Forsyth Park

Does anyone love Ruby as much as I do?!?! I think she is the cutest thing ever and I love her to pieces! For one, I think that her mom knows what happened to her - which completely infuriates me and for two, I think she should be with Denny! Anyway, it's the Ruby fountain!

"Picture overcoming obstacles... See me beat the odds!"
Today, we took the kids to Forsyth Park for the very first time since we've lived here! I can't believe that we haven't taken advantage of it sooner! We loved it and it totally made us fall in love with Savannah in a different way. We watched a rugby game, drank fresh organic watermelon juice from the Farmers' Market, and played at the new splash park. It was really nice and an awesome artsy change of pace and I can't wait to go back.

Pieces of Coggie

I scared it away.

Brent's boss unexpectedly passed away yesterday morning and it shook Brent up pretty badly. Jim was more than a boss to Brent. He was a mentor to him as well, and had taken Brent under his wing when this project started about a year and a half ago. It has been pretty upsetting because I know how much Brent respected and looked up to him. I have only seen Brent get upset twice since I've known him. The first time was when Wyatt was airlifted to the NICU in Charleston shortly after he was born. Losing Jim was the second time.

Anyway, it's really made me consider death and how abruptly we might leave this world. It also allowed us look around and be so grateful and appreciative for the people we love who are still with us. Last week, at a dinner in Atlanta, Jim spoke to Brent about how he would really like to slow down to be able to enjoy his family. It's was point I have been trying to drive home to Brent ever since he started working 60-80 hours a week. I appreciated it so much coming from Jim because I know how much Brent valued and took his words to heart.

Because Jim was such an incredible person to Brent and our family, I want to remember those words he shared with Brent as a gift; to always remember what is most important. Each of us stand for something in this world, and Jim was also a remarkable example of a man who 'spoke softly and carried a big stick'. He was more than just a boss to Brent, he was a friend. Although he's not with us anymore, I know that parts of him will live on in Brent. We were blessed to have known him.

Happy Weekend!

We had another awesome weekend. I am so grateful that we seemed to have reached calm waters again (even if it's only for these last couple of weeks) and I pray with everything I have that this isn't temporary. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm starting to feel whole again. Shhh! Don't scare it away!

We went to the Beaufort Water Festival on Saturday and it was fun but brutally hot! I was so jealous of the waterskiers! It made me wish that I was out there with them! Anyway, we live in an area where we are so fortunate to have all these beautiful water oaks draped in moss. Callie calls them 'Halloween trees' and ran right up to this one to have her picture taken. I dig 'Halloween tree'; it's way more legit than boring 'Water Oak'. If I knew Webster, I'd call him up and suggest that he make the change permanently.

We spent all day outside on Sunday tending to various forms of outdoor neglectage. My muscles ached and I was so sweaty and stankonia by the end of the day that the vultures started circling my rotting carcas. It was such a fun day though. We all crashed hard but rallied in time to hit the pool again before it got too dark.

Callie has been wanting us to call her Caroline. She says she's a big girl now and Caroline is her big girl name. I love her name. Brent actually decided on her name about a week before she was born. I have a good friend from highschool named Caroline and I was having a hard time disassociating her from our baby Caroline. Plus, I loved the nickname "Callie" so that's why it stuck. Making the switch back is a pretty much a lost cause though; now, it's so ingrained that we might as well have put "Callie" on the birth certificate. Here is a picture of her in her new big girl bed. I'm sad.

Rambling...

There was a flock of wild turkeys in my front yard today. A flock! I didn't even know turkey's flocked, but apparently they do. I've only ever seen a group of maybe 3 or 4 turkeys together and they are usually clumsily jogging along the side of the road. There were at least a dozen turkeys in this flock. Most of them "flew" away, but the two tallest ones jogged it out and darted around the neighbor's house when they saw my car coming. Have you ever seen a turkey fly? It's hilarious. It's like watching a fat kid try to do a chin-up. I could watch turkeys fly all day long.

So, I have two reoccurring happy thoughts this week that I want to share. The first is that 'Eat, Pray, Love' is now a movie. I adored the book! Seeing that it was going to be a movie was like being handed hot krispie kreme donut. Then, I realized that Julia Roberts is in it. That was like being handed an entire box of hot krispy kremes. Giddiness.

My second thought is about how unbelievably cute Kevin Costner is for creating his own oil/water separator that he hoped to use in the event of an emergency like this latest BP crisis. Precious dude! He spent 24 million of his own dollars and has been working on this boat machine for the last 15 years. He said that his dreams came true when they allowed him to help with cleaning up the spill. Angel.

Callie and Wyatt have been on this kindergarten kick lately. They want to go now and are making me drive them by the school everyday as they ask me questions about what kindergarten entails. Wyatt needed to know if there was a potty and if he could "do rock and roll!". Callie wanted to make sure that she and Wyatt would stay together and that she could share his markers.

Anyway, talking about the school stuff gave me a quick preview of empty nest syndrome. I won't have any lingering reassurance from a younger baby at home that still needs a momma. It's cold turkey for me and that's going to be hard. I told them that I am going to cry when they go because I'll miss them so much. Callie told me that she would "surprise me a picture from kindergarten so you not hafta be sad anymore!" Awww. I need to get knocked up again, but with the exact same babies. They both need to chill on the growing up thing. I can't deal.

