Love.....

THIS WEATHER!!!!

I can't say it enough!!

I love how it stays light later,

I love being outside,

I love the feel of the warm air against my skin,

I love hearing all the birds chirping,

I love seeing all the flowers coming up,

I love watching the grass turn green,

I love it, love it, love it!

Hoppy Spring!

friends

do you ever wonder who your true friends are?

i mean when i was growing up my mom would always say " bree, i don't know why you are friends with her, she isn't a very good friend." i would say "whatever, mom like you know!" b/c you know i knew everything and she didn't know anything. i would say about 95% of the time she was right and i was wrong.

i don't understand how she could pick them out and i couldn't. i guess she had been there and done that! plus, she was looking from the outside in.

but now as a parent, i see what she means. i can see who braxton's "real" friends are right now and the ones that are "just' friends.

i have had several friends, best friends, true friends and not so true friends in my 30 years. i am still in contact with some of those friends. we may not talk everyday, or see each other EVER, but we still have that kind of friendship where we could pick up the phone and call California and start talking like we lived right next door. that is a "true" friend to me. i have that "best friend" from back in the days, i have that "best friend" now, i have "friends" that i can call whenever i just want to chat and then i have those "not so true friends" that only talk to me when they need something from me and then there are my "true" friends.......

when i moved to lancaster, i thought i would never make friends. here i was 18 and all the kids my age were going away to college and the older ones already had their "friends", so they didn't need me. but slowly, i started making friends. they may have been the girlfriend or wife of jared's friends, but friends nonetheless. after living here for 12 years i feel i have made several friends, best friends, true friends and not so true friends.

i know i haven't been the best of friend to lots of people but i also know that i have been a great friend to others. i have had friends that we have just grown apart for reasons unknown.

then sometimes i feel like i am the only one giving and not receiving. and i have to think "is that really the kind of friendship i want?"

then somedays i feel like i don't really know who my friends are and then there are days that i feel so blessed to have so many great friends.

so tell me, what is it that you look for in a friendship?

What to do

we are having trouble with braxton.

when people told me to, "just wait, it only gets worse" or "wait until he is a teenager", i thought oh it can't be that bad. well!, i was wrong!!! it has happened and he isn't even a teenager yet.

all week we have been having trouble with him not telling us he has homework or that he has a test until about 8 or so at night. we have sat down and talked to him about it. we have told him that when you get home from school you are to do your homework right away. well this hasn't happened. i am not going to sit there and baby him and say "braxton do you have homework tonight, do you have a test tomorrow?" he is old enough to be able to tell me what he has, i can't read his mind!

so last night and this morning has set jared and i both off! to make a long story reallly short. he lied to me and never studied for one of the tests. so needless to say he is in trouble and jared is going to have a talk with him. i am not getting through to him so it is time that jared tries again.

he has been acting like a totally different child than before. he is being mouthy, mean and just downright bad all the way around.

he is grounded from all the gas powered vehicles and can not go with one of his friends this weekend and will be cleaning (deep cleaning) the house all wknd long. if he can't get straightened up then he will be watching football from the sidelines and won't be playing in the game.

jared is going to talk to him tonight and see what is going on and see if he can't get to the bottom of his attitude.

so wish us luck and pray for God to give me patience. i have none!

i know this is just the beginning but i am wanting to get a hold on it now so maybe it won't be so bad later.

A new beginning

WOW!

I have been reading the blogs that Andrea posted on one her latest posts. It has me thinking, wondering, questioning and all sorts of emotions.

It is amazing to me how much I take for granted.

Why do I yell because they left their dirty socks on the floor or why do I keep staring at the computer screen when they are saying "mommy, watch. mommy, watch me."?

Why do I rush and rush to make sure the laundry is done or the house is picked up or the dishwasher is unloaded? Why don't I say to heck with it and sit down and play with them, snuggle with them, talk with them? Why am I not rushing and rushing to get every moment in with them that I can?

