Loose Ends

I've had intentions of blogging for the past several days with pictures and updates, but my desire to sleep during my free time has trumped getting on my computer. Here's a little bit of what's been going on:

Gram-Gram

Since sweet baby Belle was born, I have had a ton of people helping around the clock- my mom, mother-in-law, other family members, friends from church, friends from college... my front door has basically become a revolving door (which is totally okay by me!). This past week, my grandma (Jackson refers to her as Gram-Gram) was on "helper duty". She drove down on Monday and stayed until Friday. It was so, so nice to have her here!! She cooked her coveted noodles, baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, folded laundry, washed dishes. She went to my MOPS group with me and to church on Wednesday night. It was so nice having her as part of our everyday life for a whole week!

The weather was nice so we headed out for a walk on a nearby trail. See her trying to keep up with Jackson?

Another nice day, we headed to the park and she took Belle for a walk while I stayed with Jackson at the playground.

I think this was her favorite-- snuggling Belle and reading books to Jackson.

I hardly ever make it up to Trenton these days, so it was just so wonderful to get to spend a whole week with her! Plus, I got to take a few extra naps!

Derek's Graduation
In just 10 days, Belle and I will be flying to Georgia for Derek's graduation from AIT. I am so, so excited! I have been wanting to go all along, but Derek kept brushing it off as something he didn't really care about and didn't want to spend the money for me to go out there. I was doing my best to respect his wishes, but when he finally mentioned that he would like for us to be there, I practically jumped out of my seat!

My mother-in-law and I were going to fly out together, but the cost of the airline tickets more than doubled over-night and so now it's only me (and Belle). Seriously, on Thursday night- $250 a person covered flight, hotel, and car rental. On Friday morning, I paid $475 for flight, hotel, and car-- and that was using Priceline's feature of not selecting my flight times and just taking what they give me. It would have been $680 otherwise. Is that not unbelievable?!?!

But even that can't take away my excitement to go see him! I am so, so, so proud of him. And I'm pretty sure he's excited to show Belle off to some of his Army buddies too. Belle will be 3 1/2 weeks when I fly with her. Hopefully she'll still be the easiest baby ever and make it a super easy trip!

Chick-fil-a
I totally heart Chick-fil-a. The people there are always so kind and I may have a waffle-fry addiction. Plus, I'm a fan of styrofoam cups and Coke- so it's the perfect place! Yesterday on Gram-Gram's way out of town, we met up with my mom for lunch at the Chick-fil-a in Liberty. Let me share with you how awesome the people were yesterday.

First. When I was walking in I was carrying Jackson in one arm and the baby carrier in the other. One of the employees must have seen me from inside because she came outside to open the doors for us. She totally didn't have to do that.

Second. As people were oohing and aahing over Belle (because it happens everywhere we go!) another one of the workers stopped and gushed as well. She also pointed out that there we had four generations all together at our table- how cool! Mom mentioned how she would have liked to have gotten a picture the other day when we were together and I had my camera. Well, awesome Chick-fil-a girl comes back with the owner (I think) with camera in hand. He takes a picture with his camera and emails it right away! She (and he) totally didn't have to do that!

Third. Getting ready to leave, I packed up the kiddos and headed for the door. I had my Coke and the carrier in one hand and was holding Jackson's hand with the other. I was prepping myself for the mad dash that was about to take place as it was raining like crazy. Mr. Owner guy comes out behind the counter to open the door for us-- how nice! But, then he told us to wait... he went and got an umbrella and walked us out to the car! He stood there with the umbrella while I got both kids buckled in and I got in the driver's seat. He totally didn't have to do that!

Are you seeing the trend here?? No other fast food place would ever offer out service like that!! Granted, I would love to see a dollar menu pop up soon, but with service like that-- they can charge whatever they want for a chicken sandwich and we will go back!!