Leaf Looking 2009

We packed up last Wednesday and headed North for a few days in Ellijay, Georgia.

We arrived at the cabin owned by some family friends around 1:30 a.m. The house is just beautiful, and I didn't take any pictures of it! What was I thinking?!?! I did take this off the porch of the creek:
Thursday morning, it was nice and cool! We all got to wear long sleeves and sweaters...what a nice change for us, Floridians!

We had lunch at a little cafe in town, went to buy some groceries, and rested up at the house for a couple of hours. Late that afternoon, we headed over to the pumpkin patch. On our way, we stopped by Aaron's Apple House to buy some apples...

After taking the "scenic" route, we finally arrived at Burt's Pumpkin Patch.

We've been going to Burt's for several years now and loved getting to take Annabelle this year. Cooper LOVED the Pumpkin Patch when we took him, and there are definitely sweet memories there. We are so thankful to get to include his baby sister in some new ones, too!

After the Pumpkin Patch, we drove into Dahlonega. It's a pretty little town with sweet brick sidewalks, beautiful trees, and lots of window shops... It was late in the afternoon when we got there, so most of the shops were closed, but the Fudge Shop wasn't! We made our way over to the Smith Housewhere we were meeting up with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. The Smith House was like a smaller Dillard House... The food was very southern (stew, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fried okra, sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas, white gravy, cream corn, etc...) and it was served at the table, family style. It was good to sit around the table like a family and enjoy a meal with Beau, Kristy & Garrett. Annabelle thought so, too!

The Smith House was actually built on top of an abandoned gold mine and in 2006 (I think), they were doing some remodeling when they discovered the mine shaft. They made that part of the restaurant a "look-out" where you can go to see the old mine. The food was really good and the history of the house was neat...

After dinner, we parted ways... Mom rode back with Beau & Kristy to their house to spend the night, because the next morning she and my Aunt Kay were headed to Charlotte, NC to a cousin's wedding.

This group headed back to Ellijay.

On Friday, it rained. That afternoon, we headed into town to do some "shopping"... that deserves a post of it's own... While we were out and about, we drove past this house. It's shaped like a castle, had a mote around it and everything, and had garden gnomes on the columns by the gate. Interesting..... When we got home that evening, my in-laws & little sister-in-law had made it over. (They'd spent a few days in Franklin, and then drove to spend the last day with us)... That night, we made chili, grilled hotdogs, and dipped caramel apples.

Saturday, we got up with plans to visit Blue Ridge. I'd seen the Blue Ridge Expressway in my Southern Lady last month, and wanted to check it out. We missed the 10:00 ride, and when we went in to ask about the other departure times for the day, they were completely sold out. Oh well, maybe next time. We did make it to town in time for "Paws in the Park"... the parade was going on when we got there... yes, a dog parade.....that included llamas and alpacas. AB watching the parade

We had to watch where we stepped for sure. There were dogs everywhere. Big dogs and little dogs. Dogs wearing clothes, dogs wearing uniforms, dogs even wearing costumes. There were even puppies for sale. This little guy called to me. I think it was the tiny sweater that did me in. Or it could have been the fact that his Daddy looked just like "Uncle Charlie" (my Granny's dachshund, "Charlie" that died a few years ago). Whatever it was, I wanted him. Annabelle loved him, too. I told DW we may need to buy him. That's when my sister in law, Lauren, reminded me that I don't even like dogs. Oh, yeah. (DW was quick to tell her to keep it down, we weren't wanting to cause some kind of dog-lover riot at the dog day). I gave the mini-Uncle Charlie look alike back and we kept going, not to stop again, until we saw THESE....

Hello, "Get a Llama in your Life"... I told Devin I felt like we needed to get a llama in our life, and I thought we'd made wonderful foster parents of a llama. He didn't. They're so funny looking, but you can't look at one and not smile. They just scream, "personality" to me... and I would SO have some headbands for our llama, if we had one.

Lauren, "Llama", & Me

After that, we strolled around the shops. We went into one store that sold all kinds of bird things. Bird feeders, bird houses, bird baths, bird seed... anything bird, they had it. Annabelle is smiling here, because she saw this and thought Pop & Grammy needed it, since the squirrels eat all the bird seed in their bird feeders..... It's called the "Yankee Flipper" and they even had a DVD playing showing how it works. It keeps the squirrels from eating your birdseed. You should see this thing sling the squirrels off. It was hilarious. We watched it over and over and over... we were hoping they sold the DVD, but they didn't. The price tag on the Yankee Flipper, was $119.95, so we left empty handed. Sorry, Dad.

