Brittanie and Justin's Christmas pictures

We just got Brittanie and Justin's Christmas pictures back from Wal-Mart and they look GREAT! I just had to share them!

This is the package picture.

This is Brittanie and Justin's favorite pose.

This is my favorite pose.

I love Brittanie's hair in this picture!

Don't they look precious together?

It's Christmas time!

Well we are just about done decorating. I need to put the big "Merry Christmas from the Sightlers" sign in the front yard with the light and we are done. Katie forgot how Christmas was last year so just like last year, this was all a surprise to her. She thinks all the decorations are "so pweutty!" She loves the tree most of all. She is a true Sightler and loves trains so she was very excited when Tom put the train around the tree. She asked me yesterday why we were putting that stuff up. I told her that we are going to celebrate Jesus' birthday for the whole month! Of course of Christmas day we will have birthday cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus, like we always do. Santa isn't welcome at our house. Katie doesn't have a clue about Santa and that's for the best. As far as she knows, the red man in the suit has no name and is just part of the decorations. Brittanie has always known the true meaning of Christmas and that we give gifts to our loved ones because God, our father, gave us the ultimate gift....his son....because he loved us. That's what we are teaching Katie as well. I don't understand people who think that not teaching kids the lie about Santa will ruin Christmas for them. Katie has no clue she is getting gifts for Christmas. She is just enjoying the decorations and she told me today, "I LOVE Christmas!" Who needs Santa? Here are some pictures of our new tree and the fireplace. The picture of the bookcase was taken last year because the only thing that has changed is my computer and I didn't think it was important enough to take another picture just to show my new computer.

It isn't fair....but life is not fair

Isn't he handsome??

I got a call from Jonathan (my handsome godson) the week before Thanksgiving and he told me that he was set to be deployed to Iraq AGAIN that Saturday. He tried talking to them but it did no good. His wife was going to go up there and let them know how crappy it was that they move the whole family to Germany and less than a month after they are there, they send Jonathan off to Iraq....AGAIN! He'd only been home from Iraq 8 months. Well I got an e-mail from him this morning and he is back there again. It isn't fair and it isn't right. But he went with honor and dignity to serve his country. I'm proud of him but I'm so scared. I was miserable for the year he was in Iraq before because I didn't know where he was and everytime I heard about soldiers dying, I was scared when the phone rang. God sent him home safely the first time and I'm praying He will do it again this time. That will be his second tour and hopefully his last.

So everybody reading this, please pray for him and all our other soldiers out there risking their lives for our country.
These pictures were taken in February of 2005, when he took Brittanie to her military ball. He had just been home a week from Iraq and still was happy to escort Brittanie to the ball. He's my sweetheart and always has been. I know he is all grown up now but to me, he will always be my little man! HOOAH my little man!

Future Carolina Panthers cheerleader

Brittanie gave Katie a bath for me this morning while I took a shower and when I got out, she had dressed her up like this. Isn't she precious? I LOVE pigtails! I especially love the last picture with the goofy smile.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice and quiet Thanksgiving. One thing I know for sure is I'm no gourmet chef. I hate cooking. I'm usually pretty good at it in that usually what I cook tastes good but absolutely hate it. Well last night, I was preparing everything with Brittanie and Justin's help. Brittanie was browning the ground Boston Butt pork roast to make my rice dressing (or dirty rice as it is called in South Carolina) and Justin was peeling the potatoes for the potato salad for me while I dealt with the turkey. Well after the eggs were boiled, Justin washed the potatoes and chopped them up for me and asked me what to do with them. I wasn't thinking and told him to put them in with the boiled and chopped up eggs. When I finished the turkey, I grabbed the bowl and plopped mayo and lots of mustard on top of the eggs and potatoes. When I started to stir, that's when I realized I left out a step. I forgot to boil the potatoes. DUH! We just scrapped it and decided not to have potato salad. We had plenty of food anyway. I had turkey drumsticks, rice dressing, cabbage and pork, corn, stuffing, and strawberry cheesecake. Tom was supposed to be timing the brown and serve rolls while I took the turkey out of the oven and did the last minute stuff and he forgot to time them and they burned. So we had no rolls or potato salad but there was plenty of food and we all got full, fat, and happy anyway.

