Sightler Family Stuff

Cymax stores

2011-01-23T10:08:00.003-05:00

It has been a very long time since I have blogged and I'm thinking I am going to start up again. Since I last blogged, we have moved. We moved to a new town into a beautiful new home. We decided to buy new furniture for our new home. We only kept our kitchen table and chairs, Tom's recliner, Katie's bed, and our bed.

We decided to put our bed in the guest room and buy a Heavenly Bed. Tom and Brittanie stayed in a Westin Hotel in Washington DC that has Heavenly beds. Brittanie slept on the king sized bed and Tom slept on a roll away Heavenly bed. They both couldn't get over how awesome the beds were. Tom said that roll away bed was more comfortable than any bed he had ever slept on. That's amazing since roll away beds are notoriously horrible! So we bought the Heavenly bed from Amazon's Westin Home Store and then the search was on for a headboard. I wanted a black iron headboard. I found one I really liked at www.bedroomfurniturenmore.com, which is a Cymax store, and it had free shipping and came with a free bed frame. Sounds good, right? WRONG! The headboard came dented and scratched. Well that happens sometimes. So we thought we would just contact Cymax and get a replacement. Sounds simple, right? Well I called the customer service number as soon as they opened and the automated system said there was a large call volume and I could hold or leave my number for a call back. I decided to hold. I was kept on hold for 5 minutes and then disconnected. So I tried it again and once again was disconnected after holding 5 minutes. So I decided to try the call back feature. I entered my phone number and it started ringing. I was hopeful thinking that I would finally get someone to answer my call. I was wrong. The next thing I hear is a series of beeps and then "an error has occurred" and I was disconnected. I tried calling and using these two options numerous times and finally gave up and decided to try emailing them. I did email them, as well as filled out the form to report damaged items. It said I was supposed to receive email confirmation and be contacted to see what the next step was. I am sure it is no surprise that I haven't heard back from them. In the meantime, I googled Cymax (something I should have done before I placed an order with this horrible company!) and found that I am not the only one that experienced this nightmare when trying to get a replacement for a damaged item. We decided to contact Visa and place a claim to get our money back. That's when I remembered I paid for it with PayPal! I love PayPal! They are on top of everything and make sure vendors that use PayPal do what they are supposed to do. So I filed a dispute with PayPal and immediately escalated it to a claim. Right now we are waiting for Cymax to answer but I can't see them answering PayPal anymore than they answered me. If they don't answer, I win. At this point, I don't want a replacement. I just want my money back. If we were to accept a replacement and it came damaged as well, we would end up back to square one dealing with this nightmare company's (lack of) customer service! We went to Michaelis and bought a headboard and paid $50 less for it than the one I ordered!

I don't want this to happen to anyone else! That's why I decided to blog about it in hopes that it saves someone else the headache that we are experiencing in dealing with the nightmare of Cymax!!

On a more pleasant note, let me say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE our new Heavenly bed!!! It is by far the most comfortable bed I have ever slept on. For the first time in years, I am waking up and not feeling like I had taken a beating the night before. The only drawback is how high it is. I know that is the style and most people love it but I hate high beds. I am short and don't like climbing a ladder to get into bed. But that bed is so comfortable that it is worth the climb! I used to toss and turn all night long before. Now I barely move. It is firm yet hugs you! It is incredible!! From the business side, it was a great transaction. When I bought it, I was told it would take 3 to 5 weeks for delivery and was given January 31st through February 15th as the delivery dates. I was pleasantly surprised with it arrived 10 days early! I wish the delivery guys had removed the plastic for us but Tom and Randy were both here and took it off themselves. But I couldn't help but think what if I were a single woman, how would I get that plastic off?

I bought most things for our house online as I was shopping on a budget. I got some great deals! I found contemporary lamps, that I just love, from Lamps USA and didn't realize when I ordered them that they match the light fixtures that were in the house! What a great bonus that was! The only furniture left to come in is the new headboard and our new black La-Z-Boy leather furniture for the great room. I can't wait until everything is in and we can relax and enjoy our fully furnished house!

When we moved out of the old house, I threw away all of our old mismatched picture frames and decided to buy new black frames. We need 86 frames. We are having trouble finding 10x13 frames that aren't $13 a frame! We need 20 of them and I am not about to pay that much! So the search is still on. I found a great deal on 5x7s from Wal-Mart.com. Wish I could find that deal for the rest of the frames!

Before I close this blog, let me just remind you guys, NEVER buy anything from a Cymax store! They also sell things through Amazon, Sears, and Wal-Mart. So check before you buy through these sites that it isn't a Cymax product because according to their automated system, you have to call them if you buy Cymax products through these three sites as well!

Merry Christmas!! (a little late)

2009-12-28T17:34:00.002-05:00

I have become addicted to Facebook and totally ignored my blog. One of my friends, who is Facebook phobic, has encouraged me to update my blog so here I go!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. Tom's brother, his wife, and their daughter, Leah, came over. We ate, played Wii, and just had a great time visiting.

My laptop has recently crashed so I don't have pictures to post on here. So the next best thing I can do is post the link to the pictures that I uploaded on Facebook. Here are the pictures of Brittanie and Katie that we had taken at Portrait Innovations in Columbia. Christmas, 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas. We got alot of stuff and ate alot of food....turkey, cabbage and pork, cornbread dressing, corn on the cob, mac and cheese, rolls, and Mississippi Mud Pie.

What we got:

Tom: Madden 10 for the PS3 from Brittanie, Call of Duty Modern Warfare for the PS3, ticket to the Papa John's Bowl, Papa John's Bowl T-shirt, and tinting for his car from me, Tommy Hilfiger polo in Gamecock colors from his parents, red Izod polo from Jessica and Jonathan, navy Izod polo from my sister, Jeannette, bag of edible goodies from my sister, Rebecca, and her family.

Lynette: USC snow globe from Brittanie, 6 robes in different colors (LOVE THEM!!) and Victoria's Secret Dream Angels Heavenly perfume from Tom, an awesome hand painted Gamecock cookie jar from Jessica and Jonathan, personalized photo album from Tom's parents, Sisters snowman figurine from my sister, Aimee, and a pink tapestry Sisters bag from my sister, Rebecca.

Brittanie: 32in Sony Vizio flat panel HDTV, ticket to the Papa John's Bowl, Papa John's bowl T-shirt, and Silver Gamecock watch from Tom, Katie, and I, awesome handpainted Gamecock change glass and Gamecock robe from Jessica and Jonathan, Gamecock colored beaded bracelet from my sister, Jeannette, $30 from my sister, Rebecca, $100 and a personalized picture frame from Tom's parents, $40 from my niece, Tammie, silver Murano bead bracelet from Jesse and Melissa, and wireless mouse and stereo from Randy.

Katie: New bed, electric toothbrush, Super Mario Bros for Wii, Family Game Night 2 for the Wii, Carolina beat Clemson 34 to 17 T-shirt, Gamecock beanie, new pink Nintendo DS, and painting of her room from us, ICarly game for the Wii from Brittanie, remote controlled Bigfoot truck from Jonathan, Baby Alive from Jessica, ICarly comforter and sheet set from Tom's parents, silver bracelet from Jesse and Melissa, all 6 Beethoven movies from my sister, Rebecca, disco ball from my sister, Jeannette, $20 from my niece, Tammie, and 3 Zhu Zhu pet hamsters from my nephew, Randy.

Jesse and Melissa gave Tom and I a very cool huge new nonstick crockpot and a very nice 4-slice toaster that also toasts bagels. They are black so I was able to throw away my old beige crockpot with the broken knob and beige toaster, both of which we got as wedding gifts....almost 21 years ago!

It was a great Christmas!! The only thing that would have made it better is if Jonathan could have been here with us. Here are the pictures we took Christmas eve and Christmas day. Opening Presents

Katie has been asking us to paint her room because she is sick of the pink paint, which has been there since she was born. What she didn't realize is that I intend to give that room an entire make-over....starting with the bed. Tom took the waterbed down yesterday and she was NOT happy about that. She said, more than once, "WORST CHRISTMAS EVER!" But it is going to look great when it is all done. Until we get it painted, she is sleeping on the queen sized air mattress. She was unhappy that Brittanie got at 32 inch TV and she didn't but Brittanie passing down her old 19 inch TV made it tolerable. Katie had a 13 inch TV in her room so the 19 inch seems huge in comparison. I will post pictures when it is all done.

Saturday Tom and Brittanie are headed to Birmingham for the Papa John's Bowl. GO GAMECOCKS!! They are going to spend the night in Atlanta and spend the day seeing the sights of Atlanta on Sunday. Should be a fun trip!

Katie's 7th birthday

2009-11-02T09:52:00.005-05:00

Katie turned 7 on Friday but unfortunately she couldn't enjoy it. She has the flu. We had to cancel her party Saturday. We did let her open her presents when her fever was down a bit. She is doing better this morning. I gave her Ibuprofen at 1am and then went to bed. She woke me up at 5am to tell me that she was hungry and asked if she could have a sandwich. I told her yes but then she decided she wanted baby carrots and ranch dressing. She hasn't eaten much this weekend so whatever she feels like eating, I let her eat. She ate her carrots and went back to bed. Throughout the weekend, she would get Ibuprofen or Tylenol highs where she had no fever and felt great and would play some Wii games. That was fun. Here are some pictures of her opening her gifts Friday night. You can tell she doesn't feel well.
Air Hogs Jet from Jonathan. (Tom crashed the other one Jonathan sent her high up in a tree. He ordered it from Amazon and they sent two so now she has a spare if Tom crashes one in a tree! haha)
Jessica gave her an MP3 player and ear buds. She can't wait to get better so she can go skating while listening to her MP3 player. (I was very proud of myself. I ripped her CD's, changed them from .ogg format to MP3 format, and loaded them onto her MP3 player without one bit of advice from Tom!)
Kidz Bop 15 CD from Randy.
ICarly scooter from Grandma and Grandpa.
Tom and I gave her a Wii, Mario Kart for the Wii, an extra remote, extra nun-chuck, and double remote charger. Brittanie bought her an extra steering wheel for Mario Kart. She was VERY excited when she realized it was a Wii she was opening.
Randy also gave her a Ravman Raving Rabbids game. It is a weird game and a little too hard for her. But it was fun watching Brittanie play it.
Brittanie and Katie playing Mario Kart. Jessica was helping Katie.Katie's ICarly cake. It was beautiful and delicious! Susan is awesome! All of her cakes come out great!Katie didn't feel well enough to cut her cake on her birthday so we cut it Saturday instead. We didn't want her blowing on the whole cake since she has the flu. So we cut her piece and put candles in it. She only ate one bite. She just didn't feel well enough to eat it. But it was delicious!Jessica had to work Halloween night and her supervisor gave her a bag of candy and this IV of "Bloody punch" was in the bag.

We have a new Gamecock!!!

2009-10-28T06:17:00.005-05:00

Brittanie wouldn't pose for me! This is the best I could get. She cut the back of the envelope and put it on the back cover of her binder. Yep, she's a little excited!

I haven't updated lately because there really hasn't been much to report....until now! Brittanie applied to the University of South Carolina, main campus, on July 22nd. They were taking so long to tell her whether she got in or not that we decided to apply to USC-Aiken as a back-up. She found out within a week that she was accepted to USC-Aiken. So we knew no matter what, she would be taking nursing classes next semester. Well yesterday Tom walked in with the mail and he was holding a big envelope from USC's main campus and the back of the envelope had a big Gamecock on it that said "YES!" She was so excited that she ripped open that envelope and quickly read the letter. Tom and I were just as happy as she was. She has wanted to be a student at USC for years. She didn't get in as a freshman because she needed two foreign languages and only had one. It would have been nice for her high school guidance counselor to tell her that. She didn't apply for fall semester of her sophomore year because Midlands Tech was cheaper and there were still prerequisites available to her at Tech. She has taken all of the prerequisites she can at Tech so she needs to start taking nursing classes in the spring. We were pretty sure she would get in because she needed a 2.5 GPA (she had a 3.6 her freshman year and should be higher this semester) and she needs to have at least a C average in her science class. She is taking chemistry this semester and has a 98 average. So we knew she met the requirements but it was nerve wracking that it took so long to get a definite answer! We are going out to celebrate tonight!

Katie got her first real report card yesterday. She has made the A Honor Roll!! The teacher always puts a comment on the back of the report cards. Katie's teacher's comment was "Katie does very well in school. She is a hard worker and is very knowledgeable in many areas. I am so glad she is in my class!" She is right that Katie is very knowledgeable in many areas. She asks ALOT of questions and her daddy is always eager to answer them and explain things to her.

October 8th was Grandparents Day at Katie's school. They were told to dress like their same sex grandparent. Katie wanted a cane and a shawl like some of the girls in her class were going to use. I told her that her grandparents weren't that old! Tom's mom is a nurse. So I dressed her like a nurse. She had a real stethoscope that my little sister, Jeannette, gave her. Tom's mom pinned her hospital name tag on her and even let Katie wear the nursing cap and RN pin she got when she graduated nursing school. I don't have a picture of her with the cap and name tag but here is a picture of her before she left to go to school that day:
Katie has been excited about Halloween. She loves going Trick or Treating. Brittanie takes her every year and they have a good time. Well she heard about the Cayce/West Columbia Jaycees Haunted House and asked Brittanie to take her. Brittanie doesn't like being scared so she refused. So she climbed up on her daddy's lap and tried to convince him to take her. After Tom found out that there is an age limit and if you take her child in their anyway, you have to sign a waiver acknowledging that you won't get a refund when your kid goes screaming out of there, he told her no!

Katie loved Connect Four. She has been playing for over a year now and is really good at it. Tom was playing a few games with her and only half way paying attention to what he was doing and she beat him 3 games in a row. That's when he decided to put down his laptop and give his full attention to the game and she still beat him one time after that point. He gives her tips on how to improve her game. She is really an analytical thinker.
As smart as Katie is, she still makes bonehead decisions! Saturday night after she got out of the bathtub, she decided that her bangs were too long and were bothering her. Instead of telling me so I could schedule an appointment with our hairdresser, she grabbed Brittanie's scissors out of the bathroom drawer and gave her bangs a trim herself. They look awful! Brittanie noticed it first on Sunday morning. I asked Katie three times if she cut her own bangs. She lied all three times. So I took away her TV for a week for lying and took away her Nintendo DS for a week for cutting her own hair. I also made her wear her hair like that for at least a week until I could get an appointment with our hair dresser to fix it. Hopefully she will think twice before doing that again!

Omazing Grace???

2009-10-15T16:13:00.002-05:00

This video was so horrendous that I just had to share. The Bible says to make a joyful noise. I don't know about joyful but this is definitely noise!! hahaha

Omazing Grace

Update on Tom

2009-10-02T08:05:00.003-05:00

The rental car Enterprise gave him is a Dodge Avenger. He is NOT happy. He said that thing is a plastic car and he hates it. He is going to go back to Enterprise and trade it in for something else.

Tom's wreck

2009-10-01T13:02:00.004-05:00

Today, Tom was T-boned by an old man coming out of a gas station in Orangeburg as he was coming back to Columbia for a dentist appointment. The impact spun him around and turned him to face the other direction. Thankfully, he is ok but he is not happy that his beloved car is smashed. He just kept saying "I can't believe my car is smashed! It will never be the same again."

