Fall TV Schedule

Biggest Loser Tuesday Sept. 16th

Lipstick Jungle Wed Sept 24th

Grey's Anatomy Thur Sept 25th

Survivor Gabon Thur Sept 25th

Amazing Race Sun Sept 28th

Yes Ashley & I are addicted to TV. We'd attend TV Ananimous if we wanted to. These are just a slight few we watch. I don't have enough space on this blog to list what all we watch. (Yeah Lipstick Jungle is for my eyes only!) Yeah!!!! Just like when football starts for guys we get excited about fall and spring TV seasons. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh Yeah and anyone can call during any of these shows b/c we are loving us some TIVO. :)

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Bayou Jam

Hmmmm. I didn't make it. Let's see what happens if I move closer and bend down a little bit. Hmmmmm Almost got it.Hmmm I wonder if I can jsut bend down and place it around the coke bottle. Did anyone notice? Awww they said I could win b/c they think I'm a baby. Oh well I'll be a baby just this once to win some candy.Next we saw a fire truck. My children are used to fire trucks so they weren't jumping up and down with excitment. I'm sure the firemen were wondering why not until Brooke said her Dad was a firemand and they put two and two together and realized they had grown up with fire trucks. One of them was A.J.'s (who I went through Rookie EMT-Basic training with.) brother. Don't you just love it when they put their fingers in their mouth when they are a little uncomfortable. I'm going to miss that when he's all grown up.Jarrett had a blast in the blow-up obstacle course. He wouldn't go through it, but he would pretend he was boxing at the end.
Here he is soooo determined to win at boxing his imaginary opponent.
I'm sorry most of these pictures are Jarrett b/c I couldn't keep Brooke still enough for a picture. She would do the game super fast and run off to the next one. Here is Jarrett throwing the ball. Everyone was so nice. They all gave him prizes even if he didn't win.
Here was Jarrett's favorit part. He lovvvvvved the tough trucks. (Mel this is where I thought I saw your hubby.)

We have reached a wonderful milestone......... Jarrett no longer plays in the water at the duckie game. Yeahhhhh!!!!!
Here's Brooke bouncing nicely b/c of the babies inside.

We had a hard time getting him away from the bouncy thing. He even wanted to bounce in it after the football game. Thank goodness that someone deflated it while we were at the game.
Brooke in the obstacle course.
My girls!!! Brooke is still somewhat wearing the butterfly today. All it is, is a faded pink outline. I think she has skin kind of like my sisters. It would make a sore where my sister wore any type of tattoos or had her face painted. I have watched her wash it off and it doesn't come off. Oh well. At least I know her face is clean.

We attended the Ouachita (My hubby & I graduated from there.) game. And we also attended half of the West Monroe game (Ashley goes there). This was Brooke & Jarrett's first football game. Jarrett did better than we thought he would. He played with a football Brooke caught and snacked on nachos, popcorn, and hotdog. (I know I am a bad mother. That was our supper.) Brooke enjoyed it too. She would turn around and ask if it was time for her to yell. Usually it was all three of us (Ashley, Hubby, and myself) saying "No" in unisome. Usually if it was time for her to yell she'd see us yelling and yell herself. Jarrett didn't like us yelling. I guess he's not used to it being very loud. Brooke is the pro at catching junk. She caught a large football, small football, chick-fil-a cow, mega phone thrown by the cheerleaders, and something else I can't remember. She is not shy. She'd get all up in the middle of everyone and she would just about tackle you to get it. Maybe she should play football. HaHa :) In the end both of our teams won, and we now know that the kids can tolerate a football game. So were more likely to attend one in the future.
The kids and us had a blast. We will definitelty go to the Bayou Jam again.

Brandi

p.s. Hubby and Brooke are at a B-Day party at Build-a-bear today. Let's see how it goes when Brooke has a limit on what she can get. I told her she could have a bear and one outfit. (This does not include pannies, socks, shoes, hats, or accessories.) I let them get the works last time and it cost me a small fortune and they don't even know where it all is. I told her she could earn one item at a time from there with her conduct and grades to give her something to work towards besides candy.

