60 Degree Weather In January

Wow ... we've had some wonderful warm weather the past couple of days. Today it was 60 degrees outside. I was able to take a walk with Wyatt and Griffin ... and it was so nice. I was even able to move Griffin's exersaucer on to the front porch this afternoon and have some "outside" time with him. We so enjoy being outside. I wish there was more to do outside with a one year old. Our local park does not have swings ... that's too bad. I'll have to get Mike to put up a swing for Griffin soon. Unfortunately we are due for some very "normal" winter weather the next couple of weeks. Can't wait until Spring.

Dancing With The Stars

I have to admit ... watching Dancing With The Stars is a guilty pleasure.

I just love that show.

My favorites are Drew & Cheryl, then Stacy and her partner (can't remember his name). But I am a bit torn because I really like Jerry Rice and his partner as well. If any of these three dance couples win, I will be happy, especially if it's Drew & Cheryl.

I feel a little sorry for Ashly. She did really well last season with Joey McEntire. She has held her head high and danced her little heart out this season despite having a dance partner who chooses not to wear Ballroom dance shoes, in every sense of the word.

Can't wait until tomorrow night to see who America decides to send home.

Griffin's Crush

Griffin does some seriously cute things.

Last night he did one of the absolutely cutest things ever.

After dinner and a bath he was pretty sleepy. His Daddy was rocking him and he was asleep in his arms.

Griffin has always been fascinated with the little girl on the Welch's Grape Juice Commercial. The one with long dark hair in side ponytails. Everytime that commercial comes on, he stops what he is doing and watches it. He recognizes her voices.

Well ...

Last night ...

Our son was in a deep sleep in Daddy's arms ...

All of a sudden he jumped up, spun around and started watching tv.

The Welch's Grape Juice commercial was on. After it went off, he settled back into Daddy's arms and fell back to sleep.

Mike and I were laughing so hard.

We could hardly believe our dear son came out of a deep sleep for his "crush".

That's love.

9:45 pm ... Dinner

It's 9:45 pm ... it's a brownie ... 'nuf said ...

Staying At Home

You know ... I enjoy staying home.

I really look forward to the days when I have to go nowhere.

I can just stay home ... work, take care of Griffin, Wyatt and Mike and whatever else needs to be done around the house.

I get soooo much accomplished when I don't go out at all.

So ... here's to staying home as often as possible.

What bugs me about cooking shows

I love watching The Foodnetwork and Martha on TLC.

But you know ... there's something they all do that just bothers me.

Okay ...

So when they are putting the dry ingredients in to mix up, stir up, etc ... they just DUMP them in. Isn't it easier to sprinkle them all around to make it easier to mix up?

Salt ... they just dump it in
Pepper ... they just dump it in
Cinnamon ... they just dump it in

Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprink ... that's my cooking philosophy.

Hunger

This morning I decided to make an early morning run to Walmart. I got G all packed up to go and we headed out. Normally when I do the early morning run to Walmart I always feed G at the McDonald's. He normally eats breakfast at 9:30. Well, I did my regular shopping and then my grocery shopping, checked out and as I was leaving my husband calls me on the phone. We chit chatted and I said, by the way what time is it? Well, it's 9:50. I still have another 30 minutes to drive home. Dilemma.

So, do I feed G his formula and baby food while sitting in the car ... it's 33 degrees outside. Or ... do I just say to heck with it and drive home and hope he's okay. Well, I decided to do the last choice.

Big Mistake!

Our boy was hungry ...

And he let me know about it the entire way home.

I kept talking to him and assuring him we would be home soon. Something tells me an 11 month old does not want to hear reassuring words ... he just wanted food.

But you know ... his crying/screaming really got to me.

It made me think about all of the hungry children in the world. If my son reacts the way he did after only being delayed an hour for food ... I can only imagine how children in other countries that are starving every day feel.

It made me cry.

Merry Christmas & Catch Up

Wow ... I can hardley believe it's been a month since my last entry.

So much has happened ... it's crazy!

I've been very busy working .... trying to get all of my pending orders completed. I still have a few more to go ... but I am working day and night and I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I've also been preparing for Christmas. The presents are bought and wrapped. I've baked Mike's favorite Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are delish! Here's a hint ... use the Oatmeal Cookie recipe on the oatmeal box ... but instead of adding a cup of raisins, add a cup of chocolate chips. They are the BEST cookies!!

