Saturday, March 28, 2009

Randomness

Random bits, in a handy list format:

1. The winner of my first giveaway is K. Davis! Congratulations! I'll bring the books to you tomorrow at church. :)

2. My husband informed that he, too, would like a blog name "since the kids get one.” (See # 20). So from now on, Jason will be known as Slade. And, yes, he picked the name himself. He went to high school with a boy named Slade and still remembers how cool he and his friends thought it would be to have that name. I am still amazed (and relieved) that (to my recollection) he never suggested this name when we were considering names for the boys.

3. Jason Slade reigns in the useless information department. However, with my own meager supply of useless information, I informed him that Bobby Jindal has a son named Slade.




4. It takes the better part of two days in an ever-so-slightly heated oven to dry out a soaked baseball glove to the point where it no longer feels like it absorbed a cup or two of water.

5. If you take that same nearly-normal-weight baseball glove anywhere with the six year old who left it out in the rain, he will accidentally leave it there and you will have to go back for it.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

You Capture: Reflection

Photobucket

This is Week 5 of the You Capture blog carnival hosted by Beth over at I Should Be Folding Laundry, and my first week to participate.

Each week Beth presents a new challenge and this week’s challenge was reflection.

Grace fell asleep in the hallway after Jason took the boys to Josiah's baseball practice on Saturday. (The child will not take a nap these days unless conditions are perfect...which usually means "riding in the car in the late afternoon" but apparently also means "my brothers are gone and I'm tired from playing at the Chick-fil-A playground.") Anyway, I stepped over her, grabbed my camera, and took this picture of her against our hallway door:

You know I love pictures of the sky, so I had to get this reflective shot, too. I am standing on our back patio facing the house as the sun is setting instead of cooking supper. You can also see a little bit of the playset reflected, too.


Check out I Should Be Folding Laundry for more participants.

~~~~~

It's the LAST DAY to enter my giveaway! To enter, leave a comment on my 100th post.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Wordless Wednesday: Pretty girl




I took many, many pictures of Grace in her pretty dress after church on Sunday...these were the only ones where she cooperated even a little with getting her picture taken. The white shoes she's wearing are the shoes she would wear all the time if she had her way.


Visit 5 Minutes for Mom or Wordless Wednesday for more Wordless Wednesday participants.


~~~~~

Be sure to check out my giveaway! To enter, leave a comment on my 100th post.

Baby Levi

We had a visit from Mama Ant yesterday! The boys played outside in the back yard while the ladies admired Levi (he's absolutely beautiful!) and chatted. Levi tolerated Grace and me holding him, too. :) He studied us the whole time--it reminds me of how Robert calmly studied everyone when he was a baby.

The intense interrogator. Grace has already hit the "Why...?" stage and asked numerous questions, mostly centered on Levi's pacifier.

That picture makes me want to say, "There was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead..."


Sami helping Grace hold Levi...Do you see the look of glee on Grace's face?

It probably wouldn't surprise most of you too much to hear that Grace tried to "switch babies" with them. As Sami was holding Levi, Grace started bargaining with her: "How 'bout dis...You hold my baby while I hold your baby. We can switch!"

Well, he is a sweet baby. I can see why she would want to switch. :)

We thoroughly enjoyed the visit, and I hope we won't wait so long in between visits next time! :)

~~~~~


Be sure to check out my giveaway! To enter, leave a comment on my 100th post.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

I don't even know what to say...

I am at a loss for words. I don't know what to say about the picture I am about to show you.

Grace (3 years old)

Actually, I don't know what to say that would actually make sense and explain in a coherent way why my daughter is dressed like that. But I will try...(deep breath)

Grace was wearing one of her most favorite outfits--a little dress and her favorite tights with flowers (pink flowers) on the sides and a grass stain on the knee. Then she decided to dress up like "May-ree" (as in Jesus' mother) so she added a pink baby blanket clipped over her head; that slid down to around her neck, at which point she decided to cover her head with a winter hat. That's baby Jesus she is holding, and I guess she's showing baby Jesus how to play on her computer...

While tilting her head.

Just a typical day around here... :)

~~~~~

Be sure to check out my giveaway! To enter, leave a comment on my 100th post.

