Of Course.

While Stella attended the Memorial Day parade with Neh-Neh and Bapaw, I hung out at Patient First for 2 hours because I HAVE STREP THROAT.

Memorial Day Weekend 2008

I was thinking about how last year, this weekend was HELL. I lost Carol Bock. And my Dad had his massive heart attack the next day. Whew. So, whatever happens this year would pale in comparison - I was hoping for an uneventful weekend. I guess I got my wish - in a strange way. :)

My last day of work was Wednesday. What a BLESSING. I was so looking forward to a long memorial day weekend on the new deck (pictures included below) and going to Mom's on Saturday for the annual Pool Party (where no one swims because it's too cold) and the Lakeside Memorial Day Parade......

So on Thursday, I began my mini-vaca with a trip to Tappahannock, VA to visit my Mimi's 2 sisters and families... It was Barbara's birthday and we all had the traditional lunch at Lowery's and then back to Barbara's to visit.

Here is Mimi and Stella walking into Lowery's.




It was so nice!! And Stella loved her ice cream, as usual.




Lowery's has a tradition where the kids "go fishing" after they eat. They get a little fishing pole and go back to the well in the back of the restaurant and catch these plastic fish and take their fish to the front and get a prize. I used to fish when I was Stella's age. So, Stella went fishing and got a prize of a little red ducky.





My cousin Amy got her a twirly thing that she loved...




Stella was great all day - She played with Aaron and Emaline's toys at their Memaw Barbara's house.... You can see in the video below. You can also hear my Mimi, Barbara, and Jean singing "like Marilyn Monroe." They are all nuts. In a wonderful way. And they did not know I was recording.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

But when I pulled her out of the car after the 45 minute ride home, she was BURNING up! Then at 1am, she woke up crying - which she never does. I went in to get her and she was a million degrees and was shaking... It was pitiful!!! She slept with us the rest of the night and I took her to the doc the next morning.

She was acting totally normal and happy. She made friends with a little boy in the waiting room. "Hey boy!"

But when the doc looked at her throat, she actually gasped. "Her throat is awful!" I was shocked... The doc even said "You'd never know her throat looks like that, she is in such good spirits." She took a swab - and of course, it was Strep Throat. She said she is very contagious and will be until she has not had a fever for 24 hours - and that the fever could last for 3 days. Poor baby. And poor me! All I could think about was how this weekend was going to a be a repeat of Christmas!

We have been confined to the house - but sometimes that's not so bad. And we do have the new deck to sit on. We watched Mom and Dad's party from our deck yesterday...waved back and forth. A few family members came over in spurts and watched Stella dance from the yard - careful not to get too close. So, it wasn't a total bummer like Christmas.

I have been rather productive with being confined. All chores are done - laundry that had piled up, grocery shopping, and today I plan to organize some scrapbooking stuff... Toby has been SUPER productive this past week while he has been on vacation. Not only has he built a magical deck, but he has cleaned the gutters, cut all the grass, run power out to my shed so I can have a light in there, he removed a baseboard heating unit from the living room (that was inactive and Stella liked to stand on it and scare us..) and replaced it with a wood baseboard that looks great, he has totally gutted his garage and cleaned it.... on and on! I swear, if I could afford for HIM to stay home, I would! Things get done!!!!

And here is the BEFORE pic of "huck finn" - the old "dock."




And the AFTERS. I am so thankful!!



















So it's not the Memorial Day of my dreams...but it's been pretty darn good.

And please say a prayer for Cece and John Bock. John (her Dad) flew out to LA to be with her this weekend. I am SO happy neither one of them is alone... And I am so incredibly thankful that my Dad is here to celebrate Memorial Day - even if I just get to wave back and forth from deck to deck.

We have a DECK!!

It's not quite finished...but look what 3 (very talented) average joes did in 2 days. Toby worked with his Uncle Greg and his Dad to build this AMAZING deck for us. I can't even believe how much I LOVE it and how impressed I am with their work.

