9 months and counting

Tonight, Randy took Brittanie to Ruby Tuesday's to celebrate their 9 month anniversary. Randy is such a respectful guy and so good to Brittanie. In the 9 months they have been dating, there as been absolutely no drama/problems. Her boyfriend before Randy was exhausting. There was always some kind of drama with him. He has gotten dumped by at least 4 girls since Brittanie dumped him 9 months ago. Randy is like part of the family. We really like him.

Here are a couple more pictures I took of them before they left.

It's gonna be a better day!

Last night, I put Katie to bed at 7pm for hitting me. Today, she woke up with a whole new attitude. Just when I thought I had given birth to the meanest child on the planet, she did an about face this morning. Normally she is grouchy like the rest of us in the morning. But this morning, she was walking around the house singing a verse from "God is so good." She was singing "He answers pwayer. He answers pwayer. He answers pwayer. He's so good to me." It was so sweet I just had to hug her. I told her I was so proud of her attitude, which is proof right there that God does answer prayer because I prayed that God would help her get a better attitude today and she has one. I told her I was so proud of her. She didn't get all that upset when I put her jacket on her, which is always attitude provoking. She is just like Tom and hates heavy jackets. Well it is 25 degrees outside right now. She HAS to wear that heavy jacket.

Now I just need to pray that Tom gets a new attitude. Like I said above, it was 25 degrees this morning. So I took my spare key to his truck and started it for him so that when he went out there, the truck would be ready to have the heater turned on. He told me I was crazy and that it wasn't that cold. He wasn't being mean. He just didn't think it was necessary. He doesn't think anything is cold because his office is next to the computer room and they have to keep it colder because of all the computers. So his office, to me, feels like the arctic tundra. But he likes it. He comes home to a normal temperature at home and breaks out in a sweat. Let's hope Zeus doesn't open a plant in Greenland, he may just volunteer to move us out there!

Make it stop!!!

Katie has gotten so aggressive lately. Since before Christmas, she has been slapping us in the face and hitting us. That's bad enough but then everytime Randy (Brittanie's boyfriend) comes over, she bites him on the butt. She never bites the rest of us and she never bites him anywhere but his butt. I don't understand it but today I had had enough of it. After she once again bit Randy on the butt, I made Brittanie bite her back on the butt, through her shorts. Obviously she didn't bite her hard enough to break the skin or anything but she felt it. That is what we are going to do everytime she bites Randy's butt. I don't know where she would get the idea to do such a thing! But not long after she bit his butt and got bitten, Randy was sitting on the floor at Brittanie's feet and Katie walked up and slapped him in the face. She got a s p a n k i n g for that one. (I spaced it to keep the pervs from searching that word and finding my blog.)

Tonight I sent her to bed at 7pm because she hit me. She is always worse after being with my mom because my mom still treats her like an infant and wants everyone to bow down to her. I won't bow. I have to live with the repercussions of that.

How many years till I can send her to college? lol

How cute!

Today, I was washing my hands in the bathroom and Katie came running in all excited telling me she wanted to show me something. I asked her what it was and she said she had to show it to me. So I walked out of the bathroom and she picked up her Barbie laptop and said "See! I spelled my name!!" I looked at it and she had type "K T B." That's what we call her....Katie B and sometimes we do pronounce it K T B. I thought it so cute!

USNLMA

Brittanie has been nominated by Major Norton as a USAA Leadership winner. She now qualifies for scholarships. This is the second time she has been recognized for her leadership abilities. Last year she was inducted in the Society of Distinguished American High School Students. We are very proud of her. Major Norton is tough to impress. So it is quite an honor to be his choice for this.

Wife Swap

Tom and I were watching an episode of "Wife Swap" tonight and they swapped a Christian African American woman from North Carolina with an atheist, freakish white woman from California. The atheist dad was rude and down right mean at the mention of God. He was a real jerk. The African American woman told him that he prides himself on being open minded and wants his kids to chose things for themselves, but yet is extremely close minded and won't let his kids even entertain the thought of God. He thought about it and decided to go to church with her. Well she found a church in California to take them to, obviously it wasn't her home church since she is from North Carolina, but she found one that is much like her home church. The church opened their arms and their hearts to him and his children. They played games, got to know them, etc. It had to be hard for them because their kids were tattooed like their freakish mom and one even had a mohawk. But nobody in the church cared about their outward appearance. The dad made a VERY profound statement. He said "If this is what Christianity is all about, I need to rethink my position because these people have treated me and my family with love and respect and welcomed us into their fold."