Friday, March 20, 2009

My 100 Things

My 100th Post~~My 100 Things

More than you ever wanted to know about me... :)


1. I was born in Athens, Georgia, on a very cold March morning.

2. I grew up with three brothers--one older and two younger. I was the middle child and the only girl.

3. Well…let me clarify that. My parents were foster parents to 20+ babies/toddlers/young children (mostly newborns) and I was the middle child to the nth degree.

4. My younger brothers are both adopted--I teased my parents that we “kept the last two” because…well…we did.

5. We traveled A LOT when I was a child. My dad worked as a consultant who traveled nationwide to inspect the places that made tires and retreads. During several summers in a row, we traveled with him for weeks at a time in a motor home.

6. I have been in most of the continental United States, with the exception of the New England states, California, and Oregon.

7. You know those maps at Welcome Centers as you cross into a new state? They kept us busy. My older brother and I learned how to read maps at an early age...probably in an effort to keep us occupied! There were many times we drove 500 miles in one day.

8. We read a lot, too. We would bring stacks of books with us, and read every last one long before we got back home.

9. I would read anything and everything. The summer before third grade, I was reading the Nancy Drew series, as well as books like Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and Cheaper By the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. (Cheaper By the Dozen was my mom's favorite book...see #3.)

10. I learned how to spell "Mississippi" as we traveled across the state during one of those long summer trips.

11. I'm pretty sure my mom deeply regretted teaching me how to spell "Mississippi," because I repeated what she taught me over and over and over and over again. "M, I, crooked letter, crooked letter, I, crooked letter, crooked letter, I, humpback, humpback, I."

12. My mom died at the age of 53. Robert was 9 months old at the time. I remember that he learned how to clap within hours of her passing, before we had even left the hospital parking deck.

13. I miss her tremendously.

14. When I go to click on the "Save Now" button as I'm composing a post, I think "Hosanna!" Seriously. Every time. (Confused? Click here.)

15. I eat chocolate everyday...preferable dark chocolate.

16. I may have mentioned somewhere that dark chocolate M&Ms are my current favorite. There's a reason for the chocolatey theme on the blog, folks. ;)

17. My favorite Bible verse is Proverbs 3: 5-6.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

18. Part of the reason I love going to Bible studies is the chance to be with my friends without having my children with me. There...I said it.

19. But I truly love the learning process, too. I'm not in it for all the wrong reasons. ;)

20. The children's names on the blog? They are not the names my children go by.

21. Blogging is cheap therapy for me. Blogging also is my replacement for baby books...mostly blank baby books.

22. There are countless times during the week when I think, "I'm putting that on the blog!" And I would, too, if only I had written down whatever it was that was said before I forgot it.

23. There are also countless times when I hear, "That is not going on the blog!"

24. I cut my own hair. I began a little over 4 years ago after years of "fixing it myself" every single time I got a haircut. It saves money and my sanity!

25. I am older than my husband by 50 1/2 weeks.

26. That's not a whole year.

27. My husband makes me laugh more than any other person...and I mean that in the best way.

28. Jason and I met in mid-April 1995 at an on-campus Bible study at UGA.

29. We began dating a few days later.

30. Jason asked me to marry him in July 1995.

31. When we announced our engagement to his family no one was surprised. I think his sister Cindy actually said, "It's about time!" We were both amused and bewildered at their reaction. After all, we had only met 3 1/2 months before our engagement.

32. We were married in Athens, Georgia, on September 3, 1995.

33. We waited until after Jason had found a full-time job before we set a date for our wedding.

34. We just didn't think that the job would come with an extremely short time table.

35. It is entirely possible to plan a small church wedding in about a week.

36. Ten days later, after a brief honeymoon and driving 2000 miles or so, we moved into our new home in Lustre, Montana.

37. We lived in Lustre for one school year while Jason was teaching Bible and Social Studies at a small Christian high school. We lived in part of the former dorm building on the school's campus.

