We've Moved on to a Better Place!!

Okay, I've moved the blog. This one will still be here to look at all of our past posts and pictures, but you can click here to check out our new home! I think you can use your same password and all to comment!!

Come visit!!

I Think I Use The Word Wonderful Too Much In This Post...

Wow! Where has the time gone?!?! Our snakes are settled in quite well...in fact it will be feeding time here in the next week or so...and summer is progressing nicely for the Brown Clan. Am I allowed to call us a clan? I don't know if we are Irish...isn't Clan an Irish kind of thing? Anywho...we are doing great!

Yesterday was an awesome day of worship for me. We had a great church service at Freedom Fellowship and God was definitely there with us. The music was fabulous, Cliff's preaching was great and my ADD didn't kick in and so I paid attention the WHOLE time!! BTW, Ben Patat is the closest thing to Goliath that I can imagine, except he is the nicest guy you could ever meet...not a mean giant...a nice giant! The VBS (or VB and S and Logan calls it) video turned out awesome-big props to Julie and Keith for that!-and it was an all around great morning! Then we celebrated Mimi and Beba's birthday-you guessed it-by eating Mexican-are you surprised? :o) complete with a cake from Brusters-yum.

Then it was off for more worship at Heritage Baptist Church in Greenville. Remember-we were there a few weeks ago? Well, Richie, Steven, Mark, Carla, Kent and Rhett rocked again! We had more people from Freedom there to share in the experience and it was awesome! We even were able to witness and pray for someone being saved and giving their life to Jesus! Woo Hoo! That's good stuff right there!! I took a couple of pictures, but I didn't want to use my flash and everyone was moving around so they came out blurry. I took 2 videos. The first one is shorter and is everyone singing How Wonderful, How Marvelous.







The second video is longer and is of them singing my new favorite song, God of This City. It's one of the things that inspired me to get off my butt and start giving back to the community, but more on that in a minute.

So, needless to say, it was a WONDERFUL, worship filled day!! We ate with friends after the church service and didn't get home til about 10pm. It was a long day after leaving the house at 8:30am! We are going back to Heritage September 7th so I'll remind you when we get closer-if you'd like to come I know you will be blessed. The people of the church are so loving and really are doing amazing things in their community. A community that needs God is seeing Him and seeing Him work through Heritage. No doubt.

The Boys and I have helped with Meals on Wheels 3 times now with our 4th time coming up this Thursday. We love it! We make pictures to deliver with the meals and so one child takes the meal, one takes the milk and one takes the picture. It works out perfectly!! The Boys have really taken to our project and enjoy talking to the people and sharing their smiles. I am thinking of getting Logi's hair cut though. So many of the people think that he is a girl with his blond curls!! I don't mind correcting them, but it's getting Logan to be polite when they say "What a beautiful little girl" that is worrying me! Maybe we'll just wear a ball cap every time we make out rounds! Many of you have expressed concern for our safety and although I am still very careful and aware of our surroundings, we are just fine. I haven't felt threatened at all and have a magnet that I stick on my Mommymobile letting everyone know that we are delivering meals. Not that a rival gangster would be driving a minivan with Terrific Kid magnet on it, but you never know! :o)

So there is the update on project number one. Project number two has started off slowly. We are collecting children's clothes for the closet at Greer Community Ministries so kids can come pick out clothes to start school. I have had lots of people tell me that they have clothes for me so now I just have to get them! I''ll get Nadine's this week and I think Missy's too so next week at church I'll have 2 bunches, 3 counting mine! Let me know if you have clothes and I'll come get them from you or you can bring them to church or drop them off at my house. Whatever I can do, just let me know! I'm getting clothes through August 3rd. That will give them time to get the clothes sorted and distributed before school starts.

Also, my church is having their 2nd annual Back to School Bash Sunday, August 10th from 5-7pm at Century B Park (Kids Planet). We are collecting school supplies and are giving out free backpacks filled with what kids need to start school. So if you want to bring clothes AND school supplies...feel free!! We need pencils, glue sticks, wide ruled notebook paper and wide ruled 1 subject notebooks. There was a huge turnout for this event last year and we had backpacks left over, so this year we want more families to come!! There will be food and fun and it's all free! Let me know if you need more info or if you want to help and by george, you can help!!

