Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my favorite man! Greg turns 32 today. I think I'll pay him tribute by listing 32 things I love about my man. These are in no particular order.

1. I love how he always knows how to put me in a good mood when I've had a bad day
2. I love how he leaves great first impressions
3. I love his smile
4. He's hilarious...he's got the best 1 liners
5. He's the smartest person in the world...really he is
6. He's awesome at putting people in their place, but doing it with truth and kindness
7. He sets such a great example
8. He loves his girls
9. He's a godly man...with strong faith
10. He looks fabulous in red
11. He helps me so much around the house and with Kirsten
12. Everyday he tells me he appreciates me and what I do for him and Kirsten
13. He never makes or expects me to do anything I don't want to do
14. He's motivating and inspiring
15. He'll watch teeny bopper shows with me
16. He likes my cooking
17. He works hard for our family
18. He puts up with a lot
19. He's patient
20. He smells great
21. He's so neat and clean
22. He's quite easy on the eyes
23. He's the type of man I want my daughter to date and marry
24. He's sincere
25. He's honest
26. He's a man with integrity
27. He doesn't gossip and he doesn't judge
28. He's a great leader
29. I love watching him play with Kirsten
30. He's not high maintenance
31. He's so much fun
32. He's my best friend

Happy Birthday, Greg! I hope it's great. LOVE YOU

Week In Review

This past week has been one of the busiest weeks the Caraways have had in a very long time. However, it was one of the most fun weeks we've had in a really long time as well. As many of you know, my birthday was last Wed., June 30th. And whether you want to or not, if you are a friend or even just an acquaintance of mine, you are expected to celebrate all week long. Especially if my birthday falls in the middle of the week, like it did this year.

My bff, Allison, from MS came in to celebrate with me the weekend prior to my b'day. We had a really good time. I consumed more carbs that weekend than I have all of 2010 combined. Allison made me the cutest birthday present. It's a wooden flower bouquet, and on the back of every flower was gift card. I had gift cards to Bath & Body Works, Subway, and Amazon. I love when someone gives me a gift, and they actually think about me and what I may like. It just makes me feel so special. It's never about the amount of what the gift costs. It's about knowing that you were really thinking of me when you got me something. Allison and my sister, Hayley, are the best present givers ever.

Friday, Allison, Kirsten and I had a girls' day at the mall. We goofed around like we were tweenagers. We shopped every store, ate in the food court, had mall yogurt, made build-a-bears...the whole tween experience.

Sat. night Allison and I went out while Greg babysat. Since I love and miss McAlister's so much, we drove 45 min. to the closest one. We spent the night singing hits from the early 90's. I can't remember what I did yesterday, but I can remember every word to every song Debbie Gibson ever recorded. Allison tried to culture me with some annoying, whiny, off pitch country songs. I hate how people are given recording contracts because they can put a booty call to music. I mean, really...but that's another blog.

Wednesday was my hollyday, so obviously Greg took off of work. Or he planned on it, anyway. He ended up going in about 3:00 that afternoon, then had to work till about 7:00. He felt bad about it so he made it up to me by going 45 min. out of the way to let me eat at McAlister's. Nothing cures the blues like some McAlister's tea.

Friday we finally got our date night. We've had many attempts at a date night since last Nov., but we've been unsuccessful. It was so pleasant to be able to just hang with my man and eat at the same time and have real conversation. We went to dinner at Ted's, then searched what seemed like most of GA for frozen custard. There's no Bop's here and I'm not happy about that. I would have driven to Flowood for Bop's but I didn't think the babysitter would go for that.

Saturday, my family came in and we all went to the Peachtree Road Race fitness expo to pick up our race numbers. The expo was so awesome. They were selling all kinds of running gear for really cheap.

Sunday was the big day. I was so nervous I had to go to the bathroom 4 times before the race started and I thought I was going to miss my heat. Fortunately, I caught up with them just in time to start the race. It was so fun. There were 55,000 runners and tons of spectators all over Peachtree and Piedmont Park. Moe's was shooting t'shirts into the crowd of runners. McDonald's had Smoothie stops. People were passing out coupons for free food. The weather could not have been any nicer. I started at 8:30 and Greg started at 9:00 and the hottest it got was 73 degrees.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first Peachtree Road Race experience. I hope we can start doing this every year. I read the mile markers wrong thinking they were telling me when the mile started instead of when they ended. Since I thought I was a mile behind in my time I slowed down. I got confused when some spectator screamed we were half way done at mile 4 and I got discouraged. Then about 2 min. later an experienced Peachtree participant straightened things out for me, so I started back up again. I probably wasted 2.5 - 3 minutes of my time. Moral to the story...some spectators are idiots so don't listen to them. My finish time was 1:25:09. Greg's was 1:10 even. We were satisfied and excited.

We were home by noon and spent the rest of the afternoon with my parents, Hayley and our GA bff's, Jason and Jennifer. Kirsten and Jacob played on the slip and slide and they had such a blast. This is what holidays are all about. Just quality time with family and friends.

