We Have Brick!

My brick arches are in the house!! I am so excited that I have to pinch myself. I still can't believe that they are there. The big one will eventually have an old beam above it, that's why it's not all the way up.
This is looking from the keeping room to the living room:

This is the same arch but from the other side:

Here is the second arch. This picture is taken right inside the front door. You'll have to excuse the finger.

They also finished the fireplace outside, but I haven't taken pictures of that yet. I'll add those later.

Geaux Tigers!

We went to the LSU football game this weekend. We have had season ticket for the last few years, but this year we go some new seats. This is the view! They were awesome. The game didn't start until 8:15, so by half time, it was 10:30 and we were up 24-0. We decided to leave so we wouldn't be in all the traffic. My brother left at the end of the third quarter and it took him 2 hours to get home! Richard and I both went to LSU. He played baseball there. All of our parents went to LSU and his grandfather played basketball at LSU back in the 40's. Richard calls him Shaquile Doughty. Speaking of Shaquile, he was at the game. Check out his bus.

I don't know if you can see the painted side or not, but it is Shaq in the middle of all the "godfather" people. Only a little flamboyant! Shaq and I went to LSU at the same time. One semester, we had a class on the same hall. I would walk past him every day and try to see how much taller he was than me. I came up to about his elbow. No lie! He is HUGE.

Anyway, here's one more picture of the Braden and his tiger tattoo.

Crazy Cade

This is how Cade wanted his hair for school today. It's a "fauxhawk". They are kind of popular here, but I think it's hysterical. If the teachers didn't know me (and him) so well at the school, I would have never done it for him, but they'll think it's hysterical. I just love that he's not afraid to do something different than the other kids.

More About the Fire

I have gotten so many wonderful comments from all of you on the post of our house fire. Thank you all for your kind thoughts and well wishes. There were also alot of questions, so I thought I'd elaborate a little more. I was asked, "who knocked on the door?" This was a miracle all in itself. Our neighbor across the street and over a little ways heard their dog barking this strange bark. They were watching TV in their bedroom. They got up to see what the dog was barking at and could see an orange glow under their carport. He went outside and saw it was our house.

The fire truck were already on the way when I came out of the house, but it took a little while (seemed like an hour) because it is a volunteer fire dept. It took about 5 minutes, I think. When they arrived, the fire had already spread to the kids side of the house and was melting the siding off the house next door. All the men were out there with a hose trying to keep that house from catching fire. I was amazed at how fast it spread - very scary. You always plan what you'll grab if that were to happen, but there REALLY is not time! There are times when I think, "why didn't you grab that one more thing?" But when I think about it, I made a conscious decision to focus on the boys and making sure they were safe. Cade was SCREAMING and wanted to be picked up, but my arms were full of scrapbooks. I wasn't dropping them at that point, so I made him follow me screaming the whole way. Days later, when I went back to the neighbors to pick those books up, they were so heavy that I could only carry a couple at a time. It was pure adrenaline pumping in the moment. I was trying to stay calm because I didn't want to upset the kids more, but I finally figured that if I couldn't scream now, when could I. I started screaming to my neighbor, making sure she had called 911.

The fire was compounded by the fact that I had just filled up my 30 gallen tank of my truck that night, and the fact that all of Richard's shotgun shells were it the storeroom going off, it was crazy.

Right after they put the fire out, the firemen started bringing things out that they thought we might want. We started stacking things under this neighbor's carport (can you tell that they are very special people to me?) Bryce's friend, Lyle, who has been in posts before, is their son. We love them. They brought out dresser drawers, my charred jewelery box (I found one diamond earing). They found my brand new studded leather Coach purse! Of course, it was ruined, but my wallet was fine. That was very exciting because we both had our credit cards, licenses, and all that stuff you don't want to have to collect again (he got his when he ran back in).

I still get frustrated when the kids come home with a project that they need baby pictures for. The only snapshots I have are some that my mom put together for me. It's a good bit, but every once in a while I can remember a special page in a scrapbook that I worked so hard on. That is very depressing, I just can't focus on it. I had ALOT of scrapbooks that burned. All my honeymoon pictures are gone. To this day, I still have a bad attitude toward scrapbooking. To have spent SO much time doing those great pages only to have them burn up. I don't think I'll ever pick it up again. That's alright. I am thankful that my kids were young enough that I was able to replace some of their photographer's pictures because they still had the negatives. That is a big blessing. Another blow was that anything in the attic was completely destroyed. Richard had a trunk full of all his high school memories. It also had all of his stuff from when he played ball at LSU. That was really sad.

I thing that is funny and frustrating at the same time, is that you constantly look for things that you don't own anymore. It's usually the stupid stuff like a tupperware bowl or a serving tray. I have to sit and think, when did I buy that. Everything is divided in Pre-fire/post-fire.

Anyway, I was asked about the heat detectors. Heat detectors are installed by the people who install security systems. They are connected through the security system, so they are monitored, and the whole house will be screaming if they go off. They are not fool proof, the fire pretty much has to be right by it to set if off, but we have them by the hot water heater, electric boxes, things like that. I would have just put regular smoke detectors in the attic, but they say with all the dust, they will go off for no reason. I will never live in a house again without heat detectors. I even have all of my smoke detectors through the security system as well. I am pretty much a freak about it! Go figure!

