A Day in My Life (and 4/52)

It was very, very early this morning when I was awakened by "Mom! Mommy! I need to tell you something! Come here!" That was at 6:11 am. By 6:17 am, this was the scene in our bed:

Molly has quite the fashion sense. She put together this little ensemble all by herself. Quite talented!
We watched cartoons for a few minutes, played a bit with Mike before he headed out the door, and then met my dad at Denny's for a special breakfast treat.

After Denny's we headed through the Lightening Car Wash (a family favorite)! The kids love it because they get to stay in the car while it goes through the wash.

Then off to Sports Clips (Matthew's new favorite hair cut place) for Matthew's hair cut. Here's the before picture:

And here's After (Mom, I want it spikey!)

We headed to Blockbuster, where Matthew rented Fire House Dog, and Molly picked a My Little Pony movie. Matthew watched his movie while Molly napped. This was about 11:30 this morning--and we'd already had a full day!

Or So I Thought! After napping/movie time, we met Matthew's friend, Preston, at the pool for a couple of hours of summer fun! Matthew got a new snorkle last week and has gotten way more than $5 worth of fun out of it already!

And look at sweet Molly! She's loving the goggles. Work it, baby!

Preston may be Matthew's friend, but Molly adores him, as you can see!

After our fun time at the pool, we went home, changed clothes, and headed for Matthew's T-Ball game. The kids are getting really good! I can't believe how much they have improved! Check out the look of determination on his face!

Another great thing about tonight's T-Ball game was that Uncle David and (soon-to-be) Aunt Jessica got to come! Matthew loved it!!!! And so did Miss Molly!

We ended up this super-busy day with Mexican food. This was the latest Molly had ever been out. It took both of the kids about 3 minutes to fall asleep tonight.

What a busy, wonderful day. I think this is what summer is all about--those great times with friends and family doing things you don't normally get to do. I can't believe we squeezed all this fun into one day. Maybe we'll get to sleep past 6:11 tomorrow!

Momma, I can't believe I'm 5!

I think Matthew must have said "Momma, I can't believe I'm 5!" at least 17 times today. After sitting still and eating his breakfast with manners, Matthew said "Well, that's how 5 year olds do it." And, "Momma, I'm bigger now that I'm 5," "Look how strong a 5 year old is." My sweet boy is 5. I can't believe it, either.

The party at the Fire Station was wonderful! The firemen were so good with the kids and everyone had a great time.

Kylie got to come to the party for just a bit. Can you believe that THESE two girls are the same girls as in the next picture????

They've grown so much!!!
Happy Birthday to You!

I'm turning Japanese, oh yes, I'm turning Japanese

I really think so.

Why the 80's song? Well, as I mentioned earlier, we've been dancing around the house a lot. The radio is a bit inconsistant as far as dance tempo, so I got out my old cd's and Matthew's current fave is the soundtrack from "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion" which I saw with my BFF in the actual theater. So funny. So the song "I'm turning Japanese" is on the soundtrack and he loves it! Hilarious.

We went with Matthew's friend, Preston, to Tae Kwon Doe on Thursday night for Pizza Buddy Night. He loved it. The coach was awesome and Matthew totally got into it.

Molly is still a little sickie. Her temp has been high--like 103--and she feels like poo. I just can't stand it. I love that she loves to be held when she's sick, I just hate the actual sickness. I took her back the doctor yesterday and he said it was the infamous virus that is going around (Damn you, germ ridden play area at the mall). He always says "give it a week to 10 days and if she gets worse bring her back. It started on Monday night, so I'm hoping she's going to be starting to get better soon. She actually is somewhat better, but still not herself by any means. I just love this picture.


Happy weekend, everyone! Only 5 more days until my scrapbook retreat! Woo Hoo!

Hooray and Hallelujah!

The sun is shining, people! I am one of those people who gets depressed if it's cloudy too long and I think that was what was wrong with me. I think there is a real disorder like that (maybe S.A.D--Seasonal Affected Disorder??? LOL) Well, I was definitely affected! I could never live in Seattle--even though the time I was there it was beautiful and sunny--but you know what "they" say . . . Anywho, the sun came out yesterday and melted all that stupid icy crap away so the kiddos were off to school! I spent the morning scrapbook shopping (mostly scrapbook looking, but some shopping) as my SUPER AMAZING WONDERFUL scrapbook weekend is next weekend! Woo Hooooooooo! I know, I know, it makes me sound like I'm a creepy old woman who lives in a one bedroom apartment with 17 cats, but I love my scrapbook retreat.

Tonight I am taking Matthew to Pizza Buddy night at his friend, Preston's, TaeKwonDo class. He's super excited to go AND because we get to ride in Preston's car. That is almost more exciting to him than going to the class! I'll be taking the camera, so stay tuned for some of Matthew's moves!

