Race for the Cure 2011

 Sarah, Brooke, and myself posing by our picture at the Kitty Degree booth at the Race for the Cure.

 Jason, Jarrett, Brooke, and I

 The start of scouting for the cure. The girl scouts signed the posters to show their support at the mall lockin and then we used them to cheer on the runners.

 Morgan cheered with Mrs. Dana and I at the finish line. We had a blast and were really impressed by the runners.

 Jason and Jarrett beat their time from last year. They made it in 1 hr and 1 minute.

 Tonya and Alli were around 45 minutes. Way to go!!!

It was a very moving survivor ceremony. Thank you to my girl scouts who came out to support me and this wonderful cause. (Thanks: Morgan, Abby I, Allie, Sarah, and Brooke)

Thanks also to my wonderful parents who came all of the way from Tennessee to help celebrate me being a survivor. They are also racing in their local race for the cure. I love ya'll tremendously~!!

I love you all 

Love Mrs. Brandi

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It was tremendously hard last night at the visitation. She is being buried in her girl scout shirt. That is what made Darinda and I not be able to hold it together anymore. They had all of her accomplishments laid out school and girl scout. It was so hard seeing the pictures and all of the memories. She was such a wonderful person. The heavens gained a precious gift and we lost one. I wish so bad I could have gone to the funeral. I am going to go help Darinda with their first meeting since the accident in a little over a week. She is going to have a counselor come too so the girls can have someone to talk to. I probably will not know the other girls, but I will be there to help Darinda with the meeting.

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Lost Girl Scout

I think I have two issues going on here. Saturday we lost a wonderful and sweet girl scout sister. She was such a great girl. It breaks my heart for her and her family. I made her an arrangement covered with girl scout swaps, badges, and cookie prizes which I will take with me to the visitation tomorrow night. I wish I could go to the funeral, but I don't do well with them and that has to do with the second issue I have going on. This is bringing back horrible childhood memories of loosing a friend of mine when I was 10 yrs old. She was a church friend. We had gone to Six Flags with the church and had ridden all of the rides together and shortly after we returned home she was crossing the street and was struck and killed. I still can remember the funeral and how she looked and what she was wearing and even where we sat. I don't fault my parents at all for taking me to the funeral, but I really feel that is why I can't attend funerals to this day. I can't even attend a family member of a friend (that I didn't even know's) funeral. I am not allowing Brooke to go to the visitation or funeral, but she hasn't even asked to go. I just didn't even mention it to her. I did tell her about Elizabeth and her accident and she helped make the swaps for the flowers. I am going to go to the visitation tomorrow and together Darinda and I are going to hold each other up. We can be strong together.

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Oh Cool. I figured out how to change my blog background. I sooo love it.

It reminds me of my oldest and dearest daughter Ashley. I miss you tons and love you tremendously. I can't wait to see you in March. :)

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Girl Scout Cookie Seasons from the past. :)

2010 Brooke and Kailey having a blast at a Walmart Booth sale. :)Poor Brooke. Being a leader's daughter means you must help at each and every booth sale. Oh well. Hopefully she'll be an awesome leader in the future.

Allie, Brooke, Kailey, and Avian selling cookies for the solider's overseas and showing a picture of our own veteran, my brother Ryan. We have been sending cookies to local soldiers overseas every year as a troop. The past 2 yrs the girl scout office has acknowledge us donating cookies to the soldiers by giving us a cookie badge for it.

Kailey, Paige, Brooke, McKenzie, and Symphanie making cookie swaps. That year we made homemade cookies from the recipe of the first batch of girl scout cookies. We made a cup of milk swap and a batch of cookies swap. We role played with funny scenarios the girl's might face while selling cookies. We set our goals and colored posters for our upcoming booth sales. I think this was 2010.

2009. We were asked to be on the morning show to tell about our new girl scout cookies. Brooke loved it. I on the other hand wasn't thrilled to have to talk on TV, but who am I to not let her have this once in a lifetime experience. lol
Brooke selling cookies wih her wa about gon. This year she is even thinking about deocrating the wagon and making a box like the old cigar sellers from the 60's maybe???

Brooke and all her cookie selling spunk. :) She really loves cookie season.

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It's Girl Scout Cookie time. Yeahhhhhh.

Cookies go on sale friday. :)

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Brooke's Snow B-Day

I gave Brooke a choice for her birthday... the money to go shopping or a party. She chose...

The Money for a DSI. I did let her have Holland and her sister Montgomery spend the night. They made pizza's, had ice cream cake, and had a blast playing in her room.
Oh and when Holland and Montgomery went to go home on Brooke's birthday Jan 9th guess what??????? It was snowing. The kids quickly got dressed for the cold and ran outside.

It snowed hard for about 15mins and the kids enjoyed each and every minute of it.
It didn't stick, but as long as we see snow that is all that matters. We do have the most awesome hill if it ever does stick. Sledding party at my house if it ever sticks. :)

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Christmas in Tennessee

Me and my fixing to be sister in law Amanda.
Ashley and her boyfriend Kyle. He has 2 pluses in his favor... he is a BOYSCOUT and he has straight A's. :)Ashley and her best friend Tripp.
Ashley and I enjoying the snow in downtown Franklin.

