And now a bit about my girl....

Ella, Ella, Ella, my sweet Ella.

Aliases: Pumpkin, Sassafras, Lilley Lou (from Memaw Johnson)

Age: 3 and 3/4 if you ask her

Activities: Ella is in ballet.  She LOVES ballet.  I can say that it's helped her to be a little more graceful and I think her technique is there.  She would like to do gymnastics too, but I told her that has to wait until she's school aged.  The gymnastics is thanks to the Olympics and a Dora special, "Fantastic Gymnastics."

Future profession in my opinion: doctor?  She loves playing "check up" thanks to a Disney show, Doc McStuffins.  Recently in preschool, she answered that she'll be a mermaid someday.  When asked why, she answered, "So my hair will go up and down just like Ariel's." :)

Favorite Pastimes: playing check up, playing Barbies, playing My Little Pony, pretending to be a puppy, pretending to be Mommy.  She is beginning to play more and more with Eli, which makes my heart so happy. <3

Personality:  Ella is so sweet and thoughtful.  She is starting to pick up words in a sassy-way, but has not used them with attitude yet.  Ex: totally  Today I packed my lunch in her lunch box because I'd forgotten mine at work.  When I asked if I could use her Tinkerbell lunch box, she said, "Yes Mom.  You can TOTALLY use my lunchbox today."  It was so cute of her.  I'm glad she said yes though because my lunch was already packed and the other side of her is a fiery temper.

Best facial feature: It's a toss up between her beautiful blue eyes and her magnetic smile. Or her double dimples.  I love those too.  It's so funny because the other day, I realized that Eli makes the exact facial expressions Ella does whenever they're being silly.  I wonder if Nick makes them or if I do.  Huh.


*As I wrote this post, I heard news of a friend and coworker's daughter had a seizure today.  Nick and I are praying for their family and the doctors.  It's hard to even continue this post.  I am SO grateful for each blessing I have.

Link to Linzamos

http://ybstl.blogspot.com/2012/08/carla-sue.html

Lindsay blogged about each one of her friends.  Here's the link to the one about me.  I felt like it merited a spot of its own today.  :)

A Little Bit About My Boy

Most times when I think of my kids, I just think about how I'd love to hit a pause button on our lives.  I wish I could just keep them frozen at these ages.  They are such wonderful kids and my heart bursts with love for them.  Since the real-life pause button has yet to be created, I will try my best to capture their little personalities in this blog.  Here's a bit about my little Eli right now:

Age: about 15 months

Nickname: my baby bird (based on his small, little cries at birth and currently the way he eats),  chunky monkey 

Method of Movement: Crawling at lightning speeds and refusing to walk.  Eli enjoys walking with a lawn mower-type toy.  He enjoys walking and holding hands.  He refuses to walk independently.  He just laughs at us and sits down.

Favorite past-times: Throwing everything he can get his quick little hands on.  He throws things hard and far.  You can see he's giving it all he's got as he nearly folds himself in half and lets out a loud grunt as soon as the object has left his hands.  He also loves playing in water, specifically the bath, but honestly, the dog bowl is right up there with it.  He just wants to splash all the water out of everything!  And he crawls his fastest when he hears bath water going or sees the dog bowl on the floor.  

Future profession in my opinion: Maybe a pitcher?

Personality: I LOVE his eyebrows.  They indicate whether he is happy or sad or feeling mischievous.  He is very animated with them and uses them frequently in his facial expressions and "conversations" with us.

Words he knows: Uh oh (when he throws something), MaMa, DaDa, Ella, Good Girl (for Scout, dogs, and other 4-legged creatures), PaPa, ball, boat, no no no no no no (he says this to me if I try to slap his hands and to Scout whenever she barks), hi, bye bye.  I've also heard him say "Thank you" before if I've given him something.  He's said it several times, but most of the time just looks at me like I'm crazy.

