Update

Brian's review is here. You can't read the whole article, but there is a good pic and the caption is cool.

I also updated the SDT link to their myspace page. It's easier to read and seems to be updated more frequently with show information. The new CD release party is this weekend at the Pour House so if you are near Charleston, you should go.

As for us, I have my next Dr. appt this Thursday which will not be fun- lots of blood work and waiting around. blech. Brandon has started working on his Masters, he has class once a week on post. Ellie is learning something new every day. Her new favorite phrase is "Oh, quackers!" A duck on some TV show said it. Sometime she says "Oh, crackers!" instead which is even funnier to me. She is still excited about the baby and ready to feel it moving. That's all for now.

Oh, the Talent

Just wanted to brag a little on my not-so-little brothers.

I've mentioned Ward and Sol Driven Train before, but earlier in the month he was picked as the best multi-instrumentalist in Charleston by the Charleston City Paper. Here's the link to the write-up. Check out the SDT website too to hear some of their stuff. And April 5th they are releasing a new CD. I HOPE my requested copy will be waiting for me next time I get to SC.

And while I'm at it, another brother Brian is a sommelier at a very cool restaurant called Tristan in Charleston and was written up somewhere recently, but I can't find it online. You can even check out the wine list online. Fancy!

And Davis is kicking *** in school and is moving on to GA State starting this summer.

And Tyler is also in school and working and has managed not to scare Nicole away or crash his car this week!

Easter Fun

So we're back. We spent the weekend in TN with my in-laws. And my mom and granny came up too. They are also spending part of this week here with us. We had a great Easter and woke up to a fun surprise yesterday. See below for more.



Friday Ellie and I went shopping with MeeMaw and had more Easter bunny pictures taken. That night we got a special treat when Brandon's cousin snuck us in to the office where she works for an ultrasound! We couldn't see much. It's still early, but we saw the heartbeat and the little peanut was moving all over the place. We will only get 1 ultrasound here and they will wait until 20 weeks.


E eating a chocolate bunny as big as her head.




Saturday we did more shopping and dyed eggs and made cupcakes. Ellie is a sprinkle addict. It's a miracle that any of them made it on the cupcakes.


Dyeing eggs was really fun for her this year. When the first one came out and was all colored, she just about fell out of her chair.

Fingers covered in dye.






Sunday the Easter Bunny left goodies and we went to church with the whole crew.
E's Easter dress is vintage Katie. My granny made it for me and Mom saved it all these (many) years. It looks brand new and Ellie loved it. I changed as soon as we got home from church, but she wore hers all day.




I am not smiling here because just prior to the picture, Ellie was pitching a fit and I threatened to take the basket away if she didn't stop and Brandon was giggling the whole time. Oh, Easter joy.
After the service there was an egg hunt and it was FREEZING! Of course we also particiapted in the required stuffing-of-the-face and enjoyed it immensly. There was ham, roast beef, potato salad, cole slaw, macaroni, chicken and dumplings, deviled eggs, beans, corn, rolls, broccoli salad, fruit, cake, banana pudding, pie and all the candy in the county. It was a feast.



Monday morning we woke up to snow! It was beautiful. Just when it started to melt, more came down. Ellie and I played in it and made this snowman.



Here it is in perspective. heehee There really wasn't much left by the time we felt compelled to get dressed and go outside.




It was a great weekend and this week we are in for more shopping and lots of girl time.

Thinking about Having Kids?

I got this as an email today and thought it was too funny not to share. Plus, I am trying to clean and get ready for Easter traveling so I have nothing interesting from us to post today....


Preparations for having kids......
Lesson 1
1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static or some other obnoxious sound playing loudly. Eat cold food with one hand for dinner.
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm f or 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)> Repeat steps 1-9 each night.
Keep this up for 3-5 years.
Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows.
Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle
cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air. You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years.
(I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly.
(Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required).
Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years.
You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's a ll worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it.

Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

Children's Festival

There was a really fun Children's Festival today on Ft Rucker with games, treats and an Easter egg hunt. Ellie really enjoyed it. The only downside was that the wind was blowing so hard you could hardly hear people talking to you. But at least it wasn't super hot or rainy. Here's some pics of Ellie enjoying all the festivities. The theme was Candyland.


Sliding after the obstacle course. You can kind of see how windy it was with her hair blowing.

She LOVED the sack race.....even though there was no one racing against her and the lady had to help her jump. She couldn't hold the sack and make both feet jump. It was hilarious.
She really loved it. I bet the poor woman's back hurt afterwards.
She even sat in the Easter Bunny's lap willingly.

Hunting for eggs. She got a good bit and one was a prize egg so she won a baby doll. Yay- cause we don't have enough of those around here.
Posing as the queen from the Candyland game.
Posing again.

