**Old Skool**

Back in 1988, 1989 &1990, I was living in Gwinnett, Ga~ The only 3 years of my life when I lived outside of North Carolina.  There was the all young boy band which all young girls loved "New Kids On The Block"~ Yes, I was one of those crazy little girls who was totally IN LOVE with NKOTB!!  However, in my defense, I did not have all the crazy paraphernalia!  All I had was a Jordan Knight t-shirt, stickers and many posters!!  Although, I had friends who had the whole 9 yards~ the sheets, the buttons, ALL the t-shirts, and I can't even remember what else!!

All I EVER wanted when I was 9 years old was to be able to go to one of their concerts!!  I made a deal with my parents that if I EVER got straight A's, they'd have to take me!!  My sister was in high school at the time, and she was allowed to go to one of their concerts with a few of her friends!

Anyway, I NEVER made straight A's in my life~ BUT, I did FINALLY make it to an NKOTB concert a few years ago!!  Yes, a few years ago!  The dream I had when i was 9 years old had FINALLY COME TRUE!!  My cousin A'me and I had bought tickets up in the nosebleed section!!

A'mes roommates had front row side stage tickets and some way, they worked their girlie magic on this guy ~ and they invited us down to their seats!

NKOTB Oct '08

This is one of my favorite pictures because Jordan looks like he is looking right at me while I am snapping away!!

My friend Jen & me

Once again, I got to see my most favorite childhood band last week!!  This lady's hubby, got her tickets to NKOTB for her birthday!!  They were pretty close up tickets!!  She knew I was a fan so she invited me to make the trip up to Greensboro with her to see them!!  We had a blast and I am just going to post the pictures for you to see~  There is a video below; and it is of Joey (from NKOTB) coming up into the stands, 3 rows in front and across from us!  I know we are probably in the minority of really liking NKOTB, however, it was still exciting 23 years later!

A couple other friends were there too!!

NKOTB July '11

*We Got Mail*

Saturday was a BIG mail day for us!!  Sylas got 2 packages in the mail!!

One package was from Sy's Nana Piggy and Papa (Brent's parents)!!  They just recently took a trip to Alaska and got all the grand children souvenir's!!  In his package were 2 books, a t-shirt and a pair of socks!!  All Alaska themed!  This is such a treat for him to get surprise's like this from them since

they live in Portland, OR.  We miss them soo much!!  We will get to see them in just a few short weeks, we are all getting SOO EXCITED!!!  Sylas is at a great age right now, that this trip is going to be so much fun!!  However, I'm not sure I am looking forward to the plane trip tho!!  Anyone have any advise on traveling on a plane with a 22 month old???  At home, he is into EVERYTHING; i'm just afraid on a plane it will be worse!!  But, the end result will be great!!! 

Our other package came from our friends who live in Korea!  I blogged about her earlier how she has inspired me to blog (and how she is SUCH a great writer)!!  I talked about how she did a "giveaway week" on her blog just because she got 20,000 hits on her blog!!  She posted one Korean item a day, and to win that item all you had to do was comment on her daily post!  At the end of the week (which is today) she will draw a name from each daily post and that person will win that item from that day they posted!  Only rule: you could only comment once a day! And guess what??  I won on one of the giveaways!!!  It was so much fun!!  This is what we won!!  It is really cool!  It is a piece of white silk with Sylas written on it using bright rainbow colors~ Each letter is formed from something from nature, like a bird, bamboo, a tree, a sunset~ I got to choose what I wanted on the banner, so I just decided to get Sy's name put on it.  It's really pretty, I'm not sure where I'm going to put it just yet, but for now, it's hanging on the wall in our den!  THANK YOU MARY!

*Field Trip*

I took an afternoon off from work this week so Sylas and I had some time to take a little field trip!!  We got to go down and see Daddy's office!  Sy has been before, but now that he is getting older, it is MUCH more FUN to go places that are "new" to him!!

Daddy had a little bit of work to do, so Sylas decided to help out!  I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but Sylas had was having fun!!

The look Sylas gets when he sees Brent and the way he interacts with with Brent melts my heart every time!!

Sylas had so much fun seeing Daddy at work!!  He is such a Daddy's Boy!!

*Little Man*

 This is a picture of Sylas eating his first bite's of corn!!  I think he has had corn off the cob before, but not too sure about that~ But this was his FIRST time eating corn ON the cob!!  I helped him with the first few bites, then he decided he wanted to do it himself!!

