Ramalamahamjam....

This is the word my husband so kindly interrupts my rambling with sometimes. It is his way of saying, "just get to the point, or stop rationalizing and tell me what is going on". He says it so sarcastically and in such a funny voice that it makes me laugh every time. I thought I would use this Seth created word to theme this post, as I plan to jump around and ramble a bit.

O.k. let's see...the month of December was fast and in a hurry. It is the 8th of January and I am still looking back to see where it all went. Let me recap a bit...we did our normal 4 Christmas', the joy of having two sets of divorced parents. We visited Santa Clause twice. We did hot chocolate in the car and searching for Christmas lights on houses many times. We did Jesus' Birthday, singing and celebrating enough that now every time I say, "Angels said...", Alvie says "Jesus is born". She may grow up thinking that is the only thing the angels ever said :-) We did several Christmas parties and paid baby sitting fees way too many times for one month. We did cookies by the tree a few times, which is a tradition we stole from our friends the Bass'. Seth and I celebrated our 9th anniversary (Dec.18th) and enjoyed a night away from the Boro (Hot Atlanta!).

We rung in the New Year here at home and made some family resolutions for 2010 and recapped God's blessings for 2009. We continued our New Year's tradition of planning and brainstorming about our travel adventures for the upcoming year. That brings me to today, the 8th, two days before Seth's birthday (34). We are going out with friends tonight and yes, paying another baby sitter. He has had what he says, "may be the best year yet", which I have to laugh because he is truly an eternal optimist and says that every year.

O.K. I am back...it is now Jan 16th and I hope to finish this today, so as not to have to keep rambling through my thoughts. I think I will just finish up with what God is doing in each of our lives at this moment.

Our church (WOC) is opening our new sanctuary this weekend and we are anticipating what God is going to do in this beautiful new building. It is going to be such a wonderful tool to minister to so many. My largest God event, to date for this year, other than our health, is that my brother who I have prayed for many years would get reconnected with the Lord and involved in a church, has made a step toward that by attending our family church back home (this will be the 3rd Sunday in a row). This all came about after a wonderful conversation, which was truly spirit led, that we had during Christmas Break. Praise God and how He works to bring people/thoughts together at just the right moment. Seth and I have so many goals (spiritual, domestic, professional), for this year that we rotate prayers for them all. Mostly just praying we are in His Will with all we do and He would continue to protect us from things we can't even see.

As for Alvie Rose, she will be two in just a few weeks and we can really tell it:-) She is really testing our authority and stretching our patience lately. Her most popular reply in this stage is, "why Momma" and "no, don't want to". The problem is she is so stinking cute that it makes parenting very difficult, just keeping the consistency. I am sure most of you are laughing at that statement, in a few years I am sure I will too.

Alvie LOVES preschool and she loves her teachers, Mrs. Roxanne and Mrs. Judy, or as Alvie says, " Mrs. Juuuudy, Juuuuudy, Juuuuudy". Yes, that is how Goober says in the Andy Griffith show, one of our families favorite shows. She is very verbal and hears everything that is said around her. Her sense of humor is amazing. She is genuinely a funny child and she makes us laugh multiple times throughout each day. As I mentioned she is almost two and it looks as if she is going to be close to 38 inches tall. So, if the old saying is true about doubling her height at two years old, she will be as tall as her Mommy - 6'4". I must admit I was hoping for a bit shorter, only because of one reason, shopping for a 6'4" girl is very difficult, but not impossible. Maybe I will learn to sew and just sew her clothes. What? Sorry, had a brain miss for a second.

I will conclude with our recent family prayer requests and praises...

Most recently (the last week) Haiti (devastating earthquake)

The orphans in Africa, especially our three kiddos - Grace, Topsi, and Henry

Walking closer to our Lord Jesus Christ and hearing/feeling the Holy Spirit when it directs our path. Calling out to Him and His Spirit to continue to direct us and teach us to be more faithful followers.

Praising Him for our city we live in, our church, our jobs during this economic down time, our health, and mostly for our wonderful friends/family.

Until next time...Weathersby Mom Signing Out

Record of our "Kitty" just in case....

I love to see my sweet girl Alvie playing Mama to all her babies! She has one particular that she does not let get too far out of her site, "kitty". She has been her best friend since we brought her home from the hospital. She absolutely must have her at any point that she might drift off to sleep. This sweet way that my girl Alvie loves on this kitty; hugging her, kissing her, feeding her (with her own cup) and putting her to bed, is simply precious. We prayed many many times, and will continue to pray, that our children would be affectionate loving people. There is no doubt that God is answering prayers. Praise be to our father in heaven! Thank you for showing us your faithfulness and giving us such a beautiful example of Love, by giving your son JESUS.

Fall Fun 09

I have been teaching elementary children for almost 10 years now, so I thought I was a little familiar with exactly have much fun it gets around the holidays when you have children, but I don't really think I fully understood until now. To watch these sweet babies learn, grow, and develop personalities is an amazing adventure full of excitement, pure fun, fatigue, and lots of smiles. As they grow in age, the fun and excitement in their little faces just multiplies exponentially.

Last year for Halloween Alvie was around 8 months. We dressed up, visited some friends, took some photos, but she did not really seemed to care one way or the other what we were doing. This year, at age 20 months, she had so much fun! We visited our friends in Mason Hall, TN. They live in a small farming community that is well stocked with ponds, barns, loving down home folks, and farm animals. Needless to say, our little Alvie Rose had a blast! She trunk or treated at the local church, went to an old school Fall Fest (old fashion games, and a live auction of homemade cakes, and everything else under the sun) and played with other equally excited children until she was totally wiped out. When we arrived home at around 1:30 a.m. we took her upstairs to tuck her in and she was still mumbling sweet little sentiments of the evenings past, "candy...trick or treat...cake....pumpkins".

