Happy 2011!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I prayed tonight that the children would have no lasting scars and that my house would not be engulfed in flames. Luckily, the children had a wonderful time with sparklers tonight and there was no need for an ambulance or an insurance adjuster.

You all who know me well, know I have an aversion to animals in the house. So, to prove that I am not in fact heartless, I included this picture of our collie Bessie Bess. She is scared to death of fireworks or any loud noises for that matter. So I LET HER IN THE HOUSE!

After the fireworks, I promptly lured her out the front door with a barbecued rib.

Addie and Ali don't like loud noises either! They loved the fireworks but covered their ears the entire time.  Craig brought the fireworks from Tennessee since Georgia fireworks are so lame!

  
We watched the show from our back deck.  Then we managed to get all the kids bathed and in the bed by 9. Afterwards, the adults commenced to solving all the problems of the world out by the fire. Good times and good friends. I can't think of a better way to ring in a new year. 

An afternoon at the farm

We are so lucky to live on our own piece of heaven. The children had a great time riding the horses and jumping from hay bale to hay bale.

Peaches was ready to run today!

Addie took a tumble down the slide!

No afternoon on the farm is complete without a short trip in the back of a truck. Relax. They just drove across the road. 

New Year's Eve with the Lawsons and Tomlinsons

I woke up this morning and Ali was reading the newspaper on the sofa. Thought it was cute! She was reading a story about Edmund Burke Academy's field trip to the Old Bell Schoolhouse. There were pictures of she and several of her classmates. It sure was nice to read a feel good story on the front page of the True Citizen.

The Lawsons arrived very late last night after the children were asleep. This morning the first thing Addie Belle said was "are the kids here yet?" They have had a great time playing so far.  

Addie and Mollie have always played well together. They only see each other a couple times a year, but they pick up right where they left off quite easily! 

 Doesn't Mollie have the most beautiful blue eyes ever?

I'm sure Brady will be happy when Cohen arrives so he won't be the only boy being chased by an entire herd of girls!

  Craig and sweet Hailey who's walking now!!

 Addie cheesin' on the hot tub!

Horsin' Around

Sorry for the repetition all my facebook friends. I still have a few family members stuck in the 18th century with no facebook accounts. Have to share pics with them through the blog.

*Ali prides herself on being able to get on the horse all by herself!

 Miss Priss has not had enough lessons to ride solo, but she thinks she's a regular triple crown jockey. We usually humor her by giving her the reins and walking closely beside her. That only worked a few times. Then she asked us to go outside the arena. No can do.

Winter Warmup

I recently posted on a friend's facebook status about the virtues of winter. I do love winter. My fair skinned gingers have a hard time in the summer. We specifically expanded the screen porch on our original house plan keeping in mind that the girls need a place to play outside that is not in the direct path of the scorching Georgia summer sun.  I also hate flying bugs. Mosquitoes, flies, sand gnats, yuck! Hate is not a strong enough word. However, I must admit that even I get tired of the cold weather and the stagnant air indoors and when a day like today comes along, I soak it all in.  I think it helps me survive till Spring, which I truly love.

I am blogging from the screened porch and listening to the blessed sounds of two sisters who whether they know it or not right now are blessed beyond measure to have each other.  Like all sisters, they bicker. But for the most part they get along well and enjoy each other's company.

This year, Addie's favorite Christmas gifts were her pull string Woody and Jessie.  Today Woody and Jessie are riding in the back of the little gator. Of all the Leapster games, DS games, Wii games, etc. these are her favorites. She has misplaced Jessie twice and had a total and complete breakdown until her daddy came to the rescue and found Jessie! Addie used some of her Christmas money from Aunt Betty to buy Woody. She thought Jessie needed a companion.


Ali has REALLY enjoyed her electric scooter today. It goes really fast and sort of freaked her out the first time she tried it, but since she saw Nanny ride around the garage on it, she decided to give it one more try.  While turned around checking on Woody and Jessie, Addie did havean unfortunate collision with my van. No worries. There was already a dent there anyway.

 Even our sweet, but not so smart Collie, Bessie Bess seemed to be especially happy enjoying the children and the sunshine today.

 Addie insisted on checking the eggs while we were outside and showing off her loot. 

We're headed across the road to do some horseback riding this afternoon before I have to come back and get serious about getting this house together for company coming in tonight. 

My favorite things

A few weeks ago a great friend of mine tagged me in her blog post explaining her favorite things around Christmas time. I meant to follow up and list my own "favorite things" but the holidays have a way of getting away from you ya know?  Maybe I'll just name a few favorites in my next few posts rather than trying to get them all into one. Tammy won't mind. I know her. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.