Here are the "befores" - the old deck was lovingly referred to as "Huck Finn" because it was like a dock from the dang 1800's. I think it was built then it was so rickety and rotting.











And here are some "during" pictures...




















Aunt Donna keeping Miss Thing entertained...





My parents live next door and sat on their wrap-around porch watching the construction. We went over there for a pizza dinner last night. My parents got such a kick out of me carrying lumber - I know there are several pictures on their camera. (I must be a spoiled rotten brat for them to get SO excited to see me do a little bit of manual labor. They told Toby that if I ever cut the grass, he better call them so they can set up chairs and drink margaritas and watch me.)

And here are some "almost done" pictures....



Please ignore the dirt on the backside of the side porch...we are replacing that siding very soon...












And here is the mean Superintendent of the job yelling orders through the window. She's a tough one.

For the record....

Stella is now counting and saying her ABCs. I need to get both of these on video...but for right now I just wanted to write this down for posterity.

When you ask my daughter to count, she says:
One!
Two!
Three!
Adook! (We have been clueless as to what this is...but then figured it out when she continued to count...)
Cinco!
Seiz!
Siete!
Ocho!

So, Adook must mean Quatro.

And Dora The Explorer has made my daughter bilingual.

Whirlwind

Um, Yeah.

Can you say "Not one minute to BREATHE?!?!?!" Welcome to my world. I mean, I am SURE I could find a minute to breathe somewhere, but it's so dang hard these days. I wish I could have just ONE week where I have a grip on everything. But then I would be bored, right?!?! Yeah.

So this past week has been a whirlwind of very busy work days and crazy chaotic nights at home. It's been a good one though. On Monday, I actually went to the gym during my lunch hour because I knew I would miss Jazzercise that night...How PROactive of me. Yep, that's the last time that happened this week.

I had to let our cleaning girl go. Poor thing just didn't show up sometimes - and I would be sooooooooo disappointed when I would get home from work, expecting a clean house, and then I was hit in the face with NOTHING. (And we all know I cleaned before the cleaning lady came...so that pissed me off that time was wasted. haha) Another fishy thing was that she never called us once. She always e-mailed. I gave her our phone numbers several times...but never got one in return....and she never called to tell us that she wouldn't make it. Maybe she didn't like confrontation in person. Who knows? This last time she didn't show, there was no e-mail. I e-mailed HER and told her "thank you for your work thus far, but we no longer will need your services." She E-MAILED back her sob story about how her grandma had a stroke and she had to rush to West Virginia where there were no cell phone signals for her to call.... Blah blah blah. I'm sorry about Grandma, but come on. She said that this is her primary form of income and would like more notice. I wrote back with some "feedback" on how she could be much more successful with her primary form of income - like SHOW UP.

I found a new house cleaner on Craigslist - she's a beautiful Russian lady named Olga. She came over Monday night to meet us and see the house. As we were talking, I heard some weird noise from the bathroom so I walked over and peeked in...and there is my daughter scooping up toilet water in one of her play bowls. Nice. When Olga left, she told Stella "Next time I bring you russian candies. They taste better than toilet water." ha! And she DID! She came back on Wednesday and cleaned while we were at work. Do you KNOW how wonderful it is to open the door and smell bleach and lysol and murphys soap on the wood floors??!?!?! There was a note on the table with 2 russian candies - "These are for little girl. I wish I could see her today." I think we found a good one.


Ok...so it is now 12 hours later. Today got away from me!!


