Waylon and Willie and the Boys

I had the best drive in to work today. I brought all my dad's favorite CD's and it was just like he was sitting in the seat next to me having a chat on the drive in. There is just a lot of good music out there that reminds me of dad, playing the guitar and singing his favorite songs and having a good time. One of my favorites is Waylon Jenning's "Walk the Line". The chorus is "You've got the only daddy that'll walk the line". My dad always did. He was loving and loyal and I always felt so safe with him because he was fierce and he was competent and he was immensely protective of my mom and me. My mom was the same way. I saw her go "Dirty Harry" a couple of times when various people were scaring me. I hope Nicky always feels like mom and dad would move mountains to protect him and, in the process, learns to protect himself and his future family. I also threw in a little Hank Jr., particularly the song "A Country boy can Survive". Nicky is lucky. He has Markyver for a dad and his mom isn't such a slouch in the taking care of business aspect of things either. In addition to reading and math and science, Nick will learn how to repair engines and hunt game and fish and repair a fence and a well and numerous other things that may come in handy in the uncertain future we all face. Mark and I read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" on a road trip to Mississippi. A post-apocalyptic tale of a father and son on a journey spanning several months across a decimated country, the father had to rely on knowledge that a large number of Americans today do not possess. I think with Nicky we will rely on the minutiae of how to live and add in the beauty and excitement of learning, then top it off with the magic of finding your spiritual path in the world. Think it will work?
Love
Alli

God is Funny That Way

We are having an old fashioned, honest to God, just like back in the good ol' days Christmas this year. If Nicky is really really good I may even chuck an orange into his stocking and give him a peppermint stick off of the tree.

Truth is, my family had gotten a little dull over the years. We all knew it and lamented about it, some of us went so far as to long for a taste of the crazy chaos on TV(that would be me). Picture it, we could all have a giant bruhaha over something that happened 35 years ago, then we have a little WWF Smackdown right in the living room floor, some one really strong could drop kick the turkey across the hardwoods! The dogs would be running amok and knocking over tables. The cats would be off in the corner like, "Oh Snap! These people are crazy!" We could really push the envelope and muss up Aunt Millie's hair.
And then...
We could all make up and come together closer than ever before and gather around the electric logs and cuddle. Wouldn't that be great??

Since I have no sense whatsoever but God has a sense of humor, He came up with a different plan! First He had, Granny, Mom, Mark and I all move off to the boonies, but the boonies come with lots of space for big parties and get-togethers!

OOH! I know, I'll put out the GA Siren song and call all the Cousins home from their ports in the world!! And make 'em all friends! And Chris can put the Band back together so they can all hang out!!




A little surprise for Rick and Wendi. Surprise!





Then comes the really funny part and He plans a great big surprise for Mark and Alli. Won't they just be tickled? Let's make this one a football player with a mitten fetish.




And for giggles and Estrogen, a nice planned present for Chris and Rita! The cutest little girl in the world!




Jessie, I'd watch out if I were you, Lord only knows what's coming around the bend for you! (teehee) - Love Alli

Now even Bob is finally coming home. Once Deana and Ed have been lured back into the fray My Plan will be complete!

So, instead of TV chaos, we got our family back together and still getting along and we got three new babies to play with and giggle with and watch while they play together and chase the cats and dogs and a whole new infusion of fun into our family. God is funny like that and just gives you what you need instead of what you asked for. What a Card!

This year, instead of spending a month's salary on unnecessary plastic objects and stuff everyone has to find a place to put, we are ditching the presents and just enjoying old memories and each other's company. I personally can't wait!
Happy Holidays.

Oh the Pressure!

I have just hung up the phone with the umptieth person who asked me what my kid is going to be for Halloween. I never knew that choosing your 2 year old's Halloween costume would be elevated in parental decision making hierarchy to the same level as whether or not to vaccinate. I was going to either make him a pillow case ghost or throw a bag over his head and write "Mommy had Surgery" but according to, well, everyone, that is just unacceptable. I am not crafty. I hate to shop. I don't like wandering around in the dark with a hyperactive 2 year old. I don't like for my kid to eat candy. I don't believe in ghosts or goblins and don't live in a neighborhood. Perhaps my aversion to Halloween is becoming more clear. Due to the fact that I shopped in an Eckerd three days before the actual event Nicky is going to be one of the two remaining costumes in his size. The funny thing is that I actually stood there and contemplated for a very long time between the two. Did I want my baby to be dressed up like a big furry dog? Cute? Certainly! Hot? Most likely. Annoying to him? Undoubtedly. But how many more years would I get the chance to dress him up in something precious and innocent without fake blood and flashing lights? He really does like dogs but I think he would be more comfortable in the little Harley biker outfit. He would have more mobility, nothing on his head, I could warm him up with an undershirt, the little net shirt with the fake tattoos is really cute....
I swear, I put less thought into public vs. private school and I stood in the store laughing at myself for a good 10 minutes. It turns out that this IS the rest of my life, agonizing over every decision that concerns my son and trying to take every eventuality into account. Worrying over his comfort and happiness and taking every chance to keep him close to me while not stifling his independence. What pressure, what responsibility, and what fun!

