Tis the Season

Our system is down at work, so I thought I'd stop in for a visit :) Coffee = check. Drugs = check. I'm good now. I've been sick since Monday night and there doesn't seem to be a light at the end of my tunnel. However, the more caffeine I seem to ingest appears to make things more tolerable. Need I mention the drugs I'm taking are "occupational medications"? They also include large amounts of caffeine in them too :) I went to bed last night (well technically it was still afternoon...) at 5:30pm. That's right... 5:30! I slept until 5:45am this morning. I'm thinking of doing it again this afternoon too. The kids were a blessing yesterday and didn't argue at all or at least they were quiet about it and let me get some rest. Thank you sweet babies!! You can be good when you want to :) Let's try this more often ok?

Martin and I are looking forward to next week. I'm working Monday, but will be off the remainder of the week. Martin is only able to take off Thursday. It's gonna be a slim Christmas this year, but we'll make it. We didn't get our annual Christmas bonus at work this year which usually paid for their Santa. Luckily, Martin opened a Christmas account and we were able to save a little bit to help this year. There aren't any "extras" to speak of, but each is getting 2 things that they really wanted. I'm hoping the simplicity of it all will be more enjoyable and let them really appreciate what they ARE getting instead of all the "stuff" they normally get. I said, "I'm hoping".... that doesn't mean it's gonna happen. I'm fully prepared for the complaining and belly-aching for what they didn't get. I'll keep you posted.

This weekend I'm getting Alli Claire's "big-girl" bed finished and put up. She's been waiting for a month and I'm just to the point of having it refinished and ready. I'll take pictures :) She still looks so cute in her baby bed that converted into her toddler bed. I don't think I've mentally prepared myself to see her in a big bed yet. I'm sure there will be tears! Lots of them. She's my last (she's made sure of that!) but I still can't wrap my head around the growing up process and how quickly it happens. My Graisi will be 10 in February!! TEN. I can hardly believe it myself!

If I don't get back before Christmas day, please know I wish you and your family the best (albeit simple in some cases) and most enjoyable Christmas ever!! Enjoy what you've been given and eat what's left! Hugs and lots of smooches

Much a do about nothing

Ok... so it's been a while. I said I was going to do better about blogging and you see where that gets me? I'm going to let you down... I'm surprised you're just now realizing that! Hello... it's me. :)

Lots to catch up on... I'm training today at work and not liking it one bit. But that's another story for another day.

Martin and I graduated from Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University last night. I have a diploma and am edumacated now!! Look out budget....

Graisi started meds for ADD a few weeks ago and is doing great. We don't make her take them on the weekends, but I think I'm going to start making her. She drives us nuts when she's not on them!! It's crazy!

Alli Claire saw the Boy Scout Christmas tree set-up on side of the road last night and declared she wanted to go to the Christmas Tree Garden and see all the pretty trees. I think I might stop this afternoon and let her do just that. Why not, right?

Our house is decorated for Christmas, inside and out. Our front porch looks great and I love our tree. For the past 2 years we've decorated it with the 1960's/70's big ceramic bulbs. We also got a new tree this year. It's a big one that takes up most of our living room, but it's great! I can see our ornaments and they don't look like an "ornament blanket" like they looked on our slim tree. Martin found it on sale at Old Time Pottery on Black Friday for $30!! Go Dave Ramsey!!

My coffee is just now kicking in, so I'm able to type really fast. My coffee makes me happy. Without it, I'm worthless.

My friend Catherine is moving this week and I need to go help her pack. I hate packing, but when it's somebody else's stuff I don't mind. Kinda like cleaning someone else's house, ya know?

I went to the dr w/ my dad last week. Please put him in your prayers. He's in a great deal of joint pain and they don't know why. He's scheduled for MRI's and another drs appt next week.

Let's see what else I can ramble about. As if the info above wasn't enough....

