Tuesday, January 27, 2009

PET PEEVES

Ha, I have been READY to write this one. IF your pet peeve is spelling mistakes, then DON'T read my BLOG. No be having time for spelling and grammar checkin he he..

So I don't have a #1 pet peeve. I have three that are about even and MAKE ME MAD!!!

They are :

Dumb butts that go through the FAST FOOD, I repeat FAST FOOD drive through, stay at the window and HAND OUT YES HAND OUT all the food, even with a line behind them and 100013 chillins in the back to hand out food too. OK to do a quick sack check to see that you have everything, then MOOOVVEEEE OONNNN, I am on my lunch break and IN A HURRY!!! ekkkkkkkkk One day I am Going to Run Over someone that does this!!!

More dumb butts that sit in the line at the bank and slowly YES SLOWLY put their money away in their wallet before pulling away. Or what about the slow poke that gets to the machine and slowly ever so SLOWLY pulls out the wallet and digs and digs out the ATM card while my precious minutes are flying by. Have you ever heard of multi tasking!!! I mean get that wallet out at the stop light way before getting to the ATM, and for goodness gracious sakes, if there is a line at the ATM WHY do you wait till you get up there to THEN get the wallet out, consider yourself smacked in the head HARD if you are doing this crap!!!!! (wow I am hateful tonight)

Next the rest of the dumb butts that are in the school drop off line in the morning, talking and talking to the teachers while the rest of us on a schedule, who WERE ON TIME!!!! until we had to get behind you and wait for you to finish your SCHOOL CONFERENCE, while in the drop off line. MOVE!!!!! consider yourself smacked in the head too if you do this!!!! I have had to beep twice at one car YES 2 TIMES to get a teacher and parent to stop talking so I could get around to go on to my next stop!!! ahgghhhhggggg smack smack smack

Tidbit: Get out of my way in any line. Do not wait in the4 grocery store line to get out your money or cfheck book. Can you believe peoplewill wait until the order is rung up before they even get their wallet out!! I have already punched in as much as aI can on the card swiper whil my order is being rung up!!! whatever......

Sunday, January 25, 2009

THE BIG NEWS

Continuing from the last post, the unexpected, unplanned, unbelievable happened. You got it, Mommy became pregnant, YIPEE!!!! I never thought a thing about missing a period and being late again..... Did not cross my mind.... I was SO BUSY with the adoption process! SO, I took THREE pregnancy tests yes 3! and still went to my OB saying, give me another test, it cannot be true. I was incredible happy. jarrett could not believe it either, he said over and over Are you sure???? So we had a great pregnancy and we were all so happy, Gage was excited to be a big brother, and needless to say confused about why we were adopting????? Grayson was due March 30th 2007. He arrived 6 weeks early. My amniotic fluid began to leak on a Friday evening. We went on to the hospital where we planned to have Grayson, but my OB sent me by ambulance to a hospital with a NICU since Grayson's lungs may not have been fully developed. I had to be induced, Sat morning Feb 17th. Grayson came along at 6lbs 5 oz, as healthy as he could be. He had a huge SHOCK of black hair, so much short little fuzz, just beautiful!!!! Jarrett and I were so surprised about the hair! Daddy and Gage did a lit of running to get things ready while Grayson and I prepared to come home. Daddy had to go out to get a car seat/stroller and a few other small items. Fortunately I had a baby shower at work the Friday before Grayson was born. So we were stocked with some things from my generous co workers. We had another shower planned for Sunday Feb 18th, but Grayson arrived the day before! My mom and sister came to the house to get Grayson's bed made and to wash his new clothes and be sure the kitchen was stocked. Our precious dear friends Marilyn and Tom were sure that we had meals ready to heat and eat.
We came home safely, warm and happy. Thanks be to God, for that, and for lots of help, from family, friends, church!

