Belly Laughs

A Wonderful Father's Day

It was both a wonderful day and (more importantly) a day to celebrate a wonderful father.  Rob, you are an amazing daddy, as I always knew you would be, and we are more thankful for you than you'll ever know. 

We had a great day together enjoying each other and trying to stay reasonably cool (after wisely nixing our original idea of hiking Stone Mountain- we would have melted, I'm sure of it).

We took this unbelievably cute little sailor to church (where he moved up to the "crawlers" room!).

We enjoyed a yummy brunch and live music in Decatur and then walked to a local bookstore where we picked out some books that Rob and Jack could enjoy together (Rob's requested Father's Day activity).

Jack splashed around a little on the back deck.

And then we all went for a nap walk around the neighborhood.  

All in all, a very good day.  Happy first Father's Day, Rob, and happy Father's Day to our wonderful dads also! We love you!

Volunteer Girls(?) State 2010

How to document my annual touchstone?  I won't even attempt to explain how much this program, these people mean to me.  That will have to wait for a longer, more well-thought out and much more introspective blog post. 

For now, suffice it to say that I, we, had a very good year- so much better, so much more smooth than I anticipated.  And I am so very thankful to everyone who made it possible: mom, for going into the trenches with me and being super-grandmother; Jack, for rolling with the punches; the other counselors and staff, who welcomed, accommodated, and supported us more than I could have imagined; my fellow mommies, who made a potentially extremely isolating year so bearable (and fun!); a great counselor team and awesome city, who are the reason I'm there; and Rob, who is so outrageously supportive of my involvement. 

We had an amazing city this year.  From the first moments, the ladies of Houston City were kind, open, generous, and funny.  There were no issues all week long, which was literally a first and could not have come at a better time. 

This was a city that totally got "it," which was no doubt thanks in large part to the awesome counselors we were working with.

Our other Senior Counselors are rock stars, who gracefully stepped into the huge amount of responsibility that they were given this week as Sally and I ran in and out of the city.  And they even tried to convince us that we didn't seem as old as we sometimes feel.   

They inspired not only the girls, but also me.  I love it!  The principle of investment was exercised all over the place this year, and as always, it refreshes me.   

 

Oh yeah, and I took my mom and baby to Girls State this year.  Can I even begin to explain how awesome my mom is?  She never hesitated to agree to live on a college campus and provide pretty much solo care for Jack 24/7 (or 24/10, actually).  And she was so good at it.  And, as usual, I forgot to get a picture of all of us, which makes me so mad at myself.  We're staging a replacement shot next time I see you, Mom.  (And I guess you'll just have to come back to VGS!) 

What could have been an extremely difficult experience all-around was made sweet by the camaraderie of experiencing it along side my dear friends (well, that and the nice digs). 

I have had the privilege of experiencing Girls State with Sally since my second year there.  We've worked together ever since.  Her friendship and our partnership at VGS is one of the great blessings of my life.  So, we decided to have our first babies the same year :-)  (Just kidding... it wasn't exactly something we plotted out, but we're both pretty pleased with how it worked out!)

Sally and I have roomed together for around 11 years, and now our little men and our mommas have too!  How cool is that?

Could it get any cuter?!  Well, yes, yes it could.  It turns out that five sweet baby boys (yes, all boys) have been born to us VGS-ers in a six month time span this year.  And four of us were there with babies and willing family members in tow.

We missed Nina and little JH (only three months old) all week, but thankfully they came up for a slumber party.  All was right in Baby City.  *Uniforms thanks to the mad-embroidery talents of momma Jessica and grandmomma Jane (not pictured). 

  

Can you stand it?!

Great friends, great family, inspiration all-around.  I, too, heart VGS. 

Baby Giggles

Is there anything better?

Catching up...

So, I know it has been a while, and lots of things have happened that I would like to post about.  Life has been very busy lately, but I'm working on it.  We were recently in Nashville, and I saw a book that my friend Jenn had made from her blog, a sort of high-tech family scrapbook.  That's given me the motivation that I need (for a time anyway) to get things posted.  So, there should be some new posts up soon.

