Gavin turns 4

Gavin celebrated his 4th birthday while we were in transit and at Nana and Papa's house. We tried so hard to make it special and very memorable. We started out having lunch at Mellow Mushroom...YUM! We went to the Children's Discovery Museum in Chattanooga to see the Curious George exhibit. That was fun! Of course, I had to make him a Batman cake to try to prove to him how much I love him. The birthday went well, but it made me sooooo sad. It was just us! I know, I know, that is okay...but no Brady, no Herwig family. I was so sad that his best friend was not with us to share in his special day. I felt like such a loser mom for moving him from all that he knows and loves. He will make some new friends, sure, but until then...hee haw, hee haw. I just feel like that!

He probably will not even remember this birthday when he grows up and is a young man. I sure hope he remembers that cake though. It sure did take a lot of time and TLC! Oh well, if he doesn't, I know it meant a lot to him on his special day!

Deceptively Delicious

We left the reunion and travelled on to Birmingham to visit Russ' sister Amy, her husband Chris and their son Micah. Micah is 3 weeks younger than Holden any my did they have a grand time scoping each other out. Amy and Chris are first time parents, as Russ and I were 9 1/2 years ago. You so quickly forget how anal you are with your first child...making sure they have every single food group represented in front of them for their dining pleasure at every single meal. I told Russ how awful I felt about my great parenting skills now with number 4... Helden is lucky to get some chicken nuggets and a few french fries for lunch some days. Maybe it is not quite that bad, but it is close.

I copied down some recipe ideas from 'Deceptively Delicious' about hiding veggies in "normal looking" food. Then I asked myself why would I go through all of that trouble when my boys eat fine. They eat vegetables... if I give them some. Being on the road for the past month, a big food food staple has been nuggets and fries. They will get a little crazy and get apple fries or comparable, but the vegetable choices have been limited as of late.

One night we stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner. You would have thought we were in the organic section of Whole Foods Market. We scarfed down plates of vegetables and almost cried at the wonderful taste. Of course, they are the "good vegetables". You know what I am talking about I'm sure...cooked in tons of fat back and bacon, seasoned for hours with deliciousness! Healthy...not so much...but vegetables none the less.

Weight Watcher What? Seriously, my body will probably go through detox once we get our house together and can cook some reasonably healthy meals. Bring it on... or I am going to need to have my arteries unclogged.

So, maybe I will try some of those "Deceptively Delicious" recipe ideas, and of course I will share them with you on www.Keyingredients.com . I think I need to be deceived to eat some vegetables...aagh!

We had a great time with Amy, Chris and Micah. The time was short, but the love was great!

Just Around the Corner...or 47

One thing I will have to say is making me a little crazy is how delusional everyone is on distances. When someone says something is just around the corner or right down the street, that is exactly where I expect it to be. When I say…”Oh, Walmart is right around the corner”… I literally mean in less than a mile and around one corner you WILL arrive at Walmart. As of late, when someone tells us how to get somewhere or where something is located they direct us “right down the street” or “around a corner” and we have to drive 10-15 miles or around 47 swervy curves down 3 other roads and up a hill to get to that destination. So, let that be a lesson to you all…OWN IT. You do NOT live close to anything! It is okay, that is just the facts, just OWN IT!

I did something I swore I would never do…swim in a lake! I HATE lakes. The dark murkiness is haunting. Not knowing what is in the water beneath you… snakes, gators, more snakes, creepy fish. Up to this weekend Russ has been tickled to death about the prospect of going out on the lake in his uncle’s boat and water skiing, tubing, etc. He grew up going to lakes during the summer, that is what “inland” people do, I suppose. I am a beach girl. I go out on the beach, and the extent of my water contact is when I start to perspire a little too heavily, I go wade in the water about thigh high…still able to see the bottom, splash a little on my arms, then its back to shore. However, against all of my best judgement, I bit the bullet and took the plunge. It had to be 450 degrees outside, I think I would have jumped into a vat of motor oil swimming with sharks if it had been 400 degrees or less just to cool off for a split second! I have to admit…it was not as bad as I thought it would be. We were on the “big water”, not the swamp, so that made it a little more “ocean-like”! I also went tubing…yee haw. It was also not soo bad, it gave me a slight headache with all the bouncing, but it is something I would consider doing again. The boys had a blast and we all decided that we need a boat. So much fun and family time!

Now it is off to Birmingham to visit Chris, Amy and Micah. Micah got Roseola last week, so they could not make it to the reunion. So, we are off to B’Ham to hang out for a few days. More fun to be had!

