I am sorry!

Well for the three of you that read my blog I am sorry I have not updated lately. We have been super busy. We bought a membership to a campground out in Langston and have been using it every weekend and I have to say its a lot easier to have the kids down here than at the apartment. Last weekend Bo and I decided to have an unplugged weekend! He cut his Cell phone off and I left the laptop at the apartment. We spent Friday-Monday down here. I have to say that was a huge thing for Bo to turn off his cell we are in the middle of pool season and everyone is calling and wanting him right there right now! So he desperately needed the break!




We got here and the girls wanted to head straight to the pool so we went right for the indoor pool and swam a while and then went to the play ground and played. The girls found some new little friends. It reminded me of my childhood at the State Park. My sister's and I were always making friends, but there were none like our camping buddies Lori and Jennifer! Saturday we got up and did the same thing Swimming this time at the outdoor pool then to the playground then to the pool again then to oh you get the picture. Then around 3:00 we got out of the pool got shower's got dressed and headed into Huntsville for a little Outback then to Master's Commission Showcase.











We had to go watch Shanna, Tinna, Marvin and all our other Master's friends. We had a great time and it was kinda sad to because Tinna Bella's friend from Iceland is going back next week and it broke poor Bella's heart. She cried and cried asked me to get her mailing address and her email so that she could mail her things. I thought it was to cute of her.



Sunday we got up did the same thing except my sister in law called my cell phone and wanted to know if her and My nephew could come hang out. So we made a Boatner family day of it. My in-laws came down with my sis in law and Walker. We had fun playing at the park, playroom, game-room and playing this cool game called ladder golf. I will have to take a picture and show you guys I could never explain it all.






We grilled out then my in-laws left and it was sit back relax and watch the fire. Monday everything as the day's before except we made friend with the neighbor's in the camper to our left we played ladder golf with them and cooked out and hung out around the indoor pool and then the camper till a HUGE storm blew up so we loaded everything up and headed back to Scottsboro.





I know it sounds like it was super busy but it was not at all it was very relaxing and we really just enjoyed being unplugged from the world and just being together! I will post later about our closing Praise Jesus its over. Hope everyone is having a great week Blessings

The house deal STRESS!

