1. Fall Leaves. What is better than taking a walk or a drive surrounded by trees filled with red, orange, and yellow leaves? Nothing. Fall is beautiful.

2. Fall Decor. Let me just camp out here for a minute. I love fall decor. My most recent fall decor obsession, white pumpkins. I love putting pumpkins and gourds on my mantle, front door, anywhere really. I love seeing front doors decked out in fall/Halloween garb such as cute witches, jack-o-lanterns, and signs that say “Trick-or-Treat.” Let me also group fall scented candles into this category. They are my favorite. Anything in the pumpkin spice, gingerbread, vanilla sandalwood, autumn wreath category, is a winner for me. I would have fall scented candles in my house year round if I didn’t think that was totally obnoxious.

3. Fall Clothing. I love waking up on a chilly fall morning and putting on a pair of corduroys and a fleece. Invigorating! I love dressing my daughter in seasonal outfits, i.e, a pumpkin shirt for Halloween, a turkey for Thanksgiving, the mom in me is the biggest sucker for things like that!

4. Fall Activities. You name it, I am there if it is a fall activity. Hayrides, bonfires, corn mazes, driving to the Apple Barn, camping, picking pumpkins at a pumpkin patch, fall festivals, trick or treating, carving pumpkins, baking, I love it all. It is even more fun now that we have our daughter. I loved trick or treating so much, that I actually cried my first Halloween away from home. Pathetic, I know. Even more pathetic when I tell you that I was only 45 minutes away from home and I was also a freshman in college. Guess what my husband, then boyfriend, did for me? He took candy around to all of the people in our dorm that were there on a Friday night. He made a scavenger hunt for me to follow and at the end were two costumes: a sailor for me and a rock star for him. We went trick or treating all around our dorm. It was awesome.

I also have to add that Halloween begins our season of watching Charlie Brown holiday movies beginning with the Great Pumpkin, which isn’t my favorite, but the Thanksgiving one is an all time favorite. I love when Charlie Brown makes popcorn, buttered toast, and jelly beans for Thanksgiving lunch. Classic.

5. Fall Foods. I get giddy when they put up the seasonal foods middle isle at Wal-mart every year. You know what I am talking about. It is the extra isle that goes down the middle of the store and has things like: pumpkin pie filling, stove top stuffing, fruit cakes, sprinkles, turkey bags, etc. It makes me smile every time I see it. I also get excited when I see candy corn and marshmallow pumpkins on display. Growing up, my mom always had some in a candy dish on our mantle. I love how Starbucks features fall drinks like pumpkin spice lattes. Even Coffee-mate gets into the fall season with fall themed creamers.

6. Fall Temperatures. I love it when it is cold on Halloween and Thanksgiving, it just seems like that is how it is supposed to be. I love gray days filled with a chilly breeze that blows leaves all over the road. It makes me feel so cozy and our home so warm. I love fires in fire places and evenings spent reading and relaxing with friends by a fire.

Fall, I can’t wait for you to get here. Please come soon. Your biggest fan, Jess.

Until next time!

It is not the same without my tree. The yard knows it too. It feels incomplete and naked without it, you can tell. I feel like our grass is so upset by it, that it has just given up on life, and become brown. (Ok, it could also be the immensely hot days with no relief that is doing that, but it could be the tree.) I have been feeling really melancholy about it ever since Tuesday. We kind of have some yard vanity issues. One of the reasons we bought our home was because of the beautiful, flat backyard. It is my husband’s pride and joy. Literally, I think. We love to entertain in our backyard. So, it just doesn’t seem the same.

I can’t seem to figure out what it is about trees. I was thinking that people in general tend to have a fascination with certain trees. For instance, they are the center of some of best stories/poems: The Giving Tree, Caps for Sale, Birches by Robert Frost, etc. Some movie introductions are solely pictures of trees like in Phenomenon.

My Grammy had the most beautiful weeping willow tree in her backyard when we were kids growing up. We would climb it, swing from it, fall out of it (Bryan), but it was really beautiful and relaxing to sit under. That tree had to be cut down a couple of years ago, and I know we were all so sad when that happened. Maybe the reason why people love old trees so much is that they stay the same. You can go back to them, year after year, and they never change. Trees are constant, in a world where everything changes. Wow, I am getting deep this morning.

I have never considered myself a tree hugger, but I just want to say, that I loved my tree, and I miss it. If you have a tree on your property, or at a park that you like, you should give it a hug. Do it for me. You will miss it if and when it is gone one day. Sappy, I know. Get it, sappy? Haha! Pining for my tree. Get it, pining? Haha!

