The Harris Life

Things I Learned Thursday

July 29th, 2010 3 Comments

Over the course of our nine day trip and coming home, I learned a lot of things that I didn’t know before.

I will share these things with you on my new theme “Things I Learned Thursday”. I am so clever!

Things NOT to do:

1. Do not go to Target every single day on vacation.

2. Buying something at Target on every trip there is not a good idea.

3. Trying to pack, load the car, and take care of a baby all in one day will not benefit you.

4. Loading all the 492389409 bags that a baby requires on a gold luggage cart by yourself (while carrying baby) and trying to roll it to your room alone is just stupid. Ask for help!

5. Do not leave baby food in 110 degree heat. You will have to buy more and therefore waste money.

6. Trying out new foods (remember the chicken episode I told you about?) while in a hotel room is just mean. I’m 99.99999% positive my wonderful maids for the week were royally ticked off at me. Throw up AND dirty diapers galore. I am truly sorry.

p.s. I did clean up as much as I possibly could. So don’t go hatin’ on me right now.

7. If I were you, I wouldn’t feed my baby a bunch of fruit when you are having to drive 7+ hours. Stopping to change four diapers in 1 hour is just tedious.

8. Do not get addicted to shows that you can’t watch at home because you don’t get that channel.

9. Remember that there is a time change in TN.

10. Don’t stay in Texarkana ever again. Every single road was to’ up from the flo’ up. (translation: tore up from the floor up)

11. It is hazardous to leave a baby unattended. ever.

12. Do not let your child watch a DVD every time the car is on over the course of a trip. No matter how young, they will come to expect it to come on every single time they are in the car.

13. Forgetting that baby’s ears pop just like yours while driving up a mountain is not wise.

14. Expecting your baby to be happy and not cry like she does at home is silly. When a baby is that off schedule, she’s not going to be happy at all.

15. Do not cry the last hour before getting home because reality is setting in and you are going to miss having your husband around. Or do. It is sad.

16. Check your pantry before leaving for a trip. Failing to throw out the avacados you didn’t use will result in coming home to gnats. Everywhere. Gross.

——-

Now. Here are some things you SHOULD do.

1. Spend as much time with family as possible.

2. Also make a trip like this into a vacation.

3. Enjoy limitless time with your working husband because it is rare to have him around at all times.

4. Let your working husband spoil your baby rotten on trips.

5. Spend the 14+ hour drive to destination talking with your spouse about your dreams, plans, etc for the future. Play the “if we were to win the lottery” game and talk for hours about your exact plans if you win 200 million dollars.

6. Make a point in your trip to see a bestest friend who just so happens to take gorgeous pictures. Then make her take pictures of your precious daughter so that everyone on earth can giggle when they see them.

Have a great Thursday!

Chattanooga trip, etc

July 28th, 2010 5 Comments

Where do I even begin? I’ve been gone for 9 days and we are finally back from our sorta/kinda vacation. We all slept so good in our own beds- there is really no place like home.

Last week, Andy had a training conference thing in Texarkana which is only an hour and a half or so away. We decided that I’d just come up and spend the week so we could have a little break and that way he’d be able to see his little girl. Rory and I shopped a lot (I may or may not have gone to Target every day) and just hung out in the room. We had a good time!

Then on Friday we left from Texarkana to start the first leg of our trip to Chattanooga. We passed through Jackson and ate a quick dinner with Andy’s family.

Rory and Grandpa

Rory and Grandma

Ashley and Drew are so fun!

After dinner we got back in the car and drove another 2 1/2 hours to Hendersonville (Nashville area) to see Lauren and Josh! Saturday morning Lauren took Rory’s pictures and then we had to hurry off to get to the party on time.

Oh, Lar Lar, you are so funny.

They are making the same face... Lauren's is better though!

Rory LOVED her "Squash"... but what kid doesn't?!

