Beach pt 2 and Anna and her baby doll

Some pictures of Will at the beach!

Anna & Will dug this hole deep enough for Will to sit in!



My dad & Will...doing something boyish..
a crab they caught stuck to Will's shoe.

Anna & her baby alive baby doll...

Hudson: Why are you still behind that camera...HELP me!
Look..he's already mastered the fake smile!

Another beach trip in the books!

and this time we had a special guest. My nephew, Will!
See Hudson's hair standing up? It stays like that. I will brush it, wet it and straight back up it goes. I caught Anna licking her hand and rubbing it across his head trying to get it to lay down. I told her that I better not catch her licking her hand and rubbing it on his head again. Later on, I caught her licking the top of his head like a mama cat bathing her babies. It was really hard not to laugh while I was getting onto her.

Anyway, we had a great time with Will and Billy & Pops enjoyed fishing with him. I'll post some pictures of that later.

Here we are at our favorite hangout. I know that you're more than shocked & surprised that we ate at Margaritaville, but Will *needed* to go. Here you see Anna studying the menu. She then ordered a Cheeseburger, without the paradise. Um..what Anna? You know, the paradise, the lettuce & tomato. :) That kid has been on a roll this weekend.
I have to give a disclaimer here. Hudson has a bathing suit (five to be exact). However, Billy, Pops, Will & Anna went fishing. Grandma, Tatum & Hudson stayed at the house. A little too hot for grandma. So *I* got to go to the beach, lay in my chair, and listen to my book (that I downloaded from the library. Did you know you could do that? Click HERE to see the titles they have) on my ipod ALONE and just relax. It was wonderful.

Anyway, tt wasn't long until Anna, Will & Tatum come running by me and straight into the water. Grandma & Pops brought them. Later on, Billy brought Hudson without swimsuit or cute monogrammed beach towel. So...Pops took him in the water in his clothes. He never cried. He loves the water.
We then stripped him down and played the white trash role really good in just his swimmy diaper that I happened to have in the car. I love this picture of Billy & his babies. Tatum was on a picture strike this weekend. Surprise Surprise.
Here my sweet boy is all bundled up in the ugliest towel known to man. Like I said, he has a (3) cute monogrammed towels he could have been wrapped up in, but Billy thinks those things are totally unnecessary. Crazy man.... The reflection in his eyes is the sky. His eyes are still a grey color and sometimes look like they're going to be green.

More beach pictures to come!

My sweet boy

Ok..I'm going to take a break from being evil today. And yes...evil. I may tell you the entire story tomorrow. Just watch out, Judge Judy..here I come.

It's funny. For the longest Billy & I would just look at each other and "say I can't believe we're married". We dated long ago and never thought we'd end up together years later. It went from that to "I can't believe we have a kid together" after Anna was born. Now it's "I can't believe we have a son". I cant. I still can't fully wrap my head around the fact that I'm a mom to a boy. I figured by 7 months it would have sunk in by now.

Here are some pictures and happy 7 months old! With every smile this sweet boy melts my heart even more.




My gosh he's the sweetest thing ever! He's rolling and scooting everywhere. Tonight I was brushing his teeth and his two front teeth are about to pop through!

Speaking of being mom...two families are weighing very heavy on my heart. I don't personally know them but feel like I do from the internet. Click on their names for their websites and personal stories.

• Laura Black - Her story hits so close to home. First of all she's the mom of 3 kids. Two girls and a boy. She's battling metastisized breast cancer. She doesn't know it, and she doesn't know me but her posts minister to me every time I get a update. I look up to her faith. She lives here in Birmingham and is a member of Briarwood.
• Misty and Jake- Misty and Jake have a wonderful love story. They've been trying for a baby and was expecting a baby in September. They found out in May they were expecting a son. Misty and the baby passed away unexpectedly on Monday from a blood clot. It kills me, she went from being so excited and looking for baby bedding to gone. Just. Like. That.

So, take a second to appreciate the little things. Being able to wake up in the mornings with a chance to be happy. To kiss your kids good night. To tell your husband you love him. Please say a prayer for the families above.

Dear Coworker,

Dear Coworker,

The point of a touch screen is to touch it. You barely have to touch it for it to work. The reason you can't log into the fancy copier with the TOUCH screen is because your pounding on it and hitting 3 letters at one time. You don't have pound the touch screen within a inch of it's life with your knobby fingers and claw like nails (ok...maybe clawlike is a bit of a exaggeration. they're actually nice nails. and to all other co-workers, you do not have to cut your nails to nubs for the touchscreen to work properly. i heard that rumor going around "Cut your nails or you can't work the copier"..rolling eyes. No copier is worth having nubby looking hands.). Be kind to the fancy copier/scanner/fax machine...as much as we paid for it, we will likely have it for the duration (which I hope is not the end of the week or anytime soon for that matter) of my career here.

