Easter 2011

Getting caught up again...le sigh. We stayed in Birmingham this year for Easter and the boys were totally into egg hunts this year. Maybe the realization that these eggs represented candy had something to do with it? Ha! Little G was the beast though when it came to the egg hunts. He'd run, find an egg, pop it open and throw the empty egg down on the ground for another to excitedly pick up only to discover no candy. Cruel. With that said, we had a great time getting caught up and visiting my aunts, uncles, cousins and their children.

Family picture. W kept on doing "pirate eye"

which was a bit frustrating at the time, but looking back I love this pic.

Will's Easter basket

G's basket

Daddy giving a helping hand

Going to town

Stopping to pick his eggs clean

Daddy allowing them to have at it.

Needless to say, the boys had a blast even after the egg hunt was over with all of their cousins on my mother's side.

Trampoline time.

Colored bubbles. Thick like paint. Mama's not a fan.

But the boys like them.

Looking like Rob Roy.

change is hard

Most of the people close to me know that my dad is getting remarried in May. While I have given him my blessing (not that he really needed it), it still is hard for me to accept. My mother and father were married for 39 years and I had never considered that one would remarry after the loss of the other. They were a pair so it's hard to let that go and know he is about to become a part of another pair.

The interesting thing to me is the people who have "inquired" how I am handling it. You see, these are people who dropped out of my life when my mother passed almost 2 years ago. People I had initially tried keeping in contact with, but for whatever reason, did not respond. It makes me sad and angry that these people all of a sudden want to comfort me when I don't need their comfort now. I needed it the months after my mama passed. I needed it then. So, for those with inquiring minds, I am fine. I'm fine.

No, I am not happy at the thought of him getting remarried, but it's not because I want him to be lonely. Him getting remarried is just another sharp reminder than my mother is indeed gone. I miss her so much. I miss everything about her. And, it was hard when he first started seeing his fiance not to feel as if he was betraying my mother. But, you know what? What I have come to conclude is that my daddy getting remarried does not diminish what he and my mother had, because my parents had something truly special. My mother loved my dad with everything she had and he loved her. They provided me with a loving and great home, with a sense of roots and the knowledge of who I am.

My mother had 2 great loves - my dad and me. I have no doubt about that. She always wanted my father and I to have a good relationship, and because of her, I can do that and support him in this.

Monday Magic: Kids say the cutest things

I really should do this more often, but quite honestly, a lot of times I forget to write it and then forget it. ::hangs head in shame:: But, I'm resolved to do better, because the true is there is nothing funnier (or sweeter) than kids and some of the things they say or do.

W Funnies
- Me: Did you see all the strawberries growing on our deck? Pretty soon, we can pick them and eat them. W: You don't grow strawberries. You grow muffins!

- The other day we passed by my old office and I pointed it out. W will then onto ask me if I remembered when he used to work at his old office? He asked me if I remembered who he worked with and when I didn't he listed about 5 of his friends and "of course, Alex" (his cousin). When I inquired what they did at work, he matter of factly responded "Work." ::Duh::

- He likes to tell his daddy "Have a good day at school, Daddy. Be careful, Daddy." when S leaves for work.

G Funnies
- We went to Ross Dress for Less and they have these big poles attached to the shopping carts. I have no idea why or for what purpose, but G was fixated on them the other day. Every time we would pass by another shopper who were mostly female, G would exclaim, "Itsa ho!" meaning "it's a pole". Unfortunately, it sounds as if he was calling someone a disparaging name. LOL!

- He loves to tell people about "fissies in wa-wa" even when we are no where near fishes and water. The confused look on faces is priceless.

- He calls his his brother, "Bubbie" instead of brother, but more than that if you ask him what our names are, he will tell you. However, if you ask him his name he will growl and then laugh.

Clearly behind

Clearly I have got behind on keeping up with this thing so over the next few days, I'll try to catch up and post some pics. First and foremost, we did get the bonus room finished and it's already gotten great use as a sewing room for me.

From the stairwell, looking onto my sewing area.

View from sewing area.

View from opposite end.

The room also served as a guest room for my father-in-law who came to visit for lil'G's 2nd birthday. Oh, did I say that? Yes, my baby boy is now 2 years old! I can't hardly believe it. Time flies so quickly. I have to do his 2 year letter some time this week. We're at the point now where people are asking if we plan on a third and all I can say is I'm not sure. I think S would be fine with just 2 or even prefer just 2, but I can definitely say that I'm not ready yet to close the door to a 3rd baby. So, we'll see. But back to baby G, or rather toddler (preschooler?) G. Here are a few pictures from his "Dactor" aka Tractor Birthday Party which was partly held at the park near our house and then moved to our house due to rain.

At the park , taking it all in.

Our friends having a good time.

Playing with friends.

Our one table smooshed in between the other 2 parties

held at the park at the same time.

Tractor and farm animal birthday cake

A full house

Bird-day ca-ak! YAY!

Digging in with our good friend, E.

Also, we've been working on getting our garden ready. This is our 3rd year with 2 large raised garden beds (in addition to the container garden on our back deck) and I'm trying something new this year to see if we get even better results. A couple years ago, I started hearing such great things about Square Foot Gardening and Mel's Mix and I finally purchased the book this past winter. Apparently, it's a specific garden mix of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 compost and 1/3 vermiculite which plants thrive in and weeds do not. I will say it has cost a bit more to create and put together than what I had thought so it better be worth it or Mel might hear from me personally.

Mainly a container herb garden,

or as my mother used to laughingly call it "a pot garden."

The beginnings of the vegetable garden.

Mmmmm...more great veggies!

