I haven’t ‘blogged’ in quite some time, but for whatever reason, I felt the need tonight. Why you may ask...or maybe you didn’t, but I’ll give you the answer anyways. Panic attacks. Ugh. They suck more than that lady who swoops in and steals your parking spot at the overly packed ‘I think there may be a snow storm coming and we need bread and twinkies’ (ok, maybe I’m the only one who thinks of twinkies because I’m going through a fat phase right now and I’d totally stock up on them (if they still existed) if a snow storm was coming, but because we live in Texas and snow storms here are practically non-existent so it’s probably not something that would actually happen), grocery store parking lot. Yeah...they just suck. A few months ago I had convinced myself that I had completely defeated the horror that is the panic attack, but apparently, I haven’t. Bummer.

I obviously have entirely too many ramblings going on in my head, so maybe a ‘vent’ would help get some of the crazy thoughts out and allow me to focus on more important things in my life like making sure my kid wears pants to school. Yeah, that’s really a conversation that is had with him. He’s apparently not a fan of pants.

Last Thursday, I had the Granddaddy of all panic attacks and had to call 911 from my cell phone while driving into work. I told the operator that I was pretty sure I was having a heart attack to which she responded by immediately putting me on hold which I believe pulled me out of the ‘Oh dear Lord, I’m dying’ thought process that a panic attack ensues. Yup, on hold...seriously. I told the operator that I was pretty sure I was dying and she said ‘ok, I’m going to get you on with a paramedic. Don’t hang up.’ Little did I know that the ‘don’t hang up’ advice was because I was going to be put on hold for 10 minutes. Of course, by the time that the panic attack passed I hung up only to be called back a few minutes later by an operator who told me they already had an ambulance on the way and to just hang tight. When the paramedics showed up, I had to explain to them from a half opened car window (mostly because I was super embarrassed) that I was pretty sure I had just had a panic attack and I was going to be okay. Of course, by the time they pulled away my brain went directly back into the idea of, ‘maybe you really are dying and you’ve just let all of your help leave and now you’re going to die in the parking lot of a Texaco off of the highway and Lord only knows if you call them back you’ll be put on hold again and by the time they make it here you’ll for sure be a goner’, but I pulled myself out of that one too…obviously because I’m blogging about it now. See, I desperately need an outlet.

Seriously, this is the life of someone who has panic attacks for absolutely no reason at all. I know that all of my blogs in the past have been about how fabulously wonderful or crazy my family is, but maybe I should change directions and address the crap that is making me not so, well, fabulously wonderful. Even if no one ever reads this, I can one day look back and know that I have survived. Okay, so it’s not like a cancer survival story or a my husband was a serial killer in a secret second life story, but it’s my panic attack survival story and that’s all I can look forward to right now. I was somehow picked to be one of the 40 million that suffer from this ridiculously indescribable mental disorder that so many people do not understand, but that the few who do can relate to may run across my story and know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Not because I’ve gotten there yet, but because I have decided that I will get there come hell or high water.

It was just a simple trip to the store.

Well, that is what it was supposed to be anyways.

Me and Anthony had to make a quick trip to Ross to return a car that he got a couple of days ago that didn't work and then to Braum's for a gallon of milk. Sounds easy, right...wrong.

I load Anthony into the car and head off down the road. A couple of minutes into our trip Anthony screams "Mom!! Stop the car!!" from the backseat. I freak and quickly ask WHAT!?! He tells me that Clifford (yeah, the big red dog) has wiggled out of his seat belt and he didn't want to get a ticket. Aggghhh! Really?

Okay, nerves back to normal and we pull in to Ross. I make the 'okay, we're just running in and returning this and then we're out' speech and we head in the store. We stand in line for a bit...apparently a bit to long, because now Anthony is itching to go and see if they have another car to replace the one that we are returning. "Just real quick mommy, pretty please" (insert puppy dog eyes here). Okay, how do I say no to that? Alright. But just real quick. Return was finally made and we head to the back of the store where they keep the toys. After ENTIRELY too long, Anthony finally sets his sights on a truck that is pulling a trailer with a four wheeler on the back. Yay, we get to leave. Nope. He has bow discovered that they actually have three similar trucks, one white with a green four wheeler, one grey with a red four wheeler and one yellow with a tractor. Now to decide on color. I think I want the white one...no the grey one...no maybe the red one (of course all of these decisions are made as we are making our way back to the front of the store with the current decision). Okay, finally he decided on the white one with the green four wheeler and I decided that I have had enough so this decision was final. We check out and head out to the car. I get Anthony strapped in (and anyone with a toddler knows this can be a big task in itself!) and I go around to get in the car, seat belt on, car started and Anthony says, 'Oh no! Clifford!! I left him in the store.' Arrghh!! I turn off the car, unbuckle Anthony and back in the store we go. Luckily we found Clifford hiding under the two unpicked trucks and head on out again. Now off to Braum's for some milk.

