Fleur de Aleta

I'm thankful that I had a happy childhood.  I remember going outside and playing with neighborhood children and going to birthday parties and dressing up for Halloween and loving the magic of Christmas and so much more.  These are things I want for my son. And at the same time, these are the things my son is bringing back to me.  Such as the simple childhood joy of swinging!  I loved doing that as a little girl.  Below is a picture of my husband on the swing set that he built.  Yesterday my husband added an adult sized swing (even though we can both fit on a child's swing, let's be honest…. a larger one is a tad more comfy!). I'm thrilled.  A childhood memory brought back by the desire for our son to learn this outside simple joy.  Thankful for my son for bringing this back and Thankful for my husband for building it.

My son is incredibly fortunate to have such loving grandparents.  Oma, Opa, Granny and Grandfather are wonderful people.  We were lucky to be children of parents who stayed together through the good and bad and are the models of love.  Before meeting Greg, whenever I wondered if love was possible, I just had to look at my parents, still holding hands, still teasing each other, still sharing kisses… it was a confirmation of love. Gregory has four grandparents and a great-grandmother (MeMaw) who lavish their love on him.  Such an incredible blessing to count!  I love my parents, as a daughter… and now as a mother, that love for my parents has grown in ways that I never expected.   Oma & Opa Granny & Grandfather Terry, Vera, Gregory, MeMaw

Today I'm thankful that we have a cool cat.

Arkansas trip 2013 October Just a head’s up ~ it’s going to be a long post with lots of pictures! Baby did well for a twelve hour drive. He slept a lot but I could tell towards the end of the ride he wanted nothing more to do with the car seat.  (yes, my parents took their dog, Biscuit, on this trip and yes, that's how she likes to ride :) One fun stop along the way was Minsky Pecan Market. It was the first time I sampled key lime covered pecans.. Very refreshing, but we didn't by any of those.   We couldn't pass up the chocolate covered pecans. I have to say that the GPS worked great until we arrived in town. Then it kept redirecting us into odd places. Normally this wouldn't be frustrating, but at nine pm and road weary... We ended up having to call the owner of the apartment for directions. The place we stayed was the Border house in Eureka Springs. If you know anything about New Orleans or Metairie, you might be familiar with the d...