so many thanks.

Today I had a great day. I played with my munchkin-we blew spit bubbles, chewed on toys, rolled around. Then I walked my dogs with my parents, took Anderson to see Brandon at work, ran some errands, made dinner, watched a movie, talked on the phone to my sisters...all normal things. I was able to do all of those things, in part, because of the above crosses in the Normandy Cemetery. I have never felt so overwhelmed with gratitute and awe and respect as I did when I stood on Omaha Beach in Normandy. Then the trip ended and I went back to normal- It's so easy to take things for granted. Two events recently have kind of jarred me out of that state. First, I read A Thousand Splendid Suns, a fictional account of 2 women in Afghanistan, and I haven't been able to get Mariam & Laila out of my mind. The things they wanted in life were so basic. And things that I have always had and never really appreciate. Also, Brandon & I have started re-watching Band of Brothers and each episode reminds me that I have what I do because so many men literally gave everything they had. I know this is so cheesy, but it's the truth. So, thank you to all the men and women who gave their lives so I can have mine.

Memories

When the parents decided to move, mom went through the hundreds of boxes in the attic and discovered that she had, in fact, saved everything. Everything. Seriously, what is this? Jeannie-I need your help, this must be something from one of the Latin Conventions? Something with the Harpies? Help!

I have no idea.

Our 16th birthday party invites-Dr. Seuss. Wow.

Nicole and her craftiness. Give the girl some felt, a marker and a popsicle stick and she can make a masterpiece that will rival any of the Ninja Turtles (Michaelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo....)

I can't remember the names of these things, but I loved them.

A giant note ball that was made in middle school or high school....can't remember which. I just know that it was during math class. How sad that my students can't save their own note balls since text messages aren't tangible.

Every year we went to the Twinfest in Twinsburg, Ohio and it was so much fun. Don't make fun-you would go to if you were a twin. We won the tshirt slogan contest a few times, too, thanks to my mom's creativity. This was one year's shirt. Nicole's had the puzzle with this piece missing. The back said, "Without my twin, my life wouldn't be complete." Very cute. And horribly cheesy.

This is my favorite-Mom & Pops had these made when they got married (23 years ago...) I think the back says, "Dancing Dego", which just completes the picture. The best part? This wasn't in the attic! He was wearing it like it was normal. Love it.

the floor.

When you are 4 months old, you spend a lot of time on the floor. Please disregard the dog hair everywhere, as I really do vacuum ALL of the time. We are all shedding together.

Anderson & Jack had their first offical play date! Sesame Street was on, the toys were out, they were thrilled. Actually, they were holding hands for a minute, but we were not fast enough with the cameras!

The Munchkin has become very intrigued by the dogs; he loves how Gabs follows him around being protective and sharing her bones and he loves how Chloe (you know this is coming) wakes him up from his naps barking when the neighbors breathe too loudly.

Playing on the floor. Check out the random leg in the background. Where is the rest of the body?
Weird.

Shocked at how much he loves the monkey toy. Notice bodyguard Gabs in the background...

This boy wants to crawl SO badly. He gets so frustrated because he can get on all fours, but then can't figure out what comes next. Part of the currciulum at Noni & Bop's is crawling, so he gets lots of practice.

The bodyguard again. Possibly protecting him from Chloe? Ok, so I sound so mean. Of course I love the Chloeworm so much. She was my first child. She is just a little more intense than an average daughter, I think. She must be in her 7th grade phase. (Shout out to Nicole & Jessica...)

When Chloe decided to make an appearance, it was to wrestle with Gabbi right next to Anderson so I had to move them on the other side of the room. Such a good mom. He loves this blanket that my cousin, Vivian, made because it has all of these textures. Right now, he is intrigued (terrified?) by the wrestling event he has front row tickets for.

gasp!

I just realized that I did an entire post with no pictures of the munch! Crazy, I know. So here are some pics of the last few days...

