Sitting alone at work

I am sitting here all by myself at work.  All the guys are at a conference in South Carolina.  Lucky for me, I am not directly involved in construction.  I just do the paperwork!  So, now I sit, alone watching the cast of Jersey Shore on Chelsea Lately.  Have you seen these people?  I love it.  I have no idea why, but I do.  I wonder though, are they really like this or does everything that happens on "reality tv" written on a script.?  I don't know, back when this whole genre came out, it just seemed more real.  Now it seems just too outlandish. 

My 30th birthday is this summer and I already feel old.  We recently purchased a new vacuum and I was totally excited!  My goodness is that a GREAT invention.  I have always been hesitant about expensive vacuums but man does it suck up the dirt.  We bought the all floor model because we have an equal amount of hardwood and carpet.  I have never, ever owned a vacuum that works on bare floors.  It always spits it right back out the back.  It also has this awesome stair attachment.  I did the stairs last night in about 10 minutes.  It used to be so hard.  It is also very light.  I used to struggle getting the stupid thing up the stairs but not anymore.  It has picked up so much dirt out of our house I can't believe that it has ever been vacuumed!  Here is my gorgeous new toy.  Like I said, feeling a little older lately!

I know we have all heard about the earthquake in Haiti.  I can't even imagine what it would be like to live off of $2 a day.  Now these people have less than nothing!  Please pray for them.   There are many different ways that people can help.  You can even text HAITI to 90999 and make a $10 donation that will help the people of that poor country.  It is a ligit way to contribute and AT&T has reported that they have received more than $4 million as of today.  Isn't that awesome!  God is really pulling people together.  Make sure to thank Him for all that he has given us.  I have and I do daily!

Okay, so that is all I have for now.  Steven has a pancake breakfast tomorrow at our church and we are planning on going there in the morning and then who knows.  I wish you all a great weekend!

2010 Goals and ramblings

2010 is already much different than 2009. We have had one of the coldest winters in a long time here in Alabama. That has made our family mighty lazy because we do not go outside much at all. We stay in our house like it is a fort protecting us from the extremely chilly breeze that is blowing outside. This makes for crabby children who do not get to go outside enough to burn energy.

Blake and I are planning and thinking and trying to figure out what improvements we would like to make this year. We did a great deal of home improvements in our old house. We bought the old house for a great deal and with a ton of love and money we changed almost the entire house minus the cabinets. When we purchased our new house, we did not want to do anything to it. It had been a "flipped" house so there was fresh paint on the walls and new floors and carpets already installed with new appliances to match! However, every room upstairs is painted the same color. It is a brown with some designs in it. This fits Steven's personallity and he is of the age of taping posters to the wall. But in Bryce's room it is drab to me. His old room was a gorgeous light blue color with a nautica border. I loved it. It was so versatile and would grow with him. Every bedding I have ever liked for his room matches that color. We would have to rent a heavy duty sander to remove what is presently attached to his walls. Plus that means uprooting a two year old to another room for a couple of days if not more than a week. But we think the time has come.

Our other problem as a couple is that we are both overweight. It started when we were married and after having Bryce the weight just sticks. We just LOVE to eat. Food tastes good and it is so yummy. We have been talking about adding more to the family though and I cannot get pregnant and be this overweight. It is a recipe for gestational diabetes on top of the fact that it is plain not healthy. I find this problem hard because I am feeding the kids and they need the fat. Steven is a skinny fella. We have to change our eating to more healthy and less snacking. Oh, and My name is Meghan and I am a Coca Cola addict! So, now it is out there and I have to be more accountable.

Now, I had mentioned earlier that we would love to enlarge the Carroll Family. I know that there is never enough money to have a baby but we are just now getting out of debt and we would love to pay off a couple more things before we even think about more babies. But I want more and I want more badly. It's funny how ten years ago I didn't want to expand at all ever again, period. But kids are such a blessing. They are truly God's gift and no matter what my kids do to get on my nerves, I love them so much it hurts! We are going to wait due to my student loans will begin repayment soon and we want to see how that will affect us.