The deck construction began today. You guys are going to flip when I post before/after pictures tomorrow. It is AMAZING. I am so excited and thankful. The finished deck is over 300 square feet. That's as big as my old studio apartment in Shockoe Bottom. And in the middle of the deck construction, we also had a home security system installed. Uh, yeah. That was not in the plans. However, there is a new company called "Platinum" and they are doing an advertising blitz right now. They get 5 houses in the same area and install an entire system for free. Our friends Mike and Jacqui got it installed...and so did several other neighbors. All you have to do is display a sign in your yard and pay the monthly monitoring fee which is $42. This system has detectors at both doors, a motion censor that covers the "heart" of our house, and a special smoke detector that alerts the fire dept at the smallest bit of smoke - in other words, before the house is burnt to the ground. Another cool thing is that the system is connected to a key fob (keychain) and I can just hit the button from my car to turn the system on and off. No trying to beat the clock to get in and put in the pin number to disarm. And on the system is a button to call the police and one to call for an ambulance in case of a medial emergency. It is very cool....although I was PISSED at Toby for telling the guy YES to everything before even talking to me...and then bringing the guy inside to me and saying "Gotta go finish the deck!" and leaving me to deal with it all.... But I'm over it now. And I think we got an amazing deal (if we paid outright for this, it would have been over $1500) and we are protected. And most importantly, Stella is protected.

So we added a lot of value to our house today...and we get to buy PATIO FURNITURE!!!

More to come....

May 2008 - Uncle Donnie Present

Dearest Stella O,
Though you cannot possibly be old enough to read and much less old enough to absorb Ms. HB Stowe's novel, I trust you will be a student of history!! Please find enclosed a Little Mischief Maker Topsy Doll. I hope it will bring you great joy! It sure does tickle me even at the ripe old age of 30... It is another creation by this brilliant woman from the North Carolina mountains where your Mom and I went to college. Trusting that you will turn out to be a genius! (no pressure...)
All my love, Uncle Donnie

(Written inside the book:)
Darling Stella O,
Please also find this classic brought to life in Rogers and Hammerstein's "The King and I" - 'Small House of Uncle Thomas.'
Heart, Uncle Donnie

Now I know my ABCs....

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Yard Sale Success!

And thank God it's OVER!!

Having a yard sale is A LOT of work. More than I realized....

I spent ALL day on Friday getting ready...organizing stuff, pricing everything, making signs, posting ads on Craigslist, getting tables from my aunt's work, setting it all up, getting change, etc...

So, I got up at 6am on Saturday and started setting up. The sale was advertised for 8am, but people were coming at 6:30. So I rushed and tried to get everything out fast.... How annoying! Then, my FIRST customer gave me a hard time about the BRAND NEW pair of jeans I had priced at $2. She finally got me to go down to $1.75.

Seriously?? Just get out of my face.

Other than that, it was good. It ended up being a nice day with a lot of family and friends hanging out. It was PERFECT weather - a little shady and breezy....And only STEPHANIE would get sunburnt like a lobster. Yep. Only me. I didn't even THINK about sunscreen.

Here are some pictures. My Mimi donated some shoes to the sale, and the girls advertised them by going up and down the runway (sidewalk) and clunking around the yard. It was so funny...

Eating bacon:







Do-Rag




Work it girl!!

MCS in DC & the B-day Boy

Yesterday was perfect from beginning to end!

Mom, Dad, Stella, and I left home around 8:30 am and met the Thaxtons for breakfast at Cracker Barrell in Ashland. After breakfast, we hit the road for DC. There was a bit of traffic (as always) but Stella's singing kept us entertained....the ENTIRE 2 hour drive. (tinkle tinkle dittle dar.....) And when she wasn't singing, she was saying "Hi Mama!" until I answered her "Hi Stella!".... 67564757439 times.

We drove to Springfield and parked at the Metro Station and took the Metro into the city - a 30 minute train ride. That is exactly what I will do from now on when visiting the city. How easy!! And no worries about getting lost or parking....

Here is Stella with Bapaw on her first Metro ride...







Poor Dad realized on the train that he had left his glasses in the car...and only had the prescription sunglasses he was wearing... So, he was Cory Hart and wore his sunglasses at night...during a concert. Poor thing!

