Hi, I'm Becca and I'm a Harry Potter addict...

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

It's true. I read the books, watch the movies and even dress up as the characters. I am like those Star Wars nerds who dress up and go to the conventions. (Except I havent'been to a Harry Potter convention). We are taking it a step further in two weeks and going to Orlando to see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Islands of Adventure. (We are also going to visit friends and family there). I am passing my love on to Cian, who can say Potter and loves Dobby the house elf.

I am so excited and can't wait! In anticipation for the park and the movie coming out in November I am re-reading The Deathly Hallows. Turns out, there is so much I forgot from the 72-hours it took me to read the book the first time.


I am a little sad because these two movies means the end of Harry Potter anticipation. I didn't start die-hard following the story until The Goblet of Fire came out but since then I have been there to get the following three novels the weekend they came out. I got The Order of the Phoenix in Venice (after being told by an uppity bookkeeper that we would not find that book in all of Italy) and finished reading it on our long train and Eurail trips in a week. I was there at midnight to get The Half Blood Prince and The Deathly Hallows. Heck, I even dressed up as Tonks for the last book release. This should show you how truly nerdy I am:

Midnight book release party in Orlando. They gave us tatoos and glasses and we got to make our own wands!


Even Steve partook in the nerdyness



Sixth book release party, I am dressed as Tonks and drinking my butterbeer here..


Back home right before I started reading the book, Steve was my little Olivander that night and made my wand.

This was Cian's room before it was Cian's room

I have promised that I won't dress up when we go to the park in Orlando, but I can't promise not to be a total geek walking around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.

Ladybug Garden Tea Party

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Baby Maggie is coming! My sister in law Amanda is expecting a baby girl on September 10th (the day after my b-day).

Amanda is one of the most selfless, generous and deserving people I know. She is not however one of the easiest people to surprise. She always finds out! When we threw her a wedding shower she was on to us long before she opened the door and we yelled surprise. We did manage to surprise her with a shower for her son Will but that doesn't mean Tracy (Amanda's sister), Rachel (their cousin) and I didn't jump at throwing a girly shower!

Baby Maggie Ann's room has ladybugs in it so we started with that and ran with it. We probably had the most frou frou party imaginable and it was darling! In true Becca and Tracy fashion we waited until the week of the shower to put everything together so we were up into the wee hours of the morning finishing tissue paper flowers and gift bags. (Christina, Tracy's lifelong friend, was in town as well and we recruited her against her wishes to help up with the girly ridiculousness).

There were a lot of people in town from St. Louis for the weekend of the shower, we used a housewarming party for Tracy as the decoy. We also had Rachel take Amanda shopping for a gift for Tracy before the shower as a way to get her out of the house and over to Tracy's after everyone else. I think she had the most fun job!

The colors we used were pink, green, red and black. We made tissue paper flower garland and flowers to hand on the walls. We used twine, clothes and clothespins as decor as well. (So great when your gift can also be decorations)! We had a diaper cake and a bunch of dolls and little tea sets. It was super girly and very fun!
In the end, Amanda was surprised and there were many family members and friends who were able to share the joy of a new baby on the way. We are so excited for a new family member and can't wait to meet little Maggie!




Keep Truckin...

Friday, August 20, 2010




I am so stinkin glad the weather is cooling off! When I got up to run this morning (at 5:30) it was only 68 degrees! I was only somewhat drenched when I got him instead of monsooned. I have actually kind of slacked in my training the last couple weeks but I am determined to get back on track with my long runs!

I did run 5ks the last two weekends in a row and placed both weeks! I ran the Smyrna Parks 5k two weeks ago and ran a 23:16 with second place in my age group. I ran the Fenton Payne and Fred 5k last weekend and ran a 24:04 and also placed second in my age group.

So far this week I have logged a 6 mile and 4 mile run. I am hoping to get a 10-11 mile run in tomororw and get back to my schedule next week.

I really have to get serious on my fundraising as well. My child partner this time is adorable and I can't wait to meet her. Her name is Maleigha and her photo is below.