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure I'll think of more in just a little while. Stay tuned... or don't. I really can't blame you. My blogging track record has not proven to be consistent. Anywho... be good and I'll blog when I can or think about it or feel like it or don't have anything else to do.

Shelli

Nickelback/Hinder Tour 2009

Catherine and I were patrons at the Nickelback/Hinder/Papa Roach/Saving Abel tour Tuesday night. I was supposed to have been Monday night but was postponed until Tuesday due to the tropical storm coming thru that was supposed to have produced 30-50 mph winds. Needless to say, no wind or rain Monday night, but a torrential downpour happened Tuesday night! We sat in the rain for FOUR hours (which included thunder and lightening), but we weren't budging! It was the most fun I've had in years!! The concert was awesome. We sat beside a guy who'd brought this 14 yr old niece. She didn't need to go to the restroom by herself, so between acts Catherine and I took turns escorting her. In exchange, he was VERY nice with the beverages! LOL Here are a few pictures :o)

These are "after concert" feet that got washed in the Whataburger

since around midnight-thirty. YUK!

Me and Catherine after the concert. Not too bad for having sat in the rain for over 4 hrs, huh?
Chad w/ Nickelback. He rocked it!

I love me a drummer!!

He was awesome!!!

Nickelback

In the middle of the thunderstorm!! No kidding... with lightening and everything!

Austin w/ Hinder. B/c of the storm, they were delayed and didn't play as much as I would have liked. Oh well. Maybe next time, right?!!

Me, Catherine, Robert & Brooke (she's 14!).

Coby w/ Papa Roach. He held my hand!! :o)

Saving Abel. They also didn't play as much as I would have liked....

When you don't have a mirror... a digital camera will work just fine :o)

4th grade first days and other misc info

Per Graisi, the first day of 4th grade was great! She loved her teachers and even loved riding the bus!! She hopped off of the bus with a huge smile on her face. You have no idea how good that made me feel. After two years of of bad teachers and a nightmare of a bus driver, we were due some goodness. The only thing she didn't like was when she goes into the cafeteria for breakfast, she can't get right into food line. She has to put her backpack down in front of the seat she will be sitting and she can't save a seat for her friend like she was able to in elementary. However, she was able to hook up with her friends before sitting down :o)

I have her riding the bus with Mallory and I'm picking them up at Mallory's bus stop. It's great for us and Mallory doesn't have to walk home from the bus. WooHoo!

Alli Claire, also, had her first day of "Playball". It's a program that comes to her school and teaches preschoolers the basics of athletics. It is pretty cute the way they're taught. She was sooo excited when I picked her up. She told me all about being baby birds and Tinkerbells. She also said something about hitting a ball with a "fly stick" or that's what it sounded like anyway. I've given up on trying to understand everything she says. It's virtually impossible.

When Martin signed AC up last week, he spoke with the Playball teacher to get the details. Afterwards, he called and said he'd spoken with the "Playball Cheerleader". I laughed and didn't think anything about it. I had an email from Ms. Victoria this morning and well... y'all ... it was a little "cheerleader disturbing"!! I have NEVER heard anybody speak in "cheers" before. Literally.

Tomorrow our cul-de-sac is having a huge yard sale (4 families) in the circle. Let me just tell ya... I ain't got nothin' ready. Nothin'! I went to storage last night and spent an hour going thru boxes trying to find stuff. My Tahoe is full, but I also found stuff I wanted to bring back home. It was a little counter productive to say the least. I've got to clean out the attic this afternoon and get everything priced. OR I may put stuff in designated areas and put signs in front of the
items with a specific price. Just depends on how much time I have. LaShea made the signs and put them out last night with the time from 8-3. When I passed by I had to laugh!! I really hope she doesn't think there aren't going to be people sitting outside her house at 6am. If so, she's going to be rudely awaken. I sooo want to sleep late, but I also need to get rid of stuff and make a little $$.

