Reason #1 Why He is Always With Me When I Use the Restroom

This is what happens when I choose to have privacy in the restroom instead of bringing him with me....

Feeding the Devil Within

Back in August mom, Lily, and I went to go see The Little Mermaid on Broadway. Please note - I did not want to go to this show. It took Lily months to watch the movie without running out of the room whenever Ursula was in a scene. And now my mom thought it would be a good idea to take her to a live performance of Ursula?!??! How does that even seem logical? I foresaw me spending the entire production in the foyer calming down a very upset little mermaid.

But mom didn't want to go to NYC by herself with Lily and no one else was available. So I went. Out of love for my daughter and my mother. In the end it proved how much I loved them because the show was horrible for anyone over the age of 12. I can't believe it's actually on Broadway. It falls somewhere in between a high school musical and a community theater production - but with larger sets since Disney is backing them.

So we took the train down early one Saturday, saw the show, and took the train back home.

(at this point I'll refrain from writing a paragraph on how we missed the first train because my mother left the show tickets at home)

Unsurprisingly, Lily watched The Little Mermaid the whole way down and the whole way up. She didn't care when I pointed out the boats and barges on the Hudson. She was trying to figure out all of the Ariel's sisters names in time for the matinee.

We stopped by the zoo in Central Park to burn some time before the show. I thought it would be nice to show Lily the polar bears. The viewing platform for the exhibit is actually above their habitat so you look down into their den through plexiglass. As we approached the platform I heard the guide say, "As you can gather, it's mating season for the polar bear." And by that time it was too late for us to turn around. "oh, their just playing" was the chant that all of us stunned mothers kept repeating to our very curious toddlers.

Eventually the girl polar bear got mad and backed herself against the wall. Mayhem ensued as the boy polar bear was not happy about that move. Lots of growling, which I thought was pretty neat to hear in uptown Manhattan. So here's a picture of Lily watching the boy polar bear growl at the girl polar bear. You can barely see the girl bear's head right below Lily's head.

It's tough to see the sea lion in this picture but I just think it's neat that this little viewing area is in the middle of Central Park. The sea lion, by the way, is underwater on the very right of the picture.

And then we caught a cab to the show. Since Lily is incredibly Ariel-obsessed, mom and I thought that it would be even more special if Lily dressed up as Ariel. I really didn't want to encourage this addiction of hers, but I couldn't help myself.

This is Lily's "princess pose." I HATE it. I DESPISE it. She hasn't taken a normal picture in months because of this weird idea of hers. Mom and I try to tell her that no princess has ever posed like that in any movie, so we don't know where she is getting it from. AND THEN. THEN! at the end of the musical - guess what the Little Mermaid does? JUST GUESS!! YES - as she is accepting the audience applause - she poses just like Lily's "princess pose." What are the chances that would actually happen and how did Lily know?

Waiting in line to enter the show...

This was my sixth attempt at a picture of me and Lily. I was just done with trying to get her to smile normally by that point and this is the best I could do.

Luckily, I was proven wrong. Lily loved the show. She sang out loud (along with half the audience of little girls). At one point she was dancing in the aisle with her light-up mermaid high heels. It was beautiful to see her so enraptured. When Ariel came on stage Lily actually gasped and whispered - there she is mama.

Unfortunately I had to tell her the truth about Ariel in the middle of the show. I'll explain - to make the sea creatures appear to be swimming, they are on roller skates. Their tails or fins or aquatic limb-things swing behind them and their legs are somewhat covered by their costume (scroll up and see first picture for a good example.

Very soon into the show Lily whispered loudly into my ear - "She has legs!" I quietly explained that "this actually is not the real Ariel. Just like the Santa's in the mall are actually Santa's helpers and not the real Santa, this is not the real Ariel. She was just pretending to be Ariel just like you do everyday." of every week. of the past 6 months.

"What's her name then?"

for crying out loud...fumble with purse to find program, spill tic tacs on floor, cell phone slides down rows of seats, and finally find program....
"Her name is Sierra"

"What is his name?" She points in the general direction of the stage during performance of Under the Sea. Do you know how many fishes and other sea-types are on the stage during that song?

"which one?"

"Sebastian"

"Tituss"

"What about that one?"

"Lily, we're not doing this now. I'll go through them during the intermission."

And, to make it all wonderful, she thanked us for taking her. (granted, days later, but whatever) Oh, thank you Grrrrmam, thank you mama.

And then we ate at my mother's favorite New York City restaurant - the Olive Garden. I was able to choke it down since she was paying.

Hopefully we created a nice childhood memory for her. Now if only Jamie would become obsessed with something so we could have some variety in our lives...

