A new beginning

Today marks the beginning of a very big change in our family. Adam left this morning for Tennessee to work with his friend Sean at Slamdot in Knoxville. He will be there all week and will come back on the weekends. The plan is for this to last the month of September, but there is a chance that if all goes well, Adam will continue to work till the end of the year or till we close on the house, which ever comes first. Adam is no longer an owner of ARC Design. This was a sad and rejoices event for us both. Adam and I realized that selling his portion of ARC and starting over was the best thing for our family and we are excited at what the future holds.
Ada, Bentley and myself are staying in North Carolina till the house sells or till we can manage to live all together and still pay the expences of keeping the NC house. Luckly Ada has no idea what is going on, other than today she did point to the door and ask for "Da da" around the time that Adam is normally home. I am sure that as the week goes on she will realize that he is not here but will adjust to having just me to entertain her. To make the time go by faster, I am trying to plan things that she and I can get out of the house and do around Fayetteville, weather permitting. We hope that not only will this week and month fly by, but that it is a safe and sucessfull one for Adam.
We did find out about a Hot air balloon race in Knoxville at the end of the month and have made plans for Ada and I to join Adam for the fun festivites. Adam nor Ada have seen a hot air balloon race, so I will be more than happy to show them the ropes and funnel cakes. It may not be the Mississippi, but I think it will still be fun for us all.

Ready for the Snow!!

I was going through Ada's closet today to weed out the clothes that she no longer can wear. (This is becoming almost a weekly event now.) I realized that the snow suit I asked Meredith to get for Ada's birthday is size 18 months, the current size she is wearing now. Fear ran through me, so to see if I was going to have to give this away, we tried it on. Thankfully it still has LOTS of growing room, but now I can't wait for the winter!! I know Texas is not known for it's freezing cold winters, but I am now hoping for a blizzard because I think that Ada is the cutest little snow bunny ever!! These pictures do not capture how laugh out loud cute she is because you can't see her move around in this thing. If it wasn't 75 degrees in the house and the fear of a heat stroke from her wearing it, I would dress her in it everyday!
I think I am going to plan a trip this winter for the Alps just so she can waddle around in this thing all day long!

Even if it takes all day

Remembering Sen. Ted Kennedy

Today I watched the funeral of Sen. Ted Kennedy, and was moved in ways that I have never been before. I have, like most in this great country been thinking of him often since learning of his passing on Wednesday. All week there have been stories on the news about his great triumphs and server tragedies. He seemed to, like all the Kennedy's, live a life of extreme highs and lows. His and his family's highs are much greater than any of us would have ever dreamed to have achieved and unfortunately his lows were much harsher than anyone I know personally has gone through. I believe President Obama said what all of us must have thought about Sen. Kennedy at one point that he had been through such hardships in his life that if he had chosen to live his life bitter and in solitude no one would have blamed him, and everyone would have understood, but the amazing thing is that he did not. He strove to heights that were far beyond the capabilities of most.
I never had the honor to meet Sen. Kennedy, but I would have like to. Unfortunately, I did not realize that till today after listing to his sons speak so fondly of him. My own ignorance has blinded me of even being able to fully see how this one single man has made my life better. For the first time in my life, I feel guilty for not being able to name a single legislature that this man fought so hard to pass in his 47 years in the Senate. I know that I have reaped the benefits of them, but I have no idea what they are. They called him the "Lion of the Senate", and I am sure that he must have been. He is quite obviously one of the greats, and no one will ever be able to fill his shoes.
Tonight as the sun set, he was buried in our nations most sacred place, Arlington Cemetery. Of course, as veteran of our United States Army, Arlington holds an honor in my heart that few may be able to fully understand. I, never been, can only imagine the instant feeling of Honor, Courage, Self-Sacrifice and Heroism one must feel the instance that they cross through the gates and see the rows upon rows of tombstones lining the well manicured green lawns. I got into a disagreement today with a former co-worker and still current soldier on weather Sen. Kennedy deserved to have his final resting place within the grounds of the soldiers holy land and was very disappointed. His view is that Sen. Kennedy is not worthy simply for the fact that he did not support the war. I have thought about that all day, and even as the lone bugle player was blasting out Taps over the sunset sky there in Washington, I was reaffirmed that Sen. Kennedy is in his rightful resting place. He is not only with his brothers, but he is in the sacred land of those who gave all that they had to not only to protect the land and people of this country, but to make every citizen's life better by sacrificing theirs.

