A wreath I made ...

My dear friend, Kim Wheeler, is doing some Christmas craft tutorials. Our first craft was a wreath ~ I changed mine up a bit because I was in Garden Ridge (Florida friends: we do not have this store here and it is a complete shame!!) ~ and I found these adorable little picks with candy on them ... then they had the matching bow!! I made this entire wreath for $15! You can check Kim out here She is going to do a bunch more crafts too and they are NOT expensive.

We are BACK!!

This is what time we left for shopping!

Leaving Chick-fil-A

Going out ...

Wouldn't you want to hit on us?? See story below!


This is why you DON'T hit on us ....

Just pulling out of the driveway ...
On the highway ....



Gone in 60 seconds ...



Both of them ... Daddy and I got to listen to OUR music!!



Cameron and Pappy (my dad)






*** My pictures are out of order and I don't know how to fix it ***

Ok, first things first ~ the 2nd Annual Evening of Hope was a complete success. We don't have final figures yet, but we do know that it is MORE than last year and we 'think' it is significantly more than last year. We have been getting tons of response and wonderful letters, plus Shawn and I have been asked to chair it next year. You can here to check out some of the pictures of the EVENING!

We left for Atlanta on Tuesday ~ for those of you that know me, know I was chomping at the bit to go. I must have said 100x "We're going to hit traffic and it will be 8:00 before we get there". Chad's ratings came out, so he had to stay for that - they were high and crushing the competition, as usual ~ so off we go. PACKED into Chad's truck (that got VERY GOOD gas mileage I might add) and heading north - wouldn't you know we freaking hit traffic not even before Land O' Lakes?? I know, let's do road construction on one of the busiest traveling weeks of the year .. DUH!! Anyway, we finally got there .... at 8:00pm ... and my best friend Amber and her family were also up for the night on their way to North Georgia (they are from Orlando). It was nice to visit, albeit brief, but good to see them all the same.

Thanksgiving was wonderful and boy am I thankful for my Dad's health. We took a family picture and I was looking at it on the way home and thought "Dang, he looks good for all that he has been through!" .... Jenn and I went shopping at the buttcrack of dawn and my girlfriends from Tampa were texting me that they were out too - CRAZY girls! We hit Kohl's first for the toys and then headed to where else, Chick-fil-A to grab some liquid energy, and then off to Toys R Us -- stupid. I walked in, turned around and walked out. YOU COULD NOT EVEN MOVE!! SO, we went over to Macy's where it was a complete bust, except for the BLACK trouser socks I bought because I could hear Shawn Trotti in my ear like a little guardian angel saying "You really don't have white socks on with your black ankle boots, do you Nat??" ~ I just didn't think the sales were good enough. Honestly, Shannon and I went shopping last week and the sales were better. Finally, we hit Target (SCORE!!) and then we decided to head on down to Cumberland Mall .... where we had a little bit of success. We went home and grabbed the girls from my Mom and then went and slept at Jenn's house. THEN that night we went out with my dear dear friend Courtney. She is beautiful, inside and out, and short of sounding cocky, we were definitely the eye candy in this one place called Hemingway's. We were in downtown Marietta and the girls were ... well, rough. I had been there before when I lived over that way and only remember their fantastic cheesburgers, but boy does it change after dark. They had a band playing and Chad was itching to fight someone. Not sure why, he hadn't even been drinking, but he said he didn't like the way guys were just STARING at us. SO, to make matters worse, this 5'4" joker in a leather bomber jacket walks up to me and says "So, are you guys married?" and I said "Yes" .. and he said 'I thought so, I wanted to come over and give you married girls some play so you felt good about yourselves" ... surely he was joking. I leaned into him and told him that obviously he couldn't seethat we were with our husbands, we were 'good' and that he needed to leave. He kept talking and I just put my hand in his face and said "Bye Bye" ... I had my hand on Chad's other leg to keep him from getting up ... he was ready to send the guy on his way IN HIS OWN WAY!! We left shortly after and headed back to my sister's.

Finally we are home -- I missed my bed, the weather here and my friends, but I was so happy to finally spend some time with my parents and my sister, as well as Courtney. I don't get to see them nearly enough and TRUST me, I gave everyone grief about traveling to Florida ~ esp my mom, who I know reads this. SO MOM, I will tell you, Cameron asked about 'Nina and Pappy' all the way home. When are you coming?





Today we are putting up the Christmas tree and getting the house decorated for Christmas!!

