THE SCOTT BOYS!!!

For Grandma and Grandpa

2009-07-10T13:55:00.004-05:00

All of us at Lake Hamilton
Out on the boat

The house we stayed at

Me on the Hot Dog

Bradley and Jake on the hot dog

Playing pool at the house

On a hike up the mountain

Recent Activities

2009-06-03T21:13:00.004-05:00

Oh, we have been soooo busy....all of the following has taken place in one less than ONE week!

We'll start with the fourth grade play. This is the line dance Bradley's class did. He is in the front row with the red t-shirt on. Bradley as William B. Travis in the play.

The clowns helping Jake back up after he fell off his bunking bronco in the Kindergarten Rodeo.

Jake got to hold the American flag for the opening ceremonies.

Jake receiving his Kindergarten diploma!!!

Bradley's end of the year awards assembly. NONE of the teachers or aides were allowed to hire subs this day! I was distraught. Thank God my sister was able to come down and go for Bradley! She was a lifesaver!!!

And, since DeeAnne came down with Mikah, my parents also came down. We even got to celebrate Jake's birthday a little early with cake and ice cream!
Mikah playing with the Thomas trains!

The boys playing trains...this used to be Bradley's FAVORITE toy ever!

On June 6th, Jake will be 7 years old! All he wanted this year for his birthday was to play putt putt. We were going to go on his actual Birthday, but if we went tonight, Celebration Station had $1.99 games per person. It was an awesome deal, so we went ahead and celebrated tonight as opposed to a busy Saturday night.

Jake's pose for his Hole in One!!!

Jake, Bradley, and me posing for our Hole in One....all on the same hole! Poor Randy having to miss out on this momentous occasion! And, please don't ask about my pose...not sure what happened there HA!

There's nothing like opening your preasant in the Celebration Station parking lot...

And, this is what happens when you let you'r almost 7 year old have too much fun, and too much sugar!!!

Gary, Coby, Maddie, and Nate Visit

2009-05-31T12:20:00.002-05:00

We are so happy that Randy's brother and family are in the US for a while. Here are pictures from our time together last night. A big wrestle fest....bodies everywhere...total chaos!
Get Uncle Gary!

This is FUN Uncle Randy!!!

Uhhh this isn't so much fun anymore Uncle Randy.

The guys "working"...no "Slaving" away.

As it should be in the kitchen :)

Rollie Pollies!

One down, One to go (that's Bradley on the left dead in the grass)

Nate taking care of business.

San Antonio

2009-05-17T18:38:00.010-05:00

What an amazing weekend! We had a great time at Randy Snyder's wedding this weekend. We even got in a quick trip to the Alamo and River Walk. We will for sure sleep well tonight!

These published backwards...oh well. The groomsmen holding the boquets.

The first dance

Bradley walking in the jr. bridesmaid. They were both 10, but she was taller (even without the heels) Jake walking the flower girl into the reception. We had to work with both of the boys to teach them how to walk a girl by the arm.

Handsome boys!
The wedding party Randy Snyder's little brother Josh.

Snyder and the boys!
Boat ride on the River Walk.

River Walk My boys defending the Alamo!
Snyder visiting with the boys at rehearsal dinner.
Us at rehearsal dinner
These are all boys that Randy coached at Ferris. We didn't know they would be in the wedding so it was a nice surprise to see them all. The one to the left of Randy just graduated college ready to coach and teach math!!! The guy to the right of Randy is Snyder. This weekend definitly reminded us all the hard work of coaching and teaching is well worth it!
Shanna and Randy at rehearsal
Jake walking the flower girl in....like I said we had to work on the whole linking arms thing :)
Fuzzy picture...should probably erase it but oh well.

The front of the Incarnate Word cathedral...beautiful!

Backyard Fort

2009-03-07T21:08:00.002-05:00

The boys were busy today building a fort in the backyard. I think they have their mind on camping... Here is them eating dinner in their fort.

Christmas

2009-01-05T21:13:00.004-05:00

So we had a great Christmas break...too bad it is over.
One great milestone we reached was the Green Gorilla (suburban)turning 200,000 miles. What's sad is the car isn't far behind at 194,000 miles.
I desperately tried to get a picture of the cousins together...as you can see below, it didn't quite work out!

Mikah informing Jake there is no way he would be involved in this parental entertainment that never ceases for cute toddlers. AKA-pictures

Mikah with his new Santa toys

Jake with his new Santa goodies. I'm so glad at least one of my children still believe.

Bradley opening his Star Wars AT-TE...it's a walking ship that hold the action figures.

Mikah loves Bradley

Randy putting together the boys basketball goal....using his new tool belt of course!

Mikah and Bradley playing with the AT-TE.

More Football and Bradley's 10th Birthday!

2008-11-19T21:05:00.003-05:00

Saturday we celebrated Bradley's 10th Birthday at the YMCA swimming pool. The BEST part of the birthday of course was that his dad finally got to come to one of his parties. Someone in the lunch room last week was asking me about Bradley's party and mentioned something about Randy being there. My eyes immediately teared up and I had to not talk bc I was sad that Randy was not going to be able to come, and he has never been able to come to one of Bradley's parties bc of football. Well, the head coaches wife was in there and went home and strongly suggested to her husband that he have Randy take Saturday off of football to go to his son's party....So a picture below of Bradley and his DAD AT HIS PARTY!!!

Opening gifts

Blowing out candles.

Gift from Grandpa and Mimi...Both my and Randy's dad have given Bradley a quarters map...pretty cool.

More Friday night football. It was COLD!!! The boys are drinking hot chocolate.

The winning team.

Us bundled at the game. Jake sat between me and Shannon, and Bradley huddled below him.

The ride home.

Jake's head, Bradley's legs.

Friday Night Fun

2008-11-10T19:15:00.004-05:00

We are 9-1 heading into the playoffs. Tri-district champs, we have to share the title with two other schools. So here are some pictures from our Friday nights lately. The first one is the sweetest. This was Bradley's frist time to go on the sidelines with his dad. Precious.

And what would Friday nights be without Crickets???

I know disgusting, but he sure was having a good time. From the back...

EWWWWW! This was an away game, but I made Jake stay awake the entire way home so I could throw him in the tub.

And I shook the boy off real good before we got in Shannon's car!

FC DALLAS

2008-10-12T19:25:00.004-05:00

The boys and I had a blast last night at the FC Dallas game. The YMCA sold tickets to the kids that play soccer for $15. With that, you get a free FC Dallas Tshirt and the kids got to be in a parade on the field before the game. Below is the boys in the parade. It is very easy to see where they are. See the big gap in the line? That is Bradley talking to his friend as he walks, not paying attention to the line!

Ready for some soccer action! Yes, I colored Jake's hair red. I colored both the boys hair red last time we went. This time Bradley didn't want his red...I guess he is too old for that. :(

SCORE!!! The game was exciting at the end. It ended up tied 2-2 against Toronto. I really like professional soccer games. They are exciting. Jake making some noise!
Me and Jake. I was playing with the settings because I didn't like my make-up...it had come off and I didn't have on lip stick and I just think the green color is much more becoming than my regular self.
Jake and his buddies.
Bradley watching the game. I love to see my boys having a good time.
Jake picked up streamers off the floor and began tying them around his eyes and mouth. He asked me if I would tie one around his nose...I said NO!
Goofball! Gotta love him!

"Nurse, Nurse, Paiging Nurse Scott"

2008-09-24T20:09:00.003-05:00

Here's the nurses station...the living room floor. This will last us all of oh 3 days! I covered the top of the trash to spare you the "puke factor". Let me just say thank you to family and friends who have been sooooooo supportive and helpful. We are tired, but healing :)

THURSDAY UPDATE: Randy went to therapy today. The nurse said his wounds are healing quickly! She think the burns will heal quicker than his arm however. She said they didn't realize initially how deep the road rash was on his arm. He looks so much better though, and no more whirlpool therapy!

UPDATE

2008-09-22T20:22:00.002-05:00

I was able to take Randy to therapy this morning. They said we did a good job washing his arm and getting the gravel out. They put him in the whirlpool and cut off more dead skin. They sent me home with a bag of "goodies" to take care of Randy with. I took Randy to Chick Fil A for lunch and he said he wanted to go to work. I took him and he hung out in the coaches office until time for practice. He made it through practice and came home with yellow stuff seepeing out his bandages. I am not happy. I wish he would stay home. The people at therapy said his wounds look good though.

I just helped him take off the bandages and it was nasty! I can't tell you how many times I have wanted to puke. I asked for a trash can at the ER yesterday. The nurses gave me another lesson today in how to dress it. They said he didn't need to come back to therapy until Thursday, which is good for Randy but bad for me. I was hoping he would have to go every day and that THEY would have to dress the wounds for one of the times per day. Hopefully, they will heal quickly even though he is being stubborn and going to work.

Bradley got in the car today and started crying. He is upset to see his dad helpless in some areas and that his dad hurts. He wanted to go to Wal Mart immediately after school and get stuff for dad. He picked out a card, balloon, an Indiana Jones movie, Star Crunch, and Whoopie Cushions HA! He said maybe that would make dad laugh. Randy is TOUGH and handles it well. I'll be glad when we are done with this. Thank goodness we have good insurance that will cover the bike and medicall expenses!

Day I will never forget

2008-09-21T21:46:00.003-05:00

Okay let me start with this morning. One of the sweetest mornings of my families life. Randy got to baptise Bradley this morning at church. I cried and cried it was so sweet. Randy did a good job and he gave Bradey a big hug afterward and said the best prayer about his son who is now his brother in Christ. Sweet precious unforgetful morning. In fact I know I am about to probably type paragraphs about this afternoon, but should be typing paragraphs about the baptism. It was a precious moment.

We came home and the boys went to play at their friends house, Randy went to work, and I laid down to take a nap.

2:40 the phone rings..."Hello Laura your husbands been in a wreck on 513 and hwy 69, laid his bike down, he's okay, we've got medical on the way." OH MY!!! I say I'll be there immediately.

Speed to Christie and Bens, run in their house ask them to keep the kids. Speed to Lone Oak (very carefully to not wreck though). Longest 15 minutes of my life! Thoughts racing through my head. They said he was okay. Does this mean he's conscious? Is he broken? Or is he really okay???

Get there and the paramedics have him bandaged in the ambulance. He's talking, whew! Thank the Lord!

My tough husband refuses to ride in the ambulance because of money, I tell him DO NOT WORRY about it. I end up driving him to the ER. He is scraped up pretty bad on his right side. Basically scraped off all the skin on his right arm and bottom part of his leg. Second degree burn on his hands. His poor hands are bandaged like mittens and he can't use them hardley at all. He will go to some type of therapy tomorrow for the burns. THANK THE LORD he was wearing his helmet.

A lady apparently did not see him and pulled out into the intersection causing Randy to fall and skid. The lady does not even know what she did and continues on. Thank goodness there were witnesses who saw everything and stopped and helped my husband.

Anyway, had he not been wearing his helmet, we would have been much worse off. It busted the side of his helmet. I can't imagine if that had been his bare head. Randy actually took a course that exempted him from wearing a helmet. So glad he wears it! He said his shoulder and head hit the pavement first.

I've got him showered and bandaged and in his recliner watching football. It has been a very bitter sweet day. I am so thankful for my boys and glad they are with me tonight. Shook up, but thankful.
This would have been the right side of his face hitting the pavement at 55 miles per hour. Instead it busted off the visor. That's the one thing we insisted on spending money on...a good Shoei helmet.

Cell phone is no more. I'm hoping we can get his ring sanded down or something. Not a very good picture, there are just scrapes all over it.

Grotesque and Comical

2008-09-19T22:36:00.003-05:00

DISCLAIMER: I have permission from the author to post this as long as I don't mention his name. Let's just say a certain parent was tired one night of all the nose picking her child has been doing over the last couple of weeks. After getting on to her child several times that day, she gave her child the punishment of writing for 30 minutes about why he liked to pick his nose. Here is what he wrote (also typed below in case you can't read the picture)...

"I don't really like to pick my nose. But I do sometimes. I'm not sure why, but I do when my nose is stocked up. When I pick my nose I'm not trying to get in trouble, but when my nose is really full, I can't take it any more, So I pick it. I wish I had something to make me stop, but I don't know what. Sometimes, I do really stupid things. Half the time I do things without thinking, but after, I realise I could have done better. I also feel like my nose makes more bugers than the average nose does.

At least I don't eat my bugers, I would never do that. I want to stop, but I don't know how. If I knew a way, I would use it. Mabey I could pute some thing over my fingers, but what? If you have tips I need them, I really really really wish that somehow, I could stop for good. If you ever picked your nose, I really need to know how you stoped.

My mom got on to my twice for picking my nose today. My adress is (no such luck crazy bloggers), male me the story of how you stoped picking your nose. Mabey I could stop by doing what you did. If you maled me your idias, that would be great."

Friday

2008-09-13T22:58:00.002-05:00

Friday was one of "those" days for sure. Actually, Wednesday started it all. Someone at school spilled water on the office floor and it didn't get cleaned up completely. Well, long story short, I slipped on the water puddle that I didn't see, and busted on my elbow after school. Luckily there were witnesses. The principal had someone go get my husband and the trainer out of football practice. Trainer thought my elbow was either chipped or just badly bruised, so principal encouraged a trip to the ER. So, I ended up on some good meds wednesday night. No chipped elbow which is good, but the pain killers made me really tired Wed. and Thurs.

