Brittany

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I see trees of green, red roses too…

September 3, 2010 in Brittany, Darby, Jacob, Jarvis, Justice, Paige, Random by Petra | 6 comments

Another random list… cause that’s how I roll…

  • Justice has a job!  He is helping with the filming of the local high school football games.  This was his 2nd week, and he loves it!
  • Speaking of Justice, he’ll be 15 in 5 days. Crazy town!
  • I finally caught up with my bcf, the Kendster! We chatted for 2 1/2 hours the other day and could have gone on for another 12!  That’s what happens when we only talk once every six months.  We really need to chat more often, but between my 6 kids and her 10 kids – finding time to chat on the phone is challenging. :)
  • I need help. I Timothy 2:15 says “Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.” (NKJV) and I can’t figure out what it means. I’ve read three commentaries, and they all said different things, and they were all pure conjecture. I’ve worn out my concordance.  I have a couple of ideas of what it might mean, but I’m not satisfied yet.  So please, if you have insight to offer, please do. I need to move on. lol (I won’t share what I think it might mean with you yet, so it doesn’t cloud your opinions on the verse.)
  • We are on day 2 of a 10 day field exercise wherein the hubster can’t even call.  *sad face*
  • I forgot to get laundry detergent the last two times I went to the store, and now I’m completely out.  I’ve been out for two days. Which means I have an ever-growing pile of laundry.  Must go to the store tomorrow!  (I don’t think I’ve ever actually run out before – it’s so unlike me.)
  • Paige’s eye teeth need to just hurry up and cut through the gums.  She was sleeping so well, but the last couple of nights she’s been up fussing.  She usually gets a runny nose and a fever when she’s teething, but this time she has diarrhea which means diaper rash (which we are keeping under control, but still – it’s no fun)… and this has gone on for nearly two weeks.  I just don’t function properly on interrupted sleep!  Here’s hoping she sleeps all night tonight!!  I gave her Tylenol before bed, but she usually wakes up around the time it wears off, and even if I give her more, she is up for a while – last night? from 1 am to after 3 am… *sigh* (eta 9/4/10: Paige slept from 7:30 last night until 9:20 this morning!! Hallelujah!!) :)
  • Paige has been talking more – it’s SO cute. I LOVE this age. (aside from the teething – ha!) She’s so playful and giggles when we tickle her or chase her. She gives the sweetest little hugs and kisses (and I can’t get enough of those).  Now she says “eat” as she does the sign for it.  She’s walking a little bit.  She’s still nervous about it though. 
  • Jarvis is loving his soccer team – games start pretty soon.
  • Jacob went on his first “friend” outing without any of us.  He is friends with our pastor’s son, and they brought Jacob with them to the children’s museum in Raleigh on Wednesday.  He left at 8:00 am and came home in the early afternoon. He had a BLAST and has been talking about it ever since.  :)
  • Brittany has been researching colleges and has a list pretty narrowed down.  She wants to major in Anthropology (and possibly minor or double major in Art or Linguistics).  She’s all signed up to take her SAT’s in October, and I need to get her signed up for the ACT’s.  All the fun ‘senior’ stuff. :)
  • Darby doesn’t really have much going on lately – just being busy being 9.  I’d like to get her in a gymnastics class or something of the sort so she has an extracurricular activity.  I missed the fall sign-ups (no funding was available – lol), but the winter classes start in November, so hopefully she’ll be able to do those.
  • I think I’m going to start doing crossfit again.  I want to get in shape and walking and yoga are great, but I want results FAST!  I’ll let you know how it goes. 

That’s all I got for now…

Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song, and I’ll try not to sing out of key…

August 28, 2010 in Brittany, Photography by Petra | 5 comments

I took Britta and our friend, Allie, downtown (which seems like a big word for our tiny town) for a senior photo shoot. We had a blast, and even though I’m certainly nowhere close to being a pro, I think we ended up with some fun shots.  Here are a few of my faves…

the other day, I saw a bear, a great big bear, a way out there…

August 25, 2010 in Breastfeeding, Brittany, Darby, Homeschooling, Jacob, Jarvis, Justice, Lists, Paige, Random by Petra | 6 comments

Lists are our friends.

  1. Andy’s parents and sister came for a visit this week, and we had a blast. I definitely hit the jackpot when it comes to in-laws. And I’m not just saying that because they read my blog. I really, truly mean it. Love them!

    It was more difficult than it should have been to take this photo - lol.

