Military ball tonight!!!

After three dress orders were canceled (stupid websites need to learn how to do inventory!!!) since December, Brittanie found a very pretty dress at David's Bridal. She and Randy looked GREAT!! Sightler Florist created an absolutely beautiful corsage....it was perfect and I highly recommend them!!! After the ball tonight, they are going with a huge group to the Waffle House and then midnight bowling in their formals. lol

Here are the pictures:

Southern rules

1. Pull your droopy pants up. You look like an idiot.

2. Turn your cap right, your head isn't crooked.

3. Let's get this straight; it's called a "gravel road." I drive a pickup truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you're going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.

4. They are cattle. That's why they smell to you. They smell like money to us. Get over it. Don't like it? I-40 goes east and west, I-95 goes north and south. Pick one.

5. So you have a $60,000 car. We're impressed. We have $250,000 cotton pickers that are driven only 3 weeks a year.

6. So every person in the south waves. It's called being friendly. Try to understand the concept.

7. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of doves are coming in, we WILL shoot it out of your hand. You better hope you don't have it up to your ear at the time.

8. Yeah, we eat catfish &; crawfish. You really want sushi &caviar?
It's available at the corner bait shop.

9. The "Opener" refers to the first day of deer season. It's a religious holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November.

10. We open doors for women. That is applied to all women, regardless of age.

11. No, there's no "vegetarian special" on the menu. Order steak. Or you can order the Chef's Salad and pick off the 2 pounds of ham & turkey.

12. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats,
vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup! Oh, yeah.... We don't care what you folks in Cincinnati call that stuff you eat... IT AIN'T REAL CHILI!! Real chili never met pasta!

13. You bring "coke" into my house, it better be brown, wet and served over ice. You bring "Mary Jane" into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.

14. College and High School Football is as important here as the Lakers and the Knicks, and a dang site more fun to watch.

15. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don't hit the water hazards -- it spooks the fish.

16. Colleges? We have them all over. We have State Universities ,
Universities, and Vo-techs. They come outta there with an education plus a love for God and country, and they still wave at everybody when they come for the holidays.

17. We have more folks in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. So don't mess with us. If you do, you will get whipped by the best.

18. The south is the greatest!! If you are from the south you are part of the best people in the USA !!

A true southerner will repost this!!!

OH NO!! NOT CLOWNS!!!

It is funny how we can pass on our fears to our kids without even realizing it. I honestly don't ever remember saying in front of Katie that clowns gave me the creeps and made me have nightmares. Well I got a note home from school saying Friday is "Clown Day" and asking all the kindergarteners to dress as clowns. Katie told me she did NOT want to dress like a clown because clowns were creepy. So I told her she didn't have to but everybody else in her class and even her teacher would be dressed like clowns. She made this face of sheer horror and said "I don't want to go to school that day!!!!!" So I'm going to let her stay home from school Friday. But I thought it was pretty interesting how both of my kids have my fear of clowns without me having to say a word!

update

I know I'm supposed to be typing but I had so much to blog that I decided to write it down before I forgot something.

Tuesday night, Brittanie went to work and asked her manager if she could talk to him about transferring to the Red Bank Sonic. She was thinking since they are hurting for workers so bad, they may pay her a little more. Well her manager freaked out and told her he didn't want to lose her and if it is about gas money, how much would it take to get her to stay with them on #1. She said she didn't want to overshoot it so for him to tell her what he had in mind. She got a raise to $6 after only 3 weeks on the job (she has been there since November) and last night, he gave her $6.50 an hour and told her once she passes her master test (which should be in a week or two) that she will get $7 an hour and become a car hop and start making tips. One night, one of their car hops was working alone and made $80 in tips! Brittanie was there that night. That's what got her all fired up to be a car hop. Anyway, her manager told her that he values her as an employee because she is very honest....he said he knows that if he left a hundred dollar bill by her, he could come back hours later and it would still be there. He told her she was dependable and hard working as well and he wants to keep her. So she is staying on #1 and so happy. Sonic really knows how to treat their employees!!!

Tuesday, Katie asked her daddy if one day he would take her to see God. He told her he doesn't think he can do that. She said "But I love him. I want to meet him." I thought it was too sweet not to share.

