Chi town, here we come!

I have a few friends in Chicago, but this visit was dedicated to seeing Jessica!  Jessica was my favorite college roommate.  We roomed (with 4 other girls!) for 2 years together.  We did all sorts of fun stuff, including dancing to music in front of our apartment to celebrate the end of school, hysterically baking a cake for another roommate, and making tacos once a week.  About a year and a half ago, she moved to Chicago (used to live on East side of Michigan so it was a lot easier to get together), and I was over due for a visit.  Carson had never been on a train before, so I decided to take him with me on the Amtrak. Theoretically it sounded good.

Jessica and I at Navy Pier (great picture taken by Carson)

Carson doesn't need a car seat any more; doesn't throw fits (much) when he's tired or hungry; and is a great listener.  Exactly what I needed for a traveling companion.  We left Friday afternoon, thinking we were going to arrive in Chicago around 4pm.  For some reasons or another, we ended up in Chicago at 6:15 (Chicago time).  It was a LONG train ride.  We were stopped multiple times and there are apparently new speed restrictions on part of the track.  We then boarded the Metra train (Carson was adamant about sitting on top of this double decker train, so a lot of passengers got their legs hit by our luggage) and ended up in our finally destination at 7:30.

My traveling buddy Carson

We spent Saturday site seeing Chicago (Millennium Park, Lego store, Hershey store, Cheesecake factory, Navy Pier, McDonalds!) and getting plenty of exercise (so, of course, we had to counteract the exercise with ice cream and cheesecake).  Jessica and Brian were great tour guides.  James, their toddler, had plenty of play time with Carson.
I'm definitely not going to let another year and a half go by before I see Jessica again.  This weekend reminded me again about what a great friend she is and how fun she is to be around.

No Words Wednesday

Junk turned into treasure

There's some kind of quote out there about another person's junk is another's treasure.  I kept that in mind as I was picking out clothes to donate.  I have had a few clothing items here or there to donate, but today I was going to look through all of my clothes to find which to donate to a Women's shelter here in town.
I didn't realize how depressing it would be.  I found shirts, skirts, dress clothes (interview clothes!) that would all soon have a new home.  I had flashes of memories each time I picked up a piece of clothing, like the memories were stuck in the pockets of these clothes.  A trip to Atlanta, people's weddings, hiking/biking/running times, interviews, my bachelorette party.  All of which fit, before kids.  Some of the clothes I remember wearing after I had Carson, but even though the scale said the same as pre-Carson, my body shape was different.

So this blog is dedicated to memories of the past!

2003

I used to hike and camp before kids!!! (shirt in donation pile) (What was I thinking wearing that weirdo bra underneath?)

September 2002

No, my sister wasn't donated.  The skirt was.  (Germany - I remember never needing a nap when I was young) 

September 2002

This was my brother's wedding in Germany, but not the wedding wedding, just the sign the papers wedding thing (don't ask me).  (dress was donated)

July 2003

This was the WORST trip in regards to accidents (check out the cute bandage on my knee).  Later on in the trip (this was in Atlanta) I ran into a glass door and almost broke my nose.  AND, when we went up north (Helen, Georgia), I was flying running down the mountain, and I couldn't stop myself and did a baseball runner's slide down a ways until I could stop.  The whole side of my leg was cut up.  Good times.  (dress was donated)

July 2003 - Atlanta

I tried on this dress, because I used to love it (actually, still do). I remember it being so light to wear and fit so perfectly.  Not quite any more.  Got a lot more bumps showing now, everywhere.  But I just couldn't bring myself to throw it in the donation pile quite yet.  It'll end up there, over time, but I'm still young enough, and naive enough to think that someday I can shake these pounds and be slim and trim again.

Ode to the Papa (and Ompa)

Years ago on the way to pick Mike up from work, back when Bryson was a wee little baby (or maybe I was pregnant with him), Carson started calling Mike "papa".  It stuck.  Even though most "papas" I've met are Grandpa's (my dad is affectionately called Ompa), it never phased Mike.

What else never phased Mike?  The time when he was wrestling with Carson and Carson got his head smacked on the corner of the table, which caused a HUGE gash in Carson's right eyebrow, and Mike asked me if I could see his skull.  I freaked out, Mike didn't (stitches held the gash together to keep us from looking at his skull).  Ditto this moment, two years later, except change Carson for Hudson, and change wrestling to grocery shopping.  Huge gash, right side, in the eyebrow, matching stitches for Hudson.  Miraculously Bryson has made it past his second birthday with no matching scar (knock on wood).

Dads, Fathers, Papas, whatever you call them, are important role models for our children.  Without Mike, my boys would be running around with hair clips in their hair, and my dress shoes on their feet.  They wouldn't learn that it's appropriate to buy their loved ones flowers, or that it's manly to do dishes and laundry.  And they would never learn how to fix things.

