Nashville Flood Relief!

To start off, apparently there hasn't been very much National coverage of the flood, but things are incredibly bad here. We are safe and everyone we know is safe, but all around us are families and businesses that have lost absolutely everything from this disaster. It is the most incredible (in the true sense of the word) thing I have ever seen. Staggering is probably the best way to describe it... but so is the response from people in our community, reaching out to help each other in an incredible (in the "awesome" sense of the word) way!


So, yesterday morning our longtime partners from Cool People Care contacted us about printing a shirt to raise money for the Community Foundation's flood relief program. We were very excited to get on board, and hoped that together we could raise some money to help Middle Tennessee get through this disaster... little did we know what was about to happen!

Within the first hour we had sold 100... within the first 8 hours we had sold over 700... then, last night, we got a phone call from the mighty Sam Davidson. He was going to try to get the shirt on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 and needed us to print one right then! So, Andy rushed out, printed the shirt in record time, and drove it over to Sam, without knowing if it would actually make it onto the show or not.

It did. (click on "it did" to watch the video)

Since then, we have sold over 1,500 shirts (that's over $30,000 raised)! And now, this morning, local Fox 17 News will be featuring the shirt in their morning broadcast! AND, this coming Monday (when we are running around like maniacs trying to print all of these shirts), local Channel 5 News is coming by the shop (yes, that would be our HOUSE) to do a short clip of the shirts actually being printed!! Suffice it to say, it's going to be a BUSY weekend of trying to make our house and garage look more like a business than... well, a house and a garage!

We are SO overwhelmed by the response this shirt has gotten, and are so excited about all of the money that has been raised to help Nashville families recover from this catastrophe!

If you haven't bought one already, please do so now! The more we can raise, the more families we can help! Thanks!

Oh yeah, and Andy is now the face for the project. Him and his burly beard. It's pretty awesome.




Oh, and Andy just called me and said he was pretty sure he just saw Morgan Freeman. What a weird few days...

Hard to believe...

my little man has changed SO much in the last few weeks! He is a little chatterbox (he started trying to repeat sounds I was making the other day)! He is able to grab toys and pull them into his mouth (and, believe me, EVERYTHING goes into his mouth these days)! He laughed out loud for the first time the other night! He sleeps through the entire night now! He is already growing out of 6-month size clothing (even though he's only 3 1/2 months)! And he continues to delight and overwhelm both of us with his beauty and joy!

We have been ridiculously busy the last month, so I have been absolutely terrible about taking pictures! I have kind of a lot of videos though, so check his other blog to see them!


Andy and I made it through Earth Day alive - things were VERY crazy for a few weeks, but somehow Andy kept plugging along and was able to get everything done on time! Since Earth Day, we have actually been really busy with a ton of new customers, so that is extremely encouraging and exciting! Things seem to be going very well for the business (though we covet your continued prayers) and we are planning on keeping Brendan on with us part-time! We are also POSSIBLY going to be getting a storefront next month, so that is terrifying and really really exciting!

We don't have time for much else besides baby and work (not to mention trying to make time to sit down and actually have a conversation together that doesn't revolve around those 2 things), so I don't have a whole lot else to report. I will try my hardest to be better about taking pictures and posting more often - everything he does is just so exciting I never want to step away for even 2 seconds to grab the camera!

love!


UPDATE : I just caught Oliver laughing!! Wait till the very end!

laughing!! from Hadassah Bird on Vimeo.

9 Weeks!

Well I've missed a couple of weeks, but I think this picture MORE than makes up for it!!

Oliver continues to get happier and happier every day - he's even started kind of cough-laughing at me when I make happy faces at him!! Of course, I say that he's getting happier every day, and he's been crying and yelling at me all day today for some reason... I think it's possibly because we were just in Ohio and he was being held 24/7, but I also think that he's starting to need a schedule of naps during the day. Normally he just sleeps whenever he wants and hangs out with me all day, but now I think he might need to be "put down" for real nap-times, because he has been GRUMPY when he's tired!

Another exciting thing is that he is finally starting to sleep longer in between night-time feedings! I've actually been getting up to 4 hours of sleep at a time! Oh it is glorious! And, despite what you may think...
daddy is getting plenty of sleep all along! :)

We traveled to Ohio this past weekend for my friend Oren's wedding! It was wonderful to see all of our Ohio friends, and Oliver got to see both Papas and both Nanas! Oliver was amazing during both car-rides, he slept almost the whole trip there and then the entire trip back! We had a fabulous time, and even had kind of a date at the wedding (since we couldn't peel Oliver out of Nana and Papa Johnson's arms!) It was lovely!
They had dress-up stuff for fun picture taking - I think we looked pretty awesome, eh? Or would that be scary? :)


....I don't feel like putting up a ton of pictures right now, so check out Ollie's photo blog for many many more! www.oliverbird.tumblr.com

Besides constantly staring at my son - waiting for him to do the next cute thing - I have been extremely busy with the business! March and April are/are going to be VERY busy for us - we seriously have too much work and are almost to the point where we may have to turn jobs down! Things were REALLY slow in February, so this sudden spike in jobs is a major blessing! Hopefully things will stay steady post April (we're hoping this busy-ness isn't a fluke)!

I'm learning, very slowly, how to be a parent AND run a business (not to mention, try to keep the house from falling apart)... it's a difficult process but thankfully I have a patient and helpful husband who doesn't mind cooking dinner when I'm pulling my hair out at the end of a long day! Speaking of my husband, he's even busier than I am! His services are definitely in high demand lately, and he has been running in a million directions just trying to keep up with all of the customers who want his services! I am proud of his efforts and amazed at how he continues to keep up with it all - what a great man I have!

Love to you all!