Pens

This is a picture of all the pens I have on my desk at the moment. Really? Do I need all these? I could lie and say no, but the truth is: Hi, My name is Brandi and I have an office supply/pen problem. Is there a 12 step program for that? If there is keep it to yourself I like my crazy! Who doesn't love pens? I get excited when I get a new batch of pens. I have to test them out immediately to see if they are going to join the others on my desk, in my purse, in my bag I carry everywhere along with my purse, etc... There is just something about a brand spankin' new pen that gets the blood flowing. For me this kind of goes for any office supplies as well. I love little note pads, cutesy paper clips, baskets to put it all in. All the better to make list with :-) And have I mentioned how much I LOVE lists. Oh the feeling of such satisfaction when I get to use my handy dandy pens and scratched an item off the ol' list. I must kill a lot of trees because I can never scratch everything off the list before making a new one. I guess I don't like messy lists. I know you're thinking I'm crazy, but really who cares. I got my crazy, you got yours. The other difference is you're still in denial over yours. I've accepted mine in all it's crazy glory!

The McSpadden's

When I was adding our pic and labeled it "The Mc's" it brought back a funny memory. Bayli was probably in Kindergarten or First Grade and we were eating at a restaurant in Pikeville and Bayli of course was talking to people at other tables. Don't know where she gets her talkativeness from? The lady at one table asked her what her name was and Bayli replied "Bayli of THE McSPADDEN's". Like we were important royalty or something. That lady found it very hilarious.

Cecil

Meet Cecil, soon to be the next member of the McSpadden family. Yep we named before we have even seen him in person. That's just the way we roll and when a name is perfect it's perfect. He is half English Bulldog half Bassett Hound. We can not wait to get a hold of him! Wonder if he will be super lazy? For all of ya'll that don't know me I am a total animal lover. I don't care what kind of animal so if it's close to the house I start running with food and trying to make it a pet. So for someone like me to have to wait on actually bringing my puppy home it is MURDER!! Thinking about our new puppy gets me thinking about my past dogs. There were many: Starsky & Hutch, Bogie & Bacall, Spot (everybody had a dog at one time name Spot), Carmel (yes this is how we spelled it), Hootie, Dog, Sugar, Spizwink.... and on and on... Carmel loved to chew gum and Sugar bless her heart had the most patience I believe. You see when I was little I was attacked by a dog. It pawed my face all up and slit my eyelid all the way across so that it had to be glued back together. Thank God for glue because it would be super weird to see everything and not even have to actually open your eye. Mom and Dad thought that I would be scared of dogs after this, but they were wrong. We got home from the ER and I went to play. Mom started hearing this gagging type sound and went to find me. I tended to need a lot of supervision. Still do :) She found me with our dog Sugar (not the one who attacked me, that was our dog Dog) who was the sweetest beagle ever. I was trying to teach her to drink out of a straw. I thought I was doing pretty good until mom made me quit.

Cupcake

At Church we were going to have trunk or treat for the kids. Last year was the first year and we loved it. We also give first and second prizes for the best decorated trunk and first and second prizes to the best costume. But to make it fair Mrs. Connie only allows the trick or treaters and their parents to vote. I was very surprised when I won first place in the costume contest. I was having a hard time this year trying to decide what to be and then I ate my favorite food, cupcakes, and realized what I wanted to be! That's right I was a cupcake. I'm not very arts and crafty, but with Lealan's help we made a great costume. One little girl said as I was handing her candy "I could eat you up!" I also decorated my trunk with cupcakes on cake plates. I'm already trying to think of next years costume because I want to be the one to beat every year :-)

Let them eat cake!

Bayli and Lealan's birthdays were August 28. Yes, they share a birthday which means 2 birthday cakes. Lealan usualy wants a german chocolate cake, but this year he wanted yellow with buttercream. No problem, however, Bayli wants a multi layered cake with fondant. I have never done anything with fondant. So about 2 weeks before this I bake a cake and practice. It turned out alright so I thought I could tackle the 4, yes I said 4 layer cake she wanted. I spent the Friday before the birthdays baking and decorating. This time with fondant was a little trickier than the first time, but it came out okay. I think I managed to hide the worst areas. It may not have looked the best, but it tasted great and Bayli loooovvvved it! Her loving it was worth all the time it took.

