I PASSED the bar exam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For proof, go to:
http://courts.state.ar.us/

This week's scavenger hunt is looking for a tower. When I asked Brandon to build me one out of blocks, he was more than happy to help. Throughout the photoshoot, I never touched a single block. Brandon must have rebuilt that tower about 50 times. What a sport!

I wanted to see if I could get a good falling tower action shot that would work. Brandon obliged by kicking the tower, crawling into the tower head first and trying to knock it over with his tractor.
I ended up using the one where he's about to kick it over for the scavenger hunt. I like the sense of motion it conveys.Brandon's variation on a tower...

We made pizza at home the other night. Nick put his on Boboli while Brandon & I used the rest of a loaf of bakery bread we'd used the night before for garlic toast. Brandon, of course, wanted to do his all by himself. He also wanted to be the "cheese man." He did a great job!

By the way - sauce in a box? Not so great. And neither was the turkey pepperoni... They certainly look tasty, but not at the top of the tasty charts this time.

Romeo is so pathetic. Since Mom left and there's not so much attention, he's reduced to getting petted by Laedyn. He was happy as could be & she didn't seem to mind.

We went to Rich & Regina's house for hotdogs & watermelon on Sunday. Rich is one of Nick's old co-workers & also runs with him on the weekends. They've done a couple marathons together.

Thankfully the heat wasn't too bad, so we got to enjoy their patio. While the grownups (& Laedyn) stayed in the shade, Brandon & Jackson played in the sprinkler and ran around in the sunny yard.

Jackson is a little older than Brandon & ALOT taller, but the two have fun when we get together

Since playing with Jackson in the big bucket of water, Brandon has decided he'd really like TWO (not just one) Batman action figures - first he'll have to earn 5 stars per action figure(one star for each day he doesn't have a timeout at daycare).

Poor Batman was drowned, contorted, banged, crashed and eventually buried in the pea gravel.

I think in the end, Batman was just fine.

Barely a scratch.

Brandon brought home some of his "art" from preschool. When Nick asked him what it was a picture of, Brandon said "scribbles." We both found that to be pretty funny.

We watered the lawn the other day & Brandon wanted to play in it - what kid wouldn't?!? So he got into his bathing suit & had a great time. Laedyn was out on the porch in her bouncy seat & she really liked watching him. If he's anywhere nearby, she doesn't want to look at anything but him.

Time until Friday, August 31, 2007 at 4:00:00 PM (Little Rock time)

when the BAR EXAM RESULTS are posted...

2 days
63 hours
3823 minutes
229429 seconds

Alternative version
It is 2 days, 15 hours, 43 minutes and 49 seconds until Friday, August 31, 2007 at 4:00:00 PM (Little Rock time)

Current time is
2007-08-29 00:16:11 CDT(local time in Little Rock)

You too can build a customized countdown at http://www.timeanddate.com/

OK - this is the last of my long overdue posts from the trip home. I got so sucked into the Harry Potter books, I really didn't want to do anything else but read them. I finished the final one at 4:30 this morning. So tonight I'm playing catch-up here.

This is Rickey playing catch (or maybe we should call it fielding grounders....) with Brandon. Later while they were still playing, Brandon was fooling around & threw the ball which hit Rickey...remember the timeout picture?!?
Here's Sandy again with both her girls and her husband John.
Dad hooked the tractor up to a little trailer & pulled everyone around the farm. We called it a "tarp ride" because there was no hay, just a blue camping tarp in the bottom to sit on. The kids didn't seem to mind! Personally I wouldn't have minded some cushioning...
Mike, who's just a big kid himself, attracted the rough play attention of Brandon & Dylan. The boys loved it & I think Mike did too.
Look at the death grip Brandon has on Mike as Nick's trying to drag him off...
As I was running all the pictures as a slideshow, Brandon came over to watch. He said he liked it in Ohio & wanted to go back. He didn't even mind the thought of having to do that long car trip again. I guess he'll get his wish, but not til Christmas...

