All Aboard!

One Saturday in July, we met up with family and headed to the Railroad Museum in Winnsboro. We bought our tickets and boarded the train for a ride! 

Katie practicing her "all aboard" yell

Katie covering her ears after the whistle blow and real "all aboard."

The train was not air conditioned so the windows provided both air circulation and fun entertainment for all of the riders!  

 

 

The ride was kind of long, the day was hot, but the people and the experience were lots of fun!

What's In a Name?

If you're reading this thinking you're going to learn the name of our son, go ahead and stop. We are still very much in flux about his name. We won't keep it a secret once we decide, I promise...but we just can't decide yet. And since my brother waited until his child was 3 days old to name him, I'm not really feeling too much pressure to decide when I still have 8 weeks to be pregnant!

So back to names. Katie is obsessed with stuffed animals and seriously probably has 100 of them. I'm embarrassed to go count for the same reason I won't count the pairs of shoes I have. We both have a problem. Of course, I feed my own habit of shoes and other people are feeding Katie's habit of stuffed animals. We have a big family of enablers where Katie is concerned.

While many of the animals are characters from movies or come pre-assigned with names on their tags, the ones that aren't go through a rigorous naming ceremony once Katie becomes their owner! She looks them over from top to bottom and thinks long and hard about what to name them. She's perfectly fine waiting a day or so to see what comes to her.

Katie with about half of her collection! Completely minus Toy Story friends who are not considered stuffed animals even if they are animals like Bullseye, Buttercup, or Hamm.

Here's a sampling of some of the names she's come up with...

A big dog named Big Dog.

A bulldog/rottweiler (not sure which) named Black Sam (who only has a black nose). 

A black labrador named Shadow.
A pug named Noggin.
A dog puppet named Stu.
Two beagle puppies simply named Max's mommy and Max's daddy.

A penguin named Beard.

An alligator name Bottle.

An orange tiger named White School Bus.

A purple cat named Spongey.
A siamese cat named Simon Bird.

A lion named Joe Lion.

A duck named Polar Bear.

Bunnies named Big Nose, BunBun, and Wake (awake) Bunny.

I love her creativity and it's so fun to see the wheels turning as she contemplates names for her animals. And in case you're wondering how she decides if something is a boy or a girl - it's all about the lashes. If it has eyelashes, it's a girl. If not, it's a boy. Imagine her frustration that her new Nala (girl lion from Lion King) doesn't have eyelashes. She tells me that "they" just forgot to put them on because she knows Nala is a girl.

Long Distance Relationship

My best friend moved away in 5th grade. I didn't take it well at all. I remember one of my teachers noticing how sad I was and she tried to cheer me up and pair me with new friends during group activities. I remember writing a letter to Casey Casem of America's Top 40 hoping he would play Richard Marx's "Right Here Waiting" for my "Long Distance Dedication." (Yes - I know that song is about a romantic relationship, but I was in 5th grade and missed my best friend. It helped me cope.)

My brother moved to Texas a few years ago and I'm still not okay with it. My two best friends from college moved to different states and I probably feel just as strongly about them leaving South Carolina as their mother does. I don't do well with goodbyes. I don't like not knowing "when" I will see someone again. 

So add my tendency toward depression when someone moves away to the fact that I'm extra emotional during pregnancy and multiply it times 10 because now I have to explain "moving" to my 3 year old and it equals a big blubbering mess because... 

The Clarks moved away. To Virginia. The Clarks and the Boozers were our first real "couple" friends and I remember our first time really hanging out watching a Clemson bowl game on New Year's Eve 2007. Shelley and Jessica and I made a new year's resolution to start running and train for the Cooper River Bridge Run and we started running together after work and developing our friendships! Children came for all of us within the next 14 months and we all became mothers and fathers together and relied on each other for help, meals, and most of all - comic relief! These people make me laugh and we have such a good time together. We squabble with spouses in front of each other and no one is free from ridicule - albeit harmless! We have prayed for each other through job changes, losses in our families, child rearing, football seasons and many other things. I can't imagine the last 5 years without their influence! I'm so excited for their future in Virginia and what their new lives will be like and for the new friends they will make. But oh man, I am so sad to have them gone. I am thankful that their families both live in SC and therefore they will be required to visit. I am thankful Wilson is crazy obsessed with the Gamecocks and home games will bring their family down for a visit. I am thankful for impending maternity leave and trying to venture up there for a visit. But mainly, I am thankful for the Lord's providence over our friendships and knowing that this is just a new chapter for all of us. 

