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. ;)