Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match, find me a find....

I tend to think daily of musical theater lyrics.. or., any lyrics that go along with whatever situation I am in, at any given moment of the day. It wasn't too long ago that my sister and I were together, and whenever that happens, atleast once during our hem-haw, we break into a chorus of "Sisters" from White Christmas. (The musical is coming to Memphis THIS December!) The particular situation I'm trying to think of now has escaped me, but... we were doing something.. when something else happened, we both looked at each other and busted into the same exact random song. Wish I could make the details of that a little more clearer. Ha.

Once upon a time something really funny happened, but no one can remember. Isn't that a grand story?

Oh me, .. the strange things my mind does. As it would happen, I am currently behind two computer screens at the moment, (I know, I'm really just begging for a migraine.) proctoring an exam. This is the only chance I get to update my blog. So, a while ago, I needed a break to pop some ibuprofen, reason for that will come later, and when I went to do that, naturally, I spilled half a bottle of water on myself trying to get the thing open. Great. I walked back into the room full of prospective college students with my shirt all wet. Geez.

One more story about me and then I'll get on to the main point. Brad and I have decided that, in the name of being more healthy, not losing weight, just being more healthy... ("losing weight" makes me nervous.. and more than likely will end in failure) that we will become professional mountain bikers. See, I need realistic goals here. We dug our bicycles out of the garage two weeks ago, shined and oiled them up, and took a spin around the block. Ouch. Riding a bicycle was MUCH more painful than I had remembered, but then, the last time I really rode, I was about 14 years old. Woo. It took me about ten 5 minute bike rides to lose the pain in my sit-bones over the course of two weeks, and then we hit Shelby Farms yesterday afternoon.

It really did scare me to ride on gravel.. its very unsteady, and so every time I came to a downhill ride on gravel, I got off my bike and walked it down. Haha. Lame, I know.. ahaha. As the afternoon went on, I got more and more courage about switching gears on an incline and breaking while going down hill. It is very difficult to keep a bike steady on the little bike trails. They are literally the width of the tire and thats it. So here we go up this hill, Jack (the great dane) running in circles all around us, bike ruts everywhere and big ruts from rainwater, and I'm punching it as hard as I can trying to get up this hill. I'm in the lowest gear, and thought I was really going to make it up when Jack the bonehead gets right in front of me and STOPS! Haha.. so instead of putting my left foot down on the ground, I put the right one down (I had a 50-50 chance of getting it correct) which happened to be over a pretty deep rut. And down I went into the dust and ruts. I just laid there covered in dirt and laughed. What can you do?

Ok, so thats my bike story for the week.

June 11, 2011 - YARD SALE in Midtown! Caroline, Mary Ruth, and Yours Truly, pooled a buncha JUNK together and made some real play money at the yard sale. Must do this again! Sure was an early Saturday morning, though! Whew.

Jack just HAD to play dressup in what was left from the yard sale stuff.

On the way home from the office one day.. I came across two gigantic tractors pulling discs down GERMANTOWN PARKWAY at lunch hour! WHO DOES THAT? I mean... I guess when you need to get somewhere you need to go, but.. really?? Tractors?? This ain't Lauderdale County!

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match. Find me find, catch me a catch! This is how Grammy plays with her GrandSON.

Isn't Eli such a cutie here??? Wait... yup, you guessed it! This isn't Eli. Its BRADLEY!!!!!! Cunning resemblance, right?

Peace.

June Is Bustin' Out All Over

Greetings!

I'm not for sure on the reason why I have put off updating my blog for over a month.., but, ah, it happens. May was CAH-RAZY for us Harrell folk! I think I got as far as Mother's Day in my previous post. After that, (May 8) I had several playing gigs for churches and schools, etc. Come to think of it, May is very similar to December in the concert world... concert, concert, concert. Very busy... but pretty lucrative.

Mid-way through May I even began a part time job at Union University Germantown campus. Yup, where Brad works too. I'm helping the sweet admissions folks out the office for the summer...and man, could it not have come at a better time! All my private piano students take breaks over the summer, well most of them, I think I have 4 or 5 now..., and so the extra income is very nice.

