Return of the Blog

   It has been far too long my friends.  I wish I could give you a flashback summer blog, but really it's just not going to happen.  No one wants to " Know What I Did Last Summer." 
   I have been considering a return of the blog ( Please sing this to 1997s 'Return of the Mack') but just didn't have a good story.  Until today! Friday the 13th!  Dun Dun DUUUUUNNNN. 
   Today was Gwiny's first field trip in 2 years.  So RJ took her on a field trip to see an IMAX movie.  Isabel was so jealous that Gwin was not only getting a field trip, but got to spend extra time with their dad, AND got to come home from school early.  So RJ and I agreed that he would pick Isabel up from school on their way home so that she got to do something special too.  
   RJs plans fell through and he was unable to pick Isabel up after the movie. So the girls and I ran to the school, picked her up early and RJ went back to work.  I decided the girls and I would drive around a bit looking for boxes.  We hit a box jackpot behind the Family Dollar!!  I go to put the car in park I get a fun surprise; the car switches to reverse but won't go to park.  Luckily I was able to reverse the car into a field behind a store.  Where I try the ever popular " Try turning off and then back on."  Well, it didn't go back on.  Not like I was going to try to drive home in reverse anyway. 

  *** Fun fact:  While we were sitting in the car trying to figure out what to do.  Someone came and took the boxes. 

   After AAA tow truck came, and we got all of that sorted, it was time to take a walk.  A 6 mile walk, with 3 kids. And no stroller. And no sidewalk, on a busy street. And all of my friends out of town. And my husband in a meeting.  But I had a camera and a couple kids that weren't too grumpy.  So we played Photo Scavenger hunt and this is how it went down.  

   10 steps in, " Lets pick flowers."  

   100 steps in, " Lets pick berries."  

   1/2 a mile in, " OMG, Its Friday the 13th and here is a Freddie Krueger shirt! And a diaper." 

   1 mile, " We are getting tired, but at least the weather is nice."

   1 1/2 miles, " I've gotta go potty in the woods." 

   1 3/4 miles:  " I dropped my toy, can we go back?"

   2 miles, " Let's carry some rocks." 

   2 1/4 miles, " Izzy, stop poking that dead bird with a stick!"



   2 1/2 miles - A very nice lady offers us a ride home.  Which I accept.  And yes, I do realize that its not the best idea to take rides from strangers, but she seemed harmless and I am overly trusting.  

   And we made it home!!! No one ran Isabel over as I constantly screamed " Stay away from the road Izzy!" and maybe once hit her with my purse as she veered into the traffic.  Emma didn't cry at all.  And only once did she make a complete stop because she felt the need to stretch.  And Gwin kept saying " I am looking at the bright side.  We got ice cream at McDonalds and it is a beautiful day outside." 

I love my crazy kids.

 

  

Disney Pictures!

 Here are some of our Disney Pictures, all in no particular order.

Flower and Garden Festival, Silvermist Topiary. 

Just Chillin' with Snow White and the 7 dwarves. 

I've always wanted to visit Oz! 

Darth Vader Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake.  

Sci-Fi Drive in for Dinner!  We got to eat in a car table! 

Jedi Micky and Leia Minnie

My attempt to take a picture of all 5 of us on the Magic Carpet Ride.  I might have missed a few.

I think she fits right in.  - Cinderella's Castle 

Rockin' the mouse ears.

Had to get the mickey ice cream sandwich. 

This is a sorcerer game where you take cards to find the magic portals that give you clues to defeat Disney Villains.  Its like a scavenger hunt in Magic Kingdom.  I think this was their favorite thing in Magic Kingdom.

They are of to find the next clue, who cares where mom and dad are.

Things overheard at Disney

   I fully intend to do a super blog about our family trip to Disney.  However, I can not find my SD card adapter so that will have to wait.    So I am going to make this first Disney blog about the top 10 things that were said by or to Miller family members during our three days at Disney.  

