Sunday, July 31, 2005

A Sweaty Day with Thomas the Choo-Choo

We took the kids to Dillsboro to ride Thomas the Tank Engine today. He was cute and all, but it was way to hot and sticky outside. Tracy, her mom, and Austin were all there. Since their train ride was before ours, I took pics of them on the train and then they took pics of us on the train later. It worked out great. Tracy apologized because she doesn't think that her photo taking ability is all that great, but like that matters. I wouldn't even have photos of us all on there if it wasn't for her! Thanks gal :) I will get some photos up today.

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Hubby just couldn't stand it...

He just had to give me a gift today. My birthday is on Tuesday the second, but he just couldn't wait. We are both that way. If we have something for the other, we can't keep secrets very long. We love giving each other things right after we buy them, LOL. Anyway, he got me a Bon Jovi tank top! It is cute and it was really unexpected. He is so sweet :)

Friday, July 29, 2005

No need to apologize!

My gal pal Adrienne commented on my last post about being guilty of throwing moms dirty looks in restaurants. No need to worry, we all have! I know I am guilty. Believe me, there are a LOT of moms out there that don't give a crap what there kids do while in a restaurant and that is very frustrating. Nothing makes me madder than to see kids misbehaving and the mom simply ignoring it or just not even trying to discipline the child in public situations. That is rude to the other eaters around you to *allow* your kids to be wild. As a mom, your job is to teach your child how to behave in all situations and some moms fail miserably at this. They just don't seem to care to take the time to discipline at all. I have no respect for those moms. Those poor kids never learn manners and end up being spoiled adults. Granted, I do know that kids do tend to wild by nature, and that is why the moms have to make the decision where to sit in the restaurant. If you are going to be having a lot of rowdy little kids, please sit out of the way as possible. We knew that our kids were going to be loud and hard to control, so we respectfully sat as far in the back of the restaurant as we could. There was no one sitting in our section. I felt that was the right thing for us to do for all the other customers. I know that when me and hubby go out for date nights, we don't want to be surrounded by screaming kids with food flying everywhere ;)

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Lunch isn't for wimps!

Oh my gosh, today was a whirlwind of stress and me wondering if I will ever get to have a civilized lunch with my buddies ever again. To start the day off, I had to get my butt out of the bed at 6am (which is WAYYYYY too early!) and get the kiddos ready to go over to Tracy's house for our Moms Club board meeting. Since I was so early, I took the kids to Chick-fil-a for breakfast. I love their little breakfast minis. I am aware that all they are is Sister Schubert's dinner rolls (which you can find in your grocer's freezer) and chicken nuggets, but gosh I love them! Anyway, I have to comment on how nice everyone was while we were there. For starters, a nice lady held the door open for us on our way in. Then, the cashier offered to take our food to our table (even though she had a long line of people) since I had my hands full with the carrier with Emerson, the diaper bag, and Hayden. As we left, a nice man held the door for us. It was so nice having people help us out. It sure isn't easy getting around with 2 small kids and all the crap that goes with them, LOL.

Afterward, we went to Tracy's for the meeting. I was amazed at how well 3 of our boys played while we chatted. They were upstairs playing like kids should. There was no whining, fighting, pushing, or toy stealing (which is very unusual). Tracy, Rhea, and myself left to go eat lunch with Kala and her 2 kids. Well, let me tell you, it wasn't very fun. There was 4 two year olds, 3 babies, and 4 moms. I love meeting up with everybody, but it was just too chaotic. If you ask me, the kids weren't all that bad. They were just loud and enjoying themselves. We stressed ourselves out trying to keep them all seated, happy, and as quiet as possible. The old people in Hendersonville couldn't help but give us dirty looks whenever they would walk past us to go to the bathroom. It was ridiculous. We got sat at the back of the place and no one was even near us. The place was loud from the piano player that was performing and that should have drowned out most of our noise anyway. Several senior citizens made comments and shot us dirty looks as they would walk past. It really ticked me off. Were they never children? It is so odd to live in a retirement town because you would think that the citizens would be nice and love children. From what I see, they do not. It's like we are an inconvenience anywhere we go because we have kids. They don't want to be anywhere near the vicinity of us families. Whatever. It would be one thing if the kids really were misbehaving. I am a strict mama and I can tell you that the kids were okay. They weren't crying or screaming and no one was hanging from the chandelier. We didn't deserve those dirty looks, we deserved applause. My God, we were trying to have a good time with our kids like good Moms should do. We were brave to put ourselves in that restaurant with all of us, but we enjoy our kids and want them to enjoy being together. What's so stinkin' bad about that?! Ugh, now I am rambling. Anyway, I felt the need to get that off my chest!

