So I just don't see it.

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, including total strangers at Wal-Mart and the library stop me to tell me how much Ethan looks at me, how I "really marked that one, didntcha? Heh-heh" (notice that was a quote). I know we favor, but really, do we really look THAT much alike? What about Sara Katherine? Did my genes completely dominate her as well? Maybe when we have another, we'll have one that will look like Daddy. :)

That's what friends are forrrrrrrrrrrrr......

Much thanks to my dear friend Sara for agreeing to be my own personal blog designer. Didn't she do a great job? I am so excited fall is here. Thanks, Sara, You're the best. Glad I could help give you something to do during the typhoon yesterday. :)

Two things.

I have to things to share this morning:

1. You know it's a slow news day when this is a headline on Internet news (and I'm for real):

"Paris Hilton's Dogs Killed in Coyote Attacks." Really? Because, you know, we CARE, and find this to be worthwhile news. Sheesh.

2. Sara Katherine woke up crying this morning, which is weird. Normally she is very happy, so I took her to the rocking chair and start rocking her to try to calm her down. On my way to the chair, I flip on the tv, only to discover when I sit down I have no idea where the remote control is. The TV happens to be on a tv evangelist channel, and because I was simply to lazy to get up and find the remote control with a crying baby in my arms, I just sat. And watched. And laughed. And shook my head. And became just a wee bit disgusted. Here's the gist of what they were preaching about today:

-One of the reasons this caught my eye, and I didn't look for the remote is because there was this HUGE fire pit in the middle of a church, and I mean there is an inferno just blazing away. Oh, this is gonna be good, I thought. Turns out, the preacher was burning up the debt of every member in his congregation. That's right folks, he was just burning it all up. The idea is this:

-You write down all the debt you have on a piece of paper: car debt, house debt, credit card debt, school loans, personal loans, etc. EVERY piece of debt you have.

-THEN, you send it to this preacher, (along with the money you would have used to pay on these debts, instead made out to his "ministry") and he puts it in the fire pit and burns it. He promises that money will just fall out of the sky and will pay off your debt if you have 'faith' and make sure you give money to the church.

-It was blashphemy to me in every way.

-I can't think of taking a more true, correct, perfect commandment of tithing, and to twist it into this is asking for lightning bolts to fall out of the sky, onto your head.

-Oh, he had some personal stories to back this up. There was a family who had two kids, and who were just drowning in their credit card debt, new car payment, new house payment, etc. They agreed to do this little shenanigan...wrote all their debt on a piece of paper, mailed it off to this good preacher with a fat check with the words "Fear not" written in the memo line, and "waited and prayed." Sure enough, a few weeks later, a family member called them, asked how much debt they were in, then proceeded to write a personal check for the amount of debt they had. Thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of debt, debt that took them YEARS to acrue, Poof! Gone in one day with one check from one person! Glory, halleluiah!

-I want to tell you that I fully support the law of tithing. I know it brings blessings, and yes, sometimes those blessings can be hard to explain. I have several personal stories I could share about the law tithing, and how my life and life of my family has been blessed because of our obediance to it. But what this preacher was doing this with it literally made my stomach turn.

-He is taking advantage of people who are so desparate to get their lives on track,and he takes their money using a commandment as a facade. It's the most terrible thing I can think of to do when trying to help someone in need using the name of God to do it, and it's a big, fat scam. Oooohhh, these people are gonna really gonna get it one day. I'm happy for that little family whose debt was wiped clean by the other family member. But for every story like this, I can assure you there are thousands more who sent their list of debt along with their checks and are just further into debt, with more late fees attached to said debt because they skipped their payments waiting for God to provide a miracle. I think God expects us to pay our debts ourselves; not wait for money to fall out of the sky or come from someone else who didn't acrue that debt to begin with. I think he expects us to be responsible for the choices we made, and expects us to be held liable for the consequences of our actions, including poor money decisions. Do I believe people should tithe? Why yes I do. But, it is important to note that the Lord only wants 10% - nothing more, and nothing less. TV evangelism has hit an all-time low in my book.

Follow me to the land of the stupid and scary....