In case you haven't been informed, I will be going to see Nickelback & Hinder in concert with Catherine Monday night. I've waited for months and it's almost here!! I'm so excited I'm beside myself. Watch for pictures. This is gonna be fun :o)

Yep.. gonna spray my kid down with Raid

Graisi started 4th grade today. She is no longer officially in elementary school, but in intermediate. I'm a little sad because my baby is growing so fast. But at the same time, I'm so excited to see what tomorrow holds for her. She's such a cool, creative kid and it's so neat to see her change into the person she is to become. So cool!

I re-dyed her hair last night in anticipation for today. Except this time, it came out extremely hot pink! It's so cute and I think I like it better than the first time!! I'll post pictures here this afternoon because words just cannot describe her attire!

As most parents know, there is A LOT of paperwork to enter any grade of public education. 4th grade was no exception. We went to "meet the teacher night" Tuesday afternoon and realized I would need to stop by the nurses office to complete the forms for Graisi's bug spray and hydrocortizone (very allergic to mosquito bites). I won't even go into the paperwork fiasco (let's just there was one and leave it alone) with the "nurses". I use this word VERY loosely. I explained to the "nurse" that Graisi would need to be sprayed down with bug spray before going outside each day due to this allergy. She quickly replied, "Oh we cannot do that!" I asked why not. I mean, she needs this in order to be protected. She was shaking her head the whole time and said she needed to check with somebody else. As she spoke w/ the person on the other line, she had this very confused look on her face and looked at me and said, "Like Off... insect repellent?" I looked at her and said, "Um... yeah. Bug spray.". She got off the phone and said, "Oh I thought you were talking about spray like fly spray or Raid." Y'all... I would pay large amounts of money to have a picture of my expression at that very moment! That fool actually thought I was trying to get her to spray my kid down with RAID!

Is this not the same part of the county that calls ALL soda's "cokes"? Do we not call fly swatters, "fly flaps"? Or movie theaters "shows"? WHY on this green earth would that moron immediately think RAID, when the need for bug spray was used in relation to protecting my child from mosquito bites? And to think she has to be somewhat educated.... I'm still left with a disturbingly confused expression. I'll never watch a roach commercial again the same way without a mental picture of Graisi. ROFL

Beach bound and back so quickly

Martin and I took the kids to the beach this past weekend (Aug 1-5) and just got back last night. (As you can see I'm a little late posting this, but it should make some of you happy that I WAS working on it ;o)

We had such a great time! Both kids were beside themselves wanting to get there. Let me just say, it takes longer to get to Orange Beach than I remember... Not sure what all that's about, but I wasn't diggin' it. But we got there. Safely and that's all I can ask for.



Once we got there and unpacked we were beach bound. Unfortunately the jellyfish were out, so we couldn't get in the water :o( But we weren't letting them rain on our parade. No we weren't! So we elected to play in the sand instead. Graisi decided she'd find the j-fish and warn everybody that came along. LOL



Sunday was beautiful. I spent most of the day with my toes planted in the sand and a cold drink (with lime of course) in my hand. The jellyfish were gone but their tentacles were not! Graisi and Alli Claire got stung many times, so we decided to stay land locked for the remainder of the day. We enjoyed having dinner with some friends of ours who were also in OB for several days. Thank you Brad and Andrea for putting up with us and some great conversation. Brad... I'm not sure I'll ever look at you the same way!! ROFL That's good stuff right there!



Monday was also fantastic. No jellies!! Martin and the girls played in the water. Mom was back on the beach in the sun! I soaked it UP. We headed back to the condo and got ready for family-beach pics. I'll post them when I get them edited :o) They're great!! Dinner was not so great. I won't go into detail... it just wasn't good!



Tuesday was... you guessed it! MORE SUN! This was was sand castle day, but only because AC wanted one badly... it wasn't "great" but it was 3 yr old qualifiable :o) That's all I needed. I got in the water a few times, but I had my spot and I wasn't moving much if I could help it. We also took a dauphin cruise and had a neat time watching them surface and play around. Alli Claire wanted to swim with them :o) If anyone goes and wants to do this (ride that is), look up Skipper J's Dauphin Cruises. Great experience and no once yelling at you on a loud speaker. We at dinner at Flippers there at the marina. This dinner sooooo made up for the previous night. I would also highly recommend their cuisine. YUM!!



