There's A First Time for Everything

So I've never been a Nascar fan. While I did grow up in the deep South, I didn't know many people that were big fans, so I just never caught the fever. Truthfully I just never understood how watching cars go around a track was entertaining. However, Brian and I got to attend the Coca-Cola 600 this past weekend, and I must say, I really enjoyed it. Granted that's easy to do when watching the race from an air conditioned suite, while dining on roasted chicken, broccoli cassarole and triple chocolate cake.

But in all seriousness, I actually got into it! I'm telling you, when you're watching those cars race LIVE, it makes all the difference in the world. The sheer speed is astounding.

Brian and I had the privilege of touring the garages, meeting Bobby Labonte, attending the driver's meeting, and being in the winner's circle at the end. It was such a fun experience.

Dale Jr. at the driver's meeting.

And Larry the Cable Guy

Lee Greenwood singing, "God Bless the USA"

Walking the track.

Jeff Gordon's car.

Visiting with Bobby Labonte in his trailer.

Touring the garages.

(The guy on the right cracks me up.)

The view from our suite.

In the winner's circle, delirious from all the sugar intake and staying up so late.

Winner, Kevin Harvick.

Winner's Circle celebration!!! It's blurry because the noise was ridiculous.

Sage is . . .

1.) So tall. She's always been in the 75th percentile in height, but just recently people (and even total strangers) have begun to comment on how tall she seems for her age. She is also . . .


2.) So funny. Especially when it comes to wearing glasses.





In addition to the glasses obsession, Sage is also obsessed with . . .


3.) Tearing things apart, like toilet paper. (Which is why bathroom doors are either closed or there's no toilet paper on the roll in our house!) In this picture she had ripped the wrappers off of every single bar of soap she could find under the sink.

Here ya go Mom. I nice fresh bar of soap.

4.) Sage is also quite the imitator. She has this "fake laugh" she does whenever she sees/hears someone else laughing. I can't seem to catch it on video, so you'll have to take my word for it. She's so dramatic about it. She throws her head back and let's out a Count Dracula-like cackle. It's a little scary.

I've really enjoyed watching the coverage of the Royal wedding today. Admittedly, I did not join many of my friends in waking at 4 am to watch the entire ordeal. I figure they'll be airing it all day, no, all month long. I should have plenty of opportunities to watch it without losing sleep :)

On a different note . . . wasn't Kate breathtaking? I think she looked absolutely GORGEOUS.




Here's one thing I don't get though. The hats. Seriously, the HATS!!!!! I like wearing a hat occasionally, and granted my personal style is probably rather understated. Which is why I just can't fathom why one would wear something like this:





Did you catch that? What in the world?!!!! Take another look:



Here's another one you'd never, ever catch me in :)



As they say, variety is the spice of life!!!

Happy Easter!

I am kicking myself for not remembering to take a family picture on Easter Sunday. I did, however, remember to keep Sage in her Easter dress long enough to get a few quick pics.

On lil Easter egg hunt. She doesn't quite get the concept yet, but it won't be long!

You're Not Going to Believe It!!

I did it. I finally bit the bullet. I've been talking about it for years and finally mustered up the courage. I had to have someone or something push me over the edge and Brian told me that on our budget, we really couldn't afford for me to be getting highlights anymore. I needed no other reason. When it comes to priorities lets face it, my family is far more important to me than my appearance. So I went back to my natural color. At least, the hairstylist's best guess at my natural color. It's a little different from what I think my real color is, but when you're trying to cover up bright blonde highlights, I'm sure it's tricky! So without further ado, I'm now a brunette

. . .

Here's to hoping I get used to it!!!

I'm Looking Forward to . . .

1.) Our new family membership to the YMCA!! I have always wanted to be able to use the Y, with all of it's wonderful programs, workout facilities, childcare, etc. And now I can!