1)  " Neeigh"  As Gwiny got to act out the part of Phillipe in the Beauty and the Beast Story Time.

2)  " I am so hot mommy, I'm sweaty. I am sweating like a cheetah."  Izzy at Epcot

3)  " I wanna build a Droid, lets go build a droid.  Lets Go, Lets Go!"   Gwiny at Star Wars Weekend.

4)  " I LOVE THIS!  Let's do it again."  Emma on The Little Mermaid ride

5)  Random friend I made in line "  It's so sad no one wants to stand in line to get the autograph of the clone wars actors, maybe they should tell people they get a free pin or something if they get the autographs."  RJ:  " But then they don't get one."  Me, in my best Admiral Ackbar " It's a Trap!"  

6) " Its like I was swimming, I was just holding my breath and kicking my legs."  Emma on how it felt to fall into the swimming pool. 

7) " I bet you are looking at me like, why does everyone care about this old guy?"   Jeremy Bolloch ( the actor that played Boba Fett) to Izzy. 

8)  " I want the storm troopers and Darth Vader to win the dance off, Go bad guys."  Gwiny

9)  " Tiff, Geez you could have your choice of any of these nerds if I wasn't here."  RJ after the 10th guy stopped me while I was walking to tell me how awesome my shirt was. 

10)  " I don't want to leave Disney, I love disney, I want to be back at Disney.  Oh, I am so tired, I need to go to sleep."  Gwiny 

Cell Pics

   As it has been a long time sense I updated on what my little family is up to I would like to share these cell pics and a little about the lighter side of life.

Gwiny:

She is getting ready to take her first important standardized test.  This probably stresses me far more than it does her.

She loves loves loves riding her bike.  She wants to ride it up and down the road all day every day and told me she wants to run away because I wont let her ride her bike where I can't see her. Turns out she wants to ride her bike around the block until dinner time and then come home.  So I guess that doesn't count as running away.

Izzy:

   She is as always, a challenge.  She just memorized all 64 of her kindergarten site words in 6 days!

Here she is with her awesome reader shirt and hat she got for knowing all of them.

   But she does fun stuff like in this picture.  Taken while she was playing in the car while Gwiny was riding her bike.  Izzy does not have a bike yet, but she is saving for a monster high bike she saw at Walmart.

Izzy hates driving.

Emma:

  Emma has turned 3!!

  She also really likes wearing swimming suits, even in winter, even at friends houses.

I don't know how to turn this, But its super cute and her hair looks really long.

She also likes riding her bike, but she doesn't really know how/the tires are flat and we can't find a tube small enough to fit the tiny tires. So I push her around until my back starts to hurt. And then we play chalk or playdough with Izzy.

And thats whats up with us.  Also I have a video of Emma wearing Giant sunglasses, headphones, and a purse singing the phrase " I've got 20 dollars in my pocket " over and over.

My Parents and Milk Day

    Over the holiday weekend,  RJ was  going on a hunting trip with the men folk in his family, ( This makes our lives sound much more Duck Dynasty than it really is) and I took the opportunity to enjoy a much needed break from my house and headed over to spend a couple days with my parents.  And let me tell you, I have cool parents.  So I thought I would share a little bit about my weekend so that you can see what a lucky girl I am.  

    We started out with a fresh couple bags of sand for the girls to 'refresh' the sandbox with.  They have these really cool pits of sand on either side of their deck that gives their backyard a beach type feel to it and the girls LOVE to play in it.  Gwiny and Emma took great joy in the sandbox.  Surprisingly, Izzy found much more joy in their new elliptical machine and I am pretty sure she did like 4 hours total on that machine in the 2 days we were there.  

