Eggstra, Eggstra!

Okay, so the title is cheesy, but I couldn't think of anything creative. Jack has officially gotten the Easter egg hunting fever. After two hunts in two days, he's really gotten the hang of it. Sweet Merideth got Jack an awesome bucket to use for his hunting.

Our church held an egg hunt Wednesday night after supper. Things got kicked off with the youth putting on a puppet show for the kids. Jack had seen one once before (I think last summer), and I was pretty sure he would like it. When we walked in, they had put out the little chairs for them to sit in, rather than sitting on the floor. So, Jack sat next to Merideth's boys Tate & Brit. Even though he's a good bit smaller and younger than they are he looked so big sitting in that little chair! I think you'll agree. It was as if he'd aged a whole year over night (I think his new haircut helped too). Our little boy is growing up fast.

After the show, the little ones headed out to the playground to hunt eggs. Jack quickly got the hang of what he was supposed to do with the eggs. He liked throwing or hurling them into the bucket, but we had to point them out. He managed to find three, which was plenty. Then he moved on to the slide. I'm pretty sure his favorite part of the night was the cookie topped with colored sugar.

Today, his preschool class had an egg hunt. This one was held inside because of the yucky weather. Granted, these eggs seemed to be more obviously placed, but Jack had no trouble figuring out exactly what to do with them. He gathered his pile quickly. We had fun playing with the others in his class...although today it was just Jack and the girls (Carson, MacKynna & Amelia). Jack's best buddy, Andrew, is still recovering from RSV. He's on the mend though and we look forward to catching up at his birthday party on Saturday!

You can see lots more pictures from our egg-citing adventures here.

The most important story you'll ever write

As I mentioned in a previous post, I attended the Extraordinary Women conference last weekend. One of my favorite speakers was Karen Kingsbury. Some of you have probably heard of her or read one of her many books. I must admit that most of my reading takes place right here online. Of the actual books I do read, I tend to gravitate toward non-fiction (ie. What to Expect, the Mommy Diaries).

So, although I had heard of Karen, because of my mom & sister's (healthy) obsession with her works, I didn't know anything about her or what to expect from her as a speaker. First of all, she's incredibly tall and prettier in person than on her book jacker. She's a mom of six children, three of which were adopted from Haiti. She talked a bit about her characters, how she develops them and how real they become to her and her readers. Her main point, however, was that of all the books she has written the most important story she (and every other mother) authors is the one she is writing every day with her children.

Karen talked about the importance of loving the characters God has placed in your life and being constantly aware of our antagonist. She said her children won't remember how many best-selling books she has written, but they will remember the time she spends with them. So, I'm making the effort to remind myself how important each day is in the story I'm writing. I hope you'll do the same.

ABCs from the mouth of a babe

We're excited to announce that our little prodigy can now recite the ABCs. We've been working on it for a couple of weeks and it took a couple of days to get it captured on video, but if you want to see our little genius, just click here.

Extraordinary

This past weekend I traveled to Greenville with several girlfriends and my mom to attend the Extraordinary Women conference. There were a host of speakers including comedian Chonda Pierce, Angela Thomas, Julie Clinton and author Karen Kingsbury, which was pretty much the whole reason my mom came. She (and my sister) loves Karen's books and has read pretty much every one of them.

Friday night during one of the conference breaks, mom bought two of Karen's newest books and then stepped in line to have them signed. Luckily, she spotted me coming out of the bathroom and hollered for me to come over. I was able to snag a photo of mom & Karen, who is very tall! After the break, NewSong performed. It was an uplifting concert full of several of their greatest songs.

After the session ended, we raced through the rain to the car and set out in search of the nearest Krispy Kreme (something that is at least 45 minutes away from us back home). We were able to find one about 2 miles from the Bi-Lo Center and it was packed with dozens of hungry (presumably) extraordinary women. We waited patiently and then carried a dozen piping hot doughnuts back to our room at Embassy Suites, where Andrea had gotten us a free room with her rewards. The doughnuts were better than I remember, and we stayed up late gabbing and giggling.

Six-fifteen came early the next morning, but if we wanted to take advantage of the free breakfast...we had to get going. We all managed to stumble out of the hotel and make it to the conference where we met up with the rest of our group. We were pleasantly surprised to hear Karen Kingsbury speak first. She was incredible and had the entire place (about 7,000 women) in tears when she read her book Let Me Hold You Longer. If you've read it, you know what I mean. If you haven't, you should...but make sure you have a tissue handy.

