Details! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

We are down to 3 months and 6 days till the wedding.  The more we get done, the more we remember needs to be done.  Our list seems to grow by the minute.  But tonight we had dinner with Randy's parents and grandparents and talked about the wedding planning.  Earlier today I received a text message from my friend, Maria, who lives in our neighborhood, volunteering to help with whatever we need her for....even offering her house for a shower!  I am so blessed to have her as a friend!  I was so touched!  She has great taste so we are looking forward to her input on our decorating stuff.

After getting home from dinner, I watched the end of the butt kicking Alabama gave Notre Dame!  Gotta love the SEC!  I am not an Alabama fan and I especially don't care for Nick Saban but I am glad they are in the SEC and brought home another win for us!!  Now comes the 8 month drought of no college football.  :-(

The wedding dress is in the house!

Yesterday Brittanie, her maid of honor, Elizabeth, and I went to Atlanta and picked up Brittanie's wedding dress from the Alfred Angelo store.  The store manager is absolutely wonderful and made the entire experience, from picking out the dress last time to picking up the dress yesterday, absolutely wonderful.  Brittanie also had the added surprise of finding out that she had dropped a dress size since we ordered the dress.  Since she is still working out with her personal trainer, we are going to wait till the last possible minute before we head back to Atlanta to meet with the seamstress to have the dress altered.  In the meantime, the dress is home with us.  I see it hanging in my closet and can't help but wonder where the time has gone.  Seems like only yesterday I was picking out an outfit to bring her home from the hospital when she was born.  Now her wedding dress is in my closet.  It is definitely a bittersweet feeling!

After leaving Alfred Angelo, we had lunch at Pappadeaux's in Norcross, GA.  Other than the deer carcasses on the wall, we loved it!  The food was the closest to authentic Cajun food that I have ever had outside of Louisiana!  The service was great as well.  Brittanie and I are looking forward to going back the next time we are in Atlanta!  Below is a picture of a link of boudin we had.  It was delicious!! 

This afternoon, my awesome godson, Jonathan, his beautiful and equally awesome wife, Jessica, came over with their two daughters.  We don't see them nearly enough.  We had such a good time catching up and making plans for Easter.   They had some left over fireworks from New Year's eve in their car so we finished them off in our front yard.  It was cold out there but it was worth it.  After the fireworks, we were inside talking when Katie asked if the girls could ride the new scooter she got for Christmas.  She was told no.  She asked me if she could show them her scooter.  I said yes.  When Jonathan and Jessica started to leave, we realized the girls weren't here....and the scooter was gone.  It was 9pm and three girls ages 7, 9, and 10 were gone!  Needless to say, we were worried.  Randy jumped in his car and ran around the neighborhood to find them but they came around the corner heading home before Randy could find them.  Katie was riding the scooter and the girls were running beside her.  Their explanation?  Jonathan said they couldn't ride the scooter.....so they weren't riding the scooter!  They were running beside it.  hahaha  (As parents, if you aren't absolutely specific, your kids will always pull that!  LOL)  Katie's excuse was one of those things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmm!  She said "Mom said I could show them my scooter."  Yes.  I did tell her she could show them the scooter.  I didn't mean show them how you ride it.  I meant "See!  There is my scooter."  But again, I wasn't specific and the result was her riding around our neighborhood after 9pm!  So after they left, I sat down and was very specific.  I told her unless dad or I specifically say "Yes Katie, you may ride your scooter after dark, you are NEVER to ride that scooter after dark.  And if we ever give you permission to do it, it will be a permission for that time only.....not a forever permission.  You will ALWAYS have to ask and don't be surprised if you ALWAYS get a NO!"  Kids!  They keep you on your toes!  

Happy 2013!!!

I'm back!  Katie has been reading my old blog posts and really enjoying reading stories about things she didn't remember because she was so young.  She has asked that I start blogging again, so I promised her I would start again in 2013.

We have been a very busy family.  Between school and wedding planning, the holidays were kind of a blur!  Brittanie and Randy will be getting married in just 3 1/2 months!  We are trying to tie up any loose ends while Brittanie is out of school on Christmas break.  I am really excited that my family and friends from Louisiana and Mississippi will be coming here for the wedding!  For anyone interested in updates on the wedding, check out their wedding website:  Brittanie & Randy's wedding website

Tom is getting all of his visa stuff done in preparation for his trip to St. Petersburg, Russia at the end of January.  I hate to be away from him for a whole week but I am very excited that he is able to go to Russia!  He received his invitation letter from the Russian consulate yesterday.  That was really cool.  It was neat seeing Tom's name in Russian!

We started this year off with a Gamecock win over Michigan in the Outback Bowl!  Jadaveon Clowney is so fun to watch!  We are really going to miss him when he graduates!!  Now that the game is over, we are going to be taking down all of our Christmas decorations.   Katie goes back to school tomorrow so it is time to get things back to normal and settle back into our routine.

Hope all of my readers have a very happy 2013!!!

Cymax stores

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)

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

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!!!

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???

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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!!

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