Me and Famous People

Remember when I mentioned that I would be going to Nashville with my friends soon?  Well, I did.  And boy oh boy, did we have a good time!!  Me and my group of friends all met years and years ago when I joined their private little playgroup when Maleah was a baby.  The group consists of Deb Duquaine, Kate Saulle (who moved to Jackson, TN a few years ago), Holly Emery (who moved to Colorado a few years ago), Leslie Warren (who couldn't make it on this trip), and myself.  Deb and I drove down.  Kate drove over and Holly flew in from Colorado to hang out with us.  Nashville is awesome and has really really good places to shop.  Malls, sales, and really big TJ Maxx's make me very happy.  Meeting famous people also makes me very happy.

Let's just have a little recap of the last two times we were all in Nashville together.  The time before last we met Gretchen Wilson and Cowboy Troy.  Last time we met Kellie Pickler and Jimmy Wayne.  And thisssssss time....  we met Little Jimmie Dickens, Roy Clark, Sarah Darling, Elizabeth Cook, Bobby Tomberlin, and some others.  We also were in the same small room with Riders in the Sky, Exile, and a bunch of other musicians.  There were no "big name" artists playing that night at the Grand Ole Opry but it was still awesome to see some classic artists and some up-and-coming artists.  It's pretty cool that Deb has the connections to get us in backstage.  A big thank you goes to Opry Dan, who was our host for the night!

Here are some pictures from the night:

Me and Little Jimmy Dickens.  I look like an Amazon

Woman next to him.  He is seriously not much bigger than

Maleah.  I loved LOVED his pink suit.  I told him that he

looked so handsome and he said "Thank you Ma'am" in a

 real quiet little voice.  He was very polite the whole

 time we talked to him.  Loved him!!!!

Holly and me with Elizabeth Cook.  She

has a show on XM Outlaw Country.

She is very good and very nice.

Me and Holly with Sarah Darling.  She has

several songs on the radio right now.  She

is super sweet, very talkative and

approachable, so pretty too. 

Holly and me with Roy Clark.  This guy

was so NICE!!!   He was a very genuine guy.

He was walking with a cane and sat in

a chair when he sang but he did great.

Me with Bobby Tomberlin.  You might

recognize him from The Singing Bee.  He sings

but he is mostly a songwriter and has written

several big hits.  He was so nice and wrote out

an autograph to Maleah that reads, "Maleah,

thanks for watching! Bobby Tomberlin" after I

told him that Maleah liked to watch the Singing Bee

with me.

Me hanging out in the Women's Dressing Room

backstage at the Opry.  This room was

recently in a scene of "Nashville," if you're

watching that show.

Little Jimmy signing a poster for Holly.

Holly, Kate, Deb, Opry Dan, and myself posing

as if we are in the opening scene of some

old soap opera that I had never heard of.

(I didn't tell them that though.)

We are in the Green Room of the Opry.

 

While we were in Nashville we did a lot of other fun things.  On Friday night we went to this really good Mexican restaurant that is one of our favorite restaurants in town.  It is called Cantina Laredo and is gourmet Mexican food.  They have the best guacamole that I have ever had there.  They make it at your table.  They bring the avacodos, salt, lime, tomatoes, etc to the side of your table and cut the avacodos open and start mixing everything into a wooden bowl.  Mmmm.  It is so good!  The restaurant is in this really trendy part of town called The Gulch.  Here is a online review of the restaurant that is right on:  http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/the-gulchs-newest-hot-spot-cantina-laredo-is-to-mexican-as-pf-changs-is-to-chinese/Content?oid=1201294   Another interesting fact about this place:  Taylor Swift lives in the condo highrise above this restaurant.

 

On Friday we also spent several hours in the biggest and best TJ Maxx ever.  On Saturday we ate breakfast at our favorite little bakery in town called Provence.  They have good bread.  Then we spent the whole afternoon shopping until we met Opry Dan at his house for appetizers before the Opry.  Then we did the Opry, stopped back by Dan's to visit and pick up our car.  Kate and I headed back to the hotel to get some sleep and we dropped Holly and Deb off downtown.  They stayed out a little later than what we wanted to.  It sounds like they had a great time dancing to some really good bands.  On Sunday we shopped some more and then had lunch at Buca di Beppos' Italian restaurant.