So, I have given you guys a little to digest for the Carroll Family's 2010 goals. I don't like the word resolutions. These are my goals and hopefully we will meet a few of them. Sorry for a long post with no pictures. I am trying to get my feelings down a little more this year. Oh, and check out the signature! I am stepping up!

Just a few pics from the last week or two

We have an artist in the house!

He has to sit this way on the couch. If the table is not close enough he will move it towards him!

Loving on his Auntie M. He took to her one day when we had them over for lunch.

Lazy Weekend Stream

It's just too cold to do anything, much less leave the house. We ventured out this morning for church and haven't been anywhere since. I have been blessed with not one but TWO naps this weekend! I love napping and if I don't get one I am usually asleep on the couch by 830. Steven had to be up and out the door by 645 on Saturday for a merit badge workshop with the Boy Scouts. I don't even remember if we did anything else that day. Bryce wanted to ride his tractor so we did try to go outside Saturday to do that. He rode the thing out of our building and got off and ran back inside. The south has been frozen for some time now. I guess the north is too, however, we are not made for this type of weather here. I am lucky to even get a coat on Bryce lately. Man, the two's has really set in with Bryce. He is so independent and everything takes about 20 minutes longer because he has to do everything himself. Even somethings that you don't realize he wants to do. Sunday, Bryce was watching The Backyardigans (our new favorite) and I noticed that the dogs were ready to come back in. So, I walked on over and opened the door. He had the biggest come apart. Everything is now, "I do by myself." If he doesn't get to do it we then move into a large tantrum. Steven and I measured ourselves and he is officially an inch taller than me. Wow, has he grown this year! I cannot believe how tall he is getting. Dr. H told us years ago that he is expected to be 6'3 but I do not know where that is coming from!? He is almost a teenager! ACK! Blake and I are trying to financially get accustom to a change in our income. Blake's job has changed from weekly to biweekly paychecks. It is the same amount of money but it throws off my schedule of bill paying and takes a little time to get used to. We are trying to plan our year and figure out what we want to do and what we CAN do. So far we are pretty well packed for the next month or two. We have the circus coming up in February for Bryce and then the next weekend we are taking Steven to my hometown for a little skiing and Skyline Chili. We have Bryce's birthday in April, Steven's in May, Blake's in June, mine in July, and our 5th Anniversary is in July too! Wow, no wonder time flies! We are all well and that is a blessing. We fought sinus infections for most of December so it is nice to not have runny and snotty noses. I know this is so interesting so I will leave you all for today. Oh, one more thing, does it mean that I am old when I get excited over a new vacuum cleaner?

2010 National Champions!

Here's our hometown hero! He's a DHS Alumni!

Great Season! Roll Tide!

"Oh Yeah...By the Way, I'm BB King"

I am on a ticket first email list from the Von Braun Center and back in October I received an email that BB King would be in Huntsville.  I was super excited because my mother in law had just asked what everyone wanted for Christmas and I knew this would be perfect for Blake!  Blake and his brother had tried to get tickets before to see him and I just knew he would be so surprised at this type of gift.  I held it in for months waiting for Christmas to get here.  He had even heard that he was coming and was wanting to get tickets but I just kept deflecting.  Sneaky, I know.  Well, Christmas came and my mil totally surprised ME with a ticket also along with Brandon's significant other also.  The only problem was it was at the same time as the National Championship game.  I am so happy that we didn't sell our tickets.  It was one of the greatest things I have ever seen!  He is so talented and just keeps on ticking!  This year BB is 84 years old but he still rocks out!  He told stories from years ago and talked about life in general.  His nephew is in the band also.  The guitar player was new to his band but he too was exceptionally great. (I'm sure you have to be to play with BB)  I have no problem at all not seeing Alabama win because of being here.  We were even able to take a photo of him and I shook his hand not once, but TWICE!  Here are a few shots of our wonderful evening!

After the show ended he handed out jewelry and gave a few autographs.  We didn't get close enough for an autograph.