Regards,
Gretchen

PS...hint. if you touch the screen lightly on the letter you want to use on the keyboard, it will work. pounding it like it's a computer keyboard key however, will not give you the same effect. touchscreen is kinda touchy (i crack myself UP) and doesn't like to be abused.

{and now I know why you had to have a new computer recently after seeing the abuse you gave the NEW copy machine. i also now know who the people are that tear up the "yes" button at gas stations on the keypad at the pump. YOU are the one that used your debit card and dug it into the yes to where it's unrecognizable because it didn't beep as soon as you hit the "yes" button. thanks for making it a pain in the a$$ when trying to get my receipt.}

And ode to my dad...and my babies' daddy!

I have a wonderful dad. A dad that instilled hard work, saving and thriftiness. I love my dad for all that he taught me and all that he is (think Clark Griswold). There has to be a ultimate reward for a daddy of 3 girls!
His shirt happens to match the table cloth. An accident? Knowing my mother I would guess not!
(I told you..totally Clark Griswold! To this day every time Anna watches Christmas Vacation, she swears it is Papa!)
and to my babies' daddy..thank you for being such a great father.
I love you both so much!

Now this is what I call relaxed!

Now this is my idea of relaxing in the pool!
Anna couldn't leave him alone!
The princessThe princess beach towel that Saydee passed down to Anna (that hasn't left her body since Monday).
a quick one of Anna & Hudson from Sunday.I swear I have an older child. She either A) won't let me take her picture or B) isn't home.

Do Not Disturb

What does that mean to you?

Say you walk up to a storage closet at your job that houses a refrigerator that is housing your Diet Coke and you see a 5x7 sheet of blue piece of paper that has "Do Not Disturb" written on it. What do you do?

Me? I would not enter said room.

The men in my office? Apparently thinks that means "come on in" as they try to open the door. Then get miffed and all red faced at ME because they walked in while I was pumping. Even make comments like "I didn't realize we had turned that room into something other than a storage closet/room that holds fridge". Maybe I should spell it out for you...DO NOT DISTURB..that means DON'T COME IN HERE.

Where would you like for me to pump? The bathroom, wrong answer as there are no electrical outlets in there (which is why I have trouble fixing my hair at work, who designs a bathroom with no outlets? It *had* to be a man). My office? I have a nice window to where you could come by and gaze at me at any time. I figured the storage closet would be ok, because of there are no windows but apparently you can't wait 5 minutes to get to that Diet Coke huh? I bet you will pay attention to that "Do Not Disturb" sign from now on! Or at least I hope so.

Seriously...I couldn't make this stuff up.

I was having a normal morning. I was getting ready to leave the house around 6:30ish (6:40) and I couldn't find my car key. I last saw it last in Billy's (junk) drawer where he unloads his pockets. Look in drawer, no key. I thought maybe he put it in my purse, no key. Search diaper bag, no key. I finally get him on the phone and he says it's in his drawer and I had told him I had already looked there but no key. He calls back and tells my mother "it's in my pocket".

UGH!!!!

I realize I'm going to have to drive the jeep. I have no problems with the jeep, when it has AIR CONDITIONING (hello 92 degrees today and 100% humidity). When it doesn't, it's a different story. He tells me I'm going to have to do something with air compressor and air up tire. I'm in 4" Jessica Simpson heels and a Ralph Lauren button up, do I look like I'm going to air up a tire? (oh yeah...he can't see me). As IF. Especially since I have a unrealistic fear of over airing tire and having it explode, no thanks.

So, I jump in jeep and head to work taking note that transmission isn't shifting as it once did. I'm driving to work, HOT and getting mad. Something about being hot makes me madder. Then I go to turn radio on to at least listen to AM. No radio. So in the silence I'm forced to focus on being hot and mad. Added to the anger, the fact that I'm hot and my hair is frizzing by the second. Seriously frizzing. Did I mention that I was HOT?

I decide what I'm going to do is drive straight to Billy's work and jump in the Expedition and cruise air conditioning (and radio) style instead of being in the heap that leaks oil, antifreeze, no air, no radio for the remainder of the day. Plus..he can deal with low tire and transmission that isn't cooperating.

