Hayden Grant

7 Years ago today Hayden Grant came into this world. He was born at 10:15 a.m after only 4 hours of labor. We didn't find out what we were having and I was just sure it was another girl. So I was kinda in shock the first couple days of Grant's life. I didn't even name him until the 2nd day. Out of my 2 babies he was definitely the best baby. Eat and sleep was literally all he did the first year of his life. And by eating I mean he would drink 64 ounces of milk a day(2 bottles at a time!) You would never know that by looking at him now or by his eating habits now. I literally have to force feed him now. At the age of 6 months he was 26 pounds!! At the age of 7 he is 50 pounds. I worried that he was too much of a momma's boy before he was 1. He soon squashed that fear and has been full throttle, all out, fearless, 100% boy. He has made me question motherhood many times and in the same way made me feel more loved than anyone. He has a sweet and tender heart and an inquisitive brain. He will always tell you he loves God first and foremost. He is my extroverted child. He never meets a stranger. Grant plays with girls and boys, he doesn't care as long as he has someone to play with. His favorite things to do these days are ride his go-cart, go fishing with daddy, swimming and taking his toys apart. Happy Birthday Grant!!!!

Antibodies

Last night I decided to build a fire in the patio fire thingy. As we were sitting around it roasting marshmallows, Grant kept sticking his stick in and catching it on fire. He would pull it out and want us to sing Happy Birthday to him and he would blow it out like a candle. I started telling him that 7 years ago I was this big and that he was inside my belly. I asked him did he remember being in there. Here is our conversation:

Me: Grant do you remember being inside my belly?
Grant: Yea
Me: Well what did you do inside there?
Grant: I played with the antibodies and we killed germs.

Me: Well I didn't know what to say after that so I just shut up!!!

Busy-Busy-Busy

It has been a busy week for us. With all the things we have planned it's going to be June 1st before we will slow down. Last weekend was Mother's Day so Cary and I took our Mothers and Fathers and my Grandmother to Chaffin's Dinner Theater in Nashville. Cary was out of town again Monday and Tuesday. Madison had a school program Monday that I had to rush to get to. Then Grant had his program Wednesday.

Tuesday will be Grant's birthday so we will be celebrating it this weekend with a pool party. Madison has been wanting to have a pool party for her class so since Grant's party is Saturday I figured I would just get both done on the same day. So on Saturday from 12-3 I will have a pool full of 5-7 year olds and then from 3-6 a pool full of 9-11 year olds. This is the first time Grant has had a real party. His other parties have just been with family. So I'm kinda nervous about having several 5-7 year old boys at one time. Especially if they are anything like Grant!!!!

Cary and his Mom Me, Mom, and Gran-Gran

I took this picture yesterday of Madison and her 4th grade teacher(who was also my teacher). Yesterday was their last full day and they only have to go back Friday to pick up report cards. They didn't have to go to school today and Madison has already called me to let me know she is bored!! This is only the first day of summer vacation so we might have a long summer.

The bottom pictures are of Grant and his KDG teacher Mrs. Carolyn, who was also my KDG and 1st grade teacher. Back then we were so smart she could teach 2 grades!!! Mrs. Carolyn is married to my 2nd cousin and her son, my third cousin, went to school K-12 together. In the picture on the right is Lauren who is Mrs. Carolyn's granddaughter, my 3rd cousin's daughter. Now they will more than likely go K-12 together. And the cycle continues.....

Take Me Out To The Ballgame......

Yesterday the 2nd-5th grade at Madison's school took a field trip to watch the Nashville Sounds. Cary and I along with my Dad(Pa) went along. I was assigned 4 kids to watch over and spent most of my taking them to the bathroom, standing in line for Dippin Dots, or chasing down the $5 icee guy. I only saw in total 5 mins of the game. The rest of the time that I wasn't helping or getting the kids something was spent people watching(which I really love to do!) It was a beautiful day and it actually got quite warm. As you can see by this picture of Madison:

Of course Pa isn't going to let her suffer so he bought her a $10 fan/water mister. She instantly perked up after getting her $10 souvenir.

In the bottom photo is part of the 4th grade class and their teacher. Actually she was my teacher too, I just don't remember what grade she taught when I was in school but I'm thinking it was 4th.

Madison Independent??

Could it be that Madison is finding her independence after 10 1/2 years?? Madison has always been satisfied just being at home. She rarely spends nights away from us(unless it's family). The first trip we ever took her on to Florida, she spent the entire time telling us she wanted "Her brick house in Brush Creek, TN!!!!" She was 3 and she just didn't understand why I couldn't just drive back to our house. I thought maybe she thought that the hotel was going to be where we where going to live forever. And she didn't like it.