The weather was a little iffy last week with the threat of rain, but we were able to hold our VBS at Lake Robinson without getting TOO wet! I have posted pictures on my FaceBook page so if you want to sign up and ask me to be your friend on there you can see them. Here are two of my favorite pictures from that week.

Here is Logan and Nancy...

...and the sugar high Brown Boys!

We had a great time and had over 200 people (children and adults) there each night! It was wonderful!! This was our 3rd year holding it at the Lake and the kids love it!

We had two birthday parties this weekend. Friday we went to Summer's party. She had a huge waterslide brought in so the Boys loved playing on that! Here is a picture of Garett...I think he caught the most air on it!

Here's Harry with Summer's sister Brooke...

......and then here are the Boys drying off.

We had a great time and ended up not leaving til around 11pm...but we weren't the last to leave so I didn't feel bad about how long we stayed!! It was fun to hang out with Mark and Melissa and Ben and Crystal while the kids all played. Thank you, Ben and Crystal, for a super fun afternoon/night!

Saturday we had Camden's party at the pool!! I didn't have the camera, but I did get this video of Reece, Cody and Chaz diving and Summer, Lauren, Logi, Garett and Camden playing!

And here's a great picture of Logi, Lauren and Garett from my phone.

We had fun there and I got to hang out with the Moms while Rhett had all kinds of practices for Sunday. He did get to come for a little bit at the end and see the Boys swim and play in the pool. Thank you, Alison and Alan, for inviting us to come play and hang out with you!!

Last week we went off with Nadine, Katelyn and Luke. Look at this picture. Where do you think we went?

BOWLING!! We had a blast!! Here is a great picture of the big kids!!

I love all the colors of the balls! Who of this group would be the least likely to win do you think? Yep, I would think it too, Logan. Guess who won..yep..Logan. Unbelievable! We had a super time and Nadine and I decided that we need to have a Girls Night Out and go bowling!! Wouldn't that be fun!!

Okay, well, the children are waking up and it's time for me to move on with my day, though I have lots more I could ramble about. I have loaded lots of pictures onto my FaceBook page, so again, if you'd like, add me as a friend and you can see them. It's free, easy and lots of fun!

Until next time, I'm Fondly Yours,

Jeanne

Queen of the Brown Clan (Irish or not!)

P.S. We have NOISY nest of birds in our fireplace. I just heard them and thought I'd share that with you!

Stephanie and Stitch

So, as if we didn't have enough excitement in the Brown homehold (I like how that sounds better than HOUSEhold, so I made it up), we got 2 new pets tonight. Our friend from church, Scott Greene, has been talking to the Boys about taking these pets so they will get more attention and love. In the beginning, I wouldn't hear of it. I cut the conversation off with Rhett as soon as it started. That was about 3 weeks ago. Sunday I told Rhett he could go look at them and see what he thought. Tonight he went to Scott and Vickie's and came home with Ethyl and Monty. We renamed them Stephanie and Stitch. See if their new names fit them, in your opinion. Here they are.

This is Stephanie, our new ball python. When Logan and I were talking about the name he said, "Like OUR Aunt Stephanie?". "Yes," I told him, "like our Aunt Stephanie" (you remember her...we worked together at the Marriott and now she works for Soby's). When I sent her a picture of her namesake she called me and said "Thank You, I think." It is not that she is like a sneaky snake, it's that we love her and her name starts with a S and sounds good with "the Snake" as in Stephanie the Snake! Aunt Stephanie said, "That's cool, kind of." I don't think she knows what to think about it, but she's the godmother to the snake so she better hurry on over and bond with her!!

Here is Stitch, our other ball python, with Rhett. For the record, I was holding Stephanie in her picture above!

Reece and Garett chose Stitch's name and I think it fits nicely...it goes well with "the snake".

Here are some more pictures we took.

It took me a while to touch them and a while longer to hold them, but I did it! I had a little anxiety when she curled around my arm and started squeezing, but she was just moving. They are both very docile and although they aren't cuddly, I think they will make wonderful pets for the Boys. They aren't allowed to get them out by themselves and I have told them that if they drop one of the snakes that they will be left in the house alone because I am leaving. I can hold it, that's not a problem, but if they get down and I'm not in control...that's when I'll freak. But I did hold both of them (and I can tell the difference between the two) and I have welcomed them into our family.