Orientation

Tuesday we had Bayli's 7th grade orientation for 3 hours. As if I wasn't depressed enough realizing that my baby was going to be in the 7th grade, but I also had to sit through 3 hours of several different people reminding me that she is growing up. I swear she was just in Kindergarten last week! We got her class schedules, met all her teachers, and realized how much money we would be putting out from now until school starts. All the school supplies, clothes, shoes, workbooks, planners, trips... And then when school starts it will be more each week for this and for that. It never ends. Well enough of my complaining. I have actually considered taking a math class at Chattanooga State just to be able to help her with her homework. She got put in honors math so (fingers crossed) she won't need help?! I mean she's in honors math, doesn't that mean she should be able to do it all by herself? Mr. Gravitt, the math teacher, said they would also be working in the 9th grade math book. Well, what's she going to do in 9th grade, NASA math? We went to school and actually had gym every day and some free time and recess and now they don't have any free minutes at all and come home with lots of homework.

Bragging

Bayli had her 4th watercolor painting lesson yesterday and I just have to brag. She is doing AMAZING!!! She didn't get her talent from me because I can't draw a straight line with a ruler. Marshall, my brother, can draw and paint very well, but he doesn't anymore and that drives me crazy. If I had that kind of talent I would be using it to the extreme. This sand dune/ocean painting is the one she did yesterday and I love it! We are going to frame it and hang it in her room. She is enjoying her lessons so much and Sam Reilly is a wonderful artist and teacher.

Shrek Spoon

When I got the wooden spoon it reminded all of us of the spoon Shrek eats with. Since my husband is quite a bit bigger than I am I sometimes lovingly refer to him as the Jolly Green Giant, Grape Ape, Ogre, etc. etc. He recently switched job duties and is now doing more physical work than before. He came by where I work one morning and said he had bought a bag of frosted flakes and a gallon of milk and was considering going home and just pouring the milk in the bag of cereal because he was so hungry. I then being very considerate of his hungry state asked him if he was going to eat it with his Shrek spoon. He didn't find it as funny as I did and since then I picture him eating with the spoon every time I see it or him eating and usually make some mention of it as well. Today he sends me this pic of him holding the said spoon over a large mixing bowl. It made my day! :)

The Liquid Chainsaw

Wednesday May 12th I got to go watch the top 12 winners in the 6th grade science experiments present their projects. Bayli was one of the top 12 with her "the Liquid Chainsaw" project. She studied the effects of Coke, Diet Coke, Lemonade, Milk, Tea, and Coffee on human teeth and cow teeth.. She did an excellent job if I say so! Lemonade ate the enamel off the tooth, it just wiped it clean. OWWW. Seeing the results of her project makes you think twice about drinking anything. I was such a proud mommy when all the votes were in and she won 2nd place overall!!!! She was so excited! She had been saving the cow skull she got the teeth from for a year just waiting on this project. Way to go my little anthropologist/egyptologist in the making!

Scope test

Bayli had to have a scope done on April 21. They are checking to see if she really does have acid reflux or if her problems are just side effects of all her meds. It was her first time being put to sleep, which makes mom a little nervous, but we made it through it just fine. TC Thompsons is a great childrens hospital and the staff is wonderful. The happy juice before the iv and surgery made her all melty into the bed and giggly. They attached what is called a BRAVO (don't know what it stands for if anything) to the bottom of her esophagus and took some biopsies. She had a monitor to wear for 48 hours that the BRAVO transmitted data to wirelessly during that time. How cool is that! And the BRAVO thing will just let go and pass on through :) I think she helped it on down when she swallowed a whole piece of candy Friday evening! She had an allergic reaction to the glue on the heart monitor pads that meant a little extra time in recovery and a few days for her spots to go away. She was funny! She was trying to talk, but you could not understand anything she was saying, but water. She had no idea what she was doing and had yet to open her eyes, but the third time she asked for water and hadn't received it yet she growled "GET ME A GLASS OF WATER NOW!" I actually think her head spun around. I busted out laughing and mom nearly peed her pants. Once we got her a drink of water the growly monster slept for like 2 hours.

Food Taste Tester

Wednesday we were coming home and Bayli was discussing becoming a forensic anthropologist. She said she could be a nutritional anthropologist, but she really didn't want to study that much about food, however she would like to be a food taste tester. I replied "Bayli I don't think there is much call for a lactose intolerant taste tester with reflux." She kind of harumphed and said "Well, I could taste test allergy free foods!" I hadn't actually thought about that, but she's got a point.

