The McAnallys

The Fair

2011-10-19T17:30:00.004-04:00

For the first time since we moved to the Raleigh area in 2009, we finally made it to the State Fair. It's actually the first time I've gone to a fair in almost 10 years. (Pitiful, I know.) One of the things that I was most excited about was the whole fair feeling--the yummy smells and the cool fall air with people milling around... so naturally it was the hottest day since late August.

We bought our tickets in advance so we were able to just walk right in, which was awesome. Rory was so incredibly excited by everything. As soon as we got there, she started on a rant about how she was going to ride all the rides including the big Ferris Wheel. We just wandered around for the first little bit just to see what there was to see (and smell what there was to smell) and try to find a map. I eventually found one on the ground, brushed it off and took it with us (never did find a legitimate one).

The girls were both very excited to see this little train. Quinn loved it so much, she actually rode it again later on in the night. In fact, according to her, it was her favorite part of the fair (despite what the picture shows).

As soon as Rory got off of the train, she wanted to go on a "faster" ride. I was pretty sure that once it got started she would spend the rest of the ride screaming to get off. She got my goat.

In fact, she eventually asked to ride the little roller coaster. I don't have a picture because Nathan had taken Quinn to the bathroom, and like the genius I am, I didn't think to at least take a picture of the ride itself before we left. Anyway, the girl LOVED it. She even kept her hands in the air almost the whole time (except for the "big" drop). I was thrilled. Now I can't wait to get her on a real roller coaster.

The girls ran into Mr. Cow and acted like they hadn't seen him in a million years. I think Nathan and I could have told them we were going to the fair, showed them Mr. Cow and gone home heroes.

Nathan and I ate WAY too much. Just know there was Italian sausage, a burger, a gyro, pizza, some funnel cake and a few other things involved. Too much. For the girls, their big treat was cotton candy. They liked the blue. And that it turned their mouths blue.

Rory riding the pony.

Funny story about the pony ride... When Rory was done with the pony ride, we started walking over to the Village of Yesteryear. Quinn started having a fit--sobbing, yelling, the works. As it turns out, what we thought was her asking to get out of the stroller as her saying she wanted to get on a horse. And the farther away from the horses we got, the more hysterical she got. By the time we got to the building the Village of Yesteryear was in, I FINALLY figured out why she was so upset. After some calming down and her asking politely, we went back so Quinn could ride her horse.

That smile was totally worth the way-to-much amount of money required to ride the horse.

We stopped to eat some more food. (Somehow we never made it back for me to go to the Village of Yesteryear...)

Quinn felt the need to show off how cute she is--blue mouth and all.

Random silliness around 7:30.

I made Rory wait until it was dark to ride the Ferris Wheel. By that point, she wasn't thrilled with it because it didn't go fast.

But she did like the view of the whole fair. (All I had was my 50mm lens. The fair was MUCH bigger.)

This last picture makes me miss having access to editing software. When I get the chance, I will lighten it up a tad, decrease the noise (I only brought my XTi--I was NOT about to haul my big camera around), and make a few tweaks. Even without that, I know I will cherish this photo.She was so pretty up there looking out over the whole fair. I just loved watching her.

Oh, and I know there were no pics of me, but when I handed the camera over to Nathan, I forgot to change my autofocus settings over to full auto for him. So the pics with me in them turned out like this:

Good times. But I'm still going to save it so 30 years from now the girls know I was there, too. :)

We had a great night. It all fell apart a little at the end (overtired kids, 2 year old had an accident... all the stuff that happens when kiddos get overtired), we spent way too much money, the kids were up too late, we ate WAY too much, but it was totally worth it. Great memories.

Haven't posted in a while....

2011-03-19T23:44:00.000-04:00

just wanted to get your hopes up that I actually blogged. I know you hate me. And yes, I'm talking to you. Patrice Williams.

Fall Questions

2010-09-25T09:24:00.000-04:00

My friend, Leigh, tagged me in this Fall question fest. I love fall, so I felt compelled to participate---maybe if I participate it will FEEL more like fall.

Do you like Starbucks? And are you a fan of their seasonal coffees?
Not really. There's just a ton of hype and the fact that they charge like $84 per cup of coffee seems excessive. The only saving grace is that they make a good molasses cookie.

How do you decorate and prepare for Fall?
We will definitely carve pumpkins and I'll get a few mums for the front porch. It's actually good timing because my bagonias (sp?) are starting to look iffy. Though I'm sure if I watered them they'd jump right back.

Will you participate in your college's homecoming activities?
No, but if I still lived in Greenville, we'd at least be at the parade. I miss going to football games.

What is your favorite Fall clothing item or accessory?
It's not really a favorite since I get all weepy when I have to pack my flip-flops away for the winter, but I guess it would have to be my Sperry's. I love good comfortable shoes.

What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid?
I don't really remember having a favorite.

Do you like Halloween/Horror movies? Do you have a favorite?
No. Not my cup of tea. The typical horror movies are cheesy and the serious ones freak me out. After I watched Mothman Prophecy, I ran everytime I saw the woods.
What is your favorite Fall Activity?
Going to pumpkin patches, carving pumpkins and Halloween.

What is your favorite Fall recipe?
Pumpkin bread. Mmmmm.

And then she added eight more quickie questions, and here they are:

What movie coming out soon are you looking forward to seeing?
I don't really do movies, but I'll steal Leigh's for this one...Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

What will you miss most about Summer?
My flip-flops.

When do you start your holiday shopping?
Right here in the next week or two.

Favorite exercise/activity?
I'm really enjoying softball right now. As far as working out, I really love the elliptical. I wish I had one in my house. But not the regular kind--the gym quality ones that actually have a really long stride.
Best book you've read lately?
I haven't read a lot lately because when I do read, I get COMPLETELY engrossed and kinda neglect things that I should be doing around the house.
Do you make your bed every day?
Yes. It's just nice to get into a nicely made bed at night.

If you could choose a personal chef or a personal shopper, which would you choose?
Personal Chef!! Shopping is something to do out of the house so I'm not giving that up (even though the kids drive me crazy). Plus, a personal chef could cook healthy foods that taste good and I wouldn't have to go through the hassle of figuring out a healthy menu.

Which TV show are you most excited for this Fall?
Big Bang Theory, The Office, maybe Mythbusters (yeah, I know)

I think I'm supposed to tag people, but pretty much anyone I would tag has already done it, so I'll just let you guys sit in amazement that I actually took a few minutes to post. :P

I'm Bringing Blogging Back...

2010-07-28T20:49:00.005-04:00

for a visit. I'll quit again in, oh (looks at watch) tomorrow. But, I wanted to share my new purchase. I got a new camera. What kind you ask? Drumroll please.... a new point and shoot. :) Nope, not a new fancy big camera or exciting lens. A point and shoot. One that has a lens that comes out every time I turn it on and that will actually open the shutter cover. Pretty exciting stuff considering my old one has been acting up for about 2 years now.

I haven't been taking as many pics of the kids recently because I don't like hauling my SLR to the park every time I go or while we are out on walks and the old point and shoot made me mad. So I decided it was time to get a new point and shoot. I went with one that has some manual controls so the control freak in me can override the camera's decisions when I think it's wrong. It's got an awesome zoom and HD video which were important because I don't want to haul around a camera and a camcorder. I'm pretty happy with it. In all honesty, there is a part of me that LOVES the harsh shadows, crazy flash, and graininess that comes from a point and shoot. I know that sounds insane from someone so into photography, but I adore snapshots--pictures that are about the moment and nothing else. A picture doesn't alway have to be composed well or be technically correct to warm your heart and make you smile.

It can remind you that your 3 year old cares more about directions than daddy.

Or that your 14 month old covers her face anytime she hears the word "where" because she thinks you are going to say "Where's Quinn?"

And then she has to show you where she was.

Or that your husband will let you take a wide-angle shot that will make his head look huge simply because he knows that playing with photo stuff makes you happy. And at the end of the day, he loves you so much, that doesn't care that he looks silly as long as you are happy.

I like my new point and shoot.

Gabe...

2010-04-22T03:11:00.002-04:00

I haven't met you (yet), but I love you. Happy Birthday little boy.

Take that Alexander!

2010-03-30T20:58:00.002-04:00

I'm sure by now we all know that Alexander had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I get it--I do. But I think, today, just this once, I have him beat.

It didn't start off that way. Quinn actually slept until 7, which was wonderful. We got up, ate breakfast and did all of our normal morning stuff. It started going downhill a bit when Quinn got up from her nap. She's got some of her top teeth coming in and they are giving her a heck of a time. Needless to say, she woke up in a fury. So, to try to calm her down, I put her in her high chair and gave her some Cheerios. And this is where it all falls apart.

As I'm sitting in the dining room with Quinn, I look out in the yard and see Darby (the dog) thrashing around on the ground. To put my reaction in perspective, you should understand that the dog is epileptic. So in my head, I think she is having a seizure. I grabbed my keys to unlock the deadbolt (we have the kind with they key slot on both sides) and darted outside to check on her. Moron dog was fine. She was rolling in a mud puddle. Great... now I have to bathe her.

As I walk back up to the house, I realized that I'd left my keys in the deadbolt. I immediately freaked out because Rory has been known to lock the doorknob--I always take my keys out with me. Well, today, she locked the deadbolt. I knocked on the door and tried to get her to open the lock. After about 3 minutes of that, I reached in my pocket (thank HEAVENS I had my cell phone in my pocket) and googled the closest locksmith. I told them what was going on (all the while trying to direct Rory on how to turn the key)and she said they'd be here in 15 minutes.

At this point, I called Nathan. While I was on the phone with him, the reality started to sink in a bit and I may have started crying a bit. That's about when Quinn ran out of Cheerios and started screaming her head off. So, I got off the phone and started trying to give Rory better directions for getting in the house. She was struggling to reach the deadbolt enough to turn it all the way back around, so I told her to grab a chair. It should be said that the chairs are, oh, about 2 feet from her. But, alas, my little 2 year old disappears into the kitchen and reappears in the living room, where she flings her stuffed animals off of her rocking chair and proceeds to drag the chair--across the living room, through the kitchen, and back around to the dining room. She climbed up on the chair, tried for a bit to turn the lock, but got frustrated. So what did she do? She just sat down in her little chair and started rocking--all the while looking straight at me. Punk!

I took a break and ran around to double check the rest of the doors and windows. No dice. By the time I got back, Rory had caught a second wind and started playing with my key chain again. Right when I think we are on the right track, she hit the panic button on my key chain and set the car alarm off. And it proceeded to go off for about 2 minutes before she figured out where the button was to turn it off. BUT.. it gave me a GREAT idea. I had a spare set of keys in the car. I immediately turned all of my attention to getting her to start hitting buttons on the key fob, hoping she'd unlock the car. When I saw her hit the right one, I darted down the porch, through the gate and to the car. 1) because I was afraid she'd turn around and hit the lock button, and 2) because my car relocks itself if you don't get in it fast enough. Thankfully I got my keys and ran back and let myself in the house--almost 20 minutes after the whole thing started. Poor Quinn had been screaming the whole time.

I was supposed to be meeting a friend shortly after that, so after calling Nathan and the locksmith (who was still 10 minutes away... ggrr) I got the girls ready and headed out of the house. I had a nice break from the suckiness of the morning while I was hanging out with Heather. That was, until, I went home.

As soon as I walked in the door, I realized that Darby wasn't in the house. So I went to the backyard to let her in. But she wasn't there. Apparently, when I was running from the backyard to my car during the lockout incident, I didn't shut the gate and Darby ran out. At that point I broke into panic mode. I started checking closets and bathtubs around the house hoping I was wrong. I started shaking around her food container (this is a parallel to the incident where Patrice's cat Sam got out and Patrice was opening food containers around the house, though I was a little less pathetic) and yelling for her. It was about then that I realized that after we moved, we'd never updated our information on her collar. I called my old cell phone number to leave a message for whoever had the number now letting them know what happened and giving them my new number. After that, I just sat down on the stairs and started blubbering like an idiot. Rory walked over and said "Where's my Darby? My Darby is lost. Where's my buddy?" It was heartwrenching, but a good reminder that I needed to be the adult in the situation. So we got in the car to drive around looking for her. As I was putting the girls in the car, a neighbor (that I didn't know) pointed me in the direction they had last seen here. I headed that way and THANK HEAVENS a group of kids that is ALWAYS outside had picked her up and brought her into their house so she couldn't run off any more.

As soon as the older boy went to get her, she ran out of the house straight to me. I put her butt in the car (while whispering in her ear that I was going to beat her from here to Canada for scaring me like that). I thanked all of the kids and the mom that was out with her. The littlest boy, about 5, was apparently all ready to adopt her and make her his. He looked at me with a little sad face and asked me where I lived. I pointed toward my house and told hime where. Then he asked, in this cute little voice, if he could come visit her. It was SO sweet. He and all of his friends are welcome to come and see her any time.

We left and immediately went to PetSmart to buy her a new tag. She now has a new shiny tag with our new shiny phone number and address. All tired and worn out we came home to recover from our long and stressful day.

And Darby peed on the floor. At least things are back to normal.

Jonah's EB Auction

2010-02-06T21:11:00.004-05:00

You guys know Patrice by now and her awesome little Jonah. In honor of his first birthday we're holding an auction to raise money for EB research. The auction will be hosted at http://jonahsebauction.blogspot.com from February 23-27. It's pretty simple, all you have to do is stop by at any point during those five days to browse items and bid on the ones you like. And trust me, there are A LOT of great things to bid on. (Like a lot, a lot. Like 100ish things a lot!)

Right now, we're holding a giveaway for those that help us spread the word! Go to the auction site and check it out!

