Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Two Cents

Can you tell I haven't had time to blog lately? I have diarrhea of the mouth. So I wanted to share something with you that we learned since Bill had this accident. If your car is totaled or someone hits you going over 35mph then insurance companies will replace your car seat because they do not want the liability if something happened again. Once we got the word that Bill's car had been totaled we were working with the insurance company about what to do for replacement. Basically our company (USAA) will reimburse you for up to $100 to replace your car seat. This works fine for us since we have a mid-priced Graco seat, but this gives me even more of a reason to share with mothers not to buy a Britax or other high priced car seat. If you were in an accident and needed a car seat replacement your insurance company would not give you the same one. Don't get me wrong, Britax is a great car seat, but you won't see me paying that kind of money for something and then not get it replaced if something like this were to happen. The man we were working with said the $100 reimbursement was standard with most insurance companies. So save you money for something else. That's just my two cents.

Christmas Vacation...so far

I am counting Friday as the start of Christmas break. It started with Meredith's Christmas party at school. The kids were so cute! Here they are enjoying their goodies. This is one of Meredith's many boyfriends, Asher. He is a cutie and a sweetie. They will be moving up to the next room together after the new year.
On Saturday we went o go look at a Chevy Equinox to replace Bill's totaled Saturn. Someone at work had it for sale and it was great! We don't really have time to be searching for a car right now, so this worked out perfectly for us (and it was raining on Saturday so who wants to be looking at cars). So we bought it and got everything finalized on Monday. Also on Saturday my mom arrived and we met up for lunch and we have been busy ever since.
Sunday we went to Cleveland to Babyland General. We had a great time and Meredith seemed to like it even though she is a little young. She kept saying her favorite work, baby, while we were there.






After that, we went over to my friend Lenora and Steve's house to visit and then had dinner with some of my family on my mom's side. It was nice to see everyone.
Over the weekend we noticed that Meredith was getting sick so on Monday morning we went to the doctor and got some medicine. She seems to be doing a little better now, at least her appetite is coming back some. Also on Monday we met my Aunt Sharon for lunch so she could visit with us.
Yesterday we went to lunch with my godparents at the Cheesecake factory, yummy! Always fun to see them. For dinner Bill and I met up with some of my friends from high school.
Like I said we have been super busy but that is what I expected. We don't go anywhere on Christmas day so we have to get the visits in now. I am enjoying sitting here writing this blog while still in my pjs. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Mommy's Little Helper


Here is Meredith's new "thing." She loves the dishwasher. We just let her in there because she can open the door herself and if we lock it, she just turns it on. It is easier this way.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Our Little Tiger

So this is a little late in the season but...


Turn up the volume so you can hear Meredith.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Without Further Adieu

I hate that it has taken so long for me to post any sort of updates, but I wanted pictures and I was not able to load them until this morning. We have been gearing up for the holidays and I am really excited as usual.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and we came home to start on Christmas. We got everything except the outside decorated the weekend after Thanksgiving.

The first weekend of December was Bill's office brunch for the entire firm. Last year we decided to start a family tradition of going to the GA Aquarium the day of this party since we would already be down there. We continued this tradition and had a wonderful time. We even got to go the Titanic exhibit which was amazing! After the aquarium we went to the party and ate good food.

They always have Santa at the party and he is amazing but Meredith did not like Santa Claus. The picture below is terrible but at least she isn't crying! We even tried to go back later to see if she would be better, but she grabbed on to me tightly whenever Santa approached. maybe next year.


Last Tuesday Meredith received her braces for her legs. She is doing really well with them and had finally worked up to wearing them all day. She had physical therapy today and she took 4 steps with the therapist! I was crying while watching her on the internet viewer. This is major for her. I am not so concerned with the walking, I just want her to stand up unassisted.

She will get moved up to the next room at the Daycare after the first of the year. While she may still not be walking yet, I think this move will push her along. She will be with her little boyfriends as well. Here are some pictures of her braces.

A new post will be forthcoming tonight with all kinds of updates and pictures.