Bo and I have been under a lot of stress here lately. We have had all sort's of issues with the sell of our home. Ya see my sweet hubby and his daddy made a HUGE boo boo. When we bought Fletcher Drive there were millions of tree's and the yard is such a huge slope so we had a company come in and cut down over 90 something tree's and a dozer company come in and level the ground on the back. We had to have a place for the kids to play and put in a swimming pool of course ;o). Well all we can come up with is that our dozer company cut back to much of the slope and went far past our own property line. Bo and Pop should have checked the lines but they just assumed (NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING) that the guy we hired stayed in the lines we showed him. NOT SO MUCH! We never knew any of this until it came time to sell our house. We always thought that our property lines ended at the hill behind our pool. Well while the buyer was there looking at the land.My crazy cat lady neighbor (who is INSANE MIND YOU) comes up and tells Von the buyer that we built our swimming pool on her property. Ummm hello idiot we built the pool behind the house center of the house actually. So the buyer decided to just have a survey and find out whats what and shut the crazy lady up. So fast forward a week we have the survey and as I watch what happened I thought I was having a heart attack. I was on the phone with my sister and I told her OH MY GOODNESS LAURA I HAVE TO GO I THINK I AM HAVING A HEART ATTACK THIS IS NOT HAPPENING! I must have worried her cause she gave me maybe 10 min and was calling me back saying what happened. I watched the survey people put a stake in the ground that was almost in the middle of our swimming pool. Not that we were on the crazy lady next doors land but on the people who own the property behind us. The crazy lady comes outside and asks if that was our property line and kinda smiles. I walked right out there and told her that this was her first and last warning that was the property line and if I caught her anywhere near the line I would call the police and have her arrested for trespassing. She thought it was funny and kept standing there long enough for the survey guy to tell her. "Ma'am they may be on someone else's property but you are as well and you are more over than they are" She went white and turned around and marched right into her house. I have to say I was very happy to know that she was going to get a little of what she dished out. So fast forward a few weeks we find out who owns the property and call him to let him know that we accidentally built a pool on his property and that we were so sorry and wanted to know if he would right us an easement or if we could buy the property. We were thinking maybe 4,000 or 7,000 ha ha NOT SO MUCH 20,000.00 is what we had to pay for 13 feet of property. I can not believe people I mean hello he knew he had us right where he wanted us. He even told our realtor that had we asked to buy it before we built the pool he would not have charged no where near but since he had us as he said "bent over a barrel" he was going to get what he could. All I have to say is you reap what you sew. We finally got all the deeds drawn up and another survey and closed on that land last Thursday. I have to say it was one of the worst things I had to do was sign all those paper's knowing that he did not need that money that he was just a mean person who took advantage of us. We paid the 22,000.00 after closing cost. So then the guy who is buying our house tells us he has not gotten his check in from his 401-K. His realtor (WHO MIGHT I ADD IS THE BIGGEST IDIOT I HAVE EVER SEEN)did not want him to loose interest on his money so told him not to cash it in until a week before closing. Well we were suppose to close two weeks ago on the house. We have been waiting on them. She saved him a whole 84.16. When I found that out I went nuts. I mean come on I have 84.16 in my wallet right now and I would have gladly handed him that money so that we could have closed two weeks ago. I mean hello these people are living in my 4000 sq ft home and I am paying the mortgage payment (minus his 500.00 he gave. HELLO the payment is 1100.00)and the insurance on the house while I live in a 900 sq ft town house with my three children. These people are holding my life up. They are living in there new house with all there new furniture and I can't even make an offer on a house because we don't know what these idiots are going to do next. They are absolutely holding us up. So the guy buying our house calls on Friday to tell us that he got his check that it had been at his old address for a few days the new owner had not gotten around to calling him to tell him. I was soooooooooo hacked off. Our realtor called to tell us on Tuesday that we are closing on Thursday @ 3:00 if we don't close then I think my husband is going to have a heart attack. He is so stressed out that he has actually screamed at people told people off and just really has a short fuse. I mean HELLO Bo Boatner is the most passive, never speaks his mind, holds it all in, roll all over me type of person. There is proof that he is way past his stress meter. Please be praying for us that this deal will finally end and we can start a new chapter in our lives. We are just ready to either find a house or built one and we can not until this deal closes with our house. Now I am done with my rant on the house I will post another blog later today about our wonderful Unplugged weekend.
Blessings

Doctor's visit and Fishing!

HA HA that Title cracks me up! I woke up yesterday just sick and tired of being sick and tired. So I called my doctor's office and they told me to come on in. So when I got there I was none to excited to see that my two favorite receptionist that worked there for so long are no longer there. The doctor I go to here in town never keeps staff long. So I get there and he tells me its a Sinus infection and that he wants to give me two shots. I also talked to him about being tired all the time so he gave me a B12 shot as well. So 3 shots OUCH OUCH OUCH. The lady who gave me the shots is not the best shot giver in the world. She always leaves me in pain for days after I get one of her little lovelies.

Bo called and told me to come by the store and he would give me some money to go buy the girls fishing polls. So after they got out of school I took them to K-Mart to buy fishing polls. Bella picked out a Dora the Explorer poll and Kenzie the Shrek one! We got home and headed to our boat house. (where Bo Proposed) We fished from 5:30 till 8:00 we had a good old time with the girls.















We caught lots of fish but maybe two big ones. They were all very small. Well i gotta get to packing we are heading out to the campground tonight. We are all excited. Well I hope everyone is having a great week so far! Blessings

Busy Busy Weekend!

