So you had a bad day...

I love Saturday mornings. Although I don't get to sleep late (thanks to my early-rising two-year old), I do get to at least lay in bed for a while before I have to get up. Usually, Caleb and I lay in the bed and play for a while before he gets hungry for breakfast (which is usually within ten minutes after he wakes up!). Meanwhile, Brayden is asleep in his room, oblivious that everyone else in the house is awake. How I wish I were in the bed with him instead! Anyway, Caleb and I were already up Saturday morning when one of our employees called at 7:15. Since our store opens at 7, I figured he was going to say he couldn't come in or was going to be late for work. But no, he said he was outside in the driveway to pick up Jeffry's chop saw. Ha...I was in my pajamas! Jeffry didn't call to tell me someone was coming! I rushed to pull on some clothes and open the garage so he could get the saw. Awkward seeing your employee with no makeup, hair not brushed...you get the picture. Well, within the next fifteen minutes, Jeffry calls and says that another employee was making a delivery in our F-650 delivery truck and had a wreck. Ohhh great. What a way to start your Saturday. We've never had a wreck since we've been in business. It wasn't our driver's fault though. A woman basically ran a stop sign and trying to stop too late, slid about thirty feet into the side of our truck. I'm thankful that no one was hurt though. Oh and guess what? She doesn't have insurance. Doesn't that just figure. So I had to load up the kids and myself to head out there and take pictures of our truck. This is all before 8 in the morning! Ugh! We scrambled to get our clothes on and drive to the southern part of the county. I took several pictures of our truck; it's hard to discern the damage from my pictures though. It is not drive-able, and the entire frame of the truck is bent. We think it may be totaled, but we won't know for sure until an adjuster can look at it. Meanwhile, what to do for deliveries? This severely cramps our business, which is a building supply store; we rely on that truck numerous times a day for deliveries. We have other trucks, but this one has our forklift attached to the back. So with it out of commission, that means we can't make any large deliveries that would need the forklift. I'm praying that the situation is resolved quickly, whether it be that we find a truck to rent or that we are able to buy a new delivery truck.


*I'll post the pics later!

Helicopter Tour

Just a few of my favorite pics from our helicopter tour around Maui. We had a one hour tour encircling the entire island. It was breathtaking!!


Incredible waterfall.



I love the clouds in these pics.




The crater on Maui.


See the rainbow?

We're home!

Well my post has been delayed; I had a lot of it saved as a draft but hadn't finished it to post yet. I'm also aggravated that blogger won't cooperate and load my pictures (it takes FOREVER!) But our trip was wonderful!! The first couple of days were a little rainy, but not in the sense of rain like Mississippi rain...just barely misting rain. So it wasn't bad at all, actually quite comfortable.

We stayed at the Westin Maui, which was extremely nice. It was so cool because the lobby was open-air; it only had a roof and a back wall. They had a waterfall and pool connected to the lobby that also connected to the swimming pools. There were flamingoes and swans in the pools near the water; it was really quite beautiful!


The day after we arrived, we rented a Hummer and drove the "Road to Hana" which has over 600 curves and 50 one-lane bridges. It takes you over two hours to drive about 40 miles. Crazy, huh? The scenery is gorgeous though; lots of rainforest vegetation, waterfalls, flowers, etc. On that drive, we stopped at a black sand beach which was pretty cool. I've only seen white sand beaches, never black! Their sand is different from ours though; it feels more like birdseed between your toes, haha. We had a picnic lunch that day and just enjoyed our time at different stop-offs.



The following morning, Jeffry took surfing lessons. He did so well! I was really proud of him. He said it was so tiring trying to fight the waves as you paddled back out, and then you only got a 15 second ride on the waves. He was exhausted by the time their lesson was over. I just sat on the rocks nearby and took photos. :) No surfing for me.

Aww, poor Jeff...


We took a helicopter ride one day, which was really incredible. A once in a lifetime experience. We also had a day trip to Oahu to visit the USS Arizona Memorial and to tour the USS Missouri. For those of you who don't know, the Arizona was torpedoed and went down in Pearl Harbor. Over 1100 men died in the ship. It was on the decks of the Missouri that the treaty to end WWII was signed. So we got to see the beginning of the war and the end of the war in the same trip. Pretty awesome. I have tons of pics of both of these trips but I'll have to add them later when I have a little more time.

