HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHANEL!!!

CHANEL IS 31!!!

This picture is from when Chanel organized a helicopter ride for our valentines day one year. I just think it is funny and wanted to post it for his birthday!

So far we have celebrated by sleeping in (on accident because the power went off at our house), going to breakfast (because our refridgerator broke and all the food/drinks in it went bad) and playing cars (because that's what Tucker wants to do). HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY!!!

Touche'

We seriously limit Tucker's tv watching because it alters his mood/behavior. I guess I have had to explain this to him one too many times. Sometimes he listens too well. This afternoon I sat down to eat my lunch (PB&J and Cheezeits) and to watch TV for a little 'me time'. Tucker was upstairs playing and he starts yelling "Momma! Turn the TV off...it makes you Grumpy."

Happy Father's Day Chanel

Whether it's at work or out playing...Tucker wants to be just like Chanel!

I just wanted everyone to know what a great dad Chanel is to Tucker. It is so cool to see Tucker light up when he is around Chanel. I couldn't ask for a better role model. I hope Tucker continues to be just like his daddy!

Riding Bikes

A couple of weekends ago we met up with Chanc and Tracey to let the kids ride their bikes at this really awesome park in Canton.


Tucker, Matt and Will

Emily, Tucker, Matt and Will

All their little legs just kept on riding forever. They had a ball. Tracey and I LOVED sitting on a swing in the shade while Chanc and Chanel played safety dad's if anyone fell....which they did...right into a water puddle. Oh well.

Not the daring type

Our company is based in Baton Rouge Louisiana so every year they do a huge crawfish boil. This year they wanted our office to host one as well. Family and friends were invited and the president and his wife brought 100 pounds of crawfish to cook and serve to everyone. Here are some pictures of the Atlanta office's Crawfish Boil.

The boys (Tucker, Matt and Will) were all about watching the live crawfish). Matt probably ate 3 pounds all by himself. Will thought it was neat and also ate his fair share. Tucker...enjoyed the cookies.

I would like to mention that even though I very much dislike seafood I was under extreme pressure to try the crawfish. (Our boss had already offered it to Katie who willingly ate it...I couldn't be "the bad one" so I had to try it as well). I actually really liked it! Who knew.

My Ears don't hurt

But just about everything else does.

Here is a warning: It is 11:45 at night and I just took 2 Tylenol PM. I am waiting for it to kick in, so no telling what (if anything) will make sense.

Today was our coed softball game. Chanel and I showed up on time (because that's how we roll) and no one from our class or age group was there. (The singles' department at our church challenged the adult 1 and 2 classes to a softball tournement). One other on-timer showed up and then we all just waited for the other 4 people to come. If you do the math that makes just 7. Not quit enough for a team. The singles' department had 3 teams worth of people show up. This was setting up to be a very long day.

We convinced the Adult 1&2 leader to play on our team and then we borrowed an impressive player from the singles. yada yada yada...we scored 11 runs the first inning with no outs when we decided to call a 10-run per inning run rule. We gave the impressive guy back and took one of their girls. They were going to need all the help they could get. Yada yada yada again...we won 17-7. On to game two. We were set to play the winner of the other game that was going on. Apparently they won their game with as much gusto as we won ours so we began to worry. Here are the important details: I dove for a ball in the outfield. I slid into second base to be safe. I dove at homeplate to barely beat the tag. We won 21-1. One of the guys from our team told the singles after we won that "once you get married you all the sudden play with a lot more aggression." Humph...there may be some truth to that.

I had a great time being back in the softball atmosphere. I loved being the only girl from our class and actually playing pretty well. The wounds were just an added bonus. That is until now. I am really hurting. My legs are scraped up, my muscles hurt, but bum is sore and my head is aching from being in the heat for that long.That is why I am up right now and that is why I have taken two tylenol PM. I can't lay still without some bodypart burning in pain.

Nice huh??? At least I was safe!

