Dear Residents of Vards Lane:

It is with mixed emotions that I write this letter to inform you that any plans you had prepared to defraud your insurance company into paying for that cracked windshield by blaming it on our construction vehicles will no longer be legit. You see, we have made the difficult decision to, in fact, purchase a home in another part of the city, instead of spending an extra $30,000 on the marital therapy that it was inevitably going to require to accomplish the difficult task of building our new home. As much as we love each other, and the philosophy of "enriching" our marriage through "challenging life experiences", we personally do not believe in marital suicide, and therefore are choosing life instead.
We would like to believe that the Lord himself has intervened in this entire process. We have prayed fervently for Him to show us His path and will for our lives, and we have felt called to another location. Please do not take our decision personally, as we would have loved to have had all of you as neighbors. I believe we have met all of you in the last few weeks in one occasion or another. My personal favorite was the nice lady who lives at the end of the street that greeted me as my bank teller. I simply asked for a cashier's check to take to the title company to pay for the lot...she so graciously interrupted with, "My stars...you're the ones building a new house on Vards Lane! Welcome to the neighborhood!" complete with a rather large hug. While it was, indeed, a quaint moment, I must admit that I wondered how many of those moments would be shared over a rather large bowl of potato salad at every neighborhood 4th of July picnic in the future.
In closing, our prayer is that another family will be called to this location and you will soon have more neighborhood children in which your children may run amuck with. Until then, feel free to stop by our new home on Morris Avenue anytime after the 1st of December.

Best Wishes,
The Paty's

So...when are you due?

Our bestest of friends, the Gleatons, had dinner with us tonight at a local eatery. We were a sight to behold, I'm sure, with the four adults huddled at the end of the table, laughing and talking. Our two infant girls, born only 5 weeks apart, close by...whining and begging for more bites of table food. And then there were the four other children at the end of the table...they were so entertaining, the couple sitting behind us didn't even speak to one another because they were too busy staring at the circus only 5 feet away from them. These are the instances when I quietly request that Cody tips the waitress a little extra because I know she has earned her money...
All that to say, the 4 of us got into a pretty hilarious discussion. We started telling stories of how we had "put our foot in our mouth" in certain situations. Some were those "awwww...that is SO WRONG" kind of embarassing stories, some were just jaw-dropping speechless embarassing, and then there were some that just made you cringe. You know what I'm talking about, right? The kinds of situations you find yourselves in where you ask the lady when she's due, and she's not pregnant? Yep....that's what I'm saying.
So, I'm curious. Has anyone else out there put their foot in their mouth like the 4 of us have, or are we just freaks with no tact?
If so, we may be freaks, but we have awfully cute kids. The waitress even said so.

Happy Birthday Claire Bear!

5 incredible years ago, today, my life was changed forever. Madeline Claire Paty entered the world at 3:51 am after 19 hours of excruciating labor...and I haven't been the same since. She has been the most tremendous blessing and the most amazing little girl. I am honored to be her Mama!
Cody likes to give me a hard time about being the "birthday princess" because I like for the celebration to begin a little early and drag it out a few days. Apparently, Miss Claire has inherited this innate quality. We began our princess' celebration on Friday evening with a "girls night out" while her brother and Daddy went on a church campout. Meredith went to my parents house in Abilene, and Claire and I hit the salon for some manicures. She was quite a hit with all the ladies! We then headed to get her ears pierced. I was so proud of how well she did when the ladies (there were two of them, per my request, to do the job at the same time) pierced her ears. A few BIG tears rolled out of those big brown eyes, but after a couple of minutes, she was fine.
*****Disclaimer****
This is where I tell you that I took a total of 12 PICTURES of these two special events, and the camara from &%^# ate them....again. So just like our vacation pictures that I grieved over for a week and then they re-appeared, I'm counting on the manicures and ear piercing extravaganza to do the same. So basically, a couple of months from now when I'm lacking in posts, I'll post these pictures. Stay tuned! But for the record....she was the cutest thing on the planet.

Her birthday party was Saturday night upon return of brother and daddy. We headed to the gymnastics sports center where she takes lessons, and 16 of her little friends joined us for cake and fun. She received her first pieces of Brighton jewelry (sigh...it has begun) and quite possibly every Webkinz/Barbie/My Little Pony toy/accessory possible. It looks like the Wal-Mart toy aisle threw up in my living room. I just like the fact that girl toys are somewhat quiet. When Gregory's birthday rolls around, it seems like all of my friends purposefully purchase the LOUDEST possible toys...tractors, cars, dinosaurs that roar, etc. I may eat those words of saying that girls toys are quiet after I listen to the 5 second snippits of songs that Barbie and the Diamond Castle sings for the 1000th time in one day......thank you very much Grandad...love ya like a coldsore.

Ok, Blogger isn't letting me use the pictues that I DO have, so it just wasn't meant to be tonight. I'll try again tomorrow! But until then, just know that my baby turned 5 today and it has been a precious weekend celebrating all that she is to this family. She is pure sunshine.