I did have to laugh at him because I went to Orangeburg to pick him up and he drove my van home. When we pulled into the garage, he pulled the key out and said, "I'm back to using a key! It's like stepping back into the stone age!" He is funny!

Tommunism!

2009-09-30T09:23:00.003-05:00

Ok so we are very unhappy with the current president. So we have decided that we are going to start our own country. It will be Tommunism! Want to join our country? Just let us know. We won't charge any taxes. The only requirement is that you are your own defense....arm yourselves! It will be our 1st ammendment....we are in the south afterall! Elected officials won't be paid. They will serve on the basis of wanting our Tommunist country to be the best it can be and that will be the only thing in it for them.

Want to join our country, just apply for citizenship with us. We reserve the right to refuse citizenship to people we feel wouldn't make proper contributions to our new society....like Clemson fans! hahahaha

PS before anyone calls the secret service....I am just joking!

Celebrating Brittanie's Birthday

2009-09-20T19:08:00.006-05:00

Brittanie is going to be 19 on the 25th of September. She is going to the beach next weekend so we decided to have a family celebration a week early. We all went to Yamato's Japanese Steakhouse in Irmo, which is her favorite restaurant.

No, Tom hasn't been hitting the saki. He was just intently watching the chef.

After we ate, we came home, opened presents, and ate cake.

She was very happy that she got cash for her birthday. That's always a great gift for teenagers! Katie made her a turtle out of a paper plate. It was cute. She was very excited to give that to Brittanie. Brittanie has been wanting a netbook for awhile because taking her laptop to class is inconvenient. The battery life stinks so she has to try to get near an outlet and sometimes she can't. Plus it is very heavy to carry around. We had her convinced that she was getting a little cheap black Acer. She has been dying for a red Dell Mini. Well that's what we gave her. In the picture above, she just realized it was red!!She was VERY excited!

She never dreamed Tom would pay the extra $40 for red! It was her birthday so he sprang for it but didn't neglect to point out that he thought it was stupid to charge $40 for a color.

We had a great time. Tom's parents came down, as well as his brother, Jesse, and his wife, Melissa, and their daughter/our beautiful niece, Leah. Melissa and Leah loved Brittanie's puppy, Jasper. Jasper barked and growled at Leah but she wasn't scared of him at all. She laughed and chased him and imitated his bark. Leah and Jessica were having fun with Jessica's camera.

She is so precious!!

We had a very good day. We don't get to see Jesse, Melissa, and Leah near enough so when we do get it see them, we enjoy every minute of it!

Brittanie was interviewed by Fox News!

2009-09-11T17:03:00.001-05:00

Brittanie attended the Joe Wilson rally this afternoon and was interviewed by Fox News! Hopefully her interview won't end up on the cutting room floor and we will get to see it tonight!!

House Hunting

2009-09-08T23:22:00.003-05:00

When Tom and I have free time, we hop in the car and ride around the Lexington, Irmo, and Chapin area looking for either a house or area we would like to move to. Jessica had the day off today, so she and I went riding through Chapin and I LOVE Chapin. But the more I talk to Tom, the more I realize that his pickiness is going make finding the right house impossible and he doesn't want to build....which I do.

Now this may sound stressful but it really hasn't been. Tom is actually very fun to shop around with. But tonight he had us all laughing at his reaction to my demand for a big tiled walk-in shower with no door. I showed him on the internet that it is a modern feature found in upscale homes. He doesn't care. He just kept saying "NO DOOR??? WHAT?" I tried to explain that there is no need for a door because the shower is 5ft long and the shower head is deep enough that water will NEVER get out of the doorway. He didn't care. He said that is just as bad as a clear walled shower. The more he talked about it, the funnier it became. He is hilarious!

Sunday we were riding in the Dutch Fork area and found Colony Ridge by Essex Homes. It is a very new development and they are preselling lots. I called today and found out that it starts at $170K and goes up to $220K. Tom said "Nope too cheap! That makes it too easy for undesirable people to move in." He wants twice that! I tried to get him to list our house for sale so that the first time buyers can use Obama money to buy our house before December 31st. He isn't ready to do that yet. It was worth a shot but I kinda knew he would poo-poo that idea.

I think whether he likes it or not, we are going to have to build our own home to our specs. It is so hard to find a nice house that meets our criteria, which are no screened in back porch, at least a half acre....prefer more, all brick, one story with a bonus room, two to three car garage, granite tile in kitchen and bathrooms, hardwood floors, open floor plan from the kitchen to the den, big walk-in tiled doorless shower and no tub in the master bath, etc. I have picked out a blueprint that I love. But no matter which way we go, I am really enjoying the house hunting process with Tom. He is so fun.

Here is a home that Jessica and I found out in Chapin that I would love to have but Tom poo-pooed living close to a golf course! But this gives a general idea of what kind of house we are looking for.

Family Weirdness

2009-08-31T08:44:00.003-05:00

Last week everyone was just goofy. I can't explain it but I definitely enjoyed it. One day, Tom came home from work and was picking on everyone....including Jessica. I have posted pictures on my blog of Tom trying not to let Jessica touch him or get near him. Well this night, he was the polar opposite. He sat between Jessica and I on the sofa and was pushing on her and cutting up. So much so that I threw Brittanie the camera, since she was sitting on the floor across the room from them, and she took some pictures. After the first picture, Tom put his hands over Jessica's face and said "Don't want you to break the camera." We were all enjoying his goofy side....we don't see Tom being goofy very often.

A couple of days later, I went in the bathroom to find this. That's Katie's wash cloth that she bathed with stuck to the wall. Why?? Tom and Jessica both said they used to do that too when they were kids. I didn't. I just found it strange. (By the way, excuse the ugly yellow 70's tile. It is on the upgrade list! We hide it with the Gamecock shower curtain.)

Happy Monday!

2009-08-31T08:03:00.003-05:00

I know it is Monday but I'm declaring that this is going to be a good day anyway! Katie is feeling better. Tom is feeling better (or he is really good at faking it so I will stop telling him to go to the doctor). Brittanie is about to start her second week of her sophmore year of college. Randy had hernia surgery Thursday and is doing great. Life is good!

Tom and I have been really proud of the effort Brittanie is putting into her classes. She straight out told Randy that while she is in school, he is not her first priority. She is excited about her classes....even BioChem. She isn't thrilled with Developmental Psychology because it is focused on children and Brittanie doesn't like children. But she says her teacher does tell stories about mental disorders that Brittanie finds very interesting so it all works out. Her History class starts with the Civil War....which she loves. (She is a South Carolina girl after all!) She has applied to USC for the spring semester. She has a 3.6GPA from her Freshman year so hopefully that will get her in. The waiting is tough!! I will update when we hear from them. I am worried that they won't approve her until they find out what she makes in BioChem since she has no science classes her first year and she is applying as a nursing major. Guess we will see!

Katie is liking school. Her teacher is very nice. She has had nothing but good teachers at Grace. I took her to the doctor this summer and had her evaluated for ADHD and her doctor agreed with me that she definitely needs treatment. He tried her on Adderall, which hurt her stomach. So then he put her on a Daytrana patch. It helped but after a week, he upped her dose and it is perfect!! Her manners, which I always knew she had, are now being used. Her handwriting is tremendously better. She can now focus on tasks. I have been very pleased. Tom was against medicating her. But he wasn't the one with her all summer while she was driving me crazy. Even though he was against it, he agreed to let her give it a try. At first he didn't like it. He missed his ball of energy. But last Monday we were running late and I forgot to put her patch on her before school. That night after just a couple of hours with her, he told me not to forget her patch again. He missed the calm Katie. haha Another great side effect is that she isn't begging for food 24/7. When she isn't on the patch, she has an obsession with food and wants to plan her meals and snacks in advance and watches the clock (cuz I won't let her graze all day) to know when she can eat again. While on the patch, we have to make her eat. Brittanie has taken her to the mall twice and came home and told me Katie was perfect! She had absolutely NO complaints. That's amazing because Brittanie hated taking Katie places because she was hyper and got on Brittanie's nerves. Katie even says she likes her patch because she doesn't get fussed at near as much. It was the best thing we could have done!!

I almost forgot! Katie had her first library class Tuesday. She checked out a book for the first time. I was impressed with her choice. Let's hope the book helps!

Out of the mouth of babes

2009-08-30T17:41:00.002-05:00

It is no secret to those that know me that I'm not particularly fond of old people. I guess Katie has picked up on that because today she told Tom that he can't go to the store because there are old people there and old people carry diseases! She cracks me up!!!

Tom has been sick for 3 weeks and refused to go to the doctor. Well this week, it got really bad and he started taking left over antibiotics that we had in the medicine cabinet and Tylenol Cold. This weekend, he looks like death and still refusing to go to the doctor. He is weak and feverish....and totally annoying! I have heard wives complain about their husbands being big babies when they are sick. Tom is the complete opposite of that. He says he is sick not helpless and flat out refuses to let me pamper him. He went to take off the trash today and came home exhausted. Then he decided that he HAD to go to the store. He is really wiped out from that. He claims he is going to work. Mr. "Don't call in, crawl in" just thinks he is going to work tomorrow. I'm scared for him to drive all that way as weak as he is. He has been laying down off and on all weekend. You can't do that at work....not to mention he will get everyone at work sick too. I am going to try to get him to go to the doctor Monday. Why are men so stubborn??

Katie's first day of 1st grade!!

2009-08-17T06:48:00.004-05:00

Today, our baby started 1st grade. It is hard to believe that she is old enough to be in 1st grade. We went to Open House Friday night and found out that Katie's teacher taught Tom in 5th grade when he was at Grace! She has had great teachers so far and we are feeling great about her having a seasoned teacher this year. She is going to learn alot and do great!I hate the dress code but it is a great school academically so we just have to deal with it.

My true Gamecock Fan!!

She is very excited that she no longer has to use the ugly plain little bags that the Kindergarten gives everyone and requires they use. She LOVES her Gamecock bookbag. What can I say...the girl has great taste!!!

I cook breakfast for our girls on their first day of school every year. The rest of the year if they want breakfast at all, they usually eat cereal in milk. But on the first day of school they get to choose the breakfast they want me to cook. Katie made it easy on me and chose blueberry Eggo waffles and apple cinnamon oatmeal....we use the Quaker instant oatmeal packets and nuke that in the microwave. I put her milk in Brittanie's light up bottomed Bubba Gump Shrimp Company cup. She turned the light off so she could see the strobe effect better and wanted me to take a picture. We sat at the table and talked. I really enjoyed it. Right after she finished eating, she grabbed one of her new shoes and brought it in the kitchen to see which one was brighter, the lights on the cup or the lights on her shoes. The shoes won. Tom said the teacher is going to hate those shoes by the end of the year! Oh well, Katie LOVES them! Both of my girls have had light up shoes before but the lights on these are by far the brightest I have ever seen. They are called headlights! They are Skechers, which was the brand Katie asked for. She wanted Twinkle Toe Skechers. After I looked at them, I refused to buy them. They are ugly. They look like they were designed by 60's flower children. No way! These are much better! They are princess shoes for my little princess! I just can't get over how style conscious she is at just 6 years old! She is going to be a little diva very early!

After I took all the pictures I wanted to take, my little ham requested I take two more pictures.

Here is the first one: And the second one I told her may look cool to her now but I WILL be showing it at her wedding. hehehe

Date night!!

2009-07-30T11:18:00.002-05:00

Tom and I don't get nearly enough alone time. Brittanie and Katie fight so much that we don't like to have Brittanie babysit much. Randy had the day off yesterday and I knew he would be with Brittanie if she babysat Katie. Randy is MUCH more patient than Brittanie is. So date night was set! Tom and I went to The Crab Shack in Lexington and it was delicious....as always. He offered to take me to a movie that I have been wanting to see (The Ugly Truth) but Tom is not really a movie person and this was a chick flick...which definitely wasn't his thing. So I told him I would rather just ride around and talk. I am so glad we did that. It was so nice to be able to talk in peace. We love Katie but she is so hyper that she drains your energy and when Tom gets home, she is so excited that she is stuck to him like glue. It was nice to have him all to myself. We ended up driving down Highway 1 all the way into Aiken (passing The Big Mo in Monetta along the way!!). When we got there, we started a hunt for Bruster's Ice Cream. When we finally found it, it was closed and for sale. So we just went to Sonic for ice cream then took the long way home.

I just love Aiken. It is such a pretty city. I wish Tom's company had more IT stuff in Aiken. It would be a great place for us to move to! I don't know what their public schools are like but I know there are good Christian schools in Aiken and Augusta to choose from....as opposed to where we are now having a horrible public school district and only one affordable Christian school to choose from. Oh well I'm dreaming but we scoped out a couple of places to eat on our next date night!

Katie's first trip to Carowinds!!

2009-07-22T20:52:00.002-05:00

Tom took Katie to her first trip to Carowinds today. Brittanie and Randy went with them. Katie has been begging to go to Carowinds for 3 years but we knew she wouldn't be able to ride anything big, which is what she was dying to do, until she was 48 inches tall. Well this year, she is 49 inches and begging to go!

She road Thunder Road 3 times, the Hurler 3 times, Carolina Cobra twice, and the Carolina Cyclone once....as well as alot of other rides. The wilder the ride, the more she liked it. Tom said her first adult coaster was Thunder Road. It was also Brittanie's first adult coaster when she was little. Brittanie got mad at Tom back then because he told her it wasn't bad but she found it really scary. Tom was looking forward to seeing what Katie's reaction would be because she is naturally braver than Brittanie was. When Thunder Road started moving, Katie grabbed onto the bar and stared wide eyed in front of her....and that's how she stayed the entire ride. Tom said it was like she was in shock. He had trouble getting her out of the car after the ride was over because she appeared to be catatonic. Walking away she initially refused to go back on it. But after she got 10 to 15 feet away, she told Tom she loved it and wanted to do it again. So back in line they went!

She had a great time and can't wait to go back. When they got home, I looked down at her shoes and noticed that they were on the wrong feet. We have been letting her do her own shoes since she learned how to tie her shoes. Tom even tied one of the shoes this morning that she was having trouble double knotting. He didn't notice anything different. She had been complaining that her feet were bothering her. Brittanie and Randy were laughing at the way she was walking but none of them thought to check to see why because she is a drama queen so they thought it was just Katie being a drama queen again. Nope.....her shoes were on the wrong feet all day! Tom felt bad that when he realized that but she has no blisters or anything and it is her own fault for being so whiny butt all the time. If she never complained, they would have taken this complaint seriously. But I think when school starts I'm going to paint each big toe a different color and put that color under the shoe that corresponds with the foot, that has the matching toe, that it goes on.

When they got home, everybody took showers and Katie hopped up on Tom's lap to tell him goodnight and thank him for taking her to Carowinds. She had a great day and was worn slap out! (You can tell by this picture that she adores her daddy!!)As you can see in the pictures, Katie had sunscreen on today....Tom did not. He thinks sunscreen is for girls. Have mercy!!Here they are being silly!

