Ghetto garden........

So a couple weeks ago Gavan and I went to buy some flowers for our porch and they had some vegetables there. We get this idea to plant a small garden just for "fun". We get home and realize that the spot we had thought about putting it in has soil that seems like it is clay but it was the only spot we wanted to use so we went ahead and planted it there. I didn't have a tiller so I hand-tilled the ground (sort of) and planted our goodies. I did use some Miracle Gro soil for veggies so hopefully it will help with the poor soil. We planted 2 plants of each: snap peas, yellow squash, little tomatoes and watermelon. The watermelon looked dead when we got them so he gave them to us cheap so I'm not banking on them growing. After we got home I read that the peas need to have a trellis to grow up but I'm cheap and didn't want to go to Ace Hardware to get one so I just planted them right beside the chain-link fence. Lazy.....I know. Oh well. Here's a picture of our lovely money-saving garden..........produce is so stinkin' expensive, especially now.

The watermelon plants are in front but you can't even see them cause they are brown. Honestly I think they blew away cause I couldn't really make them out today when I watered the garden! I'll update the picture when things start to grow.........if they ever do.

Jaylen is getting better and tummy time and liking it better. She's about to get mad in this picture though. She always does good for a while and then when I decide to get the camera and put her back down, she's done with it and gets mad. Look at those chubby arms and fuzz growing on her head! I'm thinking she's going to be a blondie, maybe strawberry blonde. Gavan said that's just what he needs........a blue-eyed, blonde hair daughter. He hates even thinking of boys starting to like her!

Day 2 of the sale............

Wow, I couldn't of asked for better weather for the sale. A little chilly this morning but turned out great. We had a pretty good day today but weren't as busy as yesterday. I guess Friday is the day. Miranda brought like 6 bags of clothes over so we added more stuff today, which attracted more drive-bys. I guess I'll list some more fun times.

1. A positive thing is that I got to know one of my neighbors better. She brought her daughter over and stayed and just talked to me for like 20 minutes. I couldn't remember her name (I asked another neighbor later so I know now) but I learned a lot about her and her family. Very sweet and now that I've started a relationship maybe I can interest them into coming to church with us. I'm trying to get better at that.

2. I had a lady wearing an oxygen hose drive by in a silver PT cruiser 6 times just looking at our sale. I was like, seriously, just get out and come look through the stuff.

3. Someone's car broke down while they were parked in front of our house. They borrowed 2 phone books and a screwdriver and finally towed it away like 4 hours later. Their 2 little girls were running around our front yard the whole time driving Gavan nuts cause they were running all over the new grass he planted that has started coming up. Oh well, it surely will survive.

4. I had a box full of t-shirts and a sign taped to the front saying "$0.50 per shirt". The box was obviously being used to hold the shirts. A lady dumped out all the shirts and decided to put all the stuff she was getting at the sale in the box. I had empty boxes for that purpose but she didn't care I guess. We're pretty sure she hid some stuff between the shirts..........oh well.

Not too exciting but always a good time. We have about 7 or 8 boxes of stuff we are taking to Goodwill tomorrow and then we can get the garage back to sort of normal. My feet hurt and I'm exhausted from the last 2 days so I'm off to bed now.

Day 1 of the sale...........

All in all a good day for our garage sale. It was filled with interesting people and experiences like always. I'll highlight some of the fun times today.........

1. Not 1 but 2 ladies came to my front door before I had even open my garage door to put things out and ask me if & when I was opening my sale. Yes, they came up to the door.......I greeted them before they had a chance to ring the doorbell. I was in shock cause I've never had that happen before. Seriously, I know my stuff is awesome but you can wait till I open it. The first lady kept asking me so many questions about what I had and wanted me to describe it in full detail for her that I opened the garage door to let her quickly browse but that was a huge mistake cause then 2 other cars drove up. Nevertheless, I finally got it closed again and got my cereal eaten.

2. I sold my brother's couch to a lady who I found out taught my dad in high school. Pretty neat cause she knew my grandpa who I didn't even get to meet before he died. She lives like 2 miles from me. Small world.

3. I had a lady purchase $3.00 worth of stuff and handed my sister a $100 bill to pay for it. Like I have enough cash to break that only one hour into the sale.

4. I had to explain what a curling iron was to 2 mexican guys.......one of them bought it for their mom and thought it was awesome.

5. I let Paisley run around for a little bit when we didn't have many people there and one lady made me walk her to her car cause she was scared to death of Paisley, who wasn't even around her.

