Tuesday, January 27, 2009

25 Random Things About Me

A little annoying thingie on Facebook caused me to write 25 Random Things About Myself. When I was finished, I found the answers kinda interesting. Thought I would share....

1. My husband Randy and I dated for 2 weeks in high school and he carved "I Love Juliet" in his desk.
2. I am scared of clowns and chalk.
3. My hell would be: I'm in Walmart, it's very cold, and Phil Collins is playing non-stop over the speakers.
4. I could potentially win a spaghetti eating contest.
5. My bad habit is biting my cuticles. Disgusting.
6. My closest friend Jessica found me in first grade underneath the play gym singing "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat worms".
7. I was once called a prodigy on the piano.
8. Randy and I named our dog Tyson because of his black eye----because he looked like Mike Tyson and he got "knocked the f___ out!"
9. I played the bass drum and quads in marching band in high school. I was a cool band geek.
10. When I had my wisdom teeth taken out my mom took me immediately to the grocery store (thanks mom) and I had a long conversation with Captain Crunch while I was there. Do you think it was the drugs that made me do that?
11. I can touch my tongue to my nose.
12. I am basically legally blind. My vision is 20/1100.
13. I enjoy a good vacumn cleaner. When I win the lottery I am buying a Dyson.
14. My name was almost "Annabelle Lee" after the Edgar Allan Poe poem.
15. When my last name was Darke, I used to want to be a doctor just so I could be Dr. Darke. It sounded like a Disney villain.
16. I touched the Heisman trophy in Bobby Bowden's office.
17. I look at my wedding rings often because it makes me think about my husband who is the most wonderful man in the world.
18. I totally can jam out to "Just a Gigolo" at karaoke.
19. Delaney's middle name is Jeanne after my wonderful aunt Jeanne who passed away from ALS 6 years ago.
20. I am deathly afraid of scuba diving. I had to leave the 5 foot training pool when I attempted to get over my fear.
21. I am jealous of everyone who has better hair than me. Wait....that's everyone.
22. I slept with my red blankie until I met Randy. I still have it tucked away somewhere safe though.
23. I have the strangest looking big toe on my right foot. Seriously.
24. My laugh sounds like a combination between a machine gun and Woody the Woodpecker.
25. I became more of a serious runner after my father passed away while running in 2002. He was my inspiration to run the roads and feel alive.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

The Roberts go to Myrtle Beach


On Friday we went to Myrtle Beach for the night to visit Kel-Z, Rick, and Jackson. My friend Monica and her husband Ikey were also there and it was great to see them. Jackson is ADORABLE and is babbling and sitting up and walking in his walker and eating lots and lots. He is 24 pounds and is so big compared to Delaney. Jackson is truly a miracle and I loved getting to see him and watch him play.


Delaney and Jackson did so good playing together. They had yelling contests to see who was louder. I think Jackson won.


I think Delaney looks like a supermodel in this picture.


For some reason, Delaney was terrified of McKenzie the dog when we got there. I guess because her face is so different than our dogs. She would cry whenever she would see McKenzie. By Saturday morning, Delaney was crawling all over McKenzie.


Look at Jackson's smile-----priceless.

Jackson looks like such a bruiser in this picture.

Delaney and Jackson



Delaney and Jackson gaze into each other's eyes briefly, and then Delaney whacks poor Jackson in the head---he looks confused----and then she moves on to play with a toy. She is such a typical girl isn't she....:)

Delaney and the Snow



Yes----it actually snowed in Columbia, SC. It was just some snow flurries but it caused the city to basically shut down, the schools to close, and my work and Delaney's daycare to have delayed openings. Doesn't Delaney look like that poor kid from A Christmas Story in her coat?

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Maybe I Was Just Tired...........

Okay. Don't know how this got started...but Randy and I laughed our booties off at this one. Definitely try this one at home.
Attempt to say the word "Inkheart" with good pronunciation as fast as you can as many times as you can.
I couldn't make it past five.
What comes out of your mouth sounds hilarious.

If any of you think this is the stupidest thing you have ever seen---please don't tell me. I tend to find the strangest stuff amusing.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Me and the Blog are Now Famous

I am now somewhat famous. Please check out the link below to see the Darius Goes West blog and check out his trip to Columbia. This is awesome.

http://www.dariusgoeswest.org/blog/darius-and-the-raccoon/

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Stevie Nicks Baby


This week, poor Delaney had a cold again. I took her to the doctor because her cough wouldn't go away---they said she was fine---and then that afternoon I had to pick her up from daycare because she had a fever. The next day her cold symptoms were gone, but then the poor thing was teething so bad she cried all day because she was in pain. Due to the crying, she lost her voice and had a bit of baby laryngitis. She kept wanting to talk and nothing would come out. It is getting better, but her voice is still raspy. Now it is kind of amusing.

