Life with the Brown Family

We've Moved on to a Better Place!!

2008-07-29T10:12:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-07-14T06:44:00.019-04:00

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

2008-06-25T22:36:00.008-04:00

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!!

2008-06-24T05:50:00.022-04:00

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

2008-06-18T21:22:00.010-04:00

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

2008-06-16T06:30:00.011-04:00

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!!

2008-06-11T09:05:00.014-04:00

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!

2008-06-04T07:20:00.012-04:00

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!

Time to Move on to the Next Ride!

2008-05-30T08:31:00.018-04:00

Slow this life down!! I feel like we are on a merry go round that is going faster and faster every day! Hopefully next week will slow down and we can jump over on the lazy river and relax for a while!

Here's a quick run down of our week!

First of all, I wanted to share a picture of Harry and his "Church Girlfriends"! Brooke and Lindsay helped me with Harry so much last Sunday!! They toted him all aound and fed him, they loved it, he loved it and I loved it!! Thank you to both of you for all of your help!!

Sunday afternoon we went to Katelyn's piano recital in Duncan. She did VERY good and we were proud to know her! That's Katelyn's little brother Luke standing on the right.

Sunday night we went to the Greenville Drive game with BreakFree Kids! I love going to the baseball games! It's so much fun watching the game, eating ballpark food and singing "Sweet Caroline". I think we sing that song because we live in South Carolina since I don't remember it saying anything about baseball. Anyway, we had a great time and had great seats, even though we were behind the net and so the Boys didn't get to catch any fly balls. Greenville lost :o( but there were great fireworks at the end anyway! Here's a picture of Garett wearing his ice cream bowl "hat".

Monday was Memorial Day. We went swimming with our friends Brady and Hannah. Here is everyone drying off. The Boys love the water and I love that they use lots of energy and wear themselves out swimming and playing!

That night we had dinner with my brother, Jeff and his wife, Debbie, who are visiting from DC. They will be moving overseas for a couple of years, so we are happy to be able to spend some time with them. Debbie's sister and brother in law, Lisa and Rick, and their Babies came too so I got my Baby fix holding Sam. Here's Harry having fun with Taggie and Garett with Sam. Kristy, do you recognize Sam's outfit!!?

Reece's field day was Tuesday and Garett's was Wednesday so the Babies and I (and Jeff and Debbie and my Dad and Lisa and her Babies) were at the school two mornings in a row for those. The Boys both did great in all of the activities. Here is Reece with his friend Duston during the fun and here is Garett doing the Super Ball Hop!! Great photography, Uncle Jeff!! We had a great time and the Boys definitely slept well the night of their Field Day!

Wednesday night I got a Girls Night Out for a couple of hours and ate dinner with my PTA Girls. We missed you, Kandace!! It was nice to be able to talk without a million (okay-we really only have 13 younger children among us) little voices pulling us this way and that. It's a great group and I'm so glad we connected this year. Here's Nadine, me, Rita, Paula and Amy. It's funny what you talk about when you don't have children to do the talking for you...I think we touched on about 100 different topics in 2 hours!

Thursday was our first of two half days and lunch wasn't served so when the dismissed at 11:20 a group of us went to Lake Cooley for a picnic, playing and to feed the geese. Here is everyone feeding the geese and then they gathered for a picture on the rock. What a great group of friends the Boys (and I) have made this year through school.

So today is the last day of school. I dropped the Boys off on the Cafeteria side of the school for the last time. Next year we will have a new school that's much closer to home. Thank goodness all of our friends will be there too. With it being the last day, I took the Boys for biscuits before school. As I pulled into the drive through and paid for my order and then asked how much the order was for the car behind me, the woman at the window broke into a huge smile. She told me that when I paid for the car behind me last week the string of "Paying It Forward" went on for 5 cars!! How awesome is that!! I was so excited I had to clap! I paid for the person behind me and then they paid for the person behind them and so on and so forth till before she knew it 5 orders were paid for like that!! That makes me happy! Happy that other people want to make other people to be happy! Just remember that you don't always have to buy someone something...a kind word or smile can do just as much! Pay a compliment! That's free and people love to get compliments! And if you are the receiver of the compliment...take it!! Don't dismss it or downplay it! Take it, smile and pass one along yourself! I'm trying to make the world a happier place, one person at a time....if I could just get off this merry go round!!!!

That's all for now, there's laundry to do and Babies to read to, so until next time,

I'm Fondly Yours,

Jeanne

Queen of the Brown Clan

Things I Have Learned This Week

2008-05-23T16:47:00.010-04:00

1. Logan likes ketchup as his dressing when we have salad with chicken on it. I guess the salad is just like a chicken sandwich all mixed up in a bowl, but I never thought of ketchup as a dressing, so see, I learned something!

2. Black snakes can crawl up trees. We had this one in the yard and after he laid there for a little bit so we could look at him, he went along his way across the road and right up a tree. I had no idea! Now I'll be worried about snakes falling on me out of the tree when I lay in the hammock all day!!

3. Logan has his own sense of style. I knew that. No learning there. The thing I learned is that it doesn't matter if other people don't like his style choices. Case in point, today's footwear selections. When I say selections I mean that he wore two different boots all day. He had on a left cowboy boot and a left rain boot. This is a battle I do not fight. Eating breakfast, I fight that battle. Clothes and shoes (or boots!), that his choice the majority of the time. Today did get a few smiles and cute comments, but we got a couple hard stares and disapproving glares and you know what? I didn't care!! He will grow up and care about matching soon enough.

4. I learned that one of my favorite things to do is dance to John Mayer in the kitchen with Rhett and Harry. Between the sound of Harry's beautiful laughs and Rhett's smiles, my face was lit up! I love dancing with all of my Boys! I need Mimi to teach me to shag, because one day I will want to dance with my Sons at their weddings and I want it to be a fun dance, not a slow, sweet, make-me-cry-dance so I need to learn how to shag!! (Rhett's sister, Meredith, teaches dance so I need to get started!)

5. I learned that Harry will eat almost anything you put in front of him! I started the whole table food thing timidly. I really wish he wanted baby food still, but, no. He will not eat watermelon or strawberries that well, but loves PB& J, cantaloupe, cucumbers, scrambled eggs, waffles, grilled chicken, chicken tenders, cheese, turkey, I could go on but will stop. Point of the story...I don't think he will be a picky eater! That's a good thing, but I still wish we were still eating baby food! Here is a picture with him covered in Peanut Butter and Jelly!

6. On Friday night I learned that Rhett is teaching Harry to walk behind my back. Not funny. He's doing really good with his balance (Harry, that is!) and with Rhett helping him, all of my knocking Harry down during the day is not going to hinder his learning process. I really wanted Harry to stay a Baby longer, but it seems everyone is working against me. Once he is walking really well, I will (begrudgingly) post a video. Don't get me wrong, I am very glad that he is growing so strong and healthy, but it's just happening so fast! I'm not ready for this!

