Happy 9th Birthday, Sam! (part1)

This is truly one of the happiest, best feelings of my life captured in a photo! There are no words to describe the first time you hold your newborn baby and smell his sweet skin. If I could have a thousand babies just to have that feeling again, I would! There is a book I love to read to my boys to try to share with them how happy we were{and everyone anticipating their arrival was) when they were born. And how incredibly special they are to us.

The only problem is that they now laugh at me because I struggle to get through the book without a flood of tears. When we see it in stores, Sam says, "Oh no! There's that polar bear {polar bears are on the cover} book. She's gonna read it and start crying in the store, Fulton."

And I do.

I torture them with the embarrassment, but they stand there and listen...again and again.

Sam is NINE today and I can still remember that feeling like it was yesterday.

So here's to you, Sambo! You are for sure one of my greatest blessings in my life.

We love you more than you know and couldn't be more proud to be your parents!!!

On the Night You were Born

by Nancy Tillman

 

On the night you were born,

The moon smiled with such wonder

That the stars peeked in to see you

And the night wind whispered,

“Life will never be the same.”

Because there had never been anyone like you…ever in the world.

So enchanted with you were the wind and the rain

That they whispered the sound of your wonderful name.

It sailed through the farmland

High on the breeze…

Over the ocean…

And through the trees…

Until everyone heard it

And everyone knew

Of the one and only ever you.

Not once had there been such eyes,

Such a nose,

Such silly, wiggly, wonderful toes.

When the polar bears heard,

They danced until dawn.

From faraway places,

The geese flew home.

The moon stayed up until

Morning next day.

And none of the ladybugs flew away.

So whenever you doubt just how special you are

And you wonder who loves you, how much and how far,

Listen for geese honking high in the sky.

(They’re singing a song to remember you by.)

Or notice the bears asleep at the zoo.

(It’s because they’ve been dancing all night for you!)

Or drift off to sleep to the sound of the wind.

(Listen closely…it’s whispering your name again!)

If the moon stays up until morning one day,

Or a ladybug lands and decides to stay,

Or a little bird sits at your window awhile,

It’s because they’re all hoping to see you smile…

For never before in story or rhyme

(not even once upon a time)

Has the world ever known a you, my friend,

And it never will, not ever again…

Heaven blew every trumpet

And played every horn

On the wonderful, marvelous

Night you were born.

HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY TO MY MOST PRECIOUS SAM!

(Y'all know I have to do birthday posts in 50 parts...so stay tuned!)

Lunch Date

I was fortunate enough to be selected by a very precious 1st grader as a VIP on Tuesday. It was VIP week at her school and she got to invite her own personal VIPs to eat lunch with her. I MADE THE CUT!
This is Madeline...

She's my niece (the daughter of Shan's brother and his wife). If you're familiar with the Bubble Guppies, EVERYTHING about Deema reminds me of Madeline.

It cracks me up! Oliver even says "there's ma-lin" when we watch it.

Any who... Oliver and I joined her for lunch and thoroughly enjoyed our brief visit. We got the run-down on what everyone had in their lunch boxes, talked about her favorite part of school - recess, and talked about the pending rainy-day recess. Oliver felt so BIG at the table of 1st graders. Maddie-Lou even brought some extra fruit snacks to share with him. He was in heaven! I probably could have left him the rest of the day. ;)

I was happy to be selected and... Madeline, I'll be your VIP anytime!

Lucky Day

This post could have several names, but I'm going with "Lucky Day."

I was on the phone with my dear friend Darby - who I am excited to say is back in the blogosphere after a 4 year hiatus - and I was telling her about my weekend and some of  my woes. While some are very petty and I realize that I could have it much worse, I really feel like the wheels are falling off the freakin' bus sometimes. So I wanted to title this..."Things are just crap right now, but I'm tryin' to find the good", but she convinced me otherwise by just laughing hysterically. (I'll link to her blog once she's completely ready to go. She's the mother of FOUR so you can only imagine the stories she has to tell.)

I won't bore you with the crappy details of my life right now, but I will tell you that two dear friends of mine are in desperate need of prayer! These sisters suffered an enormous family tragedy last Friday. It is a huge loss to our church parish. I would love if you could help me pray for them - The Moores - specifically for peace, strength, and comfort, as well as physical and emotional healing. This is going to be a long road for them over the next few months and I know they would appreciate being lifted up. Thank you!!!

On a lighter note, today started out really good.
After I left the gym I found a really cute and lonely table sitting on the side of the road in the drizzly rain. I can't wait to paint it! I've been looking for something like this to either use in my Craft Room or in Ollie's big-boy room that we plan to do for his birthday. Now it will be re-purposed and loved again...Yay!!

THEN. Remember my post a few weeks ago with my birthday wish list? I really want a new Swivel Sweeper because my battery pack bit the dust a while back and I had to steal my mom's. Well, the newer model is out, it's red and has a flexible handle that I could take or leave and runs about $50. So I was in a nearby Dollar General and found the older model, the same one I had - which I love - for only $28. Yay, again!

I started feeling a little lucky after all that! Then I topped it off with a great trip to the grocery store where everything I bought was on sale...with the exception of produce of course. I was so excited and can't wait to cook supper this week because they had all kinds of good stuff on sale!

Any whooooo... I love days like this!

On a completely different note...I've been wanting to post this but didn't want to ruin it for the recipient. I just love it and am making one for all my boys. I'm going to go ahead and do Ollie's in his big boy room colors. As for Sam and Fulton, I might just stick with a masculine color scheme since their rooms won't be changing much color wise. I was thinking about doing a giveaway on here for it. What do you think? So it could end up being your lucky day if I do that. ;-)

You don't have to have a new baby... we can always go back and back-date or just leave the stats off. I can match nursery/bedroom colors and patterns, too!

Well, it's been nice feeling a little lucky today! It doesn't happen often, but I'm enjoying it none-the-less.