they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

one of the best songs ever - written my joni mitchell (early 1970s) (yes, the counting crows redid it): one of the best movies ever (1988) (which i wonder if this new version was in italian (BEAUTIFUL!!!), i think it'd loose something in its translation to english...): what is amazing that they had nothing to do with each other but had everything to do with each other at the same time. they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

life for the 19th EN

here's the harsh reality of life for some for the next year (BTW it is already 90 degrees with 13% humidity there - which feels like phoenix did last year when we were there... HOTTTTT!): (the site i went to when i clicked on the "i": http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1003165&site_id=1#import ) (disclaimer: i have no idea if this is where rob is going and if it turns out that this is near it, it was just a lucky guess on my part. i just know this is the "region" i.e. southern afghanistan - so any reference to this area in particular is just by chance on my part. i just thought those holes (qanats) looked interesting so i zoomed in to see what they were... and i found out. then the poppy photos interested me... and then the whole "bost fort ... and he lived to tell about it" reference kinda caught my eye on page two.)

when you gotta go...

when you gotta go... consider the offroad commode. really, this is a good idea. strange, but good. for $40, you buy a toilet-seat attachment for the hitch on your truck/SUV/(car) so when you're offroading (or just pulled off the road), you have the "comforts of home" just off the backside of your vehicle. just remember to turn your car off (esp. if you gutted your catalytic converter to enhance the sound in your dual exhaust). this brings "everything but the kitchen sink" to a whole new level, wouldn't you say? (ps, saw this on WRAL's strangenews this morning. i didn't just stumble across this myself...)

new shoes and scribbling

so exited that i got a new pair of sneakers today. mizuno (my favorite brand) wave creation 10 - they are awesome. if you are in the market for a new pair, i urge you to try these on. i got these at omega sports, but i know they also have them at dicks and REI. prices are all the same, more or less. on another topic, since yesterday, kendal has started scribbling. yesterday, he was still making dots with the crayons. today, he's all out scribbling. its cute too! my little picaso... another random note... bought wine for my book club meeting on friday night - when i got home, mom noticed that one of the bottles (the more expensive one actually) was a screw top. and i chose it from all the other sauvignon blancs because #1 it was recommended by one of the staff, #2 it had the highest rating (a 93) out of all the wines i could find, and #3 it was american. weird about the screw top, who ever heard of a good wine having a screw top? may as well been in a box. oh well, i wish i had noticed this in the store, i probably wouldn't have gotten it. we'll see though. maybe it'll turn out to be good.

panic! swine flu!

boy does our media (and government) send out waves of horror much like the "war of the worlds" film. panic! swine flu! one thing that particularly gets on my nerves is the reference to people using hand sanitizer (e.g. antibacterial gel/foam) to stop the spread of the VIRUS. granted, there are some things that do claim to kill viruses (lysol, but you can't rub your hands in it). hand sanitizer, however, doesn't kill viruses - it contains triclosin which doesn't even actually kill the bacteria... but it is typically associated with bacteria such as e.coli (i.e. for folks who don't wash their hands after they poop). here is a good website explaining the whats and whys of antibacterial soaps... anyway, my point here is that if you TRULY want to stop the spread of any and all germs (bacterial, viral, just plain dirt, etc.), you should wash your hands in soap and water. antibacterial soap is optional. just the fact you are washing is half the battle! so get that soap and water and wash away! leave that antibacterial gel for removing marker!

bath time for me (long time ago) and belly time for holly

if my mom wasn't only 26 in this picture, wouldn't you think that it was holly getting a bath? (this is me at about 4 or 5 months) holly didn't particularly like belly time this morning. maybe because it was also nap time. maybe it was because i just opened the windows thus her nose had immediately stopped up, so she was snotty. its a darn good thing she doesn't mind the bugger puller. either way, check out these legs. aren't they sweet? and just for the record of it, i did try to give her a tiny bit of oatmeal this morning - really just to see if i was right and she'd spit it out. (at her 4 month appt last wednesday, the doctor said i could try and feed her "solid" food - but i don't think she's ready because she still has a strong thrust reflex - where they push stuff out with their tongue). i was right. (not only did it all come out, she made a horribly ugly face to go along with it.) maybe i'll try again in a month.

as if...

