Every Girl Wants a Pony!

Last night, we took Lily to see the Lights of Life--Life College does a big light show which we think is great because we don't have to drive all of the way to Lake Lanier and wait in their notoriously long lines. Before we saw the lights, we went to the little petting zoo they had set up. We petted the goats and then noticed the little ponies that you could ride for $5 a child. Normally I hate stuff like that--it kind of seems unnatural and cruel. However, my desire to see Lily's face while riding won out. Sorry, ponies. And I'm even sorrier because it was TOTALLY worth it and I would TOTALLY do it again. She loved it!!!! Well, at first, she was very concerned and did not want to put on that horse. However, once it started moving, she was all giggles and squeals!! She wanted "more, more, more" after she had to get off. Too cute!! We then drove around to see the lights, which she also loved, but it didn't get quite the reaction that the mini horse did.

Ghetto Girl!

Lily always drinks her sippy cup to the side...just like a gangsta shooting his gun sideways! We are so used to seeing it, we don't even think about it anymore, but everyone here thinks it's so funny!!

By the way, we now have a computer in our room!!! Yay! However, we also now have a daughter who has a case of double pinkeye, a sore throat and 2 very stubborn eye teeth--a triple whammy!!!

So little time!!

For those who actually follow my blog, I want to explain that the only computer that we can use right now is the one in Bryan's parent's bedroom. They are so sweet and let us use it whenever we want, but I don't have a lot of time to blog these days since I usually did it at night. I wanted to give a quick update. We close on our Mississippi house on December 22nd! We will be there the weekend before that to pack up our stuff. I am also getting ready to start work at Northside just on an as needed basis. I'll be starting after Christmas. We have started house-hunting a little bit here, but want to wait until we close in Mississippi first. I think it's going to take awhile because we are so unfamiliar with the area. I feel like I am having deja vu from last year!!! Why have we done this two years in a row!?! I feel proud that I even got Christmas cards out at all!! I am enjoying life in Acworth so far. I bombard my sweet sister-in-law with phone calls and visits and force her to show me around town. She will probably be sick of me before long! Lily and I are looking forward to a playdate with Kai and Parker and Audrey on Thursday. I have contacted the Acworth MOMS Club but haven't been able to go an event yet. In short, we are getting adjusted and are just so relieved to have sold (almost) our house in Mississippi. Thanks to everyone for being supportive. Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season!

Three words I never thought I'd say...

...at least until 6 months ago, but it's true--I miss Mississippi...or at least, parts of it.

We moved back to the big city the weekend after Thanksgiving. We have gotten settled into Bryan's dad's house and I had an appointment today at Northside to start the process of going back to work 1 day a week. I am overjoyed to be back with friends and family! We've gotten to spend time with Bryan's dad and Sherry, Bryan's mom who was in town for a conference, Chris, Johanna and baby Anna (who has gotten so much bigger!), Heather, Matt and baby Kai (who is also so much bigger and more interactive), Sarah, Reg and their kids and my parents! We are going to Kai's birthday party tomorrow and are making plans to meet up with other friends as well. Plus, Bryan is already enjoying his new job.

There are just some things I miss about Madison though. I miss my friends there and their little ones. There were several MOMS moms that I saw almost every day. I wonder if the Acworth MOMS Club will have such cool chicks in it as well!!

I miss the small size of Madison. Everything was so close! And even if it was on the other side of the Rez, usually traffic wasn't bad and you could get there pretty quickly. And if I was going to make that looong drive (20 minutes), I would invite friends, we would meet up for shopping and then have lunch other there as well! Since we've been back, we've drive to Bryan's brother and his wife's house, which I also used to feel was VERY close to Bryan's dad, but now it kind of feels like not so close. Plus, the other day, I got stuck in traffic on 75 at 2:30 pm for no apparent reason whatsoever! Ugh.

If Lily is having a HORRIBLE night sleeping, we have taken her out for drives to get her to sleep (desperate times call for desperate measures). In Madison, I could drive around in the middle of the night and not see another car at all on the road except a few cop cars sitting in parking lots because they have nothing else to do. I took Lily out for a drive here last week and at 2:30 a.m., I had a truck tailgating me and flashing his brights even though I was going above the speed limit. Ugh.

I know I'll readjust to Atlanta life and traffic and distances. I remind myself of the pluses of being here--today I got to spend the afternoon with Heather!!!!! And she did the nicest thing for me! I am very happy to be here--I just miss life in a slower paced, smaller, very family oriented city. And I miss Kaitlyn, Barrett and Ashley (and maybe their moms too!)