We get to Braum's and as always, Anthony wanted to be my 'big helper', so he ran to the cooler, grabbed a gallon of milk and we head up to the register to check out. We get to the counter and I watched as Anthony hoists the milk above his head (to put it on the counter) and then behind his head because he has now lost control and then in horror, I watch the explosion as it hits the floor. Clean up on Aisle 1! He totally soaked an older gentleman who I probably apologized 100 times to and there was milk on everything within a 50 feet radius.

I was mortified, but as the saying goes, don't cry over spilled (or exploded) milk.

:)

Ch-Ch-Changes.....

Things seem like they have gone a mile a minute around here lately! As most everyone knows our Winnie Winnie the Wonder Kitty passed away a couple of months ago which seemed to open the door for all kinds of doom. Soon after that our dog Sadie was hit by a car and because of the accident, we had to amputate her right front leg. In the midst of all of that, my uncle passed away from a very untimely stroke and Brian's uncle passed away after a long battle with cancer. I joked (as I often do at the most inappropriate times) that it wasn't a good time to be related to us. Terrible, I know...

On a bit of a happier note, Brian is doing well with his company. I have just started a new job, J-Bug only has 5 weeks of school left until she becomes a mighty 7th grader (insert vomit sound here) and Anthony has started in an in home preschool program. On an even better note, after years (no seriously, years!) of searching, we have finally found a church home. Thank you Jesus!!

I know it's not much, and if you follow me on Facebook (the main reason for the slow impending death of my blog) you've probably already read most of this, but for those who don't, now you're all caught up on the going ons around here.

Love you all!

3 Already!

Last weekend we celebrated Anthony's 3rd birthday. He was quite excited about his birthday and in fact, the first words that came out of his mouth were, 'Do we get to eat cupcakes today?' Aww.

Gracie made some of the yummiest cupcakes ever for the party (THANK YOU GRACIE!!) and Anthony scored big time on gifts! His absolute favorite was his motorcycle which he asks to sleep with every night, but because we have to get a battery charger and some training wheels put on the motorcycle first, he has gone with his next favorite present, his bicycle. This is ridden everyday, all day. He wakes up in the morning and jumps on his bike, and as soon as we get home from the sitters, he's right back on it. He has ridden at least 1,000 laps around the living room on it and would eat dinner on it if I let him (but I don't...the line has to be drawn somewhere, jeeze!)

Anyways, we had a great time at the party and although no kids showed :(, we maanged to make the best of the situation and partied out anyways! Thanks to everyone who came and made his birthday special! :)

P.S. I do have pictures to post, but my computer is being a total pain in the rompus right now, so I will get them up soon. :)

Where have you been??

I have come to realize that saying that I will do a better job to keep my blog updated is like blog suicide, so I won’t say it now but have the best intentions to do you know what. :)

Jaiden started middle school (WHAT!!) last week and so far so good. She has a fabulous schedule with all of her important classes at the beginning, then lunch, choir, PE, theatre arts and then she goes home. Awesome for her.

Anthony has slowly been driving us all crazy with the “Why?” question. Every statement made by anyone within his earshot is asked “Why?”. We keep telling ourselves, ‘it’s just a phase, it’s just a phase, it’s just a phase.’



Brian is still working (and kicking major butt) at at&t. The retail hours are about to kill us both, but we both know that right now we just have to be thankful that he has a job. I know there are still so many people out there who don’t.

And as for me, I’m still working at the same place, doing the same thing that I have done for the past 7 years. Good grief! I am also in the process of planning Anthony’s third birthday which will be at our house on the 18th of September. 3 already! I can’t believe it.

Until next time!

