Scaredy-Cat

or Chicken Little! whatever you want to call me! The shoe fits, trust me!!!

Robert, Rylan, Kaden and PaPaw (Robert's dad) left Saturday morning going to North Carolina to visit Robert's grandfather. My first thought of course was Woohoo!! I'm gonna get some rest....Eat when I want to....Sleep as long as I want to....Do whatever I want, when I want!! Yea, that lasted until about 11:00 PM Saturday night. I then realized that I was petrified to stay alone!!! I had already watched one movie and another movie came on TV so I stayed up and watched it too. Finally, around 2:00 AM I decided that I had to go to sleep. So, I pushed chairs up against all 3 of my exterior doors. Then I went in my boys' room, pushed their desk against the door with a chair in front of the desk, and slept in Rylan's bed with a can of mace beside me.

Well, I woke up Sunday morning and of course, I was still alive and no one had tried to break in, so I was stoked. Then, I went back to sleep. Why can I sleep in the daytime at home alone and not at night? That night I went to dinner with Tracy H, Melissa, and Trey. Afterwards, I decided to spend the night with my granny. So, Melissa and Trey went with me to my house to get some clothes and my puppy, Bear. Bear and I proceeded to go to granny's to try to get a good night's sleep. That didn't happen. Granny lives on a busy highway and all I could hear were the cars passing by, and the occassional whine from Bear who had to sleep in the master bathroom so he wouldn't potty on granny's floor. I woke up, drove home, exhausted, and went to work!

Monday night (last night) I was in desperate need of a good night's sleep, and I mean DESPERATE! I went to Melissa's and had dinner with her and her family, watched a movie, and headed home. When I got there, I was scared to death! I put chairs in front of the doors again, locked myself in my bedroom and pushed my chest of drawers up against the door. OK, if someone wanted to break in that bad, I should just let them get me, right?! I finally called my granny at about 10:30. I was almost in tears. She said to put Bear in the bed with me and he'd bark if he heard anything. Well, this frightened me b/c all I could think of was him barking in the middle of the night and me panicking, locking myself in my closet, trying feverishly to call 911. But, I took her advice and put him in the bed with me. We talked for a few minutes, then I heard a noise, I looked for my fearless companion to see if he was going to protect me. There he laid, on the foot of my bed, flat on his back with his paws in the air, snoozing! Great! Then granny made a mistake. She offered to come stay with me and I told her to come ONLY if she felt like it! Inside I just wanted to scream, "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!" When she got to the house I was thrilled. Now, what did I think a 79 year old woman could do if a burglar broke in? Doesn't matter. I slept like a baby!!

Tis the Season to be JOLLEY

This Christmas has come and gone, and I am so thankful! I am thankful for our Lord and Savior; let's don't forget the reason for the season. I am thankful for my wonderful family. I am also thankful that I didn't get that awful virus like Jen and Melody got. I was so afraid I was going to wake up Christmas morning with that yucky stuff. But, I didn't, I woke up happy and healthy and ready to watch my boys open all of their gifts. They had a blast and each gift they opened they would say, "This is what I always wanted!!"

We had Robert's side of the family over for lunch. His mom brought a ham and turkey and I was responsible for all of the side dishes. I did pretty good, if I do say so myself. Afterwards we opened gifts and had a blast playing a boxing video game Mike and Wendy got for the boys. Rylan beat everyone in the house! At one point he even closed his eyes and was still beating us! Kaden has had the most fun with his Nintendo DS and his spy kit. He has booby trapped the entire house! I can't leave my room without a motion detector going off!

Granny came over later in the afternoon and we were all so happy to see her. She felt pretty good that day so she decided to venture out!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and I hope you all have a Happy New Year!!

