{in remembrance}

Grandpa John - you were loved. We'll always remember you.

John Henry Alderman

July 22, 1922 - March 1, 2011

{saturday}

Have a great week-end!

{right now}

About a year after Emily was born, I really started thinking about having another child. I knew, at that point, that we really couldn't afford another baby. Our income was not really one that would allow me to stay home. Five day a week child care is REALLY expensive. Especially for a baby. So, the whole second child thing was put on the back burner.

Of course, everyone asked, "When are you going to have another?", and when I told them it wasn't really a good time, pretty much everyone said, "There's never a really good time." Or, "You don't want to have them too far apart, they'll never be close." Even, "Oh, just go for it, you'll figure it out."

Thankfully, Eric and I stuck with our plan of waiting. When we moved from Florida to Michigan we knew it was the right time. Of course, I worried that Emily wouldn't be close with her sister  - being four and a half years apart. I spent the better part of my pregnancy thinking I should have gotten pregnant sooner.

I, and everyone else, could not be more wrong.

They are BEST friends.


Would they be closer if their ages were closer? Maybe? But seriously - how much closer can you get?



The moral - this worked for us. Having them closer in age may have worked too - but the stress of that would have been too much for our wallets, and maybe, even our family. You have to do what works for you, because, every situation is different. And that applies to just about everything - not just having babies.

Thus concludes today's lesson. :) Have a great Thursday!

{berry good memories}

picked up some strawberries while i was out yesterday. pretty much every time i eat a strawberry, i can't help but think about my Grandma. she LOVED strawberries. she sacrificed for them. really. whenever we would take her to the store, she would always pick herself up a carton of these ruby gems. and if they were expensive, she would forgo something else. i guess they were that important to her.

when i was little, and i would stay at her house for the summer, she always took me strawberry picking. i, of course, ate more in those fields than i brought home. so much that, sometimes i had quite the belly ache. when we got back to her house, i helped her make jam - or preserves, or jelly - i can never remember which is which. all i knew, was that stuff we made with those strawberries that we picked, was some of the best stuff i ever spread on a piece of toast.


thanks for the berry good memories Grandma!

{MIA: green grass}

So yesterday morning we woke up to almost no snow. All the snow from the previous weeks had just about melted - thank you so very much almost sixty degree temperatures - to reveal green grass, roads, and some long lost piles of doggy poopy. The last one is not such a fun thing to look at...but I digress.

And this morning we woke up to this:








 
It's not like we went to bed last night with green grass. It had snowed quite a bit before bedtime ever rolled around. And we know this because we were out driving in it. WHY, you ask? Because we are CRAZY and ADVENTUROUS. And, a little bit stupid. We went to Detroit to see Elmo and then had dinner with my Dad and his wife, Natalie, in Farmington. Honestly, the roads were not the biggest issue. Although, seriously, they were BAD. Our biggest issue was the windshield. The wipers kept freezing over. So much that they were completely ineffective. Eric had about a three inch square on the windshield that he could see through. Yeah, that's safe. So we cranked up the windshield defrost, to the point that the car was uncomfortably hot, and crossed our fingers that we would get home safely. We did...DUH!


Total snow accumulations as of this morning - about 10-12 inches.

I am thinking that green grass will not be in my future anytime soon.

Oh and do I need to remind you that our snow thrower is broken.......and the part to fix it is on back-order......thank goodness for neighbors that have let us borrow theirs!

{have a ....}

great weekend!

{happy heart day}

The heart cookie is compliments of my Grandpa. He's in the hospital, and he insisted that I bring this cookie home to the girls.

Happy Valentine's Day!