Call us and come by and see them! It'll be fun!

For now, I'm Fondly Yours,

Jeanne

Mother to Reece, Garett, Logan Harry, Chloe the Dog and Stephanie and Stitch the Snakes

Hootie, Hootie!!

Last week was a good week. We went to the Greenville Zoo with our Wacky Wednesday friends and had a great time! We got to see our new giraffes and Bob the baby orangutan was out and about so he was fun to see.

Here's Reece and Logan and some of our friends with Joy the elephant (or it may be Ladybird the elephant, I'm sorry, I don't know the difference!) After the zoo we had a picnic and then headed to Paula's to go swimming. Reece has perfected his flip off the diving board. Here he is doing it at Nadine's last week.

He has done that flip probably 50 times since last Monday!! I, of course, was a nervous wreck the first time he did it! Here is everyone at Paula's pool. We got to take Madison S. with us for the day, so it was fun to have another girl in the van!! She is a real trooper, putting up with the Brown Boys and all their ya-yaing all day long. We had fun with Katelyn and Luke and Madison L. and Keaton (it was their pool) and Tegan. This summer has been much busier than last summer when Harry was just a butter bean and we stayed in out of the heat most of the time!

Thursday we had biscuits for breakfast at Kids Planet. I love doing that. It's cooler and there aren't as many kids there earlier in the day. We met the Allings (actually we met 4 of the Allings: Missy, Brayden, Cade and Toby and Duston) and had a great time. Here is Cade in the bunny peek out and Harry in the swing...I have a picture of Garett and Logan in the same swing at the same age. If I get ambitious, I'll find all 3 picture and post them together one day. I'll have to search the archives!

Afterwards, we got to go visit Beba for a few minutes before she had to go to an appointment. The Boys' "cousins" were there-TJ and Meredith's 2 children/dogs, Rusty and Sadie. I'll have to get a picture of the Boys with them...they are all too cute together, if you can get them to be still!

Fridays are my new favorite day. Why, you ask? Because I get to have 5 Boys with me on Fridays (well, on Saturday and Sunday too!)! Rhett is working just 4 days a week and so our weekend starts on Thursday night!! Yea! We love having an extra day to be together and get things done so there's more time for fun on the real weekend!

Saturday Rhett and I had a date night! It's a wonderful surprise when you have FABULOUS friends that actually ASK if they can keep your children! ALL 4 of your children! AT THE SAME TIME!! That's what the Batemans did on Saturday. Yes, it took 3 cars to get everyone to dinner, but we SO appreciate the effort and time that they took to spend with our Boys. I love that they make our children mind and try to instill respectful behavior in our Boys. It's wonderful! When we got back to the house, Reece and Garett were playing wii with Greg, Logan was jumping on the best pillow ever with Kent and Harry was eating up attention from Debbie and "Uncle Steve" as Logan has named him! Look at this pillow! That pillow that Logan is jumping onto is gigantic! He was worn out and asleep before we eve hit 290!! He LOVES jumping on it! I know for a fact that Kent was worn out from so much playing!! Here is a picture of Steve helping Harry walk-we don't allow too much of that :o) and a picture of the Boys and the Batemans. They have become such great friends to all of us and I hope that I can raise my Brown Boys in the awesome way that Debbie and Steve have raised the Bateman Boys.

Sunday night we got to do something special! Our friend Carla (who is Missy Tucker's sister and Richie's sister in law) asked if Richie and Rhett wanted to get a group together and sing at the church her family recently joined. They said yes and so Steven Somers, Mark Sears, Kent, Carla, Richie and Rhett rehearsed just one time last week and sang Sunday night at Heritage Baptist Church near downtown Greenville. It was amazing! I SO wish I had taken my camera and taken pictures and video, but God was definitely present! I have NEVER felt my heart so full as I did that night with everyone worshiping so freely. The guy that ran the sound board for the church, Chris, sang "Friend of God" with the group and tore it up (as Rhett said :o) ). Greg was there running the slides and Ted and Chad came to support the band too. I think it always makes Rhett more comfortable when Ted's around :o). This church's purpose is to minister to the homeless that live nearby and they do it SO well. Missy told us about bible school that they held last week and how they fed between 2-300 children dinner Monday-Friday nights. The band ROCKED and everyone that was there was blessed. No doubt. There were a few supporters there from Freedom (around 15-I think), but next time I will invite more. The things this church is doing is amazing. They are living for God and blessing others in ways I have only hoped to do.

