My Poor Baby

This morning Mara Kate and I headed over to Katie's for our weekly play date. Katie and I were busy visiting while the girls were playing dress up, as usual. Dressing up as princesses is something they do every time they play together, so that wasn't a big deal. The problem came when Mara Kate tried to walk down the stairs to Ella Ann's room while decked out in her poofy princess ballgown and dress up high heels. She couldn't even see her feet I am sure due to the many layers of her fancy skirt. She apparently missed a step and fell face down, down the stairs. She hit her mouth pretty hard and got a bad cut on her bottom lip as well as a gash on her top gum above her teeth. When we heard both girls crying (Mara Kate was crying because she was hurt and Ella Ann was crying because Mara Kate was hurt and she didn't know what to do) we came running.

We found Mara Kate with her feet stuck up in the air. Her ball gown had flipped over the top of her head and all we could see was fabric. When Katie lifted her up and handed her to me, she looked down and saw a pool of blood on the stairs. This happened about the same time I saw blood on Mara Kate's mouth. It was a doozy for sure. Katie and I were both shaken up, partly because it took quite awhile for the bleeding to stop, in spite of the pressure I was putting on it.

Katie called her dentist and talked to him over the phone and he told us what to watch for. I eventually left and took Mara Kate over to Ga Tech to let Kane look at it and help me decide if I should take her to the dentist. He took one look at her and said, "GO!" So, we headed immediately over to the dentist who graciously squeezed her in. He said that it looks worse than it actually is and told me that the amount of swelling that was present and the oozing was normal for the hit she took. But, he also told me exactly what to watch for that could be a sign of possible infection over the next couple weeks.

I'm glad I took her in as I feel much better knowing a professional was able to take a good look at her. Also, I'm so thankful that she isn't hurt any worse.

She looks like she's been in quite a fight, but hopefully in a few weeks she'll be as good as new.

My poor baby!

Newly Acquired Skill

Finally Finished (Writing)!!!

Over the past two months Kane has been working extremely long hours writing his thesis. It is quite a task to get 5 years of research into written form. He said writing this document has made him work harder than he ever has in his life.

Mara Kate and I took a week long trip to the beach with his family, without him because he was writing. Then, a week and a half later we took a 10 day trip to Missouri to visit my family so he could write, write and write some more. Being home alone all day and all evening was no fun for us, so we tried to stay as busy as we could.

Kane has been working until midnight or 1 am almost every night this past week and last night he was up until 4am. A printed copy of his thesis is due to his committee today, so he had to get it finished before this morning.

Thankfully, he was able to pull it all together and get the 5 copies he needed printed in time. He climbed in bed at almost 4am and slept for awhile, but it now up and getting ready to go to work (at 9am). He'll deliver his thesis, work the rest of the day and then we'll go out to dinner tonight to celebrate the fact that his writing is over. Yay!

He still has work to do between now and his defense (which is scheduled for July 23), but it won't require such long hours into the wee hours of the morning.

I'm so ready to have our evenings back together and actually be able to eat supper together too. I might actually cook a little if there is someone here to eat my cooking. ha!

Only two more weeks until our move. I've packed everything that I CAN at this point, but feel like there is a lot I'll need to pack the day or so before our actual move. Fun times for sure. I'm just ready to be in our new house so we can get unpacked and settled. We are all fairly tired of living surrounded by boxes. And Mara Kate randomly asking for toys she hardly ever plays with anymore and having to tell her, "Sorry it's packed!". Ugh.

Anyway, we can really see the light at the end of the tunnel now and I'm so extremely proud of Kane for all his hard work and for getting his thesis finished. We both felt like this time would never get here! The process of writing a dissertation has been compared to birthing a child and I think that's a pretty good comparison (although I can't imagine 5 years gestation). ha!

Congrats Babe! What an accomplishment. Now, just to defend all you've written about!

the last page!

Quick Outing

Kane's aunt Carol was in Atlanta on business this weekend and called us to join her and a friend for a quick visit at the Varsity. Kane was working hard on finishing up his thesis, so he wasn't able to join us (he worked until almost 4am last night) but Mara Kate and I headed over for a little visit and a yummy treat. Mara Kate opted for a chocolate milkshake and I got the Frosted Orange. Yumm. Thanks for calling us Carol. It might very well be the last time we'll go to the Varsity before our move to Rome.

Carol and Mara Kate at the Varsity

I just recently finished reading two books by Elizabeth Musser, The Swan house and The Dwelling Place. Both take place in Atlanta, which was so fun as I knew a lot of the places they talked about. The characters in the books often went to the Varsity for frosted orange drinks!

If you live in Atlanta and haven't read these, you should! Thanks Katie for recommending them to me.

