It's Just Me, Myself & Ry

It's just the two of us this weekend.  John Michael is on his 6th Annual canoe trip to the Buffalo River in Arkansas.  Roughly 20 guys go each year, and they always come back with a better story than the year before.  While gathering his last few items for the trip, John Michael realized he nearly forgot his most prized possession, an extreme necessity for campers who are roughing it for the weekend with no running water, no microwave or stove, no comfy bed, and most importantly, no toilet.

  

  

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I don't research things before I get them.  But when it came time to buy a new car seat, everyone's suggestion was to research.  That overwhelms me.  So, I went to Babies R Us, Ryder in tow (this is a big deal for me as I have never taken him shopping alone).  I saw a set of parents with a little boy who looked a few months older than Ryder near the car seat aisle and asked them what they suggested.  She started spouting out all kind of reviews and safety ratings and she said she would suggest the seat below (Graco - My Ride 65), so I went with it.  I had to order it and it hasn't come in yet, but I sure hope it's a good'en.

I made a pit stop at Vicky's (Victoria's Secret) to get my "free panty" after Babies R Us and Ryder was just an angel, but he didn't want to stay in the stroller.  I just plopped him on the floor and threw a couple pair of undies down and that kept him entertained for a good ten.  The lady helping me told him he looked like a little boy but had the eyes of a little girl.  Thanks?

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On Saturday, we went to the Perrett's to celebrate Payton's 30th.  I must say Ryder was quite the ladies man.  Meet these precious triplets: Allie, Reese and Juliet Westmoreland. 

                                        

Ryder and Preston.  I don't know how I missed getting a picture of Pace.

First time in the pool.  He's got some serious MB's (man boobs) on him.

Lovin' the water.

This is just wrong on all accounts.  Sadly, Ryder has the look of "Dad, I LOVE this shirt!"

 Hanging out with my man before work.

Date Night!!!

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I've been told by several people that separation anxiety is soon to come.  It's here, and I'm the one who has it, not Ryder.  It makes me sick to leave him now.  I looked up one day and realized my baby was almost one, and I feel like I've missed out on so much.  This is a horrible feeling and I promised myself (and told JM) that next go round, this isn't happening.  No exceptions.  I'll do whatever it takes.  Yes, I'm going to work, because I like to work, but I want to work part-time.  And I don't want to talk about this anymore, so I'm moving on.

I forgot to mention this, but Ryder is crawling fast as lightening!  He can go anywhere he wants now.  He's also pulling up on stuff and he's even growing a little more hair too.  He still has the skank-do, you know, the one where the hair is really flat and straight forward on top with no side part?  I try to whisk it over to the side but it just won't stay.  It's so straight forward that I can't even tell which way it would part if we tried. (please hold while I look for proof). 

Found a nice close up.  I'll keep my eyes peeled for some baby product, will you do the same?

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FACT FRIDAY

1.  NEVER HAVE I EVER...

• 
  
  been stung by a bee or wasp... or jellyfish while I'm at it.
• 
  
  had a cavity (I'm quite proud of this).
• 
  
  had a nose bleed.
• 
  
  had my eyebrows waxed.
• 
  
  tasted shrimp, crab meat, lobster, or anything else in the family.
• 
  
  had brown hair.
• 
  
  pet a dog until I got Peanut at age 24.
• 
  
  gotten out of a speeding ticket (4).
• 
  
  owned a pair of Samba's (I mean who didn't have a pair in the late 90's?)
• 
  
  had my wisdom teeth out.
• 
  
  seen some of the most popular movies of all time:  Top Gun, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, OR... hold the phone - TWILIGHT...gasp.

2.  I've sang/sung a solo before.  Let me explain.  In 7th grade everyone was in choir.  It was the thing to do.  It was probably our largest class of the day and toward the end of the year we had to try out for 8th grade choir.  You didn't have to sing well to be in choir, but you still had to try out.  When I say try out, I mean we had to sing a solo in front of the class.  {I'm laughing tears thinking about this right now}.  We literally had to stand at the piano, about five people at a time, and each person had to sing along ONE AT A TIME to whatever song our teacher was playing.  For someone whose stomach knotted up the first couple weeks of school from even having to say "HERE" when the class roll was called, this was excrutiating.  Needless to say, I made the cut.  Some how.  Some way.  Please take a moment and picture yourself at this point in your life standing up in front of a crowd and singing a solo (you non-performers, that is).  Can you imagine?  The things you do to be "cool" in junior high.

Musings

In this moment...