Until next time, your melancholy tree hugger

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I am supposed to be looking for ideas for my daughter’s two year old party that is coming up in the beginning of September, but I can’t come up with anything. Instead, I am listening to the most random variety of relaxing music as loud as I can and trying to relax until they come home. I have gone from Josh Groban, Switchfoot, Elton John, The Calling, Rascal Flatts, and Journey. I even typed in the word “fall” a minute ago and just stared at beautiful pictures of glorious fall leaves, pumpkins, and winding roads filled with falling leaves. I am all over the place.

I can’t believe that my daughter is turning two. Almost as unbelievable is that I can’t think of a theme for her party. That is so unlike me. I love planning parties. I love planning showers around color themes and planning a menu. And yet, here I am three weeks or so before her birthday and nothing. Alas, I will blame this one on the pregnancy. Along with my aching back and headache. I am so jealous of several of my friends who have had their babies this week and i still have 25 weeks to be pregnant. Ug. My brother will live in France for an entire semester before I have this baby! Switching to Harry Connick Jr, Christmas album, to be exact. That’s right, I am listening to Christmas music. There is nothing in the world that is more relaxing than Christmas music because it takes you somewhere special. Plus, a lot of Christmas music is worshipful, so that is cool too. I think I just realized that “Ava Maria” is Italian. He says “gratzi”, which I now know if thank you in Italian because I am a world traveler. See, Italian…Christmas, it is all coming together.

I was just day dreaming outside and saw my elderly female neighbor drive by on the road with her riding mower. I love living in a small town. How she has the energy to be driving and mowing yards right now is beyond me.

Well, my little bundle of energy is back with my sweet husband. I am going to see if he is in the mood for a mini Blizzard, quite possibly the best idea Dairy Queen has ever had! I am feeling a little better, and ending my musical journey with Patty Griffin.

Until next time!

I know you are on the edge of your seat, just dying to hear the rest of our Italian adventure. Well, I am dying to tell you. Perfect! We left Rome and took a train to Florence on our third day in Italy. If you are just tuning in, my husband and I just came back from our dream vacation to Italy, and my previous blog is about our time in Rome. Anywhoo, the train ride was really nice. Pretty much anything that has to do with Alitalia is first class if you ask me. We sat right next to a bi-lingual couple who was from Venezuela and we exchanged tips on traveling in Italy. The scenery was so beautiful. It was so relaxing to take a train ride through the Tuscan countryside. It was a real highlight for me.

When we arrived in Florence, we ate at McDonalds… and let me just pause here. I know, I know, the cardinal rule of traveling is not to eat at American restaurants when you are in another country, especially Italy. But, I caved ok? I couldn’t help myself. The worst part is that I hate McDonalds, I never eat there here in Tennessee. But, when I saw the fries and ice cold beverages from the large display sign, I was hooked. Call me crazy, but McDonalds always looks better in other countries. Happened to me when I went to Mexico. You would have thought it was the Cheesecake Factory or something, I completely freaked out. Anyway, moment of weakness, it will never happen again.

After our American binge fest, we hopped in a taxi and headed for our hotel. It was located in the Duomo part of Florence on the road right next to the Ponte Vecchio. It was in the most charming little square across from a beautiful old church, and sadly, even more important, a beautiful kitchen boutique that I fell in love with. For some reason we felt a little overwhelmed when we first arrived in Florence, maybe because we didn’t have an initial plan for what we wanted to see. So we decided to head out and find Vivoli’s. I know what you must be thinking, Vivoli’s must be a really important statue, famous museum, or cathedral, but you would be wrong in assuming that. Vivoli’s is supposed to have the best gelato in Florence. At least we had our priorities in line. So, we searched and searched and searched, and just when we were ready to give up, we found it! We enjoyed chocolate chip (me) and banana (Michael) outside on the cobblestone street while we formulated our plan of action for the rest of the day.

Oh my goodness, this is going to be a long one, if I don’t get more to the point. I swear, I could make a ten minute long story out of backing out of the driveway. Focus!

We spent the rest of our first day in Florence strolling around the Pitti Palace, eating the best spaghetti I have ever had, and eventually, caught the number 12 bus to the Piazzale de Michelangelo. The best recommendation that we received for our trip was to go to the Piazzale de Michelangelo. We were definitely under prepared for how breathtaking it would be. The Piazzale is an amazing, huge bluff located above the city of Florence that has a panoramic view of the city. Hundreds of people gather there everyday to enjoy the beautiful view and of course, eat gelato. How convenient that they had a gelateria up there, I was in heaven. After we had soaked up enough of the view, we took a taxi back to the Ponte Vecchio, the famous, old, bridge that was next to our hotel. We stopped on the bridge and listened to some beautiful music by a local musician. It was a great first day in Florence.