Now on to today. I got up this morning and took a shower. Tom came home early to take Katie to the doctor for me not only because I need to type but because she was going to get another Rocephin shot for the second time this week and I HATE going to do that. It breaks my heart to watch her get a shot. Well when Tom got here to pick up Katie, I was getting her dressed and that's when I noticed that the bottle of children's chewable Tylenol (Walgreen's brand) was open and empty. I nearly had a heart attack. Katie admitted to eating them because "they taste so good." We started counting how many would have been in the bottle. I bought it brand new Monday with 30 tablets and gave her 10 to 12 tablets this week. That means she could have taken 20 tablets of chewable Tylenol. Tom took her immediately to the Emergency Room. I called Brittanie's school to get her to come home so she could pick up Taylor from school. As soon as she got home from school, I went to the ER to meet Tom and Katie. They gave Katie charcoal to drink, which she eventually threw up. The toxic level for Tylenol is 140. Her level on the first blood test was 40. The second blood test showed a level of 25. So she was ok. But to say it scared us to death would be an understatement. So we spent 5 hours in Lexington Medical Center Emergency Room today. As soon as we got home, we gave Katie a bath and Tom, Brittanie and Taylor left to go to Tennessee. They are going to the Saturday Showcase at Carson-Newman College in Tennessee. Katie was supposed to be staying with my inlaws. But since Tom's uncle passed away yesterday, they are going to take Katie with them to the funeral in Myrtle Beach tomorrow instead of staying at their house. This was an exhausting day. I do have a couple of cute stories from the ER visit. She never showed signs of an overdose. She was happy and hyper like normal. At one point, I was hugging her and she said "I need to throw up." So I told Tom to grab a pan and hurry. She said "Yeah daddy! Hurry up!" So he rushed the pan to her and she make a fake puke sound and then said "ummm maybe not! HAHAHAHAHAHA" She thought that was so funny. She is a nut! Then later, Tom was sitting in a chair against the wall and he picked her up and she hit her head on the wall behind his head and she immediately smacked him across the forehead and said "you did that on purpose!" She was too funny to get mad at her. She also had fun playing pretend with the curtain in the Emergency Room. One time she pretended it was her shower curtain and she was taking a shower. The next time she was pretending she was in church behind the curtain.

I'm exhausted and going to bed.....with the phone so I will know when Tom makes it to the hotel in TN. G'night yall!

My job

I am extremely behind in my job and it is my own fault. So I have let my boss know that I will be totally caught up by March 1st or I will resign. I don't want to lose my job. I just want to be caught up and less stressed. My boss is stressed over this as well. So I will not be blogging anything until March 1st. I won't be on myspace or e-mail either. Please don't call for me unless it is an emergency.

Update

Tom is much better. He wouldn't go to the doctor yesterday....that's why I didn't update. He was able to stay up for 4 hours at a time. Today was even better but he did lay down periodically and by 9:30pm he was weak and went to bed. I told him I think he needs one more day to get totally back to normal because he can't lay down at work. Who knows if he is doing to listen to me or not. But now Katie is running fever. So I'm going to take her to the doctor tomorrow at 12:30. I was queasy today and had to lay down. Hopefully we won't get it as bad as Tom did. But when Katie doesn't feel good, she doesn't want me. She always wants Tom. Today she was laying on him with her head either buried under his left arm or on his chest. I wasn't fast enough to get the picture of her head under his arm before she lifted her head.....so that's what this picture is:
This picture is obviously the one with her head on his chest:
Thanks to everyone who prayed. It definitely helped!! Keep praying!

Update on Tom

Tom couldn't go to work again today. While the vomiting has stopped, his nasty headache persists and he is still very weak. He was able to sit up for about 45 minutes tonight around 9pm. But he had to go back to bed because he was queasy again and running fever.

His boss called me this afternoon and reminded me about the recall of the Peter Pan peanut butter. I looked at ours and sure enough, it was one of the ones recalled. I remember Tom eating a spoon of it....as did Taylor at the same time. Tom claims that was last week. I swear it was this week. But I couldn't convince him to go to the doctor or hospital. I think he is just too weak and doesn't want to move. But tomorrow morning he IS going to the doctor and if I have to dress him myself, pick him up and put him in my rolling office chair and roll him to the van, I will.

I will update again when we get home from the doctor tomorrow. Please everyone keep praying for him!!

Keep em coming!

Thanks to everyone who is praying for me. I don't want to go into details on here but I feel much better and alot less scared than I did and I know it is because all of you are praying. So thanks and keep the prayers coming!

