Finally Some Family Time

We have been long overdue for a visit with Spencer's family, so this weekend we loaded up and headed to Tennessee to see everyone. Spencer got off early on Friday so we got to Mandy's house around 3 central time, which was great. Unfortunately I think Ella Ann is starting to not be able to sleep in the car because she slept for only 1 hour on our way there and for a whopping 30 minutes on the trip home this afternoon. This is NOT good for my very long trips to Kentucky when I'm all by myself with her! Thankfully she doesn't mind being in her car seat and doesn't complain/whine too much...usually!

Craig and Kasey came over and we had dinner with everyone Friday night after lots of playing and catching up. We just hung out on Saturday and the girls did some shopping while the boys kept the sleeping kids. We went out to dinner on Saturday evening, church Sunday morning, followed by lunch and then we hit the road. It was a short visit, but I was so excited to go, as was Spencer, so it was worth every minute on the road! Ella Ann couldn't stop talking about Carter and "Seff" most of the way there and would ask for everyone by name on our way home. Her and Carter just played and played together and Ella Ann loved helping feed Seth his bottle and pushing him in his swing! The older they get the more fun it is to watch them all together. It is very entertaining!

Carter gave Ella Ann a Sesame Street sticker book, which she loved!

She also got some new books from Nana and Papa and would bring one to anyone willing to read to her, which was not Spencer or I the entire weekend! :)

Playing with Carter's new modeling clay set.

Even though the swing is motorized, Ella Ann felt the need to help it along!

Seth snuck some chew time in with Ella Ann's beloved horse!

In case you were wondering, no, the stickers never ended up on the pages, they always were stuck to Ella Ann! She kept putting the largest ones on her face! She also enjoyed being pushed on Carter's new tricycle, which tumbled over on her twice and she got right back up and never missed a beat!

This is how Spencer and Craig spent most of the weekend. :)

We tried, once again, to get a decent picture of the 3 grandchildren together to no avail!

Before church on Sunday.

Well we tried again Sunday morning and it failed then too!

Mama Got Her a New Pair of Shoes, or So She Thought

I ordered a pair of shoes to wear around the house because my feet have been hurting off and on for about a year because I usually am never wearing shoes since I stay home. It was a sad day when the high heels went into semi-retirement! Anyway, I ordered a pair of shoes from Naturalizer with Dr. Scholls's gel inserts built in, ohhh I know I sound like an old woman but my feet HURT, and they arrived at my doorstep yesterday. Well, as soon as I took out my wonderfully comfortable shoes that are awesome, some one else thought they were pretty darn comfy too! Ella Ann thinks it is so much fun to put on my shoes, which look like skis on her, and scoot across the floor in them. I cannot get them back!!! I even tried giving her several other pairs and she refused all other options. It was my fabulous new kicks or a tantrum ensued! So much for Mommy's poor feet! :)

Also, I wanted to mention that I have FINALLY spotted something about Ella Ann that resembles me! Check out her legs! She's got her Mimi's and Mommy's skinny, knobby-knee legs! YEAY!!! It is more evident in my previous post...the picture of her going down the banana slide. :)

First Trip to the Museum

Saturday morning my friend, Megan, and her little boy, Luke, came over and Ella Ann and I walked with them downtown to The Children's Museum. The Sesame Street exhibit is there until the beginning of September and since Ella Ann LOVES Sesame Street I wanted to make sure and take her before it was too late. Luke is also a big Elmo fan, so Megan really wanted to take him too! After we walked in the scorching heat and humidity, we arrived at the museum just as the doors were opening. Ella Ann was so excited you would have thought her stroller was on fire and she needed to evacuate! Luke kept yelling "ELMO!" over and over! Once we got them out of their strollers, they pretty much took off to explore all the fun activities. It was a really neat place, but I can see why children 2 and under are free because our kids were almost to the point where they could reach things, but they couldn't understand much or do any pretend play, which is what the museum encourages. They had an area that included a sort-of tree house, which Ella Ann was afraid to do anything in, and it had a miniature pond with a waterfall that was filled with play fish and animals for kids to scoop up, splash around in, and just play. They offered raincoats for the kids, but both Ella Ann and Luke refused to put them on so they got soaked! At one point Ella Ann doused her head!

We also joined in on some group singing and dancing, which Ella Ann absolutely loved and danced so much that people were laughing! When the Sesame Street theme song came on she was busting moves all over the place! We also watched a play that took place on Sesame Street, but unfortunately no actual characters came out so Megan and I were pretty disappointed with the whole Sesame Street exhibit!

