Please pardon my extended absence this week. Unfortunately I never fully recovered from my death sick bed as we've been plagued with a nasty cold bug. I really missed taking my NyQuil...but the growing babe is better for me not doing so, I'm sure!
on top of all that fun stuff, we've been away from home base since early Thursday...we went up to our Alma Mater for our annual Homecoming campus trip and Grandma visit. We had the pleasure of staying at J's mom's new home on the lake. Absolutely gorgeous!...and secluded...leaving us with no Internet access except for the handy 3G network on our phones!
all that to say that we are now driving back to Georgia from Michigan and there will be posts tomorrow! Especially the winning post for the latest giveaway (thanks Natalie and Julia for the reminders! I haven't forgotten you!)
phew! That was about all I could handle writing in HTML code on my phone! Until tomorrow!
Thursday: 13-hour trip from Atlanta to Kansas City, KS
Sunday: 3-hour drive to Wichita + 5-hour trip to Columbia, MO
Monday: 12-hour drive home to the ATL
TWO (2) teething babes
1 rented minivan
Lots of stops
No sleep
Safety the entire journey
Babies who were mostly happy (!)
One grandma who was thrilled to have us surprise her on her 80th birthday!
Lots of family bonding and reunion and picture time!
Memories we'll cherish!!
Sadly, Internet access was severly limited and, upon arriving home, we found we have NO Internet! So, here I am typing this no-frills, no-thrills, pictureless post in HTML code on my husband's iPhone! I hope to catchup with an "I Heart Faces" post and "Tutorial Tuesday" post soon...envisioning myself at the library computer!
*Sorry, also, for not reading/commenting on your blogs or responding to your emails! Hopefully we'll be up and running again soon!
Super Saturday Steals and Social-Cause Sunday will be back next week--J, C, and I are celebrating my cousin's graduation from high school this weekend!
We arrived home from Florida early last night but i didn't want to bombard you with three posts in one day. But I also didn't want to not write this post so here it is, a few days late:
The last night of our visit, we were treated to a spectacular sunset following a strong thunderstorm:
We had a wonderful visit with Grandpa, made even more special knowing and feeling the many prayers being sent on his behalf. Thank you thank you thank you!
C, especially, loved hanging out with her Great-Grandpa. One of his hallmarks as our grandfather was his original books-on-tape. The twin and I received monthly books-on-tape installments from Grandpa Tunney when we were little. He would find neat board books, record them on tape, and mail them to us. He was known for his signature page-turning slogan "Beep Beep Turn the Page". Even now, the twin and I say "beep beep turn the page" for our own daughters. What a legacy. We were privileged enough to have him read "Hippos Go Berserk" to C last night (one of her faves).
(special note: I forgot to hit record so you see him reading from the middle of the book and then starting over. An unfortunate side effect of his brain tumor is difficulty reading. It really frustrates him, as you'll see a couple times in the video. Regardless, it will always be a sweet memory for Baby C to cherish!)
When i was little, we weren't technically allowed to watch TV. Sometimes, when my family would take our nightly family walks, I would feign fatigue (i was only 7 at the time!) and stay home to watch the Patty Duke show! Oh my...
As a twin, i was always fascinated by other twins or, in Patty Duke's case, identical cousins. Speaking of cousins, I love watching the twin's daughter, Lil' Miss, and Baby C interact with each other. The older they get, the less apparent their 5-month age gap is. This week in Florida was a hoot. Here are some of the highlights:
the girls matching with hairbows made by the twin (check out her etsy store!!!)
and, my favorite series of photos... the girls were eating dinner and watching Baby Signing Time
when Grandpa Tunney sat down:
and waved
the girls' reactions were hilarious...they waited a second:
and then, looked to each other for confirmation that their Great-Grandpa really is as funny as they thought: i just love how they looked at each other like that. Cracks me up.
Remember that song? It was big my freshman year of college. Turns out its words are a little raunchy (never knew until I googled it just now! whoops!) so I'm not going to post the video. But the chorus is at least fun, jivy, and catchy!
Here is my One-through-Five:
1. Tomorrow, J and I are celebrating his Big 3-0 (its a day early)
2. While we are doing #1, C will be staying with my parents for 16 hours without us! Now that is crazy.
3. On Sunday, we are headed to Michigan for a little family time with his mom.
4. We will not be on our computers (also crazy but much needed)
We were only gone for 36 hours. It felt like a whirlwind but a long time away at the same time. Much like Baby C's birthday seems like AGES ago but just yesterday. I digress, again.
I'm waiting to get photos from J's dad to post. For the time being, here are a few pictures snapped on the way back home. She finally gave me a glimpse of tooth #1 and #2 (its on its way out!)...Note that 1) she is missing her signature headband and, 2) that she could be a baby model for TJ's Rice Cakes--great teethers, by the way!
and, finally, the teeth themselves:
Also, one day last summer, J, the twin, and I happened to be in a park the same day the video posted below was filmed. I always wondered when I would see the commercial...until I watched the video and realized the true purpose of the filming:
A few highlights from the last days of Florida Vacation:
J played with Baby C in the pool
She became an expert jumper and learned to push off the deck on the count of "1...2...3!"
She also became independent and just floated around the pool (don't worry, we were supervising her!)
On the way home, we were less one baby but plus two cats (yes the very same gray cats featured in our blog header):
While they might not have screamed as loudly as the kiddos did on the way down (remember this post?) they still were pretty vocal about being in the car. They finally conked out half way there and looked like this for the rest of the ride home:
I have to start by saying we are so thankful for prayers for safety and alertness. And whoever prayed for us to stay awake sure prayed hard because we never got tired...even 20 hours after we woke up from our 3 hour sleep.
Okay, so now to the real beginning. After planning a 3 AM departure, we tried to get some sleep by going to bed early. 12:45 AM rolled around, R was up, and we couldn't sleep so we thought, "Let's just head out now." (I will note that J thought it was an absolutely wretched idea to leave that early on so little sleep but we were adamant about going so off we went.)
Well, R decided she did not want to have anything to do with sleep. Nothing. She wanted to "talk" and cry--both of which kept me company and awake (!) while I drove. About 2 hours after we started, she finally fell asleep. Not even an hour later, she woke up screaming and C decided to join her--here is a little snippet of the sounds we heard for the next 45 minutes:
Joyous.
Around 5 AM we ran into accident #1. We could actually see it looming on the horizon from quite a distance away. The closer we got the larger the accident looked--come to find out, it was so big that it closed down the entire highway and we were re-routed off of I-75 and onto US 41 for the next 25 minutes. We can only say that we are grateful that 1) the girls were finally quiet and 2) that we have larger interstates now as neither of us can imagine driving to Florida on a 2-lane road like our parents used to do!
Then, around 9 AM we ran into accident #2. Again, we were re-routed off the highway because the accident was so big. We know that at least two people died in the accidents we saw and we pray for their families and praise God for keeping us safe.
We arrived a little after noon and cannot wait to do it all again in a week. Ha.
Here is Baby C--she was the only one who slept in the car:
We're headed to Florida tomorrow! My postings will definitely be few and far between until Friday night when I announce the WINNER of my first giveaway!
