Good Morning Tuesday

Good morning! I thought I would take advantage of this free time to blog a little. It's been a few weeks since my last post. :)
It's a rainy day here in Georgia. That can either be a good thing or a bad thing. Good because I won't be out and about, and bad because I'll be tempted sleep all day.
So, it's good so far. I'm sitting at my friends kitchen table with the hot glue gum fired up and ready to make some beach sand ornaments. I'm hoping to avoid the urge to take a nap. After staying in bed all day yesterday with body aches and a fever, I'm pretty sure I am well rested and will stay awake. I feel so guilty when I'm sick in bed. It makes me feel like a bad mom. I was to sick to even cook dinner. Ian had to go buy McDonalds for dinner. That was totally against my healthy eating rules, but I was so sick I didn't care. That's how bad I felt. Anyway, today is a new day and I can start off the day right!

Well, the glue is dripping out of the hot glue gun. That means that it's ready to go! Time to get crafty!

Have a fabulous Tuesday! <3

Brandy

Motivation

"Clear your mind of can't" -unknown

First Week of School

Yay! We survived the first week of school! :) We're still getting adjusted to the early schedule after sleeping in all summer, but everyone seems to be doing ok. Only one "crabby patty" incident so far. :)

Katie loves her teacher and being in the second grade. She's a little nervous about adding in spelling and vocabulary words, but she's a smart cookie. I know she will be just fine. :)

Taylor has jumped right into FFA activities. Taylor is an officer in training, which means that she will be involved with everything in FFA. She is pleased with her classes and teachers, which is a huge relief!

I hope and pray both of my babies have a great year of school! I love them so much!

KISS & Mötley Crüe

KISS and Mötley Crüe totally kicked ass! Best concert I've seen on a long time!!
Tommy Lee spinning around upside down while playing the drums was cool! Gene Simmons with the blood capsules in his mouth shaking his tongue and head making the blood go everywhere. That was pretty gross, but cool at the same time. Paul Stanley has an annoying yankee voice. Sorry, but that's just my opinion. Overall, KISS put on a fantastic show. The lights and pyro were awesome!
It makes it even better when you have awesome concert buddies! :) Thanks girls, for the crazy night!

50 Shades of......OMG!

I have finally jumped on the 50 Shades bandwagon and it is fabulous! My brain has never been so consumed by a book like this. Ever. I can't put the book down. I'm so hooked on Christian Grey. His mysterious, sexual ways intrigue me. Now, Dom/Sub isn't my cup of tea, and I can't imagine letting a man take control of me like that, but a little voice deep down inside wonders "hmmm, what if...?". I can't wait to read the next book to hopefully learn more about Christian. I can't get enough of this man!

Today's Inspiration

Katie's Party

First of all, this entry is coming straight from me laying on my bed. (thank goodness for the Blogger app) These last few days have been extremely exhausting....but it has all been worth it. Anything to see my kids smile is worth it.

Second, Katie's party today was the best party that she has ever had! It even beat out Chuck E. Cheeses last year because it was total mad craziness and this time I was able to chill and socialize without chasing kids all over the place.

We were planning on celebrating her birthday on the beach this year but those plans fell through. The house wasn't available for the dates we wanted. That's ok though, iCarly saved the day! Yeah, I waited to late to plan as far as the cake went, but at least I was still able to make all of the fabulous food for her party. :) The homemade Mac n cheese was a huge hit!

I am so glad that everyone that did show up, came. Katie felt so special being the center of attention. She was so excited to eat cake and open presents! But really, who's not excited about doing that?! :) Even the "grandma" came, which was a total shock. That's all I will speak of on that subject though.....Moving on!

Last, but not least, I just want to thank everyone again that came over. It really means so much to me that your presence made her party that much more special! :) Thank you all for the gifts. Katie is one lucky little girl to have such caring family and friend! :)

No More Excuses!

Couch to 5k

I found this awesome Couch to 5k app. I don't know why I didn't use this before when I was trying to run. It seems easy just by looking at the gradual steps. I can walk a 5k easy, but still have some trouble running. I think this app is just what I needed. I'm going to try it out later this afternoon when the rain passes by. My goal is to run my first 5k in September. I'm so determined its not even funny. I will get there. The people that say I can't, well you can kiss my soon to be skinny ass!

Happy Birthday Katie!

Yesterday, our sweet, funny, precious Katie-bug turned 7 years old!

Katie, I cannot believe that you are 7 years old! You are growing up way too fast! :) It's seems like yesterday when Daddy and I were at the hospital awaiting your arrival.

Happy Birthday baby girl! We love you so much!

Just 10

Just 10. That's my inspiration and my goal every week when exercising and eating healthy. My weight loss goal is to lose 10 pounds at a time. 10 pounds is a piece of cake compared to focusing on 40 or 50 pounds.
What does this bracelet mean to me? To me it means to lose just 10 more pounds, take 10 more steps, or walk/exercise for just 10 more minutes. When I feel like I can't take another step, I look down at my wrist and say, "Just 10 more.......".
It's motivation like this that's pushes me to my goal each and every week and the results are beginning to show. There are no excuses. Excuses are for quitters.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope that your day was just as fabulous as ours was!

