Err...Surprise?

So I said goodbye to 33 last Friday.  I know it would be too much to say that I feel a little bit like Jesus did during his thirty-third year. Yet, I do feel that I was finally able to begin letting go of the old me (full of hurt and disappointment) and, with faith, resurrect the new me that clings to hope and love.   

Before we get into the birthday recap, we've got some catching up to do.  JOHN THOMAS IS OFFICIALLY POTTY TRAINED!  He loves wearing his new superhero undies and he is doing such a great job, which has proven to be a gift to us all!

The annual Bradley houseboat blowout was just a couple weeks ago.  I think it was just supposed to be my parents and the the Bradley's, but I invited us along and I have discovered that it is getting increasingly hard to say no to my very cute lil boy.  As usual, we all had a blast!  Thanks Nana Gay and Tony!

We also had to help my dad celebrate birthday number 64!  We spent the day helping my parents move into their new house in Kodak and then they treated us to dinner!  There are so many things I love about my dad; his humor, his work ethic, his hugs. But one thing I am noticing more and more is that no matter how old I get, what mistakes I've made, he still looks at me with pride in his eyes and love in his heart.  His love is a difference-maker.  Thanks dad, happy birthday, and I love you!

 Dad's birthday wish was that we come help haul off decades worth of accumulated furniture.  Jeff and I loaded a trailer and truck to the gills and have spent hours trying to unload, throw away and donate all of it.  One strained back and lots of ibuprofen later, it is done.

The best boyfriend of the year award has to go to Jeff!  He was scheduled to work, but decided to play hooky and throw me a surprise birthday party.  I have proven to be incredibly hard to surprise, so he ended up having to spill the beans early just to get me to play along.  I love that my birthday fell on a Friday, so I got to extend the celebration all weekend :).

 Thursday night, we headed out with Tia and Wes to hear a band.  Maybe I'm going to be more bold in my 34th year because I danced, I sang, and the whole joint serenaded me with a happy birthday song.  Thanks friends for helping me ring in the big 3-0 for the fourth time!

 All day long on Friday, I felt special.  Jeff did all the entertaining, my besties came up with their kiddos to play, my parents made it to the party and fun was had by all!  I think I set a personal record for birthday cards, texts and phone calls received from friends and family too!   Thanks everyone for making me feel so loved. You all are the true gift to me on my birthday and always. Speaking of gifts, I hit the jackpot!  Jewelry, clothes, money...  Best. Birthday. Ever.

There are lots of famous people who have the same birthday as me, namely Sandra Bullock (notice the resemblance?) and Mick Jagger (yes, I had moves like Jagger on Thursday night).  But I love that I share my birthday with sweet Charlotte more than all the rest!  She is probably going to make that list of celebrity birthdays one day as a famous singer or actress!  Happy birthday Charlotte, we love you!

 Cutest pic of the day!  These three kiddos have no choice but to love each other, just like their momma's do!

 Here is the recap of the candle blowout.  Big inhale...

and exhale!  

If you ever get a card from John Thomas, know that he picks them out himself and he is selective.  Jeff said that John Thomas had tossed nearly ten cards on the floor as rejects before he found the perfect card for his mommy.  He was so eager to see me open it.  Such a precious little boy, he makes my heart melt!

Pure joy

This is how I will remember my summer: Full of fun, new love, time with my sweet boy, skiing, beautiful sunsets, and new memories.  It's as if the I have turned the first few pages in the next chapter of my life and the story is so good, I can't put the book down.

Life's a Beach

You know how they say, "time flies when you're having fun"?  This summer has been living proof of that!  I cannot believe that a month from today I will be back in my classroom!

Besides going to the beach, which I will recap in a sec, we have gotten to celebrate a birthday, a holiday, and a wedding in the last three weeks!  I'm gonna pretend that we earned our vacation :).  Congratulations Rachel and Justin Link!  Jeff and I had a blast helping you celebrate your beautiful day as you start the most amazing adventure of your life!

John Thomas' dear buddy, Dare (on the right) turned the big three just a few weeks ago.  We helped extend his celebration with a Mexican feast, sparklers and fireworks!  The Smith boys and the Smith household are always a blast (so to speak)!  

 Brody and Dare are all boy and John Thomas LOVES spending time with them!

Thanks Smith family for always being the bomb (hahaha, I'm cracking myself up)! And happy birthday Dare!  We love you!

