Eric's Birthday

We celebrated Eric's birthday at Mema Shirley's house. I can't believe how many children we have when we get them all in one room. Half of the kids were missing and we still had a full house. The older kids jumped on the trampoline while the younger kids played in the garage and ate loads of candy. I love this picture of Sabrina and Skylar. Beanie really reminds me of her sometimes. She has never really been a huge fan of hats, but she wears her pink princess hat everywhere.

Aquarium

We took the kids to the Georgia Aquarium on November 2. It's been so long, and I'm just now posting the pictures. Life has been so busy lately. Samantha and Sabrina liked the baluga whales the best. Destiny really enjoyed the animals she could pet. I found myself most interested in the manta ray. The Aquarium is a great experience. I don't think it's something that we would be interested in doing over and over the way we do the zoo. We really enjoyed the 3D movie. It was interactive and the water splashing on us did not bother Sabrina, but when they started the air jets blowing under her seat, she was very upset. I think she was startled and scared and then too embarrassed that it scared her to be anything but mad. Sabrina is stubborn. I have never met a child with more pride at such a young age.

****I still think my favorite visit with the animals will always be the polar bear at the Central Park Zoo in New York City. I could have watched him forever.

Bryson James Tingle

....Another Tingle is born. Bryson is so cute. Owen and Amber are thrilled to be parents again. Riley and Kenna are very happy to be big sisters. We can't wait to see the kids when they come home for Christmas. They live in Cary, North Carolina.

Happy Halloween 2008

Halloween was a lot of fun for us this year. Samantha dressed up as Batman. Sabrina was Superman, and Destiny was Pebbles. Since we don't live in a neighborhood, we always visit one down the road. This was our third year and this is a pretty small neighborhood. I was so shocked when we walked up to the first house. Jack Lowe answered the door and immediately said. "You guys are from the first house on Callaway, right? We were hoping you would come by this year. Pat made special bags for all four of the kids." We spent a few minutes speaking to Pat and Jack. I am hopeful that they will visit us on Easter this year. What wonderful neighbors we have. Well...actually, we are distant neighbors at best. They live about a mile away. You'll see a picture of all of the kids posing with Pat and Jack on Halloween night this year. I am going to make it a point to take one every year. The next house we visited is where Kathy lives. I can't remember Kathy's last name right now and I don't think I ever heard her husband's name. Kathy invites the kids inside each year to tour her home. She decorates EVERY room and loves for the kids to play with all of her Halloween goodies. Keep in mind, we ONLY see Kathy once a year...on Halloween night. We are hoping to change this. She reminded me when we left that she is always available to keep the kids anytime we need her too. She has lots of time on her hands and she loves kids. The below pictures are in Kathy's living room....standing with the dancing ghosts. We had a halloween pumpkin contest at work. It was really great. I didn't really want to participate this year. In fact, someone else signed me up for it while I was in New York a couple of weeks ago. As always, I got into it pretty quickly. There were 11 pumpkins in the contest. Below are pictures of the top three. My group's pumpkin won FIRST PLACE. He looked really cool in the dark with his candle lit. There's a picture here of him without his clothes, I carved him all by myself. No help from my ultra talented husband. We don't have to tell him that I used a template I downloaded off of the internet to trace the design. He's the lifesize DHL delivery man who is delivering a package to a coffin in a cemetary. His package has a sign that reads: DHL: We deliver anywhere. Even to the Dead

At the end of the night we dropped by to see Grandmother and Granddaddy Tingle. We spent a little bit of time hanging out with them. It was nice to have Halloween on a Friday night. No need to rush home to bed. Grandmother gave us Pumpkin Ice Cream and freshly baked Apple Cake. You can imagine the sugar rush we went through.

Extra...Extra...Samantha reads first word!!!

