Boop's Babbles

Missed a bit and a catch up on adventures

2011-10-11T15:42:00.002-04:00

Argh, I've missed a bit, but had no computer access for a few days so, c'est la vie. Anyway...I'm going to jump right back on the band wagon (or try to anyway).

So let me fill you in on our week.We had a blast!! As you know we did go apple picking. Then we hung around the old family hold and visited with friends and family! It was awesome!

When we left, I took the girls to visit the children's museum in Atlanta and we went to Zoinks in Tallahassee so they could jump. Ella Rose got to milk a cow at the children's museum and "milk" (it's really water) squirted out. Evie Alice loved the infant waterbed (and so did I)!!! Ella played with fish under an indoor tree house area and got to paint on walls, walk through fair tales, build sand castles indoors...and use simple machines to make a ball move around. We spent several hours at the museum. Zoinks was fun, but we didn't spend as long there....I was impressed though with the facility as a whole and will take Ella Rose back there to play on a rainy day.

Sunday, Josh and I took the girls to Perry to the GA National Fair. It was fun. Evie even enjoyed it although they were both totally worn out after the fact. Evie fell asleep at the fair and both girls were completely asleep within 15 minutes of leaving there to head home. Ella Rose and Josh rode down a big slide and rode the ferris wheel. I swear I could eat my way through a fair though if I had unlimited funds and if I didn't mind getting as large as a house! Yum!! We did have Reese's funnel cake though and fries. We also looked at bunnies and cows and wandered around a lot. Ella Rose played in the dirt, on a playground setup that was for sale and Evie and I visited the baby care center. Ah, the baby care center...I do believe it's one of my favorite parts of the fair. I think the flags were favorites for both of the girls too. I have to say when speaking about the fair, as always: It was so cool!

Oh! I didn't even mention Saturday. Saturday I took the girls to the 100 mile yard sale. We got some real deals! Ella got a big Clifford stuffed animal for 25cents. Evie got a new twisty toy and stuffed puppy too...and I got Ella some crocks for this next summer. All in all I think we spent less than $5...but had so much fun. Then we headed over to our church for a pet blessing and Father Butch even blessed Clifford for Ella. And we had a K-9 police officer demonstration. After all that fun we gathered up some blessed holy water and took it home so that we could bless Elmo (the fish) and Daisy...both of our babies didn't travel to the pet blessing, but definitely got blessed when we got home.

Yesterday, Ella Rose went back to preschool. She had a blast and Evie Alice and I began working on fall decorations. We got most of our Halloween decorations set up at home, and I continued sorting through the ever changing seasons of clothing. I discovered two full rubbermaid bins of clothes for the girls and added that to the piles of clothing that they both have. I do believe I could clothe an army of little girls! :) And I love that!!! Ella Rose was really excited about our find too and wore one of her "new hand-me-down" Halloween outfits to Miss Jenna's today. She was so proud!!

Tonight, we are carving pumpkins AFTER we go to gymnastics! I think I'm more excited than the girls are...or perhaps we are just decorating them. Regardless, it's a girls outting to Chick-Fil-A to do so! Josh is out of town this week and we diligently holding down the fort.

I'm so thankful for the prayers last night to keep the creek from rising (an ever present concern when we get a lot of water). Rising creeks=Flooding of our home! YUCK!! Thankfully,we have narrowly avoided this situation many times in the last 4 years...the creek has risen many times, but we've not had much damage....so I just pray that continues.
Oh, as I ramble away, I discovered today that one of the technical schools is offering a sewing class at the end of October/beginning of November. It's 3 day class and I'm hopeful that I will be able to do it. I SO want to be able to sew on a machine and not just by hand. If I can get some help with my machine that just might be possible!

Lastly, before I go...my little Evie Alice is talking and her first word was Ma ma! I couldn't be more proud!

Boop Boop de Doop!

Children's Museum

2011-10-04T22:32:00.000-04:00

Today was a great day! The girls and I got up and had breakfast with my nieces and nephews before they headed out to school. Then we had time to cuddle and slowly get ready for our day since we are on break! Nice!! Momma returned from delivering children to school and we had plenty of time to visit with her.

After we did that, we packed up and headed out the Children's Museum in Atlanta. We had a blast!! Ella loved the balls that could be used in various types of tools. Evie Alice liked the infant waterbed. I liked the garden, fake sand, and that Ella got to paint on the wall, but my favorite was the cow that Ella got to practice milking. We spent several hours exploring all that the Children's Museum had to offer.

Tomorrow is another fun filled day of fall break. We may take it a bit easy though...my left knee has begun swelling and I honestly don't know why it's doing that...so I've put a brace on it and I'm going see what happens from there. I'd share more, but honestly I'm exhausted so I look forward to telling you all about our day tomorrow, after it happens.

For now, good night!

Relaxing Monday

2011-10-03T22:50:00.000-04:00

We had the nicest day today! I visited with my nephew at his school and the girls and I hung out around the family abode. We visited with my parents, niece, nephews, and let the girls play outside. Ella Rose led my parent's dog around by the collar. She dug in the dirt and bossed our dog around too. She bounced on the trampoline for a while, but I do believe her favorite toy of the day was a little coffee pot that pretends to actually make coffee. You can fill it with water and it goes through the proper motions as if it were making the coffee. She adores this toy...I do believe I need to find one for Santa to deliver this year.

Another one of the highlights of Ella Rose's day was the car shopping cart at Kroger. She had the best time driving it through the store as we picked up milk and eggs.

However, the largest bright spot of Ella Rose's day was visiting with cousin Gabe at his big boy school. She got to eat lunch there with him and he took her around to look at all the murals on the CPS walls! It was so sweet and they had a really good time. He even let her pet the painted dog, cats and birds! He's so sweet to her.

After our visit with Gabe we came back to my parents for some quiet time. Ella ended up playing outside more, and then we decided to surprise the family by going ahead and starting supper. So, I got to use my new crockpot buffet!!! It was SO much fun and made supper easier for everyone around here. We had candied carrots, corn, and green bean casserole (all prepared in the crock pot). Yay!!

After supper, we all loaded up in the car and headed out to see my nephew Peyton's football game...he is really good player. And I'll tell you, I'm not one to go to any football game. I don't watch them on tv, don't typically talk about them and really couldn't usually care less whether or not the sport existed, but tonight I saw an amazing play. One of the players on Peyton's team ran almost the entire field to score a touchdown....wow!!! It was during the last few seconds of the game too. Talk about something to see! It was amazing. I was so excited that we were there, and have to admit I even enjoyed watching some of the game.

Tomorrow, the girls and I are headed to the Children's Museum in Atlanta and then home to our little homestead in Moultrie. It's going to be a great day!! And I look forward to telling you all about it tomorrow...

But for now, I've got to run because little Miss Chipmunk (Evie Alice) has awakened and needs her Mommy. So g'night y'all.

Apple picking, birthday celebration, and food poisoning

2011-10-02T21:33:00.000-04:00

Hi all-

I simply cannot believe that I missed blogging the first night of the NaBloWriMo. ARGH! I was so excited about it and thought about the blog entry I was going to make yesterday, but when the evening hit and I'd planned to blog I was sick. So I'm going to just pretend that it started tonight.

Yesterday, my family, and lots of our friends loaded up in cars and headed into the mountains to go apple picking. We had a grand time. However, we discovered that you only get to ride on the wagon if you pick in September....hmmm...something to commit to memory for next time.

Ella Rose had a blast picking Apples and so did everyone else. We even got a great picture of Evie Alice trying to grab and apple! The girls napped while we traveled back and forth to Ellijay and Josh and I enjoyed the scenery.

Then last night, we headed to Provinos. That has got to be one of my all time favorite restaurants! It ranks right up there with Scalini's as far as I'm concerned. The entire family descended upon the restaurant together (with the exception of my niece Annie) and we had a joyous and lovely meal. The only problem that we ran into was after the fact. Apparently the Eggplant Parmesan that I ordered with marinara sauce had meat sauce in it, and I awakened in the middle of the night to revisit this fact. But despite this unfortunate occurance, I still absolutely adore Provinos and would go there for my birthday celebration again.

Then today, we visited with some old friends and had cake and ice cream. The kids all bounced on the trampoline, swang on a tire swing and ran around outside playing. The weather was perfect for it...and I enjoyed our visit so much! I just wish our visiting friends didn't live so far away.

As far as the birthday celebration goes, it was awesome! Ella Rose helped me blow out the candles on my cake. Evie Alice got to try cake for the first time and I got the most wonderful buffet set of crock pots. It's not one crock pot but three crock pots with holders for the spoons, individual temperature adjustments for each pot and absolutely my ideal situation when it comes to using a crock pot type cooking device. I can hardly wait to try it out!! :)

Then tonight, we had a relaxed family supper. Ella Rose helped me put her stuffed dog to sleep and Evie Alice snuggled up and dozed right off and has actually stayed asleep.

Now, before I go...to answer yesterday's question. Why do I blog? I think the best answer to that question would be that I love to write. I express myself so much better through writing than I do any other form of communication and I think that's why, I blog. It's an outlet for me, and one that I adore (when there's time)...and I am looking forward to making time these 30 days!

Early morning chaos!!

2011-09-29T15:17:00.005-04:00

As I drug myself out of bed this morning around 5ish...I couldn't help but think about how much has to get done each and every morning before I even step foot outside of my home! And this morning was nooo exception. My darling seven month old has decided that it's her favorite pasttime to get up within ten minutes of my departure from bed. No ladies and gentlemen, it doesn't matter what time, day or night I get up...Miss Chipmunk will be yelling for me shortly after that feat. So I was amazed this morning when I had time to put on all of my make up...roll my hair and even get my clothes on before she began summoning me back to the bedroom.

Thursday mornings are ALWAYS interesting around our domestic estate, because not only am I trying to get my darling doodlebugs out the door on time and to school/work myself, but I'm trying to make sure everything is picked up for our cleaning lady. Yes, I too pick up in anticipation of our cleaning lady's arrival...and God Bless her! I broke down and hired her when the school year began because I knew that I wouldn't be able to hold back the tons of impending chaos with two little ones two and under and still keep up the schedule that we currently manage. And let me tell you...it's a schedule.

Miss Chickie has dance on Mondays, Gymnastics on Tuesday, and we pick up our CSA groceries on Wednesday. Then we inevitably have company Wednesday evenings...so Thursday mornings I'm more than ready for the house to be spruced up for the weekend!! Any free time (even just 15 minutes) to do more than a quick pick up here and there seems non-existant. I'm working on it...but I do believe that the piles and mounds of STUFF grow over night.

Anyway...the morning routine this morning, was CHAOS! I had to clean up the dishes from the night before because I fell asleep putting my darling doodlebugs to bed, for the third time this week. Then I rebooted the laundry, emptied the dishwasher, packed the lunches, loaded up supplies that Chipmunk and Chickie need for the sitter, fixed breakfast and finally got my dear little ones and husband out of bed. WHEW! And yes, that's all before even thinking about heading out the door...

This morning, not only was the counter covered in dishes, but then there was the struggling with mounds and piles of LAUNDRY! Good gracious, I believe the clothes and paper have been communicating because I'm certain my laundry has taken a cue from the paper piles and is now multiplying and procreating as we speak. So after shoving the uneccessary paper piles into the black hole (insert twilight zone music here) of our guest bedroom and gathering the fifteen piles of clothes from around the house, of clothing...I sat down...and enjoyed a hurried breakfast with my loved ones. Whew!

Mornings around our home! Gotta love them...and I do... but I'm I'm going to get better at preparing the night before (cough...sputter... after Fall break) ...I'm determined not to fall asleep with my children! I will load supplies into the car earlier and convince my precious seven month old that her dear Mommy does not need supervision during the morning sprint to prepare the household for our journey out into the wide wide world...at least that's my plan... ha ha!

Then again, I may just decide to follow the song: Here we go 'round the Mulberry Bush. That's got to be the schedule that will calm the savage beast...also known as Thursday morning...

We'll see...won't we...but for now...I'm going to savor the fact that tomorrow is Friday...and then I have ten glorious days of fall break! Wooo hoo or should I say Boop Boop de Doop!!!

NaBloWriMo

2011-09-28T10:17:00.001-04:00

I've decided to try to participate in October's National Blog Writing Month. I tried to do this last year and it was an epic failure! I'm confident this year will be better though.

Basically the idea is to write a blog post a day for the entire month. I know it's going to be a challenge with two little ones running around to manage this. Hopefully, instead of discouraging me, the busy schedule that we have planned to October will inspire me to blog daily. So far plans for October include, our annual apple picking adventure, the Georgia National Fair, Kid-o-ween at Wild Adventures, playtime at Chehaw Park, possibly the Georgia Aquarium or the Children's Museum in Atlanta, Thomas the Train's big day out, a trip to the Pumpkin Patch and finally trick-or-treating!
Whew! It's going to be a wild, but FUN month! I can hardly wait...I have to admit it's my favorite month mainly because it's when fall really starts to begin down here in South GA.
Ella Rose is SO excited about Halloween! She's already decided on her costume and has declared that she's going to be Bob the Tomato and Evie Alice is going to be Larry the Cumcumber. Now I've just got to make those costumes. Here comes, OCTOBER! I can hardly wait!

Maternity Leave

2011-02-07T14:57:00.000-05:00

Figuring out when to begin my maternity leave has been quite an interesting adventure this time around. With Ella Rose it was much simpler, I was waiting for labor. :() Actually, I ended up waiting for a date to induce since my doctor was going out of the country. However, the induction didn't work and I ended up having her two days later...via c-section because my labor didn't progress properly and pre-eclampsia set in.

This time around though, there's no worries about labor. We won't be inducing and the only real determination has been when to start my maternity leave knowing that the c-section is scheduled for February 15th. Actually, it was originally scheduled for February 8th and that's why the maternity leave date began to move. I put in for my leave to begin on the 4th of February...but then my doctor announced he'd not be in town this week....SO...I moved the date until the 11th of February.

However, the situation has gotten more interesting. My little family has struggled through 4 deaths in 8 days right now. All of these deaths are people closely connected to my husband. Bless his heart...

So...things have been quite stressful at home. Needless to say my blood pressure has increased again during this pregnancy and so I've been worried about a repeat of the pre-eclampsia that didn't show up with Ella until I was in active labor. So tomorrow is it. I'll officially be on maternity leave until May 2nd, and I have to say that the prospect of being home for 9 weeks fills me with excitement, but anxiety.

I'm nervous about how things are going to go during the scheduled c-section. I'm very nervous about the two weeks at home confinement after the c-section. I am phenomenally nervous about how Ella Rose will react to having a sibling. I can't help but worrying that I'm somehow hurting her by bringing another baby into our lives. And yes, I worry that I won't be bonded with this child as much as I have with Ella Rose.

Ah, the worries of a soon to be second time Mommy.

I am however, looking forward to having time with my little ones...and I look forward to updating this site and having time to do things for my loved ones at home...

I guess we'll see how it goes.

Betty

The nesting begins

2011-01-18T15:12:00.000-05:00

I am a month out from adding a new member to our little family. Ella Rose is quite excited about Evie's arrival and I have to admit I'm excited but nervous. There is soooooo much to do at school and soooooo much to do at home. Evie's border isn't up in her room yet. Her crib isn't put together. The guestroom has to be converted into a guestroom/office and the office has to be fully converted into Evie's room. I still have to buy a mattress and I need to retrieve Ella's cloth diapers from a friend who used them for their little one. But slowly, but surely all of this will get done...

In the meantime, I'm focusing on the little things. Ella and I sorted through her old clothes yesterday and organized them. We've cleaned all the cushions on the couch and yes, I mean CLEANED!! I took the covers all off of them, y'all and washed them. I don't think I've done that since I've had the couch. Yesterday, Ella and I mopped the floor and then got down on my hands and knees and cleaned under the cabinets. Ella and I also organized her cabinet in the kitchen and the tuperware drawer.

In the meantime, Ella and I played trains, tea party, and in her sandbox. We also went outside and played ball with our yellow lab, Daisy. It was fun and Ella just cackled with laughter as Daisy chased the ball.

We've also got to get Ella's new chest-of-drawers ready to go into her room and move the wicker one into Evie's. I feel like I have months of work to do to be ready for this precious little bundle of joy to be here...but I know it will all get done.

Then there's Ella's birthday party! Ella will turn TWO exactly 5 days after Evie arrives *if* Evie waits for her c-section date to arrive. So I'm trying to do all of the preparations and planning for her birthday now. I have decorations to order, a trackless train to schedule, and birthday presents to purchase. But I'm looking forward to it.

I may be totally out of my mind, but I can hardly wait to be home full time with my girls for a few months. And I know that things won't all go according to plan, but here's what I do have planned. Ella will keep going to Aunt 'Nise's on Tuesdays and Thursdays to play with her friends. Friday's Ella and I will go to Mommy and Me at the Arts Center and Evie will go to Aunt 'Nise's for an hour or so. Monday nights Ella will do gymnastics. Other than that we'll play outside...and do crafts at home and such. We can visit Wild Adventures on our season pass or go to Chehaw Park to the playground/zoo etc...on our season pass. I can hardly wait!

I have no idea what it will be like having two so close together in age, and I worry about how Ella Rose will react. Hopefully, it won't be so hard her. I am planning on tandem nursing and yes, Ella is still nursing now. I keep reminding her that Evie will bring more milk when she arrives. Ella really likes this.

But I am open for tips, suggestions and thoughts on what it's like to have two...two and under or just two in general. In the meantime, I'm going to return to my flurry of activities and nest away...after all Evie will be here soon...so there's a LOT to do before she comes.

Betty

Sunday, Sunday...

2010-10-03T23:05:00.000-04:00

Well y'all, we didn't make to Kid-o-ween this weekend. Maybe we'll get there next weekend...instead we participated in a first Sunday brunch at our church. The family took naps this afternoon and we hung around the homefront and played. It was a nice Sunday overall. I did manage to find and purchase Ella's Thanksgiving dress. It's never too early to start working on that stuff...the house is still relatively clean and I've gotten my husband off for another business trip.

Tomorrow, will be another blissful morning of fall break. I don't yet know what the day holds, but I can hardly wait!

Until then,
Betty

Soothing Saturday

2010-10-02T16:12:00.000-04:00

What a wonderful day to begin fall break.My dear husband returned from a business trip last night. Our dear daughter slept in this morning until 8:30. It was glorious!!! I thoroughly enjoyed the extra rest. The work that I'd put into cleaning the house yesterday before picking up my Ella Rose from the sitters has paid off. Amazingly the house is still relatively clean and we've had a grand family day so far.

Ella and I began our day by watching Thomas the Tank Engine. She is completely enthralled with him! She dances and sings every time she sees him and I am perfectly content with that being her main source of entertainment right now. In fact, we are taking her to see Thomas "Live" in a few weeks. I'm not sure which one of us is more excited...Josh, Ella Rose, or me! It will be so much fun! Ella will get to ride on Thomas, as will Josh and I. She'll get to meet Sir Topham Hat and there will be so much there for her to do. I've even found pink Thomas the Tank Engine overalls for her to wear for this special occasion. :)

After our Thomas debut this morning, Ella and I fixed breakfast and then she announced it was time to go outside. So we let our kitchen dishes be while we wandered out into the back yard! Have I mentioned lately how nice it is to have a fully sided house, y'all? It makes me smile, every time I look at it! :) Ella played on her slide, in her sandbox and with her "bubbies" (bubbles). Then she began to entertain herself at her water table.

Josh decided he wanted to replace the side benches of the picnic table, so of course Ella Rose helped with that too. While they were busy, straightened up the morning dishes and headed off to the grocery store to pick up fresh fruits and veggies...I'm on a healthy eating kick, not that we've ever really eaten unhealthily, especially since we are vegetarian, but I know so many people in the U.S. don't get enough of their fruits and vegetables and I'm determined we will... Plus, we were out of most of our fruits and cheese. It was a nice relaxing trip.

I'm trying to get a bit more creative with Ella's lunches too. She is such a good eater, but I'd love to give her better presentation of all of her foods. So I'm toying with the idea of doing bento. Hopefully, someone out there can give me some advice. :) I tried to make one for her for lunch today, and it turned out decently well...not picture worthy, but colorful nonetheless...

After lunch, there was more playing outside. Then Ella came in for a nap...and while I gathered up our recycling and loaded it into my car. Ella has now headed off to Lowes with her Daddy (this is her favorite store in the world) and I ran the recylcing to the recycling center. And now, I find myself back home, with a clean house and time to update my blog.

I just know this fall break is going to be great. I can hardly wait to share more about our adventures. Tomorrow, I think Ella and I may go to Wild Adventures for kid-o-ween...but that all depends on when Josh leaves for business. We wouldn't want to leave him out, ya know?

Until tomorrow! Have a blessed Saturday.
Betty

NaBloWriMo

2010-10-01T20:54:00.000-04:00

Today begins the first day of NaBloWriMo and even though it's been a while since I've managed to blog, I'm looking forward to the opportunity. It also marks the first day of our fall vacation. I can hardly wait to share with all of you the wonderful experiences that my family has as we celebrate October and the fall.

-Betty

5 year plan

2010-04-20T07:43:00.002-04:00

Growing up, my Momma regularly told me that I needed to have a five year plan. So I created one. After I finished college my 5 year planning process ended...I had vague goals, such as get married before 30...didn't manage that one...but came close. I wanted to have a baby...by the time I was 30. I missed that goal too, but not by much...just a couple of years. I knew I wanted to be working full time, and be able to support myself. Check! I managed that goal...but what I never imagined, not in a million years was that my next five year plan would be financial.

Yes folks, I'm the money lady around our house. Scary!!!! I have an English and Philosophy degree and to say that I'm not good at math is an understatement. I'm HORRIBLE when it comes to math...but oddly enough, decent when it comes to finances. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't care much for money. In fact, if I were to create a world, money wouldn't exist. It simply doesn't matter much to me, unless of course I don't have it.

Well, not having it has been a problem for a while. My husband and make a decent living...well...more than a decent living, but we're struggling to make ends meet and I finally had, had enough. So this month, I became the money lady. My husband handed the bills over to me and the passwords to accounts, etc...and told me to go to it. So I am.

And I've developed a five year plan! Ha! Who would have thought...I'd be back to five year plans? But they work. So here's the plan...and the steps to get there.

We are going to get out of debt, have another child, save for the future, pay off our mortgage early, go on a trip to Italy, and contribute to our retirement, save for our child's (or children's) college expenses, and I'm going to take a couple of years off from the outside the home workforce and be a Stay at home Mom for a couple of years. Then going further into the future. I'll go back to work, we'll continue saving for the future (retirement and children's college), we'll buy at least 5 acres and build a nice house in the country and my husband will be in business for himself. Then,we'll sell or rent our our current home.

Nice plan, huh? So how are we going to accomplish this? And why am I dreaming of leaving the workforce or going to Italy while our country is in the worst economic slump since the Great Depression? Well...it's simple. I've decided I'm sick of debt and I heard of Dave Ramsey and debt free living for the first time this year.

And we've begun to move through the steps to get there. There are 7 baby steps in the debt free living plan. We've been on this plan for 3 weeks now, I've been visualizing it for 6 weeks. We're half way through step one, and starting on step 2.

