pretty girl

Aubie put her blanket on her head today and said, "I married". So I asked her if she wanted to wear a "married" dress. She did, so of course I couldn't miss my opportunity to get pictures!

pants

Ok, here's another cute thing Aubie said, but it's not really a quotable quote. Yesterday I was listening to my new favorite song (I only have the single, or it would be my new favorite cd), and if you would like to hear it, you can go to my (I'm ashamed to say it) MySpace page(click the link) and hear it, since it plays automatically. Awesome song!!! Aubie sings along with it every time we listen. Anyway, the song has a line in it that says, "My soul pants for God" and repeats it like 3 times. Well, Aubie is getting very good at picking out words in songs now, and she said, "Mommy, Pants!" I had to explain to her that "pants" in the song means the heavy breathing you do after you've been running and is very different from the "pants" we wear, and she understood. She loves that song, so I am glad that she now knows that it is not about articles of clothing : )Picture of Aubie taken a couple of weeks ago--the weird smile is because of her fear of the bees nearby.

where I've been...

Wow! It's been a long time since I posted (Sorry to my fellow non-MySpacers). I was so busy trying to hide the fact that I was working Tres Dias from Dorenda (my mom-in-law) who was actually attending the weekend, that I didn't have time for much else. But guess what? I was completely successful! She had absolutely NO clue. Just so you know, it's not part of the keep-things-secret bit about Tres Dias that I didn't tell her I was working. Dorenda, for those of you who don't know her, is an excellent practical-joker. Where she works, she has actually been accused of jokes that she didn't play, just because everyone knows her nature and assumes that she is always up to something (I think it's the twinkley blue eyes). I, being the( for the most part) reserved, serious person that I am, rarely enjoy a practical joke or surprise. So the last thing she expected was for me to pull one on her. I kept it hidden the entire time she was here with us before we took her to the campground, and I was so afraid that someone would come up to me and say, "I'm so glad you're working!" while we were waiting for things to get started. Nobody did, thank goodness! It wasn't until I was standing along the walkway on the trek to the kitchen for supper that she saw me with my nametag. She just stared at me and shouted, "Saige! I'm gonna get you!" There were several other surprises throughout the weekend that she said she was going to get me about, but always in a good way. She was so blessed this weekend--I am so glad that I was able to be there to see her get so ministered to. She was just glowing when the weekend was over, and when she called to say she was home safely, I could tell she was beaming through the phone. God totally blessed me while I was working too, but even if nothing special had happened specifically for me, I would have been completely happy seeing what God did for Dorenda.
The only sad thing was, she left her jacket here. Aubie came into the room holding it up and in a very distressed voice said, "Mommy, Granny leave her jacket!" She's so precious. Even if she did act like she didn't know me after not having seen me for 4 days, but went straight to Granny and gave her a BIG hug. She's still precious.
For those requesting Aubie quotes, I'll be posting a few more in the next day or so ; )

Back by popular demand...

more Aubie-isms. The other day she told me, "Mommy, I not have a dream about dinosaurs." I said, "You didn't?" and she said, "no." Then (I'm supposing she did have a dream about dinosaurs) she said, "Dinosaur wick me." "What?" "Dinosaur wick me." "A dinosaur licked you?" "Uh-huh." "Do you like dinosaurs?" "Yep." "When Uncle Daniel was little, he really liked dinosaurs." "Uncle Ricky not like dinosaurs." (I guess with them being so different from each other in every other sense, if one likes dinosaurs, the other one doesn't.)

She says so many funny things, but I just can't remember what they all are. I need to start blogging them as soon as she says them, so I can treasure them always. This morning though, she said some really sweet things that I thought I'd post.
As we were getting ready for...
How sad! Why didn't l finish? Ugh. --10/09/08