Free Chicken!

It is once again Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A. We participated in this event last year and decided it was worth doing it again even in the midst of packing for our upcoming move. So, we took a break from filling boxes and pulled together a cute little cow costume for Mara Kate.

Basically, the deal is if you dress up like a cow, you get a FREE meal at Chick-Fil-A today.

I didn't really "dress up" this year, but did wear black and white and an "Eat Mor Chikin" sign on the back of my shirt. That at least qualified me for a free sandwich though! :) Mara Kate was decked out, even with a cow bell hanging around her neck so she got a full kid's meal for free. She had fun and got lots of compliments on her outfit. Check her out!

Showing off her spots, ears and tail!

...and her black cow NOSE!

...and finally an "eat more chikin" sign for her as well.

Enjoying her free lunch.

Me with my cute, little cow.

and with Daddy!
Kane spared one of his precious hours today to go with us. It meant a lot to me as we haven't had much family time as of late, so it was extra special that he made it happen. Thanks Babe!

We are hoping by the close of this weekend that things will lighten up a little bit between now and his defense date. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

OK, so who else is planning to take advantage of this Chick-Fil-A promotion?!

Road Trip to Kansas City

All the "Burton" grandchildren together

From left to right, youngest to oldest: Megan (1), Olivia (almost 2),
Mara Kate (3), Grant (4), Dresden (4), Liam (7), Alley (10)

I'm back home from my road trip to Kansas City. It was a good trip and fun to be with my family and to have all the cousins together in one place. With 7 kiddos running around there were definitely some crazy moments, but overall it was great just being able to be together for over a week.

Also, it was nice that I got to eat some of the best BBQ around twice during our visit...mmmm!

Since Kane and I have only one car right now (we are getting ready to get a 2nd one soon though...finally after living with only one for 5 years) it was quite a feat working out the logistics of how I was going to get to Kansas City without a car. Here's how it worked out...

Thursday---Kane drove Mara Kate and I to Chattanooga where his sister and her husband picked us up. They drove us back to their place in Nashville where we spent the night. Later that afternoon my sister Heidi and her kids drove to Nashville from Birmingham. They stayed the night with us in Nashville. We did get to take the kids to the pool and Elizabeth fixed us a yummy supper and her sweet, sweet husband took all 3 kids to the playground at one point...so even though it was a quick stop over we were very grateful to be starting out on our long drive approximately 4 hours closer to our destination than if we had started from home.

Friday---Got everything loaded and headed out....then I realized I couldn't find my prescription sunglasses, which I would need to help with the driving...went back and looked for them at Elizabeth's, couldn't find them and decided we just had to leave. Ugh. It got us off to a later start, but we were finally on our way. We drove for about 9 hours to Kansas City, making various stops along the way. At one said stop I decided to dig through some of my bags in the trunk to see if I could find my glasses. I did eventually find them in the bottom of Mara Kate's duffle bag. Not sure why I put them there and certainly didn't remember doing it, but I was happy to find them. Ha! We arrived in Kansas City in time to eat my mom's spaghetti for supper.

We were in Kansas City from Friday evening through the following Sunday morning....lots of family time. Lots of visits to the hospital to visit my grandmother who is recovering from surgery and some blood clots. It was great to get to see her because at one point we weren't sure she was going to make it and I had wondered if I'd ever get to see her alive again. I'm very thankful to God for allowing us to have some good time to visit with her. We are hopeful that she will recover fully and be able to go back to her house sometime soon, but it may take some time for her to regain enough strength to care fully for herself. So, we will continue to pray for her to have strength.

My Mom took her three daughters out to lunch one day while we were there....to a neat place called Andre's. Dad graciously agreed to watch all 7 children on his own while we went for our little outing. We had a lovely lunch together and also enjoyed some time to go shopping at a neat kitchen/garden store afterward. I got several really neat items I know I'll enjoy for a long time to come, including these fun reusable name plates my mom bought me as an early birthday present. I think I'll use them as place settings as well as identification plates for buffet style eating. When we got home my dad was more than a little frazzled. He said he now truly appreciates all mothers of young children. He had 5 under 5 running in opposite directions for close to 4 hours. I think he did a pretty good job though. Thanks Dad for letting us have some "grown up girl time".

Also during our trip all the adults went to see The Proposal. We went in shifts though. I went with Tara and my Dad. It was a pretty cute movie.

Our last day in Kansas City was the 4th of July. When we planned our trip we decided we wanted to be there for that holiday so we could have a good Burton meal, the kind we grew up with. Dad grilled some yummy hamburgers, mom made her potato salad and perfect baked beans and it was just as I was hoping it would be. I had been looking forward to that meal for weeks. :)

Thanks Mom and Dad for hosting us, feeding us and for all the chocolate milk the kids went through. I know that was a big treat for Mara Kate. :) We loved spending time with you and are looking forward to your visit in October.