My name is Maleigha. I am four years old. I have Spina Bifida and have been goign to Special Kids for physical therapy for two years now. I have two brothers that I love very much. I also love Dora the Explorer and anything with princesses.

If you would like to see my training schedule or to make a donation to support my training and Special Kids you can visit the site below:
www.teamask.org/athlete/rebeccageorge

Happy Trails!

Family Photos

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

You know how you go trucking along in life thinking that you aren't aging and you are staying the same and then wham, all of a sudden you realize the days and months are passing by so quickly? Is it just me? I know this is so cliche and everyone says this, but after you have kids you really come to realize how fast the days, weeks and years are passing you by. Cian is approaching two very quickly and I can't belive he has been part of our family for almost two years! At the same time, I can't imagine our famly without him. For this reason, I feel it is so important to document our ever changing family. Cian will not always be this smiling, ball throwing, loving little guy. He will grow up and we will age as well (though I have decided I'm stopping at 30). We will add to our family and the dynamic will always be evolving. I want to have these moments and years on film (or hard drive) so that we may pass them down to our children and grandchildren one day. I want to be able to look back and remember who we were in 2010.

It just so happens that we know two amazing photogrphers (who just so happen to be amazing people). We had Chris and Adrienne Scott take some photos of our family when Cian was 18 months old. Below are the photos that are on a beautiful canvas on our wall. (You should come over and see it sometime).






Chris and Adrienne are so talented and did such a great job capturing our little family! These are truly heirlooms we will cherish forever!
Here is the portion of the blog where I give them a shameless plug: You can see the rest at http://www.chrisandadriennescott.net/ or check out their site at http://www.chrisandadriennescott.com/. Not only can they make you look this good but you are guaranteed to have a great time and laugh a lot while you are around them. Call them. It will be good for your health.




Mommy Monday. Poop.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Warning, this is not for the faint of heart! If you have a squeamish stomach leave now and come back later to see the cute baby shower post.

I learned this weekend that it is not a good idea to leave your unpotty trained toddler in the bathroom naked while you take a shower. Ever. I was getting ready for work on Saturday, I brought Cian in the bathroom with me so he could play on the floor while I took a shower. When I started the water he reached for the tub and started saying "shower, shower" so I put him in the shower. Well, he is not really one for water on his face so this wasn't really his thing. I took him out and just set him on the bathroom floor and got in the shower. I thought, "it will only be 5 or 10 minutes, he'll be fine naked." Uh-oh. I was showering and kept looking out to check on him. During one of these checks I noticed that he was squatting down in front of his little potty. I had a suspicion that he might have to poop. I said, "Cian, sit on your potty," and he got right on! I thought, sweet, he is going to poop in that thing.

The little potty plays a song after something is dropped in it (we haven't heard the song played from actually going in the potty yet but Cian has taken it apart many time to press the button on the bottom). I heard the song play and thought, awesome! But I looked out and Cian had just taken it apart but there wasn't a sign of feces anywhere. This should have been my cue to simply get out of the shower, but no--I was just signing along and enjoying the warm water. The next thing I know I smell something very foul. It had happened. I looked out and realized that it had happened all right, all over the bathroom floor! I have to give Cian an E for effort because he did poop directly in front of the potty. At least he was in the right vicinity. Unfortunately it was smeared all over the floor and he was standing right in it! EWWW.

I finally took my cue and was out of the shower in a flash. I didn't even have to turn the water off all the way, I just started filling the bathtub up for my little poop monster. Cian went right in the bath and I went right to my job as pooper scooper. The convenient thing about it being on the bathroom floor was that I could just clean it and throw it in the toilet.

I learned a very valuable lesson: Never leave a naked baby boy in the bathroom to his own devises. They might just end up all over the floor.

I Want to Hold Your Hand

Monday, August 2, 2010


Abbey Road, London (in high school)

Picture yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Picture Jessie and I in the Bridgestone Arena seeing Paul McCartney in the flesh! This night was the culmination of years of listening to the Beatles and wishing there would be a chance to hear them live, even if it was just a fourth of them. First, I should give some background, my best friend Jessie and I have been Beatle Maniacs since around eighth grade. We listened to them, wore Beatles shirts, read books about them and even made tests about the Beatles for our friends to take. (Yes, we were a bit pretentious with our knowledge). I have spent years listening to Beatles songs and relating them to what is going on in my life.

