Peas in a Pod

Brad thinks that it is hilarious that I have to look at the keyboard when I type, but ah well, I guess I was too involved in Oregon Trail to pay attention in Mrs. Burnett’s 7th grade computer class. Anyhow, I am typing fast enough now so as to get some stuff down before the little sleeping child wakes up. Madeline hasn’t been the best sleeper because of her recurrent ear problem; however, we think that this great ENT has provided a miraculous cure… Claritin. How remarkably ingenious. That is all to be seen in a month or so, but so far, it looks as though the torture and agony that we would all have to go through during a potential ear-tube surgery (mostly because I likely would put everyone through Hades with my anxiety fueled bitchiness) can be skipped all together. Yazzzooooo!
Aside from the night stand full of thermometers, Tylenols, otoscopes, tissues, and bulb syringes… our past few months have been relatively peaceful. Bella finished her inaugural year of school at the tippy top of her Pre-K class with a couple of super close friends to boot. She and CeCe Turley are precious and well…. “very four” together.We took this photo of the girls on one particularly adventurous day at the zoo with Bella, Cece, and Maddzey. Brad packed us all a picnic basket and we ate at the Panda exhibit, where we always do… peanut butter and jelly, cheetoh puffs, and cake. Hmmm… grown up food. The best was hearing the girls belt out a Miley Cyrus rock song “See You Again” together in the back seat on the way home. Plenty of shrieking and laughing in the car that day. It’s so fun to me that some reason at age four, repeating the word “doodie” is the most hysterical thing ever. Bella, Maddie, and CeCe were lined up in the backseat, with poor Maddie looking confusedly back and forth as each girl shouted “Doodie!” progressively louder and sillier. Neither one was ready to part with the other at the end of the day. There were tears on both parts as Brad and I pulled into the Turley’s driveway. I have a feeling, though, that there will more times like this to come for the two of those silly-heads. And by the way, if you ask CeCe what her dad’s name is… “it’s Mr. Tuuuhrley”. What a sweetheart.
If you haven’t been victim yet of my incessant bragging over the seeming athleticism of my second daughter, let me warn you… skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid excessive doting on one’s child. Maddster (as Brad has taken to calling her) has aced the advanced placement course of development this month. Sitting up was apparently not enough for her. Sitting turned into dragging, dragging rapidly turned into crawling, crawling led to puling up… and cruising is on it’s way in… Plus, she has expressed lots of interest in her favorite syllable “ba ba ba ba,” which I feel quite certain is her way of trying to make “Bella” her first word. It only turns into a “mamama” sound when she is crying and looking for me to console her. Sweet thing. Little fuzzy head. Wonder if she will be my soccer player. Doesn’t at all matter, as long as she’s happy and healthy.
Bean is about to start singing lessons based on her immense love for it. At any given moment, she is either making up songs about what she is doing “and i’m four years old and looking out the window…” or belting out a few old faves, like HSM (High School Musical, like duh times twenty). Cant wait to see what Madeline will like to do. I have a feeling she will be a little different, but definitely want to do exactly what her sister does.
I need to wrap up here. it’s late and i need sleep. I’ll close with this… Bradley is turning thirty and I am knee deep in planning his “around the world” party. You all – be there or be square.

Thank you, Tigers…

I have this void in my chest that I feel at all times where a national championship trophy should be. I love my Tigers so much and had the best time going to all the games this year with my friends and family. It has been a year of “moments” with you guys, and I will never forget it. Brad: the “hater”…. loves his team so much that he was afraid to hope else he get hurt. Didn’t matter if we were up by twenty, he was finding all of our flaws and no doubt coaching everyone in his head. I loved seeing him lose all inhibition and begin to hope and have the twinkle in his eye with the rest of us. Annie and Mike: I will miss that the two of you are still the only two to actually know the words to the U of M fight song. I loved that y’all were just as crazy as we were about needing to keep every tradition else we lose. We finished those M & M’s 2.1 seconds early I think. Mal and Kat: I wish you could have been at more games this year, but Mal, I sure loved sending you off to Vandy so that your team could kick the Vols’ ass. Mom and Kurt: Not many people can say that they were able to take their kids to the National Championship game in a chartered bus, staying at the Memphis hotel, not to mention being able to sit right behind the team all year long watching the magic happen. Thank you for the VIP treatment and the experience of a lifetime. I will miss the hour long conversations we have about the players, the game, the plays and the fouls. Every game when we couldn’t be there we texted like a hundred times. Dad: I loved talking basketball this year. I have fallen in love with your sport and I think it’s so dang cool that you play it. Zicky: I loved that Mr. No Interest in Sports had a party to watch the National Championship game. I had so much fun watching the Georgetown game with you. That was Mad’s first game. How cool is that? There are so many memories that were made this year because of this team. I will miss the fact that no matter what, if a play inside the paint doesn’t go our way, I always scream ” HOW WAS THAT NOT A FOUL?” Even, if clearly, it wasn’t. LA and Jason, Carrie and Chris, all the gazillion people that we see at the games and share this love with: this year was so much fun and we can’t wait to do it again. Boscos, Pearl’s, Spaghetti Warehouse, doesn’t matter where we eat, as long as it isn’t Spindini, those were some of the best times ever. I don’t even know how to shop for clothes that aren’t Tiger blue. I’m pretty sure that Tiger blue has eaten up my entire wardrobe. I will miss getting the kids to sleep on Wednesday nights and “refreshing” the score on ESPN.com every thirty seconds just so I could know the box score of the game at every given moment. Brad and I took it back a few twenty years during the UAB game in Birmingham when our cable was out and listened to the entire game on my clock radio with baited breath. I will never forget the look we gave each other when we heard that CDR had made the shot and was fouled. Midnight madness, watching Derrick Rose during the dunk contest…. that’s when I started to believe. I will miss watching forty minutes of basketball and then feeling like I need about forty more. Most people outside Memphis wouldn’t and couldn’t understand why this year this team has mattered so much to us. All I can say is, that it has… and thank you to the athletes and Calipari for that. As Damp would say “you kids played your hearts out.” Thank you for this feeling. You’ve made me fall in love with the game. Underdog sports movies have always been my favorites, and it’s been like living the scene in Jerry Maguire when Rod Tidwell gets offered 13 million dollars for playing his heart out. . My pocketful of Kanye will always sing out for you… “It’s a Good Life.”

