Happy Birthday Shelly

The other night we went to a popular place called Ajax on "The Square" for a fellow Law student.. Shelly's birthday. I asked her what she recommended, she started naming items that loved..hush puppies (fried dough), oysters, fried catfish, pork butt BBQ...etc. I looked at her as if she was joking, however when I scanned the menu I had to search to find any kind of regular chicken or beef. NO chicken sandwich! Anyway, I decided to go for the chicken and dumplings with two sides. Let me tell you the orders at our table...mine, catfish platter, oyster sandwich, pro boy dish, and then meatloaf! I don't know if it was just the house that I grew up in, but I have never seen or heard anyone ordering meatloaf! I thought meatloaf was a leftover...what do I do with all this ground beef dinner? Anyway, I guess I was expecting different food since everyone raves about this place. I know, I am totally westernized. By the way, have you ever heard of Mac & Cheese as a side vegetable? That was on a list of "vegetable sides".
Paul was excited about his fried catfish and crawdad platter.
At the moment we are having a hard time "loving Oxford". It seems that our homesickness has become worse, as we are getting annoyed with some of the traditions and cultures heres. If people aren't drinking, they are talking about the next time they will be. We had a bad experience at a local BBQ throwdown festival tonight. We were expecting some family fun time. Instead... after paying an entrance fee we walk around only to realize that about 80% of the people are drunk and we have to pay for samples! The family activity consisted of two bouncy toys and one of them they were asking $1 each time you went through. Upon leaving I politely explained very logically to the man at the front that I felt like we should get our money back. He said I would have to go to the information center, upon trying to re-enter a women stopped me and said, "you have to pay to re-enter". I looked at her totally puzzled and started to explain that I had just come...that was no help and I just gave up. What a night...good thing I had some string cheese, grapes and fishy crackers in my bag to hold the kids over! Feeling like you have been ripped off is so upsetting.

Lis the Beast

I have the best younger sister. She is super sweet, highly competitive, and extremely beautiful. It has been over a month since she left us all alone in Mississippi and started her own adventure in Ephraim, Utah. She is half way through her first semester of college and living away from home. I think this is the first week she has hinted that she is homesick. Growing up I recall trying to convince her not to pull out her hair bows and that lacy is pretty not itchy. She is no where near the "beast" we once nicknamed her as a small child, but the most fantastic adult. This ones going out to you...sis

At the furniture store we found some interesting decor!

Trying out "the walk of champions" ourselves

Don't they both have great skin and awesome eyebrows? Lisa, you have baby smooth skin. Eden...you get it from your aunt.

The Office

Last night we answered our doorbell to find this on the doorstep. All you watchers of "The Office" will laugh as we did! The Blaus went to great lengths to accomplish this masterpiece. If anyone wants to know who I am going to be for Halloween...Pam. I have a perfect pin-striped button down shirt for the occasion.

Greatest job...being a MOM

For an awesome talk about being a mom:
http://www.byubroadcasting.org/findatalk/details.asp?ID=5372

My cute neighbor sent me this link and I watched the 20 minute video. Once you listen to it you will see what a great talk it is. Anyway, yesterday I went to my first "Law Wifes" meeting. It was fun to mingle, eat and meet new people. For the first time, I had one of those experiences that I had always heard of. One girled turned to me and said, "What do you do?" It seemed that all eyes were on me as I had already mentioned that I have two children. Other questions were asked about how we pay our bills and why we came to Mississippi. As the social came to an end the girls whipped out their stylist cell phones and started exchanging numbers. I pulled out my pen that Eden chewed the end of and wrote down all their numbers and names on the top of my "to go" box. They walked to their cute little cars and I to my mini van, I came home and was never so happy as to be a mom!

The Grove

The Grove is a big grass area in the center of campus. Every home game about 10,000 or more people come and gather to the "grove". Basically, it is one huge tailgating party that lasts the weekend. The students dress up, the girls in dresses and the boys in "church apparel". Two hours before the football game the team walks down "The Walk of Champions" which passes through the Grove and everyone cheers. It was a site to see, however the whole place smelled of alcohol and smoke. Ole Miss lost but here in the Grove they pride themselves in having a winning party. I think it was a one time experience for us.

I don't think I could ever get sick of seeing cute faces like this one.

Eden has a new obsession: the phone. She calls it the "hello" and pretends to talk to GiGi. She has decided that a calculator and lint brush are her favorite objects to hold to her ear and walk around with. She also likes to put the "hello" in a purse and carry that around.

Neighbor Friends

Having fun eating watermelon


Davey loves all the attention!


Mr. Paul giving horsey rides.

We have mentioned how we love the people here. One of our great neighbors are the Blau family who live a couple doors down. Sarah and Abby are Eden & David's favorite people. Tonight they came over to play, we just love this little family. Ben & Lisa (the parents) moved from Logan, UT and have been in Oxford for two years. They know everything about the ward and town...great resource. I tag along with Lisa to the park, story time and any other event going around in Oxford. Lisa knows almost every child and mom in the town. Paul thinks Ben is the coolest, those two seem to be two peas in a pod. Conversations could last for hours talking about sports, finance, schooling, life stories and of course Mitt Romney!

Long weekend with Dad

Paul loves to wrestle with the kids...whether they like it or not. Usually it ends with tears because he likes to trap and pin them down, you know toddlers...they don't like any restrictions. This evening it was all laughs as they rolled around on the ground.

Friday evening we went and got ice cream to celebrate the long weekend. We have entered the "three" stage. We can no longer just order "two", unless Paul and I want to share. Miss Eden wants her own and now she is very good at saying, "my ice cream, hold, me!". In the middle of all this self assertiveness, I am surprised she is so kind and willing to share with David. Whatever Eden has she always wants to share with David, but if David takes it...then she gets mad. Interesting how her generosity changes when she feels like her choice is being taken away from her.