A New Me (Sort of)

Guess what?! I cut my hair off!!! I went in last week for a "trim" and just mentioned that the front was getting a bit heavy so my hair lady says, "Oh, let's texturize it." "Um. Okay.", I say as large chunks of hair start falling on the floor. This is the shortest that I've ever had my hair! She styled it too and Andrew's response was, "You look funny. It's puffy." Not a good confidence builder there. I get home and my dear loving husband's response was, "Well, it doesn't look too 80's." Humft.

It has taken me awhile to figure out what to do with it and whether or not I even like it but I think that I do. I have heard from more than one person that it is "sassy" (whatever that is suppose to mean). But I do like it now. For those of you who know me, I've got this great fear of being one of those women who get stuck with the same hairstyle that they had in high school. That's not me now! I feel so stylish. If I can ever get someone to take a picture of me, I'll let you see it.

Ok. Not liking this new "have to change" blogger thing. Why can't everyone just leave things alone!

Oh where, oh where, has my little frog gone?

What is this world coming to?!? I came home on Friday to find out that someone had taken my frog/mirror globe from my front porch. I loved my frog! He would make me smile every time I came home. Blake's feeling is "who would want it" but for those of you who have seen it, you know. He makes people smile. And I've never seen another one like him (especially one that was clearanced for $3.00) Maybe he'll still come home. I know he misses me. (P.S. My frog was soooo much cuter than this one!)

Helllloooooooo!

So, has everyone given up on me yet? We are still alive and kicking down here. Between work and cheer and scouts and basketball and LTC and homework and Bible Quiz and more work, life has been very busy! You can usually find us home on Thursday nights between 6:15 and 6:20 if anyone wants to call. (So don't tell, but I'm blogging at work right now....I promise I'll work extra hard this afternoon). Then to top everything off, the kids got sick last weekend and are just now getting back into the swing of things. Turns out they had the flu. Good thing we all got those flu shots. At least Blake and I didn't get it so we could just take care of the kids. I don't know about anywhere else, but they are closing schools down here since so many kids are out sick. We had some classes at almost half out. Okay, blogging at work is not WORKING! I keep getting interrupted and this is taking way too long so I guess I'll have to try again later. Imagine...people thinking I should work at work.

Christmas Break

18 days of no school and no work. What is a girl to do?!?! Today I went to Sharla's and watched her kids while she had another proceedure. They were home by 12 which was a good thing since I had just started going through the cabinets in search of food for the kids. Aunt Michelle was having a brain freeze on what to feed an 18 month-old.

Sunday afternoon our family decided to fight the crowds and go to Toys R Us, just for the fun of it. Shelves were empty and aisles were full. We didn't buy a thing so it wasn't too bad since we didn't have to stand in line. Well, right next door to Toys R Us is a pet store. We decided to go in and let the kids look around since I needed gerbil food anyway. Who knew that it was pet adoption day? So guess what? I got a Christmas present! Isn't he cute. He is an older persian cat who was rescued and up for adoption. They were calling him Harvey but I don't think he looks like a Harvey. So for now, he is just kitty. Kitty is of the less active variety (which is what we wanted) and is very loving. I don't know if it is the breed but he doesn't meow. He kinda snorts instead. Very cute but he really needs a name if anyone has any ideas.

Want to see what you have been missing? This was taken on Saturday by one of her friends from church who had a camera phone. I told her I was going to post it and she said that was okay. Of course that may have been the morphine talking. Hopefully she will be home tomorrow. Then mom's work will really begin.

This song gets stuck in my head ALL THE TIME and has been running between my ears for the last 30 minutes. I absolutely love the words but I'd really like to hum something else now. Maybe posting it would help.


Listen to Our Hearts

How do you explain, how do you describe
A love that goes from east to west, and runs as deep as it is wide.
You know all our hopes, Lord, You know all our fears.
And words cannot express the love we feel but we long for You to hear.

