Show and Tell Tuesdays: 2016 Goals and Who I Am

Welcome to my blog!  I am so excited to share my 2016 goals with you!  Thanks to Andrea for hosting the party!

My name is Tina.  I turned 38 last October and am quickly climbing the hill to the big 4-0.  I am not sure how I feel about that!  I live in East Tennessee where the tea is sweet (although I like mine with Truvia), the mountains are alive and beautiful, and our blood runs Orange.  I live in a town about forty five minutes from where I grew up.  I like where I live but would love to live in Peachtree City, Georgia someday, although I would still fly my Tennessee flag proudly!

In 2001, I married my love, Chad.  My daddy introduced us.  You can read more about that here. 

We are the proud parents of two humans, Carson (age 10) and Caylee (age 8) and two fur babies, Tank (age 14) and Elmer (age 3).

During Christmas break, we found out that Tank, our black lab, probably has cancer, and is most likely in the advance stage.  We are heartbroken but decided to bring him home and keep him comfortable.  Chad and I got Tank as a wedding gift to each other so I have lived with Tank as long as  I have lived with Chad.  If you are the praying kind, would you pray for our hearts to prepare to say goodbye to our amazing dog?  We all are taking it pretty hard but are making the best of the time we do have with him. 

I am a former special education teacher and supervisor turned stay at home mom, or as I like to call it, live in the car mom.  I spend my days trying to keep kids alive!  I wouldn't have it any other way.  I am also an extremely slow five time half marathoner.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE country music, especially Luke Bryan.  Finally, I am a huge supporter of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  

I think that pretty much sums up my life!  

I have been thinking a lot about goals/resolutions for the new year.  Last year, I chose one word that would be my guiding resolution for the year.  You can read about it here.  I feel pretty good about the outcome of my resolution.  I learned to let a lot of things go- and it is such a good feeling.  I am a work in progress but I learned that some things that  used to bother me doesn't really bother me anymore.  How did I get there?  Lots of prayer and many talk sessions with my Mama! ;)  

This year, I decided my word would be:

BE.

Be. Still.

I feel like I am constantly on my feet and on the go all day long.  I need to learn to stop and be still.  Watch a TV program with Chad.  Sit down and read a book. Sit down and play a game with the kids.  Simply slow down and breathe.

Be. Present.

How many times am I distracted by my phone?  WAY. TOO. MUCH.  This year, I want to give more attention to the people in my home instead of wasting time on stupid electronics and other time suckers (other than the blog, of course!).  I also want to be present in more pictures!  I organized my digital pictures over the holiday and can probably count less than 20 that I am actually in.  I want people to take more pictures of me.  I need to get over how bad I look or how bad the picture is! 

Be. Kind

Do something nice for someone else- just because.  Be kind to my kids- work on using kind words in a kind tone with them.  Be kind to Chad- give him the attention he deserves.  Basically, treat people the way I want to be treated!  Sound familiar?

Be. Clean

I have got to get my house into a nice routine.  With baseball season quickly approaching, I need to make a doable cleaning schedule and stick to it.  I also need to make it a point to straighten the house up nightly.  Also part of being clean, I want to make myself more presentable.  I fall into the sweatpants and no makeup camp in the winter, which basically makes me look like a homeless person.  I am not homeless so why should I look that way?!

Be. Healthy

I want to become a faster runner- like 10:00 mile. I am not there.  I need to get there and the way I will do it is to keep pounding the pavement and maybe even hit the gym on a regular basis.  I follow Weight Watchers and I want to get back to tracking everything that goes into my mouth.

Be. On Time

I added this one last.  We are always on time for school but that is about it.  It seems like I am always rushing to and from.  I need to allow myself more time to get to where I am going.  No excuses!

I can't wait to read all about YOU and your goals! Thanks for stopping by!

Opryland Hotel, Our Traditional Hike, and How I spent my NYE

Greetings!  It finally turned cold here.  My boys have worn shorts for the last couple of days and are disappointed they have to drag pants and jeans back out!