Friday, December 5, 2008

The new face of Coke


Meredith took Bill's coke tonight and tried a little. She made funny faces but then squealed in delight. Maybe we should turn this in to Coke and make some money.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tag, I'm It



My work buddy and BFF Amanda awarded me. I figured I might as well accept the award and confess my addictions as well.

Here are the rules to receiving this award:
1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous bloggers in a post.
2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.
3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.
Instructions: On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them.


1. Facebook- You can keep up with so many people that way. I had lunch with some girlfriends from high school that I haven't seen in forever and while a learned a few new things, I knew a lot about them from facebook.

2. DVR- who has time to watch live TV? Not a mom and I am spoiled with no commercials.

3. Reading- I don't have a lot of time but I love to read and try to everyday, hopefully Meredith will catch this.

4. Meredith's Laugh- I love to hear her laugh (and any kid for that matter). Last week during therapy she pushed around a chair and was laughing the whole time (including when she mowed over the other kids, maybe we should be concerned about that).

5. Weight Watchers- living this way has really helped me and my family, I am down 30.2lbs as of weigh in yesterday!


SO I will tag these buddies:

Chris R-S at Adapt and Overcome

Amanda B at Bonding in Byerly

Heather at Just Me HP

Suzanna at Sweet Caroline

Monday, November 24, 2008

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 2nd Wedding Anniversary. Some days it feels like we have been married forever and others it feels like it was just yesterday. I can't believe how far we have come in two years and can't wait for many more years to come. So, what did we do to celebrate you ask? Well I am going to tell you, even if you didn't want to know. One of my great students came to babysit and Bill and I went to McCormick & Schmicks for dinner followed by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. It was amazing, the show that is, dinner was a little overrated, but good. If you like seafood in the Atlanta area, Atlantic Seafood Company in Alpharetta is much better.

I cannot believe we have a beautiful daughter and wonderful family and friends and couldn't ask for a whole lot more. I love you Bill! Thank you for sharing your life with me. Here are some of my favrite pictures from our wedding day.












When it rains, it pours

Do you ever feel like when one bad thing happens to you a lot of bad things seem to come at once? I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason and while it may suck, we will survive. That is my feeling right now. I am so excited for the Holidays and spending time with family and friends, but we have a few mood dampeners lately.

I took my car in last week and had the 90,000 mile service and other various things that needed to be done at that time. Well most of a paycheck later my car is up to speed. As hard as it was to hand over that money I know it was for our good because the car should last a long time if it is taken care of and that is what we are banking on. It just hurts at the holidays because we will now have to curb some things.

On Friday we made the decision that Meredith will be fitted for braces for her legs. We had been talking to her therapist a lot this past week about moving Meredith up to the next room in daycare to hopefully help push her a long in the standing and walking department and the other developmental areas that she is missing out on by being in a "baby" room. After much discussion and thinking we decided to do the braces as they will try to retrain her muscles to work properly when standing and balancing as opposed to moving her straight into a walker. She will be fitted for them tomorrow and hopefully will have them before Christmas. Also she should be moved up to the next class as soon as she gets them.

Then on Saturday Bill dropped me off in Buford to have lunch with some friends while he and Meredith ran some errands and he was rear-ended. Meredith and Bill are fine, the car is not. He had to have it towed and got a rental car this morning. We don't even know what the damage is at this point. Thank the Lord Lenora was nice enough and willing enough to cancel her appointment and take us all home. That is why she is my best friend!

So needless to say, now is not the time for us to be playing the lottery. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Swallow Test

Meredith had her swallow test today and she did so good! She drank and ate everything with the nasty barium in it and didn't complain one bit. I am so proud of her. The x-ray showed that everything is going down her throat correctly and the speech therapist at the hospital said to make sure she is getting small bites and many small meals throughout the day. So that is where we are headed. That is all we know for now. She is eating what we give her, she just goes between wanting to feed herself the finger foods and wanting us to feed them to her. I will feed her all she wants at this stage, I am glad she has finally moved to graduates and table food only.

She also has three new words and this happened within the past week. She can now say bye bye, baby, and Mimi (which is Memaw to her). She is almost saying Nani, just working on the "n". I am trying to get some video of it all.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Wordy Wednesday

I decided not to write about the election because I just didn't really see the point. People vote for who they want and I know that I won't be able to change their minds. WARNING: I might say something that offends you, but this is my opinion and it may not be yours, you have your right to an opinion as well.

