What a day. 9/11: The anniversary of those horrific terrorist attacks, my youngest baby's birthday, my sweet cousin giving birth to a beautiful baby girl, my close friend giving birth to another beautiful baby girl, and the death of a sweet, sweet man-- Heaven now has gained a wonderful, magnificent angel.

Happy Birthday, Ethan James!

One year ago today, I gave birth to a sweet 6 pound, 15 ounce baby boy!

Time sure flies!

Ethan's birthday party an Labor Day weekend....

MiMi and Brennan

Steven and Brent

Cake!!!

It matches Ethan's nursery.

His very own cake to dig into.

Opening presents.

Looking at each other in puzzlement.

MiMi's birthday card HANDmade by Brennan and Ethan

Blowing out the candle.

Not too sure about this......

Everyone is watching......

Okay, that's all the fun we can stand.

My grandfather and my brothers and me

My mom-in-law and boys.

My mom and her kids.

The ice cream man paid a visit to our neighborhood....


As you can see, we had a very busy weekend. Both my brothers came into town, and Brent brought a fellow Marine home, Steven.

We had a good time with Steven. He is from the north. Illinois to be exact. He wanted to pay a visit to Mississippi to see what our state is all about. He must have heard we're all a bunch of backwoods rednecks who can't afford shoes and don't know how to read and write. So of course, we had to show him that all the things you see in the movies aren't true. The first big meal we had was the day after him and Brent arrived in Jackson. It was pure southern comfort food: homemade mac and cheese, black eyed peas, fried okra, peach cobbler.... all the good stuff. Steven had never had okra or black eyed peas. He cleaned his plate!

We quizzed Steven on everything about the north. They don't eat okra, some have never even heard of okra. It's NOT a myth that northerners don't eat grits. They really don't. If you try to order a sweet tea in the northern states, people look at you crazy, because they don't have sweet tea. Steven found out he loves sweet tea, and so my brother took him to McCallister's Deli (which they don't have up north, either) to get him the best sweet tea around. His religion is Lutheran, which is obviously a very popular religion/church in the north. Almost anyone I have ever met from northern states was at one time part of the Lutheran church. We really enjoyed having Steven. I hope he enjoyed his visit as much as we liked having him. He came to church with us and celebrated Labor Day and my mom's birthday and Ethan's birthday with us.

So Ethan turns one on Friday. My, where has this past year gone? It has just flown by so quickly!

My boss arrived safely back in the states from his trip, so our first day back to work was yesterday. Which was good, because I didn't want to have to fill in for the other dentist anymore. I had enough of that place. Although the paycheck was nice.....

So, I just had someone enlighten me on this whole speech thing. Wow. Not that I was defending Obama by a long shot, but all I will say is this: It's way past time to be in prayer for this country and those who are "leading" us.

Education and speeches....

Okay, so most anyone who knows anything about me, knows that I am about as conservative as one may get when it comes to politics. I am NOT, repeat NOT and Obama fan, nor is there much I like to hear him say, if anything. However, I feel like I must have missed something here....

Every time I turn on the news, there is controversy surrounding this whole education speech he plans on giving this week. Again, I don't agree with anything Obama says or does, but I don't really understand the drama surrounding this speech. So, feeling like I was being a big dummy, I asked Chad about it, who usually keeps up really well with things going on in the political world. He being just as conservative as I, didn't even really fully understand the controversy surrounding it.

So, I just saw yet another story about the whole speech and how outraged conservative parents are. I watched the whole story thinking maybe they would bring me up to par on something I must have missed, but yet, I heard nothing to think that Obama might be "brainwashing" our children of America, like some conservatives are claiming. Now, if he were presenting a speech about the pros of being an Obama lover, well, then I might have a problem with that.

Mississippi is not showing the speech on television when it airs to students. I don't feel one way or the other about that necessarily, but I still don't get all the controversy. He's telling people to get an education!!!! Maybe people who NEED to listen will listen. Especially people who are Obama supporters.

Still, I feel like I am missing something?????

Ain't she a beauty?

So here it is! My "new" van. I love it! I've only had it less than a couple of days now, but I already wonder how I lived so long without one of these! It's so nice to have all that extra room!!!

Happy dance!!!

I am so excited!!! Chad and I are getting a new, used car this week. It is a little overdue.... One of our cars is 10 years old and has 200,000 miles on it. Our other car is 11 years old and has 150,000 miles on it, and it's a small car. Our Toyota Camry has been our main car since we bought it 7 years ago, and BOTH of our cars have been very reliable and faithful. But, it gets harder and harder to get these kids in and out with all of their stuff. So, my grandmother, who randomly likes to go on spending sprees because she can, decided to buy herself a new van. Instead of trading in her current van, she is giving it to us! I am so happy. It's an older van and has 125,000 miles on it, but it's been a good car and she, of course, has taken exceptional care of it. It will be SO nice to have the extra room!!!! I am already daydreaming about how awesome it will be to have all that extra SPACE!!!! Of course, I guess that means the more space you have, the more junk that will accumulate, like a house, but, right now you can't even put your feet in the floorboard of our Camry...it's pitiful. And we don't like taking the boys around in our other car because it's so small, and feels unsafe with them in there.