So on to Friday...I was tired and behind on some work I had to get done for my mom, and I had a doctors appt. in Rowlett at 4:30, and I promised to take the boys to see Clone Wars...I was feeling a bit overwhelmed Thursday night :) I decided to take the day off Friday from work.

Long story short again, EVERYTHING went wrong Friday. Everything except dinner at Fudruckers and the movie with the boys. It ended up being pointless to take off from work, the doctors visit went HORRIBLE...so bad that the doctor called me after I left his office to apologize and give an explanation for the mess up, and said there would be some serious repremanding at the office. Geesh...

So the boys and I had a GREAT time at the movie and it was 10:00, time to head home. THANK GOODNESS I brought pillows and blankets for the boys, because I knew they had soccer games at 9 am Sat. and the theater is a 45 minute drive from our house (under normal driving conditions)....

So we left the theater and made it all the way to I30, only to find that the entire interstate heading East has been SHUT DOWN! Okay, usually not a big deal in the Dallas area where there are numerous alternate routs. No, the problem was that it was shut down at Dalrock, which is at the lake in Rockwall, which means there is NO easy alternate route heading East towards my house!!!

Long story short, again, we found a guy at a gas station that told me how to go down to hwy80 and cut over to 34 at Terrell. So I head down my alternate route. Well, some IDIOT has his brights on and is driving right behind me down 34, and my rear view mirror is all messed up, so that nice little button you push for night time to help take out the glare of bright lights, DOESN'T work! I thought I would try flashing my brights on and off and maybe he would get the hint even though I was in front of him. NOPE. Then I tried breaking lightly. NOPE. So I breaked a little harder... NOPE, but he did back off a little. Finally I put my blinker on and got in the shoulder for the idiot to pass me...

The IDIOT was a cop!

Luckily, he went past me. I guess my day could have been a little worse HA!

We got home at 12:15 AM. I discovered last night that I have learned to handle stress a little better than I used to. We got up this morning for the soccer games. The YMCA had not cancelled them. We got to the fields warmed up, and then the City came out and cancelled everyones games. Geesh! I really feel though that this is the end to the bad streak. Maybe I'll post a picture of my elbow later this week when it's really black and blue :)

SCHOOL

2008-08-26T21:35:00.002-05:00

Well, we seemed to have muddled through our first two days of school. Not only did school start this week, but we also had our first soccer practice this evening. YIKES! Needless to say, my house is a disaster, we are exhausted, and Jake has consistantly had one meltdown per day.

Todays meltdown was over mashed potatoes. Since practice was at 6:30, I had the boys eat some mashed potatoes before practice and decided I would get the rest of dinner cooked afterwards. Well, Jake fell to his knees sobbing at my rediculous notion of eating a snack of mashed potatoes. I asked him what the problem was and he informed me in his own words "I only eat my mashed potatoes with fresh garlic in them." Oh really little buddy....well gourmet mama aint getting paid tonight, so you're just going to have to deal! Uhmm yeah...the kid went hungry to practice...

2008-08-18T14:35:00.003-05:00

Surprise! A summer update! We have had a great summer. We did a lot of painting to the house after our Disney trip. Randy painted the outside of the house, and he helped me strip and paint our kitchen. I lOVE it!
Randy's sister and husband and kids came to Texas this summer and we had a great time with them. We house sat for my parents a couple of times. Most recently we have been hanging out together playing Monopoly and spending time with each other before school starts next week. Bradley and Jake's good friends down the street have been out of town for the last month and just got back yesterday. So they are extatic to have their friends back. And I am glad you're back too Christi :)

I had a couple of biopsies done recently on some moles. The dermatologist said the pathology report showed they were progressing into melanoma, but weren't melanoma. I think it means they have potential to be melanoma. He removed two moles completely. I told him to go ahead and cut out the remaining 6, but he said he would wait, because they didn't look as bad and if he did that, I could posibbly have six more spots grown back when I go back in. I will go back every six months so he can check them. I'm not totally happy with having to watch moles all the time, but at least they can be cut out.

I missed not getting to see Mikah this summer, but I am glad they got moved into their new house. We have all our back to school shopping done. I can't believe Bradley will be in the 4TH GRADE!!! Crazy!

Well, on to the pictures. Jake found this frog in mimi and grandpa's pool and caught it. After a couple of times of being caught, I think the frog decided that just laying there, and playing dead was better than being chased all over the pool. Jake loved it, and I finally had to make him let the poor frog go :)

Kitchen pics....Before (All of the befores are from when we looked at the house to buy it, so the previous owners stuff is in the pictures)

After

Before

After...I love love love this built in being painted, you can finally see my Africa, Turkey, Uzbekistan collection on the counter top!

Before

After

Same Kind of different as Me

2008-07-08T22:03:00.003-05:00

Okay, I haven't picked up a good book in a long time. Granted I do NOT like to read, but I do ocassionaly pick up a good book about poverty or social injustices (I am a social worker). After a night of blog hopping, I found someones blog who was an ACU alum that I do not know. She had recommended this book and said ACU was handing out to all incoming freshmen in September. Same Kind of Different as Me was right up my ally. I found this picture on their website http://www.samekindofdifferentasme.com/default.aspx It's about a friendship that forms between a homeless man who grew up in Luoisiana and a super rich art dealer from Fort Worth. Their two paths cross thanks to the rich art dealers amazing wife and a lifetime friendship is formed. The book is written by Denver Moore (former homeless man) and Ron Hall (rich guy...still) and they both live in the DFW area. My friend down the street is going to borrow my book and read it and then we are going to go to the art gallery that houses some of Denver Moore's paintings that is somewhere close to SMU. I think the two men are going to speak at ACU in the fall as well. I would love to go to that. Ron's wife was truly inspiring to me. In fact I had a homeless friend here in Greenville this winter. His name is Arliss (at least that's what he told me). We would sit in Walmart and chat on cold nights...not long just five or ten minutes. One night I had Randy drive around with me and the boys to find Arliss and take him to eat, but he turned down the invitation, said he had just eaten. A few weeks later it warmed up and I haven't seen him since. I would love to grow up and be a philanthropist, HA! And I wouldn't give my 8 billion dollars to DOGS like some ONE rich person did (sorry all you dog lovers)!
Anyway back to the book...READ IT! It might just inspire you!

More Disney World and New Orleans

2008-06-23T17:12:00.008-05:00

FRIDAY- This was our last day to be in the theme parks. Let me tell you how special Friday was. Only on the weekends in June, Hollywood Studios has something called Star Wars weekends. They have the characters througout the park for pictures, A parade with a lot of the characters, and various shows to watch. They also have three celebrities that were actors in the movies come and sign autographs. We skipped the autographs, because even fastpassing the lines was like a three hour wait and we the boys didn't care much about that. What they DID care about was Jedi training. We ran straight to the line for training when the rope was dropped. Bradley was picked for the first show and Jake wasn't. Jake began boohooing. It was sad, and I was prepared to be there for the remaining five shows at that point for Jake to hopefully get picked. They only chose 30 kids a show. That may sound like a lot, but when you saw all the kids waiting and jumping up and down to participate, it really wasn't.
This is the storm troopers putting on a show on the roof before the park opened.

Here is Bradley getting his Jedi training. It was so funny how serious all the kids were. Then the smoke came and the doors slid open to reveal their opponent. Some little kids cried it was so realistic. And here is young padawan Bradley putting his Jedi training to the test against none other than Darth Vader!!!

Luckily the Jedi who chose the kids to go on stage, picked our little guy Jake for the next show. I was relieved. Jake got to battle Darth Maul.

Jake in training
Darth Mauls entrance. My two padawans :)

The boys looooved getting their pictures with the characters. Especially with Anakin. I let them bring their light sabers with them and this lady we were in front of in line happened to have a sharpy on her and she let the boys use it to have Anakin autograph their light sabers. Bradley said I needed to buy a case for his. Randy said Bradley I don't think that was the real Anakin actor and Bradley said no dad it was, didn't you see the scar on his face. Ha! We let him go ahead and believe in the disney magic :) Some pig guy from Star Wars

Chewbacca and Jake
This was during the parade. Again I don't know how, but we got awesome seats for the parade. Many of the characters walked up to the boys and shook their hands. The boys loved it.

Jake and Boba fet. He's a bounty hunter. Believe me I learned a lot about Star Wars this weekend! Bradley looking at Chewbacca's hands.

Friday night we headed back to Magic Kingdom for one last time.
We had dinner reservations at the Crystal Palace with Eyore, Tigger, Piglet, and Pooh Bear at 9:30. We had already seen the fireworks and spectromagic parade Thursday night, but we got to enjoy another view of it from our table window at dinner. Again Awesome. Jake watching the fireworks..... And Jake falling asleep in his dinner chair after the fireworks. Unfortunately he had to miss the Peter Pan ride after dinner. He did go on it, just Randy had to hold him sleeping while on it.

Now. we left Disney World Saturday morning and were feeling pretty good. Sad to leave, but still had some energy. So, I asked Randy if we could spend the night in New Orleans and go on the Katrina tour Sunday morning. So, here are pictures from our 3 hour tour. They took us all through New Orleans. It really was sad to see that 3 year later, people are still struggling and houses/neighborhoods are in bad shape. I really wanted to go on this tour, because when Katrina hit, we lived in east Texas and our hotels were filled to the max and bus loads of people got sent to our churches and kids started going to our schools. The boys went with me to one of the hotels to meet people and deliver gatorade and toys and diapers. So, I wanted them to see this. Below is Six Flags which got wiped out and never reopened.

The door on the side of this house says "You loot, you die" The Superdome
Remeber the images on the news of the prisoners sitting on the over pass? The guards had to swim them there and keep them there until they could open this place below to be a temporary jail.
On the way into New Orleans we had to take a detour through Slidell because of a chemical spill. Slidell didn't look like it was in very good shape either.
The boys hanging out waiting for our food after the tour.
What a typical street looks like...maybe two or three houses on the block have people actually living in them, the rest are empty and torn up.

This is were Harry Conick Jr. came in and had Habitat for Humanity start building houses for the people. There are 47 houses built so far. 300,000 houses were ruined in the flooding. There is a long ways to go in New Orleans. Our tour guide wasn't real fond of the government, or the govenor of Louisiana. He said she delayed George Bush coming in with aide because she didn't want a republican saving the day.
This used to be a neighborhood full of houses in the ninth ward. It's now full of empty lots. I can't imagine what it looked like before they cleared out all the houses.
Just found this interesting. It was here before the flooding.

And, I leave you with Jake's thought on New Orleans....

WE'RE BACK!

2008-06-23T15:19:00.007-05:00

We had an awesome vacation! Our Disney World trip couldn't have gone any more perfect than it did. These post will be long and filled with pictures for family...we'll see how much I get posted today :)

Our first evening there we went to Downtown Disney. The boys loved the lego shop. They wanted to spend all their money the first night, but we convinced them that they would really want their money for the week. By the end of the week, they were thanking us for not letting them spend all their money the first night.

MONDAY- We got up monday morning and headed over to Hollywood Studios. For anyone who has been, they have an awesome Indiana Jones show. Well they asked for four wild and crazy people out of the audience, and everyone who knows me knows how loud I can yell, well that got me a spot on the stage!!! I got to be a stand in. It was so much fun. Randy didn't know how to work the camera real well, so this picture is a little fuzzy.
I'm in the middle of the three people dressed in white robes. The other girl in white is a stand in, and the rest are actors. The other stand ins are off to the side and me and this girl got to stand where all the action in this shot was. It was awesome!
This is the boys below watching the lights, motor, action show. THey loved all the stunts!

Our first night we had reservations at the Coral Reef. Our table was right next to a big aquarioum window. We couldn't have asked for a better spot. And below is our deserts. Man we ate some good food at Disney World.

TUESDAY- We started our second day at Magic Kingdom. On the Jungle cruise ride, Jake got picked to drive the boat and he got a little safari certificate at the end. It was so cute. That's pretty much how our whole week went...awesome. Jake was getting tired by the second day. He plopped himself down in the middle of the walk way while dad was fastpassing tickets. HA!

One of our favorite things to do was ride the ferry back and forth from the parking lot.
Dinner on Tuesday was at the Boma in Disney's Animal Kingdom lodge. It was all you could eat African buffet. It was sooooooo goooood!!!!! WEDNESDAY- We arrived early at Animal Kingdom and visited with some really friendly Disney staff while waiting for the park to open. Well they took us right to the front of the line and we got to follow the safari show all the way into the park to our very first ride for the day. Like I said, cool things like this kept happening to us. We were the first ones to get on the Kilamjari Safari! AWESOME!
The safari ride was incredible. It's not like being in the zoo with walls and cages. The animals are right there! At one point the rhino was walking right next to our car!

Jake, don't get too close to the Dinasour!!!!! I loved watching my kids faces light up all week. They had a blast! This is Jake waiting in line for a flying dinasaur ride.

That evening we went back to hollywood for some character pictures, and dinner at pizza planet. I think our kids were the perfect ages to go. Jake was tall enough to ride all but two rides in all the theme parks, and Bradley was still young enough to believe in a lot of the Disney Magic.
Frozone snuck up behind Jake while he was seeing which Disney Character he was the most like. It was cute to see Jake's reaction when he saw Frozone behind him in the picture.
Here is the picture...Frozone is in the top left of the picture
THURSDAY- I don't have a lot of pictures from Thursday. Jake was extremely worn out by this day, so that morning we went to Magic Kingdom early hours then I took Jake over to Hollywood to ride the new Toy Story Mania while Bradley and Randy continued to ride rides in the parks. Jake and I returned to our hotel by noon to eat lunch, nap and swim. We stayed at the all star sports VALUE resort. Here is a picture. One of the pools was even in the shape of a baseball field and had stadium lights to swim by at night.
After a day of rest for Jake, we met up at Hollywood that evening for dinner and shopping. The boys bought some new light sabers to get ready for the big STAR WARS day on Friday.
Dinner at the Sci-Fi theater. We ate dinner in a car while watching movies...cool.

