Santa Train

A few years back, two elderly men decided to put together a Santa train for children on Signal Mountain. It's become a tradition up here. The Santa Train gets put up the weekend of Thanksgiving every year. It's the first thing you see when you reach the top of the mountain.

Let me just say now that I am a big jerk. I've been kind of rough on the Santa Train in the past. It drove me nuts because there were a few parts to the display that were totally out of scale. How are a couple of baby blocks bigger than a giraffe? I'm very picky about things like that.

This year, Charlie was old enough to go, so we had to take pictures. John was reluctant, because he is an art school grad after all, and had the same feelings of snobbery I had. When I got up close to the train and got to look at all of the amazing handiwork, I was really touched. These men put in so much time and craftmanship, that is really is impressive. There's a board on the side that lists dozens of donors that made the train possible. It's just a really neat thing that you can only get in a small town. It made me proud of my little hometown!

Oh, and one thing. You will notice some, er, rubble in the background. There is a background of painted pine trees behind the train. The night before, there was a terrible rainstorm, so some of the background is sort of collapsed. Just ignore it and look at the cute kid!

The Best Gifts . . .

Growing up, my parents always told us at Christmas, "Don't spend money on us. Just make us something." I thought being a parent must be completely lame. But this year, I think homemade gifts were the most memorable.

The Flynns draw names each year. This year, Brian got John. Ana (Brian's wife) made us his amazing painting of the temple. It looks like tiles, but she actually coated the painting with tons of polyurethane to look that way. How amazing is this? For you former Savannah-ites, Ana actually painted that huge Pioneer mural in the Savannah Stake Center! Thank you so much for all of your hard work, Ana!

John's sister Laura did something pretty amazing this year as well. She made a picture book of all of the Flynn cousins. There are 18. And she made a book for each and every cousin. What's 18 times 18? Oh wait . . . not to mention she did it for the Smartt side, too! They have 27 kids over there, I think she said. Um, yeah. I have no idea how she did it, especially with 3 kids. Just another one of those amazing people that makes you want to just give up. Or beat the living pulp out of her. Love ya, Laura!

Now, to a few things I made. I drew Scott's name and he wanted a massage . . . okay, that came out wrong. I wanted a gift certificate for one. I knew that Scott is a big "Seinfeld" fan (as am I), so I had to make him a funny card. I just printed out a card with this picture on it:


If you're a Seinfeld fan, you know what this means.

Finally, I can reveal the gift I made for John . . . the gift in which I endangered my very life:

A candy jar for his office. I etched the Georgia logo on there myself! I put contact paper on the jar and cut out the "G" with an exacto knife. Then, there's the scary part. I brushed etching cream onto the exposed part of the "G" stencil. Etching cream is acid. When I opened the bottle of cream, I was almost knocked over by the fumes and I was wearing a mask! Anyway, I was so pleased with the results. For you super picky fans, yes, I realize on the official logo, there is an extra line surrounding the "G." Well, I'd like to see you cut that tiny line out with an exacto knife! Close enough. Close enough . . .

Well, and I couldn't talk about gifts from the heart without mentioning my family's tradition. My siblings and siblings-in-law have a tradition where we each buy a $1 gift and play Dirty Santa. After this year, I think we may have to change the name to "Dirrrty Santa." Or "Durty Santa." a sampling of the loot: raccoon urine (Ethan admitted this was $2, and not $1), portable toilet paper (I kinda wanted that) and, well, this is a family blog so I better leave that last one out.

Thanks again, everyone!

Gettin' Jewwy Wit It

I've got a lot of catching up to do. I've got tons and tons of great pictures to post, so it'll take awhile . . . but hopefully I'll be caught up by next week. So here's a start to the holiday recap . . .

Okay, I know. The title of this post is unforgiveable. It kind of takes me back to my Senior Thesis class in college . . . we were reading The Merchant of Venice and we had to do an in-class exercise. We had to come up with a title for a paper about Shylock (a Jewish character) and religion in the play. I came up with "The Thin Jew Line." You think that's bad, the guy next to me came up with "How Jew Doin'?" At least mine made some sense . . . but I digress.

