Wordless Wednesday...

Two for One...

So, here are two updates for the price of one. That means two slideshows too! (You can roll your mouse over either show and it should give you the option to pause till you are done with the other one.)

Last weekend we went to Murfreesboro, TN to celebrate our niece, Ronnie's, birthday. She turned one and we had a fabulous time celebrating her on her special day. While we were there we also had their pictures made together. Which was really funny to watch. Actually, it was humorous to watch them all weekend interacting. Needless to say Christmas is going to be wild... especially if AG is walking by then. :) Ronnie was not too keen on having her fingers "dirty" in her cake. Andy and I are curious to see how AG will act in just a few short months to his first cake.

This weekend has been action packed. Friday, we had a horrible storm come through and take out the power for most of the evening and into the middle of the night. Limbs fell all over the yard due to 45mph winds. Fortunately, God was watching out for us and our 100+ year old oak tree in the front of the house didn't budge.

Yesterday, we were planning to do some painting but our plans changed because Andy had to cut down part of a tree and clean up the debris from the night before. AG and I had a lunch date with Julie, Briggs, Ginny, and Emma. (Laura you were missed!) Briggs and Emma are running around and crawling which is a great motivator for AG. He's close to crawling. Rocking back and forth and he creeps both ways now. (Friday, I caught him going from rocking back and forth on his knees to pulling himself to his knees. He was holding on to the twin bed in his room. Heaven help me because he'll be running all over the house before we know it!) Last night we babysat Emma so Ginny and Josh could go to a surprise birthday party. Emma and AG cracked us up all evening long. After they ate we stuck 'em in our big tub together. They played and splashed to their hearts content. I discovered how invaluable our deep tub will be in the months to come...Emma could stand up in it but couldn't get out! Every time I pulled out the camera Emma showed off her toothy grin. AG on the other hand was chewing on his ABC letters (thanks Andy!) like they were going out of style. Almost as if to say "will you leave me alone I'm trying to get some teeth like Emma." Once we had two squeaky clean munchkins we all settled down on the couch and Samson hopped up to join us. Andy had AG and I had Emma...Samson was in between us. I wish we could have taken a picture of all of us together. Emma was snuggled in with her paci and blanket wrapped around her and her hand resting on Samson. It was one of those moments where in that brief split second all is right with the world. All was quiet and still. It was perfect. That moment also confirmed to both Andy and I that we know our family is not complete with just AG. We look forward to adding to it in the years to come. Till then we are enjoying our little man.

Today, we had church and then lunch at Schroder's New Deli. We came home and watched the Braves before packing up and heading to campus. We took AG to do his 7month pictures at Ford. (For those unfamiliar with Berry the Ford Buildings are a group of English Gothic stone buildings. Built in the late 20's and 30's with money from Henry Ford. I spent much of my childhood summers in these buildings and they hold a special place in my heart.) Today we discovered grass! He was more interested in touching and playing with the grass than smiling for the camera. :) We got a few good shots and we'll give it another go next month. Afterwards, we headed up Stretch to mountain campus to the Campus Outreach annual Slip-n-Slide. AG enjoyed taking a nap, being passed around, and playing in the grass on mtn campus. We had a great time visiting with students past and present. Hard to believe another school year starts tomorrow! This evening we had a late dinner on our porch and Andy even brought AG's high chair out for him. The weather was perfect today and I can't wait for fall!

Well, in other news the kitchen is almost done. Hopefully, after tomorrow we can finish the painting, cleaning, and organizing. Electrician and drywall man are due to come out to finish a few things. Also, hopefully, this time tomorrow night we'll have recessed lighting in the den and living room! Pictures forth coming when it's all done. Hope everyone has a great week. Hard to believe that August is almost come and gone.

When going green isn't green...

So as people are becoming more "green" many are making the switch to Compact Fluorescent Lamp or CFL bulbs for their homes. Now, I'll be honest and say that I hadn't jumped on the bandwagon because I HATE fluorescent lighting. (If you never saw my dorm room in college or classroom I never used my overhead lighting due to my dislike for the harshness of the light.) Anyways, as we are finalizing the remodel of our kitchen Andy made a trip to our local Home Depot to pick up a few supplies which included some lightbulbs. We took out the CFL bulbs to try them in the new recessed lighting. And I hated the "glow" in my kitchen and we packed them back up to return them. And I didn't think much of it till today when I began reading about CFL bulbs.

I'm all for saving money and energy efficient light bulbs are one way to save on your energy bill. However, did you know...

