Lake Tillery

Last weekend we packed our bags, our boys and a tent and headed to the sunny shores of Lake Tillery. We spent a fun-filled weekend with the Ussery family and even managed to see some of my family along the way! The weekend was full of many firsts for us. All of which went surprisingly well.


It was our first time sleeping in a tent with a child. Since the lake house was full, John, Jack and I opted for the great outdoors. The tent you see here was our home for three nights, and we all loved it! The tent is huge, so we eased our way into the camping scene by bringing along our air mattresses. Yes, it was cushy for camping, I know. But it was fun. We could look up at the stars and hear the crickets chirping and all of the other North Carolina summer night sounds that I love. We also had the pleasure of waking to some nearby construction workers hammering nails into a boat dock while singing "Hero" by Mariah Carey. You think I'm lying. It was one of those 'too weird' sleepy moments where something was happening and you incorporated it into your dream. But even my dreams aren't that strange, so I woke up to the reality of it.

The Sleepy Campers

Finn slept well inside. He was a little trooper the whole time.

He moved from the boat....

To the hammock....back to the boat, into the float, down for a nap, up for another boat run, back to Jeffrey's baseball game....Finn's a good little traveler!

Jack had his first watermelon that wasn't already cut up into a fruit salad. He enjoyed sucking his piece until it turned white. A meal wasn't complete without the addition of some watermelon goodness.

Jack thoroughly enjoyed his time with his aunts and uncles. Jeffrey was awesome with Jack. They'd chill in the hammock, eat icy pops together and go on kayak rides. Jack was so anxious the entire ride to NC because he knew our first stop was Jeffrey's baseball game in Asheboro. He'd interrupt his movie watching to ask us "We going to Jeffwee's baythbaw game???" My parents came to the first game and then my grandparents, brother, and sister in law tagged along to the second one. It was so fun to see everybody! And...we were happy that my grandmother (Mema) came and brought her good luck because she won a bicycle for Jack in a raffle they had at the game! So Jack is now the proud owner of a little red Huffy and a matching little red helmet.

Jack had his first tubing experience. He enjoyed the nice 10 mph cruising speed.

Here's Jordan being the helpful aunt to Finley.

Jeff's mustache had thickened nicely from our last visit with him:) Jack was answering the call of mother nature off of the dock.

Here's Finn with Uncle Trev. This may have been where the germ handoff took place. Trevor was sick the whole weekend and Finn is now sick. Thanks, Uncle Trev! Sharing is caring! I'm kidding by the way. They have different illnesses altogether, so please, no darts or hate mail to Trevor.

This was a fun picture of Trevor and Jordan tubing. They were amazing tubers and never let go....even with Johnny "Daredevil" Ussery at the wheel spinning them all over the lake. There must be a 'good at water sports' gene, and the entire family I married into has it. John slalomed and was amazing. Jordan popped right up and slalomed like it was nothing. Jeffrey was jumping wakes on his wakeboard. And then, Gigi nonchalantly slaloms for a long time, drops the rope because she's probably more bored than tired and then returns to the boat without a wet hair on her head. It was amazing. Hopefully it's a dominant gene that the boys will get, because I have a feeling they'll spend some time on the water.

Here was our boat full. Jack proudly gave high fives for his first tubing ride.

We can't wait to go back!!!

Summer Lovin'

We've had the most fun this summer enjoying the outdoors and the just the general awesomeness of summer. Even though no one in our home is of school age (except for pre schooler Jack), summer still carries that 'school's out' feel. At least to me.

Here's what the Usserys have been up to this week...

When I picked Jack up from preschool this week, he greeted me with the usual huge smile and "MOMMY!!!!". After our hug, he stepped back pointed to his new prized possession: this hand printed T-shirt. He was so happy to tell me all about putting paint on his hands and then washing his hands in the water. "The brown water, Mommy." Needless to say he wore the shirt all day and only let John remove it after John promised to hang it in our dining room window so everyone driving by could see it.

On Tuesday nights in Bluffton you can go to the local movie theater for an outdoor concert by the Headliners. This week was our first time going, and the boys loved it. Finn enjoyed watching all of the people, and the people all enjoyed watching Jack and his buddy, Gracen, tearing it up on the dance floor.

While the jury is still out on exactly what Jack's future talents will be, we're pretty sure it won't be dancing. Outside of proms and weddings, that should actually make life easier than harder for a boy. He kept making the funniest faces when he was groovin'...somewhat reminiscent of Elaine from Seinfeld.

The sweaty Ussery family...

John's brother, Jeff, was in town a few days this week. Jack had a lot of fun playing with him. Here's a great shot of the Ussery men.

On that same night, they visited with John's Grandmother, Catherine. She lit up like the 4th of July when she saw her grandsons and her great-grandsons.

Finn obviously loved hanging out with Jeff, too. Maybe it was Jeff's amazing baby skillz....or the tribute to Asheboro that's growing over his upper lip. Check it out.

Yesterday we had a fort painting party. After preschool, Jack, Gracen and Charlie came back to our house, changed into play clothes and slung paint all over the back yard. Some of it landed on the fort. The rest landed on Finn.

