A Special Mother's Day

I woke up on Mother's Day feeling like I hadn't slept a wink.  An early morning visitor who tossed and turned in bed with me for an hour left me groggy as I crawled out of bed on Sunday morning, and prepared the nebulizer for my congested little boy.  This, I thought, is what being a mother is all about!

When I picked Bradley up from church (don't worry, he wasn't contagious or running a fever!) I was treated to a homemade card and a picture with his hand prints- treasures I will keep forever.  When we walked into the house after church, we were greeted by a spread of quesadillas, guacamole, pico de gallo, 2 kinds of beans, rice, and chips, compliments of Chef Laura.  My sweet sis even made me my own special vegetarian quesadilla because let's face it folks- if it ain't a greasy McDonald's cheeseburger, I'm just saying NO to meat.

My home made picture B made at church this past Wednesday night

Me and My Little Angel on Mother's Day

 After we all ate way too much, the moms opened their presents.  Laura and I got mom a deluxe size of her favorite Bare Minerals makeup, and a brand new coffee maker with a built in grinder.  Everyone in my family drinks coffee, and yet we continue to use a cheapo coffee maker that spills every time you pour from the pot, and a broken coffee grinder that you have to stick a knife in to get the grinder to work.  Both were extremely ghetto.  We decided that a new and improved coffee maker was long overdue.

 I got a homemade card from Bradley, along with a refridgerator magnet with his picture on it that he made at daycare, and my first-ever Tervis Tumbler.  I was very excited to take this baby to work today and sip water all day with the worry-free, no-sweat cup.  Mom told me that at the store, they had several different kinds of Tervis Tumblers, and that Bradley really wanted to buy me a Toy Story cup, but she convinced him to get one that I would like... so he chose the Kentucky one.

Super excited about my Tervis Tumbler- how have I made it this long without one?!

 The best gift I received was a paper that Bradley answered all about me at daycare.  I laughed reading every answer with his perceptions of his mom.  Some favorite answers of mine:

• I think my mom is 58 years old.
• I think my mom weighs 40 pounds.
• When my mom grows up she wants to be a real princess.
• My mom wears a size high heel shoe.
• My mom's favorite color is purple.  (Clearly I have not bombarded him with enough pink, so I'll have to remedy that!

Roses from a special guy, delivered on Sunday morning

 Another gift I received was a drawing of me and Bradley taken from a picture.  At first glance, I thought it looked like my mom with Bradley.  Apparently at first glance, Bradley thought the same thing!!!  I guess I must just look really old, which explains the jowells on this drawing, and explains why Bradley thinks I am 58 years old.

The inspiration for the drawing

I made Snapfish cards this year, and nearly had a panick attack when they didn't come until Saturday's mail!  I made one card for mom from Bradley, and then Laura and I went in together and created one that said "Our favorite things about our mom," on the front, where we proceeded to list some serious (how she takes up fiercely for those she loves), but mostly funny (how she exaggerates everything... her elastic waistband pants... how she mixes up phrases) reasons why we love Mama B.  She laughed; she cried; it was better than Cats.

After the lunch settled, we enjoyed chocolate ganoche cake and strawberry shortcake for lunch, and had an all-around nice afternoon together despite the gloomy rainy weather.

Finally, a picture with all the Moms and Moms-to-Be on Mother's Day...

That's right- all of the Bradley women are mothers... Laura Lee is expecting a baby this October!  Congrats to Laura and George, Happy Mother's Day to my amazing mom, and happy first Mother's Day to my beautiful sister!  Being a mom is the best/hardest job in the world, and I'm thankful I am so close (both literally & figuratively) to my mom and sister as she begins this journey as a mom, too.

Pickle Things You Never See

My brother-in-law George wrote a paper a few years ago for college wherein he slightly elaborated our family's St. Nick's Day traditions.  According to him, we ate Pa's homemade cinnamon rolls, put up the tree while listening to Christmas carols, received our stockings, found the pickle on the Christmas tree, sipped hot cocoa by the fire, and watched Christmas Vacation that evening.  Hey, it was a great paper!

B with his ginormous stocking

George & Bradley with their Superman Pez

Dad with his kazoo from the Franklin Main Street toy store

While our St. Nick's Day was not quite that eventful, we still managed to pack it full.  After a long day of work, we congregated for dinner of mom's round steak, mashed potatoes, and sides.  After dinner we opened our stockings, and then George, Laura, and I hunted for the pickle on the tree.  This was the first year George has gotten in on the pickle action, so it was only fair that he should walk away with the itunes gift card prize for finding the pickle.



One of my favorite books as a kid was "Pickle Things," and one of the lines of the book reads, "Pickle things you never see like pickles on a Christmas tree."  I have this book out for B and it's one of the ones he can "read" from memory.  Obviously, the writers of this book were not German though, as they must not have had hidden a pickle ornament on their Christmas trees.

Full from dinner, and sampling treats from our stockings, we did what the Bradleys always do; we stuffed ourselves full by eating dessert of course!

