Summer is here!!

I was adomonished this morning by Haley Hensley Terry for not blogging recently.  I would like to try to blog once a week at least, but sometimes time just gets away with me.  I promise I'll try to do better.  I love the fact that people actually read my blog and miss me when I'm MIA!  :)  I've got lots of random thoughts to cover, so stay with me. 

I'm excited to say that SUMMER is here at the Garnett's.  I went to Fred's last night and bought the babies a pool, so it's official.  We spent a wonderful morning outdoors enjoying the sunshine.  I have an awesome job for lots of reasons, but I *really* appreciate it in the summer months when I can take the laptop outside and answer my four ba-jillion emails a day from my lounge chair.  I recently got Verizon MiFi, which means I will have wireless internet anytime and anywhere I want it.  Yes, that means I can work from Point Mallard if need be.  And what a coincidence... I just happen to have season passes this year!  Whoop, whoop!




Enjoying their first day in the pool


Yuri started tee-ball and it's so much fun.  I have to admit I was disappointed in her performance during the first game.  She stood too close to the plate, and because she has such arm extension on her swing, it caused her to hit the ball with the smaller part of the bat.  Then, on defense, she basically played in the dirt with her back to the batter.  Sigh.  We had a heart-to-heart after that game and she did MUCH better the next game.  She was under the impression that the season was only one game long, and she was pretty shocked to find out she had to play a second one.  I broke it to her this morning that she had TEN more games, and she was not a happy camper.  She says it "makes me too sweaty".  I'll keep you posted on how she embraces playing in the REAL heat when we play during the day on Saturday.

My boy is home from college -yay!  He has already been a big help to me, and I love having him close by.  He stayed home one night and decided that it was far too loud and there were too many girls here, so he's been staying with Momar and Pappa since then.  That's actually working out well because I still see him everyday, but Momar does his laundry. 

I don't think I mentioned that I had a couple of new foster babies last month.  I only had them for 2 days, but it was a looooong 2 days.  The little boy (14 months old) was really sick, and he cried the entire time.  The little girl (2 years old) was cute as a bug, but it was pretty crazy with them here.  DHR asked me last week if I could keep them again for 3 days this week (Thursday, Friday, Saturday).  I looked at the calendar and other than two tee-ball games, it was clear so I said "sure!".  Well... after I commited, I found out that Thursday night Haley's basketball team will be recognized at the Board of Education meeting for coming in second in STATE.  There's no way I can take four little ones, so I'll miss that.  Then I found out that the volleyball banquet has been scheduled for Friday night.... gonna miss that.  Then I found out the softball banquet is Saturday night... gonna miss that.  Fortunately,  Haley Rae doesn't care if I'm there or not.  Her opinion on banquets is about the same as mine.  I've never really been a fan, especially when we have the banquet 7 months after the sport ended.  Again... just my opinion.  I know some people are really into them, and that's fine too.

I host our family Mother's Day get-together every year.  I used to do Willard's family for lunch and my family for supper, but a couple of years ago we decided to do it all at the same time and it works well.   This year we got to meet Charles Woodrow Garnett  (aka Charlie), who is the first Garnett baby boy born since Hunter was born in 1992.  Charlie reminds me A LOT of Hunter and was a huge hit.  I don't know how many people held him but I can tell you he got tons of lovin' from everybody.  I intended to take some pictures this year, but I forgot about it.  I did get this one of some of the kids playing in the hammock.

Gigi, Karlie, Maggie, Yuri, Braden, Madalynn, Kylee

Haley Rae wanted to get a picture of all the "girls" before church on Mother's Day, so she propped her camera up and told us we had 10 seconds to get ready.  I love this picture because Haley, Karlie and Yuri all struck the same pose without even planning it.

The Garnett Women

And one last thing before I go.  A few months ago, we re-did bedrooms for the big girls.  I intended to do
Yuri and Gigi's room at the same time, but ran out of steam.  I finally got around to getting it done last week.  (thanks to Momar who actually came over and put it all together).

To fully appreciate this picture, you have to understand what I went through picking out bedding, etc.  For some reason (perhaps I was low on oxygen to the brain that day), I decided to let Yuri and Gigi help me pick it out. 
Yuri immediately picks out an adorable girlie quilt with bright flowers, and I loved it.  Gigi goes straight to the boy aisle and says "I want a racecar bed".  She proceeded to melt down completely when I told her she had to pick out something else.  When she stopped yelling, she said "okay, then... I want a dinosaur bed!".  Sigh.  Fortunately for us, we rounded the corner and she saw a solid green quilt and fell in love.  The child is a freak about green (hence the green walls, green quilt, green rug, etc).  Before we left, I told them they could each pick out a decorative pillow.  Yuri, of course, picks out the sweet flower pillow.  Gigi.... GREEN turtle pillow. (you can't see the turtle in this picture... she named him Superman Turtle, by the way) Somehow it all came together rather nicely.  I actually love it.

Yuri and Gigi's bedroom

That's it for now!

You happy, Haley Hensley?? :)