Life on Our Golden Pond

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T16:58:00.005-06:00

Coming Home

2012-02-11T14:55:00.003-06:00

Reese was chosen along with another friend to be the crown bearers at ACA's Coming Home last Friday night. He didn't know what to expect at first because he had no concept of what he was supposed to do. He did a good job though.

The Coming Home court.

With their crowns.

After Reese dropped the crown and the whole crowd laughed, Dr. Slauson was there to the rescue.

Bathroom Adventures

2012-02-07T09:16:00.003-06:00

If children's bathroom mishaps are not something that you can handle, then stop reading now. Just warning you. I have to write this down, and since this blog has been sort of a journal over the years, this story is getting included too. Again, you have been warned.

I have a strong stomach. I don't know how that happened, but it has been a life saver when it comes to my kids mishaps and sicknesses along the way. Don't get me wrong, I still think things are nasty sometimes, but those things don't make me physically ill.

Well, then my children have come along and inherited a weak stomach from someone. It is ridiculous!! Here is a story for you, but to keep any weak stomached people from tossing their cookies, I am going to change certain bathroom words, for more reader friendly terms.

Reese came in the kitchen last night and told me that he had just gotten sick in the potty. I asked him if he was sick, and he said no. I asked him if he had been coughing and threw up, (which happens often) but he said no to that too. We went in the bathroom to inspect the damage, which was all contained to the potty. I kept questioning him and was getting nowhere. I asked him to just tell me what happened. He said he went to use the bathroom and when he was done he saw the...... (we will call it flowers) in the potty and it made him sick.
Really? You're own "flowers" make you sick?

Fast forward to bath time. He was taking his clothes off and told me that their might be some "flowers" in his underwear. He handed them to me, and there was just a little "flowers." I began to wash the "flowers" out of his clothes, and he began heaving! He finally ran over to the toilet and became ill again. At this point I realize it is all from the thought of "flowers." I started saying things like, "REESE, STOP THINKING ABOUT IT AND THINK ABOUT LOLLY POPS AND SMURFS."

Whose kids are these anyways? Ridiculous!

100th Day of School

2012-01-31T06:40:00.005-06:00

Reese was supposed to dress up for the 100th day of school, like a 100 year old man.

I didn't have many options on what to do, that were Reese approved. His teacher said they decided he looked like 100 year old Elton John. I agree!!!

UGH!

2012-01-24T15:27:00.002-06:00

Careless mistakes on tests and homework are about to drive me insane. Notice I said careless mistakes. Example: You ask your child what it means to give off heat and he answers "radiate."

He knew it before the test, and after the test, but not during the test.

The one bright spot in all this frustration is that mom showed me some of my papers she had come across from when I was in elementary school. Boy, did I turn out just fine inspite of that work. I couldn't write well, nor could I do the math.

Sigh

It gives me hope.

We are still here.

2012-01-12T13:30:00.001-06:00

We let the boys watch Xmen this weekend. I kept asking Brent, “You do remember this movie well enough to remember if I need to cover their eyes for any reason, don’t you?” He assured me that he had seen the movie many times. Anyway, as each new character is introduced into the movie, the boys are getting more and more excited to see what their powers are etc. There is a guy in the movie (Scott/Cyclopes) who has to wear sun glasses all the time so that he doesn’t shoot laser beams out of his eyes when not necessary. (I know, I know.) Reese runs out of the room, and then comes running back in with his glasses on. He says, “I am Cyclopes!” It just cracks me up that kids think to do things like that. Brooks said he was Wolverine and kept pretending to make his claw things shoot out of his hands. I haven’t made up my mind yet as to who I want to be. :)

In other news... We had been having issues with Reese’s behavior at school. Nothing major, but it was constant. He could not be still nor could he keep his mouth closed. None of what he was doing would be considered being “bad”, just disruptive. Here is an example. When he would come in to class in the morning, he would find out what they were supposed to be working on, or see something new and different in the class room, and then he would have to announce it loudly to each new kid that comes in the room. He also had problems staying in his seat and being still. His P.E. teacher even said he was trying to teach the class!
We took Reese to Dr. T. in December, and after a long visit with him, we have decided to try medication for awhile. One factor that led to this was Dr. T. learning that Brent struggled with many of these same issues when he was little. This is a sign of it being hereditary. We also went over a list of things that can cause over stimulation in children and we don’t do any of those things anyway. This led to us knowing there was nothing we could change to help him.
I love Dr. T. He started by saying, if this was 200 years ago, Reese would be working on a farm and none of this would be an issue, but since society has changed, we must try to work into society. He discourages the “diagnosing” of a child with ADHD because he feels like by doing that we would be labeling him as if something is wrong with him, when there is really nothing wrong. He said, “This is just Reese.”
Reese has been taking medicine for a little over a week now and I have noticed only subtle changes, which is what we were going for. Mom pointed out before church Sunday morning that while Reese was talking to his best friend Cooper, he was just sitting there, where as used to, Reese would have been bouncing while talking to Cooper. The best way I can describe it is that on a scale of one to ten of hyperactivity, Brooks is always at about a 4, (pretty laid back), Reese was always at a 9 or 10, and now he is at about a 7. I do not want him to be a 4 or 5, because then that just wouldn’t be Reese.
His daily conduct grade has improved as well. There is a little tweaking that we need to do with his medication, but all in all, I am very pleased.

I began my New Years Day by going to Primed with a possible staph infection that would not clear up. After having it cut open and “fixed up” (to keep this PG) I am still on the mend.

Brooks is doing fairly well this year. I love his teacher’s organization and I hope it is rubbing off on him. I also finally realized that if I bribe him with a small surprise, he will read. What ever it takes! He will begin baseball season soon and he is super excited because Brent will be coaching him this year. Brent finally took the step and committed to coaching this year. He has an awesome friend that is going to help him, so we are looking forward to a fun season, no matter what the outcome. Reese will also play this year for the first time too. He is EXCITED! I bought him some cleats the other day and when I got him to try them on, he didn’t want to take them off.

Looking forward to an eventful next couple of months. Let's pray I can keep my sanity!

Great Big Christmas Post!

2011-12-29T17:24:00.035-06:00

The Hatcher household had a wonderful Christmas season. We got to visit with Elaine, Aunt Marsha, and the loveable little Nolan!Couldn't you just eat him up?
He was enjoying his time with his grandmother!

We had School Christmas parties that were loads of fun!

Reese was so proud of his craft!

He was also elated that they played Christmas bingo and he won two of the four times. He had to shout out, "Ho, Ho, Ho." So cute!We got to spend time with our extended family! So many cousins! This is Aiden opening his new laser gun from us. (Sorry Julie and Phil =) )Lillie was already eyeing the smocked dress that came with the new doll she got from my mom.Christmas eve came quickly this year. Since we had asked Santa to come a night early, we were all ready and snug in our beds on Friday evening.

The boys were raring to go on Saturday morning. I always make them come in my room first. It is probably a form of torture.....but they sure are excied.

Peeking at their gifts!
As they were opening gifts, Reese went over behind the tree because he didn't want us to see what Santa had brought him.
Here is Reese playing with his "new to him" DS. Not to forget Brent decked out in his Georgia attire.

Super hero Reese putting his Legos together.

I wish this picture was clearer, but this is Brooks opening his Skylanders set that he really wanted. The picture is priceless!

Sunday we got together with my family. It is still a lot of fun to open presents in the den that I grew up in. I opened presents in that room from Santa for 21 years!

This picture has a story. Brent and Christina share a trait that they create static in their daily lives. Christina gave Brent a can of Static Guard and some money. So clever!
We got together with Brent's family Monday night and I am just now realizing that I didn't take any pictures. We had good food, and good fellowship with everyone. We don't get to spend much time with Brent's brother's family so it always seems to come and go to quickly.

As I am sure all of you are, I feel exhausted, and I haven't even taken any of my Christmas gear down yet....ugh!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Visit with Santa

2011-12-16T18:30:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago we got to visit with jolly old Saint Nicholas himself! Reese had his list ready!Reese had seen Santa at church that morning and it gave me the chance to talk about how important it is to worship God. It is so important that even Santa does it! =) Reese asked Santa how he got to church and where was the sleigh because Reese hadn't seen it. Santa always has his answer ready!

Both boys got to share with Santa the things that they wanted. The list seems to be a lot alike from year to year. I guess that is because they are boys!

Brooks was racking his brain trying to remember what was on his list because he forgot to bring it. Brooks also asked Santa if it would be too much trouble if he brought their presents on Christmas Eve Eve so that they can open them on Saturday morning this year. Santa said he thought he could get some of the elves to bring their gifts down here! (I love Santa's expression here!)

Tour of the City

2011-12-05T19:00:00.001-06:00

The week of Thanksgiving I took off and we decided to do some fun activities. Mom, Brooks and I decided to go see some of the sights that tourists often visit when coming to Montgomery. We began at the train station downtown.
We decided to take a bus tour of the city. It was a nice narrated tour. One complaint I had was this: If your job is to narrate a city tour, it might be nice if you can pronounce all of the landmarks and buildings correctly. I was almost embarrassed on behalf of the city thinking about the other people on the tour. I wanted to say, "What she is trying to say is Judicial Building!"After the tour we went to the Biscuit Basket (the Montgomery Biscuits baseball team gift shop,) and looked around. Then we met Brent for lunch at Cuco's (yum!) After lunch, we walked around the outside of the Capital. They have planted many trees over the years on Arbor day and we happend upon this one....

Brooks had fun seeing all the sights. I am sure we will get to visit them all again next year when he studies Alabama History in 4th grade.

The Giving Tree

2011-11-23T08:29:00.009-06:00

Once there was a tree.....

and she loved a little boy.

And every day the boy would come and he would gather her leaves and make them into crowns and play king of the forest.

He would climb up her trunk and swing from her braches and eat apples.

And they would play hide-and-go-seek.

And when he was tired, he would sleep in her shade. And the boy loved the tree......very much. And the tree was happy.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Happy Veterans Day

2011-11-12T17:45:00.002-06:00

Brooks participated in a Veterans Day program this past Sunday. The 3rd and 4th grade classes sung many patriotic songs. Among them were songs from each branch of the armed forces. As each song was being sung they asked audience members who served or had served in these branches to stand. It was very moving! At the end of the program the students passed out flags to each audience member who had stood up. Brooks made a beeline to Pop, so he could give him his flag.