Our Adoption Story

What adoption? Who is your family is adopted?? Wellllll, we are on the shelf waiting and waiting and waiting....... Our dossier has been complete and in China since June 30, 2006. We had been trying and trying, hoping and hoping to expand our family to no avail. Our family unfortunately experienced a miscarriage in Oct 2004 at 9 weeks into the pregnancy. I had already shared with Gage, which made it even more difficult when we lost the baby. After another yr and a half of hoping, we decided to adopt. I did a BUNCH of research. Spoke to several agencies, interviewed with a few. We initially looked into adopting in our home state and also in the US. We finally started the process. The home study was delayed a little as we sadly experienced the passing of Jarrett's mother. It took forever to get the paperwork complete. It MUST BE PERFECT, every single piece. So much to look over review, send, mail FED EX knew us well, and we certainly supported them quite a bit. Passports, paragraphs to write, asking family and close friends for special references and on and on. IT was all worth it to us to be able to bring home a precious little girl. We had a name, room, clothes ready for her. Ready for the long wait, THEN something else completely unexpected happened.

Tidbit: We are still on the shelf in China, 2 yrs and 7 months, waiting.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

TTMBC-The Three Martini Book Club

Hey book club friends, Shout out to YOU ALL!!! We have a fabulous book group. Are you a book clubbie?? We have such an awesome time!!! Some of us work full time, some work part time, some don't have employment outside of the home (delicate subject) We all work in some capacity or other. Some of us have kiddies, some not. But most of all we are all FUN and just love our friendship so MUCH!!!! We rotate choosing books, any book at all, a wide variety of choices! The person that chooses the book also chooses to either host at their home or chooses the restaurant that we meet at . So needless to say we LOVE to eat good food also! January's selection was The Shack, very good reviews for the most part from our group. We met at a Mexican restaurant, had tons of fun. The discussion is completely open forum, anything goes. We all agree to disagree, and we do naturally at times. We have 9 members, so you have to just butt in to get your say in sometimes, and that is OK too! Of our original group, two have moved out of state to follow jobs, and we sure miss Carol in Florida and Karen in ugh, where is Karen?? I forgot which state! I need to get my list together to post the list of books we have read thus far, 2 to 3 yrs worth!!!

I always look forward to coming to the get together, I missed several meetings in 07 and 08, but I have claimed 09 as THE YEAR to be present more!! (Except for vacation time he he)

Friday, January 16, 2009

Circle Sisters

I had the honor, yes such an honor! to host Circle Sisters last night. Our precious group of Christian Sisters, we get together for support, prayer, mission, love, fun!! We had the most wonderful time of sharing and praying and crying and lifting each other up! We all come together to share and supprt each other. We are all mothers and can so relate to so many issues of parenthood, keeping faith at all times, and knowing and remembering that, as we talked and prayed about, that in times of crisis, stress and need, the group will always be here for one another to carry us through!! I love my Sisters in Christ and always look forward to getting together each month.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

HAIR ISSUES

All 4 of us have HAIR ISSUES, and I just have to tell about it!!!

First Jarrett, he would so NOT BE HAPPY if he knew that this was my topic tonight UGH! Well, with Jarrett, I won't tell anything personal-so not his style. He has very thick hair. It is very interesting that his hair was so much lighter as a child, and is really dark now. He is getting more and more SALT and PEPPER which I LOVE!

A very cute sweet story about that is: When Gage was 4, Jarrett was leaning over one day to tie his shoe. Gage said very loudly, "MOM! Daddy has black AND white FUR!!!" He He HEEEE loved it so much we laughed and laughed, as Gage saw Jarrett's gray which is much more obvious these days (Again, I love it).

So on to me, I have very thick hair also. It is naturally curly, many often think/ask if it is permed when they first meet me. It has been a battle for yrs as I used to comb and brush and fight the curls for years and years. FINALLY! I got sense enough (what, when I was 30?) to jsut leave the curl alone! We, not really. I have to put all kinds of goo in it every day to make it not look like a bad perm. So there. It takes forever to blow dry, but I have to do that, as if I wash night before it is straight by morning. I have joked with a friend (Christy) that I would wear some type of silk cap to try to keep the curls in but I have not tried it.

