April and May

These past two months have been busy for us all. May is always an extremely busy month for our family.

We were gifted tickets to go see the Harlem Globetrotters in Atlanta.  The kids had never even heard of them before!  The show was cute - but we really enjoyed the free food and up-close, free parking!

Michael got to meet Hairy Dog at a work event and quickly face-timed Jackson so he could get a wave in!

Easter Sunday - 

I also won tickets for the four of us to go to a Brave's game one night.  That was a lot of fun.

They were watching the Bally Sports broadcast live and trying to get on TV. 

Both kids had their spring band concerts and both lasted forever.  Ha. No, but really, they did.  

Jackson's was outside in the parking lot on a warm evening.  

Rachel finally got her letter jacket and letter for band.  Now she's ready for the weather to be cooler so she can wear it!

She turned 15 a couple of weeks ago as well... I was able to take her and Jackson to a local coffeehouse to get coffee before school.

Michael is becoming one of the leaders in Jackson's scout troop.  Now he has his own uniform as well. 

Speaking of Michael...Big News!  He is leaving his job with Mock Trial to do woodworking full-time on his own.  This is a new and exciting adventure for us!  You can check out his website at www.woodstockandiron.com.

Here are the final pictures of the 8 ft. round table he was working on for a while.  The whole thing was over 600 pounds.

And the last day of school for the year was last Friday.  Rachel had an easier last week as she only had to go in for Monday morning and Thursday morning for the last couple of finals.  Here they are on their last days.

And he got to have some fun on the last afternoon with some neighbor friends - water gun fights after the bus let out, neighborhood foam party for the kids and was able to go to the pool for the afternoon.

And this picture is random, but he will never smile for me in a picture, so when a friend got this picture of him at school, I had to share.  

So now school is out, swim team has started, camps have started, etc.  Michael is on his last work trip for a while and today is my last day at school for the year.  Happy Summer.  

January - March

 As usual, time gets away from me, so here's another recap of the last three months.  Lucy still loves to sit and look out the window in our bedroom.  She barks at every person or animal she sees walking/riding by.  We are still dealing with her seizures.  We haven't gone longer than 2.5 weeks since Christmas without her having one.  We've added a new medicine and are continuing to work with the vet on finding the right amounts for her.  Thankfully, the seizures aren't nearly as long or severe as they were before she started the meds.  

We had snow for one day in January.  It snowed all day long and we only ended up with about a 1/2 inch.  

Rachel joined the crew in the drama department for their winter show - "Footloose".  She loved it and even got to be on stage during one of the scenes.  It was fun to watch!

Jackson has gone on a couple of campouts with scouts over the last two months.  Michael has been busy with competitions both times so he wasn't able to go.

And we've had two crazy things happen recently.  The first was this little snake inside our house two weekends ago when Michael and Jackson were both gone.  I went to take Lucy out and do her last meds at 11:15 that Friday night.  As I walked around the couch, he was sitting in the little hall between the bathroom and the pantry.  I HATE SNAKES...and I FREAKED OUT!!!!  I called Michael, woke Rachel up, and ended up having to call my wonderful neighbor to come get it out of my house. It was horrible.  

Then, also last week, there was a morning where Michael was going to have to leave for work before Jackson left for school.  So Jackson was going to have to take Lucy outside to potty before he left - which he doesn't love to do b/c he's scared that Lucy's going to run off.  Michael had just told him that she'd be fine, that she's gotten so much better with it, etc... So, Jackson takes her outside.  Lucy's sitting out there and then bam!  She takes off to the left.  Apparently there were eight deer in our side yard and she saw them and took off after them!  Jackson runs after Lucy, yelling at her to come.  The deer get close to the street and Lucy is siting about 3/4 way down the yard.  Jackson picks her up and then the deer start chasing him back to the house!!  He runs back, screaming, gets up on the deck and then slams the door to get inside.  He said that was the most scared he's ever been.  Can you imagine being chased by a group of deer like that?!  We're not sure if there was a young one somewhere else that he didn't see and perhaps they thought he was endangering it or what.  But still.  Wish we'd gotten that on video...

 It's always something around here!  

Next week is spring break.  Michael is still doing woodworking projects.  He built a kitchen island for a neighbor and is now doing an 8ft. round table for a nearby church.  It is going to be HEAVY!!!  Here are a few pictures of the island that the family posted on Facebook. (He didn't do the granite countertop but did the rest.)  It ended up looking great!