Christmas Catch up!

 
We had a wonderfull Christmas! It started with the closing of the sell of our Atlanta house December 21st!!! That was the best Christmas present of all. Santa came to Mimi and Grandpa's house and gave the boys a lot of fun toys. Jake is drawing on his doodle dinasaur in the picture. They are not in pajamas because all the guys pile in the car and go looking at Christmas lights in the evening. While they are out, the girls stay behind and unload the goodies that are stashed in the closet! Then I run out to the car as they pull in the driveway and say, "Hurry! Hurry! Santa came to the house while you were gone!!! Come see what he left you!!!" It's so much fun this way and everyone gets to sleep in the next morning.
 
Santa even left Randy one of those multi-functioning ladders that are like the little giant one on TV. Santa pulled a good one on him! :)
 
And here is precious Kerstin!!! She and Aunt Marsha and Uncle Alan came and ate a yummy rib dinner at Nana's house. She is a cutie!!! Cousins David and Jonathan and Aunt Julie and Uncle Craig came too and stayed a couple of nights. Not sure why I didn't get any pictures of the boys? Maybe we were going for the not seen and not heard this year with all the boys. Especially since Uncle Gary bought them all wonderful Superman walkie talkies that they thought only worked by yelling into them. What's funny is none of the four boys were ever seperated! They all stuck together like glue and didn't realize they didn't needed their walkie talkies because they were all standing right next to each other!!!
  

Poor Jake!

 

Okay, does the kid know how to pose or what? So today I'm out talking with the neighbor and Jake is riding his bike. Well, Bradley's 3rd grade friend also named Jake is riding his bike as well and making really awesome jumps off of the curb. So, Jake decides that since he's had his training wheels off of his bike for what a week now, he would follow suit! Well my little four year old who has NO fear of pain (only a huge fear of meeting new people) goes and jumps the curb and flips foward and lands straight on his face. After we cleaned up his bloody nose, head and knee Jake asked me "Mommy when I'm older can you buy me a motorcylce?" I'm thinking you crazy kid....so I asked him why and he said , "because they can jump a lot better than a bicycle!" Ha! 

Mercy Me!!!

 

Oh my Goodness!!! I made the best last minute decision ever tonight! I heard on the radio this morning when I took Bradley to school that Mercy Me had a handful of tickets left for their Christmas show here in Greenville tonight (Five of their band members live here in Greenville). I had tried to call and get a hold of Randy all day today. Side note for those of you who don't know him well- he never checks his cell phone. He thinks if he checks it on his way home at 3:00 then that is making good use of his cell phone. UGHHHHHH. Anyway, He got home at 3:30 and I asked him if he wouldn't mind me going to the concert and of course he didn't care- His question---Who is Mercy Me? HA!

 

I asked Bradley if he wanted to go. He said no, so I just ran down at 4:00 and bought myself a ticket to the Mercy Me concert. It was the "rockinest" thing ever!!!!! I didn't realize how many songs on the radio are sung by Mercy Me. I knew I knew some of their songs but I didn't realize until tonight that I actually know all of their songs! They started the concert singing their hits. Then after a break they went into their Christmas songs. The show started at 7 and since I was by myself I got there really early and got to sit on the fifth row. Of course the maximum seating capacity in this place was 1500 so pretty much everyone had good seats. I loved it! If any of you ever get a chance to go to one of their concerts....they are the best!!! I think they have a show in Dallas in the spring.

For those of you who know me, I really like to plan out my day to day activities as well as month to month activities, so this is very unlike me to just do something like this that isn't planned and I'm so glad I did it because I hadn't had this much fun yelling and screaming in a loooong time!!!


  

WEIRD!

 

Okay, so I’ve been tagged by Jaime to list 6 weird things about myself. Well the problem is I am weird so I’m not sure I can attempt to distinguish weird things about myself from the normal parts of myself :) Anyway, here goes….

1. I can lie on my stomach and bend my legs back to touch my head! (it’s a skill I acquired at a very young age…I thought yall would appreciate the picture of me at five doing this and not 30! I can still do it though!

2. I don’t like chocolate!

3. I don’t like steak! Well, maybe I would like it if it was smothered in queso.

4. I can’t stand to wear jewelry! The first thing I do when I come home is throw all my jewelry off…might explain why my wedding ring has been missing for the last two weeks! Also funny that’s my extra income right now…making jewelry and wearing the product to advertise!

