Catch a Wave Man!

Finally did some simple video editing on clips from the waterpark. Here is Tyler going down a slide and the girls getting to surf with one of the waterpark staff members. They loved it even though it looked pretty intense.

Warning...if you're using dial-up you might be in for a long wait...

First Day On The Bus

Out the door we go, ready for the bus.

Waiting in the rain for the bus.

On the bus and off to school.

We all survived her first day on the bus. I knew she would be fine, but it was still really hard to put my little girl on the bus, and boy was it a packed bus. I surprised myself and got through the whole thing without crying, but I couldn't stop thinking about her. She said she made friends on the bus and is ready to go tomorrow. I think she handled it better than I did.

I'm Not Ready For This

Today was Allison's first day of Kindergarten and I cannot believe it. I still cannot believe she is old enough to go to Kindergarten, where has the time gone? What happened to my little 5 pound 6 ounce girl? It just does not seem possible to me that she is now going to school.

We went to the Back to School picnic last night at Mary Frank and found out that not only are her and Abby Callender in the same class, but they are sitting across the table from each other. Becky and I decided to not warn their teacher at this point and see what happens. It should make for a fun year for both of them. They have gone to the same preschool for 2 years but were never in the same class.

Today she only went to school for an hour. I took her in and attended a meeting while she was in her class for an hour, tomorrow is the big day! Tomorrow morning at 7:35am she will be getting on the bus for the first time, this I am NOT ready for. I still cannot imagine putting my little girl on a bus. She really isn't old enough for this is she? She is not nervous at all and when I asked her tonight what she would do if she got to school and did not know where to go, she looked at me with that "duh mom" look on her face and said I will just ask a teacher. Okay so I guess she is ready to go to school. This just feels like the beginning of the end, my little girl is growing up.

One thing I do know is that these guys, especially Rachel, sure are going to miss Allison while she is at school.

Happy Birthday Jami

This is a picture of Jami Ruth, one of my best friends, and her husband Todd and son Carter. I had a hard time finding just a picture of Jami so had to use this one. Jami and I have known each other for almost 6 years now. I met Jami becuase of her love for Allison. Jami used to help watch the kids during New Community at church. She was in Allison's room and her and Allison quickly bonded and as Allison grew and moved rooms Jami moved with her.
To be truthful I cannot really remember when Jami and I started hanging out together. I remember talking with her about changes that were happening in their lives, but there hit a point where we became friends and seems like we have been that way forever. There are so many things about this girl that I love. She is a great listener, she stands up for what she believes in, she is always willing to help, she is fun loving, energetic, truthful, honest, and a great wife and mom. She is one of the few people I have in my life who I know I can tell anything to and who I know will always be there for me. I cannot imagine what my life would be like without her or her family in it.
You mean the world to me Jami Ruth, I love you girl!

I'm Frustrated

Or should I say downright MAD! For those of you who know me you know most of the time I am pretty laid back, but there are times when I can get very passionate about things and right now is one of those times. For the last 24 hours I have been outright mad, irritated, frustrated, and a whole bunch of other emotions. Why you may ask, well let me tell you.

Last Thursday Daryl comes home to tell me that his car, a Honda Civic, is dying on him and it needs to go in to the shop. So before we leave to head to the Dells we take the car into the shop. We get a call on Friday telling us that it needs to go the dealership because it is showing that there is some kind of computer problem, so we have it towed to Basney Honda. The whole time I am thinking okay I hate it when there are problems with the car, but hopefully this will be a quick fix and we will have it back by Monday all fixed and ready to go.

So yesterday I get a call from Basney telling me what was wrong with the car, the guys proceeds to tell me that there is something in my engine that is putting out excessive input, at this point I am not paying too much attention I am just thinking tell me the price. He ends his whole speech and then gives me a quote of 3500.00 dollars. Oh yeah you read that right! I about hit the floor. I proceed to ask him why my 5 year old car has 3500.00 dollars worth of work that needs to be done and of course he cannot answer my question. I told him that I would not be spending that amount of money on that car and that I would not be buying Honda again if this is what was to be expected. He was very nice and told me he understood what I was saying, okay he might understand but I can guarantee you he is not having the same feelings I am right now. He then proceeds to give me the consumer relations number to Honda and tells me to call and tell them the problem. At this point I hand the situation off to Daryl, he is much more diplomatic then I am sometimes, and he calls and tells them the situation and they explain they will hand it off to one of their people and get back to us and let us know what they can do for us.

At this point they are going to have to do alot in order to keep my business. We bought Honda for a reason and were planning on continuing to buy Honda, we actually had planned to buy an Odyssey as our next car, but not sure that will be happening at this point. You know I expect a car that is 12 years old and has alot of miles on it to have that problem at some point, but not a 5 year old car with 87,000 miles on it. Can you tell I am still MAD!

I hate cars! Maybe we will just buy a horse and buggy!

Good Times Good Times

There is a lot going on right now in the life of the McMullens. There are 3 really cool things happening right now in our lives. This post is dedicated to just one of those and you will have to wait for the other two. We are headed out of town this weekend to do a little summer get away to Wisconsin Dells. I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am, I have so been looking forward to this trip. Here is a list of the things I am most excited about:
*Time away-this is our vacation for the summer.
*I have never been to the Dells, I love going places I have never been.
*The look on my kids faces when they see the water park.
*Time away with my husband-I get to spend the next 3 days with him. I love that.
*Time with my kids, watching them have tons of fun.
*Going down the water slides and floating in the lazy river.
*Staying at our hotel, it looks SWEET!
*Spending 3 full days with my best friends in the world.
The last one is actually the one I am looking forward to the most. I am so excited to be doing this mini vacation with the Callenders and Ruths. These guys are our best friends and I cannot wait to spend time just hanging out with each other. There is something to be said about just being with other people and building in to each other. These are the guys we do life with and it is so much fun to make memories together.
Now if we just did not have a 6 plus hour drive....

I have really become aware this week that when my husband is going through a stressful time in his life that it directly impacts me. Okay so I know you are saying "no duh" but what I mean is that it feels like I am the one going through it. I have found myself all worked up this week because of what he is going through. This is really the first time that I have felt it this way. Of course there have been other times when he is stressed that I let it get to me and I react. But this is different, I don't feel like I am reacting I feel like I am feeling what he is feeling just on a different level.
Because of this particular situation I have found myself in constant conversation with God this week. Trying to understand what the purpose of this is, what we are supposed to be learning from this situation and where we are headed. At one point during my conversation I just had a sense that God was telling me "Trust Me". I remember coming out of that time with a little more peace. It was just the gentle reminder I needed that God is in control even when it doesn't feel like it sometimes.
The other thing it has made me more aware of is how God must feel about us. If what Daryl is going through is impacting me the way it is I can only imagine how it must impact God. I have heard that when we cry, God cries with us and this had made total sense to me this week. The reason I have felt this way this week is because of my deep love for my husband, so if God's love for him is deeper than mine then why would He not have the same feelings I have had. There are moments in my life where God just wows me and this week has been one of those.

New Look

So the other day I looked at our blog and thought, "How boring. We've had this Blogger template for way too long. It's about time I tried to do something a little different and create our own look for the page."

So this is what I came up with. I call it "Apple-Esque" since I copied the look used by Apple on the iTunes page (here).

Not a big fan of Apple, but maybe this will be the start of a whole new relationship.