Remember Us? :)

Okay, so it has been forever since I have posted a Blog, so I decided with the New Year, comes a new post...

Brian has been working his tail off at AT&T selling cell phones. Not his ideal job, but it is paying the bills and he has sold to more than a couple of Dallas Cowboys (and anyone who knows my husband knows that alone is priceless). Here he is with one of his new buddies, Chad Hennings.

Jaiden is still my little spit-fire! She is in the fifth grade now and is doing really well. Much better than last year. Thank you Jesus! For Christmas, she received a total bedroom remodel where she was able to pick out the paint, furniture and all the decorations for her bedroom. To our surprise, she went with a soft blue green color on the walls but she picked a turquoise color for the closet and bedroom door. When she finally decided on the colors, I asked her if she was sure that is what she wanted and that we kind of thought she would go a bit crazier...she replied with 'Mom, I AM getting older now.' Good grief! I did paint her room and it really turned out nicely! The worst part about it though was when she decided that she wanted the bottom half of her room painted in the blue green color and the top half white. Since moving into our house three years ago, the ceiling in her room has never been painted and BOY did it show when I started the white on the walls. That then made it where I had to go ahead and paint the ceiling and as I told Brian, NEVER again will I paint a ceiling!! That was some work there!! Our house is a product of the 80's so popcorn ceilings throughout. If you have ever had to do this before, you will understand the pain I (and my right shoulder) went through. Sadly, now that her room is painted in the starkest most brilliant white that we could find, it really shows throughout the rest of the casa! Looks like more projects are heading our way!

Anthony is still running wild as you probably all witnessed first hand over the holidays. He definitely keeps us on our toes (and me in a size 0-2)! He hasn't damaged anything too considerably in the past week or so, so I am sure that a very colorful post regarding just that will soon follow. We did however find a large spot on the very top of his head the other night at dinner. I couldn't tell what it was exactly at first, but after a closer inspection, I found that it was dried blood a bit larger than a silver dollar. I was amazed for a couple of reasons. 1. I didn't remember him falling or hitting his head on anything; and 2. He NEVER complained about it, not a whimper or an 'oww', nothing. The cut wasn't as bad as it originally looked but it was still a cut....on his head! Again, Good grief!

and, yes. that is his underwear on his head. :)

I am still plugging away at the law office that I have now been at for 7 years. Sadly though, the attorney's that I work for are attempting to wrap things up and close shop simply because they have other things to do. I occasionally get a 'you're safe until...' speech and as of now, I am safe until April. Cross your fingers that things stay the same. I am a creature of habit and don't enjoy life to get jostled out of its original state. I am now in the process of getting the house back in order after what looked like a small tornado ran through it. Last weekend we started the remodel on Jaiden's room, the dryer broke (with a load of partially dried clothes in it, of course) and then the washer broke (full of wet, partially cleaned clothes in it...of course). Needless to say, my house resembled a college dorm room (or a 'hippie love pad' as my mom referred to it) complete with a full size mattress and box springs in my dining room, wet clothes hanging all over the house, a dresser in the hallway, the full sized bed frame leaned against my bedroom wall and Jaiden's clothes and personables strewn all about the house. It was a disaster, but thanks to help from mom, it is once again looking 'livable'.

So, that's us for now. I promise to do better at keeping this updated throughout the year!!

Peace and love to all of you!!

Mistie

Just a little update. :)

I'm trying to think of all that has gone on since I posted last, but when you live in my house, you come to find that everyday seems to bring on a new exciting story...

Momma Duck hatched 4 or 5 of the eggs that were layed in our front flower bed. Honestly, we have no idea if the duck actually hatched them or if some animal got a hold of them, but we found remnants of several eggs, we haven't seen her since and we have just decided to take the happier ending. :)

Momma Robin hatched her eggs also and we are pretty sure that three of the four survived. It was amazing how quickly those little birds grew! Jaiden was never a fan of the baby birds...she thought they were UGLY, but I did manage to snap a couple of pictures of them before they flew the coop!

Brian started working at At&t last week. I can't say that he loves it, but it's a job and it gives a paycheck and unfortunately, we are just in those times right now. He's really being a trooper about it and I love him for it!

