Reunited and it feels so Good.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Chris come from a very large family, and on Saturday, July 4th, we drove straight in from vacation to join the family reunion in full swing.

Chris' and Noel's combined expressions really display what I was thinking when we arrived better than I can covey in words on the blog.
Here we are for the big family photo. Keep in mind this is just the matriarch, Grandma Ruth, and her kids, grand kids, and great grand kids plus applicable spouses. You should see this event when the extended family is involved. Amazingly, all fourteen kids were here this year and most of the grandchildren. You can find Chase front row center fighting with his cousin Warren whom he has spent the week with and they had mutually had enough of each other.

Here we are assembling for the annual photo. This year I would estimate it only took 20 minutes from beginning to end. Believe me, that is record time for this crew.

Here is our tired, little, festive family. I thought it would be so cool to have our festive 4th of July shirts, but this is the only time all of us were together from the time we arrived until we left that evening.

Each of the original 14 were required to learn to play a musical instrument. That musical interest has trickled down to future generations including my son, who asks at least once a week for a drum set. One of the cousin's band put on a concert for our dinnertime entertainment and once they were finished Chase got to check out the drums first hand.

All in all, it was a loud assortment of children, grown-ups, and dogs with tons of food, water balloons and fireworks. I have to admit, though I find it hard to get geared up for this event every year, that I can't think of a better way to celebrate Independence Day. I feel like our country's four fathers might look down on our motley crew smiling and say, "Yeah, that's what we were talking about right there." We are blessed by the courage they had so long ago and our brave Service men and women still have today.

Vacation Re-Cap

The jury is still out on whether or not a trip with 12 kids and six adults can be called a vacation. Considering we have been home since Saturday and I still feel exhausted, I am definitely not sure which way to vote. In case I have failed to mention it before, my husband hails from a large, Catholic family. So the other four adults in the equation were the youngest aunt and uncle of his 13 aunts and uncles. The additional ten children are their 2 boys and 2 girls and 6 girls, respectively. I will wait while you pull out your calculator.

Our adventure was set to begin early Saturday morning when we planned to leave early and meander our way to Hilton Head Island, SC. The true adventure began on Friday night, however, when Chase began screaming and crying because his ears hurt so badly. I called the Pediatrician first thing, but we could not get an appt. until 10:15. Once we were finally seen the doctor diagnosed swimmer's ear and recommended Chase stay out of the water for 4-5 days in addition to antibiotic ear drops. You should have seen the look on that doctor's face when I said, "You have got to be kidding me." I went on to explain how my husband and other son were waiting in our fully loaded van to head to the beach. The sweet doctor gave me a "just in case" oral antibiotic prescription and permission to carry on using wax ear plugs.

We arrived at our amazing rental home well after dark but since it had a pool the kiddos were easily amused. Bright and early the next morning we checked out the canal behind the house and then hit the beach.

Also on this monumentous first day we rented bikes for the entire crew. I think riding the bike behind his dad was Noel's favorite part. The little seat had a set of handle bars and he held on like he was on the real thing. Here he is trying on his helmet.


Actually as I view this photo I realize I lied about his favorite part. It was climbing up and down those stairs you see him sitting on.

You are probably wondering why there are no action shots of Noelly on the bike. Well, you see, long about day 3 of vacation our camera was lost. It was found again on the very last night as we were driving to dinner and so I snapped these.





The morning of July 4th found us headed back home to join that large, Catholic family's reunion already in progress. And that, is a post unto itself.

Blogging from the Beach

Here are a few scenes from our first full day on Hilton Head. We are in an amazing house that backs up to the bay and is a short walk from the beach.
Are there any fish in there? Chase and his cousin Warren, only two weeks his senior, were determined to find out.

Noelly digs the beach...get it? Holy cow is that a handsome kid or what?

Being a totally cool beach dude makes you very thirsty.

Wordless Wednesday

Baby got Back!

Our 9 year Anniversary

On Wednesday, Chris and I celebrated nine years of marital bliss. Well, mostly bliss. In honor of this auspicious occasion I decided to present the top nine reasons Chris is still the man of my dreams.










#1 He is my knight in shining armor.
#2 He is an excellent dancer!
#3 He makes me feel like the queen of our castle.

#4 He can fly.

#5 He is still a kid at heart.

#6 He indulges my holiday madness.

#7 He enjoys losing at wrestling.

#8 He and I share loads of love.

And #9 He is a wise old owl.

I am lucky to have him for all these reasons and many, many more.

Bad News Quota-Met for a long time!

Warning: This is not my typical funny stories about the kids blogpost.


I have gotten to the point that I am almost afraid to check facebook, read e-mail, or catch up on blogs. I can't think of another time when I have been so inundated with bad news from friends, family, or even strangers whose stories have somehow crossed my consciousness. I keep saying I have met my bad news quota but the breaking news keeps on coming
I feel so powerless when I hear stories of sick children, broken homes, miscarriages, sick or dying parents, and soldiers killed defending our country. I am such a problem solver at heart I cannot stand being unable to do anything. I want to physically do something to help. Maybe it is in my good Southern genes, but upon the hearing of bad news I almost always mentally inventory my pantry for ingredients to a casserole. Even if I can't do anything else, I can feed you.
I had to take my Grandfather to the ER on Friday night (everything turned out ok and he was released at 3:30 a.m.) While I was there I couldn't help but notice a young man with a full laundry basket that he carried around with him. I filling out Papa's paperwork and he came to check in right next to me. He told the clerk he could not read or write and asked her to fill the forms out for him. When she asked what was wrong he told her he was suicidal.
Now maybe, it was because the majority of the bad news I received came through on Friday or maybe I was just tired, but as we sat in the waiting room with that young man I very nearly started weeping. I was also compelled to offer to take his laundry and wash it for him because that was something I could do to help his life just a little bit. My logical mind knew this was an absurd thought, but my action oriented heart felt that if someone could just show him some kindness his life would improve.
Instead, I took the only action that I realistically could take. I prayed. And, that is the action I am taking for all the aforementioned situations I referenced. I invite you to pray to. Pray for the Pethel family, the Longs, the Jenrettes, the Page's, the families whose names I withheld for privacy, and the stranger in the ER.

Baby He-Man

I am raising a baby He-Man. Noel's newest word is meat. That's right, he asks specifically for meat when being fed. I noticed this when he was eating spaghetti last night. If he was offered a bite with noodles, he looked at me plaintively and said "meat, meat." So I picked out a chunk of hamburger, and he gobbled it right up.
After he finished his meal o'meat, we headed outside to water the garden. Mr. Independence was following me around the house. I looked back over my shoulder to make sure he hadn't decided to go somewhere else, and there he went with a plastic chair completely extended above his head walking along like he was getting paid to move the pool furniture. Granted it was a child -sized molded plastic chair, but still! That was one of those "wish I had my camera" moments because I swear that was the funniest sight. I started laughing, he threw the chair off to the side and made for his talking lawn mower leading the way to the garden.