 

My favorite things about the whole weekend:  spending time with friends that I don't get to see as much as I would like, trying on clothes for hours and getting honest opinions on how I look, meeting famous people, the awesome new shoes I bought that finally make my feet not hurt (Danskos), knowing somebody laughed so hard they peed their pants (and, no, it wasn't me), the CoolSprings Galleria mall, the beautiful weather, coming home to a wonderful husband, three well-cared for kids, and a clean house.

 

My least favorite things about the whole weekend:  leaving Jason and the kids for that long (I really missed them!), and the fact that Onstar failed me the whole weekend when I really needed it.  I depend on that and apparently Nashville is a black hole in the world of Onstar.  Boo to Onstar!

 

Now in other news...  My cousin Andrea had her baby today!!!  I am so happy for her and her husband Dustin and for big brother Mason.  I know that she was sent from Heaven and given a hug from her big brother Bryce before she got here.  I'm sure he is smiling down on her now.  She is absolutely gorgeous.  I thought it was funny how small she seemed and she was 7 pounds, 3 ounces.  Compared to Silas Man, that is HUGE!  But she still seemed small.  As time passes you forget how small he was and I don't want to forget that.  Anyway, her name is Anna Lou Edgington and here is a pic of me holding her when she was just about three hours old.  I scrubbed my hands for two minutes and requested a gown from the nurse before I held her.  The nurse said I didn't need the gown but it made me feel better.  I try to always do unto others as I would have them do unto me (I don't always succeed but I TRY very hard to do that) and there is no way that I would let somebody hold my three-hour-old baby without scrubbing up (especially in cold and flu season.)  Now, if only everybody would do that maybe less babies would end up with RSV.  RSV can be just a simple cold in an adult but if that adult has those cold germs on them it can easily be transferred to the baby and turns into RSV in a baby - even full term infants are at risk for RSV.  Even if you feel fine, you should scrub up before you even touch an infant because that virus can live up to 12 hours on surfaces so if you just touched the bathroom doorknob (chair, handrail, etc) you could have picked up the virus and then when you hold the infant, you spread it.  Each year over 125,000 children are hospitalized with severe RSV and many die.  It seems as if most adults in Clay County are not educated about this and do not take handwashing seriously.  But I will now calmly step down from my soapbox and show you the picture of the beautiful Anna Lou!

 

 

Here are some other pictures from the last week or so:

 

This is Jason holding a very sleepy Silas tonight.

 

This is Silas wearing his camo cap.

Carissa showing me the house that she had just

built out of legos (her favorite toy).

 



 

Well, that's it folks.  It's after ten o'clock and I am going to bed.  Good night!  Oh wait, I forgot to mention that Silas has a tooth!  Okay, now I am done.

Promises, shromises...

Promises, shromises.  Okay, so I didn't write the promised weekly update like I said I would.  The good news is that I am doing it now though! 

The Mini Coopers have been busy - like usual.  Here is what has been happening:

