Amelia Grace's 3rd Birthday Party

What do you get when you put 35 people in a room, mostly adults, dressed in costumes? Amelia Grace's birthday party. At first when she wanted to have a costume party I thougt it was a great idea, then I started planning this party and suddenly realized that what I thought was a great idea....wasn't. I don't know how I convinced at least 24 adults to dress up in costumes and come to a birthday party....except to say that we have some pretty cool family and friends.

We had some unique costumes: Sarah Palin, several princesses, a butterfly, a black cat, pirates, bikers, doctor, nurse, panther fans, and player, bunnies, Grammy & Grampy, ladybugs, and bumblebees. There were a few that I think didn't want us to have evidence of their sillyness so they didn't dress up but we were blessed they came to the party. Oh yes, we had the most adorable little red riding hood and jack-o-latern you have ever seen.

We painted pumpkins and gave out lots of candy. The theme of the party was Tinker Bell (Amelia Grace is very into fairies right now...not sure why) So we gave out pixie sticks and had popcorn and cotton candy bags. We had cake and cupcakes sprinkled with pixie dust and really just had a very good time with family and friends.

Most importantly Amelia Grace had a wonderful time, and I think another costume birthday party will be in our future, just not next year.

Fireman, Firewoman, or Firefighter???

I am just wondering what you call a female fireman?
You see, our almost 3 year old daughter has told us several times that when she grows up she wants to be a firefighter. I am not sure whether it is the fact that she wants to (A) run into burning buildings to save people in the most horrible of situations, (B) some of the situations that she will be put into, the things that she will see, or (C) at the tender age of 3 she is already so adamant and passionate about what she wants to be when she grows up.
It isn't as though she has some silly reason for wanting to be a firefighter, she actually has logical, and reasonable reasons. If you ask her it isn't I want to ride on the big red truck, or I might get to play with a spotted dog. She says she wants to help people when they need it most.
Jason says he thinks she will make a great firefighter, and we should foster this in her and I say, it scares me.
I asked her if she would like to go see a real fire station and real fire trucks (Jason has a childhood friend that is a 10 year veteran on the Concord Department) she said,"sure, mommy but you know I am going to work there in a few years when I grow up." Man, she is growing up too fast.
She also says that Levi is going to be a firefighter when he grows up......who knows maybe we will have two in the family.

Hoots, Howls, & Other Country Sounds

I am wondering if owls are an endangered species, I know they are not extinct because we have one that sits outside our bedroom window every night and hoots, and hoots, and hoots, and hoots....get the picture? You would not think that an owl would be very loud, and in actuality it is not, it is the repetition of it's hooting that can drive a person crazy. I am not violent in my nature...I have honestly met animals that I like better than some people that I have met, but if I find out which tree this owl sits in every night I may be tempted to become violent with him or her.
I am sure that if it was possible to actually sit the owl down and explain to it that I am a mommy of 2 children, and that have just recently decided to join with the group of children who boycott daytime naps, so the only time I actually get to rest is at night....well until it moved in, that it would understand and gladly move to our neighbors house. Who, by the way, do not sleep at night, and I am not sure what they do during the day...but that is a completely different posting.
If the owl wasn't enough, our neighbors are one dog shy of having a pack like Caesar Milian, the dog whisperer. They have dogs of every shape, and size, but unfortunately for us it seems they all bark at the same level....LOUD! And when it rains, which they apparently do not like, they bark.....VERY LOUD! Not only do they bark, but they howl, not at sirens or "special" sounds but at everything. They are also mean.... both our neighbors and their dogs... rabid, you ask....the dogs I think are in the clear, but not sure about the neighbors. We have tried to be friendly, but they act like they will bite even if you were trying to feed them, so we just listen to their barking. I hope they don't read this and decide to join the owl and sit outside of our window and bark...both the neighbors and their dogs.
We actually live across the road from a Turkey Farm, and for those of you who are not familiar with turkeys they can actually gobble in unison....and very loudly. The other night Amelia Grace was sitting with her Daddy in the living room and she said mommy the turkey trucks are here. I looked out the front window and there were tractor trailer trucks parked on the side of the road and in front of our house waiting to go into the turkey farm to pick up their loads. They didn't get loaded until 3:00am...is turkey business best done at night? They certainly don't make less noise at night.
Actually during the day it is quiet, and calm, except for the occassional tractor going down the road. We are still very blessed to live where we do , and that our children get to see turkey, deer, turtles, cows, goats, horses.....I just wish they would choose to be both seen & HEARD not while I am trying to sleep.

The DMV and Costume Shopping

I discovered at 4:00am on Saturday morning, (after my cell phone woke me up to remind me that we had a surprise birthday party to go to that evening), that my drivers liscense expired on my 30th birthday. Jason did remind me that I needed to renew them... IN APRIL, but since then I have become a mommy of 2 and, besides the DMV was SUPPOSED to send me a reminder, which they DID NOT.