I am having a proud parent moment. Samantha and Sabrina were coloring with me tonight. Sabrina asked, "Mommy, does Sabrina start with an E?" I told her that Sabrina started with an "S". We spent the next five minutes thinking of all of the "S" words that we could come up with. Then Samantha picked up this book. She said, "Look, Mommy. It's a B....and an O....and another O. I couldn't believe it. She recognized all of the letters in the word BOO! Then she put it all together. B...O...O...is BOO!!! This was a brand new book that I just bought for them on Sunday. No one had ever read it to them. I had just given it to her. My three year old daughter just read her first word. I was jumping up and down with excitement. I'm sure she's seen the word in other books and knows from the context of the picture and the story, that the ghost would say Boo. But how cool is this?? So what's next??? Trust me, we are going to get ourselves some flash cards with letters and simple words. We have one set already, but we rarely ever use them. I'm sure we've lost most of them by now. We always point out letters and numbers and ask the girls what the letter or number is. They can almost always determine if it is a letter or a number. They know B...O...S....R....E.......4...8....1....7....3 (they sometimes confuse the 3 and the 8). Samantha loves the number 4. She points them out all of the time. I was playing video poker the other night and she blew me away. She looked at my hand and said, "Look Mommy. That's a 4 and that's a KING." I think everyone knows how much Samantha loves Batman right now. She started asking me where the Batman guy was. I had no idea what she meant. Then a few hands later, the JOKER came out. She started yelling. Look Mommy....it's the JOKER...you WIN. My Papa Don plays cards every single day without fail and my children are learning their letters and numbers by playing with him. They also have many toys that help with number and letter recognition. Jennifer and Neil bought them a Leap Frog for the fridge when they were a year old. They have used it for almost two years now. They'll play with it while I'm cooking dinner...or washing dishes. So, my kids are not litte Einsteins, but they are really shocking me on a daily basis with how much they know. They are learning through play. I have wondered as they have grown if I should have them in preschool, but I think they are doing just fine. They get to spend all day every day in their own home. If they are sick, they curl up on their couch or their bed. When they play, they play in their room or their yard. And most importantly, they spend the day with the two people I would most love to spend my days with....my grandparents. It's a gift for my children to know their great grandparents so well.

Durkee's Annual Visit

I was joking with Scott and Kati this morning that this is our "Annual Visit." They came down this same week last year. We had breakfast together this morning. I called last night to let Mary and Rabun know that they would be in town, so Grandmother and Granddaddy came over this morning too. The kids were so excited to have everyone here. Lulu and Will have grown so much this past year. If you look back on the blog to October of 2007, you will see almost the same picture, but a year younger. I know we were all missing Peyton today. He is still in Maryland and it just isn't the same without him. If we were giving out awards this morning, Destiny and Will win top prize for most improvements over the past year. Both are doing really well in school and at home these days.

Peyton's Birthday

I was really very sad yesterday. It was Peyton's birthday and he was out of town on a job in Maryland. I hated being away from him. I know the kids did too. They were so excited when I told them that I was going to go shopping for their daddy's birthday. When they woke up on Saturday morning and he was gone, they were in tears. All day long they kept asking when Daddy was going to come home. I think they might be afraid that he is going to be gone a long time. I left for New York last Sunday and did not come home until late Friday evening. Then early Saturday morning, their Daddy left. If it appears to be too much for them now, I wonder how they will react when I leave town again on Tuesday morning....??? We finally got to have cake a few days after Peyton's birthday. In the end it was more like Christmas for him. He got a table saw from us and a bagger for his riding lawn mower from his parents. I'm sure he didn't mind waiting to get the only two things he's wanted for a year.

Anna's Birthday Party`

We went to Aunt Kim's house today for Anna's birthday party. We had so much fun. Anna wanted a Glamour Shots party, so all of the older girls dressed up with hair and makeup to pose for the camera. I almost had Beanie and Mantha dress up too, but I think it would have been too much work with all of them. Kim's old friends Daniel and Denice came to take the photos. When Brittany and Chelsey were little, Kim did hair and makeup for Daniel's company. The kids love the new house and pool and can't wait until it's warm again to go swimming at Kim and Chris's house. Destiny loves to play with Anna. They are just the right age to be fast friends. I bought $150.00 worth of pictures of Destiny before I left. I don't know if we needed them or not, but they really are cute. Kim and Brittany put her hair in braided pig tails for her cowgirl shots.

Mary Lauren Tingle

I borrowed some pictures this morning from Jennifer's blog. Look how happy they are with their new little girl. She is just beautiful. We are so happy to welcome Mary Lauren to the family.
Ty looks like he's very happy to be a big brother. I heard he didn't want to leave the house this morning to go to Grandmother and Granddaddy's house because he did not want to leave his sister.

