Merry Christmas!!!

Well this is the tree...not many presents, but I am working on that. I can't decide what to wrap and what to make Santa. As you know, kids don't get it when there aren't 20 presents each under the tree so deciding what to do has been kind of difficult. Mom read somewhere on one of the 300 blogs she reads a day that children should get 5 presents a year from Santa so they don't set their expectations too high. With that being said, there are some presents I simply don't want to wrap or have no way of wrapping and teaching the lesson gets kind of hard.

The other pictures are from the Christmas party I had Saturday night. Since I still haven't mastered how to get them to post after each paragraph you will have to scroll back up. HA! What is the deal...I feel like I need to pass the bar exam to post on my blog! We had a lot of fun. Good food, great friends(about 8 couples), and a little game of Dirty Santa. I think we will make it a tradition. If any of you would like to come next year, please sign up below :) You won't want to miss it...

I also put a picture of the tile job my friend Chad did in the kitchen. He does excellent work! Keep in mind there was white formica (sp) before. Speaking of, I'll put a before picture. It's truly amazing. It's no granite, but it's MY granite!

I hope you all have a great holiday season...love you all!

Short and Sweet

These are just a few pics of what's been going on. The one of Bailey's feet is her first self-given pedicure. I found her when she was putting the bottle back in the drawer like it was so what 2 year olds do. I was very surprised when I found only a quarter sized spot on the rug. She was very proud and after getting on to her, I went and got the camera and all she could say was "cheese"!!! It was hilarious...

Obviously the other pic is me and kids before going trick or treating. Me, Batman and the LSU cheerleader went with mom and Mike to a local trunk or treat and they had a ball.

The other 2 pics are of the new house. I have more but after looking at them I have done a lot of stuff since then. I will update those soon...I promise! I hope this finds all of you well...

ps-if any of you can please tell me how to get this pics loaded on here and make them look like a sober person did it I would greatly appreciate. They always seem to end up in some crazy, random order.

Big Week for Me and the Babies!!!

I know it has been forever, but i decided to post a quickie on how things have been. HECTIC is the only word coming to mind at the moment. Anyway, I have really missed my blog world, but please know my mother keeps me up to date on every one of you. It is hysterical when she says "did you see so and so?" and I'm like "no, what?" She cracks me up!

Brad and I close on our house today-he is buying me out. And then Friday I close on my house for me and the kids...I CAN'T WAIT!!! We are all packed and ready to go Saturday morning when the movers get here. If any of you are free and want to ride over, c'mon!!! HA!

Lindsey, I don't know if you ever received my answer to your question, but I am getting my Bachelors in Health Administration.

Yall have a great week and will talk to you soon...

I got a 4.0!!!!

The funny part about my 4.0 is I have only taken one class. What will be even funnier is when I get done with the class I am in now and it drops to a 2.0. My instructor isn't exactly willing to answer our questions-he simply says "Google it". Thanks and I'm paying you $1500 a class for what?!!! Anyway, the craziness has gotten a little more tolerable. Just trying to stay focused on a bigger paycheck one day (priorities people) :)

Benton and I have been discussing Halloween. Now, I am not a "halloweeny" person, but I will let the kids dress up and go trick or treating. Ghosts, witches, and all the other scary stuff that goes along with Halloween does nothing for me and I don't want Benton sleeping with me anymore than he already does because of one night out of the year. My point to all of this is, he wants to be Batman. We already have these big wing things and mask his grandmother bought him, a Batman candy bucket, and the gloves. I told Benton we needed to work on getting him the rest of his costume (black pants and shirt) and he told me he already had it. When I asked what he was talking about, he quickly told me he could wear his Blues Brothers suit with his Batman stuff. I told him Oh NO he couldn't and it was on! So needless to say, he may be a winged Blues Brother this year.

Now Bailey on the other hand is still too young to care. So she will be a LSU cheerleader. End of story...

