We went looking again today for a home...no luck. It seems like whatever is in our price range is junk...some still have damage from the hurricanes 2 YEARS AGO. Hey, we could go north a little and buy a mansion for the price they are selling homes these days. I guess I can't complain...we did sell ours for almost twice as much as we payed 2 years ago. There were a few nice places on the lake that we are considering. I am not sure if I want lakefront property or a large 1-2 acre lot...oh the decisions. On another note, my good friend, who is 36, mind you, was just over here. Bryan is going to be building their home and they had to go over the plans. Anyway, she just informed us the other day she is pregnant with child number 10. Yep, 10 kids, the oldest is not quite 16, and she is only 36. She amazes me. She has to be the most patient woman I know. I just dont know how some of you do it with that many children. I guess after a few, it doesnt make a difference anymore...9, 10, who's counting? ME. I tell you, we need to quit going out with them or else Bryan is going to get a few ideas.

Today turned out to be a great day. We had a church picnic out at the ranch. It was your typical picnic with tire swings, burgers and hot dogs, softball game and the lake jumping. There was a lake there with trees hanging out over the water for kids, not mine, to climb up and jump off of. Our friends brought their boat and everyone took turns going out on it. When it came our turn, Bryan and Chloe stayed in the boat and the girls and I went on this raft thing. It is like a tube in the sense that it is inflated and is pulled by the boat but it is a huge raft...it can fit 4 adults, and its so much fun. They didnt pull it too fast, but fast enough for the girls to get a kick out of it. Then Bryan and some others went wakeboarding while we rode in the boat. It reminded me of being in Wisconsin at the lake...I loved it and miss it. By the time we were done, everyone had left and it was time to go home. Everyone crashed and is in bed now, but me! Nice and quiet! I hope everyone who is reading this is having a great weekend as well. Tomorrow is church and then Monday we have a pool party and will be busy finishing painting the house. Only 6 weeks!!!! Cant wait!

Now what?

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE TODAY! The contract was just brought over for us to sign. And, as long as the inspection and appraisal goes well, we close July 21st. Where are we going? Good question...I am meeting tomorrow with the realtor to go look...hope we find something!!!

Bubbles everywhere

Thanks dad for the bubbles. The girls played all afternoon with them. They are all gone!! I guess we are making a trip to the store to get an economy size bottle of them!

Paragon Cosmetics

Paragon Cosmetics is now open!!! Please check it out. There is a link on my page or just go to paragoncosmetics.com. Thanks!

"Put your behind in the past..."

I just have to say how thankful I am for the way my life has gone and where The Lord has led me. You (or maybe just me) often are left wondering where you would be and what you may doing if you had not made certain decisions, if you had stayed connected with certain people. I wonder that alot. If I had kept in contact with friends from the past, would I be the same person I am today? I learned about the path a few close friends of mine from the past have taken, and its not a good one. It makes me thankful for the decisions I made through my life to get me here. It makes me thankful for my family, for my husband, my kids. In fact, if it were not for Bryan seeing some good in me, I am sure I would be right along with my old friends. He saw something special and turned my life around. I am sad for the people I left behind. I am sad that things had to go the way they did. We make our own decisions in life. The Lord gives us free agency. He teaches us what is right and what is wrong and we are in charge of what we do. We choose our destiny. I am glad that I chose this one.

What a loooooooong weekend......