7. The last thing I learned this week was this. If you play outside all day and Logi doesn't get to take a nap, there is no chance that you can put him in the car and drive him into Greenville for dinner and expect him to be awake to eat. We worked in the yard Saturday and came in and got showers around 6:30. We got to dinner, I carried him in, sat him down at the table and leaned him over on his bear, Bubba, and he slept the entire meal. He didn't wake up when we left, when we got home or when I put his jammers on him. But he did wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning! He's such a darling little monkey!!

So this week is our last week of school!!! Yea!...I think yea! We'll see how quickly the Boys get bored. Hopefully they can hang in there til at least the beginning of August before they complain!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Fondly,

Jeanne Brown

CHO for the Brown Family

Fun Day for the Browns!

2008-05-21T23:01:00.013-04:00

What a great day! Here's what happened today, Wednesday, May 21, 2008.

Reece and I went on a Field Trip to FENCE in Tryon, NC. Here is the website http://www.fence.org/ . We hiked in the woods, sucked on some honeysuckle, fed snapping turtles and fish, explored the marsh and swamp and pretty much just had an amazing day outside! It was beautiful! At one point his class was playing Duck, Duck, Goose! and it was so refreshing to see him play with such abandonment! Recently he seems to have developed an outer "cool" shell and I've shared with friends that I'm not a huge fan of the attitude that comes with the shell. Today it was gone and I am happy! After we came home he and I picked sticks up in the backyard and I discovered 3 things:

1. Our backyard is too big! We need to fill up some of the yard and add on to the house. There is too much room for limbs to be scattered around!

2. Chloe has taken to digging holes in the red dirt and I am not happy about that...at all.

2. Reece hasn't grown up as fast as I thought he had. I loved being able to talk to him one on one while we worked together. It was nice.

Here are some pictures of our trip.

Here is his class....................Here he is being silly in the animal room.

This picture is of him on the boardwalk feeding the turtles and fish.

And this is Reece and our friend Katelyn after we ate lunch. We missed Katelyn's Mom, Nadine, who was planning to come but got sick at the last minute.

After the trip I stayed at school till it got out and got to do one of my very favorite things...start changing out a bulletin board! I mean it! If there was a job that simply entailed designing and constructing bulletin boards at school I would apply! I love it! I'm working on one for church right now too! Maybe I'll post a picture of it when I finish. ANYWHO...we left school and headed to Beba's to get the Babies. I really miss them on days we are apart. We loaded up and when we got home we got ready to go out to dinner for Harry's 1st Birthday!! Here come more pictures! He opened presents first...here he is wearing the AZ Diamond Backs hat my Mom and Marty sent for him. It came with a cute little baseball outfit! The it was time for cupcakes!! He wanted that 1 candle bad!! Then the mess came!! He's dressed in this picture, but when we left, he was a nekid baby!! Smart Mommy bought blank cupcakes at Bloom (I love that store!) and iced them with vanilla icing and sprinkles so #1 the sadistic frosting bakeries use wouldn't stain everything and #2 there wouldn't be NEAR as much sugar and lard in my children's systems! Thank you to Wendy for this wonderful tip!! We all had a great time celebrating and were so glad our friend Lindsay came with us. She was a real trooper when she held a conversation while helping Garett do a crossword puzzle before dinner. She's a great multitasker and will make a great Mom some day!! Here she is with Bug. Reece and Logan hammed it up for the camera, messy faces and all! Thank you Daddy for taking the pictures...once again, the man behind the lens didn't make it in front of it...we"ll get you next time!!

All in all it was a wonderful day as I sit here typing and listening to Baby Harry's sleeping noises, I am so thankful for him. A year ago at this time he was in NICU and we were praying that he'd be able to go home with us. Look at him now!! You'd never know that there was ever any doubt! I am so lucky to have my 4 Boys. I love them so very much and hope that one day they will know the love that fills a parents heart.

That is all for now since it's tomorrow already and past time for bed.

Sweet Dreams,

Jeanne

I Refuse to Get Behind on Life!

2008-05-19T09:15:00.010-04:00

Okay, I know you are all falling over from surprise, but here I am, updating, twice in 4 days! Compose yourself, it's not that exciting...

We had such a great weekend that I had to post pictures before I forgot. But I have to clear up something first. My Mother and "my friend" Dora were not the only 2 people who thought I could pass Statistics. Rhett Brown also had faith in me...he made sure I knew that this weekend after he read the blog. My apologies, Dear. I'm glad you knew I had the knowledge in me to pass!! One more thing and then I'll let this go-I thank Rhett for being a single Dad 3-4 nights a week for last semester. I could not have made it through the classes without you...and get ready, because it'll start all over again soon!!

I had a WONDERFUL birthday!! Thank you all for the calls, emails and wishes! I've told Rhett that there are 2 days that a mother should be celebrated (well there are more than 2-but they should DEFINITELY be celebrated on these 2) and that is Mother's Day and her Birthday. Pull out all the stops! Treat her like you should treat her every other day of the year! He and my Boys certainly did that! I did not cook, do laundry, or clean and I loved it!! Although it's like taking a vacation from work-my in box was always piled high. And so it is now! So here we go-I'm hurrying so I can go play catch up!

Here is Reece wearing my hat for me at lunch with Rhett's parents. I really did not want to wear it and while Rhett did get a quick picture of me with it on my head, this is a better picture because Reece is in it with me!

I got my first birthday cake from "my friend" Dora (I promise-from now on she'll just be Dora!). She made me a lemon jello cake that was AWESOME!! It was so thoughtful for her to make that for me and bring it by. She brought her son Conner and he and Harry had a good time talking and laughing at each other. Did I mention that the cake ROCKED!!? Just wanted to make sure! We celebrated Friday night at dinner too before Rhett headed off to Relay for Life to play with Pretzel Logic-don't ask me about the name-I forget where it came from. Anyway-it was cold! And LATE!! I bribed the Boys with ice cream and Oreos and the promise of a trip to Monkey Joes later on and it worked! I was glad when Rhett made it home safely at 3am.

Saturday we all spent the day together and went shopping (after we had all of the paint washed off and the confetti vacuumed out of the van!) and I got a couple Teacher gifts for the end of the year. Saturday night we had dinner with Missy and Andy Alling since their birthdays are in May too. There were about 18 people there I think and we had a great time! Here are the birthday girls! While I'm on the topic of Allings, I want to share the picture I took of their growth "chart". Remember, I talked about it earlier in a post. Here is one part of one side of it. The idea of having 8 children used to scare me, but now that I'm at 4 -what's 4 more?!! I'd love to have 2 more! Hey-I just read in People magazine (I know-don't lecture me on the pitfalls of society and the obsession with celebrities-I hardly ever read it) that the Duggar family is expecting child number 18! Number 17 is 9 months old. I've seen them on TLC. THAT'S a little much for me. Anyway-here is the picture! I love it! You can't see it too well, but you can see that there are lots of measurements! I love that!