Jaiden is doing okay in school. She might have slacked off a bit here at the end, but hopefully with all of the hard work that she put in throughout the year, it will be okay (and we might even get to avoid summer school!!!) She has been pretty busy outside of school too. She is in her school play this morning and then tomorrow she does a performance for the parents at night. We're super excited about it. Next week she will perform in her very first piano recital. She is playing Oh Susannah that she has practiced and practiced. Her piano teacher is even going to let her use the banjo function on her keyboard, so she is stoked! Here is a picture of Jaiden and Daniela (a friend of ours) at Great Wolf Lodge a couple of weekends ago.

And then we come to Anthony...oh my. He is wild. I could write an entire book of insanely crazy things he has done already and I've only had the kid for 20 months! Since the last time I posted anything he has: (1) bitten through his bottom lip due to a fall into the side of the bathtub; (2) found the can of skittles that Daddy kept in the little fridge in the sunroom; (3) ate the skittles from the can in little fridge in the sunroom; (4) climbed onto the top of the bar to get the can of skittles after Mom and Dad realized that he was getting into the skittles; (5) got into a fight with the other kid at the sitters, had a scratch on his back and a shiner to prove it; (6) locked Mom and J-Bug out of the house via deadbolt (try explaining unlocking a deadbolt to a 20 month old); (7) freefallen off of the top (the very tippity top) of the couch after climbing to the top to turn the lamp on and off and on and off; (8) climbed into the dryer to hide from Mommy, got comfortable and decided to hang out for a while (all the while I couldn't find him) :); (9) cleaned the toilet with Mommy's toothbrush; (10) ...well you get the point. Always an adventure!

I can't imagine why it is so difficult for Brian and I to get a babysitter! If you would like to volunteer your time, just let me know! HA!

This weekend we are off to Houston to celebrate my nephew, Kai's birthday and to spend some much needed time with my brother's and thier families who we haven't seen in forever! Bad thing is I will have to spend 4+ hours in the car with my monster child and Jaiden...wish me luck!

Animal Kingdom

Have you ever seen Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty. Well, I do believe that God has decided to enlist Brian as the newest, yet he is keeping with the whole Evan Almighty theme. We still have momma duck, who I have to say is doing a MUCH better job of staying on the eggs than she did last year. She has a total of eleven eggs and if we have counted right, they should be hatching soon!

The other day, we found that our frogs are back. They haven't completely moved back in to the hole next to the front door, but I think that might have a bit to do with the duck who is perched nearby. Sorry no pictures of the frogs...use your imagination! :)

To top it all off, Brian found a robins nest with four bright blue eggs on top of a phone box on the outside of our garage. Luckily this wasn't discovered until after Easter, because that could have turned tragic! But now, every time that you walk out of the garage, momma robin flys off of the nest and sits on the fence and squawks at you. It's lovely.

Oh, and did I mention that we also have a family of aggressive squirrels living in our attic (and no Sean, they don't bark). I have complained about them for a while so Brian heard one the other day and decided to make his way into the attic to see where they were getting in at. He told me that he saw the squirrel sitting near a hole that is in the front of the house and instead of being afraid of Brian, which is what he expected, he said that the squirrel hissed at him and got angrier and angrier the closer Brian approached. Brian said that with the string of luck that we have had lately, he decided not to battle the squirrel. No pictures of the squirrels either, although I do have video of one of them stealing an entire corn cob off of the bird feeder (which I later found out, was actually a squirrel feeder and is no longer on the tree) : {

It really is a zoo around here!

Are you kidding me?

Last night I went to the grocery store leaving my boys working out in our front flower bed. About thirty minutes into my shopping, I received a phone call from my Brian telling me that he and Anthony had just made a discovery underneath our dining room window. Since I can’t make you guess, I’ll just tell you....duck eggs.

Can you believe it?

On Monday of this week, my Brian called me at work and told me that a momma duck and a daddy duck were in the front yard and when he was walking Anthony down to the sitters (Anthony of course lost his mind running and screaming after them), and now I know what they were doing. In any normal occurrence, this would be a joyous and sweet moment, but if you remember correctly and trust me I do, things didn’t turn up all fine and well last year! The amazing thing about this is that on my street alone there are at least fifteen or so houses and four with pools and did I mention we are no further than two miles away from a DUCK POND, yet momma duck still manages to make it to our yard.