After all that walking around, we worked up an appetite, and decided to make some lunch plans. We had seen a sign for the "Nifty '50s Cafe" and when we put it in the Nuvi, it was only 6 miles away, so we tried that. It sat right on the river that divides Georgia and Tennessee.

We headed back to the cabin for some rest. That afternoon, we decided to take a walk. We walked up the driveway and I was ready for some more resting. Walking uphill is beyond difficult. I am so glad we live on flat land! Of course I might be a couple sizes smaller if we didn't. Ha...

We walked to the other house that the owners of the house we stayed at own. It sits just up the road from the other, but it felt a lot farther than that! We went down this driveway... Can you see all those curves?!?! Last year, this was the house we stayed at, and we had to drive down that driveway at 1:00 in the morning when we got there! Ahhhh! Scary.... And when I say "we had to drive", I mean DW or Adam drove and I sat in the back with my eyes covered.
We stopped long enough to rest by the creek... We decided to take a different way back. We walked along the creek and took the low road. It was so much easier and the canopy of trees was just beautiful.

That night, we grilled steaks and got ready for the Gator game. By game time, Annabelle had already had enough football for the afternoon and she and I hung out in our room downstairs. We watched a movie, and then when she went to sleep, I watched the 2nd half of the game.

The next morning, we got packed up and headed home. We stopped in Atlanta at Bass Pro, to meet Beau & Momma. Beau had met Aunt Kay & Mom and brought her on down to Atlanta to meet us. We ate lunch and then headed for Florida!

It seemed like a lot of driving and going, but it was a good time. If you really want to test your relationship with your family, you should travel together. Ha. We're home and everybody still loves each other, so that's a good thing!

~annie~

Headed North

I can't believe how far we've come. When I was a kid I'd have never seen myself where I am right this minute. Yall will not even believe this... we're driving north on I-75 in hopes of seeing some colorful leaves and actually getting to wear coats and I am on the COMPUTER CONNECTED to the World Wide Web. See the headlights in the background? That's the Southbound traffic...and I'm blogging!

The laptop and I are sandwiched between my S-I-L, Lauren and my Mom. Behind us, Annabelle is surrounded by all our stuff. We took out the other back seat and the Tahoe is packed from floor to ceiling and all around Belle. There isnt room for anything else.... I don't know what we'll do if we find a treasure we NEED... we may have a little something up our sleeve though...

And by stuff I mean a ton of it. The pilot and co-pilot are manning the Nuvi, the steering wheel, the air controls (that work periodically) and the stolen trash bag.

We're only 4 hours into the trip and it's already promising to be a good one.

We got the car loaded and pulled out around 5:30 this afternoon. According to Nuvi, our arrival time would be a few minutes shy of midnight. As of this moment, Nuvi's changed her mind and it's looking more like a couple minutes shy of 1:00 a.m. The causes for the delay can be blamed on "rumbly tumblys" and mommy brain. We'd been in the car about 45 minutes and decided that the "fall snacks" I'd prepared were not going to be enough for the 6 hour trip. We made the traditional stop at the Arby's...
Grammy & AB at Arby's. Both sporting their "booty suit pants"...tradition in our family is to travel comfortably. Ya'll will have to take my word, that I was wearing mine, too...Three generations of "Booty Suits" were on this trip. Too bad it was 85 degrees is Florida, because really, a booty suit isn't complete without the matching jacket... ha... Lauren's still searching for a "suit" so she can join the tradition...

When we got back in the car, we got Annabelle all set up with the PocketDish and she could enjoy Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins episodes.