Jake sleeping with his Jedi Mickey

More to come....I'm going to Walmart to pick up pictures for the boys. We'll see if I post more later tonight?

Summer Fun

2008-06-13T16:07:00.005-05:00

I planted these cute little flowers earlier this spring. I have no idea what they are called, but I got the last of them from Home Depot. I think we are one in a handfull of people who have them here in our town. I love them! I'm hoping they fill in around the bottom of our tree.

And here are the boys having some summer fun playing in the sprinkler.

Jake had the bright idea to get a bucket...

Looks like it backfired on him! :)

Enjoying the new ride

2008-06-11T10:14:00.003-05:00

Jake is on the back of the bike with Randy. We didn't have a helmet so we put a bicycle helmet on him to go to the stop sign and back...trust me, Randy went very slow. So, after that short ride we thought hey let's go get the boys a real helmet so Randy can take them for a real ride! And yes Randy will ride with a helemet EVERY day, it's just we had to order one and it won't come in till next week.

Putting on the proper safety gear! Be sure to hold on tight Jake...

Okay maybe not that tight.

There much better!

New Bike

2008-06-05T21:26:00.003-05:00

Well, we went shopping yesterday for Jake's 6th Birthday which is tomorrow! We bought him a new Bike!!!

Oh and that tire you see behind Jake's new bike......

Well, that's Randy's new bike we got today!!! Hee Hee! I can't wait till he gets his lisence!!!!!

That's our friend coach Mason, who we couldn't have bought the bike without. He told Randy everything he needed to know. Thanks man!!!!

We're Done!!!

2008-06-03T20:00:00.004-05:00

We are sooo ready for the summer! Today was the elementary awards assembly. I was so proud of Bradley. He is such a good student and loves school. Don't get me wrong though, he also loves having time off in the summer. Bradley got all kinds of awards today. And I noticed his crush K got all the same awards as well. It is so cute to see them together. They are both tall and skinny and blond hair and big achievers.
Here is Bradley getting his certificate for Superintendant's honor roll.

A trophy for second place runner in run across america. He logged in 32 miles!...
Trophy for top AR reader with 109 points!...

And two trophies for commended performance on the TAKS test. One for math and one for reading. WAY TO GO BRADLEY!!!

Yesterday, was Jake graduation. We told him this was prctice graduation for next year since he will be retained. He is really working hard to conquer his speech impediment. Here he is receiving his certificate.

Here is Jake being shy, about to perform a song with his music teacher. Skip down a picture and there is video of them singing. I'm not really sure still of what it was they were singing. Oh well, it was still cute.

And here is Jake's best friend Anthony that Jake lost a couple of days ago. Anthony gave Jake a 100 or something, but then Jake couldn't "pass", so Anthony was no longer Jake's friend. Uhmm, Okay, I never really understood that one, but they are friends again. HA! There are only three boys (including Jake) in the class. The poor boys are really outnumbered!

How do you combat high gas prices?

2008-05-31T20:09:00.002-05:00

Eat Steak! Ha No, seriously! My WONDERFUL friend told us about this website called http://angelfoodministries.com
Wow. We are so happy with it. You can buy a weeks worth of dinner (for a family or 4) for $30! Now some of you may eat better than the food they give you, but for my family who sticks with cheapo hot dogs, hamburger helper, tuna helper (you get the point) this food they give us is gooooooood! So the picture above was our dinner and desert! This entire meal cost us only $5! The steak, onions, and Sara Lee pumpkin pie, all came from angel foods. The steamed zuchini is fresh from our backyard garden, the berries are fresh from nature, and the beans we bought. It was a yummy meal. Really anyone looking to save anywhere needs to check out this website. You can pick up the food from a local church. It tells you which churches are involved on the website. I suggest you go when they first open to pick up your food. Angel Foods does their part in keeping the food at the right temperature. I went to the local church here when they opened and asked how they kept the food frozen for the people that come at 11, and they don't they just leave it sitting out. Yuck! But we are very happy with what we got!

Tooth Fairy and Tears

2008-05-27T19:38:00.002-05:00

Jake lost his first tooth Sunday! We're not quite sure where though. Well, I think he swallowed it with his Chicken burrito, but he thinks it's in the bottom of Mimi and Grandpa's swimming pool or at Rosa's Cafe. The Tooth Fairy didn't make her appearance until last night though.

Today Jake had a field trip to Tyler to the science place. Randy picked the boys up and brought them home because I had to run a school related errand after work. When I came in Jake ran up and hugged me and started crying. He said, "Mom where were you today? I waited and looked for you but you didn't come." Oh my! My eyes started watering. I felt horrible. I told him parents were not allowed to go on this field trip because of space issues. I would have gladley taken off to go to his field trip. In fact he probably thought I was coming because I went to his last one a couple of weeks ago at the park. He just broke my heart today, sweet boy.

Busy Weekend

2008-05-18T22:34:00.007-05:00

Friday night we went to watch my mother-in-law perform in the Irving Chorale. It wasn't the traditional "boring" performance. HA! I am not making fun of them, it really was a funny performance. A guy burped (on purpose) in one of the songs. The orchestra came out dressed in beach clothes, and they did some rendition of Bach I have never heard before. I know, way to expose our boys to the fine arts, HA! We go to their "traditional" Christmas Programs though. Even though It was entertaining, Jake still sat the last 20 minutes with his fingers in his ears asking when he could go home (don't take offense to this Nana...keep reading below).

We spent the night with Nana and then headed over to Grandpa's and Mimi's on Saturday to the Rangers game. Dad's company provided the tickets along with all you can eat hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, drinks, cookies...and they gave the boys a rangers ball cap and a drawstring back pack. We had sooo much fun! Then, after the ballgame, everyone moved out to some grassy field by the ball park and enjoyed a Robert Earl Keen Concert!!! So much fun! Jake was tired and he pulled his same fingers in the ear trick and asking when we could go home. I think we left at about 11. The boys went to bed mucho early tonight, but what a blast!

Good name on that Jersey...He even hit a homerun!

Waiting for the concert to start

Proud to be an American. They had live satellite feed of the Army Band in Iraq to play the national anthem, and a little boys dad was live via satellite and sang his son happy birthday. It was sweet.

What my sons did during the Robert Earl Keen concert...laid on their backs and shot the stars with fake guns...sory for my lack of filming skills.

2008-05-09T16:41:00.008-05:00

What a fun day at the elementary today. Kindergarten had their rodeo and it was hilarious. Jake was the very first kid to perform an event. That's a lot of pressure. Especially when you're as shy as he is. He did a great job, but he faced his teacher most of the event becuase I think he felt more comfortable looking at her rather than the crowd. The first video is Jake riding his Bucking Bronco!

Video of the kids running in for the opening assembley

The crazy chicken dance. That is Jakes teacher in the grey shirt and the principal in the brown telling the kids what comes next.

And here is what happens to five year olds when their event is first and they have to watch the remaining 40 minutes....They start to get bored!

Jake dropped his hat at least 6 times. I have tons of pictures of him being bored but for some reason all of them are blurrey. At one point he had his horses head sticking through the bars next to him.

The Pledges.

In third grade, they had the Fairy Tale Ball. This was the cutest thing ever. The teachers and kids all dressed as fairy tale characters. The teachers paired the boys and girls into couples and announced each couple by name and character as they entered. Then, the kids did ballroom dancing. PRECIOUS! Bradley was excited because his teacher knows about his crush, and she paired him up with K! Here is video of him dancing with K. They practiced this for weeks.

When the kids weren't dancing, they were allowed to sit down and have a snack. Bradley and K were the only ones at there table and what's funny is they barely said a word to each other the entire time. I think they had some short pointless conversation about the dinner mints HA! But I did catch her many times just staring at Bradley....TOOO CUTE! PS this is not K's real hair...she has on a wig.

I love this picture. K is taller than Bradley and it was really hard for him to spin her. When he spun her here, his elbow hit the little girl in yellow's plate and knocked her cookie into her punch and her cake on the floor. He didn't even know he did it because he was concentrating so hard. I did help the little girl get more food. :)

The teachers asked the parents to cut in and dance with their children so here I am dancing with Bradley.

Bradley's class

Bradley and his teacher.

2008-05-06T23:02:00.002-05:00

My New Best Friend...
I think I am going to like my new friend that is pictured below. After I forgot Monday to bring the chips and queso that I promised Bradley and his teacher I would bring to the Cinco De Mayo celebration, I decided I needed some help to get myself together. Luckily I remembered at 9:30 that morning that I was supposed to bring the chips and queso. I ran to Lone Oak Grocery and bought a box of velveeta, two cans of rotel, and two bags of tostitos chips...and my grand total was... $20!!! Wow, disorganization can really cost you, and I wasn't about to dissapoint my child. It is so hard working this year and still keeping up with the house, and school activities for my kids. I love my job, but I really wish I could still stay home. I think it will be better next year, when I am a little more used to going to work every day.

And here are the Scott Boys. My sweet wonderful boys. I love love love them. Last night I forgot, I mean I remebered (HA) that Tuesday was teacher appreciation day, and the kids bring them candy. I sat in the chair, rolled my eyes and said uggghhh I really don't want to go to Wal Mart. Bradley said, "Mom if it would be an encouragement to you, I will go with you." What a sweetheart. He even opened the car doors for me and he offered to buy me a treat at Wal MArt. Love that boy!!!

And lastly, I am so excited that it is dewberry season! I picked these lovely beauties tonight while out on my walk. Birds are eating my strawberries we planted :( I don't know how to keep them away.
And notice behind the dewberries, are two cups with colored shiny decorator stones (whatever you call those things). These are the good manner jars. Since we had to cancel our Disney trip last year for good reason (well my father in laws death was not good, but we were good with canceling for the funeral), we will be going this summer. I have booked our dinners at some nice restaraunts. And, we hardley ever eat at the table together or go out to eat. The other night, the four of us went to Ice Burgs (my new favorite hammburger joint) and the boys really dissapointed me with their behavior. Then, that dissapointed me with myself, because we haven't been eating all together every night like we should. So, we started eating together EVERY night until our trip and the boys will be working on there manners. To make it fun, I told them that for every two marble things they put in the jar, they would each get a quarter. I think they have the potential to earn ten bucks a piece? I also old them this is a life lesson, and this will be continued after the disney trip (not the jars, the good manners). We will see.

So COol!!

2008-04-30T21:19:00.004-05:00

I got to meet the First Lady and Jenna Bush today!!! They did a book signing at the Border's Books off of Preston and Royal this evening. My Principal let me leave school early so I could get a ticket for the signing. It was so cool. There were secrect service guys every where. One had to chase down a crazy three year old that snuck away from her mother and was running wild through the blocked off isles. Mrs. Bush and Jenna are very pretty and elegant. And Mrs. Bush is way more petite than I thought she was. Such an awesome experience. I am thankful I got to be a part!!!

2008-04-23T21:05:00.001-05:00

$120 a barrel? SERIOUSLY!!!!

I SPY...

2008-04-03T16:25:00.002-05:00

Today on the way home from school the boys and I played I spy. Jake said I spy something grey. Guess what the answer was???

MY HAIR!!!!!!!! AAUUUGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Easter in Austin

2008-03-23T20:29:00.005-05:00

Lot's of pictures below!!! We went to Austin late Thursday to see Aunt DeeAnne, Uncle Jamil, and baby Mikah! We got to babysit Mikah on Friday which was so much fun to hang out with this little guy. He is such a happy baby. Playing in the window Jake was trying to play his gameboy here....Mikah had other plans. Our walk around the park to feed the ducks All of Us 2 of Us Saturday Outing...step 1- Sunscreen up Step 2- wait in this rediculously long line that moved rather quickly (I have no clue who the lady in blue is). step 3- Wait and stare at the big loot for 30 minutes. Step 4- Quick picture with the easter bunny...then go back to staring at colorful eggs. Step 5- TOTAL CHAOS breaks out for five minutes and then my child emerges from the sea of people with his loot. For real, I thought I was going to lose Jake and never see him again after about 50 parents charged the field with their kiddos to "help" them push, I mean pick up eggs. It was Crazy, but sooooooo much fun. Step 6- Play games at the carnival where the Eggstravaganza was. Now my favorite part of the Trip...Getting to see Fricano's Deli...Jamil and DeeAnne are co-owners with Paul Fricano. The food was SOOOOO good!!! DeeAnne working-this place stays busy! Random Austin Picture Today, we had an Easter egg hunt and DeeAnne and Jamil's place. We hid tons of eggs filled with candy and money. The boys now call Jamil their "Rich Uncle" since he stuffed the eggs so full of money. Mikah watched the boys find the eggs and then he loved being in the easter egg bucket while the boys emptied their eggs and threw them into the bucket with Mikah. Video of Mikah

2008-03-12T20:50:00.004-05:00

Tonight Bradley and I enjoyed the nice weather and walked in the neighborhood together. After we talked about everything that happened at school that day, there was a lull in the conversation and Bradley asked "Well, isn't there anything to talk about?" To appreciate the conversation that followed that statement I have to fill you in on a conversation we had a few weeks ago when Bradley revealed to me he had his first crush on "K". He asked for advice and I told him crushes were normal around this age and to just take his time and he could tell her if he wanted or he didn't have to tell her at all. SO, here's our conversation...

