I think the volume in my home right now is probably reaching staggering heights. There are five kids here currently, the oldest is Caleb at 4.5 years. There are 3 boys and 2 girls...2 two year old girls. I took the time to google "loudness" and learned:

The perception of loudness is related to both the intensity and duration of a sound. Loudness is also affected by frequency.

Hmmm...all of those seem about right and indicate that indeed the loudness in my home right now is of epic proportions. At this EXACT moment: Caleb is hysterical because he just hurt himself and is now running to the bathroom to check for blood (and screaming the whole way there), Georgia and Gabriella are SHRIEKING in delight as they roll over the big hopper ball and land on their heads. Daniel (one of the friends over tonight) is "ROOOARING" at his baby brother. And just to not be left out, Eli is crying at the back door out of sadness in being left out of the fun/chaos.

The sounds change constantly: Caleb is back to having fun after finding no blood trail so now he is yelling in response to Daniel's roaring. Georgia has decided to forgo the friendliness and fight with Gabriella over the toy caterpillar..both of them now screaming at the top of their girlie lungs.
Ahhh... childhood..everything is so fleeting. Happiness, disappointment, heck~everything!

I LOVE that I can tune all of this out. I hear none of it as I happily type on the computer, search through the internet, or even read a new novel. Ok so I HEAR it but listen to none of it.
Ahhh..parenthood~ learning what battles require your attention, what various shrieks mean, and how to ignore it all in order to find just a few minutes to yourself (even though you certainly are not alone).

:0)

Ok...so I'm having a problem posting/blogging lately...just can't seem to want to do it. SO my sis gave me a great idea..."Wordless Wednesdays". I thought since this was the first one for me, I would at least explain. Wednesdays = post = photos only. Hopefully that will get me kinda' past the hump and wanting to post again. We'll see! For now though.....

Season Seven, also known as Day 7, of the television series 24 was scheduled to premiere on Sunday, January 13, 2008, but due to the WGA strike, it was delayed "to ensure that Day 7 can air uninterrupted, in its entirety." Even though the strike is over and eight episodes are already filmed (with more to be filmed soon), Fox has stated that the show will be delayed until January 2009 in order to "to comply with viewers' wishes".

~~"Viewers' wishes"????? WHAT? What viewers would those bozos be? WHAT are they thinkin'? Come on now, start it in the summer, give me a summer show to watch! Does this mean that we'll forever just be behind by a season or next year they will run two seasons back to back?

This is unacceptable!
Somebody contact Bauer and let him know the injustice!
A crime is being committed!

~robin

AHHH...there is nothing like getting away from it all...and the beach truly is my favorite place to be. Now, ideally I would like to always have some time, in a beach chair, with a book, ALONE, with probably a tasty beverage too. But I wouldn't want that for the entire time...ok, well, maybe not for all trips to the beach...ANYWAY, a trip with the family is fabulous. Caleb definitely loves the beach as well and can't get enough of it.

So we went to Port Aransas and the days went something like this: go look for seashells; walk the beach, then to the "hotpool" (hot tub), then to the room for a meal or snack. Then repeat exactly the same routine.




Sometimes with Daddy and Georgia, sometimes not. See, Georgia has NOT inherited my love for the beach. She will TOLERATE it for a little while, playing in the sand. That's about it. She doesn't like the water at all and really doesn't like any sort of water (hot tubs included). She was a riot to watch...she got close to the water on the beach and then when it would get closer to her she would literally RUN and sit BEHIND Brandon! As if she was hiding from the water. It was hysterical and adorable.
I sure hope she grows out of this...maybe repeated exposure will help her overcome her distaste..time will tell.


One activity Caleb looks forward to on beach trips is "looking for crabs!". He did this for the first time 1.5 years ago with his Uncle Paulie and has been hooked ever since. When night falls we grab flashlights and head to the sands. The problem is, Caleb just KNOWS there are crabs to be found, whether we can see them or not. He doesn't give up easily. This trip though, we searched for a while (maybe 15 minutes) and then told him time was up. It was windy. It was pretty cool. Georgia was NOT happy. No crabs were seen BUT then he headed to the hotpool and all disappointment was forgotten.



