Kathryn to the rescue

The other day Kathryn and I were in our master bathroom upstairs. I ran out of toilet paper. Grrrrrrr. Kathryn's two years old now and learning all sorts of new words and phrases and about following instructions. I thought, "how wonderful! she can help me out in a crisis!" so I asked her, "Kathryn, can you please get mama some more toilet paper?" She replied, "ok Mama!" and ran off. I heard her little feet go past the other bathroom upstairs and then I heard her going down the steps. I thought, "Thank you Lord for such a smart child!! She knows that there are extra rolls of toilet paper in the downstairs bathroom!" Waiting patiently, I hear her little feet climbing back up the stairs and then run to me in the bathroom. With utter delight and pride she goes, "here go Mama!" and hands me a single square of toilet paper. Awww. She's just way too cute. Yep, I made it work.

Christmas Tree Shopping

Let me tell you a little story about the Gram Family Christmas Tree... This year will be our 6th Christmas together. Our first Christmas in our apartment in Georgia, we borrowed mom's fake little Christmas tree that she used to use in her classroom at school. Hands-down I prefer live Christmas trees - the smell, picking out "the perfect one", how they look, etc..but having the fake little tree that first year didn't matter since we were celebrating our "first Christmas" together. The past five years living in our house, is where my story begins.

Year #1 - We venture out excited to purchase our very first tree together. We shop a few tree farms and end up at Home Depot and Lowes because we had no idea how expensive trees can get and they had the best (ie cheapest) prices. A little discouraged to be buying from a national superstore, and not driving up a mountain, finding "the perfect tree", chopping it down ourselves while sipping hot cocoa and singing Christmas songs, loading it into the car just as the first snow begins to fall as we drive away... No, that didn't happen our first year. Our first year purchasing our Christmas tree, I learned that Matt did not know how to tie a knot.

Year #2 - We venture out excited to purchase a Christmas tree. We drive to a few tree farms and remember how expensive Christmas trees can be and we end up at Home Depot and Lowes. We pick out the prettiest tree of the bunch and since we learned last year Matt didn't know how to tie a knot, we know this year it's up to me. Our second year purchasing our Christmas tree, I learned that I do not know how to tie knots very well either.

Year #3 - We venture out excited to purchase a Christmas tree. We drive straight to Home Depot and Lowes. We pick out the prettiest tree of the bunch, promise each other we're not going to snap at each other in the parking lot like we did the two previous years and we're going to work together tying the tree to the roof. We successfully tie the tree to the roof and drive home. Our third year purchasing our Christmas tree, I learned that it is exactly 2.3 miles from Lowes to our house and if you drive under 20 miles an hour the whole way home so your tree won't fall off, it takes a really long time to get home and cars behind you aren't happy that you and your husband can't tie knots and have to drive really slow holding onto the tree through the windows.

Year #4 - We venture out to purchase a Christmas tree. We drive straight to Home Depot and Lowes. We find the perfect tree, dread getting it home and promise again to just work together but thankful that we have a Trailblazer this year and believe it will be much easier than year's past transporting. We take no chances tying knots and put it directly in the back of the Trailblazer. Our fourth year purchasing our Christmas tree, I learned that if you put a tree directly into your car, you should have a sheet or plastic under it.

Year #5 - We debate about venturing out to get a Christmas tree. The morning we were planning on going, it was cold and drizzly outside. We step outside to see exactly "how cold and wet" it actually is and like geniuses, remember we need nothing short than ideal weather conditions. We agree we should wait until the sun comes out..there's no point torturing ourselves when we know it's going to be a difficult hour.. We drive straight to Home Depot once the sun came out. We find the perfect tree and then the most amazing thing happened...Two men (I like to think angels..) who work at Home Depot carried our tree out for us, wrapped the netting around it, and told us to pull our car up. We did exactly as we were told without hesitation. They loaded it on top of the Trailblazer, tied knots and tied it down in under two minutes. Matt and I looked at each other, smiled, thanked the men repeatedly and exclaimed that this was the most wonderful tree experience we'd ever had. We drove to McDonalds and got the men gift cards because we were so elated. It's going to be a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Yummy new snack..

I'm starting to wonder if my blog is turning into the lamest blog ever now that I'm resorting to posts on "yummy snacks"... Hmmm.. Now that I have your attention, try this one day:

Spread peanut butter on a small tortilla. Peel a banana and put onto of the peanut butter. Drizzle honey on top. Wrap up like a taco and eat. Yum.

I'm not going to lie and act like we have whole grain tortillas - I'm not that health concsience but that would make it healthier and I've also heard adding granola to it makes it tasty. That may actually push my health meter too far to the right though... Enjoy.

Favorite Findings...

Why spend money on toys when your child can play in the coolest "boat" on the planet for the same cost as diapers?

Last night after I put Kathryn to bed, I started to pick up some of her toys she had left out downstairs... This is what I found:

A perfectly set table of tea and grapes for two.


Pizza in a play wallet. Why do I never remember to pack a slice??

Her cup of milk in "her" frig. (Hopefully it was not from earlier in the week..)

Her purse on the pony. It makes sense..

It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is actually THIS week. Time just seems to fly by. This is by far my absolute favorite time of year. I love the leaves changing, the cool air, drinking hot tea and hot chocolate, attempting to make delicious fall treats, the holidays and getting together with family and friends, starting and carrying on traditions. So many things.

This month was Matt and Kathryn's birthday! Matt is officially a "30 year old"...That's so funny to say now. It honestly doesn't seem old to me at all. I've always thought of age as just a number. Of course, he likes to remind me that I should "obey my elders"... He's such a funny old man. (He knows I'm joking.) We celebrated Kathryn's sweet birthday as well. She is two now and every day she is turning into such beautiful little girl. No offense to all my amazing girl friends out there, but she is hands down my favorite girl. (I am sure my friends have already figured that one out..) I can't get over her sense of humor and how witty she can be. It's so fun just laughing at each other during the day over the silliest little thing. Here are a few of her latest phrases:

"Carry-o please" - translation: "Carry me please"

"Help-u please" - translation: "Help me please"

"Whats dat?" - translation: "What's that?"

"Uh-oh, it fall down" - she says this about 50 times a day for anything that falls..

"Where'd he go?" - usually asking where Dada is or Cooper is or where Michael is...

"Luv-lou" - translation: "Love you"

Her current favorite foods:

Bean burritos -- that's my girl!!

Chips and salsa -- that's my girl!!

Carrots and ranch dressing -- (To everyone who thinks I deprive her of sweets, Matt introduced this to her!)