Please pray for Tom as well. I don't know exactly what is wrong with him. Valentine's night, he was fine and in a great mood. He grilled some steaks for us and we all ate and enjoyed being with the kids. About an hour after we ate, he started coughing. He took some over-the-counter cough syrup and went to bed around 11. But yesterday morning, when he got up he looked like he had been beaten but he was dressed for work.....that's Tom...don't call in, crawl in. But after taking Katie to school, he realized he was just too sick to go. He came back home and went to bed around 8:30 and he hasn't left the bed since....it is 6:06am now. He isn't running fever. But I am still worried that he may have the flu. The flu packs a punch all at once. I did give him something for pain around 2:30 yesterday because his head was killing him. But if he is still like this today, I'm taking him to the doctor for a flu swab because if it is the flu, the first 24 to 48 hours is critical. If you don't start the Tamiflu then, you are in for weeks of having the flu instead of just a couple of days. So please pray for Tom and I'll keep everyone updated.

Out of the mouths of babes

Last night while we were eating dinner, Tom, Taylor, and I were discussing how things are different in Louisiana than they are here. We were talking about my mom thinking it is stupid that people in South Carolina consider "hell" a curse word. That's why it was so hard for me to break the habit of saying "what the hell?" when I first came here. Katie had remained quiet through the discussion and then when there was a lull in the conversation she said "That's the lake of fire. It is a terrible place. That's why you aren't supposed to say that word." We were stunned! She is 4 years old and in 3-year-old kindergarten (because of her birthday being in October). Grace has taught her sooooooooooo much!!! Her teacher is just incredible.

She should have been a boy!

Katie came in here a minute ago and told me "Mom, I killed a fly in my playroom and you know what sound it made?" I said I didn't know. She picked up a chip and put it in her mouth and crunched it. Then went on to explain to me how she stepped on it with her shoe and it broke into a bunch of pieces. That is so gross. Brittanie still won't step on a bug...not even a fly. But Katie not only steps on them, she gives us a recap of it. Ewwwww!

Zen and the Wisdom of Life

Zen and the Wisdom of Life


1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me alone.

2. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

3. It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

4. Always remember you are unique -- just like everyone else.

5. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

6. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.

7. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away, and you have their shoes.

8. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

9. Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink all day.

10. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

11. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

12. Some days you are the bug; some days you are the windshield.

13. Anything worth taking seriously is worth making fun of.

14. Good judgment comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

15. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

16. A closed mouth gathers no foot.

17. Duct tape is like the Force--It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

18. There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.

19. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

20. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

21. We are born naked, wet, and hungry, and get slapped on our butt...then things get worse.

22. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire.

23. There is a fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness".

24. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

25. Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

Please pray for our family

Tom's grandmother (his mom's mom) passed away at 3am Monday morning in a hospital in Florence, SC. She had been in the hospital for a few weeks and was refusing treatment. She just wanted to be allowed to die in peace and join her husband that she had lost almost 18 years ago. She was 76 and will be greatly missed. She was an excellent grandmother/great grandmother. We really loved her. She was Tom's last surviving grandparent. Thankfully, Tom's parents went to Florence and picked her up and brought her here to see us on Christmas eve and then again Christmas morning so they could watch our girls open their gifts. She really loved our girls. She didn't get to see Brittanie much growing up but when my in-laws would keep Katie, she got attached to Katie. Katie adored her too. She is definitely going to be missed.

To make things worse, Tom's parents are sick and have been since at least Thursday of last week. It sounds like the flu complete with stomach problems. But they are going to be coming down here today (Tuesday) to make arrangements anyway. Losing a parent is horrible enough. But it is most definitely worse when you are this sick on top of it.

So please remember our family in your prayers as we say our last goodbyes.

Now that's MY kind of Superbowl shuffle!!!

Well the Colts sent the Chicago Bears "shuffling" back to the windbag...errrr windy city! I LOVED IT!!! Isn't it great to see the obnoxious fall? I was doing a happy dance!! Tony Dungy's son is probably looking down and so proud of his dad and his Colts today! I have heard Peyton Manning compared to the GREAT Dan Marino. I'm so glad that he didn't meet the same fate as Dan....a spectacular career but no Superbowl ring to show for it. Aside from seeing the Bears lose, the highlight of the night for me is usually the commercials. This year, I was pretty disappointed in the commercials. Bud never disappoints. But no one else made a commercial worth mentioning. I don't understand the point of the Coke and Frito Lay commercials. The message we got from it was "Who knew black men could coach?" Why is everyone making such a big deal of black men coaching? There are black men across the country that are good at what they do. There are good black athletes, good black coaches, good black teachers, good black principals, good black programmers, etc. Why were we making such a big deal out of like it is such a surprise that black coaches could be in the Superbowl? It didn't suprise us at all. Greatness comes in all colors.

