Hayden's 1st Thanksgiving

I have not had a moment to post any pictures or even an entry since the week of Thanksgiving, but I hope I will be able to get back on track in the coming weeks. Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving. Hope you enjoy. We had a great time visiting with family and are very excited about Christmas in a couple of weeks.

A Week of Thanks

Thanksgiving is easily one of my most favorite holidays, with the exception of Christmas of course. Thanksgiving to me means spending time with all my family and eating wonderful food. Over the years the true meaning of Thanksgiving has changed for me. Of course, I have always been thankful for everything in my life, but it took me a while to fully understand all the blessings that have been bestowed upon me. I am sure it is like this for most everyone, usually as a teenager and young adult some things just aren't that clear.

I have been looking forward to Thanksgiving since last Thanksgiving for a number of reasons. One being last year at this time I was pregnant, tired, and still really sick. This year Hayden is here and I couldn't be more happy. She has become the biggest blessing in my life and I am so thankful she is here and happy and healthy. Second this is one of only a few times each year when the entire (immediate family) gets together. I truly love spending time with my parents and my sisters and their families, they are so much fun to hang out with. I only hope our relationships strengthen over the years to come and that we don't drift apart or have problems that seem to face so many adult siblings. I think we all (the sisters) speak our minds, sometimes too often, and hopefully we are all used to this and continue to remember how much we love each other and to never let trivial issues get in the way of what God has blessed us with - a great, loving, independent, god-fearing family.

Today, I am thankful for my family, my wonderful husband, our precious little angel Hayden, my job, our loving home, and Maggie (my 3 year old dog). I am also thankful that my holidays are about to begin. After this afternoon I am off until Monday!!

Let the festivities begin - Iron Bowl here we come! This is also a fun little Thanksgiving tradition. It used to be that at Thanksgiving we always talked about what had transpired at the game the previous weekend, but since it now takes place after the holiday we all talk about what might happen. This tradition has taken a little detour since Auburn isn't dominating the bammers anymore, but until Friday no one knows for sure so I can still be hopeful. But I am not holding my breath. It was funny, last night they showed a little promo on the news that said, "What does Alabama have to do Friday to beat Auburn" and Brian quickly, without thinking, said "Show up", hahaha, that about sums it up.

I am going to miss seeing all my aunts and uncles and cousins this year and my Granny, but I hope to see you all soon. I have many wonderful memories growing up and seeing all of you. I miss those that have passed on and I hope you are able to have a window to our lives to see how much has changed since you left this earth. I truly miss each of you.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and take a moment to offer thanks for all the blessings in your life. This should be something we do on a daily basis, not just on Thanksgiving.

Exhaustion

I have been contemplating for a few days now what in the world to write on here and still haven't really come up with much "new" to say. I can tell you this, I am exhausted! I have been trying to figure it out for months now and I think it is a combination of being a new mommy and turning 30. It is not work related, at least not most of it, because I enjoy the craziness of work and actually look forward to Mondays now (is that terrible to say). I used to dread Mondays, now they seem to be one of my most productive days. I think it is because I have been home for a few days and my schedule gets out of whack and I can control what goes on at work and right now I can't at home. I also think my tiredness comes from turning 30 a couple of months ago, my body doesn't seem to recover anymore like it used too, and my knees and back hurt all the time, especially after sitting in the floor for long periods of time. I am sure being "over-weight" doesn't help matters either, but that is an entirely different blog and I am sure one that will be coming very soon! I know all of you in my family are probably laughing at this and thinking if she only knew!

So, the point of this entry is that last week I had a holiday, time off to celebrate Veteran's Day. This came in the middle of the week, on Wednesday. I was so super excited about it and loved the thought of a whole day at home with Hayden during the middle of the week. I came home on Tuesday and Brian and I talked and watched tv and had dinner. I cleaned up a little bit and played with Hayden in the floor and kept telling her how happy I was to be able to spend the next day with her - we would have the whole day together :). Well, that night I put her to sleep at her normal bedtime, around 9:00 and she woke herself up at 10:00. No big deal I thought, I went in picked her up and rocked her for awhile. She was asleep, but I kept holding her and rocking her thinking how much I loved this and how quickly time would pass and she would be a little toddler running all over the place. I was trying to memorize every detail of that exact moment so I could remember it again in the years to come. She was sleeping peacefully in my arms and she had one hand on my hand and the other up near my face. I was loving it! So I put her back down and then she woke up again at 11:00 - same thing all over again. Then again at midnight, then again at 1:00 a.m., then again at 2:30 a.m., at this point I must have been so exhausted that I turned the monitor off in our room and fell back asleep. I am not sure how long she cried, but apparently she cried herself back to sleep because when Brian woke up the next morning, he woke me up and wanted to know why the monitor was off! Are you kidding?!? Did you not hear her crying last night?! Oh well, she slept until 9:15 a.m. and so did I - so much for my fun day off. It ended up being a great day anyway, but I was pretty tired.

