First Official Haircut

Monday after work, I picked Claudia up and took her to get her first official haircut. Last year my Mom trimmed her bangs one time just because they were always in her face, and she would not wear a bow or barretts to keep them out of her eyes. I didn't really like the way she looked with bangs so I decided she was going to have to learn to wear the bow...after about a week of putting it in her hair, she got use to it, and that was that...she wears a bow everyday now!

I was nervous about cutting her hair in the back because she has the cutest curls, and I was afraid they wouldn't be there after we cut her hair. The other day I was looking at her hair, and I knew it was time...the ends were starting to look stringy, and well just plain bad! So I decided this week was the week, especially since we are having family photos taken on Sunday. I have always heard the horror stories of how kids act when you take them to get their hair cut...it seemed to be a terrifying event for them. So my plan was to tell Claudia how fun it was going to be and all...anything to hype it up and make it not seem like a bad thing. Well it worked because Claudia did fantastic! She never cried or wined! She sat there in the chair like a big girl! She even talked to the stylist...it was like she knew you are suppose to gossip with the stylist as you sit there...lol! We couldn't have been more proud of her and the way she acted!

Claudia and her fake smile

Sitting there like a big girl

Chatting with the stylist

I forgot to take an after picture...I was so happy with how she reacted to the experience, it slipped my mind, but she looks really cute! We just had the stylist take about an inch off to even Claudia's hair out and make it look more healthy! Again, we were super proud of her!!! Sometimes we can't believe how big she has gotten!!

Family Beach Trip 2009

Sand Butterflies

Hello from Destin

Thursday, the day after my birthday, we packed up and headed down to Destin. We arrived in Destin around 1pm, and was able to get checked into the condo early. We were very happy that we got to check in early...we got to spend a few hours at the beach and pool...bonus time! The Brewers, Keely, Derek, and Macy, arrived later that evening. We ate dinner in the first night, and after we put the girls to bed the adults got to have some time to relax before the first full day at the beach. Friday morning we woke up around 8:30ish, cooked breakfast, and then got ready to head to the beach. The weather was perfect and the water was perfect. The water was almost as smooth as the lake. Claudia enjoyed the sand and water. She played all day in the sand. Before we headed down to the beach that morning I caught the weather, and noticed that the rain chances for Saturday had increased from 30% to 60%. With that in mind, we decided to make the most of Friday by staying on the beach as long as possible! We left the beach around 6:45ish and headed up to the pool for about a 15 minute swim. We decided to stay in again for dinner since it was close to Macy's bed time, and we were all exhausted from a day on the beach. Saturday morning we woke up to sunny skies inland, but storms were definitely brewing offshore. We noticed a few strikes of lighting, so we decided to wait it out to see if it would move over/around us by lunch time. We went to the outlets in Sandestin for about about 2 hours, and then headed back to the condo. By that time the weather had cleared, so we grabbed a quick sandwich at the condo, and then headed to the beach. We got about 5 good hours on the beach before heading in to get cleaned up for dinner. Since it was our last night we decided to go to the Back Porch for dinner. Dinner was awesome, as always. We love the Back Porch! Sunday was check out day...we had to be out by 10am. Lawrence and I decided since Claudia had done so well the two previous days on the beach, that after we checked out and got the car loaded, we would go to the pool for a few hours so Claudia could get some pool time. We stayed at the pool for about 3 hours, and then decided to grab some lunch. After lunch we headed back to Auburn. We were sad to leave the beach...we love it down there! Claudia is already talking about going back!!

