the one about Brett's trip

So Brett finally made it home (a week ago.... sorry. I have been busy). Anyway, he and his buddy Todd were chosen to go to the National Fire Academy. It was a pretty big honor to be selected to go and they were super excited about it. The school part of it was 6 days, but they added a few days for sight seeing. They were supposed to be home last Sunday, but their flight was changed and they were not aware of it, so they missed it. They couldn't get another flight until the next day, so it was Monday night before they got home. I don't want to tell all about it because I will surely get details confused, so I just want to post a few pictures. If I can get Brett to sit down for a second and write all about it, I will post it. Because it was super interesting and cool. They went to a lot of the civil war battle fields and did the Washington D.C. thing. I teased him that he got to go with his BOY FRIEND on a big NERD tour. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE America and our awesome history, I just know I would have gotten very bored with all of that stuff. Especially the civil war stuff. Sorry. I don't love history. Don't judge me. Anyway, one of MY favorite parts of his trip was the memorial at the Pentagon. It had only been dedicated for a few days when they got there.
There were one of these bench-looking things for each person who was killed at the Pentagon on 9/11. the ones facing one direction were for the victims on the plane and the others for the victims killed in the Pentagon at the time of the attack. Kinda cool.

Their school was really cool too. They had this awesome memorial in remembrance of 9/11. It's HUGE!
The Fallen Firefighter Memorial
This is at the graduation ceremony. Doesn't Brett look so handsome?
They had a good time and I am glad Brett got to go. I am super proud of him and for all of his dedication to the Fire Department. He is so smart and I know he takes this stuff very serious. Good job Brett!!!! I am so proud of you!

Here are just a few more pictures of some fun stuff they did while on their NERD tour.


WHAT?!?!?! HOOTERS?!?!? I am sure they only went there for the amazing hot wings. ;)

the one about make-up

I LOVE make-up. I just love feeling girly and pretty. I have super sensitive skin though and most things make me break out. Several years ago, I was introduced to Mary Kay stuff. I love it TONS!!! I do not sell it or ever wish to sell it, so DON'T ASK!!! But I really believe the product is awesome, I am not allergic to it and it makes my skin look nice. A win-win-win situation. Now, the reason I am telling you this is not to make you feel pressured to buy it or anything crazy like that. I swear. The real intent of this post is to show off my sweet new stuff! I live with boys. They don't give two hoots about this stuff, so I had to rely on you, my faithful readers to share in my joy. Lookie!! Isn't this sah-WEET!?!? I got to pick all of the colors and stuff that I wanted. Its so much fun. I mix and match different color combos every day! My Mary Kay girl is AWESOME! Her name is Alicen and she takes very good care of me. If you want Mary Kay stuff, she could SO hook you up.

the one about out 10 year anniversary

Can you believe it? Today is our 10 year Anniversary. We were married on September 19, 1998. It's so crazy to think that I have been married for that long! We were babies when we got married and sometimes I wonder what in the HELL we were thinking... but you know... I wouldn't change it for anything. Contrary to popular believe, Brett is such a great guy. He takes care of me, he respects me and he loves me. Most people don't get to see the REAL Brett. So I am going to list 10 things about him that might surprise you.

#1 He is one of the funniest and silliest people I have ever met. Although, he likes people to think he is all business.
#2 He pulls the most HIDEOUS faces at me sometimes just to make me laugh.
#3 You can't argue with him, not only because he is "always right," but because he is such a dork! I try to get mad at him and he does anything he can to turn it around. He either pulls the stupid faces or says something annoying. He looks at me, shrugs his shoulders and in a little-kid-with-a-lisp voice, says, "Sorry."
#4 He is quite sensitive. Not in a "sweet & romantic" kind of way, but in a "Put up a wall and don't let anybody in" kind of way. I am just so glad that I am the one that gets to be on the inside of that wall.
#5 He is CRAZY smart. Seriously. It's kind of annoying, actually.
#6 He couldn't win a race if he had too. He used to enjoy running, but he is really slow. It's weird. It's like his legs don't move or something.
#7 He is probably the best dad on the planet. He is so cute with Quayd and Quayd is SO lucky to have him all to himself!
#8 He is HORRIFIED of birds. He just freaks out when he sees them. He thinks they will peck his eyes out.
#9 If I can ever get him to do it, he gives the BEST back rubs/tickles/scratches. He won't do it much though because I never do it back. I HATE to scratch backs, and he is SO ticklish that if I "brush" his skin in a certain way, he squirms and giggles like a little girl. It makes me crazy so I don't do it much. Therefore, he doesn't get to return the favor.
#10 He rarely moves or rolls over in his sleep. He gets in the same position every night and doesn't move.