Happy Veterans Day!

Trunk or Treat Pictures

2011-11-03T17:24:00.006-05:00

We went to Trunk or Treat last Thursday evening at church. We had a blast just like we always do. Reese went as a pirate. He kept showing everyone his mustache.Reese and his best friend Cooper.I forgot to get a picture of Brooks without his mask on. He and Austin stayed in character!

We had a great time! Happy Halloween! (a couple of days late)

Grandmama

2011-10-27T16:00:00.000-05:00

It has been a whirlwind around our household for the past few weeks.

Last Monday night, my grandmother called my dad and said she wasn’t feeling well and that her chest and arm hurt. When my dad got to her apartment, she was not responsive. Her heart had stopped. The paramedics came and revived her and took her to the hospital. Things were not looking good. Tuesday she was admitted to ICU, on a ventilator. That afternoon, with all of her family around her bed, she went to be with the Lord. It was very surreal.

Rosie Dimples Joyce was 92 years old when she passed into eternity. She had been in relatively good health. I have to say that I haven’t been overwhelmingly grieved. Oh yes, I will miss the times we were at her house as a child, or all of those HUGE Thanksgiving meals she prepared at her house. I will miss the times in recent years when she has come to my house for Thanksgiving. However; I am excited for her. I can’t imagine all of the things she is getting to see right now. Even Brooks mentioned that it was all ok because she was in Paradise. Out of the mouths of babes.

Thank you to everyone who sent cards, called and made food. The outpouring of love was overwhelming to my entire family.

Fair

2011-10-17T17:50:00.003-05:00

Last Monday we went to the fair. My dad doesn't look to excited about it for some reason?!?!

The boys had a great time riding the rides together.
Reese was gung-ho on all the rides.....

until the ride got his stomach :)

It is nice they can enjoy the rides together.

A great time was had by all. The downpour in the middle of the day didn't make us leave. We just camped out in the coliseum until it is over.

Note to self: Do not wear a white t-shirt to the fair when there is a chance of rain. Just sayin'!

Camping Out!

2011-10-11T10:11:00.006-05:00

Saturday night the boys had a camping night in the backyard! Reese couldn't understand why I didn't want to camp out with them. I assured him it was a boys only night and I would be fine inside, in my climate controlled environment.The boys were excited. (And yes, Reese it wearing his footed Christmas pajamas.)I wish this picture wasn't so blurry, but oh well. Happy camp out night boys!

This and That

2011-10-07T13:34:00.003-05:00

I haven't been blogging as much lately because I have been spending that time on Pinterest. First of all, genius concept! I was tired of bookmarking things over and over. So far I have tried these ideas I saw on there:

I have so many things I have left to try!

The boys are still enjoying school. They are doing well.

This past Saturday my dad brought a small go-cart he had purchased for the boys to our house. Brooks knew Pop was bringing something but didn't know what. When he saw my dad driving up in the truck, he could see the go-cart in the back of the truck. He was so excited at what he thought he saw, he announced to everyone, "MY VERY OWN TREADMILL!!" We all got a kick out of that one. He would be happy with anything given to him.

Sunday night Reese was sitting in between Brent and I. He leaned in and whispered something to me. I can't remember now what it was. I responded to him by whispering back to him. Well apparently my breath wasn't the freshest at the time. (Hey, I'm just being honest here.) He quickly made a bad face and said, "I think daddy pooted." I couldn't tell on myself so I just said, "Maybe so." (Sorry Brent!)

Our Friday

2011-09-30T14:20:00.003-05:00

I am dreading the writing on the wall. Right now I am sitting on the couch listening to Reese try and cough his way through a nap. It seems when the temperature drops down out of the 90s, it sends a signal to Reese's immune system to trigger his annual "I am going to be sick until March."

I took Reese to the doctor today and left with no answers. A round of steroids and another 6 month prescription of Singulair left with us. The only thing I can figure out is maybe Reese has an asthmatic cough. He really has no other symptoms other than the cough.

Poor kid!

Really?

2011-09-15T14:42:00.001-05:00

Brent and I like to watch movies on Friday nights. We often start off watching a movie, and pretty quickly into it we start asking each other questions like:

“What other movie was he in?”

“Wasn’t she the girl from so and so movie?”

We often find ourselves on our phone looking at the IMDb.com website to answer our questions. Many times we will look up an actor, which leads to another actor, and so on. You could spend hours on that website.

Recently I looked up something that led me to Forrest Gump. I began reading the trivia from that movie and then the goofs from that movie as well. I guess this website thinks we are all a bunch of “goodins” because here is what I read for one of the goofs from the movie:

Revealing mistakes: In the montage of Forrest's and Lt. Dan's first successful shrimp catch after the hurricane where they are emptying their full shrimp nets onto the deck of the boat, the shrimp nets are full of headless shrimp.

If the writers had just left it at that, it would be fine, but oh no…..

Shrimp caught in nets are complete animals, and they are processed on the boat after they are dumped, at which time their heads are removed. Shrimp boats do not catch pre-processed shrimp from the waters of the gulf.

Really?

I mean REALLY?

Behind the Scenes Sunday.

2011-09-12T15:53:00.003-05:00

Does God have a sense of humor? I have always thought he has. I sure hope so.

This is how worship went with my two lovely, angelic children yesterday…

During the morning worship service, Reese was sitting between my mother and I. Apparently he got a hold of a hang nail, and pulled it off. Then his finger began to bleed, but not too badly. He proceeds to show my mother his hurt finger by lifting his hand up in the air, and giving her the bird….for all the world to see. Our great friends always sit behind us, and I immediately heard some snickering, which got me to laughing too. You just don’t see a kid giving his grandmother the bird during church that often.

Nice one!

We went to lunch after church at the Faulkner cafeteria, and had a meeting regarding Lads to Leaders in the president’s dining room. My kids got bored really quickly. I let them go outside and hang out with some other kids, whose parents were in our meeting too. They seemed to have a great time. Well, last night at church the mother of the kids comes up to me laughing and said that when her two got in the car they said, Brooks and Reese can say the “F” word. For a second I was frantically racking my brain wondering which “F” word she was talking about, and since she was laughing I knew it couldn’t be that “F” word. (Which for the record, my kids don’t know that one.) Apparently Brooks told them this joke: “What is invisible and smells like bananas?” Answer: Monkey Farts.

Lovely! Great….great.

Evening services began as usual. We have been encouraging Brooks to sing and learn the songs. He decided to sing last night and sometimes it just cracks me up listening to him sing. I shouldn’t laugh but it is funny!

A few minutes later I asked Reese if he had “pooted” because it sure stunk around us. He told me no, then lean over my mother and I and whispered loudly asking Brooks if he farted. Brooks said no. Reese then leaned back to where he was, and whispered in my ear that he thought Gammie had done it. He was serious too!

Oh the joys of raising boys!!! Just keeping it real for y’all!!!

Reese's Birthday

2011-09-06T21:28:00.001-05:00

I am so far behind on blogging that I don't know if I will ever get caught up.

Reese's birthday was the first part of August, but we didn't celebrate until the 19th. We had a few friends and family over. Reese's good friends got to spend the night, which was a lot of fun. I made a sheet cake for the event that fell in the middle when I took it out of the oven. It looked awful. Luckily Mom and Brent went by DQ and got a REESE'S Peanut Butter ice cream cake. We loaded it up with all sorts of candles....

...including those trick candles.

Reese didn't know what to think about them. He just kept blowing and blowing.

I can't believe my little man is 5 years old!! Where has the time gone?
Happy Birthday Reese!

Random Thoughts

2011-08-29T14:22:00.000-05:00

I love Spotify! If you haven’t heard of it, it is a live music streaming service, almost like Pandora. I think it is better than Pandora though, because with Spotify you can create your own playlist, with specific songs. My children will not be able to get away from my love of such a wide variety of music. It is almost comical.

The boys are both still pretty excited about school. Reese is being typical Reese, and having trouble being good during nap time. I often ask him to show me how he is supposed to be during nap time. He will then lay still and close his eyes. How hard is that? I suppose to an active 5 year old, it can be torture.

I have introduced my children to The Waltons. Brooks calls the show “John Boy.” The fact that I am enjoying this old classic is funny because when I was younger, I didn’t think I would like it. I guess at the time I thought it wasn’t cool enough! Now I watch this show and long for a simpler time in life. Although, they seemed to have a hard time making ends meet. So did those Baldwin sisters ever figure out that their “recipe” was actually whiskey?

Brent and I are going to be the new coordinators for VBS at our church next year. The former coordinators have done such a great job with it; I don’t know how we will ever live up to it. I am already brainstorming for ideas for next year! I guess it is never too early.

You know college football starts this week! I hope along with that, the cooler weather will begin to return to our area as well.

Have a great week and WAR EAGLE!

First Day of School!

2011-08-12T15:23:00.008-05:00

This past Wednesday the boys began school. They were both excited and looking for a change. When I went to wake up the boys that morning, Brooks was already dressed, shoes on, and he was fixing his belt. I guess that means he was ready to go. Reese was harder to wake up, but still just as excited.

It is becoming a tradition for us to walk them into school each year.

Reese went right to his new locker and put his things in.

Here is Reese with his teacher. We love Mrs. K.

Brooks was ready to begin his work!

I can't wait to see what this year brings!

Hot Summer Days

2011-07-27T22:43:00.006-05:00

The summer has flown by and in two weeks we start school! I can't believe it! We tried to do some fun things this summer, but I feel like time is slipping away before we will be back to the routine of school. The boys recently spent some time playing in the blow up pool. When it the humid has been as bad as it has in the south, any water activity will do.

Of course Reese keeps things interesting!These two are going to miss their summer time. Oh well, on to new adventures!

Do we limit God?

2011-07-14T16:23:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we took Reese to his yearly eye doctor's appt in Birmingham. He has been going to a doctor up there since he was younger than 2. He turns his head awkwardly when he looks at things at a distance. I even have pictures of him doing this when he was real little.