Well, we did Mexican after church on Sunday with Rhett's parents (and I had my 2nd birthday cake!) and I took this picture of Harry-his birthday is Wednesday-can you believe it? I can't. Let's not talk about it...but here is a cute picture of him multitasking. He was drinking juice and playing with the balloon. I loved the picture, so here it is.

Sunday night Reece had been invited to see his friend Amaris in a musical at her church, so Garett and I went as well while Rhett stayed home with the Babies. Amaris did a great job! She has a beautiful singing voice! So sweet. Reece picked some flowers out for her and here is the picture I took afterwards. Good times for sure!!

So, this week holds a field trip for Reece and I to Tryon, NC. We are excited about that! Logi and Harry will spend that day with Beba and every afternoon will be filled with fun stuff so Garett will not be left out. The hammock has made it's debut for the season, so most likely instead of my lying on the sofa eating bon bons, I will spend the days out in the yard, swaying in the breeze...hmmm, I think 4 tons of laundry disagrees with me! One day off makes a huge difference in the schedule I try to keep!

Hope everyone has a great week and remembers to Pay it Forward if you can! Smile more than you have to---it's a great gift you can always give!

Until next time, I'm Fondly Yours,

Jeanne
CHO for the Brown Family

Just Another Day

2008-05-16T08:01:00.004-04:00

Hey! Jump right in to the Brown Lake of Life! Here we go! Today it's all about bullet points so I stay on task!

-I PASSED STATISTICS!!! I really don't think anyone thought I could do it besides "my friend" Dora and my Mom (including myself-I was very pleasantly surprised!), but I did it!! Thank you SO much to Jaime and Dora...I really could not have done it with out you, or everyone's prayers! I know my high school algebra teacher, Mrs. Byrd, would be the most shocked of everyone!! :o) Anatomy and Physiology was good too...I wasn't as worried about that one! I'm taking the summer off to be the Camp Counselor at Camp Keeping-4-Boys-Occupied-for-21/2-Months, but will be back into the thick of things in August. Whew! I need a break!

-We have pulled out all of the old home video tapes and are having a ball! Last night I found one that I taped before we had children. We had 3 cats and 2 fish tanks (BIG fish tanks) and I gave a tour of our 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath condo that lasted 15 minutes-i showed every detail-including thee laundry room and the cat boxes. So THAT'S what I did before kids! It was hilarious to watch! I took it in 1997 and Rhett and I had only been married 2 years. The Boys love watching the tapes and especially got a laugh when I talked about not wanting Baby Garett to walk because he was probably my last baby!! HA HA HA! That was 2 Babies ago! I need to run the camera more...it's so much fun to look back on the Boys' lives.

-Logan is a freak! Not long ago I told him that I loved him. The conversation went like this:

ME: Logan, I love you.

LOGAN: Me "yove" YOU!

ME: I love you MORE!

LOGAN: ME "yove" you SO much more...with a little CRAZY on top!

How can you not smile at this curly haired ball of energy ?!? This curly haired ball of energy who has decided that NOW it's okay to be potty trained!! YEA!! One Baby in diapers is GREAT! No rush for him to get out of them! Here is Logi with my new "nephew" Sam! He couldn't wait to hold him! He's the son of my brother's wife's sister and brother in law, Lisa and Rick. Technically they aren't related to us, but we call them Aunt Lisa and Uncle Rick and so their daughter Halleigh is my niece and Sam is my nephew! I love new babies and when the Boys and I stayed with Lisa and the children last weekend I jumped out of be to do the 3:30am feeding. I miss that time with my Babies. I so wish I was preggers again!

School is winding down-9 days left not counting today and 2 of those days are half days! I'm excited to get to sleep in and not have to get up and take the Boys to school (sorry Rhett!), but we'll miss our teachers! Bug's teacher, Mrs. Deal, is moving to the new school with us next year, but Reece's teacher, Miss Ford will still be at Wellford. We've become friends and I wish I could be her Room Mom again next year!! I'm glad Mrs. Deal is moving with us, because number one, she and her husband are going to have a BABY in January (yea!) and number two, I have two more children coming behind Bug that could have her for kindergarten!! We are looking forward to lots of field trips and fun times this summer...let us know if you want to plan a play date!!

One more thing, I think just one...Last night when we pulled into the driveway, Rhett saw a frog...the first frog of the spring! So the Boys all scrambled out and Bug scooped it up! Here he is. Jaime, remember how we used to catch the frogs at your parent's farm and throw them up in the air and catch them?! Those were fun times!

The icecream truck came through the neighborhood this week. Summer is coming! Now we just have to wait for the fireflys!! When I get old I want to drive the icecream truck. That is going on my list of goals.

Okay, well, I will go for now. Today is my birthday and so now that my CHOOSE JOY coffee mug is empty it's time to get dressed and climb in my van that my DH (Dear Husband) so thoughtfully decorated for me and go to lunch and playdate with the Babies. We're off to see Joy and Taylor and we're so glad that the sun is coming out!!

Remember to be nicer than you have to and try this this week-Pay it Forward. If you are in line at Hardee's or Bojangles or wherever, ask how much the order for the person behind you costs. Then, if you can, pay for it! It's the BEST day brightener EVER!! Then you just leave! Let them enjoy their sweet tea or biscuit and hopefully they will be nicer to someone that day than they have to be! Try it! It's fun!

Until next time, I'm Fondly Yours,

Jeanne

Queen of the Brown Clan

P.S. I sort of failed on the bullet points, I know. Oh well!

A Few Thoughts I Didn't want to Get Lost in my Head

2008-04-25T08:48:00.005-04:00

So, it's been a good week. My review nights for exams are finished and now all I have to do is take the exams next Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday is Anatomy and Physiology and Wednesday is Statistics, so pray for me for both exams, but REALLY pray for me for the Statistics night. I know many people have heard me say this, but if I can just make it through that class!! I will count it a major accomplishment in my life.

If I could, I'd like to make a statement as the President of the Rhett Brown Fan Club! He had to critique an outside speech for his class this week. He chose Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech and totally rocked it. Ms. Trumbo said that he was the first student to do the speech justice. I am so proud of my husband. He rocks on so many levels! Tonight he has to give his final speech!

Okay, so yesterday while I was on the phone with Wendy, my disposal literally dropped out of the bottom of my kitchen sink! Sorry for the hasty goodbye, Wendy! I freaked! There was water pouring out of the cupboards under the sink and let me tell you, it was a mess, but the Boys helped me get towels and it's all good now. Rhett has a project for the weekend (and who doesn't like home improvement projects that HAVE to be done?!?) and I'll have a new disposal! In the middle of the mess, I took a bag full of drenched under-the-sink-stuff to the garbage cans and what do you know? I had something to smile about! The climbing rose by the cans is ready to burst open with blooms! I could have gotten frustrated about the mess and inconvenience, but you know what, it wouldn't have helped at all, so I just smiled, took a deep breath and went back in to finish cleaning up and getting dinner ready. Thank you God for climbing roses that make me stop and smile!

