My Pleasure....

Have you been to Chic-Fil-A lately? Whether recently or if it's been a while, I'm sure that you've noticed a difference in the way you are greeted, responded to, etc. at CFA as opposed to some other restaurants. (I'm not knocking any other restaurants, just sayin'.) Our family has always talked about the "my pleasure" response and how good it feels to hear that as opposed to "no problem" or "sure", for example. Well .... Austin Bragg officially began employment with CFA in Commerce earlier this month. He almost can't help himself at home or when he's out and uses the "my pleasure" response. We sort of like that. :-) Not that he wasn't already a polite young man - that, his good looks (hehe) and great personality apparently helped land him the job. Grown up world reality is setting in little by little for our 18 year old. (fist pump and yes!!) The value of dollar has gone up significantly in his mind. He's really good at dealing with people and enjoys (for the most part) his dealings with the public.

There is one other part to this story. When Austin was 5 or 6, he had this joke that he would tell and seriously, I can't even remember it, but the punch line was "you want a chicken sandwich?". It wasn't just saying the words, it was the accent and delivery of the punch line. He would laugh, we would laugh and once he even recorded himself saying the punch line on one of those small hand-held recorders. Would it surprise you to know that I still have the tape with his cute little voice on it? Anyway, after he started work at CFA, we told him that when he graduated to cashier, he should ask his customers "you want a chicken sandwich?" (I realize that might be a location - "you had to be there" kind of joke. Sorry.)

Anyway ... If you get by the Chic-Fil-A in Commerce and you want a chicken sandwich, be sure to look Austin up. :-)

Been A Long Time ....

So, it seems like it was just yesterday that I wrote that last blog and when I looked at the date of it today .... it was back in January!!! My how time flies!! I have so many updates and I'll get right on that tomorrow. Ha. Just kidding. Couple of quick updates I'll do for now:

1) we have a high school graduate (yay) and an 8th grader (drama). School was out on May 21st and we're all enjoying not having a hectic schedule for now, and

2) Andy started a new job. He's back at Dawson Associates where he is Vice President. He is very happy with the move and we're happy for him to be back home and off the road.

More later!!

WANTED....

This picture was taken in Gatlinburg in April 2005. I had decided I wanted to use it as our Christmas card picture that year. Thought it would be cute and different. I had mentioned this and my plan to stick the pic in a store bought Christmas card, to a friend. A few days later I received a call that helped me come up with DIY Christmas cards that year. Amy Anderson gets credit for the witty verbage, I did the rest. :-)

The Bragg Family: WANTED ..... (front of the card)

....to wish you a Merry Christmas!! (inside of the card)

...(back of the card)

I uploaded the digital picture to Walgreen's online photo center, ordered lots of copies, and had them delivered to my house (it's cheaper that way). I then created the card in Publisher (love that program and I don't even have the latest and greatest version!!). Purchased beige cardstock and printed the cards at home. I also purchased greeting card envelopes at the local supply store (pull & seal, of course).

We received lots of comments on our Christmas cards that year.

Boy Jesus....

This memory pops into my mind randomly throughout the year, but at Christmastime, I think of it often.

In December 1995, Austin was asked to play boy Jesus in our church Christmas musical. Austin's wasn't a speaking part, only a visual during a song where the wisemen and shepherds had finally arrived in Bethlehem to honor Jesus. How excited we were for Austin to have a part in the musical. I play in the orchestra, so I had a front row seat to watch him at rehearsals and he understood well what was expected and most importantly, he understood who he was portraying.

The first big night arrived. My call time was earlier than Austin's, so I went on ahead and Andy would bring him later. Ready to go, Andy buckled Austin into his car seat and off they went to the church. Austin was being very quiet and said he didn't feel good and that he didn't want to be boy Jesus anymore. Have you ever had to bribe your child into doing something? If you say you haven't .... I'm not sure I believe you :-), if you have - you know where this went next. It's the night of and ditching the boy Jesus gig is not an option. Good thing it was Andy with him and not me. I'm not very merciful, patience is not one of my virtues and I'm afraid boy Jesus might have gotten a little attitude adjustment. Andy begins the bribery, sugar pouring from his mouth - nothing but sweetness for our little boy Jesus actor. This was a whatever it takes situation here. Suddenly ... Austin threw up (in the car). Is there anything worse? Well, this might change things just a bit. Maybe he really was sick.

What happened next still, to this day, brings a tear to my eye. Austin was quite familiar with his Bible stories and knew who God was and who Jesus was. He knew that Jesus belonged in Heaven right beside God. In his innocent little mind, he thought that being boy Jesus in the musical meant that he would have to leave us and go to Heaven to be with God and he didn't want to leave his mommy and daddy. He had agonized over being boy Jesus and all that he thought went with it to the point of making himself sick.

