Spring Fever

I don't know about your house, but at our house Spring Fever is in running rampant. What a beautiful weekend! We spent most of it outside and it was so nice.

Saturday Lance headed to a shooting range with his brother while the kids and I took off to the park for the day. It was a georgous afternoon which meant that everyone else was at the park too. That's OK, it meant they boys had plenty of kids to play with. They even ran into 3 of their Awana buddies at the playground. Megan enjoyed our walk around the nature trail. Riley pushed her in her stroller most of the way. Owen took a short turn at it and I pushed her the rest of the way. We left the park and went by Chick-fil-A on the way home to redeem the boys milkshake coupons they'd won Wednesday night at the Awana Grand Prix with their pinewood derby cars.

Sunday, Riley and I went for the second hour of church while Lance hung back with Megan and Owen at home. I think we'll be ready to introduce Megan at church next Sunday. We've been waiting for her to get a few weeks age on her before we bring her with us. Riley on the other hand has been growing impatient with not attending. So this week, I had promised to get him there and I did.

After church and lunch at home, we were outside most of the afternoon. Lance mowed the lawn and sprayed roundup on the poison ivy starting to grow. Riley, Owen and I fished for a short while (no bites) with the 4 crickets Riley and Lance found earlier. The boys split the rest of the afternoon in the sandbox, on the trampoline, playing with action figures on the deck and shooing their paintball gun at a tree stump target. Megan split her time between my arms and her crib. She had a nice long nap during most of our outdoor time.

I'm getting comfortable with this stay-at-home-Mom role. It's hard to believe I only have 3 weeks left of my maternity leave. It's going by way too fast!

Thanksgiving

We've had a great week. Sad to see it coming to an end and know that as our heads hit the pillow tonight, we'll return to our 'regularly scheduled programs' tomorrow. Lance and I had a great time last night at the Zac Brown concert and I think the boys had an equally good time at their sleep-over with Nana and PawPaw.

Our week kicked into celebration mode on Tuesday with Lance's birthday. The boys were kind enough to wake him at 7am with homemade cards and specially wrapped presents. We had bought poster boards for each the previous weekend and they had labored 2 nights with glitter paint, water colors, markers and stickers to make just the perfect cards for their Dad. Definately keepsakes! Owen also picked out a nice new, red coffee-mug for his Dad and Riley bought him a UGA fleece blanket. When I got home from work, I surprised him with a new Gerber knife and the tickets for the show we saw last night. I think he had a great day. We ended with a celebratory dinner at Longhorn with Lance's parents, who were celebrating their anniversary which falls on the same date as Lance's birthday. Before we went to bed we had to sample the chocolate/sprinkles cake that the boys and I had made for him on Monday night.

Thursday was another special Thanksgiving. We had lunch with the Helton's and then supper with the Foster's. Of course we didn't over eat, why do you ask? Really, it was a great day with all of our family and of course great food too. And aside from all the food, the highlight of any special gather day for the boys is always seeing all of their cousins and getting in lots of play time.

Friday Mom, Alice, Aunt Amelia, Kaitlyn, Nathan, Owen and I all did our traditional shopping trip. We hit I think 5-6 stores and made a little dent in our Christmas shopping lists. I left it up to my boys who would go and who would stay home and I was right in guessing that Riley would choose to stay home with Daddy and Owen wanted to shop with me. We ended the night with dinner at Red Lobster thanks to Aunt Amelia.

Saturday and Sunday were mostly spent hanging out at home. It was nice since it rained most of both days and gave us a good excuse to take naps, eat leftovers and watch football. We also managed to do a little garage cleaning, clean out the boys closets and dressers from out of size clothes and get most of the laundry caught up.

See what I mean? A good week. We had a few fun, busy, family days mixed in with a couple of lazy, rainy days. I can't think of a more perfect combination. I only wish all of my weekends were 4 days long so I could squeeze it all in each week.

Now the countown begins for Christmas. I really enjoy this time of year so I'll do my best not to let the money and shopping lists stress me out. It's too easy to get wrapped up in all that and forget the real reason for this season. I hope each of you had an equally wonderful Thanksgiving week!

Go Tech!

Go Georgia Tech! Georgia Tech beat Georgia today 48 to 45. After 7 years of losing to UGA, I had to include today's score in my blog. Of course with 3 UGA fans in this house and myself being the single Tech fan, it was maybe even a little sweeter. Is it wrong that I enjoyed watching both my sons and my husband grumble and pout after the game :)

With that part of the day behind us, Lance and I are heading to see the Zac Brown Band tonight in Athens. The tickets were part of Lance's birthday gift from me. The boys are excited to be heading to PawPaw and Nana's to spend the night and Lance and I are looking forward to an adult only night with some great music.

More on our Thanksgiving weekend and Lance's birthday later. For now, it's time to drop off the kids and head out for a fun date night.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween on Friday. I telecommuted that day which made it much easier (for me anyway, not sure the kids noticed) to get everyone in their costumes, fed and ready to head out for the night. I closed my laptop at 3pm and we headed out to the deck to carve pumpkins. Riley insisted on doing his all by himself this year, he was a bit annoyed that we wouldn’t let him handle the knife all on his own. He did draw what he wanted cut-out and using his hand on the knife, with Lances on top of it, they got it cut out together. He loved digging out all the pumpkin guts too. Owen was not as fond of slimy insides of his pumpkin, but did stick his hand in a couple of times although he quickly ran inside to wash off in the sink each time. He opted instead to clean it out as best he could using two big spoons. In the end, Mom ended up elbow deep in his pumpkin. He was happy to instruct me on drawing and cutting out his jack-o-lantern. Triangle eyes, diamond nose and a smiley face with exactly two teeth. He didn’t mind at all not being able to wield the knife. Not sure what that says about their personalities, but they’re definitely each their own.

