Hurricane Gustav

Gene and I are sitting in the living room watching Fox News and coverage on the Hurricane Gustav that's due to hit New Orleans within the next 48 hours.

I am so thankful to live in a place where I feel safe and don't have to worry about natural disasters. Except for a few tornado warnings every now and then, Northwest Arkansas rarely has a disastrous one hit.

I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to be told by government officials that you have to leave your home by a certain time and not knowing that when you're told you can return if your house is still going to be standing. I would be heartbroken, especially if it was a place that you had lived your whole life and there's a chance you may lose it all.

Not only that, but I couldn't imagine being in any type of government in Louisiana, whether it be mayor, governor, law enforcement, and on down to dispatch. I take some pretty crazy calls and heart wrenching calls at work, but they're nothing compared to what their dispatch centers receive. That is if they're even still there to answer that ringing phone!

I just know it would be really scary and I thank the Lord for giving me a safe haven. I also pray for the ones having to leave their homes behind to flee to safety. I pray that God keeps them safe and keeps their homes safe and standing.

Mrs. Clean

**First off I'll say that our computer was messing up earlier and it wouldn't save my post after I'd written it. So, it was just pictures! It's now 10:00, and I'm re-writing it.

Anyway, today was a busy day for me. I got a lot of cleaning done! I fell asleep on the couch last night, so this morning Gene woke me up after he got up. I guess he thought since he was up I needed to be up. It was 9:45 though, so I got pretty good sleep! Plus he made breakfast for us.

After I finished eating I got started cleaning!!

Our beautiful home!!

I started in our bathroom. I had been putting off scrubbing our shower for forever because I hate it with a passion, but it needed it so bad so I finally just broke down and did it! I scrubbed our shower and bath tub, cleaned the counter/sink and toilet, Windexed our big mirror, and then swept. Whew, it was a lot of work.
It's so pretty and white! Not that it wasn't white before, it just looked dingy and dirty and now it doesn't!!! I was very proud of the end product!
After I finished the bathroom I moved on to our closet. We could barely close the door because we had just been throwing our shoes in there and they were piled up like crazy. I pulled all of them out and threw some old ones away, and then vaccumed the floor. After I vaccumed and organized all of Gene's uniform stuff I cleaned out what clothes I never wear or don't fit anymore. I even forced Gene to come in there and clean his clothes out. After that I re-organized all of our clothes! It looks so much better. I filled up 2 trash bags of stuff! One is for the rummage sale we're having at the pd in October and the other was trash.
Finished product! The lighting wasn't that great and it's hard to get it all, but I even washed the rugs so everything was all clean.

I then moved on to our bedroom. I cleaned out our night stand, cleaned off our dresser, put all of Grace's stuff that was in our room back in her room, and vaccumed our floor. It looks much much better. Our dresser collects so much stuff, and it drives me crazy!! You can actually see the top of it now though!

After I cleaned our room I took a shower, and moved on to Grace's room. I cleaned out her closet and dresser and stripped her mattress to wash her sheet and blanket. I filled a bag of her stuff for the rummage sale too! Gene cleaned the kitchen, and I caught up on all the laundry! After the boys got home they cleaned off the porch, and then we went grocery shopping.

Gene actually went to the gym and Corey went and saw House Bunny with some of his friends (he said it was really funny!), and Colt, Grace, and I went grocery shopping. Wal-Mart was a mad house when we were there, and we went to the one down by the mall and they're just about done with their remodel so everything is in a different place. Very irritating! I guess there were so many people there because of the first Hogs game being tomorrow and everyone is getting ready for parties! I just wanted out of there!

Now we're all home. Grace has had a bath, but is still up playing with her Daddy and I'm hoping she goes to sleep soon so I can go to bed! She is going to stay at her Nana & Papa's tomorrow night and Mama is taking advantage of some "me" time!

Hope everyone had a great Friday!

Taylor

Open, Shut...Open, Shut

Grace has a new hobby. Shutting doors. Bedroom doors. Bathroom doors. Closet doors. Cabinet doors. Any door.

She makes me angry and makes me laugh all in one swift act. She is now tall enough to reach door knobs, so she's proud of the fact that she can close the doors on her own. Not so fun for Mom when I'm headed out of the bathroom or bedroom and she's closing the door in my face!

She's really good at closing them now, but she's still not quite tall enough to really grab a hold of the door knob to twist it open yet. So, if she closes herself in or out and nobody is there with her, she starts fussing because she can't get it back open!

Tonight when I got home from work she was still awake and followed me into the bathroom so I could get ready for bed. Our closet is in our bathroom and when I got in there the closet door was shut. I opened it so I could put my shoes up, and not 2 minutes later Grace is walking over there and shutting the door. Oh boy, I just giggled to myself. The whole time I'm standing at the sink washing my face she's shutting the door....with her on the outside of it, then she starts fussing (not realizing quite yet that she's done it to herself)! So, I reach over with my face soapy and my eyes closed to open it. Over and over and over and over again!! Like I said earlier, making me angry but then making me laugh.

I finish getting ready for bed so I change her diaper and walk out of our bedroom and what does she do? Shuts the bedroom door. I turn around and open it back up to turn the light off and what does she do? Shuts the door. She's trying to shut it while I'm still standing in the doorway. Silly silly girl! I walk back in to put stuff away and what does she do? Shuts the door..........again. Vicious cycle.

Finally, the last time I came out I distracted her with her milk and was able to get the light off and to the recliner and she didn't realize that the door was standing open. It drives me crazy for them to all be closed if nobody's in there. Go figure I know.