This picture was taken on July 4th out on the lake on the way to watch the fire works!  Sylas slept the whole boat ride out~ and did wake up for the fireworks, but didn't seem amused by them.  I think if he wasn't so tired, he would have totally enjoyed them!

*BabySitters*

I had a couple of great baby sitters growing up!!  Patrick and Laurie were awesome!!  They were our babysitters up until I was about in 2nd or 3rd grade, after that we moved out of state.   

Sylas, has two different babysitters right too!  These two ladies are awesome and I hope he enjoys them as much and remembers them like I remember Patrick and Laurie.  Sy's babysitters are Morgan and Robin.  Two wonderful ladies who are at two completely different points in their lives!

picture posted without permission

Robin has been keeping Sylas about 2 days a week since he was about 4 months old ~ She is married with 4 children of her own, 3 girls and a boy.  Her oldest daughter will be a freshman in high school in August and her youngest, who's name is Silas~ will be starting Kindergarten in August.

picture posted without permission

And there's Morgan ~ she has been keeping him 1 day a week during the summer's~ she just graduated from Appalachian State University with a degree in Psychology and Child Development.  I have worked with her for the past 6 years or so; and now I am her boss, but I love her to death and she's just awesome!!

Both these ladies keep him in the middle of the day while I am at work, and he usually naps at their house and bring him back to my place of employment where I get 4 hours of free child care a day!

However, here are a couple of pictures I have received of my child while they were on their watch!  I'm not sure which picture I am more upset by.... my child voluntarily putting himself into a dog crate (so, she say's, i would have taken pictures too) or my child being returned to me in a C@rolina T-Shirt???  When revenge is made, I will share.......

In the meantime, I am taking suggestions for revenge ideas....????

*Cousins*

This was the winner this year!

 There are 9 grandchildren on my side of the family!  Ranging from ages 16 months to 14 years!!  With 8 of them under the age of 8!  Every year for Father's Day we take a picture of all the grand kids and put it on a coffee mug for my dad~ we then take that same picture and blow it up poster size for my mom for her birthday.  I've only been a part of this tradition for 2 years now, but almost every year for the last 8 years, there has been another grand child added to the mix!  Trying to get a picture of 9 children looking at the camera is a HARD thing to do!

This weekend Sylas and I went swimming with his cousins on my side of the family!  There are 9 of them total!!  Here are is Sylas with 3 of his cousins~ Coby age 7, Smith age 4 and MollieAnn age 16 months!

While we were at the pool.... the Chi@k-Fil-A Cow showed up!!  They brought some of their New Spi@cy Chicken Sandwiches to give away.  Sylas didn't want to have anything to do with the Cow~ he would just 'moo' at him when he was about 10 feet away~ once we got closer to him than that, Sylas would scream and turn away!!  Needless to say, getting this picture of us with the cow as difficult!  I am holding his head in the direction of the camera!

*Why Blogging*

My husband has asked me several questions about this blog! He doesn't understand why 1) I would want to write about whats going on in our my life and 2) who care's about my grocery shopping adventures & my our garden.  I told him I like to read other peoples blogs about what's going on in their lives~ I see blogging a little bit more personal than Face Book~ There are two ladies who have inspired me to blog.  Both of them blog about their lives and family's and their fun crazy adventures!  Their blogs are also fun!!

take this one for example~ This is my friend Mary's blog~ she is married with 2 children and they are stationed in Korea right now and will be transferring to Germany come October (i think)~ I've been reading her blog since they moved to Korea about 8 months ago.  She just did an awesome "Giveaway Week".  She posted one Korean item a day, and to win that item all you had to do was comment on her daily post!  At the end of the week (which is today) she will draw a name from each daily post and that person will win that item from that day they posted!  Only rule: you could only comment once a day!  So fun and inspiring!!    

Here is another one I've been reading as well.  I've been reading this one for a long time... This is my friend Amy's blog.  I love reading about her adventures from traveling to China to adopt a child to her juggling the hectic day of having 6 children and how sane and selfless she is!! 

Needless to say, my husband is right!  I don't even understand why I want to write about my life and I don't know who would even care to read about my grocery shopping adventures & our garden!  But, what I can hope for, is that, maybe one day our life will be as interesting and adventurous as my friends Mary and Amy! 

**These are not the only blogs I read; but two of the blogs I check out daily and get frustrated that they don't blog more often!  I just enjoy reading their blogs!!