Good bye Kyler....

we will miss you tons!

One of our favorite friends has moved back to Boston.

Kyler and Mary Austin were the same age and have birthdays just a few days apart from each other. In fact, we had a combined 3rd birthday party at the zoo!

The princesses always had fun with Kyler and I always had fun with his mom!

We are sad that you are gone but now we have a great reason to visit Boston!

We love Y'ALL!!!

Oh my, we are in big trouble in about 10 years.

Mae had declared Kyler has her "first boyfriend".

That look she is giving the camera is scary!

We had fun at our farewell party!

Weekend Humor

So once a month I work on my old unit to keep up my clinical skills and it is easier to keep up my clinical instructor status at the hospital if I work there. On the weekends that I work Tripp usually takes the princesses to the lake. This weekend was no different.

He called on the way home to inform me that he and the girls had to stop to let Mary Austin go to the potty. This is the story:

Tripp "Well we have stop at McDonalds to let Mary Austin tee-tee."

Me: "okay"

Tripp: We are waiting because someone is in the only stall potty in the men's room."

Me: "oh that's right you can't take her in the womens"

(Darling, I completely forgot that since you are a man you cannot traipse into the women's bathroom with her. So So sorry!"

Tripp: "It shouldn't be much longer and then we will be on our way"

Twenty minutes later I get another call from Tripp....

Tripp: "you are never going to believe this"

Me: "hmm"

Tripp: "there was no one in the stall but it was locked so we had to pack back up in the car and drive 50 yards to Captain D's"

Me: "oh no"

(I cannot even remember when I was ever in a Captain Ds so I have no clue what the bathrooms would be like...until now...)

Tripp: "I mean, what does it take to find a clean bathroom in America? This bathroom only had one stall and it had TURDS all in the toilet and urine (he actually said another word) all over the seat. I had to flush it like 5 times and there were still remnants in the bowl and clean off the p*ss. Then I held her up over the bowl. While I was doing that Jane was heading for the toilet brush and saying 'oooo what's this what's this" all the while I am screaming "DON'T TOUCH IT!! DON'T TOUCH IT!!" And some guy in there is just laughing at me."

Me: HYSTERICALLY LAUGHING at this point

Moral: If you are going to send the daddy with the potty trained princess then be sure he has one of these so your princess will not have to use one of these...

My Grandparents

I am blessed to have 3 of my grandparents still with us. In fact, my paternal grandfather passed away when my dad was a teenager so I still have all of the grandparents I have ever known.

The girls love to go see my mother's parents.

We call them Great Mimi and Granddaddy. I used to spend a week in the summer with them and I still remember those weeks as being some of the best weeks of the summer.

So this post is dedicated to you - Great Mimi and Granddaddy!

WE LOVE YOU!!

March of Dimes

April 26th will be an important day for us! We will be walking for the March of Dimes. The princesses and I will be walking locally with a team of my nursing students and Tripp will be walking with some of our dear friends who have suffered the tragic loss of 2 sets of twins due to premature birth.

Every time I look at my princesses I think about what miracles they are. I mean who would have guessed that thousands of miles a way someone would choose the perfect child for us.

Then after being told that pregnancy would not happen "without serious medical intervention" (a road we were not willing to travel down) I discovered I was pregnant. Even more miraculous was that the baby was healthy and I was able to carry her for 35 weeks. Jane spent the first week of her life in NICU and we were lucky. It was humbling and a bit embarrassing to have a 6 pound 12 ounce baby in NICU while moms just bed spaces away held the hands of their teeny tiny babies and prayed for just one more miracle.

April 26th we will walk in thankfulness for those who care for these babies and make miracle happen everyday for their families. We will also walk in memory of those who were too little to make it. Our hope is that one day no parent will have to suffer such a loss.

I say thank you to those of you who have donated to my fundraising goal. Hopefully the money raised can help those to come, those who have not traveled down this road and one day keep many from traveling down the road of premature births.

Jane Harris and Daddy on her day of discharge - all 5 pounds and 15 ounces of her!
Jane Harris - 2 1/2 years old

Easter Sunday 2008

Morocco Part V

The Moroccan landscape is breath taking!

We were mostly in the Atlas mountains. The weather was very mild when we first arrived with highs in the upper 60's and low 70's. A front came through in the middle of the week and it turned colder - it even snowed when we went to see the monkeys!

Driving down the road you would see shepherds tending to their sheep, goats and cattle. There were also HUGE stork nests and storks everywhere! If you have never seen one flying, it is really a sight to behold. Looks like a prehistoric animal! I hate that I did not get a picture of one or one of the nests! There were also wild peacocks everywhere!

Field of cherry trees
Goats going to the watering hole
View from atop a home in Azrou
Meknes
Valley between Azrou and Meknes.
In the bottom there are Roman ruins.
A valley outside of Ain Lieuh
Mountain spring

Morocco - Part IV

Souvenirs! Souvenirs! Souvenirs!

Much like China there is a vast amount of things to entice even the most frugal shopper!

Here are just a few of the things I brought home!

On my list for next time, a "party" Djellaba (traditional dress of Moroccan women - the party ones are usually silk with lots of beading) and a tangine!

Traditional doll - the water seller - legs and face are of camel skin/hide.

Water sellers are everywhere and for less than 7 dirhams he will sell you a cup of water from his sheepskin bag. He only has about 4 cups that are made of brass so I did not go for this!

Camel carved from tashy wood - indigenous only to Morocco. It is a very soft wood and hard to find pieces that have not broken! I was lucky that I found one and lucky that it did not break on the way home!

Fancy women's slippers (hand)made to wear with the Djellaba!

I love the way the toes turn up!

I bought the princesses some slippers as well! Who could resist!

Mae calls them her "Aladdin slippers"!

One of the 2 carpets I purchased! This one has the 3 types of carpet weaves that are done.
Carpet up close - The diamonds represent the Eye of Fatima, the stars in top middle are representative of Fez and the remainder are mostly traditional Berber tattoos.
My lantern! I cannot wait to hang it in our foyer!

Morocco - Part III

This post is all about the fabulous things you can buy in Morocco! Right now, you get about 7.5 dirhams to the dollar. A much better rate than say the Euro - who can afford 1 Euro to $1.50 American dollars???!?!!

The Moroccans do many things well and artisan crafts is certainly in this category! They are most famous for the carpets (I bought 2 for less than $200 and they are big at least 5x8), metal and glass lanterns, tangines (big pots that they cook in), leather goods, fine linens that are embroidered by hand and much much more!

Pottery
More pottery

All done by hand from the shaping of the platters, bowls and vases to the painting and glazing!

Fossils and geodes.
Spices galore!
Animal skins if you care!

If you enlarge the picture you can see the leopard skin in the back left of the picture. You could buy a square for good luck!