Be specific

On Sunday trying to get ready for church Bayli was dragging her feet and it was driving me crazy. She kept going and reading a book instead of finishing whatever it was she was supposed to be doing. I finally had enough and told her that if I caught her reading that book one more time I would throw it in the trash. I go on to finish getting ready and come back in the living room a little bit later and what do I see but her reading a book. I say "what did I tell you I was going to do?" She said "that was this book (points to one laying on the couch) not this one (points to one in her hand)." This must be the "getting off on a technicality" they talk about at trials. Next time I will say "a book" not "that book" to cover any book she may be holding at that time. Smart aleck kid! I really don't know where she gets it from.

Can you hear me now?

I went to Verizon Saturday and two hundred and seventy odd dollars later walked out with a network extender. We have to drive about a mile either direction from our house before we get any kind of cell service. That has always been very annoying as everybody we call is long distance and if we were able to use our cells it would all be free with mobile to mobile. Well I took that puppy home and hooked it up with a call to tech support and voila, yes you can hear me now. Tech support probably thinks I'm crazy as I practically squealed with delight when I saw actual bars on my phone and not the words "no service". It really has already been wonderful calling people on the cell and not racking up long distance charges!!!!

Praise the Lord!!

Our church and a couple others hosted a Wildgame dinner for men on Saturday. We had it in a tiny elementary school and we sold about 600 tickets, but the Lord provided more than enough food and plenty of space and time to feed everybody. We saw 23 men and children saved!!!!! The speaker was Bob Reccord. He is a wonderful speaker. The dinner and exhibits were a success and we are making plans for the 2nd annual Wildgame dinner next year. Keep praying that it is an even bigger success than this year!

Reflux

Bayli had her asthma/sinus/allergy/reflux checkup yesterday. Her lung function wasn't too bad, but the left side of her nose had a sore spot in it with some blood (sorry for the grapic picture) and the right side was nearly swelled shut. I so feel for what she suffers through with sinus problems. I don't know how at 11 she deals as well with what she goes through. She has been having reflux trouble too and she already takes 40mg of Zegerid at night, which is a pretty good dose of medicine and they are now adding Zantac 150 in the mornings for several weeks to see if this will help. They said sometime some people need a little extra help. How exactly do you get extra help to pay for yet another med? They also told us to start really watching her diet for the reflux more than we already do. We go easy on spicy, fruit juice, fatty, greasy etc. At least she is a water drinker and only occasionally drinks a soda and then never anything that contains caffeiene. Now we have to add more fiber and protein to her diet to which my husband said "what, is she an old lady?" and reduce the starchy foods and watch for hidden sugars (and avoid those). These people already know that she is lactose intolerant so who's going to help me at the grocery store read labels for yet another issue? All that's going to be left to eat are carrots and water and then what am I supposed to do watch her turn orange for entertainment? No really I should be thankful and I am thankful that none of her problems are life threatening. We will just have to suck this up and all learn to eat differently again. Things could be worse. I would just like to be able to once watch her go to a birthday party and actually eat the cake and ice cream they have without worrying if the lactose pills are going to be enough or is she going to get sick, or can she even use the pills because she used them one or twice this week (she can't use them all the time like most people can) or carting our own cake around everywhere. I guess she deals better than me because she doens't know any different. She's been doing this since birth and I know what she is missing because I can eat it.

Tallness

Back to the whole tall/short thing. Bayli has inherited my wonderful sarcasticness. When she calls me short I reply "I am still taller than you" to which she replies "At least I'm not done growing!" What's up with that? No respect, no respect at all!

Birthday!!

