Whoa, where did the week go??

Seriously, this week has flown by. Just yesterday I realized it was Thursday!!! So let's see, where to begin??

Last week we had a good week. Lots of swimming and playing. We've done lots of crafts, painting is still Rylee's favorite...my rags however don't enjoy it as much!

Friday we were lucky enough to have Russell and Aunt Amy come for the day. They played non stop. Made some father's day presents.

And then played some more.

Then we decided to go outside and play for a little bit. Lots of sprinkler time.

Rylee still hasn't figured out the water gun idea but she has fun pretending and shooting the sprinkler at the boys. At one point she ticked everyone off because she wouldn't put it down. She'd pick it up and spray then without even really realizing she's doing it. :-)

LOVED getting in the bucket too.

Friday night Amy, Rylee and I went to OKC for Christin's shower and Justin took all the boys to the lake. I wasn't sure how it'd work out, but he managed to get all 3 asleep before Russ got there. Yeah for Justin!!

Rylee was so good on the ride to OKC, a fun girls trip. She got a little hungry towards the end so I gave her some chips Amy had in her floor board. Not long after that we smelt a horrible smell, like paint or something toxic. We could never figure it out and were worried it was the car, then Rylee starts handing me her chips and saying they're "hot." They were cheese Sun Chips so we knew they weren't, I tried one...and then made Amy try one. OOoooh Mmmmmy Gggggosh. They were HORRENDOUS!!! Something happened to them while they were in the car and they were so bad, not stale bad, but toxic bad, turns out that's what the smell was too. Amy and I both scratched our tongue off and popped a piece of gum. Poor Rylee!!!

Saturday morning we woke up and started baking. Lots of yummy food!! And here's the beautiful bride!!

She hauled in a good load of stuff too! Rylee slept through the whole shower darn it! After we cleaned up we headed to the lake to celebrate Father's Day. Got there and everyone was already on the water of course so they came and picked us up. We played around for awhile and then headed back to the house for a Father's Day dinner.

Sunday morning we played some more. Lots of fun was had by all I think!!

This week, as I said earlier, was a blur. Worked at the school a bunch, swam, had friends over for a couple days, end of the year baseball swimming party...it just goes on and on. Looking forward to a relaxing weekend at the lake, that's for sure!! Even had a surprise visit from Ron and Ellen for a birthday dinner!! YUM.

Hope your week has been wonderful. Love and miss you all!

What a weekend!

Friday started off with some company...Danielle came to town! We hung out and played all day with the kids and ate some Mexican. Yum. She decided to go to Logan's last baseball game with us, which we almost didn't get to finish! We were down by 5 and somehow made it back to win!!! What's crazy is they played better this game than they did all season, AND the major tournament team we played on Thursday was beat by the team we played on Friday that we beat!! Crazy kids. Anyway it was exciting, exciting to the very end when the lighting and wind started. Luckily we got our 3 outs right in time. Poor Danielle had to head home in it but we were going the other direction so had a chance to out run it. Geez, it was crazy windy!

Got to the lake late Friday night and our trailer was broke. The big slide wont' go in or out so we ended up staying in the lake house. Woke up Saturday morning and played around before heading to the lake. We anchored out in the middle for a little bit and swam around. Rylee wasn't sure at first, but enjoyed watching the boys jump off the boat. After a good swim and some snacks we headed to the marina for some ice cream. Ate and went to the island to play. Aunt Amy, Uncle Russ, and Russell joined us for a second and then headed out to get the Dickens!! They left Russell with us to play while they ran in the poker run, I actually think they ended up winning too!

We played at the water forever and then saw the storm clouds roll in. We didn't want to get caught in them so we headed back to the house to clean up and play some more. Got the kids to bed and hung out. Hung out until WAY too late, some people just couldn't get out of my "bedroom" :-) It was so fun to just hang and talk, having seen the girls or Russell in a long time. Always enjoy spending time with them, they make me laugh. (Oh and check out what Logan found on the beach...eggs!!)

Woke up after just a few hours of sleep on Sunday and we began to play.