M- "Well, how are things going with K?"

B- "Not so good."

M- "Why, what happened?"

B- "Mrs. Hooten gave us echalk time the other day and I emailed K and wrote K I have a crush on you"

M- "And what did she say?"

B- "I don't"

Luckily Bradley started laughing here and I was able to let my laughter out and not have to contain it.

M- "Well, maybe K isn't ready to have a crush on anyone yet. Did she say if she liked anyone else?"

B- "No she doesn't like anyone"

M- "I'm proud of you for having a good sense of humor about it. You're a handsome kid and have a lot of time to figure out all this girl stuff."

B- "Mom?"

M- "Yes"

B- " I sent the email to the whole 3rd grade."

M- Trying REALLY hard to contain the laughter, flustered not knowing how to respond, and reverting back to my social work counseling days I replied with "So, how do you feel about that?"

B- "It's okay. A lot of the boys emailed me back and told me who they had crushes on." A little embarrised grin was on his face

M- "Well, I love you sweetie and I'm proud of you. You're a great kid. We aught to walk together more often."

B- "yep, that would be good."

I LOVE THAT KID!

How do you spend your Saturday when Snyder comes to visit?

2008-03-02T22:54:00.004-05:00

Playing FOOTBALL of course!!!
"Silver 8, Silver 8, set...hut hut"

"Red 32, Red 32, set....hut hut"

TACKLE! The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

There's a fumble on the play!!!

MVP

Illness

2008-02-18T21:35:00.002-05:00

Due to recent illness floating around our schools, as I put Jake to bed tonight I said, "you be sure to get some good sleep tonight because I want you to stay well." Later, Randy went in to say good night to him and Jake said, "mom said the flutes are going around. Remember last year when Bradley had the flute? I need to go to bed so I don't get the flutes dad." HA!!!

Sunday Hike

2008-02-10T20:57:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow I am taking a personal day off from work. I was hoping to go hiking at a state park, but the forcast calls for rain all day. So....rather than hoping for good weather tomorrow I asked the boys and Randy if they wanted to hike with me today. And, they said Yes! So we all went to Lake Tawakoni State Park and went on a 3 mile trail. We had soooooo much fun and it was a BEAUTIFUL day! Bradley brought his camera...I didn't want to carry mine. I had to at least get him in one of the pictures. It's not a very good one though. The boys are looking out at the lake. Then they looked down and saw that they were standing on top of a "cave" HA! Bradley poked on the top of it with his hiking stick and when some of the top gave way he said "yep it's a bear cave Jake." Jake took off running.

Eating oranges!

2008-02-05T22:24:00.000-05:00

Well, I almost had an easy day today. I spent the day at school doing odds and ends for teachers and for the last period of the day volunteered to fill in for the P.E. teacher while she helped some students in her room. Well....when you have to have a tornado drill for 30 minutes, while the favorable tornado conditions move through Lone Oak, the only place to evacuate the children to safety is the boys and girls restrooms. So, I got to spend 30 minutes in the nasty smelly middle school boys restroom with ten boys and another aide. Gross!!! Surely tomorrow will be better! And no, the picture above is not the actual bathroom I was in, (I don't take my camera to school) I just wanted to give your brains a visual. Too bad they haven't invented smellovision!

Apologies

2008-01-29T20:25:00.000-05:00

I don't know why, but I haven't felt much like blogging. Could be due to the same old same old of life, nothing really exciting happening around here. Go to work, come home, go to work, come home, go to work, put the fire out on the hot water heater and boil water for baths the next two nights...Hopefully the new water heater will be installed tomorrow. I won't totally be dissapearing from blog world. Just need some really good inspiration to blog about something.

Since I'm on here tonight though, I will tell you something funny Bradley said at Brookshires tonight. We were buying juice boxes for lunches and I noticed the price of capri suns went up to $3.07 a box!!! They were $2.24 last week. Bradley and Jake got an earfull about the price and were informed we wouldn't be drinking these much anymore. When we got up in the line to pay Bradley said, "Hey mom you know how you were listening to the President speak last night? Well, he said he was raising the price of everything." I and the lady in front of me laughed and he said, "No really he said it!" I got a good laugh out of that.

PS...Never drop the equivalent of 1 Cup of boiling hot water on your foot...it hurts...bad

Cousins

2007-12-31T23:27:00.000-05:00

Well, our family is taking it easy tonight. We already have the boys in bed and Randy and I will celebrate the new year tonight with some peace and quiet. We had a great Christmas and got to see lots of family and even got to meet our new cousin Elizabeth. We started the week at my parents home and ended our travels Saturday coming home from from Greenville Iliinois where Randy's sister lives. Sunday I went with some girls from church to see The Great Debaters (wonderful movie) and out to eat. So we are tired and relaxing this evening.

Here are pictures...enjoy

Jake and Mikah

Mikah's first taste of cereal

Jake playing blowing on the Wi at his cousins house. He has a bruise on his forhead from bringing his hand up so high after his bowling that the remote flew up and hit him in the forhead HA!

My new niece Elizabeth

The cousins

Jake's new cool toy from Mimi and Grandpa. It took Ramdy and I forever to install it, just to find that we couldn't get the dad gum moon to work. It would help if we hadn't temporarily lost the instructions to the moon. Well, we decided to leave the moon hanging for the time being until we could later return it to the store. So, we go to tuck the boys in and found the instructions and proceeded to turn the light off and tell the boys goodnight. As we flipped the lights off, the moon turned on. We read to instructions to find this helpful hint....
NOTE: In order for the moon to function properly, the room lights should be off.

Geez!!!

2007-12-21T20:08:00.000-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE NINJA UNDERWEAR WARRIORS!!!

Walking in a Winter StickyLand

2007-12-19T21:40:00.000-05:00

I bought those little Pampered Chef glass bowls last weak in the hopes that they would help me cook some things in the toaster oven (our oven issue is a whole blog in itself). Anyway, I thought I had a wise idea to make the little cakes with the bowls into Christmas trees and make a "Winter Wonderland" type sceen with them. Well, this is what we ended up with :) Most likely I will never be a gourmet chef, but the boys and I sure had a lot of fun tonight. And we sure were sticky when we finished!

Abilene

2007-12-15T23:51:00.000-05:00

Well we spent 7 plus hours on the road today, but it was so worth it. When Randy was coaching in Ferris, we had one of his student/football players live with us for eight months until it was time to take him out to begin his college years at Hardin Simmons University. Well, today he walked the stage and received his diploma! We are sooo pround of you Snyder!!! (His name is Randy also, but when you have two Randy's living in the same house, it was easier to call him by his last name) Snyder will be heading out to Arlington to become a police officer, while his sweetie Shanna finishes up one more semester of school...here are some pictures of our happy day.

The Graduate!!!!

Walking the stage! Randy and Shanna. Snyder, you have made a lot of good choices over the last four years, but Shanna is by far the best one you have made yet! I believe she is a keeper!!!

The boys were sooooo well behaved today. They had to sit 4 hours in the car, then get out and sit and eat lunch. Then go sit for an hour to get front row seats for graduation. Then sit another hour and 1/2 for the ceremony. Then sit through a 2 hour adult conversation at dinner (wow, I can't believe I just called you an adult, Snyder). Then sit for the 3 1/2 hours coming home. We let them have a little loud and rowdy fun in the car on the way home tickling each other. Randy and I were willing to put up with the noise since they had been good all day long.
The Boys Having Fun

I didn't realize that my camera wouldn't video with the light on, so this starts out dark and I tell Randy to turn on the light in the car and then you can see what Jake is doing to Bradley while he is yelling TICKLE...

I Feel Loved

2007-12-10T22:57:00.001-05:00

So our staff at the school does the whole Secret Santa thing this week. For various reasons, I chose not to participate. I just couldn't justify spending the $40 for me to get stuff all week. Well turns out, I'm the only one who didn't sign up and I knew that before the whole event was finalized and the santa's were picked, but I still didn't think I should do it. Well some sweet elf full of Christmas Joy shared some of the spirit with me today and gave me this CUTE snowman ornament. It made me so happy, and what a sweet person to do that! No one from work reads my blog (at least to my knowledge no one does), but I wish they did because they could see a big THANK YOU!

And I also had to post a picture of our tree this year. My parents got one of the new pre lit trees so we got their old one, lights and all. It is such an upgrade from our 4 foot tree we have had for our entire marriage. Funny thing is when we put up this tree Bradley said ,"man, our tree last year Jake was so much bigger than this." Ha so funny to see how they remember things!

And time to close with pictures of my sweet pirate!

And my little pirate showing off his Karate moves...hmmm....I think he may be a little confused.

It's That Time of Year Again

2007-11-30T23:26:00.000-05:00

I got to go to the Mercy Me concert again this year. LOVE IT! I went by myself last year and ran into my friend Katy there. This year she ditched her husband and kids and the two of us went together while our husbands kept the kids. I caught a free t shirt that they threw into the crowd! Yipee! It's just an awesome concert and I will probably be posting about this same thing again next year. As long as they keep having a hometown concert, I will go!

So Proud

2007-11-28T21:09:00.000-05:00

Well here is a picture of Bradley and Randy with the trophy for winning the game against Hico. We lost the friday after Thanksgiving to Cisco. We are excited to be in Lone Oak and thank God for leading us here. We love Lone Oak! Jake didn't get to make the picture because I was holding all 43 pounds of his sleeping self while this picture was being taken! He was upset to find out he missed the picture with the trophy.

Look Alike Meter

2007-11-26T18:20:00.000-05:00

Something fun from Jaime...

Birthday and Play-offs (Exciting, but Tiring!)

2007-11-17T18:09:00.000-05:00

So, the Buffaloes won last night...28-21. It was a late night. Jake fell asleep in the third quarter in Nana's lap and stayed asleep through all the excitement. I took our blanket into Saltgrass Steakhouse after the game and he slept on it on the floor for an hour and a half. We got home at 1:30 am...thus the delay in updating on the game. Next week we take on the team ranked second in the state, Cisco. We will do our best!

Today (while daddy went to work :( ), we celbrated Bradley's 9th Birthday! Thank goodness mom is on her way down to take us out to eat dinner, I'm worn out. We had an army themed party. There was an obstacle course. They had to pop a balloon that had a bouncy ball inside of it, run and jump the hurdle, throw the ball into a bucket, run to the bounce house, find the slip of paper that had a shape on it, run to the puzzle pieces and grab all of them that had that shape on the back of the pieces, put the puzzle together, then kick the soccer ball into the goal. This took all of 5 minutes. HA!!! They loved it though. Then we had a shark pinata (we invited his soccer team and they were the sharks). You can see the pinata hanging in the upper right of the picture below. Then each child got four cans of silly string to have a war with. Everyone had a good time, and for some reason all the kids decided to turn on me and spray Bradley's mom with the silly string HA! Anyway, We had a great time, but we are pooped. I guess in the back of my mind when I planned this party, I thought Randy might possibly make it home. He walked in the door as the last kid was leaving :( I'm glad we are in the play-offs though. Well, here's pics....ENJOY!
36 cans of silly string! Woo Hooo!!!
Kids working on the puzzle during the obstacle course. This was the only chance I had to grab my camera during it.

Opening Preasents!
This is Bradley's friend from church who was also on his soccer team

SILLY STRING WAR

Don't look too enthused son!

GO BUFFALOES!!!

2007-11-16T18:25:00.000-05:00

We're about to leave to go to our first round of the play-offs against the Hico Tigers. We're favored to win by 8....I'll update later and let you all know.....HOPE WE WIN! Either way, I'm proud of Randy! GO BUFFALOES!

Halloween

2007-10-31T19:14:00.000-05:00

Well, since I couldn't find where to order Mr. Mainways costumes, we had to go with Buzz Lightyear and Peter (Chronicles of Narnia) from Disney.com. The boys are soo cute!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-30T23:19:00.000-05:00

Well, it took me a while to figure out what the kids should dress up as for Halloween, but I finally got some good ideas from Mr. Mainway in this you tube video. I really like the invisible pedestrian. I tried to find his company but couldn't. Darn the luck! I had a hard time deciding, but I think you will be pleasently surprised with my choices when I post pictures Wednesday night!

2007-10-06T10:41:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of my kiddos last week BEFORE their soccer game....TIRED BOYS. Not a good way to start a soccer day. However, this Friday night was a by week for Lone Oak, so I let the kids rent a movie and start watching it at 6:00 pm. By 8:15 the boys both said they were tired and ready to go to bed. Just for the record, this is Bradley's FIRST time ever to tell me he is tired and wants to go to bed. I didn't tell them that this it was before their bedtime. I just let them go on to bed and then popped in a movie for myself to watch. This morning they were much more rested and ready to go. Jake's game was at 9 and now we have to wait until 2:00 for Bradley's game. I'll try to get pictures up of Bradley's game if it's not raining. We got a few sprinkles this morning but it looks like it may be raining later. JAKE THROWING THE BALL IN IN THE HUDDLE AFTER THE GAME DASH IN ACTION: Jake's coach calls him Dash because there is another Jake on the team and it can get confusing. Jake used to tell other kids his name was Dash so he responds well to it. Not to mention he can beat any kid down the field. Once Jake breaks away with the ball he is usually down the field. The kid defending him got confused here and Dash backed off so the other kid could take the ball and score for our team!