Let me break down the steps though and explain where I see them falling in our lives.
Step 1: Save a thousand dollars. As I said, we're half way now.
Step 2: Pay off all credit card, car loans, student loans, etc... (anything but the mortgage) as fast as possible. When one debt is paid off, apply the extra money to the next debt. We've been working on this step for 3 weeks. It will take us just over three years to finish this, although it may happen faster and I hope that it does.
Step 3: Save up the equivalent of 3-6 months of expenses. I want to do a few more months than 6 for us. I anticipate we will have this step finished in just under 4 years from now.

The following year, I will quit my teaching position for a few years. Don't get me wrong. I love teaching, but I've wanted to be a stay at home Momma for as long as I can remember and the reality is that I can be...soon. In four years that is...after we get out of debt.

Yesterday, I did the calculations, and realized once our debt is gone...our expenses for the month will be less than 1/2 of our income...way less. So it's possible...and so are our other dreams. Who would have thoughts. Not I. But we do have a five year plan...so where does Italy fit into this. That's our 5 year anniversary present...and I can hardly wait. This September, will be year three of marriage (not of the get out of debt plan). So we will have two and a half years to save for our trip and I just know that's possible too.

Debt free living...that's our plan...so what's your five year plan. Do you have one?

Finally Spring!

2010-04-10T11:00:00.008-04:00

Hi all-

Happy Spring!! Okay, so it's been spring for several weeks now, but the weather has finally caught up. I'm in hog heaven loving the warmer weather. The winter was WAY too cold for my taste! Whew!!! And to think that I live down in SOUTH Georgia. I hate to think about what the winter was like for people north of here. But at least we did get snow down here in South Georgia for the first time in over tweny years! yay!

Anyway, this past week my little one and I have been living in Spring break to it's fullest potential. My parents, sister, and niece, and nephews came to visit for Easter and for Spring break. We had SO much fun. Last Sunday we had an egg hunt and brunch at the church. Then on Monday we all visited Wild Adventures. That was the second amusement park that my Daddy had ever visited and the first time that Ella Rose had ever been to one too. Ella and I got our season pass (she didn't need one, so she'll go on mine) and so did my Momma, niece, and nephews! We are all excited about going back this summer when the water park portion of the park is open. :)

After the Wild Adventure (adventure), Ella and I hurried home and packed up for our next adventure. We decided we'd travel out to Tennessee and Mississippi with Momma, Annie, Gabe, and Danny. :) It was SO much fun. We visited with Aunt Sara and Uncle Frog. We saw Dana's new house and the children got to play with their new cousin Hays. Yay!!! And they got to ride Jimmy the horse! Even Ella got to ride. I was so proud of my little one...she may be working on walking still, but that girl can ride!

We also let them go swimming...and took them to the Children's Museum of Memphis. I was IMPRESSED to say the least. Wow! We spent hours there and could have easily spent more time, but it was time to head back for Georgia. So after thoroughly enjoying the museum we loaded up for our trek back to the good old GA.

On the way we stopped at Casey Jones' village. Everyone ate a great meal, and so Gran decided they would all get to pick out toys. Three of the children picked out stuffed animals. Ella even got to choose her own and it's a big soft stuffed pig. She leaned over grabbed it and said, "I get." So she did!!! She has hugged and snuggled with that pig ever since.

No one can say my little girl lacks knowledge of what she wants. :)

The adventures didn't stop there though...we spent the night in Calhoun which was nice and then yesterday visited with Lisa, and Sophia. What fun! Ella and Sophia ate lunch together, talked together and played together. Thankfully, there were no tears and Ella didn't poke anyone with her finger. Sophia did poke Ella, but Ella didn't care.

Finally, Ella snoozed while we made the treck back home and spent a lovely evening with Josh. Josh and Ella both conked out early and are both still snoozing as I type this. I've thought about trying to take her over to the park in Albany today, but we'll see. I do believe she might revolt if I put her in the car again today, but then again...maybe she won't. It truly depends on how long those two snooze.

I still want to do some more work on my garden and I *need* to get my spring/summer clothes down from the attic. :) So we'll see what the rest of this weekend holds.

I do know that my summer count down has begun! We have 30 more school days with students. Can you tell I'm slightly excited about that. I can hardly wait to pretend to be a full time Mommy again. Perhaps, I should say that I can hardly wait to be a full time summertime stay at home Mommy again!

Come on Summer!!!

Babysnazz give away

2009-11-01T09:26:00.004-05:00

Hi ladies,

This morning when Ella Rose and I checked my email we discovered that Babysnazz is having a contest! Wooo HOO!! The contest is for 20 free pairs of babylegs. Please check it out. Even if your little one doesn't want or isn't interested in babylegs, they make great baby presents. :) Ella has about 12 pairs now and loves them. She's looking forward to wearing them all winter (or at least regularly). Also we have several friends who are expecting and I just know they are looking forward to using them too...wink, wink. Anyway...you can get one free entry (no purchase required) for signing up. Bonus entries occur for posting the link on facebook or on your blog. The contest ends November 30th. Go check it out!

http://www.babysnazz.com/contest/

Betty

Carving pumpkins

2009-10-28T21:55:00.001-04:00

Josh, Ella and I carved pumpkins tonight and roasted pumpkin seeds! Yum! Ella had the best time playing with the pumpkins and pulling out strings from them. Amazingly she didn't put any in her mouth. Assuming I don't fall asleep at 8 pm tomorrow like I did last night, I'll post pictures then.

Good night!

Betty

Busy work week

2009-10-26T16:53:00.002-04:00

Hi all-

Honestly, I don't feel like I've done a good job at all with NaBloWriMo (in other words posting every day in October) but this month has been nuts.

However, with that said, let me update you all on the Georgia National Fair. Josh, Ella and I had a blast! Ella got to see the cows and horses. She got to go to a petting zoo and best of all she got to hang out with her friend Sophia.

Although I swear she probably would say the best part of the trip was playing in the fountain. :) We had so much fun. Josh got candy apples, and cotton candy. We got to walk through a tree that was a house. Josh was really impressed by this!! He's a do it with your hands type of guy! And, I got to have fun with my friends and family at the 20th anniversary of the Georgia National Fair. It was great!

We'd planned to go to a Halloween party the following night, but Ella was totally worn out, and so was I. So we put off the Halloween party for this year. One night led into another and before we knew it I was falling asleep at 8:30 in the evening. I have no idea how I got so exhausted. The house became dirty and work and manage the basic chores were all I could do last week, but things are better now. I'm even going to try to get a post up on Ella's blog and on my pet's blog this evening.

This past weekend was a snuggle and nap weekend. I fixed more food for Ella Rose. She now has cranberry applesauce, blackbeans, cranberries, summer squash, turnips, more spinach, more split pea soup, and cantelope. She's all set. :) She didn't care for the autumn harvest soup I made, but that's okay...we have plenty of new things to try.

Josh helped me straighten up the house a lot this weekend. Then this afternoon, the rush began. Ella had a Dr's appt. She's got a cold...poor thing. So off to the doctor we went. We are going to pick up her cough medicine shortly.

Okay...so rambly old post...without pictures, but those will come soon...in the meantime it's back to the races for Ella and me. We've got to pick up her medicine and drop off Josh's casts off to the local version of Good Will. I'll try to post again soon!

Take care,
Betty

2009-10-23T21:01:00.001-04:00

I'll post tomorrow, I promise. Just as soon as I shake this stomach bug. :)

I hope this counts...

2009-10-21T22:52:00.002-04:00

It's late...still no update today on the fair, but it's almost 11 and I'm up at 5:30 so...it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Good night...

Long day....

2009-10-19T22:09:00.002-04:00

Cell phone in the washer? Check. Washer turned on... check. Coffee all over the diningroom table and high chair? Check. Late getting out the door to go to work and the sitters? Check. Mix up the lunches so that I have the 8 month old's and she has mine? Check. Yep...that was the morning. Tonight has been much better though...and tomorrow, I really promise an update on the fair adventures. Good night!

Day at the Fair and other such

2009-10-18T23:34:00.001-04:00

It's late, and we got back from the Georgia National Fair about an hour ago. It was much later than I thought we'd be home, but supper took FOREVER. That's okay though...in the meantime getting ready for bed and preparing for tomorrow, I've managed to throw my cell phone into the wash so my wonderful husband has gone to go get me a replacement at Walmart. I use the cheap track phones that I can switch my sim card to even though we have a permanent plan b/c I wash, drop, destroy phones at least once a year. So Josh is at Walmart...Ella and I are packed for our busy Mondays tomorrow and I'm off to bed. But I'll share all about our fair adventures tomorrow. Good night....

Baking for Ella

2009-10-17T21:07:00.010-04:00

This weekend my husband is out of town for a theater competition and so Ella Rose and I have had our run of the house. It's been nice. The weather here has cooled down tremendously and so I've turned on the heat (in the evenings) and we've been able to stay nice and toasty. Josh is really, really hot natured and we're not so it's nice to bask in the warmth for a while.

But the other thing that I got around to doing last night was updating Ella Rose's "pantry" so to speak. She will be eight months old on Tuesday, which is hard to believe, but true. And since she started eating solids occasionally, (at 5 months old) I've been preparing all of her babyfood here at home for her. However, as I fixed supper for her last night I noticed that she was running short on *many* foods and I made a mental note that I needed to remedy that situation for her.

I'd been playing with the idea of baking last night. I have a recipe from a friend for a pumpkin bread filled with cream cheese that I've been dying to try, but I didn't have the ingredients to make that here at home. Plus, Josh, Ella, and I have an apple pie hanging out in the frig right now that I made last week. We just aren't huge dessert eaters. So....I changed plans up a little bit.

I decide that rather than make another dessert type item that I'd conquer Ella's food shortage and disorder. First, I organized all of her frozen food squares in the freezer. Let me explain. In order to make Ella's frozen "pantry" I puree or chop/blend etc...various fruits and vegetables, beans etc...and then place them into ice cube trays and freeze them. Once they are frozen into ice cubes, I remove the cubes and put them into a ziplock bag and label it. Then I put all of these babyfood cube baggies into one section of the freezer so that I can find all of Ella's options for her meals. Yes, I even make her baby food cereals this way.

Anyway....I had so much fun making foods for her and still have three or four more to make. I prepared an Autumn Harvest Soup that actually is really good for grown up people too. I'd just changed a couple of things and added milk to it and cayenne pepper to the adult version. Here's the child version though.

Autumn Harvest Soup

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 small onion diced and sauted in the veg oil

1 cup vegetable broth

1/2 cup pumpkin

1/2 cup applesauce

Heat and Serve

In the adult version, add 1 cup milk and a pinch of cayenne pepper. I added these ingredients before setting some aside for Josh and me. What I've had of it so far was delicious.

Other things that I prepared for my dear child last night are: Broccoli Pumpkin, Spinach with sauted onions for flavor, Aparagus, Blackbeans, Broccoli, Carrots, and Split pea soup.

I also have the following to update her pantry this weekend, or this week: Yellow Squash, Cranberries, Sweet potatoes, Greenbeans, Plantains, Cantelope, and Turnips

She was running low on some of those things that I'm cooking and others are new for her. But I always find myself thinking about how different her meals are from children's whose parents just go to the store and by the babyfood jars full of food. None of them would get to experience the flavors and textures she does at this age.

And to be honest, I love fixing food for Ella. Why? Well, I like making my own baby food for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I know exactly what my Ella is eating. I can choose organic produce and I can be confident there aren’t any additives, fillers, artificial colors, or other chemicals in his food. It’s also significantly cheaper to make baby food than it is to buy it in jars. And finally, there's absolutely a special bond and satisfaction in knowing that everything that goes into her little body either comes directly from my body or is made by me. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's love in each ounce that goes into her because it's that special to me, and that important that I make it myself.

People may think it's hard, but honestly it isn't. And in truth as I cooked for her, I was cooking for us too. I kept 1/2 of the spinach, 1/2 of the asparagus, 1/2 of the Harvest Soup.

So you could say I've been on a bit of a cooking kick, but I'm loving it and I think Ella Rose is too.

Family Traditions

2009-10-16T10:20:00.012-04:00

Sorry y'all...I didn't make a post on here last night. I was just worn out. I'd started off having such a good week. The house was clean, things were in order, but by last night all I wanted to do was curl up on the couch with Ella Rose and not move. :) Obviously, I couldn't do that completely, but I certainly would have liked to have done so. So...I'm still working on getting that pumpkin spice roll baked. I did manage to make another batch of apple sauce, searched for the children's story "The First Apple Dumpling" to no avail, and fix supper, do a load of laundry, get things ready for today...etc...etc...etc...

But in the midst of this, I got a phone call from one of my parents. Momma called to give me the telephone number for the Bed and Breakfast Inn that we stay in for Thanksgiving. Growing up y'all, Easter and Thanksgiving were my all time favorite holidays. I found myself literally bouncing inside myself waiting for them. We had such cool traditions. The family all came together, and worked toward a similar goal. The focus throughout these holidays was and is about so much more than the commercialization that occurs more frequently for other holidays.

However, I find that I am at a crossroads in my life and it's strange to be here in my 30s. After all, I've been an adult for many years now, but I've still thoroughly enjoyed these holidays as much if more than I did as a child. But, now I find that it's all changing. I'm not sure why my family has begun to change these traditions right around the time that I had my first child. It can't be that they decided to change them because my sister and I are grown and have children because my baby-sister has had children for 10+ years now.

I don't think it's because I live in a different town than my childhood family, because I've done that for almost fifteen years. So I have no idea what the impetus for these changes is, but nonetheless there must be one, because two years ago my parents announced they'd no longer host their annual Easter egg hunt and brunch. I was heartbroken. I conjoled, I begged, I cried, I pleaded, I bargained and tried everything that I could to convince them to continue the tradition. I wanted my daughter to have the same joy for this holiday that I did, and see how such hard work and family togetherness working toward a common goal (not just immediate family either) could provide as much for those working as those receiving the rewards of the work. But alas, none of my efforts produced the desired result. My parents cancelled their annual tradition, but offered to come to my house instead. And they did. Of course, the end of this visit was met with comments that they'd probably just take a cruise the following Easter and that my husband and I could continue the "family" tradition in my current town if we so desired.
All of this is coming to a head for me though, because just last night my Momma began to let go another family tradition. She informed me that they'd be arriving at the Bed and Breakfast the day of Thanksgiving instead of the night before. Now our annual tradition for Thanksgiving is to travel across the country to my Great-Aunt's house for the Thanksgiving meal. When I was younger, almost all of my maternal relatives would gather and we'd celebrate this meal together. even though people had to travel from all over the country to do so.

But as my cousins have grown up, fewer and fewer people are valuing the family tradition and instead doing their "own thing" meaning that the gathering has shrunk substancially. However, my family has continued the annual pilgrimage. :) Another part of the tradition for my family was to awaken Thanksgiving morning, eat breakfast together at the B&B and then gather in a room and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, together. Obviously, that won't be occuring this year.

And so I find myself at a crossroads of sorts. I have no interest, and no intention of ceasing the pilgrimage to my great-Aunts. My husband, daughter and I are going to still arrive the day before Thanksgiving. We are going to try our best to help our daughter experience the best of the holiday traditions. I'm going to help my Great-Aunt finish preparing the food. Josh, Ella, and I will watch the parade together. We'll have breakfast and we'll carry on. But I can't help, but feel like even doing so I have a heavy heart.

And I can't help but wonder, what's wrong with our world, with our society when we allow day to day appointments and the chaos of the world to overcome our desires to invade our family time and traditions. I find myself pondering how to reverse this trend. Families are supposed to matter. Our older generations have so much to give and share with the younger ones. Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time of family togetherness and well, thankfullness.

And I'll try to be thankful. I'm going to do my best to teach my daughter the values that I hold dear. I want her to know that family matters most and that we need to be there for them no matter what. I'm going to try to give her traditions that will mean as much to her and mine did/do to me.

So with that said, what holiday traditions does your family share that mean a lot to you?

2009-10-13T21:54:00.003-04:00

Today was a good day...it felt like a Monday, but it was good nonetheless. Ella did really well going back to the sitters. The children at school were talkative, but fairly good. I've gotten a ton done this evening and I have designated tomorrow baking night. I can hardly wait to try out a pumpkin roll that my friend Shelli posted on her website. If it turns out good for me, I may ask her if I can link it here. :)

I've gotten here at home this evening. The floors are clean (mopped and swept). Our bathroom is shining it's so clean. Lunches are packed for tomorrow. Ella's diaper bag is too. Clothes are laid out. Ella Rose is sleeping soundly. Josh is working a concert. I've come up with a good strong new budget.

So it's a nice evening. The other big change for the evening is that Ella Rose has gone to bed in cloth diapers. I'd been doing cloth diligently during the day, but I was wary of trying it at night. However, a good friend has recently gone to cloth full time...and was telling me how spectacularly it works.

I know this is a rambly post, but honestly...I'm tired and still need to tackle the Wife of Bath's Tale from Canterbury Tales for my AP Literature class. So I'll try to post more coherently and finally get around to telling you more about Ella's and my adventures tomorrow.

See you then,
Betty

The end of fall break

2009-10-12T22:20:00.002-04:00

As I've gone around the house this evening preparing for tomorrow (the return to teaching for me and daycare for Ella) I've found myself filled with a longing to be a stay at home mom. I could SO go for that. Maybe one day...but in the meantime. Clothes are picked out for tomorrow, lunches are packed. The kitchen is clean, the dishes done. Coffee is ready to be made with the switch of a button, amd the little one has been settled for the evening.

I have absolutely loved these last ten days. Ella and I have had so much fun, being on the go, and not being on the go. We've loved staying at home. Cuddling, doing normal day to day things. Today she helped me make an apple pie, lasagna and dinner rolls.

I couldn't have asked for a better life, or a better child than the one I have. And I look forward to sharing more about the adventures that we've had since we got back to South GA, tomorrow.

The power in this day

2009-10-11T22:14:00.006-04:00

As I sit here writing this my husband is watching a show that is about the battle of good vs evil in people's lives. It's a tv series that I frequently enjoy myself. Yet, often I find deeper meaning in the series when I stop to give it a little thought.

I guess the reason that I enjoy the series so much is because good always triumphs (just like it does in children's stories). Yet in real life, I know good doesn't always win; however, today I think it just might.

Early this morning I received a phone call from my Momma. She didn't call with bad news, no quite the opposite. She called to tell me that Father Damien a priest who worked with lepers while he lived, is being canonized today. My great Aunt had called to share this news with Momma and to tell her that today is a day that miracles occur. Some might say miracles happen every day, but I'd like to think the more difficult ones happen today. See my great-aunt shared a story with my momma about an event in our family's history that occured on the day of the canonization of a saint. The background to the story, I'd never heard before (even though it's true) and the outcome was even more startling. Because it resulted in a reality-that is the only reality I've ever known.

So today, I prayed for miracles. If it's God's will, I hope and pray they will occur. Today I thought about the evil in this life, and how I understand so much more about the simple prayer that I learned as a child. The one that asks God to protect me from evil spirits, beings and all evil in whatever form it takes both day and night, but particularly the night. That prayer has kept me safe for many years. I hope and pray that as my daughter grows it will do the same for her. I know I'll be praying it for her and plan to teach it to her so she can memorize it and use it as she needs during her life.

But today is about more than just being safe. It's a day of miracles. Father Damien is to become a saint. And all day long, I've felt the power of goodness in this day. Yes, I do believe miracles occur and perhaps today another one or more will.

Lazy Saturday

2009-10-10T12:14:00.004-04:00

Ella is snoozing so this is an excellent time for me to get my post in for today. Things are going well around here and I do believe I could handle being a stay at home Momma all of the time. :) Ella and I have had so much fun this week. Once we got home from all of our north and middle GA adventures, we took it easy for a day or two. Ella got shots Tuesday, and finally was feeling back up to par yesterday so we celebrated by spending more time outside. Ella gummed on pinestraw while I renovated our flower beds. I still need to tackle my garden from this summer which is just a weed bed, now.

Plans for today are to hang out with my husband. Cook some APPLES, surprise, surprise. Play with my brillant little 7 month old who has been saying, "Ella, bye-bye, hi, Mum-ma, & la la." She blows my mind y'all. :) I've never heard of a 7 month old talking like this, but Ella is.

Perhaps we'll hit up the Belks sale. I'd love to go to the Georgia National Fair, but I doubt that we'll make it up there this year. Daisy, Rachel, Ella, and I will go for a walk. Maybe I can convince my husband to play a game of Life with me and we can watch a movie or something fun like that.

Those are my plans for this lazy Saturday. What do you have planned?

-Betty

Didn't forget

2009-10-10T12:13:00.001-04:00

Hi all-

Although it looks like I forgot to post anything yesterday, my dear dog Daisy took care of it for me yesterday. I'll have something more up for you today. Anyway, in the meantime check out Daisy's post at www.fourleggedbrigade.blogspot.com

Apples, apples everywhere

2009-10-08T20:39:00.003-04:00

As I've mentioned and posted pictures about Ella and I went apple picking this last weekend. We had a blast! I bought applesauce bread and various other apple-y treats. So far I've been eating at least an apple a day. Ella has been enjoying an occasional sip or two or apple cider and we've made apple sauce. We've given away a nice basket of apples to our neighbors. I plan to give a basket to my in-laws, make an apple pie, encourage my husband to help with eating of the apples...and make some more apple sauce. But I'm confident we'll still have apples left over and I do not want to let them to bad. So I'm asking. No, I'm begging...please give me apple recipe ideas. Thank so much!

Betty

Baby legs

2009-10-07T17:10:00.009-04:00

As my little Ella Rose grows, I discover more and more about the wonderful and not so wonderful childhood gadgets and accessories. Since I'm a cloth diapering semi-crunchy mother, I also have done a tremendous amount research about various baby products. However, my current infatuation is with Babylegs.

Baby legs are leg warmers for babies and look like pants without the crotch. They are particularly useful (in my limited opinion) for babies who live in homes with predominately hard, wood laminate, or tile floors, but are also useful to put on little babies during the winter months when it gets chilly.

I found myself wishing we'd taken Ella Rose's with us when we were up in Calhoun earlier this week. I'd actually meant to, but then forgot them on the kitchen table.

They come in all different colors, patterns, and even can be coordinated to fit seasonal events. (As you can see in the attached pictures).

Plus, one of the best parts (in my opinion) is that they don't out grow them in a season or even a year or two. Baby legs will fit, albeit differently every year, a baby or child from newborn age on until they are ten years old. Yes, you read correctly.

So if any of you have not discovered baby legs (and haver a baby or pre-teen child running around) I highly reccomend checking them out.

Here's their website: http://www.babylegs.com And the other place I've gotten REALLY good deals on babylegs is at http://www.babysteals.com You have to watch the babysteals website for the deal, but every so often it pops up...and in the meantime there are many other good deals on there to enjoy. Just be careful...it's addictive.