Another hour or two up the road and AB decided it was time for a bottle. No worries, Mommy had one packed and already had the water just the right temperature and was keeping it warm in the bottle warmer. This aint my first rodeo. After her nighttime bottle, only one thing can happen next... it's night-night time. As I started digging for "silky" I got that terrible feeling in my stomach. You know, the "oh-no, I forgot Devin's undershirts" or "oh-no, I forgot Devin's socks" or the "oh-no, I forgot Devin's BOXERS"... oh, yes, I've forgotten all of those before (on different trips though)...needless to say, I've only done it once for each though... I'm a firm believer in living and LEARNING... ANYWAY, the all-familiar, "I spent all day packing and making sure we have everything, but I forgot that ONE important thing" feeling set in... Silky was no where to be found. The cry got louder and Uncle Adam punched in "Wal-Mart" on the Nuvi. Praise the Lord, there was one in 2.3 miles! As we followed the directions, we became a little confused. Where we're from Wal-Mart has other "things" around it and there's enough lights in the parking lot to make you think the "Mother Ship" has landed right there. The road we were on was a back country road with wide open pastures on each side and there were no lights---it was pitch black. Finally, we saw some lights, only they were flashing and in a straight line....When we'd reached the destination, we realized that Nuvi had taken us to "Wal-Mart Way" which was located right next to a small airplane landing strip in the middle of no-where, Tifton, Georgia. DW took the words right out of my mouth when he asked, "Who in the heck names a road "Wal-Mart Way" when there's no Wal-Mart on it?!?!?" After a little more punching on the Nuvi, we made it to what I call a "main road" and found some lights, stores and the much needed Wal-Mart. We headed in with hopes of finding a replacement silky. Thankfully, the Lord's favor was upon us and we found a brand new silky that is identical to one of Annabelle's. When she saw it, she got so excited and wouldn't let it go. At least until she'd found something else she NEEDED. We spotted the cutest pair of pajamas with little ballerinas on them. She grabbed them and wouldn't let them go. Grammy told her she knew she needed them and she'd get them for her, then she offered to hold them for her. Annabelle was having none of that, she needed to hold them. Too cute. Our Wal-Mart purchases also included some snacks and some new chapstick. Because really, who can go in the Wal-Mart and resist getting some snacks or some chapstick? Not I.




We're back on the road again, and Lauren's busted open her 5 lb. bag of peanut M&M's.

Annabelle's already asleep...all she needed was her silky, poor baby girl. I'm trying to get my mind off the fact that my baby is snuggled up with something that hasn't been washed yet and who's prior residence was the germ infested shelves of the Wal-Mart. The rest of us are enjoying some Sweettarts. Adam's "Roll-Back" purchase tonight was a ginormous sized bag of assorted Sweettarts.

Any kind of Sweettart you want, we've got it. That Adam's always thinking of others, let me tell you. After I told him he'd have been better off with a couple rolls of Sweettarts because the individually wrapped ones were going to make for lots of trash in the car, he swiped an extra Wal-Mart bag to serve as our official trash receptacle. We also decided that it was a good thing he came armed with the Halloween pack, because what if by some chance there are some Trick-or-Treaters that wander up to the cabin where we're staying the weekend before Halloween to Trick-or-Treat? Yep, it's a good thing, he got that 362 piece bag.

We don't really have a plan for tomorrow yet, but one travel companion who shall remain nameless has suggested that the consumption of egg salad sandwiches is a good idea. Funny, real funny... considering that I'd rather lick the floor at the Wal-Mart than eat an egg. These trips feel a little like de ja vu... the time and people change, but there's always some brother-sister "love" to be found... ha..

I know one thing I'm doing...getting that silky in the washing machine. I'll be sure to throw in those ballerina jammies, too.

Yep, I feel like busting out in Kathie Lee Gifford's, "If they could see me now"....

All those trips to North Georgia when I was a kid with nothing to do except act like we were smoking and try to get the semi-drivers to honk at us and now, here I am with technology literally sitting in my lap and enough SweetTarts to kill a goat.

Here's to another trip down 75...

~amw~

EDITED TO ADD:

We just stopped for gas and the same person who suggested we eat Egg Salad sandwiches tomorrow went into the store only to return bearing a peace offering.
I can't count the road trips we've all taken over the past 7, nearly 8 years, and we've never been on one without a bag of Neon Sour Gummy worms or Sour Patch Kids. Until Tonight....when we tried to make it right, and buy a bag at Wal-Mart we were disappointed to find that the candy isle was under construction and not all of it was on the shelves. Guess what WASN'T included in the displayed inventory... Doesn't matter now, because we're back in business and on the road again...

The Birthdays....