Anyway, when we went to the doctor yesterday, we were expecting Reese to be getting a prescription for glasses. The doctor even mentioned that he would more than likely be getting them at this visit.

The doctor checked him all out and we still have no answers as to why he turns his head like he does. Reese even did this when he was trying to watch Tangled being played on a TV across the room. Reese has no explanation as to why he does it.

His vision isn't 20/20 but it is not bad. The doctor didn't feel like he needed glasses at this point. I was amazed! I had been already planning in my head how we would handle a 4 year old in glasses. The questions I had were endless. How many pair would he break? Would we fight to keep them on his head? Would they bother him? Would he get made fun of?

I just kept praying that this transition would go smoothly.

Today I got to thinking about all of this. All along I had been praying that God would help us through the glasses, not dreaming that the answer to my prayers would be "no glasses" right now.

Do we do this in other areas of our lives? Do we limit ourselves as to what God's answers to our prayers may be? Why do we pray to God asking for him to help us with a problem, rather than taking the problem away? God never promised a perfect answer to our prayers exactly like we ask it, but why do we limit God by not praying to him for what we really want?

Haircut

2011-07-05T18:53:00.003-05:00

This picture is pretty blurry, but you can see Reese's new hairicut. He loves it! He likes to spike it up some days like his good friend Cooper. I think it fits his personality. Now Brooks wants his cut short too, but I like his hair longer. On my, what is a mom to do...

Bargain Shopping!

2011-07-02T21:51:00.003-05:00

I was scanning things for sale on Craigslist this morning. I have to say that I rarely go on there, and at the moment I can't remember what made me think to go look at it this morning. I am so glad I did. I found a great set of wrought iron patio furniture! Fast forward to the end of the day, and it is now on my deck. We got the cushions that go with the set, (or at least some of them) but they are old and worn. Now on to figuring out how to recover them, because has anyone priced patio furniture cushions lately?!?! It is ridiculous. Too much for this bargain hunting woman!

Now if it will only cool off a little so we can sit out there and enjoy it!

(sidenote, I have got to post a picture on here of Reese's new haircut. I buzzed his head the other day and he looks like a new child! I still can't pick him out of a crowd yet. We were at VBS earlier in the week, and I was looking all over for him when it was over, and he ended up being pretty much right in front of me. Stay tuned for that one :) )

Braves

2011-06-22T15:35:00.000-05:00

We took the boys to the Braves game this past Saturday. Reese had never been, and Brooks doesn't really remember the time he went. Reese was amazed at the huge baseball in the picture below.Both boys got to play in the toon town area and try their hand at hitting the ball. Reese did a good job hitting it!This picture makes me laugh because Reese was standing on second, and then just took off toward third, and had a stand off with the pitcher. Everyone in the crowd was laughing, while Brooks was shouting, "GO BACK, GO BACK!"Reese seemed to enjoy the game as well as I thought he would. It was extremely hot though, and the snacks didn't seem to hit the spot with it that hot. Oreos start to melt when it is hot!

Catching Up

2011-06-20T16:38:00.006-05:00

Brooks ended his baseball season a couple of weeks ago. Although we didn't have a winning season, it was a blast. He is already looking forward to next year!

My boys!!!
He was so proud of his trophy!
Reese was happy to be running around...as usual!

Update

2011-06-16T06:18:00.002-05:00

LaRose's surgery went extremely well. As of last night, she was in a room, doing well. Because she is doing so well, the doctors were going to go ahead and start some of the anti-rejection medicine. Please continue to keep this family in your prayers, and thank God for some already answered prayers!

Prayers!

2011-06-14T10:09:00.002-05:00

I just found out that a kidney has been located for my friend Monica's mother, LaRose. They are on their way to Atlanta and will have the surgery at 3pm today.

Please say a prayer that everything will go perfectly this afternoon!

My small brush with someone famous....

2011-06-03T06:09:00.002-05:00

Two years ago, ABC had a show on called Life on Mars. Brent and I really liked the show and were sad to see that it was cancelled after only one season. It was a police drama set in 1973, with some unusual aspects to it, that made it so much fun to watch. I was sad when it went off the air, but glad that the writers knew they were being cancelled far enough ahead of time, that they were able to wrap up the last show, and answer a lot of questions, that the viewers had been asking all season.

Anyway, I had been following the lead actor from that show, "Jason O'Mara," and knew that he will star in a new show this fall called Terra Nova. I just happened to look on Tuesday and saw that he had a pretty new Facebook page started. I decided to leave a comment on there and to my surprise he left me a response.

I know it isn't much in the grand scheme of things, but it certainly made my night! My sister had her picture made with Danny Glover one time, but I am pretending this is much cooler ;)

I promise, the baseball posts will come to an end soon!

2011-05-28T16:24:00.007-05:00

Brooks had been looking forward to last Saturday's baseball game, all season long. We were going to be playing a lot of his former teamates from last year. (Including one of his best friends in the whole wide world)

I included this picture below because you can see Brooks smiling when P. came up to bat. I don't know if they talked to each other or not.

High Voltage lost the hard fought game, but both teams had a great time, and said it was the most fun they had had all year.
And that is what is most important anyways.

Sportsmanship

2011-05-23T06:14:00.002-05:00

Brooks won the boy's sportsmanship award out of his class this year. I was so proud of him because this is an award voted on by his fellow classmates. He was so proud!

Both boys had a great year! Although we were sad to say goodbye to our teachers, we are looking forward to what next year has in store.

Ball field fun!

2011-05-16T20:44:00.006-05:00

Reese doesn't go to all of Brooks' baseball games. Some nights the games don't end until well into the 8 o'clock hour. That is late for my kiddos. So the saturday games are a treat for Reese. He has his little group of friends that he likes to play with.

They seem to be very intent on looking at something! I wonder what it could be? (And yes, Reese plays with Brooks' helmet on, while Brooks isn't using it. When he asks to wear it, I always say yes, because it is more protection against something like this happening again.)

Hmmm. They are still not divulging what they have in their hands. I am so curious.

"Reese, what do you have in your hand"?

Well a frog.

That is just great. I am so "happy" that you found it. I am sure this frog will never be the same.

This and That

2011-05-12T11:40:00.000-05:00

At church on Sunday evening, Reese seemed very hyper. It may have been the fact that we were not quite sure he took a nap that day. He laid in his room for about 2 hours. When we checked on him, he was playing with his legs, etc.
During church, he was just restless, and kept trying to whisper things to me. Numerous times I told him to be quiet, with him immediately trying to tell me something else. I finally whispered and told him that he would be “disciplined” after church.
Fast forward to after church. We walked to the car, and I decided to put him in his car seat and just “discipline” his hand. I could tell he grimaced a little, like it wasn’t much fun. The funny part was after this; he held his hand and immediately began to blow on it. I bit my lip not to laugh. He keeps us in stitches.

Tomorrow is his last day of K4. I don’t know where the time has gone! Overall, he was very good this year and learned a lot. He is constantly walking around the house and trying to read things he sees. Brooks was not like this. Even to this day, he doesn’t like to read.

The other night, I saw on Facebook where a fellow second grade mom had posted that she was “so over second grade math.” I was so glad that she posted this because it alerted me to the fact that I had forgotten to check Brooks’ folder. Lo and behold there was math homework in there. At this point, Brooks had been asleep for about 45 minutes. I went in to his room and gently woke him up and asked him if he wanted to get up then and do it, or get up earlier in the morning and do it. He said do it in the morning. About 5 minutes later, he comes staggering in the living room and says that he wants to go ahead and do it. I laid it out and watched over him while he was doing it. It was subtraction problems that involved borrowing. He got to one question and just sat and stared at it. He then tried to use his fingers to figure it out. Normally he knows these answers, and I could tell he was too tired to figure that one out. I leaned in and whispered that the answer was “8.” You would have though I just gave him $100.00! He said, “Thank you, Thank you Mom!” It was so sweet.

I returned from our fourth annual girl’s beach trip this past weekend, and boy did I enjoy it. We do the same things every year, and joke on the fact that we go eat supper at like 4:30 to beat the crowds. I wonder what all of the elderly people think about us invading their time slot. Now if anyone could just give me a free weekend to go back to the beach that would be great!

L2L

2011-05-02T20:23:00.003-05:00

Last weekend we went to the Lads to Leaders convention in Atlanta. I was so proud of Brooks! He read scripture and led a song. I would have been scared to death to do this at his age. What am I saying, I would probably still be scared, to get up in front of that many strangers.

If you asked him what he enjoyed the most from the weekend, he would probably say jumping on the beds. Everyone knows the rule is you can only jump on hotel beds, and only if you are a kid.

(I just noticed his shirt, hair, and the wall behind him are too much of the same color!)

On a side note, Reese stayed with my parents and had to deal with a MRSA staph infection on his elbow. It seems anytime we go off and leave the kids, they get sick. We just finished the antibiotic tonight. So hopefully no more of that to deal with.

First Fish!!

2011-04-27T17:55:00.002-05:00

One day my daddy took me fishing. I threw my line in the water and felt something pulling on my line. I pulled hard and found a fish attached to my line!

My daddy told me it was a small bass. I think that is what he said. It just looked like a fish to me.

He showed me the fish's mouth. I wanted to name him but daddy had other plans. He told me I had to throw him back.

I used my best baseball throw and hurled him back in the water. I think he will always remember me.

Magnesium??

2011-04-18T12:38:00.007-05:00

It is no secret to many of you that Reese is our typical strong willed child. I wish I knew how other children in his class acted on a daily basis. He has gotten several notes sent home over the past few weeks, or either his teacher has called Melany down to the classroom to handle a situation. None of the particular incidents were horrifying, except when he poured water all over his head when he went to use the bathroom during nap time. The rest of the incidents all revolved around hyper activity.

I am no doctor, but based on what Melany knows, we both don't think he is ADD or ADHD. He just has these outbursts of bad behavior every now and then. Melany had decided it must be food related or blood sugar related. The blood sugar thing is not that far fetched, seeing as my dad has diabetes and my sister is hypoglycemic. Melany has tested his blood sugar many times and each time it is in the normal range.