That's right folks Brandi is now another year wiser. See doesn't that sound better than another year older. I have turned the big 32 and it feels just like yesterday when I was 31. It also makes me feel good to know that I am 32, but my wii age is 31! Now if I can just keep it that way. Bayli woke up first thing this morning singing "Go shorty, it's your birthday. Go shorty, it's your birthday". She found it hilarious seeing as how she thinks I'm short. I'm not. I'm 5'2" and as long as there are people shorter than me I will always be of medium height. That is my story and I am sticking to it! People also call me skinny, but I just tell them I'm not skinny I'm too tall. So I guess that works the other way too if your overweight just people you're not overweight your just too short for your body size. This is probably the reason my husband can't follow a conversation with me as I go randomly from one topic to another, but it all made sense to me. Maybe he just can't keep up with my keen mind. Anywho back to the whole birthday thing. I have to take Bayli to the Asthma Doc tomorrow, which happens to just be on the same road as Gigi's cupcakes and seeing as how I LOVE cupcakes I think I will treat myself to one tomorrow. I was talking about it a lot this morning with my husband and he said "Do you plan on buying Bayli one too?" I was like yeah, sure I guess I could. It would probably be bad momminess of me to eat it in front of her with other people around. Probably better to do things like that at home where no one else sees it, right? I have a cupcake weakness and I have ate the last one at home in front of her before and I didn't even really feel bad for it. Does that make me a bad mommy?

Bayli wins a bet

Last Monday the 15th Bayli was out of school for President's Day and I had to work so she stayed home with Lealan. They had to bring me to work that day because our roads were horribly iced over. Well when they came to pick me up Bay came in first and told me she was going to go buy a Sprite with the dollar she won from dad. I said how did you win it? She said they were watching Pawn Stars and there was a question on there that they were going to answer after the commercial break and her dad told her whoever got the question wrong owed the winner a dollar. Gotta start em young learning to gamble :) Well she answered correctly and he didn't so he had to cough up a dollar. I told her next time go for more than a dollar. He said on the way down the mountain to get me she said she was going to buy a sprite with her dollar and he said can't you think of something better to spend it on than a sprite? She said that sprite was going to taste so good because she was buying it with his dollar. That's my girl!

Fortune cookie

We went to eat at my favorite restaurant Sunday after church, Ichiban, YUMMMM! What's better than sushi and fried rice! Well you always get a fortune cookie at the end of your meal and I actually kept my fortune this time and I happened to find it this morning. I have never seen a fortune like this before. Usually they are all happy go lucky or have a real deep meaning to them, but mine was about aliens. Huh, what? That's right I said aliens. My fortune was "An alien of some sort will be appearing to you shortly!" A what will be appearing? What happened to "you will run into unexpected wealth" or "see and old friend and receive a blessing". My family thought it was hilarious and joked that I would have to ride home alone as they did not want to be abducted or probed. I said it might not be a green alien and they were like whaaaat? I said it says an alien of some sort so does that mean a UFO alien or an illegal alien. Will I be beamed up or have to swim across the border against my will. Will I be abducted into a UFO or a Hyundai with 22 other "aliens"? And why does it not tell me what is going to happen once it appears, I mean this is not a time for surprises. Well I've made it to Thursday and no alien yet, maybe I'm safe. If you don't hear from me in a few days you might want to send the X Files investigators out to find me!

Wii Fit

Who knew you could have so much fun working out. At the beginning it tells you your wii fit age and bmi and all that yucky stuff. I was real worried that my age would be like 65, but I got lucky and it said my age was 32, which is okay because I will be 32 next week. I went into first place on a lot of them because I was the first to play, but my daughter soon came behind me and took me out. I wasn't happy. I like to be in the number 1 position and I am having a hard time getting that coveted spot back in the ski jump. I don't know how she achieved the number she got in it. I may never beat her in it, but I do hold the #1 position in the hula hooping!!!! WootWoot! You start out real good in that and then you start getting tired and you look like you are having some kind of fit. We laughed so hard at each other we were crying. In the super hula hoop you have to hoop so long moving your hips to the right and then to the left, well Lealan was doing the right ones and it finished and he kind of fell over to the couch and we are yelling get back on you have to do the other side and he is holding his heart telling us he can't because he is sure he is having a heartattack. He managed to scrape himself back up and finish and then at the end it told him how many calories he had burned, which it wasn't many, and he was like I did all that and didn't even burn off the Dr. Pepper I just drank?! I am going to have to try to capture his sweet hula hoop moves on video.

Mommy ESP

About 2 Sundays ago me and Lealan ate lunch when we got home from church and Bayli didn't want to eat then. Me and him were piled up on the couch watching football and Bayli was back in her room watching tv. She walked down the hallway and picked up her purse off the end of the couch and I looked at her and said "You aren't eating any candy until you eat lunch". She made a face and threw her purse back down on the couch and Lealan said "How in the world did you know that's what she was doing?" I said it was my mommy powers! We moms just have a gift.