This particular Christmas season we mostly stayed home and it was such a blessing for us. I understand the importance of extended family but I also understand how important it is to rest and relax during our time off from school and work. It sure is difficult to balance those two priorities without anyone getting their feelings hurt.  We've tried to keep it as stress free as possible and we've done pretty darn well! Pete's Mom came up to visit and went to the girls' Christmas program at EBA. Pete even (gasp) took off work early to be there! It was just heartwarming to hear the children sing!  We made a weekend trip to Jesup to celebrate with the Lyles side of the family. Despite the 400 yapping dogs, sleeping in a camper, and having little hot water, it was still good to see everyone. I finally got to meet  Erin, Pete's cousin's fiancee'. She was a sweetheart and asked the girls to be in their summer wedding. We'll plan our beach trip around their Florida nuptials and I'm already looking forward to it!

Pete and I hosted the Louisville Middle School faculty here at our house for our staff Christmas party. We had a great time considering it was sort of a last minute thrown together sort of thing since the weather ran us out of our original destination. It was a great way to start the holidays.

We went caroling in town with the church youth and had a wonderful dinner at a friend's house afterwards. It really set the tone for our Christmas and we hope to be able to do that again next year. It's a great tradition.  On Christmas Eve, Pete's parents came to spend the night with us. We enjoyed having them here to watch the girls open their gifts Christmas morning. Then later that day we went across the road to Nanny and Poppy's, where Santa always leaves the "Cooper Stockings". My brother and his family came Christmas night and we opened gifts and had a great prime rib dinner made by my daddy, who is a great cook!

We are gearing up right now for one of my FAVORITE traditions- New Year's Eve with the Tomlinsons and the Lawsons. The six of us go way back to our time at the University of Georgia. Over the years we've expanded from a party of 6 to a party of 13, but we still manage to get together over New Year's.  No matter what other crazy chaos is going on,  we always seem to figure out a way to get together during this holiday and I always look forward to it. Company starts arriving tomorrow evening!

My two favorite things this week-

1. Burt's Bees - I've always thought bees were cool. My favorite product is the hand salve. My hands are terribly dry and itch in the winter time. Burt's Bees hand salve works wonders. It sounds expensive but it really lasts a long time and once you use it you'll realize it's worth it!

2. Riesling-  Riesling is one of my favorite wines. The riesling grape originated in the Rhine Valley of Germany and despite this fact, I've never had a true German riesling till this past Christmas. Aunt Patti gave me a bottle of Landshut Riesling. Out of this world good.  It's not as super sweet as many rieslings from the US and it's also not very expensive at about 7 bucks a bottle.

Overall we've had a great holiday season. Great wine, good rest, wonderful friends and family, and even a little snow. What more could you want in a holiday?

We may move to Idaho

The way things seem to be heading down the toilet around here, I'm considering building myself a compound in a remote part of Idaho. The news is just depressing. Kids shooting each other in the street,  robbing houses, stealing cars... the list goes on and on and I live in a rural area! Thank goodness most of this foolishness goes on in town and not in the sticks where we live. I am serious when I say that if Louisville would get a Wal Mart, I wouldn't go past Rhodes grocery again. That's where I turn off of Hwy 24 to go to Edmund Burke Academy on this side of Waynesboro, a.k.a Compton Lite.

What really annoys me is that the mothers of these little hellions have been blaming the government, the police, the school system and everyone else for their kids' behavior since they were born. "Ms so and so picked on him," "This school hates boys", "they don't understand my baby"... etc. Give me a break lady. At what point do you start to recognize that the common denominator is your little terrorist?

I've just stopped watching the news.  So of course today I am READING the news in the New York Times and there is an article there regarding cyber-bullying.  All I could say was "wow". Texting each other horrible things (we do not allow our children to have cell phones), harassing each other on facebook (we don't allow the kids to have a facebook account), and generally being little jerks to each other. These are well educated kids with well educated parents who are acting every bit as thuggish as the dirt poor kids stealing from someone's garage. Personally I'd rather have someone steal my lawnmower than terrorize my children online. I'm not condemning parents for allowing these things. I have several friends who allow cell phones and facebook and are what I consider to be excellent parents. It's just a personal decision I suppose. Ali and Addie are never without us except when they're at school. EBA has an excellent parent communication system.  Why do they need a phone? Who would they call? Pete and I are not comfortable with it at this point. That might change. Might not.

A few weeks ago Ali Grace asked us for a Facebook account just to play farmville. I told her I'd discuss it with her Dad. Pete and I discussed it and decided against it. She was very understanding and Pete allows her to play Farmville on HIS Facebook account. A few days ago Ali told us she'd like to have a laptop so she could play on the computer in her bedroom. That was a big NO for us. We have a desktop computer in the office and I feel strongly about kids using a computer only in a public place. I think Ali may think her parents are dinosaurs from the stone age, but that's okay. I have explained to her that her well being is the most important thing to us and that one day she'll understand EXACTLY where we're coming from. She replied "I know- when I'm a mom I'll get it".  : ) So far the only ground we've ceded to technology is email. Ali has an email account that I check here and there. Maybe we're behind the curve- or maybe we're WAY ahead of it.

Here's a link to the NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/us/05bully.html?pagewanted=1&hp