Anyway, after we pulled Luke and Ella Ann away from all the fun activities, yes they were screaming because they didn't want to leave, we walked back home. Both of them were pooped from all of the running around, as were Megan and I! It was a really fun morning and I hope to take Ella Ann again sometime because she did love it all so much.

We didn't do much the rest of the weekend. Spencer worked on Sunday so Ella Ann and I hit the mall for the last day of Georgia's tax free holiday! :)

Here are some pics from the museum.

Ella Ann was running around so crazily that it was very hard for me to keep up with her. At one point she had run over to their computer area and started playing on it. I guess she learned from watching Spencer and I!

Dancing along with one of "Oscar's pals."

It took quite a while for Ella Ann to actually hold the paintbrush because she was afraid of it! I kept having to scribble so she would figure it out! She hates anything on her hands at all and kept saying "NOOO!" when I was trying to teach her to paint! But once she did it, there was no stopping her......
Isn't the mini apron cute??!!

This is the pond area I was talking about. They loved the water and all the toys in it!

Luke and Ella Ann playing around in the soft toy and gym area.

Ella Ann would walk around the tunnels because she was afraid to go in!

She loves any rocking toys and gravitates toward them when we go to playdates. This one was a little small for her, but she was dead set on rocking it like crazy anyway!

Going down the big banana slide all by herself! Note the soaking wet shirt!

Headed home and the kids are not too happy about it! We had to stuff their faces with snacks to lure them into their strollers so we could get outta there!

Bathroom Woes

Things have been absolutely crazy around here recently. The sink in the condo above us leaked into our ceiling and down our wall in our master bathroom a few weeks ago. It made a small brown spot on our ceiling....no big deal, we painted right over it. Well, after the plumbers above us banged around on the floor fixing the leaky pipe, they caused our mirror to fall a little more. It has always been slightly crooked, but not too noticable. Sooooo, Spencer thought he could simply "push" it back into place with my help. Yeah right! So as I'm holding the mirror and he grabs the other side of this massive, heavy mirror, it breaks in half! So now we have to have it replaced. The glass company comes to install our brand new mirror and when they remove the old mirror they discover mold growing on our drywall. Ohhh joy. Keep in mind our home is on the market! After speaking with our condo association, I find a reliable company to come and give us an estimate and do the mold removal. The huge man came yesterday and sealed himself off in our master bath for 5 HOURS in a space suit and removed the mold!! The side of his big truck said "disaster cleanup"!!!! Can you imagine what my neighbors were thinking?!?! They had to rip apart our entire bathroom to get it all out and I had to remove every single item from the bathroom, right down to the bar of soap in the shower! Spencer and I had to camp out in our living room last night because the HVAC they left to remove the mold spores from the air sounded like a jet plane engine that we couldn't possibly sleep in our room, never mind the knock-you-over chlorine smell!

Not only do we now have to hire a construction company to come in and do the repairs, but now we have to pay to have a cracked pipe fixed that was also leaking!!! I swear, it is one thing after another these days!!! Right now we are using our other bathroom until ours is fixed, which I hope, hope will be VERY soon!!!!

I wanted to post some pictures of our sad, sad bathroom! For those of you that know me so well, you know what a neat/clean freak I am so you can imagine how much I am freaking out! hahahahaaa! I am learning patience.....at times! :)

This is where our vanity used to sit and the mirror used to hang.

This is the underside of our vanity countertop. It is propped up against our shower...we can't even take a shower!!!

These are the vanity cabinets stacked on top of each other. You are looking into our closet and the vanity is supposed to sit to the left in the picture.

And to think this ALL started with a small leak in a pipe above us!!! Arghhhhhhh!!! And to top it all off, no, neither homeowners for either party OR our condo association is paying! Lovely, huh?

City Break

This weekend Spencer worked at a hospital that was 90 miles northeast of the city in a small town called Toccoa. Since he didn't think he was going to have to be a slave to the hospital all day and night, Ella Ann and I joined him for a mini trip. Ella Ann and I left on Friday afternoon and got to sit in some serious rush hour traffic and Spencer left after work and breezed up the interstate and arrived early that evening. Figures! Ella Ann and I enjoyed a pit stop at a fantastic farmer's market along the way. I saw it on top of a huge hill and whipped the car around and went back! It was HUGE! They had everything from antiques, nick nacks, an obscene amount of homemade jams, relishes, salsas, sauces, etc. and the locals brought their homemade baked goods to sell, so you can imagine the yummy food I encountered along with the homegrown produce! I got a few things but held back because I really didn't need to bring home a truckload of food I wouldn't be able to eat fast enough! They also served fresh fried peach pies and homemade peach ice cream! Yummm!!! Ella Ann was running around like a banshee and trying to touch everything in sight!

