Well, the last two weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. Company in town, weekend trip to Louisville, kids to Atlanta with my mom, then me to Atlanta, then everybody home for a couple of days, hosted a Fourth of July get-together at our house, then we took 2 kids to Kamp Kennessee, whew! And we're just getting started! July is our crazy month every summer, and this one is no different.

Kevin and I had a great weekend in Louisville last weekend. Stayed at a beautiful historic B&B in "Old Louiville" for our anniversary, then to my cousin's wedding reception at the Galt House in downtown Louisville Saturday. Had a fun night staying up late and playing cards in the hotel lobby that night with other couples from church in Nashville that had come up for the festivities.

Mom took our kids to Atlanta for the weekend, and was brave enough to treat all 16 grandkids (everybody was in town that week visiting) to a fun day at the Georgia Aquarium. It sounds like an amazing place! They all had a blast and our kids had a great time hanging out with Papa & Mimi for a few days. I drove down Monday and enjoyed myself tremendously in my old home town (i.e. shopping, shopping, and more shopping!).

Tuesday, the girls and I went to see the new American Girl movie, while my mom took the boys to see "Wall-E." She thinks I got the better end of that deal.
We all headed home Thursday afternoon. We had hoped to make it home by dinner, but the highway had other plans for us. A terrible accident on I-24W had us stopped on the interstate for 3 hours, along with lots of other people. We made the best of it...visited with truckers, played football in the median, sweated and grumbled, and finally made it home by bedtime....

The Friday night, we had a bunch of people from church over for a 4th of July celebration. Lots of good food, fun and of course, fireworks. My hubby, the pyro, had his hands full trying not to dash the hopes of 10 or more little ones who were sure they could hold the Roman candles safely in their hands, too, and not put an eye out. They eventually settled for some very tame sparklers and left the heavy duty stuff to the adult male pyros. What is is about guys and fire??? I guess it's like woman and shoes.

Whew! What a week! Yesterday, we dropped Jacob and Mary Rose off in Dickson (about an hour west of Nashville) at Kamp Kennessee. This is Mary Rose's first year to go...she was pretty excited, and not TOO anxious about sleeping in a cabin, going without hand sanitizer or books for a whole week, and using PUBLIC SHOWERS. Despite all that, I know she'll have a great time and Jacob, of course, always loves camp life. Sports competitions every day, all-you-can eat cafeteria bar at every meal (the food is actually very good), and no mom around to nag him about taking showers or practicing piano! Yeah, life is sweet for him this week! But we are missing them already! We will pick them up from camp Friday evening and leave straight from there to go to Dallas for our week in Texas. More on that trip later.....

By the way, there are pictures to go along with this post on our blogsite...stinsonfamily.blogspot.com, if you haven't had enough of us already!

Well, this is the first post for me in over a year. I'm just not a good pleonaster, I guess. I have recently gotten a new family blogsite set up and I'm REALLY trying hard to keep that updated every week or two with pictures, posts, etc, so if you want to keep up with our family, you can visit our blog at stinsonfamily.blogspot.com.
It may be a short-lived hobby, though; it is so hard to find just an extra 15 minutes or so in a whole week! I guess that says something about how overly busy we are, but such is life with four kids and 3 and 1/2 pets (i only counted Robert, our fish, as half a pet. Not to disrespect him, but hey, you can't do much with a fish, y'know? No petting or playing fetch or anything. The most I get from him is just an occasional glimmer of recognition in his little fishy eye when my hand moves over his bowl...he may not be a barrel of fun, but he does know his mama, that sweet little aquatic vertebrate! Now that I think about it, he may be the best of the bunch....no messes, no noise, no whining, no chewing, no demands of any sort from that little fellow! He would just swim around uncomplaining until he died from neglect, and no one would ever hear a peep from him. Just happy to be alive, until he was dead. There are not many out there, pets or people, who ask so little and give so much. Well, he doesn't actually give much, hmmmm.......except that it is very calming to watch him glide around in his bowl, unfettered by wordly cares, so he does contribute a sense of tranquility to our somewhat hectic household. Wow, I had no idea of the value of that unassuming, humble fish until now. I'm going to count him as a whole pet from now on, maybe even two. I'M SORRY ROBERT, FOR NOT APPRECIATING YOU! I can't believe I just wrote this much about a fish.

ok, i'm here. what do I do now? someone needs to help me. ummmmmmm, now I say something about my day, maybe?
I had a good day today. Got to dress up and go to a fancy awards banquet at Union Station Hotel in downtown Nash for my bro-in-law, jonathan. It was fun and I ate a lot. I will try to post a picture, but not sure how to do that yet.