Indian Mounds and Museums

We had a fun morning today as we toured Macon. We started off going to Dauset Trails, but ended up going downtown to the Children's Museum and then to the Ocmulgee Indian Mounds for a picnic. Let me just say that if you've never been the the Children's Museum, DON"T go!!! We paid $6.00 for Glenn and I and saw why Emily didn't have to pay. There wasn't anything for her age, and really not much for any age. I hate to be pessimistic, but for the looks of the place you would think that there would be more for kids to do. They are renovating the upstairs part so maybe when it is complete it will be better.The Indian Mounds however were nice. We walked and strolled among all of them and then along the swamp area. Glenn and I always love places that are peaceful and educational. The museum they have is fairly nice too if you've never been. We had a cool breeze blowing all the time we were there and enjoyed our nice picnic too. If we had just gone there first we wouldn't have spent anything on our "tour" (except the gas to get there). I had no idea that the Indians that lived there were called the "Mississippian's". We tried watching the movie in the "theater" but with a 2 year old that didn't last long. I definitely recommend you going to see this place if you live here and have never been. It's very quite, safe, clean, and interesting at the same time. Also, you can get a VERY good workout in if you're up for the walking. To me it's the best place we've discovered in Macon.I hope you have a great rest of the weekend. Oh they are having a MAJOR sewing machine sale at Hancock Fabrics tomorrow from 1pm-5pm (FYI). I'm not sure if I'll be going and purchasing one, but we stopped by there on our way home and got a flyer.

Pumpkin is Complete

I finished Emily's dress today with the pumpkin on it. It may not be perfect, but it's cute at least. It cost me maybe $3.00 for the whole dress. I got the fabric for $.30, and thread and buttons didn't cost that much. That is what I call a deal. The turtle neck was $3.50 so $6.50 for the whole outfit is pretty good if you ask me. I still haven't mastered doing button holes, so that's next on my checklist.I hope you're all doing good and have a great weekend. We have a treat tomorrow, Hannah is coming over to play with Emily. I always love it when she comes, because Emily gets to have a big sister for a day, and they don't even fight!

Have a great weekend.

Cross-stitching

I'm about to start working on stitching a pumpkin on Emily's new fall dress I made yesterday. I think this jumper looks better than the brown and pink one...I guess it just takes practice. I'm going to practice on some scrap fabric first and then start on the dress. I haven't stitched in years, so I don't know how good it's going to turn out. I hope you're all having a great week so far. I feel like it's flying by so fast. We went to the playground and had a picnic yesterday with Cristy and Merritt. Emily got hurt some how and has a huge knot and bruise on her shin. It looks aweful but she doesn't really complain about it.Hope you're all well, if anyone has hints for stitching or sewing please post comments, they're greatly appreciated. Have a great rest of the week.

Emily's new Dress

Well I'm on to another hobby of mine now...sewing. My moma gave Emily the cutest brown and pink polka dot shoes and I have been looking for her a dress to match them. I found several online and they ran about $55 a dress!!! When I saw that I thought, "What! it's just 2 pieces of fabric sewn together". While I was in MS I happened upon some fabric that matches her shoes exact, and is the same as the dresses I found online. I'm not the best seamstress in the world, but even I can make a simple jumper. I got the fabric and buttons for under $10!!! Cool huh! Now I'm excited and am thinking of doing some other ones. You can't get jumper dresses at the stores for under $10. I'm going to do a fall one for her tomorrow and attempt to cross-stitch a pumpkin on it. I've not cross-stitched in forever so if you have any hints please pass them on.Here are a few other pictures of our weekend. We went to the farmer's market Saturday and got a couple of pumpkins. This was Emily's little one she picked out. The HUGE one is on the porch. Also, we went to watch daddy play softball with the church. Hope you all have a great week.

We're Home

We made it back from MS last night and had a wonderful trip. My daddy ended up coming with us yesterday so we wouldn't have to drive it by ourselves. He has wanted to ride the train for a while so Glenn got up early this morning to take him to Atlanta to hop on Amtrak. He should be arriving in MS within the next 30 minutes. We are so grateful for him doing this, as I don't think I could've made the trip back by myself. Emily didn't sleep at all until we got to Geneva, GA which is about an hour away from home. When she doesn't sleep it makes the trip even harder. We watched movies and that definitely helped. I know I'm SO against it, but I don't think that 2 movies one time is going to hurt Emily. Here is a detailed "diary" of the past week we spent in MS. Hope you all had a great week last week and will have a great week.

