It's Official......

Out for summer....for good! Last Friday morning was a good day. It was the last work day at school! I resigned from my teaching position last week to be at home with my boys! This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time. I feel so blessed to finally have this opportunity to stay home. It probably won't actually sink in until school starts back in August. At least Ty seems to be happy that his Mama is not going to have to leave him in the mornings anymore. It will be so nice not to miss his school stuff anymore.

To celebrate the start of summer, we took Ty and Andrew to Dream Park last Thursday before the rain came.

When it started raining, we headed to Burger King to let Ty play. There just happened to be two sweet little girls there that Ty got to play with. The girls happen to belong to a friend of mine. The oldest of the two was like a little mama to Andrew. She was the sweetest thing. Ty came back to the table and told me, "Mama, I just made up some new friends." He was so funny. He had a great time playing with these girls. I promised the girls I would get these pictures on, so here they are.

I think Andrew was loving all the extra attention! He had the sweetest little smile the whole time Meredith Grace was holding him. Christy ~ I just know these two would make great little babysitters for you this summer!!

Laura stopped playing for a minute to get in the picture with Andrew and Meredith Grace.

I'm wondering if there's anyway I can bring this sweet little girl home with me for just a few hours!!

After we left Burger King, we decided to go to Ben's Mom and Dad's house to take the Mustang for a spin. It's a '64 1/2 that Bro. Anthony bought and has had restored to its original color. Ben likes to go and just sit in it and crank it up and listen to it. He has always loved old Mustangs and almost got one when he turned 16, but his Dad talked him out of it because it had no air. Anyway, he is always telling me that he is going to have one one day. Well, his Dad decided to tell him that the car was actually his. He had been having it restored for Ben and wanted to see him be able to enjoy it!! Ben COULD NOT believe it and thought he was dreaming (and still does).

These pics were actually taken before he knew that the Mustang was his.

Now, I'm just waiting for a volunteer to watch my children so we can take the Mustang to the beach!

ALL ABOARD!

What a rainy day for a party. I tried my best trying to persuade Ty to let's wait until this weekend to have his party...so it would be nice and sunny. Ok, trying to get a 4 year old to postpone his party, well, you can imagine how that went over. So....the party must go on! And go on it did. We set up everything under the carport and everything turned out just fine. Can you believe it stopped raining and the sun even popped out for about an hour??? I couldn't! That made my day for Ty! I was so wanting him to be able to get in the pool with his little buddies. When Ben volunteered to get in the icy, cold water with all the kids, they all went crazy wild screaming they were so excited. So, despite all the rainy weather, the party turned out great. Thanks to all of our family and friends for coming and making my son one happy little boy!

Thanks for the crayon holder Mrs. Angie, Maisy, Braelyn, and Trevin. We love it! All of our crayons stay nice and neat now!

Allie & Emma look just a little chilly!

Little Friends Graduation

I never knew my child could sit still for a solid hour without getting out of his seat. Well, he did Monday night, along with 13 other 3 year olds. I'm just wondering what Mrs. Donna and Mrs. Helen told all those little stinkers to make them stay in their seats for that long.

All the little kids did such a great job! It amazes me what they can learn at such a young age. Ty's class sang several songs. It was all based on a dinoaur theme this year. For the last several weeks, Ty has been stomping and roaring like a dinosaur He finally got to perform the whole thing for us. He did such a great job. We were so proud of him.







Cason, Ty, & Melo watching the balloons after the balloon release. They stayed like this till they could no longer see the balloons. Ty looks like he's still holding his balloon.

Mrs. Helen with Ty and Cason

Happy Birthday Ty Benjamin Clark!

Four years ago today, this little fireball changed our world! WOW!! I can not believe it has already been four years! And I have a feeling, the time will just start flying by even faster. He woke up so excited this morning. Every time someone called to wish him "Happy Birthday" he would say, "Hello, I'm 4!" (several times I must say!) Even though today was not the big party day, we went to Robinson Park to eat lunch and play on the playground before the big rainstorm came. Thanks Aunt Kelley, Uncle Micah, Allie, & Amy for joining us.


The big Thomas birthday party will be Saturday!! More pictures to come.

If you can't tell, that's his "4" he's holding up. He is so proud he's finally four!

Blogger Help

Can someone tell me how to move my sidebars back up the side of my blog. Everything is at the bottom of my blog. The help link was not that helpful. Made some reference about the margins of maybe a blog or the sidebars being over the margin width. Has anyone ever had this happen and know what I need to do??

Thanks so much for any help!

Springtime Faves!