Don't know what's up with video...I'll keep working on it. Here's what happened at Bradley's game... We played in the rain for ten minutes, then it started pouring and lightening. We were out there just long enough for everyone to get soaking wet and then load back into the car, AFTER handing out snacks to the players for their ten minutes of running (it was Bradley's week to bring snacks). I am just so glad Randy was able to go to the game today. It was kind of a bummer that this was his one weekend off to get to see Bradley play and he only got to see ten minutes, but it sure was nice for Jake and I to head back to the car early and not worry about being in the pouring rain.

Here's another video...The other team was playing DIRTY...they were throwing elbows and pushing! This one kid repeatedly took kids out and the ref had to pull his coach over and straighten him out after he did this to Jake!

SPIDERS!!!

2007-09-21T16:38:00.000-05:00

OOPS! I realized the photo I had here had a copywrite symbol next to it! I think it's illegal to put it here, so if you want to see a cool photo of the spider webs go to the link on the right that says SPIDER WEBS.

Bradley got to go with a group of kids from his school today to Tawakoni State Park. They went to see this giant spider web that thousands of people from all over have come to see. They say the first one was over 200 yards long. The rains have washed the webs away I think 4 times now and the spiders just build the web back. I'm sure it would have been cool to see, but I am a little glad I didn't make this field trip because it was probably CREEPY too!!! I let Bradley take his camera. The pictures below are his. The one above, I coppied from the Lake Tawakoni State Park website.
THOUSANDS OF SPIDERS JUST HANGING OUT!

What every good mother lets her children do after school...

2007-09-10T18:04:00.001-05:00

PLAY IN THE MUD!!!

And the famous last words of a fool (before she came in to cook dinner)

"DON'T GET TOO MUDDY" At least he left his face and hair out of it! Jake was cracking me up here. I told him to turn around so I could get his picture and he told me no and started singing over and over "Not until you take a picture of my bahootay" while shaking it!

2007-09-08T22:34:00.000-05:00

Well, here it is! The magazine will hit the stands soon (next week maybe, I can't remember). Mom and I are excited. Mom has worked VERY hard on everything. For those of you who don't know, this is mom's bracelet she designed on the cover of the magazine. Today, my aunt and I went to mom's house and helped her move everything out to the garage. Tomorrow I will go back over and help my mom fill 13 orders that were all placed in one day! These orders came from people who subscribe to the magazine and get the first issues. We are hoping that orders keep coming in...who knows?!!! Check out our website....www.wiredupbeads.com

UPDATE: I'm tired...going to bed soon...I went to help mom fill our 13 orders and by the time I left we were up to 24!

My work in Lone Oak is WONDERFULL. I LOVE it! I love working with the student I shadow. And the 6th graders are much nicer than I thought they would be. I love knowing that my boys are in the building right next to me, and that I walk right by the playground everyday when Jake is out there and get to stop and hug him. Jake is exhausted from his first week. He has never gone all day everyday like this, so it has worn his little self out. Especially after staying up untill midnight last night for football.

Football is going good so far too. In fact last night we played the team whose head coach was the first coach Randy worked for. I got to talk to his wife for a long time. That coaching staff was probably the closest one we have ever been a part of. That's probably why we stayed for four years. We all got along sooo good together...in fact almost all of us went to church together. Their little boy (5th grade) remembered Bradley. He told Bradley that he always tells his friends not to run in his house because of Bradley's mishap from when he spent the night there. Bradley and this little boy were chasing each other and Bradley came home with stitches in his head after he tripped and hit the wall! It was sooo good to see them! I love running into old friends. I wish I could run into my blogging friends! I miss a lot of you guys too!!!

Walmart Made my Day!

2007-09-01T20:50:00.000-05:00

Seeing that I have had a very crazy, busy week, I have sort of neglected getting the Sunday School curriculum together for tomorrow, and for the teachers that will be teaching next week. So, that's three classes that I have to find different games and crafts for all on the same story of Moses (not the whole story, just the part where God wins and the Israelites cross the red sea). It's for toddlers as well so you also have to keep in mind anything little could be a choking hazard. We study the same story all month, so the first two weeks is fairly easy to come up with different ideas, but by the third week you start really having to search. Anyway, I was trying to come up with stuff tonight and ventured out to Walmart to see if I could find any "quick solutions" And although I found no ideas for crafts or games I did find these cute toys to use as bible story visuals....I am so excited about them! They had a set for Moses (obviously), Noah, Jesus' birth, David, Daniel, Jonah... They even had Big figures that told their own story...but they were kind of out of my budget. I had to really refrain from not buying more than just Moses, because I know Jonah is in our curriculum for later in the year. Oh well, I will buy them as we go!

What would I do without her?

2007-09-01T12:34:00.000-05:00

I had to add the blinky, because like I said, I can't stand tons of words on blogs without some kind of visual....and I don't have a picture of my mom and I together. My mom is just the best! I don't know what I would do without her. We talk on the phone just about every day together and we see each other at least once a week it seems like. Not to say we can't get on each other's nerves ocassionally, but that gets overlooked quickly and we really enjoy being so close.

She will be coming to my rescue big time Tuesday. Evidentally there is a Hep. A shot, that the state just started mandating two years ago, and all pre-k and kindergarteners have to have it before the school will even let them register. The shot is given at two years of age, so Jake was not required to have it when he was two.

And, since he had been going to the Christian school here in Greenville, I didn't know about it, because they can have different rules than the state, so they did not require it. So, when I went to register the boys yesterday, it was too late to get Jake a shot. Luckily, his doctor could work him in Tuesday! So, Jake will stay with Mimi Tuesday and she will take him to get his shot.

THANK YOU MOM!!!!

2007-08-31T13:48:00.000-05:00

Well we start the new job and school Tuesday!!! I took the boys today to see their classrooms and teachers. We are all excited to start teacher's aiding, 3rd grading, and pre-king!!!!

Check out my sister's blog (My Nephew! Link on the side) for some more funny stuff....I have needed some laughs lately and I laughed when I saw her dog acting like a baby on her blog!

It took me forever to figure out how to post video on the blog and I even messed up some of the blog but I think I have it normal where you can watch it now....I'm excited if the video stuff works!!! There will be more to come.

Less Typing more pictures Please...

2007-08-30T22:13:00.000-05:00

I'm tired of job stuff....and that is way too much reading for me...I hate to read....so without further ado (sp?) Here is a video that makes me laugh....MIKAH WITH DAD

This one makes me laugh too because Bradley saw me with my camera and asked me to take a picture of him....he didn't know I had the video running on my camera :)

2007-08-19T21:51:00.000-05:00

Bradley and I had such an awesome week together in New York. We are glad to be home but sad that we couldn't stay longer. We had so much fun getting to see my sister, Jamil, and baby Mikah! I managed to survive driving through Brooklyn and Manhattan. I drove DeeAnne to her doctor appointment Thursday in Manhattan and was fine driving, but I sure was glad when the doctor released her to drive after the appt. and she was able to drive us home. I think she was glad too. We did soooo much while we were there but and I wish we could have done more!

I got really good at riding the subway and figuring out which direction to go and how to get on and off the trains and running to the next train and reading the subway maps. I wouldn't mind riding it some more, but I didn't really care for it. I totally agree with Jamil in that you start to feel like cattle being herded everywhere.

A bunch of pictures are below...I will just type about our days and events...not necesarilly in order and try to fill you in on what all we did. Of course we LOVED holding baby Mikah.

Hanging out in the apartment. They live on the third floor across from Pratt. I loved that anything you needed was within walking distance. Okay, clothing wasn't, but everything else was. I LOVE walking to the grocery store. I can't tell you how many times I have wished I could walk to Walmart here. In fact when we lived in Ferris I used to walk 6 blocks to our small grocery store just because I liked too.

I thought this was a cool picture I took of the subway. One time we were waiting on out train and I saw a guy who looked just like Joe Hays. I didn't want to look like an idiot so I didn't ask him if it was him...I knew he lived in Brooklyn, but my mind said "don't be stupid...millions of people in Brooklyn and you think you see Joe Hays?'' I left a comment on his blog asking if he was on that train at that time and sure enough it was him!!! Crazy. So, I thought that meant I should go visit them. Bradley and I walked over to their apartment the next morning. I am excited that they are close to DeeAnne and Jamil! I think Ira and Sophia are precious! But, I am partial to this other little guy in Brooklyn :)
Bradley and I were chased by a wild pack of wolves in central park! I was somehow able to grab the camera, run backwards and snap this shot of Bradley making his get away. Please, nevermind the fact that it was snowing this day :)
Bradley rock climbing in central park. He made it all the way to the top. On his way down he really scared me. He made it though with no hurts. Oh, did I mention that the Museam of natural history was right across the street from central park? We went and enjoyed the planetarium, ocean exhibit, wild animal exhibit :) ....
Jamil's mom lives on Long Beach Island in New Jersey. We went and stayed the night with her and Bradley enjoyed a day at the beach. He walked up to me with a small Jelly fish in his hand and asked "what is this? It's all squishy." I am so glad it didn't sting him!
Bradley took this cool picture below. This was at a fair at LBI. Bradley rode some rides and won a stuffed dog at the frog hop game.

Our afternoon at Prospect park. Jamil stopped at the sporting goods store and bought a football and ball and bat to play with. We had a great time enjoying the picnic of 2007. I believe Jamil will be at this same park next weekend for THE Birthday of 2007 :) Bradley and I went to Toys R US at times square! It was AWESOME!!! There was a ferris wheel inside the store. It was three stories and this is the lego section Bradley is in front of. The Statue of liberty built with legos!!! This toy store was incredible...go to it when in New York! I believe it put FAO Swartz out of the running for best toy store. Me on the lego car of the ferris wheel in Toys R Us.
Lola with baby Mikah. I babysat this night so DeeAnne and Jamil could have a date night. I had no idea Lola was a pit bull until halfway through our visit. It's a good thing because I would have freaked if I had known that earlier...I always hear such bad things about them with children on the Dallas news. I'm still not too sure about them, but Lola is a pretty good dog...unless she's eating my salad while I change Mikahs diaper!!!!!! Cutie Mikah!

And of course we had to leave my Jake behind in the care of Mimi and Grandpa. We missed him soooooo much....in fact my mom and dad picked us up from the airport and took us straight to eat dinner. I was showing mom and dad some pictures and looked up and saw Jake in Bradley's lap. I think he really missed his older brother!

Bradley's New Hobby

2007-08-06T15:48:00.000-05:00

This weekend when Bradley stayed with his Nana, he somehow managed to come home with her really nice camera. She had bought a new one because her flash quit popping up automatically. It still works, you just have to pull it up manually. Randy and I struggled a little with the fact that an 8 year old has such a nice camera, but Bradley is a very responsible kid and we know he will take care of it. I am going to buy him a simple notebook and he can use his allowance to develope the pictures he really likes, so he can put them in the notebook. Then, he can journal about the pictures. Bradley is so creative and I can't wait to see some of the pictures/stories/ideas he comes up with. We are hoping Uncle Jamil can give him some simple pointers when we see him next week in New York :)

Anyway, I am housesitting again for my parents while they are visiting my sweet Mikah right now. I took the boys on a bike trail at Parr park this morning and roller bladed. We stopped to take a rest by the pond and I let Bradley get out his camera and photgraph away. I love nature and I want the boys to really appreciate God's creation. Bradley took this picture of me and Jake and I didn't even know it. I thought it was really good.

I also got to go to Texarkana this weekend and see my good friend Kelley. That's when Bradley stayed with Nana...these were some of Jake's friends from when we lived in Atlanta. Kelley is an awesome cook and taught me a new recipe while there. She's one of those people who can just create and throw food together and make an incredible meal. We had a good time with our friends.
Cade, Jake, and Clay

Jake singing to Kyndal

MIKAH

2007-08-01T22:47:00.000-05:00

My sister had her baby July 26th!!! Isn't my nephew precious!!! He weighed in at 7 lb 14 oz at birth, but a couple of days later left the hospital weighing in at 9 something pounds!! They think the scale was broken in the delivery room. Bradley and I get to leave for New York to see them the 13th. We can not wait!!!!! We will be busy until then though. Tonight I drove Bradley to his Nana's, where he will stay until Saturday. Jake and I leave in the morning to go to Texarkana to see my friend Kelley and her three kiddos (pictures of that later). Then Sunday I will teach my toddlers and then we will take off to Grapevine to house sit and the boys will attend yet another VBS while there :)

Then we come home the 9th and then Bradley and I leave the 13th for New York to see this cute little guy below and his mom and dad. Which, I've been informed that my brother in law will be giving me a quick New York driving lesson upon my arrival
so that I can drive my sister to the doctor in Manhattan that Wednesday. Hee hee....that sounds fun!

LOOK! MIKAH IS ALREADY BLOWING KISSES TO HIS FAVORITE AUNT!!!!

3 Down... 1 To Go

2007-07-20T23:34:00.000-05:00

Well the boys just finished their third VBS of the summer! Bradley broke out with the chicken pox and had to miss the last two days of our Crosspoints VBS, so I told him he could go with some friends to Ridgecrest's VBS. After that one we got a flyer to attend Mineral Heights so I said WHY NOT?!!! This last church has been the smallest church, but the VBS was awesome! It was Avalanche Ranch and the boys had a great time. Actually, Jake was the only 5 year old to show up, so they combined him with the preschool class. Every night the kids would yell YEE HAW when the director said the Bible truth for the day. On the last night they had a crazy hair contest and this is how we did the boys hair.

And guess what??? They won the crazy hair contest and these horses were their prize.

Now I am house sitting for my parents and the boys will go to a VBS here. They love it! And so do I. I never thought VBS hopping could be so fun!

