screen porch & an auntie visit

here is a picture of my big lots find for the season. i have dreamed of having a screen porch... now thanks to big lots i kind of do... the only difference is - elisha can very easily crawl in and out of this one by simply ducking his head under the tent wall. but if i can keep him entertained inside then we are out of the sun and away from the mosquitoes. certainly can't complain about the extra 120 square feet of livable space!
notice how elisha and his auntie mary are matching in their madras plaid patchwork shorts! so hip!

tagged again

i was 'tagged' again to share some info about myself.
so lb this is for you:
10 years ago i was:

i was probably going through my first breakup... my first boyfriend and i dated for 9 months and didn't go on any dates by ourselves... we did however take an art class w/ another friend at the local community college... a very formative time for my artistic career.

5 things on my to-do list:

1. get the house picked up(always on my list b/c thanks to all the boys i live w/... ok- and myself- it doesn't stay picked up for more than 5 minutes.
2. go to the grocery store.
3. make a beautiful brown linen baby sling for my mother in-law to give as a gift to a very lucky girl in al... i'm telling you if you have got a 'babe-in-arms' it is even better than sliced bread!
4. get some birthday goodies in the mail.
5. hhhmmmm making some rice krispie treats would be a nice thing 'to-do' !

5 snacks i enjoy

1. see above= rice krispie treats
2. good old fashioned plain lays potatoe chips
3. homemade chex mix(i make mine w/ pecans, cheerios, and stick pretzels)
4. hummus on homemade pita chips
5. party food... more specifically- shower food... you know all the yummy things i refer to.

5 things i would do if i were a billionaire

1. i would enjoy finding places to give money away... and be really involved in the process.
2. i would buy a house conviently located in atlanta with room to entertain and house guests as well as lots of children... plenty of yard space and even a greenhouse and studio out back.
3. i would adopted some children to fill that big house.
4. i would hire some help to take care of that big house and help me stay sane while raising all the children.
5. make that an even bigger estate and have an organic garden on it that we could live off of and maybe even have a classical christain school on the grounds(we would hire tobias to teach ;-)(ellie- if you are reading this you can tell him to be hholding out for this great job!... and of course all your children would be there too!)

5 bad habits

1. not following through on big projects
2. feeling guilty about not doing things i set out to do
3. being completely lazy w/ my typing/ spelling!
4. letting the dirty dishes pile up
5. not planning/ making good dinners for my family

5 places i have lived

1. macon
2. auburn
3. greenville, sc
4. atlanta
--- i can't believe i haven't lived in 5 different cities!

5 jobs i have had

1. chick-fil-a employee
2. youth intern at mitchell road pres. church
3. ceramic studio tech
4. art teacher
5. mother/ sling maker

bath time

i thought i should post a little elisha tidbit for the fan club out there.
these are some shots of him during bath time. he loves his bath--- he is a wild man about it though. you will notice andrew's hand... it definately takes both of us to bathe him: one in the tub holding him still(keeping him seated, from sticking his face under water, from crawling across the tub etc.) , and one of us to do the actual cleaning part. i wonder how long it will be like this? i am literally out of breath when it is all over... i guess it's a good work out!

botanical garden

this is a shout out for the atl botanical garden. andrew and i lived within walking distance of it our first year here and regrettably never went. well, during the gray winter this year when we were so tired of living in this concrete jungle we took a family outing to the gardens and were so thrilled to be surrounded by green life we joined for the year! when e can walk it will be even more fun. they have a really cute little children's garden in it that is complete with mr. mcgregor's garden and peter rabbit's watering can hideout.
i love the orchid house... breathtaking!

springtime babies

this year i have left my christmas wreath on our door longer than normal b/c it has become a home. when i went to take it off quite a while ago i noticed some of our rosemary clippings from when we pruned had 'somehow' gotten lodged in our wreath... we as you can see a little bird(probably a wren) made a nest... i left it alone but figured the bird would know better than to actually lay eggs in that nest since it gets jolted a swung about from time to time... well it looks like this bird was daring enough to put it's little ones on our front door. imagine my surprise when i informed a friend that i didn't think it was actually going to have eggs in it--then peeked in and saw this scene!
i think these tiny birds are actually quite scary w/ their giant eyes... but so amazing!