Anyway, my favorite commercial (even though I an adamantly opposed to drinking) is a Bud commercial. Here it is for anyone who missed it:

Such a good daddy!

Katie and Tom have a ritual that they do every night before bed. Katie picks how Tom puts her to bed every night. One night may be the airplane, the next the car (my personal favorite), sometimes a horse...like tonight. She has tons of them. Tonight I got pictures of Tom doing the horsey thing, which consists of Katie on Tom's back with him running through the house like a horse a few times before tucking her in. No matter what she chooses, she gets a wild ride. Here are the pictures:
She is reminding me more and more of her daddy these days. Last night she flat out refused to tell Brittanie she was sorry for throwing lip gloss at her because she said Brittanie was "ragavating her." Today she refused to say please when asking Brittanie to get her something to drink. She said she hates "that please word." She only hates it when dealing with Brittanie. She never fails to say please and thank you to me and Tom. lol But the real similarity to her dad is intolerance/impatience. My mom often has trouble understanding Katie because not only is she 4 but she has a southern accent. Well Katie got mad at my mom last night for not being able to understand her and told her she didn't love her anymore and she was mad because there is something wrong with her ears! This morning she got up and wasn't mad anymore when she talked to my mom. But this afternoon, when she talked to her again, she was screaming into the phone "THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR EARS!!!!!" over and over again and then hung up on her. I couldn't help but laugh but not in front of her. I have to teach her manners but it was still funny!

Brittanie's project

In Brittanie's American Military History class, the teacher split everyone into groups and assigned them each a branch of the military to research and do a poster on. Brittanie LOVES all things Army and her teacher knew this, so she was hoping to be placed in the Army group. The teacher, I am assuming, wanted her to learn about a different branch since she knew so much about the Army already so she placed her in the Air Force group, which she was not happy about. She is the only girl in the Air Force group. They each had a piece of information to gather and pictures. Brittanie hates working on a group project because she is very very particular about making it the best and most people don't care enough to put much effort into a project. Well this project was just a poster board of information about the Air Force. She offered to assemble the poster herself at home and the guys were very happy with that. Well she wasn't happy with the hand written write ups or the black and white huge pictures the guys gave her so she basically redid everything herself. The teacher told them to get a map and show 5 bases of that branch on the map and not all in the US. She saw some of the other posters that were submitted and most were hand drawn or printed from a book and marked with a dot made by a black marker to indicate the bases. Brittanie wanted to do better so she got her plain map, colored it and grabbed a picture of a tiny American flag and put the flag on the five bases instead of a black dot. What I find funny is that she didn't put a flag in South Carolina. She said everyone knows we have a base here. She wanted to show places where people may not know there is a base. Here is the finished product. (Click it to make it larger.)

One part of the project included putting any family members you have in that particular branch on your poster. So here is the list from her group. Brittanie's entries are obviously last. She left out Uncle Harvel, unfortunately. She didn't know he was in the Air Force too. (By the way, she does know her Grandpa's first name. She always calls him Grandpa and it was glued before she realized she didn't put his first name. )

A little dusting of snow

This morning around 9:30am, it started snowing. It didn't last long and only gave us a little dusting but it thrilled the girls. They were supposed to go to school at 10. But I didn't want Brittanie driving in that so I kept them home. Katie didn't have school at all today. As you can see in the pictures, it didn't accumulate much but in South Carolina, that's all it takes to make kids happy!

