Surgery and Movies

Last week Joe had outpatient surgery to repair a hernia.  Here he is waiting in pre-op:

The surgery went well and we were home by 3:30.  Joe was dizzy from the anesthesia and pain meds so while he slept it off I picked the girls up from Alexa's.  They had a great time playing with them until we could get home.

Since Joe has had to take a week at home recovering we took advantage of Stimulus Tuesday at a nearby theater that has discount tickets and $2 popcorn, drinks and candy.  We saw the Lego Movie:

The movie was hilarious!  I didn't think I was going to like it but the girls wanted to go.  I ended up really enjoying it and laughing out loud during several scenes.  One scene in the movie could have been played out at our house over arguments the girls have had over their Legos : )  Emily likes to follow instructions and build the Legos exactly how it says to and then doesn't want anyone to touch them.  Abigail takes the approach of building whatever she wants and taking apart anything she can . . . basically the whole plot of the movie.

Trip to see College Roomies

Well it's that time of year again!  Last Thursday I headed to Columbia, TN to spend a couple of days with my college roomies.  We have been getting together annually since 2004.  It's always such a wonderful trip to get to spend time with these ladies.

While we were there we ate lots of food and visited 2 presidents homes.  I can always count on a history lesson when I'm around Michelle and Danielle : )  We visited Polk's home in Columbia and this is Andrew Jackson's home outside of Nashville.

We visited a local winery and stopped at a restaurant featured on Diners, DriveIns and Dives.  The restaurant was famous for the redneck taco so we all got one to try.  Cornbread pancake with bbcue pork and coleslaw on top.  It was SO GOOD!

 Michelle and I split the taco so we could also try their ribs:

We also ate at a place called TrueLove's Pizza and Grits!  We all had the shrimp and grits and it was great!

Michelle lives out on some land on the outskirts of Columbia.  One of her neighbor's cows died and this was what greeted me on the side of the road going up to her house!

 We also got the grand tour of her property complete with these ducks and swans, chickens, dogs, cats, and inside they have some gerbels, hamsters and a turtle!

See you next year girls!

PawPaw and DeeDee

On Tuesday of Winter Break we headed to Paw Paw and Dee Dee's house for a visit.  I worked while the girls played and had a welcome change of scenery since we had been working so many days with them home this winter.  On Thursday afternoon PawPaw and DeeDee had appointments so I took the girls to the Montgomery Zoo.  It's a really great zoo and we had a nice time. It sprinkled on us for about the first hour we were there and then it turned out really nice.

Their schools were in session so we practically had the whole zoo to ourselves.  Their exhibits allowed you to get much closer looks at the animals than our zoo.

 

 Right after the first picture was taken Emily ran towards me to go inside the bird cage and skidded across the cement.  She hit hard and scraped her knees and chin and hands.  I know it hurt and we caused quite a fuss in the zoo.  A sweet family had their son run to the van to get band-aids and gave us several for her.  Here she is bandaged up:

 These pictures of the monkeys and the alligator is the part of the zoo I had growing up.  It was a much smaller zoo back then and walking back thru this section brought back many memories of childhood trips to the zoo:

 I wonder if this is the same alligator from when I was a kid.  Looks like he hasn't moved from his spot in 30 years!

 Loved the cat/lion/tiger exhibits where they were all so close.  This leopard was pacing back and forth the whole time we were there and I think it was because she was telling us to back away from her cubs that were in the back of the exhibit:

 

 

 These tigers are beautiful.  They came right up to the window and Abigail got a good look!

There were also several peacocks and peahens that roamed freely around the zoo.  We saw them several times thru out our visit:

We also got to ride the train and see more bird exhibits:

 

This rhino was huge!

We went to the petting zoo and there were 3 baby goats just a week old.  The girls loved seeing them and the babies were super cute!

 

 We played on the playground for a bit and then went to meet PawPaw and DeeDee for dinner:

We came back home on Saturday afternoon to get ready for school to FINALLY start up again on Monday!!!

Winter Break

It's hard to believe that after 9 days of missing school in Jan/Feb, the kids had a winter break . . . but the school system went ahead with it.  So on Monday we went to the zoo in gorgeous weather:

 There were 3 lion cubs born recently and we got to see them out playing:

 We also got to see the Baby Twin Pandas!!!

 I love this picture of Abigail!!!!