Wedding Weekend Plus a Surprise!!

It's official! Emily and Wendell are married! Here is a picture of our new family (larger by one) minus Bennie, Amber, and Brooks. We took pictures of everyone but I don't have one of those yet so stay tuned for a complete picture of my crew.

Some of you may have figured out that the wedding didn't take place when it was supposed to. We were planning a wedding for September. About two months ago I got a frantic call from Em saying that we had to move the wedding up a little bit. I'm going to be getting another grandbaby!! Woo Hoo!! She is due on Austin's birthday on October 18th. So we scrambled and found a place to have the wedding and reception and pared down the guest list considerably. It was a small wedding with mostly family. Wen's family came from Chicago, California, and Texas and it was great to finally meet them all. We had a big ole family dinner at our house Friday night and got to know each other and then the wedding was Saturday night. Jimmy's mother had everyone for breakfast this morning on the farm and then they all headed home around 2 o'clock this afternoon. They are one fun bunch!! One of his brothers "tried" to teach me how to "step". Word has it that pictures were taken of that endeavor. Lord help me.

Shortly after they left Emily and Wendell loaded up and headed back to Florida. A wonderful weekend was coming to an end. I love, love, love when they come to visit but as wonderful as that is, it makes the good-byes that much harder. I always cry. I just can't help it. However, before they left today they made a wonderful announcement to us. They are going to look in to moving back up this way!!! No news yet as to when, but at least it's in their plans. I'm thrilled. Now that I know how great having a grandchild is, I was sad to think that I would have one so far away that I wouldn't get to see very often. And now, I won't have to worry about that for long. I'm one happy Momma!

And here is the happy couple!! These were just snapshots taken by family. I should have professional pictures to share in a couple of weeks.

An Oldie But a Goodie!

This was originally posted in November of 2006 when Austin was 8 years old.

Saturday night I had a date.The most adorable little boy in the world asked me out. I was thrilled! You see, the movie he'd been waiting for had finally hit Cinema Showcase and he was chomping at the bit to get there. His proposition was was if I would drive us there, he would pay for our tickets. My first reaction was to say, "I'll take you to the movie, but you don't have to pay for the tickets." Then, I realized that this could be a very good thing for him to do. For one thing he would be getting a lesson in the value of a dollar. For another thing, he would get to be the giver instead of the taker. He was very proud to pick up his wallet and I think he felt very powerful as we headed towards the cinema.

We walked into the theater and headed to the ticket counter. He had his little wallet in his hands and his little eight year old self said to the lady taking the money, "We want tickets for FLUSHED AWAY." The thirty-something woman behind the counter looked him straight in the eye and said, "Ok, let's see that will be one child and one senior, that comes to $11.75." He opened his wallet and began counting out his money. I was busy trying to decide if I had heard her right! My mouth had fallen open, and I heard myself saying in a voice I didn't even recognize as my own, "Surely I don't qualify for a senior citizen's discount!" I guess she could tell by the mournful tone of my voice that she had made a serious faux pas. "Oh, ma'am, I'm so sorry", she gushed as her face turned red. She then gave Austin the revised price of $13.75. He very correctly counted out two five dollar bills, three one dollar bills and three quarters. She went on and on about how perfectly he had counted the correct amount of money to give to her. It was too late, she could have declared him as the newest child math prodigy to the world at large and it was not going to make up for the fact that she had looked at me and deduced in some twisted corner of her demented mind that I was a senior citizen!!!! I just simply could not get over it. I know that I'm not a spring chicken. I realize that I'm closer to 50 than 40. I even realize that it's possible and maybe even expected that people could assume I'm Austin's grandmother rather than his mother. But I refuse to admit that I look like I would qualify for a discount that is only available to people over 62, or is it 65? See, I don't even know when it kicks in, because it's not something that is even within the realm of possibility for me yet. At least I didn't think so!

From the ticket counter we made our way to the concession stand and when Austin started to pay for our Cokes and popcorn I told him to put his wallet back in his pocket, "Granny is going to pay for the treats", I grumbled. He thanked me and we made our way into the semi-dark theater. After we got ourselves settled in our seats and were munching away on our popcorn I began to let the memory of the dumb ticket lady fade away. Then, out of nowhere, Austin turned to me and said, "Mommy, you shouldn't have said anything to that lady, I could have saved $2.00!

You know, there is something to be said for mothers who eat their young.

I was determined to have my next post be about something else...

But how in the world could I not post THIS!!!!????

Happy Easter everyone. I promise that the next post will be about something other than Brooks. At least I think I promise. Of course if he does something too irresistible I will change my mind. Hey, I'm a grandmother, that's how I roll!

Brooks entertaining me!

I had Brooks yesterday and couldn't wait to give him a banana baby biscuit that I'd gotten him at the grocery store. He is still too little to eat them by himself so he got it in a neat little gadget with a mesh pocket that you put the food in and then as it gets soft he's able to get it through the mesh. I think this is a wonderful invention and I can't believe they didn't have these when my kids were babies. Anyway, he looooved it as you can see.

I've been otherwise engaged...