Logan was bored and wanted to the girls to wait up, but he laid around patiently until Russell woke them up! :-)

We left a little early because we were going to leave early to get the trailer back to have it worked on, got to the water and decided to go look for a 3 person tube. Unfortunately the marina was out of them. We had Grammy and Russell with us and when we were done at the marina we headed to the island to find...everybody!!! WOOHOO. We played around and then tubed a bunch. I think the girls like it as much as Logan! Lots of screaming and laughing. Even Rylee got a turn!!

Ended a fun day on the water with some hot dogs and chili...another yum. Went back and got the kids ready and headed out with my mom. Justin was now taking two trips home to take the trailer and the boat (have a ripped seam in one of the cushions) Mom dropped us off and the kids went to bed. Long weekend but totally worth it!!

Hope you guys had a great one too! Love and miss you all!

Is it Friday yet?!?

Why yes, yes it is Friday finally!! Woohoo! This week seemed to just drag on and on, so thankful it's almost the weekend!!

We did some chores and went through closets and toys yesterday. It always feels good afterwards, but getting there can be a little rocky. Logan went through and got rid of a lot of his Lego's and gave them to Cody...who was VERY excited! (Seriously, I can't keep a shirt on that boy) Rylee wanted some so very bad so Logan gave her a couple of the ones that he couldn't repair because he lost the pieces, she too was super happy!

Next he rearranged his room. He's saved up and is wanting to paint and redo his room, so we'll see what he comes up with this summer!

After naps we went and got Cody's staples out. Wasn't near as much drama, but he still wasn't a fan.

Next thing we knew it was time for our ballgame! We were playing a tournament team again and were pretty confident we weren't going to win, but we could at least get a good game in...so we thought. It started very rough with a field not at their city complex, at an Indian reservation just south of town. (First sign) The field was as big as a high school field or bigger I swear, ask Justin. Anyway, game time was supposed to be 6:30 but there wasn't any officials yet. (Second sign) So, a couple of the dads from the other team decided that they would just officiate so we could get the game started. (Third sign) Started off pretty good and we were having fun, but then the strike zone just got bigger and bigger and there started to be a little trouble with fans and coaches getting frustrated. Our pitcher threw a ball and it actually hit the dirt and the ump called it a strike, Justin yells to the pitcher, "don't worry man, just throw they're all gonna be strikes." The umps gives him "the look" but doesn't do anything. (Fourth sign) A kid from the other team hits and we don't catch it because it was a foul ball, landing past the chalk lines. The ump says absolutely nothing and the other team tells their kids to start running. Our fans and coaches say foul and their fans ERUPT in screams at us. I mean seriously, erupt, and still the ump has no call. This stupid red head woman keeps screaming at us until I tell her to calm down it's freakin' little league. Geez, so anyway...(fifth sign). This all leads up to the sixth and final sign that it was a bad game. The ump starts calling bad calls on the other team where strikes are concerned, pretty sure he was trying to make up the no call from the last play. The other teams coach gets mad after a few and literally THROWS A BALL AT THE UMP and yells, "now that's a ball!" Yup, throws a ball at him and remember that the ump is a dad from their team. However, instead of hitting the ump...HE HITS OUR CATCHER!!! Our kid catcher. SERIOUSLY?? Who does that?? The ump jumps up and looks at us in disbelieve I think and then turns to the coach and tells him he's out of the game, um duh! The guy gets all lippy and then their fans get lippy. Oh my. Finally the other coaches talk him into walking to his car. Which leaves all of our fans and coaches in shock and we can't believe what just happened. I mean seriously, you just hit a kid with a ball because you were mad...at a little league game.

We got to bat another round and one of our boys hit an honest to goodness Grand Slam!!! Well, technically it would have been if he wasn't so excited and FORGET TO TOUCH HOME BASE!! But he got 3 runners in so that was good!:-) We cheered for him anyway, it was a great play. The game was called, 2 hours and 15 minutes after it started and we all went home. Wow, talk about drama.

Tonight is our last game of the season so hopefully it goes off without a hitch! And that's about it...Friday morning, more chores...bring it on. Have a great day, love and miss you all!

*On a personal note: MAGGIE: didn't know if you'd heard about Maurice Carter or not, he passed away last weekend. Here's a little article about it, wasn't as good as some of the others, just barely touches on his life. Super, super man, brought back lots of memories of him. http://www.macu.edu/news_headlines.php?newsitem=97

Just another day...