"Take my picture, Dad. I'm going to eat my pumpkin!"

"Oh, I can do that. Watch this, I'm going to eat the gross insides of my pumpkin!"

We picked up pizza for dinner and when Scotty and his crew arrived we ate, dressed everyone and headed to the fall festival at a nearby church. The kids had fun on all the inflatable’s, getting their faces painted and the cake walk. The only downer for the night was Riley left there with a nice goose-egg on his forehead. He and buddy were in the inflatable boxing ring and managed to fall into each other, head to head. Apparently Heath’s head is harder than Riley’s (imagine that!). Heath walked away unscathed but Riley had a huge knot which has since turned several shades of blue and green.

Riley as Commander Cody (Star Wars) and Owen the Power Ranger

We left the fall festival and headed to a nearby neighborhood to trick-or-treat. We hit 15-20 houses and all the kids loaded up with plenty of candy. The kids and 2 adults piled into the back of Lance’s pick up truck. Being pregnant this year, I wasn’t allowed to ride in the back of the truck. I rode with Nana in her Navigator, following the pickup through the neighborhood. This neighborhood has relatively large lots, each no smaller than 1 acre, so if we’d done it all by foot I’m sure we couldn’t have knocked on as many doors as we did. The pick-up works great and the kids all love it since it’s the only night of the year they’re allowed to ride back there.

We headed back to our house when we were done where all the kids picked a spot on the living room floor to dump out their loot. The parents inspected all the candy and then the kids proceeded to trade and swap favorites with each other. Everyone was pretty wiped out but had a great night, adults included. The next morning Riley and Owen dumped their candy on the kitchen table and did a little more trading.

The morning after, sorting/trading candy and being silly.

It was a fun and memorable night. I thought several times during the evening that this time next year, I’ll have a little girl bundled up in her stroller in a costume of some sort. She’ll be here before we know it!

Saturday was another great football day. Riley’s team came away with a victory which sets them up for the semi-finals this coming Saturday. After his game, we stuck around and watched Tyler’s game. His team is also headed for the playoffs next weekend. Another exciting season! We left the football field and visited Mom and Dad’s church to hear a Korean childrens choir. They were very good and the boys enjoyed it too. They ended up spending the night with Nanny and PawPaw and sounds like they had a lot of fun. I picked them up the next morning before church.

Sunday was a nice, lazy day. After church we went home to eat lunch and hung out there for a couple of hours. Then we made a trip to Sam’s Club and afterward stopped at a park for a couple hours so the boys could ride their bikes. Riley managed to organize 5-6 other boys with bicycles into having races. Owen volunteered as the referee (he was the one to say “ready, set, go”) although I think he raced a couple of times too. It was a beautiful day for it! Before going home, we had dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.


Like all weekends, it came to an end too quickly, but at least we were able to squeeze an extra hour out of this one.

Movies and Corn Mazes

Friday it rained all day. We decided it was a good night to stay home and watch a movie. It turned out to be just what we needed. We made a huge pallet on the living room floor, everyone had a bowl of popcorn and a coke and we enjoyed the new Transformer movie together. Lance and Riley had seen it at the theatre, but Owen and I hadn’t. It was a good movie, kid friendly except for one ‘suggestive’ scene that we were able to skip over. When it was over Riley was ready to watch something else, and Owen was sound asleep on the floor. Again proving Owen’s point a week or so ago, that use blue-eyed family members like to turn in early and the brown-eyed ones like to stay up late.

Saturday was another football day. Riley’s team won their final regular season game, 24-0, which pushes them into the playoffs. I never would have guessed I could get so wrapped up in 7 year old football, but it is so much fun to watch. It’s even more fun knowing that Riley loves to play so much. After a day on the field, he wants to do nothing but come home and run plays in the living room or on the trampoline with Owen. We watched the UGA, LSU game that afternoon which added even more to the football-mania in our house. Mom and Dad came by to deliver the boys pumpkins they’d picked up for them in North Georgia. Riley managed to get Nanny outside to play a game of two-hand touch football for a few minutes. I don’t think the football was out of his hands for more than 5 minutes all day long. We ended the day with steaks on the grill. A delicious end to another fun day.

Sunday after church and lunch, we headed to Southern Belle Farm with Scotty and his family. It was a beautiful day for it, mid-60’s and sunny. We twisted our way through the corn mazes, rode the hay ride, the boys had a ball on the pedal car track, rode the cow-train, got soaking wet with the duck races, cheered for the pigs in the pig races and had fun burying each other in the corn pit. We also saw lots of animals – cows, horses, pigs, goats and donkey’s. Our plan had been to come home and carve our pumpkins, but since it was 7:30 before we got home and we’d been going hard all day, we postponed. I wish now we’d done it then because here we are a day before Halloween and we’ve yet to do our carving. I’m hoping we can do it tomorrow afternoon before everyone gets on their costumes.

Another weekend of football and fun heading our way. I love the Fall!

Apple Pickin'

Well it's back to business as usual this week, but we enjoyed a little break from the routine last week. School was out for "Fall Break" and I took Thursday and Friday off from work.

Tuesday Lance took the boys to see the new Star Wars Clone Wars movie. They thought it was the greatest movie ever although Lance didn't agree. It sounded like they had a lot of fun.

Wednesday night the boys spent the night with their three Foster cousins. I think they all had a lot of fun. Trina was on her own for the night since Scotty was out of town. She had all 5 of them by herself. Really though, they entertain each other pretty well and play together good. Usually Riley and Tyler end up in his room while Owen plays with Abby and Kaylee in theirs.