Apples

Oreo Cookies

Pictures to follow soon .... trouble uploading right now and I don't have the patience to keep trying!

frustrations and ramblings

I know I haven't written in a while and I'm sorry to post for the first time in a while on a "not so light-natured" topic, but I'm in a funk and I need to type and sort my thoughts out. This is one of the toughest situations I've ever had to come to terms with and this post is raw emotion and a needed outlet right now.

Yesterday evening, we had ABC News on with Charles Gibson. We never watch the news. Ever. I hate the news. After you read this, you'll know us having the news on last night was no coincidence. I was cleaning up the kitchen from dinner and in the background I heard, "We have never-seen-before footage from the Taliban. The date, July 13, 2008..." I jerked my head up so fast looking for the remote to turn the volume up. They showed home-video like footage of the Taliban hours before they attacked a remote outpost of American and Afghanistan soldiers. They talked of how they found out about the outpost and their plans of attack, their preparation and their encouragement to one another. They showed their discussion and prayers beforehand then they showed the actual attack - the fire, gunfire, rocket propelled grenades. I was watching the actual footage of the attack that killed MBP and eight other brave American soldiers. To clarify, I'd seen footage of the attack already. When we heard the news, I scoured the internet on any and every piece of information for weeks on end. If there was a story, interview, picture out there, I had to see it. What I saw yesterday didn't compare to anything I had already seen. This footage was all from "their" perspective. The enemy's perspective. I saw the attack from the Taliban's eyes and it was a victory to them.

I was instantly filled with hatred. Hatred may not even properly describe what I was feeling. Words like livid, and despise, and contempt all flushed over my body in an instant. I have never felt such bitter emotion so strongly towards someone in my life. I remember being so angry when I first heard the news about Matt and I really thought for a few weeks that I would never be able to forgive the men that killed him. I struggled with God so much during that time - pleading, questioning, begging, praying. It was almost a year before I had true peace with everything. To even say that is so surreal to me because I know it had nothing to do with my doing. It wouldn't have been possible if it were up to me. The reason I can say that is because I'm very capable of declaring who is evil in this situation and justifying my anger. I'm one of the best 'judges' I know and in this circumstance, my friend was the victim.

Peace in that type of circumstance isn't possible for human beings without God. Up until last night, I had a calmness so to speak knowing where Matt is and the glory that has been and will be received. That, I am firmly grounded on. I also believed I had forgiven. I think in my mind the forgiveness aspect was jumbled up in there since I had a peace about everything. With my reaction to seeing the video footage of the attack and my struggle today, I'm not sure that that may be the case. This is a very conflicting struggle for me. It's hard for me to concentrate on where Matt is rather than how he got there. I know typing this up has definitely helped me bring it back to Christ; which ultimately is where it should be. I'm doing a Beth Moore bible study called, "Living Beyond Yourself: Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit". We're only in the third week of the study but I can already tell you that the title, Living Beyond Yourself is the best explanation to how I'm coping now. No peace, no clarity, no forgiveness is even possible without Christ. It's literally beyond myself and my capabilities.

Potty Training at its finest

Potty training. Hmmm... I can already tell this is going to be an interesting time.

Matt and I loaded Kathryn up in the car today and headed out to the local Wal-Mart. We thought we should go ahead and purchase her little "potty" so she could start getting used to it. I think neither one of us knew really what to expect when we saw multiple brands of "potty chairs". Pretty sure we stood in the aisle reading all the boxes for about 20 minutes. Matt at one point is holding one of the boxes and starts laughing. He literally says, "this one plays music and rewards the kid for doing #2......Sweet." I'm fairly certain he was jealous at that point.

If only you had been a fly on the wall during this process of deciding which "potty" to go with. Again, referencing the parenting bible that doesn't exist, what's the criteria for choosing one? Design? Easiest to clean? One that converts into a million other things? One that plays music? One that makes "flushing" sounds? I mean, I could go on and on.

We settled on the Princess Potty chair. Clearly the title speaks for itself. Yes, it plays music...apparently that was a major selling point for Matt. I never thought I'd go to a store looking for a little box to sit on so Kathryn could learn to use the bathroom and walk out with a musical, plastic Princess Potty chair that converts into a stool, potty, and "seat for the toilet" sort of contraption. Good times.

Prayers for Brian

Please pray for a sweet little boy, Brian, who is going through his first round of chemo today. He's being treated for Histiocytosis. His aunt, Dabney, is one of my dear friends and her family is going through a whirlwind of events with his diagnosis. Please keep Brian, his family and the doctors in your prayers.

From the Histiocytosis Association of America website: http://www.histio.org/

Histiocytosis is a rare blood disease that is caused by an excess of white blood cells called histiocytes. The histiocytes cluster together and can attack the skin, bones, lung, liver, spleen, gums, ears, eyes, and/or the central nervous system.

The disease can range from limited involvement that spontaneously regresses to progressive multiorgan involvement that can be chronic and debilitating. In some cases, the disease can be life-threatening.In some ways, histiocytosis is similar to cancer and has historically been treated by oncologists with chemotherapy and radiation.

Unlike cancer, histiocytosis sometimes goes into remission without treatment.The vast majority of people diagnosed with histiocytosis are children under the age of 10, but it is also found in adults of all ages.

It is approximated that histiocytosis affects 1 in 200,000 children born each year in the United States. This illness is so rare, there is little research into its cause and treatment, and it is often referred to as an "orphan disease," meaning it strikes too few people to generate government - supported research.

About Being a Mom...Part 2

These add-ins are to go along with my original post. I'd like to clarify and say that this is what I've learned in 2 years. I'm expecting to have about 900,000+ added to this list in a few years. This is just an inside peek to what a NEW mom has learned. This list is endless...

- "Noise" takes on a whole new meaning when you have a sleeping child. Once your little kid is asleep for a nap, you hear every single noise you never knew existed. It's like you get radar ears the minute your child is born. If you were a cursing individual, you'd curse the sound of the lawnmower 12 houses down from your house, or the mailman two streets over slamming the mailboxes shut, or the dump truck 5 miles away coming down the highway.

- You'd never believe how many times you could listen to the same song or cd over and over just to see the delight and glee of your child.

- You go through kid shoes faster than you can say Willy Wonka Umpa Lumpa.

- If you have a dog before your child is born and he/she is your "baby"...that all changes when you have a child. He gets pushed to the back burner. And if your dog upsets you for whatever reason, he's no longer sent to his cage for "punishment"; your child gets free reign to poke/annoy/irritate/pester him. It's a win-win situation (for parent and child). Poor dog.

