Vacation Part 2: Grandpa's House

Part 2 of our vacation had us traveling from Portland, OR to Dallas, TX to visit Grandpa and Grandma Molly. Addison Marshall was really looking forward to this part of the trip because he knew where there is Grandpa, there is an afternoon of fishing! Marshall and Dad had tried their hand at fishing a few times at William's work but they never caught anything (and let me tell you...for a 3 year old, the thrill of fishing is definitely NOT about relaxing and enjoying nature, its about results and that means fish! :)

Unfortunately for us, there are not many fish in the lake near Grandpa's house this summer. The local fishermen theorize that all the fish larvae were washed away during the flooding they had last year and no larvae = nothing to grow into fish. So...we spent a while casting, catching crickets, and playing with Grandpa and Grandma Molly's dog. Then, having caught no fish for dinner, we headed into town for some Chick-fil-A.

Southern Naming Conventions

I have gotten a few questions from folks we haven't talked to in a while about our oldest son's name....so here's the story.

We moved to Alabama a year and a half ago and Addison and I quickly got involved with some mom's groups and preschool activities in town. As we met child after child, it quickly became evident that many, many kids here are called by both their first and middle names. Anna Claire, Sarah Kate, Anna Grace, Lydia Grace, Mary Kelly, Katie Margaret, John Martin, and on and on it goes. So, as you can imagine, it wasn't long before Addison started asking to be called by "all his names". And when he said "all my names", he meant all of them, including his last name, which I was not going to do (Addison Marshall Belk is too long to say AND I would sound ridiculous in the grocery store! :).

Honestly, the two names request wasn't really a battle that was worth fighting as far as I was concerned (we gave both of the kids first and middle names that we liked alot), so we agreed to a compromise. Mom and Dad would to try to remember to call him "Addison Marshall", all the while thinking this was just a phase that would eventually pass. Well, "eventually" never came. We've been calling him "Addison Marshall" for almost a year now and he hasn't really gotten tired of it. To complicate things further, Baby Jack arrived and started calling him something that sounds kind of like "Mar-Mar", so William and I eventually started calling him Marshall more often. Now even Granny has started calling him Marshall sometimes and last week at VBS, when we couldn't fit "Addison Marshall" on the nametag, I asked him what he wanted me to write and he said, "Just Marshall".

I am not really sure how this story ends, probably only time will tell, but for the meantime, in our blog, as in our real lives, we will go back and forth between all his names, just to keep you on your toes.

I am grateful his middle name isn't Edgar.

Vacation Part 1: Oregon

We just took our family vacation for 2008 and boy, it was a big one. At times I thought we had bitten off a little more than we could chew.






We started with a very long airplane ride from Alabama to Portland, OR to stay with some friends for the first half of the week. The remainder of the week we would spend at a family reunion outside of Dallas, TX (this plan made lots of sense when the family reunion was going to be held in Utah...).


Fortunately AND unfortunately for us, the winter weather that had plagued Portland well into the spring had cleared up just in time for our arrival, but it brought with it the horrible allergy symptoms that come with that beautiful landscape "waking up". No kidding, $70 of allergy medicines later we felt a little better (I think the pharmacist was actually scared to sell me everything I wanted to buy since I had started the conversation with "How much of this can I take at one time without killing myself?"). With the help of the medicine (thank you Dr. Bush!), we were able to spend some great time catching up with lots of friends inside and out. :)








When it came time to leave, it was very hard to say goodbye, both for us and the kids. Addison Marshall didn't really understand that Diego wasn't coming to the family reunion with us (he kept talking about Diego coming on a different plane).


On the way to Part 2 of our vacation, William and I had a few quiet moments (the kids were asleep) to think about how much God had blessed us with our move to Portland.

We had asked for two things - good friends and a good church. He came through on both counts.

Newest Member of Our Family

I will be the first to admit that I am not a dog person. In fact, I am not really an animal person at all. I just don't like the licking, the smell, the poop to clean up, the responsibility (what do you do with the animal when you go on vacation), the claws, the jumping, and (for me) the list goes on and on.

So, you can imagine how I felt when a stray puppy decided to make our back porch her new home. For about a week, we didn't feed it (hoping she would eventually find her way back home for food) and tried to keep the kids from playing with it, while I called the Humane Society, Animal Control, and all the local vets to see if anyone was looking for a lost dog (or could take one in). Dad and Addison Marshall walked up and down our street, knocking on neighbors' doors, to see if anyone knew who she belonged to. All of these efforts yielded nothing, nada, zip. This combined with the fact that the dog had no collar, led us to believe that no one was looking for her.

Now we were faced with the decision of what to do. The kids had lost two pets a couple of weeks before, a fire-bellied toad named Fango, and a lizard Dad and Marshall had caught in the yard and caged, named Mr. Lizard, and the kids regularly enjoyed playing with the dogs available for adoption at PetSmart on the weekends. And even before this dog showed up, Marshall had been asking me for "another pet frog, a lizard, or..........maybe a puppy?".

So....at this point you can probably figure out how this story ends. Mommy melted, Daddy and Marshall cheered, Jack squealed and our family spent an obsence amount of money to have the dog spayed and given shots while we were on vacation.

When we got home, we let Marshall have the honor of naming her. After reviewing a list of female Disney character names we found on the internet, he decided to name her Meg, after the black-haired heroine in the Hercules book and she is the newest member of our family.

BooBoo Bears

This picture was so cute, I just really wanted to share it!

Here's the back story...we found these cold gel packs at the grocery store that are shaped like little animals - they are a kind of miniature version of the gel masks you use for sinus headaches and such. We keep them in the refrigerator for the kids (or William :) to use whenever they have a booboo they think needs some extra TLC but doesn't really need a band-aid. Since the first one we ever bought looked like a teddy bear, they have been called "BooBoo Bears" in our house ever since. So one day, Addison Marshall hurts his ankle and is having trouble keeping the booboo bear in the exact right place, so Dad comes to the rescue with an Ace bandage to hold it on. Fast forward a couple of days ...Marshall gets a boink on the head and after a couple of minutes of trying to hold the BooBoo Bear on the side of his head asks me to help him "Do it like Daddy did it" and this was the result. Mom couldn't resist taking a picture.

Just Starting Out

We recently spent a couple of days in Oregon and a friend promised that blogging was a great way to keep family and friends updated with pictures and stories about our lives, so...I am going to give it a try. Here goes nothing! :)