August

As August came Monste and Ellie come to visit us.  CJ was so excited about Ellie being here.   They did have fun playing at the park.  CJ and Ellie caught tadpoles in the creek while Montse and I listen to blue grass music. It was the cutest thing thinking about Ellie the city girl in the country catching tadpoles.

 Ellie had been Saving her money and wanted to go to the American Girl Doll store to buy her own doll.  We went to Charlotte to the American Girl Store.  The girls had fun running around the store and looking at everything.  We then went to the Cheese Cake Factory for lunch.  The girls played with all of their doll stuff.  I on the other hand hand to spend time on the phone with work.  That was the preview to what my school was soon going to be like.

   We then sent to the Beach.  We love going to Hilton Head and Savannah.  On Saturday we left and headed to Savannah just for one night.  we stayed at the Cotton Sail which was an amazingly beautiful hotel right on River street. The room was so Beautiful.

After we got all checked into the hotel we walked around Savannah for a bit.  We got a chance to talk to some locals and went to one of the old cemeteries.  CJ found this grave site of a little girl that died when she was the same age as CJ is.  This shocked CJ.

We let the two girls play in the splash pad before we went back to the hotel for the night.

The next day we got up and when to Henry's for breakfast.  The only place we know that serves breakfast on Sunday mornings.  Then Monste and Ellie went off to church and CJ and I walked around.  We found some street musicians to listen to and relax.

  

After they got out of Church we took them to the Telfair art Museum.  This was one of the first art museums that I have taken CJ to. I think that she was a little bored at first but then we started to talk about the art pieces, at that point she did not seem as bored.  The girls had more fun in the modern art gallery because it was more interactive.

We then left Savannah and went on to Hilton Head,  We meet my friend Kirri who lives there and had dinner while the girls played in the pool and at the beach.  They just could not wait to get in the water and play.

After the second day we decided in the evening to try a local restaurant the Kirri recommended.  It was just a hole in the wall place that looked more like a tavern then a restaurant.  We sat outside because it was such a nice night.  It turned out that they had music and a fire show for the girls to watch.  It was a fun little place and the food and prices were not that bad.  

 

The next day we got up, slowly packed up, and went to Pinckney Island Park and hike.  It was so beautiful.  They had a wonderful little museum about Island life, a neat little butterfly habitat, and a nice marsh walk.  The girls were tired, hot, and because of that they had a lot of trouble getting along with one another.  So Monste and I at times had to separate the girls.  I am not total sure why they could not get along or what the real problem was because no one could really say what the true problem was. They would just hug to tight and Ellie would get hurt, CJ would not understand or not want to do what Ellie said so they would get upset at each other.  They were just not having fun with each other.   But a beautiful Horse can fix all problems.  As soon as they saw the horses and worked together to get the horses to come closes enough to pet all trouble between them went away.

We then met up with our tour guide for our Island Mash tour.  I had never getting to walk on the marsh.  I learned so many things about the plans in South Carolina, the marsh, the animals that live on the marsh, lots about crabs, we got to see an alligator up close and see it eat, they got to learn that sometime nature is not nice, when we found a nest of baby turtles that an animal had gotten to and killed all the baby turtles.  It was so interesting.  I love it.  Ellie got hot and every tired.  She could not make it the 2 miles of the walk.  I helped Monste and carried her the last mile back to the car.  

 

We got back from Hilton Head late that night and the next day I had to start work.  Montse stayed for the next couple of days to watch CJ for me while I was at work.  She was so great to have dinner ready for me when I got home from work each night.  Friday the Girls got to go to Gravitopia with Ms. Greggs CJ's piano teacher.  She took all of her students out before the start of the school year.

On these 3 days CJ had a lot of trouble sharing her things.  CJ and Ellie had some trouble getting along.  I do not know if it was the age different is starting to show or just two only children spending to much time together and having trouble sharing and not having their own private time.  By the end of the week it had gotten really bad and the girls just could not get a long so Montse decided that they would leave a day early.  Monste had been asking that Jay teach her and Ellie how to shoot a gun so before they left Jay took them out shooting and then for Bucky's BBQ. Montse was very surprised by the sound and the power that came out of the hand gun.   It was a good end to the visit.  After Montse told Ellie and CJ that they were leaving early the two girls started to get along again and play together well.  Strange how that worked.

The following Tuesday CJ and I started school. It was her first day at middle school.  I was very sad to think that my baby was already in middle school.  I think that I was more nervous about her starting middle school than she was. I am glad that she is going to school with me and I can keep and eye on her.  We have lunch together and I get to see her all the time.  She is probably the only 6th grade that does not mine seeing her mom and giving her hugs every chance she gets. Right before school started we had some problems with her schedule and I had to work to get it changed so that she was in the correct classes.  I wanted her in the GT classes and at first they did not give the to her.  I finely got them to put her in GT.  I am really glad that I did because she would have been bored in the other classes and cause problems.  CJ is just a child that needs to be challenged.  

CJ started to make new friends and seems to be enjoying her new school.  She misses her friends from Palmetto, so we try to do things with them when we can.  As the school year started it became crazy for me with having new teachers in my department.  Then one of the teachers quit 4 days after school started which made life even more busy for me.  New director wanting more out of us, no teacher, huge class sizes, and a pile of work I had trouble keeping up with.

At the end of August the money for our truck came in and Uncle Tom sold us is truck at a good price. We were then able to get my new washer and Dryer.  Jay was even able to buy a big smoker.  He wants to get into the cooking side of BBQ.  So one afternoon we went to Charleston to pick up a smoker for Jay. It was a long day of driving but we got to have lunch with a good friend of mine that just moved to Charleston. we checked out  James Island camp ground and hope to go camping their soon. It looked like a very nice campground.