Well I guess that's all I can think of for now. Better get my shower and to bed so I can open my garage door at 8 a.m. to find car loads of people waiting on me........I can only hope.

Garage sale......

Just like Elizabeth, we're having a garage sale tomorrow and Saturday. It's a very random mixture of stuff from us, my parents, Gavan's mom, Michael & Katie and Jeffrey & Miranda. I'm so ready to get it over with so my garage can get back to normal. Since my laundry is out there it's sort of a pain right now cause the washer & dryer are covered in junk. At least the weather is going to be cooler than today but hopefully the rain will hold off till its over. Don't worry about coming over cause I'm sure there is nothing for sale that you need. But think of me. I'm off to bed to rest up for the big sale. Yipee.

One more picture flashback..........

I've been going through the house getting things ready for our garage sale and came across several old photo albums that I forgot about. There were some pics from LCCC from way back when, like 1993. I guess we were both too shy to actually take that many pictures together, like as a "couple" cause we were only 12 years old cause I don't have very many of Gavan and I but someone took this one of us. We are sitting around the campfire singing devotional songs.

Like I said the picture is from 1993 so the quality is poor and it was taken at night.

Several of you know several of us in the picture: Juli Barker (blonde in green shirt), Gavan, Me, Katie (Wise) Ross, Kale Dittmeyer and the rest you wouldn't know or can't really see.

I'd like to comment on a few things regarding this picture:

1. All of us girls are MUCH bigger than the boys but I don't think we cared.

2. I love Gavan's white socks with his NIKE sandals.........don't lie, we all wore that style.

3. My bangs added about 3 inches to my height so I look taller than I really was. By the way, I sported those bangs for a couple years and worked really hard every morning on them!

4. Everything involved in my outfit matches. Don't be surprised if I had a navy hair bow in my hair earlier in that day. I ALWAYS wore matching bows, socks and a lot of the time shoes. Gotta love Keds! Yes, that is a Guess Jeans t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up. And yes, I wore bows WAY too long into my life but don't worry I won't do that to Jaylen!

Oh, weren't those days so much fun. I couldn't wait to get to LCCC each summer. I know that your main focus should be on Christ but I will admit all I wanted to do was to see Gavan Byrd! I love Gavan in the picture though cause that is what some of my first memories of him are. He was such a skinny guy but so adorable at 12 years old. I will say that I'm glad I got rid of that hairstyle though cause it took WAY too long to get ready for the day.

Okay, the twins are waking up from their nap so I better go but now it's your turn to post some pictures of you when you were younger so we can all laugh like you have laughed at me. I know you did.

99 Balloons........

Doug showed me this video on YouTube. Get ready cause it will make you cry but its great cause it shows a couple's strength and faith in God. I am amazed everyday in the ways that God shows us his ultimate power & love. It may be with a baby's life, a stranger you run into, a conversation you overhear........the list goes on. Yes, we all have trials and many experience true sorrow but then it seems like in the flip of a coin He shows us just how much he loves us and that He is always there for us. I am so thankful for my relationship with Christ and pray that I can help to bring others to Him.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" Ephesians 3:20

New hobby.......

So my newest hobby/craft is making hair bows for Jaylen. I'm always up for something new so I just decided to try & see what I could come up with. It will take some practice but I'm happy with my first attempts. Here is pic of the ones I've made so far. The pink polka dotted one is my favorite.

Here are some pics I took of her tonight with some of the bows on her too. Her belly keeps getting bigger & bigger! It's so funny how it bulges out of the top of her pants! And she hasn't even started on cereal yet! I did weigh her here at the house yesterday and she was 15 lbs.

Such a chubby thing!

Tummy time always leads to sucking on her hands but at least she's getting better at it.

I love her in purple. You can't quite see it but her outfit says "Birdie", which I thought was cute for our family name.

On Thursday all 3 of us (3rd being Paisley) were patiently waiting by the front door for Gavan to get here so I thought I'd see how Paisley would do with Jaylen sitting by her. I don't put her on the floor with Paisley around quite yet. She didn't mind her at all and just laid there. It was so cute. Jaylen looks a little uneasy in this pic but don't worry, she smiled right after I took it.

Check out the slippers she got from Tonya Walker. So adorable.

Biopsy results..........