Being there Sunday night got me thinking. I have been helping the preschool kids (Freedom Kids) at church sponsor a food drive for Greer Community Ministries. Well, when I went to drop off the food that was brought this last Sunday, I saw a sign that talked about the "Clothes Closet". I met the Executive Director, Randy Kemp, and he showed me the "closet". After the food drive (which by the way, we are collecting peanut butter, canned tomatoes, canned pasta, beef stew and boxed macaroni and cheese, because that is what they are asking for), I am going to have a clothing drive for children's clothes so the parent's can go "school shopping" before school starts. I'm on a mission. I'll have more info on all this later. Also while I was there at Greer Community Ministries, I signed up to be a Meals on Wheels Volunteer. I had wanted to do this earlier, but called another county and was told that they needed more of a commitment, not substitutes, like I want to be for now. It's just hard with the Boys out of school to commit long term. SO...I met Linda, and she was more than eager for me to be a sub!! The Boys and I begin on Friday. I will let you know how it goes. I'm excited for the older Boys to be a part of this as they will be taking the food to the doors with me. It's time we gave more back as a family. Laying by the pool eating bon bons and playing at the park is fun, but I want to make a difference. I want my Boys to want to make a difference. So, here's a recap of the last paragraph:

1. When we go back to Heritage Baptist Church, come with us.

2. Bring peanut butter, canned tomatoes, canned pasta, beef stew and boxed macaroni and cheese to me at the Freedom Kids Table on Sunday (or send me money and I'll go shopping for you and take it to Greer Community Ministries!).

3. Start going through your children's clothes and save them for the Clothing Drive I will be having soon. They also desperately need men's smaller sized dress pants. If you have any of those, hold on to them, I'll take those to them too.

4. Think about how YOU can make a difference in your community. Let me know what you are doing to teach your children how to give back some of the blessings they receive everyday.

As I end today, I have two pictures that I want to share only because I like them and want them to be preserved forever in my blog.

Here are my Boys. We went to have a family picture done last week and I took this while we were waiting. Everyone got to wear their favorite shirt so we do not match at all in the picture and we actually had a little bit of pattern overload, but I don't care. Garett won't always want to wear Hawaiian shirts so I wanted him to wear what he wanted now! This picture of Bug and I is one of my favorites! His smile is genuine and full and just like wearing his shirt, he won't always let me kiss him so I have to document it when I can!!

I named this post Hootie, Hootie and have gotten to the end and haven't even explained it. I've written so much, what's another line or 3 or 20?! 16 years ago I met Lynnette Roddy (she was Lynnette Smith at the time!) when we were roommates at Anderson College. One day, for some reason, she said Hootie, Hootie! It stuck. We use it as an exclamation when we are excited...about anything! Rhett talked about something during worship a couple of weeks ago and when everyone clapped, I hootie, hootied. We do something great at the park and hootie, hootie! It's great! Anyway, we go by the old Apalache Mill like 2o times a week and when we do, we go by the Apalache Lake Dam. Here is a picture of it.

Usually, there is water spilling all the way across, not just at the end like it is here. Maybe it's because we need rain, maybe they have it blocked on the other side, either way, it's low right now. But even though it's low, we still have to HOOTIE, HOOTIE! EVERY time we go by it. If the kids are asleep when we go by at night, Rhett and I hootie hootie quietly. If I'm on the phone, in the car by myself (a rare occurrence!) I take the phone away from my mouth and hootie hootie. We love to hootie hootie. I wanted to share that. I want my children to read this years from now and remember that one of our family traditions is to hootie hootie. I don't ever want them to loose their Hootie Ability. If we move away and don't see Apalache Lake Dam anymore, I still want them to have hootie hootie moments in life. Don't forget that Boys. Always remember to Hootie, Hootie! And pass it on to your children too, so you can tall them the story of how when you were little, you tried not to miss the Hootie Hootie times.

