Wish Me Luck!!

Tomorrow will be the beginning of a very busy weekend for us! I'm asking that you wish me luck and say a prayer that my husband and I don't kill each other before Monday is over :)! We are both taking off from work tomorrow to start painting what will be the new baby girl's room (name ytbd) and then we have to get Grant's furniture into that room and paint his room. We also have to move furniture from our house to mom's, then some to storage, then some back from mom's, and some from the guest bedroom into our bedroom, that is after we rearrange the furniture in our bedroom... doesn't sound like much right?! All of this to do, and in case anyone didn't know, college football starts tonight. That's right, tonight! Who ever thought up Thursday night games seriously should be shot or at least tortured. Didn't they know that football already consumes my husband's Saturdays, and soon to be Sundays, Monday nights, and then they go and start Thursday night games. Pretty soon there will be football on every night of the week, and I'm not talking about old reruns on CSS. Which if you didn't know shows like 5 year old games regularly. You'd think there wouldn't be much of a viewing audience for these, but my husband tunes in regularly. He really is that into football!

Nothing involved in all of this work is too difficult, but my husband and I are sometimes way too much alike. Basically, we're both pretty stubborn, and of course, we both know the best way to get things done, or at least he thinks he does. Of course, I'm always right! I remember when we got Grant's crib and attempted to put it together. I was starting to wonder if we would both make it through that night alive. It was a little taxing. I think we'll probably have to take the crib apart, at least partially, in order to get it out of his room and into the other one. Hopefully, we will not have a repeat of that night. We are in sort of a hurry to get all of this done over this nice weekend because Grant's big boy bed and other furniture are supposed to be in next week. We thought it was going to take a little bit longer, but are glad it's going to be early rather than late. I can't wait to begin the process of getting him to sleep somewhere other than underneath me. I'm sure it will be an adventure!

I bought his new bedding yesterday, and he seemed really excited. He liked the basketball pillow most that sounds like it's breaking glass when it hits the ground. Most of all, he liked that the quilt is blue. When I told him we were going to paint his room, he was really excited, but he kept telling me mom, I want blue. Problem here is that his room is already blue! My grand idea is to paint it sort of a khaki color so that at least it will be somewhat neutral when we move out, hopefully in the not so far off future. It also matches his bedding really well. Anyway, I felt really horrible to be painting his blue walls khaki, but I found this blue quilt so hopefully that will suffice. I'll try to remember to take a before and after picture of his room. We've already taken the bed apart from the other room, so there's not much to photograph other than some yellow walls in there. They ought to be fun to paint over.

Anyway, between all of this house redecorating and moving of furniture and of course FOOTBALL, especially UT FOOTBALL, the weekend will be crazy and likely a bit stressful, so wish me luck!

Tattoos

This is just fair warning to any of you out there that may be sporting visible tattoos. If you are in the presence of my child, he will inevitably ask you, "Did somebody color on you?" Please don't take this as an insult! This is just his childlike way of explaining markings on you. I think it's pretty cute! Just another day with a 2 year old!

Week in Photos

Grant has been quite the character lately and really keeps us laughing. Here are just a few pics documenting our last week or so.

This is my little fireball posing for the camera, hands on hips and everything. His head isn't crooked, by the way. His glasses are. He's put them through the ringer!

The Boys just hanging out in the back of the truck. This is Andy's first true love (haha). She doesn't have a name, but he's had her since he turned 16! We'll be looking to part ways with her sometime soon, so let us know if you need a truck. Unfortunately, Grant has never gotten to take a spin in the ole girl, and I'm not planning on him doing that any time soon. We may have to let him ride in it once just so he can say he did at least once before we get a new ride.

Last night we went to the famous county fair. Grant has been before, but I seriously doubt he remembers it at all. His first fair trip stands out in my mind because I thought I'd seriously injured him when he was just 3 months old. I was walking to the gate from the parking area (aka a big bumpy field) when the cup holder on my oh so fancy stroller decided to detach and fell right onto my sleeping baby's head. It was traumatic to say the least, probably more so for me than for Grant. Anyway, he had a blast this year and got to do a lot more. He rode a pony all by himself and did great. He asked this morning when I left him to go to work if I was going to the fair. I guess he was thinking where else would I go when there's something that grand so close by? If it were only that simple!

This ride he begged to go on, even though he was technically too small according to their charts. The guy at the gate didn't flinch when he walked by, so I let him ride it even though I was not too crazy about the idea. He was pretty excited until the thing started going up and then dropping them. The look of fear in his eyes and on his whole face was heartbreaking! I felt like I'd totally betrayed him by letting him on this ride. It was the worst feeling ever. He didn't cry, but I could tell he really wanted to. He got off and told me he was scared of that. That's fine by me. I don't like those kinds of rides either. He's the 3rd one from the right in the picture above.

