my extraordinary......

ex·traor·di·nar·y ~ adj.
Beyond what is ordinary or usual: extraordinary authority.
Highly exceptional; remarkable: an extraordinary achievement.
Employed or used for a special service, function, or occasion: a minister extraordinary; an extraordinary professor.

—Synonyms 1. inordinate. 2. uncommon, singular, rare, phenomenal, special, signal.
—Antonyms 1, 2. common, usual.

i was with some friends the other day who are also mothers. we were talking about what our "thing" was. that one activity that defines us, that makes us who we are. it seems that once we had our babies we lost our "thing". you know before i had BellaRose i sold insurance. i guess that i would not really want that to be my "thing". i am sure anyone can do it if they have the proper training. i also rode horses, and i loved it, still do, although i have not done it in over a year now. that blows my mind. the acitivity that i had put all my focus on and really made me who i am, i have not done in a year. oh i could, and i will, but not yet. i also snowboarded. i loved it. i loved having the wind whipping my face and flying down the mountain not hearing anything but the snow beneath my board. i felt free, just as i did on my horse when we were soaring over fences. but now i have not done anyone of those things that i trained so hard to be. my one friend was saying how she wants to do something extraordinary, remarkable. for some reason that conversation as not left me. i think about it a lot. i think about it when i am at home taking care of my precious baby, and i think about it when i am hanging out with my remarkable friends, and i wonder if i will do anything extraordinary, if i will be known for anything, and then i look at my baby. SHE is my extraordinary, SHE is my remarkable. no one has ever done what i have done, no one, besides Worth and me by God's grace has made a BellaRose and that is phenomenal and special. i guess i am slowly growing a mother's heart. my world has become BellaRose. i can leave her and go out with my friends, but i think about her, and miss her. i know i will win no awards like i did win i rode horses or be acknowledged in front of crowd, but when my baby one day walks across a stage to get a diploma, or flies down a hill on a snowboard, or boats a mighty rapid that will be my reward. i am learning a lot and have learned a lot these past few months. i thought i knew about love, but i had no idea. i love my husband, but he can fend for himself without me. Worth and i are everything to her. we pray we train her up right and to be a good person, and to me that is extraordinary.

Parties Galore

this was the weekend of non stop action! first up we had Ethan's 6th birthday party! how cool is it to be 6. there are endless possiblities when you are 6. such as getting a blue power rangers costume but not the kind with muscles (he already has his own muscles)! this kid loves his costumes. and why not, you can be anything you want to be when you are 6!

then we went on to Jason Woody's 30th birthday party. this is our old crew from Banner Elk, NC. Greg and Dru and there little boy Pearson (you can hit their link, but they don't update-hint) were there. Pearson is the cutest, all tan and blonde. Drullet (aka Steven) and Gabrielle were there all the way from Oriental.

The stumps, and the drullets, and Chris are all going sailing next weekend. i am pretty jealous of that. Chris will be meeting up with us though when we go to the Outer Banks for our vaca. Nigel also made an apperance from Wrightville beach. and of course the usual crew of the Matt, Margaret, Jennifer, Ben, and the wonderful Davis! it was so much fun seeing everyone. There were so many babies and kids there. The old days it was dogs, and now it is babies. Man how times change. I guess this is what happens when you are 30! Maybe i would rather be 6 :).

worth and B-Rose enjoyed their morning smoothie on the front stoop. Sweetie Baby loves her bumbo. I think she feels like a big girl in it.

all these parties makes sweet girl very tired!

special find: i did not just find this mascara this week, but Newell told me about it and I need some more, so i thought that i would share. It is Chanel Inimitable it is fabulous! go buy some, you won't be disappointed.

make trumpet sound with mouth...now!

there are many many reasons to make trumpet sounds with your mouth this week~

1 st dadadaada (or however you spell trumpet sound)~ these angel trumpets. they are glorious, and they just happened. there are 4 flowers on this beauty and worth has taken some fabulous pictures of them. they are cooler and cooler every morning.

2nd dadadadaaa~ Sweetie Baby is almost rolling over! she can get on her side and her legs all the way over, but she just can't get the whole body over. that darn arm of hers keeps getting in the way. she is so cool!

3rd dadaddaaaa~ we have many new friends and websites that have joined the blogger world! go meet them, virtually, that is. i know you will love them as much as i do!