Let’s hope that this batch turn out better than last years. I’ll keep everyone updated!

He's a big boy now... : (

I know I haven't updated in quite a while, and unfortunately, I don't have a lot of extra time now, but I had to share this small dose of wonderfullness....

About a month ago Brian and I bought Anthony a potty chair at the request of our pediatrician and believe it or not HE USES IT!! And it is the cutest thing every time! I know these are only moments that a parent can love, but how cute is he....and how awesome is it that we will have him completely out of diapers before the ripe ole age of 2! ; )

Although he is absolutely precious...it makes me so sad that we are already reaching this milestone! My baby boy is growing up... : (

25 Random Things About Moi....

Okay, so there are emails going around right now about 25 random things about yourself. The geenral idea is that you give 25 factoids about yourself (dreams, hopes, wishes, or used-to-be's), share them with your friends and then they reply back sharing with their friends and so on and so on....I decided to share mine.

1. I love shoes more than any normal person! I notice EVERYBODY’s shoes!!

2. I always wanted a sister...I have three wonderful brothers, but a sister would have been super!

3. I am gullable...and no they didn't take the word out of the dictionary, I already checked.

4. I don’t talk to any of my close (well...used to be) high school friends anymore. : (

5. I bought duplicate tiaras for my wedding (just in case something happened to one) only to realize that both were still lying on the bed at our hotel as I was walking down the aisle.

6. I talk to my mom every day.

7. I love the Parent Trap movie and will watch it every time it is on.

8. I can recite the movies Tombstone, Grease and South Park, Bigger Longer and Uncut from any given point!

9. I’m not a “social butterfly”, but I wish I were!

10. My hands sweat..especially when I am nervous...it’s disgusting!

11. I hate confrontation more than any human on this planet! I won’t even look someone in the eye if I accidentally cut them off in traffic.

12. I love watching sports. Not just a background watcher either...I am a true sports junkie!

13. I have worked for a total of 2 companies since entering the workforce 9 years ago.

14. I could listen to my Kunkle (uncle) play Floyd Cramer’s Last Date over and over again!

15. I am a lightweight when I drink and normally order my drinks in a tall glass with only half a shot of rum so I don’t pass out half way through the evening!

16. I care WAY too much about what others think...it’s a fault.

17. My grandparents recited the nursery rhyme “Little Miss Muffet” to me so much I actually thought it was about me. I was devastated when everyone in pre-school knew my rhyme!

18. When I was in high school, I wanted to be a paralegal, drive a Jetta and work downtown...when I accomplished that goal relatively quick; I realized I set my goals a little too low. ; )

19. I wish I had one of those “drop boards” they use on the radio to use in normal everyday conversation. (I would be the chronic over-user!)

20. I like my job, but am considering a possible change soon.

21. I proofread everything...even stuff I can’t change.

22. I am addicted to celebrity gossip, not national enquirer bad, but all the blogs!

23. When I was a baby, I would only go to sleep if ACDC’s Hell’s Bells was playing...hmmmm.

24. My daughter was born with a hemangioma that wrapped around her windpipe and had to wear a trach for the first 10 months of life. By the grace of God, literally, it just went away one day...no trace, no scar tissue...it was a true miracle!

25. It was a rare occasion to ever see me cry until after I had my daughter...now I cry at everything!

Oh what a night...

Anthony came home from the sitters today in a real bad mood!! He is having allergy issues and is just fed up with everything (and everyone). After throwing countless fits, screaming and stomping, I threw him in the tub around 8'ish. BTW this is after I screwed up dinner and Brian had to make an emergency run to Taco Bueno. For whatever reason, Anthony wasn't quite digging the bathtub experience so he got out, I got him all dried off, brushed his hair and his teeth and then rubbed him down with baby vapor rub.

Because Anthony was in such a hurry to get out of the bath, I didn't drain the tub and thought that I had locked the door behind me when I walked out. Apparently, I didn't! I went into the kitchen to get his milk for the night and when I came back into his bedroom, he wasn't there. I turned around and looked across the hallway to see my fully clothed baby IN the bathtub playing as if he were supposed to be there. I almost died!

Yes, I realize the danger and trust me I was feeling it all last night. Thankfully, nothing horrible happened and we can now look back on it and giggle!

