Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend, Jack and I drove up to Jackson for some time with my family.  We had a blast just relaxing, eating sushi, and watching the Ole Miss game.  

We decided to head to the pumpkin patch Saturday afternoon with my mom's camera in an attempt to get some good pictures of Jack with the pumpkins.  The closest pumpkin patch was 30 minutes away, so we settled for a church with pumpkins.

We took pictures with pumpkins last year.  Jack was 3 months old.  All we had to do was prop him up and he smiled sweetly.

(Jack in his only "sitting" picture)

Now...well, now I have a little wild thing on my hands!  He would not stop moving.  At first it was frustrating (I wanted a cute picture!), but then my mom decided we should just go with it.

So we let Jack loose and tried to capture him as he ran through the field.

And, of course, the lovey is in all of the pictures!

He had the BEST time.

Yup, he's a little wild man!

They weren't the pictures I envisioned, but I still love them!  

My sweet, little bud!

We have had such a fun fall so far, and it's still not over!  I think Jack is enjoying the cooler weather--playing outside without sweating, eating lots of soups, and plenty of time with family.

Midweek Randoms

Just stopping in with some random thoughts.

* First of all, I stopped doing Jack's monthly updates, but I still wanted to do updates every 3 months.  Which means I should have done one last month, when he was 15 months.  But I didn't.  So he is 16 months and I still haven't done it.  Oh well, I will get around to it soon, because he is doing so much fun stuff lately!

* Jack and I went to the pumpkin patch last weekend with our neighbor and her son (a day younger than Jack!).  Jack was looking so cute, and I had our camera ready to take pictures.  And our camera was dead... So yeah, no super cute pictures.  But I did snap some with my iPhone.

He's not so into taking pictures these days.

* Both my sister and my mom have already texted me this week to let me know that hot dogs and corn dogs will be 50¢ on Halloween.  I don't know whether to think it's sweet that they know me so well or embarrassing  because they are all aware of my love for corn dogs.  

* I have been a Psych junkie lately.  I can't help it.  It's just so funny.

Example:

Gus: How do you not own a black suit? What kind of grown man doesn’t own a black suit?

Shawn: Besides me- The Joker, Colonel Sanders, Matthew McConaughey.

Gus: Matthew McConaughey doesnt count, he doesn’t own a shirt.

Shawn: He doesn’t need a shirt.

Gus: You know thats right.

Any other Psych fans out there?

* We have been in town the past two weekends and have enjoyed going to our new church.  I am so thankful to have a PCA church in our town! 

Here's Jack looking all fancy for church Sunday

* I am also thankful for our daycare.  Jack LOVES it there, and I get to visit once a day and see him (it's at my school).

Jack being a monkey at daycare.

* Today is Wednesday, which means Waffle Cone Wednesday!  The TCBY by our house has 99¢ waffle cones every Wednesday.  It is seriously the best middle of the week treat.  And last week, we got Jack his own cone.  He loved it.  That boy can eat.

Well, that's all I have today.  Hope everyone is having a great week!

Mommy Wars

The other day, someone called Babywise "evil" on Facebook.  And it really got to me.  Not like I'm upset and think they're right, but upset because, really?  Evil?  I mean, yeah disagree with Babywise if you want, but evil?  Why don't you save that word for rape, murder, lies, etc?

I really like Babywise.  It worked for us.  And I think breastfeeding is great.  I was able, Jack was able, and it worked for us.  And sleeping in the crib--worked for us.  (Are you sensing a theme?)

And, also, I don't agree with attachment parenting.  I really don't agree with co-sleeping (in fact, I think it's risky).  

But evil?  

The thing is, moms that use Babywise, do so because it works for them and it's whats they thing is best for their child.  And moms that co-sleep, same thing.  Most moms out there love their children and want to do whats best for them both. 

And let's be real here, moms that don't love their children are not the ones reading Babywise or attachment parenting books!

I get that if you ascribe to a certain parenting belief, you obviously think it's right.  Of course, you should...you're using it!  But that doesn't mean everyone else is wrong and it definitely does NOT mean you should tell them.  I am so sick and disgusted by the amount of time wasted on Facebook and blogs bashing other people's methods.  

There are babies and children out there who really need help.  There is real evil in the lives of children. But, I promise, it is not in the form of a formula canister or a Moby wrap.

Blog Feature!