February came a little late.

The flu sucks. Darn the CDC for getting the vaccine wrong this year. I don’t think I have had it yet, but my two girl sure have. A 4 year old girl with the nasty flu + a 4 month old with the flu = one tired mommy. Please pray for fast healing and that for some miraculous reason, no one else comes down with it. Praise that Bella has almost fully recovered and that Maddie is still eating well and holding up pretty well.  

Weekend at Beanie’s.

Unless you live under a firmly grounded rock, you understand why the events of this weekend have caused me a little bit of emotional turmoil. My precious, undefeated, perfect Tigers suffered their first loss of the season and their first loss at home in the last two years. Not only did they add an ugly red “L” to their schedule sheet, but the letter just had to be stamped right next to the name “Tennessee.” Ugh. Make me gag. Yes, I know that once upon a time, I used to be a crazy Volunteer football fan, but come August – J.R. Woodfin, this one is especially for you – Go Gators! It’s not that Tennessee won. In fact, I guess if that were the case, I would be more bound to be upset with my own team. Because in all honesty, I believe we self-destructed.  The problem I have with Tennessee is two-fold. One, I have determined that all Knoxville has ever caused me is pain. Those of you who know my past there can empathize. Second, and this is the more current and relevant issue: Tennessee fans, oh how they sucketh. Please, if you go to Tennessee, please refrain from rubbing it in my face any longer. I have had it up to here (cue visual of Robert Dozier standing with hands above his head) with all of this insane smack talk. We do not doubt that you are a good team. You don’t have to prove it by incessantly berating us.  So – back at ya. How about them ‘Dores?  Moving on to the better (and more important) events of the weekend… Bella, my lit’le, Billy Bella turned Four Years old on Monday… how sweet and sad. I look at her now and realize that the girl is just huge. I can hold her precious pudgy hand now and feel like I’m holding a big girl’s hand. Every year on her birthday, I start the day before and re-live in my head and aloud in stories that I tell her, the events that brought her into the world February 25, 2004. I tell her about the box of purple Girl-Scout cookies that I devoured on the 240 loop back to my house from the store. Opening her baby book, I find the ticket stub for the Tiger game against Southern Miss. You all wouldn’t remember what that game was like, because we left immediately when my water broke during the introductions. Bella loves that part of the story – she thinks it’s neat. Somehow, that will always make me love my Bella and my Tigers even more. I love that they are connected. At 6:19 in the morning, I whisper in her ear that this was the time that I first held her in my arms and told her that I loved her. At 6:19 in the morning, on February 25, 2004 – I fell in love with my child in such an amazing, perfect, heavenly way. Bean’s birthday was great. The festivities actually started on Thursday when I brought cupcakes up to school and got to read a book to her class. The girls all seem to love Bella. They all seem to like me a lot, too – I think it’s because most of the time I bring a cute, fuzzy little baby with me. Bella got to wear a big birthday hat and she sat in my lap while I read the book aloud to the class. I had bought the book the day before just for this occasion; it was a sweet story about celebrating your birthday. There were cartwheels in the book, so you know it was a winner.  Bean gets really shy when I come around; it’s really funny and kind of surprising. She won’t sing along with the class or talk or anything. I hope she feels like she can do that stuff around me. I mean, how many times has the girl seen me dance around and sing in my underwear at home? Wait. Maybe that’s why she is quiet… maybe she doesn’t want to follow me down that wretched path…. uh oh. Anyway. Her bday party was a hit. It was at Botanic Gardens, and we just about had perfect attendance. Her best pal, CeCe Turley was there, and Bella was so excited. They were inseparable. Bean was a little subdued until CeCe arrived a little late, then completely perked up. She and CeCe hold hands. It’s really cute. I guess that’s what best friends do at that age. We spent the rest of the afternoon opening presents and getting them out of their secret-service packaging. Nana spent the night that night while we went to the basketball game, and if you know Nana and Bella – they are great buddies and just have a great time together. The next day, Brad was going to leave for training for two weeks. Yikes. Not fun at all. But we had the morning together and spent it opening Beanie’s presents and eating lots of sugar. Seriously, donuts and cake were the only items on Bella’s personal menu. Brad left around 1ish and the rest of the afternoon and evening was a “Bella’s choice” kind of deal. We spent the night at Nini and Damp’s and watched Dumbo (this seems like an appropriate tim eto give a shout-out to Nicky- hey Nicky). On her bday, we went to the zoo – Target, bought more presents (a pig, an elephant, and Ariel were her picks), and ate chicken pot pie. Had dinner with Sallie Dunne and that was that.  The night of her birthday, she asked me before she fell asleep: “Okay, Mommy – when do I turn 5?” I say to her “Oh, sweetie. Let’s stay young while we can, okay? I’m not ready for you to grow up too fast yet. ” She responds in the curiously intelligent way that she is known for. She wonders aloud – “Is that when my talk will get bigger?” I can’t believe that a four year old notices that voices change with age. If I could have her talk the same all her life and it not be weird, I would freeze her innocent voice just how it is and have it be that way forever. What a whirlwind of a weekend. Now it is Wednesday and Brad has been gone for three days. It sucks, I’m not going to lie. Bella is feeling the brunt of it. She cried for about half an hour before she fell asleep and wouldn’t fall asleep until I put his picture up right in front of her to stare at while she drifted off to sleep. Poor thing. It just breaks your heart.  I realize that all of this is about Bella and very little has been said about Sweet Madeline. The sweetheart smiles all of the time, chews on her hands, and just is the joy in my heart. I wish I could describe more accuartely some of the things that she does. Maybe I will try and put up a video. One thing I can say about her is that she really smiles constantly. If she is awake and not crying, she is smiling. And it is the most adorable little smile I have ever seen. She is a happy little thing and I love her so incredibly much that my heart might burst.  

