One last LOST post

LOST is over. TV basically is back to normal, new medical dramas every season, and of course the new crime solving dramas. Totally overdone in my opinion. LOST was truly a one-of-a-kind show, and I am still amazed at the originality of it. The final episode left many people unhappy. I was totally satisfied (pretty much). I already knew there was no time for ALL of the questions to be answered, and I knew that the end would be somewhat unpredictable. I have come to find out that a lot of the people that were dissatisfied with the finale did not interpret it the same way I did. I never thought the people were dead the whole time, it was very clear (to me) in the finale that the people (who survived the 6 seasons) went on with their lives, and the alternate reality was a pre-heaven state..."purgatory" as it was referred to in an online breakdown that I read (and highly recommend).

http://screenrant.com/lost-finale-explanation-kofi-61464/all/1/

I think if more people had understood this there wouldn't have been so many negative reactions to the finale. I just wanted to do the show justice and clear up some misconceptions.

Also, there is an epilogue which ties up a few loose ends. It has been removed from pretty much every site that had it posted, but this one still had it up (you are gonna have to suffer with subtitles en francais).

http://videosift.com/video/LOST-Epilogue-The-New-Man-in-Charge

So, after all of this, I don't think people can bash on the finale. It was an appropriate ending to an amazing show. Namaste!

Phoenix's First Day of School

Phoenix is going to preschool this year on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I thought it would be good for him, and I had such a good experience with Audrey last year that I was excited for him to start. When we went to meet his teacher he was very timid and clingy. At one point he thought that I had left him there and he bolted out of the door, luckily I saw him and I caught him. Then he saw the bucket-o-cars and all of his worries left him. I was a little aprehensive on his first day because he was so scared when I brought him before. His first day of school he had to use Audrey's old princess backpack (he did not seem to mind). He was too excited to pose for a picture (shocker!), and he went right into the classroom and started playing with the cars. When we (Trav came to) went to pick him up he yelled "Da-da!" and ran into Trav's arms. It was soo cute! Now that he has been going to school for a few weeks he usually fake cries when I bring him in (because there are a few other kids crying) and then when I leave he stops crying immediately. When I pick him up he is so excited and I can tell that he had a great time. He has made a few pictures, and he is actually eating his lunch! He tries to bring his backpack in the car even on days that he doesn't have school. He is such a little cutie, and I am really happy that he has something that he enjoys so much.

Audrey's Worst err I mean First Day of School

I got to spend a wonderful day with Audrey yesterday, we went shopping for a few new clothes, ate lunch at Olive Garden (she asked for a 2nd bowl of soup!!), and we had a lot of time for girl talk. She picked out the skirt she wore today (her first day of school) yesterday.

You may or may not have noticed, but she is not a traditional poser...

Audrey had her assessment day for Kindergarten last week, and she had fun that day. She bought her lunch (chicken nuggets, broccoli, apple, and chocolate milk), and she made two friends. She had a great time and she was excited to go back to school. Last night was meet the teacher and unfortunately it was NOT the teacher I had hoped for. Audrey was disappointed because she only likes girl teachers and she got the boy teacher (I was disappointed to, but I pretended not to be for her sake...I know, how noble of me!). Anyhoo, when I picked her up (after waiting in the carpool line for 25 minutes) she said that she had the worst day ever. At first she didn't want to talk about it, and then she said that she didn't have any friends and that everyone else was friends with each other, she didn't like her teacher, no one played with her on the playground, and there was "one super girl who was super stylish" (I asked Audrey what the girl wore and it was a Hello Kitty shirt with a vest and a sparkly skirt). I took her to Marbles and made sure that she felt extra special and loved tonight. Phoenix even licked her (which is something I have only seen him to do to me...and every other object he fancies), so that made Audrey feel better.

