Ugh..... (and Happy Memorial Day)

Has anyone ever had a day when you just feel like crap?!? I mean, not even the whole day, but it's like all of a sudden, out of nowhere, everything just sucks (sorry Mom) stinks?

I feel like I'm pregnant all over again. I was in a perfectly good mood earlier, we had a great time grilling out with my parents today, we got home and after I bathed Clark and got him in the bed, I just sat down and felt like crying!

Maybe it's the fact that Clark was Mr. Crabby Pants all day, and he really just wore me out, but now it's time for a very large glass (or three) of wine, and some horrible reality TV to make me feel better.

Days like this sure do make me wish some of my girls were closer, because let's face it, Evans does not understand!


On another note: A BIG thank-you to all members of the United States Military, past and present, for all the sacrifices you have made/are making for our country. Along with that thank-you, goes one to all their families as well. Because of the sacrifices you all have made, my family was able to be together today and enjoy spending time with each other. I can't thank you enough for all the freedoms we have because of your willingness to serve. My thoughts and prayers are with you daily!

A new creation

I absolutely ADORE doing creative things. I love making all sorts of things. Clark ran out of gift tags recently, so I decided to play around and create some of my own. Here are a few pictures of the ones I made for him (obviously, the ones I made for him have his name on them, but you get the idea)!

A new crockpot recipe

I mentioned a while back how difficult it is now cook dinner in the afternoon, since Clark isn't really willing to stand beside me and wait patiently while I cook. Well, I have finally gotten off my tushie and found some new crock pot recipes to try so that my family doesn't have to eat take-out, or dinner-from-a-box meals.

I knew before that it was cheaper to buy a whole chicken, rather than buying b/s chicken breasts. But.....I didn't really want to deal with cooking a whole chicken. I came across the recipe that I'm going to share with you today, and decided that it seemed pretty easy.

Today is the 2nd time I'm using the recipe, but I'm not using the whole chicken as my dinner. I'm just cooking it to use the meat in other recipes. I should have enough for my chicken-pot-pie tonight, some chicken salad for lunches for the rest of the week, and possibly a buffalo chicken ranch dip for this weekend.

I found the recipe in a crock pot cookbook, but have changed it to suit myself, so please feel free to do so if you like!


Crock Pot Chicken

4-5 lb. whole frying chicken
1/2 onion, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
1 can chicken broth
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp. dried basil

Unwrap the chicken, and pull the giblets out (Clark was a little confused as I showed him this part! Then I made the chicken "dance" on the counter like my Dad used to do, and he LOVED that part!)
Sprinkle the poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper inside the chicken. Fill the chicken with the onions and celery, then tie the legs together.
Lay the chicken in the crock pot, and sprinkle with a little salt, pepper, and the dried basil.
Pour the chicken broth around the chicken, and you're done!

I cook mine for 4 hours on high, and then another hour or 2 on low. Your cook time may vary depending on how fast/slow your crock pot cooks, just keep checking on it! This makes it super easy to get this part out of the way in the morning, then I can throw the rest of it together during nap time, and voila!

Hope you enjoy! If anyone tries it, let me know what you think!

Here's how it's looking now, still a few hours to go!

"Enjoy them while they're little, before you know it, he'll be off to college!"

I hear this ALL THE TIME! While I know it's true, and it's hard to believe how fast he is growing, it still surprises me sometimes.

This morning, I needed to take a quick shower, and since Clark has learned how to climb out of the pack-n-play, my choices are to put him in the shower with me (don't judge, sometimes you do whatever you have to. It's not likes he's starting saying "BOOBIES" or anything), or let him play on the bathroom floor while I shower.

I opted for choice #2, and put some toys on the floor for him and hopped in the shower. I was talking to him and listening to him play away, and would peek my head out the door every minute or so just to make sure he wasn't using my flat iron (again, don't judge. It wasn't plugged in or anything!)

All of a sudden I hear him say "bye bye!" I thought he was just being cute, but I opened the door and he was headed out of the bathroom, waving at me as he left.

"WHAT!?! When did you learn how to open the door!?!" He stuck his head back in the bathroom and looked at me like, "You're so slow Mommy, I learned that a whole hour ago!"

I convinced him to come back into the bathroom and shut the door behind him until I could quickly finish.

I guess my only option now is to get up super-early and shower before he gets up, since he doesn't nap until mid-afternoon, and this nappy hair cannot wait until mid-afternoon to be washed.

