Villacampa Visit

One thing that I wanted to do this summer was to go to Mobile to visit Nick, Robyn and Taylor. They moved into their house last year and mom and Lisa were able to visit them during their spring break, but both times my spring break was different from theirs. I was looking forward to seeing the house, but really to see everyone. I picked Lisa and Kayleigh up in Tallahassee Friday afternoon and we drove to Mobile, making it there a few minutes before Nick got home from work. Saturday we put swimsuits on the girls and went to an outdoor mall where they have a fountain that the kids can play in. I think I saw a few adults with swimsuits on, but they didn't go in the water. The girls had a great time and it was so fun watching them play. We went to church Sunday and Nick picked up Little Ceaser's pizza for lunch. We stayed a little while longer before heading back to Lisa's. I stayed at the Eikeland's Sunday night so Lisa could get up and go to her doctor's office to take her glucose/diabetes test and I stayed home and watched Kayleigh. Kayleigh actually slept the whole time, so I guess Lisa could have just left her at home even if I didn't stay. I'm kidding!

Simba the Adolescent

Matt and I have been watching a spot on Simba's chin for a few weeks. I thought Juliet scratched him when they were fighting, but it wasn't healing or going away. After consulting the family veterinarian (Matt's cousin Kim), I made an appointment at the vet to have it checked out. I had to wake poor Simba up, bribe him with treats to get him out from under the bed and then stick him in the cat carrier. I think Juliet heard the treats, so she came out to see what was going on, but ran away when she saw the cat carrier. She knows what that means! I love our new vet, and we were in and out in less than 30 minutes (20 minutes after our actual appointment time) with a diagnosis of mild cat acne (cacne, as I call it) and stuff to put on his chin. It was all quite painless, though I did hear Simba when they took him to weigh him and take his temperature, so I think I know where the thermometer went! After hearing him whining in the car the whole way to the vet and the way back, I let him out of the cat carrier when we got in the neighborhood. He started crawling all around, so I took a few pictures when we got home.

Weeding

In the words of one of my friends, there's nothing certain in life but death, taxes and weeds! I went out this morning to start weeding the front lawn. My motives are two-fold: 1) to get the lawn ready to one day lay sod and 2) to get rid of weeds to see if there are still moles (the rodent kind) tunneling in our lawn. I figure it will be easier to see them without all of the weeds in the way. It was overcast this morning, so not too hot, and it did sprinkle a little.

Any time I weed I think about my dad, because I remember him going out in the evening and pulling weeds. I wasn't allowed to help because I had a bad habit of leaving the roots in the ground, which isn't good when trying to get rid of weeds. So dad was a little like Tom Sawyer: weeding seemed (almost) fun because I wasn't allowed to do it. It is a little relaxing pulling things out of the ground. I also thought of my mom when I was done because there is no way she would have let me in the house because I had dirt all over me. I rinsed off outside at the spigot, but I still managed to bring some dirt in with me. There's still plenty to do if anyone wants to come help!!

Aunt Val the Babysitter!

I spent last week hanging out with my family while Matt stayed home and worked. I love the freedom being a teacher brings. Trust me, there are many days that I would love to leave school and the kids behind, but for what I'm making (not much), you can't beat the vacation time! I told my mom I had second thoughts about driving down when she kept saying "it's just going to be me and Kayleigh when Jonathan and Chat move into their apartment." I'm glad I went anyway.

Monday we dropped Chat off at the new apartment so she could get everything put away without two children under her feet. Jonathan helped when he got off work, so I didn't see him until that night. It's fun watching the cousins playing together, though Nathan doesn't really get in on the action yet. He is so cute when he is walking. I knew that he had started walking, but it was still a bit of a surprise to see him walking toward me! Barbara and Jack also stopped by for a few minutes. They left the next day for their vacation that Matt and I are once again jealous of!

Tuesday Chat and I and the kids went to check out a coffee table she found on Craig's list. Unfortunately it wasn't right for them, though. We went to Chick-fil-a so the kids could play on the playground for a while and to just get out for a bit. Jonathan came to the house after his shift and they packed up the rest of their stuff and that night they started sleeping in the apartment. Mom, Dad Kayleigh and I went to Carmelitas for dinner. Kayleigh mostly ate chips and salsa for dinner. The first basket of chips were all white tortilla chips except for one red one that I told Kayleigh was her special chip. I think she saved it for last. The next basket had white, blue, red and green chips. I've never seen that at a restaurant. I ordered the mexican pizza, which I thought would be the size of the one you would get at Taco Bell. No, it was more like a medium pizza! I am sad that I didn't eat my leftovers. Hopefully they don't go to waste. It was good!

Wednesday I took Kayleigh over so we could swim for a bit with Chat, Mia and Nathan. Ok, swimming is an exaggeration. The kids kicked while we kept them from drowning. :) The pool was really nice and clean. You can never be too sure about community pools, but it seems like their place keeps up with it. Chat fed the kids snacks at the apartment while I ran to Burger King to pick up lunch. I'm sure it's the same with all young kids, but don't turn your back on your fries with Mia and Kayleigh around!!

Thursday was Jonathan's birthday, so mom and I went to see him at Chick-fil-a and Kayleigh played in the play area for a while. I made plans to have dinner with 3 girls that I graduated high school with, so I missed his birthday dinner. I did get to go see my grandma for a nice visit. She is doing so much better than the last time I saw her at Easter. Grandma did say that she is ready to get out of there, but that just isn't possible until she starts walking and gaining more of her strength. I had time to browse Target before meeting Alison, Kelli and Polly for dinner at Outback. Yum! Kelli offered to get us a Bloomin' Onion and Alison bought dessert. I think if I had played my cards right I could have gotten dinner out of Polly, I just didn't have enough time to work my magic! :) Mom was nice enough to give me money for dinner, though, so I really can't complain. We were there until after 10 o'clock sitting and visiting. When I got back to my parent's house I realized it was my last night there. The week just went by so fast and if I didn't have plans for this weekend I may have stayed a while longer!

Kayleigh slept in an extra half hour, so I was able to get my stuff packed before mom got home from Grandma's. Mom called and asked what I liked from Panera for breakfast, so I got to enjoy a cinnamon crunch bagel if you were wondering what I like too! I played with Kayleigh and read her a few books before getting on the road again.

I'm a bad aunt and didn't take pictures like I said I was going to. I guess I needed Matt there to be the photographer!

New Layout

This is a shout out to my sister-in-law, Robyn, who used thecutestblogontheblock.com for her blog layout and gave me the idea to finally change my blog background. I like it. I hope you do too.

P.S. - Nick and Robyn, I'm still planning to visit before the end of the summer!