Camera Lost and Found

2010-01-13T13:02:00.006-05:00

There's actually an online camera lost and found! Who knew! http://ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com/

And I read some really great advice today to help you identify your camera in case you ever lose it. Take a picture of a paper with some form of identification on it (you know, kinda like what your pet wears). "If found, please call Katie at 4rt5y7u8i956." (Why yes, that is my real phone number. *shakes head*) Then, set that image to lock or protect (I don't know which wording your camera uses), so that it won't get deleted. This way, if anyone ever finds your camera, the first picture will always have a way to contact you so that (if they are honest) you can get your camera back. Sure, I'll load it into the metadata, but most people don't even know you can do that (or would know to look for it), plus it's not an option for most point and shoot cameras.

You better believe that will be the first picture I take with my new camera. Which, according to FedEx, will be here sometime in the next 3 hours.

I Heart Faces Week 2

2010-01-12T10:43:00.006-05:00

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is "best faces". And this is one little face that I am seriously all about. My sweet little girl that looks so much like her daddy. I can't believe she's already 7 1/2 months. Time sure does fly. I took this yesterday, and I know if I tried to take the same picture a week from now, she'd look even more grown.

Don't forget to check out more great faces this week at:

I don't know

2010-01-11T21:11:00.005-05:00

That's about the mood I'm in. Things have been a little topsy turvy around here over the last week. Nathan has been super busy with work because of an approaching deadline (tomorrow) and has been working every night. He's sitting on the couch beside me the whole time, but he's so engrossed in what's going on, I could be in Canada and I don't think he would notice the difference. I'm not irritated about it--he's just doing what he needs to do to support the family--but a lot of days, he's really my only adult contact, so after a week of that every night, I'm just starting to be a bit bummed out about it.

To add to the bummage, we didn't make it to church this week (again) because Rory had a fever Saturday night and Sunday morning. So there's another major blow to the attempt at adult contact. Positive note, though, the fever disappeared as quickly as it came and Rory is doing fine.

I think lack of sleep is starting to take its toll as well. Quinn has been teething (her two bottom teeth poked through last Thursday) and has been waking up completely hysterical in the middle of the night. I HATED the nights when Rory was at this phase and I'm still not a fan. The newborn nights I don't mind--get up, bottle/nurse, back to sleep. No, no my friend. Screaming. Blood curdling, world-is-over screaming. For an hour. Or two. Ugh. Oh, and she's waking up at 6am now. NOT COOL.

On top of all of that, Darby had her worst seizure yet today. She's been having them on and off for the past two years or so. She'd been having them every 3-4 months for awhile and we had kinda been just monitoring them. Unfortunately, they've been getting closer and closer together and more severe. Today's came on the heals of one just two weeks ago and lasted almost a full 10 minutes. Rory caught a glimpse of today's and it scared her so bad. We brought Darby in to the vet (same office that had previously told me they could provide care for her, but that it would total roughly $1800 a year not including her typical care like shots and stuff.), but saw a different vet than the last time. I liked this guy so much. He didn't make me feel like a crappy pet owner like the last guy did and even told me that while there were ideal ways to address care, they would work with us to come up with a plan that we could afford that would help provide Darby with care. So Darby is now on seizure medication, which makes me glad, but at the same time nervous because it has to be given twice daily and at the same time every day. With our schedules, it's going to be a challenge. And as a side note, there is no reason why it should cost more to take my dog to the vet than it would for me to pay for a doctor's visit out of pocket. It's ridiculous. But I digress.

While it's not nearly as frustrating as everything else that's going on, I haven't been able to get my 365 project pictures uploaded since Nathan is having to use the good computer all the time. I'm taking them, but I'm like 6 days behind at uploading them. So frustrating. But that's minor. And in the scheme of things, it doesn't really matter. But it is another piece of straw. And this camel is not one known for keeping her emotional fortitude.

I've probably bummed everyone out by now, but it was good to type all of this. I knew I'd been kind of out of it over the past few days, but I didn't really realize just how much. Hopefully things will be on the up and up again soon. I've got some pretty cool things going on in the midst of my rut, but I will save those for another post. One that can be totally happy and positive. But for now, vent over.

I Heart Faces Week 1

2010-01-05T22:37:00.006-05:00

I have been so busy with stuff for Jonah's auction over the last few days, that I almost forgot about the i heart faces challenge for the week. So I busted my (not-so-little-after-the-holidays) hiney to get my pic done tonight, and then I realize I have until Friday. Silly me. Maybe I'll add a second shot in during the week. Maybe (probably, almost totally unlikely).

Anyway, I decided to get a little creative. I don't know if it will really be the judges' cup of tea, but it was fun to do. This is the first time I've ever done anything even remotely close to a self portrait (even though all you can see is the outline of my eyes and my giant schnoz (no clue how you spell that and i'm too proud of my made up spelling to check)).

And here's my legal jargon - I am submitting this photo into the I Heart Faces logo photo contest. By entering, I am granting I Heart Faces LLC permission to consider my photo for use in the marketing and promotion of their website.

Be sure to check out some other cool logo faces at:

It's An Auction, People! (And a giveaway?!)

2010-01-03T15:01:00.005-05:00

That's right! To celebrate Jonah's first birthday, we're throwing an auction! (You know, since we can't throw a party online. ) The gift? Donating as much money as possible to DebRA for EB Research. Suh-WEET, right?

You wanna help (cuz I KNOW you do)? Have something you want to donate? Are you willing to donate some cash-money (anyone else remember Yo Momma on MTV?) to help cover shipping costs for auction items? Do you know people that might be willing to donate? (If so, pester them, please. In a nice way.)

Most of all, DO YOU LIKE TO SHOP?! Then keep your eyes open for details! The auction will run for five days ending at 11:59pm (EST) on Jonah's first birthday (that's Feb 27). Help us raise money, people!

Oh, and did I mention that I'm going to have a giveaway? I didn't mention that? Hhmm. Well, keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks (especially as we get closer to February) for details on what YOU can do to be entered to win a $20 gift card to TARGET (you know, in honor of Patrice and stuff-Target knows squat about this).

Lets make this huge and raise a ton of money to help find ways to fight and CURE this horrible, horrible thing called EB.

Christmas through Rory's eyes

2009-12-28T22:02:00.003-05:00

Rory woke up Christmas morning to a ton of presents and the one thing she asked Santa for... her very own digital camera. (It's definitely a kid's camera, but that's okay. She doesn't need 42,000,000 megapixels. She just likes to "take a cheese" of the things around her.) So here is Christmas from Rory's point of view. I just picked a few to post. She took over 150 pictures Christmas day...

Getting ready for the holidays...

2009-12-23T08:59:00.003-05:00

Holiday Bokeh

2009-12-22T17:20:00.003-05:00

Lauren - here's my go at it. Fun stuff!

What's wrong with his face?!

2009-12-22T17:16:00.003-05:00

He was a great Santa. Jovial. Merry. Full of holiday cheer. But the second he saw the camera, he turned into this guy...

Coming Soon: The Santa With the Weird Smile

2009-12-16T08:34:00.002-05:00

Monday, we took the girls to see Santa. He was a great Santa, but had camera issues. Every time the camera popped up, he got all weird. I couldn't help but think of this episode of Friends.

Yeah, it's a long clip, but it's the shortest one I could find. And c'mon - it's Friends, so naturally, it's worth it. :)

So, keep your eyes peeled for the Santa with the camera face. As soon as I catch up on some editing, he's coming your way.

Oh, and Patrice - check those boots Monica's wearing at the beginning. Scandalous!

Addendum

2009-12-11T12:17:00.001-05:00

I know I said there would be more installments of my Favorite Things, but I left something off of yesterday's list that should ABSOLUTELY be on the first draft:

My crockpot. Do I need to say more?

My Favorite Things

2009-12-10T14:39:00.007-05:00

Several times today, I have found myself thinking about products that I absolutely love. Some of them are just personal favorites and others are things that I just can't imagine how anyone could live without them. So, in an attempt to post something not entirely kid or photography related (they'll still sneak in) I thought I'd post about some of my favorite things. Here they go, in no particular order:

1) Tropicana Orange Juice. There is just no substitute. In my attempts to save money I've tried everything from the store brand all the way up. Nothing is the same. Florida Natural comes in second, but it's really not all that close. Simply Orange is pretty good too, but not the same. I love my Tropicana. No pulp, though. The orange or blue containers.

2) OxiClean in all of it's various forms. The best, though is OxiClean Laundry Stain Remover Spray. That stuff works wonders. Grape juice, blood, it gets it all. I don't know what I did before I discovered it. Yes I do. I had lots of clothes with stains and so did Rory.

3) Laminate floors. Maybe I wouldn't love them so much if I didn't have kids or a dog, but seriously, laminate makes my life easier--on a daily basis.

4) My DVR. I'm not really sure how I watched TV before. Did I?

5) Noiseware. Yes, this is a photography thing, BUT it's something that ANYONE can use on their pictures. Everyone has taken pictures that are grainy b/c it was too dark--you love the picture, but the grainy-ness sucks. This stuff fixes that. And it's super easy to use. Seriously, you open your picture, click twice, then save. Oh, and it's FREE. This is a 100% crop (really freakin' zoomed in) of a pic I took that was really noisy (grainy). I'll spare you the details as to why it was noisy, but lets just say it is the one thing that I can't stand about my camera.

Here's the before (sorry it's dark - it's straight out of the camera):

Two clicks, then the after:

LOVE IT! Here's the link in case you are interested. http://noiseware-community-edition.en.softonic.com/ It really is worth the download, even if you just take pictures for fun.

**Edit: DIRECTIONS: (Because apparently saying click twice was misleading, I suppose I should have said WHERE to click...) Click on the drop down menu next to the word DEFAULT and pick one of the choices that best describes your picture. If it's really noisy, click full suppression. Once you've made your choice, click GO. And it's done. Save it if you like it. **

6) http://coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com/ So many freebies. Such good stuff.

7) Rainbow flip-flops. Boo cold weather. I miss my rainbows.

That's all for this installment. I'm sure I'll think of more, but these are just the ones that struck me today. What are your favorite things?

Hey Patrice!

2009-12-10T00:01:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday!

You asked for more posts. So there. Now don't expect a present.

P.S. - Check the time-stamp. BOO-YA!

High-Pitched Quinn

2009-12-09T10:21:00.004-05:00

Patrice, this video is mostly for you. I just wanted to share Quinn's version of the "squeal". Sorry about the hair-dryer noise, but when I turned it off and tried to get video, the little booger stopped completely. Crazy kid.

I Heart Faces: Sweet Dreams

2009-12-08T10:42:00.003-05:00

Why, oh why, didn't I know more about my camera 6 months ago when Quinn was born? I would have loved to have done photos of her beyond the basic snapshots that I got. I guess all that moving and chasing a toddler got in the way. Such is life. :P

On the bright side, I got to take some pics of a sweet 10 day old little girl last week. Those first few days of life are so sweet. I love watching a sleeping newborn. They make the cutest little expressions. I have no clue if babies start dreaming that young, but I always wonder what is going on in that little-bitty brain to cause all those adorable expressions. I loved this shot, and it seems to fit the theme so well.

Check out more sweet dreams at:

Happy Birthday Jackson!

2009-12-06T15:18:00.006-05:00

Birthdays for kids are always fun. I wish that they stayed that exciting as we got older. Thankfully, we get to live vicariously through our children. :) Yesterday, we visited our friends Sandy and Victoria to celebrate their son Jackson's second birthday. It was great to spend the day with friends and Rory had a blast ~~hanging out with Jackson~~ playing with all of Jackson's new toys.

Here's the birthday boy with his fun new ribbon. I mean... Rambo headband. It kept him occupied until it was time for presents.

The theme of the party was Thomas the Train. The invitations were cute little train tickets, the cake (which you'll see in a minute) was train themed and the big present from mommy & daddy was an awesome train table. Jackson was ALL OVER IT. Then he got his arm stuck in that mountain you see in the left corner. But it's all good. He's fine and still all about that table.

This was my favorite part of the cake. The circus car. Hehe. Victoria did a great job making it. And the Mickey Mouse in the foreground is sitting on a rock and fishing in a little pond. It was such a cute little cake.

Jackson liked the cake. But he REALLY liked the ice cream. I think he got 2nds and 3rds (maybe 4ths?) of it as people kept getting their own ice cream. I watched it all go down as I took his pictures, but I didn't tell mommy. It was his birthday, after all. And if you can't have too much sugar on your birthday, then it's just not much of a birthday.

Jackson's other big gift was a Power Wheels Jeep from his grandparents. He liked that a lot, too. When they took him outside to drive it, they kept telling him "push, push" to try to get him to push down on the gas pedal. Apparently, my daughter thought that meant it actually needed to be pushed. So helpful, she is. (Talk like Yoda, I do.)

Jackson was great about sharing his toys. He even let Rory drive his Jeep. And she loved it (and coincidentally, making it go as fast as it would). It was a good day.

An editing lesson

2009-11-23T21:31:00.004-05:00

(Janet, this one's for you.)

Layers are pretty much the bread and butter of photo editing. If you want to do much of anything in photoshop, you've gotta understand layers. And there is A LOT that you can do with layers. I'm still learning it myself. So, since you were wondering what you can do with layers, I thought that I would show you. I'm going to start with something super simple. And I'm going to tell you the easiest way to do it (because the more I learn about photoshop, the more I realize that there are like 30 ways to do everything).

