Work for your dinner

There's a big reason why I keep the pantry doors shut

She's about 3 feet tall. 

And she likes to get her own food.

This night it was pineapple and a syrup on the menu. Yum, Mary!

Christmas Morning

{Christmas morning for Mary}

{Christmas morning for me}

{Christmas morning for Paul}

Hope you all got just what you were wishing for

Pajamas

Guess who put Mary into her pajamas last night? 

Daddy!

We were hoping that the Dora panties would provide some incentive to use the potty. Mary's okay with just wearing them over her diaper ... or her clothes. So we're not making it very far. 

Stuff

Bronchitis

House Hunting 

Finals

Christmas Shopping

Bleh

Take A Smile!

My digital camera started falling apart sometime last summer - the display screen stopped working, the battery compartment wouldn't say closed, and the flash wasn't working either. I tried to hang out until Christmas to get a new camera, but I got tired of putting Mary beside the window every time I wanted to take a picture of her (you have to think about these things when you have no flash). I wasn't about to do our Disney trip without a functioning camera, so I hit up Amazon and am now the happy owner of this snazzy little Canon. 

The best part about my new camera is that Mary gets to play with my old one.  

She runs around with the camera turned backwards right into her face yelling "TAKE A SMILE!" And I get to take pictures of her doing it. 

My favorite picture ever

And I mean it this time

Paul's Debut

Mr. J. Paul Mitchell has made his debut on his firm's website ... Check him out!

Oh Mary!

Last night as Paul's putting Mary to bed she's crying -

"I need to checka my email! I need to checka my EMAIL!"

ha ...

Twilight

Definitely didn't love the movie, but sure did love some girl time out on a Friday night! 

(This would be, Amber ... Amber ... and Amber)

Next time, we skip the movie and go straight to the fun. 

The Shark's Coming

Whenever Mary's doing something that will hurt her, I always say something like 

"Mary, don't do that,  you'll get hurt ... and you'll cry". Adding that "you'll cry" part always seems to get her thinking and then she stops whatever she's doing. 

She's got the hang of this lately, because whenever I tell her not to do something, she continues with something like this -

Me-"Mary, don't touch that."

Mary -"it will fall down..."

    "and it will break..."

    "and you will cry...."

         ....

    "and the Shark will get you."

I have never threatened with a shark attack for any bad behavior - but every sequence of bad things around here has to end with "the Shark will get you." Maybe that's her own way of understanding the consequences of certain behaviors. A little extreme, but it works for her. 

Disney Pictures

Yay! I have been trying all week to get our Disney pictures uploaded - my computer and blogger have finally started working together! Here are our Disney Pictures.

We planned our Disney vacation in just about a week, and it was FABulous. Nicole - one of my favorite people on the planet, and a BFF from the high school days works for Disney and got us free tickets into the parks and a super amazing discount on Disney resorts. I'm pretty sure we couldn't have planned this trip any faster or any cheaper. We weren't Disney fanatics before the trip, but now, we LOVE that place and would gladly move there for the rest of our lives.

We did a four day trip down to Orlando, I'll post the quick version ...

Day 1 - A visit with Paul's grandparents and aunt & uncle in Ocala, FL and a late birthday party for Mary. On to Disney World to check into our resort, take a river boat ride to Downtown Disney for shopping, dinner, playing in the fountains, and Nicole. 

Day 2 - Swimming at 7:00am in the HOT November weather. Then a day at the Animal Kingdom with a safari ride, plenty of shows, and lots of animals. I love that place. We left Orlando that evening to watch the shuttle launch in Cape Canaveral. A night on the beach watching the shuttle launch = Paul's dream come true. 

Day 3 - Another early swim, and then breakfast at Chef Mickey's with all the Disney Characters. Then off the a full day at the Magic Kingdom for Paul's birthday with Aunt Nicole! We rode everything we wanted to ride and even some things we didn't (didn't know the Snow White ride is actually terrifying). Saw the Christmas decorations, the parades, the fireworks show, and were exhausted by the time the park closed at 11:00pm. I would gladly do it all again! 