I left off at my December recap with Christmas.  Chad really spoiled me this year.  There have been years when we really don't exchange gifts and then there are years when we do.  We are a blessed family- Chad has a great job (granted, stressful with travel, etc) that allows our family to have more than what we need.  I never want to take that for granted.

As one of my "gifts" this year, Chad booked a night at the Opryland Hotel to see the lights.  Last December, Chad and I visited the hotel after we saw the Rockettes and I told him I would love to spend the night there during the holidays and take it all in.  Much to my surprise, he remembered my wish!  I like to think that this trip was my reward for being a solo parent all those weeks when he traveled!  An even bigger surprise was that the room he booked overlooked the Cascades garden.  As soon as I walked in, I could feel a calmness come over me (and the kids were even with us! LOL)
These two pictures were taken from our balcony.

While we were there, we met these guys.  They are members of the University of Louisville football team.  We walked up to four of them and asked for a picture then two more players ran over to get in!  We talked with them for a minute, wished them good luck, high fived them, then went on!  SO COOL!  They were such nice young men.  The Texas A & M players were also staying there but they weren't as clean cut and nice.  Both teams played in the Music City Bowl. 

We ate dinner at the hotel and walked the gardens pretty much the rest of the night.  The next morning, we walked again then went to Opry Mills, with the rest of Nashville, to get Carson some new shoes and check out any deals.  We left fairly quickly because it was so crowded and headed home.  It was a quick but wonderful way to reset after the Christmas rush.

We spent the day Monday taking down our Christmas decorations.  I didn't put up as much this year so it wasn't bad taking it all down.  I love Christmas but when it is over, it is over and I am ready to get the house back together.

On Tuesday, we went on our traditional hike to Laurel Falls.  This is Chad's favorite thing to do.  The hike itself is fairly short but there is a tough stretch of basically making your way down rocks to get to the falls.  It is worth it though!

 We take this picture every year to see how the kids have changed.  Chad has a better picture on his phone, but you get the idea!  He wants me to frame each year- I am thinking this may be a good Valentine's gift!

I don't remember much about Wednesday but I think I got caught up on laundry???  The kids played with their new Christmas toys and such and we watched our new friends, the University of Louisville football players, win their bowl game!

Thursday will be a day that goes down in the McMurray history books.

As I have written before, we have had problem after problem after problem with my Grand Cherokee.  Everything has gone wrong- the computer system, radiator, cruise control, you name it.  It spend over a month in the shop last winter, during the snows, because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it.  We have had at least 10-12 recalls on the thing causing me to spend 10-12 days hanging out at the dealer.  As we were traveling to Nashville, Chad noticed that it was acting funny.  It kept switching gears and making funny noises.  We talked quite a bit on the way to and from Nashville and decided that the car was probably a ticking time bomb.  It was out of warranty, so anything that needed to be done outside of a recall would have to be paid for.  I told Chad that I would be fine with keeping it but I don't want to keep making payments on it PLUS spending who knows what on repair bills.  Heck, we had to put a new radiator in the darn thing before it was out of warranty! I told Chad how much I appreciated him taking care of me and my vehicle and caring enough to want to put us in a nice, safe ride.  Again, I am a blessed woman.  We could have kept the car and it may have been ok and it may not have been ok.

Chad drove an Explorer as his work vehicle for a while and put 130,000 miles on it and never had anything done to it except an oil change.  And he drove it hard.  We had looked at Explorers back in the summer when something was going on with the Jeep (ticking time bomb, I tell ya!) but didn't feel like we were getting good deals so we stopped.  While Chad was talking to his dad about all of this, CR mentioned looking in Atlanta.  He said that based on his research, you can get a car for around $3,000 cheaper than you can around here.  Since Chad had taken time off from work and the grandparents agreed to watch the kids, we found a couple of cars in Atlanta to look at.  We set out early NYE morning on a mission.