Because like a lot of bloggers, I use my blog to document (scrapbook) our family, I'm going to do a few posts to catch up on the past couple weeks. I have a feeling they will be lengthy. Mainly because the last 2 weeks involve lots of people who I love a whole bunch. I'm not sure I'd sit and read a post as long as these are going to be, so you may want to skip them! But I don't want to leave these 2 weeks out because at the end of the year I really want to do what I've read on some other blogs and have my posts printed and bound to serve as our 2009 scrapbook...

Anyway, back to the catching up....

Last Saturday, we started out on the 2 hour trek to a very special little girl's first birthday party! Allie Claire's first birthday was everything I expected and more... It was the "event of the season" for sure!

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since we were anxiously waiting on Miss Allie Claire to make her grand entrance into our lives. It's tradition in my family to tell the "birth story" on our birthdays. So I'll share a little of Allie's.... Allie's birth story from my perspective involves lots of waiting, lots of thinking that my best friend was the strongest girl I've ever met, lots of being thankful for both Adam & Carrie's sweet families and what they will mean in Allie's precious little life, more waiting...lots more waiting...and then finally, my favorite part of the whole day--- the moment when Allie's Daddy came through the double doors announcing that his sweet baby girl was here! Adam was beside himself, giving us all the details, and telling us that she was "just perfect"...What a moment to share with a few people whom I love dearly. After a little more (but what felt like a lot more) waiting, we got to see how perfect Allie Claire was! That head full of jet black wavy hair that just screamed, "Put a hairbow in me!" and those curious little eyes that wanted to take in every little detail. What a doll! I am sure my BFF, Carrie's version of Allie Claire's birth story is quite different. Lucky for me, my version did not include contractions, IV's or epidurals... ha...

Here we are a year later. It's still hard to believe.

We arrived at the party a few minutes early. I hate to be early to a party...mainly because I get stressed when I am the one throwing it and there's 10 last minute things to do, and I've not even finished getting ready and guests show up 20 minutes before party time! It just stresses me to the max. We kept driving past the driveway. I needed to potty terribly, so I asked DW if we could turn around and stop at the service station that's about a mile from Carrie & Adam's house. I don't use public restrooms, unless it's an absolute emergency. I have been that way since I was a kid. My mom used to have to literally take me home so I could potty. I know, I'll be paid back one day for all my aggravating ways... ha... Anyway, this was an emergency, and since I hated to be 20 minutes early to Carrie's, it was imperative that we stop somewhere! I walked in and immediately walked out. I just couldn't bring myself to go there....it was so dirty and just gross. I got back in the truck, and DW didn't act surprised at all... he knows me... ha... I decided that Carrie wouldn't be too ill with us for getting there so early, so we went on to their house. When we got there, she happened to be in the yard, and said she's seen us driving by and wondered what the heck we were doing.... ha...

After a quick trip inside, we headed out to the party spot... Carrie had created the perfect outdoor party area. It was absolutely adorable. You can see Carrie's post about the party here. She's got lots more pictures and tells the snake story, too.

Every little detail of Allie's special day was just perfect.

There were big orange paper lanterns hanging from a line across each side, hay bales and pumpkins, a burlap banner, pictures highlighting Allie Claire's 12 months hanging on a wood fence, & delicious food...

We ate off of real china and silverware, and sipped sweet tea out of pint sized mason jars. The tables were covered with cloths and burlap runners, and topped with bouquets of fresh flowers displayed in real pumpkins (that Carrie arranged herself)...

There were carved pumpkins that spelled Allie's name on the food table and pumpkins grouped in different spots around the party area. It was all just so cute! Check out the appetizer table... a pumpkin shaped cheese ball.

SO CUTE, and so yummy! Carrie was the perfect party planner and hostess! Everything was just right... even the snake visitor... (what a fun story to tell Allie one day!) Carrie's got me nervous about preparing for my girl's special day in December! I better get busy!

Allie opened her presents and was so cute! She would go, "oooohhhh" and get all excited when opening something.

She was such a gracious little birthday girl!

Allie's, Ma'am, who has mad cooking & party planning skills ("the apple and the tree") made the birthday cake, and oh my goodness was it adorable. Cute is only half of the cake though--- the other half is does it taste good?!?!? Of course it did! I've never had anything that Carrie's Mom made that wasn't! Mrs. Cindy Jo made a hummingbird cake with cream cheese icing. Oh my. A perfect fall flavor!

Allie is a blessed little girl with lots of people who love her so much.

