Happy Birthday Cecilia!

Our sweet Cecilia turned TWO on October 12. We had a fun few days celebrating. She got a pumpkin donut from Krispy Kreme on the morning of her birthday. She only ate the icing! She loved the Happy Birthday song and kept saying "happy to me." She had pumpkin cookies at school on Wednesday and got to wear a birthday crown. We went to Wednesday night supper and everyone sang happy birthday to her there as well and then we had a family birthday party on Sunday. Her favorite things were her princess dresses (Snow White and Cinderella), a tea set, a "fur real" kitty, her first barbie, two new purses (can never have too many!) and a new music box.







What a difference two years makes!

2009:



2010:



2011:

In Memoriam

Last Saturday, Pam, the wonderful, graceful and amazing leader of our admission and communication department at SCAD passed away after a long battle with cancer.

In the spring of 2000, I was a young, naive, inexperienced college graduate and she, along with my current supervisor, took a chance on me and hired me to work in the admission office. Eleven years later, I am still there because I love it so much and have never wanted to leave. I have been impacted by the many students, faculty and staff along the way. I have created and maintained friendships with amazing people over the years. She helped me realize that higher education is my career calling and now I am only 4 classes away from receiving my Master in Education. I am so thankful that she was a part of my life, a true inspiration. Most of all, I am so thankful I let her know how much I appreciated her by sending her a short message, which she replied to, just a couple of weeks before her passing.

Here is a link to a wonderful article HERE
Photo credit: savannahnow.com

Going Home

Yes, Savannah is home now. It is where my family is so of course that is where home is but I miss Virginia and I still have family and friends that I wish I was able to see more often.

Jimmy and I headed to Virginia last weekend for what was a whirlwind trip of visiting with family and friends and going to my high school reunion.

We arrived Friday afternoon and after getting sucked into the upsell at the Hertz counter...sure, we will take the Infinity SUV for an extra $50 bucks (really?!) we headed to Maggie's parents house in Woodbridge for the evening and night. I spent a lot of weekends at their house during college and it was so nice to go back there. It brought back great memories. It was so great to visit with the Piczak's, see Maggie and most importantly meet sweet Logan!




After breakfast we went Leesburg to pick up my brother. We headed to Hamilton, drove around the old neighborhood, stopped by and saw Louie and then went to lunch in Purcellville (after we sat in traffice in Pville for about 15 minutes...what happened to Purcellville!!).



The the reunion was Saturday night at Hiddencroft Vineyards in Lovettsville. What a beautiful place and the wine was very good! Loved the chardonnay. Saw some great friends and I spent so much time talking that I hardly took any pictures! Of course the talking was magnified by each glass of wine ;). It really was just a wonderful evening!!

Then and Now

I was having a hard time the other day trying to remember what Jimmy looked like when he was Cecilia's age. The way he would say certain things, the funny facial expressions and just what it felt like to hold him at 2 years old. When you are in midst of certain times and stages it is hard to realize that it won't be like that forever and then when you look back, you realize how fast time is going by! Here are a couple of pics of Jimmy at Cecilia around the same age.

Summer and School

It is hard for me to get used to school starting in August. While little Jim's preschool has not started school, most schools in Savannah, private and public, start in August. I always remember starting after Labor Day..but I guess we got out in June while most schools here are out by May. Still, August signals the beginning of school and a return to a schedule which can be good and bad. Before school started, we got in one last mini vacation with our friends at Lake Martin, Alabama. We spent time boating, looking at the beautiful lake houses (Maria's family's house included!) jet skiing, tubing, swimming and spending time with our good friends the Justice family. Little Jimmy went tubing and so did I!

Well hello there...

Whew...I have thought about writing a post for a while but get exhausted just thinking about all the stuff that has happened this summer and summer isn't even over yet!

The biggest news of the summer is that Spices Etc and Mo Hotta Mo Betta have a new home! And it is only 8 minutes from our house. That is right folks. We got ourselves a new warehouse. That meant taking our house off the market but it means much bigger things for the businesses and our family. It is 8 minutes and no traffic (those of you still fighting the traffic and commutes...move closer to work...or move to Savannah...life is good here...number 7 on Travel and Leisure's Top 10 cities in US and Canada!) and the other great thing...it has this mack daddy ice machine. I am talking about the kind of ice machines that you used to find in a hotel and you would lift up the door and see tons of glorious ice cubes. It is pretty awesome. It is the first thing the kids do when they visit daddy and Papa at work. They go straight to the ice machine. Heck, sometimes I go straight to the ice machine too. Lots of hard work went into getting the warehouse ready and even more moving two businesses but they are finally all moved in and getting settled.

This is the right side. There is the exact same warehouse on the left. The left is Spices Etc and the right is Mo Hotta:


I helped with vacation bible school. I was in the kindergarten class. Wow. I was exhausted after three days.

We had a bad storm and our neighbors tree fell in our yard. They were great and took care of the tree removal. Luckily it didn't hit any houses, sheds, fences or our new swing set. It did crush our old swing set and an chair but the damage really was minimal. We weren't home when it happened.




We had a family friendly fourth of July picnic and firework show with friends and neighbors.




We took Jimmy on a little mini vacation to Atlanta. We visited the Aquarium, the World of Coke and the Zoo. When we were at the zoo he told us that he was tired of seeing all of the animals so we headed home. His favorite part of the trip 1. the hotel room, 2. watching movies in the hotel room 3. swimming in the hotel pool. 3. Watching movies in the car. 4. Drinking lots of coke. So next time, we are just going to find a nice cheap hotel with a pool, drive around and let him watch a movie and then let watch a movie in the hotel room and drink some coke. It will be much cheaper.

First trip to the Varsity:








We had our first trip to the dentist. I was pretty nervous about this one but he did great! He let her count and polish his teeth but he didn't like the water or the suction straw so she just let him rinse his mouth out with a cup and water. That suited him and me just fine.






This past Saturday we went to Sea Island for the day to visit with Jimmy's uncle, aunt and cousins and their children. It was so much fun to see everyone.

Island in the yard, that is what is was...

Not too many people can say they have a deck island in their backyard. We can..or I should say we "could." The deck island takes a little bit of explaining. When our house was originally built in the fifties there was an above ground pool. Due to the former above ground pool there was a large concrete slab in the backyard. The previous owners chose to build a large deck to cover it up. While it looked okay, it was wasting valuable yard space and had to go. We didn't want the time and expense to remove the slab so we (well, mostly Jimmy since he did all of the work) decided to make a playground for the kids and they LOVE it!!

BEFORE:


Halfway removed:

 

 

One of three truck loads of mulch:





We had some plants moved to other places in the yard and a few removed and the play area is bordered by railroad ties, one that Jimmy had to use a chainsaw to cut!


Getting started:


Almost done...


All done! Little Jimmy kept saying "You did a great job, Daddy!"


Just a little bit more landscaping to do but like Little Jimmy said...Daddy did a great job. He did ALL of the work besides moving and replanting the plants and palms. He took the deck apart, hauled it all to the dump, three truckloads of mulch that had to be hauled by wheelbarrow to the back yard, 5 railroad ties and one had to be cut with the chainsaw and he put together the playset for the kids. Lots of fun to be had in the backyard this summer!