Okay, so we're not Jewish. But my brother Nathan thought it would be fun to play Dreidel in honor of the Hanukkah. And, just a note. The hobby stores in Chattanooga are AWFUL. One store hung up on my brother when he asked if they had any Hanukkah stuff. He had to get some from a rabbi. And I thought being a Mormon in the bible belt was rough . . .

Anyway, John and I played with Nathan, Mari and their girls, Annie and Caroline. If you haven't played Dreidel before, it's tons of fun. Basically, you start with piles of candy and you spin the four-sided top (the dreidel). How much candy you win (or lose) depends on what symbol you land on . . . Nun: nothing happens and the next player spins; Gimel: the player takes the entire pot; Hey: the player takes half of the pot; Shin: the player puts two markers in the pot. We redistributed the candy often, to make it a little more fair for the girls. Traditionally it's played with gelt, or coins (or a lot of times, chocolate gelt), but we played with fun size candy bars. Annie wound up winning the pot, and as you can see below, she was pretty psyched about it.


Here's Charlie with his Reese's peanut butter cup yarmulke! He was feeling festive . . .

GIMEL!

Oh, and one final hilarious note. Nathan also brought a smoked makerel. The Polish eat those at Christmas (Nathan went to Polish-speaking Chicago on his mission - he was feeling nostalgic). My niece Morgan was absolutely horrified by the thing. So Nathan decided to do what any caring uncle would do. He cut the fish's head off and left a note for Morgan in its mouth.

Well, until next time, l'chayim!

Christmas Odds and Ends

Here's Charlie hanging his ornament on the tree. We're continuing my family's tradition of getting each kid a new ornament every year. Last year's was a baby shower gift and it is a gorgeous Winnie the Pooh one (from Sis. Mendenhall, of course). This year's is a Cars ornament. Charlie loves Mater. We have a "Mater and the Ghost Light" book that John reads to him (BTW, John does a spot on Larry the Cable Guy voice, so it's hilarious). In fact, Charlie can say "Mater" but has yet to say "Grammy." My mom is not pleased. We got him the ornament because we got him a giant Mater that he can ride on for Christmas this year. It talks and everything!

Despite the cheery start to this post, I'm so ready for the holidays to be over. I'm just not a Christmas person. I've been super busy with a lot of projects and Charlie and I are still sick. He's doing a little better, at least. Most of the week, he's been taking nearly 5 hour naps every day! But yesterday he was back to his normal sleep schedule. I'm still battling, though. I think I might get a sinus infection for Christmas this year. Wouldn't be the first time . . . .

Yesterday, I hemmed a pair of Charlie's pants. This pair of pants is part of his Christmas outfit for church on Sunday. He is still sick. He had BETTER be better by then, or else I'm dragging him to church with a snotty nose. I didn't go all Tim Gunn for nothing!

Then, I took my life into my hands to make John a special gift. I wanted to give him at least one thing that wasn't on his list and that was "thoughtful." Well, me and my big ideas . . . I just get something into my head and I have to do it. Since the Hub reads this, I can't divulge what it is I did. I'll tell you this much: it was a craft project (duh, it's me) and it was extremely dangerous. I'm not kidding. I had to dress up like Michael Jackson (long sleeves, gloves, mask, the works) just to open the bottle of "stuff" I used. The bottle said it was only for people 18 and up. Uh . . . never seen that on a craft project. Scary. But . . . I came out alive and the project came out AMAZING. I'll have pictures in a week. I'm so excited about this one!

Today I made some more cookies. My mom (believe it or not) was just released as Activities Chairperson and now she's Relief Society president. So, yeah . . . it's been a rough month for her! I made some cookies for her to take to some needy families. Yeah, I know I'm awesome. JK . . . these cookies were a little harder for me to not taste. Okay, I did take one taste. A chef always has to taste her dish, right? Well, I'm paying for it with a stomach ache right now . . . Anyway, they were chocolate and butterscotch chip blondies. MMMMM . . . See, I can pass up cake and most cookies, but I LOVE chocolate chip cookies. The best pastry chef in the world could offer me the greatest dessert in the world, and I would still pass it up for a good chocolate chip cookie. In my opinion, it's really hard to find a good chocolate chip cookie (although, the giant ones at the Vine Street Market here in town come pretty darn close to perfect). My favorite version of one is the blondie recipe I made today. It's best the day after you make it. Another good CCC is if you substitute one of the cups of chips (most CCC recipes call for 2 cups of chips) with vanilla and butterscotch chips. It's sooo good.

