My Little Artist

This fall, Margie Grace began a new Sunday School class at church. We've noticed that her teachers this time around are a bit more ambitious in leading the class in some structured activities rather than just letting the kids have free play. She has previously brought home a couple of little coloring sheets but this past Sunday marked a milestone: she brought home her first piece of made-from-scratch, ready-for-the-refrigerator art. It reads "We thank God for fall" and Margie Grace decorated it with glued-on cut outs of many fall-themed items such as leaves, acorns and a squirrel (Sarah Harper should be proud!). Here is a picture of MG proudly holding her masterpiece, which has since taken its rightful place on the front of our refrigerator.

"I don't wear outfits!"

Judging from the title, you might think this post is about a conversation between me and Margie Grace. However, she has yet to learn that degree of diffiance (she just sticks with "no" and "not"). In actuality, it stems from an exchange between Neil and myself. Apparently, in addition to learning new parenting lessons everyday, I am also -- after six and a half years of marriage -- learning new wife lessons. Let me fill you in.


We haven't had Margie Grace's pictures taken professionally since she turned a year old so when her second birthday rolled around, I decided it was time to make an appointment once again. We also haven't had a family portrait made since MG was a three-week-old infant. The one we took was a very sweet studio portrait of the three of us, dressed in the ever cliche white and khaki. Well, the photo needs to be updated and I decided since I was scheduling a photographer to do MG's pictures that we'd also use the occasion to take a new family portrait. This time around we are doing the photos outside at Kiesel Park. Wanting to look cordinated but not matchy-matchy, I put together something specific for each of us to wear -- shirts and pants that look good together but hopefully won't look like we are trying too hard (yes, I found us a pair of matching Fair Isle sweaters but I spared Neil that shame!).

So Thursday was the big day for our pictures and the night before on the way home from church, Neil and I were talking about Thursday's schedule. Who has to be where when, etc. Because Neil had a meeting prior to our appointment with the photographer I told him "be sure you wear your outfit to Kiesel." The moment was puncuated by a sharp silence before Neil whipped his head around at me and said very plainly "I don't wear outfits!" What?!? So I continued, "Yea, you know, the outfit I bought you to wear for our pictures. Be sure you wear it to the park." He bristled again and balked at the message I was trying to convey, even sighing in disgust. I didn't understand so I countered with "so what are you going to wear?" To which he explained "Guys wear shirts and pants, not outfits!" I had obviously really touched a nerve with my choice of words. We continued the discussion: me brushing it off and explaining it was just a word and Neil telling me that only men like Richard Simmons wore outfits. "I don't do outfits. I don't do ensembles. I wear shirts and pants. You wear outfits. Margie Grace wears outfits. I. Don't. Wear. Outfits!" OK, gotcha, point taken. So Thursday morning, while reviewing our plans for the day I took caution with my reminder. "You know those very manly dark brown pants and red plaid shirt that I bought you at the mall this weekend? You need to make sure you are wearing that when you come to Kiesel. Just pull up and look for Margie Grace and I; we'll have on our outfits!"

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! The City of Auburn held trick-or-treating this past Thursday night so we set out around town showing off our cute little cowgirl! Margie Grace had a great time. In case you don't recognize her, MG is dressed as Jessie the Cowgirl (aka Woody's sister from the Toy Story movies). Mom made her chaps, I did the shirt and belt, the boots are my sister's from when she was a kid (nearly as good as new with a little persuasion from the hot glue gun!) and the red hat came from Wal-Mart. I think Margie Grace liked her costume and had a good time checking out everyone that was dressed up downtown. She received a fair amount of Halloween loot and has really been enjoying her candy over these past few days!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins and More Pumpkins

This week we've been decorating the three pumpkins that we picked up at the pumpkin patch. The two that Neil and I got were a decent enough size to carve. We used our handy dandy pumpkin carving kit that we picked up at Target last year to make two fun faces in our pumpkins. Margie Grace's pumpkin was a good bit smaller so I decided to let her paint her's. I figured this would be more fun -- and a lot safer -- for her (you know, her knife skills aren't up to par yet!). She really got into it and enjoyed decorating the pumpkin. She was a little bit finicky, though, about the paint getting on her hands. She'd say "nasty, mommy!" and demand that I wipe any wayward paint from her hands and the brush handle immediately. Here are some pictures from all that pumpkin decorating!