She crawled up in my lap and got still and was out like a light within about 5 minutes. I sat there talking to my good friend, Teresa, on the phone for about 30 minutes then finally got up to put her in bed. She had spit out her pacifier by the time we made it to her room so I was trying to put it back in and she lifted her head halfway and mumbled "potty" then dropped her head back down. I guess she's dreaming of the potty now!!! How funny?!?!

Anywho, felt like sharing but now I'm going to bed!!


Night!
Taylor

Catch Up!

It's been a while, so this is going to be a catch up post! I'll warn you that it may be long, because I've been pretty busy.

I'll start with Friday, which was actually my Saturday. For starters, it was pay day!! Thank the Lord, I was so broke it wasn't funny. Grace and I got out and about pretty early because I had an appointment to get my eyebrows done. I thought my appointment was for 11, but it was actually for 10 so I was an hour late. Oops! It worked out though, because Salwa was able to squeeze me in at 2, so Grace and I drove up to the pd to visit for a little bit.

I had made plans to take Mom lunch at school so we were killing time until noon. We left the pd and went to McDonalds to get some lunch. Mom and I had salads and Grace had some chicken nuggets (her favorite!). We didn't have much time to hang out because I had several other errands to run, so we left after we ate. I had to pick up my contacts, go to the grocery store, and also go to Rick's Bakery to pick up a birthday cake for Colt because we were planning on celebrating his birthday Friday night since I have to work on the day of, which is actually tomorrow! Anyway, I had to get moving because I still had my eyebrow appointment at 2.

I finished all of my errands and made it home right at about 4. I was hoping to beat the boys home so I could sneak Colt's cake in because he didn't know about it. I didn't actually beat them home, but they were next door at my in-laws so I was able to get it in before he saw!

Grace's adorable outfit Friday! Isn't she cute?!?!?!

Anyway, Gene made burritos for dinner and then Colt went upstairs to take a bath. While he was doing that Corey and I cleaned up the kitchen and got his cake out and loaded with candles! We bought him an mp3 player, so I got under my bed and dug out a gift bag to wrap it in!

By the time he got out I was lighting the candles so Corey was trying to stall him. It was pretty obvious we were up to something!! He was excited about the cake, and he let Grace help him blow out the candles. She was funny, but she kept trying to get a little to close to the flame! Hope he made a good wish!!

The cake...I really wanted to order one with piano stuff or music notes, but I didn't get in there earlier enough in the week to have it ready for Friday. He likes tie-dye though, and they had this one on display so it worked. It was chocolate and yummy too!!

While I was at Wal-Mart I bought Grace a potty seat! Oh my gosh, I can't believe how fast she's growing. She was very ingtrigued by her potty while it was still in the box sitting in the living room. I took it in our bedroom and pulled it out of the box to examine and see just how it worked. Grace started trying to sit on it before I had it on the floor!

I took her diaper off and took it into the bathroom, where as you can see in the picture below, she sat!! She actually sat on that thing for a solid 35 minutes. The boys and I sat there with her until she went so she would know right off the bat what it was for. Gene ventured in once he realized what we were doing and watched for a while, but the bathroom was getting crowded. How funny did we look you might ask?! I'll just say....very! Bear was even hanging out in there waiting! After about 30 minutes or so of us coercing her into "pee peeing" or "poo pooing" she finally pee peed!!! Yay! Of course it started playing music when she did, and she got soooo excited. It was really cute. We all just looked at each other like, "oh my gosh, she actually did it!!"

It was a happy moment, we were cheering and she was cheering....all in the bathroom still might I add! Oh, the joys of motherhood. I absolutely love my role!!!! The whole rest of the night, Grace wanted to go sit on her potty. I finally had to close the door so she would wind down to go to bed. I guess that beats the alternative though!

She has now gone pee pee in her potty once a day since then! Mom and Dad and my in-laws don't have a potty seat at their house yet, and I still haven't exactly figured out a plan so we're taking it slow right now. I'm just glad she understands what it's for.

Too cute!

The potty seat actually came before dinner and cake, and to be honest it's driving me crazy that this post is now out of order but I'm not going back to fix it!

Now...after dinner and cake, I put Grace in the bath and then took her to her Nana & Papa's to stay the night! Mom told me while we were at school for lunch that Dad was pouting to her and asked her to see if they could have the baby for a while!! I just wish someone loved my child! So, Mom knew that I was planning on taking Corey to Midnight Madness at the fair, and I would have to be up fairly early Saturday morning with Grace because Gene would have to take Colt to piano lessons, so she said they would keep her! I drove her out to their house and dropped her off and then headed back home to get ready for the fair.

I took a shower and got dressed and then hung out killing time until Steph got there from her birthday dinner with some friends. The boys and I bowled on the Wii while we waited!

Steph got to our house around 9:30 or so, and then we didn't leave until about 10:45. We got there by 11 or so, and we didn't leave until 2:40 AM!! I couldn't remember the last time I was up that late. We had a lot of fun though. It was taking a stroll down memory lane for me and Steph because when we were in high school and the years after before I got married, we were always at the fair. We had a good time reminiscing on old boyfriends and funny stories!! We actually ended up riding more rides than Corey did! I'm glad we went, but I was ready to get home. I was tired, sweaty, and dirty!

I changed into my pjs, washed my face, and crawled into bed. However, it took me forever to go to sleep and I just tossed and turned most of the night. Gene got up around 8 or so and he and Colt left for lessons around 9:30 so I got up and went to the couch and put in Wild Hogs (love that movie) and finally was able to fall sound asleep! I slept for a few hours on the couch, until they got home and I was startled by the door. It was 1:00! It felt so good to lay around and sleep half the day away. I didn't feel very good when I woke up though, a mixture from the late night and very loud fair. I had a horrible headache, so I took some medicine and laid back down.

