Rearranging.... Again :)

Most of you know how much I like to rearrange :) I am always looking for ways to make the best use of our space. Well we have this large room 'downstairs' (used to be part of the garage that we closed in). It has been a guest room, a play room, a sewing room, a sewing/Matt & Jenn room and now it's a sewing & craft storage room / guest room / Littles Library & Lounge :) I like for rooms to be functional. We moved the shelving to create a wall and made a storage area in the back of the room for sewing and craft stuff. There's also room to leave the ironing board up all the time -- which makes Molly very happy!

I took lots of pictures. Maybe you can get the basic idea (especially if you've been here before). Now this area has a storage area for sewing and craft stuff and the rest of the room houses the dvds/videos, small TV, children's computer, love seat and futon. It will be very easy to 'convert' into a guest room (hint, hint, hint) and will still be very usable space for us!

view from the storage area looking straight out
storage area

storage area (still needs to be organized a bit, just did all this yesterday)

Molly's Happy Place!

Oh and the children's books are down here too. I think I forgot to mention that earlier!

Another shot. Still no doors for the closet so I hung a curtain there. That closet houses more craft and sewing stuff.

Loveseat and children's computer with dvd/video storage cabinets top left

See?

view from the doorway

It's working wonderfully! Just like I envisioned!!! I love it!

Now if I can recreate the space upstairs to be exactly like I want it to be... Originally the room upstairs was our library, then it was a guest room, then it was a sewing room, then it was a play room, then I scooched the playroom over to half the room and used the other half for sewing. I really like sewing up there where I am 'in the midst' of my children :) I want to rearrange things a bit better today so it is half playroom and half sewing room. Wish me luck!

Happy Mother's Day

To my Mama...
To my Mom...
To Miss Peggy...
To Miss Alma...

To all the women who have shaped the Mother I am

I love you all.
Thank you!

Day 2 ~ Visiting with Nana and Poppa

Cousins -- Joseph (born in July) and Avery (born in Nov)

Great fun with 'new' toys!

Friday we drove to Hendersonville and spent the day with Tony's folks. His brother Andy and sister Anitra were there along with Anitra's son Avery and Tony's grandmother. MaryVance had the camera so all the pictures are of the boys playing :) Amanda was there for a little while and Anitra brought Allen to meet everyone. Poor fella... LOL

We spent the night with Grandmother (thank you GG, we really enjoyed spending time with you!) Grandmother took us out for breakfast. I didn't have my camera but hopefully Mom will send me a copy of the whole family picture taken in front of Cracker Barrel. :)

Love y'all!

Day 4 ~ My Mama and sister

Grannie with the red-haired grands
Grannie and Mr. Steve with the children

Mama and her girls

Sisters...

Pretty Rebecca :)

Rebecca's son Jacob

Enjoying pizza!

Nehemiah with Grannie

"I see you"

Cutey Patootey!

Mama always has horses... it was too muddy to see the cows.

Joseph and the collie puppies.

Tony needs a haircut.

Day 7 ~ Brownsville Fire Station and Police Station Visit

Joey is just fascinated with fire trucks and 'Andy cars' (he calls police cars 'Andy cars' because he loves The Andy Griffith Show) so when we went by City Hall to tell Mama goodbye I asked if we could walk around and see a fire truck and police car.

Little did I know this would turn into a mini field trip. Firefighter Jeff was very gracious to show the children the fire trucks and answer their questions. Thank you Jeff!

And then around the corner to the Police Station... Sergeant Haynes allowed the children to sit in a police car! He even turned on the lights and siren for the children. They had loads of fun!

Joseph with Sergeant Haynes.

THANK YOU all so much! You made our day!!

Day 6 ~ The Memphis Zoo

It's a family tradition... we always take a picture of the children on the cow. :)
We have lots of cool animal pictures, I'll ask Molly to load them later!

Day 5 ~ Lisa and her children

All the children... Andrew and Caleb are the same age, Sam and Shelby are the same age, Bradleigh Grace is between Joseph and Isaac :)
Lisa and I have been friends since third grade. We were in school together and church together. It was so good to see her again, it's been a long time!
Y'all come see us sometime!!

Day 4 ~ The Sheltons in Brownsville

My "other parents" Mr. Floyd and Miss Peggy :) We met them when I was three and we moved next door. They have been a fixture in my life and I have always known they would be there for me, no matter what. I love y'all. Thank you!
Doing what "MiMi's" do best...

We really enjoyed our visit. Lora and her children (Ashleigh and Trey) came over too. Lora is my oldest friend :) I thought we had pictures of them too but I guess not...

Day 5 ~ Paris

Monday found us on the road to an inpromptu visit to the town we lived in from 97-99.

This is our sweet little home on Grove Blvd - the first home we owned.We also went to the park where the children loved to play.

We always called it 'the Eiffel Tower park', I don't remember its proper name.

Bye bye Paris!

Get Together with Friends in TN

Our afternoon... in no particular order...