38. I had a short-term position as the cheerleading coach.

39. I am the most unlikely person ever to be a cheerleading coach.

40. I also had a small business as a freelance computer consultant, which I loved a whole lot more than the cheerleading coach gig.

41. In this case, "freelance computer consultant" sounds more impressive than it actually was.

42. But, on top of my consulting work, I sold a few copies of a Microsoft Windows tip booklet that I had written. And the cheerleading coaching and computer consulting brought in a little extra income at a time when we otherwise had a $25 grocery budget every two weeks. Yes, every two weeks.

43. We lived in a Mennonite community in the middle of an Indian Reservation. Lustre is in the extreme northeast corner of Montana.

44. It was while we were living in Lustre that I first heard of "domesticated trees." If there were trees in that area, it was because someone had planted them as a wind barrier for their home and had protected them from the deer.

This is the extreme western end of Montana (Glacier, to be exact) and is what most people think of when they think of Montana...where we lived looked nothing like this.


This is the area we lived. In the center of the photo are trees and houses.

45. I missed squirrels when we lived in Montana. There were none in our area...no trees = no squirrels.

46. Lustre was such a dry area that the only snow we got was blown across the prairie from somewhere west of us. I saw the snow blowing towards us as I was washing dishes and looking out the window. Stepping out of our door, it looked like a blizzard swirling around. Within a couple of weeks we had a mild thaw, and then everything iced over for months when the temperature dropped again.

47. The nearest grocery store was 35 miles away in Wolf Point...and 5 of those miles were on a gravel road. Wolf Point was inside the Indian Reservation.

48. We usually went to Glasgow, which was 55 miles away (10 of those were gravel) and had a library. And the library had a cat.


The gravel road to Glasgow.



49. That year, I found out I was highly allergic to cats.

50. And also highly allergic to dust.

51. And mildly allergic to everything else the doctor tested me for (dogs, trees, grasses, mold...).

52. Glasgow was the type of area where people would leave their cars running unattended in the winter while they shopped at the grocery store (we're talking negative temperatures here, and all of the cars had block heaters).


53. We never left our car running outside the grocery store.

54. But we did have to get a block heater installed before the really cold temperatures came...which was October. Early October.


55. Wal-mart was about 2 1/2 hours away from us in Williston, North Dakota; we never went. But on the way to Lustre, we were very excited to stop there at the Pizza Hut after days of eating McDonald's food during the drive.

56. The nearest Dairy Queen was in Minot, North Dakota, which was about 3 1/2 hours away. We did go to that Dairy Queen once, and they have the best Blizzards we have ever tasted. So if you're ever in Minot, you should go.

57. Jason and I chaperoned the senior trip. There were 7 seniors. (I told you it was a small school.)

58. The seniors wanted to go to the huge mall in Edmonton, Canada.

59. We spent a week at a mall. We went to Canada to go to a mall. 60. I don't like malls.

61. I made an exception for this one.


A full size ice rink that the Edmonton Oilers (professsional hockey team) practiced on.

That's me in the center of the bridge. To the left of this bridge, a sea mammal exhibit with dolphin shows. To the right, a huge pirate ship that could be rented for birthday parties.

All of this was inside this mall! There was also a miniature golf course, an amusement park, a water park (with bungee jumping, which two of the seniors did), two sets of movie theaters, and two full food courts. There were sections that were city-theme (one was named Bourbon Street, with store-fronts that looked like you were walking in New Orleans, and one was a Parisian street that was stunningly beautiful) as well animal exhibits throughout the mall.

62. I took a few pictures of Jason throwing some calves when he helped with branding in the Spring. I just had to find a way to fit those pictures on the blog...


The ones in cowboy hats are the ones who know what they're doing the ranchers. All of us who were new to Lustre were invited to Branding Day to watch and, if interested, to help throw some calves. Jason is in the center (seated), our pastor's wife is videotaping the branding, and the dorm father/track coach is in the ball cap.

