My apologies

I am so sorry I haven't posted in over a week. As some of you know (certainly if you came in the store last week) I have been super sick with what I like to call "the back to school crud". After having a summer off with hardly any other kids germs, as soon as school starts, we are all sure to catch something. Preston, Bella and I got it and it was bad!!! Just last night I started to feel better and only woke up once last night because I couldn't stop coughing- but that is so much better then having to make rounds checking on sick kids or having to wake up every 30 minutes to blow my nose. So I am happy to say I am starting to feel myself today. So of course, it is time for hard labor at POPIN- Jamie and I are working on a floor move today. If you happen to come in today, please excuse the mess-and it is a mess! We got in a new twin bed and bedding we are excited about. We were supposed to get a new crib and new bunk beds but the Company pushed those back into September- so probably another floor move then too! I will take pictures this afternoon when our store looks like a store again and not just cardboard boxes. I also found some great items at the antique store last week I am so excited about- I'll show you tomorrow, I have to take Preston to school now and then head up to the store....

My Beach Baby

Today was my day off and Bella and I decided to make it a girls day at the beach! We had a blast. It was perfect weather, breezy and sunny. The water was cool but not cold. It took me a lot of coaxing to get Bella to even put a toe in the water but once she did, she wanted to stay in. I parked our chairs right at the edge of the water and just let her play. She would wait for the water to come to her feet then she would run as fast as she could to get away from it. Then she would follow it back out until the next wave came in. It was a great day with my baby!

Swap Meet Louie

I finally feel like my life has some sense of order again...Preston is back at school and I am back at work. Bella stays with a really nice lady while I am working who has a daughter her age so she never minds going there because she thinks it is a play date! The kids have had to adjust to the new routine, namely no TV during the week. It seems like our summer routine was play,play,play then watch movies to calm down. Now it is school, dinner, homework, bath, read, bed. They might think it is awful but I LOVE it!!!(they will thank me when they are my age-hopefully sooner-and have their own kids). This week I finished up my tags for the Gift Tag Swap I am in. I haven't ever heard of anything like this in Jacksonville but around the rest of the country it is becoming very popular. Not just gift tags, but swaps of all kinds. In this particular swap, I make 10 gift tags (must be handmade) and send them to the coordinator. There are people all over the world sending her 10 tags. Once she gets them all, she divides them up and sends them back out so each person will get 10 different gift tags. Here are mine- I decided to do them all the same but I could have done them all different. On the front there is a pull out TO card and you can write your message on the back of the pull out. On the back of the tag it does say FROM, even though you can only see FRO (cute POPIN sticker is covering it up). So in about 2 weeks I should get my tags...like Christmas for grown ups. Jamie and I are thinking about starting some swaps here in Jax, send us an email or post a comment to this blog and let us know if you are interested. It really doesn't take much money at all- I spent $1.99 on the 10 blank tags and the rest of the stuff I had from my scrapbook scraps. It really is just a good creative outlet and you will be the hit of the party with a great gift tag to make your present stand out. Jamie was just in a swap last month where you swapped doll house furniture. You made 10 of the same doll house accessory and shipped them to a girl in Virginia and in return she will get 10 pieces of different doll house stuff, enough to start her first doll house. I saw another swap the other day I really want to join that is a color swap. You fill a certain size box with things of a certain color. In return you will receive a box filled with goodies of all one color- just not the same color you sent in. Jamie would be great at this one because she can coordinate the heck out of presents. Anyway, let me know if you are interested and we can make Jax a hip place to swap too!

Summer's Over, turn off the heat!

So sorry it's been so long, We have been on vacation and working on the POPIN website and getting ready for Preston's first day of school! Why we do all of this during the summertime is beyond me...it is sooo hot outside! My family went on vacation to Missouri with stops in Mississippi along the way to and from. Mike's family reunion is every July at Montauk State Park in Missouri. This was the first year we have gone because we always thought the kids were too young to travel 15 hours in a car. My best friend Beth loaned us her mini-van for the trip (I am forever grateful- yes, I am probably the last mom on the face of the earth that doesn't own a mini-van or SUV, but I get great gas mileage in my car!!!). My Mom also tagged along for part of the way. We went through Nesbit, Mississippi which is where my Mom's two brothers live so we stopped there the first night and Mom stayed with them while we went to the reunion. At the reunion we met a lot of relatives we have never met and did some fishing and bike riding. Besides it being like 115 degrees outside, we had a great time. Mike's brother and sister-in-law had a baby 6 months ago and it was our first time meeting him- it was wonderful holding a little baby again- and a neat feeling to be an Aunt. We stayed in this little cabin with a kitchen-and air-conditioning!Preston and Mike did most of the fishing and both caught 1, I tried my best but was unsuccessful. The last night we were there, Mike's cousin cooked all of the fish everyone caught and we had a feast! There were 50 people at the reunion and everyone brought food so there was never a shortage! We also got to stop at Graceland and do the touristy thing, I loved it, and surprisingly so did Preston. I guess he is finally getting to that age where he understands more than he doesn't. It was a self guided audio tour and he listened to it the entire time. We also stopped at all of the state line signs and took pics, which was a pain because we always hit a state line as soon as the kids would fall asleep, so we would wake them up and of course they wouldn't smile or look at the camera but hey, it will be a blast to scrapbook with! Mike did almost all of the driving so I got to stretch out in the back and enjoy the scenery. Thank heavens the mini-van had a DVD player so the kids were entertained the whole way. Mom and I stopped a couple of times at fabric stores on the way back and found some amazing deals! I also got to see my Uncles when we picked my Mom up and their kids who I haven't seen since I got married in 1998- they were my flower girls. They were all grown up! It is really nice to be home, I never thought I would miss my bed so much but I did. I think the kids are glad to be home too, there is just something comforting about knowing your surroundings. The past week Mike and I have been finishing up the work for the website and I am proud to say that you can now shop online at www.shoppopin.com. This weekend we went school shopping for Preston. I really like his teacher this year and hope that will get him to like school a little more. I thought getting new clothes, shoes and backpack would excite him but unless it has to do with playing golf, baseball or swimming, he just doesn't seem that interested. I hope that is normal for kids his age, at least boys. Here he is in his class this morning, faking a smile, telling me to get out of the class because I am embarrassing him! One day he will realize how cool I am, but I don't plan on it being any time soon!