Got some free time or your hands and need to laugh (or cry?), OR, can't sleep at 1am because you drank a GINORMOUS Diet Dr. Pepper (yes, you read that right, Diet) at 10pm? You MUST visit this blog. Especially you, Randi and Rachael. You both will especially appreciate this. Thanks, Amy, for introducing it!

Cakewrecks

Reason #271 why I love Pampered Chef

Because I got all of this stuff, for FREE. And that was in addition to my $1500 paycheck last month. Ask me how.

UA vs. Western KY

Love this one.

David took Ethan to the UA vs. Western Kentucky game on Saturday. David said about half-way through the first quarter, Ethan was like, um, is it over? David absolutely does NOT leave football games early. Period. So, Ethan was there for the whoooooooole time, with Jan-Jan for company and an Alabama shaker. David said he was really good and ended up having a great time. Roll Tide Roll. Now, the next test: Arkansas. Saturday. 11am. And this one is on tv, finally.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Megan!

(Yes, that would be homemade red velvet cake with homeade cream cheese icing - ain't nothing like it, nowhere. Eat your heart out Jesse Ann!)

Aunt Megan got a job teaching 6th grade at Rock Quarry Middle School, so she lives in Tuscaloosa now. We love having her around more. She's lived in Utah the past two years and feels like she has a lot of catching up to do! This weekend the family came to Tuscaloosa to celebrate, and I suceeded in giving most of themx the throw-up virus, again. I seem to have a knack for doing this. But, anyway. Here's a few cute pictures from the weekend. Happy 28 Meg! This is your year!~

Sunday afternoon naps...
And in our tradition of tv-free Sundays, a good ol' fashioned game of Candy Land. (Only Ethan wants "everyone" to win.)

Cutest Supermen on the Block.

I want to remember these days forever. They're going far too fast.

My Daily Dose of Pain.

So I have been messed up all week. I went to the gym on Tuesday thinking it was Wednesday. I was all excited for a Power Pump class with one of my favorite instructors. Only I get there and it is a step class, not a Power Pump class that is about to start, because, duh, it is Tuesday, NOT Wednesday. I almost decided to do step, but decided against it as the last time I did step with the instructor, I did not even break a sweat. She's a nice person; not the greatest step instructor.

I was really not in the mood for the treadmill and ellipitical that day, and the next class didn't start for another 45 minutes. Ho-hum. What to do. So, I was wasting time around the front desk, looking at the ad bulletin board, checking out what drinks they have in the coolers, looking through the new for-sale t-shirts that just came in, you know, totally procrastinating a decision, and then one of the trainers came and up said, "Jeni, are you procrasinating a work-out?" (Isn't it great that people at the gym know me by name? I'm pretty sure it's just because they all love Ethan, but whatever. It makes me feel good they know my name). So, I told him of my quandry, and with a gleam in his eye, he said, "Boy, do I have the workout for you." He led me to the back of the gym to a white board. In big letters at the top it said: "Cross Fit workout for the day". Cross-fit. What the heck is Cross Fit? Under it it had four little lines:

400 m cardio (Which for the only country not on the metric system is 1/2 mile)
50 back extensions
50 sit-ups
3 Rounds. For Speed.

I look at the trainer, a Ken-doll look alike named Chris, and said, "Ken, you call THIS a workout? Please, challenge me." He said, "Well, actually, we tell women to cut it in half." So that means I run 1/4 of a mile on the treadmill, then do 25 back extensions, then 25 sit-ups? Three times? That's all? Then call it a day? He assures me yes, and I'm already thinking that to get a decent workout in, I'm going to have to get back on that stupid treadmill after my lovely little circuit workout, which is what I'm trying to avoid to begin with. So Ken-doll gives me a stop-watch and tells me to do it, as fast as I can. And people, I will tell you here and now: I have never had such a good workout before in my entire life. Not even in my Billy Blanks Tae-Bo days. And those were some good workouts. It took me 20 minutes to do that circuit, and at the end of the circuit, I felt incredible. Different. Strong. Shaky and tired. It was wonderful. I seriously accomplished more in those 20 minutes than my usual 40-60 minutes on the elliptical and treadmill, more than in any spin class, any power pump class, any step class. I have been cheated on my workouts my entire life. Why didn't someone tell me about this sooner?? I truly feel I am going to start seeing a difference in my body now, because of this happy little workout called Cross Fit. This is what the military uses. It is uber effective, and I am uber excited. I woke up sore and loving it on Wednesday and was so excited to go the gym to see what would be on the white board. And even more excited to know that I would be leaving in 20 minutes if I wanted, better worked out than if I would have spent an hour doing something else. Of course, I don't want to be done tooooo early, as I treasure the one hour of my day that someone else is responsible for my children, so I go and do abs and stretching. My yoga instructor on Weds only works on Sundays now, and it seriously almost made me cry when I found out. She is the best yoga instructor ever and I miss her. Terribly. So I'm going to do some yoga stuff on my own with my extra FORTY minutes a day.