fun w/ avery claire

these are some pictures of brooke and john's(one of andrew's groomsmen) baby girl avery claire with our little man. they had fun w/ that wagon last weekend! they kept running it in to each other... does flirting exist this early on?

little friends

elisha has some friends that he has 'played' w/ from time to time since he was just a few weeks old. as his first year draws to a close i wanted to share some precious pictures of them as they have grown together... it is so amazing how quickily they get to an age where they can actually play!
these pictures are elisha with his friend machen who is a month older.

another fact

i didn't really think i would, but i do use cloth diapers most of the time. most of the ones i use are bum genius. for those of you who are not familiar with the cloth daipering world- there have been a lot of improvements. the ones i use most of the time are all in one piece... they are easy to put on (which is important considering i have to do it on a quickly crawling baby most of the time) with velcro. you just wash them (in hot water w/ a couple extra rinses and a little bleach to be sure they are clean). they cost more than the old fashioned kind (i use those some too)... but in the end you still save money and you are not throwing away loads and loads of daipers every week. i hate throwing things away!
so now that i have confessed it you know why my sons butt looks unusually big most of the time ;-)

#83-100 facts(continued)

i couldn't handle all 100 facts at one time so here are the last ~20 {if you are super interested in me you will have to see the previous post to read the first 82 facts i posted}
i am looking forward to finishing this and tagging other people... you know you want to share!

83. i was a vegetarian for almost a year (vegan for most of that time period)
84. i had serious chocolate cravings when i was vegan
85. i still do... i love the darkest of dark dark chocolate
86. having chocolate at night keeps me up and then gives me weird dreams
87. we used to get a baskin robins ice cream cake for birthdays growing up (vanilla cake w/ mint chocolate ice cream) i lllooovvveee them!
88. at one point we(my 3 sisters and i) had over 60 barbie dolls... and maybe 4 0r 5 barbie vehicals... maybe more
89. my second toe is longer than my 'big' toe... so really i have a fat toe and then a tall toe, not really just one big toe per foot
90. dancing on pointe during my ballet years was a little complicated for that long toe.
91. i love mint and lemon in my sweet tea... and i make mine out of earl grey tea
92. we had a mama cat who adopted us when i was growing up... she had four litters of 7 kittens each before mama took her and her kittens away :-(
93. i love camellias... something that blooms in the winter is always welcome
94. i think the smell of gardenias and magnolias will always remind me of waiting for my son to be born
95. i really do drive over a river(creek) and through the woods to get to my grandmother's house.
96. i want to have tons of grandchildren(which is why i guess i need to have tons of kids?)
97. i was engaged for 4.5 months before i got married--- i think short engagements are best
98. i used to dream of having a really old vw van... now i drive a fairly new vw wagon.... not quite the same
99. i can eat a pan of rice krispie treats by myself in a day.
100. i ate at the waffle house all dressed up before my senior prom.

there now, i get to tag others to do this daunting task. faith- you acted interested so you are up! i know you probably have better things to do while in paris.... but you can do it in short installments.
i also tag christy mobley... i know you did 5 a while ago, but it just left me wondering what 95 other interesting things there might be.
i also tag leslie (used to be prouty) steele(sp?)... i know you don't have one yet... but you want one, you know you do... and what better way to start?
have fun ladies!

100 things

i have been 'tagged' to post 100 things about me ... wow- thats alot of things... i didn't know there were that many things... maybe that can count as fact #1
well, read if you want(and have the time)

