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And then there were 5…

So, since we’ve known that we are expecting our 3rd child, it’s been a given we would need to get a larger car. We had a Chevy cavalier and a Honda accord. While the accord is fine for two children in car seats. You just can’t fit three car seats in there. And the cavalier was not even an option. It had to go.
I had my eye on a Honda pilot. I was looking forward to having an suv. It had a 3rd row of seats where we could stick the kids and have room for some extra passengers. But it wasn’t as easy as I had hoped to get kids into that third seat. Plus, our other reason for wanting something larger is so we could all fit in one car when my parents visited or we visit them. The pilot just wouldn’t work. Oh well.
So what options were we left with? Well. The minivan. They actually got the kits in to fix the recalled odysseys they couldn’t sell us a week or so ago. Kayce and test drove a couple. I like the versatility of the passengers seating you pretty much take every seat out and rearrange them however you want. So we got it. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy driving the giant car around. And Parker really loves sitting in the very back. Here are some pictures. Enjoy.

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My Papaw Susong

Randle in 1955 parade

Someone in my family ran across this photo of my Papaw Susong recently.  I haven’t seen a ton of pictures of him, and didn’t know him, he died when I a baby.  Not surprisingly, my Dad looks alot like him.  My mom made the comment that this picture, taken in 1955, looks like it was taken in 1855.  I’ve got an entire book on the family history of the Susong’s.  If I ever get enough free time, I’ll have to digitize it for posterity.  I think Parker and Carson would like to know that way back when, their family used to own all of West Bristol.

I get asked alot where the name Susong came from, or they say, “I thought you would asian”. I take great pleasure in telling them, “No, it’s French, and my family used to own Bristol”. It’s silly, but hey, it’s true… Kind of.

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Life Pictures, Part 5

Here are some pictures capture by my phone.  It’s been awhile since my last life pictures post, so these go back alittle bit.  Enjoy the sometimes randomness of our lives.  Keep in mind Parker and Carson sometimes take these pictures…

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Christmas Eve thoughts

I had so many thoughts running through my head, I figured I had better get then out. Oh and excuse the mistakes, I’m posting from my phone. I just finished one of my favorite Christmas Eves ever. Nothing special, just a collection of little things, moments that I think I’ll hold on to for a long time.

First, I cooked dinner for Kayce’s family, 26+ men, women, and children. Let me backup and explain why…

2 years ago, we had just finished Christmas eve worship and everyone was going to Wendy’s, of all places, to get food before going to Teri’s (Kayce’s Aunt, who hosts most all family events). Most of the older children spend the night and we all have a standing request with Santa that everyone’s presents be delivered there. So, I, having been used to Christmas Eve dinner all my life, was appalled at the idea of going to Wendy’s for dinner. We instead go home to open a few family gifts and then head over to Teri’s. I looked everywhere for some other resturant, finally coming to grips with the fact that we had to eat somewhere, but could find none. Wendy’s was it! So we pull to the back of a very long line, and waited. We finally get to order at 8pm, and the guy in the box says, “sorry, we just closed”. Seriously! So we have four very hungry people in this car and no food in sight. We go to Teri’s and start calling resturants. May I interject, once and for all, Christmas Eve is NOT a holiday! Why do these places shut down for a non holiday! I’ve worked it plenty of times. Anyway… We finally find that the only place open is the China Buffet, and we place our order. It was truly a scene from A Christmas Story, Fa ra ra ra ra, and Merry Christmas!

So, that is why I had to cook dinner. I was simply ensuring that no one would have to go to Wendy’s or the China Buffet. However, I had never cooked a full meal for so many people. It took me 8 hours, but I did it. The menu consisted of:
1 Ham, roasted with a mustard/brown sugar glaze
8 pounds of candied carrotts
6 pounds of green beans
10 pounds of mashed potatos
Fried apples
Gravy
Yeast rolls
Chocolate Cappacino Trifle

It turned out well, everything was done in time and was served hot. No small feat considering I only had one pot big enough to hold all that food. I had to cook one thing at a time. It was really fun!! Really. I can’t wait to do it again it again next year. Sure beats Wendy’s.

Cooking dinner took me pretty much all day, but it was fun. The boys were around, sometimes too much around and Kayce and I just enjoy being home and off from work. Much more relaxed around here.

We made it to church on time, which rarely happens, and had a wonderful time in worship at First Baptist. So, that made the day great on its own. In addition Christmas time just brings up so many great oppurtunities to talk to Parker about God, which is one of my most treasured gifts of being a parent, we had several of these moments today.