Friday we headed North to find an orchard and some fun Fall things to do for the day. We ended up in Ellijay, GA and visited two orchards. The first one is where we picked our apples. The boys were way more excited about it than I really expected them to be. Maybe they were just relieved to get out of the truck after the 2 hour ride! Really though, they seemed to have a lot of fun. Riley was excited to purchase a new bottle of honey and has enjoyed several peanut-butter and honey sandwiches since we got home. Both boys loved the apple cider and of course we had to visit the ice cream counter too.

The second orchard we visited was more for fun and play. They had a petting zoo and a cool playground with a zip-line and a long slide built into the side of a hill. The boys may have had more fun on that playground than they did in the orchard.

After leaving the orchards we stopped by Lance's friends' house, Tommy, who lives in Ellijay. We had a great time visiting with him and it was a nice coincidence that we timed our visit to the arrival of his son and his family (with 2 little boys of his own) who had driven from Alabama for the weekend. We ate dinner with Tommy and his family, visited his garden (he's quite a gardner) and just enjoyed the beautiful scenery around his cabin. We headed home after that and made it to our beds at about 11pm. We were tired but had a great day.

The finale for the weekend was having the three Foster cousins over to our house Saturday night for a sleepover. The kids had a great time together and really played great, with very little arguing. They were outside most of the day Saturday - jumping on the trampoline, playing 'army' and hiking in the woods beside our house, riding bikes and we made a trip to the school playground for an hour or so too. Needless to say, I think they all slept good Sunday night!

We enjoyed our fun week but are getting back to our regular routine this week. Awana tonight. Football tomorrow night with a game Saturday morning. Life is busy but oh so full, I wouldn't want it any other way. I think this first picture says it all (and it wasn't even posed!).

Nathan Chase Messer

My sister gave birth to her 3rd beautiful boy, Nathan Chase Messer. He was born Friday morning at 12:04am and weighed in at 8 lbs 12 oz and was 20 inches long. He'll no doubt learn to be a pretty tough kid, growing up with two big brothers. He's a beautiful baby and I'm so happy for Alice and Ronnie and thankful that Nathan is healthy and Alice is doing well too.

Jacob (Nathan's biggest brother) is spending the night with us tonight. I just finished tucking them all into bed. They've had a busy day so they ought to all sleep well. Riley and Jacob both had football games this morning. The rest of they day they've been jumping on the trampoline and playing football in the yard and in their bedroom. It's been a football day for sure! Riley did sit still for a few minutes to watch the 4th quarter of the UGA game this afternoon with his Dad.

In other news, we are thankful to hear that our family in Texas all faired fairly well in the hurricane that hit yesterday. They've all lost electiricity and my Uncle had a tree fall on his truck, but we are thankful that everyone is safe and no one had any major damage to their homes. We are praying for you all and also for your neighbors to the South who are undoubtably dealing with more damage and consequences from Ike.

We are looking forward to some time-off next week. School is out for Fall break and most of our regular activities (football, Awana) are cancelled as well. I'm taking Thursday and Friday off too so I'm hoping we can enjoy a couple days doing some fun things together. We're thinking about possibly heading to Ellijay to pick apples or maybe to a local farm that advertises a corn maze. It's still a little warm to think of Fall-time activities, but we'll make the most of it and get ourselves ready for the cooler weather.

I'm doing great, I'm feeling great and the baby is growing as she should. We don't yet have confirmation of a boy or girl but we've already formed a habit of referring to "her". My next ultrasound is October 1st and we should know more then. The boys are excited and Owen especially seems to think a lot about the baby and ask questions about our new addition. I think seeing and holding baby Nathan got them all excited (and me too!) and made them even more anxious to meet their new sibling.

Sore Muscles

Last weekend was a busy one and expect this weekend will be no different. Lance is preparing to put in his garden and tending to his chickens and I’m trying to get some yard projects done too. Spring sort-of lends itself to outdoor projects and we’ve enjoyed the great temperatures and blue skies.

Saturday morning both boys had back to back baseball games. Riley’s was first and although his team lost, it was a good game. It’s always fun to watch Owen’s team play and Saturday was no different. A kid on the opposing team had a player that tried to run the bases in reverse. You have to give the kid credit, doesn’t it accomplish the same thing? After we got home and everyone had lunch, we all went outside. First we moved the chickens from their 75 gallon aquarium home with a heat lamp, to the outside coop Lance had built for them. The boys helped us carry them 2-by-2 from the basement out to the coop. Ten in total and after seeing them in their new spacious home, it was easy to see they’d long outgrown the aquarium.

After the chicken-move, Lance and I used a 2-man auger he’d borrowed from his Dad to dig fence-post holes around his soon-to-be garden and the chicken coop. We also dug a couple of additional post holes for an entry-way to the garden that Lance plans to build a trellis over and some built-in benches. It was fun talking through that design and making plans with the eventual design to include a walkway leading from stairs down the side of our driveway. There is so much we’d love to do outside but we’ll just do a little bit each year until we get there. We’ve learned that landscaping isn’t cheap but we do both enjoy it so it’s fun to make plans and brainstorm ideas. Here’s a picture of the garden and the fence posts. Hopefully after this coming weekend the fence will be up and possibly the garden will be tilled too assuming the weather cooperates for us again.

Sunday after church and lunch we were all outside again. This time we were burying chicken-wire around the perimeter of the chicken coop to prevent any predators (namely our dog) from digging their way in to the chickens. I’m pretty sure this activity is largely responsible for my aching muscles on Monday. We dug a 2’ wide area, about 6” deep around the 60’ perimeter of the coop using a shovel, hoe and rake. Whew! And since I didn’t get to use my legs and glut muscles much in that project, I decided to take the boys bike riding later that afternoon. I didn’t want any of the other muscles to feel left out. By Monday morning I was sore but have since recovered and am looking forward to doing it all again this weekend.