Columbia Inferno

Tom was able to get 4 tickets to the Columbia Inferno hockey game last night from work. Well just like when he gets football tickets, these were GREAT seats! They were box seats, against the ice, first row!!! Brittanie said it was incredible being that close to the players when they smashed into each other against the glass. It was Taylor and Katie's first time at a hockey game. Taylor loved it. She and Brittanie did the chicken dance and the cha cha slide when the announcer would call for it. They just cut loose and had fun. Katie on the other hand could not get used to the screaming and wanted to go home within the first 5 minutes. Of course Tom refused and she cried. After trying to engage her in having fun and having her just get madder, he plopped her down in the seat and told her to sit there and cry or whatever because he was going to enjoy the game no matter what she does. She stopped crying. But she wasn't happy. This was her first but will be her last for a long time. Sounds like the game was very exciting. It ended in a tie and they had to have a penalty shot (I think that is what you call it) shoot off twice to decide it and we lost...by one point. Brittanie said it was a GREAT game and GREAT seats and she had a GREAT time except for Katie so next time daddy gets hockey tickets, she is taking Randy. lol

At one point, they were shooting T-shirts from a cannon. Brittanie said she would have caught a shirt but the guy next to her had longer arms so he got it. But he was a nice guy and gave it to Katie. It was too big for Katie so she gave it to Taylor. There is a picture of Taylor with the shirt on. The front of the shirt was just an advertisement and it wasn't a flattering picture of Taylor so I'm not going to post it. The picture of the three girls shows Katie wincing in anticipation of the flash. She is a little vampire like Tom and Brittanie. They would live with absolutely no lights on in the house if I allowed it. And you can clearly see Katie's attitude in the cutout picture. She was not a happy camper. This was taken when the game was over and she was going home but she will still mad at having to stay there. I feel sorry for the man she marries. If she is this grumpy and difficult at 4, can you imagine what she will be like at 24?

Anyway, here are some pictures they took at the game last night.

Everybody loves Randy

You've heard of the TV show "Everybody Loves Raymond?" Well in our house, it is Everybody Loves Randy. He is such a sweetheart. Here are some pictures of him with the girls.Tom finished cleaning out the attic closet upstairs yesterday and Brittanie was so excited that she would actually have her clothes upstairs that she went to work cleaning out the closets downstairs and bagging up the stuff she no longer wants so we can give it to There is Hope Ministries and moving the stuff she wants upstairs. Randy did take alot of her t-shirts that weren't girly that she no longer wanted. Brittanie had ALOT of T-shirts. Imelda Marcos has shoes. Brittanie has T-shirts....and shoes....but ALOT more T-shirts. She ran to Wal-Mart tonight and bought a Rubbermaid container with drawers and some hooks to hang her purses on. Here is the final product.This one is when you walk into the closet.

Here is her wall of purses and some berets/hats on the hooks that she put on the wall.

Jackets.Church clothes to the left and school clothes in the middle and right.

Uniforms.

Jeans.

Everyday shirts and sweats.Formals and school shirts.Her Sonic rollerskates that she got for Christmas, JROTC uniform shoes, and the shoes she wears to school.

Little weirdo

Today, Tom was dancing around the living room with Katie....ring around the rosy style....and when I grabbed the camera, first he took it from me and kept dancing. When he put it down, I grabbed it and he plopped down in his recliner so I couldn't take a picture of him dancing with Katie. Katie said "you want a picture...here you go!" and she made this face.
She's as weird as the rest of us....maybe more. hahaha

Katie loves to run and slam into us. I HATE it when she does that. But I know she gets that from her daddy. Well I turned around a minute ago and she was down in a football center stance and Tom was on his knees in front of the sofa about 3 feet from her. She yelled "HUT!" and went running and slammed into Tom and they started rolling on the floor. Think she watches a little football with daddy?

A blast from the past

Today, Tom cleaned out the closet in the attic so Brittanie could use it. We have 5 closets downstairs and Brittanie's clothes take up three of them! The attic closet is ALOT more convenient for her and huge but it was full of junk from the past. So Tom has been working all day to get rid of that junk. While going through the junk, he found some pictures. There are some of Brittanie pretending to be a bride and I promised her I wouldn't blog that but trust me, they are adorable!! But I am going to post some others that he found that I liked.

This is the one that means the most. This is Brittanie with Grandma Sightler, Tom's grandmother. She died a couple of years ago. She loved all of her grandchildren. I am glad she was able to hold and love on Katie before she died. Jenny took this picture at Aunt Doris' house.

This is Taylor and Brittanie on the swing at my mom's house, spring break of 1999. That's my Jonathan in the corner of the picture. I just couldn't crop him out of the picture, even though you can't see his face.
Taylor was 4 1/2 here and Brittanie was 8 1/2.