But as she has grown older, she still prefers to be at home. So when she came home about a month ago and said she wanted to go to 4H camp I was a little concerned. Madison is super smart but I wondered if she knew what camp really was?? Did she know that she would have to go BY HERSELF to a camp miles from home with kids she didn't know? As we talked about it I told her to try church camp. Her response was "OK!". So we have the application, I filled it out, and again last night I talked to her again. I'm not trying to discourage her, I just want to make sure she knows she will be gone for a week. I asked her had she talked to Claire about it(thinking that maybe Claire had talked her into going). She said no. I told her that she would have to take a shower by herself every night(not that that's a big deal but I do still wash her hair for her). Her response was "can't I take a bath?" Nope just showers. She said she just wouldn't shower. Sorry sister that's not an option. I told her it would be fine and all the girls would have to do the same. She seems totally fine with it.

Most days I walk at the park on my lunch break and usually pray during that time. One of the things I have been praying for is for God to guide Madison (& Grant) and to help me to raise them to love God. I think he's listening. I'm so excited for her and I know she will have so much fun. And even if she doesn't stay the entire week(of course I'm not even mentioning that I could come and get her if she didn't like it) I'm just happy that she would even consider going.

Weekend Highlights....

The weekends seem to fly by for us. It could be from all the hustle and bustle we try to cram into 2 days. Cary started out Saturday morning and most of the day Sunday cleaning/reorganizing our garage. He is still not finished but it already looks 1000 times better. I am a clean freak but the garage is just one area I don't get into cleaning. We also attended the wedding of one of Cary's cousins. It's been a while since we have seen most of this side of the family so it was good to get to reconnect with them.

Sunday one of Madison's friends came home with us after church. They spent most of the afternoon riding the go-cart and catching butterflies. I feel so blessed that Claire is a part of Madison's life. They are so different yet so alike.

Grant of course spent the day trying to keep up with them. He's kinda getting tired of being the 3rd wheel so he informed us that the next time Madison has someone over he is too!!!

We finished up the day with ice cream at Maggie Moo's and Life Group. Life is so good!!!

Happy Belated Birthday to My Best Friend....

Even though you didn't get your "own" birthday party; you did get to celebrate with our nephew for the 2nd year!!! And to be fair I made them sing to you too!!!

You also got to play with the little ones even though you are not little anymore.

You are still king of the castle especially when I'm not home!!!!

Even though you can't seem to match your shoes when you are going out of town on a very important meeting!!!


You still get more handsome each and every year!!! Happy Belated Birthday Cary!!! To the Best Husband and Daddy in the world!!!

Los Cabos, Mexico

Finally I got my pictures to download(with the help of Cary). This was probably the best vacation we've been on. The only thing we would change would be the # of days. There was so much to do and not enough time. We went on 2 excursions. We don't usually do excursions but we decided we would this time. I was so glad we did. We had a blast. One day we took a glass bottom boat to the arch. I had seen the arch on the website and couldn't wait to see it in person and get pictures. We hadn't been on the boat 5 minutes when a wave covered us and my camera! I couldn't get my camera to come on(and probably the reason I can't download pictures from it now!). I panicked, but luckily 1 minute before we got to the arch it came back on!! Next time we are going to go back to the arch and snorkel.The next day we did an ATV tour. We rode a shuttle forever back into the desert. Once we got our ATV's we were off exploring the desert and a secluded beach. It was absolutely gorgeous. I was sore for 3 days after riding the ATV's. In some places it was so rocky I would literally bounce all over the place.

We ate and ate or I should say I ate and ate. This was an all inclusive resort so there was food everywhere all the time. I have the pounds to prove it too. 9 of them to be exact. Yes I put on 9 pounds on this short vacation. I would hate to see what would happen if I had stayed a week.

OH NO!!!

