Rollercoaster

Tonight at Chick Fil-A is a "fundraiser" for the preschool that Brianna attends. A percentage of your bill goes toward the preschool. So of course we decided to go on the way to church in order to support the school!

Even better, we bought a discount card from one of our neighbor kids and we get a free waffle cone or brownie with every combo purchase!

Even BETTER, Stephen found a coupon for a free chicken mini! (Yes, we know these are only served at breakfast).

We were disappointed when we realized the coupon expired on September 30.

We were excited when we realized today is only the 28th!

We were disappointed when we read the small print and it's only good at the Fayetteville location.

Alas, these are the ups and downs of life.

Vigilante Review

Since I am a big fan of thriller/action novels, I wanted to review that type of book from Bethany House Publishers. I chose "Vigilante" by Robin Parrish to review.

In this book, Nolan Gray is the world's greatest soldier. After years of being in the service, and receiving some absolutely horrific scars (emotionally and physically) in wars, he comes up with a plan to make the world a better place to live. But he is going to have to die in order for this to happen.

He dies - according to all news reports. But really, he has enlisted the help of some incredible friends who basically turn him into a modern-day superhero. Literally, he swings along the buildings of New York City, saving people's lives and attempting to wipe out mob crimes.

This book is definitely thrilling. I didn't understand some of the military aspects, and some of the technological aspects of making his "costume", but the book is still a page-turner. I wanted to keep reading to see what happened next! One of the things I really liked about this book is how human the main character was. So many times, with Christian fiction, the characters are so darn close to perfect. Nolan Gray struggled with morals and made horrible decisions just like any normal person. He made impulsive decisions that even cost people their lives. But all the characters in this book were very likeable.

I would definitely recommend this book to others - in fact, my husband is about to start reading it because of my recommendation to him. I would even like to read other books by this author now.

I received this book for free from Bethany House Publishing Group for this review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

Homecoming

In less than 12 hours, Stephen will be home from being deployed.

This morning our preacher Tony emailed me and said, "Your man is almost home - are you excited?"

Am I excited?

I'm so excited that I cleared my entire schedule after Monday just so I could prepare for him coming home. Now, I didn't do anything special (in fact, the only thing special I did was buy him Swiss Cake rolls from the dollar store and bake cookies tonight) but I just wanted a week to chill out and relax before he got home.

This totally screwed me.

Turns out I need to be busy. I need to have things going on every day. Otherwise, I have NO CLUE what day it is or what I am supposed to be doing! That has to be the explanation for:

Wednesday - forgetting a gym appointment. Actually I'm pretty sure I thought that appointment was last week. Anyway, it never made it onto my calendar.

Thursday - Let me just tell you about my grocery store experience on Thursday. Anyone with kids (especially small kids) knows it is pretty tough to get to the store when they're all in a good mood. Especially younger ones because you want them to be full, diaper changed, not sleepy, etc. and for even just two to be on that schedule at the same time is very difficult. So I raced over to Harris Teeter to do a round of triple coupon shopping. I guess I misjudged one of those things because Hunter was starting to get fussy after about 12 coupons (there's a limit of 20). I figured it wasn't worth him getting totally worked up and booked it over to the self-checkout since I hardly had any items (and remember this experience on Wednesday???). Well of course as soon as we stepped up to the lane, Bri started saying she had to go to the bathroom. Visions of puddles on the floor of Harris Teeter filled my head, so I apologized to the cashier, left my cart there, and took her to the bathroom. Now, please note, this is not just going to the bathroom. Oh, no. This is an entire state of events. Now that she can do everything by herself, she does it... very... slowly. Why close the bathroom door once and lock it if you can do it three times? Because how cool is it that I can lock the bathroom door by myself!)(%&*@#(*%&@#)(%. When you're on the toilet, why not just sing, swing your legs, and continuously glance between your legs (why?) but please, only do this when we're in a hurry. Not sitting at home with nothing going on. Anyway, so ten minutes later we get our cart, get to a lane... my money is in the car. Okay, swing the cart back over to the cashier and tell her I'll be right back. Well, of course, like the bathroom, just walking takes forever with Bri. She is constantly distracted and talking to everyone who walks by. We get to the car, get my money, okay, let's go back inside. Get the shopping cart again, go back to a lane, look into the cart.... um, where are my coupons?

