Tourist In Our Own State

Last weekend we decided to be tourists in our own state! After seeing Pearl Fryar on HGTV, 60 Minutes and in Southern Living Magazine we had to go see his Topiary Garden in Bishopville, SC. After Pearl retired he got a little bored and decided to trim the trees in his yard. Well, it turned into the most interesting place. He had a little mailbox in his front yard for donations and a big Welcome sign for anyone who wanted to take a walk around his yard. He lives on a dead end street and has inspired all of his neighbors. The entire street is decorated in topiaries.

Yep - that is his address!

It just seemed like we stepped into a Dr. Seuss story book.

He had Love Peace And Goodwill written in his side yard.


Tod and the boys along with two little dogs that followed us all over the place. It was a nice welcoming committee!

This tree is called the Arrowhead. So amazing.

Everywhere we turned there was an amazing tree that you can tell was so carefully and lovingly sculpted.

This is my favorite. A square tree.....

He also had some neat sculptures and fountains scattered around the landscape.

Jacob thought these topiaries looked like animals.

Who know bushes could take these shapes?

Brady loved this fountain. He didn't want to leave.

After leaving Pearl's topiaries we headed to Lee State Park to throw the football and take a hike. I was surprised to find how swampy it was there. Also, the trees were huge and covered with Spanish Moss. Brady called the trees "hairy".

Our hike was on a boardwalk across this green swampy water.

Jacob just called the water - "YUCK!"

These little green plants were under the water. It was actually very beautiful.

Taking a little break after our swamp hike.


Our next hike was around the lake. Tod spotted these three turtles sunning. We found two fresh water springs at one end of the pond. Brady threw sticks and pine straw in the lake and Tod and Jacob threw the football around the lake.

We had so much fun on our little road trip for the day. It was so nice to be outside after three days of constant rain. We do need to do this more often!

Here's what we have been up to...

Ok... I'm back on track. I have finally uploaded an entire memory card onto the computer and weeded through hundreds of pictures. Here's what we have been up to the last couple of months.

I believe there are certain rites of passage. Certain firsts that determine your pathway through childhood, boyhood, and manhood. Well, Jacob has mastered a particular boyhood talent that has changed the acoustics of our house. Yep, the underarm fart is a new accompaniment to our daily lives.




My friend Siobhan and I took our kids to the NC Transportation museum to see the Christmas Carol Train. Very interesting. Each car showed you how they made the movie. Incredible the amount of work went into this movie. Brady was on cloud 9. He loves trains! You can tell by his smile...

And the 3-D movie at the end was his favorite.

We decided to do a family trip to a local farm. They had a hayride, corn maze, hay hut, animals, and lots and lots of hay for the boys to climb on. Here's the boys on the hay ride. It had rained all week so the trail was very slippery. Made for a wild ride.

Jacob tried to ride with no hands, but had to hold on when we dipped and slipped along the trail.


Jacob on his "corn phone".

The boys in the Hay Hut.

Jumping on all of the bales of hay.

The boys loved the animals. The horse was the biggest hit. They were able to pet him and feed him.

Brady's new ride. He has ridden it every day. With all of the rain he has been riding it in the mud in the empty lot across the street. Our driveway is covered in muddy tracks. He wakes up from his nap every day and says, "I need to go for a drive."

Jacob lost yet another tooth. He is officially snaggle tooth! He was a bit disappointed that he keeps getting "only a dollar" from the tooth fairy. His classmates are getting five dollars!! Geesh! Tod told him, "I don't know how it works, Jacob." That seemed to satisfy him. (for now)

Tod took Jacob and my Dad to the Panthers game last weekend. It wasn't a good game for the Panthers, but what a fun experience Jacob had. He has been playing football with his friends in the front yard ever since.

I hope I don't procrastinate like this again! Now off to delete all of these pictures off of my camera!

To Blog or Not to Blog

This Fall we have been so busy. School, baseball, scouts, homework, field trips... it's getting a little too busy around here. I have had many moments this month where I put a little "memory" post-it on my brain and say to myself, "hey, this is blog worthy." Somehow I just don't get around to blogging about it.

I will be posting pictures soon about our many Fall adventures. As soon as I declutter my brain of all of the post-its!!!

Play Ball!!!

I never thought I would ever say... "Go Tarheels!!" It's hard to say coming from University of Kentucky, but since Jacob's baseball team is the Tarheels...I'll make an exception!