Gene left not too long after to go to a friend's dad's funeral, and offered to pick Grace up when he got done so I didn't have to get out. Worked for me!! I was planning on cleaning some, and then starting on dinner.

They made it home, and we lounged some more! We had the best dinner that night though....grilled pork steak, mashed potatoes, green beans w/bacon and onion, corn, and mac n cheese!! It was sooooo good! Grace even ate a whole little plate full. After a full belly and baths, we all went to bed early!

Sunday I was signed up to work overtime on dayshift, so I was supposed to be there at 10:00 am. Well, I kinda forgot about it and didn't set an alarm. Kara (dayshift supervisor) called my cell at oh.....10:10 asking if I remembered I was supposed to be there. OOPS!! I felt soooo horrible. I knew I had signed up for it, I had just felt bad on Saturday and forgot to set an alarm. I rushed around and made it there in about 30 minutes. It was a long day though, because it was still 11 1/2 hours. Yuck.

I ended up having to go in at 10:00 this morning too, because I was on call today and Christina (dayshift dispatcher) was hospitalized with severe abdominal pain Sunday evening so dayshift was shorthanded. I was it, so in I went again! It wasn't too bad though, because I was able to leave at 7:30 tonight. I was tired, and hadn't been able to spend more than about an hour with Grace today and yesterday. I was glad to get out of there. I went and picked up Grace from Mom & Dad's and came home. She got a bath and went to bed shortly thereafter. I took a shower, and now here I sit. I knew this was going to be a long post because I had 4 days to catch up on, and I just want to say thanks! if you're still with me.

Hope everyone had a great Monday!

Taylor

P.S - I didn't proof read this, so sorry if there are mistakes or rambling sections!!

TGIF!!

My Kiddos!!

Yay! It's my Friday! I forgot to tell everyone that my days off are switching this week, so now I'm off on Fridays and Saturdays.....so exciting. Gene's days off switched this week too, so now he's off on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Lucky guy, I know! So, we finally have a day off together so we can spend time together. Plus he'll have a day to sleep and rest now as opposed to working 7 days a week.

So, Gene was supposed to work construction today but he slept in because didn't sleep good all week. He's had a long and rough week at the PD this week too. He woke up this morning about 9:20 and went and got Grace out of bed. Of course they had to come wake Momma up! It's ok though, because he was making us breakfast. Grace has enjoyed her daddy being home with her. She's cuddled with him more than me today. :( It's cute though!

Grace and I watched The Backyardigans and The Wonder Pets while he was cooking! Grace has grown fond of The Backyardigans! It's actually a really cute one, and it doesn't get on my nerves. Ha!

It's throwing me off a little bit that I have to go to work today, but I'm excited because my dear friend, Ashley Rogers moved back from California and starts back to work on my shift tonight!!! He started yesterday, but had to work 8 to 4 so he could fill out all the paperwork and insurance stuff. I'm really happy that he's back home. Love ya Ash!!

I'm leaving for work a little early today so I can go by Rick's Bakery and order a birthday cake for Coltster! His 15th birthday is next Tuesday the 26th, but I've gotta work so we're going to grill tomorrow night and I'm surprising him with a cake! I'm hoping they can make one with some sort of piano decorations or music notes or something. One of these days I need to make a video of him playing piano and post it on here so you can see how incredible he is!

I've also agreed to take Corey to Midnight Madness at the Washington County Fair tomorrow night from midnight to 3 am! Yikes! I've not been up that late in a long time, it could be interesting. Gene took the boys last year, and he said he really didn't want to go again this year but Corey had already asked if he could go. I told Gene I'd do it this time, and he could stay home with Grace. I roped Stephanie into helping me though! We used to go to the fair every year when we were in high school, so we'll act like kids again!! I'm actually really excited to get to hang out with her for some girl time!

Saturday morning Gene and I are going to his cousin's optometry office so I can get some new glasses! Yay! I can't wait, my glasses are getting pretty pitiful. I really need to clean my house at some point too but I don't know when that will happen!

I guess I'll sign off for now and go take a shower! Gene is trying to get Grace down for a nap, so I've gotta be quiet.

Have a great day!

Taylor

My Little Monkey

I have a really funny story to tell you about my crazy little girl! This picture was taken back in July, but I love it so I posted it since I don't have one that shows about my story!!!

Let me start by telling you that this past weekend my mom and I drove to Stuttgart, AR for the funeral of our dear friend's mother who passed away. Leah if you're reading this, I'm so glad I got to see you, even though the circumstances weren't the best. You guys are still in my thoughts and prayers!!

My wonderful Granny and cousin, Courtney, agreed to watch Grace Saturday while we drove down for the funeral because Gene was working and the boys were with their mother. Thanks Granny and Courtney!! So, we dropped Grace off that morning and headed out. On the way down, of course Grace came up in conversation and we were talking about potty training and the prospect of moving her to a toddler bed sometime in the near future. I had asked Mom once before what she thought about it, and she said as long as she wasn't trying to climb out of her crib then just leave her in it. The thing I'm most apprehensive about is the fact that her room is upstairs and if she woke up and got scared or something and tried to come down to our room. We have a gate at the top of the stairs, but it's broken at the moment and she definitely has not mastered the skill of coming down them on her own yet. I can just see a broken bone, and that scares me!

So, I told Mom that she had not ever tried climbing out of her crib. Not that I had seen anyways. Normally she's just standing at the end close to the door staring and waiting for someone to come get her! Either that or she's sitting there holding Nemo!