Carissa started tumbling classes.  She said that she really wanted to learn to do "cartwheels and stuff."  Maleah got a little burnt out on all of her classes and quit them all last year.  She was in tumbling, dance, cheer, and trampoline.  This year she decided she just wanted to keep it simple and only do trampoline - no pressure, just fun jumping for 30 minutes once a week.  I was fine with that.  So I signed her up for trampoline and Carissa up for tumbling.  Both classes are on Tuesday evenings at Daszle.  So the first night I got Carissa all ready to go and she looked so cute!  The problem came after her tumbling class was over.  She wanted to stay and do trampoline with her sister but I hadn't signed her up for that class.  I asked if she could stay anyway and found out that the class was full.  Carissa cried all the way home.  The good news was that someone in that full class moved to a different one so the following week Carissa got to do both, tumbling and trampoline.  She informed me the next day though that she wasn't going back to tumbling.  I asked her why and she said that their mats are too hard and hurt her head.  Sure enough, the next Tuesday she told me that she was NOT going to tumbling but that she would go to trampoline with her sister.  I didn't make her go.  Here's why:  1.) I don't care whether or not she does tumbling.  2.) She's not going to be an Olympian, I'm pretty sure.  3.) It's not worth the fight.  4.)  It would save me money.  Did I worry that I was teaching her at an early age that it is okay to be a quitter?  Um, for a split second and then I chilled out and remembered to pick my battles (referred back to reason number three).  Both of the girls had a great time at trampoline that night.  When I picked them both up, their teacher Deslynn approached me and said that she had asked Carissa why she hadn't been in tumbling class.  I thought to myself "oh no!"   There is no telling what Carissa told her.  She said that Carissa had informed her very matter-of-factly that "You need to put some padding down on those mats!  Those things are way too hard and they hurt my head.  And you guys keep trying to make me do cartwheels over and over and I can't do it right and it hurts my head! You make me tired!"  She was laughing when she told me all of this (thankfully!) She convinced Carissa to come back to tumbling the next week and told her that she wouldn't make her do cartwheels.  So the next Tuesday night rolled around.  I dressed her for tumbling and off we went to Daszle.  We got there and Carissa refused to join her classmates.  She hid behind me and told me that she didn't like their mats, didn't want to do cartwheels, blah, blah, blah.  We left.  We went home for an hour, picked up Maleah and then went back for trampoline class.  Both girls thoroughly enjoyed their 30 minutes of jumping on trampolines and I told the teacher that Carissa wouldn't be back to tumbling.  And that, my friends, is the story of Carissa's very short tumbling career.  But boy did she look cute while it lasted...

Maleah had open house at her school a few weeks ago.  We all went, including Grandma Debby and Grandpa David.  It was being held from 6:30 pm to 8 pm.  I had the brainiac idea to get there at 6 pm and be the first ones in and the first ones out.  Well, they didn't unlock the doors until 6:32 so that plan didn't work out too well.  There was a line of people waiting to get in.  Carissa played on the playground for 30 minutes and I sweated.  That was not what I had in mind.  We did manage to get to the book fair they were having in the cafeteria before everyone swarmed it.  We did that first and the classroom second.  My plan for next year?  Arrive at 7:45.  Be the last ones in, last ones out.  I'll let ya know how that works out for me.  I don't like Open Houses, can you tell?  But on the bright side, we got to see Maleah's classroom and meet her teacher (again) who is very nice and Maleah likes her a lot.

Maleah in front of her locker.

I have no idea what Carissa was doing.

Maleah and her teacher Ms. Greenwood.

Maleah loves her!

 

The following weekend we made the last-minute decision to go to Garden of the Gods in Southern Illinois and eat at Peking Palace (my fave!) in Harrisburg.  Maleah loves to go there and Carissa would have rather stayed home but it was too pretty of a day for that.  Silas didn't care.  He's happy no matter what.  My best friend from growing up, Jessi Hall, met us at Garden of the Gods and walked the trail with us.  It was so good to see her.  We don't get together often enough.  For those of you not from Southern Illinois, Garden of the Gods is a bunch of rock formations in the Shawnee National Forest.  One of the biggest formations there looks like a camel and is therefore called Camel Rock.  I took a picture of Jason and Maleah looking out toward Camel Rock when she was very little and I try to re-create the picture every year.  The original picture is in the corner of the blog, I believe.  There is a horseshoe-shaped trail leading through the area and it is fun for all ages.  There are lots of rocks to climb or just to look at, if you would rather.  I took a ton of pictures that day so bear with me.  I couldn't choose just one (or two or three) to post.

Maleah and Jason trying to pump some water for a drink.

Maleah and Carissa on the backside of the camel.

This is Carissa's "cheese" smile.

They were all way up high while me and Silas were

hanging out on the path.

Posing.

That smile again. 

Family picture.

I love this one!

Sisters...

Silas sitting on the rock like a big boy.