Anyway, so on Wednesday, I go in and Ken-doll is working again. He takes me back to the white board. Today's circuit is (for the ladies):

5 assisted chin-ups
10 situps
15 Cross-Fit squats (which are different from Power Pump squats if you'll ever believe there is more than one way to do a squat - really, there is.)
20 minutes. For speed.

Okay, I was seriously doubting, yet again, my ability to get a good workout. "Where's the cardio, Ken?" to which he replies "Jeni, you do the workout and cardio will take care of itself." So this time Ken takes me through the whole circuit. He is so pumped I am so excited about the program he has introduced. He basically personal-trained me for free, and that's another thing I love about my gym - the personal trainers are so excited to help you, even when you're not paying them $30 for a 1/2 hour session. If they're not with a client, they're still going to be helping someone. They will actually approach you and ask to help you. For free. Especially overweight mothers with cute young kids who give the trainers hugs when they come in the door whose mommies look like they could really use some help. :) I love, love, love my gym (Northridge Fitness for those of you in T-town). I did six excruciating circuits in 20 minutes, and that even impressed me. And Chris was right; the cardio took care of itself. I sat in the kids room for 20 minutes afterwards waiting for my heart rate to come down, sweating every drop of water out of my body, and waiting for my legs to stop shaking. It was hard for me to drive my stick-shift car home. For real. I am so excited, so encouraged, so glad I don't have to go do the same ol' boring thing every day now, and that I can accomplish twice as much in the half the time. I had pretty much hit a fitness plateau, and though I am good about going, I just wasn't real excited about it anymore.

It is all different now. Hello Cross-Fit. Hello motivation. Hel-lo new body. And though I haven't been able to move, well, pretty much all day, and I feel as though I have been hit by a bus, I can't wait to see what 20 minutes of pain is waiting on that white board for me tomorrow. Glory, halleluiah.

We love birthdays so much, we celebrate twice!

Since this past Sunday was Ethan's actual birthday and because we had his party the week before, I decided to make another cake (well, Aung Meg made the cake and I made homemade cream cheese icing for it!), and we opened presents. We also had a Power Rangers themed dinner. He's officially 3 now, wow! We went to the doctor yesterday for checkups for the kids. Ethan weighs 40 lbs and is 40 inches tall...99th percentile for his age (and 50th percentile for four year olds!)...Dr. Pettit said he's going to be a really big boy! Sara Katherine is 24lbs, 33 inches, and they didn't tell me what percentile she was in, and I forgot to ask. They're both on track and healthy, except for some weird rash that has broken out all over Sara Katherine's stomach and left arm. Hopefully the Cortaid will do it's job. Here's a few more birthday pictures!

Sara Katherine wearing Aunt Dena's glasses. She's such an accessory freak!
Aunt Meg and Jan-Jan got their workout sliding Ethan and Sara Katherine across the floor in a laundry basket. They thought that was the coolest thing ever!
Ethan opening his loot - some more power ranger books and a Deigo watch!

Opinions are like butts; everybody's got one.