Johnny

The other day, I had an emotional day, so all my eye makeup was gone. Before stopping by to see a friend, I put on a bit of eyeliner and mascara. Unfortunately, my eyeliner had gotten a bit melty from sitting in the car all day (sorry, David, I was running late for work). No matter how I tried to smudge it, it was still just thick and black and yuck. After returning to the car, I looked in the mirror and said, "I look like Johnny Depp." From the back of the car I hear, "I like Johnny Depp."
Perhaps she was just trying to make me feel better... I really don't think she knows who he is. Yep, just asked her if she knew who Johnny Depp was and she said, "Uh-huh". I said, "Who is he?" she said, "I don't know". When I asked her to point him out on the Pirates movie cover, she pointed to Orlando Bloom. So, the sweet girl just heard her mother's desparation and wanted me to know that its ok to look like Johnny Depp, because Aubie likes him/it (whatever she thought a JohnnyDepp was).
(as some of you know, I actually have looked like Captain Jack--gold teeth and everthing--but thankfully, I have no way of downloading the pictures from my phone to ever show them to those of you who weren't there)

4 weeks away...

Yea! 4 weeks from today, I will know what I'm having--a girl or a boy. Today, when I ask her, Aubie is saying that I will have a girl, but if I ask about a brother or a sister, she says she doesn't want a sister. It's not like she has a choice, but I was hoping that the child that we used to call "The Oracle" might be able to give me some hint. My midwife said that sometimes the older siblings just have a feeling as to the sex of the child, so I keep trying. But all I get is a girl, just not a sister. Perhaps "The Oracle" is a bit off these days.

Easter weekend

Wow. What a weekend. We didn't leave the house till 7:00 Friday night, didn't leave town till 8:00, and didn't get to Rome till nearly 12:00. Yep. What normally takes 2 hours and 30 minutes (+ a few if we stop), took us at least 3 hours and 30 minutes. Traffic was so bad before Atlanta that we had to stop and put some water in the car (our coolant level is low) because it was starting to get a bit overheated. When we stopped, Aubie, who had just refused some candy I offered her--I should have known something was wrong, started acting sick and then threw up all over her clothes and her carseat. I had forgotten to bring a warm jacket, so the windbreaker that I was wearing was hardly enough to keep me warm as we were cleaning and cleaning and cleaning her carseat with homemade baby wipes. Thank goodness I had recently made some, because we just about used up the WHOLE container. We had to put Aubie's jammies on, then buy some stinkin' expensive gas station air freshener and put her jacket in the seat so she wouldn't be sitting on wet the whole way to Dorenda's. Then, in Cartersville, guess what? At 11:30 Friday night, in Cartersville, Ga. I saw snow for the first time this season. In April. We stopped at Quicktrip as always to get David's coffee--the boost he needed to make it the extra 30 minutes in the snow--and we were finally almost there. By this time, Aubie was asleep, so the child still has yet to see any snow : (

The next day, as Aubie calls her, "my cousin" and her mom came to Granny's and she and Aubie played all day. They had an Easter egg hunt in the cold wind and had a lot of fun. Haven and Connie came back to Granny's on Sunday and David's brother Ricky came too. We were invited to hunt Easter eggs next door with Jacob and Lauren (Hannah works with their older sister Emily and David used to work with their Dad in Rome) in their annual 100 Easter Egg Hunt. Last year, there were only 2 that they didn't find. And guess what? I found one of the missing 2. As you can see in the picture, the jolly rancher wrapper remained in tact, while the actual candy disappeared. Cool, huh? There was also a piece of yucky trident gum in there--I decided not to include it in the picture.

At church, before the Easter egg hunt, we finally got to see Hannah! We had a good time visiting and Lorna and Aubie had a lot of fun together. I wish they could play together more often : ( But maybe we can go up for a few days this summer : ) Ok, well, I will quit typing so you can enjoy the pictures. Of course I had to take some levy pictures. TO ALL THE MOMS AND GRANDMOMS OUT THERE- DON'T WORRY! This pregnant lady did not walk to the top of the levy. I could just hear the hollers in my head, "You better not walk up that levy. What if you fell?!?", and decided against it.

