Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope everyone had a great day and didn't eat too much turkey. We had a great dinner. The kids pitched in and helped make my Aunt Inch's famous strawberry jello and Grandma's secret chocolate cake. You can see why Lexi wanted to help...I think her philosophy was a scoop for me...a scoop for the jello.



Here's Chef Brayden....



Scott and Brayden pasted some of the afternoon looking for golf balls, Brayden's latest favorite past time while at Grandma's & Grandpa's house. In 3 searches, he and Scott have collected almost 300 balls. Anybody need any golf balls? Finally, it was time for dinner but there was one last thing we needed to do ....celebrate the original Thanksgiving dinner between the pilgrims and Indians. Luckily for us, Brayden's and Lexi's school had a feast planned for this week (which unfortunately for B & L - they missed) and they had their outfits sent home. They were so cute....



Although I am not very sentimental, these are two outfits I will be holding on to.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Living the life of luxury

So this morning was a day of "girls only" and was absolutely wonderful. Lexi, Grandma and I enjoyed a pedicure this morning. Lexi was her usual self, hogging the massage chair and dipping her feet... do you think she figured out she's not really getting a "full pedicure"?



It has become somewhat of a ritual for the three of us to get a pedicure whenever we are hanging out with Grandma.



After a pedicure, our "girls time" is not complete until we have made it to Starbucks for a latte.



Then like all good things do, our "girls time" came to a screeching end and we had to go back to Grandma's house and pick up the boys. But that was okay because we were off to see Santa. Lexi and Brayden were armed with their letters, they wrote themselves, requesting a wii, sleeping bags, and cowboy boots. I don't have a scanner so I can't share their picture with Santa but hope to post it when I make it back to South Cakalaky. But here is the dynamic duo getting ready for Santa.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Christmas in November

We arrived in Virginia this past Saturday and have been busy, busy, busy - ever since we arrived. I decided to split this up into a couple segments because it's too much to post all in one sitting. But first, I'm sure some of you are wondering about our actually trip from SC to VA and I'm glad to report Lexi only asked the inevitable question a handful of times. Unfortunately, I can not say the same for Brayden, I think he asked, "When are we going to be at Grandma and Grandpa's?" every five minutes. I'll admit that might be a little bit of an exaggeration but that's how it seemed for the brief 8.5 hour ride. Even if he only said it 5 times an hour that is over 40 times...too much for the average person to handle.

On Sunday we drove to Maryland to see Kooza. It was one h#@* of a trip. A ride which should have taken us 30 minutes was almost 2 hours because the directions were sooo simple we went almost completely around the Beltway before we turned around and finally found the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and a remote place called National Harbor (home to Kooza).



Kooza for those of you who are wondering what in the world I am talking about is a production by Cirque Du Soleil. It is a circus, but not your average, run of the mill kind of circus. It doesn't have any animals but it does have all of the acrobatic acts and clowns. My mom and I talked about going to see the show but little did I know it would under a BIG TENT!! It was huge and amazing to see in person. So much so, I decided to include it for all of you guys to see...



My mom, Lexi, Brayden and I had fun during the intermission seeing all of the souvenirs. The masks we tried on ranged in price from $12 to $200+. Who would buy that????? As I say that though, who would buy lip balm for $7 - that's right no one else but Grandma. And of course, Brayden and Lexi each had to have their own. You know the Rogers' kids have to get a souvenir from everywhere they go or Grandma and Grandpa go.







Needless to say we all enjoyed the show. It was amazing to watch Brayden and Lexi's expressions change as we watched the show. There was no doubt they loved it as much everyone else. On the way home, we talked about who like what the best and here are the results...Grandma liked the three girls who are way more flexible than God ever intended anyone to be, Grandpa liked the man who did tricks on 8 chairs, which he stacked on top of one another, Brayden liked the guys who did flips off of the see-saw and landed on some guys shoulders, Lexi liked the man who did flips on stilts (besides the Bendable Girls - this is one of the craziest stunts I had ever seen) and Scott and I liked the two guys who did tricks inside and outside of two large cylinders that kept spinning around - way too fast for anyone to attempt tricks on.

If Kooza, or any of the other Circque Du Soleil shows, comes to a town near you, consider checking into it. I will forewarn tickets are a little pricey but good thing for us, Christmas came early in Virginia this year. Thanks mom and dad for the early Christmas present, we really enjoyed it.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Luck...what luck?

So obviously I have done something to someone and have messed my karma up. I mean how can you explain the pure, horrible luck I have experienced in the last 10 days. We all know my car caught on fire, I got it back only to have to have it towed the very next day because the brakes were smoking again!!!! I got my car back today, drove it briefly and all seems well. (Please God, let it really be fixed).

Then I came home, decided to put away all of my Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations since we are leaving for DC next week. Only problem, I left a small plastic package on the track of the garage door. Which wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't opened the door. But thanks to the big, dark, black cloud over my head, when I opened the door, the plastic package kept the door from going all the way up. Since the door couldn't go all the way up, the tracks bent trying to compensate and one of the rollers fell out. I am grateful for my incredible neighbors who came right over and someone helped me get the door as close to down as possible. If you look at the right side is down but the right side is about a foot off of the ground...sounds nice, huh? In the midst of this disaster, we lost power. And of course, we didn't lose power for a short period of time, oh no, we lost power for 5 or 6 hours. I am so hopeful that my bad luck will pass because I don't think I can handle much more emotionally or financially. It is only 6 weeks until Christmas. Do you think Santa can bring me a money tree to plant in the backyard????