After church, the wind upset our plans slightly and for a brief moment we thought everyone was coming go our house for dinner, because Teri’s power was out. We opted for dinner by candlelight, which was great, if you ask me. Very Christmas-y.

But the best moment of the day came when we opened some presents at home alone. Parker was able to “go shopping” at preschool and buy gifts for Me, Kayce and Carson. He took his money, and picked the gifts himself. He told us what they were as soon as he got in the car that day, but nothing could’ve been sweeter than his face when we actually opened them. I will forever have that moment etched in my mind. The first gift Parker gave me on his own was a screwdriver. It wasn’t the gift that choked me up, it was nothing special on it’s own, rather it was the small glimpse of how he sees me and what he thinks of me. In this case it was really the thought that counted. I do pride myself on being able to fix almost anything and Parker knows that as evidenced by his gift. My “handiness” is a huge part of who I am. I’m always shocked and then reminded of how much his little eyes and ears take in. I’m overjoyed by his gift, because it shows me what kind of person he thinks I am and that our ideas of me match up pretty well. In other words, my son knows who I am.

In closing this ridiculously long post…

Merry Christmas! Remember our Savior was born this day. Why shouldn’t we be merry?!

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Life Pictures, part 4 (I think…)

Just started looking through my phone pictures and figured it was time for another installment of my random life. I enjoy the camera in my phone more than just about any other piece of technology. It allows me to capture those little random moments in life that I would probably forget otherwise. So, you might not enjoy these as much as I do, but hey… This blog is more for me than you anyway!

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Using YouTube, but Not Really

So, the new iPhone 3G-S is really great (once you dry it out, see post).  It does video really well, and I like the “idea” of being able to upload from my phone to youtube.  I just wish apple would make it alittle more robust and let us determine where we upload our video.  I don’t really like the idea of putting my personal/family videos up on youtube.  The only people I want to look at them already have access to this site.  Plus, I have noticed some not so related “related” videos showing up on the side.  I know there are ways to configure youtube to make “family friendly”, but why bother when my site is already such.  So, I just discovered (I’m sure most have figured this out already) that if I upload to youtube, let it do all the encoding, and then log into my youtube account and download the resulting mp4.  I can then upload that to my wordpress and use wordtube to view it on my site.  You might notice how I like the word “my” there.  I really like for most of my content, especially family related, to stay on my site.  Call lme paranoid.  Go ahead.  Do it!  I know its a few more steps, but it beats, hooking my phone up to my laptop, transferring the video, using qt-pro to export the video as an avi, use Riva to encode the flv, and then upload it to my site.  I just let youtube do all the hard work, then I download it and delete it.  Nice.  Thanks youtube. Oh, see the resulting videos below.

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Firepit Fun

So, I lost my mind today and decided to build a fire pit.  I’m not sure what started it, or why I had to do it today (It was really hot, and humid).  But we have a huge amount of firewood, which we burn during the winter in our wood stove downstairs.  But we keep getting more and more wood, and we never use it all anyway.  So, I’ve had this idea for a few weeks.  I had several old concrete pavers, and plenty of large stones laying around, so I did it.  Below is the result.  I think it turned out pretty good.  I did go to Lowe’s and get some river rock to put around the large stones to fill in the cracks.  All in all, pretty good Saturday project.  It will get alot more use in August when it starts to cool down.  Even now it is so hot and sticky outside, you have to really want some s’mores to brave the heat of a fire.  But it was fun, Kayce and the boys liked it.  Parker really wanted to make s’mores, even though he wouldn’t eat one.  He just ate the marshmallows “plain”, as he calls it. 

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Our Weekend

Here are some pictures from this weekend.  We had a pretty boring, normal weekend.  Kayce ran around town doing errands on Saturday.  I watched the boys, and we spent alot of time outside since it was so nice.  When Carson was sleeping and Parker was watching a movie, I was in the garage refinishing a couple dressers for Parker and myself.  They turned out pretty good.  The main thing though, is that they are done and we can get them out of the garage.  Yeah!  I watch a great movie from Netflix on Saturday night: Tranformers!  If you haven’t seen it, go get it.  It is long, and very “actiony”, but good.  If you liked The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, Spiderman…  Those kind of superhero movies.  You will probably like this.  The effects were great!  I loved it.  I watched it again last night.  Sunday, we went to church, then to Kentucky for Macon’s birthday party, which was fun.  Parker and Carson stayed with the Floz while Kayce and I went home to get ready for our small group.  We are still a small group, but a great group.  After group, we had to drive back to Kentucky to get the boys…  I thought not getting them, but I couldn’t talk Kayce out of it.  That was pretty much our weekend.  It was a good one.  Not nearly as busy of the past few weeks, but still alot of fun. 

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