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Hurricane Gustav

Well I really feel blessed right now. I answered phones for 5 hours about people's house flooding, people being trapped in flooded houses. etc. I didn't even have a moment to breath b/c of the severity of the situation. It's hard to talk people into leaving their houses when they don't want to, but need to. Ashley has really impressed everyone here. They will probably love for her to work with them in the future. & She would. Oh and Brooke thinks we have evacuees from South America up here in Monroe. Isn't that funny. I have tried to correct her and explain, but it is a lost cause. Ashley loves the being out of school. Brooke however is not too happy. She loves school this year. Well I better go answer the phone again. It's getting busy. The main calls today are about Funding and or returning home info.

Brandi

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A Thanks to my Parents

I really need to thank my parents for teaching me by example to be compassionate to people in a time of need. I am now seeing that not everyone was shown or taught that. My Dad taught me alot. Right now I am trying to lead by example to my own children. Ashley & I are volunteering at the United Way 2-1-1 call center during this Hurricane Crisis time. The call center gets around 11,000 calls per day and helps lead people to shelter, food, medical help, etc. Ashley is not able to answers these calls due to the stressful nature of them and possiblilty of getting calls seeking mental help needs. She is the best errand office helper. I am extremely proud of her I didn't even have to make her help she wanted to all by herself. She didn't hesitate for a minute. My Dad was the one in my life who would work nonstop during an emergency on no sleep and no pay just to help people. I think of him in every emergency I volunteer during and I always will. My mom taught me that if someone has a death or crisis in their family you provide food and whatever material possessions they need. At this moment I wish I had all the money in the world so I could provide very child in the shelter with toys to play with to keep there mind off of the weather. Since I don't have all the money in the world I have to settle for volunteering my time and cheerfulness as I help direct people to the needs. I pray that God allows me to use myself to calm frightened people down and to not get emotional with them. (I'm scared of that being a problem for me.) They said last year they spoke with people on their roofs and tried to direct rescue to them. They also spoke with people who had lost family members and needed help. I can only pray that Hurricane Gustav doesn't affect us in that way. Please pray for all of the evacuees, all Louisiana residents, the weather to only bring a small amount of rain, & all of the volunteers helping in many different ways.

On a lighter note..... Can you believe my child who used to cry in class up until 3rd grade when the weather was bad is going to be a Meterologist in the future? I did only b/c she would watch the weather channell 24/7. I did wonder why she would rather watch the weather channel instead of cartoons at age 3. Now I know why.

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Your Hurricane Weather forecast with Local Weather Girl Ashley.

Ashley has been keeping me posted about the upcoming Hurricane Gustav. She said it won't be bad. Let's hope so. The last Hurricane that was bad for us was Katrina. I was working at LSU Health Science center in Monroe (known as E.A. Conway hospital). Our main computer was located in the basement of the charity hospital in New Orleans. Needless to say we lost our computer system for around 6 months, had to get organized for the extended downtime, & got tons of evacuee patients from down south. It wasn't fun, but you know me I love a challenge. The only time I got kind of scared was when we couldn't find gas all the way through Memphis as we were traveling to my parents house near Nashville. We also didn't take cash b/c we always use a bank card which was a tragedy in itself. No one could take a bank card b/c the phone lines were down so we couldn't buy the kids food through Memphis. Jarrett was a baby and we couldn't find ice for the ice chest to keep his formula cold. You could just see the love from strangers everywhere for us b/c we were from Louisiana. A friendly store clerk hand bagged some ice for our cooler and wouldn't charge us. Another friendly guy offered to buy our supper at a Burger King b/c we couldn't find anyone to take the bank card for food. (We didn't take him up on his offer though b/c this trip was our choice.) This was an adventure I bet the kids never forget. I think we even had to stand up at my parents church so they could pray for us since everyone thought we were evacuees. We just so happened to have a trip planned to see my parents that weekend. We didn't have to go, but I was going going through a period where I missed them tremendously and I haddddd to make that trip. (Yes Mom I still miss you all tremendously, but I can handle it better now for some reason.) I took lots of pictures of the no gas signs, the traffic, and all of the out of gas vehicles on the way. We even counted the number of cars on the side of the road. It was more than I've every seen in my life. I tried hard to keep my kids from getting nervous about the situation. I only stressed where they could see me when we couldn't find gas and our gas light had come on.
As for this hurricase season...
I am a departmental supervisor in the lab at a different hospital in the same area. I'm not sure where our computer system is stationed. I could only hope and pray that it is up north somewhere. We'll see. Please help me pray for this hurricane to somehow not be bad on anyone. I won't pray for it to turn b/c that will be praying for it to hit someone else. Please pray that the levees in New Orleans hold up this time and their are no lost lives.
Please pray for Coleman and his family as they travel back to Iowa for his chemo to continue for the next month until he can have the other type of treatment. Please pray for Joseph's family as they mourn.
Brandi

