Greensboro, North Carolina

Last week was just one of those weeks where if it could go wrong, it did.

Ten fold too. On any given day, this is what was happening:

1. Jay has fever
2. Why is that light on in my car?
3. Ellie has fever
4. Both kids are sick...cough & cold
   
5. Get the light to turn off..car is fine
6. Work turns into...uh, well REAL work, LOL
7. I need a haircut
8. ANOTHER light? seriously?!
9. Ellie needs a haircut
10. New light is telling me i have low tire pressure! I liked my VW, it didn't care about anything related to maintenance or safety

So we survived the week & headed for Greensboro's Grandover Resort at 4AM on Saturday morning. I only managed a few pics from my camera. My cousins have more & I will update shortly.

We visited with my cousins Keith & Kelly, who live in Greensboro; cousins Amy, Michael & their little girl Alexia (14 months) who drove from New Jersey; and my Aunt Jane & Uncle Jerry who came in from Jupiter Florida. It was a really nice visit & even though it was super short---I enjoyed the time.

WE SOLVED A HUGE MYSTERY!!!!
(hence, the GIANT puzzle piece in the header)

This is Alexia...Lexie is her NN. NOTICE HER PRETTY CURLS PEOPLE!

You could of scalped her & Ellie, swapped heads & they would match.
They have the same CURLY HAIR! Apparently it comes from my Grandma Gert!

Ellie had a great time too....
Here she is making herself at home in the hotel. She is a natural traveler, if I may say so.

She also experienced and mastered the revolving door....AKA, "The Spinny Door." She asks Joe daily when he is getting one for our house.

LOL..here she is going solo & VERY PROUD of herself. She almost gave the concierge guy a heart attack every time she went through the thing.


Jay enjoyed my Aunt Janie first hand. I only wish we had more time with everyone. Thanksgiving will hopefully come quick for all of us to be together again soon.


More to come. Hope you are all doing well. Thanks for checking in on us! I will post again shortly.

Best,
Carrie

sippy cups anitcipation?

Hang in there people--I'm coming back soon.

In the meantime, here is a nice little distraction...Ellie & Jay around the same ages in the jumper.

Swingers

I'm back-posting a little to catch up. Pictures & one video from the park on Saturday below.

Ellie is feeling 1000% better. I can't say the same for Joe.

Don't forget to wish him a Happy Birthday tomorrow! We are going to Rathbun's for dinner. I think we are the only ones left in the city of Atlanta who have not dined there. I'm super-excited! Hopefully his stomach will be better in time to enjoy it.

ellie found the stomach bug.

anyone know how to get throw up out of mattresses & car seat straps?

you know you miss it

This is so wrong on so many levels.

For the Taylors...

bbbwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! (laughing)

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Budder-Fwyes

I think I'm going for an animal theme this week?

As you can see, the "budder-fwye" bush in our front yard is the extent of our excitement around here. Enjoy Tuesday!

lucky 7/7 monday

We had a very welcomed, uneventful 4th of July--with the exception of a short visit from Chris & Rosie en route to Lilburn from Bloomington, Indiana.

Chris (who has not aged 1 day, hmm, maybe it's all the beer?) is Joe's partner in crime from the early days. For those who know him or shall I say, know them together, uh, well, this is a FAMILY friendly site & we'll leave it at that. heeeheee.

I managed to snap 1 photo until my battery conveniently died. No one was looking of course & its not in focus, sorry.

From Left to Right: Stella (dog), Patrick (16 months), Chris, Rosie, Lily (5 in Sept), Joe, Jay & Ellie. And on the floor by Joe's feet is Roxy. The puppy we dog sat for over the weekend.

So we just basically hung out at the pool, I caught a movie with Carolyn (finally saw Sex & the City) & Joe headed up to the Ocoee for camping & paddling.

Sunday i was quite the ambitious crazy mom. I don't have any before or durings.....but i do have AFTER pics below. i just wasn't in a camera snapping mode this weekend i guess.

sunday events...
1st. priority..dunkin donuts. Once in a blue moon, I will order Ellie a munchkin.
me: "LARGE COFFE C/S & ONE,MUNCHKIN PLEASE"
order taker: ONE?
me: YES, ONLY 1.
they still give me like 6. so i gave them to max.

2nd. silver comet trail. I did not take MAX becuase i end up being a circus act. I got to use my stroller. i love it. mine is red--just like Brooke Shields. of course she is like a foot taller than me. and she is brooke shields.
Ellie sits on the top and peeps at Jay riding on the bottom. he giggles & rightly so. Most of the time she is flashing the passerbyers cause her tush is in the air peeping him. we def don't look as suave & fashionable as Brooke & her kids. LOL!

