Welcome to a new week!

Good morning all! How was your weekend? I hope it was well.

We got back yesterday from our trip to Tybee Island. We all have a very nice, dark tan from our time on the beach. I've posted a lot of pictures in my website's photo gallery. Stop by and check them out.
http://www.christiesilvers.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=6678459




We had some rain on Saturday when we drove over to Savannah. Unfortunately, that meant we weren't able to get the yearly picture of the girls on the big tree in the park we go to. :-( However, we got many of them at the beach to enjoy. If you check out the pictures, I put some small descriptions for each one of them if you click on them individually.

Oh, some of you may have heard that Miley Cyrus was shooting a movie down on Tybee Island back at the end of June/beginning of July. I was so glad that we didn't go at that time. The beach would've been ridiculous. Wellllllllll, apparently this past weekend was time for her to re-shoots. Ack! Yep, half the beach and the entire pier was closed down on Friday afternoon so they coulddo re-shoots.

The younger two girls wants to go see "Hannah Montana" so we got them some icecream and walked over to one of the crossover bridges. The girls ate their icecream while we watched the re-shoot. I only had my phone with me, so the picture I took of that was small without zoom.



http://i1021.photobucket.com/albums/af339/christiesilvers/Tybee%202009/0731091639.jpg





Anyway, we're back and I was so glad to get back into my own bed. The kids tried to run us ragged the entire time there, and all we wanted to do was relax and enjoy the ocean. As soon as we finished one outting/activity, they were begging for the next. It was definitely crazy.

However, now we're home. We ate our fills of fresh seafood, tanned and played in the ocean, both Tim and Cassandra got hit by jellyfish twice. LOL. Luckily, it was just small hits on them that were better by the next day. Nothing like that year when one attacked my entire left leg, foot, and hand. I was in major pain for many weeks from that. Me being the good mommy that I am, I made sure to pack cortizone cream and Benedryl pills... just in case. Good thing I did.

Okay, now. It's a brand new month and a brand new week. Time for us to start counting down to the first day of school. Woohoo!!! I can't wait to send them off to school and get a break. LOL. We've already gotten all their school shopping done, and the school supplies are stocked up nicely. School shopping even inspired two new articles...

Back to School: Important School Supplies For Elementary School
Back to School: Preparing Your Youngest Child for Their First Day of School

Stop by and check them out. I'm getting closer each day to the 1 million pageview mark on there. Thanks to those of you who are reading my articles. :-)

One last thing before I get going today. Wednesday is the day that my monthly newsletter goes out. If you aren't already a subscriber, now is definitely the time to do so. :-) It's easy, and I only send out messages on the first Wednesday of every month.
http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=1003219z

Okay, I'm off. I have some laundry to wash and a couple of errands to run. This is Tim's last week of work before he lay-off. I have preparations to take care of. This week is going to drag by. Might as well get to work on it. LOL.

Have a grat day!

And we're off...

*Yawn*

Morning. It's finally Thursday. We'll be leaving in a few minutes to make our way down to Tybee Island. It's a six hour drive, so we should make it by lunchtime, even with pitstops and bathroom breaks.

Last night I ended up being up alone after Tim fell into bed at 8:30pm. LOL. I still had two loads of laundry to tend to from everyone taking showers before bed. Tim asked me how I could still be so awake after getting up so early. I replied, "It's a mom thing. We can't pass out until everything that needs to be done is done." Ain't it the freakin' truth?!

I ended up watching Stepbrothers on Netflix Instant Play while the laundry was drying and then finally making it to bed at 11pm. *Yawn*

Okay then, I'm shutting the laptop down now. Time to get the kids into the van while Tim downs an Amp for the first driving shift (we take turns). Have a great weekend and I'll be back Sunday with pictures to share. :-)

Oh, and if you're a friend on Facebook, you'll probably see updates from time to time during the trip. :-)
http://www.facebook.com/christiesilvers

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Wanna Know Wednesday #25

Good morning all. Yes, I'm up super early this morning. I couldn't sleep after Tim left at 4:30a.m. After tossing around for 40 minutes, I finally just got up and popped in a Netflix movie. This morning's movie of choice: Cloverfield. It's interesting. I won't say good or bad, since I'm not that far into it, but it's interesting.