We had such an awesome day. It started snowing and snowed harder and harder as the day went on. By the time we left to go home we slid alot. School is canceled tomorrow and Mom and Ashley get a "snow day". Yeahhhh. Dad and I are seeing the nutritionist and then going to spend time with Ash and Mom. Ryan and Amanda came over and we had a snow party and Ashley and I made her teacher gifts. I even got an early christmas present from Ryan and Amanda. Toooo sweet. :)

1 more wonderful day with my family and then flying back home, but don't fret... I will see them again friday when they drive down for christmas. lol

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2010-12-11 BDay at Tennessee

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I am having an awesome visit with my family in Tennessee. I got to watch Ashley perform with her show choir and attend a IHS basketball game and watch Ashley cheer. Needless to say it was a very rough school with police presence and "Momma Bear" had to come out, but we had a blast. I love watching Ashley perform in anything she does. I also got to watch Ashley practice partner stunts with her cheer partner Tripp. They are awesome!!! The following video is them practicing. This is super hard. I watched them pratice over and over and over.

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No More Chemo Cruise

Ashley and Mom posing by our ship the Carnival Triumph. Each night we had diner at a table that overlooked the ocean. It was definitely adventures in eating. I had duck, lobster, steak, and tons of other great food. Everyone's (except mine) fav dessert was the melted choc cake. My fave was the creme brulee, but they only had it one night. Mmmm.

At Progresso we got some awesome bottle cokes. I think they were so good b/c we were sooooo hot.

Look how excited we look. My Mom has decided that this is the only way to spend a family vacation. She was already planning our next cruise before this one was over. I soooooo can't wait. It was so much fun. I loved spending all of the time with my family.

Me looking out over the deep blue water. The wind was awesome. It was so relaxing. Just we learned quick "Skirt alert". haha

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Chemo is over!!!

Chemo is over and I hope to have more time to keep up with my blog. I hope to publish it for me one day like a scrapbook. It would be pretty neat to read about all of our precious memories. I am going to add the No More Chemo cruise pictures soon. I can't believe it's almost been a solid year since I have updated my blog. It was just hard keeping up with my caringbridge, blog, and Facebook. I chose Facebook. Sorry. If anyone knows how to have their blog printed please let me know. Tks.

2009 Girl Scout Mall LockIn

LeAnn, Hannah, & Abbie. Super excited before all of the activities started.

Sorry I couldn't move the pictures so they are backwards. Sorry The above picture is Emily & Savannah trying hard not to go to sleep. Sleep won later. lol

Brooke, Paige, Symphanie and her Mom after all of the activities winding down for the rest of the night. (2 hrs haha)

Anna-K was already asleep, but Katie and Danielle stayed up playing all night long. Katie wanted to go home at the beginning of the night, but I convinced her to stay for the activities and she ended up having a blast and giggled and played all night long. She'll definitely want to go to next years mall lockin. :)

Kailey, Amber ? (can't tell from this picture), and Sycoia (our tagalong which is does not have a troop so she hung out with us all night) See all girl scouts are sisters at heart. Even if they are not in our troop they are friends of ours b/c we are all girl scouts.

Then we have LeAnn & Hannah. 2 Peas n a Pod. Super sweet.

Here are some pictures of us line dancing. Yeah I didn't get to get out there this year, but all the other mother's did. I bet this is what they look forward to every year. lol The girls love it also.

Katie line dancing.

Sarah, Danielle, & Morgan line dancing.

Alyssa getting her nails done with Sycoia watching.

Katie & Ashley getting their nails done.

Anna-K getting her nails done. The Kappa Delta Sorority girls are awesome to the girl scouts. They helped with the line dancing, craft, nail painting, & pizza. The ULM RN students taught handwashing and the girls really learned it. I was amazed. You would think at 2 am they'd be too tired to learn something, but they weren't.

Here's little Miss LeAnn getting her nails done.

And Morgan.

And Abbie.

Here's the girls learning handwashing.

Here is Sarah & Ashley doing the craft. They made bath salt. Mom's the recipe is rock salt, 2 drops of food coloring (no more), and 2 drops of whatever smell you'd like. Hope you all enjoy it.

Here's Abbie making the bath salt.

Here is our whole group minus the 8 Mom's that helped. Thank you super super super much Mom's. I could not have done it without you. That is a fact. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some of the Mom's: Dana, Jennifer, Sherry, & Kelli. We initiated the new Mom's in good with the Mall LockIn and staying up all night. It was fun though. Dana, Sherry, Jennifer, and I are repeat Mom's. We had so much fun last year we couldn't wait to attend it again. Hope my new Mom's feel the same way for next year. lol

Here's one of my new Mom's and her 2 girls: Tru & Alyssa.

Here is Emily & Hannah enjoying the pizza after the movie.

Here's another one of my new Mom's Serena and her daughter Morgan enjoying the pizza with Katie.

Here is Symphanie, Sycoia, & Paige enjoying the movie. We saw "Cloudy with the chance of Meatball." It was great. I don't usually like kid movies, but this one was good.

Here is Sycoia, Katie, Brooke, & Sarah waiting patiently for the lockin to start.

Brooke, Sarah, Ashley, & Morgan with their build a bears.

Emily & Savannah Don't you just love their swap hats. :) Cute.

Here is my three muskateers: Danielle, Katie, & Anna-Katherine.

Amber, Alyssa, & Natalie my little group for the evening. They were super sweet and I loved watching how much fun they had.

Paige & Symphanie excited for the evening to start.

All in all we had a blast. We had a few go to bed early, but we put our campout spot in the quietest spot in the mall so that worked out. Since I had lots of help this year we split the group up and that mad the scavenger hunt work this year. It also probably helped that I warned the girls that if this year's scavenger hunt went badly like the last 2 yrs we would immediately stop and not do it next year definitley. The girls earned it for next year. Yeah girls!!!! Thank you for making the night easy on me and having a great time. You all are super girls and I am so glad you all are in my troop. I am so looking forward to making this year of girl scouts loads of fun for you all.

Mrs. Brandi

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