And we're off...

I'm sitting in Atlanta in Cousin Brett's room to send out this quick blog post...

and my picture isn't cooperating with me... again... ugh!

So, I took one, but I can't post it.

It was a photo of the roses that Brandon surprised me with when he came home from work today. Since we'll be in Atlanta visiting with family this weekend and won't go out on our own Valentine's date, he got me roses a day early.

We will be celebrating Valentine's Day with Cousin Brett, Aunt Karen, and Uncle Mike tomorrow at IHOP!

After dinner, Brett and I will drive to the airport to pick up Evan! YAY!

44/365

Just another Sunday...

Sort of...

32/365

Brandon watching the Super Bowl

I kinda forgot that the Super Bowl was tonight so we didn't think to make any plans with anyone. It was just a lazy night at home.

I'm more of a college football kind of gal...

Real life conversation between me and Brandon... one, I might add, that is slightly embarrassing. :)

After seeing a commercial for the Super Bowl:

J: "Who do we want to win the Super Bowl? I think I'm pulling for the Cardinals."

B: "Yeah, I'd kinda like for Kurt Warner to win."

J: "Who's that?"

B: "Wow. You are a girl." (he may have even shot me a look of disgust)

**In case you are like me and DON'T follow pro-football... Kurt Warner is the quarterback for the Cardinals. :)

We ain't afraid of a little cold...

That's not entirely true. I HATE the cold.

However, when you have a home project and you've told your bloggy friends that you WILL have that project completed by the end of the week... you brave the cold and do what you gotta do!

16/365

Brandon being a good sport as he works outside in the cold (and dark) to cut the moulding for our guest room.

Brandon pulled out the hat and gloves for this project!

If it hadn't been so cold, I would have had him take a picture of me... I looked ridiculous!

You may have noticed on "the list" the "wear a cute hat" goal. I DON'T wear hats. I think I look goofy in them... most of my adult life my hair has been so short that when I put a hat on, you can't see any of my hair... as if I don't have any. Therefore I do not wear them and that's why it's on my list.

Anyway, even in the freezing cold I refused to wear a hat. My ensemble consisted of my jeans and thin sweater I wore all day, Brandon's bright blue ski jacket (WAY too big for me) and my green and yellow Wallabies scarf WRAPPED AROUND MY HEAD to cover my neck and ears while still allowing me to see. :)

We had 4 pieces of moulding to cut tonight... one to cut tomorrow because it will involve some more complicated cuts than the ones tonight.

Did I mention it was 19 degrees today? (-7 for you Aussies!) That was 19 degrees while the sun was out! Who knows how cold it was while we were outside at night!

Monday Mumblings: Injuries and whatnot

1. My tooth is "less loose" today.

2. I grind my teeth at night so I'm kind of surprised it didn't fall out over night!

3. I had to take Brandon to the eye doctor this morning.

4. He had a "cornea abrasion"... the culprit? Riley.
After my post yesterday, are you really very surprised?

5. This is his 2nd cornea abrasion in 5 years!
The first one was courtesy of Chandler at 7 months old... babies have SHARP fingernails!

6. Currently he's laying in the bed attempting to sleep.

7. I asked him if I could lay in the bed all day if I had a cornea abrasion. :)

8. He threatened to give me one! :)

9. I had a leftover cupcake (from Chandler's party) for breakfast this morning... that's been the highpoint of the day so far!

10. I finally printed my pictures from Australia. They are going into a fun photo album today... I bought it at Target back in October.

*sigh* Here's to hoping that this day gets better from here!

Happy Birthday to Brandon!

Yesterday, November 18th was Brandon's birthday. He is now 29 years old! :P

He had to work yesterday... isn't that how everyone wants to spend their birthday? At work?

We had tacos for dinner last night.

He got a shirt in the mail from my parents and a card from Chandler & Riley.

The girls went to bed at 8:00 and Brandon THOUGHT we were going to watch a movie...

He went outside to change the lightbulb on our front porch when Jonathan and Amy pulled up in the driveway...

On Monday night, I called Amy and invited them to come over to surprise Brandon for his birthday.
I went and got the girls out of bed and we all sat around eating cake... Chandler knew they were coming over and that there was a surprise cake waiting... she did a very good job of keeping the secret. :)

Brandon was surprised and I think he enjoyed getting to hang out with friends on his birthday!

And really, if we are honest about it, ANYTHING would be better than how we spent his birthday last year!