I love this picture... it's Allie's Ma'am & Pap & Aunt Lyndsay & Uncle J. trying to get a picture of she and Gus together... too cute, that all 4 adults are doing whatever would work to make the babies look at the camera and smile!

Allie, we hope to get to celebrate every birthday with you, sweet girl!

Allie shares her birthday with a VERY important person in our family! My dad! We didn't get to celebrated with him on his actual birthday this year because he's in Africa for work this month. We did have a little birthday/goodbye dinner for him on the night before he left, though. He comes home next Tuesday and we're all ready to see him!!! I don't have a perspective of his birth story, since I obviously wasn't there, except for I am glad he has one, and I am here! I am thankful that God chose him for my Dad. He's taught me a lot. He's taught me to stand up for what's right, to tell the truth, to forgive people, to live up to your responsibilities and obligations, to be respectful, to be respectable, that you can choose to be different, and when you're wrong to say you're sorry. My Daddy can do anything. He's that kind of guy. Doesn't matter what any of us are doing--- laying wood floors, hanging wall paper, making props for VBS, or trying to level a cake---we always look to him to figure it out. And he always does. He can build anything---from a house to a potato and light bulb science project. He can fix anything---from a washing machine to a car to my hurt feelings. My dad has little patience and can be as stubborn as a mule. He and I understand each other...when nobody else "gets it," he does and when he seems impossible to understand, I can see his point...He's far from perfect and he'd never claim to be. I'm sure glad he's mine.

Last week, some of our Georgia family stayed for a few days after our family reunion. Gabe's birthday happened to fall during their Florida visit. Amy wanted to cook him a big birthday supper, so the big girls helped and the little girls hung balloons and made cards! It feels like Gabe's been a part of our family for forever. Being married to him, I bet Amy feels the same way. Ha ha... Gabe is just Gabe and we all love him. In the words of my middle school pre-algebra teacher, "he's one of the good guys." Gabe, we loved getting to celebrate with you this year. And it's not just because we got to enjoy some of Aunt Kay's sour cream pound cake! You're a good sport to wear the birthday hat, too! ha...

FINALLY, this afternoon, we got together with DW's family to celebrate our niece and nephew's birthdays a little early. Their actual birthdays are 4 days apart, but it's easier to do them together for the family celebration. We all met up at Devin's mom's house for the party at lunch. She'd gotten each kid their own cake, and had set them up their own table, which I thought was so sweet. We celebrated Warren turning 3 and Taylor turning 10.

I don't know where the past 7 years has gone. Taylor had just turned 3 when I met her. I fell fast for she and her big brother, Elliot, and felt like I was their aunt long before their uncle even popped the question! It's been so fun to get to see them grow and change these past 7 (almost 8 years!). And to think that their little brother is 3 blows my mind, too. But not as much as the fact that he wears a size 4T clothes. I am thinking he's going to be taller than me by 2nd grade! Ha... He's growing and changing so fast, too. It seems he learns something new everytime we see him.

I'm glad to see that the time flying thing doesn't discriminate, and it happens to all of us. I thought for a while, it was just me. Then I see how fast everyone's getting older---from the babies to the big guys!

I hope all of our October birthday peeps had great ones...

~annie~

Another Whew....

Hey guys, it's Belle...

Florida 23 - Arkansas 20

What a game! Are we ever glad it's over and glad that our Gators came out on top!

I know Momma's said it before, but Daddy doesn't miss a game. Mom doesn't go near as often as she used to when her and Daddy were just dating, but she usually has a couple games of the season that she makes sure she tells my Pappy she wants to go to! Arkansas was one of those games this year. But, me and Momma got sick this week. The worst part about us getting sick is that Mom didn't get to go to the game today. Well, actually the really worst part is that I was going to get to stay with my Grammy, but had to stay home with Mom. Oh well, next game, okay, Grammy???

The Hogs gave us a run for our money and for part of the game they were beating us! We started sweating it. At half time, Momma baked some cookies. Because that's what she does when she gets nervous or anxious (or happy or sad or ANYTHING) she eats cookies.

I was worried about my Gators, and wondered WHY we weren't winning. Momma kept saying something about them "fumbling" the ball....I don't know what it means, but I do know they did it 4 times during the game???? Then it hit me.... I didn't have on my Gameday outfit. I wasn't wearing orange or blue! Daddy wouldn't believe it if he knew Momma hadn't dressed me in our colors on GAMEDAY... Come on, Momma... I know you have some serious sinus pressure affecting your thinking, but it's GAMEDAY!!!!