Kids' Christmas Concert

Tonight was Bradley's first-ever choir concert, and yes, I was way excited.  He's been attending BBC's KidLife program on Wednesday nights while I'm in choir rehearsal, and tonight was the fruit of a semester's worth of labor.  The 3-through- kindergarten kids performed 5 Christmas songs tonight.  It was a battle to even get out the door since the chosen attire for Bradley did not include comfy pants and t-shirts.  Our video we took was horrible, so the still shots will have to do.

This picture was taken during their practice- it's the closest he got to paying attention and participating all night.

For their performance, the kids wore party hats, in honor of Jesus' birthday.  Bradley used his as a toy/prop the entire time he was up front, most of the time, donning the unicorn look!

... or using it as a megaphone... though he's not the only one!

Where's Bradley?  Can you spot him sitting on the steps?  (the Only child sitting on the steps, I might add!)

I'm at a loss of what to do now.  I promised him an orange hat and gloves (his favorite color) if he sang "loud and proud," but since he didn't really do that, should I still reward him for just participating?  I mean, he did sing, it was just into and behind his party hat!  And anyways, I am proud of him for his performance tonight no matter what.  I look forward to many, many more of these concerts down the road.

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

I don't like the Santa at Cool Springs Galleria, and I hate having to pay an arm and a leg for those pictures, so I resolved to find a free photo op this year for Bradley.  Look no further than mom & dad's neighborhood "Cookies with Santa" event this past weekend.  It was held at the clubhouse and was a BYOC event (bring your own cookies) while little cups of milk were provided.  There were also holiday-themed crafts, a guy making balloon animals, and of course, Santa Claus.

Just like the past two years, this was our first attempt at a picture with Santa:

And then after some cookies, a baloon laser gun, and making a candy cane ornament, we tried for round 2.  Bradley wanted to know where Santa's sleigh was, so we figured that a second attempt at a good picture with Santa would give B a chance to ask the Big Guy his pressing question.  

Much better!  Now these are photos I can live with, plus they were FREE.

And THIS is my money shot.  It fits perfectly with the song lyric of Jolly Old Saint Nicholas- "whisper what you'll bring to me, tell me if you can."

Oh yeah, and Santa's answer about the sleigh?  He left it at Walmart, he said! 

The Elf & the pink tree on the shelf

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and it isn't even December yet!  Today's obligatory blog post is brought to you by the new Christmas decorations that are gracing the Bradley household.  Last year I was too bummed out to even think about decorating, and seeing as how most of my stuff is still in boxes, Mom surprised me with a new 4 foot tall tree that I got to decorate as my pink tree this year.  I think it looks beautiful, and I smile every time I look at it.

This is my craft fair find- a knock off- and personalized- Elf on the Shelf.  Way cheaper than the $30 to $40 I would have paid.  This little guy will get moved from spot to spot and report back to Santa daily whether Bradley's been naughty or nice.  The personable (Not!) lady at the craft's fair even left room to add other kids names, if Lord willing, Bradley were ever to have those brothers and sisters he's always talking about!
The Elf needs a name, though.  Any brilliant ideas readers?

 

The longest weekend ever

This has felt like an eternity of a weekend.  Usually that'd be a good thing, but since I haven't seen Bradley since Wednesday, I am doing cartwheels that I can pick him up tomorrow finally.  He seems like he's been having a good time down in Florida, so that has made it easier on me.  Plus I have stayed really busy, mainly eating and shopping.  The weekend was memorable in many ways, though, so I thought I'd list the highlights so we could remember and laugh as part of our Thanksgiving story heritage:

• OMG, folks
• Slap 'er down again, Pa
• I have a saying:  don't open one syrup until you finish the other
• It's 5 o'clock in the morning
• Dance party in the living room
• Zombieland/Elf
• The 3 hour Walmart excursion
• UK finally beat UT after 26 years
• My first vegetarian Turkey Day
• Cranium Bluedles

And of course, we had to put Russell & the Mrs. into compromising poses throughout Thanksgiving day and send them to family:

The whipped cream bikini was Laura's idea.  I added the touch of cream to Russell's mouth.  I did decorate some for Christmas this weekend, but I don't want to give away the farm with one post!  Yall come back now, ya hear?
Hope you and your family/friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Or as I like to call it...

Best quote from last week's episode of New Girl:

Nick: We're just gonna watch football, drink beer, and then we're going to Best Buy later for Black Friday.
Winston: Or as I like to call it, Friday.


Unfortunately, I was one of the crazy people that went to Walmart on Thanksgiving night, which turned into a 3 hour adventure that lasted into the wee hours of Black Friday.


Sure, I got some good deals, but that store was such a nightmare cluster at the checkout line that I would never, ever go there again on Thanksgiving night.


That's right, I said never ever.  Please remind me of this next year.

Zip Zip

So as not to turn this blog into a sad-sack virtual therapy site for yours truly, I thought I'd lighten the mood and share a quirky Thanksgiving tradition that has developed over the years between me and my friend Rhonda Lu. 

