Our Little Scholar

Well, it's that time of year again already.  Even little 2 year old Drew is going back to school.  This past week he learned about the letter A, the color Red, the number 1, and Circles.
I looked forward to picking him up from Mrs. Tonia's everyday because he would run and greet me at the door so excited to show me what he did for the day.  It was one of the cutest things ever (and will continue to be so).  He would run to me from the play room, grab his work from the table, and say, "look mama, look!  I drew red."
Then he would take me through piece by piece of what each one was.  "This is a buga" (he over-pronounces his g's at the end of words).  Then Mrs. Tonia would say, "It's an ant for A Drew" and then he would say, "A. ah ah ah"  it was soooo cute.  I could totally tell what they worked on that day.
And that was just the first day.  It went on all week.
This week was red week, so everyday we tried to find something red to wear (we succeeded everyday but Wednesday)  Before this week, everything was blue at first glance, then he would try to figure out the color if you asked him again.  Now, he really is thinking about colors and what color different things are.
Friday was red show-and-tell day.  Drew brought, of course, Mac and Lightning McQueen.  He was mighty happy about that.
It was a great week and we are all looking forward B for Blue week next week!

Mrs. Tonia gave all the moms a calendar of lessons for the week. 

Drew was so proud of his chalk drawing.  Mrs. Tonia even laminated them for us.

A sample of some of the things Drew worked on during the week.

We were so impressed when Drew was able to tell his Daddy what he did that day and Daddy understood what he was saying without me translating anything.  He told his Daddy that they made apple pictures with the color red.  He was talking about these stamps.  He also told Daddy about how they went to sleep, woke up, and ate snack.

Where'd The Sun Go?

Apparently we don't get out much at night with the kids.  Tonight we did a little shopping and when we got home, it was already dark.  Daddy got Drew out of the car and Drew said so inquisitively, "Where'd the sun go?"  He was truly surprised that the sun was not out like it usually is when we get out of the car.  I guess it didn't dawn on him in the car that it was dark out.  We were too busy talking about red lights and green lights and he was too busy bossing Daddy around saying, "go fast, Daddy!  Go fast!"  We just say back to him, "okay Ricky Bobby!"

Holding On

I am again experiencing the need to hold on to a moment.  Tonight when I put Emma Jane down to sleep, she wrapped her tiny little hand around my finger.  That moment (as my Aunt Debbie says) soaked into my heart.  I MUST ALWAYS remember what it felt like to have her tiny little fingers around mine, because they will never be that tiny again.
With that in mind I started thinking about one of the most touching posts I've ever read by Ruby Red Slippers at Lions, Tigers, and Boys, Oh My.  I can't help but get teary eyed  (well, ok, more like cry my eyes out) when I read it because I think of my own parents.  Luckily I remember my mother's hands to a tee.  I remember exactly what they look like and how extremely soft they were.  No one ever could figure out how she kept them so soft, including her.  They truly were as soft as Emma Jane is now.  I also remember my Dad's hands.  His Duke ring and wedding band were worn almost every day of his entire life.  I have very vivid memories of what their hands look like and when I think of their hands, I feel so close to them, yet realize the finality of our situation.  I will never see those hands again.  I wish I would have taken pictures of them, or even had them in any of the pictures that I have.
If I were you (any one of you) I would take this idea from Lions, Tigers, and Boys, Oh My and make my own post like this.  Or if you don't have a blog, make a page in your scrapbook, or photo album.  I can't tell you enough, how much I wish I could.  Please stay tuned for my version of this post.  It may take me a bit (it takes time to get my thoughts about my parents into words).  I look forward to spending time thinking about all of the things those precious hands have done and been through.

Movie Night

Popcorn? Goobers? Mr. Pibb? Pick your poison. None of it was here at our house tonight, but we did manage to have "movie night" without it. Instead of this very typical theater menu, this mama made homemade toffee cookies and served milk with them. We opened up our new Winnie the Pooh movie, cozied up on the couch all fresh and clean after bath-time, and watched. Just like Christmas, we sat and enjoyed. Drew watched the movie and I watched Drew's eyes dance as Pooh and Christopher Robins sang about their friendship and I watched the excitement in his eyes as Pooh and Piglet ran from "huff-a-lumps". I soaked it all in (it's not every day that you can get a two-year-old to sit for as long as Drew sat to watch this movie.... especially two-year-olds named Drew). I do believe movie night takes the cake. It's better than just about anything in this world that I can think of. I love my family time and I love love love my little boy.

She's Growing So Quickly

I just wanted to show the update on Emma. She's growing so quickly. I can't believe she's already 7 months (almost 8!!!) She's cute as a button and she's got enough personality to fill the room. She brings so much love into our family and we all vie for our time with her (especially Drew... he loves his little sister so much). Nobody can make her laugh like Drew can. You wouldn't believe the laugh that she reserves especially for him. It's the best belly laugh you've ever heard. I hope you all enjoy the pictures at least a fraction as much as we enjoy her.