Oh well, hope I didn't bore you. I really appreciate all of the kind words that were shared with me. They really helped.

Good Thing We Have Brothers

Braden was such a hard one to buy a birthday gift for this year. He is just so easy going that he really didn't have anything he wanted. At the last minute I picked up this little pool table for him and wrapped it up. Turns out, it's the best gift ever. It has sat right here on the coffee table since he opened it this weekend. They all play it every chance they get. And the best part: they haven't fought over it - not 1 time!

Yesterday, Braden came in the kitchen and said, "It's a good thing we have brothers, because I would get tired of playing this all by myself".

Cade: Yep, good thing, 2 of them.

Braden: Yeah, so if I get tired of playing with one, I can play with the other.

Now we know why God gave the Doughty's 3 boys: Braden needed a spare!!!

Happy Birthday Braden!

Braden is 9!!!
He is such a little cutie pie. Braden has always been my cuddle bug. From the time he was born, he has loved to snuggle up next to someone he loves and "get cozy". I remember being so surprised that he was a boy. We hadn't found out, but I just knew he was a girl! I saw his parts before anyone said anything and thought, "No, that's not supposed to be there!" Of course, I wouldn't change a thing. He and Bryce are almost exactly 2 years apart and have been best buds from the beginning. Braden looks different than the other two. He is the spitting image of his dad when he was young. He also acts exactly like his dad. Anything dad likes to do, Braden is right there beside him. He loves to hunt, fish, play baseball, football, watch sport center. He is super smart in math, and is such a blessing to his teachers. He is such an important part of our family. Here are some pictures of Braden through the years:
Here he is playing with his Daddy. He's always been a Daddy's boy.

Here he is at 6 months, he was quite the chunk:

He's about 2 here with his best friend, his brother:

This is Richard's favorite picture, he was SO proud of these fish!:

Here he is during Western Day at Preschool. This is one of my favorites.:

Here's his kindergarten picture:

And here he is just a few months ago. This is one of my favorites. Dad was coaching him as he was catching (Dad's old position):

We are so proud of you, Braden. Happy Birthday! You make this a GREAT day!!

We love you!!!

Mom

One Terrible Night

I wanted to share with you a life experience that happened to our family two years ago today. We lived in a very small, but very cute little house. We had built it about 7 years before, so it was fairly new. It wasn't anything great, but I loved that house, and had filled it with all the special memories of bringing two of my children home there. That is the house that I spent so much of my time raising those little boys when we were all home all day together. This is a picture of our house when it was almost finished.

At about 11:00 pm, we were all asleep and I heard someone knocking on the door. I woke Richard up, and he went to the back door to check it out. When he did, he saw the entire carport engulfed in flames. He screamed "We're on fire" in this horrific voice that I hope to never hear again. We both ran to the other end of the house where the kids were. He went and got the kids out of bed, and me being the mother that I am, grabbed five of my scrapbooks. Richard went back in to get the keys to his truck, and his cell phone. He tried to grab some pictures off the wall because he knew how much I loved every single picture. He made it out, and was able to back his truck out and save the dog. Then, the only thing to do was wait for the fire truck, and then watch my entire house,with all those precious memories, burn down. Here is a picture of what my cute little house looked like the morning after:

Here's my brand new Suburban:

Here's one more. It is the saddest to me because you can see Cade's little Pooh backpack hanging on his closet door.

I could go on and on, each picture just as important to me as the others. Richard's partner took these, and I am so grateful. I obviously didn't even own a camera (I didn't even own a bra!!), and even if I did, my brain was so shot that I wouldn't have thought to document it. I wish that I had more pictures of us through the next few weeks. We went home with my brother and SIL, and lived with them for the next 5 weeks. The morning after, I called my best friend who lives about an hour away, and asked her if she would bring me some clothes (underwear and all). Thank God, we're the same size. When she got there, we went to start collecting things that we woke up without: toothbrushes, shoes, clothes, uniforms for school, backpacks, etc, etc,. The list goes on and on. We walked out the house in our pj's. The neighbors came through, and dressed us and the kids (after Richard had paced the street in his boxers for about an hour). But that is all we had the next morning. So many people came through for us, giving us clothes, food, etc. It is amazing to literally have nothing. I felt very connected to the people who had just gone through hurricane Katrina. We were all homeless, walking through Target, buying toothbrushes!

Here are a few things I have learned from this experience:

Things that you think you "could never live without" - you can.

Yes, pictures ARE that important.

Even if you have smoke detectors, if there is a fire in the attic, they might not go off. Ours didn't start beeping until the roof had fallen in. We were about 5 minutes from all dying. We now have heat detectors installed in the attic.

As long as your family is together, you can survive anything. A couple weeks after this, a family we know lost a baby to SIDS. It put everything into perspective. All my babies were safe.

I could go on and on, with details of the fire, the aftermath, how we found a place to live in the wake of Katrina, how God has healed us emotionally (I'm still a basket case at certain times, tonight for example). He has been faithful. My children still talk about it, but don't seem to be scarred from it. I can't hear a siren without almost having a heart attack, but it is getting better and better.

Tomorrow is my Braden's 9th birthday. Poor thing, his presents burned in the fire two years ago. He now associates his birthday with our house burning down, which I hate. I think that will pass with time.

Well, go be safe, and give those babies an extra kiss tonight. I know I will.