Last Post for the Weekend (I'm on a roll)!!!

Oh, my. It has already begun. Faith is very much into matching and accessorizing. Today, as we were frantically getting ready for church, I grabbed two bows for Mallory and Faith. Faith noticed the one that I picked for Mallory and decided to take it for hers. Before I could say anything, she takes the yellow gingham bow, places right beside a small, yellow gingham flower on her dress, and says, "See it match. I have yellow." This girl is a TRIP! She is always wanting shoes or bows that "match." 

I mean, look at this sassy girl!!!

We also bought a fish today. Our kitten had been missing for four days so we thought she was pretty much a goner....so....enter new fish. We found Stinker on a golf cart ride later in the evening so now we have two pets....GREAT.  The fish will probably die soon, anyway (hey....it's the truth). Faith decided to name our new goldfish. She named it "Orange." It fits, right?! ;)

I have two more funny notes for the weekend....both being about my going completely batty:

 So, in the craziness of preparing for church (which probably is all my fault since I slept as late as I possibly could....hey....when the kids sleep...I sleep), I was literally throwing on my clothes last minute. When I got back from church, I noticed that my tags were sticking out everywhere....YEAH....shirt inside out. Yay me.

On the way home with the fish, guess who remembered that I threw our old fish food away?...yep. Here we were with a fish and no food. So, I had the bright idea of stopping by the bait shop. It was worth a shot!!! The nice man, who sells fish for bait, actually had some fish food. It was used, but he sold it to us!!! He must have been having a slow day! I really didn't care.

Ahhh....good times in the Patrick house this weekend!!! It's weekends like these that we will look back and laugh about....and one day I will probably wish I could have back...MAYBE ;)

In closing, I have to give a big THANK you to YaYa, who watched the twins while Mallory, Mommy, and Daddy napped! Also many thanks to MeMe and Poppy for bringing special treats for the kiddos this evening. We are SO blessed!

MaDnEsS, I Say!!!

Okay....ignore that last post. You know, the one where I said that I cry my eyeballs out each day because of leaving my kids???!!! Yeah, they have almost killed me....and narrowly escaped injuring themselves today, too. Sooo.....maybe I should reconsider that I-want-to-stay-at-home-kick that I have been on. LOL!!! No. Seriously. I will be crying again on Monday.....BUT....today has been less than pleasant or enjoyable. Faith, Cam, and Mallory are all out of sorts. I'm so stinkin' tired. Cody looked at me in the grocery store and said, "Your eyes are red." WELL. THANKS...and DUH....your children have about EXHAUSTED me today!!! You ask how and why??? Here goes....

Cody needed to do some work at the shop. So, it was just me and the three kiddos here. It was great at first. We ate breakfast, we read books, we played. Then, I had the bright idea of cleaning house. That's when these little boogers took FULL advantage of not having my undivided attention. These are the things that occurred:

1. All necklaces and hair bows were utilized.....all over the house and my babies. Cameron even insisted he was a girl and wore earrings.
2.I caught Mallory standing in a chair trying to plug both ends of a phone charger into the wall.
3. All three kids snuck upstairs....twice.
4. Brooms and mops were consistently taken from their appropriate placed and used everywhere but the floor.
5. Three monkeys were found climbing on the bed, jumping on the bed, and hiding under the bed.
6. If the three amigos were not plotting against me, they were plotting against each other, screaming that one or the other were, "Bad, bad, bad," or "Mean, mean, mean."
7. The child proof gate became un-child proof after it was tugged and pulled upon, which ultimately put a hole in the wall.
8. Mallory fell down at least four steps.
9. Milk was leaked on the floor....carpet.
10....and this is the best one yet....I found Faith and Cameron on top of the dining room table eating their lunch (I ran to their room for just a few to pick them out some clothes). It flipped over...yes...with food...MUSTARD onto the floor.

Needless to say. The cleaning of the house halted until Cody got home. The madness continued. At the grocery store....

1. Faith and Cameron insist that they had to potty.
2. Faith announced to the whole entire store, "I have to POOP, daddy!!!!" This was AFTER they had already went potty. OMG!!!
3. Mallory tossed every item that she could possibly outside of the cart. One man in the store was cheering her on. He said, "Do it again!!! Do it again!!!"
4. We lost the Ingles card....but they looked up our number thank goodness.
5. By the end, we had two crying before we walked out the door.

BUT....I will say that this grocery trip was better than the last....Faith busted her nose....yep....best trip ever.