From my perspective I think I have to make sure this gets done or that gets done because I won't have time this day or that day because we are so busy. But what if something would happen to them. Wouldn't I wish for one more day with them? Of course I would. I would be wishing I would have sat down and talked to them about their day, listened to them or watched them when they kept saying "mommy, look or mommy, watch this", or layed down with them and snuggled in real close with them until it was time to go to sleep.

So why am I not doing this? Because I have never just sat and thought about it. I take them for granted. I think, "that won't happen to me". But it could. It could today, tomorrow or never. So I need to live each day to its fullest and like it is the last day of my life or theirs. I need to talk to them, play with them, snuggle with them, laugh with them, talk to them about God and most of all love them with all that I have.

I need to do all of this everyday and then when they are asleep, then worry about the laundry, the dishes and the house. Then I can go to bed and think, "wow, what a great day! i just spent every moment I could with them and got the house work done." What an amazing feeling that would be.

I need to get more in touch with God. So when I need the strength or comforting for whatever reason, I will be able to take it all to Him and not think twice about it. I will need Him the rest of my life so why not get closer to the one I need the most?

So thank you Andrea for leading me to those blogs. They were so sad, but exactly what I needed to read so I don't take my life and my kids for granted.

So if you haven't had a chance to read the blogs that Andrea talked about in this post, then go do it when you have a minute. It will make you stop and think about your life and your kids and what those people would do to have just "one more day with their child".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UWx-shGM0g Click on that link (don't forget to mute my music on my blog first) and listen to that song. It was played at a friend of mines, husbands funeral, and it is the absolute truth. Don't take one more day for granted. Don't someday look back and wish you had one more day to try and do something over. Live each day knowing it could be your last and that you accomplished everything in that day that you wanted to accomplish.

THIS......

DRIVES ME CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My quote

Last week we were "blessed" to have extra kids at our house or with us for 5 days. There were a couple of times that I wondered what in the world I was thinking. As I was reading some parenting quotes I came across one that is "MY QUOTE". When I read it, it really hit home. This is exactly how I feel.

If your children spend most of their time in other people's houses, you're lucky; if they all congregate at your house. you're blessed.

Isn't that the truth? I think so! So I am very blessed:)

what is your love language?

Jared and I have such different love languages. His is physical touch (imagine that!) and my least favorite love language is physical touch. So somehow, someway we have to meet in the middle. He wants to touch me I want him to do this or that for me. So I did some researching on MEN/WOMEN and understanding each other. So for now this is what i have come up with.

*****A kiss most likely causes the female new brain cognitive centers to think about the romantic beauty of the moment and significance of the relationship at this point. The male new brain is most likely thinking about how good the female would look and feel naked! IMAGINE THAT!

*****Women like kissing before, during, and after sex. Men use it to get sex then like to go to sleep!

What follows the kissing?

Kissing for females is not only great fun for the body but also it stimulates the mind with an increased feeling of emotional and physical closeness. For women, kissing good-feelings start in the upper body and work down more slowly than men. This fits nicely with the female's DNA need for creation of a family and protection for her and offspring. For most women, kissing is the most stimulating physical activity short of intercourse. In the mean time the man is still thinking about how great she would look and feel naked. To most men, kissing is upper persuasion for a lower invasion.

So then I decided to take the Love Language Quiz to see what my love language is. I have done this before and it is still the same. So here are my results.

Test Results:
Language
Score

20%
Words of Affirmation
6 of the 30 questions

23%
Quality Time
7 of the 30 questions

13%
Receiving Gifts
4 of the 30 questions

37%
Acts of Service
11 of the 30 questions

7%
Physical Touch
2 of the 30 questions

How to Interpret Your Profile Score
Your highest score indicates your primary love language. Your second highest score indicates your secondary love language. If two scores are identical, you are bi-lingual(you have two Primary love languages). If the scores of your primary language and your secondary language are close(for example, 10 and 9 respectively), it indicates both are important to you. The highest possible score for any one love language is 12. Having a clear picture of your primary and secondary love languages will explain much of your past behavior. Think back over the past and ask yourself, "What have I most often requested of my spouse?" Chances are your answer will lie within the scope of your primary and secondary love languages. You have been requesting that which would meet your deepest need for emotional love. Your requests, however, might have come across as nagging or criticizing and thus drove your spouse away.

