Thinking about Christmas

Well, every year I plan to do my Christmas shopping early.  I dream of having everything wrapped and under the tree by the first week in December and then spending the rest of the season baking cookies and singing carols!  I imagine a season with no stress and  peaceful candlelight church services!  In my perfect world, not only is my shopping done early, but I also have thought ahead about my "party clothes", and each event we attend is easy and stress free with outfit, shoes and accessories ready to go!  Ha!  Dream On!  My typical routine is to still be shopping the week before Christmas, still be wrapping the gifts on Christmas Eve, and to be running around trying to find something to wear while my husband sits in the car waiting for me to hurry up for each event!  WHY?  Why do I do this to myself?  And my family?

So, this year I need to change my ways.  I have a Christmas Party at my house the second week of December, and a trip out of town the first weekend of December.  I have to be bringing my "A" game in order to not embarrass the family!!  And, let's face it, I have John Stephen to think about- I cannot continue this craziness!  So I am going to really try to to do better this year! 

1.  Make a list of all gift recipients and their gift ideas.
2.  Buy all of the men something and quit agonizing about the perfect gifts for them.
3.  Plan to buy some clothes in November for the Holiday season
4.  Order personalized/monogrammed gifts early for a personal touch
5.  Make a hair appointment for the week before Thanksgiving
6.  Christmas Cards/ AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! 
7.  Plan with family and get our family stuff on the calendar before things get crazy!
8.  Do a little cooking and freezing early!!

A note on the Christmas Cards:  John Stephen is growing so fast that I feel like I need to take the Christmas Card photo in November or early December so it will be current. But I really could get it over with and ready to mail if I would take the pic early. Oh, what to do?  I really wanted the Christmas tree in the background!  Also, since we have moved for the millionth time I should put our new address on the card and get them out early so that we can get some cards here!!   

Welcome to the mind of a crazy person.  I realize that these types of thoughts in September are not rational or normal, but if I don't get it together now then we will be right back in the same routine!  I always feel like the perfect gift is going to come along at the last minute! I just can't pull the trigger!  Oh well, that is how I was when shopping for houses, and husbands too!  Better late than never!  I'll keep you posted!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Today is my husband Don's Birthday!  He is 45!  He is celebrating his big day on a goose hunting trip in Canada!  Don is not one of those fanatics who lives to hunt and who spends all of his free time in the woods, but he does like to hunt a few times a year.  And he likes to spend the rest of his time with me!  He called me from the lodge tonight and we got to visit for a few minutes. I sang "Happy Birthday to You" in my best Marilyn Monroe impersonation!  Just Kidding, but I would have if I had thought of it.  He is on this trip with my Dad and my Dad's dog, Horton.  They are having fun and got 117 geese just today!! 

Don's nickname since elementary school has been "Big Daddy"! Tons of our friends call him "Big Daddy"!! And since he is 6'4- it just works!  I NEVER call him Big Daddy unless I am joking around!  But in my best Marilyn Monroe singing voice I just want to say..."Happy Birthday, Mr."' Big Daddy", Happy Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiirthday toooooooooo YOU!

Greetings from the Land of Cotton

Well, it is cotton picking time here in Arkansas!  And since I come from a "Farm Family" I thought I would share some pics of my cottontop in the cotton!

 We had lunch with my brother Rafe today and then we went out to the farm for a quick look at the cotton.  Something about a field of cotton makes me feel connected to all of the generations of my family that are now long gone.  And it also makes me feel like Scarlett O'Hara after the War of Northern Aggression-  "Cotton oughta go sky high next year!"

I meant to get some cotton to put in a big bunch on my breakfast table, but I forgot my clippers!  Shoot!  I made a wreath of cotton one year and it was really pretty- maybe I need to do that again this year! 

There are a lot of things in my area of the country that aren't really pretty to look at.  We have a lot of poverty, trailer parks, bad perms, architectural blunders, BUT we have miles and miles of breath taking cotton fields and bean fields and rice fields.  And they are so pretty that they make up for the other stuff! I'll be back soon with some pics of our favorite 7th grade football player! 