Ahhhhh. I am sure that this will be funny at some point in my life, and I am actually able to laugh about it now. It wasn't quite so funny when it was happening, though! I'm always amazed, however, how these little people can make me go mad in one moment and melt my heart in the next. Before bed, Cameron said that he wanted to thank God for "butterflies." How sweet, innocent, and angelic is that?

Hoping for a better day tomorrow! ;)

Week by Week

It's been quite a ride these last couple of weeks. Many, many emotions.....excitement, nervousness, sadness, etc, etc. At this point, I think that I could sleep forever.

Since last posting, Down South Diesel has officially opened its doors at the new location. HOW EXCITING. HOW ANXIOUS we have been! It's one of those things. It could go well....very well.  It could go bad....very bad. Luckily, so far, it has gone much better than anticipated with a steady flow of customers. I MUST say that we are also truly blessed to have such great people in out lives. People have been so generous as to spread the word and voice their high opinions of DSD. We are definitely taking it week by week and hoping that business continues to be steady and slowly increasing. At the end of the day we are still....EXCITED....and ANXIOUS.   That's a good thing! We could be ANXIOUS and DEPRESSED!!!!   :)

I have also started back to work....sigh....tear. Work itself has not been unpleasant, but the reality of leaving my babies has been. It usually takes me a couple of days before I'm okay with it. However, I am going on week three....and I am NOT OKAY WITH IT. I don't know what's up with me this year!!! I am SO emotional!!! Numerous times I have had to hide and cry!!! I see babies at school crying for their mommas and it makes me think of my babies...and guess what???....I want to cry! A kid gives me a hug, I think of my babies...and.....you guessed it!!!...I want to CRY!!! I really don't know what's up with myself, but I hope it gets easier and better. It has become embarrassing (although I don't think anyone has noticed).

So, our family has basically been a bundle of nerves lately....and everyone knows stress poops anyone out. We're just gonna' keep on keepin' on, though!!!! Please pray for our sanity!!!

I'm gonna' try to play catch-up with my blogging....so more to come soon...MAYBE ;)

Vacation 2012

I am really not in the blogging mood. I am in a lazy, do-nothing, pout-all-day because summer is ending kind of mood. I knew this would happen as soon as our beach vacation ended....once vacation came and went it was all OVER....been pretty bummed out since. Although I really shouldn't have to defend myself for having these feelings, I always feel like I should....soooooo.....yes, I am super grateful that I have a job that gives me extended breaks. Yes, it is extremely rewarding. Yada, yada, yada.....

Anyway, I'm not in the blogging mood....Buhhhh-uuutttt....I can't let my mood or life lead me to forget the many memories that we created (the whole reason why I do this blog). I have to jot at least SOME of them down!!! Here goes....

I do believe that I made a list of lessons learned from our vacation last summer. So, I find it appropriate that I take the same approach, here.


1. Bring a potty seat. So, our car was rather loaded down. It was SO loaded down that we had to remove one of the back seats to make more room. When you're taking half the house, even the largest cars do not have enough room. Therefore, I was a bit torn between whether or not to bring one of the potty seats. After all, the kids can sit on big potties AND there would be two in our room (in case of those we-both-have-to-go-NOW situations). Why would we need the potty seat and why should we take up more room packing it? Well, Cody was the wise one and insisted that we pack it....THANK GOODNESS. Why? Well, it wasn't too far into our trip that we needed a potty break. We stopped at a clean service station...no potty seat needed. It wasn't fifteen minutes later that another break was needed....oh, geez! Cameron has the whole potty outside thing down. Faith, however, not so much. Potty seat to the rescue. Yep....right there in a parking lot.....and I'm sure she will LOVE me for posting this one once she is all grown up!

2. Weigh your options: Screaming kids or millions of potty breaks. Okay. So I will admit. The two potty breaks in the amount of fifteen minutes was likely my fault...entirely. I gave them juice...a lot of it....BUT...in my defense, Mallory was screaming her head off!!! Juice makes all things better!!! Of course, when you offer it to one you must provide for all...hence the need to potty....frequently. To me, I will stop all day if it means the kids are happy. Screaming in the car is not enjoyable...at all. Did I mention that Cody was threatening to put a kid on the roof less than two hours in?.....hilarious!

3. Take an extra car seat...and put it in a different car ;). Yep. Pat and YaYa took an extra car seat...thank you Lord. When we got enough of the screaming child (aka...Mallory), we passed her own to Pat and YaYa. It was NICE.

