Will and Jen's Wedding

Will and Jen had a lovely wedding at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. The weather was great and the scenery was beautiful. Walker had so much fun with his cousins. I was so happy to see the Gardens still had the Big Bug collection displayed.

Walker and Will

Walker and Peyton

Walker and Kyle with the BIG ANT

PaPa and Granny with all the kids...

I never can get one with them all looking at the camera. Maybe Brandy did.

Walker was checking out the fish and suddenly thought he should have his picture taken. This was all him. He was into saying "cheese" which shows he was having a good time.

Everyone walking to the wedding site in the gardens...

Someone at the gardens was thinking...

Jen walking in with her dad...

Will and Jen arriving at the Phoenix Bistro. Beautiful!

Hit of the night for the kids (and their parents), the entertainment table! Jen's mom had a table set up for the kids to draw and color and a table set up for dinner. They would take a few bites at their dinner table and then go draw for a couple of minutes at the other table. They had a blast.

Goodbye to the Protector

Hank

Our sweet Hank is with us no more. He was the protector of the sheep, William's buddy, Walker's playmate, and family friend. Unfortunately his amazing ability to escape the field for a midnight stroll would end his time with us. It was just two days before this tragic event that Zac and Walker were in the field with Hank mending the fence where he recently climbed over, rather than under. He was a very large dog, almost polar bearish looking, so we found this odd. But he was a determined dog and a good one at that. We will miss him very much!

McFarland Park- July 4th & Thomas the Train- July 7th

This 4th of July we decided to go over to Florence to watch their fireworks show at McFarland Park. We thought we'd make a week end out of it and get a hotel room. HA! Boy did we wait till the last minute to make that decision (literally Friday morning). All the good hotels were booked solid so we made the decision to stay in the Jamison Inn (it was the only one we would even consider that had a room left) but later found out we would have to put it on our "not to be considered" list. Anyway while there we went for a quick dip in the pool. Zac began to chuckle as he read the pool rules aloud...

Please read rule # 7

This was especially funny to me since I found two long hairs in our supposed to be clean bath tub! Gross! I noticed Walker's feet were black after a quick run through the room. I was very upset at this point and made him stay on the bed the whole week end. If not, I was cleaning feet constantly. Zac thought I was going overboard on that until he looked at his feet after putting together a stroller (we left ours at home so we had to fly over to Target to buy one). They were BLACK!!! HA! He went straight to the front desk and showed them his feet. We probably laughed a good 30 minutes from that. He said, "Man, I'm not complaining, but in the time it took me to put together a stroller, this is how black my feet got. Ya'll need to clean the floors." The man's face was so red and he apologized. LOL!

We spent the whole day at the park. There were several things to do, like look at old cars...

After toting Walker around in the blazing sun, that's when we decided to go to the nasty hotel, let Walker take a nap, and get a stroller!

Finally, after waiting all day, the fireworks lasted, hmm, a measly 10 minutes, maybe.

But Walker LOVED them! He watched and smiled as each one burst in the night sky.

We had a good time, but have decided next year we will move on to Guntersville to see that fireworks display. Who knows... maybe I can talk Zac in to going somewhere new every year, even to see Macy's fireworks. HA! Yea right.

And finally... Thomas the Train! We went to the Von Braun to see the show and Walker loved it. Here are a few of the pictures from the show. I thought I shouldn't bore you with all the ones I took. Enjoy!

Father's Day, Beach & Zoo

This past week has been a whirl wind of events. Last Saturday we had over our dads for dinner. The next day, Father's Day, we had a full day of church and packing.

This year Walker did not like the sand. We stayed at the beach maybe a total of 30 minutes the whole week. These two pictures were from the first day. After that, it was all pool all the time! Walker loves to swim in a pool!

Walker had to have his "gobbles" on all the time, even to watch X-Men, but didn't know how to use them. He never would put his eyes down in the water. We tried to explain but forget reasoning with the unreasonable.

Walker wanted to stay on the balcony most of the time to look at the beach.

I forgot my tripod, so we took turns taking pictures with Walker.

The scorching hot Birmingham Zoo is not a place for pregnant women... but I thought it would be fun to take Walker as we came back from the beach. We went to stay with Uncle Blake in B'ham to visit and go to the zoo so Walker and Beka's niece Virginia Kate could meet. They are one month apart in age. It was so funny watching them together. They were precious.