#10 is the one I am missing right now, because Brett is out of town and won't be back until Sunday. He left LAST THURSDAY! So I haven't got to have him next to me at night. And it sucks. He went to The National Fire Academy in Washington D.C. (He is taking lots of pictures so I can blog about it soon. Then I will give more details.) We have known for some time that he would be gone on our anniversary, and although I was prepared, I have been sitting here kind of sad all evening. Quayd played with Brennen and ate dinner over there. I was just going to have cereal, but I decided to walk over to my brothers and see if they had any leftovers. They did. So I ate cold Taco's by myself. Isn't that pitiful? I planned on going to sleep early, but I got really lonesome and couldn't sleep. What a crappy anniversary. Oh well. We will make up for it when he gets home. He owes me a BIG FAT DATE!!!!! I am not one of those wives who freaks out when the hubby is away. I miss him, but I am glad he got to go to the school. It is actually a big honor to go and I am really proud of him. I have been fine having him gone, but 10 nights is a long time. My bed is not empty though. It is full of a bed hogging, squirming, kicking, tossing & turning, 6 year old little bear. :) Quayd is a fun bed partner, but I sure miss my big, scruffy, non moving husband.

I love you so much Bretty!! Thanks for putting up with me for all of these years. You are the best and I will love you forever. Come home SOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!! Happy 10 Year Anniversary!

the one about walking to the bus

Sorry for all of the posts about my cute little Grandpa lately, but I had to borrow my Grandma's camera for the cowboy picture and found some of these. Anyway, Pop walks the boys down to the bus everyday. They love to have him go with them and I can almost bet he loves it too. I can set my watch to him showing up on my back step at about 10 to 7. I just think it is so cute. Even when I offer to walk them, they turn me down. They would rather have Pop take them.

the one about Pop's garden

My Grandpa has an AMAZING garden. He works so hard on it all summer. He is actually pretty OCD about it. We have been enjoying yellow squash and green beans for a couple of months now and the tomatoes are coming on like crazy! We eat them non stop. YUMMY! In fact, Quayd insists on having one in his lunch every day. I have to cut it up and put salt and pepper on it. I am sure he is the only one at his school who has a tomato in his lunch. I have trained him well! Anyway, the pumpkins are getting bigger and bigger each day. The kids can hardly wait to pick theirs and carve it.

the one about the cowboy

Quayd's friend Spencer had a cowboy Birthday party the other day. It was such a fun party and Quayd had a great time. They got to dress up as cowboys, and since we are SO FAR from being cowboys, we had to seek costume help. I knew Brennen would have some stuff! He let Quayd borrow some boots and the chaps that Pop made for him. He found an old hat at Pop's. Of course I had no idea how to put the chaps on, so I had to have Pop's assistance. But don't you think he makes a pretty cute little cowpoke?
Pop makes a pretty cute one too, I think!

the one about missing Papa

Again, I found these pictures while going through some old ones a while back. They are from Thanksgiving (2003, I guess) and Mike was in the VA hospital in Grand Junction, Co. We had dinner with my family around noon, then packed up a big thermos bag thing and took dinner to Mike. I had totally forgotten about these pictures. They were filed away in "Thanksgiving Pictures," and there were only a few in there (I mean who REALLY takes pictures at Thankgiving? Although, it is a perfect time to do so). Needless to say, they have been overlooked since, well, 2003. Mike was so excited to see Quayd that day. It was just Brett, Quayd, Talia and I that went to be with him, and it was sort of a surprise. Mike's reaction was priceless! Ohhhhhh, I really miss him.

the one about Q-tips

If any of you know my little Quayd-er at all, you know that he LOVES Q-tips! I consider myself pretty addicted to them too. I have always needed to use them right after I bathe, shower or swim because I hate having that itchy wet feeling in my ears. But good old Quayd has taken it to the next level. He uses them several times a day. I have often worried that he has something wrong with his ears, but on several occasions, the doctor has confirmed that his ears are fine. And very clean, I might add! Anyway, I was going through some old pictures a couple of weeks ago and I found these from when he was a baby and they just made me laugh. Obviously the obsession started pretty young!

the one about 1993

This one's for you, Tara!!!