Day two in Florence started off with a delicious breakfast at our hotel. I then spent some time in my kitchen haven, the charming store across from our hotel. We were feeling a bit adventurous, and decided to take the furthest bus out of Florence to a little town called Fiesole. The drive up was filled with green hillsides filled with Cyprus trees and quaint orange and yellow Tuscan villas. We ate more delicious pasta once we got to Fiesole and then began familiarizing ourselves with the little town square. We hiked up a huge, steep cobblestone street because we had heard that the view would be worth it. On the way up, I wasn’t so sure, but the locals kept their promise. We enjoyed, yet another, magnificent view of not only Florence, but the beautiful, rolling Tuscan hillside.

On our way back down to Florence, Michael decided that Monday was D-day, aka, “Dome day”. The landscape of Florence is defined by a beautiful, huge dome, part of the Duomo, and you can climb to the top. So, we waited in line, bought our tickets and headed up. American tourism is very different from Italian tourism. If the Duomo was in America, they would probably create an additional staircase, one for entering and one for exiting. We would have an elevator in case of an emergency. We would have resting points along the way, heck, we would probably sell “Duomo water” to thirsty tourists. Why? Because we love mass tourism. We want the money. Not really the case in Florence. The way to the top is a winding staircase, that seemingly hasn’t had a single improvement made to it since it was built. At several points, people are going up and coming down in the same staircase, Yikes. Claustrophobic anyone? It is not lit up with lights, just little windows where natural light, and thank goodness, air can come it at. Half way up, I thought I had made a huge mistake. I was exhausted. I was feeling claustrophobic. To make matters worse, the inside of the dome was painted with heaven and very graphic hell scenes. So, here I am, way up high in the air staring up at people being tortured in hell. Not the best moment for me. However, I did feel like Rocky on the Philadelphia steps when we got to the top! I made it, all 493 steps. The view was beautiful because it was 365 degrees and alot of the building was in the shade, so you could just sit and enjoy the breeze. One cautionary warning I just want to throw out. Don’t climb the Dome if you are having a really bad day. There is only about a 5 foot, if that, fence that surrounds it. Just saying… it would be easy to jump off. Another big difference between Americans and Italians. The Empire State Building has like a 12 foot fence that no one is getting through, the Dome, a 5 foot one. Yikes!

Our last day in Florence was spent with me resting all morning because I was absolutely exhausted from the day before. We spent the early afternoon window shopping at some fancy stores that I love like, Tiffanys, Burberry, Chanel, etc. Then, we headed to the Academia to see the statue of David. On the way, we stopped at a McDonalds for lunch. What?! Ok, last time, I promise. If Rome is the city of fountains, then Florence is the city of naked statue dudes. There are more buns in Florence than Burger King. The statue of David is 17 feet tall and it really was awesome to see something so magnificent made by Michelangelo. Not surprisingly, the security was once again, lacking as far as I was concerned. I guess we Americans should take a page out of the safe, trusting, Italian handbook.

We spent our last evening our Italian adventure back at the Piazzale de Michelangelo. It was our favorite spot. We enjoyed one last gelato, and found our favorite flavor, white chocolate. Yum!! We left right before a storm rolled in and headed back to our hotel. It had been a wonderful trip. We got to do everything we wanted to do. We were tired, and ready to come home and see our little girl. We packed our bags and prepared to leave Florence at 4:30 the next morning. The Lord had other plans for us. As it turns out, we found out at 4:15 a.m the next morning that our flight out of Rome had been canceled. Long story short, it took us an extra day in Rome, 6 hours at the Rome airport, an extra flight to Munich, Germany and 24 hours of straight traveling before we would get home on Thursday evening. But, thankfully, we got bumped to business class on our long flight with Lufthansa, which is the greatest airline in the world, I got another stamp on my passport, and we arrived home safe to our amazing family, and beautiful little girl. We had an ultrasound the next day and baby gummy bear Clark is doing great with a strong heartbeat of 171, and is more the size of a circus peanut now! I am so thankful to the Lord for His protection over us while we traveled, for watching over my family as they watched our daughter, and for protecting our little circus peanut. I am so grateful to my husband for surprising me with my dream trip and encouraging me to take this risk. He was totally inspired when he saw the movie “Up” last summer and ever since then, has been more determined than ever that we take this dream trip instead of waiting until the perfect time. Thanks babe. What a gift. I love you!