It's truly official! I'm a terrible blogger! But when I'm not working or sleeping or cooking or doing laundry I've been very busy with this little guy! Can you believe that he is going to be 8 months old next week? I sure can't!

I knew that I was going to love being a grandmother, but I had no idea it was going to be THIS much fun! This baby is an absolute dream baby. I told Sarah she better not have another one (totally kidding!) because she'd never get another one as easy as Brooks. He is Mr. Laid Back and is so easy to make happy.

He loves his walker and just loves being able to get to where he wants to go...in this case, the refrigerator!

Here he is being charming at Uncle Patrick and Aunt Amber's house. We're all so smitten it's ridiculous!

We can't put him in his previous favorite place, the bouncy. He immediately flips himself over and starts using it as a jungle gym.

I love these next pictures! He loves his dogs, Sam and Mazy. Here he is with Sam! Poor Sam has terrible allergies so they keep a t-shirt on him so he won't scratch himself to death.

Here is Mazy giving him some love. Can't you just hear that sweet baby giggle?

And this one just takes the cake! He looks just like a little Kewpie Doll standing there!!!

I'm going to try to do a little better about updating things here. Emily and Wendell are getting married NEXT WEEK, so things are a little hectic at the moment. But I have an announcement to make here very soon!!!!

This Christmas will be the last time...

I love Christmas morning. I love Christmas morning every bit as much if not more than any child on earth. Christmas morning is the happiest time of the year for me and it always has been. I loved it as a child, but I have loved it even more as a mother. I love it because I get to see my children gathered around my tree and I get to give them things. The sight of my children sitting around our tree on Christmas morning does something to the deepest depths of my soul that I am woefully inadequate to describe. I only know that it fills me with joy and my heart runs over with love.

When I discovered I was pregnant with Austin I cried for four months. It was not in my plans to start over with my oldest child away at college! The thing that made me stop crying was the thought that I would have a believer again at Christmas!!! That got me through and I've since learned that he was to be much more to all of us than just a "believer" at Christmas. As the big kids grew up, they enjoyed the whole "Santa Magic" thing all over again through Austin. So, even though they were grown up and even married, Christmas morning would find them rushing over here on Christmas morning (even in PJ's), so they wouldn't miss Austin coming downstairs to see what Santa brought. Austin was their joy on Christmas morning. He was mine too, but what they didn't realize was that them being there was just as vital to me as Austin was. You see, it doesn't matter how old they are on Christmas morning, they are my babies and they belong around my tree ! For several years, Emily wasn't here, and the void was felt. It wasn't something that I ever got used to. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Christmas to me is having my children surrounding me as daylight dawns and all of our traditions begin to unfold time after time. We listen to the same music every year, we have the same breakfast every year, we go through the same routines every years and I never, ever, ever tire of it.

Today at Sarah's we were talking about Christmas morning this week and I asked Sarah what time she and Bennie would be coming over. And she said, "Early". And then she said that this would be the last year that they would be over early on Christmas morning because next year Brooks would be older and that they would want to stay home and watch him wake up and see what Santa brought him. And my very first thought was, "Of course they would". And that's when it hit me. That's when I realized that these Christmas traditions that we so take for granted can and will change over time. I don't know why in the world I hadn't thought of it before. It. just. hadn't. occurred. to. me.

When I think of it, it doesn't really matter where we are on Christmas morning as long as my children are with me. So, one of the suggestions was that next year, we come to Sarah and Bennie's house bright and early and we'll get to see Brooks wake up and run to the tree. That's probably what we will do. I can't imagine it just being Jimmy and I watching Austin opening presents on Christmas morning and then waiting for the afternoon to roll around for the big kids to come over and opening gifts with them. It would just seem so fractured and splintered.

And just this minute I realized that one day (and sooner than I want to think) Austin will be grown up and not living here. And, how in the world am I going to manage being around all four of my children's Christmas tree "bright and early" on Christmas morning to watch all of my grandchildren open their presents from Santa?

I guess I always knew that "someday" that tradition would change. Of course it would, children grow up and have babies of their own. And when that happens, it's only natural that they want to sit around their own tree on Christmas morning and watch their children open presents from Santa Claus. And you know what, that is how it should be. I want them to know the joy that a parent feels as they experience that. I've had it for 29 years now so it's their turn.

As wonderful as it is to have adult children I have dreaded seeing each of them leave home and my nest. I often laughingly say that I had children because I wanted children in my life and I didn't understand why they had to grow up and move out! I've said it kind of as a joke but it's really the truth of my heart. But time marches on doesn't it? Sooo, I will march right along with it and I will remind myself that I've had my time, and now it's their turn to develop their own Christmas morning traditions with their own children and be grateful for every Christmas morning I've had with them around MY tree. Yep, that's what a graceful, inspired, loving mother does. But that little devil that sits on my shoulder is saying, "Isn't it bad enough that you now have wrinkles, bad knees, need reading glasses, and have to get your hair color from a bottle. Do you have to give up your traditional Christmas mornings too?" Don't worry, I'll get her under control and next year I'll be at Sarah and Bennie's bright and early with the Alabama Christmas CD and all the breakfast fixins and this Grandma will learn to love every traditional minute of it.

No words needed