Gaping Holes...

There are gaping holes in my Project 365! I am so disappointed in myself.... but in my defense we haven't been doing much and I should really pull myself out of this funk entirely (someday hopefully) and stay on top of it. I do plan on filling in the holes of my project (only because out of 365 photos I think I'll be missing only a small portion.

And I want to upload some pics of our little trip we took last week. Our landlord invited Jay and I and the kids to his family's beach house of the west coast so Jay could fix up a few things that needed attention. Flagler Beach is where it is located and it is just BEAUTIFUL! The few from the balcony is just mind blowing.

The first day Bob showed Jay all the things needing attention while I occupied the kids and worked with Bob on web site information (I'm building a web site for his Beach House to be rented). Then around 3 ish (give or take an hour) we all took a walk on over to the beach. It was so great, some mini waves (a lot more than what we'd see on the East Coast - in the Gulf). We stayed long enough for the kids to play and for Jay to try his hand and body boarding. I also saw a number of Star Fish!

The next day we woke up and waited for Bob to wake up (he's a late riser). Brooklynn, Cal, Jay and I sat on the deck enjoying the breeze and sun. After waiting for a while Brooklynn wanted to go to the beach really bad. So I decided that she and I would take a stroll on the beach alone together. So we walked over, bucket in hand, and just walked along the beach picking sea shells and enjoying time together. I have to say it was just amazing to relax with the wind in my hair, ocean at my feet, and my daughter ahead of me holding her capri pants up running along the shore....

Afterward we headed back to house with our finds. I sorted while Brooklynn played with the little girls who lived next door. She enjoyed playing with friends, I really think it's been good for her to have these experiences. I honestly think she is more friendly and outgoing than I was. I still find sometimes that I'm reserved, but for my daughter's sake I really need to learn how to take a more proactive approach to making friends myself.

We ended up going back to the beach, I took the kids minus Edyn while Jay finished up the odd jobs with Bob. The girls tagged along and they all had fun digging huge holes and building a sand castle. Brooklynn was actually really bummed because the kite she wanted to fly had broken so she was unable to fly it. I will have to get her one to fly soon...

So we packed up the next morning, cleaned the house spotless, and headed back East. It really was a great and exciting trip.

Here are some photos of the vacation :)

Reflecting

I hate it when I have those moments when I get so overwhelmed with daily life that I forget to take time to love the sweet little moments, or realize that I've been taking things for granted. I should've really learned my lesson on taking things for granted when my mom died. I thought she'd be there until she was old and gray AND wrinkled (haha sorry mom). Is it so sad that she didn't even get to see her 50th birthday, her daughter have 2 more kids, her youngest go to Prom, her first real boyfriend, and soon her high school graduation. Yes it is. But then not only did I take her for granted, but I still take everyone for granted. I feel like I will always have them around. In January Jay's mom died... 44 years old. She didn't get to see 45! What does that say for me? When am I going to die? Will I get to see my kids have kids? It just honestly has me worried.

But still today I am sitting here realizing that I take everyone for granted STILL. In my mind everyday is my dad and sister and my father-in-law. I pray daily for them to live LONG not just happy lives, but LONG lives. I worry so much about my dad. I worry about his drinking, I worry about his cholesterol, I worry about his stress and whether he's going to be here and for how long? Will I get a call that somethings happened? How will my sister take it?

I sometimes wonder if we did the right thing moving down here... of course I will miss them terribly, but I'm thinking about my kids... and not to mention I hate the snow. Honestly, after school is over and once I've gotten a good paying job I want to be able to take at least one weekend every month to fly up and visit just because I know how precious family is and my family, whether they know it or not, they mean the world to me AND THEN SOME.