Last night when Garett Bug was going to bed , he asked me to lay with him "for just one minute". So I did. After he had said his prayers we had a conversation that went something like this:

"You know those flying squirrels?"

"Yes."

"They look like brown bats when they are flying".

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Did you talk about flying squirrels today?"

"No. I just thought about them."

Okay, Bug may look like Rhett, but his thought processes are so like mine! The thought about it and so we talked about it. I love it! Who else thought about flying squirrels and their resemblance to bats yesterday?

I promised a picture of Reece and his new smile so here it is! He's such an introverted child! Just kidding! He's had a great week at school!

Okay, so Logan and Harry are great and will get more attention in the blog next time. I've got to get ready for Drop-In-And-Play with Ms. Pat at Reece and Garett's school. I can take the Babies up there one Friday a month and do crafts and activities and play and hang out with other Moms! I love it!

I hope that everyone has a great weekend! Be thankful for your kitchen disposals, blooming flower and children who tell you what is on their minds!

Until next time, I'm Fondly Yours,

Jeanne
Queen of the Brown Clan

Catching Up Once Again!

2008-04-18T10:41:00.014-04:00

Okay, so obviously I'm not keeping up with this like I want to. We've been home from Phoenix for 2 weeks and life is flying by so I thought I'd jot a quick note down.

The trip home from AZ was good, considering we flew into Atlanta in the middle of thunderstorms and a tornado watch. The Boys all behaved and weren't scared (though Reece admitted to being "freaked out" when it lightninged outside his side of the plane). The most memorable moment of the flight was when Garett (jokingly) said in not a whisper, "Mayday! Mayday! We're going down!" There was a lot of turbulence, but we made it! Here are a couple of pictures from our wonderful trip! The first one is of Garett and Logi when we climbed into the Hole in the Rock. That was lots of fun! I posted a picture of all the Brown Boys at the Grand Canyon last time so here is a picture of Reece when he and Rhett spent a day hiking and exploring Sedona, AZ and the Red Rocks. They had a great time and spent a great day bonding! We spent a day with the Marlin's. Here is a picture of Eric and Rhett. I didn't get a family picture of everyone at once-you know how hard it is to get everybody to stand together when you have 4 kids!! So, the Dads get some face time! We had a great time seeing them and look forward to them coming this way next to go to the beach! I want to share just three more pictures from our visit. Here is my Mom and Logan, reading a book one night before bed. He did not want me to do anything for him while were there-Grandma had to do it all! It was hard for him to come home and not have a personal Grandma to do everything for him! Here is my favorite picture of Harry and Marty. Marty was getting ready for work and Harry had just woken up and they are both fresh and full of smiles and energy for the day! Marty needed his energy as he is a shuttle driver for a Resort there in Scottsdale. The night before we left, the Boys made stepping stones for my Mom for her birthday. She and Marty put the stones out front around their tree and we made sure to put the year on them so when we do the next ones we will have the beginning of the story of my Boys' growth! Here they are (minus Harry, obviously!). It was a great trip and we are looking forward to the next one already!! We better give Grandma and Marty time to rest up though! We definitely kept them hopping!!

When we got back, Garett and I had a field trip to Hollywild Animal Park! Here is Bug with a few of his friends and the huge brown bear we saw! We had a great time with the animals and then had a picnic and played on the playground at Lake Cooley. Fun times for sure!!

What else is going on? Let's see-Reece lost 2 teeth (on the same day!) while we were on Spring Break, so I'll take a picture of his gappy smile and post that. The tooth fairy had a field day with him! After we got home, Harry started crawling, like belly up off the ground crawling. The race for manhood is on. I am sad. He is also getting 2 more, maybe 4 more-I can't tell, teeth in. Time is flying - he'll be 11 months old on Monday, the 21st.

Last weekend we went to a showcase at the Poinsett Club for Rhett's sister, Meredith. She teaches ballroom dance and we went to see what all of the students have learned! That was exciting! Meredith danced too and I must say, Rhett and I were impressed! There wasn't the tossing of dancers like there is on Dancing with the Stars, but it was fun all the same! Here is a picture of Rhett and Mimi. Rhett did wear a tie...it came off the minute he stepped out of the ballroom!! :o)

One last bit of news! I talked to Melanie Jeter last night and she told me about Madison's accomplishments with the Charleston Southern University Golf Team. You can read all about their success here http://csusports.athleticsite.com/article.asp?articleID=2461 I am so proud of the wonderful person she has become! I have been a part of her life for 20 years (could it be that long?!?) and I love her so very much!

Well, I have been asked to pick flowers outside with Logan and since he is my boss for the day, I must oblige. By the way-if you have an assistant-don't forget-next Wednesday is Administrative Assistant's Day! Let them know they are appreciated! Take it from me, a little kindness and appreciation can go a long way!

Until next time, I'm fondly yours,

Jeanne

CHO of the Brown Family

Hello from Arizona!!

2008-04-03T12:53:00.003-04:00

Well, we made it!! I had planned on writing sooner, but we have been so busy having the best Spring Break EVER that there hasn't been time!

We left Greenville last Friday afternoon, March 28th, spent the night in Atlanta and flew out Saturday morning for Arizona. The boys were absolutely WONDERFUL on the plane! I'll post later when we get home with pictures, but everyone slept, no one cried and we got compliments on how well behaved our children were! Music to Rhett's and my ears!! :o) Imagine the looks we got when we walked up to the gate with 4 children! I'm sure people were kicking themselves for not taking an earlier (or later) flight! But it was all great!!

I have just one picture to share for now. Here are my Boys at the Grand Canyon! We had a great time and Rhett and Reece want to hike to the bottom in the future. I'm happy just to look down from the top!! The views were awesome and the Boys were duly impressed, although we did have to make sure Logan didn't launch Bubba over the edge!! We took lots of pictures and will share more later.

Yesterday we spent the day with Eric and Kris Marlin. They are friends from Greenville that moved here just 6 weeks ago-perfect timing for us to visit! We loved getting to see them and the children we had met (though they left Greenville 4 years ago for Nebraska, so the children have grown alot!), Abbie and Joe and got to meet the 2 year old twins, Sarah and Lizzie. We had fun catching up and the kids all loved playing in their pool.

We've been swimming, hiking, shopping and having a great time with Grandma and Marty. It's a huge adjustment for them to have us in their home for a week, and an even bigger adjustment for their dog Serenity, but everyone has adapted and are having a blast! We leave tomorrow, Friday, to head home and so we covet your prayers that the airplane trip home will be as calm and uneventful as the one coming.

Hope everyone is having a great week!!