Here'a few images from the month of May and early June from the Harrell Plantation:

Friday, May 13 I played at my music club's annual spring tea recital. Eli and Brad came to cheer me on... actually, I was somewhat shocked that Eli sat through the whole hour long recital with no hollering out.. !! He is so good, bless his heart. That, and he loves music! But Brad was exhausted from being in baby-entertainment mode during that time.

Eli got his first harp lesson in the orchestra room at church...

April and May were very stormy months... this was the last big storm we had. It was on a Wednesday evening, so the Prices held up with us through the storm! We graded music papers and made oreo balls and even grilled out during the tornado warnings. hahah.

Eli went swimming for the first time at Aunt Freda's house on Memorial Day. This picture was taken a couple of days later at our condo complex. He LOVES the water!

He is getting to big for his little baby cradle thing. :(

Dr. Harrell, I presume

The Final Fabulous Finish Line and Mother's Day

Last week was a pretty high-octane, killer week. Brad spent each day in Jackson with his students who flew in and drove in from all corners of the globe for "on-campus" week. I had several rehearsals lined up for upcoming recitals and concerts, and I was on the final stretch of editing my Master's thesis. The final cut was printed Thursday afternoon May 5 and I got that things bound and presented with a big shiny "A" pasted on the front. Too bad she really didn't have a big hot pink "A" sticker to stick on it..., but then again, I guess I'm not in preschool...

The week began (where I left off in my previous edition) on Saturday. I came home from a morning of teaching lessons and running errands to find my two loves enjoying the beautiful weather on the patio.

Tuesday came around quickly and while Mommy was rehearsing at a nearby school for a choir concert, Eli got to meet and play with his newest friend Adrien - who happens to be two and a half years old and is pretty fluent in English, Chinese and French. We need to visit there more often. :)

This is during one of my practice sessions at the piano. I always turn the little TV on but mute it so I can play. The piano sits right behind this sofa and at one point I didn't hear the racket of toys clanging together, so I turned around and this is what I found. Of course he's more interested in watching Mommy play than in watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Haha.

Wednesday evening I was very surprised find this scene when I turned the corner to pick him up from the nursery at church. He's getting so big. This sitting up thing is new this week.

Friday morning my Daddy drove down south for a morning of his daughters and little sweet Eli. Breakfast at IHOP turned out to be one of those "misses" in the "his restaurant experiences are hit-and-miss" category, as it fell right during his morning nap time, but we had a good time anyway.

I had to include this one. Brad worked a 12 hour shift in the ER Saturday. This was at breakfast before his loooonnnnggg workday.

I need to find pictures of Wyatt's (Eli's cousin) first birthday party that we attended on Saturday afternoon to include here. We drove up to Ripley, my BFF Kayla in-tow, and went to the big first birthday bash for little Wyatt. Can't believe its been a year since our little family has entered baby-dom!

Later on that night Kayla and I drove to Jackson to attend a beautiful wedding on the campus of Lambuth University and danced and partied our little hearts out at the reception until midnight. Exhaustion set in promptly after that. But we SHO needed a night out to let our hair down and have some FUN! Congrats and Best Wishes to Mr & Mrs Tucker!

So after the huge wedding celebration in Jackson, we decided to bunk at Kayla's in-laws' home instead of driving the hour back to Memphis. So on my very first Mother's Day I woke up in someone else's house, without my baby! :( But I woke up super early and hit the road at 6:30am to make the drive back home in time for church! But, when I got there, we had a big breakfast and went to sleep! Yikes! (Eli had spent the night in Ripley with his grandparents after the birthday party)

We got in the car (again) and drove an hour to Ripley to celebrate Mother's Day with my husband's family out in the country. A big lunch, a tour of the backwater (the MS River is SOO high right now), some lazy talk, playing with cousin Wyatt's new birthday toys, and visiting Grammy (my Mommy) made for a full Mother's Day.

Here is a picture of me, my younger sister, and Mama sometime in the late 80s I would say. Maybe 1988 or 1989. Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Royal Wedding Day!