She's got a smile that it seems to me Reminds me of childhood memories Where everything Was as fresh as the bright blue sky She's got eyes of the bluest skies As if they thought of rain I hate to look into those eyes And see an ounce of pain Sweet child o' mine Sweet love of mine

lets go hurricanes!

made 2 new bows! holly is a great model!

going on a trip! see ya next fall!

guess what happened to me today! i fell down!! slipped on my very clean (and steam sanitized) and very very slick floor. no cracker crumbs or dried-on milk to give me traction i guess. even funnier, i was on the phone with melissa - and if i hadn't told her, rather if i hadn't been laughing so hard, she probably wouldn't have known i had fallen! ha! i bet i bruised my knee!

the word list

though i am a few days late for kendal's 19 month birthday, i wanted to post his word list (mostly as a reminder for myself). i have this all on a dry erase board, which happens to magically erase itself too often. (probably all those papers i stack on top of it... hence why i wanted to post it somewhere more permanent!) so, here are his words/phrases as of today! (* means something you would understand too!) (^ means he also knows that sign!) dog* milk^ da da* ma ma* holly (ah, ah, ah - he says it over and over. boy does he love her so much.) mamaw* (sounds like ma ma but with extra syllables) granddaddy cat* woof* moo back-pack* (thanks dora!) school* (kool - has a little bit of the sk sound on the front side) hi* bye* more^ (it is cute seeing his little hands point together) all done^ (he uses the sign more than he uses the word) outside* (ahside) see it* ball (baaawwwwwllll) baby* (he says it more the spanish be-be) night night* (ni-nite) book shoe* thank you (tan-tu) cheese cracker tea* no* (no no no no no no no, this one is usually repeated over and over and over and over... with a shaking head!) uh-oh* sutter (classmate) tyler (classmate) blanket truck* (which interestingly he says it without moving his lips. its really cute.) see ya later (sometimes doesn't have the later...) wonder pets ming ming* (wonder pets character) tuck* (another wonder pets character) WOW!* (they say that on wonder pets, now he says it often - at the appropriate times, like when he gets food or snack, etc. it is my favorite thing he says besides his sweet little "mama" like the lost kangaroo says on wonder pets - kinda a singing "MA ma" which i love to hear too. i always sing back "BAby" like the mama kangaroo.) car* (says it with a boston accent... cah) bird* sock* tripp (classmate) caleb (classmate) josh (this one i had to figure out. my photo screen saver was on and he kept saying "ahj" (similar to holly - ah - but with a j sound on the end) when i finally figured out he was saying josh.) katelyn (kate kate) amen* (men-men... really sweet when combined with the praying hands)

what kind of parade is on april 18th?

this has been like the best saturday ever. well, in a long time anyway. not only was the weather nice, but we had just a great day overall. besides the temporary grumpiness that kendal awoke with (which is half-way normal these days), we all had baths, i polished my toenails, actually got to straighten my hair (with more than the brush and the hairdryer) - AND put on mascara! we packed our diaper bags and got all dressed up to go to our nieces' (twins) christening this morning. we left plenty early - but here was the only snag in our perfect day - on the way there, we got stuck in traffic. we weren't sure what the traffic was from, but roads were blocked by police and fire trucks. after a while, we saw a float go by - so, we assumed this was a parade. but there weren't any warning signs up the week before!?! and what in the world would a parade be for on april 18th? who knows. i found nothing online either. it may remain a mystery forever... anyway, after going into a near panic about being late, nathaniel thankfully put the pedal to the medal and we got from rolesville to durham in record time.

• (side note: rolesville is a town notorious for cops who will pull you for going 36 in a 35. my husband, who also thinks going 57 in a 55 zone is speeding, was going ~50 in a 35 zone in rolesville after leaving the parade site. he said "well, we know where all the cops are!")

we actually pulled into the church parking lot at 11:28 (the ceremony was at 11:30), and walked into the church and sat down as the priest welcomed everyone. WHEW! i so hate being late. (even when we left, nathaniel wanted to drive, and although we left early, i told him to not drive like an old man because i'd rather wait than be late!) so the ceremony was beautiful, i've never been to a christening/baptism before (yea, i'm raised in the south, most folks around here are NOT catholic - not to say there aren't lots of catholics, just not compared to baptist and methodist, etc.) it was so nice, though, all the babies did so great - it even had a flair of comedy thanks to jacqueline who was particularly curious about the baptism part - she reached for the water cup! (i'm sure the water cup has a special name, but i have no idea what it is.) the dresses were so pretty, not only for J&S, but also the other two babies that were baptised. after that, we went over to jon and shannon's house for lunch and drinks, kendal and sophie played while jacqueline and holly slept. it was great to see sophie - wish we had spent more time with jacqueline, and wish holly had spent more time with jon and shannon (it was the first time they'd met), but we had to get maggie at 2pm PLUS kendal had not taken a nap (his naptime is usually noon to 2pm). i could see that he has some moodiness coming on, so i thought he would sleep on the way home. (and if i could have foreseen the future, we would have gone back to J&S's house because we were having SUCH a good time there, neither of us grownups were 'ready' to leave... ) so in the car, kendal chatted the entire way home. when we got to my mom's house to drop off maggie, we quickly had mom take some pictures of us since we were all dressed up... at which point kendal went into melt down so i put him in her crib. he SCREAMED for about 15 minutes... until katelyn couldn't take it anymore so she got him out (it was about 3pm by then). he was hungry. he ate, and then we played and played until about 6:30. one of the games we play outside is "swat the bee". my parents have tons of those carpenter bees - i hate them. we have these lid thingys that we hit them with and then stomp them. we were all swatting and stomping... and kendal thought it was HILARIOUS!!! then we got a golf ball and bounced it on the patio, he thought that was funny too. he also thought rolling the ball down the slide (or sliding board as mom calls it) was funny. anyway, we had a great time. kendal went to sleep on the way home from my parents' house, then he went right to sleep in his crib after that. he was one tired boy! it is 8:45 now and nathaniel just fed holly and put her to bed. looks like i will probably be going to bed in the next 15 minutes! i stayed out too late last night!!! (reaping that tiredness today!)