Facebook

First of all I want to say "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" How in the world do you women have time for a blog, facebook, and kids? I almost fell out when I saw the number of responses I got from people accepting me as their friend. Some of them I didn't even know and when I tried to figure out how to learn more about them I just said forget it. Maybe it was a patience problem (which if you know me it probably was), but I will need Facebook for Dummies before going back there. So if you need me, Blogger.com is where I'll be!

Also, for the ones that didn't notice my color scheme...I MADE IT PURPLE AND GOLD!!!!!!

GEAUX TIGERS!!!

Trying to Play Catch Up!

Hey chicks! Sorry I haven't been good about staying in touch. As you read in a previous post, I ranked myself as CRAZY for going back to school while going through a divorce, going to school, and taking care of 2 kids. Definitely not looking for sympathy, but WHAT WAS I THINKING? My social life is very important to me and believe me when I tell you I have been very out of touch with it. Mainly this blog...anyways...I am back for at least a couple of paragraphs :)

Sooooo I just finished my first class. It was 3 weeks long and I thought it would never end. In 3 weeks I have written 5 papers, given 3 oral presentations, and learned more about the bible than I have in 30 years. One of those is a plus and I will let you decide which one. My next class in Management Information Systems. At this point, I am strongly considering one of those sites where you can buy a "degree". NOT!!! But don't think it hasn't crossed my mind every time I think about school at 30. I actually have 3 other girls in my class and we have gotten close so we really help one another out. Thank God for them or I wouldn't even know what my next class entails. One of them told me to just give her my passwords and she would look it up for me-thanks sista! The one positive thing I can say is I have gotten a 100 on all my papers! Don't remember much of that back in the day...

Benton and Bailey are growing like weeds. Of course, thanks to mom, they never miss a beat and don't even know their lives have been turned upside down. Bailey is talking her little head off and finally making sense. She says "thank you" to everything so at least she has that going for her. Benton is doing good too. He gathered some "twigs" out of the yard, straw from the broom, and bricks from the side of the house the other days and built the 3 little pig's house. I have attached the picture. He told me the reason he built a brick house was because our house was brick and it never got blown down. Then stuffed the twigs and straw inside the bricks to make it extra strong. Go head lil man...I added a pic of them from the pool also. Benton was tired and wanted to lay/lie (whichever) on the chair. Bailey was very concerned about him and went to lay/lie with him. She calls him Bent by the way and it is the sweetest thing.

The other pictures are from the beach trip back in July. They start with Bailey washing her feet off at the beach. Keep in mind she was carried everywhere, but because we were doing it she wanted to also. Then there is Benton who is like giving salute, blocking the sun, and pointing at a plane all at the same time. Bailey has that "I hope no one saw that" look on her face. I just happened to turn around at the right time to catch this one.

I have loved reading all of your blogs. Yall truly have amazing lives and I am so glad you all have been so blessed. I'll try not to take so long updating next time...love yall and have a good week!

Prayer Request

Hey everybody! I have a special prayer request. It isn't for me, but acutally for someone I don't know. My supervisor at work told me today about his best friend's 4 year old son whom they learned has a malignant brain tumor. Long story short is he had been complaining of not feeling well and had classic symptoms of meningitis. I had actually shared the story of Lindsey's friend with Corey (my supervisor) and it triggered him to mention meningitis. So they took their son to the ER and were sent home with no real diagnosis. For a couple of weeks the child didn't feel well so they just kept "treating" him. His hip and leg started hurting so they took him to see a pediatric orthopedist and the dr recommended a bone scan. It was hot (meaning there was activity in the hip and femur). The dr decided to biopsy his hip and when it came back negative for bacteria, he instantly told them either leukemia or cancer. Somehow they ended up doing a head scan, probably and MRI, and decided it was malignant and they had to act fast. So the child went to Blair E. Batson today and started treatment. So please add them to your prayer list! I can only imagine being those parent's shoes. Corey also said they were probably going to have to sedate the father...how sad! Love you all and kiss those babies extra tonight...

