Excited, Nervous

Last week was the week Chad was gone on his hunting trip to Kansas with a customer.
He left early on Saturday morning (4:45 am) to make a 14 hour drive to a town
in Kansas I have never heard of. Population total 103. The entire week he stayed in a place
called the Town Motel (judging by the name you can guess it was not similar to
a Ritz Carlton). The total for 6 nights was $185 so needless to say he was
ready to come home before the week was over. He claims they had a good time,
however I will never understand why these men want to drive 14 hours to stay in
a nasty motel and sit in the woods for 5 days and not see a deer big enough to
shoot. Sounds pretty pointless and boring to me! Fortunately for me KK (Kelly)
was able to come down and stay with James and me for a couple of days to keep
us company. James really enjoyed being around KK and I loved having someone to
talk when I got home who actually understood everything I said :) Thank you KK!

Friday Chad came home and we were so excited!! He claims he will be in town for awhile now so I hope that remains true. It was so nice to have a weekend just the 3 of us. We did not do
much of anything but stay around the house. We did go to this little festival
in Daphne and found a birdhouse we really liked so we hung it on a tree in our
back yard last Saturday. We thought we could look outside and see little birds
feeding from the house and show them to James. He loves birds! Well apparently
squirrels love bird seed! They have chewed the little hole so it is now large
enough for a squirrel to snuggle inside the house and devour all of the bird
seed. So much for watching pretty birds!

Monday I finally gave in and went to dentist because I have a tooth that has been bothering me. Do any of you know how much I hate the dentist??? My stomach was in knots Sunday night
and Monday morning prior to my appt and I was only going in for a consultation.
Well I found out I have to have a root canal and I go in tomorrow morning for
the procedure. I have never had a root canal before but I have heard it is not
a pleasant experience. I am really nervous and probably will not sleep much
tonight but at least once it is over and healed I will not have this nagging
toothache anymore!! Chad reminded me that I have given birth to a child so in comparison this is really not that bad. Ha! He did put it into perspective and it gave me some relief for
a brief second :)

Big Auburn game this weekend against Tennessee
looking forward to watching that on Saturday! War Eagle!

Vacation!

I mentioned before I would update on the last few weeks. So mid September my parents rented a condo at the Caribe in Orange Beach for a week. James and I and Anna joined them Wednesday night through the weekend and Chad joined us Thursday night. It was such a fun time! We ate well, slept alot and got in some last days of sun before it really becomes fall. James had a blast! The pool at Caribe is absolutely perfect for young kids. They have a fairly large area where the water is only 1/2 ft. We stayed at that pool most of time. And of course there is the lazy river which was very nice for a little relaxation. Thursday we ate at Cosmo's, my favorite restaraunt in Orange Beach and we were asleep by 9:30pm. Friday night we ate at a new restaraunt adjacent to Caribe called Cobalt. It was very good and the atmosphere and view are wonderful. I would highly recommend checking it out. Friday night Chad had to leave since he was heading out of town early Saturday morning to drive to Kansas. More on that trip later. Sounds like fun, right? Saturday night we cooked in and watched the exciting Auburn vs. WV game however dad and I were the only ones who actually stayed up to watch it! Who knew they delayed football games because of heavy rain?? We headed home on Sunday and very sad to leave, one because it is always sad when vacation is over and two because I knew James and I were going home to an empty house as Chad was going to be gone the entire week! Anyway, I think James missed Meme, Papop (dad's new name just established on this trip...he was Papa), and Nana (Anna...her new name...she didnt want to be called Aunt Anna because she said that sounded too old so she is stuck with Nana until James can say Anna) because he randomly just starts saying their names all together different times of the day! I think they made an impression. Here are just a few random photos from the trip!







Meme in her "new" hat!



Papop in his Mr. Cool stance trying not to look like a Papop :)

I had to take this picture only because I loved James' outfit this night. So precious!

Nana!!

Haircut

Last night as I was thinking about my post for today, I started reminiscing about the last 2+ years and wish I could go back to 7.7.07, the day I discovered I was pregnant with James, and recap all the memories we have made. I wish I could document the excitement I felt that day, the details of the 9+ months I was pregnant all the wonderful emotions and the not so wonderful emotions. The time we spent decorating and putting together his nursery. The anticipation we felt the last 4 weeks of pregnancy thinking any day I could possibly go into labor unexpectedly and then I never did :). James enjoyed his surroundings a little too much and needed a few meds to force him out. This picture was taken on my due date. Do you think I was ready??

The total bliss we experienced the day he was born and how even now it still brings a tear to my eye thinking of that day. And then comes all of the joy of watching him grow and learn something new everyday. And seeing his sweet smile every morning when we greet him in his room. I wish I could go back and document all of the memories not so much for those who are now reading this blog because most of you probably are aware of all of those memories but more for us and for James to be able to read once he is older. I do however have plenty of photographs for him to click through and tell him about. For now we will just have to start from here and he will have to settle with starting with his first haircut or should I say miniature mullet removal :) I had decided I was going to cut it myself because he really just needed the back to be to be trimmed. The rest of his hair is really not long enough to be cut. I just wasn't ready to actually take him to a salon and I thought how hard can it be, right? So I waited for a night Chad was going to be home so a.) I could have some help and moral support and b.) so he could take pictures and document the moments. We decided we needed to distract him and we figured turning on the Final Results show from American Idol, season 8 or 9 I can't remember the one where Kris Allen wins, would be best! He is mesmerized by all the performances, the music, the dancing, etc. So here we go

Before the haircut:

During the haircut:

This whole process took approximately 30-40 min. I was so nervous the entire time because I was so afraid one his sporadic dance moves would cause me to cut a huge gap of hair in the middle of his head. Chad became impatient during the haircut and at one point said "Hand me the scissors and just let me do it" I love him but I was not trusting him with the scissors and James' hair. I instructed him to just continue to take pictures and keep him distracted :) I finally finished and it is not completely perfect but I think I did a good job.

After:

Let's just say next time we will go to the salon!

Am I really doing this?

So here it goes. My first blog post. For months now I have been reading other people's blogs, some people I know, some people I have never met before. It is so addicting!! When I first joined facebook I was hooked to it and spent many hours on the computer clicking through people's pictures and then I started clicking on their blogs posted to their facebook account and reached a whole new level. I found that blogs are far more interesting. You really "get to know" other people. I also found that some blogs were very inspiring and helped me to evaluate how I am living my life as a wife and a mother. Even though Chad has officially named me a "blog stalker", I think he really has seem some changes in me over the last few months. Other blogs that I read I mainly read for curiosity. One night several weeks ago I admitted it to myself that I was a true "blog stalker". We were at a local restaurant eating dinner and I saw this girl across the room and recognized her but could not think how I knew her. After several minutes of thinking through it, it dawned on me I had read some posts from her blog earlier that day and recognized her from the pictures she had posted on her blog. So now you are probably thinking I am a crazy person but I know there are others out in the blogging world just like me and maybe worse.

Anyway, I have been considering for some time that I should start a blog of my own. It really makes perfect sense. We live several hours away from all of family and most of our friends so this would really be a good way for all them to "see" what has been going on in our lives! Our blog site is still in the works but I think it is a good start. This will be a trial period for me and I will try my best to post often. This week I hope to update on what has been going on with us the last couple of weeks.

love,
Brooke