The OTHER Vacationland

Brian had a conference in Orlando last week so the kids and I decided to tag along and spend a few days on vacation. If ever there is a time to go to Orlando it's gotta be in September - all the kids are still in school and the weather is usually not too hot. And too hot for me is anything over 85*.

WARNING-If you are reading this and you are not family or you aren't a fan of Disney - this post is not for you. You will be bored. You might even go into diabetic shock from all of the saccharine sweetness of the princesses and the edible cuteness of Jamie at SeaWorld. I do not want to be responsible for any uncontrollable ticks or seizures as a result of these pictures- so beware!

Luckily, the trip was very simple and quite. Nothing incredibly exciting happend and that's the way we like it! So I thought I'd just show some pictures with a few details. Basically Lily enjoyed the Magic Kingdom more and Jamie enjoyed SeaWorld more. The pictures show all the details.

Here is Lily on the monorail seeing Cinderella's Castle. Yes....she was dressed up as Cinderella for the entire day. I even brought an extra outfit in case she got tired of it, but that never happened.

We had reservations for breakfast with the princesses at 9am. That meant that we got to go into the part 30 minutes before it actually opened. All of Main Street was Lily's and she danced the entire way down to the castle.

Dinner with the princesses includes a one-on-one meeting with Cinderella. Lily asked her for a dance.

Lily and Snow White

Lily with Princess Aurora. Lily wanted me to ask Princess Aurora if she would like to be called Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora, or Briar Rose. The woman had a prepared speech. After 10 minutes she finally admitted she liked Princess Aurora best. She was actually the most friendly princess and seemed to really enjoy her role.

Lily and Belle. Unfortunately, Belle's outfit has negatively influenced Lily and she has attempted to push her dress sleeves down like Belle's. I told Lily that when she is Belle's age she can wear whatever she wants but since she's three she will not wear strapless outfits. COME ON DISNEY - WORK WITH ME HERE! Ask your princesses to dress modestly!

And here is the most immodest and disobedient princess of them all....We waited 30 minutes in line for this picture. GRRRRR. And this also prompted Lily to change her favorite princess from Cinderella to Ariel. For the rest of the week, it was all about Belle.

And then the rain came tumblin' down. And it POURED. This was probably Jamison's favorite part about the Magic Kingdom. Lily and Brian are in the background walking back from riding some of the rides. (yes, they still allow the rides in the torrential downpours.)

After waiting an hour for the rain to stop we finally decided to leave. It was 4:00 anyway and time to get back to the house. Lily actually fell asleep on the stroller ride back. It's comparable to falling asleep in a cold shower. She must have been completely wiped out.

The next day we took it easy. Lily and Brian played in the kiddie pool while Jamie and I sat in the shade. Jamison was not a fan of the pool for some reason.

Later in the week when I took the kids back to the pool I met a family from Scotland. (I wasn't very surprised - the whole resort was full of people from the UK. We were the only Americans and I was totally in my element). After talking to them for a while I found out that there were actually from a town outside of Glasgow that I lived in for two weeks when I was on International Campaigns at Harding. I had to call my college roommate and fellow campaigner Rachel and have an emotional moment.

Later we went to play putt putt. Let's think this through. We have a three year old. We have a 15 month old. We have temperatures in the low 90's and oppressive humidity. How much putt putt do you think was played? Around the third hole I was begging for a drink cart to bring me a diet coke...but this was not that kind of golf course.

I spent the entire 18 holes preventing Jamison from with maiming or drowning himself. There was no putt putt playing for the two of us.

Here are the kids using the trap on the fourth hole for more than just golf. I was thankful there were no sand traps on this course. Otherwise I would have felt obligated to bring a bucket and shovel.

Can you spot the sneaky toddler in this picture. It took me a minute too. I thought he had possible scaled the fake mountain and was making his way on Interstate 4.

If you couldn't tell from the picture below, the putt putt course we went to was Pirates Cove. Each hole had a factoid about a different pirate. That was my favorite part and I now feel entirely educated on all things pirate.

SEAWORLD! I loved SeaWorld! Mainly I loved those crazy dolphins and killer whales that flung their humongous bodies through the air. All the other animals were neat to look at and definitely interesting but unless they can do flips in the air and propel humans in the air with their snout they just don't grab my attention.

The boy loved the dolphin and killer whale shows. After I saw his reaction to the dolphin show I made sure to have the camera ready during the Shamu show. As you can tell from Lily's body language she was not so thrilled. At one point she told me that she was done with these fishes. I kindly explained that they were actually mammals and it would hurt their feelings if she called them fish.

This is what he was cheering about:

TOTALLY ENTHRALLED. If Shamu captures his attention this much then I am contemplating getting a Shamu tank in our backyard.