The time currently is 1:21pm. I have a slight tired headache because, yes, I set my alarm for 5:00am Central Standard Time to be awake when Kate Middleton walked into Westminster Abbey as the blushing bride of Prince William Mountbatten-Windsor. What a glorious day London has had! I'm thinking it is now about 6:30pm and I'm sure all involved are exhausted to the point of death. Oh Happy Day! Many blessings to the newlyweds!

Yesterday was pretty uneventful mainly because I finished up the final first draft of my masters thesis! Yay! The struggle is over! As a reward to Elijah for literally entertaining himself for the last 2 days, I gave him a pretty little tree in the northeast corner of his bedroom. Looks great... I think I'll do another couple or so around the room later on... But.. he seemed to like it, .. I think.

When Daddy arrived home from Jackson today, we all had quite a hankerin' (that means "craving" for all my yankee friends..) for some Mexican food, so while Daddy and Eli waited on Momma to get everything out of the house in preparation to go, Eli got his first driving lesson. :)

This is a picture of Eli at the restaurant. As long as he can find something to focus on, he's a-okay!

And naturally, this is what he was focused on. Hahahah

Back at home for the evening having HIS supper.. isn't he such a big boy now holding his own bottle? :)

Peace.

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Happy Easter everyone! I trust everyone woke this morning and gussied up with bonnets and hats and special new dresses and new shoes to go to church and worship the risen Christ!!

We sure did! Bellevue was busting at the seams this morning at the 9:30 service and had a big ol' crowd again at the 11:11 service too. The orchestra and choir lead the worship at both services, so we arrived bright and early in our "uniforms" (no new easter dresses or bow ties for us!) promptly at 8:15 and parked in the soccer field parking lot. (We were asked to park there to leave room for visitors in the main lots.) We three Harrells boarded a BBC shuttle bus with a couple of other orchestra friends and rode through the parking lot to the church. Everyone was so excited! The excitement of everyone was so apparent from the door greeters to the nursery workers and everyone else we met in the hall. The choir room was FULL of food and was buzzing with Easter greetings, the aroma of coffee and old spice, and ladies applying some last minute lipstick.

The worship service was glorious. And when I say glorious I mean you could SEE the Holy Spirit in that room!! Amazing! We prayed and laughed and sang some amazing music! The choir and orch went back to the choir room for some of that food that was in there and we actually watched the sermon from the choir room. (Since there was no room in the inn! - i mean, in the sanctuary for any of us to sit since the Prodigal set is still up and the choir loft really isn't there right now...)

It wouldn't be truly a day in the life of the Harrell family if some silly little tragedy did not occur. Brad and I had our little plates of breakfast food (some AWESOME cheesey grits casserole!) and glasses of orange juice with us on the top row of seats in the choir room. Brad thought it would be a good idea to set his glass of orange juice down on the pathway through the riser. Oi. I SO saw that accident waiting to happen. One lady passed through and stepped over it. Phew. Another mother and daughter were coming through. The mother stepped over it...but alas, the daughter kicked the whole glass of orange juice over, spilling juice not only on the top level where we were but down onto the lower level and I'm sure dripping all down underneath. (The levels are like risers.) Nobody made any type of mood to clean it up. Nobody! So.. here goes momma Harrell, with napkins in hand and butt high up in the sky trying to dry up the juice. BRAD!

Ok, ok... so after church we headed straight home to crash.., and crash we did. After a very light lunch of hamburger surprise, we popped in the new DVD we were given at church this morning of the Prodigal performance, put Eli to bed, and then put ourselves to bed. We slept until 5pm. All three of us. lol.

After a couple of hours of more tv and more R&R, we went over the Shelby Farms to get some fresh air and to let the dog run and jump like he likes to so every now and then. We loaded up Eli in his trusty stroller and off we went. Home again in about an hour and to bed everyone!

What a wonderful day in the Lord we spent together!

Easter Eve

Greetings, all! Happy Easter! He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!!

Today is Saturday - the day before Easter Sunday! I have such fond memories of the day before Easter growing up in the Asbury Community in Ripley, TN. We always had a great big Easter Egg Hunt on the church grounds. The "prize egg" was the most coveted egg hidden and it was always a potato wrapped in foil, if I remember correctly. Wonder why the "prize egg" wasn't even an egg?

