he's a speller...

This is a continuance of Bailey's parent/teacher conference. We were sitting in the conference room across the table from Bailey's teacher. She is going over his work examples from throughout the year thus far. They do assessment testing to determine the process of where your child is as far as progress. He tested above average and made his mama and daddy proud in all areas...

Spelling. I pride myself on the fact that I am a speller. :) Bailey has inherited that gift from me as well. Bryan, on the other hand is not so much of a speller. (God bless his heart) Anyways, the teacher is going over his papers and comes to his spelling assessment. They have sight words, which are the basic common words used in everyday language and then they have what they call sound words(or something to that effect). There was a list of 8 or 10 words that she would say and Bailey should write out, the actual spelling was not counted. The idea was to get the sounds right. She begins going down the list of words, and comes to the word...speach. She continues with the list and Bryan says, why did he miss the word speach? I look at him and laugh and the teacher then puts on her teacher voice and teaches Bryan the correct spelling of SPEECH!!! By this time, Bryan is laughing at himself and we are chuckling along with him.

Bryan has a lot of great attributes I admire and love, he has some great traits that I am thankful he has passed along to our children, however, I am also thankful that my spelling gene dominated his! LOL! :) Bryan is a well known facebooker and is the, what I like to call the twitterer facebooker. He has multiple status updates throughout the day. I will be in another room and I hear, "how do you spell....?" So, I yell back the correct spelling to him and that is that. I knew Bailey was me made over when one day Bryan asked, "how do you spell dinosaur?", and Bailey yells across the house...D-I-N-O-S-A-U-R. I laughed uncontrollably and have still yet to let Bryan live that one down. :) So, in the end I pride myself on being a spelling fool, while my husband, well, he is just a fool of a speller! :)

Thank you all for your time. This SPEACH was brought to you, compliments of the twittering facebook fool of a speller! :)

I love you Bryan Ray Pearson! :)

B plus?!?!?

Today, we had Bailey's parent/teacher conference. We were to be there at 4:00 pm, we head over to the elementary school and park and start heading in. I had no worries with my little scholar. So, as we entered the building, I sent Bailey and Brendan to the playground and waited in the hallway for the teacher to finish with the other parents. The door swung open and she said, "Is Bailey with you?" I looked and told her he was on the playground and she asked that we get him. My first thought was uh-oh, I thought this was parent/teacher conference, not parent/teacher/student conference. So, I walk down to the playground and holler for the boys. They come running and say and screaming, mom, we just got here. I say you need to come with us, Bailey. Your teacher wants you in there, too. He looks surprised and says okay. Brendan says, ha ha Bubba, I get to play. After quickly putting Brendan in his place and informing him he has to tag along, we are on our way to the conference.

We enter the room and sit across the table from the teacher and she asks Bailey, " Bailey, I have your grades, how do you think you did?" My heart slowly sinks in my chest and I am thinking to myself, did I miss something here? She then hands Bailey his report card and he looks it over and grins and then his grin fades...he mouths the words, B PLUS? She starts praising him on how well he has done thus far and so on. I then take the report card and look and see he has gotten all A's, except for a B+ in reading. I am thrilled! Bailey gets kinda quiet and we continue with the conference. She goes over all his testing which he scored above average on everything and has some example work from throughout the school year. I then signed his report card and we said our goodbyes...

As we get back to the Jeep, Bryan and I are telling him how proud we are of him and how smart he is and how awesome his grades are. He then proceeds to tell us that he is never going to get a B again, only A's are acceptable in his book. I am thinking to myself, uh-oh, he is too young to be this concerned with his letter grades. Then, I explain what everything means, letter grade was and after realizing he was just points away from an A, he was then satisfied with himself. which, on the other hand makes mama satisfied that he is satisfied.

Now, we all know this wouldn't be a complete blog entry without a little Brendanism....

On Bailey's report card he had P's for his p.e., art, and music. So, Brendan says to Bailey, "Bubba, when I get in second grade, I am gonna try to get all P's, that way I don't have to be mad about not getting an A." Thank you for that little tidbit, Bren. And I am thinking to myself, I can't wait to see what letter grades Brendan does end up with when he is in 2nd grade, although it isn't the letter grades I will be concerned with, but the fact that Brendan...well, Brendan is Bryan Jr. (enough said) :)

stuck like glue...

