365 Days of Everything Georgia

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream....

>> April 30, 2013 – food, Georgia Firsts, new home town, our home, outdoors

... for ICE CREAM! We now have an ice cream truck that comes through our neighborhood on some weekends. The first time we caught it was about three weeks ago, just as I was leaving to photograph someone else's kids. That means I missed Georgia's first ice cream truck experience. Luckily, her daddy was there to make sure she got to pick out a cold treat.

So when the ice cream truck came loudly jingling and jangling through our neighborhood this past weekend, you'd better believe I was there for it!!!

So many choices for a little one, and while the truck was empty of Georgia's first choice - the Spiderman popsicle - her second choice was served right up, yellow head, gumball eyes and all.

Georgia's ears are now tuned into the blaring melodies of the ice cream truck, and her eyes light up when she hears anything that resembles the sound of sugar-filled treats on a stick dancing through our streets.

Hunting for Eggs

>> April 2, 2013 – fun, Holidays, spring, the little things

We had a great Easter weekend, and better yet, it was a three-day weekend for our family. (that rarely happens)

Friday was spent doing a lot of work building our vegetable garden - more to come on that later. So Saturday, we had some fun finding rainbow-colored eggs.

What made it even better, one of Georgia's favorite friends also made it out to this egg hunt - Mia.

And just look at this smile..

You know this girl found a lot of eggs - I'm pretty sure more than anyone else in her age group and maybe the entire group. She is an egg hunting machine!

With a basket full of chocolate, who could wait to get home to start eating? Certainly not my little one.

What a great way to spend part of our holiday weekend - making memories.

Bounce, Bounce, Bounce

>> March 28, 2013 – fun, outdoors

The Trampoline.

It causes crazy static.

Smiles.

Peace.

And the "First Family to Visit" Prize Goes to...

>> March 27, 2013 – beach, family, festivals

OK, I kid, there is no prize, but it was so nice to finally entertain family in our new home. On St. Patrick's Day weekend, my hubby's father, his wife and her grandson drove from Texas to North Carolina to pay us a visit. It was nice to see them.

We spent time at the beach and flew a kite.

After the sand came the fair! It was a St. Patrick's Day Festival, and Georgia loved all the kiddie rides.

Such a great time and a great visit!

Spring is Close, I Can Feel It!

>> March 16, 2013 – outdoors, seasons, spring, weather, winter

We're are at that time of the year when winter and spring seemed intertwined - mix in a few days of a chilly breeze, toss in a few days of sunshine, add in a few days of cloudy cool skies and follow it up with some flower buds and greening grass. Spring is almost here and lately, we've had some spring-like days in this ending winter season.

Warm sunny weather tends to do this to little three-year-old girls:

Side effects: finding the nearest hill and rolling down it over and over and over again.

Ah spring, how sweet art thou?

Getting to Know the Place Where We Live

>> March 12, 2013 – new home town, our home, outdoors

It seems such a common thing to do. We live in an area with these unique and beautiful and original places all around us - places other people travel to our area just to see - yet we never give them a thought or a moment or a visit. A little more than a year and a half ago, we moved to an amazing area of our country - there is so much history and natural beauty here - and it is my goal to actually travel in our backyard and not overlook the highlights all around us.

This weekend, we visited the small waterfront town of Swansboro - "the friendly city by the sea." It has been here quite awhile, founded in 1783.

We had a delightful lunch at a place on the water, where my husband thought it would be cute to take a picture of me taking a picture of Georgia while we waited for our food.

Then after a walk through town, stops at a few gifts shops and an ice cream at a store that also sold coffee, beer and wine (my kind of place), we then drove to a nearby hiking trail in the Croatan National Forest.

See what I mean about natural beauty? It was just breathtaking, and even during winter, it was full of life. Oysters, clams, all kinds of birds, snails, crabs - so many critters to watch and explore.

It was a picturesque and active ending to a very lovely afternoon.

Quite amazing - I just can't wait to go back in the spring when everything is green and going - except for the mosquitoes!

"Feed the Birds... "

>> March 6, 2013 – learning, our home, outdoors

It's still my favorite song from "Mary Poppins"...

"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag, tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag, that's what she cries, While overhead, her birds fill the skies, All around the cathedral the saints and apostles, Look down as she sells her wares, Although you can't see it, You know they are smiling, Each time someone shows that he cares, Though her words are simple and few, Listen, listen, she's calling to you, Feed the birds, tuppence a bag, Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag."

