Thankful Thursday

1. I'm thankful my hubby recognizes the importance of my having alone time. i had to get out and breathe last night or the population of my house was about to start dwindling...quickly. thanks babe. i enjoyed eating alone, reading alone and shopping alone. i'm refreshed.

2. i'm thankful this weekend is Christmas on the Square in Athens. it is an annual even where the stores around the downtown square open their doors on a sunday afternoon for a little holiday shopping. i go with my friend brandy and it is a wonderful little burst of estrogen for me. and this year i have a girl to shop for which makes it soooo much better.

i'm noticing a retail therapy theme. moving on...

3. hand-me-downs. love them. love to get them. love to give them. somebody we know is about to hit the motherload!!

4. thanksgiving is next week which means DOTHAN!! i only get to go home a few times a year, but i cherish every single one of those trips. the 6 hours it takes us to get there is totally worth it.

5. holiday traditions. we have a few that we do around here, but nothing set in stone. this year, since our little family is complete and the boys are older, we are gonna cement some of our faves and have a snuggly good time during these holidays.

6. 2 new cd's to listen to. taylor swift and faith hill's christmas cd. crap...guess this should have been #3 along with the other retail stuff.

7. snuggly pjs, hot chocolate, house shoes and clean babies. what could be better?

too cute tuesday

girls' weekend!!!!!

so, i have had a case of the "it's been raining on and off and getting too honkin cold" blahs for the last few days and i thought to myself "self...you need a pick me up. a get away if you will." and so, in stealing, in a way, from Darby's summer vacation blog (thanks for your new search box by the way!) we are going on a girls' weekend. we are not taking our kids and we aren't worried about them for one little second. we are getting together to giggle and remenisce, and for those of us who have only met through the blogs, we are playing 20 questions...or at least tell me about your pre-blog self! money is no object because the government decided that what they would do with the bail out money is set aside a fund for mommies that need a vacation. so, please come and play with me. tell me where we are going. tell me where you want to eat. or leave me a favorite recipe that we must all walk away with so we can remember our weekend (or week!!) together!!



so...who's up first??

a tired mama and a sick daddy

i like to think i know those closest to me very well. turns out, i do. micah came home from work on tuesday and i was finishing up cooking supper. he was telling me something and my back was to him and i cut him off mid sentence. i spun around and said "are you getting sick?" and he said "i don't know." i said "well, you sound weird. i give it 3 days." fast forward to thursday night when he got home. he walked in and was giving us all of his "hi's" when i said "stop right there. you sound like you have a cotton ball in your throat." let's go look. and there was the tell-tale white patches. and i also knew he felt like he was running a little low grade fever and he just gets a look about his eyes. kinda haggard looking. anyway, i called in a favor where i used to work to see if micah could go ahead and see the NP and get a rapid strep on friday morning. i slept on the couch b/c i can NOT afford to get sick. i also read a....(i want to say friend here, but we're not really friends b/c we don't really know anything about each other, but i feel like we are more than acquaintances b/c i have been on a retreat with her church and totally stalk her blog every day...) anyway, i read her post about the Neti Pot. i had heard of them before, but now that i knew someone with actual experience, i decided to have micah go get one so he could "roto-rooter" those sinuses. (still praying it isn't strep. still knowing it is.) can i just say that if you have any kind of sinus issues, get thee a Neti!! micah was very apprehensive at first, but he is SOLD i tell you. and of COURSE i got a picture and he said i could post it...but i'll be nice. and ours looks like an actual miniature plastic teapot! watching him do that thing is stinkin hilarious. i mean, it's not normal to see a waterfall coming out of the other side of someone's nose!! so he goes to the doc the next morning, and of course...strep. (for those keeping up still...this diagnosis came on day three.)
now for the not so smart part of my otherwise extremely intelligent hubby (lisa, you can vouch for him!) it was one of those times i was hearing him, but not listening. (hey, i had 3 kids to keep away from him and alllll the house stuff to do, and i didn't sleep a WINK the night before b/c micah was hocking up everything from his toes and i was trying to sleep on the couch.) he said something about antibiotics and taking one every 3 hours. i didn't think much about it b/c i was just thinking every 4 hours...until 9 pm that night (he started at noon) when he said something about the fact that he had taken a whole day's worth of antibiotics already...my tired brain did the math and i nearly DIED when i realized it had only been 9 hours. i absolutely FORBID him to take anything until noon the next day so that he wouldn't completely wreck his kidneys. i think he was missing getting some snuggle time with little miss most of all.