Jason with one of his students. The ranchers also vaccinated on branding day with a vaccine gun.

63. The only day it rained in Lustre the entire time we lived there was the day we packed up our things and moved back to Georgia. Naturally...

64. I have never experienced so much sensory overload (even with three children) as I did when we came back from Montana to Georgia: billboards everywhere, signs everywhere, restaurants everywhere, stores everywhere...

65. We spent the summer (1996) in the Athens area and enjoyed the Olympics fervor (soccer was in Athens), and I saw the torch being carried along the major road outside of the medical office I was working at the time. We have a small collection of Olympic pins framed.

66. Jason and I were able to go with his sister Cindy, her husband Kerry, and some friends of theirs to an equestrian Olympic event at the International Horse Park in Conyers, Georgia.

67. The fall of 1996 brought another move for another teaching position for Jason--this time to the Christian school in Norlina, North Carolina. He taught Social Studies in the middle school.

68. They hired me, too. To teach. In the high school. Me.

69. I taught three computer classes, two 9th grade English classes, and 9th grade Health.

70. My eleven year old son just read that last one and said, "You taught in a high school?!"

71. Hurricane Fran hit when we were living temporarily in a modular home.

72. I didn't know it yet, but I was pregnant at the time with my firstborn, who is now eleven years old and just learned that I used to teach in a high school.

73. I had morning sickness every day for the first 5 months.

74. The morning sickness quit when I stopped teaching and began working two part-time jobs instead.

75. I thought that perhaps the morning sickness was because of stress from teaching until I had morning sickness every day for 5 1/2 months with Josiah. It lasted "only" 4 months with Grace.

76. While I was teaching in the high school, I decided that I wanted to homeschool our child once he reached school age. I have nothing but respect for teachers in public and private schools; it was the toughest job I ever had, and opened my eyes to a lot of things.

77. Before teaching, it never occurred to me that perhaps the teachers watched the clock at the end of the day as much as the students! ;)

78. We moved back to the Athens area (again) at the end of the school year, and I became (and happily remain) a stay at home mom.

79. Robert was one month old at the time. Packing with a one month old after having a C-section is harder and more tiring than packing to move across the country, even if you're packing up less stuff.

80. We moved here to our present home in 1999 when Robert was 2 years old. We had already moved briefly to South Carolina before moving here.

81. That makes 4 states we lived in within 4 years.

82. We got a dog before we got a second car. (Jason doesn't like it when I say that, but it's entirely true.)

83. The dog we got was a bull mastiff named Wyatt. He was an excellent dog, especially with rough-and-tumble boys. Wyatt died when Grace was an infant; now the younger two children in particular (with the help of their Daddy...ahem!) are conspiring to get another dog.

Robert and Wyatt in 2001

84.Despite the challenges, homeschooling is a really good fit for our family. We are able to spend more time together, we have a lot more flexibilty...and many, many more reasons.

85. I love the ladies in my homeschool support group. I have found many godly women through that group, and several are my friends.

86. They bring much-needed perspective on various struggles and my favorite meetings with them are the ones that end at close to midnight. (Seriously!)

87. I enjoy playing around with photo software way too much and have made some buttons for my blog and a friend's blog.

88. I finished my "100 things" button before I reached the halfway point with this list. It's another piece of chocolate, of course.


89. My favorite music artists are Andrew Peterson (Christian folk music artist) and tobyMac (Christian hip hop/rap artist). As an aside, I recently heard one of Andrew Peterson's songs, Mystery of Mercy, performed by Caedmon's Call.

90. I have become a little more talkative since I began blogging.

91. And I take pictures of odd things more often, too, like for sale signs, pigs on tables, and the bathroom in a fancy restaurant.

