Future plans

Sophie was sitting in my lap while we were camping, when she started this conversation:

Sophie: Mama, when I grow up I am going to marry Thomas.

Mom: Thomas the Train or Thomas M (a three-year-old at our church)?

Sophie: Thomas M... because I love him.

Later, I tried to get her to repeat this declaration to Dad...

Mom: Sophie, who did you tell me you were going to marry?

Sophie: Thomas.

Mom: And why?

Sophie: Because he is not in our family!

Mom: Well, I'm glad we've gotten the point across that you can't marry people in your own family!

Will: Is that a family rule or a police rule?

Mom: Both!

Later...

Mom: Sophie, what are you going to do when you grow up?

Sophie: Cook ('Took')!

Mom: What else?

Sophie: Feed babies. I'm going to 'took' and feed babies!

We're raising a real womens' libber!

Presenting... Turley

Our most recent acquisition...

Basement bath

Basement

We closed on this one 8.24.09, and these pictures are from around then. Progress is now well under way!

Prima Ballerinas

Just wanted to share a couple of cute pictures of Sophie and her friend Abby, taken after church a few Sundays ago. They were too busy twirling to both face the camera at the same time!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

(This is my first... but not likely to be my last... Not Me Monday admission... )

It was NOT ME at Blue Coast Burrito who was socializing while her kids built a bridge of five chairs and starting walking back and forth across them, causing an employee to come spot them to make sure they didn't fall, until she finally noticed what they were doing.

It is also NOT ME who has left watermelons on her porch for almost two full weeks, because she is too lazy to bring them in and not sure what to do with them.

And I certainly would NEVER send my kids to a house known to contain an H1N1 victim, just because my husband is out of town, my work deadline is approaching and I didn't feel like I could possibly miss a day of work. No mom would do that, so obviously I didn't!

Finally, surely it is NOT ME who hasn't balanced her checkbook in over a year, and wonders why her bank balance is consistently about 40% off from her ledger. After all, I am a CPA, for crying out loud! That couldn't possibly be me!

Watsonwood Gets A Facelift

We're still in the midst of the Watsonwood project, but I wanted to show some of the changes that have occurred thusfar...

Before

During

After

New Deck

Kitchen

New half bath

Full bath

Cathedral Caverns

For Labor Day weekend, we met our fun friends the Careys at Cathedral Caverns State Park near Huntsville, AL. We had a great weekend, although we all stayed a little damper than we'd have liked. But what's camping without a little rain and mud to keep things interesting?

At the Earlyworks Childrens' Museum

At the cave entrance

Chillin' at the beautiful Cathedral Caverns visitors' center

Sophie and Ava draw on the world's thickest sheet of paper

Shelly goes tribal at the museum!

Sophie entertains the crowd

The visitors' center

Will has his eye on someone!

No matter where we go, Andy and Doug can always find a building to gawk at and discuss!

For more pictures and details about our wet but fun weekend, see the Carey's blog here.

An Impressive Accomplishment

When my sister Anna volunteered to make Sophie's birthday cake, I showed her the one Sophie had picked out of the Publix cake binder:

Anna just nodded and shrugged. As the time grew close, Andy and I started to fret. Would Anna pull off a cake, or would it be a disaster? She'd alluded to some pretty lofty plans. Should I put a bakery on standby?

At 2:15 AM on Sophie's birthday, I got this cell phone message:
And this is what arrived at the party:

"Tia"/Anna and Sophie

It's Only Been Three Years!

Here are a few miscellaneous shots from Sophie's birthday. The full album is on Facebook - I tried to add a link but it didn't seem to work properly.

Cousins

Could they be any sweeter?

A good "adilla"

Will asked for a cheese quesadilla for dinner. After impatiently singing the words for some time, he asked me this:

"Is it really called a "cheese case", and you have the "idea" for it, so it's a "cheese-case-idea"?

Well, no, but I think that makes more sense than most entymology!