Next time I don't think I will tell Hayden I have a day off and maybe she won't know to wake me up all night. I can picture the little wheels in her head spinning right before she drifts off to sleep, "don't forget Mommy has the day off tomorrow, be sure to wake up really, really early so we can spend the whole day together, don't forget, don't forget..."

Busy Season

My busy season for work has officially set in. No more late starts, long lunch/shopping breaks, and no more calling it a day around 3:00 or so. November through March is the time here at work when I can hardly catch my breath, let alone enjoy the holiday season. For the past couple of years I have almost dreaded the holidays because I know that I have no "down" time, so to speak. I will still take a couple days off during Thanksgiving and Christmas, but that will just mean double time to make up for it. Here is a sampling of what I have to get done and accomplished during the next few weeks and months.

Starting today - I have membership renewals to get processed and mailed out to each individual member of the association (that's a total of almost 700), let's just hope that number stays the same this year or increases. I have a magazine deadline on Monday, which means I have to get all the articles written, photos formatted and organize my district events in calendar order. This magazine covers January-April, so that's a lot of writing that needs to be accomplished and a lot of events that need to be planned. My Leadership and Enhancement and Development Program is in December, so shirts need to be ordered, meeting space finalized and meals set up for three days. During that time I also have my last Board of Directors' meeting of the year. This meeting isn't usually that time consuming, but this year there is a lot of business to be discussed. I have 4 agenda items that I need to put together for a vote, so I am not anticipating this meeting to be a short one - and one of the items that will be voted on is the budget for 2010 and I still haven't got that balanced, not sure that I will either. And my most major, time consuming event is in January each year, this is my annual conference. Right now I am working on all my speaker requests, unfortunately I am going to have to decline most of their financial requests, whatever happened to doing something out of the goodness of your heart? I have 40 speakers and over half of them want to be compensated for speaking to our group for one hour. Most want logding, mileage, and meals taken care of - this equals out to almost $700 per speaker! My tradeshow is coming together, but that is usually the easy part, the hard part is getting my attendees to show up so my exhibitors aren't unhappy about all the money they spent. Events that need to be planned for conference are, a golf tournament, a draw-down (sell 400 tickets for this), 2 other social events, an awards banquet, business meeting, opening general session, and I need to secure lots of sponsors for this event. Getting sponsors is definately my weark spot. I hate calling people and asking them for money, and believe me they hate hearing from me as well! All these things are just a dip in the barrell of what I am dealing with on a day to day basis. I personally think this is too much stress for one girl to handle, but I am very thankful for the job I have.

Speaking of stress, just yesterday I had to go to the Doctor, again, for an earache. He told me that the earache is caused from my jaw - I grind my teeth - and this is the result of too much stress. I asked what on earth I could do about this and he smiled and said stop stressing out :) - thanks Doc!

The year will be ending soon and I know another Spring is on the horizon and for the most part Spring and Summer are nice here at the office. So I can look forward to that. After my March trip to DC, it should be smooth sailing, at least for a couple of months.

When Brian and I first started dating, I would have nights when I would work until 7:00 or 8:00 and never take a lunch break, those days are over too, since I have other obligations at home, this sometimes adds to the stress, but I wouldn't change that for a moment. I will do whatever it takes to be out of here by 5:00 every day. I look forward to my time at home now, spending time with Brian, Hayden and Maggie means more to me than anything else. I always have to tell myself that my job is what I do, not who I am! My family defines me, not my job!

Happy Halloween

This photo is one from Sunday, right after church. Gram and Pap watched Hayden for us while we went to the contemporary service. We would have put Hayden in nursery, but the last time we did that, we were "paged" out of the service to come and get our screaming child, after they were unable to calm her down after 40 minutes. Bless her heart, as soon as she saw me coming and I picked her up, she stopped crying and just held on to me so tightly, as if to say, please don't ever leave me again. I know this isn't a good thing, but sure does make a momma feel good.

Pap holding Hayden at our house on Halloween! We dressed her in her little dress again, I couldn't resist putting her in it one more time.