First Day on the Beach

The Brewers

Lawrence and Claudia

Claudia and Me

Watching the storm on day two

The storm

Lawrence and Derek playing in the waves after the storm moved out

Taking it all in

Derek and Lawrence

Keely and Macy

Lawrence playing the sand with Claudia

The end of day two

My Birthday - The Beginning of My Last Year in My 20s

My birthday was last Wednesday, August 5th, as well as one of my dear friends, Mindy...we are exactly a year apart! I hope you had a wonderful birthday Mindy! About 3 months ago I decided I was going to take the day off from work on my birthday, and then about a month ago we planned a beach trip with the Brewers for the same week...so I had a short week at the office last week which was awesome! Wednesday morning I got up, went to the gym as usual, came home and Lawrence cooked me french toast,my favorite, for breakfast. Lawrence, Claudia, and I all ate breakfast together, and that never happens during the week! Afterwards, I took her to daycare...I had lots to do for myself as well as things to do before we left the next day for Destin. After I took Claudia I decided to run back by the house to put a load of clothes in the washer before running a few errands. So I put the clothes in, Lawrence is getting out of the shower, I grab the trash to take to the dumpster, briefly tell him bye, and run out the door. I swung the trash onto to the back of my car to take to the dumpster forgetting there was a thick glass bottle right on top...well that bottle hit my back windshield in the right spot...my back windshield was shattered! I could not believe it...it didn't seem real...I was in complete shock! The shock only lasted about 2 minutes, and then the tears began to flow! Lawrence and I took it to the repair shop. It would be Friday before they could get to it which was fine since we were leaving the next day. After we got the car situated I took him to work, and then I was off to run errands and pamper myself a little!

The Damage...

Lawrence took off from work at lunch, so he and I got to spend some time together before we picked Claudia up from daycare. We were going to go to the pool at Saugahatchee Country Club for a few hours, but it began to rain so we shopped a bit instead. We picked up Claudia at the normal time, and around 5:30 we left the house to go have a birthday drink at Buffalo Connection. I could not for the life of me figure out why we were going there instead of Mellow Mushroom for $2 pint night. Mellow has Blue Moon on draft, which is my favorite. Buffalo Connection has a drink special as well, so it wasn't a bad choice! After we arrived, I quickly realized why we went there...Lawrence and a few of his co-workers had gotten together on Monday and decided to have a mini-surprise birthday party for me with cake and live music! I was floored! I haven't had a birthday cake in long time...it was great! I even got presents...I kind of expected the ones from Lawrence and Claudia, but was stunned that others got me presents as well! I got a new AU Tumbler cup, AU tshirt, and a decorative plate with a birthday cake on it. Lawrence and Claudia got me a pearl necklace, a bottle of my favorite wine, a 6-pack of Blue Moon, and a magic AU eight-ball. I was completely surprised by the party and the necklace...the necklace is beautiful! Even though the day started out not quite the way I imagined, it turned out better than I could have ever expected! I have a wonderful husband, and I am so glad he made my last birthday in my 20s not seem so bad! Love you Lawrence!!

My Cake

Claudia enjoying the cake


Lawrence and me...that is the necklace


Laurel and Me

Lawrence, Bill, and Aaron

Claudia playing the air guitar

Claudia enjoying the music

Claudia with the entertainment

August, my birthday month and the last month of Summer, Begins...

This past weekend we went to Mississippi to see Mr. Hamberlin. Diane, Lawrence's sister, drove over as well from Dallas. It was great getting to see her. Her husband, Stuart, couldn't make it due to work. Plus they just a dog, so someone needed to stay home to take care of Eloise. We missed seeing Stuart...hoping to catch up with him soon!

The weekend overall was nice and relaxing. We arrived at Pop-pa's (that is what Claudia calls Lawrence's Dad) Friday evening, and Diane arrived shortly after. We didn't do much Friday evening except sit around and chat. Saturday we went shopping for a bit while Pop-pa took care of some things he had on his agenda. Willie Nelson was suppose to be in concert in Jackson Saturday night, so we thought we would try to go see him. While we were out shopping we thought we would drive by the stadium downtown Jackson to see what we could figure out because there wasn't a lot about his show in the local paper. When we got to the stadium it didn't take us very long to figure out that he was not playing...the stage was not being set up and it was almost 2 and the show was suppose to start at 8 that night. So then we thought we would go see the AA baseball team, the Mississippi Braves, play. At about 5:30 it started raining, and didn't stop...needless to say the game was cancelled because of the weather. So we cooked dinner and just decided to stay at the house...we watched the movie 16 Candles...love that movie!

Sunday we came home, but not before taking the opportunity to get some pictures of everyone with Claudia. We leave for Destin on Thursday...looking forward to spending a few days at the beach with the Brewers! Before I forget...32 days until AU Football..WDE!

Diane and Claudia

Claudia and Me

Pop-pa and Claudia

Claudia and Daddy

Our Little Family

A Slow Month, but Still Fun!

Claudia at Isabelle's Party...Silly Face Time!