Where is "U"?

Being the teacher that I am, I was playing letter games with Drew the other day. He seems to be a "numbers kind of guy" so we're trying to expose him to more letters. He's not too fond of them though, so I have to really make it into a game.
Well, the other day we were playing with his letter blocks which have little figures inside of them that represent their letter.
I asked him where "A for Airplane" is. He did well. He knows A is always at the beginning so he found it quickly.
So I decided to make it a bit more challenging for him, so I asked him, "Drew, where is U?" He ran around behind me with a sneaky little smile and sat down right behind my back. Then he pokes his head around and says, "I'm right here, Mama!"
It took me a second, but then I realized what he thought I was asking him and I laughed so hard and he just laughed and laughed with me.
What a funny little boy I have!

Oh Summer Time

Oh to hold on to summer for the last little bit. Wouldn't it be wonderful to snap your fingers and have your Polyvore come true. I'm addicted! Now I can get my shopping fix and not even spend a dime.
Oh how I wish I could jump into this picture (with these clothes and accessories of course).
I s'pose I'll have to do a "back-to-school" one next.... hmph!

My New Favorite Camera Accessory

Look how totally cute this camera strap is. I absolutely LOVE it!!!

and if I wear it with my iron free Brookes Brothers shirt.... ooooh, how preppy! (just like this picture)

I have the cutest Anthro pants that I could wear with this too. Oh my goodness, I'm going to have to "Polyvore" this one!!! hahahaha I don't think they'll have this strap.

What A Ride!

What a feeling to see the words "We picked you!" Yay! They picked me! Wow! To be the "featured blogger" at SITS! I so enjoyed my day in the sun. I enjoyed reading all 400 and something comments from my readers. Thank you all for your kind words and taking time out of your busy days (or relaxation time) to visit little ol' me!
To those of you that looked at the gumbo recipe, you'll love it only if you love the process. I completely understand if you just choose to "pick some up" if you feel like eating it instead of making it yourself. I am the same way about some recipes. I have this wonderful goat cheese souffle' recipe in my recipe book, and i've scribbled over it "forget it. Order pizza!!!"

For those of you that want to make it..... I hope you get some good music, good wine and enjoy your time in the kitchen the way I do.
And to those of you who read "Merry Christmas Snuggle," as for the blanket, I wish I could tell you a meaningful story about how my grandmother made it for me and I remember cuddling up with her watching "Miracle on 34th Street,"


but that's simply not true. Your going to be amazed (or utterly disappointed) to hear that that blanket was purchased at Hobby Lobby for 50% off! I KNOW! I was very excited when I bought it knowing that it at least looked so special.
Anyways, thank you for all of your kind comments and I hope you continue to visit. I'll keep you posted on my family, fun finds, training, and treasures found while exploring my family's history.
So....
Y'all come back now, ya' hear!!!

The Last Summer "Hoorah" with the BFF's

Well, here we are on the last couple of days of summer, squeezing every last drop out of it like a lemon for our favorite summertime drinks (ok.. that was a really bad simile.... I promise, no more)
Wednesday afternoon the BFF's and I got together for lunch. (I really need to post just about them so that I can link BFF's to a picture of them. For now Melinda + Mary + Jill + Me = BFF's)
We had a nice little time with Drew, Emma, and Sadie. It makes for a loud house, but we like it that way.
We had a very simple spread so that we could just enjoy. Veggies and dip, chips and home made salsa from Melinda's garden (or maybe Shay & Christin's garden which we've all been eating out of.... it's HUGE!!!!) and pizza.
It was nice to sit and chitty chat before everything turns into "school" for us teachers. Drew had a hard time sharing Sadie's Cozy Coupe with her. Yes, that's right, I said SADIE'S cozy coupe. He acted like it was his and wouldn't get out of it. So Sadie, being typical Sadie, just went with the flow and got in with him. It was too cute!
I look forward to the day that we can "reason" with him a little bit better, but for now they are doing a pretty good job working it out on their own.

For a little while Drew was being such a southern gentleman....

... and even opened the door of the cozy coupe for Sadie and let her in.

After that, Sadie showed us some of her rockin' moves to some country music.