Tom now has a new roller coaster buddy to ride with him since Brittanie is older and has Randy to ride with her. Next on the agenda is Hershey Park to ride their newest roller coaster. Brittanie has been dying to go and Katie is excited at the thought as well!

Catchin up...again

2009-07-20T22:13:00.012-05:00

I absolutely loved having my sisters here. I miss them so much now that they have gone back home.

The day after we went to Savannah, Jeannette, Jessica, and I went to Greenville and ate at Joe's Crab Shack. It was fun but just a tip....don't order the Orleans. That is NOT what crawfish is supposed to taste like. It was awful. I ate mine anyway with ketchup and Tabasco because I haven't had any crawfish in over 2 years and who knows when I will have some again. But Jeannette lives down there and knows she can have good crawfish anytime so she didn't eat hers. I also am not at all a fan of seasoning sprinkled on the outside of the shell. All that does is burn your lips and makes it impossible to taste the flavor of the seafood you are eating. But the shrimp were really good. I just peeled all of my shrimp, then wet napped my hands and ate them with a fork to avoid burning my lips off with that cayenne pepper. The service was great. I enjoyed watching them dance every 15 minutes to the music and the disco lights. That was really neat. We stopped in the gift shop on the way out and Jeannette bought Brittanie a T-shirt that said "Joe's Crab Shack." I bought Brittanie a black shirt that had HUGE letters that spelled out "CRABBY" and little letters under it that said "Joe's Crab Shack." I wanted to buy Katie a shirt but the only kid's shirt they had displayed a peace sign on it. I have my own personal beliefs about the peace sign and thus I skipped the shirt and bought her a beach towel since she is swimming so much this summer.
For dessert, Katie got a crab shaped Rice Krispie treat and caramel, chocolate, and strawberry sauce on a palate with a paint brush for her to paint it. She loved it!!
The next day, we went to northeast Columbia and took pictures at Portrait Innovations. The pictures came out great. I am going to take Brittanie and Katie there for Christmas pictures. The whole thing took an hour and a half and we left with the pictures in hand. It was great!! Here is the picture of my sisters. Nope not putting my picture on here. Sorry!

Thursday night, we met up with Frank, Lynn, their daughter, Rhiannon, and my friend, Jenn, at Catch 22 in Irmo to eat and watch Jenn's husband, Red, sing. We had a great time. Between Red and Jessica, we were laughing all night long. Here is a video of Red doing Elvis and Willie Nelson at the same time. It was pretty funny!!

Jeannette and Jessica were feeling REAALLLLYYYY good by the end of the night. I don't know who did it (my guess is Jessica since she was sitting behind me) but one of those nut balls braided my hair while I was driving home.
I was sad to see them leave Friday morning but I know they had to get back to work and we had to get back into our normal routine. It was way too quiet after they left. We had had someone visiting in the house everyday since June 9th. When the last two left on July 10th, it was kinda lonely. But you can't stay on vacation forever!

The day before my sisters went home, the washer finally died and the dryer was starting to need two cycles to dry our clothes. So Tom ordered a new front loading washer/dryer set from Sears. It came this past Saturday. Unfortunately, the dryer has two dents in the side so they are going to have to replace it. In the meantime, the fluorescent light fixture in our kitchen went out. I was thrilled. I have been wanting to replace it since we redid the kitchen but Tom was putting it off. Saturday he went to Lowe's and bought a new vent hose for the new dryer and new track lighting for the kitchen. I LOVE IT!! Now I'm looking forward to getting rid of the ceiling fan in the kitchen and replacing it with hanging track lighting over the table.

We are down to just a month until Brittanie and Katie go back to school. Katie is going to miss jumping in the pool everyday.I have no idea why she ALWAYS has her mouth open. She's a nut!!
She tans so easily (even with SPF 60 on her). She has very white tan lines. It is amazing how fast she tanned and never burned! I know Brittanie is going to miss all the free time. Won't be long before she is going to be glued to her Chemistry book!! In the meantime, she is just enjoying her puppy, Jasper, that Randy gave her. We love Jasper....even though Tom would never admit that he likes Jasper. Tom has never liked small dogs...only big muscular dogs like Rotties. But Jasper is so adorable, it is hard not to like him. Jasper loves Katie's knee pads and elbow pads that she wears to rollerblade. Here is a video of Jasper and Katie playing with them.

The biggest news is that my wonderful godson, Jonathan, is back in Iraq. This is his 3rd tour. It was soooooo hard to say goodbye to him when he left on June 29th. I wanted to freeze his face in my memory. Actually what I really wanted to do is lock him upstairs forever so he couldn't go. But he is a true soldier. He would never go AWOL....no matter how much I beg. So all I can do now is pray and ask everyone to pray that he, and all other deployed soldiers, come home safe and sound. The one silver lining is that his time in Germany is up in December so as soon as possible after he gets back from Iraq, he comes back to the states! *HAPPY DANCE* I'm very excited!! Even though he hates being called a hero, he will always be a hero in my eyes!!

This n that

2009-07-07T08:36:00.008-05:00

As you can probably tell by my lack of posts, I have been really busy in the last month. Jonathan flew in June 9th for block leave and left June 29th. I LOVED having him here. I have missed him so much. It was so hard saying goodbye because he is deploying for his 3rd tour in Iraq in just a couple of weeks. I'm never more close to God than when Jonathan is in Iraq. I pray for him numerous times a day when he is there. I can't wait till his tour is done and he is back home. If he never saw combat again, I would be the happiest person alive! On June 28th, my little sisters came for a visit. I am really enjoying their visit. I don't get to see them nearly enough.

That's Paula's husband behind the buffet bar!

Yesterday, we went to Savannah, GA. I have never been there before. We got there at 10:30am and went straight to Paula Deen's restaurant, Lady and Sons, to put our name on the list for a table. If we had gotten there any later, we wouldn't have been able to eat there. We got the last time slot of 2:30. I have only watched bits and pieces of her show and am not a fan of country cooking but my sister, Aimee, was real excited to go because she is a huge fan of Paula Deen. We had 4 hours to kill so we rode around Savannah soaking in the atmosphere. Savannah is like a combination of Charleston and Aiken....both beautiful places. Jeannette dropped us all off and Jessica went to get the card to get into the dining room but since Aimee was in a wheelchair and I was pushing her, they let us in without the card to wait in the waiting room. While sitting in the waiting room, Paula Deen came out of the kitchen and walked just a foot away from us and said "Hey yall!" to everyone in the room, then went to her cut out and said "I like this picture! Don't yall like this picture?" Call us dorks but Aimee and I got VERY excited! Well Jessica came in and got us to go to our table with Jeannette soon to follow as soon as she got a parking place. While we were sitting at our table soaking in the atmosphere, Jessica spotted Paula's husband at the buffet. She grabbed her camera and asked him if she could have her picture taken with him. He was very nice and said yes. Jessica must have gone around there 100 times and even saw one of the sons! It was so cool. Aimee got fried shrimp. Jessica and Jeannette got the buffet. The buffet was just country crap so I didn't want any of that. So I ordered a crabcake burger. I love crabcake and have had it at many different places. I have to say this was by far the best crabcake I have ever eaten and it was HUGE! I couldn't stop going "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!" while I was eating it! For dessert, we had a little bowl of chocolate chip ooey gooey cake. That was awesome too! Paula looked like she had been cooking all morning in that hot kitchen.
We had such a wonderful time in Savannah. Jessica kept us laughing and on the way home, she was bouncing off the walls hyper in the van and was taking pictures of everything. There is never a dull moment with Jessica! Ya gotta love her!!

Jess and my lil sister, Aimee (above)
Jess and my little sister/our chauffeur, Jeannette.

Fort Jackson

I hate suspension bridges. This is the suspension bridge over the Savannah River. It looked like a big scary bird to me!

Katie has a new haircut

2009-06-04T21:20:00.003-05:00

We are trying, once again, to give Katie a new shorter hairstyle. The last time it was so frizzy that we had to let it grow out. This time, we cut it into layers and after she washed it, we noticed just blowing it dry got the frizz out. But in case it doesn't, Jessica sold me her InStyler. Katie was so excited when she saw it. She has seen commercials for it and she is a sucker for commercials. So it thrilled her that we actually had what she saw on the commercial.

We had 8 inches of hair cut and we are donating it to Locks of Love. I wanted to take pictures of her with her new haircut but she wouldn't stop making goofy faces.
After she took a bath, I took a picture...
then we dried it and I took another picture...with a forced angry smile. She is something else. This picture was taken right before Brittanie took her to see a movie.

I'm 40!!!

2009-06-01T03:54:00.005-05:00

Thanks to everyone who sent me e-cards and facebook comments, as well as texts, wishing me a happy 40th birthday. I had a great day! I celebrated at Carolina Wings in West Columbia with Tom, Katie, Brittanie, Randy (he wasn't drinking...it is just bad timing),
Jessica, Jenn Fraley, and Frank and Lynn Eargle. Our waiter was the worst, but the food and the company were great!! I had the best night! I don't have any pictures of myself on here. I put them on myspace so I can control who sees them.

My wonderful husband gave me an AWESOME birthday present....a Samsung Impression. I have been looking forward to getting rid of my old cell phone and getting a new one. Well he bought me exactly the one I wanted and I LOVE it!!

Katie's K5 graduation

2009-06-01T02:35:00.009-05:00

I have become addicted to Farm Town on Facebook so I haven't been updating my blog like I should. But it is time to catch up!

On May 21st, Katie graduated from K5 at Grace Christian School. I asked Melissa's sister-in-law to make Katie's cake since she did such an outstanding job on Tom's birthday cake. Well she outdid herself. It was a very cool looking cake and tasted GREAT! I loved it!! Tom's parents brought it to our house early so we ate cake before graduation. Katie loved it!!After cake, it was on to the ceremony!
She was bored waiting for Mr. J to get to S so it would be her turn to go up and get her diploma.It's official! Now on to 1st grade!!

After graduation, we went to Katie's favorite restaurant, Ruby Tuesday, so she could have the mac and cheese she loves so much. We were very touched at how many people came to see Katie graduate and went out to eat with us afterwards. Tom's parents came from Spartanburg and his brother and his family came from Rock Hill....on a Thursday night. We love our family!

Brittanie and Jessica waiting for graduation to start. I loved this picture so I had to include it!!

We took 3 short videos. The one of Katie getting her diploma is so cute because she wasn't used to walking in heels and she is walking very carefully, especially coming down the steps.

My birthday present!

2009-05-21T07:47:00.003-05:00

Tuesday is my 40th birthday. My wonderful husband gave me my birthday gift a little early because I have been dying to have it for so long. He gave me a Samsung Impression. I LOVE IT!! It is the coolest phone I have ever owned.

ewwwwwwwww

2009-05-19T14:25:00.002-05:00

I am going to sound like a commercial but I'm going to say it anyway. You know those commercials that talk about spots on your dishes that are washed in the dishwasher. I have seen those for years but have never seen spots on our dishes in the 15 years we have had a dishwasher.....until today. I always thought the people with spots must just have hard water or something. We have great water here in Gaston so it was never a concern. I have always used Cascade. Well I ran out of Cascade and used some Electrosol packs that Brittanie bought from Dollar Tree when she lived in her apartment. I unloaded my dishwasher this morning and my dishes were covered with icky spots. It was disgusting because I am now wondering what the heck left the spots. Is it food residue or soap scum? I'm chunking the rest of the Electrosol and making sure I keep my Cascade in the house from now on.

Good weekend!

2009-05-18T19:30:00.002-05:00

We all spread out in different directions this weekend.

Friday, Brittanie and Randy left for their weekend in Greenville. They attended the Greenville Crawfish Boil. There were alot of bands there that they loved. Brittanie thought the crawfish were really good for South Carolina....meaning they weren't Cajun crawfish but they will do. She said they were actually seasoned, unlike the ones you get at the Rosewood Crawfish Festival in Columbia. But they were expensive. The 1lb box was $12! You will never find prices that high in Louisiana! But Brittanie liked the crawfish so much, she wants to get the company that catered the affair, Catering Cajun out of Atlanta, to cater her wedding. I told her we would definitely look into that. They got back Sunday afternoon tired but with lots of stories to tell. They had a great weekend. Brittanie really enjoyed being away from Gaston.

Saturday, Tom, Katie, and our friend, Frank, went to the Beaufort Air Show in Beaufort, SC. Katie LOVES jets. So she was in heaven. She had a blast and couldn't stop talking about the Blue Angels. She told me she wants to fly with the Blue Angels one day! Tom didn't think the sun was that bad but they both came back sunburnt. Fortunately for them, they have an olive complexion so by the next day, the red was replaced by a very nice tan. They are so lucky. Brittanie and I are just about albino and burn very easily! Anyway, Katie asked me today when she will get to go to another air show. I told her Shaw has theirs in September and Daddy will take her, I'm sure. So she is really looking forward to that.

While Tom and Katie were at the Air Show with Frank, Frank's wife (who is also my best friend) and their daughter stayed here at our house and we watched movies. We had a really good time. I haven't seen her since before our kitchen project started, so I really missed her! We are having Pictionary night again on the 30th. Can't wait!!

Field Day!

2009-05-15T06:42:00.002-05:00

Today is Field Day at Grace but because the kindergarteners are really too little to compete in the games, they take each class somewhere special. Katie's class is going to the zoo and then to the park to have lunch. Well I bought her a Grace Field Day shirt. It is gold. When she brought it home two days ago, she and Brittanie had an argument over what color the shirt actually was. Brittanie said it was yellow. Katie said it was orange and she didn't want to wear orange. My little Clemson hater never ever wants to be seen in orange.

Well because of the stupid dress code, I had to buy her Bermuda shorts because it was the only shorts that were long enough to be in dress code. Well she isn't used to wearing shorts that long. So this morning when she got dressed for school, she was not at all happy to have to put on an orange shirt with long white shorts. She said the shorts were too long (they were to the top of the knee) and didn't match her shirt. Tom and I both told her that white matches everything! But she was still not happy and refused to let me take her picture. Tom tickled her and tried to lighten her up so she relented and agreed to let me take a picture but she refused to smile. So I didn't take her picture at all.

How can a 6-year-old have so much attitude???

The things kids say!

2009-05-11T14:53:00.002-05:00

After Katie got home from school today, she asked me if Tom and I were the same age. I told her that I'm 11 months older than Tom. She said, "That's great!" I asked why that was great. She said, "Cuz I LOVE old people!" Have mercy! Now I'm an "old person!"

It is FINALLY finished!!

2009-05-10T19:41:00.005-05:00

Katie made this plate for me for Mother's Day, as well as a book of drawings. Tom and our girls are so wonderful, they make everyday Mother's Day!Saturday, Tom's dad helped Tom rip out the old counter tops and install the new counter tops. Try as I might, I was unable to convince Tom not to cut the hole for the stove. I was perfectly willing to make the sacrifice of never cooking again. But he wouldn't let me make that sacrifice. hehehe For now, it is done! Later on we will be changing the sink, faucet, and light fixtures. But I think Tom needs to relax and not think about that kitchen for awhile. He worked ALL day today cutting the hole for the stove, installing the stove, painting the line all around the kichen because the new backsplash on the countertops is lower than the old one, plus touch up painting the white speckles left by the guy who painted our cabinets. He had to go to Wal-Mart and then Lowe's and get a little more cranberry paint. Once he finished all of that, he cleaned up the big mess, went to the store, and he looks totally exhausted. But he did a GREAT job on our kitchen. I'm so proud of him! So here are the pictures!