Yesterday I was doing my final preparations for our trip this week to Los Cabos. Cary signed onto the Delta website to see our seat assignments. We picked our seats for the first part of the trip from Nashville to Atlanta but when we got to the Atlanta to Los Cabos it was showing NO seats available. Cary panicked. I tried to rationalize with him that hopefully that wasn't correct and to get on the phone to Delta. All kinds of what ifs ran through my head but I tried not to get overly concerned. So after being on hold for 30 minutes....... but what seemed like forever we finally got our seat assignments. In one more day we will be in Los Cabos.
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We went to the movies this weekend and saw Meet the Robinson's. The little boy reminded me of Grant(always taking things apart and figuring out how it works; can we say engineer???) and there was also a girl that reminded me of Madison (bossy with eyebrows scrunched just like Madison does when she is mad!). It was a pretty good little movie with a great lesson. And of course the 3 large buckets of buttered popcorn were exceptionally good!! Grant loves to go to the movies but I think it's just for the popcorn. Honestly he can eat a whole bucket by himself and so can I. Madison and Cary can usually finish one. Thankfully they have free refills and we don't go to the movies that often!!!
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After the movies we headed to the store to buy a scale. Cary has been dieting so I wanted him to see his progress daily. I have to admit I have an obsession about the scales. I love to weigh. So as soon as we got home I hopped on and 30 minutes later hopped on again. Each time the # went down (could be from taking off an article of clothing each time) and that was after a lg tub of buttered popcorn (good genes I guess!!!) I again done this all day long Sunday until Cary told me he thought I was too obsessed about my weight. It's not the weight it's the #. I told him I don't think an obsessed person would be eating a LG tub of extra-buttered popcorn!!!
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I made our reservations for Walt Disney World yesterday too. 7 days and 6 nights with theme park tickets for 6 days and Disney Dining Plan (1 Table service meal, 1 Counter service meal, and 1 snack per person). I am almost as excited about this trip as I am about Los Cabos.

Easter '07

If you cook they will come............Our yard looked like a mini parking lot(actually this isn't all the cars!)

If you hide eggs they will hunt...............(usually there is 5 more kids in this picture!)

Wait a minute that's not a kid, that's Gran-Gran sneaking in on the hunt!!

It was funny watching Gran-Gran helping Grant try to find the Golden egg!! And here they are checking out the goodies!!!

Madison & Grant attended 4 different Easter egg hunts this weekend. Madison found the Golden egg 3 out of 4 times. Grant found it once (with Gran-Gran's help!). Grant ended up giving his prize to his cousin. It was so cold I didn't even get their pictures in their Easter outfits. We are going to wait for warmer weather. I should have done it a couple of weeks ago when it was 80.

Horoscope....

Here is my latest horoscope with my perspective in parenthesis:

You are in good shape.(I don't know how that could be. I haven't worked out in 2 weeks!) You are making fine progress. (OK I did play dodge ball with around 20 4th & 5th graders Fri. night from 12-3AM!!!!) That's why you feel so exhausted. (DUH) It is appropriate. (DUH)

You have been running yourself ragged. (That could be from taking care of 2 kids with Hubby out of town AGAIN) How can you expect to be full of energy after all the effort you have been expending lately? (My sentiments exactly.) Soon, though, there will be a reward for your struggle, vindication of your faith and a satisfying result for the sacrifice that you have made. (Soon as in 2 weeks from today!!)

This will imbue you with renewed enthusiasm. (You better believe it will, whatever imbue means.) It will help you regain your strength and composure. (At least to the outside world!) Tense, emotional pressures may be upsetting you temporarily

(This could be from spending 3 1/2 hours in ER with Grant yesterday--broken collarbone)-but, despite a current difficulty, the future is now looking splendid.(Cary is currently in route from China to Tennessee!!!! And how could it not look splendid with a child like this.....)

Springtime Fun.....

When the kids are bored and the pool isn't yet open, what do we do??? Put a ziploc bag on our head (or at least Madison does), turn on the water hose, get Daddy's plastic out (and hope he didn't have any plans for it!), squirt Dawn dish washing liquid all over plastic and S-L-I-D-E!!!!

When I asked Madison why she was wearing a ziploc bag on her head she said she didn't want to have to wash her hair. You would think washing her hair was some big ordeal but I'm the one that has to do the washing and drying.

Today would be a good day to.......

To fly a kite? Eat pizza on the front porch? Swing? Jump on the trampoline? Play in the sand? Ride the Go-cart? Blow Bubbles? We couldn't decide, so we did all the above!!!

Derrick (my 'lil brother) and Ivan decided to come play with us yesterday afternoon. Flying a kite is actually kind of relaxing. My mind just focuses on keeping the kite up. Our next door neighbor got quite a kick out of watching me run from one end of the yard to the other (in flip flops none the less!).

That's why I need a baby brother....

Monday the kids spent the night with my Mom & Dad. My niece and her friend also spent the night. So last night Grant & I was talking about what they did. He said there were 4 girls and only 2 boys so that's the reason he needs a baby brother. Nice try. I don't think so!!!

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3 1/2 weeks from today and Cary & I will be in Los Cabos. I can hardly wait.