Both Saturday and Sunday the boys were mostly outside with us, riding bikes, playing ‘army’, jumping on the trampoline and sometimes helping by digging random holes, handing Daddy tools and checking on the chickens. There were frequent breaks for a snacks and drinks because they were, “so tired and hungry!” And they both came running any time Lance or I uncovered a worm so they could promptly feed it to the chickens. Riley also caught a frog at some point over the weekend but we talked him into letting him go back to his ‘home’ in the tree.

This weekend Lance plans to wrap the fence around both the coop and the garden and I hope to get my 10 new azaleas in the ground down the side of our dam. If we’re feeling ambitious and have time to spare, maybe the garden will get tilled and Lance will have time to build more bird feeders and houses. Something he’s been doing during the week using scrap lumber of which he seems to have abundance. We also have to squeeze in two baseball games on Saturday and a birthday party on Sunday afternoon. On second thought, we might not get around to those ‘extra’ projects.

In other news, Mom and Dad are traveling around Kentucky this week. Her email this morning said they were at Mammoth Cave National Park. They did a 2 mile tour/hike yesterday and were planning on doing the longer 4 hour one today. Lance and I saw the cave on one of our visits to see his brother who was in seminary in Louisville at the time. It’s really amazing how massive the underground world is of Mammoth.

Before I sign-off, here is a good picture of our snaggle-tooth Riley. That other top tooth is loose too; I suspect he’ll have an even wider gap in a couple more weeks.

It's been a while

It’s been a while since my last post. No particular reason for the delay, I guess we’ve just been busy with everyday things.

Spring break was nice last week. I took off Monday and Tuesday. The boys and I went go to Kangaroo Kids one afternoon and met Mom, Alice, Jacob and Ethan. They had fun and were exhausted when we left. That is always a good thing. Another afternoon we met Alice and her boys at a park and they played for a couple hours – another energy-expending activity for crazy little boys. It was fun and to top it off we ran into Jennifer and Craig who I hadn’t seen in a long time with their new little one, Gabriel, or as Alice called him, ‘Little Hugh’ (Jennifer’s Dad’s name is Hugh).

Riley had a few baseball practices throughout the week, but no games because of Spring Break. Owen had none. We took the kids to play putt-putt one night, not realizing they stop letting people begin new games at 7:30pm and close at 8pm. We arrived at 7:35pm. Fortunately the lady at the counter was really nice and let us play until 8pm and assuming we wouldn’t be able to finish a game, she let us play for free. Riley and Owen were running through the course with excitement and managed to finish all 18 holes before 8pm. All that rushing was pure excitement since they were completely unaware of the time crunch. We finished our free, quick game of putt-putt and then went to eat dinner at our favorite Mexican spot.

Riley lost another tooth last week. I need to get a picture to post of that, it’s one of the top middle teeth. It really changed his appearance with that big gap there now.

Other than that, Lance finished up the chicken coop. The chicken’s will probably get moved into it this weekend. We had a cold front move through this week, so we were waiting for warmer weather. I think it should be safe now.Nothing big planned for this weekend. Two games tomorrow morning although the forecast is showing rain, we will see.

Lance borrowed an auger so I think he intends to begin digging post-holes for a fence around his garden. Somehow I think I’m going to get sucked into some of that work too.Riley wants to have his birthday at a county park that has a BMX bike track. We have been before, but I think we will make a visit to see how party-friendly the park would be and to let the boys ride their bikes on the track. Not sure if Owen will try the track or not, I’m guessing he’ll stick to the level path near the track.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Granny Irene

I’m not sure how old Granny would be today. I’ve never been good about remembering birth-years. Would she be 90? Mom, am I right? I know she has been gone now for 5 years and is missed very, very much. It’s so hard to believe it’s been 5 years. I had fun ‘remembering’ Granny Lois and wanted to do the same thing for Granny Irene. Here are some things I remember, please chime in on the comments section with your own remembrances…

I remember she always had Juicy Fruit chewing gum in her purse and would only give you a half a piece at a time.

I remember she always kept peppermint in her purse too. Mom, I think you do this now too.

I remember staying with her for a week every summer. I have so many memories from those weeks with her in Dawson. That week always included shopping and a trip to Calloway Gardens.

I remember her taking me to Calloway Gardens every summer. She always let us invite one of our ‘Dawson’ friends to go with us too. She and one of her friends would sit in the rocking chairs under the pavilion while me and Alice and our friends would play in the lake and on the beach.

I remember having sleep-overs in Dawson at her house with one of our ‘Dawson’ friends either at her house or at Mrs. Mervin’s.

I remember she loved to take her 3 grandkids shopping and was always very generous. I think she was largely responsible for our new school wardrobe each year.

I remember me and Alice always slept in her King size bed with her when we visited her in Dawson. We would get so tickled lying in bed at night and laughing at different things. She would laugh at us and then Alice and I would laugh at her uncontrollable laughter, it was an endless cycle. I think we sounded more like 3 teenagers having a sleep over more so than 2 granddaughters with their grandmother.

I remember her stirring up my ice-cream to soften it and make it like fresh homemade ice cream days after it had been churned. The expression on her face, well I guess you just had to be there.

I remember walking to and from First Baptist of Dawson on weekend visits to her house.

I remember Sunday afternoons on her front porch. All the adults sitting and talking and the kids playing in the front yard and picking up pecans from the lawn.

I remember watching T.V. on Saturday nights in her den while eating homeade ice cream.

On those same Saturday nights, I remember Alice and I scheming a plan to 'sneak' up on the adults while they watched T.V. We drew a schematic of the den complete with our route planned carefully. No way they would see us crawling behind the couch and under the coffee table.