Oh but the joke was on us! We got into Chattanooga and realized… there’s a time change!!!!!! UGH! So we were an hour late for the big surprise. Talk about being so mad at myself for forgetting! Sheesh!

The big secret/surprise I’ve been talking about is this trip- by the way. It was a surprise birthday party for my Grandma and my Aunt Patrice. Grandma turned 80 and Aunt Patrice is 60 today! happy birthday! It was so great to get (almost) everyone together for the first time in forever. The McIntire’s are spread from Conneticut to Texas, so its rare we all get a chance to be together.

Rory and Aunt Yvette

they loved our singing, can't you tell???!!!

Happy Birthday!

So I got a group shot but something happened…

test shot... Chrissy and baby are in it...

actual shot... and they are gone. Pete, did you butt them out!!!???

baby Janey was so mad that Rory came in and stole her thunder! ha!

my cousin Eric and Rory- she looked so tiny with him holding her

strike a pose Breeana!

having fun with Granny

Grandma got some good loving in

We spent Saturday night in a cabin with my parents. It was such a relaxing and fun time hanging out with them.

Mom and Dad

Happy 39th Anniversary this week!

checking out the view with Daddy

Rory and Andy

little family of three

On Sunday we hung out with family some more and then headed to downtown Chattanooga for the night. Andy and I decided to make a little vacation out of it and stayed the night downtown. Telena, Josh, Riley, Jacy and Jacks met us at the hotel and we swam for a little bit. Rory loved it! She thought Jacks, Jacy and Riley were so funny!

Monday we drove to Memphis and stayed at the Peabody. It was so nice! We ate at Texas de Brazil and are still stuffed from all that meat, ha!

We got home last night (Tuesday) and I’ve been washing clothes non-stop ever since we walked in the door! It was such a nice trip and I’m so glad we were able to make a vacation out of it.

Today I’ve been trying to get Rory back on schedule. As I am typing this she’s in her bed yelling because she’s so tired but doesn’t understand why she has to lay in her bed. I have a feeling its going to be a long couple of days trying to get back to normal!

little model

July 25th, 2010 7 Comments

One of my very best friends, Lauren Wood, took some pictures of Rory for me this weekend. They will speak for themselves, but I can’t tell all of you how happy I am with them. Look Lauren up and check out all her wonderful work! She’s an amazing designer/photographer/artist. Enjoy!

All pictures are copyright of Lauren Athalia.

Also- Andy’s cousin, Angie, made Rory’s cute little tutu! She’ll make one for you too!

Tiffany’s Thursday Tidbits

July 22nd, 2010 3 Comments

Oh, I wish I could be creative when it was needed. My Aunt Patrice came up with the “Thursday Tidbits”. I thought I’d add the “Tiffany” to make it more personal and feel like a true segment on this oh-so-famous blog. (er… its really not famous at all, but one can dream, right?)

Some other names I came up with = Thursday Things, Things That Tiffany Thinks Thursday, Thursday’s Thoughts, Thoughtful Thursday, and thats about it. Can anyone tell that I’m sleep deprived and exhausted from chasing a little girl named Rory around?!

You read right- CHASING. Little baby Rory has started sorta/kinda crawling. She can do a couple of crawl-steps and then she remembers that if she goes backwards she is MUCH faster. So the little stinker has been crawling(ish) all over the room backwards. And she’s so mischevious already (as I have told you before) and she’ll crawl under the bed with just her head poking out smiling this devil-ish grin.
She’s also starting to realize the word “no”. Last night when bathing her, she’d go to stick her face in the water and I’d say “no Rory, no no” or something like that and she’d look up at me with a little grin and then start going down more. Well I let her stick her face in the water to learn and after that when I said “no Rory” she’d stop and look at me with the grin. Stinker, I tell ya!
Hotels are like death traps for babies that are starting to be mobile/are mobile. Just fyi.
I’m not really sure what an allergic reaction entails but I’m pretty sure Rory had some sort of reaction to the stage 1 chicken. We fed it to her three times and at some point after each time she projectile vomitted ALL OVER ME. And the floor, bed, etc etc etc. This is the only time she’s ever done that in her life. So no more chicken.
I have been living a life of luxury this week. No cleaning, cooking, and tons of shopping. I’ve been to Target four times since Tuesday. Andy and I went to Old Navy last night and all the clearance items were an extra 50% off. AMAZING! I bought myself a pair of so cute jean capris for $2. And we got so many cute things for Rory for the fall. Andy got a bunch of stuff too- actually more than we did, ha!
Dry shampoo is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
Rory has started loving books. And much to my dismay, she is still sucking her thumb.