After we ate, I was pooped so after putting away all of the food, I took a three hour nap. When I got up, I sat down in my computer chair and Tom and Brittanie ran to me and started hugging me and telling me how much they loved me and appreciated that I wasn't a psycho. Mmmmmkkkkk???? I didn't understand at first but after they explained an incident that happened while I was sleeping, I understood. I don't want to put it on the blog so if you are curious, e-mail me and I'll tell you.

Tonight, I'm going to type while Tom and Katie watch Nemo on ABC. She is used to watching it on her DVD with no commercials. So she gets upset when the commercials come on. But I think she is getting used to it now.

Hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

She's something else

In a previous post, I put a picture of Katie making that mean face that we see alot of. Well I saw a different face yesterday. I took Katie and Brittanie to Wal-Mart of have their Christmas pictures made together yesterday. Katie looked adorable in her pretty pink sparkly dress with white fur trim and hat to match. And Brittanie was her usual beautiful self. But I knew we were going to have a hard time from the first picture. Katie refused to smile. She looked at the photographer and I think remembered her from the birthday pictures. No matter what the photographer did to try to make Katie laugh, all she got in return was this look that Tom gets that means "Man you're stupid." The photographer was feeling bad and said "Yall I really am trying." But she had made Katie mad when she took her birthday pictures and she wasn't going to smile for her this time either. So we settled for fake smiles. It isn't what I wanted but at least there will be a story behind those pictures for when she gets older.

Well I was tired from running around yesterday so when I put Katie down for a nap, I layed down to take a nap too. I should have set the alarm because when I woke up, Katie had obviously been up for a little bit because she had unplugged the power strip that we used for the blow dryer that morning and put a paper clip in one of the plugs. God was looking out for her because had she done that in the wrong order she wouldn't be here today. Then she went in the bathroom and got the jar of Erythromicin wipes that a dermatologist had given Brittanie a couple of years ago for her acne and was wiping down everything in her room. She had also taken my checkbook and scissors and cut up the checks in my checkbook. This kind of stuff is typical Katie. I don't know if I put this in a blog entry or not but just a week or so ago after a nap, she came out of her room with a carton of eggs. Upon further inspection, she had egg all over the floor in her room and there was one in the bathroom garbage can as well.

Last night, Tom and I went to Subway to get subs and left Brittanie in charge of watching Katie until we got home. Brittanie had just made a strawberry no-bake cheesecake and put it in the fridge for it to set before putting the topping on. Brittanie then went in the living room and started watching TV. When we got home, Katie said "I want some pudding." I thought that was weird because we don't have any pudding and haven't had pudding in some time because Katie is lactose intolerant and the last time she ate it, it made her vomit. But I didn't think anything of her request for pudding and just said "We don't have any pudding." When we sat down to eat our subs, Tom realized Katie was in the kitchen and was quiet. That's always a red flag. When he went to check on her, he found her standing in front of the fridge with the door open running her fingers all over the cheesecake and licking it off her fingers. There were finger track marks everywhere.

Katie is soooooooooooooooo mischievous. She loves to dig and get into stuff she knows she shouldn't. Tom said that digging thing is in the blood because he used to love to go to Grandma Sightler's and dig in her junk drawer. I talked to Jenny last week about the junk drawer and she said all the Sightler grandchildren loved that drawer and that Grandpa Sightler used to put different stuff in there every now and again just for the grandkids to find in that drawer when they came over. Good memories! But it is frustrating for me. For Christmas, I'm asking Santa to bring Katie a Velcro suit and a big Velcro mat that we can put on the wall and on the bed so Katie can't get into stuff she has no business in. Brittanie never dug. Now the cheesecake/finger thing is another story. For Brittanie's 3rd birthday, we were outside setting up for her party on my mom's carport and we came back into the house to find that Brittanie had ran her finger on the cake and took off most of the icing on the sides of the cake. It was so funny. We didn't spank her and we didn't spank Katie for the same thing last night. But we did tell them both not to do it again. Brittanie never did. It will be a miracle if Katie obeys that request. She is very headstrong and wants to control everything in her life already. Tom and I are both that way but he was more obedient growing up than I was. My dad had a 4th grade education and my mom had a 6th grade education and I knew I was smarter than they were when it came to education. My mistake was thinking that I was smarter than them in everything. Because I thought I was more intelligent than they were, I didn't think I should do anything they said because they weren't smart enough to know what is best for me. That thinking shows how stupid I was. But unfortunately, Katie has inherited that bullheadedness from me.....thanks to my mom. When I was a teenager she told me she hopes I have a child just like me. I laughed at her when I had Brittanie because she is just about perfect. She has to be the easiest child in the world to raise. She definitely gets that from Grandpa and Uncle Jesse. But along came Katie....my mom's wish has come true. There is never a dull moment with Katie.