Today I'm featured on Callie Nicole's blog.  Head over to check it out.  Plus, you can check out Callie's blog, "Through Clouded Glass."

Lazy Weekend

We finally had a nice, lazy weekend around here!  No traveling, no plans (well, not really)...just lots of good food, playing, and cuddling!

Friday night, we had our friends Julian and Bess over for dinner.  They weren't able to come until 7, so we took advantage of the late dinner to make ravioli.  We had homemade cheese ravioli with Bech's tomato sauce and butternut squash au gratin with homemade pesto.  And for dessert, pumpkin spice cookies...yum!

Saturday, Jack decided to wake up early.  Guess he didn't get the weekend memo!  Bech was sweet and got up with him, letting me sleep in a little.

We were lazy in the morning, but took a midday trip to Perkins Rowe for some shopping and frozen yogurt.  Bech went into the studio in the afternoon, but came back home in time to watch some netflix with me.

Sunday, I made pumpkin waffles (can you tell that I am loving fall?), then we headed to church.  Jack was a little off that morning...really cuddly, which is slightly strange but also fun.

We vegged out Sunday afternoon and finished up season 2 of Sherlock. Um, is anyone else watching this show?  Ohmylanta!  I LOVE it.  Sadly, I just read that season 3 might not be out in the UK until next fall, which would mean the next spring for us!  I don't think I can wait that long!

Sunday night, Bech made cumin-lime slaw and fried gulf shrimp tacos...SO good.  We have not been cooking a lot lately, which we normally love to do.  It was fun to get lots of cooking done this weekend.

Today, I had a break from school (thank you, fall break!).  I decided to take advantage of my time home and take Jack to the local park.  So fun!  He loved it.  

I pushed him in the swing some.

Then Jack spent the rest of the time playing on the playset.   

He was a big fan of the slide.

We will definitely be going back soon!

Now Bech is back at the studio, Jack is asleep, and Psych is playing on Netflix. 

Yup, I'd say it was a good weekend!

"We were green before it was cool..."

Just for the record, the title of my post is completely a joke.  There was a Vermont bumper sticker that said that.

When I started college, my parents gave me a Honda Civic.  I LOVED that car so much.  Her name was Genevieve.  She got great gas mileage and never had any problems!

When we moved to Vermont, Bech and I decided to sell good ole Genevieve.  We had recently gotten Bech a truck, and we only needed one car.  

That worked great for Vermont, where I could take the bus from Fort Ethan Allen to class every day.  But in Baton Rouge, we need two cars.  My parents let me use my little sisters Mazda.  It's a great car and we were really grateful to them--but the Mazda did not have great gas mileage.  Markeeta the Mazda was a little sporty, and her gas mileage was comparable to Bech's truck.  Not so fun with gas as high as it is.  

Bech and I have wanted to get a hybrid for several years.  I HATE to pay for gas, and I knew I would love a hybrid.  But hybrids are expensive.  So I have been looking at used hybrids, searching for the perfect car at the perfect price.

Thursday, I found it!  Bech was super annoyed that I wanted to look at a car at 5 p.m. on Thursday night, but it worked out.  We are now the proud owners of an '08 Honda Civic (name TBD, suggestions are welcome).

This is Bech and Vance with Markeeta the Mazda.  Vance was laughing during this picture.  I asked him if this was the first time a buyer wanted to take his picture.  He said, "No, but it's the first time someone wanted the picture with the car being traded in."

Can I just tell y'all--we are LOVING the new car.  We drove it up to Jackson Friday night, Oxford Saturday morning, over to Tupelo Sunday morning, then back down to Jackson then Baton Rouge the rest of Sunday.

Learning to drive a hybrid is a change.  The first tank of gas got me to school and back on Friday, then all the way to Oxford.  We only got like 33 or 36 (I can't remember) miles per gallon on that tank.  Bech and I were bummed and worried that we had made a bad choice.  

But then I looked up more about driving hybrids, and we both experimented while driving.  The second tan got us all the way home (6 1/2 hours) with almost a 1/4 tank left.  Average mpg for this tank--43.6!!!  It just took us figuring out what we were doing.

Here's a picture from mid trip.  We ended up getting a little better, but I didn't snap a picture of that.

I love my new (to me) car!

Wild Weekend

We had a crazy and fun weekend!

Friday night, we got in my new (to me) car (more about that later) and headed to Jackson.  Jackie boy got to stay up late and go to the Mississippi State Fair with his Bella and Aunt Ansley.

