Free Movie (but you have to go with me)

AMC Backlot is reopening a kind of dinner theatre next month and they invited a bunch of people from my work to sign up and kind of do a "test run" that they are doing tomorrow night 7/1. I am signed up for the 9:30pm showing of Definitely Maybe (chick flick) but I have two tickets and TAD is going to stay home with the kids, so if anyone wants to come with me... Its free movie, food and drink (coca-cola product of coarse), but I know its late, but I don't want to go alone. Any takers?

Patriot Breakfast

courtesy of cje llc

This is just a reminder that rain or shine, please come out tomorrow to enjoy some cook to order food, good friends, and great conversation. Come anytime!
sorry for those of you who don't live here, but you are really missing out...

Obstacle Course

GJ is drawn to our dinig room table. He spends most of his time getting caught under the chairs and legs and then crying till someone comes and frees him. This is probably is favorite pastime. I am really looking forward to when he starts walking so he is not constantly underfoot.

New Cousin!

Lincoln was born yesterday to my baby sister. Look at all that hair! I can't wait to hold him. Though he is in ID, so that is going to be really hard. He was 6'15" and seems to be doing great so far. He tried to come out face up, but finally turned around and everything seemed to go very smoothly. He now shares his birthday with two other cousins. June is a really popular month in our family. I just love newborns!

He's 3!

SM had a great birthday yesterday! He has mostly been talking about his cake as we made the chocolate half of it Sat night and he was so excited. He actually took a nap yesterday because he knew he would get some when he woke up. Do you like my fake Thomas? Its my first attempt at cake decorating, I think I need a real class! He had a few friends come and share. I feel bad we had to cancel his little playgroup party, but it was much less stressful for me!

Happy Birthday SM!

Thanks for visiting us Tara!

Monday this week my good friend from FW came to visit on business and we were able to go to dinner and play some games. We have been friends since they moved into on block over by Camelot. We became really good friends at Stake Youth Conference one year and after that we hung out till college. I had such a great group of friends in jr high and high school, I look back with such great memories on that time, going to church dances and slumber parties almost every weekend, TPing, seminary, mutual, hanging out with my brother and his friends too. It wasn't all perfect, I admit I did some dumb things, but overall, I am so grateful for our "click" and their friendship during what could have been a really difficult time in my life with my parents and all. Wow, I didn't mean to make this all cheesy, so sorry. It was just a really fun time in my life.
SM was cranky and a little shy at first, but when we got back to our house, he sure warmed up to Tara, making her read him books and showing off for her. Even trying to order her around and make her put his toothbrush away before he finally went to bed (after getting up several times of course). Anyway, hope you had fun Tara and didn't get too warm! It was so good to see you!

On the mend

Just want to say thanks for all those who called and emailed me this week, sorry I was not super responsive, but I am doing tons better and even though I think I still look bad, I feel like medicine if finally working and I am getting better and have lots more energy and way less pain! I hate being sick.

Happy 1st Birthday GJ!

So you want me to do what with this cake? (I made a delicious egg free chocolate cake, I am so glad it turned out)

SM decides to show him how its done. (he went to town as he is never allowed to have cake with eggs and this is the first one I have attempted) Okay, but as long as I don't get too dirty. He didn't enjoy eating it too much. But he was a fan of crumbling it and throwing it about. He loves his new ball. But hasn't quite decided how he feels about Elmo.

He is still my sweet little baby, rolls and all! Happy Birthday GJ!

Happy Father's Day

Tad is a great dad in general, but this weekend he has truly been a champ as I have not been feeling great or even around very much and he hasn't complained once about basically having to run the household, which normally is my job. He always plays with the kids (sometimes I think he likes legos more than SM) and reads to them often. He works so hard in school and in all his responsibilities. He had to share his Father's Day with GJ's birthday this year but we made him a special dinner. Thanks for being such a great dad! We love you!photo courtesy of SM photography

While Mom's away...

So I had a race Sat morning. Left early, ran a good 4 miler, and then came home around 9am, only to find SM in the chair and Tad with the clippers out and all of his sweet curls on the floor. Tad had been bugging me to cut and I really was going to trim it up, but alas, its all gone. It will grow back. He forgot to put the cape on him though, so after I fixed and blended what Tad had done he had this super hairy back. which of coarse I thought was too funny to pass up. The picture doesn't do it justice, it really looked like it was growing out of his back. Yuck to back hair.