Last Will and Testament

Many of you may not know, but my Granny found out last week that she has colon cancer. She also has some spots on her lungs, liver, and possibly on one of her kidneys. The first step is going to be to remove the diseased part of the colon, and then she will begin chemotherapy on the rest of the cancer. Well, thinking the worst, she decides that it's time to update her will. So, I have had the unpleasant experience of preparing my granny's will and trying to help her decide what she is going to do with all of her belongings at the time of her death. There are so many emotions that go along with this. It's painful to have to think about losing a loved one. She is my mother's mother, and you know February 5th, 2009 will mark the 3rd anniversary of my mother's passing. It is also painful to talk to someone about all of their worldly possessions, and their funeral arrangements, etc. More power to those people that do this for a living b/c I would just have to crawl under a rock somewhere. This is not fun at all!

Don't Spend It All In One PLace!!

This may not interest anyone, but I've been getting a statement from Chase for a few months that states that I have a balance of <$-.01>. Yea, that's right, they owe me a penny. Well, after getting statement after statement I thought, "You know, it's very wasteful to print a statement and then put postage on it and then send our mail carrier out to my house just to let me know that you owe me a penny. And you do this month after month". So today I called. Well, the lady informed me that I am not "primary" on this account (woohoo! big deal) so she couldn't tell me anything, but if there was a balance owed to us on this account I could have Mr. Jolley call and they could send us a check! I said, "Oh! That sounds good!! So I could take that to the bank, right?!" To which she calmly replied, "Yes ma'am!!" Can you imagine that laughter at the bank when I try to put THAT in my checking account and the clerk saying, "Thank you Mrs. Jolley, you have a nice day, and try not to spend all that money in one place!!"

Kaden had his K-4 Christmas Program last night (this is a pic of Kaden and his BFF Matt). It was very interesting to say the least. Like Mrs. Shirley (the director) said at the end of the night, "You never know what to expect when you get a bunch of kids this age together, but you're sure to be entertained!"

Kaden learned his songs very well. I was surprised because I would ask him almost daily if he had learned his songs for the program, and he would start to sing and forget the words. So, I thought he would get up on stage and just freeze. But no, he did just the opposite. He sang VERY LOUD! As you can tell by the following picture.



I always enjoy these programs. It's fun to see what the teachers have been able to get these children to do. It's hard for me to get the two of my boys to do the same thing; I can't imagine getting the entire group of K-3, K-4, and K-5 children to do the same thing. Oh, and the kids with speaking parts amaze me. There was one little boy in K-3 that had a speaking part and he did awesome. He was so loud and not shy a bit. But his little face turned so red before he was done. I don't think he took a breath until he was completely finished with his part.

Rylan got bored, to say the least, but I just reminded him how many of these programs that I have sat through for him. So, he sat there, reading the church song book, patiently waiting to go eat! You know, at this age, little boys are always starving. So, afterwards me and the boys and granny all went to Bojangle's. Robert was at the program, but he had a basketball game afterwards so he couldn't join us for supper. But, we enjoyed our time with granny.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

How old AM I?

I know I'm getting older, for those of you who don't know, I just turned 34. But, to my children, how old AM I? VERY OLD!!! I remember thinking that people my age were old too. Last night, when I picked the kids up from school, Rylan said to me that when he gets his Nintendo DS for Christmas he and his buddy, Troy, can battle. So I proceeded to tell him that if he doesn't start taking care of his other toys, he won't be getting a DS. Kaden says, "Mom, when you were little, did you have a DS?" I said, "No, I didn't". Of course he asked why to which I replied, "Because we were broke". Then Rylan chimes in and says, "Mom, were there Indians when you were little?" COME ON!! I mean, there are Indians now, but to him those are ancient people that lived in the woods or in caves! How old AM I?

Getting Ready for the Christmas program....

Kaden's K-4 group is getting ready for their Christmas program, which made me think about last year's Christmas program, his K-3 Christmas program. Kaden learned his lines very well which were:

Here is a star with bright, bright lights that shown in the sky that first Christmas night.

