Thankful: November 19th - November 25th

November 19th~ Thankful for small things, like paci clips.

Nov 20th~ Thankful that Lyell and I stopped smoking over a year now and still have stayed strong. We smell a LOT better too.

November 21st~ Thankful for my sister, Laura. Not only does she love me, she loves my daughter like her own. She is always the first to volunteer for baby sitting and hugs and kisses her more than ME. Laura and I went shopping tonight and she (like always) got Ellie a sweet book. Its an inside joke with our family that Laura is plotting to keep Ellie for her own. 

November 22nd~ Thankful for THANKSgiving and a beautiful Thursday spent with both families. We are lucky to have almost all of our family here in Nashville. New traditions started this year, but I wouldnt have it any other way. Monell's with the In-Laws and a late dinner with my fam. 

November 23rd~ Thankful for my job. Even though I had to work this Friday and could not go shopping, I really do love my job and am thankful that I have one. 

November 24th ~ Thankful for my brothers. I love them both dearly and completely differently. They make fun of me like no other, boy oh boy. Its always a blast when they are around. We celebrated my birthday a few days early since Mike was in town still. Dinner and GiGi's cupcakes is a great way to celebrate my 31st birthday if I do say so myself. Notice the birthday card and note the inside joke from Nov. 21st :)

November 25th~ Thankful for my health and my families health. Some are not as fortunate and when it hits close to home, you wanted drop to your knees and thank The Lord , squeeze your babies a little tighter and hold on to that wish that it never comes your way.

Thankful : November 12th- November 18th

November 12th~ Thankful for my mother. I am thankful and blessed to have my mother for a lot of reasons...but.. Grandma daycare is the best. Watching Ellie light up when we get to my moms house and see her grandmother makes me so happy. I go to work to help support our little family and there is no one else in the world I would rather leave Ellie with.  Here are a few cute pictures I get randomly through out the day.

 and my recent favorite...

November 13th~ Thankful for my grandmother O. Today is her birthday and I miss her like crazy. Read a blog entry I wrote on her birthday HERE.

November 14th~ Thankful I know when to bite my tongue. Just like thumpers mother taught him, if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all. My mom use to quote that a lot. Lets just say I am glad this day is over and tomorrow is a new day, Scarlet.

November 15th ~ Thankful for my sister-in-law, Lana. I wish we saw each other more than we do, but I cherish the times Richard  Lana and Devon come down here. Lana has sent me so many wonderful things for Ellie. I am blessed to have someone care so much and is two steps ahead. Like this cute bracelet. Omg. Best teething item ever.

November 16th ~ Thankful for a husband that works full time and goes to school full time. I wouldn't be able to do what he does and still stay awesome. Love my Lyellze.

November 17th~ Thankful for my Bentley. Though we have not seen eye to eye lately. He has no doggie clue how much he means to me and all the times he has comforted me. He does not judge me and loves me unconditionally  I wish people (myself included) could love like a dog. Here is to a lazy Saturday and a place to lay in the sun. 

Bentley says he is thankful on this Saturday to go back to our secret play ground. We have still been able to keep this gem to ourselves.

November 18th~ Thankful for Sundays in general. A day to reconnect and get ready for up coming week. Also thankful for my little cooking helper on this Sunday afternoon. I have had a sinus infection and Ellie is working on that 6 months growth spurt...but...Muffins make everything a little better. 

 

Grandma O

My grandmother passed away on March 7th of this year. Though she was getting frail and admittingly we could see she was getting tired...it was still unexpected all the same. 

She was like another mother to me. In fact, I use to say I had two mothers when I was little. 

This first picture is of my grandmother and her sister... but you couldn't tell me that when I was younger. I would swear up and down that that was "me and grandma" when we were little together. She loved that story. She loved it so much she drug the picture along to share the story at my rehearsal dinner. Oh, how I miss her. 

Selflessly, I was immediately angry of her passing. Angry that I didn't say goodbye (the way I wanted). Angry that she didn't hang on longer. Angry that she never got to meet my daughter. Angry that I will never get to touch, hug her and kiss her again. I know that there is a reason for everything, and I will one day find peace in the timing.

I wrote the following letter several years ago and my noisy mother found it and passed it along to my grandmother.  My grandmother loved it, framed it and hung it in her room. Though embarrassing at the time, I take some comfort in knowing she knew how i felt about her long before she left us. (I wrote this a long time ago when we first found out she cancer the first time)

Dear Grandma, 

The thought of death will make you do and say things you might not before. These are my thoughts; they have always been there but never told and expressed to the ones that should hear them.

So, I wanted to tell you things that I hope you already know in your heart.Words on paper may not make my feelings anymore real to you but I feel they will to me. You have been the only grandmother I have even known. Because my father's mother passed away before I was even a twinkle in my father's eye; the thought of two grandmothers does not exist in my mind. I have many, many memories of you in my heart. And as I look at your life as a whole, it is beautiful. I respect every aspect of your life story.

This is not a goodbye letter. This is a milestone letter. Just a little to tell you I LOVE YOU. I want you to be in my life forever but I know there will come a day when are time together is no longer. I will feel better knowing that I had you sit down and feel my love for you.

A small tid-bit of memories: The donut shop, mash potatoes with a pound of butter, a Christmas book you would read to Laura and me over and over again while putting our names with the little girl characters, refrigerator boxes and into houses, George!!, your heart necklace  your hands that have so much personality, Christmas mornings, you and granddad's birthday cards, your calendar on your freezer, how I loved to play on your type writer, Suzie the Squirrel, Thanksgivings and Easters at your house, the random places you use to hide things, the day you showed Laura and me all your jewelry, you are my favorite baby-sitter, the loud staircase, the way the fan would make a noise while I went to sleep in your back bedroom. There are so many many more memories that will never fade.