Until next time!

We arrived in Rome at 9:00 in the morning, 3:00 a.m. our normal time. We were a little jet lagged, a little stinky, we had bad breath, but we were in Rome!! Here is a fact about the Rome airport that many of you may not know. It is a zoo. A utterly unorganized, unlabeled, confusing mess! Uscida means “exit” in Italian, so we followed a bazillion exit signs until we found our way through customs. First order of business, buying a ticket to take us to the Termini station, which is the center of Rome. I will skip the horrible train ride that we had through the graffiti covered urban part of Rome and the 5 mile walk to our subway line, because it was wretched and I would like to completely erase it from my memory. Needless to say, two and a half hours later, we arrived at our hotel in beautiful Barberini. Ahh! Our little square was so busy and beautiful. Although we were too early to check in, Fabio, (I am not kidding) the hotel manager, let us use a side room so we could change and freshen up for some sight seeing. We gladly dropped off our bags, grabbed our Rick Steve’s book and some water, and we were off to the Roman Colosseum.

Here is something that surprised me about Rome. It is hot. It was ninety five degrees the first day that we arrived. The good news is that there was no humidity and no bugs. My kind of place. The Colosseum was easy to find. Thanks to our Roma Passes, we got right through all the lines and we were inside. The Colosseum was absolutely breathtaking.

This is what I loved about being in Italy. You will be walking down the street and all of sudden, you come face to face with a piece of hundred or thousand year old history. It is awesome. We spent a couple of hours walking around the Colosseum, the beautiful Arch, and the Roman Forum. We also had our picture taken with some gladiators who gladly posed with us for lots of silly pictures and then asked that we pay them 20 euros. Yeah, right. I may be a tourist, but I am not a stupid tourist, thank you. After all that sight seeing in the heat of the day, we returned to our hotel. I promptly went to our room and fell face first on our bed and didn’t move for two hours. I felt much better after that. After our naps, we got ready and headed out to take in the evening sights of the Spanish steps and the Trevi fountain. Just for the record, both are breathtakingly beautiful at sunset. They are both places that are very popular, so they were both crowded, but we still enjoyed ourselves. I don’t know what I was expecting the Trevi fountain to look like, but I was blown away by it when we turned the corner and saw it. The fountain is really a huge wall with intricate carvings and there is a beautiful pool that holds all of the water from the fountain. Legend has it that if you throw a coin in the Trevi fountain,  you will one day return to Italy. So, Michael and I made our way down to the bottom and gladly threw in our coins. We ended our evening by stopping to get our second gelato for the day and enjoyed a leisurely walk back to our hotel.

If Rome is hot and hectic during the day, it is cool and refreshing during the evening. All of the restaurants open up into the cobblestone streets, lamps are lit everywhere, locals are eating long dinners with wine and families are walking around eating gelato. It is about 20 degrees cooler in the evening and it is perfect. Evenings are the redemption of Rome.

The plan for day two in Rome involved going to the Pantheon and the Plaza Novella, which is a popular shopping square in the city. Both were within walking distance of our hotel, so we headed out after breakfast. The morning was cool and quiet and I was loving every minute. We stopped at a market and bought some yummy peaches to enjoy on our walk. The Pantheon kept its Roman promise of taking my breath away. It was built in 27 BC. When I saw it, my jaw was open the entire time, because I couldn’t believe that I was standing in something so old, such a piece of history, and it was in one piece. It was beautiful. The outside was being renovated, but the dome inside was incredible. It has been the inspiration for our Capital building, and the Duomo in Florence. That was just a little tidbit for you, free of charge. We sat in the small chapel area and admired the dome for a while before we moseyed over to the artist, Rapheal’s tomb, which was very beautiful. The Plaza Novella is right by the Pantheon and it is a charming area that is filled with shops, open restaurants, and pastel houses with window boxes filled with colorful flowers. There were musicians playing beautiful music and of course, a fountain! We settled in at a nice pizza shop and enjoyed the atmosphere and eventually chowed down on a Margarita pizza with fresh mozzarella and basil. After that, it was rest time for preggo lady (that’s me). For those of you who don’t know me, I take a nap everyday. It is as essential to me as eating or drinking.