Until next time,

I'm Fondly Yours,

Jeanne

Queen of the Browns :o)

I'll Not Clean Them!

2008-03-01T09:00:00.002-05:00

I've made a decision. My mirrored closet doors will have to remain dirty. Let me explain why.

Years ago, when my mother-in law told me that she couldn't clean the babies (Reece and Garett at the time) fingerprints off her sunroom windows I thought she was crazy. I mean-they were fingerprints!! Fingerprints were supposed to be Windexed and wiped! What was she thinking!?!

This week I was cleaning and had the Windex and paper towels poised, ready to clean the fore mentioned closet doors...and I couldn't do it. You see, the fingerprints that are on there are Logi's size NOW. If I clean them off, how will I know how small his fingers were TODAY?! Sure, I could clean them off, he'll put more on there tomorrow and the next day and the next day. But then that will be his fingerprint size for THEN. What if I don't remember the little prints and then suddenly he's 6 or 7 or 8 and doesn't want to play in front of the mirror making silly faces and pressing his hands to the glass? Right now, I can't bear that thought. So, if you come to my house and are privileged enough to see my bedroom, I don't want to hear a word about my dirty doors. They are filled with the fingerprints of my 3 year old and I'll wash them off when I want to and that is not anytime soon. I'll wipe the other fingerprints around the house (and there are lots: the back door, the refrigerator, the kitchen windows, the goes on and on!) but the ones in my room stay.

At my friend Missy's house there is a doorway that is filled with names and dates. There's one for Drew when he was 6 or 7 maybe (now he is a Senior at Byrnes) and there's one for Cadence who is 2 years old and number 7 in a wonderful family of 8 children. Maybe you saw him and his younger brother, Toby, in last week's post. Anyway, the point is that all of the kids have had their heights recorded in this doorway over the years. There are so many on one side that they spill over to the other side. There are the heights of friends and cousins and even a note or two. I love that doorway. When they added on to the house (just beyond this doorway) it might have been easier to tear it out the doorway and make a new one, but these were their memories, their fingerprints if you will. Maybe I'll take a picture of it sometime. How cool will it be when Drew and Kayla (and the other 6) grow up and move out and get married for them to come home and show their children how tall they were in the year 1999, before the turn of the century!! Well, they aren't all old enough to have measurements from 1999, but you get my point.

I like family history and traditions. What are some of yours? Share them with me.

So, I'm not going to inundate (like that SAT word? :o) ) you with my children's pictures this week, but instead share a piece of happiness from my Marriott World. This week I heard a rumor that we may get to have a reunion of sorts...only this reunion is with people that we enjoyed working with over the years. Here is a picture of a mini-reunion we had last September for my fabulous friend, Jackie (she's the 2nd from the left). When I think of the "good old days" at the Marriott, Jackie is right there with Sherry, Leo, Melanie and Anne. We had FUN at work---who cares if we made money!! Anyway, I won't go on and on because hopefully I'll be able to post about the reunion in the future-that is if Jackie and I can plan it between me watching Rachael Ray and Jackie watching Oprah!! :o)

Okay, so I didn't get the post finished on Friday, but I started Friday and finished this morning. For those of you who are keeping score, no, I have not sent my Christmas Cards yet. The wishes will be as heartfelt when the recipients get them as they would have been in December!

I hope that everyone has had a great week! Ours ended on a questionable note when I had to pick Garett up early from school yesterday with a 102 degree (why isn't there a key for the degree symbol? Am I missing it?) fever and cough, but after lots rest and juice he's back to his normal, jovial self this morning. Thank you God...this is a answer to fervent prayer that he didn't have the flu that one of our playmates was diagnosed with this week. That's some scary stuff there.

So, if you have little ones, look at those fingerprints a little differently this week...and then clean them off if you want...there'll be more in the future! I'll be keeping mine for now.

Until next time, I'm fondly yours,

Jeanne

Queen of the Brown Clan

One more thing---does anyone have connections to a beekeeper? I have friend who would like one to speak to her class...this is my attempt to help! I'll let you know if I get anyone to respond, Jen!! :o)

I'm Staying on Top of Things!!

2008-02-22T17:21:00.000-05:00

One week! Can you believe it! I only let a week pass before posting...much better than the 2 MONTHS I waited before! I read in a blog somewhere this week that daily postings are good. There is no way I could get that done! :o)

What a fun week we've had! Last weekend was jam packed with fun when Reece's (and Garett's) friend Brayden spent the night Friday. We ventured to Spartanburg to eat at the Mellow Mushroom (it opened in December) and loved it! We got a few hard stares with us bringing in 5 children, but they were all very well behaved...I was pleasantly surprised! We have eaten at the one in Charleston lots and I've eaten at the one in Greenville, but the people at this one were unbelievably nice!

Saturday was the Boys' last basketball game and so Garett's teacher, Mrs. Deal, and her husband came to watch the game so that was special! They won and ended the season with 1 loss and 8 wins! Yea! I think we are going to take a season (or two) off and maybe start soccer in the fall.

Sunday we started celebrating Logan's 3rd Birthday! We had lunch with my Dad and Rhett's parents and sister and her husband and Logan loved the attention!! He was decked out in true 3 year old fashion with his overalls, Birthday King Crown and rainboots! He loves boots! If he's not wearing his cowboy boots then he's wearing rainboots--and sometimes he doesn't even want the boots to match---I don't fight those battles. I'll let him win those and I'll stand firm on things that matter! But I digress, we had a great time at chips and cheese (Mexican) and he has started acting older already. One night while I was at school he told Rhett that he was a "big boy" now and that "You don't tell me what to do!" Rhett cleared that disagreement up really quick! Monday was Logan's actual birthday so the two of us made cookies and went to visit our friends at the Marriott to spread good cheer. Here is a picture of the Babies and "Aunt" Sherry. Logan loves to go around and stick his head in everyone's office. All in all I think he had a great birthday.

Did everyone watch the lunar eclipse Wednesday night?! That was exciting! Garett was in bed, but Reece stayed up to see it. Here is the best picture we got of it. I think this was about 20 minutes before the moon was fully eclipsed. I like lunar eclipses, but solar eclipses freak me out...I don't like those so much...am I strange for that?

Guess what else happened Wednesday!?! Harry got his first tooth!! Yea! Thursday the second one broke through so we are well on our way to solid food! I'm ready for another baby! Just kidding...no, I'm not kidding.

This weekend is going to be fun for everyone. Reece is going home with Duston and we won't see him for 2 nights. The Bass Master Convention (?) is in town at the Bi-Lo Center and Carolina First Center (I liked those better when they were Memorial Auditorium and The Palmetto Expo Center) and so they have a weekend full of fish planned out. Garett and Rhett had lunch today and then went to the movies so their weekend started early. I had Cadence and Toby with me this morning til school got out and so I took 4 children to Drop in and Play at the Boys' school with Ms. Pat. We had a great time and Missy got to go on a field trip to Roper Mountain Science Center with Gavin. Here are Harry and Toby sharing lunch!