- More than you'll like to admit, you'll probably find yourself in a situation where you're in the grocery store, a restaurant, gas station, wherever and your child will start pitching a fit so loud you'd think you gave birth to a pterodactyl. You'll probably believe everyone in the Super WalMart hears your child screaming and you'll think they're thinking "can't that mother control her child?" I can pretty much guarantee this happening at some time or another. All I can say to that is......yep, just giving you a heads up.

- You'd like to think you're never going to say the things your mom used to say that annoyed the crap out of you like, "Because I said so" or "I'm not going to say it again, I said no" or "Say please"...they'll slip out more often than you planned on.

- You'll learn a whole new meaning to love when you meet your little baby.

- For some CRAZY reason, for the first two years of life you're supposed to reference your child's age by months. I've never been a math person and this one just throws me off every time. After four months I was confused and couldn't keep track anymore so my recommendation is to pick the closest YEAR your child will be and round up. Kathryn's been "almost 2" since she was 19 months old.

Pet Peeves...

- Not returning grocery carts to the "Cart Area". This is a huge issue for me..This actually may be my biggest pet peeve (wouldn't you assume since it's the first one I thought of) If you're "able" to get one you are "able" to put it back where it belongs.

- Going to the post office. I think the post office is worse than the dmv. I despise the post office.

- Having to call Dell's customer service. Don't even get me started on this one.

- All the crap mail we get in our mailbox. No one reads it and it goes straight to recycling. Why waste the postage??

Lesson Learned Today...

In hopes of avoiding the destruction of your mirror and bathroom sink from looking like mine this morning: Turn electric toothbrush on AFTER it is in your mouth. You're just going to have to trust me on that one.

Never forget, I have endless amounts of advice. Just ask anytime. I am sure you could learn a thing or two. And don't worry, my advice is free of charge...at least, for the time being.

On a completely new topic, I have a new favorite fiction author...Vince Flynn. He writes right up my alley of interest with political thrillers, conspiracy and espionage. You won't be disappointed - unless you don't like books on that type of thing...Oh well.

Quote for the Day

Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.

About Being a Mom

I have some friends who are pregnant for the first time and I was thinking of what advice to give them. Below, are a few things I've learned that the books don't tell you about being a mom...

- You should probably be prepared to get the "You are CRAZY" look from other parents or adults at some point or another. Whether it's deserved or not...that's a different story.

- There will be times when you think you've made the best decision for your baby and then realize you didn't. That's okay.

- There are the type of parents who are obsessive-compulsive about using anti-bacterial lotion 3,400 times a day...and there are parents who don't know what it is. I figure, they didn't have that when we were growing up so a happy medium should do just fine.

- At some time or another you may find yourself in a situation where kids are playing on a playground/play area together and a little boy you don't know (and whose parent isn't around) spits on your child. You can either a) spit on him. b) kick him c) remove your child from the play area or d) all of the above. If you're mad enough, you may get away with a) and c)...

- You can never just "run out the door" anymore. If you have some place to go with your child in tow, you will need the following:
extra diapers
wipes
bottle
snack
diaper bag
keys
purse
cell phone

- Kids pick up mannerisms and behaviors very easily. Pick and choose wisely who all you associate with.

- There are hundreds and hundreds of books and everyone has their opinion about how you should raise your child and what you should be doing. Always remember you are the one who is ultimately responsible for their well-being.

- When you hear "raising children is the most rewarding experience"...that's true.

- Be prepared to have your tv, windows, fireplace glass, refrigerator, dishwasher and oven door covered with little hand prints. It becomes part of your home.

- You will likely....or rather, you will most definitely do things you'd never think you would do in your life for your child (and no, I'm not talking about spitting on another kid - I really didn't do that but I did think about it.)

- Modesty is out the window when you have a baby.

- Driving down the road with the windows down and the radio blasting is out the window. (Temporarily)

- I still don't know how to get in and out of a public restroom while trying to pee, holding a child and making sure no one touches anything all at the same time.

- Running errands that used to take 20 minutes, now take about an hour. Plan accordingly.

That's all for now but I am sure I will definitely be adding to this list...

The Race is on...

I'm hoping to have a great story for you later about me tracking down one of Donald Miller's manuscripts for a friend of mine but you'll just have to wait at the edge of your seat for a little while longer... He is the author of Blue Like Jazz. I've never read it (or anything else by him) but apparently he is hiding 60 of his manuscripts across the nation and on twitter letting everyone know a day in advance what state it will be in and the day of, he'll post the actual address of the hidden manuscript. Whoever gets there first gets the manuscript and a phone conversation with him about any of his books. Today, the state is North Carolina and my friend...who lives in GEORGIA asked if I could help her out since I'm kind of at an advantage. Since she's a dear friend, (and I figure if I'm able to get it, I won't have to worry about her birthday or Christmas present until kingdom come) I told her if it is possible for me to get to the location, I'll be throwing punches to get the manuscript for her. She told me to charge the GPS and thankfully I already have a full tank of gas. I also figured I could use Kathryn as a distraction if it became necessary. I'll just yell "WHOSE CHILD IS THIS!!??" and while everyone's trying to figure it out, I'll snatch the manuscript. I pretty much have it all figured out. I'm prepared to use any means necessary. This is serious business.

On a side note. Does anyone else out there think the Dilbert comics are the funniest things ever? I think Scott Adams is hilarious. The one on the www.dilbert.com site today is great. It won't be as funny if I try to retype it here for you. If you don't laugh at it, consider yourself weird.

Random thoughts from people our age...

Enjoy...

-I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

-I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

-There is a great need for sarcasm font.

-Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.

-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's
laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

-How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart". Or, "I'm an idiot."

- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent someone from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and
said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything else productive for the rest of the day.

-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

-There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

-I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

Video of the Week

Two weekends ago Matt and Kathryn and I went to a place called Lazy 5 Ranch. It's a 3.5 mile drive through a safari. There are over 700 animals - zebras, deer, water buffalo, lamas, giraffes, a rhino, cattle, pot-belly pigs, all kinds of animals! You can purchase buckets of food and feed the animals from your car. They walk straight up to your car window! IT WAS SUCH A FUN TRIP!!!!

The video below is of us feeding one of the animals.... By this point, one of the zebra's had taken a bucket of food from OUT of MY HANDS and walked off with it! So we learned the way of the wild and out smarted this bad boy...Yep, you just roll up the window..