How many bottles does it take to drive to Arkansas?

How many bottles does it take to get to ___ ? That is the driving game that we like to play on our road trips. See, once the boys break the seal to their bladders, they have to go to the bathroom every few minutes. SO, they use water bottles in the car so that we do not have to stop every 10 miles for potty breaks. Blake is OCD neurotic about the wipes. He MUST have a wipe in ready position for the current pottier to use AS SOON AS THEY HAVE FINISHED THEIR BUSINESS! So, we can now determine the length of a trip by the amount of potty bottles it takes us to get from place to place. The trip back was a four bottle and 2- 64 ounce big gulp cups. Say what?

You ain't nuthin' but a hounddog!

We went to Graceland, Baby! The home of Elvis Pressley. It is really a neat place. We learned that Elvis bought Graceland in 1959 for $100,000. WOW! He bought it from a doctor and his wife who built it on land given to them by the doctor’s Aunt Grace, so they named it Graceland in honor of her. Elvis bought one of his two private airplanes for $200,000 and spent $800,000 to customize it! It was quite obvious that his home was decorated in the era of bright colors, apparently his favorite color was BLUE! The boys barely knew the name before we got there, but let me tell you, they are all about The King now! They want to know what his biggest hits were, why he died, if he could have lived longer had he not gotten addicted to drugs and alcohol, and if he was in Heaven. Well, only God knows the answer to the last question, but we certainly are glad that they are concerned about his salvation! I think that it is pretty cool that all 3 boys think that Elvis Pressley is cool as a musician and an actor. The Legend lives on!

A little 'Night Talk' goes a long way.

I have talked a lot about the country aspect of life that we have been experiencing this past month. Please do not take that as me making fun of these people. God loves us all the same and just because they are different does not mean that is bad. Actually, I think we have a lot to learn from many of these “country folks”. Our family specifically can get so wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of life that you forget to slow down and appreciate what is truly important…God and family. One night while watching ‘Night Talk’, one of the nightly cable access channels, a caller phoned in concerned about how he was going to be able to find out the news once the new digital cable boxes were mandatory in order to watch television. We find ourselves trying to get the latest and greatest and newest and biggest HDTV. This poor man just wants to see the news. If you take the complexity out of life, I would be willing to guess life might be a lot happier. It is my prayer that we, our family especially, could learn to appreciate one another more and the things of this world less. This National Lampoon Vacation has started us on the path…being together in the car, in a tiny hotel room, back in the car, in the middle of nowhere for days on end…that will make you appreciate one another…or strangle each other. I have never heard so much laughing and playing and giggling between the first three Brown Boys until this trip! To God be the glory!

You can't get something for nothing!

Our favorite thing about Crater of Diamonds park was the following story:

We kept hearing that the best time to find diamonds was after it rained and right after it was plowed. So Blake got it in his head that anywhere he saw a puddle… that is where he should look and dig around. At one point, he was off exploring, and he shouted out that he needed help. Not too concerned, because again, we were in the middle of a 37 acre field of dirt, I moseyed on over to see what was up. He was covered in mud from his knees down and he was panicked. His shoes had been eaten up by the ground. Yes, you read that correctly! He found a wet area that he decided to investigate and when he stepped onto the ground, he sunk! A foot into the ground, he sunk. It took all of his strength to get himself out the bog, and his shoes did not come out with him. A lady that was venturing by about this time, offered up her opinion that he should just say adios to those shoes, they were G-O-N-E! So, we got Daddy-O on over to dig his shoes out of the earth! Blake got his heart beating again and his shoes were found a foot in the ground. The big life lesson that Blake learned from this adventure is this…YOU CAN’T GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING! It is a lot of WORK! Let that be a lesson to all my boys!

The Middle of NOWHERE!!!!!!!

Let me start by telling you how we got on the path to diamond digging...It started about 2 years ago, when Blake found out that Murfreesboro, Arkansas was the only place in the US where you could dig for diamonds and keep what you found. So, we figured, what better time to venture into the middle of no-where-land, but during our transfer from Florida to South Carolina. So, the adventure began. Let me tell you something else...there is NOTHING AT ALL IN ARKANSAS! Nothing! Land, empty land, and more land. So, we drove, and drove and drove some more. We get to Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and had to stop at a Walmart to buy a pack n play. We ever so smartly packed that we forgot Holden's bed. NICE! The last Walmart before we left "civilization" was in Arkadelphia. (Correction, we left civilization way back, but I digress.) We asked the boy at the register where the closest sit down restaurant was, and basically the ONLY restaurant was the Western Sizzler located with Walmart. Yep...the Sizzler! YIKES!