Playing Catch Up - Easter Morning

Goodness will I ever get the hang of having three kids? That and I'm having such a hard time with motivation lately. I really need to do something to kick my system in the butt and get myself moving!! Believe it or not I'm starting to enjoy cleaning my house so I can take pride in my house. I enjoy doing school work because I know where it'll take me in the future. I also enjoy blogging, baking, cooking, photography, website tinkering, and scrapping... but I literally have NO motivation for ANY of that! I mean cleaning yeah I can understand lack of motivation... but seriously? Why don't I have motivation to do ANYTHING??

Anyway.. thought I'd play catch up with Easter Photos and MAYBE I'll come back someday to post about the awesome vacation Jay and I and the kids took last week!

These first few photos are of the Easter Baskets...


**Cal's New Shades**


Looking at his baby sister's pail instead of his own, lol.



I knew she would want a stuffed animal, but she's not the bunny kind of girl. So Mrs. Easter Bunny made the call for her to get a Frog!


This is a onesie Edyn had gotten from Tiffany in a bag of "Hand Me Downs" a BRAND NEW
tag still attached Old Navy Onesie... I saved it for Easter!


The remnants of chocolate cupcake on her face as she checks out her new LPS Bunnies.


And ditto for Cal.


Edyn checking out her Easter Goodies.



She's loving it!



Cal's cool Spider-Man Pail.



Brook's Cool Tinkerbell Pail



Little Bit of the Hunt! Yes I did hide that egg in laundry hanging on the line...

And his first Easter where he was able to participate in!!

Easter Prep!

It's been a busy day! We've been running today and it's bee a fairly productive day. At 11am we started getting the kids ready to go to the babysitter's. We were so lucky to have found such an awesome landlord. Jay does work for reduced rent, their 15 year old daughter (and our landlord's wife) watches the kids. We've only been out twice. Once last month for her to get the hang of the kids and meet them so Jay and I could go out to eat. Then today so Jay and I could get the things for us to prep for Easter. We were able to get some cute things. Easter is one of the Holiday's we don't really go all out for yet. No decorations or crazy amounts of food or basket goodies. Just simple and nice.

We were able to score these pails for the kids' "baskets" at Wal-Mart. Initially I had picked out three baskets for $4 each. But Jay suggested the pails...and I just had to agree. The things are going to be rough to fit in there, but at least those pails will last longer and be used more often (instead of just tomorrow). I got some candy from Walgreens because they had these Chocolate Creme Eggs by Russel Stover and Carrot Bagged Reece Pieces. Then I ran to Publix to grab some cake mix to make cupcakes on the fly!

Once we had picked up the kids and came home we quickly cleaned the house and the crap from the backyard (that the previous residents had left). Then we warmed up the leftover Chinese and sent Caliber to bed because he was acting REALLY grumpy because he had a full day with the babysitter and ended up taking his nap a little late, ha really like 5 hours late! After conquering my son, "Seek & Destroy" (as my step-mom - his Mamaw Ermlich - calls him) Brook and I set out to color some eggs! The egg coloring kit we got has these nifty little plastic cups already in it. I decided to only do a dozen eggs. And after trying last year to color eggs and then later trying to eat them only to discover they were SO NOT COOKED all the way, I decided to crack one open just to make doubly sure that I was successful in my attempt. That left us with 11 Eggs... still enough for a 4 year old and a 16 month old I think.

So following are some pics of our Easter Prep.


These are the coloring cups the kit came with!


These are the face stickers that came with it, Brooklynn had fun making the faces!


This is Humpty Dumpty... we made up our own rhyme, "Humpty Dumpty sat on the couch; Humpty Dumpty had a great ouch; All Brooklynn's horses and all Brooklynn's men couldn't put Humpty together again."


Brooklynn and I shared the cupcake making responsibilities.


Filling the cups.

And after Brooklynn went to bed.... the Easter bunny went to work with his surprises!


Adding Jelly Beans to the already frosted cupcakes...


And filling the spring pails with goodies!

**Coming up later - An Easter Morning Update!**

Getting Set up [again].

Well here I am getting the blog set up again. Not only do I dream of stability in my personal life but also in my blogging life...ha never right?