We got me changed and even added the "cool weather elements" to my cheerleading uniform. (Since it's actually cool here in Florida! Yay!!!)

We were ready for the 3rd quarter to start. Finally we scored to tie up the game.


In the 4th quarter those Pigs scored again! Oh no...

Thankfully, it wasn't long afterward, that we made a touchdown and got our extra point kick to tie the game 20-20!

Later Arkansas missed a field goal... I felt bad for their kicker. I mean, I am glad he missed the 2 that he did, but I still feel bad for him. I bet there's lots of Arkansas fans that's going to be mad with him!

I took a break and played a little.

We were on the edge of our seats for the rest of the game, just hoping and pleading with the Gator boys to win... We didn't want Daddy coming home in a bad mood!

Then, in the last few seconds of the game the Gators drove the ball down field and kicked a fieldgoal to win!

We would have liked a little better score, but a win is a win! And it's sure to be a good game when 2 SEC teams are involved! Momma sure hates that she missed it. It would have been such a fun game to watch in person, but she says she doesn't mind too much since I was here to watch the game with her!

Go Gators!!!

Love,

Annabelle

Whew...

It's been 2 weeks since I've posted. I want to take time to upload pictures and write about everything that's been going on.... but for now, here's a sneak peek at what we've been up to...

We've:
- celebrated some birthdays

Allie Claire celebrated the big number 1!!! Some of my Georgia family were in town, and this guy had a birthday while they were here!

- painted and worked on some home projects:

Here's one of the befores...

- dressed up like the Jackson 5 for a rendition of "ABC"

Yep, that there's me... and I know this needs some explaining... I cropped out my other "Jacksons" because I didn't want to risk myself being physically harmed... ha... If you look close, you can see my brother who sang lead ( & played Michael)...

- spent the weekend with close to 80 of our family members (that should somewhat explain the previous picture)...

- spent a few extra days with this little cutie (and his peeps)

My nephew, Garrett

- tried a couple new recipes:

I got this cake recipe from another blog. Yum. I'll post a link to it later...

And finally, last night we had our county's quarterly Cattleman's meeting. The October meeting is always at the Lodge and we have Whitehurst BBQ. Yum. Annabelle's nose started running right before we left, and by half way through dinner, it was doing some serious draining. Gross, I know. Nothing like going from talking BBQ to snot. To make things worse, I felt a tickle in my throat, too. Here's our sweet girl before we headed to the lodge. How cute is her "pony pocket"?!?!?

We had a pretty rough night, and woke up with fevers this morning.

After a visit to the doctor, we've got some medicine and are sure to be back to our old selves again soon! While we were at our pediatrician's office this morning, I took note that times sure are changing. Out of the 7 other patients and parents that came in and left while we were there, SIX, yes 6, of them were fathers and their child. I guess it was Daddy-Day today. When I was a kid, you wouldn't have ever saw a Dad in the doctor's office. I don't know why it caught me off guard, but it really did surprise me to be the minority in a place where typically I wouldn't be.

And on a side note, know what drives me crazy? People who don't pull up close to the car in front of them in the drive-thru at Chick-fil-A. Our Chick-fil-A is always so crowded and you have to circle the building to get in the drive-thru line. If people don't pull forward then the line gets backed up, and there's always the genius who blocks the exit, and fails to see that by blocking the exit the cars cant leave the drive-thru, which means the line can't move.... Ugh... So come on, yall, if you go through the drive-thru at the Gainesville Chick-fil-A please pull up close to the person in front of you. Together we can change the drive thru line one car at a time... ha....

Happy Weekend!

~annie~

Hungry Girl

"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." - Proverbs 16:18 (NIV)

Pride goeth before the fall. I cannot tell you how many times I've heard those words. Believe me, I need to hear them. I have a bad habit of being real proud of myself when I do something well or when I think I'm doing a better job than someone else at something.

I had my share of pride yesterday and then, of course, a fall....


I've been working hard all week cleaning out closets, packing up old clothes, organizing our office (that has been a "catch-all" for the two years that we've lived here), on top of keeping up with the other house cleaning, laundry washing, and child-rearing... Why's it called child-rearing? That's so funny to me...


