My apologies to those of you who think I’ve packed up and abandoned this blog – I haven’t. I’m just going along with the twists and turns of my hectic I -wouldn’t – trade- it- for- the- world- life. Here’s what’s happened/happening so far:

- School is out here. All of the school age kids advanced to the next grades. Michael and I are so proud of them for their stellar academic performances. An extra special “Woot Woot” to Jordan. After getting new glasses his grades soared through the roof. I can’t stress how important yearly eye exams are.

- Tyler, Jordan, and Roman wake themselves up each weekday morning around 6:30 AM and prepare for *ahem* work with Michael. He says they’re the laziest helpers ever, but he enjoys having them around. On Friday they expect their wages at 5:00 PM sharp or “they quit:)”

- The Twins (Eden & Elijah), Kyndle, and Brooklyn are all squandering away the summer with me. Painting, reading lots and lots of books, pretending to Zumba together, formulating fruit smoothies concoctions, watching an obscene amount of cooking shows, attempting to re-create crafts we find on the Internet, pretending to be photographers, superheros, and bird watching.

- There’s a family of birds living in our Magnolia tree. At times they fly into our chimney. The kids love to sit quietly and hear them chirp. For some reason I think the mama bird is going to fly through the chimney and attack us.

- Tyler is being a typical teenager who has no interest in talking to his parents unless the topic is buying him a car or cellphone. Dude. You’re only 13.

- Jordan and Roman are obsessed with the thought of outdoor camping. They’ve decided that before summer’s end they will camp outside in the front yard.

- Kyndle thinks she’s a fairy. Her fairy dress is about to come up missing. Y’all, please make the fairies go away. She’s also doing a back to school countdown. Turns out she’s very excited about Kindergarten. This is a big change because she despised Pre-K.

- Brooklyn wants to take Karate lessons. We’ll be able to enroll her in July. In the meanwhile, she’s mimicking old Bruce Lee Movies. No one is safe.

- The twins are always doing something. Their favorite pastime is to take off their diapers and run full speed around the house screaming to the other “C’mon!”

- I was hospitalized earlier this month. For attention I decided to faint while cooking dinner:) Anemia sucks. 5 pints of blood and two nights later I was sent home. A week later terrible stomach pains send me back to the ER. Oh, dear body, don’t fail me now.

- This summer I made a promise to myself that I’d focus more on my photography fixation. I take horrible photos and would like to become a bit better at it.

- There’s a secret project I’m working on. I’m just over the moon happy thinking about it. When the time is right- I’ll share the news. It’s so hard for me to keep “good” secrets. My grandmother would say: “Girl, you can’t hold sweet water on that tongue!”

- I’ve also become OBSESSED with Pinterest. Do you pin? Need an invite? I have a few left. Join. Please.

- Michael finally opened his own (mechanic) shop. He loves working for himself. Business is growing at a steady pace. He even bought his own domain name for his website. Baby steps. He’s also been talking about enrolling in culinary school. I told him he should. He’s an awesome cook.

- We don’t have a family vacation planned for this summer. Our plan is to explore our own state and surrounding areas. This is our lazy summer of fun and learning.

- There were no birthdays that you missed so don’t fret over that:)

- It is with a hurting heart that I tell y’all this- but our beloved Ace was hit and killed by a speeding car driver on last Sunday. He was more than a dog. He was family. The driver didn’t even stop to see if he was okay. Karma will see you later mister.

P.S. I’m going to blog more about things that I like – not sponsored posts- but cool things I see here or there. So don’t think I’m losing my mind or anything And if you look around most of my blog posts are gone. When I have the time I’ll try and restore them. Somedays I just want to set this blog on fire, y’all.

Hugs and Mocha
Stesha