Hallelujah! This book is good!

Last, but certainly not least, Andy bought me a snuggie. I love it and Rory seems to enjoy it too.

little duckie

July 21st, 2010 6 Comments

My wonderful friend Amber gave me this duck bathtub and we’ve been dying for Rory to be able to use it!

Its so wonderful! And she LOVES it! She thinks its the greatest thing on earth. So thank you, Amber and Bill (and Will!)!

AH! I can’t believe you’re taking my picture Mom!

this duck is so funny!

I’m a big girl and can sit up in the bath now!

sweetness

July 20th, 2010 4 Comments

I got some sweet smiley pictures today and I couldn’t help but share. Andy and I say to eachother several times every single day, “she is just the sweetest thing ever”. And its true. She really is just so sweet. When we joined the church on Sunday and had to stand and shake hands with everyone, she smiled at every single person who came through the line. Not just a little smile either- she gave everyone her biggest and best smile. Made me so proud

So for everyone that lives far away and doesn’t get to experience the sweetness every day, here is a glimpse of her biggest and best smile. And this is exactly why I write this blog- to share with the people we love all the special moments we’re having with our little Rory.

the weekend rundown

July 19th, 2010 5 Comments

We had a rather successful and eventful weekend- let me run it down for you.

1} YARD SALE! We made more than we thought we would, which was just fantastic. BUT! More importantly- we got rid of every single item. EVERYTHING. At about 1:00 we decided that we would let people fill up a bad with as much as they wanted for $1. That worked pretty good. Then at about 2:00(ish) we decided we’d just put out a sign that said “FREE!” and let anyone who wanted what we had left to just take what they wanted. That, my friends, is how to end a yard sale. We knew we’d be taking it all to Goodwill so we didn’t care if people took our clothes, knicknacks, etc.

And of course… let’s just say our last fairwell to the chair.

We (Andy) put $35 on it at first and not one person even glanced at it. So I took the price off and got some interested persons. Well, not one person would buy it. So in the afternoon I had three people want it but would NOT take it for $10 because no one but Andy can seem to figure out how to recline it. FOUR people turned their noses up at $10. Poor, neglected chair. I sold it, though. It is gone forever. Sorry, Steve.

The heat wore Rory out REAL quick. It was over 100 degrees out. Long day!

2} Rory drank from a sippy cup for the first time! And she loved it! I gave her pear juice (well like 1/4th juice, 3/4ths water mix) and she went crazy for it. She yelled at me when I took it away. ha!

3} On Saturday night, Andy and I were laying in bed trying to go to sleep and we heard a noise from the baby monitor. We both shot up in the bed and looked at eachother and said, “did you hear that?!”. Oh yes, we both heard it. My word, cross my heart hope to die, we both heard a small child- a girl in fact- whispering in the monitor. Creep me out!!!!!!! You have no idea. Andy never ever gets creeped out. EVER. I always, ALWAYS, get creeped out. But this time Andy was totally creeped. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep well at all. I’m 99.9% positive that we picked up someone else’s monitor. I know that this happens. But whyyyyy oh why oh why would a small little girl be whispering at 11:45 pm????!!!!!

Dear small child in my monitor, if you are in fact a ghost- please, I beg of you, GO AWAY! Leave my house! I don’t want you here! You are creeping me and my non-scaredy husband out!!!!!