Chorus:
So listen to our hearts, (O, Lord please listen)
hear our spirits sing (and hear us sing)
A song of praise that flows (a simple song of praise)
from those You have redeemed. (from those You have redeemed)
We will use the words we know to tell
You what an awesome God You are.
But words are not enough to tell You of our love,
so listen to our hearts.

If words could fall like rain from these lips of mine,
And if I had a thousand years, Lord, I would still run out of time.
If You listen to my heart, ev'ry beat will say:
"Thank You for the Life, Thank You for the Truth, Thank You for the Way."


Words and Music: Geoff Moore & Steven Curtis Chapman
©Peach Hill Songs

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Cooking, cooking, and more cooking. But I love it.

Said in the car driving back from Alyssa's volleyball game tonight.....

Alyssa: I'm trying to remember the motto for our team.

Andrew: Is it "peanut"?

Don't ask me how the mind of a 5 year old works. But we had a good laugh about it.

We are officially a "sports family" after this weekend. Andrew still is doing soccer every Saturday for the next few weeks. We are still working on teaching him to kick the ball down the field instead of just dribbling so close to his feet that it looks alot like dragging the ball. He informed me that if he kicks it too hard, the other team might get it. So instead they just keep kicking at his shins until they can get it away from him. Our team is getting alot better though. Still alot of fun to watch. We will sign him up for basketball next month. Now that will be interesting.

Alyssa had her first volleyball match on Friday night. They do a practice during the hour before the game, rotating between different coaches. She was a little lost at first and held on to her friend from school but by the time the game rolled around, she felt alot more comfortable. When it was game time, we still hadn't met everyone who was suppose to be on our team or even the coach. So the parents kinda figured out who was suppose to be there and then we waited, and waited, and waited for the coach to start. Problem: no coach. Come to find out he just never showed up and no one had a number to get ahold of him. Poor girls. Most had never played organized volleyball before and so they weren't sure what to do. So lucky Blake stepped up and ending up coaching for both games. Of course what he knows about the game could fit into a thimble but he did a good job anyway. I think the girls actually enjoyed it. Once a coach, always a coach apparently. He may end up doing it for the entire season. Of course now Andrew is wanting daddy to coach one of his teams.

Plus

Equals

It's good to be home

Our trip in five simple pictures.

Quick picture post since this has been a very hectic week and next week doesn't look much better. (even though I am looking forward to leaving town on Friday!) I get to post pictures of my children with butterflies too. We had a great visit with mom and dad. Hopefully next time they can stay longer....how does two weeks sound??






The one of Andrew is from the Bubble Festival in Kindergarten. In case you can't tell, he is standing inside a giant bubble.





















Outdoor soccer season has started so we will be sitting out in the sun for the next few weeks cheering on a bunch of sweaty boys. My camera was too slow taking the picture of Andrew getting to throw the ball in bounds but I liked the color of the picture anyway.

Blah

Okay, which is worse.... to be sick and have to miss a day of work or to be sick and have to miss a holiday?!? I managed to pick up some sort of stomach bug yesterday and have spent all day lying on the couch. All my great plans for today went right down the tubes. No yearly "girls day" with Alyssa, no errands run, no house dusted, no dinner with Sharla. Blah. But at least I'm feeling better now. Just in time to go to work tomorrow. Something is definitely wrong with this picture. On a brighter note: it did rain ALL day (starting at about 6 this morning...and yes, I was up then).

Well, it's the third week of school and I'm just now beginning to feel ready to start the year. My work computer is still acting up but my "to do" pile is no longer touching the ceiling. I even feel like I have a handle on the accounting part of After School Care. (For those of you who don't know, accounting was the only course in school that drove me insane. To survive the two semesters of classes, all I had to do was take what I thought was the correct way to do the problems and do the exact opposite. Can you say right-brained??) Of course Friday I was told that due to other factors like outrageous electric bills, they are cutting my budget. Like I'm not stressed enough about this. I had it where the program was breaking even and even bringing in a couple hundred extra dollars a month so it should be fine but it was nice to have a big cushion if I needed it. I liked being under budget with a surplus.