Here are some other pictures from the games.

We looked so professional!

I am pretty sure the singles department had something other than a diaper to write a lineup on.

We had great cheerleaders too!

I am still around

No excuses. Really. I don't have good reasons for my month+ absence from the blog. Nor do I offer any promises of being better. Sorry.

Today at work is unusually slow and quiet. The whole office is gone to a meeting. I am done with work stuff and have surfed the net as much as I care to on a computer that is monitored by our corporate office. (That sounds bad...oh well). So here I am with nothing really great to report about but I am here none-the-less.

Last month Chanel and I have celebrated our 7th year anniversary! If I had my camera with me I would post some really cute pictures of us. Just imagine it...it can't be that hard since Chanel is a hunk! (do people still say 'hunk'?) Well, he is as cute as ever. He made us dinner reservations at Stoney River and then we went to the batting cages to hit a few balls. This may seem odd, but it is one of my favorite things to do. We have a coed softball game tomorrow and I needed to know if I could still hit a ball-which I can. Chanel got me an awesome iPod touch as a gift. I LOVE IT. It is right up my alley. Music and internet. Yahoo! I love him so much. I have loved spending the last 7 years married to him. 7-year itch??? We must be hydrocortisone baby, because there is no itching here. HEE HEE.

Katie and I are still job sharing. This is a real job too. I mean the kind where you skip lunch if you are too busy or you stay late if things aren't done. I don't know what they were thinking when they gave us all this responsibility: Accounts payable, receivable, Human resources, invoicing , conference calls, web meetings, weekly managers meetings - we are big time. I am still loving it. I love being this important. I don't love being overwhelmed and confused, but I will take the good with the bad.

Vacation Bible School starts on Monday for our church. It is going to go by like a whirlwind. I can't decide who is getting the better end of the deal, me or Katie. She is going to work all week since Chris will be out of town for his family's annual beach trip. And I am going to work VBS all week. It will be fun to have a whole week of Tucker all to myself.

Speaking of Tucker-we are still potty training. If you know how to potty train in a day...I don't want to hear it. Really. Keep that to your self. He could care less about wearing "really cool big boy underwear with lightning mcqueen on it". He could care less about being "such a big boy that pee pees and poopoos on the potty." He could care less that "mommy and daddy use the potty and so do ALL your friends." No, what he says is "I am not that big." "I just like my diaper." Need-less-to-say, this is not going very well. I shouldn't say that. I just mean we are not trained yet. STILL WORKING ON IT.

Until next time...whenever that may be...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

First the cell phone...
Then the cell phone...
Now the computer.

My computer got attacked by spyware this weekend. I am starting to agree with the crazies that say technology is of the devil. Please tell me this is my "things come in three's" and we are done. I am far to dependant on my phone and computer.

See new song to the right. I just can't seem to get it right.

Why I love Saturdays

I don't know how Chanel mowed the whole yard like this...but it sure looked cute.

True Boy

Thanks Uncle Keith for letting Tucker adopt the helmet for awhile.
Tucker loves being a football player. Go Dawgs!

Lazarus does not translate like I'd hoped

In John 11:11 when Jesus said "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up." and in John 11:43 Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" I have decided that Lazarus is not really symbolic for anything else...It quite literally means Lazarus and only Lazarus.

So I had to get a new cell phone.

...And insurance

This is a very Biblical cell phone

Last night I dropped my (just recently returned) cell phone into the bathtub while bathing Tucker. Don't even ask why or how. God was able to return my phone to me like the Prodigal son, now He is going to raise it from the dead like Lazarus.

Praising God in advance for what He is going to do!

So...what's for dinner? Now I know

I am always in search of a good system. Mostly relating to cleaning, laundry or cooking. This is because I don't have one of my own. This isn't to say that I have never had one. But apparently not one that will stick, work and continually be easy to repeat. 

