Dress Up

I haven't uploaded the pictures yet, but I have to write this while the memory is fresh. I told the girls earlier that we needed to go to the store to get Jace's birthday presents. A few minutes later, both Samantha and Sabrina came into the living room wearing hats and purses. It was so funny. I can't remember the last time they made me laugh so hard. I ran for the camera. I got a couple of good shots. This is the first time they have played dress up on their own. They also clincked glasses today...toasting each other....no idea where that one came from. I bought them new swim suits tonight and a couple of sun dresses. We are going to Atlanta Beach tomorrow afternoon. They are already wearing the suits tonight and fussing for the "pool."

Early this week I had a bad mommy moment. Something went wrong with the DVR while I was trying to record a program. My response was to say OUTLOUD....oh sh**. Sabrina, of course, copied me. They understand everything. Both Peyton and I laughed, but it was a wakeup call.

Destiny got a new yo yo tonight at Target. She can't quit playing with it. She is really excited about the beach tomorrow. Destiny is really glad that I got a hair cut. Now her hair is not the shortest. Mine is almost as short as Peyton's.

Vacation is just a couple of weeks away. At this point, I think we are going to stay home. We've never had a whole week together at home. I think there are so many things we could get done....fun things. I'd love to paint some with Destiny. We used to have time to do that a lot. Maybe make the model planes and bird houses that we bought but never put together. I haven't taken her to the libary in almost two years. Too afraid the girls would tear up the books. They don't tear them up anymore, they just write in them, on them......I know I keep bringing it up, but the WALLS are like an art museum around here.

Summer

I can't believe it's already the middle of June. I am in trouble with Jennifer for not updating the blog for over two months. We lost our digital camera the last week of school and have only just replaced it a couple of weeks ago. Biggest news of the past few months...baby Scarlett Grace Vaughan was born. Sabrina seemed afraid to touch her at first, but she warmed up to this beautiful little girl. Jessica and Paul are so happy. Jenny and Tim are grandparents. It's crazy.

We did have some sad news to report. My mom's best friend of twenty seven years, Donna Wadford, passed away on May 24th. I was honored when her youngest son called to ask that I do the eulogy. He said that his mom told them all that when she died, she wanted Bobbie Jean to give her eulogy because no one could tell her story the way I could. It makes me feel like she knew how much I respected and loved her to trust me to have the final word. It was always a big joke between us over who would have the final word. It was a very difficult, but very healing thing for me to do. I didn't see Donna much over the past ten years, but we did email a lot and I really miss hearing from her. She was like a second mom to me. My mom is never going to find a friend like her again. That kind of connection comes but once in a lifetime.

We've been busy but here's a quick recap. I moved into my new offices at work the middle of May. I worked with the movers for 10 hours on Saturday making everything perfect. Then on Monday morning, I got a call from my boss who said he just wanted to warn me before I saw the office. On Sunday, a forklift driver drove into a main support beam on our dock. He ruptured the water sprinkler system. Luckily for us, only the sprinkler system on the dock was activated. The water, however, ran into our offices. So the perfect office that I left on Saturday, was missing the floor molding and full of industrial fans and vaccums on our first official day of business. Quite funny in hindsight, but Peyt said I looked like a kid whose new bike was run over on Christmas morning. Happy to report, things are nice and clean again. Work is very busy, but it's a good kind of busy.

Peyton has been working on building us a storage building in the backyard. It's been a big project, but like the fence, he amazes me with what he can do. It is truly going to be "too nice" to be a storage unit.

The kids finished up school at the end of May. We went to the McGarity Family Reunion. Uncle Joel showed the twins how to share a swing. We celebrated Mother's Day and Father's Day with gifts of I-pods. I didn't think I would be interested, but I love mine now. Peyton has a cool feature with his. A receiver in his shoe sends updates to his I-Pod so while he's running, it tracks his progress. He just uploads it after a run and all of the information is there. It also talks to him while he's running to give him his progress. He's running the Peachtree Road Race in a few weeks so I thought it would be the ideal gift to help with is training.

Sabrina and Samantha got their first haircuts. We took them to Fantastic Sams. They did really well and sat up nicely for the ladies who did the cuts. Daddy held Sam and I held Sabrina. Look how cute....

Destiny turned 7 and her Daddy took her to Six Flags for the day. She chose this over a big party. We had to get out the tape measurer to see if she was tall enough. She was just barely over 47 inches...most coasters require 48. Peyton had her put on her shoes and socks and it was just enough. He would have so much more to say about this than I do, but he doesn't seem very interested in adding anything to the blog. I guess I'm the story teller. I did talk to her after she rode the Georgia Cyclone, which was her first BIG coaster. She said, "Mommy, I thought I was going to die." At the time, she was standing in line to ride another one. She's a brave little girl. I am sure it was very cool to have her daddy all to herself for the whole day. We had cake and ice cream when they came home. We didn't even know the twins knew how to blow out candles, but while I was trying to light them, they were trying to blow them out.

Michael is away at Camp Promise this week. It's at Hard Labor Creek State Park in Rutledge, GA. I hope he has fun. He is spending the week with 45 kids who were all adopted from the State of Georgia. I think it will be a good experience to be with his "peers." The camp looked really cool with all of the cabins and the lake. I wish I had sent a disposable camera with him. I'll be sure to do that next year.

We went to Ty's first birthday party this weekend. The kids played in the pool and "beach" that Jennifer and Neil created in the backyard. The girls really wore themselves out. We took Skyler with us too. She is spending the week with Mema Shirley, so she and Destiny has had someone to play with for the past week.

Samantha kept trying to help Tyrus open his presents. Sabrina thought they were all, "cool." I can't believe that he is a year old or that the girls will be two next month. Life seemed to move in slow motion when I was a kid, but it really flies. There are not too many things that the girls can't say. Sabrina used to call herself Sambo whenever she looked in the mirror, but just today, she has started to say "me."

Last but not least, our house has beautiful borders throughout. Crayon, pen and marker....on almost all of the walls. I never thought I could overlook this kind of thing, but it's really not that big a deal. We need to paint next summer, but oh well...we did pick a fixer upper.