i got a little more sleep friday night, but still not adequate. but at least micah was feeling better and not contagious anymore. oh, i forgot to mention that while the boys were at preschool thursday i had to speed clean my house so it could show while i went to pick them up. last night my sleep got interrupted by my little night visitor who hasn't been to see me in about a week. so i was up with him for around 2 hours. so i'm tired. but today i am taking my biggest little man to the movies. we are going on a double date with ellen and maddie to see madagascar 2 and i can't wait!! (i didn't get to go with him to his first movie b/c we had just gotten home with AC from the NICU.) and speakin of AC, she is fighting with me a lot these days. reason is that she can roll from belly to back, but not the other way just yet. she is a belly sleeper, so when she rolls over, she just hollers. so i have started putting "bumpers" (rolled up blankets) down her side to try to keep her from rolling over and getting stuck. temper butt. had to do the same thing with one of the boys.

hope yall are having a great weekend! and if you hung in to read this, you are a true stalker and i love ya!!

why didn't yall tell me??

i didn't know christmas was coming before thanksgiving this year!! now, i may inadvertently step on a few toes by saying this, but i'm just gonna do it. yall...it it NOT quite time to put up the christmas decorations. getting them out, probably. looking in walmart or target and getting all festive, absolutely. but santa sittin' on your honkin' porch with your wreathes all up and your tree plainly visible from the road. no ma'am!! please...one holiday at a time. i LOVE thanksgiving. it is fall still so it's not cold. and it typically involves all of the family without all of the presents (sorry...just a little preseason bah humbug...even though, if there is a kid within 50 feet, i want to get 'em something and be first in line for Santa's village!)

anywho, i have a dilemma that i'm sure i'm gonna have to whip out the sewing machine to solve. (and this is where i am really wishing you holly homemakers who i am completely jealous of would pick me out some super cute fabric b/c i'm not good and mixin' and matchin'). the dilemma is this...back before seth was born, i bought these super cute quilted stockings.

(i bought 4 b/c we KNEW we were gonna have 2 kids. we always said 3, but said we'd finalize that decision once the 2nd got here. still don't know why we said that. we always new we wanted more than 2.) anyway...i got them at walmart. dummy only got 4. we are now a family of 5. now, the 5 is a permanent thing. trust me...it is permanent outside of Divine intervention. so now, my stockings won't match. guess who doesn't sell them anymore??? ANYWHERE?!! have i mentioned that i'm a little OCD?? so now i'm on the hunt for cute fabric and need to get to sewin' so i can get my friend harriette to get to monogramming. somebody help me.

anyway...MERRY THANKSGIVING!!!

Ally Claire is 5 months!!!

Happy 5 months itty bitty pitty sissy!! we are just head over heels in love with you little darlin'!! you have had a big month! we keep hitting lots of firsts and i am trying to savor every one of them! for instance:

you turned into a giraffe...

you can almost roll over both ways...

you have found your feet...(check out those chunker legs!!)

your hair is getting long enough to stick up...

you found your tongue (which makes trying new foods challenging...)

and for the last time, you rode in this...(b/c you already meet the max requirements) and it's sad b/c you are our last

and you upgraded to this...

time is flying by. i can't believe you'll reach your 1/2 year already next month. you also love your "johnny jump up" and are really starting to take to your right thumb. i know, people who have had a thumb sucker say that i'll regret it later. but that's later. right now it is darn cute and i'm NEVER having to chase a paci, especially in the middle of the night. now THAT is sweet!! you are a precious angel girl and i just can't wait to see more of you. (and your daddy and brothers are pretty smitten too!!)

praying for our kids

i don't know about yall, but sometimes at the end of my day, i'm not even sure what else to pray for my kids about. there is the obvious of keeping them safe and healthy and for their future. but a LOT of times, i forget to pray for the virtues that i hope are bound up in their little hearts. i found this (after spying it on the fridge of jon & kate gosselin...yes i'm an addict and secretly long to be their friend.) and have placed it on our fridge. so that way, everytime i am fixing a cup or getting out a pudding (which as yall know is multiple times a day) i take a quick glance and can say a specific prayer for my little'uns.

hope yall have a great weekend!!

(that's baby becky, and not ally claire, by the way!) pics of her to come on monday!!

*EDIT** ask and you shall receive! praying for husbands...

i'm sorry...i laughed at the wording of #17!