See No Evil monkey

Tonight, Jessica and I were sitting on the sofa and we sometimes act like children....sisters. I started tickling her and she was under a blanket wearing a skirt. I grabbed my camera and took a picture (which I will not post) and she told Tom to cover his eyes and then jumped up and was trying to wrangle the camera from me. This was Tom's reaction to his cousin's possible flashing incident. He makes me laugh. He was trying to block out everything but his laptop screen. hahaha

Katie is taking her K5 cap and gown graduation pictures Wednesday. I wish they were taking them next month because her teeth are jacked up! Her teeth have been popping out like popcorn and she has some baby teeth, some big permanent teeth, some partially grown in permanent teeth, and a brand new hole where she pulled a tooth out yesterday. Isn't that going to be a pretty picture??? *hoof*

Katie's answers about Tom

1. What is something I always say to you?
Lil stinker

2. What makes me happy?
When we have fun together, like playing sports together, soccer, and going to the fair.

3. What makes me sad?
When I don't listen.

4. How do I make you laugh?
Tickling me

5. What do you think I was like as a child?
Liked to play frisbee and catch. (like a dog I guess hahaha)

6. How old am I?
38 or 37 (Now wait a minute....she thought I was in my 60's!!!)

7. How tall am I?
40 feet

8. What is my favorite thing to do?
Talking with mom and playing with me, like tickling, fighting, etc.

9. What do I do when you're not around?
Go to work, of course.

10. If I become famous, what will it be for?
Being the handsomest boy and the funnest.

11. What am I really good at?
answering questions from me cuz of course, I'm a kid.

12. What am I not really good at?
That's definitely a hard one. Remembering to go to church. He remembers to read the Bible but not to go to church. He also is not good at hitting the baseball on the Wii.

13. What is my job?
Making money for us for our house and food and stuff. (I asked what does he do to make that money and she said "I don't know.")

14. What is my favorite food?
Quesadilla

15. What makes you proud of me?
Taking care of me when I'm sick.

16. If I were a cartoon character, who would I be?
Plankton on Spongebob Squarepants and Barney from the Flintstones

17. What do you and I do together?
Funny jokes and doing different things to play on the way to bed....my favorite is the wheel barrow.

18. How are we the same?
I'm a girl but I like boy things like him.

19. How are you and I different?
He has short hair and I have long hair.

20. How do you know that I love you?
Cuz he is my parent and he takes care of me when I'm sick.

21. Where is my favorite place to go?
Hershey Chocolate World.

Facebook addict

I just realized that I haven't updated our blog in quite awhile. I have become a full fledged Facebook addict and in the process neglected the blog.

Brittanie had spring break at the beginning of March and she flew to Lafayette, Louisiana to spend a few days with my niece/her nanny, Tammie. It was her first time flying. We drove her to Charlotte to catch her plane and they were overbooked in coach so they bumped her to first class. How lucky is that? Her first time flying and she gets to ride first class!! She had to change planes in Memphis where she got on a little turbo prop. She hated that plane. She was scared to death because of the noise and shakiness but she looked around at the seasoned flyers and no one seemed alarmed so that calmed her down. The airport in Lafayette is tiny so she didn't have any problems there. Her nanny spoiled her while she was there and the last night she was there, took her out to eat boiled crawfish. I am soooooo jealous! That's the thing I miss most about Louisiana!

A couple of weeks ago, Katie's best friend, Jenna, turned 6 and had her birthday party at Monkey Business in Lexington. Tom thought the place was really cheesy but Katie had a blast! Here are some pictures and a couple of videos from the party.

New picture of me and Tom!

In case you haven't seen the news story....click here.

In Gaston, nothing surprises me anymore. :-)

He thinks he is so funny!

Tonight Tom sneezed and Jessica said "God bless you." My sweet husband's response to her kindness was "Yeah shut up." He is a meanie. :-)

Katie's answers about me (Lynette)

1. What is something I always say to you?
I'm a stinker.

2. What makes me happy?
When I obey.

3. What makes me sad?
When I don't kiss you goodbye when I leave for school.

4. How do I make you laugh?
When you make a silly answer.

5. What do you think I was like as a child?
I know you didn't like to play outside. When there wasn't any friends around, you had fun playing by yourself.

6. How old am I?
69 or 67 (wow! grrr)

7. How tall am I?
25 inches

8. What is my favorite thing to do?
play Tetris.

9. What do I do when you're not around?
watch Dr. Phil and think about me and how cute I am.

10. If I become famous, what will it be for?
being a great mom and taking care of your kids and loving your husband so much.