Cadence came over and "cheesed" for me after I took the babies' picture so here he is too! Logi had fallen asleep so he didn't get to be in this picture.

So let's see, next big thing we have coming up is flying out to Arizona to see my Mom and Marty for Spring Break. It's hard to believe that it'll be here before we know it! The Big Boys love flying, but Logan and Harry will soon learn to love it (we hope!). We are all excited and can't wait! An added bonus is that our great friends Kris and Eric Marlin just moved to Phoenix (where my Mom is) and so we will get to see them while we are there. I'm glad they moved there because I didn't see traveling to Nebraska to see them! That's where they moved from. So, I guess this week I'll start getting the packing lists together.

That's all for now I suppose. I hope everyone has a great week and keeps healthy--wash your hands-the flu bug is running rampant! Thanks for caring about The Browns and remember to choose Joy each and every day!!

Until Next Time,

Jeanne

CHO

Let's Play Catch Up!

2008-02-15T15:36:00.000-05:00

Thank you all for your concern and emailing me to make sure we are okay due to my lack of blogging. I'm so sorry! I just had too much fun with the Boys over Christmas Break and then we had birthdays and so on and so forth and now it's halfway through February and I haven't even sent out my Christmas cards...but they will be sent soon! Life is getting in the way!

Okay, so the last time I posted it was 13 days til Christmas. Let's start there...Christmas was wonderful!! The house is full of guitars (real electric guitar for Garett, Guitar Hero for the Wii for Reece and a play electric guitar for Logi) and the driveway is full of bikes so we are having fun inside and out. Here's a picture from our adventure to Hollywild to see the lights and feed the animals. The Boys had a great time riding in the back of Teba's truck!

Reece turned 8 four days after Christmas and had a great time celebrating and wearing the Birthday Crown! Where have the last 8 years gone?!?

Garett's Birthday came next and with it I am suddenly the mother of a 6 year old! We are so happy that he is following in Reece's footsteps and learning how to be a such a wonderful Big Brother.

We had a snow day thrown in there and I posted a video on YouTube of a snowball fight the Boys had. It quickly turned warmer and the snow was gone, but it was pretty while it was here and it was nice of Rhett to keep a fire blazing all day long. "Smarshmellows" were toasted and smores were made.

Rhett and I have started back for the Winter Semester and are doing great. Rhett is taking both Speech and Religion online and this time I'm in the classroom. I'm taking Anatomy and Physiology and Statistics and Probablity so I'm in class three nights a week. Rhett has given his first speech (that part is NOT online :o) ) and did great. I received a 102 on my first lecture test and a 79 (that's ALMOST a B!!!) on my Statistics test---BIG THANKS TO MY FRIEND JAIME FOR THAT!!! She was a Math Teacher for Middle School and has been awarded the distinct honor of becoming my Tutor!! I guess she's still a Math Teacher, she's taking a hiatus from teaching to raise a family...a family that will have a new baby in September!!! Yea for you Uncle B and Aunt Jaimes!! Here's a picture of them with Gracie and Avery.

Reece was awarded Terrific Kid for December/January! Hootie Hootie!! He was picked from his class and Miss Ford wrote a very nice page about him. For those of you who have a Terrific Kid bumper sticker and don't want to "Stick" it...take it to Kinkos and they will make it into a magnet for you!! Little trick of the trade (motherhood) for you.

Valentine's Day was sweet. I was able to help with Reece and Garett's parties at school since they were at different times. My friend Nadine brought Valentine's Day doughnuts from Krispy Kreme in the shape of hearts for Reece's class (her daughter Katelyn is in the same class)...the doughnuts were adorable. We had an ice cream party in Garett's class and they all had fun in their "heart crowns". Rhett had practice and I had class so we celebrated with a big breakfast for dinner...a tradition I acquired from my wonderful friend, Jill Frick. I made heart shaped pancakes that the Boys loved, even though I made them eat eggs first! I wore Rhett's high school class ring all day like I have for the last 16 years. He put it on my finger on February 14th, 1992 and so I wear it every year on Valentine's Day. I asked him if we are still "going steady" and he said yes! I think we are the steadiest people you could ever know and I'm so lucky we are Valentines all year long!

Well, I guess I should wrap up for now. I've covered a lot of ground and promise to not wait so long to post again. I should have plenty of time to do it since it seems to be the concensus that I lay on the couch and watch TV and eat bon-bons all day! :o)

Let me leave you with this one last thought from Reece. After we chose JOY and sang our song (see previous JOY post for clarification) we were talking about it being a great day. Reece told me, "Of course it's going to be a great day, look at the sun! It's coming up!" As if every day that the sun comes up will be a great day! How awesome is that?! So here's my challenge to you. Look at the sun each day and MAKE it a great day...because Reece is right...it would be an awful day if the sun DIDN'T come up! And I don't want any comments asking about cloudy days--the sun is there it's just hiding and YOU can find it! Just look for it and then share it with everyone! I don't mean to try to sound like Little Miss Sunshine, maybe I just am a Sunshine Girl (Melanie)!

Until next time, I'm fondly yours,

Jeanne

Queen of the Browns

P.S. Once again, I've left Harry out in the pictures, so here is oneof him that I that I took. He looks an angel, straight from Baby Heaven as my friend Michael Gordon would say!!

It's a Sunny Day in Our Lives!

2007-12-12T13:47:00.000-05:00

For those of you who are not in the Greenville/Greer area this week, let me tell you something. This weeks weather has been INSANE!! I've attached a video of the Boys playing outside yesterday afternoon.

The temperatures have been in the high 70s with 80 being the high yesterday. It's unbelievable! Except, we're living in it, so it is believable I guess. Anyway, we love it! I'm able to wear flops again and Baby Harry loves not having to be all bundled up when we go outside! It's nice for now, but with Christmas less than 2 weeks away, I'll be ready for the cold (and turtlenecks, right Annie B!?) when the weather turns normal this weekend.

Before I forget, I have a friend (well, I guess he's my friend-he's really Rhett's friend and my Boys' playmate!) who has an awesome blog so I want to give him a shout out! Check it out here: http://kentbateman.blogspot.com/ . It's very thought provoking. One thing that I have learned about blogging is that if you read someone's blog and agree (or disagree) about something that is written, let the author know! Let then know if you like reading it! Let them know that there are people out there reading it! I love it when you email me and comment on my goings on (is that a word?!) or comment directly on the blog. I feel validated!!

Okay, so it's Wednesday and I have decided to make it WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY! Here are 5 wonderful things happening in the Brown Family right now.

1. Reece and Garett are on the same basketball team with church and loving it! They have won their first 2 games! Hootie Hootie!! Let me know if you want to come to a game and I'll give you the schedule!