And now on to Wednesday morning... Alli Claire woke up around 3:30am screaming her head off! My immediate thought, as I was so quickly awaken from my slumber, was that she had fallen out of the bed. If you'd have given me a few seconds more I would have coherently realized this was not possible since she had a bed rail on the bed with a chair pushed up against it. But it was, after all, 3:30 IN THE MORNING! There were no coherent thoughts... I struggled with my legs trying to get them to cooperate w/ the covers, to no avail. So I did the next best thing... I screamed at Martin, slapped his arm and instructed him to GET UP. For all I knew, we had a 3 yr old laying on the cold, stone tile floor with her head bleeding profusely from the massive head trauma she had obtained while falling from the whopping height of 2 1/2
feet from the bed to the floor. (This was the actual mental picture I had...really.) And I wasn't going to have to witness and clean it up myself ... when I could get my feet untangled. As our bedroom door flew open... there was no blood. No 3 yr old on the floor. No trauma to deal with. Just Alli Claire sitting up in the middle of her bed screaming as if monkeys had just eaten her feet off. Ok... so I got her calmed down then noticed Martin in the kitchen profusely rubbing his eye. I asked if he was ok and he assured me that he was, but thought he had something in it. So I went back to bed and he took a little bit longer to follow than I thought he should have. I asked him again if he were ok and he said his eye was hurting pretty bad. I knew immediately he'd torn his cornea and suggested we go to the emergency room immediately. He refused. Are any of us surprised? So... my "mommy mode" kicked in. I went into the kitchen and found the yellow pages. The only "medical" type professionals that were up at, now, 4am was a 24 hr Walgreens in Mobile. So I called. To which the pharmacist confirmed my plan of care and thought it best to get him to the emergency room, too. I went back to the bedroom and told him of our treatment assessment and he declined again. What did I do? I rolled over and went back to sleep. I figured if he wasn't too worried about going blind before we could get him to a doctor, then I wasn't either. I know it was not the "good-wifely" thing to do, but he was being stubborn. We got up the next morning, packed the car (apparently the pain had subsided) and hit the road home. About 10 minutes in the car, I looked over and asked if he wanted me to find him an optometry appt for when we got home. He said, "Yes.". I knew he was a little worried at that point :o) When he woke up he couldn't see out of that eye... Anywho, I called a friend of ours from church and he was able to see Martin at 3pm last Wednesday afternoon. I was really hoping to be sleeping with a pirate for the next week, but no dice! Paul said he'd torn the top layer of the cornea off but it had started to heal by the time we got there. We left with sample ointments and drops (which is #1) and was told to come back if it was still bothering him a week or so. Paul said more than likely what happened was that Martin was sound asleep and his eyes had cracked a bit drying out the exposed tissue. When he quickly opened his eyes from the screaming (and slap :o), they didn't have a chance to lubricate and the lid had become attached to the eye itself. EWWW!

My quirky kid

Alli Claire insisted she sleep in Graisi's leotard, even over her pj's

I said she was a quirky kid!

Even quirkier!! She demanded to wear it to school too! I let her....

Easter with my Shelby at Mamaw Dunkerlin's house. When she came to the house a couple of weeks ago, she's now 1 inch taller than me!!! How could this happen so quickly?

Checking out pictures...

Mommy and Alli Claire
Watch out Magnum P.I., James Bond and Dirty Harry.

Meet Tornado Alli Claire! Loaded and ready for target practice.

Alli Claire-isms and updates

In case you haven't spent very much time with my youngest child, here are a few things you've missed.