Coming into the kitchen from the living room.I think the pictures are too high on the wall but I was outruled by Tom and Brittanie.

With the exception of the pulls on the cabinet doors, which Jessica did, Tom did EVERYTHING in this kitchen.

I need to put more stuff on this wall.Oven and microwave with my pot holder and oven mitt handy!Our Gamecock Utility Room.

Yes I know my trash can is huge but there are 5 people in this house. We make ALOT of trash. We don't want to have to deal with the trash 40 times a day with the smaller kitchen cans.

Gamecock clock and Gamecock welcome mat!

Dean's List again!!

2009-05-07T01:08:00.003-05:00

Brittanie took her last final Tuesday and all of her grades were posted today. She made the Dean's List again!

English II: B (She is protesting that one. She is going to bring all of her papers and tests, which were all 100's. She thinks she earned an A.)
Political Science: A
Econ: A
Psychology: A
Computer Science: B (Go figure!)

Her GPA this semester (before she protests the English grade) is a 3.6. (Just like last semester!)

In the fall, she will start taking classes that are prerequisites to her nursing degree, like Anatomy and Biology. I sure hope she keeps her grades this high next year. If she does, it will be a snap to get into USC for her Jr. Year. We are so proud of her!!

Katie's K5 graduation pictures are in!

2009-05-05T16:41:00.002-05:00

She lost a tooth an hour after this picture was taken.

Tom's 39th birthday celebration

2009-05-02T21:51:00.005-05:00

Today we officially celebrated Tom's birthday. Tom grilled steaks and we had his parents, his brother and his brother's wife, beautiful daughter, and his brother's nieces on his wife's side of the family over to celebrate with us. We had a wonderful day. I love talking to my sister-in-law, Melissa. I love seeing my beautiful niece, Leah. It was a perfect day!

Melissa's sister-in-law makes delicious cakes that look great. She made Leah's cakes for her 1st birthday and Tom said it was the best cake he had ever tasted. So I asked Melissa to ask her sis-in-law to make Tom's cake for me. Tom was so anxious to eat it, he cut it before we could get a picture! It was delicious and smelled good and looked great. Check it out:We had a great time playing with Leah. She is growing like a little weed! She is such a happy baby. At one point, Katie gave her a toy dog to play with. Tom was playing with her and tried to take it from her. She grabbed onto it with both hands and was pulling to make sure he didn't take it from her. It was so adorable!!I asked Melissa to bring her niece with them because Katie enjoyed playing with her at Leah's birthday party. She brought both nieces and they had a great time. They jumped on the trampoline, played with the hose, got dirty, fought and made up, etc. I asked Katie if she enjoyed her day with Gracie and Emma, she said "Definitely!"

Tom's parents were the last to leave and Katie jumped on Tom's dad's shoulders. He was picking at her acting like he was going to shake her off. She holds on tight. Tom had to peel her off of him when they got ready to leave and she was trying to take his head with her. She is so tough!

It was great to be able to use my kitchen again. It is almost done. We still have to install the counter tops. Lowe's called Thursday and said they were in but we haven't picked them up yet. We have to borrow a truck and trailer from Tom's cousin to pick it up. Tom is determined to install it himself. He is going to paint the plywood that he put under the washer and dryer also. Then we will be done!! He used appliance paint and spray painted the oven door, which had an ugly 70's burnt orange color, and the dishwasher door, which had a beige door. His dad thought we bought a new oven. Tom did a great job painting it!
I'm posting a picture of the oven and dishwasher so you can see how great it looks but not posting any other pictures until the kitchen is completely finished.

You heard it here first!

2009-05-01T15:29:00.003-05:00

A car has been hit by a train in Gaston. The driver, who had her children in the car, claims that her car stalled on the tracks. Thankfully she and the children all escaped without serious injury. One of the children was hit by the guard rail in the hip and has a big bruise. But that's something minor compared to what could have happened.

Jessica was in the area and took pictures with her cell phone.

Mixed reactions

2009-04-29T05:25:00.002-05:00

I mentioned in my previous post that I love my table and chairs. Jessica hates it....she doesn't like black. She is more of a brown person and I absolutely hate brown. Different strokes for different folks. Brittanie doesn't like the table because she said it looks like paneling on top. That is what I like about the table. It gives it style. Tom got home and initially said he liked it then I told him what Brittanie said and he said he didn't really care for that either. You can't please everyone so when it comes to the table and chairs, I'm fine with being the only one pleased. :-)

Jessica went with me to pick up Katie from school yesterday and we rode around several places in Lexington that I wanted to see in the daytime. She showed me the castle home off of Old Chapin Road. That was neat to see but I wouldn't want a house like that. But right past the castle house was a subdivision that I really liked but unfortunately no homes for sale in there. But Tom and I have pretty much decided to stick to the 5 year plan we originally had. Brittanie will be graduated by then and maybe even married. That will give us plenty of time to upgrade the rest of the house and landscape the yard. By then hopefully the economy will be back to normal and we can get top dollar for our house. We won't stop looking for areas we would like to live and keep our eyes open for a good deal. I love the 378 area headed towards Gilbert. Tom said last night that would make it easier for him to get to work as he could go the back way through Pelion. That's also in the Lexington 1 school district, which is what we would like to stick with. I have to admit that waiting 5 years is going to be tough because I love house shopping and am looking forward to moving. But in the meantime, I will be able to enjoy the upgrades we do to our present home.

Things are finally going right

2009-04-28T11:23:00.002-05:00

Haverty's delivered my table and chairs today. They are even nicer in person than in the picture. I LOVE the table especially! I can't wait to see it in our new kitchen!! For the time being it is in the formal dining room. Cogdill called this morning and told me they will be out here in the morning between 9 and 10 to install the floor. That makes me so happy. A table and chairs are alot easier to move than a huge refrigerator....which is coming Thursday!

After this week, the last thing will be the counter tops, which will be here May 14th. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!!

Great night

2009-04-28T10:16:00.003-05:00

Last night Tom, Brittanie, Katie, Randy, and I went to O'Charley's in Lexington to celebrate Tom's birthday. We had a good time. After we ate, Brittanie and Randy headed home and Tom, Katie and I went exploring in Lexington. It was dark but when you house hunt, you should really check out a neighborhood at night to see how well lit it is, as well as if there are undesirables walking the streets....at least that is my main concern. We rode through Vista Springs and it is a gorgeous neighborhood. Of course I want the biggest house in the neighborhood. We rode around several places including going to Hammock Bay, which he wasn't as impressed with as Brittanie and I were. On the way back from Hammock Bay, we saw a sign that said "To I-20." Tom wanted to see where that went. We used to do that all the time....just take a road and see where we come out. I love exploring with him! He is a human GPS so we are never really lost. Last night, he wasn't sure where he was. We passed by Michelin and US Food Service and he decided the road we were on ended up in Red Bank. To me, we were headed in the wrong direction but, again, he is the human GPS and was right. When we got to Red Bank, Brittanie called me. She didn't have her house key. I told her she would have to wait. That ended our exploring unfortunately.

After we got home, Brittanie badgered Tom to cut the cookie. He didn't want any but she wasn't cutting HIS cookie. So he grumbled a bit and went and cut it for her. Then Jessica got home and we went into redneck mode. We played the "What weird thing can you do" game. Jessica showed us how her jaw pops in and out and told me to feel her cheek when she did it. Then she jumped up and went to Tom and told him to feel her cheek. Tom doesn't touch anyone but me, Brittanie, and Katie. He may make exceptions occasionally like he loves our niece, Leah, so of course she is exempt from the "don't touch me" rule. But Jessica doesn't fall into that category. He loves her...like all of us do....but she isn't exempt. She said "Put your hand on my cheek!" He said "No. I'm not a touchy feely person." Anyone who knows Jessica knows she is going to have fun with this one. She kept getting closer and closer to him while he pulled away. He even threatened to spit on her, knowing she HATES spit. It was so funny that I had to take pictures!

Happy 39th Birthday, Tom!

2009-04-27T16:20:00.003-05:00

We are having a family celebration with Tom's parents, his brother and his wife, and our beautiful niece, Leah on Saturday. But we couldn't let this day go by without at least a little celebration. So I ordered him a football field cookie cake. I didn't realize at the time that it was HUGE. So we are going to send the rest of that big thing to work with him tomorrow (he was off today) so that he can share it with his coworkers....even the Clemson fan. ;-)

When Tom saw the cookie, we sang happy birthday to him and he was smiling. Well Katie got mad because she thought he liked the cookie more than the two drawings she made for him. He hauled her over to his recliner and sat her on his lap and explained to her that he liked her drawings better than anything because she made them herself.Tonight we are going to O'Charley's so Tom can get his birthday blackened prime rib. Going to be a good end to an unproductive day!

update on flooring

2009-04-27T12:13:00.002-05:00

Unfortunately I was right.....there wasn't enough flooring. They are going to have to order more and reschedule the installation. This is so frustrating. I am so ready for this project to be OVER! We really needed this floor to be installed today because the table and chairs will be delivered tomorrow and the fridge is coming Thursday. I'm not about to change the delivery dates on the table and fridge. We will just have to deal with having the new fridge in the garage and the table and chairs in the dining room until the floor is done.

Another annoying thing is that I had just about convinced Tom to replace the sink with a deeper one (I'm Cajun....I have deep pots!) and get a more modern faucet. With the extra expense of the flooring, I'm sure he is going to nix that idea. I just don't understand how a network manager can accurately calculate how much flooring will be needed and knows that a damaged floor needs luan....but a flooring salesman doesn't know either of those things. The world is just too crowded with stupid people.

Very productive weekend!

2009-04-27T09:20:00.002-05:00

We had a very productive weekend! Tom got the walls in the utility room prepped and painted. He touched up the cabinet doors that had damage to the paint because they were stacked. He replaced all the beige and even a couple of dark brown plugs, light switches, and face plates around the plugs and switches....and only shocked himself once. He learned the hard way that just because every other plug you checked was dead doesn't mean that last one will be. Fortunately it was just a little zap.

While he was doing all of that, I cleaned out the fridge and used Clorox, soap, and water and got it ready to be picked up by its new owner after we get our new one on Thursday. I soaped down all the countertops, stove, old table, and microwave. My kitchen was sparkling....except for the ugly floor.

This morning Tom was going to move the fridge into the dining room until the guys were done installing the floor. Well it won't fit through the dining room door. So he had to do what I suggested in the first place, which is put it in the garage. Well in moving the fridge across the kitchen twice, everything in the fridge got tossed all around and we had a spill. So I get to reclean my sparkling clean fridge.

Ok so now we have the fridge in the garage. The table and chairs have been hauled to the dump. We are ready for the floor! The guys show up at 10:15 and look at the floor and tell Tom that there is too much damage to the floor to just put the new floor on top. So they need luan. Ok so Tom calls Cogdill and gets the price for luan. *sigh* He writes the check and then the guys get to measuring the kitchen and decide that is not enough flooring to cover everything. Well DUH! Tom told the guy that when he bought it. He brought in a diagram with the measurements and the installers had the diagram Tom gave him with the dimensions and he said Tom's measurements were correct. The salesman just under calculated it by 40ft! They are still on the phone right now as I'm blogging this. I'm worried that because this floor was ordered that they won't have enough to cover and have to put things off another week. I will NOT be a happy camper if that happens. I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOO ready to get this ugly floor OUT! I'll update when things are settled.

By the way, today is Tom's birthday! He is 39 today! And just like he does every year, he is groaning about being old because for the next month he is my age. He just think he is so funny! haha

Emergency Day 2009

2009-04-24T06:52:00.003-05:00

Today is Emergency Day at Grace. Katie went as a nurse. I didn't find out the date for Emergency Day till Monday. So we had to settle for buying an XS adult scrub top from Wal-Mart as opposed to having a scrub top in her size. It swallowed her but it was the best we could do on such short notice. She couldn't wear the scrub pants because of the school dress code. Jessica got the scrub top and the doctor kit for us from Wal-Mart. She was ready to give a shot!

The scrub top says "I love my attitude," which fits Katie perfectly! This morning I was taking her picture and she told me it was ok for me to put them on the internet because she knows she looks adorable. Have mercy! Is she full of herself or what?

Men!

2009-04-23T10:33:00.002-05:00

Our vent hood and stove backsplash came in yesterday. Brittanie picked it up for us at Lowe's after she got out of class. As soon as Tom got home, he started installing it. He wouldn't eat dinner first or anything. I didn't realize at the time he needed to turn off the electricity to do it. That man was in there trying to hold a Maglite flashlight and the hood in the dark! He didn't ask us for help. Why do men do that? Women would have waited till it was daylight outside so we weren't doing it in the pitch dark kitchen and we would have asked for help. When I realized he was in there in the dark, I asked why he didn't have the light on. That's when he told me he turned off the electricity so he wouldn't shock himself when he wires the hood. I went in there and saw him with the flashlight in his mouth and amazingly enough, he was making progress!!! But I went in there and held the flashlight and then helped hold up the hood while he screwed it in place. Men just amaze me sometimes at the way they do things. Tom is one of those people that no matter how he does something, it comes out perfectly. But to hear him tell it, nothing he does looks quite right. He is too much of a perfectionist.

I mentioned in a previous post that we were talking about moving into an apartment. Well I took Brittanie by that same complex that Jessica and I drove through and was telling her the idea we had of moving into an apartment and selling the house. She asked me when we are going to do this. Obviously we don't know when we will do this but wanting to see her reaction, I told her a year but we aren't going to move until our dog, Belle, dies. She is old and we don't want to freak her out and shorten her life by moving her to a strange place where she can't have freedom. Suddenly, to Brittanie, apartments were the most awful places on earth. She discussed it with Randy, her boyfriend that lives just a 1/2 mile from us, and Randy said they need to start giving Belle life supplements and buy her an oxygen tank and life support machines. I thought that was hilarious.

Catchin up

2009-04-22T07:29:00.006-05:00

We have been working alot on the kitchen still and it is a hurry up and wait kinda thing. For someone as impatient as I am, it is miserable. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. The new vent hood and backsplash for the stove is ready to be picked up today. The new floor should be installed by Monday. The new table and chairs come in Tuesday. The new fridge comes in Thursday (next week). Unfortunately I don't know when the countertops will be in. It could be next week or it could be 6 to 8 weeks. My decor is coming in by the end of this week. We are using the cafe theme in the kitchen and Gamecock in the utility room. One thing we have learned through all of this is that wallpaper sucks big time!! As God as my witness, I will never ever put wallpaper up ever again because it is awful to get off. Randy's parents painted our cabinets and all that ugly dark wood white for us but the hinges and pulls weren't in yet so he stacked them and they ended up sticking to each other in spots. So Tom is going to put another coat of paint on them cuz he thinks it needs another coat. The hinges and pulls came in yesterday and when he got home from work, he hung the doors and Jessica put the pulls on while I had the cushy job of unwrapping the hinges and pulls and handing it to them. I wasn't thinking when I ordered the hinges. I thought white cabinets should have white hinges. Wrong! The pulls are black and the hinges should be black too. So I ordered black ones last night. Hopefully by next week they will be in but Tom gave me the stink eye because now after spending 2 hours putting the cabinet doors up, he has to take them all back down, remove the white hinges, and put them back up with black hinges. But I already LOVE the white cabinets. It really brightens up the kitchen. That dark wood was ugly.