I love Fall and I love Winter, and Spring, and oh yes, especially Summer. I love that our God created different seasons for different experiences. You can't pick pumpkins out of the patch in May or make a snowman in July and that is how it should be. There is the right time for everything, His time.

Oh my Faithful Holy Father - continue to remind me to enjoy and soak up each season of life for what you have designed it to be. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear all you have to teach me and my family. Thanking YOU for our baby girl and this sweet season of parenting that you have us in right now. May we be seen faithful to your calling.

Orange Beach 09

Our family loves the beach! Seth always says, "your either beach people or your not, there is no in between". We are most definitely beach people. The sound of the waves, the sand between our toes, a good plate of some type of freshly caught seafood for dinner, that is our earthly version of heaven.

This trip to Orange Beach was as wonderful as it always is. Alvie LOVED the sand! She built sand castles, filled and emptied buckets of water, dug in the sand for periwinkles, and picked up shells. As for the ocean, not so interested. She spent most mornings saying, "swimming Mama, swimming...", but when we arrived at the beach she was not too interested in trying to practice her swimming techniques. She preferred her sand play, then a snack, then play, then a snack. She is pretty routine at home, as far as meal time and snack time, so getting to eat multiple snacks through out the day really made her days good.

A variety of friends and family visited us at different times while at Orange Beach. Due to the overwhelming amount of love from them, Alvie is now completely rotten. Most likely because her feet have pretty much not touched the floor in 10 days and she has had a list of folks to play with. The next few days are going to be real fun at the Weathersby home. Smiles!

Our top remembrances from this vacation will be; riding the bikes (with Alvie on the carrier) to the beach each morning, spending time with family, the National Shrimp Festival, the sticky footed tree frog Aunt Whitney caught after if landed on her head in the garage, the live conch Warren found in the Bay, the two huge amber jack Daddy caught (that later became some yummy fish tacos), Alvie's first ever bout of vomiting (all over Daddy of course), Paw Paw Obie's ultimate omelets, and just being still long enough to catch some amazing family moments.

Thank you God for your protection on this trip and your blessings that you have chosen to pour on us. You are an amazing God and we only pray that we can some how glorify you in all we do.

Sending love to all our family and friends who helped make our vacation a great.

Picking up the crumbs...

Sometimes I get so tired of picking up cookie crumbs, cracker crumbs, muffin crumbs and that is just the food products. The toys, bowls, laundry, and all the other items that get pulled out, thrown about and hid, are a whole different exhaustion.

As I was wiping up pop-tart crumbs this morning I opened the cabinet under the sink to find a cloth napkin that looked as if it had been wadded up in a ball. I pulled it out with frustration, thinking ahhh just another item to pick-up, and to my surprise when I looked in the napkin there was a tiny little animal cracker. Then POP a light bulb came on and I remembered the other day when Alvie was pulling things out of that cabinet while she was having animal crackers for a snack, she said, "tired, tired mama.....night night". I thought at the time she was talking about herself and I just made a quick comment and dismissed it, but she was really putting that baby cookie bear to sleep in that napkin.

Afterwards I felt a bit disappointed that I missed a sweet moment in my daughters life, only because I was too busy with other things to slow down. Needless to say, today and hopefully for a while, I will delight in the fact that the crumbs and other stuff that finds its way to the floor of our home, is there for a reason.

Catching Up

Do you ever really get caught up? I feel as if I am always running behind, and generally I am.

I feel blessed that God whispered in my ear tonight, "It is o.k., because you are running behind me, I am leading you". Thank you God for your sweet words that warm my soul and keep my feet dancing (or at least moving forward).

I know it has been a while since I have posted. I will try in my limited gifting of words to catch you up.

Our summer was pretty uneventful. I had surgery in early June that kept me close to home and my bed for many weeks. That wonderful experience pretty much killed all of our vacation hopes for the warm months. I am very thankful that I had a very smooth recovery and even more grateful for friends who helped out along the way.

Since there was not a lot of traveling this summer we have been going wide open trying to catch up and feed our cravings for adventure. We recently went to Louisville for the weekend to watch a friend compete in an Iron Man Triathlon. Then two days later we flew to Charleston for six nights. We visited Savannah and Kiawah Island while we were there. We had some great family time. So often, as I am sure most families can relate, it is she (Alvie) and I, or She (Alvie) and him, or He and I. Hardly ever, with a crazy ER schedule in the works, is it all three of us together. We do occasionally get a day here or there, but not many days in a row.

We came home from our adventures excited, relaxed, and peaceful. Praise Him!

We are in our last week at school before we dismiss for Fall Break. We will complete our Fall traveling season with a trip to Orange Beach. We are looking forward to visiting with friends while there and having another great stretch of family time. We are both very excited to see what Alvie will have to say about the ocean. She is a very verbal 19 month old and loves to express herself. .

Alvie has started preschool! I can not believe it. Lately I have kissed her little cheeks so much they occasionally look chapped. I just feel like she is growing too fast and I need to get it all in. When I picked her up from the first day of school she was asleep. When I got to the car to put her in the car seat she woke up and I quickly said, "Hey baby, its Mama, how did you like school today?". She responded with, "Boys...Cars Mama". Seth did not think that response was quiet as funny as I did. Must be his Daddy coming out.

Our prayers lately have been filled with concerns about the Orphans in Africa, our government/president, and everyday desires to get through each day. Praise God for He is faithful.

Until next time don't worry about catching up, just keep your eye on the leader.