Tarrytown, New York

I am writing from The Tarrytown House in Tarrytown, New York. It's about 25 miles north of Manhattan. I got here on Sunday afternoon and will not leave for home until late on Friday. It is the longest time I've ever been away from my kids. I spoke to both Samantha and Sabrina on the phone tonight. It is so nice to hear their little voices. Samantha told me she was watching tv and sleeping in the living room tonight. Then she said she missed me. Sabrina got on the phone and said, "Mommy, are you still at the airport? Can we come back to get you?" I nearly cried. I told her I wasn't at the airport and explained where I was. She told me goodbye and said, "I love you." Then I heard her yelling for her Daddy. "Daddy, Mommy is not at the airport, she is in New York in a hotel." They are growing up so quickly. Michael and Peyton are going rounds again tonight over yet another homework assignment that Michael doesn't want us to know about. He is in a strange place right now. I can't figure out why he would rather be grounded than to just do his homework and study. He will admit he's just being lazy and doesn't want to do it. He's missing out on so much. The first Fayette High Football game of the year and the county fair have come and gone and Michael is still grounded. I have no idea where Destiny was tonight. I asked Sabrina, but then we lost our phone connection and I have to walk a pretty good way up the hill to get it back. I couldn't get back through on the phone, so I suppose she was watching television or was in the bath tonight. I know she is doing really well in school right now. We will be going to the Cheetah Girls concert in two weeks.

When I first called Peyton today, he was at the hospital with Neil and Jennifer. Jennifer had a little girl today. Her name is Mary Lauren Tingle. It's a beautiful name. I am sure that Grandmother Tingle was beside herself over the name. I pulled the front page off of today's USA Today to bring back with me for my new little neice. I can't wait to see her.

Peyton's birthday is on Saturday and I am not sure that we will see him at all. As soon as he picks me up from the airport on Friday, he'll be leaving town for a job in Virginia or Maryland. I am going to be beside myself. I have not been this long without seeing Peyton in the entire 8 years I've known him. I saw him more when we were just friends than I will this week. I have never been so homesick.

Sunday, Oct 19th

I am jumping ahead a little bit so I will only have one post for this Tarrytown trip. On Tuesday night, a few of us took the train down to the city. Vicki, Flavio and Phil. We had a nice night in the city. We had pizza at a little pizzaria. Flavio worked on a deal with the owner to ship pizza back to him in Tuscon. Phil, we goes by the nickname of P Diddy back in Seattle, could not resist possing with the crowd that had gathered to await P Diddy's exit from his Label's offices. We walked to the Empire State Building and had the most breathtaking view of New York City. It is just amazing what you can see from up there. It was a great experience. I am so happy that I jumped in the car at the last minute and decided to go. I went into Toy's R Us in Time Square and bought a New York Baby hat and onesie for Mary Lauren. I have certainly learned how to be a team player this week. Leading Lostistics Success is the most amazing class. It's a long, very busy week, but it is worth it.

My OWN money....

Sabrina has been carrying around her piggy bank for about a week now. She finds money everywhere. I had to let her know that she could keep the change from the living room, kitchen and our room, but not the change from Michael's or Destiny's rooms. She was going through drawers and cabinets. She even found a dime at the grocery store on Saturday and was so excited. Mema Shirley was very tired today and she wasn't feeling like going out. The girls really wanted to go to Monkey Joe's. Mema thought she might be able to use the old excuse that she didn't have the money today for Monkey Joe's but that she would bring some tomorrow. She took her wallet out and showed Sabrina the empty back pocket. Sabrina got really excited and ran to her room. Both girls came back with their piggy banks. "We have money, Mema. We can go now." Mema and Papa had no choice but to load the girls and their piggy banks up for a trip to Monkey Joe's. Mema let them use their money to buy suckers, gum and toys from the concession area. They had a great time. As soon as they got ready to leave, Sabrina started to ask for her money back. "Mema, I want my money back. It's my money." Mema had to teach her that when she used her money at the store to buy something, she couldn't have it back. Of course her piggy bank will be full again tomorrow, but what a wonderful way to teach her the value of her change. You should see their cute little faces tonight as they stand her putting pennies back into their banks.

6ft Outdoor Easel

Peyton spent the afternoon building the world's tallest easel in our backyard. All of our girls love to paint and color. It's in the Tingle genes to be an artist.
The easel has a place for holding paint brushes and water buckets. The paper is stored inside and rolls right up and through a hole in the front. It's the coolest toy ever and it's so special because they watched their daddy make it for them out of an old pile of wood in the yard.