Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my Blog. I have officially been a blogger for one year now! Let's celebrate, you want to come over for some cake?

Happy Nie Nie Day!

Last week Christian and Stephanie Nielson were in a very serious plane crash. They are a young couple with four children under the age of six. They are in critical condition. Stephanie has third degree burns covering 80% of her body and Christian has third degree burns over 30% of his body. The recovery will be very long and very expensive.


Loads of bloggers are auctioning REALLY GREAT things off today to help raise money- it's cool, like ebay-blogging live in the comment section! There are all sorts of great things available... check out all the auctions here at Design Mom, need invitations? a vacation? a custom painting? custom blog banner? kid/baby stuff? photography sessions? chocolate!? a really cool stroller?

If ever there was a reason to spend money... this is a good cause.

If you can't help financially, I know they need prayers. Prayer is free and more powerful than anything money can buy!

Tomorrow I will post on how Bryson's dresser almost killed Carter.

Semi-wordless Wednesday

Today it stormed pretty hard here. We have had a few tornado's touch down around us and have been under a tornado warning almost all day.

First Day of School.

Today was Bryson's first day of Kindergarten. We felt that since his birthday falls in September to have him do kindergarten again. Last year when we moved here we found out that Bryson would be able to start Kindergarten at the age of four, and even though we knew that was to early we thought he would benefit going to an all day kindergarten than a three hour pre-K.


Bryson did very well in Kindergarten last year academically but we felt that the age difference between him and the rest of the class was quite a bit. Bryson was receiving birthday invitations for kids in his class turning 6 while he was still 4. At the end of the school year we informed Bryson's teacher that we would like him to repeat kindergarten due to his age. If we would have still been living in Arizona or even New Mexico were Bryson was born this would not even be an issue as Bryson would have been to young to go to school last year. When we told his teacher that we would like him to repeat she said that she would speak with the guidance counselor and the principal. This is what I was told: Bryson does not fall within the requirements necessary to be a candidate for retention. Our little boy is just to smart *wink*


I called and set up a meeting with his teacher, the guidance counselor and the Principal to discuss Bryson's future. When we met Joe and I discussed our concerns with his age, maturity and sports when he gets older. I also didn't want Bryson being 17 when he went off to college. They listened and said that he could repeat, but that he should go to first grade for reading and possibly math.

We met his new teacher yesterday and apparently she teaches other teachers how to teach reading, so we think Bryson will be challenged.


We are happy with our decision and felt it was the hardest decision we have had to make in his future thus far.

Bryson with his friend Anthony. Anthony moves to California next week.

When did finding a parking spot become more important then watching where you are driving?

The boys and I were almost ran over in the Walmart parking lot the other day. We had just parked our car and got out and were walking toward the store but had to turn back to the car because we forgot our water jugs to refill. We walked back to the car to get them. I was carrying one and Carter was carrying the other. Bryson was busy unlocking and locking the car back up. We turned around and headed back for Walmart. We start to walk across the road that goes right in front of the store, you know the one that has the big cross walk painted right in front of the doors?

Bryson was walking beside me to my right and Carter was a half a step behind me on my left. I turn over my left shoulder to make sure Carter was keeping up when I see the van coming right for us. I look right at the driver and he and his wife are scanning the parking lot while driving forward. I had enough time to tell Bryson to run while I grabbed Carter's arm and slung shot him forward. I stepped out of the way and turn towards the van, just then he turns his head at me and his jaw drops. Probably for two reasons: 1. I obviously scared the shit out of him, and 2. I was yelling at him to watch where he was going.

He continued on and found that great spot in the front row. I just hope I scared him enough to watch where he is going next time.

I was in the Olympics....

Every night since the opening ceremonies of the Olympics I drift off to sleep wanting to become a part of the magic. Last night my time finally came. I was a gold medalist times 4. Come on it was my dream and it was great. Everything seemed to be going my way and I can't seem to figure out why... *wink*

I started off running the 100 meter hurdles and out of the corner of my eye I see LoLo Jones falter and I come in with the win.

Then I cut to the 400 meter hurdles and blow the competition away. I think after watching Usain Bolt in the 200 meter finals really stuck with me because I was finishing the race just as the rest of the girls where starting their last straight away. I beat them all by like 12 seconds.

My next gold metal was for a long distance race. It was a lot tougher and wouldn't you know I only managed to win by 1 one hundredth of a second. Um...I must have seen to many Micheal Phelps replays.

The next gold medal I won was actually quite fun. I go from being on the track to having a leotard on and now I am a part of the trampoline competition. I was actually not aware that there was an Olympic sport of trampoline jumping but I jumped on that trampoline so high and did so many flips and twists I won another gold metal.

With all the Olympics you are watching have you won any metals? Do you think watching the Olympics are a waste of time or time well wasted?

First soccer practice

This past Thursday was a big day in sports here at the Hudson household. Carter is finally old enough to join his big brother in sports. Yeah for organizations that let three year old's play.


Carter had so much fun and really listened to his coaches. Afterwards we were walking towards Bryson's soccer practice and he said "That was really good soccer!" I do have to say he looked awfully cute in his soccer outfit.