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Lasting First Impressions & Endless Questions

This entry is two part. I guess I will start with Brayden and then move onto Lexi.

So as I previously mentioned, Brayden recently finished his flag football season and with the end of the season came a "thank you" note to Scott from the coach for helping out. Of course the note had all the typically words you'd expect, but it ended with Coach Gabe saying how hilarious he thought it was that "Brayden still thinks his name is Coach Dallas" after 2 months of weekly practices and games.

For those of you who don't know, Coach Dallas was Brayden's t-ball coach this past Spring and obviously left an incredible impression on him. Dallas is very soft spoken and had an incredible gift when it came to keeping Brayden and all his teammates' attention. And let me tell you when it came to Brayden, Coach Dallas certainly had his work cut out of him --- Brayden loves baseball but he also loved to "chase" a cute little 5 year old girl. I don't know if Brayden will ever get to play for Coach Dallas again but we sure were blessed to have him be Brayden's first coach and to leave such a lasting impression on him. Thanks again Coach Dallas.

Now on to Ms. Lexi....she is so excited to go to DC for Thanksgiving to see my mom & dad she can hardly stand it. Every day, multiple times a day, for at least the past week, she has asked me when we are going to grandma and grandpa's house. In the beginning, I patiently explained to her what day of the week it was and then took her through the remainder of days until we would be leaving. And almost immediately after I told her, she would go and tell Megan we were leaving the "day after today". (For whatever reason, the word "tomorrow" is not in her vocabulary). But by now, I am sick of explaining it. Come on how hard is it... we have to get through this week and next week and then thank goodness, we will be out of here. The scary thing is once the day arrives the question will still be "when are we going to be at grandma and grandpas?" The good news is that question will only last for nine hours instead of 3 weeks. Wish me luck to make it to next Saturday and patience to make it through the road trip.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Up in flames

So today, I experienced an event I never thought I would endure and for that matter, something I've never known anyone else to endure. My car caught fire today. Yep, you read right. Somehow, some part of my brake engaged, never disengaged and after excessive heating caught on fire. Luckily, I recognized something was wrong when I was not able to go over 20 mph but I had no idea what the problem was. I pulled into the entrance of a local business (so that the other people heading to work would not be late because of me or experience road rage because the speed limit was 45 mph) and there is where I saw the smoke coming out from under my hood and front tire. Quickly, I put the car in park, turned off the engine and hopped out. Then I saw the flames shooting out of the front, drivers' side wheel.

I admit it, I panic for a second before asking one of the employee's from the business for a fire extinguisher. I quickly retrieved my purse and company lap top. Then it hit me, I had a few Christmas presents in the back, as well as, several hundred dollars of products from a recent home show I hosted. Luckily the flames somehow extinguished themselves and I was left with a car that smelled awful but did not show any signs that it was recently on fire. So of course, the fire department came and checked it out and then Scott came to pick me up. Now if he were telling this story, he would note that when he received my call telling him my car was on fire and I needed him to come right away, he had a buck in sight. Of course, it's my fault he didn't get to shoot it but I think my car shooting flames out from the wheel is a very good excuse, don't you? The good news is, I am okay and my car is going to be okay.

PS If you don't have a fire extinguisher in your car, get one, because if my car can catch on fire you just never know what could happen to you.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The end of an era



.

I guess it's the way the world works. When something ends, invariably something else takes its place. So it is with Brayden, he has just finished up flag football. It was an interesting experience. The beginning was shaky, at best, most of the time Brayden just stood around - clueless as to what he was suppose to do. Then once Scott "bribed" him with a shopping spree at Academy, miraculously he seemed to figure it out. (For those of you who don't know what Academy is, it's a sports store where Brayden and his dad would love to spend ALL of their free time). Needless to say post-bribe, Brayden began pulling flags and even scored touchdowns. Of course, when the season ended he was thrilled to add a new trophy to his collection (of 2)




So today, the new era began. Scott has asked Brayden if he wanted to go deer hunting several times since the season began in mid-August and although he always said yes, he never actually would go. Today, all of that changed. He got all of his camo gear on and headed to the forest with Scott. I should also note that Scott told Brayden if they went hunting they would stay until it became dusk (which was at least 2 hours) and I believe he also said something about bringing handcuffs and duct tape. The good news is I don't think he had to use them although, Brayden did admit it "was hard to stay quite."



Three hours after I watched Brayden and Scott leave home, I was met by Brayden who could hardly wait to tell me what he saw. He was so excited he saw a baby doe and a flying turkey. Imagine what would have happened if Scott had killed something, I don't think Brayden would have been able make it all the way home without bursting. There is no denying hunting will be one of Brayden's passions in life, just as it is his dads. Father like son...and so it goes.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Here goes nothing...

So I have decided to undertake the unknown world of blogging. I am not sure I will have the time or energy to give this project what it deserves - consistent entries...but I am willing to try (at least today). So until next time, when I have time to upload photos and don't spend all my time getting started on blogger.