Hobbies: Getting past the child locks on the fireplace and kitchen sink.  Luckily thanks to a call I placed to poison control, I know now that all the rocks/materials in the fire place are non-toxic.  When he is scolded for these things, he laughs or mocks me saying, "No no no!"  Pulling girls' hair is another favorite of his.    He will look me in the eye and grab my hair and give it a good yank.  When I say/yell, "Ouch! No, we don't do that!"  He cries as if I've pinched him.  He makes everyone in the room feel bad for him! 

Best facial feature: Eyes, definitely the eyes.  They're the color of denim and beautiful.  Yes, I said it, my son has beautiful eyes.  I'm not the only one to recognize it either.  Others tell me all the time what a beauty he is. (I know, I know, boys are handsome....but I'm his mother, and I feel like he's beyond that....beautiful.)

The Story of Us--How I Met Your Father

A few weeks ago, Nick and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary (of course we were together LONG before that).  Looking back on our relationship, I realized that one day, I want the kids to know about the story of us.  So Ella, Eli, here it is.  (Buckle up, it's a long one!)

The year was 1998 and I was a sophomore in high school.  I sat at lunch with a few of my close friends (Jennifer Everett, Lindsay Oldham, DeAnne Regensbuger) and maybe a few others.  At the beginning of school, we noticed two people (Megan O'Neal and Mike Hampshire--who is your dad's cousin, but I had no idea then) sitting by themselves at lunch.  We didn't know them much except having a few classes together, but we felt bad that they were sitting alone and invited them to our lunch table.  After I turned 16, I knew it was time to get a job so I could afford car insurance and gas. (I mean at $0.88/gallon, it was SO EXPENSIVE, right?!)  For some reason, I threw the idea out at lunch.  "Where should I get a job?"  Megan said, "Come work with me at Texas Willie's. I like my job.  We have $200 weekends serving."

Children, let's learn a few lessons here:
1.  When someone tells you how much they make that easily in conversation, they are usually lying or at least embellishing. (And she was, I NEVER made that kind of money there!)
2.  Never work at a place called Texas Willie's.  It's humiliating to tell people where you work, and you never know, you may be repeating the name of it decades after it's gone out of business to tell your children "The Story of Us."
But I digress....

This is how I know looking back, that it was a God-thing for me to work there.  I didn't even know Megan; we never really talked, just sat at opposite sides of a lunch table.  No one else had an idea where I should find a job, so I went there, even though it was a 20 minute drive from my house.  I had to get directions for Heaven's sake!

So I got a job there as a seater/greeter, then a hostess, then eventually a waitress, and made $5.25/hour.  I was the new girl, the fresh meat.  Most of the guys who worked there were....different.  More lessons to be learned....pause the story!

3.  I will do everything in my power to not have you work in restaurant in high school and even college.  It is a big drug scene.  Honestly, I had a crazy amount of access to underage drinking and drugs if I'd had wanted it.  Seriously, I will try to shield you from this environment as much as I can.
4.  The people who work in restaurants (and believe me, I've worked in a few, for more than 6 years) are a little off.  Not so much the servers or front stage people, but the behind-the-scenes people, are just odd.  The cooks especially are a little crazy.  It takes a special kind of person to put up with the stress of a busy restaurant WHILE being over a hot grill.  That "special" kind of person is freaking weird (usually, anyway).

Okay, back to the story.  As I was saying, most of the guys I worked with were a little "different."  I was the fresh meat.....People started asking me on dates.  I felt horrible telling these new people I just met no, I mean, I did want to make some friends.  So I said I had a boyfriend....good excuse, right?

It all worked out until one day, I saw a cute guy at work, and what was that?  Was he wearing a kelly green Texas Willie's polo shirt, just like I was?  YEAH!  He had dark hair that was frosted with blonde tips.  I later found out that he was a busser.  He had just finished cleaning off a table, and was carrying a heavy bus tub.  (READ: Since Nick was carrying something heavy, his biceps were flexed and 16-year-old Carla could barely resist.)  "Who's that guy?" I asked Megan.