    I had to use the flash to get a semi-decent shot. Ideally, I'd have taken this photo during daylight when everyone was all fixed up (note the freshly bathed, pajama'd three in front), but alas, I forgot to even touch my camera during their whole visit until the last possible second).

  2. Darby got baptized on Sunday morning (and Andy’s family was here to see – so cool)!  So proud of her that she genuinely wants to follow Jesus.  :)

    Darby was too short to see much during the actual baptism, but I managed to take her photo just after. :)

    Getting her baptism certificate (I was using Andy's point&shoot camera and I have no idea how to work that thing - lol)

  3. Jarvis had his first (soccer) scrimmage with another team last night and he did great. Looking forward to his games, which start in about three weeks.
  4. Have I mentioned our school plans on my blog? If not, fyi (and for prosperity’s sake), we are homeschooling all the kids this year. That’ll be 5 kids. Homeschooled. Grades K, 4, 7, 9, and 12.  Once we start, if you don’t hear from me for a while, check in and make sure I’m still alive and sane, would you? ;)   Seriously though - I’m looking forward to it. We aren’t ‘officially’ starting for a couple more weeks-ish, but are doing some things to prepare such as diagnostic testing (starting today). 
  5. I went to Darby and Jarvis’ old schools yesterday to withdraw them (school started today — what? you don’t wait until the last possible minute to do things? whatever.), and my decision was just completely confirmed.  Ahhhh… feels good to be doing the right thing for your family. 
  6. And please don’t take that last sentence to mean that I think everyone should homeschool. I definitely do not feel that way.  But I do know that this is the right thing for OUR family right now. 
  7. I caught the Dojo Sensei in Mousehunt a few days ago. Exciting, right?
  8. As you know, my iPhone got wet.  So sad.  I did manage to get it working again, but the LCD screen is all smeared and ruined. I can only barely see 1/2 the screen, and when I try to turn it on, I can’t slide the bar to get to the main menu.  So it’s useless to me.  It’s okay, you can cry too.
  9. Since I don’t have a few hundred dollars set aside for replacing phones, Andrew found his 5 year old Motorola Razr L7.  We charged it, and lo and behold it works. So, I have a phone now, which is nice.  The downside is that I have to pay the iPhone $30 monthly fee until April, when my contract ends, and it’ll probably be April before I can afford another iPhone.  Oh well.  At least I can check my yahoo mail on the Razr, and set alarms on the calendar.  I’m just happy to be able to talk and text again – not that I talk/text often, but it’s nice to have the option.
  10. Note to self: record Brittany playing the piano and post it. She totally rocks.
  11. (disclaimer: this point includes the words ‘breast’ and ‘mastitis’… move on to the next point if you aren’t interested)… A few weeks ago, I cut down on the amount of times per day that Paige nursed, thinking that I’d wean her by 18 months.  She got down to nursing 3 or 4 times a day (at bed time, nap time, sometimes in the morning, and sometimes if she woke up in the middle of the night).  Well, then she started teething again (and no, those eye teeth haven’t poked through yet), and she wanted to nurse ALL THE TIME.  So I accomodated her since it seemed to comfort her, and my milk supply went up again.  Then, one day, about a week and a half ago, she refused to nurse.  Ever again.  She went from getting my milk supply WAY up to absolutely nothing.  With no warning whatsoever.  It was so weird. Anyway, so that led to mastitis in BOTH breasts (fun for me), which I quickly nipped in the bud with garlic, but because of the process of going cold turkey on the breastfeeding, it was kind of a long week or so.  I did pump a few times for relief, but I’ve never had much luck with pumping (and I hate doing it).  I’m finally feeling ‘normal’ and my energy is starting to return.  Thankfully.
  12. I made some barbecue chicken when Andy’s family was here that turned out really great, if I do say so myself.  I’ve been struggling trying to find a barbecue sauce that we all like that is 1. gluten-free, 2. chemical-free, and 3. corn-free. Corn-free is nearly impossible to find.  The last barbecue chicken I had made was kind of gross – dry and the sauce not tasty (an organic Annie’s sauce – I do not recommend).  And of course, we had company when I made it (so sorry Pastor Josh and Trisha! I’ll make a better main course next time!  Not that you read my blog, but just in case… I really can make chicken taste good. lol).  Anyway… the homemade barbecue sauce had rave reviews, it cooked well with the chicken, which came out really moist and wonderful, and of course, I have no idea how I made it.  I did write down all the ingredients I used, but amounts?  Who knows?  I just threw stuff in there until it smelled right.  If I can replicate it, I’ll share the recipe. 
  13. Speaking of corn-free… have you seen King Corn?  We watched that the other day.  Other food documentaries I’ve watched lately are Food, Inc. and The Beautiful Truth.  I recommend them all (and they can all be found on netflix’s instant play list).  Watch them, make changes, and stop killing yourself by ingesting poison.  When we’re all old and I am clear-headed and healthy (because hopefully I made my changes before it was too late – my health is slowly but surely improving), and when you have Alzheimer’s because you thought I was nuts for eating organic and not using harsh chemicals in my home?  I’ll say “I told you so!” and you won’t have a clue what I’m talking about because the dementia will be so bad, but I’ll say it anyway and you’ll say “who are you again?” and the nurse will come wipe your drool and wheel you away and I’ll go for a jog.
  14. Yes, the correct spelling of ‘BBQ’ or ‘barbeque’ is actually ‘barbecue’.  In case you are judging my spelling of the word in point number 12.  Not that I’m ever very aware of grammar on my blog, but misspelled words is a pet peeve of mine.  Fragments and run-on sentences are okay though.  Unless I’m writing a book – in that case, I’d be more careful with my grammar.  Believe it or not, I do understand proper grammar.  I really am qualified to teach it to my children.  :)
  15. That last point was FULL of terrible grammar.
  16. Did I blog about Josh’s visit last week?  I think I just posted a few photos from our trip to the capitol (in the things-I-love post).  Well, Josh visited last week and we had a great visit.  Jacob thinks Uncle Josh hung the moon and gets a little hyper excited when Josh is around.  What can you do?  He’s four.