5. I would take like five bubble baths a day (seriously) if I had the time and enough hot water. They are my favorite!!! Funny how every time I go to take one some little boy starts knocking on the door needing something!

6. Something I have really had to work on for the last two years since I figured this out about myself is once I have one item of a set, I feel like I need the rest of it (whether I will actually use it or not). Like if I were to by Raspberry lotion from bath and body, I would have to have every other item in that flavor. Or if I bought a bob the tomato for Bradley when he was younger…I would have to buy the entire rest of the veggie tales with it. I know weird but I have learned to control this urge! Mainly due to the fact that it is a costly habit!!!

So now I have to tag people that Jaime didn't tag? Well that would be Angie S., Chelsea, Paige, and hmmm MOM! I know this is a hard list to come up with for some of you so I won't be offended if you don't do it!

Time for Some Happy New!!!

Okay so in the midst of all this chaos and heartbreak over the last week there have been some very happy, wonderfull, and exciting things happen. First of all we signed away on the contract today for our house. We have been blessed with what seems to be the opportunity to sell our house at not a great price, but we will be FREE of making double mortgages!!! They have in the contract to close by December 21st! In time for Christmas. Yeah!! Hopefully nothing will fall through and they won't back out.

Now we can free up our money to start paying the ER bill and the ambulance ride from my gasoline bath the other night. Which for all of you wondering I have showered repeatedly in Vinegar (GAG!) and baking soda, and the gasoline odor has subsided a bit. I only smell it now when I am drying my hair with the hairdryer....hmmmm scary-heat and gasoline smell :) I have avoided drying my hair by doing my classic going to bed with wet heir. The clothes---well that's another matter. They have been air drying outside bc I have just about washed them to death in the washer.

Today I came home from faxing the house contract to the realtor and Jake showed me his awesome new skill that dad worked with him today for about 3 minutes...HE CAN RIDE HIS BIKE with NO training wheels!!! Oh my goodness, I don't think Bradley did this until he was 6! Part of this is due to the fact that Jakes bike is another one of the items in the garage that I repeatedly hit with the car. Thus the bent training wheels that don't do him much good when riding his bike anyway. He really had no choice but to learn to keep his balance.


And now the most exciting new of all..................I'm going to be an aunt!!!! I know I am in no way discrediting my nieces and nephews Maddie and Nate or David and Jonathan or Elizabeth who is in the process of coming from Vietnam.......But these are all on the Scott side of the family. That's right my sister is due in July to have a baby!!!!!! I can't wait to spoil this baby rotten! I have had dreams of my sister having a little girl and in those dreams the little girl is just like Punky Brewster!!! DeeAnne is going to be a fun and exciting mom and I'm sure her child whether it be a boy or a girl will keep us all in stitches and on our toes! I can't wait!!!!!!

NEVER douse yourself in GASOLINE!!!!

Okay, so parts of this are a little comical when you think of it, but really I'm not quite to the laughing part of it yet. If you want to laugh at me fine--give me a week and I'll join you. Anyway....last night we made a fire and were going to enjoy a nice quiet evening at home. I had called wings to go and placed an order for Randy and I and started the boys pizza in the oven. I then left to go get the wings and noticed I was low on gas. I pulled over into the gas station across from the wing stop and filled my tank. When I went to pull the nozzle out of the tank it got stuck and gasoline was gushing off the side of the car and drenched me. It went directly into my face and soaked my eyes.

So I'm screaming for someone to help me across the street and into the gas station. Some very very very sweet high school aged girl took my around my shoulders and tried the best she could to help me in. She told me to step up but a little too late and I fell and busted my knee on the concrete. So, we make it into the bathroom (screaming the whole time) and start washing my eyes with water. Then the fire department arrived with some oxyginated water? Whatever it was, it really helped sooth my eyes. Then about that time Randy arrived then the ambulance. The ambulance took my blood pressure and it was something over 112...the emt said that's got to be wrong and told the girl to take it again...it went down to 110!

They told Randy to go home and get me some clothes, but I said no please go to the hospital. Well, I'm glad he went and got me clothes, bc when he got to the house the pizza was black and smoking in the oven (thank you lord for the fire depatment not having ot come to our house as well!)

