The Cato House

Learning Life Lessons with Your Child: Be Kind!

2011-08-24T12:55:00.006-05:00

(Disclaimer to this post: The activities described in this post are currently being tested. We are 12 hours into the test. I may have to retract my position after a longer period of testing!)

For some time, we have had trouble with Claire's sassy mouth. It seems like every word that comes from her mouth is bathed in either ingratitude, complaint or sass. After a long morning yesterday, I finally took my woes to my personal MomSquad (the ladies in my office that have been there and done that and don't judge me for my mothering missteps). I asked, "What in the world can I do to help Claire be more grateful and kind with her words."

The first brave friend gently told me, from her own experience of course and not out of judgment toward me (!), that first, we, as moms, have to look at how our words are coming across to our children.

My history (and Bill's too) is that neither one of us are yellers. So, mentally, I put my "Good Job" sticker by that checkpoint and moved down the list. Perhaps sometimes I'm a little nagging and hurrying in my words and gritting my teeth to Claire (but then again, I'm just trying to get us to work, school, church, social activities on time. Okay, so I put my "Try Harder Next Time" sticker by that checklist item. Do I complain? Oh no, I do complain. Most of the time. I feel like I'm wearing many hats and I complain because none of those hats are worn with excellence. And then my words lash out to the ones I love the most at home.

So the verdict was that I had some work to do on my own mouth.

As I got Claire buckled into the car after pre-school and started driving home, I started a conversation with her.

Me: "Claire, God has talked to me today and He told me that I haven't been speaking very kind words to you. Will you forgive me?"

Claire: "That's okay Mommy" (notice that she didn't forgive me...she pointed this out later that evening when I was recounting the story to Bill!)

Me: "Claire, I am going to try really hard to be kind to you with my words. But I need your help. If you can be kind to me with your words, I think it will remind me to be kind to you. Can we do that together."

Claire: "Yes, we can be kind one to another" (Good job Ms. Patty...that verse was her Sunday School verse this past week).

I continued to re-iterate the point down the road and felt like we were making some progress. First test came when we drove by Toys-R-Us and I told her "not tonight". Test begins. Her mouth opened and she started to whine and complain, and then something miraculous happened. She caught herself and said, "I'm not being very kind." Bingo Sister. You got it. You understand.

Now, before I slap the "Terrific Job, Mom" sticker on this test, I need to tell you that later that night as she threw a tantrum over something very mild (in my opinion), and after I reminded her that she wasn't being kind with her words, she let me know that she "didn't feel like being kind" and that she was mad, and sad and angry (thanks pre-school for teaching her to put words to her feelings)! But I will give both her and I a B+ for our effort and will continue to repeat the lesson.

I learned a valuable lesson in parenting yesterday. It's not always about correcting and guiding my child, but sometimes I have to pray for direction and help her learn what I am learning. Wish us luck tonight!

Happy New Year!

2010-10-03T22:28:00.002-05:00

I know it's not January 1! However, I feel like it's the beginning of a new year for me. This weekend, I went to Boston (well, actually Lowell, MA which is about 30 miles outside of Boston) and coordinated my final Living Proof Live event for 2010. My first event of 2011 is in April. That means I have 6 months before another event. I do have a couple of more travel conferences in the next month, but the intensity of coordinating an event is behind me for 2010.

So, I made a list tonight of things I want to be intentional about doing and getting into a strong habit of doing for the next 6 months. As friends, you can help keep me accountable. Here's my top 6 projects for the next 6 months:

1. Plan the best birthday party a 4 yr. old could ever have! That includes finishing my sewing project for Claire's November 1st birthday. (I can't wait to post pictures).
2. Return to weekly attendance of our Wednesday night church activities
3. Exercise. To be specific, I would like to start running again and dabble in either yoga or pilates.
4. Start shopping for Christmas! Well, and actually catch up on 2010 neglected birthday presents (Sorry Gran and Owen, it's coming).
5. Take control over my nutrition due to being off of Remicade. Which includes more cooking and attempting new recipes. STOP eating Mexican!!!
6. Clean, clean, clean! Oh, this may be my favorite. I can't wait to have a sparkling home again! Most likely, just in time to decorate for Christmas and get it all dirty again!

What are your fall/winter goals? I am so good at making goals in January. But I think October is as good of a time for goal-setting as any month.

I Believe

2010-09-23T08:51:00.005-05:00

When I was a senior in high school, I was given an English assignment to write a first-person perspective paper on my summer. That summer, our family had celebrated the marriage of my one and only, older sister. As you can imagine, and I experienced first-hand 11 years when I got married, it was an all-consuming summer of wedding details. I was quite the baby of the family and acted the role 100% that entire summer. I wanted nothing to do with the wedding, the showers, the festivities (until the day of the wedding when all of these handsome college guys showed up that were friends of my sister and brother-in-law). When I wrote that paper 2 months later, I aired all of my griefs toward that wedding. And guess what? The teacher posted THOSE papers on the bulletin board for parent-teacher night. My mother was appalled. She still shakes her head about it to this day!

Where am I going? I feel like this post may be too honest, one that I might be appalled at later due to my lack of faith; however, more importantly, I pray that it will minister to someone walking a similar road - now or in the future.

I have written a little along the way on this blog about being diagnosed with Crohn's disease about 18 months ago. The journey has been nearly a 3 year journey as symptoms were there, but we couldn't put our finger on the diagnosis 100%. For the past 15 months, I have been on a high-powered drug to offset the symptoms; however, it doesn't get to the root of the cause of this disease. So once I go off this very expensive and heavy-laden-with-side-effects drug, the symptoms will most likely come back. It has been a journey for our family as we have prayed and wrestled with whether to be on the medicine. In the 15 months I have been on the medicine, I have felt better; however, the thoughts and fears always are looming that this chronic disease will be with me forever and effect my quality of life. I have cried out to the Lord for healing realizing that healing could either be COMPLETE healing from the disease from the Lord or it could be healing through on-going use of medicine or many alternatives in between.

I have struggled off and on in my faith that God would truly heal all my disease.

I have also written about our new business venture. It has been such a joy to watch my husband take ownership over this, the leadership/communication/inter-personal skills he has developed in such a short time. It is my greatest delight to see people pleased with what he does. Greater more, my delight at seeing him pleased at what he does. It has also been hard. I haven't always been the supportive wife and partner that I have been called to be. I have mentioned in previous posts that Bill is a man of great faith. He doesn't doubt that God will do what He says He will do (thanks Beth Moore and "Believing God"). Bill absolutely, 100% believes that the Lord led us into this season of being owners of a construction/excavating company and that He will not abandon us. Many nights as we sit down for supper, Bill will look at me and say, "He gave us our manna today. Just enough."

I have struggled off and on in my faith that God would truly be our portion.

Claire, in the past 4-5 months, has been given us FITS. I am not ashamed to admit that she has a stronger personality that both her mother and her father. I have never wanted to squelch the personality that God has created in her. That personality amuses me many days and I am assured that God is raising up a mighty leader that won't take no for an answer. But that personality also has me finding great joy in tenderizing meat with a meat tenderizer or has me beating a wiffle ball bat against our bedroom floor (I'm not kidding about that one)! Bill and I, many times, have looked at each other and thrown our hands up admitting we have no idea how to parent this gift from God. I am happy to report that this tide has shifted in the past 3 weeks. Prior to those three weeks, I thought all three of us were going to lose our minds and join the circus. Have you ever read the children's book "You Are My I Love You"? It is a sweet book that talks about the extremes of parent and child. One page reads, "I am your parent, you are my child. I am your calm, you are my wild." That is our story!

I have struggled off and on in my faith that God would truly calm my little 'raging sea'.

And being completely honest here, of lately, I have struggled to understand how any of the above matters and how God could care about these little inconveniences in MY life. As I have walked the journey with a best friend who has a 2 1/2 year old son who has been fighting brain cancer for the past year, walking with women day in and day out in my women's ministry position who deal with infertility, terminal illness, bankruptcy, failed marriages, addictions and on and on.

I have struggled, more so than not, in my faith that God holds my every moment, that He holds MY world in His hands and cares for me as much as these others.

And then, out of the blue, I listened to a song that I am sure our event worship leader, Travis Cottrell, has sung many times at our events. When I heard it, I about ran off of the road trying to find paper to scribble the lyrics down because it was my thoughts...word for word.

You hold my every moment

You calm my raging sea

You walk with me through fire

You heal all my disease

I trust in you, I trust in you

I believe You're my healer

I believe You are all I need

I believe You're my portion

I believe You're more than enough for me

Nothing is impossible for You, Nothing is impossible.

Nothing is impossible for You, You hold my world in Your hands.

(from the song "Healer")

In my heart, I truly believe that God is powerful enough to take care of all of these things. However, I also know that God allows many circumstances into our lives to build our faith in Him. And that is the case for me! I would love to say that as I have walked through some fiery situations, that I gave all glory to God. I, sadly, can't. However, I know that with each trial, my faith gets a tad bit stronger.

Although We See No Wind or Rain

2010-08-30T13:38:00.006-05:00

We jokingly say in our family that I am the Chief Financial Officer of our family (handle the finances, Type A personality to the point of being OCD) and Bill is the Chief Operations Officer of our family (the hard-working dreamer, takes one day at a time). In our first years of marriage, some of the biggest struggles we had would be from his "dreaming" and my squelching those dreams and giving him a reality-check.

I always knew that Bill dreamed of owning his own company. Since he was in the field of construction and built our first two homes, I always assumed he would be a general contractor one day although his strength and expertise in this field was the heavy-equipment, excavating and digging utilities. As he dreamed of being on his own, I was always more comfortable with the liability being on someone else's shoulders and I was comfortable with both of us working for someone else.

God doesn't always like for us to be in our comfort zones.

Late this past winter, the construction work scarcity finally hit middle TN. For a couple of weeks, Bill was getting fewer and fewer hours from his boss, who owned his small construction company that built higher-end homes. Just as Bill was filling out unemployment papers and applying to Home Depot just to keep a job, the Lord turned a chapter in our lives.

One morning, my devotion was on 2 Kings 3:16-17:

"Then [Elisha] said, "This is what the LORD says: 'Dig ditch after ditch in this stream.' For the LORD says, 'You will not see wind or rain, but the stream will be filled with water, and you will drink - you and your cattle and your animals.' This is easy in the LORD's sight. He will also hand Moab over to you."

The devotion spoke more on spiritual blessings. I hid the truths in my heart that morning. Memorizing the verse as best as I could and promising myself to expect the unexpected in my spiritual life that day.

As I was driving to work, Bill called me. Just that morning, his boss had approached him about purchasing the excavating equipment (a dump truck, dozier, backhoe, skid steer and misc. equipment) and going out on his own.

I know the next few minutes were nothing of what Bill expected. I chuckled in the phone and recited in my mind the verses I had just memorized this morning (dig ditch after ditch [excavating is digging ditches]...you'll neither see the wind nor the rain [this is a very hard economic time...it didn't make sense to go into business for ourselves], but the streams will be filled...this is easy in the sight of the LORD).

Bill was astonished by my reaction and the words that I told him about 2 Kings. He is a man of great faith and believes God will do the impossible, despite a hardening economy, despite the downturn in the housing industry. So Bill had been praying, unbeknownst to me, for some time that God would provide us with an opportunity to start our own excavating business. However, he knew his first prayer would need to be that his wife (that's me!) would be open to the idea!

We were amazed at how both of us, the dreamer and the realist, were both on the same spiritual page. We were going to have to go against conventional wisdom and do this. Everything in our day and times told us purchasing heavy construction equipment and going out on our own was foolish. We had been dreaming of me coming home from work soon, and were in the midst of making some adjustments to our 2 income lifestyle. Adding this equipment debt would not accomplish those goals as soon as we thought, but we both knew that all of our dreams were easy in the sight of the LORD!

It hasn't been a cake-walk these first few months of being a small business owner. The flood hit Nashville and knocked us off the grid for a couple of weeks, but then God provided work in helping people re-build after the flood. I often re-read that devotion. One portion says, "It is not the part of faith to question, but to obey. The ditches were made, and the water came pouring in from some supernatural source."

"Oh, for that faith that can act by faith and not by sight, and expect God to work although we see no wind or rain." --A.B. Simpson

A Fresh Start

2010-08-21T20:47:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday afternoon, Bill and I took Claire to meet her new teachers at NCS. I felt a lump in my throat as a read her class name, Pre-K Transition, realizing that if you drop "Pre" and "Transition", our baby will be in Kindergarten. Only 2 short years.

The classrooms looked so fresh, she had a new folder for new projects. New teachers, new (and some old) friends, new procedures...thus I thought it was a great opportunity for me to have some new-ness in my life.

A couple of weeks ago, I started working with a Wellness Coach. Her name is Janis and she is the sister of one of my co-workers. Janis is "coaching" me for free in order to finish some credits, so it was a perfect opportunity for me to jump at such an opportunity. Janis and I had been talking for a couple of weeks about some changes I wanted to make/implement. She never tells me what to do. She just has this uncanny way of drawing it out of me and then asks me how I am going to put that change into place and be successful.

In addition to Claire's new school year and my wellness coaching, Bill and I decided for me to take a break from Remicade. This is the drug that I have been on for 1 year, every 8 weeks for the diagnosis of Crohn's Disease that I received 18 months ago. Remicade had caused some scary side-effects since I have been on it. Nothing horrific, but just enough to scare this non-medicine taking girl! As I walked out of the doctor's office last Tuesday, there was a pep in my step. Although Remicade makes me feel better, I believe that as long as I was on the medicine, I would have a dark cloud over me reminding me that I had this disease.

If all of these changes hasn't been enough, I also started the task of couponing for our family. Yes, I was the cynical one, the critical one that despite hearing my friends testimonies of how much money they were saving, I believed my time was much more valuable than the money I would save at the check-out with coupons. However, it has become necessary, due largely to starting our own company 5 months ago, for me to save wherever I can. At this point in our lives, my time doesn't matter and this is one additional way I can help invest in our future!

All of these changes have sometimes felt overwhelming. Especially as I am sitting up alone late at night on the couponing websites as everyone else in the house sleeps. But, oh, how good it feels when I check-out and gradually increase my check-out savings (my best record is saving 54%). But changes are also empowering. They give you energy when they are accomplished.

