weekend with Nana and Pa

Julia had a fun weekend with Nana Betty and Grandpa Fred (or 'Pa' as she said while pointing at one particular picture of him) while Peter and I were traveling back and forth from North Carolina. She watered the garden (or herself), played with lots of puzzles, and went to church and 3K Sunday School. Julia still likes to talk in church - when Pastor Drew asked at the end of the service if anyone would like to join the church, Julia said in a loud voice 'O.K.!" We also heard she wasn't very fond of sharing Nana with the three-year-olds, but did like it when Grandpa Fred showed up.

traveling with the Tide

We made an away-game football trip to Duke last weekend with our friends the Heaths. We had fun reliving old college days, including a previous trip to the North Carolina area on an epicly funny mission trip, when we previously took pictures with this camel/man statue and Wallace Wade's bust at Duke. Thankfully this trip as a game trip more resembled LSU 2002 than the awful trifecta of Tennessee/LSU/Mississippi State 2000. More on Julia's fun with Nana Betty in the next post.

Two stories I forgot at first - we happen to catch the 'walk of champions,' or 'devil walk' or whatever they call it, while we were standing outside Cameron Indoor Stadium near their tailgate area. It was scary how small - short and small build- so many of the Duke football players were. I was worried for their health if they weren't scrubs and were going to actually play. I remember exactly how big Alabama football players are from riding the elevators with them when I lived at Rose Towers. These Duke boys were in some cases no bigger than me or Stacey and so many of them weren't much bigger than Peter and Will.

Also, here is a story I wanted to tell, copied from Will's blog -
"• One more good road trip story and then I'm off: on the way back to our hotel, we stopped by the student union for a minute, just to breathe in some air conditioning. Per chance, we wound up overhearing the following conversation between a group of three flabbergasted girls:

Girl No. 1 (confused): "I guess they just like football a lot."
Girl No. 2 (more confused): "I don't know why."
Girl No. 3: "Well, they are No. 1."
Girl No. 2 (even more confused now): "Why'd we play them again?" "

Ahhhh. Balm for the soul of the Tide fans who caught the aforementioned away games and so, so many other heart and gut-wrenching losses over the last thirteen years.

Happy Grandparent's Day

This is Julia's "I sure do love you" face.

Go!

Tech has the first game of the day, so Julia sports her GT outfit this morning.
Go Jackets and Roll Tide!

Huntsville visit

The last weekend of August we made a trip to Huntsville (well, our-style weekend - leaving after preschool here on Thursday and returning Saturday after lunch). We had a wonderful and fun visit with Grammie and Poppy and Uncle Todd. Julia got to see and play in her newly decorated room that Grammie and Poppy spent a lot of time making so cool. Before we turn around good, I know she'll be sleeping in the big bed there, too. She rocked on Lulu the ladybug, and had quite a fun time, even if she did get 'catty-whompus' and fall off the side once. She took it in stride. Other fun times were the swinging on the porch swing, checking the mail with Poppy, begging for the water hose to be turned on when she saw the spigot (she's attempting to sign water, not pick her nose, I promise) and watering the plants, playing with different toys including Mommy's old Sesame Street playset, and eating out at Rosie's and Red Lobster, where she kept bowing her head and clasping her hands in prayer over and over through out the meal. Peter said she was praying for our eternal salvation - we'll have to have a lesson on the New Testament to make sure she knows shrimp is okay. ;)











Peter and I enjoyed our short outing to the Friends of the Library in Huntsville - we almost always go there when we're in town, and almost always find great deals on books there. This time Peter found a book for himself for $.50. That price also got a bedtime book - Julia's new favorite - Good Night, God Bless by, as we now know, one of Julia's favorite illustrators, Hideko Takahashi. After checking for it on amazon, we'll have to get some of her other books about using your words and getting rid of the paci. (insert sound effect - "dunt dunt dunnnnn" here). We're thinking the Great Paci Giveaway will commence when days grow shorter later this fall.