It's ONLY the 7th of October

October has already felt like the longest month of the YEAR!

Brandon came home at lunch today... sick. He said he was feeling ok, but he was coughing and sneezing all over the place so he decided to do everyone at work a favor and LEAVE!

On top of my flu from yesterday (I feel much better today, but still barely have a voice), Riley just head butted me in the eye... If I wake up tomorrow with a black eye I'm going to cry! :)

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Happy Anniversary Brandon! I love you!!

This is us last Friday night at Amber's wedding.


This is us seven years ago - June 23, 2001

Don't we look really young?? Especially Brandon. He says being married to me and having 2 daughters has aged him! :)

We went out on Saturday night to celebrate. (Brandon is at the softball field tonight playing a double header. Obviously Brandon wasn't on the team back in 2001 or we probably wouldn't have set our wedding date for June. :) He would have insisted that we get married after the season was over so he wouldn't miss any games!)

We had dinner at Logan's. It was yummy and we were stuffed... maybe because we ate 3 desserts! Don't worry... they were "Mini Bucket Desserts". Only about 5 bites in each. :) They were delicious and we seriously over ate!

After dinner we had a little time to kill before our movie started so we ran over to Target. I tried on a few dresses (without success)... I'm looking for something to wear to my "business casual" high school reunion this coming weekend. Any suggestions????

We headed over to the theatre to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
I really enjoyed the movie, but I still think The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is my favorite. I LOVED Edmond's character in Prince Caspian. I wish he had played a larger role. When we read all of The Chronicles last summer I remember Edmond having a larger part, but I guess the movie script was written to focus more on the tension surrounding Peter and Caspian (really the tension between Peter and everyone!). I didn't really care of the corny one liners. I don't remember there being as many in tL, tW & tW. The "love story" between Susan and Caspian was ok. In the book he takes an interest in her, but I don't remember it evolving the way the movie played it out. I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it yet. :)
But GOOD NEWS (for me anyway)... If The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is anything like the book at all, Edmond will play a much larger role. :)

Father's Day 2008

I got a little behind in downloading my photos. Here's a Father's Day recap...

We had Brandon open his gifts on Saturday night. I knew Sunday had the potential to be busy between church, naps, and various other things.
Riley was already in bed so she missed out on the presents... It was probably better this way. She had been grumpy all day!

Brandon reading his Coupon Book that Chandler made at the YMCA.

Opening his shirt from the girls/my parents :)

His totally cool/amazing/awesome UGA watch from his equally cool/amazing/awesome wife. :)
Yes, Brandon wears his watch on his right arm... I know it looks wrong, but he's left handed so it works for him!

Chandler showing off a little artwork

Sunday afternoon Brandon and I cleaned out the inside of both vehicles. A daunting task that I had been dreading!! Now it's done and they look great. It's been almost a week and we've managed to keep them clean. :)

The girls enjoying some Capri Sun and a movie while we cleaned the vehicles.
Again Riley is not wearing pants... I didn't realize it, but apparently she spends many days "pantless".

I win!

Yep that's right, I win.
If there was a prize for the best husband... Brandon would get it, but I would be the real winner because I get to be married to him. :)

Wednesday night was the BIG Royal Rangers Pinewood Derby Race. I thought it was VERY successful and ran quite smooth considering all of the excited boys you have sitting (I use the term sitting very loosely) and waiting for their turn to see their car race.

Anyway, Brandon works really hard during derby season. They work on the boy's cars on Wednesday nights during class. They have several Saturday work days in order to get the cars done in time for the race. Brandon orders trophies. He take the time to make everything just right for race night... the lights, the music, the track. He sends out detailed "job lists" so that the other commanders know exactly what is expected of them on race night.

So, here's where the husband awards comes into place.
1. On Wednesday night while he was making his "Thank You" speeches, he remembered to thank the wives of the commanders for "allowing" the commanders to spend so much time away from their families and working on derby stuff. :)
2. Yesterday just before dinner there was a knock on the door. He ordered, and had delivered 30 long stem roses! They were/are BEAUTIFUL.

You are supposed to give them about 18 to 24 hours for them to open up and look their best so I'll add a picture later... I just wanted to brag on him while it was fresh in my mind!

Thank you Brandon! You are the best husband I've ever had. :)

UPDATE!: Here are photos of the BEAUTIFUL flowers!

Birthday Blues! **Not for the faint of heart or queasy stomach!

