Rachel Callahan

Historical Birmingham Photography Book Giveaway!!

January 12, 2009 Rachel Callahan Giveaways and Contests

UPDATED: I HAVE ANOTHER GIVEAWAY THAT FEATURES FIVE MORE OF THESE BOOKS BUT ABOUT DIFFERENT SUBJECTS!! $175 TOTAL VALUE!! CLICK HERE TO GO ENTER IT!
Turner Publishing sent me an awesome book to give away to you guys!!

It is called Historic Photos of Birmingham, and has 200 pages that poignantly tell the story of the city from the 1870’s to current day.

They sent me a copy as well so that I could check it out. When they offered it to me, I wasn’t sure if it would be interesting to me – I’m not huge on historical pictures normally. But let me tell you, the first night we got it, Chris and I both got completely sucked into it and read the entire thing!!

Now that might be impressive, but it IS a picture book. But we pored over it, reading every caption and studying every picture. It was fascinating!!!

The photos coupled with their well-written captions portray a storyline that is just completely captivating. It so made me want to go back and experience Birmingham in all of those time periods!! But just for a little bit. . . until it was time to do laundry or go to the bathroom or take a bath or. . . well you get the point.

If you’re not from Birmingham, this is a series – they also have similar books on quite a few other cities. Check to see if your city is on the list here.

Here are a couple of pictures of what is in the Birmingham book:

Downtown Birmingham in the 1870’s: dirt roads and tract houses.
The Jemison house in the 1880’s right in the middle of downtown. Apparently Mr. Jemison was “Mr. Birmingham” and owned quite a bit of it. Look at the tall buildings in the background that were already built that long ago!!
A traffic cop in the 1920’s:
The Spirit of St. Louis’ visit to Birmingham in the 20’s after it’s historical flight:
A group of CIVIL WAR veterans getting together to reminisce:
This picture really intrigued me. It was taken in 1961 at the Fairgrounds (somewhere I went many times as a child), and the kid in it looks JUST like my Dad did as a kid. Even Dad had to look at it for quite a while to confirm that it wasn’t him, finally deciding so that he looked a tad bit young to be him at the time:
The Alabama Cheerleaders back in the days of modesty:
All in all, it was a fascinating read. There were so many events photographed that mine and Chris’ parents and grandparents could very well have been in attendance. It’s a great read!!

So I have one copy of the Birmingham book to give away!! The retail price is $40 – this is a high quality, “coffee-table” book. It is really as good as I’ve said – I promise!!

All you have to do is comment on this post. Be sure to leave your email address if you think I might not know how to get in touch with you.

EARN AN EXTRA ENTRY BY SUBSCRIBING TO MY FEED (OR TELLING ME IF YOU’RE ALREADY SUBSCRIBED)!

EARN ANOTHER EXTRA ENTRY BY COMMENTING ON ANY OTHER POST ON MY SITE!

The contest will close on Monday, February 2nd. I will randomly draw a winner and announce it at 3pm on February 3rd. I will also email the winner if available.

Good luck!!

UPDATED: I HAVE ANOTHER GIVEAWAY THAT FEATURES FIVE MORE OF THESE BOOKS BUT ABOUT DIFFERENT SUBJECTS!! $175 TOTAL VALUE!! CLICK HERE TO GO ENTER IT!

Click Here to get back to Bloggy Giveaways Carnival!

Two Years Old and Enjoying Every Minute!

January 11, 2009 Rachel Callahan A Day in the Life, I would NEVER take too many pictures. . .

Don’t forget to enter January’s Reader Appreciation Giveaway!! It ends Monday, so time is almost up!! Go on over and simply comment on the post to enter. Good luck!!

When I went to get Ali on her birthday morning, I was singing “Happy Birthday”. Excitedly and full of realization, she squealed, “IT’S MY BURFDAY!!!!”