We found a silver explorer with all the options we wanted and talked via text with a dealer; however, he texted us about the time we got to Knoxville and said the car was being sold as he texted.  UGH.  We had already basically worked up some numbers with him and I was confident we were going that route.  While Chad drove, I surfed EVERY. FORD. DEALER. IN. THE.ATL. AREA for a silver or red explorer sport.  I found 2- one in each color.  I called the dealer that had the silver one and told him we were coming from TN and we would be there at 2.  We get there and the car isn't there.

I was so mad!  He said that it was at their sister dealer and that they were going to go get it and it would be there in about two hours.  If he knew we were coming to look at THAT VEHICLE, he should have had it there waiting for us.  They had red and silver fords there (not what we wanted) so we compared colors and determined that we liked the silver.  We told our sales guy that we would like to work up numbers for our jeep and requested to drive the silver once it arrived.  At this point it was about 3:00.  From 3:00-4:30, we talked numbers, went back and forth with management, and finally agreed.  I love car shopping with Chad because he is no dummy.  He made them take off the $99 nitrogen charge, $300 window tint charge (windows weren't even tinted), and dropped the paperwork fee by $100.  Finally, at 4:30, we were just waiting on the car to get there.  I will say that I am glad they had a lounge area with football on.  It was getting to be a long day.....

Sometime between 4:30 and 5:30, the lady that did our sale came out of her office and said she couldn't find the county we lived in in her database.  I walked into her office and looked over her shoulder and her computer screen and noticed that her program said she was still in GA, not TN.  I told her that but she had no clue how to get to TN and really didn't have much of a clue as to what she was doing anyway!  She told Chad that she added another $100 to the price of the car because TN charges them that rate to do the paperwork.  Chad told her no deal then.  He agreed on one price and that was it.  She calls her manager and they take off the fee.  Turns out, I have to do all of the work on the TN side.  They don't file for our tags or anything! Basically that was a fee that pocketed, had we paid it.

Finally, at 5:30, the car arrives.  I was so tired of hanging out there.  There was only so much I could do- watch football, Facebook, tweet, instagram, and pinterest were all done more than I ever have at one sitting!   We were restless and tired.  Luckily, we were able to drive the car and was happy with it so we signed off on everything.  While we did paperwork, the car left the lot AGAIN, to be detailed.  My comment to our sales guy was that it was a brand new car, what it in the world needed to be cleaned on it?!  We asked them to try to do it quickly because we wanted to get out of there and back on the road.  We FINALLY left the dealer a little after 7:00.  We were tired and hungry but found a Steak N Shake so we ate there and headed back home.  We pulled onto our street just as the ball dropped (we listened on the radio).  So far, I am happy with the vehicle.  I just hope it is safe and will not give us umpteen thousand problems that the GC did!

New Year's Day was spent cheering on our Vols to an Outback Bowl Win!!!!  Gotta give a huge shoutout to our local boy, Malik Foreman on his INT!  It's Great to be a Tennessee Vol!

A December to Remember: part one

Greetings from an unseasonably warm and sunny Big Orange Country!  (That's home of the Tennessee Vols for those of you that aren't from here!).  This Christmas will go down in the record books and will definitely be one to remember.  Very warm- like 70s.  It is hard to get in the Christmas spirit with those temps!

I love to look back at my blog and what we've done, where we've been, and the comings and goings of the kids.  I haven't done a December post, so I am going to cram it all into one!

I already blogged about my trip to Memphis to run the half marathon.  Just as soon as we got back, we hit to stage running with Nutcracker stage rehearsals and performance.

I have a ton more pictures but don't want to post them without permissions of the other peeps in the pics!  Caylee has so many friends of all ages in the show and they are like family to us.

After Nutcracker, we finished the week of school, engaged in the Christmas rush, got Carson some glasses, and got ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus!