Oh well, who knows what he'll get into next. I'm just waiting to turn around and see him pulling out of the driveway in my car! He really is growing up too fast!

Having a sick baby stinks :(

Clark woke up from his nap yesterday running a 101.5 fever.He was congested, had a runny nose, and his eyes were watering. Now, this isn't the first time he's been sick, but it literally breaks my heart everytime.

I'm assuming that's common among Mommy's. The whole, wishing-I-could-be-sick-for-him thing.I hated seeing him try so hard to sleep last night, and then everytime he got comfortable, he couldn't breathe. I ended up spending most of the night holding him in the chair in his room so he could sleep sitting up.

It took me back to those newborn days of being up all night, and it's catching up to me this morning as I'm drinking every form of caffeine I can find!

On a side note: I was also reminded why my husband and I didn't talk during the night when we were exhausted with a newborn. (It's best to just keep your mouth closed sometimes:))

Well, here's to hoping for a better day today. Otherwise I'll be at Dr. Taylor's as soon as he opens the door tomorrow!

I'm ready for my husband to be home...

Evans has been gone to Vegas this week for his sales meeting. He usually only has to travel every once-in-a-while for work, and he’s not usually gone more than a night or two a month.

We are a couple who really likes to spend time together, so this week has been kinda tough. I mean, I know there are people out there whose husbands travel a lot for work, and those super-tough military wives who deal with their husbands being gone on long deployments. This week has been really tough for me, since I’m not used to being away from him.

I have literally felt like a part of me has been missing this week. I have been thinking a lot about our relationship, how much I miss him, and the things I love about him.

Here are a few reasons I love my husband:
1. Since the first time I met him, he has always been one of the nicest people I have EVER met. He truly cares about everyone, and wants the best for them, even if they have done him wrong.
2. He is very protective of me, even about things that happened long before we were together.
3. He is such a hard worker. He always has been. I can remember him working in college, even in high school, as hard as he needed to in order to pay for things he needed or wanted.
4. He is willing to do anything it takes to help me live out my dream of being a stay-at-home Mommy.
5. He is absolutely the most handsome man I know.
6. He reminds me of my Dad.
7. He is such an amazing Daddy. He took half of the night shifts when Clark was a newborn, and doesn’t mind changing stinky diapers.
8. He is so incredibly talented. He has an absolute gift when it comes to public speaking!
9. Even though we are totally different people, he balances me out!
10. He truly is my soul mate. I knew since we first started dating, that we were supposed to spend the rest of our lives together.

Love you Ev, can’t wait to see you soon!

Seriously? Y'all sound like a bunch of girls!

So yesterday, Mom, Clark, and I went exploring. We went to look for some new cool places to take Clark this summer, and ended up in Cayce. We ate at the Kingsman since we hadn't been there in a while, and soon after we were seated, a group of well-dressed business men, probably in their lates 40's or so, came in and sat at the table beside us.

I was listening to their converstaion (yes, I LOVE to eavesdrop), and realized they were talking about baseball. The more I listened, it didn't really seem to make sense. They were talking about some guy that was only batting .200 (I think that's how you write that!)and how he pulled the guy out of the game. Now, I knew it wasn't Ray Tanner, but I thought maybe they were high school coaches, but high school baseball is almost done for the season. Then I realized they were all sharing stats that they were reading off their blackberry's.

Are you kidding!?! These grown men were in such a deep discussion about their FANTASTY baseball teams! I really don't have a problem with fantasty baseball or football or whatever, it just cracked me up how intense these men were about trading their players, and what their plans were for the rest of the season. They were still talking about it 45 minutes later when we got up to leave!

My husband doesn't understand how women can talk about shoes, handbags, and celebrities for hours on end. I; however, don't understand how men can talk about FANTASTY baseball for hours.

To each his own...

A much needed girl's night!

My sister came down to visit last night! I was so excited for some much needed girl time and getting to see my sweet little nephew! (Well, he’s not so little anymore. He’s 13 months younger than Clark, and he weighs only 5 pounds less than him!)

I had planned to make a few appetizers, have a little wine, and just relax and catch-up on gossip  That is of course not exactly how it went. Between trying to get 2 kids fed, bathed, and in the bed, we ended up being exhausted by the time the house was quiet. (Well, it never was really quiet, between the noise machine in Sullivan’s room and the radio in Clark’s room, but you get the idea!)