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The kids are having a great time exploring the woods behind my parent's house. I've told them of places that I use to go to when I was little and they are having so much fun trying to find those places. Madison was so tired last night that she went to bed before 7:00. Cary said she was bright eyed this morning. Grant also fell asleep next to me on the couch last night. Spring Break must be wearing them out!!!

I'm a....

Bloggaholic (is that a word?). I admit due to ALOT of downtime at my job I spend alot of time reading blogs. I just love reading about people's lives. People I don't even know. Probably will never meet but yet I read about their everyday lives. I recently linked to a blog through another person's blog to read about her recently discovering she is having QUADRUPLETS. I have to admit my first reaction was I WOULD ABSOLUTELY DIE. That poor girl. BUT she then linked to another family that have quads that are 9 months old now. So of course I read their entire blog. I know a blog in no way compares to everyday life, but that family makes having quads look like so much fun. So in a brief moment last night I told Cary I think I would like to have quads (yeah, he's checking into mental hospitals today that will take me). Of course he didn't agree with me.

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When I picked Grant up yesterday from my Dad's he was covered from the waist down in mud. My Dad said, "I can't turn my back for a minute before he gets into something!!!" My response was, "Just think how smart he is going to be someday because of ALL of his exploring!!!" So when I get ready to go I can't find Grant anywhere. He was hiding in a Nasty dog crate that my brother keeps his coon dogs in. It was probably full of fleas and no telling what else. My dad said "yeah, he's really smart isn't he??"

On the way home I get a play by play on Madison's day. It goes something like this (and this is the abbreviated version). She was playing with her friends and she was Kalesha's horse but Lexi didn't want her to be Kalesha's horse so she called her a weird horse and she called Lexi a stupid horse Lexi kicked her she kicked Lexi back Lexi went and told the other girls that Madison kicked her and chocked her so the other Lexi came running really really fast and knocked Madison into the fire engine on the playground so now she is not talking to anybody but Kalesha. DRAMA DRAMA is what these girls do best!!

Yeah I really don't want Quads. But it would be kinda fun for a day!!!

6 Weeks--

From today and I will be in LOS CABOS, Mexico. I have been so excited that I can hardly contain myself. Cary has even asked me several times "why are you so happy?" I really didn't know how to answer him. Why not be happy?? Life is good. We're going to Los Cabos with NO kids. On Cary's defense, he does have a very-very stressful-time consuming job and I'm sure he's just trying to survive the day instead of dreaming of the future.

This will be our first trip to Los Cabos so I've really got my hopes up. I don't really know how I even chose Los Cabos. I think I just hit locations in the search section and this one caught my eye. After reading Trip Advisor almost daily, I am very excited. The place we are going is all inclusive, so that means everything is paid for, unless we decide to do extra. Now I only wish that I had booked more than 4 days. Oh well, if it is 1/2 has much fun as I think it will be we will just have to go back.

I am also planning our "family" vacation. We have decided that this year we will venture to Walt Disney World. We have put this off until the kids were older and could pretty much walk the entire day. I still don't know if that will be possible but we're going. So this too has got me excited.

Weekend Happenings...

We spent a fun-family-filled weekend at the Adventure Science Museum. We had told the kids that we were taking them "somewhere" Saturday but we would not tell them where. The only hint I would give them was it was going to be an Adventure. Two of Madison's friends spent the weekend with us, so they got to go too!!!

Almost every weekend someone from Madison's class wants to spend the weekend with us. I think Lexi would spend every weekend with us if I would let her. This weekend Lexi & Kaitlyn were the "lucky ones". I've always said that I wanted our house to be the house the kids wanted to hang out at. Not because I love kids that much but because I want to know what my kids are doing and what kind of influence their friends are. So far my plan is working.

When I asked Madison the reason everyone in her class (5-6 girls) always wanted to come home with her she said, " I don't know. They just love my house for some reason." I truly don't believe that Madison knows how blessed she is. I'm not talking about her "material" blessings, but her family blessings. She goes to school with several girls have who lost their mothers to accidents, divorced parents , and some being raised by grandparents. Madison not only is blessed with parents that love her dearly but she is also blessed with Grandparents and Great Grandparents along with aunts and uncles that are very much a part of her daily life.

Working Out.

For all of those "lookers" that had a blast watching Bonita and I belly dance, you need to come on Weds and watch me do step class. It's absolutely hilarious. Although the belly dance thing didn't catch on with us, I think the step class just might. I thought the step class would just be stepping up and down on a step. I didn't know it was choreographed moves that turn this way and that way. And more times than not I was turning the wrong way or tripping over the step. Bonita assures me next week will be easier and the moves will just come to me. Yeah right. But we are ambitious. Not only did we do a 45 min step class we also stayed for the next class which was butts-n-guts. Thank goodness it was only 20 mins. I liked that class a whole lot better although it hurt. I found myself plenty of times saying "plastic surgery would be so much easier!!"