2. my middle name is McRae
3. i used to wish it was something i could go by instead of 'jane' ---
4. i hated being 'plain jane'
5. i have now embraced the whole 'plain jane' thing
6. i grew up in otis redding's hometown
7. i have a dog named otis
8. my cousin has bought shoes from otis redding's mother's shoe shop in macon
9. i am #2 of 4 girls
10. i have a laid back husband
11. i have a fairly dramatic son
12. my son has had a great sense of humor from just a few months old
13. my favorite color was yellow when i was little
14. then my favorite color was green
15. i wanted to name my child (boy or girl) green
16. i didn't
17. when i was ~ 2 1/2 i told my mother that God gave me a new heart
18. i was baptized on the grand opera house stage
19. my mother says that is way i love to dance and sing and entertain
20. that and the fact that she listened to pavarati the whole time she was pregnant w/ me
21. i took piano for ~ 4 years and still can't really play
22. i hate to practice
23. i took ballet from the time i was 4... my mother begged for me to get in before i was really old enough
24. i was a cheerleader through jr.high and high school
25. i was captain of our soccer team... only b/c i hassled our boys coach to let us have a girl's team... i played like a girl, which considering the fact that i am one can't be such a bad thing!
26. i met my husband at auburn university... at 'the strutting duck' (ok, so-- i actually had met him before...but it makes a better story)
27.i am never going to cut my babies hair again, then i can at least blame someone else for how it turns out!
28. i used to cut my hair all the time... it was almost always a mistake
29. i have always wanted red hair.
30. i had a pair of seafoam green coolotts(sp???) that i loved and wore almost every day when i was about 5.
31.i LOVE the beach... especially ones w/ spanish moss draped oaks nearby
32. my parents made us watch a movie about preventative forest fires when i was 10
33. my husband loves burning preventative forest fires, sometimes even with my parents
34. i love the store 'anthropology'
35. i love having roses to cut and bring inside.
36. i love daffodils
37. i went to la merida, mexico in 8th grade on a missions trip... we slept in hammocks
38. i tried to sleep in my hammock when i got home, but woke up on the floor(i didn't hang it well)
39. i was valedictorian of my highschool class.
40. my graduating class had 13 people in it.
41. my parents help start the classical christian school that i graduated from
42. i taught art at a classical christian school in atlanta... k-5 through 7th
43. i am fascinated by birth... and was dying to have a natural childbirth.
44. i had natural back labor(if you don't know what that is... be thankful) for ~10 hours after a weekend of 'pre labor'... then a cesarean birth
45. i think breastfeeding is vital... worth fighting through those first weeks-- it gets easier.
46. i LOVE to dance... any kind of dancing
47. i LOVE to sing my heart out to loud music while driving down country roads
48. i have really enjoyed a few clove ciggarettes... but only a few.
49. my husband would die if i became a smoker. he hates nothing more!
50. i love the smell of my baby's breath... i wonder when that will change?
51. i think my baby's bottom is THE cutest thing in the world!
52. i love the feeling of warm sand between my toes.
53. i love to sit under an umbrella at the beach and read all day
54.teeth are very important to my family
55. my grandfather was a dentist
56. my uncle is a dentist
57. my mother is a dental hygenist
58. my cousin wants to be a dentist
59. my father is an orthodontist.
60. i had braces twice
61. the 2nd time they were clear
62. i was in jr. high
63. i had a huge crush on a guy named josh snaderson in jr. high as well
64. he didn't like me back :-(
65. my favorite friday night activity for most of highschool was going to tacobell w/ my bossom buddy -emily
66. if she lived closer i would still like to... even though i don't really like taco bell
67. my husband loves to hunt for deer and turkey.
68. i tried but my feet got to cold.
69. i hate being cold!
70. the winter makes me depressed...
71. i have SAD - seasonal affected disorder
72. i just made a reaaly cute skirt w/ yellow birds on it.
73. i am really into bird parephenalia
74. my sister is in paris right now
75. i went to paris and italy when i was pregnant
76. i was sad to be pregnant in tuscany... it sort of changed our plans
77.i actually enjoyed being pregnant
78. and i kind of loved wearing maternity clothes
79. i HATE six flags
80. i don't ride fair rides
81. i am worried about how this will work as i raise a boy
82. i am not good at completing big tasks... i have to break them up so as not to get overwhelmed...

to be cont... mybe

10 month album

i am going to be so proud if this works! i have dreamed of getting a photo/ slide show thing on my blog and i think i have done it: here are little lige's 10 month pictures. if you look close enough you can see his new tooth in a couple of them. enjoy fan club!

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