"It's just another Manic Monday Oh, Oh".......

Just kidding- it is too early to be manic- but let 3:20 get here and this house will be pretty close :) We had a normal week last week- nothing too thrilling to talk about therefore no post was required - unless you wanted to know that we went shopping for the kids some Fall clothes- went to Stride Rite for Mr Kaden and his monster feet (and the girl didn't do the width right- he needs an E and she gave him regular W and they are too tight.... ughhhhhh) I cleaned 3 houses & whooo- hoooo that was a thriller....... we (as in Huntsville Church- not NH- they do have a packed fall schedule though!) had a singing Friday night and it was really good. OK- please stop turning green with envy- not everyone can have all this excitement in one week ;) oh- and I washed the car by hand- first time in 2 months I am sure- whew- can't believe I almost let that one go un-noted......

Saturday we went to the mountain to my Maw Maw's surprise 80th birthday party. She was surprised too- kinda- she had an idea something was up I think. We didn't stay too long though- the restaraunt was packed (ok- think 4 kids, 14 grandkids, 30 (if I added right) great grand kids plus some friends) Everyone of the kids/grandkids weren't there- but when 1/2 of us show up- it is still a crowd let me tell you! Kaden wasn't feeling good and we saw the strain of the restaraunt employees trying to get all those orders- so I told Maw Maw we would come see her at home and we ducked out.

Church all day yesterday- and here I am today with the usual Monday work load. The baby actually didn't get up with the kids this morning so I am gonna sign off for now and get the ball rolling. Happy Monday :)

Missing: 28 year old brain.....

belongs to a mother in New Market- she goes by the name of Drea.......

My goodness! I knew that motherhood wasn't a walk in the park- there were going to
be moments- but I wasn't prepared to have the brain span of a two year old!!!!
I am so forgetful that half the time I literally cannot complete a phone conversation that I initiated because I forget why I even called the person to begin with. These kids have zapped all my good brain cells- I can still function- but my communication skills are going down the drain!!!!! I was heading home Saturday morning, after dropping Kaylee and Kyle off with Granna so that Kaden and I could get ready for a birthday party that he was invited to, when I get this call "Hey! What are you doing?" "I am almost home- gotta hurry and get ready. Does that party start at 1 or 1:30?" " Ummmmm... it started at 11." *PAUSE- my clock in my car says 11:55* "Are you kidding me?" "Ummmmm.... no. We were worried when you didn't show up and we were calling to check on you" Told you it is nuts! So a big "I'm sorry" to Miss Ella Blaire! Kaden would have loved to come but his mom obviously forgot how to read an invitation in order (it said 11-1.... my brain only saw 1)

I would love to be the mom from "Leave it to Beaver" with it all together all the time- but for me if I get it half together half the time I am doing pretty good :)

OK- now that I have once again clarified to you why I am so insane... I will move on to another subject before I give myself a complex......

We did go out for Marquetta's birthday (I remembered that one lol) We went to Cheddar's in the pouring rain and waited for 30 minutes to eat- that was fun! I had never eaten there- the food was good but not as outstanding as some had mentioned. The prices were good though- really good considering we didn't even pay for JD's food b/c he sent it back because it was nasty. The kids were all 3 being moody- which causes a moody Mom and Dad. We have had more pleasant meals to say the least. Granna enjoyed it- and loved her new picture frame and her petit-fours. She is easy to please :) Emily took pictures so I don't have any.

Speaking of Emily- I was browsing through my posts and I don't think I ever said "YAY!!! Chad and Emily are having a baby!!" I can't believe I haven't blogged this!! She is due April 4th (I think) and we are super excited. Kaylee wants another girl in the family and since Stacie is having a boy- she is hanging on to hope that Em's baby will be her own little playmate. I have this feeling that she will play "Little Momma" to whatever it is!

pics of kids on our way to church (every post has to have a pic of some sort- random as it may be :)




OK- the dryer is calling me and I don't think I can ignore it any longer! Happy Happy Monday!!!!!

Happy Birthday yet again....

There is a trend going this month it seems..... we have ALOT of birthdays going on! We celebrated Granny Norma's 70th birthday with a surprise celebration at our church last night..... and believe it or not she actually was surprised!! She cried when she came in and saw all (over 200) people who had came to honor her special day.
Here are some pics that I borrowed from Marty ;) I am sure she won't mind- she loves me more than most :)-






Tomorrow is Marquetta's birthday so I am sure you can only imagine what my next post will be about......

