Is it September Already?

Just a few updates for the past couple of weeks!

Hayden officially started 4 year old preschool 2 weeks ago! He is there 3 days a week until 1:00 and he has transitioned very well. I am able to get a lot of work done while he is in school, so the time we have together at home is spent more wisely. His teacher is Mrs. Sheila and I am so excited about all of the things on their curriculum for this year. This week he has started learning how to write (trace) his name, but I love seeing him start to learn handwriting. He is such a bright little boy!

He refused to take a picture for me the first day of school. That's my boy!

I am now 27 weeks pregnant with Garrett. I have reached that point in the pregnancy where I wake up every morning and have doubled in size. I am getting HUUUUGE! And very uncomfortable. Baby Garrett is a wild one and he is constantly practicing the latest ninja moves in the womb. His big brother is so anxious! He wakes up every morning and asks if his "baby brudder" is ready to come out yet. He rubs on my belly and talks to Garrett every day. These are definitely sweet moments to cherish! I hope he is that sweet to him once Garrett arrives!

Curtis has been working a lot lately, so we have been laying low. Last weekend we did get away one night and spend the evening with the Donaldson's. Chris is Curtis' cousin, and they are very much alike. They have 2 little boys, Will (who just turned 6) and Henry is 18 months. Hayden and Will are like 2 peas in a pod. Besides the fact that they share a passion for all things "Nintendo," they also share very similar temperaments and personalities. And their mom Melissa is a doll and we get along great! We don't spend enough time with them! Curtis and Hayden are actually taking a day trip with Chris and Will today to Atlanta to see a Nascar race. Should be interesting!

We also got to spend one evening last weekend at my sister's house. Their computer was acting up, so they traded us a home cooked steak dinner in return for Curtis' computer repair service. Curtis hasn't been in the IT industry for 5 years, but people still come running when they are having computer issues! Luckily he was able to get them up and running. John is passed the halfway point on his chemo, and he and Curtis had a great time talking about life on the porch. I got a couple of pictures of the kids playing with Uncle John!

Look at that sass! Ella will only wear dresses that twirl out really big, so Crystal has a blast picking out clothes for her every day :)

Hayden got his hands on a "science toy."

Disclaimer: He is only shirtless because the kids insisted on swinging outside in the pouring rain when we first got there!

The house has been on the market 22 days now! Very slow moving, but we're not getting discouraged! I know people aren't necessarily lining up to purchase a house in this area, so it will just be a matter of finding that person. We... I mean "I"... am not the kind of person to question God's timing, so I will continue to sit and patiently wait for things to happen. On another note, I will say that having the house "show-ready" all the time is getting a little old! But again... happily, patiently waiting. :)

Maybe we shouldn't have named him Bowser...

Bowser always gets defeated in the end. Named after Mario's arch-nemesis, maybe we should have thought twice before naming Hayden's pet bearded dragon "Bowser."

Just a few months ago, Hayden started asking for a puppy. I have been very reluctant to get him a puppy, because I have never had any luck house training dogs. I was just not to the point that I was ready to give my house and my clean floors to a dog, so we began searching for other options. (I should mention, we have Romeo, a 14 year old Redbone Coon Hound that sits on our front porch, but he is too big and too old to play. And he is strictly an outdoor dog!) Anyways, Curtis found a bearded dragon, and completely against my will, got it for Hayden. I was not a huge fan of the reptile, because he was creepy and a little high maintenence. Must be fed a daily salad of greens, carrots and mealworms (dusted with calcium powder) and also 10 crickets a day. But we got into a routine of feeding him and he was surprisingly a very social animal! And the best part, he doesn't stink! I'm very OCD about animal smells, and I have to admit, his cage was completely odorless!

A week ago, Bowser developed an intestinal prolapse. Actually a fairly common condition in some reptiles and birds, but we assumed he would pass very quickly. We told Hayden that he had gotten very sick and was going to have to live on a special lizard farm where he could be taken care of. In actuality, we put him in a box in the basement and waited for him to pass. Saturday and Sunday passed, and Bowser was still kickin. We had talked of finished him off with hedge clippers, or maybe putting him in the freezer... but we could never bring ourselves to actually do it. Monday rolls around... Bowser is more alert and actually looking better? Very confused at this point, we had to start making decisions so he didn't suffer any longer. To complicate matters more, Hayden found Bowser in the basement and thought it was a miracle on 34th street. The little thing had quite a will to live, so we started talking about actually putting him through surgery to fix the prolapse. Tuesday morning, Hayden and I took him to the vet to have corrective surgery. It cost less than a car payment, but more than a week's worth of groceries. He made it through surgery and was able to come home that night. Here are some pics from his "homecoming" ... Hayden was very excited:

Here is the last picture of Hayden holding Bowser... as you can see, he was white as a ghost. He never regained his color and his condition continued to deteriorate after he was home. He would not eat or move. We had to force feed him his liquid antibiotic drops every 6 hours, and we were having to nurse him around the clock. Thursday I took him back to the vet to have a tube feeding, as he still was not eating and was still colorless and stiff as a board. That afternoon, he actually had quite an improvement in his mood and I thought things were looking up, but he quickly deteriorated and passed away that night. It was absolutely heart wrenching watching him suffer. Never in a million years did I think I would develop a heart for a lizard, but this guy made quite an impression on me during his last week of life.