This was one of his favorites. He kept yelling that he was driving. He was so proud of himself. He could ride alot of the rides by himself, but some of them did require that we accompany him, and I'll be sooo glad when those days are over. I'm not a fair ride kind of girl! I cannot go around in circles even on the kiddie rides. I seriously thought I would get sick on the silly elephant ride. I don't know how these crazy people ride all of those other massive things. I would just be a puking mess! Enough about that! Have a great weekend.

Quote

Nothing much to report today.. just another week at our house with our crazy little boy. So today, all I'm sharing is a brief quote from Gilda Radner. I read her book, It's Always Something, when I was early on in high school, too young to really understand alot of what it is about. She died after a long struggle with ovarian cancer, and learned to live each day as if it was her first (or last). I enjoyed the book and wanted to leave you with a quote from her:

I wanted a perfect ending... Now, I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity. - Gilda Radner


So often, it's hard to really look at life in this way. Just food for thought.

New CD

I actually broke down and bought myself a new CD last week. I think the CD has actually been out for like 3 years, but it's been close to that long since I purchased a CD. I figure I can find something to listen to on the radio most of the time, and when Grant's in the car we listen to "his music," so no need for any CD's then. The CD I bought is by Amy Stroup called Here I Am. You can preview the songs on the cd here. I have never been a huge Christian music fan, but I absolutely LOVE this CD. I've just never been able to "connect" with Christian music before like I have other stuff, mainly country music. I've tried a couple of times to listen to more of it on the radio or whatever, but just never enjoyed it quite as much as some other stuff. Anyway, I love Amy's voice and her style. I think she writes all of her own songs, and actually, it appears that she has a newer CD out too. I just bought this one first. She may actually change me, and wow, how much more inspirational is it to listen to this stuff in the car than some of the other trash that they play?! It's definitely comforting at the end of a hard day (not a hard work day, thankfully there aren't too many of those anymore), but just an emotionally hard day, or when I need a lift. I really look forward to my short drives alone when I can really enjoy this music. Just thought I'd share. Hope you enjoy!

Celebrating the Small Victories

FYI --- you may think this post has a little TMI, so if the word "poop" bothers you, just stop reading now.

That was my disclaimer. This is just a brief post to say that we are celebrating some small victories at our house. This has been a weekend full of pooping in the potty! It all started Friday night while Grant was using the potty at a friend's house, and then yelled, "Mommy, there's poopy!" I went in the bathroom totally shocked that there actually was some in the potty. Saturday, I saw him squat to go, and caught him and we ran to the potty. Once again, SUCCESS! We have been lazily working toward Potty Training for several months, but we have not been too pushy, and this part of it has been particularly challenging. Actually it's been close to 4 months since this has actually occurred, so this is why we're celebrating.

Sunday morning before church, Grant asked if he could watch Nemo. We didn't actually have Finding Nemo, so I told him that if he would pee pee and poopy in the potty all day on Sunday, then we would go buy it. Nothing like bribery when it comes to PT. Grant did really well all day, and once again I caught him mid squat, but nothing had officially come out yet, so we ran to the potty, and had success #3! He asked immediately if we could go Nemo. Of course, how could I say no after that? Off we went to Best Buy, no luck! Then onto Target, no luck! I'm beginning to wonder, do they still sell this movie. So, on to trusty ole Wal-Mart we go. I was almost holding my breath at this point thinking I'd promised the undeliverable. Then finally the electronics guy found it, and again I was thinking success!

This morning when I dropped him off, I told his Nanny to take him to the potty pretty regularly and keep reminding him that candy was at stake if he'd poop in the potty again. I called a little while ago to check on him, and he's been dry all day, but not so good on the poop front. He went in his diaper and then yelled yea! Not quite what I'm looking for, but at least he's showing some excitement. I also forgot to mention that last night while watching Nemo I put some of his handy dandy Elmo undies on him and he was sitting in my lap. I felt something a little warm on my leg, and then Grant yelled, "yea, I did it." He had peed in his pants all over my lap. Oh well, I guess I can't ask for too much in one weekend. Like I said, we're celebrating the small victories. I didn't say we were leaving the house in underwear anytime soon!

Sorry for all the info, but this really is what my life consists of right now... pee and poop and where it ends up!

Freudian Slips

I couldn't resist posting this short video that showed up on my homepage today. Now you know what the preacher is really thinking about, hahaha. Click here to see the dirty preacher.

It's A.......(revised with pics)

Sweet, Sweet Profile

Nothing Showing!