So after not being legally able to drive all weekend, my very sweet, kind, loving and just all around blessing to my life mother-in-law left her house at 7:00am this morning to go to the DMV and stand in line for me. (By the way if you live in the Concord and/or surrounding area you know this is very necessary.) I get Amelia Grace and Levi ready and we leave our house at 7:20am only to have to turn around to come back home because I forgot to put in my contacts. I am restriceted on my liscense for corrective lenses, but I actually see just as good without them. But anyway, I forgot my contacts so I came inside and grabbed a new pair out of the box and stuck them in my pocket, I know I should have put them in but I didn't. I was much to worried about getting pulled over and getting a ticket for driving without a liscense, which doesnt' make sense baciuse I do have a liscense it is just expired.

Thanks to my mother-in-law(which sounds like aname that should be reserved for a husbands mother that you do not like so I will call her Deloris from now on) I was the first person in line when they opened the doors at 8:05am, I was given my ticket and told to have a seat. I don't know id you know this but just because you are the first one in line doesn't mean you are the first one to go back. . But when I did get back to have my license renewed, I had to take the sign test and I almost missed the railroad crossing..actually I did but it was just a big yellow circle. I have two (not so quiet) children in the car with me and we usually pay attention to everything but signs on the road. So I got my license which I have to say is one of the best that I have had made, the picture is actually good.


I told Amelia Grace if she was good for her Nanny I would take her costume shopping after the DMV. How I ever let her talk me into a costume birthday party this year, I will never know. It actually sounded good in the planning stages.....not so much right now though. She said she needed to be a butterfly, but finding an insect costume isn't easy, so we settled for a"butterfly princess". We brought the costume home and it fit :) now on to mine & Jason's costumes.....we'll save that for another day.

An Interesting Conversation

A few weeks ago I was talking to Amelia Grace, my 2 year old, she brought one of her baby dolls in the living room to me and said, "I want a baby sister." I told her, "Well you have a baby brother, not a sister." She says," No Mommy I want a baby sister", so I tell her to go talk to her Daddy. I then think the conversation is over, because I know her Daddy is going to tell her "No". Besides there are no guarantees, the next baby could be another boy, but I am not trying to explain that one to a very precocious two year old. So a few days ago she came back to me with the baby doll and this time very demanding she said, "I want a baby sister, NOW", I tried to change the subject and mentioned to her that she really needed to talk to her Daddy. Which I don't think that she has or I am pretty sure that the subject would not have come up again. Anyway for now I haven't had to answer the question, "Why do I have a brother and not a sister?" I think she may have accepted her little brother...at least she hasn't tried to give him away yet!

The Scrapbook

Recently I thought my mama was very sick. I called her one day and asked her what she was doing she said she was separating pictures by families, now if any of you know my mama ( and some do) you know she is not one to clean out anything. So I told Jason that night I thought she might be sick and just not telling me. It turns out that I was just being paranoid and she is perfectly healthy. When she and mt daddy came up for my birthday dinner on Sunday they gave me my gifts one was a scrapbook starting from the day I was born going up to the day that I gave birth to Levi. This is why she was cleaning out our pictures. I was so touched by this gift and it never crossed my mind she would be doing this for me. I am so happy she did.

I now have pictures of my Mamaw and Papaw who have passed away and my Uncle Peewee who has also passed away. I have actually gotten to sit down and look at this very precious scrapbook and see pictures of my friends like Brandy and Nicole, and pictures of my 16th b-day when I got my little white convertible cabriolet. pictures of me in plays at church and memories that I had forgotten, or just had not taken the time to remember.
What an awesome gift to give me these memories that will now last a lifetime that I can share with my children when they get older.

Wednesday October 1, 2008....My 30th Birthday

Well on Wednesday I turned 30 years old, technically not until 7:29pm, but 30 nonetheless. I thought I would feel different, I had approached this particular birthday with much less enthuasim than I have all of the others, there was no excitement about gifts...no anticipation to go shopping. I actually cleaned my house!!!

It could be that I have a 5 month old son that is teething and I have been getting no sleep, but I really don't think so. So as I was feeling old and run down two very unique conversations popped into my head-One was a conversation I had a few months earlier with my younger sister. We were talking about getting older and she made the comment, now she just turned 21, she had heard that 30 was the new 20....yeah that was her attempt at making me not feel so old. Bless her heart I love her she is everything that I was at her age..it just makes me tired thinking about one of her weekends.

The next conversation was with a sweet friend Liz as we were sitting at her baby shower, some how we got on the topic of birthdays and I mentioned I was going to be turning 30. She turned to me and said,"did you ever think you would be a mom of two when you were 30?" Actually after we lost Remington in 2004 and I was told that I would never be able to get pregnant again, and if by some miracle I did I would never carry the baby to full term, actually I didn't think I would ever be a mommy to anyone.

Then 2 sweet little faces popped into my head...suddenly I thought...how great it is to be 30(the new 20), and to be a mommy to two of the most precious beautiful miracles in the world.

Thank you Melani & Liz...you made me realize age is just a silly little number.