    My mom started a fire in their fire-pit once it started to get cold and she brought out all the ingredients to make good ole fashioned s'mores.  They were delicious and the girls had a blast.  And while we sat around that fire-pit, my father, a manly kind of man, painted the girls fingernails with sparkly pink fingernail polish.   I must say, it completely blew my mind.  I can remember back when I was a teenager and I painted my fingernails a different color and pattern every day ( I probably should have gotten a job with all that extra time it seems I had on my hands) and my dad would come home and get on to me about the stinky smell of the fingernail polish.  I, to this day, ask RJ if its okay if I paint my nails in the house when he is home.  As Mom and I sat there gaping at him, he just said " Well, if I am going to be a grandpa of 6 granddaughters, I guess I will just have to learn these things."  And then he tried to ruin the moment by saying " This stuff is kinda like snot"  But it didn't work. 

  And after everyone went to bed, Mom and I stayed up and she tried to help me sort through some of my current heartaches.  I am so thankful that I have her in my life to listen to my problems and not judge me.  And to get drunk with, and then take me to church the next morning.  

  While we were at church Dad made us a bacon breakfast!!  And then for dinner we had 'Steak Sunday'.   Despite Gwiny and Izzy being sick at the tail end of this trip we had a blast.  And I got to reference MLK day as Milk day to 2 out of the 3 people I know who have ever seen 'Little Bush".  And I am pretty sure, I didn't even drink a glass of milk. 

As kind of a post script, I wanted to quote one of our fire-pit round table questions because it made me laugh so hard, after answering questions such as "whats your favorite food?"  and " Where is the best place you have ever been on vacation?"  This was thrown out there.

Grandpa:  What would you do if you had 8 fingers on each hand? 
Gwin:  Cut 3 off! 
Mom: Wear gloves
Izzy: Cut them off!
Emma:  I'd get more
Me: Play a musical instrument
Dad:  Be a professional basketball player. 

Oh and, did I mention, I have amazing parents. 

When I was 18 and other silly stories

  My big girls are now in 3rd grade and in Kindergarten.  It turns out when girls are in school a big topic of conversation in my life now is who likes who in which class.  I know that Cameryn (girl) and Casey (boy) have decided to switch names because they think they have names of the opposite gender. I know that so and so was playing OREO, which is basically rock paper scissors, and had to ask out Zachary because she lost.  I know who likes who and who chases who on the playground.  Well lets be honest, I don't know for sure because I am not great with names, but these are the things that my daughters are talking about these days.  Which leads to my story...

  Izzy:  I like two boys at school.  They think I am cute.
Gwiny ( my mini-me):  I don't like boys, they are gross, and also they smell bad.  Especially after PE
Me:  I agree.  Let me tell you a story.  Once upon a time Mommy thought all boys were gross and stinky and I wanted nothing to do with those boys.  And then when I was a teenager I thought those boys were even more gross, and extra stinky.  I don't think they even took showers.  And then one day when I was 18 I met a boy that was not stinky at all and he wasn't so gross.  So I kissed him.
(((( GASP from all daughters)))))
Me:  And then I married him.
Izzy:  IT WAS PAPA!!!!! He doesn't stink.
Me:  Soo don't kiss anyone until your 18 and you find a boy that doesn't smell bad.


Emma's story:

    Mommy, you  can have 1 popcorn.  One at a time.  Did you eat only one?

Me:  Yes.

Emma:  Tell me the truth.

Me: I had two, okay, I had two pieces of popcorn!


Izzy's story:

   When I am older and I have money and live in my own house.  I am going to buy a cat.

 ( Precursor to crazy cat lady? )


Gwiny's story:

    Hey mommy, when I am in high school will I have to cut open a frog?

Emma:  I want to be a rainbow frog when I grow up.

Me:  Yes, in anatomy class.  Its not that bad though, its just a weird giant frog.

Gwin:  I don't want to do that because frogs are gross.

Me:  At least they are already dead when you get them.

Gwin:  That's a relief.  I thought I would have to kill it.


  And in other news:  Happy Birthday to my Dad!  For this year, I will surpass you in age.  Happy 29th (again) birthday.