What changes have you made or do you need to make in your life? I am still making a list and hope to update you soon!

My Own "Comedy of Errors"

2010-07-29T16:56:00.002-05:00

Last Friday, if I can say so myself, I was looking quite summery and "cute" in a new Oxford-style shirt dress that I had picked up at Talbot's in their close-out summer sale. I LOVE, love, love Talbot's, but rarely afford myself the luxury of such nice clothes. But I love the classic, timeless look they continue to present to today's shopper!

Enough about Talbots, this post is about me!

It had been a hard Friday at the office, some intense conversations, hard decisions, and my head was pounding. I don't have headaches often, so for all I know, this could have been a tee-tiny headache in the book of headaches or it could have been a migraine. All I know is that I wanted to close my eyes and throw up!

So, despite looking cute, I head home when quittin' time came and just felt plum bad. I picked up Claire from school and prayed that she would have grace and mercy on me and just be really quiet on the way home. All was good until I made a left turn out of the school parking lot.

She wanted to go right today!

And the screaming started. And the crying. And the heartbreaking wailing of me not turning right.

I begged her, "Claire, Mommy has a really, REALLY bad headache. Please quit crying. Please quit yelling at me. I am about to throw up."

My pleas did not work. So against all parenting advise, I started pleading...with a bribe.

"Claire, you know that grocery store on the road that me and you are usually scared to pull into. I'll pull into it today and get you WHATEVER you want if you will stop crying!"

The store in conversation is named Eddie's Market and it's the type of market that probably has really nice people working in it (found out that was so later) but just looks a little too sketchy from the outside.

We went and Claire was excited to pick out a Orange Sherbert Push-Up and a Grape Crush. I got a Heath Bar (because that makes headaches go away...didn't you know that )!

We went to pay and the young lady behind the counter was so sweet to Claire. I even heard myself saying that we might have to come back since she was so nice.

So Claire and I headed out the door. As I exited the door, being held by a man without a shirt on and another shady looking fella, my white high-heeled sandal hung in the door mat.

And down I went.

Yes, in my new, cute blue dress. (I tried my best to keep my dignity in tact).

The nice, but still shady-looking, gentleman, handed me my shoe and asked me if I was okay. Claire gathered up my wallet, drink and candybar and then asked me why I fell down!!!!

We got in the vehicle with my pride shattered (swearing never again to go to Eddie's) and head throbbing. As we pull onto the interstate, Claire was silent and I thought "I can make it home!"

Claire starts slowly, softly, but ever growing panic in her voice, yelling "Mommy!"

As I looked back at her, I realized instead of "pushing up" the Push-Up, she pulled the stick out! So there she was holding the cardboard cylinder and the stick with the ice cream on her lap. So I quickly handed over driving to my knees, grabbed all three items and re-assembled the push up (please recall with me...as I didn't recall in the moment...that not too many years ago I took a drive off the road and broke my back due to trying to do something similar for my precious little girl...how many times does one girl need to break her back to remember that).

So, Push-Up was re-assembled and I look down to see many plops of sherbert on my new, cute, blue dress.

As we head on down the interstate, Claire asks for her Grape Crush. Without thinking about the tumble I just took on the side-walk, I opened the Crush...only for it to spew all over...you got it, my cute, new, blue dress.

So, you may ask, how is the dress! I'm not sure. It's dry clean only and I haven't had time to get to the dry cleaners.

July is Quickly Coming to an End

2010-07-20T14:49:00.004-05:00

I can hardly believe that July is coming to an end. I longed for vacation for so long and now that it is over, it feels like the summer is over! I have had such a quiet summer with traveling for work and I know that August-November will be the price I will pay for being home so much (I calculated that I will be away from home 30 days from the first of August to the first of November).

About vacation...we had a fabulous time. I had two goals when I left for vacation: make memories for Claire (we did) and decompress from work and some other things that were sitting heavy on my emotional shoulders (check!) and spend some significant quality time with God. I was able to do all of this and came back so spiritually and emotionally refreshed.

I have to show you a picture (bad as it may be) of Claire in her "bikino". She was so cute in it.

And one of her and her number 1 man building a "Sand Truck"

And one of her in MY favorite bathing suit!

The "little fish" learned how to swim on vacation. She had the full attention of grandparents, aunt, uncle and 2 cousins! It was just a great week!

As soon as we got back on Sunday afternoon, our church's VBS started Sunday night. So we were off and running. It felt, by the end of the week, that all of the benefits of vacation were out the door; however, as life has slowed back down this week, I feel myself loosening up and reaping the benefits of vacation.

I'll, hopefully, tell you more, later, about what's been going on in The Cato House lately.

Gone Fishin'

2010-04-19T16:26:00.002-05:00

When I married Bill six short years ago, I knew very little about being a sportsman. I thought being a "sportsman" was playing basketball, softball and any other sport in between. My dad was a "sportsman" in my sense of the definition, but he never hunted or fished.

Then Bill Cato enters the picture and my life forever. I remember our first Christmas together. We went to my home for Thanksgiving for him to meet my parents. While there, I tried to "impress" him by taking him to some real sportsmen's stores with guns, camo, bows, arrows and the like. My mother had already hinted that she wanted me to be on the look-out for him a Christmas present from them (I think they knew that when I brought a boy home, it was the real deal). So, as he looked around, I drew a diagram of the store and labeled everything that he liked because I knew just the names of the items would be as foreign to my mom as they were to me. Oh, how I wish I had that store diagram today! I have since lost my zeal for the occasional trip to the outdoors store...in 6 short years!

All that to preface, I have become quite the wife of a sportsmen...in 6 short years. I can spot a turkey and a deer long before he can. I know several different patterns of camo and why there has to be so many different patterns. I know that neoprene matters in duck hunting. I have learned a little bit about crank baits, jigs and other fishing lures. I know that the way to my husband's heart on a Christmas morning after a year of him caring for a sickly wife and their 3 year old little girl is to have a rifle, bow and muzzle loader all three under the tree for him. I've learned quite a bit in six short years.

Two weekends ago, we loaded up the fishing boat and headed to the nearest body of water...all three of us. I would have to say that Claire was only second to Bill by a short distance in their excitement level. I was excited too, but nothing like those two. It was a beautiful Saturday and we decided to go after Claire's afternoon nap, so it was such a peaceful time on the water after most everyone else was gone.

Claire had her Barbie fishing pole ready to go. Bill baited it with a minnow. With his help, she cast her line out in the water and she must have cast it right into the mouth of a fish because immediately she had a catch pulling at her line. We were all ecstatic. (I'll post the picture when I get home!). Bill caught several but only one big enough to keep, so he gave that fish a pardon from the fish fryer. Me...I caught none. Claire kind of looked down her nose at me, she apparently believes she's the better fisherman!!! I'll let her believe it!!!

So, if you can't find us on Knottingham Drive, we'll be on the "big ole water" catching our dinner!!! Come join us!

Frustrated!

2010-03-31T15:35:00.002-05:00

One morning, I was feeling really sorry for myself and my plot (the plot I helped create) as a full-time, work-outside-the-home mom… and thus, that morning, I was cynical about everything.

Before I continue, I need you to hear my heart’s desire. God, this year, has gradually been turning this “career-minded” gal’s heart toward things of home. I’m still a full-time working mom with a 2 hour commute (sorry, I slipped into feeling sorry for myself again), but I am starting to yearn for the day that I get to take my turn at being a full-time, working-inside-the-home mom. God’s timing is perfect!

And also hear that one of my pet-peeves throughout the 3 years I have been a full-time working-outside-the-home mom is the criticism I have received from some well-intentioned people criticizing, judging, telling me it makes them so sad when they see a child outside a daycare being cared by someone other than their mother…sorry, cynical again. The one thing I have learned, undoubtedly, in this 3 year journey, is don’t put motherhood into a cookie cutter. Don’t judge moms and the decisions they have or have not made, the decisions you agree or disagree about. My prayer is that we can just encourage one another in our journey of motherhood.

So, all that to say, I wrote the following with much envy toward my working-inside-the-home friends. And, what is to follow is my more cynical side. A weaker side. A defensive side. A side that came crashing forward when I read an article from a full-time working-inside-the-home mom feeling sorry for herself (which I will be one day) explaining her day before noon. My tale, is a tale that was written in the car one day (on that 2 hour round trip commute) when I had had it up to here (hands waving above my head) of my own plot in life! So, here you go…

4:45 am First alarm goes off, Bill hits snooze
5:00 am Second alarm goes off, Bill hits snooze, I roll over to realize it’s storming outside. Wonder if the thunder is going to wake up Claire. Drift back off to sleep as I pull up the covers and think how Bill said we would both feel like “champs” if we got up early.
5:15 am Snooze alarm goes off again. Bill rolls out to go walk the dog. I get up and start my quiet time.
6:00 am Jump in the shower, amazed that the storm still has not woken Claire up
6:15 am Washing hair, eyes shut, hear a sweet little voice “Good Morning Mommy”. Claire is with Bill. Bill asks where the new construction account debit card and pin are. I tell him. Think to myself, “we are really heading out on our own.” Say a little prayer. They head to kitchen to get breakfast. I get out of the shower.
6:30 am Dressed with hair up in a towel, no make-up yet. Clothes are the typical iron-free type. Pants have probably already been worn this week. Think I need a new wardrobe. Think I need to lose 20 before I get a new wardrobe.
6:35 am Standing in kitchen. Decide to find the debit card and pin for him. Oh, almost forgot the paperwork for the dr appt. today. Go to browning pot roast on the stovetop, cutting up carrots and potatoes to go in the crockpot with pot roast. Go on and plug the crockpot in and turn it on low. Last time I used crockpot, I got home and realized I never plugged it up. That meal was ruined. Giving Bill the run down of the evening. Gran has a pampered chef party, roast will be for supper, Claire is tugging on Bill saying she would really like to go to Su-Su’s to see the horses.
6:45 am Bill and Claire sitting at the table eating cereal. Bribe Claire that she can have some cookie dough if she eats all of her cereal (she doesn’t). Never noticed that we never gave her milk (will be reminded of it in the car later). I run back to the bathroom to take my hair down and scrunch it to wear it curly (well, wavy) today. The easiest hair-do!
7:00 am Back to kitchen to kiss Bill good-bye. Claire reminds him that he forgot his breakfast bar. He grabs it and heads out the door. She has a melt-down as soon as the door shuts. We go to the door to watch him leave. Gunner (the dog) bumped into him, he spilt his coffee all over the garage. I see the frustration rising. Bill bends down to tie his boots. Gunner takes off with his breakfast bar. Bill yells at the dog. Chases him around the car. The dog is more tricky. I see the fumes rising. I head down the steps to trap the dog. I got the bar, dog jumps up on me, dirt all over my twice-worn-this-week black slacks. Didn’t notice until later. Head back upstairs to get Bill another bar.
7:05 Bill is in the truck. We are back in the house. Claire begs for me to eat cereal with her. I sit down, she heads to the bedroom to look for her “sprinkler jeans”. I’m eating alone. She comes back when I’m done. Wants me to work a puzzle with her. Have to deny her. I look at the clock and know that I’m going to be late today.
7:10 Blow drying hair to make it wavy. Can tell I waited too long to dry it…it’s not going to be a pretty wave. Put on make-up. Decide to wear contacts today. Maybe that will distract from my hair.
7:25 All ready to go. Claire mozies in with sprinkler jeans on but no top. Hurry her to get top on. She wants to wear winter hat and gloves despite it being 55 out right now. Don’t argue! It’s not a hill to die on. Head to kitchen. Thinking if we hurry, maybe I can be on time.
7:30 Oh no, lunch. Must fix lunch. Committed to not spending anymore money on eating out. Throw some lettuce in a bowl and some fruit. Yum :)
7:43 Out the door. On the road for my hour commute. Claire starts crying that she’s hungry and never had her milk. Shoot, horrible mom! Give her a piece of gum. Talk to her in the car. Check blackberry messages to see if there are any pressing issues at work. Wonder if it is also illegal to read emails while driving. I don’t text! Watching the clock carefully. There is a small chance I will be on time.
8:12 Pull up to Claire’s school. Unbuckle her as we get into the parking lot. Prepare her to jump out of the car as soon as we stop. We must hurry. I have to be at work at 8:30.
8:13 We jump out of the car (and into a puddle). Oh well. Hurry inside. Hug. Kiss. Hug. Kiss. See you later. She’s happy to see her friends.
8:16 Back in the car. Think to myself that school zone time has passed. Saves me a minute of slowing down. Pull onto Old Hickory. Can see the interstate. Uh-oh. Slow rolling.
8:30 Blackberry reminder that I have a meeting with boss at 9:00. Same boss that reminded us lately that we need to be in the office no later than 8:30. I can see downtown, but I’m not in the office.
8:37 Walking down the hall to my office. Boss is coming out of her office (next to mine). As I approach my door, she doesn’t see me…she’s looking at her watch and looking at my door. I laugh to myself…this will be perfect for the story I’m about to spend 10 more minutes typing. Say I’m sorry as we pass in the hall.
8:40 Boot up my computer…10 minutes late and spend the next 10 minutes typing this!!!

The Sun is Shining...

2010-03-31T15:09:00.002-05:00

thus I feel a new start coming on.

Because the sun is pouring through my office window, I feel like

cleaning house

reading blogs that have been neglected over the winter

dreaming of how to decorate my office

going for a walk in downtown Nashville

making my grocery list

visiting with co-workers

cleaning off my desk and then wiping it down with a Clorox wipe

doing anything but work!!!

I'm back! I have some funny Claire stories that I can't wait to catch you up on!

Winter Cleaning: Making it Competitive, thus Fun!

2009-12-30T11:42:00.004-06:00

While I am on vacation, I'm doing a little spring cleaning in winter! I've cleaned the windows that are in plain view (meaning, I didn't clean the ones that are at the back of the house in our bedroom). Now, I'm working on our master closet. It continually amazed me that despite buying less clothes each year (most of my clothes budget goes towards keeping Sister dressed and stylish), my closet still looks like we accumulate hundreds of clothes each year.

I started this little game with Bill when we first got married to get him involved with cleaning and organizing. We individually go through the closet and pull out clothes we don't want. The catch is whoever gets rid of the most pieces gets a monetary prize to buy another clothing item. Bill goes in first and doesn't tell me how many he's pulled out. I go in and purge all the clothes that I know longer wear. Why this game works is that there is a little competition and we aren't hanging on to those "well maybe I'll actually wear this 1980's blouse next year" clothes. Every piece of clothing can be the difference between winning and losing.