AND

And the Angel said, "Fear not, for I bring you good tidings of great joy!" So here goes:

Speaking Korean

Everyone probably already knows that Robert's mom is Korean. She lived 28 years in Korea and came to the United States alone. She met my father in law, got married, and the rest is history. She is a very interesting person to talk to because she's been through a lot in her 60-something years. I have told her numerous times that I want her to teach my children to speak Korean. The kids haven't picked up on any of her language, however Rylan would like everyone to believe that he has! He has started saying words that are not really words and acting like he's speaking Korean. In fact, yesterday at church he told someone that he could speak "Korea". They tried to explain to him that it was Korean, but he would not agree with them. I am just so glad that he is proud of her and their heritage. The boys are 1/4 Korean and I hope that they will learn about Korea and where their granny lived almost half of her life.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Wait! What?!

I can't believe that it's almost Christmas time. I know, it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I can't help but already feel stressed! All day I have been thinking about what I am going to get for everyone on my Christmas list. That is not what Christmas is about, and I think it takes a lot of the joy out of Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I believe that the children should get to open their gifts from Santa (another word meaning overworked, stressed out parents!) and from parents/grandparents/friends. But when it comes to grown-ups, come on y'all, why can't we just get together, eat too much, and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. Why do I have to stress about what gift I'm going to get someone who has everything they could possibly want and enough money to buy it if they don't already have it? It's so commercialized. It's obvious that I'm not the only person that feels this way or the stores wouldn't be stocking their shelves with "gift sets" full of nonsense items that are just going to end up being yard sale material or clutter for a junk drawer. What if we saved the money we would spend on Christmas, didn't go into debt, and enjoyed just spending time with each other. Now, there's a thought!

God is in Control

Well, I don't think I've acted very Christian-like since Obama's election. I have to say that I have been very afraid of what might happen to our country with him in control, then I realized, he's not in control, God is in control. So, I intend to accept what I cannot change. I also intent to pray for Obama, that he will lead this country in a direction that will glorify God.

Lookie There

Kaden's new "saying" is "Lookie there". He is truly a very interesting kid to talk to. He views everything in a very unique way.

Here are a couple of his "Lookie there" comments:

Yesterday, while I was getting ready to take him to the fair, he asked me why I didn't wear my hair in piggy tails. I explained to him that piggy tails are mainly for little girls, to which he replied, "And you don't want someone to say 'Lookie there, that kid has a silly mommy!'"

Then he asked why I didn't use my husband's hair gel. I told him that it was for boys, to which he replied, "Ya, you don't want someone to say 'Lookie there, that's a grown woman trying to look like a man!'"

On the way home from the fair, I made him mad by making a comment about Bear. I apologized and told him I was joking, he said "Do you want someone to say 'Lookie there, she's just a joker, joker, joker? Is that what you want?'"

He is soooo funny! The way he views things is so simple. At the fair we were watching the demolition derby. When the cars came out, of course they didn't have windshields and he said, "Mom, them cars are already broken!" Then they started to explain about safety and how the drivers had to wear helmets and seat belts. He said "They're just joking us, this isn't safe!"

So, if you ever need a new view on something, or just want someone to make you laugh, come talk to Kaden.

GO VOTE!!

As most of you know, I am a McCain/Palin supporter. But no matter who you are voting for, it is your RIGHT to vote. And you should not only feel that it is your right, but it is your DUTY. If you do not vote, then do not complain! If you do not cast your vote to put the person in office that represents your beliefs, don't complain when you don't like what's going on! Now get up, get out, and vote!

Trick or Treat

Sorry I'm just now blogging about Halloween. I've had some camera trouble. Regardless, halloween was fun this year. Kaden was a Pirate and Rylan was a Cowboy.





Of course they had to battle to see which one was tougher!



But nobody's tougher than dad!