As I mentioned earlier, Hayley is one of the best gift givers. She can spend $5 or $500 and buy the best gifts. She's gifted in that way, and I am blessed to have her in my life. I guess that's our love languages. The big reveal of what she gave me.....a Nook.

Flashback

Yesterday Kirsten and I did our weekly venture into Atlanta. We'll ride in with Greg and spend the day around town, and ride home with him at night. This allows us to not pay for parking and we get to have a good looking lunch date. We spent yesterday at Atlantic Station. We shopped and played, and shopped and played...then we went and read all the magazines we could get our hands on in the Publix magazine aisle.

Kirsten has been asking for watermelon the last few days, and it was right in the front entrance of Publix....seedless, cut up and ready to eat. Since nothing gets past her, she decided she should have some then and there. Greg was working later than we expected, so Kirsten and I decided to treat ourselves to some. I told Kirsten she needed to call her Papaw and ask him to get her a watermelon for the 4th of July. He knows more about picking them out than me, and the ones he gets seem so much bigger than those in the grocery stores. Kirsten loves me telling her about Papaw's big watermelons.

After our long day yesterday, Kirsten crashed on the way home. It was past her bedtime and she was sleeping so soundly in the car. I was in the kitchen when I watched Greg bring her inside. I had a flashback of my dad carrying us in when we all would fall asleep in the car. It's so funny how dads can carry their children with one arm while the other one is used to carry bags and other things. I have a hard time holding Kirsten and my keys at the same time with both arms. Dads have this gift of getting the kids out of the car, putting them in the bed, taking their shoes off and kissing them goodnight without the kids even noticing they've moved. Then it comes....the dreaded decision of whether you wake the sleeping child to bathe them because they are filthy, or do you wait till morning. Of course, this comes with the hope that they'll sleep all night and not realize they've been put to bed with their play clothes on instead of those cute pj's. This decision seems so crucial...it honestly determines the rest of your evening and perhaps whether or not the parents will get a good night's sleep.

I couldn't help but wonder how many times my parents had to make that decision, and how many times they regretted the decision they chose. With 3 kids did they ever get it right or did this sweet memory of mine cause them many not so sweet memories of sleepless nights? Daddies are pretty special. I am blessed to have 2 great daddies to celebrate for Father's Day...mine and my baby's.

Kirsten's B'day weekend

I wanted to share some pics from last weekend. For Kirsten's birthday, both sets of her grandparents came in to see her. She was so excited. We had a Dora the Explorer Adventure party and our friends and neighbors came by for the fiesta.

Greg and Jason hanging the pinata

The kids swinging at the pinata

The candy from the pinata

Some of our family and neighbors

The treat bags...they are supposed to look like Back Pack and Rescue Pack

Some of the food...we served Mexican...tacos, nachos, taquitos, rotel, etc....yummy

Kirsten rolling around with Jacob, her bff

Kirsten playing football with her tinkerbell costume on....perfect mix of Greg and me

Sunday we took Kirsten and her cousin Dylan to Jump 4 Joey. Everyone had a blast.

Sunday night, we set up Kirsten's slip n' slide. It was so funny, the other kids in the neighborhood ranging from 7-12 saw my 3 yr. old and her 18 month old cousin playing on the slip n' slide, and wanted in on the action

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Happy Birthday Kirsten

Today is my baby's 3rd birthday. I can't believe she's 3 years old. Greg has been off of work since last Thursday afternoon and Kirsten and I have really enjoyed having him around to just hang out and spend some quality family time together. Our families came in last weekend for her birthday party and it was a blast. I'll post some pictures of that in my next blog.

This blog is going to be devoted to my Kirsten. We've tried to make sure she got lots of fun "kid" time in while Greg's had off. Since last Saturday we've had a birthday party, gone to Jump 4 Joey, played on the slip-n-slide, gone to Chick-fil-A, played with bubbles, stayed up late, slept late, made her a princess bed, eaten lots of sugar, gone to White Water water park, eaten more sugar, played dress up, and watched lots of Disney and Nickelodeon. She is so awesome, and we've had the best time with her.

Since Kirsten's the big "3" today, I want to list my top 3 things I love about her:

1 - She is the perfect mix of her daddy & me...she has his sense of humor and problem solving skills and she has my creativity and outspoken ways

2- She's so observant... she always remembers the last place she left something, and she catches anything...she's always paying attention even when it seems like she's doing her own thing

3- She's so girly...I love it. She's not afraid to play and hang with the boys, but she'll do it wearing her princess crown and skirt

Happy Birthday Kirsten! I LOVE YOU!!!

Thought For The Day.....

The other day, I had a conversation with a family member that is most of the time, less than friendly to me. This time wasn't any different. It wasn't a conversation of fighting or screaming or anything, but it was short and cold. Like almost every other time I speak with this person, the conversation ended with me feeling guilty and a little bit upset. I kept playing every word we spoke to each other over and over again in my mind. I spent a lot of the night wondering why I allow these feelings to occupy so much of my time. I prayed for God's peace, which He offered way before I asked Him for it. It was up to me to take it.