Wednesday morning we woke up and hung out. You know, you don't really realize how many times you turn the faucet on in a day until nothing comes out! Geez, even to rinse off my hands. Fixed some breakfast and then hung out the rest of the day, waiting on the water guy. The kiddos played some more Lego's. When the water guy got there he worked for about an hour and then...TADA...we had water! Thank goodness! Turned out it was a valve at the end of the 200 feet long hose at the bottom of the well. Poor guy had to pull all 200 feet of piping out to fix it. But, woohooo for us!

After dinner we put Rylee to bed and Justin and the boys went fishing. They were VERY excited.

And I, just sat. Read a little and watched some TV...ahhhh, quiet time! Hope you guys are having a great week. We go today to get Cody's stitches out and he's super excited to be able to go swimming now!!! Love and miss you all!

Uh oh...

Yesterday was pretty uneventful until bedtime. The kids and I went to the library and got another round of books. Logan's on book 4 for the summer, so proud! We got home and they *Logan built Lego's, the others really just watched and handed him the right pieces. Rylee has become obsessed with juice. She really enjoys the V8 fusion, wasn't too sure about regular V8 at first, but finished it up later in the day. Pretty sure it had something to do with the fun can it came in!!

The boys decided to build an army of Lego's and had to move to Cody's room so the mean giant Rylee wouldn't destroy them!!!

I've been trying to fix dinners in the crock pot and skillet because the oven and stove make the house so incredibly hot in the summer. Last night fixed potatoes and veggies in the crock pot and cooked pork chops in the skillet. It was yummy!! Logan, Justin, and Rylee ate a whole chop, Cody ate one and wanted another so had half of mine. Geez!!! Anyway, good stuff. After dinner we got ready to go to Logan's baseball game.

We were playing against a travelling tournament team, so we knew it was going to be tough. But MAN we started out awesome. Had them down 2 to 1 at the top of the 3rd! Logan hit an incredible ball to the outfield and had some really nice plays...and then they brought in a new pitcher. Yeeowwwza. I swear to he, he had to have been throwing 60 mph at least AND he could do a fast ball, curve ball and change up. It was pretty impressive but pretty much tore our confidence in half. Ended up losing, but that was nothing compared to when we got home.

Drove up and there was this HUGE bird creature on the carport that flew away as soon as we drove up. It landed on the fence and just watched us get out of the car...real creepy like. Got inside and Logan got in the shower and the little ones got in the bath. Justin and I were talking when we heard "shoeeoooooowwwoooosoh" (Ok, something like that anyway) and then the water stopped running. Seriously, nothing was coming out of the faucet. HOLY CRAP...either our pump just went out or our well went dry. That ain't good. We went out to the well house to see if we could see anything wrong while Logan helped the kids get in their jammies.

The whole time I was standing outside the well house holding the light that big creepy bird creature was screeching at me. Seriously screeching, I kept looking over my shoulder waiting for it to suddenly appear and turn me into something else, pretty sure I wasn't going to be a vampire or a werewolf, but something just as horrible and undead. Justin came out of the well house and was the only one brave enough to shine the light on the creature...it was a...screech owl. Go figure. Seriously, that name may not have been the most clever, but definitely to the point, (Kind of clever like my old Teddy named "Teddy" and Amy's dog named "Doggy...clever children) who knew they actually screeched! Anyway, it was the coolest and scariest thing I've seen in a long time...and that's including the fox that was killed by a couple coyotes in the middle of the night by the basketball goal and my bedroom window in the front yard, and the herd of turkey vultures that ripped it to shreds yesterday.

Anywho...got inside from that adventure and called Uncle Mo for ideas. Yup, pretty sure it's the pump or well. Justin called a 24 hour plumbing company and they could be out after 3:00 this afternoon. (Personally doesn't sound very 24 hour to me but hey) Going to be interesting how we go through the day without water, glad at least 2 of the 4 of us can go outside to go to the bathroom. Anyway, I feel completely gross and disgusting and could really use a shower but don't think there's enough gallons of water at our Wal-Mart to make that happen.

So that was our night, good times. Hope you guys are all having a super great week. It's Wednesday!!!!! Woohooo! Love and miss you all!

It's Always Sunny in McNeill Land...

