Meeting Georgia

Today we met the Butler's newest family member... their new puppy Georgia. She is such a sweet pup! They rescued her from an organization in South Carolina, bringing her home on Saturday. Three month old Georgia is part Golden, part Lab, and all love.

Amelia had so much fun playing with her and McCoy. Check out a few other photos from our doggie playdate...
.

Meeting Georgia

Where's the snow?!

After days of gorgeous 80 degree weather (in March!), today it dropped down to 50 degrees. Brrrr! Warm to some folks, but with the wind, a bit chilly for us to play outside.

So, what to do when Amelia desperately needs a change of scenery?

Get out the snowsuit!!!

My dear college friend Heather shared a snowsuit with us that her daughter Emma had outgrown. Amelia tried it on... aside from being a bit long in the arms and legs - a perfect fit!

And perfect for playing outside on a chilly day!

Spring Cleaning for Cinderella

Last Sunday, we had a spur-of-the-moment early spring cleaning session... prompted by Carolyn. She's a big fan of our screened in porch. One look at it, covered in winter debris, was enough to make you cry. With the weather so beautiful these past few days, the porch was calling out for a cleaning... and mom heard the crys!

Amelia, not one to be left out, got in the cleaning act as well. She took on the deck that desperately needs some help. Check out our little Cinderella...

There's a TWO year old in the house!

Today is a special day... it's Amelia's 2nd birthday and boy, is the celebration on!



It's a gorgeous day (80 degrees!) and we've been out playing in the yard. This morning we made a quick trip to Toys-R-Us for some special birthday treats (a "Cozy Coupe" and basketball goal). With the weather warming up we needed some outdoor toys... at least that was our shopping excuse.

After the girls' nap-time (Amelia and Grandma), we went hit the road to the Science Museum and our celebration continued. Amelia loved showing Grandma all the animals... except for the duck who nibbled on her hand! Today's favorite critters were the Lemurs. As Amelia says, "so cute!"

Last Saturday (3/10) we had a great "Cars" themed birthday party. Amelia is nuts for Mater, Doc, Sally, and of course, Lightening McQueen. She's also a big fan of Nemo, but at the party store, Cars won out.

.

Grandma, GG, Granddad, Great Aunt Joan and Great Uncle Chris were Amelia's special party guests. Such a great group with which to celebrate!

The festivities started off at Kidzu (our local children's museum) followed by lunch at Spanky's... just like last year.

.

After a surprise brownie Sunday, we headed home for cupcakes and presents. By the looks of the present pile, you would have thought it was Christmas.

.

Amelia received many fabulous gifts - a Thomas the Train set, Lego's, Muppets & Peter Pan DVDs, an MP3 player with speakers, puzzles, a sand/water table, super-cute summer outfits, and a sweet doll named Chloe, to name a few. She has a long list of thank-you's to write!

All day today, Amelia has been asking for a "special treat." The concept of birthday presents hasn't passed her by. Wish us luck tomorrow when there are no more special treats... can't wait to see her reaction!

Hard to believe we have a two-year-old! Amelia keeps us on our toes. She's running around at full-speed and talking even faster. Life is good!

For more birthday celebration pictures, click the thumbnail below...

Amelia's 2nd Birthday!

----

On another note...

Lee left this morning for New Orleans where he's working the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament. Stay tuned for posts about his adventures down South and out West (San Jose for the Regionals).

Christmas in February!

Well, not exactly. It’s really just our Christmas 2006 recap... finally! I’m amazed at how busy the first few weeks of 2007 have been. Somehow it’s now February and we haven’t posted about our holiday festivities. Evidently, it's true what they say - time flies when you’re having fun.

We were fortunate enough to have not one, but TWO terrific Christmas celebrations last year and they deserve mention on the blog. So without further ado, here are our Christmas highlights...

Christmas #1 – celebrating with the Brinsons
.
· Our own personal FAO Schwartz store under the tree!

· Riding the Santa train and meeting the big man himself

· Dreaming of being a NASCAR superstar

· Riding the special carousel and train at Hurley Park

· Seeing Martha Stewart in person... if you count only seeing her back

· Remodeling our kitchen... oops, it was lucky Amelia who got a new one!