We have my dear daddy to thank for that quote. And I'm going to step outside of the normal reporting on my family's comings and goings to post something that is likely to be hugely unpopular, but it's my blog, and I can say what I wanna say, so here it goes. I've been walking around for days trying to decide if I wanted to post this or not, and finally now, at 2am, I'm gonna just do it. I will start by saying that I have voted Republican in every election since I turned 18. I still love George Bush, despite everything bad that has happened during both his adminstrations. I love it that he's not a know it all and that he uses words improperly sometimes. It's kind of endearing to me, actually. I think he did what he could with some crappy situations, and I hope that would have made some different decisions in certain situations if he were given the gift of hindsight. But - despite publicly displaying my support of the Republican party (even though as poor law students we take advantage of many of the governments programs that are, shall we say, on the more blue side of the line)I am not excited about the idea of having a woman for vice-president, or president, or even governor, if I'm going to be totally honest. I sort of feel about women in politics like I do about women sportcasters - it just ain't right. Before you nail me to the cross, understand that I have my reasons for this some-will-say old-fashioned/sexist/jeni-i-cannot-believe-you-just-said-that way of thinking. I got to articultating this the other night on another friend's blog, and though my reasons may not make sense to anyone else, they make perfect sense to me. It's not that I don't believe that women couldn't do as good a job as men in jobs such as these, but I don't think they need to do jobs such as these, especially if they are the mother of small children as VP candidate Palin is.

Call me crazy, but I believe mothers belong at home with their kids if at possible. I realize there are exceptions to every blanket statement such as this. I realize some women must work because they are single parents, some women must work because they have received spiritual manifestations that is what they need to do to help their family progress in some way. I do not say that those women are wrong by any means. Some mothers have to work; there is simply no other choice. I accept that. But I believe the turns our society has taken could be directly linked to the absence of parents, namely mothers, in the homes of our young children. There has to be a Harvard study on this somewhere to back me up, and I know the leaders of our church would back me up on this, which, you guessed it, makes them pretty unpopular as well sometimes.

I believe without reservation that motherhood is the highest, holiest calling of mankind. It's a God-given privilege to be able to rear children full-time. I think where my main issue lies is with mothers who work to support over-exhuberent lifestyles...women who work because they feel like their kids need expensive toys and gadgets, that they have to take really grandiose vacations every summer, that they have to provide so much that it can't be done on dad's salary. I simply don't believe the rewards are worth the cost, and that is just Jeni Ennis' opinion. Others are free to have their own, and to express them nicely here if they'd like. Really, you can do so much on a single salary if you practice the principles of provident living and you live according to a budget that you stick too. Let's come back to the basics, people. You can be happy and live with a lot less than you think you can, and your children will thank you for it later because you were there -because you were up volunteering in the Kindergarten classroom and going on fieldtrips to the planetarium with them. Because you were there when they walked in the door from school in the afternoons, and because you were there to watch them get on the school bus every morning.

Now, I will say here, and most all of you know that I have recently started selling Pampered Chef. Before you call me a hypocrite, know that my Pampered Chef is my "outlet", which I believe all mothers need and deserve. I take one night a week or so and get together with grown folks and let someone else take care of my kids for a few hours. Some ladies have scrapbooking, some ladies have book clubs; I have Pampered Chef. And I decided when I started doing this, if it ever stops working for us, or begins to take over my life and the life of my family, then that's where it will end. I worked for David's uncle about 35 hours a week right after Ethan was born, and lucky for me, I got to take him to work with me in an office set up in David's uncle's house. We moved from Memphis when Ethan was about 9 months old, and had we not moved, David and I had already decided that there was no way I would have been able to continue working. Ethan had gotten to the point where he did more than just sleep, eat, and fill diapers. He was beginning to need my full-time attention, and having to choose between giving him full-time attention or having a full-time job, I was prepared to choose him. In the middle of this, David decided to go to law school, so the path was nicely forged for us. I'm afraid I'm coming off all preachy, and that's not my intent. And to all my dear family and friends reading this who may work full time with small kids, this is not a judgement on you. These are just my opinions. Everyone makes decisions on what they believe is best for their families, and no one owes anyone any explanantions about it. But, this has been on my mind for awhile now, and I had to get it out. Maybe this wasn't the best forum for it. Maybe it's something I will discover later I should have just kept to myself.

We.love.ALABAMA.football.

Fun on the quad.....
Tailgating with Daddy's ROTC cadets at the ROTC detachment...
And my little boy who just HAD to have his picture taken with this giant Big Al.

