Back to the Grind

I started working again.  I had planned on waiting until the fall, after the kiddos started Kindergarten and were gone from me all day.  But, I had always hoped to go right back to my old job and pick up where I left off.  So, when that exact opportunity actually happened, I had to jump on it.  I am so fortunate to be back with my old company with my old peeps that I had missed so much!

For now, I'm only working part-time, three days a week.  I am so unbelieveably thankful to have had the time at home with my babies.  I wouldn't have traded it for the world and will always be grateful for those years with them at home.  But, it definitely feels great to be back at work again too.  I was so apprehensive about it at first and battled through a lot of guilt about going back early.  So far, it's been great especially since Brent can work from anywhere.  A laptop by the pool or at the park is just as beneficial as a laptop in an office.

Here are some random pictures from the last few weeks.  It's been really hectic but I'm sure it will calm down a bit once we find our groove.  Our poor house is in complete disarray with laundry flung from floor to ceiling and dishes piled so high in the kitchen that flies are soon to start swarming. We are loving being on summer break though.  I've been so spoiled having the babies at home all day again.  I'm going to miss them way too much in the fall.

Flinging rocks into the May.

Callie's flower with a bonus organ.  I bet their teacher got a kick out of this one!

Lacey bit him in the ear and he had to have stitches.  He also had surgery on his
foot twice since he was ripping off the cast and pulling out the stitches. 
Thus, the cone of shame.

Cotton candy at the last day of school picnic.

Pre-K diplomas!  Hooray!

Wyatt's soccer team.  They were just too cute!

Callie and I made kale chips from the kale in our garden.  It was pretty nasty
so we left it outside for the armadillos.  Even they didn't want it.

Geocaching

I had heard the word "geocaching" before but had no idea what it was.  Randomly, the word popped up again in an article I was reading early Saturday morning and I decided to put an ounce of effort into figuring out what it meant.  Quickly, I realized that I had been in the dark to a world that some people obsess about.  I thought we should try it just to experience the hype, so we entered in our zip code on the geocaching.com website and decided to hunt just one of these things down.  If it sucked, we'd stop.

We expected to be gone about 15 minutes or so.  In fact, all four of us quickly threw on some shorts and strolled out of the house in the shirts we slept in; bed heads blazing.  We had no idea we'd be geocaching for the rest of the weekend!

The first hunt was cool even though we didn't know what we were doing.  Having recently cleaned out my car, the only treasure we could find to trade was a free pen I'd picked up at an emergency vet up in Charleston.  We found the first box in a hollowed out log on an abandoned golf cart path not too far from our house.  We signed the log, chose a pretty shell in exchange for our pen, and excitedly headed to another set of nearby coordinates.  It was complete outdoorsy, nerdy fun. 

Here are some pictures from our, what turned out to be, weekend long adventure.  My mom joined us for the second half of Saturday and all day Sunday in Savannah too.  Our adventures included driving over dozens of fiddler crabs, happening upon a wild heard of goats, tons of animal bones, treks through parking garages, four very unfrightened rats, a couple of orioles, baby bunnies, mosquitoes, ticks, and bug bites in crevices you hope never to be bitten in.  While a few of us may have ended up with West Nile, we sho' had fun!

Our first cache hidden in a hollow log.

Trading a pen for a shell.

The "Love Connection" cache.

Sifting through the treasures inside.

A part of somebody's spine.

The "Aww, Shucks" cache near the Oyster Company.

Our first micro cache hidden inside a fake sprinkler head.  We almost gave up on this one.

Callie found this one all by herself and picked a really pretty marble.

Bones seemed to be our theme of the day.  It freaked the kids out so much that they are sleeping
with all the lights on at night. They are scared of skeletons under their beds and in the closets.

Sunday - taking a break to picnic in Forsyth Park.  Peep the kid's stylish outfit.
He loves wearing tube socks and always wears one black and one green.

Memorial Day Weekend

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend!  We are so grateful for our troops who lost their lives for our freedom. It's overwhelms me.

On Saturday, someone asked me to help decorate a wedding cake. She had an order for a wooden looking wedding cake and a picture of the cake that the bride wanted her to duplicate. She was terrified that she wasn't going to be able to pull it off and begged me to help knowing that I had experience decorating cookies.  Holy stress balls!

When we got to the reception site, she assembled the three-tier cake, handed me a icing bag, and told me to make it happen.  I could have crapped in my pants!  I was only prepared to help and even that made me nervous.  I'd never even decorated a cake before let alone someone's wedding cake!   I tried to tell her no, but she was shaking so badly with anxiety that I knew I was going to have to do it.  Although it was unbelievably scary, I had so much fun doing it!

My very first wedding cake!  Yay!

Photo of the one she wanted us to copy
(with the heart on the second tier instead of the top).