This was a historical year and I knew I had to vote. I don't vote in primaries because I don't align myself with any particular political party. And it is funny to me how my views have changed over the years, especially now that I am married and a mother. When I was in college I was very liberal and probably aligned more with democrats, no I am more conservative on some issues.

I am proud to say that I voted for John McCain. I voted for him because the most important issue to me is the right for life. Life begins at conception, period. While I believe in a woman's right to choose, you shouldn't be able to kill a child because you had unprotected sex. And I certainly don't believe in a partial birth abortion which makes me sick thinking about it. There are thousands (maybe more) of families that would be happy to adopt unwanted children. I have a friend that was blessed to be able to do that and thank the Lord everyday that he was able to give them that gift. The other main reason I voted for McCain is because he supports our military and has military experience. I am of the opinion that our leader should have some form of military experience.

Now, I know a lot of McCain supporters like to say that Obama does not have the experience and likened having him as our President to having a doctor that didn't finish law school. I think this is very unfair, there are no rules out there that say you have to have been a Senator for x amount of time before you can be President. He was qualified to run and that is what matters as well as his views. These are the important things. I don't feel it is important that he is African American, but some people thought that was the most important thing. I know a lot of people voted for him because they believe in his policies, but I know of a lot of people who voted for him because of the color of his skin and that is wrong.

I will end with this, thank God it wasn't Hilary, and while President Elect Obama was not my choice I have to support our country's choice as we are the United States of America.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Neurologist Appointment

Bill is home sick with what they doctor thinks is a small case of pneumonia. Yeah! Not really of course. He called me this morning to tell me that our pediatrician had called with the referral to the neurologist. It is with Dr. Howard Schub of Child Neurology Associates on January 12.

Now I know this is 10 weeks away, and after having some freak-out conversations with my mom and aunt, I called our physical therapist who assured me that an earlier appointment is not necessary. Meredith is not in any kind of critical state, nor is she regressing in any way, she is just not progressing. Our therapist said that if between now and then she feels Meredith should be seen sooner she will let us know. I feel confident that she would to because she is not the type to beat around the bush. She also told me that if it were one of her children, this is the practice and doctor that she would want. So that says a lot to me. Yes, it will be a while, but it will be here before we know it.

Also, Meredith met with a Speech Therapist yesterday and will probably start speech therapy in the next few weeks. I discovered that while Meredith is taking more table foods, she is not chewing them, she is sucking on it until she can swallow it. Having the therapist there to watch her eat and be able to compare her with the other kids was a real eye-opener. The therapist also stressed the importance of teaching Meredith the meaning of on, off, in, out, up, down and what not. She says it is great to know vocab, but she needs to know to put the ball in the cup. The therapist also will be calling the pediatrician for a swallow study. This is where Meredith will go to the hospital and will eat different kinds of foods with barium in them and they will watch how they go down. Meredith has coughing spells while eating and it could be that her food isn't going down the right way. She just wants to rule things out. Other than that she did really well and was able to identify more objects than I thought.

Now, more on Bill. He has been out of work since last Wednesday and he finally sounds better today, but I don't want him to rush things by going back to work. He did that over the weekend and got worse, so he is home in bed. Luckily Meredith and I are still fine and we just blow kisses to him.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Updates on Meredith

Meredith had her 15 month check-up yesterday and she is doing good. She weighs 20lb. 6oz. (10th percentile) and is 30" long (25th percentile). The doctor was concerned about her balance, standing on tip toes, and what not, so she agreed that she would recommend Meredith seeing a neurologist. She was also concerned with her speech development, but we have already scheduled a consultation on Tuesday with the speech therapist from Babies Can't Wait. I will update on that after it happens. We are waiting for the doctor's office to call us with the referral so I don't know much more than that.