My coupons are in the car, where I laid them down so I could get my money.

Cart goes BACK over to the cashier, I stick both kids in a shopping cart this time so I can fly out to the car, at this point I'm just laughing because this is the worst shopping trip ever!

I mean, really, who does stuff like that? Yes, I finally got all my stuff. And didn't forget anything as I was leaving either! Hah!

Friday - Okay, this one is just as good as the shopping trip yesterday. Hunter usually wakes up around 6:15 and eats, then goes back to bed around 6:40 or so, so I sleep until Bri wakes up which is pretty consistently 7:15. I never set an alarm because we never need to leave the house before about 8:30.

This morning, as I went upstairs to get Bri, the only thing on my mind was thinking that she had slept until a little after 8:00 and it felt so good! We didn't have anything to do until a gym appointment at 11:00. So I actually sat down with her to watch her morning episode of Mickey Mouse. We cuddled under a blanket because it was FREEZING this morning and it was so cozy! After the episode, I made her a waffle and started cooking pancakes for myself. Halfway through the first pancake, I glanced at the clock and thought, "Wow, it's 9:00 and Hunter's still asleep. He must have been really tired!" 9:00. Hmm... 9:00. Fridays at 9:00.

Brianna has preschool at 9:00.

They lock the doors at 9:15 (for safety reasons) so I called her director and told her what had happened. I got dressed, stopped breakfast, got both kids awake (Hunter) and dressed (Bri) in about 8 minutes. We drove as fast as possible without really speeding (knowing that that would only slow us down more!) and of course, hit a license check about 2 miles from the school. AARGGHH! Anyway, she just went straight to chapel which she had no problem with, but I mean, what in the world? My brain has just absolutely turned to mush.

I just realized.. oh, please God, don't let me forget to go get Stephen tomorrow.

Never the Bride Review

I chose to review the book "Never the Bride" from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group because it sounded a little sassy and fun, and I wanted a good new fiction author in my life. It turns out that Cheryl McKay and Rene Gutteridge chose to adapt this book from a screenplay... the opposite of what usually happens. Of course, you can't judge the book solely on that.

The story isn't that great. It's about a girl who is fixated on marriage and finding her soulmate, to the point that she's filled up journals and journals of possible marriage proposals. God actually comes to her in the flesh to assist her in writing her own personal love story, and to me, that was when the story turned from corny and annoying to a tiny bit sacrilegious and annoying. Maybe sacrilegious is too strong a word, but I was really turned off at the way the character spoke to God in this story. In my opinion, we should be able to talk to God about anything and everything, and even tell him when we are angry with him, and so forth, but I didn't appreciate when the character was flirting with God because he was hot, and other things like that happened.

I did like that the story's phrases and communication between characters were modern and not too cheesy or cliche. So you may like this book should you choose to read it. At least it was an easy read, but overall I was disappointed in it.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

Bri - Gumball Machine

This is the first artwork they've sent home from preschool in Brianna's bookbag. By the way, you should see her walk out of her classroom with MY gym bookbag on her shoulders... it is three times bigger than she is but she proudly wears it! I totally wish I would remember my camera one day. She's probably the only kid whose mom is too cheap to buy a brand new bookbag just so it can be the right size!!

Anyway, this is her gumball machine. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

#99 - Participate in Operation Beautiful

I have wanted to participate in Operation Beautiful for a long time. The mission of Operation Beautiful is to end negative self-talk. I feel really strongly about this, particularly because I hear so many females that say negative things about themselves and to me, the things they say are just ludicrous. In college I was very strongly involved in our women's group on campus, and we did stuff to reach out to other females all the time. Our society and our world seems to have turned beauty into such a small box, such an unattainable thing, and I can't stand that people or media can make ME feel bad about myself, or make my sisters feel bad about themselves, or make my gorgeous girls in youth group feel bad about themselves. It just makes me sick that sometimes I choose how I feel about myself based on how other people look.

Yesterday at church two friends and I hosted a girls get-together for 6th-12th grade girls. We wanted to talk about stuff that was important to them, but revolve it around self-image, self-respect, etc. So obviously this was the perfect opportunity to do Operation Beautiful!!

"God made you special and he loves you very much!" (from Veggietales)

No putting yourself down!

"Your worth is bigger than your weight"

"You are beautiful... just the way you are!"