Mom got in on the act of researching what it could be. Melany mentioned a magnesium deficiency and mom sent me an article about it. After reading the symptoms, (only of a mild case of it) it fit Reese perfectly. So, I purchased this product:

After reading the ingredients and it included Natural Calm Magnesium, I thought I would give it a try. The flip side of it is, it is basically vitamins, and even if it didn't change anything, it wouldn't hurt him and would still be good for him.

His teacher has already noticed a difference in his behaviour. He quietly does his morning work. He goes right to sleep during nap time and doesn't flop around the whole time.

I am shocked!!!

I am not one that believes everything I read about how a certain plant extract, from a certain plant, grown only in the alps, will take away cellulite, but I am a believer in this product.

We will see how long this lasts.......

Now I am searching for a vitamin that will keep brothers from fighting with each other. :)

Opening Day!

2011-04-04T15:08:00.007-05:00

This past weekend Brooks had his first baseball game of the season. His team name is High Voltage, which is the coolest name ever. Things weren't looking too good for our team to start with. We were behind 5-1.

Brooks got his first taste of catching. At this age he just kind of squats back there and looks the part. :)

High Voltage made a comeback and eventually tied it up 5-5 in the last few minutes of the game. Brooks got his second hit of the game! (He is standing on second. I would say he is in the red, but apparently the league let more than one team have red jersey's which is just too much for one field to handle.)

We have some great batters on our team, and we came back at the very last possible moment and won 6-5. I can't take many more games like that. It was amazing!!! What a way to open the season!!!

(And wouldn't you know it, as were leaving, I saw another red team!!!!!)

Check out this great store!

2011-03-30T12:47:00.004-05:00

My friend Tamara just opened her very own ETSY store selling adorable necklaces. I absolutely love them and have showed them to the girls I work with. With baseball season about to get started, I fell in love with this necklace, that every baseball mom should have. I also love this "Hope Pendant." It could mean something deeply personal, yet different, to each person that wears it. Check out her Etsy shop by going here.

Testing and other things.

2011-03-23T06:10:00.003-05:00

Well, today begins SAT testing for Brooks as school. I had forgotten that you had to take those tests every two years while in school. Luckily, they had taken some practice tests to help them prepare for it.

I keep thinking that he has many more years of this ahead, and can't help but feel a little sorry for him. On the other hand, he has no idea what lies ahead for him, and that is the way it should be.

He told me all about how you have to bubble in the entire circle or it might not count. He also told me all about getting a good night's sleep before the test, and eating a good breakfast. He seems a little excited about something out of the ordinary to do.

The boys both got their report cards yesterday. Brooks got all A's. I am so proud of him again, only because I didn't think he would. I don't think I got all A's at his age. Reese did good in all of his areas of testing. (Like recognizing letters, numbers, counting, writing, etc.) It is so funny to compare the two report cards. However, Reese needs to work on his conduct. One thing in particular was not instructing other children on what he thinks they need to do. Oh my!

In other news, we are gearing up for baseball season to start. Brooks is being coached by a fellow member of church, so we are excited about that. His team name was up in the air for awhile, but has finally been settled on, "High Voltage." I think that is such a cool name for a team. Maybe we will draw lightening bolts on their faces before game time. Along with these upcoming games, is knowing that I am going to have to keep up with Reese at the ball field while these games are going on. (Sigh!) Last year we put a florescent yellow hat on him, so I could find him quickly. Now, where is that hat?

We love Spring Break!

2011-03-18T18:32:00.005-05:00

We enjoyed the nice weather yesterday and went to our favorite playground. Brooks has actually had two birthday parties there.

Hope you all have had a wonderful Spring Break!

School Performance

2011-03-07T18:08:00.005-06:00

Before our trip to Savannah, the K4 and K5 classes at ACA put on a little performance for the parents and friends. It was farm themed and turned out really cute.

The picture below is Reese being the cow in "The Farmer in the Dell." The nurse took the cow and the cow took the dog:)

They did such a good job. Way to go Reese!

The last of the pics.

2011-03-04T05:49:00.002-06:00

We had a great time in Savannah. We spent a good deal of time just walking around. On Saturday we just went down to River Street, got a snack, and spent a good deal of time just watching others walk around. It was such a relaxing trip.
I snapped various pictures from all over the city. In the collage above is even a picture of Forrest Gump's bench!!!

I would recommend Savannah to everyone. (Maybe we will go back in another 12 years!)

The Pirate House

2011-02-27T20:06:00.005-06:00

Our trip to Savannah had one thing on the itinerary before we left....go to The Pirate House. (And go to The Lady and Sons, so I guess it was really two.)

I had been to this restaurant while on a trip with our youth group after we went to somewhere? in Georgia and brought VBS to a small church. I remembered there was a lot of history to the restaurant, but couldn't remember all about it.

Brent's grandmother actually worked here at one point!

You can read all about the history of the restaurant here.

We were seated next to the Herb House inside which was quite interesting.Here is picture of Brent and I inside....

OK, sorry. I don't have a picture of Brent and I inside because people (our waiter) don't listen when I tell them how to use my camera. "Push the button half way for it to focus, then push it again." Is that hard? Anyway, the picture is way too blurry.

We had a great time at the Pirate House, and as we were leaving, our tour bus was stopped outside the restaurant, which made it perfect timing for us to go seek out our next adventure...

Trip Continued...

2011-02-24T06:21:00.008-06:00

On Thursday we began our tour of the city on one of the local tour buses. It was a tour set up so that you could get on and off the bus at the different stops along the way. The first stop we got off at was the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Our tour guide said that if you think it is beautiful on the outside, then wait until you see the inside.

On the historical marker below it mentions that much of the structure was destroyed by fire in 1898. Inside there were a couple of pictures of what it looked like after the fire. I am still amazed that they were able to rebuild the place in 2 years, especially since their resources during that time were very limited, compared to today.Luckily when we arrived it was one of the times when the inside was open for viewing.

This was one of the MANY stained glass windows inside.
This next picture was of the front of, what I would call an auditorium, but I know that isn't the correct terminology, so forgive me. There were so many ornate and beautiful things to look at. This picture was looking back toward what I would call the balcony.
It was well worth the stop along the way to see this!!!

More to come.....

Our Trip to Savannah

2011-02-21T21:54:00.005-06:00

Brent and I decided than instead of letting our frequent flyer miles expire, (from our Indonesia trip,) we would take a trip. We decided on Savannah which is where we honeymooned almost 12 years ago. We loved the city and couldn't wait to go back. This time we were going to stay in the historic district and take in the sights and a tour or two.

While we were waiting on our flight, we were informed that our plane was having some maintenence issues, which eventually turned into our flight getting cancelled. Luckily the airline tranferred us to another airline, and we only had to wait a couple of more hours. Because of our long layover that was supposed to take place in Atlanta, we actually got to Savannah about the same time. That is not without mentioning that we were almost "those people" that are seen running through the airport in Charlotte, NC to catch our next flight. Anyway...
We noticed this plane at the Montgomery airport before we left. It looks just like Air Force One, and even said "United States of America" on it. Interesting!!!When we arrived in Savannah we took a taxi to the hotel and decided to walk down to River Street and grab a quick bite for the evening and then went back to the hotel.
On Thursday we got to The Lady and Son's restaurant at about 9:45 to get our name on the list for lunch. Since we got there so early, we had no trouble getting a table for lunch time. Here is a picture of the outside of her gift shop. Above the gift shop there were numerous windows like this. I just loved all of the flower boxes!
The food was soooo good. We both opted for the buffet, and were not disappointed. It was definately an experience I would recommend to everyone.
More on the rest of the trip to come.......

That's My...

2011-02-09T13:37:00.001-06:00

The other night Brooks and I had an argument about getting in the bath tub. It escalated with me finally yelling, “I am your mother, and you will do as I say.” Brooks then said, “Yes ma’am” and proceeded to go get his bath. After he got out of the bathtub, he came and apologized and said he was sorry for arguing with me. He has the biggest heart.
That’s my Brooks.

Reese had to go to the doctor today for a cough. (I believe it is related to asthma.) Dr. T was asking Reese about using his inhaler, which has a mask on it. Reese then told Dr. T that he was Darth Vader when he used it. He then went into a lengthy discussion with Dr. T about how Anakin Skywalker turned into Darth Vader. He is such a thinker.
That’s my Reese.

My husband took off work today to take Reese to the doctor, even though he has a crazy amount of work to do right now. He is such a giver. We are going on a trip soon and he let me plan the entire thing, knowing I would be happiest deciding what we would be doing each day.
That’s my Brent.

Today is Wednesday, which means that instead of going all the way back home, and then coming all the way back to Montgomery for church, we just go to my parent’s house for supper before church. It happens every Wednesday. They provide supper for us every week, and a couple weeks ago I tried to pay for a pizza for all of us, and dad wouldn’t let me. The boys cry often when it is time to leave their house, even though they will see them in a couple of days.
That’s my parents.

Melany comes every morning and picks up the boys and takes them to school, and every afternoon she brings them back home. She takes our recycling to the recycling center every week. Barry has helped around our house more times than I can count, and has on numerous occasions kept one of the children when they were sick. We have called them and woke them from a dead sleep to ask them questions about the boys or about injuries, and they have never minded doing any of these things. They offer to help us more times than we can accept.
That’s my in-laws.

Spit it out!

2011-02-08T14:08:00.001-06:00

Brent and I recently bought some vitamins because we want to be better about taking them. As dinner was winding down last night, we remembered that we hadn’t taken them yet. I began clearing the dishes away and he got the vitamins out and laid one on the table where I had been sitting. Reese was still finishing his food and Brent sat back down to finish up. I came back over to the table and couldn’t find the vitamin. Brent thought quickly and looked at Reese and asked him if he had taken the vitamin. Reese nodded his head in sadness. Thankfully he hadn’t swallowed it yet and we made him spit it out. What possessed him!?!?!
They finished eating and we got Reese’s “homework” out. He had a laminated flip chart that had letters on it, and he had to match some little letters with Velcro on them to the chart. He did a good job and got to the end and couldn’t find the “U”. I didn’t think to much about it because this assignment gets passed around from child to child each night. I just figured the “U” was missing. A few moments later our dog Harley coughed up the letter “U” onto the kitchen floor. What in the world?