 We've been looking forward to Edisto for months!  This picture above says it all...we LOVED it!  The weather and the company were hard to beat!

I am thankful that Jeff, Wes and Tia were able to join John Thomas and I this year for our family vacation.  You should have seen all the pictures leading up to this one.  We were all hungry and John Thomas kept trying to sneak off in the sea grass to go to the bathroom.  Nonetheless, John Thomas loved hanging with the boys, digging holes, crab hunting, and goof-balling around.

I'm pretty sure he had his first crush on Mrs. Tia!  Affection well placed, because they were both so sweet with him.  Thanks guys for sharing the week with us!

And these two boys couldn't have had more fun!

 Find crabs, name them (Penny), and let them go...  Repeat.

Here is Jeff playing like a kid.  His back may or may not have been hurting on the way home :).

Check out these thumbs up!  Like I said, his back may or may not have been hurting on the way home.

 In an effort to spare you all bathing suit pics, I have craftily chosen pics where I am conspicuously covered.  You're welcome :).

 We spent several hours every day at the pool and at the beach.  I love how John Thomas brings out the kid in all of us!  We ate great food, laughed a lot, rested, played cards, and most importantly had the best time just being together!

In all of it's splendor, the beach always makes me feel small.  I love this.  God created a majestic playground for all of us to enjoy and all we have to remember to do is look up and say "thank you" and "I love you too."

Motley Crews

Summer definitely started out on a bittersweet note.  While all us teachers were totally pumped about the prospect of a few months of R&R, we had to say goodbye to two fixtures of education at PHS.  Mike and Anne are amazing teachers, supportive colleagues, and cherished friends whose faces I will sorely miss come next August.  Love you guys!

I feel like we've already packed a full summer into the first three weeks: two birthdays, a road trip, and lots and lots of lake time!

I got to help my beau celebrate his big 3-7 with all of his friends and some of his family!  He is such a kid when it comes to presents!  Shake, rattle, probe, listen, smell, shake again and take an informed guess.  It was also an awesome excuse to try out Scrumps Cupcakes!  De-Lish!  Happy birthday to you baby doll!  Thank you for your love, friendship and thirst for life--you have been the real gift to the both of us!  Mwah!

John Thomas, Jeff and I have been spending lots of time at the lake skiing, tubing, swimming...and my little boy loves every second of it!

Last weekend we pried ourselves away from the lake to head to Cincinnati to see most of my college besties.  Us girls are never short of a reason to celebrate and this trip was no exception.  Happy early birthday Marie!  You are a true friend, beautiful woman and I am thankful that we have been friends through all sorts of ups and downs.  You are the best and you deserve the best!

Game day started off just right!  A jog through town with my honey, pool time with my girls, hanging out downtown before the game, sharing lots of good times with some of my favorite people in the whole world...priceless!

Jeff and I discovered that stadium food has really improved over the past decade!  Not a framer, but pure silliness and it makes me smile :).

Oh! I forgot to mention the "heated" Reds/St. Louis rivalry amongst friends.  Between these two I'm not sure who I'd put my money on!  I know we all wore our winning smiles after such an awesome weekend!  Love you girls!

Back at the home front, I have one real goal for the summer--to potty train John Thomas.  He goes when he wants to but is about as interested in potty training as most kids are in eating brussel sprouts.  I've tried the naked thing, M&Ms, encouragement, constantly asking him, underwear...If you have any suggestions, I am all ears!

He has been learning how to appreciate the finer things in life, like tipping up the last crumbs from a bag of Doritos and falling asleep on the back of a boat after a long day of funning in the sun!

The other day, he decided he wanted to tube!  "Faster!" "This is great!" and "Let's go over the waves!" He's turning into quite an adventuresome boy!

Who knew having so much fun could be this exhausting?!

We hope that you are all having a wonderful summer too!

Serendipity

Happy happy Mother's Day to all the beautiful women and mothers I have been blessed to have in my life!  I hope that your day was as splendid as mine!  Started the day off with some snuggle time from my very favorite lil boy and it only got better from there!

 John Thomas (with some help from Jeff) sent me these gorgeous flowers!  I haven't stopped smiling since they showed up!  They have great taste and will look even better planted in one of my flower beds!