After my nap, we headed to the Vatican City to see the Pope. The Vatican City was really far from our hotel and we were a little confused about how to get there since both the bus and the metro seemed to still be far from the closest stop. ( I couldn’t just walk all the time, I am a dainty little thing.) It took us a while to find the Vatican City, and unfortunately, the museum was closed by the time we arrived there at 4:00. We were disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to see the famous Sistine Chapel, but we still enjoyed walking around the far entrance of the city where St. Peter’s Basilica is located. The building and surrounding crescent shaped pillars were breathtaking, and there was also, you guessed it- a fountain too! We were able to take a picture of the Vatican guards whose outfits are so embellished and fancy, you kind of forget that they are law enforcement. They look more like court jesters, with all due respect.

We walked back to Barberini, and we were exhausted, I mean, laugh until you cry tuckered out. We found a beautiful restaurant on top of a hotel and asked if they were serving dinner. I am not going to lie. I was on a bad food choice streak and it didn’t stop at this restaurant. My only requirements for eating in Rome were: a) to feel full and b) for me to recognize what I was eating. I am not an adventurous eater by any stretch of the imagination and until this point in the trip, all I had eaten was pizza. Well, we got to the top of the building and looked at the menu and once again, the only thing that looked appetizing was, well, pizza. Michael shook his head in disappointment while he ordered lamb and I ordered my pizza. It was yucky. I was tired. So not a good combination for the exhausted preggo lady. We have videos of me that evening sitting at the table with my head on the plate and boughts of delirium where I was making motorcycles noises with my lips. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, they brought out my pizza with yellow peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, and raw meat. Gross! I politely picked all of the meat off, ate the zucchini and salvaged the rest of my pizza. It was kind of a low point for me. Thankfully, I actually felt better after we ate and we headed back to the hotel for the evening.

I really enjoyed our time in Rome. I was glad that we went, and I was glad that we were only there for two and half days. It was a good amount of time to explore and take in the sights, but after two days, I was ready for Florence. Just so I can keep you on the edge of your seat, I am going to write about Florence in my next blog. Plus, my hands are really tired. I am a dainty little thing, after all. Just kidding. Enjoy the pics. My amazingly talented husband photographer took them and we are really proud! Until next time! Ciao!

First piece of big news… I am pregnant! That’s right, we are expecting our second baby in February! I am affectionately referring to our baby as our “Valentine bean”. We got to meet our little gummy bear a week ago today via ultrasound. It was pretty awesome. So, I will officially blame my writing funk on lack of brain cells. Not to mention that we weren’t telling anyone until I had an ultrasound, so I couldn’t very well write a blog with such a big secret to keep could I? The first trimester is in full swing with all of it’s classic wretched symptoms: nausea, fatigue, mood swings, wild dreams, etc. Last night I dreampt that I went into labor and delivered a little boy. Not a newborn baby. He was huge, he was at least 10 months old. I then called my husband at work and told him all about it. What?!? I was like, “What the heck are you doing at work, I just had a baby!! Get down here!” Needless to say, I was relieved to wake up and realize that I hadn’t had our baby yet and my husband hadn’t missed it! Oh, and hopefully our baby won’t weigh 17 pounds like the one in my dream. Sheesh!

Next piece of big news… we are going to Italy in two weeks for a Babymoon! This is all the doing of my sweet husband, who planned this trip and then surprised me a couple of weeks ago. It has always been my dream to go to Italy. We really wanted to take a Babymoon before we had a second baby, but I was definitely thinking of something on a smaller scale. Needless to say, I was shocked when he surprised me at a family dinner when he announced it while saying the blessing before the meal. I am super excited about going and feeling a little overwhelmed too. I think it will be awesome! Apparantly, I have lost so many brain cells that I was convinced the other day that the Italians used “Military months”. I was entering the date of our arrival and the Italian website I was using said 19/6/2010. I looked at and thought “Ok, this must be military months. 19 minus 12 is 6, so I need to put 20 for July.” My husband about peed his pants when I proudly announced that I had figured out the Italian website by mastering “military months”. He informed me through the screaming howls of laughter that there is no such thing as military months because there are only 12 months, and hence, no need for them. Oh right. I knew that. He said that they simply switched the month and the date and that the above mentioned date was June 19, 2010. Oh. But it seriously made so much sense to me at the time… blame it on the bean! I know what you are thinking. “She is screwed in Italy if she can’t even figure out the date and thinks there are military months!” I have actually had that thought too. Thankfully, I have two Rick Steve’s books to help us as we navigate through Rome and Florence, and my husband, who is not pregnant, will be there to help! Thank goodness!

