My Prince and Princess

Oh, and another thing

If anyone knows of an older person who'd like to have a companion I've got the perfect one for them.........RUDY. He really is a good dog, but first of all with 2 kids he just doesn't get the attention that he needs in our home. Also with Brennan having the problems that he is I think that it's probably best that we get rid of our inside dog. Rudy would make the perfect dog for an older man or woman who could show him the undivided attention that he needs. When he gets attention he's an angel, but when he's ignored he does things for spite and it makes me crazy with madness. So, if you know of anyone that can give him a good loving home please let me know. He's the dog in the picture below with Ashlyn noted as the Alien dog because of his glowing eyes in the picture.
Thanks!

FINALLY..........

After three long months of my poor son coughing day in and day out. He coughs until he's red in the face. His chest rattles 24 hours a day. When you hold him he sounds like a kitten purring. That's how bad the congestion is and it's been going on now for 3 straight months. He is a happy boy, so I can't imagine what he'd be like if he didn't have to deal with this coughing junk every single day. He'd probably be the happiest baby in the world!
After numerous trips to the doctor and prescription cough medicines and antibiotics. The doctor is FINALLY referring him to a specialist.
I called the doctor's office on Monday and spoke to the the director of my wedding who also happens to work at B's doctor's office. I asked her which doctor would be most likely to actually do something about this nasty cough and whoever that was I wanted an appointment with them. She booked me with the doctor whom she felt like would get to the bottom of his problem, and I took him yesterday afternoon for his appointment. The doctor listened to his lungs and said that his airways didn't sound constricted, but there is definitely a problem if this has been going on for 3 months with no improvements even after the antibiotics that he was on last month. She feels like it may be asthma or it could be that he has enlarged adnoids (sp?) that could be the cause of his congestion. He has an appointment with Allergy and Asthma Specialists tomorrow morning. Hopefully we'll finally get to the bottom of this and get the little guy some relief.
Just a littly FYI - He weighed 16lbs 12oz today!! He's a load to carry around. I want to get a new light weight stroller to tote around, but I'd like something a little sturdier than an umbrella stroller since he's still sitting up completely on his own yet. Any ideas?

Ashlyn and Alien Dog

Supper Time

Can you tell that he enjoys the cereal? I don't know if he got more in his mouth or all over his hands, face, ears, bib, legs, bumbo, table...................I think that about covers everything. LOL! He is doing so well on the cereal. Now that we're feeding him a bowl of cereal in the evenings he's started sleeping much longer at night. He was waking up for 2-3 bottles a night, but now he's taking 1 a night, if even that. On Tuesday night he slept ALL NIGHT LONG!!!! I was singing the Hallelujah praise all day long on Wednesday! Of course I still got up twice to check on him and make sure he was still breathing. It's completely unlike him to sleep through the night without a peep. So hopefully this sleeping thing will continue. I was beginning to think that I was never going to sleep again!

Ashlyn's first dance class

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaCW1V-c8xk

You'll have to watch it with your head tilted to the side. I videoed it with my camera longways. Sorry about that! She did pretty good until the very end of the song. Then she lost all focus. ;)

Random Monday

I have sooooo many things that I've been meaning to blog about lately. I'm going to try to squeeze it all in on one post.

First things first. My babies.
They are both growing like weeds. Brennan went for his 4 month check up a couple weeks ago and he was up to 16 lbs and 26 inches long. He is going to be tall like his daddy! He's still not a sleeper like Ashlyn was when she was a baby. She had us spoiled! Brennan will occasionally sleep about 6 hours straight, but usually he's up at least every 4-5 hours for a bottle. The past few nights he's been up 3 times to be fed.......somewhere between 11pm-12am, 2-3am, and 4-6am. This sleep pattern has got to stop! I can't take it much longer! I must applaud my husband. He got up with him all three times last night. THANK YOU BRITT!!! I woke up this morning and saw a can of baby cereal sitting on the counter. Brennan isn't eating cereal yet. I mean we've tried feeding it to him, but he doesn't really have the hang of it yet. (Insterted 9/9/08 - *update* Brennan did eat his first bowl of cereal yesterday evening. YAY!) But because it was so early, and I'm always running around like a mad lady in the mornings I thought nothing of it. Then when I got to work it hit me like a ton of bricks..........Brennan coughing up a storm after the 5am feeding this morning + the cereal sitting on the counter = Britt putting cereal in his bottle to try his darndest to get a little bit of sleep! Poor little fellow must have gotten some cereal stuck in his throat. =(

