Let's play catch up

Ok, time to catch up. Now I have to remember everything that has been going on with us.

First off, the funeral for Chris' grandfather went as well as it could. We had the end of the year party for all of the teachers at Chris' school the same day as the visitation. The timing of everything was incredibly odd considering that exactly one year ago we had just found out about my own grandmother's death and we hosted this doggone party then too. (I think we are going to bow out of hosting this thing anymore in hopes that nothing bad happens on that day again!) This was all during the 100+ degree heatwave, which just made everything harder.

Meredith was a complete trooper for the entire weekend. She totally lightened the mood for everyone in the family. Friday night at the visitation she was going up to complete strangers and holding out the skirt to her dress and saying 'look at my dress, I a princess'. Needless to say, she made a lot of people smile :) She had a good time playing with her second cousins (?-or whatever Chris' cousin's kids would be) She was bossing around these 8 and 9 year old boys and they were being very sweet with her. We drove back to Raleigh Friday night and drove back for the service on Saturday morning. It was a lot of driving, but we just needed to be in our own beds.

I definitely did a lot of thinking about my own family during this time since it was so reminiscent of a year ago. Chris' mom and his aunts have been dealing with a lot of really hard stuff because his grandfather had remarried and this wife really did some terrible things to cause some major riffs in the family. Unfortunately, his own children were unable to make some of the most important decisions concerning the end of his life and I'm sure there are plenty more unfortunate things to discover as everything else is settled. I hated to see his family go through all of this, but I also know that they are all so thankful that Bill is now with his first wife(and only real wife) and his final resting place is right next to hers.

We got back in town on Saturday in time to go to our neighborhood carnival. Chris' mom, step-dad, sister and brother in law all came to our house for the night before they headed back to TN. So we all ate bbq and watched wild woman Meredith jump in one of those bouncy house things and slide down a huge inflatable slide. I can't express how wild she was. It was like 98 degrees outside at 7:00pm, but she could have cared less. Even some of the other dads that were standing around commented on her fearlessness coming down that giant slide. I was secretly praying that we didn't end the night in the ER, but she had a blast and only ended up with a big blister on her toe.

We went to Myrtle Beach last Thurs- Sat, just the 3 of us. It didn't start off very well because of terrible traffic and just a comedy of errors, but we ended up having a good time. Meredith much preferred the pool to the beach and she really did a good job of learning how to kick her feet and swim (we really need to get her in some swimming lessons). She surprised us by totally refusing to sleep in the pack n' play that we brought, so she slept in one of the beds with me one night and Chris the next (she fell out of the bed on his watch!). It may have something to do with the fact that she is way too big for the travel bed, but she still sleeps in her crib at home, so we figured we'd bring it. Even though she is still content in her crib at home and there have been no more climbing out instances for months, we know that it is time to move on up to the big girl bed. We'll start with converting her crib and then move her into a full size bed from the guest room. I can visualize lots of jumping on the bed, but hope it will go well. If it goes as well as getting rid of the pacifier, we should be good. On occasion she still asks for her paci, but I can say that we are paci-free now!! My baby is getting so big!!

We had a nice, but very low key father's day. Meredith and I made 'toads in a hole' for breakfast aka eggs in hole in toast. Meredith gave daddy some good smellin' (that's what we always called cologne we gave our dad) and a tie (that he's already returned). Hillary made homemade pizza at her house and we went and got Locopops up the street from them. I had chocolate wasabi sesame and couldn't resist a second one that was lime coconut sesame. I love how creative they are!

Ok, I think I have bored everyone enough, so I'll say adios for now. I am terrible about uploading pictures, so I won't even pretend I'll have any soon.