On the home front: still no kitty. We finally put away his food dish. It was pretty sad just sitting there in the kitchen for three weeks, empty and unused. Now Blake has been talking about getting a dog. Just a small one. I'm not ready for that yet. Dogs require a lot more work than a cat. I'm still on the lookout for free kittens. I really want an orange one. Though it is nice not to have to take care of any animals right now. (Gerbils don't count. They just play in their cage all day and chew on stuff.)

All right, I'm having trouble making a coherent sentence. I think it's time for bed. I'll say a quick prayer of thanks for the rain today and say goodnight.

Hey, guess what....we survived the first three days of school! The two weeks before, we had to go up to the school everyday ALL DAY. And I still wasn't ready. Oh well. I figure for the first few days, as long as every child arrives and leaves safe, it is considered a good day. My computer at work is messing up so that is throwing everything behind.

I did have a hard time that first day since my baby is going to Kindergarten and my other baby is no way old enough to be in 4th grade. I can't image how hard it would have been if they had been at a different school. Both kids seem to like it so far. Ally has fit right in and the teachers are commenting that it's like she has been there since Kindergarten. Andrew was a bit quiet after the first day. Wouldn't tell me much of what they did but he made up for it yesterday. I now know EVERYTHING that his class said and did all day. It was great!

The new part of my job is going okay. I have After School Care totally staffed with very reliable people who I think will do a great job. I am just trying to keep them happy and not too overwhelmed. So....I have been staying at work until 6:00 to make sure they and the kids are comfortable with the routine. I did get to leave today at 5:00. Yeah! I figure by next week all will be set and we can get home at a decent hour. Not that my kids will want to. They like playing with their friends up there.

Sad news on the home front. Max has run away. He has been gone for almost a week now. I don't think he's coming back. Blake had gotten up to get ready for work and found the gerbil cage knocked over and the door open. No gerbils. We couldn't find them anywhere! And I looked everywhere I could think of. Threw the cat in the bathroom while we looked and I finally figured out they may have squeezed under the entertainment center. Sure enough, we found them. Andrew's black one was fine but Max got ahold of the other one (the fat slow one). He didn't look very good. His eye was bloody and closed, his back was bloody and he wasn't using one of his front paws. I was so upset with the cat that I threw him outside before I wrung his little neck. So now I feel bad that he hasn't come back. My kitty ran away because I was mad at him. I hope he's okay. Maybe he'll still come home. On a positive note, the gerbil seems to be almost back to his old self. After a few days of laying in the corner of the cage shivering and sleeping, he is back to running all over the cage....just not with the use of one front paw.

Needless to say, it has been a stressful couple weeks at out house. Hopefully now that school is back in session, we will settle nicely into a routine.

Our computer seems to be okay now but we are still a bit leary of it. Every once in a while it decides not to turn on but we think it has to do with the keyboard. It just likes a different one sometimes. So we have three keyboards that we can just change out. Dumb computer. Ooops, I didn't mean that. Please don't shut down on me and erase my pictures!

Glad to be back in blog land. Hopefully I won't be gone so long next time.

What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it's all about??

There was a great loss recently in the entertainment world. Larry LaPrise, the Detroit native who wrote the song "Hokey Pokey," died last week at 83. It was especially difficult for the family to keep him in the casket. They'd put his left leg in and... well, you know the rest.

I have been a little out of touch for the last few days. Our computer crashed and erased everything on it...including all my favorites (like every blog I read and now have no idea where they are), like all my photos for the last three months that I hadn't put on CD yet, like work stuff, like Blake's work stuff, like EVERYTHING! It has not been a fun last few days at the Brannon household. Neither one of us is a computer guru so it's been alot of "blind leading the blind" to figure out how to get the computer back up and running. So I'm back.....kinda. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to reload all of our programs. Any volunteers to help me?

Here are some exciting photos from today's match-up between the much feared Grasshoppers and our own Ninjas! Today was our third game and Andrew is MUCH better. The first game was spent running "willy-nilly" around the field and away from the ball. Today he actually scored!