I am the champion 4 years running!!! And it looks like I'm going to win it again in 2009! I've already got my eye on what I'm going to purchase with the prize money!!!

Catch Up: Claire's Birthday

2009-12-29T17:21:00.004-06:00

Whoo! I have some catching up to do. And what better time to do that than on my 2 week vacation. The first matter of catch up...Claire's 3rd Birthday!

After much thought, research and discussion...I opted for a monkey themed birthday. Claire's birthday is November 1st, and as much as I wanted to steer clear of Halloween for her birthday party, it was inevitable since Halloween was on Saturday and birthday was on Sunday and it was much easier for family to come on Saturday.

I decided on the monkey theme because Claire's favorite song and source of entertainment (at that time) was a jazzy, soulful rendition of "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" (check out cd...Party Like a Preschooler).

So I went to researching on the web and found this cute idea with cupcakes. I have made cupcakes for Claire's birthday since her first birthday, so it worked right into my plan. And then we ordered a monkey costume for her for Halloween. It was a day for of monkeys!

Okay, catch up is short...Cato Clan just walked in the door and Claire is sweetly asking for my attention. Here are some pics from the birthday.

(Blue and green buttercream cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes with Barrels of Monkeys sticking out of them)

(This was my favorite touch. Glass blocks...found on sale at Lowes and used for many decorating purposes the rest of the year...tied up with green, blue and brown ribbon with monkey art and a number 3 on the front.)

(Second favorite idea stolen from another blog. We used the barrels, from the Barrel of Monkeys, as a cupcake holder and tied it up with a brown ribbon. Also, Claire's invitations were sent in a barrel, bought in bulk on the web, to friends and family!)

(The birthday girl blowing out her candles. Notice the monkey hanging from the lighting fixture!!!)

(The birthday girl!)

"Our Choices are Never Free from this Conflict"

2009-08-31T11:25:00.002-05:00

God blessed me this weekend with some really sweet and really rich personal Bible study. I have never really been trained to study scripture on my own. Alot of my bible study has been hit and miss by thumbing through commentaries and reading what other people believe and have written.

Recently, I began a new Bible study from Priscilla Shirer, Can We Talk? Priscilla and LifeWay, the publisher, have marketed the Bible study as an "un-Bible study" which always made me think "hmmmm...what does that mean?" Well, after 3 weeks of it, I am figuring it out. Priscilla uses a bible study method called the 5 P's of Bible Study:

1. Position yourself to hear from God.
2. Pore over the passage and paraphrase the major points.Look for the who, what, when, where, and why of the verse
3. Pull out the spiritual principles.What is God teaching? What is He revealing about Himself?
4. Pose the question.Form a personally directed question from each of the spiritual principles.
5. Plan obedience and pin down a date.

In this season of my life, my Bible study has been revolutionized by this method. God has revealed so many riches to me through this method. Thus, leading me to the title of this entry. I was studying a familiar passage of Galations 5. This is the passage that talks about the fruit of the Holy Spirit and the actions of the flesh. I think I have every translations of the Bible from NIV, NLT, HCSB, KJV, and so on. On this particular day, I was reading out on my backporch with my small Bible, NLT. Now, like I said, this passage was very familiar to me but the way the NLT phrased it, a new revelation jumped off the pages at me. And here is what my Bible read:

Galatians 5:17 (New Living Translation)
17 The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.

My choices are NEVER free from this conflict (of the Holy Spirit and the flesh). Why did it jump out at me in a different way? I think because of the word choices. I make choices daily. Even if I am living in freedom and victory over an area in my life, I am still making deliberate choices CONSTANTLY to remain in victory and freedom. And even the opposite is true. Even if the flesh is having the victory, my next choice concerning that area can be one of the Spirit. I don't have to wait until tomorrow to get a do over. My next choice is my "do over."

As I pondered this thought, I thought about the battles that must be happening in the heavenlies over my decisions. It made me tired to even think about it. My own mind wears me out sometimes, let alone to know that the battle is raging in the unseen world over every single choice I make concerning each and every area of my life.

As my friend Michelle reminded me today, we are living sacrifices to God. We continually lay ourselves, our actions, our decisions and our choices on the alter. It's active and fluid. We can get up off that alter or we continually choose to lay there!

I hope this meant something to someone today. Maybe it was just something I needed! But it certainly made me look at my life differently and help me to realize that life is exciting and my choices have eternal consequences.

A Photo Catch Up Entry

2009-08-26T22:01:00.004-05:00

Here are some summer-time pics of The Cato House! We've had a great summer but all of us are ready for the cool reprieve of fall!

Down at the creek behind our house!

Cooling off in her pool!

Being a beach-bum is hard work!

A Thought I've Been Pondering

2009-08-17T15:38:00.002-05:00

I'm in women's ministry. So it's my work and ministry to pay attention to what is going on with women. What do women like? What are women buying? What are women reading? What are women watching? So on and so on until you think you should have a degree in womanology!

At my office, the newest thing we are paying attention to is social networking. This is foreign to me, first, because I'm an introvert and I don't like to network. I like my small, tight-knit group of friends and families. I cannot be fully engaged in the lives of hundreds of my Facebook friends. I would rather live and be in the throws of life with a few. Second, I don't feel like my life is interesting enough to Twitter about or post status updates on Facebook or even be posting blogs. But those above me say it's not about what you write, it's about gaining a bigger network. Hmmmm!

Last week, my director sent an email out telling us to "watch these up-and-coming, Christian bloggers." So, Friday afternoon, when it was really slow in the office, I went through all of the blogs of these fine women, saved them to my favorites and even stopped by and visited some of the blogs. They were very interesting, very creative...I would even love to be friends with many, if not all, of these ladies.

However, one thing it did to me, that I wasn't expecting and had me pondering all weekend, was foster a sense of insecurity in me. These gals have it together! They write so well, they are so creative, they are great photographers, they have beautiful families, they are encouraging, they are bringing joy to so many, they are traveling, they are remodeling their homes on a shoestring budget and it looks like a dollhouse, they are writing books, they are presenting at conferences, they are weathering the storms of life one blog entry at a time.

Now, I can pick up a People magazine at the grocery store and see a "star" that seems to have it all together and know in the back of my head that their life is as airbrushed as their photo. But these blogging gals are real life, in the trenches, women! It just made me look at myself differently...even to the point of thinking I should take down my blog altogether because I didn't want to compare my random rants to these "professionals."

Hmmmm! So what is it? What caused the insecurity? I am a pretty secure gal typically. Was it just a fleeting feeling. Something that I'll laugh at when I read back over my post...tomorrow! Is God using this as a springboard to move me to the "next" in my life?

So, in closing today (and I think I'll be revisiting this topic again), I'm praying that God will make me secure in my "ordinary" life...the "ordinary" life that MANY would die to have and I am so blessed to be living.

It's Been a Tough Season...Part 2

2009-07-29T13:48:00.004-05:00

This past March and April, I began experiencing severe cramping in my stomach and pain in my lower back. I self-diagnosed myself with ulcers (for my stomachache) and chronic back pain left over from my T12 fracture. I suffered for an entire month.

I would pull myself together to get to work and put on a happy face, but the night time was my safety zone in the privacy of home and I found myself paralyzed to do anything productive and laying on the couch all night. I didn't like this life (who would) when I had a toddler running around saying, "Get up Mommy. Come play with me."

April was a busy month of traveling for work and many times alone. On one particular trip to California, I remember just feeling horrible the entire time I was there. After turning my nose up to any suggestion of going to the doctor, I finally plopped myself down into the dr. office the morning after returning from California. After another CT scan, the radiologist ordered me to get to the ER..."you have an appendicitis."

"No, I do not" was my thoughts. An appendicitis does not last for a month. If I had an appendicitis, I wouldn't be able to pull myself together. But I took the drs orders and headed straight to the ER (after stopping at the bookstore to get me a good book to read through the upcoming ordeal).

Whe the surgeon came wheeling into the ER to check me out before surgery, he stopped dead in his tracks and said, "You do not have an appendicitis. You wouldn't be sitting up in bed smiling at me!"

Long story short, they called my gastrointerologist and after closer examination, it was inflammation, near the appendix, caused by the Crohn's Disease. I was admitted into the hospital for 3.5 days for observation, iv antibiotics and making sure that a perforation didn't and wouldn't occur.

After leaving the hospital on many medications, I still didn't feel well and the cramping in my stomach continued despite how little or how much I ate. After 2.5 more months of this pain and 2 unsuccessful drugs, I was admitted back into the hospital. This time, I was started on the heavy artillery of Crohn's medication...Remicade. I am currently still on an iv infusion of remicade every 4 weeks and eventually every 8 weeks and feeling much better.

My full life is returning and I'm not just going through the motions. I am feeling well.

It's Been a Tough Season...Part 1

2009-07-28T21:27:00.006-05:00

Nope, not the summer. The summer has actually been a wonderful, mild summer than past drought-filled summers. I'm more talking about this season of life.

What do I have to complain about? I've asked myself this many times. I have a husband that adores me and has actually never (against the warnings of many) followed the adage, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." He's been very moldable these past 5 years and serves the socks off of me! I have an adorable 2 1/2 year old daughter who is easy; sleeping through the night before she was supposed to and was potty trained without any blood, sweat or tears. I have a beautiful home that my adoring husband built for us with his blood, sweat and tears. I have a job and ministry that I am continually humbled to have and wander how in the world God was able to orchestrate my every step to be in the right place at the right time. One mis-step and who knows where I would be. Both of my parents are healthy, I have a loving family and faithful and loyal friends. I have more than enough food on the table each and every night.

I'm not complaining about my life. I am so thankful for all the blessings God has given me. But it's been a tough, emotional season of life.

Tough Season Part 1 could officially be stated as beginning in December 2007. Being a multi-tasking mother, I was heading to the Plan B babysitter, running late to work (I'm sure), feeding Claire breakfast in the car and driving. I took my eyes off the road for one milli-second to look in the rearview mirror at her and my front right tire of our new Tahoe decided to leave the road. The road we were on didn't have those annoying "grates" that warn you to pull it back to the left. It didn't have a guardrail. It didn't even have much of a shoulder. Instead, it had a steep enbankment leading down to a field. In a flash, Claire and I in the Tahoe were bouncing across that field and several run-off ditches. The Tahoe came to a sudden stop after we crossed a deep run-off gully. To make a long story shorter, the ambulance ushered me and Claire to Vandy ER. Claire was totally unharmed. Mommy was diagnosed with a fracture to the T12 (a broken back).

While still reeling from a diagnosis of a broken back, a sweet nurse with poor bedside manners came in to release me from the ER. "Oh, by the way, the doctor said you need to see your PCP immediately. Your CAT scan shows signs of probably Crohn's Disease."

...Oh, by the way. "What" I screamed in my head. At that point, the fracture was a minor inconvenience. She just leisurely diagnosed me with a chronic disease. A disease that has always had a negative, hopeless connotation in my head.

Just lately, a doctor described me as stoic. And as I think back about that day in the ER, yes, I can agree that I am often stoic. Bill stood there waiting for my reaction, but no reaction came. We drove to Panera Bread to grab a bite to eat after an all-day adventure in the ER. Only after Bill went inside to get me a sandwich and my boss, Paige, showed up to hand off my work computer to me and I repeated the story of the Crohn's Disease to her did I cry.

Ironically, I was no longer exhibiting symptoms of the Crohn's (I had had some severe stomach cramping a couple of weeks earlier but never had it checked out). So when I went to visit the gastrointerologist after Vandy's recommendation, and after a lower GI and colonoscopy showed a non-specific injury to my small intestine, we decided to play the "wait and see" game.

Fast forward to this March after 14 months pain-free (now I know that it is considered "remission" from Crohn's). In March, the severe stomach cramping returned with no relief and that is when this current season really began.

You Make Me Laugh

2009-07-16T16:28:00.002-05:00

Claire, you make me laugh. I think Grandma prays for you to make me laugh because that seems to be the only time I call her! Last night, we were coming home from Vacation Bible School. It was dark and rainy and we were pulling out of the parking lot across the street of the church.
"Oh no, Oh no, Oh no...the toy fell down," you pathetically moaned.
"Claire, what are you talking about?"
"Oh no, oh no, the toy fell down." You were so concerned.
"Oh no!"
I looked across the street towards the church where you were looking. The inflatable bouncy house and slide that were up for VBS had been shut off for the night and were laying flat on the ground.
"Claire, are you talking about the bouncy house?" I asked.
"Yes, the bouncy house fell down!" your little heart broken.
"Claire, they just took the air out of it for the night. It will be back up tomorrow!"

This morning as I was getting ready for work, you were laying all cozy in mommy and daddy's bed with the blankets pulled up to your chin watching cartoons.
"Mommy! You don't go to work today. You stay home with me and watch Scooby Dooby!" you commanded.
Now what mother could turn that down?
As I laughed, I layed down with you for just a second and explained that you had to go to school and I had to go to work.
"You need pillow. I share!" you continued to convince!
Oh, you are so hard to deny!

Your little vocabulary is developing every day. Your little mind amazes me. You are so smart. You see things that adults just let go by everyday. You are funny. You are caring. I love you so much!

A Note to Claire

2009-07-01T13:41:00.002-05:00

"Time-out" 3 times before we left the house this morning...not a good start to our day. Daddy and I are laying down the law until your new attitude leaves. You are so smart about everything else in life...we know you understand the difference between blessings and consequences, disrepect and respect and disobedience and obedience! I know these are big words, but you have had enough association with them according to your behavior...we know you know what we mean. If you are smart enough to march yourself to your time-out chair, you are smart enough to know the reason why.

We love you so much and feel so blessed to have the opportunity to mold your sweet little personality. The good part of this story is that these stints of bad behavior are short lived and few and far between. We understand you are in detox from Grand-ma's and Aunt Anga's, so we have given you some additional grace :).

Your goal today is to get a good report from Ms. Emily at school and prove you do, indeed, have listening ears.

I love you,
Mommy

The Cato House is in Full Swing!

