Nana and Granddad's 60th Anniversary

Nana and Granddad celebrated their 60th Anniversary with a party the day before Easter.  We all went to Fayetteville for the day to help them celebrate.  It was a good day to honor a marriage thats lasted through 6 decades, 4 children, 7 grandchildren, 5 great-grandchildren and (I'm sure) many ups and downs. Hope you both had a great day! 

Beautiful flowers sent from the kids who couldn't be there

Daughters Sharon and Mary, along with Hill's sister Rita and her son

Cade and his cousin Josh

The Weekend

Last weekend Cade and I went to Sheldon.  This was Cade's first time to see Baby Lawson.  I think it's safe to say that Cade was pretty impressed with him.  He spent a lot of time Saturday afternoon holding Lawson.  I think Cade did really well with him if I do say so myself.  It seemed to be pretty natural for him...or at least as natural as can be expected for a 7 year old.  For a boy that moves constantly he was content to sit still and hold Lawson for long stretches of time.

Here is Cade seeing Lawson for the first time Friday night

Here is Cade finally getting to hold Lawson.  As you can see Avery didn't want to be left out of the picture.

Mom and the kids made cupcakes Saturday afternoon

Here is Cade holding Lawson again.  I have to admit that watching this made my heart hurt.  Cade would make such a great older brother.  I really hope he gets the opportunity to be one soon.  I had wondered what was going through his mind while he was holding Lawson Saturday and later that night I got my answer.  He told Papa Kerry that he wishes we could adopt our baby.  What do you say to that?

Before I left the kids that night, in the care of Grandma Robyn, I got a pampering session from Avery.  It went ok until she tried to wind my hair around a round brush.  I told her that I didn't want to have my hair cut to get a brush loose, because it was just starting to grow out.  Avery informed me that she was trying to make my hair longer....like her moms.  Right before I left that night I heard Cade say "No, I'm not a girl".  I asked him what was going on and he said Avery wanted to play beauty shop on him.  That would've been an interesting scene....

I'm an Aunt Again

Charity had her baby boy today. Lawson Heath was born at 3:18, weighed 7 lbs 8 oz and was 21 inches. Avery is very excited about her status of being a big sister. He is a very sweet boy. I need to tell them to enjoy it now. Before you know it he'll be running around shooting off a million rounds of imaginary ammunition with his mouth while driving his parents absolutely nuts!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Roy Blunt

Roy Blunt, one of Missouri's Representatives, visited Jim and Sharon's farm on Monday. Some of you more political savvy ones might remember that he served as Minority Whip a few years ago. He's also running for Senator in 2010. When we visited DC in 2007 we got to see him in the Whip's office in the Capitol. Every year, in August, he has an Ag Tour through the part of Missouri he represents. He goes to different farms and other ag related business. A lot of big names in agriculture are represented on this trip - Farm Bureau, Missouri State Ag Department, FCS (of course!), etc. There are roughly 70 people on the tour. This year Jim and Sharon's farm was selected to be a part of the tour. In 2007 they worked with a government program to plant trees along the sides of the chicken houses to reduce their odor pollution. Jay's FFA students spent a couple of days helping plant and mulch the trees. The tour came to look at the trees and lean about how it is supposed to work.

Of course it was a huge honor for Jim and Sharon. The whole family was able to be there which made it even more special. It was also really neat for Cade. Blunt remembered him from when we were in DC last month. While he was talking he touched Cade on the shoulder and said something about this young man just being in his office in Washington. Cade, who knows no stranger, piped up and said "yeah, we had to get through National Security". Blunt asked him again what he said and then held the microphone down to his face. Jay and I both inwardly cringed. We were frightened of what he might say. We breathed a sigh of relief when all he did was repeat that we had to get through National Security. All 70+ people on the trip laughed at what he said. Jay is really hoping that Cade continues with his ability to speak in front of people because he's got big plans for Cade's FFA future. As Blunt was wrapping up his talk he said that there were 8 people in the family who could answer any questions they might have and 9 if you count Mr. National Security.

After the tour was over and the guests were loading up on the buses and Blunt was trying to get away Cade said he needed to tell Blunt something. I (being a bad mom) told him that Blunt was really busy and needed to leave. He didn't care for my answer. Cade stood by Blunt's vehicle and cornered him before he could get in. He told the Congressmen all about Button's, his bull. Again we cringed because Blunt asked him what kind of bull it was. He's gotten some things confused in his mind and can't remember if Button's is a heifer or a Hereford. Since there is a huge difference between the two he needed to get it right. Cade paused for a minute and then was able to tell him that Button's was a Hereford (whew!). I tried to rescue Blunt at that point so he could get away. I guess Cade told Sharon that he was upset with me because he wanted to tell Blunt what field Button's was in but I wouldn't let him. Oh, the unfairness that a mother experiences!