Oh...and one more thing...everyone keep their fingers crossed for us. We got an offer on the house today. We countered tonite and will wait to hear something back. Even though it's not ideal, we would be thrilled to get out of the house so we could start looking here.

Visitors!!

My mom and dad came on Sunday night to visit and stayed until this morning. We had a great time with them! On Tuesday, we finally did some touristy stuff here and went to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Vicksburg was a key battle in the Civil War, lasting about 6 weeks and covering most of the city.

Bryan, Lily and Mom in front of the Shirley house--the family refused to leave for much of the battle, but finally did when their home got hit. They fled to a nearby cave, where they lived for several days! It's pretty amazing that the house is still here!


Lily loved the Illinois monument and ran around it yelling to hear her own echo!




We enjoyed looking around the battlefields and monuments. Then we went to see the USS Cairo, a warship sunk during the civil war and recovered from the Yazoo River--Lily thought this giant boat was very cool! Bryan and Lily on the USS Cairo.

We then headed back to Madison. When we were almost home, we were passed by a 500 series Mercedes (an $80,000 car, according to Bryan) which was flying down the road--Mom even commented on how fast they were going. Right after that, we witnessed a wreck caused by that Mercedes--we were the car immediately behind the 2 cars involved. We were all on a bridge over another road. Thanks to Bryan's great driving, we didn't get hit and thank goodness the car behind us was also able to stop. We pulled over to call 911 and to check on the people involved. We saw the door of the Mercedes open and a young guy in a wife beater got out and started walking away from the car. He sat down on the cement side of the bridge, turned around and jumped about 20 feet to the road below and ran away!! A lady got out of the other car and limped across the highway to the side of the road. Then we noticed that the license plate on the Mercedes said "Retired Navy" and figured out that the guy had probably stolen the car. The police arrived and opened the trunk and there were several canes in it. Bryan gave a statement to them. While doing so, the police officer noticed a car slowly driving by on the road underneath the bridge we were on. Bryan confirmed to him that the driver of the Mercedes was in the passenger seat and so the police officer put an APB out on that car. Crooks really are stupid!! We felt so sorry for the person whose car was stolen and for the poor lady who know has to deal with having a totaled car and all of the hassel that comes with that. Hopefully it didn't ruin their Thanksgiving.

Our Thanksgiving was quite interesting because little Lily was sooo sick!! She had a horrible night the night before Thanksgiving and was clingy and whiney all day on Thanksgiving. She didn't eat a thing all day, had a low fever, was coughing like crazy and breathing fast. We decided to take her to an urgent care clinic, but apparently there aren't any in this town! So we just dealt with it through last night, which was awful again, and took her to the doctor this morning. She has a case of bronchiolitis and had to go on an inhaler. We haven't had to do that since she's been out of daycare, but it's not hard, and I know it will make her feel better. Unfortunately, we have the AeroChamber at our house, but because my parents were on their way out of town and were giving Bryan and Lily a ride, we couldn't go back for it. So we had to buy another $65 one because the doctor hadn't written a prescription for it and I was trying to hurry so we didn't call back for a prescription. I've been saying that's Lily's Christmas present this year!! Despite Lily's sickness, we had a great Thanksgiving because my parents were here and the food was FABULOUS!!

Anyhow, Bryan and Lily have arrived safely in Acworth and my parents are finally on their way to Greenville. We are so appreciative of their visit and their help moving back!

The Cutest Thing Ever!

Lily has just recently started saying her own name when prompted. It is one of the cutest things I've ever heard!! This video also makes me laugh because she doesn't really say "Mommy" clearly when I ask her too, yet she yells/says/whines it quite clearly 987 times everyday!

Go Wolfpack!!

I just left Bryan at a sports bar at halftime so that he could watch the rest of the NC State/UNC game without us there distracting him.

We started out today with a quick clean-up. Now that our house is on the market, we clean every day. I guess we probably should anyway! Because the house looked great, we wanted to get out of it, so that it would stay that way! Besides, we knew someone was coming to see it around 11:00 a.m., so we had to be out for that anyway. We went to breakfast and then went out to Bass Pro Shops so that Lily could meet Santa. We wanted to do it out there because the sitting is free and parents get one free 5x7 to keep and then if you like it, you can order more on-line. Because we knew Lily would SCREAM and we wouldn't want to order anymore, we thought this free stuff was a great idea! Lily, of course, did scream, but was fine as soon as we picked her back up. The picture is quite funny!! I wish I had a scanner and I would put it on here.

