Boating

Alex, Adrian and Zach

Josh trying not to fall off. He did pretty good.

We went boating on the Cooper River yesterday with our friends Marianne and Scott. It was nice b/c this was the first day in over a week that it wasn't 115. It was still hot but when we were moving it wasn't bad at all. I have one more week before I have to go back to work. I am sort of looking forward to it. I have really enjoyed having the summer off.

Game and Jars of Clay

We went to another Riverdogs game. After the game Jars of Clay performed on the field. We had a picnic before the game. It was a long day. I started out at 8:30 for worship team practice. Then we had church. After church we came home packed up our lunches and headed out. Well about 10 minutes down the road I realized I had left the tickets at home so we headed back to the house. We finally made it downtown and had lunch at 2:30. Let's just say I think it was the hottest day of the summer. As we were watching the game I didn't know I could sweat that much. Our group seemed to be a little rowdy which attracted the attention of the MC. As I was walking to my seat our group started cheering my name...so the MC gets on the mic and says "We would like to welcome Rachel to the stadium today". All I could do was wave b/c there was an outbreak of applause. Then he approached our group to sing "take me out to the ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch. So they all got to sing and be shown on the jumbo screen. We had a good time but we didn't get home until 9:00 and I was exhausted. I think it was mainly from being out in the heat all day.
So Jars of Clay come out and if you can click on the picture I posted you will see what they were wearing. Short gym shorts and tube socks...the kids Loved it!

USMC Mud Run

Josh and a few of the guys from church have signed up for the USMC Mud run on Sept. 22. Let's just say Josh may not have realized what he signed up for. Here are a few pictures from previous years of the Mud run. I'm not sure if I will go to the event and I don't know if anyone will take pictures but I will do my best to report back after the event.

Hattiesburg 2X

Boys doing what they do best

Nicole, me, Carson and Ashley(& baby Quinn)

Carson and Brent

We went back through Hattiesburg on our way back to SC and stayed a few more days. Here are a few pics from that trip.

USM

Thad Cochran Center. It houses the new bookstore and eating area and have conference rooms and who knows what else...

Here is construction on the Reed Green Coliseum

One of the new sorority houses in the new Sorority village. Not sure which one this is. Most look like this, some were smaller. There was one house that was 2 times bigger than this one. They kind of look like churches to me.

USM baseball complex addition and below is their new scoreboard

Norman

My sister and her husband raise longhorn cattle. They got Norman when he was really little. Here is his recent photo. He still loves for you to come and pet him.

My sister also has a Minx kitten. He is really cute and loves to play.

Hattiesburg

Notice the nice backdrop Josh decided to provide for this picture.

How cute am I?

This is Hannity

I wonder how the guys occupied their time?

We spent the weekend with our friends Jennifer and Jacob. As you can see from the pictures Jennifer and I kept busy scrapbooking and looking at baby fabric for her nursery and the boys....well lets just say boys will be boys. Notice they took the pictures of us scrapbooking and you can see they got a little in to it.

3 year anniversary

We celebrated our 3 year anniversary this past week. We have been together for 7 years. We hope to eat at the Purple Parrot when we are in Hattiesburg. I will post some Hattiesburg pics later but we are having fun visiting our friends here.

Gulf Shores

view from the second pool

Air conditioned walkway

View of the ocean with a storm approaching

Our bedroom

One of the pools

Living Room

Pretty cool kitchen

We spent two days in Gulf Shores. We stayed in a cool condo with my mom and George. The weather was great. Oh and we had a treat. I turn on the news and who else is reporting but Scott Walker. We got to hear a great story about a women that carries around her trash... We really enjoyed the reporting.... Kidding aside it was pretty cool to be back in an area where we actually knew people again.

Tallahassee

We started off our trip on Sunday. We left after church b/c we only wanted to go about 6 hours before we stopped for the night. We ended up stopping in Tallahassee. We found an hotel and got settled. Then Josh informed me that Florida State was just down the road. We went riding around that campus, which was really nice. I took a few pictures of the football stadium and the Pi Phi House. We were in the car when we went by the Pi Phi House so all I could fit in the picture was the door. The house itself was really big. We ate a Masa which was a contemporary cuisine and sushi. The food was really good. It had the best potato salad we have ever had. I can't describe it but it was nothing like the potato salad we all grew up with.

Vacation

We leave tomorrow for our 2 week vacation. We will start in Gulf Shores, swing by Ocean Springs and then stay the weekend in Hattiesburg. We will then stay in La. with my family for the final week. I will post during our trip so keeping checking back :)

Storm Clouds

We had a really strange storm come through here this week. Here is one of the best pictures that shows how the storm looked as it came in. Josh described it as the scene from Independence Day without the fire.

WOW

Okay, I was reading some of my friends blogs and one of my friends has 2 girls under 4 and a newborn baby boy. Just read below and be amazed. This is what my friend posted about a day in the life of her family.