So, we got off at the Farragut West stop and walked about 6 or so blocks to the venue - the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall. We see the buses immediately and the boys came out to greet us...








Stella made all of the boys hold her new beanie baby cat, Sissy (how original!) They were all such good sports!










After hanging out for a bit, we walked to Potbelly's for sandwiches... it was yum! Although Matt and I both got hot peppers on our sandwiches (I never do that!) and I thought my mouth was going to fall off my face. After lunch, we grabbed coffees to go at Caribou and walked to the White House, which was only 2 blocks away. It was hard to maneuver my coffee, the stroller, and the rough terrain of the brick sidewalks, so we stopped in Lafayette Park and sat at a table and just talked. Stella was napping in the stroller by this time so it was perfect. It was SO nice to have just me, Mom, Dad, and Matt at a table. I can't tell you the last time that happened....

After our coffees were gone, we took pictures at the White House and met up with the Thaxtons again...







As you can see, Stella was VERY interested in this historical landmark.




We made the Thaxtons pose for a family portrait in front of the White House.




And here are Mom, Dad, and Matt in front of the Washington Monument.




Then we ventured to the World War II Memorial - which I had not seen. It was breathtaking. DC is just so beautiful.... Here are some pics but you really can not understand it's beauty unless you can take it in in one view....











Now here's a cute group for ya!




We hung out there for a LONG time and let Stella run around with her backpack on (aka: Leash!) This is where we met up with dear family friend JJ. When he got there, Stella put down her sippy cup and RAN to him for a big hug. That was so cute, but also kind of shocking because she never does that for anyone. JJ, I hope you feel honored! lol

So we all walked back to the venue and hung around outside of the bus for awhile. I changed Stella's diaper on the bus, which I am almost 99% positive THAT has never happened on there before. I changed her into her little MCS shirt - thanks Erika!

Here she is with Beth, the Merch girl. Beth is the incredible artist who just happened to draw that amazing pic of Stella and e-mail it to me... She's so cool.




She was running and playing around with everyone outside. We put on her Peltor Kid ear protection and took some shots...









So we eventually end up in our seat and we have a little "box" with 5 chairs - right next to the soundboard. It was PERFECT. I could not have asked for a better situation for Stella's first show...she had room to move and grove, but was completely contained...










And here she is in action. The videos are dark, but when the lights from the stage flash, you can see Miss Stella jamming to Uncle Matt's music...

Video of Stella during My Favorite Accident

Video of Stella during The Future Freaks Me Out


So after the show, we head out to the Signing which took forever and a day...which is a good thing - lots of fans!

Here she is with JJ - she's getting tired but hung in there like a trooper!!




We ended up backstage and Stella got to play with Justin...




...and Tony - who put his pink Chuck Taylors on her because they matched her pajamas.









And finally, the BAND SHOT. With their smallest fan..........







Thank you guys for a wonderful wonderful day and for your hospitality. It's not every day you welcome a 21 month old on tour.

There's more pics to come.... Dad took a lot too... and I might actually be in a couple of them since I wasn't the photographer.

************************************************************************

And in other exciting event news, Toby's 35th Surprise B-Day party was perfect too!! He was so surprised and had no idea what I was up to.... We got to Fantasy Island and were greeted by family and friends and had a great food buffet... After the party, we went back to our house with some friends and experienced the usual beer and pool in the garage... It was wonderful!!




Toby and Mike




Zana, my Mother in Law, and her man, Erik




My child, laying on the floor of the nice restaurant




My precious Mimi




Toby's Uncle Greg playing with Stella's pigtails - LOVE her face in this one.




Toby and his Dad (Danny), friend Mike, and Dan's wife Yvonne




Toby and his Mamaw




Toby and Stella and Heath (Toby's best friend, and fellow birthday boy) and his nephew Luca




My Dad, Toby, and my uncle Keith




The girls and their cake. Look how dainty Kendall is and how Stella has DEVOURED her cake...That's my girl!!




And my Birthday Boy...