We assured Austin that we would never leave him and that he would never have to leave us. Some days I'm ready to send his all-knowing 17 year old self out the door and on to college, but then there are those days that this story comes to mind and I'm reminded how cute and innocent he once was.

Pictures of boy Jesus below ... :-)

Bragg .... Party of 30

Thanksgiving was at our house again this year. This time, however, Thanksgiving was for both sides of our family!! Yes, there were 30!! Lots of people in one place at one time, but we had fun and everything went very smoothly. Everyone was well behaved (children and adults) and there was PLENTY of food for everyone to eat.

Our bonus room is a fun place for a kid to hang out. And since there were 10 children ranging in age from 4 to 11 (someone pass me a drink, please) .... there was a fair amount of time spent by them in the bonus room. There are dress up clothes galore, barbies too many to count, you could start a zoo with all the stuffed animals and of course there's the Wii, the electric keyboard, puzzles, games ... the list goes on and on. Lots of fun pics resulted from the wizards, fairies, powder puff girls, cowboys, lady bugs, etc etc that would emerge down the stairs awaiting approval of their outfit of choice. With that many kids, you'd think that clean up would be a cinch. Really? Why do kids dislike clean up so much? Of course, I think it was mostly the adults who got things back in order. Don't care who done it, just glad it got done. :-)

I am thankful for every single person that was there and I am thankful for having a home to provide for our gathering. I am so blessed. Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Here's a picture from last year's pre-Thanksgiving feast. Fewer seats last year, but basically the same set up. (I forgot to take any pics this year.) We use real china, silver and crystal. Andy's mom provides all that stuff for me. Just have to run downstairs and pick it up. :-) I do name tags for each seat so people don't have to wander about and worry where to sit and I whip up a cute placemat in Publisher with a Happy Thanksgiving note and a Thanksgiving poem, print it out on white paper, back it with colorful construction paper to add a little color and flare to the table. :-) This year I also added a small amount of colorful confetti on the table.

The 3 Mutts-kateers....

I told you about the stray mama and her puppies we inherited on my last post. Since then, we found homes for the three babies. Yay! That was more work than I thought it would be to add 4 dogs into our everyday routine for over 3 weeks. Once the slideshow was posted to youtube and a few flyers were posted around town, it was only 1 week until they were all adopted. We were pleased with that turn around time. The new owners of Cody, Meg and Pumpkin (the puppies new names) are so happy with their new additions. So that leaves us with mama dog ~ Shadow. Looks like she's a keeper. She goes in for spaying and shots on Monday.

I've been slowly introducing her to Minx and Molly's daily routine. She's been sleeping in the garage with them at night for a while (although they are in crates, up until now, she's been sleeping on a bed of towels in the corner). I've put her in the fence with them several times during the day. The first couple of times I literally sat in the kitchen and watched out the window the entire time to make sure Minx and Molly were nice to her. I felt like I was watching The Dog Whisperer. Dog behavior is very interesting. And this weekend, she got her first taste of being in a crate. She really didn't like this idea at all, but was willing to comply (after a little shove).

I want to take a picture of our 3 doggies all together. Not sure if that's even possible, but thought I might give it a try with Austin & Chandler's help. We'll try later this week and post the results of the photo session. :-) Until then, following are individual pics of our canine friends.

Minx

Molly

Shadow

Puppies....

We had a stray dog show up on our street mid September. She wouldn't come close to us. She looked like she might have recently had babies and she always looked hungry, so we started giving her table scraps every day, not really expecting her to stay around. End of September she started focusing mainly on our house. She hung around and slept in our side yard and would stare at us when we were outside, looking sort of sad really. We kept her fed and watered but still couldn't get close to her. She finally warmed up to us in early October. She would let us pet her, she slept in various places around our house and we were feeding her dog food regularly. Still, we were not looking to make her a permanent fixture at our house. Babies were still not evident, but suspected. We came home from church on Sunday, October 11th and when she rolled over wanting a pat on the belly, it was obvious that she had just been nursing puppies. We immediately went to the spot where she favored the most - the side yard on the edge of the woods. Andy went about 20 feet into the woods and low and behold what did he find? 3 babies! Of course, we weren't and still aren't in the market for 4 new dogs, but we certainly couldn't abandon her and her puppies at that point. I took the puppies to the vet on Wednesday 10/21 for their first round of shots. They are 6 weeks old and ready for someone to take them in and love them. We have thoroughly enjoyed playing with and loving on these puppies for almost 2 weeks now. They are healthy, playful and would each make a great pet for someone. We've also enjoyed loving mama doggie, but she needs a home too. She likes to wander around a bit, so I'm thinking someone with some land where she can love her home and have freedom to investigate her surroundings. :-) Attached is a link to a short slideshow I made with pics and info on each dog. Hopefully we'll find them each a home very soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIe_aCo6h1s