new pics posted in the box.net!

For those of you not as tech savvy (like me)

The site to see these pictures easily is this: just copy and paste the following code. http://www.box.net/shared/gsipx6kwss 

that girl

Addendum to last entry:H-Hairy Wookie: pr. n., sing. Chewbacca from George Lucas’ Star Wars series.   S- Swirl: v. to swaddle a baby in blankets.  

Oh, technology…

Well, hey there, ho there. I’ve done it. Somehow or another, I stumbled upon the correct method of uploading my pictures onto this blog. It takes forEVER to upload them onto the site, but there will be more pictures forthcoming when I have more time to burn (hey, I only have two kids, ya know). To view the pictures in their entirety the way they were meant to be viewed, simply click on the “share” icon on the picture box and copy and paste the URL into your web address. For now, no more talk of this technical difficulty – I need to move on to the purpose of our page here… I will start with an insert from a project that is underway over at Webster’s publishing house. It’s called the “Isabella Dictionary, first edition.” Copyright courtesy of Harriman comma Morgan. A -Arts and Crackers: n., pl. The actual term used to describe various artistic activities, such as cutting and pasting, making collages, coloring, scrapbook making. Derived from the English phrase “Arts and Crafts.”D- Dagles: n., sing. Protective eye wear used for snow skiing. Word evolved from the Old English noun “goggles.”   S-  Stuck: adj. Medical term used to denote a stuffy nose. Used in a sentence: Bella to Mommy: ” Mommy, my nose is stuck.” T-Talk: n., sing. Another word for one’s voice. For example: When Bella came down with a cold and became a tad hoarse, she woke up and pronounced that her “talk” was funny. She wanted to know when her “talk” would improve. W-Wipstick: n., sing.  A woman’s (or a man’s… hey, we don’t judge) makeup tool that is used to apply pigment to the lips.  

Look! I’m learning!

Awaiting the arrival of an instruction manual

I am becoming increasingly more frustrated because I cannot figure out how to use this site. It’s all about widgets and code copying, and durnit – I’m below the IQ baseline for computerized jargon. If anyone can offer a helping hand, well that would just be delightful. I know that a lot of you have already peaked inside this happy little page only to find that we haven’t quite moved in yet. But the Uhaul is on it’s way, I promise. And when it finally backs into the driveway, opens up it’s back doors, and spills it’s contents – I guarantee satisfaction. No one will ever again have to wonder how many hairs are on my kids’ heads.