~ Wild Life Safari ~

We decided to get out & do one fun event for Spring Break, since my head was feeling better. We left Wednesday, drove to Veneta & spent the night with my grandparents. It worked out great because Veneta is a little more than halfway to Winston where Wild Life Safari is. It was a nice way to break up the drive & see all my family. My Mom is currently staying at my grandparents, so when we got up on Thursday to head for the Safari, she came with us. We had a great time and Mom felt well enough to enjoy the day with us.
The Safari is a 600 acre setting where most of the animals are wild and roam free (except tigers, cheetahs and lions) inside the 600 acres. It is great way to see them up close. You drive through most of the park and some of the animals come right up to your car! It was really cool and the kids loved it. They even rode a camel...and so did my Mom & I.
Mac was my photographer and he took his job seriously....taking 182 pictures! My camera ended up with a dead charge about 3/4 of the way through the trip- so I did not get pictures of everything, but he took enough.
After a full day, we headed back to Grandma & Grandpa's and spent another night. We came home on Friday afternoon because Mac had baseball camp on Saturday & Sunday.
It was a great visit!

This is a video of the playful bears. I was just amazed at how close they were to us and they were captivating to watch. You will also get a kick out of Lilly's comments in the background.
ENJOY-

Lilly stood on the console and looked out through the moon roof....she had the best view by far! I am not sure who took the picture of her bum!

Lilly loved the giraffe's and we did get closer to them than this pic, but I can't find a picture of it. She kept saying "I want to ride my Giraffe!" and Mac kept correcting her "Lilly, we are going to ride a Camel, not a Giraffe!" and of course, Lilly was right...no changing her mind about what she is right or wrong about!!

This llama just about stuck his head in, Mac rolled up the window very quickly-

This is a buffalo, gives you an idea of just how close they are to the car- I had to stop several times to give them room!

The rhinos were very lazy when we drove by, but we did see them up later in the day roaming around.

Migraines Suck-

Well, it has been six days since my last post and I have good reason for it! I came down with a very strong, sudden and stubborn migraine on Wed afternoon. I knew from the start that it was not my "normal" migraine, but I fought it with all I had until I finally felt like I had "broke" early Thursday. Luckily Pat was off on Wed and had stayed home with me Thursday because we ended up in the ER where they thought I possibly had a brain hemorrhage....uh, scared us a bit. After a CT Scan, Spinal Tap, blood work, IV Fluids and lots of pain meds they ruled a hemorrhage out.
THANK GOODNESS!
I do need to have further testing and scans done over the next 2 weeks or so, but at least I am in the clear for now. I am at a higher risk for these kinds of problems since my Mom had a brain aneurysm and I have had migraines for a long time. Hopefully, with early intervention/monitoring, anything and everything will be fine!
I thought that after Friday and being home I would feel a lot better, but it took another 2 full days to be able to get up and get around....it was pretty brutal. I feel a lot better today, but am still very sensitive to sound/light. The kids are on Spring Break and all of our plans have had to change, but we will make the best of it.
Thank you to my GREAT Mommy-In-Law for coming and taking care of the kiddos and to my AWESOME Hubby for all of his care, concern and love!
Ta-Ta for now-

Happy St. Patty's Day!

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Catie Lynn is ONE!

We had all the family(28 total) over to celebrate Catie Lynn's 1st birthday! She is just a doll and I think she enjoyed her celebration. I made her a strawberry "Cupcake" cake and she gobbled it up. We also celebrated Karen's birthday. She is visiting with us from St. Louis along with Aunt Connie. It was great to have them with us!

Above is Karen and it was her birthday too! Kathy made her the Traditional Birthday Cake that Grandma Kay always made. Below, is Pat covering up Tarver and Lilly's mouths because they kept blowing out Karen's candle...Ha-

Sleep, Lilly Sleep!

The last couple of days have been a bit rough in the sleep department...
Lilly is not sleeping well at all! I am exhausted and not sure what to do-
She is "scared" of her room all of a sudden. I thought she would be SUPER EXCITED to sleep in it now that it is PINK, the pink that she picked out all on her own...the color is called "Girl Talk". Anyhow, I finished it on Saturday and ever since that night, she has not been sleeping. She goes to bed on time, but wakes up an hour later crying and scared. She thinks there is something or someone in her closet and she is terrified by the smoke alarm on her ceiling. She says it moves.... I am not sure why she is just now noticing it other than maybe it blended in better with the ceiling color before I painted it. Does anyone know if it's okay to paint the smoke detector?? Maybe if it's the same color as her ceiling, it won't stand out and scare her anymore-
I hate that she is scared and won't sleep- she even missed school yesterday because she was awake from 3am until 7am. School starts at 8:30 and she CRASHED in my bed at 7am....she was out, snoring and all until 11:30! Same thing happened again last night, in fact she is sleeping at this moment and it is 9:30- I have an art class at 11:30, so she is going to have to get up soon.
As for projects- playroom is almost done. Lilly's room is painted but not put back together. I am still looking for a bed set that I like. Have not come across one yet. I got the paint for the ridiculously tall wall I am going to attempt to paint and I got the paint for Mac's room too- I have plenty of paint, just not a lot of "get up and paint" energy at the moment.... in time I guess.
Our weather has been a bit nuts. We have snow again today. I sure hope it all goes away by Spring Break!! We are still working on plans for the week, but would really like some warmer weather.
Also, one more short note- My Dad called yesterday to let me know that he broke his foot. He will be in a cast for at least 6 weeks. He had a little mishap on his motorcycle while he was visiting John in San Marcus last week. He broke it on Wednesday, waited until Saturday to leave, rode home (on motorcycle) with it broken and not casted. He had an appt at the VA Hospital in El Paso yesterday, so he just waited until then to have it looked at. They lectured him and put a cast on it.....typical hard-headed Dad is all I can say.
I am glad that he got to visit with John and he stayed through Saturday because John made Lieutenant at the facility he works at. They had a ceremony and Dad wanted to be there for it. It is a good move for John, he gets a pay raise (good for any college student) etc, so CONGRATS to you Bubba!

This is a picture of Christine, Momma B and myself at her candle party. I went to 3 candle parties in 3 weeks! I think I am cut off for awhile!

To Do List...

We had Laurie's shower on Sunday and it was a lot of fun. Baby Caden should be arriving around April 3rd. Carmen came up with GREAT games and I made the cake- it turned out pretty cute if I say so myself!

I started painting the kids' playroom this week and it has turned out to be a HUGE project. I did it to myself, I can't just paint the walls one color....instead I decided to paint squares in different colors! It is coming a long, but is a big job and of course now I need new furniture/storage to match my grand design! I let the kids pick the colors and it is bright in there. I will post some pics when I get it all done. Next I am going to paint Lilly's room, finish up Mac's room and attempt to paint our stairway wall. The wall is close to 15 feet tall with our stairs going along it, so I have no clue how I am going to reach the very top- wish me luck! I am always adding more and more to my "TO DO LIST", it never ends-