Hope you enjoy the new look!  We’re excited to keep tweaking and adding some things.  Keep watching!

Just one quick look at our busy weekend in Chattanooga, from the Tennessee Aquarium on Saturday morning:

From our lunch playtime at Chik-Fil-A…

Analise came out of the play area to munch on her nuggets and gulp down some lemonade (“yemon-ade” Josiah calls it).

“I met a new friend, Mommy!”

“Really?  Did she tell you her name?”

“Yes, her name is is South Carolina.”

Do you think her Daddy needs to back off on showing her maps of his favorite rides from his college days at Clemson?  I have a hunch her friend might have been named Caroline 🙂

The great things I’ve accomplished…  Once again, one of my favorite bloggers, Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer, says it just as my heart feels it.

That’s what this week has felt like to me at least that’s what it’s felt like in my head.  Sorry I’ve not been on here!   Feels like not much to write about, although I have lots that I still INTEND to post about… notably more about my parents’ visit with pictures.

Brian raced this past weekend in Mississippi (more details on his blog), and we had Kim, Lauren and Anna over for lunch and playtime after church on Sunday.  Always fun to hang out with them!  I snuck out Sunday evening to the coffee shop for a meeting… which got canceled at the last minute, but I still stayed and relaxed with my book.

Monday we had a quiet day at home while Brian was busy at school getting ready for classes to start next week.  We enjoyed a new sandbox on our back porch, which I had been looking forward to for a long time.  Yes, the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.  They buried each other, dug, sifted, molded and tossed sand everywhere.  For all the fun they had, I sure got grumpy trying to get them to keep it in the sandbox and not get sand in each other’s eyes.  And then when they were done, I pretty much didn’t want to let them inside.  We ended up having to take baths at 11am, and sand got tracked everywhere.  Was this supposed to be fun??  I’m learning, slowly, that trying to be the over-controlling-clean mom only really hampers the fun for everyone.  I’ve got to find a balance.  One tip, though… baby powder really works well to brush the sand off!!

Monday evening I got to go to a faculty dinner with Brian, which was fun.  The other professors and their spouses in his department are great company, and I always look forward to these events.

Tuesday we had friends over to play, and we made edible peanutty play-doh.  To top it off, I gave the kids each a package of M&Ms, which was more exciting than the play-doh.  I had also invited Brian’s parents over for dinner, and while I was getting the table ready, Josiah fell off the couch and cracked his lip open.  Poor little hard-luck guy.  He bled all over me, but a popsicle finally soothed him.  And of course, Analise had to have one too, even though it was before dinner.  Thankfully, they were Pure Fruit pops 🙂

Today started out with Josiah and I at Children’s Hospital for his yearly tests to follow up on his vesico-urethral reflux issues (VUR).  I was pretty worried about it, because back in April it took 3 tries to get a catheter in for a urine sample, and he had pain for several days.  The test today (a VCUG) involved a catheter, but it went as smoothly as could be expected.  Still painful, tears on both our parts, but he did well.  I’m so proud of my little guy.

Tonight was back to our weekly Wednesday Life Group routine.  Brian’s parents are now taking both kids to church with them for dinner and their Missions Friends and choir programs.  We arranged to have my invaluable babysitter, Abigail, here when they got home at 8 to put them to bed, while we’re at our Life Group for dinner and discussion.  It went smoothly tonight, and Analise was even asleep when we got home, which has NEVER happened on a Wednesday!!

Tomorrow we may get some haircuts (everyone but me needs one!!), and get ready for a weekend of fun and racing in Chattanooga.  The season is winding down…

Just to mark this date… he’s 2 years and 2 months old. We haven’t even thought of potty training Josiah yet.  Well, I’ve dreamed, but since we’re still dealing with an occasional accident by Analise.  Even though I’m desperate to be done with diapers, I’m not ready to start the the PT boot camp again.

Tonight in the bathtub, Josiah said he had to go poopy.  "No, no, no!" I told him, as I pulled him out and put him dripping wet on the little potty seat on the toilet.  I’ll spare most of the details, but he actually went a little! 

I, on the other hand, was so excited about his accomplishment, I forgot about his little penis until I got sprayed!  AG!  I guess I have a lot to learn about potty training a boy.  #1… always keep it pointed down.

Brian’s 32nd birthday was this past Sunday.  I invited his family over for dinner on Saturday, so we had a big crowd… Brian, I & the kids, my parents, his parents and Matthew.  We had delicious Spicy Sour Cream Chicken tacos with all the fixins, cheesy Rotel dip and chips, and cake.  I mentioned that I had high hopes for the cake… a yummy peanut butter cup and fudge frosting chocolate cake.  Well.  It looked like a flop.  It wasn’t completely cooked, so when it was cooling, it sagged through the rack.  I was so disappointed, but I decided to make it into a hot fudge cake.

