Hooray for Harry!

I've got it! The Franklin library got 2-3 new CD copies of each Harry Potter book so I got one of the new copies of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". Hooray!

I'm also reading the 9/11 Report. I don't think I'll make it through the whole thing (it's 600+ pages long), but so far from what I've read about the FAA's actions on 9/11, I'm actually more scared to fly now.

And last night... 11 kids, 6 adults, one small apartment. We survived and lived to tell about our first night of childcare for our partner community group. I think it would make a great reality show.

Parking Sensors, armed and ready

So Dave and I coordinated an attack plan to drop off the van at 7am for the day at Darrell Waltrip Honda, which has promised to repair the faulty parking sensors. I get a call at 7:45am- ma'am, the parking sensors work perfectly. What did you say the problem is again? I told him every time I turn on the parking sensors, it shows an error and check system message. They tested it 3-4 more times, he called me back and said it has no problems. Agh!! You know I will pick up this van and tomorrow they will NOT work.

Oh well, at least I am enjoying a quiet day at home without transportation. : )

Cheesecake Factory

October 18th is the opening date, people.

We'll meet you there for dinner in about 2 years when things die down.

Once again, here is proof that I gave birth to Dave # 2. 

Reserved Parking

Yesterday, Dave got the email he's been waiting for the last 9 years. He is finally at the top of the list for a reserved parking spot next to his building. He gets a spot next month!! This is HUGE. Currently, Dave spends 30-45 minutes each day of his commute riding a shuttle or walking from the parking lot that is nowhere near his building. And it's about to get worse- the current parking lot is slated for a building project, so they will soon be parking at the Coliseum- which is across the river. Dave's new parking spot will get him home at 6:30pm instead of 7pm! We figured we are going to get to see each other for at least 10 more hours a month now (when he is in town).

Thanks Aunt Julie for the cool car from Brazil. 

Look closely- that's a 10 key in his hands. Daniel Stewart, CPA. 

If only this was my computer... 

No Shoes

Today at church we started a new series on "Beyond Belief"- a challenge to change our lives to give globally, generously and generationally. Today we all gave away our shoes. The ones we had on this morning. And we learned it's not against the law in TN to drive barefoot (they read this aloud to us). It was fun!

A new start for Fall

This week seems to be the start date for a lot of things:

We started our community group up again on Sunday night, and we have 5 new couples. And 10 kids total. Childcare swap is going to be fun, the other group has 10 kids too!

Men's Fraternity started this morning at our church, which meant we were up at 5:15am. Dave didn't get home until almost 10pm last night because of work deadlines. Yawn.

Martha has been pretty good, but she still seems kind of awkward at times. All of the comments about things she learned in prison have been pretty interesting. She is playing the jail card for everything it is worth.

I stayed up watching Hotel Rwanda and then I couldn't sleep because of it. If you haven't seen it yet, run and get it NOW. As the journalist in the movie says, the massacre in Rwanda will be seen on the news by the rest of the world and then we will just go back to eating our dinner. This movie will make you think twice about what we ignored over there.

The Bill is Due

We got the bill for the mailbox yesterday- it is only around $100. Now we are torn on what to do- is it worth the trouble to confront our neighbor, or should we just pay it ourselves? We have had several more interactions with Eva, and we agree she is "not all there". I really think she may not be aware she hit the mailbox. Or she may be extremely deceitful and a great actress.

Daniel has started saying "uh oh". A lot. Like all day long, every 10 seconds. Uh Oh.

The Score Is...

Dave trips to the new Publix- 4
Chris trips to the new Publix- 1- I finally made it today!!

In other news, Daniel is officially transitioning to be "off the bottle". We have tried several versions of sippy cups and so far the best liked option is the little juice box with straw. He pitched a fit over the Nuby transitional cup (Dave even tried it and pitched a fit too), and he just chews on anything with a hard spout. We had our doctor checkup this week and he is 31" long (95%) and 23 lbs, 3 oz (80%). His head is >95%- thanks Dad! He has pretty much outgrown all of his 12 month clothes so he is wearing 18 months clothes now. Good thing I had bought some 18 month summer clothes for our cruise this December. At church today the learning center teacher called him "very independent". We agree.

In working on the great data transfer to our new computers off our old one, one of my great unfinished projects is coming to light. Dave spent a year in India after high school and has about a million slides to prove it. On our second date, he was going to show me the slides but his projector light bulb was burnt out. So, here we are eight years later, and I still haven't seen those slides! I individually scanned all of them into our old computer as .tif files three years ago, but the preview on them is the size of a fingernail. They all need to be converted to .jpg files (one by one, unfortunately) to be organized and shown as a slide show. I'm converting the rest of them today. I hope to see the slide show by our tenth anniversary....

I'm online....

So here I am, sitting in Panera, waiting for my lunch date and I have my laptop. I'm on wireless here and I love it. I finally feel up with the times, in vogue, able to get things done while I'm on the go.

And in case you're wondering why I feel so free, Daniel's first day of Mother's Day Out is today, and I've been getting things done (which makes me happy).

Have a wonderful wireless day : )

Daniel with all of his grandparents! 

Daniel at church 

Yummy! 

The Fabulous Car Cake 

Labor Day Weekend Update

We had a great time this past weekend!! Thanks to all of the family and friends who helped celebrate Daniel's First Birthday. He did eventually eat some of his birthday cake (he was a little frightened of it at first). I'll post some pictures tonight. The dedication at church went well and Daniel did not have stage fright. He had a great time playing with his cousins (except he didn't like all of the girls with him in the bathtub- too much splashing around). He had a bit of fever Sunday but seemed to be back to normal by last night. I think he's trying to figure out where everyone went now that the house is so quiet. Next up is the one year check up and shots later this week.

I got a new laptop (it's mostly mine) this weekend which is simply fabulous. We've got our wireless network up and running and I've already transferred a lot of stuff over it. Special thanks to Uncle Josh for his techie help. I think we are done buying computers for awhile. Does anyone remember which website tells you where free wireless spots are? Right now all I can think of is Panera and Krystals. I guess I'll be spending some quality time eating Krystals when I'm on the go!

And finally, the Publix in our neighborhood opened on August 31st. Dave has been there three times already and I have not even gone in yet. I think Dave has been grocery store deprived since he hasn't shopped for any in the last year since I have become a full time home manager. Last night we went for a walk and he went on and on about the things he saw there that he wanted to try for dinner. I have to admit, it is nice to know you have a grocery store less than one minute from your house. My campaign for the ice cream store and/or Starbucks is not going well. So far we are also getting a dry cleaners, a nail salon, a hair salon, a Chinese restaurant and a liquor store. I'll even take a bagel place at this point. Something, anything with free wireless.....

Mailbox Update

Tonight the mailbox repair man showed up around 7pm while Dave was mowing the yard. He said it would be easier to replace the mailbox than fix it and they would only charge us for the broken part. He installed a new black mailbox and said he would be back to paint on the patina finish tomorrow. Good deal.

I was pulling Daniel around in his new red wagon (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Burden!) when I ran into my dear friend and neighbor Alicia. As we stood and talked in front of our new mailbox, Eva pulled up, never looked at us, and went into her house. So much for the guilty looks.

FYI on the cute Daniel outfit in the pictures- in case you are wondering. My high school friend Erin has a son who is also named Daniel James, who is about 18 months older. We didn't realize the same name when we named our Daniel. She contacted me earlier this year saying she would like to loan me the outfit for awhile because of the monogram. How sweet is that?

I'm so proud of myself! 

I'm happy to be One! 

One Year Picture! 

And Now... 

Then...