So the ambulance got me to the hospital and by this time I said I new my blood pressure was getting lower bc I could feel my knee hurting! The staff and the hospital didn't know I could hear them all the way down the hall saying "oh my, I can smell gasoline all the way down here." It was so embarissing. But, they did a bunch of stuff to my eyes and gave me some vicoden and made me feel much better. They were all so sweet and no one laughed at me in my face (they may have after I left I don't know). So, today I can see and I am verrrrrrrry thankful. The whole situation could have been much worse. I could have caught on fire or been blind. So, even though my throat is sore (vicoden doesn't get rid of that) and my hair reeks of gasoline...I am okay. Bradley is so tender hearted and he has been really concerned. Anyway, if anyone has any tips on how to remove the gasoline oder.......PLEASE SHARE!!!

P.S. For those of you who know Randy, he isn't the most sensative person ever...he's pretty tough! Well, last night he was the most wonderfull, sweetest caring husband ever in the whole world. He couldn't have done things any better last night than what he did! I LOVE him!

Jesus Loves Me

 

No one should have to attend the funeral of a five year old. It was a very sad but sweet ceremony. He was a second generation farmer at 5 years old and he was proud of it! He had purchased a small yet costly John Deer tractor the day before he died with his own money and signed his name JO on the receipt because those were the only letters he knew of his name. We sang Jesus loves me at the ceremony because that was his favorite song and they played the "Dukes of Hazzard" as we were dismissed because that was his favorite show. The Dallas news channell 8 came to the funeral and showed his story on the news because of the 80 farmers who came out and helped the family put 3,000 bayles in the barn so they could tend to the funeral. His dad was out on the tractor when his little boy got ran over by the neighbors truck. A very sad day, but also filled with sweet memories of Johnny. The sky was overcast all day with a few sprinkles, but the sun still shined through the grey. The grey symbolic of our sadness and the light symbolic of the happy place that Johnny is now. I think the sweetest part of the day was watching John Paul (dad) drive the tractor pulling a trailer to the burial site. In the trailer was the family and the casket. They took Johnny on his last hayride. There were about 7 tractors lined up on the side of the rode and as the trailer passed each one the farmer would turn off his tractor until it was almost silent except for the one tractor they left running. I hope no one else has to experience a loss as this. This is a very strong family and they are truly remarkable people as David said because they believe in a remarkable God. God bless this family and be with them as they deal with the loss of this precious life that has been returned to the one who loves him the most and can make him the happiest little boy in heaven. I hope he has the greenest fields as far as the eye can see and a big green John Deer tractor to drive wherever his little heart desires. 

The New Way to send your letter to Santa

I was gonna put a cute little glittery santa up here, but this picture just cracked me up so I had to share it!

Well, here is my great shopping tip for all you mothers who get stuck shopping with the kids and need to buy Santa stuff. I've done this the last three years and the boys haven't figured it out yet! Since I made some Christmas money this weekend I took the boys to the store today to make their wish lists. Well, walmart had one blue doodle dinasuar left that is on Jakes list and it was only ten dollars. So what I tell the boys is that we will buy it and take it home. We take a picture of it with the digital camera and email the picture to santa and he knows exactly what they want. Then I tell them that the next day or later I will take it back to the store and return it. (BTW- I don't actually take the toy back, I hide it somewhere in the house.)

If your kids think that you need to take picture of their entire list you tell them that you only have to buy and take pictures of the toys that are hard to describe to Santa, and this way he will get it exactley right. I keep thinking Bradley will figure this little trick out, but he hasn't!! I love it and it makes shopping really easy. I don't have to hide anything! And if they happen to stumble across their hidden Santa presents, all I have to say is- oh I'll return that to the store tomorrow. Hope this is helpful!

Jewelry Debut

 

Here is my mom's and my booth!! We had a very sucessfull show! We are excited. We were nervous about if people would like our stuff or not, but it was a hit. A little something for everyone! Our web site is www.thebeaddoctor.com. We have it up and going, just not everything is pictured on it yet. Soon though we will get it on there. Our next show is Dec. 6th! Tonight I am exhausted. We worked hard to pull our display and everything else together for the first show, but the next one should be a breeze. Hopefully it will go as well or better than this one! 

Thanksgiving???