Anyway, today I happened to be out early this morning running an errand, about 10:30am and I ended up coming back home through Bellevue's parking lot. I saw the Easter Egg Hunt. Wow!!! So many people and children and then I saw a whole soccer field literally covered in multi-colored eggs! Hahah... That brought a big smile to my face. I wonder if Eli will be big enough to hunt eggs next year... oh the fun we will have!

Today Grammy and Papa Don came to visit. Sister also visited during her lunch break and we all had quite a feast of pork tenderloin and rice with artichoke hearts. Yum. Eli had sweet peas and some yummy formula. :) After dinner and after Sister went back to work, the four of us went on a stroll around the community.

A much needed break after a long walk...

A nice warm bath to end the day and to be fresh and smellin fly for church in the morning!

Dr. Brad went in to work today at the hospital, and so he's been gone all day. I got my house back in order, which was an all day process with a four hour break in the middle to visit with the parents, and then after Eli went to bed at 8:30p, I finished my day up with putting away clean laundry and baking some chocolate chip cookies that'll be fresh when Brad gets home tonight. Good night!

Happy Easter!

Rolly Poly

Here is Eli's little SeaWorld Jungle Gym that he can lay in on his back and look up at things to play with. He has been using this since he was a week old and has been quite successful at playing in it. Yesterday, however, I laid him down in it and proceeded on to the kitchen to get some cleaning done and when I walked back in to the nursery to check on him FIVE minutes later, this is what I found! Hahaha. He had rolled all the way over in the middle of the floor in the dirty clothes pile. Movement, here we come!

Top o' the Mornin to Ya!

Good morning all! A typical morning at the Harrell House: baby is full form breakfast and is settled in front of Mickey Mouse Club. Dog is full from breakfast and his fast asleep in exactly the one place he does not need to be. Sigh. Oh well, he sure looks comfy.

The Painfully Ordinary

I dislike days like today. It was a day filled with nothing but the ordinary happenings of a little family on a day when nothing special occurred. Brad is still sick. In fact, he is still so sick that he went to the doctor this afternoon. This doctor-nurse practitioner went to a doctor office as a patient. His chest is filled with gunk and he has not been able to kick it out! He is going to have a chest xray maybe tomorrow and then hopefully we will have an answer as to whether he has some monster asthma, or will have the dreaded diagnosis of pneumonia. Yikes.

Brad didn't sleep much last night, therefore I didn't sleep as soundly as I normally do. We had a pretty rad storm around 11pm and then fell asleep sometime after midnight, but then Brad woke up around 2am and couldn't go back to sleep. I am such a sound sleeper, I didn't realize he was awake for quite awhile until I heard the noises from a movie being played on the ipad right net to my head. Poor guy. He just couldn't sleep, couldn't breathe, couldn't get comfy, and so he went on watching videos and movies on the ipad until around 7:30am.

I was exhausted when I woke up, so after feeding Eli and playing with him for 2 hours or so, when I laid him down for his morning nap, I laid myself down for a morning nap! I slept another two whole hours and felt much more rested when I finally got rolling at noon. Noon!!

Gah... i seriously need a life.

The weather was a little cool for being April 20, very windy, gray, and gloomy. I went over to Bellevue to teach a few piano lessons at 2p, and by the time I left to come back home at 5:30, the thunder was rolling again, lightning was electrifying the dark sky, and rain was coming down in torrents!

My most favorite couple in the wide world is always at our house on Wednesday evenings before church and today was no different. Dinner was Chop Suey with rice and potstickers! Yum! Since tonight's rehearsals at church are in preparation for Easter Sunday, and I more than likely will not be there because of Eli's little sickness, I decided not to rehearse tonight. The Prices did not go as well because they won't be there Easter Sunday, and so the three of us - Kevin, Kayla, and I had a marvelous little supper without Brad. :(

Incidentally, Brad is STILL over at church and its 8:35p!

Anyway, so here I am, only about 8 hours since I woke up today, back in my room settling in for the evening. Eli is still taking his evening nap. I should go in there and wake him up - doesn't need to sleep too much longer.

The more I think about it, the more I should really be thankful for days like this when nothing special happens. I woke up, didn't I? I got to play with the sweetest little baby boy ever born, didn't I ? I get to share my life with a wonderful husband, family, and friends. I have a lot to be thankful for.