So as you can see your highest possible score on one love language is 12 and i got an 11 on "acts of service".

go here to see what your love language is.

i have so much more on this topic. but i need to get it all straight in my head before i blog about it.

so leave me a comment and tell me what your results were on the love language test!

All that hard work has paid off

last year jared and i worked our little buttocks' off working on our landscaping. we planted 6 bushes and 3 flowering plants, put in i don't know how many stones, black paper and loads and loads and loads of river rock. it looked so nice when we got done. in the fall i planted some seeds. i can't for the life of me remember what i planted, but they are coming up now. i was so excited to see the green poking through the ground awhile back. then last night i noticed a bud on one of them and then at 6:00 this morning look what i saw, A YELLOW LILY BLOOMED OUT!!! if you know me well enough, you know i can't keep anything alive so as long as it can come and go by its self every year and not require me to take care of it, then it will live!


these are the flowering plants that i planted last year. they have been green all along and very small and then KABAM! they got HUGE and sprouted lots of color, and purple color i may add.

aren't they beautiful?!

can you tell the picture is kind of foggy? that is b/c this morning it was terribly foggy when i took that picture. i think it adds a little bit of character to the picture, don't you?

real quick

we are home safe and sound

we lost all 3 of ours games

they boys played well, but not well enough

ate lots and lots of food

hung out with lots of friends

did some awesome driving in stl! kind of like the dukes of hazzards but minus the "daisy dukes":)

swam

yelled at some drunk 17 year olds

doing loads and loads of laundry

catching up on the happenings

talk to ya later!

Small towns

i love living in a small town! today bronson wanted to walk to my dad's after he got off the bus. so i let him. i watched him as he waited for cars to cross the road. a friend of mine pulled over by him to let him go across the road and then followed him to my parents house to make sure he made it ok. i could have watched from the sidewalk at my work
and braxton was walking to meet him halfway
and it was only 3 blocks
BUT it was still great to know that someone was following him and making sure he made it.

so thank you cindy!

frustrating

you know, i often wonder why people like to complain about "everything".

we had a ball meeting yesterday and it seemed like every time i turned around someone was complaining. but these people that like to complain never want to be the one to step up and be in charge! they just like to be the one in charge of complaining.

it seems like every year brings more parents trying to pick their childs coach. they don't want them on this persons team b/c they don't like the coach or they don't want them on this team b/c they don't like the kids. it just gets so frustrating that the parents are trying to tell us what to do.

if we did what every parent wanted to do then there would be stacked teams and then teams with hardly anyone on them. that is just not fair to the kids. these parents are thinking about what they want, what they think is best and not what the kids want. they may say that the child wants this or that, but in reality it is what "they" want. they love to complain about every coach their child has but never sign up to coach!

they threaten you with, "well if my kid has to be on that coaches team, then they just won't play". ok, so if we do what they want then they will be throwing their weight around all the time and if we don't do what they want, then we could lose kids because of their parents.

i know that everyone would like for their child to be on the ideal team or have the ideal coach. but that just doesn't always happen. i am just tired of people coming up to me and saying, "i really don't want my child on this or that team, i want them to have this coach or i would like for them to play up b/c of some stupid reason!" if they want all this for their child then they just need to step up to the plate (no pun intended) and coach or be a board member!!!

i know this goes the same for schools and teachers. yes, i would like to have a certain teacher some years but i am not going to dwell on it and throw a fit b/c they didn't get that teacher. i have teacher friends and i am not going to make it their job to make sure my child gets a certain teacher or expect them to get my child the teacher i want for them. it isn't fair to them to have to try and do what i want. they will get who they get, teacher or coach. PERIOD!!!

if you want to control what teacher or coach you get then i suggest you either become a teacher or coach, then you can get the perks!!

food for thought: these parents say that their child won't play if they get a certain coach, so do you think they would pull their child out of school if they didn't get the teacher they wanted?

off my soap box now.......