We were telling Cade that we were pretty sure that no other kid in his class got to see Roy Blunt two times over the summer (not that any of them would care). So when his teacher asks him what he did he better say something about his trip to Washington or seeing Roy Blunt in his office and at his Memo and Papa Jim's farm....not the time Jay took him to Bass Pro during his tonsillectomy recovery.

I promise that I will get pictures and the story about how Button's came to be posted as soon as I can.

I love this picture. This is our State Representative who ran for office a few years ago. Sharon got aggravated at him because he was campaigning at a function at their church so she told him about it. I love it because it looks like she's really giving it to him, even though I know that she's only answering a question for him...probably about the poultry houses.

Is it a girl, boy or CAT????

Avery said something funny last night. It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to laugh over a child just getting a grasp on language. Cade’s more into facial expressions now which is just as funny but it’s hard to blog about that. Cade can also come up with some zingers, but it’s different from Avery who doesn’t quite have it all together yet.

Avery has a cat that she calls Miss Kitty. Every time I’m on the phone with Charity I can hear her screaming repeatedly “I want to talk, I want to talk”. If I were Charity I’d never pick the phone up in the evening because Avery doesn’t let up until you let her talk. So Avery will get on the phone and we pretty much always have the same conversation…
Avery: You know what my kitty did?
Me: What did your kitty do?
Avery: He spit out his food
It’s the same conversation every time so last night I tried a different approach…
Avery: You know what my kitty did?
Me: Let me guess, I bet it spit out its food
Avery: He spit out his food
Me: Hey Avery, did you know that your cat is actually a girl?
Avery: No Crystal, he is a CAT!!!!

She was pretty firm on the fact that Miss Kitty is not a girl, but a CAT. I decided it was best to let it go….but I may try it again the next time I talk to her. Kid’s are so funny.

Something Funny

I'm wasting the last few minutes of the day reading something on the internet. I found this article. Seems that the Chevy Silverado 2500 is one of the least ticketed autos out there. Too bad that didn't hold true for us. I found this to very funny today for some reason

Happenings from Thursday

Today my supervisor and his supervisor have been conducting interviews for my position. It’s a little weird to be sitting here looking at someone who will be taking my place. I’ve never experienced that before so it’s definitely a different feeling. I feel like I’m sizing up competition, even though I’m not. Since I’m a pleaser I’ve thought what if they like her better than me? What if she does a much better job than me? What if George thinks “man Crystal was an idiot compared to her”? Yes, my fears are totally weird and I haven’t dwelt on them all day but it did cross my mind a time or two. Right now it’s looking like someone could be here around the first of March. YAH!!!

Today I also had my follow up visit with the surgeon about my gallbladder. I think I’ve mentioned before that I had one incision that was bothering me more than the others. The doctor noticed that particular incision had a stitch that didn’t dissolve. I’m wondering if that’s why it has been bothering me? There’s nothing like trying to stand up straight, hold a shirt up and not breathe while a doctor is coming towards your stomach with a pair of scissors and tweezers. I didn’t want to breathe because I thought he’d stab me with something. Thankfully he tugged a little and it came out without any pain. He did tell me the pathology report came back and I did indeed have gallstones, which was obvious, and the lining of the gallbladder was very irritated. I think it’s a good thing we decided to do the surgery when we did, otherwise we probably would’ve been doing this as an emergency surgery at a later date. I can already tell a difference in the way I feel. I don’t have the feeling of pressure that I had before at the top of my stomach and the pain around the right side of my ribs is gone. I’m feeling really good and I’m pretty much back to normal.

The Second Incident of 2009

The second incident of 2009 happened to me on Sunday at church.

I hope noone sees this post as being mean or that I'm talking about someone. Since this is my blog and my way of working through issues I'm going to include it. It is a situation that has made me feel a mixture of emotions from anger to frustration to sadness and even humor.....