"You are beautiful. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise."

"Wishing you were someone else is wasting the person you are"

www.operationbeautiful.com

Me and Cindy loved looking at them so much we decided to leave them up for church tomorrow. And also decided we need to do more positive talk like this around church!

Life

I am packing the truck with last-minute things for a Fed By Faith delivery and I hear Brianna in the background. She puts her baby Troll doll on the slide with a blanket and says, "Here you go baby Troll. Wanna go preschool? It's fuuuun. See? Here's everybody. Otay. I'll be back."

Found out that both of the kids like turkey hot dogs. That's good considering the fact I have a load of them in the freezer!

Bri is changing her bear's diaper. I see her run to get a diaper and a paper towel. Then she lays down the bear, wipes him very gently with the paper towel, and says, "Otaaay... one second. Almost done, otay? Gooooood."

We have lived around the corner from these same neighbors for the past four years or so, but we've never met them. Their house is situated so that every time we leave the neighborhood we have to drive past them. We watched them get pregnant and we've watched their son (now 3) grow up... all without having officially meeting them. Very strange! Anyway, as we were walking past their house tonight I heard a little voice yelling at us - "Hey!! Hey!!" We waved to the little boy through the window. Then he said, "Take care of your baby!" Haha! His mom Nicole and he came out of the house because he wanted to come out and see Brianna. They are just about 8 months apart, so they had a ball. They raced up and down the road while Nicole and I talked, they piled pinestraw on another neighbor's driveway, they talked in some toddler language... it was really cute. Nicole was saying that they never get to have play dates with other people so she'd like to get together sometime. That'd be nice - there's really no other people our age in our neighborhood.

Tonight Bri was going to the bathroom when she lifted up one butt cheek and put it back down and said, "My butt is stuck." Uhhhh... not sure how to respond to that.

Waffle Snobs

Ever since I started making homemade waffles, I didn't even realize it but I was turning our family into waffle snobs! Every couple of weeks I make a huge batch of waffles to freeze and we probably eat them five times a week. Seriously, they are so good.

But this morning I noticed in the pantry that we had waffle mix that was opened and only had a little bit left in the box. So I made those instead.

Brianna took one bite and said, "No like. I'm full." I tasted them too and honestly, they just didn't taste that good. I'm not sure if it was the brand or what, but I wonder if we are just waffle snobs now. The recipe I use is so basic and delicious, I wonder if it's like when you cut down on your salt and then french fries from a restaurant taste way oversalted. Know what I mean?

Anyway, just an observation.

Milestones

A couple of milestones happened yesterday that are not generally noted like the "big" ones (walking, crawling, etc.)

I was feeding Hunter breakfast yesterday morning in his high chair. He finished his bowl of peaches so I went into the kitchen, put more in his bowl (took maybe 4-5 seconds) and heated them for 13 seconds. I walked back in the dining room to find Hunter on the floor. On the other side of the room. Playing with a toy and squealing with delight.

I seriously almost peed in my pants.

How in the WORLD did that just happen!?!? P.S. Brianna was using the bathroom at the time, so she does have an alibi!

Then, before church, I was giving Bri dinner and Hunter crawled over to where we were in the dining room, stood right up at Bri's chair, and single-handedly took off his diaper. Gave me the biggest smile in the world and scampered off. That little stinker. I thought I still had a few months before he figured out how easily those cloth diapers come off....

Worry and Anxiety

I am not really a worrier. I think most people would say I take after my dad - I am a glass half-full, basically optimistic person. There may be times I rant to my friends or complain about a situation or have concern over a family member, but I don't really have the tendency to dwell on things, stew over things, and so forth. My dad has always taught me when there is a situation, consider all the outcomes. What is the worst case possibility? How would you handle that? When you are prepared for even the worst case scenario, at least you can still be prepared, and hopefully you have faith and emotional support to get you through. And most of the time the worst case scenario never happens.

But boy, do I know people close to me and acquaintances who struggle with worry and anxiety. This is for you.