Pool Time

GJ's first time in a pool, he was not thrilled at first with the cool water, but after a while he loved it and went splashing around. SM lounged around mostly. He is more of a chicken this year, last year he would walk or jump into water and this year he would hear of letting go of me or being off his little raft.

All on a summer's day...

GJ's new favorite activity. Yuck

One berry, two berry, pick me a...

We had a great week.
Sunday Gladys Knight came to church at our Atlanta ward and shared her testimony. It was pretty cool. Wednesday Tad had his update with his PhD committee and I feel like we are finally getting close to the end. It went well. 2009 graduation we are hoping for. Then who knows where we will end up. I don't want to think about that yet though because we love our house and living here for now. Friday I had off and got lots of errands run, a new webcam so we can talk conf call on line at oovoo.com with my family, and we had playgroup and the park. SM had a great time with all the kids, I wish we could go more often. He especially loves his friend Andrew, they get along so well together. He some some duck-el-ings and some geese honk-el-ing. It was pretty cute. Sat after I had a quick morning run and pancakes (that is turning into a weekend tradition now that we can all eat them and not worry about allergies) we went down south of the city and picked strawberries and raspberries. It was HOT but we had a great time. (not to mention delicious!) Thanks for the idea Mabes!

Mmmm, raspberries! We better try this out before we actually buy them. I think we need a second opinion. Are we ready to go yet? Its too hot out here!

SYTYCD

If you know what that stands for, you are with me. I don't know what it is, but I love it. Well not so much auditions, but I am ready for tomorrow and the real stuff. One of the highlights of my summer. I know, kind of lame, but I'm obsessed.

I wish we had more 3 day weekends...

They were painting our office today so we all got to go home and work. It was pretty stinky and I was getting a headache, so I was glad. Plus then I got to go to lunch with Tad and I always love that. We went to Toscano and Sons which has the best panini and is really an Italian store, so it’s terrible for kids so we can’t go often so it was fun to escape for a quick lunch. We had a busy weekend. We ran as a family twice at the Silver Comet Trail. I always try to get out of pushing the double stroller. My excuse is he runs faster than me. SM gets out at the end and runs with me too, but he seems to get so distracted with the bikes and everything else going on. I got a lot of the garden together and the rest of my seeds bought, but I see after the rain today, I am going to have to start all over, its too slanted and it was under 3 inches of water on one side. I moved the herbs to a window box, but I am not sure if the cilantro is going to pull through. He had a random reaction to some rice-a-roni that left his face in hives. I don’t think it was eggs though, it seemed to be just a skin reaction and there was nothing listed in the ingredients. Poor kid though, you can’t see so well in the picture, but he had hives on his lips!

Memorial Day was fun, we got a kiddie pool and it was a hit, though GJ wouldn't go in because the water was cold. I wish we would have had time to do more that day, but the kids weren't cooperating naptimes. They of course fell asleep in the car at the end of our evening.

Get ready to run.