She calls all construction equipment "Bob Builders". This makes my my car rides with her very interesting since they have and will continue to be doing road construction in a 5 mile stretch for who knows how long to and from our house. Did I mention she screams when she sites a "BOB BUILDER!"? Oh yes, she does... and you must acknowledge her discovery with an appropriate response of, "Yes, that is a Bob Builder". "Uh huh" no longer works...

Well, here recently, it's been warm enough that I've been able to roll the windows down and not use the air conditioning. One day last week Alli Claire declared, "Bob Builder stinks my nose." The only thing I can think is she equated the construction equipment with the dirt smell from the road construction.

We've known for quite a while that sometimes she has "hot" in her nose. This can mean one of two things... 1) she has snot in her nose or 2) the air she is breathing is hotter than her body temperature making it feel warm in her nasal passages causing them to feel hot. We've seen both scenarios play out.

The kid has quirks to say the least. I won't even go into her argumentative nature. When I say she will argue with a flat rock, I'm not kidding. One of my friends said the other day that she has never seen a more argumentative child at such a young age. Example... if I said the sky is blue, she's say it was green. If I agreed that the sky was green, she'd get upset and insist it was indeed blue. Go figure... not sure where she gets this from??? LOL Why God decided to create two of me, I'll never know! There really should be only one.

Graison is spending the week with Aunt Janet. Me, Martin and AC will go over Wednesday and spend the night. Our annual trip to Six Flags starts Thursday. One day at the amusement park and one day at the water park. FUN! I cannot wait. We always have such a great time!!

Saturday, I'll drive Graison up to Suzanne's house and let her spend the next week there. She is going to have such a great time. Shelby came and stayed a week with me a couple of weeks ago. I left her alone, fed her and let her do absolutely NOTHING. She loved it. She and Graisi stayed home, watched tv, went for walks and ate. I think they both enjoyed it :o)

We got back from the beach last weekend. My friend Catherine and I took our girls (she has two also) down to her family's beach accommodations :o) That's the best I can do with the description. It was was 5 minutes from the beach, but in the middle of Deliverance! Literally. It was great!! We had such a fun time one our own schedule... there really wasn't one. So much fun!

Needless to say, our summer has not been slow nor uneventful. It's been one thing right after the other.

1st Father/Daughter Dance

Friday night Martin and Graisi attended their first Father/Daughter Dance in Calera, AL. Both were gorgeous!! Here are the pictures taken before and during ... you be the judge :o)

Happy 9th Birthday Graison!

It's 11:30pm, so technically it's still her birthday :o) It's been one crazy day today, but it was a good day all in all. I got up early and made one of her favorite breakfasts.. homemade cinnamon toast! I rolled her hair before school, so she was curly today :o) I'd made an appt to have our piggies and nails done, but the salon called and canceled due to an emergency with one of their children. So maybe we can do that another day next week. I sure hope so!! We went and ate at her favorite restaurant, Tortuga's, and had deep dish pizza!!! YUMMMM And she got her Nintendo DS and the game she wanted to go with it. What more could a girl ask for on her birthday? Saturday is her party and I'm still undecided what to do about a cake. Guess I better figure something out soon, huh?

Graisi, when you read this, I hope you had a great day today. Know that Daddy and I love you very much and really wouldn't trade you for a million dollars or a hot fudge sundae from McDonald :o) You are ours and we love you and your sister more than anything in the world, no matter how much yelling we do or how much you don't... I can't wait for another great year as your mom. I know wonderful things are ahead of us!!

Love you lots!!
Mommy and Daddy

Alli Claire's having surgery in the morning

Please say a prayer for us in the mornning. Alli Claire is going in for tubes in her ears and we have to be there at 6:15am. Like, I've told some people, it not that she's having tubes put in. It's that it's Alli Claire. She's never been normal to react to anything normal... Her pediatrician has commented on occasion that she doesn't present normal symptoms and tends to be a little difficult to diagnose. So with that said, I don't anticipate any problems, but this is AC we're dealing with. Just pray something weird doesn't happen to complicate things and that all goes as planned.