Selective coloring. (Black and white pic with a splash of color) Yeah, it's a bit overdone, but it can still be pretty and is a good way for you to actually SEE how two different layers interact. So that's what I'm going to tell you how to do. I'm doing this in Elements 6, but if you have the big guns (CS), it's the same concept.

Step One: Pick the image you want to play with and open it in photoshop (elements).

Step Two: Go to your layers bin. It is over on the right side, toward the bottom. Click on that little black and white circle. (This allows you to add an adjustment layer. Basically, this creates layers that do some of the most common edits.) You will be choosing Hue/Saturation.

Step 3: To turn your picture black and white, you have to desaturate the picture. You do this by moving the little slider under saturation (it's the one in the middle) to the left. If you want it totally black and white, go all the way to the left. Then click okay. (Don't worry about hue or lightness.) Your picture should be black and white.

Now we're going to bring the color back. (I swear I'm not singing that to the tune of Sexy Back...) Here's where you get to enjoy the magic of layers. That adjustment layer you created put a "mask" over your picture. It's like dressing up for Halloween. Your picture is still the same picture, it's just hiding under a hockey mask, so it looks a little different. What we're going to do to get the color back is erase a part of the black and white layer, so we can see the color underneath. (Imagine you had two copies of my pumpkin picture--one color, one black and white. If you lay the black and white picture directly on top of the color one, you can't see the color one at all. But, if you cut the pumpkin out of the black and white one, and lay it back on top of the color one, the pumpkin is in color. That's EXACTLY what we are doing... just digitally!)

Step 4: (all of these things are labeled on the pic below)
a. Select the eraser tool.
b. Pick the brush you want to use from the "brush type" drop down menu. (You'll probably want to use one that has soft edges. They are more forgiving. As you bring your mouse over the brushes, you'll see a name come up if you pause for a second. Just go with one that says "soft round....:)
c. Then pick a size that will work for what you are trying to colorize. If you aren't sure what size you need, just move your mouse off of the slider and a little circle will appear - that's the size of your brush. If you need it bigger, move the slider to the right, smaller, move to the left.
d. The last thing you need to set before you bring your color back is the opacity of your brush. This basically decides how much of the color you want to see. If you want to see the full color, then set your opacity to 100%. (That usually looks funny, though, if I'm being totally honest.) If you want it desaturated some (more faded so it blends better with the black and white), then pick a lower opacity.

Step 5: Color over the part of the picture you want to bring back to color. I did this one at 100% just so you can clearly see where I was using the eraser tool.

Viola! An orange pumpkin and desaturated background. Selective color. You did it. You cut (erased) a hole in the top layer and you can see the orange pumpkin from the bottom picture.

The only other thing you need to know is that you will want to save your picture as a JPEG if you want to open it anywhere else. (Click FILE, SAVE AS, then choose JPEG from the drop down menu.) Oh, and I always do all of my work on a duplicate layer so that my actual image is hiding safe and sound underneath it all. But you don't have to. It's just something I do to be on the safe side.

I hope that made sense to you and you were able to follow it to do the same. Keep your eyes peeled. I'll probably do a tutorial on how layer masks work and how you can do [a lot] more with them. :)

WooHOO!

2009-11-23T21:28:00.002-05:00

I've got a real post coming in a bit, but I just had to share...

I went to pick up a couple of prints and I HAD TO SIGN A COPYRIGHT RELEASE!!!!

*grin*

What a learning experience!

2009-11-19T19:14:00.004-05:00

I *think* my first job was a success. (At least for it being my first job.) I wasn't really looking for a job, but Victoria asked if I would be willing to do it and I really needed some experience with subjects other than my children.

I learned quite a lot about my camera, as well as photography in general through the whole experience. One of those is that I can't really trust my camera's meter when it comes to exposure on a cloudy day - I still get underexposed pictures when it thinks everything is kosher. For that reason, I can't really trust aperture priority mode and need to stick to manual. I chickened while I was doing some of the portraits and moved back to aperture priority. The ones I took on manual actually came out better. (Makes me feel a little good about myself. (: ) I just wished I would have been checking my histogram more so that I knew that my pictures were getting underexposed in Av mode. (They way they look on the LCD display is NOT an accurate indication of exposure. DEFINITELY learned that this weekend.) It made for a lot of work in post.

Anyway, I did get to take some fun shots in addition to all the typical family shots. These are my two favorite.

I feel really dorky for doing it, but I'm going to start watermarking my photos . Gotta protect my stuff from the crazies. You know... since I'm SO good and all. :P

My first "job"!

2009-11-15T23:15:00.005-05:00

I'll post more about it later, but here are a couple of fun edits from my first JOB. :) Most of it was pretty straight forward stuff, but I had to have a take a break from basics and have a little fun.

PS - Not loving how blogger is gritting up my images. What's up with that?

McAnally Family Pictures

2009-11-12T20:24:00.007-05:00

Alright, guys. Here they are. I figured this would be the easiest way for you to pick and choose which pictures you want. Just click on the picture you want and it will pull up a HUGE version of the picture. (You will want this one and not the little one in the post if you are planning on printing them out.) When it does that, right click on the picture, then click "save as". Name the picture whatever you want and save it where you keep your photos. When you are done, click the "back" button on your browser to go back to the post with all the pictures. Go through and save whichever ones you want that way. I would email them to you, but there are a lot of them and they are BIG files. Hope you enjoy them. I had a good time with everyone . :)

Sigh...

2009-11-04T16:08:00.006-05:00

You know how it is when you buy a brand new lens, and even though you don't really know what you are doing, you still know that you are totally in love? Yeah. It's like that.

I heart my new lens. And coffeeshop actions.

The teacher in me - A photo lesson

2009-10-30T16:19:00.011-04:00

Even though I'm not in the classroom right now, I still think that teaching is a big part of who I am. I can't help it. I'm just one of those people that was wired for teaching. I'm not, however, a do-it-yourself student. I really can't stand having to read and self teach. I'm so auditory--sit me in a classroom, have someone explain something, and I'll have it in no time. Having to learn from just reading--blech.

That's where I've been recently. I'm trying to learn more about my camera and photography in general. I've got a nice camera that takes nice pictures in auto, but it can do better--if I can. Getting out of auto mode and into manual. So, at the very least, that means that I need to understand some basic photography concepts. I've been reading through a couple of different books and sites online. Exposure, aperture, shutter speed, wah, wah, wah-wah (think Charlie Brown). I kept reading and I could tell you all the definitions, but COULD NOT for the life of me really grasp the relationship between them all. Then, I was reading one of Pioneer Woman's tutorials and she mentioned something about getting your eyes dilated. FINALLY! She made the correlation that clarified the whole mess for me. From that one statement I was able to relate all of this to something in my sphere of understanding. (Eyeballs! If I think about eyeballs, it all makes sense!

As soon as everything started making sense in my head, I started thinking about how I would have explained it to me so that it would have made sense sooner. And that's where I'm going with this post. There's an old adage that says if you really want to understand something, teach it. So, I'm satisfying two things at once - wanting to really understand and getting out that teaching urge. Lauren (and anyone else that knows anything about photography) step in if I get something wrong!!

Here goes my attempt at a quick lesson on exposure, aperture, and shutter speed.

Exposure
A big focus with photography is getting "correct" exposure. (I've discovered there is a lot of debate about what that really is. I'm just going with the basic idea of what it is.) Look at something. Anything. Go ahead. I'll wait. Okay, now acheiving "correct" exposure is getting a picture to look as closely as possible to what you saw with your own two eyeballs. An over-exposed photo is one that has so much light that things get washed out. An under-exposed picture is one that didn't get enough light is too dark. Why does that happen? Because of aperture and shutter speed.

Aperture
Pictures are all about light and how that light reacts with the lens in your camera. It's really pretty similar to how your eyeballs work. Aperture itself is the opening in the lens that lets light in. By adjusting the aperature, you are changing the amount of light that gets into the camera. With a tiny aperture, you get a really crisp picture. With a wide open aperture, on the other hand, you only get a really small area in focus.

Your eyeballs work the same way. You have pupils (the black thing in the middle of your eye) that get bigger and smaller to change the amount of light that comes in. Think about the last time you went to the eye doctor and got your eyes dilated (thank you PW for this great example!). What did the world around you look like? A blurry mess? Right answer! The more dilated your eyes get, the more wonky your peripheral vision gets. All the junk on the outside edges get blurred. So when you see pictures where the person in the middle is nice and clear and the stuff around the outside (corn, maybe?) is blurred, your camera had it's pupil (aperture) dilated (wide open).

The opposite is true, too. What do you do when you are looking at something that is blurry? You squint? Right answer again. We squint our eyes to try to bring stuff into focus. If you want a picture where everything is really crisp and clear, you need to tell your camera to squint (go to a tiny aperture).

The big thing about aperture that kept throwing me was the whole numbering system. Aperture is measured in f/ stops. Like f/1.8 or f/22. If you want to tell your camera to squint (make its aperture smaller) you have to tell it to use a HIGHER number like f/ 22. If you want to tell it to dilate its eyes, you have to use a LOWER number like f/1.8. BACKWARDS. Or so it seems. Really, those numbers are fractions 1/1.8 and 1/22 so the numbering system actually makes sense. But apparently the cool thing to do was drop the numerator in an attempt to confuse the rest of us. Stupid lazy people.

Shutter Speed
This one is pretty simple to understand. Shutter speed is how long your camera's eye (I mean shutter) opens up to take the picture. Your camera will record all the motion that took place while the shutter was open. That's why sometimes if you are taking a picture of, say, someone waving their hands, their hands are a blurry mess. If something is moving fast and you want it to be clear, you have to use a shutter speed that's just as fast. If you want "blur" to show the motion (think of the pictures of cars on the highway where the lights are in long streaks), you would slow the shutter speed down so the camera has it's eye open long enough to see the movement.

So how does it all fit together?
This is were I was really, really getting lost. But when I thought about in relation to eyeballs, it started to make sense. Your aperture and shutter speed have to be in sync with each other to get a "correctly" exposed picture. You're probably not going to want to use a wide open aperture and a slow shutter speed. Why? If you remember, a wide open aperture is like having your eyes dilated (again, thanks PW). If you walk out into the bright sunlight with your eyes dilated, you get blinded by the light. Using a larger aperture and a slow shutter speed does the same thing to your camera (causing an over-exposed photo). Instead, when you walk out in the sunlight with dilated eyes, your body's instinct is to close your eyes to prevent that. To prevent an over-exposed photo, you need to tell your camera "Quick, close your eyes so you don't get blinded!" by using a fast shutter speed.

Conversely, when you've been out in the sun for a long time and walk in the dark house, everything is dark and funny looking. That's because your pupils are constricted (really small) and you're not getting enough light in them. When you use a tiny aperture, your camera's eye is constricted and thus not getting a lot of light (causing an under-exposed photo). So if you want to get a "correct" exposure (and not that funky darkness that you get when you walk in from the sun) you need to tell it to keep it's eye open and use a longer shutter speed.

There's a lot of practice that goes along with learning when to use which settings. From everything I've read, it's good to start out by using a priority mode on your camera where you pick either aperture or shutter speed and let your camera figure out the other (hooray for technology that is smarter than me!). That's kinda where I am. Somewhere in between trying aperture priority mode (This is best for portraits. Shutter priority seems better for sports or time lapse stuff.) and playing with full manual. And with that, I have (almost) completely exhausted what I know.

I figure I'll keep doing posts like these as I learn new things. I don't know if anyone will read them, but typing this out has helped me a bunch. And it did satisfy both the teaching bug and helping my understanding.

If you did read it, did it make sense? Are you lost? Thoughts? Do you actually think at all? (Just kidding. Just wanted to see if you were actually still reading.) Congratulations if you've read this far and your brain hasn't melted or exploded. The first time I read about all of this stuff I think my ears started bleeding from the frustration. This is really a lot of work to go through in order to take good photos of my kids. Then again, if they aren't worth a lot of hard work, what is?

Fix-It Friday

2009-10-30T09:12:00.007-04:00

I haven't participated in Fix-It Friday before, but have been working on sharpening my photo editing skills, so I figured I should go for it. The edits I did are pretty simple (it's what I could get done between all the mommying - you know how that is). I may try to get a little more creative later when I have more time, but then again, sometimes simple is better. :)

The Original

First Edit

Second (favorite) edit

Check out some more at

R-O-R-Y

2009-10-29T21:17:00.000-04:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Pumpkin Patch Preview

2009-10-27T19:23:00.004-04:00

I've tried like 3 times to get some pictures up from our trip to the pumpkin patch, but blogger keeps getting mad at my attempt to upload so many pictures. So until I have the patience to try again, here is my favorite.

I Heart Faces - Halloween

2009-10-27T11:02:00.006-04:00

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is Halloween Dress-Up. The handful of people that follow my blog are probably sick to death of seeing and hearing about this costume, but I, on the other hand, couldn't be more delighted to share it and its story again.

One of my daughter's favorite TV shows is Yo Gabba Gabba! on Nick Jr. For Halloween, she decided she wanted to be Toodee, one of the characters from the show. Great. That is the ONE character from the show that they don't make a costume for. Translation: I have to make it.

I hiked my butt to the fabric store and bought some material. I should probably preface this by saying I don't really sew. I've done some buttons, a hem, and one set of curtains (although the curtains only required sewing in a straight line). That pretty much exhausts my sewing experience. So, fabric in hand, I set out to make a costume I don't even have a pattern for. The handy stitch type sewing maching that I have wouldn't sew through the fleece very well, which left me doing a lot of hand-stitching. After a month of ~~cursing~~ pouring my love into the costume, it was finally done. And Rory loves it. So all the times I jammed the needle into my finger (What? You're not supposed to do that? D'oh!) were totally worth it. Who would have thought that a heap of fabric and a foam cut-out nose could make a kid so happy?