Walker and Virginia Kate

We disguised our anger very well in this pic... We were burning up and ill as pills. Walker had just finished a major temper tantrum, but we survived. LOL!

The kids enjoyed the water area at the zoo. The problem was... we went there before we saw all the animals and they didn't want to leave it. Walker made a scene which led to us leaving early...no big African animals. LOL!

We did get to go to the petting zoo, which the kids loved.


Here was the funny train ride, if you can tell what I mean. That's Beka, her sister Kristan, Blake, and Zac. Oh, I had to change Walker's poopy diaper on the train as well. People probably thought I was crazy.

We did see one big animal.. Here's Uncle Blake and Walker in front of "Tina." We watched Napoleon Dynamite that night. Thanks Beka. It was Hilarious!

This was so sweet. The monkey kept putting his hand up to the glass to touch their hands.

And then we went home!!!! We had a great time. It took us a day to lay around and relax. I'm glad we had a fun last family vacation with Walker before the baby comes.

Life With A Superhero

How my life has changed in three short years. These days consist of trying to potty train and entertain a superhero. If we are not watching Batman, we are running around the house pretending to be Batman. All it takes is a baby towel. He has yet to take a bath without yelling, "Where is my Batman!" Will we ever retire these towels? LOL!


As I said before, we are doing everything we can to get him out of diapers. This chart is a fun and good idea but don't let the "2 week" period fool you. We have been placing stickers on this chart for a couple of months, I think. Since I've been out for summer break, We've been adding a lot more stickers in a shorter period of time, and I definitely see progress. After he puts a sticker on the chart, he gets to get a piece of candy (sugar free, but he doesn't know that... HA) out of his treat jar.

Cheesy...but it makes Batman happy!

After VBS one day, Walker and his cousins went swimming. Don't let all the floatation devices kid you. LOL! He was hilarious jumping in that pool with those flippers on. I can't wait to go to the beach next week to do a lot of swimming with him.

I was planning on taking pictures at his first dentist visit but this was all I could get... pictures of him playing in their indoor playground. Once we went back, Walker had the death grip on me and that was that. No pictures.

It's 100% Girl!

I had my ultrasound again this week and thankfully, it is what we thought it was... a healthy girl. She gave us a perfect peek this time. Wow! Cute dresses, bows, and shoes, here I come!!! Walker definitely knows there is a baby in mommy's belly and often gives her a kiss. I've watched a few episodes of A Baby Story on TLC so he has seen a few births LOL. Based on several of my friends advise I need to get him ready as much as possible. I talk about her all the time like she is already a part of our family so maybe I can lessen the shock for him. No matter how hard I prepare him I feel he will still be a little jealous. He only wants his mommy when it's time to be comforted.
Today I am taking Walker to his first dentist appointment. It's a wonderful pediatric dentist and I've heard it's like Disney World. LOL. I am going to try to take some pictures while there but we'll see. I think I'm more nervous for his appointment than I've ever been for one of mine.

A little potty training update: My plans were to have him trained and out of diapers by the end of my summer break. So far, we are making some head way but I feel like we need to do better if I'm going to accomplish this goal. We have a sticker chart and a treat jar for rewards. Honestly, it's not that important to him. Sometimes if he wants a piece of candy he'll drop his pants and run into his bathroom to sit on the potty. Then I hear, "Mommy, I need a treat!" So that shows you he understands the process, but why doesn't he want to do it everytime? Any ideas out there? I'm open to anything. In my next post, I'll try to add pictures.

Society Is Beginning to Make Me Sick!

I mostly post about Walker and life's activities, but today I feel the need to get some things off my chest. Being a Christian and a conservative I have many issues with the new administration. Everyday as I watch the news it seems something new is being passed or reversed from the Bush administration... like abortion or same sex marriage. Being a teacher, I was angered driving to school one day as I heard an announcement from President Obama. He wants teachers to raise their standards in order to decrease the drop out rate. Uh, Hello! What about calling on all parents to do their part and give a crap about their kids education. Or maybe raise the drop out age to 18 so they don't have a choice to drop out till they can make the choice of going to war. I've been in polar opposite school systems where parents do nothing but care verses the system where they don't know what's going on in their kids school and honestly, could not care less. To some, school is simply a babysitting service. This leads me to my next complaint about society...hand outs! I'm not saying this is due to the current president. It is most definitely a problem that started as far back as the FDR administration. What I can't understand is democrats are happy to give their hard working money to support those that do NOTHING! It's become a lifestyle to many and I think that is absurd. When a republican administration works to help the people keep more of their money, there becomes arguments over it. We need change, they said. Well, we've got it. Get ready to give away more of your hard earned paycheck. They predict in 2011 small businesses are going to be hit hard with higher taxes and no tax credits for things like charitable contributions. Since we own a business and we are already paying so much in taxes, we are very scared. Back to the hand outs. Unless you work in a school or some other similar public domain, you can not begin to understand the level of hand outs expected by some people. Since the school I teach at has a high percentage of "free-reduced" lunch students I see more of the bad part of society than I want. Let me just give you a list of cases where my jaw has hit the floor in shock, then anger...