Catch Up Time

Ok, apparently I have slacked off again at blogging. I really don't see how people are able to blog daily. That just baffles me. Below are the latest updates that I can think of for our family. And by updates, I mean Kathryn updates:

1. Kathryn, of course, is such a amazing gift to us that I still can't believe we've been entrusted with her. She happens to be hilarious and cracks me up on a daily basis. Today we were sitting at the table for lunch and she starts giggling over nothing (that I can tell of). I look at her and kind of giggle back because she looked so cute and all of a sudden she starts farting really loud in her high chair. I start laughing so hard, I can hardly breath. She starts laughing back because of my reaction and then starts to try to make herself fart! Which of course makes me laugh harder and ALL THE WHILE, of course this is not something I would encourage so that made it even funnier to me. We started laughing so much that at one point, she was just holding her breath and squeezing so hard to make a fart come out that I had to tell her, she'd had enough. She's going to kill me when she finds out I blogged about this...

2. She learned to put her shirt on by herself the other day. (Over her clothes and inside out.) You can clearly see how proud she was of herself.

3. She LOVES watching Sesame Street. One of her favorite books has Elmo in it and I was curious to see how she'd react seeing him on tv so a few weeks ago I recorded Sesame Street and she is just enthralled with it. She calls it "ses-see". The minute the show ends and something else starts, she's back to reality and on with her day playing with her toys.

4. I was reading a book to her today and I pointed to a few pictures on one page and asked her what they were. She told me a "turtle", "bird" and "sun" - genius. She was right. And while we were driving she saw a flag high in the air on a flag pole and yelled "kite!" I was so proud. It may not have been a kite but the association is what's brilliant!

5. For the longest time any bug Kathryn saw she called an "ant". She said it with two syllables though like "ann-nt" (emphasis on the "nt"). Spiders, flies, moths, were all "ann-nts". We had a huge break through the other day. She now classifies all bugs into "flies" and "ann-ts".

And that about wraps it up for now.

Happy Anniversary to us!!!

August 14th was our FIVE year anniversary!! We had a wonderful weekend in Charleston, SC celebrating. It's hard to believe it's already been five years but I can tell you, I truly treasure and value every single year and how it's shaped our marriage. Without a shadow of doubt, Matt and I know that our marriage would not be where it is today if it were not for our Lord Jesus Christ. I came across the poem below a few years ago. It is perfect.

Marriage Takes Three

I once thought marriage took just two to make a go,
but now I am convinced it takes the Lord also.

And not one marriage fails where Christ is asked to enter,
as lovers come together with Jesus at the center.

But marriage seldom thrives and homes are incomplete,
until He’s welcomed there, to help avoid defeat.

In homes where Christ is first, it’s obvious to see,
Those unions really work, for marriage still takes three.

Turkey says "Gobble, Gobble?"

That's actually a topic of debate in our family. We went to the coolest park EVER this past weekend. It's the Dan Nicholas Park in Salisbury, NC. We had so much fun. We took Kathryn to the see the Nature Center and Petting Barn - where she got to meet a cow, sheep, goat, peacock, pig, turkey and a mini-donkey. Seriously, could a child ask for more!? It was at this petting barn where our little topic of debate came about. I tried telling Kathryn, "A turkey says, "gobble, gobble"." And Matt goes, "No, say "Yummy! Yummy!""... So Thanksgiving this year will be a little interesting... We rode the train through the park and also rode on the carousal! We all had a great time! Enjoy the pictures:



Turkey says, "Gobble, yummy!"



Kathryn isn't quite sure about riding the carousal but Matt's sure having fun!









Clearly Matt's having a great time!

July 13, 2009

One year later.

This is dedicated to Matthew B. Phillips. Husband, brother, son, friend.

Matt, you are terribly missed and dearly loved. We are very proud of you and remember you often; more than often. We are forever grateful for your sacrifice.

We love you.

Is this for real?

Remember my dream house? Last weekend while I was in town visiting the family, my mom and I drove over to see the house again. Yes, it was still under contract and no, we still do not have a job in GA nor have we won the lottery since my last post... Apparently the fact of the matter is I enjoy torturing myself. We drove around the curb and as soon as we see the house you can clearly tell some one's been there since my last visit during Memorial weekend. When we saw the house the first time, there was tons of overgrowth and tall grass everywhere. It looked like no one had touched the house in about a year. The sidewalks were overgrown and weeds were all over the place. Of course from my rose-colored glasses, I saw through the overgrowth and saw the house as 'the diamond in the rough'. Since my last visit, someone had cut the grass and trimmed back ALL the overgrowth and hedges. I actually thought, "well that was thoughtful of that person to clean up my yard like that." But then reality kicked in and I figured it was God's way of letting my down easily. So I've been prepared for the past few days to see the word "SOLD" when I look up the house online.

Today, I did my usual search and saw that ANOTHER listing agent was listing the house now! Once it was under contract, all the other sites dropped the listing but I came across this site that had been updated with MY house just a few days ago. I couldn't believe the realtor didn't call me and make me aware that these shenanigans were taking place. I got the nerve to call her and see what was going on. She wasn't available but the lady who answered the phone informed me that it was closing TODAY and the realtor was at the "signing table" but a glitch had come up and for me to call back tomorrow to see if it was still on the market. Seriously?? Seriously. You're telling me I called at the exact moment someone was trying to steal my house away from me? God sure has a sense of humor.

So there you have it. There's another genius out there who fell in love with the same house and just so happens to have stupid essentials like maybe say...a JOB and MONEY and ability to MOVE.

I must put a small little disclaimer on this post...I'm pretty sure a friend of mine is convinced I need to be committed after my last post and I had to clarify I'm not "really" eating, sleeping, dreaming about this house. I mean, yes, I loved it, but I'm making light of circumstances. I had to explain and reiterate these are written in jest. I'm going to call her as soon as I post this and let her know I'm really NOT going to give the new homeowners a basket of poisoned baked goods.

I'm BaAcCK

Hello everyone! Sorry for being gone for so long. I won't bore you with all the reasons why I haven't posted anything lately. But I will share what I've discovered about myself in the past month or so...

I've come to realize that I am the following two things: 1. Type-A Personality 2. A Dreamer/Idealist. As far as the Type-A personality goes, whoa. That's a post in and of its self. Stay tuned. As for the Dreamer/Idealist....read below.