I remember she always gave me and Alice a Madame Alexander doll for Christmas. That collection is still in Mom’s attic.

I remember she is largely responsible for my jewelry collection, generously giving me birthstone jewelry and many other rings and necklaces. I treasure each piece and although I don’t wear it daily, I try to wear one piece a week and always think of her when I do.

I remember going out with her and all of her ‘buddies’ in Dawson to play cards or eat at The Varsity. She was always so busy!

I remember eggs, over-easy with fried cornbread for breakfast. I’m hungry just thinking of it. The cornbread is something no one else has been able to duplicate since she died. I think it was the fresh cornmeal that made it so difficult to duplicate.

I remember throwing table-scraps across the fence to her neighbors’ chickens after each meal at her house.

I remember pulling under her carport on Friday nights after dark and her opening the carport door in her gown and robe giving us each a hug and kiss as we walked into her home. “Hey Deezy, Hey Doodlebug, Hey T-Ron.” We each had a nick-name.

Most of all I remember how much she loved us. We were her only 3 grandkids and as an adult I can vividly remember how proud she was of us as kids and how much she loved us all. Our comfort rests in the knowledge that she is with Granddaddy experiencing the splendor of Heaven and we will one day be reunited with her again. What an awesome day that will be!

Opening Day

Unfortunately my brother-in-law, Scotty, was admitted to Emory Thursday night with heart complications. I ended up working from home on Friday so Lance could be at the hospital with his family while Scotty underwent a heart-cath procedure to diagnose the problem. The procedure brought great news – they were able to fix he problem by eliminating some scar tissue on his heart left from surgery at 5 years old. There would be no further treatment needed for now and everyone was beyond excited and thankful. Unfortunately after being discharged on Saturday, he was re-admitted on Sunday for a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in his lung) as a result of the heart-cath procedure. He will be in-patient for a few days as they resolve the clot with blood thinners. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

Not completely understanding the circumstances, my boys are excited since it means their 3 cousins spent the night with us last night. A sleep over on a school night is otherwise unheard of!

Although overshadowed by my brother-in-law’s stay in the hospital, opening day 2008 was largely a success. It was a long day but we couldn’t have asked for better weather and plenty of fun. The parade was at 9am, which is what both Owen and Riley were looking forward to more than their games. Lance went with Owen and his team and I went with Riley. It’s a short parade route, maybe 1 mile if that, but they love throwing handfuls of candy at the scattered bystanders on the roadside. Owen’s game was immediately following the parade/opening day announcements at 11am. Have you ever seen 3 and 4 year olds play baseball? It is so funny! Owen is quite proud that this year he is one of the 4 year old veterans who can occasionally hit the ball without the assistance of a T. He did that during the game and made his turn around the bases. Another boy on his team had a great hit and then proceeded to run to centerfield to fetch his ball. Too funny! Even funnier was the jabs Lance made at this kid’s Dad, a former Atlanta Brave.We had a few hours after that before Riley’s 2:45 game. All the teams have fundraising booths and the local high school ROTC runs inflatable slides and bounce houses so there was plenty to do before Riley’s game. Nacho’s, Dippin’ Dots, Cokes, Cotton Candy, Hot Dogs, it was all there.

Riley’s game went well too. They lost, but still a good game. This is the first year with real strike-out’s. No T to use if you miss the pitches from the coach. It’s still coach pitch, but no T. It tried to rain on us before it was over, but nothing more than a drizzle until we got in the car after the game was over and then it rained pretty good. Owen kept complaining that it was “dripping on him.”

OB’s BBQ for dinner. I got to pick since it was my birthday. A busy, hectic day for a birthday but I got to watch my 2 guys do some of their favorite things – play, eat, play baseball – you can’t ask for much better.

This update wouldn’t be complete without confessing my ‘uh-oh’ on Friday. Lance was at the hospital with his brother (40+ miles from home) and I was taking the boys to the ball field, they both had a 6:30 practice. We headed out and as soon as the garage door closed behind me, I knew what I’d done. My keys (car and house) were on the kitchen counter behind the now locked, garage door. Oops. Lance has the only other house key. Even worse, my cell phone was also on the kitchen counter charging. Needless to say we had an opportunity to meet our nice neighbors who called their locksmith friend who was at our house in about 30 minutes. So after nearly 45 minutes and $90 later, I again had possession of my keys and off to the ball park we went. At least we made it in time to get everyone’s uniform for the Saturday morning festivities.

Our Easter in Pictures

Rather than bore you with the written details of our Easter,

I thought I'd let the pictures tell the story.

They do it much better than I could otherwise. So here you go...

All the great grandkids on Lance's side of the family with his grandparents.

Egg hunting at GG Ma's and GG Pa's

Playing with Bubbles

My handsome boys.

For every nice picture like the one above,
you get a dozen or more of the silly ones like this:

...and this:

...and this:

My handsome nephew.

Our Family.

All the grandkids on my side of the family

Hunting at Nanny and PawPaw's.

The four 'little' boys at Nanny and PawPaw's.

I hope all of you had as great a weekend as we did. As a Christian, I think Easter is the most significant celebration we have. Afterall, there could be nothing greater than the resurrection of our Lord and Savior!

Chickens

I never would have predicted that Lance and I would one day be chicken farmers. OK, so maybe 'farmer' is taking it a bit too far but we do now own 8 bitty's (those are baby chickens for all you non-farmers)! They are currently residing in our basement inside an aquarium and under a heat lamp. They really are cute and so far not too much trouble. They chirp, but not annoyingly so. You can't really hear them from upstairs. Those tiny little birds can eat though. That has been the most surprising thing is how much they eat and how quickly! I'll try to get some pictures of them up a little later. I don't have any handy now.