On a better note, Brian and I had a parent - teacher conference with Jaiden's teacher yesterday who told us that she was doing so much better and has improved so much over the year. Progress, progress, progress! I was so happy to hear it! And, she passed ALL of her classes this semester! Yeah for Jaiden!!!!

He's a big'un!

Yesterday Rey came and took Brian, Jaiden, Anthony and I out for lunch at a catfish resturant around the corner from us. While we were there, Anthony found a little boy to play with. After they played for a bit, I asked this little boys' mom how old he was....and they are the same age...
Sorry, the pic isn't wonderful, I took it with my phone, but can you believe this!?!?!?!

Just had to share!

Mom's Electric Orange Hair Experience...

Saturday my Mom calls me and tells me that she dyed her hair and she couldn’t tell if she liked it or not and wanted me to “be the judge”. She comes over on Sunday with the main intention of going to get her newly dyed hair cut after I judged the color. She came in and I told her that although the color was cute, it kind of had a pink tone to it...you know what I mean, like the little old ladies that walk around with blue hair, that kind. So, she decides that after she gets her hair cut, she wants to go to Sally’s and get some more dye to get the pink out. While at Sally’s, the lady working who insisted that we all know “she had her license” (she must have said it a million times) gets us all fixed up and gives us exact directions for us to follow to achieve Mom’s desired color. We get home and do exactly what the lady told us to do and unfortunately, desired color...not so much.

Mom stepped out of the shower and came in and the look on my face must have said it all, because she panicked and she hadn’t even seen a mirror yet. Her hair was a color of orange that I cannot do justice to by putting it into words. She looked like a cartoon character.



After we all got our giggles out, well, just Jaiden and I because Mom wasn’t finding the hilarity in it like us, I went back to Sally’s and found the lady that has her license, (which she did tell me four more times this go around) and explained to her that something in her last concoction went horribly wrong and we needed to fix it because Mom had to go to work tomorrow. The lady that has her license told me that the chemicals in the box that Mom had used on Saturday must have counter-acted with the chemicals that she gave us (nice cover up for her, huh) so we were going to need to strip Moms hair and then add a new color to it. I buy all of the stuff, which also included a special shampoo and conditioner for "overly processed hair", get home and we put the chemical stripper on her hair, wait twenty minutes, she rinses it out and then we put on the new color with all of our fingers crossed. Oh, I should also mention that by this time it is past 6:00 and Sally’s is now closed, so we were all praying that this worked.

Thirty minutes later Mom steps out of the shower again and although it didn’t quite have the “electric orange” tone to it, it was still orange. I felt so bad for her. She just went home.

She told me that after she got home and looked in the mirror a million times and cried a bucket of tears, she finally just packed up and went down to Wal-Mart and bought another chemical stripper and another box of dye, went home stripped it again and then dyed it dark brown. She said that after she rinsed all of the dye out of her hair (the Fourth time), she didn’t even go to the mirror. She had to work herself up to walk into the bathroom and look. Luckily the fourth time ended up being the charm. She told me that she can’t even touch her scalp after all of the chemicals that she ended up putting on it. She also told me that she will NEVER, EVER try and color her hair herself again.

Here's just a quick review of what this little adventure cost her...

2 boxes of hair color from the grocery store...........$20.00
Chemicals from Sally’s.................................$25.00
2 Chemical Strippers...................................$20.00
Special Shampoo & Conditioner
(for overly processed hair)............................$10.00
Grand Total............................................$75.00

Mom’s bad hair dye job..............................................................$10.00
What it took to fix Mom’s bad hair dye job................................$65.00
The look on Mom’s face after the first orange experience..........Priceless!

Holidays....just a little late.

I know it’s been a while since any thing has been written here, so here I go.....

First off, I never got to the herbal remedy thing below, so I truly have no idea whether it works or not, sorry...okay, now we can get on with things~

Since I haven’t even written since Christmas, I will tell you that we had a great one! The weekend before Christmas, we did our annual get-together at Aunt Linda’s house which was as always packed, crazy and so much fun! Early Christmas Eve was spent at Rey and Anna’s house. They gave our family a Wii for Christmas (so awesome!) and then later that night, we went home and my mom and little brother spent the night at our house. Shockingly enough, Santa did make a visit to our house and left a mess of toys! We are still finding little balls of wrapping paper here and there!