We took Charlie to the Christmas train today. For those of you not familiar with Signal Mountain, these two guys built this Christmas train for kids to take pictures on. It's really cute . . . I'll post those pics later.

Sugar, Sugar, Sugar

I've been making a lot of Christmas treats lately. Today was the second time in a week I've made Spritz cookies for the fam. Unfortunately, I cannot partake. But I do enjoy decorating them. Sort of.

This past weekend was our branch's Christmas party. My mom was (she was called to be RS President Sunday-ha!) the Activities Committee (literally, she was the only one) and so I helped her with a lot of stuff. A LOT OF STUFF. The theme was "Christmas Around the World." I made up 36 cards to put on the tables . . . each one described a foriegn country's Christmas traditions. Yes, I made 36 different ones. At the party, I realized that we probably could've just done the same 3 countries at each table and no one would know the diff. Nice thinking, Mom!

Friday night I had started to feel a little sick. I've had some major allergies (leaf mold) for the past month or so. But this was different. By Saturday, I felt horrible. I decided to just lump it and go to the party anyway. I originally agreed to lead the music, but I told my mom I just couldn't do it. I told her I'd take care of the Primary, but that was all.

It was a potlock, so I brought a Sugarplum Cake. My mom found the recipe. Now, those of you familiar with plums know that they are pretty bland. You can't cook with them. So, if it's a "plum" cake, it's really made with . . . prunes. That's right, kids. I brought a prune cake to a church function. All of us Mormons could use a little laxative now and then, right? Anyway, the recipe called for baby food prunes. Sounds disgusting, right? It is delicious. I'm not kidding. I'm not the biggest fan of spice cakes, but holy cow. I could only have one bite, as per my diet, but wow. I got a lot of compliments on it. And here's all that was left!

Since I'm the Primary Music Leader, I had to lead the kids in singing "Stars Were Gleaming" at this function. I'm big on treats, so to reward the kids for singing, I set up a hot chocolate bar in the kitchen at the end of the party. I gave them all hot chocolate and a choice of toppings: whipped cream, marshmallows, mini chocolate chips or candy canes. I thought it was a cool idea. I meant to take pics, but I was up to my elbows in marshmallows. It was pretty fun, although I probably gave those kids all kinds of cooties since my nose was running like mad that night.

All in all, it was a really good social. The decorations were cool and I heard the food was good (sigh--all I had was bread!). Here are some extra pictures. Charlie's shirt says, "I do it all for the presents!"

Yeah, he wasn't too happy in this picture. Charlie has bronchiolitis AGAIN. So, we are the proud owners of a new nebulizer. Hooray. I knew it was bound to happen eventually. Hopefully he'll outgrow this asthma . . . as for now, he is strapped to his baby hookah three times a day.

So this past weekend was the worst weekend to be sick. I woke up Sunday morning feeling like death. Charlie woke up early, so I decided to drag us all to church anyway. If I stayed at home, I'd keep Charlie home, too. But since he was awake, I knew I wasn't going to get any sleep. I came home after Primary to nap. Then, all my family got together to bless my brother's adorable new baby girl, Eloise. Mari's dad works for the church building temples in South America, so he only had this weekend to come up. Since it wasn't Fast Sunday, we just did it at home. It was very spiritual. As soon as the blessing was done, Eloise's 4 year old sister, Caroline cried, "That was a long prayer!" Hilarious. The rest of the day I pretty much spent in bed. Now I'm feeling a little better. I've still got that sinusy, head stuffed with cotton feeling . . . and the sinking feeling none of this post made any sense . . .

To Charlie . . .

I love this picture of you. You look so serious and grownup. I'm so proud of you and how far we've come in the past year. Maybe it's just a mother's imagination, but I think I can see a glimmer of the great man you'll become . . .

Then I look at this picture and realize we've still got a long way to go.