Check out more Halloween photos at:

Quinn's Video

2009-10-24T18:55:00.000-04:00

Although it took awhile, I finally got Quinn's little montage done. I did one for Rory when she was just a few weeks old. So it's about time that I got Quinn's done.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

As a side note, I DID NOT know that Darius Rucker went on to make his own country records until I happened across this song. Who is Darius Rucker you ask? Hootie my friends. Hootie.

Stealing Ideas - Pumpkin Edition

2009-10-23T13:16:00.001-04:00

Sometimes cute ideas are just too hard to pass up--even if it means being a complete and total copycat. Yesterday, Lauren posted about a cute pumpkin decoration she saw at a neighbor's house. I thought the idea was so fun and festive. So I did it. I copied. Shh. Don't tell.

Catching up with Quinn

2009-10-21T18:33:00.000-04:00

I've spent a lot of time lately talking about Rory and the costume. I haven't mentioned much of Quinn, which is a little bit unacceptable. So let me remedy that.

First of all, let me start by saying that rolling over is seriously the worst of all the milestones (at least the physical ones. Teething is pretty evil.) Nothing good can come of learning to roll from a position you like, to a position you hate, when you don't yet have the ability to roll out of that position. Just like Rory, Quinn learned to roll from back to tummy first. And just like Rory, Quinn loathes being on her stomach. So we've been dealing with a lot of angry lately. Because apparently not rolling is just not an option. She has rolled from tummy to back a handful of times, but she usually gets too flustered once on her tummy to do anything. I'm looking forward to her being able to roll from tummy to back at will. It will make my life SO much easier (or at least less scream filled).

She's also doing pretty well with sitting on her own. She'll actually sit for a 15-20 seconds by herself before she starts tipping over or otherwise flings herself backward. If it put a toy in front of her, she'll sit and play with it for even longer. She's growing up SO FAST. Which reminds me that I didn't post her stats from her 4 month appointment. She was actually almost 4.5 months at that point, but whatever. She was 16lbs 8oz (80something%) and 25 inches (95%). There's nothing little about that girl. Her rolls have rolls. And I love it!

We've also introduced her to a few solids. I've included some pictures so you can see for yourself how that went.

Homemade butternut squash. First attempt at spoon feeding...

Sweet potatoes were pretty much the same. And every kid likes sweet potatoes. Oh well. Maybe I'll find something she likes.

***************************************************************************

And since I obviously haven't posted about it enough, I thought I would talk about Rory's costume some more. :) Can't help it. I think I'm still in shock that I pulled it off. I was so happy with it I sent a couple of pictures to a Yo Gabba Gabba! fan site and Rory won a stuffed Brobee pirate doll. Yippee!! http://www.gabbafriends.com/pirate-brobee-giveaway-winners

Cutie Pa-Toodee

2009-10-17T20:16:00.000-04:00

Here she is in all of her Gabba glory!

I've gotta say that I'm darn proud of myself. And that my kid is pretty darn cute. :)

Toodee is done!

2009-10-16T22:51:00.000-04:00

The costume is FINALLY finished. I don't have any pictures yet because my costume model is tucked cozily into her bed. Sure, I could have waited until tomorrow to write a post that actually had pictures, but really, I'm too excited. I had to share--with all none of you that will read this before I get another post with pictures up here tomorrow. Sooo. Happy.

The inspiration:

Katie Homemaker

2009-10-05T22:43:00.000-04:00

Yeah, that's right. Me. The homemaker. Go ahead and get it out. Enjoy the laughter.

I haven't been posting much lately because I've been keeping myself pretty busy. Aside from all the momming-a-needy-crankypants, cooking, traveling, and playing with photoshop that I've been doing, I've been working on Rory's Halloween costume. I doubt you've ever heard of Yo Gabba Gabba, and if you have, you either have a young kid or grandkid. It's like TV kiddie crack.

Rory's birthday was Gabba themed and so when it came time to start thinking about Halloween, I had a hunch that that we'd be going Gabba again. I gave Rory the choice of being Abby Caddaby (from Sesame Street) or Toodee (the blue lizard cat thingy in the picture). She chose Toodee. Of course she did. That's the harder of the two costumes. Especially because of what you can't see in this picture. She has spikes down her back and a tail with more spikes on it. Fun.

Did I mention that I'm sewing this thing from scratch? Oh. I didn't? Well, yeah. I am. Did I mention that they DON'T make patterns for it? How 'bout the fact that I don't really know any proper sewing techniques? Or that I don't have a real sewing machine. Left that out too? Oops. But for some reason, none of that seemed to cross my mind when I made the decision to make it.

The best part, though, is that I'm actually doing it. I'm totally making it up as I go, but I'm doing it. The main body part of the costume is actually done. Yay me! I can't wait to post pictures of the finished product. :)

Bad Parenting?

2009-09-29T11:29:00.000-04:00

Oh well. It was cute.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I Heart Faces: Blue

2009-09-28T11:44:00.000-04:00

I think Spaghettio's are a rite of passage for all kids. For a two year-old it's a battle between messy red sauce and getting the hang of that spoon and fork. It's about denying the temptation to put down the utensils and just dig in with her hands. It's about the question "How did she manage to get sauce there?" It's about the disappointment in those crystal blue eyes when she realizes they are all gone. Because really, couldn't we all use some more Spaghettio's?

Check out some more great photos at:

The Brute Force Approach

2009-09-22T21:13:00.000-04:00

You know how it goes... The copier's broken. You've tried everything you can think of to fix it, but nothing's working. What's your gut instinct? Kick the thing! Office Space it! (If that's not what came to mind, you are lying to yourself. Quit being so self-righteous!) When intellect fails, bring on the brute force.

I've talked about Quinn's reflux in previous posts. It started out in early August and has gotten progressively worse. She's still not a spitter, but the heartburn it causes her is no joke. Almost every day from about 11-5 Quinn screams. It's one big game of screaming broken up by one or two short naps and a handful of distractions. We've tried so much, stuff for the reflux and anything else it could be, and nothing seems to work. Thickening bottles, Zantac, Prevacid, Levsin, Mylicon, sitting up for 30 minutes after feedings, I've stopped eating obvious dairy... We've taken everything a week at a time--gave it a chance to work. It's the logical thing to do. If we changed too many things at a time we wouldn't know what worked. I know the answer now - none of that did. She's still screaming and crying almost daily. It breaks my heart to watch, and I can only imagine how she feels.

I've had it. Today, after (another) appointment with her doctor, Nathan and I decided on a new path. Screw logic. Bring on the brute force. Now, to be clear, I am not planning on kicking my child. That would be mean. But I'm tired of taking it one thing at a time and watching her suffer while we try to make a lucky guess. I'm done with it. So, I'm still not eating obvious dairy, we are doubling (and possibly QUADRUPLING) the amount of rice cereal in her bottle, we are doubling her dose of Prevacid, and giving tylenol for pain if her fits continue to get bad. I don't care if I don't know exactly what worked right now, I just want it to work. We're throwing everything we've got at it. We can back stuff off later to see what causes a change in behavior and isolate what works that way. No need for her to suffer. And the ped gave us 2 cans of Alimentum to throw into the mix if none of that works. We'll find a way to make her feel better.

My kids are kind of reflux freaks. One of the easier ways to pinpoint reflux in a baby is poor weight gain. Not my kids. 95% or better for weight. Quinn weighed 16lbs 3oz today. She's not hurting for pounds, that's for sure. I am very thankful for that. I don't know if I could handle it if it was more than pain. 3, 4, 5 hours a day of screaming is hard enough. Trust me, I've spent enough time curled up on the floor next to her crying right along with her.

I actually looked in Rory's baby book today and Quinn is following her growth curve almost exactly. Of course, that's about where the similarities end (so far). Rory was the restless one. She started rolling back to belly before she turned three months old and was rolling both ways before she turned four months. She was up on all fours by 5 months, crawling and pulling up at 7 months and walking at 10 months. She hated sitting still. Still does. Quinn could care less. She turned 4 months old today and finally got up the gusto to roll *most* of the way over (back to belly). Silly kid.

Wow. It got late and I wrote a lot. But I'll end with two last thoughts:

1) Soy milk is disgusting.
2) I'd kill for some cheese right now.

I Heart Faces - Completely Candid

2009-09-21T16:45:00.000-04:00

Kids in their element are the best.

I Heart Faces: Week 36

2009-09-14T08:22:00.000-04:00

Can babies be contemplative?

Because I'd swear Quinn is (when she's not screaming, of course).

For my pets entry, I wanted to share a picture of my cousin's feisty little red-brown miniature pinscher Capers. (Yes, like the food. My cousin is a chef.) Bonkers dog. He makes me smile.

Go check out some cool photos at

My Caption

2009-09-10T23:01:00.000-04:00

icanhascheezburger anyone? Here is my LOL ~~cats~~ babies caption.

Caption This

2009-09-09T22:04:00.000-04:00

A few years ago, we had a tradition with several of our friends--Friday emails. Every Friday, we'd start some random email conversation to keep us occupied at work while we waited for the weekend to come. As a part of that, we'd often have a picture that we came up with captions for (as proof of our endless creativity, we referred to it as "caption this"), just to provide a little more amusement. When I took this picture, I thought it was perfect for a revisit of the old tradition. So....

Caption This

letters not sent and calls not made

2009-09-08T21:01:00.000-04:00

Writing can be very cathartic for me. Judging by the sheer number of blogs out in the internet world, I'm guessing that I'm not the only one. I've written my fair share of journals to get out my thoughts--and letters too. Not that I've sent the letters (you know how that goes-write it to get it off of your chest and not go against your better judgement by mouthing off about something that will kick you in the butt later), but it was good to write them.

So in that vein, here's the call I didn't make today (but oh, so desperately wanted to):

"Beep-beep-beep (that's me pushing contacts, F, and send)."

(Automated response) "Thank you for calling ____Pediatrics. Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah, press zero." *pushes zero*

Finally a real person: "Good afternoon, ____ Peds."

Me: "Hi. I've been wating for a call from ***** (I'll save some integrity and keep that name to myself) since about 10 o'clock this morning in regards to my 3 month old. Could you please put me through to her?"

*****: "Hi, can I help you?"

Me: "I called at 10 this morning and then again around 4:30 this afteroon, you know, in reference to my poor 3 month old that has been screaming for about a month straight. We were supposed to talk today about changing her medications if they didn't work. Well guess what--they don't. She's still screaming. And actually, tonight has been the worst night yet. 2 hours straight. That's how long she was screaming for. That's how long I had to listen to my precious baby girl scream because neither you, nor the other 5 doctors at the pratice could take 2 minutes out of your day to return my call earlier. That's how long I had to sit and feel absolutely helpless because I couldn't do ANYTHING to make her feel better. I'm at my wits end because she's suffering and I can't fix it. You are supposed to help me, but you aren't doing anything. But then, what should I expect? Rory still hasn't gotten her 2 year shots because you guys can't get records straight. And don't even get started on when I called to check on it and your office staff told me 'Um, it's 4:30. You'll need to call back tomorrow.' I thought your office hours went until 5? I guess taking 30 seconds to look at a file for a patient that was TOLD TO CALL is a little too much. But I digress. I'm angry. My girl is suffering and now she's going to have to suffer for at least one more day because you were too busy. Thanks for nothing."

(I hang up before ***** could get a word in edgewise because she wasn't going to help anyway.)

I'm sure it would be the right thing for me to do to just swallow this and not post it, but I'm angry and I need to share it with someone other than the doc's office. Because even though they were worthless today (and a couple of other times, too), I'd rather not burn bridges with the girls' doctors. I have to have someone to take them to while I decide whether or not I want to move to a different practice.

Moral of the story - Don't mess with my girls.

*********************************************************************************

If you live in Greenville and have kids, go to Dr. Phillips at Eastern Pediatrics. He's WONDERFUL. On second thought... don't. If you ever have to switch doctors you'll never be happy. I know I'm not. Is it overkill to drive 2 hours for check-ups and sick visits? What if you know that no matter when you call, even if it's 9:30 on a Sunday night, the doctor himself (or now there's a herself, too) will answer and help you with your kid? Is it less insane then? Because I'm really thinking about it.

A Mommy & Rory Day

2009-09-04T09:28:00.000-04:00

Ever since we brought Quinn home, Rory has been a wonderful big sister. She has had her jealous moments here and there, but who wouldn't--Quinn needs a lot of attention and Rory doesn't get as much as she used to. I've been wanting to have a "Mommy & Rory Day" for awhile. We tried to make plans to go to the beach a couple of weekends ago, but the weather had other ideas. So last week, Nathan worked from home to take care of Quinn and Rory and I took off to Asheboro. Time to see the animals.

Rory is at such a fun age. She's so smart and talkative (obnoxiously so, sometimes). She loves her book and she loves talking about animals. We spent time earlier in the week talking about the zoo and how the animals lived there. I mentioned a few animals, but I didn't want to get her hopes up too much. There are no guarantees with zoos--if the lion isn't in the mood to be seen, you just get a bunch of grass. If you've never been to the zoo in Asheboro, it's divided up into two (giant) parts. One side is North America and the other is Africa. My game plan was to hit Africa first. Not that it would be an ideal situation, but we could happen across bears and alligators here in NC; I wanted Rory to see the giraffes and elephants (it certainly wasn't what I wanted to see the most).

The very first viewing spot was for the giraffes and zebras. Rory just looked for a few minutes, and then started yelling "horsey! horsey!" She just couldn't stop staring at them.