#1 Red Geraniums- who does not love these beauties? Their colorful blooms will perk up any spot. I love to put lots of potted geraniums out back on my deck.



#2 Asparagus fern - I don't think there is another plant that screams clean and fresh like this one. Its rich green color looks so healthy almost year-round.


#3 Periwinkles - so, so easy to grow & they bloom all throughout summer.



#4 Hydrangeas - Simply breathtaking! Probably my favorite springtime flower. I love to cut these fresh from my yards for sweet little bouquets.






Now, I have lots of work to do. Hopefully, I can get my flowers potted and just maybe I'll have some that look half as good as these!

Tender little treasures

squash plant 03
Originally uploaded by mclark09

I can't wait to plant these "special" squash plants Ty brought home from school! He is soooo proud of these little plants! I heard him say, "Yummy squash." Then, he made this horrible face. He had actually tried one of the tender little leaves. He thought it was the actual squash. It didn't take long for him to realize the leaf wasn't so tasty. Maybe we'll have some pretty little yellow jewels to show off soon!!

Need a Vacation??

If anyone is interested, I have a VACATION GETAWAY TO DESTIN I am trying to sell. It is for 3 nights/4 days & only $79.00!! You choose the date that works for you. I have already paid for this, so if you are interested, you would just pay me. Please email me if you are interested and I will give you all the information. My email is soldierswife.clark@yahoo.com. If you know of someone that would be interested in this, please forward my email to them. This is a first-come, first serve deal. So HURRY UP and find out about this really great deal!!

Where Do I Begin....?

There has been just a little bit of action around our house the last several weeks, so I will try to get caught up on everything in this post.

I'll start by saying "Happy 30th Birthday Ben!" His big day is today, but we had all our family over last night to celebrate. He leaves for his summer camp early early Saturday morning. We just hung out at the house tonight so Ben could get all the yardwork done before he leaves. I cooked Corky's ribs for supper!! If you ever have the opportunity to buy Corky's ribs, do it! They were fabulous! I had ordered ours through QVC! I am becoming more and more like my mother in this area. I love shopping from the comfort of my home. Anyway, who has the time to shop with little ones? This is much more convenient for me.

So, please keep the little ones and me in your prayers while Ben is away. We only have one more school to endure after this summer camp. It will be next month while Ben is in Wisconsin for two weeks. (I think we'll just tag along!)

In other news, we have had a very sick little baby at our house this week. Andrew has had chronic congestion and cough for quite some time now. He started running fever the middle of last week and I took him to the doctor to try some different medicine. He stopped running fever over the weekend, long enough to allow me to attend the Women's Conference in Pensacola. When I returned, he seemed ok, but still not well. On Monday morning, my baby was so sick he didn't even fight his breathing treatment. All he could do was lay against whomever was holding him. He looked pitiful. I got him to the doctor, and after going over to the hospital to have blood drawn and chest x-rays, we soon learned he had pneummonia in his lower left lobe. He was admitted to the hospital around lunchtime Monday. He started getting his antibiotic and fluids through an IV and was soon feeling and sounding much better. After a long day in the hospital Tuesday, we were sent home late that afternoon. He had two 20 minute naps. Have you ever tried to contain an 8 month old to a twin bed all day long?! Very tiring for me. When the nurse came in and told me I could take him for a ride in the wagon, we were out the door in 5 seconds flat! And, he loved it!! I have never put him in our wagon, because it always seems too windy to get him out or too cool. So we rode down the elevator and back up just to get out of that tiny hospital room. He thought he was a big boy! All he could do was smile at everybody.

Once we got home and ready for bed, we had another scary encounter. He had a reaction to his new medicine and started throwing up. He turned as white as I have ever seen him and his lips turned blue! Ben had him and was ready to go back to the hospital. I decided to call the pediatrician on call and get advice. I figured we would just have to sit in the ER for 3 hours if we chose that route. After he stopped vomiting, he seemed to be able to rest for the remainder of the night.

He woke up Wednesday morning and seemed to be almost back to his happy little self. He still has a cough and may have it for two more weeks, but his breathing sounds much better. I'm just relieved he is much better. It's so hard when little ones get sick. You just want to take the sickness for them. Thank God we're hopefully on the mend!

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Two weeks ago we had our Spring Break. We didn't have a thing planned, which was really nice. On Wednesday, some of us girls from church took our kids to Open Pond for a picnic and bike riding. On Thursday, Ben took off work and we headed to Enterprise to spend the day at Fun Factory. Kelley and Micah took the girls and we had a really good time. I think the grown-ups had just as much fun as the kids!

Ben's new toy!


MeMe and Andrew