Betty

Good news on Tuesday

2009-10-06T16:51:00.010-04:00

Today has been a nice, but much more relaxed day than yesterday. Ella and I had so much fun yesterday, but the day was packed and I fell asleep before managing to post on here. Oops again. Let me give you a brief rundown from yesterday. I got up about six am with my parents, nieces and nephews. We all had breakfast and the day began. They all headed off to their respective schools while Ella Rose was still asleep...but not for long. By 9 am Ella Rose and I were out the door and heading into a fun, but completely packed Monday.

Our first stop was the First Methodist Preschool, where we picked up my youngest nephew and transported him to the Pumpkin Patch farm for his school field trip. It was SO much fun! And I got about 120 or so wonderful pictures of Danny, Ellen, and Ella. We had a blast y'all. They had games for the children, a petting zoo, a hayride, and pumpkins galore! It was amazing.

After we finished there, we hurriedly returned Danny to daycare, and headed off for our next adventure: lunch with Annie. Momma met me in the parking lot of the daycare/preschool (they are on bothsides of the same parking lot) and we rushed off to the Elementary school. Lunch was nice. Momma and I split a fruit salad and a regular salad and Ella munched on raisin bits (that I tore up for her). After a nice leisurely lunch, where I chatted with some of the schools administrators (all of whom I amazingly knew)...the rushing continued.

I made a quick phone call to Ella's godmother to let her know we were running behind and we hurried home, to visit. We had a nice leisurely visit with Jenni and Owen. Owen even brought Ella a Jesus loves me book that plays music! Wow!! So after we'd visited for a while Jenni told me that she'd watch Ella while I packed the car to head home. How nice!!!!!

It took about half the time that it normally would to get everything loaded! Wow! And Ella, Owen and Jenni had time to bond. Owen is exactly 3 years older than Ella (to the day). Cool, huh? Anyway....once we got loaded up, we headed for home, but the adventures were not over.

Ella Rose snoozed while I drove briskly toward Perry. When we finally got there (and that seemed to take forever)...Ella Rose got to meet Sophia Bella Maddux. I just know the girls are going to be fast friends. Sophia's Momma is pushing me to do debate again and has offered to help me. I'm seriously considering it.

We had a full filled play date and then it was time to head home. Ella traveled very well, and complained only when she was hungry. When we got home, Josh had pizza waiting for us. And so I ate pizza and Ella drank mommy's milk...and then we crashed on the couch.

So needless to say today has been a bit less exciting in the number of events occuring, but not less exciting in the news. Ella had a Doctor's appt today for shots. We are following an alternate schedule for those and we found out today that she won't have to go back for shots again until she's 9 months old! WOOOO HOOO!!! Ella and I both were quite excited about that...and then not until 12 months. We are on the downhill slide of the alternative vaccine schedule, and I'm so glad that we decided to follow it.

But the news gets even better. My OB's office is just around the corner from Ella's pediatrician's so as we were returning from her Dr's office I noticed there was a sign out from of my OB's office. He was in a tragic accident this summer and has suffered some brain injuries from it. Josh and I have had many conversations about what we are going to do, b/c I've been scared to have more children if my OB isn't able to deliver them. I had a really hard and scary delivery with Ella Rose and wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for my OB. So I stopped in today to ask about him. Not only did he turn 50 today, but I got the good news that his recovery is going well and they are anticipating that he'll resume his practice in January! YES!!! Now we can plan on more babies y'all...not that we were going to completely give up the idea if he didn't recover, but sometimes I felt like I'd like to. So now I know....another little Briones is in our future. When? I don't know...but definitely will be arriving one day. So today has been calmer, but definitely just as exciting as yesterday. And I'm glad. Fall Break is awesome and Happy Birthday Dr. A.

Betty

Apple picking and family fun

2009-10-04T20:51:00.007-04:00

What a wonderful day today was! We had family fun time all day long...but by in large the best part of the day was the apple picking trip.

Apple picking has got to be one of my all time favorite activities. Every fall I look forward to it and try to find a weekend that my family can make the journey to Elijay to go pick apples. This year was no exception. Although Josh and I had originally planned for the annual apple picking to occur next weekend, this weekend ended up being the right time for it!

So after church today, my parents, niece, nephews, daughter and I loaded ourselves into the van and headed over to Elijay. The trip over was delightful. Ella was a great traveler as were the rest of the children. And yes, the fun was just beginning. When we got to the orchard, Annie, Danny and Gabe had their pictures taken on a tractor. Ella had fallen asleep just as we were arriving at the orchard so I took her inside to change her.

Then we all sat down and celebrated arriving at our destination by eating: fried apple pies, sample apple slices, and popcorn. Of course, we had apple cider slushie to drink. Ella was in heaven! She got to taste little bites of apple. I let her try to the apple cider slushie and even the apple pie. She was making mmmmm sounds and popping her lips for more. It was obvious how much fun she was having.

But the best was yet to come! Apple picking!!! So we all walked out to the orchard and purchased bags to pick apples. There's just nothing like picking your own apples, y'all. We took pictures as we picked and had a blast. The children even found a dog that lived in the orchard and played with him.

Once the picking was over, we headed back to the store. Ella had her picture taken on the pumpkins out front and Annie helped her "drive" the tractor. Then we loaded up and headed on to another apple store.

At this one Ella and Danny rode in a wagon that I was pulling around the store. Danny was being the "big cousin" and helping Ella, so that she wouldn't fall over in the wagon. They had samples of apple cider to drink....Ella spilled Danny's on his socks. Oops! But all was still okay. Annie wandered through the candy store....Momma and I picked up apple breads and cider to take home. And I even found a belated b-day present for Momma. Then we loaded up with some more apples (store bought, but a sampling of each kind available) and headed home.

The trip home was filled with laughter and talk about the many good times we've had over the years and with peppermint sticks. Momma bought soft peppermint sticks at Annie's request. Annie distributed them to everyone, including Ella (after they asked my permission). Ella LOVED her peppermint stick. It was the first one she's had...and she got peppermint everywhere. But her expressions and bouncing made it all worth it! I think we all are looking forward to repeating this tradition again next year. I certainly know that Ella and I are!

What family traditions do you look forward to the most each year?

Betty

Long Journey and nice people along the way

2009-10-03T16:21:00.009-04:00

I hate it that I didn't manage to post last night, but it simply wasn't possible. Ella and I made the long journey to my parent's house for the weekend. After school we packed up our belongings (with my husband's help both packing and entertaining Ella) and we headed on our way. Ella was wonderful! She slept and played in her carseat and didn't really have any meltdowns. I really can't complain!

We've come up to visit with everyone for a variety of reasons. One of my childhood friend's Mom passed away. So we needed to go to the funeral. Yes, Ella went with me to the funeral and did just fine! She's such a good girl! And we want to go apple picking! Also we like visiting with family (and fall break is a great time to do that). Finally, my b-day is this week and even though it's not something that has been taking up much of my time thinking about it. I knew that my niece and nephew would enjoy celebrating it with them present. SO!!!! Here we are.

We got into Calhoun about 11:20ish....and visited before heading off to bed. But on the way up here (and the main reason we arrived so late) we discovered that FOUR lanes of the interstate were closed. Ella was snoozing away until the traffic stopped. Then she began to make little cries of consternation. So, as soon as we were able to we found a safe exit and took refuge in a Publix parking lot.

I'm not sure how we managed to find this Publix. I wasn't looking for it, didn't know it was there. But Publix is my all-time-favorite grocery store. And since Ella was getting a bit hungry. My milkers were getting a bit heavy (and full)... I'd forgotten my power cord for the pump...and several other things had been left at home. I decided it was time for a pit stop.

What a sight I'm sure we were. I was exhausted since I'd been up extra late

the night before, and now had been driving for hours without stopping for supper. I didn't want to stop and wake up my child. So we'd continued. Ella had just finished nursing in the parking lot and I had some how convinced myself that this store was about to close (even though I later discovered it wasn't) so we were rapidly rushing through Publix.

And when we got to the check out line, we were the only people checking out. Go figure! Not too many people grocery shop after 10pm on a Friday. And one of the ladies (a manager I think) began to play peek-a-boo with Ella Rose. The cashier and manager begin inquiring what we are doing and why Ella is out so late. I explained about our trip...and the checking out continues. But the really interesting and cool part of the story happens when she handed me the receipt. She said to me..."See this number at the top of the receipt?"

I told her that I did. Then she asked me to call and let her know that Ella and I had gotten where were going safely when we got to Calhoun. But she went on to tell me that she'd not be able to sleep if I didn't call. Wow! Who would have thought that in Atlanta, GA you'd meet someone who cares about people that much!

Obviously I called her when we got here, and yes, she was thrilled that we were safe and she could sleep that night. So it just goes to show, all of us, nice people can be found anywhere and any time, yes sometimes even in the most unlikely places such as a grocery store, late at night.

Betty

Private Viewing and Synchronicity

2009-10-01T23:45:00.004-04:00

Tonight Ella Rose and I went to a private viewing of Lion in Winter at the Arts Center. My husband is playing Jeffrey in the upcoming show, and since Ella and I are going to be out of town for the actual production, my husband got permission for us to attend the dress rehearsal. The show is amazing and I highly recommend it to everyone!

Talk about cool! Not only could Ella nurse while we watched, but I felt like some sort of celebrity since everyone was performing for just us! Or so it was fun to pretend.

Anyway, as I was watching the performance I had the strangest sense of sychronicity. Just this week I've begun teaching the Canterbury Tales to my AP Literature class and one of my AP Lit students has been asking questions about the 100 years war as well as about who killed St. Thomas A Becket. Therefore, when I realized tonight that Lion in Winter is set during the 1100s (the same time period that Thomas A Becket is killed) I was shocked. And in addition to that, one of the main characters King Henry II is the King that made a comment that ended up causing the death of Thomas A Becket.

Needless to say, I'm fully convinced that sychronicity is well and working in my life right now. I look forward to sharing much more about the production and my Canterbury Tales adventures tomorrow, but for now. Let me say goodnight. It's late! And honestly, I'd probably have postponed this post if it weren't for NaWriBloMo. :)

But I couldn't bring myself abandon posting on the first day of the "Post every day in October" event. So here I am. Talk to you all tomorrow! My nightowl daughter has just re-awakened so I'm off to try to get her back to sleep. Good night all!

Betty

2009-09-30T17:57:00.010-04:00

Hi all-

The autumn air has inspired me to start blogging again. Okay, so that's not entirely true. Actually reading a good friend's pet's blog inspired me to start one for my dear furry children as well as one for Ella Rose. And so while I began working on those, I decided it was waaaaaaaaaayyy past time for me to be updating this one!

So here I sit, typing on my long neglected blog.

As I type, I'm listening to the cheerful-ahhhhhhhhh sounds coming from my constantly growing and changing 7 month old who is clicking and popping (with her mouth) as she creates her own form of music complete with occasional burst of her own name. Yes, my child's first word is her own name. :) El-la she screams! There's no better sound to this proud Momma's ears.

Jumping back to inspiration ideas for a minute though, what the cool air has really inspired is my desire to work in our yard. So just as soon as Ella Rose and I return from our North Georgia adventures, I am looking forward to weeding our garden, cleaning up the stoop outside, and planting some fall flowers. I love the fall despite the fact that my allergies go haywire and get worse every year. And as I age, I find that I love being outside more and more. SO...hopefully, our youngest family member won't pull up my autumn plants the way that she did the flowers my mother-in-law planted as a mother's day gift for me. No, I'm not talking about my dear Ella Rose, but even a younger member of the family, our newest puppy Daisy.

Daisy is about 7 months old too (so pretty close to Ella's age) and full of all the puppy energy that goes with her youth!!! However, I'm convinced that I can encourage Daisy not to destroy all the pretties in the yard again. I hope!!!

Regardless, of what the autumn weather brings, I can hardly wait for fall break y'all. Don't get me wrong. I'm loving teaching, but I've got my hands full with it. I'm teaching seven, yes you read correctly, seven periods a day (out of a seven period day) running a homeroom, and doing three separate preps. On top of that, I'm still pumping milk for my little Ella Rose in ALL my spare time at school. ha! Would you believe I'm loving it? And I look forward to sharing much, more more about the happenings around here really soon.

However, my Ella Rose is now calling Mum-Ma and ready for supper....so more news will follow tomorrow. After all. I'm participating in Blog every day in October (as suggested by a good friend who referred me to NaBloWriMo and I can hardly wait!

See you soon!!

Betty

Summer Dreams

2009-04-17T16:59:00.015-04:00

Hi all-

Obviously it's been a while since I've taken the time to babble to you all. Ella Rose has joined us and is almost two months old. In fact, she's 8 weeks old today. Wow! I can't believe so much time has already passed nor can I believe that I have to head back to school in a little over a week.

Thankfully, though, school will be out for the summer by the time May is over. :) I can hardly wait for it to end so that I can be home with Ella full time again. It's just 3 or 4 weeks though that I'll have to go back to work. That's not too long, right? Or so I tell myself. But enough about work.

So in the meantime, I'm enjoying every moment with our little Ella Rose. And watching her enjoy each moment for the first time has been so amazing. So far we've taken her to her first Art Show, her first play, and experienced many other firsts with her. Such as her first trip to Walmart, her first Easter, her first meal outside of the home, etc...

In fact, just yesterday Ella began helping me in the yard!! Wooo hooo!! And while I was planting flowers she decided to roll almost off of her blanket. We also went to look at some professional pictures that we had taken of her. They were amazing!!!! I wish I could have brought all of them home, but alas we had to narrow our choices down. Needless to say I've been plotting ever since how to manage to buy all of the pictures that the photographer took of her.

Speaking of plotting though, all of my hard work and plotting to cloth diaper Ella paid off. And let me be one of the ones to tell you...it's NOT that hard. Everyone told me that it would be so difficult and so much more of a hassle to use cloth diapers and wipes...and perhaps there are methods that make it hard, but we aren't using one of those. And I *love* Ella's kissaluvs. Personally, I think she does too. After all, it has to be better to cloth across that little bottom than to have some paperlike chemical filled product. And I love it that we've not had to go to the store even once for diapers. YES!!!!

So I've begun to plot and plan for my next big project with Ella: Making her baby food. I can hardly wait. But there is plenty to do before we begin working on making baby food for Ella. In fact, Ella's first big road trip is coming up in about 3 weeks. Wow!! She'll be going to Mississippi with her cousins, Gran, Paw, and Me. Our cousin is getting married and Ella is going to get to meet her 3rd cousin Isabella who is a couple of months older than her.

Believe it or not Ella and I also have quite a few other plans for the summer. Obviously we are going to continue our flower and vegetable work in the yard, but we also want to start working on a scrapbook for her. I made one for Josh during our first year of our relationship and I want Ella to have one of the first year of her life with us too.

I am SO looking forward to taking Ella several places this summer. I can hardly wait to introduce her to friends up in North Ga. And we are both looking forward to spending some time with my Great Aunt and Ella's great-great Aunt our Nanny.

Finally, we are hopeful that we can go to the beach for the first time this summer. I suppose time will tell whether or not we get to do that...but it's possible. And thinking of the beach trip (oddly enough) makes me begin to think of autumn adventures. I can hardly wait to take Ella apple picking for the first time and so many other things.

I know it sounds cliche, but I can hardly remember what life was like before Ella arrived. The highlight of my day is often seeing her smile or listening to her babble. There's no better sound than the ones that come from my little sunshine. I do know that the house isn't as clean and that it takes a lot longer to accomplish chores and projects, but it's SO worth it. And I love motherhood more than I ever thought I would.

Josh and I love our little miracle so much and so do Abby and Rachel. We are so blessed. I look forward to babbling more in the near future. Hopefully, there won't be such a long break this time.

Ella preparations and other 2009 changes

2009-01-25T20:00:00.006-05:00

Life has been particularly busy these last couple of weeks, but I'm certainly not complaining. I think I prefer to be busy over lacking enough to fill my time. However, I've still not managed to fully follow through any particular week doing the Fly lady zones, but we are making progress.
So each small step in that direction is a positive one. And yet again this week, I find myself more determined than ever to make it through the week cleaning more deeply and becoming more organized. Of course, I've also got to fight off the cold that has tackled my immune system, but that more than possible! After all, we can do anything for fifteen minutes.

Speaking of small steps, it's particularly hard to believe that we have only thirty (or so) small days left until Ella Rose is schedule to join us. Wow! It seems like yesterday that I was busting with the excitement of discovering Ella was beginning to form inside me and now within a few short weeks she'll be outside of me and with us for many years to come. Josh and I have been doing a lot of work on her nursery and we are much closer to ready for her arrival than we were two weeks ago. Ella's crib is in its place and all the extraneous furniture has been moved into storage. That's right! I no longer have an office here in our home, but instead we have Ella's room and I can hardly wait to have Ella inside that room too.

Speaking of hardly waiting, honestly, I am secretly wondering if Ella will wait until her scheduled due date to grace us with her presence. I've begun to have some fairly strong Braxton Hicks contractions. So I guess we'll see how patient this little one is. After all, as people continue to remind me it's all in her time now.

Thankfully, preparations for her arrival at church are moving right along too though. The nursery actually has a crib, pack-n-play and a bassinet for Ella, Avis, and Naomi now. All of these were moved into the church's annex nursery today along with a changing table and several other items. Now we've just got to continue adding to this little area and schedule nursery workers so that preparations will be finalized for when the girls are ready to use the space. Toys are essentials too of course.

But as I sit here and think about the preparations that we have yet to do before Ella arrives, such as putting a door on her closet, a mattress in her crib and a border on her walls, I can't help but think about how much has changed in the last year.

Just this weekend I attended my first Moultrie Junior Women's Club meeting as a New Member. Likewise, just this weekend I gave my first annual report as Senior Warden of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church. And finally just this last week three baby showers for Ella have been scheduled, one at school, one at church and one in my hometown.

However, as much as things have changed...some have remained the same. For instance, just like last year and the year before that this is a busy season for Josh. The high school musical is rapidly approaching and he's working hard to finalize set preparations as well as lighting for the musical. And as if that wasn't enough to keep him busy, he's begun preparations for the Dessert Theater taking place on Valentine's Day. Josh will be playing one of the lead roles as Adam and reading his love letters to Eve. I can hardly wait to hear those!

And so as 2009 rapidly rolls forward, I can't help but wonder what will continue to change throughout this year and what will change. How has your life changed in the last year? And what changes do you see coming in this one?

Blessings of the New Year

2009-01-13T21:45:00.011-05:00

Wow! This year is quickly bringing about many activities and changes. It is so hard to believe that in just over six weeks our little girl will be joining us. That's assuming she arrives by her due date. And to be honest, I'm perfectly content with the idea of her arriving a little late. But, regardless of when our little one arrives, this year is already shaping up to be a spectacular one.

How so? Well, I've been fairly faithful about keeping up with my New Year's Resolutions. I've got paper ready to work on Ella's scrapbook. Also I've been doing really well about completing my Fly Lady missions more days than not. Finally, both Josh and I have had no shortage of social obligations. The date night and Bible Study groups that we'd hoped to participate in this year have come to fruition. We will be going to the first meeting for our Bible Study in a few nights. The first group date night is scheduled for later this month, and on top of both of these exciting events, Josh has purchased the book for the Sunday School book study. So needless to say we've not been lacking in activities around the Briones' home.

Plus, Josh has been staying more than busy working on the musical preparations at the local auditorium. This year they'll be presenting Li'l Abner and I can hardly wait to see it for the first time. I've thoroughly enjoyed listening to discussions of the plans for this show. And just today we received our notification from the Arts Center that the Dessert Theater planned for Valentine's Day will be occurring. Needless to say, we're both eagerly looking forward to attending it.

However, our excitement with these new plans doesn't focus just around what we've been doing outside of the home. Oh no! Let me tell you more about what I have been doing while Josh has been otherwise occupied outside of the home? I've begun doing some major work on Ella's nursery this last weekend and believe that major progress has been made toward converting the room from my office and into her room. All of her toys have found a home and her books have their own shelves. Josh and I put together her swing, bouncy chair, baby tub, and we've moved her car seats, slings, crib bedding, and carriers into her room. Even more work will be taking place this weekend since my Momma (Ella's Gran) will be delivering her crib, stroller, hamper for clothes, and rocking chair. I can hardly wait to have her room fully decorated and ready to go for our little wiggle worm.

And yes, I've even managed to stay more than busy when I've not been working on Ella preparations. A good friend and I recently went to go see Bride Wars at the local theater. It was a cute chick flick. But this was far from the first social outting that I'd had lately. Truly, I've found myself going out more than usual to celebrate or experience various social events with friends. And yes, it certainly appears as if this trend will continue. Not only do we have plans to go out regularly over the next few months for various social obligations such as the Dessert Theater, Little Abner, our monthly Date night, weekly Bible Study night, and Junior Women's Club functions, but I've also been drafted to head up the Superbowl chili sale for church. :)

As you can tell busyness is abounding around here. Truthfully, I'm loving it. So what wonderful things has the New Year brought into your life? And how are your New Year Resolutions going?

Happy New Year!

2009-01-03T22:37:00.009-05:00

Hi all-

Well, after a LONG sabatical, I'm back to blogging. I've decided that it only makes sense to pick this back up. Blogging is just one of the many things that I've let fall by the way side that I'm going to try to pick back up.

Honestly during the last year I've let my scrapbooking fall by the wayside. And although I've continued doing the Fly lady stuff it's only been half way. So how do I half way FLY? It's pretty simple. I've continued to do the weekly home blessing and cleaning, but I've not attempted to keep up with the daily 15 minute missions or the weekly deep cleaning. But I know with a little one coming soon, that both of these areas are going to be essential to keeping our home nice and tidy for our little one (especially when she gets large enough to move around on her own.

And in order to upgrade my involvement with Fly Lady, I spent my day updating my charts and organizers today. I'm very excited about them and I just know that slowly but surely everything is being written down and becoming much more functional.

But to get off of Fly Lady for a little bit. Let's talk about my other goals for 2009 (the year of Ella) are to begin Scrapbooking again. If nothing else, I want to make sure that Ella has a nice scrapbook to look back on from the first year(s) of her life. And I want to renew my involvement with Flylady. Finally, I'd like to return to blogging more regularly. I do so love visiting with all of you.

And I'd like to make sure that cloth diapering is a major success for us! I just know Ella and I can make it work. She's already got a really nice stash of diapers: Fuzzi Bunz, Bumgenius, Work-at-home-mom Minky All-in-one cloth diapers, prefolds, liners, inserts, cloth wipes, etc. And I'm determined that cloth diapering is best for her.

Additionally, I'd like to ensure that Ella's experiences with solid food when she gets old enough to eat it are positive, so as of right now my plans are to make her babyfood here at home. :) I still have a lot of research to do on what to introduce first, etc. but I just know that making her food myself will ensure that it's organic and truly good for her.

Beyond these goals, I know I want to work on doing a bit more as a home-maker. I know I'm going to be a stay at home Mom for at least nine weeks once Ella gets here, and possibly for almost five months before I head back to school. The length of time I get to spend with her before heading back to work depends on whether she waits until the second week of March to arrive. :)

Except for all of these goals though, I have no idea what this year will bring. I'm hopeful that it will bring many more joys than sorrows. And how could it not? After all, it's the year of Ella's arrival.

And everything else is up in the air, but as I figure those out, you'll be among the first to know what I decide.