Ashlyn is becoming such a little lady. She moved up to the pre-k class at Abernethy. Her teachers are outstanding, well really all of them are there if you ask me, but Miss Nancy and Miss Linda are GREAT! Ashlyn is getting to the age now where she is all about presence. Her clothes have to be picked out each night before school, and it HAS to be a cute outfit because she's got some boys that she's trying to impress. Lord help me now! The bully from last year is in her class, but guess what.................she likes him now. He's ONE of her boyfriends! How many more does she have I ask? At least one more......Eli is her boyfriend also. This brings me to a totally different subject. This is JB's nephew. Hopefullly Eli turns out quite the opposite of his uncle or we're in some SERIOUS TROUBLE!!!!!! I just can't believe that whole situation. Who does something like that and then has their wife go take the blame? And then on top of it all decides to go back out with his kids and wrecks his car in a corn field. My heart goes out to the kids and to the lady's family who was involved in this horrible accident! Can you believe that I went out with him in high school? We all knew he was trouble then, but if we only knew what we'd be saying about him today. WOW! Back to Miss Ashlyn. She started dance on Saturday. She's taking from Miss Treva. She absolutely LOVED it! Wasn't a bit shy like I imagined she would be. She just went right on in and followed Treva's lead the entire time. I can't wait to see her recital! She becomes a little sassier with every single day that passes. She's started the whole "If you don't let me then I won't be your best friend" thing. Oh the joys of parenthood! I have a feeling that the teenage years are going to be oh such a joy with this one! Can you hear the sarcasm?!

Mammaw's companion, Lewis, had to be put in a nursing home. Mom, the kids, and I went to visit him on Labor Day. That was the most depressing place that I've ever been. Lewis is terribly depressed. It's bad enough that he's in a nursing home, but what makes it SOOOOO BAD is that the facility has him in a lockdown unit. This is a special area in the facility for Alzheimer's patients and patients with mental handicaps. Lewis has very early signs of Alzheimer's, but he is nowhere close to the mental capacity of the people in this unit. I just wanted to walk him out of there. You could just see the sadness in his eyes. I am very fortunate that I have not had to deal with anyone close to me in a nursing home yet. I admire the people that work in that field, because it definitely takes a special kind of person. There were 2 people who did make our day a little brighter. One was a man who joined us in the sunroom. A very friendly man I must add. He was admiring my 2 youngin's. He asked how old they were, what my husband did............He seemed 'normal' so to speak, so I being the peacemaker/friendmaker that I am thought that he would be a great friend for Lewis. Then about 2 minutes later our entire conversation started all over again..........How old is Brennan?, How old is Ashlyn?, What does my husband do?. I kid you not, I had de ja vu with this man probably 30 times. It was the EXACT same questions and stories every single time. Bless his little heart! THEN........Then comes the lady..............the lady who had Ashlyn and myself literally rolling in the floor with laughter! This lady was speaking broken english. Talking to Brennan first, who was sitting on my mom's lap. Brennan was just a grinning at her. We all were really. It was one of those grins where you just smile because you have no clue what the person's saying or doing. Then she did something that was probably the funniest thing I've seen in a long long time. Maybe it was just funny because the day was so depressing, but I could not control my laughter. It's the kind of laughter that you wish you could stop because you know that it's not right to be laughing, but REALLY it IS FUNNY and you the find yourself in lauging so hard that your face hurts and tears are flowing. That's how funny it was at the time. She grabbed my mom's foot and started petting it like a dog. She proceeded to get eye to eye with the foot and talk to it like you would speak to your pet puppy. The look on my mom's face was priceless! I mean what do you do when you've got a crazy woman petting your foot? OMG..........It was the strangest thing ever! They are working on getting Lewis moved to the regular area of the facility. This BETTER HAPPEN SOON!!! I feel so sorry for him right now.