Sunday---We headed out fairly early on July 5th and drove back to Nashville. Heidi ended up just dropping us off and continued driving to Birmingham. She made it all the way home in one long day, but I know she was glad to be in her own bed and have her husband's help again with the kids. I stayed the night at Elizabeth and Choonghwan's again. Kane's mom had agreed to drive to Nashville from Knoxville and pick us up and take us home. She arrived a little later that evening and spent the night as well. We headed out Monday morning planning to make a pit stop in Rome, GA. She had brought several things that I had in storage in her basement with her to drop off at our new house in Rome. So, we went to Rome and did that. She hadn't seen the house so it was fun showing her where we'll be living shortly. Then we headed back to Atlanta, stopping to pick up supper and take it to Tech so we could spend a little time with Kane. After we ate with him he went back to work (until close to midnight that night) and we came on home. I finally got all the way home around 8pm on Monday night.

So, now I've got to get myself motivated to finish all the packing I didn't do before this trip. I've got less than 3 weeks until moving day and I also need to fit in another trip to Rome to finish cleaning the house and run a few Rome errands to to get everything ready and set for us to move in.

As usual, to see the pictures from our trip, click HERE.

Phew---ok, so this was a long post, but maybe that makes up for the fact that I haven't been posting much over the past few weeks.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's that I know.
Especially to Kane, my Dad and Kane's Dad! All three of you have blessed my life in more ways than can be counted!

Mara Kate and I made "breakfast in bed" for Kane this morning (which simply consisted of two pieces of cinnamon toast and a cold glass of milk). :) We also gave him his presents first thing before he even got out of bed. We got him a mouse pad with Mara Kate's picture on it (for his new office at Shorter College), a new belt (such a "Dad gift" I know, but it's something he needed/wanted) and a plaster heart wall hanging with Mara Kate's hand print in the middle. So sweet and it will probably be cherished more as her hand grows over the years.

Mara Kate with her Daddy after a yummy Father's Day lunch at Jim 'N Nicks BBQ!

Life

Life right now is pretty hectic. That's he main reason I haven't posted as consistently as I normally do. Please bear with me over the next few weeks until we get ourselves moved and somewhat settled. I'm sure I'll have lots to post about soon as we will have lots of changes happening.

In the week I've been home from the beach I've packed a lot of boxes. Had moving companies come to give estimates and also got the keys to our new house in Rome. A friend and I drove up yesterday with a car load of stuff. I got the keys and we started painting Mara Kate's new room. Her favorite color is green if you didn't already know and she has been praying for a green house! Well, the house we got isn't green so we decided we'd paint her new room green to help with that disappointment. Well, my friend Christy and I got about half of the work done while we were there yesterday (I'm so thankful for her help and the chance to chat and catch up while we worked).

Because I can't stop thinking about something until it is DONE and because Kane was working all day today (still is actually while I'm typing at almost 8pm), which means Saturdays don't really feel like Saturdays at all right now---I decided to go back up there today to finish up the painting.

Yesterday I left Mara Kate in Atlanta with my friend Katie (who graciously kept her for the ENTIRE day). So, today I decided I'd take her and a portion of her books/toys to give her something to do while I painted. She had not seen the house yet, so she was very excited to see it in person and was also very excited about seeing her green room too! She also helped me "roll" some paint on the walls using a small edger roller, which made her feel very big and special.

After I got her room finished up I decided to do some of the cleaning I want to do before we move in. I tackled the kitchen---scrubbing cabinets inside and out as well as cleaning the counter tops, the outside surfaces of the appliances & the sink as well as mopped the floor. There is still more I want to do before we begin moving stuff in, but I feel like I got a good start on things. I am pretty tired out now though. After finishing up at the house I drove back to Atlanta and stopped at the grocery store to do my grocery shopping before heading home. Once home I gave MK at a bath and now I'm sitting down for the first time all day! Phew!

Still Alive!

Where we've been

Sorry it's been awhile since I've updated. Mara Kate and I just returned from a week long trip to the beach with the rest of Kane's family. Kane didn't get to go (so sad) as he is on a tight deadline until he finishes his Ph.D in a few weeks.

We had a great trip and really enjoyed our time to relax in the sun, but we are glad to be back home with Kane. We missed him greatly!

I will get back to updating soon (I hope). I just wanted to let everyone know that we are still alive, but have just been out of pocket for awhile.

Here are some pics of out time at the beach if you care to see them.