I had an altercation about bathroom curtains with an old lady at church. The handful of us church members who were there that day witnessed it. I’m pretty sure that when I have my gallbladder surgery later in the month this particular old lady will not be sending me any get well soon wishes. One thing I find to be funny is that I managed to make an old lady mad. What kind of person ticks off an old lady? Obviously I’m that kind of person because this lady and I have never mixed well. Unknowingly I upset her four years ago. I had just recently been forgiven for that because she had started speaking to me again. I guess I managed to undo all that in a one minute conversation……

We had to do some remodeling on the women’s bathroom/nursery. Right now the room is still torn up, but we need to redecorate it. Our church is stuck in the late 60’s early 70’s in terms of decorating so I’m hoping this is our chance to freshen up at least one room in the church. I know there are debates about this at churches all over the world, but I do think there is something to be said about a church that does have a fresh appearance. Some disagree because those attending church should look at the members and what they are teaching, not the building. But if a building looks stale what does that say about the activities going on at the church? Anyway, the two bathrooms and the nursery need to be repainted. Then the builder hung pipe (galvanized plumbing pipe to be exact) along one side of the nursery to hang curtains on. In theory it was to create two private nursing areas. In reality anyone stepping in there will wonder if they’ve somehow left the church and entered an ER. It doesn’t matter because I don’t ever plan on needing to use the nursing areas, but if I did they’d make me claustrophobic.

Before Sunday School a group of us were discussing the best way to handle the redecorating. It was decided someone would come up with 3-4 color schemes and let the women vote on them. We’re looking at two bathroom curtains, 1 curtain on the nursery window, one other smaller curtain and 3-4 larger curtains for the nursing areas. We want them to all match in some sort of a pleasing color scheme that coordinates with the walls and doesn’t look like someone had used it for 30 years before deciding to donate it to the church. I don’t think we’re asking for much.

I won't go into a whole lot of detail about the confrontation but it wasn't pretty. It happened when I had to tell this lady what the plans where for redecorating the bathroom. The first part happened between Sunday School and church and the second half after church. It is sad that someone got so angry with me over something so small, over something that we are trying to do to make our church look better. It is frustrating because trying to change anything around our church is like turning a rusty bolt. I was also utterly embarrassed because this was taking place in church. We were standing in a spot that almost everyone had to walk by to leave the church. Jay tried to make me feel better by saying no one was looking. Yeah, right. Who doesn't stare at a spectacle. I am thankful there weren't as many people there that particular Sunday. I walked back to our pew, gathered our stuff and tried to walk out with some dignity.

I feel horrible about the whole ordeal. I don't go around purposely trying to make people angry. I was simply trying to help out in an area where our church needed help. I don't normally try to make people hating me top on my list of things to do, but somehow it happened. I feel like I can confidently put on job applications and my resume that I work well with others because usually I do. Normally I can bend my own personality enough to get along with anyone if I'm forced to. I may not enjoy it, but I can do it. This is a whole other situation though. I'm still trying to decide the best approach to take. Should I write her a letter, should I try again to talk to her, should I leave her alone, I don't know....

So this is what Jay and I are referring to as The Incident of '09. After I got home that afternoon and I was resting on the couch and reliving the whole conversation I couldn't believe it had even happened. Just a few short hours earlier I was sitting there sipping coffee enjoying the fact that I didn't have to study a Sunday School lesson to study. I had no plans that morning to upset anyone at church. There are so many rewards being a member of a small church but there also are so many trials.

Congratulations Megan and Terry!!!!

So Terry and Megan’s wedding was the past weekend. We left for the Lake on Thursday, with a stop at Cade’s eye doctor. We got checked into our hotel somewhere around 6:30 pm. We checked out Sunday a little before 11:00 am. We had a great time, but we were so ready to get home. Saying Cade was pretty wound up, would be putting it mildly. He was nuts, not only was he staying in a hometel (his word for hotel) but he was also surrounded by family that he doesn’t see very often - John and Mary from Texas, Meagan and CJ from Virginia, Nana, Granddad and Mary from Arkansas, Steve, LeeAnn, Lauren and Kim from Illinois plus the locals - Memo, Papa Jim, Grandma Robyn, Aunt Charity and Avery. He was in a 6 years olds version of heaven. On Friday night after rehearsal, while we started decorating, he went back to the hometel with Lauren and Kim. They are Jay’s 19 and 17 year old first cousins. They had a ball talking about movies and things. They even gave him the nickname Goldfish. I’m not sure what the story behind the nickname was, but Cade was proud of it.

The wedding turned out beautiful. Everyone seemed to get along and things went pretty smoothly. Megan’s parents and family are very nice. I think the two families will get along well over the years. I didn’t get too many pictures taken during all the festivities because I ended up being pretty busy until the reception. Being the sister-in-law who has a tendency to be uptight and nervous when it comes to time, schedules, organizing, etc I thought it would be best to be seen and not heard. I had planned on staying in the shadows and keeping my mouth shut! So that didn’t happen. But I enjoyed everything that I got to do to help with the wedding and I was glad to do it. Thanks to Megan and Terry for letting us help with your special day!