Thursday was a busy day just because I had to get the house work done and ready to head out of town on Friday. The kids helped a ton...not (ha, not...don't get a lot of good "nots" these days huh?) I had emailed Crayola and complained about those horrible "spill resistant" bubbles I bought during Easter. They replied with 2 $8 coupons for anything Crayola!! Woohhooo...bought some new crayons, markers, finger paints, and chalk!

Thursday night Logan had a game about an hour away...geez. Anyway, we won!! Logan had a pretty good game but the play of the game went to his friend Trey who hit a solid home run. It was exciting!!

Friday morning my mom came into town and watched the kids while I went up and worked on the school. We got the cafeteria painted and all the rubber baseboards taken off, not too shabby for an afternoon!! When we were done we went home, ate lunch and headed to the lake...and that's where the "fun" began.

Got there and settled in, next thing we know there's a knock at the door and it's Aunt Connie and Uncle Mo!!! Of course the kids are excited...maybe a little too excited. Cody gets wrapped up in the chair he was sitting in, falls over, hits his head on the coffee table and proceeds to scream like I've never seen. Screaming, crying, tears and then I hear someone say, "is that blood?" HOLY TOLEDO, yes it was blood and lots of it. Swooped up Cody, either my mom or Aunt Connie did actually, and I sprayed him down with the water sprayer in the sink. Just kept coming out redder and redder. Soaked several towels in a minute period and decided to take him to the ER. Of course there isn't any urgent cares around so we went to the ER. By the time we got there the bleeding had stopped thank goodness and he didn't appear to be trying to pass out or anything crazy. They made us stay for examination though. Uncle Mo came and picked up Aunt Connie, Grammy, Logan and Rylee (thank goodness for Uncle Mo, he stayed back at the lake house and cleaned up blood, turned off the hard boiled eggs, worked on our trailer because the slides weren't working) Cody and I hung out, bought him some candy for being so good and then we see Logan. He has two ninja figures so that gave Cody and I something to play with while we waited another hour. FINALLY, we got called back and they cleaned him up. The nurse was awesome, he kept telling Cody he was tough. Cody showed him his muscles and said that he was tough. The nurse did a "toughness test" and Cody failed!!! He had Cody raise his arms up and then he surprised tickled him. :0) Made a boy and mom smile. Then the doctor came in...that made no one smile. 3 staples were needed to fix the cut. Which in turn meant 3 people and myself to hold down a screaming, kicking, wiggling, crying, screaming some more 4 year old. Geez, that kid is strong!!! Who's have thought this kiddo could be so tough

And here they are...there is one in the middle but you can't see because of the blood...yum.

He wanted me to get another shot...

So after all the drama Aunt Connie and Uncle Mo went and bought everyone ice cream to help relax. Rylee enjoyed her ice cream sandwich more than anyone else I think...and a little of Logan's bar too.

Saturday morning we woke up and went to Wal-Mart to get Cody's prescription filled. Oh hey, did I tell you they think Rylee has Lyme Disease?? Awesome huh? A week and a half ago Rylee got bit by the BIGGEST tick I've ever seen. It was really, really attached and we had a really hard time getting it out...and of course we were at ball so we didn't have any good tools. Got the body off and then put some hand sanitizer on it (let me tell you, Rylee might be tougher than Cody, that little thing fought 7 moms on the ball team while we were working on her! Only one refused to help and bought her candy after the end...said she wanted Rylee to still like her!) Anyway, Tuesday night before we came back home from the funeral I took her into the doctor because she had a fever and a horrible rash. They didn't do blood work to find out for sure, but they are pretty confident, either way they gave her the only antibiotic she can take without IV fluids.

Back to Saturday...went to Wal-Mart and had a good time with Aunt Connie and Grammy while Mo and Justin fished. Came back and had lunch. Cody can't get his head wet so we weren't sure what we were going to do but decided to try it out. He did so good with not being able to get wet, really really proud.

Sunday morning Aunt Connie and Mo left and we went back to the water. Beautiful day. Rylee's getting so much better already, pretty sure she'll be jumping in at the end of the summer!

And of course Logan, he always has fun... Justin wanted to give the boat a good cleaning so he worked on it for awhile.

Cody played and took several breaks. We found this chair in the bar and it's awesome...gonna have to find some more. He really enjoyed it!

And this is Rylee's new favorite game. She just giggled and giggled and would throw herself back. Good times!!