Like I said before, I could not begin to tell you a single thing that Sen. Kennedy fought to pass in the Senate, but it's not hard to realize that we as Americans lost one of our Greats.

Tonight I hope that you will join me in saying a prayer for the Kennedy family for the loss of the man who held them all together when tragedy struck and for the courage to continue striving to the heights that he fought so hard to achieve.

Thanks be to God.

A new way to recycle

So we had dinner out of a box tonight and Ada found a new use for the box that it came in. She is very creative and wore her new look for about an hour.

Adam and Ada's trip to the beach.

Adam and Ada went to Myrtle Beach, SC, this morning to see Adam's father Lamar. Do to last minute plan changes, I was not able to go so David Allen, Rachel and Harmony could go and see their Grandfather also.
Being Ada's first trip to the beach it was a big deal, but Adam says that she loved every minute. Once they got there and were headed to the beach, Adam says she took off running to the water. Due to the hurricane there were strong rip currents so the water was very shallow when the tide was in. This only allowed for more splashing room for Ada. Adam says that she fell over once, but that didn't deter her from the water. Grandpa Johnson (Lamar) said that she had no fear and was surprised by her enthusiasm to stay out there. All in all, it was a quick but good trip. Adam said that it was good to see his dad and Ada obviously had a great time too.

Home cooking

I decided that I wanted to start cooking healthy from scratch for Ada. I figured out that with all of these reports about don't feed your kids this or if it contains something then your kid will develop something absolutely crazy, I needed to figure out a way to feed her. So, instead of spending half a day in the grocery store reading labels to make sure that these crazy things are not in what I am buying, home cooking seemed to be the easy answer. With all that said, I started looking for healthy cookbooks, and not just healthy, but ones that are geared towards what your kid needs to eat, and surprisingly they were not hard to find. The first one I found is called "Healthy cooking for your kids", shocker, I know, but it's been wonderful!
I have attached two of the recipes that we have tried so far that have been a real hit in our household. Adam has eaten himself sick off of them, so my next project is establishing portion control. This has been very fun, and I have really enjoyed the 500 steps it takes to make these dishes, well one b/c I love to cook and the other is b/c I know that it is healthy for all of us. I have already bought a second cookbook that goes by how old your child is and what they should be eating. It not only has tasty recipes in it, but educational as well.
Well, enough of me rambling about all this, I scanned the recipes so you can click on the picture to make them readable and printable. Let me know if you try any of them and what you think. Also, if you know of any healthy recipes, please email them to me. I do hope you enjoy them!

Adam and Ada

A few weeks ago, Adam needed a few professional pictures taken for work, so he called Raul Rubiera. We went out into this field for about an hour or so and Adam danced around while Raul took some great shots. Once Raul felt that he had what he needed, but before we got all packed up, Adam picked up Ada and Raul was nice enough to take a few shots for us. Of course, Ada stole the show. Here are a few of what we thought were the best.

Ada's first horse back ride

Ada and Daddy have gotten lots of time to play with each other over the past few weeks, so the creative level to do something different has elevated. While playing the normal "give me a high-five then run around in a circle" for the five hundred millionth and one, Ada started climbing on Adam and before long Adam was crawling around upstairs with a passenger. Ada figured out real quick that holding on was much better than sliding off, but once she and Adam got their grove down Ada had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, Adam's need to call this little adventure finished came much sooner than Ada was ready for it. I am sure that here before to long she will have another horsey ride.