Since we were doing all of this redecorating, we decided to go through everything and throw out stuff we no longer wanted or needed. Jessica and I cleaned out the cabinets in the kitchen yesterday and filled up 6 BIG trash bags full of junk. There are a few items I decided to sell on ebay, like a Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back glass from Pizza Hut from 1978. I'm sure there is a nerd somewhere that would love to have that thing. I also have a couple of ET glasses from 1982. I have a Flintstones baby glass that I would have thrown out but Jessica thinks someone on Ebay will buy it. I'm not as convinced. I also have a couple of heavy square Disney glasses that were given to Katie as a gift last year but none of us like Disney. So I'm going to see if they will sell on Ebay. Whatever doesn't sell is being chunked. We decided to sell our upright freezer since it is beige and we really don't need it. I mentioned it to Randy's dad and that same day his mom said she wanted it. I posted on Facebook that I was selling our fridge, because it is also beige and small. Within 2 minutes, it was sold! We are going to throw away our table and chairs and clean out the 3 cabinets in the utility room and we will be done with the spring cleaning of the kitchen!

Tom and I have been kicking around ideas about moving. The reason we are updating the house is to sell it and move so we can be in a better school district for Katie so she can go to public school. Tom mentioned renting an apartment and putting the house for sale. Jessica would stay here and show the house for us and keep things up until we sell it. I got excited and even though I know this is a few years away, I couldn't resist going to look at The Reserves at Mill Landing Luxury Apartments in Lexington. Now I didn't go in to look at a unit but we did ride around there and now I am excited. It is a beautiful place that sits on a lake. Once the house sells, then we start building our dream home. We have been kicking around ideas of where we would like to live. I'm just really looking forward to having a house that is exactly how we want it with no wasted space like we have here. But I'm actually looking forward to our next upgrade project, which is the garage. We are replacing both garage doors and the two electric garage door openers, painting, and putting epoxy on the floor. I've gotten addicted to these home improvement shows. It is giving me ideas of what to do to make our house ready to sell.

I just realized I didn't post anything about Easter. We didn't do much as Tom was painting the kitchen. We did hide eggs for Katie and then she hid them for Tom to find. She loves doing stuff with her daddy! Katie got lots of candy, a weird Diva bunny that Tom picked out because it was the biggest one, an UNO/Skipbo game for her Nintendo DS, a Sonic Rush game for her DS, and her first real big girl Bible with her name in gold. She needs it to start first grade next year. We did the same thing for Brittanie the Easter before she started 1st grade. Katie was very excited with her new Bible. She loves it.

Last week, Brittanie and Katie were being nice to each other and that is so rare that I grabbed the camera. Brittanie was holding Katie and telling her that that is how she held her when she was a baby. The touchy feely moment didn't last long and the fight was on. Tom and I both talked to Katie about how she treats Brittanie, as well as others. Her attitude will no longer be tolerated. I want her and Brittanie to be close as they grow older but Katie has such a big attitude and Brittanie is totally intolerant because she hates kids that it isn't looking good. I am confident that if we get Katie's attitude under control, Brittanie will meet her half way.

Settle an argument for me.

2009-04-14T14:05:00.002-05:00

We are redoing our kitchen and today we are having our cabinets painted. Jessica has been laughing at the way I pronounce cabinet. She pronounces it "cabnet" and I pronounce it phonetically..."cabinet." Randy's parents are painting our cabinets for us and she asked them how they pronounce it and they say "cabnet" as well.

I called my niece and she was raised with me so of course she says it my way. Jessica said that doesn't count. So I texted a few people. As I'm typing this, I have gotten 3 responses....all from college educated people....one is my sister in Louisiana, one is my best friend from Irmo, SC, and the other is my friend from Detroit, Michigan. They all pronounce it the same way I do...with the short "i" sound in the middle.

So let me hear from my readers. How do you pronounce cabinet? Is it cabnet or cabinet? Leave me a comment or email me if you have my email address.

See No Evil monkey

2009-03-30T21:51:00.004-05:00

Tonight, Jessica and I were sitting on the sofa and we sometimes act like children....sisters. I started tickling her and she was under a blanket wearing a skirt. I grabbed my camera and took a picture (which I will not post) and she told Tom to cover his eyes and then jumped up and was trying to wrangle the camera from me. This was Tom's reaction to his cousin's possible flashing incident. He makes me laugh. He was trying to block out everything but his laptop screen. hahaha

Katie is taking her K5 cap and gown graduation pictures Wednesday. I wish they were taking them next month because her teeth are jacked up! Her teeth have been popping out like popcorn and she has some baby teeth, some big permanent teeth, some partially grown in permanent teeth, and a brand new hole where she pulled a tooth out yesterday. Isn't that going to be a pretty picture??? *hoof*

Katie's answers about Tom

2009-03-26T19:50:00.002-05:00

1. What is something I always say to you?
Lil stinker

2. What makes me happy?
When we have fun together, like playing sports together, soccer, and going to the fair.

3. What makes me sad?
When I don't listen.

4. How do I make you laugh?
Tickling me

5. What do you think I was like as a child?
Liked to play frisbee and catch. (like a dog I guess hahaha)

6. How old am I?
38 or 37 (Now wait a minute....she thought I was in my 60's!!!)

7. How tall am I?
40 feet

8. What is my favorite thing to do?
Talking with mom and playing with me, like tickling, fighting, etc.

9. What do I do when you're not around?
Go to work, of course.

10. If I become famous, what will it be for?
Being the handsomest boy and the funnest.

11. What am I really good at?
answering questions from me cuz of course, I'm a kid.

12. What am I not really good at?
That's definitely a hard one. Remembering to go to church. He remembers to read the Bible but not to go to church. He also is not good at hitting the baseball on the Wii.

13. What is my job?
Making money for us for our house and food and stuff. (I asked what does he do to make that money and she said "I don't know.")

14. What is my favorite food?
Quesadilla

15. What makes you proud of me?
Taking care of me when I'm sick.

16. If I were a cartoon character, who would I be?
Plankton on Spongebob Squarepants and Barney from the Flintstones

17. What do you and I do together?
Funny jokes and doing different things to play on the way to bed....my favorite is the wheel barrow.

18. How are we the same?
I'm a girl but I like boy things like him.

19. How are you and I different?
He has short hair and I have long hair.

20. How do you know that I love you?
Cuz he is my parent and he takes care of me when I'm sick.

21. Where is my favorite place to go?
Hershey Chocolate World.

Facebook addict

2009-03-24T08:07:00.005-05:00

I just realized that I haven't updated our blog in quite awhile. I have become a full fledged Facebook addict and in the process neglected the blog.

Brittanie had spring break at the beginning of March and she flew to Lafayette, Louisiana to spend a few days with my niece/her nanny, Tammie. It was her first time flying. We drove her to Charlotte to catch her plane and they were overbooked in coach so they bumped her to first class. How lucky is that? Her first time flying and she gets to ride first class!! She had to change planes in Memphis where she got on a little turbo prop. She hated that plane. She was scared to death because of the noise and shakiness but she looked around at the seasoned flyers and no one seemed alarmed so that calmed her down. The airport in Lafayette is tiny so she didn't have any problems there. Her nanny spoiled her while she was there and the last night she was there, took her out to eat boiled crawfish. I am soooooo jealous! That's the thing I miss most about Louisiana!

A couple of weeks ago, Katie's best friend, Jenna, turned 6 and had her birthday party at Monkey Business in Lexington. Tom thought the place was really cheesy but Katie had a blast! Here are some pictures and a couple of videos from the party.

New picture of me and Tom!

2009-03-10T06:35:00.006-05:00

In case you haven't seen the news story....click here.

In Gaston, nothing surprises me anymore. :-)

He thinks he is so funny!

2009-03-05T00:38:00.001-05:00

Tonight Tom sneezed and Jessica said "God bless you." My sweet husband's response to her kindness was "Yeah shut up." He is a meanie. :-)

Katie's answers about me (Lynette)

2009-03-04T17:39:00.004-05:00

1. What is something I always say to you?
I'm a stinker.

2. What makes me happy?
When I obey.

3. What makes me sad?
When I don't kiss you goodbye when I leave for school.

4. How do I make you laugh?
When you make a silly answer.

5. What do you think I was like as a child?
I know you didn't like to play outside. When there wasn't any friends around, you had fun playing by yourself.

6. How old am I?
69 or 67 (wow! grrr)

7. How tall am I?
25 inches

8. What is my favorite thing to do?
play Tetris.

9. What do I do when you're not around?
watch Dr. Phil and think about me and how cute I am.

10. If I become famous, what will it be for?
being a great mom and taking care of your kids and loving your husband so much.

11. What am I really good at?
being nice and really funny and cute

12. What am I not really good at?
sometimes connect 4

13. What is my job?
typing....well it was your job.

14. What is my favorite food?
Hot Pockets

15. What makes you proud of me?
I don't know

16. If I were a cartoon character, who would I be?
Pearl on Spongebob Squarepants (Hmmm I don't see the resemblance. lol)

17. What do you and I do together?
Play Uno alot

18. How are we the same?
we wear ponytails

19. How are you and I different?
You're a mom and I'm just a kid

20. How do you know that I love you?
Cuz I'm your daughter and even though you don't like to pick up puke, you do it anyway, cuz you're my mommy

21. Where is my favorite place to go? Hershey Kisses World and Chocolate World.

Dress like Mom or Dad Day

2009-02-27T07:42:00.006-05:00

Today is Dress Like Mom or Dad Day at Katie's school. Since I don't work anymore, I dressed her like her daddy.....polo shirt and since we had to stay in dress code, khaki skirt in lieu of khaki pants. Tom isn't wearing khakis in these pictures because it is casual Friday. They should have had this day earlier in the week! I gave her my laptop bag to haul around too to look like she is going to work. I took a couple of pictures of her beside Tom while he was doing a quick check on his laptop and then asked him to set his laptop on her lap so I could take a picture of her in a true Tom pose.
She was cracking me up because she was trying hard to emulate his facial expressions and in one picture tilting her head to the side slightly. She is such a smiley kid, it was so hard for her to not smile....daddy isn't a big smiler. The last picture is of them getting ready to leave. It was so cute!!

Our 20th Anniversary Trip!

2009-02-23T07:41:00.020-05:00

Thursday morning, I blogged that Tom had to take Katie to the doctor because she had an ear infection. Well that put us late in leaving. We had to stop by Walgreen's and pick up her antibiotic then we headed for Spartanburg to drop off Katie to Tom's parents. We didn't leave Columbia till a little after noon. After we dropped Katie off, instead of backtracking to Spartanburg, we went through Chesnee (Tom's parents actually have a Chesnee address but I swear they are closer to Spartanburg). We got stopped by a train that was not moving. After maneuvering through several back roads that he had never been on, Tom came out exactly where he wanted to. He is amazing. He is a human GPS and always has been! We grabbed a bite to eat and gassed up the van and took off. When we crossed the state line into Virginia we got a kick out of the sign that said "Virginia Techology Corridor." The problem with that is the only thing we saw was cows. Don't know if they were robotic cows or not but now everytime we see a cow, we call them Virginia Technology. The cabin was just past Luray, Virginia. We got to the cabin around 10pm Thursday night. The cabin is brand new. I think we were only the third couple to stay there. It was very nice and though the bed was up to my neck (I HATE tall beds!), it was very comfortable. I want one just like it. Tom hated all the big windows in the living room with no blinds or drapes over them. I thought he was nuts because we were on about 10 acres of land so nobody could see in that cabin.

Friday morning I got up at 7am, as I do every morning to get Katie ready for school. But this morning, I was treated with a beautiful view of a mountain and beautiful sunny day shining through the tons of windows in the living room. It was awesome! After Tom got up, we grabbed breakfast and headed up to Shenandoah National Park (which our cabin was REAL close to) and took a drive on Skyline Drive. Tom regretted not driving his car instead of the van because there was no snow accumulation. But I'm glad he didn't have his car. He would have wanted to test his Stabilitrak of his Genesis. I'm, as Tom calls me, a "flat lander." I grew up in south Louisiana where there are absolutely no hills, much less mountains. So being in a vehicle going fast around around a mountain on a curvy road is not my idea of fun. It was scaring me but he was loving it. If you ask him, he wasn't going very fast but it felt like Dale Earnhardt Jr. flying around the curves! but the view was breathtaking. I loved stopping at the overlooks. There was snow on the side of the road when you got about 2000 feet up. I loved the icicles. They were beautiful!! When we came down the mountain, we took the long way back to Luray and grabbed a pizza from a local pizza shop there called Anthony's XII. It was delicious! Tom said it was New York style. I had never had that before and I loved it. Tom is harder to impress. He said the sauce was too sweet. Anyway, Friday afternoon I realized that I forgot the charger to my camera at home. So we headed to Gainesville, VA since it had the closest Best Buy. Evidently my camera is too new. No one had the batteries or the charger. Since we were only 30 miles from DC at that point, I asked Tom to take me to DC to see the monuments at night. I was in awe. It is GORGEOUS at night. It was overwhelming for me to be in our nation's capital. I realized how many great men have been there and shaped our country....like Ronald Reagan! After a trip around DC, we headed back to the cabin with Earnhardt Jr. flying around the curves in the dark on the way from Front Royal to Luray. I did alot of praying that night. The locals up there go very fast and Tom is a very good driver so he decided when in Rome....and he was going fast too. We got back at 11pm and went straight to bed. It was a great day but a long one.

This is the master bedroom. The bed was so comfortable but way too tall for my taste!

I loved the fireplace! It was remote controlled. What would the cavemen think? (And not the Geico ones of course.) hehehe

Tom hated the shower. It was a two person shower and you couldn't turn on just one shower head so you had water shooting at you from the back and the front.

Tom was texting Kevin from work.

Is this creepy or what? I was a big horror film fan growing up so when I saw this, I instantly thought of Amityville Horror. I know the windows in that movie were curved with panes but it still made me think of Amityville Horror.

I love icicles on the side of a mountain. It was beautiful!!

This car was in Front Royal, Virginia in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I know some South Carolina rednecks that would LOVE this car!

Saturday morning we got up and headed to DC to I could see everything in the daytime. It looks so different in the day. Street vendors are EVERYWHERE! One other thing I saw was Obama's face everywhere....T-shirts and signs everywhere. It was disgusting. But otherwise, DC was GREAT! We headed to Baltimore the long way so I could catch a glimpse of Arlington. I didn't get a picture of that because as I had done the whole trip, I hit the power button on the camera instead of the button to take a picture, and turned the camera off. It was frustrating but I would get excited to get a picture and not pay attention to where my finger was and turn the camera off. Tom was giving me a hard time with how long I took to take a picture. I explained to him it does take a long time when you turn off the camera, have to turn it back on, then point and shoot! grrrrr The old post office. The top of the tower has a mall in it. Tom and Brittanie shopped and ate up there when they went to DC a couple of years ago.