We walked all around Bass Pro Shops, which I thought was weird and creepy because of all of the taxidermy, but Lily LOVED!! She loved petting the taxidermied animals and looking at the fish tank and waterfall, playing in the tents, etc. They told us that lots of people took Christmas pictures in front of their big Christmas tree or fireplace, and we took some pictures, but because of all the taxidermy, Lily was too distracted and I would NEVER send out a Christmas card with dead animals on it. Am I alone on that one? Anyway, here are some of the pics we took.

Lily and her Daddy on the giant fireplace. The big tree is to their right and that is what Lily cannot take her eyes off of!

Lily loving her new Camelbak water bottle. Her best friend, Kaitlyn, has one that Lily always tries to steal and drink out of. I thought if it made her actually drink some plain water that Lily should have one too! She feels so cool with it!!

In front of the taxidermy Christmas tree. Strangest Christmas tree I've ever seen!!! Even worse than the plastic white ones in my opinion!

We came home just to get Bryan's car and the people looking at our house were already leaving and it was still before 11:00 a.m. We don't know what time they got here, but it seems like they couldn't have been here too long, which I don't think is good. We did have 2 other people come by yesterday, so we are keeping our fingers crossed! We went outside to take some pictures because we are starting early to try to get a photo for the Christmas card. I don't think we got any today. She won't smile for the camera and usually blinks and ends up looking like Anna Nicole in photos! This is sort of a cute one, but not Christmas card material.

She loves my keys now and actually knows which one is the car key, can put it in the door and turn it to unlock the doors!! She can do a lot now, some of which I'm not sure I like!

Bryan left to go to a sports bar to watch the game and Lily and I met him for lunch!

Here she is enjoying climbing all over the stadium seating! There were 2 girls there that she also was fascinated with.

Here she is after lunch while still sitting at the table. I think Lily likes football about as much as I do. And, yes, she does have a black eye--it actually looks a lot better. While we were playing at Kaitlyn's house this week, she feel and landed on a toy--very sad!!

Anyway, hopefully Bryan will be home soon and in a good mood!!

A Big Scare!

As everyone knows, I have been quite stressed about the move/selling the house, etc that is going on in our lives. It seemed HUGE until yesterday.

While on the way out to dinner with friends, I got a terrifying call. 2 little boys who I love very much had suddenly become lethargic for no apparent reason. Their parents had taken them to the urgent care unit at which point the littlest one was becoming nonresponsive and the doctor at the urgent care told them to go immediately to the hospital. They called an ambulance to take the littlest one, who was worse than the older boy. That was all I knew after the first phone call, and I started to pray for their recovery immediately!

Apparently, the ride to the hospital was quite terrifying--the little guy's heart rate was in the 20s, his clothes were cut off of him, the EMTs called the hospital and were yelling about the 2 year old crashing and lots of doctors and nurses met the ambulance outside because it was such a bad situation. Once at the hospital, the older boy perked right up with some oxygen, but the little one took longer. They did scans and took all of the labs needed to try to determine what had happened because at this point, no one knew why they were in this state. The carbon monoxide test, which everyone thought it may be, came back negative.

The parents and doctors were brainstorming to try to think of anything that they may have gotten into that could cause this. Imagine that your children are very sick, hooked up to machines, low heart rates, have been stuck and pricked without making a peep about it and you have no idea why!! The boys' mom remembered that the night before they had been playing with lots of little cups and water on the coffee table. A bottle of Visine was out and the boys squirted some into one of the cups but neither of their parents knew. Their mommy cleaned up before bed and put all of the cups on the kitchen counter. The next morning, one of the boys got the cup down and both boys drank out of the one cup that contained some Visine. While brainstorming about what could have happened, their mom remembered finding the empty Visine bottle and told the medical staff that they may have ingested it. When she initially told this to the doctors and nurses, they all stated that small amounts of Visine couldn't cause this type of reaction. Thankfully, the kids' pediatrician did think it was possible and advised the hospital to call the Center for Poison Control. They stated that this was a textbook reaction to Visine ingestion. Apparently, unbeknownest to almost everyone, Visine can severely depress the central nervous system when ingested even in very small doses.

Both little boys are fine now--the older one recovered that same night and was released and the little one had to stay overnight in the hospital. This was a complete fluke that could happen to anyone.

I have frequently let Lily play with my bathroom stuff if I need her occupied while I get ready. She is fascinated by all of the bottles that she takes in and out of the drawers and bags. I can think of numerous times she played with Bryan's Visine. Thank goodness she can't open the bottles yet--I had no idea that it was such dangerous stuff. Everyone I've talked to thought it was basically saline or sterile water--since you put it into your eyes, it seems like it would be pretty mild stuff. It is not!! This is a warning to parents to be certain that it is out of reach of your children.