Back when I was dating Mike, I was surprised at how much stuff he could fix.  And if he didn't know how to fix it, he would look it up (while I called my dad to make sure he was doing it right).  I knew I wanted somebody like my dad in that way.  My dad can fix ANYTHING.  I once had a watch that had the weirdest piece fall out of, I expected my dad to tell me to toss it, but he fixed it.  He fixes everything from cars to toys to pens to you name it.  Us kids always bragged about what he could fix.  I STILL call my dad up to ask us how to fix things (just yesterday I asked him what I should do about my broken taillight cover (which some kid smacked and cracked with his elbow) - for future reference, just use a small amount of clear silicon to cover the crack and you won't have to shell out $200 for a new one).

Every day we should celebrate these men in our lives (even those that can't fix anything).  But I'm ok with one, because cleaning, cooking, and doing the dishes are sure taking a toll on me for just a day!

I love you both!

P.S.  Mike's idea of how he wanted to spend Father's Day - exercise!  It's hard to see, but he's pushing Bryson in the jogging stroller.  I could barely keep up (took this picture while jogging behind).

4 and counting

(I promise this is my last post today!  Just catching up)

On Thursday night, my brother dropped off his daughter, E.  She turned 3 years old a few months ago and her and Bryson LOVE to hang out.  She is such an easy one to watch here, because she just loves to watch her cousins and is always playing with them (not tugging at my leg, well, not all of the time anyways).
On Friday, I had two of mine (one of them got invited to a pool party after school, <whew>) and E.  I tried to run some errands, but it was hard to get everybody buckled (plus it was raining so I was standing in the rain trying to buckle everyone and getting soaked), so I gave up after only running two errands.  They ate lunch at 11 and were in bed for nap at noon.  I was already exhausted.  Usually Bryson goes right to bed, but he found it fun to sit and talk with E, so they needed a few reminders to settle down.  I was sitting on my bed, waiting in case I had to go in their room again, and I just feel asleep!

We had to go pick up Carson at 4:30 from the pool party.  I wish I would have taken a picture, because E wore her high heels and carried her wand.  All of the moms were oohing and aahing over her.  I called up my husband on the way home and told him we were going out for dinner since I was still exhausted (even after the 1.5 hour nap).

At night time, E told me how she loved me SO much and she wanted to give me her kitty cat for me to sleep with.  I have NEVER seen anything SO pink AND it had a bow!!  If you know me, at all, you know that I'm not a huge fan of pink.  Sorry kitty, you will have to sleep on the floor (E put the kitty in my bed each time before going to bed all weekend long).

We had a pretty busy rest of the weekend (graduation party, Hudson's birthday party (this added more kids!, zoo trip, playing baseball), but it was fun (and tiring).  I think three kids is enough for me!  But we'll still take E when we can :)

Here the two got captured and put into jail by H & C.

Bryson was SO scared of the dinosaurs!  I almost thought we'd be turning around and wasting the money I paid for the DinoTrails tickets.

My little explorers!

Happy Birthday Hudson!!

Today is the day that I've been waiting for, for a long time.  Hudson turns 5.  Ever since Hudson has been born, he's been an early riser.  This was a terrible thing to go through when he was 2 and 3, because he would wake up at 3 am (not knowing it wasn't time to get up) and go downstairs and 'bake cookies'.  I would come stumbling down the stairs to find him with a mixing bowl full of flour, sugar, honey, and other random stuff.  This happened more than I can count on one hand (luckily he never turned on the stove).  We would find pop tarts, and other snacky food gone as well.  When he turned 4, he knew better than to get up in the middle of the night, but he still would bang around in bed until his night light turned into a sun (this is one of the top 10 inventions: www.goodnitelite.com) and continue to run around the house, waking the rest of us up (sometimes I would even leave cereal out on the table for him to eat to give us a few more minutes of sleep).  My hope is that at 5, he can learn to be quiet, and go turn on the tv or something on the weekends.

Hudson's first party was with family.  Great looking cake made by my BFF, Berta Jo!  Aunt Leanna and Grandma Cooper came up with a great idea for the kids by bringing a pinata (my dad might of not have thought it was a good idea because he ended up holding the pinata after the loop broke off!).

(it's a baseball cake, kind of :)

His Chewie he got from Ama (as a suggestion by me).

My momma and me!

Preschool Graduation

If today's post was a bumper sticker, it would read: "I'm a proud parent of a (preschool) graduate!"

Hudson was being 100% Hudson today.  Posing for pictures, nay.  Hiding behind preschoolers while they were singing the songs he loves, yup.  Running around like he had eaten 100 pixie sticks, yup.

Ama came down to watch the graduation (gotta love retirement!) and spent the rest of the day playing with him.  After the graduation, we celebrated at Dunkin Donuts!  Can't think of a better way to say Congratulations than a custard filled long john.  Mmmmmm.....