Anyway, I have one last big piece of news… we won the Tennessee lottery! Just kidding. We didn’t. But, I just really felt like I needed to continue with the momentum. I’ll stop. That is all for now. Just wanted to say Hi and that I missed you and I will try to write more often as I gain back my mojo, brain cells, and energy! More details about our Valentine bean and trip to come soon!

Until next time!

It was a perfect morning to be outside. The duck pond is only a couple of miles from our house. I was feeling so particularly excited about our little outing that I grabbed the video camera. My daughter was carrying the bread with her all around the house and making her duck/quack sounds that come out sounding like “duack, duack!” We piled our stuff in the car and we were on our way. On the drive over to the duck pond, I was feeling pretty good. I love doing special little things for my daughter like this that make her happy. I mean, it is free and she enjoys it so much. How fun! We arrived at the parking lot and headed towards the pond. Last time we went, we had seen about 5 or 6 ducks, but they mostly swam the entire time, and they didn’t seem to be hungry at all. So, I wasn’t at all concerned about the small amount of bread that I had brought with us, because I figured it would be the perfect amount. My daughter skipped and ran the entire way and occasionally let out an additional “duack!” The mommy heart in me was so full and life was good. We walked through the bridge and started to approach the ducks. I immediately saw about 5 ducks and thought, this is going to be great. I opened my bag to get the bread out and began prompting my daughter to call to and feed the ducks. This is where our outing began to take a turn for the worse. In an instant I realized several things. First, there were way more than 5 ducks.  Secondly, the ducks were freaking starving! Thirdly, there was a rooster there. (I have no idea why, I thought roosters were only at farms.) Fourthly, there was this ugly huge red and black bird that was like the godfather of the group. He just flat out scared the crap out of me.

Here is a little fun fact about me. I didn’t grow up on a farm. My parents took us to the zoo when we were kids, and I grew up with some pets, but my exposure to “farm type animals” has been limited throughout my life. In the instant following my realizations about what was going on at the duck pond, I also was keenly aware about my comfort level with ducks. Or maybe I should say complete lack of comfort. All of a sudden my magical morning with my daughter turned into something straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The ducks surrounded us so fast that I furiously began to throw the bread away from us so that they would back up. Did I mention earlier that I only had three pieces of bread? That lasted about a second. Meanwhile, the ducks just kept on coming. Did I mention that there were geese too? Here are the thoughts that began racing through my head in no particular order. “Can ducks peck a person to death?” “Has anyone ever been attacked by ducks?” “If they try to peck me, all I have to do is kick them.” “I am bigger than the ducks.” By this time, my daughter had begun to cry out in this nervous talking that gradually got more panicky as the ducks came closer, “Mommy, Mommy, MOMMY!” I have to say, there was a stranger nearby mowing the grass and I have never been so happy to see a stranger. I seriously thought, “If the ducks begin to attack us, surely he will save us!”

So, here I am with my daughter holding on to me like a koala bear, my video camera in hand, several ducks quacking in our faces, geese swimming down the river towards us, a rooster, and the godfather all following us and wanting bread. Bread that I no longer have. I am seriously going to have to change the name of this blog to “how the heck do I get myself into these crazy adventures!!” Thankfully, I had a moment of clarity and I decided to video tape everything that was going on. Why? Because I knew that eventually when I got out of the situation, it would be darn hilarious, and it would make for awesome home videos down the road. Or I guess I should save it in case I need to give it to my daughter’s counselor one day because she is terrified of ducks! By the end of it, I counted 37 bird type animals following us for food, plus the godfather. 38! 38 bird like animals followed us around honking and quacking for fifteen minutes. Some birds followed us on foot, and some swam down the river towards us. Finally, I decided that we needed to leave. I had had my fill of ducks and my blood pressure was through the roof. We calmly walked down the river, said goodbye to the ducks and left. It wasn’t until I got out of the car that I was able to finally relax and realize how hysterically funny the situation had been. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, leaned over my steering wheel, and laughed until I cried.

Here are a couple of tips for you if you decide to go feed the ducks.

1. Don’t go to feed the ducks first thing in the morning, because they are starving!
2. Take lots of bread if you do go first thing in the morning.
3. Be prepared for ducks galore!

Hope you enjoyed my blog. Until next time, I’ll be sticking with rubber duckies, thank  you!