So what are your resolutions for the New Year?

Our 1st Anniversary

2008-08-30T14:08:00.018-04:00

Hi all-

Today is Josh's and my first Wedding anniversary. We have had a wonderful weekend fully celebrating it. I'm so thankful that we choose a holiday weekend for our wedding. This way we will always have a long weekend close to our anniversary to make our celebration extra special.

Although, I have to admit I was a bit stumped what to get my dear husband for an anniversary present when I discovered that our first anniversary is the "paper" anniversary. But after doing some research and speaking with some friends I settled upon the perfect gift.

So what was this gift? Tickets! I got the two of us tickets to Les Miserables at the Fox Theater. I am so excited. We won't be going for a while yet...but still tickets worked perfectly.

Then, I began the journey to discover how to present these tickets. Thankfully, a friend helped me out again. And suggested a wonderful presentation technique. What did she suggest? Well, she said to make a small cake (in place of the top layer of our wedding cake). We'll be eating the original later this month). Then to get a basket and champagne glasses as well as a bottle of champagne. I decided to fill the basket with tissue paper and silk flowers too. Then I placed the tickets into the card that I had for Josh. It was great! He was so excited and so was I!

Oh, but let me tell you about my present from him. We'd been talking for some time about going out to eat at The Melting Pot. The Melting Pot is a really nice fondue restaurant. One of my friends at school had mentioned it to me several months ago. I'd said something to Josh about it, and he told me that we were saving it for a special occasion. I am so glad that we did! It was spectacular.

We had what they call "The Big Night Out." Essentially this is a four course meal. It begins with cheese fondue, followed by a salad, then the entree and finally the chocolate or dessert fondue. Wow!!! We both ate our fill. I couldn't have imagined a better place to celebrate.

Then when we got home...I pulled out my present for Josh. We drank champagne (just a little bit for me, since it was a special occasion I decided this would be fine) and we celebrated.

But the celebration didn't end there. Yesterday at church we'd given the flowers to the glory of God and in thanksgiving for our first wedding anniversary...but we also did the blessing of a pregnant woman (me). So that was spectacularly special too.

Which brings us to do today. I did many of the ordinary day before school activities...after sleeping late, of course. One of these was to make sure the house was fully cleaned. Some of the other things I did were grocery shopping, recycling etc...and while I was gone...Josh got out his surprise for me. OH! But before I tell you about the surprise. Let me tell you about the good news as far as recycling goes. Our city now recycles plastic! YES! Up until this week they'd only recycled cans, newspaper and cardboard. We're making progress y'all!!

He got some of the most beautiful roses for me and a really sweet card. OH! But before I forget...we also talked about plans for future generations and Josh has already told me that he thinks we need to go to Italy for our 5th anniversary. :) We also talked about taking a cruise next year...and so as you can see our anniversaries will certainly be something we'll savor throughout the years.

Thank you to all of you who have been there with us through this first year. And I do want to say this...everyone says the first year is the hardest. So I just want to go on the record as saying if that's the case...it's hard to imagine; because this year hasn't been hard. I love being married and simply couldn't imagine my life any other way.

So I'm going to run and finish celebrating my anniversary...but I will be back soon...so I can tell you all about our next adventure. Apple picking!! Until then, take care.

And the rain came tumbling down or should I say flying sideways?

2008-08-24T21:13:00.008-04:00

Hi all-

As I am sure the world knows, tropical storm Fay has been quite busy over the past few weeks and Josh and I (and the rest of South/all of Florida) got to experience some of her activities first hand. :)

Fay truly came for a visit down here last Friday. And in anticipation of her visit many schools were closed for the day. Honestly, at the time I felt that the Fay fear was a little over the top. I mean, she wasn't even a hurricane...but just a tropical storm. And living in the part of the country that we do, tropical storms are not typically something that are given a lot of thought...but Fay was different.

Why? Perhaps because she was so slow moving...and because she was leaving SO much rain behind! ARGH!!! As a result, Fay was doing tremendous damage without even being a hurricane.

So, even though the high school where I teach, didn't close on Friday we did release early. And I have to admit it was nice getting out a little bit early. It was even nicer only having 40 minute periods throughout the day. :)

But I was determined, even at this point that Fay was no big deal. Thus, bound and determined I began to make plans for Josh's and my date night. My husband and I started doing these together last winter and let it slide for the summer, but now that autumn activities are upon us, we've picked it back up.

Last weekend was Josh's turn, and he announced that we were going to Tallahassee for our date night. We had a wonderful time...we ate Olive Garden, went to the movies to see Swing Vote, and of course went to Sam's Club. But the on the way home...our car broke down...so date night turned into dddddaaaatttteeee nnnnniiiiigggghhhhtttt! And even though we broke down before 10 PM...the never ending date night, meant we didn't get back into town until after TWO A.M. Yuck!

So this weekend it was my turn to come up with something for date night tropical storm or no tropical storm! And I was determined we weren't leaving town because I didn't want another two A.M. adventure.

But, let me tell you, it's not easy to come up with creative and fun things to do in the middle of a tropical storm. I didn't want to go to the movies...we've done that a lot lately. I thought about putt putt, but it was raining...so out went that idea...and what I came up with instead was a progressive dinner.

It actually turned out great...except for the cold wet rain. Here's how the dinner worked. We had appetizers at one restaurant (Blue Sky Grill)...then climbed back into the car...and drove to Applebees for the main course. And it was at Applebee's that it hit us...the rain wasn't tumbling down, but flying sideways! Well, Josh realized it...when I opened my door to dart for Applebee's and he got wet (even though he was across the car from me)!!!!

So we talked throughout our main course about how the storm was much more powerful than we had anticipated...but do not fear, even the strong winds and flying rain couldn't keep us away from Dairy Queen for dessert.

Yes, we topped off our evening with two blizzards from Dairy Queen. After all every one needs a blizzard in the middle of a tropical storm. Right?

Well, let me tell you the Dairy Queen visit was interesting because the light on the drive-thru was literally hanging by it's electric wires and swinging over the car. Yikes! We'd passed a light pole in a car lot that had been knocked completely over...and so it was obvious it was time to get home.

And homeward, we drove. Thankfully, our trip home was uneventful...as was ALL day Saturday. Except for the rain, Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night and Sunday morning! The rain was so hard and so steady that I was contemplating singing, "The Lord said to Noah...there's gonna be a floody, floody..." Because that is certainly what it felt like with all of that RAIN!

And by Sunday morning...we'd received FOURTEEN, yes FOURTEEN inches of rain. That's a far cry from what the newscasters were saying with their 6-8 inches expected.

Thankfully though, nothing of ours was tremendously damaged. We have limbs down everywhere, but that's okay. We can pick those up. The creek didn't flood...which is good, since we live right beside it.

But many rivers down here did. In fact, the town where I teach got over twenty inches of rain (and they're just 30 miles down the road)...so school was called off today.

(A tree down in front of a school in Thomasville)

And don't you know I'm just heartbroken that I had to have a holiday today? But I do feel for those people whose roads were washed out or who had serious damage from this storm.

I think Fay has taught us all a spectacular lesson and that is...you can't judge a storm by it's first appearance. Because no matter what it's called because even a tropical storm can send truckloads of rain flying sideways, not just tumbling down.

Good news

2008-08-07T17:20:00.004-04:00

Hi all-

Guess what! Josh and I have some good news that I'm prepared to share with all of you. We are expecting a baby again. As of today I'm eleven weeks, which means that I've made it past the point where I miscarried in January. Whew! That makes me feel quite a bit better. Although I have to admit I'll feel even better in two and a half weeks when I finally make it out of the first trimester.

Our little one is due February 26th and oddly enough this is the exact same day that my department head at school is due. Weird huh?

Nonetheless we are excited and should know whether we are having a boy or girl in October. I'll try to keep you updated as more developments progress.

Paris France

2008-08-06T20:28:00.005-04:00

Hi all-

Once again I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to get back to all of you. We had a fantabulous time in Paris. Ah...Paris the city of love. And love it we did! Josh and Annie had never visited France before and even though it was my third trip I fell in love with it all over again.

Not only did we hit all of the highlights, and spend a full ten days there, but we even explored some of the more obscure (for tourists) that is. For instance, our last day we spent at the Musee Decouverte (Discovery museum). It was amazing, but let me back up and tell you about our days before that.

Our first day in Paris we checked into the hotel and caught a quick nap before heading out to see the Arc de Triomph. Then we walked all the way down the Champs Elysee to the Jardin (Garden) de Tulieries. It was a LONG walk, but well worth the effort. We found apricot sorbet and took a seat at a fountain outside the Louvre. The plan was to go ahead and get tickets for a few days later, but it turned out the Louvre was closed on Tuesdays. Oops! Nonetheless, the jardin was wonderful and actually ended up being one of our major hang out places during our stay. There was a carnival present along with pony rides, three fountains and children playing with wooden toy boats.

Several days later, we rented one of these same toy boats for Annie to play with the Parisian children. She thoroughly enjoyed it.

After supper and another leisurely walk we headed back to the hotel for the evening.

The next morning we were up bright and early so that we could visit the Tour de Eiffel also known as the Eiffel tower. :) We later visited it again in the evening and on both occasions traveled to the top floor. It was a special experience both times. But I have to admit the sparkles, stars and such made the evening adventure even more special.

After the Eiffel tower we visited Notre Dame, which we also returned to in the evening many days later. Josh got some of the most amazing photos from this evening adventure.

Then we headed out for Sacre Coeur. I do believe that I forget every time how many stairs are involved in this journey. Annie and Josh swore that we walked up 2 million, but I have to admit that I floated up many of them since I actually communicated and received directions in French and understood them. This was only the first of many times that I received directions or instructions from a Parisian without them changing to English and I have to admit that I beamed each time it happened. It was nice to know that even though my French is rusty it is still effective.

Then after visiting the Sacre Coeur we discovered the metro had a train that scaled the incline. Oops! But the stairs were good for us. And we walked over to the Hotel de Invalides where Napolean was buried. I translated all of the display explanations for Josh and Annie, but I thoroughly enjoyed learning so much about what Napolean had believed in. He truly had some good ideas and I can't believe we don't hear more about his ideas today.

(Napolean's tomb)

Other day trips that we explored during our ten days were a full day at the Louvre, with one of the highlights being the Mona Lisa (of course).

And then we also spent a full day at Versailles. Annie asked many questions and all three of us fully enjoyed each exhibit at the Louvre. But at Versailles I have to admit that I was more struck by the tour that we took than by Marie Antoinette's village. Last time I'd visited the village was my favorite part and it still ranked quite high, but the tour was wonderful. It was about Louis the XIV and XV's apartments.

(Marie Antoinette's village)

We spent half a day at the Musee D'orsay. And I fell in love again with the Impressionist paintings.

Annie and I spent Sunday shopping and Josh went off to explore more castles and such. I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

Sunday evening we also took a dinner cruise. WOW! It was amazing. Not only did they give every person on the cruise a sampler of all the appetizers but they did the same with the desserts. Also we had an apertif and wine, as well as a regular beverage and coffee. Wow! And on top of all that there was an upper deck that we could stand on and watch all of the lights on the various buildings, Eiffel tower etc. It was definitely the best dinner cruise I've ever experienced.

But lastly let me tell you about the Discovery museum. It was so much fun. Not only did we get a lecture in English about the school for rats and the way that they are trained in mazes, but we also went to the Electrostatics lecture. In this lecture both Annie and Josh were volunteers. Josh got shocked to show the difference between electricity and static and Annie's hair stood on end.

But the absolute best lecture had to be the liquid air. Wow! I'd never seen anything like it. Although it looked like dry ice, the experiments proved it was something way more impressive. I think we all were shaped by our day in the Discovery museum.
You know, I worried some about being the tour guide for this adventure to Paris, but it turned out to be a wonderful one. We had a laid back but fun time. And I can only say I look forward to the next vacation that Josh, Annie and I take. And of course I look forward to telling you all about it...but in the meantime there are many more adventures to share.

Summer Adventures

2008-07-13T17:24:00.019-04:00

Hi all-

I'm so sorry that it's taken so long to get back onto my website. I've honestly been going non-stop and truly enjoying every moment of it. This has been a BUSY summer!
Nonetheless, let me try to give you the run down...of what has happened since we last visited. I believe I was just about to head out for my Advanced Placement workshop when we last chatted. Right? Well, that's long since completed. And now I'm fully AP certified. Yay! I can hardly wait to teach those AP Literature classes year after next.

However, the classes required to receive this certification were boring (and fairly uninformative) to say the least, BUT I did learn some things here and there while having a wonderful time enjoying a week in Athens. One of my good friends and I took the class together and so we were able to treat the evenings like a mini-vacation. We had a blast going out to eat each night with other friends. We had some of the best and most diverse foods. We ate Thai, Indian, Gourmet, Deli, Mexican, and Vegetarian. Needless to say it was amazing and so much fun...

Then, after we returned home from this adventure, I headed out for North GA so that I could to go my doctors appointment (following up) from my back surgery. Thankfully, it was a quick and pleasant appointment and now I've been fully cleared now both by my surgeon and by my physical therapist. More good news, huh?

So after receiving such wonderful news, I drove back down to South Georgia and my fantastic just in time to host a 4th of July party. This was our first year having a party like this and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We had our friends and family over. We played croquet and had more to eat than we knew what to do with. All in all it was an more fun than any of us imagined it would be and we can hardly wait to host our next holiday party.

But the summer fun didn't stop there. So a few short days later, I headed out for North Georgia (once again) so that I could go on the semi-annual family journey to Arkansas and Mississippi. Momma and I took all three children on this trip and it was amazing. Not only were all of the children wonderful travelers, but it was also so nice to get to spend some quality time with extended family. The boys and Annie had a blast playing with their cousins in Arkansas and in Mississippi. Not even to mention, the fun that they had on the farm. The boys and Annie, ran, swam, rode horses, tractors and four wheelers. Needless to say no one had problems sleeping on this trip.

And yes, my frantic, but fun pace has continued. Thus, a day after our return to North Georgia, I headed home, back to South Georgia, so that I could could repack and put things in order before heading out of the country.

So with all of these adventures relayed, that brings us up to date! And as tomorrow, my wonderful husband, niece and I will be beginning our European adventures as we climb onto a flight for France! We can hardly wait! It will by my third trip to France and their first. I just know that we're going to have SO much fun. And of course, I look forward to telling each of you about it when I return.

But, it may be a couple of weeks before I can update again (due to travels). But in the meantime, I hope you are all also enjoying adventures of your own...and that your summer is going as spectacularly as mine is.

Family visit and upcoming conference

2008-06-20T19:51:00.004-04:00

Hi all-

Well, things this summer have continued to be quite busy, but I'm having a blast. This week has been especially nice because my Momma, niece, and nephews came to visit. I wish all of you could have seen me waiting for their arrival. I was literally like a child waiting for Santa Claus. I couldn't sleep even though it was the middle of the night when they arrived.

Oh it was wonderful to have all of them here for a few days. We had many adventures. The first day they were here I took them to Wild Adventures. It was amazing! The park isn't very crowded during the week (except for Friday). Every ride that the children wanted to ride had very little wait. In fact, there were several rides that they literally had the ride operator running the ride for only them.

And then there was the Veggie Tales show! Wow! That's all I can say. All the children thoroughly enjoyed it. Amazingly it was the perfect show for each of them, and that's not an easy accomplishment since they range in ages from nine through two.

Finally, there was the water park. They loved it. I discovered what a true dare devil Danny is. We slid down many water slides together. I'd explain to him that the water was going to splash his face when we got to the bottom, but he honestly didn't care.

We finished up our visit at the park by all having dipping dots. But the best part, for the five of us the entire admission cost just $30. Okay, let me explain. Josh and I have annual passes to the park and Danny was free because he's not yet three. Josh and I also had two guest passes (for free) so only Momma had to pay to get in...and we found a deal online to help with that. Not bad, huh? I'd definitely say it wasn't bad at all.

The next day, Annie and I took Josh down to the airport and Momma, Gabe and Danny went to the children's movie. It's a great deal, free admission and $2 for a child size coke and popcorn. Wow! Anyway, they had fun watching Mr. Magorium's Magic Emporium or something like that. And Annie and I had fun visiting with Josh on the way to the airport and singing country music songs and talking on the way home.

When we got home, everyone had lunch. The children played and then we had "rest time." I do believe rest time is one of my favorite parts about summer. It always reminds me of naps during college or lazy summer afternoons as child. So we all rested and read books, or rather Annie, Momma and I read books the boys napped.

Once rest time was over the children began to play some more and I decided rather than visiting the pool down the street that the children could play in the sprinklers and pool here. They loved it! Interestingly enough it all culminated with them actually asking to take a bath. :) I'm sure our jacuzzi tub had "nothing" to do with that. Ha ha!

(pictures of "the sprinkler playing" soon)

But our day was far from over. After the bath and supper Momma and I decided to take the children back to the movies. This time we all watched Kung Fu Panda. It was a good child friendly movie and was thoroughly enjoyed as was demonstrated by playing "Kung Fu Panda" when we got home.

Things have been a bit more quiet since they've headed home. But I've still had more than enough to keep me busy. I headed back to PT yesterday and learned some new exercises. I caught up on my house cleaning. Thankfully, I'd done my "house blessing" (dusting, moping, sweeping, vacuuming, polishing mirrors/doors, and changing linens Sunday night so I had Monday free and Tuesday is always my "free day." So the visit worked out just perfectly.

This week coming week will be a bit more complicated though. I'm going to be out of town, but I am determined not to fall too far behind on my cleaning. SO I went ahead and did the cleaning for this week and next week (Wednesday, Thursday, and today). Thankfully, I've finished it all up now.

And no, I'm not talking about just a light cleaning. Honestly since beginning Fly lady, the surface cleaning of the house has been simple. So I've found I've been able to go more deeply. This week alone, I've cleaned out the medicine cabinet, the cabinet and drawers in the bathroom, the drawers of my desk in my office, my vanity and nightstands drawers and my dresser drawers. WOW! Lots of trash going out this week. Well...I didn't clean out my keepsake drawer in my dresser, but that's a LONG job just itself. Last week, I cleaned out my decoration closet, guest closet and straightened up my closet some. Whew! But you know, the accomplishment that I feel when I'm done...is more powerful than I can describe.

So why is all of this falling into place and why do I have the time to do all of this? The best answer I know to give you, is to check out Fly lady. It helps set up a routine and helps keep the house us well enough that there's time to do the deeper things.

But enough about the cleaning let me tell you a little about my upcoming trip. I'm going to a workshop for Advanced Placement certification. In lay terms, this means I'll be able to teach college level classes in high school once I've finished this workshop.

I'm getting the feeling that the studying this next week is going to be very vigorous. But I'm up for the challenge. And I have to admit I'm particularly excited about this next week because I'm going to be rooming with a co-worker that is one of my closest friends. I'm convinced we are going to have a blast (at night) after each day's hard work is done.

I'm already looking forward to many of the restaurants and night life of the town. Of course,my husband has reminded me (on more than one occasion) how important it is that we take this course seriously and don't play too much. I've assured him we'll be good...but nonetheless, I'm sure we're going have fun too.

What can I say? Men. After all he's off to Las Vegas this week for a conference and I have to admit I've never once considered that he might be focused on other things that work. :) Guess it goes with the territory that he'd worry about us when we, ladies, are off on our own and such.

Nonetheless, I look forward to telling you all about our adventures when I return, that is if I don't manage to do so before that.

But until then, enjoy your summer!

Toes

2008-06-12T10:56:00.004-04:00

Good morning all-

This is going to be a quick entry, but I just had to post a "ta da!" After my first back surgery just over three years ago, I lost a good bit of flexibility. In fact, I lost so much flexibility that I wasn't able to touch my toes. However, after this second surgery, I was horrified to discover that I could only reach my knees when I bent over. My body simply froze up and I couldn't get any lower.

However, today after returning from physical therapy and thinking about how wonderful I feel, I decided to try it again! Guess what! Not only can I touch my toes, but I can do what the physical therapist told me would most likely never happen again. I can put my hands flat on the floor. Now granted, I couldn't have done that even before my back surgery so it's SO nice to know that I can do it now.

And so this post is simply to say, "YAY! I can touch my toes!"

Ellenton Clinic luncheon, sunburns, outings and scrapbooking

2008-06-11T19:22:00.023-04:00

Hi all-

Welcome back! I can hardly wait to tell you about all of the stuff that has been going on down here. But let me start by telling you all about the Ellenton Clinic Luncheon. It went really well. I am looking forward to sharing some pictures with you of it. And I would paste some in now, but my poor hard working husband (who has had a migraine since Saturday) has finally fallen asleep. But do not fear the photos will be forth coming shortly. And yes, I took many photos as the event progressed. I began snapping pictures as we were setting up and concluded while we had a full house of health care workers.

(The setting up begins)

I'm always amazed by how grateful the Ellenton clinic workers are and truly feel like they are blessing our lives much more than we could ever bless theirs. What I mean by this is that they are actually out in the fields doing God's work. They are being good neighbors to the poor and downtrodden. They are vaccinating, providing physical therapy, medicine and medical care for many migrant workers that would simply do without.Therefore it seems like the least that we can do to provide a good meal and desserts for these health care personnel.

Everyone is busy fixing drinks and finalizing details for our guests to arrive.

The first guests arrive and beeline it for the back table where there are an abundance of homemade desserts.

The masses descend upon us, and we are ever so thankful that they have.

Ah, good food and good company! Everyone is eating their fill.

We can now rest at ease that our event was a major success.

I was amazed by the number of people who were able to take off from work at St. Margaret's to help out with the luncheon too. Honestly, everything just fell into place. Each individual had a job...and everyone fulfilled their roll. Granted the subway sandwiches with lettuce and pickles were a snafu that we'd not expected, but since the tomatoes were recalled due to salmonella fears, we were thankful for the pickles.

Of course, I've not stopped serving tomatoes,here at home, (since the vast majority of our tomatoes come either from our garden or the local farmers market). Also, Georgia (thankfully) has been cleared from any Salmonella potential. Yay! After all there's nothing better than a good tomato sandwich during the hot days of summer.

Although, we've actually received a break from the overwhelming heat we'd had before this week. And even more impressively we've had nice thunderstorms come through our town each evening to provide water for our vegetables and flowers. Thank you, God, for taking care of the watering for us! :)

So since the weather has been a bit more mild (in other words it doesn't feel like 110 down here) I decided it was time to begin working on my summer tan. However, I made a rookie mistake. I should have known better. I didn't want to, nor did I have time to, lay around the pool all day long just to get a tan so I took myself back to the tanning salon that I'd visited during the later parts of last summer. And I got into the *same* tanning bed that I'd used then. I should have known better. It's a super bed, meaning that it's stronger than a normal one. Now, IF I'd gone to a normal tanning bed, I probably would be almost over my sunburn, but since I forgot myself (as I do most summers although rarely in a tanning bed) I have my annual beginning of the summer burn.

Thankfully, I'm not life guarding this summer so I can simply give my burn time to heal. And then, ladies and gentlemen, I'll head to a normal tanning bed (or outside) and build up my base before trying a super bed again. :) At least I've learned my lesson and I'm not overly blistered in the process.