Today is the day that I pick the winner of my July Give-Away. I'll choose the winner at noon (EST) via a random drawing of the entried. If you've entered, Good Luck! If you haven't entered, the entry form will still be available on my website until 11 a.m.

http://www.christiesilvers.com/contestsgiveaways.htm

I'm so glad it's finally Wednesday. Tomorrow morning we'll be driving toward the beach by this time. I still have a lot of packing to do today, and will be making sure all the laundry is washed up and put away. In the morning I'll have to pack all the cold foods/drinks into the cooler right before we leave, but the pantry foods are already bagged up and ready to go.

Thank goodness for my lists! I'm a big list maker. Without them I'd be completely lost. I didn't use to make lists, but with each child born I was more inclined to forget things. Thanks kids! LOL. So now I make random, long lists. Groceries, the weekly to-do list, vacations, holiday menus, holiday gifts, and even our vow renewal. All with lists. Hell, I even have a list of all the movies I've watched this year and the books I've read; just because I wanted to see how many at the end of the year.

Since I'm a list person, here's this week's Wanna Know Wednesday!

10 Things I'll Be Doing On Vacation

1. Relaxing
2. Tanning
3. Listening to the waves
4. Playing with the girls
5. Sightseeing
6. Drinking (oh yeah!)
7. Celebrating Tim's sterility. LOL!
8. Eating fresh seafood from the docks.
9. Just watching the ships going by
10. Having a great vacation!

Okay, that's it for this morning. I'll stop by later to announce the contest winner. I'm going to finish watching this movie and then start the laundry and packing. The girls will start waking up as soon as the sun rises, so that gives me about an hour of quiet.

Have a great day!

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Tuesday on the town.

I was going to go to town tomorrow, but decided last night that I'd go today instead. The girls and I were up and out the door by 9:30 this morning and finally made it back at lunchtime.

We went to Hobby Lobby and bought all the goodies for Tim's Father's Day gift, and I was going to get some ribbon in the blue color that I want for our vow renewal. However, I couldn't find anything that matched just right. That is, until I was roaming down the cards and gift bags aisle and discovered my color in a packet of gift tissue paper for only 99 cents. YAY!

So now I have something to carry around and match my colors up. Woohoo!

Oh, and my wonderful, bestest, most generous, loving friend, Mis, has agreed to create my invitations for me. For those that don't know, she's the designer of my covers for all three Alex & Fiona books. She's such a true talent! Love ya, girlie!!!

Stop by and check out her image licensing company, MisTaken Art.

After Hobby Lobby, the girls and I were going to go to the mall to look for a new swimsuit for myself. However, I decided to hit K-mart first and then the mall. Turns out that K-mart had just the suit I was looking for AND it was on sale! Yay! I got a $45 suit for only $25. Woohoo!

After that there was no need to go to the mall. The girls and I stopped by the local Sonic to pick up some lunch and then back home. We ate lunch while watching some old episodes of Xena on Netfix instant play through the Xbox. LOL. The oldest is really into Xena and Hercules right now. :-)

I about 20mins we are heading out to the pool. I'm still in need of more sun tanning before it's beach time next month. ;-)

Now I'm off to hide the supplies for Tim's apron until next week.

Have a great day!

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Monday, June 1st!

Morning! Welcome to the first day of June. Summer starts this month. Yay!

Today I was able to hang out in bed until 8am. Then Tim started texting me saying "Get up. It's not fair." LOL! I told him not to pout just because he's at work and I'm on Summer Break. LOL! Poor boy.

It's another gorgeous day outside this morning. The girls will be hitting the pool after lunch, so they should be nice and tired when bedtime rolls around this evening. I'm going to throw a roast in the crock-pot for dinner in a little bit. Tim won't be cooking this evening since he's working today. However, when he does get home the two of us will spend some time in the pool. By then the kids will be done with their time and all tired, so it'll be quiet for us. ;-)

I plan on having a peaceful day. We have no appointments or a schedule to keep. We aren't going anywhere at all today. I'm doing laundry, I've cleaned the kitchen, the girls have some rooms to clean and a few other chores to do, and I have writing to get done while they're in the pool.

We've had a little change of wedding plans.....