I can remember when I would go to games in college, and they would show that video montage with Bear Bryant and play our fightsong, I would honestly feel like I was having a spiritual experience as a tear escaped my eye, and that's no exaggeration. :)

Roll Tide. We're off to a great start!

Boston Reunion 2008

Settle in. This is gonna be a long one.

What a lucky girl I am, to have been able to visit one of my favorite places in the world twice in one year. Boston will forever be a special place to me. It was a time of tremendous personal growth for me. That, along with some pretty amazing fall seasons, tons of interesting cultural things to do all the time, an opportunity to connect with some family I hadn't had the opportunity to know very well before, and learning to live outside my box were just a few of the reasons why I loved and will always love Boston. It was hands-down one of the best moves of my life up to that point. There is a group of girls I was very good friends with in Boston. Friends that took me in under their sweet little wings and made me feel like Boston was truly where I belonged. We have kept in touch over the years, mainly via email and blogs, but when we were together this past week, it was as if we had never been apart. We laughed. We giggled. We reminicsed, and just generally revelled in the sweetness of being united again, this time with familes and children in tow, but that only seemed to add to the joy of the occasion. It was an amazing few days. I am so glad I was able to be a part of it, and so glad that my husband is the most wonderful, supportive husband ever to send me off with our credit card and his blessing to have a good time with my friends, even though he couldn't go because of school, and even though it was going to create a lot of extra work for him getting Ethan to and fro on top of his very busy school week. It was a fantastic week. I took Sara Katherine with me, left Ethan here in the loving arms of Grandma one day and two very good friends the other two days, and while I missed him and David immensley, Sara Katherine and I partied like rock stars and enjoyed every minute. Here is our week, in pictures.

Sara Katherine and I left Labor Day Evening from the Bham airport. My little children are really super travelers, so it was an easy trip from Bham to Baltimore, then onto Manchester, NH where we flew into (tip: if you are every flying to Boston, check rates at Manchester as well. It is almost always cheaper to fly into there, much less crowded, and the landing strip isn't right next to the water, which makes me less concerned about the drowsiness level of the pilot. :) And Manchester is less than an hour from Boston. Anyway, we didn't get into Manchester until 11:30pm, so I rented a car and drove to my cousin's house who lives in Hampton, NH, slipped in her door and slept in their spare bedroom for the night. I awoke refreshed the next morning, got us ready and headed out to pick up my dear Randi from some friends she was staying with in Wilmington. (Sidenote: Randi is a pastry chef for the Dahlia Lounge in Seattle, the most famous restaurant in Seattle. She is truly good at what she does. Okay, I am done bragging for now.) I had not seen Randi since I moved from Boston over four years ago, and I was so happy to see her. She makes me laugh until my insides ache and until I smear my makeup all over my face. Love. Her. Anyway, after I picked her up, we headed down to the Cape to meet up with our other friends, Tim and Becky, Scott and Alicia, and Kamber and Brian. It was positively awesome for us all to be together again, albeit this time was a little different with six little bodies to keep up with. We ate at a place on the beach, which was thisclose to the road. I was terrified we would lose a kid to the road, but thankfully we didn't.The gang's all here!
I mean, look how ridiculously close to the road we were!
I don't know if you can tell, but our onion rings came out in some really funny shapes. Randi's was a straight out peace sign....

...and mine was a bowtie. Awesome. Fried edible art. My favorite kind.This was riiiiiggghhhht before Sara Katherine smeared ketchup all over Randi's white skirt. She was so good-natured about it though. Between our six children that were there this week, they all, at least once, peeped, pooped, sneezed, snotted, or smeared some type of something all over Randi, and she took it all, and actually acted like she enjoyed it sometimes. :) She was such a good sport, as she doesn't have any kids of her own yet, and I don't particularly love any of those things in dealing with my children, and they're my kids. She's gonna be a fantastic mom one day.Sara Katherine, taking in the Atlantic.
I missed the black bathing suit memo. BTW, the water was freaking cold.


That night we ate at a great local seafood restaurant called Brax Landing. What a cryin' shame for me to be in Cape Cod, of all places, and not eat seafood. I had a salad, but everyone else enjoyed some really amazing looking fish and things, if you're into stuff that swims. Randi got a lobster roll that seriously must have had the meat of three lobsters stuffed onto it! We stayed that night in Hyannis, home of the Kennedy compound.