The re-created scene on this rock. 

 First one with Silas in it!

Camel Rock is in the background.

All of us sitting on Table Rock

(a huge round rock).

Maleah is thrilled.

Me and Jessi

Jessi and Silas

Carissa tuckered out.  She has had enough in this picture.

She needs a snack and a nap.

This is during the snack and right before the

nap, on the way home.

Later that week, I took Maleah and Carissa, along with our neighbors and good friends, Peyton and Sheldon Rose, to Streif's Pumpkin Patch, north of town.  Each kid got to pick out a pumpkin.  They all did a straw maze, went down slides, climbed rock walls, and went through a corn maze.  It was fun and here is a picture to prove it.  We love fall!!

Then the next weekend it was beautiful weather - again!  We ended up at Ballard's Nature Center in Altamont that day.  We saw lots of neat nature-ish things inside (lots of taxidermy - owls, foxes, etc., looked at animal bones, turtles, fossils, and more) and then we went on a long hike outside through the woods and some wetlands.  There were very nice trails and bridges.  Silas rode in his stroller and it worked out great.  We ended the day at this really big boulder that they have there.  Maleah loves it because it is made up of tons of Indian beads (her favorite thing to dig for in gravel).  She sat on that rock counting the Indian beads for awhile.  Here are some pics of that day:

Sitting on top of really big rocks is so much fun!

My three kids sitting on the boulder.

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!

Mr. Silas Man and his Daddy.

How cute are these bibs??

Maleah on the boulder.

This is a close-up of the boulder. 

Your can see all of the Indian beads in it.

Boy, after reading all of this you're probably thinking that our family is really into hiking, rocks, and boulders.  Ha!  Not really.  It's just a coincidence that we did two hikes in one month and that both hikes involved rocks.  We're not really that outdoorsy.

Okay, so after we left Ballard Nature Center we had to head straight home because we were going to a concert starring the Mini Coopers!  Okay, they weren't the stars of the show but they did sing a few songs.  On Tuesdays both of the girls attend Kid's Choir at the First Baptist Church.  The concert was held at Library Park and featured the band and choirs from First Baptist.  It was a nice evening for an outdoor concert and it was so much fun.  The girls did great.  Carissa followed along pretty good and made me giggle a few times (okay like the whole time).  Once she stopped singing and waved at me and hollered "Hi Mom!!"  It was too cute!  I love watching my kids perform.  All of the kids did a great job.

In Silas news, he went back to the doctor in St. Louis.  He saw one of his neonatologists just for a check-up.  He was very impressed with his progress and told us to keep doing whatever we were doing.  That's easy enough.  They considered him 6 months, 7 days (because that is what he was supposed to be on that day).  He is doing exactly what a six month old should be.   He weighed 17 pounds.  (Woo-hoo!!)  Silas is rolling all over the place now.  He is sitting up and he would really like to start crawling but can't quite get there.  He is one amazing little guy.  You can't tell that he was ever such a tiny baby.  It's hard to believe that he is almost 10 months old!!  When we left St. Louis that day we got stuck in traffic.  There was road construction in almost every lane and a stalled car in one of the only lanes that was open.  It took us two hours just to get to the bridge to cross back into Illinois.  In all of the years of driving back and forth there for baby appointments, months of living there with Silas, etc I have never been stuck like that.  Thank God we have the best baby in the world because he hardly complained at all.  I had to get out once and get in the backseat and feed him but that was it.  We didn't get home until 8 pm that night.  Jason and I were a little bit grouchy.  That might be an understatement.

How cute is he??

Well, that pretty well wraps up the Mini Cooper news.  We are looking forward to a busy but fabulous October.  I am gearing up for my annual trip with the girls to Nashville.  If you will remember, last time we all went backstage at the Grand Ole Opry and met a bunch of stars, including Kellie Pickler and Jimmy Wayne, and the time before that we met Gretchen Wilson and Cowboy Troy on the sidewalk downtown.  We are going backstage again at the Opry this year.  Who will we meet this time?  Stay tuned to find out!!  I know I can't wait...