This weekend was a busy one around here. Friday I got up early and washed clothes, cleaned the bathroom and the kitchen. Silas had spent the night with Anita the night before so I knew that it was going to be my only chance to get things done while he was gone! Sad to say but come on I found that child in the dishwasher last week for the love of all things holy! He is a total mess and I can't seem to get anything looking anything remotely like Bo and I like it to be. UGHHHH apartment living is not for the OCD! ha ha

So I get all of it done and by this time the kids are all home from school and we are getting dressed to leave. Bo and I as I have said before in this blog grew up camping. I can not remember a weekend in the summer that we were not at Guntersville State Park. He grew up coming to Scottsboro of all places to Goosepond. We have both agreed over and over and over we want our children to grow up doing this as we did. So we decided to join a campground Mountain Lakes Resort. Bo wanted it to be a surprise to the girls so we did not tell them where we were going, we just kept saying you will see when we get there. When we pulled up to the campground the kids got so excited. They said are we going camping this weekend! We took a little tour ourselves while Daddy signed all the papers and paid. They have two pools one is indoor and the other outdoor, mini golf, playground, kids game room, craft area for little kids. The best part for Bo and I is the fact they have great big joker tournaments. Bo and I LOVE to play this game and have taught all of our friends how to play. So we signed all the papers and paid all the fee's and headed to Guntersville to eat dinner and then we went to Grant to see my parents and drop off my Yukon so that she would have something to drive to Scottsboro tomorrow to pick up her Car. Bo had to do some work to it. While there she asked if the girls could just stay the night. ;o)

Saturday morning I got up and did not do much of anything but wait on Bo to get home so we could go to the grocery store and to the old house to pick up the big things we left at the house. My parents come there to help us out as well. So we got pretty much all of our stuff out of that house and I will be so glad when we finally close this week. Then Bo my dad and I went to the grocery store to get some grocery's and stuff to grill out. It was after all my father in laws 60th birthday so we grilled out and had a little cake and fun. I am so blessed that my parents and my in-laws get along so well. I mean they really do get along. Both my parents and my in-laws love to garden. They never run out of things to talk about. They really do mesh together well.. BLESSED we are.

Sunday we got up went to church and service was amazing. I got to sit with my girl Jessica and I was very glad to see her. Its been a while since I got to see her we keep in touch via emails and myspace but it was nice to get to hug her neck and worship right along side of her. After church Shanna and Sella asked us if we wanted to go eat so we were like sure. There was 16 of us at one table. Ha ha It was great even if we did not get to sit with Tim and Sella our kids got to sit together and they love them some Lydia. So our girls were really excited to get to see her again.
We had to get some things at Sam's so we went ahead and stopped in. The kids love it cause they get to sample everything they have. ha ha We got all the things we needed then we were headed back to Scottsboro. We got home and just laid around the house. Bo watched the race and I watch well I watched the Benadryl kick my tail. My allergies reared there ugly head again. So I went to sleep early. That was my weekend. VERY VERY Busy. I hope everyone has a great week. Blessings

Our Trip to the Zoo!

Well its that time of the year again its the end of the school year so it means for the kindergarten class at Caldwell its ZOO TIMEEEEEE! We got up pretty early because we had to have Bella at the school by 7:30. Well of course that did not happen ha ha I am a Winkles after all we are never early for anything. We always say that we will be late for our own funeral. We got Bella at the school around 7:45 and her bus was leaving the school at 8:00. I kissed her and Kenzie Bye. Kenzie came and chased me down in Bella's class to get me to sign a book. I think now looking back she was kinda just needing me to give her a reassuring hug. So I sent her on after telling her have a good day. Then I left Bella's class and told her I would see her at the zoo. They don't let parents ride the bus so Me and My Mother in law ride in my car. Well I found Kenzie wondering the hall as I was leaving and I called her over to me to give me another hug and we prayed for her to have a good day. She then ran off to her class. I think maybe that's what she needed more than the hug, but that's me hoping she just needed some Jesus! ;o)

My Mother in law and I went by the store to see if we had some sun screen cause I forgot to put some on Bella. We did not of course have any in the motor home! Then we headed out. We drove and drove and drove! We stopped at a rest area on the other side of Steele to go to the rest room we were there maybe 5 minutes then got to Trussville and stopped to get gas maybe another 10 min. We get to the zoo and the buses are already there and the kids have been eating. Poor Bella was sitting at a picnic table while everyone else was eating. She looked so sad my Mother in law said but got excited when she saw us. HOW DID THOSE BUSES beat us to the zoo? sheesh






