There is such a thing as Perfect

I can't believe it has been several months since my last post.  Good grief, I haven't posted since last year.  Lots going on, mostly good.  I will update soon on the boys.  They are growing like weeds, living life to its fullest and evolving into such wonderful, distinct personalities.  I love 'em so much!

I just wanted to include a post to my husband, whom I am sure will not read this but I want to post it all the same.  And I refuse to leave sentiment in a post on facebook. 

 I don't always feel comfortable with letting others know my true feelings (I said feelings, not opinions, of which I am only to happy to share).  And I don't often get mushy or sentimental with others.  So I am sure there are many out there who don't think I really appreciate what a wonderful husband I have.  That I don't know that I am really and truly the luckiest girl in the world. But I want to write something for my children to one day see, so they will know the from which they come and the love to which they should aspire.  I may not have a gift for words, so please bear with me while I muddle through.

Happy Anniversary!   I know a lot of people say they married their best friend, their soul mate, how they have the perfect life, and how proud they are that they have weathered the good and bad of marriage and stuck together.  My take is a little different.

I don't know that I exactly married my best friend but I did marry one of the best people in the world.  And he is surely my best friend now.  I also know that I married the one person in the world that I could not live without, knew it even then.   

My soul mate.  Whatever.  I don't even know what this means.  I am almost positive it is a quote from some movie.  My apologies to anyone who has said this to or about their spouse but truly I don't get it. What I do get is that this wonderful person I married is my soul.  Were I to be thrown into an ocean, with no land in sight, Bryant would be the one thing that I would cling to in order to stay alive.

I am not going to sit here and say that I may not have the perfect life but it is wonderful to us.  That's crap.  I do have the perfect life.  I cannot imagine it being any better (well minus a lottery win here or there should I ever buy a ticket).  It just can't be any more perfect.  That's it.  This is because of the man I married.  He is perfect, perfect for me, perfect for my kids, and perfect for the rest of his family.  Nicholas told me the other day, when talking about some thing or another, that "no one is ever perfect".  Well, I have to disagree.  He's 7 years old and has no idea that his Daddy is really perfect.  He'll learn and would do very well for himself if he grew up to be so much like him.

Now my last point is about weathering the good and the bad in a marriage and working through it.  I know I am going to sound Pollyanna and full of shit, but seriously, what bad times?  None.  Nothing.  Sure we have had an argument here and there, but it lasts about 5 seconds.  I cannot think of one single "hard" time or "bad patch" in this marriage of ours.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  So...

Thank you, Bryant, for 18 years of perfect.

Enough of the mush, now back to my regularly scheduled program of sarcasm and cynicism. 

Of Things to be Thankful...

So much to be thankful for, so little time to write about it.

Of course, my guys, all 3 of them. We've been a bit insulated lately, with everything that is going on, but we have enjoyed our time together. We have been healthy (relatively speaking of course) and happy. We dont know what tomorrow may bring but right now, in our little world, things are just perfect. So today we will not worry about things we cannot control and just simply give thanks for our many blessings.

Hope everyone is able to do the same. Now off to fix some sweet potato casserole.

Ruth's Chris Special Sweet Potato Casserole

CRUST

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1 cup chopped nuts (pecans preferred)

1/3 stick butter -- melted

SWEET POTATO MIXTURE

3 cups mashed sweet potatoes

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs -- well beaten

1 stick butter -- ( 1/2 cup) melted

Combine brown sugar, flour, nuts and butter in mixing bowl. Set aside.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sweet potatoes, sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs and butter in a mixing bowl in the order listed. Mix thoroughly. Pour mixture into buttered baking dish. Sprinkle the surface of the sweet potato mixture evenly with the crust mixture. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to set at least 30 minutes before serving.

Just some pics from Halloween of my little police officer and Transformer.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow this big boy turns 5!

More info on that to come later.

First Day of School, First Day of School

We love the movie Nemo and I love when Nemo wakes his Dad by saying "First Day of School, First Day of School". Nicholas, on the other hand, was not quite as thrilled. Hmmmmm.

But he rebounded nicely and was so very excited once we got going. Not sure what is with the smirk in this photo, but I thought it was funny. As least more funny than the eye rolls he has started giving me. Is he 7 or 17?


So Nicholas started school on Monday and Greyson had his first day on Tuesday. This is funny to me, but on Monday, Greyson and I walked Nicholas to his class (more on that excitement later). The whole way to Nick's class Greyson clung to my hand, which he would also do last year. Then on Tuesday, I was a bit worried that he would cling to me, although he is normally pretty well adjusted. So we got out of the car and Nicholas offered to hold his hand. Greyson was having none of it. When we were inside the building I grabbed his hand and he said "No, just follow me but dont hold my hand". And he led the way to his class. Before you think he is a walking GPS, it was Nick's class last year and Greyson and I checked it out the day before.

Happy to be a big boy.

Greyson in his classroom. He was not at all upset that I was leaving, only so excited to join the ranks of the "big boys". I love that kid.

So I cant remember if I posted an update on Nick's school situation or not, so sorry for the possible redux. Nicholas was IN LOVE with his teacher from last year, Mrs. Braswell. He simultaneously looked forward to summer break and dreaded not seeing her everyday. He had already made up his mind to walk Greyson to class every morning just to see her.