Jefferson Memorial.

Lincoln Memorial.

International Trade Center.

White House.

White House on the other side.

Capital.

National Archives, where the Declaration of Independence is kept.

Washington Monument.

Air Force sculpture

Pentagon.

Anyway, I asked Tom to take me to Baltimore since we were so close so I could get a picture of Charm City Cakes! I love the TV show "Ace of Cakes" and it was so cool seeing where it all happens! But we both couldn't wait to get out of that city. Graffiti is a bad sign to us and we got out of there ASAP! I don't know how people live in big cities. Between the ugly houses all on top of each other, the graffiti, and the traffic, I'll take Gaston any day!

In Maryland and Pennsylvania, we saw these weird domes. They were surrounded by Department of Transportation trucks and equipment. We had never seen anything like it.

Charm City Cakes!!! That's Duff's car right in front!! They don't allow visitors or I would have gone in there to meet Duff and the gang!

After Baltimore, we headed to Hershey, PA. Tom has been there before but I hadn't. I loved the street lights shaped like Hershey's kisses, especially the silver ones with the "Hershey's Kisses" tab that spun around. It was so cute! He took me by the Hershey factory and down a back road through a neighborhood that was right up against Hershey Park. I am used to Carowinds where you can't drive that close to the rides. But we could reach out and touch the big coaster while riding down that road. I can't wait to come back and take Katie and Brittanie! Katie is going to love Chocolate World! I made Tom stop and buy me a Hershey's bar so I could say I ate a Hershey's bar in Hershey, PA! Tom thought I was a dork. He asked me how was it. My answer? "Fresh!" hehehe

Cocoa Avenue

We were driving on Chocolate Avenue.It said "Welcome to Hershey. The Sweetest Place on Earth."

Check out those street lights!

Sunset in Pennsylvania. It was beautiful. My cell camera doesn't do it justice.

After Hershey, we headed back to the cabin but went a different direction than the way we came so we could pass through a piece of West Virginia. At one point, we left Maryland, crossing into Virginia, and then into West Virginia all in 2 minutes! That was kinda neat!

Through all of this traveling, we neglected to buy souvenirs. So Sunday morning when we got up to head home (9:45am), we tried to find souvenirs. Well this isn't tourist season so there were no little souvenir shops open. We stopped at Wal-Mart and a few travel centers. We even stopped at the Tourist Information Center in Harrisonburg to ask where we could find souvenirs. It was run by 2 old ladies that were evidently bored because they talked Tom's head off for almost 30 minutes and in the end all he got was brochures and still no clue where to buy souvenirs. So we will have to get them next trip. I was disappointed that we didn't get snow at the cabin. The morning we left, it was coming down hard but it didn't accumulate. As we were leaving Virginia, we saw it snowed all around where we were. :-(
We picked up Katie from Tom's parents (she had a great time with them...as usual) and spent a little while with them and then headed home. We got home around 8:30pm. It was a long day and I swear it takes longer to get home than to go up there. It is nice to be home but I really missed my mountain view when I woke up this morning.

We are off to a bumpy start

2009-02-19T09:56:00.003-05:00

Katie told me yesterday that her ear was hurting. So I made an appointment for her to see the doctor at 8:50 this morning. Tom took her while I stayed home and packed. He just called and told me she has an ear infection. For the first time since she was a baby, she is going to be on oral antibiotics. We could never give her oral antibiotics before because they always tore up her stomach. So she always gets shots. Well she is bigger now and would need a shot 3 days in a row and we are going out of town. So he gave her Cefzil to take by mouth. It makes me nervous to leave her. But Tom's mom is a nurse and they have our cell numbers if they need us. I just hate the thought of leaving her not knowing how she will react to the Cefzil.

If you think about it today, please say a little prayer that Katie will be ok!

Wedding pictures! Finally!!

2009-02-18T22:14:00.007-05:00

We were up on the altar facing the congregation and the preacher had his back to the congregation. After all, they came to see us, not him, right?
This was taken right before I set myself on fire!
You may now kiss the bride!
I love him so much and was so happy that I was his wife that I could not stop smiling!
Tom's football groom's cake. Check out the ugly Sprite bottle! We toasted with Sprite. My mom wanted to get sparkling white grape juice that was in a bottle that looked like a champagne bottle and looked like champagne when poured. I didn't want that. I put that ugly Sprite bottle in the ice bucket and put it on the table. I wanted it known that there was no alcohol at our wedding.
My parents are beside me and Tom's parents are beside him. Tom looked angry in this picture because he was. Our photographer was annoying that night. He was too busy socializing with everyone to actually take pictures. He was a friend of the family and not a professional and he gave us the pictures as a wedding gift so we couldn't get too angry but it was still frustrating to get ready to take the picture and have to hunt down the photographer.
Here is my family. From left to right is my wooly booger brother. I was NOT happy that he didn't shave that crap for my wedding. Next to him was his mother. Then my nephew, Randy, who was like a brother to me growing up because he is just a year older than me. Then me of course. Then my daddy, who I miss soooo much! Then on the end is my niece, who is more like my sister, and she was my maid of honor. She is just a year younger than me.
Tom's dad, mom, Tom of course, and his little brother, Jesse. Jesse is all grown up with a beautiful wife and beautiful daughter of his own!
Here we are leaving for the honeymooooooon!

Remember, you can click on any picture to enlarge it! Some pictures look distorted when you make them larger. That's because even though the glass on the scanner was perfectly clean, there was still stuff that looked like dust/speckles on the pictures. When I despeckled the pictures, it distorted them. But you get the gist!

Sorry

2009-02-18T07:48:00.003-05:00

I said on my last post that I would be posting pictures from our wedding. I pulled the pictures out of the album and got ready to scan them but my scanner/printer combo won't cooperate! grrrr Hopefully when Tom gets home from work tonight, he can figure out why it won't connect and fix it. If all else fails, I can use my old scanner.

We had a very nice anniversary. We grilled steaks and stayed home because our real celebration starts tomorrow. We are going on a 4-day/3 night trip to Virginia and will be going to DC and Baltimore. If there is time, we may get to go to Philadelphia as well. I'm excited!

One of the things I love most about Tom and I is that we don't put stupid rules on our relationship. For instance, we don't demand romantic gifts. We get what we want whether that is romantic or not. By living this way, we really appreciate the occasional romantic gift or gesture. I knew Tom really wanted mud flaps for his Genesis. So that's what I bought him for our anniversary. He knew I really wanted photo albums so I can organize the colossal mess of pictures that totally packs out 2 1/2 drawers in our dresser. So that's what he got me. But he went the extra mile and ordered me 20 long stem red roses and the personal message was supposed to be written on a "Happy Anniversary" card. Unfortunately, they delivered 12 long stem red roses and the message was on a plain blank card. He was NOT happy. It didn't matter to me if it was 12 or 20. It truly was the thought that counted and the 12 that was delivered are absolutely beautiful! Just a side note, 1800Flowers...not the way to go. ProFlowers.com may be a better choice. You get a discount if you put the code "Mike and Mike" in the box when you check out. Tom originally called Sandy Run Florist, which isn't far from us. They told him they were running low on fresh flowers, except for the ones they have set aside for 1800Flowers but if he ordered them from there, they could do it and it would be cheaper. So that's what he did. But for some unknown reason, 1800Flowers got a florist from Two Notch Road in Columbia to do them! Again, the roses are beautiful but it wasn't what he ordered and it wasn't the closest florist either. Weird! Here is the picture of my beautiful roses.

Happy 20th Anniversary to us!!

2009-02-17T00:38:00.003-05:00

Today, Tom and I are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary! Jessica asked me yesterday afternoon what I was doing 20 years ago at that exact moment. That got me thinking about how hectic life was 20 years ago. The morning before our wedding, my pastor that was to marry us was out cycling, as he did every morning to stay healthy, and was hit by a car. Tom had a job interview in Baton Rouge and since the pastor was in the hospital in Baton Rouge, he ran by the hospital to visit him. He confirmed that the pastor would absolutely not be able to marry us that night. So I started frantically calling every pastor I know. Finally, the pastor of the church we were to be married in (our church was too small so we were having it at another church), told me that he could change his plans and marry us. I was so relieved. Little did I know that it was just the start of a comedy of errors.

The ceremony started late. My mom had refused to rehearse the night before because she wanted to hover over the cake decorators so she missed her cue to get up and light the unity candle so Tom and I had to light all 3 candles ourselves. In the process of doing the unity candle, I caught my veil on fire. Luckily I didn't ignite my entire head. But I did burn a hole in the veil. The sound man started the wrong song at one point and you could hear all the noises as he changed cassette tapes.

But even after all of that, I have great memories and would marry Tom all over again. 20 years and 2 kids later and our life together is absolutely wonderful. I love the sarcastic, quick wit that Tom has. There is never a dull moment with him. Fortunately, he has passed that on to our girls. We have so much fun together.

Later today, I'm going to get our wedding album out of moth balls and scan a picture from our wedding and post it. I can't believe it has been 20 years already! We are blessed!!

That stuff only happens to Brittanie

2009-02-14T10:29:00.002-05:00

Brittanie and Randy went to Columbiana Grande last night to see Friday the 13th. Well the parking lot was packed out and there was a long line to buy tickets. So Brittanie dropped Randy off to buy tickets while she parked. When Randy got up to buy tickets, they would only let him buy one ticket because they needed to see the ID of the other person because it was a rated R movie. So he went to Brittanie's car and walked up with her and waited in line with her to get her ticket. When she got up there, Friday the 13th was sold out. So now Randy has a ticket and Brittanie doesn't. Randy tried selling his ticket and Brittanie called me. I told her that nobody is going to buy just one ticket, especially on a Friday night. I told her to find a manager, explain what happened, and ask for a refund. They did it and got the refund but I thought it was funny. I have never had that happen to me before but it was especially funny that Randy was trying to sell his one ticket to a horror movie on a Friday night. Oy vey!

Brittanie is doing great at Tech. She is struggling a bit in Political Science because she has a liberal democrat who thinks Reagan was horrible for a teacher. We raised her with the truth....Reagan was the BEST president this country has ever had. But she hates everything that comes out of his mouth and being my child, it is very difficult not to tell him how stupid he is. But she had read reviews on him and knows he thrives on confrontation so she isn't going to engage him. She is loving her psychology class. She took her first test in there last week and the teacher promised to grade on a curve. Well she saw online last weekend that she made 103. She didn't understand how that could happen without a bonus question. When she got to class Tuesday, she found out how that happened. She made the only 100 out of all of that teacher's psychology classes. So she messed up the curve. So the teacher took the next highest grade to do the curve on and it was a 97. So everyone got 3 extra points. But she was very excited to get the only perfect score. It was a 60 question test.

Brittanie has been really stressing out about not being able to find a job when she finishes school. She is also worried about encountering liberal democrats like her teacher if she gets a job in government and having to deal with those losers for years on end. So she started thinking about going back to her original major, which is Psychology, because she loves it and finds it very interesting. She talked to her Psychology teacher and now has another major in mind....nursing. She is thinking of getting her bachelor's in nursing and then her Master's to get a certificate as Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. She loves the job security that goes along with nursing and how you can take that degree anywhere and make good money. I guess we will see if she really likes it enough to stay in that major.

Did we really get a change???

2009-02-13T13:56:00.000-05:00

Are you kidding me?

2009-02-12T22:06:00.004-05:00

Ok so Katie has been having allergy problems...despite what Dr. Hairy Ears in Lexington said last Saturday. So I called her regular doctor, who always gives me what I ask for because he knows I know what I need. So I asked him to call Katie in some Dallergy. Well that was Monday. It wasn't ready Monday or Tuesday because Walgreens had to order it and they even went the extra mile to call 4 other Walgreens in the area and even one in Orangeburg, since Tom works there and could pick it up. None of them had it. Well I forgot to pick it up yesterday so Brittanie picked it up for me today. Instead of calling in liquid, the doctor's office called in caplets! My first thought was that they must dissolve on your tongue. Nope! She would have to swallow those big horse pills. She is 6!!! Her doctor should know better! So I have to call her doctor tomorrow morning and get him to call in liquid Dallergy for her and probably have to wait days for that too! grrrr

I worked at two pharmacies as a pharmacy tech and both pharmacies would have questioned the caplets for a 6-year-old! But the fault lies squarely on the shoulders of the doctor. It is so frustrating and scary that he is this careless!

The apple didn't fall far from the tree

2009-02-11T07:36:00.003-05:00

We have known from birth that Katie was crazy about boys but until this school year, she hasn't fixated on one boy in particular. She has a cute little boy in her class named Nathan that she absolutely adores. She talks about him all the time. I have told her that it is ok to be his friend but she is way too young for a boyfriend. Being our child, she doesn't care what we think, she wants to be his girlfriend anyway.

Yesterday when Tom drove into the car line at school to drop her off, she asked him urgently to let her out under the covering instead of pulling all the way up so Mr. J. could open the door and let her out like normal. She even opened up the door and Tom made her close it. There is a procedure in place for the kids' safety and we follow procedures. At that point, Tom didn't understand why she wanted out so bad. When Mr. J. opened the door, he asked Katie if that was her little boyfriend over there (under the covering) that she wanted to walk to class with. It was Nathan. She was trying to get out of Tom's car quickly so she could walk to class with Nathan!

Yesterday after I picked her up from school, I took her to McDonald's for an ice cream cone. By the time we got home, she had eaten it down to just to the cone. She took the first bite of the cone and let out a panicked moan. She showed me the cone and it had a tooth in it and a tiny streak of blood. Her top tooth that was loose had come out. She immediately started crying and I though it was because of that tiny streak of blood on her cone. So I grabbed a spoon and scooped it out of the cone. But that wasn't what was upsetting her. She said "I'm ugly now! I have a tooth missing at the bottom and the top and Nathan is going to think I'm ugly!" I assured her that Nathan is going to lose his teeth too and so will everyone in the class. I thought it was so funny how vain she is at 6 years old!!!
Though Tom thinks this picture angle makes her look bad, I'm posting it anyway. Her eyes are still pretty and you can see her teeth....or lack of....well in this picture too.

On a side note, last week Tom sent my laptop off to HP because it had a wireless problem and replacing the wireless card didn't fix it. We had read all over the internet about how crappy HP customer service is and how it takes weeks to get your laptop back. Well that was not our experience. Tom called on a Friday and by Monday we had the postage paid shipping box from HP. He sent it to HP on Tuesday and by Friday, I had my laptop back. They replaced the system board, hard drive, and hard case. I have been griping and complaining about how slow Vista makes my laptop since I got it. I asked Tom to put Ubuntu on my laptop. I have used it on Katie's computer and it is fine and much faster than Vista. I would freak out if someone closed my laptop because it took FOREVER to get it to wake up. Well you know my family, that became a source of entertainment....closing my laptop to watch me freak out and lunge forward to stop it from being closed. So when I got my laptop back from HP, Tom asked if I wanted to try Ubuntu. I eagerly said yes. So he loaded it and tested it to make sure everything I do on my laptop (pogo games in particular) worked. It did. So I have been using Ubuntu since Monday and I LOVE it!! My laptop is now blazing fast in comparison to when I had Vista. I haven't had any problems at all. I play Tetris on Facebook and it works just fine. I played around with Gimp yesterday to edit pictures. I like that too. I wish I had made the switch when I got the laptop. Bottom line....Vista stinks!!!

