Lazy 5 Ranch

We hit the Lazy 5 Ranch yesterday with some of Gabriel's daycare buddies and we had a blast! I think I may have enjoyed it even more than Gabriel did! His favorite part was seeing a tractor of course (his obsession right now!).... We rode a big horse-drawn wagon all over the ranch and the animals would just come right up to the side of it and eat right out of your hands! Of course Cedric would not feed the animals but of course I did. Then they have a huge picnic and playground area and we had lunch and let all the kids play..Great place and only $7.50 a person when you had a group of 15 or more. You could spend a good portion of a day there. Definitely will be going back soon. Here are some pics of our trip:



Speaking of the tractor thing....Cedric and I hit Lowe's last night to pick up paint....Acorn squash and bell pepper.....Looks like John Deere Green and Gold....We are re-doing one of the bedrooms (which is currently serving as our "closet room" to fix Gabriel up a "big boy" room! I have ordered John Deere bedding for his bunk beds and they should be in pretty soon.

This evening will be day 2 for me of the Couch Potato Challenge!!!!

We are headed to church and then plan to spend the afternoon outside....mom and dad got some new things for the kiddies to play with, a sand/water table and a BIG plastic pool. Gabriel hit the pool yesterday and I have a feeling he will end up there again today, I LOVE SUMMER!!!!!!!!

Couch Potato to 5K Part Two!

OK, I accepted Maryellen's challenge to join her in her new running regime.....For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, check her blog out "TBG Happenings" to see what I am talking about! This is a program you do over the course of 9 weeks. It is 3 workouts per week. The first week, you do a 5 minute walking warm up, then you alternate between 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for 20 minutes. The amount of running increases over the course of 9 weeks and by the end of it, you are running a 5 K (a little over 3 miles).... I did the first workout today and I agree with Maryellen, I was tired and sweaty at the end of it! I am excited about this because I have dabbled a little with running before and have done a 5K before, but it is just something that I have never really stuck with... I like the fact that this is all laid out for you and you can just check off the workouts as you complete them (I am a planner and love anything that is organized!)....Stay tuned to see how this works out for me!

OOH, I forgot to mention that I ran today to music from the Rocky movies, man, that really pumps me up!!!!!

New Pictures

Here are some pictures from a recent birthday party we attended, Mother's Day, and Amaya's dance recital on Saturday, enjoy!

BUSY

It seems like I have been super busy this past week, it has been awhile since I have blogged. Work is going good and it is keeping me pretty busy. The travel restrictions have finally eased up a bit, so I am getting to go out to my sites. I really think I am going to like my job. I was worried that I wouldn't have a lot of contact with people, and since I am a "people person", I thought that might bother me. But I have lots of contact with people. I talk with other consultants on the phone ALL the time and we also get together to do many of the trainings and such, so I don't think I am going to get lonely. Plus with Ceddy out of work (FYI-he got laid off due to SLOW business) and Gabriel at home 3 days per week, I am always busy doing something! Cedric and I are going to an open house tomorrow at a local college. They have a nursing program and Cedric is interested in possibly doing that. He also is still in the process of the CM Fire Department and has his physical exam next Thursday. I am not missing the M. Firm one bit, most of you know I hated that company with a passion. I LOVE having Cedric at home at night with me and on the weekends, it is just wonderful to actually get to spend some time together! Anyways, I will try to blog more, I thought I would have more time to blog working from home, but so far, that has not been the case :)

My Day

Wow, I have had a FANTASTIC Mother's Day! Started out with Cedric surprising me early with a bagel from my favorite place and a wonderful cinnamon cappucino coffee...He got up WAY early to go sneak out and get this before I woke up, because you know I get up pretty early to have my "me time" in the mornings....Also got a gorgeous hydrangea and a big desk calendar for my home office. Gabriel made me an awesome apron with his hand prints on it and painted me a jewelry box at school. Also got 2 sweet cards, with Gabriel's signature (with a little help from dad) and Cedric even helped Rocky to stamp his footprint on the card too using my ink stamping stuff!!!!! Ceddy is good, I have to give him credit, he really is the most thoughtful person I know! We went to church and then had a great lunch with mom, dad, and Zach (Nicole and Jackson went to lunch with her family)..We had grilled kabobs and best of all, an oreo cookie ice cream cake! Went to Lowe's with Zach and Nicole to help them get some veggies to plant and talked Zach into digging up a plant and a tiny tree for me. I am going to try and grow them in pots until they get bigger...Then we headed over to Aunt Janie's to celebrate with the Sigmons. Ceddy played basketball and Gabriel just played outside for hours, he had a blast.

It was just a wonderful day and I feel so blessed to have my wonderful family. I love being a mother, it is just more than I ever imagined. It is knowing you would step in front of a bear, a train, a bullet to save your child without a second thought. It is looking at your little boy and seeing so many other people in him, your husband, your mom, your dad, you. It is watching him grow up into a little boy, no longer a baby who you hold in your arms. It is holding him on you while he sleeps, just for the chance to be near him. It is that sweet way that he smells. It is his curly hair and big brown eyes. It is hearing someone say over and over "mama, mama, mommy" and know they are talking to YOU. It is a miracle. Thank you God for making me a mother!

Raleigh!

We had a great time on our trip to Raleigh! I worked Wed-Friday and got to meet a lot of the other speech and audiology consultants. Everyone seems GREAT! I got to do a home visit and now have my state car, although I can only drive it when I am providing direct services to a child. So I am stuck at home most of the time, since a lot of what I do involves hospitals and training staff there. I have been working on getting my office set up and they are coming to do the phone and fax line on Thursday. Tomorrow I am headed to Gastonia to do a rescreen clinic at the health department. So I have been pretty busy with work and so far, I LOVE my new job! It is so different from what I had been doing and I love the flexibility of it. I also found out that I can do 4 10-hour days and be off on Fridays, yippee!!! I am going to begin this is in June.

Our visit with Laura, Travis and Tyson was SO much fun! He is just adorable and cute and sweet and reminds me of a little baby chick! Laura is a "natural" at being a mom, of course I did not expect anything less from her! Travis is a sweet dad and Miss Rhonda is LOVING being a gradma! Gabriel had a great time playing and thankfully he did not tear up anything! It was so good to get to spend some time with the Smiths, we miss them so much and just wish that we lived closer to each other. Here are some pictures from our trip: