Wow - these last few days have been busy...

We had an awesome Father's Day weekend! Grammy and Grandad came to Dallas for a visit, and they brought with them Bijou (Grammy's maltese puppy), and Flora (Grandad's newest find... a fawn - baby deer - that they are bottle feeding). It was tons of fun. We relaxed around the house, went bowling, grilled steaks for dinner, and just enjoyed everyone being together. Unfortunately, back to Blanco they went Sunday morning...

Sunday evening Trey, Madelyn, and I went to a pool party for all of the GFC Campers from Dallas that are Madelyn's age and going to camp for the first time together. Trey and I got an email from one of the parents that they were organized a little pool party to get all the kids together before camp so they would make some friends and know some other kids before they got there. I was so excited at this that I cried. Yes, I know... really, cried?! But it was one of my biggest fears that Madelyn wouldn't know any other kids, and this just made that one step so much better. She hit it off right away with one of the other girls, and of course the boys. I'm so hoping that they'll be in the same cabin (the girl only of course!) and that this experience will give her some friends in Dallas that she can get together with and spend time with when she is here.

So here we are on Wednesday - hump day. Madelyn and I have had 2 days of vacation so far, and they have been F-U-N! On Monday we had some chores to take care of - the A/C people came out for summer time checkup, and we had our quarterly pest control maintenance completed too. Both appts. were scheduled for 9:00 am and both were here and working by then! Madelyn woke up lazily - watched a movie while I did some cleaning, and then we had lunch at home. Ashley came over for lunch and then we took Madelyn to the roller rink for some roller skating. She tried out roller blades for the first time and she did great! There were lots of falls (she has a huge bruise on her elbow - yikes!), but she was really awesome. She'd just get right back up and tell us "I'm fine, I'm fine", with a roll of the eyes that said - back off, you're embarrassing me! After roller skating, we headed to Target to attempt to get the rest of the camp list taken care of. Notice I said attempt. We weren't very successful, and my patience was just about out, so we called it quits on that for the day. Ash headed home and April and I took Madelyn for some fro yo... for those of you not cool enough - that is frozen yogurt. There is this great place that opened not too far from the house. You fill your own cup (there are about 10 flavors to chose from) and then you put on your own toppings. There candy toppings and fruit. The catch is, you pay by the ounce. We've been frequenting this place, and let me tell you, as hard as I try I don't have it down to a science yet. It costs me almost $5 every time we go, and I keep trying to keep it down, but before you know it, you've filled to the top! DANGEROUS!!!! So then we went home, and cooked dinner, and chilled a little with daddy.

Yesterday we went to the gym in the morning, followed by lunch at Freebirds with April, and then off to do more camp shopping. This time we hit Khol's, and JACKPOT! We got almost everything that remained on the list. YIPPEE!!! I was so excited and it was relatively cheap too. So from there we headed to Leenie's for some pool time. Madelyn was so great helping me get sunblock on my back. We swam for a bit, played a few games in the pool, and then headed home. Last night we got Madelyn's stuff for camp all labeled, and mostly packed up. It's getting close, and she is so excited! Yesterday, Rarah got into a little trouble too. We got a letter from Jackie at camp (it was written to Trey, Madelyn and I), and ooops... I shred it before Trey got to read it! YIKES. He was so NOT happy with me. I was cleaning up, and wasn't even thinking. I tried to regurgitate what it said to him... camp is fun, it's really hot, blah blah blah... It didn't work! He wasn't having any of it. So I had to send an emergency email to Jackie last night for help to redeem me!

This morning I had an orthodontist appt for a second opinion on the process I'll need for my braces. I got mostly the same prognosis - 2 years and $6000!!! But this dr. said I'll need teeth pulled to make room and the other one didn't say anything about that! So now I don't know what to do. I left a message for the first dr. to see if he thinks I need teeth pulled and just didn't say, or what. I guess depending on what he says, I'll go for a 3rd opinion - a tie breaker maybe???!!!!! Oy vey! All I can say is, to anyone out there with young kids, when they start to fight you on getting braces when they are young, you send them to me and I'll set them straight. This is for the birds.

Well, today we are off to have lunch with daddy and go to the Children's Museum and IMAX. Tonight we're picking up Madelyn's cousin, Hollie, for a sleepover and day of fun with us tomorrow! Hopefully it will provide a much needed break for her mom and dad (they just had twins!), and give Madelyn and Hollie some good play time. Oh yeah, and a little break time for me too!!!!

So that's it for now. More to come soon.