Claudia playing at an inside playgorund at the Mall of Georgia

Claudia and Beck

It has been a few weeks since my last post. We actually have not been too busy lately which has been really nice. Since my last post we celebrated the 4th of July...I would have pictures of Claudia watching the fireworks, however we didn't get to see any. We were scheduled to go see the Opelika fireworks on July 2nd with some friends. As we were hanging out at their house and eating I noticed Claudia was walking around holding herself, and when I asked her if she needed to go potty she would say no that it hurt. So after about 30 minutes of that I decided to call the doctor's office to see if they could see her...by this time it was around 8pm. They told us if we could get there within the next 30 minutes to bring her. So Lawrence and I got our stuff together and headed that way. Once there we needed her to tee-tee in a cup so they could test for a urinary tract infection...we tried for 30-45 minutes...no luck. So the doctor told us to take one of the cups home and see if we could get her to tee-tee in it at home, and then bring the sample back in the morning. Claudia never did tee-tee in the cup, so we had to go back in the morning and they did a catheter...the test came back negative, thank goodness, and eventually later that day she was pottying fine without saying it hurt to tee-tee. We spent the rest of the 4th of July weekend swimming and grilling out with friends.

For the rest of July we have just been taking things easy...Claudia went to a birthday party for one of her classmates at a local tumbling gym, Premier Athletics. They had so much fun!!! We went to Lake Martin for an overnight trip to see our friends, Steve, Joanna, and their little girl, Adeline. Last weekend Lawrence and I ran a 5k together...I have been running one every week since the beginning of June, but this was our first together. It was a lot of fun, and I finished with my best time thus far. Tonight it the last one of the Summer Series that I have been participating in...hoping to do about what I did on Saturday morning, but running in the afternoon as compared to the morning is very different, especially with the humidity back in full swing! I guess that about wraps up our July. I am looking forward to August...a trip to see the Father-in-law, my birthday, and a beach trip all within the next week and a half...should have some great pictures after all that! Hope all is well with everyone...38 days until the AU football season kicks off...WDE!!!

Just for Fun

The other night Lawrence had a tennis match, so Claudia and I decided we would go out and watch. When we got there Lawrence gave Claudia a tennis ball to play with while we were there watching...you know something that will keep her occupied for when she got bored. She was being silly as always, so I decided I would bring out the camera and snap a few shots of her. As soon as she saw the camera she started saying "Take my picture Momma," and then would start posing...she can be such a ham at times. So after a few shots of her she wanted to take a picture of her tennis ball, so we did hence the picture of the tennis ball below. I love taking her picture because I love looking back at all of them and seeing how much she has grown and changed since she was just a baby. The night of the tennis match she turned 2 and a half...I cannot believe our baby girl is 6 months from being 3 years old...time flies!!

Cheese!

The Tennis Ball

Big Cheese!

Braves-Red Sox Game

Lawrence and I went up to Atlanta this past weekend for yet another Braves game. They were playing the Red Sox, so it was kind of a hard game to not go to. Claudia went to Mimi's house for the weekend...Mimi was ready to see her baby. I mean it had been a whole month since the last time she had seen Claudia, so she was having major withdrawals...lol! We left Auburn Saturday morning and drove to our friends' house, Marc & Fran Colley. Marc went to the game with us, Fran was not feeling well so she thought she would pass considering it was basically a 100 degrees outside. We met up with some of Marc's co-workers outside the stadium to tailgate. It was the first time Lawrence and I had ever tailgated before a baseball game...it is basically just like tailgating for football, just on a smaller scale. The game was good even though the Braves lost 1-0, and the most unhappy person known to man sat right next to us. This guy was quite interesting...he and his friend showed up at the bottom of the 4th inning, and you could tell he had had one to many drinks. During the 7th inning stretch after they played Take Me Out to the Ball Game, they started playing some other music. The guy started complaining about how bad the music choices were and what not. It wasn't the first thing he had complained about since sitting down next to us. Finally, I asked him if there was anything in his life that made him happy...he just kind of chuckled, and then I told him that it must really stink living a life where everything sucks. I think that made him a little mad because he than began to say things that weren't very nice and really didn't make a lot of sense. Needless to say it gave Lawrence, Marc, and I a laugh for later in the evening. After the game we headed to a little place called Clay's and ate some really good wings. We then went back to the Colley's house and played cards, which was a lot of fun because it was so late and we were all so tired and exhausted from being out in the sun all day. All in all the weekend was great...always is when you are with good friends accompanied by good food and good drinks!

Outside the stadium tailgating

Our seats were in between right field and center field

View from our seats