THAT is how Christianity is supposed to be. It isn't supposed to be picking apart someone for the way they dress. Afterall, being a Christian is a heart conversion, which comes from within. I wondered how many churches, good Bible believing Christian churches, across America would have welcomed this man and his children the way this church in California did. None of their members were tattooed and pierced everywhere, wearing freakish hairstyles. But they looked past the outward and loved that person like God commands us to do. So much emphasis is placed on clothing in churches across the country that it is no wonder people don't want to go.

Right after my dad died, my mom came to stay with us for awhile. She came to meet me at my job one Wednesday night and we left my office and went straight to church. I got off late so my mom didn't have time to go home and change into a dress or skirt like we thought she would. That night at church, over half of the people we crossed paths with looked down at her pants/looked her up and down. She said she has never felt so uncomfortable in her life. These people didn't know if she was unsaved or that she had just lost her husband of 54 years. That didn't seem to matter because she was in pants!!!!! The God I love, who sent his son to save pants wearers as well as skirt and dress wearers, would not approve of that holier than thou/look down your nose junk.

We need to all take a lesson from this church in California as well as "Big Mama" (that was her nickname on the show) and love one another like the Bible says.....no matter how they look!

Katie stuff

We got back Katie's K3 class picture and her second report card of the year. They really really should have used Tom's cousin, Jenny, for class pictures because these pictures are awful. They are blurry and obviously the photographer wasn't too good....only two kids are smiling. It is really hard to find a good photographer these days.By the way, the pretty little girl in the red sweater is Ashley...the one Katie is always saying she can't stand. I think Ashley and Katie are both leaders in the class struggling to become the boss. I honestly think they don't like each other because they are too much alike.

I am very proud of Katie's report card. In case you can't read the comments, it says "Katie excels at school. She is a leader among her classmates. Katie is very cooperative and cares about her friends." I knew she was a leader....she is very bossy at home. hehehe She loves school and her teacher, Mrs. Barnes, is excellent. She had a medical issue at the beginning of the year and was out for 6weeks, coming back right after Thanksgiving. Katie had Mrs. Nicholson for those six weeks and she was excellent as well. Grace has an outstanding Kindergarden program. The teachers are so loving and caring and very good at what they do. Katie has learned ALOT in just a short time.
(click to enlarge either picture)

Weekend update

We had a pretty quiet weekend so I decided to make just one post to cover the whole weekend.

I promised Brittanie that when her contract with Verizon ran out in May, I would get her a Cingular phone since it actually has signal in Gaston. Well now that Taylor is here, I decided not to wait. I gave Taylor Brittanie's Verizon phone and bought Brittanie a Cingular phone....a red Razr. I wanted Taylor to have a cell phone because the school has a rule of not letting them call home. I HATE that rule. If my kids need me, I want them to be able to call me. I understand the rule because they have 500+ students in Taylor's school and 1000 at Brittanie's school. If they all tried to use the phone, it would be chaos. But Taylor's teacher told them they could have a cell phone, as long as they keep it in their pocket, turn off the ringer, and never use it in class. This phone is perfect for Taylor because she won't run up the bill because it doesn't work at our house (she can use the house phone if she is at home anyway) and the contract runs out in May, which is when she is going back to Louisiana. It is also tiny and so is Taylor. So it will do well in her pockets. The Razr came in Friday and both Brittanie and Taylor were very excited Friday night with their new phones.

Saturday, Frank and Lynn came over with their daughter and her boyfriend and played Pictionary with us. Tom was in a GREAT mood and sometimes his great moods are worse than his bad moods. He was picking on everyone! Fortunately, they are like family so they didn't take his picking seriously. But there was no living with him after they left. We played several games with different combinations of players and the team he was on won everytime! He had a hard time getting that swollen head through the bedroom door that night. lol But we had a really good time. We got a big 3 foot sub, had cheese and salsa dip, chips, and Lynn's DELICIOUS Heath bar cookies. They love our dip and we love their cookies. Lynn let us have the cookies that were left....they didn't last long. They were gone by Sunday morning.