Just wanted to update on Gavan's biopsy results he got on Wednesday. Dr. Lamb said that is came back as a benign skin disease but it's not serious. He said it may come back again and could be a little painful but then it might not ever come back. He said we'd just watch out for it in the future. That's about all we know for now but he goes back in on Monday to get his stitches out and for a recheck and Dr. Lamb said he tell him a little more about it then. His tongue is doing great, the soreness is gone and he can pretty much eat anything he wants now. Thank you SO much for all your prayers and thoughts that went up for us, especially Gavan.

X, Y and Z is for.................The End.

I'm not going to try to find words for the last letters due to obvious reasons so I'll just end the alphabet posting spree with some random things. Honestly, what comes to my mind first with these letters comes from the middle school days, "XYZ: Examine Your Zipper" Don't you remember that?



Today is "Twin Wednesday" as I like to call it. I got some Baby Einstein dvd's to use especially on "twin day" and they came in the mail today. I got them out and found an age appropriate one for the girls. It was so funny cause their eyes were glued to the tv for quite a while. Here's a pic of them watching the video. Check out the bouncy seats my mom got me at a garage sale to help out on "twin day". Look out 80's! They work great for me and are so helpful with the girls and one even still vibrates.

Jaylen's hair is starting to come back in so I'm glad of that. I was afraid she might be bald till she's a year old. She still has a little duck tail in the back that is her original birth hair but it's slowly but surely fading. She's getting better at tummy time too. She's hasn't been a big fan of it in the past.

Guess that's it for now. Oh yea, I got a new template for the blog too. It was time for a facelift.

V & W is for............West Virginia.

Yes, Gavan is in Charleston again today until Thursday night for work. It's so weird when he's gone cause I feel like a single mother. But today Jaylen and I went to visit Nana & Papa (his parents) and had a good day with them and Myra is staying the night tomorrow night so we'll have a little company. Before Gavan left I took some pics of Jaylen in her Chesapeake Energy onesie polo shirt. I put them in a little card for Gavan and tucked it in his suitcase to find when he gets there so he can show her off to his coworkers out there.

Chubby legs!

This bunny is so cute but she kept trying to eat it while I was taking her picture. When you squeeze its hands together it says the "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayer in a little child's voice. So sweet.

U is for............... uncomfortable.

I'm not sure if I've posted about this before so I'll catch those of you up who don't know anything. About a month ago Gavan went in for his 6 month teeth cleaning from our good friend, Tiffany. She always checks for oral cancer at the end of the cleaning and she found a unusual spot on the bottom side of his tongue. It was white and about the size of your small pinky nail. They took pictures of it and measured it and said to come back in 2 weeks to see if it had changed. Two weeks later it still looked the same so they recommended to see an oral surgeon. He went to see Dr. Lamb who said initially it doesn't look like anything too serious (nothing made the hair on the back of his neck stand up) but he'd still like to do a biopsy cause he didn't know exactly what it was. So today was the big day for the biopsy. Gavan's mom came to watch Jaylen so I could go with him and not worry about her. He got a shot right into his tongue which he said hurt pretty bad but then couldn't feel the rest of it. We're pretty sure he took the spot completely off and now Gavan is sporting a couple stiches that he'll go back in 10 days to get taken out. He's recovering pretty good, just pretty sore and uncomfortable and can't eat much. We should get the biopsy results Wednesdayish so please pray for good results.

Almost 5 months old!

Just a few pics I took of Jaylen yesterday. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Redbud Classic.....

Gavan and Wee ran the 5K in the Redbud yesterday. It was a fun day to go watch them and enjoy the weather. Miranda and I watched them turn the corner about a 1/2 mile into the race and then went to the finish line to see them finish. Jaylen got to sport her new hat I got her.

Posing with their medals.

Happy girl getting ready for a bath

T is for..........Trash.

So I've mentioned before about Paisley doing things to get in trouble to get attention due to her jealousy of Jaylen...........well she got in BIG trouble the other night. I usually shut the door to Jaylen's nursery if I'm giving her a bath and nobody else is in the living room with Paisley but I forgot. Gavan was in the bathroom with me watching Jaylen's bath and we had the door shut to keep the heat in. He left after a while and then I heard him yelling at Paisley and then the back door shut. After the bath he showed me what Paisley did. Yes, that is the remains of the wet diaper she got out of the trash can and ate. Luckily for us, at least it wasn't a poopy one!

S is for................Squash.

So I've been trying to cook healthier and also eat more fruits and vegetables. Gavan is being a good sport at trying new things too. So far we've expanded our vegetable selection that consisted of corn and peas to yellow squash, butternut squash, esparagus, and sweet potato. It's sometimes harder or more time consuming as well as more expensive to cook healthier foods but I think it's worth it, especially now that Jaylen will be eating food soon. You just think about it more when you bring a child into the mix. It's funny how dirty your house can get or how unhealthy you will live before children and then your perspective totally changes.