2009-06-30T15:31:00.002-05:00

During the winter months, if you were a fly on the Cato House wall, you would have heard me lamenting to Bill that our life was not exciting enough. During those cooped up winter months, I was big on reading others' blogs and just thought, "Man, they live such exciting lives," and allowing Satan to use that to put me in a state of comparison.

As the weather has gotten warmer and warmer this spring and summer, our family has not lacked for excitement, thus, the reason for my blogging hiatus (in addition to me trying to be tech saavy and twitter and update my facebook profile...I've had little time to blog.

So, the spring started off with lots of travel. Within 4 weeks, I traveled to Katy, TX; New Orleans, LA, Pittsburgh, PA; Elizabethtown, KY and Stockton, CA. It was this last trip to Stockton that sent me over the edge. I was tired of traveling and everything at home was quickly moving out of control, but the one thing that continued to plague me was this unusual, non-consistent pain in my stomach. I had enough of it when I returned from Stockton's luncheon. Went to the dr to get the ball rolling. Within 4 hours, I had a CT scan and was admitted to the ER and spent the next 3 days hooked up to IV antibiotics at the hospital.

We left the hospital with a diagnosis that was treatable but nevertheless undesirable. Two weeks later, I had to go back to the dr to get a follow up CT scan. Piece of cake (except for drinking that Barium "Smoothie"), right? Wrong! This was my third CT scan in less than 2 years, and for some reason, this time, I had a horrible allergic reaction to the contrast die. I really thought I was dying that day. After 2 hours of being pumped with Benadryl and steroids, I was released.

I am finished with the drama, right? Wrong! Last weekend, the Cato House met the other Cato house (in Birmingham) and the Jones house (here in Nashville) at a lake in northern Alabama. To make a long and horrible story short, the temperature was over 100 degrees, Claire didn't have shoes on and stepped on the hot pavement and subsequently a piece of metal on the dock and burnt the bottoms of her feet. Blisters, screaming...just the most heart-wrenching thing for a mother to watch. It was horrible.

And guess what? As soon as that episode happened, I had to travel back to California.

If it were up to me, the drama would be over. We have vacation with my family next week in Destin...drama-free zone has been requested!

That's what we have been up to...how about you?

Coversations with a Toddler - Part 2...About God

2009-05-12T10:24:00.002-05:00

If you live in my "neck of the woods", you know we have been having lots of thunderstorms (I'm sure many other areas of the US are as well).

Add on top of the storms that Claire is really sensitive to sound (the fire alarm going off because of her momma's cooking and her reaction is an entirely different entry some day!).

Several weeks ago, she heard thunder and yelled, "It scare you." I told her that was God outside. Each morning after that when we would leave for school/work, she would make this big announcement outside to Him, "Hi God."

If her sweet greeting each morning was not enough...last weekend we were driving home to Mayfield during a horrible thunderstorm. She kept seeing lightning and hearing thunder and wanted us to "hold you". I told her those flashes of light were God taking pictures of her and that every now and then He would laugh (the thunder) at a picture He took of her. As the broken record of a 2 year old should go, we talked and re-talked about God for quite a while.

Today, we were driving to school/work. It was an absolutely beautiful morning. We happened upon a traffic jam, so we were noticing the streams, the trees, the grass, the sun, the clouds. And Claire would say, "God made trees...God made grass...God made sun." And then all of a sudden, she screams, "Yaaaay God" and starts clapping.

Oh, my heart just melted. Out of the mouth of babes!

What do you need to "Yaaaay God" for today? It would not have surprised me if we had immediately heard a clap of thunder at God laughing at Claire this morning! I think he was pleased.

Conversations with a Toddler

2009-04-01T09:01:00.003-05:00

I will be the first to admit that I haven't been as good to keep the blog up-to-date as I would like or avid bloggers would suggest. We are living an exciting life with a toddler right now, but sometimes I just don't think anyone would find our day-to-day activities that interesting.

However, one of the reasons I began this blog is to have an archive of stories for Claire to read back on when she is older. So, this is my disclaimer. You are now entering a blog that may not be as exciting, but it is our memories.

Claire and I drive into Nashville every day. Her pre-school is halfway between home and downtown. We have some very interesting conversations on our way into town. Thus, the ride to town in the mornings (not the afternoons because she has a meltdown every single day) have become my favorite one-on-one times with her.

Yesterday's conversation proved to me that she is always paying attention. For months, anytime we would see a backhoe, dozier or any heavy equipment, she would announce, "That's my daddy's!" Wanting to keep her daddy huge in her eyes, I would affirm that "Yes, that is daddy's" even though we are a long way from having a heavy equipment fleet. This past Friday, I was out of town on an event and she went into the office with Bill to drop off his timecard. While in there, she saw all the guys and talked to "Mr Barry", Bill's boss.

So, yesterday on the way to school, she looked across a field where a new subdivision is being built and said, "That's not daddy's!" And, once again, I affirmed her observation proud that she had finally caught on that daddy did not have that much equipment. And not missing a beat, she said, "That's Burry's!"

Oh, how smart our little babes are!!!!

Progress

2009-03-26T10:23:00.002-05:00

***WARNING: This is a potty training update. If you think potty talk is crude, skip reading this entry!***

My potty training approach was much like my "nursing" approach...why read books, why get advise...this is a natural process, it will just happen naturally. I should have learned the lesson from my failure in nursing, you can always use help, support and advise!

The story begins in October. We were still at the old house, just shy of moving into the new house. I always heard that big, major changes cause potty-training set-backs, so I was not going to attempt to begin potty training until we moved. However, at that time, Claire was staying with Becca and Becca was potty training Jonah (3) and Claire and Sophie took an interest. So I bought her a potty with no intention of working on potty training. But the child is smart I tell you! After giving her a bath, I would wipe out the tub and for several weeks, I would turn around and she would be sitting on the potty and actually going potty! That's as far as we got in October and November.

Fast forward to December. Mom (me) was on vacation for a couple of weeks around vacation and I thought this was an ideal time to train her. I still had not picked up the first book or asked for the first piece of advise, but I had been around moms and toddlers enough that I had a few tricks in my back pocket. Like the one where you give them as much juice as possible throughout the day, set the clock to go to the potty every 10 minutes and they are trained in one day...that one didn't work for us. All it did was make her revolt from wanting to sit on the potty at all.

Back to square one.

We took a little break. I wasn't passionate about potty-training and neither was she!

Fast forward...February. I walked in to pick her up from school one day and her teacher, Anna Claire, asked me if I had even considered starting to potty training because, as Anna Claire said, "she WILL be 3 in November." My gracious, I thought. The child just turned 2. Aren't we rushing the pressure and she has 8 more months until she is 3.

But since Anna Claire was new and I wanted to atleast show her that I was somewhat interested in her opinion, we went to Sears and bought panties and began our potty journey again.

Since I am running out of time and your attention, we are doing really well on potty-training as of today. Claire has not had a pee-pee accident in some time and is actually telling us when she needs to go and not us reminding her when to go. #2 is a different story, but we have made alot of progress the last few days. We are on 2 days in a row of going in the potty!!!

Our only remaining obstacle is public restrooms. Bill, inadvertantly, reacted to a dirty bathroom in Wal-green's a few weeks ago and said it was "nasty" and now she won't go in public restrooms. I don't blame her, but carrying her potty around in the back of the Tahoe is getting a little old!!!!

Goin' Fishin' Part 2

2009-03-22T15:04:00.003-05:00

And, Goin' Fishin' Part 2...a few details behind the afternoon.

Simply put, we, all 3, had a fun time. Claire could barely contain herself as we were getting ready. As daddy did some chores at the church, Claire and I practiced fishing in her Valentine's life-jacket and her Barbie (she actually calls her Bella) fishing pole. We took some photos...

And, then we were off. We only had a couple of hours to be on the water, but you would have thought we were going to there all day the way I packed snacks, changes of clothes...

And here's Bill's two happy girls...

And the funniest part, we packed her potty with us on the boat. (By the way, she is doing a mighty fine job with potty training lately). She is relieving herself in the picture below, if you look carefully, you'll see the potty.

Goin' Fishin' Part 1

2009-03-22T14:40:00.004-05:00

Just a small amount of self-sacrifice can lead to so much happiness in a home! If I would only be so smart to offer larger doses in my life.

This past winter, Uncle Don loaned the TN/AL Cato/Jones family his fishing boat as Bill's nephew Craig began to take a bigger interest in fishing. The boat arrived in need of some shelter and as the family with the new 2-car garage, we became the proud home of the boat!

Bill has been itching to get on the water since the day the boat arrived. Craig, Owen and Bill had been out a couple of times, but as the weather started getting warmer, Bill's conversations revolved more and more around fishing.

Like a child awaiting Christmas, he asked me earlier this week if I thought, just by chance, Claire and I would be interested in going fishing with him on Saturday. "Why sure!" was my response. I love the water and it was supposed to be a beautiful d.....wait, a beautiful day? A beautiful day for sowing grass in our new yard? A beautiful day for cleaning the house with windows open? "Bill, there are many days this summer to go fishing, but only a few optimal days to sow grass," I responded.

And, in his ever-so humble and sacrificing way, he responded, "Okay." "Okay" without a grimace, without a fight. An "okay" with a smile like only Bill Cato can give that said in his mind, "well, atleast I'll be on some type of equipment grading the yard."

And then the Lord began to speak to his wife. Throughout the day on Friday, I received, not 1, but 2 words from the Lord that I needed to go fishing with my husband. So I called Bill and said, "We're going fishing!" And, again, in a way only Bill Cato could make a 220 lb., construction worker, Carhart-wearing, equipment operating man do, he turned back into the child before Christmas and said, "oh, the Lord has been good to me!!!"

So, yesterday afternoon, after a few chores, we loaded up the truck with boat in tow and headed to the water!

As we pulled away from the house, he looked over to me and said, "This is one of my biggest dreams come true. I don't think anyone could upset me with anything right now. I got a wife, a baby girl and a fishing boat with me today!!!"

And the Lord returned the favor and was "good to me" yesterday by seeing a husband walking around on cloud nine! And today, guess where he is...he's out on his second favorite piece of equipment grading my yard!!!

WARNING: Disposable Diapers Not to Be Washed

2009-02-20T12:56:00.002-06:00

I made a huge mess last night. A mess that, now that I've done it once, I can't believe hasn't happened sooner and I still don't know how it happened. I will, naturally, blame it on Bill!

After spending most of the evening with Carrie, catching up on life, I came home at 9:30 and immediately started in on the household chores that I had neglected since Sunday (due to my growing addiction to 2009 TV programming...it started innocently with LOST on Wednesdays, then I got addicted to The Biggest Loser on Tuesday and just 2 weeks ago, I added The Bachelor on Monday).

The Catos are heading to Kentucky this weekend and since I've promised to bring Jim-n-Nick's BBQ for supper, we need to hit the road by 5:00 pm. Easy task...nope! Because I have to get home from work with a 2 year old and get the vehicle packed before Bill gets home because I don't like how he packs luggage!!! So, in order to meet my self-imposed deadline, it was a requirement that the bags be packed and sitting at the door on Friday morning. But before packing, (return to paragraph 2) I had to catch up on neglected laundry, housework, etc. So, at 9:30, I dove into the laundry. We keep the laundry sorted pretty well with all my different hampers, so I didn't even go through the clothes. No time for stain checks, I dumped the hamper with all of Claire's clothes in the washer with one motion, slammed the lid down and off to the next chore.

10:30 pm...laundry check...I head into the laundry room to switch Claire's clothes to the dryer and throw the next load in. As I was unloading her clothes, these granules kept falling out. As most of you know, I have dealt with allergies my entire life, so it's not uncommon to find a washed kleenex in the laundry. That was where my mind first went. Nope, not tissue. Then, horrified, I thought, "Oh no, one of my push up bras has exploded and this is what that gel is made of"...but no bra in Claire's laundry.

As I kept investigating, in the very bottom of the washer, there lay the culprit. A completely water logged disposable diaper exploded!

I may be the only one that has ever washed a disposable diaper and had it explode, but in case I'm not alone, you can picture it. Thousands of granules all over Claire's clothes, in the washer, on the floor...EVERYWHERE! And those things are stubborn. I got the vacuum out and they don't like to move. Oh it was a mess.

It was 11:30 before I got it cleaned up and I went to tell my sleeping husband about my fiasco. As you can imagine, he didn't really care!!! Which further caused me to blame him for the diaper being in the laundry in the first place!

Fwimming at the YMCA

2009-02-17T12:14:00.003-06:00

No, I did not mispell it. That's what Claire calls "swimming". I'm not ready to take her to a speech pathologist quite yet. It's just too cute to hear her pronunciations and her mis-pronunciations. Here are some of her other common mispronunciations and their equivalent translations!!!!

Moddy = When she wants "Daddy" but starts out calling for "Mommy" and switches mid-stream
Dammy = No, she's not cursing, this is when she wants "Mommy" but started out with "Daddy"
Fwimming - Swimming
Faffle = Waffle (it took Bill forever to figure this one out and she was in a full-fledged tantrum of annoyance with him by the time he deciphered it)
Melmo = Yes, of course, it's Elmo
Molient = Only Aveda users would appreciate this one, this is her pronunciation of our hair gel, Phomolient
Choco-Milk = Chocolate Milk

I'll come back and add some more as I think of them. Check back occasionally for a good laugh!

...loves to travel...

2009-02-04T17:39:00.002-06:00

Sound like a classified ad? Sound like the hobby list of some individuals? Traveling is a large part of my job. "Loves to travel" would have described me when I was single. Being a person that didn't fly until I was 18 years old, I took every opportunity to travel the US, to see states and areas I had never seen. When working a weekend event, I would stay over until Sunday (and sometimes take a red-eye home Monday morning) in order to travel longer.

Then I met Bill. And although I still loved to travel, I was not as prone to stay over on weekend events. But I was still up for going to both my events and with my team-mates on their events.

Then we had Claire! I stopped traveling with others and tried my hardest to be back in Nashville as soon as I possibly could after an event. I got a little more ancy when a return flight was delayed, and heaven forbid...CANCELLED! This laid-back traveler would become plum UPTIGHT!

So, these days, I only travel about 12-13 times a year which averages to one trip a month (it doesn't end up being that neatly planned though). At a recent airport, one of the security lines was labeled specifically for "Experienced Travelers". These are those individuals that can get shoes, belt, coat off - computer out of computer bag - their ziploc bag of toiletries out of their bag in 5 seconds flat. No tolerance for waiting on those that may stumble through the foreign process.

