4 YEARS OLD

Happy 4th Birthday Brooks and Burkley!!!

We love you and can't wait to see what's in store for you this year and in the years to come.  Seems just like yesterday...

Daddy and I love you MORE!!! 

 

 

Just Build It

It took us well over a year to decide what we wanted to do after we sold our house last May, but we FINALLY made a decision. We have decided to build on our property and I'm super excited!  Below are the "proofs" to our house plans-we made a few minor changes and are currently waiting for the final plans.  They should be in towards the end of this week!  I'm SUPER excited about building another home of our dreams! 

Let the building begin!!!

Published Author Added to Resume...CHECK

Again, sorry for the lack of posting latley.  I've tried to blog several times this week, but for some odd reason, I am unable to see the insert picture icon.  Weird.  I really wanted to post pictures of our house plan proofs.  SUPER EXCITED! 

Another something exciting...as of today, I will be adding published author to my resume/Vita and I'm super thrilled.  The last week of ABYDO training, we had to write an extensive piece and submit it to a journal, magazine, blog, etc. in hopes of being published.  Not knowing what in the world I was going to write about, stressing about completing the last 2 assignments for my grad school class, and packing for a week at the beach, I sat down and began writing about surviving bed rest.  I had so many thoughts running through my mind and I honestly wanted to just finish the paper, submit it, and be done.  I finished it and submitted it to a magazine and a well known Multiples Blog, Multiples and More.  Little did I know that I would get a response from the editor from Multiples and More telling me that they LOVED it and wanted to feature my article.  To say the least, I was super surprised.  It's nothing special and no where near as good as the first paper that I turned in for the training (I posted it on my blog...Blessings from the Couch).  Although it comsumed 3 weeks of my summer, thank you ABYDOS for this AWESOME opportunity!  Head on over to www.multiplesandmore.com and read How to Survive Bed Rest!  And yes, I'll sign autographs for free this time!!!

XOXO
http://www.multiplesandmore.com/guest-blog-posts/how-to-survive-bed-rest/

8 Years of Bliss

Happy 8th Anniversary to US and many, many more! 

Shamu

The week after school was out we (myself, B&B, and my mom) set out for a quick trip to Aunt Kathy's house.  We had been discussing Sea World for quite some time and I knew I wanted to take the kiddos, but with ABYDOS consuming most of June, beach trips in July, and then returning to work in mid August, we decided that week would be the week!  Thank goodness the weather cooperated for us...it was overcast pretty much all day until about 1:30...and after that it was BLAZING HOT!

Not sure what to expect when we arrived...but in AWE of the 1st show!

Look how BIG this guy is!



Shamu! 
We sat in the SPLASH ZONE on purpose because B&B wanted to get SPLASHED, but we didn't get splashed.  I think that was a good thing too because everyone said the water was salty and fishy smelling...and I wasn't real hip on feeling salty and smelling like a fish for the 2 hour ride back to Austin!

Azul!  This show is AMAZING!

Brooks and I waiting in line for the Shamu Express!

Brooks riding his 1st ROLLER COASTER! 
It was a kiddie ride, but I'm not going to lie, that thing twisted and turned-well, maybe more like jerked. 

Nea, Mommy, Brooks, and Burkley

Mommy, Aunt Kathy, Brooks and Burkley

Nea, Aunt Kathy, Brooks, and Burkley

We had a SUPER fun time at Sea World and we can't wait to go back and do it all over again soon.

July 4th

We spent the 4th of July at the beach again this year.  There's something about that place...can't go wrong with a little fun in the sun and relaxation!  The week prior was a week from H-E-double L with the end of ABYDOS training, writing and submitting my last paper, doubling up on grad school work so that I could actually enjoy my week at the beach, washing, and packing, but in the end, it was worth it! 

I did take my good camera on our trip, however, I never actually took it down to the beach with us.  I hate it being around all that sand-so I snapped the majority of the pics with my phone.  I'll have to upload those too!

We had a little patriotic photo shoot on the 4th with the 4 cousins. 

What a CHORE!

Sweet cousins that LOVE being together! 

Stay tuned for more beach pictures!

Blessings from the Couch

The last 3 weeks of June were spent in an intense writing institute that is required for all K-12 ELA teachers in our district.  It was super hard getting past the fact that it was summer and I was stuck in a training, but I honestly learned a lot of fantastic writing techniques that I can implement into my particular job.  During the duration of the training, we were required to write 2 papers; one for our Anthology book and one to submit to be published.  I have always considered myself a writer, but for the first few days of training, I had severe writers block.  Getting anything on paper was impossible and I began to FREAK!  Finally on Thursday of the first week, I began typing away on my IPAD and wrote the following piece below titled, Blessings from the Couch. 
* This was written after completing an activity called blueprinting.  In a nut shell, I drew a house that had meaning to me on parchment paper, labeled all rooms in the house, drew/labeled the furniture, wrote specific memories from each room (yes, even the bathrooms), and then picked a place to write about that had specific meaning to me.  Read the story below and you'll see why my story was titled Blessings from the Couch!