Well......that all changed this morning!! She had woken up a couple of times and fussed a little but got quiet again shortly after and I could hear her snoring. The last time she woke up I could tell she was ready to get up, so I went upstairs to get her. Oh my goodness, let me just tell you that I opened that door and she was hanging on the OUTSIDE of her crib! It was so funny though, because she looked like a little monkey holding on! She had one foot sorta resting on her diaper sack and the other was in between two of the slats resting on her mattress. She had a scared look on her face, and I couldn't help but giggle at her!! Who knows how long she had been working on escaping.

I sent Mom a text message telling her and she wasn't really surprised! I told her I guess we'll have to start contemplating converting her crib into the toddler bed a little sooner. There are a few issues we have though, 1) Grace still has to be rocked to sleep, she's not exactly good at going to sleep on her own. I know....it's horrible, but I loved rocking her so much and we were never strong enough to let her cry herself to sleep. 2) I really didn't want to switch her to the toddler bed until she was potty trained, because of getting up to use the bathroom, etc.

So, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm open for any suggestions anyone might have!! I really wish I would have had my camera this morning to snap a picture of her "hanging out" but I didn't so maybe next time I'll catch her in the act again. Even though I really don't want to!!

Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you and I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I'm ready for mine to be over!!

Taylor

Route 66 Trip - Days 1, 2, 3, & 4

If you own a motorcycle and ever have a free week, I strongly recommend taking a trip down old Route 66!! Gene and I left at 6:30 am on Sunday, July 13th to head to Amarillo, TX. We went with some good friends of ours, Steve and Jennie Wherenberg. The plan was to drive straight to Amarillo the first day and we were going to gradually work our way back home on Route 66.

On Friday the 4th, Gene and I rode over to Steve and Jennie's house in Farmington so that I could get a little accustomed to the bike. I will say I almost fell off once!! Gene didn't put the sissy bar (passenger backrest) on so I HAD to hold on to him to keep from going backwards. We had just pulled up at a light as it was turning red and I reached back to fix my shirt when off we went again! And no....I was not holding on and ready for it! My feet shot up in the air and I barely was able to grab hold of Gene before I fell to the asphalt! It was a little scary, but then we were both laughing about it. We hung out at their house for a little bit talking about the trip and discussing what things we wanted to do. We had decided to meet in Greenland at Tobo's at 6:00 and leave from there. So....that's what we did!

We made several stops throughout the day Sunday so it wasn't bad at all. It was cloudy and yucky looking all day, and we were so afraid we were going to get rained on. The temperature was actually perfect though, and Jennie and I wore our rain jackets pretty much the whole way. We did get sprinkled on once but when you're driving 70 mph down the interstate it's hard to feel it! We stopped in Sallisaw and ate breakfast, and my rear was already sore by the time we made it there. I was afraid I was in for a world of trouble!! However, we usually didn't ride for more than about 50-70 miles at any given time and we'd stop again, so about every hour to hour and a half we'd take a break and after I walked around for a few minutes I was good to go again. You just kinda start to go numb after a while because you don't have any room to move around! We ended up making it to Amarillo at about 6:00 that evening.

Steve had started talking about trying to find a campsite and Jennie and just looked at each other like "we are tired, hot, and sore...we want a shower and a bed!!!" So...we all then came to the decision that we would find a room and soak up some air conditioning. Thank the Lord!!! Ha!

After we got settled into our room, we were hungry and decided on eating at the Big Texan, which is the home of the free 72 oz steak! Yes, you get a free 72 oz steak if you can eat it and all the fixings in an hour. Crazy! While we there eating there was a guy trying to do it....he failed!! Our food was really good though. After dinner, we went back to the motel, took showers and crashed! We were exhausted.

The next morning we ate breakfast, loaded up, and headed to the Cadillac Ranch! Actually, we stopped at Wal-Mart and bought some spray paint so we could grafitti the Cadillacs!! It was really windy, so we had to be careful not to get it on us. The picture I posted below is of Gene and I in front of it, but you can't see the cars.

Steve was having some issues with the mufflers on his bike. By the time we made it into Amarillo, he had lost the baffles that go inside his mufflers so his bike was really loud and was starting to run a little funny. After we left Cadillac Ranch we went to Tripp's Harley Davidson dealership to see if they could fix Steve's bike. Long story short, all the mechanic guys were jerks and not willing to help us. They ended up selling us some take-off mufflers to do a temporary fix, but Gene and Steve had to change them out back behind their shop. It was a mess, but it just added to the adventure!! We ate lunch at Olive Garden once he got the bike fixed, and then headed out to the Paulo Duro Canyon in Canyon, TX (just south of Amarillo).

It was gorgeous, but it was HOT!! We stopped at the lookout first and you could see across and down into almost the whole thing. It was really neat. Then we decided to drive down into it, because you can tour it in your own vehicle and it's a 16 mile round trip. It was hotter than Haites down there!! We could hardly breathe because the air was so hot. We didn't waste much time down in there and we got the heck out of there!

After the canyon we headed back to get on 66. Once we caught up to it, we travelled through some old towns in OK. I'll spare you all the details and stops because it would take you and I both forever to make it through! We did stop in Erick, OK, which is where Roger Miller is from. It was about 8:00 Monday night when we stopped in Erick and we had originally stopped to find a place to eat but stumbled across the Roger Miller Museum. Gene had gone to their police station (literally a metal shed) to ask about a diner or cafe to eat at and Steve, Jennie, and I were walking downtown just looking at things. We saw the museum, but it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. A lady stopped in front of us and asked if we were wanting to see the museum. We told her sure, and she told us to just hold on a minute and she would go grab the keys from her house!! No joke, that woman could not have been gone for any longer than 7 minutes when she was back with the keys and giving us a tour!! She was such a sweet lady, and knew a lot about Roger Miller. She didn't even charge us the fee to take the tour. It was awesome!!

