three.

i think i have put off acknowledging this publicly on the blog because if i do that makes it fact.  and i may not be okay with that.

in fact.

so sister is three now.  it happened last month.  both her mother and myself are in denial.

like swimming in da river of de nial.  not believing it.


she can swing now in a big girl swing with no help and as long as the constant hum of my voice in the "up down up down up down" to remind her how to pump her legs, she can almost swing independently.

she's mastered the art of living in nashville:

skinny jeans and cowboy boots.  throw in a little gingham.

"hey girl, are you from nashvilleeee, tennessee???"

rinsing her hair?  that is so 2012.  she's mastered that too with the constant reminder of  "my do it."  i don't correct her, just because well, it reminds me of when she was two.

and she's finally contacted ashton for her own three year old punk'd.  everytime i squat to take her picture
no. matter. what.
she is doing...she sees me go down and there she goes too.

i can't tell you how many more of this same shot we have in her third year.  and it's only been two weeks.

jumping in puddles before ballet.  whatever.  we've go that too.

on her big day, she had a princess party and wore her tiara all day long for two minutes.


just the other day we were in tj maxx and after non stop talking by said subject.  i looked at her and said, 
"lil bit?  can you be quiet just for a little while or use your quiet voice?"  she looked and me offended and said as it progressively got louder, 
"why caca"  doesn't everyone want to hear MY BIG GIRL VOICE?"

i just kept the cart rolling along with my eyes as i looked away and didn't say a word.

as big as she is and as big as she thinks she is...she is still little.
little enough to cry for no reason at all.
little enough to want to wear house shoes to school and think it's okay.
and little enough to look me dead in the eye several times a day and say, "caca, i love you."

and i am big enough to grab that three year old girl right were she is and say,
"you know what lil bit? i love you too."

brads birthday (wrestling) weekend.

sunday night before i fell asleep, i told brad thirty one reasons why i was glad he was born.  he kept track of the number and i was finished with my list in a matter of seconds, because...it was easy.  saturday was that guys birthday, every day i want him to feel loved and cherished by me, but on his birthday i want him to feel that plus spoiled rotten.  and i love surprises and especially surprising him.  it was a good day and a great weekend.

we started his day with breakfast for sixteen of his closest friends at the loveless cafe in nashville.  if you haven't been there, please.....go.  and go hungry and not while you are eating low carbs.  that picture up above was an accident, but i kinda liked it.

they offer towers of biscuits unlimited and any southern fixins' you can imagine.  i am thinking that we need to start a breakfast birthday tradition.  i mean, after all how fun to wake up on your birthday and start the day with all your friends? (his littlest friend in the highchair did not stop eating until she got out of her highchair.  girl loves her some breakfast.  smart girl.)

next year, i'm cooking.

then after breakfast, i whisked him away (really, we just got in the dirty car that needed to be washed and drove) to a local spa to have a couple of hours of relaxation.  i am all about birthdays being about the one that was birthed, so i paid for his service and left for a few hours and then picked him up.  not gonna lie though, as i was paying i was really thinking of staying.
then we had presents to open when he got home and then a night out with the same friends we had breakfast with...because brad and his friend ryan share a birthday.
then i pulled out all the stops and just went ahead and bought the blue ribbon for wife of the year and surprised him with a wrestling lesson.  he loves wrestling, and how fun would it be to get in the ring and actually do the moves?  i know!
...so sunday afternoon, he was a wrestler for a day.





bam, take that trainer dude.

i might have created a monster, because if he becomes a professional wrestler that means i become a professional wrestlers wife.  not the way i saw my life going...but hey...i do like surprises.  

happy birthday brad, i am so so glad you were born.

happy birthday bessie.

i met bessie when my life was falling apart at the seams.  i had just had major surgery and my personal life was more difficult than it has ever been.  i was wounded, i was sick and  so so sad.  i needed a friend.  i needed a bessie.

she was five years younger than me and had just started college, i had finished.  we worked together and she needed a roommate as did i.  i remember saying to friends, "i think she will be a great roommate, because she has her own set of friends and mine and we will leave each other alone."  but we moved in that day ten or so years ago and both of us instantly became richer because the gift we would grow to become to each other.

i often think i hope that everyone at one time or another in their life has a bessie.  because i can not imagine my life without her.  she has been there in the really impossible times and has rejoiced with me in the happy times.  she cried tears of joy for me when i told her brad had asked me to marry him and stood beside me when i married him as my dreams came true.

when i have been sad, she has shown up.  

even when there was nothing needing to be said, she has been my constant throughout the years.

today is her birthday and we just got finished celebrating bessie style.  her request that i make for dinner - pork chops, baked potatoes, mac and cheese, green beans, sister shuberts (did i mention she is smart?) with pink lemonade cake (i'll post the recipe this week, it was yummy!) for dessert.

i wanted her to have a special day.  a wonderful birthday.  a happy day.  a day where she felt loved, needed, wanted and all the things that i would desire my friends to feel every day, but i wanted her to feel an extra dose of all things lovely today.

so with a little construction paper and twine i rigged up this banner.  use what you have, right?  nothing says happy birthday like a homemade banner.
everyone needs to be made a big deal of every now and again and today it was bessie's turn.

and if i can give to her half of what she has given to me in the years i have known her, i will have learned much about friendship and what it really means to love someone.

happy birthday bessie.  i love you with all my heart and hope you feel special today.

p.s.  brad cleaned every dish from dinner AND dessert.  man, i have good people in my life.