Jack made his body a piece of art as well....("washable"...not so much)

Now that Finley is of playing age, I thought it was time to introduce his playmates: Here's Pavin (Gracen's brother) on the left and Shane (Charlie's brother) on the right. Finn is the oldest by 4 weeks, then it's Shane by 4 weeks and then there's Pavin, who happens to be the youngest AND the biggest!:)

I think Charlie was either having fun, high on paint fumes or drunk off of icy pop sugar. Maybe all three?

Finn was into icy pop stealing that day.

The little boy standing up is our new neighbor, Bodie. He's almost 2. It was his first paint experience, and he had a great time!


***Fungus Among Us Update***

WONDERFUL NEWS!!!! John visited MUSC again this week and was told that he is officially considered healed from the horrible eye problem he's faced for the past 2 months. We are so thankful to God for healing him and for the incredible physicians He placed in John's path. Thank you for all of your prayers and concern! We're blessed beyond measure.

Jack also had his eye doctor check up this week. His farsightedness has worsened, which they expected to happen and consider normal. However, it does mean....NEW RIMS! So, stay tuned for Jack's new glasses.

4th and Forts

Happy Belated 4th of July to everyone!

We had a super July 4th this year. John had the day off, and we spent the morning at the pool as a family. The weather wasn't too hot, and the kids weren't cranky! It was the perfect way to celebrate the blessing of living in the USA!


After the boys napped, we headed onto the island for dinner and fireworks with Gigi, Poppy Johnny, Jackie and Luke. We all had so much fun! We were a little nervous that Finn would scream through the entire firework's show, but he sat there and stared in amazement! We took a boat ride down to Shelter Cove and had the best view.

Gigi took this adorable picture of Jack that night. As the boats paraded by their home, he waved at almost all of them, and screamed "HELLO!" to all the passerby. "Shy" would not exactly describe our firstborn.


Check out the legs on this one! As I've said before, baby shoes still hold the #1 spot in the Cutest Baby Thing List. There's just something about them! It doesn't hurt that the sticks of chub that are shoved into them happen to be the best set of baby legs around.

Finn doesn't really NEED shoes right now, but I thought it would be cute to give them a whirl. He enjoyed walking behind his push toy with them, but then he seemed to prefer chewing on the laces better. Our dentist would be proud.

And this pretty much sums up what a day in the Ussery household is like. When I do the kids' laundry, I sit in the floor of Finn's room and make little piles all around me. The boys really like hiding in the closet, which I let them do in order to keep them from destroying my immaculate clothes' piles. Instead of destroying the clothes, they chose to destroy the diaper stacks and chew on ripped up book pages. Oh, boy. And Finn isn't even walking yet.

What says summer better than icy pops? I bought a bag of the frozen goodness at Walmart a few weeks ago. Let me tell you...Flav-o-Ice has stepped it up a notch from the basic orange, grape and cherry days. They have pina colada, peach (that tastes like real peaches and not artificial peach flavoring), and pineapple. Since I know all the flavors, that means I've had my fair share of them, huh? Jack and Gracen enjoyed their icy pops during our small group cornhole game in the rain last night. They haven't quite mastered the art of pushing the pop up out of the plastic tubing. Instead they push is too hard and it falls out, and then they're upset. And that's when I tell them it's okay to eat it off of the table.

It's been a year and a half since we built a fort in what should be our dining room, so I decided it was time to bring the forts back! Thanks to Jordan and Trevor, we had an abundance of boxes from all the shipped furniture, and the washer and dryer (that are AWESOME and are now in our laundry room! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!) that will not be feasible to fit into their future NYC dwelling space. Those boxes looked so usable and fort-worthy, that we couldn't pass up the opportunity! To the left is a house-like fort with pop up windows, and on the right is what I tried to make a train.

Since it rained during our small group party, the kids were able to enjoy themselves inside. I thought Jack and Gracen would be the only ones to enjoy it, but.....

I was wrong. Finn and Pavin loved crawling around in there themselves.

And this morning, the boys and I played in the train. It was all fun until I realized that coming out was much harder than going in. The door was not made quite wide enough for adult butt. Blame it on the icy pops.

My Hibiscus is a Jerk

Some have a green thumb. I have a gangrenous thumb. It's been proven many times. You could fill an entire plant cemetery with all the ones I've killed. So, you can imagine when my mother in law gave me these beautiful hibiscus plants, that I sighed thinking how the poor plant didn't know what it had coming. Look below to see how I was WRONG!




Want to know how I didn't kill this one? I went out of town for a week and didn't have anyone water it, put it in the shade, put it in the sun, pray for it, nothing. And it blossomed tenfold. Before we left, the leaves were drying and yellowing. I'd pick them off very gently as to not damage the other green leaves and potential buds. The plants were watered exactly as instructed on the card that came with them, and their sun exposure was as recommended. Yet, the plant continued to look like dung. Basically it looked like the picture above minus all of the orange, plus lots of brown. So we go out of town. It didn't dawn on me until midweek that I'd forgotten to ask anyone to care for the plants. Oh well. They were dying anyway, right?

