Thankful, but Exhausted!

I'm so exhausted today. Ryan's been gone since the day after the gala. Southern Cross was waiting in Marathon, FL and Ryan flew down there Saturday. Monday they crossed the Gulf Stream and made it to the Bahamas. We've tried twice since 2003 but the weather has thwarted our attempts. Ryan's so elated that he finally made it over there again. All that's great, but I've been taking care of our two children and I'm worn out. I don't know how single mothers do it full time!

Ok, enough complaining, on to something more positive. Zachary's reading has reached a whole new level, and it's a wonder to see. He's sounding out multi syllable words and reading much faster now. It's so much fun watching him grow, and he's growing so fast.

Evan is still teething, but no teeth yet. He's been having trouble nursing, which is diminishing my milk supply some, but today was better. Let's hope the night will be better.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I am most thankful for my sweet little family. Since Ryan's not here to help with the kids I'm staying home this year instead of going to my Mom's house. Kurt and Denise are here and we're going to have a wonderful Florida feast. They brought oysters and red snapper. I'm making cheese grits. It won't be traditional, but it should be fun.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Do You Like Guns?

I cannot believe it's Tuesday already. I was hoping to blog daily, or at least every other day. Maybe one day.

So last night at dinner Zachary asked me "Do you like guns, mommy?" That's a hard one to answer, don't you think? So I probe. "Marshall likes guns." That's one of his friends at school. "John really likes guns a lot and shoots them all the time." John is his on again/off again friend at school. Oh boy. So I start talking about how Uncle Kurt uses a gun when he hunts (although Kurt mostly hunts with a bow & arrow). Our discussion found it's natural conclusion, but I was left wondering if I handled that correctly. How do you explain to a 4 year old about guns and gun safety? Isn't it too early for this? I know boys used to play cowboys and indians all the time. Ryan and Kurt played with toy guns when they were Zachary's age, but that was before Columbine. I would truly like to preserve his innocence on the topic a bit longer.

On a lighter note, Zachary's school had their Thanksgiving feast today. He was an Indian (again). I asked if any pilgrims were there, he said no. The poor pilgrims are vastly underrepresented.

Zachary's Indian name this year is Running Antelope. He was so proud of his headdress. He's even got his war paint on!

This is last year's Indian outfit:

Last year his Indian name was Thunderbird. Last year when he got in the car after school we headed to my Mother's house in Alabama. His headdress was still wet with glue and he got glitter all over my car and in his hair. This year the teachers were more organized!

My other darling, Evan, is growing so fast. He's not a little baby anymore. He's wearing size 6-9 months now! At his 4 month checkup last week he was 16 pounds! He's in the 95th percentile for height and 50th for weight. He's going to be tall like his Daddy, Uncle, and big brother. He's got TWO teeth about to cut through. Poor little guy has been miserable at times, but he's handling it pretty well. Thank God for Tylenol! I started him on a couple of spoons full of rice cereal per the pediatrician. He wasn't too sure about it at first, but last night he seemed to be warming up to it.

Speaking of the little guy, he's stirring from his afternoon nap. It's time to feed him and then my boys and I go outside. Zachary rides his bike while Evan rides in the stroller and we all get some fresh air and exercise. Zachary will be looking for the other kids in the neighborhood to play with. I guess we'll find out who else likes guns!

The Gala

Last night was the hospital Gala - aka the annual "Society Gala" - doesn't that sound impressive? This year Ryan was in charge. He booked Don Felder, former lead guitarist for the Eagles (he wrote Hotel California, among other hits for the band) for the entertainment. The evening was a huge success for the hospital, raising almost $200,000. That's unbelievable in this economy!





We have great next-door neighbors. They are a wonderful people with an adorable daughter around Zachary's age. The kids LOVE to play together. Our neighbors own a jewelry store, which is so fun because they love to wheel & deal. They found a necklace that Ryan got me for the birth of Evan. Their store specializes in high end estate jewelry. They offered to "jewel" me for the Gala. Um, OK! They inquired about my dress, then asked if I thought yellow diamonds and south sea pearls would work! Gee, I'm sure I could make those work!

So this is what $32,000 pearls look like. I have the matching earrings on, but I decided not to wear the matching ring - opting for the yellow diamond right hand ring instead. I'm conspiring with my neighbors to get the ring for Christmas. I'm not getting my hopes up because, although they insist they can give Ryan the deal of the century, I don't think Ryan wants to make anymore big purchases given the state of the economy. If the Dow would just rebound. C'mon, mama wants some bling!! It was sad taking all those diamonds back this morning.

On a related thought, why couldn't my parents have owned a jewelry store? I had extra opportunities with my parents divorced and both remarried. Why couldn't just one of them owned a jewelry store? Or a Mercedes dealership? Ok, I'm just kidding. Sort of.

The kids did well last night with my longtime sitter, Karen. She got both kids to bed with a minimum of trouble. Evan's not crazy about taking a bottle (although it is breastmilk) so I was concerned he wouldn't go to sleep easily. But Karen has the magic touch and everything went great.

The Year in Review

It's been over a year since I've blogged. A LOT has changed. What a year it's been.

Of course, the only people that read this blog are my friends and family and they all know what's happened, but I feel the need to document it. So here's the overview of my amazing year!

Here are Ryan and me at the hospital Gala last year. Ryan was the co-chair of the event, and we are pictured with our friends, Kerrie and Carl. Kerrie was the chair of the event.

This was the day I found out I was pregnant! It was a wonderful and fun night. This year Ryan is the chair of the event, and it's tomorrow night!

Christmas was a special one for Zachary. Santa brought him a new trampoline!

In January we took Zachary to Disney for the first time. It was magical!

We had such a good time, we went back again in February. Disney World does it right, I'm here to tell ya! They handle crowds of people so well. If TSA was run by Disney, people wouldn't hate flying so much.

In March I got to hang out with Debbie Reynolds. Doesn't she look great? She's Carrie Fisher's mom!! She was in town with the touring production of "Simply Ballroom" which was fantastic. I was starting to show my pregnancy then, but it was fun because I could still fit into my regular dresses.

In May we went sailing with our friends Lew and Teresa.

Here we are at a restaurant in Marathon. This is near the same marina we visited on our extended trip in 2006. This is where Zachary began talking and learned his colors. Lew and Teresa are such a fun couple to be around. Ryan and Lew are two peas in a pod, and Teresa and I get along great. They both love Zachary and were so good with him during around vacation around the Florida Keys. We were supposed to go to the Bahamas, but there was a major malfunction on the boat. I'll retell that story on a slow news day!

In June Zachary celebrated his 4th birthday with a huge "Cars" blowout party. We rented this huge slide for him and his friends. It was great, except that I was 8 months pregnant and feeling 85 months pregnant! Here are Ryan, his mom Joanne, his brother Kurt, Zachary, and me after the festivities had ended. Check out that huge belly!

And then almost a month later, after a quick 5 1/2 hours of labor, I gave birth to our second son Evan. He has been such a blessing and welcome addition to our family.

Not the best picture of either of us, but I'll publish more soon. He was born July 21, 2008 at 6:15 p.m. I ate lunch, went into labor, had the baby, and Ryan got me dinner from Outback Steakhouse. I love that I didn't even miss a meal!

Okay, that's a quick year in review. I've got many stories to tell but it's time to get some sleep. The hospital Gala is tomorrow night and it'll be a late night. Evan, a power teether like his big brother, is working on cutting two teeth so he may be up a bit tonight so I better get sleep while I can. Then next week we attempt another Bahamas adventure with Lew and Teresa! Stay tuned for more!