Well we ate our chicken salad sandwiches and drank our soda then it was time to head into the zoo. We got our tokens and headed to the carousel because the last time Anita and I took Kenzie on her Kindergarten trip to the zoo we waited till it was time to go and so did everyone else so Kenzie never got to ride and she was so disappointed! So Anita and Bella rode while I took pictures and sat with Silas. We asked Bella what is the one thing that you have to see today. She said Giraffes. So we headed down to the Alabama life exhibit then headed to the safari exhibit we get to the Giraffes and Bella says OH MY GOODNESS WHAT IS THAT SMELL. GET ME OUT OF HERE IT STINKS. HA HA HA I said Bella but this is what you wanted to see and she said well if I stand a stare at every animal we will be here all day. Gotta Go!






Anita and I just laughed and laughed at her. We looked at everything the zoo had. I have to say though Bella's favorite part was the worst thing I have ever seen. What is with the kids that the one thing that you really wish they would not remember they do. Like animals "making out" or animals eating poop and throwing it back up and eating it again? So back to Bella's favorite part The only part she remembered was Joey the Gorilla Eating his poopy then throwing it up and then that's right eating it again. This went on over and over and over again and Bella was willing to sit there and watch it over and over and over again.





I could not stand the smell in that place so I headed out of there with Silas and we looked at the Lions. Silas would say to the Lions " Here kitty kitty kitty"




It was so cute. After we finished that up it was time to head to the gift shop. Bella got a purse with a tiger in it, Silas a white Tiger "kitty Kitty" and Kenzie a bracelet. She is a good sister! ;o) We waited around trying to find Mrs. Gray so that we could sign Bella out. We never found her so My friend Avery who is also a Kindergarten teacher said here sign her out with her and she would tell Mrs. Gray. So we did that and right as we were walking out we saw Mrs. Gray and told her we had signed her out. We drove and drove and drove. We got back to the house around 4:45.

I think Bella had a great day spending time with just Me and "Granny" Silas was there but he really is not a factor for Bella. I think in her mind Kenzie takes the spot light off of her. I am learning to spend single time with each child more so my girls. I spend a lot of alone time with Silas but I don't ever get to just hang with the girls. So I am going to make an effort to do this more often. I promised my girls this summer we were going to take a lot of day trips. That Mommy is going to find the energy even if I have to start taking something a little more for energy. I already take a B complex and seriously thinking about taking B 12 shots. I have gotta do something I just really wanna lay around more than I wanna do anything. So I gotta get some energy we gotta big summer ahead of us.






Like I said Bella really I think enjoyed having Granny come along. Anita Bo's Mom has gone to a lot of things this year for me. Well the first day of school I was in the hospital so Anita went in my place. It was so sad to me and I tear up every single time I think my baby started school and I could not be there to watch her walk into her class room and tell me "Are you going to leave Mom" Thank God for Mom in law. Then Bella had a Thanksgiving lunch and I was recovering from my "female Surgery" so I could not make it. My Mom in law was right there willing to go. Anita went with me to Kenzie's kindergarten field trip to the zoo and I bet you money she will be with me at Silas's kindergarten trip to the zoo. Its a great little tradition that I hope my kids will let me go on there kids field trips and hang out with them at school! We had a great school year and I am kinda sad that its all over with. My Kenzie is going into the 3rd grade and my Bella is going into the 1st. WOW didn't I just give birth to them both? ha ha Well its bed time and I am done with another LONG LONG Blog. I hope everyone has a great weekend. We plan on sitting around and doing NOTHING! Blessings

My Mommy's Day!

Let me just start off by saying that I am so blessed to be the Mother of these three little kids. They may drive me crazy at times and they may step out of line some (more like a lot here lately)but they are good kids who just need a little more consistency from Mom and Dad! ;o) I love these three little blessings!