...that these light bulbs contain mercury? And that if one was to break you potentially would have to call your local department of environmental protection and your local hazardous-material disposal team to clean and detox the area depending on the requirements in your area. (Which can cost thousands of dollars.) Crazy. There is a whole list of guidelines you have to follow if one does break. So while I'm all for being energy efficient and environmentally friendly I will opt for my incandescent light bulbs due to life with an exuberant pup and a soon to be mobile little man. Plus, I just like the way they look. :)

Wordless Wednesday...

Wow! So it has been a month since I really updated the blog. I'm sorry for being such a slacker. In the forth coming posts you will see why...we've been super busy this month on top of completely remodeling the kitchen. Needless to say things have been chaotic and we are doing good to make it from day to day. Here are some highlights from the last month:

~AG had his first birthday party. We celebrated Emma and AG partied so hard he had to take a mid-party nap. I really enjoyed watching AG begin to play with Emma and Briggs. I'm very excited that AG has two friends close in age because I had two friends like that growing up. And the wonderful thing is that those two people are still a huge part of my life today. I hope that Briggs and Emma are to AG what David and Laura were to me growing up. (By the way congrats to Laura on her engagement to James!)

~We took AG's 6 month photos in front of Mirror Lake out on mountain campus at Berry. Samson enjoyed keeping the ducks, geese, and swans at bay while we took AG's pictures. I can't believe how big he is now when he sits in the rocker. Before I know it he'll be trying to climb out of it while I'm trying to take his picture.

~We enjoyed having family visit us this last month while dropping off/picking up my cousins. AG's Great Aunt Denise even made him some special tie-dyed t-shirts while being the arts and crafts mom at Camp.

~Ginny and I went during tax free weekend to do some shopping for Emma and AG at the Calhoun Outlets. We racked up and made good use of our coupons. I'm excited about AG's new big boy clothes for the fall. I'm also hoping to find a few more things at the huge consignment sale that we have twice a year here in Rome. (Twice is Nice.) AG continues to grow like a weed and so everything I bought was 18 to 24 months in sizing. I'm just hoping that he'll be able to wear everything through Christmas. (I know he'll get new clothes between Christmas and his birthday a few weeks later. Did I just mention Christmas in a post? Ah. These next few months are going to fly by and it will be here before we know it.)

~We've been remodeling the kitchen in the middle of all of this...I'm planning to do a big post on it later this week when it is all back together. Hopefully! Stay tuned for that.

~Andy and I also took our first trip without AG a week ago...AG enjoyed his vacation at the farm with his Aunt Misty, Uncle Michael aka Coach, and cousin Bernie. I'll post about that too this week.

Update on AG's new milestones:

~We can say Ma-ma-ma-ma and Andy is pushing hard for Da-da-da-da but so far no luck. He's been "talking" for about two weeks now. Once he gets going he won't stop. We are enjoying listening to him babble and chat with his toys.

~We've also cut our first tooth! On the bottom and the one next to it doesn't look far behind it. We seem to have turned a corner and are doing better. The first few nights were rough but we are making it. We are back to sleeping through the night and we all are grateful for that!

~We are bouncing around when we are sitting and rocking back and forth. We are also "army crawling/sliding" backwards and so we should be crawling before we know it. In addition we are trying to figure out how to pull ourself up when we are sitting. Andy says the baby proofing should commence once we move back in to the kitchen. And not a moment too soon because I think our days are numbered with him not being completely mobile. We are already rolling around and sliding to get the object of our choice.

~We haven't tried any new foods these last few weeks due to the lack of a kitchen in which to cook. I'm excited to start making some new foods in this next week. Fortunately, we've been well stocked and using the stash of food in the freezer these last few weeks.

Looking ahead:

~Monday we go for our appointment with the specialist about AG's clogged tear duct. We are looking to have surgery on it and do another treatment on his hemangioma at the same time. It will be better for him since he'll already be under anesthesia...so we are just going to double up and kill two birds with one stone.

~Our college students are slowly trickling back in and we are very excited to see them. Everyone should be back and things will be in full swing by next weekend. AG and I are looking forward to another year of college night at Moe's while Andy is coaching. Along with Grey's Anatomy and dessert post Moe's. Before we know it Mountain Day will be here! We are looking forward to showing AG off this year at Mountain Day.

~Soccer is back in session and practices are underway. A few more weeks and then games start. Andy can't wait till AG is big enough to tag along with him to the fields while he coaches. This year Andy is coaching U19 and he is looking forward to the season. He coached them last year when they were U17 and is already enjoying building upon the success they had last year.

Sorry for such a long post in my attempt to catch everyone up. I have a list of several posts to do this week to get up to date. We'll see how it goes between painting and moving back into the kitchen!

Wordless Wednesday on Thursday...

Since I forgot to post yesterday here's a picture or two. Life is a little crazy with the kitchen remodel and trying to go out of town. Larger post with photos of what we've been up to in the coming days.