We decided to meet up with our friends Jeremiah and Nicole and let the kids trick-or-treat with their children - Aidan and Nadia. Nadia was Snow White, and I failed to get any pictures of her, but she was precious. Aidan was a knight. He was a pretty cool looking knight too, but for some reason, Kaden thought he was a chicken. So, all night I heard them arguing as they were walking door to door. Kaden kept saying, "You're a chicken! You're supposed to say Bock Bock when you ask for candy!" and of course Aidan would reply, "I'm not a chicken, I'm a knight!" haha Here they are. What do you think?



Rylan was hilarious that night because he thought he was the roughest, toughest cowboy in the west, or at least that's what he kept saying. Any monster that dared to look at him, he shot with his fake pistol.



Here is a picture of him telling a monster, which was some sort of dead person crawling on it's stomach, "Hey! You wanna tussle? I'll tussle with you if you wanna tussle!" Don't ask me what that means. I'm sure it's something from Walker Texas Ranger.



I did manage to get a picture of all of the boys together.



And this is what you get when you tell them to "lean in" for a picture.



Oh, and we can't forget the picture with Mommy!

Be Good To Her....

Today I was outside helping Robert with the yard work. He has bad allergies and usually only runs the weed-eater and the edger, I do the rest. Now, to be fair, I will say that I love to do yard work, especially riding the lawn mower. But I hate to use the weed-eater. My arms shake for the rest of the day and I can't even hold a drink. Anyway, this particular day, he decided that he would ride the lawn mower. So, I'm out at the street blowing the trash off of the curb when a neighbor we've never met, who is going for a walk, stops and says "Are you a nurse?" I said "No sir." He said "But you are a worker?" To that I responded "Yes sir." And he looked at Robert and said "And he's a rider!"

I got the biggest laugh out of that. I don't know if this was the only day that he had seen me working, or if he had noticed me throughout the summer, drowning in sweat to get those flower beds just the way I wanted them. Either way, he really made my day.

A few minutes later, as he walked back up the road towards his home he saw that Robert had gotten off of the lawn mower. He walked over to him and said "After this, I'll get out of your life, but I just wanted to tell you, she's a keeper. You better be good to her. She's one of a kind!" and with that he walked away. It's amazing how a simple compliment from a total stranger can make your day brighter!

Done with soccer.....on to basketball

Yesterday, October 26th, was the last day of the Micro Soccer 2008 season. The boys had fun playing this year. They were on separate teams. Kaden played on the Cyber Communications team with his best friend Matt. Rylan played on the Bistro team. Rylan has played soccer before, when he was 3, so he did a lot better this season. This was Kaden's first time playing soccer and he loves it. They both got trophies yesterday. Now, it's time to get started with Basketball!!

We kicked off this Halloween with a party at our neighbors' house. Robert went as Magnum P.I. and I was a Harlem Globetrotter. We laughed so hard while we were getting ready! Robert looked in the mirror at one point and said, "They're gonna think I'm Cheech & Chong!" then later he decided he thought he looked like Dale Earnhardt! The party hosts, Penny and Rob, really went all out. We had a great time!

Appreciation

I know it's the wrong time of year to be blogging about Valentine's Day, but I was looking through some pictures today and came acrossed this one. It brought back a good memory that brought a smile to my face. Anyone that knows Robert knows that he cannot just give you a present, there has to be some elaborate scheme. Like last Christmas he told me that he had gotten me something that I was going to love. When I opened the present, it was a stainless steel trash can. Granted, it's pretty cool, has a motion detector to open it when you get near it, but needless to say, I was a little disappointed. After everyone had finished opening their presents he proceeded to convince me to open the box and check out the new trash can. Well, inside the trash can was a Dooney & Bourke purse to match the wallet I had gotten at Mother's Day.