Some of you may know that we (Matt and I) are trying to move back to Georgia. That's the prayer anyway. A few months ago Matt found a house online that we were kind of keeping an eye on in GA. When we went to visit my family on Memorial Weekend, we all drove over to the house and were able to check it out (only the outside of the house). Instantaneously, we were in love with it. The property, the porch, what we could see through the windows...it was THE house. We drive back to my parent's house (less than 15 minutes away from our dream home) and look up the realtor to see if there's a possibility to walk through the house while we're in town. Turns out, the house was under contract!!!! We went from flying high to being shot down in a matter of minutes. I won't even begin to describe how letdown we were. So the next day, Monday, we drive back to NC sad...

Before I continue this story, let's go over the facts:
1. The house we like is under contract.
2. We've done absolutely nothing to try to sell our house yet.
3. We have no job in Georgia waiting on us.
4. We have millions of dollars sitting aside so we can pay two mortgages and move somewhere without another job to go to. Um. No.

So with those important facts noted, what do I do? I become obsessed with this house. Every single day I look it up online to see if it's still under contract. The realtor has our contact information to let us know if the contract falls through. I've imagined playing in the yard with Kathryn, decorating the porch with flowers, and where the Christmas tree would go at Christmas time. Have I seen the inside of this house? Of course not. Only sane people do that. There's no other word to describe my madness other than: Obsession.

Oh yes, my story continues... We are always checking out jobs in GA for Matt just to have an idea of what's available. The other weekend we found a job that if you asked Matt, would be described as "a shot in the dark". If you asked me, "the sky's the limit". I read the job description and thought it was a perfect fit for Matt. Matt reads the description and said he didn't have experience in half of what they were asking for.... That was the day I learned what Matt actually does at his job. My mom's asked me about a million times what Matt does and apparently I've been giving her and everyone else the wrong description for the past 4 years. Who knew? I now officially know what he does NOT do.

Anyway, since coming across "the perfect fit" job that Matt "only has experience for half of what they are looking for", I've convinced myself of the following: Matt is going to get this job. We are going to move to Georgia. Our dream house is miraculously going to be "For Sale" again in which case, we'll sell our house (in a matter of months because we're in the best economy ever) and live happily ever after.

Shamelessly Honest. The End.

Update to previous post...

Since posting my last post, I wanted everyone to know that the flower company I had previously written about has won my favor back. Not completely because I am still upset about the issue, but without question they have responded exactly as I asked of them and their customer service has handled my issue superbly. Now I feel a little bad about posting their name in my previous post so I'm making some edits so you'll just have to guess which flower company I used! (Unless you're quick readers and already read who I'm talking about!!) There goes my cool previous title that took me 4 minutes to come up with! (kidding..)

Consider this issue dropped now.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!! It has been a wonderful day today, although, most days are wonderful to me anyway. What an honor it is to actually be a mother! I'm so thankful to be a 'mama' and I'm so thankful to have great Mom's of my own. How fun to have a day to celebrate that!! I'm all about cooking delicious meals and making yummy treats for the sake of "celebrating"! And by "cooking delicious meals", I mean, eating the delicious meals Matt cooks!

Maybe you're curious about my title regarding Amazing Flower Company... Unfortunately, "Amazing" fell off their name when I used them for Mother's Day this year. We've used them a lot in the past and Matt tends to prefer them over other companies. I placed the order a week ago and ordered the "Lilies for Mom" arrangement because both of our mom's love lilies and when in bloom, they're beautiful. Below is a picture of what my Mom received and a picture of what I thought I was ordering...



No joke. My sister said maybe next year I should ask them to just mail Mom some seeds and she can plant them herself. And for your reference, there are supposed to be at least 12-16 FLOWERS.

Kathryn Story...

I wanted to post this yesterday but ran out of time. I have two cute Kathryn stories for you... The first one, yesterday morning I was cleaning upstairs and Kathryn was "helping me". She found a pair of black dress shoes that were hers but a few sizes too big so I was holding on to them for this Fall for her to wear. Since she found them she was anxious to test these cute shoes out so I put them on her and she goes tromping around the house so proud of her dressy black shoes. After about twenty minutes, I told her we needed to take the shoes off and put them up because we were going downstairs. I took the shoes off her and told her to put them up and I finished whatever I was working on. She came back to me empty handed so I figured she put them back in her room where she'd found them. Later that afternoon while she was napping, I finished cleaning upstairs and was in our master closet and saw that Kathryn had put her dressy black shoes on the rack with all my dress shoes!! There was a tiny little space on the rack that was empty and she put them there - TOO CUTE! Here's a picture but I promise this won't give justice to my delight when I came across this realization...



Second story...Same day. So Kathryn wakes up from her nap and I can hear her in her room just talking to herself and playing with her little "Ellie" (pink little elephant that she sleeps with). Side note: Kathryn the past few days has learned what a "dirty" diaper is. Not just a wet diaper, she knows DIRTY. And she can say dirty now too - (she says derrrdy). So now back to the story... I open the door to go pick her up out the crib and as soon as the door opens, the room is filled with a very stinky smell..... At the exact moment I smell the stink bomb, Kathryn is standing up and pointing down to her diaper and smiling really big saying "DERRRRRRDDY!" If you know the look of a proud child, she had that look.

I am sure she will probably kill me when she's older knowing that I've just told this story but with her sense of humor, I think I'll be fine..

Today - Project CARE: Mission Possible

Wow. What a day. I'm actually having a little difficulty figuring out where and how to start this.

I'm going to start from the beginning (sort of) so you understand what I'm talking about. About 10 of us have been planning and organizing the projects and details for our Project CARE: Mission Possible since January. Our goal was to get at least 60% of the Sunday morning congregation involved which equated to about 500 people. Two weeks ago, we had 254 people signed up. At the end of the day today, we had a total of 571 volunteers. The plan was for everyone working on some type of project to come to the church this morning at 8:00am for a praise and worship service and then we'd all disperse to our projects. Projects included: making care packages for transitional families in need, serving brunch to a family homeless shelter, serving at the crisis women's pregnancy center, collecting canned foods, a habitat for humanity project, various yard work projects for people in need, school beautification projects, home cleaning for older or disabled individuals, cooking and delivering casseroles to various agencies, a car wash to raise money for various ministries, etc... the list goes on and on.

I fell asleep last night to lightening and hearing the rain pounding on our window, knowing that many of our projects today would be outside.