About the glasses....  We (read, Chad) had noticed that Carson had commented that he had trouble seeing small digital numbers on clocks.  One night, Chad finally said, "Tina, I don't think Carson can see.  Make him an eye appointment."  We did and, he can't see.  Billy, our wonderful optometrist, basically said that Carson has Chad's vision (he's can't see squat) and that it will only get worse.  Turns out, he can see fine up close but not distances.  This explains some of the issues we have had with him at school, mainly, the planner.  He is supposed to write assignments in his planner but he hasn't been seeing them to write down.  So far, so good.  He has only broken one thing, and that is our rule.  Our rule is "face or case." They either have to be on your face or in your case.  One day, I found them laying on the table so I warned him that if he broke the rule again, there would be a five dollar fine.  He's only had to pay me $5 once. ;)

Fast forward to Christmas Adam.  We have gone over to Chad's aunt and uncle's house for dinner and presents for the last couple of years.  Carson was gifted an Eno hammock and Caylee got two American Girl mini dolls and some hangers. Chad and Carson mounted the hammock in Carson's room.  It is pretty cool- but his cute tween boy room is gone.  He loves it though!

On Christmas Eve, we went over to Chad's parents house for dinner and presents.  The most I remember from that night is the migraine headache I got.  UGH!I didn't take many pictures either.  Carson got a BB gun from Grampa and Caylee got a wardrobe for her AG stuff and a doll Jeep.

I woke up Christmas morning with the headache gone and ready to celebrate Christmas with my crew!  Santa DEFINITELY showed up at our house.  We must have been really good people!

Chad got this jacket he asked for but then he decided it provides no warmth at all, but it is water resistant.  

 He was excited for Beats!

 She had equal excitement for Grace's pastry cart.

 Funny story.... My goal this year was to have all gifts in boxes so I had to get creative.  And yes, there is a bag in the background.  Elmer ate the box that the particular gift came in.  #thankspuppy.
Anyway, back to the story...  Caylee was DYING to open this gift.  It was the largest box.  I had told her it was the Roomba box but she didn't believe me.  Her facial expression is priceless.

 The gift inside was a new backpack!

 I shopped for and wrapped one of my gifts- a St. Jude top.  I LOVE it!  Santa surprised me with an Apple Watch but I need to go to Knoxville to learn how to use the thing!  So far, I  am loving it!

 After cleaning up, we went to Mom and Dad's for the day.  My dad gifted the kids some cold hard cash!  Our day there wasn't rushed and was much quieter than the night before just because there was not as many people around.

Whew!  I am going to stop there.  Stay tuned for a post about our end of the year trip to Opryland Hotel!

St. Jude Memphis Half Marathon Recap

I want to blog about my experience this weekend before life gets "holiday crazy".  If you would have told me six years ago that I would be a FIVE TIME half marathoner, I would have laughed like a hyaena right in your face.

That's 13.1 miles FIVE TIMES.  Not including the hundreds of miles of training!

I started running with an amazing group of girls six years ago.  They started talking up a half marathon and I told them I would go with them and cheer them on but there was no way I could do a half......

Then Kellan got sick.

Kellan is Sarah's daughter.  Sarah was one of the girls in my running group.  What they thought were just a serious of headaches turned out to be a brain tumor.  Within twenty four hours, they were headed to Memphis.  Their world was ROCKED.  I will never forget Sarah telling us what was going on.  I decided then that if Kellan can endure what she was about to endure, then I was going to run a half marathon.  Since then, I have done FIVE.  (Sorry to keep repeating that!)

This weekend, Sarah and I headed to Memphis for the race and I basically asked her so many questions about their experience at St. Jude.  I am so grateful that she openly talked about their life at St. Jude.

*They NEVER received a bill from St. Jude.
*They were provided housing the entire time they were there.
*St. Jude takes care of the entire family.  There were special activities for the siblings of the patients.
*St. Jude hosts proms/graduations, party after party after party for patients.
*If a patient wanted something, St. Jude went to the ends of the earth to get it.  If Kellan wanted to watch a movie and St. Jude didn't have it, they went out and found it.
*One patient there only wanted to eat "spaghetti tacos" (seen in a show on Disney Channel) so the chef did whatever necessary to make the dish for the child.