Cody and Grammy played some ball and we built lots of sandcastles on the beach. Also made friends with 3 new dogs...3 new big dogs. It's funny because Rylee likes big dogs but gets a little nervous with little ones.

Logan finally "got" his handstand.

And that's about it. We packed up and went back to fix dinner. Cody was asleep before we even hit town and Rylee talked the whole way home. When we got home Justin and Logan went fishing, I put everybody else to bed and then snuggled in for some DVR! Ahhhhh...

We have an appointment on Thursday to get the staples out...that should be fun. Hope you guys had a great weekend. Love and miss you all!

Loooong Week

We'll start with Thursday and kind of skim through the weekend. Thursday we woke up and I did the last loads of laundry and chores before the lake weekend. I had a meeting around lunchtime so several girls from the PTA came over and we worked on some stuff. They all brought their kids so the house was crazy, but the kids had fun. Logan introduced them to Cootie. Thursday night we had a game that was cancelled so we had practice instead. After practice we headed out to the lake.


When we woke up we worked on the yard a little and played around. Pappy found this humongous worm and Cody was fascinated by it...ugh, and that's just half of it!!

Logan tried to get Rylee to ride a flamingo, but she just looked at him like he was ridiculous!

She did however enjoy pretending to drive the jeep!

Cody jumped on board the flamingo though, he thought it was hilarious as usual!

Pappy had cut down lots of trees and was hauling them to the burn pit...he had some stowaways!

A little before lunchtime we headed out to the water. UGH, it was windy windy, but that didn't stop the boys from wanting to tube.

This is how we saw them most of the time because it was so bumpy.

Cody enjoyed it, but didn't like getting splashed in the face, hopefully it's just because the water was FREEZING!! Rylee was very interested and not too happy she got left out.

Cody decided to get back in the boat and Rylee was super happy about that!

Logan and I finished the ride in the tube over to the island, brrr. Rylee and I only stayed for a little bit and went back to the lake house to take a nap. When we got back Logan had found a fun new project...Styrofoam!

He made a lounger out of it. Clever.

Rylee liked the water, just not going where she couldn't touch. She enjoyed digging and splashing.

Saturday Russ, Amy, and Russell got there and it was non stop fun from then on! Russell really, really, really enjoyed tubing which made Logan really, really, really happy!!! I went on the boat to call my mom and this is where the weekend kind of goes into a blur.

As most of you know my Granddaddy passed away on Saturday. We were all expecting it and somewhat hoping for it so he wouldn't have to suffer anymore, but you know...you're never ready to hear it. My heart went empty. I kept thinking I should have been there to say goodbye. Sigh. Life is hard sometimes. He was an amazing man as I've told you before but I don't think you'll ever understand unless you knew him. He had maybe the kindest spirit about it in the whole world. The thing that struck me the most about him was his absolute love and adoration of Grandmommy. You could just see it in his face when he was alive. And you know what? It didn't end when she passed away. He knew what love was and wasn't afraid to show it and for that I admired him beyond words.

We got to Grammy's and she was pretty determined to celebrate Logan's birthday since she missed out on his "party."

She had to do a lot of stuff to get ready for the funeral and so the kids and I hung out. Rylee wanted to play outside because on Grammy's swing she can touch the ground!!! Getting so big.

And her new favorite trick...trick riding. I don't know how she didn't face plant because she would run and pull her legs up so she could swing, made me nervous!!

Monday the rest of the family got in and it was really, really nice to see everyone. We told a few stories about Granddaddy and ate. Ate a lot of food. Tuesday everyone came back over for lunch and then off to the funeral home. It was a great ceremony, I really enjoyed the preacher who did it, if he's still alive when I die, I want him to do it. Very cute little man with just a hint of funny. Perfect. The last time I saw Granddaddy he was so uncomfortable, it was kind of a release to see him so incredibly peaceful. There was a point when he was in the hospital that he called out Grandmommy's name and then his legs and arms started moving. I know he was running to her, it was so sweet and funny to watch him run in his sleep. Here's a 93 year old man running, running to his happiness. And for that, I'm grateful, grateful he found it, found her. So nice to know he's happy and whole.

Thank you for everyone for the food, cookies, prayers, support, and love. I could not have gotten through it without it. I love and miss every one of you.