A Little Christmas Spirit

I've been thinking about Christmas a lot lately. I'm the Primary Music Leader (I love love love my calling, BTW) and we've been learning "Stars Were Gleaming" for the past few weeks--we're singing at the Branch Social next week. The past few years, I've been a Bah Humbugger. I had one really bad Christmas, so I haven't had the Christmas Spirit for a while. I mean, obviously, I do love the actual meaning of Christmas (my favorite thing is the First Presidency Devotional), but I haven't enjoyed the traditions as much as I used to. But this year, I'm starting to get it back. I think Charlie has brought it back for me. We've been putting up decorations and he just points and smiles at them. Obviously, he doesn't understand it all, but he knows something is different.

This is a Christmas card and envelope I made for my visiting teaching people. I designed it on Photoshop. I used two vintage images from these books John's mom got me a few years ago. I combined the images and used this quote from A Christmas Carol: "It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself." I'm really happy with it. Now, I've got the scrappin' itch back. I have a ton of pictures I'm dying to scrap. Maybe I can get John to give me a day to myself so I can get some stuff done . . . )hint, hint, Dear . . . )

You guys from up North and out West are just going to laugh at this. It never snows here this early, so a little snow on December 1st was really cool. It's just enough to get me in the mood for Christmas. I didn't think it was enough to play in . . . until my niece came over. She made a snow angel and a snowman on the deck. Morgan and Paul (her dad) literally had to scrape every last flake of snow to make it happen, but it was impressive just the same. I didn't play any . . . I just walked around in the snow. I love that cold, sinking feeling under my feet. I can't wait until we get a really good snow. The last time we had one of those, I was pregnant so I didn't get to play.

This is Charlie's first taste of snow. This was a tradition I was unaware of, but my sister insisted. At first he didn't like it . . . then he finished the whole thing. He really liked it . . . it probably helped that he's working on a killer molar right now.

John was a little jealous of the snow since he's in New Orleans on business this week. Well, I was jealous because he's been eating at fancy-schmancy restaurants all week! See, originally Charlie and I were going to come along. But, there were too many problems. First of all, the hotel his work booked for him was not kid friendly. It also doesn't help that Charlie is in a phase where he loves to scream for no reason. Secondly, John only had the rental car for so many days. We would have to take the eight hour trip all at once. Yeah, right. Finally, I didn't know how I would work out my food situation. I really can't eat out. I've got to prepare my own food because of my IBS, so that wouldn't work either. Sad, but oh, well. The week is half over, and John will be home soon. The sooner the better!

Finally, I've got to share these two pictures. I'm thinking I need to update the blog "logo" and here are two candidates. I think they both perfectly express the idea that Charlie is definitely in charge. The one where he is maniacally grinning was taken yesterday. I caught him pulling wipes one by one from the wipe box and he thought it was extremely funny. The other one was the other week. I came into the room and he was just like that: laying on a pillow, shirt half up, watching "Yo Gabba Gabba."

By the way, "Yo Gabba Gabba" happens to be the coolest kids' show ever. It's like "Sesame Street" meets Breakin' meets Colico Vision meets Teletubbies meets Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It's like the acid trip I'll never have! Any show that has Biz Markie teaching kids how to beatbox is okay by me. If you haven't had the pleasure of watching "Yo Gabba Gabba," here's a taste. And we can't have a discussion about "Yo Gabba Gabba" without mentioning poor Nathaniel, who's killer dance stylings on the show have made him an internet star. I bet his mom is regretting letting him on the show . . .

Zoo Fun

So the day after Thanksgiving, John and I took Charlie to the zoo. Yes, Chattanooga has a Zoo. I haven't been there in a while. For those of you who are familiar with the zoo here, I'm sure you'd agree with me that it used to be a little ghetto. Okay, a lot ghetto. It was pretty much a parking lot with a few raccoons and deer in makeshift cages. No kidding. But they've revamped it and it actually looks like a legitimate zoo. They even have snow leopards now. It's a great little zoo. It's really cheap to get in and you can be out in an hour. But I must admit, the zoo could use a little more work! We thought Charlie would be a little more enthusiastic . . . although he did fall asleep on the way down. I think I had more fun than anyone. It was a cool day. My favorite was the chimp named Hank. He literally got up and walked to us when he saw us behind the glass. I got weirdly teary-eyed for some reason. He was just so big and dignified . . . I didn't cry on my own wedding day but I get emotional over a monkey. I never said I was balanced.

