Crazy happy

Hello friends! We are having a great day, it's nice and sunny outside and has reached about 60 degrees! I've cleaned up and Anderson has played and we've read lots of books, but not too much action today.

On our way home from San Antonio, I asked Adam, "what makes you really happy"? And his answer was "traveling with you guys" :) I thought about it a lot and wondered what did make me truly deliriously happy that you can feel it to your very core? When Anderson is really really happy he will say "dicka dicka dee, dicka dicka doo"!After giving it a couple days thought, I came up with 5 things that make me CRAZY happy and want to say "dicka dicka dee, dicka dicka doo"!!

1. Adam and Anderson and I'm not just saying that cause it's politically correct. They REALLY DO make me crazy happy! They are my LOVES! (when Adam and I were 19 and just started dating, I KNEW at that time that I would marry him, he has always felt like home to me)

2. Family- these folks make me crazy happy also, because they LOVE me unconditionally and I have a heart that is full of love for them too!3. Spring time- makes me crazy happy because it feels like a new beginning for the world. Everything is so green and beautiful! I LOVE when new buds open on the trees!4. Feeding ducks with your baby-this is such a relaxing and fun way to spend an afternoon. It's a peaceful experience.5. Going on vacations with Adam and Anderson, especially to Panama City Beach where my granddad has a house. The beach is the MOST awesome place on the face of the earth. If you had trouble, seriously you will forget them there!

What makes you crazy happy?

San Antone-Day 2

Hello friends! Completing the second day of our trip, we decided to go to downtown San Antonio, which is neat but kinda strange. Strange, meaning that the Alamo is still pretty much intact, but is in the middle of the downtown area and is surrounded by large buildings. Yesterday, I told you that San Antonio feels like Texas because of their trees and cactus. So different from North Texas!You get a feeling, you're in the OLD west.

Our first stop was the Riverwalk. I think that there was a river running through San Antonio, but the city added/dug out the rest of this little river and made it a tourist attraction. Whatever the reason, it's still beautiful and fun. We saw lots of ducks swimming, and it was a beautiful sunny day.We headed over to the Alamo. If you don't know the story of the Alamo, shame on you...but you can read about it here:) Anderson had a ball playing in the garden outside of the Alamo. You see, the Alamo was an old Spanish mission(or church) and I got you a picture of the inside of the Alamo where Davey Crockett and others were holed up for 30 days against Santa Anna's army. But, then I got in trouble, ooops...I didn't read the sign...no pictures!

And real, Texas Rangers guarding the Alamo! What an awesome job! Have you seen the excellent movies from the books of Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, Commanche Moon and others? Go rent them...seriously!

This old water oak tree was moved to the site at the Alamo in 1840 and at the time, the oak tree was 40 years old. Amazing!After leaving San Antonio, we stopped by the outlet mall, which was the nicest outlet mall I've ever seen. Fendi and Gucci at an outlet mall...really?

We hated to leave, but it was time to go home. We had a wonderful weekend and are ready to go back soon!

The Yellow Rose of San Antone- Day 1

Hello friends! Sorry, I went M.I.A. on Friday, but we decided spur of the moment to go on a trip. We packed up our bags in about 10 minutes and threw our things into to the car, and away we drove to San Antonio. It took only 4 hours to get there, but it feels like the true west and truly feels like Texas! See even the trees and bushes look different here.

Adam and I took a trip the second year of our marriage to San Antonio and LOVED it! We decided that we would take Anderson to Sea World on Saturday. Boy, was that a BIG HIT!! He LOVED it and the best part is that we bought season passes, so we can go a couple of other times before next year. It was 70 degrees, sunny and wonderful! Here are a few pictures of what we did. We saw Shamu, and he was on his best behavior. Wasn't that awful? The head trainer there knew the lady who got killed in Orlando and teared up when he talked about her. So sad!

And then we went to this neat dolphin show, and somebody was truly tuckered out and fell asleep on me, which he rarely does:)
We went to eat at a famous bbq place called Rudy's BBQ, the Worst BBQ in Texas, but it is ohhhh so good!
When you order your food, they put it on butcher paper and your tray is a Pepsi bottle distribution tray. The best part about it is that you eat outside, which was so delightful and refreshing after a long day at Sea World. See you tomorrow with Day 2 of San Antone!

Just a couple of things...

Hello friends! We have been to the duck pond and saw 1 duck! Ha! It was almost ridiculous! Anderson and I chased that stinkin' mallard duck all around the pond to try and get him to take some bread. He just wouldn't do it.

When we left the duck pond, we took the pups over to Central Bark Dog Park to let them play in the beautiful sunshine. Anderson LOVES this place just as much if not more than Annabelle and Gus do.He met some new friendsFound an empty orange juice container filled with rocks(that was weird) and was delighted that it made a neat shaking noise!Look at the smiles on these faces! :) Happy dogs and baby boy!

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Do you have Golden Books at your house? I have some that I found from my childhood that were in my grandparent's beach house. These books were not mine, they belonged to this little girlSherry Register and they are complete with her coloring and everything. I have tried looking for her on facebook, but all of the Sherry Register's I asked were not from Graceville, Florida. Well, one was from Florida but she was a couple of years too young. I'm dying to find her so I can send her books back to her. Oh where could you be, Sherry?