Playing "Happy Birthday" for Mamaw and Papaw Costilow, he's 86 and she's 83

Emily and Brandy drawing with chalk on the porch.

Emily and Sarah Alice, my friend Rozane's little girl, Emily is only 4 months older than her.
Emily playing the piano at Mamaw and Papaw's. She knows where the note C is.
Emily, Brandy and I wearing our "Mississippi Girls" t-shirts that daddy got us. It says, "Mississippi Girls and Watermelons:
Sweet to the rind and gonna cost you more than a nickle or a dime"
Emily in her rollers (of course she didn't keep them in that long)
Sarah Alice came over to play on Monday morning.
My friend Rozane and her little girl Sarah Alice. Rozane and I have been friends since birth. She and her husband are also expecting baby number 2.
Playing at the park Monday evening.
We went to Granmama and Grandaddy's on Tuesday (Glenn's parents in Columbus, MS). Emily was enjoying reading a book here.
Emily, Grandaddy and Great Ma Ma
In my uncle John's chicken house. These chickens are only 2 days old. He has 12 houses!!! WOW, it was quite interesing...makes it hard to eat chicken now! Each house has 28,000 chickens in it (to start with, some die though)
Daddy, Emily, me and Mamaw Alford. Four generations. We visited her on Wednesday afternoon.
Emily and Papaw with their shorts and boots on...too cute. She had picked an eggplant and some flowers
Watching the train go by in my Mamaw and Papaw's back yard in Newton, MS. Emily LOVES the trains. Yes, it is a huge drop off that we're standing beside, but we didn't let Emily down out their.
Amtrak station in Atlanta where Glenn dropped daddy off this morning.

Homecoming--60 years

We went to my home church yesterday for their 60th year homecoming. That's the whole reason we came over to MS for a visit and we had a great time. My daddy preached the sermon and did a wonderful job...or at least what I got to hear of it was good. I had to take Emily out because she was trying to run up and down the isles. She did really well and had already stayed in church for an hour. By the time they sand and did the history of the church etc. it was 12:00, so daddy didn't have very long to preach.

Emily got to play with Sarah Alice, one of my friends little girl. She will be two in December. They are actually coming over this morning so they can play together a little bit since we don't get to see each other very often. It won't let me download any pictures so I'll have to wait and try it later. Have a great week.

We Made It

We made it to MS Friday...it took us almost 9 hours to get to my parents but we made it. We stopped 4 times was all, and one of those was because Emily was screaming. I sent a text to Glenn to pray and after that she was ok. Thanks for all your prayers because it was only through God's help we made it. I'll try to blog more later...just wanted you know we got here. Have a great week.

It's Almost Here!

Friday is almost here...it may be for those of you who are reading this...and our trip to MS will begin in the morning. I may sound nervous about it, but I'm really not. I have a peace and know God will watch out for us and help the trip go beautifully. Prayers are still MUCH appreciated all day tomorrow. My mom doesn't have a clue yet, and hopefully won't until we drive up by ourselves. That is when she'll get upset...hopefully she'll get over it quickly.

I may not get to blog much while I'm there since they have dial-up and it's hard to do anything on the internet with it. I will post when I get there to let you know we made it.

Yesterday I had the BIGGEST surprise! I hardly ever get surprised, because I'm so nosy, but Glenn sent me the most BEAUTIFUL flower arrangement. It it HUGE!!! I asked him why, and he said "because you do so much around here, cleaning, taking care of Emily (and she's been a handful this week), cooking, etc." and he just wanted me to know that he appreciates it. How sweet huh!!! It almost made me cry...I don't cry alot so almost crying is a good thing for me. I guess it is easy for us moms to feel "left out" sometimes. "THANKS, Glenn for the flowers and for all YOU do around here". I have the best husband really, he makes sure to get home from work asap, and he helps bathe and put Emily down every night. He helps clean up the kitchen if I've had a hard day and plays and reads to Emily while I get the kitchen cleaned up every night.

Here's a picture of the flowers for you to enjoy too...the only thing is you can't smell them. They absolutely smell wonderful...and they don't make you sneeze. Hope you all have a great weekend and will remember us in your prayers all day tomorrow. Thanks in advance!!!

