HOOOOOORAAAAYYY!!!! 230-some-odd invitations are at the Cahaba Heights Post Office!!! It was quite an adventure making it through the 50 steps. The person getting me the addresses stayed up till 2:30 am this morning getting them finalized, then lost all of her changes when saving the file. I spent the morning helping her redo them, then brought it all home, hand fed every envelope into my printer (they were slightly wider than a piece of paper, so my printer didn’t like them too much), then stuffed 5 items in each envelope, stamped and sealed them, with MUCH help from my Mom and Ali. Ali, for instance, kept all of the superfluous “stamp” stickers for us:
(She was being a Tiger with stripes and saying “ROAR”)

Ali has become VERY obsessed with cleanliness over the past couple of weeks. She loves cleaning up messes – if she spills a little milk, she will take a paper towel and obsessively wipe the floor, her mouth, my mouth, the table, her body, etc. So here’s a video of just that. For translation purposes, her words are “foot”, “uh-oh”, and “MILK!”.

She’s also still obsessed with kissing everything. Here is her kissing her plastic Zebra, and then giving it to Oreo to kiss (something that Oreo was very much wanting to do, of course).

She’s talking more and more every day. Not so much new words anymore, but new phrases. Last week, I had parked the car and was coming around to get her, and she said “Out of the car. Walk around.” It just amazes me how she learns these phrases and just spits them out like she’s been saying them forever!!

And last but not least, I’ve been trying to teach her what the camera is for, because she has been uninterested in allowing me opportunities to get good pictures of her. BUT, she LOVES looking at pictures of herself, so I thought I would try this morning to take a few pictures of her, then show her the results. And, although she enjoyed seeing them, she was no more happy about me taking them. This was her deadpan expression that she kept up until I put the camera down:Maybe she just likes the “serious” look.

Wouldntja like a puppy??
This is a shameless plug for my Mother’s sake. And my Father’s. And Shadow’s, because apparently she hates being a Mommy. She steers CLEAR of her puppies as much as she can! Oh, and for mine and Chris’ sake – the more puppies gone, the less pressure we get to take one! Which will NOT be happening. Not that they’re not absolutely adorable, we’re just not “dog” people.
The puppies are half lab, half-we-don’t-know-because-Nick-let-her-get-away, and they are FREE!! Although Mom said that several people have told her that if you list puppies in the paper for free, no one calls, but if you list them for $25, you’ll get rid of them all. So, if you would RATHER pay $25 for them, that is fine too. And if anyone can explain that facet of human illogicalness, that’d be great.
But for reading the shameless plug, you do get the added bonus of cute pictures of Ali.
Petting the puppy. . .

Smiling at the puppy! I think that’s the first time she’s done that!
Ali getting tickled by the puppy:

Petting the puppy again. It looks like Ali is on the phone with a third arm, but that’s my Mom in the background.

Cuuuute puppies.

Sooo sweet. . .

Dontcha want a puppy? Or are you squirming as uncomfortably as I do at the thought? :)

This morning, Ali was walking towards me, and she stopped suddenly and let out a cry. I couldn’t tell what she did, so I asked her what hurt, and, for the first time ever, she told me!!! she said “foot!” Sure enough, she was walking past the corner of the coffee table, so she probably stumped her toe. It’s so glorious when your child starts communicating what is wrong! So I picked her up and showered her foot with kisses, with all the sound effects to go with, and asked her if it was all better, and she said “all better”. She really liked the healing power of showers of kisses though, so every 2 minutes or so, she would lift her foot up, look at me, and say “foot”. So of course, I would re-heal it all over again, and she would say “all better” all over again. . . only for it to mysteriously start hurting again in 2 minutes! This is such a fun age!

And a special Happy Birthday to my dear friend Barkley!! God brought us together in such a wonderfully sovereign way seven years ago

(this month!) by having Chris and I “randomly” knock on your door – it still amazes me how God orchestrated so many events just so that we could meet and become such great friends, and have a friendship that has changed both of our lives dramatically! Have a wonderful birthday! And even though you can’t hear her from Charleston, I just got Ali to say “Happy Birthday”. Maybe I can get her to say it on the phone later.

p.s. – I’m glad you beat me (just barely) to the “late” 20’s ;) – I think 27 is the point where you can’t claim mid-20’s anymore.

However, I’m pretty sure she still loves Mommy, too :)
The whole family!

Ali found her second favorite man, Pop!!!
After the wedding, there was much dancing!

The beautiful bride and her groom:
Ali and Pop!

And Ali and Nick!!
Ali playing in the grass, in spite of her dressed-up-ness:

Ali went home with Gramamma and Pop after the wedding, and Chris and I had an AWESOME date. Isn’t it amazing how going to a wedding can totally rekindle romance?? It was a great date of reconnecting and feeling lovey-dovey-newlyweddy :)

Today after church, we had lunch at our house. Eli’s first outing! (I think). It was great to have him as a part of our family lunch!

