Whew!

*Note: this too is postdated...I've had several post ideas floating around!

What a day! This morning I had a MOPS Steering Team meeting. We talked about how the year has gone so far and what we hope to do different/better for the second half of the year. Afterward, a couple of us joined working girls, Merideth & Joni for lunch at the Market Cafe, which I discovered has burgers...who knew? Unfortunately, it was after I had already ordered my pimento cheese sandwich, which was yummy...but Joni's burger smelled so good!

On the way home, Jack and I dashed into the grocery store to pick up some more ricotta, mozarella and milk (it's on sale this week...I would have gotten 2 gallons, but I don't have the fridge space...it's not as organized as my pantry!) Not long after we got back in the car had Jack given up the struggle to stay awake. Poor guy is still rocking 2 naps a day and when he misses the morning nap because we're away from home or out of sorts, he gets cranky.

So, while he napped I got to work making enough Lasagna to feed 3 families. I also managed to make a strawberry shortcake, which was hard not to dig into. We had some friends and their 3 kids (The Sheldons) over for dinner tonight. Our menu was Lasagna, Salad, Doughnut Bread (lol...thanks, Merideth!), Green beans & Strawberry Shortcake (saved a stash for the Spruills, but you have to cross the gnat line to get it!) We had a wondeful time catching up and as always Jack loved having the big kids around. Amy especially loved entertaining Jack and helping take care of him. She helped me get his pjs on and read him a book before I put him to bed. Then, while the guys gabbed Erin & I played UNO Attack with the kids. It was a lot of fun, but the last game wore everyone out...it must have lasted an hour! After it was all over, I was exhausted from all the fun. I quickly loaded the dishwasher and formulated all the great material for this blog entry and then headed to bed. Thank goodness my massage is tomorrow!

Oh, yeah the third family to enjoy lasagna will be the Cains on Sunday. I went ahead and assembled another to bake on Sunday afternoon to take them for dinner. Wendy & Stephen just welcomed a new baby, Emme. We went to visit them on her birthday yesterday. She's so precious!

This & That

Last week was incredibly busy around here. So, hopefully this week will be a little more relaxed. On Tuesday, I had a meeting at the hospital. On Josh's afternoon off we had the car brakes replaced and ran a few errands (including a house call :) Then, I finalized the Wednesday Whirl (an email newsletter that goes out to our MOPS moms b/f each meeting). Wednesday brought the hospital golf tournament. My great friend Andrea was kind enough to watch Jack for a few hours while I helped set-up and get golfers registered. After they teed off, I picked Jack up and brought him back to the course for the conclusion. We raced to church for Wednesday night supper and then set-up the tables for our first MOPS meeting.

Here's Jack in between crawls. Yep, he's crawling. He's been doing an army crawl for several weeks now, but a week or so ago he figured out how to keep his belly up (although he still doesn't do it most of the time). So, needless to say he's keeping the floors clean with his shirts.

On Thursday morning, we decorated for our MOPS meeting and then I had to take care of some hospital ads before picking Jack up from Early Steps. We headed over to Andrea & Andrew's, where we all piled in the truck and headed to Buford for a trip to Babies R Us. It was hectic, but an incredibly fun trip to break up the craziness of the week. We also managed to squeeze in a stop at Chick-fil-A and Ann Taylor Loft. After returning home, I dropped Jack off with Josh and headed back to our church to have a prayer meeting about MOPS. Then, I zipped back home to feed Jack before heading to BUNCO...another fun time! We laughed and carried on a bit too much I think! After returning home, I started on my breakfast items for the MOPS meeting and also put together my nametag, which I should have made weeks ago!

Friday morning was our MOPS meeting and everything went off without a hitch. We had a great turnout and everyone seemed to be excited to be reunited with one another after busy summers. We even finished on time! The Steering Team celebrated afterwards at Zanzo's. Joni agreed to take Jack home with her while I went to the newspaper to see about a special section on the hospital that will run in October. Joni is such a wonderful friend as well. After picking Jack up we fueled up the truck and went home to do a load of laundry before our road trip to Rome.