Sadie loves to "ham it up" for the camera.... and I am a sucker for her, so she gets a lot of "camera time"

Letters Home From College

My sister found a pack of letters when going through some boxes a couple of weekends ago from my parent's house. As she unknowingly unfolded an era from our family history, she gasped. They were letters that my dad had written home to my grandparents from college. They kept every single one. It was obvious that they wrote back and forth, but we did not have my grandmother's matching letters (I guess a college boy has no where to store such things in his dorm room nor probably the foresight to hold on to what were at the time "letters from mom"). His letters were coming home about every third day. Probably an immediate response to her letters.
It was amazing to read about his every-day-life, especially to this bloggie-blogger who believes in capturing every-day-life moments (the whole reason I got into this whole "blog thing").
Seeing his very distinctive handwriting on his stationary sent goosebumps up and down my arms. I love his handwriting. As for the stationary, well, I'm southern through and through and I have to admit that I ran a finger over it to see if it was engraved or embossed. I regret to report, my southern belles, that it was embossed. BUT! We'll chalk that up to his version of being "a poor college kid."
As I leafed through these letters, stories of school, tennis, ping pong (boy did he love ping pong), college football and basketball games, the work-load, his roommate, Wayne, and much much more came alive through his words that I could almost hear him saying as though he were reading them to me himself.
A few times he would say something sly and write out a "heh- heh" afterwards. If you knew my dad, you can hear it right now as you read it *smile*.
I really laughed when I read about how much laundry was coming home (yes ladies, he mailed home his dirty laundry for my grandmother to wash and she mailed it right back usually with some cookies or fudge or whatever he demanded.... but we'll get to that later).
I tried to pace myself so that I would continue to have something to read every night before bed, but I have to admit that I have no self control and I devoured them all in one night.
It was neat to read from such innocent times about people who were more "Cleaver" than June and Beaver themselves! (no, seriously). The language and topics were comforting to read.
I'll be sharing some of the stories and quarks very soon, so stay tuned!

My dad is younger than his "college years" in this pictures, but I love it so much I thought I'd include it.

My Favorites

Please feel free to "peruse" some of my favorite posts here

My Own Home Make-Over

So here's my new idea about decorating. I want to decorate each room according to how I want to feel while I'm in that room. Well now, I know what you're thinking..... Mary Beth, that's nothing new.... what's interesting about that?
I asked myself, "self? When do you feel the most" (haha)
My answer was "when I listen to music."
So that's it! Each room has and artist attached to it. For instance, my master bathroom - Enya! See what I mean!?! It's perfect! Can't you just picture it? My back porch - Jimmy Buffet of course!!! My kitchen - Stevie Ray Vaughn. Perfect!!! My dining room - Harry Connick Jr. Beautiful!
Hahaha! It ought to be interesting to see how I'm going to make this "flow." But I'll figure it out.

So He Thinks He Can Dance

One of the great things about running is actually having the time to just listen to music (oh yeah, and the fact that running gives you a great tush). A lot of the time that I spend training for San Francisco, I have actually not been listening to music, I've been using that time to think about fundraising, my mother and father, and just different uplifting ideas. But sometimes I do listen to the Pandora App. on my iPhone while I'm running. I love it.
Well, tonight I plugged it into our stereo system at home and we got to really "jam out" to some great "running" music. Well who knew Drewbie was such a dancer! We laughed and laughed while watching him just let it loose to Yaz and Royksopp (mind you, this is my running playlist). It was so funny. I wish I would have gotten a video of it, especially when he and his daddy were dancing, but I was just laughing too hard to even think about it.
Drew was just making up all kinds of crazy moves. Do you think it's possible that a 2 year old instinctually knows the "lawn mower?"

Attachment: I Hope You Dance

I have a bijillion things to do right now and the kids are both napping (so you know how precious this time is), but I'm dropping it all right now to tell this story!
Just a few minutes ago I got a call from my long-time friend (one of the best!!!), Jennifer. She had called the other day to tell me that something was in the mail for me. Now mind you, her birthday was this past Monday. So I'm kind of like, wow, you buy me things for your birthday? I've got a good gig going here. haha.
Well, anyways, back to today's phone call.

Me: Hello
Jenn: Are you near a computer? (she rarely ever says hello back.... and I love that about her. She gets right to it)
Me: I can be
Jenn: I'm sending you an email with an attachment.
ME: Ok.... I'm here, I'll just open my email.... (here's where we had a short, funny little conversation about how impatient we are b/c the email wasn't absolutely instant, and when I say absolutely, I mean it only took about 45 seconds to reach me from Louisiana. But I was still impatient enough to comment about "Ugh, it's not here yet"
Me: Oh, here it is. (I read the title "I Hope You Dance")
Me: Oh, I love that song
Jenn: I know!
Then I proceed to open the attachment and see this:


Me: Oh, I love this artist! What a pretty..... OH!!!!!!!
Tears instantly come rushing out of my eyes like they never have before
Me: I..... Oh my gosh...... ah..... *sniff* ..... I..... don't..... Oh my gosh! *sob sob sob sob*
Jenn: (laughing) It's for you.