Those who know me know that “Thank You” cards are not usually something that I ever actually get around to doing (I have at least 200 in my desk at home partially filled out) and this year will be no different. I do appreciate all of the wonderful gifts that anyone got for me and for my family and I am expressing that now...so if you don’t get a note stating this same exact thing, please don’t be mad, I just really have no time!!! ; )

New Years Eve we went to Gatti Town with our friends Jared and Amber and their son Garrett. After Gatti Town Brian, Jaiden and I all stayed up and watched the ball drop and then Jaiden crashed pretty quickly after that and...so did Brian and I! ; )

Our last “holiday” dinner happened last night...a little late, but we made it. Phillip, Elicia, Lacie, Lori, Mema and James all came over. We obviously had to host considering one member of my family (A.R.B.) is considered “high risk liability” when taken into anyone else’s home. We had a great dinner and then out came the Wii! Let me tell you, there is no fun like watching your Grandmother play a rivaling game of Wii tennis. I laugh, but that was only before Mema kicked all of our butts in bowling. Boy, that’ll get ya! ; )

So, that was all of our holiday ruckuses!! I have several more stories that all deserve their own post including one of me and my mom turning her hair electric orange (don’t worry Mom, there aren’t any pics) and also Anthony’s first shiner (that I do have pictures!)....

I hope that everyone else’s holidays were as wonderful as our were and I’ll get all of these other stories out of my head and onto my screen soon!

Herbal Remedies - Coughing

I really have no idea why, but I have been insistently obsessed with herbal remedies here lately. I just think if you can avoid putting "drugs" into your body to cure something...why not! So anyways, I recently got over a cold and now the coughing stage has set in and we all know how absolutely irritating that can be and this is something interesting that I found and wanted to share. I can't say that I have tried it yet, but I have every intention of doing so tonight and will let you know how it worked in the morning!

Homeade Hot Chocolate

The theobromine content of dark chocolate may actually be a more effective cough medicine than traditional or over-the counter cold and cough remedies. Sugary premixed powders won't do the job, so try this homemade version.

Mix together :
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa
Dash salt
Stir in 1/3 cup water in a sausepan, bring to a boil over medium heat, boil for 2 minutes.
Add 4 cups milk and heat. DO NOT BOIL
Remove from heat and add
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

My Brian....

Sympathy is not one of my strongest points, but my poor husband! I feel just terrible for him right now.



Brian sold his postal center last month to a man that he had met through the store who had a couple other locations and really seemed interested in the store. Unfortunately, the guy needed to finance the purchase amount through us, and because my husband has a heart of gold, he said okay. At the time, Brian thought that he was going to open a new store in a better location, so it was a good thing that he was selling this one. A couple of weeks later, the new store deal falls through and Brian was then in the position where he was going to just have to find a job. A couple more weeks roll around and Brian goes to the old store to collect rent and the monthly store payment, and what does he find...nothing! Literally, nothing. The guy cleaned out the store and locked the doors.

After a couple of hours of absolute panic, Brian finally got in touch with the man who in a round about way, just said he couldn’t do it anymore and told him that his ex-wife had been tearing up all of his other stores and he was afraid that she would hit that one...blah, blah, blah..... So, now Brian has an empty store and the guy pretty much ran all of the business out of there while he was there, therefore no business either. So, Brian gets back in there and pieces it together as much as he can with the stuff that he had kept with the intentions of going to the new store and starts calling mail box holders and asking them to come back. It only took him about a week to get it back and going again and he put it on Craig’s List and has a new purchaser.

The people that are buying the store now are a couple who don’t need a lot to run on, but would like to try and make the store a bit more successful. Brian ran his ideas that he had envisioned for the store and the couple liked them all. So now, my poor thing, is having to set this couple up with the exact setup that Brian has been working so hard to try and build himself, but then he’ll have to walk away when it’s over.

I really feel bad for him! So with all that said, please keep him in your prayers that this deal doesn’t go anything like the last one and that he finds a job soon that he won’t be miserable in!

Such Cuties!!

I took the kids out to Auntie's house last weekend and they both loved it! Here are a couple of pics....

Oh the 80's....

Okay, as promised.....

Andrew Scott Roberts

My brother put pictures of my new nephew up..

Go check him out....he's a cutie!!!