Smock-tastic

This is the cute smock I made for Ellie. The fabric has the Little Mermaid on it.

The pattern was super easy and also from Bend the Rules Sewing. You cut it out on the fold, so all you have to sew up is the shoulders. But putting the trim on was hard. I messed it up twice. I also realized that it's really too short to be effective at keeping paint off of her clothes (after it was cut out). Plus, she like to channel Jackson Pollock and splatter paint everywhere. Or she uses the paint brush to paint her hand and then slap a handprint on the paper. True technique!

So I'll have to make a longer one some day. But I have too many projects in line right now that I want to make first. Next up is some bday gifts for friends and family and then maybe something for me. We'll see. I discovered the fabric store here in town. It's much more expensive than Wal-Mart fabric, but SOOOOOO much cuter and more to choose from. I can only go there occasionally.

More crafty goodness

Yesterday I finished the bag to match Ellie's Snoopy Easter dress that my mom made. It is very cute (from a distance). If you get too close, you can see all the messed up stitches and craziness. So just admire it from afar please. I was going to make her a purse-sized one, but I thought a bigger one would be cute for the egg hunt on Ft Rucker next weekend. Of course she will wear the dress too.

Then I made Ellie and Zoe Easter t-shirts. I bought the cute Garanimals shirts at Wally World for like $2.98 and then used a strip of the Easter egg fabric that I used for E's pillowcase. I zigzag stitched around them with pink thread. That was an ordeal. I learn something new every time I make a new project. I think they turned out pretty cute. Far from perfect, but you can definitely tell they are homemade :) Don't tell Becca about it because it's a surprise and I am sending it tomorrow.

I am an idiot

I introduced Ellie to Chuck E Cheese yesterday. (It was all Barbara's idea!) Now it will never end. There used to be a song on one of the radio shows in GA called "Chuck E Cheese Hell". I think it was on John Boy and Billy. My favorite line went something like, "I did 2 tours in Vietnam, but that was nothing compared to Chuck E Cheese Hell." heeheehee

It actually wasn't that bad at all. It was lunchtime and there were not many people there. But I know that every time we go to Dothan from here until eternity (or until we move to another state) she will beg to go there. Her favorite part was the games of course and the tickets. She didn't even know that you cashed them in at the end, but she still got excited every time they were spit out of a machine. This shooting game was the one she liked best. No surprise there- she is Brandon's child.The funniest part of the whole trip was when we hit some kind of jackpot on one game and about 50 tickets came flying out. She couldn't believe it.

She also enjoyed the dance floor. There was a camera and her image was added to the big TVs above the stage. Ski-ball was not her strongest game however. She can not get the balls up the ramp. Of course it's my favorite so I helped. Here she is catching the ball as it rolls back down the ramp toward her. So sad. And as for the pizza, neither of us had any. I had salad and she had part of a hotdog. But Barbara had some and said it was good.

Thanks for taking us and for playing with Ellie, Abby! We really did have fun.

And now we have a new plastic spider ring, jelly bracelet, hair rubber band with hearts on the ends and some glittery fingernail tattoos. Good times!

Sewing Projects

I was a busy girl today.

I made this apron that is supposed to be an adult one, but I may have gathered it too much because it clearly will not fit me, and almost fits Ellie. She loves it because it is long and "like for a princess". ( But al least I successfully gathered it. )

**Notice the princess heels in this one**

So I made her one out of a bandana, but skipped the gathering because it was a pain. So she didn't like it as much because it wasn't poofy. So I guess she gets 2 aprons today.

Then I made this super cute zippered pouch. You can't see it very good in the pics, but it is CUTE! and the zipper is sewn in almost all the way correctly and it works. And it's lined in red fabric.

I will try a new project tomorrow. I am digging this sewing business. All of these are from a cool book that I bought this weekend called Bend the Rules Sewing. It has great instructions and pictures/diagrams. There are some patterns too, but you have to enlarge them on a copier so I haven't done those yet. Maybe later in the week. I'll post more projects as I finish them.

Cuteness

Here is Ellie looking cute.........and the cute Easter pillowcase I made. I have several more projects that I want to do, but I have to get more supplies. Very fun!!

oh yeah, and here's our super cool and hip 1989 Volvo Station Wagon. Actually it's in great shape. We got it for $750 so Brandon can drive it to work. It was costing a fortune to drive the big truck every day. We took the wagon to Dothan yesterday and it rides great. You'd never know it's almost 20 years old. Classic!

Boogie Woogie

This is Ellie doing a dance move that my mom taught her. We went to Dothan today and were waiting outside of the gun show for Brandon to be finished. She loves to dance and sing these days and is known to make up her own songs too. I made a funny video of her the other day, but I turned the camera to get a long shot and the whole video is sideways. I don't know how to fix it.