One month

One month from today we leave Andalusia headed for Fort Worth, Texas, to move Jared into his apartment on the TCU campus to begin his fall semester of anesthesia school. Until now he has been taking online classes for his doctorate work. In the fall he will be doing masters classes and one doctorate class per semester. We have no idea if he will be able to move closer after the first semester or after the first year.
One month from yesterday I will be in Montgomery taking the written "qualifying" exam for general surgery board certification. This is why I have slacked on blogging so much lately. Every spare minute I have is spend studying.
Must persevere for one more month on this, but then I will be stepping it into high gear because Jared will be gone and it will be just me with both kids for about 2 1/2 years. Even if Jared gets to move closer for part of his didactic work and clinicals, it will still only put him here on weekends.
I most certainly will become hypoxia because I will be so busy I won't have time to breathe. I will leave you with a few recent pics. Will be back to normal blogging after August 9th. Will have lots of time to blog on August 10th.



On the dock at sunrise.





Beach fun with Catherine and Caroline!


First time in buggy!!





Ready for a flood. Or tidal wave.





How I find Stella in the mornings...


Annual kid-free girls weekend this past weekend. Most. Fun. Ever!!!


Fun with hipstamatic...











Peek a boo. I see you...


Sweet, sweet time--rocking a baby. Nothing like it.


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Nannie day

Stella is staying with Nannie today while I work the ER. Here are some pics from this morning in her new hair bow.


















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Happy 1/2 Birthday Stella!!!

Today at the harden house

Conversation from earlier today....
P: what are people made of?
Daddy: meat
Me: cells
P: people aren't made of meat (laughs)
Me: what are you made of?
P: (looks down at himself and pats himself in several places) umm.... Vanilla.
Me: what is blue made of?
P: hair
Me: what is tt (little black girl in his class--wondering if black=chocolate) made of?
P: flavor
Me: what is stella made of?
P: she's made of vanilla too.


Tonight right before bed porter giving us a run down of the events at church for tomorrow...
"I can watch the band, and then go to my class, and when me and my teachers finish making crap you can come pick me up...."


New word of the day used correctly in a sentence--actually.


Porter's not much on pictures these days, so all I have is pictures of Stella. She's not old enough to refuse yet. ;)
Here's the little goober sitting up by herself. I just sat her between my legs to let her "practice" sitting on Thursday, and she never needed any help. She acted like she's been sitting on her own for months!


Best I can do of porter. He was given two huge boxes of geotrax hand-me-downs by the brownings, so our office has been looking like this for a few days now.


Back to Stella....











My sweet little thumb sucker. She is so mild mannered and timid. So different from big brother. She cries when she is startled, is wary of strangers, laughs most at daddy, but likes mama best.


She also sleeps much better than big brother!!! I put her to bed about 7:30 and she sleeps until about 6:30.
Cute little feet sticking out from under the blanket.


Cutest little naked hinney ever!!


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The crab farmer

That's what porter calls himself now. Jared got porter two more hermit crabs and he said, "I'm excited to be a hermit crab farmer!"
Here is porter showing off "Fishy Pond" and "Carol." (He picked the names. Obvious on one of those.)



Now we need a bigger tank.
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Porter and kierra

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The crabitat

We are now the keepers of land hermit crabs. We got porter two of them at the beach Memorial day weekend and Jared got him another one this past weekend. After some research on the creatures I have learned that they are not hermits and like company and they are fairly easy to maintain little pets.






They are fun to watch and porter can't keep his little hands out of the "quarium."
Their names are shekila, kierra, and birdie. Kierra is the one pictured above and he has already taken up residence in a new shell. We were glad because we didn't like the red one he was in. Birdie has buried herself in the sand in the cave to molt. So far this is even easier than keeping plants alive, and much more entertainment.

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Full blown summertime!!

Napping at the beach....





Eating at jasmine Thai in destin.











He actually asked to hold Stella and have his picture taken. Usually I ask and he refuses.


Porter wanted to take pictures. He did a pretty good job!


He wanted her to wear a hairbow, and he picked it out.


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