Tom didn't realize that the cookies were actually Heath bar cookies. He thought they were cookies with toffee. So the chocolate gave him a migraine today. He suffered with it all day. I know migraines are miserable. But those cookies are worth it!

Saturday night after everyone left, Taylor got homesick. She was sitting on the sofa and then said she was going to bed. Katie said "good" and we fussed at her and told her she was NOT allowed to be mean or ugly. Taylor went upstairs to meet Brittanie and shortly after, Brittanie came down with Taylor and Taylor was crying. She said Katie had been mean to her all day and was even hitting her. Taylor would never hit her back....even though she should. We told her that she needs to tell us everytime Katie is mean and when she hits her because she is 4 and we can't punish her hours after she does something....she won't understand. She has to be dealt with immediately when she does something. Katie is something else. She can be sweet as pie one minute and mean as the devil the next. I hugged Taylor for a bit and let her know we love her and we are so glad she is with us and that being homesick is very normal. Brittanie took her upstairs and talked to her for awhile. When they came back down, Taylor was smiling and laughing and they were talking about going skating next week. They wanted to go Monday night but can't because the rink isn't open again till Friday night. So we will take her then. Brittanie is going to take her one day this week to get her own roller blades before Friday. I'm going to get Katie some too so she and Taylor can skate outside too.

Today was really quiet. Tom watched the football games while holding his head. I think it finally broke around 9pm but it gave him body aches all over. He just can't eat ANY chocolate or the migraines will kick his butt.

Taylor's first day of school

Taylor had a great day at school. She made some friends and they liked her outfit. There was a girl in one of her classes who had the same shirt on. She was amazed at how big, clean, and new her school was. She liked being able to pick what she wanted for lunch. She really likes her teachers too. I asked her on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best day she has ever had at school and 1 being the worst, how would she rate her day at school and she rated it a 10. She couldn't wait to call and tell her mom and dad what a great day she had.When she got back home from school, she played a little outside with Katie, came in and did her homework, and then went back out to ride the Jeep with Katie.Tom got home while I was out there taking pictures of them riding in Katie's Jeep. So I took a
couple of pictures of Belle because I didn't have any. Belle has a routine she follows everyday that Tom comes home. When Tom opens the door of his truck, Belle jumps up with her paws on Tom's seat and waits to be petted.

Thanks Terri!

My friend, Terri, from Baton Rouge, sent this to me and I thought it was funny so I wanted to share it.

A poll taken by the office of the Governor of Texas asked whether people who
live in Texas think illegal immigration is a serious problem:

35% of respondents answered: "Yes, it is a serious problem."

65% of respondents answered: "No es una problema serio."

My biological dad

When we got home from Louisiana, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had a Christmas letter with a picture from my biological dad, Mark. I look forward to their Christmas letters each year....especially with the picture! My little brothers are so handsome! I haven't met them in person but Mark and I have spoken on the phone over the years, as well as email. He's a great guy....even though he is a Seahawks fan. hehehe I guess it is forgiveable since he lives in Washington State, right? Anyway, here is the picture they sent.

Starting in the back from left to right is Ryan's fiance, Katie, Ryan, and Mark. In the front is Erik and Mark's wife, Kathy.

Happy 2007!!

We just got back from Louisiana! We left South Carolina on the 26th of December and came back New Year's Eve. It was a busy week.

Wednesday, Tom helped mom make boudin. They used 60lb of pork meat, 10 pounds of rice, 20 onions, shallots, and lots of seasoning. Tom came out with 37 packs of boudin. Brittanie had 30 packs and Katie had 10 packs. By the way, Tom didn't want me to blog that because he doesn't want to share his boudin! lol This is the first time Tom ever helped her do it. He turned the crank on the stuffer and mom said he did great. Mom is VERY picky....especially with the stuffing part because if you turn too fast, you pop the casing. Mom said Tom was a natural. We may have a new boudin maker in the family! If he isn't careful, she will have him helping to make the sausage too!