Lesley and I and our sweet little goblins!

A couple of the pictures of the beautiful candles for outside before it got dark.

This past weekend was Hayden's first Halloween. I have captured a few photos from the weekend - it went by in a blur. My sister and her girls and my parents stopped by Saturday night and Reagan, dressed as "Ariel" from the Little Mermaid got to trick or treat in our neighborhood, she had a blast! Hayden and Gracen really enjoyed each other's company and one of them even sucked the other's toe, but we won't mention any names, Gracen :). So glad they were all able to stop by and celebrate together. As promised I took a couple photos of the new candle holders I mentioned in an earlier post. These are the holders that Brian has been working so hard to make and after I got some candles and some pretty fall ribbon we lined the driveway for all the kids. They were a big hit and I am so proud of them. They are gorgeous. Can't wait to decorate them for Christmas as well.

I have a very busy week ahead of me. I am leaving in the morning for Orange Beach and won't return home until Friday afternoon. I will miss Brian and Hayden so much, but I have full faith that Brian can handle things here at home just fine on his own. We decided after much thought and prayer that since I have to travel so much, that now is as good a time as any for Brian to attempt his first couple of overnights on his own. I just pray that Hayden will behave for him and they can have a lot of bonding time together. I know they will be just fine. I will update more when I return home, I am sure I will have some funny stories.

Sports is a Way of Life

Anyone that knows me, knows how much I love sports. I love playing them, watching them, just being of part of the action. Each season brings about a new sporting event and most of the time I am ready. Brian will probably disagree with my love for watching sports, but that is only because he watches them constantly, no matter what the sport or which team is playing and even though I profess my love for them, sometimes I just want to watch Gossip Girl, 90210, or Grey's Anatomy.

I have my seasons when I really am not that into any type of sporting event, but times are turning and right now I am finding myself looking forward to watching any and all events. I have learned to love some that I never would have given the chance prior to Brian. Let me explain what our house is like during a typical year - first I am married to a very manly, man - he loves sports and anything outdoorsy. That is all we watch, Brian even has to go to bed watching Sports Center and even though he is sound asleep, when I turn off the tv during the middle of the night, he wakes up the next morning wondering why he didn't wake up to Sports Center?!? Go figure, he probably dreams about this stuff. So on any given day, we are watching, college football, NFL, little league baseball, NCAA Softball, Nascar, Golf, Poker (of all things), MLB, High School football, college basketball, college baseball, etc., the list is endless. I love most of these, but for some reason I do not like watching high school football and I loathe watching the outdoor channel or anything remotely close to hunting shows. One of my pet peeves is hearing people whisper and on these silly hunting shows that is all they do - whisper! I guess they don't want the deer to hear them, but give me a break, don't take a camera in the woods and you don't have to worry about it. It makes me so sad to watch those poor animals get killed.

Since being married to Brian, I have come to love more of a variety of sporting events and I am thankful, because this allows us to watch tv together. We have great conversations during these events and I love spending quality time with him. I love all of the above sports - my favorite times of year are March Madness, the World Series (Go Yankees!!!), of course college football, little league world series is also fun to watch, college softball, NFL (this is very new for me and only this past weekend did I enjoy watching a game for the first time and only then it was because the team had former AU players). Most surprising to me of all these sports is the Poker World Series. Why is this weird you ask, because I have no idea how to play poker, I have no desire to ever learn and I can not for the life of me figure out what they are doing, but I love watching it. They wear sunglasses, which Brian has told me is so no one can see their eyes to tell when they are bluffing (to me this seems like cheating). If you have never watched this - you have no idea how much money is involved. They win millions of dollars for playing cards, it's the craziest thing I have ever watched.

For tonight, I am looking forward to watching Game 2 of the World Series - Come on Yankees, don't let me down two nights in a row. First Auburn, now the Yankees, ugh.

I have a dream list in my head, not on paper yet, and it has always included visiting as many MLB Stadiums as possible before I die. Brian and I talked about this last night and how cool to be able to do that one day. I have only been to three - Camden Yards, Turner Field and Yankee Stadium. Yet one more reason to head back to NYC for another trip, now I need to see the new Yankee Stadium and maybe even the Mets as well!!