You Belong in 1993

With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

What Year Do You Belong In?

the one about Quayd's 6th Birthday

I feel like the most terrible mother in the world because I haven't blogged about Quayd's Birthday yet. It was a great day, but I have just been super busy lately. Oh, who am I kidding. It was a terrible day, but we made the best of it. Quayd's Birthday happened to be the same day as my Great-Grandma's funeral. Luckily, I had planned his Birthday party for the day before. But unluckily, the party was a total fiasco! Allow me to explain...

So, I had made arrangements for Quayd's party to be a swimming party at the Rec. Center. He loves swimming there and that is what he wanted to do. I booked and paid for the thing clear back in June. Well about two weeks before the party, I was making the invitations (which turned out ADORABLE, by the way) and decided I better double check on the time and make sure everything was still good to go.


They assured me that everything was fine. I finished up the invites and we delivered them. Quayd and I worked so hard creating, finding addresses, delivering and spreading the word to all of his friends. So, as I mentioned before, my Great Grandma passed away the day before the party, and her funeral was the day after the party and on his actual Birthday. Not only that, but the day of the party was the one year anniversary of the passing of Brett's dad. I was working EXTRA hard to make his party be NORMAL and to focus only on Quayd! It wasn't hard, because he is such a great kid and he was SO UNDERSTANDING, considering the circumstances. Anyway, we got to the Rec. Center about 25 minutes early. Brayden, Brennen, Amelia, and Kasen rode with us. They were so excited! They helped me get everything inside and we got everything loaded in the party room. Kids were starting to arrive and I noticed that nobody was in the pool. I asked our "party consultant" if we got the pool to ourselves or what. She was like, "I'm not sure. I will go check." Well, I walked back outside, leaving the kids in the room, and the lady stopped me at the front desk. She said, "Ummmm.... You do know that the pool is closed, right?" I just stared at her. I said, "Well, no. This is a swimming party and I booked it months ago, so no. Obviously I was not aware that the pool was closed." Well, our conversation goes on and basically, they changed the hours of the pool and nobody noticed that I had a party booked at that time. I even brought up how irritating it was that I had double checked just about 2 weeks earlier. She was very apologetic and they offered to do this big inflatable obstacle course in the gym, free of charge. (Yah, no duh. Free of charge!) They ended up refunding part of the cost and they did what they could to make it right. Even as MAD as I was at the time, I have to admit now that they handled it all pretty well. It was sucky and frustrating, but oh well. The kids LOVED the obstacle course. I even asked Quayd later what he thought of his party, and he thought it was wonderful. My biggest gripe is that I worked so hard making the invitations, cupcakes and party favors, which were fish themed. So it seemed stupid that they didn't go with the party. Yes, I know. I am a freak. But this is the hell that I live in. If you know me at all, you know how freaked out I get when things don't go exactly as planned. I try to be accommodating and relaxed, but I am just not. I notice that I get better with age, but I am still not perfect. I have to say this though. Thank goodness for Holly. She decided to come with her boys to the party and she stayed with me the whole time. I couldn't have made it without her. She visited with me and it totally calmed my nerves so I didn't have a complete meltdown during the ordeal. Let me share a few pictures.







When the party was over, and the parents were picking the kids up, Brett challenged GJ to a race on the obstacle course. It was so funny, and the kids LOVED watching.


Ok, enough of the party. Moving on.... So of course, we had a funeral on the morning of Quayd's Birthday, but for that night, I had made arrangements with my boss for us to be able to stay at the hotel. I thought it would be cool for Quayd to be able to invite a friend to stay, and of course, he wanted Brennen. Well, Brayden felt bad, so I let him come too. I went to the room early and decorated it. I put Quayd's gift in there and bought tons of treats.

We ordered Pizza for dinner, swam in the pool and watched movies. Quayd and Brayd slept in one bed, Brett and I in the other, and we made Brennen a bed on the floor.

They have a yummy breakfast every morning so we ate, showered and came home. Quayd and Brennen showered together and they had so much fun!!! We could hear them giggling clear down the hall!



It was really a pretty good Birthday, all things considered. I just can't believe that my baby is 6. I usually get so emotional around his Birthday. It brings back so many memories of the whole event. Getting him here was so difficult and I am reminded of the miracle every August 30th. He is such an amazing kid and I love him so much. I often wonder why I was chosen to be his mother. I can see so much potential in him and I know he will grow up to be AMAZING! I just hope I don't totally screw him up before he reaches his goals. He told Brett and I just today that when he gets a little bigger, he would like to play soccer in the Olympics. I hope he can. And I hope he never quits dreaming about it. I love you my little Quayd-er-ade!! Happy Birthday!!!