And now in other news, my neighbor Joanna Bolick had her baby girl yesterday! She is so cute. If you want to check her out, look at the blog I have listed entitled 'Tuesdays Frog and the View from the Aquarium'. I can't wait to hold sweet little Harper Kate. I plan to come over Saturday, so be expecting me Jo. Maybe we can do dinner on Monday. Whaddya think? ;)

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Yay! Going to Atlanta :)

Well, I had to give up the CK Convention (that's scrapbooking in case you have no idea what in the world I am referring to) on August 6th, BUT we are finally making the first trip to Atlanta on our surrogacy journey. I am SO excited!!! We will get to meet the intended parents (IPs) and their beautiful little girl. We will all be psychologically screened to make sure that we are of sound mind. I am kinda nervous because I am worried about them reading into everything I do and say. When I am nervous, I tend to ramble away. It's seems weird for someone to be inspecting me, but I totally understand. It makes sense to do the screening. Lord knows that someone with a devious mind like Charles Manson has no business carrying someone else's child, LOL.

Hopefully, we will get to eat at Greenwood's on Green St. That is my all-time favorite restaurant. I would give anything to have their recipe for fried honey pepper chicken, cheese grits, cornbread, and lemon chive butter. It is a very casual and unusual restaurant. It is inside of an old house and it is totally off the beaten path. It's located in Roswell off of Alpharetta Hwy in a residential area. You would never know about it unless someone else told you about it. I have never seen any advertising (not that I am complaining about that because the less people know about it, the quicker I can get a table). The only reason we know about it is because of a few friends that gave us a gift certificate to there. When we were living in Atlanta, our neighbors went on vacation and had us watch their cats. They gave us the gift certificate out of the niceness of their hearts. It's kinda funny because we moved to North Atlanta and our old neighbors moved to Florida. A few months after we all moved, we ran into each other at Greenwood's. It was really cool! Anyway, I thank them for introducing us to this quaint place. Greenwood's also owns The Swallow at the Hollow. It is a really good BBQ place right across the street.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005


Emerson's 2 bottom teeth slowly emerging Posted by Picasa

Teeth are finally coming in!

Emerson's bottom 2 teeth are finally making an appearance. They started coming in on the 21st. The funny thing is that this kid has been eating everything from steak to bread since he was 6 months. There is nothing that this kid couldn't eat being toothless. Now, maybe he can actually chew it!


Hayden and me in the pool. It took me forever to get him to get in it! Posted by Picasa


My Mom and Emerson at Christine's house Posted by Picasa


Emerson and me chilling in Christine's pool Posted by Picasa


Emerson in the pool Posted by Picasa

Bathtime

The bath photos below were taken a few weeks ago and I am just now getting around to uploading them. Aren't they cute? Both of my little guys love taking their baths.


Big E scrub a dubbin' Posted by Picasa


Hayden in the tub Posted by Picasa

Monday, July 25, 2005

I've Been Bad

I know, I know. I am a slacker. Life has been crazy this past week, so my blog has been on the back burner. I will attempt to catch you all up.

Thursday-Me and the boys rode to Charlotte so that we could visit with my family and Hayden could go back home to High Point with Grandma Allred. We played in the pool and had a lot of fun while we were there. I do have some cute pics and I will post them tomorrow. That night, we took Emerson to the new Target that had just opened up. It was so exciting because Target rocks and the Starbucks that was inside was the icing on the cake! How cool is that? I can sip my white chocolate mint mochas while shopping at Tar-zhay :)

Friday-Merry Maids wasn't able to come out to my house today, so I hired my friend Tracy to clean it up for Joanna's baby shower on Saturday. She did a fantastic job! My house had never smelled so good and clean. Kala met me for Starbucks and Target (did I tell you how much I LOVE that place!) later that night.

Saturday-Heather, Judith, and Beth came over to my house for Joanna's surprise shower. I went over to Jo's house (just across the street) to talk to Mark and find out where she was. She was at the scrapbook store, ugh! There was no telling how long she would be there. You know how it is in those stores, you look around, you shop, you chat, and you take forever before you head out the door. Well, luck was on our side because she actually got home in perfect timing. She was shocked when she got out and saw us all at my house. Needless to say, we had a great time and baby Harper got some cool gifts. Congrats girlie! I will definitely be thinking of you when you go in for your induction this Friday. If you need anything at all, a babysitter, a house sitter, a cook, an errand runner, you just let me know :)

Sunday-Since we didn't have Hayden to drive us crazy, we went to our favorite restaurant in Asheville, Bonefish Grille. Yes, I know it is a chain, but everything there is so stinking good! The fish and martinis are unbelievable. I highly recommend the Bang Bang shrimp appetizer and the grouper. Emerson was excellent. He enjoyed eating with us and he was so easy to entertain.