I woke up to one of the most beautiful days we have had yet this year. It couldn't have been more beautiful. On the way to the church, I was already overcome with total awe and just humility for knowing what was about to happen today that the drop of a hat would have brought me to tears. My own private, personal "theme song" so to speak during this whole planning process for Project CARE was Casting Crowns' "Lifesong". It's funny how you can hear a song so many times and it's just a song and then all of a sudden it totally applies to something huge in your life. The words are perfect:

Empty hands held high
Such small sacrifice
If not joined with my life
I sing in vain tonight

May the words I say
And the things I do
Make my lifesong sing
Bring a smile to You

Let my lifesong sing to You
Let my lifesong sing to You
I want to sign Your name to the end of this day
Knowing that my heart was true
Let my lifesong sing to You

Lord I give my life
A living sacrifice
To reach a world in need
To be Your hands and feet

So yes, yours truly, got a little teary-eyed on the drive to the kick-off service listening to my song. The service was fantastic. If you can imagine a gym filled with men, women, and children in "Mission Possible" tshirts all ready to serve. It was short and sweet, pumped us all up before we left for each of our projects, and ended with a round of applause to the One orchestrating it all.

I oversaw a few projects that were being held at the church but I was able to deliver packed lunches with one of my girlfriends to two projects near by while they were taking place. One of the projects we were able to go to was at a grocery store in which a few of our volunteers were asking the patrons as they were entering the store if they'd like to buy an extra canned item to donate to the local food pantry. TRUST me when I tell you, this is NOT a project I would have signed up to do. I would not feel comfortable in the slightest doing that and truth be told, I even walk in the opposite entrance when I see Girl Scouts selling cookies at the grocery store I go to if I already have all the cookies I need for the year just to avoid them! But I got to witness this take place and meet Diane (on one entrance) who was representing our church. We arrived at noon with their lunches and they already had a human size BARREL FULL of food. While she was telling us about her day and how gracious and giving people had been, she said she asked one boy who was about 17 or 18 years old and she said when he came out, he handed her a whole grocery bag full of food. Just hearing that made me want to cry again and while she's still talking to us, a man walks out and hands her a bag FULL of mac&cheese boxes. That brought some tears. That was just the icing on the cake for me. I saw her story in action. I'm not a sissy. I just am brought to my knees with how gracious and compassionate people are when our economy is such a mess and so many people are without jobs right now.

At 2pm I had an appointment to pick up three HUGE trays of Baked Ziti at a small local restaurant in town called Prosciuttos. The owner, Joel, donated these casseroles to us which were to be used for a dinner this evening at a homeless shelter in Charlotte. When I pulled up, their staff was so kind to me. I was not able to meet Joel to thank him in person but his staff just repeatedly thanked ME and loaded the steaming hot casseroles in my car. It was enough food to feed SIXTY-FIVE of the 100 people our team was serving tonight! If you live in the area, go to Proschiuttos at Shops on the Green!!

When I arrived back at the church to transfer the casseroles, I was informed that $840 was donated during the car wash. Can you believe that!?

I can't wait for church tomorrow to hear all the other stories that took place today. It was an amazing day and I really hope I use all that I've learned the past few months and today not for next year's Project CARE: Mission Possible but throughout the year. It's not just a one day message.

Thank you for letting me share this with you. What better way to end this day than with the words from my theme song, "I want to sign Your name to the end of this day..."

Couldn't resist...she's too cute!

First there were two....



Wanting nothing more than to be outside...



And then there was only one...



Who wanted nothing more than to help her Dada stain the deck...


And she was so jealous because the neighbor boy Braden got to help her Dada and she was stuck inside. (see him in the picture!?) She really would not leave the window or the door. She had to see what all was going on with her Dada.

Huh?

Fresh Air

I needed to take a quick break from the busyness of life so I'm checking out of the real world and visiting the blog world for a moment to give my brain a rest. Our Project CARE: Mission Possible event is this Saturday so this has been a CRAZY week so far trying to get the many last details in place. We now have over 400 people signed up for various projects and more numbers are still trickling in. I really can't wait to see how Saturday goes!!

This is random but I'm pretty certain that I have a fetish with notebooks. The other night I ask Matt to hand me my notebook and he goes, "which one?" I said the one on the counter and he goes, "there's two up there." So I started to take a look around the room and apparently, this is what my world has come to:
1 notebook for Project CARE: Mission Possible
1 notebook for Meals/Menu for the week
1 notebook as my planner
1 notebook just because it was cute when I saw it at Target
1 notebook for "Random" stuff
Oh, and no joke, today I walked through the office section at Target again and wanted to get ANOTHER notebook to try to start a prayer journal. You'll be happy to hear I didn't buy anything because the voice in my head said YOU HAVE TOO MANY TO BEGIN WITH.

I do think it'd be cool to start a prayer journal though. Just not really sure how to go about it. I'll have to find someone who uses one and see how they have it set up.

My INBOX is overflowing with all your requests and responses for me to write more blog posts and how my writings have impacted your life... So to all of my fans: I'm sorry for not responding directly to your emails but more posts are coming!

Kidding. (About the Inbox overflowing, and getting so many requests and responses and having fans and impacting your life with my goofiness). Everything else was for real.

In honor of my sister doing such a fantastic job in her nursing program at Mercer, the list below are all the parts of the body that Kathryn can name/point to:
nose
hair
head
chin
ears
eyes
teeth -- she chomps down and says teeeeef
belly - she also knows when we refer to her 'budda belly'
knees
elbow - yesterday we were working on that. I can't even type what she was trying to call it....she was kind of close so that's why it's on the list!

Our Sweet Girl

Yes, she put both her cups in her purse...

Pink Camo, Christmas PJ's and a Strawberry Shortcake necklace...
Could a girl ask for anything more?

Happy Easter!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!! It's so interesting to me how year after year you can celebrate the same holiday and each year the impact is always different from the last. This Easter was really special. This time of year is one of the few times you can actually follow along Christ's footsteps leading up to his resurrection. I remember from years past always hearing "The Easter Story" at church on Easter Sunday. I always loved it - and singing "He Lives" and "Up from the Grave He Arose". I actually made a bet with Matt that we'd sing those two songs at church...we sang "He Lives"!! Hmm...Hopefully God saw the humor of me betting on a Sunday! Easter was always a day of celebration but this year was a little different. For the week leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Matt and I read the Gospels of Jesus' last week. If you need something to bring you to your knees, read that! It's just a glimpse of what Jesus went through for us.Talk about a roller coaster week of emotions. By the time Sunday came around, I knew exactly want the world CELEBRATION meant. Thank you LORD!

Sunday afternoon Matt and I cooked a scrumptious meal together. The menu:

Honey Baked Ham - Mom surprised us and got us one! Yummy!!
Deviled Eggs
Sweet Potato Casserole
Green Beans
Homemade Yeast Rolls
Pumpkin Bars with cream cheese icing for dessert

What a wonderful Easter!!