College at 30... am i out of my mind?

I start Belhaven on Wednesday and couldn't be more nervous. The funny thing is I wasn't going to read over the material they gave us until tomorrow night. I figured it was just a quick overview of what the class was about. WHATEVER!!! I had to read 2 bible verses and write my interpretation, read Belhaven's bible verse of the year and write a paragraph on how it applied to me, do 3 online modules that took about 2 hours total, read part 1 of this book and write a 2 page paper on it and then apply what I read in the book and edit my 2 page paper. They even want me to turn in the draft and the real paper. And to top it all off, they want me to voluntarily read the intro to the class and have any questions ready for the professor. So to say the least, next week I will be a little more on top of my game. There are only 18 people in my class and the instructor told us there would be a few people weeded out. Pray that I am not a weed!

Cereal?

Haaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy!!! Sure have missed posting, but life gets crazy at times. Just wanted to share a few stories about these crazy kids of mine. Hope this finds you all well!

The other night we were all sitting around watching the Olympics (enough leotards already). Benton and a friend were playing a game and his daddy called. I gave the phone to Benton and he asked his daddy if he could please call him back because he was playing "Honey Nut Cheerios". It took a second to process, but when it did I almost fell in the floor laughing. They were playing Hi-Ho Cherry-O. If you aren't in the floor right now...seek therapy fast!

The next funny story is about Aqua Globes. If you ever watch the infomercials, there is this globe that holds water and then a stem that extends off of it and it is used for watering your plants. So Benton recites infomercials and this is how it went: "They water your plant without you having to do it. And the best thing is they come in 4 great colors. They are red, green, blue and even MONKEY colored". He was actually at my mom's when the description was told...she called me immediatley and told me. I think I almost wrecked! So for those of you who haven't figured it out by now he said red, green, blue and even MULTI-COLORED!!! Hilarious, right?!

Then there is Bailey, who I am guessing is going to be a little like her mother. I have wanted her to be a little girl for so long and now she has finally done it. All of a sudden, my 21 month old wants to pick out her own clothes. So the other morning we were in her closet and she was saying "shoo-shoo". So I got the shoes she wanted and I tried to pick a dress accordingly. Oh, but no! She got to pick that also. Then right before we left her closet, she picked out a bow. So I decided to roll with it that day and let her be her own person! You can see the results above. A turquoise bow, purple flowered dress and pink and orange shoes. If that ain't hot I don't know what is!!!

"WHATEVER"

One of my favorite things to say is "whatever" and it can mean a bunch of different things. It really doens't matter who I am talking to. I try not to say it in front of Benton and Bailey, but since it is my nature it always comes out. So today when I picked Benton up from daycare he was in rare form. I know it is because he has been around all of those "really nice kids" at daycare all day and he is just in that mode. Anyway, when we got in the car he wanted something to drink and I didn't have anything to give him. I told him I was sorry and we would be home soon. He said under his breath "I sure am glad my brain didn't let me say whatever". I almost fell out! I guess at least he knew where it would have gotten him if he had said it. And with Bailey repeating everything everyone says, I am glad he didn't say it either. I am afraid they are going to be just like me...they won't turn out so bad after all :)

On a different note, my little Benton won't eat anything other than chicken nuggets (they have to be certain ones), pizza (it has to be a certain kind), PB-don't dare put any J and grilled cheese. Suprisingly there are no stipulations on the grilled cheese. But he did inform the other day I could also buy him carrots and apples. So I was thrilled of course and even called him from the grocery (he was at my mom's) to make sure I got the right kind of carrots. They are fermenting in the fridge as I type. So if any of you have any tips, tricks or voodoo you use on your little angels to get them to eat I would be most grateful to hear about them. He is 4 1/2 and probably only weighs 35 lbs. I may be giving him more credit than he deserves because I can only compare him to Bailey who will eat anything. And I know she weighs well in the 99th percentile. The girl will eat sushi, olives off a pizza, anything dipped in ketchup, etc. Help...I need high calorie decent foods for my boy!