Right now I'm enjoying getting some work done (and, obviously, some not-work done) on my laptop on the front porch while my baby sleeps in his carseat (with the windows down, of course).  I've been at it for about an hour.  We met some friends for lunch, and Jack fell asleep the instant I strapped him into the carseat on the way home.  I killed some time driving around various neighborhoods and then finally came home.  He has passed the hour and a half mark, which in Jack-terms means this is a pretty spectacular nap.  Ah, all this from the boy who screamed for the better part of four hours in the car on the way home from Nashville a few weeks ago.  He keeps me on my toes, people. 

I leave you with a preview:

Road Warriors, Part Two

Jack and I took our second big road trip together in mid-April to the VGS April Retreat.  It was a sort of dry-run for the big event in June.  In some ways it was even more of a challenge because I didn't have my mom to fall back on (though she would have been there in a second had I asked, I'm sure).  Besides a couple of painful hours of wailing in the car (his, and eventually mine), the trip went very well.  I was pleased with the adaptability that we both displayed.

We took our sweet time getting to Nashville, stopping many times along the way (I discovered Cracker Barrel as the perfect travelling-with-baby pit stop-- plenty of stuff to look at in the gift shop, decent changing area, rocking chairs to nurse in, and lots of travelling-candy for sale.  Oh, and yummy, artery-clogging food.).  Anyway, we got into town early so that we could spend time with my close friend, Jenn, and her family.  I had a great time visiting with Jenn and Josh, and the kids all had so much fun together.  Of course, we didn't get any adult pictures together, but we grabbed some cute ones of the kids (some of which I stole from Jenn's blog).

We spent the rest of the weekend at Michelle's beautiful farm in Franklin with the rest of the VGS gang, some of my favorite people in the world.  Jack was so friendly, eating up all the attention that everyone so generously lavished on him.   

This was the first time in my VGS tenure that I recall having babies at the April meeting. Everyone was so accommodating. We even had our own house! Most of the ladies slept at the main house, while Jack and I and the other three momma-baby boy pairs slept in the old house. This was an adventure.

The house is pretty large, but since Michelle's family doesn't regularly use it, we all stayed in one small area that Sherry graciously spruced up for us. Since Jack was the oldest baby of the group, we slept in the hallway-loft area, Jack in his pack-and-play, and me on an air mattress. He slept pretty well, not even stirring when the other babies woke up in the middle of the night or when their mommas used the bathroom that he slept right beside.

My sleep was a bit more restless because (a) well, I was on an air-mattress, (b) I was on high-alert so that Jack wouldn't wake up other babies when he cried, and (c) I was a little leery about running into the house's other occupants. You see, this is a farm, and where there is an unoccupied house, there are farm mice. It turns out that mice are pretty cute- oh, yes, I saw mice that weekend- and pretty squeaky- oh yes, I heard mice (lots of them) that weekend. Ah, fun memories. Really. I love that a 6-month old Jack and I camped in a lovely mice-infested house under open windows and within feet of some of my dear friends and their baby boys. And that all of us had a great time.  

 

 

I'm so glad that Jack and I went.  It was a refreshing weekend, reminding me of all the reasons why VGS is such an integral part of my life.  It is like being with family, and they welcomed Jack as the newest member.  

It was also wonderful to spend time with the other new mommas and their precious little boys.  It is a sweet blessing, indeed, to have the opportunity to share motherhood with women who have watched me grow up and have shaped the person that I am becoming.  

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter this year.  Mom, Dad, and Carly spent the weekend with us, which was great.  They got to spend good quality time with Jack, and Rob and I had lots of uninterrupted time to do yard work and outside projects-- a good deal all around. 

The whole fam enjoyed Easter lunch with our friends at the Thompson's house, a tradition we love. 

Though he didn't quite make it to the Easter egg hunts this year, our little boy did have a basket.  Here he is checking out his goodies with Bubbe and ole whats-his-name.

And here he is soaking up the love from Aunt C (I'm trying that one out right now...).

Happy Easter, everyone!