My Thoughtful Baby Girl

So, today, Keith comes home from work exhausted. He is recovering from a migraine that he had yesterday. After talking with us for a few minutes, he sat down in the recliner and went to sleep.


Nora and I were going to Hobby Lobby and to get groceries after he woke up. For quite awhile, she kept telling me to be quiet and not wake Daddy up. On a side note, she was definitely ON ONE today. She was cracking me up all evening. Anyway, I digress. Keith had been asleep for around 20 minutes or so when Nora decided he looked lonely. So she added her Tigger to his lap and told me that he would help daddy sleep. She quickly realized that was not enough and added 3 more stuffed toys to the mix. Hence, the below picture that I could not resist taking.

Granted, Keith is not 100% thrilled that I took the picture and even less thrilled that I am posting it for the blogging world to see, but how could I not let the world know how thoughtful my little girl is???

A Note to Santa

Oh, yes. It is that time of year again. We have been asking Nora what she would like for Santa to bring her. Last year it was a bike, a bike hat (aka helmet), and drums. Of course, these items were all aglow on Christmas morning for her as she ran away crying.

So, this year we are hoping for a little more happiness on Christmas. When asked this year what she wants, Nora continuously says, "I still want a dolly house." Its the only thing she has consistently asked for, until this morning.

She had a little accident last night that kept us up all night and so I stayed home with her today. As we sat on the couch watching volcano Dora for the third time, she pulled out the Fisher Price catalog that came in the mail and asked me to read it to her. I had her pick out what pages she wanted me to read. And I read. And read. And read. I sounded like an advertisement for them as I read all the little ads for the products they were selling.

After quite a while of reading, she took the catalog from my hand and closed it. She then proceeded to give it back to me and said, "Tell Santa, I want everything."

Enough said.

Oh, but I guess there is one more thing. Santa, if you're reading this, Nora wants everything in the Fisher-Price Fall 2008 Shop-at-Home Catalog.

And, she still wants that dolly house.

I survived!

I’ll tell you about Keith’s trip in a different post.

I couldn’t tell you how many pats on the back, hugs, and sympathetic comments I received at church yesterday. My pastor even congratulated my survival. We only had a few incidents that hindered our good times:

• One busted lip (my toddler)
• One head butt on the wall (also my toddler)
• One golf cart through my dog lot (more on that later)
• One teenager falling through the window of Jeep
• One adult chaperone falling up the stairs (not me)
• One forgotten meal at lunch
• Two pre-teens mad at each other (one crying – then both over it in like 5 minutes)

Other than that, we had a great time. We went to Rock City’s Enchanted Corn Maze. We had lunch and went back to my house to do a little hair dyeing. One of our girls had put some nice fire engine red highlights in her blond hair. So, I went and bought her a more natural, suitable color. That led to three others also wanting to enter the James Hair Salon. They ended up doing each others’ and I was able to avoid any blame if it had not turned out ok.

So anyway, I was upstairs minding my own business, when one of the younger girls came in and said, “They hit your dog gate with the golf cart.” In my mind, I envisioned the bottom of the gate pushed slightly inward or a little scratch. Oh, but no. It was not quite so simple. Granted, our dog lot leaves a lot to be desired, but given Smokie’s Senior Citizen status, there has not been much point in building a new one. Anyway, see the below picture:

All I can say is, Thank God for my father-in-law. One of the girls and I were able to hammer the top back together (that’s right, me with a hammer – they took a picture of that, too.). However, I still had no gate to keep Smokie contained. Gene came to my rescue with a large pallet, a metal stob, and a wire clothes hanger. Just call him MacGyver. So far, it has held up, not so easy on the eyes, but sufficient nonetheless.

Oh yeah, we were late for church. Even though everyone had taken a shower Saturday night, they still needed a little coaxing to get out the door. Then we had to sit in line at McDonald’s for quite a while. You didn’t think I would actually get up and cook, did you???

Here's one picture of some of the girls on the hayride. I don't have one on my camera of everyone together.



Over all, roughing it in Varnell wasn’t so bad!

Roughing it in Varnell

Hi, all! After much prodding and “encouragement” from my friends, I have finally started this blog. I hope through this blog, I can keep our families and friends up-to-date on all of the important events in our lives (we’re such exciting people you know).

What we’re up to this weekend:

1. Tonight we are taking Mom out to dinner for her birthday (it is the 23rd). It will be Mom, Dad, Kimberly, Chris, Keith, Nora and me. Ought to be fun times!!
2. Tomorrow morning we are meeting at church for the monthly Men’s Prayer Breakfast. The men at our church graciously invited the ladies to join this time. We will have breakfast (prepared by the men) and a guest speaker.
3. After the Prayer Breakfast, Keith is taking the guys from our youth group camping in Dahlonega, GA. Our Pastor’s son-in-law set up the arrangements. The guys will be staying at a site where they can do all of that outdoorsy stuff that I so try to avoid. Sunday morning, Keith will conduct a Worship Service at the campground.
4. While Keith and the boys are roughing it, all the girls and I will be sitting nice and cool with no bugs, noises, or smells, in the comfort of our house (well I can at least hope for the no bugs thing – noises and smells may not be easily prevented). The exciting part of our weekend will be seeing how 10-11 girls get ready for church all at the same time sharing 2 ½ bathrooms!! I may be roughing it after all!!

I’ll let ya’ll know how it went and hopefully have some pictures from both camps.

FYI – I told the girls that I considered ‘roughing it’ having to sleep in a full-size bed in a hotel instead of a queen or king. However, I offered to go if they really, really wanted to. I had very few willing to do without their hair dryers and curling irons. I’m so heartbroken!!