monday?

i'm nervous, apprehensive, scared to death and yet very excited all at the same time. today i sat alone, half dressed, on the table in the doctors office, tears freely welling up in my eyes. strange place to be, i know.  i have not been a good pregnant person this time around. i have been tired beyond anything i have ever experienced. i have had wild mood swings and plain and simply stated, my moods were not easy to control. i have felt immensely ornery and aggravated with everything and everyone. i have not always been kind and those who i love and care for the most have born the brunt of me. so today as i sat alone, exposed, and feeling quite isolated i processed the words my doctor had just used. if not by this weekend, we'll see you monday. what does that mean? that my moods will mellow out? that my aches and pains will be replaced by new and foreign pains of the after? the thing i do know is that the world is going to drastically change for me and my family. we will have a new child in our lives. a sweet, squishy squirmy little baby who will keep us up all night long! my simple afternoons are now looking uncertain, my life will be much busier and my children will need to shift their roles as we welcome this new being into our lives. crazy as it sounds, eric and i don't even have a name chosen for this child. georgia may win the battle as we bring home cake eric marshall.  we'll keep posted. any advice on a name?

three years old today

how do you celebrate your life when you only have three years to call your own? well, you wake up super early and immediately request chockie mok and a show. fill your morning hours playing with your brother and yelling at anyone who disrupts your flow of imagination play. have lunch out with the family and eat all of dad's lunch, not your own. have an afternoon snooze and wake up super grumpy, the kind of grumpy that only some serious snuggles from dad can cure. you eat your favorite dinner of mac and cheese and broccoli, and mid eating you decide to play dog and have dad feed the puppy the rest of your dinner. after dishes, you sit with mom and help her decorate your tinker cake the way you want. purple and pink! don't forget to tell mom to put the frosting on your finger so you can taste each color of icing. oh, and you tell your mom the cake is perfect after she places the little yellow flowers around the edge of the frosting masterpiece. and, to top off the day, when the cousins come to help eat cupcakes and open presents, you are showered with gifts that only a three year old would love. jewelry, horse and carriage for a princess, books and all the tinker things you could want. the night is topped off with your favorite night cap, a sip cup of chockie mok, two books and snuggles from mom and dad. i'd say that's a pretty fabulous way to celebrate three years of life. happy birthday georgia kate!

spelling bees

andrew has quickly become a star in his kindergarten class. last week he beat out the other kids in order to participate in the math bowl where he continued to shut down the competition until a question (which was quite ambiguous if you ask me) actually stumped him. heartbreaking as it was to watch my little friend leave the stage, my proud mom heart swelled up in my chest as i realized he had lasted over half way through the competition. today, the spelling bee. now, mind you, this is kindergarten and they were spelling very hard words that i never even used in kindergarten! not the kindergarten i attended! needless to say, eric and i sat on the bleachers, hearts racing, palms sweating as we watched this little boy of ours take his place in front of the microphone and spell some amazing words. we were definitely more nervous for him than he ever was. this morning as we were practicing he mater of factly stated, "mom, i don't need to practice, i know all of this already." true to form the child did know it all and performed amazingly. he outlasted over half the group and made it into the top 6 kids out of the 18 who participated. once again, my heart was full of that mom pride we all get when we see our child succeed. it was great to see him so excited. he realized he placed much higher than the math bowl and had a big grin on his face the rest of the bee. what a cute, smart, drive me crazy boy i have. wouldn't trade him for the world.

spring is here

spring is finally here and we welcomed this new season in on saturday with open windows, yard work and playing, playing and playing outside. after two kids with stuffy noses and dark circles, a husband who couldn't breathe and a migraine for me i purchased the allergen air filters for my house, closed the windows and dosed everyone with medicine. when is spring leaving?

shamrock pancakes

happy st. patrick's day! we started in style, wish you could have joined us!