After the zebras and giraffes, we walked around to see the chimpanzees and gorillas. Rory couldn't have cared less about the chimps, but I thought they were pretty cool. The gorillas on the other hand, got her attention.

After the gorillas, we looped back around to the giraffe feeding station. We were able to get much closer to a giraffe there. He wouldn't come over to eat, but it was much better than our other view. Rory kept trying to convince the giraffe to come closer--"Hello, giraffe! Come here, please!" We watched him walk around for awhile and then continued on our way.

I really thought that Rory would love the elephant, but really, I was the one who enjoyed her more. She was so beautiful. It was just fascinating to watch her eat and walk. I was surprised at how close she was and how long she stayed there. Especially given there was a sign near the elephant enclosure that said it can be rare to get a good look at them because they shy away from noise--and I ran over there when I saw here and Rory kept yelling "El-phant!" She was quite the brave pachyderm.

We skipped out on going to see the rhinos because lunchtime was calling. But we did stop to take a picture with a cool rhino statue.

After lunch, we headed to the North America animals. This is the grizzly bear. He was waking up from a nap when we got to his enclosure. The heat of the day was really evident when we got to the North American animals. The Africa animals were in their element, but the NA animals were all in the shade or in the water. Mr. Grizzly was no different. He had been napping with half of his body in the water.

After the grizzly we took a stop at the KidZone. They had a really neat wall where the kids could either draw with chalk or "paint" on the wall with water.

The sea lions and seals were her other favorite exhibit after the giraffes. We stayed there for a LONG time. Every time I asked her if we could go, she would just tell me "no, no leave." When the sea lions would jump off and start swimming Rory would just laugh and laugh... I love that laugh. I even got her to bark like the seals. Loved it. (I asked how the seals were handling the heat and found out that the water was kept at 58 degrees, so they would just jump in whenever they got hot. 58 degree water sounded good. It was that hot.)

We had a great day. By the time we were leaving the zoo it was 4 o'clock. Rory had a long day and was super exhausted by the time we left. As we headed out, we stopped by the zoo store and picked up a souvenir. Unfortunately, it was very similar to toys that we buy for Darby and it was missing an eye within 20 minutes of being home. I sewed a button eye on in it's place. Gave it a little character.

She is such a sweet girl. I really had a blast with her. I'm looking forward to our next trip. :)

"For Jonah"

2009-08-29T21:03:00.000-04:00

It amazes me how much Rory has grown. She has such the little personality. We have little conversations about the things going on in her life. (It's such a busy life!) She thinks about her friends and family that she hasn't seen in weeks and months. She asks about them and talks about things she remembers little things about them. Before we even left Greenville, my dad stood up and hit is head on the light fixture in the dining room. Then, she would point to it and say "Papa boom." Now, every once in a while, she will still point to it (5 months later, different light fixture in a different house) and remember what happened, but now she'll say "Papa hit it, head." (She's starting to use pronouns a lot, but doesn't always remember to drop the noun...) She still remembers, but the way she communicates it has evolved. She loves to ask about Mimi and Grandpa, and Nana and Papa. Lately she's been yelling for Jimmy Joe. (Sorry Jimmy!) It's amazing.

I love being able to communicate with her. It blows my mind when she comes out with 5 and 6 word sentences and phrases. "Mommy, get it down please." "I love you too, daddy." "Hello giraffe. Come here, please." (I'll explain the giraffe thing in my next post)

So to the point. Since she seems to be doing so well communicating her thoughts, we have been trying to teach her to say her prayers. Not me or Nathan saying them for her like we have been, but letting her try to do it herself. We will prompt her with some things, but let her say what she wants. Here's how things went tonight:

Me and Nathan: "Fold your hands"

Me: "Can you say 'Dear God'?"

Rory: "Dear God"

Me: "What do you thank God for?"

Rory: "For Jonah"

And to that I say, "Amen."

Reflux Redux

2009-08-24T19:52:00.000-04:00

**When I liked to I Heart Faces, I copy & pasted the link to my blog, not the post. The post link is. http://mcanallycircus.blogspot.com/2009/08/nostalgia.html ** Sorry!

The past three weeks have been.... interesting. I've watched my super chill and easy-going baby get more and more grumpy every day, to the point that she was downright inconsolable. It was sad. At first I just thought was just typical fussiness. Then I thought it was that she was still hungry (which was slightly ridiculous considering she was already a little piggy). And then this past week, the bottom fell out. Nothing helped. She was screaming bloody murder for the majority of the day. I started having flashbacks to Rory's early weeks, and that gave me a bad feeling.

Today, I took her to the doctor. Before I even dialed the phone to make the appointment, I was pretty sure what the outcome would be. Sure enough, I was right. Reflux. Ugh. I really thought that we were in the clear this time. Quinn isn't a spitter at all. So much so that I never even bother getting a burp cloth when I burp her. I didn't think we'd have reflux issues. But, of course, she has the silent kind. The doc said that her insatiable appetite was her way of trying to deal with her reflux. If she ate enough, it would help keep the acid down. But now, she's apparently gotten to the point that that's not working anymore. That's why it's just started presenting itself in the past few weeks and not before. The doc said there are babies that try to self-soothe and manage it by themselves for as long as they can by regulating their eating (Quinn) and those that scream and complain from the beginning (Rory).

So, anyway, here we go again. Even though it has manifested itself totally opposite of how we experienced it the first time, we are experiencing a reflux redux. It's okay, though. At least I know what was bothering her and we can move forward. Hopefully thickening with cereal will be enough to help her and we won't have to go to medication. But it's okay if we have to do that. As long as this cute face can stay happy.

Nostalgia

2009-08-24T12:30:00.000-04:00

Each week, I watch Lauren post a picture to I heart Faces. I always think about posting, but then chicken out. This week, I'm hanging up my feathers and cluckiness and joining in. It helps that I just took a picture the other week that fits the theme so well for me.

A couple of weekends ago, I visited my parents. There has been an old Coke advertisement painted on the side of one of the buildings downtown for ages. It was neglected for awhile, but a few years back, it was brought back to life with a fresh coat of paint. At any rate, I love this for so many reasons. It looks so wonderfully old-fashioned, in the middle of an old downtown with beautiful buildings. It reminds me of the old soda shop around the corner that had THE BEST vanilla cokes known to man. (Seriously, not kidding.) It reminds me of my job at the bookstore two doors down from that soda shop. It reminds me of getting glass bottles of coke and sitting outside on a hot summer day with my dad. And best of all, it reminds me that I get to share all of that with my little girl as she gets older.

Following Directions

2009-08-22T13:11:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I really miss living in a condo. Like today. Lawn day. Ugh.

I guess I really shouldn't complain too much, though, because I'm the one that volunteered to do the lawn. It may sound crazy, but I spend all week in the house, watching the kids so this is an opportunity for me to have some "alone time". It may not be my ideal notion of alone time, but when you are a stay-at-home-mom to two kids, you take when you can get. Back to my point.

The actual lawn mowing wasn't too bad, except that we've had so much rain that I had to use the bag on the mower so my yard didn't look like a mess. No, the bad part isn't the mowing. It's the weed-eating. The worst part about weed-eating? Trying to get the stupid weed-eater started. I'm super grateful to my wonderful brother for gifting me with a gas weed-eater, but at the same time, there are a marathon of steps to go through to get it started. I'll explain:

Step 1 - Press bulb 10 times.

Step 2 - Press trigger and pull cord 5 times.

Step 3 - Switch throttle to 2

Step 4 - Get in your car and drive to Canada

Step 5 - Find a Mountie named Frank. He will give you an address in Albequerque.

Step 6 - Go to that address. ~~It's a setup by the people that burned you. Run.~~ (Oops.. that's a TV show) You will find a file with a password.

Step 7 - Catch a plane to NY. Go to FAO Schwartz. The password must be played into the big piano. If you put it in correctly, chopsticks will play.

Step 8 - Steal a car and drive home as fast as you can. If you aren't fast enough, the weed-eater will run out of gas and you'll have to start over.

It was a lot of work. It's amazing that the lawn got done.

Cloth

2009-08-21T13:33:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, we visited Matt, Patrice & Jonah. It was great catching up with old friends and getting some Jonah time. What I didn't expect, though, was for the trip to pique my interest in cloth diapering. I always though that cloth diapers were super cute, but my guess was that they weren't really worth the hassle. After watching an entire weekend of cloth diapering, I realized it wasn't nearly the nightmare that I had created in my head. When we got home, I started doing some research.

I was a bit disappointed at first b/c it didn't result in nearly the savings I thought it would. Those super-cute cloth diapers are pricey. It would take about 4-5 months to make up the cost--and that's before factoring the extra water and detergent. So I gave up the thought and moved on. That was until I made a realization...

I already have 1/2 of what I need if I go the simple route! You see, when Rory was little, she was a super refluxer. I bought a ton of burp cloths b/c we went through at least one with every feeding. What makes the best burp cloths? Prefold diapers! And I still have at least 15-20 floating around the house--and Quinn isn't a spitter so I haven't been using them. This morning, I made a trip to a store in town that has Snappis and covers. I bought one of each so that I could give it a try. Shockingly, even with the pre-fold, it wasn't that bad. The only downside that I can see is that Quinn HATES being wet or dirty, so if I really decide to do this, I'll probably be doing more changes than I have been.

Not too shabby for my first attempt! :)

And really... how cute is this?

My only complaint... going to buy the cover was just like buying clothes. You know how it is--you find the cutest shirt and as soon as you go to get it, you find out they have it in every size but yours. It's just not fair. Well, I found the coolest colored cover (it was a bright coral, btw) but of course they only had it in an XS and Quinn is definitely not an XS. So we ended up with pastel purple. It was either that or pastel pink. Show me some color people! Get funky!

At any rate, we've put on cloth diaper #1. I'm really curious to see if this is something that works for us.

Lake Bonner

2009-08-15T13:17:00.000-04:00

The rain came. And then came some more. And then kept on coming.

Did I mention that the only entrance to my mom's neighborhood is a bridge? So, for the time being, my mom has waterfront property off of Lake Bonner.

Oh... did I mention that it's supposed to start raining again in a little bit? Nice.

Riding Coattails

2009-08-13T11:20:00.001-04:00

What? The blog looks different? Hhmm. Didn't notice.

I know that Lauren changed her blog around. That certainly wouldn't have provided me with a link to start a search on how to redo my blog. And it absolutely wouldn't have, if I had been patient enough for her most recent post, saved me the trouble of doing all the google searches that I did to figure out how to do it. Nah. Patience never pays off. It's more fun to do things the hard way, don't you think?

On an unrelated note, can someone please explain to me why you would drive your child to the bus stop and wait there for 10+ minutes until the bus comes instead of just driving them the extra 1 mile to the school? (Our house is on a corner, so we are the bus stop.) Some things just don't make sense to me.

The 2 Year-old Alphabet

2009-08-11T20:55:00.000-04:00

While putting foam letters on the bathroom wall: "g-h-l-FISHIES!"

And counting: "seven-eight-naptime-ten!"

Isn't she a cute 2 year-old, though?

93.7

2009-08-10T19:19:00.000-04:00

So Quinn has a cute (not really) new trick that she likes to try every time we get her in the carseat. It's called "iscreambloodymurderatthetopofmylungs". Or at least, that's what we're calling it. The whole thing drives me a little bit insane. She could have just eaten, burped well, and gotten a clean diaper and she'll scream the second she's in the seat. Or she will have just woken up from a nap and gotten clean--screaming. Then the next time, we'll be running out of the house late, it will be almost time to eat and she hasn't had a clean diaper in a little while--she's fine. UGH! It makes no sense. I can't figure out how to make her happy in the seat. I've all but resigned myself to the fact that the problem isn't anything but being strapped into a carseat. And neither myself, nor the police are going to let her out of that one.

Naturally, our trip to Greenville to clean out my classroom was the perfect time to practice her new trick. The trip back proved to be even better (insert eye roll). An hour from home she started wailing--had only eaten an hour before, clean diaper, no sun in her eyes, no regard for the headache I acquired as I drove away from SC crying. There's only so much that I can do for her while driving. Stopping isn't realistically an option in these situations--she just gets even MORE mad when I put her back in the seat to continue our trek. So I talked to her, I sang, and I begged. More screaming. The situation was spiraling out of control. I had to go for the gusto, pull out the big guns. I reached for the dash, turned on the radio, scanned until I found the perfect station and turned up the volume. 93.7 FM. What station is that you ask? It's not. Nothing. Just the perfect sound of fuzz. It calmed her almost instantly. As she got sick of that, I switched to music for a few seconds and then back to the fuzz. Eventually, the fuzz was enough to calm her completely--no more crying. Of course, I had to leave the fuzz on, but really that is SO much less annoying and stressful than the incessant screaming.

White noise is one of those great mommy tricks that I've learned. A radio tuned in between stations, the vacuum, a blow dryer (aimed away from baby, of course)--all wonderful sources of white noise. Wonderful, wonderful white noise.

silly things to be sad about...

2009-08-07T18:57:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the things that make me sad are, quite frankly, utterly ubsurd. I've gotten weepy at everything from strangers' graduations to toilet paper commercials. I think it's just the way that I'm wired. I see something that I can empathize with and it gets to me.

Today, though, I had a realization that made me genuinely sad. This will be the first time in 22 years that I will not be going back to school in the fall. It seems silly--how many high schoolers would kill to be in my shoes? And as the adult, the teacher, this time of year is like one big game of craps--you throw the dice down the table and pray that they add up to a group of kids that won't drive you insane until exams in January. On top of that, with the way the economy is, it's a guarantee to have 42,306,239,234 kids in one class. So many things NOT to look forward to. Then why am I sad?