If you have been to Port A you may have had luck finding sea shells...we have not. We didn't find tons the last time we were there but this time...it was impossible! There were very few on Sunday but that few turned to utterly ZERO on Monday morning. Caleb and I went to the beach first thing after breakfast, buckets in hand, hopes high...and there were NONE..not a single shell to be found! I had never seen anything like it. It was like the tides came in and literally swept out EVERY LITTLE shell there had been. Caleb came saying "Momma, WHERE ARE THE SEASHELLS????" We looked and looked. We walked and walked. When we were heading back to our condo, we saw a family building sandcastles with some FABULOUS shells..they shared a little secret with us.. St.Joe's Island. So, we immediately headed out. Caught the boat to the island, and found Caleb's idea of heaven. Where our original Port A beach had maybe 5 shells for every thirty minutes of looking, this place has 30 shells for 5 minutes of simply gathering. There were shells EVERYWHERE! People told us that some times it's even better...there are often lots of sand dollars too. I did find my first sand dollar ever and it's the size of a nickel but BEAUTIFUL. We found 2 starfish and probably brought back 15 lbs of shells! It was a treat and an excursion we will now make a regular part of our Port A trips.

Port A beach:


St. Joe's island beach:



Now the one thing that the Port A beach did have were a LOT of jellyfish! They were BEAUTIFUL! I have no idea what kind of jellyfish they were but they were everywhere and they almost looked like gorgeous blown glass.
(ok, most people have already read this post since it's been a while..but I'm going to go ahead and add now anyway... THOSE ARE PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WARS!!!! Holy crud! We touched them, messed with them, saw some of them still move...luckily I told Caleb not to touch the tentacles but I did think to myself "heck, they're dead (or almost), it probably wouldn't hurt" !!!! Thank you Lord for protecting us from our own stupidity!!!)



This pic doesn't do it justice because the colors and shine really were fascinating.
On Monday morning Caleb looked at all of these jellyfish while we walked the shore in our futile search of seashells. He then started drawing jellyfish in the sand. I asked what he was doing and he told me.."Momma, they look sad. I am drawing jellyfish for them. It makes them happy. Look Momma, they're happy now!" We walked the beach and Caleb must have drawn at least 30 sand jellyfish, lifting the spirits of countless jellyfish along the Port A shores. It was such a sweet thing and was so endearing to watch.


all in all, it was a fabulous trip and I am so glad we seized the opportunity to take one. I loved the time with my family and the time walking the beach, smelling the air, and absorbing the tranquility of it all...ahhhhhh...
:0)

for the long haul here.... I haven't posted in a while and now it seems I have so much suddenly to post about! Haircuts, horses, zoo trips, beach trips...all in less than a week! WOWZA!
Ok...here we go!

My baby girl has been sporting the same hairdo style ever since she's had hair really...the mullet. Her beautiful head just does not seem to desire to grow hair in all the right places, only in the back. So she has really thin hair or really no hair, that frames her face. The mullet has been trimmed once but in hopes that wishing hair to grow, would make hair grow...we have overlooked how long her hair was growing in the back. I got my hair cut a couple of weeks ago and suddenly decided that the time had come to do the same to my sweet angel. I decided that I would talk to the stylist and however much needed to be cut, could be cut. I have always liked little girls with short hair, the swing cut, stacked cut, etc. SO..we went for it. I LOOOOVE it! What ya' think?

before:




after:



After a week and a half of craziness and lack of normalcy (as much as can be expected in the Brady home), last Wednesday was the first day back to routine. That's when Georgia got her haircut and that was when I got a call from Caleb's preK that he was sick. He had only been there an hour so we went straight from the haircut back to Caleb's school. So much for trying to catch up on housework, bills, shopping, etc. Caleb seemed ok for the day though and even that evening. But then as the sun set, so did Caleb's health...he started "spitting up" a lot. Seemed to constantly be going to the bathroom sink for his "little spit ups". I grew curious and got some of his prevacid out and some pepto too. As I made my way from the kitchen, I heard the sound that makes all parents cringe and hang their heads. The sound of a rather large "spit up" exiting my son and hitting the floor. Ugghhh. Sure enough, my big boy was sick. This fun lasted through the night although the stomach bug had found the other way of releasing itself and kept my son up all night and making numerous, painful, rather disgusting trips to the bathroom. I tell you all of this so you know....Caleb couldn't go to school the next day and it was RODEO DAY! Now, for all of you not in this area, the rodeo is a big ordeal and rodeo day was a huge event. Caleb was VERY upset. Mainly, he cried and cried about not getting to ride the horse at school. Being a good mom, I vowed to somehow make that happen. Sure enough, his stomach had settled down, no trips made to the bathroom after 10 am..so I loaded up the kids after lunch and headed to the preK. We were in luck! The school was finished with the horses but the horses were still there. When I told them I had a little boy who was desperate to ride the horses, they smiled and emphatically told us he would get to ride. He loved it! He may have missed Rodeo Day but he didn't miss out. :0)