4. Navigation doesn't impress everyone. Although I don't go too many places in which I don't know where I am going, I have been SUPER excited about using my navigation system several times in the last couple of months. What did we ever do without the thing? Maps????.....who needs them???!!! However, not everyone is as impressed as I am. Cameron specifically. I got SO tickled at this kid. Any time the navigation lady came on to prompt us (interrupting Cam's movie), he would yell, "Too loud. HUSH!!!" This kid cracks me up.

5. Not everyone is cut out for the beach....and you can't make them. I'm a beach bum. I can't understand WHY anyone would not be. I mean, who wouldn't want sand stuck to them as they burn and sweat in the sun???!!! Anyway, Faith LOVE, LOVED it. She liked the sand...and I think she even like the ocean...although the big water can be scary! Cameron and Mallory, on the other hand...well....they were less enthusiastic. Cameron didn't want to touch the sand. Mallory didn't want to be five feet near the sand. We kept trying each day....but...OH WELL. There's always next year! ;)

6. Expect the unexpected. Yep. I packed the first-aid kit and the children's Advil, but I didn't really think that I would NEED either....BUT....what do you know? Mallory had a fever on day two (and I felt super bad about it because I pretty much think that she had it LONG before we discovered it). I prefer Tylenol for fevers (we usually do the 8 hour Advil for all night teething issues)....did I pack that???....uhhhh....NO. Next time, I will be packing all medications in the medicine cabinet.


7. Meal-time will either be bearable or disastrous....never pleasurable. Well. This is really not a lesson learned. This is just a given around here. Even if the kids are good, the work of keeping them happy or making sure that they are well taken care of can make me a nervous wreck. So...that would be bearable. Then, there are the dinners that are a disaster. Let's see....I think it was the meal at Bubba Gump's? YEP...who could forget? Before our dinner came out, I had already switched seats with Cody to TRY and pacify Mallory, we had each been outside with her, AND Cameron had gotten choked and melted down. At the end of the meal, only three of us were left at the table (out of a party of  12), and I was craving an alcoholic beverage. Needless to say, that was our last night out....

8. Order in. Yep. The next night, we ordered in. It was great. We still were able to eat a good meal, we didn't have the wait, we had time to do something afterwards, AND the kids were HAPPY!!! WOOHOO!!!

9. Spend some one-on-one time. I NEVER have one-on-one time with my individual kids. One afternoon, Cameron was not interested in going down to the beach (imagine that) and Mallory was napping. So, I took little Faith with me, and we had some alone time. It was great (and seemed super easy!!!)!!! I am making a note to try this more often (with each one of the kiddos).

...and FINALLY....

10. It just keeps getting better. Although there were SOME difficult times during the trip, I thought that my kids did SUPER well. For the most part, they were well-behaved and as sweet as pie. This is our third beach trip since having children, and I think that it was by far the smoothest and most pleasurable. It keeps me looking forward to more trips to come. Oh, how I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these babies!!!

CuPcAkE TiMe!!!

I have always considered myself a fairly organized person....okay...wait....some people, who know me, may be laughing their heads off at that. I think that I actually have split organizational styles. At work, I am a bit OCD. Very planned. Very organized. Overly specific. At home....not so much. I mean, my house is not a wreck or anything, but it is less than organized. I tend to forget things at home, too. Ask my mother or Margaret. I will not deny that we have often gotten specific grocery items from THEIR kitchens when I have forgotten them (and I can't completely blame it on the kids because I borrowed from mom before I even had children). Soooo....ok....I'll admit....maybe I am not as organized as a mother should be...or that I would like to be.....BUT. I. DO. TRY.

When you have kiddos, it's worse when you have forgotten or accidentally run out of something. They can't wait...won't wait...and you don't want them to, either. Although this is not a story of running out of milk, diapers, or juice (although we do that often), it is a story of....CUPCAKES. Yes...CUPCAKES. It all started like this....

I bought the kids these cute little aprons. I REALLY wanted to see them put to use. So, after nap one day this week, I asked them if they wanted to help me cook. They gave me an ecstatic, "UH-HUH!!!" Brownies was the baking item of choice (because I REALLY thought that I had some up in that cabinet!!!!). I got the kids all tied up in their aprons and the girls' hair all pulled back. The camera was close by, too (of course). When we get to the kitchen, yep, you guessed it....NO BROWNIES!!!! Faith said, "Oh, NO!" Now, who do you call when something like this occurs?.....your wonderful mother. I KNEW that I had the ingredients to whip up SOMETHING from scratch (although Betty Crocker or Pillsbury is more my style). These kids were ready to COOK! Mom could tell me what to do!

