My Morning as Mr. Mom

It has been raining here in Nashville for the last three days. IT HAS BEEN RAINING! That is awesome since we have not had rain the last two months. It has been so incredibly dry that it just has not been fun to be outside the Earth has been looking for so much moisture it will zap it out of your body to there point of being miserable. Sunday was the first day of rain and it was a little rough because it was still warm from Saturday and humidity was gross. But Labor Day was so cool it felt like November in the upper north west United States. This weather made me incredibly happy. I refused to wear a jacket although I definitely should have.

This weekend some friends of ours have gone out of town and asked us to care for their chickens. As payment we will receive fresh eggs. My best friend loves fresh eggs. Therefore we took full advantage and now have a dozen eggs waiting for scramblification.

My best friend has her first test today. Two weeks into the semester and she is testing on nursing fundamentals. Making a bed properly among other such items like brushing teeth, etc. I hope this goes well for her, she has been so stressed that she will not make the cut. She really wants to succeed at this, and I do not blame her. This is totally in her nature to care for other people. She is a wonderful person.

Today I am taking care of Scoot so she is palling around the house and having herself a fun time digging toys out of her toy box, doing her own thing. She is also helping me] ]]]]]]w;rIT:} E Th is blog anD 'eveR" Y|th"N+ g i (write this blog entry as well). The pleasure of this opportunity is added up to, our friends (and subsequent babysitter) are out of town, my best friend is taking her first test, so Scoot and I had to feed and release the chickens from their coupe in the rain. I had to hold an umbrella, hold Scoot, and open the gate with two hands. So I bagged up the Scoot like so...

It was kind of cold on Scoot's feet so we had to hurry back. The weather did not phase Scoot's demeanor though. She is always in good spirits these days.

My morning as Mr. Mom has been:
1. Drink Coffee
2. Release chickens
3. Drink Coffee
4. Feed Scoot
5. Drink Coffee
6. Iron Shirt
7. Drink Coffee
8. Put Scoot Down for a nap
9. Empty Dishwasher
This is the point I realize I should have emptied the dishwasher then ironed
10. Drink Coffee
11. Clean living room
12. Write a blog to feel higher self worth
13. Go to work for a half day
14. Drink Coffee

How does my best friend do this on top of nursing school. She is an incredible person and I am blessed by her presence.

Wine Tasting Date

Last week I got the idea to take my best friend on a date Saturday. She likes romantic things like surprises like wine tasting. I was hoping to keep it a secret but there is so much going on in our lives right now with me working late and her nursing school picking up a rapid pace. She could not bear the intensity of not knowing what I was planning.

So Tuesday went like this: A phone call stating that I needed her to make potato salad for Saturday. I knew full well this would alarm her because I asked her to make potato salad for the previous Saturday for a cookout for some friends. She as I thought she would, immediately needed to know who was coming over and what I was planning to do. I told her that it was a surprise that she would love, and that she would find out Saturday morning. In any other year something like this would make her smile from ear to ear that I was being this romantic.

The next eight hours were a grueling hell. She could not handle the anticipation. She had to know if someone was coming over, what would we do with Scoot, how late would said event last, and so on. Her mind was racing so much that she would not be able to concentrate the rest of the week. That would be extremely bad for us all to cause too much undue stress to a person going through enough.

I explained that I would be taking her and Scoot on a date to a vineyard that we had been to before in Arrington, TN.

If any of you know my best friend you will know that just because I told her what was happening was not enough to stop her from worrying. I had to tell her all the details. Would Scoot be coming along, is Scoot allowed in the tasting rooms, what time would we be going, what about Scoots bed time, Arggghhhh. It still amazes me the amount of stuff she can think of in such a little time.

After she settled down and I gave it a couple days I asked her if she was excited about the date that was at hand. She was. Saturday turned out to be a great time for all of us. I even got a smile out of both my best friend and my Scoot.

tumblr vs blogger: Why I Switched

I switched back to blogger today. I say it like I have been posting for months rather than two weeks.I switched because I can share any blog feed I want and I am not limited to those only on tumblr. I also can be more creative as far as my layout is concerned. 

Things I will miss: I cannot post crazy layouts for my pictures. What I don't like about it was that I could not have it in the middle of a post. Just seemed to fall short in the wrong areas. Aesthetically it was much more appealing, but I needed more. It took a lesson at work to realize how much better my blogger could be. 

This is my sweet Scoot.

Wishing It All Away

Originally posted to tumblr:

In the most recent months that Scoot has lived with us we have received a lot of advice. The phrase that is coming to mind today is "Don't wish their childhood away." This comes up when I speak about Scoot's recent developments such as walking or babbling and how I say "I can't wait until _____."

I do not think that I am wishing her childhood away, but at this immediate moment Scoot is beginning to turn into a person. Her personality is beginning to spill out of her at an amazing rate with likes, dislikes, "meh's, and it is getting hard to remember even in the age of all things digital. Her development is the most interesting thing in the world right now because this once feeble blob is now beginning to do all kinds of things that make her - Incredible - incredible to be around.

The best advice so far was from a coworker that pushes this idea, "Don't miss anything and don't sweat the small things because you'll blink and they'll be gone." Why this is the best is because the advice is about Scoot. It is not about me and it is not about how I parent. It is solely about making sure I get the distractions that keep me from being there for her out of my life.

The only way to wish away her childhood is to fill my time with anything that is not Scoot.

Today We Tomato-ed

Originally posted to tumblr:

Today my best friend and I Tomato-ed.

In Nashville we have the Tomato 5K. It is a race to benefit the YMCA's of Middle Tennessee. We get a pretty good break on our Y-membership and it has become a way for my best friend to become a runner. She has never done anything like this before today. I am extremely proud of her because two months ago she could barely run 100 yards, and today she ran 3 miles.

This is her race to mark her accomplishment, and I am proud to come along to be there for the ride and moral support. Before this started she felt that she could never run a mile, much less a 5K. We would always have this argument: Anyone can be a runner, I could never be a runner, anyone can run, and so on. It finally came down to her weighing it and deciding she would cross 5K off of her yearly resolution list. Her resolution list is not only about cutting out bad habits, but  adding something to her life, like trying a new food, or doing something that scares her.

As you may have guessed from her stance on running, running scares my best friend. After two months of running little by little with Couch to a 5K she has built herself up to an incredible place that she can totally run 3 miles.

So today we tomato-ed and I could not be more proud - especially since she is already planing on signing up to run another before the end of the year.

You are awesome.

Florida

Who We Are

Originally posted to tumblr:

We are from Nashville, TN. I moved here in 2002 after finally deciding where I wanted to go to school. I met my best friend then, she moved here in the fall of 2001. We went through school together and fell in love throughout the entire time. We finally got married in 2005 and have had a time of growth since. We bought a house in 2009 and decided to fill in with a single child at the moment in 2010.

But this is not who we are.

Who we are is a family that does not aline itself with a thing, a mode, or a thought process. Our family cannot summed up by what we eat or what we do. We follow Christ but I do not think that our family can be grouped in with Americanized Christianity. I believe in a way that allows us to believe in a true God but also to allow for his love for those that do not believe. We definitely believe the Bible is infallible but man is not.

Hopefully I can exhibit how our family is different.