Slacker!

Well let's see:
Ricky and Wendi and Ricky moved out and had a great party at their wonderful new house
Nicky got his first (and second) haircut but mom is a little behind the curve here updating the website
Nicky had a little bout of MRSA over Memorial Day and I got attacked by a disoriented bat!
Nicky has gone on two vacations without Mom and Dad and one with us and his JuJu.
Nicky caught his first fish!
Nicky had his second birthday party.
We lost my old best friend Bear and gained two new friends, Pivo and Tigger.
Don and KK tied the knot at a beautiful wedding ceremony in Colorado Springs and are now Mr. and Mrs. Schaeffer.

Guess I have been quite the slacker, I had better start posting again soon!





Cool!! I got to go to Florida with Mommy and Daddy and JuJu and Jimmy and Dad's fishing club (they did pretty darn good in the tournament by the way)and caught my very first fish!



Nicky and Tigger snoozing away...



Check out my cool new scooter! I had a ton of guests and everyone gave me really neat stuff and Wendi and JuJu put it all together for me! Thank you everyone! Pssst...did you see my neato Diego cake?



This birthday card from Grammy D is a riot! It sings to me!



Whew! It is tough being the birthday boy! I am winded from opening presents already! Lot harder being two than I had anticipated....



Could I possibly look anymore like my dad? Not that Dad likes popsicles with "flowers" on them, but who else relaxes quite like that?



How do you like my first big boy haircut??? Mom says I am adorable.





Our beautiful marvelous lovable Pivo, the gentle giant. Don't you love the ear? Mom and Dad got me from the pound but they are pretty sure I am a Carolina Dog, otherwise known as a Dixie Dingo.


Hey! These suckers gave me a home and I have them sooooooo snowed! Wink Wink Wink



What? That chewed up chair leg? Well, clearly it wasn't me, I am chewing on my toy, just like you told me to mommy!





Our newest family member, the Indomitable Tigger!!! Yeah, I know, he looks pretty fierce doesn't he? No idea what he is, maybe Beagle mix? Feel free to jump in with suggestions if he looks familiar.




The Happy Couple, Don and Kaye Schaeffer! Congratulations!

A sad goodbye to my friend

Not everyone gets to have a best dog like Bear and hardly anyone gets to have them for as long she and I had each other. I got Bear in September 1994 on a mountain biking trip with friends. As a tiny pup she not only looked like a bear cub but acted like one too. It wouldn't have mattered, my dad had a strange quirk of naming every dog he had Bear be it spaniel or a tiny little rat thing that we had once for a very short time. Rat thing had to go back and live with his birth family and that was good for all involved. Maybe my parents misunderstood that I had said I wanted a dog, not a tiny hairless little terrorist. We had a pretty good run with Schroeder (I got to name that one!) but lost our angel pup in a housefire. I managed to pretend to wait patiently from May to September while they rebuilt the house but about two days after we got the keys back, here I come with my new best friend. Man, I loved that dog. She slept with me most of her life and was a great spooner and didn't really have too many vile flatulence issues. She had big fuzzy ears that I could play with for hours. She traveled with me, usually in misery due to motion sickness but once we got somewhere she was dandy and ready to be spoiled by the hosts gift of longed for, but rarely received, table scraps. She was great with people and wicked with other dogs. She never had too much tolerance and tried to kill my Max pup once. She had a funny way of making me feel safe when we were alone and terrified of lawsuits and dogfights when other dogs were around. Every time I took her to the kennel I felt like yelling "Dead man walking!!!" as we went down the long corridor in the back that housed the incorrigibles with her lunging at every cage like Hannibal Lecter and barking the vicious mutt that she never was. She was always a wanderer until about three years ago. The onset of arthritis and blindness kept her close to the house and she could roam free as long as I had put out the all clear to the kids and dogs next door. Weirdest thing is, Bear kind of liked cats. She never bothered them and took it pretty well when Romeo would practically lay on her head. She used to give Lint rides around the house wrapped around her head. She was more gentle with Nicky than I would have imagined. I didn't let them get to close because in her old age she has gotten unpredictable. She startles easily since she can't see or hear very well, but she will sleep on the floor at the foot of Nicky's crib and wait for him to fall asleep and then wander into our room. She was my sweet and fuzzy best friend and I am going to miss her for a long, long time.
So long Bear Booger,
I'll see you soon!
Love, Mom

Who's a Big Boy??

