ELMO!

Watching Elmo Wednesday when it was to cold to play outside. Elmo is currently Alyssa's favorite character. She is particularly fond of "Potty Time Elmo." 

Finally we got to play outside!

Alyssa is an outside girl. She loves to be outdoors. We spend a significant amount of time outside weather permitting. It was pretty enough today that we got to play outside. We went to the park and had a wonderful time. Here's some pictures from our day. 

I am constantly amazed at how big and independent she has become. She can climb up and down the stairs now by herself with just a little help from us. She actually spent 95% of the time we were at the park going up and down these stairs. She had a blast doing it.

This picture is adorable! 

Oh goodness what have I done?????

That has been my constant Mantra lately. What in the world have I done??? What drugs was I taking when Jamey talked me into agreeing to this military thing??? It'll be a great adventure I suppose, but all the details are stressing me out. Our house was listed today....yes listed it's on the market. Actually it won't be officially on the market until February 20th. We have to beautify it and make some minor repairs. I think our realtor is pretty good, but I am really hoping that our house doesn't sit on the market forever. A house in our subdivision just sold and it was on the market 56 days. Hopefully ours will only spend 56 days on the market as well. 

So anyway now I need to take a deep breath and try to just relax. Hopefully I'll survive this.....if not 4 years isn't really that long is it???

Reflections on the past

We received notification that we will be stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX. Jamey will report 3 weeks earlier than we thought. I'm pretty sad about the thought of us being apart. I guess that got me thinking about the past, our past, our history, our relationship, our life.

Jamey and I met for the first time at a bowling alley when I was 17. He was 23. I actually don't even remember meeting him, but I do remember him wearing camo pants and a Hawaiian shirt and drinking beer with his best friend Chris. I don't think that we ever actually spoke. Jamey says that he remembers the first time he ever saw me. I had on jeans, and a white button up shirt. I was loud and country and he thought that I was beautiful and happy and everything that he wanted. He was in the Air Force. I was in high school. He went to Kuwait about a month later. I didn't even remember his name.

About a year later Jamey got out of the Air Force. I graduated from Buckhorn High School. His best friend, Chris was engaged to my good friend Julie and Chris remembered that Jamey thought that I was loud, country and beautiful. Jamey arrived back in Huntsville, AL on January 28, 2000. He was out of the Air Force I was out of high school. I was having dinner with Chris and Julie and after telling Jamey I'd be in attendance he rushed down to meet us. I didn't know he was coming until he walked in and sat down at the table. He had on a faded red shirt (which now was more like a dark pink...) a pair of jeans with holes in the knees, sneakers that he should have thrown out ages ago, at least a weeks worth of unshaven beard on his face, and a "high and tight" military hair cut. I remember thinking "Where did they find this fellow???" Jamey spoke very little (maybe three words), but I talk a lot so that made up for it. I remember him looking at me with his crystal clear blue eyes and feeling like he could see right into my soul. Somehow I felt like he saw all the things that were wrong with me, and all the things that were right. I hung around for almost an hour in the parking lot waiting for him to ask for my phone number. In case you are wondering he never did ask...he was too shy and he didn't think I was that interested. On the way home I told Chris that I thought that I would marry Jamey one day. He laughed and thought I was silly, but I was dead serious. I am not going to say it was love at first sight, but I just felt like I had met the part of me that was missing. Chris passed my number along after I pleaded with him to do so.

About a week later he called me and asked me out. My younger brother answered the phone with a "So are you the guy she has been waiting on to call all night???" Rather humiliating I must say. It took him about 20 minutes and he stuttered through the whole thing, it was rather cute. He picked me up after school and I didn't even recognize him. He'd shaved and had on decent, clean clothes....we went to the movies and I fell down the stairs. Graceful as always....but he's used to me falling down now. I do it rather often.

Fast forward 2 years or so. Jamey planned a picnic in the park. Jamey planned on making lunch, Jamey overslept. Jamey picked up lunch at Little Rosie's. Taco's I believe. I found my engagement ring in my taco. How romantic right? He shrugged and smiled and said "Well will you?" I said yes of course.

Fast forward 1 1/2 years. May 31, 2003 Jamey and I married. Jamey wrote our wedding ceremony, complete with a Unity Sword (for those of you who didn't witness this truly remarkable and weird event I am sorry because it was really beautiful, here's the link to the pictures to prove it. http://www.pbase.com/angiekephart/just_the_two_of_us  ). Jamey promised to be "the father of my children, the companion of my days" and I did the same. We've been married for 6 years this May. Not everyday has been bliss, but everyday has been wonderful. On our first anniversary Jamey wrote me the following poem:

My dearest Angela

My life, my love, like a furious storm,

Fighting and clashing and thrashing about,

Love's rainbow is scarely seen by eye,

Touching heaven and earth but to afraid to fly,

The storm recedes and is gone

so too my life, my love so newly dawned

She places my soul to the depths of me

This brave new world of love yet to be.

Love Jamey

This poem is like our life, sometimes I can't believe how true it is. We have weathered storms, but there has always been a rainbow and behind that rainbow is a brave new world. That new world, and whatever adventure it may bring has always been worth weathering the storm. I hope that we will be able to enter this upcoming new phase in our life with all the love and all the hope that we have been able to bring into our marriage so far. I truly hope that our daughter will know that she has parents who love each other every bit as much as they love her. I hope one day when I am fat (well I am already fat), old and gray that my equally fat, old and bald husband will still be holding my hand and that he'll still remember the loud country girl that he met back in 1999 at a bowling alley and still feel the very same way. 

Some things last a lifetime.....

