It has been ages since I posted anything! There is so much to catch you up on, which I shall do via phone pictures today! It will be an exciting adventure, I promise.
Okay, maybe not as exciting as it is building in your mind right now. Please lower your expectations a little bit and we'll continue.
No, a little bit more than that.
Okay, perfect!!!
First of all, it has been getting colder up here in North Carolina! And by colder I mean, the high will be in the 50's one day and then the next week and a half it will be in the mid 70s. Only in the evenings is it cool enough for remotely any colder weather gear. But the leaves are starting to change and I'm very excited!!!
Okay, now I need to back up and give some semblance of chronological order to this.
Okay, so this really doesn't tie in to anything. This is baby G, my charge. He's one of the cutest babies on the planet. He's also strange and hilarious. He likes to chew on fingers. They're delicious!!! I have a theory that all humans start out cannibalistic and have to be taught that eating their friends and nannies and mommies and daddies is naughty. As I type this, baby G is attempting to eat my arm. Exhibit A, people.
Then again, just to play Devil's Advocate to myself, there is the whole babies-are-so-cute-we-just-want-to-eat-them thing... So one could argue that we teach the babies cannibalism and then have to teach them that cannibalism is bad. Poor things must start life off so confused.
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| What do you mean I can't eat your fingers? You eat my toes all the time! |
Speaking of toes, in September, I got my first ever pedicure! It was wonderful! The rubbing my feet part was the BEST part and the cute toes were really just icing. Poor Aubrey almost had her toes burnt off because her lady didn't shake out the steamed towel first.
In late September, my sweet, precious, gentle, hilarious Grandfather passed. I didn't write about it then because I really didn't know what to say. His memorial was in early October, and was completely unconventional. We got to celebrate his long, very interesting, sweet life and visit with family we haven't seen in ages. All of the men wore his bow ties in honor of Grandfather. We sang Pal-Yat-Chee (by Spike Jones and Homer and Jethro. Look it up) at the memorial and pretty much alarmed everyone outside of the family. But that's okay. My Grandfather loved silly songs. He loved mowing the grass in his cut off shorts and trying to cook us all by turning the thermostat way up because he was always cold. He loved his Ham radio, didn't get his masters in Engineering because he just didn't want to write the thesis, and was one of the foremost experts on microwaves (not the appliance) and worked on space shuttles. He wore bow ties as his symbol of rebellion because Southern Bell required all engineers to wear a suit and tie to work (back before air conditioning) so he wore a bow tie as the least he could do and comply. He was very sweet and quiet and crazy just like the rest of us. We love him deeply and miss him deeply, but rejoice with him that his suffering is over and he is with the Lord. And we can't wait to join him there some day.
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| Grandmother, Grandfather, little me, Aubrey, Randall |
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| Grandfather in his WWII uniform on Veteran's Day |
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| Our family all together with our tongues hanging out (typical!) Grandfather had his out, but the flash took too long. |
This is what baby G looks like when he wakes up from a good nap. All craaaaazzy eyed. It's really cute. He does weird things like grab your face and give "kisses" but they're rather violent and more like he's trying to eat your face. (Refer to above comments on cannibalism)
Also, he found out the best and tastiest and most fun part of his playmat is the Warning tag!!! Yay for kids caring about the actual toy part!!! Wait, that never happens.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming - When we arrived in Orlando, we had to run by a Walmart off of Semoran. Since you can't find UCF stuff anywhere outside of Orlando, I wanted to see what they had. Well... They only had Gator Gear. A big ol section of Gator stuff. None of it very attractive, mind you. I asked if they had any UCF things and where they might be hiding and they didn't even carry a bit!!! Not a thing!! So the truth of the matter is that you can't find UCF stuff anywhere outside of a 10 mile radius of the school. Lame.
We ran over to Downtown Disney one day to get some specific things and I saw these shirts again. I love them so much. In fact, if anyone wants any ideas as to a Christmas present they could get for Jason and myself, these shirts would be precious. Small Minnie for me and Large Mickey for him. Just, you know, in case you were wondering. They can be found on the Disney store website as well... No pressure guys. :) I just totally want these.
This is the one picture I have of our trip to Charleston, SC for his big joint BYX formal. It was crazy fun and we danced like maniacs. This is us at the battery. All other pictures are on other people's cameras.
Sweet Sister's birthday was last week and I got her CASTLE PANIC and wrapped it up nice and neat!! I love wrapping presents. It's literally my Christmas job. I wrap and bow all of the family presents like the one above every year. Would you like to hire me to wrap yours? I'm thinking of starting a business. :)
We also had cheesecake for her birthday (I made it!) and celebrated with some of her friends at a tasty steak place in Zebulon. It made my mouth water. I love her so much and am thankful for the 22 years she's been a part of my life (that's how old I am... she's my older sister). She's grown to become one of my best friends and I can't imagine my life without her.
Last night we all went to the Fair! It was my first real (big) fair since the Mullet Festival really doesn't count that much. (yes, it's a thing) We basically went for dinner. It was crazy delicious. I wanted to eat everything! I had part of a giant garlic/butter pretzel (shout out to
Der Pretzel Haus from St. Augustine for being so delicious and reasonably priced!), part of a corn dog, a philly cheese steak, muscadine grape cider slushie (crazy delicious), and fried oreos (heaven!!). Sadly I had to make choices, and while they were superb, there are things I missed out on that I also wanted to eat, such as a sausage and a funnel cake, and nearly everything else I saw. I saw a giant plush Minion (from Despicable Me) that I really wanted to win for Jason, but fair games are really expensive. Sorry, sweetie. :(
Baby G was the highlight of the Fair for many people. They would literally stop in front of Sister to talk to Baby G, comment on his monster socks, and say how beautiful he was. He got lots of stickers. He made a police officer's day because he couldn't get over the monster socks. He kept laughing for a good 5 minutes. It was pretty hilarious.
Wow! Congrats to you if you made it though this long, crazy post!! It's been a busy busy October so far and it's hard to believe it's already halfway over. Can October just loop around twice before we get to November? I love this season! I love the holidays! It's the most wonderful, beautiful, fun, exciting, wonderful time of the year!!!!