I guess to me there has always been something magical about the start of the school year. As a kid I would get so excited when I got the letter in the mail informing me of my class assignment. School shopping was one of the highlights of my year. New Year's may be the time that most people consider as the time for new beginnings, but to me it has always been mid-August. It was a time for a clean start. Everything was new--down to the pencils in my nifty new backpack.

As a teacher, that never really changed. I always looked forward to what the new year may hold. Granted, there were years and semesters that I borderline hated my job. Between obnoxious students (and no, I am not a bad teacher for thinking that some kids are obnoxious. Your obnoxious boss didn't just wake up that way one day-- he annoyed the daylights out of everyone he met along the way, including his teachers.), administrators that didn't have a clue what they were doing, and stories that could break your heart in half sometimes the job just sucked. Despite all that, though, I loved it. It was what I was meant to do. June and July were like teaching world's equivilent to Nyquil--they provide a wonderful rest and you can't remember jack of what happened beforehand. By August I was excited and ready to go back to the poor-paying thanklessness that I called my career.

And here we are. It's August, but instead of making plans to go back for another school year, I'm making arrangements to empty out my classroom. Instead of going to the store and stocking up on supplies from my students, I'm trying to figure out where to store all of the supplies I've stockpiled over the past few years. Instead of being excited about the new start, I'm starting to feel the sadness that I've been avoiding since I left my classroom in May. I know the actual process of packing up my classroom is going to be incredibly difficult--teaching was what I was meant to do, and at SC I was fortunate enough to be able to do it with an absolutely amazing group of people. Patrice, Nicki, Anna -- they all told me after they left that there was something special about SC and to not take it for granted. And that's part of the sadness, too. Even when or if I do go back to teaching, it's not going to be there with the best group of co-workers I could imagine. (I say nothing of the administration, friend.)

Don't get me wrong--I'm thrilled that I will get to stay home with my girls. I love them and the time that I will get to watch them grow. It's just a little hard. It's hard to walk past the back to school sales and realize that I'm not part of that this year. It's hard to hear someone say "You were a good teacher"--to really hear it in the past tense. Change is hard. But it's good, too. Because now I don't have to worry about that sadness and guilt I felt as I drove away from the daycare. I don't have to feel bad when I have to stay at school late. But I will miss it.

So for now, it's just me. Me and my girls. And that's pretty good. But it's still okay to be sad.

You play dirty....

2009-08-03T06:41:00.000-04:00

It started off as a normal morning. Quinn got up 20 minutes ago and wanted to eat. We came downstairs and snuggled while she had her bottle. I laid her down in her bouncy seat when she was all done so she could get caught up with the little blue owl on the toybar (she is still there now talking to him--I guess she's got a lot to say about her weekend). So I grab my computer to check my email and such, and I happen across this post. To my horror, I have been called out to the bloggy world as a slacker. Great, now I have to post. I mean, I could not post, but then I would just be upholding my new image as a blog slacker. (And seriously, the farm comment was just a little below the belt. My farm is awesome thankyouverymuch. Plus it's an educational game--I lived my life under the false impression that pineapples grew on trees, but apparently, they grow out of the ground. Who knew? So when it comes to FarmTown, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. But I digress.)

So here I am (it's now been 30 minutes since she got up) sitting at the computer typing up a blog entry instead of laying down on the couch enjoying the last few minutes before Hurricane Rory hits the McAnally homestead mainland (that's the living room for all of you normal folks). I'm also sitting here thinking I should pump, but I know the second I start I'll have to stop because she'll wake up. Besides, I'd hate to steal her away from her Yo Gabba Gabba time; it would be wrong. (I'm not admitting that I like the show. Not at all.)

We had a great weekend. All 4 of us and the dog ventured to visit Jonah, Matt & Patrice. It was a trip that was long overdue. There was really no excuse for the delay (well, maybe except for the selling one house, buying another, moving, unpacking, and having a baby). At any rate, we got there Friday night after some horrible traffic and even worse storms. Stayed up way too late catching up. I could almost call Saturday predictable - we had Chick-fil-a for lunch (all the while singing praises about CFA sauce), went to Target, and ate Mexican for dinner. It was a fantastic day. And Matt and Nathan did some stuff too. I'm sure it was important and interesting. Of course, not interesting enough that I actually asked what they did... Then we stayed up even later Saturday night. That was a dumb idea. I don't do well when I don't get sleep. Here's a cute pic from Saturday, though.

Other than having some great Jonah time, this weekend also taught me about the dangers of sporcle. There are few things more addicting than online trivia games. And that site has way too many. I did learn that I really can think of all 50 states and 44* presidents on my own. Shwew. Do yourself a favor and don't go to that site. It's linked to help you not go there.

I could keep rambling on about the mundane things in my life (such as... Rory got up, Quinn went back down, I'm finally getting to pump and Yo Gabba Gabba is currently rotting my brain out), but I'll save those so that maybe I'll have something to post about so a certain someone will get off of my be-hind. No names, though. No names. So, to wrap this up, I'll share two pictures. The family cow picture from Chick-fil-A day that I promised a month ago and a really pretty one of Rory.

PS - It's been an hour since Quinn got up and I started this. Should it have taken that long? No. Was I distracted by kids? Yes. And yes, I did take a few breaks while I was writing to check on my farm. It's still awesome. Don't hate.

Cow Appreciation Day

2009-07-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

Today is Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A! Dress up like a cow from "head to hoof" and you get a free meal. Wear a cow shirt, accessory, etc and get a free entree! Go have fun.

Life with 2

2009-06-24T15:29:00.000-04:00

After a month of having two kids, I have to say that having two is definitely interesting. Of course, when one of them is Rory, my guess is that it had no chance to be any different. Rory is adjusting well to having Quinn around. She seems to love her little sister bunches and has turned into quite the helper (when she's not having a 2 year-old moment). Life in Holly Springs is settling into place too. It's been taking some getting used to, but it's starting to become home.

Last Friday I met my friend Heather at Jumping Beans. It's one of those places with the big inflatables where kids can jump their little hearts out. It is like a nap waiting to happen. Places like that must have been invented by tired parents that were trying everything they could think of to tucker their kids out. God bless them for that! But I digress. Rory had a blast while we were there. Unfortunately, one of the times that Rory was getting off of the jumping thing (I'm sure there is a there is a technical name for it, but I don't care enough to go look it up... inflatable, maybe?) my friend's little girl managed to jump at just the right spot to send Rory catapulting up in the air. (It was a total accident. I'm pretty sure her 3 year-old doesn't know enough about physics to have planned it out.) Heather compared it to a Knoxville stunt from "Jackass". Anyway, she ~~fell~~ flew off onto the floor and started screaming. Turns out, she sprained her ankle. Now she's having to wear a little ace wrap on her ankle. She's doing pretty well - not limping much anymore, but she's rolling her foot out so she doesn't have to put full pressure on it. We are hoping that she starts walking more normally in the next few days, otherwise we are going to have to take her to an orthopedist to get it looked at.

After everything that she's managed to do to herself in her 23 months of life, I've pretty much resigned myself to a lifetime of broken bones, stitches, and hospital visits. I probably should have been more shocked and upset when she fell, but really, I've come to expect stuff like that from her. Perhaps Murphy would have been a better name choice.

When she's not beating herself up, Rory is quite the big sister. She shares with Quinn (even her Yo Gabba Gabba toys... and that's saying something) and likes to touch her and kiss her. She even helps feed her. (As a side note, the only time Rory gets to watch Yo Gabba Gabba is when I pump, so she will now walk to the counter where I keep my pumping junk and then look at me and tell me to pump. Hilarious.) A few days ago, I gave Rory some stickers to. play with. She decided that Quinn needed them. The results were too cute not to share.

Most of this post has been about Rory, so I guess I should update about Quinn. She is doing very well. At her 2 week appointment, she weighed 8lbs 8oz (up 7oz from her birth weight, 13oz from what she was when she left the hospital). My guess is that she is around 10lbs now at a month. I hate to even post this because I am superstitious (I'm sure I'll jinx it), but she's doing really well at night. She usually eats around 10, sleeps until 4:30 and then goes back to sleep until close to 8. She's even given us a few nights where she has slept from 10 or 11 til 7. That's only happened about 3 times so far, but that's 3 times more than I'd been expecting from a baby that was less than a month old. Of course, those were always Nathan's nights to get her - it's like she knew somehow. It's not fair. (Especially b/c I'm a slacker and I don't get up in the middle of the night to pump so I don't get up at all on his nights - other than to wake him up, since the screaming child isn't enough.)

And with that, it's time for me to go wake Quinn from her afternoon nap and feed her. Yes, I'm breaking the cardinal rule of parenting by waking a sleeping baby, but she could seriously sleep for ages when she's swaddled and I would much rather her sleep at night. It's been working, so I'll stick with it.

As an end note, I should not have to use html to get this to format properly. I hate the auto formatting on blogger!

Quinn Catherine

2009-05-30T07:54:00.000-04:00

Here she is! (Sorry it's taken so long. Life is a little busier with 2.)

Quinn Catherine McAnally

May 22, 6:27pm

8lbs 1oz, 20 inches

To see more pictures, including some cute ones of her big sister, click here.

Innocent enough...

2009-05-13T21:34:00.000-04:00

Potty seat. Innocent enough, right? Sure. Unless you are an almost two year old, that is probably the case. I turn my back for LITERALLY two seconds, to flush the toilet and Rory has managed to get her little potty seat (the kind that sits on the toilet) and pull it OVER her head. It was COMPLETELY stuck. I tried pulling it off, but it wouldn't budge. I thought about stopping to take a picture, but she was hysterical. So, we went to the bath tub, and I drenched her down and soaped up her head really well. After a little bit of pulling and being good and slippery, it came off. Of course, her ear is pretty bruised up and she keeps pointing to her head and saying "stuck", but everything is good. And now that it's all said and done, I can't stop from wanting to laugh about it. I swear that child can get into anything...

liar

2009-04-20T20:39:00.000-04:00

So there's this liar named Patrice... She claims that I never update my blog. That is so clearly untrue--as evidenced by the fact that I'm posting now. Naturally, that means I post all the time and never let it go a month without giving it some attention. Who would do such a thing? Not me. And I certainly wouldn't post while she was in the middle of Jonah's bandage change so that she didn't know that I was calling her a liar. Never.

For the rest of you non-liars out there, I have included a picture of my big 'ole pregnant self. White is a good color when one is trying to make themselves look less whale-ish. (Not so much when trying to not look super pale. And what is on the side of my face?) I'm 34 weeks, so go ahead and get your Shamu jokes in now (James).

Shiny New Bike

2009-04-08T21:39:00.000-04:00

Rory got her Easter gift from us a little early. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

This is when we told her that it was time to get off the tricycle and go inside. She cried for 10 minutes about having to leave her "cycle".

Chicks!

2009-04-08T21:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I am terrible at keeping up with this blog. There's something about being pregnant and trying to find a place to live and such that just makes me forget about this. Oops.

This past weekend, we took advantage of some "free entertainment" for some family time. I've noticed a sign outside of Tractor Supply for quite some time that said "rabbit and chick days are here." We had taken Rory there to see the bunnies earlier in March, so we thought we would go back and visit the bunnies and meet the chicks.

When we went to the see the bunnies last time, she talked about them for the entire day after that. I'm not really sure how many times we heard bunny that day. I knew she loved them, but it made more of an impact than we realized. When we turned into the parking lot there, she started shrieking "bunny! bunny! bunny!" How do kids remember stuff like that? It had been over a month and we'd only been there once!

So we went to see the bunnies first so they could get reaquainted. When we went to see the chicks, though, it was all over. There were 3 bins of chicks and they were packed full. Rory kept running between them and yelling. The chicks were not amused. I really think she could have stayed there with them all day. She loved them. Here are some pictures from her big day.

Nah-ni, nah-ni boo boo

2009-03-06T13:23:00.001-05:00

I got to see Jonah! And he's cuter than you. :)

Daffodils

2009-03-04T18:36:00.001-05:00

I set out to take some pictures in the daffodil field today. I was thinking that since it was still chilly, there wouldn't be anyone else out there to get in our way. I was right, but the daffodils hadn't quite recovered from the cold and looked rather sad. I still took a few pictures to practice some lighting and composition. What I discovered is just how hard it is to take pictures of a toddler, without anyone around to help. I would get the lighting I wanted, but then she would decide to run off, or take her shoes off, or bend over just as I decided to take a shot. Or she would do something cute, but I wouldn't get the shot off in time. It was all very challenging, especially since I am really just learning how to use this camera. (It's gonna take me awhile.) I'm going to give the daffodils another shot in a few days, but this time, I'm making Nathan come so that someone can try to keep the kid's attention so I can just focus on taking pictures. Here is my favorite from today.

After Lauren's mention of picnik, I decided to play around with it some. It does some nice editing without having to deal with photoshop for something simple. I thought this one was cute.

Random Things

2009-03-02T21:34:00.001-05:00

In no particular order:

1) For the first time in 2 pregnancies, I had a craving I could not deny. So, I bundled my pregnant self up, (I looked quite comical in my winter coat. I got it to zip, but it very obviously didn't fit. I didn't care. It's cold outside.) wiped the snow off the car, and drove to Lowe's foods to get yogurt. That's right, yogurt. Nothing yummy or unhealthy, I just really wanted yogurt. And it was good. Now, before you start thinking "isn't it the husband's job to run the food errands?" I stuck him on bath duty so I could go. I didn't mind. Rory gets cranky at bath time when she is over-tired. We could have skipped the bath altogether, but she got spaghetti in her hair during dinner. She's so classy. :)

b) We had a showing on the condo tonight. I'm really hoping that it went well. Nathan is putting over 1,000 miles a week on his car. He doesn't mind the drive so much. His car, on the other hand, informed me that the commute is getting old.