Today, it came to me. I can't control what people think of me or how they feel towards me. Of course we all want to feel accepted, but sometimes we just aren't. I've spent so much time searching for ways to make this person happy with me. It may not even be me, maybe this person has other issues. Maybe some people channel their resentment in different ways than I do. Whatever the case, all I can offer is my forgiveness. The point of forgiveness isn't to say here's a free pass to treat me bad. It's saying, you may treat me badly, but I won't allow it to consume me. God has blessed me with so many things, people, relationships, and His forgiveness for my sins. If all I can do to make a relationship work with someone else is offer grace, then that's what I need to do. God will do the rest.

Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day weekend was the best. This was my 3rd Mother's Day as a mom, but the 1st one I've actually been able to celebrate. Last year we were in MS for my sister's graduation, and even though we were among family, we really didn't celebrate Mother's Day. The year before, which was my first Mother's Day, was a disaster. It involved a major family dispute and I spent the entire day crying and upset. But, I won't use my blog to, as my husband says, "air out my dirty laundry."

My weekend started off very early Sat. morning to participate in The Race for the Cure. I did this with my friend, Kathy. This was my first 5K and I am not much of a runner. Kathy, on the the other hand is a pro at the races. She has encouraged me to do the Peachtree Road Race on July 4, so I signed Greg up for Peachtree as well. I love the atmosphere at these events. It was so fun running through the streets of Midtown Atlanta and Atlantic Station. Like I said, I am not much of a runner, but I was pleased with my time. I finished in 41.41 according to the race timer, but Kathy said their clock was off a little bit according to the timer on her watch. She thinks I finished it in a little over 40 min. I'll go with that one.

After the race, I went home and Greg and Kirsten greeted me with roses. Kirsten picked them out and she gave me a card. I am starting a box, like the one on the Hallmark commercial, and I'll put all my cards from her in there. I keep an art portfolio for her that's dated with all of her colorings, drawings and crafts she does while she's in childcare anywhere. I want to save everything so one day, she can see her progress, and we can reminisce and maybe even make our own Hallmark commercial.

For lunch Greg and Kirsten took me to McAlister's in Roswell. I've been wanting McAlister's for quite a while, and they don't have one close to Douglasville. The food and tea were consistent with what I remembered and the weather was beautiful and pleasant enough to eat outside. Give me some easy food, beautiful weather, a table on the patio and wonderful company like Greg and Kirsten, and I think I'm in heaven.

The day continued with a visit to Fleet Feet for new running shoes for both of us, then to Dick's Sporting Goods to check out exercise equipment. I love Fleet Feet. They put lots of different shoes on us and let us run around outside until we found those perfect shoes. They also had inserts that help with my plantar fasciitis. Dick's had lots of equipment to choose from, but we can't decide if we want an elliptical machine, a treadmill or an arc trainer. Across from Dick's was a Marble Slab. I've soooo been missing Marble Slab's chocolate frozen yogurt. There's nothing like taking Kirsten to get ice cream. She loves it, and for a few hours, I'm the coolest person in the world to her.


Sunday morning we went to church. The service was awesome. I love it when our pastor and his wife present the message together. They're so cute. The message was about Mary and Martha. It was a great topic for Mom's.

Greg and Kirsten took me to Jason's Deli in Midtown for lunch. I love my deli's, can't you tell? I especially love Jason's Deli. They have lots of organic choices and the menu is excellent for those with food allergies. Again, the weather was beautiful, so we sat outside and watched the city life around us. I love Atlanta city life.

After lunch Greg took me to The Dump. I've been wanting to go there for some time. This is a furniture store that sells high-end furniture at affordable prices. It's actually a very nice showroom. They had lots of beautiful furniture. It's a lot more pleasurable to shop around for furniture when you're really in the market for some. We stayed at The Dump for a couple of hours.

For dinner, Greg made his "better than any Italian restaurant" chicken parmesan. It was so delicious. This is my favorite, and Greg hasn't been able to make it in at least a year and a half. It's always a privilege to eat his chicken parmesan. I wish I took a picture of this but I didn't think about it.

For dessert I made a red velvet cheesecake. I wanted this from Cheesecake Factory, but I am not going to wait in line for 2 hours to eat just because it's Mother's Day. I would much rather spend that time doing something fun with my family. Restaurants are open every day of the year, not just Mother's Day. My cheesecake was trial and error, but I am very pleased with the results. I haven't made a cheesecake in a while and my recipe is stored in the computer that isn't set up yet. I made it from memory, and just attempted to add the red velvet.

All in all, Mother's Day was like Christmas and my birthday. Greg gave me my bracelet for Deeper Still, the new Francine Rivers book, Her Mother's Hope, Paula Deen's Savannah Style and he vacuumed out my car. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and daughter who love me and make me feel so special. I could not have asked for a better weekend. I don't know how I can equal or top this for Father's Day. Any suggestions?????