Look who's going camping!!!!

Did someone say Smores????

Most of you will remember our first Camping trip back in September...you know, the one that we loved so much that they had to kick us out of the campground and pry us off of the RV seats that we had rented for a week....yeah, that's it....the one that prompted us to go in search of a camper for our family. After looking for months we realized that to get one big enough to grow into, we would also have to get a different truck to haul it with....of course this was a pleasant problem for my husband...what man doesn't like to pick out a more manly truck right? At least my city slicker with a country boy just dying to get out husband does! So we found what our insanely obsessed with all things HOCKEY children affectionately dubbed "The Zamboni"...


The Zamboni was a lonely thing for months and months with no camper to call it's own....after months and months of listening to our kids nag "when are we getting a camper?!?!" looking and comparison shopping, we stumbled upon the "perfect" one for us...price and all! And it ended up being a lot newer than we thought we'd be able to afford...it's a 2007! So without further ado.....drum roll please....I would like to introduce you to the place countless memories and immeasurable laughter will fill our new Home Away from Home....

Here's Aidan the day we bought it at the lot....

Adam taking a walk thru (with the sales guy) ...maybe that snazzy green tie is how we got such a deal!... :-)

Amazing kitchen space for a camper...I'm pumped about all that cabinet/counter space!

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Adam is most certainly my new hero for getting this monstrosity backed into our house without taking out a tree or our mailbox...you rock baby!

We already have dates booked at our favorite campground the end of March and for my birthday in April....and hope to go at least once a month as long as the weather is nice...
Look out marshmallows, Hershey bars, and graham crackers world...here comes McManus Party of Five!!!

"And whatever I do, may it always bring glory to you"

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

• After the untimely death of my snazzy little Cuisinart "on demand" coffeemaker, I did not in pure lack of caffeine laziness, throw my hair up into a clippy unbrushed and hop into my car and head down the road to Dunkin Donuts in my pajamas....and while at the window, I did not realize that they were very obvioulsy my long underwear.
• While driving to Dunkin Donuts in my unmentionables, I did NOT see Forsythia blooming and tulips and daffodils coming up out of the ground!!! There's no way this could be since it's only February! Unless you are in Tennessee of course!
• I did not take my youngest two into the almost impossible, usually takes months to get into, holy cow they had a cancellation same day eye Doctor I had for my oldest son knowing full well that they were coming down with strep(cause 22 other kids in our church had it too) and were burning up with fever....and I did not keep whispering in their ears as to not be overheard asking them a million times if they felt like they were gonna throw up because that would have blown my "nope my kids aren't sick" cover....that would have made me an insensitive mommy and a super selfish germ spreader of a person...or a mom of three just trying to keep my head above water...not sure which.
• After leaving the eye doctor with my super dry eyed can you believe will be 13 in 6 weeks?!?!?! 12 year old and heading to get the dreaded "swabbing of the throat" for my other two, I did not make my poor youngest child walk into the doctors office with his mouth down in the hole of an empty Kleenex box....that may have been a bit embarassing...even for a 6 year old with a fever of 102 about to throw up.
• And I am still trying to figure out where an entire box of Samoas went this week.....because it certainly was NOT me!
• And that sleeve of Thin Mints???? Nope, NOT me either!
• And Do-Si-Do's??? AS IF!!!...I don't even like those so I would NEVER just mindlessly dip them into a cold glass of milk eat them at 2am.
• And while driving through town this weekend, I did NOT seriously almost stop at a roadside stand and buy more cookies from those little evil girls in green!!!

"And whatever I do, may it always bring glory to you"

Tornadoes in February

We may have temperatures that reach the high 60's in the middle of February here in the Volunteer State...and we may enjoy them by riding our bikes and playing a little tag football....but when that glorious mid 60's weather gets hit by a cold front, well...that's a recipe for some don't even think about getting any sleep cause you are gonna be up all night watching to see if your house is about to be blown to smitherines nasty weather here in the new extension of tornado alley Tennessee. And although helping our 6 year old push his bike after 5 minutes riding our bikes on bike trails....and sliding down slides at the playground....and playing a little tag football is where you will find us when the weather is in the glorious mid 60's in February in Tennessee.....

THIS my friends is where you will find us, when the weather is gloriously in the 70's by 10am and there is a cold front pushing through from the west, in Tennessee! Camping out in our Tornado Shelter! Ahhh, the bliss of being held up in a 4x6 room with my 3 children...2 of which had just been diagnosed with strep a day prior (hence the pj's and nappy hair) and our 3 dogs (because my children scream bloody murder if we don't bring them in too)...two of which being freakishly large poodles...and the third our diabetic, deaf, with slight dementia mini-schnauzer...awesome. And it just kept getting better as we locked ourselves in and I discover that my youngest son has brought along a bag of Funyons incase he gets hungry while a tornado is barreling over us! It's sort of a drill we go through....watches and warnings go off from the National Weather Service, and we head for the shelter and pray for God's protection over our house and our city as a whole. We have been hit with 2 deadly tornadoes just within the past 5 years here....all within one county....so this is something we do not take lightly, yet at the same time, we choose to trust in the One whose hands calm the seas....and even orchestrates the storms. We sit in darkness, listen to our NOAA weather radio and read scripture....it's amazing how much peace can be found in the midst of a storm....literally speaking and spiritually as well.