Billy calls me shortly after swiping air conditioning. He hears the seat belt thingy start to ding and realizes I've swiped air conditioning. He let me know there was something in there that he needed. I hung up and made attempted to make a U turn. I then realized traffic was so thick that it wasn't going to happen since it's now 7:30am (30 mins late for work). He calls back and says forget it when the gas light comes on...seriously..are you SERIOUS? So I have to stop & get gas. I may or may not have yelled in the phone at my husband at this point. (sorry honey)

So me and my frizzy headed self finally arrive at work. I'm calming myself down by telling myself that there is a curling iron there, I can do damage control once inside. I walk into the building and I'm slapped in the face with HEAT. You have GOT to be kidding me, no air conditioning? Yep...no air conditioning. Have I mentioned I get mad when I'm hot? If I haven't...I don't like being hot. It's makes me angry (enough to yell at a yak and snap at a sherpa, ok only Billy and Anna will get that. It was in a commercial.).

I settle my frizz head into my chair which is now 7:50 and decide I know what will help. My morning coffee. All of this happened and I haven't even had my morning coffee yet. I'm already sitting frizzy headed in a pool of my own sweat I might as well dive into a cup of java. I got into the break room which for a second I had mistaken for the Sahara desert seeing as the coffee burners had warmed it up enough to be a sauna. I did for a second contemplate pouring water over the hot plates of the coffee maker to see if it would have the same effect. Anyway, I pour cup of coffee and reach for the creamer (seeing as I have my coffee "blonde" as I call it since I dump so much creamer in) and no creamer. OH. MY. GOSH. I'm not going to make it.

I dig through my office to find a old thing of creamer from Christmas, peppermint mocha. It won't kill me, right? (it didn't) I enjoyed my cup of coffee while sweltering in my own pool of sweat. I ended up just putting my hair in a ball as there was just no help for it at all.

In the end, I really came out unscathed (if you consider a REALLY bad hair day unscathed). I mean, it could be worse right? I could've gotten stuck in the elevator like my coworker (Lord if it ever happens, have the mental ward employees from St. Vincent's waiting on me as the doors open because I will lose whatever mental capacity I'm struggling to hold onto) or been in a car accident. I finally smartened up and said "get behind me Satan". "LORD...I'm still praising you. For all that you are and all that you do". Thanks to Revelle for meeting me at lunch (therapy)...Zoe's made it all better.

I'd love to tell you a happy ending to my day..but seeing as I left my breast pump and Hudson's milk for tomorrow at work today, my day will start off crazy again tomorrow.

And tomorrow...I will praise Him more for I am so blessed!

Now...I have to go wash the 13 layers of sweat off of me since I mulched when I got home from work.

PS...Jessica Simpson, I hate you and the cute shoes you "designed". Have you ever walked in your shoes? My feet hurt like a mutha but I sure did look good in them.

PSS. Lord, I'm sorry for all those ugly words I said today. And to the AT&T employee who probably wishes they were never born since they had to talk to me today. I promise I'll be nicer tomorrow. Hopefully.

Storms, a cheerleader & goats

What else can you title this?

We've had storms Friday, Saturday and we're suppose to today (sunday). We're TIRED of the rain!
Here are some pictures from Friday night.

after the storm blew through (and I mean blew lots of trees & branches down) Anna said she didn't want to live close to the clouds anymore. She wants to live down, near the street, like everyone else. Our house in on top of a ginormous (really) hill and we feel like we live in the clouds.

Tatum has been at cheer camp this week and Saturday we got to watch them perform what they've learned. Here are a couple of Tatum's jumps. I couldn't seem to capture the toe touch.
We listened to Anna cheer the rest of the day.

and the new addition to our family. Two new baby goats. They are so freaking cute! Another one should be popping some out any second now. Bless her heart..she can't even walk (I know that feeling). Freaking Rufus was busy...
and a few of my sweet sweet Hudson

technically a bad picture, but he's so dang cute
Hello Summer (I love you). Fresh squeezed lemonade made by my awesome husband.
Hello Lover (hello diabetes)
Death by Chocolate cake..also made by my husband.

We've been doing landscaping for 100 (2) months. As soon as we're done (IF IT WILL EVER STOP RAINING) I'll post some pics of our newly landscaped front. I know Billy doesn't want to admit it...but we DO need gutters.

I better hurry up and hit publish post...much like your satellite tv, as soon as a storm comes in, no internet (which is why mine & Anna's closet got cleaned out yesterday morning).

Internet went out before I could hit post...
Then the power went out. Why does the power go out AFTER the storm blows through?
She was wanting to go swimming...then the rain came.

What do you do when you have 3 kids and no power. You LEAVE as quickly as you can.
We spent the entire day at McWane Center.
Billy & the girls in the hurricane force winds (76 mph)
Hudson liked the fish
the jelly fish
Anna had NEVER done this before...she was too scared!
Of course...as soon as we were stepping into McWane, the sun came out and it was glorious. Oh well...maybe we can finish up next weekend (or go to the beach?).