So Long Seersucker...

Bye Bye white shoes!  Summer is officially over, at least in the world of fashion.  Too bad it will feel like summer here in the South until at least October!  Hope you had a nice Labor Day Weekend!  We had a great time at the lake.  Maybe one of our best weekends yet!  We ushered in football season with a win for the Razorbacks!  Pig Soooie!

As you can see, we had things set up in "high tech redneck" fashion for the big game!  Since we were expecting a big crowd, and everyone wanted to be outside with the grill and the PERFECT weather, we put the TV outside under a tent!!  There were kids playing everywhere, people throwing the football around, and tons of yummy food coming off of the grill!  The outside TV was a perfect setup!

Pax and Syd had time on Sunday morning to play a little wiffle ball! 

And, John Stephen had some fun swingin' and watching the wiffle ball game!  Good weekend, great friends! 

I hate to say goodbye to summer, but the busy fall has arrived!  Time to shift into overdrive!!  And I guess I need to buy John Stephen some clothes since I made the mistake of buying tons of seersucker for the summer, and now I have to pack it away (like any good Southern mother)!  Toodle Loo!

It's Been Too Long!

Hello Blog, I have missed you so!  The technical difficulties have sent me OVER THE EDGE!  I bet you could hear my cussing tirades at your house!   It has taken way too long to figure out what was wrong with my photo uploader, and I am still not sure if I have figured this thing out!  But, I have missed blogging lately!  And there is so much to catch you up on!! 

As you can see, John Stephen had a big birthday!!  Yes, he is ONE YEAR OLD!  I didn't do a "party" because my Mom told me it would be OK not to.  And because this house isn't ready for the debut that it deserves.  So I got a cake from Wal-Mart, 15 blue and white balloons, and we had a little Sunday afternoon celebration with the Grandparents and some of our siblings.  Perfect!!  John Stephen got way too many toys, but he had lots of fun!  I'd also like to say that I found myself remembering the 23 hours of labor and the C Section on the big day, and I have concluded that I didn't get nearly enough attention for the whole ordeal!  I know, I know, you are thinking that I am not the first person to ever give birth.  I will probably be one of those mothers who tries to make their child feel guilty for their difficult delivery-OH No! Did I mention he weighed 9 lbs and 2 oz?  Well, he did.  And he is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me!  Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

The small cake in front of the birthday boy is called a "smash cake"!  This is a new concept to me, but it did make serving the real cake easier, and I thought the petite cake looked cute with the giant ONE candle!  Oh, and I made the birthday hat!  Isn't it funny?  Just put fabric on a cheap paper hat and attached the ruffle and pom pom!  Honestly, I could have done a really cute hat if I had thought about it before an hour before the big candle blowout moment!

We barely had time to straighten up the house before the party since we had spent the weekend in the TRAILERHOOD!  Don was dying to get up to the FEMA Dreama since we have stayed here working on the house for the last several weekends.  John Stephen is very advanced and has now decided that he is old enough to drive the boat himself!  It is hard work keeping him occupied for several hours on a Party Barge without falling overboard! 

But, we did have the kiddos contained for a few short meals on the deck!  This is John Stephen and his cousin who is 8 months old!  I swear I would feed John Stephen anything he wanted to get him to sit still for 5 minutes!  We are enjoying milder weather, and it is back to reality here.  We had our first day of Mother's Day Out today.  What a milestone!  I thought about crying after I dropped John Stephen off and then I decided to go shopping instead (ALL BY MYSELF)!!  Woohoo!  Hope you are having a good day, too!  Be back soon!

Technical Difficulties!

I have been having problems with Flickr's new photo uploading setup, and the stuff I spent weeks trying to learn is all different now! BOO! So while Don has been flipping channels between two of the worst movies I have ever seen, I have been trying to figure this thing out! SO here goes- hopefully this will post as a nice large pic of John Stephen dining topless in his highchair!

Fraternity House Project!

Lambda Chi 002, originally uploaded by mrsmills1.

Maybe this will be a larger pic?!