Our Carli is a Blessing - A Gift From Heaven Above

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A WEE BIT OF HEAVEN DRIFTED DOWN FROM ABOVE

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YOU LIGHT UP THE WORLD WITH YOUR SWEET BIG BOY CHARMS

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You're So Precious to Me, Sweet as Can Be, Baby of Mine

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Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Always a Twinkle in His Eyes...

Always good for a hug, never a hand did he raise.  His blue eyes always twinkled with mischief and amusement. He was forever a part of my life.  He never seemed to falter.  He was strong, he was faithful and he was mine.


I used to scrap grease off his shop floor.  I would bust open my little toe at least once a week running to call him for lunch.  We planted gardens, mowed yards, worked at the chicken houses, rode 4 wheelers, drank sweet tea and gave awesome hugs.

 
He was a mean wa-hoo player, don't ask him to have mercy on you.  He made a good fried egg for breakfast.  He had the whitest feet I'd ever seen, and he use to soak them in a warm tub of water with epsom salt in it each night.  He like cornbread soak in milk for dinner.  He loved to pick on everyone, and his eyes always gave him away when he got the best of you.


He was faithful to his wife, to his family and to God.  He wore a suit to church and sang like an angel and with all his heart.  His voice had this amazingly calming inflection in it when he prayed.  When he said the dinner prayer, it was the same one every time.  And every time, he meant each word.  He didn't read much but he listend when Grandma played taped sermons and read the Bible aloud.  He was the head of our family, and he served us all well.


It's a sign of a great man, when even after having been gone four years his presence in our lives still has such a strong hold.  It's hard to believe it's been four years b/c it seems like to just yesterday he held my babies and beamed with pride.  I can still hear him call out as I left that last time:  "Girl, you be good now."  I always retorted back, "Boy, you behave!"  He always said he did, and his eyes would twinkle with that mischief that always seemed to hide there.    

 
Ah, Paw-paw, I don't think I'll ever get over missing having you here.
 


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Monday, September 29, 2014

When Momma has to Work, Naggy Comes to Play!

I've said it many times that our family is blessed with two amazing sets of Grandparents.  It is absolutely awesome to watch our kids interact, love and learn from their Grandparents.  We are also very blessed that I have a job where I can work from home most of the time.  However, two or three times a year my job requires me to travel or be in week long meetings and it is necessary to find some help to get the girls to and from school, dinner on the table and lots of extra play time to fill.  Grammy and Pa help us out a lot on those occasions when we need a day or two here and there of scheduling help.  But when it's a weeklong event, we give Naggy and Pappy a call and see if they want to come love on our sweet girls and help us out too. 

This past week, I was in meetings in Tyler so I didn't have to travel but I was out til 9 or 10 each night.  Pappy wasn't able to come but Naggy reworked her schedule and came to our rescue.  They all had a great week.  We were a bit concerned that perhaps Carli would not want to go to school b/c she'd rather play with Naggy at home but to our surprise Naggy taking her to school was the trick! 

Ava only goes to school twice a week so she and Naggy had some great one-on-one time.  There was a lot of coloring, Disney watching and very interesting conversations. 

Naggy:  I think your Daddy told you not to sit in your chair like that.
 
Ava:  Yeah, he did, but Daddy's not here!

Naggy picked Carli up from school each day.  Despite a rough couple of weeks before, Carli was eager to go each day and was excited to see Naggy each afternoon.  Before Naggy got here on Monday, Grammy and Ava had lunch with Carli at school.  Then on Wednesday, Naggy & Ava had lunch with Carli at school.  Both reported that Carli was much more interested in what her friends were doing than really eating with them! 

The best conversation while Naggy was here was over text when she and I were discussing dinner plans for them.

Naggy:  We are coloring.  Having school.  Teacher is a little demanding, but we are getting by.
 
Me:  You okay to make nuggets and macaroni tonight?  There are green beans in pantry too.
 
Naggy:  Sure.  If the teacher says it is ok.
 
Me:  She will for nuggets & macaroni!
 
Naggy:  Just got in trouble for playing on my phone!!  Got "yellow".  Thanks a lot!

Got to love our Naggy!  :)  We were all very grateful for her to come for the week and are looking forward to seeing her and Pappy this weekend to celebrate Carli's birthday!


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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

She's Mine

Despite all the pink, the sunshades, cute hair and dress...she does belong to me...I carry all those traits as recessive genes apparently!  :)



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Monday, September 8, 2014

Snacks for Kindergarten

Every 20 or so days of school our turn arrives to bring snacks for Carli's kindergarten class.  We thought about taking the easy way out and just taking a prepackaged snack but then we saw a cool idea to take some rainbow fruit packs...and well, we decided to go healthy!  :)

First we gathered up all our fruit:  purple grapes, green grapes, pineapple, oranges and strawberries.  We got them all washed and prepped...


And with our snack sized baggies we put them together and they looked like rainbows!



Apparently they were a hit b/c Carli came home the next day and said that some of the kids asked when she would get to bring a snack again!  Woohoo!  I may not be a room mom but maybe I can swing a snack cool enough for a kindergartener once a month!

