Easter

We spent Easter at my Big Mama's with the Haskew side of the family. It was great to get the whole family together, and all the kiddos made the Easter egg hunt lots of fun. Here are a few pics from the day. I was especially glad we were able to get some family group photos.

Reunion Weekend in Jacksonville

Earlier this month we had our now annual college reunion weekend. 2010 took us to Jacksonville, Florida to the new home of Ben and Jessica Whitworth, some close friends from college.

I so look forward to this trip every year. This is only our second year to all get together, but it has quickly become a favorite and much-needed tradition. About two years out of college we suddenly realized there were little to no more weddings to bring us all together. That's when we established this weekend trip in the spring, alternating between the hometowns of our friends. (Why spring? Because we all are staunchly committed to Alabama football and as a result manage to see each other quite frequently in the fall.)

We had such a great time with Jess, Ben, Rob, Anne, and Amy (missed you Matt - and congrats on the new job!). We're definitely getting older. Conversations revolved around home improvement, landscaping, new heating and air units, when's the best time to have children...and let's just say bedtime came much earlier than it used to. But I guess that's part of growing up. And it's so good to grow up with my best friends.

Always the perfect hosts, Jess and Ben showed us all over Jacksonville from the beach to the Budweiser plant for a free tour and tasting; it really was a blast and the closest thing to spring break we get these days.

I love these girls. They know we as well if not better than I know myself. They have been there through thick and thin. It has been a blessing to be part of there lives through college, graduation, first jobs, marriages, buying homes, etc. I know we'll all be there for each other through births of children and all the other adventures in life.

We're all blessed with wonderful husbands who dutifully hold the purses and take the million crazy photos without rolling their eyes at our silliness.

Thank to J-Go, Ben, and Lola (can't believe I didn't get one pic of that precious black lab) for a great time!

2009: Charlotte
2010: Jacksonville
2011: ??????????

I'm thinking Lake Martin, rent a beach house for the weekend, or make the trek to Bentonville, Arkansas, soon-to-be new home of the Bogues. What I do know is that there is a 99.9% chance someone will have a baby next year and the evolution of the college reunion weekend will continue. Exciting, crazy times.

Bracket = Busted

Don't believe me? See if for yourself HERE.

I had Kansas all the way. I'm also not on speaking terms with Georgetown, Wisconsin, Villanova, and Pit.

At least I'm not alone.

Thanks to all my friends who joined my very-last-minute bracket. Those of you who picked Kentucky are wise and actually looking forward to next weekend. Unlike the rest of us. You won't be hearing much trash talk from me.

Click HERE for standings for those in The Best Bracket Evar.

Oh well. There's always next year.

How we spend our Sunday mornings

So it dawned on me that we've been teaching the 3/4 year old Sunday School class at church since last August and I haven't once posted about the cutie patootie kiddos we get to hang out with every Sunday morning. A few weeks back I was able to snap some pictures of our class. We have 10 super fun, super smart kids when everyone shows up. That's quite the handful, but luckily at this age everyone can take themselves to the bathroom (with only minimal assistance required on occassion), can tell us what they think, and have awesome imaginations and listening skills when they try really hard. Seriously, we love this class and have been privileged to see God work in their hearts through the faithful, goldly parenting of their moms and dads. It's amazing to hear a room full of four year olds recite eight catechism questions in a row that we've been memorizing all year or repeat back to you the bible lessons we've been learning. Here's some general pics during our play time. We do lots of cooking, dancing, block building, digging through the toy chest, and, in general, acting like silly willies. The best part is the big hugs we receive every morning when they walk in.






It's always lots of fun trying to get a group pic with everyone looking at the camera. This is pretty close to perfect given the circumstances.

And now the outtakes...

Bama Basketball

Last Saturday we headed down to T-town with my brother Kyle, his girlfriend Allison, my brother David, and his girlfriend Shelby for the Alabama/Auburn men's basketball game. I finally saw the national championship trophy in the window of the athletic office. Gotta love all that crystal. We've struggled in basketball this year, so it was nice to pull out a win instead of blowing a huge victory in the last 10 minutes of the game like we've been doing all season. It was really great to hang out with the brothers and their significant others. We topped off the night with dinner at Surin - always a treat. Now I've got to start working on my March Madness bracket. Hopefully I'll do better than I did on my bachelor bracket.

Adventures in Babysitting

So, parents we are not. And even our minimal experience overseeing children still leaves us far closer to the amateur side of things than the pros. Doubt me? Just ask the nine very honest three- and four-year-old kiddos we teach each week in Sunday School. On second thought. Don't ask. They'll tell.

