Camping

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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

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!

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....

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!

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

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?

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!!!!

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!!!

 
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!

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!!!!

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

 
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

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!!!