For our activity that day, we celebrated at her favorite place, McWane Center, with AJ.
We played in the water,
Shifted gears,
Dug for dinosaurs,
decorated giant lite-brites,
And had many beautiful piano concerts!
Oh yes – and a train ride! Which was, of course, thrilling for Ali.
And since it was Thursday, she got to end her Birthday by hanging out with her best friends ever, small group!
I still can’t believe that all four of those girls looked AND smiled at me at once. Amazing.

Friday night, we had her birthday party. She got to wear her “party dress”, and couldn’t have been more thrilled, because, as she squealed to Daddy when he walked in with the Pizza, “EVERYBODY’S here!!!!”
She and AJ got to play with her Thomas table,
And Eli enjoyed it also.
Actually, Eli seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit. . .
I think he was anticipating his own birthday in a few months.

She loved her cake and really tried to blow out those candles. . .
She tried eating like a lady, fork and all. . .
but really enjoyed the sugar flowers on top more than anything else!
I think she ate at least half a dozen.
. . .and loved every minute of it!
AJ and Ali gazed at the presents, wondering at the glory within. . .
and Ali got a big birthday hug from AJ!
Finally! Time to open!
A Princess Computer!
A combining of two favorite: Mr Potato Head AND Play-Dough!!
After every present, she begged me – “open it pleeeease”, and I had to beg her to finish opening all of her other presents.

As she opened a present,
she felt the need to remove the tissue paper, carry it across the room, drop it in the floor, then go back. . .
to get her present.
AJ sat quite primly and adorably while watching Ali open presents.
A baby doll!! She loved Mommying and swapping between the Paci,
and the sippy cup.
For a bit of a flashback,
Ali and AJ at Ali’s one-year-old Birthday party,
And at her two-year-old Birthday party.
They loved making towers with Gina for the sole purpose of knocking them down:
And Ali finished the night off by looking every bit of 15 years old:

Birthday Stats

January 10, 2009 Rachel Callahan Toddlers: The Experience

I have lots of pictures of Birthday activities to share with you once I have the chance to get them all together, but we are quite busy playing with a whole bunch of birthday toys this morning. Chris and I, that is. We’re letting Ali play with one or two, though.

For now, here is my traditional comparison of Ali’s pictures with mine and Chris’ at the same age (15 months and 18 months).

So here is me at my 2 year old birthday party, then Ali, then Chris at 2:
What do you think? I still think she looks more like me, but everyone else always says that she looks JUST LIKE her Daddy (sigh). Will I ever get any credit??

Also, here are her stats (I know, boring, but this is mostly for my record-keeping):
Weight: 29 lbs 8 oz; 80th Percentile
Height: 34 1/2 “; 75th Percentile
Head: 51 cm; >97th Percentile (at least her head isn’t off the chart anymore!!)

And, last but not least, Ali is standing here reminding me that she wanted to wish three special blogosphere friends a belated happy birthday that shared hers.

OK, maybe she is standing here begging to see pictures and petting me on the hand, but close enough. Anyway, Happy belated same-birthday-as-Ali to:

Braaten at Joy in the Journey!!
Stephanie at Adventures in Babywearing!!
Jackson at 5 Minutes for Mom!!!

10 Years Younger? No. . . but maybe 10 Months Younger.

January 9, 2009 Rachel Callahan I embarrass myself just for your amusement.

So back in July, I pledged to try and use my most hated beauty item, face cream, after we took Ali’s 18 month pictures and I was horrified of the aging that I had done in 6 months. I promised to report back to you and let you know if it made me look 10 years younger.

Now I will admit that I wasn’t as loyal to my new regimen as I tried to be. As I hate face cream with a vengeance, I would “conveniently” get out of the habit of using it. However, I did get a little better after Barkley sent me that wonderful lotion that wasn’t oily, but I still wasn’t a daily user.

However, here are my results:

Here was my picture in January of ’08:
And my picture in July of ’08 that horrified me because of my addition of a whole bunch of eye wrinkles:
And my picture in January ’09:

I don’t know. Maybe a little better. But the improvement may be completely attributable to the time of year. In July I had been out in the sun a lot, had lots of freckles, and my skin was probably more damaged than usual. But maybe it helped. . . a little.

