Just really cute pics

Adler has this new thing now that whenever he sees me taking a picture of him with the camera or my phone, he says, "Cheeeezzzee" - which then gives him the same 7 toothed smile in all of our latest pics. We've been going on picnics lately...just a fun way to get out of the house and enjoy this weather before it gets too hot....so, here are some pics from picnic at the park and the zoo today...

Work Crew Weekend at Young Life's Sharp Top Cove

Just got back from a weekend at Young Life's Sharp Top Cove in Jasper, Georgia. The camp is surrounded by the beautiful Georgia mountains. It was the most perfect weather you could imagine. I took some of the coolest high school girls up to serve as Work Crew for Family Camp. We had an awesome time together, lots of hard work, but it was completely worth it! Thanks girls for giving your weekend to serve Young Life!

Need Some New Make-Up?

A good friend of mine, Virginia, sent me an email about this. E.L.F makeup is being bought by Nordstrom, so they are having to repackage all of their products. So, you can buy almost everything on their site for only a dollar each. I just bought new make up brushes and a couple of other things...even if they are the wrong color...Oh well...it was only $1!

My dog ate a rotisserie chicken.....

Oh my goodness......
OK, so you may or may not know that through a tracking monitor I have on the blog, I can find out what people "google" to end up at my blog. Here's what brought someone to my blog today...

"My dog ate a rotisserie chicken, now he can't poop"

How in the world did that google search land that person onto my blog is beyond me. And what is up with someone letting their dog eat an entire rotisserie chicken..of course he can't poop..he's got chicken bones all lodged up in his system...good luck with that one!! Poor dog....

Dodge Ball Tourney

Our community group is participating in a fundraiser event, sponsored by Chick-Fil-A, to build a school in Niger. We (except me) will be playing in a dodge ball tournament this weekend. (I'm going up to Sharp Top Cove for YL) So, "Couch Huff" mowed out a close-to-official-size dodge ball court in their back yard and we had practice last week. The kids cheered on their daddys while eating hot dogs and chicken nuggets....Some of the more athletic moms will be playing (Christine Huff) while others will be providing orange slices and Hi-Cs. I'm sorry I will miss it!

Chuck E. Cheese

Adler's first trip to Chuck E. Cheese was this Monday. We went with Graycen (our God-daughter) to celebrate her 3rd birthday and her mom (Misty). It was great to go with a "big girl" to show Alder around the place. He wasn't too sure about all the rides, wanted to throw the ski-ball any other place than where it was supposed to go, but loved the singing robot mouse (I thought someone dressed up as a mouse at these places, but apparently I was wrong). He kept saying "hi mouse, bye mouse, hi mouse". I was very impressed with the child security when you walk in. Each family was stamped with coordinating numbers so no body left with the wrong person. There was an attendant at the door at all times and they were very serious about their job as "gate-keeper". I'm sure this is the beginning of many trips to visit The Mouse.

Adler and daddy doing the car racing video game...(these are my favorite...."prepare to qualify")


Graycen trying out the "so you think you can you dance?" game....


Graycen REALLY wanted "Uncle Boche" to go with her in the climby thing and go down the slide....

She is very convincing...

Adler kept waiting at the bottom for them to come out...



Who's the boss?

And we're back....

Some pictures of me and my boy having a picnic at the zoo....


Bath time!

Blueberry muffins for breakfast....(check out Tristan eyeing his hopeful breakfast)

My favorite view....

Time to lighten things up around here

Okay that last post was depressing me, so decided to go with some of the latest pics on my phone...

Welp, nevermind....I'm getting this weird message that my pics can't be uploaded and I've tried twice, so now I give up because I have Mountain St. Hunton on my living room couch (what I call loads of clean laundry) and a sleeping baby so not going to waste anymore time. Looks like we just all have to be depressed...

Sad study report for our generation and the next....

This morning, I came across this report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I've copied the story below, but a new study by the CDC says that 1 in 50 infants in the U.S. have suffered from neglect or abuse within the first week of life. Neglect is defined by not meeting the basic needs of a child such as shelter, clothing, feeding and access to medical care. A large percentage of these infants were cases of newborn drug addiction and in part may reflect the lack of health care/prenatal care/education available to their parents.

This breaks my heart. That an innocent child, just like Adler, would be born into a situation completely out of their control and not have access to the same care and treatment from doctors as Adler had. What can we do to change this?


ATLANTA — About 1 in 50 infants in the U.S. have been neglected or abused, according to the first national study of the problem in that age group.

Nearly a third of the victims were one week old or younger when the maltreatment was reported, government researchers said Thursday. The study focused on children younger than 1.

Most of these cases involved neglect, not physical abuse. In the case of the newborns, experts said the data suggests drug abuse by the mother may have been the cause for reports of neglect, but they couldn't be certain.

Maternal drug abuse is often discovered through blood tests while newborns are still in the hospital, CDC researchers and others said.

"That is the story here," said Dr. Howard Dubowitz, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

The researchers counted more than 91,000 infant victims of abuse and neglect during the study period Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 30, 2006. About 30,000 of those cases were newborns aged one week or younger.

The information came from a national database of cases verified by protective services agencies in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Other studies have looked at national child abuse and neglect cases, but this is believed to be the first to focus on infants, said study co-author Rebecca Leeb, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The results mirror what a study in Canada found, said Leeb, a CDC epidemiologist.