Some of the picnic attendees - This is Audrey (Nick's Mom) and Harry (Nick's father) This is my Aunt Bug (Goo's sister) - they really look alike.
Uncle Eric (my brother) was the hit of the picnic as far as Brandon was concerned. The 4-wheeler belongs to Rickey who was gracious enough to let Brandon have turns with Eric. Honestly, I think Eric was having as much fun with it as the kids. That sucker can go about 35 MPH. When the kids weren't on it Eric had it racing down the road at top speed - he said it made his eyes water.
Steph holding Laedyn. Steph was Eric's friend in high school and has since become a part of the family. She works with my Dad taking care of Goo. She's a saint as far as I'm concerned. Brandon has always LOVED Steph. It looks like Laedyn does too!
This is my best friend Sandy (AKA Wench) with her youngest daughter Olivia who is about a year old now. Her older daughter Clara is 3 months younger than Brandon.

More tales from the Farm. I was busy running around taking pictures while keeping an eye on Brandon. I thought this one turned out nicely. Meanwhile, Goo & Dad were playing one of their daily games of Thirteen - it kind of a long variation on Rummy. Besides Bridge, it's the only thing Goo will play. She's very difficult to beat too. Every time you lose, you have to pay her a nickle. I didn't have any, so I made her some out of paper. She was amused...
Before the picnic, Dad had to mow the pasture. Brandon thought it was the best thing in the world to go along for the ride.
All the picnic preparations wore Brandon out. He sat stubbornly in timeout for a good half hour before he would apologize to Ricky for hitting him in the head with a ball. It was an accident, & Rickey barely noticed, but I told B to apologize & he flat out refused, so he had to go into timeout until he would do it. Doesn't he look sad???

Mamo & Laedyn at the picnic. It was chilly - Laedyn was wrapped in that blanket all day long. She had a sweater on under it too.

We planned to enroll Brandon in soccer this fall, but missed the deadline. I bought him shin guards, socks & a ball. He had a blast trying them out. At least there's nothing in the lot he'll outgrow before the next enrollment period...

I'm a little behind in posting these, but oh well. There was no time while we were still in Ohio & then I just didn't get around to downloading them until last night. I've been busy job hunting...

Last Friday, we went to Eddie's Grill at Geneva on the Lake. It was a favorite back in our school days & didn't disappoint. Nick's favorite is the fresh squeezed lemonade from Dairy Queen. I love the foot long chili-cheese dog. As you can see, EVERYONE came along!

There are lots of people to read to Brandon around here. Tonight he chose Uncle Eric & Jiddee (that's Nick's Dad, Phil). Jiddee is Arabic for grandfather. I also read a book. All three of them were from the Sheep in a Jeep Series. They're very cute - we all enjoyed them.

One of my oldest friends came to see us at the farm today with her two boys, Ryan & Jason. When they drove up, Brandon asked me who it was & I told him it was my friend Julie & her boys. He asked if they were his friends, so I said yes & he jumped up and down saying "YEAH!"
Jason is a couple months younger than Brandon & Ryan is a couple years older. They all seemed to have a really good time playing all afternoon.
We all went to the river again. The boys had fun throwing in rocks and looking for creatures. We saw tadpoles, crayfish, minnows, spiders, and waterbugs. My brother Eric's girlfriend's son, Ricky, also came down to play. He's 7, but very tall. Nick neglected to bring river shoes to Ohio with us, so he had to go barefoot.

The kids were all tired out by the river, but apparently so were Brandon's pants!!!
This is Taz, my brother Mark's dog. He came along to supervise.
Brandon showed off his running skills. I can't believe he was able to run all the way to the barn (which he kept calling the shed) and back and was only a couple of feet behind Ryan at the end of their race. Ryan is much taller and a couple years older. Brandon was pretty pleased with himself ...
The boys were picking long strands of grass and practicing their tying skills on Julie's fingers.

Julie tells me that Brandon has an accent!!! Sadly I can hear it too in some of the words he says. I guess he'll be the southern son of Yankee parents...