We had to get off the interstate at this point to get to Murfreesboro, Arkansas. It was another 37 miles. Landon, at that time, asked if those were regular miles or "country miles". That kid!

Okay, so Murfreesboro does not have chain named hotels. So, you can imagine, I was a little scared of where we may have to spend the night. One of the best recommended hotels is actually a series of teepees. Yep, you read that correctly...teepees. They do not recommend you stay there if you have allergies to any type of animals or insects. Hmmmm...I think what that means is...HOLLY, DO NOT STAY HERE! That is at least what I heard. We realize that we are on a National Lampoon's Vacation, but a girl has to draw the line somewhere!

After over 9 hours we made it to the Queen of Diamonds Inn. I prayed shortly before we arrived that I would not have to wear bug spray to bed. Thank You, Jesus! He answered my prayer. The Queen was clean! Yee Haw!

Tuesday morning we went to have the hotel breakfast and the ladies at the desk must have thought I was a wierdo, because I just kept saying how wonderful and clean the place was and it was so nice. Seriously, I was shocked! I had to give them props!

Well, the time had come...dirt digging time! We rented our bucket, shovel and screens. We walked out into the field and the digging began! Seriously...our vacation revolved around sitting in 37 acre field with 110 degree heat index, digging in the dirt. I told Blake to take a picture of his sweaty, dirty mom digging in this field, because he could put it on his wall and ALWAYS know how much I love him. I would have been on the beach in Destin, with an ice cold sweet tea, reading a book. But then again, that is not how memories are made...

No diamonds were found, but we will never forget that adventure. The ONLY other thing to do in this entire area is Ka-Do-Ha Indian Mound Village. So, we looked at the mound houses that housed duplicated skeletal remains. AWESOME! Checked out another dirt field that supposedly contained indian artifacts from 1000 years ago. However, at this point, I am done dirt digging, and so are the boys. Seeing as to how there is absolutely nothing else to do in Murfreesboro...we decided to check out a day early and head to Memphis. Graceland, here we come. Thank ya, thank ya very much!

I think my favorite thing about the entire trip so far has been the following:
Since we started having children, spontanaity has been a thing of the past. But, we spontaniously decided to change up our plans and visit the King. Look out Elvis, here we come! These boys are about to get schooled on The King. Apparently, they have already been schooled on the Big As_ Beer. When we went to dinner tonight the signs were all over the place for the before mentioned delicacy. Welcome to Memphis!

Chickamauga Battleground

On Sunday, we went to Russ' mom and dad's church in Fort Oglethorpe! It was wonderful! The pastor was great, the music was too and the people were so friendly...normal friendly...not crazy Walmart lady friendly. The boys had a great time in childrens' church and it was just an all around great morning of praise and worship and hearing a great message of God's Word.

Following church, we decided to go through Chickamauga Battle Park. It was really cool and educational, blah blah blah, and the boys loved the rifle museum and the canons. We climbed the battle tower and I thought we would all die climbing to the top, but we made it!

There were amazing grass fields all around and there was a patch of trees about 300 yards from the tower. So, Russ and I had a great idea to tire the boys out, we told them we would give them $5 to run to the trees and back. They took off like a bolt of lightning and ran like the wind. Maybe that is the motivation I need as well...someone to pay me to run. AGH! You would think my big fat booty would be motivation enough, but apparently NOT!

She's a Gold Digger

Oh, how do I follow my last entry? I will just start by continuing to tell you about our National Lampoon's Summer Vacation! Saturday, we went to Dahlonega, Georgia to pan for gold! We went up and around and down and over and ugh...I thought for sure I must have appeared physically green! I am not much for motion sickness, however, I am afraid of heights, so the winding coupled with the deadly dropoffs were just too much! We reached one point and we had been driving for what seemed like days, okay so it was only 2 hours, but the sign said we had 17 miles to go to get to Dahlonega. So, we drive and drive and drive until we reached the end of the road another turn and we had 5 MORE MILES TO GO! So I made the comment that I know where they get the term "country mile". THEY REALLY ARE LONGER! They MUST be twice as long as a regular mile! Did you know that it is completely normal to have a washer, dryer, bed, refigerator, AND/OR sofa on your front porch? Suh-WEET!

We got to the gold panning / gem searching adventure that followed with a great yee haw tractor ride. Then I almost cried as I realized we had to drive back to North Georgia. I truly did almost cry.
I also almost threw up, and Holden did scream at the tippy top of his lungs for the entire 2 1/2 hours, minus 20 minutes...whew hew! But, we made it back, praise Jesus! Good Times!