So... we are going to put hardwood floors throughout the entire main floor and staircase of our new house, fence in the backyard, and get Hayden a pug after we get settled in. I'm actually kind of hoping maybe he will be under the Christmas tree this year! :)

Ice-skating.... and Science!!

Last Saturday morning, we woke up and discovered that Hayden's bearded dragon, Bowser had had an intestinal prolapse (yes... his intestines were hanging out of his body!)... Assuming this meant sudden death, we told Hayden that B had gotten sick and was going to have to go live on a lizard farm. He was absolutely crushed, so we decided to just go out and spoil him rotten that day. He has been asking me to take him ice-skating for quite a while, so we seized the opportunity to do that. I stayed off the ice for baby Garrett's safety :), so Curtis and Hayden went out on the ice and had a blast. Hayden got the hang of it very quickly, and they skated for almost 2 hours straight!

He looks so much like Curtis here!

Next, we took him to Toys R Us and let him pick out some new toys. Hey wait... aren't we supposed to be keeping our toy load to a minimum with the house being on the market? Oh well! He picked out a remote control truck...

...and a deluxe science kit. This kid has been all about "science" lately, and luckily his dad is a big ol' nerd who knows just the things to do to peak his curiosity. Here are a few pictures from a few weeks ago when Hayden and Curtis did experiments with Cokes and Mentos:

and here is a collage of them making slime from the kit.

Maternity Pics

Last week, Hayden and I went down to Morris Avenue for a maternity session with Elizabeth Ann from eakphotography. We know her from church and absolutely adore her. Not to mention, she is barely 15 years old and can out shoot most adult photographers. She is amazing! Here are a few shots from our day.... it was HOT!! I was 23 weeks here:

Short Trip Across State Lines...

This week Curtis had to be in Atlanta all week for trade shows with work, so we seized the opportunity to get out of town for a few days (free hotel stays!) Hayden and I dragged Curtis' 13 year old sister, Nikki along with us. I had originally planned on doing EVERYTHING in Atlanta ... White Water, Six Flags, Zoo.... but being so pregnant and it being SO hot, we settled on the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke. Things seemed to be working against us the first couple of days (I topped off the oil in the car before departure, and I somehow managed to drive across 2 states after forgetting to replace the oil cap .... I only discovered it because God just told me to check under the hood after we arrived!) .... Hayden broke his only pair of shoes as soon as we got there ... My phone quit working for half a day .... My quest for an old fashioned "Orange Julius" led me on a wild goose chase all over ATL ... but we still had a great trip! Curtis had the entire day off on Wednesday so he was able to come to the Aquarium and World of Coke with us. We also took full advantage of having Nikki with us that night, and we left Hayden with her and had a little date night. Curtis took me to "Fogo de Chao," a brazilian steakhouse chain that Curtis has been telling me about for over a year since he started traveling. He describes it as "Willy Wonka and the Meat Factory." LOL! It was truly amazing... you are given a card, green on one side and red on the other, to signal the waiters when you want more food. They walk around with these huge skewers of meat and give you all you want. And it was seriously amazing meat... we're not talking "Golden Corral steak on the buffet" style stuff. Seeing that I have the appetite of a linebacker these days, this was quite a treat! We also spent an hour or so driving around Buckhead drooling at the real estate. Wow. I can't believe people actually live in some of those houses!

As much as I loved seeing all of the sea creatures, seeing Hayden's face light up with amazement was SO much better!!

Here I told Hayden "Look at me and smile!" and he said "Mom, I just really want to look at the fish." Can't argue with that!

Hayden absolutely adores his Aunt Nikki!

Time for a change...

When we bought our house 3.5 years ago, we knew we wouldn't be here forever. God blessed us with this house at a time that we needed it more than ever, and what He gave us was above and beyond what we ever deserved. We absolutely LOVE this house, but it is in a very unfortunate location. Where we are now, our house is zoned for Birmingham City Schools, and Hayden will be starting Kindergarten in exactly one year. WOW. I always knew that we would attempt a move about 6 to 8 months before he started Kindergarten (he could go to private Kindergarten if we couldn't relocate in time), but Curtis decided that now is the time! He seeked the advice of several RE agents, who advised us to sell now. Interest rates are low, house prices are low, and the market will most likely begin to pick back up and our neighborhood will most likely not go with it. So while now may not be the ideal time to sell, it is the ideal time to buy. Luckily we bought this house out of foreclosure, so we are pretty confident that we will be able to walk away and break even. We had always hoped that we would make a few bucks on our house, but it doesn't look like it is possible in today's market. We are putting our trust and faith in God and we know that if we are obedient to Him, everything will go according to His plans. He has never let us down before!