I could go on and on but the bottom line is they saved my friend's daughter's life and are saving the lives of others I have come in contact with.  Caylee and Kellan have become good friends.  This child will forever hold a special place in my heart- she made me a five time half marathoner.  If it weren't for her, I never would have set foot on the start line.

This race is incredibly special to me.  It is also very emotional.  The course goes through the St. Jude Campus between mile 5 and 6 and I cry like a baby every year.  There are patients (who are able), parents, doctors, nurses, and staff members out along the sidewalks basically making a tunnel for you.  I am getting emotional just typing about it.  All the while, they are thanking us for our support and calling us heroes, but they have it all wrong.  The patients and their families are MY HEROES.  I saw several little bald heads on Saturday with their faces covered in masks and I lost it.  I have a hard enough time running but running with tears streaming down your face is very difficult.  I also cried as I finished because I am FIVE TIME FREAKING HALF MARATHONER.  I am a runner because there are people out there who can't.  I figured that if parents can put their life on hold to care for a sick child, I can take a small piece of my life and dedicate my time to training and running for St. Jude.

About my time... well, I am a turtle.  I am the one in the back getting her race entry's moneys worth.  No joke.  I really wanted a PR at this race.  Saturday morning, I googled pace times to finish in 2:35 and I took a sharpie and wrote the times on my arm.

Ok, so, if you notice, I got off after mile 7 and forgot to include the time for mile 8.  UGH.  I was ahead pace until mile 7 then I learned that I can't do math in my head to figure where I needed to be at mile 8, AND TRY TO RUN THE RACE.  Ooops.  I was proud of myself for staying ahead of pace as long as I did.  I started slowing down between mile 5 and 6- the St. Jude campus and I had a hard time pulling myself back together afterward.  My walls are mile 8 (ironic, huh) and mile 10.  At mile 10, I was three minutes off but it took me almost 40 minutes to do the last 5K.  I was hurting but I reminded myself that there were kids in that hospital that were in a whole lot worse shape than I was and that I needed to suck it up.

After the race, Sarah and I headed to Sonic for the best tasting coke zero EVER.  I always give up carbonated drinks during race week.  I am convinced that carbonated drinks make my legs ache (worse than they do after a race away) and I think that giving up Coke Zeros is the right move.  I don't have one daily anyway but man that Route 44 drink  was AWESOME!  And, the panera cookie at lunch later in the day was the bomb dot com!  We drove back across the state on Saturday after the race because we both had things we needed to be home for.  I am so thankful for her, her friendship, and her stories.  I am forever changed and will forever be a supporter of St. Jude!

When we got home, my arch nemesis were these....

There is nothing like the pain of walking down stairs.  I walked down backwards!  But again, it is a good sore feeling- I don't mind being sore when I know that I accomplished something.

I am going to close with a plea...  When you are out shopping and they ask if you would like to make a donation to St. Jude....  DO IT.  DO IT.  DO IT.  Even if it is just one dollar because I guarantee there are ten other people who can donate a dollar too!  It takes 2 million dollars A DAY to operate St. Jude.  I was in a store the other day and they asked me if I wanted to round up my bill to the nearest dollar so my change can go to St. Jude and I did because what if EVERY customer donated their change that day?

I am going to get serious about my fundraising efforts for the race next year.  I think I have planted a seed in Chad too- he told me yesterday he may run the full next year.  I am hoping my family and I can make a trip to Memphis and tour the hospital.  If you would like more information on how you can donate to St. Jude, please email me at tinatnvol@gmail.com!

Five on Friday!!!!

I don't know about you guys but this week has just about kicked my rear.  I think it is the adjustment to the new time.  I am linking up with these lovelies!