Don't let the lighting fool you...it's just my flash...

If you look closely you can see that the Funyons made it about .5 seconds...did I mention I eat when I'm nervous???....it was not full don't worry! And of course no storm shelter is complete without my Bible, my phone, and my Diet Dr. Pepper...the Rubbermaid totes? Those are full of all of our paper photos (pre-digital) and the kids baby books and art over the years. I figure it's the safest place for it all even in the event of a fire. Although, as you can see, it doesn't leave much room for us all....not sure where Adam would have fit that day! And yes, I did say it was 70 degrees out...and yes, that is a jacket you see...I am think blood thinners ridiculously cold natured I tell ya!

As I look at this picture I am so joyed to see the laughter on Aidans face...the winds were SO strong and LOUD outside...but look at that face....no fear. Thank you Lord for your peace that day!

It's actually very dark inside if not for our little flashlight.

There were no tornadoes in our town that day....although a couple popped up South of us. But we did lose a HUGE 20 year old tree to the Straightline winds we had....that exceeded up to 70 mph in some areas. I was gonna snap a photo of it since it was pretty massive and spoke volumes to the power of the winds..and literally took up half of our yard...thankfully AWAY from our house... but my very strange & particular little man neighbor had already started sawing it up by the time I could get out of our little 4X6 filled with dog breath strep breath and funyon breath tornado proof box.

"And whatever I do, may it always bring glory to you"

Football in February

Before I dive into our fabulous day of football in February, let me back up a bit and just say that on our actual anniversary day, we promised the kids we would go and celebrate mom and dad being married 10 years as a family! So what did we do? We went to PF Changs and a Predators game of course! It's one of our oldest family traditions since moving to TN. The kids absolutely love it and to be honest, so do I. I have never been a huge sports fanatic or anything but the first time I saw hockey...I was hooked! Don't get me wrong...it doesn't really speak to the greatness of the sport as much as it feeding my ADD and my need for things to "move along already!"

Football? Oh dear, I almost have a panic attack enduring all those starts/stops....false starts etc. It's more than my running 100 miles a second mind can take! And basketball? I cannot stand the squeaks of their sneakers! It literally can drive me batty! I even cheered for basketball in high school so for the life of me I can't remember when it was exactly that I actually heard the squeak and then could no longer NOT hear the squeak...yes, I realize this makes me officially "weird." Bowling? Can't stand to wait my turn... Golf? Pahh Haa! Tennis? Now that's a sport I could love...IF I had the nice legs to pull of those skirts...that and well, the endurance to play it for more than 5 seconds! Not to mention there is too much grunting that goes with that sport...a little strange to me. So, we're back to hockey....what could you NOT love about hockey?!?!?! I know I know...they are allowed to beat themselves to a bloody pulp and it is actually part of the rules...a little barbaric I suppose...I sometimes wonder if it were so those poor Russians and Canadians could warm themselves up a bit? And I actually don't like it when they fight....we do not glorify it and we have boogoos of learning conversations with our kiddos about why that is NEVER appropriate in God's eyes to handle anger or conflict that way....but honestly, I would rather my kids witness a little "five for fighting" here and there...all within the games rules and regulations and know that that's where it stays, than see some of the less than role model behavior that goes on so often outside of the rules and regulations in so many other sports....and to be honest, if the day comes that I see my kids throwing off their gloves and duking it out with one another to handle their issues, I'll build a penalty box...just kidding, you catch my drift. Besides, it looks like my kids prefer to be a bit more diplomatic.

Now onto warmer, less painful thoughts..

It was literally in the upper 60's here this week so we loaded up the bikes and headed to the park to hit the bike trail....

Aidan made it about .4 miles before acting as though we had just asked him to hike Everest...that's always awesome.

So we ditched the bikes when we made it to the Playground!

Then, Tyler trekked back to the truck to get the football and we ditched the Playground for some tag football...

Someone pinch me...I cannot fathom that this kid will be 13 in a little over a month!

There is something very "real" and poetic almost about this picture of these two...night and day they are!

obviously waiting for someone to throw something their way...

Guess Mag decided to take matters into her own hands instead of waiting...

A little huddle talk...

Although she joined in and was a sport with the boys in her life, Maggie wasn't super impressed with tag football..she was more impressed with the purple weeds...I had a pocketful when we left!

Peyton who????

The kids even invited another little boy named Charlie and his dad to play too!

My big guys...