Sleeping soundly:
Eli with his Great-Grandmother Mammaw:

Mom’s “light” Greek lunch. Delicious!!!
Eli still just hanging out. . .

Finally starting to open his eyes!!
Ali insisted that Nick read to her. She loved it!

Eli all awake now!! He was so cute!!
Wigglin’ around:
Ali giving Eli a second chance after her bout of jealousy Wednesday night:

Eli cuddling with Mommy:
“But Gramamma, you belong to ME!”

Calling all her friends to tell them about her new cousin stealing her Gramamma.
“AJ! Help!!”
Eli Hangin’ out again:
Daddy had to get some work done this evening. You can see how everyone left him alone so that he could get it done!
Oreo is ALWAYS jumping onto his drawings. This time, he had two people that kept wanting on them. Ali kept saying “up!”, and she did NOT want to get off of Daddy’s drawings. But luckily he was able to finish up after her bedtime :)

All in all, we had an AWESOME weekend! Much family fun was had by all!

So I am up to my eyeballs in invitations. I am preparing 300 invitations to a wedding reception. Not just mailing them out – my tasks include:
– picking out the invitation
– writing the invitation wording up
– printing the invitations myself
– hole punching and threading ribbons through the tops of the invitations (THANKS A MILLION to my small group friends who helped me knock out about half of them last night!!)
– getting the address list
– doing a mail merge
– printing the envelopes
– getting a picture at the wedding on saturday
– getting 300 prints of said picture
– getting a map to the church
– printing and cutting said maps
– separating and enveloping blank cards
– finally stuffing envelopes with said half a dozen enclosures
– stamping
– and FINALLY mailing.

All in the time period of this past Tuesday to next Friday.

Why am I doing this, you ask? Well, of course because I love the bride, but mostly because I love my Mother, who is in charge of the ENTIRE reception. Also, I apparently made a “deal” with her that I would help her with this one if she would help me with Lindsay’s tea. I don’t remember making this deal, but I would have helped her anyway!

It’s very interesting to me that my Mom thinks she is so disorganized and always puts herself down and says she’s not good at things like this, but she ran a consignment book store with 50,000 books in it for about 8 years and was able to keep up with everyone’s books and pay them when they sold, is in charge of Cubbies at our church (the three and four year old group of AWANAs), homeschooled three children, and has headed up various events like the one I mention here. She always says she’s too disorganized for big projects, yet she always takes them on, and is successful.

I finally think I figured out today what it is. Mom is organized, but only once she gets INTO the project. Mom has always called me organized, but I think that’s because I can see from the front side all of the organization that will need to take place. Mom doesn’t see it until she gets into the middle of it. And it is due to this very fact that my Mom is willing to take on these massive projects. I, seeing in advance all of the work and stress it will cause, steer very clear of taking on big projects (except for one every few years for someone really close to me, like Lindsay and Baby Eli’s Tea). Mom is like “yeah, that would be fun! And not too much work!”, and then it ends up being TONS of work, but she always does a great job at it, and has a great attitude about it.

So does that make me a pessimist? Or a realist? I think it’s a mixture of a realist and LAZY. I know what it will take, and I don’t wanna do it! I’m a great person to help other people, like my Mom, with their courageous and adventurous projects, but I don’t like being in charge of one myself! I actually ENJOY doing things like making invitations and fixing them up all pretty, but if I’m in charge of the whole thing, I stress too much about it all the way up to the event (but then really enjoy the actual event!!). Also, I’m too much of a perfectionist. I think I mopped the floors about 6 times in the day before and the day of Lindsay’s tea. And I am NOT normally a neat freak, but if I’m going to have 50 people in my house, I want it to be perfect.

But really what it boils down to is that I don’t have the servant’s heart like my Mother has – to put aside my interests and give my time for others. I want one, but I often find it too “high maintenance” to take on big projects like that to bless others. I want to be better at that, and more willing.

So Mom, more power to you! You’re a whole lot more organized than you think, and have the perfect personality to take on big projects, because you never realize quite what you’re getting yourself into (despite mine and Dad’s warnings!). :) But you always do a great job.

And everyone else, if you get one of my lovingly-crafted invitations in the next couple of weeks, you better appreciate it!! ;)

You remember my blog about my uncle’s art made from his toenail clippings? I know, I know, you’ve had nightmares about it ever since. How COULD you forget?

The same weekend that I posted about it on my blog, Leo and I decided to find out how much his toenail art was worth on the wacky and bizarre market, so I posted it on E-Bay. Now, Kitty would have absolutely killed both of us if we sold it, so I put a reserve price of $1,000 on it, thinking that surely there was no one THAT wacky and bizarre. I put the beach scene up, and then a separate listing for the sunflower. I put several pictures up, and here was my description on the beach scene:

Beautiful five piece beach scene! Features three different species of crabs, beach reeds, and palm trees, all made out of toenails. The gold crab piece can be worn as a brooch!! Original and unique art – completely one of a kind!! These toenails were saved for over a year to make these art pieces!!!