Love me some couponing.....

For me couponing is a game.... scouting out sales.... hovering over my coupons....
adding totals before I leave home to see how much I can get and how little it is going to cost me..... this is not a game for the faint of heart :)

I have some friends who started a coupon blog and if all of my followers would please go to their page and comment and say that DREA sent you that would be awesome (and it gives me points- though I am clueless as to what the points are for- it still excites me- so be nice to me aka crazy-stay-at-home-mom-who-needs-to-get-a-life and do this :)

http://couponingals.blogspot.com/

I appreciate it :) and the little voices in my head say Thank You

(ok... really... I am NOT that crazy)

Where is my award????

I have gotten up- fixed lunches, got 3 people ready for work/school PLUS actually got ready myself (I usually do the throw on clothes-skim over hair- drop kids off-return home before anyone sees me:) Floors are clean (GASP- give Kaden 10 minutes and they won't be) house is clean (gasp again... ) And NO ONE has came to the door with my award- guess I will just have to make my own :)-
Dee Dee and Juliah are supposed to come for a visit today (OK- busted- the REAL reason I got up and ready lol) This not so gorgeous day makes for a good cause for eating alot and catching up on conversation- that is ADULT conversation- not Kaden and I playing Repeat-after-Me all day (Kaden Say "Kaylee" "Kyle" etc etc)
I am trying to eat low-carb this week (NOTE- it is only Tuesday) and I dreamed last night that I was eating two 8 inch cinnamon cookies. This is going to be FUN! I am one of those that can't diet for thinking of what I CAN'T have and feeling like I am starving to death.

OK- end Drea's Most Random Paragraph Ever.... it is early and rainy- have mercy please :)

And here are the rest of the First Days of School pics (in random order because I got confused and random is obviously my theme of today)








"Praise God" as Kaden says.....I hope you all have a great-rainy-muggy-make-your-hair-nasty Tuesday.....

He did it.....

Kyle made it to school- TEAR FREE!!! He was ready to go! He went in and sat in his little chair and kissed me bye ( and blushed when he realized he was sitting at a table of boys and he had just kissed his momma!! ) He wasn't so happy about getting up early and he didn't eat his breakfast and he had to have a jacket because he was cold (I have said before Superman has his cape- Kyle has his jacket....it is his protective barrier for some reason) I can't wait to hear his stories when he gets here. (Kaylee gave me the "The principle has an electric paddle" story the other day and I cracked up.... I didn't know that story was still going around!! She declared it was true because Miles saw it (Miles is the assistant principle's son) I LOVE these kids and their drama.....

I took pics but JD has the camara...I have given up on the fact that any of you are going to help me with my "I need a camara" cause (besides you Marty... I know you have got my back) ;) so I will update later.

I have had several "How did Kyle do?" calls so I wanted to give a big THANK YOU! to all my prayer warriors out there who thought of him this morning.... you are an awesome bunch of friends :)

Now I am going to enjoy my bagel bites while Kaden is napping and I don't have to share with ANYBODY :) I am living the life.... til 3 o'clock anyway!

School Days....

It is that time of year again! Kaylee made her first grand entrance as a 2nd grader yesterday! She was so excited (more-so about her new Justin Bieber tee than actually going to school!) She has a GREAT teacher this year and she has some of her best little friends in her class AND after the first seven weeks of school- her lifetime BFF Stacie will be her student-teacher. I have no worries about this year for Kaylee. Her school is AWESOME and I love sending both her and Kyle there because I have grown to love and trust the educators and staff there.






Kyle starts Kindergarten tomorrow- PLEASE pray that he does ok- he isn't thrilled about going and I fear the tears will start and all you Mom's out there know that walking off from a terrified, crying 5 year old is horrible. His teacher is the best (Kaylee had her in Kindergarten also) and I know he will be left in comforting hands-but I would feel much better if I left him with smiles. So pray- please- and thank you in advance :)

And just to throw the smallest Cantrell in on the school post- he is doing well too! He is repeating all kinds of words/names these days. He is especially good at singing "Baby, Baby, Baby OOOOOOOH" atleast 20 times a day. (you think I am kidding- call me- the child does it constantly) He also sings "By-Oh-Baby" because Granny sings it to him all the time. He is a HAM (both in size and personality)

Gotta go couponing and get my doings done- I will have more back to school picks tomorrow :)

And once again....

a day late birthday shout-out to Miss Kaylee Rae. She turned 7 yesterday.... and the thought of the fact that I am the (very proud) momma of a 7 year old makes me want to fall out of this chair!!!