2. My kitchen is coming into the final stretch of being re-done. Once we are finished anyone who wants to come over for dinner is welcome! I love my new stove/oven and can hold so much more food in the fridge now! BIG hugs to Rhett for all of his hard work reconfiguring my cabinets so the microwave will be up and out of the way!

3. Logan LOVES acorns! And I don't mean just a little bit! I have them all over my house! We can't walk barefoot because he drops them and then I can't find all of them till I step on one. I find them in every load of laundry because he puts them in every treasure pocket he has. This is much cleaner than the rock phase since those were covered in dirt!

4. It's only 13 days til Christmas!! I love Christmas! The lights, the songs, the hot chocolate, the craziness...it's all so much fun! It's awesome to talk about the reason we celebrate Christmas with the Boys too. Garett is full of questions about God and how we know that Jesus is beside us all day. I think that this year the Christmas Story will have new meaning to him. What an exciting time!

5. Finally, I am happy to report that my Speech class is over! I gave my final speech last Friday night (and received a 100!) and took my final test on Monday and if my calculations are correct, I ended up with a B. That's great for me since #1-I hated school before and still wonder why I have gone back and #2-Most of you know that I love to talk, I just hated having to plan what I was going to talk about! I'm a fly by the seat of your pants kind of girl so there you go! A B is awesome! Now I am looking at taking 2 classes beginning in January and possibly auditing Rhett's math class before I take my only math class left.

Okay, that's all for now since a Mom's work is never done! I think I'll put a load of laundry in, eat some bon-bons and take a nap on the couch! Just kidding-I'm skipping the laundry part! This last part was purely for Rhett's benefit!

Have a great rest of the week and remember to let me know you're out there!

Till next time, I'm fondly yours,

Jeanne

CHO for the Brown Family

P.S. I'm sorry, I didn't mention Harry in my 5 wonderfuls. He's doing great (did you hear him laughing when Reece was swinging?! That's priceless!) and has moved up to his big boy car seat.

OK. Now I'm finished. (People finish, turkeys are done. I learned that in Speech from Ms. Trumbo!)

Learning to Adopt!

2007-12-07T22:11:00.000-05:00

Just looking at my pictures, what do you think this post will be about? Hmmm, could it be, one of the Brown's favorite pastimes, our vacation to Disney World? Ding ding ding!!

You're right...kinda.

I sat down to work on this not having a clue as to what I was going to talk about, but knowing that if I didn't post soon ,

I was going to lose some faithful readers! So, Logan (along with a smelly Bubba) climbed into my lap and I asked Logan to look at pictures with me and pick his favorite. He picked these three. My favorite is the one with my tower of Boys on Main Street at the Magic Kingdom. It doesn't matter which picture I pull up from September's trip, Logan can tell me all about what was happening in the picture. He has amazing recall abilities.

Our trip to Disney each year is a trip into fantasy land. Literally. This is not real life that we experience, BUT, real memories are made. I don't think my children are aware of just how lucky they are that they have gotten to meet Mickey, or Buzz, or Pooh. There are children who will never have this experience and this is what I try to instill in my boys. Thankfulness to Beba and Teba for them taking us is something that I try to get them to express. Now that I think about it, we have tried to work vary hard to express thankfulness this year. I have repeated over and over, "Look at the person when you thank them." We've also worked on ma'am and sir with Logan. Reece and Garett have that down pretty good now and are great examples for Logi to follow. I didn't show this form of respect to adults until I was taught how to when I moved to the South and I love that my Boys are learning it at young ages. We are learning every day so I want to show you an example of progress that was made just this week.

Reece was sick on Thursday of this week and so I asked my friend Melissa if she could take Garett to school. She was fine with this. Garett was not. I was told that he wasn't used to riding with Melissa to school and that he wasn't going to do it. I begged, I pleaded, his Daddy offered him a dollar, I offered him a dollar. No dice. I sat down and explained to him about how sometimes we have to adapt to change. I explained that he would be fine. That he would make it to school just fine and go on with his day. I told him that even though I wasn't taking him to school, that I would be there to pick him up. I promised. Still, he was upset. I left him to get dressed while I made breakfast. Five minutes later he cam into the kitchen, smiling. "Wow! What a change", I thought! I was pleasantly surprised when he told me. "I'm ready to adopt!" What a wonderful moment for me, not just because he touched my heart by using adopt instead of adapt, but because he GOT it. Through all the crying and hyper-ventilating, my words reached him and he understood. We chose our JOY for the day (since we wouldn't be in the car together!) and when he left I emailed his teacher (Mrs. Deal, Wellford Elementary-wonderful teacher, we love her and Mrs. Gibson!) to let her know we had kind of a rough morning and related the adopt/adapt story to her. I asked if she could just love him a little if he was upset at all and she mailed me back and told me that he was doing great and writing about the morning in his journal. I breathed a sigh of relief and took Joy from the way the whole event played out.

Okay, so maybe I rambled today, but it's okay, because this is all for my family and you can stop reading at any time. I love all of my Boys and just wanted to get this story down before I forgot it.

Moral of the story: I know that my Boys are not by any means perfect, but they are mine and are a constant work in progress. That's all I can do. We wake up, choose JOY and move along trying to make others feel loved and good about themselves, fall into bed and start all over the next day.

I feel another blog coming on, but it will have to wait. I want to talk about my husband and the amazing job he is doing re-doing my kitchen, Reece and Garett and their basketball team, Logan and his growing up too fast moments and Harry and HIS growing up too fast moments. But, I am tired, it's time for Harry's bottle and morning will come quickly, so I will close for now.

Thank you to those of you who hung in there through all of my story!

Until next time, I'm fondly yours,

Jeanne

CHO for the Brown Family

P.S. Reece is better now, it was a 24 hour bug, thank goodness!!

JOY!!!

2007-11-19T08:57:00.000-05:00

What are we going to choose today?!?!? JOY!!!!

This is how my day starts out on the way to school each morning. Once everyone is strapped in and I have a captive audience I ask the most important question of the day, "What are we going to choose today"? The boys (and Brianna) answer, " JOY"!!! Then we sing the song, surely you've sung it before:

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart

WHERE?

Down in my heart

WHERE?

Down in my heart

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart

WHERE?

Down in my heart to stay for all day! (We added the "for all day"!)

Then we sing it again. Logan says sing it again LOUDER! Or Garett says "full speed ahead"! and we sing it super fast! However we do it, it puts a smile on everyone's faces no matter how the morning has gone up till that point.

At the beginning of the year I was doing a Beth Moore Bible study and she talked about choosing joy each day. God gives us the choice to make the day how we want and so you should choose joy! I chose it when I was still at the Marriott and everyone thought I was silly. At then end of our morning meeting I would remind everyone to "CHOOSE JOY"!! Now we sing it in the morning and as the boys get out of the van at school I remind them that I love them and to choose joy and to make wise choices. I think that it makes me think about my blessings all day when I make a point of choosing joy each morning. So, I've been thinking about what brings me joy. Like it or not, here it is.