Well, unfortunately, all the crazies of the world didn’t find the listing. The beach scene was “appraised” at 60 cents, with free shipping even! However, for the record, there were 8 bids from 4 different bidders. The Sunflower? Although it had one bidder, it only stayed at 1 cent.

So, after the “official” way to appraise the wierd and wacky, toenail art didn’t go as high as I thought it might. Maybe it’s just because the right people didn’t find it. Like, for instance, the Golden Palace Casino – they’re the ones that buy all the bizarre stuff on Ebay (Like the piece of toast with the Virgin Mary on it), and will pay a pretty penny for crazy stuff!!

However, my other motivation for listing it was the hope that Jay Leno’s producers would find it and put it on the Tonight Show segment called “Stuff we Found on Ebay”. Maybe, just maybe, it still will make it on there. They never show stuff until after the listing has ended anyway, so they can play their “Sold or not Sold?” game. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!!

If you want to check out the listings, here are the links:
Beach Scene
Sunflower

My husband is the luckiest man of the week. No, no, not because he’s married to me, but because of the Men in Trees.

I have had Men In Trees in my yard since LAST Thursday. The power company sent out a half dozen Asplundh contractors to clean up around the power lines in our backyard. I wasn’t too excited about this prospect on the first day, because they were using woodchucking machines, chainsaws, and loud tractor-like contraptions in my yard, of course during naptime. Also, every time they stopped and started, I would hear DING DONG, DING DONG, DINGDONGDINGDONGDINGDONG, and I would go to the door, and the one that could speak the best english would say “ello maam – we want to chop down beeg branches in back yad”, or “we leave now, we leave equipment in back yad?”, etc etc. However, miraculously, all their racket never seemed to wake Ali up.

Last week, they were hanging, upside down, with chainsaws, approximately 50 feet up in the air in our tallest trees, sawing off and dropping huge branches. I was somewhat indifferent to their progress, because it was in the far corner of the yard, and it didn’t make that much difference to our quality of life to have some branches missing from the highest parts of our trees.

I thought that they had finished on Saturday, but sure enough, they were here bright and early Monday morning, already in full gear by the time Ali and I came downstairs. Only this week, it was going to make a difference. They were tearing up and hauling off all of this unbelievable underbrush and annoying growth towards the back of our yard.

This is where Chris got the title of luckiest man of the week.

He has had, what we call, a “bonnet bee” ever since we moved here last year to get the back yard cleaned up and get a nice, wooden fence put in. However, when he got a quote on it, although the fence was within budget, it was going to cost multiple thousands of dollars to get all of the scrub and underbrush cleaned up! I’m telling you, it was a mess. So Chris, being the practical person that he is, decided that he had better clean it all out himself this summer. And, although I am a very practical person myself, I was dreading him having to clean all that out, probably as much as he was.

Enter the Men in Trees. By the end of the day on Monday, all we had left in the back yard were a couple of stumps!! Besides the metal fence and scary outbuilding, of course, which Chris will still have to get up (I thought about telling the workers that they were were a magic growing fence and outbuilding, and they should haul them off for fear of interfering with the power lines, but I didn’t know how to translate this idea into Spanish).

So Thank You, Alabama Power, for saving us a few thousand dollars (or many frustrated, hot and sweaty husband-hours)!!! I will pay my power bill with thankfulness this month!!!

Oh yeah – and Thank You, Men in Trees!!

We went to visit Eli tonight!! He is home safe and sound, and is definitely glad to be home (as are his parents!!). Here are some quick shots I got tonight:

Soooo tired. . . .
Life is stressful. . .
Next to Uncle Chris’ baby present: Eli’s first NCAA Football!

No more pictures, people!!
In JC’s baseball glove!!
Ali in total shock that she lost her position as baby of the family so suddenly and without warning. . . (for a good size comparison click on the below picture to see it larger – and look at the difference in size Ali and Eli’s hands – and I thought Ali’s hands were teeny!!)
“what’s up, little guy?”

Hmm. . . not too sure.
Uncle Chris holding Eli for the first time!!
Me holding Eli for the first time!!

Eli with his Grandaddy (Lindsay’s Dad)

So cozy. . .
Eli’s bedroom!!
Ali and Layla checkin’ out Eli’s “Crib”
Daddy and Eli hanging out!

JC and Lindsay are at the hospital with Eli, and they ALL THREE should be headed home within a half hour!!!!!
Also, not that this is important compared to that, but I never gave a weight update last post – as of Sunday, he was up to 4lbs 10 oz – well over twice what he was when he was born!
Be praying that everything goes smoothly with his discharge, the trip home, and getting settled into home today!!
I’ll give you all an update when I get one!