Summer 2010

Every summer I always have a lengthy "to-do" list, listing various projects I want to work on around the house, decorative or crafty projects I want to try, or even this year things like renew driver's license and purchase a safety deposit box.

As July came to an end, I started to get a little claustrophobic at the amount of things on my list that hadn't been accomplished.  (For all of you reading this who are not type A people, I know that's not necessarily something with which you can identify.  But, it's a fact of life for those of us who are type A.)  As I pondered how it was possible that I had 8 weeks free from work and still didn't get everything done, I made a list of the things that we did do this summer.  Mainly for me to help myself see how we spent out time, and sadly I guess to make me realize that those days of freedom weren't wasted.

After I made the list, I felt a little better.  And slightly more neurotic.  I will expound about some of the personal lessons I learned over summer break in another post, but one of the primary lessons (that I am constantly learning) is to be content and live each day - each moment - as it comes.  Sometimes that "to-do" list needs to wait. Actually, MUST wait. I readily admitted that I am type A, so that's not an easy task.  But type A doesn't can't = slave to my schedule.  I am a work in progress in this area...

Since this blog is both a scrapbook of sorts for me, and a way to communicate with friends and family, I am sharing a snapshot of our summer break.  I am including some pictures of some of my  more fun "projects", and some were too boring to even acknowledge (such as the picture I didn't take for you of my super organized bathroom cabinets).  It was a magnificent summer!

June
--Spent a week in Grayton Beach with Tootsie, Pop, BB, and Turner
--Came back from beach, started the week as VBS teacher's lounge food coordinator.
--Left mid-week of VBS for summer trip to Louisiana to see Granny and Grandpa.
--Spent four days of the last two weeks in June at workshops and school related obligations.
--Also during those last two weeks of June,  I visited the dentist twice and the optometrist once.  Why I wait till summer to do those things I will never know...
--Attended 5 of 6 Camp War Eagle pep rallies so we could see Daddy.  And Aubie.  Mainly Daddy.

July
--We started July off with an overnight trip to Birmingham with Mark - we visited BB and Matt, went to the McWane Center, and Turner enjoyed staying in her first hotel.
--Three days later both sets of grandparents joined us for a weekend trip to Atlanta to visit the Georgia Aquarium.  They all returned to spend July 4th with us here in Auburn - complete with fireworks, watermelons, and homemade icecream. (Or icemilk as it were...since some bright individual forgot to put the dasher in the container before we turned it on. Thank you Pop and Grandpa for working so hard to try to get that stuff to freeze!  I. Am. A. Dork.)
--After the weekend of the 4th, Mark starts the busy homestretch of two more Camp War Eagles (and we attend two more pep rallies), aiming to finish the summer strong.  Just as he gets busy...life finally slows down for me a little bit with 4 solid weeks of no official plans before school starts!   (Well, other than hosting the CWE party at my house, visiting friends at the lake, etc.)
--And oh by the way...the other musician at our church (who has served faithfully as our church pianist for 15 years) resigned.  On July 11th, I became the full time pianist. The amount of time I spend there didn't increase, but the amount of individual practice time weekly certainly did.
--In all my "free time", I start working on some of my projects:

Project 1: Recovering my patio cushions.  Previously 7 years old, covered in mildew.  Mom brought the fabric to me and I sewed these new cushions and it made a world of difference!

Project 2: Painting the custom built shelf that my team member Russ made for me and reorganizing and sort of "decorating" our back grilling porch.  I cannot even explain how much more I love this area now!  I also recovered those cushions and the lamp shade to match.

And while I wouldn't normally air out all the "business" on the inside of a cabinet...please realize that I asked Russ to build this shelf for me because all this stuff was laying out on the back porch!  Totally unorganized and the clutter made me a nut!  This shelf is exactly what I wanted!   (Isn't that a sweet radio/tape player on the top?)

Project 3:  Both of these next two projects were started at one point in time, and finished at a much later point in time.  But I had to share them because I am so proud of how they turned out!  First, I saw a skirt like this at the Syrup Sop a few years back and just knew I could re-create it.  I also have been working on using my sewing machine (not an embroidery machine) to applique and though I am still not a pro, I have made a few things for Turner that I like.  This will be her outfit for Saturday's game in Starkville!