2.) Going shopping for some new clothes with a little birthday money. I've put off buying clothes long enough, it's time to update the wardrobe. Don't you just wish that you could revamp your whole wardrobe all at once? Maybe that's just how bad mine needs it. For now, however, I'll have to settle for just a few new items to spruce it up.

3.) Sage has a cold, and of course I caught it from her. So I'm looking forward to it being over.

4.) American Idol. Although I'm a little surprised at a few of the judges' "wild card" decisions last week, I'm looking forward to hearing what the top 12 can do. Bring it!!!

5.) Reading through the Bible. I've started my conscious effort to read it from start to finish. I began with the New Testament and will go back to the Old Testament later. I'm not putting any pressure on myself to "finish it in a year." I'm just taking my time, letting Jesus teach me what He wants me to teach me without being on a schedule :)

6.) Seeing Sage in all her adorable new clothes!!! Ahhhhhhhhh!! Baby/toddler clothes are so cute and Sage got a ton of them for her birthday! Thank you to all of our family and friends who are clothing our child.

7.) The weekend! I miss my hubs during the week, it just seems like we don't get very much time together. So I'm looking forward to catching up with him this weekend.

Happy Friday everyone!!!!!!!

Birthday Girl

A few pics from a weekend of partying . . .

Elmo cake!!!

Digging into one of her gifts!

She's not crazy about cake, yet. And that's a big YET. I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

Hanging with cousin, Fisher.

Sage really loved the balloons.

Some new shades she got as a gift. I think John Lennon just called. He wants his sunglasses back, or maybe it was Elton John.

A pic with Mom and Dad at home after the big party.

First Birthday

Can you believe it's been a whole year since our baby girl was born? I can't! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAGE!!!!!!!!!!! I am so very thankful that the Lord blessed us with such a happy, healthy child.

Forgive me if this post is boring to some of you, but as I've said before, I'm not keeping a baby book so I feel like I need to document these milestones somewhere. So, at one year of age Sage's favorite things to do are:

1.) Read. This is #1 on the list for a reason. She absolutely loves to crawl up in anyone's lap and have a good book read to her, especially books that rhyme like "Hand Hand Fingers Thumb" by Dr. Suess. This is usually what diaper change time looks like:

She also likes to just look at books on her own. When it's really quiet and I look around the corner to see what she's doing, 9 times out of 10 she is flipping through books.

2.) Sage is obsessed with pulling out EVERYTHING from any given shelf, cabinet or drawer. And believe me, the task is not complete until everything is out. Hurricane Sage comes through at least twice a day:

3.) This girl loves to walk. She's walking on her own now. I hold her hand when we're on concrete, but that's about it.

4.) Eating fruit (her fave food) as well as canned peas, cheerios and mom's homemade spaghetti. She had Nilla wafers for the first time the other day and of course loved them! Sugar, sugar, sugar!

5.) Waving bye-bye. It's quite a stiff wave. She keeps her hand still and moves her entire arm up and down.

6.) Laughing at herself in the mirror.

7.) Giving fuzzy animals kisses. We're still working on giving Mom and Dad more kisses :(

8.) Sage gets soooooooo excited when Daddy comes home. The minute she sees him coming through the door she squeals and her feet start going a mile a minute, in place (like running in place). It's hilarious. I guess that's just her way of showing excitement.

9.) Sage really likes other kids. She also likes to take whatever they are playing with. Oh boy. We'll have to nip that in the bud once she's old enough to understand.

10.) Sage calls me Mom most of the time. Literally, she pronounces the last "m" and I feel like my teenager is calling me! What happened to Mama? At 1 year of age she is also saying: Da or Dada (for Dad), Ba (for ball), Buh-buh (for bye-bye) and cah-cah (for the sound that a crow makes). That's about it really, accept for the funny noises she likes to make with her tongue.

The big birthday party is coming up this weekend! Well, not really "big" because it's just family, but I'll be sure to post pics!

Get your coffee. This one's a long one.

