Jumping OFF the Bandwagon

Friends and Family, I have made a big decision. I have decided to make this blog for my "simple living" (if there is such a thing) posts and start another private blog to write about my family and our adventures. I have been contemplating this for some time. It is very hard for me to justify my words to my children when I tell them, don't give out private information about you and our family anywhere on the internet (unless we instruct them to) when I am posting pictures and information everyday (or close to it) about their private lives. I don't mind sharing with you, my family and friends, this information because most of you already know it, but in the back of my mind there is this thought that there is a crazy person lurking around out there and he might show up at one of their schools! (Being married to a cop for almost 20 years begins to wear off on you!) Most of the time I try not to give out any information about friends without getting permission first, but I know that there is that rare occasion that I do or that someone is a photo that I didn't get permission from, so I want to render that. If I have a blog that is private, then, only the people that I "approve" will be able to access it.

I want to be able to share pictures with my family and friends, especially those that don't live near us (you know who you are ~smile~), so that they can see us and my children, see what we are into, how they are growing, I just don't care for every Tom, Dick, and Harry to know about it.

When I told Frank of my decision, he said "Finally!" He had never mentioned his concern to me, but it showed when he answered that. I will be deleting posts that have pictures/personal information regarding my family on this blog (Toward A Simpler Life). I will still be posting to this blog, but it will be more like my food pictures and other random pictures/information. I hope I can still keep it going well, since so much of my blog is related to my family. We shall see...

For those of you who wish to continue reading about our family, I am quickly working on the other blog to get it up and running. The name of the blog is "Life--Our Great Adventure", the link to it is here. Obviously, this will be unaccessable unless you are approved to view it. If you will email me at kellys3angels@hotmail.com, I will be happy to add you to the list of approvals. I believe all you will have to do after I approve you, will be to type in your email address when it prompts you, you can even save your settings on your computer, so that you don't have to type it in I think. I will be happy to assist anyone that needs help getting to the new blog, so that you can continue to follow our adventures as a family.

Thank you for your understanding regarding this. Like I said, I have been thinking for a while, about what to do and how to do it, so this decision didn't come lightly, I have to look out for the safety of my children, my family.

Random Cuteness for your Wednesday Viewing

At Build-A-Bear for Mari Cate's party (pictures to follow) playing on the computers. Last time we went in there he "locked" them up!! Oops!

He found this little car for a Build-A-Bear and decided he wanted to ride in it...haha!!
He finally got all the way in it, then looked at us and waved bye!!

A Flock of Seagulls

Does anyone remember that group? That is what Frank said Hayden's hair looks like after he woke up this afternoon. He has had wild hair since he was born...poor thing! Look how big he looks laying across Frank! I really need to weigh and measure him to really see how big he is!! I know he weighs nearly 30 lbs...which is way bigger than Conner and Mari Cate were at this age! But he is not fat...at all, but he sure is cute, isn't he?? Remember to click on the collage for bigger pictures.

We found a treasure!

At America's Thrift Store!! We found 13 Build-A-Bears for under $12.00!!!! Mari Cate collects Build-A-Bears, so this was truly a treasure to her! It is just hard to pass them up when they are that cheap (normally they run $10 and up a piece at the store!) I am sure that you can see by the picture that some of them are identical...well she has two friends that also collect them, so now they have triplets! Cute, huh? And just so you know that we aren't just hogging all of them, she is also sharing a few of the others with her two friends also. Who wouldn't want to share such a great find??? (hmmmm...well, I won't go into that!)

Do Re Me Fa Soooooo...She made it!!

Yes, Mari Cate made the Lee University Children's Chorale. She went for an audition last night and was selected to be in their children's choir! We are so happy for her and proud of her for auditioning! For those of you who know her, you know that her self-confidence is a little on the short side and that it takes a lot to convince her to do something like this although she has a beautiful voice and sings at church and is in the choir at school, which she also had to audition for. I will be excited to post about what this choir will be doing in the future!! Who knows this could an "in" for a scholarship to Lee University at some point...now wouldn't that be nice??!!

I forgot to tell you about this....

Well, I might have told you but I don't think I shared the details. Not even sure if you want the details...but can't leave this "fun" events in our life out, you know!

While we were living with my parents, Conner would frequently go way out in the woods behind their house to a creek that runs back there, Mouse Creek...just the name makes me not want to go back there. But anyway, this particular day he and his friend were back there and they were "cutting down tree limbs", so they say. Well, Conner has a pretty big knife, but he has always been careful with it. And as active as he as always been, motorcycles and all, he has never had a broken bone or major injury really, until that day.

Around 6:00 that evening, while my mother was holding a sleeping Hayden, Conner burst into the back door and yanked his pants down mumbling words that were incoherent to my mother. He proceeds to run to the bathroom and call for me saying he has STABBED himself. So I run into the bathroom. You just have to know Conner to know that he kind of goes into panic mode when something like this does happen to him. He actually had not stabbed himself, rather SLICED himself down his thigh. It was not bleeding, which I thought might not be a good thing. Frank was not home at the time, but was on his way. When I looked at it, I immediately figured that he would need stitches and immediately Conner began insisting that he was NOT going to get stitches...like he thinks he has a real say so in this matter. HA!

So anyway, when Frank got there he agreed with me (although we didn't let Conner know at the time). He didn't even want to go to the doctor, but we convinced him otherwise. Of course it was Sunday, so there was not a doctor's office open, so it would have to be the Emergency Room, UGH!! Now, one of my good friends, Susanne, works in the Emergency Room, and I knew she would take good care of him, but I didn't know for sure if she was working and I for sure didn't know how long we would have to wait before we could get seen! Then I remember a place my friend Shawna told me about in Chattanooga, called PM Pediatrics. They are open in the evenings and weekends for urgent care for children. It is much like going into a doctors office but they can do the stitches and x-rays and stuff like that and you don't have to sit with all those people and WAIT and WAIT and WAIT in the Emergency Room and even better, it doesn't cost an Emergency Room visit on our insurance only a specialist vist fee!! So if you are in the Cleveland/Chattanooga area and don't know about PM Pediatrics, you really should check them out in advance, for your emergency needs!! If you live somewhere else, you might want to check to see if you area has anything similar. This is such a great concept....who wants to sit in a yucky Emergency room, especially with a baby or child????

So you know me and pictures....had to get some.....but at least I didn't take any in the middle of the crisis!! ; )

In the room waiting for the doctor to come stitch him up

Battle Scars ...And I will add that they have healed up VERY nicely!!

Random Cuteness for Monday Morning

Just some random cuteness for you to enjoy and start your week off with. : )