What does the future hold?

jared and i were discussing our kids and their futures the other night.

it is fun to wonder and guess what they will be like, what sports they will play, kind of cars they will drive and girls they will date.

jared and i both think that the boys will play all sports. not sure on braylon yet because he is so small, but we think and hope he will:)

jared and i both think that braxton will want a truck when he turns 16 and that bronson will want a mustang. every time we see a mustang bronson is in ahhh. he can pick one out of anywhere.

we think that braxton will be low key and won't want to get into much trouble.
bronson we think will be a social bug and will be "trying" us every chance he gets. braylon we think will be hard headed and won't want to listen to what we have to say, whether he thinks we are right or wrong.

we really wonder what they will do for a living. jared thinks that braxton will go to college for sure, but thinks bronson will hate school and want to go straight to work after high school. i on the other hand think bronson will love school and will go to college. time will tell for braylon:) he is just to little still to see what we think.

i think that braxton will be the one that will stick with one girlfriend as long as he can. bronson on the other hand, i think he will jump from one to the next as much as he can. he is such a charmer and can't stick to the same thing for long.

it is so much fun to "wonder". only time will tell if jared and i are even close! it will be great to look back on this blog to see what we thought.

have a great weekend! enjoy the beautiful weather!

where did it go?

i am here! but where did christmas go? all the hustle and bustle of things and it is all over and done with in a matter of a few days.

we have had 5 christmases in the last 3 days and one more to go today. i absoulutely love christmas.

we were all very lucky and received lots of presents. somehow i wonder though if we have really been that good. especially the kids:)

anyhow, just wanted to let everyone know that we are alive and well. our stomachs are full, lots of new goodies, 1000 loads of laundry done (b/c of all our new clothes), fights over who is playing with who's present and lots of love later we are truly blessed!

i will post pictures as soon as i can!

have a great rest of the weekend my friends!

Thought for the day!

Thanks Dad for the great email!

HATS OFF TO ALL YOU MOTHERS OF BOYS OUT THERE

HATS, HATS AND MORE HATS...........

today i ran home on my lunch hour to "pick up" my house. and this is what leads me to today's post!

i sit down to go to the bathroom and low and behold someone has used the last of the toilet paper and didn't replace it (very big pet peeve of mine). so i open up the toliet paper holder next to the toilet and guess what i found in there...

toilet paper? NO
hat? NO
2 hats? YES!

why in the world would there be 2 hats in the toilet paper holder instead of toilet paper? probably because they are boys!!!!

so i put them up on the coat rack. and mind you that the coat rack has more hats on it than it does coats. i cleaned it off awhile back and i took off around 20 hats. i bet it is back up to that now! UGH!!!

i have a friend that has 3 girls and she has told me in the past when they leave the house the girls have to make sure they have their purse, cell phone, lipgloss and whatever else girls "need". i told her that i have it really easy. when we leave my boys just have to grab a hat and put it on and out the door we go. but now i am thinking, hats? they stink!!!

i power cleaned my house in an hour. i vaccumed, swiffered, washed the bathroom sinks and some laundry. i was trying to hurry, hurry, hurry. i picked up THREE play chainsaws and FOUR or FIVE BIG tractors with something attached to the back of it! so there you have it again. boys and their toys!

once i got done cleaning i had to wait on my washer and dryer to get done before i left. so i warmed me up some stuff for tacos. i sit down at the bar and take a deep breathe b/c i just worked my butt off and what do i do? i hit the end of my fork and it flings taco meat, cheese and doritos all over me and the floor! THE FLOOR I JUST SWIFFERED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Coming or Going?

i don't know whether or not i am coming or going today or yesterday! lets just say i have been crazy busy with work, kids and myself!