Busy, busy bees, are we! It all started Friday, my cousin Amy was in town with her 4 year old daughter so the girls and I decided to go see them and swim for the day at the pool where they are staying. Hana and Taylor had a blast. Amy, they will not stop talking about their new best friend. When they play in their room, they pretend she is with them! Thanks for letting us play! Saturday, all 5 of us went to Disney's Animal Kingdom with Bryans cousin. We had so much fun. We went to see the Lion King show, which was like a Broadway show. It was incredible. Matthew's roommate is in it, so we were able to sit up front and then afterwards, we went back and met some of the cast. The girls loved it. After some more rides, we went on to Epcot. They have the flower and garden show right now so there were flowers everywhere. Dad, you would have loved it! They girls loved seeing the princesses made out of flowers! In all, it was a great day to be a family, aside from a few breakdowns from tired kids! Yesterday was Mothers Day. Not much to comment about. I had to get up at 6 with the kids....no bitterness from me! We went to church, Hana sang with the kids for the mothers but I did not get to see it because Chloe had just thrown up all over me, so I cried about that! The kids were argueing all day. Chloe screamed all day because of molars coming in. I had a horrible migraine which finally, at about 1am settled down. So, that day pretty much was like any other day!!! Today, much better. Headache not as bad, girls are SO good. We have tons of pictures to share so I will post them soon. I hope everyone else is doing well. Hopefully this week we will here from the people who made an offer on our house to see if they still want it. We accepted the offer, but our realtor cannot get ahold of them to let them know we accepted. We will keep you posted! Until then, love you all and miss you!

Nothing New

Same old things going on here. This past weekend was so beautiful. Bryan spent the day running errands and then working in the yard...sound familiar dad? The girls and I decided to add a little color to the outdoors. I told them that they could pick out whatever flowers they wanted and we would plant them in a pot for them. So, as we were looking at them, Hana would say how pretty they were and then ask me what they were called. As we passed the petunias, I told her what they were and she said, "Mmmmm, smells like a tuna. Lets get some tunas for our garden." We ended up getting daisies and marigolds. The colors matched and the girls liked that! We also planted seeds for forget-me-knots and I was able to finally transplant my peppers, cucumbers and basil to bigger poets since they are growing so well. Bryan and I had the chance, AGAIN, to get a babysitter and go out with some friends. I tell ya, we have gone out more this past month than in the past 5 years combined. Its great! And then, yesterday was of course spent at church. This week there is not much planned. If something great happens we will be sure to tell you all!! Maddie wants some pictures taken with her sisters to put up on the computer, so if that ends up happening, we will be sure to post them!

"Bless our bodies use"

Every day, the girls say prayer before they eat to bless the food. They are determined to say it themselves. When its Maddies turn, she will say, "...thank you for the food and bless our bodies use...". So, the other night we had prayer as usual before bed. Once again, Maddie was determined to say it. It went something like this, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for our blessings...thank you for the missionaries and the church and bless our bodies use...". So sweet and innocent. She did a good job!!

Pictures anyone?

We just thought we would put up some pictures of the girls from Easter. It was a beautiful day. The sun was out, the girls had so much fun trying to find what the Easter bunny had left them and we even made it to church ON TIME. For those of you that know us, you know that was a huge accomplishment! I just hope that everyone else enjoyed this beautiful day as much as we did. And, as you can see, Mommy can dress them up, but they will still make funny faces. Any pictures that were taken that day, Hana and Maddie felt the need to say "Happy Easter" which leaves them with silly faces!

Date Night

So, its date night tonight. Every once in a while, since Bryan works so much, he takes one of the girls on a date so they can have special time together. Then, that leaves me at home with the other two. It usually ends up be Hana going out since she needs more Daddy time and Maddie needs more Mommy time. It it perfect timing tonight, too. Maddison needs some Mommy time in a big way. Her birthday is coming up and she is having problems with the fact that she is going to be 3. She keeps telling me that she wants to "still be 2. 3 is big girls and I am little. I dont wanna be big." I try to tell her that even though she is 3, she is still my little girl, nothing will change that. But no, still going to be 2. So we will celebrate her second 2nd birthday. As far as tonight goes, Hana and daddy will go and treat themselves to some ice cream while Maddie and I watch Mulan. Sounds like the perfect night to me. Oh yeah, there is one more! Chloe is in bed!!

If anyone asked me two years ago what a blog was, I would not be able to answer. Now, I can't believe that we are making one. But, with the Melicks in West Palm, the Perrys in Jupiter, Grandpa Tree and Uncle Mark in Maryland, and the Kattenbrakers somewhere in Washington, oh yeah, and us in Saint Cloud, I feel this is the only way to connect and keep everyone up on what is going on in our lives. So, this is how we do it in the 21st century I guess.