on the line, they wanted to reel them in, LOL, which was funny at times and almost irritating at others..but all in all the fishing was fun and while sitting there in the shade and sun mixture on that dock, line in the water and mountain breeze blowing against my face, I was truly relaxed and felt at peace with the world...if only for a moment.
One day (honestly I can't remember which one, lol) we went to drive up to Andrews and Bryson City because supposedly there was cool stuff there....yeah, there wasnt, but we drove and drove and found amazing things along the way. We stopped at one point in the Nananhala National Forest and watched people rafting down the river, the air was incredible and clean and sweet and unlike anything I have smelled before. Then we kept driving and finally found Bryson...and stopped for a late lunch...and the lady at Arbys welcomed us to the "middle of nowhere"....whoops! So we found out that 10 miles up more was Cherokee, NC which is a place Brian used to visit as a kid, so we went and it was so cool to see him so excited and thinking back fondly of his childhood memories for a change. We walked through the shops and let the kids buy some stuff. They chose a bunch of Indian stuff, some candy, and a skull bank. We walked wround for about 2.5 hours and then let them play in the fountain and pools for a minute, and then headed back to the cabin.
Another day we decided again to take a trip in the other direction. We headed out towards TN and drove up to Ocoee. And let me tell you, oh my GOSH! How amazing!!! Driving through the mountains of TN with huge walls of solid rock on one side and the Ocoee river on the other was amazing. The kids weren't as interested in that trip as me and Brian were, but thats ok. We had a great time and seen some amazing things. I drove up a mountain that was officially the highest point I had ever been that wasn't in an airplane and was left just speechless. It was beautiful! We got some great pics and then I tried my hand for a few minutes fishing in the Ocoee....not successful but it was new! :)
Brian was really excited to get to go to the range with all his guns. Christopher was his little side kick. They both had a blast getting to go through hundreds of rounds of ammo during a few trips to the range. I went one day and shot the SKS, the .22, and the 9mm...but I only really liked the .22, everything else is just too much gun for me to shoot in the heat....but I would like to go again in the fall.
It was really nice to get to see Momma on her first family vacation, and even cooler was Clover. He got out i the yard and was playing and running at speeds I didn't even know he could reach!! He sounded like a horse galloping along between the ponds chasing Brian and Momma. He wasn't into the swimming as I suspected, and absolutely lost his mind on the dock the one time i got into the paddle boat. Poor guy just isnt a swimmer. He also isn't into eating raw fish as I thought he may have been. I tried to give him a fish 2 times and both times you could see he wanted to eat/play with it, but was terribly grossed out by the whole thing! Ha!
Most the time we just hung out at the cabin though, fishing, playing, resting, watching movies (Laci insisted Cabin Fever) and spending time as a family. It was so relaxing. 
Ben, the baby rat, died while on the trip. I was very sad to see him not make it, however I know I tried and thats more than anyone else wanted to do that I called or looked up online. I knew it was a long shot to save him  anyhow but I was even a little surprised how sad his passing made me.
This was the first vacation I have taken in a long time that actually made me feel like I wanted to cry when it was coming to the end. I can't believe how fast the time went, but I am glad now to be home and anxious to see the rest of the year and all the amazing things we have coming to us as a family. We have more trips planned and so much more happening in the next few months. 
I got home yesterday and we organized everything and then I went to pick up a Father's day gift for Brian (I already gave him his big gift which was a photobook I made) and then picked up Laci's paperwork for Pre-k! Wow...where is time going? Sadly while I was gone, Chip decided to use almost everything in Laci's bedroom as a litter box and I have so much to clean in there still. Thats next on my agenda when I am finished here. I cannot understand this cat, I wish I knew a home he go to where he was happy since he clearly is not happy here. He is always doing the most awful things here....and this time cost me a lot of money in his tempter tantrums.
Today is a quiet day, Brian is currently sleeping upstairs with a bad headache and the dogs are chewing bones and the kids are playing and occasionally fighting as always. I am trying hard to stay on task here and get this written up so I can feel accomplished in finally starting the blog back up!
Well, lets hope I can stick with this now. Back on my diet today too....I have gained almost 5 pounds back in the last 2 weeks eating like a schmuck! I have got to buckle back down now and get anpther 15-20 pounds off by fall...thats my goal...and then I will be eblow 200 by a few pounds finally...then I will evaluate the next goal.
Happy weekend!
Robin