Enter my newest attempt. This one relates to cooking - so here is the background. I like to cook. I like to find new recipes and try new things. I do not like to stand confused in my kitchen with all cabinets open and wonder what's for dinner. I have tried Super Suppers - Loved it until the food all started to taste the same. I have tried whatever the featured dishes are for Publix Apron Simple Meals - loved it until they started to repeat ones I didn't care for and the food was too expensive for one time only. I have tried writing out a weekly menu then the corresponding grocery list - love it done...just don't like doing it. My greatest need boils down to needing to know what I am going to fix for dinner at least the day before. SOOOOOOOO, here is what I am trying now. Chanel and I sat down and wrote down everything (really) I have cooked that we like and would eat again. Totaled about 36. Now, I really only cook 3-4 times a week max (due to weekly activities and...well...just because that is my limit before I start to despise it). With 36 meals written down and a google calendar in front of me I was able to place meals from now until early June. With that all filled out, I then made a google document (admittedly obsessed with google) with all the meal ingredients listed out by section of the grocery store (this step is not done...but, getting there). This means several wonderful things. 1st- We not only know what is for dinner way in advance, but we also don't have to eat the same thing for 2-3 months and then I can just repeat and add in anything new I want to try. 2nd- With the ingredients/grocery items already typed out, I only have to hit print and off to the grocery store I go. 

Here is the Calendar so far (side dishes are listed under the details)

Here is the list I take to the store (this only the first two weeks worth).

Fun huh! I am very excited about this. Yes, it was a lot of work initially, but I won't have to do that again. Just copy, paste, print. Please feel free to copy it and use it as your own. If there are any recipes you want...just ask, most of mine are on the computer already from a cookbook we did so it will be very easy to email. 

Now...if only I could conquer cleaning...

This is my child on drugs

I know that three year olds have a lot of energy but add an albuterol treatment and it is downright hysteria. Tucker had a little bit of an allergy issue this week so we pulled out the breathing treatment thing (I know it has a real name...Nebu-something) and did one vial albuterol and one vial pulmicort. Here is the result:

7:45 (15 minutes after the treatment)

He starts speaking in this crazy language. And yes that is Idol Gives Back in the background.



8:15 (45 minutes later)



9:00 (1 hour and a half after treatment) I think this is him winding down



I have added the song that Chanel mentions to my playlist (Angels and Airwaves - The Adventure)

9:30 (2 hours after treatment) He is NOT winding down

10:40pm - Chanel goes into his room and tells him he HAS to go to bed. He was just in there talking about Diego. CRAZY CHILD.

Prodigal Cell Phone

My cell phone like most people's is my life. I have had a phone since I turned 18 and have never lost it. My current phone is also my mp3 player and has 150 songs on it. I have phone numbers to anything you can think of (approx. 300) that are not written down anywhere else.
On Tuesday, I was a fool and took it to Monkey Joe's while I was playing in and up and down all the big blowup things. This is how attached I am to the silly thing. I couldn't just leave it in the car for an hour? I had to stick it in my pocket. I'm not that important. Me missing a call would not be detrimental to anyone's health. I have a problem.

Well, I lost it. Of course I lost it. I was climbing and sliding and bouncing. What did I think was going to happen? Chanel and I searched each bouncy thing and did not find it. I left my name and Chanel's number at the counter and we reluctantly left the building. It was officially lost. The issue was out of my hands. It wasn't a naked feeling but a not-able-to-breath feeling. It was dramatic. Well, I calmed down at lunch and came to the conclusion that God was going to take care of me. He was going to get my phone back to me. By Friday. I know, I shouldn't put time limits on God. However, I would eventually have to come to terms that I would just have to go get another phone. Anyway, I prayed (seriously, I prayed with expectations.) I had very little doubt that God was going to get it back to me by Friday. Come Friday at midnight...I would worry, but until then- no problem- He has it all under control.