I am looking forward to a bounty of cucumbers, squash,

zucchini, okra, sweet red peppers, sweet yellow peppers, tomatoes,

lettuce and green beans this summer. Think we got it covered?

You'd be surprised how much Mel's mix I put together and shoveled into those 2 beds. Wanna know? Over 18 cubic feet which worked out to 471 pounds of mix. *I am woman, hear me roar!* And yes, I am sore today from doing it. I still need to finish up the right bed. (I have French green beans to plant.) And lest I forget, weeding the pea gravel walkways and adding more pea gravel around the perimeter of the garden beds.

So as you can see, we've been keeping busy, but hopefully, these efforts will pay off in the long run. Stay tuned!

moving on along

The bonus room is, that is. We did have slight hiccup though. Our contractor worked very hard on getting all the blemishes out of the concrete (meaning over 3 hours of sanding and buffing it to get rid of any old glue, etc.) prior to staining it. Well, no matter what he tried. The stain wouldn't take so we ended up with a floor that looked like, well, rusted.

Pretty, right?

Obviously, not the look we were going for so back to the drawing boards. I think S and I really would like hardwoods down there at some point, but the budget isn't going to allow that at this point in time. Also, in the essence of time, we really just needed to get the room finished so we went with a basic garage floor epoxy. To be honest, I wasn't really thrilled with the color selection offered but I think it's going to turn out better than I thought.

First coat of garage floor epoxy

A close-up of the new floor

S and I are now focusing on room color. Ok, really, I am, but S is obsessed with getting the furniture in and set-up. I keep telling him that we aren't doing a thing until all the painting is done, because truthfully, if we don't finish the wall color and trim before we start moving the new stuff in, then it probably won't ever get finished. With that said, I've started painting here and there trying to feel out the new color. I wanted something fresh and funky for a modern look and now I just have to make sure I can live with it. Ha!

Sneak peek

The color is light aqua and the picture doesn't quite get it right, but you get the drift. I've ordered a red area rug and am making large cushions for the futon with red accents for a fun twist. Now, I shall keep my fingers crossed that it all comes together.

Hopefully, I'll have a picture of a finished room by this weekend!

field trip!

W had his 1st school (mini) field trip on Monday to a local ice cream parlor that is within walking distance of his school. Lil'bit was sick so he got to tag along as well. At 9:30 am, because we all need ice cream at 9:30 in the morning, parents lined up with their children and walked to the store for ice cream.

To make it easy, students had the choice of four flavors: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry or Superman (which was a mixture of *bright* red, blue and yellow ice cream). W really didn't care about flavor as much as he did colors. He wanted "red" ice cream so he got strawberry. Of course, baby G had to have a cone as well so he got Superman.

W loved his ice cream until it started melting and from that point on asked me to clean it off which for him meant me totally dumping the ice cream and just giving him the cone to eat. G, on the other hand, wasn't about to lose any ice cream and tried to devour his cone.

Excited!

Yummy!

Class shot

"Don't even think about taking it away, mama!"

What a mess!

Ice cream is good.

the end is in sight...

of construction that is. The bonus room once finished will serve as a sewing room for me and a place for overnight guests to stay. Additionally, it will serve as media room down the road as the boys get bigger.

Background: Our bonus room flooded in November/December 2009. We had to rip out the carpeting and sheet rock which had begun to mildew in mold. Then, we decided to add extra insulation the the wall that connects to the outside of the house, which meant tearing out more sheetrock and redoing it. After that we decided to take out the drop tile ceiling which was oh so nasty due to the apparent rodent infestation that had been there at one time. As you can see, this turned into a bigger and bigger project which was being done by S and a part-time hired help. Since S was doing it in his free time (ha!) after a full time job, part time school, and 2 little boys, you can easily see why it drug out throughout 2010.

That's why we made the decision in December to find a contractor to finish it for us and we could not be more thrilled. We hired Natco Construction to work on the ductwork to make it more efficient, finish out the room, and to stain the concrete floor while we are at it. The guys at Natco construction are doing a fantastic job and we should be done sometime next week! WOOT! Here are some of pictures of the room under construction:

Removed the built-in bookcase and shelves. They were way too deep

to be efficient so we took them out in order to have a nice storage closet.

New ductwork to have heat and a/c in the room.

Patched up wall

View from stairwell.

View from the end of the room

View from other side

Additionally, we made a trip to Ikea in Atlanta for our 6th anniversary for a shopping excursion to help get the new room in order. We bought some bookcase systems, a futon bed for guests and a new table (sewing) for me. Since we will have exposed ductwork in the room, the room needed a more modern and contemporary feel to it so Ikea was the perfect fit. In order to make this happen, I had to get a trailer hitch put on our vehicle on Friday and borrow a trailer. We looked like country come to town rolling into Ikea on Saturday. The kids did well for the most part, but then the no nap meltdowns started occuring as we were trying to get our stuff loaded for checkout. We decided at that point to divide and conquer. Since we had filled out cart and still hadn't gotten the futon loaded, we decide to pay for what we had ready and take it and the boys to car. From there, I gave the kids their "special" snack and drink and pulled out the car DVD player which they hadn't used before and almost immediately we had happy campers. I stayed with them while S finished shopping for the futon.

With all that said, we then rolled out of Ikea and headed to Steak 'n Shake. We didn't have a romantic or fancy dinner with just the 2 of us for our anniversary, but it was perfect the way it was. We came to Ikea, we conquered Ikea and then we got milkshakes. As we sat there with our 2 babies, I couldn't help but think about the all the changes we had experienced since our wedding day. Here's a few pictures:

On February 26th, 2005, we became a husband and wife, but on February 26, 2011, we were a family of four. It was as it should be.