This is what he was looking at:

After the show he just couldn't take the excitement anymore. While Jamison was napping Brian and Lily went on more rides. I actually wanted to prop his sleeping body on the other plastic Shamu but there was a line of people waiting to take pictures and I didn't want to wait....or risk waking him. Wouldn't that picture have been hysterical!??!

This is the most expensive sand box in the world. We pay to get into SeaWorld and then the happiest place for Lily is here.

At our rental house there was a screened in porch that Jamison claimed. He would throw all his books out there and just sit and "read" a.k.a. try to rip out the pages and eat them.

It was a very relaxing trip (most of the time) and I can't wait until we can go back with Mark, Kristen, and the twins!

Hiking, Hunting, and Fishing in Vacationland

For about twenty years I have not been able to figure out why Maine is called Vacationland. Who (besides the Bush's) vacations in Maine? What in the world is there in Maine? Well, now I know.

Brian and I recently spent 19 1/2 hours in Freeport, ME. Now I can kinda see why Maine is Vacationland but it's a different kind of vacation then what I would normally consider a vacation. This is vacationland for those who like the outdoors. Things like hiking. Or kayaking. Or hunting moose. Things that are not vacation-y to me at all.

This also explains why L.L.Bean does so well in Maine. They actually have a campus of retail stores in Maine. We're talking TONS of square footage. From what we saw there is a Hunting & Fishing store, a Flagship store (mainly clothes, coats, and of course, boots), a Bike, Boat, & ski store and then an Outlet store. This is the outdoorsman/woman mecca.

Look at the huge L.L.Bean boot outside of it's flagship store! How can you NOT take a picture in front of that thing??!?!

But then I got a little nervous when we walked into the hunting store and this was on the door:

YIKES. What is the need for a firearm in Freeport unless you're holding up an outlet store? Maybe bringing it in for repairs? So maybe Maine is like the South??

This is the stuffed moose that was mounted above our table at lunch. It's weird to eat a meal with a dead moose hanging over you. It felt a little unsanitary.



All joking aside, we loved Maine and especially Freeport. We would love to go back again but with our schedules it probably won't happen for another 15 years. Here's to our Maine Trip 2023!

9 Out of 10 Dentists Recommend...

This is a picture of a tube of IcyHot. While some might think that this tube of IcyHot resembles a tube of toothpaste, I'm pretty confident that most will not agree.

Last week mom and I were still at Kristen's house for Maddie's surgery. Mom was getting ready for bed upstairs and I was trying to find my cell phone downstairs when I heard an awful noise. I ran up the stairs to see my mother with her hand to her mouth.

Unbeknownst to her, she had grabbed the large tube of IcyHot instead of her incredibly small and clearly labeled tube of Colgate toothpaste and brushed her teeth. Completely and thoroughly brushed her teeth. She later said (after the effects of the IcyHot wore off) that she noticed something was different but she just thought it was a new kind of mint flavor with a noticeable slow burn. By the time she had finished brushing she was starting to realize that something was not exactly right.

She had some concerns as to whether or not she could die from the IcyHot but I was laughing too hard to really think deeply about that. Time has proven that ingested IcyHot, while it won't kill you, will spread a lot of laughter among many, many people.

I have kept my word and have not posted any of the FIVE pictures I have of her trying to get the IcyHot out of her mouth. I should get free babysitting for that. Wait. I already do. THANKS MOM! I LOVE YOU!

So...what have you done this week?

I took a lot of pictures last week for Maddie's surgery. I thought I'd make a couple of posts about the different things that happened.


If you read my sister's post, there is no need for me to go over everything. So I'll just re-cap a lot of the details on Maddie's surgery.


Oddly for Maddie, she had a very difficult time sleeping the night before the surgery. She probably felt the apprehension that we were all emitting.


I had set my alarm for 4:30am so that I could be ready to go to the hospital with Mark, Kristen, and Maddie at 5am. After finally going to bed at midnight I think I woke up every hour. Finally at 4:15 I just decided to get up and get ready. As I walked into the bathroom my mother popped out of no where to announce that Kristen had been up most of the night with Maddie. Apparently Maddie wanted to eat but obviously, due to the surgery, she couldn't.


There was nothing that I could do about that so (according to my mother) I shut the bathroom door in her face. About 20 minutes later I was ready to head to the hospital. I walked into my bedroom to find Kristen in my bed with Maddie. "Kristen - what are you doing?!? We're leaving in 20 minutes!" "umm, no...we're leaving in 1 hour and 20 minutes." "what??.....oh my gosh, I never changed my phone to central standard time." I had actually set my alarm for 3:30am CST. So the good thing was that I was able to take care of Maddie while Kristen showered and got things ready for the surgery. The bad thing was that I had no idea what kind of night was ahead of me in just 18 hours...it was going to be a very long day and upcoming night (the honest to goodness worst night of my life).