And second, some letters for Melissa and Matt's nursery - we are so happy to have Cooper home!  :)

In addition to the projects listed above I/we:
--transitioned Turner from her crib and baby room into a big girl room (and with that comes completely new bedding, moving Turner's letters like the ones above 8 inches to the right to center over the new bed, etc.)
--cleaned out and organized almost every cabinet and drawer in my house
--reorganized our "office/sewing/craft" room into a much more manageable space, including a complete overhaul of our personal filing system

And in-between all of these fun projects, Turner and I spent a whole lot of our morning time at the neighborhood pool, some of our afternoons at FrogLegs (I highly recommend the summer pass), and pretty much anytime we wanted shopping at the mall or Target. 

We spent a lot of time with Mrs. Norma - my 77 year old good friend who Turner honestly believes is  another grandmother that lives here in Auburn. 

We spent a lot of time drawing, coloring, painting with water colors, and falling in love with "The Berenstain Bears" (which thrills both Mark and me since these books were some of our most beloved from our childhood).
We capped off the summer with a fun, family trip to Gulf Shores.  I needed that one more time to get my toes in the sand, sun on my legs, and salt water in my eyes.  One more time to savor the freedom that comes with summer break.  One more time to just spend time with Mark and Turner - with nothing getting in the way. 

Did I mark off everything on my list?  No.  
Does it matter?  No.

It was a magnificent summer. 

"This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it."   Psalm 118:24

A song and a memory verse to start her year off right!

After being with me all summer, I wasn't sure how Turner was going to handle my return to school. We had been through some situations and anxieties that caused us to end our "mommies morning out" preschool program after 4 days, so Turner had literally been with me every day, almost all summer. I had no clue how that would play into her return to daycare.

It didn't take me long to see that she was going to be just fine.  The first morning I went to wake her up, she asked where we were going.  (She started to figure out that me having put on makeup and having rollers in my hair meant we were going somewhere this summer...)  When I told her I had to go to work, and she was going to Mrs. Rhonda's, Turner threw her hands up in the air and shouted with excitement!  The next day I got the same question and her answer was slightly different; she just smiled and threw her hands up in the air and said, "AGAIN?!"  Like in a, "YES, I can't believe I get to go back there again today!"  We've done that for 19 school days now and every day the reaction is the same.  What a blessing.

There are so many things that Rhonda does for her "babies" and I know that we all believe that she cares for them as if they were her own flesh and blood.  I never, ever, worry about Turner during the day.  One of my favorite things about Mrs. Rhonda's house is the individualized attention that Turner receives - when Rhonda realized Turner could developmentally handle some puzzles and letter recognition games she helped her work through them at her house, then sent us home with the bag full of games and puzzles for the summer.  She knows that Turner loves to learn, always looks for ways to continually promote Turner's academic growth.

But, maybe one of my favorite moments happened on Thursday, Aug 19th.  When I picked Turner up, Rhonda told Turner to sing me the song she had learned that week, and Turner sang the "Red Song" for me almost perfectly.  "I can spell red, R - E - D.  I can spell red, look and see.  First comes R, then comes E, and on the end I put a D.  I can spell red, R - E - D, I can spell red, look and see."  Of course I cheered and clapped and bragged.  But the best moment came next....Rhonda said, "Turner, now say your memory verse for the week."  I didn't know they were learning a memory verse?  And my sweet baby says with great conviction, "I am fearfully, and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14." 

Y'all.  Seriously.  I am not an emotional person, but so many emotions flooded me at that moment. A gratefulness for the passion Rhonda has for teaching her "babies" so much more than letters, numbers, and shapes.  She teaches them to love the Lord, and to hide His word in their hearts.  She demonstrates what it means to do everything to the glory of God.  I also felt a tad of shame...if my almost 3 year old can memorize a Bible verse in a week, how much more could and should I be memorizing and hiding in my heart weekly?  I felt so much pride in my sweet girl and her little high pitched voice speaking of what Mark and I already knew - that God carefully created and knitted her together in my womb and gave her as a gift to us.

Rhonda made Turner a badge to celebrate her memorization of memory verse #1 and she was so proud of it she wanted to wear it home.  I asked Turner if she'd let me film her singing her new song and reciting her verse and she agreed.  There may or may not have been Oreos promised to her if she would oblige my request.  Here's the result.  Not sure why she acts like she's squeezing her air supply at the end of the song...that's just typical Turner. Drama queen.





They were supposed to focus on one verse a month, but Turner got this one so quickly she has already received verse #2 - Psalm 28:8.  The Lord is mighty indeed!