Thursday we went to Opelousas and signed the guardianship papers for Taylor. She is officially temporarily ours. Lyndsie came and spent the night with us at mom's. I gave her and Taylor each a Gameboy Advance for Christmas. Lyndsie showed Katie how to play a game on it and it didn't take long for her to catch on.
Friday we made desserts for Saturday. Tammie came over to help and I had a blast with her. She is so fun. I wish she lived closer. Mom gave Katie a doll....even though I told her Katie doesn't like dolls. Well Katie didn't want to play with it but she wanted mom's boyfriend to play with it.

Saturday was a big family Christmas celebration. I invited my biological sisters, Aimee and Jeannette, (for those who don't know, I was adopted at a day old) to join in our family celebration. I wanted them to meet my family. They fit right in with the family. My family loved them and they loved my family. We played the white elephant game with gifts and again with ornaments. We did the ornaments first and that was fun. I loved stealing Eddie's ornaments over and over because people kept stealing mine. Then we played it with gifts. My nephew's wife, Kathy, picked out great gifts so we were all fighting over her gifts. Me, Tammie, and my sisters all put gag gifts in with our regular gifts and that really livened things up. Kathy got a box of douche. I thought Randy would be the one we would laugh at most with the gag gifts (He got an enema and hemorrhoid cream) but I was wrong. Tammie got Jeannette's gift of adult diapers and diaper rash cream. She put one between her legs like she was going to put it on and Kathy pulled it. We all laughed. But she wasn't satisfied with that. She got down on the floor and acted like she was needing a change. It was hilarious!! Our games were so much fun. The food was great. But the best part was having my family all together. I only get to see them twice a year and I really miss them. I am looking forward to our next trip in May. My nephew said he would boil three sacks of those BIG crawfish they usually get and we will have my sisters and everyone over again and celebrate my birthday. I can't wait!Amber and Aimee during the game

Amber, Katie, Taylor, and Lyndsie
LyndsieMom opening a gift during the game.Amber, Taylor, and Lyndsie

Katie was in her element down there. She is the center of attention everytime we go down there and she really hams it up. Brittanie taught her to make "rock on" fingers, poke out her lips, close her eyes and nod her head up and down like she is jamming. Well my family LOVED it. They asked her to do it so much that she finally said "I've already done it 100 times!" and she started doing an improvised version of it.Tammie's stepson, Travis, played football and was a champion weight lifter in high school. He just graduated in May. It took some coaxing because he didn't want to be disrespectful. We finally convinced him it wasn't disrespectful and we got him to pose for us and show off his "guns." Randy wanted to compare his "guns" to Travis' guns. I told him Travis had machine guns and he had a cap gun. lol
I realized after I put all the pictures on here that I didn't have any pictures of Eddie (Travis' dad/Tammie's hubby). Fortunately, Tammie sent me some last night of Travis picking up his dad so I had to include it. Travis is almost 19 and Eddie is....not. lol Anyway, she sent me a picture of him holding her up too and I liked it so I'm including it too.

We left Louisiana at 9am Louisiana time and got home at 9:30 South Carolina time. We hit alot of rain or we would have made the trip faster. It only took us 11 hours to get down there. Taylor was amazed at how big our house was. Brittanie has a whole day planned Wednesday for her and Taylor. She is taking her to get her hair done, her nails shaped and French tips painted on (no fake tips), to the stores to get new clothes and shoes, and who knows what else. All of the girls start school again Thursday.

You will notice there are no pictures of Brittanie here. That's because she couldn't get off of work so unfortunately we had to go without her. I would like to take this time to sincerely thank Sandra, Samantha, and Jimmy for looking out for Brittanie and making sure she got home safe and sound each night. Mom sent me home with roux and shrimp for a gumbo so I'm going to make them a gumbo one night and have them over to thank them for all they did. Brittanie said she felt very safe knowing they were looking out for her.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We sure did!

Last night (Christmas eve), Tom's parents, his grandmother, and his brother and his wife came over and we exchanged gifts with them and ate some of the 6 foot of sub we bought from Blimpies. It was good! Tom's parents took Katie with them to the big Sightler family Christmas celebration. While she was out of the house, Tom put together Katie's presents that needed putting together. Unfortunately Brittanie had to work and they had quite a night! She said most people didn't realize Wal-Mart was closed and decided to come to them instead. She said all of the stalls at Sonic were full and the drive thru was wrapped around the building to the point where people were waiting in the median of the highway waiting to turn in! According to the totals, they did over twice as much business as a normal "busy" night. She was exhausted when she got home.