tomorrow is my surgery. i have to be there at 7 and my surgery is scheduled for 9. unless they call me today and change it for some reason. i am not nervous at all. my doctor did tell me yesterday that i need to decide whether or not to keep my ovaries or have them take them out. i really didn't want to make this decision but after much thinking and talking to others i am going to keep them. she had several pros and cons for both ways but my heart is telling me to keep them, so that is what i am going to do!

yesterday i had to get braxton's cast put on and go to the dr and the hospital for pre-op. work was crazy on top of all that. the whole 2 hours and 45 minutes i was there. then last night i thought i would clean my van out. i had left 3 doors open and then jared hollered at me to help him. well while i was helping him braylon decided to hang out in the van and pretend to drive. so he shut 2 of the 3 doors and went on his way. well when i was headed into the house i shut the last door and went around to the other side to get something out and the doors were LOCKED, with my keys in the ignition. and the extra set in my purse. oops! i tried to get them unlocked with some little gadget but no such luck. well jim robertson's told me they could make me a key ($45) but i had to show proof of ownership. ok, how can i do that when all of that is in my glove box and i can't get to it b/c the doors are LOCKED! but thanks to andrea for telling me this morning to use my title which was in the safe, that wasn't locked! anyhow, come to find out phil beeler has some AWESOME gadget to get doors unlocked. it worked! so, thanks phil! i didn't have to make a flying trip to kv to get a key made on my lunch hour.

so today! i had to take braylon to the dr b/c he isn't feeling the greatest. they gave him an antibiotic and a decongestion. i hope he starts feeling better soon. we have soccer tonight, i need to pick up my house and cook my last meal for awhile! woo hoo on that one!

so please remember me in your prayers tonight and for the next few days. the surgery should take 1 to 2 hours and then i should have to be in the hospital for 3 days. i hopefully will be coming home on friday!

i won't be able to blog for awhile, but once i am able i may be walking to andrea's and getting on her computer to check my email and update my blog. i am not looking forward to not being able to work out so maybe doing some walking every day will satisfy me.

anyhow, hugs to all and i will be in touch!

SEX *x rated*

this is a subject that comes up in my household ALL the time.

i don't want it.

why? not sure

jared doesn't understand it.

why? because he is a man

we argue about it all the time. he will call me just to talk to me about it, he will mention it whenever and wherever we are at, he touches me all the time. it absouletly drives me nuts.

now don't get me wrong. i should be happy that my husband wants me in all these ways but when that is all that is on his mind, it gets old. it begins to grate on your nerves b/c you think that it doesn't matter that you have lost weight or that you may look "hot" in an outfit it is just simply b/c that is all that he wants. he doesn't want to just "talk" when you go to bed, he just wants to rub up on you! ugh! i am happy that he wants me but i am not happy about the fact that that is all he wants.

i think the not wanting it part comes from the rubbing on me all the time, talking about it all the time and no romancing! (and vance don't be teaching him any of your romancing ideas like you have in the past, b/c the finger in the ear doesn't work:))

or maybe it is just that i am in that time of my life where my hormone levels are low. does anyone else have this problem or had this problem? i hate that i am this way but what does a person do about it?

sorry you all had to listen to my sex life and i know you probably are thinking "thanks for sharing", but i just had to vent! thx for listening or i guess reading:)

craziness

the craziness is about to begin for this month. jared found out yesterday that he is going to be leaving on the 11th for Louisanna. i think he is excited to go. he knows it will be a lot of work but then again he is a hard worker. so that will leave me without a husband for 10-12 days and leave the kids without a daddy too. we will manage just fine. i have done it before and i can do it again. i am glad that he will get good experience along with good money:) he is going with a good group of guys so i know he will be in good hands! the only thing that stinks is that the next 2 weeks are going to be absoulutely crazy!!!!! while he is gone we will have 3 soccer practices, 2 soccer games, 1 flag football game, 2 nights of sonlight, numerous nights of getting ready for our garage sale, garage sale, homecoming, relay for life and 5-6 times of curves! whew...... it is so funny how you take someone (like your husband) for granted and then when he is going to be gone you wonder how in the world you will be everywhere you need to be and get everything done!