Outside my window...a HOT sunny day.

I am thinking...about the piece of furniture I am painting tonight.

I am thankful for...my son.

From the kitchen...ha. ha.

I am wearing...black cotton dress

I am creating...a new and improved living room. 

I am going...to Wal-mart to buy a new candle...Simply Basics, tropical scent.  Not my normal choice, but after smelling a friends, I'm hooked. 

I am reading...Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger, and not enough of the Bible.

I am hoping...John Michael gets to feeling better.

I want...new sheets and comforter.

I am hearing...the keyboard and the air conditioner.

Around the house...baby gadgets.  Why does baby paraphernalia have to stand out so much?

One of my favorite things...vacation.

A few plans for the weekend... clean the house, buy Ryder a carseat, try to lay out for a bit, make it to church Sunday.

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I put Ryder in his Jumperoo yesterday and he was just a bouncing away.  As I got to the kitchen I looked over at him and noticed something looked strange - he seemed a bit high up.

Then I figured it out.

Ahh.  Such relief.

Happy Birthday Aunt K

Today is the 23rd birthday of my sister.  A wonderful aunt to Ryder, a wonderful daughter to our parents and a best friend to me.  I have to admit I gave Kayla a hard time growing up.  I was just plain mean to her.  I pulled more hairs out of her head than I could count.  I made her be my slave.  And worse, I made fun of her!  She knows I feel bad about that now, but my goodness I was a mean big sis.  When I was little I remember thinking Kayla was the prettiest little girl.  I would always tell my mom I thought she was so much prettier than me, and that wasn't fair.  I remember she had a few curls at the end of her hair and I was so sad when it was time to get it cut, because the curls would be gone.  I remember when she didn't make cheerleading for 7th grade I cried because I didn't want her to get a low self-esteem (it's way too big of a deal in jr. high).  Kayla has a few quirky things about her, and she's been this way her whole life:

• She won't fold towels because she says they tickle her fingers
• When it was time for my mom to wake her up for school, she wouldn't get out of the bed until someone made a trail of pillows for her to walk out of her room on because she didn't like how the carpet felt on her feet
• She won't drink anything brown (coke, dr. pepper, root beer)
• She can't swallow pills.  If she has a headache and needs tylenol, she has to break it up and put it in ice cream.
• She has a calendar and writes down every single thing she does every single day.  She's done this for years and years. 
• She doesn't ask questions and she doesn't notice things about people.  If she wasn't my sister and our parents didn't tell her my name, she wouldn't know it.  She doesn't ask ANYTHING!!!  She knows this drives me crazy because I'm question queen and I tell her all time I don't understand how she doesn't want to know stuff.  Just one of many examples.  Someone was bringing her to meet me and I asked, "what does she drive so I'll know what car to look for" she said "I don't know."  She was with this girl all weekend, driving all over the place in this girl's car, and she never even noticed what kind it was.  If I'm lucky, she'll remember the color.  I have to share another example because this is just too coo coo.  I'm telling you she had been friends with this girl for an entire school year at State.  One day I met this girl and later I asked Kayla what her major was.  Kayla didn't know!!!!  Then I said, "well where is she from."  "I don't know Brittany, why do you ask so many questions?" 

Nevertheless, I love my lil sis with all my heart and I truly don't know where I would be without her in my life.  Hope you have a fabulous day, KK!

Even though Ryder is nearly a week past 8 months, I promise I didn't forget to take his picture, I'm just late  posting it.  At 8 months, Ryder is doing (or has done at least once!) the following:

• sat up by himself on Mother's Day - he was 8 months 1 day.
• pulling up on stuff.
• still toothless - but I'm starting to see ridges there.
• gets from the sitting position to the crawling position and rocks back and forth.
• is very alert and aware of everything
• chooses the remote control over any toy on earth
• goes to bed at 7, and usually wakes 12 hours later like clockwork.
• will start stage 3 baby foods as soon as I go to the grocery store.
• still takes four 6 oz bottles a day
• takes two naps a day, usually from 9 - 11 a.m. and 2 - 3ish p.m.
• always wants to be on the floor... until I put him there.  And always wants to be held... until I pick him up.  Do you see a pattern?

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We took two overnight night trips last week.  Thursday we went to Oxford and Saturday to New Orleans for the Ryan Bingham show.  The shows were ahhh-mazing, no surprise to us.  Last time we saw him in Birmingham there were about 20 people there so we got to hang out with him before and after the show.  Now that his movie is out (Crazy Heart - well he wrote the songs for it), both shows were sold out and he was a little too famous to hang out in the wide open.  It was disappointing, but still a great time!  We're going to Texas for Fourth of July to see him again and staying at this resort.  How nice does this look!