Excerpts taken from "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World" by JoAnna Weaver.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 Signs of a Big Worrier

1) You find you spend much more time in useless, nonconstructive worry than other people you know.
2) People around you comment on how much of a worrier you are.
3) You feel that it is bad luck or tempting fate not to worry.
4) Worry interferes with your work - you miss opportunities, fail to make decisions, perform at lower than optimal level.
5) Worry interferes with your close relationships - your spouse and/or friends sometimes complain that your worrying is a drain on their energy and patience.
6) You know that many of your worries are unrealistic or exaggerated, yet you cannot seem to control them.
7) Sometimes you feel overwhelmed by worry and even experience physical symptoms such as rapid heart rate, rapid breathing, shortness of breath, sweating, dizziness, or trembling.
8) You feel a chronic need for reassurance even when everything is fine.
9) You feel an exaggerated fear of certain situations that other people seem to handle with little difficulty.
10) Your parents or grandparents were known as great worriers, or they suffered from an anxiety disorder.

What We Worry About
40% are about things that will never happen.
30% are about he past - which can't be changed.
12% are about criticism by others, mostly untrue.
10% are about health, which gets worse with stress.
8% are about real problems that can be solved.

Concern vs. Worry

Concern... involves a legitimate threat
Worry... is often unfounded

Concern... is specific (one thing)
Worry... Is generalized (spreads to many things)

Concern... Addresses the problem
Worry... Obsesses about the problem

Concern... Solves problems
Worry... Creates more problems

Concern... Looks to God for the answer
Worry... Looks to self or other people for answers

Top Ten Ways to Tame Your Worry Habit
10. Separate toxic worry from genuine concern. Determine if you can do anything about your situation. If so, sketch a plan to handle it.
9. Don't worry alone. Share your concerns with a friend or counselor. You may receive helpful advice. Talking your fears out with someone often reveals solutions that were invisible before.
8. Take care of your physical body. Regular exercise and adequate rest can defuse a lot of worry. When our bodies are healthy, our minds can handle stress better and react more appropriately.
7. Do what is right. A guilty conscience can cause more anxiety than a world of problems. Do your best to live above reproach. Take care of mistakes quickly by confessing and seeking forgiveness.
6. Look on the bright side. Consciously focus on what is good around you. Don't let yourself speak negatively, even about yourself.
5. Control your imagination. Be realistic about the problems you face. Try to live in the "here and now" not in the "what might be".
4. Prepare for the unexpected. Put aside a cash reserve and take sensible measures so you'll be ready if difficulties arise.
3. Trust God. Keep reminding yourself to put God in your equation. Then, when fear knocks, you can send faith to answer the door.
2. Meditate on God's promises. Scripture has the power to transform our minds. Look for scriptures that deal with your particular areas of anxiety. Answer life's difficulties with God's Word.
1. Pray! "Oh what peace we often forfeit,/O what needless pain we bear,/All because we do not carry/everything to God in prayer".

Talk WITH The Hand

You know that old saying, "Talk to the hand!" Well, Brianna takes a different approach to that phrase and lives "Talk WITH the hand!" This video is just another day several weeks ago when we were doing another tower of blocks, and she wanted to do animals again (we do do other categories, such as food, things, colors, etc... I promise!) But the reason this video is different from the last one I posted is because there are so many of her quirks in this video:

• Around 10 seconds, you see her put her hand up to say, "No, no tower, just animals." She also puts her hand up like that when I'm following too closely behind her on the stairs. She'll turn around, put her hand up, and say, "Stop, Mommy. Stay there." She'll go up a couple of stairs and say, "Okay, go Mommy!" Then you can see her using her hand to really gesture and make her point!!
• Around 45 seconds you see her "eat" the grapes that are on the block. She then connects that to her memory of eating grapes at Oma's house the last time we were there. This video was taken only about a week or so after we last saw Oma, so she doesn't have a miracle memory or anything. But I love the hand gestures at this point as well when she's discussing the grapes at Oma's house.
• Around 1:50 you see the beginning of a long cycle... her finger is covering up the animal on the block and I am constantly trying to get her to see it, she's constantly moving the block and still covering it up with her finger, and seeing one picture over and over - "Fiddle Dee Dee" (which is a Kindermusik song) - the fiddle.
• Around 3:04 she connects the picture of the cat to her memory of seeing Kitty Cat at my parents' house.
• Camera is full. Cuts off mid-tower. Sad face.
  

Bri knows a lot of her numbers by sight, and she consistently knows the letters "A", "B", and "C" by sight; sometimes "D", but I've not been working with her on any of that in particular, it's just stuff she's picked up from puzzles and books we have. But the book fanatic inside of me was a little giddy tonight when we started reading a book and she began trying to spell the words!