Griffin is standing, crawling, kneeling, laughing, playing ... just being the cutest boy you can imagine. Our neighbor friends bought him some new toys for Christmas. He's in toy heaven right now!

This will be Griffin's first Christmas and we are very excited! Santa will be visiting our house for the first time in years!

Here's wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving 2005 - Florida Vacation

We went "home" to Florida for Thanksgiving. My mother-in-law always has her Thanksgiving get together the Sunday before Thanksgiving. She has a huge bash, inviting family, friends & neighbors. There's so much food .... it's crazy! The best part about Thanksgiving is of course my husband's fried turkey. Yum!

It was Griffin's first Thanksgiving and many of our family and friends met him for the first time. He had his first taste of mashed potatoes and his Uncle Jerome insisted he have a taste of chocolate cake. You guessed it ... loved that too!

Griffin experienced alot of "firsts" on this trip. It was so much fun to have him discover new things while his Grandma Bett & PaPaw Joe were around.

We went to Lowry Park Zoo on Monday. We saw many animals ... emus, kangaroos, elephants, giraffes, camels, rhinos, fish, meerkats, manatees, alligators, bison, deer, eagles, turtles, fox, leopards, flamingos, birds ... I can't remember all of them. Griffin and I got to feed the giraffe ... I was in heaven. He thought it was pretty funny too.

While in Florida, there are our "favorite" places to go of course.

One place that's a must visit each time we go home is Nell's Country Diner. I love this place! When we lived in Florida, my mother-in-law and I would go there once a week for lunch. It's one of those places that focuses more on the food than the "look" of the diner. They have some GREAT food! Oh my gosh ... I had hamburger steak (with onions), fried green tomatoes, collard greens, mashed potatos and corn bread. They have the absolute BEST broccoli bread in the entire universe ... but they only have that on Thursday. Unfortunately we went on a Wednesday. It's the first time my husband has actually been to the restaurant. Many times I've brought him meals home ... but this was his first visit to the diner. They have the best ice tea around. What's really great about this place is how intimate it is. When the lady comes around to refill your tea glass, you feel like you are someone's house and not at a restaurant. Southern Hospitality at it's finest. I wish there was a Nell's Country iner here in Virginia! Sadly while we were there, we found out Nell has passed away. I believe her daughter is running the place now ... and she's doing a fine job.

Tuesday was Pop Ray's & Nana Jeri's day as they were going to the Bahama's for Thanksgiving. We decided a trip to Bass Pro Shop's Outdoor World in Orlando would be fun. My husband's had a gift certificate for 3 years now ... so it was time to use it. I always enjoy going to Outdoor World.

Thanksgiving was spent with my mother-in-law's best friend Mary Belle and her family. She is so warm and kind. It means alot to us that we are always invited to her house on Thanksgiving. She and her husband Ken live on a lake ... perfect photo opportunity. I got some great ones!

Friday Griffin met Santa for the first time. It was extra special because it was actually his "Uncle Santa". My brother plays Santa each year at various functions. This year he was Santa at The Festival Of Trees. Griffin was absolutely mesmerized by Santa. It was soooo cute!

After our visit with Uncle Santa we headed north to Lake George to meet my mother-in-law and father-in-law in Lake George. We visited family and they met Griffin for the first time.

Saturday we head home! Woo Hoo! We thought we were going to get home more quickly because we had already driven to Lake George and it's 3 hours north of Central Florida. The traffic was horrendous! It normally takes us 14 hours to drive home to Central Florida, and it took us over 14 hours to drive home from Lake George. That's a long day to be in a car ... especially for a dog and very active baby! Anyway ... we drove into the driveway about 9:30 pm. Boy it was good to be home!

Thanksgiving 2005 was a great mixture of family, friends and traditions ...

It is one we will always remember.

Coughing + Sneezing = Fun

Who knew coughing and sneezing could be so much fun? Yesterday I mentioned I had a cold ... still have it today. Everytime I cough, sneeze or blow my nose our 9 month old giggles and laughs hysterically. It's so funny ... it's almost worth being sick to see his cute little face get this surprised look on it and then start giggling.

Uggghhhh ... I have a cold ...

I woke up this morning with a cold ... sore throat and all. Where I "caught" this cold is anyone's guess. My life consists of trips to the post office and grocery store. Guess it was one of those two places. Mommy's aren't supposed to get sick. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our 9 month old doesn't catch my cold ... wish us luck with that. My body is aching, my head and throat hurts ... but I can't lay down because I have Mommy duty.