Next Gage! This little booger had such curly hair when he was a toddler. I could not cut it until he was 18 months old, and so many thought he was a sweet little girl. His hair was lighter when he was a toddler and it has darkened over the years. For quite a few years he would have it cut short, not quite a buzz. THEN, all of a sudden this yr he decided he wanted to let his hair grow long. I like it, Jarrett does not! The PROBLEM is that Gage does not comb it unless we remind him. It can be such a mess! He also has very thick hair, and has a pretty good wave also. It is very nice hair, and he loves to use good smelling coconut shampoo. So now we have allowed him to keep in long, but he does get it trimmed, the very ends, which is driving Jarrett nuts. I am not sure how long this is going to last!!!

And on to Butter Biscuit (precious nickname that Gage gave Grayson). One side note is that everyone often comments how much Grayson looks like Gage did as a tot. BUT a major difference is that Gage has much LIGHTER hair than Grayson. I really did not realize just how much darker Grayson's hair is until I started comparing pictures. But they really DO resemble each other in every other way. So Grayson's hair. He was born with very short tight thick dark hair,ohhh so so precious I noticed that the very first thing! The major concern is that he has this really really major COW LICK all the way across the top of his head right at the front. His hair will not go down back or front, so it is always a mess! I can comb and comb it, but no help. Poor baby, we just leave it a sweet mess.

Tidbit (Don't think us vain, we get ready in the morning and GO GO GO as Grayson says!!)
Just thought this would be fun to write about.

Hmm products. I use Pantene products, and right now am hooked on a hair pomade that is very thick, last thing I put on my hair to hold the curl in tight. If I don't use it, my hair is frizzy and straight, ick. I alternate between moisturizing shampoo and volumizing shampoo, and oh yeah, clarifying shampoo to get all the gunk out every few days. Actually I can mix the clarifying shampoo and the moisturizing for a pretty good fix. I ahve tried more expensive and also cheaper shampoos, Pantene is the one, but I like and use Loreal products also. Just the dry hair is such an issue with me so I have to use moisture at least every other day.

Tidbit: My sister suggested that I just wet and condition my hair every now and then to save on color lasting. One friend (you know who you are cutie) thought that would be gross, that they would not feel clean. I have done it when in a hurry to save time, it does ok, but wash is better.




Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Time Keeper/More History

I want Gage to know that I have kept and kept and kept momentos for him!!! In his baby book, by taking tons and tons of pictures ( I LOVED using my 35 mm and cannot stand digital) My 35 mm is shot , I want a new one! Now I keep all types of ticket stubs for events we attend as a family as well as those from most things Daddy and Gage do. I am slipping the tickets into Gage's School Days book. Love it! I hope he has some kind of interest in it, I know it will be many years from now.

I also want Gage to know how excited Daddy and I were in planning for his birth. We were so so frugal. We bought a used crib (still measured slats for safety of course). We bought a used dresser, Daddy painted it a wedge wood blue. We bought a cradle. Daddy built legs on it to make it high enough to make a changing table. I mad a skirt around the bottom (no sewing, I took table placements and used Velcro to attach to the legs. Red and Blue with Teddy Bears to match the Blue Jean Teddy Bear bedding. We had Jarrett's brother John come and paint some murals on the walls. On one wall behind the rocking chair we had a teddy bear holding a large flower. At the crib was a train. At the changing table was a rocking horse and blocks that spelled Gage. Daddy painted those. I took pictures of this room as we moved when Gage was only 2 yrs. Daddy and I were glowing with pride that we put so much work into it, and were happy to do it!!

So Gage much/most of your history from birth to 8 is definitely recorded by pictures as well as video tape.

Tidbit: Pictures and ticket stubs, Gage won't remember so much of what we did when he was so young! Daddy used to think it was strange that I kept so much, I think now he understands.

My healthy as a horse Gage, what a blessing every day you are! So cute, kind to your friends, my sensitive little one! Have to be careful or you will hurt his sweet heart! He tends to be very persistent with sports, wiling to go and go and go. Not so much with school work, ready to do one min of homework and be done. But a good student. He does very well with math! Oh, I so wanted him to be a reader, like mommy, but not meant to be (yet??) Maybe some day he will go with me to B&N to get a coffee and read. I just drag him in with me now, he tolerates a little time there..... Better than none. He loves to play baseball, basketball and football, first yr this past fall, enjoyed it very much.