Much more exciting than the bath...Anderson met Jack this week!! Since Clare figured out that they are like Ron (Jack has red hair, Clare is going to have 5 more kids...just kidding) and Harry (Anderson has dark hair, there is a relative named Lily, he will probably need glasses), we figured it was only fitting that they meet at Hogwarts. Since that was not available (summer holiday), we decided for them to meet at Farragut!

Some things I notice in this picture: Is Anderson 3? He is huge. How adorable is Jack?
Very. How much more together does the mom of the 3 week old look? This is the story of my life.

Overall, it was a huge success.....Splash Country, here we come!

Just playing with Dad. PLAYING....this is new. I prefer it to the lay there and stare at the toys. Thanks to Lillard for all the toys:)

So true. We do love our favorite bodyguard/superhero/protector. Noni found this onesie for him and it is sweet. Now if it said, "I sleep well at night" that would be a complete lie...

Bumper pads are back in the crib! Anderson is pumped. I took them out because of the SIDS paranoia, but now that he has mastered the rolling he is getting beat up at night.



WARNING: Gross picture below.....

yes, I put a picture of my hairball on here because I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it. This is how much hair I lost in ONE brushing. I do this about 10 times a day. I really don't know if Gabs or I am shedding more. I know it's some post pregnancy thing, but come on. When does it end???

Home Sweet- Away From- Home

My intern, Jessica, is officially a teacher! I am so proud of her and going to miss her SO much. Who else is going to dress up like Mario & Luigi with me???

Since I spend pretty much all of my time in one of 3 places, home, Target or my classroom, I decided to post some pics! It is a cozy little place and it usually only smells bad when the students are there, so that is nice. I love this quote!

The deal of the classroom is the knight that I found at a garage sale last summer! One of Toni's friends was selling this for $10! One man's trash is another man's treasure, I guess.Speaking of trash, you will notice the fake wall behind him, which allows me to teach not only to my students but to the kids next door. There is also a big crack on the other side that Breeding & I use to talk to each other. Some students interviewed us for the school newspaper once and wrote about how "Glover & Breeding frequently use crack in their classrooms." Conveniently they forgot "the". The arrow is chalkboard paint (Saasha, do you remember painting that like 2 years ago?) and the fridge is magnetic paint. The fridge is a testament to my non-existent art skills, as it is the only thing in the room I actually painted. And I traced it from an overhead projector. Sad.

Artwork by a student-it is me surrounded by my favorites, Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt & Winston Churchill. I look kind of like a history stud. What is the female version of stud? Isn't it like prostitute or something? Maybe that isn't the best description of myself, but you get the idea. You'll notice the thermostat next to it, which is a really fun game that Knox County plays called, "You think you have some control over the temperature in your room!". We lose every time.

The real reason I am putting these pics up is the AMAZING WWII mural on my wall. One of my students, Chris LaBorde, spent all semester on it. It is so, so the coolest thing I have ever seen.
On a side note, look how sweet the desks look when they are empty.

It is life size.

My all-time favorite event in history-the Yalta Conference. Churchill, FDR & Stalin together to plan the future of the world! On. my. wall. I know.

Iwo Jima.

The picture of the nurse & sailor celebrating V-J Day.

The D-Day Invasion. Seriously, how absolutely amazing are these pictures? I am in shock everytime I walk into my classroom! Just a 2 second rant about education...this is why standardized tests are not the answer!! We can't measure what people are capable of my pencils & bubble answers. Look what he can do! A test never could have measured this. Now this particular student is pretty much awesome all around-talented at art AND tests (he took AP classes and speaks fluent German!), but you get the point....

the fam.

Big shout out to Noni who has been watching Anderson and making my life so much easier! Anderson was supposed to be holding this sign, but he just wanted to eat it, which is actually much cuter.

I think this picture is so cute of Anderson & GG. They are just really excited about seeing each other & hanging out!

Clare left her precious 3 week old Jack to come over and see Anderson! She is doing such a great job-look how amazing she looks WITH A NEWBORN. She is an inspiration to me since my hair never looks this good. Anderson was even a little shocked when he caught a glimpse of me. We do have plans of introducing the bffs soon, so stay tuned!