I once would have considered myself one of these individuals, but I'm losing my edge as an experienced traveler.

In just 7 short hours of traveling today, I have:

1. Forgot to pre-check in for my Southwest flight which caused me to have a horrible seat
2. Misplaced my event cell phone
3. Forgot my personal cell phone charger - my only source of communication for 3 days
4. Forgot my ipod charger - my only source of entertainment for 3 days
5. Left my personal cell phone in the rental car that has been valet parked
6. Stumped my toe on the hotel bed and pretty sure it's broken (with 3 more days of being on my feet ahead of me).

Oh, how I pray that my travel saavy returns...SOON!
4.

Birthday Pictures!

2008-12-31T20:39:00.004-06:00

Claire and I have been having a blast this week after Christmas just the two of us. We have had tea parties, cleaned the house to our hearts content and played, played, played. Bill is now officially on vacation until the first of the year.

It's been so much fun for me to be with her these last couple of weeks. I've finally got a little organized and settled in the house. Amidst all of the busy-ness, I have taken few pictures of our move, of Claire's 2nd birthday, of our Gatlinburg family trip and of Christmas; however, I have a great sister-in-law who has been my "historian" and has been capturing pictures for me when I that's been far from my mind.

So, here's some long over-due pictures...

"Happy Birthday to You." Claire patiently waiting to blow out the candles.

I just had to post this one. I am definitely a cake-making amateur, but I was so proud of my attempt at a BarnYard themed cake. I probably spent more money than I would have paid the best cake-maker in Nashville to make one and definitely spent too much time...but she only turns 2 once!

The family portrait on her birthday!

This wasn't on her birthday, but she has one of her "birthday outfits" on and I just think she's too cute not to show off!

Have a great New Year and we'll be back next week!!!

"Bloom where your're planted..."

2008-12-18T14:20:00.002-06:00

Has always been a favorite quote of mine. I'm not sure if it's my personality or if it's just a generational thing, but I am absolutely horrible about staying in touch. I bloom where I'm planted, I invest my life and energy into the people closest to me and often make the horrible mistake and regret of neglecting those from my past. I don't have a horrible past, so I don't think it is some deep-rooted emotional issue that I'm trying to run from. I'm not sure what causes it, but I don't like it.

I know there are pros and cons about the internet and social networks. My sister and I have these discussions often. But I am personally thankful for them and the outlet they offer me to stay in touch with childhood, high school, college, camp and current friends.

All of that is a preface to say, I want to teach Claire to set her roots deep wherever she goes. Last night, my mom called me and the father in one of our dear family friends passed away. Jen, his daughter, and I grew up together. As I drove home after her telling me, I thought about this family being one of my earliest memories of planting my roots. Memories of the adults playing cards or just coming to hang out and the kids playing Atari or just messing around. On those late summer nights growing up, I was usually somewhere in between their house and our house. Jen and I had a tradition, up until she married and began her family of calling each other on Christmas morning to tell each other what we had gotten. Softball games, football games, snow ball fights, church, girl scouts, school from K-12, weddings...and now a funeral.

I want Claire to have those bittersweet, deep-rooted memories of families she grew up with. I want her to fly, but I also want her to be well-rooted. So, today, I challenge you to set your roots deep and don't neglect those things of your past!

A Preview of Your Christmas Card!

2008-11-26T11:31:00.003-06:00

Several weeks ago, we asked my good friend, Rich Kalonick, to come out to Fairview to take some pictures of us and our good friends, The Coleman's. I have not had professional pictures taken of Claire since her 1 year old pictures and she was now turning two.

I am a planner by nature and by trade, but Picture Day will not go down in my Hall of Fame of expertly planned events. We planned the pictures for the Sunday afternoon after the Saturday that we moved into the house and the Friday of Halloween...aka...Claire's busiest and most tiring weekend of her life! This did not dawn on me until after....we went to church and rushed home for Claire's nap, woke her up after an hour (that's plenty on any normal day), threw her into the car (still rubbing her eyes) with only a diaper on (didn't want to wrinkle the outfits), threw her a couple pieces of Halloween candy to tie her over until we had a late lunch (do not criticize me!), patted down her hair that got mashed during the nap and rushed to the Morrison's, the backdrop for the pictures.

As you can imagine and probably would have warned me if you had been there, it all back-fired on me. See for yourself!

Claire throwing a tantrum, Bill seemingly giving me a look like "what were you thinking"!

The full-fledged trantrum and the two referee's to restrain a two-year old.

Me, trying to smile in the midst of it all and be ready for the snap of the camera, in the extreme case that Claire suddenly sat down and complied!

You'll have to wait for your Christmas card to see if the day turned around!

"Funny's" on Claire

2008-11-25T11:23:00.003-06:00

By this point of not updating our blog in several weeks, I am not sure if anyone will ever check in again. Our home computer is still on the outs (we just haven't taken it to be looked at) so I have no way of updating except at work and I try not to do that. However, this is the week of Thanksgiving and all of my co-workers are on vacation, so I thought little harm would come from updating our family blog.

Claire is doing so many funny things. I am sure I have already forgotten many of them. It seems as though we are rolling in the floor every night over something new and hilarious she has done.

Several stories come from her musical preference these days. When she was born, one of my co-workers gave me a set of books from B&H that are "My First Steps of Prayer", My First Steps of Faith", etc. There are four books in the series and each book has a cd with them. They have been sitting on the book shelf for 2 years now and we have yet to get them down. But I noticed that her new school uses those books in their curriculum, so I got one down and we started listening to the cd's in the car. They are catchy little tunes that you may remember from childhood, so they didn't get on my nerves. However, one morning on the way to work I was just needing some non-thinking country music. As we pulled out of the drive-way to Alan Jackson, Claire yelled, "No, don't like...no, don't like." I went through my list of things that she may not like...the temperature, the volume, the sun in her eyes, etc. Then she said, "No, don't like! JESUS!!!!!" (She wanted her "Jesus" cd on). So, now, when she wants to listen to her cd, she just yells "JESUS!"

Then, a few days later, we were on our way home. The car was silent. No music. We were both just being quiet. And I hear her singing, "Jesus, no, no...Jesus, no, no" She sang this about a dozen times and I asked her what she was singing. I went through my list of Jesus songs and sang, "Jesus loves me this I know" and she smiled and sang, "Jesus, no, no". We learned a new verse this weekend coming home from Gatlinburg. Now she sings, "Jesus, no, no. Bible says so."

She had a big birthday party about 2 weeks ago with all of her family and now we are gearing up for the holidays. More consistent updates will hopefully come soon.

Our New "Home Sweet Home"

2008-10-28T11:11:00.002-05:00

I don't even know if this is legal, but this is the best picture I have of our new home. The landscaper just sent me a photo of what our house will look like with landscaping. The house is the real deal (including the saw horse and trashcan on the front porch) and the landscaping and grass is fake (just an idea of what he can do with the house).

Moving weekend is THIS weekend. Still lots to be done in the next four days, but my "contractor" keeps telling me to trust him.

I'll update you from 7260 Knottingham Drive next week!!!!

I am Home!!!

2008-10-23T08:15:00.002-05:00

I am home from my week-long New England adventure. I am home from three months of traveling pretty much non-stop. I am home and have nowhere to fly until February. I am home!!!!

The week and event in New England were phenomenal! We celebrated 10 years of Living Proof Live in all 50 states and 100 events. I had a wonderful time with our event team as well as the rest of the LPL team members. But we were exhausted when we got home on Saturday.

My wonderful husband, despite being a single parent all week long while I was gone and while finishing the new house, let me go to bed early on Saturday night. My heart felt so bad to ask him to be on Daddy Duty for one more moment, but my eyes wouldn't stay open.

Sunday was the first phase of our brand-new life. No traveling for Mommy for atleast 3 months. And then, October 31 begins the second phase of our new life in the new house!!! We just need some carpet, touch ups on the interior paint, one final coat of stain on the hardwood and a good cleaning and the moving will begin!!!

You are more than welcome to come visit us at the new house anytime. I would beware of our current house...it is a disaster as I am working on packing!

I'll post updated pictures one day soon!

Losing My Sanity

2008-10-09T12:30:00.003-05:00

If you are an active reader, you must feel like we are on a roller coaster. One day is a great day and then we are in the pits of despair with tantrums and exhaustion. That is not my normal behavior. I am usually even-tempered...I even pride myself on my consistency.

The last two nights have not been in the "good" category. As Milli Vanilli once said, "Blame it on the rain!" That's where it all started. Let me set the stage!

First, we are in the final, final stages of the new house. Bill the Builder is digging utilities (side note: I promise that what he does is very impressive. I've been walking a broken marriage road with a dear friend which has spurred me to put more focus on my marriage and on my husband but it's hard when we are living separate lives right now with me traveling and him building the house. So I was just looking for some things to make him feel good during this last, grueling stage of the house. I told him Sunday when we were at the new house that he dug very impressive ditches. Such simple words, but his chest puffed out and a huge smile came across his face as he said, "Really!?!").

Okay, back to the story. Bill is digging utilities and it wasn't supposed to RAIN until Wednesday. But it started raining Tuesday night. So Bill and his good friends were over at the house until around 9:00 laying pipes and back-filling ditches (are you impressed with my construction lingo yet!). So, Claire and I had the evening alone.

At 6:30p, I was preparing her for bath-time and she decided she didn't want to take a bath so she head-butted me!!! She missed my head and hit my brand-new glasses and the lens popped out. I rarely get mad, but I was mad. I put her in the bathtub with some duck friends and headed to the living room to cool off. I called Bill and told him he probably needed to come home for the sake of his first born. He just couldn't with the rain coming in. I understood, but I was afraid of my own anger so I needed to get away from her! After giving her a bath, she went to bed at 7:00 pm because I was still mad (her usual bedtime is 8:00-8:30).

Next day, we all woke up fresh and ready for another day. After picking her up yesterday afternoon, we headed to the new house since the painters had painted the two main rooms. As Bill and I walked around the house, Claire found a pencil and proceeded to "doodle" on the freshly painted walls... two different walls. And then, as she came to get us to show us her artwork, she ran her hand down the hallway of wet paint. Not only are their smudges in the new paint, she had paint on her hands and in her hair. The child is going to be the death of me. You will be glad to know that I didn't get mad, the painters were coming anyway to touch up!!!

Claire and I headed home so Bill could get to work. As soon as we entered the house, Dr. Jeckyl took over and she threw one fit after another for 2 hours. At one moment, (this is when the guys that happen to read the blog - Mark - need to forgive me or leave), she got in her diaper bag and found my personal cosmetic case and started unwrapping and playing with my tampons and maxi pads (she loves band-aids...she must have thought they were just a bigger version).

At this point, I'm not willing to choose this one as a battle. She sat in her bedroom floor and played contently with her new "toys" taking them apart and putting them back together and I sat in the hallway hitting her big bouncy ball against the wall with her miniature Louisville slugger! (Do you ever remember hitting or bouncing a tennis ball against a wall when you were young...same effect).

I know you may think I'm going crazy and if anyone had a hidden camera I'm sure they would have called the doctors, but it was a big stress reliever. I was exerting some negative energy with no danger to anyone or anything and she was content!

3 weeks and counting until saner days arrive!

Turning the Corner

2008-10-05T13:29:00.002-05:00

Whew! This has been some season. I am not sure how to categorize the season. Busy, stressful, joyful, blessed, exhausting, refreshing, hard, prayerful, trusting, lonely...oh, there are so many words. But I think we have come out on the other side.

First, Claire's tantrums ended as quickly as they started. I have not put her in time-out in probably a week to ten days. (I'll have to get Becca's report on if the tantrums have ended during the day). Either she is getting more words to tell me what she wants or how she feels, our consistency and patience have paid off, or God is just being gracious to us! It's most likely the latter!

Second, our house sold. I'm a pretty laid-back person naturally, but I was about to get wound-tight with the economy and housing market like it is currently and us wrapping up the construction of our new home. My mind would only take me to the worst-case scenarios. But, like always, God is sufficient in his timing alone. And what perfect timing it is. We will sell our house and move straight into the new house the first of November (October 25 if Bill continues to burn the midnight oil).

Third, and associated with #2. We are moving into the new house. I couldn't even get excited about the new house until the current one sold. But now I can say it, "I LOVE our new house." Come visit us sometime!

Fourth, with each passing weekend, I get closer and closer to no more traveling this year. Next Sunday, I leave for my last trip. And although it is long (a week long event), the joy of knowing I have no where to fly to in four months gets me through the long trip.

So, what do the next few months bring for the Cato's? First, we look forward to sleeping past 5:30-6:00 am on Saturdays. I am going shopping for Claire (I just haven't had the time, energy or desire to shop lately with our schedules and she has NO fall clothes...poor thing). Bill says he wants to go hunting and I am happier than I ever been to let him. I think I'll finally try to learn to sew. And then before long (hopefully it's a year or two), Bill will get stir-crazy and we will go hunting for the next lot to build on!

Our Sonic Adventure

2008-10-02T08:34:00.003-05:00

Before I begin, let me offer my best attempt at a disclaimer for the following entry. I tried my best to be a healthy mom. My sister set the bar high when Kaity Beth was born almost 12 years ago. At Kaity's first birthday, Angela made her a cake with no sugar. I thought it was admirable and I tried to follow the example for my first born. When Claire moved to solids, I pureed the vegetables and the fruits. It was easy and cheap, so I sacrificed the time. However, Claire much preferred the Gerber purees over her Momma's home-made ones. And for months, stacks of my purees sat in the freezer as she gobbled down Gerber. I didn't take offense, I just stopped puree-ing.

Fast forward to the season after purees. Bill and I have followed the laid-back approach to her eating. She naturally gravitated to things that were good to her. She loves any fruit, she eats most vegetables, the only meat she will eat is pork chops (I have no idea why), and drinks and eats so much dairy that I am surprised she's not moo-ing. We let her have treats every now and then...not over-indulgent with sweets, but she does partake in them with us. She's within her range on weight and her clothes fit. She's active and I think she's healthy.

Okay, so after the disclaimer and history...our favorite stop in the afternoons is Sonic. Not every afternoon, maybe once every two weeks we stop for a slush. I have been traveling the past two weeks, so I know it has been atleast 3-4 weeks since we have been there (and even when I was traveling, I know Bill didn't take her because he told me that he had planned to one afternoon and she threw such a fit in the truck that she lost her Sonic privileges!).

