Who Ya With?!?!

In our continued quest to turn our children into sports fanatics we took them to their first basketball game: Vandy v. MTSU. My parents (who are basketball fans in their own right) were in town and were happy to come along. And we even ran into some friends randomly at the game - Brent Hefty and his girlfriend Erin. We had great seats and the kids, as always, had a blast. The only exception was that Greyson was terrified of the giant pickle that was giving away shirts at halftime - go figure. Here are some pics from the game.

Greyson wouldn't stand on the floor because the pickle was still there, at least we got a picture of him not terrified.
This is how a real lady eat popcorn.

What everyone wants for Christmas

In case you are wondering - yes these are pee and poop stuffed animals, yes you can purchase them on Amazon.com for a mere $40 and NO my kids don't need them.

What a Feeling...

Raif and I have been lucky enough to be invited to an '80s party tonight (I know you're jealous) - appropriate attire required. I actually found some legwarmers at Target for the event. Quinn found them tonight and insisted on wearing them. I just don't understand why this trend went out of style.

Gobble, Gobble

The kids made Thanksgiving turkeys today and were so proud of their creations that I thought I should post them for everyone to enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving.

A Close Call (and heads up to you other mothers)

I brought the kids home from picking up Greyson from school, put the dogs outside and realized I had left Greyson's backpack in the car so went into the garage to get it and heard the door slam, the door lock and hysterical giggles from inside the house. I banged on the door for a couple minutes but to no avail as my children thought it was hysterical that they had locked me out. Thankfully I had let the dogs out earlier and so the back door was unlocked so I got into the house that way. Had I not let the dogs out I would have been at the mercy of my children; cold and trapped in the garage. I have a feeling we are going to Home Depot tomorrow and getting a hide-a-key for the outside.

This house is a ZOO

One small step for man....

One giant step for Quinn. This evening was the first use of the potty. Hip, hip hooray!! (Wow when you become a parent what things excite you, huh?). Now after having just potty trained Greyson I realize the arduous journey between first potty and potty trained is a long one but I can dream of a diaper free life can't I?

Drunk Pin the Tail on the Donkey

I was watching the GA/Auburn game (sorry Ash!) this afternoon when I saw the most random commercial. It was for a "Sedan Service" here in Nashville. It showed this couple out to dinner and then out for drinks and then showed them driving by (in the sedan service) a man getting pulled over for an apparent DUI. Then it talks about having a sober drive yadi, yadi, yada. But then it flashes up all the events that the service is good for - "Special Nights Out", "Weddings" and then "Children's Birthday Parties." Really? Are there enough people getting wasted at kid's birthday parties out there that they need a car service to take their drunk asses home? Apparently my children are not being invited to the right parties.

Fall Adventures

The kids and I spent this afternoon hiking through the woods behind our house and through our neighborhood collecting beautiful fall leaves. We then came home and warmed ourselves up with hot apple cider and animal crackers. I have no idea what to do with all these leaves now so if anyone who is remotely crafty out there has any ideas please let me know!!

Anyone got a bar of soap?

There are many things I thought/hoped my son would be: the smart one, the funny one, the kind one. He has other ideas and now has become - the kid with the foul mouth.

As you may recall a couple of blogs ago - we took Greyson to a hockey game where he learned how to cheer "You Suck." He said it once or twice since then but forgot about it, or so I thought. Well today as the whole class sang Happy Birthday to Mr. Shaune his teacher, Greyson ended the song with a rousing "Mr. Shaune You Suck!" Then this afternoon as I was talking to his teachers and learned that Mr. Shaune was going to the Vandy football game this weekend I had Greyson cheering "Go Dores" just as another mother and her son walked by. Well Greyson kindly informed Finn's Mom that when you go to a football game you say "Go Dores" and when you go to a hockey game you say "You Suck." I tried to correct him and say something like "Greyson you are suppose to say "You Duck" but to no avail. He corrected me and said "No Mommy it is you suck." Oy vey.

Isn't it ironic (don't you think)

My mother got the kids their own monogrammed suitcases for Christmas and they arrived today. (I know she shops insanely early.) The UPS man arrived right before I left to pick up Greyson from school and I forgot to hide them when I got back. They found the non-descript boxes this afternoon and guess what they pretended they were - you guessed it, suitcases. We pushed them all around the house as they went in the car and on a plane. There is no way they could have known what was inside. Perhaps my children have ESP???

Quinn's Secret

I was getting dressed, (with Quinn's help of course) when she scurried into the bathroom and came out with wearing this....
She called it her bra and insisted on wearing it around all morning. Growing up way too fast....

The Rapping Granny

OK, I realize that this week I have had diarrhea of the blog but I just couldn't resist one more.

According to our wonderful local newspaper, the Nolensville Dispatch, we have a national celebrity in our midst. Olivia Haley has just been crowned Ms. Senior America after a national competition in Atlantic City. Ms. Haley's talent was rapping (I couldn't make this up if I tried people). She rapped an original composition titled "Granny Loves Ya." She will be touring the US over the next year educating America on senior's issues so she may come to a town near you.

