Poo Poo Surprise!

Well my husband does not necessarily agree with me "blogging" this story. But it's my turn to "blog" and I can "blog" it if I want to.

I love my kids so much. I realize a tremendous difference between the female type and the male type of children. My son does things my daughter never did....hit me, slap me, scream and bite me, and then give me a kiss like it's all okay. When an elder in the church warns my husband that he is going to need handcuffs and shackels to contain my 16 month old son in church, there might be a problem.

Sunday morning we all sleep in a little late. It was about 7:45am and Josh and I hear Grant yelling from his crib, "Ma!" He repeats this over and over while shaking his crib continuously. He only does this when he has pooped in his diaper and wants to be cleaned right away. Knowing the certain yell of the poo poo call I tiredly asked Josh to go get Grant. He also knowing the poo poo call said, "no, he pooped," and then closed his eyes and pretended to sleep, with a smirk. So I being the good parent got up and went to get the baby.

Upon entering his bedroom the smelly evidence of what he had done hit me hard. I approached his bed and he very quickly stood up and held his right hand out to me and said, "Ma!" I looked at his hand and quickly realized what I saw. His hand was covered in you know what. I quickly surveyed the bed and the rest of the baby. Yes folks, it was every where!! It was on the sheets, blankets, crib bars, and the baby!!!!

I opened the bedroom window, grabbed Grant and put him in the bathtub and scrubbed him with bleach. (Not really, just baby soap.) I removed all the bedding and washed it immediately and then disinfected the crib.

This whole playing in his poop seems to be a problem. I am not sure if he is trying to take the diaper off or just investigate what is in it, but he keeps sticking his hands in there. How does a parent stop this from happening?

I know.....I'll duck tape his diaper to him so he can't possibly reach the stinky poo.

The Lighter Side of the Amazon in Iquitos, Peru

The lady in the background is Sister Nix, the missionary's wife from Lima Peru, (if not one of the best hostess' ever), thanks Sis. Nix!

In this picture you can see one of the native Amazonian rats. They are nocturnal hunters......just kidding. I can't remember for the life of me what kind of animal/rodent this one is. It was pretty interesting and friendly.





This is me the snake wrangler! This picture does not do the snake justice. That was a big snake! He was a hisser.

This is a sloth. Yes, a real live sloth. This was a fascinating creature. They actually had two of them, and while they were in their cage you could observe them eating. What was neat about this observation is how incredibly slow they functioned. Fascinating.

Now this guy, he was a blast. Very observant fellow and not bashful at all. I extended my hand to him and he extended his to mine. He began licking my hand and then I realized he was actually licking a wound I had on my hand. Pretty much freaked me out, wondering what kind of amazonian monkey Peruvian germ I was contracting. At this point it was too late we were friends to the end. He would not let go of my hand and after standing there for a few minutes I began to get nervous. The rest of the pack had left except for Brian Gregg who was getting a great kick out of this and fortunately videoing the whole event. I will attempt to post a video stream in the future. I started to walk and he started to swing from my arm. I was quite surprised at his rather dense frame. He was much heavier than he appeared and very strong. He was able to maneuver around me ,like I was a set of monkey bars. His tail......Wow.......it's functional. He was able to hang from my arm by his tail, swing around to my leg, crawl up my side, dig in my pockets, only to be disappointed, look me in the eyes, crawl up my back, yank the hat off of my head, and try to jump off and run away. Ha, ha, ha not so fast Mr. Monkey. I snagged my hat back during his escape, put it back on my head and the guy didn't even hit the ground and he was back up my leg and to my shoulders and trying to steal my hat once again. Once he realized he was not going to make off with my hat he started to lick the back of my neck. He was really starting to freak me out. So I ran to the native and told her to get him off of me. She yelled at him in Spanish and he didn't listen so I used my hat to lure him off of me. It worked....but if it hadn't I was ready to jump in the river.

More to come soon. Don't want to bore you.

Okay, okay, okay. My side of the hair-cut story......