O-N-E

I am so proud of this guy for his Entertainer of the Year Win at the CMAs!  You all know he is my favorite!!!

I cannot go any further without addressing the whole Chris Stapleton/Justin Timberlake performance.  I thought it was AMAZING!!!!  I am still #TeamLuke  ALL.THE.DAY.LONG but I think we are seeing a bit of a split in country music.  You have "new country"- Luke, Thomas, Brett, Dierks, etc. and you have "classic country"- Chris Stapleton, Tim McGraw, George Strait, etc.  There is nothing wrong with either camp- I like the music of both but Luke will always be my favorite.  I also thought that Thomas Rhett/Fallout Boy did a great job too.  I thought it was so sweet that Thomas had a huge grin on his face the whole time.  You could tell he was in high heaven!

T-W-O

I am loving this book.  I checked it out from the library earlier in the week but I am going to have to purchase my own copy. I started it while Carson was at his private pitching lesson- hence the football practice in the background.

T-H-R-E-E
I haven't talked much about my half marathon training.  It's going.....  I will never be a fast runner but I get out there and pound some pavement.  I am not doing this to glorify myself, I am doing it to raise awareness for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  This charity is close to my heart.  I am forever changed after being a part of the St. Jude Half. I ran seven miles in rain this morning.  It is still in the 60s here- it either needs to stay this way or turn cold.  These are a couple of shots I took on my run this morning.  I had a major hamstring cramp right before I came upon the sign in the top right.  I would KILL for a massage!

F-O-U-R
While I am typing this, I am recouping from my seven mile run and watching LBTV on You Tube.  That's Luke Bryan TV (I told you I loved him).  Anyway, they did a video of bloopers and I am crying I am laughing so hard!

F-I-V-E
I need to add this mug to my collection!  PERECT!

Happy Friday!

Show and Tell Tuesday: A Day in the Life

I have wanted to do a day in the life post for a while but never forced myself to document everything I do in a day- now I know why.

I am a jack of all trades and a master of none.  

Sidenote: When I told Chad what I was doing and why I was doing it last night and that my realization is that I am a jack of all trades and a master of none, Carson asked what that meant.  Chad told him that I do a lot of things but I am not good at any of them.  Thanks for the encouragement, dear.  Kick me while I am down.

In all seriousness, I have spent some time lately pondering my current life situation.  I don't work, though I stay super busy (as you will see below) but I feel like I am a hamster on a wheel going no where.  I don't feel like I am accomplishing anything and that I am not doing good things or doing anything "well".  The root of the problem is comparison, and I know that.  I get too wrapped up in comparing my weakness to someone else's strength and instead of beating myself up because I can't do what they do, I need to spend my time finding something I can do.  More on that later.

I didn't mean to get off on the tangent, but let's get going with my day in the life.  I documented my day yesterday, Monday.  Mondays are nice because my calendar is typically clear for the day.

6:00AM
My alarm goes off for the first time.  I wasn't ready to get up on the first day back to school since the time change AND after the awesome weekend we had.  I hit the snooze twice and finally rolled out of bed at 6:20AM and headed straight to the coffee pot!  I think I am the only non-Keurig user on the planet.  I would like to have one, but the Kcups are expensive!  I still like my handy dandy Mr Coffee!

It was only appropriate that I use my Disney mug on Monday.

I poured my first cup and sat down to catch up on email, blogs, and social media.  I love my quiet time in the morning but it was cut short at 6:35AM to kids waking up.  #thankstimechange

The kids got up, ate breakfast, and got ready for school while I started the laundry.  We left the house later than normal- at 7:57AM.  We are always out by 7:45 but a certain 8 year old had other ideas this morning.  We made it to school before the tardy bell rang, and I headed to the mothership TAR-JAY.  I had planned on going for a run after drop off but it was sprinkling and once I checked the radar, I realized that I could get my Target trip in then run and not get wet.  I returned a top for Caylee then picked up the couple of things I needed and headed out.