MONKEY JOES CALLED CHANEL ON FRIDAY MORNING ... THEY FOUND MY PHONE. I mean really! God is so good! God cares about me and my phone! This is my PRAISE GOD MOMENT OF THE WEEK! Thank you Lord!!!

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY TUCKER!!!

Today is Tucker's 3rd Birthday!It is so hard to believe that it has been 3 years! The tradition on my side of the family is breakfast in bed on your birthday and this is the first year that we did breakfast in bed for him and he really loved it.

Yesterday was the birthday party and here are some pics from that. We went to one of Papa Dave's work sites and he let us drive around in the tractors. The kids were so over-the-top excited. He had two workers there (one spoke perfect english, the other spoke perfect spanish). They told Chanel, Chris and Keith how to drive everything-so the dads did most of the driving and playing. We all had a great time.

This was supposed to be a house...they didn't care it didn't have a roof.

These last two pictures are of Tucker walking with one of the workers and having a full conversation. He just became mister chatty with this guy and the worker just chatted back and got a big kick out of Tucker going on and on. Neither seemed to mind that they didn't speak each other's language.

Chanel and I made this cake all by ourselves!

This morning when I got Tucker up and told him he could pick what he wanted to do on his special day and he said "put more gas in the dump truck and drive in it again!"

A picture is worth...

What could I possibly want to convey with this picture???
A) I finally got a cordless vacuum (Not the shark. I did some research and the dirt devil got the best reviews and was half the price). It is the greatest little vacuum. Amazon delivered in 2 days for free. Gotta love the internet.
B) Tucker loves using this vacuum to clean the kitchen. (It is so light and easy to maneuver that he also enjoys a game of chasing Flash around the house- Flash equally hates this game).
C) Tucker helped me cook dinner tonight at which point I accidentally spilled olive oil on his head and his hair became a piece of art. Dinner was fantastic. Tucker told Chanel "I made that for you...but I don't want to eat it." (of course not).
D) Today marks the fifth day of potty training (this explains the no pants in the picture) and the first full day of no accidents and not going through any pull-ups/diapers. Thursday (the first day) and Friday I had come to terms with going straight to Depends. Maybe I should have invested in a carpet cleaner instead of a vacuum. I digress, he is doing much much much better and hopefully will soon learn how to tell me when he needs to go potty. (Will I ever stop saying "go potty" or "make sure you push it down" or "is there any pee pee left" or "yeaaaaaaa! you pee peed on the potty! You get a treat")

Anyway, It isn't quite 1,000 words, but this picture says a lot.

And the angels will sing

I am a glass half-full gal. I get excited about the littlest of things. Some of my excitement could be described as borderline retarded. I don't use that term to be offensive and I would certainly never wish to make light of someone with real mental issues. I have recently been informed that the politically correct word is impaired. So when talking about myself in a crazy-funny-hope-no-one-is-looking sort of way...I will call myself retarded.

It is always a challenge to get Tucker to voluntarily eat vegetables. Yesterday was no different. I pulled a bag of mixed veggies out of the freezer and showed them to Tucker. "Do you want to try these?" "Uhhh, No. I just gonna eat my pirate pasta"
I tell him how pretty they look and point out all the different colors. Finally he agrees that they look as good as ice cream. I cook them and put them in the bowl and of course he says "I don't like those."
Well, the rule here is if you ask me to fix it, you have to try it. Until then, nothing else happens. So we go back and forth for too long and he continues to eat his pasta. I decide to jump in and 'help' him eat his pasta. All the while sneaking peas and corn underneath the pieces of pasta.

He is none the wiser.

Little angelic choirs are going off all around me. Trumpets are playing. Legendary mothers of the past are looking down on me and giving a standing ovation. I begin to smile inside with a touch of hee hee hee added. I am so good. I am so smooth. A three-year-old can not outwit me. I will win every time.

The day is a complete success. Nothing else good needs to happen. I tell myself that this is blog worthy.

