Tiny Tales Thursday...

Sometimes kids give you the sweetest glimpse of things you say but may not realize.

Radley was playing with a toy he made at his school "festival" last week - a bottle full of sand. One of his sweet friends, Caroline, also made said bottle and her daddy told us all about the fun they had cleaning up the sand when the bottle broke.

I told Radley this story and asked him not to play with his bottle - just look at it.

Radley: Why, Mommy?
Me: Because I don't want to clean up sand.
Radley: Oh.
Radley: If it broke would you be mad or just frustrated?
Me: Well, I guess I'd just be frustrated.
Radley: Ok.

I guess I get frustrated a lot.

Job perks...

I loved going to work with Mom and Dad when I was little {with Mom I got to hang out with cute college kids and with Dad I got to boss people around ... win win ;)}. I actually loved the work side, too. Mom worked at a used bookstore so I would get lost for hours in fun old comics, books and even baseball cards. Dad was a manager at JcPenney growing up so I was usually a big help when it came to setting up displays, organizing the break room, wrapping presents, etc...  And I am happy to say that a little man I know also loves when he gets to go to work with me!

Especially when we stop for donuts before arriving. 

And today was extra special because we got to take a ride on this... 

And that made him look like this...

You may be wondering why in the world that I, a professional "leadership developer" :), would ever need/get to ride on a train for work. Well, turns out we have a safety committee that works with Union Pacific since the train tracks literally split our campus in half. 

What can I say? I'm kind of a big deal. HA!

At least this kid thought so for an hour today....

It was pretty awesome. Train travel is the way to go.

Tons of leg room.

Every seat reclines, like RECLINES.

Every seat had a foot rest. 

Fun little restrooms with a special tiny sink just for teeth brushing. 

A vanity area so we can reapply that make-up, ladies. 

And the view wasn't too shabby either... 

Radley had an absolute blast!

But all that excitement wore him out and he fell asleep since the ride was so soothing.

(Excuse the Mom-fanny)

 We woke up and finished our day with me at work and him headed off to school.

But what a sweet blessing to share in these tiny moments that hopefully make a big impression on his enormous heart. 

Baton Rouge...

We made an unexpected trip to Baton Rouge last weekend. My precious NaNan (my godmother) passed away last week and the funeral was on Saturday. And while this was obviously not the reason anyone wants to travel and see family, it is always a wonderful trip to my second home. 

My parents were born and raised in Baton Rouge - in fact, I am the only "true Texan" (meaning I was born here) on either side of my family - a fact I am clearly happy to brag about. ;)

They moved to Waco when my mom was pregnant with me and have been there ever since. And while I am thankful each and every day of my life for my friends and hometown experiences, my brothers and I often wonder what it would have been like to grow up surrounded by all of our cousins. 

I know a few things - it would have been loud. crazy. and fun. 

:)

We did get to visit as often as we liked, spending weeks at a time in Baton Rouge growing up. Jeremy would stay the whole summer it seemed. I have such great memories of those visits - some of the most fun surrounding this giant magnolia tree in MaMaw and PaPaw's backyard. 

We spent hours climbing that tree. 

Hours. 

And while it's short a few branches and it's growing old - I think she still has some years left in here for some other little ones I know to make memories of their own. 

Emersyn could not wait to get up there and then her face was like "whoa...what did I do?"

Radley was very brave and climbed up a few more branches with Uncle Pete. 

Emmy was then just content looking cute. 

And then Pete showed us that he "still had it" and climbed all the way to the top. He quickly realized that it was the coming down part that was always harder - especially with 20+ years to account for. 

NaNan had 22 grandchildren, which are all of our 3rd cousins (my parents are 1st cousins with her children). They range in age from 24 to 2. One of my cousins has 7 children, another has 6, another 5, another 3, and another 1 and it was so fun to watch them all play and just love each other.

Radley was into hanging out with his "brothers" - they even taught him how to play hide and seek - in cars. Parked on the street. Awesome, huh? ;)

For a split second I was taking it all in and thought, "we could totally have 5 or 6 kids" and then, well, I came to my senses and decided that 3 sounds good to me.