We are in not in Kansas anymore, Toto...or South Florida.

We are in the mountains of Georgia and Tennessee...whew doggie! It is absolutely amazing how different people in this world are. I always knew it, but WOW, today, I lived it.

So, I went to Walmart, to grab some groceries so that I could prepare dinner for everyone. I also needed to grab some pull-up, because, apparently, with all of the moving around and not being in a routine, Gavin has started having night time accidents. No problem. So, I am standing in the diaper aisle, checking out the pull-ups, looking for the best option, when a lady comes toward me with her cart. She is talking to me before she is even beside me, telling me about her 7 year old grandson who is not night time potty trained yet. "Oh!", I said, "I am sure he will grow out of that soon!"

"Well, the doctor says that he is fine, it just takes longer for some to stop having accidents. My husband thinks it is wrong, but I told him it was normal", she continued.

Three to four more minutes continue with the above dialogue. Then, she looks at me and asks me, "You got any kids?" very serious, like those of us with children are an anomaly.

I reply, "Yes, I have four boys."

"How old is your last one?" she asks.

"Fourteen months", I say.

"Well, whatcha gotta say about this...I have been seeing things all fuzzy, I have had my belly weight shift to down here (and she ever so INDISCREETLY pulls up her shirt and shows me her entire belly fat), and these things have been tingling like crazy (at which time she grabs and jostles her boobs in her hands). Whatcha gotta say about that?" she says.

What did I have to say, you ask? "OH MY WORD!!!" is what I was thinking! Where am I? The Twilight Zone? Who does this? Am I on Candid Camera?

She commenced to telling me that she lost everything when her house burned to the ground and she is living in a hotel. She is having to write down the entire contents of her home (which she has bought and owns) so that insurance can payout. I felt awful, and told her so, but she was not gonna let that get her down. She continued on the road of bloated belly, tingling boobs and too much information about her menstrual cycles. She said she has had 30 miscarriages, PCOS and diabetes, which is apparently all connected. She is 56, her husband is 44, and he does not believe that she is pregnant. But she told him..."You'll see"! "Whatcha gotta say about that?" she says again.

"It's a girl, I think", she continues. Yes! SHE CONTINUES!!! "I have dreams about a little curly black haired girl, with brown eyes and dark skin...because my husband is half hispanic! She crawls into bed with me, and I tell her to "Go away, you are not real!", but she just keeps calling me mommy! You know, I used to have dreams about having a little girl and a year later I was pregnant with my daughter. Now she is 25!"

She showed me her belly, and what she perceived to be a pregnant bump, and talked about her "tingling" boobs some more. "YOU know what I am talking about!", she would say.

Let me tell you all something, for the record... there is a strong possibility that I could appear on Punk'd, Candid Camera, or maybe a new show that we have not heard of as of yet. There is no other explanation for the very odd encounter I had at the local Walmart today... at least nothing that makes sense to me. Bless her heart...at this point, I hope she IS pregnant! I cannot stand the thought of her finding out otherwise!

Travelling to our Destination

We have been out of South Florida for not quite a week yet, and I must say...I miss it, and I am lonely! The last week of school for the boys was the 4 days that we had the packers and movers at the house. We decided to stay at a hotel for a couple of nights, then stay with the Herwig's for our last 2 nights in South Florida. (We would have stayed with the Herwig's all 4 days, but we were afraid that by Saturday they would be dancing when we left instead of wanting us to stay.)

So, the last 2 days were nice, we enjoyed just hanging out with our friends, then Saturday morning (D-Day) arrived. It was AWFUL! I am not sure when the sobbing started for me, but once it started, it was hard to stop. At one point, while the boys and Russ were coming in and our picking up our bags to pack in the van, Landon starts singing... "Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today..." Actually, I think that was when my tears started to fall. Just watching Gavin and Brady sleeping in their bed Friday night made me so sad...they have no idea everything that is about to change in their friendship.

We drove up to South Georgia to Cordele to stay with Russ' Aunt Priscilla and Uncle Durwood. We were tired, but it was a nice visit. Sunday morning we finished our route to North GA, Fort Oglethorpe, which is about 10 miles from Chatanooga, TN, a great little town...filled with so much shopping. The boys started VBS at Nana and Papa's church, and have had a great time so far. There is a talent show tomorrow, that supposedly Blake has signed up to sing in, but we will see. I'll let you know.