When we got home, and I saw that the plants had thrived, I wanted to kick them and kiss and shout hallelujas all at the same time. But instead I took this picture and have been staring at them for the past few days now wondering if I should let them do their thing or step in and micro manage again. Either way, this blog is here to document that the orange hibiscuses have lived for one month under three weeks of my TLC. A true milestone!

Family Beach Trip 2008

It's that time of year again! The time when we load up the car and head north to "the beach" for my family's 256th annual beach vacation. Even though we live at the beach, we don't actually make it out there very often, so we definitely enjoy our time spent on the sandy shores, especially with family. Last week was a lot of fun! So, blog stalkers, that's why we've been MIA.

Here's the week in review:


Sorry for the fogginess. I didn't let the camera defrost after bringing it into the sweltering temperatures from the AC. Anyway, you can see enough to find John, my brother, Matt and Jack in the picture. John and Matt had their 3rd annual bocce competition. The first to win 10 games wins. The loser then treats the winner to dinner on the last night. So, Matt...you're welcome!

Jack and Finn loved spending time with their cousins! Anna was such a great helper with Finn. She loved playing with him and made sure he wasn't getting hurt.

This is my uncle, Brian, my cousin, Owen and my Grandad. Jack was basically Owen's shadow whenever he was around. He trailed him everywhere and copied everything he was saying. It was great for them to spend time together. We only wish it could happen more.

Jack has taken up the air guitar recently, so he was more than thrilled when my parents gave him this guitar that my grandmother from Greensboro sent along. It's his new favorite thing to do.

Just a good picture of Matt and my mom.

Midweek we decided to take Jack to the Family Kingdom, which is a park with rides, games and funnel cake. You know...every kid's (and some adult's) dream. Jack had so much fun, he could hardly speak. Literally. He was reduced to pointing and staring instead of the usual chatterbox we have. It was so funny. He rode the cars, the boats, the monster trucks, a roller coaster (yes), the carousel, the swings, the motorcycles...if he was tall enough, he went for it. Little did I know, though, that someone (who will remain nameless) was slipping him sips of COKE in between rides. That fortunately didn't kick in until the ride back to the house where the emotionless wonder we experienced at the rides turned into a freak show. I didn't know anyone could move so much while strapped into a carseat.

The swings. It was so cute watching Jack ride the things that we remembered riding as children. John said that he lost a flip flop on the swings as a kid, and I couldn't help but to remember that I always worried my swing would come loose and that I'd go flying into the parking lot.

Another good picture. This is my sister in law, Melissa, Matt and John enjoying the spectacle of the Family Kingdom. Mesh tank tops, "I Love Hot Moms" T shirts and trucker hats were not in short supply. We LOVED it, and look forward to going back. Thank you, Brian and Jennifer, for treating Jack to the rides for an early birthday present. He could not have had more fun!!!

This is Jack on the airplanes. It took him a while to realize that the steering bar would raise and lower the plane. For a while he was the only one riding low. That's okay. Where would we be without crop dusters anyhow?

Jack put on his flat Coke face for the camera. I couldn't believe that I was watching my baby do such big boy things. It was only 3 short years ago that I was waddling around those places huge preggo with that boy. And now he's taller than the little hand that points to "You Must Be This Tall" signs. AHHH!!!!!

This picture is hilarious on all accounts. Finny Finster had fun watching all the lights and people, and of course playing with Poppy.

On our last night there, we went to Broadway at the Beach for dinner, and guess what? MORE RIDES!!! John and I tried to shield Jack's view of them when we arrived, but to no avail. So we ate dinner, caved, and found ourselves going in circles on the carousel. This time, with Finn in tow! And he loved it, too!!!

When Jack was getting on this car ride, I asked him if he wanted me to go with him. He said, "NO! You're too big!" True. So, I buckled him in, started walking away, and then he redeemed himself with a "Mama!!!! Ride the cars with me!" Twist my arm. OK! Maybe my knees did bang into the front of the ride, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't fun.

Matt and Melissa took care of Finn while John and I took turns on the rides with Jack. Thanks to all of our family for helping with the boys all week! It would have been very difficult without you!

So...that's what we were doing last week.

The Rat Race

Along with instruction manuals, boys should come with a stock pile of riding toys. They love anything on wheels. We have a scooter, a tricycle, a wagon, a push car, and a battery operated Power Wheels. Some days they're happy to take a spin in one of them. Other days they ride them all! On this particular day, the boys raced.


Jack doesn't quite have the art of steering down. After bottoming out on several neighbors' driveways, he finally got a better handle on things. Finn loves the red push car. He knows how to beep the horn, and he enjoys bouncing up and down while we push him. If Jack pushes, he gets more of a joy ride and a lot more wheelies.

What a great picture of these two! Don't I have a handsome husband?

Nothing's more fun than a strategically placed blade of grass. Finn did this all by himself.

Scout loves our evenings outside because that means he gets to come out with us and run in his psycho circles around the yard. He continues to be so good with the boys. He just sits there and becomes their furry jungle gym.