Okay, so since I've been blogging for 2 hours now. It's time to end. I know it's long today, but I won't apologize, because you can leave at any time!

Make it a GREAT DAY and remember to HOOTIE, HOOTIE when the notion hits you!!

Until Next Time, I'm Fondly Yours,

Jeanne

Queen of the Brown Hootie Hootiers!

Father's Day

Okay, so I'm catching up a little. Sunday was Father's Day. The day to celebrate the Fathers in your life. I helped organize Doughnuts for Dad at church so I thought I'd share some of the pictures I took...starting with my favorite Father (no offense to the other Dads represented here!).

Logan, Reece, Garett (I must apologize for his full mouth), Rhett and Harry

Brad, Brady and Hannah

Samuel, Caroline, Trey and Meredith

Our Pastor, Cliff, and his daughters Grace and Emily

Steve's Doughnut, Greg, Steve and Kent

This last picture isn't a Father, but one day he may be a Father! Garett took the camera for a while and went off to take his own pictures. Here is another picture of Kent...Garett loves closeups...and Kent! Every week Garett uses Kent and his brother Greg as jungle gyms. He loves to climb all over them and get piggy backs from them. Kent is home from USC for the summer and Greg just graduated and will be at Clemson in the fall. I don't know what Bug will do without them! Anyway, here is Garett's portrait of Kent.

Doughnuts for Dad was a success! I think the Dads all felt appreciated. There were alot there so that was good.

After church , Rhett wanted all of us to go to the movies so we did...even Harry. We went to see Kung Fu Panda. It was cute...except now the Boys think they can "Kung Fu" each other. Not so good. Harry did great...okay, that's stretching it...Harry did good and seemed to enjoy what he saw of the movie.

We had gone out to eat Saturday since we knew everything would be covered up on Sunday. Rhett chose Mimi's Cafe. We love that restaurant. Mike Glass introduced me to it a couple of years ago and I introduced Rhett to it in Atlanta in April. Everything is good there (I LOVE the fried pickles!) and the Boys eat well so it's a win/win situation!

All in all we had a good weekend. I hope that this year I appreciate Rhett more for everything, but most of all for being the "Working Dad" so I can be the "Stay At Home Mom" which I'm not really. He needs to get a second job just to keep my Mommymobile filled with gas---are these prices CRAZY or what?!?! Anywho, remember to thank your Dads and Dads of your Children for all that they do. I know they will appreciate it.

When I was little, I asked my Dad if I could eat sideburns. I don't know the reason why I asked that but I did... and I asked it alot! Daddy, thank you for your patience in my asking you that question over and over and over. It is a happy memory I share with you. I love you.

Until Next Time, I Am Fondly Yours,

Jeanne

Daughter of Larry and Wife of Rhett

Girls Night Out, with 2 Crashers

So! Last Wednesday I had dinner with some of my Marriott Friends. Come to think of it though, there were 7 of us and 3 of them still work at the Marriott. The other 4 of us have moved on. Stephanie planned the occasion for us since she forgot my birthday and wanted to redeem herself...which she did! So, she was there and so was Anne Hastings. Stephanie was a Catering Sales Manager when I was at the Marriott and Anne Hastings was the Director of Catering. Now Stephanie works for the Soby's group of restaurants and most of the time calls me when she's being a streetwalker and traveling from one restaurant downtown to another. She comes to dinner occasionally and the Boys love their "Aunt" Stephanie. She always brings fun surprises and thinks that they can do no wrong...they love that in a woman! :o) Stephanie is dating Ed now and HOPEFULLY I will get to MEET HIM SOON!!! Hint, Hint! We need to see if he passes the "Plays Well With Others" test and unleash the Boys on him!! Steph shares my love of all things office supply related and so we buy each other cool pens that we find and write notes on cute stationery (remember-use e in this spelling...as in paper). She helped coordinate my Harry Baby Shower and picked the best invitations! I loved them! She is growing up and looking at buying a house...where does the time go?! Anne works at Embassy Florist which is one of the greatest jobs ever, in my opinion. Who doesn't love getting flowers?! I would LOVE to have the talent of being able to create floral arrangements, but snipping off the ends and placing a bouquet in a vase of water seems to work well enough for me. I envy you, Hedgie! I used to be Anne's assistant and would go sit in her office and close the door and organize and talk for hours...okay, maybe not hours, but long enough to know that I had a true friend in Anne. Another reason I love Anne is that she will have a new Baby in her family soon! Her daughter Katherine is having a Baby soon, this fall, I think, and Anne is SO excited!! I wish I was having another Baby too!!