Day 4 - A great breakfast and a long walk around the resort property since we were completely sad to be leaving Disney so soon. Then back to Ocala, for a birthday party for Paul! A fun visit with Nanny and Papaw and then back to Athens for a LATE night drive. 

Talk about a busy trip - we were wiped out by the end of every day, but it was really just too much fun to sit still =). We now are now in love with Disney World. 

Disney Disney Disney World

We just got back from a MOST amazing impromptu trip to Disney World. I'll post pictures as soon as I clean out the car, unpack the suitcases, catch up on laundry, and get out of my pajamas.

Birthday Loot

The days surrounding Mary's birthday brought in plenty of goods. We have a super happy two year old and LOTS of new toys!

A hippo from Aunt Jill

A Marching Band from Oma

GO Diego GO animals from Opa
(he knows Diego's popularity around here)

A SCHOOLBUS and new winter clothes from Grandma and Grandaddy

I had to face the obvious this year and come to terms with the fact that Mary is a GIRL. I have put off the pink, and the frills, and the princesses until now. Her little girlfriends have introduced her to the ways of ponies, princesses, dress up, and tea parties ... and she loves it. A LOT.

So we got her a ballerina costume.

but Devin and Becky won the birthday present of the year award with Mary's very own princess tea set and her princess shoes.

These go with us everywhere. Mary knows that once you're two, you must be prepared with heels and a tea set at all times. Now that's a Happy Birthday!

My Birthday Girl

My little girl was born two years ago today. 

 and she's still going strong! 

Happy Birthday to my Mary!

I love you!

Halloween pictures gone wild

If you've had enough Dumbo, feel free to skip this post.

I find Mary dressed as an elephant to be irresistibly cute, and would like to post it everyday.

We spent Halloween in North Georgia with Paul's family and had too much fun with all the aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews all dressed up. 

Yoda, a pirate, a cupcake, a mailman, an elephant, and a hobo, just to name a few.

We took Mary trick-or-treating with our good friends the Ward's in Chattanooga. We love that they live so close to Paul's family, so we'll always be able to keep in touch. I used to babysit their older kids when they were just little. Now they are growing up and ready to babysit Mary for us! They made the round MUCH faster than we did. Our band of toddlers was pretty pokey. But we ended the night with buckets full of candy and some tired kids!

Celeste was my trick or treating buddy. I think she's a hot mamma.  

P.S. I also think this picture of Mary is hilarious.

Just a little sad

Paul's on fabulous vacation to the Ritz in Amelia Island, Fl.

We're at home, totally bummed.

Losing My Mind

I really shouldn't be allowed to drive anymore. 

I already posted about my awesome speeding ticket and the big bucks I handed over for that one. 

The week after that, I was driving home and hit two dogs in the road. Not everyday you kill two animals at once, I get the prize for that one. It was dark and they came out of the shadows running towards my car in my lane, there was a car coming in the other lane, so my only choice was to hit them. It's entirely unsettling to look something in the face and then kill it (for me at least!), and I was pretty upset about the whole ordeal. A piece of the front of my car was broken off, and I felt guilty about killing somebody's pet, BUT I was grateful that Mary and I were both okay and didn't cause an accident because of it. 

The next week ... I turned into our neighborhood and my back right tire blew out. Luckily, I was close enough to home that I made it safe and sound into our garage where Paul could put on the spare and I could take it to buy new tires. Not that bad. UNTIL I had the back tires replaced, all the tires moved around, rotated, balanced, and aligned. A few hundred dollars later ... yuck. 

So THIS week, I went to watch a friends kids while she voted and parked behind her, completely forgetting that she would be leaving as soon as I got there. She was on a hill and couldn't see my car behind her. She backed right into it on her way out. Luckily, her car was fine, but the front of my car has just taken a beating in the last few weeks. Now it's all complicated and I'm not sure how to handle it with the insurance. 

