Two Visitors

We've got two little visitors this week. Lucy Pants (not sure why I call her that...Whitney, do you call her that?) (Is two parenthetical thoughts in a row too much ? :) Just wanted any new visitors to know that Lucy is my best-friend-since-2nd-grade's baby girl who I play with from time to time):



And Mrs. Ohs:


Mrs. Ohs is Jeremiah's "Mountain Mama." When he went to live in Montana for the year between college and medical school, he lived with Mrs. Ohs on her ranch.

They (as in he, Tommy, and Josh) say that they trained/broke some of her horses in exchange for room and board (oh and three meals a day, right Mrs. Ohs :)). I think it started out that way and ended with them all adopting each other. She made Jeremiah's groom's cake at our wedding...which is quite a funny story that you'll have to remind me to tell you sometime. Let's just say that if you were at our wedding, I bet you didn't notice a groom's cake anywhere, but you did probably enjoy a delicious piece.

We got a lot accomplished in the basement this weekend (thanks to some help from my Dad, my sisters and their husbands), and we "close" on Thursday.

I've taken this week off from packing, for the most part, and chosen to enjoy our two visitors instead. Today, we took on the zoo.


And I do mean we "took it on." As I'm sure any mother with three small children would heartily agree.



We managed to lose Pace once.


And Mary Aplin once.



And there was THIS moment (notice the tiny little screen, marshy green water, and distracted Mrs. Ohs):


When I thought Mary Aplin might get eaten by this guy:


Fortunately Lucy was strapped in and unable to be misplaced.


And Whitney, just so you know, I've started just saying thank you when people tell me what a cute baby I have...or how cute her outfit is.


I even went so far today, as to make up a lie when some lady asked me who made my baby girl's precious dress. I hope it was her grandmother. It's just too complicated to try and make explanations when you're keeping up with these three:


We did have a whole LOT of fun.





And you can add the Zoo onto the list of places that will make me cry when we leave Birmingham:

Goodbye zebras:


Goodbye baby giraffe--who is not a baby anymore:



Goodbye anteater-that-always-reminds-me-that-God-has-a-sense-of-humor:


Goodbye Bengal Tiger:


I am sure you will miss Mary Aplin's challenges to your manhood (She's pretty sure she could take you, if need be. Don't let the blonde pig-tails fool you.):





And guess what Weeping Willow didn't even get a damp eye the whole day :) Maybe it was just an emotional week last week...maybe not.

Weeping Willow

It doesn't take much these days. A sad country song on the radio pushed me over the edge taking Pace TO school and then again FROM school today. It seems like tears are just waiting to brim over lately. Don't worry; it's a healthy sadness. It's just that moving from here:

To here:

Is a loooooong way:

And I'm sad about it.

I cried when I went to my yearly OB/GYN appointment and the sweet nurse who has talked me through two pregnancies hugged me goodbye. I cried when I bought some heavy cream and noticed that, by the time it expired, I wouldn't live in our home anymore. I cried when Noah left these flowers for Pace on our back door-step.
I cried as I walked home from book club in the darkness and knew it was the next-to-the-last time. I cried at the realization that the girls don't understand the magnitude of what's happening.
Fact is, I'm just not the leaving kind. We've talked about my love for the familiar before. I don't even like to move my furniture around, much less leave my whole house. Jeremiah is about to burst at the seams. He's ready to move on...to move out. I just want to hem myself up and not go anywhere. I love our little life.

I guess if you refuse to move, you get run over. So, this weekend our goal is to pack up and move out the basement.

Aghhhhh!

Consider Me Celebrated

I'm sorry I've been gone so long, but I think that the 10,000 pictures in this post will get you caught up (if you make it through them all :)). I feel like people have been loving me way too much lately. After uploading these pictures from the past week and seeing everything all together, I'm feeling pretty spoiled rotten.

Let's start back at Mother's Day.

When Ashley dropped off these little dreams (Can you see the one I couldn't even leave alone long enough to snap a picture?):

And these:

And then took our children so that Jeremiah and I could go here:
The Alabama Theatre to hear NORAH JONES!!!! There was a girl who sang at dinner every night of our honeymoon who sounded almost exactly like Norah. It was such a fun surprise and a romantic night.

My birthday always falls right around Mother's Day, and I received a BIG gift from Mrs. Linda just a couple of days later: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It let me take some pictures like this:
and this:

Then, just before I headed out of town, sweet Lauren invited the girls and me over to have lunch in her backyard to celebrate my upcoming birthday
This picture of their backyard makes me want to cry. So many, many memories.

Then, Jeremiah flew off to Las Vegas for a spine conference, and I loaded up the girls and headed to Auburn for Caroline's graduation:
The ceremony was at 10 on Friday morning, so we spent the night on Thursday night in Kendall's college apartment...without Kendall there:
There was something very funny to me about tucking the girls in bed for the night on a futon :)...in a college room...with twinkling lights. I felt like I was in some twilight zone. I couldn't decide if I was back at college--with kids. Or if I was getting a glimpse of 18 years down the line.
(Thank you Sarah for letting us take over your room! I'm not sure if you even knew we did :))

Then the next morning, we watched Caroline Clark Blair officially graduate as an Industrial Engineer!
And the girls were surprisingly well behaved...
...despite this mischievous look that would make you think otherwise.

And when you're an Auburn Tiger, did you know you can even tailgate for graduation?!
We got a few curious looks, but I'm convinced they were just jealous that we weren't having to wait in any long lines.

My Dad's mom, Mimi:

My Mom's mom, Grandma
And my Mom's Dad, Grandpa:

Were all there, and made the day extra special.

We managed to celebrate my birthday as well:
And this was the first birthday I've had that I did not like the numbers glaring at me from the top of my cake:

It looks like I was trying to suck them right off, instead of blow them out :)

And you'd think that would be quite enough for any one birthday girl, wouldn't you. But no. After graduation, I dropped the little chicken wings off with Popon and Moogie and headed down to the beach for the remainder of the weekend with

Kendall (my baby sister)

Alex (Jeremiah's baby sister)

Berkley (ohhh Berk, what intro can I give? :))

and Ashley (Jeremiah's other sister)

And despite the fact that my birthday cake didn't survive the car ride down:

I'm pretty sure I was THE HAPPIEST birthday girl around.