However, I wish I had thought this through more fully, because I initially planned to head to the amusement and water park today. Needless to say, I decided against it since I've acquired a new skin shade for a few days. So instead, I enjoyed my time having a leisurely lunch with a good friend. We'd been at an educational workshop today (which was free oddly enough) and then decided to hang out for a while. And you just can't beat the Atlanta Bread Company! Yum!! I do so enjoy their food...it's so vegetarian friendly...and the chilled spiced Chai with whipped cream. Yes, I felt quite spoiled.

And since I was in this metropolis, I decided to visit Michael's. Craft stores can be a dangerous place, because there are so many great things to buy! Ya know? Well...several dollars lighter I can out with many treasures. I managed to gather up poly fiber for some new pillows that I'm sewing for our guestroom. If you come to visit I'll show them to you...or perhaps I'll even post a picture of them here when I'm done! I also got super gel, I assume and it seems to work much like super glue. Our little ceramic bird, in our bedroom is so thankful for it's beak back.

I found some nice faux flowers, purple of course, that I absolutely adore...and some accent beads to go into a vase in our bedroom. They fit in quite nicely with the chevan rose I recently received.

Then I found tubes of colored icing for cakes. I'm planning on making a cake for my husband for father's day with a tie on it, but wasn't sure how I'd make the tie work...now I know! Yay!! I'll definitely post a picture of it on here when I get it finished.

Finally, I found SCRAP BOOKING stuff. My supreme weakness and one of my favorite hobbies. Thankfully, they were having a sale on the stickers for the scrapbooks 40% off. WOW! So needless to say my wallet is no where near as light as it could have been.

And yes, I've already begun scrap booking again. In fact, I've carefully placed all of the stickers on their appropriate pages and now...I've simply got to print out pictures to go with them...well...for the pages we have pictures for...now. I went ahead and designed a "Paris, France" page for an upcoming trip.

I also picked out a page for the 4th of July and began working on it. Then there's the page for my garden, and finally the one for my husband's birthday. So needless to say I'll have plenty to record.

Well, I've talked every one's ears off today...but do tune in next time. Because I can hardly wait to tell you all about my next adventures. But until then, toodle loo! And Good night!

First wedding and sprucing up at home

2008-06-08T13:39:00.006-04:00

Hi all-

Yesterday, my dear husband and I headed out to our first wedding visit since we got married. It was one of my former debaters and a very good friend that was getting married. Wow was she a beautiful bride. And I just know that she's going to be a wonderful homemaker. When we talked a few days before the wedding, she told me that she was going to be a stay at home wife once they were married. I'm confident that she'll be an excellent one.

So I decided that the most fitting wedding present for them would be a nice cookbook, some pretty decorative hand towels and some recipes from my own kitchen. Surprisingly, early this morning, before church, I got a phone call from her thanking me for these gifts. She said the recipes and cookbook were probably going to be some of the most useful gifts that they'd received. I was thrilled, but surprised. Obviously, I didn't expect to hear from her the day after her wedding.

I told her again how beautiful she was yesterday and expressed my surprise at hearing from her. She told me that her husband had gone out to the drug store to pick up some things...so she decided to call me. I can't begin to express how much it means to me that she decided to call me, today.

I told her once again how much we enjoyed her wedding, which we truly did and retold some stories from ours to put her mind at ease about the things that hadn't necessarily gone according to her plan, so that she would realize that happens at every wedding.

I am so looking forward to talking to her more this summer, though. Once she's back from her honeymoon, of course. It will be so nice to have another fellow homemaker friend.

Speaking of homemaking though, I've come to the realization that this is far from an easy job, but it's not overwhelming hard either, but the hours are LONG!

Nonetheless, I try my best to make it appear that it all comes together with ease. Isn't that what every good southern lady does? At least, that's been my impression.

And I know like most southern ladies that I can thank my Momma for a lot of this. I can't imagine how I would be able to manage a household if it were not for all that she's taught me, and continues to teach me. I have no idea what I'd do without her. Even though we ate separated by several hours, I treasure our multiple daily conversations and I often reflect as I'm cleaning or preparing supper or simply doing laundry many of those gems of wisdom. And I laugh to myself over jokes we've shared, and yes, I even find myself pondering solutions to difficult situations allowing my momma's legacy to guide me.

But I also find that it's not simply just my Momma that has helped me to delve into the life of a homemaker, although it's probably one of the largest influences. I've also found many helpful tips from other ladies at my church, ladies in the community, FlyLady.com and even Good Housekeeping.

Although, it's not the most current issue of Good Housekeeping that guides me the most. No, indeed it is not. Rather it's an article from 1954. Odd, huh? But I've taken this article and adapted it. I've removed sections that don't apply to me and chosen to ignore certain pieces of advice. I've added other gems of wisdom here and there all while creating my own version of advice for being a good homemaker.

Fly Lady and my Momma have been the predominant forces that I use when it comes to cleaning. Whereas Momma and her example along with the Good Housekeeping article are definitely becoming my guide in welcoming my husband home after he's had a hard day of work.

As many of you know, even when I'm teaching full-time during the school year I'm determined to have a hot meal ready for my husband when he arrives home from work. But now, that I'm not working outside of the home I've found there are many more things I care to do for him too.

In short these are some of the issues from the 1954 issue that I've adapted for myself. Feminists beware, some of you may think these ideas are antiquated or outdated, but for us they are working quite well. I've never claimed to be much of a feminist and truly feel like although the feminist movement was needed when it first formed, it is not something that needs to be actively pursued in the status quo society.

So here are those adapted wifely tips:

Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal, on time. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal are part of the warm welcome needed.

Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so that you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your makeup, run a brush through your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people. Be a little lively, cheerful and a little more interesting. His day may need a lift.

Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the home just before your husband arrives, gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper, etc. Then run a dust cloth over the tables. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift, too.

Be happy to see him. Greet him with a warm smile and be glad he is home.

Some Don'ts: Don't greet him with problems or complaints. Don't complain if he is late for dinner. Count this as minor compared with what he might have gone through that day. Make him comfortable.

Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Allow him to relax and unwind.

Listen to him. You may have a dozen things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first.

Make the evening his. Do not complain if he does not take you out to dinner or to other places of entertainment. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure, his need to be home and relax. ** Obviously if we have plans to go out I'll expect to do so, but we rarely do so during the week. He eats out every day at lunch so a home cooked meal is much more appreciated by us both. The Goal: Try to make your home a place of peace and order where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit. ** Isn't this what a home should be to us all?

With all of these tips in mind, I just had to smile this last week, when my husband commented that he didn't know how I did as much as I do during the day and still looked so nice when he got home. And I had to smile to myself. After all it was simply a little age old wisdom making this all possible.

Now, don't get me wrong. I know these tips may not work for everyone and no advice does, but for the two of us it is working wonders. And I am finding myself to be ever so grateful that someone took the time to write down these small gems, from a time when families regularly did sit down to meals together. And families were the central focus.

I can't help, but wonder how our world would change if more families ate their meals together , had true conversation and included each other in more of the day to day workings of their lives.
My guess, crime would go down. Children would be more well mannered and successful in school and the trend of a falling divorce rate would continue (even though it's already at the lowest rate since 1970 it still has a way to fall).

Perhaps, just perhaps with our changing economy these changes will begin to occur. I for once can only hope. So won't you join me, not only in sprucing up your home, fifteen minutes at a time, but also in helping to give our society the face lift it needs. Take the time to sit down and truly talk to your loved ones. Pay attention to what they are saying. Share your own life and interest with them, and invest yourself once again in family life. After all, we can choose our friends, but family will be there no matter what. So isn't it worth it to spend some more quality time and enjoyable moments with those who have to be there for you no matter what.

Now go give your family a hug, or call and tell them how much they mean to you and how much they've influenced your life. That's where I'm headed now.

And I look forward to telling you soon, all about the Ellenton clinic luncheon that I'm helping to host tomorrow with my church for the medical personnel traveling to South Georgia so that they can vaccinate the migrant workers in our community. See you soon!

"Boomerang garden!"

2008-06-06T20:29:00.019-04:00

Hi all-

Today, I spent the majority of my time outside in my flower beds and garden. As I'd mentioned the weeds had grown massively while I'd been in North Ga. Last week I attacked the larger weeds, but the smaller ones were still rampant. So today was "operation attack weeds."

As I worked on all of these outdoor areas I thought about our world today and I thought about the world in the past. And yes, many of my thoughts were about gardens, but they were also about the way our economy is functioning and even how marriages have worked in the past and how they work now.

So where did my mind wander in garden land? Well, honestly it wandered to the Civil War (or as a proper Southerner I should say, the War of Northern Aggression). As I worked in the dirt and looked at my fingernails, YUCK (lots of dirt under them) I thought of Scarlett O'Hara. Now, yes she's a fictional character, but one that has always intrigued me. And I thought about how she, even worked in a garden. And it was this very garden that provided food for her family, children, sister, brother-in-law etc...

Then my mind wandered to World War II, and many Americans had "Victory Gardens" in order to help provide for their families and reduce the pressure on the public food suppliers. These gardens also were what kept many families going.

Of course, my mind then wandered backwards in time to the Great Depression. Now, when I began to think of the Great Depression I thought about how gardens once again could and most likely did provide for a great many families.

Finally, I thought about our world today. Here we are in war again....and who knows when it will or can end. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it should end until our objectives are complete and I wholeheartedly support the war, but it did create a parallel for me.

People today are so used to getting what they want, when they want it. Instant gratification!! Gardens don't work like this nor do flower beds. Instead they require, time, care and diligence. Then if the care is effective and the time is well spent then slowly the herbs, flowers, vegetables, and fruits begin to develop.

So why don't more people realize their need for a garden, today? I don't know. But what I do know is that our economy has slowed. We are heading into a recession if not a depression although no politician will ever admit it's a depression since that word scares people too badly, but if the economy remains slow for more than 3 quarters then we will be in another depression.

But will this economic strife change the way people function? I don't know, but I doubt that it changes the way many Americans work. Instead they'll borrow money or put more debt on their credit cards. Once again, seeking that oh so status quo goal of instant gratification. The "I want it all and I want it now," mentality."

But I, for one, refuse to fall into that pattern. Rather, I'm hopeful and determined that our garden will help us through many of these economic hard times, just as gardens have done for many families before us.

Let me show you some images from our garden...and how incredible it can to reject the instant gratification mentality and embrace the slow but steady mindset. And also just to brag on my garden. :)

See this little green circle? It's a baby watermelon. Isn't it amazing? It's hard to see in this picture, but is almost exactly in the middle of the picture.

Then there are the tomatoes. We are already reaping the benefits from these.Oh and don't forget the cabbage... (also easily seen in this picture) And note the green pepper that almost blends in on the far right side of the picture. It's also almost ready for picking! It will be our first pepper of the season.

Here are the beginnings of a baby eggplant. I'm holding the flower in which it's forming.

The picture above is magnified to try to enhance the flower image. And here are the broccoli plants.

I forgot to take a picture of the many blooms on the squash and cucumbers. I can hardly wait until we reap the rewards of this harvest. Then of course, there's the herbs and lettuce, all of these we are already being able to use in our meals!

And as I thought about how this small little garden will provide for my family, both now and through the winter (yes I'm going to can/preserve food from it), I decided it needed a name. I didn't want to call it a victory garden. My garden has very little to do with the war. I thought about calling it an "economic garden" but didn't care for the sounds of it. And finally, it hit me. It's a boomerang garden. Why? Because this garden will change how my little family functions during economically hard times. Hopefully, and perhaps it will keep us from being hurt as badly by the rising prices of foods. It will definitely save us gas and honestly will make us feel like we have an abundance even during a country wide, economic slow down. So with that in mind, boomerang seems to fit....because although we pay out some during these economically hard times to get things started the benefits from it come right back to us in abundance.

And yes, my mentality is changing during this time about more than just the garden. We're recycling more and trying to conserve in each way we can. Rolling down the windows in the car when we are going under 40. The breeze is nice.

Or conserving and saving what can be reused in the kitchen. Just tonight I cleaned off some aluminum foil and scrubbed it thoroughly so that we could use it again. Yes, that took my mind back to the Great Depression ideology.

And you know...I'm hopeful many others will begin to re-evaluate their priorities. Perhaps the higher prices of gas, the inflated food prices and simply the higher price of living will be good for us all. It will make each of us re-evaluate our priorities.

Now with all of that said, are we economically hard off? Absolutely not and far from it! But just as the ants stored their food away for winter while the grasshopper played in Aesop's Fables, I find myself feeling the same need.

And maybe we won't need it, but I am surely thankful we have our "Boomerang Garden" nonetheless. Because none of us really know, what tomorrow may bring, but with the right decisions (such as conserving, saving, recycling and preserving for our needs) we can find ourselves much more prepared.

I guess the only question left in my mind on this subject is this? How will this new economy change your life?

SAHW, the homemaker!!

2008-06-04T13:50:00.012-04:00

Hi all-

Things down here continue to go well, but BUSY!!! And to think that I worried about not having enough to do. Now I'm wishing I had as many arms as a bee so that I could get through my to do list during the daylight hours. :)

Here it is mid-afternoon and I've finally sat down for the second time today. Thank goodness for lunch!!! :)

Honestly though, I'm loving being a stay at home wife. My husband is beginning to realize the flexibility that this gives me and asked me to do half a dozen things for him today...but I didn't mind in the least. It was really nice to have the time to do that.

I've found a really neat site, for all women stay at home or not, that struggle with keeping their house up. It's called Fly Lady. WOW! It's definitely inspiring and I have no illusions that our home would look very different about now if it were not for this site.

Heck it's even motivated me to clean my car. As most of you know, cleaning the car is no small feat for me!! :)

So how am I filling my day? Actually it depends, each day brings new challenges and new adventures (much like each day of teaching school). Some days are filled with cleaning activities at the house. Some are mainly errands and socializing and some are doing projects. The mix definitely keeps things from getting dull around here!!

Yesterday I had lunch with a really good friend. Then I visited my husband at one of his job sites. It was so cool to get to see the work he does, in the works (pun intended). Tomorrow I'm going out to lunch with a friend and to the movies. I'm really looking forward to that.

I'm convinced I'm going to start being able to go sunbathe before the week is over. And take a bubble bath!! Only one more day until the doctor clears me to bathe instead of shower! YES! I can hardly wait.... Josh will probably have a hard time getting me out of the tub on Thursday. I have SO missed my baths.

Then of course on Saturday, my dear husband and I are headed out to a wedding. It's one of my old debaters that is getting married. I can hardly wait. I was talking to her yesterday and she was telling me that her job after she's married will be to be the homemaker.

As I reflected upon what she was saying, I began to think about how much our society and women's perspectives have changed. For generations women were not allowed to work outside of the home. Then can the liberation and women rushed out to work both outside and inside the home...however as more time passes, many women are realizing that the most precious job they'll ever do is to be a homemaker.

I realized the tide was changing and that more women were deciding to work at home when I started thinking about what many of my friends do. And to be honest, as you know it's my dream job...so needless to say I feel like I'm in heaven this summer. Yay!

Nevertheless, Josh and I aren't to a place where I can do this year-round yet! But, assuming that the things we have in mind for the fall bear fruition then within a few years I will be a fulltime homemaker while our children are small. I can hardly wait!!! In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this wonderful opportunity called Summer Vacation to be a full-time homemaker. Or perhaps I should a fulltime Summer homemaker.

Well, I would love to chat more, but duty calls. Sometime soon, I'll try to get back and share all about the new projects I'm working on. See you soon!

A man works from sun to sun, a woman's work is never done...

2008-06-01T15:13:00.003-04:00

Hi all-

Well, I'm finally back home. I have to admit I had some trepidation about returning home. I'd fallen back into the pattern of life up in North GA. However, when I walked into our church this morning, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was ready to be home.

Of course, I began to feel that way last night too, when we had supper with some of our close friends. I'm fairly certain that this summer won't be nearly as lonely as I've worried it would be since I'm not working outside of the home.

But back to this morning's adventures: We go to a small church, but one that is growing rapidly. Even on this summer morning we had 26 people with many missing (including my husband). Needless to say as the Senior Warden, I can't be more pleased if I tried. It was truly like a family gathering. I was so happy to see everyone and stayed almost an hour after the service visiting. :)

But let me tell you about other things down here. I've set up a daily schedule for myself. Tomorrow will be the real challenge of that, because I'm determined to start on a Monday. And many of my friends are going to be out of the country for the next 10 or so days...some are going to Austria and some to Mexico. Josh's and my adventure abroad doesn't occur until July...so...I need to throw myself into other activities and keep busy. But I just have the feeling that won't be a problem.

To give you and idea of what I mean let me tell you about our house and yard. First I want to brag on my husband, he kept almost ALL of our plants alive while I was gone. BRAVO!!!! I think he watered every day or pretty close to it. That's no small feat since he wasn't getting home from work before 10 or 11 at night and leaving very early in the mornings too.

But having been gone for almost three weeks, there are so many things down here that need to be done I almost don't know where to begin. Josh did wash the bed linens, which is another impressive feat. However, the house is trashed. He was so busy that nothing got cleaned while I was gone. There were coke cans waiting to be recycled. AND we've had a problem with our garbage service (they took away our can and want to charge us for a new one!! ARGH!!!). Then there's the garden. The weeks were thigh high. I spent about 90 minutes this afternoon pulling out the BIG weeds. Tomorrow or sometime this week I'll tackle more of the smaller ones...but y'all my garden is growing and thriving. I'm not sure how many carrots and radishes we'll have but everything else we already have baby vegetables or fruits from. Even the herbs are thriving (despite the weeds). Heck, we even have baby watermelons growing!! WOW!!!

The flower beds are also growing like crazy. I need to replace a few that have died off...but I am confident I can do that this week. Of course I need to get rid of the dead blooms on all of the flowers, finish weeding the garden. Then I plan to try to can and preserve vegetables this summer. I need to confirm all the prices for our trip abroad and begin to dig us out from under the piles that have accumulated around the house. Of course, my dear husband has "jobs" he wants done and I don't mind at all helping him accomplish these things. So more goes on the to do list. ha ha!!

I swear men don't even notice so many of the things women do and as a result I do believe that the old saying, "Men work from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done," is SO true. Josh and I went to a friend's daughter's birthday party yesterday. As we were leaving I commented on how good the dip was that they'd served and that I'd like the recipe. My friend's husband commented, "Oh, she didn't make it. She just bought the ingredients and stirred them up and stuff." Ummm....hello? Isn't that making it? Isn't that cooking? ha ha! Men....

And yes, my friend is a stay at home Mom. But what a wonderful job to have!!! And even though that's my dream job, I know it must have taken some adjustment for my friend to accept that as a stay at home wife and mom she's always at work. I'm sure I'll probably find the same (even though I'm not yet a Mom) this summer. One of the reasons I'm convinced of this is that although during the school year when I'm working outside of the home (as is my husband) I expect for him to help out with the chores, dishes, cooking, etc....around here because we both are working full-time and trying to maintain a home. However, during the summer, he's the only one working outside of the home full time so I feel like it's my duty and obligation to take on the majority of household duties and chores. He shouldn't have to worry about those after he's been working hard outside the home each day. Needless say this is a definite shift in the way we handle things during the school year. So my biggest adventure this month will be adjusting to being a stay at home wife (not mom, at least not yet). But I'm confident that I'll love it. Even if it will be non-stop work with the cleaning cooking and helping to turn this house into a safe haven for my dear hard working husband.

But being at home will definitely have it's benefits too. For instance, two of my friends are having medical procedures this week so I'm going to try to cook something for them and send them each a card in the mail. Then there are the activities going on at church. We are just about a week away from hosting the Ellenton Clinic luncheon at my church, we'll be feeding 70+ people. The Ellenton clinic is a group of students and medical people from Emory University that come down here into South GA during the summer and vaccinate and provide medical care to migrant workers. In response the churches in our community provide lunch and supper for these workers. I can't think of anything more beneficial this time of year and I'm so excited to be helping to supervise it while getting back into the swing of things.

Speaking of church though. I learned today that our priest is looking at making preparations for our little mission church to become a parish. AND on top of that one of the members has purchased the house across the street for the church. He told us we could use it for whatever we deemed fit. WOW!!! :) I'm can hardly believe all of the improvements that are occuring.

Another change that I'm experiencing is adjusting to the heat back down here in South GA. North Georgia was still having nice springlike weather, but that's not the case down here. So even though it's nice to be back in South GA, it's HOT HOT HOT!!!!

Nonetheless, I'm off to tackle grocery shopping and cleaning piles of "stuff" out of every room and hunt for replacement flowers (so that I can put new flowers in the place of those that have died). Given any luck I can whip this place back into shape before the week is over. I'll try to keep you posted as I go...

Summertime, enter life as a stay at home wife...

2008-05-30T16:33:00.023-04:00

These past couple of weeks have been wonderful. I've thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my parents, niece and nephews. My back continues to improve daily and I have no doubt that before the summer is over, I'll be fully repaired.

I returned to my doctor yesterday for my two-week recovery visit. He wrote out a prescription for me to begin physical therapy 2-3 times a week. I called today and made an appointment with one of the physical therapy businesses in my town.

I also called and set up a conference with a OB doctor in our town. Hopefully, we can get pregnant this summer and enlarge our family even more. Keep your fingers crossed for us on this account.

But let me tell you more about happenings up here in North GA. This week was the first week of summer vacation for the children. As a result, I offered to keep my niece during the day while my Momma finished up post-planning, & my sister, and Daddy worked.

We had so much fun, and as the week continued it only got better. Monday, Momma, Daddy and I vent out to a park for a family fun day. We met up with my nephew and his half sister and brother and parents. It was so much fun. I got icecream for the children and they had a blast playing, bouncing and getting balloon animals.

Tuesday, Annie and I met up with Jenni and her children at a park. Then Annie and I decided to follow their game plan for a while. In other words, we went to the library and then headed out the lake (beach) for a nice afternoon.

Later that afternoon, I decided it was time to head home and start supper. It just seemed right to me that since I've been feeling so much better that I should take on some of the responsibilities of the household as well. So from Tuesday onward, I cooked the meals, and helped to keep the household clean.

Wednesday night, this went a bit further and I helped my nephews get their bath and get ready to go to sleep. I tried my best to help them get to sleep, but unfortunately this was one of the evenings that they were determined not to do so. Even my parents had problems getting them to sleep...and that's unusual.

This morning, my family began making their final preparations to head out to Charleston for my cousin's wedding. Amazingly we got all of the children packed up and headed in the proper directions.

Yet, again I found myself feeling like a stay at home Mom. I helped the boys get dressed, brushed my niece's hair. Confirmed for my Mom that the clothes for each of the children looked acceptable, packed up snacks and games for the ride and kissed them each good bye.

The hardest part, of course, is that I won't be here when they get home. My husband is traveling up from South Georgia to take me home. Now, we'll stay here for a little bit...but nonetheless our departure time occurs before my parents, niece and nephews return.

So it will be different when I head back down to south Georgia, but I'm determined to fully embrace being a stay at home wife this summer. No there won't always be children to care for, but there will be fun things to do...and hopefully frugal ones since Josh and I are making plans to save money for various events that will be taking place in the fall.