"Umm - I did this part last week when I hit two dogs ... and the rest of this is from yesterday when I was backed into ... Feel free to discontinue my insurance, I'd like to start walking everywhere from now on." -Sarah

A Halloween Preview

My Favorite Conversations

My favorite conversation with Mary this week. 

After falling down in the driveway and skinning her knees. I pick her up, she's sobbing and tells me "I'm okay ... I'm just gonna cry." After two minutes of good tears, she tells me "I'm all better" and gets down to play again. The end. 

Homecoming

I accidentally dressed Mary in Vanderbilt colors Saturday morning, so we had to leave her at home for the UGA Homecoming game. 

That's kind of a lie. I did accidentally dress her in yellow and blue, but that's not the reason we left her behind. Paul and I got to go to our first Georgia game together this season. We've been going separately to the games since our tickets are always in different sections. We stuck together for this game and, wahoo, so much fun! 

Only one more home game to go while we're living in Athens ... kind of bitter sweet. But we'll be back! 

Traffic Court

I went to traffic court yesterday. I can now put that at the top of my list of the worst things I have ever done. 

I got my first speeding ticket in August, going 84 in a 65 on the interstate. Going 19 over would give me 4 points on my license and an awesome raise on my insurance, plus a $20 convenience charge to pay the ticket online. I decided to show up for my traffic court date and see if I had any better options. I had to be at the courthouse at 9:00am, along with every other traffic violation in the past few months including DUI's, probation violations, driving without a license, etc. Too bad for us, the courtroom was under renovation that day and all of us has to sit in a crowded lobby until we could see the judge individually. They started with major offenses first and worked their way to speeding tickets last ... six hours later.  I brought books to keep myself occupied but when probation sentences are being read aloud and people are being escorted to jail every few minutes, it's hard to concentrate on much of anything. I was pretty sure I was going to be taken to jail by the end of the day. 

Since this was my first traffic offense, I wanted to use my option to plead 'No Contest' - getting the ticket dropped from my record and no points added to my license. Too bad you have to do that in front of a judge. I spent six hours waiting to see a judge for 20 seconds and sign my name. Some sort of mail-in form would have been nice ... 

So I did it, I'm done. I paid my fine and the ticket was dropped. Was it worth the trouble? NO. I will now drive 10 under the speed limit everywhere I go, as long as I never have to go to traffic court ever again. 

 

The Mom Prom

... what Paul's coworkers lovingly call the event we attended last weekend. 

Their firm represents a hospital in Milledgeville, GA that holds an annual charity ball each fall. There were limited tickets to the dinner this year, and most of the firm was happy they didn't have to go. They were thrilled to send us rookies in their place instead. 

If you don't know Milledgeville, it was the capital of Georgia before and during the Civil War, and I imagine it's not too different today than it was then. It still boasts it's antebellum history and that confederate flag! The Oconee Regional Healthcare Foundation Ball, ... or The Mom Prom ... is the time of year when women the age of my mother, put on their best high school prom dresses and come out for an evening of fun. I'm sure I was entirely underdressed wearing a cocktail dress instead of a floor-length, sequined, rhine-stoned number. But we had a GREAT night of people watching, and absolutely a ton of fun with Paul's coworkers. 

The best part about the weekend was our fabulous Bed and Breakfast. The Antebellum Inn, built in 1890 ...

and our visit to see Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit in Eatonton on the way home. 

Can't wait for Mom Prom 2009!

A self-portrait

Not sure how this picture ended up on my camera. Looks like Mary's 1st self-portrait. Maybe she secretly created some sort of facebook profile and needs a stunning picture of her serious face. 

She loves her.

This is Reese. Mary was super excited to see her today. 

Judging by the look on Reese's face, I don't know if she was quite as excited about all this hugging business. But, later they traded sippy cups and it was all good for the rest of the day.