Artie's Birthday

I did it, I did it!!!!

Friday was Artie's 39TH birthday and I pulled off the most wonderful birthday surprise. All he knew was that on Saturday, we were loading up in the car (two cars actutally) and heading out for a road trip somewhere in North Carolina about two hours away. He had no idea where we were going and tried to be a good sport about it. :-) It was the most beautiful day - the sky was so blue.


We took him skydiving!!!! It was his very first jump. This is on his list of things he had to do in his lifetime. (Now if I could figure out how to get a dinner with Terry Bradshaw, I think he could throw the list away!!) :-)


It was such a fun day. He went up 10,000 feet in a tiny little airplane and did a tandem jump with a man named Tom (who had 1900 jumps). They had a 40 second free fall at 120 miles per hour then a five minute descent once the parachute came out for the last 5000 feet.

We had a nice picnic - all planned and prepared by the girls - with sandwiches, chips, pickles and peppers, apples and caramel dip and ended it with homemade birthday cake.

You couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!!!

I love you sweetie, Happy Birthday!!!



PS. Sorry for the crocked picture, I got a new scanner from my new friend Nikki and I am still trying to figure it all out. It's great Nikki!!!! :-)

Sunday at the Quinn Home

Artie is watching football - Go Panthers!! and the Nascar race.

Troy is at his Discipleship Group

Brenda is at her Discipleship Group - they are having a scrap booking night, she just called and asked if she could stay a little longer.... :-)

Emily is cleaning her room (we weren't home yesterday, so most of our heavy cleaning didn't get done). She is trying to get finished in time to watch High School Musical (again!!) before bed.

Stephen, Bobby and Terry are outside playing in the backyard. They are covered head to toe in dirt, just like little boys should be!! Almost bath time!!!!

I am taking a much enjoyed computer break. My task bar has up:

*How to write a research paper (doing a little home school homework for mom - prep for Brenda- she will be writing a research paper on each of her grandparents this year)
*Yahoo mail - a note to myself to get all needed clothes, shoes, and book bags together for school and work tomorrow
*By Sun and Candlelight - an article about seasonal comfort drinks - this is my favorite blog!!
*Storybook Woods - a wonderful article that had a link to http://librivox.org/ - an online compilation of books read aloud - one on Emily's history books - An Island Story - is listed. She will be able to listen to her stories online now. One subject that will clean up a little reading time for me.
*YouTube - listening to Third Day's Cry Out to Jesus


I had a nice outing with Gwyn today (although it was too short!!). She was in town to visit her grandmother, who is sick and in hospice care now. We met up at the yellow mall with her mom and niece and nephew and did a little shopping. I got Brenda a cute little ... for Christmas (can't list it, she might read!!) :-) I also got Artie some dumb dumbs and sunflower seeds and then picked up some pizza. Oh, I almost forgot, I also got Emily her first picture album. We just got back her pictures from Girl Scout camp this summer (how slow am I?) - I think she will have fun cropping and making pages!!

So, that's the day in the Quinn home. Gotta get ready for tomorrow. It's my Mimi's birthday!!!

You've Come A Long Way Baby!!

Well, anyone who knows me will die reading that I am blogging about a spider web!!! :-) Hold on to your hat Gwyn, you're not gonna believe it.

Emily and I have been reading Charlotte's Web for her free reading book. For those of you not blessed to know the story of the book - Charlotte - the spider - makes a miraculous web saying "SOME PIG" in order to save her friend, Wilber, from being eaten. The newsmen get involved and come and check out the spider web.

So, while Emily and I are reading, we come across a story for her current events about this giant spider web in Texas. People are coming to see it, take pictures of it, and it's in the news - just like CHARLOTTE'S!! :-) I love it when things come together. So we have been checking out this spider web - thankfully there are no pictures of the spiders involved. That would have probably been too much for me to deal with. Anyway, Emily and I have enjoyed it all. Troy even thought it was cool.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/lake_tawakoni/ Here is more info if you would like to check it out.

Tip of the day!!

Fingernail polish remover will take black spray paint off a child's face!!! Don't ask!! :-)

Friday's at the Quinn Lovliness Academy

We have dedicated Friday's at the Quinn Lovliness Academy to grandparents. We are rotating each Friday between Bobbie (Artie's mother) and Mimi and Granddaddy's (my grandparents - my daddy's parents). We have had such a fun time. We just had our second day at Bobbie's today. The girls are learning so much from them.

At Bobbie's today they practiced making biscuits and homemade gravy and their first big pot of chain gang potatoes (a staple for Artie growing up).

Bobbie told them the story of their grandfather Arthur's life growing up as a boy (a story all in it's own - Papa Quinn passed away when I was pregnant with Brenda). Brenda is writing a term paper this year on each of her grandparents' lives - a little each week and she will learn how to pull it all together at the end of the year.

They have pressed flowers (of course some of Granny's petunias) and have some projects planned to work on next time with them.

At Mimi's Brenda cooked homemade pudding for the first time and Emily got to use the electric hand mixer to mash the potatoes. They also cooked some creamed corn from Grandaddy's garden. Granddaddy told us the story of how he married Mimi five days after he returned from the war and how it cost him $2.50 to buy her (really the marriage liscence). It was a fun day there too.

I'm so sad that my camera is broke. I hope to be able to take some pictures soon. I think I'm going through withdrawal!! :-)

Front View
Originally uploaded by shayngrin

Here's there house - isn't it cute? :-)

The Griffin Family - They Made It!!!

Our beautiful family
Originally uploaded by shayngrin

Gwyn and Shay made it. They are in language school in Costa Rica. It was so hard to see them go!! I creid for a while - just feeling sorry for myself!!! :-) I so miss them and Daria too!!!

Yeah, my computer is back up and running - time to blog!!! :-)