After the museum we drove on to Elk City, OK, which is actually where Steve is from and grew up. It was already after 10 by the time we made it into town and were looking for a place to eat dinner still. We decided on Denny's....mainly because it was the only thing open that late!! Steve called his son, Nathan, to see if he was in town because he still lives in Elk City. Nathan ended up meeting us up there, and Gene had gone next door to check on a room but every room in the town was full, because all the oil crews were in town (it's a huge oil town). So, Nathan offered to let us stay at his house! We saved some money that night...thanks Nathan!! We took showers after we made it there and crashed once again!

The next morning we ate breakfast and visited the Route 66 Museum in town. It was really neat and they had part of it set up like the way the town used to be in the "old days". After we saw the whole museum, we headed out. Our next stop was in Clinton, OK where there's another Route 66 Museum, so we stopped in and checked that one out. It was neat, because it was set up differently than the one in Elk City. We did a tour of it, then headed out of Clinton.

This was all on Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday evening after leaving Clinton we jumped back onto 66 and just enjoyed the scenery! We stopped in Yukon, which is the home of Garth Brooks, and ate dinner at a neat restaurant that had pretty good food. After dinner we went in search of a room. We checked a couple that were close to the interstate and they were all full. Our best option was going to be driving on into Oklahoma City, which was only about 20 miles further east. So, we hopped on and rode on! We ended up finding a room, and settle in again. Notice...still no camping!! Love good running water, electricity, and a soft comfy bed!

Wednesday morning we got up and ate breakfast then headed to the Oklahoma City Memorial. If you have never visited it, you must. It's worth the 4 hour drive from NW Arkansas just to see it. It was so incredibly moving and also very heart breaking. We spent almost 2 hours just seeing everything.

After the Memorial, we met Steve's other son, Steve Jr. for lunch at Toby Keith's Bar & Grill! Steve Jr. lives and works in OK City, so it was cool that we got to meet him and they got to spend some time together. Steve Jr. bought our lunch with his company credit card. It was a "business lunch"!! Thanks Halliburton!! The food was excellent, and they actually have a fried bologna sandwich on their menu. How funny is that?!?! Think maybe we're in the South? Ha! Steve ordered it and said it was really good.

After lunch, we visited the National Cowboy Museum, and it was really neat also. It was beautiful inside there and we got to see a lot of cool things. We visited our fair share of museums throughout the week! For dinner that night we ate at a place called Trappers, and it was really good too. It's a cajun style restaurant and they're specialty is alligator.....yuck! Needless to say, that is NOT what I got! The food was good though.

After dinner we went over to Steve Jr.'s house to visit for a while. We got to meet his wife, Mandy, and their sweet baby girl, Danee! She was born in May, and the most precious little thing (except for my sweet girl of course!). We stayed and talked for quite a while until we were all so sleepy we could hardly hold a conversation, so we headed back to the rooms. We crashed for the night after a hot shower!

That pretty much sums up Sun - Wed so I'm gonna take a break now, and I'll wrap up the end of the week in a later post! It's been a long day, so I'm headed to bed now.

Good Night!

Taylor

P.S. - The picture below is of Steve, Jennie, myself, & Gene in front of the Big Texan in Amarillo. You can tell by looking at all of us that we were so tired!

Harley Wife

As most of you know my husband has a new toy. In December we took a road trip to Tulsa to Myers-Duren Harley Davidson to look at a new bike for Gene. For the most part, Gene has had a motorcycle since he was 18 years old. He had a rocket when he and I first got together and sold it not too long after because he said he was tired of it. He made it about a year or so and he was ready for another one, so he bought another one. It was a really nice bike...brand new, blue and yellow (which was a rare paint scheme) and he loved it. Well, he had only had it a couple of months when he went riding with the guys one Sunday morning and ended up totaling it out. Yes...totaled. That poor bike looked so sad, and my husband didn't look much better. He ended up breaking his foot in multiple places (the same foot he had already broken in a previous m/c accident) and had horrible road rash on his legs and his hind end. He was off work for about 7 weeks, and out another motorcycle. He said over and over again on the way home from the hospital that he was never going to buy another rocket. Of course, that didn't exclude a Harley...which he now wanted! Anyway, so we went to Tulsa and when we walked out of the dealership he had a bike on order. Oh boy. A really good thing about Harley Davidson is if you're a police officer, firefighter, or in the armed forces you can order what they call a Peace Officer Edition bike and save about $5,000. That's why he was able to get a brand new one!

He is now the proud owner of a 2008 Harley Davidson Road King! His bike really is beautiful, it's black with a blue pinstripe. When Gene bought the bike I had never once even sat on any type of motorcycle...let alone ride on one. Before his bike came in he was planning a trip, and wanted his good friend, Steve, to go. He had talked Steve into going and they had decided they wanted to ride old Route 66. Steve's wife, Jennie, had decided she was going to take off work and go with Steve, therefore Steve wanted to know if Gene's wife was planning to go. Yikes!!! A long road trip on the back of a motorcycle that I had never once ridden. Sound like a disaster?! Ummm..yes! I was extremely nervous, and when Gene first mentioned it I said, "NO, thanks though!" Ha!

The more he talked about the trip and the closer it got the more I thought about it. Steve kept telling Gene that I really needed to go to keep his wife company and that we would really have a good time. Did I mention they also were planning on camping out? And when I say camping out I mean TENT AND SLEEPING BAGS! In the middle of July might I add!! I was so out I was almost back in again. Camping is not my thing...unless you're talking about a cabin with running water and electricity!