Toccoa is a very, very sleepy town and we really enjoyed the change of pace. We were one of the 2 guests staying at the 11-room hotel! The room was really nice; it had a kitchenette so I brought food to eat for us and we had a little sitting area separate from the bedroom, which was perfect for when Ella Ann napped. While Spencer worked on Saturday morning/early afternoon, Ella Ann and I got out to explore the little town and had SO much fun! Ella Ann was raring to go before 7 a.m. and kept saying "outside" and "walk". So off we went before 9 a.m. I hit the local coffee shop for a very cheap cappuccino (ohhh and gas was $2.61!!!!) while Ella Ann played around on the floor with Candyland. You could tell that everyone knew one another because I got several inquiries as to whether or not I was new to the area, visiting their college (a guy working at the coffee shop thought I was just out of high school!), etc. After chatting with several people while drinking my yummy cappuccino, Ella Ann and I headed off in the rain to a park. Thankfully, the rain stopped but it was too muddy to hike the trails with the stroller so we moseyed through the town shops which ended up being way more fun for me! They had lots of neat antique shops, thrift stores, and furniture stores that were awesome! I can't wait until we move because I am going back to buy things for our future new home! :)

Spencer came back to the hotel early afternoon and we all hung out until Ella Ann and I left to come back home that evening. I felt so bad leaving Spencer all by himself in what he considered to be a very boring town! He had to work all day Sunday and into the evening but drove home when he got off. Next time we will stay all weekend so we can do some more exploring of other parks and surrounding towns!

Ella Ann's trying to pick up as many peaches as possible! She would start holding them under her armpits!

This was just the produce side of the market! I can't wait to go again!

She LOVED the telephone in our room! One time I asked her who she was talking to and she turned to me and says, "Mimi."

Going crazy in the coffee shop dancing to the shaking of my mints!

Playing with all the Candyland pieces.

This is the beautiful park we went to...in the rain!

This is a (bad) picture of the waterfall Ella Ann was backed up to the the above picture. It was so pretty...the water was a clear bluish-green!

This is how she rides in the car quite often....with her blanket either on top of her head or completely covering her face!

Ella Ann and her Daddy did get to enjoy some time together before we left. She missed him so much and was very happy to hang with him Saturday afternoon.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

My parents came down this past Friday to visit for the weekend. I grew up cheering for the St. Louis Cardinals because my parents are big fans, as is Spencer. The Cardinals were playing the Braves this weekend so my Dad got tickets and we all went Saturday night. Jana came to our house and kept Ella Ann so we could all actually enjoy the game! Again, thank you so much Jana! Even though the Cardinals majorly got beat, we still had a blast! We gorged ourselves on park fare, even though it wasn't that good we had to do it anyway for the experience, cheered when the Cardinals scored their 1 home run, and enjoyed the beautiful game night at Turner Field. Spencer and I hadn't been to a baseball game, let alone a Cardinals game, in forever so it was fun to just go!

Friday night we just ordered pizza and hung out at our house and during the day Saturday my parents played with Ella Ann and we ran some errands. For lunch on Saturday, though, we went to a really neat/fun restaurant in downtown Decatur (small, quaint suburb of the city) and had lunch outside, which of course Ella Ann loved. It was a beautiful day here yesterday so we were happy to spend most of it outdoors.

The game was the highlight of the weekend for sure, but I bet my parents would say the highlight for them was seeing Ella Ann! :) Thanks to my parents for taking us to the game, we had a really good time!

Reading her new "Ella" book with Grandpa. She has both "Ella" books now thanks to her Aunt Mandy and they are her favorites!

Not liking Mimi's shades while at lunch yesterday!

Ella Ann isn't much on taking pictures lately!

Crazy Ella Ann after Mimi gave her a bath!

Here is Turner Field. It was a nice stadium with a view of the city, so I thought I'd share it with everyone.

Since the Cardinals were being slaughtered, we left the game a little early. The Cardinal fans around us were disappointed in our lack of faith for the major comeback they were hoping for! ha!

Fun Food

Last week Ella Ann had her first encounter with corn on the cob. She has always loved her vegetables, but had never seen one of her favorite veggies stuck on a stick! I told her it was corn when she kept pointing to the cob on my plate, so I handed mine over to her and tried to show her how to eat it. It took her a few tries to figure out how to actually bite into it AND pull corn off but once she got it she loved eating it! We had it again tonight for supper so I gave Ella Ann her very own piece of corn on the cob, which she devoured in about 2 minutes! I managed to take a few pictures of her before she cleaned the cob! It's a shame that all vegetables aren't this fun to eat!