Click here to TOTALLY crack up!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9552726144

This Christmas ...

well, this Christmas is going to be 'different'. One of my dear friends told me that she only does 3 gifts from Santa for her kids ~ as I looked at her in awe and WHY?!?! she explained that too often we get lost in the true meaning of Christmas ... and that Jesus received 3 gifts from the 3 wise men ~ so that was all her children were going to get, and then a few others from herself, her husband and each sibling. As I think back on Christmases past, I kind of get disgusted in the amount of money Chad and I have spent on our kids ~ only to have the toys break or fade in to a fast memory once something better comes along. I honestly can not even really tell you what the kids got last year - I do know Chad fell from a book case, but that is a WHOLE other post .. one that I can finally tell without tears running down my face from laughter. I have also gotten much deeper involved in a charitable foundation here in our town and I have come face to face with families either losing loved ones to cancer or caring for loved ones with cancer. We recently gifted a 13 yr old boy with a new mattress - a $400 mattress. His parents said they couldn't believe a mattress cost that much and how much more comfortable their son sleeps at night - now friends, I know how much I spent on my mattress and it was A LOT more than $400. Seeing these things, well, it really puts things into perspective. I was telling Kennedy that Christmas would not be crazy this year. She would still get AWESOME presents like she does every year, but it wouldn't be so much. She asked why and so I told her the story of the Three Wise Men and so on ... now the reason for this post ... because her response was "Well, he must not have been a very good boy" ...... out of the mouths of 5 yr olds!

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving ~ we are heading north for a very much anticipated trip to visit my parents and my sister and her family. I've got my camera ready! Yes, we are going shopping at 4 AM on Friday ..... 'cuz that's how we roll.

Florida Fall

This is as close as we'll get to seeing the leaves change here in sunny Tampa, FL! Yes, I know one side is higher than the other, but I nearly killed myself getting it up there, so it's going to have to stay like that until I can fix it .... and yes, that is Roscoe you see behind the front door -- wondering why his mommy is outside and he's NOT! I did make these myself, with the help of a friend. Can't wait to fashion my Christmas one ......

Cameron left his mark on Roscoe ... LITERALLY!!

Poor Roscoe ... see the scribble marks on his head from the Sharpie? Courtesy o' Cameron Brock.

For a dog that we didn't think could jump on the bed, he sure fooled us!

I bought them flutes ~ at the dollar store ~ because I am the coolest mom EVER!

and they will probably get lead, GHB, rat poop or some kind of poisoning for blowing on these things ... .DADDY LOVES THEM!!!


Here are a couple pics I took this weekend. Yes, Cameron still drinks a bottle, but only at night. I kind of equate it to drinking coffee in the morning or a glass of warm milk before bed (who does that anyway?) - it calms him and well, he doesn't drink from a sippy cup. It's all or nothing. He drinks from a regular cup during the day, plus I will delete any negative comments about his bottle as I was hesistant to even post the picture ... but he's my baby and well, how many kids go to high school with a bottle?

Then I was at the Dollar Store and found a set of 2 flute/clarinet things ... hmmmmm, we NEED those. Chad has about broken them twice. They keep disappearing and reappearing .... maybe they will travel to Atlanta and stay there (insert big cheesy grin here).

Friday night we went to The Fisherman's Ball which benefitted the Pediatric Cancer Foundation. Unfortunately, we saw way too many people there that we knew that had been affected by Pediatric Cancer. It was nice to see some familiar faces because we were WAAAAY far away from home and was glad to see our friends had traveled WAAAAY far away from their homes as well. There were lots of people there with VERY deep pockets -- we were not some of them -- but we did come home with an autographed NCAA basketball ~ signed by Billy Donovan. I kept telling Chad "But it's not a football" .. in which his response was "I don't care, it's Gators and it is for the children" .. God I love his heart. Earlier in the day he was at McDill Air Force Base for the Annual Regatta and he is always a mess when he gets back from there - ready to enlist and go blow things up.

I ask that you keep me in your prayers this week as we make the final preparations for The 2nd Annual Evening of Hope. I, along with my very dear friend, Shawn Trotti, are the co-chairs of the event and well, we're almost there. I'll make sure to post some pictures Sunday .. OH, SUNDAY ... Kennedy's dress rehearsal for competition cheerleading. GO SHARK PUPS!!

While Daddy was gone ...

