Mallory has moved up into a new class both at daycare and at church. She’s getting to be such a big girl, and she says some of the funniest things. I guess more accurately, they are funny because she is putting thoughts together on her own. She’s been telling me on the way to school in the morning to “Drive faster daddy… so the policeman will get behind you.” This morning she was saying “wow, that’s a big cloud way up in the sky”.

Her teachers say she is doing great. I think she was ready for the challenge and would prefer her to have some kids to look up to. The biggest benefit has been the peer pressure on going potty. I believe today is the first day that she has not had an accident at school… meaning that she went to the potty every time. We need to find a way to get the same response at home. They don’t think it will be too long before she is ready for some “big girl panties.” I think that will be the act that seals the deal, since it won’t be comfortable at all, and will probably be embarrassing to use the bathroom in her panties.

Calen went to Dr Leeper for his 2 month appointment today. He is just above 50% in all of his measures (head size, height, weight). He weighed 12 lbs and 2 oz. Dr. Leeper said he was looking great and that what we thought was cradle cap, or infant acne, was actually something where his body is replacing skin cells faster than it needs to. I can’t remember what it was called, but dandruff shampoo is supposed to help. Calen got 3 shots and the roto-virus vaccine today. He wasn’t too happy about the whole thing and turned a shade of red that I don’t believe I had seen before. Only a couple minutes though and he was calmed back down. Continue reading →

I think sometimes things just work out right. We have a new CIO at work, who’s coming to Nashville next week for his first visit, which has things a little busy there getting ready. The Franklin Classic is this coming Monday (Labor Day) and planning for that has been exhausting. So even though it’s been planned for a while, without any knowledge of just how badly it would be needed, our “Babymoon” couldn’t have come at a better time.

Angie scheduled it as an opportunity for us to get away for a weekend, without the kids, and to relax before the new addition comes along. We haven’t actually gotten away for more than a quick overnight stay since Mallory came. The chosen location? Evins Mill in Smithville, TN. It’s about an hour east of here and is a bed and breakfast on steroids. Different from other B&B’s that I’ve either heard about or stayed at, this was really more of an “Inn”. It was made up of 40 acres of land, with a winding stream, an old mill, and a 50foot waterfall… There was a main house where we ate, which was very well thought out. They had a computer room (which we did not enter), there were always drinks and snacks out, and a dining room. Separate from the mainhouse were 3 “quadplexes” each with room for 4 couples… the first night we were there… well, I’m getting ahead of myself… let’s back up.

Angie’s stepmom, Kat, came into town on Thursday to watch Mallory for us. Part of the thought was that it would allow Mallory to get comfortable before we left, though it was quickly apparent that “separation anxiety” would not be a problem here. We both went to work on Friday, and left around lunch to head out on our journey. It was a nice drive… uneventful. We found the place after only missing one turn. Pulling up, it was obvious this would be a relaxing stay “close to nature.” Jason greeted us at the door… he’s the chef and was already working in the kitchen preparing dinner. Jason showed us around the main house and then to our room. He was very pleasant and we later found he was also a very good chef. ALL of the food was fantastic.

Angie thought ahead and order sandwiches from Honey Baked Ham. She packed them in a picnic basket and our first journey after unloading the car was to find a place to eat lunch. There was a bridge down from the house that was across the dam where the mill used to run. We crossed it and found a little spot down by the water next to the water wheel. It was a great start to the weekend… relaxing… just us… perfect weather. We had a bottle of wine opened, and just enjoyed each others company and the peaceful surroundings. Afterwards we headed up to the room and took a nap… naps are good.

Jason had indicated that there were only a few couples that night, so it was indeed very quiet. We headed up to the main lodge at 6:00 for dinner and were greeted by Chris… our server. Chris was a fun guy who was one of those “closet extrorverts” as Angie puts it. He couldn’t be serious if he had to be, but it made all of our main meals fun. Our first night we had 2 other couples there, but I have to admit we didn’t spend much effort to speak with them… we were just fine by ourselves. After dinner we were off to our room, where our cell phones didn’t worrk and the TV didn’t pick up a signal.