You know ... I never knew how hard being a parent was until February 7th of this year.

I have nieces and a nephew and they would often stay with us ... but then at the end of the day, they were someone else's kids.

Reality quickly set in when Griffin was born.

Don't get me wrong ... being a parent is the greatest thing in the world ... I love my son with all of my "Mommy Heart" ... but in reality ... there is no longer much "me" time.

Okay ... so I'm going to go sit in my husband's chair and snuggle with our son ... all the while keeping enough distance between us so hopefully he will not catch my cold.

Warm Weekend & Shrimp Pasta

Wow ... it was down right warm this weekend ... it was up to 79 degrees! Mike, the boys and I went and got two loads of fire wood, stacked it up ... we are all ready for winter. I love having the fire place lit ... it's so warm and toasty.

On Saturday afternoon Mike suggested we drive to the Blueridge Parkway to look at fall foliage as this is probably the last weekend before the leaves fall. The mountains are only about 30 -40 minutes from our house ... so this was a nice treat. The colors were absolutely glorious! Reds, Golds, Yellows, even Browns. I took lots and lots of pictures to share with our Florida families.

We went to Lowe's Sunday morning to get 40 more blocks to finish our block wall. Wouldn't you know it? They have discontinued the block we have chosen. They told us two more stores in the area had some in stock, so we decided we would go to the one with the most on inventory. So, we get there ... and the only ones they had left were used in a display. After going back and forth with the department manager, it was decided they would dismantle the display and let us purchase the blocks. In addition to the blocks we purchased, the department manager gave us the remaining 20 blocks left as well!

Last night Mike made dinner and it was delicious! Shrimp Pasta!! Wow ... that man can cook. I can hardly believe we've had all of these ingredients in our house for months and we just had it last night. He sauteed shrimp in garlic, sundried tomatoes, rosemary, and butter. He then added it to a jar of Ragu Roasted Garlic Parmesan. Served over twisted rotini and topped with parmesan cheese and cracked pepper .... yum!!!! I nominate Mike to cook every night!

Griffin is crawling!

Oh my goodness ... Griffin crawled for the first time today! He's been scooting and rolling where he wants to go ... but today ... he crawled!! I am such a proud Mommy!

Griffin's First Halloween

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. Now that I'm a parent ... I can tell you ... it still is! We had so much fun last night! My neighbor and I took our boys Trick Or Treating around the neighborhood and then attended a local church sponsored event. Dressed in his cute little pumpkin costume, Griffin had so much fun looking at the lights and watching the other kids. He is far too young to eat candy, so that part of Halloween will have to wait until next year. The church event was really fun. It was called "Trunk Or Treat". The members of the church baked all kinds of goodies, offered hot dogs, games, a hay ride, and "Trick Or Treating" from the trunk of cars. What a neat idea! Many of the vehicle trunks were decorated, as were the folks handing out candy. There was so much activity ... Griffin didn't know what to look at first. It was darling! There are so many "firsts" for Griffin to experience ... I can truthfully say ... his first Halloween was very fun and memorable!

Happy Halloween & Oh! My Goodness ...

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Well ... I definately had a Halloween scare this morning. I was driving into our little town this morning and I heard this great big boom. I thought to myself ... gosh ... what is that? Then, as I was trying to figure out what it was ... my entire back window exploded. Oh my goodness ... I was terrified. I quickly pulled over, checked on Griffin and our dog Wyatt. Then I went to the back of the van to see what happened. My entire back window had exploded. I called my husband on the cell phone, because I did not know what to do. Do I call the police? Why did it do this? Is it safe to drive home? All these questions are running through my mind ... and I have no answers. My husband tells me to look and make sure there is no bullet hole (Yikes!) in the window. I didn't see one. As I am standing on the side of the road, with my car pulled over as far as possible, I'm on the cell phone, with a giant hole in the back of my car, obviously crying ... all these people pass me ... no one stops! Can you believe that??? Not even one "Ma'am are you okay?"!! Well ... I call my neighbor and she comes to follow me home. Unfortunately they are unable to come to repair it until tomorrow. I would still like to know what on earth caused my back window to explode. Never in my life have I experienced anything like this. Thank goodness no one got hurt, and it is just a window ... but what a scary thing to happen on Halloween!!