Outdoor Candle Holders

Brian has started making some very beautiful outdoor candle holders - what a perfect time of year for these too. These are really perfect for anytime of year, but with all the holidays coming up I can't think of a better way to make your home glow from the outside! I have added a couple photos of these from outside our house just to show them off. I have not had a chance to really decorate them yet, but once I do I will post more pictures for sure. You can use your imagination when displaying these, but line your driveway, frame your front door, your back patio (maybe even figure a way to put citronella candles in them for the summer time), place them around the pool, the uses for these are endless. People have told us they are using them at weddings to run through when leaving their reception or for game day events, or even birthday parties, like I said for anything at all. I am going to buy some big bows and place them on their for all the seasons and we are going to line our driveway - they must be something, because our neighbors have already asked about them and ordered 6!! I'm so proud of Brian for doing this - he really enjoys being creative and getting things accomplished.

P.S. - A few stores in the area have ordered some and are selling them too. But if any of you might be interested in getting these, just let me know and me or Brian can get these directly to you. They come with the glass globe, but not the candle. I told Brian us women like to pick out our own candle colors and anything else we might want to add. (if you want to see these better, just click on the pictures) - Oh and what fun and unique Christmas gifts these will make for friends and family this year!!

Football Saturday

Ok, so today didn't go exactly how I had hoped, actually it went all wrong. I really, really, thought Tennesse was just about to pull it out and beat those ugly bammers at Home, but that was not meant to be, even though Tennessee should have gotten a second opportunity to kick a field goal, although by the way the kicker was playing a second chance probably wouldn't have mattered much. I am secretly a closet Tennessee fan I think, except when they are playing my beloved AU tigers, thank heavens the last few years Auburn hasn't had much problem with them. But if the way Tennessee seems to be recruiting these days, is a sign of things to come, everyone that plays them might have problems in the future, but that is a long ways off and we don't have to play them again until 2014 - I think. I really don't even know where to start with how my day ended watching Auburn, all I can say is I am glad the season will be over soon, because I don't know how many more Saturdays I can watch the diaster take place on the field and watching these games with Brian only makes things worse, if that is possible. He has such high hopes every week. I hate seeing them get crushed over and over again.

Other than the ballgames today, everything else went wonderful. We had a great lunch today at Bass Pro with Nan and Poppa and seems Hayden is finally warming up to Poppa. Actually today I think he was her preferred choice to be with. She let him hold her after lunch and then walk all around the store, we even went and watched the Giant Fish swim around in the big fish tank. She was amazed, as was I, at how big they were. She loved walking around watching everything and seeing all the big stuffed animals everywhere - what a great afternoon. When we finally left and started to head home, it took her about 2.5 seconds to fall asleep and she slept in her car seat from 2:30 until 5:00 p.m., well after her feeding, just enough time for Brian and I both to get a good little nap in.

I've added a few photos from today - Hayden looked adorable in her little Halloween dress(these pictures don't do it justice). I decided to let her go ahead and wear it since I knew we would be out in public today for people to see. Over the past few weeks I had been debating on whether or not to buy Hayden a costume. I really didn't see the need since we didn't really have any plans to go anywhere and those costumes are so big and bulky that I didn't think she would enjoy wearing. So I finally decided against making the purchase and this week while I was shopping at East Chase I found the most precious dress and thought it would be a great photo opportunity for her first Halloween!

Hope everyone had a great Saturday and that you were able to enjoy the games more than I!

It Has Been A Long Week

It's Friday - Finally. It has been a long, exhausting week and I am glad that Friday has come and the weekend is here. At home, things have been good for the most part. I have spent most of the week trying hard to get a cold, but I think it ended up just being allergies. After sleeping through the entire night, for over two months now, Hayden has started waking up around 3:00 a.m. each night because she has rolled over on her belly and can't seem to figure out how to roll back over, Bless Her Little Heart. But, when I pick her up and try and rock her back to sleep she seems awake and it has taken me anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour each night to get her back to sleep - this too shall pass I keep telling myself.

My week at the office has been fairly low key, but I know next week will not be the same. The phones didn't ring much this week, which allowed me to catch up on some work, things like Federal Tax deposits, quarterly tax reporting for the state and federal governments, preparing the 2010 Budget and a proposed slate of officers for our Board of Directors for 2010 and working very hard on my Annual Conference and Trade Show for January. Next week holds almost all of the same, adding in a December Board Meeting, Leadership Program agendas, Senior Camp in Orange Beach and membership renewals that need to go out the first week of November. I have a very busy week.