So, on our way home from Becca's, no intention or desire to stop at Sonic, I heard the sweetest voice in the backseat saying, "Syush, Syush."

"Claire, would you like a slush"

"Yea", in Claire's affirmative whisper.

"Do you want a grape slush"

"Noooooo!", in Claire's whiny, sing-songy voice.

"Do you want an apple juice slush."

"Yea!", again in her whispery affirmative voice.

I laughed out loud as I pulled the vehicle in Sonic and she laughed with joy. She has me wrapped around her finger!

So mommy ordered a kids' sized apple juice slush and a regular sized banana split shake (for herself). When the little carhop came, you would have thought she was Claire's favorite person. She clapped, she squeeled!

So, Claire took a few sips of her slush and noticed I was drinking something. She sat her slush in the cupholder and grunted for mine. I handed it back to her and as she tasted the banana shake, she giggled and "Mmmm"ed to her hearts delight....and handed me her slush!

The banana shake was now hers and I was stuck with the apple juice slush. She did share MY shake with me.

In a Month!

2008-09-29T20:11:00.002-05:00

I cannot believe that I have not posted in almost a month. It has been a crazy, stressful month. I have been traveling way too much with work, we are 5 weeks away from being done with the new house, we have stressed over selling the current house in this economic mess and sold it this weekend (!!!!), our computer has gotten sick and still won't work, Claire has become so much more relaxed about life and only throws a hissy fit every once in a while and we are all still alive. Exhausted, but alive.

The result of all of this chaos...I have only shaved my legs twice in the past month (and that second time was only for a wedding I went to yesterday), my roots are atleast an inch long, I have not plugged up an iron in atleast 4 weeks (that is the most amazing one), I can count the times I cooked on one hand and can count the times we have eaten Pizza Hut or Mexican on two hands!!!

But life is gradually slowing down. We are thrilled about the house selling. Continue to pray until the closing date. It is still scary until all documents are signed. We have finally moved to the ecstatic side of emotions about the new house, finally able to see that it will be ours without the stress of paying for two homes.

Come visit us in about 6 weeks, unless you are a master mover and then you can come visit us in 5!

Mommy's a Princess....Today!

2008-09-03T20:47:00.002-05:00

The day didn't start particularly well. Last night continued to follow the same pattern of earlier in the day and Claire was in trouble more times than she wasn't. I thought we put her and the attitude to bed last night, but her memory is sharp and she began immediately this morning taking it out on me, her comfort zone!!!

I woke up this morning with every intention of pulling myself together. You can atleast look like you have it all together even if you don't. So, though on the inside I was falling apart, I polished the outside, putting on jewelry (I rarely wear jewelry), straightening my hair (a rare luxury) and ironing my clothes (an extinct practice of mine).

As soon as I woke her up, she was screaming at me. Changing her diaper...screaming at me. Getting into the car...screaming at me. We have a routine when we are about 2 minutes from Becca. As the sun rises in the east (at 6:30 in the morning...maybe that is why she is so mad at me!), we tell Mr. Sun good morning and then look for the birds on the wire. And then we are close enough to Becca's to start anticipating Sophie and Jonah. This routine always changes her disposition...for the good!

Which immediately reminded me...children need routine. I have been traveling non-stop throughout August and Bill has been building the house. While Bill and I feel like our world is topsy-turvy, I cannot imagine what Claire feels like. She needs routine. She needs me. She needs stability. And several wise and great friends had the courage to reiterate that to me today. How I am thankful for truth.

So when I picked Claire up from Becca's this afternoon, I had every intention of making the evening all about her (within reason). So, we ran around and played in the grass with Sophie and Jonah. When it was time to leave, I put Claire in the front-passenger side to just get her in the vehicle until I could get her bags loaded on the other side. As soon as I closed the last door, I heard "click". She locked herself in the vehicle! I immediately called Bill to come help us, but he was atleast 10 minutes away. So I stood outside the car trying to coax her to push the button again. And she did, it was just the lock button...again and again. Dave, Becca's husband, came out to give re-enforcement. He stood there and kept saying, "Claire, push the button." She just looked at him as he continued to coax her. She finally said, "Pwees, pwees." So Dave said, "Claire, push the button, PLEASE" and she did! Still the wrong button, but we laughed at her. At least she's learning some manners in the midst of these tantrums.

So Bill arrived and we went to Sonic for a banana split. Then we went home and played, played, played. We got all of her basket of toys down and just dumped them out (it has been MONTHS since she has played with many of these toys since the house is for sale and I felt the need to limit toys that she played with to eliminate mess...maybe that's another reason she's mad at me!)

Now, to the point of this long story. When she was eating dinner, because it was an evening all about her, I let her drink out of her non-sippy cup Princess cup. It's just a regular cup that her Aunt Patty and Cousin Payton gave her for Christmas and it has all the Disney princesses on it. I was eating my supper and heard her saying, "Mommy, mommy, mommy." I looked up and she was spinning the cup around and pointing to each of the princesses.

"Mommy's a princess?" I asked. And she looked up at me with that sweet, loving smile and pointed once again to the prettiest princess and said, "Mommy!"

Thank you, Lord, for seeing us through today.

What do you do with a 22 month old who...

2008-09-02T18:43:00.003-05:00

thinks the world revolves around her, throws herself to the ground and thrashes around when she realizes for a split second it doesn't, figures out that "I sorry" gets you out of time out long enough to throw herself back on the floor and into another tantrum.

What do you do with a mommy who blames it all on her choice to go back to work, but thinks she would be completely bald if she ever decided to come home and hands her child off to Daddy as soon as he walks in the door even though Mommy's only been home for 15 minutes?

What do you do when the same child that made you want to pull your head bald turns and gives you a big, wet open-mouth kiss for no particular reason, who struts around in her Mommy's size 10 dress shoes that she kicked off at the door and turns around and says, "Mommy" in the most endearing voice?

This is more therapy for me than really wanting answers. I don't think there really is answers. It's just life. And as I was putting her in time-out for the 2 time in 15 minutes and said that prayer, "Lord, get me through this phase and I know it's downhill from here", I really know that this is the sweetest and the easiest time of our lives.

So, tonight, I will lay her down in her crib and pray for her that God will turn her heart toward Him and I will pray for myself that He will give me the wisdom and the patience not to break her little spirit and let him mold her into the little personality He designed.

As my mom said this weekend, "You wouldn't give anything for her, but you wouldn't pay a nickel for another one like her!" - here we go back to time-out because she hit her Daddy this time!

Back to the Beach!

2008-08-12T23:44:00.003-05:00

I finally got pics off of Dad's camera from the beach. Here are some of my favorites!!!

Newark, Delaware

2008-08-06T21:12:00.002-05:00

Hello from Delaware! I'm on the home stretch now. One more night in a hotel room and I will be in my comfy bed next to Bill tomorrow night!!!!

Today was our longest drive yet. It was only 4.5 hours but we were on I-95S which took us straight through NYC, over the George Washington Bridge and you can just imagine the traffic! It was horrible.

I must tell a funny on my husband. We will both admit that we are not the most tech-saavy couple that most of you know. We just know the basics. However, both of us have an Ipod. And being the sweet husband that he is, when Bill charges his ipod, he charges mine too. However, he hasn't figured out how to switch the "ownership" and he always clears my playlists off my ipod and replaces them with his.

So, today, during our long drive, I got my ipod out to pass the time. As I scrolled down the songs, I didn't recognize many of them...atleast 2 dozen of them. They were such sweet titles such as "Come Back Darling", "I'm Head over Heels in Love", "Crying My Heart Out Over You", "You are My Flower", "I Still Miss Someone".

Aaah. Bill must have downloaded me some new songs to listen to. (Do you remember the days when you made or received a personalized cassette tape...that's how I felt).

So, I started playing them one by one.

Imagine my great surprise (and disgust) when I realized they were all his beloved Flatt and Scruggs bluegrass downloads that accidentally got on my ipod!!!!

After screaming, I laughed hysterically as I continued on down to "Shuckin' the Corn", "Polka on a Banjo", and "The Ballad of Jed Clampet".

My sweet husband!

Luckily, I am traveling with Eugene who enjoys R&B on the radio as much as I do.

Next time you hear from me, I'll be home with my sweet Bill and sweet Claire!

Hartford, CT

2008-08-05T17:53:00.003-05:00

I skipped an update on Durham, NH. First, it took me a couple of frustrating hours to get on line. Second, the town reminded me of Boone, NC and most know how I feel about Boone). Third, there just wasn't enough excitement generated to blog about.

Tonight we are in Hartford, CT. I had the Leader's Luncheon in NH (it was great...please don't let my viewpoint of the town reflect on the ladies and the event) and we drove to Hartford.

After an evening in a Holiday Inn Express, I am in a Hilton tonight! Yeah! Please know that I'm not a diva, not a diva at all. It's just that since I'm away from home and on the road often, I want to sleep well and have a few luxuries of home. Nice bed linens, check. Easy internet service, check. Full service restaurant instead of a cereal bar, check! I'm sounding like a diva...I'm not!!!!

I've got to run. Eating Italian with Darlene and Chuck and Eugene tonight.

More to come on Connecticut and Delaware either tonight or tomorrow.

Burlington, VT

2008-08-03T22:36:00.005-05:00

Hello from Burlington, VT! We made it. It was so hard to leave the house this afternoon. I got home around 6:00 pm last night and was at the airport by 2:30 pm today. Just the fact that I left in the middle of the day made it hard. I was counting down hours all morning long. Typically, I fly out of Nashville first thing in the morning, so there is very little counting down.

Our Louisville event was wonderful. This was the weekend of our big simulcast event that we prepare all year for. We simulcasted the live Louisville event to 714 churches across the nation and 5 countries and to approximately 70,000 women. So far, we have heard that everything went great!

Please pray for the "home front" this week. Bill and Claire will be fine, but we have been blessed to have 2 "visits" on Saturday by realtors and 1 visit tomorrow. One of the Saturday appointments looks really promising. I am really excited, but I had to leave everything in the capable hands of Bill. He will do perfectly fine taking care of Claire, keeping the house in tip-top shape for "visitors" in addition to working on the new house at night, but I am just a control freak! However, when I called him at 10:00 CST to say I was in Burlington, he was getting ready to vacuum the house. He is so good. He is a jack of so many trades and who ever said you can't teach an old dog new tricks. He's been a great student of how I do things!!!!

Update from Durham, New Hampshire tomorrow!

The Travel Adventures

2008-07-31T21:12:00.003-05:00

For a week, I am going to depart from stories of Claire and give you a glimpse into my travel journal! Today is the first day of my many travel adventures throughout August, September and October. I haven't had to travel much at all this summer, so we have been gearing up for a travel-heavy fall.

First, last night (Wednesday), we met Aunt Ang and Drew at exit 126 off of I-40. This is half-way between Paris, TN and Fairview, TN. When I travel for a weekend event, Angela takes Claire for Wednesday night - Thursday and my mom and dad take her through Saturday. When we arrived at the truck stop and Aunt Ang pulled up, Claire grabbed her blanket and her moo-ee (movie/DVD player) and headed to her van. So much for the bitter-sweet goodbyes!

Today, I headed out to Louisville, KY for an event. I will return home on Saturday night and fly out for New England on Sunday afternoon. But let's not rush ahead. We've had a fun-filled day in Louisville today.

As most people know, I am a Kentucky girl, born and bred! However, Louisville was never one of our destination cities. We went to Louisville most every November when I was in middle and high school to watch our Mayfield Cardinal football team compete in the state championship. I remember going to Louisville when I was a little younger to watch my sister play in softball tournaments, but I have never experienced much of Louisville.

Today, I became a tourist in my home state. First, we ate lunch at Lynn's Paradise Cafe. Rich, one of our long-standing event team members is one of those people that you love to have on a trip. He is always up on the trendy things from music (he called it early that Knarls Barclay's "Crazy" would be the summer hit of 2006), technology, cool photography and especially restaurants. He watches Food Network and saw that Bobby Flay spotlighted this Louisville hang-out. Well, if you ever want to experience eclectic, Lynn's Paradise Cafe is the place for you. But it is also the place for delicious breakfast, wonderful KY Hot Browns, sweet potatoe fries with cinnamon and my choice today, Fried Green Tomatoe BLT (and I hate tomatoes).

After Lynn's, we did go to the event venue and do a little bit of work. After set up, our friend and event "director of security" arranged for us to have a private tour of Churchill Downs - the home of the Kentucky Derby. I was excited but not at all prepared for the type of tour we received. Our connection for the tour was Churchill Downs Director of Security, Charles. He showed us the typical highlights, a little Q/A with the head of the media area and then a trip down to the original Churchill Downs area. At this point, we were on the ground level and a stones throw from the track and the winner's circle. Our new friend Charles said, "Let's sneak out across the track and get you all a picture in the winner's circle." Besides the excitement of doing something wrong (but we were with the head of security) and the excitement of being in the Churchill Downs Winner Circle where ONLY the KY Derby winner is allowed - this KY girl was about to pee on herself!!! (Just kidding - if you know me well, you know that I am a pro at holding it).

But it was a fun-filled day of basking in my KY heritage. Next stop - back to Lynn's Paradise Cafe for breakfast (I know, when you find something you like, why mess with it!)

I miss you Claire! Sleep tight and I can't wait to see your new haircut!!!!

We're on a First Name Basis Now!

2008-07-20T11:10:00.003-05:00

Last week was our church's VBS. We have VBS in the evening. So, the Cato House was running crazy. I would rush home from work, pick Claire up at Becca's, run by the new house to see Bill and the progress for just a second, run home, give Claire a bath and feed her supper in 30 minutes and out the door to VBS. Claire and I would get home around 8:30 and Bill would be close behind coming home from the house. By the end of the week, all three of us were exhausted.

However, we had a few comic reliefs in the midst of a crazy week. On Thursday night, last night of VBS, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off and Claire was just trying to keep up with me as she trailed on my heels. I heard her a few times yell, "Daddy"! Daddy wasn't home so I just ignored her. Then I noticed her yelling "Beal, Beal, Beal." I whirled around and noticed she was standing at the back door where Daddy (Bill) usually comes home through. She looked at me and said it again, "Beal". I DIED laughing and that just spurred her on more. Oh, her Daddy wouldn't find it funny, but at the moment, I was rolling.