A friend on Facebook this morning reminded me, “that strength will rise while we wait on the Lord”. I was just thinking how common a theme of waiting is in the Bible. There are so many men and women of faith who had to wait on the Lord. That is such a comfort to me because those men and women are my heroes, and I can relate to them. Wow! That is amazing. I think about how Noah had to wait for the flood and endure persecution from almost everyone he knew; Hannah had to wait for her baby Samuel, Paul did so much waiting while we was in prison, King David, Moses, and the list goes on. Waiting is something that all of us will have to go through in life at some point or another. Whether you are waiting for a job, a new home, an old home to sell, a baby, a spouse, we have to wait. Waiting is so difficult for me because I think, “What if the thing I am waiting for will never happen?” “How long will I have to wait?” I don’t know the answers to those questions, but God does. In fact, He comforts us while we wait.

Ps 25:3 Indeed, none of those who wait for Thee will be ashamed;

Ps 25:5 Lead me in Thy truth and teach me, For Thou art the God of my salvation; For Thee I wait all the day.

Ps 27:14 Wait for the LORD; Be strong, and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.

Ps 33:20 Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.

Isa 40:31 Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

Something else that I am reminded of is that waiting isn’t just about waiting for an end result. It is about the process. God wants us to teach us while we wait. He wants to build character during the difficult time while the scar heals. It doesn’t just heal itself all at once. I have a scar from while my husband and I were wanting to have our first baby. God very mercifully took us down a road that involved trusting Him while we waited on a baby, while mourning the loss of another baby. He blessed us with our daughter after a very short time of waiting. She is such a tangible reminder of that difficult time in our life, she is our gift, the fulfillment of our dreams and desires. Now, two and half years later, God has asked us to wait again. I don’t know for how long, but I consider it a privilege that God has asked this of me and that He knows that I can endure this time. So, I don’t know where you are in your life right now. You may be waiting too. I hope that you are encouraged to know that there are others in the same boat as you, and that there were great men and women of faith before you that waited on the Lord. I love the Psal 24:14 verse, let your heart take courage. You can’t take something unless it is given to you. God is handing us courage while we wait, we just have to take it.

“Be strong and let your heart take courage, yes, wait on the Lord.”

Another thing that is speaking my language are slogans like Publix, “where is shopping is a pleasure.” Is shopping a pleasure at this stage in my life? No. I honestly want to ask the VP of marketing at Publix and ask them if they have ever been grocery shopping with a toddler. And a budget, while trying to price match. I dread grocery shopping with my daughter at the age that she is. I put it off every week as long as I possibly can. Why? Because my daughter no longer wants to be contained to a metal shopping cart. She wants freedom. She also doesn’t want the snacks that I pack, she wants every item of food that she sees in the store. And let’s not even begin with the toy section. I made the biggest rookie mistake the other day at Wal-mart. I saw this enormous container filled with large plastic balls for $2.50. I thought, Addie would love that! So, I got one. What in the world was I thinking? We hadn’t even begun our shopping yet! She wanted to hold the ball, which is barely even possible because it is so large. Then, she wanted to throw it. Try explaining to a toddler why she can’t throw the ball in the store and that it must be left in the cart until we get home before she can play with it. This meant that she could see the ball the entire time, but not get it out. Disaster. She cried on and off the entire time we were at the store. Like I said, rookie mistake, never to be repeated. Lesson learned. Back to “where shopping is a pleasure…” I would like to offer some feedback to that concept. Shopping at Publix would be a pleasure if I did all of the coupon things and had an unlimited budget. But, I don’t. What would really  make shopping a pleasure is a contained, safe toddler area with a babysitter. What? I can dream can’t I? I am just saying, if they are going to say, “Publix, where shopping is a pleasure”, then they should really back up what they are saying.

Next. I went into Bi-Lo yesterday because I was in a huge hurry and because it was by McDonalds and I was needing some “me time”. Bi-Lo has shopping carts with cup holders. Hello… how glorious is that? I put my frappe from McDonalds in the cup holder, and bingo, happy mommy! How many times have you tried to take coffee into the grocery store with you while you are shopping? Why do I even bother? No other stores have cup holders, so that leaves me trying to strap my daughter in the cart with one hand, and try to push and hold my list with my other hand, while I try to enjoy my coffee. I am really waiting for that third arm to grow in anytime. Cup holders in the shopping cart could possibly revolutionize my shopping experience. It might single handedly change the way I feel about shopping with my daughter. Almost.

Finally, Starbucks has been having a happy hour everyday from 3-5. Hallelujah! The only downside to this is that there isn’t one at my exit, so it is really out of the way for me to go to Starbucks unless I am on that side of town. But, I think that is a genius idea and I wish that they would keep doing it. Please! I love happy hour. Sonic does happy hour and it is awesome. You can get a gallon of cherry limeade for 50 cents or something like that. More places need happy hour. And I am not talking about bars, thank you.