92. I still love to read, and I don't watch a lot of TV.

93. That's probably because we don't have cable (and never have).

94. There was a time when we couldn't even pick up anything with an antenna.

95. So we have the digital converter box that they claim will allow us to watch fantastically clear TV programming.

96. Now, however, we rarely pick up NBC through the converter box.

97. I know how to iron very well but don't. Or, at least, I avoid it for years at a time. The ironing board makes a great hoodie rack leaning against the wall in Robert's room.

98. I have two dressy purses that I haven't used in...oh...at least 15 years but I keep them anyway, and I have one purse I use daily until it falls apart. I don't like shopping for purses because what I really want is one that is exactly like the one I have at the time...which, of course, they don't make anymore.

99. It's the same reason I don't like shopping for shoes...or one of the reasons I don't like shopping for shoes.

100. I will order the same thing at a restaurant more than nine times out of ten. Not surprised, huh?

~~~~~


As promised...here is my giveaway!

I have two books to give away to one winner:

  • Motherhood: The Guilt That Keeps On Giving by Julie Ann Barnhill (bestselling author of a great book my friend Donna recommended called She's Gonna Blow!)
  • Quiet Moments of Hope for Moms, a devotional by Ellen Banks Elwell

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on THIS POST. You can have another chance to win if you receive my blog posts by email (see the top of my sidebar to enter your email address) or if you are a follower (see my sidebar and click “Follow“). Leave an additional comment telling me that you receive my posts by email or that you are a follower. Comments will remain open until Thursday, March 26th at 10:00 p.m., at which time I will pick a winner using Random dot org.

* If I don’t know you in real life, please send me your email address by going to my profile and clicking on “Email” and I will be the only one to see it. Alternatively, you can leave your email address or website address within your comment.

* If you already receive my posts by email, click on the title of the post to go to my blog and leave your two comments by clicking on "Comments." Be sure to leave two comments, since you already receive my posts by email!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Sisterhood Award


I received this award from my imaginary friend* Julie at From Inmates to Playdates a few days ago and, like a bad imaginary friend, I suddenly seemed to disappear from the bloggy world and didn't accept my award. My apologies, Julie! But I am back now, and I gratefully accept this Sisterhood award.

This award goes to those who display great attitude or gratitude in their blog. I am honored to have been chosen for this award by Julie! Thank you!


In order to accept this award, here are the rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs who you feel are worthy of this award by displaying great attitude or gratitude in their blog! OK, I don't have 10, but Julie didn't either! :)
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within this post.
4. Let your nominees know about the award by commenting on their blog.
5. Link back to the person who gave you this award.

Here are my 10 5 nominees, in no particular order.
1. Mama Ant at Ants on a Farm, who has a new baby I have not yet seen in person, I am sad to say. But he's adorable!!
2. Dawn at My Home Sweet Home.
3. Elizabeth, a.k.a. BusyMomof10, at Yes.they're.all.ours.
4. Donna at Life of Drama Mama.
5. Dannielle at 50 Fingers & 50 Toes.

And one of the things I am most grateful for is that all of these ladies are my SISTERS in Christ! Check out these blogs and see why I love reading them. :)

~~~~~

* "Imaginary friend" is the term my husband uses for people I have met online but have never met in person or talked to on the phone...and they may or may not even know that I exist. :)

~~~~~

My 100th blog post is approaching quickly, and along with the semi-traditional post of 100 things about myself, I will also have a giveaway at that time. To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on my 100th post when I post it.

You can have another chance to win if you receive my blog posts by email (see the top of my sidebar to enter your email address) or if you are a follower (see my sidebar and click “Follow“). Leave an additional comment telling me that you receive my posts by email or that you are a follower. Comments will remain open until next Thursday at 10:00 p.m., at which time I will pick a winner using Random dot org.

* If I don’t know you in real life, please send me your email address by going to my profile and clicking on “Email” and I will be the only one to see it. Alternatively, you can leave your email address or website address within your comment.

* If you already receive my posts by email, click on the title of the post to go to my blog and leave your two comments by clicking on "Comments." Be sure to leave two comments, since you already receive my posts by email!

Overheard: The Birthday Edition

Me [as Grace first woke up Monday morning]: Do you know what today is?

Grace: Josiah's baseball game? Church?

Me: No, it's your birthday!

Grace [excitedly]: It my birt'day? Yay! ...Am I three?!

Me: Yes, you are three! Can I hug my big three year old daughter?

Grace [seriously]: You a sweet Mommy...but I not a daughter.

She recently caught on that I sometimes refer to her as my daughter and was still fuzzy on what the word means. She's nearly got it now, but still has moments.