aunt estelle

This past Saturday, Aubie and I spent the day with Mom. As we were headed to my house, we decided to stop by the estate sale that my mom's first cousin Duncan (seeing as I can never understand the "once removed" and "second" and "third", we'll just say "mom's first") and his wife, Donna, were having. There were some really pretty things there, but a lot of the really cool stuff had been sold. But the coolest thing, in my opinion, was still there. No one had even thought of getting it. Or perhaps God had an angel guard it until I got to it : ) I have always heard about my Aunt Estelle (Leah was named after her) and her embroidery and tatting skills. I had no idea she quilted. I picked up this quilt top and was amazed that it had never been finished AND that no one had bought this treasure. Then Duncan told us that it was one that my great, great aunt Estelle had made--that some of the pieces were even cut from a set of Aunt Jamie and Uncle Lauren's (Duncan's parents) old drapes (the brown with black paisleys and dots). Most of the quilt is corduroy, and I have always wanted a cordoroy quilt. Just look at the detail she put into embroidering on the quilt top. I am not even sure how I am going to quilt this--I don't want to detract from her work. I also got these handkerchiefs. I wanted to take them all, but what was I going to do with 20 handkerchiefs? You've Got Mail, Emma, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and many other favorites--all have handkerchiefs in them. I have always wanted a hand embroidered one to call my own. I just wonder if there is any significance to the butterfly and the spiderweb. It's just such an interesting picture. It's almost like a something a superhero would use as their symbol or something, you know? Or maybe I'm thinking of something like "The Scarlet Pimpernel". Anyway, I thought it was cool. And the fact that Aunt Estelle did it, makes it all the more special.

corn dog clown nose

My funny girl eats corn dogs by taking the dog out first, then eating the corn--sometimes. I decided that mini corn dog bites might be easier for her to eat than the ones on the stick. So, tonight (because she doesn't like the texture of hamburger meat) she had those while we had hamburgers--so yummy too. Well, tonight she took one of the corn wraps from her plate (having already eaten the hot dog it had contained) and said, "you put dis on you nose, like dis." And proceeded to show us how it's done. I said, "Is that your clown nose?" When David told her to get it off her nose, it was making it greasy, she then shoved it in her mouth and said, "I eat my clown nose." She is such a mess! She was cracking us up doing her after-you-eat-your-clown-nose dance (I'll try to post it on here when I have time to figure out how to upload videos : ) ). corn dog clown nose danceOk. Here is the link. My own blog group doesn't seem to recognize me when I try to send the video to my blog, so you'll just have to click the link, sorry. (This is sort of a recreation since she has a tomato in her mouth for the video, but it was done within 2 minutes of the original.) Hope you enjoy : )

aunt estelle

Saturday, Aubie and I spent the day with Mom. As we were headed to my house, we decided to stop by the estate sale that my mom's first cousin Duncan (seeing as I can never understand the "once removed" and "second" and "third", we'll just say "mom's first") and his wife, Donna, were having. There were some really pretty things there, but a lot of the really cool stuff had been sold. But the coolest thing, in my opinion, was still there. No one had even thought of getting it. Or perhaps God had an angel guard it until I got to it. : )
I have always heard about my Aunt Estelle (Leah was named after her) and her embroidery and tatting skills. I had no idea she quilted. I picked up this quilt top and was amazed that it had never been finished and that no one had bought this treasure. Then Duncan told us that it was one that my great, great aunt Estelle had made--that some of the pieces were even cut from a set of Aunt Jamie and Uncle Lauren's (Duncan's parents) old drapes. Most of the quilt is corduroy, and I have always wanted a cordoroy quilt. Just look at the detail she put into embroidering on the quilt top. I am not even sure how I am going to quilt this--I don't want to detract from her work.
I also got these handkerchiefs. I wanted to take them all, but what was I going to do with 20 handkerchiefs? You've Got Mail, Emma, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and many other favorites--all have handkerchiefs in them. I have always wanted a hand embroidered one to call my own. I just wonder if there is any significance to the butterfly and the spiderweb. It's just such an interesting picture. It's almost like a something a superhero would use as their symbol or something, you know? Or maybe I'm thinking of something like "The Scarlet Pimpernel". Anyway, I thought it was cool. And the fact that Aunt Estelle did it, makes it all the more special.