Hanging out with JPa-thanks for the salad, by the way!

Anderson got to see Uncle Austin this weekend & he was excited. Please notice how much Austin looks like Jack in the above picture...What is with the dominant Glover dad genes??

Go Big Blue!

Anderson attended his very first Farragut football game today! Well, he was at about 15 of them before he was born but this was his first appearance in person. I realized that I grabbed the "old" poms (the smelly, gross ones that have been in the rain too many times) after I let him roll around on them.

These are my children-I have 17 of them. Well, 19 if you count Chloe & Gabs (or 18 if you leave out Chloe....). Seriously, I love these girls. I knew nothing about cheerleading when I started and now I am pretty much an expert. They are just so sweet & smart & remind me all of the time about how life should be fun. I have big plans for pictures like this when Anderson is older. Seriously, how cute will his senior football poster be if he plays football for Farragut? It will be ridiculous the amount of pictures that he will have on it. And, if he doesn't play football then he will just look back on the pictures and see what a stud he was at an early age.

Despite the fact that he always looks shocked in pictures, he really doesn't look like this in real life. Today he wore his Teddy themed outfit, complete with safari hat! In case you didn't know, Teddy Roosevelt went on safari after his presidency & a lot of the animals in the Smithsonian are a result of that trip. But, of course you knew that because everyone knows worthless presidential trivia.

Just being precious.

Jessica's family got him this robe & I shocked even myself at how cute he was when I put it on him. He was too interested in his hand to get a good picture.

This is one of the results of JCP photo op #2. This was about the closest we could get to a smile.

Sometimes you're just going through life, living in South Carrick dorm & then this new friend goes to dinner with you and your sister at a really gross Japanese place on the strip. Time passes....lots of memories involving eating, sharing, crying, lots of laughing...and 10 years later that friend sends you flowers on your 1st mother's day! Thank you, Emily! You are my favorite!

On an unrelated note, the tylenol in the picture was ridiculously hard to find because the name brand was recalled & EVERYWHERE was out of the generic. Thanks to mom for finding it at Food City. This is still about Emily, though...Love you!

4 months!!

Aunt Manda sent Anderson love, baby food & an adorable shirt!! We will see you soon!

Here he is...4 months old! He is so, so much fun. He is rolling everywhere and actually plays with toys. He wants to put everything in his mouth and tries on a regular basis. He goes to be about 7 & gets up once -sometimes twice because I am terrible (ie: tired) mom & it is easier to give in- before 6, so he is doing really well. He is laughing a lot, which is definitely my favorite thing ever. We went to his doctor appointment yesterday- he weighs 13 lbs 11oz and is 24.5 inches long. These are the 24th & 33rd percentile, so we have a little guy. This contradicts our new nickname, which is Mr. Big Stuff. He seems perfectly sized to me. He doesn't take after me as a baby as I was obese. He was so good for the 2 hours that we waited for the doctor...and then came the shots. I thought it was going to be easier. For me. It wasn't.

Mr. Big Stuff, himself.

Meanwhile, Brandon won the sharpshooter contest at the law enforcement convention, which means he did the best in the shooting scenario out of everyone there! It was for the entire Southeast, so there was a lot of competition. This has nothing to do with Anderson being 4 months, but I was so excited!
I like how he is lounged out on the dog. Just chillin. He looks a little terrified actually.
We started solid foods!I find it comical that rice ceral heavily diluted with milk is considered "solid", but it was exciting nonetheless. He obviously, swallowed a lot of it.
Last week, Pops & I took him to a Farragut softball game. This is right before I decided to get a hot dog & he threw a major tantrum demanding a bottle. Seriously, all of the players & coaches were looking over at us. I was kind of looking around, too. Like, who brought the baby? Why is he screaming in the middle of the game? Some people are just so rude. Then I realized it was me.
Loving his Bop!