GO GEORGIA BULLDOGS!

As most of you know today is the first Saturday of college football! My husband is obsessed which means that even as I type this he is glued to College Game Day, especially because it is here in Atlanta for the Clemson-Alabama game at the Dome.

However, you also know that our house is divided and I am so excited about my #1 ranked Dawgs! YES THAT'S RIGHT!!! #1 RANKED!!!!

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I am posting a couple of pics of my boy in his new Georgia outfit saved expecially for today!

Here is a funny email that my brother sent me. If you are an SEC fan you will really like it!

HOW MANY SEC STUDENTS DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHT > BULB? At VANDERBILT: it takes two, one to change the bulb and one more to explain how they did it every bit as good as the bulbs changed at Harvard. At GEORGIA: it takes two, one to change the bulb and one to phone an engineer at Georgia Tech for instructions. At FLORIDA: it takes four, one to screw in the bulb and three to figure out how to get stoned off the old one. At ALABAMA: it takes five, one to change it, three to reminisce about how The Bear would have done it, and one to throw the old bulb at an NCAA investigator. At OLE MISS: it takes six, one to change it, two to mix the drinks and three to find the perfect J. Crew outfit to wear for the occasion. At LSU: it takes seven, and each one gets credit for five Semester hours. At KENTUCKY: it takes eight, one to screw it in and seven to discuss how much brighter it seems to shine during basketball season. At TENNESSEE: it takes ten, two to figure out how to screw it in, two to buy an orange lampshade, and six to phone a radio call-in show > and talk about how much they hate Alabama. At MISSISSIPPISTATE: it takes fifteen, one to screw in the bulb, two to buy the Skoal, and twelve to yell, "GO TO HELL, OLE MISS". At AUBURN: it takes one hundred, one to change it, forty-nine to talk about how they did it better than at Bama, and fifty to get drunk and roll Toomer's Corner when finished. At SOUTH CAROLINA: it takes 80,000, one to screw it in and 79,999 to discuss how; this finally will be the year that they have a decent football team. At ARKANSAS: None. There is no electricity in Arkansas

Here are some Clemson pics of Braden so that my husband will not fuss that I am biased. Which I'm not.....Only when Georgia and Clemson play (which doesn't happen very often).

Ok....So maybe I am a little bias. Isn't he cute in red and black?

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Today is my wonderful mother's birthday and I just wanted to remind her how special she is and how lucky I am to have her. Thanks Mommy! I love you!

This is the gift that Braden made for my mom. I actually had a creative

moment! I am using this same idea for my pre k class as

gifts for thier grandparents for grandparent's day.

It's Ok Mom...I'm a Big Boy Now

This morning Brad and I took the morning off from work to take Braden to his first morning of preschool. He will be going to Heritage Hills Preschool one day a week from 9-12. After a big breakfast of waffles and grapes (Braden's favorite fruit of the month) we snapped a few pics and headed to Conyers. On the drive to Conyers I talked to him about going to school and seeing his new teachers, Ms. Karen and Ms. Mary. We talked about some of the students he would be seeing that he met yesterday at Open House (my parents took him). He kept saying "ool...ool (school)". And then we passed a prison bus and the rest of the way to Conyers all that I heard was "bus...bus".

I was a little apprehensive about how he was going to do since he has never stayed with anyone other than family. He got so excited when I parked and he looked out the window and saw Brad get out of his truck. He started saying "Daddy, Daddy". Brad got him out of the car and we debated on putting his book bag on him. I envisioned him walking into school wearing his new book bag, but every time I tried it on him at home he would fuss and pull it off. We decided that it was worth a try. To our astonishment he wore the book bag and strutted down the breezeway to join his classmates who were waiting for the doors to open along with their very anxious parents (glad we weren't the only ones!).

When the doors opened we were greeted by Ms. Mary and we headed to Braden's classroom. As soon as we hit the door to the classroom he dropped my hand and joined some of his classmates standing in a group. (I had visions of him in middle school instantly~how scary!) I was kneeling down staring at him socializing with his classmates and these words escaped from my mouth before I even realized they were coming out "He's not going to miss me at all"! AHHHHHH! How did I become that mom? Please tell me that other moms have felt that way too?!!? I think that his teacher might have even heard me. I was mortified. However, my precious boy must have sensed my trepidation because he walked over to me and put is arms around my neck and hugged me. It was like he was reassuring me 'it's ok mom....I'm a big boy now'. It was the sweetest thing ever (& my wonderful husband even caught it on video so I can always relive that touching moment...thanks Brad). Isn't it amazing how our rough and tough boys have a way of melting our hearts more than anyone ever could?

I left the room to go get his school supplies from the car and on my way back Brad came out and said that he was the only parent left in the classroom and we needed to go. What??? Leave my baby already? He needed me right? Oh, how very wrong I was. The teachers had already closed the bottom half of the door and being the psycho/crazy parent that I didn't know I was until earlier this morning I hung my body over the top half of the door and snapped pictures while my son was oblivious to the fact that I had even left the room and his teachers were giving me the "ok woman...it's time for you to go look" that I have given to so many parents myself. Thank goodness that Brad is just as crazy as I am because he was hanging over the door video taping Braden so I didn't feel quite so bad! However, I would like to apologize for all of the not so nice thoughts i had about some of my "crazy" parents! My mom was right this morning when she told me that it is definitely a different view depending on which side of the door you are on!