Hit and run

2009-01-30T01:55:00.002-05:00

Brittanie stopped at the Burger King in Gaston on her way to class last night and while waiting for a car to pass so she could back out, she felt her car move. The car she was waiting on to drive past her hit her and hit the gas and tore out of the parking lot. Luckily he wasn't going too fast so there is only a long scratch on her bumper but it is still annoying because that is a new car!! Brittanie was afraid to be late for class so she left and called me. I told her to get her butt back to Burger King and file a police report. I went and met her up there. It took a long time for county to show up and all he did was hand her a blank form to fill out and he left. All that waiting for a blank form that she doesn't even turn into the police. Basically the guy who did it gets off scott free! grrrr

On a brighter note, I got an email from my father-in-law with pictures that he took the weekend after Thanksgiving. Katie spent the weekend with them and they took her to Hollywild. The pictures were cute but there was one that I really loved. Katie hates birds as much as I do...even the fake one. Check out the look on her face!

I got permission!

2009-01-26T14:19:00.003-05:00

Instead of putting them in the other post, I decided to just create a whole new post.

Jessica was lip syncing while Red was singing and she was texting at the same time. She was making me laugh.

Finally back to normal

2009-01-26T06:44:00.006-05:00

Last week was something else! Everybody was home because of the MLK holiday. Tuesday, Katie didn't have school because of the dusting of snow. Wednesday, she went back to school. Thursday, she came down with a stomach virus and didn't go to school Thursday or Friday. We thought by Friday night she was back to normal but it started again Saturday morning. Zofran is awesome though and was able to stop it from being worse than it was.

Friday night, my friend, Jenn, invited me to a seafood restaurant in Irmo named Catch 22 to see her husband, Red, sing and play the guitar. So Jessica, Brittanie, and Randy went with me. We had a great time. I had never eaten there before. I had the gulf shrimp platter and there were ALOT of shrimp on that plate. I didn't count but I bet there were 2 dozen! I brought half of them home. They were delicious! As for the entertainment, I always knew Red was talented but when he sang Johnny Cash, I was amazed!! He sounded just like him. Jessica went outside to take a phone call and she heard people that were leaving say "That guy sounds just like the people he is imitating!" They are right. He is awesome. He performs there every Thursday night. So if you want good food and good entertainment, check out Catch 22 on Thursday nights. Here are some pictures I took that night. (I have pictures and a video of Red but I'm waiting to get permission from Jenn before I post them.) Saturday, Tom installed Jessica's satellite receiver upstairs and moved our receiver into Brittanie's room. We don't watch TV in our room. I like to have it on for the light and a little bit of noise. This house creeks at night and gives me the heebie jeebies. The TV drowns out that creeking sound. So Tom set it up so that our TV will run off of Katie's tuner and we can still change channels on her receiver from our room. Well after he finished the install, he took a shower and didn't feel so hot. We thought he was getting the virus too. He went to bed at 7pm! Everything was back to normal on Sunday. Tom played Madden 09 on his PS3 then went outside with Katie to let her fly the jet Jonathan bought her for Christmas. Katie evidently had messed with the jet after we told her millions of times to leave it alone. Tom had put it charging and she removed it from the charger without us knowing. So when Tom said he would take her out to fly it because it should be fully charged, she paniced. She knew that she had removed it from the charger. So she insisted on putting it charging. Tom told her to leave it alone because it was charged. But she was like a child possessed! She HAD to get that thing charged so she wouldn't get in trouble. Well in her haste to plug in the charger, she broke the end of the wire that goes into the jet to charge it. That's when she had a meltdown! She was sobbing. Her body was shaking and everything. She was so upset that she broke her jet. Tom told her that they could go outside and use the charge that was in the jet and that would be it because she broke it. So they went outside and within a minute were back in the house. The jet was dead. She had removed the charger before it got any charge in it. So she came running back in the house sobbing again and told me that Jonathan wasn't going to like her anymore because she broke her jet and she loved him and her jet. I have to admit that I teared up seeing her so upset. I assured her Jonathan loved her and he wouldn't be mad at her and will always love her. But she was unconsolable. Tom (who was nicknamed MacGyver when we lived in Louisiana) did something and was able to do something to the wire to get it to hold a charge. So they went outside to fly it and Tom underestimated the wind speed and the jet ended up across the street in our neighbor's tree....way up high. Tom went over and asked the neighbor if he could try to get it. He tried but it is too high. So it is still in the neighbor's tree. Katie didn't cry about that. We are hoping it will come loose soon and fall, if not on the ground, at least lower in the tree so we can get it.

Oh! And for the record, despite what former councilman Dowd says, most Gaston people are smart enough to push a button on a voting machine. His comment really angered me when I read it on Wach.com.

Thankfully my mom has satellite or this would be her!

2009-01-23T11:13:00.000-05:00

Please pray for my family

2009-01-20T04:38:00.002-05:00

Saturday night, my cousin, Jim, lost his wife, Yvonne. They were all at the camp and Yvonne decided she wanted to go home instead of spending the night. She was supposed to call Jim and let him know when she made it home. He never heard from her so he tried calling her and got no answer. He was at the camp with his brother, Jr. and his wife and their son, Brian. When they couldn't reach Yvonne by phone, they all hopped in the car and went looking for her. They didn't have to go far and they found her Jeep crashed into a tree, after having flipped at least once. The paramedics were able to resuscitate her on the scene but she died shortly after getting her to the hospital. Jim and Yvonne lost their youngest daughter, Sadie, a couple of years ago the same way. She was 22.

Jim is the son of my godmother (we call them Nanny), who is also my daddy's sister. She is 81 years old and didn't handle Sadie's death well. This is not going to be easy for her or anyone either. Everyone loved Yvonne.

Please pray for them during this extremely difficult time.

Classes in full swing

2009-01-14T07:57:00.002-05:00

Brittanie has now gone to all 5 of her classes. Her first impression of her political government professor was positive but we looked him up on www.rateyourprofessors.com and the consensus is that he is very liberal and you have to be a hardcore democrat to like him. That's definitely going to be a problem. I told her to just keep quiet and do her classwork and keep her opinions to herself. But this is our child. I'm not holding out much hope on that.

Her macroeconomics class seems like it will be more interesting than her econ class in high school, which she HATED. She likes her psychology professor. She wasn't impressed with the lack of structure and discipline in her computer class. Basically he told the class that if they only took this class as an easy A class and they know all of what he is going to teach, then he doesn't care if they leave early and play on myspace and facebook during class. He also told them they can take calls on their cell phone during class as long as they walk out. They are allowed to text and even bring their children to class if need be. Brittanie doesn't like kids so this isn't going to fly with her. She told me if someone brings a kid to class and he allows it, she is reporting it. She said she paid tuition to take that class and she doesn't want it interrupted by little kids. I have to admit, I'm with her on that one. I can't imagine having Katie in a class with me for an hour and a half and getting anything out of it. I had been picking at her before she went to class about that class being full of old people. She didn't believe me. I was right. She texted me in class and told me she was the youngest person there. I told her that younger people could teach that class. Last night they learned how to click a mouse. hahaha

ya just have to laugh

2009-01-12T14:05:00.002-05:00

Brittanie was well into her English II class and the electricity went off. So she is going to pick up Katie from school for me and come home. She said "Will anything go right at this place?" Guess we will see! She is going to get Randy and his little brother to go back to campus with her this afternoon to get her books. Hopefully the electricity will be back on by then. But they don't allow you to bring a bag in the bookstore and she doesn't think she can carry all of those books alone. So Randy and his brother will help her get them to her car.

I took a look at her schedule online and she doesn't have a class before 11am ever! She is lucky. I had 8am classes every semester. At LC, I even had a 7am history class. Try staying awake during that boring class, especially at 7am!

FINALLY!!

2009-01-12T12:42:00.002-05:00

Brittanie waited till today, like Tech told her to, and her classes were still not reinstated. So she had to go up there and try to register. Records told her they couldn't help her. Advisement told her they couldn't help her. She went back to Records and they told her to go to the Robinson building. So she went to the Robinson building and they told her they couldn't help her because they were only doing Drop/Add to existing schedules. While she was on her way to Robinson, I called up there and wanted to talk to someone I could chew out about this situation. I was sent to voice mail. So I started thinking and remembered the team mom of one of Brittanie's 8 and under all star softball team works there. So I looked her up and asked her if she could help. She went to Advisement to see what she could find out. Brittanie called me to tell me that Robinson was a bust so I told her to head to the student center and meet Mrs. Ginger at Advisement. Before she got there, Ginger called her to tell her the woman in Advisement didn't know what to tell her so she needed to go back to Records. About this time, I got a call back from the woman for whom I left a voice mail. She told me she was at the Beltline campus and couldn't help me but gave me the name of a woman at Brittanie's campus that could help. So I looked up her number and called her. By this time, I was NOT happy. It should NOT be this hard to transfer!!! The woman told me to tell Brittanie to come see her and gave me her room number. So that's what I did. The woman looked up classes that Brittanie could take that would transfer to USC in the fall and had openings, gave her a paper with the information she needed to register for these classes and sent her somewhere else. When she got there, there were 30 people in line and only 2 attendants helping them. But after 2 1/2 hours of running all over creation, she FINALLY got a schedule! It was 10:30am and her first class started at 11. So she ran in the bookstore to get books for her class. The bookstore was packed out! So she went to a vending machine to get something to eat because she has two classes back to back from 11:00 to 2:10 and she was already hungry and knew she would be starving by 2:10.

Her first class was Political Science. She has an East Indian teacher, who thankfully doesn't have an accent. She was very impressed. The way he disciplines is by handing out absences. If you are late, you don't get a tardy, you get an absence. If he sees your cell phone in class, you get an absence. If you miss a day....no matter what the reason....that is an absence. After 4 absences, you are kicked out of the class. He told them that last semester he started with a class of 30 and only 7 finished. Brittanie will be fine. She thrives on discipline. Even as a kid, she used to make up rules for herself. She was quite excited listening to him discuss current political issues. Her teacher gives extra credit for attending functions outside of class. He gave them a list of events and the first one is on the 27th of this month. It is a rally outside the statehouse to protest Mark Sanford cutting funding to colleges and lottery scholarships in South Carolina. She said unless she is working by then, she will be there.

So hopefully this will be a matter of a bad beginning being a great ending. She is in English II right now. I hope she has the same good experience in the rest of her classes that she had in Political Science.

Think the economy is bad?

2009-01-11T14:47:00.002-05:00

If you think our economy is bad, you should take a peek at our future leaders. I have been watching a show on TruTV called "The Principal's Office" and while I find it very funny, it is also scary to think this generation is going to be in charge one day! If you haven't seen it, you should really check it out. I don't know what they are paid but it can't possibly be enough to put up with these kids!

It comes on at 10 and 10:30pm Eastern time on TruTV. Check it if you need a good laugh.

update

2009-01-08T10:32:00.002-05:00

Brittanie went to Financial Aid and they told her that her scholarship was there so they don't know why her schedule was dropped. They called Records to ask that the schedule she created yesterday be reinstated. She was told that they will try to get to it within the next couple of days. If they don't, she will have to register on Monday. MONDAY! She is supposed to start classes on Monday! This is ridiculous. They are going to see one angry woman if they mess around and she can't take classes next semester because they dropped the ball.

How hard is your job?

2009-01-08T08:45:00.003-05:00

There is a line from one of our favorite movies that hits close to home today. "How hard is your job???" Brittanie made 4 trips to Tech yesterday to register for classes. This morning I got up and checked her class schedule to see what books she will need for those classes and guess what! The schedule was gone. Tom told me last night that his boss told him that there will be classes opening up today because if your bill isn't paid by midnight last night, they drop your schedule. That's what they did to Brittanie....dropped her schedule. The problem is that we don't have a bill to pay. Her LIFE scholarship covers everything....with money to spare even! I called Tech to find out what was going on. They told me they aren't showing her credit hours from USC Sumter or her LIFE Scholarship in their system. Well they have her high school transcript, which shows she was awarded the LIFE scholarship. Brittanie hand delivered the official transcript from USC Sumter, which shows she made the grades to keep that scholarship. So all they had to do was key it in. How hard is that??? But it wasn't done so all of those trips to Tech yesterday was for nothing.

I talked to someone in Financial Aid at Tech and she told me that the person that handles the LIFE Scholarship isn't in and won't be in till between 8:30 and 9 but she will email her about Brittanie and I can call her back at noon to check on the status. HELLO???? She starts classes Monday!!!! We don't have time to do this at a leisurely pace. She has to get her schedule redone and her books bought. So I sent Brittanie back to Tech and told her not to leave until she has a piece of paper in her hand that says she has credits from Sumter, a LIFE Scholarship, and a class schedule!

What I want to know is are they not used to getting transfer students?? How hard is this? We are totally frustrated and annoyed with all of this. USC couldn't send her transcript until her final grades were in and an official transcript created. So they didn't send her transcript until December 23rd. Tech was closed for 2 weeks during Christmas. So I called on their first day back, January 5th to make sure they received that transcript. They told me they did not receive it. USC said they sent it so I had to pay to get another one and hand deliver it. What was the point of hand delivering it if they weren't going to put it in the system?

It has been one thing after another in Brittanie's freshman year. I hope her last three years of college go smoother than this one! grrrrr

playing catch up

2009-01-07T23:59:00.003-05:00

My mom is still here so I can't update very often because she pouts when I open my laptop. But she is in bed right now, so I'm taking this opportunity to update my blog.

Mom has been here since December 7th and there is never a dull moment. Take four control freaks and add another older and more set in her ways control freak and that is what our house has been like. Tom and I raised our girls to be independent and do things for themselves. My mom is not used to that at all. The problem is that Brittanie was 6 when we moved to SC and Katie only goes there twice a year. So to my mom, time stands still and she still compares Brittanie to the 6-year-old she once was and thinks Katie is a baby. Neither is true and both of my girls resent being babied. They consider it a personal insult. My mom can't understand that. Brittanie has learned to do the teenaged thing and roll her eyes and leave the room. Katie on the other hand has my mouth and doesn't hold anything back. She has called my mom, who is hard of hearing, "deafness." Today mom asked her a question and Katie looked at me and said "Does she know ANYTHING???" I have told her numerous times that she is being rude and that she needs to stop that. So now when she says something rude, she always follows her statement with "Not to be rude or anything." There is never a dull moment when Miss Mouth is home from school.