Later that day Katie comes to pick up Griffin and I tell her my tales of wonderment in the kitchen. And she has to ask - "how much did you sneak past him?"

"Three pieces of corn and two peas"

They're having a Girl

Katie and Chris found out they will be having a Girl.
Check out her blog here http://www.thehookers9905.blogspot.com/ and vote on the name ~
Taylor Morgan Hooker or Taylor Madeline Hooker.

Anyone...Anyone...Anyone...Bueller...Bueller...

My dad sent me a link today for the new movie that Ben Stein is involved in. I checked it out and I am on board to support it to. The trailer is long, but very interesting. It is an absolutely worthy cause!

Like my dad said:
"We've got to get people to see this movie.
If we won't....who will. "

check out this link http://www.expelledthemovie.com/

If retail therapy were a classs...I failed!

I had been given a $50 gift card to a local department store. (I am leaving the department store unamed so as not to offend anyone). Yesterday I was itching to go shopping so that I would have new clothes for work. Tucker was sleeping so he was at home with Chanel. So far the details are as follows: Free money, no child, blessings from my husband. Could it be any better than this?!

As I walk into the store I notice right away the outfit that my friend's mother was wearing in church that morning. Not a bad thing...just generationally inappropriate for me. I take a glance around at the other customers and I realize they are all older ladies. Again, this is not horrible, we just don't typically share the same taste in clothing. Let's call these observations strike 1.

As I am walking around I hear over the intercom that the associates are playing bingo and they are frequently calling out numbers. In between numbers the music is alternating between elevator classics and something you would hear on an adult alternative station. Strange. I say we are up to strike 2.

I admit that it wasn't very difficult to find some cute items to want to try on, so I had stacked up a pretty large armful of clothes. A sales associate comes by and asks to start a dressing room for me. "Great! Thanks."

Once I have made all my selections, I head to the dressing room. Here is the conversation:
Me "I am ready to start trying on"
Associate "oh you would like a dressing room?"
Me "Actually, you had started one for me, I am just not sure which room the clothes are in."
Associate "I did? Hmmm, what would I have done with those clothes? Do you remember what you had?"
Me "I had a whole bunch of things. Jeans, shirts, skirts."
Associate "I must have gotten confused and returned the items to the shelf."
Me "Really? It was fun the first time, but I don't really want to do it again. Are you sure?"

She was sure and I had to go and search for the clothes again. Definately strike 3! Eventually I made it into the dressing room with whatever I could remember I liked. I get in try-on-clothes-mode (which means practically naked) and before I can even start to try on, the intercom comes on and announces the store will be closing in 15 minutes. WHAT?!?! There is NO WAY I can try all this on in 15 minutes. I dive in and I am puttin on one pant leg and deciding, nope, throw a shirt over my head, yes, whip a dress on, don't bother zipping, i love it, throw two shirts on at one time and yank them off all together. I was flying through. All the while "10 minutes to closing. Number 25 for bingo." The associate kept coming by trying to rush me along. "5 minutes, number 19." I am frazzled. My cute hair is a rats nest at this point. I hurry up and throw my original clothes on and take the ones I don't want down the hall to the discard rack. NOOOOO!!!! I locked myself out of my dressing room. I had to go find miss happy-pants-associate to let me back in. She informs me (just incase all the intercom reminders had fallen on deaf ears) that they closed in 2 minutes. I grab my things and head for the check out. I wasn't really paying attention as he was checking me out. I get escorted out the door which is locked behind me. I feel like I have just been through a tornado so I set all my stuff in my car and decide to look through it to actually see what I bought. Confoundit! I notice that the two shirts that I layered and took off together are rung up as one shirt. At this point I begin to have conflicting thoughts about how much my integrity is worth.
$25, or just go home. I mean it wasn't really my fault. The lady, and the stupid bingo numbers, if they hadn't rushed me....Darn my integrity! So I walk back to the locked store with the shirt and start to knock. They signal that they are closed. No kidding. I wave the shirt while mouthing "I didn't pay for this." Finally they let me in and I pay for the shirt (which looks less cute at this point).