Love you!

Back in the Bloggle . . .uh . . .Saddle?

Holy Guacamole! The best surprise ever for my sweet husband: He turned 40 a few days after Christmas and I somehow managed to blow his socks off (with a little help, of course). So, last Sunday, the 28th, I told him to pack a change of clothes and we were going to go spend the night out. He thought we were going to the Gaylord, but NOPE! We went to the airport, and headed for Vegas! What a great way to spend your 40th birthday! Even the people in the airport helped keep the surprise--right up until we boarded the plane. He was shocked! Here's his picture trying to figure out why we're turning into the airport: And of course, we spent lots of time on the strip! We even managed to come back with a little extra money.

Our picture at the hotel.

Another big highlight of the trip was getting to spend a little time with my Grandma Mickey. She's 92 and such an amazing, amazing person. She has had quite a life, and always makes the choice to be happy--truly happy. She's a role model, for sure.

Mike's parents sent a bottle of champagne, which was so nice and completely enjoyed by us both! We had a trip to the hot tub (and--it was actually cold in Vegas), so the hot tub was so much fun!

Cheers to you, my love! What a happy, happy birthday--I hope the next 40 are as wonderful as the last 40!

We came home on New Year's and headed for our first play date of 2009. So much fun!

Then last night, we headed over to David and Jessica's for a little fun. Oh yes Wii did! And if it were not for the fact that we are trying to put off video games for Matthew and Molly as long as possible, I would be at the store buying Wii/Guitar Hero right this very minute! It was so much fun! And Matthew managed, somehow, to beat his mommy at Wii baseball. Hmmmm. I don't know how he did it. I was really trying, too!

Mike and Jessica, aka, David's girlfriend. I really, really like her! She and her step-mom are going with me on the famous scrapbooking retreat in just a few short weeks.

Mii, totally rocking out on guitar hero. Well, so I was at the "Easy" level, but still, I was rockin'!

Happy New Year! Any resolutions? Hmmmm. I'll have to get back to you on that. Love you!

Fur, Fun, Friends, & Family

My sweet dh has been home since last Friday and it's been wonderful! We've gotten to spend some much-needed family time together (and managed to argue less than 2 times--which is a success)! So, here's a little update on our past week or so. Last Thursday, Molly and Matthew were in their last morning of school before break when my car suddenly and inexplicably turned in to Petco. My body moved, as if propelled by an outside force, to the SPCA area and I found myself speaking the words "We would like to have that sweet kitty, please." Oh, there was a lot more to it than that, but that pretty much sums it up. So, on Thursday night, our little family added 4 little furry feet to our household. Matthew named her Ginger Bell--she's 6 months old and just as sweet and patient as I can imagine. The kids LOVE her, which was the whole point. Matthew has been asking for a cat for 2 years since the nightmare I like to call "The Psycho Kitten Fiasco" which is not an understatement, but would be an entirely different entry. Then, Matthew was a shepherd in his Christmas program. And it was just about the cutest thing ever. Have you ever seen a shepherd pick his nose on stage? Well, that's just what my little shepherd did, and I loved it! I know, I know. But I did! How funny!

Then Friday, we were off to Build A Bear with my friend, Tiff, and family. Oh, how fun! The kids all had a ball. Molly even picked out pink cowboy boots for her dog and is quite frustrated that they don't fit her, too! The other night, she wouldn't go to bed until we found the boots and they were properly outfitted on her dog. So funny--she has such a fashion conscience!

The weekend before, we had our family Christmas at my cousin's in Shamrock. Going to Shamrock is the high point in Matthew's life right now. He loves, loves, loves to go see his cousins. He would go every weekend if he could. It is also good that Uncle Joe has a big red tractor to sit on.

Matthew and Aiden having fun.
Molly being silly. (Side note: when Matthew was a baby, I always took his paci out of his mouth for pictures and now I don't have any paci pictures of him--which is sad because that was such a part of his little baby life. So now I always leave Molly's paci in her mouth--I know it's not the cutest, but at least I'll have pictures!)

Could they be having any more fun? I don't think so--pure love.

I have tons of Christmas day pictures, too, but it's past my bedtime, friends. I could have blogged about 100 Shamrock pictures. Jenn and Judy: I'll upload them to shutterfly and send you the link so you can see them all. Merry Merry Christmas!

OK--so MUCH to say!