Anyway, back to Valentine's Day. So the night before Valentine's Robert went to the gym and got home after I had gone to sleep. I didn't hear him when he came home, but early in the morning, I'd say around 3 a.m., I got up for some reason. Well, being the OCD person that I am, I not only went to the bathroom, but I started a load of laundry! As I walked into the laundry room I saw a rose on the washing machine. I thought maybe Robert had gotten home late, was tired, and left it there by mistake. Then I went to the kitchen. There were 2 more roses, 1 on the sink and 1 on the stove. I went to the bedroom and asked him what was going on. He said, "I put roses on everything I appreciate. And there's one more." He pointed to the ironing board where there was a 4th rose. Ok, so it was funny, but the best was about 7:30 a.m. I told the boys to get in the car, we were leaving for school. As I got in the car they both handed me a rose. He had placed one in each of their seats! (Awww!) And he had placed a vase in the floor on the passenger's side, so I'd have something to put all 6 roses in when I got to work! What a great way to tell me you appreciate our perfect little boys!

The Pumpkin Patch

Today was Kaden's field trip to the pumpkin patch. Mrs. Adair & Mrs. Debbie, Ridgecrest's most fabulous K4 teachers, arrange this annual trip for their class to Aplin Farms. I went with Rylan 2 years ago and I couldn't miss this trip with Kaden. The fun started with a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch to find your very own special pumpkin. Then you could choose a beautiful sunflower, which I brought back to my office hoping to brighten the day.

From there we went back to the starting point and ventured through the many different barns learning about corn grinding, digging for potatoes, gathering eggs, and milking a cow....................

We tried our luck at the corn maze, led by our fearless leaders, Kaden & Matt...........

which we failed miserably at.......we wound up going back out the entrance!!

Fun was had by all, and most importantly, I got to spend some time with my little boy!!!

Oh, and I don't want to forget to show you, the class picture!! This is actually 1 of 4 that I took, and this is the best of the bunch. Let me say though, on behalf of these children, by the time we took this picture they were all pretty tired, very hungry, and not to mention the sun was shining directly in their eyes. So, it's a pretty good picture, if I do say so myself.......

Little Girl

Many afternoons Kaden and I stop at the store on the way to get Rylan. You know, you're always out of milk or bread or something. He likes to buy chewing gum when we are at the checkout counter. He buys a different kind almost every time and he always asks, "Mom, is this the one you liked when you were a little girl?" - it actually comes out as "wittle gwurl", but I know what he means. But he really has no idea about what life was like when I was a little girl. I mean, to him, everyone has always had video games, dvd players, even microwaves. Times change so fast, and times will be a lot different when my grandchildren are Kaden's age. I remember when my Great-Grandmother was alive, she passed away when she was 93. It's only been about 3 years ago since she passed. I often thought of how life must have been when she was a little girl. Of course there was no tv, no dvd, no microwaves, but think about it, there were no automobiles, no electricity, no telephones. What did she do when she was a little girl? Have you ever thought that maybe that's why marriages lasted longer and family bonds were stronger, because they spent more time together talking and sharing than fighting over who's gonna play the XBox? They may have been considered poor, but were they really? There's a house in Dothan where, at any given time, there's 20 people sitting on the front porch. I've said to Robert on numerous occasions "What are they doing out there?" His reply was "Why should they go inside? They have no tv, and if they do, they have no cable tv. They probably don't have air conditioning. Why go inside?" and then he said "You know, some of the best conversations are being had on that porch right now." He's right. When is the last time you sat down with anyone and had a conversation without the television on or a computer in front of you. When is the last time you had a conversation that wasn't, at least partly, had via text message? We need to get back to the old ways. I didn't have cable tv until I was in high school, and we didn't have a paved road to drive down, but I wasn't poor. I was richly blessed!

