Jessica's Baby Shower

Well hello there! It's been a while! I started this blog for a few reasons, the most important being to keep our family and friends (who wish to be updated) updated on what we're up to. Then I dreamt up all these aspirations and goals for my writing. As it turns out, I just don't have time to be a good, witty writer. That being said, I do have time to do what I set out to do in the beginning, tell my family (who are all far away) just what the heck is going on here. So, what's up you ask? Well, this past weekend, Jason and I headed up to Huntsville for our friend Jessica's baby shower.


There were a lot of sweet girls there and Jessica got some great gifts for baby Hayden.


I learned that diaper cakes are in no way edible, they are however, adorable.

We played some fun games

like sniffing diapers




But I didn't forget that Alabama was playing on Saturday.

I at least wore crimson!

But then I changed and headed to watch the game with the boys.

I LOVE ALABAMA FOOTBALL!!


Jason and Chad coordinated outfits. Actually, about half of the state coordinated outfits most likely.


I promise not to neglect y'all anymore....just don't expect greatness!

PETA is going to loooooove me for this one.

Disclaimer: I can't stand PETA or anything they stand for. I don't condone abusing anyone or anything, but I find it disgusting that some people value the life of an animal over that of a human.

With that said, let me tell y'all about my weekend! Friday morning we headed south to visit my Mama 'n' them. Friday afternoon was spent visiting all of my wonderful Grandparents.

Friday evening, we ate dinner at Tokyo, a Japanese/Hibachi place in Fairhope. The highlight of the night was Joe catching a flying scrambled egg in his mouth! Where was I with the video camera?!? Then, we spent (literally) 4 hours at the new (and amazing) Bass Pro Shop in Spanish Fort. Joe was relatively well behaved and had some spending money. What did he buy with his money you ask? I left all the options open and he RETURNED A TOY TO THE SHELF so he could buy a bag of buffalo jerky and a camo visor. What can I say, we are a family with a high jerky consumption.

Saturday began with a trip to the Urgent Care facility because Jason's hair hurt Jason was having as-yet-undiagnosed pain on the side of his head and in his ear. After paying the $25 copay, the Doctor sent us to Walgreens to buy a bottle of $6 over the counter drops.

The day picked up when we headed for the beach around lunch time. The boys fished on the newly opened Gulf State Park fishing pier while my Mom and I slipped into sloth mode. Jason and Adam caught a few hardtails, ale wives, saltwater catfish, and these little suckers:

The Remora, or as Joe calls it, shark sucker. These are the fellas that attach to a shark by suction and basically live the life of a mooching, lazy boyfriend.

But......the high point of the day................was THIS:

MY DADDY CAUGHT A SHARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He believes it was an Atlantic Shark about 5 feet in length.

He was a pier celebrity for a hot second!!

Here's what stunk though, we had to release it (along with more than a few dollars worth of tackle). There is no shark fishing allowed on this pier so we couldn't even pull him up.
My friends, we are just not good at catch and release fishing. If it's edible, it's usually fileted and consumed with hush puppies. And yes, sharks are edible.

PETA, you're welcome!

Greek Food with a Greek Person?! My Head is Spinning!

Today was a paradoxical kind of day. Have you ever eaten Greek food with a Greek Person? One that can actually say Gyros without sounding like she has peanut butter in her mouth?

Well I have, and her name is Rachel!

We also met Lianne who, although not Greek, is pretty amazing! Today is her birthday and she is turning *coughmumble* years old! We ate at Nabeel's in Homewood with 4 kids. Yes, that's right, 4 kids and I didn't say a single swear!

I didn't take any pictures at lunch because, well, both hands were full of food at all times!

After we ate lunch, we decided it would be appropriate to take the kids to the park across the street so we could sweat out feta and onions they could play.

Joe found an awesome caterpillar.

He scaled it before the gate had even closed behind us.


He was on top of the world for a hot second.


He was nice enough to share the Caterpillar with Lianne's son and his new friend Luke.


He quickly moved on to the swings. Yes, he is swinging upside down with no hands. How do I tolerate these kinds of shenanigans? I'm not sure but they don't even phase me anymore!


This is Rachel's daughter Ali. She is precious and very serious so I'm going to train her to do eyebrow tricks like me.