I am impatiently waiting to go see Patrice, Matt, and Jonah. The weekend is NOT getting here soon enough.

+ I'm on a quest to get a video of Rory saying her ABC's. And by ABC's I mean: A, B, C, deh, eadf, fa, de, la...labladaba (what? you can't tell that is LMNOP?). It is too cute. Every time I pull out the camera though, she ducks her head and whispers so I don't have anything to show... yet. I'm just hoping I get her on 'film' before she gets good at it. The make-believe letters are so endearing.

Hope everyone has a good night. Bundle up!

Please

2009-02-28T15:00:00.000-05:00

Follow this and pray for the Williamses (Matt, Patrice, Gabe, and Jonah).

The Big Girl Bed(ish)

2009-02-24T19:02:00.000-05:00

As we get closer to the arrival of little McAnally #2, we decided time that it was time to move Rory to a big girl bed. Since we had the option of converting the crib to a toddler bed, we figured that we would use that as a transition. We'll eventually move her into our extra twin bed and put the baby in the crib. Sunday afternoon, while Rory and I drove back from EC, daddy took the crib railing down and converted her crib to her bid girl bed.

She did very well Sunday night. She played in bed for a little while after we shut the lights out, but she stayed in there all night and only woke up about 30 minutes early Monday morning. Last night, we let her crawl into her bed by herself and she curled right up. She talked to herself for a little bit and went to sleep. This morning, I was really expecting her to wake up early, but instead, after I waited as long as I could before we had to get ready to leave, I found this:

She was passed out. That girl was NOT ready to get up yet. I opened the blinds and turned on the light. She responded by scrunching up even more and pretending I wasn't there.

Finally, she gave up and woke up. She wasn't happy about it, though.

I have been amazed at how well she has been taking the transition. I keep waiting for the screaming and the fits and her refusing to stay in bed. I'm sure it's coming one of these nights... and I'll be sure to let you know all about it. :)

Nothing Fancy...

2009-01-24T08:39:00.001-05:00

So I've had all of these ideas about how I was going to be creative and post all of our crazy news, but just can't seem to find the time to get it all done. So, here is an update on our crazy lives in a no frills, nothing fancy post.

1) If you haven't heard, Nathan and I are expecting another little McAnally this May. Baby girl #2 is due May 31. My money is that she'll be born in June since my children think it is fun to torture me. Part of this is currently evidenced by the fact that this little one has been laying transverse and face-down, so every time she kicks, my bladder is her punching (er... kicking) bag. Rory kicked me in the bladder, but never like this. I never had to live in fear that this might be the day that I pee in my pants. It's a scary existance--especially when I spend my day in front of high schoolers--but I'll take it.

2) Nathan got a new job. He is a software developer associate for Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC. We are very thankful that he was able to find a good job with the economy the way it is. He interviewed for the job way back in the middle of Nov. As of Christmas, we still hadn't heard anything. Then, Jan 2, he gets a call--asking him to start on Jan 12---in Durham.

3) I guess that leads me to what you may have guessed (if you hadn't heard)... we're moving. And that depends on selling our condo in an iffy housing market. The good news is that condos are 20% more likely than homes to sell right now. So what we need right now is prayers that we can get this thing sold. Right now, Nathan is commuting back and forth to Durham every day. It's an hour and 45 minutes in each direction. That makes for a really long day. When the place sells, we'll probably get an aparment around Knightdale and each drive an hour or so. That will help me get close to finishing out the school year and make Nathan's life a little more bearable. It will also give us time to get to know the area a little better so we can make a good decision aobut where to buy our next home.

4) Our condo officially went on the market yesterday at 5. It's going to be really hard to keep a showable house with distructo-kid throwing her toys everywhere. I've pretty much become her shadow--she pulls it out, I clean it up. Here's the listing if you want to look. If you haven't seen our place in awhile, look at the pictures. We've done a lot. Oh, and if you live in Greenville, use Jennifer Batts with Aldridge & Southerland for all of your real estate stuff. She is WONDERFUL!!!

5) Since I can't leave work during the day and Nathan is almost 2 hours away, Darby (the dog) is going to be staying with my parents for awhile. There was no real way to get the dog out of the house before a showing if someone wants to see it during the weekday. Darby seems to be excited about spending time with Mindy (we are at my parents' now), but I'm sad for Rory. Rory is in love with that dog--best friend, hands down. All three of Rory's "sentences" involve Darby--"Darby no!", "Darby stop!", and "Darby bye-bye!" When I pick her up from daycare she gives me a hug, then asks for daddy and Darby--and not necessarily in that order. :)

6) Needless to say, we are exhausted. Nathan from all the driving, me from all of the person-making plus all of the work that we've done over the past few weeks.... I need a week-long nap.

Speaking of naps, it's a Saturday afternoon and I'm at my parents' house. That pretty much means I've got free baby sitting. I think I'll go take that nap.

A Very Merry Christmas

2009-01-04T08:35:00.001-05:00

Naturally, we decided that we would take Rory to go see Santa. She had her picture taken last year with him, so we decided to make a tradition of it and do it this year, too. So we went Christmas Eve morning--I let her stay in her pajamas because she was comfy and we were going to be leaving straight from the mall to go to Elizabeth City.

Here she is while we were waiting in line. She was very interested in everything that was going on around us and in Santa's village.

Here's what she thought of Santa. I'm a horrible mother. I took lots of pictures. Of course, look at Santa's face.... I'd probably have screamed, too.

She calmed down pretty quickly, but still looked absolutely pitiful.

So that was our adventure with Santa Claus. I bought the official picture from the little kiosk (I had to buy something to be allowed to use my own camera--Ba humbug!) with her screaming her little head off. I'm sure she'll thank us for it 20 years down the road when we pull it out and show it off. :)

After that, things were pretty laid back. We had actually already done Christmas with Nathan's family the Monday before Christmas. Rory got spoiled (what? you're surprised?) and had a blast opening presents. I was thrilled to finally score a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I've made so much stuff since I've gotten it, it's ridiculous. In fact, I've made several recipes that I usually don't just because all of the mixing makes it time consuming. With this bad boy, it's all multi-tasking. Love it!

After the McAnally Christmas, we celebrated with my family on Christmas Day. The summary - Rory got spoiled, again. She got a ton of books and a play kitchen. There are some pictures of that in my picasa album, so you can check those out. Rory had a blast opening presents. I love this one because it shows so much concentration (love the tongue sticking out)and you can see her flinging away the wrapping paper with her left hand.

Both of our Christmases were great. We had a wonderful time with family and hope that you did too. Have a wonderful 2009!

Graduation Day

2008-12-20T17:24:00.000-05:00

After a lot of ups and downs, Nathan made it to graduation day. I can't really describe how proud I am. He's worked so hard to get here and he's finally through. So on Friday, December 12, he got to walk across the stage and celebrate his new status as an ECU alumnus. We also got to see my brother's girlfriend Jayme walk in the Department of Education graduation. Overall, it was a great and busy day.

The new college grad.

College grad with his little girl.
(The tassle kept tickling her. It was funny.)

This is a shot I took of Jimmy & Jayme.
I think this is my #1 favorite pictuer I've ever taken.

Holiday Cheer

2008-11-30T18:08:00.000-05:00

The holiday season is here! I am so excited. Which is wonderful. Just a few short years ago, I was at a point in my life where I enjoyed the Christmas season, but it just wasn't the same as it was when I was a kid. As I got older and life got more real, the magic just seemed gone from Christmas day. Now, though, I'm excited all over again. Not for me, but for Rory. I get to share with her everything that made Christmas so special to me when I was growing up.

Saturday, we decorated our tree. It was a lot of fun. Rory even helped after she got over her fear of the string of lights. She seriously ran away and started crying every time I would move them. But, she conquered her fear and was able to enjoy the decorating.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A Thousand Words...

2008-11-24T06:48:00.000-05:00

Be warned: I got a new camera. You will probably get overloaded with pictures over the next little while as I try to learn how to use it. (It's frustrating when your camera is smarter than you...) Anyway, this has got to be my new favorite picture of Rory. It's not necessarily the "prettiest", but there is nothing in this world that is better to me than seeing that little girl happy. So, for that reason, this is the best.

A Girl After Her Daddy's Heart...

2008-11-11T19:37:00.000-05:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Fall is Here...

2008-10-30T19:31:00.001-04:00

And what is more fitting than going to the pumpking patch? Some cute pictures of my little girl.

She's so big now. She was determined to carry that pumpkin everywhere.

Okay, so this one isn't my little girl. It's my friend Victoria's little boy, Jackson. Such a cutie.

Back to Rory. Oh, and the pumpkins.... they are all hers.

Enjoying the hayride.

Duct Tape - Patrice, You'll Enjoy This

2008-10-17T06:42:00.000-04:00

Best use of Duct Tape, EVER.

That's my AP, Ms. Ward. And yes, she's hanging there by nothing but duct tape. The kids could buy strips of duct tape for $1. We raised $323! :) I couldn't believe that she hung there when we moved the chair. And she wasn't going anywhere, either. She was STUCK.

Random Silliness

2008-10-09T20:52:00.000-04:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Gearing Up for the Election

2008-10-09T18:37:00.000-04:00

What a busy year, politically. Granted it's an election year, so it's busy for everyone, but I've managed to make it to three different rally events this year. I have seen Bill Clinton speak (he was campaigning for Hillary during the primaries) and saw Barack Obama speak at Minges (see past post). I was in the standing group for both and was able to shake both of their hands. Both were impressively good speakers. Then, on Tuesday of this past week, I went to see Sarah Palin (also at Minges). While she wasn't nearly as impressive of a speaker (she was the only one to use a teleprompter), she was VERY real. She spoke to the crowd like she was talking to a group of friends. She's not going to win any awards for oration, but she understands how to communicate. From watching her, I felt like she has a lot of potential as a politician, but isn't quite ready yet. The best way I could describe listening to her was by comparing it to how I feel and sound when I'm teaching something for the first time versus when I've taught it for the or ninth. The first time, I know the material okay, but I'm nervous about kids asking questions that I won't know and I hover over my notes because it's comforting. Now that I've taught civics for the NINTH (man I'm feeling old) time through, I KNOW that stuff. I don't have to plan anything (I still do, though). I could walk in and teach that class blindfolded, with no supplies and no notes and make the kids ask "how do you know all this stuff?". I'm not being cocky, but I am sure of my command over the material and it comes out not just in what I say, but how I say it. There is just a confidence that comes with experience and from what I could tell Tuesday, Palin is still a first year teacher. I will be interested to see what she does when she has some more experience under her belt.

Anyway, everyone should get out and vote. Don't worry if you haven't registered, in most states there is some variation of One-Stop Early voting where you can register and vote on the same day. Look it up. And PLEASE, educate yourself on ALL of the people running for office, especially your state and federal legislators. While the presidential candidates get all the attention, it is those legislators that are making the decisions that affect us most. Quite frankly, the president and governor can't do much of ANYTHING without them.

Breaking News

2008-09-14T21:14:00.000-04:00

Jailbreak!!!

The escapee is approximately 30 inches tall, weighs 22 lbs, has blonde hair and blue eyes. If you spot her, please do not try to catch her yourselves. She is armed with lavender scented baby soap and will use it. Dont' cry though, it's 'no more tears'. If you spot her, please call your local law enforcement immediately.

Crime Watch

2008-09-14T21:03:00.000-04:00

Rory E. McAnally and J.J. Bear of Greenville, NC were arrested Sunday for a drive-by soaping. The two will serve a term of roughly 5 minutes in a shared cell. J.J. Bear claims that he is reformed and will never be involved in such behavior again. Rory makes no such promises.

Now what do I do?

2008-09-11T09:51:00.000-04:00

Rory had her one year check up with her cardiologist this morning. (For a brief explanation of last year's appointment, click here.) I took the day off not knowing what to expect, since last year there were EKG's and ultrasounds, etc. We went in, a med student came and listened to her heart for a few minutes and said he didn't hear anything. (As in the murmur, he heard her heart just fine, otherwise he may need to pick a new specialty.) The doctor came in gave her heart a listen and said that the murmur was gone and the hole was closed. YAY! This is the news we were hoping for! Now, if you are wondering why I am so excited about this diagnosis without all the EKG's and the ultrasounds confirming it, let me explain. Last year, this guy listened to her heart through the stethoscope and told us the type, location, and size of that defect. Just by listening. He did an ultrasound just to confirm what he heard and he was right. So if he didn't hear anything of concern this time, that is good enough for me. :)

After Rory's appointment, I dropped her off at daycare so I could get some work done around the house. I've gotten so used to taking care of cleaning and other chores with her around, it seems so unchallenging without her here. I mean, folding laundry isn't exactly my idea of a thrill, but without the risk of watching an entire stack of folded clothes go flying across the living room, it's just downright uninteresting. I think that I'll do some chores, but then kick my feet up and take a day to relax. It's so odd to have time alone that I'm kind of at a loss--not really sure what to do with myself. Funny how that happens...

Pigtails

2008-08-23T20:42:00.000-04:00

Yay, her hair is long enough for pigtails! (*sort of*)

Oh, and just had to toss in this one of her throwing a fit. I thought it was funny. :)

Lines and Scribbles

2008-08-18T18:39:00.001-04:00

Today, Rory discovered crayons. I'll let the work speak for itself.

A Conversation with a Stubborn Child

2008-08-12T10:09:00.000-04:00

Rory (pointing to our orange tabby): "Dog."

