Brendan...God help me!!!! / Gold Party

What a difficult week this has been with Brendan. I'm so perplexed!! He has always been so passive and sweet. But this week, oh brother! He has been in trouble day after day. It started Wednesday on the way to school. His smart mouth! He sneezed and wanted me to wipe his nose in the back seat. I handed him a Kleenex and he said, "NO!!! YOU DO IT!!!" I told him that I was driving and he had to do it by himself. So he screamed for me to do it again and threw the Kleenex at me. So, I pulled over the car, got out, wiped his nose, and popped his butt! I told him we don't throw and under no circumstance is he to ever talk to a grown up that way! So that brings us to Thursday. Thursday, the smart mouth never stopped. He asked me for some candy when we got home. He had already eaten a candy necklace and a sucker at the barber shop and I told him he couldn't have any more. So he responded, "Yes, I can!" I said, "I said, NO!" He responded...loudly..."WELL, I said YES!!! NOW!!" Off to the corner he went. And he made several more trips there throughout the day. That brings us to Friday when he made his first trip ever to the Thinking Chair. He got in trouble for hitting a little boy in his class. Emily, his teacher, said that it broke her heart to put him there. When I picked him up from school, she asked me if I had given him a breathing treatment or medicine that morning because he was running around like crazy. On the one hand, I'm upset that he was hitting the little boy, but on the other hand I'm glad he's FINALLY starting to defend himself!! Bless his heart, he always gets pushed around and just takes it. Now we'll talk about today. Today we had a play date at Penny's house with her twins and Baylee, Marie's daughter. He peed his pants twice because he didn't want to tell me he had to go to the potty. He knows better. It wasn't an accident either. He was soaked to his toes. As soon as I walked in the playroom, he covered himself up with a game and said, "Get out of here! I'm wet!" UUGGHH! I really over reacted. Poor little guy. I yelled and told him he would have to go home. Then I felt so bad, I let him stay and play with his friends. We couldn't go out to eat with our friends for dinner tonight, though. He was down to only a pull up. Not exactly dinner attire:)


Last night was a FABULOUS night. Penny had a Gold Party where you go and sell you broken or unwanted gold jewelry for cash. I had this old herringbon gold necklace that was totally mangled. My mom bought it for me in 1987. I also had 2 gold rings. I made $220.00! I was super excited! Russell told me that I would only make about $45.00. HA!! Let me just tell you, that money is burning a hole in my pocket! I think I am going to get an inexpensive point-and - shoot digital camera in light of the fact that I cannot find my big camera. Anyway back to the party, Penny, Marie, Dana, Kari, Megan, Jennifer, Marie, Lisa and Linda had a blast. We talked and laughed. I love girls night out! Unfortunately, I feel like I have way too many of those these days. I seriously need a date with my husband. I miss that.

Until next post...

Dear Brendan,

Today has been a very difficult day for us. In fact this entire week has been difficult. I pray that you never doubt for one minute how much I love you. You are the most special gift God could have ever given me and I am the luckiest mom in the entire world. I am so sorry for yelling at you today. I could have handled it much better and I feel so terrible! Your sad little face melted my heart. It breaks my heart into pieces to know that you had to suffer sadness for one second as a result of my behavior. You didn't deserve that.

You are a brilliant, beautiful, loving, little boy. When I held you for the first time, I knew that I was holding my heart in my hands. You have never for one second been a disappointment to me. Please know that for every cross word that I have said to you, there have been a million smiles from me to you. You are the sunshine of my life, little man. We will get through this rough patch, and there will be many more to follow. Always know that Mommy will ALWAYS be on your side. No matter what.

I love you forever and ever and ever...with ALLLLLLLLLL my heart and soul!!!!!

Love,
Mommy

Brendan the bakerman and Aubrey the policegirl

This week at preschool, the kids have been studying community helpers. Brendan's class went to the bakery today for a little field trip. He was SO CUTE! His eyes were as big as saucers. He paid close attention to everything the baker was doing. Usually, he's shy in those kinds of settings, but he pushed his way to the front of the group so that he could get a close up look. He had to be told to step back away from the mixer because he wanted to look in so badly. He talked about the bakery all day. Guess I need to dust off my Kitchen Aid mixer and start baking things with him. God help us! I'm a disaster in the kitchen. The baker asked the kids if they watched their mommies bake and Brendan didn't raise his hand. Of course, he had no reason to. :)

When I picked up Aubrey this afternoon, she was wearing a paper badge with the letter "P" on it. I asked her what it was and she said, "I'm a police girl!!" And so she was for the rest of the day! So funny. She is such the little athlete. She runs circles around Brendan playing soccer and tonight she wanted her daddy to take her outside to play basketball. She's such a tomboy. She has started sleeping with a toy train. At least it's a pink train. What can you do?

I'd love to post pictures of the field trip and Aubrey the police girl, but I HAVE LOST MY CAMERA!!! Do you KNOW how sick I am over this??? I have NO IDEA what I did with it, and it's not a little point-and-shoot, it's a big digital SLR... How do you lose something like that? So, if you are reading this, please pray to help me find it. I'm not Catholic, but I'm not above praying to St. Anthony on my knees tonight. It couldn't hurt.

Friday night is Penny's Gold Party. I hope you all can come. Some of us girls might go out afterwards. You never know!

Until next post...

A LONG FEBRUARY!!