Fast forward. Friday night, we take a family trip to Lowe's to pick out hard-wood stain color and countertop (side note...we are in a quandary about whether to use solid surface or laminate...I just can't justify the cost of granite and who in the world decided that granite in a house would receive such a return on investment...feel free to vote on what "surface" we should go with). Back to Lowe's. We had 10 minutes to check out with our light bulbs and Miracle Grow, (because as noted in an earlier blog, I did, indeed let the flowers die. I'm hoping to revive them with Miracle Grow. I'm blaming the two weeks that I didn't water the flowers on one week of VBS!). I generously decided that both Bill and I could buy a magazine of our choice (because I'm the family Chief Financial Officer and he's the Chief Operations Officer). I hurried to the lawn and garden magazines (!!!) and he was looking at wood-working. I heard him yelling my name, but I didn't have time to pay him any attention...I only had 10 minutes to find the resource to revive my flowers. And then I heard his boisterous laugh. I whirled around and heard Claire yelling at the top of her lungs, "Aumy, Aumy, Aumy!" Oh no, back at you Mommy. Claire was on a first name basis with me too!!! I did laugh, but didn't find it as funny as her calling her Daddy "Beal"!

Growing Up!

2008-07-12T10:34:00.003-05:00

It's been amazing (and fun and sad) to watch Claire grow up so much over this summer. The beginning of the summer, I was still having to help her with the shape sorter and now she can do it all by herself and with little thought. She's talking so much and can actually tell me that she wants milk or a nanny (banana). Vocabulary has cut down on her frustration level! She's already liking to play dress up and get her clothes out of the laundry and put pants on her head or put both legs in one leg hole! It's not perfect, but she's gaining that independence.

Wednesday night when we were getting her ready for bed, I realized that a minor diaper rash had exploded to a very sensitive diaper rash. I have yet to find a diaper rash cream that is perfect for her skin. A&D and Boudreaux's are okay, but I have found if I just let her run around for about 30 minutes without a diaper...poof, diaper rash is gone!

So, rather than going to bed, she got to run around with complete "freedom" Wednesday night. Then she preceded to get in her drawer and get a sun hat from last summer that is just a tad too small. And then she wanted to play with Noah's Ark. So, here is what we had:

Independence, here we come!

Floats, Floaties and Swim Sweaters

2008-07-10T21:52:00.003-05:00

I just HATE it that I don't have pictures to document my next story.

Growing up, I feel like I lived in the water. I spent most summer days (only the days I did not have a softball game because Dad thought I didn't play as well after I had been to the pool all day!) at Oak Hills Swim and Racquet Club in Mayfield! Mom would drop us off on her way back to work from lunch and we would usually stay until 4:30-5 pm. That equals about 5-6 hours in the sun and water most every summer day of my life (and after I ironed my 10 pieces of clothes and unloaded the dishwasher). When I turned 15, I took my lifeguard test and by 16, I was a full-fledged lifeguard. This was just a few years before they enforced the red one-piece lifeguard dress code, so we were still able to wear two-pieces to lifeguard in (what in the world were the managers thinking!). So, basically, I got paid for 6 hours of sun-bathing and catching up with my friends at the pool.

I am way off subject here! That story is only to say, I want Claire to enjoy, love and embrace water. So, off to Target I head to the outdoor/water toys aisle. Who knew there were so many options. Basically there is Speedo, SwimWay and Aquatics and each of these brands has stages from water awareness to water confidence.

Well, I knew that Claire was "water aware" and even thought she was "water confident" from her 20 months of splishing and splashing the tub. But I started at Stage 1 just in case the pool was different, but just in case the water awareness gear was too elementary for her, I also purchased the water confidence stage. And not only did I buy SwimWay brand, I had to get the cute gear from Aquatics. So, our luggage included (1) turtle float, (1) spring-action float with a canopy over it, (1) swim sweater, (1) speedo flotation suit and (1) set of arm swimmies. We were ready for anything.

Fast forward to the first day in Florida. Not only did I have a head-ache from blowing up all the floats, the swim sweater actually required an air compressor like you would inflate a tire. (You've got to be kidding me). So, Bill headed down to the corner gas station and came back with Claire's inner tube!

Our time (or our money) were not spent in vain. Claire was successfully water aware and water confident. We nick-named her "Little Water Bug" and mommy even wanted to get her a spray-painted t-shirt with "Claire -Water Bug - Cato" (yes I grew up in the 80's and loved wearing my spray painted shirt tucked in my jams with my Dexter/Eastland shoes). But I refrained from purchasing such a frivolous item!!! Nonetheless, she squeeled with delight in the water and was completely at home. Perhaps I have a little lifeguard on my hands!!!

Oh, and the biggest surprise...she TANS! (You need to understand that the only physical traits I prayed for when I was expecting her were (1) that she would have blue eyes, (2) that her ears would lay flat to her head unlike her Mom's and (3) that she would have my coloring and skin tones because Bill is fair. So far, I'm batting 100!

A Vacation Teaser

2008-07-10T18:01:00.003-05:00

This is just a teaser. When I finally sat down to upload the pictures, I realized what a poor job we did of taking pics with our camera. My dad and brother-in-law also had cameras and I guess I thought I was taking more pictures than I really was because they were taking some. Hopefully, I'll get some from them (hint, hint Dad and Rod)!

Here is a cute picture of Claire on the merry-go round at the amusement park. She's going to be my thrill seeker! Everyone continues to ask me in jest if there is anything of me on Claire since she is a spitting image of her Daddy. I always say her sweet disposition, but that doesn't work when she's rotten to the core. But I found my similiarity! She likes rides. Her daddy hates them.

My second date with Bill was at the Wilson County Fair here in Nashville. I LOVE rides, so we hopped from one ride to the next on that date. I was having a blast, but noticed Bill wasn't talking much. I just knew there wasn't going to be a third date, but I thought, "I'm going to enjoy all of these rides on his dime!" So I continued to the next ride.

It wasn't until after we were married (I got that third date!) that I realized that Bill hates rides and gets motion sickness!!!

All to say, I am so thankful that I have a child that will enjoy Disney with me one day. She jumped from one ride to the next at the little amusement park in Destin and squeeled at each one!!! (And yes, that is Bill behind her. The merry-go round is just his speed!)

I'm Alive

2008-07-08T08:31:00.002-05:00

I have constantly been harping my friends and family to check out the blog. To continue blogging, I need the positive affirmation that people are actually reading my hard work (thank you Amy Griffin for being my most consistent commenter!).

We are alive and well. Father's Day was our last entry. But we have been busy preparing for vacation, then going on vacation and now recuperating from vacation! I have funny, some hilarious, stories to tell you about our time at the beach, so hopefully that will be tonight's activities since Wipe-Out is the only thing I know that's on tv tonight and I care nothing about that show.

So, hold tight! I'll be back tonight with some great pics and hopefully funny tales!!!

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-15T21:02:00.006-05:00

For those of you that read our blog and have never met Bill, I married a cowboy at heart. I say "at heart" because it's been a long time since he's been a real cowboy! But he was, once upon a time, a cowboy...ropin' and wrestlin' steers, bare-bronc ridin' cowboy!!! That's one thing that first caught my attention about him (and of course his heart that is as big as the Montana skies). Although he's many years removed from rodeo-ing, it is both of our desire to introduce Claire to it. I know nothing about being an equestrian, but that's why it intrigues me. I've been on a horse once before today!

Today, we celebrated Father's Day at our dear friends, The Morrison's. Rick and "Su-Su" were an intregal part of Bill's life before I entered the picture. Once I entered the picture, I realized you don't find many people better than them. True and honest to the core...and a barrel of fun, too! Rick and Susan have two horses - Burt and Rudy. After we ate lunch today, we went outside to play with the horses.

What a blast we had! Claire and I were definitely over-dressed. Her in her red smocked bubble suit with her church sandals and me in my Ann Taylor top, city shorts and high-heels. We would definitely stick out like a sore thumb in the game "Which of These Doesn't Belong." But we did our best to play the role and guess who was the first to jump on the horse? You got it...ME!

Bill took Claire into the house to change her diaper before her big riding debut and when Susan asked me if I wanted to ride, I took the opportunity to impress my husband! I kicked off the heels and into the saddle I went. I thought I did pretty good job hoisting myself over. I asked for a ladder or a step stool, but they convinced me I could get up there without it and I did! Susan led me into the riding pen and gave me a beginner's lesson in leading a horse. And off I went. And again, I thought I did pretty well for only the second time on a horse. We walked in circles, we changed directions and we even got up to a trot!

As Bill and Claire made their way out to the pen, I could hear Claire cackling! Would she get on with one of us or would she be scared?

I let Bill take a turn and he was able to get Claire up there with him. She wanted to be held...no sitting in the saddle for her!

In the video below, if you listen carefully, you can hear the occasional nervous cackle by her. I'm still not sure if she enjoyed her ride, but both of us are just beginning this sport.

After Bill and Claire finished their turn, Molly, Rick and Susan's daughter that REALLY rides horses took her turn. Claire kicked off her shoes and wanted to run around in the sand in the riding pen. I did get the bubble suit stripped off of her before she started rubbing sand all over her and tossing it over her head. We had a really fun day and I'm sure we will do it again. By the time we were leaving, our girl was pooped out!

Wanted: Green Thumb

2008-06-13T08:58:00.004-05:00

My grandmother has a green thumb. Granny Dorie would prefer to be outside, in her garden than inside..any day! Me, I absolutely prefer to be cleaning my baseboards and scrubbing tile and hardwood on my hands and knees in the air-conditioning rather than pulling weeds, dead-heading flowers and fertilizing in the heat. However, in my imagination and dreams, I would love to have the beautiful flowers that Southern Living makes look so easy.

I do fairly well with the easier classifications of flowers (however, I did just kill 3 wave petunias after only one month...what could be easier to care for than a wave petunia).

When we moved into our house after getting married, Bill went a little over-board with western cedar. As most know, Bill built the house while I planned the wedding. He did an absolutely wonderful job and since our house is the smallest in the neighborhood, he decided to give it some "curb appeal." So, we have beautiful western cedar window boxes, beautiful western cedar planters on the front porch and western cedar shutters that completely set our house apart (oh, and don't forget the western cedar arbor in the backyard that he built me for our first anniversary).

So fast-forward to each spring of our married life. Each spring I get my April copy of Southern Living and get my inspiration for the window boxes and planters. Every year is different and I spend hours at the local nursery picking out the perfect combination with the idea that, by chance, the editors of Southern Living are going to drive by Fairview and put me on the cover of the May issue!!!

Each year, I am so excited about my flowers. I have all the right tools. All the right potting soils. Fertilizers, check! I go to planting these beautiful combinations of beautiful flowers. One year my theme was pink and yellow. The next was purple and white. This year, it is red, white and yellow.

With the visions of being a May (or even June) cover story for SL, I go to work. I transfer and plant. Fertilize. Water. Dead-head. Water some more. For about two weeks. And then it gets hotter. And I get tired of watering. And the excitement of being a cover story diminishes. And the dead-heading starts to seem that every flower is dead. So by late July, everything is brown and I head to the backyard to dump my flowers and potting soil and hope for a better year next year.

However, this year "was" going to be different! I am embarrassed to say how much I spent at the nursery this spring. I won't ever tell, but just know that I justified it by saying that our return would be in when the heavenly rays shone from heaven on our flowers and buyers flocked to our house to pay more than the asking price! (Remember, our house is on the market and we are moving on to the next house with all the western cedar of this house, plus front porch posts...will someone let me know if western cedar is out of style!)

I chose some harder classifications of flowers this year because I wanted the eyes to be drawn to the house. I never have done well with geraniums. For me, simply, they are high-maintenance. My mom has said, "Don't get their leaves wet because they will turn yellow," "Don't over water them, wait until the soil is a little dry and then give them a big drink of water...this is when they bloom." I think that is a needy flower and what about the poor flowers next to them that have to wait 2 days to get a drink of water...maybe that's why my petunias have already croaked! And to know that I spent so much on these high maintenance flowers. The pressure is on to keep these flowers alive until the house sells.

So, in conclusion, I need a green thumb. I have to help these flowers survive past July. As I sit in my comfy "computer chair" looking out the window at my dead petunias and happy geraniums, I wonder if anyone will ever look beyond all the western cedar of the new house and notice if I go to silk flowers next spring!!!

I'm going to dead-head and fertilize!

P.S. As you can see from the video below, Claire did not inherit the green thumb either. She is not helping my mission of healthy and happy flowers!

Swimming with the Coleman's

2008-06-08T17:36:00.004-05:00

I had our Saturday all planned out. Bill planned to work at the new house all day long, so I knew I needed to plan some activities for me and Claire. This was not going to be my typical Saturday of cleaning house (plus, after talking to the realtor, we decided to wait until July to list the house so that means that I don't have to keep the house in tip-top order for a whole month). Usually, if I'm cleaning house, I clean while she's napping and then Bill and I tag-team when she's awake.

Also, for my sanity, I just needed a plain ole fun day with her. We had a tough week last week with a few battle of the wills where, for once in my lifetime of being a mother, I was actually thankful that I worked outside the home. To further convince myself that I was on the correct path, I called Carrie, my friend with twins, to just make sure her insanity of staying at home with the twins and working from home was greater than my insanity of working outside the home. I never meant to gloat in her misery, but after the week with Claire, I was gloating in Carrie's affirmation that her plight was worse than mine!

However, on Friday, the last day of the bad week with Claire, we went to the doctor for a follow up on her ear infection. The verdict: still infected! The darn child! Despite the occasional dig in her ear, she gives me few other clues that she still does not feel good. Unless, you can chalk our hard week up to her not feeling good. Now you can add guilt onto my list of reasons to make Saturday a fun day for Claire. So, the weekend plans became a redemption for our bad week and a peace offering for my lack of mercy in her not feeling good.

We took her to Jim-N-NIcks on Friday (it was really for our anniversary, but she loves those cheese biscuits and the balloon at the end of the meal) and then Saturday we went to the pool with Cutler and Caroline, Carrie's twins.