PART 1

I can't believe I'm about to type this . . . Brian has retired from playing professional baseball. I still haven't wrapped my brain around this reality. There were still so many things I was looking forward to, like our children watching Brian play baseball. Like seeing his childhood dream of pitching in the major leagues come true, etc. However, at the age of 33 he's made the difficult decision to "hang it up" and pursue another career. We both know that this will be somewhat of a grieving process. It's the end of a chapter, the only job Brian has ever known, and the only lifestyle we've known as a married couple. I loved so many things about it: the people we met, the friends we made, and the places we got to see. But most of all I treasure the valuable lessons God taught us on the journey. I'll remember those lessons for the rest of my life because they taught me about my God and drew me into a closer relationship with Him. And that made our time in professional baseball so sweet, so worth it.

It's almost spring, and subconsciously I keep thinking we'll be taking off soon to go to spring training. On one hand I'm sad that we're not, but on the other hand I'm happy. The stability of being at home with family, friends, our church and community will be nice to have (as well as a steady, reliable pay check!!).

But I'll miss the game.

I'll miss going to a game almost EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT of the summer.

I'll miss having the privilege of watching Brian do his job.

I'll miss the crazy fans, and the normal ones :)

I'll miss seeing the precious faces of kids wanting autographs after the games.

I'll miss the letters from people saying they looked up the Bible verse that Brian wrote under his autograph, and how encouraged they were to read it.

I'll miss being in the special sisterhood of baseball wives. No one understands the joys and challenges you face in baseball the way your fellow wives do.

While I'll miss many, many things about life in professional baseball, I am more than confident that Brian and I are going to be incredibly blessed and amazed by they ways the Lord will use us in the next phase of life. In fact, I'm really, really looking forward to it!

But something tells me that every year when spring rolls around, I'll get the itch to be in the world of baseball again. For a split second my heart will sink because I'll miss it all over again, like a long lost friend. What a fun ride it was. What a good God we serve. What an adventure this life is. Here's to the next stage of it . . .

If I had a Quarter . . .

for every time I have to stop while Sage and I are in the grocery store for people to interact with her and tell me how cute she is, then well, I'd have some serious dough. That's not a complaint. Heck, I couldn't agree more! The girl is cute! And there's no way I'm biased :)

Thursday Brain Dump

It's been a while since I wrote a brain dump. So here's what's on my mind . . .

1.) It started with me, then Sage, and now Brian. I'm not even sure we all have the same thing, but we're definitely all sick. Thankfully, I started feeling better when Sage started feeling bad. But now that Brian is sick we're just going to make a whole week out of this madness!!!

2.) I'm so pumped about getting my new window shade up! This house has always needed punches of color and the kitchen is about to get it. Pics to follow once I get it just right.

3.) Sage will turn one year old in a little over a month. That is CRAZY!!!! I guess I need to start planning a party.

4.) Speaking of Miss Independent, she is almost walking on her own. She still wants to hold a hand for balance most of the time, but at other times she completely turns loose to go after something. It's only a matter of time . . .

5.) It is just so hard for me to get out of "sweets mode" after the holidays! Seriously, I want dessert, like, all the time. This habit is hard to break. Really, really hard.

6.) Our life group from church rocks and I'm ready for us to start meeting again. There's been a brief hiatus, so Feb 6th needs to get here soon!

7.) The other day Brian told someone I wasn't "career driven." This bothered me for a multitude of reasons. I probably need some time to analyze before I can expound. For now, however, I think I should defend Brian and clarify that he wasn't saying, "she has no ambition." So I guess I just wish he would have worded it differently. Something like, "She's passionate about many things. Unfortunately, none of them make us any money." :)

8.) I really like Steven Tyler so far on American Idol. He's quite the compassionate judge yet honest too, the perfect combo. Randy just cracks me up. J. Lo ain't bad either. I think I'm going to enjoy this season. I just hope someone can give constructive criticism when it gets down to the really talented folks.