Blog World

OK! I am a little upset with the blog world right now. I am very happy to be in it, but at the same time every time I try to save something it won't let me...anyone else having this problem?

The Blue Guitar

So tonight we came home from mom's house and Benton immediately comes out of his room to tell me there are ants on his rug. First of all, he doesn't have a rug in his room, he has carpet. Second of all, as my new husband/wife duty (since I am both now) I just sprayed the inside and outside of the house. When I go in his room to check out the situation, sure nuf there are ants just a grazing on a cheetoh from who knows when. So I get the spray, yes the same spray that didn't keep them OUT of the house, and go to town. They were dead in a matter of minutes. Makes me wonder how they ever made it into the house, but whatever. Mission accomplished! The thing that makes the ant story so funny is...Benton came to me with a proposed mission to kill them himself. All he needed was his blue guitar. Now the blue guitar is one Man gave him about 2 years ago. It is actually a fly swatter shaped like a guitar. When I tell you Benton thinks it can cure cancer I am not kidding. He said, "mama, if you will just give me the blue guitar I can take care of this". And the boy was as serious as a heart attack. Only after 5 minutes of wondering what in the world he meant did I fall out laughing. He meant the dang fly swatter!!! I had to explain that it wouldn't work and so he settled for the spray stuff instead. Needless to say, I will have 10 toenails digging in my back tonight so he won't have to be in his room with ants...lucky me!

I would like to address Allyson, Brandi, Becky, Lindsey and Tara. I am soooooooooo glad to be communicating with you again. I hope to add more people to my blog list and catch back up with you as well. This has been a true blessing especially with all I am going through. Getting your mind off of a divorce can be truly therapeutic. Please stay in touch and I want to hear from you and others as often as you're able to post! Love you all...

Allyson, the very cute LSU outfits are just for you sista! (obviously hers is the one I am showing off...Benton could care less as long as his shirt doesn't have a collar)

Music on my blog

You may never hear music on my blog. I have been messing with the Playlist website for well over an hour and you are still reading my blog in silence. I got all the way to the point where it says copy and paste this random address to your website or profile. WHAT IN THE WORLD DOES THAT MEAN? So at this point I have a playlist created, but it is out in WWW land waiting for me to figure out how to play the dang thing. Suggestions are welcome!

Enough about that...I was just sitting here doing my blog thing when Benton comes in the kitchen and says "mama, is it ok if I tidy my bed?" Uuummmmm..."sure baby" was all I could come up with because I didn't want to break his heart and tell him he was about to be sleeping in it (although I think he knew). Then he comes back and says "mama, since I just tidied my bed, and I really had to use my brain to do it, I think I will just sleep with you". It was hilarious! I wish that was all I had to use my brain for. How about yall?! For real doe!

I really do have funny stories to tell about Bailey, but she is at the point where only her people really know what she is saying. Her favorite things to say are "No Bent"(she says this no matter how sweet he is being), "juice back mama" (that basically means put that crap in the sippy cup back where you got it and give me the Diet Dr Pepper), "nack pease" (surely you can figure that one out and she doesn't like to wait on portions...the bag/box it comes in will do just fine) and her new favorite is "tee-tee". I just go with the flow on that one. Basically we got to the potty, she sits there the normal amount of time it would take an actual tee-teeing person to go, wipes and then says "off". I guess at least she is getting the concept. I can't wait for the day I don't have to buy diapers. Pull-ups I can handle for bed, but diapers are ridiculous. That is the industry we should all be in. Everyone has to have them and no one is insane enough to do the cloth ones.

Later Tators!

