Truths about Johnny B.

Reasons why my Father is awesome ( a fun little list in honor of my Dad)

1. He has an entire drawer dedicated to chocolate. Not the cheap stuff, but real chocolate

2. He lovingly shares the chocolate from said drawer.

3. He truly believes chocolate cures any illness or heartache.

4. His soothing voice can calm the angriest of babies.

5. His biting sarcasm... It's amazing to behold in full force!

6. He is one of the most generous people I know.

7. He loves to dance and is really good at it. I am hoping one of these days he will teach me to shag          
( a southern beach style dance).

8. He has impeccable taste. The man knows how to dress.

9. Unlike many men, he has never shied away from saying he loves his family or showing affection.

10. He is an extremely hard worker.

11. He loves to iron........Okay this one might just be strange.

12. He willingly played barbies and had tea parties with us when we were children. Now, he willingly plays Legos, ninja, or whatever other craziness his grandsons request.

13. He cooks breakfast every morning, and it is always delicious.

14. His homemade spaghetti sauce is legendary.

15. He is a true biblical example of what a husband and father should be.

Yep, my Dad rocks.

Home again

After seven hours of interstate, intermittent sleeping and crying, face booking, snacking, changing DVDs, candy crush, and hearing " I'm hungry" we are finally home from our vacation.

We spent the majority of our time connecting with and enjoying family. We did take our oldest son to the aquarium which he thoroughly enjoyed. I also had the chance to slip away for some thrift store shopping which I thoroughly enjoyed. And dont worry about the hubs, he was able to enjoy several hours of basketball! 

Despite all my worrying about sleep situations we all slept and survived. My boys weren't too wild, and I didn't display too much crazy. I am embarrassed to admit I was the last one up each morning ( one morning I didn't get up till ten!) I told the hubs they probably think I'm the laziest person ever. He assured me they knew I had been up with the baby through out the night. I chose to believe him, and just avoided eye contact as I stumbled down the stairs each morning.

Now, I'm just glad to be out of the car and safely home. The boys are already in their beds and I am ready for mine. Hopefully later this week I can share some more detail and photos of our trip. But right now I'm going to fall asleep to the sweet sounds of the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Golden State Warriors.           

                  

                       * Sigh..........*

Mini Me

Recently it has becoming increasingly apparent that my child is very aware of the things I say and do. He is so aware that he begins to say and do them too. Sometimes this can be very sweet and heart warming, other times it is embarrassing and convicting.

Today we took Isaac to the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta. Now if you know me you know I HATE fish. I think they are grossly weird creatures and the oceans would be much better without them. Unfortunately, my husband and son think they are amazing. Hence the trip to the Aquarium. While there I caught myself spelling a lot of my thoughts to my husband. For example, " That angler fish is g-r-o-s-s." I didn't want Isaac to know I thought the whole place horrible. I didn't want to color his experience, or ruin sea life for him. He loves it, and I didn't want that to change because of me.

This evening, as I sat thinking about our day, I realized how hard I had worked at protecting him from such a trivial thing... My opinion of fish. My actions today showed I understand the power of my influence in his life. Am I that aware when it comes to things that matter? Do I protect him from gossip? Name calling? Anger? Sarcasm? Whining? Blaming others?

Do I instead provide him with attitudes to emulate? Do I encourage him to love others? Share? Give freely? Encourage? Forgive? Sacrifice?  Do I point him to Christ in my everyday actions and responses ?

My boys are watching and listening. Their responses to life will reflect my own. It's time I truly consider what they are seeing and hearing so I can be proud of what I hear and see from them.

So I Missed a Day

I didn't post yesterday. I really did want to meet the goal of NaBloPoMo, but we are on vacation this week and other things took priority.

Instead of posting I enjoyed a delicious meal. I sat at the table with family and shared rich conversation. I proudly watched as my children were exclaimed over and loved. We built on past relationships making them deeper and stronger.