So this one is a tuff one to share. While mom and I anticipate a fun day tomorrow selling our jewelry, I am reminded of so many others who are struggling and hurting. My father in law who can’t even eat this bountiful harvest of food because of the cancer (We love you John and Grandma Deborah and we are definitely continuing to pray for you and we were very thankful that we have you!) My friend JB who is going through the first holiday after the loss of her mother. My old Abilene friend Kinney who is in ICU after suddenly coming down Guillian Barre Syndrome (from what I heard, he will spend a month in the hospital and have to relearn how to walk.) This disease struck him when he was young and it basically paralyzed him but he overcame it then. You can visit his blog at http://kinneymabry.blogspot.com/

And then literally, two minutes before we sat down to eat Thanksgiving lunch I got a call from a friend who told me a friend of ours from when we lived in Ferris lost their 5 year old yesterday (Wed.) in a tragic accident on the farm. What’s sad is he turned five Tuesday and his party was going to be Sunday. They are a sweet sweet family. John Paul and Heather.

So how do you sit down to a Thanksgiving meal and be thankful when so many around you are hurting? That is a tough one for me. I am so thankful for my boys, my husband, my mom and I getting to have our business (my dad for putting up with us), our house (yes even both of them) , that we have so many blessings. My heart has a great joy and yet a deep sadness for those that I am personally connected with in the above paragraphs. I don’t know. I hope many of you and all of you had happy and fun filled thanksgivings. I really, really do. I want that for everyone, and I guess that is why it’s so hard to be thankful, I want it to all be perfect for everyone. I don’t enjoy hurting and I don’t want others to have to hurt. I know this is a down blog entry. Sorry, I just didn’t feel right only posting happy wonderful things about my life when a part of my heart is sad. So share in my happiness of the good and wonderful blessings my family has had this week, and pray for the ones who giving thanks may not come as easily for.

The Big 8!!!

 
Well here we are. Another year down :) I was rocking with Bradley the other night and said, "Wow, I can't believe you are eight years old." He said, "That's okay mom, I still feel young." How cute! He's even young enough to think it would be cool to live with us while he's attending college somewhere! (Yeah right! We'll see what he thinks in 10 more years!)

A lady came by our house last week with a welcoming bag from housewarmers. It has tons of coupons for free stuff from local businesses in town. So this morning I went by the party store and picked up the free balloon boquet. After that I headed over to Chicago Style Pizza to get a free medium pizza for the boys (Nana brought yummmy ribs for the adults). Anyway, I've never seen the Godfather, but imagine a big scary Italian guy with a thick italian accent standing behind the pizza counter. When I showed him my free coupon and asked for the pizza, he said, "No! No! No! You not show me that thing! I not honor that coupon! Those people are liers! I go broke with that thing! It's supposed to be buy a large and get a medium free!" So I start crying and tell scary mafia pizza man that all I wanted is the pizza for my sons birthday and I would just go somewhere else. So then he gets all soft and says, "no, no, no, You want free pizza? I make you free pizza! It's just my voice. Don't leave here sit down! You want drink, here have drink I go make pizza! It's your sons birthday? You bring your son here every birthday and I make him free pizza!!!" SO scary mafia guy ended up being okay and sent me home with a free large peperoni pizza (BTW- I left him a good tip)

 
And here is the cake....I know not the greatest art work ever, but the boys loved it. At least it was better than the Spongebob cupcakes I made for his class at school. They looked like Big Bird with the chicken pox!

  

And of course he raked in the goodies!! Batman legos, a light up Bionicle, and enough money to put with what little he has saved to buy the Game Boy he wants! It blows my mind that kids can get this much money in one day(Thanks grandparents :) Papa and Deborah also sent this awesome quarter collection map of the fifty states quarters. They even sent all the quarters that have been printed so far. Last night we had fun punching out all the discs on the map were the quarters belong. Then you pop the quarters in where the discs were. Anyway, the disc are currently being used as flying weapons to throw at each other (go figure!) All in all a GREAT EIGHT!

Things that Make me Happy

1. When Bradley forgets about looking "cool" and grabs my hand and holds it when we are walking somewhere.

2. When we are on a tight budget and Bradley thinks that riding the school bus home on his 8th birthday TODAY is the awesomest present ever! (Birthday pictures will be posted Saturday after family party)

3. Going to Kroger and buying $50 worth of groceries for $30 because they double and triple coupons!

4. Making other people laugh.

5. When Randy calls me in the day for no reason (rare occasion, but I love it!)

6. Getting a new IM or email from friends, or comments on my blog.

7. Playgroup on Fridays--We have a mix of about 6 or 7 moms and only 2 of them attend the same church, but we are all Christians. It is a unique group and so uplifting to be a part of and the kids all play great together!

