I Am BeHolden

Thursday, July 26, 2012 at 2:46 in the afternoon Holden Russell Osborn was born to Rayne and James Osborn. He weighed 8.9 ounces and is 21 inches long.

How do you detail the rest of the day when you begin the post with the punchline?  Finding it rather impossible, I will just post a few pics with captions. 

Lacey, Ford & Pie

Pie, Molly & Baby Rayne

Caroline - next up for delivery

Maggie & Bradford

Aunt Liney & Aunt J

Big Brother Lane arrived a little after the noon hour and stayed busy the entire time at the hospital. The Osborns were wonderful at keeping pace.  I know he is enjoying spending the weekend in Moulton with them while baby brother and parents transition home.

 If you are interested in seeing Rayne's birth announcement blog click HERE and Caroline's blog post click HERE.  I took tons of pics - most on  Rayne's camera. From reports I heard, the photography campaign continued on Friday so I expect  Rayne to post more soon.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Yesterday was my birthday. 

Started with Blue Jean Service. Bishop Chuck Jones was the speaker. He is an incredible teacher.  Topic was Mary Magdalene.  He expounded on her intimate loving relationship with Jesus. As always when Bishop Chuck speaks, I learned a lot and left intrigued, determined to learn even more. He has a way of making you hungry for the word of God.

Lots of praise and worship with song before Bishop's teaching. Overwhelmed me to look around and see so many people I love and think are awesome praising God so powerfully. A gift straight from the throne room!

After breakfast and Sunday School (which deserves a future post all of its own), I came home and played the birthday card to get an hour to myself in my bedroom with a book.  In the afternoon, attended Mandy's baby shower held in the home of my next door neighbor and BFF Bradford.  I took my camera but when I saw Angie had hers decided not to take my own pics. Hoping Angie will post soon so I can link.  Many creative treats - wonderful to have artistic friends.

Last night, my sister Rayne hosted a birthday dinner in my honor.  The food was delicious (thank you Pie!!!).  Shrimp & pasta with vegetables, summer salad with strawberries, tangerines and almonds with a slab of multigrain bread.

Paul and the children were sweet to have enthusiasm about my birthday day since I have been talking about and celebrating this particular birthday since January (and have determined not to quit until December)!

Desserts wonderful!! Christie Cummings who is known for her fabulously divine desserts made a chocolate creation. Rayne made her delicious peanut butter fudge - something she used to give me for Christmas so it is an extra sweet treat for me.

Rayne is 12 months pregnant (note the holding of her belly). If Sparkles does not make his entrance prior to Thursday, then that is the day we will be in Birmingham for his delivery.  Can't wait to meet him!

Rewind: 4th of July 2012

Hope you and your family enjoyed a wonderful 4th of July, 2012 celebration!!!

Taylor Man Jones - Blue Ribbon Winner

Post Greased Watermelon Contest - Yum!

Fairchild loves some LaLa

Rana & Jude

Ellie & Libby

Ames, Mary Ashlyn, Ellie & Libby

Claire & Judy

Libby, Jackson, Sam & Fairchild

Great Group!

Fairchild spent most of the day climbing onto LaLa's shoulders

Kate - chillaxin

Sweet Maggie

Andy, Allen & Paul
Three of my favorite guys

Last photo of the day - clearly this crew having a good time!

ASB & The Cannon

This morning I am sitting on the deck of our condo at Baytowne Wharf that overlooks the Village fountain, lawn , carousel, climbing tower etc.  Right now, at 6 o'clock in the morning, it is quite deserted excepting the sound of birds and the distant roar of a leaf blower.

Photo of Observation Point North. We are in the South building identical to this one.

The bottom corner deck immediately above the columns is identical to the deck we have.
Can I say "love it"!

View from deck looking out.

View from deck looking down.

We are here attending the Alabama State Bar Meeting.  It has been a fun time of hanging out with old friends and meeting new ones.  (Oh yeah, and going to a few meetings/seminars!)

We caught up with our friends the Adairs.  They have three children ranging in age from 15 to 6.  Their youngest, Rett, and our Sam have a blast together.  Last night, with Fairchild, they attended the Cat in the Hat Children's Pajama Party. My children were delighted when they entered the room to find a buffet of macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, huge cookies and lemonade to wash it all down.  They received tshirts as prizes.  After eating and coloring, the children settled down with pillows and blankets to watch the Cat in the Hat movie.

Rett, Fairchild & Sam with the Cat in the Hat

While they were being entertained, the Adairs escaped with us to eat dinner at Graffitis.  The food was delicious and it was nice to eat an entire meal without reminding someone to "remember, we don't act that way in public".  (ok, I did have to remind Paul a couple of times.)