No matter what worked or what didn’t work at the wedding – Terry and Megan are now husband and wife. We are praying that God will bless their marriage for many, many years to come. Congratulations!!!!!

So now for the pictures…I was so mad at myself yesterday when I realized I didn’t have one of the three of us dressed up. We did have a professional one taken but I wanted a non-professional one for Christmas cards. I’ll post a professional one once we get them back.

The Bride and Groom. One of the things that didn't work that day were the original candles that were supposed to be in front of Megan and Terry. The original ones got broke during the deocrating process that morning. Sharon and I went and picked out new candles since a certain someone was responsible for the breakage. Jay admitted to being the one who broke them during his toast. He also confessed that our wedding gift fell out of the truck, which I didn't know about. I guess Megan and Terry will see how sturdy Fiesta dishes are when they open our gift.

The Cake Table

Cade and some woman who grabbed him and started dancing. She must be from Megan’s side…..


Cade dancing some more. I think he was doing the swim with LeeAnn and her girls. There's a hint of LeeAnn's outfit on the right side of this picture

Cade and two of the bridesmaids. He seemed to be a hit with the women on the dance floor.


The car that Jay was so proud of. I’m going to have to ask Megan about that lady….she and Cade seemed to be very good friends. She’s in so many of my pictures I need to write her name down.


Jay’s other proud moment – the saran wrapped steering wheel and luggage. There were a couple of former grooms (including Jay) that had some serious payback for Terry.

Happy Birthday Avery

Today is Avery’s 2nd birthday. It’s hard to believe that she is already 2. We went to her birthday party Saturday night.

Here she was a year ago











Here she is now


When Charity was taking these pictures before the party she couldn’t keep Avery’s fingers out of the cake. We ended up eating cake with about 5 little finger marks in it. It was pretty sweet looking.


These are the shoes Cade gave her. She loved them, but I don't think her daddy was quite as thrilled with them. They are pretty loud on the laminate floors.




What's wrong with this picture? And he was embarrassed about carrying a present in a purple bag

This is the present from her mommy and daddy. Her cousin Kennedy is the other little girl in the background.




Some cute pictures of Avery and Cade together

and the cool girl the day after the party.

Happy Birthday Avery

my favorite niece!!!!

Our Weekend Trip

This past weekend Cade and I went to B****** with Mom, Charity and Avery. These little trips with Avery are a good reminder for me to be content with my life as it is. As much as we want another baby, I have to admit it was nice having only a 6 year old to take care of. I got to read a book for awhile Saturday morning. Charity didn’t have that luxury. But aside from that there were other reasons…… and sorry this post seems to be long, but there was a lot that happened.

We got there Friday evening and we met at Ruby Tuesday’s. Everything went pretty well during dinner. Then we decided to go to the Landing. Avery likes to push her stroller….with no help from an adult. If you try to help steer her from her course filled with the backs of shopper’s legs she screeches at you. We watched the water show, which was supposed to be neat. It was one song long and Avery got scared. By the time we got in the car that evening we had decided one song of CCR’s Round the Bend set to water and flames was really not worth dragging two kids and a hot pink umbrella stroller around.

The next morning we woke up to rain…that was supposed to last all day. What do you do with two kids in a town geared towards outdoor activities? We were driving around trying to decide and we noticed there was a Croc store at one of the outlet malls. Avery loves her Crocs so I said something about it. I had no idea my boy had such a deep desire to own a pair of Crocs. He really wanted to go to the store – so we did. I’ve never been sure of the idea of Crocs on boys. I think Cade's mentioned it before, but I recessed the memory. We got in the store and it was a rainbow of Crocs hanging on the walls. I don’t even care for the shoes and I have to admit it was intoxicating. There were so many to pick from. Cade was so excited so I let him pick out a pair. He said he wanted blue. There was a navy pair that I tried to get him to look at, but he didn’t want any part of that. He wanted a bright blue pair. Then he wanted a charm to put on them. I tried talking him out of the charm but he was set on it. He is now the proud owner of bright blue Crocs complete with an octopus charm. Something about the Crocs seemed to change his outlook on life the rest of the day – he skipped instead of walked. I can’t begin to describe how funny he looked skipping/dancing down the Landing that evening in a yellow polo shirt with a blue stripe (that matched his shoes), khaki shorts and his bright blue shoes. He was in his own little Croc heaven. The only thing missing was the Zippity Doo Dah Zippity Ay My oh my What a wonderful day song playing in the background.