The stress of moving has definitely been put into perspective--all of the little ones that I love are healthy and okay and that is enough for me!! I am so thankful!!

I am including a link to one of the many websites I found that confirms what Visine can do to kids. This is a link to Snopes, which seems a funny source to use, but it spells it all out in detail the most. However, more "medical" sites coroborate with what Snopes says.

http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/visine.asp

Moving Update and Pictures

Our house officially goes on the market today, which just seems crazy since we haven't even lived here a year and most of our family and friends haven't even seen this house. We will be coming to Atlanta sometime shortly after Thanksgiving though we don't know the exact date. My sweet friend, Cheryl, who tried so hard to visit, asked me to share some pictures of the house since she couldn't get out here despite her best efforts. Thanks to her and to the visitors that we did have--Bryan's Mom and David, Elizabeth, AJ and Ethan and my Mom and Dad! We really appreciate you guys making the loooooong trek out here--we know it wasn't easy and we will always appreciate that you did it.
Our home!!!

The front door.


The living room--you go through the foyer and then this is the view from the front door.


Lily enjoying some fruit in the dining room.

The kitchen--looking back at the dining room.

The wet-bar in the kitchen...and Sammy.


The hallway bathroom.

The very bland guest room.

Lily's not-very-bland room. And yes, everyone asks for some reason, but it was already this color when we bought the house!

Our bedroom--though it didn't look like this for most of the time we lived here--our realtor made us change the color.

The backyard--we love it out here!!!

Halloween

We had such a great Halloween this year! Our neighborhood has a lot of kids, but most aren't really trick-or-treating age, so I invited us over to my friend, Amanda's, house for Halloween to help pass out candy to the zoodles of kids in their neighborhood. Then our friend, Nancy's, plans got canceled so she decided to come as well. We all brought food and had a great dinner together, and passed out candy, which Lily thoroughly enjoyed! She figured out quickly how exciting it was to run to the door everytime the doorbell rang! Then we took the kids out to "trick-or-treat". None of them can say trick-or-treat and can't eat most of the candy we got, so I use that term loosely. Mainly we just walked them around and showed them off. We had such a good time!! Thanks, Amanda!!

The kids when we first arrived. Barrett is the little green turtle and Kaitlyn is the cheerleader.

The Zoo!!

Back we went to the zoo today!! We had such a good time. It was a MOMS Club activity, but only my friend, Nancy, with her 13 month old, Kaitlyn, were there. It was actually very nice because then we could kind of do what we wanted when we wanted. Plus, Nancy is one of my good friends--it's very nice because Lily definitely has gotten to know her and likes her a lot!! In face, while at the petting zoo, Lily wanted to be picked up and when I said no, she walked over to Nancy and asked to be picked up! It was so pitiful!! Anyway, we put the girls in Kaitlyn's wagon and pulled them all over the zoo. They had such a good time checking out the animals and snacking while going around in the wagon. Lily especially loved the giraffes, and said the word "giraffes" several times. She also loved the carousel ride we took after seeing all of the animals--she was a little uncertain at first, but soon decided she loved it! We then enjoyed an extremely nutricious lunch of hotdogs and fries at the zoo before heading home and taking a 3 and a half hour nap! Who knew riding in a wagon was so exhausting!?!

The girls in the wagon--such good friends!!

After trading snack cups--of course, they both thought the other one had something better!!

Make New Friends, but Keep the Old. One is Silver and the Other's Gold.

My good friend, Elizabeth and her husband and their almost 2 year old came to visit this weekend in Madison. Our first visitors to our "new" house!!!! We had so much fun with them--they stayed here in our little tiny guest-room and we mostly just hung out.

I guess in comparison, Elizabeth is one of my newer friends. We have known each other about 4 years, which sounds like a long time, but considering I have some close friends that I met my freshman year in college (I don't even like to think how many years ago that was!), 4 years seems shorter. However, Eliz and I clicked immediately when we met and have been close ever since. We have a lot in common and have a lot of fun together!! I feel like we've been through a lot together considering we were pregnant together and delivered exactly 4 months apart. She was one of the moms I called the morning after our first night home with Lily when I'd gotten an hour and a half of sleep, Lily wouldn't sleep without being held, and I was thinking "What have I gotten myself into?!?"