But despite the frustrations, we are so blessed. She is healthy and full of life and energy. She has a big heart. She doesn't like it when Tom and Brittanie wrestle because Brittanie screams and it makes Katie think she is hurt and Katie will start crying. God has definitely given us a wonderful gift when he gave us Katie.

Katie's 3-year-old pictures

I got Katie's 3-year-old pictures back from Wal-Mart portrait studio today. I had to crop a couple because you could see above the background....tacky! But the photographer was using a frog to make Katie smile and Katie wanted it. The photographer wanted Katie to put her hands on the carpet and smile but this is what she got instead:
The photographer wanted to ditch it but I wanted it. We see this face at home all the time. I thought it was hilarious! Is this a Tom face or what? I love it!!

Here are the others:

This one is the package pose:
I loved this one and bought a few prints of it.

This one is Tom's favorite:
That's all of them. Which one is your favorite? Let me know!

By the way, we have a new sitter for Katie that will be coming on Thursdays and Fridays. She also will be doing the laundry for us too. She started Friday and was GREAT with Katie. Her name is Lisa but for some reason Katie keeps calling her Sarah??? I got so much typing done with her here Friday. She is Justin's aunt and I really like her. That's a weight lifted off my shoulders!! Now if I can catch up, I should be able to stay caught up!

My cousin sent me this and I loved it!

Before I was a Mom I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom - I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put it down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom - I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom - I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth, The joy, The love, The heartache, The wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much before I was a Mom.

And before I was a Grandma, I didn't know that all those "Mom" feelings more than doubled when you see that little bundle being held by "your baby"...

And remember that behind every successful mother... Is a basket of dirty laundry.
**********
I LOVE being a mom and I'm looking forward to being a Grandma. I want to be the kind of grandmother that I always wanted and that I wanted for my children. They will truly know unconditional love, just like my girls do now!

Mom's a meanie now.

It has been such a struggle to get Brittanie to do everything listed on the list that I created over a year ago that outlines how to clean the kitchen. Basically, she has been doing the dishes and nothing else....that's on good days. Some days even the dishes don't get done. Last week she told me she wanted to take over the laundry since J isn't here anymore so she could earn that extra $20 a week. I agreed but told her that she cannot do her usual thing with the laundry and that is string it out for a week to where it never gets totally done. I won't have it. Well she did all but one batch. That batch has been sitting in front of the dryer in a basket...clean and ready to be folded/hung since Sunday afternoon....it is Thursday. I was getting madder by the day. So yesterday I decided that if she can't do what she is told then why should I reward her? I used to love to do things for her and buy her things because she used to go above and beyond what we ask. But in the past year that has not been the case and since she fell in love it has gotten worse. So yesterday, Tom and I came up with a new game plan. I typed it up and read it to her last night then handed it to her and asked if she had any questions. She was mad, said no and went upstairs. I hate that she is mad at me but parenting is not about being popular. I have to raise her to understand that in this life you work for what you get because NOTHING is handed to you....and shouldn't be just handed to you. So here is what it said:

Earning potential

$20 a week for doing EVERYTHING on the kitchen list EVERYDAY! If you miss even one item or one day, you get nothing for the week. This one is mandatory. The rest are up to you if you want to earn some extra money….you are going to need it.

$25 every other week for dusting the entire bookcase (can only dust around my computer equipment and the books….everything else has to come off, be dusted under, and replaced) as well as dusting the lamps and Windexing the glass…inside and out.

