I love my life

***DISCLAIMER: Before I begin the actual post...I don't know what's happening with my slideshow. Some of the captions are cut off and I have no idea where the music came from. lol I didn't intend the music to be there...so just turn your volume down.***

Okay, so I've finally had time to upload the photos I've been talking about. I know I briefly described how it's been up here, but I'll go into a little more detail now. So when we arrived on Tuesday night, we just all hung out until we got the boys Wednesday afternoon from the boys' babysitter, Mary. Grandma Stella picked up Jasmine when she went into Havana on Thursday. We've had them until earlier tonight...and I missed them as soon as we put them in their car seats to take them to their mom.

We went into Havana to watch the Firework show on Friday, July 4th. We stopped by Bill's (Jason and Ant's dad) to pick Ant up so he could go with us. Since there were too many of us to fit in the car, we walked to the park area. We spread out a big blanket and waited for the show to begin. Now, it sure wasn't any Fair St. Louis, but it was still pretty cool. Lucas was a little scared because of the loud noises. Shawn was clapping after all of the fireworks went off. That was kind of funny. After that, we dropped Ant back off and brought the kids back here to supervise some fireworks.

Grandma Stella went to Chicago, IL with her granddaughter Laken to support her in a beauty pageant she was in. I sure missed her, that's all I'm going to say. lol I started work at the new store on Tuesday. I mentioned how the kids (or Shawn at least) were asking about me when I was at work. Well, Saturday when I was about to leave for work, Jasmine and Luke came to give me a hug before I left and Shawn says, "Cole...I don't want you to go to work. I want you to stay here. Dad, can her stay here?" Then as I'm about to walk out the door, I say bye to them and I see Shawn and he has his lip out and he starts to cry. That about broke my heart!

I've enjoyed my day off for the most part today. Around 11:00 or so, I decided that I'd take the kids up to the pool. Ant agreed to go with me. Around noon, Jason's phone rang, and it was the kids' mother wanting to know when we were bringing them home. Since I didn't know myself, I gave the phone to Jason, who told me that she wanted them home by 5:00. So, I got the kids lunch and then put some sunscreen on them and we went up to the pool for a little while. We had a lot of fun at the pool. I was so impressed with Shawn. I've been potty training him the last few months. Since he's been with us for a longer period of time than two days, he was getting used to telling me when he had to go. So of course it didn't matter what I was doing, if he said he had to go, he expected me to come with him...which I don't really mind. I assumed that since he was going to be swimming and having fun that he wouldn't want to tell me, since he'd have to get out of the pool. Wrong! I was so proud of him. He told me twice that he had to go and Ant took him. See, Jason went to try and get Little Swimmers, but the store was out. So, we had to put him in "big boy underwear." We didn't know for sure how he'd do in them, but he made me so proud. Luke kept calling the pool the "tub." LOL Ant took Jas to the big pool while I had the boys in the kiddie pool. Then Ant took Luke because Luke said, "Cole...ask Anthony to take me to the big tub!" How cute is that? lol As you can see by the pics, we all had fun. Once we got back, I got all of the kids baths and ready to go to their mother's house.

After we dropped them off, Jason was telling me a story and he mentioned the bowling alley his grandpa Bill used to run. I always hear stories, but I've never seen the actual bowling alley. Since we were in town, he took me over there. The couple that runs it now happened to be there, but they were closing up. Jason was very close to his grandpa and he grew up in that bowling alley. He played on several leagues and was really good from what I hear...and I've seen him bowl now and he's awesome. So, I'm sure it brought back a bunch of memories. He introduced me to the couple and they seemed happy to see him. The woman let us come inside so he could show me. It was really nice. It had 10 lanes in it...small compared to what we have in the Arnold/Imperial area, but we're in a small town. It also has a banquet area...which I thought was pretty cool and not expecting. So we chatted with the woman for a few moments and left. We came back and ate dinner, then sat down and watched a movie. We've just been hanging out with all of Jason's cousins for a while. Now it's time for bed, but I've been wanting to finish this blog post since I've been too busy to do it the previous several days.

I've had so much fun with the kids the past (almost) two weeks. It's kind of funny, lately Jason has been saying, "your kids" instead of "the kids" or "my kids." He'll say, "I'm going to go take a shower...keep an eye on your kids until I get out." lol I love those kids to death and I've had a great time taking care of them and Jason. Jason, the kids and I are finally getting a more solid routine down now. The kids are learning more what they can and cannot do. It's so hard when we only have them for two days at a time. But this time, we had them for a lot longer. When I told them we had to get ready to go, they didn't want to go home, they wanted to stay with us. If this past week or so is any indication of how the rest of my life will be, I consider myself extremely blessed. And again, I must say how much I love Jason...I'm so glad I have this partnership.

I'm getting pretty tired now, so I'll stop writing my novel. I miss everybody back in MO...I love you all...and I miss my Tigger! Mom says she's taking good care of him and he's doing well. Thanks mom. :)

Until next time...

Love always,

Cole xoxox