Jennifer had read my previous post about my new favorite artist, Peggy Thibodeau, and had contacted her and told her my story about my parents and me. After a few conversations and Peggy Thibodeau checking out my blog (OMG!!!), and flipping through different pieces of artwork, they came up with this piece for me. SHE PAINTED IT JUST FOR ME!!!

I am still crying! It is the most special thing!!!!!
I'm still speechless, Jennifer. You are too precious of a friend, and you'll never know how much you mean to me!!!!!!!!!!!!! And yes, this is definitely going in the book!!!!
Thank you,

Imagine the Potential: Life

I had written this big huge post about the healthcare plan and all of the points that I thought were important.... but for me, it all comes down to this.
So I'll keep it simple and say that I do not support anything that supports abortion. There.... that's it!

Oh, no it's not. Two more things.

1) Ronald Reagan briliantly said:
"I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born."
2) Watch this


Please do your research and be seen and heard by your congressmen (and woman) about how you feel about this bill.

PS. Here's another one that I think proves a point that some of you might get a little ruffled over (it was rejected by many major networks) ... but oh well.

My First Pillowcase Dress

I think pillowcase dresses are soooo adorable. I can't wait to see Emma running around in bare feet in her pillowcase dresses. Carefree summer days will be spent just that way. I'm just picturing it: Drew, Emma, Me, Fruit Car (haha) picnic-ing, laughing, and enjoying time together.
I think for this dress we will embroider it with LSU (of course, I'm sure you could figure that out with the color choice) on the dress and Emma's name on the ribbon. I think I'll even hide a little monogram on the lining maybe with a little tiger paw print. How sweet that will be.

Sewing on the ruffle. I got this pattern from Melissa at A Little Loveliness

Summer Food

Summer food is so fun. I saw this cute idea in my Taste of Home Fun Food magazine and thought it would be a fun project for Drew and me knowing how much he is into cars right now.
So this morning we gathered all of our stuff and made a fruit car. I did all of the cutting (of course) and Drew did the assembly (outside of the toothpick parts). He kept making "vroom vroom" noises as he worked. It was too cute. Then he started to disassemble the front of the car to put those parts inside with the fruit. I guess he's not ready to go work for F1 just yet.
We had a great time and a great product.
I let him sit down and eat out of it as soon as we were done. I figure we're all family here, so that's ok. We'll just keep restocking the car for as long as it stays "good."

After washing our hands, Drew stood on a chair and helped assemble his fruit car

Notice that it did not take long for the marshmallow eyes to disappear

and now we have leftover fruit salad to keep restocking the car with.

We'll enjoy it again for dessert tonight and snacks tomorrow. I know Drew will get excited every time we get it out of the fridge. I can't wait to hear his "vroom vrooms"

An Update On My Lists

So you know how I said that I'm having to make lists for everything? Well, I've got lists EVERYWHERE because there is so much going on. Packing lists, fundraising lists, general to-do lists, lists of thank-you notes that need to be written, so on and so on. Well, they are working great!
BUT....
We taught Drew how to trace his hand on his little "magna-doodle" thingy. Well, you know where this is going...
Drew has traced his hand on my lists! It's the cutest thing!

Okay, so I'm totally telling on myself here.... yes, that is Thank You notes from Drew's birthday on that list! Don't judge... (I'm doing a fine job beating myself up for that one)

As I was taking these pictures, the culprit butted into the pictures to continue his "signature work"

Double Doctor's Appointments

Because of the way that Drew and Emma's birthdays fall, I was able to schedule their check-ups together. Emma had her 6 month visit and Drew had his 2 tear visit. I had to strip both of them down to their diapers to go be weighed... so there we were walking down the hallway to the scales, a mama and her two "nakie" babies. Emma weighed in at 14 lbs and 1oz and Drew weighed in at a whopping 30 lbs 2 oz!!!! Emma is "petite" as the doctor said, but she wasn't worried because she's quite long (26.5 inches) so she's just growing long not plump. Both Drew and Emma got a clean bill of health and the doctor was very happy with what she saw.
She was great with the kids (as usual) and let Drew check her ears and mouth with the "flashlight" before she checked his. They both had to get shots today though. I have been dreading this for weeks! But it actually did not go that badly. Emma was up first. She got stuck twice, poor baby. She cried a good bit, but she was ok. She got two Circus band aids to make her feel better. Drew got a finger prick and one shot. He was a trooper through the finger prick. He just quietly watched what was going on and didn't make a peep. Just flinched a little when it happened. And by the time he realized he was getting a shot, it was all over (we did a great job distracting him apparently). He was more interested in his Bugs Bunny band aids than the procedure.
I am happy to report that we have two happy, healthy children. Now, if we can just stay healthy this upcoming fall when Mama goes back to work we'll be sittin' pretty!


These pictures were taken today (I know it's hard to believe that they would be smiling after shots)