    Britta and Josh imitating Justice on the bench. lol

  17. Darby and Paige wore matching dresses to church on Sunday – and of course, these were the only two photos that I got.  I’ll have to make them wear them again and take some real photos. Darby was the one that picked out their clothes, so don’t be all “why are you forcing your children to match” on me – it was HER idea! ;)  (dresses are complements of our good friend Robyn who passes her girls’ clothes down to my girls). :)

    Paige is tugging at her face in the one on the right, which explains why her eye looks all wonky. lol

…and I think to myself, what a wonderful world…

August 19, 2010 in Andrew, Brittany, Darby, Jacob, Jarvis, Justice, Paige, Random by Petra | 11 comments

Inspired by my friend Rebecca‘s blog post…

“We love the things we love for what they are.” ~Robert Frost

Saucy shrimp at Bonefish Grill. Mmmmmmm… now I’m craving it… again.

What happens when my 16 year old has a bedroom under construction, and I buy her a pack of Sharpies.

My little left-handed cutie who gets excited when he can draw on his big sister’s wall.

My All-Stars. I want lots of colors.

Funny teenagers who entertain me on a daily basis.

A father/son relationship filled with so many similarities and great mutual respect.

A creative 16 year old who thinks outside every box.

A squishy one year old to love and cuddle.

These three silly-heads.

Watching my children play.

Funky paintings by the aforementioned artist I live with.

The love we share.

My wonderfully awesome family.

And so much more…

Well, I walked around the corner and I walked around the block and I walked right into a donut shop…

August 11, 2010 in Brittany, Jarvis, Random by Petra | 5 comments

Has it really been a week and a half since I posted?!  Time just keeps going by faster and faster!  I don’t have a big inspirational post for you, but I do have a couple of photos, and a random list update:

Jarvis got his hair cut short recently. He doesn't generally sport a faux-hawk, but it's pretty cute. :)

  •  Jarvis started practices for soccer.  Games don’t start until September though.
  • I’m not as sarcastic as I used to be.  Out loud anyway.  And I’m finding that this is making me pretty boring. 
  • Paige still isn’t walking (she’s 16 months, 3 days).  She took 6 steps in the nursery on Sunday (I was in there with her, and she walked to me), and then later that day, Jarvis said she took 8 steps.  But she hasn’t done it again.  I know she CAN walk, but she refuses.  She’s just way too cautious. 
  • My brother, Josh, is coming tonight and staying until Saturday. It’ll be good to see him.  The kiddos love it when he visits (especially Jacob).
  • The three oldest kids spent last week at church camp and had a total blast.
  • I need to gain like five pounds.  I guess that’ll probably happen once I stop breastfeeding Paige though.  Maybe.  Still, I’d rather be too thin than too fat.  So it’s all good.
  • If only being thin were synonymous with being in shape.  I was on a roll working out, but then I got sick and haven’t gotten back into the swing of things. 
  • It’s been WAY too hot to go for walks though.  A treadmill is on my wish list for days that are too hot/cold/rainy. 
  • Paige is teething again.  She had been doing really well sleeping through the night after she got her molars, but now the eye teeth are bothering her.  I hope they don’t take too long to come in… :-/

Britta got her bangs cut (by me), and she looks super pretty with them. She's one of those people that looks completely different with different hairstyles!