But, a few weeks ago we got a crash course. The title of this course was: how to take two kids under age three out to dinner and entertained for three hours. Poor Anna Beth and Chap Chapman were our trial run. Their sweet mommy asked us to fill in on a Friday night while she and their dad hosted a surprise birthday party for her brother.

Armed with great instructions from mom and all the "stuff" we would need to pull this off ... we set out - in the Chapman family's SUV with two car seats (with kids in them!) in the back. Chick-fil-a was a big hit with all. Anna Beth was such a good girl. She ate all her dinner and then enjoyed her ice cream.

Robert and her were good buddies - taking on the indoor play area after dinner.

Chap was a sweet boy too. And goodness does he eat! I was warned but had no idea he would be that into his food. Robert and I both had to keep him from consuming every piece of dinner all in one big handful.

Overall it was such a fun night, and both the kids were so well behaved and fun to be with. There were some crazy moments of fussiness and flying bits of hot dog and looks from middle-aged parents. I just knew they knew we had no idea what we were doing. But there were mostly the sweet looks from older couples and teenage girls and others who thought Anna Beth and Chap were just the cutest things - and stopped to chat and tell them so.

And then someone in the process of saying "oh, how cute," and "hey there buddy" and "isn't she just precious" called me "mom." I big loud siren went off in my head. That just didn't sound right. I opened my mouth to set things straight but decided not to correct them, figuring a blundering, "Oh, I'm not their mom. I'm just the babysitter filling in...We don't have kids yet. In fact, we've never done this before. Oh, did that hot dog just hit your face, sorry about that..." would somehow come over more alarming. They might actually act on their gut feeling and report us then.

I still have no idea how a mom does this by herself. We played man to man and it was a tight game. I have a new respect for the mothers in restaurants with their children. It's not as easy as it looks.

We had plans to AB and Chap to the Galleria for a ride on the merry-go-round in the last half hour, but both kids had knocked out by the time we drove over there. We had enough wisdom to know a few more drives around the mall would suffice until it was time to return our little buddies to their mom and dad. They sure do look cute when they're asleep.

I hope we get the chance to hang with AB and Chap again and am glad Lizbeth and Ben trusted us to care for their most prized possession. So, how did we measure up? Pass or fail? You'll have to ask Anna Beth. On second thought....don't.

V-day 2010

Our Valentine's Day was a little different than in previous years. It all started with these delicious "I Love You" cookies I picked up from Icing on the Cookie on Friday, the same day my sweet husband had flowers delivered to my office - while he was in Houston for work! He not only arranged this while he was traveling and completely out of pocket, but he also had them delivered early (Friday) so I'd get them at the office and have the thrill of flowers delivered to me since Valentine' s fell on a Sunday this year. He knows how much I love to receive flowers, and they honestly couldn't have come on a better day since that Friday was our snow day and we had a major donor event canceled at the 11th hour. It was a crazy day at the office - that my beautiful flowers made so much better. So, I got him cookies, and a miniature Wally.

Robert loves this movie....and robots. This gift was actually a pretty big hit - once I remembered to give it too him. He found it weeks before Valentine's so I had to re-hide the present and then completely forgot about it. He had to remind me to give it to him! How sad is that?

We babysat for a preciously family at church on Valentine's. See the cute pic (courtesy of Amy Henry's photography website) above of Lilian and her brother Griffin. They also have a precious baby sister Palmer. We love keeping these fun and energetic kiddos. They keep us on our toes! Griffin is a whiz, and I love Lilian because she hangs right in there with her brother. I can't wait for the next time we get to hang out with these kids. So fun!

Because we babysat on Valentine's, we celebrated ourselves the following Wednesday. Normally, we enjoy picking a unique-to-Birmingham restaurant and going out for a nice meal, the kind you only make the time (and have the budget) to do a few times every year. This year I wanted to do something different. It involved using my fine china for the first time...(ahhmm...)...ever! Yes, we have been married three+ years and I had yet to use our china. Trust me, I know how sad that is. I actually had fun setting the formal table (we NEVER eat at the table) for our special dinner - after I pulled the stickers off the bottom of the plates and other pieces!

The flowers Robert sent me were our centerpiece. I cooked one of his favorite meals - mostly made of some of his mom's best dishes that he especially loves: friend shrimp, brown rice, mac and cheese (yes, I know that's two starches, but he loves them!), bread sticks (because I have yet to gather the courage to attempt his mom's yeast rolls), and steamed broccoli.

For dessert? The cookies. (I had already eaten the "I" at this point, but don't they look great on my china?)

We actually only ate about a bite each because yours truly left them out in their box instead of storing them properly in an airtight container, and by Wednesday even these delicious cookies were dry. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.