~~~~~

Robert: Happy birthday!

Grace [dejected]: No. It not my birt'day. Mommy's not fixin' me my cake!
It was 11 a.m. at the time.

~~~~~

Later...

Robert: Happy birthday!

Grace [dejected]: No. It not my birt'day. Mommy's still not fixin' me my cake!

The cake was baked, cooled, frosted, and decorated with plenty of time to spare. It would have been much less traumatizing for our birthday girl if it had been store-bought...but I think she still would have found a way to fret over it. And, yes, she wanted her cake for breakfast...and lunch...

~~~~~

The long-awaited, very pink cake:



The beautiful Birthday Girl:



A very dramatic singing of "Happy Birthday." Note that the candles have already been blown out. I relit them twice, but she was just a tad impatient...and then I gave up. ;)


This is what happened before the singing...Grace laughing at herself about blowing out the candles too soon:


Grace opening her big present. Her exact words were, "Oh, yes!!" Y'all, she gushed. And then squealed.



She loved the pink gloves, too.


And after she ran around the room several times and practiced "spinnin'" in her new dress,


she asked everyone to dance with her.


During clean up, Miss Muffy was intensely interested in the leftover cake that hadn't yet been transferred to its own container...

Happy birthday, Grace!

~~~~~

My 100th blog post is approaching quickly, and along with the semi-traditional post of 100 things about myself, I will also have a giveaway at that time. To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on my 100th post when I post it in the next couple of days.

You can have another chance to win if you receive my blog posts by email (see the top of my sidebar to enter your email address) or if you are a follower (see my sidebar and click “Follow“). Leave an additional comment telling me that you receive my posts by email or that you are a follower. Comments will remain open until next Thursday at 10:00 p.m., at which time I will pick a winner using Random dot org.

* If I don’t know you in real life, please send me your email address by going to my profile and clicking on “Email” and I will be the only one to see it. Alternatively, you can leave your email address or website address within your comment.

* If you already receive my posts by email, click on the title of the post to go to my blog and leave your two comments by clicking on "Comments." Be sure to leave two comments, since you already receive my posts by email!

Wordless Wednesday: Fearless

Grace had absolutely no qualms about climbing up a "big bunch" (as she says) of steps to reach the slide. And when she got to the top of the slide, she sat down and didn't hesitate to slide down all by herself...over and over again.


Visit 5 Minutes for Mom or Wordless Wednesday for more Wordless Wednesday participants.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Sweet dreams are NOT made of these...

I don't know about you, but I can dream about the oddest, most mundane things...like doing laundry, or cleaning up the kitchen, only it'll be something like 20 loads of laundry and kitchen counter tops completely buried in dishes waiting for me to wash.


Can anyone say, "Overwhelmed"? (Or maybe just "Dramatic"?)


[Hush, Byron!]


Some background information before I quickly tell you my latest memorable dream...


1. Our shower has been slow to drain recently. However, as long as you keep the water flow just a little low, the dirty water never reaches your toes.

2. There are two light bulbs that have needed to be replaced for months in our bathroom, since I never seem to remember to put these special globe light bulbs on the shopping list. Four bulbs are still lit, so it's not a big deal.

3. Grace was awake, crying, and restless this particular night from 4:00-ish until 6:00-ish, at which point I gave in and brought her to our bed...at which point we both slept very well.

4. Jason was not aware of any of this...or at least not #3.


Sometime after I finally went to sleep a little after 6:00 a.m., I had the following dream:


I "woke" to find that I had been so sleepy after being up with Grace that I had fallen asleep standing up in the shower. Not only that, but I found that I had been asleep in the shower for so long that the shower water was nearly up to the edge of the tub. And then when I pulled the shower curtain back to step out, there was only one light bulb that had not blown out.


That was it. That was the whole dream. It seems like I could put together better dreams than this, right? There wasn't even a single guinea pig in that dream.