Girl! So, they've officially said that we're having a girl. Proud daddy took the ultrasound pics to work with him, so I can't scan them in right now. I'll try to scan some of the better ones in tomorrow. This ultrasound was more surreal than any that I've had so far I think. With Grant's, I was a nervous wreck. I woke up today with what seems to be the beginnings of a head cold, so my nerves didn't really get worked up. I was too busy thinking about blowing my nose and my throbbing head. However, they got some really great pictures, and we could really see a lot. She was kicking and moving all over the place, it was really sweet. The doc says that everything looks really good. The ultrasound this time showed a due date of Jan 14th, so we're looking at sometime between Jan 8th and 14th, plus or minus a few weeks. It's such an amazing thing that they can see so much at this stage. They said the baby weighs about 10 ounces right now, yet you can see every finger, etc. God is so good!

Happy Monday!

After a rough Thursday and dealing with a sick little one most of the weekend, I'm happy that it's Monday. Grant is still not quite himself, but the fever is gone. He got most of personality back yesterday, but his appetite is still MIA. After eating a chip last night, he started coughing and threw up all over himself and me right before bedtime. Hopefully, that was an isolated event!

On a quick Target run yesterday, I picked him up some new undies. The Spiderman undies he was donning a few posts back seem to have lost their luster ALREADY! He doesn't want to wear them anymore... ever! So now he has Thomas the Train and Elmo to entertain him. There were so many new undies when I brought them home yesterday that he couldn't decide which ones to put on. I put one pair on him and then he picked up some more and asked if they went on his head. I tried to explain that they all go in the same place. He ended up with 5 different pairs on (at the same time) before he seemed satisfied. I didn't snap a picture, but I don't know that you could tell how hilarious it all was without being there anyway.

Tomorrow is a big day. I have another ultrasound tomorrow. Please say a quick prayer that everything looks good with the baby. I guess as long as everything is OK, etc. and given that "it" cooperates, we should be able to get a look at what we're having. I am sure I will post tomorrow with all of the info.

A Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood......not really

Yesterday was a bit of a rough day! Our hose pipe (garden hose for those of you that don't live in this area) sprung a leak, which shouldn't seem like a big deal, right? Well, it is because we have to water ALL of our flowers every stinking day. I swear I don't remember the last time it rained at my house. My in laws that live about 10 minutes away had a big storm on Sunday, but I think the sun was still shining at our house. Seriously, our yard and our trees are really suffering from this heat and lack of water. Anywhooo, back to the hose.... Grant loves to help me water. It's usually the first thing he says when we pull in the drive every afternoon.. "I water fowers, mom." This little hole in my hose created quite a problem though; seems Grant was much more interested in putting his head in the water coming out of this teeny tiny hole than actually getting any on the flowers. Did I mention the mosquitoes at my house are horrible? This only seems to make it worse, and I seem to get no less than 4 bites per night. So, we got a new hose. No big deal, just one more thing on the list.

Then, our garage door opener decided not to work anymore on Wednesday night after church. It worked fine before church, and fine when we opened it to come home, but then it wouldn't shut. It just kept making this humming noise. I would've sworn that those things weren't supposed to be expensive, but I guess I was wrong. Turns out, ours wasn't expensive. Actually one of the repairmen told me we had the cheapest operator ever made. Thanks for that.. a simple I can't fix it would've done just fine. Apparently, it was so cheap that no one will work on them, they just recommend replacing it. So that's what we did, and now several hundred dollars later we have a fancy new garage door opener.. just what we needed to spend money on!

Now, my poor little one is sick again. I have no idea what's wrong with him, but his temp is hovering right around 102. He coughs every now and then, and kind of whimpers afterward, so I think it hurts. He also has 2 of his 2 year molars coming in, which are either causing this or just not helping it a bit. We have company coming in to town today, and my whole family coming over tonight. Hopefully, he'll feel a little better before everyone gets here.

To add to all of this, my A/C cannot keep up with this heat outside, and the amount of sun that we get through the back of our house in the afternoon is absolutely turning our living/dining/kitchen areas into an oven. Last night, I think the thermometer read 81 degrees inside and the air was set to 69. I've had enough of the heat... bring on fall weather, please!

One last thing.. now this was purely stupid.. Just a little while ago I was taking the trash out from both bathrooms. I had both bags in my hand and was standing up to walk out of the bathroom, somehow I ran into the door facing! I busted the inside of my top lip, ever so slightly chipped my front tooth, and put a dent in the door facing. When I looked in my mouth, fearing the worst, it was full of white flakes. I thought they were from my tooth, but it was paint from the door frame. Yes, I know I really need to watch where I'm going.