4th dadaddaa~ i was able, single handidly (?) to wash Atticus this week. I always get him groomed. it is just not worth my time to fight a Siberian Husky. But i did it. i had too, he just is losing so much hair. it was making me crazy! let me just tell you washing him is miserable. i get more wet then he does.

i am sure that there are many more dadadadaa moments like, Becky being pregnant (have i mentioned that yet), and Annie buying a house, and discovering pandora radio, and going to lots of birthday parties tomorrow, and Emerson learning how to take naps, and discovering old high school friends, and 10 year reunions, and just being here enjoying life and all the adventures and friends that come our way. hopefully we will have many more dadadaada moments, like if i ever figure out how to make a compost pile, and how i will figure out how to save my plants from one season to the next, and watching Sweetie Baby get to all her milestones. life is happening and life is good!

13 weeks *sigh*

so Sweetie Baby is 13 weeks old. tomorrow she will officially be 3 months old. today will be the last time i call her age in weeks, but from here on out will refer to her age in months. this is a huge step for me, very big! man time is flying. does anyone know how to make it slow down? if you do please tell me your secrets. never in one hundred million years did i ever think that i would love a baby this much. well it has happened. i love her more and more everyday. she has rocked us and for that i am so thankful. we needed to be rocked.
at 13 weeks she can see an object, grap it, and eat it (well suck on it). at 13 weeks she is taking longer and longer naps and is waking up happy. she is taking a long enough nap right now where i can come and redo this entry (see previous post). at 13 weeks she smiles so much and loves to be around us. at 13 weeks she has decided she wants to wake up at night. so much for all the bragging about her sleeping through the night. she slept through the night from 4 weeks til now. sometimes i feed her sometimes not, but she always falls to sleep quickly so it is not a burden. at 13 weeks i have found my 2 chapsticks that went missing. i am able to multi-task once again. i am learning how to do things while she naps (like blog). at 13 weeks i am getting more and more okay with being home and not dressing up. although i still do, my high heels miss me! at 13 weeks my homemade french bread is get better and better. at 13 weeks i have become rested and become a mother!

i mean look at this baby. you can come and bite her cheeks if you want. she is so darn cute!

true story: while Sweetie Baby was sitting in her bumbo on the glider Rainy put the tennis ball beside her and expected BellaRose to throw the ball for her. i am serious true story! needless to say the ball did not get thrown.

speaking of 3 months: my mom worked on

this cross stitch while i was in labor with Sweetie Baby. 3 months later we have it framed and up on the wall. we love it, she will love, we love you!

rainy is going to win America's next top model and get a lucrative deal with Ford Model's for dogs. this picture is what won for her. i mean who would not want to buy this dogfood.

Special find of the week: Pandora Radio. this gem on the internet that was introduced to me by Becky (who is with child by the way :)) is amazing. if you love music and you want to find new music like it go there. you will not be disappointed. my two special finds of many are Sonya Kitchell and Colin Hay. Colin Hay is of "Men at work" fame. Go, listen, love!

aarrgghhh!!!

i hate blogger today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i just had a huge post and it is gone. they said they saved it. they lied to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i have to regroup. i am not sure i have it in me to redo it. man it was good too!

now that i am jobless (go there for all your insurance needs) i stay home and hang out with sweet BellaRose. yesterday we made french bread and oatmel toffee cookies. this was my best french bread yet. today we worked on naps. she took a 2 hour and 45 minute nap!! so proud. we have a much more pleasant baby when she sleeps. although right now she is screaming in her crip. i guess i should get her. i really want to establish the morning nap and then i will move onto the afternoon nap.

in other very exciting news BECKY is pregnant!!! she is making BellaRose a friend. yeah for becky and Jeremiah. we are so happy for you.

FYI- our friends Morgan and Christina are pregnant with Sullivan. He has a congenital heart defect. He is due in October. I am going to paste the e-mail she sent on a fundraiser that they are having for Sullivan. If you have any questions or need directions please let me know. Morgan and Christina could really use your thoughts and prayers as they are facing a big challenge once Sullivan is born.