Here is a picture of Maddie on the way to the hospital at 5am (central standard time, for those of you who haven't gotten off eastern time yet). At this point she has no idea what she is in for. Later, Kristen and I decided that Maddie would never wake up in the middle of the night again. The one night she has problems sleeping we take her to the hospital, cut her chest open, stop her heart, and then stitch her back together. That'll teach her! I think we just cured any sleeping problem Maddie would ever have.


As most of you know, my sister blogged the whole day so we could all keep up with the status of the surgery. There were at least 10 people from her congregation (Hillsboro church of Christ) in the waiting room at any given time. That doesn't include all of Mark's family and our family. We took up 1/4 of the waiting room.

I love Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. This was our second stay there and I can honestly say that if my children ever need service from a children's hospital, they will be medivac-ed to Vanderbilt. The staff is loving, caring, and completely understanding of when we had questions...lots of questions...along the lines of: how many of these procedures have you done? how do you know how much pain she is in? on a scale of one to ten, what is she now and when will she be a one? what is that tube? what does that monitor regulate? etc....

Anyway, there was a flat screen tv in the waiting room that let you know the status of your child. We didn't actually need this screen since the attending nurse in the surgery was calling us every 1.5 hours to let us know what was going on SPECIFICALLY during the surgery. It was weird to receive the call telling us that they had just stopped her heart and she was on bypass. As in - a machine was keeping Maddie alive. They had stopped her God-made machine and we were depending on the man-made machine. It made us a little nervous, to say the least.

Obviously the surgery was a success! But what about Ruthie?! What was she doing the whole time? Did she have any sympathy pains? Did she miss her sister? NO. She couldn't care less that Maddie wasn't around. She was loving all of the one-on-one attention she was getting. She was made to be an only child and she will be very surprised when Maddie returns this weekend. (what? where did that chick come from? I thought they had gotten rid of her for good!)

Here is Ruthie after finishing her lunch. Mom never noticed that Ruthie was in a high chair that was completely uneven. But, then again, neither did Ruthie.



Auntie Katie and Ruthie. She was very cuddly that morning. That afternoon she puked on me. I guess that's how love is.

Ok, I attached this picture out of order and I'm too tired to move everything around. Here is Mark's mother (the girls call her Bobbi) talking so sweetly to Maddie. The thing I love about this picture is Maddie's face. She is plotting. Plotting her revenge on all of us involved in the surgery. Her eyes rested on each of us as we stood around her and I know she was memorizing our faces so she could remember who we were and what she was going to do to us when the time was right. I will never turn my back on this child for the rest of my life because I know she saw my face.

One of the best things about this week (other than the successful surgery) was that my friend from college, Ashley, came up to Nashville to visit. I got to meet her son Noah (who looks exactly like his father). Ashley is the kind of person that oozes goodness and sweetness (but is still funny and down to earth). If you're lucky enough to be around her, try to get some of that ooze on you because it will make you want to be good and sweet just like her. That's why I'm standing so close to her in this picture - I need as much of that as I can get since I was not naturally born with it like she was.

I can't say this enough - thank you all for your prayers for Maddie's surgery. We've said this before but I will repeat it until the day I die - we are thankful for the doctor's, their equipment, and for Vanderbilt - but it was God who we trusted the whole time.

Note to Self

Dad flew me and mom down to Nashville this past Monday afternoon so that we could all be together for Maddie's surgery.

Mom is under the impression that the backseats of the plane have more legroom than the co-pilot seat so I was given the role of co-pilot and mom cozied herself in the back.

Now, the only reason the backseat could possibly have more legroom is if the co-pilot has the seat scooted up to the very front of the plane. I don't exactly like that position because I don't like to fog up the instruments when I breathe. I prefer that my father be able to read what direction we're going in, what altitude we need to be at, and how much fuel is left in the plane. Little things like that.


After we stopped in Parkersburg,WV for a bathroom break and we were back in the air, I scooted my seat back to a more appropriate distance from the instrument panel. Mom immediately knee-ed the back of my seat and told me to move up. Instead of grabbing the door handle to pull my seat up I instead grabbed the "steering wheel" of the plane and pulled up. I think you can guess what the plane did. After my father corrected my slight deviation of our flight plan my mother got her legroom. And really, isn't that all that matters?

So this is just a reminder to myself that next time I need to scoot the co-pilot seat forward, there is no need to propel the plane into outer space.