Wednesday morning, Randi had a hankering to head out to Provincetown...the very tip of the "boot" that is Massachusettes. When we got out there, Randi informed me that it is kind of a gay mecca, which became apparent by all the rainbow flags flying overhead. I think we stopped counting them somewhere in the thirties. Despite that, this was an adorably quaint New England town, which is why Randi wanted to revisit it. We shopped along the little main street, bought Cape Cod sweatshirts, ate lunch at the Mayflower Inn (which, as a little piece of trivia, the Pilgrims actually landed in Provincetown first, not Plymouth as so widely thought. They just got off in Provincetown, looked around for a bit, then got back on and got off again up the way in Plymouth. We walked out into the harbor to get a better look at a ship named the Alabama and enjoyed the views all around. We left Provincetown and the Cape, and made the trek back into Beantown. Welcome to Provincetown!
I LOVE this picture of Sara Katherine.
I took this picture of Provincetown from standing out on the pier. I'm thinking of making postcards out of this one! I never take pictures that good!
I was hoping to find the owner of this boat, but no one was there. :(
See the Rainbow flags flying overhead? Blew my little Alabama mind!Lunch at the Mayflower Inn
Sara Katherine really loved Randi. It got to the point that if Randi left the room, Sara Katherine would cry.

After checking into our very posh hotel suite Wednesday night up in Boston, we headed out to the Esplanade to catch part of a free concert the Boston Pops was giving. I love having those kinds of things as options to do. Though manuvering throught the 'T' (Boston's mass transit system) with a stroller is less than what I would call fun, it was so awesome to be able to see the Boston Pops perform on the bank of the Charles river, for free. As a bonus, the Red Sox's two World Series Trophy were on display. Randi, a huge baseball fan, was giddy with excitement to be able to have her picture taken with them. Later that night we met up with our friend Kelly up in Harvard Square in Cambridge, all of two blocks from where we all attended the Singles Ward together. We were going to try to make it out to the North End (Little Italy) to Mike's Pastries for a canolli nightcap, but we gabbed in Harvard Square until late, so we ended up heading back to our car in the parking deck of the T station and headed back to the hotel where Randi, Scott (Alicia's husband, who was one of the group of friends, which makes it even more cool that they married each other) and I played Settlers of Catan (which was a favorite pastime of ours when we all lived in Boston) until 3am. Mercifully, Sara Katherine slept until 10:30am the next morning, which meant I did too. A very blurry picture of the Prudential Center on the Charles River on our way out to the Esplande.
The one, the only, the Boston Pops.
Red Sox World Series Trophies, and these ain't replicas, baby. No, these has guards around them. No lie.

Thursday when we finally got up and got moving, we headed out to Walden Pond to swim. Somehow, in the year and a half I lived in Boston, I never, ever made it out to Walden Pond. I know, shame on me. It's such a cute, quaint little watering hole. There is a replica of Henry David Thorough's shack, then you can go swim in the pond that he used to walk around when he needed inspiration. Walden Pond
Sara Katherine giving pat-pat's to baby Ava with her sister Brielle in the background.




After we had our fill of Walden Pond, we drove through Concord and Lexington. (Concord is my new favorite New England town and I am pray, pray, praying that we get stationed at Hanscomb AFB, which is just a stone's throw from Concord). We were on our way out to a little town called Carlisle for the best ice cream I have ever eaten at Kimball Farms. And folks, I've eaten a lot of ice cream.


It was so worth the drive, and it was such a pretty little drive on a beautiful afternoon, which made it all the more pleasant. I thought it was interesting that on our way out there, we passed Ralph Waldo Emerson's house and Louisa May Alcott's house that are within 1/2 mile of each other, and of course we just left Thorough's little shack. This is impressive only if you're into reading or transcendentalism or both. If not, they are still really pretty old New England houses to look at. I only have a picture of Alcott's house here (btw, for the non-literate, Louisa May Alcott wrote one of my favorite books of all time, Little Women, and Emerson and Thorough we all know are really, really famous poets, right?)