~~~~~

Jason asked, "How do you do that? How do you fit all of that stuff together into dreams?"

I would like to ask him, "How do you do that? How do you sleep through someone crying, wailing, and thrashing around in her crib in your bedroom...for two hours?"

Wordless Wednesday: Sunset



You might have noticed that I love taking pictures of sunsets, clouds, and the occasional tree. ;) Our backyard is treeless in the fenced-in area, and there is a fairly unobstructed view of the sunset without those pesky trees getting in the way (ha).

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom or Wordless Wednesday for more Wordless Wednesday participants.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Overheard: The Grace Edition

Grace: Mommy, how old will yah be on yah buthday?

Me: 38.

Grace: Oh, OK! [begins to run off, then abruptly turns around] Ummm...What did I just say tah you?

~~~~~

Grace: Mommy, I have somethin' tah tell you.

[Nine times out of ten, if she says this sentence she will tell you that, in the Veggie Tales video Where's God When I'm Scared?, "Junior did jump in his toybox!" This time, however...]

Grace: Ummm...What was I gunna say tah you?

Should we be worried about her memory loss? ;)

~~~~~

Grace: Look at me! I kin fly!


~~~~~

It's tough being the momma of many little babies. Just ask Grace, who diapered quintuplets tonight...and then she announced in a rather tired voice, "Oh, no! Dey all pooped!" She asked me to change their diapers, then she finished getting the babies ready for bed.


Left to right: Miss Muffy, Emily, Beth, Laura, and 'Nother Emily



Grace said the babies were not being good in their bed...they were pushing each other and laughing.

~~~~~

Grace: Mommy! Take a picture of me!

Ah, Georgia...On Sunday, it snowed; on Thursday, it's time for short sleeves to play outside.

They're baaaack!

Thank you so much for your prayers for Dad and Kathleen's big trip (Israel and Egypt)! They arrived safely back home today. They are heading out now to have lunch at their favorite BBQ Shack...Kathleen says it's been a while since they've eaten pork. ;) I can't wait to hear all about their trip!


~~~~~


I would also like to mention the radio debut of my pastor tonight (Thursday, March 5th) at 8:30 p.m. on WMVV (New Life FM 90.7 on the dial). For those of you outside of the Atlanta listening area, you can hear the broadcast live by going to http://www.newlife.fm/. The name of the radio program is Impact. Let me know if you listen in!


~~~~~


While I'm talking about my pastor...Please read this devotional he recently posted. If you would like to receive his devotionals by email, you can sign up by entering your email address in the box at the top of the sidebar on his blog.

Monday, March 2, 2009

First Snow of 2009

Probably the more accurate title of this post would be
"First and Last Snow of 2009."
We'll see...


We had a mix of rain and snow (mostly rain) as we were leaving church on Sunday. By the time we were driving back home after eating out (whoo hoo), it was SNOWING.



This was Grace's first time playing in the snow. I think she would agree that it was worth the wait to put on all of those layers that I insisted she wear.



Willy Wonka and Grace built a snowman or two. (Don't you like my hat? I wear it maybe once a year--when it snows--so I'm not terribly picky.)


Bob--er, Josiah--the Builder at work. He built a village of snowmen in a semi-circle.



Eating snow!


Cold and wet but still not ready to come inside.

Robert decided to try some "snowboarding" with some friends using a skateboard deck. They had fun trying. And there were no broken bones.


Here is the snowman he built in the front yard. He's indicating how tall it used to be, before the snow started melting.


Because this is what our yard looks like now:



P.S. Last year when it snowed, the boys worked very, very hard to build this tiny snowmidget snowman. It is standing on a landscaping stone--that's how small it is. There was so little snow that they scraped off the snow from surfaces like the sliding board and swings.