So, I had already talked to Mom about the dates and if she would be willing to keep Grace for a week and of course she said yes so I couldn't use my child as an excuse not to go! I also had talked about the trip at work, and everyone told me I was crazy not to go, and that it would be such an adventure! Yea....quite an adventure, and adventure in me sweating and whining! However, I put in a request anyway for the week off from work and was approved for the days off, so I told Gene I was in! Still nervous...the closer it got the better I got. Another issue I had was packing. Hello! One motorcycle + 2 people = not much room for luggage! Especially considering we were going to be gone for 7 days. Luckily, another good friend of Gene's who is also a biker let us borrow his motorcycle bag that hooks on the passenger's back rest. I was able to get a whole week's worth of clothes plus toiletries into the bag! I didn't have to share it with Gene because he packed all of his clothes in the saddle bags. We also had a sleeping bag in one saddle bag and a tent hooked onto the bag. We did pretty good!

I'll save all the details of the trip for a later post because this one is turning out to be pretty long, but we ended up having a GREAT time and I'm soooo glad I went. Plus, we didn't camp one single night!!! We stayed in a room every night! That was especially great!

Having said all of that, I'll get to the actual thing I was going to post about. I'm such a rambler. There are so many custom accessories you can get to go on your bike, and while we were on our trip we stopped in several different Harley dealerships. In every store we went in Gene was looking at the Willie G. Skull collection of accessories, and kept eyeing the same thing. He already has the highway pegs that are the skulls and was wanting the passenger footboard covers that matched. I'm not normally a fan of skulls, but I like the way these look and they make the bikes look really sharp. Anway, this past Saturday, I checked the mail and there was a Harley Davidson catalog in it. I took it in at work and while I was thumbing through it I found the footboard covers he had been wanting. I then looked them up online and since I had some extra money this paycheck I ordered them for him, along with a shifter peg to match also! He's been working so much lately, I wanted to show him how much I love him and thank him for supporting our family so well! They ended up getting here on Tuesday, so when he got home from training I gave them to him. He was sooo excited!! He asked me what I had done, but then he came over and kissed me! I think he liked them!

This evening after he re-cooped from our trip to SDC, he went out and put his new stuff on his bike. I didn't get a picture taken of them, but I will and post them on here so you can see how good it looks!

This picture was taken on our trip, but it's not a really good close up of it.

Ok, I just wanted to share a little about my husband with you! I've posted twice now today, and I'm off to bed! Hope everybody has a good Friday!

Night!

Taylor

Silver Dollar City!!!

Today Gene and I took the kids to Silver Dollar City for the day! Gene was able to take off work, and we drove down this morning. We got there right at 9:30, when it opened, and we left about 2:00.

It was a lot of fun, but we were all very tired and hot by the time we left! This was Grace's first trip to SDC and she got a big kick out of it. We thought there were going to be a few things for her to ride but there weren't. We were going to ride the train, and we had good spots to get on and they told us that we were going to have to wait about 10-15 min for another one because the one that was there was having some mechanical issues. We were sweating and Grace was very sleepy so we just left there and decided to ride The Great American Shootout because she was able to ride that with us. Of course she was so tired, she just kinda sat there looking around like "please just lay me down so I can sleep!" It was still cute though!

The picture below was taken right after we got off the ride! She's so silly. We ate lunch after that and she woke up some and was more playful for a while. I rode all the roller coasters with the boys, and Gene rode Powder Keg with Colt. After he rode that he started feeling sick and after we ate lunch he had to go back to the car and lay down. He was exhausted and the heat and roller coaster zapped him. The boys and Grace and I walked around for about another hour, and I rode Thunderation with the boys one more time and then we left. The park wasn't full at all when we got there and we didn't have to wait in line at all, but by the afternoon it had filled up and the lines were long. We were all so wiped out we headed to the car.

Gene was asleep in the car when we got there and we loaded up and took off. He felt bad the whole way home, but he still drove because he really would have been sick in the passenger's seat on those windy roads.

The kids all were asleep by the time we made it out of Branson and slept for about an hour. Gene passed out as soon as we got home and I cleaned off the porch and watered the lawn! I'm now trying to figure out what we're going to do for dinner!

Signing off -

Taylor

Wii

We are now official Wii owners!!!

If you have never played a Wii, you don't know what you're missing! They are so much fun and extremely addicting. The first time I played one was in April at my cousin's house in OK. We stayed with Chadd and Jeannie one night, and spent just about the whole afternoon playing Wii carnival games! We had such a good time, and my mom and dad even played too!

Anyway, we've been wanting one for a while but you have to catch them at just the right time because most stores can't keep them. Gene and Colt were in Best Buy this past Thursday and they had a few out so they grabbed one! Now we're waiting to find a Wii Fit!

All morning the boys and I bowled and looked like crazy people in the living room! It's a good chance for some family fun together though!

I'm at work right now, and so far it's really slow. I'm hoping it picks up some so the time goes fast. I'm thinking we need something big...maybe a fire or a shooting or something. I know, morbid, but in my line of work we feed off of adrenaline!!!!

I guess I'll get back to it now! Have a good rest of the weekend!
Taylor

Reflection

"but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward." Jeremiah 7:23, 24

"...This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips." Jeremiah 7:28

Sound like anyone you know?

It certainly does to me, and it's very disheartening because it sounds like our nation and the people of this country. No, not just this country, but this world.

I'm not a political person by any stretch of the imagination. Quite honestly I get discouraged when I watch anything on the news about the current election....Decision 2008. I guess to some that makes me sound like a bad citizen, but it's very hard for me to believe much of what any of the candidates have to say. At this point they're just trying to pacify people and tell them/us what we want to hear so that we will vote for them. I'm all for "change" Mr. Obama, but I hope that if you are elected into the White House that you follow through with that and make positive changes for our country.