Emily's Day yesterday

Well we had a good day yesterday celebrating Emily's birthday. We we to Barnes and Noble for story time and enjoyed it very much. We met Cristy and Merritt and the girls got goldfish crackers and then a treat they got cookies from the Starbucks. They said they wanted the kids to "taste test" their new cookies...of course you know Emily will never turn down a cookie. It was SO big it looked like a cake, and she kept calling it "cake, cake". After storytime we headed to Chick-fil-A for lunch. I love Chick-fil-A!!!! The ladies all helped us get our high chairs and food to the table. They talked to the girls, and when they found out it was Emily's birthday they gave them free ice cream before we left. Emily LOVED that you know!!! When they finished eating we let them play on the indoor playground for a few minutes. There's not much they can do, but they sure wanted to crawl all the way to the top.After that we came home (after a quick trip in Wal-mart), and she took a nap. We also had Aunt Marsha Ann and Grandaddy Griffin come over for a big birthday supper. I made Emily a cookie cake so she'd have something special on her "day", even though she'd already had PLENTY of sugar. It was alot of fun, and she enjoyed opening all her cards and present from mommy and daddy. We're resting right now...my allergies have been a nightmare lately. Of course we're ill and tired right when we're getting ready to travel to MS. I ask for prayers for Friday and our traveling. PLEASE PLEASE PRAY, Emily will DO AWESOME in the car for me. I'm really nervous about it, but know it will be ok. Hope you have a great rest of the week.

Happy Birthday Emily Rebekah

Today is Emily's birthday....she's two!!! I can't believe it's been 2 years already. They haven't been always easy, but it has been such a blessing to have Emily in our lives. I thank God for giving her to us, and for how He's grown and developed her over these past 2 years. It's funny how kids change your lives. Before Emily was born I tended to be more strong-willed and forceful. After she was born I became more laid back and calm. Alot of people started commenting to me on that and at first it offended me, but later and now I take it as a complement.Anyway, Emily is now 2 and is FAST...at running, jumping and doing anything she tries. She loves to read and has several books memorized and we can read them leaving out certain words and she fills them in. She can say almost anything you ask her (it may not be clear yet but she tries), and some of her favorite sayings are, "Emily do it too", "Mommy do it too", "Comin' Round the Mountain Day" (from the book), "tookies" (cookies), "Ice Cream", "Popscicle", "daddy be home in two minutes" (yes she does say that)...and so much more, these are just a few things we hear repeatedly each day. She loves to play hide-n-seek in the house, except she only like to seek not hide. She knows most all of her colors, red, blue, yellow, purple, orange, brown, green, gold, silver, and black. She is learning her shapes now and can only tell you what a circle, triangle, square, star, and heart are. She also knows all the farm and zoo animals and their sounds.She's such a sweet little girl and we are so blessed to have her. I hope you all have a great day. We are going to story time and then lunch with friends today. Aunt Marsha Ann and Grandaddy Griffin are also coming over for supper tonight to celebrate Emily's birthday. I'm not sure if we'll have more cake as we've all had too many sweets since her party. Here are some of her 2 year pictures I took.

Back in the Saddle

Today was our first day back to teaching kids Sunday school. Our Sunday school starts at 8:45 am, so we had to be at church by 8:30 am (didn't happen we were 5 minutes late)...so it was a little different for us. God woke me up in plenty of time to get ready and spend a few minutes alone with Him to prepare so it was good. We had 3 kids in our class, something we're not use to but were totally ok with as 2 are boys are VERY hyper active. I don't know if they were just sleepy or if they truly didn't know as much about creation as I thought they should. Kids are funny!!! All of them said that they didn't have Bibles, and I know very well that they do (or should at least). Anyway, we had a great morning and are glad to be back in routine again.Emily and I are ready for a new week as we are preparing to go to MS on Friday (by ourselves!!!). Yeah I know I'm crazy trying to take "little Miss. I hate riding in the car" on a 7 1/2 hour trip by myself...but we are prepping and I know that ONLY with God's help we can do it. This is the plan unless hurricane Ike decides to head more eastern when it hits the gulf. When Katrina hit 3 years ago the eye went over my parents house and they had alot of damage and were without power for 2 weeks. They are 5 hours from the coast but still had that much damage. We're praying God will weaken this hurricane and send it western. I'll update on our plans later on this week.

Here are a few pictures of Emily in her new jeans with her boots on. We had a family photo shoot again tonight. She loves the self-timer on the camera.