Smells like home

We are currently traveling.
Of course I forgot my camera cable so I can't post any pictures yet, but hopefully I'll get around to that when we get home.
But until then, here are just a few thoughts and realizations:

In the one hour we spent in the Los Angeles airport I realized that LA smells like home.  When you've traveled as much as me and William you soon notice that every place has it's own unique smell. And the smell of LA as we got off the plane was so familiar and welcoming to me. I was actually really sad the whole time that we were there that we weren't going get to spend any time outside the airport. I hadn't realize how much I missed LA

Also, avocados taste SO much better in California!  I had a Cobb salad in the airport because people outside California just do not know how to make a proper Cobb.  And oh my the avacodo on it was worth the four hour flight to get to it.

The fruit in California is so big and sweet!  I don't think Californians realize how spoiled they are. Fruit does not taste the same in other parts of the country.

Another thing I rediscover is that Californians walk really fast!  Especially southern Californians. It's like they are always in a hurry!  They also dress funny. I've seen a lot of other peoples boxers and underwear in the two days I've been in California. (we are in northern Cali....or NorCal, as the cool kids call it).

Before we left some one jokingly asked us if we needed a passport to travel to California because it was such a different place from where we live now....in the country near a small town in a backwards county in Tennessee .  It's been so long since I've been back to California that I don't think I realized, or remembered just how different it is.  I don't think the average Californian realizes how different they are from the rest of the county. It is such a different place here. And as much as I love living in Tennessee , which I do, and no matter much I love the country life and that Rosie is growing up in on a farm in the countr, and evenno matter much my inner southern soul thrives and enjoys living in Tennessee ....California still smells like home.

Father Michael

This is just a picture I wanted to share because it's so cute.  Obadiah is just 2 months old in this picture and he and Rosie are wearing their "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" Dr. Seuss shirts.

Both my kids have always been so comfortable with Father Michael. He's such a sweet person and has the nicest smile. Don't tell him but he kind of reminds me of Santa. He's just that sweet.

The Apple Express

Not too long ago Rosie and Obi and I made the long drive by our selves to a neighboring city we'd never been to and went to the mall.  William and my mom were working all week and the kids and I needed to get out and do something fun.

After we ran the errands we were for we found that the mall had a train in it!

Rosie LOVES trains and she was very excited about it.  She was such a good girl and such a big help while shopping so I thought we all deserved a ride around the mall on the train.

The train took us all over the mall so we go to look at all the shops with out having to walk. But we kind of forgot to look at the shops because we were having so much fun IN the train. Rosie had the hugest grin the while ride.

It was a long drive all to get to this mall. But it was a drive well worth it for the train and one we'll probably take again just so we can ride the train.  Especially since it gave my little girl such a huge smile.

Happy 6 months Obadaih!

It's been along time since I've posted any pictures of my adorable children. I feel like I blinked and missed September. Where did it go?!

For us it was mostly a sick month. We were all sick with various colds and flues for about 3 weeks and that kind of took the wind out of our sails for a while. Mostly we sat around and groaned and watched alot of TV.

But some fun thing still went on. For one, Obi turned 6 months old and cut his first two teeth!! He's growing up so fast. I feel like he's zooming through the baby stages faster than I can capture them with my camera. He's 16.5 pounds now, a big healthy and happy boy.

The high light of September was "Aunty" Jenny coming to visit.  Jenny and Ross are Obi's Godparents. (He's got two sets of them because he's special like that and William and I are fun like that. Jen and Ross are his Non-Catholic ones.)
Jenny was here for the first day of September, which is our "unofficial"opening of the Christmas Season. It was fun to have her around for listening to Christmas music and she even brought us presents to open! Then she took us to Tractor Supply Co. and help me pick out some cowboy jeans. Jenny is my favorite person to shop with.  I always seem to find things I like when she's with me.

Rosie has been growing by leaps and bounds as well. Literally leaps. I bought her several pairs of jeans and shirts at a consignment sale not very long ago in size 3 thinking they'd last her through Fall. And then one morning she woke up and was magically too big for them!  Luckily it's consignment sale season and I LOVE consignment sale shopping. I have fun finding awesome deals at the consignment sales in Nashville.
So Rosie is not wearing a size 4 and she'll be 3 years old next month. I don't know when my little baby girl grew up to be such a big little person. She sure is fun though. Her favorite thing to do right now is dance. We watched a lot of the Olympics this summer and her favorite sport was the "Dancing Girls."  She dances all over the house all day long now, and she's very good at it.

I can't really remember much else about what we did this past month of September except we did discover our new favorite TV show (I told you we were sick alot). I grew up watching Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and I tried to record some for Rosie. I was very dissappointed to find that Mr. Rogers' is no longer on the air but I did find a new show that I totally love and is the most wonderful show out there right now.
It's called Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.  Fan's of Mr. Rogers will love the elements of the original that have been left in to new one.  They even tried to make the characters voices as close to what Fred Rogers made them. It's very cute and best of all it's educational. 

Boxes make the best toys

When Luke and I were kids we loved playing with boxes

It seems Obi and Rosie do too.

Happy 21st Birthday, Worlk Wide Web

Did you know that the internet as we know it, the World Wide Web, turned 21 last week?
That's right, the World Wide Web is now legal to drink.

The internet, the thing that allows computers over great distances to communicate with each other has been around since the 60s. But it wasn't till 1991 that the first publicly available web page was created, by Sir Tim Berners-Lee,  and the term World Wide Web was used.  He thought it would be a good way for researchers to communicate with each other.

Do you remember 1991? Can you believe before that we functioned and existed with out the internet?  In 1991 I was 12 and my mom had a Commodore 65 computer.  It was shortly after that she began to get involved with "chat boards."

In those days chat boards were just plain white text on a blue screen.  I asked my mom what she talked about on the chat boards with people and she said they mostly talked about how to fix their computers.

Even though the World Wide Web became a publicly accessible thing when I was 12 we didn't have it in our house until I was about 14.  I remember in 1996 I was the first person in my High School to use internet research for a research paper I was writing and my teachers didn't know how to tell me to cite my sources.  That was back in the day of AOL and their 20 free hours!

Wow. Can you remember having no email? no wikipidia? no facebook? NO Internet?
It's amazing how much the Internet has grown and become such a part of every day life.
In just 21 short years.

We decided to have Peach Cocktails to celebrate the Internet turning 21, and then I came here to blog about it.

Rosie got to have her own special drink too...EDIT: (she's drinking peach juice in a pretty cup)

And this picture is just because I think she's so cute. 

I'll show this picture to her some day... maybe when she's 21 and we'll talk about the ancient times when people didn't have cell phones and the internet didn't exist.  And she won't even be able to comprehend it.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

36 years ago today two young kids were getting married. She was 19, he was 20 and they were beautifully in love. And young. Very very young.

36 years later they have 4 wonderfully attractive children with 4 equally attractive spouses and 7 unbearably beautifully grand babies.

That's 15 more lives, 15 more smiles, and 15 infections laughs all because of two wonderfully in love people.

I've only been around for 33 of those years, but they have been fun and full of wonderful memories.

Here's a list of things I've learn from my parents in their marriage:

~To dance in the kitchen. Ok. Really I learned to dance from Dad while I learned how to be dragged around the kitchen with out moving your feet from Mom.

~ To laugh together. Loudly (Dad), and quietly (Mom... or as she says "I'm laughing on the inside")

~ To have ice cream from breakfast.

~ To have chocolate for breakfast

~ To have breakfast for dinner

~ How to really enjoy a vacation (I mentioned Ice Cream for breakfast)

~ To enjoy the magic of life in everyday situations.

