Things can get pretty irritating around here. By that I mean why in the h-e-l-l-o do these two kids have to fuss and fight and pick and whine 24/7!?? What happened to that extra special super close bond they were supposed to build being at home together and homeschooling? Yesterday they were right in normal form until when about 1/2 way through the day I decided I had had enough.

Let me set up the scene: I was busy (ok preoccupied....ok obsessed with fixing my blog's template) and asked Brandon to help his sister with her school work. Now I know she can be let's say.....a brat... at times especially to her big brother but he in turn has developed this habit of growling at her. He just talks so roughly and snaps at her it seems constantly. As I sat in my room I kept hearing this over and over and finally I had had enough. So, I called him into my room and asked him to find the paddle. (It seems I spank my children so often that the thing can turn up missing for weeks without anyone knowing it was gone.) While he was looking for the paddle, because it was indeed no where to be seen, he would pass his sister and growl at her for getting him in trouble. See... they thought he was in trouble for not helping her to do her work not realizing that it was his attitude that had sent me over the edge.

So, here he is all mad stomping around the house looking for the object of his impending doom when Emily came into my room. She had her serious face on and I could tell she meant business. She walked right up to me and took my hand in both of hers so as to have my full attention. She looks me straight in the eye and says in a tiny little voice,

Emily: "Mommy, you shouldn't spank Bubba because it's not his fault."
Mom: "It's not. Well, then who's fault is it?"
Emily: "It's mine. He tried to help me do my work but I told him to leave me alone."
Mom: "So, he shouldn't get a spanking?"
Emily: "No. "
Mom: "Well, who do you think should get the spanking?"
Emily: "I should."
Mom: "You think you should get a spanking instead of Bubba?"
Emily: "Yes Ma'am , It's all my fault. Don't spank him. Spank me."

Now, at this point her bottom lip is sticking out a tad and trembling, her eyes are red, silent tears are trickling down her face. Sweet wispy strands of hair have worked loose from her braid and are sticking to her wet face. Her tiny little nose is kindda swished up. She is SO sincere. She is breaking my heart! About this time Brandon came into the room looking suspicious. I could read his mind, "What's this monster done gone and done to me now." So, I called him over, put my hand under her shaking little chin to tilt her head up to his face. I asked him to look at her in the eye. As he did I saw his countenance visibly soften. Then I dropped the bombshell.

Mom: "Brandon you see this little face, this little face that you have snapped at and growled at all day long?"
Brandon: "Yes, Ma'am." said a little humbly.
Mom: "This little face just asked to take your spanking in your place. She said it was her fault and not yours."

Brandon's eyes tear up a little, his hard shell is dropped. He is broken.

Mom: "Now, is this is the same person you yell and growl at. Do you think now may be you can see what I'm saying and quit being so dog gone mean to her? She loves you."
Brandon: "Well, I love her too."

Emily throws herself at her Bubba and they hug and kiss and declare they love each other....... but as they leave the room I hear her pipe up in that dramatic gasp-y voice she uses sometimes,

"You should be grateful! I just saved your life!"

Hmm....I had a really cool template loaded but it needed tweaking....reverted back to old template to work over the new one and now I can't get the cool one back......This stinks.

Edited to add I got the cool template back, but it still needs tweaking.

Oh signs have been coming in for a while now. I had to break down and buy Proactive. He had to start using deodorant and Axe body spray. A faint mustache is forming on his upper lip. He began to like a girl. He now cares if his clothes match... Yes, it has happened, my boy has become a teen. September 14th he turned 13 years old. Ah, the big one three. I had originally planed to have one big bash to celebrate his birthday with style and then move on. You know what they say about the best laid plans, right? This was the birthday that wouldn't die.

First, his Me maw set us up at a Log Cabin style resort for the first week of September. Yep, just one week of the school year in and we took a week off. Regrettably I forgot the camera. It was a nice cabin, fully furnished, dishes, towels, etc. It had a bed room downstairs, 2 beds up stairs and a pull out couch. We had some friends come hang out with us. The kids spent most of the day walking the trails. It was an enjoyable week. BUT I had to come home on Friday to prepare for Emily's party the next day. Then Brandon's was to be the next Saturday.

As I said Brandon's party WAS to be the next Saturday. However, Hurricane Ike had different plans. I doubted seriously that anyone would want to attend a Luau in a hurricane. So, I canceled his party. On the 14th we did take him to pick out his MP3 player. He got a Creative Zen. It was second to the ipod nano and so far we really like it.