Today, Tom's parents and grandmother came over to watch the girls open their gifts. Here is the run down of what we got:

Tom: Carolina Panthers football for his office, Madden 2007 PC game from me, Polo shirts, Dockers pants, and Dockers socks from me. The girls' gifts for Tom didn't make it in time but they gave Tom a golf shirt with a Linux penguin on it and it says "Failure is not an option. It comes standard with Windows" and a T-shirt that says "No I will not fix your computer. GET LINUX!"Me: Victoria's Secret Dream Angels "Heavenly" perfume, clothes, and a new phone with a color display and musical ring tones. (I LOVE IT!!)

Brittanie: Stereo, Nintendo DS with a case and two extra stylus pens, Mario Kart for her Nintendo DS, an Ipod adapter for her car so she can control and play her Ipod through her car radio, and outdoor quad roller skates so she can become a car hop. (The first thing she said when she opened the skates was "You got me something for work? Gee thanks mom!" LOL) But she loved them because they are pretty. She practiced skating with them as she has never skated on anything but inline skates before and she busted her butt a couple of times because with inline skates the brake is on the heel. With quad skates, the stop is under the toes. It is going to take practice but she will get it. She is great at inline skating so she will get this too.Katie: (Katie got alot more stuff but we spent more money on Brittanie. The older they get, the more expensive they are!) Disney Princess bike, Disney/Pixar "Cars" table and chairs set, "Cars" toy organizer, "Cars" racetrack, "Cars" Lightning McQueen talking car that you can program to drive itself, "Cars" Hot Wheels cars of all of the major characters, "Cars" alarm clock, "Cars" Doodle Pro, "Cars" spiral racetrack, Toss Across game, and Charlie Coal grill. (When Brittanie had her dress altered for the military ball back in February, the seamstress had this grill in the shop and Katie had a blast playing with it both times we went in there and asked me to get her one for her birthday. I forgot about it then but remembered for Christmas.) She has been playing with her new toys all day and making us play grilled hamburgers and hot dogs to eat. I think her two favorites are the grill and the talking Lightning McQueen. I got her a "Cars" camping set but it didn't make it here in time for Christmas.All in all, we had a very good Christmas. Poor Brittanie is working herself to death but looking forward to that BIG paycheck. Tom's parents were here when Katie got up from her nap yesterday. They were here again when she woke up this morning. So a minute ago, Katie asked me if Grandpa was going to be here when she got up tomorrow morning. I told her no. She said "Awwww man!" She hung her head and went back to her play room. She loves that Grandpa!

Katie

I have a couple of cute stories about Katie to share. There is never a dull moment with her!

Last night, Tom picked up our birthday cake for Jesus from the grocery store. When he got it home, she asked Tom who the cake was for. He told her since it is Jesus' birthday, we had to have a birthday cake for Jesus. She replied "He's not going to eat it! He's up in the air!" So he was telling me this story this morning and Katie said "He's not going to eat it! You will see!"

Tom and Katie had been wrestling and he would grab her and hold her tight with her back against his chest and his arms around her so she couldn't get away. He would then laugh because she couldn't get away. A little while later, after she had gotten away from him, he was laying on his stomach and she jumped on his back and yell "HA HA! Who's laughing now!!"

She's 42 pounds personality!

Sonic

I mentioned in a previous post that Brittanie's manager told her she would be getting a raise. Well she is now making 65 cents more an hour but it won't take effect until her next check. To show their appreciation for everyone who works on Christmas day, they all make a dollar more an hour that day, plus $20 cash. With her raise and the extra hours she has been getting lately, she is looking forward to a huge paycheck next time!

Katie and Brittanie were, once again, fighting and Katie screamed and Tom fussed at her. Katie said "But she started it!" A minute later, Brittanie started with her again and once again Katie screamed and got fussed at by Tom. This time, Katie said "She started it and I don't care who started it, I'm going to finish it!" You just never know what she is going to say next! lol