I guess the worst thing about Hawaii is the time change and the flight over there. They are five hours ahead of us, so when it's 8am at home it's 3am in Hawaii. It takes some getting used to, to say the least. The first few days we woke up at 4 in the morning Hawaii time. And thankfully, we didn't receive any phone calls from home at bad times like a lot of our friends did, haha. The flight is just miserable, especially on the way home. Our flight was from Maui to Dallas, and it lasted eight hours. I think I slept about 45 minutes and that was only because my husband was nice enough to go stand somewhere for that long! Anyway, this post is forever long; I'll add more pics later!

Vacation

Just to let you all know, we'll be in Hawaii for a few days. I promise there will be TONS of pics when we get back though! Please keep us in your prayers for safe travel and for homesickness from the boys. We will miss them so much, but a vacation will be a welcomed break. We'll update when we get home!

Learn a little

Heather tagged me to do this survey!

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people, posts their names, and then leaves a comment on their blogs, letting them know they've been tagged.



What was I doing 10 years ago?

1. Living the carefree life of a freshman in highschool.

2. Singing with Legacy at Colonial Heights.

3. Driving in my little Ford Contour named Taylor.

4. Spending all my free time with my best friend, Heather. We lived at each other's houses!

5. Listening to Hanson CDs all the time! Still love their music, yes, they're still around.


5 Things On My To-Do List Today:

1. Register Bray for Kindergarten.

2. Breakfast with Cydnee and Kisha.

3. Finish payroll and pay some bills.

4. Go to my piano lesson.

5. I was supposed to go to Bray's tball game, but it got rained out. :(



5 Things I Would Do If I Were a Billionaire:

1. Plant churches!

2. Give money within our community, especially our school systems.

3. Pay off our house.

4. Invest more in our retirement fund and kids' college funds.

5. Travel all over the world.



5 Bad Habits:

1. Singing/humming all the time. ALL the time.

2. My movie addiction...I could spend every night in front of the tv with my hubby and a movie.

3. I have gotten bad about interrupting people lately and I don't like it. I'm really working on that.

4. Taking comments from others too personally.

5. Avoiding my laundry pile.


5 Places I Have Lived:

1. Columbia, MO

2. Madison, MS

3. Hattiesburg, MS

4. Lucedale, MS

5. Wiggins, MS


5 Jobs I Have Had

1. Babysitter

2. Hostess/Waitress at Vasilio's Greek Restaurant

3. Soccer Referee

4. Secretary at Malachi Financial Group

5. Office Manager/Accountant at Jack's Home Improvement Center



5 Tags:

1. Kimmie

2. Brycie

3. Olivia

4. Brittany

5. I can't think of anyone who hasn't done it already!

I'm having a moment...

Jeffry and I took Brayden to register for Kindergarten this morning. Not K-4, but K-5! Actual "Big-kid" school! He'll even ride the bus to school...maybe...if I don't cry my eyes out. I was very apprehensive, in part, because I did not find out until Thursday that registration was today! So I had to rush around yesterday and this morning getting his shot record, proof of residency, etc. This whole experience is like getting ready to put my child out into the world! I know that seems over dramatic, but really, this will be the first time that he's been outside of a Christian environment. And I know that most of the people and teachers in his school will be Christians, but it's not a "Christian" school. However, I know that this is what God has for him. Jeffry and I haved prayed and agonized for the past year about where to send Brayden to school, and with the purchase of our new farm, God opened the door for Bray to attend South Forrest. The school has small classes like a private school and does very well in state testing. I know that we are doing the right thing because God has given me a peace about it. No matter how nervous I am about my five year old growing up....

Innovators

I was inside folding laundry, while the boys were outside playing. After a few minutes, I walked out to check on them. Bray flew past me on his bike and I was scanning the yard/ golf course for Caleb. I did not see him and asked Brayden where he was.

"Mommy! He's riding my bike!"

"Wait, what?"

I readjusted my gaze upon Brayden's bicycle, where to my amazement, my two innovators had figured out a way they could both ride on a one-man bike at the same time. They never cease to amaze me.

Farm Field Trip

Thursday I chaperoned Brayden's field trip to 7L Farms here in Wiggins. We had such a great time! I was so impressed with the activities that they had planned for the kids. We started off talking about the difference between dairy cattle and beef cattle. Then the kids got in a pen with some sheep and goats and got to pet them.





"When do we get to pet the puppies?", Brayden asked Mr. Batson.
"What puppies?"
"Those ones over there."
"Those are baby goats, son!"




Haha...I was laughing so hard. But it's easy to get confused when you've never seen a baby goat before! The kids got to make butter out of cream, practice milking a fake cow, watch a man shear a sheep, and then see how to make yarn out of the wool. We had so much fun, but we were all tired by the end of the trip.

Here's a glimpse of how tired we were.




And one of these days I'll quit being lazy and post our Easter pictures.