My mom picked him up this afternoon and she said that he was having such a great time when she got there that he looked up, flashed her a smile and kept on playing. What a brave big boy!

Thank you Lord for my amazing son who is even braver than I could ever be. Thank you for giving me courage through him and for giving him the gift to be brave even when I am not. Thank you for the opportunity to put him in a school where he can more about you and have teachers who will take care of him. Thank you for giving him the opportunity to grow up in a home where he is confident in who he is and secure in the fact that when we leave him we will always return. Thank you for our precious blessing.

Hoffman Quarterly

Once a quarter all of the Hoffmans try to make a point to get together since we all live so far apart and rarely see eachother. This quarterly was our turn to host and we all had a good time. We enjoyed dirt pudding, catching up on eachother's lives and watching all of the cousins play together. Here are some of the pictures.

Happy Anniversary

Today is mine and Brad's 7th anniversary. I cannot believe that it has been 7 years since we got married at Heritage Hills on that scorching hot Saturday in August. I thought that marriage would be easy....boy was I naive! However, it is extremely rewarding and I truly love my husband with all my heart! And now we have beautiful baby boy to share our love with!

Brad is out of town once again this week and it happened to fall on our Anniversary which makes me very sad, but he promised me dinner at Ruth's Chris when he returns!

Happy Anniversary baby! I love you!

7 years ago (not the best picture since I had to scan it)

June 2008

***Brad and I were married on my parents' anniversary and today they are celebrating 29 years! Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad! I love y'all!

Little Helper

Our boy is quite the "little helper". He loves to help load and unload the dishwasher (aka close the dishwasher door and pull out all of the silverware), get his own diaper for mommy, feed Avery and he is even pretty good at putting some of his toys away (only if he is asked of course). This weekend he "helped" even more by helping me tonight work on laundry and Saturday morning help Brad in the yard.

Saturday morning Braden and I decided to join Brad out in the yard while he was pruning the bushes with his new hedger that he has been dying to try. We were out in the yard by 8:00 which seems really late after getting up by 5:15 each morning for the last week. Braden brought out his beloved "pop-pop" (lawnmower) and his wheel barrel. He pushed his lawnmower around the yard first and then he used his wheel barrel to help us pick up the debris. He was so cute putting the pieces in his wheel barrel. When we finished loading all of it into the back of the truck I sat with Braden in the bed of Brad's truck and we rode to the back yard to dump everything out. Before some of you start clucking your tongues because I let my child ride in the back of a pick-up truck, please know that he was safe and tight in my lap, Brad was not going over 3 mph and every child should experience the wind in their hair in the back of a truck at least once in their life. Even if it was really more like a faint breeze since we were driving so slow!

Tonight Braden helped me load the clothes into the dryer. Another one of his favorite jobs. He is so cute picking the clothes up and pushing them in the dryer and he loves to close the door to the dryer and he usually closes it several times before all of the clothes are in! He's not much of a helper when it comes to folding. He loves to run and jump or drive his trucks through my folded pile after I've finished. Tonight he decided that he would like to play peek-a-boo with the towels so after a quick game of peek-a-boo I started on the towels, but he had a different plan. Tonight he decided to load some of the towels in his wagon and drive them around! Too cute! He was such a good helper and with his help I am happy to say that the towels have been washed, dried, folded, and put away! Thanks "little helper"!

I love this face! It looks like pure joy!

Braden was very curious about what Brad was doing to the bushes and the loud noise that he was making!Braden playing peek a boo while I was folding laundry

I Survived!

This week has been exhausting, exciting, exhausting, rewarding, exhausting, sad, exhausting, happy, exhausting! I have NEVER used as much energy in one week as I did this past week with 20 4 year olds. Yes! I said 20. I know that is absurd to have 20 4 year olds in a class, but since it is state funded we must do as the state tells us.

I only cried one morning (Wed.) when I dropped Braden off and of course he has done really well all week with Grandmother & Palpaw though I am sure that they are exhausted!

I only freaked out on Thursday when halfway through typing my lesson plans they got deleted. I know that I should save them more often, but I wasn't thinking about it.

My goal for this next week is to leave school earlier. I hope it happens!

Thanks for all of your prayers. Trust me, I have needed them. Also, I apologize to everyone who I have not been able to talk to this week. The small amount of energy that I have left over has been going straight to Braden and Brad. But I promise to be a better friend in the coming weeks!

Oh yeah! I am taking a break from Grad school for the semester. Next semester my class will be online. I just couldn't imaging working all day, leaving my house at 6:10 and not getting home until after 9 at night. But the worse was not seeing my boy all day! No way can I do that!
Love you guys!