It was as though I had been defeated-by the old lady store! I was exausted at this point. This was NOT the retail therapy I had in mind.

This day in 1980

Birthdays as an adult are different. That isn't necessarily bad, sometimes they stink, but mostly they are just different. Growing up our birthdays meant breakfast in bed, balloons at school, taken out to lunch, pick a place for dinner, presents, dairy queen cake (my favorite), then more festivities for the rest of the week. Growing up you didn't get "rain checks" on birthday presents.

But today I am 28. This really isn't a big deal because I haven't hit an 'almost 30' depression and I think I have been claiming 28 for the last 6 months anyway. Really I have been wanting to be 27, 28, 29 for as long as I could remember. I mean, those are real adult ages. (or so I thought when I was 18, 19, and 20).

Since I have Tucker I can't just lay in bed pretending I am still sleeping while I wait for Chanel to bring me my traditional breakfast in bed (which he was working on in the kitchen). I had to get up and act like a mom. I had also told a friend that I would take him to his meeting place for his Mexico trip so I had to be up and moving anyway. After the drop off, emissions. After emissions, the tag office. It's strange how no one along the way as they look at my driver's license cares anything about it being my birthday. They just comment on how close to the deadline I am for getting my tag. Tucker is sure that it is his birthday today and all he wants to do is go home and play monster trucks (shocker).

The day really turned out to be very very fun. I was able to hang out with my mom, I got about 20 birthday phone calls, I did get to pick a place for lunch - and my mom treated and then a very fun kid-free dinner that night with friends. I am so lucky that I still get a week of birthday festivities with family and friends. My only real complaint about my birthday this year is that I didn't get the Shark VX3. I guess that's one benefit to having birthdays as an adult. If you don't get what you want...you just go out and buy it for yourself. And I plan to do just that!

Don't let them see us acting like us

Katie and I started the new job on Monday. On Wednesday we had to go to the regional office in Chattanooga for new employee orientation. Our employer felt bad that we had to go all the way up there, but if you know Katie and I, we were giddy. Although we see each other everyday picking up or dropping off kids, we don't get to hang out and spend fun girl time together.

About 10 years ago, Chanel and I had our first date at a place called the Country Bumpkin. It was a little truck-stop-diner kind of place off of I-75 towards Chattanooga. It was silly, unromantic and certainly comical (a foreshadow into the next decade to come) but it was ours. The next year we thought it would be fun to drive back up there to celebrate at the place where it all began. Much to our disappointment it had burnt down (hopefully NOT a foreshadow of things to come). All that remained was the charred sign, the parking lot and about one quarter of the building. So sad. So as Katie and I drove up I-75 I was interested to see what the ol Bumpkin had become. Here is a picture as we drove by (at about 80 mph).

An RV lot... hmmph.

We made it up to the Aquaterra Siteworks office and had our orientation. (Very little to blog about). I am including a picture of the office...just because we took one.

We broke for lunch and since we thought there might still be an American Cafe restaurant in Chattanooga we set off on a mission to find it. We drove around and got seriously lost. That was with help on the phone and everything. It was all worth it because once we found it it was like old times. Happiness was mine again. (Thanks Katie for putting up with me and this dream to one day eat at an American Cafe again).

We were lost once again driving back to the office. This time we were meeting with Jeff (the VP) and Tammie (I don't remember her title...she pretty much does everything). Unfortunately I dropped food all down the front of my shirt from lunch so instead of relying on my knock-out looks (ha ha) I was going to have to win them over on charm alone. The meeting went great and we were off for home. But not before taking one more picture.

They had a real sign that would have made for a better picture, but then people would have been able to see us acting stupid and that was not the impression we were going for. Ducking behind someones work truck seemed to suit us better anyway.

Some shots from monster jam!!!