PaPa's room

2007-07-04T09:17:00.001-05:00

Well, insted of starting our first day at Disney, we are sending Randy out to California to meet up with Deborah, his sister, and his brother Gary. We are sad but somewhat relieved to say that PaPa passed away Monday night. He fought a LONG brave battle against cancer and the Lord finally took him home. Bradley had come home from church one night with these materials to make what he thought his room would look like in Heaven. He decided instead to make what he thought Papa's room would look like, since he knew Papa was very sick.

"In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you." John 14:2

I know that John is loving his new room in Heaven that was made just for him, and I'm sure it is way more beautifull than polished stones and a yellow plate. We miss him greatly but we know he is finally home and without pain.

My house has been infected!!!

2007-06-28T16:41:00.000-05:00

Or should I say chicken pox??!!! Bradley broke out yesterday. He is covered all over his face down to his tummy. Now he is running a fever. The doctor said his was a mild case since he was vacinated at one year (I would hate to see a regular case). She thinks he will clear up in time to go on our Disney trip. I'm not convinced he will though. We will see, I guess it's good we bought insurance for the trip!!! We may be canceling!

We made it through VBS this week. Bradley had to miss last night and the closing celebration tonight. I taught in Jake's class with the 2, 3, and 4 year olds. Our computers have been invaded with viruses. I will take this computer in tomorrow to be worked on. It will take 5 to 7 business days to fix! Yikes. bye bye fellow bloggers! See you in a couple of weeks!

101 Uses For Rope!

2007-06-15T21:49:00.000-05:00

Oh My these boys!!! I have seen them playing with this rope for days now. I'm glad they are using their imaginations though.

The trap for lizards they designed...I don't think they ever caught one! The left end of the rope is tied to a fallen tree limb.

And this is what is on the right side of the rope...a cereal box. Bradley tied Randy's Mag light to the top of the box to give it some weight so it would fall faster onto the lizard. I don't think the flashlight got to stay on the box once Randy saw it :)

And this is what they called their "roller coaster" ride. I put a stop to this one quickley since they have broken this rocking chair once already! Jake sure lucked out on this ride. Bradley did all the pulling....oh these boys...never a dull moment!

I'm off to bed soon. We had a double header tonight. Came back from being down 7-0 in the first game to win it 12-11...and won the second game 7-6....no thanks to my two strike outs!!!

2007-06-11T14:28:00.000-05:00

We were in Grapevine this past week holding the fort (or should I say ZOO) down while my parents were away. While there we celebrated Jake's 5th Birthday! A couple of different celebrations... the first with my mom and dad. Then On Thursday we went to a water park in Hurst with our friends the McGraws. They just live down the street from us and drove all the way to Hurst to enjoy the day with us and have hamburgers for dinner.
I've managed to get a pair of those FIT FLOPS from Bath and Body works. After our mobile Sunday our church had at the park in pouring down rain, I managed to ruin my summer sandals. I noticed the Fit Flops in Bath and Body Works a while back and they looked rather comfy and they are supposed to help firm your backside up. So, I went and bought myself a pair. Well, I wore them this week in Grapevine and a lot of people asked me where I got them and some strangers even asked to try them on. I had no idea they were such a hot item. Well, while staying at my moms, my sisters cat Vern (who scratched the bajeebers out of my arm on the plain ride home from New York) decided he would use my new Fit Flops for a scratching post!!! I was able to get another pair when we returned home and the lady said that Greenville was a testing spot for selling these shoes! They are sold out in the UK and online, but they are here in Greenville! Wow go figure....anyway looks like a possible ebay situation for me :) !!!

Another thing going on that i haven't said anything about is Softball. Some months ago I had connected with an old friend (Wade Floyd) and he had asked if I was playing any sports, mainly softball. When I said no he asked why not. I got to thinking and realized hey my kids are old enough to sit in the dugout and not need constant supervision...I ought to play. So I am playing with a church here in town and MAN AM I TERRIBLE!!! It's been a lot of fun, but I'm no player like I used to be...we are however 4-2 for the season so that's good! Hopefully they will ask me back next year to play again...I am getting a little better! :)

We got our truck load of sand delivered today...that's the last picture...we are leveling for the pool to go up. We had to wait this long to get sand because the rain has soaked the sand so much they haven't been able to deliver it until today! But now we have it and the boys are extatic!!!

I'M FIVE!!!

WATER PARK

JAKE (in the far left corner), DANIEL, BRADLEY, LUKE, and EVAN ENJOYING HAMBURGERS!

THE BEST TOY EVER!!! A TRUCK LOAD OF DIRT!!!

2007-05-25T08:24:00.000-05:00

Sorry no pictures...this will be more an informative post i guess. Let's start with today....it the last day of school!!!! Yipee!!! and that means for Randy, the last day of being a lion. What's that you say??? No more Greenville Lions???

That's right people! Randy has accepted a job in a town 15 minutes away from our house. We are now going to be The Lone Oak Buffaloes. Cool thing is they are red and black so I don't have to buy new clothes for next year. We will still live in our house and Bradley will still go to Lamar and Jake will go the the Christian school next year. Randy really likes the head coach out in Lone oak and has really enjoyed working with him, and it's a smaller school with really awesome kids! In fact people in Greenville pay for their kids to attend the Lone Oak school district. So, Randy is going to coach in Lone Oak next year and we are really excited about it.

Really that's the biggest news we have. Other than that let's see. We will go to Disney World this summer. Originally I thought we were going to California because our friends we're going with kept saying Disney Land and I'm such a literal person that I assumed we were going to California. But after all the planning I realized we were going to Florida HA! I now have everyone corrected and they are all saying Disney World just to appease me! So, I won't tell you when our trip is for security reasons I guess, but it will be HOT when we go.

Actually we have been practicing with the boys a lot lately for our trip. We will be able to go to the parks after hours and some nights the parks are open until 2 am. I don't for see us staying that late, but we will try to play until midnight. So, we have been letting the boys stay up late then practice taking a nap in the late afternoon. We have also been practicing sleeping in in the mornings! We still have a while to get all this down, but we will get it. I've also taken Bradley walking two miles with me at a good pace to be ready for all the walking we will do! Ha! It's so funny to be able to say to your kids... "take a nap so we can practice for Disney....keep walking fast so we can practice for Disney...Sleep till 8:30 so we can practice for Disney..."We'll see how excited the kids are about going after we practice for the next oh some.....wait I can't reveal our trip dates.

The jewelry business has been exciting. One of mom's bracelet is being published in a beading magazine this summer...it has 90,000 in circulation! So, we met with some marketing people and we are changing our name and they with give our website a "facelift" and they designed a logo for us. I don't think we are ready to reveal the new name yet, but soon. Mom and I are going to be sellig kits for people who want to make their own piece of jewelry but don't have easy access to the materials. Mom and I are still having fun with this. So is Bradley's teacher...she has loved all the jewelry she's gotten this year. I made her an s-link dangle bracelet for her end of the year gift. Her daughter serves in Iraq and came home for spring break and came to her classroom dressed up for the kids. So, I dangle some red, white, and blue lampwork beads from it. Mrs. Kelley loves jewelry, and we love Mrs. Kelley! She has been an awesome teacher! I don't know if you can get much better of a teacher than her. And no, she doesn't read my blog, I just have to brag on her that much because she is that great of a teacher.

Well, nothing much else to report. Hope you all have relaxing and fun summer plans!!! Summer is such a big deal to us because Randy is home for the full month of June and half of July. So, we really get some great family time together. So, we are looking forward to the next month and a half!

New York

2007-05-14T17:10:00.000-05:00

I don't know what is going on...all the picture's showed up when I was previewing and editing!!! I will keep messing with it and try to get the rest of the pictures to come up like they are supposed too!!!!!UGHHHHHHH
I love this picture...I took it in Times Square. I believe that is Obama and Hillary's faces in the middle screen. And then of course the Bush's on the right and Guiliani (sp?) on the left. I just love it because New York is such an economic and governmental power. It's amazing to see all the ships in the harbor and all the lots of train cars with shipments in them!

For those of you who haven't been to New York....there are way more buildings than you would ever be able to imagine. I love this church that towered with some of the buildings...it was spectacular. Sorry it's not a better picture. We were riding in the car.

The sea of yellow. I felt out of place in DeeAnne and Jamil's car with all the taxis about. I also believe I learned the appropriate (and not so appropriate) times to yell at stupid pedestrians and drivers on our trip to Manhattan.

I'm really happy these cops have nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon. No really I am...it means everything is flowing smoothly in the city.

Surprise!!!

2007-05-14T17:04:00.000-05:00

These are all coming out in the wrong order...oh well! So, big weekend! I hopped on a plane friday morning all by myself and headed out to New Jersey. Mom was supposed to come, but her broken foot didn't allow her to make the trip :( The reason for our trip was to surprise my sister at her surprise baby shower!!! Her sister-in-law hosted the shower at her house in Short Hills NJ. It was so much fun.

I stayed friday night with DeeAnne's MIL and FIL. They live in Long Beach NJ. All beautiful places, but I was dying to get to New York and see DeeAnne's place. I had a good time friday night and then Saturday morning we drove out to short hills and started getting ready for the guests. Can yall believe I drove to the train station in NJ all by myself to pick up guests??? It was a really easy drive so don't be too impressed :)

Then after all the guest arrived, Jamil drove up with DeeAnne and we surprised her with a fabulous baby shower!!! It was soooo much fun and soooo well put together.
Here is DeeAnne's reaction when she saw her sister (ME) !!!! (she doesn't even look pregnant in the picture!)

The beautifull table where all the food went.

Some of DeeAnne's friends!

The proud daddy to be!!!!

2007-05-14T17:00:00.000-05:00

More pictures...DeeAnne had lots of help opening preasents from her niece. She was sooo cute.

The little girl on the right is DeeAnne's niece. She and her friend are enjoying some yummy cake. I think DeeAnne's niece had quite a bit of cake...she managed to find a few extra pieces lying around at different tables :)

A picture of the cake before everyone ate it.......YUM!

2007-05-14T16:48:00.000-05:00

Silver trees in Central Park

For all you Law and Order fans! The infamous court steps.

DeeAnne and Jamil's cat, Vern, who made the plane ride home with me! He is such a sweet cat. In fact too sweet to keep with a baby on the way. He might try to cuddle with baby M, so he has a new home in Texas with my mom. I visited him today and he was lounging on his back in his comfy bed...Yep, I think he's gonna love Texas.

Me and DeeAnne! And Lola....And Vern....And Ginger's hiney....hee hee!

Now is that one good looking kid or what???

2007-05-02T22:13:00.000-05:00

Last week Bradley came home from school and pulled a small wadded up piece of paper out of his pocket and began apologizing to me. He said, "I'm really sorry mom. I tried my hardest and I just couldn't pass the test. She said I failed it. I'm so sorry mom." I looked at the piece of paper and chuckled. It was from the school nurse saying that Bradley failed his eye exam. Bradley was standing there really upset waiting to see what my reaction would be...he never fails anything. I told him it was okay and said all it meant was that he would need to see an eye doctor.

After getting off the phone with the eye doctor, I went in the kitchen to find Bradley crying at the table. He said he didn't want glasses because all the kids would laugh at him and make fun of him. After a good little talk, I had him feeling better and told him he didn't even have to worry about it until next week anyway.

So today he went to the eye doctor and man he is blind!!! I don't know how we didn't have any problems at school or signs elsewhere! So we drove to Mesquite to LensCrafters and he got glasses in 1 hour! Funny thing is that after all the pouting and crying last week, Bradley LOVES his glasses. He couldn't believe how good he could see. And while enjoying a nice ice cream cone and CHICK A FLAY (Jake's pronunciation) he siad, "I don't care anymore if the kids laugh at me. I'll just be like so what. I can see now." He's soooo cute!

LADYBUGS AND ROSES!

2007-04-23T11:47:00.000-05:00

Jake and I went to the park today to feed the ducks our spoiled bread. On the way back to the car we found and caught at least 10 ladybugs! We kept them in Jake's baseball hat until we got back to the car and then put them in an empty cup. Then we came home and put them in the bug holder! Fun.

When we were looking at the ladybugs, we also found this catepillar that Jake didn't know he caught!

After that last storm that came through a week ago, our rose bush took a beating and was drooping over a lot. I didn't want to cut it, but the weight of the branches was going to kill it. There are still tons of roses on it, and we anchored the top branches so I can still look at them out the kitchen window when doing the dishes. The roses are just beautifull though and now I have this vase full to look at inside the house as well!

2007-04-18T17:16:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Jake and I went to a store and while we were there Jake really wanted me to by myself a pink box with rhinestones all over it. I asked why and he said "for yours jewelry." I laughed and told him I already had a giant jewelry box in my bedroom and said I didn't need another one.

So Randy comes home later in the day and he and Jake are out in the garage building things with nails and wood. Jake came in and showed me what he had made me. It was this cute little jewelry holder! He then proceeded to start hanging jewelry I have been making for our show in May.

I kept thinking how sweet of Jake to be thinking of me. As I looked around the room though, I began to realize that maybe Jake wasn't really thinking of me. When I make jewelry, I pull A LOT of stuff out to help get the creativity and ideas going. I realized I really have taken up a lot of his playroom floor. So, maybe Jake wasn't so concerned about his mother having a jewelry holder, but maybe he just wanted his playroom floor back!