On another note... Martin finished his leg of the relay Sunday and finished it in record time (for him). He did great as did Graisi Saturday during her last mile of her marathon.

We're getting ready to go for Graisi's handbell lessons, dinner and AC and I are coming home to hopefully get in bed early tonight. Martin will meet G at church and they'll come home together. Don't cha just love juggling schedules and kids??

Friday night at McWane's

Last night, we had another camp-in at the McWane Center for our Girl Scout troop :o) I will say, this one was much better than the 3 previous ones Graisi and I have participated in. It wasn't crowded and the activities didn't last as long. We actually had a fun time. Three parents took the first 3 activities and another set of three took the next set. So, even the adults had a few minutes of free time to ourselves!! Yea for us!

The kids had a great time making homemade paper, bubble wands and crystals from salt and sugar, etc. The IMAX movie was also very good. It was a little "1986" but it was still good and entertaining for all practical purposes.

Alli Claire and Martin had a "Daddy-Daughter" night. He met me there and we exchanged AC. He said she stopped screaming about I-459 ... but was a perfect angel afterwards. They went and ate our usual BBQ on Friday nights and came home and settled in for the night. When we got home he did mention that she got up at 6:45am this morning!! At least we got to sleep until 7am! LOL!! Poor Martin

Have I mentioned Martin is running in the Mercedes Marathon next weekend? He's taking a 6 mile leg of of the 26 mile course. There's four of them running it and his boss, Bill, is taking the first leg and continuing on to complete the whole thing. Bill ran his first marathon at Disney back in December and coerced Martin into running in this one :o) He ran 5 miles this morning and did it fairly quickly... I was impressed. And, just in case you're wondering... Shelli don't run just because! Let's just get that out there right now. If you see me running, you had better take off too, because something bad is behind me and trust me, I will not be an easy catch! I will pass you.... Mama CAN run when she needs to. I kid NOT!

Graisi is doing very well wearing her headgear and her ortho appt last week was good. Her open bite has closed nicely but will close completely when she gets her braces, hopefully in March.

Alli Claire is doing well potty training. Tuesday when Martin had her home she called me at work and told me she'd pooped out a "ha-dog". She said, "It big Mommy!" Right out of the mouths of babes!....

My little bow finder

This morning Alli Claire pitched a fit getting ready and refused to let me put her hair in a ponytail. I do this to keep her bows from falling out of her hair. Needless to say, she didn't get a ponytail and I knew the bow wouldn't stay in for long but took her to church like that anyway. Martin went to get her after services were over and brought her to me. NO BOW! I meant I was not leaving church without the bow. We've lost pacifiers, cups, coats, etc. I wasn't leaving anything else for someone else to claim. I went back to her classroom and told the teachers that she'd lost her bow and they assured me they'd looked for it and must have gotten put in someone else's bag. They said, "They'll bring it back next week." Uh... no they won't. Been there... done that! At that point, I "informed" the teachers that I was coming into the classroom to find the infamous bow. See, they don't like for parents to come into the classrooms :o) It's a safety issue and I understand that. But they apparently don't know me or my mission to find the bow. I went in and started looking and then realized I was wasting my time. I bent down to Alli Claire's level and made her look at me. I asked, "Alli Claire, where is your bow". She said, "I take it out my hair." I asked, "When you took it out of your hair, where did you put it?" She mumbled something I didn't understand and I asked her to show me where she'd put it. She took my hand and led me to the toy kitchen, removed the sink and there it was!!! The teachers were amazed. I know my baby may not speak well, but she's smarter than any kid I've ever met, Graisi included! All you have to do is ask her what you're looking for or what you want her to do. She'll get it done!

What took Friday so freakin' long?

Martin's at church tonight for a men's conference and me and the girls are home alone. We went out for our weekly Friday night BBQ at Dean's (minus Martin) and swung by McDonalds for a cup of ice-cream :o) YUM!!