4} We joined the church! On Sunday, Andy and I decided to go ahead and join the church we’ve been visiting for some time now. We knew we weren’t going to visit anywhere else because we adore our Sunday School class and all the people we have met there. So the church hunt is officially over! Thank you Lord for sending us these new friends and wonderful people!

5} So many exciting things are coming up very, very soon and I can’t wait to share all the fun with you guys! Secrets are hard! (No, I’m not pregnant, so just get that out of your heads now. Thank you.)

Hope everyone had a wonderful week!

R.P.T. Part Two

July 15th, 2010 7 Comments

Well turns out, sometimes I just have a bunch of random things to tell you people. So here’s part two of Random Points Thursday (which is such a lame, unoriginal name).

1. Rory is officially big. She no longer needs a game for her excersaucer to be able to reach. She also has a bit of a rat tail going on back there.

2. Yesterday she was so pitiful running a fever all of a sudden and being so lethargic and snuggly. I was going to take her to the doctor first thing this morning but she was happy and totally fine all day with no fever. Not sure what that was about.

3. I’m fighting with a migraine. Its starting to win.

4. We hosted our Sunday School class for Bible study here at the house on Tuesday night. I always feel like the biggest goob ever hosting things. I feel like I act all awkward and nervous. Probably because I am. I just love our new SS class though… dare I say they are the bomb?! HA! (hopefully none of them read that so they don’t officially declare me a goob)

5. When Andy gets home at night Rory gets so excited. She doesn’t take her eyes off of him. When he feeds her she just looks up at him and it melts my little heart. (How about that tan line on Andy?! ha!)

6. We are having a HUMONGOUS yard sale on Saturday. HUMONGOUS. A couple from our SS class is putting their stuff in with us and they say they have a lot. And I know we do.

7. Which leads me to HUMONGOUS news, y’all! We are selling…. wait for it…. THE CHAIR.

Thank you, Lord, for small miracles. Six years, 13 moves and several yard sales later- it is finally leaving us. Everyone make fun of Andy a little bit for wanting to put $100 on it. If someone offers me $5, I’m going to shout, “SOLD”, as loud as possible.

8. My little girl is such a “supported sitter” now. She loves her new toy and sat playing with it for a good 30 minutes today. She loves looking at herself in the mirror and she’s always trying to kiss herself.

9. Andy and I decided that for our family vacation (our first one!) we were going to go on a cruise. Um, did you know they make you pay the full price for a baby?! That, my friends, is insane.

10. Sometimes when I’m writing this here blog, I get so very paranoid that my high school English teachers (Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Dorris, whom I love dearly) are going to read it and be appalled. Which only adds to the problem I assume is apart of my OCD-ness, and therefore I read my blog post on “preview” about 23,898,439 times before I hit “publish”. Oh dear.

Tomorrow is Friday!

Woot!

Wordless Wednesday: Our Little Cheerleader- Go State, GO STATE!

July 14th, 2010 4 Comments

bathroom makeover!

July 13th, 2010 7 Comments

Well I finally, finally, finally can say we are 99.9% done with our bathroom! Its been a LONG tedious makeover, but we love the results! There are a couple of little things we’d like to do, but overall its done!

Let me refresh your memory of our master bathroom before:

We are selling all of the old fixtures and decor in our yard sale this weekend, so here is the only picture I have of all the gold hideousness that was in our bathroom.

And now! Our newly updated bathroom!!!

So what did we do?

stripped two-four layers of wallpaper/border (border = the four layers)
painted the walls and added a border wall covering thats really pretty and textured (because we couldn’t get all of the former border off. it was an awful experience.)
updated all the light fixtures
switched out all the knobs
put in a new shower door
updated the towel holders

I’m so glad its all over so that we can enjoy our bathroom again! We lived in a mess for so long, and now its just lovely and clean!