Order in the Court

So I was downtown at the courthouse Tuesday through Thursday. We stayed till 7:45 Thursday night to deliberate. It was a very long day. MARTA worked out fairly well though, Five Points Station is just around the corner.
So Tuesday they herd everyone through long lines to go through the metal detectors and then to check in. you watch this lovely video about the GA justice system. Its getting close to about 10 (you have to be there at 8am) and they still aren't calling any groups back, though they said there was 29 cases that all had to be tried so it would be busy. Great. So I see they actually have a special lactation room (always better than the bathroom) so as I am walking over to try to find someone who will give me a key, they of course start calling names. I am in the first group. They take 36 of us down. I told the bailiff I needed like a 20 minute break and I couldn't wait too long (of course after an awkward conversation about lactation that he wasn't quite catching on to.) So I was #22, they took the first 14 people, put them in the jury box, do some general questions with everyone, we just raise our numbers. Then the individual questions start (I finally got a break at this point) and you can tell the case is about contracting because they ask everyone about their past experience with contractors. And their whole schooling and current job, past if it had to do with contractors or lawyers. This is taking forever. We get a lunch break and then its our groups turn, 14 more people being asked many questions. This is taking hours folks. They say thats enough questions and they go back to decide. Luckily I have a book, which I have read about half of to this point. Finally at about 2:30pm, they come back, dismiss the last group of 14, they never got asked any questions and just had to sit there the whole time, poor folks. But at least they get to go home at this point. My name is of course called. They show us to the jury room, we get to go potty really quick and then it begins. Opening statements. Now I actually love all this lawyer talk. They aren't the greatest lawyers ever (one of them was the mayor of Roswell!) but basically a contractor was suing a couple for about $63,000 of work they did at his house. He had fired them midway through the job and refused to pay them. He had already paid them over $50,000 though. It was all kind of shady, you could tell both parties were not telling the complete truth. Partly was because this happened 4 years ago. The family had a tree rip open their house during the storm here for Hurricane Francis. Insurance covered the damage, but he added all these upgrades and remodels and extended his bedroom and changed the plans 3 times, after they had framed. It was ugly business. Wednesday was testimony all day. There was so many pieces of evidence, pictures, checks, copies of estimates and plans, which no one ever signed! Come on people, lets sign and date documents here. One lawyer kept getting the papers and the numbers they assign to them mixed up, or he would call them 'defense exhibit' instead of 'plaintiff.' Or he would lose them all together and we would have to recess till he found them. Judge was not very paitent with them. But she was great and really snappy which made if funny. It was just all very long. The judge would as if they were getting close to a stopping point (so we could take a break and I could take care of business) and he would say like "just another hour of questioning." An hour! My jury was great though, there were 2 FBI agents, and a court reporter and everyone had a college education, so when it came down to decision time, everyone was pretty smart and it wasn't too bad. It was just 5 o'clock by the time we started and no one wanted to come back Friday. We all were on the side of the contractor, so at least that was easy, but we had to decide on how much he got for the repair work, how much for the remodel work, and if he got attorney fees ($200 an hour!) because the defendant was the cause of all this trouble. I was very vocal of course about how much he should get and after a couple hours or so it was all decided. We put defendant instead of defendants so when we went out the the courtroom, we had to go back to the jury room and get it just right. Its amazing how many details have to go into everything. It all has to be just right. My mother said I should have been a lawyer, but I don't think I could handle it, but I do love to watch. I just wished it moved at Law and Order pace.

SMisms

Winnie: Hurry, we need to get in the car so we can go to the temple.
SM: Mama, I don't want to get married.


Winnie: Can you see what GJ is doing over there, he just coughed weird.
SM: He's just chokin' a little.

Winnie: What goes on the road?
SM: Cars.
Winnie: And the tracks?
SM: Trains.
Winnie: And in the air?
SM: Airplanes and helicopters.
Winnie: And in the water?
SM: Dolphins and crabs. We don't eat crabs. Mama, do babies go in the water?


Winnie: We are going to drive home to pick up Daddy and GJ so we can go to Costco.
SM: We don't need to take GJ, just Mama, Daddy and SM can go to Costco.
Winnie: What about your brother, he's too little to stay home alone.
SM: Just don't worry about it. (this is his favorite new phrase)

Jury Duty

I have to go downtown tomorrow to do my civil duty. Though I like being on an actual jury, I am not happy about having to go downtown and since there is a Braves game, we can't park in the lot, so I am pretty much stuck and am making myself very nervous. I hope it all works out and its only a one day ordeal.

UPDATE:
Even though I tried to pull the "I'm a nursing mother and I need breaks to pump" card, they still selected me and I will be on the trial for another 2-5 days!!! I'll let you know how it goes.

Race, Mother's Day, Brothers

We just can't seem to take a decent family picture with these to bugs.

Well its been a busy week! The Grandparents left, I had a nice mother's day. I know it sounds funny, but the highlight for me was making pancakes that all of us could eat for the very first time. The egg replacer works great in those and I can't wait to experiment in more recipes.
The 5K seemed so nice compared to 13 miles, that I loved it. Thanks for running with me, it was perfect weather and we got some great things afterwards. I love races and the freebies afterwards!
The boys are finally starting to get to the stage where they can play together. GJ is still a bit young, but he is copying more and more of what his brother does. He can walk now with his push toy, but I still think it will be a while before he can balance all that chub and get around on his own. Can't believe he is 11 months old!
I went and had lunch with SM today. He wasn't to thrilled about nuggets without ketchup, but he dipped them in his mashed potatoes, so it all worked out. He is kind of bossy though, he told another little girl, "Go wash your hands. Germs are not for sharing."