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Treats Jarrett & I sent to Coleman & Caden in New York.

Jarrett & all of the toys and candy we sent Coleman & Caden in New York City. They are not originally from there. They are just there receiving treatment for Coleman.
Jarrett writing them a note.
He was a great sport, buying someone else toys. That is awesome that he understood and wanted to buy someone else something to cheer them up. He did want to play with them before we sent them when we got home. I did let Coleman & Caden share a sucker with Jarrett out of their bag. He appreciated that you guys.

Here is Ashley practicing her cheer for competition. Her first competition is Oct 12th in Shreveport. She also has one in November in Kenner, December in Shreveport, 2 in January, a whole weekend of competition in Feb, and a whole weekend in March if they qualify for Nationals. I will try to video with my new camera next practice and upload it so you all can see how they look. I'm amazed!
Here is my latest scrapbook page I made today. I made one for my book and one for ebay. I bought a cool new scrapbook book that has tons of ideas using fabric & ribbons. I am putting a sewing machine on my Christmas list this year b/c I have been hand sewing my pages and would love to incorporate the different stitches on my pages.

Oh here is another thing I have learned>>> How to make torn bears. Aren't they cute. But they sure do take up alot of time.
Well I'm on nights for the next two nights Mom so call me after 5pm please if you need me. Ashley's friend woke me up today so I only got 2 hours of sleep. I try to take the phone out of my room, but one of my kids always needs me when I do that and it makes me fill really bad. I will update my girl scout events later on tonight after I organize my girl scout notebook. I do know we have tons coming up. I personally can't wait until the Savannah Georgia trip in Nov 2009. It is $500/ person and we are craming tons of fun girl scout activities into 4 days. The girls will earn tons and tons of badges & see the birth place of Girl Scouts. I will let any of my girls that qualify to go know about it. You must be in the 4th grade by the time of the trip. I think only Sarah & Emily will qualify for it. I'll let you all know. They will have another trip later. Well I better go work,
Brandi

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Urgent prayer requests needed.

I have been so busy at work that I haven't had time to check my favorite blogs. My mom just informed me that Joseph (prayingforjoseph.blogspot.com) has died. He goes to her church in Franklin Tennesse. He was 3 yrs old and had brain cancer. I have been reading his blog for a while, but for some reason didn't realize he was that bad. Please say an extra special prayer tonight for him and his family.

Also on a positive note my other blogger (Melanie Massey at Mo'Joy) has a new baby. Mel is JAke Raborn's aunt. JAke lost his battle with cancer when he was 3 years old. Now Jake help welcome Joseph up in heaven. I can see them now playing in Jesus's front yard. I bet they are playing in the mud and doing all of the little boy things they couldn't do while they were sick. THey really are my HERO's. I don't even know them, but I love them with all of my heart.

PLease also pray for Coleman. His doctors are meeting tomarrow to decide his treatment options.

Well I better go hug my children extra tight tonight.

Heartbroken, but still loving God,

Brandi

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