I guess I need to have a talk with the whole family, including Harley; that we do not eat things that do not belong to us.

Is it easy?

2011-02-02T05:48:00.006-06:00

So after I commented in my last post about how Reese had been so sweet lately......he was "moved to RED" yesterday at school.

Ugh!

His note said he was not obeying. When I asked him what he was doing he said, "I was not listening, I was not obeying, and I was not being nice."

Why is it so hard for him to understand it is easy being good. I went over and over this last night with him. "Reese when Mrs. H tells you to sit down, it is EASY to follow those instructions and sit down."

"Reese, it is easy to be quiet, you just don't talk."

"Reese, it is easy to listen."

My question is....does it ever become easy raise a 4 year old?

Just catching up...

2011-01-30T17:56:00.002-06:00

I am happy to report a rather un-eventful January at the Hatcher household. A couple of weekends ago, we got to spend some time in north Georgia visiting Brent's grandparents. There was so much ice and snow everywhere! We just stayed inside and kept warm.

Reese has really started coming around in his behavior. I almost thought, "He is actually outgrowing the terrible twos." I don't know if I can use that excuse though, since he is 4. Lately, if you just keep reminding him to be good, and keep praising him when he is good, he seems to act like an angel.

Brooks got all A's again on his report card. I didn't expect it this time, which made it all the more wonderful! He is such a people pleaser almost to a fault. It is so hard to teach a child how to be a leader, instead of a follower.

Reese came down with Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease last week, and surprise surprise....Brooks woke up with it today. Luckily they both seemed to have a mild case of it, without much discomfort. Leave it to my kids to have a strange illness.

I am excited about an upcoming trip to Savannah for Brent and I. We honeymooned there almost 12 years ago, and have wished to go back ever since. I am going to be sure and take about a million pictures!

A new chapter.

2011-01-17T07:47:00.000-06:00

I only had a sister growing up, and the closest thing I had to a brother was my cousin John. I would go to John's house and delight in playing with his toys that were so different than what I was used to.

I say all that to say this. Brooks got a BB gun for Christmas. Gasp!

This is a new chapter in my life. I don't know what to think about this. This is all foreign to me. A gun???
Christmas day was rainy at our house so he didn't get to fire it that day, but about a week ago he went out with Brent for his first lesson. They lined up the empty coke cans and sat down for his first attempt. He missed his first shot, but made pretty much every one after that.
He was so proud and excited to show me the hole in the can! Good job Brooks and be careful, or you might "shoot your eye out kid!" (Everyone that he has told about his gun has replied "Don't shoot your eye out." He keeps saying, "Why does everyone keep telling me that?!")

Christmas pictures.

2011-01-10T09:42:00.004-06:00

I haven't been in a blogging mood lately, and I don't really have a reason for that. I haven't had anything all that interesting going on lately. We did have a wonderful, low key Christmas this year. My parents, sister and brother-in-law came over and we had a relaxing day.

Here are just a couple of my favorite pictures from that day.

Brooks opening his long awaited DS.

Reese getting a lesson in how to hold his new guitar.And of course the day wouldn't be complete without some laser guns.I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season!

Had to share this.

2010-12-24T08:03:00.003-06:00

This is Reese playing Star Wars Legos on the Wii. He was really in to it.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-20T13:05:00.002-06:00

I have tried to resize my header three times. Sorry it is so big but I can't bring myself to keep trying.

I hope everyone has a joyous and wonderful Merry Christmas!

Pizza with Santa.

2010-12-16T18:08:00.003-06:00

We had a great time at church on Tuesday evening. Some of the young mothers get together every year and host crafts and pizza, and then a visit with Santa.

Reese was working hard on decorating his cookie.

This was Reese's reaction when Santa came in!

Brooks and Austin with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Best friends forever!

Visit with Santa

2010-12-04T11:19:00.005-06:00

We got to visit with Santa not too long ago, before he becomes really busy with deadlines and last minute preparations for his Christmas Eve flight.

Sadly, right before we went to visit with Santa, Brooks and I had the "Santa talk." I knew it would happen at some point, I just didn't expect it to happen as we were walking out the door to go see the big guy himself. The bright side is that now, Brooks is in on the grown up secret!
Telling Santa that he wants a DS for Christmas.

Reese telling Santa that he wants a guitar, power sword, Toy Story 3, and more.
Thanks for the great visit Santa!

I became "that" mom today.

2010-12-01T15:44:00.002-06:00

Last night, we got a note home in Reese's folder that said that Reese had been acting ugly during nap time and that his teacher had asked him to be quiet several times etc. It then said he had to move his clip to yellow.
It also said that he seemed happy about it and was showing his friends!!!!
I talked with him a little last night and he was disciplined for acting that way. Brent wrote on the note (that we had to sign and send back) to call us if needed and we would come up there.

Well, today Melany let us know that Reese was not being any better. So, I asked my boss if I could leave and she said sure! She told me I needed to go in the school like a kamikaze! I drove to the school and had him come out in the hallway. He looked like a deer in headlights. He almost looked like for a split second he was happy to see me, until he realized why I was there. I had a long discussion with him in the hallway. I asked him who decided how he would act. He said, "Mrs. H." I said, "No, who decides how Reese is going to act?" He said in a sad voice, "Me."
We talked some more and then I disciplined him.

I don't know if this will make a difference or not. I just remember how I felt as a child. I would have been mortified if my mom or dad drove up to the school and pulled me out of class. I am hoping this is just a phase and he grows out of it. Maybe he can become more like me. I got in trouble at school for day dreaming. At this point, I would take a day dreamer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-27T10:02:00.003-06:00

We had a great time with our family this year. The number was smaller but that didn't diminish the great fellowship we had.

Brooks made Pilgrim hat name markers for the table. He insisted we get a picture with our "hats" on.

I hope everyone had a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Just some pics

2010-11-22T17:27:00.002-06:00

As Thanksgiving approaches, our whole family has been talking about all of the things we are thankful for.

These two made the list.

Halloween Pictures

2010-11-14T20:07:00.005-06:00

I only took a couple of Halloween Pictures this year. Brooks had been sick that day, so his daddy stayed home with him. I took Reese to Trunk or Treat and he had a blast hanging out with his friends.

Luckily, for me, Reese wanted to be the exact same thing he was last year. The costume was a little big last year, so this worked out perfectly.

I love this photo! I can always embarrass them with it when they are older.

Can't get it out of my head.

2010-11-08T06:00:00.000-06:00

I generally don’t watch the news. I will catch it on occasion, but I don’t make a point to watch it every day. Some will think this is crazy. I know the argument is that one needs to stay caught up on what is going on in this world. I get that. I just can’t bring myself to watch it day in and day out though. The reason I don’t watch it is that I will see some heartbreaking story about some abuse, or murder, or even worse, and then that story will just stick with me for days.

I know there is evil in the world. I have to do my part to shield my children and even myself from that evil as much as possible. There are sad occasions though when you come across situations that you can’t avoid by just turning off the television.

I was pulling in to Publix on Friday afternoon to do my shopping. (Another good week for me….I spent $93.00 for $210.00 worth of groceries!) As I was pulling past the entrance, I noticed a couple coming out with several bags of groceries each. What caught my attention was that he had on bright orange and she had on crimson from head to toe. I thought they must be another divided family, by routing for Auburn and Alabama. I didn’t think much else of it, as I drove around to find a space. When I pulled into the parking space, I noticed the car beside me was facing backward in the space, which gave me a good view of what all was going on in the car. I noticed this same couple lighting up their cigarettes and yelling toward the backseat. I looked in the back seat and saw a little boy, that couldn’t have been older than 18 months sitting there. He was being chewed out by his father for what?!?! It was awful. Then it dawned on me, “Where was this little boy when they were coming out of the store!” Just then they drove off.

I sat there processing all of what I had seen. They had to have left him in the car while they were in the store. They each had several bags of groceries so it wasn’t a quick trip inside. What was going through his mind while his parents had just left him in the car for that long??!!! Was he crying because he thought he had been abandoned? Did he enjoy breathing in that cigarette smoke while all of the windows were rolled up??

If only I had been 5 minutes earlier and saw this situation! I would have called the police. Would my 5 minutes have made a difference in his life?

I just sat there in my car for a long while and prayed for this child. I know there are sad situations everywhere. I know there are people out there that have no business being a parent. All I can do at this point is pray for this precious child of God and hope that his parents will turn from their ways of parenting or that someone close to this family will step in and do what is best for this child.

I just want that afternoon back, to try and make a difference.

The Pumpkin Patch with Friends!

2010-10-24T09:58:00.030-05:00

Julie and I had a wonderful time taking the boys to a pumpkin patch on Saturday.
Reese was fearless by leading the charge to go down the big slide.

He and Cooper had fun going down the slide together.

Brooks even got in on the fun.

Julie pointed out in this picture that her children were sitting the same way and so were mine. They were waiting patiently for the cow train.

They ended up being the only ones on the train.

Then they had a great time at the duck races. Reese like this especially!

After watching the pigs race, we went to drive the tractors. It ended up being a lot harder than it looked.

Then it was off to play in the corn box. I think this was one of the activities the boys liked the most.

Here is Austin and Reese playing at the duck race area.

On the hayride to go pick out a pumpkin.

I love the expression on their faces to see the little pumpkin.

This is probably my favorite picture from the day. They were all checking out a tiny pumpkin that Brooks said, "had just popped." Typical boys.

These are the pumpkins they picked out.

This picture was taken in the middle of the corn maze. Luckily they just wanted to go to "Marshmellow Mountain" and not actually go through the whole maze. I told Julie as we were following the signs to marshmellow mountain that I felt like we were Dora the explorer. "Go through the corn maze, past the signs, to get to Marshmellow Mountain."

On top of the hay bales.

We had such a good time with our friends. Brooks already is talking about going back next year.

Just a few words

2010-10-18T11:45:00.001-05:00

We haven’t had any events happening lately that I felt like blogging about. Our lives right now go from day to day without many changes. Which is a good thing! Here are some words to share that will sum up our life over the past few weeks.