$25 a week for cleaning both bathrooms downstairs….that means in and around the toilet…even under the lid….sweeping and mopping the floors, Windexing all mirrors, scrubbing the bathroom counters, sinks, shower, and tub, and emptying the garbage in the bathrooms.

$2 for every day that you vacuum the living room, hall, and bedrooms. This includes getting the crevice tool to do around my desk and under our foot rest for the recliners on the sofa.

$2 for every day that you mop Katie’s play room

$5 a week for Windexing my monitor, the TV, and the glass on the TV stand as well as dusting the end tables, fireplace (including the mantle), TV, DVD player, VCR, speakers, subwoofer and phone.

Your responsibilities

1. You are to do your homework as soon as you walk through the door. You are to do NOTHING else until ALL of your homework is done.
2. You are to be in bed by 10pm.
3. You are to keep your room and bathroom clean.
4. You have to take your medicine like you are supposed to.
5. You are to tell me when you finish each chore, so I can go inspect in order to get proper credit. I will keep records of how much you have earned.

We will no longer be paying for your make-up, clothes, highlights, tanning, movies, concert tickets, football game entries, or spending money for anything else. We will pay for your contact lenses. But you HAVE to earn your own money for everything else that is not food, tampons, shampoo/conditioner, and medications. (But when I take you places, I will not pay for you or your friends to eat out. That is entertainment because you could have eaten at home. You will have to pay for that yourself.) We buy bar soap for baths. If you would like bath gel instead, you will have to buy that yourself. We will not buy gifts for your friends from you. The Christmas gift I buy for Justin will be from me, your dad, and Katie. You have to pay for his gift yourself. I will be marking down everytime you don’t do the kitchen and don’t go to bed at 10pm, and you will owe me $5 for the next time I take you somewhere besides school and church….and an additional $5 to pick you up. You have the potential to earn $362 a month or you can do nothing and owe me money.

If this doesn’t motivate you to live up to your responsibilities in this family, my next step will be to talk to First Sgt. about this situation and maybe he can find a way to motivate you.

Sounds harsh? Well I have been trying everything to get her to plug into this family and do what she is told and all the talking in the world doesn't help. She improved for awhile after I talked to First Sgt. a few weeks ago. But recently she has gotten worse than before because she is on the phone or the internet talking to Justin instead of taking care of her responsibilities first. I don't mind her talking to Justin. I adore Justin. He is a wonderful boy. But she has to realize that she has to take care of her responsibilities first then spend time with Justin. If Tom and I spent all of our time making googlie eyes at each other and talking 24/7 instead of working or taking care of our other responsibilities, we would be homeless and starving. She needs to get her priorities straight because they are talking about going to the same college. If she doesn't get those priorities straight now, they won't finish college. They will do exactly what Tom and I did....spend every spare minute together instead of studying, leave college, and get married. Unfortunately, Justin isn't the computer genius Tom is and neither is Brittanie so chances are the outcome won't be the same for them as it was for us. Plus we struggled ALOT when we first got married. If it wouldn't have been for my parents buying food for us, we would have gone hungry. I don't want that to happen to Brittanie. So I'm trying to fix this now. If she lets her grades fall, she won't even get into college then I will feel guilty for not cracking down on her before. Tom said at first that it sounded mean. I told him mean would have been punishing her from seeing Justin outside of school. I didn't do that. But that is a consideration. I definitely don't want to do that. This is the first time I have seen her truly happy since 3rd grade. Those mean pseudoChristian kids at Grace took away her smile, her self esteem....everything. But now she is really happy and I want it to stay that way. But she has to get her priorities in order and that's what I'm trying to help her with. She may be mad at me now but she will thank me later. At least this way, if she makes money here at home, there will be time to talk to Justin on the phone. The alternative is to get a job outside the house....like at IGA, Little Pizza Shop, Food Lion, Wendy's, etc. Then she definitely won't have time to talk to Justin. My schedule is also more flexible than one of those jobs because I'm willing to work around her rifle team, color guard, football games, etc.

Yall let me know what you think!!

Look what Brittanie got!!