Backgrounds

Digital Scrapbook Pages

I'm thinking about trying out digital scrapbooking again. Here are some of the pages the pages that I have made in the past.









 

 

 











 

Happy Mother's Day

Well, it's Mothers Day. Not a good day for me, but I'm not making a big deal about it. Ian and the girls bought me a card and a pretty pink rose. :) The card made me cry. It was so sweet! I love them all so much!

To those that read my blog, I hope your day was a special one! :)

Stone Mountain Fun!

What a fabulous day we had at Stone Mountain yesterday! Well, minus the rain that caused us to miss the Laser Show. That's ok though, we can always go back to just see the Laser Show later in the Summer. :) Taylor and Katie had a blast! I think this is the first time that I've done everything in one visit, and the first time I've been to Antebellum Plantation. Those old houses were so cool! You know those houses have to be haunted...I just had that feeling. LOL.
Not much time to go into detail.......going to the hospital to check on my dad..........check out the pics on my Facebook page! :)

The Zoo

Since we can't go to the beach, we have decided to do some fun stuff in the area in between hospital visits. Taylor did go to the beach with our neighbors, so we took Katie to Zoo Atlanta today. We all had a blast! The animals were all out and active, and best of all IT WASN'T CROWDED! Big plus on that one! Nothing spoils the fun more than having to dodge people and fight your way to see something. Hate that!
 Katie's favorite exhibit was the naked mole rats. Out of all the cool BIG animals, she chooses rats! LOL! Oh well, at least she had fun! My favorite was the Giant Panda. I love Pandas! I can't wait to go back either! I took lots of great pictures, just check out my Facebook page. :)

 I have this exact same picture of Taylor and Thomas standing beside Willie B. I can't wait to scrapbook the pictures! How cool is that? :)

Update on Dad

My dads surgery went great! No complications! Thank you Jesus for bringing him through surgery!
He's in recovery now and doing very well, actually better than expected. He has almost all of the wires removed and that is great news! I fed him some ice chips while I was in there. He will probably move back to his room tomorrow, that's how well he is doing. I hope so because we are only allowed to be in the recovery room for short time depending on his condition. Please continue to pray!

Update on Dad

My dad wasn't feeling well a few days ago, so I took him to the ER. Come to find out, he had a slight heart attack. After further testing, including a cardiac cath, it was determined that he has 3 blockages that will require open heart surgery.

Guess when all of this is scheduled? Yep, Monday. The day we are supposed to leave for Myrtle Beach.
Of course I'm not going to leave my Dad to go on vacation. That would be selfish, and he's my Dad. Even though he told us to go and that he would be fine. I couldn't even fathom the thought of being up there on the beach while something bad happened and not being able to get to the hospital in time. The beach can wait. We will go this Summer.

After the surgery, he will be in the hospital for 3 or 4 days. I will update this blog with new information after his heart surgery. Please continue to pray for him!

Lake Placid

We just got home from a fun trip to Lake Placid, Florida. We went down there to visit Ian's grandparents, other family members, and to also celebrate Easter. It was by far the BEST Easter we've had in a long time! It was nice to meet new family and to reconnect with the ones that I haven't seen since 2006.

It was so nice of Danny and Ellie to host the gatherings at their beautiful home on the lake. Our kids had a blast fishing, riding on the boat, and tubing! The trip to the hunting land was also a blast! The land was beautiful! Taylor shot 4 armadillos with a .410 shotgun. Those things are like rats down there and they tear up the land, so it was justified. LOL!

The best memory of the whole trip: Great-Grandpa Green showing Katie, Taylor, and Thomas his garden in their backyard. It was so sweet watching and listening to him interact with the kids. I could tell that he really enjoyed telling the kids about the different plants. :)

Anyway, next week we're heading up to Myrtle Beach for a week with our neighbors. I cannot wait to stick my feet in the sand! I've never been to Myrtle Beach, so it's going to be so much fun. I just hope that it's going to be warm enough to enjoy it. :)

One Year.....

Today is the one year anniversary of my mother's death. I cannot believe that it has been a year already.
The pain is still there. That feeling will probably never go away. You know, the empty feeling like something is supposed to be there and you are searching and searching to find something to fill the void. When my mom died, she took a piece of my heart with her.

I still cry almost every single day. Some days I can hide it, and other days I stay in bed until one of the kids make me get up. It's tough some days. Very tough.

I think the hardest part along this journey is knowing that I can't talk to her. The first time something great happened after she passed, and the first bit of gossip I heard, (my mom and I LOVED to gossip, LOL) I caught myself grabbing the phone to dial 'Mom and Dad'. Then it hit me......like a punch in the gut. I can't call her. I began to panic a little. I have to tell her this so bad! Who am I going to talk to now? Her laugh, her encouraging words and advice. Who do I go to now for help? Yeah, that day was like watching her die all over again. It was a really hard day.

I have taught myself how to handle the hard days. I just smile and try to think about what she would say to me. I know that she is looking over all of us. My mom is my Guardian Angel now. :)

The past year has been an emotional roller coaster that's for sure. My family and friends have been such a great support system. I don't how I would've made it through 'the firsts' without them. You know who you are, and Thank You!

I love you Mom.