My mom, MIL, and GMIL came over and we finally settled in around the table at about 8:00. Between the 5 of us, we polished off 3 bottles of wine, and devoured most of the food. Everyone headed out a little later, and Sally asked if I wanted another drink. I decided to mix a little of everything we had together (which I would NOT recommend) and we headed to the couch to talk some more.

We ended up finishing those drinks, which kicked our butts, over-sharing about frustrations, our futures, baby names, boobs, and stretch marks! We finally crawled into bed at about 11, and the boys were up-and-at em’ by 7:00 am.

By the time we got downstairs, and consumed a good bit of coffee, we were feeling better. We had a great lunch before Sally and Sullivan got on the road, then Clark and I took a much needed 3 hour nap 

All-in-all it was a great night, and can’t wait for another one soon!

Family Fun and a DATE!

Since my husband will be on a business trip next week, he took the morning off to spend some time with me and the little man! We woke up around 7ish, and Evans suggested heading to the zoo. We jumped up to get ready so we could be there when the zoo opened at 9.

We pulled into the parking lot at 9:01, and looked at each other like, "HOLY CRAP!" It was PACKED. There were probably 100 schools buses (or maybe it was really more like 15), kids everywhere in their little matching shirts, and there was a super long line to get in. We decided to be brave since we had already driven across town to get there.

We ended up moving right through the crowd at the gate since all the schools were still trying to line up and pair kids with chaperones. My mind raced back to teaching days, and I thought about what a gigantic nightmare those teachers were about to have. Especially since it looked like some of them hadn't even put their students into groups yet, but that's their own management problem!

Thanks to their lack of preparation, there was hardly anyone inside the zoo yet. We made it through in about an hour, and didn't really have to wait in any lines!

Clark is peacefully napping now after walking all over the zoo, and once he wakes up, his Nana is coming to pick him up so that Mommy and Daddy can have a date night! I'm so excited to actually get dressed up for dinner and wear my new dress! I'll post some pictures later!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

New Sleep Habits

We have been VERY blessed to have a son with great sleep habits. Let me rephrase that: He has had great sleep habits since he was about 10 weeks old. He did go through the newborn weeks-from-hell, but easily adjusted into the Baby Wise plan, then later into the Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child plan.

He has been sleeping 12 hours a night since he was 6 months old, and now at 18 months, I'm feeling that he's getting to the stage where he's going to need less sleep at night. His doctor told us at his 15 month check-up, and again at his 18 month check-up, that he'll start sleeping less.

I expected a gradual change, easing into a later bedtime, maybe even taking a shorter nap, but that obviously isn't how Clark wants this to go down.

Over the last 3 or 4 days, he has decided that he doesn't want to nap until mid-afternoon, then wants to go to sleep 2 hours later than usual.

Yesterday, I tried from 12:15 to 1:30 to get him to nap. At that point, I gave up, and we headed outside to play. I put him in his high chair around 4 for a snack, and he immediately fell asleep. Knowing that it was too late for a long nap (unless I wanted him up half the night), we let him sleep for about 30 minutes, then got him up.

I'm not complaining AT ALL, because I know we have been very lucky with a child who loves to sleep, but I'm still dreading this change!

"Mommy, I made you a special Mother's Day Present!"

Even though Clark can’t talk, I’m pretty sure that’s what he would have said.

We were almost done getting ready for church yesterday morning, and Clark was getting into everything. Evans put him in his pack-and-play to give us a few minutes to get dressed. As soon as I was done getting ready, I went into the bonus room to get Clark so we could dress him.

As soon as I walked in the room, he stood up and had a very mischievous look on his face. As I got closer, I saw why. He had taken off his diaper and used the bathroom (#1 and #2) in his pack-and-play! Not only had he done that, but had decided it would be super fun to play in it!

OMG! Are you kidding me?!?

“Ev, come and see what your son did!” I screamed across the house. Evans came walking in, excited to see what cute thing Clark had done. He quickly changed his attitude, and we came up with a game plan in about 2-point-5 seconds.

Evans took Clark straight to the bathtub for bath #2 of the morning, and I worked on cleaning and disinfecting the pack-and-play!

Amazingly, we managed to make it to church only 5 minutes late. We laughed about it the whole way to there, and then enjoyed watching people’s faces as we re-told the story to our friends and family.

Needless to say, Clark managed to make my second Mother’s Day absolutely unforgettable, but I wouldn’t trade him for the WORLD!

