" What I Did On My Summer Vacation "

Baby Jack at grandma Diana's house.

This has absolutely nothing to do with my vacation and speaking of which, I don't really get a vacation. I did however watch a fabulous movie before my husband came home for HIS vacation! This was a wonderfully warm and witty movie. I won't get into the story in case you might like to see it. I will say that the way the main character talks reminds me a little of how Bernie from " On My Own " writes. I kept thinking of her through the movie because of the way Mrs. Palfrey spoke. I highly recommend this flick!

My husband is still home for his time off. We have been enjoying our time together very much. Saturday evening we, Jake, Katie and I went out for dinner. We went to "Ryans" which is a large buffet and had a great meal. Jake and Katie over indulged a bit with the buffet as I heard moans and groans of overly full belly's on the drive home! I was very full myself but for some reason I wasn't as uncomfortable as the two little piggy's in the car!

On the way home we stopped at the video store as I have been wanting to see Tyler Perry's new flick " Madea Goes to Jail ". Jake and Katie also wanted to see it. Wow something we all agreed on! I love all of Tyler Perry's movie's. One of my guesses in Jackie's from " Teachers Pet " guessing game was Tyler Perry as I am pretty sure that all of his movies take place in Georgia. His movies are usually pretty funny but also have serious story line weaved in. They also always have an inspirational message.

Madea movies are always my favorites of Tyler Perry's however this last one wasn't as funny as his past one's. We did enjoy it as it was still entertaining , just not quite as funny as usual , to me anyway

On Sunday Jake and I did our big project that we had planned. That was cleaning out and rearranging " Happenstance ". " Happenstance " is the name of one of our spare bedrooms. We named it that years ago because things always end up getting thrown in there. It it a mess most of the time. It is part office and part bedroom. Every year Jake and I clean out the closet in which every possible thing that doesn't have it's own place gets thrown into. My husband is so good at this job. By the time he gets through sorting things out and rearranging it looks great. We had a huge old chair in there that we never use. So I asked my daughter-in-law if she might want it for her house. My son is going to be picking it up tomorrow ! Yay ! More free space.

The room looks so much better and roomier. I was very pleased, even my hubby commented on how much better it looks. We may have to rename it someday. But I doubt it as it always ends up being the crazy catch all room.

On Sunday afternoon my daughter-in-law called and asked if Katie might want to come out to their house to babysit for baby Jack. Being that there was cash involved, Katie said yes. My DIL , Amy's younger sister is moving in to the house next door to my son Frank and his family. Frank and Amy have been helping her fix it up so they wanted Katie to keep an eye on Jack for a few hours. Jake and I wanted a night alone so we asked Amy if Katie could stay the night too. Of coarse Amy said yes. Well Katie put up a big stink as if she were a five year old. She whined and whined until Amy showed up to get her. Amy told her to just " Go get your stuff, your stayin'". Wow, that's all it took for Katie to stop whining! Thank you Daughter-in-Law!

So the husband and I had a wonderful and well deserved evening alone.

Tuesday was the day that I was dreading. That was the day we had planned on taking Katie clothes shopping for school. We can't do that here as our mall is very puny. We usually take a trip to another mall which is about sixty miles from our house.

Katie had been researching malls online to maybe find a different one to go to. Either way I hate car rides. I never used to but anymore I find them totally boring.

While researching Katie found a different mall located in Evansville, Indiana. It is a little farther then the other mall, about ninety miles one way from the house. But we said " What the heck we'll try something new". I grabbed some crochet thread and a needle to bring along. The ride was quite pleasant as I sat in the back seat, put my feet up and crocheted the whole ride. My knee hurts quite a bit if I have to sit with my foot on the floor for very long. So this was much more comfortable for me and Katie and her daddy were able to goof around up front. The ride to Evansville is much nicer then the ride to Fairview Heights. Much less traffic!

I have to explain that as rule Katie is a pain in the butt to shop with. She will have meltdowns and tantrums when she can't find what she is looking for. It takes every ounce of patience I have in me to deal with her. I have, on occasion, just left with her walking behind me, both of us angered. Jake doesn't like to be with us at all when Katie is clothes shopping.

This time everything was different. I felt as though I were in a dream. The ride was very pleasant. I thought about Jerelene from "Jerelene's Journal" during the ride as I knew that she lived around there somewhere. Hi Jerelene! The mall was just opening so it wasn't very crowded yet. Katie managed to find a pair of jeans right away and found nine assorted tee shirts that she liked. We wanted to find more jeans but she's a little hard to fit so we will try our Penny's here this weekend. We had a nice lunch at the food court and then headed home. No tantrums. No fits. No meltdowns. I do believe that it was our best shopping trip ever! We will definitely go back there again.

When we got back to our town we made a quick stop at our local Wal-mart where Katie picked out hair coloring. She went back to dark brown. It looks good on her.

She is now ready for her first day as a freshman on Friday. And her Daddy will be home to see her off.

I have to go clean house tomorrow and then work at church on Friday. We wanted to take a trip out to "Devils Prop" while my husband is home so that Kate and I could take some photos, weather permitting. It is this beautiful place that is very wooded and has fabulous rock formations. I am still hoping to be able to fit this in sometime before Jake leaves. I don't think that I could find it on my own.

We are going out to our son Franks, house on Saturday to visit. I will try to get some photos of baby Jack who is walking now. And of coarse my granddaughter Sarah who is starting the first grade. My MaMa will be there too so we should have a nice visit.

The photo above was taken when Sarah spent the night with us a few weeks ago. She was playing with her littlest pet shop toys in " Happenstance ".

Well there you have the week so far. We have four more days together left. So far it's been very nice.