Sleepless Nights

It's 11:30 am and I'm about to drop. Griffin has been waking up in the middle of the night and we can not figure out why. He's been sleeping through the night since he was 6 months old (he's 8 months old now) ... but the past few weeks, he's been waking up crying hysterically. He's in bed by 7:30 pm. Last night he woke up at 10:00 pm. I rubbed his back for a few minutes and he went back to sleep. He woke up again at 11:30 and stayed awake until 1:00 am. I changed his diaper, gave him Tylenol, tried the back rubbing again (didn't work this time). I even rocked him for over an hour. He was fine as long as he was in my arms ... otherwise, there was no consoling him. I finally put him back in his crib and let him cry it out. He cried for about 10 minutes or so, and then slept until wake up time. He's such an early riser ... he's normally up by 5:30 am. This morning, I woke up at the normal time ... but he actually slept until about 6:30 am. It was nice having about an hour to get some things done before he woke up. He's napping right now ... I think Mommy will take a short nap with him. G'night.

Hurricane Wilma

Our family and friends in Florida made it through Hurricane Wilma with no damage. We are from Central Florida and the majority of our friends and family live there. We always hold our breath when a Hurricane is in the Gulf or Atlantic. You just never know what Mother Nature intends to do. We are certainly saying a prayer for those who did suffer damage of any kind.

Television Re-Runs

Does anyone remember when we all anticipated the arrival of the "new televesion season" each September? That meant NEW shows until summer. I just do not understand the television industry. It's October 24th and they are already showing re-runs ... LAST season re-runs at that. Extreme Makeover Home Edition is my favorite tv show. Sunday night is "my" TV night. I start with America's Funniest Home Videos, the Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, ending with Grey's Anatomy. Last night I was very disappointed to see EMHE was a re-run already. Granted, it was a great episode ... but I saw that same episode at least twice last year. C'mon ... give us some new shows!

Paula Deen ... Sweet Southern Gal

I am a huge Paula Deen fan. If you are not familiar with who Paula Deen is ... boy are you missing out. She is this incredibly, funny, southern chef. She has a show on the Food Network, called Paula's Country Cooking (or something like that). She is just the funniest, most spirited, kindest, lady. I would absolutely LOVE to meet her!

She has a restaurant in Savannah, GA too. My dream is to one day visit Savannah (again ... we went several years ago) and visit her restaurant. It's called The Lady & Sons ... her website is http://www.ladyandsons.com. I just discovered she will have a new magazine too! Oh Joy!! I am soooo excited. The premiere issue is November 2005.

While, I am still a Marth fan ... Paula Deen is my hero!

My Vegetable Soup turned out yummy! My husband returned from a business trip yesterday and when he came in the door ... I asked him to take a look at it. He suggested I remove some of the vegetables, so it would simmer more easily. Oh my goodness ... it was delicious! So good, in fact, we are having it for dinner again tonight.

Vegetable Soup Kinda Day

I've decided to make Vegetable Soup today. I've never made it ... but it's rainy, dreary and cold out ... the perfect day for Vegetable Soup. I've gotten the crock pot out ... browned the stew meat ... added beef broth, stewed tomatos, two bags of mixed veggies and cut up three small potatos. I think this will be Vegetable Soup. The only problem is ... when I put the lid on, the juice comes over the lid. So, I took some of the juice out, and put the lid back on. Really ... I think I have too much "stuff" in it ... it's not really soupy. Is that bad? I saved the extra juice I took out, just in case I need it for later.

Growing up ... my neighbor Judy McKee used to make Vegetable Soup. I remember it was always a special treat when she made it because she always made enough to share with our family. I wish I had HER recipe. It was the absolute BEST Vegetable Soup in the world.

In our family, our idea of vegetables were corn, mashed potatos and black eyed peas. It was amazing to have Mrs. McKee's Vegetable Soup because we actually ate real vegetables and they were GOOD!

My other neighbor Mrs. Cox used to make fried cornbread ... it was the coolest thing ... she even put a little hole in the middle, so it looked like donuts. I have no clue how to make fried cornbread ... again, I wish I had Mrs. Cox's recipe for fried cornbread. I don't do well with frying things. My husband says I don't get the oil hot enough. I just hate it when the things you are frying "pops" and you get burned.

I feel a sense of accomplishment already today ... not only do I have the Vegetable Soup on simmering ... I've already finished 2 orders and it's only 10:30. My goal is another 4 ... wish me luck!