Yesterday afternoon, I was "Playing Peggy" (I do it when I want to be like my Granny). On this particular day, I was trying to be like Granny by starting my "supper" right after lunch. DW had gone back to the office after lunch and I'd already started planning what deliciousness I'd cook for dinner. I'd be like Granny and have all afternoon for my peas to cook and by the time DW got home, he'd have one of his all time favorite meals waiting on him.


I was feeling all kind of wonderfully domesticated and like I'd been doing such a wonderful job taking care of my home and my family. Everything was straight and in it's place, peas were on the stove, precious was down for a nap and I was already planning my Wife of the Year acceptance speech for later that evening when my darling got home from work and saw what I'd cooked especially for him for dinner.


I don't cook them often, because they aren't really my thing. But, oh, are they his!

My man loves him some chicken and dumplings, add some acre peas that have cooked all afternoon and some cast-iron cooked corn bread, and he's about as happy as it gets.

Yep, I was on a roll for sure. I was doing quite well in my "Playing Peggy" role of the day. She'd have even been proud of the cornbread.

About that time, little miss woke up from her nap and decided it was time to play. I was back and forth checking on my peas that were still cooking on the stove and playing with her. I'd gotten up to check the peas and heard her crawling off... I knew where she was headed and didn't think she'd get there much faster than me. I'd add some water to my pot of peas and be right behind her. 10 seconds later, she was already in Cooper's room, and was chewing on something. Neither of these are unusual. His room is always the first one she goes to and she's ALWAYS putting something in her mouth. Yall, I could vacuum my house 5 times a day and she'd still find something to put in her mouth. I mean the most minuscule things that I couldn't possibly find even if I was wearing a jewelers eye. I don't know how she does it. When she puts something in her mouth, though, she only chews on it. She doesn't swallow, she moves it from side to side and rolls it around on her tongue. Well, she probably doesn't swallow whatever it may be because she doesn't have time to, before we're digging it out of her mouth. When I asked her what she was chewing on (I know, like she'd answer), she looked at me and smiled so big and just kept moving it from side to side. I couldn't see anything at first. Then she stuck out her tongue and there it was. Yall, my baby was chewing on a bug. I know. Call DCF, HRS, or whoever it is to report unfit mothers. I immediately started digging for it, praying she wouldn't swallow. Chewing on a bug sounds so much better than actually EATING a bug... doesn't it? She clinched those sweet teeth shut and I worked just as hard to pry them open, digging and begging her to let me have it. I was on the verge of tears (dramatic, I know) when I finally rescued the bug and saved my child from having to say she'd once eaten a bug. She was none to happy about it, but one day after I have my blog printed and bound for us to look back on, she's going to thank me that I didn't let her be a bug eater.

I scooped her up and put her in the kitchen with me, in her walker and gave her some cheerios to snack on.

As I finished cooking dinner, my head hung low and my "Wife/Mother of the Year" nomination stripped from me, all I could think was: "Pride goeth before the fall."

The next thing I could hear was DW when he'd got home and I told him that I'd let his sweet precious daughter chew on a bug. Then I was glad I'd cooked his favorite for dinner...

I heard him pull up in the driveway and I poured him a big glass of sweet tea and met him at the door with a smile and a hug. He grabbed up Annabelle and put her in her high chair and we sat down for dinner. He took the lid off the pot and said, "CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS?!?!? MMMM, I've been wanting some of these!" I let him take a few bites and relish in their goodness (there I go again, with that pride thing) and then I asked Annabelle if she was going to tell Daddy what SHE did today or should we just let him read about it on my blog. She didn't answer. I wasn't surprised since the only thing she says is "Da-Da"--- so I told him the story. He couldn't believe his baby girl was trying to be a bug eater. He also told her that "if she was trying to save us money by eating bugs, instead of needing baby food, that it was real sweet, but she didn't need to eat bugs." Ha...

And this little miss decided she'd give up eating bugs, but wanted to try some peas... and boy did she love them... she had 4 "Belle-sized" helpings of them!

I'm going to work on the pride thing. I'm know it'll be a lifelong battle for me. Just when I think I've gotten it all together and got the wife/mother thing down pat, I am quickly reminded that we all fail in one way or another---no one's perfect---and there's no set "right" way of doing things---we're all different and as long as we're doing the best we can, that's all that matters... I'm not sure if this is prideful or not, but I just hope my best isn't letting my kid eat bugs!

~annie~