Also…Happy Mother’s Day to the best Mom E-V-E-R. My mom has not only been the most amazing mom to both my brother and I, but has lovingly treated Evans as her third child from the start! I had been so lucky that we have become best friends, and now I am blessed to watch her enjoy being a grandmother to my little man. I love you, Mom!

Another shout-out to my super sister-in-law, Sally, who I will not just refer to as my sister (b/c we have become as close as sisters, and typing sister is also a lot quicker), on her very first Mother’s Day! Love ya!

Don't try this at home!

Evans made an appointment at the last minute to get his and Clark's hair cut, but I had already had plans that I really needed to take care of this afternoon. So Ev decided he was going to be "Super Daddy" and take Clark by himself.

Now, I wanted to stop him right there and ask if he was crazy?!? I mean, I wouldn't even try to take Clark to get his hair cut by myself.

I decided not to open my mouth, and sent my sweet, unknowing husband on his way.

Their appointment was at 2:00, and my phone rang at 2:10.

It was Ev, and he had walked out of the salon, leaving Clark there, and told me that Clark was freaking out! (Disclaimer: The girl who cuts his hair has been a family friend of ours for 30+ years, he didn't leave him with a stranger)!

Missy did the best she could, but she said he just wouldn't sit still, imagine that! It's still a little longer than I would like, so I'm taking him back in the morning (with my Mom in tow) to get it trimmed up a bit more.

Moral of the story: Don't try to take your child to get a hair cut without at least 2 adults to hold them down!

Trying to Plan a Girl's Weekend

Since our first year out of college, my friends and I have gotten together for a girl's weekend. We started as a group of 8, now we're down to 6 (as Mel has moved to Cali and Ashley has moved to Cuba, yes that Cuba)! We are trying to work out a weekend soon to get together, and it is crazy how hard it is to find a weekend that works with everyone. We have all gone in such different directions, which makes it hard for us to all get togther!

Anywho- I was thinking this morning about all the incredibly stupid things we have done on these girls weekends! Here are just a few:

1. A bar fight in Johnson City!
2. An argument outside the Wild Wing in Asheville with a "slightly" intoxicated couple who had "lost their dinner" on the sidewalk.
3. The oh-so-bright idea of getting a ride home with the owner for Sully's in Asheville.
4. Jen riding in the back of the truck down the intersate in #3.

I'm sure there are many more, but it is so great to think about all the fun things we do these weekends. Like renting a boat at Lake Lure, even thought we managed to be 30 minutes late for our hour long rental!

I have happily moved on the dirty diapers and butt paste, but ABSOLUTELY love getting together with my girls!

I absolutely love Saturdays when we can spend the whole day together! The only thing we had planned today was a birthday party, so after a workout together this morning (which literally kicked my booty!) we headed over to the Palmetto Athletic Center in Lexington. We weren’t sure how much fun it would be for Clark, though. We thought it may just be activities for older kids, but we were excited to go and see some friends that we don’t get to see very often. Not only did Clark have a good time, but so did Evans and I!

The first part of the party was free play time, and the kids were allowed to play anywhere in the gym. We started in the pool filled with those squishy foam cubes. (You’ll have to excuse my wording. I’m not down with all the gymnastics lingo!) Clark liked that okay, but had a hard time moving around, so he got frustrated pretty quickly.

We moved over to a larger open space, and let him run around and play a little soccer, which he LOVED. I think he would literally run non-stop from the time he gets up in the morning, to the time he goes to bed, only stopping to talk to himself, or some of his toys.

After the playing, we moved into another room for pizza and cookie cake. Clark was so exhausted from playing so hard that he downed a juice box in about 2.5 seconds. He scarfed down an entire piece of pizza, and then shared a piece of cookie cake with his Mommy and Daddy.

After saying our good-byes, and suiting little man up with a dry diaper (remember the entire juice box he just downed), we snapped him into his car seat, and he was asleep soon after pulling out of the parking lot. We took our time driving home, hoping to let him get as long a nap as possible.

We ended up at San Jose, and enjoyed a margarita on the patio, then decided that since we had totally blown our diet anyway, we might as well enjoy some dessert. We shared some ice cream, and the most delicious piece of Red Velvet Cheesecake!
We came home and ended our day sitting on our butts and watching a movie! I’m looking forward to our day tomorrow, but not Monday 