After the Croc store we took the kids to a pizza place that has games and an arcade and an all you can eat pizza buffet. This is where the day got funny for me, stressful for Charity. Mom dropped us off at the door. We walked in and got over to the side of the room to wait on mom. There was a wooden bench that Charity stood Avery on. Charity was trying to convince Avery to let her put the “ponies” back in her hair. Avery wasn’t sure she wanted them in. There was some discussion between the two of them and then Charity turned around to get something out of the stroller. Somehow Avery slipped off of the bench and fell in the crack between the back of the bench and the seat of the bench. I saw it happen but there was nothing I could do about it. Charity turned back around and Avery was on the floor. We each grabbed an arm and tried to pull her back up, but there was a board going along the bottom of the bench that she had also slipped through. Her head wouldn’t fit back through the bottom board. She was stuck in the bench. A guy came over to help us and he tried turning Avery’s head so Charity could pull her out through the bottom. I stepped back and all I could think of was 1. someone’s going to have to get a saw to get her out of this thing 2. It’s a good thing it wasn’t Cade because we never would’ve gotten his head out. Then the daughter of the guy who was helping came over and tried moving the bench and I thought oh she’s going to pull Avery’s head off. Finally the guy got Avery to turn her head and Charity pulled her out. She was fine, just scared. So Charity and I each sat down on the bench, exhausted from the ordeal and mom walked in at that moment carrying Avery’s pink Dora backpack and asking us what we were doing sitting down. That’s when I started laughing. Then later I called Jay and tried telling him about it, but I was laughing too hard for him to understand. Later that night we were talking about it and I started laughing about it again. Charity said that she didn’t think her child almost getting decapitated by a bench was that funny. It had to have been a one in a million thing for her to have had this happen – I’m laughing just typing this. I guess I can blame it on my weird sense of humor.

Things didn’t get any better for Avery in the pizza place. Charity pulled on a chair that Avery was leaning on and she fell down. The floor was so wet I almost fell twice. It was loud, noisy and no fun for a two year old. Cade had a better time, but I’m not ever going back. We’ve had our fill of pizza/game places for several years.

The rest of the trip went about like the first part – our trips together always seem to turn into one issue after another. Like waiting over an hour for Joe’s Crab Shack and then having Cade cry for most of the time we were waiting on our food because it stunk. Or waiting for 20 minutes for our food at Taco Bell and then I hit Avery’s head on a dryer in the bathroom. We did get to go swimming yesterday at White Water and we had a really good time there. At least with our trips we can say we made memories. When Avery gets married and at her shower if they ask for family members to tell their favorite stories I already have mine. The sight of her sucking on her Nini (pacifier) falling between the boards on a bench and Charity trying to pull her out from the bottom will always be stuck in my mind.

Now I have to add - I hunted up the pictures on the Internet of what Cade got on Saturday. I kept calling this an octopus. He kept calling it a giant squid. Naturally he's right - this is supposed to be the Kraken from Pirates of the Caribbean which to him is a big giant squid. How do kids get to be so smart?

Picture Update

It's been awhile since I've posted some pictures.

The first ones are Avery on Mother's Day. Cade was somewhat anti-social that day so Avery's the only one who got her picture taken. She LOVES ice cream.

Jay and I went on Cade's field trip Tuesday. We visited a fire station and the zoo. We took a sack lunch and got poured on while we were eating. Kids and teachers and parents were scrambling around trying to get everything gathered up. Cade had taken his sunglasses that day, which I knew was a bad idea, but I let him anyway. There were about 10 cars of parents following the bus that day. Once we left the firestation the bus was waiting to turn right with all the parents behind it. We waited and waited and finally saw one of the aides running down the row of parents. Her husband was behind us so we thought she was going to him. Of course not, she stopped at our truck. Cade thought he had lost his sunglasses and was upset. Our child held up the whole trip. It was embarassing, but fortunately I did have the glasses. Once we got to the zoo we split up into groups. Jay and I lucked out, we only had Cade and another boy. One mom by herself ended up with 3 boys. We saw the zoo in record time - we were at a dead run the entire time.

