Happy birthday, Ray

My baby brother is getting old. He turned 24 this past week. He requested his usual birthday meal....homestyle: chicken and dumplings, dressing, cornbread, mac & cheese, fried okra, and ice cream sundaes for dessert. (My mama is such a good cook.)

Happy birthday "little" brother.

My all-time favorite boys in the world...

Gavin's Birthday Party

We celebrated Gavin's 3rd birthday tonight at the park in Duncan. All of our family and close friends were able to come and spend time with us. Here a just a few pictures of my buddy's party.

(Sorry Kelly and Carly. I know you're not going ot like this one.)

Happy early birthday to my wild and crazy boy.

The Lunchbox

Mom said I need to update my blog...ok. So, I got a job teaching science thru the Upstate Homeschool Co-op on Mondays at Taylors First Baptist. They provide a nursery for teachers' kids, so Gavin gets to go with me. He's never stayed with anyone other than family, so I'm a little worried about how he'll do staying with people he doesn't know. I've been making a big deal out of "going to a new school with mommy". We bought him a small backpack (to put extra clothes in) and a lunchbox since he'll be eating there. We went to Target and let him pick out the lunchbox. It was quite amusing. First he picked out Shrek. I said no. I don't like Shrek. Then he picked out Scooby Doo. Now, I like Scooby Doo, but look at this lunchbox... ...it looks like a girl's lunchbox! It has flowers on it! I said no to that one too. Jason was giving me a hard time because he said, "What's the point of letting him choose if you say no to everything he picks out?" Yes..., but I couldn't believe Jason was going let his son carry a lunchbox with flowers on it...as manly-macho as he is! So we pulled down the ones that Gavin could choose from...a guided choice sounds fair. (Yes, my child is laying on the floor in the middle of the aisle. He was deep in thought.)

And then we narrowed them down to 2...

Spiderman and Toy Story.

He chose Spiderman.

~even though he knows nothing about Spiderman, and knows everything about Toy Story~

And just a little random thing...This is a squirrel that was in the ditch across from our driveway. I had to take his picture. He was munching on a cigarette butt. If you look closely, you can see it in his hands.

Delicious.

The house we want

This is the house we want; but, we can't get it until we sell ours. Our realtor said she's gotten several calls about our house already, but no one wants to see it yet. (Sniff, sniff.) We've got our fingers crossed that this one doesn't sell before we sell ours.

It has 4 bedrooms (our room, Gavin's room, a second child's bedroom, and a playroom) and 2 1/2 bathrooms. It has a separate dining room, which is a requirement for me since we eat together at the table; and a large living room. It has a pantry, laundry room, 2 car garage, and sits on .69 acres. The neighborhood is great and the house is a few houses from the cul-de-sac, so there's no thru traffic. The only thing I don't like about this house is that it's in District 6 - Dorman territory (off John Dodd Rd). Ok for Jason, but I'm a little hesitant since my blood runs royal blue (as Kelly says). We'd have to add a fence around the backyard for Gavin, and put a building out back for the lawnmower and Jason's man-stuff.

So, that's what we're looking at.

It's Official

It's official. My house is for sell.

So, if you know anyone just starting out looking for a home in Lyman, send him/her my way. It's a 2 bedroom house, with a living room with bay windows, dining room, sunroom with ceramic tile floor, a huge walk in pantry (my favorite part of the house), a big outbuilding with electricity and stairs to the second level for storage, and a nice newly fenced backyard.

It's going to be sad when we do sell it because we've put so much time and money into fixing it up. Plus, it was our first little love shack. But, if we want to continue growing, we've got to have something a little bigger. So, wish us luck. Hopefully we'll have some interest.

Outgrown Pants

It's no lie - Gavin is itty bitty to be about to turn 3. He's always been small. So, when I put these pants on him tonight, I was pleasantly surprised. Gavin wore these pants just this past Fall, and now look! They're high-waters! There's proof that my child is actually growing!