Thus, far I've come up with a basic daily schedule and allocated time for free days each week. Plus, I've to find out when my family is traveling to Arkansas. I am going to tag along and spend some time with my Great-Aunt. I look forward to writing down family stories...so that these will be more easily able to be passed down through the generations.

And I'm looking forward to having my family visit with Josh and me during this summer. I want to take my niece and nephews to the parks (water and regular) around our town. Hopefully, each of the three will be able to spend some time with us. I just know that we'll all have a wonderful time when they visit.

Speaking of visits, I have to admit that one of my favorite parts about this trip has been spending time with my friend Jenni. Jen, is also a stay at home wife/mom. And you know, once I began being able to drive again (after the surgery) we've seen each other just about every day of my tenure up here. However, not only have Jenni and I had a wonderful time visiting, but Annie has even found a new friend in Jenni's little girl Lindsey. I can't count the number of times the two of them have asked about each other in the last few days. I think a true friendship has been formed there too, despite the five year age difference.

So even though I understand that my niece needs to be at our cousin's wedding, I can't help but wish that Annie was going to be around tomorrow to go to Lindsey's birthday party. But I can't in good conscience wish her away from her cousin Paige either. So regardless of where Annie is tomorrow I know she'll have a good time. And I know Josh and I will have fun tomorrow too. We are are going to the birthday party. Both of us can hardly wait. We just wish that we lived closer to Jenni and Danny. They are definitely some of our closest friends.

But moving on to a different subject, let me talk some more about the revelations that I've been having as I've been examining my life over these past few weeks, I've begun to realize that each of us in life has more than one calling. For instance, not only am I called to be teacher, but I also know that I'm called to be a wife and Mother. Needless to say, I am looking forward to being a stay at home wife this summer. It will be the first summer, I've not worked outside of the home since high school. And honestly, I can hardly wait for the day that I can be a full-time stay at home Mom. I know it may be several years before that is possible, and I know I won't stay at home for ever...because I'll feel called back into teaching, but I know I'll enjoy every moment that I'm simply the homemaker. And yes, I know that day will come...it's just a matter of time. But I also know that the day will come that it's time to head back into the workforce outside the home, and when that day arrives I'm certain I'll be ready for it too.

However, in the meantime, I'm going to embrace each and every day as the gift that it truly is. I'm going to write letters to friends. I'm going to host cookouts. Perhaps, I'll persuade my husband to go camping. And honestly, I'm going to my hardest to fulfill the role that I've accepted for the summer, the role of a stay at home wife.

This means my mind, making sure that our home is a peaceful, relaxing sanctuary for my husband when he returns from a hard day of work. And you know...I am already enjoying my first summer as a homemaker.

And I hope you'll tune in for more revelations as our summer progresses.

Recovering from Surgery

2008-05-20T08:39:00.016-04:00

Hi all-

Well the impossible has occured, or should I say a miracle has happened. :) I am officially fixed. When I awakened from surgery this last Thursday, May 15th I was no longer in pain. I can hardly believe it myself. After three months of severe agony it's gone. I'm no longer on pain killers, or muscle relaxants. I don't need a heating pad etc... and my hips are finally level again. I do believe they were going on being six inches different before the sugery. Thankfully, I'm fixed.

The surgeon, Dr. Paul Jeffords, told my parents and husband that there is very little disc still available at the level where I had the rupture since I've had two such massive ruptures there. He said that things would go either very well or very poorly. Thankfully, they are going spectacularly well!! And honestly it's like a new lease on life!! I'm loving it.

The first few days after surgery were rather quiet. It was an outpatient surgery so I was back at my parent's house by that afternoon. However, starting on Sunday things began to speed up. I had decided that I'd sat around long enough and so I got up and went to breakfast at church. Then church, then a reception, then took a walk, watched my niece jump on the trampoline and went to a Spring Musical Festival that Annie and Gabe (my niece and nephew) were singing in.

Yesterday, was another new day. Everyone around here headed off to school or work except for me and it was rather quiet during the day. I have to admit I'm certainly not used to that, even though I normally live so far from here, I do try to stay fairly busy. And I'm having a hard time imagining what this summer is going to be like. It's the first summer that I've not worked since well...since I graduated from high school. Can you believe that? Wow!!

However, I'm certain I'll find plenty to keep myself busy. Just like I am doing up here. For instance yesterday after everyone got home, we had an early supper and then Momma, Ellen and I headed out with Annie to her softball game. She won 17-7. Go Annie!!! She'll play again tomorrow on Ellen's b-day. It's hard to believe how quickly time passes now. Even harder to believe that I'm over 30 and Ellen is steadily heading that way. In fact, since Ellen traveled from her own apartment last night to the game she didn't even recognize me for a minute. She thought I was just another Mom watching her child during the game. It must have been the sunglasses, because surely I don't look that old. Just kidding! If my baby sister's little girl is old enough to be in that game, I'm definitely old enough to have a child doing the same...even though I don't.

Today and tonight bring more excitement. Annie has honors day at her school around lunch time and Daddy (Paw as the little ones call him) and I will be attending the program. Then this evening we are planning a picnic in the park right across the street from Gabe's pre-school. After all, he has preschool graduation tonight. Wow! How did he grow up so quickly?

Tomorrow, will of course be another busy evening, but probably a fairly quiet day. It's Ellen's b-day and I have to find something to give her. Then Annie and Gabe want to go to choir practice and Annie has another softball game. Ah the pace of life. Who knows what the rest of the week or weekend will bring.

Of course I do know that once I get back to Moultrie that life will continue at an interesting pace. I've got an AP certification workshop to attend this summer. My dear husband will be going to a technology conference in Vegas and Annie, Josh and I will be visiting France before all is said and done.

So as you can tell...life has begun to resume it's normal pace. And I do believe I'll be able to handler the slightly slower style of summer. I'll read a lot, go out for lunch a few times and try my best to make some wonderful memories.

And who knows, perhaps before the summer is over if we hold our mouths just right...and cross our fingers my dear husband and I may be expecting a baby...one that I'll carry longer than 10 weeks....or at least that's my dream for now.

I hope that as the school year winds up for you all that your pace of life also changes. And that you can enjoy summer just as much as I know my family and I will.

Just one more day until surgery....

2008-05-14T12:28:00.018-04:00

Hi all-

I'm sorry that I've not been as faithful thus far in May to keep you all posted as to our happenings as I was in April. It's been a fairly busy month in so many ways and an uneventful one in so many others. So I'll hit the highlights right off and then go into more detail about the things that need more detail. :)

* Yesterday, our niece called to let us know that she has exceeded the expected requirements in every subject on the CRCT. We are both SO proud of her! She was worried she wouldn't even pass them so she studied extra hard and it paid off. She aced each and everyone of these subject tests!

* We attempted to transplant two elm trees into other sections of our yard, but were unsuccessful.

They needed more care and water than we could provide. And honestly, the I don't think we got all of the roots up so they were destined to die anyway. However, ALL of the other flowers and plants are doing spectacularly well. I may ask my wonderful husband to take some new pictures for me this next week and email them to me so that I can share them all with you.

*We've attended two amazingly spectacular picnic's lately.

The first one was at the Arts Center. There were activities for children, musical entertainment for everyone present and the food provided was spectacular. From what I heard and saw there was even an opportunity to go to see a play, after the picnic called "School House Rock," but we opted out of it. We'd had an amazing time with some good friends and their children, but my back was acting up and I'd done all I could handle for the day.

The second picnic was hosted by St. Margaret's at one of the member's homes. It was also phenomenal, and yes there was wine. After all, as most of know the old joke when you have four or more Episcopalians together there's always a "fifth."

*I've purchased reserve seats to the Mercy Me concert as a gift to my husband!

Josh and I are both looking forward to this concert and I truly wanted to do something really nice for him since he does really spectacular things for me all the time, so I've reserved some good seats (no lawn chairs required this time) to the same concert venue where we recently saw Reba. I look forward to telling you all about this one later in June!

*My husband has to be the best husband in the world.

Not only has he taken care of me these past three months, without complaint, but just thinking back on what we've already endured together during these last seven months I find myself being overwhelmed. The loss of our expected baby, the loss of our yellow lab, and destruction of our washing machine, the many repair adventures and now my back problems. But one of the things that makes my husband the best is that he never fails to amaze me with his kindness and generosity. Nor does he fail to amaze me by surprising me in the most phenomenal ways. So when he left a dozen red roses for me on the bathroom counter a few days before Mother's day and I went to thank him, he told me they were for "Future Mother's Day" for a future mother. Wow! Isn't he awesome!

*Our church has received the delightful gift of a brand new church organ and we are all basing in the glow of the new music.

In fact, if you are in our dear little town in the near future, or more specifically on May 16th, I highly recommend that you drop in. They are hosting an organ concert and I have no doubt it will be phenomenal!

*We've had a wonderful visit with Josh's grandparents and extended family on Mother's Day.

We were invited to visit with them over lunch, but the church picnic was already scheduled so we simply decided to go to the family gathering afterwards and I'm so happy that we did. It was a lot of fun.

*Yesterday was my last day of school for this school year.

No , our school system isn't way ahead of the others in Georgia...it's not getting out early, but I am. I'm having surgery on Thursday at 8AM and the plan is for us to be heading home by noon. Who would have thought that we live in such a time that a person can have a major operation and still be home for supper? ha ha... But seriously, and thankfully the doctors in Atlanta have recommended a less invasive surgery than was suggested by the ones in our hometown, and the success rate and recovery time seem more positive with the Atlanta doctor's recommendations.

I'm sure you are wondering what they recommended so let me explain. TheDoctors believe that our best course of action will be to have another discectomy. They will go through my already existing incision (meaning that scar tissue will cause fewer problems) and remove the portion of the disc that has ruptured. Then they will simply sew me back up...put me in the recovery room and once I can tolerate the pain without morphine (in other words move on to oral painkillers) I'll be allowed to go home. I'm sure that I'll have to prove that I can walk and such too...and do a few other things, but nonetheless....we anticipate I'll have surgery in the morning and be at my parent's home by the afternoon.

It will take about two weeks before I'll begin to function more normally, but as each day passes things should improve. So I'm nervous, but quite excited. I don't have to wait much longer to have my back repaired again.

The other good news is that I only have a 10% chance of ever having another rupture and I'm clinging to this claim. But if I do...then he's trained in fusion and artificial disc...so I'm confident I'm dealing with the right surgeon.

As far as my school year ending early, obviously I had to take the time off to recover, but I will still be grading papers and recording grades and such. However, it seems so odd to be on Summer Vacation already. And seeing all of my dear 10th graders yesterday for the last time (as 10th graders) was tough. Thankfully though I will probably be teaching 11th grade next year so I have some of them again as students. And I have to admit it was really moving talking to students yesterday and hearing about how much I meant to them and such. Conversations such as these are definitely one of the most prized benefits of teaching.

As I come closer to ending this entry I have to brag about my dear husband again. He has been so wonderful through this whole experience. He's helped me move around, prop up my legs and has truly been my strength through enduring this whole "ruptured disc" experience again. I'm going to miss him horribly as I recover, since I'll be staying with my parents until I am more fully able to function after surgery. Why might I be doing this, I'm sure you're wondering. Well, honestly for a couple of reasons. First and foremost because I couldn't manage the trip back to our town immediately following surgery or honestly for a couple of weeks. Secondly, because my wonderful husband is in the midst of his busiest season of the work year and so it just makes sense to stay with my parents.

But let me also say this, as we begin to pack for this two week adventure, I found myself once again falling over from the compassion, love and caring that my husband always shows me. Not only did he personally place everything into the car, but he told me to pull movies out of his private collection so that I would have stuff to keep myself entertained. He programmed my laptop so that I could use it at my parents (online) as well. And he continued to be my rock through this all. I truly don't know and can't even imagine how I spent so many years without this wonderful man in my life. I do know, that I sincerely hope I will never spend another one without him...

*With that in mind, last but not least, we finally got our wedding photos back. Momma and I are going to work on putting the album together and I can hardly wait. Simply sharing these photos with everyone has been wonderful, and yes it's so refreshing even during this scary and difficult time to have this tangible symbol springing forth to remind us how our lives are bound together.

Finally, let me say, thank your to all of you who have offered me your prayers, support and encouragement as I've struggled to carry on a normal life these past three months. I can't begin to tell you what it means to me. I also can't begin to imagine how much I'm going to enjoy spending two wonderful weeks with my niece and nephews while I recover. And I'm looking forward to a spectacular summer. I can hardly wait to share it all with you as the details unfold. So let's all hang on tight, keep the prayers alive and enjoy this fantabulous ride. After all...it's summer vacation y'all!

Home Alone and Gardening inspiration!

2008-05-03T10:19:00.019-04:00

I'm sure it will come as no surprise to many of you that I simply couldn't force myself to stay in bed for a full week or on bed rest for that amount of time. Although, even if I was the type of person to be okay staying on the couch or bed for extended period of time, the fact that my husband was going out of town for the majority of the week meant that I would have been alone in bed or on the couch for twenty-four hours a day. Needless to say, that wasn't flying very well with me. So as of this last Monday, I headed back to school.

Honestly, I was particularly nervous going back to school because I was uncertain whether or not I'd be able to make the drive there without excruciating pain. I truly hoped my dear husband would just say, "It's okay, I'll drive you." But he didn't, and looking back, I'm glad he didn't. My freedom and movement is back!

Now before you start thinking that I've had surgery and I've recovered, don't get your hopes up. That's not happened. However, we are heading up to Atlanta this week to meet with the doctors up there and assuming everything goes according to plan, my last day of school this year will be on the 12th of May and I'll have surgery in Atlanta on the 14th or 16th Yay!

And it's been interesting trying to plan for the remainder of the school year, while knowing that I'll be out for the last or so. But so far I've made plans for my student's work to get to me. I've had the technology specialist set the grading program on my laptop so that I can grade work from home, and I've made arrangement for having my grades exported so that my students will get their yearly averages on time.

Having done all of this adult, responsible stuff in order to prepare for my impending surgery, I find myself having to admit that there's that little bit of excitement within me that jumping for joy that my surgery is just around the corner. There's also the childlike part of me that is particularly excited that my summer break begins early. A long summer! YES! So soon, friends I will be on the mend and raring to go like never before. I can hardly wait to be able to do all the things that my body won't let me do right now. I know I still have a month or so until my body will let me cut loose and do whatever, but nonetheless the light is shining brightly through the end of the tunnel.

However, all of this back illness hasn't slowed me down as much as some of you may think. In fact, it's inspired a new hobby. What hobby, you may ask? Gardening. Now I know you're thinking, but y'all had a garden last year and you've already planted this year's and told us all about it.

So let me explain. But other than the garden we truly had no real landscaping done in our yard. However, as you know my Mother-in-law started helping us begin to do some landscaping when we offered and truly made a flower bed for us in our front yard (complete with landscaping timbers.

Then a couple of weekends later she dug out around one of our pine trees and planted flowers around it. Last weekend we added pine straw around the flowers because they were frying in the sun and the moisture in their soil was evaporating too quickly.

And in between these ventures she brought us four pots of flowers. Two for the front porch and two large pots to sit by the back door.

(Flowers by the front door above) You can see the flower pots by the back door in the same picture that you see the flowers around the trees by the back door.

With all of this yard work going on, my interest in beautifying (yes, it's not a real word) our yard began to grow. (intentional pun)

And since Josh was gone most of the week I had plenty of time (after school) to work in the yard. So Thursday evening, I decided it was time. I found flowers galore at Walmart and Home Depot and began digging up the ground around the two pine trees in our front yard. By the end of the evening, these areas were completely upturned and new flowers had been placed around both trees.(The second tree I conquered in the front yard, the first looked very similar)

And ya know, I so enjoyed doing that on Thursday evening that I decided to give it a go on Friday too. So last night, once again armed with flowers (this time from Lowe's, hey I'm an equal opportunity flower shopper) I began digging out around pine trees. Last night I tackled the two trees by our back door. And by the time Josh arrived home, the ground was upturned, the grass around the trees had disappeared and flowers were beautifying the area around both trees.

But the landscaping adventure doesn't end there. Today Josh got up and cut the grass...and then came in side to ask me where I wanted the flowers we'd not yet planted. And being the helpful person I am, I went outside to supervise. Thankfully, Josh had already found homes for our two new Rose bushes. So now we have five of those: a bright pink, a white, a red, a lavender and a yellow. Wow! These are spaced appropriately along the wall of our home.

But the day lilies that I'd purchased had yet to find their way into the ground. SO...we found a new home for them by a pine tree that had not yet been graced with flowers.

While we were working on these wonderful landscaping projects, I convinced my dear husband that we needed to rescue the volunteer deciduous trees that had popped up next to a few of our pine trees. We also tried to rescue a volunteer oak tree from behind the bushes, but it's roots were too large and vast...so only the deciduous trees by the pine ones got new homes in our back yard.

So after doing all of this hard work and conquering the tree-transplanting this morning, Josh and I found it only fitting that we eat lunch at the White Rose. Then we headed over to his Momma's to see her new roof. They had a tin roof put on their house, thanks to the tax refund. We helped her pressure wash part of the house and discussed paint colors as well.

Being like every other female on the planet, now that her house has a new roof she's decided that it also needs a fresh coat of paint. So we helped out by giving our opinions on paint samples, and on wall paper samples because she's also going to re-paper the kitchen.

But back to our outdoor endeavors. After leaving my Mother-in-laws we headed back to Lowe's and picked up mini-picket fence pieces. I push Josh in charge of figuring out how much we needed of that and he came pretty close. We only need another piece or two to make it go all the garden.

Since we were there and because I'm feeling vegetationally inspired we also looked at a trellis for our grape vine. What grape vine, I'm sure you are wondering. :) Well, I've found one behind our boxwood bushes so we are going to transplant it too and now it has a lovely place to grow! :)

(Note the orange day lilies, and the deciduous trees. One tree is poking out to the right side of the pine tree the other is over on the far left side near our new trellis. The trellis is for our soon to be transplanted volunteer grape vine).

Honestly, I have to admit our yard is looking pretty good, if I do say so myself. I believe Josh's Momma may bring by another couple baskets of hanging flowers that may find a home in our open carport...other than that...and a few hydrangea bushes our yard is completely revamped. Well, as far as the plants go. Now I just have to figure out if I want to paint the front porch swing and picnic table and if so what colors I'm going to paint them.

However, the hydrangea bushes are going to have to wait to join our vegetation family for a month or two because, we are planning on putting siding on the house this summer and they'd be living in a location where they'd be trampled as Josh and his Dad put on this new siding. However, it's exciting to know that soon, oh so soon, our yard will have hydrangeas!!! Yay!

I'm confident that Josh was a bit surprised when he arrived home last night to discover how many flowers had multiplied in our yard since he'd been gone. But I think he was please. And you know the strangest thing about this is that as a child I hated yard work. I would do whatever needed to be done in the house without a complaint...but that outside stuff...that was men's work. YUCK! I know that my parents and particularly my Momma (who is also a gardener) never imagined that I would follow in her footsteps regarding this pursuit. Truly it's surprised me too that I'm enjoying it as much as I am. But I am....

Apparently not only did I inherit a bad disc (in my back) from my Momma, but I also inherited a love of gardening. Who would have thunk it? :) And so it's nice to see our house shaping up inside in out. So thank you Momma, for passing along this passion. I'm certainly enjoying my new found hobby. And also let me say to all of our friends. If you are ever in the area, give us a buzz and come on by. We'd love to show you our home, our yard and enjoy a bit to eat with you. But until then, I'd love to hear all about the adventures each of you are experiencing in this wonderful spring season.

And assuming that the plants don't grow feet and walk away, I will fill you all in on this next week's adventures as they occur.

Hospital homebound!

2008-04-24T11:20:00.005-04:00

Yesterday began a new portion of my life. In fact, when I awakened yesterday morning I discovered that I wasn't able to get out of bed. Why wasn't I able to get out of bed? Well, because I was having horrible muscle spasms. Even my husband tried to help, but it was to no avail. So for the first time in all of teaching career, I called in sick the day of my absence. And my husband called in to his work as well. After all, if I couldn't get out of bed I obviously couldn't be left alone.

Thankfully, though, with my husband's help I managed to get into see my spinal doctor and progress has begun to be made toward having my back surgery. Apparently, the latest date for my surgery at this time will be May 5th,, but my doctor has a friend who is a neurosurgeon that may be doing the surgery before that. I'll know something more certain by tomorrow morning.

The oddest part about all of this is that just a few weeks ago I was joking with some of co-workers that I wouldn't mind being "hospital home bound" and now I am.

As we saw and talked to the doctor yesterday, he told me no more work for at least a week. Secretly I'm hoping that I can talk my husband into letting me go back to school this next Monday so that I can get things in order for my up coming absence that will follow the surgery as well as get things more in line for the one I'm currently experiencing. But we'll see. Perhaps even if he won't let me go to school while the children are there he'll let me go after school and get things straight then.

In the meantime though, I'm managing to find plenty of things to keep myself occupied. My mother-in-law has already called to check on me today as has my Momma. A good friend is bringing lunch to me today. I've found a few books to read and I've got papers to grade and forms to fill out...so I should be able to keep myself fairly busy. I worry about going stir crazy as this continues...especially after the surgery when things will be difficult the first couple of weeks, but so far so good.

So in the meantime if any of you have creative ideas to keep me from going insane while I'm stuck here at home, I'm all ears. Oh and before I forget, I'm still hopeful that my dear husband will let us go to "A wee bit of our town" on Friday night. Maybe if things go well, between now and then and I stay on the couch or in bed most of the next few days I suspect he'll say hope so.
I'll keep you posted! And in the meantime...please any activity ideas to keep me from going stir crazy are more than welcome.

Reba Concert and High Tea!

2008-04-21T20:32:00.010-04:00

A few weeks ago I began noticing signs around town, and advertisements on the radio that Reba was going to be playing at Wild Adventures (an amusement park). And honestly, even though I truly, really wanted to go, I didn't think we could financially swing it. After all, we're planning a trip to France and I have medical bills out the waaazooo lately. So when my wonderful husband mentioned the Reba concert, I jumped at the opportunity hoping against hope that there would be some way that we would be able to go to the concert.

And you know what? We did! Not only did we manage to come up with enough money to go to see Reba, but we even splurged for season passes. Honestly these passes made the most sense because they will allow us to any concert at Wild Adventures for free. And we can take Annie, Gabe and Danny there this summer without much cost. Best of all in addition to the season passes, we get free parking, two free one day passes for visitors and discounts on reserved seats to special events if we decide to use the parks chairs rather than our own lawn chairs.

I have to admit, on Saturday I really began to doubt that we'd made a good decision as we stood in the line to get the season passes. My legs hurt, my back ached and I just wanted to go home. Then when we got to the location for the concert almost all of the lawn chair spaces were already taken. We had to walk across the entire area to the far side of the amphitheater. However, when the concert began I decided it all had been worth it. The location for our lawn chairs ended up being perfect. We could see the LED screen extremely well. Josh even got close enough to get some good pictures of Reba and the music was wonderful. I do believe this was my favorite concert ever! And I have to admit I knew almost every song that sang by heart. Of course one of the highlights of the concert was the encore "Fancy." Wow!