These are pictures from his first ballgame last night. His team won, which was exciting. It's pretty funny to watch them. One girl (who Jay and I think is adorable) was trying to wipe the dirt off of 3rd base. Cade was put in Right Field (not a big surprise - it runs in the family). At one point I saw him digging the dirt out of his cleats. He didn't see much action last night in the outfield, but he did get a hit his last time at bat. He said "it was a lot of fun"

Random Happenings from the Week

Some random things that have occured in our week so far:

• Tornado touched down in the town where Jay teaches and Cade goes to school
• I was pretty shook up over the ordeal, but everyone was safe
• Cade had an appointment with his eye specialist - we are still wearing the patch
• Jay had to buy pantyhose for one of his students who forgot them the day of a contest - she asked him to buy thigh highs.....tell that to those who think teachers are only employed in a classroom from 8:00 to 3:00 each day
• Jay called me and wanted to know what Queen Size meant and if that was what a 5'5" girl weighing maybe 110 lbs needed
• Many jokes have been going around the school concerning the pantyhose purchase
• Cade informed Jay that mud wrestling is a spectator sport (came out of the blue, not sure where it came from)
• Cade went on his first field trip to see a play, it was Tom Sawyer

Last week I did some changing with the blog layout and I had the black screen. Jay informed me that he didn't like the black because it reminded him of one of those "bad" sites. Before anyone jumps to conclusions on why he would know what one of those sites looks like, remember he is a public school teacher with a computer lab. I'm sure he's seen way more than he's even told me about. He told me not to change it because I'd have a post where I put all the blame on him. I decided to leave the black after our conversation because I liked it. Now that he's put the bug in my head that's all I can think of everytime I pull up the blog. So here is the post where I put the blame on him and change the color of the background. Kristy had also asked where I got the Pop Art picture that is on the blog. It came from Photobucket. They've just added some really neat editing tools and Pop Art was one of them.

Read anything good lateley?????

Much to Jay's enjoyment (insert sarcasm), I've been a frequent visitor to our local library since the beginning of the year. The problem withchecking out a book is that all I want to do is read it until I'm done with it. But, I can read pretty fast so a book doesn't take me long to finish. I know those of you with small children are jealous of that and I will admit I'm enjoying it. I think I finally reached the point about a year ago where I had time to read. Cade was self entertaining and he was out of the putting things in his mouth stage, so I started up reading again. The problem is I go into the library and I'm slightly overwhelmed. Kind of like when you go to rent a movie - you've seen so many previews of movies that you want to see, but you go completely blank the minute you walk into the store.

That brings me to the title of the post - Have you read anything good lately that you would recommend? I'm somewhat wide on my range of books that I enjoy....as long as they fall in the fiction department. There's nothing like a non-fiction book (especially those political ones that Jay likes)to put me to sleep. Right now I'm currently finishing up James Patterson's Alex Cross series (I'm on book 10 out of 13). It has been good, at least good enough to make me want to stick with the series. I will warn you, if you plan on reading them there are crime scenes described and the language in some parts are not the best. Pretty much it's like CSI and Law & Order rolled into a book. I've also recently read the Beverly Lewis Abraham's Daughters series. It's takes you through several decades in the life of an Amish family. I learned a lot about Amish beliefs through those books.

Another book that I just finished was Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg. She is also the author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. I enjoyed the book because one of the main characters, Norma, reminded me of myself. She was a constant worrier so I could relate to many of her situations. Every morning Norma would wake up and read a note she had posted on her bathroom mirror - Good morning, this is God, I will be handling all of your worries today so go in peace. Every morning she would vow that was what she was going to do. By 9:00 or 10:00 that morning she would snatch them back. Sound familiar?

I know out of the handful of people that read this blog many don't have the time to read. If you do, leave a comment on a good book that you've read lately. I'm always looking for new ideas.

Easter Dress Shopping

Right now I should be a good girl and post all of my purchases from last weekend on my Excel Worksheet that I use for a checkbook register, but I'm not. Instead I'm going to use the last few minutes of my workday to tell you about a new theory Charity and I have that could revolutionize Sex Education in today's high schools. To lead up to our theory I need to set up what out weekend plans were:

This past weekend Cade stayed with his MeMo and Papa Jim and J was at a contest. This was the perfect weekend for me to go shopping for our Easter clothes. Earlier last week Charity had decided to go also and we were going to the outlet malls in B. She just didn't know if Avery would be going with us or not. I didn't mind if Avery went, but every time I thought about it I had flashbacks to a shopping trip I went on with Sharon and Lorita when Cade was 18 months old. I swore I'd never do it again. It's not that Cade was bad, he was just an 18 month old baby and since it was after Labor day the mall decided it was time to turn on the heat. I was sweating profusely trying to keep up with a child that seemed to be a direct descendant of a track star rather than his two ordinary parents. When Charity and I were talking on Friday I told her that I blame my infertility on the birth control shot that I had used, but sometimes I wonder if my ovaries just shriveled up that day...or they spontaneously combusted due to the heat.