After hearing a couple more speakers, we headed home a little early...but not before a stop at Chick-fil-A for lunch/snack. Although, Jack was a bit grumpy because he's been teething and a little under the weather for the better part of a week, it was so good to see him and give him a big hug. Josh was such a trooper to give up two weekends in a row to be full-time dad/mom so I could get away for some girl time. Thanks, Josh!

In Local News...

Some of you may remember me writing a few weeks back about Jack participating in a photo shoot for an upcoming ad campaign at the hospital. Well, if you don't remember don't feel bad because it was merely a brief mention in an already brief blog entry with no pictures. That's right...one of those boring posts with no fun pictures that you all suffer through. Say what you want it was one of my "most commented on" (is that a real phrase?) posts.

Well, the ad is ready, and I'm told will begin running tomorrow. I've included a photo here, for those of you that don't live around here or locals who don't subscribe.* And for you locals, be sure to come and see how incredibly nice the newly renovated Family Birth Center is. The aesthetics now come close to matching the incredibly wonderful care and personal service you'll encounter there.**

*Shame on you, if you fall into this category. Our local newspaper is a wonderful source of information that you can't find in the AJC (which doesn't deliver around here anymore anyway...but, we won't get started on that)...not to mention the loads of humor I often find in each issue of the local paper. Finally, the newspaper is a dying art form that needs our support. Subscription rates are ridiculously low. Call today! And, no they aren't paying me to say this (not enough people actually read my blog for that to ever happen, but if you know of some way I could get paid for saying things I already would have said...please let me know!)

**No, I'm not getting paid to say that either. But, I do speak from experience.

Best Nap Ever

I think I had the best nap of my life yesterday afternoon. Just thinking about it sort of returns me to the sheer bliss! I guess I have to set up the story, so you can learn how to also achieve the best nap ever. It all starts with a ridiculously fun weekend.

Friday afternoon our MOPS group left for our retreat in Clayton at Camp Pinnacle. My mom graciously agreed to come and watch Jack until Josh was home from work. Later that evening Josh's buddy Ben and his son Ben Jr. would be coming up for the weekend. After our steering team made a stop at the SUPER Wal-Mart in Clayton for much needed supplies (ie. Oreos, Reese's PB Eggs, Cokes, Candy...), we got settled in the cabin at Camp Pinnacle. Once the moms began to arrive, we split into teams and began a scavenger hunt around Clayton. There were a few items to collect, but the majority of the hunt involved capturing photos of places or things taking place. It was oh so much fun.

Later we met for dinner at Mama G's and then retired to the cabin. Only there wasn't much retiring. Most of us stayed up pretty late playing games, laughing, snacking and then crept into our sleeping bags for a couple hours of rest before our 7:30 wake-up call. We enjoyed yummy Chick-n-minis and cinnamon clusters from Chick-fil-A before returning home...making the early departure much easier.

Once home, I joined the boys (Josh, Jack, Ben & Ben) for their late breakfast. Soon after Ben headed to pick up Wendy. The rest of us stayed and played. Ben, Jr. & Jack took a bubble bath, which Jack enjoyed until we turned the jets on. Then he was done! After he got out, we turned them back on and let the bath become a tub of frothy bubbles. Ben, Jr. loved it. Then, we all headed to Chuck E. Cheese.

I thought there might be a chance that Jack would hate CEC and we would then have an excuse to never go back. It's actually not that bad, but Saturday afternoons are pretty much the worst! At least we didn't encounter any vomit! Anyway, Jack loved CEC! He devoured the pizza. Oh, and thanks to daddy we discovered he likes root beer too.

Sunday the Pucketts joined us at church. We enjoyed an awesome lunch at Hawg Wild. Love that place and it's incredible sweet potato fries. After the Pucketts departed for home around 2:45, Josh set out to mow the front yard. I put Jack down for a much-needed nap. I quickly studied up for my KidzLife duties at church then crawled in bed myself. I remember waking up when Josh came in about 20 minutes later, but he didn't bother waking me again when he left for drama practice at church. Thankfully, I did wake up in plenty of time to make it to church by 5:30, but it was one of the best naps ever. I'm pretty sure there was drool to prove it! LOL!

You can read more about my MOPS Retreat here.

Cool - Whip

So, guess who likes cool-whip?


That's right. But, only when he's in charge of the spoon!


Doesn't this just look like ultimate happiness?