The book is actually a counting book, and to me this is so interesting the way a child's brain works. She pointed at the number 1 and said, "One!" Then she saw the word "one" next to it and pointed to each letter. "Circle... (mumble)... (mumble)" I recognized that she was trying to spell it out and I got so excited and started smooching on her and everything which is totally unacceptable to her.

Then she did the number two. First she said, "Two!" Then she said, "T... (mumble)... circle!" Haha! But I was a little surprised that she knew the letter T. So the next one, she said, "Three! T... what's that?" "H." "H.... what's that?" "R." "R... what's that?" "E." "E....what's that?" I said, "Brianna, you just said that one! What is it?" ".... E!"

Distracted as she is, when she saw the number four she got very excited for some reason and had to go through the entire book and point out every four that she saw.

Also, tonight I heard her sing the entire alphabet song without missing any letters for the first time. Parents of young children, when things like that happen, doesn't it make you wonder just how long they've known these things in their head but weren't putting it forth vocally?

And an update on preschool... so far, so good! There were less tears on Wednesday and even less on Friday. In fact, I'm pretty sure she spent some of Friday consoling another child in class - Noah - who she talked about all. day. long. "Noah cried. Wanted Mommy!" I heard that dozens of times on Friday! My favorite part of the morning is going to pick her up, and she always takes my hand when we're walking to the car (which is a rare occasion, for her to want to hold my hand), and I just say, "What did you do today?" and she just goes off. She talks about music, she talks about singing, about sliding, playing outside, snack, and especially, she always says, "No cry! Big girl!" I have tried telling her that big girls can cry too, that it's okay, but she assures me, "No cry!" She has told me they're learning about the circle as a shape, and the color red, which is correct, as the teacher sent out an email to that effect the evening of Open House.

That's enough for now!

6 Years and Counting

Today is a very special day for two main reasons... it is my beautiful sister's birthday and it's also mine and Stephen's anniversary! This year marks six years and boy, is it getting better every year! This anniversary will be a little different from years past - we probably won't do anything at all to celebrate - but I definitely feel like we are closer and more in love than ever! I'm very thankful for my sister and my husband, so today is definitely a beautiful day to me!

Anniversary post 2010 - look at our cute high school picture!
Anniversary post 2009 - first anniversary trip with a baby!
Anniversary post 2008 - anniversary trip to UFC and announcing that we are pregnant!
Anniversary post 2007 - best anniversary trip EVER to Pennsylvania!

For your viewing pleasure...

Oh snap! First vacation together when we were 16 and such hotties!

Ooh yeah, prom '99 baby!

On to college life...

Woo-wee! Look at that smooch!

I love you babe!!

This Really Hit Me

I'm reading this great book right now by JoAnna Weaver, called "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World." Easy read, great message. And boy, is it hitting me smack in between the eyes. I know this will impact some of you, and I know someone in particular it will hit (Cindy) because we are always having these discussions about doing more and MORE and MORE!!! and unfortunately it just isn't feasible for us. I know tons of people feel like that, and that's why I want to post this story. For you.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The story is told of a man who met God in a lovely valley one day. "How are you this morning?" God asked the fellow. "I'm fine, thank you," the man replied. "Is there anything I can do for you today?" "Yes, there is," God said. "I have a wagon with three stones in it, and I need someone to pull it up the hill for me. Are you willing?" "Yes, I'd love to do something for you. Those stones don't look very heavy, and the wagon's in good shape. I'd be happy to do that. Where would you like me to take it?"

God gave the man specific instructions, sketching a map in the dust at the side of the road. "Go through the woods and up the road that winds up the side of the hill. Once you get to the top, just leave the wagon there. Thank you for your willingness to help me today."

"No problem!" the man replied and set off cheerfully. The wagon pulled a bit behind him, but the burden was an easy one. He began to whistle as he walked quickly through the forest. The sun peeked through the trees and warmed his back. What a joy to be able to help the Lord, he though, enjoying the beautiful day.