She came into this world 4 weeks early, after about 20 hours of labor, weighing in at a whopping 5 lbs 9 oz. And she was PERFECT- she had tons of hair, these super-model long eyelashes and though she could nearly wear baby-doll clothes- she was everything we hoped and prayed for. We didn't find out what she was (which I am sure I am said about 10 other times throughout this blog) So on August 5, 2003 at 9:57am we got the best surprise ever!!!! We are so proud of her and the person she is growing to be. She has a great personality- she is caring- she has feelings that seem to run deeper than most adults I know (which thus brings on the tears that sometimes make me a little nuts.... she is a crier.....but that is ok) She is our little-over-dramatic-super-lovable-actress/singer- princess. The Lord knew what He was doing when He gave her to us. (and He also knew to send us two boys to counteract her :)

We had our family party PLUS our friend sleep-over last night (and I am in here hiding trying to chug coffee and do a speed-post before the remaining 4 children wake up) We ate supper and had ice cream cake at Granna's. She opened her gifts. She had a blast. And we came home. Partied some more (dress-up, popcorn and movie time- Diary of a Wimpy kid) and I think the last 2 crashed sometime around 12:30...or that is when I gave the final "time to go to bed call" and I crashed :)

We have a busy day planned- gotta get 4 girls all primped and ready in their super-cute outfits and we are going for a makeover at Spoiled Rockin' Kids Salon and then to get pics made...... and some how find time to drop the boys off with Aunt Karen because no part of making up and getting pretty is appealing to Kyle and I don't much think Kaden will have fun either!!

Party pics will have to wait til the next post or I will come back and update- I don't have the spare minutes to do all that uploading jazz....but I did find this one on my computer and thought I would share.... my babies - Easter 2006



So Happy Birthday Kaylee Rae!!! Your the best little girl ever :)

Monday (insert big sigh here)....

Why are Monday's so...... Monday??? I got up early, ironed JD's clothes, did a load of clothes, got my coffee, sat down for my 5 seconds of "me" time (while Kaden was chattering in his sleep... pretty cute I must say) JD comes out ready for work and looks and me, hesitates because he knows what is coming, and says "I forgot about my meeting this afternoon. I need a suit and tie." OK- I had to stop myself from morphing into the Devil-Drea. SURE- iron your clothes AGAIN- let me get right on that........" GRRRRRR....stomp stomp.....
I hate ironing and he knows it. I would love to claim the homemaker of the year that keeps all the ironing done weeks in advance, blah blah blah, but our closet is so cramped that I REFUSE to iron things twice (into the closet, then out of the closet)and all of you with children know that anything done after 5 pm consists of feeding, bathing and putting someone to bed..... so I iron in the mornings, EVERY morning. This may change when the kids go to school.... but I doubt it. That just means I will be up at 6 instead of 7 because who needs sleep at this point- I am almost 7 years into it- I can do most daily operations with one eye opened.

OK- Ironing rant ended.

We had a great weekend. We didn't have church all weekend due to a death. The kids and I got up Saturday morning and went to the mountain (aka Skyline) for the grandkids celebration (we hadn't had a party for anyone- so we had a "Happy Birthday Kids" cake for all of them. (My 5 year old nephew Brayden saw "Birthday" and said "There is MY name" like he was the only one cake worthy ... he is a ham)The kids had intended to swim in Nanny's pool but opted for playing in the rain all day. They had a blast and came home SUPER tired.

The kids and I spent our Day of Rest yesterday doing just that.... at our fave hangout... Uncle Jimmy's and Aunt Sissanne's. JD joined us later in the day for supper. It was nice hanging out with them all day- we see their house and pool more than we get to see them :)

And here we are- headed into another week of BIRTHDAY :) Kaylee takes all year to plan out her birthday- so I am anxious to see what I am going to have to do some compromising on :)

OH - and if you want a New Harmony CD- we have them. we have lots of them. we need you to want one. :)