As for Brittanie, she paid $8.00 to USC Sumter to have her transcript sent to Midlands Tech at the beginning of December. Tech said they never recieved it. So she had to go to USC in Columbia and get a copy of her transcript to hand deliver to tech and pay an additional $8.00. That was annoying. Before the employee at USC put it in the sealed envelope, she let Brittanie look it over first and she loved seeing "Honor Dean's List" on it! Brittanie went to Tech today for advisement and register for classes. Her "advisor" asked her what classes she wanted to take and didn't know what classes went with her major. Brittanie's USC Sumter advisor luckily knew her job and had already told Brittanie what she needed to take. It is a good thing since the Tech guy was clueless. The line to register on the Tech computers was very long but her advisor told her she could register online. So she came home....ending trip #1 to Tech. When she got here, we picked her classes and hit "Submit" to register and it told her that she couldn't register online. We called Tech and they told her that she can't register without being advised. Brittanie told her that she was advised but couldn't read the guy's handwriting to tell her who it was. Evidently he didn't update the computer that she had been advised and thus it wouldn't let her register for classes. So she had to drive back to Tech and register for classes there. By then, most of the classes she wanted were full and she ended up having to take College Algebra, which she didn't need, but it was one of the very few that would transfer and had an opening. She came home and was VERY upset and scared that her GPA would suffer. (I don't understand that since she was very good in algebra in high school and at USC Sumter but whatever!) That ended trip #2 to Tech today. So I went online and found a computer class that she could take after her karate class at night. I once again tried to register for it online but once again it told me I wasn't allowed to register online. Her advisor had told her they would be there for registration from 1-5. So at 1:30 she headed back to Tech to drop that Algebra class and take the computer class. When she got there, the room where you register was locked. So she went to Admissions to ask them why it was locked and the line was out of the door! She called me, very frustrated, and told me what was going on. So I called Tech, trying to save her from standing in the long line and they told me that registration reopens at 5:30. Thus ending trip #3 to Tech today. She picked up Katie for me and headed home. She was antsy all afternoon because she was scared that other students were able to register online and her computer class would fill up before she would get there. She went back at 5:30 and was able to drop algebra and sign up for her computer class. Ending trip #4 to Tech today. So she is feeling better about her schedule now. She is taking English Composition II, Macroeconomics, General Psychology, Politics and Government, and Intro to Computers. Her classes start January 12th. She has to go back up there tomorrow or Friday to buy her books but other than that, she is ready to start. Her LIFE scholarship has transferred and we are good to go!

On Monday, January 5th, she started taking Karate and kickboxing classes. Without ROTC, she was worried about gaining weight and getting out of shape. So she signed up for a year of classes. She is sore already. She wasn't happy that they made her start all over from a white belt when she was about to be a purple belt when she quit to do cheerleading in 7th grade. But she will just have to work her way back up. She is loving being back in it. Her kickboxing class is to get out some of her stress and frustration. It worked so well that she busted their heavy bag that she was kicking. She kicks like a mule!

Grace is having homecoming this week and have declared this week as "Spirit Week." Katie LOVES Spirit Week! Monday was hat day. Tuesday was nerd day. Wednesday was calorie day (you can bring a snack to school and eat it in class). Tomorrow is the day you wear your favorite team shirt to school. Of course Katie will be in a USC shirt. All she has are short sleeved T-shirts so we will put a black long sleeved shirt under her garnet Gamecock shirt! Friday she will be in school colors and gets to go to the pep rally. She LOVES pep rallies. But she says she doesn't want to be a cheerleader. She wants to take karate so she can kick someone's butt if they hit her. Maybe when she is older. hehehe

We are taking mom home January 16th. We are hoping to have a family crawfish boil on the 17th to celebrate her 78th birthday (which will be the 18th). It is very early in the season for crawfish so we are having to cross our fingers.

One funny thing about having mom here is her amazement at everything Tom does/has. One thing in particular has been a constant source of amusement for us and that is his Madden 09 game on his PS3 played on our high definition big screen TV. She can't tell the difference between the Madden game and a real football game. She also can't understand the techology of it at all....which is really hilarious. She thought that those were real people playing football and Tom was calling the plays for them to run. She thought the people in the stands were real too. I told her that I love Tom and he is a big deal to me, but nobody would assemble a team and organize a game, selling tickets for tons of people to come watch Tom call plays from home (or anywhere else for that matter!). It just wouldn't happen. Tom tried explaining to her that they were programmed players and that everything is computer generated. A few days later, she asked again what the temperature was on the game because it was raining and the players could get sick playing in the rain when it is cold. I told her, once again, that the players weren't real. She said "Ok but the people in the stands are real." "Ummm no mom. Those aren't real either." She said "Ok so just the rain is real." Tom and I both started laughing then and told her no the rain is fake too. She didn't believe us. She thought we were messing with her. I called Brittanie into the living room and asked her if the rain on Tom's game was real. She said "Ummm NO," in a tone like she thought I was a retard. I don't know if we ever convinced mom that the rain was NOT real. But hats off to the Madden programmers for making such a realistic looking game!

Everything old is new again

2008-12-27T11:26:00.004-05:00

This is supposedly an old cartoon but it is VERY fitting for today! Click to enlarge it if you need to.

Maybe this is what is wrong with the Detroit Lions this year???

2008-12-26T09:56:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!!

2008-12-26T09:07:00.023-05:00

We had a wonderful Christmas! On Christmas eve, my mom cooked our traditional Christmas eve shrimp gumbo. It was delicious! Later, Tom's parents and his brother (Jesse) and his wife (Melissa) and their beautiful baby girl, Leah, came over. We opened gifts with them and played with Leah. She is saying "Mama" now. We just love her! After everyone left to go to the Sightler family Christmas celebration, Tom, Brittanie, mom, and I settled in and watched a movie together. Katie went with Tom's parents to the Sightler celebration. Right as the movie was ending, Jessica came home from the Sightler celebration and Katie wasn't far behind her. It was around midnight. Katie had a blast, as usual. She loves playing with her cousins!Christmas morning, Brittanie got up at 7:30 and baked cinnamon rolls. At 8am, Tom's parents came over to watch us open our gifts and eat cinnamon rolls and drink coffee with us. After we opened the gifts, Randy came over to exchange gifts with Brittanie. I had been so excited about Randy's gift to Brittanie. I knew what it was but Brittanie had absolutely no clue. He gave her a PSP with Madden 2009. She had been saying for a couple of months now that she wanted one and that she was going to go after Christmas and trade in her DS on one in hopes that they were on sale right after Christmas. No need for that now! She was so excited.

We all got great gifts this year! Here is the run down:

Tom:
PS3, Madden 09, extra controller from the girls and ITom is so Magoo! He opened his controller first and said "Oh! I got a controller for a game system I don't own. Thanks!" Then he opened up the game and said "Oh! I have a game for a game system I don't own!"When he finally opened up the PS3, he said "WOW! What a surprise! I had no idea!!" He is so funny! Pocket knife from his parents

Me:
Victoria's Secret Dream Angels Heavenly perfume and a Nikon Coolpix camera from Tom and the girls
VS DA Heavenly Angel Mist, Lotion, and travel perfume from Tom's parentsTom's parents helping Tom try out the Smile feature on my new camera. It works great. That's a really cool camera!! I love my Canon Rebel but it is big and bulky for everyday use and has no video capability. I love having a tiny versatile camera!

Jesse and Melissa gave us a very cool Gamecock clock that will definitely be replacing the clock we had on the mantle. We love it! They had the same idea that we had....a Gamecock Christmas! We gave everyone Gamecock gifts too! We even shopped on the same website. Fortunately, we didn't duplicate each other's gifts. It's not a merry Christmas without a Gamecock. hehehe

Brittanie:
Ipod Touch, case for her PSP, and DVD of Jeff Dunham's Christmas special from Tom, Katie and I. (It has more than what was shown on TV and was much funnier than what was on TV.)$200 from my mom
The box set of Twilight from my niece/her nannyPSP 3000, Madden 09, and a lamp for her room from Randy Gamecock flip flops from Jesse, Melissa, and LeahGamecock satin pajamas and $100 from Tom's parents
Katie:Toy puppy that we now call Epi because it is supposed to flip but instead jumps up, falls on the floor, and looks like it is having a seizure.Toy puppy named Fido that is supposed to flip once but actually almost flips twice!Toy chihuahua that is just like a real one...walks and yipsClub Penguin game for her DSSpongebob Drawn to Life game for her DSNike tennis shoesCrayola color explosion glow board ***All of the above was from Tom and I
Pink Sony headphones from Brittanie$200 from my momAir Hogs remote control jet from JonathanBeginner remote control plane from Jesse, Melissa, and Leah$20, clothes, and Lucky the Wonder Dog from Tom's parentsMy mom:
Fossil watch and Gamecock tumbler set from us.I also gave Mom and Katie each a silver necklace that has half a heart on each necklace. They are so close and the necklaces symbolize that. They loved it!
Randy:
2 pair of Levis from Tom, Katie, and I
4 shirts, 3 boxer shorts (Guitar hero and AC/DC), a cap, headphones for his Ipod, and a Titanium promise ring from Brittanie. (Randy gave her a promise ring for her sweet 16th birthday and now that they are back together, she has been wearing hers and wanted him to have one too. He loves it.)

After we opened presents, Tom's parents left and we watched Tom hook up and set up his PS3. About the time he got it all done, it was time to eat. We had turkey, rice dressing, maque shou (cajunized corn), sweet peas, potato salad, crescent rolls, and strawberry cheesecake. It was yummy! The rest of the day, we watched Tom play Madden. We got a laugh out of my mom. She will be 78 next month and very sheltered. She is totally technology ignorant. She thought she was watching an actual football game all afternoon. Even after I told her that it was Tom playing a game, she thought Tom was calling plays and making real people do what he called. She thought the players on Madden looked real. She couldn't believe the stands weren't filled with real people. It just amazed her! It was funny!!

Around 3pm, mom, Katie, and I tired out and took a nap. Tom played Madden and Brittanie went to see "Yes man" with her friend, Aaron, who was in for Christmas from the Marines. Randy was having a celebration with his family so he couldn't go. When Brittanie got home, Tom went to bed, Jessica went upstairs, and mom, Brittanie, Katie, and I watched Brittanie's Jeff Dunham Christmas DVD. It was a great Christmas!
Remember if you want to see more details in a picture, all you have to do is click on the picture and it will enlarge it.

I shot a couple of videos with my new camera. The first is a very short clip of Katie playing with her new toy puppies. The second one is of Katie's new puppy, Lucky the Wonder Pup, doing all of his tricks.

My 5 favorite elves

2008-12-21T15:18:00.001-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Brittanie's grades are in!!!

2008-12-16T22:42:00.002-05:00

Brittanie's grades are finally in!!

Army 101..........A
English 101.......B
Math111............B+
Music110..........B+
Univ101............A

Her GPA is 3.567!!

I'm so proud of her. This semester has been horrendous. She moved out of our home and into her own apartment, had the roommate from Hades, totaled her car, lost two jobs, broke up with a guy she had been dating for a year, got back with a guy she was with for a year a couple of years ago, and has now moved back home and is looking for another job. And to come out with that high of a GPA through all of that is a miracle!! I'm very proud of her!!!

Poor baby!

2008-12-12T16:47:00.006-05:00

Last Thursday, Katie ran in the house crying that she fell in the driveway and skinned her knee. I cleaned it up and bandaged her knee. She came to me an hour later and told me her wrist hurt. It wasn't swollen and she could move her fingers and wrist so I decided to just keep an eye on it. She didn't mention it at all through the weekend. Monday, she told my mom that her wrist hurt. I thought that was her trying to get sympathy from my mom. There was no swelling and she was still able to move her fingers and wrist. Well last night, she got out of the tub and came to me just about in tears telling me that it hurt. That's when I saw a little bit of swelling but she was still able to wiggle her fingers and move her wrist. So I sent her to school today and made an appointment with a casting doctor in the same practice as her doctor at 2pm. While in there, she was sitting on the bed, leaning on that wrist. But when the doctor pressed on a certain spot and asked her if it hurt, she yelled "YES! When you press on it!" So he got an x-ray and after almost an hour of being there, he came back in and told us that she had a Greenstick fracture and needed a cast. She was tired of waiting and asked him "How many minutes???" He laughed and told her five. So we went down to the casting room and he put on the cast. They only had off white. We should have gone to an orthopedist so she would have more of a choice of colors. But anyway, it is on and she has to keep it on for three weeks. This was the same doctor that took Brittanie's cast off way too early when she was 10. So we aren't going back to him for the follow-up. We are going to Dr. Ugino. He is the best orthopedist in town. But this way I will know for sure it is completely healed when the cast is removed.

I took pictures on my cell phone while he was casting her and a couple after we got home. The whining has begun and the drama queen is in rare form. It is going to be a LONG 3 weeks!

Funny but I refuse to laugh

2008-12-11T22:34:00.001-05:00

Tom says I have to give equal time to Cow U. So here ya go Cow U fans!

Snow in Louisiana????

2008-12-11T09:53:00.005-05:00

My mom is not a happy camper. She leaves Louisiana and comes here and 4 days later it snows ALOT! It hardly ever snows in Louisiana and when it does it is usually just a dusting. But last night they got covered in snow. My cousin's wife, who lives on the street behind my mom, took pictures of her street and her neighbor's house. I'm so jealous!! Here are the pictures she took:This last one was taken by my niece in Broussard, LA. She was standing in her driveway taking it.

They are so lucky! Hopefully that weather front is coming here! I want some snow!!!

weekend update

2008-12-08T06:21:00.003-05:00

We have alot going on these days. Brittanie is studying for finals, which will be all done on Wednesday! Katie is stressing out over the Christmas play at school. She doesn't want to go. I can totally relate as I never wanted to participate in them when I was growing up and after I had kids and was forced to go, my hatred for Christmas programs only worsened. Katie is one of 9 kids holding up a sign at the program but she absolutely does not want to go. Hopefully my mom can make her feel better about it.

Friday our new TV came in. It is a Sony Bravia 52in flat panel TV and it is incredible!! We LOVE it!! The best part is no more blue dots!! Brittanie wants Tom to fix the old TV so she can put it in her room. Here is a picture of the new TV! (Yes I was watching Bring it On for the millionth time! hehe)
Tom left Saturday morning to go get my mom. She is going to be staying with us till January 16th. Her birthday is January 18th. So we are going to take her home just in time to have a family crawfish boil to celebrate her 78th birthday. Tom is so good to me. He drove 11 1/2 hours on Saturday to go pick her up and 11 1/2 hours back home Sunday. Since he did that, I'm going to let him off of the hook in January. He doesn't eat boiled crawfish anyway. He says they are too messy and too much trouble. So I will take the girls with me and he can have a nice quiet weekend all to himself.

Don't know if I mentioned it or not but JCPenney let Brittanie go after she fainted. So she is looking for Christmas money. She has been trying to find a new job but everyone has already hired their Christmas help. So in order to make money, she is trying to sell some stuff she no longer wants, like her formals from high school that she only wore once and her IPhone. If you know anyone who wants a first generation IPhone, tell them to check out my ebay listing for it: Click here.

I LOVE this idea!!

2008-12-02T22:33:00.001-05:00

Something to think about ......

Bush should resign now.

Then Dick Cheney becomes President.

Then he appoints Condoleeza Rice as VP.

Then Cheney resigns two weeks later and Condoleeza Rice, a Republican, becomes the first BLACK President and the first WOMAN President !!!