So maybe today is ordinary because I didn't do much, but its always extraordinary because its a gift from God - filled with people that I love.

Thorns.

I have learned to appreciate everything I do for sweet little Eli. So many people will tell me "Oh! Don't waste any moment with him! He'll be grown before you can turn around!" REALLY?? I suppose thats true..., but there is ONE thing that I could SO live without doing.. and that is changing crib sheets. That daily activity - well, mostly a daily activity, since the little guy seems to be a pee pee factory... could cease at this very moment and I will delightfully NEVER look back for it. But alas, here are a few pictures documenting today's thorn.

DONE! :)

Until tomorrow.....

The Plague

Every time Eli gets sick, does that automatically mean that I will be sick too? Geez, Louise! This is the second round of sickness that he's had, and the second round of nasty cold that I've had. And naturally, it came the week of the Prodigal (Passion Play) Performances at church. Poor little baby - antibiotics, breathing treatments, skin oil.. the works!

Not only did I get a nasty head cold along with him, but Daddy did too! Brad and I have been married almost 6 years and dated 2 years before that, and I think I remember him being sick like this TWO times. He never is sick!! And yet he is worse than I am! I've got TWO sick boys! Atleast Jack isn't hacking and gacking like the rest of us.

Last week during rehearsals at church, I had to sit out for the final dress rehearsal because poor little baby boy was so sick. He's so sweet though - he doesn't let much make him unhappy, he's still all smiles and giggles and is sleeping pretty good to be so congested in his head and chest. I'm so glad. Instead of a night of dress rehearsal, we took a stroll around the community. Thats when I snapped this picture. ;)

LOL !

If you don't know what LOL means... well, then that means you aren't reading this, but.. it means LAUGHING OUT LOUD.

Guess what!!?!? Guess who LOLed? Yup! You guessed it! Baby Elijah LOLed last night!

What had happened was..

Daddy was gone to an out of town dinner meeting waaaayyyy up in Dyersburg, TN and in the meantime at home, Mommy was cleaning up Christmas Decorations and trying her darndest to entertain Little Mr. Harrell. After the videos on the ipad wore out their welcome, we resorted to the lay-the-blanket-on-the-floor-in-the-nursery game with lots of toys to look at and music and lights flashing. You know the drill. He was pretty happy and having a little fun looking and touching everything, then I thought it'd be the perfect opportunity to read a little to him. Well, he was SO not interested in hearing me read to him! His fussiness lured Jack (the great dane) back to the nursery and while I had Eli on my left knee bouncing him a little to take his mind off of whatever it was that was making him fuss, Jack came in the room pacing back and forth trying to find a spot to lay down in.

I was shocked when my little not-yet-3-month-old babe just chuckled his little heart out looking at the dog! The dog! Hahahahaha... Love it!

Can't wait to hear that little laugh again!

Merry Christmas! And Welcome to Our Light Show!

Whew wee - were the holidays a busy time or WHAT? Let me just catch you all up on everything since November 15. On November 16, my sweet Bradley turned thirty years old. Oh yeah... middle age is coming on fast - we ain't seventeen anymore - although that was a fun year and in my heart I'll always be seventeen or twenty... haha. Anyway.. that reality hit, and so now we really are on the road to being grown ups. I guess.

I went back to work at FUMC - my church job where I was Director of Music. After two weeks of being back, I turned in my six week notice that I would be leaving for good. (Big frowny face.) Even after only doing it for 2 weeks, I could see it a whole lot more clearly that that job and driving and hauling my sweet tiny babe in swaddling clothes back and forth just was not going to work. I didn't like relying on my mother to keep him, although I think if it were up to her, I could just GIVE him over to her and she would happily spoil him for the rest of his days. Hahaha. Grammys.

But I didn't want to just walk out on them right before the start of Advent and Christmas. Oi. We got through the Christmas Cantata and all the other things that were going on and it turned out to be quite a success I might add. A bit of advice for all you other church music folks: don't do two cantata performances in one day, especially on a Sunday because you have all the regular Sunday morning grind, then rehearsals starting two hours later, and after the FIRST performance you're ready to roll over and take a snooze. I thought I was going to die that day. And then I went home and slept straight for about 26 hours. :) (Disclaimer: yes, definitely DO 2 performances or 6 or 8 or whatever you have in you, but just don't do them in the same day.)