So today I was flipping through the old photo albums and came across these! One of the things that last a lifetime is my friendship with my Clarissa. I'm very lucky to have the friendship of this very special lady. These are oldies but goodies!

2009 Resolutions

2009 New Years Resolutions, I didn't really have any in 2008 I think that I was still to overwhelmed by life as a new mother, finalizing our adoption and our chaotic moving hither, thither and yon to even think of resolutions last year. 

1. With the economy going like it is my biggest resolution is to make more of what I have. I'm going to start clipping my coupons, tighten the budget, and stop buying ridiculous whim items that we don't need and won't ever use. I actually have my grocery list made out and my coupons and price matched items all marked out for grocery shopping after work tomorrow night.

2. I'm going to lose the rest of the weight that I need to lose. I have lost 26 lbs so far since last summer, but I still have a ways to go. (I got super fat after Alyssa was born....I guess I was making up for not having a  pregnancy! I wanted to be able to complain about my "baby weight too! just kidding!) I want to reach a healthy for me reasonable weight by the fall this year. I want my Mii on the Wii fit to have a normal BMI and no longer pat it's fat rump or rub it's belly. (Any of you Wii users will appreciate this, it was a little disheartening when my Mii got fat after I stepped on...sigh). Along with this comes the goal to work out 4 days a week. That's reasonable and I can do it. This goal isn't only a personal goal but it's a goal to also teach my daughter healthy eating/exercise habits. They do do as we do you know.

3. I'm going to be more positive. I try to do this anyway but I still tend to wallow around in my own self pity from time to time and view that glass as half empty and not half full. 2009 is bringing major changes in my little family unit and it is my job as a wife and mother to make the best out of whatever those changes bring us. Those might bring us living in temporary housing on lawn chairs somewhere, but instead of whining about it I am going to try to turn it into a "camping adventure." (I may not be that successful if I have to live in lawn chairs and sleep on the floor for any longer than say a week...lol! But you get my drift!). 

4. I am also going to do a better job of teaching Alyssa stuff. I'm a wonderful playmate but I'm terrible at actually sitting her down and teaching her things like her ABC's. I'd rather just dance in the kitchen and slide around in our socks (that's her new favorite "mommy dance move" by the way!)

5. I'm going to get organized. I have already started that and have been reading "That Military House, move it, organize it, redecorate it." We are in the process of going through our closets, spare rooms, attic, garage ect. and we are getting rid of our extra stuff that just takes up space. Jamey's also getting rid of a large portion of his comic book collection (which is MASSIVE and quite an undertaking). Think it's too late to enroll us in that show "Clean Sweep" on TLC??? If anyone wants to enter me I'd appreciate it! Enter me in "What not to Wear" while you are at it.

I think that is about it. I have all these little mini things that I want to work on but these are the biggies. Hopefully I can do a follow up blog on myself at the end of the year and be thrilled with all my progress.

A Saturday in the life of an 18 month old

Alyssa and I had a pretty good day today. She is getting so much better about actually coloring, and not eating her crayons (we've had some serious issues with that in the past). She always uses such a large variety of colors on her "artwork" She likes markers much better than crayons but they tend to end up on her, me, the wall, our white cat, whatever happens to be handy! Jamey and I agree that we have an artistic genius in the making on our hands! Too bad that she likes to really focus her art on the cat and the walls....maybe she'll be one of those people that paint cats http://www.whypaintcats.com or a grafitti artist....who knows?

My Daddy and his long-time girlfriend, Eula, made a surprise appearance on our doorstep today as well. That was such a nice surprise. Alyssa treated them to a tea party. She's a wonderful hostess. My dad really enjoyed his time with his granddaughter and Lyssie enjoyed time spent with her PawPaw. She was afraid of him for the longest time for whatever reason, but she's finally gotten over that. She brought just about every toy that she has to pile in his lap while he was here. After they left she hit the crib for a much needed nappy.

After being refreshed by her nap, she and I turned our living room into a giant fort. That was a first and she LOVED it! She thought it was the greatest thing that we had ever done. She just kept running in and out and laughing hysterically. She desperately wanted Desi, our toy poodle, to join in the fun. Desi however would rather have her tail cut off than be caught dead in that fort with our little monster! Uncle BJ did take some time from watching the Titans game to play in the fort for a bit though. 

I managed to not get the laundry done, not go grocery shopping, not do any housework and be completely behind on everything that I need to have done today. Life is too short and Alyssa's growing up too fast, so being a bit behind on all that or spending some time with a flash light under a quilt and a slew of pillows with my daughter can take priority today. I'm very happy to say that the decision wasn't all that hard to make. Here's to years and years filled with Saturday's full of crayons, tea parties and forts in the living room.....

Rear Ended

So Tuesday night on my way home from work I was rear ended at a traffic light. When it rains in Nashville, TN people drive like crazy folks. I got the call from the other car owners insurance company today giving me the go ahead to get the car repaired. This whole thing has been just annoying...but at least I wasn't hurt and Alyssa was safely at home with her Daddy.

Myers Family Maternity Pictures

I had the chance to do Ciara and Sean Myers maternity pictures in their home yesterday. I did this wonderful couples Engagement pictures a couple of years ago and they were so easy to work with that I was thrilled when they called me to do their maternity pictures. I worked with Ciara in Neuro ICU back when I worked there. They are expecting Addison Grace on February 12th. This is just a couple of my favorites from the pics that we took. 

Addison Grace is going to be very lucky to have Ciara and Sean as parents. Their love for one another is so evident just from being in the room with them, and truly I haven't ever met a nicer couple of people.