I think I posted this... Maybe I just worded things differently.--10/09/08

sad, sad

Lately, I have been having trouble figuring out anything that I like to eat. I can eat certain foods, if I don't think about them, but several things have been giving me an almost heartburn sensation lately. Hotdogs are one of those try-not-to-think-about-it foods that are quick and easy when I find myself desperately in need of some protein in the afternoons, but they give me almost-heartburn, so I can't eat them much. Everything just sounds blah these days, and the things that aren't blah give me a horrible burn in my esophogus. Baby carrots are yummy, but can man live on baby carrots alone? I don't think so, at least not very healthily. Besides, they don't fill me up. They just make me hungry for protein. Saddest of all, though-- and all of you will be shocked to hear it--I really don't like Chick-fil-A anymore. I just can't eat it. Oh, I'll still advertise, carrying my Chick-fil-A cup everywhere I go, but I won't be getting chicken next time I get a cup. Has it really come to this? I am very interested to see what kind of character this child will be. I had no trouble eating anything with Aubie, and she is an absolute mess! Hopefully food preferences during pregnancy have nothing to do with personality development ;)
Oh, here is the seventy-fied version of Aubie sitting on the steps. Thanks, Matt!

azaleas

Gosh. I didn't get a picture of the cloak before it went into storage. How pitiful is that? And, I was going to post a picture of the present I made for Lyndsay (couldn't post before this weekend, obviously), but I stored it on the camera, and not the card, so until I have David's help, I can't post that either. (sigh) At least I finally have a new picture of Aubie : ) Last night, Mom and Dad stopped by (they were in town--otherwise it wouldn't be a stop-by) and took a few things with them to put in their new storage building for me. And while they were here Mom wanted to take some pictures of Aubie and our azaleas. We are always trying to duplicate an awesome picture taken of me and Leah sitting on Aunt Mae's porch steps (now my porch steps) when Leah was Aubie's age. Since we don't have that super-seventies-orangey-toned film development, I don't think we will ever come close. But at least my azaleas are pretty : )*After having posted this, and reading the two comments, I realized that I didn't mention how pretty the girl in the picture is--only the flowers. To me that was a given : ) I hope it didn't sound like I was saying that Aubie couldn't ever be as awesome as her Aunt Leah and me, because that was NOT what I meant : )

Yesterday was the longest day! It was a fun day, but good gracious. I will ALWAYS be sure that Aubie gets a full night's sleep before a sewing day. We went to Charis's, but since we are down to one car at present, I had to take David to work. Since we had to get up so early, Aubie was tired all day long. Every time one Charis's 2 kids did anything that even remotely favored being ugly (they are both very good children), Aubie would burst into tears. She's always been a bit sensitive, but I have never seen her like she was yesterday! So, from now on the rule is, Always get at least 10 hours sleep before you play with friends : ) Once I can get the camera from the car (David is out, and since the camera is with him, pictures will have to wait), I will show you the hood that Charis helped me make for one of the skits we are doing this weekend at Vida Nueva. It really is great, and only took maybe 30 minutes. I'll probably post a pic of the other things I made yesterday after this weekend. So, yeah. Sorry no pics yet, but when you only have one car, and the camera is in it, and the car happens to be gone, there is simply no way, is there?

Aubie

"I get a wollypopsicle right dere."~Aubie on the credit union.
"Dat my ugly muvver."~Aubie when pretending she has a wicked stepmother.
"Missamille not sick no more. We pway for her."~Aubie on the power of prayer : ) Miss Camille is her teacher.

I will try to post a picture of the dear girl tomorrow. Haven't taken any of her lately, sorry : (

so now I'm a chicken...

Throughout the years, folks have always had trouble with my name. Stage, Paige, Beige, my Belk account says Gaige. One time I got a letter for Sarge. I thought Sarge was a cool title, so its not one of the worst. But when I got a letter Saturday addressed to Sage Cluck... I mean... I really don't even know what to say. I'll take a picture of it tomorrow and let you see that I didn't make this up. Maybe if I change my name to Sarge Cluck, somebody will start getting it right ;)

As you can see, it was from the Social Security Administration, no less. Pitiful.