I heard that Paul was coming to Nashville and immediately tried to forget about it because I figured I couldn't afford to go anyway. (I know, when did I get so cheap and what kind of Beatles fan am I)? When Jessie called a few weeks before the concert to tell me she got tickets and to see if I wanted to go with her I was still a little worried about spending the money on the concert. I actually told her I would have to think about it. I was still thinking about it one day when I got home to find a note from my wonderful, loving husband and the money for the ticket on my desk. I have to say that I squealed and was beyond excited!

Fast forward to Monday, July 26th. I met Jessie and we headed downtown. Because we are cheap, we drove around until we found some $5 parking. This was in a pretty sketchy area and I was a tad afraid that the car might not be there when we got back. We were hungry when we go there so we decided to walk around to find something to eat. We ended up walking a few blocks to 2nd avenue and going to an Irish pub called Mulligans. (I immediately started calling it Mcgillicutty's). They were playing Beatles' music and our server had an accent--this was a good start! We ate fast (harp, beer cheese soup and a banger sandwich, yumm) because in true Becca and Jessie fashion, we were running late. By the time we finished eating there was a tornado warning and the sirens were going off downtown. This was not going to keep us from seeing Paul. It looked like it was about to monsoon and a few rain drops were falling so we ran/walked the blocks back to the arena. Luckily we ran into a really nice and familiar looking girl with an umbrella.

We got inside relatively dry and went up, up, up the escalator to find our seats at the very top, behind the stage. We were a smidge bummed because our seats were so high and behind Paul but not too much because we were seeing Paul McCartney!! We walked by the section where our seats were and decided not to go in and sit down immediately. We had more important things at hand like finding some beer. The beer closest to us was Budweiser so we went searching for something a little lighter. We walked about halfway around the upper bowl in the Bridgestone Arena when we were stopped by two girls walking by. They asked us, and I quote, "Do you guys want to upgrade your seats, FOR FREE?" This is the part where I had to keep from squealing and jumping up and down. We had a resounding yes and they told us they had been holding a section and needed to fill it because they were filming the concert. This was a sold out concert, since the day it went on sale--this just doesn't happen! We took the tickets and saw that they were down on the 100 level and immediately booked it down the stairs, but not before we gave the girls a giant hug! Jess and I didn't hold the squeals in any longer--we were like fifth grade girls about to see Justin Bieber. We went to found out seats and behold, we were 8 rows from the stage! This was too good to be true, I just keep thinking that stuff like this doesn't happen, but it was happening to us!

We sat down and eventually went to get our beers, but we couldn't get over how close to the stage we were. We kept saying, "this is so cool, this is so cool". Paul came out and we went absolutely crazy! Sheer awesomeness ensued for the next three hours. It was incredible to see a musician I had idolized for so long on stage and to hear songs I never thought I would hear performed live in my lifetime. I had goosebumps for about half the concert. I laughed, I cried, I danced and I went absolutely nuts! He played so many Beatles songs and so many that I wanted to hear. When he played "Hey Jude" I screamed like the girls you see at the Beatles final concert at Shea Stadium.

I am so thankful that Steve helped me go to this concert and for the way everything happened. It would not have happened this way had I not been there with Jess. I definitely have to say that this was one of the top five nights of my life.
Paul McCartney Setlist Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, TN, USA, Up And Coming Tour 2010
Edit this setlist | More Paul McCartney setlists
You can read some more about the concert (from people who actually get paid to write) check out below:

http://www.americansongwriter.com/2010/07/paul-mccartney-delights-in-his-first-ever-nashville-show/
Cian and I wore our Beatles shirts all day to get ready for the concert
Jessie and I once we found our seats

Paul!!

Pyrotechnics during "Live and Let Die"Our view of the sold out arena

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