The middle finger and hell...

Brayden and I were talking about the devil and hell and how one ends up there; deep stuff for a Monday morning ride to school. We were talking about how some people don't believe in God. Brayden says… "Destiny (a girl in his class) doesn't believe in God" and then with strong conviction and a sound of irritation in his voice he says "God made her!! She should love him to death. I love him to death!"

How we came open the subject in the first place is kind of funny too. I had hurt my finger and I showed it to him, it happened to be my middle finger… so of course I get the "Ummmm, you're in trouble… you just stuck your middle finger up at me". So I explained how God doesn't make dirty fingers and that the middle finger is just as good as the rest... you just have to be careful how you use it. He said "it's ok to stick it up at the ground, because that means you're sticking it up at the devil and we hate the devil". I told him if he felt the need to give a hand gesture to the devil he could give him the thumbs down or better yet, just stick out his tongue at him… so he did, while holding his open palms to each side of his head. Take that, Mr. devil!!

Finally...

Ok, so I’ve been promising for over a year now that I would tell you all about the story involving Brayden and the school being put on lock down. I believe it was the third day of Kindergarten. The morning began as usual as I dropped Brayden off at his class. I guess it was around 10am when I received a call from his teacher. I could tell by the sound of her voice that something was wrong. She began by saying that everything was fine…. now, however they had an incident with Brayden. She explained that when they came back inside after recess that she noticed Brayden was missing. So of course they checked the bathroom, the hall, etc thinking surely he had just lingered behind somewhere. She said that she was 100% sure he had come in, because he was at the beginning of the line with her and she saw him walk through the door. After a quick check of the classroom and bathroom turned up empty, they immediately put the school on lock down. They called his name over the intercom, they searched every closet, every bathroom. Just as the teacher had picked up the phone to call the police... another student noticed movement under a stack of chairs. There were 4 stacks of chairs in the corner of the room, he had crawled under them and hid all the way back in the corner. He had been in the room the whole time and ignored all of their efforts to find him. His teacher was so shaken up when she called. He says he was just playing hide and seek… he thought it was funny. He soon learned that he was the only one that thought it was funny. Let’s just say he learned his lesson and he hasn’t hidden from anyone since then.

Oh the drama...

So Brayden came home from Adventure Club one day last week and informed me that his old girlfriend (Chloe) from waaayy back in preschool is going to AC too. Well, now they are boyfriend and girlfriend again... however there is a little hitch... he is sharing her with Logan, one of his buddies (also from the same preschool class as previous mentioned). So I asked him how that works and this is the exact answer I got...

Brayden: "I get it on Sunday's and Logan gets it on Saturday"

He then went on to explain the others days in which they get "it". So I asked "what do you get".. and he says "we get to be her boyfriend". It was so funny! I knew what he meant, but I had to ask anyway.

By the way, he came home Friday and told me that Logan had moved on and found a new girlfriend, so now Chloe is just his girlfriend.

Trip to Mississippi

Brayden, mom and myself just got back from a wonderful trip home to Mississippi. We had a great time!!!! I already miss everyone and can't wait to go back in November. We spent one day at Lake Tiak-O'Khata with Teresa and the gang. Brayden had a blast. Baylee stayed with us for most of the trip and what a blessing that was. They had so much fun playing together. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the trip...

Big update: Marital Status

So if you’ve noticed I haven't posted in a while, well that's because I haven't really felt like putting the following out into the world...but it is what it is so here it goes...

As some of you know, Bobby and I separated about 3 months ago. In fact, it was the weekend after my last post... if I would have known what was coming I probably would have skipped the update post. For those of you that didn’t know about the slpit, it’s a long, tangled story that we won’t get into here, but if your curiosity is killing you, please feel free to ask. We aren't technically divorced yet, but I will be… there is no going back to that relationship. We are waiting until January to make it official. Why you ask… well for those of you that are closest to me, you know why and you understand and think it makes complete sense. If you don’t know why, don’t waste your time wondering, just know that I’m an intelligent women and must be waiting for a good reason. Again, if you feel you just have to know… then ask me. Well I won't really elaborate much further, but so your minds don't go nuts wondering what happened...there was no major event, no cheating, etc. We just both know it's time for it to be over. It was an amicable split and we are still on good terms and get along well. Brayden has adjusted well and for now it doesn't seem to have any major effect on him. I'm sure in time he will struggle and have his moments but we will both be there for him. Any advice you have to offer is much appreciated. Just keep us all in your prayers.

Yes, we are still alive and kickin'. A blog is just like Church, once you get out of the habit it's so hard to get back into it. Well, I'm committing right now to start making both a habit again. We haven't been to church in months and every Saturday we promise each other that the next day will be our Sunday to start back. The alarm goes off and we snuggle closer together and decide to wait until next Sunday. So that's been going on since umm, last summer maybe. Way too long. And well it's been 3 months since I've updated the blog and even longer (at least a year) since I've really updated everyone on what we've all been up to but I don't have time to write a novel, so here is the very quick and unorganized version.

Bobby opened his own Auto Detail business, closed it 4 months later and then reopened it last week. Business is good. I got a promotion at work in January and I'm now the Walmart.com account manager for Dorel. So when you see one of the many Dorel items on Walmart.com, you can think of me. I really love what I'm doing.