1. Field Day- All students must pay x amount of money for a ticket/armband to participate in the many activities. (very reasonably priced may I add) There is a large amount of kids that show up at field day, having not paid, and expect a free ticket... in which they get!

2. One of our "free-reduced" kids asked in lunch last week, "Why do some people pay for their lunch when they can get it for free?" Need I say more?

3. Our school has a store where the kids can buy snacks and during lunch, extras. All kids bring tons of money for these extra items but never have money for things like Field Day, t-shirts, field trips, Graduation...etc. I'm telling you the "give it to me free" mentality is already so far ingrained into this generation that it is scary!

4. A parent made a comment the other day about how her child should not be failed because of No Child Left Behind. Apparently she doesn't know what that's all about.

5. Some parents need to wake up when three teachers, plus a principal, are recommending retention, but the parent still wants to pass them and I quote "get her some disability and special education."

6. We need to rethink opting for free lunches when we can cruise around in nice Cadillacs.



I know all of this just sounded awful of me to say, but like I said, it has been accumulating over time. Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot of good people. I know there is people who need help and services, but let's stop taking all the hard working people out there for a ride. I just wish there were more people who wanted to do the right thing.

It's A Girl... We Think

Long story short we went in at 17 weeks, which is a little early. We did the ultrasound anyways and between Dr. Miller and myself, it's a girl. If you ask Zac, it's a boy. Really I think he was just in denial. We got a perfect under view of her bottom and legs. Luckily she opened her crossed legs a few times just enough to make Dr. Miller say she thought it was a girl. I go back in a month for another ultrasound to be sure. I really think it's a girl as well. I think Zac was seeing bones inside the bottom instead of protruding objects between the legs.
However it turns out, we are thrilled and excited. But I know it's a girl! LOL! Zac is terrified to raise a girl. Who knows what her name will be. Everybody has taken all the names I have ever wanted to name a girl so there very well may be some repeats.

Less Than a Week Away!! Yea!

To answer alot of you wanting to know if I know the sex yet... I find out the 12th, next Tuesday. We can't wait to know if we'll be the sport going parents of two boys or the house divided of a boy and a girl. The butterflies are starting to swirl. I will most definitely post the news Tuesday.

Swine Flu

First the thought of lead poisoning from China made products made me really second guess everything Walker touched. Now here comes the wonderful and comforting news that any public place could be hazardous to your health. Well, since I work in a public school I have to say it is a little scary. Especially since a large population of my students are Mexican. I'm not racial profiling or anything, but come on... they have family members, including the kids, that go back and forth to Mexico all the time. Not to mention, the county and school system next door found two cases there so they shut down school for seven days. Oh, and ten probable cases there as well. No reason to panic at this point. But as soon as they say it is in Athens, don't think I will not shut Walker and my pregnant self up in our house.
The school I teach at has been given orders to do the following precautionary steps...

• everyone that enters the building is squirted with hand sanitizer
• no more using the water fountains
• no more self service in the lunchroom
• can not use napkin dispensers
• all doors must be left open
• all computers and headphones are sprayed with Lysol after every use
• buses are cleaned after morning and afternoon rides
• no more hugs

To alot of people in the school, this is excessive and showing panic before there needs to be. I don't know. I try to look at it as this is how it should be anyways. I'm a germ phob!!!! Anyone who knows me knows I don't like to touch anything a kid has touched. That may sound bad since I'm supposed to be a loving teacher...HA!...But if you have seen as many noses picked as I have, you would feel the same way.

I leave you with this thought... Don't let your kid do this! For the record, I don't know this kid, I just thought it was funny.