You and me, baby...we're stuck like glue! Okay, I have this thing where I get "stuck" on a song and will play it over and over and over. My most recent song obsession is sugarland's, stuck like glue. I absolutely love this song and needless to say my boys know it almost word for word as well since I burn cds almost daily and play then in the 3 disc cd changer. So, the other day it happened to be just Bryan and I at home, I was standing at the kitchen sink doing dishes with the volume cranked and shaking my groove thing and belting it out and the top of my lungs when Bryan asked, "are we stuck like glue?" Okay, for those of you who know us, we go back and forth with this little persnickety banter all the time...my response, "No, baby, we are more stuck like a piece of dried up chewing gum plastered underneath a restaurant table." He laughs and I laugh and we go on with our routine, you know the one where the wife does everything and the husband sits on the couch and holds it down and securely grips the remote control. :)

Later that night, after the kids are in bed and we are all cuddled up on the couch, I began soaking it up. Here I am laying here, wrapped up in his arms, legs tangled like a pretzel watching swamp monsters. (well, he was watching swamp monsters, I was looking at the tv, but I was really singing my stuck like glue song in my head. :) ) Then, it hits me like a ton of bricks...we are stuck like glue! Here we sit, in the home we have built together, in the next room we have two amazing gifts from God, who link us together for life and most importantly we have each other and the love that burns inside of us for one another.

Last night , we went to the pm service at our home church. There was a speaker, he is an awesome man who tells you what you need to hear. The things he says, scares me and I need that. We cannot get too comfortable in our walk with Jesus. It is not once saved, always saved. We need to be rapture ready at any given moment. I know I struggle with my walk of faith. I want to be closer to Him than I ever have been and could ever dream of being. So, I decided that me and Jesus are....yep, you guessed it, we are stuck like glue! (I hope my husband will be alright being stuck to me like a rubbery piece of chewing gum since Jesus is the glue that binds me.) I only have Him to thank for the chance to have my husband and my boys, He has blessed me with more than I could imagine and I plan to be His faithful and good servant until He calls me home. So, in the end, I guess we are stuck like glue! :) ( I know what you are thinking...I know, I know, I think I am the only one whose mind is so backwards and silly that I take a country song about a woman stalking a man and apply to my life.) I am a Jesus follower, not stalker. The difference? Jesus loves me and wants me to follow him and his will, just remember..."whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved."

Stinky boys...

Today's blog is brought to you by Bryan and Brendan. This father and son duo really put a whole new meaning to the phrase, "two peas in a pod." This morning we are scrambling around the house making ourselves presentable for church. Presentable?!?! So we thought...

Bryan and Brendan walk out of the house first, a couple minutes later Bailey and I follow. I come around the corner of the house and see Bryan standing at the end of the driveway "coaching" Brendan. I look to see Brendan and he is out in the middle of the blacktop road "moonwalking". Bryan continues with the "put your toes down and point and drag". I then ask Brendan, "why are you in the middle of the road moonwalking?" Tsk, tsk, tsk, silly me! "I am not moonwalking, I am scraping the dog poop off the bottom of my shoe." I shake my head and climb into the jeep, chuckling at his moonwalking abilities and Bryan's coaching abilities as well. A couple minutes later he and Bryan climb into the jeep to join Bailey and I.

Then, the most profound parental advice passed through my husband's lips..."Rooster, if anyone says they smell poop, just say, Me too!" I turn to Bryan and say "NIIIIIIICEEE ADVICE, DAD!" So, we laugh and head to church.

We then arrive at church and take our seats. Bryan and 3 other men are playing guitar together and were doing a special this morning. We have our morning announcements this morning and then the air conditioning kicks on, which i am usually not happy about anyway, because it blows right on me, however today I was. I then get a wiff of some rank body odor. i wrinkle my nose and look around to see if anyone else has noticed. I then nonchalantly lean over to Bryan and inform him of the b.o. I smell and his response...."Me too!" I then smell it even stronger and lock eyes with Bryan and ask him if he put deoderant on this morning and he sniffs his armpits and replies with, "Uhhhh, noooo!" I then laugh and whisper in his ear (while holding my breath) that if anyone says they smell b.o., just say, Me too! We giggle and when he turns his head I sneakily slide down the pew out of his reach so he cannot put his stinky arm around me during service.

Before Bryan and the guys get up to perform, he excuses himself to go to the restroom, when he comes back I am teasing him by telling him to keep his arms down and pinching my nose. He says, " it's alright now, I went in the bathroom and put Germ-X under my arms." I am about to lose it at this point, however I get my laughter under control and he performs and it goes off without a hitch. Service is over and we are in the Jeep on our way home and I ask Brendan if he put Germ-X on his shoe, he looks at me like I am silly and then later says to me, "that is a genius idea!" Moral of the story...Boys stink! :) again, brought to you by Bryan and his mini-me, Brendan.

drama, drama, drama...