Okay, where does that put us? Elijah happens to be doing quite well. That little piggy is eating and giggling and playing and sleeping his way through life. Can't wait until he's Dancing Through Life. Haha.. I love Wicked. Anyway.. Christmas was tough on the little feller. He was passed around like the little hot potato he really is, but that wore him out! On top of that, he got his first round of vaccinations the day before Christmas Eve. He seemed to do fine with that, we pumped his little booty full of Tylenol all during Christmas just to help him relax a little if he happened to be a little sore.

And now... for the traumatic happening during Christmas....

You know, (big sigh), there is always some sort of drama going on during the holidays. I think its because everyone has a crazy family and when multiple crazy people get together, then its almost like as crazy as a loom. (Loooommmmm.....orrr.... dump truck??) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA. okay, only about 4 people get that one. But here's what had happened:

Picture this: freezing cold Thursday night, December 23. About 6:00pm. Dark outside. Wind blowing. (A little background for the story: everyone knows we happen to have a very large Great Dane - he's not THAT big, like Big George the Great Dane, but Jack is unusually tall for the Great Danes he goes to school with.. haha. The daycare had lost his leash, and on top of that my husband had misplaced his gentle leader - which is a contraption that we affectionately call his "G-String" because its a collar that wraps around the back of his big boy ears and goes on his nose, like a horse thing - maybe a bridle? Anyway, the gentle leader helps you control the large dogs, because they won't pull AT ALL when their control is from their nose. *would you pull on something that was going to yank on your nose? nope. not us either*) Okay. so back to the main story:

I was taking Jack out on his normal evening outing to take care of business. This young man is walking by with a small dog, maybe of the Shih-tzu Breed or something of the like. Now, you know, Jack loves little dogs, in fact, he really thinks he's a Shih-tzu since he was raised around one. He loves their quick movements and especially their bark - they just get his motor running if you know what I mean. lol. So, I forgot to mention that I had him on some kinda thread leash cheapest of the cheap thing that the daycare gave us since they lost his heavy rope lead. Oi. Let's wrap this up, Rach -

Jack is pooping. Just as he finishes, the little dog is walking right by out on the street. The little dog yelps. Jack lunges, and I try, oh gosh did I try, I TRIED to hold him, but when 150 pounds of dog decide to run, and you don't have something trustworthy to hold him with, guess what? He runs. The poor guy - I had never actually seen before walking his dog, although I know his face from living in our community, but I really don't think he had ever seen our big Jack before. Jack scared the living daylights out of him because he was running, full speed ahead, towards him and his little dog.

One can only imagine what insued in the following moments. Screams from a man, screams from a little dog, and a very loud and joyous BARK from Jack filled the cold night air at 1792 Appling Oaks Circle. I went on about my business taking Jack's business in the house for flushing, and then something completely startled me! It was the man! He was yelling at me! At ME! Oh my, and what he was yelling at me was not a melodious "Merry Christmas!" Oh no, it was not. It was more like something you'd hear from a crazy and gory rated NC17 movie down at the discount movie theater on summer ave. I was in shock! My shock was in shock! No one talks to me that way!! Especially on Christmas Eve Eve! The nerve.

Well, the scourging ended and he merrily pranced his way down the street after my large and wooly husband stood in the front door and looked all mean at him. Ha! Serves hi right! The big and almighty Dr. Harrell scared the mean man away!!

Speaking of scared, that whole thing SCARRED my whole Christmas weekend!! But, in hindsight, I suppose, if I were an unassuming individual walking my cute little puppy on Christmas Eve Eve and enjoying all the Christmas Lights (especially ours!) and then suddenly a GINORMOUS dog came bounding across a yard at me... AND the owner did not seem to do much about it, I suppose I'd scream obscenities too. I knew Jack wasn't going to hurt them. But THEY didn't know that. I should've thought about that. That would've been neighborly.

But then.. I haven't really been known for being neighborly.. OR thoughtful at all for that matter...