Tomorrow I think I'm going thrift store shopping and make some spaghetti sauce. Martin will be leaving early to go back to the conference, so we've gotta find something to occupy our time, right??

My sister finally closed on her dream house today and is having to kick the previous inhabitants out after closing. It seems the lady and her husband fired the movers last night.... ??? She said she needed me to be there b/c she just couldn't be ugly, but she said when Michael go there, he didn't have a problem with it. She said he took care of business. You GO Boy!!

My nieces also got their full sets of braces and jaw expanders today. I haven't talked to Michaela but her Facebook post said she was hurting. I did get to chat with Shelby for a few minutes and she is absolutely miserable!! She had to get the expanders on the top AND bottom! I feel soo sorry for them. I never had to have the expanders, but I remember the pain of the braces and that was enough. Shelby said Suzanne is going to have to turn the key on the top expander everyday and the bottom every-other day for 12 to 14 months!!!!! OUCH!

Not much else to report on except I'm glad it's Friday. My co-worker was out for 4 days this week and was a week behind on her work. Guess who got to catch her up and do her own work too?? Yours truly!! Needless to say, 2:30pm today couldn't come soon enough! If you can't do the work, say something!!! It's funny when I gave up that job it took 3 people to fill my shoes.... I still haven't figured out why she can't do the one part of it. Oh well.... It's Friday and that's all that matters. I have two great days ahead of me!

Happy Weekend Internets!

10 Things I LOVE About ....

10 Things I LOVE about Martin:
1. I love how he accepts me no matter how big of a freak I am and is never shocked!
2. I love how warm he is when he wakes up and lets me snuggle with him.
3. I love his compassionate spirit.
4. I love his loyalty to me and his friends.
5. I love that his perspective is different from mine most of the time.
6. I love his ability to cook.
7. I love that he's honest and genuine.
8. I love that he understands math... all of it!
9. I love that he tells me the truth no matter how badly I don't want to hear it.
10. I love him because he's the 1st best gift I've ever gotten.

10 Things I LOVE About Graisi:
1. When she first wakes up, I love how she comes to hug me and just leans into me and lets me hold her for a minute.
2. I love her passion for anything nature related.
3. I love watching her become more and more independent but still wants her mom around.
4. I love that she still likes to play with her baby dolls and pretend even though she's almost 9.
5. I love that she's her own person and isn't influenced by her peers.
6. I love that she loves Jesus!
7. I love how she never meets a stranger when I'm around but has good instincts when I'm not.
8. I love how she protects and takes care of her little sister and aggravates her at the same time.
9. I love that I can take her anywhere and always have been able to and she likes being with me.
10. I love her because she's the third best gift I've ever gotten!

10 Things I LOVE About Alli Claire:
1. I love the way she smells like maple syrup when she first wakes up.
2. I love the way she smiles at us when she's getting in trouble.
3. I love the way she aggravates Graisi and acts like she isn't doing it on purpose...
4. I love that she has the nerve to tell us "NO" even though she knows she'll get in trouble for it.
5. I love when she sees road construction she screams, "LOOK MOMMY! BOB BUILDA DIGGIN'"
6. I love how she knows immediately something isn't right and questions it.
7. I love how she grabs my face to kiss me and then gives me a big squeezy hug.
8. I love how she screams and laughs when I scare her.
9. I LOVE her laugh when she's tickled
10. I love her because she is the 4th best give I've ever gotten!

Black clouds loom over a white car

Remember me getting the car out of the shop Tuesday? I called Martin on my way home and he told me he needed to go by and get a new tire on the front something later this week. I asked him if he wanted me to go and he said, "No, you've had to do enough already". I said I really didn't mind, but he insisted he would do it later.