Bonita warned me that I would be sore. I was already feeling some pain before we even left the gym. She just laughed and told me to wait until Friday!! Last night as I was laying in bed my ankles were hurting. Of all things to hurt, why my ankles?? I can tell that I'm getting more sore by the minute. But hopefully that's good--it's working hopefully!! Of course after all the working out what do we do?? We headed to church and had a good dinner of pork loin w/h gravy, mac & cheese, pinto beans, cornbread and DESSERT!!! I've never said I wanted to loose weight--just tone up!!!

Who needs sleep anyways???

Last week Grant had what I thought was another one of his migraines. It turned out he was sick with some kind of virus and had a migraine. For 2 nights I had to comfort him--which means for two nights my sleep was interrupted and I didn't get very much of it. Fast forward to last night and I couldn't go to sleep. Cary was having the same problem so we talked, tossed and turned until midnight. I couldn't have been asleep more than an hour when I was awoken by a storm. It sounded like a tornado, although Cary didn't hear a thing. I got up and checked the TV to see if we should move downstairs. But there was nothing about a storm even on. So upon finally falling back asleep both kids enter the room. The storm woke them. So I make them a makeshift bed in the floor. Again settling back down to go back to sleep and the dog starts pacing the floor. It make me nervous when he moves around at night because I fear he is going to potty all over the house. So I get up to let him out. He disappears and I can't get him back in. Forget it I'm going back to bed. When I go to get back in bed my foot steps in something wet. It took a minute before I realized I stepped in dog pee. No wonder he ran--I'm going to kill him and he knows it. So I jump up again to grab the mop. By this time everyone is awake. Madison is asking where puddles is(wonder where he got that name?) I told her he was outside and he could stay outside for all I cared. She wasn't having it. She went looking for him. Cary get's up and helps me clean the mess. Finally we are all back in bed--only to be awoken an hour or so later by the dog wandering our bedroom again. Finally he settled down and I fell back asleep only to have the alarm go off.

I just knew this was going to be a bad day. But no, I'm not ill, and I'm not really tired, much to Cary's amazement. He was watching a commercial the other day and it was about a woman having PMDD--the symptoms are irritable, fatigued, moody, bloated and lots of other wonderful adjectives. He seems to think this is what I have. I informed him I did not have PMDD I had G-R-A-N-T.

TGIF

Dinner at Outback + Taxes filed--refund coming + Donuts + Hubby on way home from China = 1 very happy PMSing Mom(if that's possible)!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Every now and then my truck driver brings me donuts in the morning. This thoughtful gesture makes me very happy and it's just what I need after a week without hubby. He actually brought me 3 donuts and when I picked up the bag they felt heavy. So, I weighed them. 3 donuts= 1lb. WOW!! It didn't stop me from eating though!! Actually I only ate 2--I gave one to a sweet older lady that comes into the Office every day. I've kinda adopted her or she has kinda adopted me. She is in her 70's and has no family close. No kids, only an ex-husband that she is still in touch with and he comes to town about 3 times a year. She does all of his business for him and as far as I can tell they get along great. I feel sorry for her especially during the holidays. I've brought her dinner on occasions after our Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners. I always get her a x-mas gift and make her promise to wait until x-mas morning to open (it's the only one she gets). She loves to give me advice (even though she has never had kids) and for New Years she even decided what my New Years Resolution should be!! She thinks I should drink more water and add 2 vegetables to my no vegetable diet. So far I have appeased her on the water drinking but I still have 11 months to go on the vegetable thing.

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Grant had appointment with ENT yesterday, and just like we thought he wants to take out his adenoids. From what I was told it is a pretty easy surgery with no down time. Thank goodness he didn't want to take out his tonsils. He still doesn't think this is what is causing his Migraines but hopefully it will help.

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The following is an e-mail I just got from my boss:

When you get home tonight take time to hug your significant other, pet your dog (or even the cat...Argh!!) and have a GREAT weekend! I sincerely appreciate all you do!!


A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a
glass of water and asked,

"How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter.

It depends on how long you try to hold it.

If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.

If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.

If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued,

"And that's the way it is with stress management.
If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later,
as the burden becomes increasingly heavy,
we won't be able to carry on.

When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.
So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down.
Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow.
Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their
maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

* We could learn a lot from crayons...
Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the
same box.

*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.