SanDestin with Man and G

My mom and stepdad took me and the kids to the beach with them a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to share the trip with you. First of all, I have never been on a vacation with my children. Sounds horrible I know, but Brad and I were always "scared" if you will. I must admit it was very tiring, but so worth it too. Mom and I spent most of the time with them while Mike was in meetings. And for the record, Mike is called Man because he would never come up with a name for himself. So mom and I jokingly called him Man and it has stuck. Mom is called G because I wanted her to be called Gran and Benton couldn't say it at first so G is who she became.

I must say riding with 2 small children in a car for 6 hours must automatically qualify for a high dosage prescription of some sort of sedative. You shouldn't even have to see a doctor to get it. Xanax, Valuim...we aren't picky. And we can do it for the adults or the children. You would think having a DVD player in the car would help, but WHATEVER! Thank goodness I get car sick easily and mom had to sit in the back with the kids. Sorry mom!!! She has way more patience than me. Between "mama are we there yet?" from Benton and Bailey bowing her back trying to eject herself from her carseat I almost went crazy...and I was riding shotgun. So when we finally arrived at the hotel we let them out and said run as far as you can and come back...we will try to keep an eye on you. Not really, but that was our feelings at the time.

We really had a good time and I highly recommend everyone going to Baytowne Wharf in SanDestin. You don't have to leave the village...ever. There are like 8 restaurants, shopping and late night entertainment. They have children's entertainment every night and plenty of drinks for the parents. :) Benton is very into playing the drums and guitar. One night there was a band that totally catered to the small children. They had tamborines and blow up guitars. Benton wanted to sign autographs I think. Anyway, I can't tell you how amazing it was to watch all of those children get so into what was going on. It was adult music with child entertainment.

We didn't do the beach except to take pictures one day. Benton couldn't stand the thought of the sand getting in his shoes (a little OCD like his mama although I love the beach) and Bailey hated the waves. So we just went over one morning for pictures and that was it. The rest of the time we were at the pool. The pool was great because it was one that gradually got deeper. Bailey being the fearless one would walk out and before we knew it was "drowning" because she thought she could just walk and walk without ever going under. Benton on the other hand would hardly go past his waist without adult supervision. He is sooooooo cautious. One of their favorite things to do is a cannonball. Benton would go first and then Bailey. Of course, as they are jumping in they have to yell "cannonball". But when Bailey jumps in she says "Mannonball". Mom and I have never laughed so hard.

For those of you that remember Adrienne Simmons or still keep in touch with her, I re-met her brother one night. We were talking and I asked him where he was from and when he said Dothan I instantly remembered his face. He works at one of the nice restaurants in the village. He said Adrienne is married with 3 children and if I remember correctly living in B'ham. It was so strange running into someone I actually "knew".

Anyway, enough rambling...I am adding some pics from the trip.

correction on my spelling

First, I would like to say that I had had a few beers last night when I started typing. Just one of those days...Second, I would like to say I am picky when it comes to spelling so when I proofread my blog from last night, I found 2 errors (and hopefully I am not missing any). The first one being I left out a word somewhere in the middle and the second one being my spelling of "VOILA". The way I spelled it was quite hilarious when I went back realized what I had done. So please don't hold it against me...:)

Also, I am adding a few more pics of the children. If any of you have any blogging tips, please pass them on. I would like to know how to form the list of people on the side of the page. Are they people you have as friends or does it automatically happen when they visit your page?

a long day

Today was long. I am trying to acquire jogging as my new hobby. I met this mother at the beach who runs 5 miles a day and she says it is her sanity. I can currently only run 1-1/2 miles without walking and 5 seems like the impossible. But the more and more I do it I totally see where she is coming from. Not only do you get to clear your mind and only concentrate on where your next breath will come from, but you also get to shed a few pounds. Of course unless you are like me and think, "well I ran a little bit today so I can have 200 extra calories"...WRONG!!! Anyway, I am going to stick to it for as long as I can. Some friends of mine want me to run a 5k next weekend and I really want to. I'll let you know how it goes. In the mean time, I be "training"...and clearing my mind.