Tony playing Frisbee

All the children and Daddys playing Frisbee on the hill

The Mamas... Nina with LeAnna, Kim O, me, Toya, Kim C

Randy showing Isaac how to walk like a sheriff

Kim C teaching me all about heavy weight lifting

Brandy, Molly with Nehemiah and Cassie

Hannah, the Monkey!

hhmmmm.... I don't remember what we were discussing... but it must have been interesting!

Isaiah the Adorable

a more subdued conversation with Nina

Kim with Garrison, Toya and Kim

Bradley and Nina, me, Kim O

We had such a great time!!! Thank you Randy and Toya for opening your home to all of us!

TN trip, quick recap...

Left here Thursday at 4:20 am
Drove to Birmingham for a picnic breakfast at the park with Faith
Got to Brownsville around 6
Rebecca and Jacob were there, we visited
Set up our campsite and drove to town for supper
Rain
Decided to sleep in Daddy's shop
Left Friday morning for Hendersonville
Our picnic was rained out
Went to Tony's mom's and spent the day
Spent the night at his grandmothers
Had a great visit with everyone
Grandmother treated us to breakfast at Cracker Barrel Saturday morning
Left there and drove to Smyrna for a get together with friends there
Met Kim, Kim and Nina at Toya's house
Had a great, great time
Ate supper with Toya and Randy and family
Got back to Daddy's at 2am
Thud
Sunday spent time visiting with Daddy
Spent Sunday afternoon with Mama and Rebecca and Jacob
Had a really nice visit
Mama said Nehemiah looks like me :)
Left there and drove to the Sheltons
Lora and her children came over
We had a great visit with them too
Monday we drove to Paris
It was an inpromptu visit
We drove by our old house and church
And we played at the park where we used to play when we lived there
It was a nice nostalgic trip
Visited with Lisa and her children Monday night
It was a really good visit
Haven't seen them in years and years
Tuesday it finally wasn't raining
We drove to Memphis to the zoo
Very nice
Lots of fun
Wednesday woke up at 2am to a child being sick
Uh Oh
Prayed and prayed and he wasn't sick any more
Went by Mama's office before we left Brownsville
Had a tour of the police station and got to see the fire trucks
Great fun
Had a safe, uneventful trip home

We got to do almost everything on our "Wish We Could Do This While in TN List"... we didn't get to visit with "cousin Terry" and Vickie or Uncle Bobby and Aunt Wanda. Next time, hopefully!

Home!

I'm afraid I wasn't a very faithful blogger on our trip. Sorry. Our connection was blotchy at times and the battery didn't have a long life.

So we are home, safe and sound. I'll be sharing pics soon. Molly will be too, on the children's blog, www.lewischildren.blogspot.com

Later!

on the road again, AGAIN ~ Day 2 - Pics added with Faith's family

On the road again... :) Today we are heading to Hendersonville to spend the evening and tomorrow morning visiting with Tony's family! His mother rented a pavillion at the park and we are eating lunch there today!

Yesterday we met Faith and her children. They made us a wonderful picnic breakfast -- it was very yummy and Much Appreciated! Her children are delightful and mine are already asking when we can visit them again. Thank you Faith and family!!! You are very gracious hostesses!

We drove on to Brownsville after several more stretching/potty/nursing stops and got there around 6pm. My sister and her son were at Daddy's. It was so good to see them!

*********** LAST NIGHT'S ADVENTURE ************
It was a long, long night... we got the tents all set up and then went back to town to get some supper. And it rained. And rained. When we got back to Daddy's the tents were a little wet inside. Not too bad but we didn't know if was gonna keep raining or not.

The children need their sleeping bags for tonight and if they got wet last night we would be in a mess. So we decided we could either go back to town and get a hotel (trying to save money so that wasn't our first choice), we could sleep on Daddy's screened-in porch (pretty dry but no protection from the wind) or we could clean out Daddy's detached single car garage and sleep there. That's what we did.

Pulled out the mower, weedeaters, etc... put plywood on the floor, covered with old blankets and put down the sleeping bags.Tony and I slept on twin air mattresses. :) We were dry and warm. Life is a fun adventure!!!

On the road again...

Well, I guess "again" is relative, isn't it? We are on our way to TN to visit my family and Tony's family and some friends! Right now, as I type, we are in Alabama on our way to our first stop. We are meeting my friend Faith and her children for breakfast. We are very excited to finally meet them 'in real life'. You see, Faith and I have been aquainted via message boards (for Christian wives and mothers) for many years. She and her husband have children who line up nicely in age with ours :) and we are excited to All make new friends today!

How am I connected to the internet while traveling? Good question. I have a good, non-technical answer for you. Tony got this dohickey thingamajig that allows you to connect via the cell phone towers. :) Which reminds me, I need to email my mother. I told her we were coming but I didn't tell her exactly when. We are late plan-makers. I left her cell phone number at home -blush-. I should call Daddy too -nodding-.

I know you are hanging on to my every word LOL so I will be sure to keep you updated on our Journey To The Great North!