First of all, in case you haven't noticed, I am going bald. So this is a touchy subject for me. Although I will be the first to admit I am going bald, I am a big enough man to admit, I admire another man with a full head of hair. I am not in denial about my going bald, so I like to keep my hair cut very short.....one and a half on the sides faded in to a very short top. Follow the natural (receding) hair line in the front....and its a no maintenance issue. Not picky, just particular.



So on my recent trip to Peru after the Iquitos portion and prior to the Cusco portion I seized the opportunity to get my long over due hair cut, after ordering my drink from Starbucks in the Lima International Airport (Lima is the capital of Peru of which we did most of our flying out of) so I knew it very well (we were there eight times). I sat down in the chair realizing I had approximately twenty minutes prior to boarding the plane. As I was sitting there I started to get a little nervous realizing the time was getting cut short. I also realized the language barrier between the barber and I was becoming a problem. I tried to use sign language and broken Spanish and long loud drawn out words (learned from Pastor Rev. Bishop Leon Frost), none of which seemed to be working. I even drew her a picture for crying out loud! There hair cut was getting worse by the snip, and I would never admit this to my friends, but I was really starting to stress about the time. I was starting to think that this was not only a bad idea, but bad timing.



My new found revelation....in the United States we do things at a much quicker pace. Something that would take literally seven minutes, takes thirty in Peru, if they are in a hurry. So I finally tell the lady, Esta Bien (It's good), Alto (Stop). At about that time a good friend of mine Larry Faulkner (Larren Kaufman) comes around the corner with eye balls the size of Un Nuevo Sol, or one Peruvian dollar (about the size of a silver dollar). He says, "What in the world are you doing man, everyone is freaking out looking for you?" "We have to hurry they are going to be boarding soon." Little did he know we had seventy two hours before the plane would actually leave. My response was, "I'm getting a hair cut." (The worst and longest hair cut of my life). Then I said, "Since we're in a hurry can you grab my coffee from Starbucks?" He laughed and abliged. He then headed back to the angry pack,(Grrrrrrrr, Hisssssssssssssss, Hissssssssssss). I was still tied up.



Two things I must point out: I pride myself in being a communicator, and I totally blew this one. I didn't even tell them where I was. It was unintentional, but extremely inconsiderate. Thus I will eat the humble pie for quite some time to come.



I paid the lady, grabbed my coffee, and put my hat extremely snug to conceal the damage. I looked like a leopard for crying out loud, I mean literally patches were gone! As I rounded the corner Elder Nix (missionary) looked, laughed, and said, "hurry up we have to pay our airport taxes." We checked through security and caught up with the gang, and sat and waited for twenty minutes to board the plane. Glaring stares pierced through my clothes and burned holes in my soul, and I deserved every one of them. I will never forget Bro.Bradfords smirk that read "OOOOh you are gonna get it!" Sis. Bradfords look said "Don't look to me for help!" Pastor was pacing and ready to put me over his knee for making him worry so much.



Later that day when all was well the clan requested to view the all important hair cut. I refused to take off my hat and told them, "It's like poker, you have to pay to see." Truth be told I was embarrassed at the horrible hair cut and not communicating with the clan of where I was.



Once again, I apologize, but it all worked out.



However, My motto is "Live a little", or in my case "Live a whole bunch!"

PERU UPDATE COMING SOON, AS SOON AS MY UNNAMED FRIEND GIVES ME MY PICS BACK***HINT*** KB

Well, we are finally joining the ranks of everyone else in this high tech era! We officially have a blog for our friends & family.....thanks to my very intelligent husband. There is no way I would have ever figured out how to do this, even with written directions and blog templates to choose from!

Josh kindly said I could be the first the enter a post. He is so sweet! After reading other peoples posts I realize how nerve racking it is to actually create my own. I feel like I am suppose think of more creative stuff than y'all! News Flash!!!~!! I am not that creative.

Quick Family Update:

In February Josh went on a short mission trip to Peru with our Pastor and his wife as well as three other couples from our church. Josh was the only one without his spouse. (Some people have to stay home and work and take care of the kids....I am sure they are not bitter.) He had a fabulous time tormenting everyone else on the trip.