I promise not to quit using my lotions just because I don’t look 10 years younger. (That sentence should have read with quite a bit of reluctance and dread.)

A Birthday Journey

January 8, 2009 Rachel Callahan Toddlers: The Experience

Happy Second Birthday, Ali!! Here are your adventures up to this point:

I absolutely LOVED being pregnant. It was so fun to feel you kicking and squirming! But by Christmas day when this picture was taken, I was ready to have you out of there!!
2 Hours Old, January 8, 2007: Deep in thought from day one!
1 Month Old: You were quite a serious little baby. Much analytical thought going on in there. I don’t know WHERE you got THAT from. . .
2 Months: You mastered the charming, dimpled smile!
3 Months: You definitely already had your Daddy wrapped around your finger at least 692 times.
4 Months: Bathtime was the best playtime ever!
5 Months: You learned that frilly dreses were super fun to swish around, which made picture taking of said frilly dresses impossible.
6 Months: You couldn’t have been cuter!
7 Months: You became a master-sitter-upper, to add to your similarly named, already attained skill of master spitter-upper:
8 Months: You mastered standing while holding on, which really opened up your playing options. And getting-into-everything options.
9 Months: Your musical skills were blossoming nicely!10 Months: You knew you were a beach bum, just like Mommy and Daddy!
You also knew that you were the very center of the universe, of course:
You became an Alabama fan for your Daddy,and learned that you could get REALLY big brownie points for throwing your hands up when someone yelled, “TOUCHDOWN!!”
11 Months:
You knew by then that the playground was the best place in the whole world,
that candy should be found and consumed at any cost,
and that reading novels wasn’t just for grownups.And your Mommy was absolutely THRILLED that your hair was finally long enough for bows and pigtails!!(oh yeah, and you had an affinity for making a piggy nose.)

12 Months: You got to experience your first birthday party!
You already knew who your BFF was,
And you learned to view the world. . . well, from a different angle:
13 Months: You were fearless. Completely fearless! Even of the hissing, squawking, flapping, aggressive, poopy-all-over-the-place Canadian Geese at Star Lake:14 Months: You learned how to color,
loved animals as much as your Mommy,
and began to figure out how to “pretend play” with friends:
Oh yeah, and you discovered your wings.
15 Months: You loved your rocking chair,
and you could manage to look Glamorous even at a chicken pen.
16 Months: You FINALLY started walking!!! Perfectly, of course, since you waited so long.
You got to go bike riding for the first time, and fell in love!
You still had a backwards view on life . . .
and you discovered that bubbles were the funniest thing in the world:
17 Months: There was nothing better than looking at yourself:And water fun was thrilling!
Swinging was a sure-to-bring-a-laugh activity (although now you’re afraid of them. Explain that one, kiddo!)
And you received your first cousin, along with the accessory of a lesson on envy.
18 Months: You were as stylish and glamorous as ever, insisting on bows and sunglasses and any other accessory you could get your hands on:
You got to hold Cousin Eli for the first time, which induced much fear and trembling. Your artistic side blossomed into a birthday masterpiece for Daddy:
and you figured out how to eat one of your favorite foods the fun way:
19 Months: Although you were very focused and serious,
You never missed an opportunity to stop and smell the flowers. . .
and especially to play with rocks. Oh yes, you and rocks were tight.
You requested “paint piggies” for the first time AND got your first purse to add to your girlish fashion divaness.
And you learned how to “help yourself” if Mommy was too busy to help you.
20 Months: There was no doubt in your mind that dessert was to be enjoyed fully:
You thrilled your Daddy by loving football,
and you still liked looking at the world from down under,
but you had learned and LOVED finding and saying all of your letters.
21 Months:
AJ taught you how to play “rosies”, which quickly became your favorite ~~obsession~~ game. . .
and you discovered that although you loved fashion, boots were not for you.
You still loved to look at yourself, of course. . .
And you fell in love with your all-time favorite toy, “shapes”.
You also became timid of things, which Mommy enjoyed to an extent, due to the increased cuddleage that occurred.
22 Months:
You were definitely falling in love with your Cousin Eli,
but had some serious spatial reasoning issues. . .
and you were discovering a passion for Play-Dough.
At 23 months, you loved your necklace!
You were quite persnickety about getting things on your hands.
You loved being glamorous. . .
. . .although your makeup application skills were still “in development”.
24 Months: All Grown Up!!
Yes, that is actually a PONYTAIL in your hair!!
You looooove running like crazy!!
But you are also a prim and proper little lady. . .
. . . at least in between the times that you lean back and throw your legs over your head. I mean, you’re still a toddler and all!