Monday-Mom and Judy brought Hayden back to us around noon. He didn't want to be at home. He wanted to go back with them. That kinda sucks, but it is a good thing too. I like knowing that he enjoys being with them. It sure takes the guilt out of leaving him with Grandma for a weekend.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Let's get a round of applause...

Emerson learned to clap his hands together today. He was so cute! I caught him doing it this morning while we were watching TV. Now the question is, when will he learn to crawl? I mean, he is 8 months old now. Hayden was 7.5 months when he began. I know I can't compare them, but Emerson doesn't seem to have any interest in doing such physical activity. The only thing that motivates him to do anything is food. I think that we are going to have to put a whole turkey in front of him to get him to move, LOL. Oh well, I really ain't complaining. Once he is on the move, my life will get a lot harder because I will have to chase him around the house all day. When it all comes down to it, I don't want him to get older. He is perfect the way he is. I love having a baby and will miss it dearly when he becomes a toddler.

Well, enough rambling. Off to feed Big E.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Room with a new view

Today I finally painted my scrapbook room. I choose a limey green that is kinda like the Gin-X Desperately Seeking Summer papers. It looks really good IMO. I have some wooden letter to paint and hang up today. Hopefully, I can get my room cleaned up tomorrow so that I can take a photo of it. I will post as soon as I can.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Last night's fiasco

I was supposed to go out on a Mom's night out tonight, but I ended up at home. I actually made it to the restaurant. I was there first and so I sat down to have a drink while waiting for the other gals. Well, I got IDed. Stupid me left my ID at home. Clayton threw it out of his wallet at me just as I was cleaning my face. I forgot to ever pick it up. Angela showed up just as I was going to check to see if I left it in the 4-Runner. I told her I would be right back. When I realized it wasn't in the car, I called her to let her know I had to drive back home to get my ID. Mind you, I don't live just down the street from this place. Halfway home, I realized that it was going to be a pain in my butt to drive back. I decided to just stay home. My tummy was rumbling and I needed to eat ASAP. I didn't want to have to wait until I got back to the restaurant to eat.

Anyway, it was a good thing that I stayed in. Clayton and I were sitting on the couch when we heard the kitchen table topple over. All you could see of Emerson was his little legs under the edge of it. We freaked. We were both panicking and thinking that Emerson would be in a severe state. Thank God he was okay. He was just scared. There was no injuries at all. What had happened was Hayden had been pulling on the back of Emerson's hook-on high chair. The table couldn't take the weight, so it fell to its side. The chair actually saved E by preventing the table from crushing him. We were so glad that they were both okay. I am glad that I was there because Clayton was really freaked out. Whew! I am glad that this whole ordeal turned out all right.

Friday, July 15, 2005


Mud Buddies-Layout from Simple Scrapbooks latest book (Scrapbook Shortcuts using Simple Schemes). Posted by Picasa

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Call Me

Clayton found my cell phone in his golf bag today. The last time he used it was when we hit golf balls in Wyoming. You may now resume all calls to the 76 number :)

We watched White Noise tonight. I figure that I am now going to have nightmares tonight. So, what was the deal with the ending? We just didn't get it.

Dang, FedEx delayed delivery of my layout and book from Scrapbook Trends. It was supposed to come today. Hopefully, it will get here tomorrow. In the meantime, I will post the layout that I just got published through Simple Scrapbooks. It's in the new book that features scrapbook schemes. The main photo is of my friend Tracy's boy, Austin. He is a good buddy of Hayden's.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

I Scared of Hinder!

That is what Hayden yelled today when we had a loud thunderstorm. Naturally, the stupid storm coincided with naptime, so he got out of having to nap today. Due to being over-tired tonight, he was a nightmare. When he doesn't get enough sleep, he is whiny and annoying.

I think that I perfected the white peppermint mocha today. I spend way too much time and money at our local Starbucks getting this sinfully wonderful drink. My drink turned out very close to the real deal. It has taken me a while to figure out a good recipe, but I think that I have it now. So, when can I have you all over and make you one?