It has been a really long time since I've posted. This month has been SO BUSY!!! We made it safely home after a WONDERFUL extended weekend at Marco Island, FL. We went to visit my dad and step mom and had a blast! It was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. We also got to go into Naples one day to visit with Russell's aunt and uncle. It was a nice trip. The kids had a great time swimming the pool, digging for shells on the beach and building sand castles with their dad. We got to see a manatee up close. It swam up the canal that runs behind the house. That was a neat sight! We ate at a cool restaurant and had a pelican land right at the end of our table. We also went to a seafood festive in the Everglades, but the kids didn't enjoy that. The music was really loud and the crowd was huge!! Lots of bikers were there and Aubrey couldn't stand the noises from the motorcycles. It was a long hot day! The coolest thing was that we had to go down this road called "alligator alley" and we saw DOZENS of alligator alongside of the road. It was creepy seeing them in the wild like that so close to the car. YUCK!!

While on this trip, I got hooked on the book "Twilight," and I have been reading the entire series ever since. I finished up the last book last night and now I look around me and see how terribly I have neglected things during my book obsession, and yes I do mean OBSESSION! I can't believe how swept up I got in those books, but I sure enjoyed them. I haven't picked up a book since "The Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy." I'm embarrassed to admit that I feel a loneliness without my little vampire romance to read every night. HO-HUM.

When we got home, I was bombarded with Valentine's Day activities at the preschool. The kids came home with so much candy! Oh boy were they sugared up!!! And then....The KIDSIGNMENTS sale. That sale drains the life out of me, but I love it. I think I did really well this year. I got so many AWESOME deals for the kids and I sold everything I put in the sale except for 11 items. That's HUGE! I can't wait to get that check...to pay off what I spent at the sale:)

We had so much fun last week. My friend Emily introduced us to the Jump!Zone in Loganville. The kids loved it! Emily's two kids Ava and Dawson were there, along with Staci and her kids Mason and Mallory, Sandy with Adam and Amanda and their friend DeLynne with her kids (I hope I get this right) Madelynn, Bridger, and Emmaleigh. DeLynn also brought a friend with her kids as well. We packed the place out! But it was a blast. It was so neat watching all of the kids experience the fun from different ages. Dawson, Emily's son was too little to jump, but that little fella had the most fun of anyone I'd bet. He was so cute! Aubrey was the tiniest jumper but she was the most determined. I swear it took her a good 5 minutes to get to the top of the slide, but watching her smile during her 5 second slide to the bottom was worth watching her struggle. By the end of the day, she needed no help at all. She was just as fast as the big kids. We had so much fun, we met some more friends up there on Friday.

Brendan finished up his second season of Soccer Tots last night. He came home with a new trophy and was beaming with pride! He'll play outdoor soccer in the spring. I'm not sure if he likes it or not, but it gives him something that is all his own.

Until next post....

Funnies from the babies

So, today I decided to post some of the cute things my kids have said lately. I'm going to love this blog so I'll have a record of their cute little conversations. :)

On Sunday evenings Russell gives a guitar lesson to our friend's teenage son Dylan. Brendan LOVES Dylan and gets so excited when he sees him. So last night while I was at work, Brendan gets out his guitar and starts "strumming" and singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." When he was finished, she handed Aubrey the guitar and said, "Here, Aubs. Now it is your turn to play, "Ticket to Ride." (by the Beatles) He has heard Russell playing it before. I think it is so sweet that Brendan sees Russell play the guitar and never touches it, but as soon as he sees Dylan strum a guitar, he's all about it.

Brendan and Aubrey call my dad PaPa Kelly. They were anxiously awaiting his arrival last Friday while watching "Happy Feet." When it came on, Aubrey said, "Awww, its wingwuins!" Brendan says, "No, Aubrey. Penguins! Puh, Puh, Penguins!" Aubrey replies, "AWWW, it's PaPa's wingwuins.! " So cute.

Why is it when I sit down to document these things my mind goes blank? Drives me crazy!!!! I'll have to post more later.

Two more sleeps until the beach!! Woo Hoo!!!

Consignment sale time is upon me and I can't get my stuff together!! We were very fortunate to be invited to the beach this weekend. My stepmother inherited a beach house in Marco Island, FL and she was gracious enough to invite us down for a week. We are only staying 4 days. We will be leaving this Fri and coming home on Tuesday. I can't miss that much work. We are so excited! We have never been that far south in Florida. My aunt says the beach is beautiful with shells as far as you can see. Brendan LOVES collecting shells. I can't wait to watch him. The point of the beach story is that I have to drop my stuff off at the Kidsignments sale in Gwinnett County the Thursday after we get back. I have so much left to do. It is getting overwhelming. I still have to pack and get ready for the trip. UUGGHH. I work best under pressure, though. I'll get everything done.

I'm going to put some random pics of the family on here. I've loaned my camera to a friend and I NEED to get it back!!

More to come. Take care everyone!!

So this is my first attempt at posting on my blog. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to get brave and post some pics of my family.

Truly, the last thing I need to do is start a blog. I'm on the computer entirely too much as it is, but this should be fun!

I have two beautiful children. Brendan 3 and Aubrey 2. They are the biggest joys of my life, along with their dad, Russell. We have been married for 5 years, yes happily married:)

So for tonight this is all I'm going to post. More to come, and I'm excited to share our lives with anyone who is interested. Stay tuned...much more to come!