Olympics

Like many of our friends we are watching the Winter Olympics. Jena again is very excited about watching. She says the lady ice skaters are princesses. And it has reinforced her interest in ice skating. I think Roger is going to try to take her this weekend, he is the more experienced skater of the two of us so I think he is the better choice. If she likes it we might sign her up for a month of lessons.

This year's games are in Vancouver, BC and our lucky friends the Causeys are there, or at least were there. I hope one year we get to go. But for now we will just to settle for HDTV. I always enjoy the skating and this year have really liked the skiing. I have friends that don't like the Winter games because we as Americans do not always dominate. I actually find that refreshing. I mean really, we can't always win. Though we are in the lead for medals right now. I also have been happy for Canada who has had a great games! Half of the medals they have won are gold, a first for them. Even if they did beat the USA Women's hockey team today, I still like them. And I think I have even learned all the words to O Canada.

Pickles, Wine and the Civil War (only in the South!)

Last month Roger had a Monday off, so we loaded the girls up in the car and headed out of town.


First, we headed down the road to Mt Olive, home of the Mt Olive Pickles Company. This is a must pilgrimage for a Williams, I've never seen a family eat so many pickles. Sadly, my kids are following suit. Roger had Jena convinced there would be a big pickle statue. They were both very disappointed.
Next we went to the Duplin Winery for lunch and a tasting. You have not lived until you have tried this wine. It has been one of our favorites for years. On the way home we happened across these Civil War markers. Since our dads had tortured us as kids by stopping at stuff like this we decided to pay it forward.


As luck would have it we found the site of a Confederate Hospital.


Then the site of Union Hospital.

Yep, it is the same building.

But we wouldn't want to sully a good Confederate sign by mentioning that.

We will just put the markers side by side.



A moment of silence for those who died in that battle.

Update on the girls

Lily went for her 18 month check up yesterday. She is doing great. She is 30 inches tall and 19 lbs 4.4 oz. They were very happy with all her progress thus far and she got two shots. She is still teething working on those 2 year old molars. She is also in the babbling stage. It is quite funny to hear her trying so intently trying to say something.

Today Jena had gymnastics. It just amazes me how much she has learned since starting last May. Her teacher talked to me after class today and said it was time for her to move up to the next class. She is in Tiny Tumblers and they are moving her up to Young Level 1. She will start next month. We are very excited for her and she will be moving up with two other kids in her class.

The proof is in the pudding...

With two kids under 4, life gets a little hectic. And, add to that stress for Roger from work, and it gets kind of dicey. Lately, for some reason I've been thinking about my dad. Not that I felt he was the go to guy for emotions, but I did value his opinion. He could be critical. But now that I'm older and have kids of my own I see that he just wanted what was best for me. Even if he didn't know how to show that.

Today was crazy. The kids were home all day. The weather has been bad all week so we've been in more than out. And the house was trashed. So I spent a lot of time cleaning and looking for Lily's missing shoe (which is still missing.) When Roger got home we went to dinner at the buffet. When getting my dinner I glanced over at the desserts and noticed they had chocolate pudding and suddenly, I knew it would all be okay. Chocolate pudding was my dad's favorite, he ate it every time he could get it (only out since Donna didn't make a lot of sweets.) The funny thing is they never have chocolate pudding at that buffet (its one of my favorites too.) When I saw it, I felt better, like some how he was around. And I had it for dessert.