Happy Birthday to Wesley

I'm one day early, but happy birthday to our sweet second son born 11/25/06 . He was born after just 1-1/2 hours of labor, and life has not slowed down since then. It has been so special to have a true red headed boy, just like his daddy. And his personality is off the charts. I remember a few months before he was born, thinking, "our family just does not feel complete". Now I know why. He continues to add something special to our family every day.

Top Ten Perks to being a full time single parent

If I don't laugh about this and look on the bright side, I might pull my hair out. We're on week 3 of the M-F travel and I'm looking forward to our Thanksgiving break next week and having my mate back until this starts again in December!

10. Major decisions are delayed indefinitely. I guess this one could be good or bad, but it's great not to have to think about them.

9. Lots of time to read, work and blog at night. I've started writing a few things for my friend Kelly's blog here. And I've knocked out an 800+ page book I always wanted to read, in less than a week. This week I'm going to work on my free photo book from Snapfish (sorry, coupon is not available anymore).

8. Not too much menu planning going on around here, except on the weekends. Today at Publix the boys fell in love with Kraft Spiderman Mac and Cheese and so it will be dinner!

7. I can start listening to Christmas music immediately. Now if I could just get my hands on those decorations....

6. Moved all my movies to the top of the Netflix Queue. So far I think I've watched 3 movies with Colin Firth in them, and I can finally catch up on Seasons 1 and 2 of Veronica Mars.

5. All of the Halloween candy is MINE (and Daniel's, when he remembers about it).

4. I can leave all of my coupons and stacks of paper everywhere instead of hiding them in drawers (wait, I think I was doing that before November....)

3. I'm becoming a better Wii bowler. High score last week: 184

2. Less insomnia because I'm even more exhausted at night.

1. I can get a Peppermint Chocolate Chip milkshake at Chick Fil A anytime I want. Seriously, you have got to try it. It's like celebrating the holidays early.

Oh, and the best perk of all: When we are all together, we really treasure our time. This weekend was so much fun with a special dessert outing Friday night, our big turkey dinner Saturday, and a great date on Sunday night. I thought we couldn't pack any more fun into a weekend, but we can! It was clear we all enjoyed every minute of having daddy home.

Once again, it's the most wonderful Bambi killin' time of the year.

Yes, I am aware I live in Tennessee. However, I have chosen to live in a nice little suburb of a rather large metropolitan area. It's neat and tidy here and so civilized. But every year around this time, I am reminded once again I live just steps away from a redneck world. That's right, my deer killin' neighbor is at it again! And might I say, he has started a few weeks earlier this year. Imagine looking out your kitchen window first thing in the morning at a 4 wheeler with a dead deer strapped to the back. I've enclosed the picture for your viewing pleasure.

I was puzzled how all this would work out because usually Deer Killer guts them by hanging them on his playset, which they just sold a few weeks ago. Well, problem solved. They bought another playset from a neighbor and this deer was hanging from it, blood dripping and all, just a few hours later. As they say in TN, Happy Fall, Y'all!

We Heart Atlanta

Our family has always loved Atlanta. I grew up cheering for the Braves. I have fond memories of Atlanta Campus Crusade Christmas conferences during college. Dave and I have enjoyed Atlanta's art, the food and numerous trips to IKEA. We spent a week there last summer during the Gideon convention and had a blast visiting all of the downtown tourist sites and attending a Braves game with Daniel.

And now we have six more reasons to love Atlanta: John, Tara, Emily, Julia, Claire and Lily Kate! We had a great short visit with them last weekend. And we ended up buying an annual pass to the Georgia Aquarium since we know we'll go back several times in the next year. Here are some of the pics from the trip (warning: these pics are a little heavy on the fishies, Dave really got into capturing them for Daniel).

Also, let me know if you want to take a road trip to the Georgia aquarium sometime (next summer?). We can get you a discount on tickets!

Thanksgiving Traditions

We have a Thanksgiving calendar (ours in the picture is from Pottery Barn, thanks to a generous gift from my mom). Each day during the month we complete this sentence, "I am thankful for...." on a piece of paper and and slip it into the pocket for that day.

Last year we started a prayer calendar for November. I listed names of an extended family member, friend or missionary each day and put them in the calendar pockets. We pulled out the prayer request as we put our "thanks paper" in it. We will do this again in December, putting the names in the pockets of our Advent calendar. By the way, we do forget and skip some days, so we just catch up later when we do remember!

Election Hoopla

Actually, there wasn't much hoopla around here, because we voted 2 weeks ago. The boys did have the day off school, so we headed to Hermitage to spend some time with Grammy and PaPa. Daniel did understand there was an election on Tuesday. I explained that everyone was voting on the President.

On Wednesday morning, we watched the news together and he asked who won the election. He told me he already knew the winner, and it was Michael Phelps. Huh? I don't know where he got that from, I haven't heard that name in a few months since the Olympics! Then I showed him Obama's picture on tv and he said "that man with the black face is Michael Phelps". So then we spent the rest of the day practicing how to say "Barack Obama". Maybe Obama has a secret identity that only preschoolers know about.

I also discussed the election with Wesley, as much as he could understand. His conclusion was Elmo should have been elected President, with Cookie Monster as his VP.

I thought our election education all went well, until later that night we were sitting in our kitchen and Daniel said, I have a new name for Wesley- his name should be "Barack O'Wesley". I hope you will be able to attend Wesley's inauguration in January. I think he will make a great President!

Family Photo Shoot

We had a pretty successful family photo shoot last Friday, thanks to Katy Southern. Here are a few of the "Sneak peek" pictures.