The beautiful autumn leaves and Logi pointing out "red tree, orange tree, yellow tree" when we are driving.

The sound of the kids as they get out of school. I sit in car line with the windows of the van open and the chatter grows louder as everyone files out. I love that!

My Baby Harry's giggles that shake his belly when you talk to him.

Hearing Reece and Garett say sweet things to each other and talk about school when they don't realize I'm listening.

Knowing that Logan is learning right from wrong when he tells me that he is going to share his cars with his friend Cadence.

Hearing the crunch of the gravel when Rhett's car pulls into the driveway at the end of the day.

Sunday night Game Night with my family.

I could go on and on. The world is filled with so many things that can bring you joy if you surrender to it. Look for the positive and refuse to let the negative in life take hold. You'll find joy a lot easier that way. Try it! Tomorrow morning when you are on your way to getting your day started ask yourself, "What am I going to choose today?" And then, without any abandon, say it, "JOY!!". It can't hurt to try it!

I've attached a picture of Reece and Harry today. Reece loves to hold his baby brother and obviously, Harry loves to be held so there was joy spread all over both of them!

Until next time, I'm fondly yours,

Jeanne

Chief Home Officer for the Brown Family

Happy Birthday to Rhett

2007-10-30T08:17:00.000-04:00

Well, today's the day. Rhett turns 36. He has been dreading this day for a while now and we (the Boys and I) are determined to not let him be depressed.

His celebration began on Sunday when we ate dinner with his parents and Meredith and TJ. We went to his favorite place for Mexican food in Greer, El Mariachi and though he didn't want them to, they sang to him! There he is at the top of the page. He smiled on the outside, but he wasn't smiling too much on the inside!

I made his birthday dinner Monday night since he has class tonight and we got him a huge chocolate chip cookie instead of a cake. He smiled more when we sang to him. Maybe he was just happy not to have to wear a hat!

This morning he woke up and while he was getting ready to leave, Reece and Garett brought him the card they made and a balloon that we hid in the shower. I think the balloon is his only surprise since he bought the shirts and movie that he wanted for his present and will pick out a new Dallas Cowboys shirt online for me to order, but that's the way he likes it. Nice and calm, no surprises.

When we talked about this birthday I was told, "No Party". End of discussion. When I tried to downplay the number 36 (and that's all it is, a number) I was told that that was easy for me to say, I'm 33 and that's closer to 30 than 40. He's closer to 40 and that makes all the difference I guess. I told him that I didn't care what age I was because as long as we grow old together I'm good. That shut him up! How can you complain about growing old when you are growing old with the one you love?

I have known Rhett for 15 of his birthdays. The first one we celebrated was his 21st. It wasn't as wild and crazy as you would imagine. In fact, we celebrated with Melanie and Stephen Jeter! No late night drinking with no remembrance of what went on. Just dinner and I'm sure since we were with Stephen that was lots of reflection and looking forward. Fast forward 4 years and we celebrated his 25th birthday as husband and wife. I didn't ask this time-I just threw the party! That's what wives do, right? I was a new wife and the surprise party was at Don Pablos (can you tell that Mexican is Rhett's favorite food?!). It was a surprise til he started recognizing cars in the parking lot! Oh well, I tried! He has had new babies to help celebrate on his 29th, 31st, 34th and now 36th birthdays. Every year adds more cards to his collection with hands traced on the back with the date. One day Rhett's sons' hands will be too big to fit on the back of a card to be traced and we will marvel at where the time has gone.

Before I end, I want to thank Rhett's Mom, Vonnie, for having Rhett 36 years ago today. The day he was born, God chose him for me and I am so grateful that you raised such a loving and wonderful son. He is the best Father ever and I am proud to be Mrs. Timothy Rhett Brown.

I want to end this with a quote from the birthday card Reece made for his Daddy.

"You rock and I bet everyone else thenks that to! I love you and everyone else dose to!"

He read my mind! Rhett, you do rock and we love you so very much! Happy Birthday!

Till next time, I'm fondly yours,

Jeanne, Queen of the Rhett Brown clan

P.S. Thank you Mrs. Kinard for the word "fondly"!! :o)

So Maybe I'll Send This One

2007-10-22T23:36:00.000-04:00

So...I started this blog to preserve our goings on for future generations, but have yet to let anyone see it. If you're reading this, then I guess I got brave and sent it out!

What's going on in our lives? Well, Reece and Garett are loving school, 2nd grade and K-5 respectively, Rhett is happy for the cooler weather of fall (but not looking forward to winter : ) ), Logan and Harry seem to enjoy chillin' with Mommy and Mommy is having a FANTASTIC time trying to keep a hold on everyone! Really! I am! I love taking the "big" boys to school and "staying home" with the babies. Logan looks forward to picking Reece and Garett up in the afternoons and knows their teachers' names and talks about Wellford Elementary like it's his school!

Rhett is enjoying his English class at Greenville Tech 2 nights a week and is SO blowing me away in the great grades department! His tests have all been super and he got a 98 on his first paper! He's talking this school thing very seriously and I think it's great for the boys to see him so hard at work on it. I'm totally the President of the Rhett Brown Fan Club!

My class is going well too-I'm taking a speech class online and doing okay. I have my third speech to present in November and this will be my best. We have to persuade our audience to believe the way we do on something. We were supposed to pick something that we are passionate about and since I'm sure the class doesn't want to hear me go on about my family, Rhett suggested I speak on IVF. In-Vitro Fertilization. Many people believe that children should be adopted instead of spending money on IVF to have a child. I strongly disagree. If Rhett and I had believed that, Reece would not be here today. If you don't know the story and want to, just let me know. I won't bore those who know about our miracle, besides, I haven't written my speech yet to win everyone over to my side!

This is "Red Ribbon Week" for Reece and Garett so they are wearing red tomorrow, their sunglasses on Wednesday and having a "sock hop" on Thursday to celebrate saying NO to drugs. This was Reece's list of drugs this morning on the way to school: cigarettes, cigars and beer. At what point do you list all of the other ones? Do you scare him to death now or wait until 3rd grade to try to explain everything? I guess we need to do it now-otherwise, when he's offered pot (and I pray to God he's not offered ANYTHING), will he know it's a drug? I'm told that you can't start talking about drugs too early, but how do you put it on a kindergartner's and first grader's level? Parenting gets harder every day, but it's the challenge I love and we'll just all learn together!

Okay, a few last thoughts:

When Garett thanks God for the "loveness you give us" it truly melts my heart.

Logan's bug eyed, long face look is priceless. (See picture above)

Reece is getting some big ol' corn getters in in the front of his mouth.

Harry loves it when Garett reads "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See " to him. An I mean LOVES-like big belly laughs love!

As Rhett and I discussed after a dinner time filled with what seemed like dysfunctionality to me tonight, I wouldn't want the Stepford children, so I'll love mine, craziness and all!