Yesterday morning he had a dentist appt at 8am, so he was able to stay at home a little later than normal. He slipped on his Crocs and jacket (pj's still on) and proceeded to take Graisi to the bus stop. About halfway there, he noticed the tire was flat. You know the one I offered to have replaced the day before? Did I mention it was also 18 degrees yesterday morning and he had on Crocs and no socks... He got out to change the tire and the spare was flat too! He was able to slowly drive it back to the house and get our neighbor to see if they had a can of Fix-A-Flat. It seems it really didn't matte whether she did or not, because the spare was coming off of the rim. God bless her! She drove him and her two little boys to Wal-Mart to have them put the tire back on the rim and pump it back up. He called me at 11am and said he was just getting to work. Needless to say, he didn't make it to his dentist appointment.

And to top it off, the "check engine light" came back on as he drove home!! The way I figure it, when the "Rains/Pours Syndrome" hits, it usually does so in 3's. I figure 2 flat tires and another engine light should be it. I hope!

Miracles never cease

We finally got Martin's car back from the shop today. I had to get a little difficult with the mechanic and a miracle happened... What may or may not have been fixed 2 1/2 hours, only took 15 minutes!! WOW It was truly amazing!! Are any of us shocked?

Alli Claire has some weird mysterious rash on her body now. Kinda like the one she had on her fanny a few months ago. That one lasted about a month, but it didn't bother her. No itching or soreness. This one is the same way. She's always had weird stuff going on and her pediatrician has also commented on it. So until another symptom develops, I'm not taking her in. Put this down as another reason I should get the Mother of the Year award.

Graisi is wanting to take art lessons now. We had to have "the talk" with her a couple of weeks ago. You know the one where we had to break it to her that she just wasn't athletic no matter how hard she tries...? Don't get me wrong, she needs to be involved with different sports, but her ability to excel in them just isn't there. We'll continue to let her be in the Upward sports at church, but I think we'll focus our time on art or some type of music lessons. Have I mentioned she has a full sized keyboard, electric guitar and amplifier courtesy of Mamaw and Papaw?? Anyone have a drum set?

Martin is good... bless him in this house of crazy girls! Say lots of prayers for him :o) He still loves his job and the people he works with. He's usually in a good mood when he gets home (aside from the traffic frustration) which is such a change from his previous job.

I'm also doing good. Alli Claire is talking more and more and it's just precious. I love to hear her talk. Right now she's calling me "Lolli" (and all up in my face making it difficult to type) which is odd and I don't know where she got it from. But, this is what we called her while I was pregnant and didn't have a name for her yet. Strange! My job is going well. It's taken a little time to get used to a new manager. She's just not Barry. Did I mention he took me to get my car today?? :o) We are still really good friends. I mean how many bosses do you know would yell at you and then let you yell back at them and hug at the end?? Ya just gotta love him!

Christmas 2008

I'm finally catching my breath from December. I'm not sure we could have crammed anymore stuff to do into 31 days. Christmas is my favorite holiday, but I am so glad it's over!! Here are some pictures (SHANNON!) from Christmas morning. Graisi declared this was the best Santa has ever done.

BTW... just in case you've wondered where in the heck I've been... try looking on Facebook. I've traded my eating, tv watching, bloggin, sewing and craft making addictions for Facebook. That's right... Facebook. If you're not there, well... you're just not there. Even my brother has gotten in on the activity!! I've talked to him 3 times a year now for the past, oh... 6 years. Before that it was even less. Yesterday I talked to him TWICE!! At least I know I'll talk to him at least 5times this year.

Alli Claire and her new shopping cart at Publix!!

This is what happens when a ballerina and Michael Phelps collide.
"You want a knuckle sandwich?"

Our Daddy and Heidi. He was soo happy I took this picture!

Mommy and Alli Claire Christmas afternoon

This is what happens when you let your children play unsupervised... she ATE blue chalk!

Trying out Sissy's new headphones while watching television. Precious!!

Look at that 24" mountain bike!! And still in her pj's...

Santa did bring her a train set! She loves it :o)

"He DID bring me another American Girl doll! I told you that's what was in that box!"

Sissy helping Alli Claire down the stairs to see what Santa brought