8. Staying up late (I do this often).

9. Sleeping in until 10 a.m. (another rare occasion but I love it!)

10. That I only live an hour and 15 minutes from my mother and she pays for my gas every time I go to see her.

11. That my husband still loves me even after I pull too far forward into the garage, and jam into the wonderful workbench that he built, and put a giant hole in the wall! (Another rare occasion that I hit something with the car :), but he still loves me!)

Playdates

Feature- by Stacy Lu - AOL Coaches :

Add alcohol to the mix and I guess todays play date could have been a lot crazier than 8 kids, ant bites, dirt in the hair, and going home with wet clothes. I'm not against drinking but this just seems absurd to me! Found it today on AOL...Click on the link above and tell me what you think!

REMEMBER....
Veterans' Day is November 11th!

PFC GARY H. BULLARD, U.S.M.C.
WWII Veteran
Iwo Jima
Purple Heart recipient

"These are a few of my favorite things!"

I don't know if it's the age Jake is at or what but he just seems to crack me up lately. I'm sure if I had been blogging when Bradley was four I would have listed some stuff about him. This isn't a Thursday thirteen or anything. It's just a few of the things that he does that will give you a little glimps into his personality.
1. He always wears his shoes on the wrong feet, and he doesn't care to switch them when you tell him they are backwards.

2. Our repeated coversations about boys and girls. Jake "Are babies born as boys and girls? ME Yes Jake. J When I was born was I a boy? M Yes Jake. J When you were born were you a girl? M Yes Jake! J How many boys are in the universe? Thousands?! M Yes Jake.

3. The movie ELF has become one of our all time favorites. We watch it year round. I love it when we are grocery shopping in Wal-mart and Jake busts out in his loudest voice with his favorite line from the movie "I'm singing. I'm singing and I'm in a store and I'm singing!"

4. The other day he was playing guns and pretending to shoot someone and I said "Jake we don't shoot people. You can shoot animals like squirls or deer." Jake gets all serious and says "No, No, Mom. Santa uses reighndeer. We don't shoot deer momma!" Ha isn't he in for a rude awakening! :)

5. I love how he still wants to rock at night and he still cuddles with his baby blanket!

6. This last one is my favorite. He has these imaginary friends Pete and Rudy from the football movie Rudy. They have lived with us for a little over a year now. Rudy is about two inches tall and Pete is Jakes size. Of course their favorite time of day to show up is at bedtime to keep Jake awake (How convenient). Jake usually comes out from the bedroom and says "Pete and Rudy are bothering me!" They then have to sit in time out and Jake falls asleep just fine. Of course they have died a few times when Jake had real friends coming over to play. EX: About an hour before Jake's fourth Birthday party, he informed us that Rudy drowned in our pool and he wouldn't be able to make the party.

"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS!" Okay so Bradley told me he wanted to be Sponge Bob for Halloween. However, you can't just go to Wal-mart and buy a premade costume of SB. So, I made this for him. I had him test it out really good and make sure he could move and see really well. Anyway, tonight he chickened out of wearing it because all his friends were going to be the "regular" costumes. So, my wasted $4 and work were thrown aside to be none other than Batman (last years costume). We had a lot of fun though. This was our last night with Maddie and Nate. They leave in the morning for Washington. Then they leave the country in Jan. I'm so thankful they were able to squeeze in one more visit tonight. Thanks guys. Pictures are below. Jake couldn't just slide down the bounce house slide. He would jump down! He's my crazy one! 

Jake jumping down the bounce house slide. 

Family 

Jake as Robby from the movie ROBOTS. 

We had a blast Saturday night at the FC Dallas game thanks to Mimi and Grandpa and an early Birthday preasent for Bradley. They lost by a point but it was an awesome game. It went into two 15 minute overtimes and a shootout! The best part was probably the end when the FC Dallas goalie leveled a Colorado player. He punched the guy in the face and the guy hit the ground immediatley. Meanwhile fans are throwing drinks and smoke bombs on the field. Crazy fun. Of course being the "responsible" adults we are, we told our children that this is not sportsman like conduct and no one should ever act this way. :) Bradley loved the game. I spray painted their hair red to support our team. Jake wanted his spikey, so we went crazy with his hair. And yes my shirt is signed by four of the FC Dallas team members, and NO I was not wearing it when they signed it! The four guys came to Greenville to the YMCA and held a clinic for the kids. They signed the shirt at the clinic. Thank you so much Mom and Dad. I know this was for Bradley and his Birthday, but I think we all had a Great Time! And thank you Gary, Coby, and Maddie for joining us in our night of fun!