On a more positive note, Meredith has finally decided she wants table food! And she even grabs at our food now. This is a relief because we were worrying about that too. I will post some pictures this weekend of her eating activities.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Finally the Floors

Ok, as you know we spent the weekend putting in Pergo flooring. Our wonderful brother-in-law Mark came to help. Really he is the brains behind the operation and we probably wouldn't have been able to do it without him! We started the project over a week ago with my dad helping us pull up the carpet. This is how we lived for a week...

Nice concrete floor living. I know you are jealous.


Every man's dream, a couch in the kitchen!


The hallway before paint and floors. It was really hard to come home and kick off your work shoes only to put on other shoes for the house.

Our little helper, she is so glad to be out of the cage.

Probably calling DFACS to save her.
And now the (almost) finished product. We still need to do the closets, quarter round, and other finishing work, but we are pretty much back to normal.






I realize that we don't have any of the living room and that is because we are still working on getting it back together. Hopefully this will get done by Sunday.

In a Holding Pattern

Since Meredith was sick last week, the doctor moved her 15mo. check-up ubtil next Thursday. So I will update everyone then. We appreciate all your support!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Washington Farms Pictures

So over a week later I am able to finally upload pictures of our Washington Farms trip. We had so much fun. I had a little scare though because Meredith developed a rash on Wednesday and it turned out to be Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. I thought she may have gotten it from the petting zoo, but no you can't get it that way. Only kids under 4 get it and it is very contagious, but completely harmless. It just looks bad. Who knows where it started, but it is over. Now to the pictures.








































Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Wordless Wednesday-Meredith's Class

Meredith, Alex, Ms. Lori, Warren, Taylor, Jack, Aiden, Asher, and Ms. Tameka
CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE IT BETTER.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Busy

We have been very busy since Saturday. I will post pictures of this stuff once we get the computer back together. On Saturday we took Meredith to Washington Farms in Watkinsville for their fall festivities. She had a good time and I think it will only get better as she gets older. We even picked out a few pumpkins. When got home we started moving furniture for the big project...putting in pergo flooring. Our brother-in-law Mark is coming on Thursday to help us put pergo down in the kitchen, living room, and hallway, so we had to get the carpet up. We are living on concrete floors this week. It is killing me because things are not together and dirty, but I will suffer for new floors. It is probably hardest on poor little Meredith because she has to either play in her room or in the pack-n-play because we don't want her on the dirty floor.

We also painted the living room on Sunday and will paint the foyer and hallway beginning tonight after Meredith goes to bed. We bought paint to do the entire house before Meredith was born and our goal was to get it finished before her birth...didn't happen. After this week we will only be lacking our bedroom as we decided not to paint the guest room since it will be Meredith's one day and we want to do something a little girlie. Why paint twice.

Also, I need to ask for prayers for our family and Meredith. I met with our therapist and the coordinator for Babies Can't Wait and they feel we need to get Meredith seen by a neurologist. They are basing this on the fact that Meredith is not progressing in her therapy and by some of her movements. We have her 15 month check-up on Monday and they want us to speak with our pediatrician before moving forward. I will keep everyone posted as I can.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Wordless Wednesday

Blast from the past

When I was in elementary school we lived in Gainesville and I went to an in home babysitter. Her name was Joyce and she was awesome and so was being around all of the kids there. She only kept afterschool kids and summers. She had a pool, a lot of land, and told the best scary stories around. I vividly remember most of the kids that stayed at Joyce's: Katie and Matt (brother and sister, also our neighbors), Donald and Kevin (brothers), Will and Andy (brothers), Lauren (male), Heather and her sister (see I am forgetting), and there were a handful of others, but these were the prime ones. We all had the same relationships that I would imagine siblings have growing up. I wouldn't know because I am an only child. I am smiling now while writing this post thinking about all the fun times I had during these years.

Of course we all grew up, grew apart, and have moved. Last year I ran in to Donald at NGCSU and we were able to catch up a little. Well on Saturday I ran in to Roxann, the mother of Will and Andy while I was working at our Leadership Conference. She is a student on our other campus and I saw her name on the registration list and wondered if it was the same Roxann. Sure enough it was and we had a nice time catching up. Sadly though, her youngest son Andy was killed when I was in high school. I knew about it, but never had a way to get in touch with her, so it was nice to give my condolences, even if it was over 10 years later.
All of this information is a lead in to this: Roxann sent me this picture today of her son Will's birthday party eons ago and I just had to post it. We live in a small world and when you run in to people that you were so connected with it really warms your heart, at least it does mine.

