THIS POST WILL EXPOSE OUR REAL FAMILY and HOPEFULLY GIVE YOU A LAUGH

This post is for anyone that thought our family never had an off night.....

I need to give you a little background. I am having Bunco at my house on Tuesday and have a "to do" list three pages long. First thing on it would be cleaning out all the Christmas
I am working on so people will have a place to sit down. So a bit stressed to begin the day....We left the house at noon, let the puppy out, thinking we would be home around 7:30.....planning to meet the entire family at OUTBACK at 6:30 for a family BIRTHDAY supper for AMANDA. Then we would bring JACK home to spend the night with us, so Amanda and Micah could go to a BIG BIRTHDAY party that MICAH had planned downtown. Easy enough...or so I thought!

Greg and his family were going to meet us. Greg had a little male surgery yesterday (let's just say they are finished having babies), so I am assuming he was moving a little slow, BUT they live about 40 minutes from where we were eating. WE along with Amanda and family arrive at the restaurant about 6:20, get in line for a table....Jack is acting like a hellion.....

Do these pictures just give you a glimpse of Jack's personality.

His Dad trying to keep him from throwing the pager...He was not successful at least 10 times....Jack wanted to run, he wanted no one touching him, and he wanted everyone in OUTBACK to know the pager was HIS....He was repeating MINE over and over. .....I just knew that everyone in the restaurant was thinking, "Please do NOT sit that family by us"!

Then Greg calls and says they are running an hour late.....Parker had planned to go home with them and spend the night, so he had a MAJOR breakdown because he thought they were not coming. So his Mom is having a heart to heart with him.

"The first heart to heart had to be repeated"

Parker is NOT a HAPPY CAMPER and neither was I by NOW. Remember we need to let Bella out at HOME.....We have now had 2 appetizers, which Jack has promptly thrown on the floor. He DOES NOT want to sit in the high chair...and so we pass him around the table....Little 20 month old boys do not WAIT well. FINALLY GREG and family arrive, him walking a tad strange, everyone looking stressed. The poor waitress is probably thinking of quitting or at least praying for a LARGE tip....She was lucky that both MICAH and GREG have waited tables.....They TIP TOO good. Grayson is starving, and Austin has had a breakdown in the car, because he thought they were not going make it in time to get Parker to spend the night. As soon as they arrive Pop takes Grayson and Jack has a TOTAL BREAKDOWN. HOW DARE Pop, hold another BOY!...THIS picture below just cracks me up...Can you see how violated Jack feels...and Grayson looks like he has seen a ghost. I am sure in his heart he was saying, "Please give me back to my MOM"! We finally have our MEAL...by then I am not even hungry and am thinking we need to get home and let the dog out....We say goodnight....Amanda, Micah and Dana laugh as Greg hobbles to the car. We leave with a whining, very cranky and tired Jack, Parker and Austin leave happy to be getting to have a cousin slumber party, and Amanda and Micah head downtown to a her FUN BIRTHDAY party.

So if I have ever portrayed our family as always "in tune", please take this as an admission, WE ARE NOT!...Hop over to the Christmas blog and check out the winner of the Tree skirt. You can still tell me your favorite Christmas song. Mine tonight would be "Silent Night"!

Happy Birthday Week to My GIRL

Amanda,
Where do I start....Twenty nine years ago this week, I was about to give birth to a little girl. It had been anything but a normal pregnancy. My short term memory is not what it once was, but wow does my long term memory remember every detail of that week. In May of that year, your Dad had taken a new coaching job, we had sold our house, bought a fantastic old 75 year old house in our new town, packed our boxes, sent them on ahead and then headed to Disney World with Greg. On the way home, at five months pregnant, I got very sick in New Orleans....which turned out to be a ruptured appendix. I ended up in a strange hospital, in a strange town, with a strange doctor and had major surgery. I spent 10 days in the hospital taking massive antibiotics. The details are only important because only later did the doctor tell me that I could have easily died along with you. So many people prayed. I can still remember feeling you move for the first time after surgery, praying that you had not suffered in trauma.

The story has a very happy ending. I arrived in a new town and it took me the rest of the pregnancy to unpack all the boxes. But that October week, twenty nine years ago, after a very short and easy labor, Amanda Parker Powell, arrived perfectly fine and the most beautiful thing we had ever seen. We had our boy and now we had our girl. We were more than grateful. I can never remember feeling more blessed.

I won't give the details of the next 29 years...but fast forward to your senior year in high school, which others can read here and here, but on a very ordinary day, our lives changed....That is where the title of the Christmas blog, A Baby Changes Everything, comes from. Not only did that baby in the manger change the world, this baby our baby was carrying, changed our lives. From that day until today, I can only tell you that you have made us proud. Was it always easy? No, but it was always worth it. Your boy became the most loved little boy by everyone. He really did have a village that called him theirs.
The fact that you carried the secret of your pregnancy for five months alone, so we could all get through the holidays, that you never considered abortion, that you knew this was a baby that was your responsibility and you were up for the challenge....all those things made us prouder than you will ever know. As I look back, I am still amazed at your strength.

Today you are not only the Mom to Parker, but to Dad's little namesake, Jack. You are not only a daughter, you are a wife, a sister, a sister-in-law, an aunt, even a good friend to Parker's Dad but most of all,
you are an extraordinary, incredible Mom. You did not marry until Parker was eight...I know there were some very lonely days but you were always aware that whoever you married would not only be your man, but Parker's step-dad and that person had to be the RIGHT one.
HE was and HE is! ...and he loves Parker as much as his own little man, Jack. Every time I see your little family together, I whisper a prayer of thanks. I am not going to even caption these pictures...I think they will speak for themselves. A girl madly in love with her man and
her boys...and what Mom and Dad could ask for anything more.

Amanda, your energy amazes me, your work ethic makes me proud, your commitment to your family makes me smile. Thank you for two of the most special little boys we could have ever dreamed of. They rock our world...daily. I cannot imagine life without them.
I have never known two little boys that adore their Mom more ..and I am pretty sure that Micah feels like he won the lottery.
Happy Birthday Week!!!! We celebrate YOU!
I love you,
Mom

And The WINNER IS

AND THE WINNER IS......ON THIS RAINY SUNDAY NIGHT.......

GRAMMEE at addition game 2+3+2+4=11
Please go by and visit her blog...I want to read more about her and I certainly like her name. These goodies will be on their way to her as soon as I get her address. I love these little giveaways that just come from one post and make your odds of winning greater. I think I will do another one, one day this week.
I just love GIVEAWAYS....
Hope you enjoyed our little LSU party last night. That little man slept with me and I woke up to him sitting up in the bed just staring at me....It does not get better than that. Hope you have a wonderful week.