I can not go much longer without posting some wonderful pictures of her during her lifetime. She had wonderful stories, traveled all over, had five kids, and was the greatest grandmother on the planet.

Onnie

She is the one on the left. 

She is the reason I am a lot of things.

She is the reason why I am tall (She was 6ft)

She is the reason why I have red hair.

She is the reason why I am creative. 

She is the reason why I am a lot of things.

She is the reason why money will never buy my happiness.

She is the reason why I don't care what people think.

She is the reason why I LOVE mash potatoes.

She is the reason I am a lot of things.

Happy Birthday Grandma, I miss you like crazy.

Sweet Nothings: 5 Months

Dear Elliott, You are 5 months old today. 

In some of these pictures, you can see your two little teeth.

Ellie, you can roll over front to back and back to front and have for a few weeks now.

Lyell makes you say : "Hi Haters!" One day I even heard your dad saying to you, "OK, tell all the haters HI". I walk into the living room and your crazy father is dragging you around on a blanket waving "Hi Haters, Hi Haters. Haters gonna hate".

You weigh 18.8 lbs (based on Lyell weighing himself and then adding you).

Everything still goes straight for the mouth. Freud would love you as a patient. Then two weeks ago, we realized it was about that time. TEETHING!

Your first Halloween was a success. We went to the zoo with some friends earlier in October. On Halloween night, we dressed you up and tricked your Gigi. Stayed longer than planned so we didn't pass out candy out our house, but it was a nice night with family and a home cooked meal.

You have randomly started saying "mama" in your ramblings. I know you have not made the connection, but MELT. MY. HEART.

You can hold your own bottle. Mostly for the first half and you get either too sleepy or too board and then you let mommy hold it for the latter half.

You are sleeping in your room now. We had gone out and just got a cheap little monitor so I could make sure I would hear you in the middle of the night. I even made Lyell test it out by standing in your room and whispering in the lightest thing to see if I could repeat it. I could. Yet I still was nervous and turned  it up all the way up that first night. You woke me up SIX times. Four of them you were just grunting...geez. I have turn it down since then.

I miss you in our room though, sometimes if you wake up for a night nursing close to the time I wake up for work...I will just bring you in our bed for a little snuggle time.

You have a few new toys taking up more room in the house.

You are now getting frustrated with certain things.You will get so angry if one of your toys falls out of your reach. One of my favorite things (which I should not laugh at) is: You have toys at grandma house too and the bouncer there is different from your bouncer at home. You get so angry at something that is not bendable on ours that is super bendable and you can put in your mouth at grandmas (it looks similar) . You try with all your might to bend it and put it in your mouth, then you get angry, hit it and puff out that bottom lip. Again, I can not help but laugh...but you are just so darn cute.

You love getting out of the house and being on adventures. Even if the adventures are a walk around the block, the mall or grocery shopping. You are such a delight and you smile at everyone. You light up my world and the world around you, Ellie. I hope you never loose that shine. Love you to the moon and back. 

Thankful : November 5th- November 11th

November 5th ~ Thankful for music. Especially weird music in the mornings. Like this song Lyell has gotten me addicted to :

November 6th ~ Obvious Choice:  My right to vote! My right to vote as an American and my right to vote as a women. I hope I can instill in Ellie the patriotic duty and honor it is to be able to stand in line on election day and make your vote count. My father gave me voting registration papers on my 18th birthday...and I have not missed an election (including local) since. I will watch the polls tonight with Ellie. I know she has no inkling of what is going on, but maybe she will look back at this one rainy old day and know that her mother and her mothers family was rich in politics and that one vote CAN change anything. 

November 7th ~  Thankful for photography. My love for photography started before college, but I fell for it hard when I took my first black and white class. I can remember watching my first print being made in the dark room. Though things have changed and I do it less creatively ..it still there and I am thankful I have a little creative Katherine in me that loves lighting, the way shadows hit against objects, sunsets, that perfect shot you get and you KNOW "thats the shot", or just shooting my little ellie on my phone. Its an outlet that hope stays with me for my lifetime.

November 8th ~ I am thankful for my sense of humor. Without humor, my life would really be boring and Debbie Downerish. I can honestly say that I can laugh off about anything. Maybe that has something to do with being the tall, red-headed, outcast when I was younger. 

November 9th ~ I am thankful for my inside jokes with Lyell. There have been so many, I am starting to forget the really weird things we use to do when we were younger. (Maybe that should be a post, one day). Anyway, I have been asked by several people what is up with all the trains in my instagram. It really wasn't even going to be a "thing" but I have kinda have gotten addicted to seeking out trains in my everyday life. This story will not make much sense, but I will attempt to make this funny understandable. Lyell follows a "special" guy on twitter and made me start following also...@beebee880 HE really is a super sweet, super awesome guy...who LOVES buses. 90% of his tweets consist of bus information. "Bus is here" "Bus is late" "On the Bus" and my all time favorite "I am bus". Taking Elliott everyday to my parents house and pass a train track that stops me sometimes. As a joke I started taking images of Trains and saying "Train is here" "Train is late"...ect. OK so this doesn't sound funny at all...but I get a kick out of taking pictures of Trains now. Guess this should have stayed an inside joke :/ 

November 10th~ Thankful that Lyell is such a wonderful father. He works and studies so hard for us and still wants to play with Elliott every chance he gets...sometimes playing means napping. 

November 11th ~ Thankful for my grandfather and all the veterans. Happy Veterans Day. Happy Sunday.