So Saturday morning I got a phone call that Charity was on her way and she was bringing Avery, which again was fine. I knew that it would be a somewhat challenging day, but we would be fine. So to recap - we needed to buy Easter clothes for the 3 members in my family and at least 2 members of Charity's family, it was unseasonably warm on Saturday, we had an umbrella stroller and an 19 month old with a shoe fetish. Wild doesn't even begin to describe what the next 36 hours were like. I have never seen a child rip shoes off as quickly as Avery does, she was pulling high heels down off the displays and wearing them around, she tried to run out of every shop door as soon as someone opened it. That girl can flat run in a pair of high heels 10 sizes too big, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. At one point during the day Charity said she felt like her insides were shriveling. I had to agree, if I had anything left Saturday took care of it.

Since it took us so much longer than we had planned on Saturday we decided to spend the night in B. No, we didn't have anything - no clothes, no makeup, nothing. We went to Target and got some necessities and made do with that. J asked if that was our version of camping. Sunday morning dawned and it was even hotter than it was on Saturday. Our first stop of the morning was the Tommy store - we bought t-shirts. We went in the dressing rooms, put them on, ripped the tags off and then paid for them. We were so hot and worn out we didn't even care that it probably wasn't the most proper thing to do. At least we were comfortable. We did manage to get our stuff purchased and make it home Sunday afternoon before midnight, which really was an accomplishment.

That brings me to the new Sex Ed. Charity and I think schools need to send their students on the kind of weekend we had. They need to be armed with an 18 month-2 year old, one umbrella stroller that tips over every time the kid isn't in it, one heavy diaper bag and a list of things that must be purchased. I'm not talking about turning them lose in Wal-Mart to purchase groceries, I mean serious shopping. They need to be required to purchase a dress that they have tried on and that looks decent on them along with all the accessories. They'll also need to purchase clothing for their entire pretend families. They need to experience trying to eyeball two different sizes of pants for a 6 year old while the 18 month old runs wild. They need to try and match an adult tie and shirt (I have a hard enough time doing this on my own) while the child screams and carries on because they want down. They should have to make that split decision when the child runs off - do I have time to grab the stroller before I chase them down or do I leave the stroller (which will tip over) with my purse and purchases in the middle of the aisle while I chase the child down? These are major decisions which will make the choice about a date to prom look like a piece of cake.

Besides helping with Sex Ed I also think it will improve the schools dress code. The girls will soon learn that low riding jeans and low cut shirts are not the thing to wear if you are going to be around a child. Considering you'll spend most of the day in some sort of a bent over position either picking them up or putting them back in their stroller. They'll learn the only way to get through the day is in a pair of tennis shoes. But when you're a mother who cares about fashion?

To end the day we stopped and got something to eat and I know we looked exhausted. We didn't have on any makeup and our hair was in sad shape. Our motel had a hair dryer but no curling iron, but that wouldn't have mattered anyway. The wind was blowing yesterday. While we were sitting there a couple of college age girls came in and Charity said she wondered how long it took them to get ready that morning. They had the hair that was fixed to look like it was messy. I said it probably took them all morning just to fix their hair - all it took us to get that same look was 5 minutes outside with Avery in strong wind gusts. But somehow I don't think our look was the look they were going for.

At the end of the day I did tell Charity thank you for going with me. I had been a little depressed lately about the adoption/infertility thing. I think I'm good for awhile.

Catch Up

It's been awhile since I've posted about some of the events that have happened the last few weeks.

• Avery spent Friday and Saturday nights Feb 15&16
• Cade tried to physically remove Avery from the kitchen on Sunday
• Avery screamed "No" at him and then pushed him
• Cade was glad when Avery left so he could sit in my lap again (but I missed her)
• Avery really was a very good girl, she even took a nap
• We had another bad winter storm last Thursday
• I missed another day of work because of it
• Cade started running another fever, so we are on our 4th round of medicine since Thanksgiving
• I had a flat tire on my car this past Sunday
• J had to meet me at a gas station to change it (in his good Sunday clothes)
• I had to drive Big Red to a baby shower, she and I have became good friends this past week
• J and Cade took my car, with the little bitty spare on it, to buy another tire
• We learned we will avoid purchasing 4 new tires at the same time for that car, WOW!
• I giggled through Cade's nightly prayer Sunday night, because I thanked God for not letting my flat be any worse than it was.....and the vision of J changing my tire came to me (those who know J, know what I'm talking about)
• We've been notified of 2 more potential adoption situations
• We have declined to have our profile shown in one of the situations
• We still haven't decided on the other situation, we have until Friday
• I just decided to use Cade's name in the post...this will be a test to see how often J reads this