Speaking of Snow . . .

I sang this song at church right after Christmas. I just adore it. Read the lyrics about the humble birth of our Lord, they just move me . . .

You could have come like a mighty storm,

with all the strength of a hurricane.

You could have come like a forest fire,

with the power of heaven in your flame.

But you came like a winter snow;

quiet, and soft and slow,

falling from the sky, in the night,

to the earth below.

You could have swept in like a tidal wave,

or in an ocean to ravish our hearts.

You could have come through like a roaring flood,

to wipe away the things we've scarred.

Oh, but you came like a winter snow;

quiet, and soft and slow,

falling from the sky, in the night,

to the earth below.

Your voice wasn't in a bush burning.

No. Your voice wasn't in a rushing wind.

It was still.

It was small.

It was hidden.

You came, like a winter snow;

quiet, and soft and slow.

Falling from the sky,

in the night, to the earth below.

Snow Days

It is so hard to believe that Sage has already experienced TWO snow storms in her short life (especially considering we live in the south)! After the 3rd day of school being cancelled, the snow finally melted. But during the first 2 days we had a grand time. I've officially decided that we WILL be purchasing a sled before next winter. Cardboard boxes just don't cut it. We went over to Darren and Wava's to play and thankfully, they had some great sleds!



Your eyes do not deceive. I let Sage do a little sledding. Who are we kidding, I was never going to win "Mom of the Year" anyway. The hill wasn't big, and her very responsible and loving older cousins were there to protect her :) Admittedly, I was still a little nervous, but I figure I'll be singing that tune the rest of my life. I've joined the parenthood club and worrying about every little thing concerning our children is what we do, right?




And finally, a picture from her very first snow, with Daddy and cousin Tucker, the day after Christmas . . .

The Girl's Got Rhythm

While Sage isn't quite as dramatic in this video as she has been at times, it will give you a good idea of the way she likes to groove when she hears a familiar tune. Gotta love it.

8 Years

Today Brian and I celebrate 8 years of marriage! A few pictures of us on our wedding day (sorry if these are the same ones I posted a few years ago) . . .






I am so fortunate to have 8 wonderful years with Brian. Here's to many, many more!

The Rush

We had a wonderful Christmas. I'm always a little sad when it's all done, but it is kind of nice when "the rush" is over . . . no more last minute shopping, no more long car rides, and you're back in your own, cozy bed.

Our decorations have been taken down and safely stored away, and it feels good to have that done too. However, our den now looks like a daycare center with all of the toys Sage received for Christmas! (I'll be organizing that craziness soon, because I'd really like to have my house back). She's one blessed little lady to be given so much.

There are so many things I could blog about, I'm not even sure where to start. This picture pretty much sums up Sage's Christmas.

I promise she's not cross-eyed. She's just at that age where eating the wrapping paper is more appealing than playing with the presents themselves :) More evidence you say? Well, here ya go . . .

More to come later. Hopefully. When I find the time :)

Photo Wall - Check!

Another project completed! Yay! This is a big deal when you're lucky to get the essential things done during the day, like eating, much less a whole project! Thank you to those of you who put your 2 cents in when I couldn't decide what kind of arrangement to do. I absolutely love it! (Sorry about the lamp glare in the picture. I took it at night.) The frames are huge (25x25) and I got them from Pottery Barn, my fav store!

On a side note, Brian is home, and I'm so thankful to have him back. I'm also really glad he gets to experience the Christmas season in the States this year! Sage was so happy to see her Daddy, and she hasn't stopped smiling at him since. His fear that she would not remember him was quickly put to rest :)

Funny Girl

What Mom? You mean you can't change my diaper like this?

I'm sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you wanted me to empty the diaper bag.

But Mom, it's only fun if I can get messy.

I don't particularly like being strapped into this thing, but from this standpoint, it's quite fascinating.