Our week in Tennessee - Part Two

Ansley ROCKED the rock wall! (heheheh)

Stephen flying the space shuttle. He LOVED this part.

Conquering the Bed of Nails like a champ.

Stephen took his turn as well.

Stephen and Jamey in front of the blue screen.

Ansley channeling Laura Ingalls Wilder (school house late 1800s) 

Checking out the schoolhouse

Dixie Stampede

A drink in a boot!

This girl was not one bit afraid of this overhead ropes course.

Look! No Hands!

Getting used to the ice skates

Getting brave....

Ice skating isn't too bad at all!

Lacing up!

A lot of love for first thing in the morning at the cabin

Geo-caching time! 150 year old cemetery

Found another geocache with her daddy!

Hot tub time for the little man.

It was a good trip. We are blessed :)

memory

I don't know why this moment popped into my head this week, but it has. Perhaps because I watched Jamey deal with this Target mess that some of you know about. (side note - both of us went to bed Saturday night angry with Mr. Weekend Target Manager. Rise and shine on Sunday, head to church, and the sermon was on anger. Geez. Felt a tad guilty that I *might* have been wishing in my head that Mr. Weekend Target Manager went out to a flat tire on his car that night )

 Anyway - Jamey handled it as it should have been handled, of course. Those of you who know him are not surprised. Whereas I was tempted to yell, cry and stage a sit in, he was patient and it paid off.

It reminded me of another time when I saw this quality, one of many that I love about him. And you guys, I am sure, get tired me talking about him. But man, I do love my husband. And I don't think there is anything wrong with saying it. 

If you have ever birthed a baby, this may be a familiar scene to you. If you haven't, well, bare with me. (Nothing gross coming up, I promise). There comes a point in the process of baby arriving that mama begins to think, I just can't do this. There is no way I am going to be able to get this baby from inside of me and out into the world. I just can't. The nurse can keep telling me to push, the doctor can tell me to focus on the contraction and that I am doing exactly the right thing....but for a moment, that I am sure in reality flashes in the blink of an eye, yet stretches out to eternity for a laboring mama, for that moment, I just knew I was going to fail at the task at hand. Baby was not coming out. She would indeed live inside me forever.

And that is when it happened for me. And I am sure it has happened for other mamas time and time again. The man I love most in the world. The man who was standing there with me in my most vulnerable, unappealing wild moment, leans in to my face, takes my chin in his hands, tucks my hair behind my ears and whispers, "You got this. You are already doing it. Keep going. I am right here."

While I know in my head that baby was coming no matter who was there in that room with me....in my heart there was no one in the world who could have gotten me to the finish line but him. I could have walked on water if that is what he told me I could do.

I realize that giving birth is not even remotely in the same category as a small victory in the returns department of Target. But really, it is just another sign of who he is. How blessed am I.

 “Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life.”
― Brian Andreas

Our week in Tennessee - Part One

Heading up to the Mayfield Ice Cream Factory (notice the yellow brick road)

Stephen not wanting his picture made while walking to the factory

Five kids on a cow

This girl prefers sherbet over ice cream usually.

Five kids making a silly face in front of a really big cow.

Three girls in the hot tub. I am surprised there was any water left in it after they climbed back out.

Stephen and the ladies watching a little movie.

Stephen not wanting his picture made (shocking)

Jamey losing at pool. Or maybe he won. I can't remember now.

To soothe nerves from being the one boy of five girls, I purchased Stephen these binoculars. It helped.

Ansley takes off across the water by way of a fallen tree. She looks a tad nervous in the shot, but she really wasn't. She took off like a monkey. More monkey moves come later in the week too.

Stephen crossing the fallen log (with just a little help)

Stephen and the ladies near the creek.

Look closely to the left - the girls climbing back down from the top. Again, no fear.

A boy and his walking stick.

One of the girls went feet first into a rushing stream. A grill still warm at the picnic spot warmed and dried the socks and shoes nicely. But let me say, she was a trooper. I would have whined incessantly about my cold wet feet. She did not.

My girl in the mountains.

A vast improvement

**disclaimer... Im typing on the ipad and i stink at it.

Well, we are somewhere in the north eastern part of Alabama on our way to gatlinburg. It has been more than four years since we have done this trip. Lots of things have changed sine then. Last time we went to gatlinburg , we left in the middle of the night after a little four year old Ansley finished her dance recital. We drove half way (just as we did today) and stopped at a hotel Jamey had found online a day or two before we left. But this is where the differences in this trip and the last trip begin.

This trip: we did book this hotel on Hotwire so we weren't sure exactly what hotel we would get upon paying. But Hotwire yet again came through...we are at a best western plus (guess the plus part makes it extra special?), it looks fairly new, it's very clean (the tv remote was in a sanitized bag. I didn't even know these sanitizing bags existed outside bottles/breast pump equipment) and freshly baked Otis spunkmeyer cookies in the lobby. Two thumbs up.