i leave on monday for kansas city. i won't be home until wednesday late afternoon. then jared will leave on thursday. he was going to go with me but decided to stay home and spend some time with the boys before he leaves. i don't blame him for that.

tonight we are headed to kirksville to get jared some essentials for his upcoming trip then back to queen city for the football game. tomorrow we have a birthday party and several other little things we need to get done. sunday i am going to the christian church with andrea as her "friend" b/c it is "friend day". i am excited to try her church. i have just started helping at sonlight and really like the programs that they offer to the kids. so hopefully the kids will like it too and maybe we will become members someday.

hope everyone has a good weekend. i plan on sleeping in this weekend. if i wake up before 5 like i have the last 2 mornings i am going to scream, ok maybe i won't scream b/c i really don't wanna wake the kids, but i will be very frustrated. i never would have thought i would be an early riser like this. i never could understand why my grandpa got up so stinking early, but now i can understand it a little better. speaking of sleeping, the following picture was of braylon last weekend when he was so tired he couldn't make it past the laundry room. he fell asleep on the way home from town (2 minutes) and when i carried him in the house he woke up so i set him down and then he crawled up on the bench, stuck his thumb in his mouth and fell back asleep. i thought it was so cute that i left him there but when jared got home he thought he needed to be in bed so he wouldn't fall off and get hurt. dads!!! geez!

Videos

I have been tryin to upload a video for the last two days! I am getting really frustrated with it. For some reason it will not load. I have my post all written and ready to go with the video. Anyone want to give me some clues on maybe what I am doing wrong??

This week has been really nice. We made a menu on Sunday night for everynight this week. That has been really nice all week knowing exactly what you are going to have for supper. We were suppose to have tenderloins tonight but we got some fresh tomatoes so we decided to have BLT's instead, which reminds me I need to get some lettuce. We also have some corn on the cob. Isn't that so exciting:) We are going to Jim and Amee's for supper tomorrow night for our Friday night date that we haven't had in like forever! She is cooking minute steaks for us and I am bringing some corn on the cob. Then we are going to play some Hand and Foot. I am excited to play some cards and hopefully beat the guys! We haven't had much luck in that dept the last few times we played.... wish us luck. We took the boys fishing last night. It was a beautiful night for it. I didn't get to take any pictures b/c I forgot my camera. I did take some a few weeks ago that I will share this time. I was also on Channel 3 last night for the sales tax issue that we are trying to pass at the courthouse. I told the boys that I was going to be on TV. Bronson could not understand how that was going to happen. He said are you gonna be gone? I told him no that I would be at home. Well he said then how are you going to get in there (and pointed at the tv). That is kind of hard to understand when you are 5:)

We have a pretty low key weekend planned. I am going to do some serious house cleaning! I haven't done that for almost a month b/c we have been gone so much. So look out come Saturday. The boys really want to go camping but they haven't talked their dad into it yet. We had told them at the beginning of summer that for our family vacation this year that we would go camping, then ball got crazy and kept us really busy so the camping got put on the back burner. Well now that ball is over they are ready to go! Me too though. I would like to just go away (even though I have been gone almost every weekend) and hang out and not have any plans and to just go with the flow. We will see if we get him talked into it. Maybe the next weekend.

Good luck Andrea tomorrow with your surgery. Keep someone updated so we can blog it for everyone to know!

TGIT!

Ok, I know it isn't Friday but it is Friday to me:) I am taking off in the morning for Columbia. Braxton's team plays at 2:30 tomorrow.

I am feeling like I have kids all over the place today. Braxton stayed in Memphis last night with one of his really good friends, Aaron Buford and Bronson is at the Ottumwa Beach with his best friend, Colby! Poor little Braylon is at the babysitters.

This week has been a pretty low key week. We actually stayed home for 2 whole nights:) Braxton had ball practice in Memphis last night and then we are going to KV tonight for groceries, batting cages and Curves.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and hopefully we will be coming home with first place at the Show Me State games. If the hotel has a computer I will try and update everyone.