Supernova

2007-04-11T22:54:00.000-05:00

Here is Bradley's first science project ever. He chose to make his about supernovas. I had to help him with the putting holes in the box and getting the box together for the setup, but other than that he did everthing by himself...even the laminating! I love my little laminator. Those are battery powered christmas lights in the box to be little stars. We took his project to school this morning and he was so proud. It looks like most of the other kids did the planets for their project. They will be set up in the hallway next week for all the parents to see!

2007-04-09T23:04:00.000-05:00

Well, we knew we had a friend on our front porch, but we didn't realize until tonight just how friendly she was. I was in the kitchen painting the walls and watching The Bachelor. Randy was in the boys bathroom trying to fix the broken valve to the faucet in the boys bathtub. All of a sudden I hear water running in the bathroom. At first I thought, good Randy figured out how to fix it. Then I realized it sounded more like gushing water! I ran to the bathroom about the time Randy ran out with a soaking wet shirt. He had put the peice in upside down and wanted to turn it over but forgot that he still had the main water vavle turned on, so when he took out the peice, water started shooting straight out of the hot water knob, and hit the back wall of the bathtub, and was splashing all over the bathroom. I was cracking up! Randy ran outside to shut the water off, while I'm inside laughing my head off at my wonderful handyman.

Well when Randy opens the door to come back in, our little bird friend here in the picture decides to fly in our house! I come out of the bathroom and scream, bc I see this massive thing flying in circles in my living room. Randy comes running in and calmly opens all the doors in the house expecting our little mama bird to just fly right on out. Oh no, she just kept flying and flying. She flew into the boys bedroom and the kitchen and then back to circles and circles in the living room. The only thing I could think to do was try to catch her with the pool net. I didn't want to hit her hard with it though and kill her, bc she has eggs in her nest outside. Well after 30 minutes of trying to help her out the door, we finally cornered her in the entry way and were able to get her back out the door. Poor thing. I'm sure she will sleep good tonight. I'm still laughing my head off at the entire situation!

2007-04-04T21:46:00.000-05:00

Today I took the boys to get their pictures in the bluebonnets, which I love to do. We didn't really get to see a many when we lived in Atlanta. These are actually at a rest stop between our hosue and Lone Oak...only ten minutes from our house! I'm no great photographer like some of you, but I got some good pictures that I really enjoy!

I could tell the boys were getting bored with all the posing I was making them do, so I let them each choose some of their own poses.... below is Bradley's chosen pose...

And here is Jake's chosen pose....I know...don't ask!!!

2007-04-04T20:25:00.000-05:00

I love this picture. To me it captures how much Jake admires Bradley and how much Bradley cares about his little brother.

If you look in Jake's hand, he's holding the bluebonnets and "redbonnets," as he called them, that he picked for me.

And of course Bradley found a good reason to bring and use his pocket knife.... To cut down flowers for his mother. And FYI it is not illegal to pick bluebonnets. They said that on the news last year or the year before I believe....and if I'm wrong, oh well, come and get us!

2007-04-04T20:14:00.000-05:00

I just like the picture I took below. Nothing too special about it, just thought it was pretty.

Sunset

2007-04-04T08:46:00.000-05:00

Blogger wouldn't let me post this last night, but I still wanted to share what we found in our backyard in the midst of the grey skies.

Bradley said it was "God's hole from Heaven."

Camping

2007-03-20T09:36:00.000-05:00

Randy and I took the boys camping Sat-Mon at Lake Bob Sandlin State Park. It's about on hour east of us. The first night we were there the park was packed...didn't really feel as much like camping with every camp site full, but it was still fun. By 2:00 Sunday afternoon EVERYONE cleared out and we had the whole site to ourselves. That was pretty cool. And a lot darker and scarier! Two racoons got into a fight at the site next to us and that was scary to listen to. The boys had a blast. These pictures are the boys helping Randy get the tent up. I think we need a bigger tent next time we go. We were pretty jammed in there. We had a good time. We had chilli dogs and smores, went hiking (which Jake thought he needed to find a fighting stick not a hiking stick), went fishing, and played. It was a nice little break away.

2007-03-19T23:24:00.000-05:00

We took the boys on a couple of different hikes. This is the first hike we took and Jake said he needed a rest. His little knees and feet didn't keep up to well with the rest of us, so he got to ride on dads shoulders a lot.

This is break time on another hike we took. Double stuffed oreos and beef jerky. YUM!

The first morning we were there Randy sent me to the bait store to get worms. Since I was by myself no one else got to see the deer, but I thought it was cool.

2007-03-19T23:08:00.000-05:00

We took the boys fishing and had NO clue what we were doing. We managed to catch this perch the first five minutes we were out there and then nothing else all day. Everyone else said they hadn't cought anything either. Of course I was holding the fishing pole and reeling it in, but since Jake was watching it, he said He caught the fish!

Bradley really enjoyed letting the minnos go free, He didn't like that we had to kill them to fish with them.

I think the boys had more fun playing with the worms than actually fishing with them.The worms are now in our garden helping the soil :)

And on our short hour long trip home from our camping, we did not expect to see this!!! Camels, zebras, ardvarks, kangaroos, and some other exotic animals I can't name. They were for sell for I guess circuses or something. Crazy, but the boys sure thought it was cool!

2007-03-13T16:10:00.000-05:00

Well things have slowed down a little. I didn't share this in the last post, but last Thursday we found out Randy's dad (John/Papa) will not be taking any more chemo treatments for his cancer. He is now in hospice care. Between Thursday and today, the tumor has grown so rapidly that Grandma Deborah said it is starting to show on the right side of his face. I am soooo thankful that Deborah has been able to be there with John, but I know she is tired. Hopefully hospice can provide rest for them and comfort for John. Pray for them. John is a man of great faith and believes God can do anything and is in control of this entire situation. We love them both very much!

Yesterday was a nice treat for me. I got to babysit the SWEETEST (I would underline that if I knew how) baby ever. I believe we are done having babies, so I really enjoy getting to keep other peoples babies and then giving them back :) He was such a cutie though. Bradley got to ride the bus home from school since I couldn't take the baby to pick him up. I forgot to tell him that there would be a baby (he's 9 or 10 months I believe) at our house when he got home. He came in and gave the baby a odd look and then said "is he like a newborn or something?" Ha! too cute. I don't think he was as impressed with the baby as I was :)

Today I took myself over to Central Market. I loooove this place. I got a bunch of yummy stuff. I decided to add whole grains to my healthy lifestyle. I totally broke the diet Thursday-Saturday. We were outside non stop during the baseball tournament and Randy had short windows of time to eat, so it was easier to just pick up fast food. Oh well, back to the good stuff. I'm really happy with myself and am really enjoying being healthy.

I also want to say that my Bradley is such a sweet kid (except for the occasional "go away Jake") . He is so thoughtfull of others and always seems to consider the way others might feel about situations they are in. He's a great kid! I am proud of him.

2007-03-08T12:17:00.000-05:00

So we received quite a few phone calls yesterday from concerned friends. Thanks. Everything is fine, a little stressful, but fine. Yesterday at the High School, a teenager committed suicide with a gun at 7:15 am. School starts at 7:30. A little scary to know a child took a gun into the school, but a very sad situation. I won't go into all the details, just repeat what was on the news. Randy had the boy in his second period class. The school let kids go home if their parents came to get them and then the rest of the kids stayed at school. Which I think was a WISE decision by the administration. That way the kids had access to counselors (which they brought in extra) and could receive the help if needed, instead of sending the kids home to deal with it on their own.

Anyway, I feel bad for Randy. This is the second traumatic experience he/we have been throught from school. The first was in Ferris when we lost our good friend Mike, December 4th 2001, in a car accident right in front of the school. He was a coach with Randy. Randy had to go to the car and see Mike there and then tell his wife what happened.

I don't know, just stressful stuff to deal with. Don't really understand it all. I did get a diet coke yesterday. first one in almost 3 weeks. I'm back to water again though. Just wanted to treat myself I guess. I'm trying to make things less stressful for Randy at home. He has baseball games all day today, Friday, and Saturday. Maybe Sunday he can get some much deserved rest.

Sleepy Head

2007-03-06T17:40:00.000-05:00

Randy and I aren't real adamate about a bedtime for Jake. Believe me he gets all the sleep he needs, but since he isn't in school full time yet, we tend to let him stay up later than Bradley. These are some of my favorite photos of Jake sleeping, because they are often a frequent occurance. So here they are....

This is the "I've played so hard today I'm tuckered out." This photo was actually taken in California a while back ago when we went to visit Papa and Grandma. Like I said though, this type of sleeping in the car happens frequently after a hard day of playing.

This is the "I really have to pee in the middle of the night, and I'm too tired to make it all the way back to bed, so I think I'll just sleep here on this mat on the hard tile floor!"

And here we have the "I will show mom that I'm not tired even if she rocks me and I will wiggle and squirm to try to keep myself awake until I absolutely have no more wiggles left, because if I squirm around I can prolong going to sleep by ten minutes. As opposed to falling asleep right away if she holds me in her arms."

And lastley we have the, "Mom and dad don't know I'm in here playing with my toys and sunglasses to stay awake. That is unless I fall asleep with them on!"

Drug Free Greenville

2007-03-01T22:08:00.000-05:00

The boys got to go to the coolest thing at the mall tonight. Drug Free Greenville sponsored this awseome event for all elementary aged kids in Greenville. They printed 49 different trading cards of Greenvilles finest heroes. The fire department, police department, and EMS all had their own hero trading cards printed and autographed them for the kids. On the back of each card was a fact about drugs. Notice Mcgruff had his own card as well. Bradley and Jake thought this was so cool! Of course I did too! I tried to look for the two ems people and firemen who helped me when I had my gas accident, but I couldn't see to well that night :) so I wasn't sure of who I thought it might be. Jake wore his NYPD shirt and got lots of compliments from the officers. The kids are supposed to take their cards to school and fill up bingo cards. The winning class gets a police escorted bus ride to eat lunch with the heroes in person! Too cool...I am just so impressed with Greenville tonight!

And one more thing....
My sister is having a BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I told the kids as soon as DeeAnne called and Bradley asked, "so what's his name?" HA! If only it were that easy to decide! Come on Bradley, we still have four more months :) !!!

Fun With Mimi!

2007-02-22T01:42:00.001-05:00

Wow, blogger finally let me log in!!! I have had a lot of trouble with blogger since switching to the "new" blogger. And I haven't been able to leave comments to people lately (Jaime, Paige, Monica, Wade) I've wanted to comment but haven't been able to. It's either my slow dial up or this new blogger. Probably the Slow Dial up!

Anyway, my mom came over today and took Jake and I to Applebee's for lunch, It was soooo tempting to get something really bad to eat, but I was good and got a salad with grilled chicken. Not that chicken and ranch are on the diet, but I am doing really good on this diet. I FEEL WONDERFUL too!!! I have energy!!! It's great.

Mimi and Jake played with our molding sand today. This stuff is really cool. You can buy it at Lakeshore Learning store over by the galleria. It has wax in the sand so it is moldable. I love Lakeshore!!! It is a great educational store. We also have sand that scientist believe to be like mars sand. You pour water over it and it looks really cool under water but when you pull it out of the water it is completely dry! If your ever in that area, check out that store.

I'm so glad mom got to come down. She had been coming over almost weekly, but then we got busy, so I am really glad she came today. I bought Bradley one of those "Magic Rock" growing crystals from Target the other day and we put it together today while Mimi was here. I can remember doing this as kids and I don't remember it being one bit difficult. Well on the directions today it says how dangerous the gel is that makes the rocks grow and to wipe it up immediatley with soap and water if it spills and do not let it touch the skin. Yikes, scary that this is supposed to be an experiment for a kid!!! I don't even think we did it right or that the rocks are gonna grow. I checked on it tonight and it looks pretty pittiful. If it turns out to be anything great I'll let you know, but right now this is going on my list with the gell ant farm (posted in October) as an unimpressive, don't spend your money on it, toy!!!

Okay while I was editing this blogger did something with my last picture of Bradley watching his growing rocks do....NOTHING!!! Sorry, don' know where it went!

Hi, my name is Laura, and I'm a recovering....

2007-02-20T21:08:00.000-05:00

CAFFEINE ADDICT!!! Yes, I can proudly say I have kicked my bad habit of caffeine for 4 whole days now!!! To those of you who aren't addicted to something, let me tell you it's a hard thing to break. After reading Sarah's blog about her raw foods diet, I was very inspired to live healthy. I thought I would give this diet a try. You basically eat fruits and vegetables and almonds raw....no steaming, no seasonings, no dressings.

I have to admit I have cheated a bit on the food part, but my sysytem was in such shock over giving up the diet cokes, that my headaches were pretty intense the first two days. Today is the first day I haven't had a headache. I hope to get the food to a completely raw diet. I cheated by eating some pizza yesterday and the other days I have put ranch on my salad.

I know this sounds so silly but I really am proud of myslef for giving up the diet coke. I have drank nothing but water. Yall, up until four days ago, all I drank was diet coke....I never touched water. Very unhealthy...and that's what this is about for me...To Be Healthy!

One thing I did do the first day to take my mind off of food, was take the boys to see Bridge To Terabithia. I LOOOOOVE this movie! This book and Save Queen of Sheba were the only two I ever enjoyed reading in my educational years. I think I read Bridge to Terabithia in fourth grade. Warning though, take your kleenex with you to the movie...it is JUST like the book. Anyway, I will be buying this movie when it comes out on DVD.