This is why our girls are fearless and tough. Tom always played with them like they are boys. That's why they have so much fun with their daddy! This was taken on Thanksgiving of 1998. Notice Brittanie is in shorts?? You gotta love Louisiana....summer all the time.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Here is Tom, on his laptop in his recliner. This was New Year's Day 1999. That was 8 years and two recliners ago. Check out the puny Christmas tree. Have mercy! We start getting BIG, real trees the next Christmas. By the way, Brittanie put that hat on his head. He isn't that festive.

My mom's son

My mom's son (who I absolutely refuse to call my brother) is such a LOSER! I can prove it. I was talking to Taylor and we were going down the family tree and she thought her mom (Tammie) and I were sisters. Actually, I'm Tammie's aunt but she and her brother, Randy, are more of a sister and brother to me and always has been. Randy was born in 1968. I was born in 1969. Tammie was born in 1970. In 1971, they moved in with us and forever more they became my brother and sister. Well my brother only cares about his wife's children and grandchildren....not his own. When he comes down to see his wife's daughter and her boys, he NEVER goes to see his son and daughter and their girls. I didn't realize how bad it was until I was talking to Taylor and Taylor didn't know who he was. She and Lyndsie have always referred to him as Paw Paw Clayton but they thought that was just something they called him....like Katie calls Jimmy Watts "Paw Paw." When I was telling her that Paw Paw Clayton is her mom's daddy, she was totally stunned. She didn't know that. My girls may not see their grandparents often but they know who they are. Katie is 4 years old and I asked her who daddy's dad was and she said "Grandpa." I asked her who daddy's mom is and she said "Grandma." I asked her who my mom was and she said "Maw Maw." Why? Because they are in her life! My girls may not see their grandparents but a couple of times a year but they do know that all of their grandparents love them....they make sure our girls know that. Clayton should be ashamed!!! He has two kids and three granddaughters that he has nothing to do with. He is a sorry excuse for a son, a father, a grandfather and most of all...a man!

Today his son, Randy, called at mom's house to see if mom wanted to go ride with him to pick up his new utility trailer he bought for his DJ equipment. Clayton answered the phone. So Randy reached out to him and asked if Clayton wanted to go ride with him to get the trailer. He covered the phone to ask his wife's permission, then came back and said he couldn't because he just got up, hadn't eaten breakfast, and had Dillon....his wife's grandson who is ALWAYS up their butts....with him. Randy called me and was very upset and angry. Dillon always comes first.....ALWAYS. I feel for him. It has to hurt to be rejected by his father. His mother abandoned them when he was 3 and Tammie was 1. And his loser father has made it clear that he doesn't love them. But my mom will always be his mom and loves him as if she had given birth to him. But it still doesn't make up for the fact that my mom's son is a big loser. One day he will have ALOT to answer for.

ADDENDUM: Tonight, my mom called and she told Taylor that Paw Paw Clayton was there and Taylor said "Do you think he would remember me?" She wasn't being sarcastic. She was serious. That says it all!

I'm so proud of her!!

Wednesday night, Brittanie found a picture with an untrue caption under it on a girl's myspace page, followed by a stupid comment from another girl. Of course it made her mad. I told her to let it go because these two girls LIVE in drama world. They aren't happy unless they are neck deep in all kinds of drama. She had a problem with these two back in July and now out of the blue they take a pot shot at her. Because of the way they chose to live, neither of them will amount to anything. One is even a high school drop out who does nothing but play on myspace all day. So obviously what they think and say means absolutely NOTHING. Brittanie has a very bright future ahead of her. She may end up a USC or Furman or Carson-Newman or Westpoint...who knows??? Bottom line, these girls can do nothing positive towards Brittanie's future so why bother with them. Brittanie told off the drop out....in a message and when the girl called her yesterday. She went to confront the other one at school yesterday but it was obvious the girl was avoiding her. But she said now that she has said her peace to at least one of them, she is done with it. She blocked both of them and all of their friends from her myspace, her e-mail, her instant messenger, and all aspects of her cell phone. Now she is moving on. I'm very proud of her. She has a good little mixture of me and her dad in there. Tom never deals with things like this. If someone upsets us, he says "The heck with them" and ignores it because to him they are meaningless and so is everything they do. I'm a polar opposite. When someone hurts me, Tom, or our girls, it sticks to me forever unless I get to have it out with that person. Tom does NOT want me doing that. So I don't and unfortunately it piles up inside of me...some things for 18 years because to me they are unresolved. But I'm so proud of Brittanie that she said her peace and now she is done....washed her hands of the whole thing and moving on to focus on her future. She inherited my temper, unfortunately, Tom's sharp tongue that she can use when necessary, as well as his logical thinking, and her own discernment to know which to use when. I'm really proud of her!!