Tuesday, January 6, 2009

I need to stop

But I just cannot help it!!! Beautiful baby bop one and two, Halloween 2007, I know I know, 2007, move on Girl! Just Precious!!!

FOUND ONE



Hey Pretty Guys! Sweet pic of Daddy and Grayson, this is Thanksgiving 2008. Now I better get one with Gage in it too!

FLASHBACK


My cool Christmas Gift, from hubby! I had a big smile, then said, "What is it?" A battery charger, BECAUSE, on the go mommy last yr, two times, yes 2 TIMES, left the van key in the ignition and turned, OVER NIGHT, hence running out the battery. WHY??? In a hurry to move on to the next and next and next task...(It's OK, love it love it love it). Thanks Jarrett!
Tidbit: I will have to do flashbacks I guess, as I am never going to get the rest of history in here and keep up with our day to day thingys. Also, need to find pics of Daddy in Christmas.

Hearing Test/First Speech

Hey I lost color--Or not??? whatever...

Hearing Test. The evaluator was awesome with Grayson. Daddy was called out, yes called out!! as he was talking on his cell phone and the evaluator heard him. He came out and told Jarrett SHHHH. Sorry Daddy! But more importantly, the right ear is fine, we will have to go back to have the left ear tested again. We think maybe we did not get valid results due to Grayson having some congestion.

First Speech session. We stared off with updating the IFSP with Marteen, Grayson's service cord from CDSA, with goals for speech. Laura is the speech therapist. We then moved on to the first session, was was great. Grayson was a very willing participant. AND so shout out to big brother Gage--there IS NOT a mreo ASWESOME big brother in the world !! Such a helper, he participated with the session. Daddy was able to come home to be a part of it all also. Yeah Faith In 4 team!!!!


Tidbit: We have an awesome Daddy in our family heart heart heart......

OUR WEEK Jan 5th

OK, Trying again to get in our week. Monday is Scouts for Gage, Hearing Test for Grayson. Tues is OT for Grayson, and first Speech session. Thurs is Upward practice for Gage, Daddy coaching. Sat Janna and Johnny are coming, going to the RV/Camper show. Ohhh NNoooo another camper ???? Sat is also first Upward Game. Did I mention that Jarrett and I will have FT jobs???? We go to work somewhere in between all of that.......



Tidbit: Paula LOVES to read.

Monday, January 5, 2009

OUR WEEK (Jan 5th)

I just typed a book and lost it all. Just forget it......

Sunday, January 4, 2009

More Boring History

So Gage came along, planned and we were so ecstatic, we waited to long for our first baby bop!!! Gage was a plump healthy baby from day one! He stole our hearts of course. He was and is our total JOY!!!! We have had our fun ups and downs with parenthood, but what an easy baby, tot, and kid! Rarely sick, thank God. We were so very spoiled and so is he! He did have tonsils removed in Dec 2003, that was traumatic for all of us as he is always so healthy. He also had a very bad fall when he was 3 at the day car center he attended. It was a church/day care, he tripped and fell face first into a cement wall that was came up from the ground, kind of like a stoop. The class never should have been in that area playing. I did look into it, the very next day the kids were right out there playing again after they all saw how injured and the awful pain that Gage suffered. He had to have an x ray of his face/head, all was well. So Gage had our full attention for several years. (baby needs, gotta run)

The Great Tubing Day

Well, right at MIDNIGHT last night (Sat) Gage and Jarrett returned from their tubing adventure. They went to Winterplace West VA. They met Jarrett's sister Janna and her husband Johnny somewhere around Fort Chiswell and then all rode together. Jarrett and Gage were not able to leave until about 12 noon and they attended the first practice of Upward basketball first, Gage playing, Jarrett coaching. As soon as they arrive at the park, Jarrett snapped of Gage with all of his winter gear on and texted it to me, AWESOME! He looked ready to ROLL!!. They had great fun, and got in every penny's worth. Janna and Johnny held there own, Johnny is 50 plus yrs old!! Happy they are back home safe and warm!! No pictures to post oh well, just a great day to remember. Gage's face and eyes are swollen today from being tired, he said his feet hurt a little. He would rather not go back today but definitely wants to go back. I would not take Grayson until he is much older, so maybe an all day babysitter sometime soon? I really don't like to be away from him any more than going to work!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Putting In Some History BORING

