Rachel Callahan

I’m Starting to Catch onto a Trend Here. . .

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories Just My Luck

First of all, thank you SO much to my sweet hubby for my surprise post! I love you! And thank you to all of my friends here and on facebook that have wished me a happy birthday!

Second of all, I will have you all know that I slept until 11:15am on my birthday.

However, it wasn’t for the fun of it. It was because I didn’t go to sleep until 4:45.

I don’t know why this keeps happening to me this year on holidays – Mother’s Day, Independence Day, right after Labor Day, and now my Birthday. It’s odd. And annoying.

I’m going to have to declare an end to ALL special days. You can keep your birthday, but the rest of them have to go. There’s just too much of a risk factor for me.

Anyway, my stomach hurt last night while we were sitting and watching television, and then it got worse when we went upstairs to go to sleep. It hurt bad enough to keep me awake until 3:30, at which time I gave up and came downstairs to see if that would help.

Then the fun started. A full-on stomach virus. Or something.

The first time I got sick, I had one of those moments – where you realize, “well THAT just changed the whole weekend”.

So I finally managed to keep a Phenergan (Anti-nausea) down by 4:45, and dozed on and off until 11:15 (with a few breaks to coordinate Ali’s care by my Mom in order to try to prevent her from getting this awfulness).

Right now, I still feel queasy, but a little better. I haven’t dared eat anything.

It’s just frustrating that it would have to happen on my birthday. I’ve always been big about “the actual day” of birthdays and anniversaries, and so it gets under my skin. Especially since this year just seems to be a continual sickness.

But oh well. Such is life. I am so thankful for my Mom being willing to take Ali on a moment’s notice all the time. I can’t imagine not having grandparents in town to care for my children while I’m sick, as so many people don’t. And I am thankful for Chris doing whatever it takes to get her taken care of as well.

I am so blessed!

** Happy Birthday to Rachel from Chris **

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories The Blissfulness of Life
You are 27 today, and it certainly doesn’t seem like 10 years have gone by since a 17 year old walked into the SMCS 6th grade house on a Wednesday night and changed my then-22 year old life forever.
You are a faithful friend,
a playful companion,
a gifted ministry partner,
a beautiful woman,
a captivating girlfriend,
a wise wife,
a passionate lover,
a loving mother,
and most recently a dedicated employee.
You are intelligent, entertaining, and a comfort to me every day.

You have obviously given your life long ago as a canvas to Jesus Christ, and you bear the brushstrokes of a Masterful Artist.
I love you now and will forever. You are a perfect gift from a gracious God and I will never let you go.
Thank you for saying Yes!
Happy Birthday!!!
Chris

Thankful Thursday

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories Thankful Thursday

It’s Thankful Thursday!

I’ve gotten off of my normal mode of T.T. the last couple of weeks, so today I’m getting back on my own bandwagon.

For those of you who are new to Thankful Thursday, I’ll quickly explain: I have decided to “normally” focus my Thankful Thursday posts on “Why I am glad that Ali is ___ age”. The reason?

Simple.

She’s almost 2.

I want to get myself into the habit of being thankful for the little (and big) things about her before we head off into the unknown’s of that lovely age called 2. So, I am practicing now (while it’s easy) so I’ll be a pro by the time January rolls around!!

Now just for clarification, for the rest of you, please be thankful for whatever you would like – I love reading the variety of thankful’s from you all!

Now, for reason #375 that I am glad that Ali is the age she is (which is 21 months as of yesterday!!):

It is so fun to me that we are having conversations now – conversations in which she can tell me things that I might not know. For instance, I hardly ever drink coffee anymore. I just got out of the habit when I quit working in an office where it was made by “the group”. However, I had fixed myself a cup on a cool morning earlier this week, and it was the first time that Ali had ever seen me drink coffee.

Ali said, “Mommy COFFEE!!!” In a surprised voice.
I, personally, was surprised that she knew what coffee was. So I said, “How did you know what it was?”
Ali answered matter of factly, “Gramamma coffee, Pop coffee, Nick coffee.”
I said, “I didn’t know Nick drank coffee. Really?”
Ali nods her head of up and down, and with a look of I-know-lots-of-things-you-don’t-know, said “Nick coffee.”

I asked Mom, and sure enough, Nick DOES drink coffee now.

OK – your turn!! What are you thankful for today? Leave it in a comment, or if you have a blog, write a post on your blog and link it in with Mr. Linky (at the bottom of this post), and you can have the pleasure of welcoming my wonderful readers to your site!

To use Mr. Linky to link to your blog, just type in your name in the first slot, then copy and paste the URL of your blog post in the second one and click “Enter” – then there will be a link to your post from my blog! ***be sure to put the link to your actual “Thankful Thursday” post – not just your main blog URL.***

Winners for the Jarrod Jones Book Giveaway

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories Giveaways and Contests, Shamelessly Plugging Away

Thank you all for participating in this giveaway!

I used random.org to select the random winners, and they are:

#20 – blueviolet

#27 – maweisberg

#71 – stokesmichellebrandy

Congratulations to the winners!! If I have your email address, I will be emailing you. If I DON’T have it, you have until October 15th to claim your prize, or I will re-draw and give it away again.

If you didn’t win but still would like the books, I do have a runner’s up prize for you (whether you entered the drawing or not!): a 20% off coupon to buy the books online! Here is the checkout code: A8140820

Just go to Jarrod’s Publisher, Reach Your City, put one or both books in your shopping basket, and then when you go through the checkout process, it will prompt you for a coupon code. Just enter it in then for your discount.

Keep an eye out, because I will have a new giveaway in a couple of weeks!!

Southern Women

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories A Day in the Life

Lindsay and I went to the Southern Women’s Show on Friday, along with our favorite tagalongs, Ali and Eli.
Eli was just slightly embarrassed to be one of the only guys there.

