Not this week

I have opted out of Not Me! Monday this week, because yesterday I was way too busy following along and praying as MckMama's (creator of Not Me!) son's heart stopped, had emergency heart surgery, and experienced a MIRACLE as his heart came out practically perfect. What a great day! You can read all about it here. My Not Me! will return next week.

For today, I thought I'd post some recent pictures of our goings-on; especially since I get an earful from my mama when I write a blog without posting a new picture of Grayson. I say that lovingly, mom.


Grayson and Mama's new stroller- we are SO proud of this thing and walk and run all over town with it. It's like a cadillac!

Three weekends ago the leaves peaked. Too quickly- these trees are bare already!

My sweet boy finding his thumb.

Unfortunately, Hank found the herb planter in the backyard while chasing a squirrel. We hadn't planted anything yet, but now he knows there is a huge box full of loose soil for him to dig in. Awesome!

Grayson and Jonah sitting in big boy high chairs for the first time. Of course, Grayson has to have all sorts of things tucked around him so his little body won't fall out. And for those of you wondering, he is 8 months old and 16 lbs 6 oz. (Still solidly in the 5th percentile!) Jonah is 7 months and in the 95th percentile.

First time completely bundled up for an evening stroll to Whole Foods with Dad. Our friend Nick calls it "Whole Paycheck". Ha!

Ami D came this past weekend!

We visited a beautiful winery, Chrysalis Vineyard on Saturday. We've been doing a lot these outings this fall because the vineyards are always gorgeous, the tastings only $5 and you can bring a picnic to enjoy. There are at least 20 wineries within an hour from us. A very affordable day trip!

Grayson loves sitting in the grass.

Team D at the winery

Thanks for a great weekend, Ami D! We miss you!

Not Me! Monday

And Monday brings my second installment of Not Me! Monday. Mckmama, who created this blog carnival will not be doing her Not Me! today because her sweet baby is sick in the PICU this Monday. To read about her Stellan, click here. I will be doing my best to bring this post to you every Monday that I can, just so YOU will start your week feeling better about yourself!

The past 7 days made quite the week in the Dickerson house. Joe came home sick from work on Monday and was diagnosed with swine flu on Tuesday morning at the doctor's office. When I found this out I most certainly did not grab my baby, tuck my tail, and run away to our friends' house for the rest of the week, leaving my husband to fend for himself. Nope! Not me! On Saturday morning when our pediatrician called and said they had H1N1 vaccines and to bring Grayson in ASAP, there was no panic in me! Nope! After reading my super smart microbiologist friend Dr. Jenny's post about it and knowing she is vaccinating her 10 month old daughter I was totally on board with no reservations! I certainly wouldn't allow my thoughts to be swayed by misinformation. Grayson did get the vaccination on Saturday and we were very thankful that we have such a great pediatrician.

For Halloween, I bought a pretty awesome bag of candy at Costco. All chocolate like Snickers, M&Ms, Milky Way AND Reese's Cups. Reese's are Joe's absolute favorite. During the day on Halloween, Joe kept begging me to open the bag of candy. When I finally opened the bag for the trick or treaters at about 5 pm, Joe grabbed one. At the end of the evening, most of the candy was depleted and we sent some home with Hope. I certainly did not accidentally give away the last Reese's cups to her, breaking my husband's heart in the process. Nope! No matter how many things I have on my mind, I always notice the little things like that and make sure I am taking care of everything! For the mini-party, I did not spend ALL my time making my beautiful pumpkin cheese ball (see previous post for a picture) and make all of my other food by moving it from Costco to the freezer to the oven to a plate. Nope! Not me!

A BIG thanks to Chris and Noel for taking care of Grayson and I this past week. They definitely did not try to convince us to stay longer and leave Joe alone just because we were having such a great time!

Have a great week everyone!

What was Grayson for Halloween?

After much deliberation...and even thoughts of NOT dressing him up because I couldn't think of anything meaningful...we settled on...
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SOPHIE!

(Sophie visiting a winery last weekend)

As some of you know, Sophie la Giraffe is by far Grayson's favorite toy, given to him by Ellis.

Grayson and Sophie together

(And don't start thinking this is my beautiful lawn. This is at mom and dad's earlier this month)

Tonight we had a mini-Halloween party with the Leonards and the Armors. We ate and played games. Grayson handed out candy to the neighborhood kids and made his best giraffe noises. (What?!) I have to include a picture of of the pumpkin cheese ball I made, straight out of Southern Living.

Everyone said it was really good. But who cares? It was SO beautiful!