So I wake up and my kids scream from down stairs MOM DO NOT GET UP! It has become a Mother's Day tradition for my girls to help cook my breakfast and serve it to me in bed. Well this year was no different then years past, Bella came in with my coffee and Kenzie followed right behind with my tray of food. My precious husband had made me my most favorite thing in the world. Strawberry, cream cheese, powder sugar Crepes. OH MY WORD my mother in law makes these little blessings for us on special occasions and my Hubby had her teach him so that he could make them for me. How sweet is my hubby for doing that? I am so blessed! Well this year on my tray was a little glass with two beautiful roses off my Mother in law's rose bush. ha ha And a little jewelry gift box. I ate first you gotta eat those crepes cause they are not good cold. You see what it takes to get me, straight to my Belly. HA HA After eating the crepes I opened the gift box. It is a beautiful white gold chain with a white gold circle pendant in the center. I had told my hubby that I loved the pendant. He is such a good man he listened this time to what I said. We had gone shopping the night before and it seems that we have developed a not so normal Mother's Day tradition I get two bathing suits. So we went to the Mall and tried on a million. It was a lot of fun, I know bathing suit shopping normally is not fun. The sales lady was young and had a great sense of humor between her and Bo it was just fun being silly and trying different things on. ha ha So I bought one at Dillard's and then we went to Target and I found one there I loved a little more than the one I got at Dillard's but I love them both.

Bo and the girls took his Mom some crepes and her gift over to her and had some time with her while I finished up my coffee and breakfast in bed. So by this time it was far to late to get ready for church. So we decided to just go ahead and start getting shower's and ready for our Mother's Day lunch with my family in Grant. Laura made Lasagna, I brought the Caesar Salad mix and Tea, Randi brought the bread and oil dipping stuff and HER WONDERFUL CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES! I love these things and if I knew how to make them I would be as big as a freakin house. OH MY WORD they are to die for. Well we ate lunch got the littlest ones down for a nap and pulled out Laura's wedding video. We laughed so hard and cried. Why did we cry you might ask? Well the fact that my thigh right now is as big as my waste was then. My Dad told me Lisa you won't want to watch this its going to hurt your feelings. You were sooooooo skinny. Oh well I like to think my bigger frame is a mark of Mother hood. bahahaha

Then we all went outside to hang out on my parents new deck. It was so nice but the pollen was killing me. I just figured I will just take a pill. ha ha So the kids were playing wiffle ball and I don't know how it happened but we all decided lets play. So we had Sean, Bo, Matt against the rest of us. The rest of us being, Mom, Dad, Laura, Lisa, Randi, Addison, Kenzie, Bella (the two little boys just ran with whoever was in the outfield) HA HA My Mom hit and ran bases, my dad pitched and ran bases. RANDI HIT TWICE AND RAN BASES IN HER HIGH HEALS AND WHITE PANTS. It was the funniest thing to see my prissy little sister running bases in her cork soul HIGH I mean HIGH Wedge shoes. We were having so much fun even the neighbors came outside and were watching us have a blast. I think I will propose that this be the new family tradition when we all get together we play wiffle ball. So I get up to bat and my brother in law SEAN who was pitching caught the ball I hit. And how we play since you don't have a glove in wiffle ball is if you get touched by the ball you are out. Well ol Marcus as I like to call him decided to take my leg off I guess cause he threw the ball and smacked me square in the thigh. YES IT LEFT A BRUISE! Then he gets up to bat hits the ball and that's right you guessed it he hit a line drive right into my knee. Yep I got hurt twice with a freakin wiffle ball. Who gets hurt playing wiffle ball? I guess it was my day today! ha ha All in all we had a great time eating, talking, hanging, playing wiffle ball.