We decided to move the vow renewal ceremony from Key West, Florida to Tybee Island, Georgia. Many of you already know about our love for Tybee, so it seemed only natural that we'd want to have the vow renewal there. Tim says we'll go to Key West another time, just fr a vacation, but he agrees that Tybee is better for our renewal.

Not only that, but it's cheaper. LOL! I've found another great wedding coordinator for Tybee that I'll be working with. I can't wait for April 2011! It's going to be so much fun.

Okay, I better go. The washing machine has stopped and the youngest is apparently going through the kitchen junk drawer for no good reason. LOL!

Have great Monday and make the best of this brand new week!

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Wanna Know Wednesday #14

Good morning out there in cyber-land! How is everyone? It's Hump Day and I hope you're able to take full advantage of a brand new day. :-)

This morning there was a little sunshine, but then clouds started rolling in and now it's dim outside. We had two days of sunshine, so I guess it was only a matter of time before he clouds came back. I am sooooo ready for summer to arrive.

Speaking of summer, this week's Wanna Know Wednesday topic is:

10 Things I Love About Summer

1. Sunshine all the time.


2. Getting a good tan.


3. Swimming in the pool everyday.


4. Going to the beach


5. Wearing sandals & going barefoot.


6. Watching the kids play in the sprinkler.


7. The excitement of taking a vacation.


8. Not having to get up early.


9. The slowness of a lazy summer day.


10. Relaxing outside with Tim while grilling out and drinking something fruity.

I love summer! Yes, it gets pretty darn hot down here in Georgia, but I love it! We go on a beach vacation every summer to Tybee Island, Georgia. We weren't going to go this year since Tim will be losing his job in August. However, he decided that he wasn't going to let that stop us. We usually go for seven days, but this time we're going for three days. Just long enough for us to have a good time and get our yearly dose of the beach that we love so much.

We'll be heading out on July 30th and will return on August 2nd. Then he'll have three days of work left (with August 5th as his last day), and the girls will go back to school on August 6th. It will be a very busy two weeks at that time.

Oky, enough rambling. I must get going now. I have a load of laundry to fold, another load is drying, and I need to throw my bedsheets into the wash. After that it's writing time! Woohoo! :-)

Have a great Wednesday!

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Thursday Thirteen #27

Yes, yes, I'm still on vacation, but I couldn't miss giving you my Thursday Thirteen for this week! We are having a blast here on Tybee Island. The ocean is always beautiful, the sun is shining brightly, and it's downright hot & humid. LOL!

So since I'm on vacation, this week's TT theme will be the BEACH! :-)

Thirteen Things I've Seen or Done at the Beach! 1. Lots of sand. LOL! 2. Dolphins frolicking in the waves 3. People wearing swimsuits that should've had a LOT more material! 4. Loads of seashells that the girls wanted to keep (we bring home tons ea. yr.) 5. Sand dollars 6. Blue crabs 7. Alligators in captivity 8. We ate tons of shrimp & crablegs at our favorite resturant--The Crab Shack 9. Tim & I drank, relaxed, & people-watched from our condo balcony 10. Spent a day roaming around Savannah 11. Gotten a nice tan from spending days on the beach 12. Did NOT get attacked by a jellyfish this year. YAY! 13. Lastly, I'll be packing tomorrow to head back home Saturday. We don't want to leave, but I'll be glad to sleep in my own bed. See you next year Tybee Island, Georgia!! We love you!

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Beach pictures to share.

I thought I'd stop in and share two cute pics from the beach this morning. My girls were having so much fun. :-)

We made it to the beach!

Hi all! Yes, we made it. It was a long 6 hours of driving, but we finally made it to our condo and could rest for a little while. We went to dinner at our favorite seafood restuarant and then we went for a barefoot walk on the beach. The girls loved it and ended up soaking wet by the time we were finished. LOL!

The internet access is iffy here this year, so who knows how often I'll be able to get online from the condo. Luckily, there are free wi-fi spots all over the island and into Savannah that I can hit if need be. I really just need to check my email at least once per day.

Anyway, here's a little picture from when we first got here. Overlook how awful and tired I look as it has been a looooong day. LOL! The wind was blowing and my hair was wild and we were all tired.

Ok, I'm off to enjoy the rest of the evening with a yummy Fuzzy Navel and a hubby who is just as tired as I am. LOL! Talk to you all later! :-)