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Saturday, September 6, 2014

Troup Tigers vs Alto Yellow Jackets

 Carli's Troup Tigers came to Alto to play my alma mater the Yellow Jackets so we thought we'd go support our teams.  Carli had to sit on the Alto side b/c I was not willing to go to the visitor side.  We were pleasantly surprised when both girls seemed to watch quite a bit of the game and lasted to the fourth quarter.  Keith, Uncle Tone and Pa did a great job explaining what was going on while Grammy and I took the opportunity to catch up with Mrs. Jamie!  :) 

We all had a great time and both girls came home with mini footballs compliments of the talents of Pa and Uncle Tone!


Alto ended up winning but Troup held their own.  Who knows, maybe we'll have our own little family rivalry before too long!


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Thursday, September 4, 2014

Ava Loves Blueberry Muffins...

Ava asked, whined and resorted to begging for us to make some blueberry muffins.  Ava says she HATES blueberries, but she LOVES blueberry muffins.  I finally gave in and broke out the mixer and blueberries and we whipped up some purple blueberry muffins.

She enthusiastically licked the spoon and bowl...so I started to believe that maybe it was possible to hate blueberries and love blueberry muffins.



After anxiously awaiting for her muffins to come out of the oven she was eager to give them a try...it turns out she only likes blueberry muffins if there are no blueberries in them.  Go figure.



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Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Labor Day Weekend at the Lake

Our family was blessed to be able to spend most of Labor day weekend at the lake with some extended family.  My cousin Dionna, her family and parents, as well as Grammy & Pa, Uncle Tone, Uncle Andy, Aunt Chelle, Logan and Eady were all there.  We had awesome time visiting, playing games, swimming, fishing and eating of coarse! 

Grammy is the most excellent Grammy ever.  Thankfully she LOVES to swim and she is very patient and indulges all her grandkids when they ask to go swimming and no other adult really wants to go with them.  She even got Eady in the spirit of things!


We rigged up an inflatable slide to the dock and the kids had an absolute blast with it!



On Sunday afternoon, we all reconvened at the lakehouse after church and lunch out.  We had a few good games of Wahoo and did right by all the grandkids and started teaching them how to play.  The older three really enjoyed rolling the dice.  Ava's attention span wasn't as long as Carli and Logan's but they all had a great time!  Eady sat with Uncle Keith for a good long while and couldn't quite understand why we wouldn't let her have any marbles!


Grammy & I (& Ava) were partners playing against Andy (& Logan) and Keith (& Eady with Carli's help).  We started our game a good 15 minutes before the second game got started and we played Pawpaw style.  Meaning, if we could knock someone out of the middle, we did!  And thus, our game lasted a good 15 minutes after the other game ended.  Grammy and I prevailed!  :)

 

Like father, like son...

 

The second game included Pa, Uncle Tone, Aunt Betty & Dionna...I think Pa and Dionna won this one.  They could not agree on the rules of the game and kept claiming that Grandma may have played "that way" but it was not the right way to play.  She only played "that way" in order to beat Pawpaw.  :)


These two sat outside for a good long while and Ava imparted quite the story to her Daddy.  By the time they parted ways, neither one of them could tell me what they talked about.  :)


Uncle Cleaon had escaped down by the dock to do a little fishing...it was much quieter down there, but then the older kids spotted him and his quiet haven was interrupted.  He was very patient with all the kids and with Dionna and Ron's help every kid had the opportunity to hold the fishing pole...but not catch a fish.  They were a little to loud for that!

Weston with his Pa and his Daddy
 

Pretty sure Dionna just told Carli what a gizzard was...the bait Carli helped put on the fishing hook.  Her face is priceless!



While all the kids were being entertained with fishing, the rest of the men folk were playing a good game of horseshoes. 


 Ya'll this little boy is so stinkin' cute!  He played hard this weekend and worked hard to keep up with all the big kids.  I was exhausted just watching him!  


We ended Sunday night with a lot of singing, reminiscing and prayer time.  It was awesome!  We went back out for some burgers off the grill before everyone had to pack up and go home.   It was a great weekend!  We are blessed.


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Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Ava Goes to PreK

 Today, Ava started PreK.  She was so ready to go back to school.  Not that she didn't LOVE having our full attention during the day while Carli was at school last week, but I must admit that she got a little bored.  Apparently Momma is not quite the playmate that Carli is...even if I am a lot less argumentative!

Last Thursday, we went up to Oak Tree Academy for Ava to meet her teacher.  We already knew her teacher, and were pretty stoked that Ava had gotten Mrs. Denise for PreK.  Carli had Mrs. Denise a couple of summers ago and absolutely loved her.  Turns out, Mrs. Denise's hubby work at Trane with Keith and they lived in our old neighborhood!  Small world!


 As I was getting Ava ready this morning, we figured out that she had outgrown every single pair of her tennis shoes.  Oops!  So, she put on Carli's shoes and they weren't far off from fitting and we made a trip to the store after school to get her a new pair.  Ava is on a Minnie Mouse kick.  She choose to wear hear favorite Minnie Mouse shirt and her new backpack is Minnie Mouse as well.  She's grown quite a bit from this time last year...


 Ava is in a class full of kiddos who haven't ever been to OTA.  She was a little apprehensive about not knowing anyone, but true to herself she didn't disappoint when she came home telling us all about her new friends.  Ava is naturally outgoing, if Carli isn't around to tell her that they are very shy.  :) 

Ava is going to have an awesome year at OTA!  She is looking forward to learning so much this year.

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