Who knew?

Who knew that people actually went places (like grocery shopping and to Target) between the hours of 1pm and 3pm on Saturday afternoon?  Mark and I had forgotten!!

Last night, we met my parents in Montgomery and they headed south with Turner while Mark and I headed back east with an empty backseat.  Turner has been begging to see Tootsie and Pop for a while now, specifically to go to AndaLUsia.  We worked out the fine details this week, and at one point were hesitant since Turner had a bad cold.  When Turner picked up on the fact that she might have to miss out on the trip due to her sickness she quickly assured me, "Mommy - I feel good now.  I am all better."

Seriously, we almost had tears before we left home yesterday....because we weren't moving toward the car fast enough!  Turner pleading and close to crying,  "Please can we go NOW to see Tootsie and Pop?" It was almost insulting how quickly she wanted to get in their car and leave me and Mark in the Costco parking lot. 

We are SO grateful she feels this way.  Mark even commented that he can't wait for her to be able to go in a couple of years and stay there a week or more...and he hopes that when she's 12 she'll go for longer.  I mentioned that perhaps when she's 12 she can just go live with them while she goes through puberty?  Just kidding.  Maybe.

Anyhow...Mark and I are enjoying some much needed time to just do WHATEVER before the craziness of football season begins.  We slept till 9:00am (disgraceful to some of you I know), then left at 11am and didn't come back till 3pm!  We haven't run errands together at that time of day in almost 3 years - that is normally nap time!  We are going out to eat tonight at a nice restaurant - and we might not arrive until 8:00pm, which is normally when we try to be home if we have a sitter.  Can you tell we are living dangerously with our freedom?!  :)

In the absence of afternoon tea parties, paint sessions, and playing dress up, I am using the time to complete several blog posts that have been sitting in my drafts pile for days...stay tuned!

Gulf Shores 2010

My last post was almost a month ago, and as I posted that evening asking for advice regarding our trip to Gulf Shores, I knew full well that the trip to the beach was my final summer treat, a calming getaway before life got crazy.  It's almost one month later, and crazy doesn't even begin to cover it.  It seriously seems like that trip was ages ago!  But, it was the absolute perfect way to end our summer and we soaked up every moment of family time, beach time, sun time, and rest time that we could before our return to reality in early August!

Thank you all for your recommendations on yummy restaurants!  We don't really do "eating out" when we are at the beach; we much prefer to order takeout and avoid having to actually come off the beach before dusk and get showered and clean!  To me that just wastes beach time!  We had takeout from The Shrimp Basket, The Gulf Shores Steamer, The Wheelhouse Restaurant, The Original Oyster House, and Bahama Bob's.  We'd recommend any of these restaurants - and Mark definitely made his goal of not eating anything but seafood while he was there!

Thank you to the HCC's from 2010 for your thoughtfulness in giving us this wonderful end of summer getaway!  Here are a few of my favorite pics...

I don't know these two women, but I was overcome at the sweetness of this moment. I want this to be me and mom...and then me and Turner...

This is Turner's first experience in a hot tub - she loved it!

Do you think this little girl is in heaven with both Pop and Daddy to entertain her?

One evening, we did actually get dressed and put on clothes that weren't beach coverups and attempt to take some more beach family shots since Mark wasn't able to join us at the beach in June. We had about 10 min of a clear lens, and then just as a very nice passerby offered to take one of our entire family, the lens clouded completely over. Like, couldn't see to take a picture cloudy. So some of these are cloudier than I'd like, but we did finally get the lens to cooperate and we did get some really neat shots after this minor setback.

Mark and I had a photo shoot at the beach while we were engaged, but since then we've not been at the beach together with someone who could snap a few updated photos of "just us"...

...and while we were busy smiling for the camera, Turner decided to do this!

And for the record, I really was reacquainted with many of the charming and appealing aspects of Gulf Shores vs. the Florida beaches with which I am more familiar.  It reminds me of the Ft. Walton and Destin of my childhood - a real beach lovers, family town.  Not overly commercialized, or designed to cater more toward the elite.  It was laid back and easy going - just the way I like the beach.  And we didn't encounter a ton of tar balls, or petroleum smells...there was some evidence of the oil spill, but we swam every day in the ocean and on the last day the water was more clear and calm than I have ever witnessed. The perfect end to the perfect summer.