Last trip to gatlinburg: we arrived at our hotel with a small child and a 6 month old at about 2am. There were no other hotels to choose from on the exit . We needed sleep. The babies needed out of their cars seats. So we stayed. Mistake #1. When you have a funny feeling in your stomach about a hotel, trust that feeling. Leave. Pray. Do anything but stay. Jamey checked in despite my protests that the rooms opened to the outside. Hotels with rooms that open to the outside are just not my thing. I have not stayed in one since. But we stayed that night. A baby needed to be nursed and we were exhausted. We passed by several overflowing garbage cans on the outside walkway to the room. Flies swarmed. You get the idea. We opened the door. There was one bed. Jamey, Stephen and I were in the bed and Ansley went down on a pallet on the floor. The bathroom was used strictly for its toilet. It was 3am and we all closed our eyes. About an hour Jamey and I sat bolt right up in the bed when we heard Ansley cry out that the tigers were getting her. I just knew that something was on the floor. Jamey yanked her into the bed with us, we slept miserably on and off for the next few hours, before the sun peaked through the window. We opened the door to the room to leave, and that is when we noticed the police tape four rooms down. There was no discussion between the two of us. We loaded our two babies into the car and we left. We went on to have a fabulous week in the mountains. And i am sure this week will be just as fabulous. We have a few surprises for the kids. We plan to relax and enjoy our time together.

For tonight, I am thankful for this clean and spacious hotel. It's only 7 so I don't think I can justify putting the kids to bed quite yet, but I assure you that the four of us will all be asleep sooner than later.

Happy Mardi Gras from St. Vincent's Catholic School!

Today was the Mardi Gras parade at Stephen's school. Each child created his or her own float from a cardboard box and walked in the parade with their throws. Stephen was Indiana Jones and and we turned his box into a rugged JEEP perfect for Indiana Jones to drive through his adventures. It was a great parade and the kids and parents had a good time. There was no need for barricades at this parade! Imagine that.

Stephen was not very excited to throw the beads we had for him. "I love these beads, Mama. I love them in my heart." 

"Um...these beads that stink and that have been stored for a year in the garage in a plastic popcorn bucket from Disney? These are the beads you love in your heart?"

"Yes."

So I told him to throw what he wanted to. I mean, no one forces the people in real parades to throw anything - although they get blasted in the paper the next day if they are stingy. But since no one was writing any reviews of this parade and he is 5 and the parade lasted a total of 8 minutes for him I think, I told him to have fun and throw if he wanted to. He did throw to a few lucky kids, his sister, his Nanny (my mom) and his Grandad (Steve)

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Thoughts.

We seem to have things down pretty well as far as night time routines go. I imagine it is similar to most other families - although I do think it odd at times when before bed at night, Ansley is working on her "book" online through a program MCPSS uses, Stephen is doing a phonics lesson on the IPAD, I am blogging and Jamey is watching basketball streaming live through our internet to our television. My kids can choose some type of screen time at night. They watch very little, if any, tv during the weekdays, so I don't really worry about it too much. We simply don't have time to watch many cartoons. When we get home in the afternoons from ballet, piano, tumbling or whatever, it is time for dinner, baths, a little relax time and then its off to bed. Tonight they chose to watch a bit of Robin Hood while having a Pollman's Mardi Gras cookie and a glass of milk. Ansley has had a bit of a sore mouth this week from a procedure done yesterday. Both my mom and I have expressed a bit of concern about her orthodontic work affecting her eating. Eating has never been high on her priority list, and if it hurts to do so, then I don't want her missing out on calories (side note - you will never hear me say that about myself) My mom says she gets that from her mom - who would go a all day and then say, "did I actually eat anything?"

Both the kids go for checkups tomorrow. I am not sure how tall they are - although I should know b/c we measured them both before the Disney trip a few months ago. I know Ansley is around 45 pounds - so I am wondering what percentile that puts her in.

Stephen had a tiny cavity filled yesterday, and although he would have been fine at school, a day spent with Great-Grandma was how he chose to spend the afternoon. I don't blame him. When I arrived to pick them up about 3:00pm, Ansley, Stephen and Mamaw Jo were in the middle of a Walton's episode. Three of the Walton's girls had DARED to enter a race that previously only men could enter. Both of the kids had comments on that one - (Stephen: How come the girls racing is against the law? Its not against the law at my school. And if I beat them I don't feel bad.)
We had to leave for ballet before we could find out if the girls beat those boys who had been teasing them all episode. Ansley feels certain they did. Stephen said the girls probably won but it was only because the boys tried to cheat and probably got caught so they weren't allowed to win.
Its funny they both love that show. That and Little House on the Prairie. I do count the days they spend with their Great Grandma as days well invested. School will always be there..special days with loved ones might not.

We are headed to the beach this weekend to hunt out the perfect house for our June escape to Dauphin Island. We are forced to add a bedroom with Ms. Molly James coming along for this trip, but we are happy to do it. These warm sunny February days make me ready for some sand and saltwater. And some downtime. We will have our downtime this summer with a new little baby who smells of milk and baby shampoo. We will put sunglasses on her and take pictures of her wearing sunhats. My mom will sit with her in the shade and we will dip her tiny toes into the gentle little laps of water to see her reaction. We are dreaming of summertime here at our house - and new babies coming with the spring.


Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.  ~John Lubbock