A Year in the Life

Every time & I mean every time we go visit my brother in Tampa we engage in high risk behaviors.  He for sure wants us to step out of our comfort zone.  I'm boring and safe.  If you don't believe me, just ask my children.  But, when I'm with my brother, risks abound.  :) In the past, we have: Canoed with alligators.  I was scared to death especially when one swam under our canoe & bumped the boat.  I may or may not have squealed like a little girl.  It was scary.  Um, have you seen me?  I would be a tasty snack.  I think of a juicy steak that is marbleized in all the right places.  :/    Had trapeze lessons.  Swinging on a trapeze is a lot harder than it looks.  Arms and core are used a bunch.  The trapeze artists (and they are artists) make it look so easy.  They are incredibly strong, very nice and have to wear incredibly tight belts.  I mean, they squeeze the air out of you, b...

On our way ...the smell of coconuts, the ocean breeze, the sun shining on your face, long walks, eating fresh seafood, people watching, or taking drive in a convertible, do I have the destination for you! Hopson likes for us to get away if we can for a few days each year or two.  Just us, no rugrats.  We love said rugrats, but sometimes mama & daddy just need to decompress.  He looks cute in a convertible! He booked us a few days in the Florida Keys.  When we left Thursday, it was cold and rainy.  When we landed in Miami, it was in the high 70's and sunny.  Thank you Lord for the sun!  I don't think I had seen it in almost two weeks.  I'm sorry, do I live in the pacific northwest or the deep south?  Right now I'm leaning toward the pacific northwest just with southern accents.  It's been a crazy wet winter. 17 miles on the odometer... We wound our way through the maze called the Miami airpo...

Ugh, I really need some sunshine.  It has been so cloudy and dreary this morning.  Does it make you sleepy?  It does me.  I wanted it to be a pretty day.  My sister is here visiting and we were going to go float in the water for a bit.  I know we could go float even if it's cloudy but it's not as much fun. Yes, this is what the diva side of me looks like.  Can you hear my whining?  To take my mind off the weather I think I'll go cook a few things and pray the sun comes out in a few hours.  Oh well... Celebrating Life! ~ashley 

Oh...My...Goodness, I can't wait for dinner tonight.  It's going to make me so happy.  Now, I'm not going to lie, it wasn't a hard dinner to make, but it was time consuming.  I love to cook for the fam, especially when it's something healthy and different from the normal fare.  It's so worth all the work you put into this dish.  It's light, it's summery, and it's happiness on a plate.  It's a great meal to share with family during the summer. Sunday night, my brother's neighbor, Diana, came over and made a form of Ceviche called Picarro .  (or at least I think that's how you spell it)  She is so precious.  She's American-Colombian and is a great cook.  She wanted to cook for all of us, but we talked her into cooking with us so we could get the recipe.  :)  I'm so glad she was willing to share it!  We added chicken that I baked, rice, and served it over a bed of lettuce with the picarro.  No salad dressin...

The Art Wurks Chicken Driving...driving...driving.  That's what I did today.  I drove 9 hours today from Tampa to home.  We made good time because I put the hammer down.  We were rockin' and rollin'.  I was a little sleepy at several different times during the drive.  Thank you Coke Zero for being so sweet to wake me up so I wouldn't nod off while I was driving home today.  Nodding off at the wheel bites the bootie.  (I've done it before, but it was a legit nod, I did what I needed to be able to stay awake.  It was super scary.)  Go to Church sign... so life giving, don't you think? I have one complaint...people who live in little towns DO NOT know how to drive.  If you drive a little car & pull in front of me in my Suburban, don't be surprised if see my frownie face looking at you.  Hello, my car is a little heavy & will total your car if you just pull out in front of me.  If you try to tail...

There is a place in Tampa my children insist on going to when we visit my brother & his family... AirHeads .  It's a must if you have children who love to jump on trampolines.  I've talked about this place before, but of course we went again, because we were in Tampa, and this time Leah could jump because she's not pregnant this year.  :)  I would love to have an AirHeads in our hometown, but as of right now, we don't have one, so we just enjoy the one in Tampa.  BTW...My nephew is to die for!  I could eat him up.  His picture is below. The children were jumping & flipping all over the place.  I walked by some people around my age saying:  "Wow, look at them .  That must be an aerobics class."  I looked in the direction they were staring, and just smiled.  It was no aerobics class, those are just my crazy jumpin' fools I call my children.  :)  Cotton and Leah are not too bad either.  I felt m...

