Moms Group

Every Tuesday is Park Day for our Mom's Group. We go to different parks in the area and today was a park in Olive Branch that had a lake and LOTS of ducks and geese (which Caroline calls "geeks" - cracks me up every time) Caroline liked feeding them this time (last time they kind of freaked her out)




The dinosaurs at the playground were a big hit. (Look familiar Carol? :)



Ok, so this picture takes some explainin'. The playground was surrounded by a huge hill. Apparently on one side of the hill was a giant dirt slide. That's right, a dirt slide. I sincerely can not believe that a mother thought that one up. But, the kids liked it, of course, and this was the aftermath:

It was beautiful weather and a fun morning despite some inevitable injuries (poor Rhylan and Lucy!)

Will the real Caroline please stand up?

Scattergories

I've been meaning to do this since Adrian tagged me, but I forgot!

Here are the rules: Use the first letter of your name to answer the following. They have to be real places, things, names...nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person who tagged you had the same first initial. You can't use your name for the boy/girl name question... Here goes!


Your name: SUSAN

4-letter word: SWIM!

Pro sports team: Suns!



Celebrity: Steve Nash

Vehicle: Saab ... I wish

TV shows: Smurfs (Caroline just picked out a Smurf DVD at the library!)


City: Southaven, MS (My new home:)


Boy name: Steven (my newest nephew)

Girl name: Sophie (Our kitty)

Occupation: Swim Team Coach (been there, done that!)

Something you wear: Swim Suit (Man, being a swimmer has made this little game easy!)


(Modbe Swim suit, of course)

Something you throw away: Stinky Stuff (yeah, I'm stretchin' it on this one)

Food: Strawberry Cheesecake mmmmmm....

Something you find in a bathroom: Shampoo (lately, I've been getting great deals on Shampoo, like less than $1, sometimes free, thanks to couponing! I've got about 10 bottles stocked up under our bathroom sink!)

Reason for being late: Spit-Up (Adrian, you'll find out all about this soon enough!)

Something you shout: SWEET! or as Caroline told me the other day when I sat on her bed, "Shoo Mom, Shoo!

OK, I tag Courtney, Amy, and Amanda

"Apple" Picking

Our new ward is big and has lots of new, young families in it! (Like, 8 new families the same month that we moved in! yeah.) It's hard as it is to get to know people and make friends in a new place, but even harder when so many of you are new! I hear, "Are you the ones that ...?" or "What's your name again?" A LOT! We're all learning, so I'm sure it will take some time!

One great thing about this ward though is that they have a Mom's Group that meets a few times a week! It's awesome! Fun AND Organized! (sometimes, that's hard to find :)

Last week our ward's Mom's Group went to Jones Orchard to pick apples! We were so excited.


It turned out to be an... interesting event!





After getting a little (a lot) confused on where we were supposed to be (this place has a serious lack of direction signs and knowledgable staff) we finally got out and started picking. After a few minutes someone tried one of the apples and decided they weren't so good!





So a few people drove off to ask someone where some better apples were. To make a long story short, we ended up driving from patch to patch trying to find a spot with pleanty of good fruit. We ended up splitting up and picking peaches instead! The kids were pretty much over this whole orchard thing by that time and Caroline and Becca decided eating in the trunk of the car would be way more fun!





All in all we were a little disappointed, but the peaches were yummy and the orchard was beautiful! (and I got some cute pictures so it was all worth it!)

We babysat David's brother's girls last week while He and his wife went out for her Birthday (Happy Birthday Courtney!) Caroline loves her cousins and it is SO COOL to have a cousin that can read!!!!

Katelyn, Caroline, and Becca enjoying a bedtime story.

Caution: you're headed straight for a product review post.

Ok, so I've been so curious and I decided just to buy them and try them. (you know you've been wondering too)

Since we have a small family, I always seem to being throwing produce away that goes bad before we can eat all of it. So I figured that if they really worked, it would save us money. And the verdict is...

They Work! ... I think.

I even conducted my own field test.

The bell pepper on the left was stored in the bag from the store's produce section.

The peppers on the right were stored in a Debbie Meyer's Green Bag.

(Yes Mom, I wasted food for this experiment. Remind you of a science fair project I did? :)

I was very pleased with this result. It also helped with my tomatoes

HOWEVER!

The bags did NOT help with my green leafy stuff!

I put iceberg lettuce, romaine, and baby spinach leaves each in their own green bag, but I don't think they spoiled any slower than normal. I'm thinking that this could be due to the fact that they weren't completely dry when I put them in. They were mostly dry, but not completely like the box says (how do you get iceburg lettuce completely dry after it's been washed?)

So, overall I think they work. I still want to try them on bananas.

Also, notice the lovely blog award on my sidebar. Yes, thank you - hold your applause. I now bestow the coveted award to:

* Karen Welker - because she just started blogging and I'm stoked about it. My sister is an awesome writer!

* Heather Scott - because she posts frequently, which I love, and well, honestly she has one of the cutest little girls I've ever seen. And I'm not just saying that because she's my niece. And I know cute little girls!!!!!

Just be glad this isn't how you spent your weekend

Turns out the the last person that put the furnace in this house put it in the closet before the door was hung. So to replace it, we had to completely remove the door, hinges, frame, and molding! Yeah, this was a whole Saturday.

But, now we have a shiny new furnace and air conditioner and beautifully cold air, so it was all worth it!

Random Pictures

I have so many pictures in my camera that I think, "Oh, I can post about this one sometime"

Whoops!

So here's some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Caroline and Chopper - Jeff and Joleen's schnoodle. She LOVES Chopper! She's mentioned wanting a dog for her birthday a few times!

Hangin' out with Uncle Brad. Brad came to visit last week before he moves to Dallas to attend Parker Chiropractic College. Caroline was seriously lovin' Uncle Brad while he was here and still talks about him every day. Before he came she colored several pictures for him.

The Sleeping Postitions Saga Continues...

This stuff baffles me! I love that crazy kid.

The purpose of this picture is two-fold:

First, see our pretty blue room?! We painted it all by ourselves!

Second, Dave's haircut. Nice, eh? I did that all by myself too! I've only cut it once before this, but that was with his mom's (Nana) help! I think it looks pretty good.

...the guy on the bed's not bad lookin' either!

What IS this thing?!

So living in the South has introduced us to all kinds of new creatures. We found these fellas on the side of the house last night. Slugs I think?

Caroline: What IS it?

Susan: I think it's a slug.

Caroline: A fish?

Susan: No. A slug.

Caroline: A snake?

Susan: No. A slug.

Caroline: Oh. I don't like slugs.

Lunch anyone?