Christmas #2 – celebrating with the Kemps

· The travel nightmare getting to CA... delayed six hours out of RDU; rerouted in-flight to Indianapolis - supposed to land in Chicago; DROVE to our connection in Chicago - four hours (1am - 5am) in a rental car with our new friend Greg, driving through a torrential downpour; lost cell phone at Avis drop-off - found it later; Amelia meltdown going through Chicago security; delayed out of Chicago; finally got on plane and sat for an hour at gate watching a movie (never a good sign!); plane broke down, moved to a different plane; finally arrived in CA almost 15 hours late!

· Surprise visit from the Lost Reindeer and Sweetie the Elf, his trusty sidekick

· 1st annual white elephant gift exchange - big fight over who got to keep "Elmo Goes Potty"

· Meeting Matt's great girlfriend Kendra

· Jon's bowling birthday celebration, including a dance-off

· Amelia playing with Maddie

· LEGOLAND!

.

.

.

.

.

Click the thumbnails below for more pictures of our holiday adventures...

2006 Brinson Christmas

2006 Kemp Christmas

Best Friends Forever!

Guess who's a happy girl?! Amelia loves Gus. She loves to hug him, pet him, and especially, play with him. He's game to most of it... except the play part. At least, the kind of play she wants to do.

Every once in a while he'll comply with her friendly request. Like last night. She got in his "bed" and called for him to "come." It sounded so sweet. Unfortunately, Gus really only listens to Lee.

A little coercing ("dragging") by me, made Amelia a very happy girl. Gus, ever the sweet pup, patiently snuggled up next to her and the giggles began.

You can tell by his face that he's not particularly pleased to play the part of "horse." None-the-less, he's incredibly sweet and gentle to her. Such a good puppy!

(click on photos to see bigger images)

Chef Amelia's Valentine's Treat!

Amelia has made you a little Valentine's snack. Feel free to drop by for a taste!

She insists on doing things by herself these days. "I do! I do!" I made her a PB&J sandwich for lunch today, but she wouldn't have anything to do with it. Instead, she yelled "I do butter! I do butter!" I ended up eating the sandwich I made. For Amelia, out came a little bowl of peanut butter, one of jelly, a slice a bread, and the coveted holiday butter knife.

We made the mistake the other day of letting her try to butter some bread. We were out to eat and it was a desperate attempt to keep her from crawling on the table. Now everything that requires a knife to spread is "butter."

That's another thing, knives. She's hooked! What to do when you're 23 month old wants a knife?! Luckily, Gina gave me the great idea of letting her use butter knives. Thank goodness we have an odd collection of little dull knives.

Meal time involves much less eating these days -- it's all about the preparation.

.

Happy Valentine's Day!

.

Mama, look!

This is what happens when you turn your head for one minute... the artist's canvas shifts from paper to skin! Yikes!

I thought I was so smart stripping her down. Experience has taught me that shirts are much easier to clean when you don't have to deal with ink. I've gone through enough aerosol hairspray to make Al Gore shudder.

Looks like an extra long bath tonight is in order for tonight. Bring out the apricot scrub.

I hope this doesn't mean that Amelia will have a future as a tattoo artist... uh-oh!

Winter has finally arrived

Guess what greeted Lee this morning as he took Gus for his walk... snow! You'd think it was a blizzard because schools are closed, businesses are delaying their openings, and every tv network has preempted national news for round-the-clock "storm" coverage. All for about 1" of the white stuff.

Luckily, it doesn't look like it will impact Lee's travel this afternoon to Aspen for the X Games. It's supposed to warm up quickly and there's no forecast for more precipitation. This is good news for Amelia and me, as we are to fly West tomorrow. We do NOT want a double-take on our miserable Christmas travel (that post to come later)!

I thought we were special here in Chapel Hill, until I checked the LA news this morning... it snowed in Malibu yesterday! Crazy!!!! Fist time since 1962. Maybe Al Gore is right...

60 years and still counting!