Sherry Johnson and Anne Baker were at dinner too. Sherry is the only woman in our group that still has an office at the Marriott. She has been there like 18 or 19 years and I believe she will retire from there in 30 more years! She is the guru of all things BMW and is the most organized and disciplined person I know. You should see her desk...never anything out of place, she knows where everything is and she can work a tickle file to it's fullest advantage! She is amazing! Sherry has given me much heartfelt advice of the years. She is one of my Marriott Moms. She has listened to me, cried with me and laughed AT me more times than I can count! We shared a space in the office for many years and a lifelong friendship has bonded us together. When I take the Boys to visit her, she'll give them money for cookies at the mall or candy at the store. Logan loves to hide behind the desk in her office and jump out and scare her. Harry loves her long hair and to be held and snuggled by her. I love knowing that wherever she is, whenever I need her, Sherry will be there for me. In fact, last year, on May 21st, Sherry walked the Hotel with me. I was in BIG time labor (though I didn't know it! You'd think with Baby #4 I'd have an idea what active labor was like!) and Sherry calmly helped me walk around, go try to sit by the pool, drink water, time contractions and finally pack my office, "just in case I didn't make it in the next day!" She drove me to the Dr's on Woodruff Road while her awesome daughter, Brandy, followed in her car. Then, when I found out I was 7 cm, she once again, CALMLY, drove me to meet Rhett at Greenville Memorial! I was in big pain by then and could have easily had that Baby in the car! She was the BEST! She was my rock, my labor coach, my Mom all rolled into one amazing package! I love that we have so much FABULOUS history!

Annie B left the Marriott for Charter Communications 4 months before I left to have Harry. I had worked with her for like 16 years and I don't think she looked any different when I met her than she does today. I have been her assistant, worked beside her as a Catering Sales Manager and then came back as her assistant again before we both left. She has seen me through dating Rhett, marrying Rhett and have 4 Babies with Rhett! She has answered many questions that I have had about having Babies, raising Babies and disciplining Babies. She has 5 children, so she has me beat by one, but I will never have all of the knowledge and wisdom that she holds in her head. I have seen her through 2 hip replacements (she doesn't look old enough to have had hip replacements, I know-right?) and countless Chick-fil-a addictions! I love her even though she let me walk into her house after midnight when she babysat Reece and let me walk right out with him! She NEVER woke up! I knocked on the door, no one answered. I let myself in, walked up to the playroom, picked Reece up from where he was laying beside her daughter, Casey, and walked right out of the house! Put the garage door down, got in the car and drove home! That was the last time she watched one of my babies! She comes to the house for dinner with Stephanie and the Boys love seeing "Aunt" Anne too! I love that they have all known her from birth. I love that they have that consistency with Anne and Sherry.

Lee and Chris came to dinner too! We all came singly (is that a word?!?), but Lee met his date at the restaurant. There is a slight age difference. How many years do you think separate them?

This is Lee and Elena, Chris's oldest daughter. They have been buddies a LONG time and love to cut up together. Here they are making hog faces...

...and here they are doing their Ric Flair impersonations...WOOOO!

They are like two peas in a pod! Lee has a granddaughter a little younger than Elena (I think she's a little younger-I may be mistaken)but she lives in NC, so Lee gets his "being silly" fix with Elena. Logan loves seeing Lee at the Hotel...Lee always gives him candy from Cindy's office...but for some reason Logi calls him "Mean Man". I can't remember why. It started last year, when Logan could hardly even talk, but we could understand "Mean Man"! It's always said with a smile and if we drive by the Hotel Logan will ask to go see "the Mean Man". Lee adds humor to any situation and I miss lunch with him and Chris in Cafe La Poo Poo.

