Need a Laugh?

This video and the next are all about a kleenex box cover that our good friend Melanie brought us back as a gift from her 2 years in Thailand as a missionary. :) As you can see, Ben found a new use for it!

This is how he usually says little and big... it just kills me!

He did this without us teaching him (the different mommy, daddy & baby sounds).

Bumpersticker of the Day

IF I LIVED IN MY CAR
I WOULD BE HOME BY NOW

Choo Choo!

We were given free tickets to the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad. The day was a bit rainy, but we had a great time anyway. Ben loved the 4 hour choo-choo ride!

Bumpersticker of the Day

TALK NERDY TO ME

I guess it has been a while...

Yes, I realize it has been a LONG time since the last real post. Well, despite the fact that our blog has been empty, our life has not. Sorry to do it bullet point fashion but here are a few of the major events, in no particular order.

• VISITORS - My parents and brother Buzz came to visit!!! - They were planning to drive but hit a deer not far from home. Thankfully everyone was fine, and thanks to some good friends they ended up being able to fly. We loved having them here! My dad stayed for a week, my mom stayed for two, and Buzz stayed for a month!
  
• FAIRS, FAIRS & MORE FAIRS! - I had a booth for my Usborne Books at the NC Mountain State Fair... a grueling 10 days, but well worth it! I also had a booth at the Haywood County Fair, a Book Fair at the local hospital (during the State Fair - yes, we are crazy) and between Oct & Dec I have/had 9 preschool book fairs, another hospital one and about 8 home shows... crazy to say the least.
• BABY!!!! - this is the MAIN reason I have not posted so long. Life for the past few months has been reduced to doing ONLY THAT WHICH IS TOTALLY NECESSARY FOR SURVIVAL. Shortly before my parents arrived we found out that Baby Z #2 is on his/her way! We are very excited... but I have been quite sick... which makes for a really fun time at all the events listed in point #2. :) I am finally feeling better... although still not close to normal... whatever that is. Baby 2 is set to arrive some time in late April... and we get to find out if "it" is a He or She on December 10th!
• CANCER - my brother Micah was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma a little over a month ago. Praise the Lord that it is only stage 1, and he has responded well to the first two Chemo treatments. He has 6 more over the next 3 months followed by radiation. For more info you can follow check his blog HERE.
• GRAD SCHOOL - We are in the final weeks for Andrew's grad program!!! December 5th will be his last day - he will then be a graduate of Wake Forest's MBA program!!! We have 76 Saturdays down and only THREE MORE to go! WAHOO!!! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to have my husband back. He has been working from 7-5 every day and then studies from 5:30 or so until Starbucks closes... and then he drives to Charlotte for class on Saturdays. Needless to say our Sundays have been precious the past two years. You may ask... "so what is next for you guys?" And your guess is as good as mine! Maybe Asheville, maybe somewhere far away, maybe law school... only the Lord knows!
  
• BENJAMIN - and I can't forget the little person that has turned our life upside down. He is such a joy, we can't imagine life without him. He is almost 22 months old (where does the time go?) He loves Bob & Larry and Nemo, he requests oatmeal for breakfast, lunch and dinner and for oranges, kiwis, pears and bananas in between. He is running, jumping and loves to shut doors. At last count he has 60-70 works in his vocab and loves to finish all my sentences when reading (Go Dog Go, Snowmen at Night, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, A Mouse told his Mother, The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Dr. Suess's ABC's are among the favorites). He is active, but snugly and LOVES giving me kisses... so funny. I will upload some pictures and videos soon!

So there is our little life. I am going to try and be better about blogging, but with three home shows and six book fairs and a graduation party to plan before we go to Utah for TWO WHOLE WEEKS over Christmas... I make no guarantees. :)

Bumpersticker of the Day

JESUS SAVES
BUDDHA RECYCLES

Teachin' 'em Young

Chalk Boy

It is so worth the mess to have him happy and playing! :)

We Love Nemo :)

Hair, Hair!

Ben is obsessed with hair. Mainly mine. From the time he was tiny, he would have to hold my hair to fall asleep... it was his security blanket.

Well, it still is. This morning, just after Ben got up, I threw my hair up in a knot so that it was out of my way... immediately Ben started crying. When I finally got him to calm down and "use his words" he looks and me with these big puppy dog eyes and said "hair down? hair down?" As soon as I took the band out he was as happy as a clam.

Silly Boy. :)

Videos

I have created a monster. We watched a video or two on the camera and now he just wants to watch them, he won't let me take them! AHH! Here are the few that I did manage to get.


Yummy!!!

Well, he knows hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, teeth, lips, chin, cheeks, neck, elbow, armpit, belly button, knees, toes, feet, leg & arm... but this is as many as I could get on video. :-P



Well, here are some of his skills with a ball... but he wouldn't talk... AHH! If only he would perform on command!!!
COMING SOON (If I can get it on video): Jumping, and the sound a snake and a rabbit make. :)

Joining the Dark Side

I have now completely switched to Gmail & Firefox... and I am LOVING IT!

Can I just say that Firefox and Gmail are both amazing. Andrew has done great things with Firefox... there are so many add-ons and cool little things. So many bells and whistles. Part of it is probably that I didn't take the time to customize my yahoo or internet explorer... but I don't think it could do everything FF & Gmail do.

A few of my favorite things:

Facebook tool bar
Email signature with links
Window recovery from previous session
Email filters with colors and everything
Archive options
Google Calendar

and so much more!

So, if you haven't made the switch... you should!

Time Just Keeps on Passing

Our best friends in Asheville, Josh & Missy just moved away. :( We will miss them greatly, but know they are exactly where God has them! Josh was accepted into a Ph.D. program at East Carolina University and God brought a buyer for their house this week! Here are a few shots of Ben and their daughter Alina. They are 11 months apart to the day. They are sitting on Josh & Missy's U-haul :)

Not sure what I think of her.

This could be fun... but my ear itches.
So sweet!
This past week we house/dog/pap paw sat while our friends the Goodrums were gone for a week! We had great fun living in someone else's house, eating their food and just hanging out. Readi-Whip is one of Ben's new favorite foods. :) Video coming soon. :)
Yummy!
Ben and Pap Paw have always enjoyed each other's company, but spending a whole week together just sealed the deal. They would play in the mornings while I took a shower (pap paw would feed him raisins) and Ben would cry when we left him at his day program. The last day we were there the two of them sat and talked on the front porch for AN HOUR while Andrew and I cleaned and just enjoyed an hour by ourselves. Here is the picture...I had to sneak the picture so Ben didn't see me... but here is Pap paw, Ben & Dixie... Ben is now a HUGE lover of dogs. It is so very sweet.

Death

Our washing machine has officially died. :( We had a great family-friend-handy-man come and look at it but after trying a few different things he officially pronounced him dead last Friday at 3:40pm.

So, having no money to spend on a new washer, we have officially become Craig's List hawks. Until then we will be inviting ourselves over to our friends and families houses' to do our laundry. If you live close... beware!!