We hung out with the chickens most of the day in the basement. Not for the sake of being with the chickens, but we were in the basement trying to sort an organize all the boxes and junk that is down there. We are far from done, but did make some progress. I think it will take a few more rainy-days to get it done. If the sun is out tomorrow it's going to be really hard to hang out in the basement all day. Lance and I agreed that we'd try to do this right, box by box. Rather than just stacking the boxes neatly, we want to put them in categories and get rid of things we don't need to keep. If it were up to me a lot more would be in the trash but my pack-rat of a husband isn't letting me get away with too much of that.

Lance spent a good bit of time with the boys today working on their pinewood derby cars. They are making these for the Awana Grand Prix at church Wednesday night. So far, Daddy has done most of the work since saws have been involved. But tomorrow the fun part will get done, painting and decorating their cars. It's been a fun project for all of us. We'll have to take a camera with us Wednesday night to get some pictures from the big race. I'm sure it'll be fun.

Please pray for all those affected by the tornado's in Georgia last night and today. Fortunately all our family and friends are safe, but many others weren't as fortunate. Also, please pray for Emily Lester. She's a teenager from Florida who is fighting for her life right now at St. Jude. I'm sure her family would appreciate all your prayers.

Welcome Alexander!

There was a new arrival in the Helton family Thursday evening in Texas. Congratulations Todd, Stephanie and big-brother Joshua on Alexander Taylor Helton. What a beautiful baby boy! With his parents’ permission, here is a picture of the sweet Alexander:

Happy Birthday to Alice today too! I hope you have a great day despite the dreary weather! And just for old time’s sake, here are a couple of pictures of the birthday girl. Who else thinks this looks like Jacob with blonde hair and a dress??

Thursday I worked in McDonough at our training center which is only about 10 miles from home. I was done about lunch time and met Lance, Owen and Kaylee at Burger King for them to play and eat. It was nice to get home early. I managed to get the last couple of hours of work done at home and then we played outside for a while. Gorgeous day yesterday! Trampoline time, bicycles, sidewalk chalk and when Tyler and Abby arrived to pick up Kaylee a game of hide-and-seek and freeze-tag ensued.

Earlier this week I stopped at the bait store on my way home and picked up some worms for fishing. The boys were more excited about getting the worms out of the can and putting them on the hook than they were the actual fishing, but we had fun. At one point as I was helping Owen reel his line in, I looked over and Riley had laid his pole on the ground and was in the top of a cedar tree. He said he could see better up there (maybe he should have gotten the family name Zaccheus) to know when his float went under. I guess he didn’t think through the fact that his pole would be drug into the water before he could get out of that tree, if he should get a bite. Unfortunately nobody got a bite that night. As you can see, Lance was behind the camera while we fished but I think he managed to cast a few times too.

I almost forgot to mention another momentous event in our house last night. About the time Alexander was entering the world for the first time, Riley was taking his very first shower. That’s right, a big event indeed. He’d been bugging me about it for a while since installing a new shower head in his bathroom Nanny and PawPaw had give him and Owen at Christmas (one with a hose so you can take down and spray). I peaked in a few times to make sure he was washing and not playing. He washed his hair 4 times! After he got out he told me he had bathed 4 times and said, “..that oughta last me 3 weeks, right Mom?” Funny how something so little made him feel so grown up. After he got this pajama’s on he wanted to know what else he could do to be a big-boy. He proceeded to empty out all the bathroom trashcans for us and then he wanted to dip his own ice-cream (although he conceded that after realizing how hard the ice-cream was) and pour his own milk. He is growing up so fast! It made me feel better when Owen wanted me to “hold him like a baby and carry him to bed” later that night. That’s my boy!

I’m running a 10K race in the morning, not sure what else the weekend will hold. Riley was going to go with me and do the 1-Mile fun run, but since the weather forecast consists of a 30% chance of rain and 20-something-degrees, I’ve managed to talk him out of tagging along. If I didn’t need to race to qualify for the Peachtree in July, I would skip it myself. Great weather AND I get to wake up at 5am on a Saturday! Can you tell I’m excited about it??

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Once I warm up and dry-out after Saturday’s race, I intend to enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Vacation Fun

Sorry for the delay in updating. I’ve been enjoying the week off with my kids. They are out of school all week. I had Monday as a holiday and took Tuesday and Wednesday off too. We had originally thought we might go to Parrott to camp and relax, but decided we’d relax more at home. We had a great week. We had a huge bon-fire most of the day Saturday as Lance burned lots of tree limbs and a couple of dead tree’s he’d chopped down.

We ended up at the school parking lot no less than 4 times for the boys to ride their bikes. If it’s possible I think Owen is now into riding his bike more than his brother. My car and Lance’s truck stayed out of the garage most of the week to accommodate their riding. Our gravel driveway doesn’t make for a great racetrack. They prefer the garage and then flying down the paved portion of the driveway and into the pasture. Lance is nearly done with his chicken-coop. That’s right, we’re hoping by early Spring we’ll have chickens. Lance wants them for the eggs, I think the kids are more looking forward to having them as pets. Owen has already named his – “Chicken Coop”. He said all week, “Chicken Coop is going to live in the chicken coop.” He cracks himself up.

Sunday afternoon Jacob and Ethan came over so Alice and Ronnie could go to a NASCAR party ({cough} redneck {cough} ). It was raining most of the time so the four boys stayed inside. Not as bad as it sounds, they played well together. We broke out the play-dough and they had fun ducking and hiding from bad-guys while armed with their nerf guns. Ethan kept calling me “Nanny.” I had to laugh but I really don’t mind. I liked having him all to myself. If his Mommy or his real Nanny is around, he never wants me but on Sunday he didn’t have many other choices (sorry Lance).