So...am I freaking out? No, not at all. I have just considered taking out a loan for $6500 to get her into a Christian school for ONE year (um yeah, that is like 4 semesters @ BYU-Idaho), considered moving across the city to the "right" side of town, considered pulling her out of Kindergarten and have her take one more year of blessed preschool and then moving out of state before she starts Kinder, and last but not least, considered bumping up our tentative move to Arizona to...tomorrow. OK, so maybe I am freaking out just a little (you think?!?!?)! Yes, I am worried. What if she doesn't make any friends? What if her teacher really is not that great? What if something happens to make her change who she is, my darling, spunky, sweet little girl with a wonderful (if not crude) sense of humor, a girl who knows who she is, what she likes, and has confidence? Hopefully she will make a few friends tomorrow, start to like her teacher, and get more comfortable. And hopefully I can get a grip!

Awwwdrey

Do you remember Audrey's boyfriend (the first one, not the second one)? Well, a few weeks back we were invited to Andrew's B-day party. Audrey made him a very special card. Seriously...

Andrew has green eyes (only Audrey would know)...oh and he is also missing a tooth (which Audrey was kind enough to black out), and his hair really is that length.
I love this little girl! She is such an artist, and me and Trav are definately encouraging.

(she asked me to take this picture and she held this pose until the camera flashed. Silly girl!)

Ballerina

A few weeks ago a good friend emailed me with an alert of a killer deal for a week dance camp this summer for little girls. I jumped on it (thanks for the heads up April!). At first I was going to sign Audrey up for the Princess week, but she did NOT like the sound of that (she said she wanted it to be Prince week...not sure where she gets this occasional tomboy streak from). So we both agreed on Disney week (which turned out to be very princessy, but Audrey was OK with that). She was a little nervous for her first day, but when I picked her up she said that she wanted to go to dance class every day (that is MY kind of girl!). The dance class was for 2 hours every day for one week. The girls learned ballet and tap. I was so impressed with the demonstration at the end of the week. Audrey had learned so much, and she made a beautiful ballerina.

I am so glad that she loved dance. I still dream about taking dance classes myself (emphasis in ballroom). I am definitely looking forward to watching my little princess take some more dance classes in the future!

Girls Night Out!!

Myself and 3 of my lucky friends were treated to a GNO compliments of our husbands (they surprised us!). Where did we go, you ask? Umm...none other than a Rascal Flatts concert!! Hello!

For a few pictures click here (I look totally hid. so...yeah...blame it on the blasted weather)

We got all of the typical Raleigh weather wrapped into one nice little bundle. When I say "typical Raleigh weather" I mean: rain, extreme heat, even more extreme humidity, intense sun beating down, hot breeze when you want it to be cool, cold breeze when you wish it was warm, and oh yeah...thunder and lightening. Like seriously, it was a blue sky with sun shining down on us and yet we were still getting rained on. Luckily the torrential rain waited until the last 5 minutes of the concert.

Enough about the weather, let's talk about the concert! It was awesome!!! We got there about 3 hours early. We got killer parking, killer lawn seats, and when we wanted to leave the concert we were out in about 5 minutes. We also had some time for much needed girl talk. Sara Evans opened for them and she is totally beautiful, amazing voice...etc. Then...Rascal Flatts totally killed it! The show was exciting, the music was even better than expected, the girls I went with were totally awesome. We decided we would definitely have to do this again (wink wink to all the hubs).

Thanks guys for treating us to such an awesome Girls Night Out!!!

Sister Andrew

A few weeks ago Audrey got an especially excellent lesson from her primary teachers, Heather and Ben. It was about missionaries (to learn more about Mormon missionaries click here). They made all of the students little Missionary tags and Audrey was excited about hers...

After we had dinner we decided to go feed some ducks. Audrey dressed up like a sister missionary, name tag and all!

It was really cute, and even now she keeps her missionary tag in a special place. Thanks Heather and Ben for getting her so excited about missionary work!

Phoenix's B-day part 2

I can't resist having a party...and Phoenix turning 2 was no exception. I threw it together in about a week but it turned out pretty well. I used the Thomas colors as inspiration and I put up some of the decorations in Phoenix's room after the party to help make the blank white walls a little less blank. While Phoenix was taking a nap before the party Audrey did some decorating of her own. She set up his train sets, cars, and other toys that he likes and put them on display. It was so cute that of course I left them up for the party!