That year it snowed right before bedtime, so I let the boys go out with the outside lights turned on so they could play before it all melted away. There wasn't any snow left the next morning. Their little snowman was the only thing left. Isn't he pathetic?? :)

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Morton's, The Steakhouse

Last Thursday, Jason and I had the opportunity to use a very generous gift card we had been given to Morton's, a steakhouse in Buckhead...or, as their website says, The Steakhouse.

As we were risking our lives on Atlanta's interstates driving over, I opened the gift card envelope and chuckled. The personal message written inside was "Congratulations on the birth of your baby girl!"

Our baby girl is turning three years old in a couple of weeks. It's a good thing this gift card didn't expire. We just haven't had that many opportunities to drive to Buckhead or downtown Atlanta for dinner in a restaurant where they have probably never even seen a child. But this time, we already had plans to be in the area (more on that soon) so we took this opportunity to redeem the gift card.

I had already "warned" Jason that I was bringing my camera, and he had already "warned" me that I was not going to be taking a bunch of pictures and totally making fools of ourselves.

Um, yeah...we didn't need cameras for that. ;) We were laughing at ourselves so much, we didn't really need any other help. We'd say (when we were alone, of course!) that it was really "just like Rafferty's" where any waiter would come by with a refill for you. We also (privately) wondered just how much the hostess would stammer if one happened to ask for a high chair.

At one point, our waiter gave an odd chuckle at something that Jason said to him. I can't really describe it, but it reminded me of the way Robert will chuckle in a weird, rude way when he thinks Josiah is being...well, a goofy six year old. As the waiter walked away, Jason and I just looked at each other like "What was that?!" And then? Well...we giggled. Because, really, we certainly weren't going to be rude to this man, but his opinion of us matters very little.

That particular incident was certainly after I had taken a picture of the pewter pig lamp on our table. It was a gorgeous restaurant and if Jason wasn't going to let me take pictures, I was at least going to take a picture of the pig before he snatched my camera away! ;)


You can buy your own Morton's pewter pig lamp for a mere $80 here. Every table had one.

This was definitely a place to see people and to be seen...Even the booths were situated in such a way that you could get a clear view of nearly everyone in the restaurant. We were seated at a booth and were "tucked in," as Jason put it--the table was pulled away from the crescent shaped booth seat, we sat down, and the table was pushed in to it's proper place. We nearly had the whole place to ourselves; one other couple was seated at a booth on the other side of Morton's about halfway through our meal. It was a snow light slow night for them.

Yep, I also took a picture of the ladies' restroom, with their fancy cloth-like towels on the counter.

And after I got back to our table and the waiter brought the check, I had to get a picture of what a $9 bottle of water looks like. That's Jason's arm beside it--I think he's leaning in to attempt to shield the flash from the camera so we don't totally embarass ourselves by taking a picture of a water bottle at such an elegant restaurant.


That's Italian bottled water, bottled at the source in Italy. Don't tell anyone I said so, but it tastes just like ours to me.

How was the food? Fabulous. I had the best $32 salmon I've ever eaten (salad or side dish not included in that price, by the way). Can I deal with going back to eating a $2 packet of salmon from the grocery store (makes two lunches for me when heated in a skillet with some olive oil and salad dressing, and served over rice)? Absolutely!! Do I ever want to get a check for over $120 in a restaurant again?

Do I really need to answer that question?

One of Jason's comments was that for the price of our meal plus tip (and not counting the very generous gift card), the two of us could have eaten at Rafferty's in Athens four times...and he still could have gotten a more than decent steak, and I would have been perfectly happy with my chicken finger salad with no eggs and with honey mustard dressing on the side.* Plus, if we're at Rafferty's, we're generally not wondering if the staff is congregating to talk about us while they polish the silverware, rearrange the table settings just so, and look our way...

Then again, if we're at Rafferty's, we're generally asking for a high chair.

* At Morton's, it is not "on the side"; it is "to the side." Now you know.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...