The petting zoo was neat. Although, I almost didn't go in because I feared for my LIFE. I was terrified something was going to jump on me or eat my clothes. Those goats were giving me the stink-eye. It doesn't help that a goat at that zoo once swallowed Mari's bag. She yanked it out of its throat and it was covered in goat yack. Needless to say, she had to throw it out. But we walked out yack-free and it was all good.

November 2008

Before I start, I've just got to share this. This skit was on SNL recently and it made me laugh so hard. See, I'm a huge fan of "Dateline" and any other "murder shows" (as my mom lovingly calls them). So this skit definitely hit home for me. Who knew Bill Hader could do a spot-on Keith Morrison? Hilarious. (And yes, it's clean!)

I know November isn't quite over, but close enough. Let me just start with a miracle. I'm not exaggerating. Charlie learned how to sleep through the night. If you knew what we have been through with this kid, believe me, you'd agree it's a total miracle. After tons of people telling us crying it out was the way to go, we decided we had no other choice. I was getting hardly any sleep which only made my IBS problems worse. If I don't get enough sleep, I automatically have stomach cramps the next day. So, my parents went out of town for a week and a half and we knew it was now or never. It took only 3 nights . . . which is amazing, because that is how long everyone told us it would take. Now mind you, things aren't perfect. We still struggle with him getting up too early. But at least he'll sleep 7-8 hours at a time on his worst days. Before this, he was only getting 7 hours of sleep collectively. So thanks to all you guys for that advice . . . I never thought this day would come!

Fall is my favorite season and no, the irony isn't lost on me, okay? The leaves were gorgeous this year. We took Charlie to this little playground down the road (his first playground experience ever) and got some great shots of leaves. I only wish I had put him in something other than his Space Invaders jacket! The one of him in the swing is one of my favorite pictures ever--and yes, I took it. Me, not John. I'm proud, can you tell? Although . . . I also took the other two out-of-focus ones. I thought they were cute, anyway . . .

November also saw two new arrivals in my family. I'm an aunt twice over this month! Mari (my brother's wife) had a baby girl named Eloise Ruth Evans. Then, Scott (John's brother) and Katie had a boy. I don't know the name yet, so I'll call him Chongo Flynn for now. I know Katie will love that.

Anyway, we had a good Thanksgiving. I was feeling kind of sick (stomach and allergy issues), but it could've been worse I guess. It's just hard to not eat all those good things . . . this is the first year that I've been truly serious about avoiding foods that will trigger my IBS. So I stuck with a few bites of ham, peas, carrots and bread. It wasn't as fun as usual, but at least I got to spend it with all my side of the family. Most people can't say that, so that was a blessing.

This was Charlie's first "real" Thanksgiving since he actually got to eat the food. He liked the Watergate Salad the best. For those of you not familiar, it has nothing to do with salad. It's made of pistachio pudding, Cool Whip and marshmallows. He wouldn't eat anything else after he had that. I told myself he got protein from the pistachios and the hydrogenated oil in the Cool Whip.

This year, my favorite tradition didn't happen. Sigh. For the past few years, my sister-in-law Mari and I have gone down to Calhoun to go shopping in the outlets on Black Friday. We always find crazy deals. It's always great because we have the same shopping style. We try on clothes over and over again until we can make up our minds! Mari is the best shopping partner ever. Well, since she had a baby only two weeks ago, she was out. And as I mentioned earlier, I was feeling pretty sick all week. I didn't feel like driving an hour both ways, especially if I was going alone. So Wednesday, I decided to forget tradition and I went to Ross. Now before you judge me for shopping at a place with a sub-title like "Dress for Less," here's the facts. I got three shirts (nice shirts--blouses, if I actually used the word "blouse") and a skirt for $40. The time before I got a Nine West (didn't know they made shirts, but hey, it's designer) shirt for $6. All together, I got that shirt, a jacket, shoes (patent flats), jeans, a skirt and a dress for under $75. Who's laughin' now?

October 2008: Part III

There was one more event in October worth mentioning . . . our anniversary! We have officially made it SEVEN YEARS! I can honestly say that I love John even more now than when we were first married. Awwww . . . weren't we cute?