Report Cards

Clean Pantry

Publix Gift Card Winner

Certified Professional Coder

16 pumpkins

Alabama National Fair

Taco Soup

New clothes

Wintzell’s Oyster House

Christmas Shopping

Life on Mars Series

Field Trip

Wedding

Ink Stain on chair

Kindle

Roasted Pumpkin seeds

PEACE

Stone Soup

2010-10-07T19:55:00.005-05:00

This past Sunday afternoon the 1st and 2nd grade classes at school performed their yearly musical production.

This year it was "Stone Soup-A Rock Opera"

Here is Brooks dressed as a villager.

As the production began...

Brooks focusing on his lines.
He had a whole paragraph that he had to recite. He did a great job and I was very proud of him.

Warning, Long Braves Post Ahead

2010-10-04T10:08:00.029-05:00

My husband has turned me into a Braves fan, and I am not ashamed to say that!

Brent and I went to the Braves game on Saturday. It was Bobby Cox Tribute Day at the stadium. I bought tickets to this game a long time ago, when I first heard they would be honoring the retiring coach.

Brent and I had really good seats. We were sitting there waiting for the festivities to begin and noticed this man. This is the famous usher Walter Banks. There have been countless news stories and articles written about him. I believe he started working with the Braves in 1965. He is now the VIP usher to the owner's box.

We then began see who's who of the Atlanta Braves organization:

Then, all of the sudden cheers began from the right field area. We looked and former Braves started streaming in.

Hello John Smoltz. Hello Dave Justice. Hello guys I don't know. Hello Dale Murphy. Hello Phil Niekro.

Hello Greg Maddox.So many former players were there!There is Hank Aaron in the blue coat.All of the current players were seated down the first base line. The managers and other staff were sitting down the third base line.They showed many different video highlights on the screen. There was a list of his former players scrolling on the screen as they showed various players.
Hey, there is Tim Hudson! War Eagle Tim!Chipper got up to say a few words on behalf of the team.They unveiled a painting, which everyone at the game received a copy of when they left.Bobby's comments were brief, but warmly received by everyone.It was such a nice tribute to him. But oh yeah, there was a game to be played. Chipper walked the score card out to the umpires.Hey Brian McCann! I can see you looking at me!

Bobby arguing with the umpire! Classic!We were sitting watching the game and wouldn't you know Brian Jordan walked by. Hello Brian!Brian McCann was obviously a crowd favorite.He even has his own cheering section called McCann's Cans.

I tried to take a picture of every video tribute they showed during the game. It was quite a different game without the usual between inning games, quizzes, etc.

Although the score wasn't how we had hoped it would be, we had a great time at the game and it was an excellent tribute to a great manager.As we were leaving, I took a shot of the field with number 6 cut into it.Such a great day!

Chicken little loves the little children.

2010-10-01T17:14:00.001-05:00

Please go view the following video below to make the rest of my story make sense.

The boys both love this movie. They have both sung this song many times!

Now fast forward to a few Sunday's ago at church. They have a class before church starts for the children. Reese decided he wanted to sing "Jesus Loves the Little Children."

Now of course my children have to cause attention to themselves in everything they do. So Reese ended the song, the same way that Chicken Little ended the song above. Lovely!

I have to admit, I was laughing so hard I was crying, as well as others around me.

*This isn't a great quality video, and there is a lot of background noise, but if you listen carefully you might be able to hear Reese singing.

Just some funnies...

2010-09-22T15:42:00.001-05:00

(I am sure Grandad will like these.)

I was going over some Bible facts to help Brooks study for his Bible test on Friday. I said, "When the Israelites were hungry in the wilderness, what did they eat? Brooks said, "manna and quail." Then I asked him what they did when they needed water. He said, "They got some water at a water fountain.

On the way home from school the other day Brooks was getting his library book out of his backpack. He read the title to me. (and I quote exactly as he said it) "Key Battles of Word War Second." I said, "First of all, that is not what it says. Second of all, Why do you have that book?" I never got an answer to that one.

Reese was "reading" his Bible on the way to church last Sunday morning. He said, "Mom, I am on Chapter 2." He began to read and mentioned "bad guys." Brooks quickly corrected him and said, "Reese, there are no bad guys in the Bible.................well..................except for the devil and the Israelites." What?

Speech Therapy

2010-09-14T09:16:00.001-05:00

I took Reese this past Friday to be evaluated for speech therapy. I didn’t realize until I started looking into therapy for him that the school you are zoned for offers speech therapy services, even if you don’t attend there. This was great news.

The speech therapist asked Reese what toys he wanted to play with when we got there, so to him this was a little overwhelming. The room was filled with bookcases with toy after toy. He was in heaven! The therapist suggested a tub of Playmobil toys. (which Santa has made a note that Reese loved playing with.)

As Reese began playing with the toys, the therapist would ask him to say different words. He did just as I thought he would. He cannot say his “S” and “Z” sounds at the beginning and end of words. Unfortunately he did not qualify for therapy though because to qualify the child must not be able to say three or more sounds at a level one year behind what age he is at now. For example, Reese would have to not be able to say three or more sounds that a three year old should be able to say. Because the “S” and “Z” sounds are at age 5 and 7 (depending on what part of a word they are in) he didn’t qualify. The therapist did give me some worksheets to work with him at home on, and there is always private therapy we can look into, but I am going to see what I can do first.

Saturday, I sat down with Reese and we worked on a worksheet. It is a sheet with 20 pictures on it, in little boxes. I talked to him about how to keep his tongue locked up behind his teeth and we began with each picture. For each one he got correct, I laid a penny on top of it. I told him at the end that I had a small candy bar that cost 15 cents and he needed to see if he had enough pennies to pay for it. He loved counting the pennies out and realizing he had enough to pay for one.

The funny part of our time working on the worksheet was when it came to the word sit. He used to say what sounded more like “thit”. Well he has now progressed to what came out as a distinctive “S&IT”. He said it over and over. I just had to smile at him and say “Very good.” Needless to say, we will keep working on it. I can’t have my 4 year old cussing.

First trip to the dentist.

2010-09-09T05:41:00.004-05:00

Last week I took Reese to his first dentist visit. I knew I wouldn't have to worry about him. I took his picture and then went out front. I could hear him chatting away with the staff. Another milestone crossed over.

School Bus Ride

2010-08-31T13:14:00.004-05:00

Reese's K4 class is not allowed to go on field trips because of the car seat issue. Because of that, they don't get to ride on the school bus until they get older.

Well, this week they are studying the letter "S" at school. Today they got to go on a school bus ride around the school one time. Isn't that great? I am sure my ACA friends reading this can picture it now.

I was emailed this picture and can't wait to hear what Reese has to say about it!

Beach with the girls

2010-08-28T08:14:00.015-05:00

My girls from work and I went on our 3rd annual Orange Beach trip last weekend. It was so nice to get away and just spend a few days relaxing!

We always stop at the outlets on the way down. The Old Navy outlet was not as exciting as it was last year. Some of us did find some things at other stores though.

No she didn't buy these.

We stopped at Lamberts that night for some great food. We love to go there because they give you so much food, that we eat the left overs for the next few days for lunch.

We next day we relaxed on the beach and wend to the Oyster House for supper. YUMMY!

Chocolate chip peanut butter pie!!!!!Then we decided that we needed to go buy floats for the ocean. Fitting six, blown up floats into a mini van was interesting!The next morning you could see clean up crews going down the beach. We only saw traces of oil while we were there. We found a couple of shells that had oil in them and that was about it.There is a story behind this picture. On Friday, I was out in the ocean but the other 5 girls noticed this man on his hands and knees. The waves kept knocking him back under the water. They took off down the beach to go help him and another stranger helped too. They sat him up on the beach and he kept saying "Leave me alone, I am fine." I don't know if he was embarrased or just a curmudgeon (which was our word for the trip.) Wouldn't you know on Saturday he was out there again doing the same thing. That is when I snapped this picture.From the balcony it looked like part of the ocean, right up next to the shore line was dirty. When I got down to the water their was millions of tiny fish swimming around. I have never seen them like that at the beach. While we were laying out, one of the lounge chair guys came over and put a red flag right by where we were. He said the undertow was especially strong right there. We said to ourselves, "Of course it is right where we chose to be."We had another great year and thanks to my mother-in-law for the mini van. Can't wait to go back.

See ya later alligator

2010-08-23T11:50:00.003-05:00

This is a picture of the GINORMOUS alligator that Brent and his friends got this weekend. It is pretty impressive!

"Apparently it is your world, ladies."

2010-08-18T09:07:00.004-05:00

My sister and I have began a workout routine where we go a couple of mornings a week to a gym. This is the only way we could make ourselves workout; knowing we have to meet the other person. Otherwise I would hit snooze a couple of times and get a little more shut eye.

Anyway, us going to the gym isn't the point of this post. Since we have been going there we have noticed these two women who work out together also. I am going to call them "Thing 1" and "Thing 2." Apparently I missed the memo somewhere along the way that it is their world and that they don't have to play by the same rules that everyone else does.

Common sense would tell you that this is what you should do at the gym:

come in put your things in locker
go workout
come back into locker room and get things and get in the shower
get out of shower
use one of the two counters and mirrors to get ready at
then leave for the day

But oh no, this is what they think is appropriate:

come in and put your things all on one of the two counters so that no one else can get there
go workout
come in during workout and move part of their things to a shower stall so that they can claim it
go workout some more
come back into locker room and get in shower that they have already claimed as theirs
get out of shower
use one of the two counters that all of their belongings are already on anyway

Christina and I had had enough. She called and spoke with a manager yesterday about the situation. Isn't that sad that these two grown women are going to have to be told what proper etiquette is in the locker room. I know for a fact that they probably already know what they are supposed to be doing, and don't care.

Where along the way did society learn that they can just do what benefits them and not worry about how that effects everyone else. It isn't just in the locker room, it is everywhere in society.

And don't get me started on "Thing 3" that leaves her things in a locker all the time, rather than taking them with her, like common sense would tell you.

On My Mind

2010-08-14T08:36:00.002-05:00

These two wonderful ladies from church have been on my mind. Laurie donated one of her kidneys to Janet. I cannot think of a more selfless act than this. Laurie and Janet went through kidney transplant surgery yesterday at UAB and both are doing well. You can read all about it on Leigh's blog. (linked and also in my list)

Prayers have been answered but please continue to pray for them.