Lee's grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this summer. We had a ball celebrating with them and the rest of the Brinson family. Their love story was recently featured in their local newspaper... thought I'd share it here.
----

Burt and Eva Belle Brinson enjoy a moment in the backyard of their Grantsboro home. It is next door to the house where Burt was born in 1923. The Brinsons celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this year.
(Charlie Hall/Sun Journal )


Keepers: High school sweethearts for life
December 27, 2006
CHARLIE HALL NEW BERN SUN JOURNAL STAFF

Growing up in hard times prepared couple to handle commitment

GRANTSBORO — If imitation is the finest form of flattery, following the lead of the Brinsons — Burt and Eva Belle — is not a bad idea for a successful life together.

But, it was not an easy road, although they might disagree.

They were born in the pre-Depression years, had their high school romance interrupted by war, then married and raised three children while following a solid work ethic with a commitment that family comes first.

Today, married for more than 60 years, they look back at what some of today’s youngsters might consider a hard life.

They see it differently — viewing what they call a hectic, modernized, complicated society as the tougher road.

“I wouldn’t want to go through what people do now,” said Eva Brinson, who is 81, and Burt’s bride of 60 1/2 years.

“You didn’t think about it the way they do today — get married today and next week they decide they want a divorce,” she said. “We just didn’t think about things like that. We are compatible. We had three children, and it was a struggle really. We had to sacrifice. It was assumed we were together for life.”

They firmly believe many failed couples don’t have a strong foundation and don’t take a relationship and commitment seriously enough.

“My gosh, the divorce rate is over 50 percent. Now, you figure it out. Do the math,” Burt Brinson said.

“We didn’t have all these fancy things,” she recalled. “When we first got married, I went outside and washed clothes out of tubs and the scrub boards, and put them in the wash pot to boil and clean them.

“But, we didn’t think anything about it. Everybody else was in the same boat.”

No time to argue

They were born in the 1920s, just in time to enjoy childhoods amid the 1930s Great Depression.

Each graduated from Alliance High School without benefit of having electricity or indoor toilets at home.

Their courtship started with Sunday evening drives in Burt’s 1934 Ford convertible, which was missing the top. It was interrupted in 1943 when he entered the Army and went to Europe for three years.

They exchanged some letters through 1946.

“And when he came back, we got married,” she said.

In the post-war year, it was full steam ahead raising a family and making ends meet.
“We were too busy,” said Eva. “We didn’t have time to argue and fuss.”

He went to work at Cherry Point, where he remained until his retirement in 1976. She stopped working in the New Bern railroad office to raise three children, returning to public life in 1961 as postmaster in Grantsboro, a job she held for five years. Then she joined her husband at Cherry Point and also retired in 1976.

Strong relationships permeate their family trees.

His father and mother, Henry and Emily Elizabeth, were married from 1912 until Henry’s death in 1949.

Eva’s parents, James and Eva Carmady, celebrated more than 50 years of marriage.

The Brinsons’ values — hard work and family first — were handed down to their children.
Although both had good jobs at Cherry Point, the family still had to be frugal with the idea of sending the children to college. All three offspring attained degrees and the two sons have doctorates.

“And when they graduated, they didn’t owe anybody a dime,” Eva said.

“And we didn’t either,” added Burt.

Solid foundation

A hard, early life on the farm set a solid foundation for both of them and their relationship, he said.

“Our children have told us many a times that if they had to grow up like we did, they couldn’t do it,” Burt said. “No indoor plumbing, no hot water, no running water, no lights. And, you might say, no roads.”

His parents told him N.C. 55 was paved from New Bern to Oriental in 1923, the year he was born, and N.C. 306 from Grantsboro to Arapahoe got a blacktop in 1934.

Along with no indoor utilities, both were raised without the luxury of a family automobile.

“People could not live today like we grew up,” she said. “We were poor, but we didn’t know it.”

Burt chimed in, “Everybody was poor, but we lived just as good as anybody else. We didn’t have any money, but we had food and clothes, and we stayed warm and we stayed dry.”

There was another ingredient, according to Eva.

“We had love.”

http://www.newbernsunjournal.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=31804&Section=Local