But it didn’t take him long to get over his embarrassment and enjoy being the center of attention:
The Southern Women’s Show definitely has it’s pros and cons.

Con: You are basically subjecting yourself in VERY close quarters to every pushy mall kiosk worker known to man.
“can I rip the hair off of your arms with my super special wax??”
“would you like me to clean your rings?”
“Try my super duper $40-a-bottle juice that makes you perfectly healthy in every way!!!”
“Sham-WOW!!!”

Pro: You get tons of free food samples.
“Try my dip!” (at least 15 dip booths!!)
“Free milk!!” (Ali really liked strawberry milk, by the way. YUCK.)
“Free Ice Cream!”
“Fudge sample, anyone?”
“Free Meatballs!!”

One of the things that has changed over the years, though, is that they don’t have a whole different section where they give free samples of every toiletry, makeup, and any other sort of product known to man. I think it has been quite a while since they did this – since I was a little girl – because I remember it being hosted by Big B Drugs. That HAS been a while.

One of the other things that was missing this year was a definite improvement – there was not a single plastic surgery booth with MUCH larger-than-life pictures of breasts – before and after. AND pictures of much gorier plastic surgery. So long, too-much-information pictures.

I also learned a VERY important trick for Ali – she is unbelievably and perfectly content with a small sample cup and a bunch of little pieces of some sort of food item. She spent a good 45 minutes putting them, one by one, into the cup; and then moving them, one by one, back onto her stroller tray.

I actually utilized this technique again on Monday when I had to go up to work and interview someone (I know -really professional of me to interview someone with my 21 month old in tow, but to make her look more like a legit employee, I dressed her in her Slappey Morale Booster shirt). I bought Ali a pack of gummies out of the break room, got her two styrofoam cups, sat her in a chair, and she was completely happy for the whole interview. Nice!!

So, now that Ali has been to the SWS, she is officially a Southern Woman. And Eli is officially an I-get-drug-around-by-my-Mom-to-places-boys-shouldn’t-have-to-go little boy.

(insert your indignation here)

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories Parent of the Year, Toddlers: The Experience, Utter Silliness

So. . . Chris and I have always had an affinity for entering into a good ole’ football squares game. He likes brackets during March Madness also, but since I hate basketball more than cleaning out the refrigerator, I don’t do brackets.

We are not normally gambling people, but an office pool is always fun to enter. Either Chris’ office or the lawyer’s office next door always has a football squares game for Alabama games. You know – the ones where there are 100 squares, and you buy a square for $1, and if the last digit of the score for each team lines up with your square at a quarter, half, or final, you win $25 or $50 or $100 (depending on the rules).

I have actually NEVER won at Chris’ office or the office next door’s squares, but I’m not out anything because Chris always buys me the squares and never “charges” me for them. He’s a true southern gentleman.

Anyway, so this year for each game, Chris has been buying:
2 squares for him
2 squares for me
2 squares for Ali (I can hear your gasps of indignation now).

So in summary, he’s been shelling out $6 a week of his “allowance” for a little fun to be had for all.

And. . . . Ali won this week.
Chris actually forgot to bring his squares home for Saturday, so we didn’t have the fun of pulling it out and looking at it at the game, so he had to wait until he got back to work this morning to check, and sure enough, our 21 month old daughter is a successful gambler.

And $50 richer.

So now the question is, how do you “let” your toddler spend their gambling wins? Or do you put it in their piggy bank to teach them “good” saving lessons?

Oh – and for the record, it was our lawyer’s office that started this squares game. So if we get arrested due to the publishing of this blog, at least we know where to find our defense.

Women’s Intuition Starts Young

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories Toddlers: The Experience

I was changing Ali’s diaper Friday afternoon, and when I got the old one off, she threw her legs up to her head and said,” TEMP-ER-A-TURE!!”

She had felt a little warm, and I had even been thinking about taking her temperature, so I followed her instructions and took it.

Sure enough, she had a slight fever.

However, this intuition of hers didn’t help her when I asked her where babies come from (yes, I asked my 21 month old this question!)

She stayed with my Mom (Gramamma) on Saturday, and Mom told me when we picked her up that she taught Ali that God made the moon. Of course, wanting to quiz her (that is, quiz Mom’s teaching abilities), I asked Ali on the way home:
“Who made the moon?”
Ali: (pause) “God!!”

Me: “Who made the stars?”
Ali: (quicker) “God!!!”

Me: “Who made Ali?”
Ali: (very quickly and excitedly) “GRAMAMMA!!!!”

Guess where I am today!

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories Newsflash, Shamelessly Plugging Away

I am over at 5 Minutes for Mom’s awesome sister site, 5 Minutes for Parenting!!

I will be hosting a weekly column there where I will be featuring different blogger’s most humorous posts about parenting and children.

I am so excited to join their amazing team, and am also really looking forward to reading all of the great blog submissions that I will be getting!

Be sure to head on over and check it out!

And, if you’re visiting my site from 5 Minutes For Parenting, WELCOME!

Please feel free to peruse the site, and especially check out my “most popular posts” I have listed at the left. They include stories about art made from my Uncle’s toenail clippings for my Aunt’s Christmas presents, a photographic rendering of everything I learned NOT to do with my baby during the first year of her life (or maybe everything that I learned wasn’t so dangerous after all – but I’m not admitting which it is!), my adventures of mixing with Pop Culture “enthusiasts” AND their response to my documentary on their convention, how I managed to brutally wound myself while sleepwalking, and various other adventures and stories.

I also have a giveaway going on right now for three sets of awesome books – just comment on the post to enter!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you often! AND don’t forget to follow the instructions at 5 Minutes for Parenting on how to submit your most humorous blog!