As you can see from the above picture, Delaney is doing great at standing. Her new thing is to stand at the back door and look at the dogs outside. She will occasionally lick the glass. Thanks Tyson and Olive for teaching her that one. :)

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Delaney is loving food more and more

Bouncing Balls

On New Years Eve, Delaney was loving the balls in English and Steve's playroom. We did not capture on video when Delaney threw up she was laughing so hard. Lovely, right?


Darius Goes West comes to Columbia

For those of you who don't know anything about my recent adventure---here it is in a nutshell. Last year I saw this documentary called "Darius Goes West" that had come to the Nickelodeon theater. It is an amazing award-winning film about a 15-year old boy named Darius Weems living with Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy. Darius' older brother Mario had recently passed away from Duchenne's and Mario's friends had promised him they would take care of Darius. Well take care of him they did!! They made a film about a trip they took with Darius in an RV with the ultimate goal of getting his wheelchair pimped on the MTV show "Pimp My Ride". They left their hometown of Athens, GA, and along the way to LA they took Darius to the ocean for the first time, the Grand Canyon, and checked out many major tourist attractions to see if they were wheelchair accessible.
Anyhoo---I saw this movie and was blown away by it. Looking on their website, I saw that you could contact Darius and the crew and get them to possibly come to your city to screen the movie and be available for questions. I contacted the Darius crew and then I wrote a proposal to the hospital I work for---Palmetto Health---to see if they would sponsor the movie. My boss at the Medically Fragile Children's Program was behind me on this and helped out significantly. It all fell into place and Darius and the crew pulled into Columbia this week to show the movie. We ended up having about 100 people attend---and the crew sold 60 DVD's and a lot of t-shirts. Each DVD is $20, and $17 of it goes to Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy research. Darius and his friends are taking a year off from their lives to travel the US and their goal is to sell 1 million DVD's. I would let you borrow my DVD if you would like---but I would much rather you buy one and help out this cause!!!!!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE at least go to the website: www.dariusgoeswest.org.
Darius is an amazing young man, and he has amazing friends. You will be mesmerized too like I was.

My friend Mike, a.k.a. Richie the Raccoon helped out sooooo much with the Darius event. Here he is striking a pose with Robino.

The Darius Goes West RV has been stepped up a notch since the one they traveled in while filming the documentary. Even still----11 young men travel in this. That's a lot.

Here is Darius and the whole crew. Now these are twenty-something year old boys who are very serious about this cause. It is inspiring to see that.

Here I am with the big man himself---Darius. I knew there was something special about him from watching the movie---but meeting him in person was something else. He has this aura about him that is amazing. Darius is a young man who knows he is going to die---and has more life in him that almost anyone I have ever met. He is wise beyond his years. I will never forget that I had this opportunity to meet him and be able to share this movie with others. It was such a special day.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

I got a new hairdo. Check me out. Straight hair for the first time.

Yes---my hair is curly again but this new hairdresser cut it while it was straight and it looked awesome!!! YAY!!!! My New Year's resolution was to become more attractive. Step 1: Hair. Done.

This was too cute a pic to have small on the side of the blog. I made it bigger so I can look at sweet Delaney's face.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Friends, and New Years, and Football--Oh My!!!

It is rare nowadays to have a picture of Randy and I together. Here we are looking swanky eating with friends at Gervais and Vine.

I went to dinner at Casa Linda with two of my oldest friends---Ricky (a.k.a. Honeylamb) and Shannon (a.k.a. Oney). We had a great time and it was so good to catch up with the two of them. Delaney loves meeting new aunties.

Here is Delaney with one of her favorite people--her teacher Mrs. Angela. Angela is one of the sweetest and calmest people I have ever met. Her demeanor really helps the babies in her classroom and all of the babies seem to love her. Delaney gets a big grin on her face when we walk in the room in the morning.

We spent New Years Eve at our friend English and Steve's house. It was great because we could bring Delaney and spend the night there without any worries.

English and Steve's kids, Eliza and Drew, were so cute and enjoyed having us there. They have the world's largest playroom with every toy ever made. Delaney was in hog heaven.

I believe Delaney is in love with Drew.

The adults got a little silly after the chillins went to bed.

We ate a wonderful fancy dinner and enjoyed our champagne toast at midnight. Good times were definitely had by all.

Delaney got festive with party hats left over from the adults the next morning on New Years Day.



Trey, Kelli, Josh, and Stella came over on New Years Day to watch football. Let's not even talk about the USC game, or actually the Clemson game. Let's talk about the delicious food we had---BLT dip, wings, cucumber dip, black eyed peas, collard greens, and mimosas to wash the football pain away.

We like to call it "Stelliet" (a.k.a. Stella, Kelli, and Juliet)


Delaney finishes giving some kisses to her momma.



Olive curls up on her pillow and says hello to 2009.