On the 29th of October, the Swansea High School JROTC Rifle Team competed at Keenan High School. They took 3rd place as a team overall and 1st place in prone shooting as a team. Brittanie had her best competition to date. She broke a school record shooting a 221. (Although I expect her to break her own record soon as she shot 237 at practice yesterday.) To commemorate her accomplishment, her assistant coach, Mr. Smith, had this plaque made for her.Her name is misspelled but we will get that fixed. It was just so sweet of him to do that! She got the plaque at rifle team practice yesterday and couldn't wait to get back to Gaston to show it to her Uncle Jimmy. Afterall, he is the one who taught her to shoot.

She was really surprised because she didn't know he took this picture. Mr. Smith's son is on the rifle team with Brittanie and he (according to his son) has been encouraging his son to ask Brittanie out. But Brittanie is head over heels for Justin. It is just so sweet that Mr. Smith thinks so highly of Brittanie. He even bought her a $70 scope for her rifle. I think he, like Brittanie, wants her to get that perfect 300 shot! First Sgt. told me that Brittanie is a very special cadet and he sees great things in her future. I'm so proud of her!!! I've always known Brittanie was wonderful but I'm her mom. It is so great when others see it too!! It is especially flattering when someone picks her out for his son. I know as a parent, I'm picky when it comes to Brittanie. Not just anyone is worthy of my daughter....in my eyes anyway. (By the way, Justin would have definitely been one of my choices for her, if I had a vote. He is such a sweetheart!!!)

But anyway, here is a picture of the entire rifle team together:
Top row standing from left to right is Justin Long, Brittany Hollingsworth, Carl (don't know his last name), and Whittig.
Bottom row kneeling from left to right is Kathleen Dangerfield, Keegan Smith, Brittanie, and Josh Titus.

By the way, take a good look at Josh Titus because that young man has quite a bright future ahead of him. The sky is the limit. Brittanie admires him so much. He is the Command Sargeant Major and leads the color guard. He would make a great battalion commander. I can see him being the next Colin Powell!!

Brittanie and Justin at Carowinds

Brittanie and Justin went to Carowinds yesterday. Well everbody gets their picture taken when you walk into the park and Brittanie and Justin's picture came out so good they couldn't resist buying it. I have to agree, it came out really good. They are just too precious together!

Everything is going great with them. His mom really likes Brittanie, which is GREAT!!! I hope she never has to deal with one of those boy's mom who thinks she knows what is best for her son and it doesn't matter what he wants because he is supposed to do things HER way. Thank goodness, Justin's mom is not like that. She is raising a very well mannered, respectful, sweet, and goal-oriented young man without being overbearing or forcing her agenda on him. Brittanie doesn't realize how rare that is. His mom calls Brittanie "my daughter-in-law" and brags about her being beautiful and smart. I have to admit that I have been bragging about Justin myself. I can't call him "son-in-law" in front of Tom though. He hates change is struggling hard with the fact that Brittanie is dating. It isn't that he has some weirdo belief that dating is wrong. It is that he still sees Brittanie as his little girl who can't possibly be old enough to date....afterall it seems like just yesterday she was graduating from Kindergarten. His head knows that this is a normal thing and she has chosen a good boy to date. But his heart screams "Get away from my daughter." He's such a good daddy!

Yep, she's a goober

If I'm not mistaken, either Boo-Boo or Boo-Boo's mom made this blanket for Katie and she loves it. She plays with it all the time and even has it in her bed at night too. Today, she was pretending to get married and it was over her head like a veil and somehow she ended up wrapped up in it. As she was coming out of the playroom, the blanket got caught in the door and she hit the floor. We couldn't resist taking a picture before freeing her from it. Is this funny or what???

New pictures of Bash

Bash kept scratching and scratching so I thought she may have fleas so I took her to the groomer for a flea dip and to trim her hair. The groomer didn't find any fleas at all. But she is nice and clean and pretty now so it was worth it. On a previous post I had a picture of Bash before the groomer. Below are pictures of Bash with her new hair-do. I love the new do!!!She was playing with Cinderella and some Happy Meal toys here.

Isn't she pretty? She is such a sweetheart and we love her so much!!!