Happy Birthday!

Two-Year-Old Portraits: Why does everything end up needing to be prefaced with "Adventures In"??

January 7, 2009 Rachel Callahan I would NEVER take too many pictures. . ., I'm a Glutton for Adventure

Today was the day to get Ali’s two year portraits. I was running early, luckily, because when I got in the car it was completely dead. Again.

Now, if you remember the last time that my car battery died, my Mom came and saved the day with a nifty charger thingy that you just plug in the wall and it starts your car? And I advertised that thing, picture and all to all of you and vehemently said that everyone needed to go buy one RIGHT NOW.

Well, guess who never got around to buying one?

Yeah.

Anyway, so I knocked on a couple of neighbor’s doors to see if they had one, and the second one did. But it wasn’t high enough voltage. So then we tried to hook two sets of jumper cables together to reach my car (being that it was in the one car garage, it was unreachable. And unmovable, due to the fact that you can’t take it out of park unless the engine is running – thanks, Honda), but that didn’t work.

When it was getting time for the picture appointment, I texted Chris to tell him to standby on leaving work, and what was going on. Up to that point, I had been trying to be all independent with my car problems again.

He called and told me to simply have the neighbor pull into his carport parking spot, open the door between it and the garage, and do the jumper cables through there.

Why do I have to be so stupid?

Why didn’t I tell my husband 20 minutes earlier what I was trying to do?

That worked perfectly, of course, because my husband is a genius.

Pictures went great (I promise I’ll get to them soon), but after pictures, my battery was D-E-A-D again.

Mom jumped me off (she was at pictures to make Ali smile, of course), and then I went to an auto parts store, had my battery tested and deemed dead, got a new battery, and immediately BOUGHT ONE OF THOSE CHARGER THINGIES.

Phew.

Now, the fun part:

Doggy-Bear just had to make it in one picture:

Prim and proper. . .

Tongue-stuck-out-picture. Wow she’s already a kid.

Propped-knee-up just like Daddy.

True Love:

Total mischievousness:

Hmm. . . who do I give the last rose to. . .?

I think I will enroll her in gymnastics soon. . .

Pigtails!

Big girl chair:

There’s that mischief coming out again:

On second thought, maybe I’ll enroll her in Karate. . .

I’ll upload some more onto B-Sides later today or tomorrow. . . be sure to check back for those!

Wordless Wednesday – Another Addict.

January 7, 2009 Rachel Callahan Wordless Wednesday - as IF I could be wordless.

After begging me to play for a couple of weeks, she asked to play for the first time.

Fidgeting?? Her??? Nah . . .
Very, very focused:
Warming up:
Catching Fishies!!
Soccer:
Missed!!
Ducking to miss that shoe flying towards her. . . unfortunately, ducking doesn’t do any good. . .
And, for the record, she scored a 20 on her first soccer game. That’s better than a few of our friend’s first tries on New Year’s Eve (who will go nameless).

Skiing!
Ducking to. . . build up some momentum??
Visit my other WW post at B-Sides!
Visit everyone else’s WW at 5 Minutes for Mom!

Maybe She Understands TOO well. . .

January 6, 2009 Rachel Callahan Toddlers: The Experience

A couple of people have asked me if Ali understands the difference between Gramamma’s chickens, which she dearly adores, feeds them, and gets their eggs, and the chicken that she eats. I’ve never really known if she put two and two together and realized they were the same thing, or just chalked it up to a multiple naming issue.

I mean, she knows three different Davids and never has trouble with that concept, so maybe she just thinks that there’s an animal called “chicken” and a food called “chicken”.

