November 7th

Another year has passed and I can't believe we have celebrated our 6th anniversary! Things sure do move quick when you are having fun. Or maybe when you are going crazy...

I started the morning off early with my friends Dusty and Teresa at the Attic Sale. This is like a garage sale on steroids, people all over the community donate their items and they organize it by category. There was a huge line by the time we got there at 7:00 and I guess people started lining up at 4:30! After you get into the building, it is just a mad dash to lay claim on anything you think might be of value. You don't have a second to consider anything because if you do, someone reaches around you and snatches it. I stopped to get a brand-new umbrella stroller, then pushed my way to the little girl toys. A lady was looking at an adorable canopy baby doll bed. I told her it was cute and that if she didn't want it, I would gladly take it. She told me there was another one, so I grabbed it and hoped she would put her's down so I could have one for each girl. She didn't, but I did find a few more toys and dress-ups I knew the girls would love. My arms were totally full by then and I still had the rest of the building to check out. It was so crowded you could hardly move an inch, and I couldn't set anything down to look at anything else. My arms went numb so I slowly pushed my out and waited for the others to come out. I saw women who would go through, hand armfuls of stuff to husbands waiting in the parking lot, and go run through again. It was an entertaining morning, and by the time we hit a few more yard sales and a flea market I was pretty much finished with my Christmas shopping!

For lunch Kevin had taken the girls shopping and put together a picnic lunch for us. We went to Magnolia State Park, about 30 mins north of us. It is a camping area that has playgrounds, trees, nature trails and alligators! The drive was beautiful, the cotton fields here in Georgia are white and stretch all over the hillsides, and we even saw some herds of cattle grazing. We quickly unpacked and settled in to eat. Berkley loved the bottles of root beer he brought, and only dropped and broke one. They have a large river there, and a wooden observation bridge and deck and there are supposed to be alligators all over. I was terrified, but to my relief (and Kevin's dismay) we seemed to have missed the gator season, and only saw hundreds of turtles. I didn't think the girls would enjoy hiking on the nature trail, but both of them loved it. Berkley would stop every couple of minutes to wander off the trail and check out a flower, or fallen stick. Braelyn ran ahead then would run back and tell us all what we were about to see. And since there were no hills it was my kind of hike as well. It was a beautiful day, and I loved that I didn't have to worry about anything, or get anything ready, Kevin took care of it all.

We headed home to get ready for our dinner date! I was so excited, Teresa had offered to babysit, and I couldn't wait to just enjoy a quiet dinner with Kevin. The girls and I have been to their house and Braelyn and Berkley love it there. Braelyn picked out her outfit herself, then asked me which shoes I thought the boys would like her to wear! The Hughes have 4 boys and she is already worried about impressing them. We got Braelyn to take a picture of us before we left, and we laughed so hard when she started directing how we should stand and smile. We went to Chilis and the food was terrible but we had a great time laughing and actually being able to talk uninterrupted. When we got to the Hughes' front door to get the girls we could hear the music blasting, and knew Braelyn had chosen the song when we recognized, "Who Let the Dogs Out!" Braelyn was wrestling the boys, and Berkley didn't even care when we walked in, she was having too much fun to notice. I'm grateful they helped us, and even more grateful to know there is a place here that my girls feel loved and safe at.

It was a perfect day, and I'm thankful to everyone, especcially Kevin, who made it that way!