A few days ago we "celebrated" Brandon's 28th birthday. I know, you are probably thinking, "This girl posted 3 entries about her nephew's birthday and is 2 days late even mentioning her husband's birthday!!"

Here's the reason for my delay...

Sunday, November 18th was going to be a BUSY day at the Miles house. It was not only a Sunday (which is busy enough), but also Brandon's birthday AND I was scheduled to help hostess a baby shower that afternoon as well.

Well... 12:00 Saturday night/Sunday morning I woke up and had THAT feeling. You know the feeling... the one that's border line sick... the one that makes you think, "oh no... I can't get sick, not today!" Yep, that's the one.

I said a quick prayer, "God it's Brandon's birthday and you know how much I have to do today... PLEASE oh please don't let me be sick!!!"

1:00 am... SICK! VERY SICK! I crawled (that's pretty much a literal "crawled") back into bed only to hear Chandler coughing. Brandon (who had previously been "helping" me in the bathroom... my hair is too short to need anyone to hold it back for me!) jumped up and ran to check on her. The next thing I hear is, "Hurry Chandler! Run to the bathroom!!" Yep, she was sick too! Unfortunately we were too late... It was EVERYWHERE! Brandon and I had to strip the sheets off of the guest bed and spot clean the carpet... She has been sleeping in the guest room for about 2 months now because, "[her] bed is not comfy." I got her all cleaned up and put her in my bed.
It was then that I realized that when she went to bed she had PJ pants on... when I found her in the bathroom she didn't have PJ pants on. I asked her where her pants were and she replied, "I took them off because they had frow-up on them." I felt HORRIBLE. Apparently, when Brandon went in to the guest room she was on the floor at the bottom of the bed... best we can figure, she was attempting to get to the bathroom before she got sick and didn't make it so she was trying to clean it up all by herself! POOR BABY!

Brandon decided to leave us sick folk in our room and he went and slept in Chandler's bed in the girls' room. It hadn't been slept in for a while. :)

3:00 am... Same thing all over again! I got sick, crawled back in bed and awoke 10 minutes later to Chandler coughing and throwing up in MY bed! UGH!!! Brandon didn't wake up this time... I cleaned Chandler, got another set of fresh PJs, put the guest bed sheets in the dryer and put my sheets in the washer.... NOW WHERE DO WE SLEEP?!?! We were all out of beds so we went to the sofas. Chandler on the sofa, me on the love seat... makes sense right? since she's so much taller than me? :)
I was a little smarter this time. I put sheets and a towel under her and a beach towel on top of her, just in case.

Neither one of us was keen on the idea of sleeping only to be awaken in a similar fashion so we poped in a Veggie Tales movie (Josh and the Big Wall). I dozed in and out of sleep for the next little while.

5:00 am... Almost the same story... I got sick, Chandler got sick, Brandon woke up and came to check on us. We were able to avoid changing the sheets (thanks to the towel!). Since Brandon was up we wished him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and gave him his gift. We bought him The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Chandler wanted him to watch it with her, but I convinced her to let him go back to bed for a while... it was his birthday after all! We put her back on the sofa with a clean towel. Since she was so sick, Brandon gave her permission to watch it without him. I don't think Chandler or I made it past the first 20 minutes.

Sometime between 5:30 am and 8:00 am Chandler got sick 2 more times... dirty towels were really starting to pile up!

8:00 am... Brandon starts getting sick. Have I mentioned that it was his birthday? We are obviously NOT going to make it to church much less the baby shower. I made the calls that I needed to make: the choir line to tell them not to expect me in the choir and Melanie to tell her that I'm not going to make it to the shower.

8:30 am... We all crashed in the living room.

By this point the only positive thing we've got going for us is that Riley is still sleeping!

She woke up sometime later (I have NO idea when) and was quite pleasant and not as clingy has she has been. Thankfully that meant we didn't have to touch her very much. She spent most of the day in her excer-saucer watching Baby Einstein movies while we laid anywhere that we possibly could... remember all the beds are dirty!

About noon I ran to Walmart to pick up Pedialyte for Chandler. That's the best to avoid dehydration in kids... it's not to bad for grownups either.

Chandler and I avoided what Chandler calls, "the frow-ups" for the rest of the day... Brandon, not so much.