John planned our anniversary and it was perfect. I wasn't feeling well, so we decided to stay home. We dropped Charlie off with my sister and stayed home and watched a movie. What movie, pray tell?

John bought it for me and we got to watch it on the big screen TV with surround sound! We don't get to watch movies in there often . . . there are too many breakable things in there for Charlie. But it was a great treat. It was John's first time seeing it, since he was kind enough to stay with Charlie so I could go to the midnight showing of Indy. It may not be the best movie ever (or even the best Indy), but that midnight showing was definitely the most fun movie watching experience in my life. It was the most excited I've ever been (and will be) about seeing a movie. And all the fat middle-aged guys dressed up as Harrison Ford made the experience all the more special. And stinky--that theater was packed and smelled sweaty. Ugh. But watching that movie again made me so happy. Way to go, Hubby-O!

October 2008: Part II

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday. I've always loved monsters and scary movies, so of course, this is my favorite time of year. My favorite thing about Halloween is pumpkin carving. Call me a geek, but I love it. I take it very seriously. I never use templates. It's cheating. Not to mention artistically cheap! I look on the internet for a picture of "my subject" and then I freehand the design on the pumpkin with a red Sharpie. Then, I just carve away.


This year, I think I really outdid myself. There was no question of who I was going to carve this year. It had to be the Joker. If you have not seen The Dark Knight yet, repent. It comes out on DVD in December. Anyway, I used a new technique this year. I usually do it all by hand, using various sharp things to carve out what I want. But this year (heh, heh) John let me use his Dremel tool! It was so crazy awesome. I used to shape his hair, which would have taken literally, an hour to do with a normal scraper or knife. I also used it to smooth out bumps, so it looks way better than my other pumpkins. It's not a perfect pumpkin, but I'm so happy with it. Whatdya' think?

Some people who came to the house to trick or treat actually took a picture of the pumpkin! I won scariest pumpkin at our Trunk or Treat. Some little twit accused me of using a template behind my back. It's a good thing I didn't hear it. I'd have to show him the disappearing pencil magic trick. If you didn't get that reference, repent. Watch The Dark Knight.

Okay, enough bragging. For our Trunk or Treat, I dressed up as the Cat in the Hat. I should've taken a picture, but I was too busy trying to set up our trunk. (We won funniest btw: it was a zombie bride and groom with a sign that said, "Just Buried." Awwww.)

Charlie had the best costume ever. Have you seen a cuter Sith in your life?

We even taught him to breathe heavy like Vader. My sister started to sing the Darth Vader theme (you know, "duh duh duh duh-duh-duh") and he sang it right back! Too bad I didn't get it on video. Dangit! He loved the Trunk or Treat. He was literally running all over the parking lot screaming because he was so excited. He kicked and screamed when we had to go home.

On the actual Halloween, we just stayed at home. We dressed Charlie up again for fun. He's a little too little to get candy.

That night, I did my brother and his friend's hair for a party. They were going as Ron Burgandy and Rebecca Corningstone from Anchorman. I should've taken a "before" picture just so you can see all the work I put into it. They looked so hilarious.

I really enjoyed making them up. It gave me an idea. For most of my childhood, I wanted to be a special effects makeup artist. You know, those people that glue latex pieces on actors' faces? Weird, I know, but anyway . . . then I found out you had to be good at chemistry. Yeah, that dream died real quick. Anyway, how cool would it be to start a business where people would pay me to do their makeup for Halloween parties? I would love to do that. Although, I probably couldn't do that many people in one day . . . and most people would want to be made up on Halloween. And then I wouldn't get to enjoy my favorite holiday. Hmmm . . . maybe that idea needs tweaking . . .

October 2008: Part I

October was an awesome month. One of my b-day gifts from John was one of the most amazing gifts ever. He got us tickets to go see "Sweeney Todd" at the Tivoli (an old theater here in town). John is the best gift giver. He remembers random things I said months before and so it's always something I want AND I'm surprised. In fact, I had seen an ad for this show and I was whining about how bad I wanted to go. So, you'd think I'd be jumping up and down when I got the tickets, right? No. I'm a total idiot. I didn't want to go because the tickets were pretty expensive and our babysitting situation. Let me explain.