11. What am I really good at?
being nice and really funny and cute

12. What am I not really good at?
sometimes connect 4

13. What is my job?
typing....well it was your job.

14. What is my favorite food?
Hot Pockets

15. What makes you proud of me?
I don't know

16. If I were a cartoon character, who would I be?
Pearl on Spongebob Squarepants (Hmmm I don't see the resemblance. lol)

17. What do you and I do together?
Play Uno alot








18. How are we the same?
we wear ponytails

19. How are you and I different?
You're a mom and I'm just a kid

20. How do you know that I love you?
Cuz I'm your daughter and even though you don't like to pick up puke, you do it anyway, cuz you're my mommy

21. Where is my favorite place to go? Hershey Kisses World and Chocolate World.

Dress like Mom or Dad Day

Today is Dress Like Mom or Dad Day at Katie's school. Since I don't work anymore, I dressed her like her daddy.....polo shirt and since we had to stay in dress code, khaki skirt in lieu of khaki pants. Tom isn't wearing khakis in these pictures because it is casual Friday. They should have had this day earlier in the week! I gave her my laptop bag to haul around too to look like she is going to work. I took a couple of pictures of her beside Tom while he was doing a quick check on his laptop and then asked him to set his laptop on her lap so I could take a picture of her in a true Tom pose.
She was cracking me up because she was trying hard to emulate his facial expressions and in one picture tilting her head to the side slightly. She is such a smiley kid, it was so hard for her to not smile....daddy isn't a big smiler. The last picture is of them getting ready to leave. It was so cute!!

Our 20th Anniversary Trip!

Thursday morning, I blogged that Tom had to take Katie to the doctor because she had an ear infection. Well that put us late in leaving. We had to stop by Walgreen's and pick up her antibiotic then we headed for Spartanburg to drop off Katie to Tom's parents. We didn't leave Columbia till a little after noon. After we dropped Katie off, instead of backtracking to Spartanburg, we went through Chesnee (Tom's parents actually have a Chesnee address but I swear they are closer to Spartanburg). We got stopped by a train that was not moving. After maneuvering through several back roads that he had never been on, Tom came out exactly where he wanted to. He is amazing. He is a human GPS and always has been! We grabbed a bite to eat and gassed up the van and took off. When we crossed the state line into Virginia we got a kick out of the sign that said "Virginia Techology Corridor." The problem with that is the only thing we saw was cows. Don't know if they were robotic cows or not but now everytime we see a cow, we call them Virginia Technology. The cabin was just past Luray, Virginia. We got to the cabin around 10pm Thursday night. The cabin is brand new. I think we were only the third couple to stay there. It was very nice and though the bed was up to my neck (I HATE tall beds!), it was very comfortable. I want one just like it. Tom hated all the big windows in the living room with no blinds or drapes over them. I thought he was nuts because we were on about 10 acres of land so nobody could see in that cabin.

Friday morning I got up at 7am, as I do every morning to get Katie ready for school. But this morning, I was treated with a beautiful view of a mountain and beautiful sunny day shining through the tons of windows in the living room. It was awesome! After Tom got up, we grabbed breakfast and headed up to Shenandoah National Park (which our cabin was REAL close to) and took a drive on Skyline Drive. Tom regretted not driving his car instead of the van because there was no snow accumulation. But I'm glad he didn't have his car. He would have wanted to test his Stabilitrak of his Genesis. I'm, as Tom calls me, a "flat lander." I grew up in south Louisiana where there are absolutely no hills, much less mountains. So being in a vehicle going fast around around a mountain on a curvy road is not my idea of fun. It was scaring me but he was loving it. If you ask him, he wasn't going very fast but it felt like Dale Earnhardt Jr. flying around the curves! but the view was breathtaking. I loved stopping at the overlooks. There was snow on the side of the road when you got about 2000 feet up. I loved the icicles. They were beautiful!! When we came down the mountain, we took the long way back to Luray and grabbed a pizza from a local pizza shop there called Anthony's XII. It was delicious! Tom said it was New York style. I had never had that before and I loved it. Tom is harder to impress. He said the sauce was too sweet. Anyway, Friday afternoon I realized that I forgot the charger to my camera at home. So we headed to Gainesville, VA since it had the closest Best Buy. Evidently my camera is too new. No one had the batteries or the charger. Since we were only 30 miles from DC at that point, I asked Tom to take me to DC to see the monuments at night. I was in awe. It is GORGEOUS at night. It was overwhelming for me to be in our nation's capital. I realized how many great men have been there and shaped our country....like Ronald Reagan! After a trip around DC, we headed back to the cabin with Earnhardt Jr. flying around the curves in the dark on the way from Front Royal to Luray. I did alot of praying that night. The locals up there go very fast and Tom is a very good driver so he decided when in Rome....and he was going fast too. We got back at 11pm and went straight to bed. It was a great day but a long one.