Blessings from the Couch

Soft, comfortable, warm.  The couch is my safe haven and  where I spent many afternoons detoxing after a long day of teaching.  The cozy couch is also a place where I received the best news I had waited for, for countless years. 

I can still remember sitting there watching the time on the TV tick tock by with each passing minute. Three o’clock seemed like an eternity away when,  in reality, it was less than five minutes til.  As the clock struck three, I picked up the phone, dialed the number with trembling fingers, questioned myself when the phone was ringing if I had dialed the correct number, took several deep breaths, and prayed to God one last time before the person on the other end answered.  When the operator answered the phone, I proceeded to tell her the extension I needed…the nurses’ station, extension 1.  And the wait began.

“Good afternoon, this is Paula, May I help you?”

“Yes ma’am, my name is Hayley Scott, and I had an appointment with Dr. Grunert this morning and I’m calling to get the results of my lab work.”

I’m annoyed at the sound of clacking computer keys as I sit waiting impatiently for the results.

“Mrs. Scott, are you sure you were in this morning and had lab work?”

“Yes.  My appointment was at ten, and I was told to call back at three o’clock today for my results.  I have the band-aide to prove it and a vial of blood somewhere with my name on it.”

Laughing, the nurse responds, “Okay, honey, I found the lab report, hold on one second.”

As we sat side by side, each holding a cordless phone, we waited for the nurse to review the results of the lab work-this seemed like FOREVER.  My stomach in knots, I felt as if I was going to be sick when the nurse returned to the line.

“Mrs. Scott, you aren’t just pregnant, you are VERY pregnant.  Congratulations.”

From that moment on I don’t recall the rest of our conversation because my husband and I embraced one another and cried our eyes out.  All the years of trying, the surgeries, the medications, the procedures, the unsuccessful transfer, the anger, the shots, the questions of why us, didn’t matter anymore.  God heard our many prayers and finally answered our prayers on His timing.  The next two hours were spent calling family and friends to share the ever so exciting news with them.

Blessings from the couch!

Just a few short days later we discovered that God had a bigger and better plan for us.  Not only were we expecting a baby, we learned that we were expecting TWO babies, due on my birthday, January 18, 2009. 

Blessings from not the couch this time - but true blessings from God!

That summer, I spent many a days laying on that couch with pure exhaustion and all day morning sickness, but I wasn’t complaining.  Heck, I had waited, prayed, and hoped for this day way too long.

Blessings from the couch!

Per doctor’s orders and in order to prevent preterm labor, weeks twenty-eight through thirty-six of my pregnancy were spent on that same comfy couch with an ever so growing belly.  Hours upon hours of watching “trash” TV, countless hours surfing the world wide web, family and friends dropping by for quick visits and dropping off meals, frequent potty breaks, blogging, and usually a shower or two a day is how I spent these weeks of bed rest.  Boring to some, but each passing doctor’s appointment and no news of preterm labor meant bed rest was successful.  And successful it was.  We made it full term; thirty-six weeks.  On December 21, 2008, our healthy and perfect little miracles arrived; Brooks Allen at 8:11 am and Burkley Ann at 8:12 am.

Blessings from the couch!

Father's Day Weekend

It's been a while since I've posted!  We are alive and well and VERY busy.  I thought I would be able to blog regularly this summer, but I've spent the past 3 weeks in a very intense writing training (ABYDOS for those of you wondering). On top of reading assignments and papers for the training, I've been knee deep in grad school work, so the blog has had to take the backseat again, and I'm SORRY! 

We had a fantastic Father's Day weekend and enjoyed spoiling all of the wonderful dad's in our family.  I knew it was going to be a tough weekend, as it was my dad's 1st Father'sDay without his dad, but we survived another first.

3 of our little swimmers!

Brooks and Burkley just finished swim lessons and did AMAZING!  They are swimming, but we still make them wear floaties!

They had a blast counting and jumping in together.  They could do this FOREVER!!

B&B with their daddy.  He ROCKS!

Uncle & Poppy. 
Poppy had to be on top since he recently had another shoulder surgery!

Potty break! 
That's how we roll in the country!

1, 2, 3

JUMP!

Look at that SPLASH!!

Look at my boy swimming!

Diving under to get the "Lime-a-Rita" can! 
You have to improvise when you don't have dive sticks!

Uncle and the girls!

My BOYS!
What a great weekend we had celebrating Kyla's 4th birthday and Father's Day!