As many of you know, we live with my parents. When we go out on dates, my mom usually watches Charlie because he's used to her. The one time we had John's parents watch him . . . he got violently sick. Turns out he had a fever virus and we didn't even know. John's poor parents had to deal with a sick, scared, screaming baby for three hours. He literally screamed for three hours! I felt so horrible about that for months.

So, the show just happened to be on the week when my parents were in El Paso visting my grandma. Hoo boy. Now, John's parents raised eight kids: seven boys and one girl. They are not easily fazed and told us everything would be fine. I was seriously nervous for a week leading up to that night. But as soon as we dropped Charlie off at their house, I just tried to enjoy the evening.

The show was crazy amazing. It wasn't the traditional telling of "Sweeney Todd." It was actually from a fairly recent adaptation where the cast are all mental patients in an asylum, retelling the story. There were only 10 people in the cast and all of them not only sang and acted . . . they friggin' played their own instruments! There were literally moments when someone was playing the cello (on a five-foot narrow platform--more on that in a second) and singing, or when someone was playing the trumpet with one hand and beating a drum with the other. It was crazy! And if you closed your eyes you were swear there was a full orchestra there. They were that good at everything. The other cool part was the staging. It was on a tiny stage, so instead of blocking out the staged, they blocked up. Meaning, they had these set pieces (most of them shaped like different sized coffins) that they would arrange to be a barber's chair, a pulpit, etc. Plus, there was this huge wall in the back that was at least eighteen feet high. The guy who played Sweeney Todd would climb up the ladder (while singing!) and then jump off (from like, ten feet in the air). It was so crazy. I seriously loved it and it made me crazy all over again about how I have to wait for Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd to come on TV! I swear, not watching rated R movies is the hardest LDS standard to keep!

Well, we got to John's parents to find Charlie happily climbing on everything. He didn't cry once. I could've collapsed in relief right then and there! He did trash their house, but bless them, they didn't seem to mind.

All in all, it was one of the best birthday presents ever!

Well, it was football time in Georgia again (even though we live in Tennessee). John and his family are devoted Georgia Bulldog fans and I sort of dread every football season. It just seems to take over everything. But this year it turned out okay because John, being the BHE (Best Hubby Ever), took Charlie down to his parents' house to watch every game. That gave me ALONE TIME. I love ALONE TIME. I was able to write, scrapbook and nap. Soooo nice.

Birthdays are a big deal in my family. We all get together for everyone's birthday. Mine was on the 12th. Normally, my mom makes me a coconut cream pie. But alas, my IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) has been in overdrive the past few months, so I'm on an insanely restrictive diet. So I chose yellow cake (still a bad choice, I'll tell more later) instead. Originally, I wanted a cake shaped like a vampire with a stake through his heart (Edward Cullen! Take that, Twilighters! Just kidding . . .). But, I thought that might be too much work. After all, my mom had to make 4 birthday cakes that month. So I asked for a "ghost in the graveyard" cake, which is basically a dirt cake with cookies stuck in it ("tombstones") and dollops of Cool Whip ("ghosts"). But of course, my mom had to do something awesome and over the top. Check it out.

So I realize a graveyard cake isn't traditional for a 26th birthday. It's not a martyrdom thing, like I think I'm "over the hill" or something lame like that. It's simply a celebration of my love of monster movies and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." (The TV show. Yes, I realize it's been off the air for five years. Gimme a break.) Instead of hats, we all got vampire teeth. Here's Charlie enjoying his.

The coolest thing is what John said to me that day. I'm sure most men would be totally wigged out by a chick who wants a graveyard cake and fangs for her birthday. But John came up to me and said, "You are so fun." Gotta love that guy.

Next was . . . Charlie's first birthday! It was on the 18th . . . which is cool, because our anniversary is Oct. 18th and John's b-day is June 18th. Very nice. Anyway, we just had a family party but we have a lot of family here. It is such a blessing to have both sets of grandparents here. Of course, my mom had to make him the most adorable "cake." We were shocked at how neat he was about eating his cupcake. He got tons of presents, most of which we had to open for him because he got bored. There was one really cute moment when Charlie "accidentally" untied the helium balloon from his high chair. We were outside. The balloon went floating in the air and Charlie waved "bye-bye" to it. It was pretty hilarious. Here are some pics: