Bruthas and Sistas at the Brick

So it's been a while since I have gone out. I mean, I am not living under a rock or anything, but since I got pregnant with little boy blu, I have not exactly been a party animal. It has actually been fine by me...my new lifestyle. I actually enjoy going to bed early and getting an early start to my day. Dan has plenty of friends to keep him busy. It is not like my new thing is holding him back. He still goes to see Kid Rock and Jimmy Buffett in concert, hangs out on the boat with Barry ( barry's boat- we are still grieving giving up our boat), goes out on occasion with the boys. I have had a few fun outings. I did go see Jimmy Buffet while I was pregnant ( NOT THE SAME EXPERIENCE), I went out with Dan for Barry's birthday, we had some people to the house for Dan's birthday. I have had my share of fun. But I have really not gone OUT OUT since November of 2007. ( Rayna, Lara, and Leigh...you know the night!)
It was high time for some of this.....



Me and my sister and brother are VERY close. We are all in different towns these days. Since my brother turned 21 two summers ago, we have talked a big talk about all going "OUT" together. Be it pregnancy, scheduling conflicts, whatever the case may have been, we could never quite work it out......

Until this past weekend! Man oh Man did we do it up right! Black Label, this band that my sister LOVES, was playing at the Brick. The Brick is a hang out in my home town. We packed up and headed out for a night of food, drinks, dancing and laughs! We had such a great time together. It was SOOOO nice to cut loose ( that's me in the miller light cheers-ing on the left).

(WOW! I need a tan and a steady diet of water and lettuce...I will just blame it on Jack for a little while longer! OK, OK, for the sake of documentation, I will grin and bear the horrible picture of myself, cause my sista and J to the B-ro look fabulous!)

We had such a great time together. I must admit, it was a mighty tame night compared to some of my old exploits, but in my old age, I cannot deny that I was getting tired and ornery by the time the lights came up in the bar- oh yeah...we closed it down! We even did a drive by to Krystals. GUT BOMBS ALL AROUND! Thanks for joining us, Tina! I am glad the whole dead guy on the balcony thing ended up being OK....it's a long story. " Shut the Front Door!" You just had to be there!

Baby's First Easter

We had a nice Easter. It was probably the first time that I have ever spent a major holiday in Georgia. It was nice to hang around the house with my boys! The Easter Bunny came and Jack really enjoyed his basket of goodies! Jack is such a lucky boy...he had already met the Easter Bunny at a previous engagement AKA the Easter Party at Miss Kim's. He looked SO CUTE!

Kisses in the Morning

Today was the sweetest start to a day that I have ever had. I got Jack out of bed and changed his diaper. We were looking in the closet to see what he would wear today and he leaned in and kissed me! I laughed and hugged him and oooooed and gooooed, so he leaned in and kissed me again!

***Obviously, the picture in this post is courtesy of Amy Jackson Photography***

Murals, Partying, Road Trips, and other Random Goodness from the Weekend!

I finished this part of the mural on Saturday



Dan and Jack came with me...Jack is such a trooper.
Dan is my hero. He prepped and painted a wall blue for me!





Then we partied at our house with a couple or 15 or so friends....





In honor of a VERY special birthday boy and girl!






Sunday we made a road trip to Rockmart Georgia to meet up with Dan's parents to take back our furry four legged friends. Sam and Lucy were swept away to Alabama whe I was stricken with strep throat while Dan was out of town a few weeks ago. Thanks for coming to my rescue John and Joanne!
Jack is a rock star in grandpa's sunglasses!






And this is LONG overdue! I finally got a picture of Jack with his custom, hand made with love, "football jersey" made by his sweet cousin, Emily, from Hartselle, Alabama.







Precious!

Whew...I am ready for the weekend!

Thanks, and have a nice day!

Birthday Boy...he keeps getting older, but I keep being the oldest:(

Today is a special day. It is the day that my best friend was born. Dan turns 33 today and here's hoping he has a great day! I am so lucky to have him. He is so good to me and Jack. Things have been so crazy for us lately and I am so glad that we are better than ever when it would be so easy to drift apart! It fills me up to see him with our son. He is so good with him and I can see the love in everything he does for him. Thank you Dan for being born and for having me in your life!

Birthday Boy started the day with french toast in bed with his new best buddy, Jack. (Dan had french toast, Jack had a bottle.) We met for a nice lunch at Rafferty's. Dinner's at our house are usually "jackcentric" these days, but hopefully we will relax a little this evening to wind down his day. We are having company Saturday to celebrate. A few burgers, some beers, and some good friends will be a good way to mark the beginning of another year in the life... I love you Dan!

Evolution of a Mural

There is a lot to be said about how much planning goes into a mural before the actual time is put into painting it. When you are working with a client, you can go through MANY sketched before everyone is ready to move forward! Since I have been painting all day, I don't have the power to go into any more detail :) I can, however, show a couple of before and after pictures.

Helmet Day

Today was a big day for the Marsh family. Jack went to get his helmet. It is going to be a part of this family for the next 3-5 months, so it was kind of an important meeting! The fit was good. Little man was a champ as always. The doctor came in and out about 3 times each time taking the helmet back to his "workshop" to grind the foam and cut the edges to make it just right for Jack.

All of the details came out. Instructions on how to clean and maintain the helmet, how to break Jack into it gradually, how to watch for redness in certain spots during his one hour of freedom a day. All very educational. Then the heart wrenching stuff came... ( for me anyway).

He will sweat A LOT at first. It is true. His whole little head is soaked when we take it off. That leads to the saddest part of all for me as the momma....the smell. Of course, with sweat, there will be an odor. It is just part of it, they said. We need to shampoo his hair and also use the shampoo to clean the interior of the helmet each night. There will be stains inside the helmet from his skin pigment. That is normal and I should not try to scrub it way. The smell will be deep in his hair folicles and will not go away until well after we hang the helmet up for good. I can deal with all that ( even though it is tough for me). The hardest part for me is that I now have to give up the little baby Jack smell forever. I am sure that when we are all done with this, he will be a big boy and that precious sweet baby smell will be gone forever....

So that is my sob story. Little Jack however seems to be much more resilient than me! Just look at that picture! We had decided in advance that we would "celebrate" the day with a new swing for Jack. Daddy got it hung just before Blue tuckered out for the night!

What a BIGDAY!