We came home stopped at the grocery store did some major grocery shopping. I am talking cart stacked over flowing. We were in there I know over an hour. Then we came home and Bo unloads I put away that's just how we have done it for years. ha ha So I get everything put away. Then we went to hang out with Bo's Mom and Dad who was working in the yard for a little while. Then I came in and did a couple loads of laundry. I had ran out of laundry detergent in the middle of the week last week and if I don't do a couple loads a day it gets backed up. Boy did it get backed up this week. Well I had to do the dishes from this morning's Mommy Day Breakfast before we could start cooking. It was TACO NIGHT here at the Boatner Ranch. We all sat down ate dinner and talked about what we were doing this week and took that time to talk with the girls about there attitudes and how it was not pleasing to the father. That we know we had been really slacking on the discipline because of the move we knew it was hard but now we are settled and its time to reign them back in. So we laid down the law's that we were going to be very strict one/ONLY warning then its spanking. So after our talk we got the kids in the bed and I went to work on the Proactive Mask thing. So far so good I have noticed my face is smoother and the bigger bumps are getting smaller and I have only used it 4 times. I think I am going to like this stuff. Well then it was off to bed I went. Not a good night Silas slept in our bed why you might ask. Well he feel asleep in our bed and then his daddy feel asleep right beside him and when I got to bed I was to exhausted to even think about picking him up. I went right to sleep I don't even remember putting on PJ's. ha ha
Well That was my Mommy's Day and I loved every single minute of it. I hope everyone had a great day spending it with there children or there Mommas. If your Momma is not on this earth any longer I hope you had a great time thinking of her and how much she has blessed your life. If you you don't have fond Memories of your mother I hope you at least took the time to Thank her for giving you life. The greatest gift of all. Have a great week. Blessings

Self Esteem & Happiness

So I have been thinking about Self Esteem because well I have battled self esteem issues since I was a child and here recently has reared its ugly head again. I was always to skinny, dumb as a rock and felt like the things I had were not as cool as the other kids. Then as an adult it’s more like, a fat cow, still dumb as a rock and basing my happiness in other people and how they think of me. So I decided to do a little research about self esteem and on what the Bible says about it and our happiness.

The definition of Low in Webster’s is an adjective meaning situated or passing below the normal level surface, or base of measurement, or the mean elevation
The Definition of Self Esteem is the confidence and satisfaction a person has in him/herself

We (humans) base our self esteem and ability to feel good about our selves on Beauty, Intelligence, Money, and Possessions. I think it is now the norm for us to measure ourselves against our friends, family and colleges. That if we are not skinny like so and so and have the degree like such and such or the money and “things” that what’s there names have that we are inferior to them. We should not look for esteem boosters in our appearance, or what others think of us and our what we have or don’t have. Rather we should look at these things as the Father does (and I paraphrased these verses, but put the full reference verse at the bottom) He says in 1 Samuel 16:7 that Looks are not everything and that God looks at our hearts humans only look at the face or outward appearance. He also says in Jeremiah 9:23-24 to not brag of our wisdom or of our exploits or our riches. That if we are going to brag about anything that we should brag about knowing and understanding God. I think really what the father is trying to teach with that verse is humility.
Webster’s definition of humility is the quality or state of being humble. The definition of humble is not proud or haughty: not arrogant or assertive. The Bible teaches us in Proverbs 18:12 Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, But humility goes before honor. He readily tells us what he wants us to do in the book of Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)

1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—you’re sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Woo Hoo how great is our God that he would tell us just actually how he wants us to do things and what the outcome will be. We serve an awesome God who loves us very much and wants us to center all things around him and allow him to build us and our self esteem up. I think I have learned so much from just sitting down this morning and getting in the word. I always say Its not the Quantity but the Quality and that goes for relationships, possessions and the time we spend with our family. Wow is all I have left say that and Blessings!
.



Reference Verses:
1 Samuel 16:7 (the Message)
But God told Samuel, "Looks aren't everything. Don't be impressed with his looks and stature. I've already eliminated him. God judge’s persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart


Jeremiah 9:23-24 (The Message)
God's Message:
"Don't let the wise brag of their wisdom.
Don't let heroes brag of their exploits.
Don't let the rich brag of their riches.
If you brag, brag of this and this only:
That you understand and know me.
I'm God, and I act in loyal love.
I do what's right and set things right and fair,
and delight in those who do the same things.
These are my trademarks." God's Decree

Proverbs 18:12 (New American Standard) Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, But humility goes before honor.

Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)

1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—you’re sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you