What a fun weekend! Little Ricky turned three this weekend and we had lots of help to celebrate. Due to Ricky's absolute obsession with big trucks it was a truck themed weekend and he had a truck cake and got a few toy trucks and we talked about trucks and tripped over trucks...you get the picture. I, in keeping with my total dislike of shopping, thought I had gotten him a cute little kid tent. Not that I read the package or anything sensible like that, but the package was really tiny and it was in the kids section...now Ricky is the proud owner of a tent larger than my bedroom that he will one day be able to put his whole kindergarten class inside of for a sleepover and (drumroll please) It is now set up ON MY PORCH! It is really quite amusing, I wonder what Linda thought when she let herself in today? Oh yeah, Pivo thinks it is nifty too. Pivo also discovered a love of celery and corn on the cob.

Bubbles!!!!!! I never knew kids were so into bubbles.
More big Trucks
The big truck cake
Mom and Dad try to figure out the toys (and this is after the two hours, the boltcutters and the blow torch it took to get the toys out of their extremely secure packaging) If I ever begin to feel the urge for larceny coursing through my veins, I will taking up knocking over liquor stores rather than children's toys.
Yummy!
I don't think I am ready for a bath just yet!
Bath time is the best time of night!
Time for bed!!! Goodnight everyone!

Put yourself in my shoes for a day

It's a very nice place to be these days! For my 38th birthday my husband mom and friends planned a surprise party for me that was actually a total surprise - how often does that work out??? Jessie and I had met up with Lisa and the kids and went on a really fun Easter Egg hunt. It seems that my kid finds crinkly blue bags way more intriguing than any toys he might see. He also seems to have taken umbrage with the cute little goat.

I'll pet the goat, but I am not particularly thrilled about it!

Genius Number 1

Genius Number 2


Nicky and Alli go for a horsey ride

After the egg hunt we went back to the house where Mark called to me to bring the camera to see the unbearably cute thing Nicky was doing. Nicky was standing by the GoKart picking his nose. I kept waiting for something cute to start happening but it was a trick! Nearly all of my favorite people came honking their way down my driveway in a giant caravan for my surprise party and I was definitely surprised. Not that I am all that hard to put one over on but I truly had no idea-hence the reason I am standing in my yard with no makeup on taking pictures of my kid picking his nose and wondering why my husband finds that so thrilling. I had the most wonderful birthday ever and I am so thankful to all my family and friends for the surprise and their time and their company. Thanks to Mom,Mark, Jules, Nicky, Granny, Emmie, Jessie, Illy, Wendi, Rick, Ricky, Brendon, Cameron, Claude, Cole, Cyndi, Elaine, Jason, Jeanette, Jim, Lindsay, Lisa, Marta, Mike, Monique, Polo, Renee, Sandie, Tom, Tomkat, and Toshia.

Mommy, why are all those people here, and why are they honking?!?
(Nicky was so surprised he left his nose and the GoKart alone for a minute)

Most of the Gang!

Continuing the good news and great week, Rick, Ricky and Wendi made it down and are now official Georgia residents!! Here is Ricky in his Big Boy clothes to go to Wendi's office and meet everyone. Isn't he the cutest thing ever?!?

How cute am I??

Additionally, Mark and Nicky and I have adopted a new member of the family - our new puppy Pivo! Pivo is, of course, the cutest and sweetest dog in the whole wide world (besides Bear) and is already sleeping through the night and has had surprisingly few accidents. Bear hates him with a passion and the cats are on strike, but Nicky is in love and every boy needs a dog, right?

As far as the loved ones in other locales, Unka Ed came through his surgery well and is recovering, well but not too comfortably. Luckily, he has the world's best nurse, Deana, at his side and I am sure she is cooking him food that would make the rest of us drive 8 hours to show up on her doorstep.

Nicky has been with his Babcia all week on his first trip away from home without mom and dad. I don't really think he has even noticed we are not there, but he has definitely noticed that Pivo has been missing. When we get on the camera phone we get "Hi Mommy, Hi Daddy, HEY PIVO!!!!!!!!!!!!" It has only been a week but he already looks different on the web phone. We are driving out tonight to spend the night and pick up Shorty and we can't wait! Mark and I had crazy visions of how we would spend our free week. We were going to go out every night and hit a nightclub or two and fool around and clean the house and..........but instead we spent most of the week on the porch enjoying the weather and staring at each other and wondering how on earth we got to the point that life without Nicky just feels so incredibly weird. This morning Mark looked at me and said "It's time for him to come home - Now." I couldn't agree more.