  •  Have I mentioned that Justice is taller than Britta?  He passed her up a couple of months ago.  He’s probably around 5’8″ now.
  • I love my children! They are all so awesome. If I had better pregnancies, I think I’d probably try to have a dozen kiddos.
  • I’m sure I have more to update, but I can’t think of any of it now. :)  

I’ve never licked a spark plug and I’ve never sniffed a stink bug…

July 27, 2010 in Brittany, Jarvis, Justice by Petra | 4 comments

The other day, when Andrew and I were getting ready to go on our anniversary date (separate post to come), Jarvis asked me to take a photo and Britta jumped in. Oh yeah, and Jarvis got his hair all buzzed off. Paige was just an innocent bystander (or Millicent Bystander).

When I uploaded the photos yesterday, I found that more photos were taken after I left…

Justice asked me not to put this photo on Facebook, and I said okay. This isn’t Facebook so I’m keeping my word. He said he wasn’t flexing, so it wasn’t a worthy photo for public viewing. ;)

I was told the one above was taken using the timer.

Jarvis’ mouth looks enormous here. lol!

And Jarvis continued the photo-taking fun the next day (I’m including this photo of Britta, but I’m not including the photo he apparently took of me in the kitchen right after my workout!). :) And yes, yes, that is a Jack Daniel’s mug Britta is drinking out of. What?!

Did I mention that Justice is absolutely sure he’s going to join the military? Most of the shirts he wears are some type of military t-shirt.

And this was the last photo I found on my camera. A couple of things: 1) Jacob LOVES the movie Bolt. Loves. and 2) when I was a kid, I had a subscription to Dog Fancy magazine. I loved dogs. My plan was to own a farm-type kennel where dogs ran free. I was going to breed Scottish Terriers and save stray dogs from hunger. Etcetera. Yeah, that dream has long faded. lol

Ohhhh… mares eat oats and does eat oats…

June 29, 2010 in Brittany, Darby, Random by Petra | 5 comments

  • I’m 34. Well, I will be in 5 hours and 51 minutes.
  • Last night, I found a whole slew of silvery white hairs that I didn’t know where there. Note to self: Don’t examine hair too closely again.
  • Paige keeps getting cuter and cuter. She is so hilarious!! And she is getting sillier. And more cuddly. I love her.
  • Britta put some red streaks in her hair last week. It’s funky and cute.
  • My diet is still going on – updates coming soon.
  • Andy is awesome. Best husband ever.
  • That’s all I got.

Britta’s hair

One of my healthy breakfasts. (and filling and delicious)

Another of Darby from our trip to the park the other day.

I still remember when thirty was old…

May 8, 2010 in Brittany, Darby, Jacob, Paige by Petra | 6 comments

Last Saturday, several of us went to a local farm to pick strawberries. We’ve talked about doing this pretty much every year, but for some reason or another, we always end up missing strawberry season and saying “next year”. I’m so glad we finally went, though. We had such fun, and the strawberries are SO good (we ate them fresh for a couple of days and I froze the rest and have been using them in my daily fruit smoothies – yum!).

I just realized my blog offers a gallery feature, so I’m going to try that out. I added captions to the photos – hopefully it’s easy to click through them. Let me know if you prefer the gallery for when I have lots of photos or just scrolling through the blog post the way I usually do it. :)

edited to add: I’m not a fan of the gallery feature – the thumbnails cut off part of the photo, and when you click on them, you can’t scroll through – you have to click on each photo to see it. You can comment on each individual photo this way, but can only see those comments when you click on that photo. Note to relatives wanting to see/save larger photos – click on the photo, then click it again and it will be at a width of 800 pixels (what I uploaded them as).

Oh, I could write a sonnet, about your Easter bonnet…

May 4, 2010 in Brittany, Children, Darby, Easter, Jacob, Jarvis, Justice, Paige by Petra | 7 comments

Finally, a month later, I am posting all about the fun we had on Easter weekend.