"We certainly were distressed" by the study's results, said Ileana Arias, director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

"It's a picture you don't want to imagine — that this number of infants is being mistreated," Arias added.

Only about 13 percent of the newborn cases were counted as physical abuse, meaning the large majority involved neglect. Federal officials define neglect as a failure to meet a child's basic needs, including housing, clothing, feeding and access to medical care.

The counted cases did not include new parents stumbling their way through breast-feeding or making other rookie mistakes.

"Things like abandonment and newborn drug addiction would qualify as neglect, not things like parents learning how to be parents," Leeb said.

Medical professionals identified about 65 percent of the maltreated newborns to protective services staff. The others came from law enforcement, relatives, friends, neighbors and from protective services staff.

The neglect cases include situations in which medical professionals conclude that a child got sick or didn't correctly develop because parents didn't get recommended medical care. Those cases were not necessarily life-threatening, noted David Finkelhor, who directs the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.

Finkelhor said the cases might in part reflect families who don't have adequate health insurance. The study's authors said they don't have information to verify that theory.

Both Finkelhor and Dubowitz have worked with the same database the researchers used. But Dubowitz pointed to data showing that most of the neglect cases in newborns were reported in the first two days of life.

That is a time when results from blood tests of mother and child come back and are often shared with protective services. Such tests would indicate whether the mother was abusing drugs.

However, Dubowitz said data on potential explanations behind neglect cases is skimpy, so it is difficult to draw conclusions.

But more prenatal care and drug treatment services would seem like a wise way to address the problem, he added.

The study didn't include data on fatal abuse and neglect. But federal officials said about 500 infants under age 1 died of abuse or neglect during the study period.

The CDC collaborated on the study with the federal Administration for Children and Families. The research was published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Nothing lasts forever

If there is one thing I have learned in my pregnancy and year and a half of having a child, it's that nothing lasts forever. I hope I can always remember this through each stage, challenge, joy of having children. Adler has taught me so much about cherishing each moment. Even the times I feel like "is this stage ever going to end?". Like when Adler would only sleep in his swing, I thought he would be 18 and I would be carrying in his Papasan baby swing into his dorm room. Turns out it was only a couple weeks. Good thing too-this was a close one. Then, it was I could only get him to sleep by bouncing him sideways, with a pacifier in his mouth. Then, only when upright and patting his back. Then a book and a song. Now only a book.

He doesn't even want the song any more. I mean, I know I don't have the best voice or anything, but when I start singing, he starts reaching for the crib. Now he just goes to bed with no real demands other than reading a couple books. The voice must be worse than I realize....

All of this to say, nothing lasts forever. I almost wish I had a little bit more time with him tonight. Have him fall asleep on my shoulder, listen to his breathing. I know I did cherish those night times together because I knew in just a few short years, I wouldn't have the chance to put him to bed this way. I guess I didn't realize that the short years were really short months. I hope I can keep this perspective through potty training, discipline, and everything else a head of us. I love Adler so much. Watching him grow up is so bitter sweet. But mostly sweet.

Adler and his friends

Remember the crying-face-picture post of Adler from his nursery? Well, after an entire semester of going to the nursery (now that we only have one more class left), Adler loves the nursery. Today, he actually reached out for the care-taker and didn't cry, fuss or even look back at me. I had to take these pictures of him sitting down like a big boy at the class table for his morning snack. It was just too cute! We start Mother's Morning Out in May!

D's Bachelorette Party

Just got back from a blast of a weekend with my best friends in Texas. We all met up in Austin to celebrate Deanna's wedding coming up in May! We had the best time by the Four Season's pool, dinner at ZTejas, dancing at Union Corner, and brunch at Moonshine Grill. I've got pictures to upload from my point-and -shoot and will post those later. Here's one of me and D in the bathroom at ZTejas.

Making the switch

Good-bye old friend. You served me well late nights in college - on crackers, banana or just straight for the jar. But you are no good for me. I can do better. So, this is it for us. I hope we can still be friends. But there is someone else. It just feels more Natural. See, it's not you, it's me. I'm trying to make better choices for the other people in my life. You are just going to have to take your fully hydrogenated vegetable oils somewhere else. See ya 'round...

Catching up old pics

I've been behind on my blogging, but here are some pics from when Shelley and Miles came to visit from Asheville. We had to make a trip to Trader Joe's so Shelley could stock up on some of her favorites she can't get in NC. It was a great weekend and had such a great visit with the Masons.

You know you're a mom when....

Your morning routine consists of powdering the oil out of your head so you can go another day without a shower

The Boyz

Peas in a pod - how cute are they???

Peas in a pod - how cute are they???, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

I'm leavin', on a jet plane....

I'm headed for Austin, Texas today for my BFF's bachelorette party! Stephen is having a boys' weekend with Adler! This will be their first "real" weekend together and I know they will have a blast! I'll be seeing all my best friends from Texas this weekend and I can't wait! I'll post pics later. Have a great weekend!

One of my All-Time Favorite Pics

I love this pic. I think my all time favorite is the black and white one below from Easter (the shirtless one in the window)

Hiking with Adler

We took Adler hiking a couple weeks ago to Sweetwater Park. I think I blogged about it, but here are the pics...

Easter Pictures