FYI-I have lost my phone again. It is probably in Denver with the rental van we had last week. Oh well, now I am going to have to get another one. If you need to reach us, call us on Clayton's phone. It was the same as my number except the last 2 digits are 82 instead of 76.

Saturday, July 09, 2005


Clayton and Hayden in Thermopolis Posted by Picasa


Hunter and Clayton Posted by Picasa


Grandma Virgie (Clayton's paternal grandma) and Emerson Posted by Picasa


Steve, Cole, Stephanie, and Clayton Posted by Picasa


Grandma Christie and Emerson swimming in the hot mineral springs of Thermopolis, WY. Posted by Picasa

Long time-no blog

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't updated the blog in a long time, but we went to Wyoming back on the 28th of June and got back on the 6th. I have been too tired to do much of anything since. If you are wondering about our trip, I will tell you, don't take little kids on a long vacation-EVER! I will admit that the flight out wasn't too bad, but we overdid it. First of all, we left for the Charlotte airport at 3am because it is 2 hours away. Then we flew to Memphis and connected to Denver. From there, we rented a van and drove 7 hours to Worland, WY. We got there around 8pm MST. We were dog-tired. We quickly crashed at his Mom's house.

While visiting, Clayton's brother Cole flew in with his girlfriend and their daughter to stay at the house too. It was totally crazy. Everything went well until the babies decided to take turns in the night waking us up. It drove us nutso since we haven't had to get up in the night since Emerson was 3.5 months. Steve, Clayton's dad, drove in from Omaha to see us all. We went out with him for lunch and dinner. He also met us in a park one day so that we could visit with some more of the family that just happened to be traveling through at the same time. Clayton's sister Stephanie and her boyfriend Tom drove 6 hours from Cheyenne to visit that weekend. All in all, it was great to see the family, but we won't be taking such long vacations with our little ones for quite some time.

Oh yea, the reason that we went on this adventure was for Clayton's 10 year high school reunion. We went to a social night at the local bar that Friday. We had a blast! I met his old classmates and enjoyed the night. He was nervous to see his old friends and cohorts, but it went rather smoothly. Hunter and Mandy were there. They were his best buds in school. I had met Mandy before, but not Hunter. He has been spending his years in Zambia (yes, that is Africa). I was rather impressed with him. He's a very cool guy.

Our trip home was awful. We drove to Denver and stayed the night there. That part was great. It was the leaving at 4am that sucked. We had to rush to get to the airport on time. Naturally, we got on the highway going the wrong direction and had to drive forever to the next exit. When we got close the entrance ramp to get back on the highway, a freaking big rig was blocking the left turn lane. That's just our luck. We somehow got in front of it and turned anyway. The rental van had to be returned and that took a little while. We got on the bus to get to the airport and realized that we were starving and that neither kid had been changed yet. The hotel offered a free made-to-order breakfast, but we left too early to get it. Ugh! By the time, we got to our gate, we had to board the plane. There was no time to change the kids or feed ourselves. I was miserable and tired. Hayden thankfully slept on the plane, but Emerson threw a fit. Clayton took him to the bathroom to change him and it didn't have a changing table. I don't know how he managed, but he did. We thought that we would get to eat at the next airport, but all we got was some Starbucks. I insisted on coffee as soon as I saw the sign. Unfortunately, we went to the terminal to find that our plane was already boarding. So we boarded without eating again. I was so stinking mad. Both flights that day were bad and we were just ready to be at home.

Rules for Wyoming:
-Don't let your gas tank go below 1/4 of tank before gassing up. Believe me, this one is true. We were on E and scared because we were in the middle of no where. After riding on fumes, we finally found a shack that had a gas pump at it. It was definitely not the type of place I would normally stop at, but you gotta do what you gotta do and we HAD to do it, LOL.

-Don't ever get a Coke. They taste like crap there. I swear that Pepsi is sabotaging the Coke because I never had a good one there. Pepsi is made in Worland, so it is rude to buy Coke, but I didn't care. I HATE Pepsi. Clayton even admits that Coke is better. When we were driving out to Worland, we stopped at a gas station in Chugwater that had fountain Coke. Clayton bought me one and I had to take it back in there to complain. It tasted rancid. In Worland, we bought mini bottles of Coke that tasted flavorless. All the local restaurants offer the P-crap there. At Pizza On The Run, yes that is the name, the menu actually said that they offer both Pepsi and Coke products. When I asked for a Coke, they smirked and said that Worland is a Pepsi town.