Mom found a quick cupcake recipe and then we went to work!!! In the end, we had some less than attractive, overly dry, chocolate cupcakes. The end product may have not been spectacular, but the process sure was fun....and funny!

So, yes. My house is less than organized. I often forget items at the grocery store. I obviously forget items that I do and do NOT have in my cupboards. OH WELL. My kids don't have the mother of the year by any means.....but we sure do learn how to improvise and have fun!!!

Here are the pics!

 Sneaky Faith. Stirring away.

 Trying out the icing.

Mmmmm...

Everything's Gonna be Alright

Well, today marks the last day of Cody's employment for Ford. There's been a whole lotta' wheels turning, butterflies in the belly, and prayers going up. A decision has been made, and, as I write, I am hoping that all who read will say an extra prayer for us!!!

Cody has decided to take his part-time business full-time. For those of you, who were unaware of ANY business, Cody is co-owner of Down South Diesel. As of right now, the business primarily orders and places performance parts on diesels. However, in the new endeavor, general maintenance repairs will be accepted to all types of vehicles.

For those of you doubters (and I am not accusing...just being realistic...I would be lying if I said that I didn't have my doubts), we know that it is not an ideal time to open a business. We know that things may get hard before they get better. We know that there is a chance that things might not get better at all, and we will be forced to look at other options.  I have thought of ALL of the negatives to this new adventure....trust me. However, this is what I DO know....

1. You have to trust and believe in your spouse. For better or for worse, right? Yes, those are the vows. I have never seen Cody so ambitious about something. He WANTS this. We've talked about it. We've thought about it. We've deliberated the topic. He prayed about it.....and he believes with all of his heart and soul that this is the path that God is urging him to go down. I believe him. I believe in him. End of story.

2. You must have faith. I will not sit here and say that I KNOW this will work out. I can't know that. We will pray. We will know that we will never be handed something that we can not handle. We will trust that all things happen for a reason. You live. You learn. You move forward.

3. Doors open and close for a reason. The door opened for Cody to become a parts and service manager at the Ford place two years ago. It brought him closer to home. It brought his stress level down. It gave him both service AND managerial experience. He has much of the knowledge that he needs to open a business. Perhaps that was all to prepare him for this newly opened door. Maybe not...but we shall see.

4. Success usually follows a risk. Most successful people HAVE to take risks. Of course, there are some exceptions to the rule, but sometimes you have to take risks. I understand that there is a lot at stake, here. I DO. Did I mention that we are going to pray, pray, pray???

5. You have to have a good support system. You have to have other family and friends that believe in you....trust in you....and are there for you.

So, having that all said, this is my first advertisement for DSD (Down South Diesel). I ask first, that everyone keeps us in their thoughts. Secondly, I ask everyone to bring us their business!!! For the remainder of July, Cody will be taking small jobs to keep the income flowing. We plan to open doors in Madison as early as July 31st. There are a couple of details to be worked out (such as getting the shop ready, etc). PLEASE COME OUT AND SUPPORT US!!!

sUmMeR hEaT, sUmMeR fUn!

Summer has definitely heated up in the last week! WOW...the heat is awful! Most of my flowers are dying, and, unfortunately, it seems that some of our newly planted trees are, too. We have not been doing much playing in the yard, but early mornings and showers have seemed to allow us a few minutes of outside playtime.

What would summer be without watermelon???!!! Cameron, Faith, and Mallory LOVE the stuff. Here are some pics that we shot one afternoon before a summer shower. This is the only way we can eat watermelon....outside...and stripped down (only the kids, of course...ha)! I have posted most of these pics on facebook, as well.

We went out one morning just to walk in the shade (and for me to take pictures, of course). It's the little things in life. The kiddos LOVE to pick up and throw rocks. Although they can definitely have their disagreements, Faith and Cameron really try to look out for Mallory.On this particular day,  Faith was constantly trying to keep Mallory away from the road (although we were at least 50 yards from it).  They decided to hold her hands.

On a more concerning note, summer has thrown us a bit of a curve ball. The Ford Place in Greensboro has officially closed its doors. This has left Cody looking for a job as early as this Friday. As frightening as this is, we must not worry. We must know that "God has this (some words of wisdom that I have received)." We are not 100% certain what door will open as this one closes, but we do know that we must act fast. As everyone knows, bills don't stop coming. I have been comforted and so appreciative by the kind words of some. It's also amazing to me that others are so willing to offer help in whatever way they can. It's nice to know that people love you, support you in whatever endeavor we choose, and are willing to lend a shoulder or listening ear. THANK YOU....you know, who you are ;)