One of our favorite movies is the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan classic romantic comedy, You've Got Mail.   There is a scene in the film where Meg Ryan's character rushes through the "cash only line" in order to avoid Tom Hanks' character.  Of course, "she has no cash," so Tom Hanks has to bail her out.  Rose, the checker, you will notice, is Dr. Callie Torrez, pre-Grey's Anatomy.  Tom Hanks coerces Rose into saying "Happy Thanksgiving," which with her Hispanic accent comes out "Appy Thanksgeeving Back."

Every year Rhonda Lu and I will call/email/Facebook/text this quotable line to one another on Turkey Day.  It's like a game to see who remembers first.  So Happy Thanksgiving, dear blog readers.  Now it's your turn.  Say Happy Thanksgiving, back...

Halloween 2011

Bradley is "super" proud of his awesome Halloween costume, complete with muscles!

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's....

SuperMom and SuperMan

After reading an article in the paper yesterday about the trick-or-treating in downtown Franklin in the historic district, we decided to give that a try this year.  It was phenomenal, and we will be going back.  We parked in the lot behind Starbucks at Five Points, and walked a block up to West Main Street, and instantly it felt like we were in a movie.  Everything from the the mild weather, clear sky, bright moon, walking the sidewalk-lined streets, shuffling through the leaves up to each historic home was absolutely picturesque.  There were trick-or-treaters Everywhere; it was amazing.  Houses were decorated, and I mean Seriously decorated, and the herds of people moved slowly down the sidewalk of West Main Street, waiting patiently for their turn to go up to the house. 

This house not only had this great display on their front porch, but they offered a really cool haunted house through their garage.

Slowly making our way from house to house

However, THIS house is the one Bradley will be talking about for the next year.  They decorated their front yard using a Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" theme.  The lady giving out the candy was the Queen of Hearts.  Well B was right in front of her when she decided to let out a festive, in-character cackle, which I happened to snap a picture of... which prompted B to burst out into tears!!!  The Queen felt so bad she gave us extra candy, but all B would talk about for the rest of the evening was that he didn't like the Wonderland Queen.

This house was pretty incredible, too.  I thought B might be scared of some of the decorations, but he seemed to get that all this "spooky" stuff was just pretend, and just for fun... except for that mean Wonderland Queen!  He was paticularly excited to see, and speak to, an adult dressed like Darth Vader.

Trick or treat!

Our Scary jack-o-lanterns

He did all the hard work, and then the adults helped themselves to the spoils!  This trick-or-treat thing is a great idea!  B got lots of Twix- one of my faves- but no Tootsie Rolls, Grandma B's favorite. 

Eating some skulls and bones Sweet Tarts

Showing off his candy

We probably only made it up and back a few blocks on West Main and didn't even venture off to other side streets before Superman was tired and ready to come home.  Plus, just minutes before we arivved home, the caped crusader had to pee, so it was great timing.  If you ask Bradley if he had fun trick or treating, he will say "no."  If you ask "why not?" he will tell you "because of the Mean Wonderland Queen."  But deep down, I know he had a good time tonight.  Come one, come all with us, to downtown Franklin next year!

More 4th of July Fun

The weekend of the 4th we went to visit Michael, Missy, Braedon, Garrick, and Addison in Evansville, Indiana. This was our sort of family get-together for the 4th of July.  It was basically a relaxing time of sitting out in the backyard and watching the kids run around, listening to music, and doing what our family does best- talk and laugh.  We had a family water balloon toss game, which Braedon and I won.  The kids swam in the pool, jumped on the trampoline, had a fierce water baloon fight and ran around together from morning til night.

Bradley & Addie in the baby pool

Mike & Mike trying to figure out the pool filter

Garrick models the latest fashion of wearing your socks with your swimtrunks

Braedon was such a good sport by letting the little ones throw water baloons at him.  He then unmercifully threw them at his younger brother Garrick and brought him to tears!

Cousins in the pool

Our 4th of July Funfetti cupcakes that Bradley helped me decorate

Cupcake time

Stupid me, I cut off Addison's face in the picture, but it was still a really cute one of her and Bradley

Since Bradley could not get enough Cheeeeeese balls at Michael & Missy's house last summer, they made sure to have a huge container of them for him this time too.  Bradley was obsessed with them!  The proof is in his orange mouth and fingers!  When jumping into the pool, Bradley was yelling "Cheeseball!" 

"Um, I think you mean 'cannonball,' Bradley," we told him.

watching the fireworks out front

Braedon reads a Toy Story book to Ginger, Garrick, Bradley & Addison

Sunday morning Braedon practiced his pitching with Uncle Mike.  We affectionately call Braedon "Justin Bieber" because he has been mistaken for the popstar many times with his shaggy hair!

Uncle Mike the pitching coach

Made in the shade

Family picture on the front porch

Thanks Michael, Michael-Missy (Bradley's name for Missy), and kids!  We had such a fun time, and can't wait to get together again!