So, it has been a wonderful roller coaster week, all good with just the right dash of melancholy to remind us how good we have it and to always be thankful for all that we have. So, if you put yourself in my shoes for a day, I would definitely choose this day, when all is right with the world and I am feeling like the blessings are raining down on my head from above.
Love,
Alli

My Angel

My kid is having a blast at a birthday party with one of his favorite girls in the whole world. It's funny, I always think of how free of responsibility I will feel, just coming home with no kid to tend to. I can take a bath, clean up the house, watch T.V., read a book! Then I actually get home, no husband and no kid---and I am bereft. I want my boys back and I want them now. I think of a friend of mine who has lost her mother and mother in law in a very short span, and another friend who has lost her mother and whose father had a stroke a month later and I realize, there is nothing in life better than spending your life loving and arguing with your loved ones and how lucky I am that I have Mark and Nicky and Mom and Granny here to love me and aggravate me and to make sure that I never go to the bathroom alone. I can't wait til my boys get home! I hope they had a wonderful time and missed me as much as I have missed them.

Communists!

The Gruesome Twosome! Ricky and Nicky

Playing at Jump Time!

Alli and Jeanette come over to play!

Miss Jeanette looking cute as a button!

I am so very lucky. My family and my husband and mom are all incredibly lucky and I hope we always remember that. We have a wonderful, remarkable family. Everyone pitches in where and when they can. My neighbors have become my family. My cousins are like my siblings, helping and hanging out together and being the brothers and sisters that few of us have. My friends are my family, a tight group of people who have loved and helped one another for well over a decade. We have been through loss, disappointment, divorce, birth, depression, joy and new love and make the time for one another that everyone needs. We know and love one another's families and kids and I know that I can always count on them. My neighbors take care of my child like he is one of their own, Lisa takes care of my grandma and I love having their kids over at my house. We have developed a communist society at the compound that works for everyone, each according to need. The usual downfall of communism - greed- doesn't really apply here. Everyone who comes into the circle is welcomed and cherished. Our newest additions, Wendi, Rick and Ricky, are eagerly anticipated and will be sorely missed when they move on to their new life and we have to schedule weekend visits. If I could, I would buy 100 acres and move everyone I care about within a mile of me. The Compound has been one of the great blessings of my life. Thank you to all the wonderful people that have blessed my life.

Finding Out

My favorite magazine, The Sun, has a section called "Readers Write" where they give you a topic to write about. The topics are generally a one to two word phrase and you write about what that phrase means to you. The phrase for October is: Finding Out. Immediately I thought of the most shocking thing that I ever found out, which was that I was pregnant. I was angry and scared and nervous and not at all sure how I felt about that, Mark and I had never intended to have children. I was afraid of screwing up something so important, of feeling tied down, of not being able to travel or sleep or enjoy my friends or read a book. I was afraid of being short with my child, getting irritated and snapping at people, being bored, losing the closeness of my marriage, taking advantage of my mother. After Nicky was born I found out the most important thing, none of that even matters anymore. I have been lucky. Nicky has made my life more fun, made my marriage more satisfying, deepened my relationship with my mom and family, enabled me to understand my friends better and even made me a few new friends that I cherish. I understand my duty to my Godson better and want to make certain that I know and appreciate who he is and what he needs and may need in the future. Most of the stuff I thought was important before doesn't really matter to me anymore with the exception of my people. Other than the guilt of not being able to meet my friends at a moments notice when they need or want me and not traveling without mounting a campaign of organization and plans for care of my kid and my dog, my happiest moments are now in the early morning when my husband is home and my kid is in bed with us having a kissing contest - one per parent to be distributed equally and then doubled up on him, those are the rules according to Sir Nicholas. I thought that hearing I was pregnant would be the craziest thing I ever Found Out but I was wrong, finding out how much you can love a child beats it by a mile!
Love alli






Nicky's first trip to the Beach, Cape San Blas Florida - thanks Cy!!

Walking the Pupperoni

The Kiss

Nicky takes Rebel Dog for a walk, or is it the other way around

Mike and Cole go walkabout

Nicky and Cole cuddle up on Reb's bed

My Beach Baby

The Blanket Game

Cole and Nicky "Chillaxing" in the doggy bed.

Ju Ju is the very coolest!!