Our town has some decent routes for running but I find myself running the same ones over and over.  I park at my former place of employment and run from there.  I chose those routes because I figure if something happens to me, I know enough people that if someone were to drive by, they would recognize me! ;)  I did my three miles.  I am battling a cold so I am  not 100%.  I was even slower than a turtle!

10:00AM
I get home and get myself cleaned up.  I headed upstairs to Caylee's room to put on her new bedding we got at IKEA over the weekend.  Here are a couple of pictures.  Her room isn't finished yet- we are transitioning from a yellow/red bedroom to a yellow/pink room.

Caylee is  my hoarder.  She sleeps with EVERYTHING on her bed.  She arranged the zoo of animals on her bed when I told her I needed to take a picture of her bed.  You can't tell in the picture but her new bedding is a yellow and white stripe duvet cover that we spotted at IKEA and knew it would be perfect!

12:30PM
I was getting hungry so I came downstairs and heated up my leftover Japanese food.  I love Japanese food!!  I wasn't finished in Caylee's room but hunger won out.  I ate my lunch while I watched a little Young and the Restless (yes, I watch it occasionally).  While I finished my lunch, I wrote my blog post about the weekend, ordered my 101 free shutterfly prints, and cleaned out my 584739 emails.  This took longer than I normally spend on my computer but I was glad to get the prints ordered and clean out the inbox!

1:30PM
I swap out the laundry again and went back up to Caylee's room for a few more minutes of cleaning up.  I decided that I wanted to leave early and swing by the mall to pick up soap at Bath and Body Works. #squirrel

They have their winter stuff out!!!!!  I still can't believe we are heading into the holiday season.  I walked out with 6 hand soaps in fall and winter scents, and a free pocket bac.  #forgottodocument

3:00PM
I pull into my parking spot at school and wait for the kiddos.  While I wait for them, I go through our mail and send a couple of texts.  The kids come out at 3:15 .  We swing by the vet's office to pick up Tank's medicine and meet the most adorable black lab puppies!  We chatted with the owner for a bit then head home around 4:00.  I go back up to Caylee's room to finish cleaning up and vacuumed and took the picture of her bed and head downstairs to swap laundry AGAIN and start cooking dinner.  And the witching hours begin.....

5:00-8:35PM
I ask Carson to begin his homework at 5 and it is finally finished at 8:35PM.  Don't get me started.  We are having a hard time with homework some night and last night was one of those nights.  He and I just don't see eye to eye on it.  He had 50 math problems last night and on some he didn't show his work and on others, it was so messy I couldn't read it to tell if it was correct.

Chad got home at 5:30 (early for him) and took over the battle while I finished supper.  I fixed my chicken spaghetti (failed to document).  While I waited on it to bake, I sat down with my planner and started to fill out my week of to do lists and meal plan.  The meal planning didn't get completed (I normally do this on Sunday but since we were gone, it was pushed back) and at some point, Caylee does her homework and made a craft for her BFF.

After dinner, Chad said he would clear the table while I applied to be a mentor for Tennessee Promise.  We saw it on the news that they needed more mentors so I decided I would do it.  I am hoping this will help me fill my cup.  It took all of five minutes to apply!  I am excited to help high schoolers reach their post secondary goals!

After I did that, I went back to the kitchen to clean up the monstrosity of Monday.

I snapped this picture earlier in the day and it was much worse by the time I actually got to it.  The last dish was washed around 8:30.  I sat down and checked Carson's math (and bubble for him) and kissed the kids goodnight while Chad put them to bed.

9:00PM
I finally turned the lights out in the kitchen and retreated back to the bedroom and got ready for bed.  I climbed into bed around 9:15 and watched a little MNF with Chad and fell asleep around 9:30PM.  We try to get in bed earlier but it doesn't always happen.

WHEW!  That took a while to type!  I am off to fold and put away all the laundry I washed yesterday!  Thanks for hanging with me!