One dear old dog

She was saved from the Humane Society 17 years ago. She lived with a loving family who took her for walks, gave her doggie treats, and only once left her for 8 days without food or water (due to a a miscommunication in English/German). She was a mutt, but had the qualities and character of a distinguished pure bred. She left this world last week. Savannah was a great dog and will be missed by many, especially Mom and Madison, since she was theirs. I'm not a big dog person, but this one had a little piece of my heart.

A Mother's Day Fantasy

I hope all you mothers' vacuums said this to you this weekend. I did manage to tackle a LOT of cleaning this weekend. I was feeling a little bit defeated by the fact that even Elle thought the house was dirty?!

Police, Picnic and a tooth

What would Mother's Day really be without some involvement with the Police? Yesterday, as we were enjoying the gale force winds in the backyard, we hear this extremely loud, sudden CRASH. Steven, whose employee-owned truck sat parked on the street, calmly said, "I bet somebody just backed in to the truck." And that is exactly what happened! The neighbor across the street backed in to the parked truck! We couldn't pass up the opportunity to take Elle's picture by the police car.

It really was a nice weekend and my husband gave me lots of breaks from my usual "mother" duties. He and Elle made breakfast and coffee, delivered with a sweet card and a gift certificate to a spa. We went out to a park for a picnic lunch, and with the exception of the 80 mph winds, had a nice time.



Grady's Mother's Day gift was his first tooth breaking through the gums, which translates in to a lot of crankiness, fussiness and night wakings?! Actually, he was awake a good bit Friday night but slept through Saturday night. And compared to Elle's first teeth, he's been a breeze. If it weren't for these two, I wouldn't have had such a fun two days of extra love and appreciation! I am extremely grateful for the privelege of being a mother, especially to the two miracles God has given me.

Puddles

Earlier in the week, I bought Elle some rain boots for singing, dancing and splashing in the rain. We went with the green frogs so both sister AND brother get to enjoy the rain and puddles. She had so much fun until she was soaked through. We literally poured water out of her boots!

Ideas?

In my efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle, I have saved all of the baby food jars from Grady's journey to solid foods. Does anyone have any creative ideas of what I could do with them?

I also wanted to try to use some cloth diapers to reduce some of my disposable diaper waste and wanted to know if anyone knew of a good brand to try.

I did purchase five reusable shopping bags from Wal-Mart and have felt so good each time I shop and come home with zero plastic bags. If you haven't done this yet, I encourage you to do so. Every little bit can help!

What does it mean?

What does it mean when you're trying to begin to get your abs back in shape after carrying and birthing two babies in 3 years and as you start doing sit-ups, your 8 month old begins to laugh like he's never laughed before?


What does it mean when your almost 3 year old daughter says, "Mom, your house is dirty."? I guess it means it's pretty funny to see me doing exercise and my house is dirty.

Have A Nice Day

I wanted to write a little about our trip to Atlanta this past weekend, but here we are, four days later and I can't seem to get to it. We had a wonderful time, starting with the Bon Jovi concert on Thursday night at the Philips Arena. On Friday, we went to the Center for Puppetry Arts to see a performance of Cinderella Della Circus. Saturday we visited the Georgia Aquarium and the New World of Coca-Cola musuem. We decided to check out the children's museum, Imagine It!, on Sunday before heading home. And throughout the stay, we spent several hours at Centennial Park on the playgrounds and debating the fountains. Elle's favorite thing about the entire trip: "Skittles!"








The best part was that everything (except the puppet show) borders Centennial Park. We were able to walk to all of these attractions, and very short distances too. It was an extremely fun, entertaining, and educational mini-vacation for us all. Thanks to Mom, Madison, Steph, BA, Rhonda & Luke for making it so special!