Yellow Squash: I cook these in butter and add a touch of salt. They are yummy.

Butternut Squash: You can bake these in the oven if you have time or microwave if you are crunched for time. Just slice it long ways, clean the seeds out, and bake it till it's soft. Then put some butter and brown sugar on it. It's yummy too. Gavan asked me if we put butter and brown sugar on it if it is still healthy and I told him it was better than nothing.

R is for.............Remembering.

This post is for all of you readers who love it when people post pictures. I had a really hard time coming up with something for the letter "R", which is odd cause it's one of the most popular choices on Wheel of Fortune. Not that I watch it that much..........okay, so Gavan quickly gets the puzzles right all the time............maybe I should sign him up.......... Back to the post, I just thought I'd post a lot of pictures of G & I to remember our growing up, dating, married, having children years. Get ready cause I scanned in a TON of pictures and I mean a TON.......like I had nothing else to do. Enjoy but don't laugh at us too much at us!

LCCC (Lariat Creek Christian Camp) banquet June 1996

This is where Gavan and I met when we were in about the 5th grade. I don't have any pictures of us from back then but we have TONS of letters that we wrote to each other. Someday I'll scan some of those in for you to read. We were so cute in what we said to each other at the age of 10.

LCCC banquet June 2007. Nice hair.......both of us.

LCCC banquet July 1998. Noticing a pattern........I always had the same date!

LCCC banquet July 1999.........once again he's my date!

This was our last year as campers and we were going to college in the fall. We went to camp together as campers for 8 years and then counseled together for about 5 or 6 after that. We each met our college roommates at LCCC and all 4 of us graduated from OC. Send your kids to church camp..........

Rollin' in the dough rush event 1999

Chickasaw Festival of Lights December 1999

This was a double date with some friends and the night that we started dating after being broken up our senior year of high school. We never broke up again......

LCCC June 2000

Here we were counseling at Junior Session and had the traditional shaving cream fight.

Delta/Theta Luau October 2000

Probably some Theta intramural game of some sort, October 2000

Delta Toga January 2001............can't believe they let us wear that!

Spring Sing February 2001..............Delta Golfers & Theta Army

Theta Spring Banquet April 2001

Europe June 2001

We went with a group from OC to Hungary for 3 weeks and taught english using the Bible then we traveled around Europe for a few weeks after that. One of the best trips of our lives........so glad we could do it together.

Europe June 2001

Homecoming November 2001

I think I was Theta's representative and Gavan was my escort.

70's bowling with Westwood college group February 2002

Our engagement at LCCC July 2002........how appropriate......good job Gavan.

Christmas 2002

Gavan's parents gave me a bible with my new name, Melody Byrd, on it. I was shocked to see it printed on something as I still had 5 months to back out before we got married..........just kidding!

Us at our friends Guy & Nancy's wedding December 2002.........one of my favorite pics of us.

Spring Sing February 2003.........Delta Baseball Players and Theta Cowgirls

Gavan's graduation April 2003

Our wedding May 31, 2003 at MRCC..........so young, so skinny.

Just a fun/neat picture on a camping trip with the Gunselmans in October 2003

80's aerobic instructors...........Halloween Party 2003........yes, Gavan has a wig on.

New Year's dress up part 2003.............my mom got us these matching shirts for christmas one year. Aren't you jealous of my fringe boots too?

My birthday September 2004........it takes a big breath to blow out all those candles. Thanks for always making me a cake, Mom............even when I'm turning 24!

This was our first visit to JSO October 2004............can you guess who snapped our picture?

Our first house December 2004.........we're still in our cozy cottage.

Us in Eureka Springs for Gavan's brother, Jason's wedding December 2004

Us in Vanessa & Clay Bryant's wedding in May 2005......another favorite pic.

Us at the JSO christmas part in December 2005

Us counseling at LCCC on banquet night in July 2006..........I think the theme was Halloween so naturally I dressed as a witch and Gavan was a cowboy. That shirt has come in handy.......

The newest addition to our family, Jaylen Jane, born Novembe 19, 2007........she's one day old.

The Byrds at Easter 2008

Oh my word.....................I really hope you all enjoyed this post cause I might not post for a good month now! Whatever....I'll be back soon.......I can't stay away.......I'm addicted.