Let's see what else? My dad is doing great! He's feeling much better thanks to the stint. His heart attack has been a real eye opener in the fact that your life can change at any given moment. You never know what tomorrow's got in store for you. Thanks for all of the prayers! If I had the time I'd love to help with some local charity groups in the area. When Ashlyn was in the hospital the was a small quilt lying across the foot of her bed. The nurses came in and said that the blanket was hers to keep. A group called Project Linus donates blankets to all children admitted to Catawba Valley Medical Center. I thought that this was such a nice idea! There are so many kids out there who have nothing. When you are sick and in the hospital it's nice to have a little something extra to cuddle with that some children don't have at home.

I feel the need to spice it up..........my home that is. I've been flipping through the pottery barn catalog and I'm feeling the urge to redecorate. Even though I don't have the money to spend at pottery barn, I can still dream. They do have a pottery barn outlet in Gaffney. Who feels a girls Saturday shopping day calling our names? I know I do! Let me know if you're up for it and when. I'm dying to go. Now I just need to find one of those money trees and plant it in my back yard so that I don't have to worry about bills. If anyone knows where to find one of these please hook a girl up!

TOO FUNNY!

1952

1960

1970

1984

1990

I found this website and it's hilarious. You just plug your

picture in and it shows you what your yearbook picture

would have looked like from 1950 - 2000. Try it out.

http://www.yearbookyourself.com/northlake

Britt 1960

Britt 1970



I'm sure he's going to kill me when he sees this,
but it was too funny not to post some of him too! =)

Kenny Chesney Concet

Getting ready for the concert!

The Girls!

CHEERS!

Britt's crew getting roudy!

Hanna and Curtis

Hanna and Me

Ida and Hanna

This is how we felt by the end of the night! ;)

Last night's scare...

We need to just buy some stock in Frye and Catawba Memorial Hospital because my family has been there enough in the past month to pay for a few of the employees salaries! Yesterday evening I took Ashlyn and Brennan over to my Mammaw Sherrill's to visit her and Lewis. Unfortunately Lewis is having to go to a nursing home today. He is showing early signs of alzheimer's, and Mammaw just can't take care of him all on her own. It was such a hard decision, but it simply had to be done. I truly hate it for him! He is one of the kindest, most sincere people that I know! It breaks my heart to think of him in a nursing home! Well I ALWAYS carry my phone on me. For some reason while I was at Mammaw's I decided to leave it in the car. Once I got back in the car I had 7 missed calls in an hours time. This is the order they came in......Britt, Britt, Joyce (Britt's mom), Joyce, Joyce, Joyce, Kerry (Britt's sister). I KNEW something was wrong. I had 3 voicemail also, so I called and checked them. Joyce's message said for me to call her right away and Kerry's message said that she knew that I was up at the hospital, but for me to call her when I got her voicemail and got a chance. I wasn't at the hospital and I had NO CLUE what was going on! I called Joyce right away and she was up at the hospital with Britt. He was having chest pains and numbness in his left arm. GOLLY PETE!!!! First Ashlyn, then my dad, now Britt! I rushed up to the hospital as fast as I could. The EKG came back normal.........No heart attack! Praise GOD! They ran a few more tests and did some x-rays on his lungs. All of that came back ok as well. The ER doctor seems to think that he's pulled a muscle in his ribs. I, being Dr. Mindy, think that he's just stressed out and having symptoms of panic attacks. Of course he didn't bring any of this to the doctor's attention though! Why are men so stubborn? Anyway, he was sent home last night and seems to be doing fine. He's still having the chest pain, but so far he hasn't had anymore of the tingling in his arm. Please keep him in your prayers. This has been one HELL of a month! Let's hope that this is the last of it! My nerves are COMPLETELY SHOT!!!!