The six of us leaving church together for the last time before they moved. (We were leaving a funeral so we all look a little rough and it was an awkward moment to take a photo - but no one does awkward better than us.)

But how do I explain this to Katie? Katie and Maddie stayed together every day since Maddie was 8 weeks old and Katie was 20 weeks old until just this past January. They fought and loved just like sisters. It probably didn't help ease them into being away from each other by having Maddie's last 3 weeks in town spent together at VBS, Ballet camp, and gymnastics - but I wanted them to have several last hurrahs together! The night before they moved, Jessica and the girls spent the night with us after their house was all packed up. I snapped this picture of Katie and Maddie sharing a popsicle on the front porch. I love the innocence of childhood here and I love the closeness of their friendship that they were willing to SHARE a popsicle! That's friendship, huh!?

The Clarks have been gone for a few weeks now and while it hasn't totally sunk in that they don't live here anymore - we already miss them so much. Katie talks about Maddie a lot and asks all the time to go see her new house. Church is the hardest because there was rarely a Sunday when they weren't together so Katie doesn't know church life without Maddie. When Katie says her prayers at night and we get to the part about what she wants to ask God to help her with...she typically says she doesn't need any help because she can do everything by herself. But lately, she's been asking for God to help her not miss Maddie so much. I sure am glad the lights are off so she can't see my eyes welling up with tears!

Katie has been very sensitive and asks me if I miss my friend too. I try not to cry about it in front of her because crying really bothers her - but it's so sweet that she's asking me and caring about me too.

We all miss the Clarks and are so thankful for things like Facebook and texting and free minutes after 7pm to be able to stay in touch much better than people could before all this technology became available. And right now, I'm thankful for the Richard Marx Pandora station that FINALLY played Right Here Waiting. Not quite Casey Casem playing it for me, but it'll do.

Lion King Date Night

In tenth grade, our drama class went to New York for a few days and we got to see some Broadway shows. Two were chosen for us and one was free choice between The Lion King and Grease. I chose Grease because Rosie O'Donnell was playing the part of Rizzo at the time and I've always been a sucker for all things pop-culture! The show was a total dud and everyone who saw The Lion King came back raving about it!

My dad called me in June to tell me the show was coming to Greenville and asked if Doug and I would like to go! Of course I said yes because I'd say yes to anything that got me some date time with my hubby and it was an added bonus that this was going to be fantastic!

Our show was on a Sunday night so my parents were going to let Katie spend the night with them since we'd be getting back so late driving home from Greenville. Because it's rare that we both get semi-dressed up for a date, I made sure to get a picture of the two of us before we left!

Doug's job was to find us somewhere fun to eat before the show. Simply driving down Main Street in Greenville was mouth watering to say the least. Tons of local/non-chain restaurants that looked delicious. Doug picked this place called Soby's because it had a good menu and looked close to the Peace Center where the show was. It couldn't have been any closer which was nice since it was 106 degrees outside as we walked over. 

And dinner was delicious.We started off with a spicy pimento cheese dip and the best cheese biscuits I've ever had. Both of our entrees were great too!

We headed into the show and made sure we had plenty of time to find our seats and flip through the program. The show was amazing! The animals and the music and the actors' movements were just stunning! I would love to Katie but I think she needs to be a little older to be able to sit that long. She was excited we got to go though and has asked us many times what our favorite parts were! Thanks Dad for the tickets and thanks to Mom and Dad for watching Katie so we could enjoy our evening out!

If you're keeping track - this is me just 2 days shy of 30 weeks pregnant. The pattern on my dress does little to distract you from my growing belly!