Last, but certainly not least, was Chris. He came and brought Elena for Lee and his newest daughter, Natalie, for me (okay, for me AND Annie B). She was born at the end of April and I didn't get to hold her nearly enough! Here is Chris playing Inspector Gadget-Lee said that, not me-and his adorable Natalie. Chris has my old office (well, ONE of my old offices!), which is really little more than a closet. I loved that office! I had a lamp on my desk and never had the overhead light on. It of course has no windows, so I could work in there and be totally shut off from the world. There was a chair in there and so people (Stephanie, Kristy and Annie B) could escape to my office, close the door and vent. It was Vegas. What happened in Vegas, stayed in Vegas. Chris, I envy you for your office...and your precious Baby Girls! When Chris first started at the Marriott he worked at the Bellstand, or was it the Front Desk? Either way, it was out front. Mr. Nelker, my first GM, told us in staff meeting (ahhh, I don't miss those!!) that Chris was a professional football player...and Jeanne, naive little girl that I am, believed him. I loved Mr. Nelker...he could hit a fly or spider on the wall with a rubber band...and he would throw a box of kleenex out his office door into the hall if he heard you complaining...and if you had the hiccups, he'd put a dollar (or one time he handed me a $20) on the floor and tell you to pick it up and if you hiccuped again while you were holding it, you could keep the money. But I digress...point of the story, Chris was not a professional football player and I looked like an idiot-not the first time or the last time. I was sure at one point that Chris didn't like me, so now that he does like me (I think!) he reminds me that he once didn't. Chris was my go to guy. I'd call him on the phone and ask him to go get me the paper I printed off the printer...and he would. He's the greatest. I SO used my pregnancy (all four of them) to their fullest advantage with Chris. So, now that we both have multiple children, we trade Kid Stories! I love it! I get to hear all about having Baby Girls and he gets tidbits about having Boys!!

It was a super fun night and I loved getting together with everyone. Thank you again for planning it Stephanie. One day we'll have to plan a BIG get together and invite everyone from the Marriott...at least all the people we like, right JO?!? Here's our group picture. I need to frame it and put it on my counter...since my kitchen is now my office!

Since my CHOOSE JOY coffee cup is empty, it must be time to start the day. I'm off to wake my sleeping princes and get them ready to spend the day at Nadine's by the pool. I know, it's a rough life, but if I don't live it then who will?!

Until next time, I'm Fondly Yours,

Jeanne

Queen of the Quit and Return to the Marriott Scam!

And What a Week it has Been!!

Where in the world do I start? How about with the event that most shook my world up this past week. Last Thursday, Rhett fell at work. He had just come down from the 3rd story of the house they are building and slipped coming down the ladder backwards from the platform-6 feet in the air. His foot slid between the top rung of the ladder and the platform and there he hung-unable to touch the ground. Luckily a couple of the workers came running and held him up so he could untangle his leg and got him down since he was still 6 feet up. The paramedics came and checked him out and said that it's not broken, but it's taking a long time to heal. It's still swelling every day and there is lots of bruising and it's ugly where his leg caught. Here is a picture of where it caught-above the top step and below the numbers. He has been a model patient, but I know he is ready to be up to speed with life. No one can figure out how he didn't break his leg...but I have it all figured out. It was a miracle. No doubt whatsoever. That's the ONLY explanation. Thank you SO much to Amanda @ SSI for asking Rhett to come in so she could look at his leg and giving him information on how to speed up the healing process. You are a lifesaver!! :o)

After that excitement, it was time for Reece and Garett's Birthday party on Saturday. Yes, their birthdays are in December and January, but they were tired of indoor parties and so we waited til now to have a pool party at Nadine and Mark's. The day was hot and sunny and the kids (all 20 0f them!)had a GREAT time! Here are a couple of pictures.

Left to right we have Reece and Madison C., Katelyn and Amaris and Camden.

Here's Dawson and Reece....and Aunt Lisa wishing the Boys Happy Birthday!! I promise that Garett , Harry and Logan were there...too many pictures, too little space! What a great time we had! Thank you again, Nadine! :o)

Reece drew this picture this week and I though he did a great job so I wanted to share it with you. He's very talented, when he wants to put his attention on drawing!