I just can't wait until high school is over. I swear girls are meaner nowadays than they were when I grew up. They love to wallow in drama. I just don't understand that. How can you create situations to upset yourself on purpose??? That's just stupid!

God doesn't like ugly!

"God doesn't like ugly." That's a direct quote from Tom yesterday in reference to Reggie Bush's somersault and then his childish celebratory dance....while they were still losing no less! That showboating is stupid and immature and definitely doesn't show team spirit. Unfortunately, his showboating made the Bears turn up the heat on the Saints and the result of it is Bears in the Superbowl. The Saints can thank Reggie Bush for costing them the game. Good job ham bone! I'm not the only one who thinks that the Bears got a second wind to prove a point to Reggie Bush. The Northwest Herald in Chicago and the Chicago Sun Times think so too! Watching this childish display almost made me have the unpalatable desire to actually root for the Bears.....ALMOST. The class act of the day was Urlacher. When asked what he thought of Reggie Bush's hamming it up, he said "I think we are going to the Superbowl." I like Urlacher. That is a man with intelligence. They just won the championship and he wasn't about to let Reggie Bush steal their moment.

The worst thing about the Bears going to the Superbowl is having to relive Superbowl 20...complete with that stupid "Superbowl Shuffle." It is already starting. I love Peyton Manning but I really wanted the Patriots to win so that they could redeem themselves with the Bears from Superbowl 20. I really wanted to see the Patriots squash the Bears the same way the Bears killed the Patriots back then. We won't get to see that this year but I am REALLY hoping Peyton Manning leads his team to victory over the Bears. The only thing worse than the Chicago Bears is the Chicago Bears when they win a Superbowl.

But if you remember nothing else, remember what Reggie Bush learned yesterday...."God doesn't like ugly!"

Taylor's going skating

Taylor has made a few friends at school and they are going skating tonight and then spending the night at one of their houses in Hidden Valley tonight. They are going to have fun. Taylor looked so pretty after she straightened her hair and put on her little make-up so I just had to get a picture. I bought her her own roller blades also so I have a picture of them too because they are so cool looking. She is doing great and I'm so proud of her!!! I was able to give a good report to her mom of how great she has been doing this week and her mom is very proud of her as well.

By the way, one big cultural difference we are dealing with is terminology. In Louisiana, especially in the area we live in, when a baby is born, the parents pick godparents who then forevermore referred to as "Nanny" for the godmother and "Paran" for the godfather. Well I have been Nanny to Taylor and Lyndsie since birth. That's all they have ever called me. Here in South Carolina, a Nanny is a term used for grandmothers. Well since Taylor has been here, when she says something about me, she calls me "Nanny" and people think I am her grandmother. That I don't like at all. I'm only 37. I am NOT old enough to be a grandmother! (Ok technically I know that if Brittanie loses her mind, technically she could make me a grandmother but then I'd have to kill her so I still wouldn't be a grandmother. lol)

That is one cultural difference I hope we overcome soon because I hate people thinking I'm a grandmother!

Southern cheerleaders!

You don't have to live in the South to know that FOOTBALL IS KING! But the game wouldn't be complete without the cheerleaders, and here are some of our finest:

The LSU'S Golden Girls

The Alabama Crimsonettes

CLEMSON RALLY CATS

Did you see the new Clemson football uniforms?

Progress report

Taylor has been with us for 18 days now and things are going well. She loves school and has made a good friend that she is going skating with this weekend.