My favorite painting in Graffitis

When we returned to the Conference Building to pick up the children they were rocking out to the band at the Diversity Reception and eating out of the chocolate fountain.  Can it get any better?  Not to the Garner children who love a party as much as Paul does.

Sam & Fairchild rockin' out

Fairchild loves dancing with her Daddy

Sam & me

Fairchild (with chocolate on her face) & Sam

Baby Got Back....my booty shakers!

I twirled with Fairchild until we were both dizzy.

Chocolate Fountain

Her favorite - strawberries covered in chocolate. Reminds me of her Aunt RaRa

To those who know us best, it is an appropriate time to bring up the subject....how exactly did I come by the photos posted above?????

As you recall, and let me inform those of you who don't know, I managed to leave my camera outside at the pool after a FULL day of celebrating the 4th of July.  It just so happens that early the same evening one of the most severe thunders storms of the summer hit causing extensive front page of the newspaper damage. Clearly, camera drenched.

Thankfully, Mike Granthum picked it up for me and Kea Calame let me know he had it.  Upon retrieval, found the camera was unresponsive.  I took it completely apart, laid it on a desk for two weeks ignoring it preferring to delay discovery of the final diagnosis. 

Wednesday when we were packing for Destin trip and I failed to find my old camera, decided it was time to face reality.  Miracle of all miracles....the camera works perfectly. Thank you Cannon - I am now a loyal consumer.

Happened to find the 4th of July photos undisturbed on my camera card as well. Next post....

The Tracker

If you have not heard, you are currently traveling out of the country. It is HOT!! The sweltering heat expected in the last weeks of August in Alabama have hit in the end of June.  Despite the heat, we took a trip in the Tracker to the Shack for dinner Friday night. 

Note: This is not a photo of our Tracker but a good representation

If you have not seen Paul driving the Tracker, you do not live in Selma. It is somewhat notorious. No one else we know has a Tracker or, before Paul, knew the Tracker was a vehicle instead of a "As Seen on TV" whatchamahigit.

My husband has a penchant for acquiring used vehicles. He justified it to me by saying "at least they don't cost much." And can I say, he is right and it shows.  Rust, missing gadgets that most car owners find essential, gages that don't exactly work...the list continues.

Since we were married, he has made some memorable purchases.  For awhile he was on an electric car kick.  Not hybrid. Not new fangled electric most currently on the market produced from a reputable car manufacturer.  No.  

Again, not a picture of our actual truck but you get the idea of it.

He purchased a mini-truck, removed all of the guts and reworked/rewired it to run off batteries stored in the bed of the truck.  He rode that around town for about year before deciding to see if he could improve the idea in a different vehicle.  Traveling to Birmingham, he spotted a VW Bug graveyard and decided he just had to have one.  He sold the truck, purchased the Bug and reengineered it to battery power.  

Our children loved this particular vehicle.  While our regular cars were exposed to the elements, the Bug had a place of honor in the carport.  The children played in it for hours in toddler hood on long otherwise boring mornings at home.  They began to think of it as their car. So much so, that when we finally took the Bug to the car crusher, Fairchild, watching the big claw picking it off the back of the trailer we were pulling, shouted "Daddy, Daddy they are taking my car off to kill it. What will I do now?"  She began to cry uncontrollably.  Smartly, knowing his daughter and how to calm her immediately, Paul promised we would get her a new PINK car. It worked. The tears quickly turned into a smile.

Also during this period of time, Paul purchased a bucket truck.  Not a new shiny bucket truck. An old one with the Alabama Power logo on the doors of the truck gone but its grey imprint noticeably and eternally memorializing its original owner.  This stayed in our yard for MONTHS.  Finally, we returned to live in our new old house, I drew a line in the sand.  The bucket truck was not invited to live with us any longer.  He still has it but I am not sure where it is stored. I learned long ago not to ask questions to which I likely don't want to hear the answer. "Where is the bucket truck?" is one of those questions. If I can't see it, I don't care where it is.

So you can imagine my thrill when Paul told me he was driving to Tennessee to pick up another vehicle.  Knowing there was nothing I could say or do to stop him, I frowned, creased my brows and said nothing. Nothing at all. To my surprise, he brought home a convertible vehicle with a decent paint job and no rust in the floor boards. Amazing. It is his around town car when it is not raining.  

So Friday night, when the children declared it was "Family Night" and Paul had the idea to eat at the Shack thirty minutes from our home,  into the Tracker we all climbed.  It was a lovely ride with 100 degree wind whipping through our hair.

I'll leave explaining the Shack to another post another day.