I LOVE old books, especially childrens books. My dad had a book when he was a little boy called "Little Black Sambo". I found it also at my grandparents beach house. On ebay, the book that is in that good of condition sells for $275 dollars!! Can you believe that!

I bought Anderson a new Golden Book today and it wasn't the price that Sherry Register's old Golden Book cost, 29 cents. Don't I wish it was though...It was $3.50, but I LOVE how you can buy the new Golden Books and they were first printed in the 1950's!

Chick-Flay

Hello friends! Anderson and I have just arrived home from our outings and he is talking himself (hopefully) to sleep as I type;) I documented here on Monday that we went to the library to return some books and got drafted into doing storytime, which was neat! Well....darnit, if last night we were reading and an overdue library book popped up. Doesn't it always happen that way? In my defense, I don't think it was actually overdue(hopefully not), it had just strayed away from the others. So, back to the library we went and I let him play for a little bit in the kiddos section. They older toddler story time had just let out, so there were older little girls and there was LOTS of bossing going on. So glad I don't have to deal with that:) They were trying to boss Anderson, but he kept telling them "NO" and "Bye" which he says these days for a variety of reasons, but on this day, it was simply because he WASN'T going to be bossed. Ha! I could have told those girls that.

We decided to go over to Chick-Flay as Anderson refers to it and eat and let him play. (Darnit...our gift cards stash that mom sent is dwindling).

I love Chick-Fil-A for a variety of different reasons the first being that they have great food and I feel that it's the best fast food you can get for kids. And they have a killer playground. Also, their customer service CAN'T BE BEAT! When you order at the counter inside, they get you a high chair and then tell you to sit down and they will bring it out...Awesomeness! And they give away all kinds of free things which I have already mentioned in a previous post, including, placemats, mints and sanitizing wipes...that I smuggle out of there:)

But most importantly, it fosters a sense of self-awareness and a can do attitude when children are left alone to play with the other kids. Anderson finally made it up the BIG KID steps and then fell back down again...luckily, I was standing there and caught him. Seriously...I think Chick-Fil-A should already have our order ready when we get to the counter...we go that much!

If you can read this, thank your parents and teachers

Hello friends! We've had a good morning, just cleaning up and reading books and staying inside cause guess who showed back up again...old man winter! UGH!!!

I'm excited because I got Anderson's birthday party reserved at Landmark. I forgot to tell you that it's going to be April 10 from 11-1(if you are reading this and can come or if you are my family and are coming) Also, my friend and old co-worker Laura said that she would make Anderson's birthday cake again this year! She made his cake for his 1st birthday party and she did a fabulous job and it tasted great!
Today, as we were reading Anderson's books, I took inventory and discovered that he had exactly 103 books! I am not bragging please don't think that I am. He just loves to read and I'm sure your kiddos have just as many if not more books. :) I was reading an article in Parents magazine yesterday and it really disturbed me. It said that some poorer parts of the country, it gave the example Lubbock,TX have areas where the neighborhoods don't have any books hardly at all. It gave some crazy statistic like for every 300 kids there are like 3 books. And to boot, the libraries in these poorer areas don't get as much money as other affluent areas. As an educator(yes ,I STILL place myself in that category, cause once one, always one, right?) this really BREAKS MY HEART!

And especially since I taught in a school that was in the ghetto and was low-income, I know this to be true! There is a great website you can donate to to help these children get a jump start in life and get them reading. Go here to see all about it. OR You can also:

1. Go through your bookshelves and pull out books that you will never read again or have owned for more than 2 years and haven't read yet.
2. Pack the books in a box.
3. Call your local library, school, foster home, or children's organization to see if they need books.
4. Deliver the books.

Two months

Hello friends! We were just saying yesterday that it felt so nice and warm out and then BAM, it's cold again today and tomorrow....ugh...dare I say it...more snow! I have always said that I would have liked to live in Canada, but maybe not anymore. :) We got started this morning by taking Anderson's books back to the library and staying and looking around. I looked TERRIBLE, no bath, no make up, sweat shirt and pants and boots...a lovely picture. One of the moms told me that the library story time was about to begin. Okay...Anderson and I went and lots of people were there and Anderson was a WILD MAN! Running all over and then when the singing started...this kiddo was cutting a rug! Hilarious! Sorry no pictures, I was too busy doing crowd control!

These pictures are not from the library, but I wanted to show you a picture of him doing the "centipede" it's where he stomps his feet and looks like he's dancing. My mom taught him this. Ha! And us reading today. I swear to you, we read at least 30 books everyday...maybe more.Today, Anderson is exactly 22 months old! We only have two months until we are about to have a 2 year old! Where did the time go? I was just holding him and feeding him every 3 hours and now....he's just....BIG!We've been talking a lot and planning a lot for his 2nd birthday. We are going to have it in Dothan on April 10(which is a Saturday) and are going to have it here. Since Anderson LOVES all things animals. And I'm ordering his invitations from here. They are SO inexpensive!! And my friend and old roommate, Angela is doing his birthday outfit. I can't wait to get it! We are doing a giveway for you to win one of her beautiful outfits for your child. It will be either in March or April...so stay tuned.

Give me some ideas for a cake...think barnyard animals or any other ideas ya got?