The next day we wanted to see the falls, so after breakfast, we cut out ont he “North Trail”. This was supposed to give us a view of the falls from the top. It was actually a pretty tough hike, so I have to give Angie a lot of credit . . . she didn’t complain once. The falls were beautiful, but I don’t think we truly realized what we were standing on. We didn’t stay long, but instead headed back and got ready to take the “South Trail”. Jason made us us some bag lunches and we took them with us down toward the falls. The “South Trail’ was pretty flat except for the last bit which drops down to the bottom of the falls. We stopped just before that and had out lunch… though both of us were still full from breakfast. We ate some of the food and then hung up our bags on a tree so that we could pick them up on the way back.

Angie again impressed with her descent and the view from down at the bottom of the falls was fantastic. It was there that we noticed that where we were up top, was actaully a ledge. We saw what I believe to have been a cottonmouth snake swimming through the water… which pretty much finalized our plan to NOT swim. Instead we just relaxed, took some pictures and ate a pack of cookies. Before we left, some kids came down the trail… which seemed odd since it was private property and no kids were supposed to be there that weekend.

We treked back up the hill, but when we got to our bags we found one of them on the ground. Our first thought was that the kids had gotten into our food, but at first glance we didn’t see anything missing. Then as we continued walking Angie realized, “Those kids ate our other pack of cookies!” Sure enough, the cookies were gone… not the banana and apple mind you. The water bottle was gone too, which thinking back we remember seeing one of the kids with a bottle of water. No wonder they didn’t want to look us in the eye when we passed…

No big loss, and not worth the trip back down the hill, so we headed back for a much needed nap.

Dinner was again fantastic, as was the quiet room again and the opportunity to sleep late. Sunday morning they prepare brunch, so you can come up whenever you want. We made it up around 10 and ate outside on the deck. Brunch was rediculous… the amount of food was amazing, and much of the vegetables were grown by Jason personally. We said our goodbyes and headed out, much refreshed and well rested. We agreed that we need to make it a point to get away, even if it’s just for a weekend, at least once a year. We’ll add that to our MIP… our Marriage Investment Plan.

Angie has uploaded some pictures of the trip for those interested. She’s also added some more to Mallory 2 Years, and maybe other albums as well. Hopefully the new SmugMug albums are working out for everyone.

Angie last wrote about our May… There were a lot of great things that happened in May (Kylie graduated, Mallory turned 2, Miranda got married) but the combination of it all was almost too much… almost. We found ourselves counting down the events or “checking them off our lists.” We survived though, and I’m probably being naive to be looking forward to the summer, where I THINK we will have less to do. During the summer we only meet for small group once a month for fellowship and the Sunday school class that we teach is on break. There are no Wednesday nights either, though we both took a break from that this year with Mallory. Just this weekend, we had “nothing” to do. . . so I filled it with a garage project which has left me moaning from all the bending over I did scrubbing and re-scrubbing the floor so I could put down an epoxy coating (www.epoxy-coat.com). It’s drying now… then I have to move everything back into the garage… oh what fun. Sometime during the summer we also want to finish the screened in porch (I think I almost have Angie talked into a TV out there), put in a patio (possibly with a Koi pond), close in the underside of the deck, put up a play set for Mallory, re-stain the deck, re-caulk the windows, seal the driveway and get someone to look at our foundation… those are just my projects. We also are going to help Matt and Lauren put up a fence and possibly build a shed in the back of their house… how many weekends are in a summer?

Kylie’s graduation went great, oh, except for the part where her chair was gone. :) We watched her walk in and then saw her look confused. Kylie usually handles situations like this very well and doesn’t get embarrassed easily. We saw her walk to the far side of the floor, then back again, then to the far side once more and then back again. Seems her card was missing and the teachers on either side kept telling her to go to the other side. She finally told the teacher on the first side to move over and get another chair. He almost refused until she said (I imagine through gritted teeth) “This is MY graduation”… he complied. We took her a piece of paper with her name on it as this is how they keep up with the order, but just as I got there, her card showed up… interesting. Some other kids were missing their name cards, so they used the paper.

