The Dotson Family Adoption

Last year for Christmas, we gave Sadie a new toy in her stocking. It's a little "Scottie" dog, that is green plaid. It has become the one toy that she loves. It is the only toy that she pays attention to, aside from the frisbee. We named it baby. Daddy plays hide and seek with her - you can actually tell her to stay in the kitchen while you go hide her baby and as soon as you tell her to go get baby, she can go right to it. (I know impressive for a house as big as ours is). Needless to say, if she comes in and baby is "misplaced" she practically has a panic attack. Last night as we were watching the LSU/MSU game, Sadie came into the living room with a piece of material hanging from her mouth and looked at us like "look what I found!" We didn't know what in the world she had in her mouth - I got up, walked into the kitchen - and saw Baby torn open and the stuffing all over the kitchen floor. Sadie lays down and starts to chew on this "mater...

I became a fan of football in general and the NFL in particular in the mid '80's. In 1987 at the tender young age of 10 I proudly donned a tarnished gold colored sweat pants/shirt combo with letters bolder than the color reading, "Who Dat?" I am a football fan. From humble beginnings, simply following LSU football on Saturday and the Saints on Sunday, I have evolved into a week long student of the game. I study teams, players, rosters, depth charts, stadium capacity, defense/offense matchups, gameday weather reports and injury reports. And that is just on Monday morning. By the weekend I have spent far too much time reading and studying all the information that I can get my eyes on just so I can be actively involved in almost every game I have the opportunity to watch. What cause my drastic change from a casual football fan to a rabid, time consumed fan? Two words: Fantasy Football. I played Fantasy football for the first time in 1999. A group from church (ab...

Below is a link to the article published today in the Clarion Ledger for a former student. I taught Will for 2 years at Magnolia . He was truly a rare child that was perfect for The Association Method . He came to Magnolia in January 2006 at the age of 3, as a nonverbal child. By March of 2006 Will had spoken his first words (very few and far between), by May of 2006 Will was talking in short sentences and singing "The Hokey Pokey". Today, Will is able to hold a conversation with anyone. His academic test scores at the age of 5 years 3 months are that of an average 6.5 year old.... YEAH! He will enroll in a regular Kindergarten classroom this August and he will require no "pull-out" therapy of any kind! I certainly will miss my Will, but trust that our state funded schools will give him the best education that he DESERVES! Going to bat for The President

I just had to share this picture of my little man! He just turned 4, but you can see it in his eyes. He is serious about anything he does. I can see him being an awesome baseball player, an engineer or both... no pressure hayden :)

I just wanted to share this slideshow I recently made for a dear friend who moved. I had so much fun making it and I cry every time I watch it!

So it's Mother's Day. Today is the day that marks 3 years of mother's days without my mom. I have found this one to be one of the hardest. The past 2 years, we have been with Kelly's mom, so I have had a "busy mind" and I guess I haven't thought this much about just my mom. This weekend we stayed in town, so I have had a lot of time to think today.  My sister called me after church and said their closing hymn was "sweet sweet spirit". She had made it through the service holding back tears, but lost it during the hymn. Knowing the song is to describe Jesus, I can't help but think of how much my mom loved Jesus. She had such a calm and reassuring presence. She could rest knowing that God loved her more than we can imagine and that His will for her was greater than she, or anyone could know. Knowing all of these great things, there is still a void. There is still hurt. For some reason, today, I have thought a lot about those things you say...

We spent Easter here for the first time since 2005. It was great to be with my family. Everyone came to "poppa's" house and Audrey and Hayden loved hiding the eggs for Mamie... yes. they didn't want to hunt, they wanted to hide them, yet when I would go look for them, Hayden (3) would say "Aunt Amy, Look in the garage, I put one in the garage" (he would then disappear and then reappear with an egg and say "here it is, this is the one I put in the garage!!!" He continued to do that with every egg, while Audrey (5) would scream "I HID THAT ONE" everytime I'd find one! I must say, they were VERY good egg hiders... Audrey, Hayden, Poppa and Sawyer It was such a long day for the boys :)