After our jaunt through the country, and a ridiculous amount of really great ice cream, we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up to head back into Cambridge to grill out with some of our Boston friends that still lived in Boston. Intitally, I had planned to leave Boston and head back to my cousin's house in NH to spend the night and go to bed in plenty of time to be well-rested for our 6am flight, but Randi, the dear that she is, paid to have my flight switched so I could stay for the cookout, and leave the next evening. It was very last minute that I stayed, and I know I missed out on seeing some people who I would have really loved to have seen (Lija, if you're reading this, I love you, and I will be sure to catch you on the next trip). We had a great time at Doug and Melissa's house chatting and catching up, but sadly I didn't get one picture as I was spending most of my time making sure Sara Katherine didn't go head-first down the flight of wooden steps that led off the deck we were on. We went back to the Marriott where we were staying that night and all the girls got together and were eating chocolate in our room on the beds and the fire alarm goes off at 1am and EVERYONE had to leave the hotel. It was HILARIOUS. Turns out, someone was smoking in one of the ballrooms, and it set the fire alarm off, which sent the fire trucks out. That was definitely a first for me. Outside a hotel in my jammies at 1am. And I suppose it was only funny because I wasn't already asleep. Some people half-dressed and in bathrobes didn't look quite so amused.

Friday morning we got up and packed up, then I said my goodbyes to Kamber and Brian (they are the ones that just moved back from London where Brian was practicing law. They live in Idaho now. Brian is about to start his own company and Kamber stays at home with their two kids, Samantha and Spencer. He was one of the original Boston crew, as well, as were Becky and Tim. So six of the original crew married each other. Makes reunions so much easier!) We then headed over to Tim and Becky's (Tim works for the the Harvard Business School and Becky stays at home with their little girl, Caroline, and she is due with their second girl in about five weeks..hang in there Becky!) We said our tearful goodbyes there, then I headed up to eat lunch with my cousin Sue in NH before heading to the airport. Randi, Kamber, and Me (and the Heidi Simpson arm trick just ain't working for me anymore. Sigh.
This is Scott, Alicia's husband with their little girl Brielle and Sara Katherine. They are playing hand puppets.
Sara Katherine and Brielle
Sweet Becky, who is due in about five weeks.
One last of Sara Katherine and Brielle. I hate I don't have more pictures of Samantha!

After eight hours of flying and/or waiting in airports, I arrived home to David and Ethan. Sara Katherine was absolutely flipping out when she saw Ethan coming at her. She was trying to tear herself out of her stroller. We were are so happy to be home. It was a happy week. Let's hear it for playlands in airports!
Bubba and Sissy - reunited and it feels so good!

Ethan is 3!

It is just almost too much for me that Ethan is almost 3. He will be 3 tomorrow, actually, but as not to interfere with the first Alabama home game of the season, we had his birthday party at Chuck E Cheese last weekend. (Kidding, kidding...it just made more sense to do it on a 3 day weekend to accomodate out-of-town family....) He had just a very few close friendlets and some family that came. I hate Chuck E Cheese. Truly, I hate that place. I hope I never have another child that wants to party there. Ethan and said friendlets, however, had an absolute blast, so the three hours of constant mayhem and chaos were well worth it. I love that little boy more every day and would have ten parties at Chuck E Cheese if he wanted them. I'm pretty sure I'll be doing Barbie/Cinderella/everyotherDisneyprincess imaginable parties with Sara Katherine, so maybe I'm done with Chuck E Cheese for awhile. Oh, the things we do for our children. I thought the cake turned out pretty good, considering I was decorating that bad boy at 2am! (PS, I did end up getting this cake pan off ebay for $5.50, thankyouverymuch!)
This is Ethan's favorite Chuck E Cheese game. Well, this one and the ones where he gets to shoot things with guns.
The Martin Clan.
Cheyenne and Olivia, and I'm pretty sure it was past Olivia's nap time here. :)Doug and Nixon
Kelly and Big Baby Will
My stepmom Marshall, my stepsister Gena, and her baby, Gracie.
Cousin Addisyn
The only shot I got of Grant, in the orange, and it's from behind, darn it.
More pictures to come when I get them off Aunt Meg's camera.

Seriously.

Waddaarewegonnadowithher? Pris-sy.