Today, Georgia and I started feeding the birds.

Maybe it's this itch we already have for Spring, maybe it's our love of the outdoors, maybe it's that songbirds kept stopping by our empty hummingbird feeder in hopes of finding seeds - whatever the reason, I recently felt a strong need to hang a birdfeeder.

And why not? Look at how beautiful the view is now out our back window.

Georgia's Birth Story

The timing of Georgia's birth, in a way, came out of a journey to death. I'd like to think with every death comes new life, and for me, Georgia is that life. She is my saving grace and has kept me breathing when my lungs were screaming to stop, screaming to drown in my own self-pity.

My husband and I decided to try for Georgia just a few months after our walk down the aisle. You see, my mom had been diagnosed with incurable Ovarian Cancer, so I wanted a baby soon. I wanted a baby while there was still time to have my mother there as I brought a new being into the world, to see my mother hold her granddaughter, to ask my mom which of my baby features my daughter bore, to lean on my mother when I had those "new mom" questions and for so many other moments I had played out in my thoughts over and over again through the years.

My husband and I were thrilled to soon find out our little Georgia was growing inside of me, rounding out my belly day by day, pushing tiny feet into my sides, entertaining us with a neverending chorus of hiccups. We went to the doctor's appointments, the baby classes, took the hospital tour and had everything ready for the day we brought our darling home in Omaha, Nebraska.

It's funny though, life seems to fight our planning and always chooses its own course - and so it did. When my belly was just shy of 38 weeks round, the day came. After a 52-year-long life, which was as bright as they come, my mother faded away. She died on Sunday, October 11, 2009.

Early Monday morning, with my doctor's permission, my husband and I got on a plane to fly home to Georgia for my mom's funeral. We got off the plane in Atlanta around 3 p.m. Twelve hours later, at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, I was sleeping at my parents' house. As I lay in the home where my mom had been just days before, that journey toward life took a leap. My water broke and the contractions started coming within minutes. We were more than a thousand miles away from our doctor, our hospital and our house.

So off to the local hospital we went in the dark of night, my husband driving my mom's SUV and not having a clue where he was going. I had to give him directions between contractions. We arrived at the hospital and didn't even know what entrance to go to. We found locked doors twice before finding the right entrance, and yeah, I floundered up to both locked doors!

We checked in and by the time we got to a room, I turned around and there were my sister, brother and cousin in the room with my husband and I and my other sister and father were on the way. We had thought we'd be delivering in Omaha with just my husband and I and the calming classical CD's I'd burned. I guess my mom had other ideas.

So there we were, in the hospital where two years earlier they had cut cancer from my mother, in the hospital where my two nieces were born, in the hospital where my delivery nurse had also been my sister's bridesmaid - there surrounded by those who love me most and the memory of one who just couldn't stay long enough to make it. I delivered Georgia Katherine at 10:46 a.m. She weighed 7 lbs. and 8 ounces.

We left the hospital on Wednesday with a borrowed car seat, a bag full of borrowed baby clothes, a lot of flowers and hearts bursting with every emotion you can possibly imagine. We arrived at my parents' house to a borrowed crib, borrowed baby supplies and relatives arriving in town with funeral clothes and baby gifts packed in their suitcases. On Friday, my daughter and I looked down on my mother in her casket, and on Saturday we buried her. It's the only time my daughter every saw her grandmother.

My mother fought hard to live long enough to meet her granddaughter and in the end, she missed the date by two days. But life doesn't stop, and it's the beauty of my daughter's life that keeps me smiling. And oh how her life makes me smile. I like to believe whenever I'm holding my daughter and she's starring off into the distance, over my shoulder, that she's seeing my mom - a guardian angel for both of us - and that they are already the best of friends.

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I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream....

Hunting for Eggs

Bounce, Bounce, Bounce

And the "First Family to Visit" Prize Goes to...

Spring is Close, I Can Feel It!

Getting to Know the Place Where We Live

"Feed the Birds... "

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Linkbar

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream....

Hunting for Eggs

Bounce, Bounce, Bounce

And the "First Family to Visit" Prize Goes to...

Spring is Close, I Can Feel It!

Getting to Know the Place Where We Live

"Feed the Birds... "

About this Blog

Who's Following us:

Georgia's Birth Story

Get New Posts!

Blog Archive

Blogs I'm Reading:

Visitors (since 03.02.10):

Labels