Family. I love my family more than words can describe, however there are those "special" moments when you feel the urge to escape. I have come to learn that when those times arise it is best to keep your feelings and thoughts to yourself. Recently, I was called out on airing my families "drama" on my blog. The way I see it is this...I blog for myself. If you enjoy reading it, even better, however, I do not blog to air my dirty laundry so that it can be discussed as a weapon against me or my family. We all make mistakes. At least I am honest as to mine and my husband's mistakes and am real and do not put on a show for others. I would like to think that the people who look at my blog and say..."OMG, how could she ever write those things?" are secretly jealous of the bravery and honesty pouring out of me. I would rather be myself and have you not like me than to be fake and plaster on my happy face. I enjoy blogging and enjoy the fact that many people follow my blog and comment regularly (well, as often as i post...:) ). So, this is a little heads up to those of you who think that my blog is inappropriate...I have read many of your posts and such and have had many many comments, however I choose to refrain from writing anything negative, out of respect for my family. I bite my tongue until I taste blood sometimes and for the most part will continue to do so, until my family is brought into it. I am not a fighter, but I will fight tooth and nail for my family.

Thank you for your time and thoughts! :)

Now.....on to the real reason we are here....We will call this one, "Facing our fears"

Tuesday night Bryan and the boys pack up the guitar and head to church for practice. I take advantage of my time alone. You know, the typical...I crank up the 3 disc cd changer and light the candles and take a deep breath and...wait for it, wait for it...CLEAN!! :) I start in the boys' room (God help me) I start by collecting all the little pieces of paper on the floor. Bailey is an aspiring artist so he is constantly cutting and gluing and coloring. I gather up all the trash and head for the dirty socks under the edge of the bed. Surprise, I am on my knees and bend down to grab them and find a huge wolf spider staring at me. So, I grab the sock and squish him. Then, I pick him up with the sock and trek to the bathroom and lay him on the sink to "inspect" him. Once I am satisfied that he is dead, I then decide I am going to give him a burial at sea...*phone rings*. I take the socks in my hand and head to the kitchen, answer the phone and chat with my momma awhile and have now discarded the dirty socks in the laundry room and made the beds and am done with my wifely duties. I then settle in to soak up some quiet time. 15 minutes later the boys come scrambling in the door, I see a blur of Bailey run past with 1 hand ripping his jacket off and the other tightly holding his boy parts as he scurries to the bathroom. 17.4 seconds later, I hear screaming and crying coming from the bathroom, I rush in and find Bailey with his pants around his abkles saying, "there is a big hairy spider on the sink". Ooooopssssey daisey, I forgot to flush it. This little slip of the mind would cost me.

Bryan comes to the rescue and flushes the monster spider and Bailey finally relieves himself after nearly getting the pee scared right out of him and the night continues. They eat, bathe and then our nightly story. Brendan curls up and is out like a light. Bailey, on the other hand does his nightly artwork and I eventually go in to turn the light out and he comes out saying, "I can't sleep." I then remind him of how crabby he is in the mornings because he is tired and try convincing him to get to sleep. He piddles around and it is now after 10:00pm, Bryan and I are in bed and Bailey comes in pacing back and forth and when we tell him to go to bed, he replies with, "i am scared of the spiders." I tell him that the spider is dead and gone. He whines and whimpers and after we go back and forth he looks at me and throws his hands up in the air and tears start coming and says, "I just can't face my fears, Mom." I stifle my laughter. Such a profound statement from my little Picasso. I then calm his fears and tell him he can pick anywhere in the house to sleep, offering the couch, his floor, his bed and so on. He then chooses what he calls the safest place in the house...my floor at the end of our bed. I then get him tucked in on his pallet and kiss him goodnight and climb into bed to get my beauty sleep.

While falling asleep and listening to my artist breath and groan sleepily, I realize that his fear of the spider,(which tend to be on the floor anyway) was calmed by the closeness of his mommy and daddy. The trust and love our children put in us, is without a doubt one of the greatest gifts we can have as parents. And I pray for the children out there who are abused and neglected and wish I could take each and everyone of them into my home, my life and more importantly, my heart. Say a prayer thanking Him for what we have and say 2 prayers for those children who have to fall asleep with their fears.