SO MUCH TO TELL! Part 1-first roadtrip

Believe it or not, I've been meaning to write an update for some time. Hang in there. Here's the account of Lilian's first roadtrip.

Think back to before Christmas. Yeah, I know, it's been a while. Well, this was Lilian's first big trip to TN to be with Uncle Scott and Aunt Stacey and the other family there. Let's just say the trip isn't one I'm anxious to repeat. First of all, it was nasty weather. It was freezing rain all morning, but since we were heading South, Jeff decided to go ahead. We ended up leaving home at 3:00 PM. Here's our list of stops...Dix (2 miles from home) to get sodas. Mt. Vernon (10 miles from home) to get Lilian's Christmas pictures from Sears. Ina (25 miles from home) to drop off my sister's share of the pictures we just picked up. Finally, we were on the open road...only to stop 5 miles from Paducah (a scheduled stop) because someone (not me) couldn't hold it any longer. We finally made it to Wendy's for everyone to eat. And wouldn't ya know it, there wasn't a changing table in the restroom. Isn't that illegal?!?!? (Not that I cared before Lilian came along.) Anywhoos...we had to stop about 3 miles away at a rest area to change Lilian. On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again...SING WITH ME! ok, sorry, that's the music teacher popping out there. We managed to make only 2 more stops before getting to Scott's house.

Now, I must mention that we are taking a new route because Jeff got us a new GPS. Which was really nice, but he was still unfamiliar with the roads. And I can't forget to tell you that it's dark. And the best part was that it was raining the ENTIRE TRIP! Not just a little shower here and there, I mean it was seriously raining for the WHOLE TIME! So, here we are, on unfamiliar roads, in the dark, in the rain, with our not-quite-6-month-old on her first long trip. Are you ready to hear the adventures? Oh yeah, this story isn't over yet!

So Lilian enjoys play time in the evenings. With being tied down in a car seat and no light outside, she must have been thinking we were trying to put her to sleep. After crawling into the backseat, it seems that the dome light helped with her mood. However, I must remind you of the driving conditions...NASTY! Jeff is finding it hard to drive with the light on, and asks if there's something I can cover the light with to block his view. So, I pulled out a diaper and used the velcro straps to stick it to the car ceiling to block the light for Jeff. I really should have taken a picture because it was quite funny. I can only imagine what people thought to see us driving down the road with a diaper hanging from the ceiling. Hopefully your imagination is making you smile, at least on the inside! :)

The trip home from TN was during daylight hours, and it wasn't raining. It went much smoother. I don't have any stories to tell on that one. One thing I learned the whole trip, was that if there's a place that doesn't have a changing table, we'll find it!

Opening a Present...according to Lilian

Here's how Lilian opens a present. Notice that the present really doesn't matter, just the paper. :)

Baby's First Christmas

Here are some shots of Lilian enjoying her first Christmas. She really liked to grab and eat the paper.
She really looks excited to get these DVD's!
Best gift of all was Lilian herself!
I got these letters on a super sale. It was my best deal of the shopping season! :)

She's found her thumb

Lilian has found her thumb, and I finally got a picture of it!

Merry Christmas! (a little late)

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a great Christmas! We had a great time visiting family. More on that later. Here are some shots of Lilian in her Christmas dress. Thanks Travis for snapping these super cute shots!


You can't see her dress, but her face was too cute!

No Recession

I am so NOT convinced that we are having a recession. I'd rather call it an awakening. It just so happens that this "awakening" is bad for some businesses.

So last weekend, when I went shopping, the stores and streets were all PACKED! And people were carrying bags of stuff out of the stores. Kohl's in particular was so crowded that I decided what I was about to buy wasn't on sale good enough for me to brave the line. So I left it there. Maybe I'll wait 'til the after Christmas sales. :) The shopping trip was productive overall. Garden Ridge had really good stuff. And my best stop was Hobby Lobby. You'll have to see what I got there after Lilian opens her gifts...;) It was a long day, and I had intended on not going home until I was DONE. Well, I almost made it. I'm really, really close to being done.

Now, more about my "awakening" idea. For way too long, my generation has been living by a philosophy of, "I deserve everything without working for it. I should have everything I want right now. And I want the Biggest and Best of the best." This is not how our parents and certainly not our grandparents have lived. I don't know about most of you, but I love hearing my grandma Dorothy tell stories of her family and life. I've tried for years to get her to write some of this stuff down, because I'll never remember it all. Anyways, she was a child during the Great Depression. We've got it pretty darn good compared to those days. Maybe this little economic slow-down is working to make my generation less wasteful and more thoughtful with money. It's just not a bad thing to wait on things you want. To work for them. It makes you more appreciative. Hopefully we can teach our kids better...or maybe it's them, that will teach us.

5 Months

On Wednesday Dec. 3 Lilian turned 5 months old. Here's a few shots of our darling.
And thanks to a terrific update to Picasa, the last pic turned out really well.