I

He is playing coach pitch baseball with the local rec department and he is loving it. He doesn't care for the practices, but LOVES the games. The kids get to play in the evening under the lights. Tod says that he would have loved to play under the lights as a kid. Our coach isn't a good pitcher and he enlisted the help of another Dad on the team to pitch. It's got to be hard to pitch to someone who is only 3 1/2 feet tall!!

Here is Jacob in right field watching the pitch.

Playing under the lights.


Jacob at first base after a great hit. He brought two teammates in with this hit.

That's Jacob running HOME!!! Tod and I were so excited. Jacob looked up at us just after stepping on home plate with a huge smile on his face. He was so excited that he almost ran right into the back stop fence while giving up two thumbs up!!

We are so proud of him. We don't have any games this week and practice has been rained out. He wasn't disappointed that he didn't have practice, but he said..."If it was a game I wouldn't be happy about that." Go Tarheels!

Normal

It has been such a stressful 6 months for our family. In the Spring Brady's preschool teacher wrote us an email with some concerns she had about Brady's development. The things that she was telling us were not things that we had noticed about him. She told us that Brady was just so far behind the other kids in the class. Wow. What a slap in the face of reality. All of the concerns that his teacher had for Brady pointed toward Autism.

After many sleepless nights we put Brady on the schedule to be evaluated through the school system. I filled out dozens of pages of forms and behavior surveys we finally had his evaluation in August. It was an hour long evaluation on his development and speech. Yesterday, the school psychologist did the classroom evaluation to see how Brady followed direction and interacted with other kids.

Today I get the phone call. The phone call to tell me what her findings are about Brady. The phone call that could take our family in a different direction. The phone call that I have worried about for months. I listened carefully and took notes so I could relay all information to Tod. Then she said the most fantastic words a I could ever imagine..."Brady is a normal three year old little boy." Aaahhh. I think she could tell that I was teary and trying to hold it together. I was just so relieved.

I told myself that I would be thankful either way. I would be thankful if there was something wrong and we were able to catch it early to help him. I would also be thankful if there wasn't something wrong and be happy to have a normal little boy. I can't help but feel angry. Angry that we had all of this useless worry, sleepless nights, and unlimited tears shed because of what his previous teacher thought she so expertly saw as developmental problems. I also can't help but feel grateful. Grateful that we have proof that we have a normal little boy. Grateful that he is in our lives. Grateful that he is loved and healthy.

I cannot express how relieved I am. I can guarantee that we will all sleep better tonight.

Miss Understood

I will probably offend some of you with this post...but I have to get it off my chest. I cannot stand being called Miss Kathryn. There. I said it. Whew, I feel better.

Growing up I always called my friends parents by their last name, i.e. Mr. Williams, Mrs. Hughes. We had very close family friends that we called them Miss Peggy and Mr. Todd, but that was an exception.

I heard the other day from a New Yorker that it must be a "Southern Thing" that kids these days call adults Miss/Mr. First Name. Well, it isn't. I was born and raised in the south, with a brief and unfortunate spell in Cincinnati, and this was not a practice in any city or small town that I lived in.

I must confess that I don't like being called Mrs. O'Donnell either. Not that I don't enjoy being Mrs. O'Donnell. It's just that whenever I hear it I expect to see Tod's Grandmother pop up with salami and cream cheese roll ups. And the only time I ever hear "Mrs. O'Donnell" is at the DMV.

One thing I do believe is that Miss First Name should be reserved for preschool and Sunday school teachers. It's appropriate.

So, in the event that I still have friends... it's Kathryn, Kat, or just Hey You will do!

Brady's first day

Today is Brady's first day of preschool in his new school. We feel like we made the right decision by switching schools. Brady was so excited this morning. I think he would have left the house at 7am if he could.

The school provided each kid with backpacks and Brady LOVES his. He wore it all morning. When I put his lunch in it he said it was "Too heavy!" and decided he didn't want to wear it anymore.

He waltzed right into his classroom and sat down to work on a new puzzle. I told him that I loved him and would see him after lunch. He said, without looking up, "Bye bye, Mommy. I eat lunch with my friends." My heart sank thinking about him eating lunch with his class and me eating lunch by myself. Sigh. I know he is going to have such a good time today. I can't wait to see how he did at school!