Perspective

Yesterday I arrived home after a long day at work. As most working moms, I didn't even take my shoes off before I had checked the mail, brought the recycling bin inside, moved the wash into the dryer, unloaded the dishwasher, loaded the dishwasher with the dirty dishes from lunch and wiped down the table. Then I took a look around and saw about 4 pairs of crocs, blankets, crumbs and two children who couldn't keep their hands to themselves and continued to scream at levels that I am quite sure only animals at night can hear. I moved into the living room to discover a rotten banana. At this point when I sat down to return some phone calls I was interrupted no less than 5 times before I got off the phone. By the time Ben had arrived home at 6:30 I was folding the laundry that was in the dryer and had already taken away TV privileges for my two screaming kids. We finally sat down as a family and the kids continued to scream and fight. We have been working on not yelling at them so I calmly told them that they are not going to be able to behave this way once the baby comes. I told them that I will not bring the baby home when they are acting like this. To which Connell responded, "so you're going to sell it?" No was mine and Ben's reply and we explained that Mommy and the baby would just go live somewhere else until they learned to behave. Clara with crocodile tears welling up in her eyes and her bottom lip beginning to quiver responded, " But Mommy who's going to do the laundry?" And that is perspective.

HALLOWEEN

You all are probably wondering okay how do we get from the 4th of July all the way to Halloween. I went to the doctor yesterday and they have scheduled baby Heinz's delivery for Halloween. Our little goblin will be here on Halloween morning unless he or she decides to come earlier. There have been suggestions of Hallie, Elvira, or Ichabod for names, but I think we will stay away from those. The doctor did make me promise that I would not have a pumpkin cake every year for the baby's birthday. So anyway the countdown is on.

4th of July

The Fourth of July was my 32nd Birthday. We celebrated by having my family over for lunch and a little bit of pool time. It was one of the most relaxing birthdays I've ever had. Here are some pool pics.


After everyone left we hung out around the pool and swam with the kids for a little bit before heading up to Heron Lakes to enjoy the fireworks. Here are some pictures of the fireworks I took with my camera.



Here is one of my favorite pictures of Clara at HLCC waiting for the fireworks. She also stole the camera and took one of me and Ben. She took a lot of others which were deleted, but this one somewhat turned out.

Pappy's 70th Birthday Party

July 1st was Pappy's 70th Birthday. We celebrated with a pool party at our house. Here are a couple of pics from that day of Pappy with his grandkids.

Sharks

Over Father's Day weekend when we were at Orange Beach we saw a shark just a few feet off of the beach. We were able to take this short video of it.

Father's Day Weekend

We spent Father's Day weekend at the Beach with Ben's parents, Liz, Maggie and Johnny. We stayed at Seachase Condominium and had a blast. When Hurricane Ivan hit, it did a substantial amount of damage to the condominium. Since then they have totally redone the outside of the condominium complex. They have fountains, baby pool with a mushroom waterfall, four pools and a couple of hot tubs. I highly recommend it for anyone with kids. Here are some pictures of John Hunter and Clara in their floats that Mimi bought them, a picture of Connell and Johnny at the pool, Maggie and Johnny by the pool and Connell trying out his snorkle.




The next couple of pictures are pictures of Clara playing in the sand and a picture of Ben's attempt at a sandcastle. I think this explains why he went to law school instead of architecture.