~ No matter how poor you are, always find a way to go to Disneyland

~ To do what works for your family and your marriage, no matter what everyone else is doing or saying and no matter how non-conventional it may seem.

~ To value each other

~To respect each other's differences and strengths

~ To put my kids first and above all else.

~ To serve the good ice cream to the kids

~ To read together, even if you're not "together". Audio books are great for that!

~ To work through the difficult times. And not to dwell on the bad times once they are over.

~ To focus on the good times. And always be planning and dreaming up more.

I could go on and on but it's time to read to my two year old and pester my husband before he falls asleep. Two things I learned from my parents.

Thank you Mom and Dad for your wonderful love for us kids, now and when we were little.
Thank you for setting such a wonderful example of how to put your kids first and raise us in such a fun and happy environment.
Even if it wasn't always perfect, I have so many perfectly wonderful and happy memories it almost seems as if it was.

Happy 36 years.... and I hope to God my Rosie doesn't get married when she's 19.

Coming Out. -- The Truth

For a long time (when I was younger and snobbier) I tried to pretend I didn't like Starbucks because they were too cooperate. But then they always decorated so nicely for Christmas and came out with their Red Cup. Christmas time was my exception. At Christmas I shamelessly loved and frequented Starbucks. 

In Southern California I had more coffee options anyway.  I liked privately owned shops the best, of course, but I also very much loved Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, a West Coast only Coffee Shop. (although there was one in Shanghai that I sometimes traveled for a couple hours to visit)

Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Shanghai

Then I moved to China. The first town we lived in was a small town with very few familiar things.  They did, however, have a Starbucks. Yes, there is Starbucks in China and they are quite popular.  The Wuxi Starbucks became my little taste of home. My haven on days when I was most home sick.
Plus they were the only place in the whole city that played Christmas music at Christmas time. (there is no Christmas in China)

Enjoying a Starbucks coffee during Chinese New Year at a very fancy movie theater

When we moved to Shanghai there were a lot more modern things there, but Starbucks was still a comfort. Especially at Christmas time. They always had their red cups, decorated for Christmas, and played Christmas music. (Seriously, there is no Christmas in China! William had to take it off work every year while every one else had to go to work.  It was hard to get into the Christmas mood. Starbucks helped me a lot with that.)

So here I am living in the United States again and trying to pretend that I don't like Starbucks because they are too cooperate... except at Christmas time of course. When really I look forward to the hour long drive to the nearest Starbucks just so I can have a Frappuccino.  I love Starbucks. They make me happy. They bring back good and fond memories. And a cup of Starbucks always makes me smile. Especially if that cup is red!

So there you go. The truth. I have come out and said it. I love Starbucks.
So you can imagine how giggly happy I was yesterday to take my darling Rosie to Starbucks and get her very own, very first Starbucks.  She got "Pink Coffee" which is a Raspberry Steamer,  and she enjoyed it very very much.
 But not nearly as much as I did.

I look forward to going to Starbucks many times this coming Christmas season and getting Red Cups together.

"Mommy, can Obi be a princess too?"

To Rosie one is a princess if one is wearing a pretty dress.

When it came time for us to pick William up from the airport I asked Rosie if she wanted to wear any of her new pretty princess things to go see Daddy. 
Not only did she yes, want to wear a pretty princess dress but she wanted Mommy to be a princess too. She ran into my closet to pick out a skirt for me. 

Then she asked me a very serious and important question.

"Can Obi be a princess too?"

I couldn't really think of a reason why Obi couldn't be a princess, so yes, Obi is wearing a pink princess skirt.

I love that Rosie likes to be a princess. I love that she likes to put on a pretty skirt and dance around the room like "the pretty girls" she sees on the Olympics. But more than that I love that she wants to share her joy and fun and even her own dresses with the rest of us.

And I love that she lets me put silly hats on her while she's watching TV.

I love my dress up girl, and my dress up boy.