OK, here are all the things Cameron did while Chad was gone:

• shaved his head ~ again
• fell getting out of the bath tub and gave himself a black eye
• fell in the shower (due to emptying out my ENTIRE bottle of conditioner and slipping) and gave himself ANOTHER black eye
• fed Roscoe 1 lb of Publix chicken tenders .... it was our dinner
• fed Roscoe an entire Rotisserie chicken .... I discovered it within 15 sec of it happening, but I refuse to eat after the dog .. again, it was our dinner
• threw Kennedy's video game in the pool = ruined
• let the dog out, who then chased a cat ALMOST out of the neighborhood, thank GOD we're gated
• painted the wall in my bedroom with a small tube of puffy paint that KEEPS reappearing even though I know I have thrown it away 4 times
• colored my kitchen cabinet with a sharpie ... thank you Magic Eraser
• painted himself and a portion of a wall with DAP spackling

That's all I can remember for now and no kidding, all of this stuff happened just by me leaving him for a mere 20-30 seconds, if that. For instance, I sat down, LITERALLY, sat down to read the paper and 15 seconds into it, he comes running in covered in spackling that I had JUST placed on a very high cabinet ... that joker must have been watching me because he pushed a chair over to it, got it down and went town. I know this is God's funny joke on me for whatever I did in my former life. BUT ... let me say this, with all the things he does, here is my list of things that he does that I absolutely LOVE:

• happy, every single morning when he wakes up
• he snuggles with me at night and will rub my face in the morning if he should wake up before me (considering he comes and gets in the bed with us every night .... and I will never deny him of that because one day he will want NOTHING to do with me )
• that he is a BOY ... through and through .. there is absolutely NOTHING sissy about him
• he will pick up crabs on the beach, they will pinch him, he will throw them on the ground and pick up another one
• his teachers and all the girls at his school ADORE him
• he says 'tar' for 'car' and I think it's so cute
• he will grab both sides of your face and lay a kiss on you and say "love you"
• the faces he makes .... anytime he is about to get in trouble or is just trying to be funny
• his red hair

So Chad is home and we are leaving for Atlanta on Nov 20 ~ but we have a BIG event coming up this weekend .. The Evening of Hope. I'm chairing it, along with my great friend, Shawn Trotti. We are quite the power house, I must say, but I'm glad it's almost over.

I'm still alive .... barely

I have been keeping a mental list of all the things Cameron has done since Chad has been out of town ... wait until ya'll see it. I will not post it until Daddy is safely home ... which will be LAAAAAAATTTEEEE Wednesday night. Hopefully, I will have a voice (not strained from YELLING "CAMERON - DON'T!!!) ... and Chad says to me on the phone "He doesn't do that when I'm home" ... yeah, I know, because I try to MULTI-TASK and do other things .... and all the things that have happened, literally, have happened within 2 sec of me 'stepping away' to put a load of laundry in the washer, take a folded load of laundry into it's respective room, take the dog out, pee, cook dinner, make the bed, put away laundry, sweep, vaccuum, mop (with my NEW BAD BOY MOP Shannon Gordon found for us!!!), work, plan an event for 300 people, you know - KEEP UP A HOUSEHOLD?!??! Stay tuned ...

Chad went out of town last night to head to Nashville for the CMAs...

and I will be clinically insane by tomorrow, MAYBE Monday ...... but my house will be clean, because that is what I do when Chad is out of town. I clean like crazy b/c I am down one person. I also take this time to start and NOT FINISH every project I can think of because he's not hovering over me complaining that I've started YET another project that will remain unfinished for several months. Seriously .. just ask my friends. I did finish some things that I started, but I did start another project, which I plan to blog as soon as I finish, so I am a bit motivated.

Anyway, if you don't hear from me, call me. I might be hanging from the ceiling fans or passed out from the bleach fumes.

Pictures and 'stuff'

Sorry I have not posted in a few weeks -- both of my cameras are jacked up and are in the shop, so as soon as I get those suckers back, I'll be able to post some pictures of my hilarious life. In the meantime, I'll post some pictures we had done yesterday at the beach. Hurricane Neal winds were in full force, but I INSISTED on getting them done at the beach. This was the 3rd time we had tried to get these pictures and kept having to reschedule due to rain. I think they turned out nice -- haven't seen all the proofs yet, but I'm sure they are good if this is what we have so far! ENJOY! If you live in the Tampa area, go to http://www.torriefagan.com/ and check out Torrie -- this is the 3rd time she has taken our pictures. We love her.