A big part of the reason she is here is because she was constantly fighting with her mom and sister. She would throw a tantrum and has a sassy mouth when she didn't get her way. Well the whole family knows how disciplined Brittanie is and how hard we are working to get Katie to be as disciplined as Brittanie (which is going GREAT by the way). So my niece/Taylor's mom, asked me to get Taylor under control. Taylor had been begging since October to come to my house. Well now when she gets bored and wants us to take her somewhere, instead of throwing a tantrum like she used to do, she cries. The first time she cried, I believe she was genuinely homesick. Now I see the pattern and realize that every time since then, she has been using her tears to manipulate us into taking her somewhere. It isn't like she was used to being on the go 24/7 because she wasn't! But she thinks that since we can afford it, we should be on the go all the time. We aren't like that. We like our time at home. I had been letting her call home anytime she wanted. But I have put a stop to that because she was calling home begging her mom and dad to come get her. She will be just as bored, if not more, down there and will go back to fighting with her sister and mom, which I think is what she misses. Well she is here to break that cycle and get a good education. She was tested in Louisiana and they deemed her to have the maturity of an 8-year-old. Well she came here acting like she is 8 and she is going to go back acting her age, which is 12. We will NOT be manipulated by the crying any longer. I have taken the phone away so she can only make calls home on Monday afternoons and she has to sit in front of us while she talks and if she starts to cry, we are taking the phone. She is just rebelling against the discipline and using tears to do it because she knows a tantrum will get her a sp an ki ng. So far, things are going well. It has been 4 days since I took the phone away and she started to cry one time, the first day after I took the phone, and I told her to dry it up because I'm not like her mom. If I say something I mean it and all the begging and crying in the world isn't going to change it. She stopped immediately. We are enforcing the same rule on her as we did on our kids. You can cry but you have to do it in another room with the door closed because I don't want to hear that crap. My girls learned to soothe themselves from an early age and were never cry babies because of that. Taylor is going to go back to Louisiana no longer being a cry baby in May. As I told her Tuesday, she begged to come here, her parents thought it was best for her to be here and they are right. So she is going to live up to the promises she made, which was to stay here and to learn to behave, and take responsibility for her actions. And I put it plainly...."You are NOT going home until May 25th so stop asking or you will be grounded." She hasn't asked since.

Yesterday she was all excited to talk to her new friend, Katy, on the phone and make plans to go skating Saturday. It was great seeing her all excited and that mood stayed until she insisted on waking up Brittanie's new hamster, Gerard. He promptly bit her. It didn't break the skin but she whined about it too long. I told her she has already had a tetanus shot. It came from PetSmart so it doesn't have a disease, because their pets are tested, and even if it did, it didn't even break the skin! She couldn't have caught anything anyway. She didn't cry though. I was very proud of her. Before we got tough on the crying, she would have cried, called home and cried more. She is starting to grow up and I'm proud of her.

She did get mad at me last night because I made her and Katie get out of the kitchen so Brittanie and Randy could have a goodnight kiss. Sometimes Taylor forgets that Randy is Brittanie's boyfriend and not hers. She did not like being ordered out of the room like that. But I didn't let that get to me. She has to learn. Brittanie said Taylor does that immature "EWWWW" thing when Brittanie and Randy kiss. Well who wants that around when you say goodnight? Normally they go outside for their goodnight kiss but it was way too cold last night.

Anyway, it is going to take some work to get her out of acting like a cry baby and start to mature. But it is well worth it. I love her. She is just a normal kid....they want their way and will use any tactic to get it. It's our job to make rules and stick to them. I am glad she is here. I love having her around.

We don't want your yankee opinion down here!

Article on WLTX.com

US Senator Dodd from Connecticut....NOT South Carolina.....thinks we should remove our confederate flag from the state house grounds. He makes a point of saying that we should be honoring our US Flag because that is what our troops are dying for. Agreed. That's why our US flag and our South Carolina state flag are both on top of our statehouse.

What makes this ignorant yankee think he has the right to dictate to us what to do here in South Carolina? He needs to pick up a book and find out that people died for that confederate flag as well. That flag has a rich heritage, which was not about slavery or African Americans. It was about not wanting government to tell us what to do. And that hasn't changed....we still don't want those ignorant yankees in government telling us what to do.

So Senator Dodd....stay in your state and mind your business or we may just return the favor and go to Washington and force our views on you!

Did they learn nothing from the Superbowl?

We were watching the Saints vs Eagles game tonight and the camera turned on the crowd, like usual. But they picked out one girl in particular to show. She was wearing a black half shirt that said in gold letters "F*** da Eagles." Only it wasn't starred out like I just did....it was spelled out! Have they not learned from CBC's problem with Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction?" That is just inappropriate and if they don't get a fine from the FCC....they should! You can't say that word on regular TV, much less spell it out like that. It was VERY plain to read. Look out FOX....here it comes....and you deserve it!