Somehow I didn't get a picture of Lianne's daughter Emma (likely because my face and hair were melting off), but rest assured she was precious too. She had awesome hot pink glasses that made me totally jealous.

Lianne, Rachel, I'm SO glad I met both of y'all and I just love hanging out!


Until next time, I'll just twitter y'all 6000 times a day!

Who Knew You Could Have THIS Much Fun With Kids?

Due to.....extenuating circumstances....Joe is staying home the rest of the summer. Having never been a "stay at home Mother" I have given myself a challenge of coming up with fun things to do.

Fun things like staying up all night to write the papers I no longer have time to do during the day.

I kid. But seriously, Joe is the type of kid who needs constant stimulation. If he has something to do, he behaves. If not, well, that's for another day.

Friday, my best friend Tabatha and I took the kids to Helena where we played in a creek, played on a playground, and had lunch at a place called "The Depot."

We started on the playground.

Where Hartley posed like a supermodel.


Joe played on a tire swing.


Grayson barked orders at the rest of us.


And Tab and I took our first picture together after being friends for over a year!


They got good and sandy and Tabatha took pictures because "she loves butt!!"


We climbed trees and took pictures to document our bravery.


Or maybe to document our cute swimsuits.


Yea, that was probably it.


Grayson and Hartley showed us their tree poses.

After we got in the water...

Joe threw rocks, his favorite pastime.


I flexed my photography muscles.


Hartley took a faceplant in the water and WAS NOT happy. Check out that brotherly love in the corner! I love it!


I tried unsuccessfully to take a group photo of a 6, almost 3, and 1 year old.

It was a good day :)

The Storytelling Goat and Other Saturday Follies

This Saturday was as fun as a barrel of monkeys (after Jason and I got over our typical outing sourness). We went to Downtown Birmingham to Pepper Place Market to get some local produce. I didn't have a solid idea of what I needed so we just kind of looked around purposelessly, which gave Jason stomach cramps. The man likes to have a plan. We ended up with some peas, squash and peaches.

Then we went to 5 points south and wandered around looking for somewhere to eat. Due to our general indecisiveness, I wound up having to make the decision, a decision which no one was happy with. But I'm not going to saturate my blog with bad restaurant reviews. SO after we ate, we walked around for a little while and found:

A goat reading a story



To a deer on a dog's back.
I love downtown.

I also found Quinlan Castle

I hope they do something with it, it's too cool not to!

We also went to a HUGE yard sale coordinated my my dear friend Tina's church to help a local community. We bought SO MUCH STUFF we had to bring the car around to get it. We only spent TWELVE DOLLARS!

Joe racked up the most,

He is set for a while on clothes. Many of them were brand new!

I also got some clothes (expensive brands that I wouldn't normally buy) AND

This beautiful brand new bundt pan and a brand new salad spinner in the box.

How can this day get any better you ask?

Only with a trip to Costco to finally buy the furniture I've been drooling over for my foyer.

This cute little bench,


And this fun chest to match the artwork!

But wait, there's more...
We ate dinner at Joe's Italian which I LOVE and had this for desert:

I hope y'all know I only eat stuff like this once in a blue moon, but my goodness was it worth it!

What a wonderful day!

The Best (or Worst) Way to Spend a Sunday Afternoon

Here's how it started. I wasn't too fond of the idea. I wanted to stay in the house.
You see, I can tolerate almost anything, but there is one thing I just can't deal with.

Wet grass on my feet. I have a very hard time walking barefoot in wet grass.

Scratch that....my child would have to be on fire in the middle of the yard for me to walk barefoot in wet grass. My Mom says she took me out to the middle of the yard and left me when I was a baby. Rather than walking back to her, she says I stood there and screamed until she came and got me.

Serious stuff I tell you. But I digress.

Our neighbor Mr. Brad came over to get in on the fun.

Does his bathing suit remind you of anything?


Safety first.


The males of the bunch LOVED this.

I however, huddled on the sidewalk trying to keep my feet dry, thinking the camera in my hands would grant me immunity.

Boy, was I wrong!

For the people who were normal and enjoyed playing in the wet grass on a hot July day, it was refreshing.

For me, well, I went in and read a book on the couch with the new Kitty.