(Our pictures of the concert will be posted soon!!)

The other amazing part about the concert was listening to Josh talk in awe about all of the intelligent lights and other technical sound and lighting information.

In fact, we have already begun to make plans to go to another concert sometime soon. Oh, but before I let adventure to the Reba concert totally consume this post, let me also tell you about my outing with Kristen to have high Tea.

It was wonderful! Kristen and I drove to the White Rose about 2pm and amazingly were the only customers there. However the tea spectacular. We chose to have the morning glory tea. They also gave us finger sandwiches (ham and brie, chicken salad, pimento cheese and cucumber with a cream cheese and chive sauce) stacked three plates high, along with scones with cream to dip them in. And in the middle of each plate were strawberries and grapes. Finally on the bottom plate were mini eclairs and cream puffs. We had a blast and left feeling as if we'd just eaten another meal. Needless to say that will not be the last time that I have high tea. I just hope that other people around our town partake in this spectacular event. The restaurant definitely serves delicious enough food and desserts that I am confident they will easily stay in business. At least I hope they will.

Speaking of hopes, I'd be remiss if I did not close this email by talking about the best news I've received in months. And although it didn't happen this weekend, it's still quite worthy of being discussed before I head for bed this evening. As we were finishing supper tonight my dear husband told me that he had news. He continued on to tell me that his news is not a secret. So let me share. After going to church with me fairly steadily for a few months now (rather than the two of us going to separate churches which we did for many months), he's decided that he'd like to be Confirmed! I'm so excited I can hardly wait. I just know that my family will make the trip down for this joyous occasion. I'm not sure yet when the Bishop will be visiting, but I do know that his visit will be greatly anticipated around our home.

So with that spirit of anticipation let me wish all of you a good evening and a restful sleep. And I look forward to telling you all about our new adventures such as the Italian celebration that we will be attending at the Arts Center this Friday, after all it's the "Wee Bit (of our town)"

Spring Fling!

2008-04-19T11:30:00.013-04:00

Yesterday, began the Spring Fling Celebration down here. Even though I've lived in this little town about three years now, I'd never been to a single Spring Fling event before. But something prompted me to desire to do so this year. Perhaps, it's the spring fever that has hit me causing me to be in a go out and join the festivities mood. So...when I read that there would be a free concert around the courthouse last night, I became determined that my dear husband and I would go.

So I spoke to my husband about it and suggested that we also take a picnic supper. Thankfully, he was all for it! Then yesterday morning, I suggested that he invite his parents to join us. They agreed and so the picnic grew. We had a spectacular time together, and I'm so happy that every one decided to participate. Honestly, the whole concert and spring fling event reminded me a lot of the main street activities that my home town often has. It's so nice to live in a town that is helping to create family friendly fun activities too. Perhaps I should say, it's a dream come true to live in a place that is willing to focus on free (or inexpensive) family fun that is interesting enough to involve many members of the community. The square last night was packed with families. As I'm sure you can imagine that couldn't have pleased me more.

Even more excitedly my husband began talking about wanting to figure out how to become more involved in activites like the spring fling concert. He wants to run the lights and sound for those events here in town. I'm sure that doesn't surprise anyone, it certainly didn't surprise me. And honestly, I couldn't think of a better person to run the lights and sound. Of course, I'm slightly biased, but nonetheless, the more involved he becomes in our community the better. Even if it's his childhood hometown, it's still important to be involved as an adult.

But enough about community involvement, let me get back to telling you all about the event from last night. The kick off for the Spring Fling began about 6 P.M. However, we opted not to go to the square (around the courthouse) until about 7 p.m.. The timing was perfect because I still had to go to the grocery, make and pack the picnic and take Rachel to the park before heading out for our nightly entertainment.

The best part about heading to the square at 7 was that the weather had finally begun to cool down. Josh's parents were waiting for us when we got there and I think they were a little hesitant about the picnic idea at first, but once we began pulling food out I could tell they really enjoyed it. Beth (my mother-in-law) even complimented me on my potato salad. Yay!!

The man performing in the concert was someone that Ronnie (my father-in-law) either knew or had heard of, and he did a spectacular job. I even recognized two or three songs that he sang. His name was T. Graham Brown. Apparently he grew up in a little town not far from here. So that made the concert even more interesting.

By the time the concert ended the weather had cooled down considerable. We'd eaten our full from our picnic supper, complete with a variety of sandwiches. I'd fixed egg salad, pimento cheese, and turkey sandwiches. We also had fresh fruit including watermelon, honeydew, pineapple, strawberries, grapes and cantaloupe. Then I'd pack tabouli and potato salad. Finally we brought with us bottles of iced tea and mini-cans of Dr. Pepper. Oh and for dessert snicker cheese cake and marble chocolate cheese cake. There were two slices of each so everyone got a slice. Josh decided he needed cotton candy too...and I have to admit I certainly enjoyed that as well.

And we were packing up to leave both of my in-laws told us that they'd been hesitant and not sure that attending this concert was going to be that much fun, but that they'd had a wonderful time. Ronnie (my father-in-law) even told us to let them know the next time we decided to do something like this and they'd join us! So I think we are all honestly looking forward to the next time we can go out like that again together.

You know, we've really begun to do more with my in-laws and I'm really happy that we have. The gardening together was fun last weekend. The concert this weekend...and who knows what weekends in the future will hold. Speaking of gardening though, it rained here this morning and so I didn't have to go out and water my plants today...but I did go out to check on the vegetables, herbs and flowers. All of them are looking nice. Granted a have a flower or two that has wilted from the cold etc....but the majority of them are perky and bright. The most exciting part though, about checking on our plants was discovering how many of the carrots and lettuce plants as well as radishes are already sending up sprouts! Wow!! I'm so excited and didn't expect to see sprouts quite this soon. Now we just have to pray that there's no more frost in our foreseeable future. ;-)

I also have to say that although it was nice to have the rain this morning, I know my husband was a little disappointed. He'd planned to do more yard work today, and we do need that too. He was going weed wack around the house. So perhaps tomorrow will work better for that. In fact, if tomorrow is bright and sunny day, I'm betting I'll be able to get him to plant the new rose bushes as well. I guess time will tell. :)

With all of that said, you'll have to excuse me because I'm off again. I've got rose bushes to purchase before I head out to tea this afternoon. And I'll be back soon to tell you all about our new adventures including participating in high tea for the first time as well as going to the Reba Concert. But in the meantime, I hope that every one's weekend plans are as enjoyable as ours whether you're simply having a lazy weekend or out doing the things you love best. Savor the moments. I know we certainly will!

Weekend Delights!

2008-04-16T19:49:00.008-04:00

As I mentioned yesterday, I love this time of year. I like to think of springtime as an awakening period not only for the animals that physically hibernate, but also for those who cut back on extra social and overtly physical activities during the darker months of the year.

Now spring has sprung! Yes, we still have cold nights and several more chilly days to blunder through, but the worst is over. Flowers are blooming! Birds are singing! Spring sports are scurrying ahead full throttle. Even entertainment social activities are awakening and gushing forth into our lives with renewed fervor.

So as I find myself wrapped up in all this enthusiasm and invigoration my hopes and plans for the spring and summer continue to grow. And many of these desires are coming to life. My wonderful husband, niece and I will be going to France before the summer is over. My garden is planted and growing. The herbs that we're raising from seed in are sprouting. We have flowers in our first flower bed. Plans are being made to put on the house's siding. I've found the perfect place in our yard to hang a hammock. We've priced outdoor rooms with mosquito nets attached so that more of our summer entertaining can occur outdoors. And as I'm sure you can tell things are just falling into place.

Speaking of falling into place, this weekend my dear husband and I will be going to a major Country Artist's concert. I can hardly wait! The excitement that I have over seeing Reba is bursting at the seams. I truly didn't expect that we'd be able to go! But when I asked, my husband said, YES!! So we're going. And the season passes that we are purchasing for the park where the concert will be invaluable. We'll be able to go to many other concerts for free. When my niece and nephews visit we can take them to an amusement park for little to no cost. And yes, we will be able to take them whenever their hearts' desire and as many times as they desire too.

But on top of all of these exciting activities I've also discovered that the Art's Center is hosting " A wee bit of insert town name" next weekend and that the majority of the restaurants in town will be catering it. So I'm definitely hoping that we'll be making plans to attend this too!

Then there are the Broadway shows (I'm planning to buy season tickets for us) And my list of rapidly approaching exciting events is endless. In case you can't tell, I love this time of year. And honestly, y'all, crippled/crooked (b/c one hip is so much higher than the other) or not.. Struggling with whatever obstacles life seems to through our way (Josh's and mine) my spirit is rising. And I hope that you are able to enjoy the annual end of winter hibernations too. And as you do, pause just for a moment to absorb the beauty of this season. After all, Spring has sprung again!

The night with no pain medicine! Argh!

2008-04-15T19:17:00.016-04:00

I believe that I left off by telling you all about our wonderful garden's prospects and offering to have tea with you. The offer for tea sincerely stands. I'm so excited that the White Rose is offering high tea that I am literally setting up Saturday tea times as quickly as I can.

But back to the garden, well...we finished about half of the planting on Sunday and had to postpone the rest of the planting until the ants had relocated, which they did Sunday afternoon after prompting from my husband. So yesterday, after school and a faculty meeting I hit up Walmart for just a "few" more plants. ha ha! Needless to say I left with a tray full. So now we've added cilantro, chamomile, onion chives, mint, more squash and watermelon plants! I also finally got the radishes and Brussels sprouts in the ground. But we do have one little section that is sorely lacking for plants and I'm serious considering planting beans there...but we'll see.

Nonetheless, here is how the garden is progressing. This picture was taken Sunday afternoon, so you'll have to tune in next time to see the updated version after the new herbs, watermelon and squash joined the garden family.

Of course as I was gardening on my hands and knees, my mother-in-law stopped by and reminded me that I really shouldn't be doing things like that with my back in the shape it's in. But as I told her, they needed to get in the ground and I was the only one here to do it right then. So onward the planting progressed.

After fully filling the garden (or coming close to doing so) with the plants I'd procured I headed inside to work on supper and to brainstorm. See, after school yesterday I stopped by the pharmacy to pick up my new dose of pain medicine only to discover no one had called in an order for me! YIKES!

So I had several emotional breakdowns worrying about the impeding pain (which did come but not really fully until this morning) and I began to try to figure out how to ration out the remaining medicine that I still possessed until this morning. I know that sounds bad, but when a back is in the kind of shape mine is in right now, pain medicine and muscle relaxers along with perseverance are truly all that keeps a person going.

Persistence won out, and I decided there had to be another way to get my need for a prescription filled last night. I called the hospital. No luck! I tried the Doctor's office that was supposed to have placed the order. They were closed. So I went to a walk-in clinic. And truly they did prescribe some pain medicine, but just not what I needed to kill the pain that I was facing right then (or going to face this morning).

So with all previous options attempted and defeated, I decided rationing was the best way to function and so I headed to bed. I didn't take another pain pill all evening (except for the water downed kind from the walk in clinic) and I promptly placed myself on the couch, where I slept all evening.

Then this morning, when I awakened I knew...pain had arrived. Therefore I called the school and let them know I'd be late and as I slowly prepared to head to work, I began running over my list of ways to approach this situation. In the end, I decided going to the doctor's office that should have prescribed the medicine yesterday was the best bet, so I went.

Thankfully, they were nice at the doctor's office, but more thankfully my "saved" pain pill allowed me to get of the house, drive to the doctor and explain the situation I was in. They assured me that I would have new medicine today and sure enough by lunchtime I did. Whew!

What a relief. And you know, I hate relying upon anything like I have to rely upon my muscle relaxants (to stop muscle spasms) or pain pills (to stop out of this world agony)...but I'm thankful that they exist.

And I also know that my need for the medicine is truly pain related. So I'm looking forward to the day that my back gets fixed and my worst nightmare can become something other than facing an almost 24 hour period without medical relief.

On a much brighter note; however, I'm loving the weather and all of the activities this time of year. I'm hopeful that my dear husband and I are going to a concert this coming weekend. I'm certainly having high tea on Saturday. There's a theater production occurring at the Arts Center on Thursday evening that I may twist my husband's arm into attending with me. Picnic's are popping up throughout the community. There's one planned at the Arts Center and another schedule for Mother's Day by some people from church.

And finally, for the first time in my life, I find myself really beginning to connect to nature (gardening where my hands get dirty) without cringing and running to wash my hands. I keep thinking about a gorgeous rose bush that Walmart has, and I'm truly pondering rescuing it this evening.

Now, sitting in the quiet on my home on this lovely evening, I find myself daydreaming of lazy future memories with fireflies flickering...the stream beside us making gurgling and rushing sounds, and the stars shining brightly upon the most fabulous time of year.

So that leaves me wondering...what kind of thoughts does this time of year bring out in you, and what plans are you daydreaming about?

Flowerbeds and gardens galore!

2008-04-13T14:30:00.018-04:00

This last week has been a nice one. I was phenomenally nervous about going back to school with my back still in a poor state of health, but I managed to make it through just fine. Having two days off from school due to doctors appts definitely made the work more manageable, because I could take down time on the days I needed it most. I've been contemplating taking a day here and there as needed for the rest of the year, but we'll see.

Another exciting part of this last week is that my Momma came down to visit for her spring break! My dear husband and I so enjoyed her visit. We played the board game Life together, we watched a really strange movie, we hung out, ate wonderful meals and just bonded. Plus, Momma introduced us to a new restaurant, The White Rose. It had just re-opened so on one of my days home from school we ate lunch there! Wow! The sandwiches, soups and tarts were amazing! And even more impressively they actually offer high tea! I can hardly wait to go back. In fact, I actually mentioned to Josh today I'm planning on inviting a friend to go there next week with me.

Another major event that occurred over this week is that I *finally* got in to see the Orthopedic and Neurosurgeon in my own town. I'm impressed. He's obviously an amazing doctor and quite skilled at what he does. Even better, he has a wonderful bedside manner. So both Momma and I are pleased. He let us know that my re-herniation is HUGE. He continued on to say it was quite massive and large. I think he was trying to impress upon us how bad this new rupture is. So he checked me out thoroughly and told me about some new medicine. We're still hopeful my body can reabsorb some of this rupture, but aren't really confident that is going to happen.

Bottom line: I'll probably be having surgery within a few weeks. It's a much more complicated and difficult surgery than the one I had before, BUT I feel confident with this doctor and I'm ready to truly begin recovery. Recovery will take 6 weeks this time rather than 2...so we've got to hurry this horse up because I have plans to go out of the country later this summer. :)

But more about this weekend. On Friday, when I had lunch out with Momma we also invited my Mother-in-law to join us. As we talked she began mentioning a flower bed and that she'd like to help Josh and me put in. So I gave her the okay and we made plans to do so on Saturday. Wow!

You know I've never had my own flower bed with landscaping timbers and everything so I'm excited. It's beautiful. Beth let me help pick out the flowers and okay the arrangement for them. And I can hardly wait to see them grow and develop, but the best part is..they are already beautiful and we can already enjoy them. :)

Also on Saturday, Josh picked up the tiller that we'd reserved to plant this year's garden. We'd decided it needed to be a bit larger this year than last so we doubled the size. And we've added new vegetables too. :) We started planting it today.

Unfortunately, there's also an ant bed taking up the majority of one side of the garden right now so we're going to have to encourage the ants to move elsewhere before we can fully plant on that side, but even the start that we have now is exciting. I'm even contemplating trying watermelons....hmmmm...who knows.

Here's what we've planted so far. Basil, rosemary, oregano, lavender, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, squash, and cucumbers. Now we just have to get the radishes, remaining cucumber plants, Brussels sprouts, onions and cilantro in. Whew!

I can hardly wait to see what kind of harvest we reap. And I promise we'll keep you posted as our flowers grow and our plants develop.

But now, I'm off to make plans for tea. Join me won't you?

Spring break day 6 and seven!

2008-04-07T18:50:00.007-04:00

After all the fun that we had at the Daryle Singletary concert, seemed to fall into the dust when I awakened Saturday morning only to realize that I hurt so badly, that I couldn't even walk. So I yelled for my dear husband who promptly helped me back to bed. Unfortunately, not only did I feel down and out, but my poor husband did too. He had a headache.

Poor Josh! Not only was his wife under the weather, but now he was too. So since he'd made it to the living room, I decided I needed to as well. And after I finally did make it to the livingroom (mid-morning) I promptly fell back asleep until mid-afternoon.

However, I did enjoy the quality time with my dear husband even though neither of us felt all that wonderful. Also it was nice that it was stormy outside, because that made it easier to not feel so bad about being stuck inside on a couch all day long...

Thankfully, on Sunday we both felt better. So after getting up and going to church we visited our usual Sunday lunch location, Subway! Then after lunch, we met my in-laws at Lowes.

My wonderful mother-in-law offered to buy us a new washing machine. And even better, my dear husband and spectacular father-in-law installed this new machine for us on Sunday.

And I have to say the new washing machine is really, really nice. It has more controls than our previous machine did and does a spectacular job washing our clothes quickly and efficiently!

You know...although I may not have had the most exciting break, it was still really, really nice.

Thanks for tuning in and listening to all of my spring break ramblings...

Spring Break day 5!

2008-04-05T11:16:00.003-04:00

Friday, was actually one of my more exciting spring break days! Not only did I manage to accomplish most of my goals for the day, but I had fun to boot.

The day actually started off more slowly than most. When I awakened Friday morning, my dear husband was already gone. However, I was sleeping so deeply that I missed his departure.

After discovering that I'd been sleeping more soundly than anticipated, Rachel and I decided that it was time to have eggs for breakfast and Abby opted to begin her daily explorations outside.

As we ate, Rachel and I watched more of the Gilmore girls and had a fabulous time doing so. After breakfast we decided that it was high time to begin planning the April supper menu. I usually do this most months, albeit often before the month begins. However, this time has been more difficult than most. Why? Well, since I live so far in the south the weather has already begun to heat up immensely and I for one always have a hard time finding the motivation to truly cook, on hot spring or summer nights.

Nonetheless after poring over ever cookbook in the house and vigorously searching the Internet, I did finally fill our monthly supper calendar.

Once this chore was completed; however, it was time to fill out the grocery list for the first half of the month. As you all know I did a good bit of my grocery shopping at Sam's, but there were a few things lacking.

And as I day dreamed of a summer full of little grocery shopping I re-inquired with my husband about renting a tiller. Thankfully, Josh remembered a small business here in town that does still rent tillers on Saturdays. So I gave them a buzz and attempted to rent one for Saturday. Unfortunately, it was already reserved for this Saturday, so I went ahead and put in a reservation for this next one!

I can hardly wait to plant our summer garden! Woo hooo!! I know it's going to be larger than last years. We got a lot out of our little garden last year, but also learned a tremendous amount about plant care, etc. I am looking forward to seeing what this year's garden will bring.

But before heading out to Walmart for the ice monthly shopping expedition, I decided to add gardening seeds and small plants to our list for the month. And Rachel and I decided it was time for ice cream. So off to Dairy Queen we went. We had an absolutely wonderful outing. Rachel got her usual of a small cup of vanilla ice cream and I got a Moo Latte Mocha. Yum!

After returning Rachel home, I headed off to buy even more groceries. Amazingly, this chore was completed in no time. And once I returned home Rachel aided me in putting up all of the new additions to the household.

So many chores down and taxes left to do. I'd completed my dear husband's and my taxes over a month ago, but was having issues printing them out. I actually even thought that I was going to have to redo them by hand. I began trying to do so. Whew! I am no tax whiz! And as the frustration mounted, I was ever so relieved to discover that there was a way to print the work I'd already done on taxes.

So I printed those out and debated cleaning out my office, but opted to put that off until the weekend. After all, there's still plenty of time for that. :)

The rest of the afternoon was nice and relaxing! Then about 5pm my wonderful husband called and asked me to meet him and go to the Daryle Singletary Concert. His business was the one doing the light and sound for it.

All I can say is wow! I had the most amazing time last night. My husband was in charge of lights. The concert was actually a benefit concert so the setting was quite intimate.

Honestly, as I was driving to the concert, I was looking forward to seeing my husband work. I knew I knew some of Daryle's songs...but didn't think I would know many. So what I was looking forward to most was simply watching my husband work and spending the time with him. And I definitely did enjoy that, but I also really enjoyed the concert.

It turned out that I knew a few more songs by Daryle than I'd thought I did. The band that opened for him the Lee Mullins Band was amazing! I really, really enjoyed them. The girls clogging before that were also fun to watch. I SO wish that I was able to do things like that right now. I really enjoyed the time that I did clog.

But probably one of the most touching moments of the night was watching Daryle talk to his family. His brother and cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents etc....were at the concert. In fact, he sang several songs with his cousins and brother. What a memory, right? And it really gave all of us a closer look at the personal side of one of these Country music "stars."

Not only was it incredibly moving listening to him talk to his family and relate to the child for whom the concert was given, but it was so interesting to see what a truly good person this man is.

Obviously, I had a blast. Granted we didn't get home until an ungodly hour from the concert because my husband and his co-workers had to break down all the equipment and transport it all back to their warehouse, but I wouldn't have taken love or money to have missed it.

Then, to make a wonderful night even better, when we got back into cell phone range, I got a voice mail from my mother in law, offering to buy a new washing machine for us. Our washer decided to break down last weekend, which appeared to be just another one of our long line of complications. However, it may actually end up not being that bad.

So assuming that we aren't bombarded by washing machines interviewing for the new position here at our home, tune in tomorrow for a new edition of Spring Break 08!

Spring Break day 4!

2008-04-04T09:04:00.013-04:00

Thursday was a bit more productive as far as spring break productive than hanging out and doing nothing. Well, actually, I did begin start the day off by watching Gilmore girls again.

But nonetheless Thursday was a good day. I went out and got a pedicure. It was fun and I also discovered that they are doing paraffin waxing with a pedicure. So not only are my toes now pretty, but my feet are soft and refreshed too.

Unfortunately shortly after leaving the salon I made the mistake of thinking that my toes were dry and visited the tanning salon for 1/2 the normal time. Since apparently they were not dry, I ended up spending an hour or so myself fixing them later.

Then I finished filling out the paperwork for my passport, getting my picture taken for the new version of my passport, and visited the post office. They instructed me on the proper protocols for sending off all the paperwork and such, including our marriage certificate, so that I can get my name changed on the passport. Thankfully, it's not going to cost a cent since I've renewed my passport within the last year. Regardless, it's terribly exciting knowing that we are really going to France!!!!! It's going to be awesome.I also began daydreaming about anniversary presents for my dear husband. It's hard to believe that we've already been married for over seven months. I think I've figured out what I want to give him. Now I just have to figure out how to make it happen. But as a result, I've also realized that I need to start tanning again and I truly would like to start working out...but alas my back won't cooperate with that...but walking...maybe with pain medicine I can begin doing the speed walking and still loose some weight before hand. Five months should be enough time to get ready to give an anniversary present right?