Yes, we left town! After an exhausting week, we packed up the truck and went to visit friends and family. Josh's buddy invited him to camp out at the lake. Jack and I slept at Josh's parents house, which was much more comfortable. We met Josh and his friends out at the lake on Saturday for lunch. Josh had smoked a bunch of ribs and we all enjoyed a wonderful feast. (They were even better the second time around - when we ate leftovers last night.) Jack mostly napped at the lake. Before long we had to pack up and head home so Josh could catch a nap before the late UGA game...he had to work on Sunday. He napped a little on the way home...unfortunately Jack did not. Anyway, we were glad to be home and enjoyed watching the game with our feet up. I almost dozed off a couple of times. I hope everyone stayed up to watch. If you did, you got to see TK make a great catch towards the end of the game. I wish he could have stumbled into the endzone. We were so proud for that Habersham County boy! Now, we have a week to prepare for a dangerous Alabama team. Apparantly a blackout is planned and GameDay will be in Athens. What a day it will be!

At the Lake with the Girls

Friday and Saturday, our MOPS Steering Team had their retreat at Lake Burton. Since it was all day Friday and part of Saturday, I took Jack along. As usual, he was pretty laid back and enjoyed sitting in the floor playing with Mallory, Sarah's one-year-old, while the ladies tackled the agenda. They entertaining themselves. These two were so well behaved.

After dinner we had a chance to get out on the lake. I convinced Joni into tubing with me. She had never been before. She was pretty reluctant, but had a wonderful time once we got going. She even wished we could go faster. Jack enjoyed the boat ride. Although we must have been pretty boring, because he fell asleep while Joni and I were on the tube! As usual, there are lots more pictures

Sorry for all the hyperlinks...Blogger wouldn't let me upload any photos!

Just the Good Ole Boys

On Friday, Jack and I went to Pitts Park for one of the last MOPS Friday in the Park play dates of the summer. Usually he just sits around or hops from person to person, but we did some actual playing today. Joni, a friend of ours, helped him ride the carousel with some of the other kids, and then I put him in one of the swings. He really loved it. I was able to get a few cute pictures of him enjoying the ride.

I look forward to taking him back to the park with Josh, so he can see how he loves the swing. Although you can probably get a pretty good idea just by looking at the pictures I got. After the park, Merideth and her boys entertained Jack while I had a lunch meeting with the PR committee of the local Habitat for Humanity.

On Saturday, Josh wanted to take Jack to see one of his favorite childhood memories, the General Lee. Josh has a picture from his childhood with the famous orange Charger and thought it would be neat for Jack to have one, too. A local car dealership had one on display and we took Jack to see it. I'm sure it will make for a funny story one day.

Our day concluded with dinner with the Shaws. They are in the middle of a lot of changes, one of which is their address, so we thought they could use a break from packing and also gave them a few more boxes. Jack as usual loved being entertained by Tate and Brit. We are looking forward to having them over to play on Wednesday!

By the way, Jack is officially 8 months old as of today. Crazy, huh? He is as fun as ever. He is talking, babbling a lot these days. Mostly da da and na na, which he doesn't associate specifically with anyone or anything yet. He's also a very busy body, wiggling everywhere. He's on the verge of busting loose and crawling everywhere (guess we better get our act together and finish babyproofing!) There are more pictures of our weekend adventures in our usual place.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

May has arrived and with it the celebration of Cinco de Mayo! Thanks to our wonderful friends the Shaws, we indulged in a fiesta of epic proportions...complete with three-meat burritos, homemade salsa/bean dip, chocolate chimichangas ala mode and a pinata! I'm not sure who had more fun with the pinata...the little ones or the big ones? Either way...I left knowing I will soon attempt to make Joni's delicious salsa/bean dip and Merideth's incredible chocolate chimichangas!! Here I am ready to show that pinata who's boss!

Of course, the best part of the evening were the great moustaches and sombreros Merideth pulled out! What a hit with everyone...although Tate and Jack were the only ones to bravely wear them! We got some great photos. Here's one with Jack and Joni, but there are a few more in the May photos folder (link to the right). What a night. Thanks, Shaws! I hope we can return the favor soon.