About my angels: well Benton has a sore on his booty. And I am not talking where you can just look and there it is, I mean where the sun don't shine. So here I go inspecting it and WHAM!!! He kicks me right in the face because it is so tender. I ask him why he did it and he said because I touched "it". He told me from now on if I wanted to look at it he would spread his cheeks and there would be no touching. Basically it looks like a big pimple. So Brad takes him to the MD and he says it could be from bed mites. Like I am so sure I any form of "mite" in my house. I am the most OCD person I know and I don't do mites. Next option please! Anyway, I managed to get him to soak in warm water and it did it's own thing. He told me I could put the meds on it as long as I didn't touch it. I didn't even go there and ask him how that was supposed to happen so my mom just did it real fast and OUILA!

My other little angel Bailey, and I do mean sent from above, threw the biggest tantrum you have ever seen over a dub-a-dub. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a popsicle. I can only figure she calls it that because each word has 3 syllables. So when she didn't eat her dinner and asked for a dub-a-dub and got told "NO", it was on. She cried for 15 minutes. All with no tears of course and me and mom let her do it while we sat outside and listened to the whole thing go down. She stood and screamed at the freezer for a while and then started walking back and forth from the freezer to the back door hoping we would give in. We ignored her enough that she sort of quit and I decided to talk to her about what was going and then give her the popsicle. It was like a totally different person. I hated to give in, but I am hoping she learned the lesson-whatever it was!!! I hope you all give in too...

1st Time Blogger-Site Still Under Construction

Hello everyone! It's Brandy (Simpson) Donahue...I have never done this before, mainly because I never have time and don't know how I found it tonight, but after reading all your blogs I feel like I have to keep coming back. It's like you are my little, individual soap operas...AND I LOVE IT! Hopefully you'll find my life as interesting as I have found yours. I guess the most amazing thing is that we all experience the same things while thinking we are the only ones that actually experience them. Know what I mean?! Anyways-I guess I'll get to the long story short version of what's been going on with me. That way we can all be caught up and focus on the present. So here it goes:

When I left Dothan, I moved to Jackson, MS. After I graduated high school, I went to college and became an X-ray Tech. I am currently doing CT scans at St Dominic Hospital. Far cry from becoming a cardiologist or lawyer, but doesn't everybody want to be a doctor or lawyer when they're growing up?! So I started working and after a year I met this wonderful guy named Brad Donahue...we actually met on a cruise, crazy I know! We got married and had Benton Tyler who is now 4 1/2. Then we moved to Monroe LA for 2 years and had Bailey Katherine who is now 20 months. We just moved back to Jackson in June of 2007. Brad is a drug rep so moving 3 times in 5 years was quite an experience.

Back in February, Brad asked me for a divorce. It is the most devastating news any woman can get. I often tell my mom it would have been easier to deal with if someone had called and told me he had died. Sounds strangely morbid, but you have know idea the hurt I felt. Anyway, 6 months have gone (not flown) by and I am much better. Thank goodness Benton and Bailey are so young and don't know all of what is going on. And I don't know what I would have done without my mom and stepdad. My mom is truely a supermom...she handled me and my children through this like it was nothing...and trust me, I was a basketcase!

So that is about as short as I can make it to bring you to the present. We are waiting on the house to sell and the divorce to become final. In the mean time, I am trying to find a house I can afford that is still in Madison (north Jackson) because the school system is awesome. Everything is pricey in Madison so I may have to move to a neighboring town. Jackson has lots of "suburbs" for those of you that don't know. You don't really know when you leave one and enter another. But some of my prayers that I wasn't sure God was listening to have been answered, so who knows what He has in store for us.

I am putting some pics of my angels on here and if I can find one that I look semi-slim in I'll post it too. Let me know what you think of the blog and if you guys have any blogging tips I am all ears. Can't wait to get started...