what: Sullivan Rich Fundraiserwhen: Saturday August 25, 2007Why: Our family is in need of financial help for the upcoming years with Sullivan's surgeries, and the uncertainty of the path we will take. Morgan will have to take time off of work and there are travel expenses, and all the other unexpected things that go along with having a very sick baby. For awareness, to alert our friends and family to the lack of Congenital heart screening and testing, Congenital Heart Disease is considered to be the most common birth defect, and is a leading cause of birth-defect related deaths worldwide.time:2-8pmWhere: Erwin Hills Lion Club, Asheville NCcost:$25 (family)$10 individual (includes, food, icecream, music, all other activities) cash or check only. thanks!Bake sale has items for sale.Come out for live local Music, food donated by 28806 Deli, a silent auction filled with some amazing things donated by local businesses here, nachos, quesidillas, icecream sundae bar, bake sale. Bounce house, crafts, ball pit, temporary tattoos, face painting. Morgan's family in Santa Barbara, CA is hosting a fundraiser in conjuction with ours on the same day!Hope to see you there!email me for more info- cmrichnc@bellsouth.net

baby bumbo

BellaRose is 12 weeks tomorrow. on the 22nd she will 3 months old. on the 22nd i will drop calling her age in weeks and will refer to her age in months. this is a big deal, my baby is growing. the weeks are getting too confusing. i am starting to forget where we are in the grand scheme of things with her age. this is my declaration for this week. i mean look at her, she is growing before your eyes. look at that neck strength sitting in her bumbo seat being such a big girl. sometimes she does get a little crooked as you can tell from the picture on the left. check out the top she has on, isn't it so cool. it is from her aunt newell in chicago who may or may not be hanging with BRAD PITT i am not sure yet. i think that my seamtress buddies who seem to be mulitplying, leaving me in the dust, could make this top too and sell millions. i will work on taking pictures of it.

worth took the newphews and one neice to the woods on sunday. the first trip was with Rocco and Taylor (who are actually pictured at the bottom) to the waterfall at Laurel Ridge. he managed to get them and my sisters car filthy before her trip to back to Greenville, sc. rocco also got stuck in the mud and taylor had to dig his shoes out. i think that they may have had a blast. then on worth's second trip back to laurel ridge he took noah and ethan. they did not get stuck in the mud but i believe that they had an equal good time looking for crawldads. i imagine being in a creek is a good place to get out of the heat.

rainy dog loved going to the creek as well. she is a little stiff today though since she has not been out of the house lately. we will get her back into shape in no time. me and rainy getting back into shape. that is the GOAL!

A.T.L and beyond........

it has taken me 8 years to get all the pictures on here. there are a lot of pictures as well. there was just so many things to take pictures of, so this will be the post for the week. as i mentioned earlier we went to ATL, the homeland, for my grandma's 93rd birthday. what a celebration. we had a wonderful time there. Grandma got to hold and sing to BellaRose a lot. i am so blessed to be able to see my daughter with my grandma. so special.

Angela can't get enough kisses!

here are 6 of grandma's great grandchildren. 2 of them were in england and could not make it to the party. my sister with her 2 kids and my cousin with his 3 kids.

these are my cousins little girls Lindsey and Cassidy. they put on a little dance for us. i was so proud of them for coming up with the dance and wanting to show all of us.

so angela and the family got a new puppy. he is really cute, only 3 1/2 pounds. the kids adore him. we need help coming up with a name. so if you have any thoughts please let us know. i like Moose, and Bruno was a thought, but that might have been vetoed.

this is REBECCA she just had her baby, emerson, on 07.07.07. it was so much fun to catch up with her and meet her husband Sebastian. Emerson and BellaRose got to play under the star together. Emerson is so cute and little! Thanks for the good time Bec. We also got to see my other friend Sumner and her new husband Wes. I forgot to get a picture and i am kicking myself about that. Sumner just got married in Greece, in June. How exotic!

the gigantic skatepark tour made its way to georgia as promised. we first hit up Athens, home to the mighty DAWGS. it was scorching hot so worth did not skate as long as he would have liked and he took a hit on the concrete that sort of knocked his brain a little bit so he called it a day on the ole skatepark and we hit up the cute town of Athens. then worth found his Mecca, the new BrookRun skatepark in Dunwoody, not far from my dad's house. he said it is the best skatepark he has ever been too. i have to say that it was beautiful and i don't know much about skateparks.

this was worth's skating buddy......he was 3! so cute.

this is athens' skatepark below. BellaRose may just one day be a skater girl you never know. she sure likes watching her daddy skate!

sweet BellaRose smiles a lot now. it is so wonderful to have a little baby smile at you. her whole face lights up.

here is our harvest of pumkins and tomatoes. the pumpkins did not make it to October, but we will proudly display them in August for all the world to see! we have pumpkins and we are proud. i found a website on pumkin growing and it said that we can keep them until spring if we take care of them. check out the basket, it is filled with cherry tomatoes. if you want any PLEASE come by. i am not sure what we will do with all of them.