Since our visit to Huntsville Julia has started saying all sorts of new words. I like to think being around Uncle Todd makes her want to be smarter. In one week she started saying "whoa, hey, byebye, yay, and teeth." This week she added 'cheese,' while signing cheese, which is strange because she doesn't really like to eat much cheese. It must be fun to say and sign (hold flat palms together- bottom of top palm to top of other bottom palm - and wave top hand hand back and forth like smushing or itching something). Here is a great site I came across tonight to demonstrate signs. I'm excited we found it for looking up new signs - if you want to learn a sign, you might go there instead relying on my poor descriptions here for scrapbook posterity.

Well, off to bed now, hoping the steroid shot doesn't keep me up, but hopeful that we'll finally knock out all our sinus trouble around here lately after the round of trips to the doctor and Publix pharmacy today. Yay for free antibiotics! Julia says yay for the car carts with steering wheels!

Note: Julia was in no way harmed in the accidental filming of this video. It looks terrible, and only because she was okay, also pretty funny.

coming through clearly

Football season has indeed begun here in Tuscaloosa. We've been excited about the prospects of a new season, and are glad that it has finally arrived. The plethora of articles about Alabama football in The Tuscaloosa News has helped even more to whet our appetite for football.

We went back and forth about how exactly to take in the first game while we're back in Tuscaloosa. Do we spend $29.95 to watch a blowout? Do we just listen to Eli on the radio and then watch the replay on Sunday? Ultimately, we decided to bite the bullet and buy the Pay Per View.

Our hope was to have Julia watch the first half of the UA vs. San Jose State game on Saturday, then we'd put her to bed during halftime. Sadly, what she got were shots of the game with no sound, the picture going in and out, and occasional beeping sounds. We turned on the radio broadcast while calling Charter to complain (as did most of the rest of the area, based on them "experiencing high call volume" and having two automated messages trying to appease people). Finally, Amanda found a number we had from when we moved, called and got a customer service person who wasn't getting inundated with complaints, and he took the charge off our bill. About midway through the 2nd quarter, the picture and sound finally came on together.

So reception for PPV - not so good (and, apparently, never is with Charter based on anecdotal evidence). Reception for Julia during quiet moments in church, however - excellent.

Apparently Julia either really digs church tradition, or she's longing for the contemporary service at Cullman First UMC where she used to kick and dance to the music. As I began inviting the congregation to share prayer request, she looked at me and loudly said "hey" during a lull in requests. At the end of the Lord's Prayer, she clapped (but didn't get too out of control, since Mommy's "behavior radar" was already on high alert so Mommy expertly diverted her attention). At the end of the Gloria Patri, however, she not only clapped, but shouted "yea!" and got a laugh out of the entire congregation.

I suppose that's the joy of my life as a preacher, having my child do things and say things and then try to figure how to react a) as a father b) as a spouse and c) as a pastor. It doesn't help that I also can't assist Amanda with things while I'm up there leading worship, so I end up pretty clueless as far as what's going on.

I have a new theory that pastor's spouses with kids have to function like single parents for a majority of the time they're at church, since their spouse has to be doing their job more than functioning as a parent. Perhaps the church could learn something about the frustrations that single parents have in coming to church by talking to involved clergy families about what a day at worship feels like for them. Just a random thought.

As far as Julia, I have a feeling it won't be too long until she makes a run for it to try to get down for Children's Moment. At that point, I imagine all bets are off. Until then, I'll just see if she says something intelligible during prayer time, if the something she says is repeatable, and do the best I can. If nothing else, maybe we'll have a cheering section if we sing well.

Roooooooll Tide

Football season is upon us again. Thank goodness for the cooler weather - at least in the mornings.

Julia is learning to cheer - she says something resembling Roll Tide ("whoooooooll"), and like any good Southern Belle, her "yay" has two syllables, "yay-eeee," (as does her "hey," or "hay-ee").