This is the master bedroom. The bed was so comfortable but way too tall for my taste!

I loved the fireplace! It was remote controlled. What would the cavemen think? (And not the Geico ones of course.) hehehe

Tom hated the shower. It was a two person shower and you couldn't turn on just one shower head so you had water shooting at you from the back and the front.

Tom was texting Kevin from work.

Is this creepy or what? I was a big horror film fan growing up so when I saw this, I instantly thought of Amityville Horror. I know the windows in that movie were curved with panes but it still made me think of Amityville Horror.

I love icicles on the side of a mountain. It was beautiful!!

This car was in Front Royal, Virginia in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I know some South Carolina rednecks that would LOVE this car!

Saturday morning we got up and headed to DC to I could see everything in the daytime. It looks so different in the day. Street vendors are EVERYWHERE! One other thing I saw was Obama's face everywhere....T-shirts and signs everywhere. It was disgusting. But otherwise, DC was GREAT! We headed to Baltimore the long way so I could catch a glimpse of Arlington. I didn't get a picture of that because as I had done the whole trip, I hit the power button on the camera instead of the button to take a picture, and turned the camera off. It was frustrating but I would get excited to get a picture and not pay attention to where my finger was and turn the camera off. Tom was giving me a hard time with how long I took to take a picture. I explained to him it does take a long time when you turn off the camera, have to turn it back on, then point and shoot! grrrrr The old post office. The top of the tower has a mall in it. Tom and Brittanie shopped and ate up there when they went to DC a couple of years ago.

Jefferson Memorial.

Lincoln Memorial.

International Trade Center.

White House.

White House on the other side.

Capital.

National Archives, where the Declaration of Independence is kept.

Washington Monument.

Air Force sculpture

Pentagon.

Anyway, I asked Tom to take me to Baltimore since we were so close so I could get a picture of Charm City Cakes! I love the TV show "Ace of Cakes" and it was so cool seeing where it all happens! But we both couldn't wait to get out of that city. Graffiti is a bad sign to us and we got out of there ASAP! I don't know how people live in big cities. Between the ugly houses all on top of each other, the graffiti, and the traffic, I'll take Gaston any day!

In Maryland and Pennsylvania, we saw these weird domes. They were surrounded by Department of Transportation trucks and equipment. We had never seen anything like it.

Charm City Cakes!!! That's Duff's car right in front!! They don't allow visitors or I would have gone in there to meet Duff and the gang!

After Baltimore, we headed to Hershey, PA. Tom has been there before but I hadn't. I loved the street lights shaped like Hershey's kisses, especially the silver ones with the "Hershey's Kisses" tab that spun around. It was so cute! He took me by the Hershey factory and down a back road through a neighborhood that was right up against Hershey Park. I am used to Carowinds where you can't drive that close to the rides. But we could reach out and touch the big coaster while riding down that road. I can't wait to come back and take Katie and Brittanie! Katie is going to love Chocolate World! I made Tom stop and buy me a Hershey's bar so I could say I ate a Hershey's bar in Hershey, PA! Tom thought I was a dork. He asked me how was it. My answer? "Fresh!" hehehe

Cocoa Avenue

We were driving on Chocolate Avenue.It said "Welcome to Hershey. The Sweetest Place on Earth."

Check out those street lights!

Sunset in Pennsylvania. It was beautiful. My cell camera doesn't do it justice.

After Hershey, we headed back to the cabin but went a different direction than the way we came so we could pass through a piece of West Virginia. At one point, we left Maryland, crossing into Virginia, and then into West Virginia all in 2 minutes! That was kinda neat!

Through all of this traveling, we neglected to buy souvenirs. So Sunday morning when we got up to head home (9:45am), we tried to find souvenirs. Well this isn't tourist season so there were no little souvenir shops open. We stopped at Wal-Mart and a few travel centers. We even stopped at the Tourist Information Center in Harrisonburg to ask where we could find souvenirs. It was run by 2 old ladies that were evidently bored because they talked Tom's head off for almost 30 minutes and in the end all he got was brochures and still no clue where to buy souvenirs. So we will have to get them next trip. I was disappointed that we didn't get snow at the cabin. The morning we left, it was coming down hard but it didn't accumulate. As we were leaving Virginia, we saw it snowed all around where we were. :-(
We picked up Katie from Tom's parents (she had a great time with them...as usual) and spent a little while with them and then headed home. We got home around 8:30pm. It was a long day and I swear it takes longer to get home than to go up there. It is nice to be home but I really missed my mountain view when I woke up this morning.