Tuesday the boys and I met Alice and her two at Pump-It-Up (an inflatable indoor playground). They all had fun doing that and then eating lunch afterwards. Ethan was still calling me Nanny, but that is OK. At least he let me hold him in Alice’s presence. I’ll take it.

Wednesday we took the boys to the Georgia Aquarium. We all enjoyed that. Lance and I had been, but not with the boys. There were lots of “Wows” and jaw-dropping moments to witness. There are several spots where the kids can crawl through a little tunnels and pop their head up in a plexi-glass bubble so it looks like they are in the aquarium or habitat with the animals. They especially loved doing that with the penguins. The beluga whales are mine and Lance’s favorites, they are really fun to watch. It seems like they are performing for you as they swim in front of the glass for you to watch. Riley said he liked the alligators, piranhas and the sea lions. Owen liked the sea lions and the whale sharks. It wasn’t a cheap afternoon (over $100 for the four of us to get in plus lunch!) but it was a lot of fun.

After the aquarium, we headed to Byron to meet Mom and Dad. Byron is a good half-way point for meeting between home and Parrott. They took the boys with them to Parrot for the rest of the week. I had to go back to work Thursday and Friday. It’s been raining since they’ve been there. Poor PawPaw and Nanny are stuck in a camper with my two wild boys. They did find a few breaks in the clouds yesterday to get some 4-wheeler riding done. Hopefully they’ll be more of that today and then Saturday it is supposed to be nice a sunny. I definitely enjoy the break when they are gone, but Lance and I both commented on how quiet and boring it is without them around. I started on our taxes last night (didn’t get much farther than installing Turbo Tax) and we watched Survivor and American Idol (flipping back and forth). We really know how to have an exciting, kid-free night – pizza, taxes, American Idol and Survivor.

I’m not sure what the plan is for tonight. Maybe we’ll treat ourselves to a date night – dinner and a movie sounds good.

Baseball and Bicycles

Our weekend was nice. We figured we better enjoy it because before we know it, baseball season will be in full swing and our Saturday’s will be spent at the ball field. I went down Saturday morning and signed both boys up for baseball. Owen will play in the same league he did last year with 3 and 4 year olds. Riley will move up to the 7/8 year old league since he’ll turn 7 in May and that is their cut-off. I hesitated about moving him up but then realized that since most of his fellow first graders will be moving up, that is where he should be. With a May birthday he is a few months younger than most of his friends but I think he’ll want to stay with them in baseball. The biggest change with this league is kid’s pitch. I think the kids throw 3 pitches and if they throw a strike then the coaches throw 3 pitches too….something like that. It’ll be interesting. Lance plans to start coaching Riley at home on his pitching since that is what he really wants to try. I wouldn’t be surprised though if it’s the 8 year olds that get that opportunity. Not the young-starting-the-season-as-a-6-year-old-but-almost-7-year-old on the team. We’ll see.

Friday we ate dinner at my Mom and Dad’s. Chili and hotdogs. It was good. No occasion. Mom and Dad are about to head out for a 2-week camping trip and wanted to see everyone before they left. I guess there’ll be more of these to come! They deserve it! My boys invited themselves to spend the night and of course Nanny and PawPaw said yes. Lance and I went home kid-free. Saturday morning I cleaned house – bathrooms, kitchen floor and hardwood floors. All were long overdue! Although not fun, it was so nice to be able to do it without any interruptions, no one running across my clean, wet floor and without the guilty conscience I always suffer for doing things like that rather than taking my kids to a park or doing something fun. I knew they were having a ball at Nanny and PawPaw’s. After I finally picked up the boys around 4pm or so, we stopped by Sam’s on the way home and picked up some steaks for dinner. We grilled out and watched The Game Plan on dvd for a family movie night. Cute movie. Riley had been dying to see it since it was in the theatre but we never made it. It’s a football movie and that is all he needed to know to make it a must-see in his book.

Sunday after church, we hung out at home. Lance did some yard work. Later Riley and I went to the school parking lot for a bike ride while Lance stayed home with a sleeping Owen. We finished the day with hamburgers on the grill and American Gladiator on t.v. Riley and Owen’s new favorite t.v. show. They have their own challenges during commercials taking turns being the competitor and the gladiator. I would never watch it if not for them, but it’s so much fun to watch with them. A new episode tonight, yeah!

Owen is running a fever today and coughing too. I pray it is short-lived and he doesn’t share with his brother, or anyone else. He’s moping around and not really acting like himself. This might explain the rare nap yesterday afternoon too. My poor O. Maybe Gladiator will cheer him up!

After I got home from work (and after some Motrin was at work in Owen), the boys were ready to head outside. Riley's latest obsession - his bike. He loves to ride it down our driveway and see how far he makes it into the pasture before he stops. He also learned the art of making donuts in the gravel. Even after a few crashes and some scraped up hands, he kept doing them. Dare devil! My little-not-so-dare-devilish-Owen also decided today that he was ready to try his bike. That's right, the one that he got for Christmas 2006 (thanks PawPaw and Nana!) and has never even wanted to sit on before (even with training wheels). Today he hopped on and was peddling himself all over the garage. No dare-devil stunts for him, but it was a very big deal that he decided to give it a try. I bet before the end of the summer, his training wheels will be gone too. Once on it, he was hooked and so proud of himself. He was begging me to take him to the park to ride but I told him we'd have to wait till another night. We'll have to go one day this week for sure.

5 minutes till American Gladiator. The boys are in their bean-bag chairs anxiously waiting. I better go join them.

Until next time….

Granny Lois

Today my grandmother would have been 91 years old. That is so hard to believe! She has been gone now for 16 years.