I am going to use January to put in some history of our family. It will take a few posts to get in all the info I want to include. So it may be boring, BUT this BLOG is mainly intended for Gage and Grayson to know what family life was like growing up. I have a notebook to put all the blog pages in. We will be able to remember dates, places we visited, and fun events. I have kept a School Days as a Baby Book for Gage, but not for Grayson (more on why no baby book for Grayson much later)

So, to start with--Jarrett and I. Jarrett grew up in Virginia. He is the baby of 7 children. He was actually born in North Carolina. I was born in Virginia and grew up in North Carolina. Jarrett went to school at Radford, city I was born in. I went to school in Greensboro, city Jarrett was born in. We met one night while we each were entertaining a friend from out of town. Jarrett was entertaining his friend Jim from Virginia. I was entertaining my friend Elaine that was visiting from White Lake. We were at Club Fifth Season at the Fours Seasons Hotel. Jarrett came up to Elaine and I at the club and asked if either of us would like to dance. Elaine did not really like dancing, but were were hanging out and laughing hand having a good time. AI said that I would love to dance, and we really hit it off. The four of us went to a restaurant Perkinsons that was open all night to eat. We left to go our separate ways, exchanged phone numbers. Jarrett will never forget that he leaned over for a quick peck and I turned my check to the side so his nice to meet you goodbye kiss landed on my cheek!! So we called each other about a week later and begin dating, March 1992. We dated for 3 yrs, saved money together, started building a first home in Thomasville, married in 1995 and moved into our first home. IT was really nice, three bedrooms, bonus room, basement, 2 car garage. We really worked hard to save and save to have this home. We lived there for 7 years. We had lots of fun going on mini trips, hanging our with lots of friends, hosting lots of get togethers, having other couples spend the night. We loved visiting B&B's. We went to Dallas, Texas, New Orleans, LA, Florida, and our final vacation BK as I call it (Before Kids) was Cancun Mexico, 1999. Gage came along 9 months later!! Wow, that was 7 yrs in a nutshell! More later!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

HAPPY 2009!!!!!

We are Happy to be in 2009. Today we talked about things we might need to change and work on as a family, such as all of us need to be a little (lot!) neater around the house!! We shouldn't worry in the doorbell rings that the house is a frightful MESS. It is clean just MESSY quite a bit. We talked about few other things during a good lunch at La Hacienda.

(oops have to stop to recognize that Grayson is raising both arms WAY up in the air!. He and Gage are playing in the floor, wrestling and playing ball. This interaction is wonderful for Grayson. Gage has been playing with him for an hour, he is so so patient with Grayson and teaching him so so much!!)

So,mom and dad back to work Friday. Gage has been invited to a play date with his friend Matthew. We are all friends, and enjoy spending time with them. Grayson will be home with Jessica.

Did I already mention that Gage had an awesome time at the Wake Forest vs Radford game?? Jarrett invited his brother in law Van to go, (my sister Jackie's husband). They had really good seats and Radford played well, although Jarrett says he knew Wake Forest would win, hello they are #6 in the nation!We all really enjoy sports. I will go to as many of the Upward basketball games as I can with baby Grayson.

Gage never fell asleep last night before ringing in the new year. He LOVED being up with us. We all stood up to count down about the last 15 seconds of the new yr, then cheered our glasses and hugged and kissed each other, awwww so sweet!!!!! I actually fell asleep a little while on the couch before time to celebrate.

Today we ran a few errands, trying to find some pants or bibs for Gage to wear tubing. We also went to Home Depot, Jarrett wanted an axe since we have wood and have been having a fire the last few nights. He found me 2 great wreaths on clearance! yah!

I have been basically worthless today, did get some laundry done. Jarrett and I talked alot about wanting to get together with friends more this yr, having them over and going on date nights!