12:30 a.m. - Liam finishes nursing and FINALLY falls asleep
2:30 a.m. - Liam awakens for his next meal, it lasts 1 hour
4:30 a.m. - Liam is hungry again, this time he doesn't go back to sleep and cries until his next feeding
5:30 a.m. - Emma wakes up and climbs in bed with us; she wants to see her "baby bruder"
6:30 a.m. - his next feeding
7:00 a.m. - Page wakes up ready for breakfast, Will gets up and pours cereal in a bowl
7:30 a.m. - Liam finished nursing and goes to sleep, I get up and fix the girls breakfast because they are still hungry
8:30 a.m. - Liam is awake and hungry, but he has to wait a few minutes because his sisters "need" to hold him and kiss him or else they have an emotional breakdown which I can't handle right now
10:00 a.m. - finish feeding, burping and changing Liam, but he won't go back to sleep so into the bouncy seat he goes so that I can get the girls and myself dressed for the day
10:15 a.m. - Page is crying about how I fixed her hair and Emma is in time out for playing in the toilet
10:30 - Liam is still crying and NOT sleeping so instead of getting myself dressed, I try to calm him down and feed him again
11:00 a.m. - thank the Lord for Sesame Street!
11:30 a.m. - Liam finishes eating despite his sisters playing with his feet, hands and hair, now it's time to fix lunch
12:00 p.m. - eat lunch with the girls, 30 minutes later than usual and lots of whining about how hungry they are
12:30 p.m. - potty time since they didn't like my vegetable soup and only ate a few crackers
12:45 p.m. - pray and sing with the girls as I listen to Liam crying for his next feeding
12:50 p.m. - feed Liam, Emma starts screaming because Page bit her
1:00 p.m. - give Page a spanking while nursing Liam
1:30 p.m. - go into their room again and find them playing in their window sill, the blinds are destroyed. Both girls get a spanking and put back in bed, while burping Liam
2:00 p.m. - Liam will only sleep if I hold him, but he peed on the sling yesterday and I haven't had time to do laundry yet so I have to hold him. I hear Page singing songs to Emma
2:01 p.m. - I warn them to stop talking and go to sleep or they will stay in their room until they take a nap or it is dinner time
2:30 p.m. - Still no nap for the girls
3:00 p.m. - Hear screaming from the girl's room and find Page peeling paint off of her wall, again, and Emma can't reach her pacifier that Page has taken from her and thrown behind her bed
3:02 p.m. - I start questioning my ability to do this, stifle a little cry and take the girls out of their room even though it goes against what I said an hour ago because I am afraid of what they will do to their room if I leave them in there any longer
3:15 p.m. - snack time for the girls, i cut up an apple and throw in some dried cranberries to make it look pretty
3:30 p.m. - feeding time again, I pray, no, beg God to help Liam go to sleep so that I can fix dinner before Will gets home
4:00 p.m. - Page wants to paint and since I feel guilty about not playing with them all day I agree to water colors
4:10 p.m. - Emma poured out the cup of water all over herself and is splashing in the puddle it made on the floor, I try not to yell
4:11 p.m. - I am unsuccessful at restraining myself because now she is laying on the floor lapping up the water like a puppy
4:15 p.m. - Praise God Liam is sleeping! I put him in bed and clean up Emma and the floor. Page is crying about Emma pouring out her water and she needs to finish her picture for her daddy
4:20 p.m. - Page has new water and Emma is banned from the paint
4:30 p.m. - Time to start dinner
5:00 .m. - Call Will to see if he will be home any time soon, he doesn't know. Liam is awake and wanting to eat again
5:45 p.m. - Liam has eaten and gets put in the bouncy seat as I resume cooking since I had to stop earlier.
5:50 p.m. - Will is ready to get picked up from work so I stop cooking again and load all three kids into the van, they are crying about how hungry they are to which I reply, that's why lunch is so important.
6:00 p.m. - get Will from work and return home, Liam fell asleep in the car, hooray!
6:15 dinner is finally ready and we sit down to eat
6:30 p.m. - Liam is crying, Will gets him so that I can finish eating
7:00 p.m. - Will gives the girls a bath while I feed Liam again
7:30 p.m. - Since the girls didn't nap today they are very whiny and they get put to bed a little early. Emma wants to put on her pj's by herself and Page wants to cuddle with her daddy. I pray and sing while nursing Liam
8:00 p.m. - Liam is asleep and I contemplate doing housework or going to bed. Housework wins tonight because I think in some way tomorrow will be better if I have some order in the house. But I check the blog first and get sucked in to other people's lives
9:00 p.m. - Make myself get off the computer and unload the dishwasher and put clothes in the dryer. Throw the clothes that were in the dryer on the sofa with the intention of folding them. It doesn't happen.
9:30 p.m. - Liam wakes up to eat
10:15 p.m. - He is done eating and the crying starts.
11:30 p.m. - crying stops long enough for another feeding and then resumes until he passes out from exhaustion. I pray the whole time that I would not be angry about how hard things are right now and how tired I am.

Please read this with the humor that it was intended for. I found it therapeutic to type this up as the girls fought nap time again today and Liam was nursing. I know it is only a season and that this too shall pass, but I thought I would provide all of you with a window into my life right now. It could also be used as birth control for those of you out there contemplating another child, lol! Don't get me wrong, I love my children and love our growing family more than anything else in the world.

Upcoming Anniversary

Next Wed. is our 3 year anniversary. Josh's mom sent me these doilies which I admired when we visited them over Christmas.
Next weekend we will be off on our summer vacation. The plan is to go to Gulf Shores for a few days, swing by Ocean Springs to see our friend Jill, then home to LA to see my dad a couple of days, then off to Hattiesburg for the weekend. Finally, we will spend the last part of our vacation with my family for a few more days before we head back.

Good Restaurant

We have been in Summerville for 2 years and we are always looking for a good place to eat. We often go to downtown Charleston and try their nice restaurants. I have known about this restaurant in Summerville for some time but have not tried it. Today Josh and I spent the day walking around and we decided to go there for lunch. It was very nice. It reminds me a lot of the Purple Parrot in Hattiesburg.

Addiction??

57%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

I'm actually not that bad. Some of my friends are in the 70-80%.

It is fun to see where you are at.

4th of July

Jackie, Scott and Pat

Josh and Lexie

Lexie and Cassidy

Here are a few pics of us on the 4th. We went to a friends house and ate and watch the neighborhood fireworks. Again, I didn't do justice in showing how many people were there.