This is right before he left.  They must take him right out to the car because they bring out his coat and hat.  He had three helpers. 

He plays with saxes and some horns also but they were taking a break.  He is so funny and talks a bunch and man can he play!

I love this.  He saw that I had a camera and looked right at me and smiled.  He is so dashing!  Everyone was dressed to the nines!  He told us that he has played in over 90 countries!  I have never been to a more diverse show in my life.  There were so many different types of people there from young to much wiser!  Have I said that it was wonderful!???

Christmas 2009

Christmas was wonderful this year.  I really wanted to start the traditions with Bryce as I did with Steven.  Steven is always busy this time of year because he is blessed with multitudes of family.  Blake and I have been on vacation since December 23rd and it has been glorious.  I did have to work one day this week but it was so quiet the boss decided to close up early.  Bryce had a respiratory infection last week and after loving on mom and coughing in her face a few times now I am sick with the same crud.  Blake has had a little touch of it just not as bad as the two of us. 

Here's my little guy ready for Christmas to come. 

What a gross night Christmas eve was.  Steven had Christmas at Gare's dad's side of the family of this night.  That side knows Steven love for the University of Alabama football.  He came home looking like the Alabama Store was given to him.  He loves it!  Rosco and Sunshine hid in the house together snuggling near the fire.  Bryce watched The Polar Express and was just so excited knowing it was Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning I woke up around 5AM.  I layed there and could not sleep at all!  So, I got up and took a shower and watched the news.  Still no kids were awake.  Steven woke up around 645 and we just decided to go wake the baby and daddy!   As soon as I opened Bryce's door he popped up ready to go.  He came rushing down the stairs and the first thing he said was, "where's my dinosaur"?  We did not put the dino front and center.  It was hidden in the back.    Steven received a new knife.  Blake, Brandon, and Uncle Keith all have the same one so it is more of a family keepsake now.  I didn't get too many pictures but Blake filmed everything!

After everything was open we let Bryce open the dinosaur and he was scared of the thing!  Hilarious!  He loves it now and tries to ride him.  But he just couldn't understand where Spike's cage was.  You see this thing is on display at Target in a plexiglass case and I guess he thougt that was how it was going to come.

Afterward, we got the kids ready and headed to my parents.  Erin was up and at em already with the mimosa!  My favorite!  It was great!  I think everyone surprised everyone with their gifts!  I was really able to find things for everyone this year truly from the heart!

My brother got Bryce this chainsaw and he had to help Steven!  In that package was his very first guitar.  He has done so good messing around with it.  He is picking up things by ear which is impressive to me.  That is something I could never do!  Mamaw got Bryce some dress up clothes and he loves them.  He is a firefighter and a cowboy.  Notice Steven's outfit.  Roll Tide!  We were very surprised with a Garmin!  Love it!  I will use it around everywhere!  Plus, we are going back to Indiana soon to ski so it will come in handy!

We had to leave there to get Steven back to go to Gare's mom's house for Christmas there.  He received another guitar and a week at Nick Saban football camp this summer.  Totally excited about that!  David (his uncle) is an excellent guitarist and he showed Steven a couple things over there.  We had Bryce take a nap and we cleaned up the house a little.  I could not figure out where to put all the garbage and what boxes to keep.  We had to load up shortly and go to pick up Granny to head to Dena's.  We picked Steve up on the way.  Here are the little kids.  They are adorable.  They all love to play with each other and they are all obsessed with Steven!

Steven was given his first pair of birkenstock clogs!  He was so surprised.  He has barely taken them off.  I had been holding a secret in  since October.  Dena got Blake and Brandon tickets to see BB King at the VBC on January 7.  She surprised Margaret and I with tickets also.  The only kicker is that is the night of the Championship game.  So we will be enjoying BB King while checking up on the game with my iPhone. 

We had such a blessed Christmas this year.  The boys were so loving and watching them together this past week has been so nice.  Sometimes a headache but still wonderful!  I am really looking forward to a great New Year!