We are in a crisis. War. Economics. Education. God. That seems to be about the gist of it, and in that order might I add. Sad, but true. That's why it's disheartening. The only one I was interested in and rooting for...Mike Huckabee, is now out of the running. I know that he was a man of God, and stood for what was right and just in an unfair world. He carries his Bible, and is not afraid to let it be seen. Wow! That itself is encouraging and impressive to me. I truly believe he is a man of God. I applaud him for that.

Anyway, I was sitting here tonight checking all of my favorite blogs and the Chapman family kept popping up on several different ones. In case you aren't familiar....Steven Curtis Chapman and his sweet family that suffered a great loss in May when their youngest daughter, Maria, was killed in an accident that happend in their driveway.

I also read a blog called Bring the Rain and if you ever get a chance you need to check it out, but you have to start from the beginning and there's a link on the page that will take you to the start. Look to the left and you will see Bring the Rain listed under my favorite blogs. The blog is written by a woman named Angie Smith and she is such an amazing woman of God, and her family was also burdened with the loss of a child in April of this year. You really must read it, because it's much better to hear her tell the story. She's a true inspiration.

You also must read Light the World which is a blog written by Angie Smith's brother-in-law, Greg Sponberg. Greg and his wife Nicol (Angie's husband's sister) also lost a child in May, and Greg started a blog in honor of Luke (their son) and it's a tear jerker too.

Anyway, all 3 of these families are such strong believers in God and have all suffered tremendously this year. I've been reading their blogs and they open up their hearts in such a way that makes me cry every time I read them. They have so much faith and want to share it with the world even in though they hurt so badly for their babies.

Being a mother I understand the different kind of love you have for your children and I can't imagine losing them. I go to bed and wake up every morning thankful that God blessed me with 3 wonderful children. I don't deserve it, yet he still saw me fit enough to raise a family!! I'm honored, just like I'm honored to be somebody's wife and daughter and sister and friend.

Now, more than ever, I realize how much this country needs God. I realize how much personally I need God in my life. I need him to help teach me how to raise my kids and to be a better example for them and those I'm around. I pray for the future leaders of our country and that He helps teach them how to lead our country. I encourage you to pray also for these things, and to pray for the families who have suffered loss and are grieving and hurting. That they have the strength to get out of bed in the morning and shine as a light for Him.

Thank you God for another good day, and the assurance that the sun will rise at least one more day!

Banana Pudding!!!!!!!!!!

When we got to Granny's today I opened the refrigerator to put Grace's sippy cups in there and look what I found inside!!!!!!

GRANNY'S BANANA PUDDING!!!!!

My first bowl! I've had 2 now!

Ok, so I LOVE Granny's banana pudding! She usually makes it about every other time I come down, and I was sooooo excited when I saw it today. It's most definitely the very best you will ever eat. Too bad I'm probably going to eat the whole thing!! Just kidding...probably only 3/4!

Grace finally wore herself out spinning and singing and dancing this afternoon. Granny had a hair appt at 4, and while she was gone Grace crawled up in Corey's lap and fell asleep. She slept for about an hour or so. She was pretty cranky when she woke up and just went from one person's arms to the next. However, she was much better after eating some of Granny's taco soup and cheese dip for dinner. I think she ate more of Granny's bowl than Granny did!!

Isn't she so big?! And precious?!

After we ate dinner we watched Definitely, Maybe and it was a really cute movie!! Corey got a little confused....but it's really not confusing. It was good! I would recommend it!

Ok, 2 posts today so now I'm going to try and get Grace to sleep. After we brush her teeth of course!

Good Night!

Taylor

Over The River And Through The Woods

To Granny's house we go!!!!

(Yes, that's Grace when she was still little!)

It's my weekend!!! Yay! Mom and I wanted to try and squeeze one more trip into Granny's house before Mom has to go back to work, so this morning after Corey's orientation at school Mom, Corey, Grace, and I drove down to stay the night. We love coming to Granny's house!

It was raining cats and dogs by the time Mom got to our house to pick us up this morning so we got soaked! Corey's orientation was at 10 this morning, so we went there first and then stopped in Big Red's Razorback Store on 6th St. to check on a license plate for Granny Rosie...no such luck! After that we went to the bank so I could deposit some money, then we checked Wal-Mart for a license plate (no such luck there either). I told Mom I wanted donuts so she was going to get some in WM for me...yum! Corey and I waited in the car with Grace because it was raining still and I was already drenched from getting out at school with Corey. Anyway, while Mom was inside I told Corey I hoped she got me some milk because I knew I would get thirsty eating donuts!! When she walked out I could see the milk in a bag....just love that woman!! When she got in we told her I was talking about it, and all she said was "Who do you think raised you?!?!"

I guess she thinks after 23 years she knows me pretty well. I'm not going to argue that one though!

Ok, so we made it to Alma and it only rained on us half way here. By the time we made it to Granny's the sun was shining. It's hard for me to complain about the rain when we needed it so bad though!

After we got settled and Grace entertained for a while we went down and ate Pizza Parlour....YUMMY!!! Aunt Cathy if you're reading this....I'm sorry!! I ate some for you though! They have the best pizza ever.

After lunch we just headed back to Granny's and Grace continued entertaining. She was in quite a mood today! If you read the post about us seeing Mamma Mia! then you remember that Mom bought the soundtrack. Well, Grace LOVES the music from that movie. She sings "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!" but to every song on the CD. So funny! I brought it in and was playing it on the computer and she was dancing and singing for us. Granny got a kick out of her! Grace also discovered that she has a pocket, and she was extremely intrigued by it. I tried posting a video of it but it wouldn't work. I'll try it again later!

I'll get off for now, but I have another post for later!

Talk to you soon!