Just around the third bend, he walked into a small village. People smiled and greeted him. Then, at the last house, a man stopped him and said, "How are you this morning? What a nice wagon you have. Where are you off to?" The man said, "Well, God gave me a job this morning. I'm delivering these three stones to the top of the hill." "My goodness! Can you believe it? I was just praying this morning about how I was going to get this rock I have up to the top of the mountain," the man told him with great excitement. "You don't suppose you could take it up there for me? It would be such an answer to prayer."

The man with the wagon smiled and said, "Of course. I don't suppose God would mind. Just put it behind the other three stones." Then he set off with three stones and a rock rolling behind him.

The wagon seemed a bit heavier. He could feel the jolt of each bump, and the wagon seemed to pull to one side a bit. The man stopped to adjust the load as he sang a hymn of praise, pleased to be helping out a brother as he served God. Then he set off again and soon reached another small village at the side of the road. A good friend lived there and offered him a glass of cider.

"You're going to the top of the hill?" his oldest friend asked. "Yes! I am so excited. Can you imagine God gave me something to do!"

"Hey!" said his friend. "I need this bag of pebbles taken up. I've been so worried that it might not get taken care of since I haven't any time to do it myself. But you could fit it in right between the three stones here in the middle." With that, he placed his burden in the wagon.

"Shouldn't be a problem," the man said. "I think I can handle it." He finished the cider, then stood up and brushed his hands on his overalls before gripping the handle of the wagon. He waved good-bye and began to pull the wagon back onto the road.

The wagon was definitely tugging on his arm now, but it wasn't uncomfortable. As he started up the incline, he began to feel the weight of the three stones, the rock, and the pebbles. Still, it felt good to help a friend. Surely God would be proud of how energetic and helpful he'd been. One little stop followed another, and the wagon grew fuller and fuller. The sun was hot above the man pulling it, and his shoulders ached with the strain. The songs of praise and thanksgiving that had filled his heart had long since left his lips as resentment began to build inside. Surely this wasn't what he had signed up for that morning. God had given him a burden heavier than he could bear.

The wagon felt huge and awkward as it lumbered and swayed over the ruts in the road. Frustrated, the man was beginning to have visions of giving up and letting the wagon roll backward. God was playing a cruel game with him. The wagon lurched, and the load of obligations collided with the back of his legs, leaving bruises. "This is it!" he fumed. "God can't expect me to haul this all the way up the mountain!"

"Oh God," he wailed. "This is too hard for me! I thought you were behind this trip, but I am overcome by the heaviness of it. You'll have to get someone else to do it. I'm just not strong enough."

As he prayed, God came to his side. "Sounds like you're having a hard time. What's the problem?"

"You gave me a job that is too hard for me," the man sobbed. "I'm just not up to it!" God walked over to where the wagon was braced with a stone. "What is this?" He held up the bag of pebbles.

"That belongs to John, my good friend. He didn't have time to bring it up himself. I thought I would help."

"And this?" God tumbled two pieces of shale over the side of the wagon as the man tried to explain.

God continued to unload the wagon, removing both light and heavy items. They dropped to the ground, the dust swirling up around them. The man who had hoped to help God grew silent. "If you will be content to let others take their own burdens," God told him, "I will help you with your task."

"But I promised I would help! I can't leave these things lying here!"

"Let others shoulder their own belongings," God said gently. "I know you were trying to help, but when you are weighted down with all of these cares, you cannot do what I have asked of you."

The man jumped to his feet, suddenly realizing the freedom God was offering. "You mean I only have to take the three stones after all?" he asked.

"That is what I asked you to do." God smiled. "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. I will never ask you to carry more than you can bear."

"I can do that!" said the man, grinning from ear to ear. He grabbed the wagon handle and set off once again, leaving the rest of the burdens beside the road. The wagon still lurched and jolted lightly, but he hardly noticed.

A new song filled his lips, and he noticed a fragrant breeze wafting over the path. With great joy he reached the top of the hill. It had been a wonderful day, for he had done what the Lord asked.

Confusion

Some kids just have confusion in their lives from the very beginning. This is certainly the case with Brianna. I'm sure Hunter will be involved shortly.

So what do you do when you have:

A favorite cousin who goes to Auburn?

An aunt who went to the University of Alabama?

A Mommy who loves UNC...

...but graduated from Appalachian State University?

And a Daddy who is an NC State fan?

Not sure what path in life Brianna will choose yet... but I guess I will be proud of her no matter what team she decides to root for!