Happy Halloween! And to that child that came to our house FIVE times- you should be ashamed of yourself!!!!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! I have been enjoying this fun little blog carnival that I found through my friend Jenny's blog and was created by MckMama. Basically its a great way to confess the silly things you did (NOT do) the previous week. Isn't it nice to know that no one is perfect and that everyone has their moments when they do silly or brainless things? So, I hope you enjoy my very first Not Me! post. There should be many more to come because I'm always doing crazy things that will make you wonder how in the world I got a graduate degree, and how I manage to get my shoes on the right feet every morning. And please, if you need even more encouragement, head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

My friend Kimberly came to visit this weekend. I always try to have some sort of little gift or flowers in the guest room when someone arrives. However, I did not put a vase of flowers in her room that my husband had given me earlier in the week because I had forgotten until the last minute. When we roamed around the Virginia countryside this weekend I most certainly did not almost faint every time we took a picture from working so hard to suck in my stomach, chin and every other body part I could while standing next to slim and trim Kimberly. I am not vain since childbirth and always rest in the fact that what is on the inside is most important.

While planning this week's meals I did not add hot dogs to the grocery list for a night I was feeling lazy. I take pride in cooking my family nutritious, healthy meals every night and would never feed them something full of junk just because I could not be bothered to stand in the kitchen for a little longer. Speaking of family, I would never let my husband get up twice in one weekend night to feed Grayson when he has a bad night. I always jump up out of bed the second time so my husband can get some much needed sleep!


When I was traveling last week I definitely did not skip working on my bible study everyday so that I had to do four days of work in about one hour before I met up with my group. I am very diligent about setting time aside to meet with God each day and never let anything get in the way.

And finally, I did not copy and paste my friend Jenny's explanation of Not Me! Monday for the first paragraph of this post. I would never steal anyone else's words when I am so creative and original with them myself.

Happy Monday!

Little Boy in the Leaves

Fall is definitely our favorite time of year, especially since we moved up here and actually have a fall. It is just too beautiful and if I could just sit outside and stare at the trees all day, I would.

We took little boy on a walk this evening to try and capture some color...









Hank had a good time as well...

JDRF Walk (LONG overdue)

At the beginning of June, Team Dickerson participated in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund Walk for the Cure. Two of my kindergarten students, Maggie and John, from last year have Juvenile Diabetes and we wanted to support them and their wonderful families. You can read more about Maggie and John here.

Thanks to your VERY generous support, I'm pretty sure Team Dickerson raised the most money towards each team, besides their families (who raised THOUSANDS!) We had a great day and were so thrilled to be able to donate money (with help from YOU) to this cause.

Joe walked "officially" for Maggie's Muscle

I walked "officially" for John's Buddies

My team shirt

Six year old John gave a SPEECH to the entire crowd before the race. Wow!!

Rosario has never made an appearance on the blog- but she should have. She was my kindergarten assistant. One of the hardest working women I know and we spent ALL our time together. I'm not sure who was more excited about G's arrival: her or me.

John's family during the walk.

Grayson enjoying the festivities

For those that love a good sweater...

...the clothing item, that is. Not the person. Although, my husband is a bit of one of those too, so I guess really I love both. Moving on.

I dedicate this post to my sweet friend Kimberly, who has good-naturedly laughed and shook her head in amazement at my sweater collection since we were roommates in college. She is not a huge fan of sweaters, which is good because she lives in Dallas.

If I am honest, I will tell you that the last few days I have been moping around a little bit, thinking about how I don't fit into most of my clothes since the birth and how I don't really have a ton of money to go out and buy new ones. But, oh happy day, today I dragged out my 6 (I know, it's a little bit of a sickness) large space bags to see what the fall/winter wardrobe was going to look like. Being pregnant last year I had to entirely skip that season of clothes in favor of ones with lots of elastic. There is so much stuff I had forgotten about that it is like I have brand new wardrobe!!!! (Thankfully I am not a "trendy" shopper or I would be completely up a creek!)

Now, I did have to check sizes and am giving away MANY pairs of pants. But since I have always liked things to be a little roomy on the top, I am good to go with most of my sweaters. And OH how I LOVE a good sweater. Always have. Just haven't really lived in the right climate to really get some use out of them (Texas!) (South Carolina!). And now that I live in a place that lets me wear them for almost half a year...well, let's just say I am realizing how overboard I went with them when I moved up here.

I decided to count them today (my husband will freak when he sees this) and I have 27 functioning sweaters. TWENTY SEVEN. Now, before you judge, when I buy a sweater, I wear that thing for years. In fact, I have at least one from high school and 3 from college that I still use. Although, on the other hand, that number does not include summer-weight cardigans and V-necks. Hmmm.

I decided that maybe I should take pictures of some of my favorites and share them with you. Remember, none of these have been purchased in the last 2 years...or at least a year and a half. Oh, and try to ignore the wrinkles....they have been hibernating for awhile.


#1 The "Grandpa" Sweater, very warm wool, JCrew outlet

#2 Ok , I kind of lied. I forgot I bought this one two days ago at TJ Maxx for $16. That's all, though.

#3 The fair isle. JCrew. (on the small side)

#4 & #5 The Striped sweaters. One is $15 from Sarah Jessica Parker's line and the other JCrew. Can you even tell which is which?

#6 The high school sweater. Chunky knit from Gap. I have truly had this since I was a Junior in high school

...and Grayson amidst the chaos.

What about YOU? Any favorites I should know about? Hope you all get to dress cozy soon!