Mommy's Night Off & More

Well, about two weeks ago Josh (thinking I needed at least one night of completely good rest) volunteered to sleep upstairs in the guest room next door to Jack. This allowed me to turn off the monitor downstairs and sleep without hearing a peep. I must have been a real crab that needed some serious rest :) Early the next morning Josh brought Jack down to eat. Then I had to get up and help prepare for a baby shower, so I put Jack in the bed with Josh. Before I left, I couldn't resist snapping this adorable photo.

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. Josh has been working non-stop and on top of it all came down with the flu on Monday night. He was pretty miserable on Tuesday, but was beginning to regain strength by Wednesday. So far, Jack and I seem to be free of symptoms and have tried to stay away from him. I've also been washing my hands even more than normal, which is a lot!


Jack is growing so much and changing every day it seems. He's is so pleasant and smiles a lot. He's getting really close to belting out a laugh. We think we've heard one a couple of times. He's grown quite curious of things around him. Here he is trying to figure out the singing puppy he received as a Valentine's gift.

Fun with Filming

Today I dabbled with our new video editing software and created a video of our little Jack and his current favorite toy, his baby gym. You can view the video at the bottom of our blog.

Ice Hockey anyone?

Well, Jack has now experienced his first sporting event. And as much as it may pain Josh and I to say in the future, but this milestone event was an ice hockey game! Can you believe it? One of Josh's fellow ER physicians has season tickets to the Thrashers game and offered us a pair of tickets. We've both always heard how much fun they are to attend, so we took him up. We arrived with only 3 minutes left in the first period and Jack was fast asleep on Josh's lap.

Sometime in the second period the Thrashers scored and the place went nuts. An obnoxiously loud siren went off, a fire breathing Thrasher appeared and needless to say Jack was awake! After he ate, he was pretty content to sit on my lap and watch the hockey game or at least look around. He was quite a cutie and so well behaved.

Unfortunately, the Thrashers gave up two more goals and lost 2-1 to the Vancouver Canucks. Overall, it was a lot of fun and we got to see two fights. One with the guys ripping off their gloves and helmets to go at it. Of course, they were both sent to the penalty box for 5 minutes, but it was worth it. I don't know much about hockey, but I do know that it's not much of a game without a good fight.

To Grandmother's House We Go

Last weekend we loaded up the truck and headed to Grandmommy & Grandaddy Garrett's house in Rome. Although we had planned to visit to celebrate Josh's mom's birthday, it turned out to be a longer trip to say goodbye and reflect on the memory of Josh's grandmother Virginia Garrett. It is always difficult to say goodbye, but it was good to be together with the extended family (Uncle Ken & Aunt Pat, cousins Derek & Joy, Ryan & Julie, Gina, Robbie & Nathan). Here's a picture of the great grandsons with Josh's grandmother or Miss Ginia (short for Virginia) as she was affectionately named by Sean.

On Friday evening we celebrated Josh's mom's birthday at one of her favorite restaurants, Olive Garden. Our waitress was so kind and even brought a cake to help us celebrate. It was chocolate on chocolate and delicious. As you can see Grandmommy had a little help blowing out her candles. Jack didn't skip a beat from his dinner to notice much of what was going on.

Saturday morning, we went to Atlanta for a baby shower for an old friend of Josh's. Our friends, Kajal & Brett live in New York and are expecting their first child in April. It was so good to catch up with them. We haven't seen them in almost a year, when we were in New York for Derek & Joy's wedding last April. Everyone enjoyed meeting Jack and the food was excellent...it was brunch at a place called Cafe de Sol in the Highlands area. Our evening ended at the funeral home, where Jack met lots of new faces. Afterwards, we enjoyed dinner at the Fish Market next door with all of the Pucketts. Sean and BJ had a lot of fun together. They even took time to hang out with Jack.

It was a long time to be away from home (3 days), so we were all glad to be back home. We will miss Miss Ginia greatly, but are glad she got to meet Jack. She was so proud of her family, especially her three great grandsons.

Premiere in the Palmetto State

Last Thursday, Jack and I left behind the beautiful North Georgia snow and headed for the Palmetto State...Greenwood to be exact. As usual, Jack was a quiet traveler sleeping the whole way. Our first stop was lunch with a friend from church and work, Shelby Dominick. It was great to catch up on what she's been up to and what's going on at the college.

After lunch, Jack and I went to see the folks in my office at Piedmont Tech. Jack got to meet Tommy, Jackie, Betty Jean, Karlene and many others. Everyone was so excited to finally meet Jack. Some others that I bumped into were a bit surprised to see me with a little one. Not everyone knew I was expecting when I left the college last summer.

Then we went to check into our digs for the trip...Warner land. My kind friend, Kristie, had volunteered to house me and Jack for the night. After visiting a bit and changing clothes we headed back to the college for a big retirement celebration for Dr. Walters, the current president at PTC. There we saw even more old colleagues. It was great to see Nancy and Gary Hall. They were excited to meet Jack. It was a lovely evening.


On the way home, we stopped by to see Sara, Chandler & Noah. It was a quick stop, since I planned to have breakfast with Sara the next morning. Then, we headed to our home for the evening. The next morning I picked up Sara and we caught up over breakfast at IHOP.


Then it was back to spend some more time with Cissy (aka Kristie). Our last stop of the trip was to meet Tripp and see Gretchen, Carey and Elise. Jack and I stopped by Gretchen's and the girls all came by to visit while we were there. It was so good to catch up and see everyone in one swoop. It was an exhausting couple of days, but a real treat to see so many old friends. I look forward to returning with Josh soon so he can see his old pals too.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Last week our community was turned into a winter wonderland as we received about 4 inches of snow on Wednesday, January 16. It began to fall in the late afternoon and had really begun to accumulate by that evening. It was only natural that I fix hot cocoa for Josh and I to enjoy...with plenty of marshmallows!

The snowfall was really pretty and the result was also beautiful. It was neat to have a beautiful blanket of snow during our first winter in Habersham County. I only wish little Jack had been old enough to go out and enjoy running around in it. Snow this pretty is a rare treat in Georgia.

Since the little one couldn't go out and enjoy the snow, I decided to leave a mark on the snow for him. I'm sure we'll have a chance to build a snowman with him soon.

Fun on the Farm and more

Today we drove down to Hoschton to visit our friends The Spruills (Robert, Brooke, Charlie & Wyatt). Robert and Josh trained together in Greenwood. They live in Moultrie now, but Robert's parents have a farm in Hoschton where they board horses. Here's a picture of Charlie on the farm.

This was the first time we had been to the farm; it's really a lovely place. Saturdays are quite busy with boarders visiting their animals. Today I'm sure they were all jealous of what was going on in the house...as the smell of pit-smoked ribs filled the air. Robert's brother-in-law, Shannon smoked some of the best ribs I've ever had. The kind that fall off the bone. Needless to say they were delicious!

This was also the first time the Spruills had met Jack. Josh and Robert really enjoyed catching up. I had a hard time believing how big Charlie & Wyatt were.

Jack is finally beginning to enjoy bath time. The first few were quite an experience, but now he's beginning to tolerate the whole thing much better, which makes mom much happier too. Here's a photo of him enjoying his bath.