I apologize for not posting yesterday, but know that I was off living life so I could write about it later.

Vacation- all I ever wanted....

Today is a momentous occasion. One that I have been looking forward to but also slightly nervous about. Today, we embarked upon our first vacation as a family  of four. And oh my! How things have changed!

I sit writing this from a pitch black hotel room that is filled with the sounds of my men. A coughing four year old, the snotty snore of a four month old, and the exhausted snuffle of my hubs. B.C. (before children) vacations were an adventure. I loved staying in hotels, exploring new places, and trying new things. Now.. Hotels make me nervous. I'm afraid my child will wake up screaming and disturb anyone and everyone near us. The only adventure I care for now is the dream variety. I'm pretty sure I would choose an uninterrupted nap over any form of exploring. 

B.C. I would spend time pouring over web sites and message boards looking for ideas of things to do at our destination. Now... I spend time worrying about sleeping arrangements and interrupted sleeping habits. Who knew simply changing the scenery outside the pack-n-play could throw off a four month old completely?? 

B.C. I refused to stop unless it was an absolute emergency. There were times we traveled from Florida to N.C. and only stopped once which was for gas. Now... We stopped after having been on the road for five minutes. A certain little boy had to use the bathroom.  The other little boy just hates his car seat and spent a good portion of the trip screaming. The hubs plugged his ears. I resorted to rocking back and forth while twitching.

Thankfully, we are going to visit family who I'm sure will kindly forgive my boys and their off schedule, and will turn a blind eye to my display of crazy. But, after one day of vacation I'm already in need of a vacation.... Or a Valium. 

Public Service Saturday: Silly Spelling Slip ups

I am indulging my inner nerd today, and addressing spelling. Yes, spelling. This is a personal pet peeve that often causes me to wince while reading blogs, facebook, or anything really.

As I scroll through facebook I often see certain words misspelled. Some are obvious typos, some are just difficult words, and some are " near words". "Near words" are words that are close in spelling but very different in meaning. Today, I would like to simply bring your attention to these words and how easy it can be to mix them up.

1. Lose vs. Loose- I remember it this way: I only want to lOse it once, but I want it to be extra lOOse.

2. Breathe vs. Breath - you can be SHORT of breath ( get it... it's a shorter word). Or just remember you hear an "e" when you say breathe ( not at the end of the word.. but nonetheless it will help you make the connection)

3. Your vs. You're-  These two words are homophones, and are easily confused. A quick fix is to say the phrase out loud and insert the are. Does it make sense? Then use You're.
Ex.  You are tall. Check!                       You're tall.
       You are dog is cute. No Check.    Your dog is cute.

I'm sure there are way more words that are missused or mixed up. I'm curious to know which ones bother you....

These are just some silly tips my brain uses to keep tricky words straight. Hopefully, it will help you too. So go forth and Status Update properly!

** please note- this is not a claim to spelling or grammatical perfection. I will make mistakes. Feel free to lovingly correct me so we can move on together.**

ISO...my pillow

My eyes are heavy and outlined in baggy dark circles. The sides of my mouth are slightly crusted in drool. I am tired.

My precious son has been struggling with the concept of sleep lately. This is disappointing. You see, for roughly a month he teased me by sleeping 8 hours straight. I happilyy thought that we had beaten sleepless nights. I rejoiced over the idea of uninterrupted sleep. My joy was premature. 

Last week he cut his first tooth ( at 31/2 months, crazy I know!), and as a result his awesone sleep routine disappeared. He began waking up a couple times every night. The tooth is now officially in, but his sleep habits have yet to correct themselves. 

So please forgive these awkward blog posts. In all honesty, I'm partially asleep as I type this. I warned you at the beginning of NaBloPoMo that the posts may not always be coherent, but I promised to write them anyway.  

Good night friends. I'm going to stop drooling on the keyboard and go crash on my pillow.  Let's pray I get to spend some much needed, uninterrupted time with that pillow. I think it's beginning to feel neglected......