Trash Day

For our neighborhood, 'Trash Day' is on Tuesdays. Every Monday afternoon, I drag the big fat nasty trash can around the side of the house to the street for the trash people to get the next morning. **Disclaimer: I've pretty much convinced myself that the reason I take the trash to the street is to help Matt out. He has no problem doing it but I figure it's one less thing for him to have to worry about on a Monday night.** And trust me, it's not a far walk at all and it usually takes me all of 40 seconds to do. Well today was another story. I went out like every other Monday to move the trash can and I could barely budge it. It was packed FULL and Matt had cut the grass this weekend and must have dumped all the grass clippings in it plus probably one or two couple hundred pound weights. (That's a rough estimate). So I stopped and thought a second. My first thought: Do I really want to help Matt out today? And then my second thought: Just because I have a 17 month old and haven't played soccer/really worked out consistently in 5+ years doesn't mean I can't handle this stupid trash can. And now hindsight thought: I am so stubborn! You guessed it. I went for it. I heaved. I grunted. I literally broke a sweat. And came very close to using a few foul choice words. While I would have said we have level terrain prior to moving the trash can, I could draw you the most precise topographical map of the 15 feet I walked. It is indeed NOT level. I'm finally about to make it to the sidewalk and wouldn't you know it, there was an older lady walking by who I am sure heard me the ENTIRE time. As soon as we made eye contact she said, "Are you alright?" I had just gotten my momentum going so I couldn't really stop to answer her question until I got the darn beast on the street. So there. Mission Accomplished. I told the lady there would be another free showing next Monday afternoon if my husband cuts the grass again.

Update to "My Mother"

You're going to get a kick out of this post... Last night I logged on and saw that someone else voted on my poll where I'm asking if you think it's okay to give a child their first hair cut without asking their mother first... Read the blog titled "My Mother" for the story. When I logged on to the poll, someone had actually voted "Yes, I can do what I want" - which clearly is the wrong answer. Today I was emailing a friend and telling her about the blog and I told her...and I quote... "some retard voted "YES". Surely that must have been my mom. At least, that's what I hope! There better not be any other crazy's out there!!" Nope, turns out it was my father-in-law!!! Seriously.

Note to self: Throw out master "Do Not" list and begin working immediately on a "Grandparent Manual" for all future visits. Include the following: 1. Coaching on answering questions correctly. 2. Teaching children to not call people retards and crazy when they could be your family.

No Thanks to Sweetness...

Aside from this being one of the cutest videos you'll ever see in your life...it's also proof that our daughter does in fact, NOT like sweets! Oh how this makes me proud because she's just like her mama in this area! Don't get me wrong, I definitely can enjoy yummy cakes or brownies but I was not born with the "sweet tooth". Now my husband and my family on the other hand, are the type that if there is anything sweet in the house, WWIII will take place and if you're still standing after the fight, you'll usually only have about 24 hours (or less) before the next battle. Looks like Kathryn will be Switzerland with me...

Enjoy!

Project CARE: Mission Possible

If you know me, you've heard me talking a lot about this for the past several months. On April 25th, our church is participating in Project CARE: Mission Possible. It is a one day, hands-on mission blitz in the Lake Norman and surrounding areas. We will be serving our community and people in need through various projects including collecting and donating food to local shelters and food banks, organizing care baskets, preparing food and gathering items to give to the youth homes and shelters and many others. Our verse for this event is Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." If you live close by and would like to join us, click here for more information or we'd love for you to be one of our prayer warriors and pray for us and everyone we meet that day!

Rated PG-13

I forgot to mention another "moment" while at my parent's house last weekend. My sister and I were sitting in the living room hanging out while Kathryn and Michael were playing. We were talking and Kirsten was telling some story about her week and I asked her a question about it and although she responds with a much lowered voice than "normal" she says, "That's a big, fat H*LL No!" Kathryn looks up and says to us, "EL No!" No joke, my eyes almost popped out of my head like, did my daughter seriously just say her first curse word at age 16 months??

Note to self: Add "Do not use profanity" to master "DO NOT" list when visiting grandparents

Birthday Festivities...

I had a great birthday last week. For some reason I kept thinking I was going to be 29 but when it came down to my actual "birth day" I realized I was really turning 28. I did the math and now I have TWO more years to plan for my 30th!!

Kathryn and I met my friend Leslyn for a play date with her two children, Titus and Eden. Eden is still a little baby but Titus and Kathryn had a ball together. They were so sweet together. In the afternoon, we baked my favorite birthday cake, chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. That evening my sweet husband went to the Fresh Market and got some yummy Salmon (my favorite) and cooked a delicious meal for us. He also gave me a new camera and the movie Twilight... Which if you know me, you know I'm a huge fan of the books. And if you know my husband, Matt, you know he must really love me to have walked through Target carrying around a movie about vampires!

Here are a few pictures from my new camera!

My Mother

I'm pretty sure my mom thinks she made it under the blog radar but nope, I wanted to give her a few days so she'd think she was in the clear before I made this tragedy known to the entire universe. As you know, I just returned from visiting my friend Brooke in Cleveland. While I was out of town, my parents enthusiastically agreed to watch Kathryn. We've only left her over night before so this was a leep for us to leave her for three nights. Thankfully, we both have great parents and we totally trust them with our precious girl. When I was flying out of Cleveland on Sunday, I called mom to ask if she could bring Kathryn with her to the airport when she picked me up because I hadn't seen her in three days and just wanted to love on her as soon as I could. When Mom pulled up at the airport, I saw Kathryn in the backseat and she was all smiles and just looked as beautiful as ever. But she looked different. I told mom she looked all grown up and how could that be since I was only gone for three days? We start to drive and I keep looking back and patting Kathryn and trying to blow her kisses and I say again how she looks different. In hindsight, mom was clearly dodging my comments and finally the truth was made known. My mother had Kathryn's hair CUT while I was out of town. Kathryn has never had her haircut before and my dear mother took it upon herself to have the honor. Oh. I. Was. Livid. To. Say. The. Least. If you have kids, I think you'll understand where I'm coming from. If you don't have kids, I think you'll understand where I'm coming from. That's just something you do not do. Even if you are the Nonni. And to add fuel to my fire, when I asked my mother if she cut Kathryn's hair, she replied, "No, "I" did not cut her hair...." She only AGREED to have her friend cut it! So no, I was not at my daughter's first haircut. Lesson learned: Begin working on a master "DO NOT" list for future overnight visits with grandparents.

