Archive for October, 2007

James has been really sad ever since we told him we would not be going back to New York any time soon. And Jay has been trying to get me to come up for one last weekend away, but we just couldn't find a good time and I knew James would not be happy about me going without him. So yesterday I proposed a sudden two-week trip to New York for all of us, and Jay jumped on it. So we are leaving Saturday to stay in New York for 2 weeks. We will be getting back the weekend before Thanksgiving, just in time to get ready for traveling to see family and friends in Mississippi. James is so excited; he said he can't wait to see all the tall buildings again. See, I told you I must be crazy!

Some random happenings from the last few days:

James said something cute the other day: Gerald had left a red drug-free ribbon stuck to a chair in my mom's dining room, and James walked in and saw it. "Look, Mom! That chair must have won first prize!"

We went to the pumpkin patch the other day with James' class. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my camera to work (I had 2 sets of rechargeable batteries, but I think there must be something wrong with the charger.) But the kids had a good time playing in the hay, picking a pumpkin, and going on the hayride. James' teacher took a few pictures for me; I am going to see if I can get digital copies of them.

You know you go to Cracker Barrel way too often when…when the hostess that seats you says, "Your kids are getting so big! I remember when they were just little bitty things."

Eliza is getting big- she's almost too tall for her size 2T clothes. She impresses people with her easy way of talking…she can chatter with the best of them, although she is sometimes hard to understand because she can't say her "r"s or "l"s very well. For the last month or so, ever since James' birthday when he got a bike, she has often been heard saying, "I wish I had a bike. When I have a birthday and I'm 3, I can have a bike…a pink bike with a pink helmet!" She is so convinced, we may have to get her one (Jay is ready to get her one for Christmas, but I'm not sure…)

Well, I have a lot to do before our spontaneous New York trip (like pack!), so I'd better get to it. Ready or not, we leave Saturday!

Saturday night we went to the fair with Jon, Adrienne, Lydia, Alayne, and Gerald. We had bought bracelets for unlimited rides, and we had a great time letting the kids ride as many rides as they could, eating fair food, looking at the crafts and exhibits, and watching the Elvis impersonator! (The kids especially liked the last one; you should have seen them dance!) Eliza had to be dragged off some of the rides, and she always asked to go again. We were able to all ride the ferris wheel together, which was fun, and Jon and Adrienne watched the kids while Jay and I rode the swings. I think we all had a fun time just being together! Check out our pictures.

We were supposed to go to the pumpkin patch today with James' class, but it was rained out for the second time! They have rescheduled one more time for next Monday, so we'll see what happens.

I finally have pictures up from our visit to Jon and Adrienne's house, when we played on the slip-n-slide. They are pretty funny! I have also posted pictures from Jay's family's visit and my family reunion.

I love visiting with family, and we have been doing a lot of it lately! Saturday we went to the annual Patterson family reunion (my maternal grandmother's family) in Sardis, MS. We had a great time. There is always lots of food, and the weather was beautiful. James got to ride his bike to the spillway, which was fun, and Eliza enjoyed playing in the sand at the playground. We were all worn out by the time we went back to Memphis, where we spent the rest of the weekend. Jay had flown into Little Rock Friday night, and I picked him up and we drove to Memphis, arriving around 1:00 in the morning. Saturday was spent at the family reunion, and Sunday we rested a little before dropping Jay off at the airport around 5:30 and then driving home. It was an exhausting weekend!

James was supposed to have a field trip this morning to the pumpkin patch, but it was raining when we got up and so it was postponed. James was disappointed, but I think I will be more ready next week when we haven't had such a busy weekend! Hopefully I will be able to take some good pictures. Speaking of pictures, I am hoping to get some posted from the last few weeks. Jay has been working on London pictures, and he keeps forgetting to give me the pictures from other events that have been going on. Maybe soon!

Last week was not exactly normal, but it wasn't bad. We were expecting company- Jay's mom from Mississippi as well as his sister Jill, her husband Robbie, and of course, Baby Hannah from Tennessee. They had planned to come Thursday night and stay until Saturday so that they could visit Mimi, who they haven't seen since she was moved into the nursing home nearby. Unfortunately, both James and Eliza started getting sick on Tuesday, running pretty high fevers on Wednesday and Thursday and just generally not feeling well. Jay's family decide to risk it, coming in on Friday, and we tried to keep the kids from spreading their germs around. We told James not to hug anyone or he might get them sick, which was terribly difficult for him. He had to keep being reminded to stay back, and finally he went over to Jay, who was also under the weather: "Daddy, are you sick, too?" Jay said yes, and they shared a big hug, which made James feel a little better. James tried all sorts of things to get close to people, including trying to hold his breath and covering his mouth when he sat next to them. Because James and Eliza didn't feel well, they were very clingy as well as grouchy. Once when James was told he couldn't do something, he replied, "Bummer. Double bummer. Doubly-double bummer!" Several times when James wasn't getting his way or his feelings had been hurt, he went and hid under our desk on top of the firesafe box we have under there, crouched into a ball, with the chair pulled in so that no one could see him. When he did this, Eliza would come and tell me, "I fink James is sad." Eliza had to be reminded to stay away from Hannah, who is about 5 and a half months now. We wanted to try as hard as we could not to get her sick! Eliza wanted to be held by me most of the time, which made things like cooking supper for everyone quite difficult.

Even with all of that, we had a good visit with Jay's family. Jay's Aunt Fran brought Mimi over to our house, and we all ate supper together Friday night. Mimi was doing very well; she said, "Hello, Lauren!" as she got out of the car, and she identified several of the others, even though she hasn't seen them in at least 7 months. She was excited to meet baby Hannah, who is her sixth great-grandchild. Hannah was the star of the evening, and she put on quite a show! She is a happy baby most of the time, and very cute! James and Eliza had to enjoy her from a distance, but they were still proud when they made her smile. Supper went really well; we had quite a spread with pork roast, green beans, salad, macaroni and cheese, fruit salad, rolls, and lemon squares for dessert.

On Saturday Jay set up a badminton set in the backyard and a few of us played around with it, but it was too hot to do it for very long. James actually got to where he could serve it and get it over the net! Our company left after lunch, and we had the rest of the weekend to try to recover from being sick. The kids are mostly well, except for Eliza having a lingering cough. Jay is still feeling pretty sick, but he flew to New York this afternoon. I think it was a good weekend, and hopefully we didn't get anyone else sick. So far, I have managed to avoid the plague, but I'm not holding my breath. :)