"Who? Nick?  Why?"
"Uh....do you see him?!  Look at his muscles!"  <Insert girl giggles here.>
"Why don't you go back and talk to him?"

And so I did...and he ignored me.  (I later found out that your dad was ignoring me, not to be mean or because he didn't like me, but because he thought I had a boyfriend. DANG! The plan backfired!)  In any case, I didn't like being ignored.  I'm not trying to say that I was a big deal in high school by ANY stretch of the imagination, so please don't misread this here.  But I was certainly not used to this type of treatment!  And so like most naive 16 year old girls, for some reason, I pursued him, this guy who was "clearly not interested" in me.  (It must've been a God-thing because otherwise, seriously, if I had more intelligence than hormones, I'd have thought, "Maybe he's just not that into you" and moved on, but instead I worked harder at grabbing his attention.)  After a few months of trying unsuccessfully, I realized maybe it was time to give up.  And then was Valentine's Day, a busy holiday in the restaurant business, even at Texas Willie's.

I was hostessing and my seater was a no-show...something about her having better things to do on Feb. 14.  Well I couldn't NOT have someone to seat the guests on a day that we'd certainly have a wait!  The manager pulled the busser and had someone fill in for him.  Who got to be my seater and greeter?  Your dad!  We got to know each other through actual conversation instead of the "Look-at-me!" "No." types of interactions that we'd been having.  I signed my name, "Carla R. Revenaugh."  Nick said, "What's your middle name? Rae?"  Say WHHHHHHHHHAAAAAA????  "No!" I quickly replied, embarrassed 1.) of my middle name and 2.) that he could guess it on the first try.  I mean, it's practically a name like Rumplestilskin.  Never in my whole life had anyone guessed it at all, how could he have gotten it on the first guess?!  (Sorry Ella, but up to this point, I'd usually lied when people asked me my middle name and said that it was Renee....I love it now as an adult though.....)

The next day was Monday.  My 4th hour teacher said, "Did you all have a good holiday with your sweethearts?" I said, "Actually, yeah, I didn't go out on a date, but I had a really nice day with a guy I like."  That night, I worked again.  Nick was for whatever reason hanging around, but not working.  A manager caught me staring dreamily at him.  She said, "Why don't you just go over and talk to him?  You look ridiculous staring." Uh, what? Staring? Who's staring? Not me....why? Did he say he likes me?  Kylie (my manager) and I sat across from each other in a 2-seater booth and rolled silverware as the night went on.  Nick was still hanging around and Kylie called him over and asked him to sit down by me.  Honestly, I thought she was going to tell him to go home and leave working people alone, but instead, she looked at us and said, "Okay, now ask each other out."
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Blood rushing to my face.  Am I going to pass out?  I put my head down.  Seriously.  How embarrassing.  I have no idea how that moment ended, but Nick awkwardly got up and left.  I felt like crying.  For sure this was it, right?  I mean, he had a chance to ask me out and didn't.  So, for sure, he does NOT like me, right?  Well, heck I might as well give it one last try!

I walked out the door that night, hoping Nick would follow and ask me out.....  But he didn't...(later I was informed that he'd been waiting for me all night, and why did I think he was hanging out so long, and that I just walked out to fast.....)

And so I went back in.  I didn't ask for his number (because then I'd have to call and HOW EMBARRASSING!).  I mumbled that I'd forgotten something and walked right past him.  On my way out the door for the 2nd time, I said, "Hey, do you want to hang out sometime?"  Nick looked up at said, "What? Yes!"  So I gave him my number.  By the 17th, we went on our first date.  (Maybe I'll save that for my sequel novel, because it's a hysterically funny story by itself!)

Somehow 13 years seems to have flown by and I couldn't be happier to be spending my life with your dad by my side and holding your hands.  I love you guys!