Oreo truffles

So far I have taken 2 courses from the Wilton Cake decorating classes at Michaels. I am far from being good, but I will say that the classes have helped me to be able to make an adequate cake.

I cheated on this one, I just opened two bags of white chocolate pretzel flips and then drizzled the party colors on top. They were delish and I would totally do it again.

caramel corn

There was only one other boy at the party besides Phoenix (we had 9 girls I think)...but he didn't seem to mind. I found the two boys chillin outside by themselves, it was so cute!

Thanks to my friends Emily and Megan who helped me put together a bunch of last minute details, Emily took a bunch of pictures with my camera and Meg stayed late to help me clean up! I have awesome friends!

Phoenix's Bday part 1

Our little man turned 2 at the beginning of the month! We started off the day with pancakes (one of the very few things that Phoenix will eat), then we had to run over to the office for a quick trip...and 3 hours later we got some Chick-fil-a for lunch (Phoenix LOVES the fries there). Then we hit up Marbles so that our lil fella could play with the trains....for 2 straight hours. He is basically in heaven there.

(some chocolate chips spilled on the ground while I was making the pancakes and Phoenix was eating as much as he could, as fast as he could. Audrey was a willing follower.

Instead of making him a cake we got some Krispy Kreme donut holes, which he loved. Phoenix is really into Thomas the train these days, and he got a ton of Thomas presents for his big day. He kepts saying "Choo-Choo!" when he was opening up his gifts. It was really cute.

July 4th

Yeah...a little late for a July 4th post right? Better late than never!

We received a last minute invite from Janae + Jared to go up to their beautiful home for the weekend. Ever since they moved away we have missed them, but especially on holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, July 4th...), so we jumped at the chance to get to spend the 4th with them and their two little kiddos, Jared's sister Julie was there also (Audrey has adopted Julie as another aunt).

We went to a local parade/celebration and we had a lot of fun (and consumed a lot of grease...err..I mean food).

So they had face painting there, I had never gotten my face painted as a kid (but some how I still turned out semi-normal) so I encouraged Audrey and Brighton to get a painting themselves. Audrey did not go for the idea, but Brighton was very excited about it. At first he wanted a flower and a heart, then he saw a girl with butterfly wings and he wanted that (Jared suggested a skull with crossbones), and he finally settled on a rainbow. Have I ever mentioned how much I love this not-so-little boy?

Janae's house is basically at the perfect location to see a bunch of awesome fireworks, we had our own of course (thanks Jared!). Addison was litrally bouncing up and down with excitement she kept saying "Guys! Guys! Guys! Fireworks!!!" she was the highlight of the night. Here is Audrey sitting with her honorary auntie (for protection...Audrey still doesn't really care for fireworks).

We had amazingly delish food (props to the hostess), great company, and good times. The perfect way to spend a holiday weekend.

Sisters Trip: Durham Science Museum

We have never been to the famous (round these parts) Durham Science Museum and I thought that it would be a fun activity while my sisters were here. We had to rush through a lot of things because we only had 2 hours there, but my sisters got to see the wolves and Audrey got to dig for fossils (which were the most important things).

We did a TON of shopping when my sisters were here (nothing like shopping with your favorite girls!). It had been maybe 3 years since we have all been together at the same time, waay too long if you ask me. We will once again be reunited for my sister Jess's (pictured above) wedding in August.

Sisters Trip: Beach

We had to hit up the beach when all my sistas were here, we LOVE the beach, and with so many extra helpers I actually get some time to play around in the water (sans Phoenix-Willy).


One of the very few benefits of having a tiny grill is that you can bring it places...like the beach. There is nothing like a grilled hot dog on the beach, I guarantee it!

It was windy, the umbrella did not make it through the day (it ended up in the trash).

We didn't get to spend nearly enough time there, but the weather and a certain little fella were not really being cooperative.