Enough rantings for today. Until next time…

As many of you know, I met my husband while we were students at Bryan College. As I quickly learned, Michael really, really loved to pull pranks in school. Some of his most famous ones include, but were not limited to: putting a Mini-Cooper on the stage of Rudd auditorium and in front of the mail room, covering the entire campus with toilet paper the night before a promotional video was shot for the school, pulling the fire alarm, and putting all of the cafeteria chairs on the roof of the cafeteria before breakfast. Did I mention that he helped unhinge every single seat in the auditorium (there had to be at least two hundred) before chapel one day? There were many, many more that included trips to the emergency room, fart machines, and bodily liquids that will remain undisclosed for the time being. Like one of my best friends pointed out last night, a lot of my friends at the time really questioned why I was dating Michael. But, as my friend also pointed out so sweetly, there was and is a another side to Michael that has surprised her more than any of her friends husbands.

I used to be a nervous wreck when we were in school and I would hear about another prank. I would call Michael, and say, ” I don’t even want to know if you are involved in this or not.” You see, I am a rule follower. I do not rock the boat. If someone tells me not to do something, I don’t do it. Now that we are older, I think about those pranks and laugh. Most of them were really good. Although Michael truly earned a reputation for being a prankster and a wild man on campus, there is another side to him that I love equally as much. It is the side that my friend said has surprised her the most.

Most people don’t know that when I was in labor with my daughter, Michael sweat through his t-shirts (that he had packed) so much, that he asked if he could go to Target after I had my epidural to buy some more. The entire time I was in labor, he was so supportive, and the only way I knew how nervous he was, when he would go off to the side and put on another t-shirt. He went through the entire pack before our daughter was born! When she was born, he said, “I knew that she would be pretty because she was our daughter, but I never thought she would be this beautiful.” I can’t tell you how many times Michael has said, ” I can only be mad at Addie for a second, because she is so cute.” When she was a newborn, he used to scoop her up out of my arms, and take her and camera into another room and just take hundreds of pictures of her. He is crazy about his little girl. Every day, he gets up with her in the morning and they spend about 30 minutes together in the morning while he gets ready for work. Sometimes, I stay in bed and sleep, but most of the time, I lay there and listen to him interact with her. She just toddles around and follows him as he says things like, “Let’s go get daddy’s shoes”, and “I need to pack my lunch”.

Having a family is really important to Michael. He never wants me to take a pregnancy test unless he is there. He used to pray over my tummy for our daughter before she was born and talk to her. I know that trying to get pregnant these last 8 months have been just as hard on him as it has for me. He has comforted me when I have cried and been so supportive, but I know that having another baby is just as important to him as it is to me. He wasn’t even upset when we turned his office into a playroom for our daughter and put his office into a closet. After we had our first miscarriage, I was so upset one night that I insisted that we had to get a dog. Right then. I said, ” I don’t care if you go get a squirrel out of the backyard, but I need something to take care of!” He called a man that we had seen in the newspaper and begged him to let us drive out to his house at 9:00 at night so we could get a dog. These are a just a few things that I love about you, Michael.

For mother’s day, he bought me and my daughter matching pearl necklaces and earrings. They are beautiful. I thought that was such a sweet gift. I will cherish it forever and I hope that our daughter can pass them on to her daughter, hopefully, one day. Michael is constantly making me laugh. I can honestly say that I never know what he is going to say. He is famous for crossing the line, and not thinking before he speaks, but I am used to it by now. Being embarrassed just goes with the territory. I love that the same things are important to us, like me being a stay at home mom, eating dinner together every night, praying together with Addie, dates, having people over, and being together as a family. I love that Micheal has pictures of everything. He has basically documented our life together. I know it is because he is afraid of forgetting it, but it makes me feel special, because to me it means that everything is significant.

Of course, just like every married couple in America, we can drive each other crazy too. It drives me bonkers that Michael never puts the dishes in the dishwasher, and that he drapes all of his work clothes over the kitchen chairs everyday when he gets home from work. We have some pretty ridiculous arguments that could probably be on the Marriage Ref. I know Michael puts up with the emotional train wreck and tortured thinker that I am, and that is not easy. I think it is a pretty fair trade off.

So, happy birthday to my husband, Michael. You are a lot more complex than you let on. Just like Kate said, you have surprised me more than anyone I know too. You surprised me for the first time when we had the talk about Stephen. That was what let me know that there was a different side to you that I hadn’t seen, and I really liked that side. I love you babe. I hope to share bunches and bunches of birthdays together. You are very special to me. Happy Birthday!