I made a decadent hot fudge sauce, and we topped it all off with homemade vanilla ice cream.  YUM.  It wasn’t pretty, but man, it was delicious.  And we have a nice big container of hot fudge to continue to enjoy.

Birthday celebration moments…

Sunday Brian got to ride to Mount Cheaha to meet us up there.  He had a big steak dinner at the beautiful restaurant on top of the mountain.  We had a fun time swimming, exploring, hiking, climbing, enjoying my parents, and staying in our great cabin.  It was a great birthday!!

The restaurant overlook.

The view from Pulpit Rock, a 1 mile hike (round trip) that we did with the kids on Monday morning.
Josiah was so cute… “I climin’ a mountin!” he kept saying.

Josiah and I at the overlook on a boardwalk trail we did on Sunday evening.

We played in Cheaha lake on Sunday afternoon, and it was so warm and very shallow for the kids.
This is the pool at the Cheaha lodge, and it was deep and COLD, but with a fantastic view.

Analise, my little mountain goat.  Everywhere she climbed, Josiah wanted toclimb, too.

Mom and I got a lot of things done this week, but this was the biggest…

We made a headboard for my bed.  It was so simple!  We used a 4’x5′ piece of plywood (the hardest part of the whole project was fitting it into the car!), covered it with batting and a beautiful fabric, and stapled it all around the back.  It turned out so beautifully!  It’s like a bed makeover for me!  We also got a new pillow, and I got a bedskirt which makes the whole bed look so much neater.  Thanks, Mom!!

Nearly 2 weeks later, I’m finally getting to share this trip!  We had such a fun time, and there are so many great pictures to prove it!

(Ok, I’ve started this post several times and lost it, so I’m giving it one last try!)
Highlights:

• The kids were AMAZING travelers.  Honestly, our kids are super-travelers, and they’re normally better than most kids would be on all the big long marathon trips we take them on.  But this trip they were great in the car, and we made awesome time on both legs of the journey.
• Staying with our friends, the Kackerts, Mike, Michele, Emma and Michael.  They were great hosts for our whirlwind weekend!
• Amazing food… Michele cooked up some good stuff!  Six Can Soup (I got the recipe from her originally! Her seasoning was so flavorful!), the requisite spaghetti before Brian’s race, homemade bread (from my recipe, but she’s tweaked it.  I’ll try it soon, and post my results), Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes (with berries they picked and topped with Trader Joe’s Maine Wild Blueberry Sauce – delicious!), huge thick-cut steaks that were perfectly grilled, baked sweet potatoes, Mushroom Orzo, and Strawberry Pretzel Cream Cheese Ice Cream (Michele snagged me an ice cream maker at her local thrift store… you’ll be seeing a post about that soon!).  Yum!
• We took a trip to a nearby Children’s Gardens where the kids had fun running around, climbing and splashing.
• Michele took me to a couple of her favorite thrift stores.  She knows how to find some good, cheap fun stuff!  That’s my kind of shopping!  Why are the trhift stores around here not-so-good??
• Of COURSE, we made a trip to my dearly loved, Trader Joe’s.  Man, I love that store!  I chattered to the cashier about how I always have my TJ’s reusable bags when I’m doing my everyday shopping at home, but we were on a trip, so I didn’t have them with me.  I gave him my usual grilling about when we’ll have a TJ’s in Alabama.  He was so sweet and gave Michele and I both newly released canvas bags.  Do I need more reasons to love Trader Joe’s??
• Brian’s races were good… the details are all on his cycling blog, under the category “Racing” and  titled “Tour of Elk Grove”.  (Several posts on various things!  Too many to link to!)
• The kids both did a kids bike race.  Josiah rode his trike while I pushed him with the handle, and Analise got to ride a big wheel, which she thoroughly enjoyed.  She’s getting to be so fast!  They were also very good for me while we watched Brian race both days.  They’re getting to be such well seasoned fans!
• The kids loved having cats to play with.  We slept in the room the cats normally call their own, and we had a hard time keeping them out.  One evening, we’d put Josiah to bed, and when Brian took Analise up to bed, he found Josiah playing with a cat through the portable crib, offering him his pacifier.

On to the pictures.  I used Michele’s Canon Digital Rebel DSLR camera most of the weekend, so some of these are hers and some are mine.  But, man, I LOVED that camera.  Maybe someday…

I love how the camera caught the splash in this photo.

Stepping stones in the frog pond… I love the reflection of my cuties, too.

Stepping on the stones progressed to jumping in…

…which progressed eventually to swimming.

More coming soon!