Quick Rant

I am P-I-S-S-E-D!!!! All I wanted was a freakin tan for the Kenny Chesney concert tomorrow night. Is that too much to ask? APPARENTLY!!!!! I called the tanning salon right down the street from work about getting a mystic tan. First off she tries to tell me that before I can do the mystic tan I have to by about $60 worth of products! What.............are you kidding me? This is a one time deal. I'm not going to buy $60 worth of products for one time in a spray booth! So after arguing with her about this on the phone she finally tells me that she "guesses" I can still go in the booth, but that my tan will not meet it's maximum potential. Blah blah blah. I go for my appointment and there are 3 levels. Level one is for someone pale, level 2 is the average level, and level 3 is the darkest level. She tells me that I need level one. This girl is just trying to push every one of my buttons today. I tell her that I'd really like to go with the level 2, but she continues to test my nerves and tell me that with "my skin tone" I need to go with level one! HELLO???? I may not be the darkest right now, but I'm nowhere near paper white! I should have just walked out at this point, but I decided to go ahead and get the level one and just see what it does. It's been 4 hours later now, and so far I can only tell a slight difference in my skin tone! I am FURIOUS!!!!!!!!! I could understand if I were baking under some bulbs, but I was getting spray tanned for goodness sakes! It's not like I'm going to burn from getting a level 2 or even 3 spray tan!

What makes me SMILE!!!

Brennan in his little golfer pants. Too stinkin' cute!

Both of my GORGEOUS babies!!!

What a sweet sister!

Awwwwwww!!!!!

Campmeeting

Our campground family portrait.

Nana and Brennan

Dad and Pappaw. Like fater like son!

Ashlyn and her buddy Eli from school.

Whitney loving on Brennan

Brennan @ 4 month's old

In his own personal swing at the campground.

Checking Rudy out.

Daddy and Brennan.

I'm starting to see the resemblance.

Ida and Brennan

I have more pictures to post. I uploaded some last night, but I have no clue what happened to them. I'll try to get them up tonight or tomorrow. They are PRICELESS!!!

Campmeeting Pics

The Drum Family

Ashlyn and Halle

I'll post more later on. Our computer is still down at home, so it takes me a little longer to download and post pictures. Hopefully I'll swing by Mom and Dad's and get a few more posted this evening.

Where I've been hiding......

As most of you know it's that time of year again. Good old Balls Creek Campmeeting! Probably the best 2 weeks out of the entire year, especially through the eyes of my 4 year old daughter. She can't get enough of it! I almost wish that it went on all year round because this is the best behavior that I've gotten out of her in a long time. All I have to do is threaten that if she misbehaves we won't be going out and she does a complete 180 in a snap. Love this! It's better than the whole Santa's watching thing...........Seriously!!! LOL! Ashlyn is DEFINITELY 100% a campmeeting girl! Brennan is going to be the same way. He's already loving every minute of being out there and he's only 4 months old. HA! I am so blessed to be from the area which I grew up! Nothing's better than having 2 weeks out of the year devoted to good friends and fellowship.....................Gospel singings, sermons, swinging on your front porch people watching, going to the shack for some good ol' greasy campground food, good icecream, cheap toys (which Ashlyn loves the best), saying that you're going to make "one quick round" when really every round ends up being an hour long or more! I LOVE IT!!!! So glad I'm a true campmeeting girl at heart! I'm working on Britt. This is one tough task! LOL!

God Know What He's Doing

I susbscribe to a daily devotional from 106.9 The Lite. This was the devotional that was in my inbox on Monday morning. God is always speaking, you just have to learn how to listen! Maybe I'll post more later about how everything has played out recently, but all I can say is..........GOD IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

All ThingsIt is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.

(Psalm 119:71)
Did you know that everything you have experienced up to this point in life can be used for good? That is not to say you haven’t experienced hardship. That is not to say bad things haven’t happened to you. But it is to say that God can work them out for good.That includes the experiences of your childhood, whether good or bad. That includes your parents, whoever they may be. That includes your education, your present employment, or your lack of it. He will work all things together for good.I went through hardship as a kid. I came from a home that was broken many, many times over, a home of alcoholism. I wouldn’t wish my childhood on anyone. But God used it to make me the person that I am.In the same way, God has used what you have gone through to make you the person that you are. So let it be worked together for good and accept God’s promise to you: “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). The phrase, “work together” also could be translated, “working together.” In other words, it isn’t over yet. Maybe you are going through a process right now in which God is working things together for good. You don’t see it yet. But you are a work in progress. Be patient. You have God’s word on it: He will work all things together for good to those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose. God is ultimately working all things for good—not just the good things, but all things.