Cleveland Trip

My trip up to Cleveland was tons of fun!!! It was so great visiting with Brooke and Todd, we crammed in as much as we could in three days. I flew in Thursday evening and we headed straight to Harpo's to chow down on their delicious wings. Afterwards we headed to their house - which I finally got to see for the first time and they've been living there going on three years! Their house is 106 years old! It had beautiful maple floors and tall doors with gorgeous trim and moldings. Their dining room had the original built in china hutch with glass doors on the sides and a bench in the middle. I could probably type an entire post on their home but we'll save that for another day. As beautiful as their home was, there was one major, major fault.... they kept their thermostat at like 27 degrees! Maybe that's a slight exaggeration but it was a bit on the chilly side. Although I will say, Brooke did warn me of how cold it is in Cleveland. When I called her the day before I was flying out to ask if I needed to pack long johns, she said "No, of course not!" I'm kind of thinking she should have probably said "Yes!" Note to self: Bring all the long johns you can find for the next visit to Brooke and Todd's...

Friday, we spent the day in Amish Country. Touring shops, antique stores, wineries, and eating so much food we could barely walk. We ate lunch at the Der Dutchman Restaurant. It's been almost a week since my trip and I'm still full from eating there! Delicious!! We seriously ate so much, Brooke was half tempted to ask one of the Amish for a ride to our car. The country side was beautiful. Rolling hills, lots of farm houses, and old barns. I think my favorite was seeing the Amish riding in their little buggies, especially when the kids were the ones driving!

Saturday was another great day. Brooke and Todd drove me all over Cleveland. We took our pictures in front of Lake Erie and got to see all of downtown Cleveland. We went to the West Side Market - more fresh food than you can imagine in one place. We got some clams, bread, veggies and herbs for dinner that night. I wish we had a place like that in Charlotte! We ate lunch at Panini's and ate their famous "overstuffed sandwich". Mine was piled high with turkey, swiss cheese, french fries and coleslaw. No joke. It sounds disgusting but it was really good! Again, still full from that meal. Saturday night we cooked our feast from the West Side Market. Or rather, Todd graciously cooked dinner for all of us. You may be wondering at this point, what did we do in the evenings during my visit to Cleveland? Two words for you: Guitar Hero. I had never played before until this trip. I am convinced we played over 20 hours while I was visiting. Brooke just emailed me her pictures from my visit...and the only pictures she had on her camera were of us playing Guitar Hero. Oh, yes of course, let me answer your question. I AM a rock star.

It was such a wonderful trip. Like always, we had a blast hanging out together. Brooke and I figured out that we've been best friends for sixteen years now and we've been through middle school, high school, college, roommates, and weddings together. Two minutes after that discovery, she spilt her drink all over my pants and my shirt and I didn't think once about punching her for it. We really are true friends.

Rabid Coon Showdown

Yes, you read the title correctly. There's never a dull moment when visiting my family in GA. Yesterday afternoon my sister and I were sitting outside my parent's house watching her boy Michael play in the yard when Dad comes flying up the driveway in his truck. He parks right in front of the house and yells "I'm getting my gun!" as he runs into the house. Two seconds later he runs back to his truck with his gun and tells us to stay where we are because he just passed a rabid racoon on the driveway near the road. He speeds down the driveway in his truck again looking for the coon. As soon as he drives away, Kirsten and I run after him (sort of, and obviously cautiously since he told us to stay where we were) to see where he was going because of course we wanted to see what was happening. Through the trees, we saw him drive up the road a little ways until he was out of sight. After a minute or two we saw his truck again and he stopped in front of our driveway and then Dad was out of the truck, hopped our neighbor's fence and was RUNNING up hill through our neighbor's pasture apparently chasing this coon. By this point we decided to call our neighbors (who are practically family to us) to let them know of the shenanigans about to take place on their property. We told Rodney what was going on and he said he'd grab his gun and meet Dad in the field. So now Kirsten and I are dying since we're not part of the action so we convince mom to drive us over to their house to see if we could see the showdown. We load up the car (Mom, Kirsten, her son Michael, my daughter Kathryn and I) and drove to the end of our driveway with the windows down so we could at least try to hear anything. A few moments later we heard the gunshot! Macho Dad comes walking over the hill towards us through the pasture and Rodney drives down in the gator to let us in the gate to their property. We follow them (children and all) to the other side of the pasture where the rabid coon lay. Dead of course. Check out the pictures below for the full effect. We were so proud of Dad! **And if this post offends anyone, please note: our children, pets, and our neighbor's children, horses and pets are all much safer now.

Macho Dad and the fence and hill he conquered.

On our way to see the showdown scene...

Me, Kathryn, Kirsten and Michael

Macho Rodney after the showdown

"Room Time"

A few weeks ago, a new friend of mine told me about "Room Time". I had also heard of it from a parenting book I had read but had completely forgotten about the idea until my friend brought it up. In an ideal world (obviously major emphasis on IDEAL), "Room Time" is where you put the little baby gate up and let your little one play in their room for 30 minutes or so and while they're happily playing on their own and their sweet music is playing in the background, you have that bit of freedom to finish a load of laundry, clean the house, start dinner, etc, etc. And of course the idea is to help them learn independent play and to teach them that they cannot be catered to 100% of the time and that they have boundaries when they play. After my friend told me of her experience and explained how it had impacted their family, I thought, "That sure sounds like a wonderful idea. Let's give it a go!" So the following Monday, I decided to test this new little theory out. I told Kathryn all about "Room Time" and how much fun she was going to have (and how much I was going to get accomplished) and I put our little baby gate up and turned her soft music on and went about my list of things 'To Do'. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday went by and every single day for those 20 minutes of "Room Time", Kathryn stood at the baby gate crying and begging me to let her out. I know if she could actually say these words, she was saying "I H-AAA-T-E room time! Room Time isn't fun mama!! Get me out of here!!" But since parenting is all about consistency, I wasn't giving up. At least not that easily... So Friday rolls around and I put her extra favorite toys in her room and encourage her again with how much FUN it's going to be. YIPPY!!! And so I leave the room and (like every other day) stand a little ways away from the door where she can't see me, to see if she's actually going to play...I mean, TOUCH any of her toys. After about five minutes she STOPS crying! I couldn't believe my consistent parenting skills had already worked! I started doing the little "Who's the Super Mom? I'm the Super Mom!" Dance.. And so I waited a few more minutes before I did my "peek" to see what she was actually playing with and this is what my sweet girl was up to...

Yep, my sweet girl was sound asleep on the floor. That would only happen to my child. She probably figured, "I'll show mama what I think about her 'Room Time'...and her tacky "Super Mom" dance!" Our sweet little girl. She totally has my heart.