Aren't we a sight? You know, $5 does not buy you much anymore.  You can't go bowling, play laser tag, go to a theme park, or water park for $5, it's just sad.  I remember when $5 would buy:  5 gallons of gas; 5 Arby's roast beef sandwiches; 5 McDonald's hamburgers; or 100 pieces of super bubble bubble gum.  $5 is a lot harder to stretch now. Harry was the runner-up Cotton's outfit was the winner! Well, we had a lot of fun for $5 today.  We each pulled a name out of a hat, and we had $5 to spend at the Salvation Army to get them a tacky outfit to wear.  The winner of the tackiest outfit won a vat of cheese balls.  Just in case you were wondering, I picked out the tackiest outfit.  It was supposed to be for Harry, but what Harry bought for Cotton was too small, so I took Cotton from Harry & he was able to wear his own outfit.  Harry came in second.  Leah and I both looked like a 40 year old frumpy homemakers. ...

Did my brother say rainy season?  Rainy season, were am I. Tampa or the Amazon?  Apparently there is not much difference. Pirates 4D..aren't we sexy with our 3D glasses? Today we did Busch Gardens...for an hour and a half.  An hour and a half into our visit we are hit by a monsoon.  Cotton said it's rainy season.  There was lightening popping and thunder booming all around us... ...A side note.  I was having a great hair day.  It was coiffed and shellacked so it wouldn't move.  I was very happy.  Then I stepped outside.  Humid doesn't even begin to describe the heaviness of the air.  Do you know what humidity does to naturally curly hair that's been straightened?  It makes it extremely curly no matter how much hairspray you use on it.  Couple that with the rain & it was a hair disaster.  Oh well, nothing to be done about, so I'll just pull it back out of my face & go on with life.  I'm ...

My goodness if Henry had asked me one more time how many more hours we had on our nine hour trip to Tampa I think I might have had to throw my shoe at him.  (And I was wearing a pair shoes with 4 1/2 inch heels.)  Our standard answer whenever we go somewhere and a child asks how much longer we have, no matter how close we are, is two hours.  Since we had a nine hour drive time I had to lengthen the time to five hours.  Why is it whenever we're making a long trip somewhere I always feel like the Griswolds in National Lampoon's 'Vacation'? Nine hours is a long time in a car, with four children.  We're making our biannual trip to see my brother and his family.  My nephew, Henry, is five months old & the cutest little chunky monkey you could ever imagine.  Oh, I just want to eat his cheeks.  Elizabeth and I are going to be fighting over him.  Big Hopson had to stay at home and work, so this is just me and the kiddos. H...

I have been a total creeper with my camera.  I love to take pictures of my kids & they hate it.  They hate this blog too, but you can tell that's made a big impact on me.  Not. I love natural shots where they aren't looking at the camera.  It's the shots where they are just being that I love the most.  I also like ones that have inside jokes with them or action shots.  We spent some time at the lake, so these pictures are from our trip.  I just wanted to post a few of my people, so here you go... Celebrating Life! ~ashley

Chimney Rock, Lake Martin Today is the last day of school for my little people.  The big people were done with exams Tuesday.  WooHoo!!!  IT'S SUMMERTIME!!! We love summer.  We love summer.  Did I mention we love summer?  Well we do.  It's been a hard year.  Everyone was stretched academically, athletically, and personally.  Now it's a time to take a big deep big breath.  (and it couldn't have come soon enough)  Right now there are 15 teenagers at the lake for a few days.  It's going to be lots of laughter, and lots of memories made.  Wow I wish I was 17 again.  I wish I could be 17 and know what I know now.  I know those kids look at me and see a 40 year old, but I don't feel that old.  I feel like I just finished high school.  I feel like I could conquer the world.  (as long as I can stay awake to do it)  I think that's why I love teenagers so much.  Their possibilities ar...

The fam on top of Storm Peak Mountain. (I was taking the picture) I had a great week.  The children had spring break & we went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  If you like to ski & have never been there, you have to go.  It's one of our new favorites.  They have tons of runs, but it's not overwhelming to find your way around.  If you have children (or adults) who like to do jumps, Steamboat has 2 terrain parks and a half pipe. Our first two day of skiing were tough.  Colorado has not gotten a lot of snow this year, and it was very icy in the morning and then slushy by the afternoon; it was tough on the old knees.  There were big brown patches everywhere.  We're from the south so one reason we go out west is to get our fill of snow.  Sunday afternoon something wonderful happened...it started snowing.  I love me a groomed run with about 2-3 inches of fresh powder.  It's like skiing on butter.  Over 48 hours w...