Taylor

Tuesday Morning

It's almost noon and Grace and I haven't been up very long! Ha! I think the heat is just wearing everybody out, including Grace. She used to always be up between 8 and 9, but here lately she's been sleeping until at least 10:30. Of course she has been staying up later too because my parents have had her a lot, and since she's older now she likes to stay up and play instead of sleeping.

I consider myself a professional sleeper....I love to sleep! Before I had a baby I would sleep till noon almost everyday, so you can imagine what it was like for me after Grace was born and I was up every night every 2 hours for feeding. I was a little grumpy, but she was worth it! She started sleeping through the night shortly after we moved into the house and she was in her crib in her own room. She was about 8 weeks old or so. That was a huge blessing!

Back to it being hot outside....Corey just came in from getting Bear from my in-laws house and the first thing he said was "It's so hot outside!" Have I mentioned before that I'm ready for fall?!?!

Grace just got in trouble for playing in Bear's food...never a dull moment around here. We keep is food in the laundry room in a bottom cabinet, and Grace can get to it so every time we open the door she thinks she needs to feed him! I just bought him new treats too so of course she has to give him one of those! Granny's dog, Tawney, gets a treat every time she comes in from using the bathroom and Grace has figured that out now. Every time Granny brings her in, Grace runs to the kitchen saying "cheat, cheat" (her version of treat!) She's so funny!

Ok, I'm off to clean up the kitchen....again! This time it's my mess though!! Then I've gotta make my lunch so I can get in the shower and get ready for work. That's really the only bad thing about sleeping so late is that I don't ever have much time before work, but that's ok because I am good and rested for work!!!

Hope everyone has a great day!
Taylor

Oh So Tired

It has been a long weekend and I'm completely worn out right now, but I feel like writing for a while.

I'm lying on the couch with Diagnosis Murder and the dishwasher as background noise. When I got home from work Grace and the boys were still up, and Grace was full of energy. She's very silly and was perfectly content playing by herself while I was on the phone with my good friend, Teresa. The boys stayed up for just a little bit, but went to bed not too long after I got home. Gene got into a foot pursuit yesterday at work and tore a muscle in his back so he has not felt good at all today. He came home early from work today because he got too hot and was hurting so bad. So, he was in bed when I got home.

I had a horrible headache when I got home from work, mostly because of work. Drama....need I say more?

Anyways, I didn't feel very good and was ready to just be still and quiet so finally Grace settled down and went to bed. I washed my face and cleaned up the toys off the living room floor. I also cleaned up the kitchen because it was still a mess from where they had made dinner. Men. Sorry to anyone of the male gender who might be reading this, but sometimes your gender drives me absolutely crazy. The last thing I wanted to do when I got home from work was clean up somebody else's mess, but I'm the mom so I guess it comes with the territory. I don't have to like it though! I'm much like my mother in that I can not/will not go to bed with a dirty kitchen. Thanks Mom!! Ha!

So after I cleaned stuff up and was satisfied once again I grabbed the computer, turned the lights off, and laid down on the couch. Now I'm just typing. It's nice, therapeutic.

I'm phsyically tired and I have no energy. I don't like feeling zapped like I do, and I know a lot of it is because of the heat. We keep our thermostat set on 71 degrees pretty much the whole time, except when we leave the house and we turn it up a few degrees. This morning when I got up I noticed the temperature in the house was 73 but it was still set on 71. I figured it was just because it was warming up outside so it was having to work harder to cool. Well, about 30 minutes later I walked past the thermostat and saw that it was now 75 degrees in the house. Yes, it was warming up but it was still set on 71. Not good. It made it up to 76 and I turned it off for a little bit. Gene had come in from work about the time I turned it back on, and asked why it was so warm in the house. I told him what was going on and he checked the unit, and it had ice on it from where it had "vapor locked" as Gene called it. It's been working so hard and running cold so long that it froze it up. Yikes! Not good to lose a/c in the middle of summer. I had to get in the shower to get ready for work, and when I got out I sent the boys and Grace over to my in-laws (right next door) to keep Grace cool, because we had shut it off again to thaw and it was really warming up inside.

When I left for work about 30 minutes after we had shut it off it was already 78 degrees in our house. I am sooooo ready for fall. Anyway, Gene sent me a text message later in the day that said it was working properly again. Thank you Lord! He is a good God! So, I'm lying in a/c...luckikly. I'm cranky when I'm hot!!

I'm ready for fall!

Tonight was pretty uneventful at work, very little crime in the city of Springdale on this particular Sunday evening. Which I guess is a good thing for the citizens, but we're all adrenaline junkies and prefer it when it's busy! My mom thinks we're all crazy! It's fun!

This has turned into quite a post, and if you stayed with me the whole time then thanks!! However, I'm sleepy, so I'm going to finish watching the Diagnosis Murder movie that is on and I'm going to sleep.

Until next time,
Taylor

Mamma Mia!!

"Mamma Mia, here I go again, my my!!"

Today Mom and I went and saw Mamma Mia, and it was soooooo good!! Mom and I were both ready to turn around and see it again. I love musicals, and this one has become one of my favorites now.

I never would have thought about Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep in a musical, but they were both great and the whole cast did an incredible job. The music is all great, and it was just the right amount of singing. I was laughing so hard I was crying, and it has the sweetest ending. If you have a chance, you should definitely go see it. It's a great ladies' day out movie!

After the movie, we went to Coldstone Creamery. Yummy!!!! We were a little disappointed though, because they were out of waffle cones. :( Our ice cream was still really good, and Mom and I decided we didn't need the extra calories anyway!

It's nice to be able to have some grown-up time with Mom, because normally when we are together we have Grace so today was a nice break! The boys were home today so they stayed home with her since Gene was working.

Hope everyone had a good day!
Taylor