Anyway, I was really glad they came to visit and just had the greatest time! Friday day, it seemed all of the plans I'd thought of were thwarted by places either being closed or packed, but we went to Boo in the Zoo Friday night and had a lot of fun!! We trick or treated there, saw a few animals, and played in the Bounce House, which was the highlight of the night. Eliz and I were in the bounce house with the kids and AJ and Bryan were hanging out outside of it. All of the sudden, the bounce house starts deflating!! The air hose had somehow gotten kinked in the back! We were laughing hysterical. I was able to retain my compusure enough to get the kids out, but could barely get myself out b/c I was laughing too hard. The men were cursing themselves the rest of the weekend for not having the cameras rolling! Both nights, we drank wine and played board games--my favorite kind of night! Saturday, we just hung around the house, cooked out, and watched football, of course! I was very sad to see them go on Sunday.

At Boo in the Zoo--I tried to put Lily in the hippo's lap, but she would have none of that!!

Before the deflation--enjoying the bounce house!

After the deflation--still lauging!!!

Of course, I have some good friends here that are kind enough to not go ahead and phase me out since we're moving! It's always hard to make new friends--especially when you haven't had to do it in a while and when you are someone who likes to be silly and sarcastic and sometimes crude and inappropriate. I was lucky enough to have found friends out here through the MOMS Club that are so much fun and allow me to be silly, invite myself over to their houses, and don't judge me when Lily is being a nutcase toddler. I am really going to miss them after the move but plan on hanging out a lot before then and staying in touch afterwards--thank goodness for the internet!

And of course, once we move, I'll have all of my old friends back in my life again! Since we will be living in a new area, I plan to join the MOMS Club there too so that I can try to make some local friends, but I look forward to hanging with my "old" friends frequently too! As I read back over this blog, I realize how incredibly blessed I am to have so many wonderful people in my life! Thank you for putting up with me! I love you all!!

New Blog

Hi Family and Friends! This is my first blog and I am really just trying it all out, so here goes!! I thought I'd force everyone to check my blog by using it to share some news. No, I'm not pregnant, but...we are moving back to the ATL!! We have a lot of mixed emotions about this, but are mainly excited! Let me back up and tell the whole story...about a year and a half ago, Bryan was passed over for a promotion to Supervisor in ATL b/c there was another adjuster in front of him that had already been through the Supervisor training program. He then got offered the job out in Jackson, Mississippi and we decided to take it b/c we understood 2 things: (1) once he completed the supervisor training program himself, he would pretty much be obligated to take the first available job and since we REALLY didn't want to move to a state all of the way across the country, this was be a good move, plus (2) supervisor positions in ATL don't come available very often. So we moved to Madison, MS--a place I had never heard of before moving here. We have gotten settled and really love it a lot. We love the way of life here (no traffic, primarily stay at home moms) and I have made some really good friends through the MOMS Club! Of course, we missed all of our friends and family, but other than that, we have been totally happy here! Then, about 5 weeks ago, Bryan got word that a supervisor position had become available in ATL. Our first reaction was not to do it b/c a move is a lot of work for a lateral job change and not a promotion, plus the economy and job market is not exactly desirable for selling a house right now!! However, Bryan felt it would be a good career move b/c the Supervisors who go on to get promotions to Managers have pretty much all been Supervisors in big cities. We decided to try for it! During his interview, he confirmed that being a Supervisor in ATL would definitely be a boost for his GEICO career, but he also learned that another supervisor had also applied for the job. That supervisor had more experience than Bryan and is friends with the Manager doing the hiring. During the time while we were waiting to find out, we did some research about the real estate markets, talked to realtors, etc and began to feel more confident that this was a doable thing. We decided not to tell anyone until we were certain he had it b/c it was just too stressful to think about as it was without talking about it with everyone as well. Well, Bryan found out last night about 6:30 that he got the job. It was the fact that he knew the ATL market AND had Supervisor experience that he was chosen! Translation: If we had stayed in ATL with Bryan as an adjuster waiting for a supervisor position and not moved out here, he would probably NOT have gotten the job! He has to work at least 30 more days out here and may end up staying a little longer, but within 6-8 weeks, we should be living in ATL again. We are very excited about this!! However, we do have some mixed feelings as we are obviously stressed about selling our house when we literally still have 1 more box to UNpack from the move here. Also, I have made 2 good friends out here that I'm going to sad to say goodbye to and I'll have to resign my post as the secretary from the Madison, MS MOMS club--what are they going to do without me?!? Who will take notes at the meetings?!? Plus, I am anxious about our future in general as I wonder "Will another promotion in a few years mean another move?" I'm trying not to concentrate on that and just be grateful for what we have right now, especially in today's economy. We are so grateful that we can stay with Bryan's dad and step-mom while our house sells and we look for a new one. We will certainly be keeping everyone updated about our plans (better keep checking the blog!). Please say a prayer for us! We love you!!