Yesterday John Thomas wanted to go on an "adventure".  Due to the weather, we stayed close to home.  Regardless, we were not disappointed with the array of spiders, worms, flowers, and views!  I loved the trail name.  I kinda feel like it's my new favorite word/idea.  Courtesy of dictionary.com serendipity: finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.  Yes please.  I can't help but think it might be one of God's specialties.  

 Mother's Day celebration really started on Friday at John Thomas' school with Muffins with Mommy.  I wish I could surprise my boy everyday during snack time!  Oh wait, in two weeks we'll be have all our snack times together!  Woot woot!

I would be amiss if I didn't use this forum and opportunity to thank my amazing mom.  I can say with certainty that I took my mom for granted until I was an adult.  I truly never appreciated the work that it took to run the house, raise the kids and do it with grace and style.  She made sure we had a nutritious family meal almost every night, always had EVERYTHING we could ever dream of needing when we went anywhere ("Mom, do you have the kitchen sink in your purse?"), picked us back up whenever we fell down.  It's moms like mine that make me wonder why we haven't elected a female to run this country, because she could get just about anything done that needed fixin.  She is the pillar of support, strength and selflessness.  Over the years, she has transitioned into confidant and dear dear friend.  I love her for all the the she is and I get more joy than she'll ever know from watching her relish in John Thomas.  My cup runneth over.  I love you Mom.

Eucharisteo!

A couple years ago, I read a book called One Thousand Gifts.  The book starts with a very tragic story, and follows the once lukewarm faith-walk of Ann Voskamp.  As the book unfolds, I began to realize that the struggles that seem so tailored to my life, might in fact be universal.  The best part of the story is when I realized that maybe, like Ann, I struggle with looking at what's missing instead of appreciating what is here.  She gives a word to the thankfulness of living in the moment: Eucharisteo.  Notice the gifts all around you.

This weekend was a not-so-subtle reminder of the most precious gift I've ever been blessed to get.  The birth of my son, John Thomas.  Three years ago today, I was on my way to the hospital and I had no idea all of the love, joy, laughter and adventures that were coming my way.  I also had no idea that it would take three years to potty train, that timeout doesn't work as well as the naughty chair, and that nap time was an essential art form of which I had to learn.

I love this gooey sweet honey and have from the first instant I knew he was coming.  Funny aside:  I think this is the way I have cried at all three of his birthdays.  

John Thomas has been full of personality from the get-go.  I mean...he's probably 10 months old in this pic and he already knows how to live the good life.

 Will you look at these two babes?!  Funny caption possibilities:
1. Shhh, let's try to go play in the water while their distracted.
2. You gonna eat that?

I know that Charlotte and John Thomas will have many more sweet and silly pictures to come!

 John Thomas is an excellent sharer...unless it messes up his coordinated fireman costume :).

I wasn't sure how Chester would take his demotion to normal family dog status after John Thomas arrived.  I would say that Chester has learned the benefits of a toddler, particularly around meal time!

John Thomas at a year and a half.

Here he is again at two and a half.  How long do you think he's gonna let me get his picture while he's waist deep in a pile of leaves?

When it comes to hanging with his girl     friends, (spaces intended) John Thomas also loves to hang out with Kinsley!

His list of buddies would also have to include Brody and Dare.  They have done their part to teach him the ways of boyhood including (but not limited to) digging, exploring, and general toddler silliness. 

Gramma's boy.  

 In case you've ever wondered who his favorite people are, let me clear it up.  He absolutely adores ALL of his grandparents.  He talks about them often and cannot get enough of that special lovins that only grandparents can give.

 John Thomas truly is a special little boy.  He is smart, sweet, silly, curious, energetic, polite, and has the big job of carrying my heart around.  There is a proverb that whoever takes the child by the hand takes the mother by the heart.  So true.

 I know all parents think their kid is amazing.  I am no exception.  It gives me pause to think that God chose me to be his mother.  And for that, I found myself at the altar this morning with a swollen heart.  Filled with love, pride, joy, hopes, dreams, and eucharisteo for a little boy who makes everything around him shine just a little brighter.

 John Thomas may you continue to have an explorer's spirit, a pure heart, and know when it's time to stop, take your socks off and dip your tootsies in the water.

One last shot of my lil honey bear.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this boy is worth a thousand eucharisteos--and for that, I am blessed.  Happy birthday honey bear!