I live for this smile

The coolest dad in all the land...

enjoying a little Clementine after a hard day of play

The La Jolla....Adam has endless amounts of fun by torturing me over my bike...yes, it looks like I should have grey hair and that possibly all it's missing for a complete look is either a big basket on the back (full of vegetables or flowers) or a little basket up front with a dog in it, but I HATE bikes with 234 gears! I could not even master a 10 speed as a kid...which is odd cause I can drive a stick shift...just not a bike that requires you to change gears...I always make this horrific grinding of gears sound and the chain feels like it's coming off the tracks...and eventually I would find myself stuck in first gear for the remainder of my ride...so I said "so long" to all things manual in the world of bikes. I am however interested in some nifty new automatic bikes my friends have...so who knows, I may retire the La Jolla soon...or just keep it around for when I have grey hair.

A Fabulous February Day!

"And whatever I do, may it always bring glory to you"

The peace treaty...

I was too lazy to take a pic of this today....but I had to share it. I found this piece of paper when I was wading knee deep in clutter organizing our little homeschool last night. Apparently Tyler and Maggie have come to an understanding of each other and decided to put it down on paper. This cracked me up!

Tylers half of the page said the following: "We will not argue, but we will listen to each other and not do things out of spite."

And this was Maggie's: "I will listen to Tyler and Tyler will listen to me and Tyler will not do karate on me and I will not do karate on him." notice how she managed to slide in the fact that he will still in fact listen to her even if she listens to him??? Poor guy...he never saw it coming!

The middle of the page was where the signatures went...complete with little "x's" marking the spots where their names should go.

"And whatever I do, may it always bring glory to you"

It's our Anniversary!!!

Adam and I will be officially celebrating 10 years of marriage February 5th! Unofficially, we celebrated this past weekend with a little getaway into the city. We have this thing that we do where we take turns every year planning a little something special....this was prompted many years back when we both tried to plan surprises and we both ended up ruining the others plans....so now we just take turns and it works very well I must say! This year was Adams turn (although as we talked over dinner I discovered that I end up with some whammies in the future too...like our 15th and our 25th! He will have to top '25' with '50' though so I guess all is fair in love... ;-)

We started the evening with dinner plans at a little piece of heaven on Earth "The Melting Pot". I knew we had reservations but I had no idea the work Adam had put into it all....when we were seated, I was greeted by a bouquet of fresh flowers and a card at the table. The card was specially printed inside with the script I put inside Adams wedding band 10 years ago...."Grow old with me, the best is yet to come." Then I was surprised at the end of the meal with our picture specially taken and framed for us...it was really nice. Our meal was amazing...and I suppose it doesn't hurt to have a husband with a Bachelors in Culinary to cook all of that wonderful food for you! Unlike the poor unsuspecting college kids double dating at the booth next to us...we almost had to stick around longer just to watch those poor boys get their raw food set down in front of them....hate that we missed that!

Dessert....hmmm....how do you put into words pure chocolate bliss??? There are no words in my opinion....a plate of rice krispy treats, oreo covered marshmallows, bananas, strawberries, and cheesecake desserts brought out with a hot bowl of chocolate for dipping....I like to think there is a Melting Pot on every corner in Heaven!

After dinner we headed to our fabulous room with a jacuzzi Hotel...then headed to a late show at the movies to see "New In Town"... it was very cute...the fact that we were yawning through it was absolutely no indication that it was not a good movie...it was just an indicator that we are getting old and cannot start a movie past 8pm! Our night was very romantic...very relaxing...and well, I'll stop there! ;-)

But, as if a night away, flowers, and pots of chocolate weren't enough...Adam had one more surprise up his sleeve....THIS!!!

I've never been much of a jewelry kinda gal...guess I make up for it in clothes and shoes and purses....Adam and I have reached a milestone in our marriage...and we have endured and conquered a lot that should have torn us apart during those years....and over the past years our original rings have had some negative memories impressed upon them....some that can even be painful still if I allow....and at this milestone, this ring was presented not to replace my old rings...they will forever also be a symbol of our courage and faith to press on and not give up...and as a memory of when we let Jesus into our marriage...they will always represent those 10 years and how far we made it when everything in this world said we shouldn't have. This new ring is meant as a symbol of all that is to come...and all that we will NEVER have to endure in this next 50 or so years because of all we have been through and all we have learned....it represents an accomplishment, and a new chapter in our marriage....it represents our past, present, and future....and it represents eternity.

I am still simply beside myself...this is by far the most treasured gift I have ever received from my husband....not because it is breathtakingly gorgeous...you didn't think I didn't notice that did ya????...but because of the thought that went into it. He gets me. And I love him for that.

I am still amazed at all God has accomplished through our marriage....and forever grateful that He was there ready to meet us in our brokeness...we simply would not be here 10 years later without Him.

Happy 10 years Adam!!! I love you in a deeper way than I ever knew I could....see you at 50 years baby!!!!

Recognize these two???? Freezing our bums off in a castle in Ireland on our honeymoon????

I love you! ;-)

"And whatever I do, may it always bring glory to you"