Callie's favorite book is called 'Pinkalicious' where this girl eats too many pink cupcakes and everything turns pink. The sun was shining down from the window in the foyer and reflecting off her pink bean bag into the closet. She was so excited because she said that the closet was pinkalicious. She asked me to get the camera and take her picture.

Happy Days!

We had such a fun weekend! I'm not sure what it was that made it so great... the planets and stars were aligned I guess, but it felt like a huge resuscitation! We didn't do anything special but had a lot of fun doing nothing.

Saturday night, we had icecream for dinner. It was so fun and the kids were so excited about it especially since I'm that mom who psychotically cares way too much about how much sugar the pygmies ingest. Lately, they've been obsessed with packing lunch so they can eat it in the car. Food tastes better in a van. Especially all things messy and sticky. I just roll with what ever floats the S.S. Runt!

On Sunday, we went hither and fro searching for the perfect big girl bed for Cal. She's way overdue and finally crapping on the potty. It's going to devastate me to tear down the last crib.


Today, I survived my first spin class! So much fun! It was rough though because I've been sedentary for at least 10 years! My muscles straight up atrophied and disintegrated a long time ago. Also, Lord knows how malnourished my body is from spewing forth two babies at the same time and then living on oreos and cereal for the first two years of their life! Internally, I'm 92 - no joke. So, when I hopped up on that bike and started hitting it like a whippersnapper, my legs were yelping in despair. It felt good though - possibly addictive. Maybe my new alias should be Lancetta Armstrong. I dig it.

We let the nuggets play in the rain after dinner. So cute!

4th of July Weekend!

I have THE two best kids on the entire planet. I know that borders on being annoying because I'm the first one to gag when I have to listen to some mom rant about how cute their "breathtaking" baby is... BUT this is my blog so I'm allowed.

Callie is so freaking cute that I sometimes have to stop myself from over-nibbling on her neck or drowning myself in the smell of her hair. She is the sweetest and smartest little girl with just the right amount of stank on her attitude to help her stand her own ground. Miss thing. She worries about people and animals all the time and always needs to know that they are okay. I will be wrapped around her pinky ninger until the day I die if she lets me. She is my best friend.

Wyatt is a precious and scrawny little crackhead. I couldn't have created a more sweet, sensitive, and crazy little dude if I tried. He can make me laugh in a second and bring me out of the nastiest of funks. Yesterday, he said (pointing at the deodorant), "I want that too... (And then pointing at his armpit) on my fur!" I love that nugget. He is also unbelievably compassionate and chivalrous which I would love to take credit for, but probably comes solely natural from the fact that he has a twin sister. Both runts have really good manners and are always concerned with how other people are feeling or how they can make someone happy. Especially Wyatt.

I don't know what I did to deserve these two perfect little bundles. They are the lights of my life and the air I breathe. Thank God for them. Wow.

Anyway, here are some pictures from 4th of July weekend. We were supposed to go to a party but both kids crashed out before we even left the house. Four days with no naps will do that, I guess. So, we recorded the Macy's fireworks instead and when Callie watched Justin Bieber (her absolute fave) sing, she twirled around and danced until she was too dizzy to stand up anymore. I have to admit that I have a little bit of a cougar crush on the Biebs. Too bad he's underage too! I'm sick. I'm aware.

And yesterday we made blueberry pie - the epitome of dessert perfection, I shiza you not! Please make this for your own good. Honestly, you are missing out on summery, blueberry perfection if you don't. I could down the whole thing by myself in one sitting. Anyway, I hope you all had an awesome 4th of July! I love my America!

5 Very Random Things...

1.) Trucks full of watermelons make me happy. It can't be a new or shiny truck - it has to be kinda busted and old with some farm dirt on it. They are part of the definition of summer to me. So cute!

2.) This post on BooMama's blog is just precious: http://boomama.net/2010/06/30/sometimes-i-understand-the-animals/ although with so many animal posts lately, I'm scared that I'm giving off a weird granola-eating, tree-hugger, peta-loving-paint-throwing kind of a vibe. Is that true?

3.) I read this great quote today and I'm loving it; it's the epitome of how I feel every single day. "Having a child is like pouring Miracle-Grow on your character defects." -Anne Lamott

4.) These are the runts' happy meal toys from lunch the other day. It's basically a plain plastic cow statue that you decorate with tiny stickers. The best part was watching how deep they got into their creative processes. Wyatt was on the verge of drooling. I fell in love with their masterpieces too and how typical they were of their respective 'arteests'. It's uncanny how much they remind me of me and my brother when we were little! (Left: Wyatt, Right: Callie)

5.) A few years ago, I walked into my local Bank of America and all the signs were in Spanish. There wasn't a drop of English around and I was lost on where the frik I was supposed to stand. I was so political-incorrectly upset that I later withdrew all my money and closed my account. Bank of America my ass.

Unfairly, I shunned all Spanish Romanticism and ranked Dora at the top. She was my arch nemesis. A few weeks ago, at the mercy of two very persistent three year olds, I caved and let the runts watch her. Unexpectedly, Dora blessed me with 30 minutes of heavenly silence and in fact, the show was pretty educational and sweet. About a week later, Callie was walking around the house able to count to five in Spanish! Wyatt, on the other hand... not so much.