Day by day...

Our New Home

Sat, 1 Nov 2008 09:18:35 -0400

So, it’s been forever since I’ve posted anything. I know, I know. I’m terrible. Cut me some slack. We moved twice in 6 months! Anyway, thanks to some fantastic help from my Mom, we are getting settled in our new home in Kingsland, Georgia. It’s about 30 miles north of Jacksonville, Florida. We really like it here and are looking forward to being here for a while. Mark’s already been attending preschool and we are visiting churches to find a new church home. The house is coming along so I’ll post a few inside pictures soon. Until then, here’s the view from our back door.

Happy Halloween

Sat, 1 Nov 2008 09:09:47 -0400

We are getting settled here in Georgia and were blessed with great weather yesterday. It was cool, but not cold so we decided to head over to a local church Fall Festival with the boys. Mark was thrilled to get to ride a horse and a train. Then we went Trick-Or-Treating to a few houses. We missed all the kids coming to our house though so we have a big bowl full of candy that I have to get rid of quick! It was a great evening and both kids seemed to have lots of fun. As an added bonus, they slept in until almost 8:00. I’m sure that means that tonight for the Daylight Savings Fall Back they will be up at 6:00!

A Day Out with Thomas

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:53:32 -0400

If you ask Mark Garrett what he thinks heaven will be like I’m pretty sure he would say that it will be something like what we did on Saturday. I have never seen him star struck or speechless, but he was both at our Day Out with Thomas adventure. We drove 90 minutes to Thomaston, CT to ride the “real” Thomas and Mark was so excited the whole way there. The first highlight of the day came when we got to ride the yellow school bus from the parking area to the station. He was thrilled, especially since he asks me nearly every day to ride the school bus that drops off kids in our neighborhood. We arrived at the station and he was his usual wiggly self waiting in line to get on Thomas. I’m pretty sure I threatened to beat him 2-3 times before we got on the train for kicking rocks and picking up gravel and dirt. (White shirts - what was I thinking?!?) But we finally boarded and he was bouncing up and down, going from seat to seat so excited. Suddenly the music started and the train started moving and it was too much for him. He got completely still and quiet. He was staring at the inside of the coach and out the window. He looked like he could cry at any moment and that’s how he rode for the entire ride. After the ride we took a picture with Thomas and he got to play with lots of different train sets. Finally, we got to meet Sir Topham Hatt. Even though Mark had been watching the other kids and had seen Sir Topham Hatt while we were waiting in line he froze when it was our turn. I had to nudge him forward to get a picture. He was completely star struck and in awe. I think the pictures tell the story best...

Thomas arriving at the station

The train starts and Mark is speechless

Oops! Mom cut off Thomas’s head!

Notice the gaping mouth...

Using your College Education to sculpt black play-doh: Priceless

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 16:40:16 -0400

All that money that was spent on my four years of private Christian education at John Brown University, all that time spent in education classes and hours spent observing and teaching under instruction, thousands of dollars on books and fees... It’s come down to this.

Black Play-doh and a variety of transportation vehicles. (No laughing at my renderings please. I wasn’t an art major and this was definitely NOT taught in my educational art class.)

But in spite of my poor sculpting abilities I do believe that I was Mark Garrett’s hero for most of the day. So I guess that makes it priceless after all.

A Pick Up Truck

An Ambulance

An Airplane

A Submarine

A Train (with a very small coach)

Don’t bother...

Mon, 4 Aug 2008 10:26:46 -0400

We do our Christmas shopping early in the Williamson household. So for everyone else who would like to get a head start on things for my kids, just find some boxes in your garage and send them our way. We are going on day #4 with a box I saved for Mark Garrett. I cut a whole in one side and left one end open. Sometimes we put a chair in it and pretend it’s a car. Other times we turn it on its side and pretend its a television. Or we use it to line up all our cars in like a garage. It doesn’t really matter. We are highly entertained by it even as I type.

And I just got the brilliant idea to teach Mark to Swiffer last week. Why haven’t I done this before? He loves it! And it helps me out. Not the usual kind of “helping” that Mark provides. But it actually works to have him clean the floors. It’s not much, but I figure it could only help to have a little less dust on our floors.

Visiting Cousins

Sat, 2 Aug 2008 10:19:55 -0400

Since living in Connecticut we have been fortunate to see my cousin, Charlie, his wife Suzy and their kids twice this summer. We don’t usually get to see them so it’s been a real treat. We met at a park in New Haven for a picnic and the kids loved playing together. Gracie is 4 and Jackson just turned 2. We all enjoyed the visit!

When the cat’s away...

Fri, 1 Aug 2008 10:06:40 -0400

We are working really hard on sharing these days. Mark Garrett wants to play with Luke, but he doesn’t really want Luke to play with any toys. Of course I can’t totally blame him - I don’t like other people to drool all over my stuff either! But he has to learn to share so we play together in Mark’s room for short periods of time every day. But Mark wasn’t home this morning so Luke had free reign of the entire room and all the toys. He found it to be great fun!

A Day with Mimi and Papaw in Mystic

Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:58:25 -0400

Mark got to spend the day with Mimi and Papaw visiting some sights in historic Mystic. They saw a lighthouse, played on the beach, saw the Seaport and even ate at Mystic Pizza. It was a good way to finish a great visit with Mimi and Papaw before they had to go back home. Here are few pictures of their day together.

Connecticut Children’s Museum

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:48:48 -0400

Papaw and Mark spent the morning in Niantic at the Connecticut Children’s Museum. It’s a great little hands-on play museum for kids of all ages. We have since bought a membership and it’s surpassed the Aquarium as Mark’s favorite activity. They have different themed areas for kids to dress up and play in. Mark’s favorite appears to be the Mexican Food Restaurant. (We are from Texas, you know.) He loves to pretend to make and serve the food. They also have a train table and a science area that you can play with magnets, see animals and play an organ.

Decorating the windows of the restaurant with flowers

Making tacos and tortillas

Playing with the trains

Magnets are fun

Luke’s new skill

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:44:34 -0400

Luke is getting pretty mobile these days. He’s been crawling for a couple of months now but is suddenly very interested in standing and walking. I wasn’t really expecting these skills so soon. Mark didn’t walk until he was 15 months old. I figured I at least had until we moved into our new house before I had to think about walking. Nope. Just when you think you have your kids figured out they throw a wrench in it. So, here’s Luke standing and creeping. We’ll keep you posted on walking, but I’m guessing it won’t be long...