Oxford Show - Anna Terrell, JM, Corby (guitar/mandolin player), myself, Kayla

the one and only...

Finally made it to New Orleans on Saturday - love my sis

Surprise, I'm 7 months pregnant - NOT.  The wind got me on this one. I'm not sure who took this picture, but whoever you are (thinking it's Kayla), you're not a very honest friend.  Everytime I look back at this picture I laugh to death.

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It's that time.  To bring the matress down.  Not that he's gotten anywhere near crawling out, let's admit, we don't have a marathoner on our hands, but he's pulled up enough times to give me a good scare.  I knew da da would be hard at work the minute he suspected the chance of an injury.

We got him in this position, but still.

Fact Friday

I'm a scaredy cat.  If I watch a TV show before going to bed that gives me a bad feeling, I have to end the night with something uplifting.  It doesn't even have to be scary, but say I'm watching Grey's Anatomy or Private Practice and something sad happens, I'll finish the show and then make myself stay up 30 more minutes to watch an episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians or something of that nature.  I can't stand going to sleep with a bad feeling.  Along these same lines, if I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or get a sip of water, I run like crazy thinking someone is behind me.  And then when I'm at least 4 feet from the bed, I take a huge dive so no one grabs my legs from under the bed.  However, I've gotten much better over the years.  When I was in high school, I would call my sister and ask her to come in my room and walk with me to the bathroom because I was so afraid.

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I've started to read The 5 Love Languages.  I've heard for eons that I've needed to read this, but I'm not big on self-help, non-fictional books (I've mentioned this before), but I've made progress.  I'm on page 30.  And this paragraph caught me, and I think alot of married couples can relate:  It's called Reality Intrudes and it says this:

"Welcome to the real world of marriage, where hairs are always on the sink and little white spots cover the mirror, where arguments center on which way the toilet paper comes off and whether the lid should be up or down.  It is a world where shoes do not walk to the closet and drawers do not close themselves, where coats do not like hangers and socks go AWOL during laundry."

This just makes me feel good, and actually gives me a good laugh because it's become a tradition around here that when I fold JM's clothes, there will be 13 pairs of socks, none matching.  I've just started to wear the mis-matchers when I mop the house.  That way I won't get footprints anywhere.

Have a great weekend :)
I'm off to celebrate Ashlea & Kyle's wedding.

Cinco De MayNO

We are on the ninth day of Ryder's antibiotic for his ear infection and the first seven days he was doing great, but these past two days he just couldn't shake his fever.  I took him to the doctor this afternoon and first they checked his temperature, 102.6.  When the doctor came in, she checked his ears first since that's where the issue began and said "his ears look perfect" and then she put the large popsicle stick in his mouth and I said "so, is he getting any teeth?" thinking that was why she was looking in his mouth.  Instead she said, "no, but his throat looks nasty."  Apparently he has hand, foot and mouth disease, which is just a virus that is pretty common with babies.  There is nothing to do to treat it except Motrin/Tylenol for the fever.  So, instead of celebrating the wonderful holiday of Cinco de Mayo at one of our wonderful local Mexican establishments, we did it the good ole' Wilson way.

You know I love a good stat check up... and just three days short of his 8 month birthday, Ryder weighs 19 lb. 12 oz. 

We were getting ready for work the other morning and JM pulled out a white tshirt to wear under his button up, and look what was attached:

If you worked at a cleaners and saw this tshirt - without a stain - wouldn't you just assume it was a man who brought it in, and men don't pay much attention to detail.  So said man probably had it still stuck inside his button up?  Please tell me the cleaners aren't that ignorant.  It gave us a good laugh though.

We spent last Saturday at the annual crawfish boil at the Crager's with the guys JM played football with at MC.  Each of the guys below have been in attendance the past several years, but unfortunately we missed the Kingrea's this year.  Here's for a trip down memory lane.

Enjoying the crawfish boil with daddy.

These cuties, Preston & Pace Perrett are only 3 weeks younger than Ryder.

American Idol is on as I type, and it reminded me of something funny that happened last week on the show.  Did any of you notice after one of the contestants finished singing and they began the judges comments in the usual order...Randy spoke, then Ellen, and then it was Kara's turn.  And Kara started her spiel with "I've got to say, I agree with the guys on this one."  Poor Ellen.