Here is Claire playing on the front porch as we waited for Caroline and Cutler to take their nap to go to the pool. Notice the pig-tails. Moms first venture at doing an "up-do". And notice the sunglasses...she wouldn't wear them last summer and won't take them off this summer.

Fast forward...to the pool! I met Carrie in the parking lot of the pool to help her get her 2 kids, 2 floats, a beach bag, a bag of snacks and drinks and a stroller (and this is just Carrie's stuff, my list was just as long) into the pool. I had 2 turtle floats under one arm, while holding Claire's hand and pulling a wagon with Cutler buried under a beach bag. Carrie had Caroline in a stroller and a couple other float options and her beach bag in her hands. We made it into the pool looking like a 3-Ring circus. We made it to a spot (no chairs available) and unloaded our goods and the kids and get into the water!

After playing in the shallow water for about 10 minutes, we got the kids all squared away in each of their floats and ventured to deeper waters. After 3-4 minutes of finally relaxing with all kids content in their float, the whistle blew. It was Swim Break Time. So here we go, rounding up all the kids and all the floats and getting out of the pool. (It's too much work to have fun!) We did find a chair at the break-time and only after 15-20 minutes at the pool, the kids were already ready for a snack!

After break-time, we got them all rounded up and back in the water! The kids loved it and were all 3 pooped out by the time we rounded up the 3-Ring Circus to leave. Carrie and I are going to try it again on Friday!!!

Swimming, First Crushes and Popcorn!

2008-06-03T20:39:00.008-05:00

What do all of these have in common? They are all things that Claire has experienced in the past 2 weeks. Sorry for the lack of updates in the last few weeks. It has been a busy season of work, family and traveling and this blogging Momma hasn't had time to take many pictures, let along download them and write about them. So, beware before you start reading...this one is a long one!

On the Mommy front, I have traveled to and fro the month of May. From Boise, ID to Louisville, KY to Birmingham, AL (this one was not work) to San Antonio...the jet-setter is weary.

On the Daddy front, Bill has been busy taking care of Claire while I've traveled, working on the new house and doing "honey-do's" to the current house to get it on the market.

On the Claire front, well that one is a little more exciting.

First, on the "crush" front. I knew Claire was always a daddy's girl (since the day she was born) and realized as she got older that she just likes boys in general. One day we were at the new house and our friend and neighbor, Brian Welch, was driving by Claire. See below for her reaction to Brian:

Then, this week when Mr. Britt came to mow the lawn, Claire ran to the window and sat and watched him as he went back and forth:

I think she's had her first crush!

Bill and I decided to make a quick trip to Birmingham, AL over Memorial Day to visit Uncle Bobby, Aunt Patti, Payton and Landon. We just needed to get away from the house and the stresses associated with it. So we packed up early Saturday morning and headed south. Uncle Bobby and Aunt Patti have a pool; so while the boys headed to the SEC Baseball Championship, the girls headed to the pool! Claire had a blast in the pool - squeeling, splashing and smiling for an hour. Here's my favorite picture of her in the pool (notice her wearing sunglasses - she would have nothing to do with sunglasses last summer).

And finally, popcorn! When I was growing up, most Sunday nights, the Wiman family would eat real (not microwaved) popcorn after church. This past Sunday night, I had a walk down memory lane. It had been a busy Sunday morning and afternoon and we skipped church Sunday night. I wasn't up for cooking supper and as one of our dearest friends, Brad Coleman, says, "If you come to the Cato's at the end of the week, there's nothing in the pantry." (I have an art about grocery shopping where I have mastered only buying what is necessary for one week - experiencing neither famine nor feast- because I don't like to waste and I don't like a really cluttered refrigerator or pantry). All that to say, I had not gone grocery shopping yet and the pantry was the way I like it...empty! I had bought regular "cook on the oven" popcorn during the holidays to make caramel corn. So that is what the Cato's had for supper Sunday night. And Claire is joining in on the Wiman family tradition of liking popcorn on Sunday nights.

That has been our life the past couple weeks. We would love to hear from all of you too!

I Love Bath-time!

2008-05-23T21:58:00.005-05:00

18 Month Check-up

2008-05-21T21:24:00.003-05:00

No pictures this time...just facts and figures!

Monday, Claire and I went to see Dr. Betts for our 18 month check-up. My 'baby' is 34 inches long and 28lbs 10oz: 93% and 91% respectively! She has been growing like a weed lately and as my mom says, "The baby fat is gone!" (I'm still waiting on my 'baby fat' to be gone...I'm glad Claire shed hers after only 18 months!!)

We passed the vocabulary test. I had been told she needed 20 words by 18 months old, so I pushed her appointment back 2 weeks to give us some more practice time. I have been practicing what all the expert books say. Talk often and repeat the word in several ways. First, say the word. Second, put an adjective before the word. Last, put the word in a sentence. Here's our sample conversation going down the road. (Remember, Claire's mom is an introvert and is sparing with her words). "Claire, there's a flower. Do you see the pretty pink flower. A flower is something that Daddy never brings home!" (Just kidding, he actually had flowers for me when I got home from Boise this weekend!).

Well, I walked into the examining room and had all her words written on a piece of paper...ready to hand in my, I mean our assignment...22 words (or sounds) total. To my displeasure, here is how the conversation with the nurse went: "Does Claire eat a variety of fruits and vegetables...Yes, her favorite is... (she cut me off). Does Claire sleep in a crib in her own room..Yes, of course, since she was a day...cut off again. Does Claire sleep atleast 8 hours and have atleast one nap during the day...of course, she's a great slee.... Does Claire walk on her own...uh-hum (I'm catching on finally that she doesn't want to hear how exceptionally well my child walks and runs and dances... Does Claire stack blocks on top of each other...yes, thanks to grandma's practice. Does Claire speak 6-10 words...yes, of course she does, she can say 20 wo...." The nurse cut me off once again and kept moving through questions about Claire's bathroom routine and her emotionally stability. Wait, I couldn't let this one slide...don't you want to see and hear all 20 words that she can say. But, of course, she was not interested! So, we passed the test, I guess. Claire passed her test. Mommy...well, I think she still has much to learn about not pushing your child and the fact that even though you think your child is the best and the brightest, there are millions of other children out there in the world.

So for anyone who cares, here are Claire's 20 words and sounds...Mommy, Daddy, puppy, baby, duck, cat, meow (ow-mi-ow), ruff-ruff, yum, ball, apple, more, hot, purple, Jonah (no-na), no, thank you, uh-oh, yum.

The Odds and Ends of the Cato House

2008-05-13T20:23:00.004-05:00

The odds and ends of the Cato House consists of snipets of our life. As I was home with Claire today and thinking about that I needed to add an entry to the blog, I thought, "We aren't really an exciting family! What would family and friends like to hear." Well, perhaps that! We are just an every day-normal family, trying to get through each day with our sanity, loving each other and raising Claire in a balanced home that loves God. Oh, and one more disclaimer before we get going...When I first started taking pictures to update the blog, I made sure that the background of the pictures didn't show any skeletons in my closet (or pantry)...the skeleton of "I don't have it all together!" So, yes, you will see a pantry in disarray. You may see a bed unmade. You will see toys scattered haphazardly throughout the house. You may see dirty dishes. Welcome to our life! (I would like to blame any of these things you might see on Bill, but everyone knows that he is building the house and housekeeping is currently completely in my court). If you do happen to see the house in a polished state, that is only because we are about to put it onto the market and sellers may be dropping in!

Today, I was blessed with the opportunity to take an unexpected vacation day. Unfortunately, all of Becca's family was sick and with the price of gas, I just decided it was best for me to stay at home rather than driving across town to Annie's. It was not the ideal day to stay at home...middle of the week before an event in Boise, ID and in the middle of our budget season; however, God gifted me with the greatest gift. My email would not work!!!! The day was all Claire's! And we had a blast. My Plan B was God's Plan A. My trip this weekend is a tad longer than usual; therefore, I basked in the extra day I got to spend with Claire before the long trip. Here are some highlights of our day.

Here is Claire "dumpster diving." I'm not sure what she was looking for. But she got caught!!! After getting caught in the pantry, she immediately went to the refrigerator to get some grapes (by the way, did anyone know there was such a thing as a "grapple" - a hybrid of an apple and grape - my sister told me about it today). Poor Claire, she was hungry and she was digging through the trash! A mother should be ashamed. For some unknown reason, she hasn't eaten well since Thursday. I guess her appetite turned back on today!

(Talking of skeletons...the bottle in the corner is not a 'skeleton' for those that know me best!!! That is a bottle of Mona Vie...a fruit juice that is supposed to give me energy and help my joints even though I have no problems with my joints...but thought it would prevent any issues with my healing back).

"Sweet Baby Girl! It's bedtime!" Here is Claire in her pink fuzzy chair, passy and blankey. This is one of my favorite times with her. When she is ready for bed, I put her blanket over my shoulder and she immediately puts her head down on the blanket (a creature of habit). Lately, her added habit is to wrap her arms around our neck. When we say, "Ahhh", she mimics with her own "Ahhh"! I love these moments. However, she is a little teaser. Tonight, she snuggled up in her chair, but when I mentioned bed, she jumped up and headed to get her last fix of her toys!

Finally, for those that never will believe me when I say she knows how to throw a fit, here you go! The proofs in the pudding (is that the right cliche, Mom?). But she still looked really cute in her farm animal dress. Talking about farm animals, Claire has a new word...or would it be a sound. She can say "meow", however, she says "Ow-mi-Ow" in the sweetest high-pitch voice. I just wish my ears could capture the sound and hold onto it forever.

These are our odds and our ends! Enjoy! We will be back next week after Boise.

Claire's Weekly Update

2008-05-03T09:13:00.003-05:00

"Blog research" shows that the more you update your blog, the more people will come back and visit you. If that is truly the case, I may have no more visitors! Sorry for my delays in posting anything. It is very hard to post during the week.

Although these pictures are random and not connected to each other, I thought they were cute of Claire. The first one in the brown...I just think her outfit is cute and that is the only justification I really need for posting this picture!!! However, there is also a story behind the picutre. You will see the "pig" in her hands. That is a pig slipper she has befriended. She cuddles it up to her neck and carries it around with her. I have tried to get her "connected" to other cuter things, but this week she has chosen the pig as her friend.

The next picture is after Mom's "Kentucky Derby Bunco Party." Everyone had to wear a hat to the Bunco party and this is mom's hat. She also has the silk sash around her neck that I wrapped around her rocking horse as a decoration for the KY Derby Party. I think she's ready for the Derby today!

The New Cato House

2008-05-03T09:01:00.003-05:00

We can't turn back now! The house is rising from the ground! Here are some pictures of the progress of our new home. I didn't capture the lot undisturbed, the digging of the footing or the blocks...se we will start with the framing. It is really exciting now as we can walk through our actual rooms and envision our new home. This is what Bill has been working on every night and every weekend. The new house is only down the street from our current house, so Claire and I get the waggon out every night and take a stroll to look at the progress.

I also took a couple of pictures of Bill and Claire in the backyard waving to me in the "breakfast room" and a picture from our "living room" window of the beautiful view in the back. I can't wait to invite you all over to see the finished product!

Dancing with Mickey

2008-04-25T07:55:00.002-05:00

I really believe that Claire is some type of musical prodigy...whether it's going to be playing music (she loves anything with a keyboard) or dancing to music (she was stomping her feet to her daddy's Bluegrass music before she could do much of anything else). Whenever music is on, she is either clapping, dancing or trying to sing. Claire and I are home today (Friday) having a fun Mommy/Claire day and I couldn't help but share with you Claire's jive moves!!!

Easter Egg Hunts Bring Out the Worst in Moms!

2008-04-21T22:09:00.000-05:00

Although Claire is 17 months old, this Easter was our first, official Easter Egg hunt. Last year, she was still too little and had an ear infection on the frigid day of the hunt. So, our family geared up for the festivities this year. Dad got the Easter basket out of the attic, Mom pressed the outfit and off we went to the church. We were all excited, Claire dragging her basket which was twice the size of her behind her. One thing we neglected...practice! Claire had never experienced an Easter Egg Hunt and had no idea what awaited her. The race was on. The little ones took the field littered with Easter Eggs. Dad, Mom and Gran headed to the back of the field for a little privacy. We had to capture the perfect pictures. Well, not only did we not get the perfect picture, we didn't get any eggs either. Claire was too busy "people-watching" and Mom was too busy "body-checking" toddlers so they wouldn't get our eggs. One little boy did sneak in (see below) and get our eggs, Claire ended up with 6 total eggs (5 of them hunted by Mom) and the Easter Egg Bandit (the little boy) ended up with a basketful! All in all, Mom needs to check her competitive nature at the door of future Easter Egg Hunts!

Laughing Out Loud!

2008-04-21T22:02:00.000-05:00

Many times, dinnertime with Claire is a chance for me to get things around the house done. She's safely strapped into the high chair and talking to her grilled cheese sandwich or looking out the window looking for "Ruff-Ruffs" and I scurry around trying to pick up messes before she strikes and destroys again. However, many times I just stop and dine with her and those always create great memories. Here is one such occasion where I stopped everything and sat down with her. What I captured was sheer joy. Hope you enjoy...we sure did!!!

Starting Out

2008-04-21T21:52:00.000-05:00

This weekend I was in VA for a mother/daughter event. Friday night, over dinner, the conversation turned to blogging. "I'm not a blogger, " I announced proudly. "Why not?" many chimed in. "Because I'm an introvert by nature and I can't imagine that anyone would be interested in what I have to say." (You see, that is a true introvert. We are intrigued that the extroverts have so much to say and can easily keep a conversation rolling while we introverts have our standard 5 questions and once we have the answers to those, then the conversation turns to awkward silence. However, I am always intrigued by the extroverts conversation, but I always wonder how they are so self-assured to think that everyone is interested in their continuous stories). Back to dinner. A new friend that I had just met that day let me know she was also an introvert, but LOVED to blog. It gave her an avenue to keep up with family and friends from a distance. Ah-hah...and their lay my reason. Claire is 17 months old and is a barrel of fun right now. Doing and saying so many new things daily. But, I hate talking on the phone. And even if I enjoyed telephone conversations, I don't always have the time to call both sides of our family. As a girl, I always keep my mom and sister updated, but what about Bill's family. Well, here lies the answer...I'm blogging. So please check back now and then for new stories and pictures of Claire, updates on the new house and general information about The Cato House!!!