After daydreaming about anniversary gifts, Rachel and I began working on choosing the eight by ten photos for our wedding album. No, we don't have it yet, but it's not the photographers fault. I've been dragging my feet getting her everything she needs. But now, at least things are moving on that again. I just know both Josh and I will be thrilled when we finally have this album in hand.

Speaking of having things in hand, the condition of our house is finally becoming manageable again. Josh cleaned most of the house before the week began, but he left my office, the living room and the dining room for me to clean sometime this week. So Rachel and I conquered the living and dining room last night. I was surprised how quickly and simply my portion of the cleaning passed. And oddly enough I actually even enjoyed it.

And not only did we conquer cleaning the house yesterday, but we also managed to have supper ready to go on the table when Josh got home from work last night. I'm sorely searching my brain for meals that are more suitable for hot weather. Any ideas that you may have are more than welcome.

Also as I'm sure you've noticed I've finished the majority of items on tap for spring break. WOW! When I think back to how momentous that list was and how unlikely it seemed that I'd make it through even half of the list and now recognizing that it's almost complete, it seems surreal. I guess that's what happens when we break a huge list down into small pieces.

And I have to admit, even though I still have three days of spring break left (counting today), this has been one of the most peaceful and enjoyable breaks that I've had in a long time.

Please don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want it to last for ever, nor am I wishing it away. I am wishing for summer break, but not for spring break to continue indefinitely. Nonetheless, I'm enjoying the break for the time that it lasts.

Now, as for today, onward and upward. There are still many things on my list to conquer. Clothes need to be changed out for the summer. A garden needs to be planted.. My office is still crying out to be given a good and thorough cleaning. Plus, outings with my husband are on the horizon.

So tune in tomorrow, for further updates for spring break 08, for I can hardly wait to tell you all about day five of this exciting adventure.

Spring break day 3!

2008-04-03T10:27:00.010-04:00

Wednesday became the official, do NOTHING spring break day! It actually didn't start out that way. After all there is plenty that I could be doing...getting a pedicure, run by the Arts Center to work on church matters, work on redoing old forms for the IRS that lost the original ones,(long story)...contact the photographer from the wedding to finally get the pictures from our wedding in an album, work on our scrapbook, harass the medical people into finally scheduling my MRI, clean the house, switch out my winter and spring clothes etc...

But I opted to do none of the above. Well....I didn't do much of the above. I did get my MRI scheduled for my back. Yay! Thankfully it will be occurring before my next doctor's appointment April 11th!. So...the MRI is scheduled for the 9th! I had hoped it would occur this week during my spring break, butc'est la vie.

And I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed the do nothing day. Actually Rachel and Abby celebrated it with me too. They both took naps and watched TV with me. We vegged out, and watched Gilmore girls all day long. I'd purchased the complete first season over the weekend and became so enthralled that before I knew it, it was afternoon and nothing had been done.

And you know...this is the first "do nothing day" that I've had in a LONG time. It felt good. After all, there's nothing like vegging all day when you truly have no other obligations. The best, part...no guilt.

Then when my dear husband got home, I fixed a quick supper of burritos, and taco rice and we vegged some more. What a relaxing day. I honestly have to say I've not had a day like it since I was a teenager. You know what I mean? Back then it was nothing to hang out in PJs all day...to sleep past noon and do nothing.

Of course I didn't do the whole PJ thing. I got dressed, made the bed and kept the living room and kitchen clean...but nonetheless it was fun to regress for just a day.

And you know...perhaps I'll plan on scheduling a "do nothing day" again sometime in the future...maybe when summer break occurs I'll do it again.

Ahh...the benefits of being a teacher. But now onto Spring Break day four....we're officially halfway through, but as much as I long for summer now...I'm looking for to many fun and exciting adventures. And I promise to share these with you as the Spring Break '08 continues.

Spring break day two!

2008-04-02T09:18:00.014-04:00

Yesterday morning began slightly later and more slowly than the first morning of spring break. In fact, I awakened to my dear husband kissing me good bye as he headed out the door, so needless to say I didn't even attempt to fix breakfast for him.

But once I got moving, what a busy day it was. Despite thoughts in the back of my mind to simply get a pedicure I decided to handle some of the more mundane household chores in a more unusual way. So surprise, surprise....because when I actually got into my car I decided it was time to pay some bills and then go on a quick jaunt out of town to Big Lots and Sam's Club. So off to the stores I went!

It took about an hour and a half round trip to do my shopping, but I had a spectacular time. I piddled on my way out of town and really enjoyed the time listening to music in the car. Then when I finally got to Big Lots I found many of the things we "oh so needed" while I was there. Actually I did procure a few items I'd been promising my husband I'd pick up as well such as a replacement cover for the grill and a power sprayer for the hose. Both of which were somehow destroyed by our dear four legged babies. Nonetheless, I found really good deals on them. And of course I picked up a few treasurers to spoil our Rachel and Abby.

Then after cleaning out Big Lots of most of their spectacular deals, it was off to Sam's Club. I always find myself in a state of awe every time I go into a Sam's Club. Honestly I think a large portion of the awe is a result of the fact that for so many years I couldn't get into a store without a friend who had a membership. I never had one, until I was married. So until a few short months ago, I always felt like a child in a candy store with a chaperone when I visited a Sam's Club. Not only did I have to have the "chaperone" to get into the store, but they also dictated what I could and could not buy because a membership card had to be displayed even to pay.

So now, that I have one....WOW! I'm able to visit Sam's Club all on my own. I feel all grown up and chaperone free. The thrill still hasn't worn off, but I am trying to make wise purchases while I'm there. And after visiting Sam's on Tuesday, I'm realizing even more benefits of belongs to it. More specifically, I'm finally figuring out what purchases are really good deals verses the ones that only appear to be, but truly don't save us any money.

So on Tuesday I began my first real shopping expedition at Sam's for groceries. Since I regularly find myself running back and forth to the grocery for canned tomatoes and corn several times a month, I purchased those in bulk (but still in normal sized cans). They were all just packaged into cases...so I ended up with 16 cans of tomatoes (8 stewed and 8 diced); 8 cans of corn, and 6 cans of green beans. Needless to say we are set for canned veggies for the month.

Also, I typically run out of breakfast food most months. But amazingly I found a good deal at Sam's on granola bars. The bulk container (also a case) had 35 granola bars for about $7 which is much less than I would have spent for my weekly version at Walmart or Winn Dixie.

Then there was the extra large container of hummus, and the bulk container of pesto. Wow! Finally I picked up some spinach pasta and a huge bag of stir fry. And as I excitedly shared all of my purchases with my dear husband he asked me to start getting our toothpaste from there too. Needless to say I think I made some wise decisions and that we won't have any of them go bad (since most of these are nonperishable or frozen). Now granted I'm uncertain about my purchase of the two pound block of cheese, but I doubt it was a bad purchase. After all, so many foods do require cheese.

I'd think eggs would be another good thing to get there and I know that dish washing detergent is too. The possibilities are endless! Wow! I truly am figuring out this Sam's club thing! And I'm doing all chaperone free!!

Also I have to admit before I had this membership I always kind of thought it was silly for families that weren't extremely large to have one of these. After all, only large families would need to buy in bulk, right? Not necessarily. Now, I'm discovering the secrets of buying in bulk for even your small sized families. And I'm realizing that when I choose the right bulk purchases it actually saves us money in the long run, both through gas and for the cost of the items as well.

However, Sam's Club was not my only adventure for the day. I also decided that it was high time to set up a recycling station in our laundry room. Now this may seem to be an odd activity since so many towns have recycling facilities readily available and many people already currently participate in recycling, but my dear town of Moultrie is not one of them. In fact the closest recycling center is an hour a way in Cairo (where my husband works). So after many weeks and months or regularly filling several bags of garbage a week, I decided I've had enough. We are going to become more environmentally friendly.

So I've placed three bins and a basket in our laundry room. I've divided them into the following categories, plastic, glass, aluminum cans and canned good cans all go into bins, then shopping bags into the basket. The plastic and glass are going into the same bin for the time being and can be separated once they reach the recycling center. The rest will be cleaned and divided before leaving the house. I was uncertain how Josh would feel about this new endeavor, but he's all for it. He actually let me know we could organize our new laundry room (when we build a house) so that there's an area for larger recycling containers in it too. WOW! Recycling success already.Yay!

So tune in tomorrow for even more discoveries and exciting proclamations occurring during my small town spring break. After all, life doesn't get better than this right?

Spring Break day one!

2008-04-01T09:10:00.016-04:00

Yesterday was the first "official" week day of Spring break, although I have to admit I've been celebrating Spring break since last Wednesday. Nonetheless I've decided this week is going to be all that Spring break can be!

So let me tell you about my first "official" day of Spring break... As you all know from my previous post, I've come up with a gi-normous list of things that I'd like to do over this break. And yesterday I began on a few.

I woke up exceptionally early. Of course I'd been waking up every hour last night because I was out of narcotic pain medicine and my back and leg were killing me. I was determined to keep on sleeping though, well...at least until my dear husband got up.

Then it hit me...perhaps I could make breakfast for him before he left for work. So in my limping form and fashion I began to try this endeavor. Unfortunately I only made it about half way through the preparations before he headed off to work. Better luck next time, I suppose. However, Rachel and I both had a nice breakfast together.

After breakfast, I began thinking through my gi-normous list and decided a nice long bubble bath was the perfect way to begin the day...so I had one, complete with my newly purchased honeysuckle bath and body works products. Once I'd finish bathing and dressing and getting ready to head out onto the town...I did so with zeal. First stop, the bank! Rachel of course having primped and primed herself as well, decided she'd accompany me. We had a nice visit with the banking people and left with money deposited, money to spend and with doggie treats!

After dropping Rach off back at home, I decided my next destination would be Wally World. After all, what's a full day here in the South with at least once visit to this store? So I gathered frivious items there, which were mainly various ways to spoil Rachel and Abby.

Since the Dollar Tree was next door to Wally World...it of course was the next stop. These capitalistic adventures were soon followed by my bi-monthly visit to Merle Norman. I like to think of this Merle Norman and the one stop shopping location. Not only can you update your make-up here, but you can get your hair cut and your brows waxed...all at the same time! Thirty minutes later...I exited this store looking much more refined and proper since my brows were no longer taking over my face. My hair was rid of split ends and I had purchased a new blush to brighten my cheeks.

Still having a lot of sunlight to burn, I decided to make one last business venture for the day and ran by the Pet Barn. Here I procured several new toys for Rachel. She's reverted to playing with her toys much more now that Shayne has gone on to the other world. So I knew she needed some new ones to enjoy. This was particularly true because when Shayne first with us, one of their favorite games to play together was destuff the toys...so many of Rachel's toys became casualities of this game. Thankfully, the game had stopped by the time Shayne left us, but nonetheless Rachel was still in want of toys and treats.

However, when I left the store, she was in want no more. I'd gotten her a little pink pig that really oinks, an elephant that blows and a pastel horsey that neighs (yes, very much like the horsey she destroyed on her Carrabel trip). So she had a blast yesterday afternoon playing with all of her new friends.

After all of these adventures we both decided it was nap time...and so Rachel, Abby and I all curled up for a nap. It went well...and when we awakened we decided it was time for a daily stroll in the park.

Thankfully, when we returned and had begun fixing a nice supper for Josh, the people from Resurgen's called. They let me know they were calling in refills for my prescriptions! Whew! What a relief. That assured me I'd not be going through another long painful night...and I didn't.

Josh even was in a jovial spring break mood when he arrived home. He told me over supper that he'd really like for us to play games last night rather than watching television. What is this the twilight zone? (The board game: Life)

Seriously though, I think we both were looking forward to playing games...and it's definitely more interactive than sitting in front of the idiot box. And we had a nice talk about how much we both still missing and grieving Shayne. He was just such a ray of light into our world. He was always happy and excited and so giving and loving. We spent a long time last night talking about all the things he'd do with us or spend time watching us do, and we both really miss that. Fortunately Rachel is doing okay with her grief too...she's seemed a bit perkier in the last few days and we're trying to give her as much love and care as we can to help her move properly through this difficult time too.

So what adventures does today hold? Well, assuming that the sunflower my ag students gave me doesn't shine in the face of the clock and make it's hands go whizzing around backward, I shall tell you all about it next time

Spring Break 08!

2008-03-30T16:44:00.003-04:00

It's finally Spring Break, that wonderful time of year when thousands of people head off to beaches or other exotic locations to party and enjoy the time off from school/work. And although I have no plans travel away to any or exotic destination, I am still extremely excited that Spring Break has finally arrived.

I’m so looking forward to sleeping late in the morning. I can hardly wait to work on my scrapbook. I’ve already begun to set up a list in my head of ways to pamper myself and do extra little things with my husband.

In fact, I've already begun some spring break activities. Just yesterday, I returned home from a trip to see Beth Moore. One of my good friends invited me to go to this conference and I accepted. We had so much fun! The drive to Jacksonville, FL wasn't all that long and I truly enjoyed the female bonding and quality time that we got to spend together. And of course, Beth Moore was a good speaker and had some theological thoughts. Her jokes and stories weren’t half bad either. But, I have to admit my favorite part was the quality time that we had as friends to just visit. And I’m eternally grateful to my husband for encouraging me to go on this trip. I needed it.

Speaking of other things I need though. I think I need this spring break for another reason too. Unfortunately, I've re-herniated my L4-L5 disc in my lower back. So having a break right now means I'll get more time to relax and rest as well as take care of any necessary medical appointments. And I have to admit, I can hardly wait to get all of the problems with my back solved (hopefully for good). Honestly, it's phenomenally frustrating to be dealing with lower back pain yet again! Going through back surgery and having to deal with a ruptured disc once was more than enough for me. However, my back apparently disagrees.

Thankfully, I do have pain medicines and muscle relaxants to help me manage the pain and I have discovered some excellent resources to deal with this situation. I have such a phenomenal support system and I thank God for them every day.

But even with all of the support that I have one of the most frustrating parts about this recurrent rupture is that it puts all of my plans on hold. I can't or rather "shouldn't" get pregnant with a ruptured disc. I can't do much exercise and get myself in shape for the summer. And ladies we all know this is the time of the year that we are all thinking about swimsuits and such. I can't even manage a long car trip without paying the consequences (more back pain) later in the day.

But regardless of these problems, I am determined to have a good Spring Break. And so I’ve been coming up with a list of some of the other things I’d like to do over this break. I know I want to get my hair cut, and get a pedicure. I definitely want to plan a couple romantic evenings with my wonderful husband. Perhaps, I'll to create a "themed" night for one of these romantic evenings where we eat certain types of food and then watch movies or do activities that fit into this theme. Even better, I may plan a progressive dinner for us at various restaurants. Honestly, I've not decided, but I am looking forward to having the time to plan our romantic escapades for us.

Then in my alone time during this break, I may go to the movies, or work on some other project around here…planting flowers or starting our garden...Who knows...

Then assuming that my husband is free enough and my Momma and niece are up for it, Josh and I may head up to Calhoun next week and try to celebrate this break together…

But regardless of what else happens over the break, I know I'll find some time to hang out with Rachel and read good books. And I know that all sounds like a lot to pile into a short week, but the dreams are nice nonetheless.

Finally, let me say once again, thank goodness it’s spring break! And I also want to wish all of you that are fortunate enough to have a break during this time of year a fabulous and safe, adventure! Enjoy it! I certainly know I will.

Shayne

2008-03-21T12:43:00.013-04:00

This is how our dear son looked when he first came to us. For those of you who do not know, Shayne passed on to Heaven this morning. He'd been very sick for the past few weeks and had spent a lot of time in the hospital over the last couple of weeks. They were so good to him and he to them. In fact, I believe just about every person working there felt bonded to Shayne by the time he passed away.

(Shayne's first photo as part of our familyin June of '07)

After many x-rays, blood tests, upper GI procedures and even an ultrasound were performed we began to think that we knew what was wrong with our dear son. Dr. Marty called me and told me that he had a inner "sock" so to speak in his intestines and needed surgery. He said from the Barium readings that it was either this inner sock in his intestines or his intestines were twisted and either way Shayne needed surgery. He said they'd have to cut about six to eight feet out of his intestines to help him get better. I approved the surgery and Dr. Marty told me that he would have someone call me as they started surgery and he would call me when they finished. But in truth, Dr. Marty called me both times and had called me many times over the last couple of weeks to talk about his thoughts and worries and efforts to help Shayne.

Shayne playing in the water in Blue Ridge

Before you begin to think that our dear little guy spent his last few weeks in a kennel, think that no more. He was spoiled rotten here at home and at the vet's office. When he was there they often allowed him to wander around in the lounge between the visiting rooms and kennels behind the desk. When they did place him in a room it was often Dr. April's office or a Lounge where he had a rug to lie upon and a window to look out of.

( The image on the right is of Shayne at St. Margaret's in the church after being blessed at the pet blessing. He's participating in the refreshment and fellowship. Josh is holding onto his leash. This is October '07)

Since he was refusing to eat they tried so many things to encourage him to do so. They even mixed various forms of canned dog food with water and other things to make it softer for him. Of course none of this was to any avail and it became painfully obvious why it hadn't worked once surgery began....

When Dr. Marty opened up Shayne he discovered that he a large vascular mass just below his stomach and beside his gall bladder. It was this mass that Dr. Becky (the vet that did the ultrasound) saw when she informed us that his gall bladder was much too large and in danger of rupturing.

(The picture above: One of my all time favorite pictures of Shayne this one was taken the night before Halloween)

Unfortunately the mass was inoperable. Dr. Marty explained that it was either cancer or a fungus. From what I've since been told this is the most northern case of this type of fungus attacking an animal. Shayne's fungal mass most likely began to grow because he had a cut internally or a sore spot that the fungus attached to when he drank contaminated water. This fungal mass not only was making it impossible for him to eat, but was making it difficult to Shayne to keep down any fluids either.

(Left: This is a picture on the night before Halloween. Rachel and Shayne are playing as we carve pumpkins).

(Above Shayne and Rachel have just checked out the beginnings of our Jack-o-lantern and are coming to see what else we are working on).

So his Daddy (Josh) and I were faced with a difficult decision. We had to decide what to do. Dr. Marty offered us the opportunity to spend one last evening with him before euthanizing Shayne or he could go ahead and put him down on the table. We opted to have the evening with him. I'm glad that we did.

Yes, Dr. Marty did tell us about specialists that could have tried to have helped Shayne, but the bottom line was this. Even with their help in two weeks we could have been facing the same decision when the fungus came back.

(Shayne and Rachel with me examining their stockings and toys on Christmas morning 2007. As you can see Shayne already has one of his toys in his mouth).

Dr. Marty is such a phenomenal vet. He allowed us to come pick up Shayne as he was coming out of surgery. We sat with him while he was awaking up and while we were doing so he offtered to call my Aunt Sara that we regularly and lovingly call our "vet by phone." He said he knew we'd want to talk to her before making any decisions. So Dr. Marty explained to my Aunt what he'd found and the details of his prognosis for the situation. When he finished he asked me if I'd like to speak to her. Of course I said I wanted to....and I did.

My Aunt's recommendation was to euthanize. She actually pushed me to go ahead and do so before Shayne ever woke up from surgery, but thankfully by the time we finsihed our conversation that wasn't even an option anymore and Josh said absolutely not. He wanted time with Shayne last night to say good-bye.

So Dr. Marty and Josh carried Shayne to the car and we brought him home. Shayne spent a lot of the evening just lying in the floor, and shifting from his side to his stomach as far as lying positions go. But he had *lots* of attention and love directed toward him and many visitors last night too. Josh and I pulled his toys out of his toy box and Shayne played with many of his favorites...Josh took pictures which I'll try to put up at some later date.

Galen, our priest, came by and prayed for and with Shayne last night. She'd asked if she could after I told her what was going on. Shayne had been on our prayer list at church and so I knew I needed to let her know he'd no longer need to be, but also to let her know we needed that support right now.

Josh's Mom, Beth, came by and sat with Shayne for a *long* time. And Rachel (our four legged daughter) sat with Beth. That's a first for Rachel. Never before had she allowed Beth to touch her.

Rach and Shayne had a good visit last night as we all did...and everyone seemed to understand what came next. So when I headed to bed a little after midnight, I couldn't help but hope for a different outcome, a miracle...but when as I awakened and have had time to reflect upon the events from the last year, I have no doubt. Shayne, himself, was our miracle! We didn't need any more.

So Rachel and Shayne went outside early this morning and hung out in the yard as the regularly do in early morning hours. Then when I got up, we all began to make plans to go to "the park."

In the afternoons when I'd get home from school Rachel and Shayne and I would visit the park. On the weekends, Josh would join us too. But I do believe Shayne was the one who was always the most excited about the park. So he had a drink of water this morning and kept it down (miracle of miracles). I offered him food thinking maybe he'd miraculously healed over night, but of course he turned it down. However, he did sit with Josh and me while we got ready to go to the park.

Then he slowly climbed into the car, I took one of his new balls, I'd picked up for him last week and off we went. Josh, of course, asking us not to over do it. And we didn't. Shayne played ball "some" when we got to the park. No one threw it hard or far...but he enjoyed it nonetheless. He laid down in a mud puddle. He peed on his favorite trees and he just walked with us throughout the park.

After the outing was finished we brought Rachel home, let them say their good-byes and took Shayne back to Dr. Marty's.

Both Josh and I stayed with him while he was euthanized. It was quick. He'd laid down on his side on the floor before they started the procedure and they just let him stay there.

We'd told Shayne (even though we all know he already knew) that he was going to be going to heaven. Josh told him about the huge bones (almost dinosaur size) that he'd get to chew on. I'd asked him to look over our miscarried children and my godchildren that are in heaven. Josh told him he'd never get tired anymore or have problems breathing. He'll get to play as long as he wants and there will of course be many balls and mud puddles in the park to lie down in.

(Shayne playing in a creek in North Georgia)

So when Dr. Marty gave Shayne the shot and he drifted away within the next minute or two...we knew. Shayne had gone home. He was in the heavenly park we'd promised and he no longer has to worry about any aches and pains.

Of course it's still hard for us down here. That was probably one of the hardest decisions we've had to make together, if not the hardest. And I suspect it will continue to be a hard time and sad time for a while. Josh sat up all night with Shayne, snoozing only occasionally. Shayne was his boy.

But his boy taught him some powerful lessons and that's one of the reasons I'm convinced something Dr. Marty said was true. As I thanked Dr. Marty today for calling Aunt Sara last night and conveyed Momma's comment that she'd heard of doctors for people doing things like that, but had never heard of a vet doing so, so she knew we had one of the best, he said "There are some dogs that are more than just dogs."

And I think that said it all. Shayne wasn't just a dog. He was our four legged son, and he'd touched the hearts of so many. Everyone in the clinic was upset that he had gotten this sick, but the one lesson that only Shayne could teach his Daddy, that he did teach was this: Even dogs and cats and all little animals go to heaven. And when we die, they'll be there ahead of us waiting.

I truly believe Shayne was more than a dog and more than our four-legged son. He truly was an angel in disguise. We are blessed to have met him and allowed our lives to overlap with his.

I know we'll never be the same, but I for one, am glad. And I look forward to the say that I go to heaven and see a four legged angel bouncing towards us. I suspect he'll be....our Shayne...and we'll be his....