Now, since I had missed out on regaining normalcy in my house Wednesday and Thursday, why start at all right? Friday came and I debated finally getting the cleaning and shopping done OR seize the delightfully perfect weather and take the kids to the zoo. My sister and I were having our routine morning chat when I told her that I was contemplating the choices and she said "Hey, if you're going to the zoo then we'll come too!" That took away any difficulties in making the decision! A trip to the zoo WITH the cousins...FABULOUS! So we loaded up and headed out. The weather was perfect, the trip was marvelous. We spent hours at the zoo and then even took the kiddos to Brackenridge park to further wear everyone out. Success!





Saturday came and I actually started cleaning early and frantically. I was determined to catch my house up from 2 weeks of neglect. I cleaned, shopped, and cleaned some more. THEN...my hubby called to say he'd be off of work on Monday. My hubby NEVER has two days off of work in a row so this was a big deal. I wanted to make the most of this delightful gift and let's face it... I needed some time away. I may not have had much normalcy in my home for two weeks but I emotionally was seriously needing some relaxation and grounding. Where's the BEST place for that? The beach of course!
(ok....I just took some time to think about this...the beach trip is going to have to be a separate post. If I write about it here, I won't put the details that I'd like to AND since I get harassed about not posting enough then TWO should put me ahead of the game!)
:0)

~robin

around me I see my family plus my oldest niece. It's a good moment. They are actually all doing puzzles together, HB with Georgia and Brandon with Caleb. It's pretty cute, endearing, and just simply makes my heart feel full. These are the moments that fill me with happiness so the sorrow doesn't. It's been a good couple of days. I've been pretty spoiled having HB here with me. She and Caleb play fabulously together yet she's adult enough to hang out with me and read my cues. LOVE IT! We went to ride the train today to go play at the park but instead got off the train to visit the Witte Museum. It was alright...not the most exciting place and don't really care to go again BUT it was something different to do. Tonight HB and Brandon are gonna go "hang" at Barnes and Noble, give them an opportunity to visit and bond. :0) Then tomorrow is church, lunch with birthday party for Gab, then HB and I are gonna' go ice skating! Hope I don't hurt myself! :0)

Thank you everyone that has sent me kind words of sympathy and encouragement. I love reading them or hearing them and reminds me how many people love me and how many loved my mom too! She was fabulous. That's been my standard response lately...even at the service... when I just got tired of the ongoing "Your mom was so great. I am so sorry for your loss. I am going to miss......" I would simply reply "Yep, if she hadn't been so fabulous, I wouldn't miss her so much." or "Yep, if my mom wasn't so perfect, this wouldn't be so hard." .... It's truly how I feel.
I can't seem to go without saying....it's been a week! A week yesterday. My heart and mind are so torn. My heart feels like it just happened moments ago yet my mind thinks this has been the longest week ever! The service seems like it was forever ago. It's like part of me wants time to stop, it's like part of my world shattered at that moment and I can't believe time goes on. Part of me doesn't want time to go on....that every day that goes by and suddenly it's been a week, and then it will be a month....that when time comes between me and when it happened...that my mom is even further away. I don't know if that makes any sense at all. I just know that part of me screams "NO! It can't already be a week since my mom died. NO NO NO! Just STOP!" I want time to stop until I'm ready to deal with all of this...I haven't even completely absorbed it and it's been a week....ughhh.

Anyway...I'll go back to soaking up all that is around me. The beautiful family. The beautiful tranquility that they are so easily enjoying...I love this moment. I love being able to just sit back and watch it.
Thank you Lord for these moments that do show me that not only does time go on, but all is well and all will be well.

~robin

It's been about 44 hours since my mom left us...since she went to be with Christ...and I miss her a lot. She was the BEST mom a girl could ask for. She loved me unconditionally. She supported everything about me and was ALWAYS there for me. She was truly my rock that never faltered. I will miss her more than I can ever describe.
I am so sad.
Yet I am thankful too.
I am thankful that He took her before her suffering grew worse.
I am thankful that we had some wonderful times this past year and I had (and took) the chance to tell her how very much I love her and thank her for all she has done for me.
I am so thankful that He is in control and has shown that in many ways.

It is such a sad and joyful time. So confusing.....
please keep my family (and especially PapaLou) in your prayers as we all deal with her being gone.
I know I'll see her again one day...but dang, that's a long time away.