Britta can fall asleep anywhere. It’s freaky. She had gone on a hike with her cousin and Darby and I guess she was worn out? I don’t know.

Pappy observing Justice and others enjoying the new basketball goal that he and G-ma so generously donated to the Justice-wants-a-basketball-goal cause. 

Paige LOVES watching the boys play basketball!!! She will sit on the porch with me and yell at them. She really wants to run out there and play too, but yeah, she can’t.

Cuteness.

Pappy and G-ma with seven of their nine grandkids! Paige has a ring in her mouth. We like to live on the edge. :)

Britta and Jacob getting into their Easter buckets. Britta stopped when she found a Dove chocolate bunny, and proceeded to put herself into a sugar coma, devouring all of her chocolate and peeps within a few hours. Some of the other kids had candy a week or two later, but Britta? No, it was gone as soon as she could shove it all in.

I think ze niece liked her new sleep mask. lol

Paige wasn’t too sure about her new hair bow.

She liked the box her slinky came in though. And yes, her Easter basket is a shoe box. Apparently, when I was shopping for Easter goodies, I had it in my head that we had plenty of buckets and baskets, but yeah – we did not.

Darby had pink peeps, thus the pink tongue. Every kid gets their own peep color, but with 6 kids receiving peeps this year, I think two of them got the same color. :)

Jacob had fun on the egg hunt!

The niece was a master egg hunter!!! She gave Justice a run for his money!!!

Jarvis looking in the top of the pantry (we hide eggs all over the main floor while the kids are waiting upstairs. And by “we”, I mean “Andy”. I fill the eggs, he hides them. And this year, Pappy helped me fill the eggs, so I had it easy!!). :)

Jacob enlisted Darby’s help to look behind some books he was sure there were eggs behind. :)

Yeah, they trashed the house while looking for the eggs. lol

We ended our weekend with a fun game of movie charades. Jacob thought it was fantastic and even guessed one and he also acted one out that I guessed (Finding Nemo – he did swimming movements, lol!). :)

We hope G-ma, Pappy, and the kiddos cousin come back to see us soon. We had a blast with them here! :)

She’s like the wind, through my trees…

March 19, 2010 in Andrew, Brittany, Children, Jacob, Jarvis, Justice, Paige by Petra | 4 comments

I’ve been at a loss for blog material lately. Mostly because every post that comes to mind involves me taking photos to include, and yeah – I haven’t been taking photos for some reason. So, in order to just put something on here, I’m going to ramble – who knows what will come of this, but I’m guessing it’ll be boring.  Read on at your own risk of contracting a case of the ‘zone outs’.  Good luck.

I laid out today. In the 70-something degree weather. And I now have tan lines on my formerly casper-like complexion.  It’s awesome. I love having a good tan. Love it. I love lying in the sun.  Nothing like it.  I can’t wait to be laying out for about the 5th or 6th time because that means I’ll be able to wear shorts in public without blinding people.  :)

My fingernails are too long and are in my way – I need to cut them off – maybe tomorrow.

Some of my facebook friends have been posting old photos and it makes me want to go dig out all my old pictures and start scanning!

Paige has started throwing little temper tantrum fits lately. It’s starting already.  Hopefully it doesn’t last long – the fits are a little more challenging when they decide to start them this young! Britta went through her “terrible twos” a few months older than Paige and was completely done with all that by the time she turned two. Hopefully Paige will be done by then as well since she’s starting so young. lol!

Andrew is doing well in his Russian class – two more months of language school and then he moves on to the school for his new job.

Are you still reading?

I love Kettle organic barbecue potato chips. I can eat the whole bag. They’re spicy.

It bothers me when TV shows use the same actor for different characters – like in Gilmore Girls: Jess’s dad’s girlfriend is the same actress that plays Luke’s daughter’s mom a few seasons later.  And ‘Gran’ is the same actress as ‘Aunt Marilyn’ – and I know they were just trying to be cute with that one, but still. Yes, I’ve been watching the GG lately.

I’m boring myself now.

Jarvis has soccer evaluations tomorrow. He’s very excited.

Paige tried saying “Jacob” tonight.  So cute. And she tried doing the sign for ‘bird’ and the sign for ‘daddy’. And I just started teaching her sign language today!

And that’s all the rambles I have for now, and since you know I hate leaving you with just a bunch of boring words – here’s a photo:

Jarvis, Britta, and Justice circa 2002 :)

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