On Sunday, the padres took the kiddos so that Brent and I could get away for a night in Charleston.  We go there quite often, but are rarely able to enjoy the city as tourists.  In fact, Brent had never even walked the battery or seen Folly Beach.  We also stopped by Jack's Cosmic Dogs along the way to try their famous hot dog.  I'm not a fan of tubular-pig-naughty-parts, but since it was written up by Southern Living and highly endorsed by Alton Brown, we gave it a shot.  It was just a plain hot dog with sweet potato mustard and blue cheese slaw.  Honestly, it rivaled the Sonoran dog we had in Arizona.  Delish!

Here are some pictures of the battery.  With another tropical storm off the coast, it was too windy to fully enjoy and we were getting showered by the crashing waves.  Needless to say, our touristy walk along Rainbow Row didn't last too long.  So instead, we dipped into Pearlz, one of my favorite oyster bars ever, and guzzled down plenty of Sunday Funday specials while gnawing on crab claws.  It was perfection and even more awesome that it was just the two of us.

Oyster Shooters!!

After that, we shopped some, went to Starbucks, and enjoyed perusing the market.  It was great.  We headed to the hotel which was brand new and were lucky enough to be upgraded to one of the suites.  When I saw the bathroom, I knew there was zero hope of us making it back out for dinner. Not only did it look relaxing, but there was a tv next to the bathtub. It was what the doctor ordered fo sho! Brent left to pick up sushi, while I soaked away layers of stress and momage. I even ate dinner in there! Ha! Chopsticks and pruney fingers? Yes, please!

I even took a picture!

Our Garden

This post will officially make me sound like a granny, but I don't care because we have a garden!  Woot!  Brent grew up on a fairly large piece of property and has always been determined to at least grow tomatoes in our yard every year.  Each spring, he'll come home with a few large plants and stuff them in the ground. I'll acknowledge it with an eye-roll or two, but am always amazed when the bush actually produces a tomato.

He constantly talks about wanting to plant more stuff too.  I've never really responded in a supportive manner, only because I just didn't get it.  We're not farmers.  We don't own a pig.  But this year, when he tossed half-a-dozen seed packets in the buggy at the store, I looked at him like he was ridiculous, sighed, and bought them anyway knowing fully well that nothing was going to grow.  They weren't even actual plants.

But wouldn't ya know... only a few weeks later, we had baby veggie plants!  And now?  They're huge!  We still don't have any actual vegetables, but I am in complete shock that the seeds did in fact grow into something.  Who would have thought that those seed packet things actually worked!?  I always saw them as a waste of money for kids who wanted to play pretenzies with their fake little watering cans.  Cucumber seeds?  Seriously?  Dude, if you want to eat a cucumber, they are on aisle 5.  Already grown.  And you don't have to do any work.

Until this year, I honestly thought you most likely had to live on a farm with tilled up planting beds and big farm looking equipment to grow a vegetable in your yard.  I'm fully admitting excessive stupidity here, but planting edible things in our backyard in suburbia was nothing our family participated in.  Another reason why Brent makes me better.  Here are some pics of our plants and I'm proud.

Pumpkin.  The kiddos are responsible for these!

Kale

Jalapenos

Tomatoes

Cucumber or zucchini - we can't remember.

Mint

Dill.  (Trying to be artsy with my macro setting.)

Tropical Storm

This morning we woke up to the first tropical storm of the season.  Like most mentally balanced people, we took it as a sign that it was a great day to head to the beach.  It did turn out awesome though because there were zero tourists, it was cloudy and cool, and we never felt a drop of rain.  I happen to be partial to the beach during storms since Brent and I shared our nuptials on the beach with a looming hurricane in the background.  We aren't skerd.  Wyatt fluttered around in the surf whole time singing little songs under his breath.  I can't remember a time where I've seen him more content.  It filled me up.

Taking it all in.

This shirt's got to go!

Loving life.

Happy Easter!

I know it's been about three weeks since Easter, but this month has just been flying by!  Okay, so after SeaWorld, we headed home for two days because we had a birthday party to go to and then we headed back down to Jacksonville to celebrate Easter with my aunt and uncle.

The night before Easter, we ate at one of the cutest little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurants called Tequilas, and I introduced my aunt and uncle to the glorious slice of heaven some call, Margaronas.  The fabulous company, frosty drink, and bacon-wrapped, shrimp soft tacos lead to possibly one of favorite Mexican restaurant experiences ever.  Tequila's is definitely located on the strip in my happy place.

Easter was fun and also happened to fall on Brent's birthday too.  I tried to be a precious wife by giving him a chocolate Easter bunny just like his mom had done for him every year since he was born.  However, the bunny didn't handle the car ride too well.

Poor Eggbert.

Despite the frigidly cold water, the kids were in and out of the pool at the crack of dawn, pausing briefly to hunt for eggs and ingest yummies.  We eluded the traditional Easter fare in favor of Mojo pork, plantains, and pigeon peas.  As typical per their backyard, Bob Marley serenaded the feast on their super comfy porch.  It was a great Easter.