Bryson's practice on the other hand didn't go so well. We are going to see about having him switched to another team or coach ourselves. The coach that was out there coaching them really wasn't doing that. She would tell the kids to turn around and close their eyes and then she would throw the balls out and then tell the kids to go get them. If the five and six year old's weren't listening to her as she was lining them up she would make them run. She then told the kids to dribble the ball to each other while running to the goal but she yelled at them "Don't be a ball hog!". Some of these kids have never even played and don't know what dribbling is. She wasn't teaching them anything. I hate to be the parent that calls and complains about the coaching, but Joe and I have taught this age group and realize how crucial it is to teach the kids the basics and fundamentals. I would hate to have to pull him out, but I am not going to stand by and watch him gofer balls.

I was pretty upset and didn't take any pictures of his team, though I am hoping it won't be his team much longer.

Bryson riding the waves....

These pictures of Bryson on the boogie board where taken on our last day there. His poor tummy was torn up from being on the board the first few days that we had him wear a shirt. We will know next time to have him wear a shirt when riding the board. Even though his tummy was rubbed raw we couldn't keep him off the waves. He had so much fun.

A few more Charleston photos.

Look closely at Bryson's face. This is what he has been doing in a lot of phots now. I guess he thinks I don't see it. Crazy kid!
The boys had a great time with Mrs. Kathy.

I have a whole bunch of photos of Bryson surfing on the boogie board that I will put up shortly.

“Summer Fun” photo contest

5 Minutes for Mom is having a summer fun contest. I chose this picture because the boys had so much fun feeding the seagulls. I wanted to pick something other than them playing in the ocean and that was very hard to do.

Happy Birthday Brother!

My older younger brother turned 25 today. "You are getting old" said Bryson this morning on the phone to him. Jimmy's reply was "Then your mother's really old!"...or something like that! Thanks a lot bro!!

I hope you had a great day. I didn't mention his wife's birthday in June so I thought I would give her a big birthday wish also! Happy Birthday Amanda. She is due with my new nephew or niece in December.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY you two!!

Who's bleeding Red, White and Blue???

My DVR is going crazy. I think it has been recording all day and all night since the opening ceremonies Friday night. Is anybody else glued to the t.v.?

The swimming has been awesome even the boys have been watching the Olympics. They really liked watching the fencing and were excited that the girls swept the competition. We watched the men gymnastics yesterday and boy are they strong. Right now I am watching China and Romania women gymnastics. Wait....the Americans are coming right now!!! Now I will be watching USA! Go girls!

I am looking forward to watching more gold metals being won tonight in swimming.

Is anyone else glued to the Olympics?

Another family visits and neighbors moving in!

The Jenkins, Staci, Kirk, Kate and Luke came to see us; we haven't seen them since June. Carter has been going through serious Kate withdraws. Actually they were driving from Charleston back up to D.C. and we were the lucky ones they chose to stay with. We had a few families come over last night for dinner so that everyone could visit the Jenkins family. Boy are they a popular crew. I swear everyone was lining up to see them pull into the driveway.

We all had a great Mexican dinner. There were awesome nachos with meat, beans, tomatoes, cilantro, cheese and sour cream. We also had chicken enchiladas and Mexican rice and for dessert we had freshly baked cookies and ice cream. It was awesome.

Sarah and Tim

Jess, Zoey, Isaac, Luke Kate and Staci

This was the morning they left.







Julie is the little girl in pink and Audric is the little boy with pretty blue eyes.

This is how they were the whole night. Kirk, Kate's dad calls them the old married couple.

One last squeeze!

Till next time.....

Last night my love/hate relationship with Blinky grew. I woke up around 2:30 and heard him in our room. I jumped out of bed and told Joe I saw Blinky. He asked if I was sure and I said I was pretty sure. He came out into the living room and sure enough the delux apartment in the sky was empty. I continued to look for Blinky but with all the lights on he darted back under the bed behind a laundry basket and then behind our long dresser. We were moving furniture all the while trying to be quite because the Jenkins were sleeping in the next room. I finally captured him and brought him back to his apartment and back to bed we go. We toss and turn until 4am when Joe finally gets up and says since I can't sleep I might as well go off to work and that is exactly what he did. Thanks Blinky!

This morning I told the kids about Blinky and they ran into the living room to see him. Well, Blinky wasn't there. That's right he had escaped again. I guess in my tired 2:30 stupor I didn't check all the compartment doors and he was gone. I told the boys that we would probably have to wait until tonight to find him because he sleeps during the day.

Fast Forward a few hours...the boys were in Carter's room watching TV when they yell to me that they think they hear Blinky. I go in there and pull the T.V. dresser back and sure enough there he is. He was very prepared for this journey as there was a stash of his food that he must have brought along. He had also found a dollar bill that he was trying to make a bed out of.

Fast Forward a few more hours...check out our new neighbors I found today. Tonight they sleep in peace but tomorrow its war!!

More Charleston Pictures

We walked into downtown Folly from the house. It was about a block over.
There was a light house on Folly beach as well.




Bryson and Kathy built a sand castle.

The waves were coming in and Bryson wanted to protect it.





He was thankful that I took pictures of his castle. He was so proud of it.