Pictured from left: Andy, me, unknown, unknown (seated), Donald (standing), Lauren, unknown (standing), Keving (background sitting), Will (only see part of face, but he is in front of the cake).

Friday, September 26, 2008

BAMA vs. UGA

I think many of you know how I feel about UGA. If you don't, I can't stand them, and thankfully neither can my husband.


This makes working where I do very funny because I am in the middle of "dawg" country. I mean, they can't even spell correctly.


I bleed orange and purple, and no environment is better than Death Valley on game day, not even between the hedges.


So as the biggest game of the season looms tomorrow and while Alabama beat the crap out of Clemson, I am here to say....




ROLL TIDE

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Master of the Stairs

We went to Albany this weekend to visit my in-laws. It was a really nice time! While there Meredith discovered stairs and matered them. When I started taking this video I thought she could only go up, but as you can see, after having a little mommy freakout, she was fine and was able to get down herself.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Wordless Wednesday

This is from Meredith's swim lessons. She loves the water! I have been meaning to post one.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

9/11/01

I shared a little about my experience on 9/11/01 in an earlier post, but it really seems to be the thing this year to talk about where you were and what you were doing on this day 7 years ago. I cannot believe it has been 7 years. This is probably the thing that I will think of when asked about significant historical events in my youth. I was a little too young to remember where I was when the Challenger exploded.

I was at work in the Admissions Office when the planes hit the towers. I remember we were all in shock that this could even happen and I remember even thinking how could a plane crash into the tower before we knew about the second plane. I fielded tons of phone calls as to whether the university was still open, which NGCSU chose to be so that students would have resources and could come together in the terrible time in our nation, but most professors canceled their classes.

I didn't get to see any footage of what was going on until just before the South tower fell. I had a not so nice boss that didn't want us leaving, so I went out on a break to go to the Student Center. NGCSU quickly organized a candle light vigil that was attended be probably over half the student body. My sorority sisters and I gathered on the drill field, many of them distraught that their boyfriends had been called up to serve and no one knew what was going on.

While I did not know anyone personally that died in this tragedy a friend's dad would have been killed in the Pentagon had he not been late for work that day. I have many friends who are still fighting the war that truly began this day 7 years ago, and I thank the Lord for them everyday.

Thank you members of the Armed Forces!
Thank you all the heroes and normal citizens called to duty action this day!
My thoughts and prayers are with those who lost loved and those that have family serving our country!

I am proud to be an American and I support our troops!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Ode to Doodle



My old cat Nick died today and he will be greatly missed. He was my buddy as well as Bill's and he lived to be 16.5 years old. He was known as doodle, I don't know why, but it stuck. He was also known as a few other choice nicknames when he had a bad attitude or did something wrong. Nick was with me when I moved to Clemson and would sing to me all the way home (aka meow). I remember the time I thought that he would do better if I let him out of his cage for the ride, boy was I wrong. That cat was all over the car and wouldn't sit still.

Nick was actually one of the reasons I knew Bill was a keeper. On our first date, Bill came in my Mom's house (that is where I was staying that weekend, as I still lived in Albany) and Nick and another cat we had named Norman got in Bill's lap. These cats don't do this to anyone new!

My morning routine will never be the same because Nick came in every morning to have his teeth flossed. Didn't help his breath any, but he loved it just the same.

Nick, Christmas 2007
When we originally got these antlers back when I was in college he was the only cat the didn't freak out and run when they were put on. He didn't like them by any means, he was just too lazy to do anything about it.

This bib says "Mommy loves me"

Nick loved his Meredith and watched over her all the time when she was a baby. He also was very tolerant of her wanting to pet him (read: grab his fur).


One final memory is one time when I had to go out of town while at Clemson and my friend Brooke took care of Nick. She took him over to another friends' apartment and one of them saw Nick in the kitchen and said "Hey, you know there is a mountain lion in your kitchen?" He was a big boy.

I love you doodle, you will be missed.