The group was able to attend many church services in Lima, Iquitos, and village churches in the Amazon. People received the Holy Ghost and our group was very blessed and forever changed by the experience. Josh can't wait until he gets to return! (Hopefully I can go then.....like I said I am not bitter.)

I realize how awesome the trip must have been with people receiving the Holy Ghost and repenting and all, but I think I am mostly upset that I didn't get to play with the monkeys in the Amazon and see the big pink fresh water dolphins! Hmmmmm....maybe my priorities are not straight? I should pray about this.

I missed Josh tremendously while he was gone. It was really weird being alone all the time. I was not a happy camper those two weeks. However, I really pushed him to go because I know these opportunities don't come up as often as we wish. I am glad he went and even happier he is home!

Josh will go into more detail about his trip later and post pictures as well.

Demi Scott: Baby Girl

Demi is my big first grader now. I can't believe she is so big and beautiful! She is in love with her daddy. I like to compare their relationship to an intense teenage love affair! I mean she is really in love with her daddy!!!!! She cried almost every night while he was in Peru! It was so horrible. She is the epitome of a daddy's girl.

Demi lost three teeth this last week, two on the same day! That makes a total of....I think six lost teeth. I believe she has the highest lost tooth count in her class! Talk about a high achiever! That's my girl. She also is excelling in her hand writing. She writes absolutely beautiful cursive writing.....her Hebrew is coming along as well. LOL.

Demi is becoming more and more hilarious as she gets older. She is really fun! It is really crazy when you realize as a parent that your child is actually creating jokes of their own and understanding humor more and more.

Grant: The Tiny Tyrant

Grant is now fifteen months old and has slept all night for the past five nights. Usually he wakes up any where between 3 and 42 times a night. Not sure why, but I would really like to know so I can make it stop!!!! Working and having an infant all at the same time is entirely over rated!!!! However, I am keeping my fingers, toes, arms, legs, and eyes crossed that he is finally out of that horrible stage!!!

Grant has been walking for the past few months and is now working on his run! Watch out! This kid is a maniac.....hmmmm.......I wonder where he gets it? (Josh) He is so fun! He and Demi have formed a special bond as playmates. Plus Demi finally has someone to boss around and he is too small to realize he is getting bossed around so they are perfect for each other right now. He thinks they are just playing all the time.

He also is a high achiever in the teeth department. He has pretty had a mouth full of them from birth.....and he knows how to use them. OUCH!

Who knew having kids would be so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's just to bad that everyone else has to settle with their own and can't have special ones like mine!

Me~Brandy :

I am working on my Master's degree and Credential in Special Education. I work and take care of my family as well. I don't know what I was thinking!!!! Everyday I tell myself that I am doing this so I can have summers off with my kids and get off earlier in the day and have all the vacation days my kids will have off of school.....these thoughts keep me motivated. These are the only things that keep me motivated.....because this is a lot of stress, work, and MONEY!!!

Well this is the year I will be 30!!!! I remember always hearing people be depressed over turning 30 and I have to say I don't understand this! I am looking forward to be 30!!!! Does this make me weird? I believe it is because we (Josh and I) have worked really hard these last 8 years and I am hoping that my 30's will not require so much work! Something to look forward to I guess, or at least hope for! All I know is that life, marriage, kids etc. just get better and better if you work at it and let God in!

So on the point of being 30 this year.....I started lifting weights at home. I used to run and lift weights and do all kinds of sports and physical activities.....now I sit all day at a desk and barely have time at home for anything but kids and husband. So I created my own 30 minutes work out session that I do in four blocks and in between when I am resting I do homework!! Multi-tasking!!! Sorry Bro. and Sis. Bradford I can't compete with y'all and your P90X bods!!!!

My husband is making fun of me for my very long blog and says if people read this whole thing it is only because we are related!

The good thing about being married to Josh is that I have a perfect case study for my Special Education classes. (He said so himself!)