3rd. dip in the pool. yeah. there is no such thing as a dip in the pool with 2 kids. after pushing both of them for 2+ miles, wild horses couldn't have kept me from that pool. and on sunday mornings here in Georgia, everyone is in church. no one is at the pool, except us. love it.

4th. park. we met dawn, samantha & gavin at the park. i felt so bad about fattening max with those munchkins, dawn was kind enough to watch all 4 kids while max had a nice little run with his pals in the dog park. after that, we had a lovely little lunch--downwind and with a view of the dog park.

right about the time we were leaving a nice sized thunderstorm set in. our timings were working out so nice--it was odd, but hey, i'll take whatever works in my favor when i can get it!

WE ALL took a nice afternoon snooze........i swear, my favorite sunday afternoon thing to do is nap on the couch during a thunderstorm.

Finally, we went to an afternoon 4th of July BBQ. Busy day for the wrapping up of a 3 day weekend!!
Sorry, I didn't take any other pictures except of Ellie & Jay eating and playing with a spinwheel pinwheel.


have a good week.

Jay's 9 month milestones

Jay is doing so much lately! It feels like he has hit 3 or 4 milestones in the last 2 weeks??! He loves eating REAL food. Peas, black beans, little pieces of meat, cut up fruit--pretty much anything. We won't talk about the dog food. He is also starting to pull up, cruise (slowly) and yes.....CRAWL. See for yourself.

TECHNICAL SIDE NOTE: for anyone that cares.
Our Flip video camera has been so handy. No complaints, until now.
Apparently, it's not audio compatible with a MAC? Yes, we are Mac people if you didn't already know this. We are not fans of the CTL+ALT+DELETE here in the Gildea household. I found a work around for the playback audio files in Quicktime. Apple offers Perian as the plug-in. Okay, so now I can at least HEAR my AVI files, but I can't edit them except in the Flip Video software--which is basically a cut on the front & back end. I still can't edit in iMovie. Haven't loaded FCP yet, so I don't know about that? Anyway, what this means for now, is that you'll have to deal with 1 or 2 videos that may be a little longer than I like versus 1 cleaned up video with music and all the nice edits. So, stay tuned because I will figure it out as soon as I can spend an afternoon working out my kinks & nagging the editors at work. I feel for you, people. My voice annoys even me after watching it once.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

Bathtime. He likes hanging onto the side of the tub, and chewing on it.

I guess with 2 kids, I gotta get the biggest bang for my buck--especially that we are in the middle of a drought in Georgia. So yes, they get a bath together. We're not in Alabama people--so it's okay, right? LOL. plus, Jay giggles at her.

Have a safe & happy July 4th everyone!!!

EXTRA BAGGAGE

I think We the People carry around too much stuff.

Lightening the load is always a good thing. Even the airlines are catching on & charging you for extra baggage. Lighter loads. It's a chance to make room for new things. Healthy things. Creating new, positive environments.

You know who you are.

My heart and my support go out to you. Your first big ol' healthy first step in a new direction with a lighter load in an uphill battle. Old friends aren't hard to find these days. good ones are always a step away. I don't care how many years have passed.

that said---lemme lighten the mood!! teehee
We seem to learn early about carrying around STUFF? For example, Ellie.
She is no stranger to carrying around a bunch of things that she has deemed in her 3 1/2 year old little head as VERY important and necessary. Most of it ends up on the floor of my car. This morning i couldn't find her shoes. ANY of them. Turns out they were on the floor of my car--2 pairs mind you!
Can you spot them??

I've totally given up trying to help her out of the car too--because I too am bogged down with stuff!!! I am generally holding Jay, his bottle bag, food, blankies---all the stuff.

So here she is...trying to make it out of the car with all her crap that I will now have to make sure she leaves with this afternoon. Otherwise, she will notice 1/2 way home that she doesn't have her purse and cry for it until tomorrow. Do boys do this?????

So, let's review what we went in with......
1. purse
2. milk
3. book
4. there is a banana waffle in there from trader joes somewhere?
5. i made her put ON the sunglasses...for efficiency. HAHAH.

Just so you don't think i dress her crazy---it is TACKY TUESDAY. I tried. But her shirt is also stuck & not pulled down all the way--so it looks even goofier. that was a freebie.

JAY.

To young to hang onto anything but his little thumb. We moved him to the bigger car seat because he was literally getting stuck in the infant seat--between that & that it's getting hot here in Georgia---he was all sweaty when i finally unstuck him. he's much happier.

More space!! We are days away from a fun 3 day weekend!!! Wahoooooo!!!