Lately

The last month has been exceptionally crazy busy. I figured out that in the past 28 days my grandpa passed away; we took a trip to Disney World; spent time in Houston to bury my grandpa; took a weekend girl's trip to Memphis; hung out with my mom while she visited us in Searcy last week; and drove to Norman, OK, with Jim to see a U2 concert. In between all of that, classes have to be prepared and oh yeah I've got a family too who likes to have clean clothes and a warm dinner!!

Disney World was awesome!! Laura LOVED every single moment (except the Snow White and Pirate ride) and we just had a ball with her. One of the highlights was eating dinner with Cinderella in her castle. I thought I was gonna cry when Laura met her for the first time. Big moment! Meeting and getting autographs from the many characters was Laura's favorite part. Another highlight was trick or treating in the Magic Kingdom after the park had closed. It was a "special event" so there weren't as many people and there were more characters roaming around. We enjoyed all the parks from the rides, parades to firework shows. It was as they say "magical".

We spent the next few days after Disney in Houston with my family. While it was a sad time for us to lose Papa, we also are at peace with his passing. He'll be missed greatly.

Once I returned to Searcy, I had a couple of days to recover and get ready for my college girl weekend trip in Memphis. I love my friends, Andrea, Maria and Cara. It amazes me how time passes, but our friendship is still solid. Of course now instead of talking about our "guy prospects" as we did in college, we talk about our babies, our gray hairs, the medicines that we take and droopy body parts. We had a wonderful weekend of shopping, eating, pampering ourselves and talking.

My mom visited us last week. I did not take ONE single picture, but we did have fun having a shopping trip to LR and having a "girls" day with Laura. I think we wore my mom out pretty good!

This past weekend, Jim and I drove to the U2 concert in Norman, OK. We have a fabulous babysitter who watched Laura and Grant over night. They did great and we had a fun time enjoying Bono. Jim is a HUGE U2 fan and therefore I enjoy his music as well. The concert was amazing and it was good to get away even for a short period of time to talk and just have fun.

I am enjoying so much watching Grant start to talk. His verbal skills have really picked up the last couple of weeks and I just love hearing his little voice! We took him to the allergist a couple weeks ago where he had no reaction to 18 different allergens. It didn't really help explain his rashes, but he is on a daily antihistamine which has seemed to help in the constant runny nose department.

And the Disney pictures....

Sweet Reunion

A couple weeks ago we spent an afternoon with the Watson's. We had a great time visiting, catching up and watching the kids play. Since David's parents live in Searcy, we get to see them a couple times a year as they visit their family in Arkansas.

Mackenzie and Laura are still such sweet friends! I think this was the best the girls ever played together. Usually they fight like sisters some of the time!! By the end of the day, they were calling each other "sisters".

We love the Watson family! April is one of those friends where the miles in between us doesn't distance our friendship. We can catch up easily and our friendship is just easy! Thank you for letting us spend an afternoon with you.

Girlfriends

Last weekend, I traveled to Dallas to visit two of my college friends, Andrea and Maria. We try to get together each summer without children for "girl time." It was a fun time of eating, shopping, talking and staying up late (except this year Maria turned in at 9 p.m.)!

This year I brought Grant so he wouldn't starve all weekend. Besides screaming for about 15 minutes on the flight's ascent and descent on both legs of the trip, he did great! My little man is very portable and agreeable. However, I was quite tired when I got home from hauling him around.

Jim had some great father/daughter time with Laura. He is such a good daddy! Read his blog for all their adventures.

Andrea and I were suitemates or roommates for almost my entire college career, save the semester she studied in England. I lived in Sewell Hall with Cara and Maria that semester. When I talked to Andrea on the phone the summer before our freshman year at Harding, we discovered we had the same birthday, and I knew we would be fast friends. She is, as I call her, "my sissy" and a forever friend.

I met Maria my sophomore year, and my first impression was that she had "big" hair. She did sport a bouffant bang look one time, which we enjoyed teasing her about. Maria is the analyzer, but also boasts a very calming personallity. I remember her really helping me through a time when Jim and I had broken up. She is also "my Maria" and a forever friend.

On another note, I also got to see Cara and her family this week while she was in Searcy for Uplift. Cara and I were either suitemates or roommates from my sophomore year until graduation. She was always my "loud" friend from small-town Pocahontas. We shared some good times together!!

Thanks, girls, for some good chats and memories!

Girl Weekend

My "Girl Weekend" started with Girl's Night Out Friday night at Amerigo's restaurant. I have to say that our conversations were very funny that night and most enjoyable. I love all of my friends.

Laura and I had a fun time Saturday while Jim was out of town. She was a good sport about being home most of the day, which was due to my slow-moving body! That evening we put on our P.J.'s — or rather, left the house in what we had been wearing all day — to make a trip to Bruster's Ice Cream stand. A couple times a year they offer free ice cream if you wear your pajamas.

Jim got home safely last night, and Laura was thrilled to see that Daddy was home and even more excited to receive a gift he picked up for her.

Unfortunately, our fun ended at about 3 a.m. with a sick girl throwing up. I'm not too sure what is going on with her, as she hasn't thrown up since this morning. She has had fever all day and has been complaining about the ear that got cleaned out last week.

I was glad to have some one-on-one time with Laura this weekend and am hoping that all the sickies will go far away from our house!

Friends

On Saturday, several of my girlfriends spent the whole day in Sevierville at the outlet mall. When you get six women together without children, there can be a lot of excitement. It is funny because we all look forward to our days or nights out together to be free of children and we usually spend the whole time talking about them.

I'm so thankful for all of these ladies and enjoyed sharing a day with them.

Halloween Fun!

Laura had a busy week of costumes, candy and trick-or-treating! On Sunday we went to the Fall Festival at our church. Our little Strawberry Shortcake enjoyed the games and indoor trick-or-treating.

On Tuesday she dressed up as a nurse for the community-helper costume day at school. Unfortunately, our camera is being ornery and we didn't get a picture of that outfit! Take my word, she was a cute nurse.

Last night we ate dinner with some friends from church and enjoyed a night of trick-or-treating. Laura had a blast with her friends Mackenzie and Josiah. The girls were adorable in their costumes, and Josiah (16-month old) did his best to keep up with short little legs as we went up and down the streets. It was a fun evening!