He decided that it would be better to go to Chattanooga, pick up his laptop and work from home on Monday than to get the whole office sick right before Thanksgiving.
About 4:00 he felt a little better so he started getting ready to go... we ate some applesauce (the first solid thing we had had all day) and he got dressed. It was at this moment that Riley decided to get sick!
We took her to the tub and stripped her naked. It wasn't even worth washing the clothes she was wearing... I threw them away! We bathed her and Brandon headed off to Chattanooga.
While he was gone Riley got sick again. Chandler was a real trooper, she helped me get Riley washed, dried and changed without complaining once! She actually even came in the bathroom and said, "what can I do to help, Mom?" I looked at her stunned and then remembered poor Riley and knew I couldn't stop to ponder this transformation long... I had to take advantage of it!

This has been extremely long, but it doesn't even begin to do justice to how incredible LONG the day was!! We kept saying, "Is it still Sunday?"

Riley got sick one more time before bed. I managed to save the clothes that time.

We all slept ok... no middle of the night bathroom dashes.

Monday, Brandon stayed home. I felt better, Chandler felt better, Brandon felt a little better, Riley got sick 3 more times.... That made 6 baths in less than 24 hours!!!

I'm praying that next year for Brandon's birthday we are all sick-free and we can really let him enjoy his day!
Notice that I may not have spared any written details, but I didn't include pictures... you can thank me for that later! :)

Who needs television?

Tonight after cleaning up from dinner, I noticed that it was unusually quiet in my house. I could hear Brandon's voice, but I couldn't exactly tell where it was coming from. I started down the hallway and this is what I found in the girls' room....

Apparently they were audience to the story of Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors as can only be told by the Cow from Baby Einstein.

Times like these remind me of what a GREAT dad Brandon really is!!

Krystals: How many can you eat?

This afternoon we raced home from church, wolfed down some sandwiches, changed clothes in a frenzy and loaded up in the Explorer. You are probably wondering, "What in the world was SO important that they raced around like that?" Let me take you back to Friday night.....

Friday night was movie night at our house. Chandler had been dying to rent "Meet the Robinsons". I picked up a pizza (Can't beat Little Caesar's $5.00 large pepperoni) and we sat in the living room together over pizza and a movie.
At one point during all of this family fun, Brandon looks over at me and says, "Do you know what happens on Sunday?"
My obvious answer, "football?"
His response, "No, well yes, but I mean other than football."
(You heard it here first girls!!! There is something other than football on Sunday afternoon!!!!)

The next few words are ones that I will not soon forget.....
"The World Championship of Krystal Eating!!!" (or something similar... ok I did forget the EXACT words he used)
My not so excited reponse, "On tv?"
His extremely excited reply, "NO IN CHATTANOOGA!!!"
At this point he realizes that I'm not quite as excited as he thought I would be so he tries to sell me on it, "There will be games for the kids, free give aways and FREE KRYSTALS!"
I figure I can get Chandler to go and keep her happy with the thought of getting to play games so I give in and we decide to go.

THAT is why we were racing around like crazy people on a Sunday afternoon.

However, the event started at noon. The contest did not start until 2:30. We got there about 1:30... the games are gone, the free give away consisted of some pom-poms and big blowup noise sticks (see pictures below) AND the line for free Krystals is never ending! (I shouldn't be surprised... free food = all the people in the tri-state area trying to get there before it runs out... it did run out before we got any... I was NOT going to stand in that line with Chandler AND Riley. We did manage to get some free drinks.)

There is an upside to all of this! The event was televised LIVE on ESPN. I sent my sister a text message that said, "ESPN 2:30. Look for us". Well, she did and SHE SAW US! Well, actually she only saw me. We were only on for a second and she was looking for me so she's not sure if Brandon and the girls were on there or not.

We actually had a lot of fun and I'm glad we went. Maybe we'll do it all again next year... with better planning of course!

Here are a few pictures from our day at the Krystal Square Off IV World Hamburger Eating Championship!!!

Something more important must have been going on just over my shoulder!

Chandler when she finally came to grips with the fact that there were not going to be any games for her to play... like we promised!

The contest in full swing. It only lasts 8 minutes!

The winner. 8 minutes. 103 Krystal burgers. Joey Chestnut!!
(left to right: George Shea, Pat Bertoletti(3rd place), Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, Krystal Kitty (Joey's burger counter), and "Humble" Bob Shoudt(2nd place))

Chandler's free noise sticks

Our competitive eating champ!!!!

Chandler and Mom outside of the Tennessee Aquarium... this is actually the spot where Brandon proposed to me.

another picture outside of the Aquarium.