Beach Babe and Ender's Game

We had a blast in Charleston once again last Monday!!
Eliza was a beach SUPERSTAR! or a Ponyo Fish or a Little Mermaid or just a big girl, depending on whichever struck her fancy from hour to hour!

AND Introducing.......................

Tiffany Enders! Robby's girlfriend of four months now. She's from Palos Verdes, California, outside of L.A., and she and Robby met in their BYU student ward. Hopefully she won't hate me for posting these pictures of her, but I think she looks great! She has her own blog, Life As I Know It.She made the trip out to see us and see SC last week, and we tried hard to impress her with some of our best Southern Wonders like Charleston with the beach and Hyman's Seafood, Shealy's BBQ, and Columbia Museums.

We all thought she was REALLY sweet and loved seeing how much fun Robby and she had together! Thanks for the visit, Tiffany!Here's a pic we took while waiting for Hyman's

I loved this pic of Mom with both her Grandkids!!

And here are some pics of us enjoying the Shealy's feast! YUM! Best Southern BBQ EVER!

Steve was too busy with work to come to Charleston with us, but was able to take a break to hit up Shealy's!

I love how busy Eliza's getting in this picture. That's because we had busted out the dessert! She's my girl!

Steve reported that he and Eliza had a blast at Davey and Bianca's wedding, and that Eliza was a dancing queen! Hopefully they'll have some fun pictures to share soon.

My Little Princess....???!?!?!

Eliza and I went walking on the Lake Murray dam a few weeks ago in the hot, hot sun right before we went and jumped into the lake. Eliza was stylin' in her sunglasses.

It's funny because at the beginning of the summer, Eliza was afraid to even get in the pool, especially past the first step.

But she's made a total transformation! Now she wants to swim "by m'self!"well, with floaties, of course! She was even trying to do it by herself at the beach on Monday, which was really stressful for me! Now she's obsessed with being a "lil' mumaid!" and letting her hair flow behind her in the water.

She's also obsessed with being a princess, much to my chagrin, but I'm trying to flow with it. I'm trying to think of it as sort of like the parents that are worried about their little boys loving the color pink and baby dolls... I'm just hoping she'll kinda grow out of it. I'm trying to commission a princess drawing or book from Steve (during all of his free time that he doesn't have) that has a princess who's tough and plump and happy getting in the dirt or something.

My favorite princess book that I read to Eliza is The Paperbag Princess that I used to read when I was younger. The princess's name happens to be Elizabeth too, which was my middle name and, ya know, sounds like Eliza! Perfect!
When a dragon smashes her castle and burns all her clothes, and steals her fiancee, Elizabeth doesn't take it lying down. She pulls herself together and heads off to fix things.
She tricks up the dragon leaving him fireless and exhausted, which enables her to rescue Ronald (my dad's name-btw).

Ronald, it turns out, is no prize and in a truly ungrateful manner he insults her appearance and tells her to come back when she's dressed like a real princess. The last page of the book is the best...

"Ronald," said Elizabeth, "your clothes are really pretty and your hair is all neat. You look like a real prince, but you are a bum." They didn't get married after all.

Cool, right? I want my Eliza to be that kind of princess! But in the meantime, I'm humoring her with dress up shoes (that she immediately calls princess shoes), letting her wear pink dresses and watch Cinderella, and allowing her to explore this not-so-unique interest.

In my art therapy group with the parents at my internship on Wednesday morning, we made collages of images, phrases, and colors that reminded us of our children. I ended up making one too while I talked with the mom's at my table.

(The pic was too big for the scanner so I collaged the collage on the computer. You can click to make it bigger...)

Two phrases that I chose that made me think of Eliza the most were...

"Redefining Sweet" and "Finding great pleasure in the smallest moments."

I miss my sweet girl!

Goin' on a trip in my favorite rocket ship!

Steve and Eliza flew out to Utah/Idaho yesterday to go to Uncle Davey's wedding.

They will be gone for 11 days!!! EEk! That seems like such a LONG time. I've never been away from Eliza that long before!!!

But I hope they have a fabulous time at the wedding and have lots of fun stories and pictures to share when they get back!

... and a big congrats to Davey and Bianca on the impending nuptials!

My fall semester just started so hopefully that will help me stay busy. They also let me borrow play therapy session videos from my internship so that should be some interesting viewing! I don't know why Robby doesn't want to watch them with me...

I'm also taking a course called Family Dynamics and Substance Abuse, and one of the requirements is to attend 3 open group self-help sessions of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Al Anon, Adult Children of Alcoholics, or Codependents Anonymous. I've been before but not here so I think I'll try to get that done while Steve and Eliza are gone...

... and gonna try to find other stuff to do to keep myself busy and not miss them too much...

My mom and I got Eliza little presents before she left and wrapped them up to take on the trip. There's one for her to open each day she's gone. Some are dress up shoes, another is a rice krispe treat, another is a little tutu, another is a book, etc. But they're from "Mommy" in hopes that it'll help her remember and know that she has a Mommy that loves her very much even if she hasn't seen me that day-- or in 9 days. We'll see how it goes...! Yay, for Skype.

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones...

If you read this blog just for the cute Eliza pics, you might not want to read this post.

(little boy from the center)

Some thoughts after my first week at my field placement (internship) at the Nurturing Center:

• Women should not have to decide whether they should keep a child that is a product of rape... they just shouldn't have to...
• It's not funny to force a child to smoke marijuana or cocaine...
• Abusive husbands should not step on their daughter's and wife's 3 week old kitten and kill it...
• Winnie the Pooh hand puppets are a strange vehicle for disclosing sexual abuse... but apparently still effective...
• I'm learning a lot about the pain that exists in our everyday neighbors.

And I'm grateful for this...

Isaiah 53:4-5 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows... and with his stripes we are healed.

Permissions

Over the next few weeks, Steve and I are going to make our blog restricted in access.

We still WANT and would LOVE for you to read it and comment and enjoy, etc., but I'll just need you to send me an email with your blogger username or gmail address so that I can enter you into the permissions. Please, DON'T BE SHY!

my e*mail address is ameldaumorrison at gmail dot com and Steve's is stevemorrisonillustration at gmail dot com, so just let one of us know if you'd like to keep on keeping up with our lives this way.

Thanks!

Carrots for Cousin!

A Nice Southern Evening...

It started out a little messy... but was still joyful!

Watch Reuben's focus...

Here's a clip of my busy girl...

And of course we finished up with a great round of Ring Around the Rosy!
Good times.

Ponyo

Steve and I can't wait to take Eliza to see this movie-- it's the newest Miyazaki film coming out on August 14th!

Check out the trailer:

Blepharospasm

Blepharospasm is the technical term for involuntary eye twitching (eye spasms). Blepharospasm is more specifically defined as an abnormal involuntary blinking or spasm of the eyelids.

For most people eye twitching is not a serious condition and typically results from excessive fatigue or stress.

Yeah, I've got all that...