Me: "No, Cheddar is a cat."

Rory: "Dog."

Me: "Cat."

Rory (voice a little higher pitched): "Dog!"

Daddy: "No, Cat. 'K-uh, k-uh, Cat."

Rory: "Dog! Dog!"

Me: (pointing to Darby) "Dog." (then pointing to Cheddar) "Cat."

Rory (VERY emphatically, still pointing at Cheddar): "DOG! DOG! DOG!"

Daddy (pointing at Darby) : "What's that?"

Rory (confidently): "DOG!"

Daddy (pointing to Cheddar): "What's that?"

Rory (very confident): "DOG!"

Daddy: "Cat. Cat. Cat. Cat. K-uh-AT!"

Rory (now hitting Cheddar and yelling): "DOG! DOG! DOG!"

Jumping on the Bandwagon

2008-08-04T11:39:00.000-04:00

So it seems that in these days of rising prices and soaring gas costs, the new "it" thing is saving money. I'm in. I'm SO in. I'm still working on learning the best way to use coupons, but I think I got off to a pretty good start this weekend. I think I managed to put together a few of the "rules of the trade" to get some good deals:

1) Combine coupons with deals that are going on.

2) Bigger isn't always better.

3) Be willing to get something other than your normal brand if it will be cheaper.

4) Stock up when you can get good deals, so you never have to pay full price for an item.

The first picture is my Target bounty. Wipes were on sale for $1.99. I had four different coupons ranging from $.50-$1.00 off. I found some $1 off tide copouns in the paper, but I don't use Tide because even after coupons, it's still too expensive. I really like Tide, though. So, I used my 2 $2 coupons to buy two trial size things of Tide. Basically, I got two free loads of Tide. :) I also found that it is cheapest to buy shaving cream that way. I had 3 $.55 cent coupons for SatinCare that didn't specify size, so I got 3 trial size for $.45 each. So for $1.35, I got more than I would have if I used the coupon on the full sized can. Then, I had a $1 off of Sure deodorant that I used and a $2 off Excedrin.

Pre-tax cost for 4 boxes of wipes, 3 mini cans of shaving cream, 2 loads of Tide, 1 stick of deodorant, and a box of Excedrin: $7.63. Without coupons/sales it would have been $20.14.

The next deal was all about being in the right place at the right time. Office Max (Elizabeth City) is running $.1 days. 24ct crayons were on sale for $.1 each. And Sharpie mini highlighers were on sale for $.5 each. Each item had a limit of 3 per person, though. So after doing laps in and out of the store until one of the clerks told us we couldn't anymore, I got 21 packs of crayons (this is pure gold for a teacher!) and 4 highlighers for... $.41. :)

Next, I worked the CVS game. The cashier hated me, but I did multiple transactions. Transaction #1: Crest toothpaste. On sale for $2.49 for the big tube (6.2 ounces). I had 3 $.75 off coupons. Plus, they were ECV items, so I got $4.50 in ECBucks. This is like CVS money. It prints out with your receipt after the transaction and you can use it on anything at CVS. Oh, and I got a bonus $.50ECBs and a coupon for a free CVS 24ct ibuprofen.

Total pre-tax cost of 3 large tubes of toothpaste: $5.22.

Transaction #2: Next I got some shampoo and dish soap. Pert Plus was on sale for $3.69 and was BOGO (I really hate that acronym) plus I had a $2 off coupon. So I was able to get 2 shampoos for $1.69. Dawn dish detergent was on sale for $.88 and I had two coupons for $.50 off. With that I used my $.50 ECBs and got two shampoos and 2 dish detergents for a pre-tax total of $1.95. :D Oh, and I got another coupon for free ibuprofen.

Transaction #3: (you could only use one PertPlus coupon per transaction) I got two more PertPlus shampoos. Then I got two Sure deodorants. They were $2.69, but CVS was running them BOGO and I had a $1 off coupon. Then I used a BOGO coupon on Schick razors and got a 10 pack of twin blade for me and a 6 pack of triple blade for Nathan. I grabbed my two things of ibuprofen as well. I used my coupons and my ECBs from my prior purchase.

Total pre-tax cost for 2 shampoos, 2 PACKS of razors, 2 deodorants, and 2 ibuprofen: $5.87.

This is my final CVS bounty:

4 Shampoos
2 Deodorants
2 Dish Soaps
2 24ct Ibuprofen
3 Tubes of 6.2oz Toothpaste
2 packs of razors (totaling 16 razors)
15 items - 13.04 before tax :)

Oh and in case you were wondering, I saved $44.19 on stuff that I needed anyway. :)

I forgot to mention... There is one little fib in my final CVS picture. On the left, there is a picture of a Gillette Fusion razor/shaving cream bonus pack. I actually got this at RiteAid. It is regularly $10, but RiteAid had it on sale for $9, plus a $5 rebate. I had a coupon for $4 off. So... it was free. :) AND I still have one more PertPlus coupon and $.50 ECBs. So I'm going to go grab 2 more shampoos... for $1.10

Being able to get stuff that we need and stock up on it at really cheap prices makes me feel really good. I try really hard to make sure we can save and this is one really great way to do that. I am officially a coupon nerd now (no, really... I have a binder where the coupons are in baseball card sleeves so I can find them easily), but I'm okay with that. I had been saving money by buying all store brand stuff, but I've found with couponing and researching sales, in a lot of cases I can actually get name brand stuff (and in the case of razors, BETTER stuff) for us, for less.

Rory's First Year

2008-07-27T18:32:00.000-04:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Shout Out!

2008-07-18T09:22:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to say thanks to Meredith for making me this super cool new layout! I 'm a big fan. :)

This One's for Uncle Jimmy

2008-07-15T22:00:00.000-04:00

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Vacation

2008-07-06T18:14:00.000-04:00

Summer of 2008 started out with a bang. For the first time in a few years we took a real vacation. So on June 18, we packed up all of our stuff and headed for our first stop. We spent a couple of days with Nathan's parents in Maryland. They babysat for us and Nathan and I went to go see the Orioles play the Astros. We always have such great seats there and it was a good game. Rory had a blast, of course and found plenty of adventures on her journey throughout their house.
From there, we headed to Point Lookout, NY to visit with my family. We stayed in a great old beach house that was just across the street from the beach. The weather was beautiful, but the water was COLD! We didn't get in much--just enough to say that we did. I'm not sure how there is any sand left on the beach because Rory ate quite a bit of it.

Monday was the day to go to the city. Jimmy, Dad, Sean, Nathan and I started off the day by going to Queens and driving Nathan by where I used to live and getting breakfast. We ate in a park that I went to all the time when I was little and then headed on our way to the city. We took the subway in and did a run through of the city. We saw Times Square and St. Patrick's Cathedral. We got hot dogs and pretzels on carts (yum). We walked through Central Park. Well, actually, we fought our ways through the crazy jungle that is Central Park, fearing that we may never see daylight again. (Expecting to be able to cross a bridge that is not there is never a good thing.) When we finally broke free of Central Park, we walked over to the Museum of Natural History and stuck our heads in the door to cool down and look at the dinosaurs. Much fun.

On Tuesday, the whole group of us (except my mom) went to go see the Mets play the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners are awful--in the basement of the majors. So naturally, the Mets lost--nay, were SLAUGHTERED. To make matters worse, David Wright didn't play. We did get to see 2 people get tossed though.

Uncle Jimmy took care that Rory was decked from head to toe in Mets gear. Yeah, she looked like a boy, but she had the full Mets spirit going on, and people could actually tell from a distance that she was pulling for the Mets. The crazy little thing stayed awake for the ENTIRE game (which wasn't over until after 10). At one point, it looked like the Mets had a chance. Not really to win, just to score--at least once. We all put our rally caps on, and the drunk guys behind us got a kick out of Rory's rally cap. They just kept yelling "Baby with a rally cap! Baby with a rally cap! C'mon! Even the baby's wearing a rally cap!"
Even though the Mets beyond lost, I had a really great time. The rest of the week was fairly quiet. We enjoyed our time at the beach house and played obscene amounts of Scrabble. (I beat Aunt Margaret!!!! Twice!!!!!!!!) All in all, it was a nice trip. I'm glad we got a chance to have a good little family vacation.

The next thing on our agenda....

July 26--Rory turns one!

Big Girl

2008-06-17T11:14:00.000-04:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Versa

2008-06-12T19:24:00.000-04:00

Here is my new car. A Nissan Versa. Little on the outside, roomy on the inside. I'm a big fan. Especially of the gas mileage! :)

Me in my Versa

A shot with some smoke in the background. It's a nice car. I'm happy.

"God, please help me to know...

2008-06-12T16:22:00.001-04:00

...that I'm making the right decision."

Car buying is stressful. Not holy-cow-start-crying stressful--at least for most people. For me, though, it was. Two days of grueling heat (100+ degrees), smoke from the neighboring county's forest fire, and being outside all day for two days straight finally got the best of me. I thought I had found the car that I wanted, but wasn't sure that trading in the Trooper was the best thing to do. So I prayed. Just a simple one liner, but I needed reassurance.

So last night around 6:30, Nathan and I drove to the Nissan dealership to buy my car. I started crying on the way there (because I am a loser) and Nathan told me to take a few minutes to calm down before we went in. I pulled up to the dealership and was sitting in the car when the phone rang. I handed it to Nathan and made him answer it, because I figured it was a salesman and I was not in the mood to talk to any more salesman. Nathan answered and it was a guy from the dealership that I liked better, but didn't have what I was looking for. They had found the car I wanted--on their lot. It was a Nissan at a Chevy dealership--a super low-mile trade. Nathan and I backed out of the Nissan dealership, where we had been going to sign paperwork, and drove over to see the car. It had the two things that were still making me uneasy about buying the one that I had been planning to buy. It was perfect.

The second I sat in the driver's seat, I knew that I had found the car that I wanted, and knew that giving up the Trooper was the right thing to do. God works in simple ways. Phone call finding the perfect car (which gave me peace about giving up the Trooper) minutes before signing papers somewhere else... coincidence? I think not.

A day at the pool

2008-06-01T20:38:00.000-04:00

Today we decided to take Rory for her first trip to the pool. When we got there, there were a ton of kids and she was a little freaked out. Eventually, though, she got used to being in the water and started to enjoy herself. She spent most of her time chasing around her ducky in the "really big bath tub."

A family shot...
We had a really good time. But I guess it wore her out...

Hungry, Hungry Hippo

2008-05-19T20:32:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted a video in a while...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Tooth Fairy

2008-05-03T08:20:00.000-04:00

If you don't know Rory, let me preface this by saying my daughter knows no fear (except the vacuum). She's a rough & tumble kind of girl. Since Rory figured out how to pull up on stuff about 2 months ago, she's been at it non-stop. One of those pull-ups didn't turn out so well, though. She pulled herself up on a laundry basket and lost her balance. When she fell, she twisted funny and landed, mouth open, on the laminate floor. It popped her tooth straight forward. While waiting in the ER, we got a call from the dentist saying that he could meet us at his office. Instead of waiting who knows how long in the ER, we went to the dentist. BUT somewhere between the ER and the dentist's office, the tooth came out--and disappeared. So now, my little Rory is one tooth down. The dentist said that when her molars come in, they will put in a fake tooth to keep the space for her adult tooth. So she'll probably never even notice the loss of the tooth.

The funny thing about the whole situation is that she cried for about 5 minutes. Me? I cried for like 2 days. As far as her other teeth go, we've got quite a mouthful. She still has one on the bottom, and now 4 on top. The 4 on the top decided to come in over the course of about a week and a half. That was NOT fun. Hopefully all of those stay where they belong.

Oh, and the tooth fairy... She is making a sizeable donation to the Rory McAnally college fund. :)

BA BA BA BA-rack & Clinton

2008-05-01T20:05:00.000-04:00

So,the BA BA BA is Rory's two cents--on everything. I just thought I would go ahead and get that out there. Anyway, I sat down to write because it's been awhile and I felt obligated. Well, shockingly enough, I realized that I had a ton of stuff to write about! So I'm going to write about the month of April in little snippets. Themed ones, perhaps. No chronological order--just to be a pain.

April was the month of politicians in Greenville. On April 12, Bill Clinton came and spoke--at my school, of all places. So naturally, me being the social studies dork that I am, showed up early (with my entire department of social studies dorks) and got in line with the staff. Good move on my part, because I got super close. I even got to shake his had afterward. It was really incredible to see a former President of the United States speak. He talked about his presidency a little and then spoke on behalf of his wife. To be completely honest, though, I don't give two flips about Hillary. Can't stand her. Going to that rally was nothing but an opportunity to meet a president. Shameful, I know.

It seemed almost as magic, but the day after Clinton spoke, it was announced that Barack Obama would be speaking at ECU. The day of the rally, I darted across town as soon as school got out and serendipitously wound up standing at the front waiting to see him speak. I have a knack for getting right at the front, but this time it took all of the planets aligning in some cosmic coincidence--there were already about 6,000 people in line when I got to ECU. At any rate, Obama was a phenomenal speaker. Still all politician, though. He spoke of his desire for change and he spoke of a better America. The speech was filled with all of the things we hope for--except a plan for how to make it work.

Don't forget to early vote. If you aren't registered you can register and vote on the same day. I'm pretty sure you can change your part affiliation and vote, too. So please, go early vote--there are only (I think) two days left! If you miss it, of course, you can vote in the primary on May 6. Please, for the love of all things, go vote for Obama. If Hilary becomes our next president, I may have to move to Canada. I have yet to decide between McCain and Obama, but either is better than Hillary.