Fun with PSE!

2010-08-13T18:37:00.003-05:00

Having fun with the Pioneer Woman's Photoshop Elements actions.
This could leave me sitting at the computer all night playing with my pictures.

First Day of School

2010-08-11T21:28:00.008-05:00

This past Monday was our first day of school. This included Reese this year! He is starting K-4 and it makes me wonder where the time has gone? He picked out a Star Wars backpack (of course) and I found him a cute Star Wars lunch box that is metal, like the kind everyone my age used to have! I probably like it more than he does.
Brooks of course, not to be outdone, had to show off his backpack and lunch box too. These were the same ones he had last year. I told him next year he can get a new backpack.
Don't they look ready?
I snapped a couple of pictures on the way to school. Of course they were playing with storm troopers.

Walking in to school.
Brooks with his teacher Mrs. H. (most of you probably know who she is)
Brooks at his new desk. Apparently it was maroon shirt day and no one told us. J/K

Here is Reese putting his things in his "locker."
And here is Reese with his teacher Mrs. H.
And so it begins. I am looking forward to a great year for both boys. I have heard wonderful things about both of their teachers.

The FOURce was with us.

2010-08-10T17:35:00.007-05:00

On Saturday we celebrated Reese's 4th birthday. I can't believe he is growing up so fast! He wanted a Star Wars party so that is what we had. We decided to invite just family and our friends that are as close as family over for a small gathering.
Here is the food: It is pretty self explanitory.

Reese had such a big day. He loved having his friends over to play!Brent and I made light sabers. I had seen on the internet that people made them from pool noodles. Then I saw another website that made them from pipe insulation because that was softer. So we went with that and bought colored electrical tape and duct tape to cover them. The only problem is that I should have made them all the same color!
Here is Reese opening his presents. (with Star Wars on in the background)
He got a cute pirate costume from Ibu, amongst his other great presents.
I attempted to make a Yoda cake. It turned out pretty good. I know what I would do differently if I had to do it again. More importantly it tasted yummy!

Reese blowing out the candles.
I am sure that William wasn't ready for the light saber attack, but he fought a valant fight.
Happy Birthday Reese! Live long and prosper. oh wait, that isn't from Star Wars. Oh well!

Swimming Lessons

2010-08-09T06:18:00.002-05:00

We let the whole summer slip by without taking the boys to swimming lessons. After the way Reese reacted last year, we decided to wait a year with him. He seemed ok with it except for the morning when his beloved Pop left to take Brooks to swimming. He had a melt down.

Other than that, swimming lessons have been good.

I will let you in on a little secret. If you take your children to the YMCA in Wetumpka for swimming lessons, and wait until the last week, you pretty much have one on one attention from the instructors. Brooks had one other child in his class, and they were the only ones in the pool.

This was a blessing because he received so much instruction that I can see vast improvement!

This was Reese. He was happy as long as he had is red Power Ranger, red motorcycle, and even red shirt. (Can you tell he likes red?)

Brooks did good and passed his test to go on to the next level. Way to go Brooks.

Christmas in July

2010-08-03T20:41:00.005-05:00

This past Friday night, Julie and I had our second "Christmas in July" party. We invited all of the ladies from church this year.

Julie created this awesome table decoration!

**Edit: My sister pointed out that I didn't mention the tree. The tree came from William's mother's house and was actually used in Christina and William's wedding as well. Thanks Christina!My mother let me borrow some of her Santa face mugs and wreathes, and my aunt let us borrow her small wooden trees and snowman. Thanks ladies!The food! Oh, the food! I think everyone agreed the food was awesome. Everyone voted on their favorite appetizer, dessert, and then their favorite overall.We had a couple of Christmas trivia games. Did you know Alabama was the first state to make Christmas a holiday? Me either!It was a great night with great ladies. Thanks Julie for making it another awesome party!

Tweeking the Blog

2010-08-03T17:32:00.004-05:00

I am in the process of tweaking my blog.

Yet another thing that I have decided that just had to be done today.

There are things that I should be doing rather than messing with this.

Coming soon: Pictures from our Christmas in July party at church.

Happy Birthday Reese!

2010-08-02T07:52:00.003-05:00

Today my baby is 4. That seems so old!

We will be celebrating his birthday on Saturday. I keep asking him what he wants and he has said a Nintendo DS, to which I said no.
Then he said he wanted rice.
Um, rice?
I asked him probably 5 times what he said, and he kept saying rice. Then he added that he wanted cake. I don't think I will be serving him rice for his birthday.
He wanted a Star Wars birthday party. My children LOVE Star Wars. Yesterday at lunch, the boys, (Brent included), were discussing Star Wars and I just sat there. I told Brent if you had told me 15 years ago that one day I would be sitting at a table with my husband, and my two children, (who turned out to be boys) discussing details about the Star Wars movies, I would have thought you were crazy. I tried to explain to Brooks why girls like dolls. I told him that you could dress them up in all different ways, etc. He asked me if I wanted some Polly pockets. I told him I would have loved them when I was his age.
Then the conversation went back to Star Wars.

On another note, this is the last week before school starts. I am going to try and pack in some fun things for the boys to do. We will see if I accomplish this or not. It is so hot, that I would rather just stay indoors.

Eye answers.

2010-07-25T12:34:00.003-05:00

This past Wednesday, Brent and I took Reese to the eye doctor in Birmingham. This was our fourth visit, with the first one being when he was 18 months old. The previous times we have gone, Dr. E has said that everything he could check on him was fine. This never gave us a real reason as to why he turns his head when he looks at something a little far off.

This visit gave us some answers. Reese has an astigmatism in his right eye. This is why he points his left eye more at something to view it far off. He also said, that is probably why Reese has been pushing on his right eye as well. He said when you push on your eye, it changes the shape of your cornea. (I am learning new things!) Dr. E said he could right us a prescription for glasses, or we could wait. He suggested waiting, pointing out that he would have to have them eventually, and right now his vision is fine. We agreed. Why not wait a little longer before he has to deal with glasses.

Brent got new glasses yesterday, so while we were there I tried a couple of pair on Reese. He looked so cute!

Granddad's Birthday

2010-07-14T11:16:00.010-05:00

Brent's entire family spent July 4th weekend at Unicoi State Park in Georgia. We all came together to celebrate Granddad's 80th birthday!Julie Knapp made a wonderful cake for the party! She is so talented!Now for the fun part. Melany instructed all of us ahead of time that we were going to have a show for granddad. We were each to perform something.

This is Aunt Sue and Beth singing two Judd's songs. They did a wonderful job! (Don't you love their homemade microphones.
Brooks and Reese sang "Grandma's Feather Bed."BRENT AND I DID NOT SING. There was no way I was going to do that in front of everyone. I think Brent felt the same way. We performed a skit where he was granddad and I was interviewing him after he won the "Habersham County Man of the Year Award." It turned out pretty cute, and was funny to the family.Kelly sang a Carrie Underwood song while Jennifer played the guitar. Great job Kelly!At one point Granddad picked up Jennifer's guitar and started playing something by ear.After the show, we all got to eat cake and ice cream. Here Reese was enjoying digging in!

After Aunt Sue gave us all a scare Saturday morning, and had to be taken to the hospital, (long story but thank goodness she is doing much better now,) Brent, Brooks, Barry, Nana and I went into Helen to shop a little. Here is Brooks making a flat penny.

Helen, GA is a cute town!

On Sunday, we went to worship at the congregation where Nana and Granddad always attend. Little did Granddad know their was a surprise fellowship meal planned in his honor. Here is the whole family together (minus Aunt Sue and Uncle Tom.)
Granddad was genuinely surprised since he had tried to make reservations at a Mexican restaurant in town for lunch.
After church on Sunday everyone seemed to want to go do their own things so Granddad, Nana, Brooks and I went to Anna Ruby Falls. We hiked up to the waterfall and it was well worth it.

They had trout food that you could feed the trout, but sadly we didn't see any.
On Monday morning we all packed up and stopped back by Nana and Granddad's house before we all headed our seperate ways. Here is a group shot of everyone. I wish the lighting had been better but oh well.
This was my attempt to get a good picture of the boys in front of their amazing hydrangea bushes. NICE!

All in all, we had a great time visiting with everyone. Hugs to everyone!

That little man!

2010-07-08T17:31:00.003-05:00

I will try and post the pictures from our trip to North Georgia this weekend. In the mean time, I will give you these two jewels from Brooks.

Last Wednesday night, Brooks told me he had a new girlfriend. I asked him how this happened and he said, "She had on this good smelling coconut stuff. We talked about it and decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend."

Yesterday before church, I caught him in the bathroom looking at his face really closely in the mirror. He said, "Mom! I need to shave! Look at all of these hairs under my nose." I said, "Everyone has that hair, you will have to be a lot older before you can start shaving."

Help me now!

Indonesian Food!

2010-07-07T08:48:00.005-05:00

About a year ago, Brent's whole family was going to be in Atlanta for an evening. I decided to Google and see if their was any type of Indonesian restaurant there. Luckily for us there was. It is a small typical Asian restaurant, but it has become one of our favorites while in Atlanta.

Reese was happy to be there.

Here is the gang. In the background they have a little store, so we stock up on spices and mixes while we are there too.
Yummy! I wish I had some right now. We found out this time that they now have two locations. Brent and I went to the other one while we were there too, because the store part has more of a selection. I think we will be visiting the second location the next time we are in Atlanta again.

On our way....

2010-07-05T17:33:00.013-05:00

Brent's parents graciously kept the boys for Brent and I on Thursday and then we met them in Atlanta on Friday for lunch, (prior to our get together with the entire family to celebrate Brent's grandad's 80th birthday!)

We took that opportunity to go on a tour of Turner Field. As big of a Braves fan that Brent is, he (nor I) had ever taken a tour of the stadium. It was wonderful!

It started in the Braves museum. We had been in there a long time ago, so many of the things we saw seemed new again.

Dale Murphy's jersey.

Bobby Cox's jersey. It is his las year as manager of the Braves and Brent and I are excited because we have tickets to the game where they are going to pay tribute to him.

The tour took us to the upper deck. It was kind of neat to see the stadium empty.