Do you think Ms. Senior America has a swimsuit competion????

It's the little things....

Ever since Quinn was old enough to roll over and move in bed she has slept like this - up in the corner of her bed with her hand through the rail. I don't know why, but to me, this is one of the most endearing things she does. I know that someday when we get her a big girl bed she won't be able to do this anymore so I thought I would capture the moment for posterity.

My One and Only Political Blog

For the longest time most of my friends have been commenting to me how interesting they find it that I haven't said anything about the election on this blog. I mean, you spend approximately two minutes in a conversation with me and I can somehow turn it to politics - talking about how Greyson needs health insurance or about how we need to save the planet. Frankly, I haven't said anything because my husband politely asked me not to. He wanted to make sure at the end of all this that our conservative friends were still out conservative friends.

But I wanted to say something (two things actually). The first being a olive branch of sorts from the liberals to all of you conservatives out there. I know y'all are pissed and disappointed right now. Believe me, if Obama had lost I would have been mad at Raif and I would have spent the next few weeks talking about packing up the family and taking advantage of his EU citizenship and moving to Europe. And I don't expect your disappointment to end anytime soon. That being said I also hope that you can give us liberals a chance and try to come into the next few years with an open mind and some patience. The US is pretty screwed up right about now and it will take all of us together to put it back on track - it might not be the perfect track for everyone but hopefully it will move in a general direction that everyone can live with.

The second thing - regardless of your political views I think we should all take a second to realize what a moment we lived through last night, in the election of the first African-American President. Last week I was talking to Ms. Tina, Greyson's preschool teacher, and she was telling me that they were doing an excercise in class about different and same. They were asking various children things that were different and same including each other. It made my heart skip a beat when she told me that Greyson thought he was the same as his friend Johannes- even though Johannes is African-American. I hope yesterday was a big step in the right direction for race relations in this country.

OK, enough about the election. Although, I will admit that the gleeful liberal inside of me is going to listen to Sean Hannity cry on his radio show this afternoon as I go to pick up Greyson!!

The BEST in Atlanta

What can I say about Jon Whitaker? Well, he has been doing our (first Raif and I and now the kids) hair for a little under a decade. Over the years he has transformed from our stylist to a dear friend. When Greyson was in the hospital and I couldn't leave the house he started coming over and taking time on his days off to cut our hair. And even when we moved to Nashville 3 1/2 hours away he stills comes up every 6 weeks or so to visit, play with the kids and keep us stylish.

A month or so ago, Jon left VanMichael in Atlanta and opened up his own salon in Virginia Highlands - JonDavid Salons. It is AMAZING. While we were in Atlanta last weekend we got the opportunity to visit and of course get our hair done. For all of our friends in Atlanta - if you are ever in need of a new stylist check Jon out. I promise you, you won't be disappointed.

JonDavid Salons 404-524-9241
The finished product - don't they look great!!!

GA/FL game

One happy Gator girl.....

Young love.

Corrupting the Tuck youth while Andy was sick - I think he would approve though.

OK, just to get this out of the way: FLORIDA SUCKS!! Now on to bigger and better things.

This last weekend we went down to Atlanta to spend Halloween with our friends and to go our friends Keith and Susanna's annual GA/FL party (aka The Second World's Largest Cocktail Party). Thankfully I spent most of the game running around after my children so I wasn't subjected to Georgia's humiliating ass-whooping.

It was a great party - we got to see all of our old neighbors and their respective children and got to see some old Vandy friends (thanks to the Tucks and Lindseys for making the effort to come out and see us). And Guinness and Cooper even got to play with an old doggie friend - Mayzie. Raif did his part to contribute to the delinquency of the minors by teaching them all how to play beer pong. I personally think Sam Tuck is a natural. If Georgia had won it would have been a perfect day but hey you can't get everything you want in life. I guess I have to wait til next year - that is if Keith and Susanna invite us back. For all of the pics go to Raif's smugmug account:

http://sailrace.smugmug.com/gallery/6462579_LtP2Y#P-1-15

Go Dawgs sic 'em Woof, woof, woof.

Happy Halloween

We spent Halloween in Atlanta this year and trick-or-treated in our old neighborhood. We had so much fun and it was so great to see everyone again. Raif, of course, took a lot of pictures - far too many to put on the blog so if you are interested in seeing the rest of them please visit Raif's smugmug site: http://sailrace.smugmug.com/gallery/6463544_8CpYU#409984358_oWjp3

Lil Punkin Parade

At Greyson's preschool they had a Lil Punkin Parade on Friday. All the kids dressed up and paraded around the Peabody Campus of Vanderbilt (their education college for those not intimately familiar with Vanderbilt). The faculty and students were great there - decorating buildings and handing out candy. Greyson had fun and got the hang of begging for treats very quickly. Of course 2 pictures in to the event and the battery died on my camera so my pics aren't that great but he had fun nonetheless.