After graduation we went to Buca Di Beppo for lunch, which was great. Then we dropped Dad, his friend Darlene, and Faye at the house before hitting a couple of the grad parties for Kylie’s friends. The first one was for Trevor and the second was for Michael… ah yes Michael… Kylie’s boyfriend. I was so happy that she almost went the entire year without a boyfriend. One less thing to shoot, I mean worry about. But she had liked Michael for a while, and he really does seem like a good guy and a nice kid. We’ve had the opportunity to spend some time with him and we like him a lot. He treats Kylie well and he actually even came over today to help me paint. I’m glad she has found a guy that she likes who respects her and makes her happy. We’ll see how it goes over the long hall… she’s headed to Chattanooga and he’s going to Univ. of Kentucky… at least for a semester he says.

Angie is uploading some pictures/videos from his grad party. They have a big hill in their front yard, and they set up about 80 feet of plastic and created a “red neck slip and slide” complete with a sprinkler and a bottle of Dawn at the top. The kids loved it, and we loved watching them roll off the end of it and into the grass. Unfortunately for you, we forgot our bathing suits.

Mallory’s birthday was great. We had most of the family over and a few friends. It worked out well that graduation and Mal’s birthday were close so that family could travel and hit both in the same trip. She’s two now and acting every bit of it. I give her a hard time, but she really is a good kid. But she definitely has a little bit of attitude when she doesn’t get her way. . . she must get that from her mom. She got a lot of gifts for her birthday… all of which we’ll eventually have to find somewhere to put. Mom and Barry gave her a water table which she just loves. Angie is uploading some video I believe which shows her playing with it. She has figured out how to be sly or sneaky… which is funny. I was sitting next to her while she played in the water table, and then she filled up a cup, cut her eyes at me in a devilish way, and then threw the water at me… It was hilarious. Mallory also danced with Brady… her future husband. Angie is uploading that video as well. Priceless.

Angie is halfway through her pregnancy, and we went to the doctor for the ultrasound. We are still choosing not to know whether it’s a boy or a girl. We’re not really sorry if that disappoints anyone, but we’ll pretend we are if that helps. Because we didn’t find out with Mallory, we should be pretty prepared for whatever God sends our way. We do know that it’s only one, so there won’t be any TV series started about us, fortunately or unfortunately. The ultrasound was neat, and we got some really good pictures of our little one’s hands. We saw 2 arms and 2 legs, and 10 fingers and 10 toes. That was all good. We did see a heart, brain, brain stem, nose bone, kidneys, stomach, bladder, leg bones, and arm bones… it’s amazing what they look for and what they can see.

I think that about catches us up. Ah… one more thing… Mallory got new tubes in her ears… which is a good thing. One of her tubes fell out and she had 3 ear infections in a month. The surgery went without a hitch and she’s been clear since. The wonders of medicine…

Ok… that’s enough for now… I imagine the next installment will be from Angie, which probably means that it will be more entertaining. I’m really just the clean-up guy stepping in to help out when we get behind. It’s all good though… the pay’s ok but the benefits can’t be beat. We wish everyone well and hope to see you all soon.

I thought I’d take a moment to share Baby Brandon’s first portrait. Hope you enjoy…

A couple kind of funny stories to tell, but I’ll keep them short. Yesterday I was trying to get out of the house fairly quickly. I put Mallory’s juice cups in her bag and sat it by the back door for Angie. As I’m walking out the door, I see Mallory head over to the bag. I paused, because I wanted to make sure she didn’t get into something she shouldn’t be getting into, but laughed when she picked up the straps and put them over her shoulder, and the proceeded to carry/drag the bag behind her toward the front door. Just an example of the little stuff that she picks up on and then tries to immitate.

Then, this morning I get a call from Angie while I’m driving in. I’ve been having to get to work earlier lately (and sometimes stay later) so we haven’t been car pooling. She dropped Mallory off and while she was talking to Ms. Rita (Mallory’s teacher) she noticed that Mallory was walking around with a basketball. A few minutes later, she heard a big bonk, and turned around to see that Mallory had apparently fallen and bumped her head on the doorway that separates the “sleeping quarters” from the play area. At this point, any normal person would have expected screams to errupt, but Angie just asked Mallory if she was ok, and after a few grumbles (maybe it’s ok that she doesn’t have too many words right now), she got up and continued playing. I haven’t seen her yet, but Angie said she’ll probably have a place right in the middle of her forehead. I think we have reached the point where pictues will no longer be clear of blemishes.

BTW… her pictures came back. Just let us know when you are stopping by to see them. :)