Happy 5th Birthday Kaden

Our baby boy Kaden turned 5 on September 28th. We had a party for him at the lake on Ft. Rucker with lots of friends and family. We rented a pavillion and the kids played on the playground equipment, tossed a football, and played with a hoverdisc while the adults grilled hamburgers and hotdogs. After lunch we had birthday cake and opened presents. Then we hit the lake. We had two boats, two tubes, and about 10 fishing poles. We spent the day tubing and fishing. It was a blast!!! The weather was beautiful. Everyone was healthy and happy and had a great time. And did I mention that I drove a huge truck pulling the boat. What!!? So I hit a couple of curbs and one cone in the road on base, but for the most part I did pretty good. Oh, and I forgot to bring a couple of things that we needed for the day, most importantly the birthday candles! So we told Kaden that he would just have to imagine that there were candles on his cake. As we sang happy birthday he patiently waited. Then we all told him to blow out his candles. He said "I already did! I did it while y'all were singing!"

On Your Feet Soldiers!

Kaden told me this morning that he wished his daddy would wake him up the way I do. I always walk into their room and say "Good Morning Little Boys". On the other hand, Robert goes in their room and shouts "On Your Feet Soldiers!!!". Never a dull moment at the Jolley house!

"I want to be a flagger"

This morning on the way to school, Kaden told me that he "wants to be a flagger". Of course I didn't know at first what this meant, until he explained that it's the person that waves the flags at races. Isn't it funny how kids decide what they want to be when they grow up without much thought as to how much money they're going to make. It just looks like fun so they want to do it. Of course, all little boys want to be firefighters at some point. Mine wanted to be construction workers because my dad was always fixing things around our house, like our roof and our gutters. They thought that looked like fun, I'm assuming because they would get to climb on top of the house. Rylan said he wants to be a milk man. His reasoning was because they get to carry stuff and they get to visit schools all day. What if we all did the job that was fun to us? Isn't that what life's about, enjoying yourself? Why can't we all make money doing the things we like to do? I mean, if they paid people to watch tv, I'd be a millionaire!!!

Wise Beyond His Years

Kaden, my 4 year old son, is sometimes wise beyond his years. Tonight, as I was putting him to bed, he told me "Mom, do you know that you have love in your heart, and if you show us the love in your heart, then we can grow up and show that love to our kids". Of course, this is what I hope to do. That is what truly loving parents try to do each and every day. Just to be able to show our children how much we love them and hope that they'll pass it on to their children. But how does a 4 year old understand this?

A few months ago I was crying and he asked me what was wrong. I told him that I was missing my mama really bad. He said, "Mom, do you know that God is a good person. If you want to talk to your mommy all you have to do is ask him and he will let you". A smile came acrossed my face and I couldn't help but have joy in my heart. Was it because I realized that I have the most awesome boys in the world, or because I realized that my 4 year old is truly a believer and that he is not afraid to share his love for God?

Now, he is not always serious in his comments. Just tonight I saw him "mosey" into his playroom with a toy gun in his hand, call out his brother's name and exclaim "Boy, you've got a man's butt to kick right here!" I'm assuming that was some sort of threat, but it didn't go anywhere, mainly because I burst into laughter. And by the way, I had to use the term mosey because his new favorite show is Walker: Texas Ranger, and as he approached his brother he looked just like Walker, like he had just gotten off of a horse.

Being a mom is the most awesome experience I've had in my life thus far. I plan on blogging about things they say and things they do, partly to bring a little fun, laughter, and perhaps insight to my friends, and also so that I won't forget all of these wonderful things that they do and say . I hope you enjoy reading this! Stay tuned for more.....

Best Friends

I love my friends and I hope they know it! I used to think that I could only have one best friend, but that's not true! I have a few and I am blessed to have each of them in my life. They all bring something different to the table. For one reason or another they love me and I love them back. I would do anything for them. I love you girls!

And by the way, the picture I used is of my son Kaden and his best friend Matt. They didn't see each other all summer, yet they are still as close as last year. They play with other kids, but they still come back to each other. They don't want anything from each other and don't expect anything from each other. And when you ask them, they will both tell you that they are each other's best friend! I've asked Kaden what makes Matt his best friend and he replies "Because he's nice to me!" We could all learn a little something about friendship from our children!