Ultimately, I would love to get Hayden into Trussville Schools. Paine Primary and Intermediate Schools are beyond amazing, and I love how they are still kind of the unsung heroes of Elementary Schools. It looks like we wont be able to get what we need (house-wise) within that school system though. I grew up Over the Mountain and went to Homewood Schools K-12, but there are a few reasons while I am not rushing around trying to get him in there. I would be thrilled to send him to Vestavia, but that is definitely not in our means right now. So we narrowed down to Springville or Moody, and it looks like Moody is winning the race. I like the location and proximity, as well as the things the town has to offer. We have picked a neighborhood and a floor plan, and it looks like we will be going to "new construction" route! We are very picky, so this is going to be our best option. And we are certainly not in the mood to be doing any home repairs or painting ourselves. We will be sacrificing some things (a big yard, back deck, storage and huge bedrooms), but gaining others (More square footage, Separate offices for Me and Curtis, bigger kitchen, updated features, etc.) The biggest drawback... building process will take 3 months. Luckily my mom has 2 extra bedrooms at her house, so if everything goes as planned we will sell our place, sign the papers on the new construction, shack up with my mom for 3 months and then get our new place. Know what that means? We will most likely be 'bringing home baby' to Momma T's house! Yes, I am crazy.

Curtis has been working his butt off in this August Alabama heat sprucing up the outside of the house, while I have been knocking out the inside. Our Real Estate agent hired a "home stager" to come through our house and detail out what we need to do to have our house "show ready." Lots of decluttering and packing stuff away, which is great because we will be that much farther ahead for moving day, but it is a little sad because we had to take all of our personal photos and things down, so it doesn't really feel like home anymore. But it will all be worth it!.... Right? :)

Trip to our Nation's Capital

Washington D.C... what a place! Ok, so here is my theory on D.C.... as American's, it is something we all need to visit at least once in our life. It is a very significant place with a lot of great sites to see. But once you have seen them once, I don't see the point in going back! This is coming from someone who is very non-political and not very into history, but that is just my take! I am so thankful that I had to opportunity to fly out with Curtis last week. He had to go on business, so we stuck Hayden with family here in town and I tagged along. I will admit, I was much more mesmerized by the sites than I anticipated being. Seeing the White House and all of the monuments in person was very awe inspiring. I had a great time getting a few days away with the hubby!

Now... for the FUN part. The trip home. We were scheduled to fly out of BWI at 8PM on Friday night, go through ATL and get to BHM a little before 11PM. With D.C. traffic and all, we decided to head to the airport around 2:00 to ensure we had time to get checked in and make our departure time. We arrived at the airport a little after 4 PM, and gasped at the line for baggage check. Luckily (ha) Curtis is a Platinum Medallion member with Delta (weekly trips to and from Kansas City for a year will do that), so we were able to get in the "shorter" preferred guest line. After waiting in line for about 2 hours, we were checked in and ready to go. Even had a little time to relax and get a snack before our plane took off! Departure time started getting pushed back a little at a time, until it got to the point that we would not make our connector flight in ATL. I, being pregnant and uncomfortable, started getting a little freaked out facing the fact that I could have to spend the night in the airport. Delta was claiming that the delays were caused by air traffic control, so they would not be comping hotel rooms for the night. Remember, I am PREGNANT, and Curtis is a Platinum Medallion member! So anyways, our flight out of BWI finally departed a little after midnight, we arrived at ATL a little after 2AM, and we got booked for the first flight home at 8:30 AM. So we found a cozy corner in the ATL airport and fell asleep! Sleeping in the ATL airport is about the equivalent of trying to catch a snooze in the middle of Times Square. A very cozy and quiet place. NOT. We got up (or stood up) in the morning to discover our 8:30 flight is now delayed 2 hours. SERIOUSLY! So we got to play the waiting game a little longer... finally departed ATL at 10:45 smelling like sour milk, and safely made it home. What a trip! So again... I don't think I will visit D.C. again until I have to take my kids to see the sights :)

Washington Monument

A little camera fun

Lincoln Memorial

Capital Building

Dinosaur at the Smithsonian

Dorothy's Slippers at the Smithsonian

Kermit the Frog (The highlight of my trip)

And one for the road....

20 Week Belly Pic