A View from the Top

Yesterday I had the opportunity to climb to the top of Samford Tower and catch the view from the highest point on Auburn's campus. It was a really cool experience and I'm glad I got to go. Our office is working on a video project for the Web and needed to shoot some scenes from the venerable clock tower. So we hauled ourselves and the gear up several flights of stairs (reminding me why I am so glad I work in the basement as opposed to the fourth floor) and into the attic of Samford Hall where we accessed the ladders that ascend first to the bell tower and then to the clock tower above it. All four of the clock faces in the tower manually roll back and you can stand within their circular frame for a bird's eye view of campus (Let me just add here that there are no window panes or screens but only a knee-high webbed barrier that is draped across the opening once the faces are rolled back. It is this small barrier alone that keeps you from being one footstep away from the ultimate meeting with the heavenly Father so the words "don't trip" up there carry significantly stronger meaning!). The view is truly magnificent and especially yesterday, with the weather being cool and crisp, it offered a perfect glimpse of Auburn from above. Each of the clock faces is backed by a huge piece of plywood and over the years, folks who have been lucky enough to venture to the clock tower have signed their names on the boards. I took the opportunity to inscribe my name in perpetuity in the tower -- if you are ever there, check out the bottom left-hand corner of the board on the clock face pointing toward College Street. I think this is a relatively new tradition as I didn't notice any signatures dating beyond the mid-90s; however, there is a bit of graffiti dated '15 (as in 1915) in the portion of the tower where the bell is housed. I guess there is something about proving your presence in a place and literally leaving your mark that never gets old. With all the new buildings and the face of campus changing significantly in the 21st century, it was really neat to be able to step back in time so the speak and see it all from above. Seeing the exposed brick and old beams in the attic immediately made me think of what the university must have been like when Samford Hall was truly the hub of a campus which was only made up of a couple of buildings. In case you are curious, Samford Hall is actually taller than Haley Center and offers a better view as it sits higher above sea level. Also, next time you visit Samford and look up, notice the weather vane that adorns the very top of the building's clock tower. The vane itself stands at 14 feet tall!

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Sunday Neil, Margie Grace and I ventured out to Jack-O-Lantern Lane, a pumpkin farm outside of LaFayette, Ala., to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and pick out the perfect pumkin to carve. This is the second year we have visited the farm and for the bargain price of $6 each, we got to ride on a tractor-drawn wagon out to the patch in search of the great pumpkin of 2008. Here's a tip: if you are looking for the perfect pumpkin any size bigger than a basketball, do not wait until the week before Halloween. It is akin to pulling up to the tree farm on Christmas Eve -- you're left with slim pickens at best. For a week before the big day, however, the selection was ok. Although the remaining gourds were a little on the smallish side, it actually worked out well for Margie Grace as she could pick up most of the pumpkins and handle them herself (which she is all about these days! "Margie do it."). The three of us wandered through the patch, each searching for the best pumpkin of the bunch. After scouring the place we settled on three pretty good ones . . . a momma pumpkin, a daddy pumpkin and a little baby pumpkin. We also took time to look around the working farm, which the owners have open for the public. Margie Grace got to see a donkey, goats, rabbits, chickens and horses. She was more aware and unsure of the animals this year as opposed to last year but I really think she enjoyed seeing live animals and being able to relate them to the ones we read about in her books. Here are some pictures from our visit.

The Pumpkin Patch . . . One Year Later

Since we visited the same Pumpkin Patch this year as last year, I thought it would be fun to try to recreate some of the pictures we captured last fall. This is my best attempt. Apparently over the course of this year Margie Grace has come to dislike horses and hay. I couldn't get her to sit on the hay bales long enough to take a photo (it was too "sticky" as she said). But she would cling to Neil so that I could take a couple with the sweet horse. What a difference a year makes!