My Sense of Humor

J always says I have a weird sense of humor and I'm sure he is right. All of us Fowler's seem to have a little different sense of humor. Today my car had to go into the shop so I dropped C and J off at school and drove "Big Red" to work today. I hate driving the truck, it is way too big for me. I prefer my short, small little car that I can zip around in. I think when I drive the truck I tend to go a little slower and don't accelerate quite as fast as I do in my car, but I still drive the speed limt. I was on my way back from getting the mail today and I was driving thru a school zone which is 20mph. I always slow down because I've seen several people stopped along that street. Once you get pass the school the limit goes up to 30mph. Big Red and I were puttering thru the school zone at 20mph when all of a sudden an Old Man in a white truck PASSED me. He looked over and gave me a dirty look. We still ended up at the Roundabout at the exact same time so he didn't gain anything. Every time I think about the look on his face when he passed me I laugh, like I was an Old Woman holding up traffic. I'm sure I'll be laughing about this for days, J on the other hand won't get why I'll still be laughing about this on Friday. You probably had to be there but it was the icing on my weird day.

Ice Storm

Here are some pictures from our latest ice storm this week. I don't know the official results, but I think it was close to being as thick as the one last January. The thing that saved us was that we had lost so many trees a year ago that the branches had been cleared away from the power lines. I can't remember from last year, but it also seems like the ice melted quicker with this last storm. It was completely gone by yesterday. I don't know how our landscaping will fare after this storm. It had taken a beating last year and it didn't look very good last summer. We also had a late freeze last spring so I don't know how much that had to do with the sad shape of our shrubs. My Rose of Sharon's were completely laid over again. We'll see what happens this spring.

You could hear the branches breaking everytime we walked by this shrub. It was kinds of like grass breaking.

This was looking across the road at our neighbor's house

Ramblings from early morning....

I haven't been able to sleep the last few nights. I'm not sure why, but it's starting to get annoying. I was already awake, but it didn't help when our bed of 2 became a bed of 5 around 2:30 am. C came in with his stuffed penguin and dinosaur. I finally got tired of trying to fight Mr Dinosaur for a place in the bed so now I'm up. I have a boring meeting to sit through today so this is not going to be good.

I haven't been good about updating the blog so far this year, partly because things have been relatively quiet and then partly because work is so busy right now - I haven't had the time to try to make our day to day lives sound interesting. J's Grandmother did pass away two weeks ago. I hadn't said anything about that yet, not that we aren't missing her, but everyone who reads this blog already knew. The evening of her funeral we went through her pictures and I pulled out the ones she had of our family. She had some cute pictures of C that I hadn't seen before. I'm going to scan and post a few of them. I don't know which makes me sadder - how little C was or how thin I was! It's hard to believe we are approaching his 6th birthday. Where has the time gone?

Another thing that's going on is J's reached a point of frustration with some things right now. He's probably not going to like me typing that out for everyone to see, but it's part of the process. It's hard to say when you reach the point what caused it, is it the infertility, your job (we are going into his busiest time of the year), day to day frustrations, etc. It's like what came first - the chicken or the egg? But it can compound until the point of where you feel like you're doing nothing but beating your head against a wall. Things will turn around, they always do, but sometimes it's just so frustrating. I hate it because I know how he feels, I know that feeling of frustration so well because I've been there many times over the past almost 3 years. For me to have these cycles are nothing new, but it is different for J to have them. You hate to see anyone, especially loved ones, go through these times. So what do we do in these times....last night we played two competitive rounds of Memory. C just amazes me with that game. Once I turn my cards back over I can't even remember what they were. He on the other hand plays with his toys, watches commercials and just goofs around and he still can easily get matches. We all were close last night, but I think J won both games with C coming in second. I've just resigned myself to the fact that there is no way this almost 31 year old can keep up with an almost 6 year old at Memory.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is mom's birthday. We met her, Dad, Pampa, Justin, Charity and Avery today after church for lunch. We all had a good time. We hadn't seen Avery since Christmas so that was fun. She finally feels like she's putting on some weight. I usually feel like I'm going to throw her through the ceiling each time I pick her up, but yesterday it didn't feel that way. Happy Birthday Mom, thank you for everything that you have done and continue to do for us over the years. We love you!
Love,
J, C & C

P.S. I thought I had a picture at work to add to the post and it won't copy right onto the blog. The only other one I have at work is of your rear end at Thanksgiving. I thought you might rather me not post that one!