Funny thing about Jake...he wanted me to know his name has changed from "speedy" to "speedy boy Dash swim boy" HA! He wore his Dash (the little boy on the Incredibles) short sleeved shirt over his Dash long sleeved shirt, Dash socks, Dash hat and sunglasses to school today. Actually they were my sunglasses but he really wanted to wear them. He even wore them in his class today...he didn't want to take them off, so he colored in them....What's funny is when we got home from MDO, the kids next door (homeschooled-that's why they were home) Said to Jake "You look cool today!" And those kids are 7 and 10! HA that's just the boost Jake needed for his speedy ego!!!

Peanut Butter Recall!

2007-02-15T23:41:00.000-05:00

This has been all over the DFW news, but wanted to share anyway...All Peter Pan and Great Value brand Peanut butter with the first four numbers 2111 has been recalled. They believe it to be the cause of Salmonella poisoning in many people. Wouldn't you know both jars of peanut butter in our pantry are part of the bad batch. You're suppose to be able to save your lids and mail them in with your name and address to ConAgra Foods, P.O. Box 3768, Omaha, NE 68103, for a refund.

Without too much detail, my kids have made several trips to the bathroom over the last month and I have wondered what was going on with them. Also, channel five news had a good point...If you double dip your knife from the peanut butter in to the jelly, Throw the jelly out too! Wow, now I have to figure out what I'm going to pack in Bradley's lunch tomorrow!!!

The Perfect Gentleman

2007-02-14T21:14:00.000-05:00

I absolutely love Bradley's teacher Mrs. Kelley! When I got there with the pizza today, she had me wait to pass it out. She said, "Oh no, we've been working really hard on what we are going to do today." She then called the little girls names out one by one and a little boy would follow each girl up and get a sprite and wait patiently behind the little girl. Then, they would walk the little girl to their desks and set the sprite down for them and then, they would pull out the little girls chair! It was soooo cute. Bradley blushed a little. He was paired up with Alejandra. Soooo cute!

I don't know if you can see or not, but in the background where Jake is sitting is a round chair filled with 7 or 8 fluffy pillows for the kids to sit on. This is where Jake hangs out whenever we come to a party. I dressed him in a long sleeved t-shirt with a button up over it (unbuttoned of course because he HATES "church"clothes). Well, as we were leaving I was searching all over the place for his button up shirt. The little stinker had hidden it underneath the pillows in the chair in the hopes of loosing it forever!!!

Bradley and his friend Brendon! I have never seen so many party favors! They got three different gift bags filled with goodies, along with their Valentine's bag! Crazy all the stuff Bradley came home with!

Is it My Birthday?

2007-02-13T14:52:00.000-05:00

Today was a first for Jake. He's never had a school party. We made cupcakes and goody bags for his Valentine's Day party. He kept asking me if it was his Birthday Party! These are his teachers Miss Amanda and Miss Lora. He loves both of them!

The boy on the left is Jake's best friend from school, Chad. The first couple of weeks he would come home and say, "I made up a new friend today." It made me laugh whenever he said that, like he imagined them. So cute.

These kids ate sooo much sugar....cookies, cupcakes, candy, cotton candy! Jake didn't even touch his bananas or sandwich!

Soccer Game + February = BRRRRR!!!!

2007-02-10T13:17:00.000-05:00

First game of the spring season was this morning and it was cold. Bradley is number 6 this time. We are no longer flourecent yellow. We are now flourecent green!!!! We have a great sponsor this time around (Pro Time Lanscaping). He bought all of the parents a patriots shirt! Our kids play their hearts out! Hopefully this season we will win a few games. UPDATED- I am adding this info to this post...One of our awesome soccer parents, Laurie, has created a PATRIOTS SOCCER BLOG I've put the link over to the right...And mom, it has our schedule on it!! Laurie takes great pictures of the kids at the games and made us a cool video last season. She puts up pictures on the blog, and there is one of Bradley on it!

Getting Ready for the COLTS to WIN!!!

2007-02-03T17:23:00.000-05:00

Okay, so tomorrow this table will be filled with the yummy menu of... Wings, philly cheesesteak sandwiches, queso, chips and black bean salsa (the red football helmet is actually a chip and dip holder), cupcakes, pistachios, cheeze whiz and wheat thins, pizza rolls, and drinks!!! We decided to stay home for numerous reasons and it will be a small fun family party. I had a lot of fun decorating!!!

And I thought I would include the new furniture in this post, since some of you are leaving the country in like, oh, 4 DAYS!!! :( So here it is. I didn't get all the trim painted yet, or mini blinds hung, or all the pictures hung, or the new french doors installed (oh yeah JK this last one won't happen for a while)... but oh well, you still get the idea.

Notice the lovely puke lime green walls in the background that we eat by every day!
And, those are cute little football lights hanging over the mantle.

And here is our choice of table. We chose the slate top because 1) There is less wooden surface area for little boys to scratch 2) There is no glass top for little boys to break. 3) We just simply like it!!!

The yellow flag is a penalty flag that is made for throwing at the TV when you don't like some bad call the ref has made. I bought it for Randy but he laughed and said "How Cheesey is that". Oh well, I guess the boys will have fun throwing it at each other!

Beautiful Snow!

2007-02-01T18:22:00.000-05:00

What fun, we have snow! This is Jake's attempt to catch a flake in his mouth...He sticks his tounge out and runs around like a crazy man!

Just had to get a shot of hs sweet face!

And of course, more running. I have kept him rather cooped up with Bradley being sick and all. We have had another movie marathon...Honey We Shrunk Ourselves, Air Bud Spike, Air Buddies, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Hoot, and Scooby Doo Pirates Ahoy!

And now to leave everyone with a heartbreaking image of an 8 year old with the Flu whose mother will not let him play in the snow :(

Next Year...We Take the Shot!!!!

2007-01-30T23:45:00.000-05:00

Well, it's 11:09. I'm exhausted, Jake's in my bed, Randy is in our bedroom floor on a twin matress, and Bradley is Watching Honey We Shrunk Ourselves. Bradley came home from school yesterday with 102 degree fever. I thought oh, we'll see how he is in the morning. Well, he was worse today, so at 3:00 I take him to the doctor only to confirm my suspisions that he has the FLU! But I did want to know for sure. And don't you just love when you go to the doctor and they take you immediatley to the room, but then you have to wait 35 minutes in the room before the doctor comes in, ask two questions, swabs your childs nose, and walks out???

So at 4:15 we leave the doctors (which I hope to find a new one, this one's not too bad, but we've had better), and we head to walmart to get the Tamiflu prescription which the doctor said comes in a generic! I'm thinking yeah $4, another break with medical expenses. Oh no, the doctor was wrong. The lady said that will be $99 and it will be ready in 45 minutes. Well, I asked the lady if we could please have our prescription back and we would take it to Walgreens with the comfort of a drive through and not having to take the boys into walmart to pick it up....since Bradley is MISERABLE! Oh BTW he did manage to cough in my face when leaving WalMart. After I had handed him a towel and said hold this by you so when you have to cough it will be ready to put over your face. That way you won't get Jake and I sick while riding in our itsy bitsy two door car. Lovely!

So we head to Walgreens and I'm asking the pharmacist to please look up my insurance info when a diesel pulls up and I can't hear a word the guy is saying....so I unload the kids and we all go in together. Bradley is HATING this.

Since they also say it will be 45 minutes until ready, we come home for a few then go back to get medicine. This time I drive up and she says that my total will be $99 and pauses and says well insurance rejected you prescription. I think she was waiting for me to yell at her about the price. I said well they shouldn't reject it but I know that we have high deductible, so they won't pay for anything. So, we wait 30 minutes while she's on the phone with insurance and comes back and long story short gave us smaller bottles so insurance would lower the cost to $86 since Bradley had the flu last year and he met his quota of Tamiflu in one year. Hmmm, If only he got the flu in two more days, the Tamiflu prescription would have been fine. HA!!!

And let me add, when we got home I called the pharmacist to please convert Milligrams(on the dropper) to two tsps (on the directions). Well, the prescription was wrong on the box! It should be one tsp twice a day, not two tsps twice a day. Thanks Walgreens! I appreciate you trying to OVERMEDICATE MY 8 YEAR OLD!!!

Anyway, just wanted to vent. This is, I guess, after all my blog. All this to say, I guess we will be getting the Flu shot next year!

Army of One

2007-01-27T20:45:00.000-05:00

Look at this cool truck we got to follow most of the way home today. I never knew the Army had eighteen wheelers with their stuff all over them. I thought it would be less obvious if I took a picture of the back instead of the sides. The sides were really cool though. They had service men and women covering the entire sides. I really like to keep up with the war situation and Iran and current events. I find it all very facinating. And yes I did watch and enjoy watching the State of the Union address. Anyway, we just wanted to share this cool truck with everyone. Enjoy!

Texarkana Trip

2007-01-27T20:06:00.000-05:00

Randy and all the football coaches are at a football clinic in Grapevine this weekend, so the boys and I took off to Texarkana to see my best friend Kelley, from when we lived in Atlanta. Kelley and I got together every Friday, so I have really missed my friend. Her husband is a coach at Texas High in Texarkana, so he was at the same clinic as Randy.

The boys always have so much fun together. The favorite toy to play with was the Go Diego Go rescue center. It was a hit. We let the boys stay up till 11:30! What were we thinking! Kelley's friends Laura and James from Fredricksburg also stayed the night, so we all stayed up late and played games.

Kelley was pregnant when we moved and then she came to visit me during football season with her new baby Kyndall. We just don't know how to handle having a little girl in the room to hug and kiss on. She is sooo cute and such a happy baby. I'm so glad we got to go see my friend and Jake was so happy to go see "his Cade and Clay". They are such good friends of ours.

I slept so nice and sound only to find out that Kelley and the other Laura were up most the night with Kyndall. Oops, sorry I am such a sound sleeper. Once I am alseep, I don't hear a thing. Randy has always makes fun of me for this. The boys could have crawled in our bed rolled all over me, Randy move them, give them medicine and then I wake up the next morning and ask Randy why he is soooo tire the next day. HA! He is such a sweet husband. I always tell him to wake me up when this happens, but he is so kind and takes care of it.

Thanks Kelley for letting us come hang out! We miss you guys. Hopefully you will get your computer up and running soon!!! The boys are in their room watching Veggie Tales. BTW- Madame Blueberry finally gave out tonight and broke:( That was one of our favorites about being thankful...In fact this video helped me get through Maymester and several other long nights at ACU. Whenever Bradley would wake up in the middle of the night in college, I would pop in a Veggie Tales. He has always loved them. Anyway I'm going to go put the boys to bed, they are exhausted!!!

Current Mood: BEYOND HAPPY!!!!!

2007-01-24T15:05:00.000-05:00

Oh my goodnes!!! I just saved myself $500.00 It has been tedious and nausiating to get to this point but I finally did it. I have been trying for two months to get the owner of the gas station to call me so we can straighten out my bills for the gasoline in my eyes. He has been extremely difficult to reach. I told him in several notes, that I believed his employees were forgetting to give him my messages:) I loaded Jake in the car today and took a road trip down to E, stopping at every gas station/grocery store he owend and left my number for him to call me. I was also fortunate to meet a man in my defensive driving course Saturday that said if all else failed he would give me Mr. F's address (I decided only as a last resort bc I almost felt like that would be stalking. I know it's not, but I thought I would try to handle it this way first). Well today in my adventure I found out Mr. F's son owns a local business so I was able to reach his son and tell him about the bills and guess what??? Mr. F called me and agreed to paying half of my bills!!!! YEAHHHHHHHHHH!!!! He was very nice on the phone by the way, he just needed a good reason to call me and I believe I delivered that today!

Arlington, Tickets, and My Weight

2007-01-21T21:18:00.000-05:00

First of all, sorry for no pictures of furniture as I promised. We had to drive out to Arlington two times Friday once for pick up and then again to exchange the damaged piece we brought home. So, I don't have everything finished in the living room that I wanted. We have to rehang everything, so it may be another week before I post pictures of that.
I drove out to Arlington again today to go to one of my mom's jewelry classes in the Six Flags mall. It is amazing the stuff she can do. We soldered silver and made earrings and ear wires and toggles. Just amazing the stuff she can do and teach to others. I'm so impressed.

Tomorrow I have to go to Rockwall to show the judge that I sat through 6 1/2 excrutiating (sp?) hours of defensive driving Saturday. Never cross the median when you are stuck behind a wreck...you WILL get a ticket! I was the only one below the age of 50 in the class. I think everyone younger did their course on the internet. Yes we have SLOOOOOOOW diiiiiiaaaaalll uuuuuupppp!!!!!!

Now I'm going to share something that I have to in order to motivate myself. I know a lot of old high school and college friends read this so I am so embarrassed to share, but that's what will motivate me to do something about it. When I was pregnant with Bradley I gained 60 pounds and then took it off by the time he was 1 1/2. With Jake I gained 50 pounds, and never took off the extra weight that was not baby weight. I am a good 30 pounds over weight right now. UGGGGHHHHH!! I'm really tired of it. Just something about finding time for yourself after two kids that is sooo much harder than just one kid. But, now that Jake is in Mother's Day Out and he is four and much more independent, I know I can do it. Also we are planning a summer trip with some friends of ours and I really want to feel comfortable in a bathing suit and not have to miss out on fun parts of the vacation because of my weight.

Sooo.....I will be exercising to shed the weight. Dieting does not work for me, I have to be active. Also, I am going to try my hardest to give up the diet coke. No promises on that one, but I'm going to totally try! So there you go, I'm 30 pounds heavier than college. I am setting the goal of losing 20 pounds by this summer. Wow that's alot of pounds, and I can't believe I just told you all that!!!!!! Now I have to do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!