vacation to KY (jelly)

the new car was great for the drive out. the bad seat was the back seat - that person had to take care of the kids - here is nathaniel feeding holly somewhere in WV - you know, that area where there aren't any exits for like 40 miles (which naturally is when she woke up hungry as a bear) - and i'm sure it was snowing or something, we ran into bad bad weather on the way out. as nathaniel put it to my sister, going through the second tunnel was like going through the wardrobe into narnia.

granddaddy's lap expanded more than i knew it could this week (and this was just the start!):

holly in boy clothes. bad mama didn't pack enough cold weather clothes for her. it was much colder out there than i expected. i always forget that whatever the weather says for out there, i can always count on it being about 10 degrees colder and about 50 mph windier unless it is summer, then it is 10 degrees hotter with no wind. anyway, she is cute in boy clothes too:

cell phones (old ones) were the toy hit of the week. they all had one, and they all pretended to use them:

josh and "candle" (the way josh pronounced kendal's name) - talking about trucks outside:

sam was always on the move! he is crawling like a chimp now! (and when i say chimp, i mean champ!):

our usual morning routine in the hotel: fruit loops in bed. kendal slept like a rock and had a hard time waking up almost every morning:a common assembly area/pattern for the boys:

granddaddy and mamaw brought some of those nasty marshmallow eggs - we hid them and they found them over and over in the common area outside. even some of the neighbor kids got in on the action (which was a great way to get rid of some of the eggs). kendal again didn't care much for finding them, but he did like playing with them inside:

holly was always sleeping in her granddaddy's arms (sometimes he was sleeping too):

oh look, here goes sam again!:

guitar hero was the game of the week. even my no-rhythm husband could play (and sound good): melissa still won all the games though: monkey see monkey do:

mom and the girls and josh sometimes (depending on how bored he was) had lots of tea parties: tea time goofs grace and faith:

you should have heard all the giggling going on...:

funny thing is that i have not ONE SINGLE picture of ROB!!!!! holly loved him, she was especially interested in his uniform. kendal wasn't scared of him either, thank goodness. seems that last time there was a getting-used-to period we had to go through... and speaking of rob, we had an interesting time talking to him about his upcoming deployment. one thing he showed us is these new shirts the military got for them (they each get 2). the new time magazine cover has a soldier wearing it: it is a nice shirt, too - all season fabric, the kind that keeps you cool in the summer and warm in the winter. he wanted to buy more but after looking them up to purchase, found out they cost like $130 or something. WOW! so he's just taking the two he was issued. i guess they have to wear them dirty because it isn't like they can do laundry every other day. anyway, i have a good idea of some things to send him during this deployment. that is one thing to look forward to ( on my part). unfortunately, unlike his iraq tours where mail took about a week, this time mail will take 6 weeks. so, i suppose i can have a box ready as soon as we get his address! to change the subject follow up on something i've talked about before in a previous blog, we watched movies in the car like the whole way home (thanks mamaw for letting us borrow your portable DVD player). kendal's legs were numb we think (he would suddenly grab his toes and scream), and thank goodness for the wonderpets... and little einstein. i think nathaniel is convinced now about the usefulness of a DVD player PERMANENTLY installed in the car. before our next BIG trip (whenever that will be), we'll get one put in. ok, melissa, use that ghetto "control-alt-delete" computer you have and post some pics!

zoo trip

it was a nice warm day last sunday when we went to the NC zoo for the third time this year. we lathered up with sunblock for this trip! holly got to wear her new sun hat. she looked cute in it, didn't she? the giraffe's were just coming out from their lunch break. even the elephants were visible and moving around! and this is the first time we've seen the ostriches! this was a quick trip, we only had a couple hours, so we breezed through the africa side. one thing i did not get a picture of was the chimp that kept making faces at kendal. he'd come up to him at the glass and make the upper lip face at him and then walk away. according to the sign they have there, they aren't sure what that face means. it isn't a smile, but it isn't a sign of aggression either. who knows. maybe he was saying "love the red hair, dude!"