Sorry to rant about all of life's little problems, but some days it feels like they just keep coming your way. Hope everyone is having a better day than I am, and here's to hoping mine turns around!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 3rd anniversary! Unlike today, our wedding day was the perfect August day if there ever was one. I think the high temp that day was around 77 degrees, which is unheard of in Tennessee in August. I think the forecasted high today is around 100! The sky that day was a beautiful blue with clouds that looked they were painted in just for our pictures (but not the one above). Despite a few little things along the way, the day went off without a snag. It was a wonderful day. I'm a wedding kind of girl, and I've been trying to talk Pookie into doing it again ever since then. However, I seriously doubt that he'll ever be a taker. If you had told me three years ago that I would have a 2+ year old and another child on the way, I probably would have laughed. I guess instead, God is the one laughing at how well we think we can plan these things! It's been a great 3 years though, and I can't imagine doing things differently now. So Happy Anniversary!

On another note, apparently in the past few days, we have graduated to "mom and dad" status. Grant isn't calling us mommy and daddy anymore. It happened to me first. On Saturday, I noticed the occasional "momma" which I thought was odd. Then on Sunday, the word "mom" ended every sentence that Grant spoke to me. Pookie asked me if it bothered me, and I said he just sounded so grown up (at this point, he was still calling him daddy.) Monday night, "dad" became the word of choice, not daddy. Is this really supposed to happen this early??!! I'm not sure what's more endearing about mommy and daddy, but it just sounds a little more babyish I guess. Mom and Dad seems really grown up to me, and I'm not sure that I'm ready for Grant to be that grown up. I guess there's no stopping him now! Look at this picture. This was taken this morning right before I dropped him off. He'd been up all of 2 minutes, and this is how he smiled at me. You can see the mischief even right after he wakes up. He's such a mess!!

We had a wonderful weekend hanging out my Nana and Papa's pool. This little one finally took to the water! He liked it last year, but was too little to really let go with floaties. This year, he has mostly spent his pool time on the steps or running around on the outside. Saturday, he did ok in the pool, but Sunday was the day. It was like it all finally clicked. He figured out how to stay up with the floaties and swam all over the pool. We hated to even take him out of the water. Yesterday, he said he wanted to go swimming and he put his floaties on and told me to blow them up. We're so afraid that he'll forget what it's all about before next weekend that I think we're going to try to take him over there one night this week. It figures that now that we're so close to the end of the summer, he's finally enjoying it.

First Game

On Friday night, we took Grant to his first real baseball game. He's been to a few t-ball and softball games before, but we took him to the Nashville Sounds game Friday. We weren't sure how long we would actually get to stay because of the threat of rain and also Grant's patience. He ended up doing great. I was really surprised. We sat in Gen. Admin. so he'd have room to roam, and I think that definitely made a difference. We left after the 7th inning stretch, but it was mainly because mommy and daddy were ready to leave, not Grant. At 9:00 on a Friday night, I'm ready for bed. I never thought I'd say those words, but it's true most every night of the week! Jackson and his girlfriend went with us, and they were a great help with Grant as always! Here are some pictures of his first trip to the ballpark.

On Saturday night, we went over to a friend from high school's house. They have a 3 year old, and another on the way. Some of our other friends from high school were also there and they have a 1 1/2 year old and one on the way. So all of us pregnant girls had fun watching our kiddos play and discussing pregnancy the 2nd time around. Our kids haven't seen each other in awhile so they were a little timid at first, but by the end of the night, they were having a ball. I always wonder why we don't get together more often when we leave. It's such a good time. With all of the toys in the house, you can see what the 3 of them were most interested in playing in... a TV box! Makes me wonder why we waste our money on all of these expensive toys.

Another first Grant had in the last few days... His first time to shuck corn, not that this is a monumental experience, but we do live in the South, and there's nothing like fresh corn! He tried to eat it as soon as he peeled the first husk off. When daddy came home, he was telling him that he helped make the corn for dinner, and he was really proud of himself. He totally cracked us up while he was eating it. He said ummm yummy after just about every bite. It was kind of like that scene in the movie What About Bob when Bob makes a comment after every single bite he ate. I'm not sure if he Grant really thought the corn was that good, or if he was just so proud of himself for helping that it made it that much better to him. Here he is holding his corn high for me to see.

In baby news, we have 12 more days until our next ultrasound. I'm both excited and a little nervous about it. Everyone seems to think this baby is a girl, but I've prepared myself for a boy. Hopefully, it will cooperate so we can get a clear look and tell for sure. More importantly, I hope that it looks healthy. I am starting to feel what I can definitely tell are kicks. I had a couple of flutter feelings last week, but couldn't really differentiate them from all the other crazy feelings I seem to have in my stomach. The past few days I've felt some things that could only be baby though. That's my favorite part of being pregnant, so I'm glad I'm finally to that point. I think it's my husband's favorite part too. Last time, I had a hard time getting him to leave my stomach along so that I could go to sleep. Grant was a real acrobat, especially at night! Anyway, I'm feeling great, and just anxiously anticipating August 14th!