Brayden is doing great in school academically but is still struggling to sit still and be quiet. He had about 3 weeks in a row where I thought we were going to seriously have to start taping his mouth shut and gluing him to his chair. The last 2 weeks have been good though so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I guess if you ground a boy enough and eventually take away every privilege except eating, then he'll finally get a clue.

We got a dog... her name is "girl". That's the name she came with. She belonged to Bobby's younger brother. She is 3 or 4 yrs old. I thought the name was corny at first and wanted to change it... but I catch myself saying "come here girl" all the time, so I guess it's the perfect name. She is a great dog... already housebroken, does tricks, minds very well and loves Brayden. She is a beagle/terrier mix. I'll attach a picture soon.

Ok, that's the important stuff... now here is a list of just random things that I probably would have blogged about it if I was keeping up with this like I should have been. If you're interested in more details on any of them, just ask.

• Bobby and I have both set up Myspace pages. I used to think it was for kids, but now that I've set up a page... I'm addicted. We are competing to see who can get the most Myspace friends... I'm ahead!!
• We told Brayden the Easter Bunny wasn't real.
• Our latest fun thing to do as a family is play Lego Star Wars 2 on the playstation, yes even me.
• We got a free canoe...that had a hole in it. Bobby patched it...
• Bobby and I went on a 3 day canoe/camping trip on the Buffalo River. We almost sunk the patched canoe.
• We got a hamster and then we gave it away 6 months later.
• Brayden's "girlfriend" moved to New Jersey, she moved back... now he says she moved again...oh the drama!
• We contemplated moving to North Carolina so Bobby could go to Nascar school. We chickened out. Maybe some day though...
• We decided to have a baby and then we decided to wait and then we decided to adopt and then we decided to wait and it's kind of gone on like that for 6 months and where are we now? Um, I think we are still waiting. It changes weekly.
• We went to Mississippi for Thanksgiving and had the best Thanksgiving I think we've ever had.
• I joined a gym and ate really good and lost about 15 lbs...then Thanksgiving in MS came and I threw it all out the window and have yet to jump back on the wagon. The 15 lbs however have jumped back on me. That's another one of those things that I'm going to start back on along with blogging and going to church.
• I learned I have a heart murmur.
• I had fender bender with an idiot that didn't have insurance.
• Brayden caused the school to get put on lock down and the police were almost called (I know I've been promising to elaborate on this for months)

I am sure there are many other things but my brain is fried and this is all that comes to mind right now.

Bringing us up to speed....

Ok, so I know it's been quite a while since I've posted, but's it's not from a lack of material -it's from a lack of time. New Year's Resolution #6 - Update Blog weekly.... we'll see.

So, the last time I posted it was to let everyone know that Brayden had started the Big "K", ...Kindergarten. So, we're 4 months in and he's doing great...well intellectually he's doing great. His behavior the first few months was lacking, but he's finally started to get that under control. It's not that he's really misbehaving, he just won't quit talking...(imagine that, my kid likes to talk). Mom says that was always the number 1 complaint that my teachers had about me. His teacher says that it's very hard to get on to him because he's so funny and he's just trying to put his 2 cents in and participate. She encourages participation but not when it means he's talking more than her. I guess there could be worse things, he could be mean and hateful...instead he just has alot to say.

As far as his school work, he amazes me. His little brain has learned and absorbed so much in the past 4 months. His latest accomplishment is being able to count by 5's to 100. He can actually keep going but his attention span is gone by the time he gets that far. He can spell about 20 words and he is beginning to recognize words that he sees in his environment. I'm looking at his latest Interim report right now and he has a + (means mastered) by all but 1 of the 25 skills. The 1 not mastered reads "Locate 2 dimensional figures within 3 dimensional objects". I'm not sure I can do that :)

Ok, so I've talked about behavior and intellect...that leaves me with social skills. Any of you that know Brayden, knows that he is quite the social butterfly. He never meets a stranger and he will talk to anyone that gives him the time of day. He switches best friends as quickly as he switches his underwear. Everyday I hear about a new friend that he's made at recess. Not just Kindergarteners but 1st and 2nd graders too. We went to Wal-Mart last night and we saw 4 kids that he called by name and said hi to. It's like that everywhere we go. Brayden also switches "girlfriends" about once a week. He has talked about girlfriends since he was 3 years old. In preschool, he seemed to keep them for a lot longer, I guess that's because he only had a handful to choose from. Now that he's at a big school, he's sorting through them much more quickly. I asked him about a girl the other day and he explained to me that they had "breaked up". Where does he get this stuff??? I think he just says he has a girlfriend for the sake of having one, because when you ask him what he thinks about girls it's usually negative. I just called him in here and asked "what do you think about girls" he said " (with his thumbs down) they're yucky and they cram the food in their mouth when they eat at lunch". So even though he's always talking about his girlfriends, I don't think I have anything to worry about...yet!

So that's a recap of how school is going. I mentioned in my last post about an incident he caused at school that almost involved the police. I really will get to that...but right now motherhood is calling. Actually it's screaming... "mom can I go outside and play".