However, I think that idealistic view of my child’s reasoning abilities may be false.

We were driving home from Church on Sunday and she was looking at her animal book. I looked back and noticed that she was pretending to pick up bites from her book and eat them. Upon a closer examination, I noticed that she was “picking up” from the kittens picture.

So I casually asked, “What are you eating, Ali?”

In an ever-so-logical and calm voice, she responded, “Ali eating Kittens.”

Me: “Eating Kittens??”

Ali: (picks up another bite) “Kittens. BIG bite. MMMMMM.”

Tackle it Tuesday: The Dreaded Closet Cleaning

January 6, 2009 Rachel Callahan Tackle it Tuesday - proof that I'm no Martha Stewart.

On my last Tackle it Tuesday Post, almost three months ago, I set myself the accountability by saying that my next post would be cleaning out Ali’s closet. However, this isn’t as easy as it seems, because I can’t manage to clean out her closet with her there, because, first of all, it’s JUST THAT BAD, and second of all, I can’t take trips up and down two flights of stairs whilst carrying many boxes AND keep up with a very-nearly-almost-two-year-old.

SO, all that to say, I FINALLY got around to it this past weekend while she was at my parent’s for an overnight stay in grandparent heaven.

Why, then, was her closet so bad? Well, as I would swap out clothes as seasons changed or she grew out of them, I would haphazardly put them in boxes and put them in her closet, until I could address the problem. And, when I finished a box of diapers, I would put the diaper boxes in the closet to store more clothes.

Needless to say, my strategy multiplied by the year and a half since we moved into this house, you get quite a problem.

So here are the mortifyingly embarrassing pictures of what her closet looked like before it’s overhaul:
So I started pulling out the boxes, some empty, some full, and putting them in her room to prepare for sorting:
That was the first layer. Her closet still looked like this:
I counted. There were 25 diaper boxes in that closet!!! If you figure 3 minutes per diaper, I have spent over 7 days of the past 16 months changing diapers (this stat brought to you by my best friend, Sir Excel). And that doesn’t even count the first 8 months of her life!!

Is it an oxymoron to say that I love my job, but it’s quite crappy?

So then I began sorting by season and size. Here’s a picture in the midst. But look at that shiny closet behind me!!
And, finally, the beautiful finished product!!
And the now boxed clothes, ready to be moved to the basement closet:
Now maybe I won’t be such a bad tidiness influence on my daughter. If only she would reciprocate by not creating so many empty boxes!!!

January Reader Appreciation Giveaway!!!

January 5, 2009 Rachel Callahan Giveaways and Contests

Hello, my wonderful readers!

As always, I am so grateful for your reading and feedback in the past month. It keeps me motivated to keep on writing, even when times (like Christmas!!) get reeeeeeally busy.

So I wanted to do a giveaway for you all to show my undying and overflowing appreciation for your readership and commentership. Yes, I love you that much.

I have two $10 Starbucks Gift Cards: One is going to go to one of my top 10 (actually 11, due to a tie) commenters for the month. The second one is going to go to any one of you – you can enter simply by commenting on this post!! You can comment anything you want, but if you have a blog and I don’t know about it, be sure and let me know in your comment, because I read all of my reader’s blogs!

As usual, if you’re a first time commenter, you get a double entry!

You have until midnight on Monday, January 11th to enter. I will randomly draw the two winners and announce them on Tuesday, January 12th at 3pm, so this time you only have one week to enter!!

For the first drawing, the winner will be chosen from these 11 wonderful people, my top commenters for December (In alphabetical order) – THANKS, LADIES!!:
1. Amanda T.
2. Amy G.
3. Ann Marie
4. Barkley
5. Gina
6. Jaci
7. Jennifer W.
8. Leanna
9. Lindsay
10. Kitty
11. Mom

For the second drawing, be sure to comment on this post to get entered into the drawing!! EVERYONE is eligible, even if you’re on the list for the first one!!

Thanks for reading, and thanks for all of your wonderful feedback and valuable additions to my blog!