4 and counting

serious loot. serious pirate. seriously toothless.

house of plague

eric has dubbed our home "the house of plague." during his short check in calls from work he, with concern, has asked how everyone at the house of plague is doing. nice. he is the only one who has come out of this unscathed... as of today. in my state of sickness induced coma like state i came up with a small poem. it almost brought a smile to my lips, that is if i had enough energy to smile.
i used to run
to clear my head
which is impossible now
as i lay in bed
wishing i wasn't feeling quite so dead.
hope your house has been missed by the plague. and if it has, get well soon! (and then let me know how you did it!)

personality overload

looking innocent after downing a chocolate heart


entertaining herself in a box

her favorite food, whipped cream

oral fixation? binki and lolly

when she concentrates, her tounge does too

her soft and her heart blankie too

when heavenly father was sprinkling personality and charm on georgia and her friends in heaven, i do believe an extra shake was given to my georgia. have you met the girl?

valentines recap

i love orange, did you know that? i do. it's become one of my favorite colors. it's happy, warm, energetic and jovial. what a word, jovial. doesn't it make you smile just saying it!? anyway, dear husband knows this about me and the day before valentine's a box of orange tulips surprised me on my front doorstep. thankyou for making my week orangalitious!

recycle day or end up in my yard day?

i don't know why, but it is a proven scientific fact that recycling day is the most windy day of the week. it has also been proven that the contents of every bin left out on the street will and do end up in my front yard. nice.

teeth

if you've ever walked into a crowd of six year olds, you probably have noticed odd behaviors. fingers in mouths, dreamy expressions, the tounge working in strange places in their mouths. it's not a new finagled thing, either. apparently this phenomenon has been around since the invention of the tooth! i have never seen my son with his fingers in his mouth more than i have witnessed in the last few months. i am so happy to have forced the flu vaccine on him, i'm sure it has saved us from many doctors office visits! since he has turned six, he has lost three teeth, with a fourth soon to follow. he is so excited to have his teeth falling out, but not for the reason you think, mostly for the loot the tooth fairy leaves behind. and i use the word "loot" because that is exactly what it is! seriously, where was this tooth fairy when i was six? i was lucky to get a silver dollar and one time i remember getting a two dollar bill. so how the heck has the price of a tooth gone up so much? well, enter in the loot giving tooth fairy who comes to our house with five dollars in gold coins to leave to a sleeping, toothless boy. seriously, what happens when a molar falls out? oh, another reason for calling it "loot" is for the pure and simple reason we have a resident pirate at our house. she is small and very cute with sticky fingers for anything shiny. andrew now knows not to leave the vast amount of gold coins laying anywhere within our pirate's reach. happy tooth wiggling!

florida

january came and left and so did we. our flight was scheduled for 6am so we donned our bonnets and found ourselves (yes all 4 of us) en route to the airport and quarter after 4. honestly. what were we thinking? we were thinking eric's sister could use some entertainment, distraction and a full house after her scary gallbladder surgery. so there we were, in alligator ally, driving in our rented H3 (inspired by my huge suitcase and episodes of csi miami) to relieve and entertain the troops in southern florida. needless to say it was a fabulous time, full of seafood, sand, sleepless nights and about a million pictures. did i happen to mention eric's gift to me for christmas was a fancy new camera? although it took about a week to get back on schedule and to catch up on laundry we would do it again in a heart beat. well, except for the whole 6am departure. oh, and as a very exciting bonus we were able to see and spend time with my cute niece lindsey and her husband and her very pregnant belly!

back in focus

so the new year has started and as i looked around at my home tonight i noticed, i am already behind. what does that mean, exactly? well it's the culmination of beautifully appointed christmas trees, dust, spots on the floor, an olive wood nativity and mountains of laundry from hosting a cousin sleepover and family guests. and how do i feel about all of this in 2009? i am so fine with all of this. my floor will get mopped, the trees will find their cardboard boxes and the sparkly decorations will be, once again, retired to their plastic box and placed into the abyss otherwise known as the other garage. why am i feeling ok with this? well, we have been given an amazing gift of perspective this week. one which i will eternally be thankful for. my sweet cousin just laid her 41 day old baby boy to rest. what has this taught me? so much i can't even start to explain but, mostly, what is truly important. a question i have found myself pondering is what if? what if i had just today? what would i do? how would i spend my time? i'm once again thinking about the present. eric, jokingly, looked at me today and stated that if i kept putting things off until tomorrow, i would be left with a bunch of empty yesterdays. hmm, how true this statement is. so, as i am starting this new year, i have a new perspective, or newly remembered perspective and, with all the other goals on my list, i am going to concentrate on living in the moment. baby jack taught me that. enjoy what i have. love who i am. enjoy the stage of life i am in. and to take time to let the people around me know how important they are to me. and kiss my babies a whole lot. so, a big thank you to elizabeth and adam and megan who have shared their sweet baby, their amazing testimonies, their great sorrow and their hope and faith with me. happy new year.