My Last 10 Days

There they are those infamous 2 numbers when combined together make every late twenty year old cringe. I have been dreading this birthday for several years now hoping it would take awhile for this birthday to come and now it is only 10 short days away...I only have 10 days left in my twenties!! In the last couple of months I have really been thinking about turning 30 more often I guess because it is so close. When you are 30 people think you really are an adult, people think you are really mature and people think you really should no longer be dependent on your parents. Your youth is gone and you will never see it again :). And I have been struggling with these thoughts. I have thought I should make a list of things I want to accomplish before I turn 30 maybe even things I could do in my last 10 days. But then I started thinking what I am talking about...I am not dying...my life is not officially over when I am 30. The reality is I have been an adult for quite some time (probably becoming a parent made it really official) and I haven't been dependent on my parents since the day Chad and I married. I have been completely blessed with my life thus far. I was raised by wonderful supporting parents (both sets :)), I graduated from college with a very small amount of a student loan, I have had great jobs, I was able to really enjoy my twenties and still act irresponsible at times and now I have married the only person that truly "gets" me and loves me for who I am (even with all my flaws) and I have been even more blessed to be given the gift of a healthy happy child who could not be more perfect. So I have already accomplished the things that are most important to me. And even though I am turning 30 my life will continue and I will continue to enjoy it! I still feel young at heart and that is all that matters. The age you are stamped with doesn't really mean all that much. I am turning 30 in 10 days and I am going to embrace it with a smile!

P.S. For those of you that know me, my birthday is always a BIG deal and usually lasts more than 1 day. Therefore, the purpose of this post is NOT to down play my birthday and act like this year it is not a big deal...hint hint

P.S.S. Some of you are probably wondering how I already I have a picture of a cake for me. This past weekend my wonderful in-laws had a small celebration for me while we were in town. The cake was a strawberry cake from Edgar's Bakery in bham. My absolute favorite!! I told you the celebration always lasts longer than 1 day :)

18 Month Photos

This past weekend while we were in Birmingham we had James' 18 mo photo session. The photos are now on the website!! I am so thrilled with how they turned out. This was our 1st on location session and I think it is my favorite. Here is the link and go to client proofing and the password is bstracener57

www.amandatraywick.com

More on this past weekend soon!

Major Milestone

James is no longer begging for the American Idol Final Results show!! We are working on the 3rd week. For those of you who do not know I will give you a little background...James loves music, dancing and performances so we had recorded the American Idol Final results show back in May because it had so many great performances and great music. Well we made the mistake of letting him watch it one time and he loved it!! His 1st favorite performance was "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas so he referred to show as Boom Boom. So every afternoon when we would get home he would go to the tv and point to it and say "Boom Boom Pease (please)". We watched the show every night for 4 months. He would never watch the show in its entirety thank goodness. One day a few weeks ago we came home and he didn't ask for it so I didn't turn it on and now we are working on the 3rd week!! Yay!! I will say even though I am glad he has moved on, we did get some really good laughs out of it. He now thinks every time a song ends on the radio, on the tv, from one his toys that he should clap and say "yay!!" because that is what you do after a good performance you know :) He also knew exactly when Allison would do a punch kick during the "So What' by Pink performance and he would also do his version of the kick at the same time. I thought since this show became a part of our daily routine for so long it was blog worthy to announce this major milestone.

I also feel the need to write about my morning today. It was terrible! As I am backing out of the garage James distracted me and I ran right into the side of our house!!! Yes I hit the corner because I turned too quickly. Awesome! It left a huge scrape and dented the side panel behind the rear door. Luckily there was no damage to house because that would have been way worse. I am just not having good luck with my current car. This will be the 3rd time it will be in the body shop and I have only had it for a year and half. The first 2 times were not my fault so we didn't have to pay anything but still. It is the trouble you have to go through. Oh well nothing I can do about it now but laugh. Fortunately James didn't repeat the word I said when I realize I had hit the house :)

I do not have any pictures that relate to this post so I will post this one of James and Baxter because it makes me smile!

HOT!

Am I going to be wearing summer clothes during the holidays??? Could it please go below 90 anytime soon!! The heat and humidity are killing me, it is October right?? I guess James can go as a lifeguard for Halloween so all he would have to wear is a bathing suit maybe too hot for anything else...which by the way I am way behind on the Halloween stuff this year...no pumpkins, no decorations, and no Halloween costume...YET! It is on the to do list this weekend hopefully it will get checked off :)

Happy Friday everyone and War Eagle!!

Lately

Just in case any of you were wondering, I obviously survived the root canal procedure. But let me just tell you that procedure is a perfect example of why I absolutely hate the dentist!! I will go back and have a regular cleaning soon and if they see that I need another one they are going to have to heavily sedate me before doing that again!!

To change that subject...lately, I have noticed a slight change in James. He is starting to look at Chad in a completely different way, a good way of course. It is hard to describe but he just lights up when he walks in the room and he wants to be like him so bad he can't stand it. He mimics almost his every move and follows him around the house. A friend recently mentioned she is reading a book about raising boys and that it states that boys really depend on their father figures and that is important that their father have a presence in their life and be a good role model for the son. Thankfully James has a wonderful father who loves him more than anything else! They are so fun to watch together and it brings a smile to face every time they are playing!
Example 1: James having to wear Chad's sunglasses

Example 2: Must sit on the bench just like daddy (not in his lap like mom wanted me too)
....Auburn game day at our house...can you tell??

Example 3: Must dance just like daddy :) Unfortunately for James, neither Chad or I have any rhythm so needless to say Chad is not the best role model for dancing skills but he seems to be working it in this picture

On a side note...I mentioned in an earlier post the new bird house we purchased...well here is a picture of the enlarged hole (if you look closely you can see the squirrel inside the house) and then below a picture of our new squirrel friend :)

Now that is Some Hair

This past weekend Anna was asked by our hair stylist, Tommy, to be a participant in the Hair Wars event in Birmingham. This what I understand about the event... Tommy would style her hair and someone would do her make-up but she had to provide the outfit. So yes the cute dress is hers (and I might add I also purchased this dress...we do that often buy the same things :) helps me to still feel young and hip...haha). Tommy found some accessories and shoes for the outfit and then at the event Anna just had to walk down a 40 ft runway in front of everyone at the event as a model. I would have been terrified!! I am not sure of the actual purpose of the event but anywho she had a great time and based on the pictures below I think she looks like a professional!! And yes that is nothing but her hair no extensions...she has a lot of hair. We could not make the event so the pictures were provided by Papop.

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!