I like to imagine her soaking up all the glory that surrounds her in Heaven. I like to imagine she’s walking the streets of gold as she holds her son, Winston’s hand with my Grandfather Thearon, holding his other hand. As the song says, we can only imagine. But Granny Lois no longer has to imagine. She is experiencing it all first hand.

I remember when she died. I was a freshman at Georgia Tech. We had been to stay with her several weeks before, sure that she was going to Heaven then, but she’d pulled through. Weeks later when she died, my Dad came to tell me early in the morning as I was still in my bed. I had to call one of my professors to arrange taking an exam that I would miss due to the funeral.

My fondest memories of her are the holiday and weekend visits she and my Aunt Amelia would make to our house in Rex. Those memories I can clearly relate to a smell. I remember getting off the bus from school, running in our house and I could smell Este Lauder perfume. As a little girl I didn’t know the scent was from perfume, it was just the familiar smell that I knew meant Granny Lois and Aunt Amelia were visiting. To this day if I smell that scent at a mall cosmetics counter or on someone else in an elevator, my thoughts go back to those afternoons running in the house with excitement knowing that we had company.

I remember her sitting in a kitchen chair while Alice, Hannah (my cousin) and I dolled her up with make-up. She let us put on as much blue eye shadow as we wanted and went on and on about how beautiful we’d made her.

I remember lying in bed in Texas in Hannah’s room. She slept in Hannah’s bed and Hannah and I on cots. She always made us crack-up laughing at something. I remember her getting in bed one night looking up at the light above the bed and saying, “Goodness gracious, this must be a 1000 watt bulb!” That’s probably one of those ‘you had to be there moments’, but we laughed about that for a long time.

I remember my Dad putting on music in our living room over Christmas vacation and her trotting in the room, ‘cutting a rug.’ She loved to dance. She tried to teach me how to do the Charleston. She would hold up her skirt a little and dance away in her stocking feet.

I remember spending a week with her during the summers. We’d come out of the grocery store or hair salon and the black leather seats in her Chevy Impala would be so hot you couldn’t sit on them. She’d line the seats with Kleenex for us to sit on with our shorts.

I remember riding in that Impala with her, Hannah and Alice and us 3 girls acting scared to death because she was a maniac behind the wheel.

I remember she always had a candy dish in her apartment with Hershey’s Kisses. I think of her every time I have a Kiss.
I remember her red refrigerator.

I remember all her makeup and the fun we had making each other up as well as her.

I remember she bought me my first make-up kit for Christmas one year. Not sure my age, maybe 12. Of course it was an Este Lauder makeup kit.

I remember she loved to watch Wrestling on t.v. on Sunday afternoons.

I remember she loved to watch her ‘stories’ on t.v. during the day.

I remember that Chevy Impala was the only car she ever owned and my Grandfather bought it for her after they were married and he taught her to drive.

I remember her borrowing one of my yellow crayons to color in a scratch on her yellow Impala.

I remember she always called Hannah, “Missy”.

I remember going to the playground behind her apartment on Mercer’s campus and not being able to find her apartment when I was done playing. They were all identical and I couldn’t find hers. Some nice neighbors helped me.

We love you Granny Lois! How awesome it is to know that you are in His spectacular majesty. We rest in the peace of knowing that we will all be reunited again one day as you will no doubt great us at the gates and share with us all that you’ve enjoyed these last 16 years!

**** I know there are plenty of Helton’s who read this. If you are so inclined, leave your Granny Lois memories in the Comments section (Click on “Comments” at the end of this post). It will be fun to read what everybody writes. ****

Lazy Sunday

What a great day. We headed to church this morning, which still allowed us to be lazy since our church just adjusted the service times and we opted for the 11:30 service today. That means we had time to make pancakes and bacon. In our book, that is a great start to any day.

After church we hung out together outside in the 70+ degree December afternoon. It was great! Riley rode his bike (a feat he conquered this summer and is now loving). He even braved it and hoped on his newer (taller) bike, which is a good bit bigger than the one he learned on. He did fine, but his idea of stopping is slowing down and jumping since his feet don't touch the ground on the bigger one. Aside from O sitting in the antbed and screaming from across the yard, he had fun too (and he only had about 2 bites from the ants). He had fun riding down driveway on a skateboard most of the afternoon and drawing with sidewalk chalk. He is a great helper too. He was the first one in the garden when Lance said he needed help. We cleaned out all the tall cornstalks, sunflowers and took out the tomato cages so Lance could mow it all down. Glad that is done.

I also took down the "clubhouse." This was our old tent that I had erected for the boys to play in in the woods next to our house. They rarely used it and after sitting in the woods for close to a year, it began rotting and had a few holes in it. Down it came and into the garbage.

Our Saturday was good too. The boys and I spent the afternoon at Nanny's house baking with all the girls and kids (missed you, Tracey!). We made so much but more importantly I ate *way* too much! The list of goodies - toffee (my favorite), divinity, fudge, praline, chocolate covered pecans, chocolate covered pretzels, a gingerbread house, cookies, party mix, sausage balls and cheese straws. Did I miss anything? I think that is all of it. And since we hadn't eaten nearly enough we all headed to Longhorn last night to celebrate Kaitlyn and Lance's birthdays. It was good, but I didn't even consider ordering a steak - I was already stuffed and miserable by the time we left.

On a more solemn note - If you have a minute, please visit Ashley's page and leave her family an encouraging word. She is one of my "kids" and had been recovering from a bone marrow transplant. She was having some trouble, but I thought doing fairly well. I was so saddened and shocked to find out that she left this earth to go to Heaven Saturday afternoon. I'm sure the Debes family would appreciate your prayers at this time.