Today we went to Kids Planet with our Wednesday Outing Group and had lots of fun! Here is a picture of everyone, well, of all the kids! We had Duston and Jenna spend the night so they got to go with us. It was a little scary to be outnumbered 6 kids to 1 me in the van, but we made it!
After that, we headed home for lunch with some girls, well, they aren't girls anymore, but anyway, I used to babysit them. Madison (here she is with her Mom, Melanie) is a junior at Charleston Southern University (she was in an earlier blog about her golf team's accomplishments). Amanda met us and played at Kids Planet with her charge for the day, Taylor (isn't she cute?!) and is a junior at Clemson. It's amazing to think that I helped these girls get ready for dance recitals and now they are grown women. I feel really experienced...not old, experienced! Alot that I learned about parenting I learned from helping to raise them. We had a great time and I'm so proud of both of them!

One last thing before I get ready to meet my Marriott friends for dinner. Did you know that honeysuckle is a weed?!? I did not! How in the world could it be classified as a weed? It's pretty, it smells great and tastes wonderful!! Here is a picture of our state butterfly, which Reecie tells me is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, on our honeysuckle. I will not be cutting OUR honeysuckle down because it's not a weed to me!!

Make it a great rest of the week! I'll post again very soon, since Stephanie is bound and determined to be on my blah-blah-blog!!

Till then, I am Fondly Yours,

Jeanne

Queen of the Browns!!

Summer has Arrived!

So, today is day number 3 in the Summer Break from school. Who wants 4 children for a week...any takers?! Just kidding! We are doing great! Today is a field trip day with only one errand to run so the Boys should all be happy. For the past two days we've had errands and grocery shopping to do so the only bright spot was Toys R Us and the fun summer stuff we "HAD to get"!

School ended well...I am now the proud Mother of a 3rd grader and a 1st grader. We spent the afternoon of the last day at Nadine's and the kids played in the pool. So did the Moms, but you won't see OUR pictures on here!!

Here's Reece, Katelyn and Madison S. having fun jumping in. Next time I will zoom in more and take more pictures. Oh! Here's Alyssa too! We had a great time and it wore the kids out, so it was a win-win situation for everyone!

After swimming, we had a ritual of sorts. Harry got his first haircut...sniff, sniff. I had to hold him and it broke my heart to see his babyhood snipped away!! Here are before, during and after pictures.

We (meaning the Boys) go to Offsides Haircuts in Greer and it is perfect! They only cut Boy's/Men's hair so they are all about function and not frou frou which works great for us! Each station has a TV with a bazillion channels to choose from so grown up Boys can watch SportsCenter and little Boys can watch SpongeBob (which is my most hated cartoon of all, by the way) or any other show in between. I had to hold Harry's bottle for him so he would sit still since Man cannot be still by cartoons alone! I brought home a lock of hair and tied it in a ribbon...it's all I have left of Baby Harry. :o(

Friday night we headed to Spartanburg for dinner with my brother for the last time for quite a while. He and Debbie will be moving to Egypt in a couple of weeks and so this was a farewell of sorts. We took lots of pictures, but selfishly this is my favorite. Jeff and I rarely have a picture of just the two of us...it usually has at least one child in it and so I love this one. Mom, I will email it to you separately. The group one that was taken with my camera turned out fuzzy (that's all my camera will do, right Rick?!) so when I get the good one from my sister-in-law, Lisa, I will post that one. My Dad and Lisa, Rick, Halleigh and Sam all joined us and we ended the night by heading to the Red Dot store-Target, not the ABC store-since Egypt doesn't have any of those!! Here's another picture from the night of Debbie and Halleigh. We will miss them lots and I promise to TRY not to call in the middle of your night, Jeff and Debbie! It'll take a while to get used to the time difference.

Here is a picture I wanted to share. As we get ready to celebrate Father's Day, I wanted to pull a favorite picture of Rhett and the Boys out. I love this one and it's relatively new...3 weeks old I think. There's only a week and a half til Father's Day...so Moms out there, remember that even if he's not YOUR father, he is the father of your children! Don't wait! Start planning for the day now!! He will be the role model for which your son's father their own children one day! Celebrate him! We can't wait for Father's Day!!

So, my CHOOSE JOY coffee cup is empty so I guess it's time to start the day. We are breakfasting with Nadine, Katelyn and Luke and then painting pottery for our first Field Trip of the summer!

Hope you MAKE it a great day!!

Until Next Time, I'm Fondly Yours,

Jeanne

Camp Counselor Extraordinaire!