Today I was so excited because it's Holiday Market time in Montgomery and this is an event I look very forward to each year. This starts off my Christmas shopping time. This year was different though because, this year we decided at the last minute to take Hayden. She did wonderful, but I couldn't really stop and look at all the booths because, well, everything is a little more difficult with a 5 month old. Brian was with us, so he was able to help and feed her while I shopped. I, of course, didn't get much Christmas shopping done because I ended up shopping for myself and for Hayden - but it was fun all the same. Mom and Dad were able to meet us there and we had fun walking around with them, listening to all the nice ladies gush over how precious Hayden was, that's always fun! And to top everything off, Hayden let my Dad hold her for quite awhile, this may not sound like a big deal, but lately she has something against most men - all except for Pap and her Daddy, of course .

We are looking forward to tommorrow and having lunch with Nan and Poppa at Bass Pro and then hopefully a relaxing day at the house watching a little college football. I just hope Auburn gives me something to cheer about again, they continue to break my heart, but I keep going back for more and that will never change. I have hope each and every Saturday that they will turn it around, could tomorrow be the day??? Oh and let's not forget - Go VOLS!!!!

Lists...

Lists seem to consume me. I love making lists; to-do lists, grocery lists, christmas shopping lists, upcoming birthday and wedding gifts lists, phone calls to return lists, really any kind of list. I think I really like crossing things off the list once they are done. I have a notepad and pen readily available everywhere I am, just in case. I have one sitting on my desk at work, (in both offices) one on my desk at home, two on the fridge at home, one in my car, one in my purse, and on and on and on. But the list that seems to drive me most batty, is the one I have no control over - my Honey-Do List.

Brian doesn't do lists, he doesn't look at my lists, doesn't make lists, never adds to the grocery list, so when I forget to pick something up at the store, well, it's because it wasn't on the list! He also hates when I make lists for him (who can blame him, most men don't, I can't imagine my Dad ever making a list, much less sticking to it, it must be woman thing) - which brings me to my honey-do list. This list has been waiting patiently to have items crossed off for some time now. Here's what is on the list:

1. Replace blown flood light on front of house (this was placed on the list on July 4th - yes you read that right, JULY 4th)

2. Dust ceiling fans in the den, masterbedroom, and outside on the back patio.

3. Replace blown light under kitchen cabinets.

4. Clean out overhead light in kitchen (no idea how bugs manage to get into the light fixtures).

5. Replace all smoke detector batteries throughout the house (this one really wasn't his fault, because I forgot to put batteries on my grocery list, so we haven't had any, but on Saturday night the battery in Hayden's bedroom starting beeping, very loudly mind you, at 3:00 A.M. and yes it woke her up and it took me until 4:30 A.M. to get her back to sleep. I now have batteries sitting on the counter to replace all the smoke detectors in the house so this doesn't happen again).

6. Check tire pressure on my Jeep, the light has come on saying the pressure is low on one or more tires.

7. Replace two blown flood lights in the back of the house (I guess these lights all go out around the same time)

8. Hang Hayden's new 4 month pictures - these should be waiting in the mail when I get home today! (Thanks Lori Mercer for taking this wonderful photos)

I love you Brian - I know you always say I don't remind you to get these things done, so I thought if you saw this posted it would be a loving little nudge :)

Now, I think I will go and run errands and cross off a few things from my "Shopping List"!

Some Random Photos

New Blog

Seems like everyone has a blog now and I am usually up-to-date on technology, but even my two "older" sisters beat me to this. I really enjoy reading other people's life stories and seeing pictures so I guess today I am starting my own. As my life has become more stressful and busy for some reason over the last four and half months (seems to be exactly how old Hayden is) I haven't been able to find the time to chat on the phone with everyone the way I used too or hang out with friends or send out various pictures on snapfish, so I only hope I find the time for the blog. Here's to hoping!

Speaking of Hayden, she has added some much love to our family, she is truly a blessing and my love for her grows each and every day. Some might say she is a handful, but I think she is a heartful! She has the most beautiful smile that has a way of making me and Brian melt over and over again. With that said, nothing is ever easy and I always find myself "waiting on the next stage". Mom told me that I will spend all the days of my life from here on out "waiting on the next stage", waiting on her to sit on her own, waiting on her to walk, waiting on her to start school, waiting on her to graduate and start college, waiting on her to meet the love of her life and start her own little family. And I am sure she is right, but I think right now I will just try and savor every moment, because if the last four months have been any indication time will pass by too quickly.

So, my hopes for this blog are to be able to add pictures, recipes, and funny stories from our boring, everyday life! I can't promise that I will post something everyday and you can be sure that my posts on the weekends will be almost non-exsistent, but I will try my very best.