My Mom also came over with her presents. Lots of clothes! Yeah! I'm so grateful my children are finally at an age that they like to receive clothes for presents!

His party was tentatively rescheduled for this last Saturday but we all fell ill. Especially Cecil. Brandon had a hacking cough. I just couldn't see it making any sense to have people come to our home just to get sick. So, I canceled again. Then Friday a trip to the doctor's office said we weren't contagious just having severe allergies. *sigh WHATever!......after two days of med's we all felt fine so I went ahead and invited a few of his friends over just so he could at least have his cake!

While we were out Daddy and Emily decorated the house, baked his cake and started supper. When we got home supper was ready. We all ate, then had cake and ice cream. We got him a new game for his Wii (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed). His friends got him a Beatles t-shirt. (He has since had me download a ton of Beatles songs onto his MP3 player because he didn't really "get" who they were. Now he likes his shirt even better.)After cake and ice cream came the silly string war, the sack race and balloon race. I think his birthday is finally over.....

Not only did Emily have a way cool party where she really cleaned up on some great new clothes but she got to celebrate her friend Macie's birthday with her too. For Macie's birthday we went to...........American Girl. Is there really need to say more? Does it get better than this?

Now, last Christmas I bought Emily a faux Julie doll to see if I really wanted to hand this child a $100 doll. Not only has she taken excellent care of her, she also sleeps with the annual AG catalog that comes in the mail, she finally watched the Felicity movie (I'm planning on buying all the ones they've made for Christmas.) , I've been reading her the AG books (a wonderful friend loaned us a beautiful set), and she has been to the AG book club at a local library several times. Yes! It was time. She was ready for her very first Real American Girl Doll! She got Samantha! We are currently making a "game plan" on who to buy next and which accessories are necessary, etc.

Her mouth just dropped open as we entered the store.



The dolls can get their hair done while their "mothers" shop.



At the Bistro the A girls get their own highchairs and menus.



A girl and her shopping bag. This was a good day folks!



She fell straight to sleep that night and
didn't even ask once if she could sleep in my bed.

We were blessed. A few hours without electricity, had to boil our water for a week and a few limbs down in our yard. In fact about half way through the day we went out and sat in the gazebo to grill steaks and baked potatoes. All and all we know we were very blessed to have enjoyed a storm that wrecked havoc on so many others. As we count our blessings, we will also remember others not so lucky in our prayers.



As you can see the trauma of the storm really shook Emily up.

No doubt about it Emily is growing up! Of course it had to be a princess party! Duh! It was fab-u-lous darling!

Bonus: My friends do love me. She got nearly all clothes as presents! No T O Y S! Yes! I felt like it was MY birthday!

While going through the old family photo box I found these gems from almost ten years ago and couldn't resist posting them. This was the summer of egg fights and wedgy wars... ah those were the days....

Some of you may vaguely remember that I went to my nephews wedding way back in March and said I'd blog more about it later. Yes, I've admit I've put it off, not because I didn't want to write about it but because I wanted it to be special. I wrote this blog several times mentally and with a little reminder from Heather I finally decided to put fingers to keyboard. Forgive me this post will not contain wedding pictures or descriptions of the cake and bride's maids dresses. This is about the boy that became a man and got married.

See Patrick is not just a nephew to me. He was born when I was just a preteen and Norma and Clayton lived with us when he was little. He was my first baby boy. My first slobbery baby kiss all over my face, my first chubby arms wrapped around my neck, my first mischievous giggle, my first "do it again" and my first realization that I wanted nothing more than to be a mother when I grew up.

Patrick had HUGE brown eyes, blond hair with big loose curls when allowed to grow out, big dimples, his diaper always seemed to sag even if it wasn't dirty, he loved to play with toilet paper, he spent an enormous amount of time hanging off me (my hip, my back, my head, etc.), his favorites toys were his teenage ninja turtles and his toy guitar, he loved the Girls, Girls, Girls Motley Crue video and could bang his head at the age of three, he laughed all the time and I don't remember him ever throwing fits, he was sweet, kind, gentle, obedient, had a strong sense of justice, and most of all affectionate. When that child looked you in the eyes and said, "I love you" he said it with an innocent honesty that came straight from his heart. If he had faults I'm sure they were admirable but I don't remember any. He was a perfect little boy and I fell in love the first time I set eyes on him.