Fortunately for Nicholas, Mrs. Braswell is now a 1st Grade teacher and Nicholas is her newest student. We have known about it all summer but did not tell him. So when he went to class, I told him the whole way that he had a teacher that was new to teaching 1st grade and maybe he would love her as much as he loved Mrs. Braswell. When we walked into her room I said "Look there's your new teacher" and he said "I dont see her but there's Mrs. Braswell" and he was so excited. So then I told him that Mrs. Braswell was now teaching 1st grade and she was his new teacher. He ran to hug her and said "thank you" to Mrs. Braswell. I am not sure but I think he is under the impression that Mrs. Braswell moved up just to be his teacher again. He also reminded me that he would be in school longer now that he was in 1st grade. Then he let me know he was very happy about that because he could spend more time with Mrs. Braswell. He surely does love his teacher.

So the first couple of days of school have been very eventful and very smooth. I am still trying to come to terms with losing my daily sidekick but still have a few more days to enjoy him. Grey goes to school on Tuesday and Friday of next week for a half day before starting full time and full days on the 15th. We are managing to put a lot of fun and snuggles into our last few days. Not too many tears on my part, but I have a feeling that after the first full day I will be a wreck. I already miss him so much.

Will update more after the boys' birthday parties and Grey's actual birthday. It is going to be a busy and hectic couple of weeks.

Seven Years Ago

I started this post on Wednesday but ran out of time before I could post.

I cannot believe my first born, my tiny little fella is now a bit 7 year old. I feel like writing something really mushy about how my baby has grown but nahhhhh, I am just too excited for him. He is over the moon about being 7 years old and I am beyond thrilled about it.

Here he is, just a few minutes old and already the center of our world.

And here he is hitting the big 7!!!! Ok, not the most flattering photo but I had trouble getting him to be still for even a second and this was the best I could do.

We had a small party for him at the restaurant, with just our family (minus Aunt Cheryl-we missed you but he loves his Hot Wheels Elimination Racetrack). Nicholas was so darned funny about his "small party" as he called it. He gave me a list over the phone of things he wanted me to purchase for it and then made me read the list back to him. After tweaking the list and going over it a couple of times, he must have then lost all confidence in me, as he told me to just pick him and he would go with me. Ugh, I have no idea where he gets this.

He is having a large birthday party on the 13th with his friends, we needed to wait until school started to make sure we didn't exclude anyone. Gonna be a hectic couple of weeks with Nick's party on the 13th and Grey's on the 20th. But my boys are gonna have a ton of fun!

I'll update next week with pictures of their first day of school. Can't believe it is here already. And I am really having a hard time believing my baby is starting Kindergarten.

Sooooooo Long

I cannot believe it has been sooooo long since my last post/update. Just chalk it up to a busy summer. Not making excuses, ok yeah I am, but between the restaurant, the boys, their activities and life in general, I cannot seem to find the time to sit down and form a coherent though, much less enough to fill a blog post.

Life is good, the boys are great, and summer has been even better than the spring. But sadly it is coming to an end. Yes, that's right, school is just around the corner. Like next week, can you believe it? Both boys will be in school. Once again I have mixed feelings about this. My baby will be in Kindergarten, wth? How did this happen? But he is soooo excited and I am so very excited for him.

We have already purchased all school supplies, the boys and I made a big day of it. We had a lunch date, some play time, a trip to the store to get our supplies, then finished it up with ice cream from Maggie Moo's. Ahhhhh, what could be better?

That's about it for the update tonight. I will try to update with some pictures after school starts and some Birthday pics.

I'll close with few pics of the boys this summer.

Home Improvement Project? Yes, they are painting with oil based paint and yes, that is one of my dining room walls.

The Boys of Summer. Nick and Grey with their cousins, Evan and Dylan.Exploring the fort at our local park.

Greyson slid down this poll about 30 times and now wants one at home.

4th of July. Lakeside waterslide, family, watermelon, fireworks. Its a hard life.

I am a little concern with his fashion choices. In case you cant make it out, he is wearing his batting helmet, his tie dyed Spiderman shirt, denim shorts and spiderman snow boots.

Soccer Ready

Ahhhhh...spring soccer season has come and gone. And despite the mostly crappy weather (we only had two games with temps above 50), we had a great season. This was Greyson's last year in the Kickeroo league (ages 3-4) but Nicholas has another couple of years on the 8 and under league. Greyson was by far the oldest and most advanced player on his team. Not bragging, ok maybe a little, but he was at least 5 months older than the next oldest player on his team and pretty much a year older than the rest. At this age, it really makes a difference and Greyson scored at least 3 goals a game and usually a few more than that. Nicholas, on the other hand, was by far the youngest and the smallest on his team. He held his own but mostly, because of his size, played the half back position (I think) which is defense. For this I am very thankful, because whenever he played offense, I watched with my heart in my throat. He is so tiny out there, although he has a big heart, weighing no more than 43 lbs compared to all these 60 + lb kids. For this reason alone, I would be glad the season is over with no broken bones or serious injuries (we did have a few soccer balls to the face and a couple of clipping accidents).


Now we are moving on to the summer sports of T Ball, swimming and golf, but mostly we will participate in the very serious sports of playing and giggling. Just the thought of 2 months of nothing but fun makes me smile. And to quote the great philosopher Buddy the Elf "smiling's my favorite".

I'll leave you with a few photos of from soccer. Please forgive me for the lack of photos of Nicholas actually playing (I do have a few but not too many) mostly I was praying on the side lines and unable to snap any shots. I'll try to update regularly about our lazy summer days.

I think this may have been from the fall, regardless you can see the huge size difference and why I said a few "Hail Mary's" before every game.

Nick getting his trophy. He was very excited to add this to his growing collection.

Greyson getting his trophy. He was also excited to add this to his collection.

Nicholas relaxing on the sidelines and cheering his brother on. This was during Greyson's game and no, they did not play on the same team, they play 2 leagues apart, they just had the same color uni's.

Goooooooooooaaaaaalllll!