fridge

I haven't blogged about this yet, because I didn't really want to bore everyone with a post about household appliances, but I am so very happy, I have to share my joy. When Mimi passed away, of course all of her belongings had to be distributed between the two daughters, Mom and Aunt Karen. Mom was going to get Mimi's old refrigerator and give me her old one, but she hated the thought of having to haul mine to Mimi's for the yard sale, Mimi's to her house, and hers to my house. She wanted me to get Mimi's, but we were a bit afraid that Mimi's wouldn't fit in the hole for the fridge that the previous owners had cut into the wall. We pulled out a few nails and boards (not as bad as it sounds), and Voila! It did fit! So instead of three moves, we only had to do an exchange, and I have a "new" refrigerator. I wish I could say that the "custom dispenser" works, but it doesn't. But I am so happy to have the extra space that a side by side refrigerator provides, I really don't care. Once I had everything moved into the "new" one, and still had empty shelves, I was amazed at how I could have worked with such limited space before. But the true amazement came when I saw my old one at Mimi's and thought, "Was that tiny thing mine? How in the world have we used that for 2 years?" Everytime I went grocery shopping, I would have to clean out the refrigerator. Now, I just put the groceries on one of the empty shelves : )

(I thought the blurriness of no flash added to the eighties look of the "custom dispenser")

deliciously scared

Last night's weather was a bit scary. Since we are located somewhere near the middle of the city, we can hear a least 3 different tornado sirens going off. I try not to let my imagination get carried away with me. Each sounds at a slightly-off pitch from the other, start at different times, yet play together long enough to set your nerves on edge. The dissonance is quite disturbing. Whenever we hear these sirens, I can imagine myself walking on the front porch and to my utter horror, staring at War-of-the-Worlds-type aliens blasting their way up my street. It can really make one "deliciously scared", as Anne with an "E" would say. But thank goodness, no tornadoes nor aliens arrived at my house yesterday (in fact, 10 minutes away trees were knocked down, but we had no wind whatsoever here).

smart girl

Last night, when Aubie was taking her bath, she said, "starts with 'W'". I'm not sure why she said this--maybe because I gave her the W sponge bath letter a few minutes before... Anyway, I said, "Water starts with W." And she said, "No. Not water." And I said a quiet "yes it does" and then,"and Washington starts with W." She said, "Washington, yeah. Washington. Washington Carber, you know." "What?" "Washington Carber, you know." "Yeah, George Washington Carver! Did you learn about him in school? What did he do? Did he make peanut butter?" "And paint, and coffee." I talked to her teacher about it today at school, because I didn't know that he made a type of coffee out of peanuts, but he did! Now, I might actually like peanut coffee.

not 2 babies

Well, I had my first prenatal visit today, and so far,I am quite pleased with the group that I am with. The nurses are super nice, and the midwife that I saw today (I'll meet the 2 doctors later) is absolutely wonderful! I hope that she will be able to deliver the baby. And yes, I said the baby. Despite all Aubie's wishes for "two brudders", it is only one baby. And whether it will be a "brudder" or a sister, well, we won't know that for another 12 weeks. Here is a picture of the little "Tweety" as the nurse called it.And here's a picture of Aubie enjoying an ice cream after (somewhat) patiently waiting my 2 1/2 hour doctor's appointment. (Thanks for watching her, Mom!)

playgroup

Last week, Aubie and I got invited to a play group that encompasses some preschool folks and some Ingleside folks. We couldn't go last Friday, because of Aubie's hair appointment, but we went this morning. Today, everyone was supposed to meet at Barnes and Noble for story time, but it only ended up being 3 moms and their kids (from the playgroup. there were tons of other kids). Amy (the one heading it up) said if it had been at Kangaroo Bob's again, then probably everyone would have shown up. We lucked out at B&N today though. They told 2 stories, gave the kids goldfish, passed out samples of sugar free strawberry Frappucino with whipped cream (for the kids), and when a lot of the children had gone, the storytime lady gave the remainder of the kids a valentine box that sold for $9.95 just 2 days ago. Aubie had a lot of fun dancing on the stage with her friend Mary Katherine from preschool (after story time, of course). It was really nice to talk to some moms this morning too. I feel like I don't really get to do that much. I mean, I do every Tuesday and Thursday, but its only when they come to bring their children and then come to take them away. It was nice to feel like just one of the moms this morning instead of being hired help. Don't get me wrong, I don't feel like that most of the time. All my moms are nice, and never, ever act that way toward me. But sometimes, its just nice to be like everyone else.