Patrick has grown into a fine young man. He has grown up and out, his hair has darken, he stills gets frustrated with injustice, he is a teddy bear that still loves with all his heart and I can still see my first baby boy when I look at him.

I too have grown up and I've had a little baby boy of my own. Over the years I've often seen his cousin in him and have enjoyed the reminder of the first. My little boy is twelve now handsome, kind and loving like his cousin. At Patrick's wedding I couldn't help but swell with pride and my two boys. One is a man and one is on his way. Thank you God for blessing me with my two little baby boys.

And for those of you dying to see actual wedding photos
here is a link to an album.

Patrick's Wedding

I woke up around 4 AM to potty. I stayed awake because my sinus's woke up and I laid in bed blowing my nose and sneezing until almost 5 AM. Seeing I was not going to return to slumber and that I was depriving my dh of his last precious moments of sleep before he had to get up and off to work I decided to go ahead and get up.

Now getting up early is a rarity for me. I prefer to rise around 9 or 10-ish. However, when I do get up early it is because I'm restless so I normally get straight on the house work. So, I put on the coffee and decided to make biscuits, bacon and eggs. As I fussed about the kitchen...my granny's kitchen...the kitchen I've spent hours watching her work in I couldn't help but to think of her. So I started making a mental list of what I remember best about Granny.

She was always up before dawn, worked until lunch, napped during the mid-day heat, then cooked supper and was in bed by no later than 9 pm.


If you slept past 8 am she would wake you up and ask if you were going to sleep all day.


She made everything from scratch.


She wore aprons when cooking and/or cleaning.


For at least 10 years every week she saved the cartoons from her newspaper and put them away for when my cousin visited because he once said he liked to read them.


She sewed her own clothes.


Her home was a smorgasbord of yarn colors (mostly burnt orange, mustard yellow, and olive green. YUCK! LOL) bought from garage sales. She crocheted dolls dresses, arm chair covers, rugs, dish towels, throws, afghans, you name it and she could crochet it.


She once made me a quilt from scrap fabrics and I recognized several patterns as being from pairs of my grandpas old boxers.


She used to make me lay on the counter once a week so she could wash my hair in the kitchen sink because she didn't believe I washed it when I bathed.


She had her own green house and could grow anything. And knew the name of any plant you could point at.


She could also can, or make preserves or jam of anything.


She once sewed me a little ruffly top with a matching pair of bloomers from a pink fabric with little strawberries on it. I ruined it the first time I wore it by sitting in the middle of her strawberry patch and eating all her strawberries staining it with the juice and she didn't even get mad.


She spanked with a fly swatter but was known to hit with whatever was handy be it a flip flop or her cane.


She once beat my ex-husband about the head and shoulders with her cane and the last time I saw him he was still afraid of her.


She called any woman that paid too much attention to my grandpa a "Hussy".


She once tried to shoot grandpa for talkin' to a "hussy".


She believed wrestling was real.


She always shared her ice cream with her dogs.


Her dogs were always over weight.


The oldest girl of 12 children she quit school after 3rd grade to help her mom with her siblings.


She wrote every thing the way it sounded to her so that her letters were like deciphering code. This also meant that for years she wrote my maiden name as Wallass which always made me laugh.


Despite her lack of education she managed all the house hold bills, ran her home like a drill Sargent and read her KJV front to back several times in her life time.


When company left she would strip the guest bed, wash it's linens and remake it. Then when she knew company was coming she would strip the guest bed, wash it's linens and remake it. I never could figure out how it got dirty in between guests.


She had Osteoporosis, Parkinson's, Rheumatoid Arthritis and eventually had both knees replaced but never stopped working in the yard or home.


She used to pretend that hugs and kisses frustrated her and she'd shoo you away but couldn't quite pull it off because she'd always giggle.


She had 2 miscarriages and out lived all but 3 siblings. She outlived her first husband (my mother's father), but God spared her when at the age of 80 she died in a car accident just months before her second husband lost his battle with cancer.


When I picture her I either picture her working in the yard in the morning or sitting in her chair crocheting at night.


My Granny was a true Southern woman cut from a special clothe. I just wonder as her generation with it's talents and skills die out...will people in the age of computers and cell phones ever realize what they've lost?