Opportunity Knocked

Yesterday Ella Ann and I went walking in the park with a friend and her little boy. I was asking her what she was going to do for the 4th and she said that her and her husband were going to run in the famous Peachtree Roadrace but he had to work (he's a resident also) and she didn't have anyone to babysit her son so she told me I was welcome to her number if I wanted it. OHHHH YES!!! I have been wanting to run in the Peachtree Road race since we moved here but haven't been able to as of yet. It is the largest race in the world with 55,000 people running the 6.2 miles down Atlanta's main road, Peachtree Street. The main reason so many people run it is to get the coveted Peachtree Roadrace t-shirt, and I was one of them! :) I've longed for that shirt! hahahahaaa! I have to tell you all about my morning!! Okay, so I woke up this morning at 5:45, drank a ton of coffee, and ran outside my home to hop on the MARTA bus to take me to the MARTA station so I could get on a train that would take me to Lenox Mall where the race begins. I had never ridden MARTA before so I was very nervous about the whole thing. I was in the very last group to go (see my number) so I didn't have to be there at the start of the race, which was at 7:30 (I made it up there by that time, though). Dad, you may want to sit down for this if you are not already because you will probably have a heart attack after reading what I did! :) I was standing at the bus stop (ohhh you HAVE to ride MARTA to this race because parking is too limited and EVERYONE rides it for this race) and this man, he was probably 65 or so, slows down and asks me if I wanted a ride to the MARTA station downtown where he was headed. He was wearing a number, and he was old so I figured I would be safe! So I said, "Sure", and got in the car. Did you pass out yet Dad??? The man introduced himself, as did I, and he informed me that we were going to park at his office and walk across the street to the MARTA station. After he told me where he worked, I realized who this man was! I know him, or his name, rather!!!! He and the man I worked for before I had Ella Ann are best friends and I did a lot of work via my boss for the guy carting me to the station!!! After telling him who I worked for he then recognized my name and said that my old boss was just talking about me the other day!!! Okay, so how incredibly weird is that!?! We both couldn't get over the huge coincidence!

After getting on the train with a zillion other runners, you couldn't move an inch because the trains were so crowded, I walked all the way to the very, very back of the sea of people to where the thousands of runners in my group were congregating. After waiting over an hour, I started at 8:50 and crossed the finish line at Piedmont Park at 9:40. I didn't stop and walk once!!

I have to tell you all about my trip down Peachtree because it was one of the most exciting things I have ever done. To see a city running and being part of it was so amazing! A new group starts every 5 minutes to leave some space, but it was still really crowded. Thousands of "fans" lined the streets for the entire 6 miles cheering us on, giving us water, smoothies (yes I drank a smoothie while running), ice chips, American flags to wave, and dozens and dozens of bands and djs played music about every 2-3 blocks!!! I saw doctors running in scrubs and stethoscopes, people running draped in the American flag, people were decked out for the 4th along the streets, including their pets, belly dancers, cheerleaders dressed in zero clothes dancing on top of buses, and the best part was running through "holy water to be blessed" as I passed some of the churches!!!! Isn't that hilarious!?!?! There was even a group of "drunk runners" that are famous for running the race because they run it, obviously, drunk and you know them when you see them because they have t-shirts on advertising their drunkeness AND they drink the whole 6 miles down! CRAZY!

I knew it was a big deal to see and even participate in this massive event, but I didn't realize the extent of it until I saw it with my own eyes! It was neat to see swarms of people in front of me running down the road! When I finished, I walked into the park to get my precious t-shirt and saw really no green space in the huge park because it was covered, I mean covered, with runners. I walked down a road that leads to our home and Spencer and Ella Ann picked my tired butt up. I told Spencer he HAD to do it next year just to say he did it! It was SO MUCH FUN!!!!

I took lots of pictures with my phone along the way but cannot upload them to the blog. Here is a picture of me after I showered. I forgot to take one when I was all gross and sweaty after running but still wanted you all to see my new shirt and number to prove to you I completed the race without one iota of training! :)

I Can Do Her Hair Now!

Yeay!!! Ella Ann's hair is long enough for me to put in pigtails!!!!!! FINALLY!

She likes to brush Spencer and I's hair these days, which feels pretty good most of the time until she gets excited and all of the suddenly rakes my brush through my hair!

I ran outside last night after a storm and took these pictures of the sky/skyline. The pictures really didn't do the beauty of the dusk justice, but you get an idea of how pretty it was. For those of you who have never visited us, this is the awesome view of the city we have when we walk out our door!