Brent sitting in the huge Coke bottle chairs.

I included this picture because the white columns are left over from the 1996 olympics that took place in this stadium. They built the stadium for the olympics and as soon as it was over they reworked the stadium so that it would work for a baseball field. Pretty amazing how quickly it all happened.

The blue wall out in the parking lot was the former outfield wall of Fulton County stadium. The white circle in the middle of the picture was where Hank Aaron hit his record breaking 715th homerun over the wall. I like how they have tried to preserve some of the history even though that stadium has been torn down.

This was the inside of one of the smaller suites. It was still really nice.

This was a picture taken from inside the press box.This was our tour guide, Rick, talking to Brent in the press box.

Another picture of the media area.

Apparently, when the Braves are at an away game, if you go on the tour, you are allowed to go inside the clubhouse. The Braves weren't playing on the day we went but they were still in town so we couldn't go in.

This is the Suntrust seats that Brent is sitting in. Some of these seats are closer to the hitter than the pitcher is.

On the field!

Obviously, this is sitting in the Braves dugout. Pretty neat!

I bet you can figure out that this is me in the dugout.

At the end of the tour, Brent by Dale Murphy's number.

I recommend this tour to any fan of baseball!

Reese is ready for bed.

2010-06-29T21:15:00.002-05:00

Poor guy doesn't have a chance at our house.(I still say War Eagle!)

BIG CHANGE!

2010-06-26T21:33:00.003-05:00

BEFORE:
AFTER:

So my hair is now pretty close to it's natural color. It is a big change for me! I was tired of the dark roots, that I somehow managed to not even get in the top picture. Now, we will see how long it takes for me to get used to it.

Couponing Disaster Averted

2010-06-22T15:17:00.003-05:00

This past Friday Julie met me at Publix in Montgomery for her first official shopping trip with coupons. It was fun going grocery shopping with a friend. She didn't actually need me there, she had it all figured out ahead of time.

Fast forward to Saturday. Brooks had a birthday party that I was getting ready to take him to. I don't know what made me think about the notebook that I keep all of my coupons in. I looked all over our house. I remembered Brooks and Reese had helped me bring in the groceries so I asked them if they had seen it. I couldn't find it! I searched in my car two times. No notebook! I was just shy of losing it. I mean I really was beginning to freak out.

To someone who isn't into couponing at this point would think I was CRAZY! I mean why would someone get all upset about some silly old coupons. I have been collecting coupons for well over a year now. The ones in my notebook went back to January. It would take about 6 months to get stocked back up if I lost that thing. Brent could tell I was getting really upset. He told me to call Publix, so I called them.

Sidenote:
I hate calling people on the telephone. I mean really hate it. I guess you could consider it even a phobia. It doesn't bother me when I get phone calls, only when I have to call somebody. I looked up what the phobia would be called. "Telephonophobia" - Fear of telephones. That doesn't exactly describe my fears but it is close.

I gathered myself together, faced my fear, and called Publix.

Dude: "This is Publix, Can I help you."
Me: "Yes, this is going to sound like a silly question, but did y'all happen to find a notebook with coupons in it at your store?"
Dude: "Is it a big white three ring binder?"
Me: "With lots of colors on it?" (as my voice was getting higher and higher)
Dude: "Yes we have it."
Me: "Oh, THANK YOU!"

When I got off the phone, the physical relief that came over me was amazing! I felt like I had to qualify why I about lost my mind to Brent. He reassured me that if he had a hobby like that, he would have been disappointed for awhile too. I called my mom and she got my dad to go get it for me since I would see both of them later that night.

I was so happy to see that notebook.

Do you have any hobbies or passions that you are as nuts about as I am about couponing? Or am I all alone in this craziness?

Brooks' Birthday

2010-06-16T05:45:00.006-05:00

Finally, here are the pictures from Brooks' birthday. We had it at Barry and Melany's new house!

Reese apparently has his party ensemble on.I ordered one of those photo cakes from Publix. Publix cakes are so good. Brooks had guessed it was going to be a baseball cake, but he didn't plan on a picture of himself on it.This was him deciding what to wish for.I love this picture. He wanted his face, so that is what he got! Star Wars Toys! Thanks Uncle Byran! More Star Wars! Thanks Ibu and Ayah!New Bike! Thanks Gammie and Pop! We had a great time! It is nice to have just a relaxing day!

More Tuesday Tidbits

2010-06-15T15:25:00.002-05:00

The boys went to VBS at Wetumpka last week and yesterday Melany gave me all of their "loot" that they collected. I didn't know Samuel Reese was such a hard name to spell. Reese's teacher wrote "Samael Reese" on all of his things. For some reason it cracked me up seeing it spelled wrong on about 20 different things. Brent and I were pronouncing it "SA-MAY-AL" for fun last night.
I am super excited about the magazine deals I found yesterday and today. I got a one year subscription to Woman's Day for $4.99 and to Rachel Ray's magazine for $3.65. SCORE!
Why is Justin Bieber so popular right now? What is he going to sound like when his voice changes?
I still haven't posted the pictures from Brooks' family birthday party from last week. I just haven't made the time to sit down and do that. Brooks' birthday was on the 6th and and Brent's was on the 8th. Brent was off work on the 7th, so I took the day off too. We had such a great day, not because of what we did, but because it was relaxing and we got to spend it together.

Tuesday Tidbits

2010-06-08T17:40:00.003-05:00

I got this "handy"speed cleaning guide in the mail along with a magazine that I subscribe to. Some of the tips made me laugh, and others are crazy. These are just some of the suggestions of things to do EVERY day.

Living-area to-do list

Pick up crumbs and dust bunnies with a handheld vacuum.
Fluff the cushions and fold throws after use.
Wipe tabletops and spot-clean cabinets when you see fingerprints.

Kitchen to-do list

Wipe down the sink after doing the dishes or loading the dishwasher.
Wipe down the stove top.
Wipe down the counters.
Sweep, Swiffer, or vacuum the floor.

and lets not forget the Bathroom to-do list

Wipe out the sink.
Wipe the toilet seat and rim.
Swoosh the toilet bowl with a brush.
Wipe the mirror and faucet.
Squeegee the shower door.
Spray the entire shower and the curtain liner with shower mist after every use.

EVERY DAY Huh? I don't see that happening here. At least it provided me something to laugh at today.

Happy Birthday Brooks!

2010-06-06T22:43:00.008-05:00

Seven years has gone by fast!

Seeing Red!

2010-06-02T11:10:00.003-05:00

Reese loves the color RED.

He wants to wear either red shirts or red shorts everyday. If I don’t watch it, he will come out in red shorts and a red shirt. Red used to be my sister’s favorite color, so maybe it runs in the family.

When Reese was almost 2, my mom purchased the cutest red sandals for him. He loved wearing them as much as possible. They were a little big, so he was excited to wear them the next year as well. Sadly, this summer he asked about them and I had to tell him they were too small.

I was at Wal-mart the other day and saw the cutest red shoes. ON SALE! I got a size 8 because that is what size I thought he needed. I took them home and they were ok, but I could tell they wouldn’t fit him for long. Oh well. I went by after church Wednesday night to exchange them for a 9. I exchanged them and life was good.

Thursday morning I tried to put them on his feet, and somehow I still had the size 8s! How could I do that? So off to Wal-mart I go at 6:15 in the morning. Did you know that customer service doesn’t open until 7:00? I walked back to where the shoes were and decided just to exchange them myself. I didn’t see the size 9s anywhere, (They probably hadn’t been put back on the floor yet.) So I grabbed some 9 ½s. I thought those will last him a good while.

I got home Thursday night to try them on him and just about cried. The tag says 9 ½ but inside the shoes it reads…..12!

I threw them in his closet and haven’t touched them since.

Maybe I can convince him to pick a new favorite color. I personally love Green!

Reunion Weekend

2010-05-31T14:04:00.004-05:00

I had such a great time this past weekend. My high-school class had it's 15 year high school reunion. It doesn't feel like it has been 15 years. The years since we have all been together weren't even a factor because we all just talked and reminisced and shared stories. We had such a great time that we want to plan a girl's spa weekend next summer. I don't know if I can wait until then. It was great to see everyone, and I only wished it could have lasted longer.

Out of the mouths

2010-05-27T07:47:00.000-05:00

My two children. God Bless them.

Last night at supper we went to a Mexican restaurant to eat. Reese had to go to the potty so my dad took him. As he was coming back to the table, he was talking rather loudly and I told him to stop screaming. He said, (LOUDLY) “I was screaming like a little girl!” Where does he get that?

Yesterday afternoon in the car, Brooks was telling me how bad Reese had been that day. (I already knew most of what he had done.) Brooks said, “Reese, you have been bad for three days…….You are probably going to hell.”

WHAT?!

They make me tired.

Tuesday Tidbits

2010-05-25T12:50:00.001-05:00

I discovered last week that I like hummus.

Reese finished his last day at pre-school this past Wednesday. I was a little sad but he didn’t seem to care. He will be in K4 this coming fall. It makes me feel old.

Brooks is out of school for the summer. He knows exactly how many weeks until he has to go back. I hate to tell him that this summer will probably fly by.

My 15 year class reunion is Saturday. I am already trying to decide what to wear. Why do I put myself back in that mind-set. I should be able to tell my brain that I am a grown-up now, and not in high school. My friends are still my friends no matter what I wear. Maybe that will sink in.

If you haven’t read Laurie’s blog, go read her post about her match. I get filled with tears of joy each time I read it.

A Treat for my Sweet

2010-05-23T07:33:00.003-05:00

Reese LOVES pickles. I bought him a treat at the store to see what he would do with it. He loved it.

(and yes, he was sweaty from being outside......doesn't take much for him)

Savannah from Savannah

2010-05-22T17:05:00.006-05:00

We had our second book club meeting Friday night. We read the book Savannah from Savannah. I really enjoyed the book and always find it so enlightening to hear what other insights and thoughts my fellow ladies share. Melissa is going to share more on her blog in the coming days so be sure and check out her wonderful details that make these gatherings so special. I did have to share in the bottom picture, Melissa had the author, Denise Hildreth, on speaker phone! It was such a wonderful treat! I can't wait to buy our next book!