Bech shared some of his cotton candy with Jack.

He was not a fan!

Bella wanted to take him on a ride, but the lines were too long, so she settled for a fair "happy."  He loved it!

We spent the night with my family at the King Ed, picked up Katy and Dave in the morning, then headed to Oxford bright and early for game day.  Of course we needed a stop at Cups first.

Oxford and the Grove were fun, but cold and rainy!  It started raining when we were walking to the Grove and continued to drizzle the rest of the afternoon.  Bech and I had thought about going into the game with Jack, but we ended up heading back to the apartment before kick off.  We hung out with Jack, put him to bed, then headed to bed early!

Jack with Colonel Reb.  Okay, so that's not really Colonel Reb.  It's just some creepy old guy who dresses up like him.  But I think he's hilarious.  We took a picture of Jack with him last year.

Jack wasn't so sure about the Colonel at first, but he warmed up to him.

Jack spent a lot of the afternoon in his Uncle Bubby's arms.  He loves his Bubby!

My good friend from Jr. High and High School, Fran, was there for the game.  She graduated from A&M and was there to cheer on her alma mater.  Elliot is 3 weeks younger than Jack, and they finally got to meet!

Sunday morning, Jack, Bech, my Dad, and I went to Bottletree Bakery for breakfast.  When Bech and I were in college, we had a breakfast date at Bottletree every Friday morning.  It was so special to bring Jack back to one of our favorite places.  

As a side note, Jack was a champ this weekend.  He barely cried or fussed, and he was amazing everywhere we went (and in the car rides--he spent 11 hours in the car this weekend!).

Then we headed over to Tupelo to see my Grandma Jean, Jack's great grandmother.  Jack is blessed to have four great grandparents.  He has met Grandma Jean once before, last year.  He has changed so much. He tried to knock over everything in the room, but I think she enjoyed seeing him.

Jack was sweet and shared some kisses with Grandma Jean.

We headed back to Jackson by way of the Natchez Trace, stopped at Keifers for lunch, then headed to Baton Rouge.  We've unpacked, Jack is asleep, and Bech and I are gearing up for the week ahead!

Life...

Whew...I need life to calm down!  We have had a busy couple of weeks and have a busy week coming up.

Here's what's been going on lately:

* This past week, school was busy!  The term is almost over (next week!) so I had several parents email me for conferences.  I also have tests and study guides I have been making and grading.

I was nervous for a couple of the conferences.  I think the relationship between parents and teachers has really changed in recent years.

Here's a good summary.  And I was definitely worried that the conferences would follow these lines.  But they were great!  The parents are totally on my side in how to deal with their kids, and I loved getting to talk to them!  What a blessing!

* This past weekend was Bech's 10th high school reunion.  We had fun.  I was surprised by how many of his classmates I knew.  I enjoyed meeting new ones, as well.  I don't want to do it every weekend, but it was enjoyable.

* We got to spend lots of time with Bech's family this past weekend.  We have seen his parents recently, but we also got to see his brothers, sister-in-law, and grandmother.  Jack LOVED the attention and did great the whole weekend.

* Speaking of my little man, he is getting his molars!  He has been sort of quiet and calm lately.  I was worried that he was getting sick, but I now know the culprit.

* Sunday, I went to Highlands, my childhood church, with my sister.  I love being back there--so many old friends and good memories.  Plus, it was a missions Sunday.  I always get so emotional at those, but I loved it.  Check out this video they made of some of their missionaries.  

The best part is the missionaries at the end--the Bonhams and Kines!  Nikki Travis Bonham and I grew up in youth group together.  The families left two weeks ago for Bogota, Columbia.  I am so excited for them and for their future work.

* Yesterday felt like fall here!  I LOVED it.  I ran by the store after work and grabbed some ingredients to make chili for dinner.  Bech and I ate chili while I burned an apple pie scented candle.  The perfect end to a fall day!

* This weekend, we are headed to God's country--Oxford, Mississippi.  I plan on seeing friends, spending time in the grove, eating Bottletree Bakery, and hanging out with my dad and sister.  To say I can't wait would be an understatement!  

Plus, it's going to be chilly Saturday night.  I plan on wearing some tights and boots to the grove!

That's what we've been up to.  Right now, I need to get to work on narratives for the end of the term.  Any other teachers have to do narratives for each student?