Really, I could just sit at the computer and post to this blog for 2 hours. I have pictures with Santa to blog, pictures from our family Christmas las weekend, pictures from Matthew's Christmas program yesterday, pics of Molly in her very first bubble bath, and pictures of the newest members of our family (what?? what did I just say???). So--let me just say that I'll get there. Maybe, maybe I'll stay up late tonight and do it.
Also, my sweet friend and one of my very favorite people in the whole world, Tiffany, is coming for a visit today! We worked together when I was teaching (she's a speech therapist--the very best there is and I'm not kidding) and she moved to Henrietta, Texas several years ago. She has two beautiful boys and they are coming for some major Build A Bear Christmas fun this afternoon. There will definitely be pictures of that fun happening.
BUT--I just read my friend Ann's blog, and left her an entirely too long comment. It's basically this: I am having HUGE cravings, urges, wants, and needs to go to the fabric store. I have been for a few days. Y'all, it's bad. Mike's parents are giving Molly a bunkbed for her baby dolls for Christmas. It is all put together in our laundry room--it's pink and purple and just so cute. BUT--the bed bottoms are cardboard and I keep thinking how cute it would be to get some foam for mattresses, and make tiny sheets, blankets, and pillows. Molly loves her babies and she must have little covers to tuck them in at night. She loves to tell her babies "night night" and pat them. So, I won't mention the two quilt kits that are in the top of my closet not made and my precious Halloween throw that is almost finished from two Halloween's ago (I'll have it done by next Halloween--I'll blog it). I also have a couple of pairs of Matthew's pants to take up and one little sewing project for little missy. SO--can't you just tell that the doll bed is a major priority in my life? It must come first. After all, there's only 6 days until Christmas. And like 300 days until Halloween!

Things I Needed . . . And GOT!

I had a great weekend filled with things I needed. To start off on the right foot (literally, hee hee), I had a girl night Friday night with Hollie and Ann. We started off with Pedicures and proceeded on to dinner on the patio at Christina's complete with Margaritas (you have to say "margaritas" in a Spanish accent). See:

When I got home at 11:30 (late for me), I of course had to stay up and watch Michael Phelps. Woo Hoo! So I finally got to sleep around 12:30 am. Needless to say, when Matthew decided to wake up at 5:55 am (which he hasn't done since he was a baby), I was in some sort of sleep deprived shock. So, I'm lying there in my bed with Matthew squirming and I'm trying to convince him to sleep until 7:00. It suddenly dons on me that we should just get up and go to Walmart and get school supplies before the crazy tax free shoppers. So, Matthew and I go to Walmart. Not sure what time it was at this point, but it was still dark and he wore his jammies. See:

Yes, I know, he's under the cart. I usually don't let him do this, but I think in my sleepiness, I gave in. Then, on the way out, we stopped at the Dunkin Donuts in Walmart for breakfast. See:

I actually got the house semi-cleaned, played with the kiddos, and had a nice weekend. To top it off, Mike took Matthew fishing last night at it was definitely the hightlight of Matthew's weekend. They got a few nibbles, but didn't catch anything. It didn't seem to matter! Matthew was "hooked!" (Sorry, that was bad). See:

Friends & Family Friday: My Little Cousin

I say My Little Cousin because our Grandmother used to refer to her like that and it kind of stuck. It's my cousin, Jennifer and this post could get seriously long. It's a good thing I have to limit it to 10 items. Hmmmmmmm. Where to begin?? Memories??? So many. Too many. This is the person, other than my parents, who I have known longer than any other in my life. She's two years younger than me and we were inseperable since she was born. DISCLAIMER: We know MANY embarrassing things about each other, so out of respect ( and fear of what she might do/say) I will not mention any of those particular items.

1. I don't have a sister (or a brother). Jenn's the closest thing I've got to a sister. In so many ways, I think she was better than a sister growing up because when we got sick of each other, we could just go home. But seriously, I am so thankful to have her in my life. We grew up living about a mile apart and were together as much as possible. We went on trips together, swam together every day in the summers, went to the same schools, even "dated" one or two of the same boys (uh hem . . . who I'm sure we'd BOTH like to forget). As adults, we live about 5 hours apart, but we talk every couple of days, if not more. I can tell her anything. She was the matron on honor in my wedding, as I was in hers. I had Matthew, and a year later, she had her twin boys. She's still the closest thing I have to a sister, and I can't imagine my life without her.

2. I mentioned that we swam a lot in the summers. I mean we swam A LOT. We swam at the Town Club almost every day, and at Lake Meredith on our Grandpa's boat. We pretended, quite often, that we were synchronized swimmers in the Olympics and came up with quite amazing routines. I'm saying we were good, people. I'm sure it was quite entertaining for all watching us, and not for the reasons that we thought, but we laughed and had more fun that you can imagine. I will never forget the one-eyed squinty look she gets in the swimming pool. About 10 years ago, we went to Cancun for a long weekend. We acted like we were 8. We swam all day, jumped in the waves, laughed, and were in bed by 8 almost every night.

3. When we are together, we laugh. We can look at each other and laugh. Seriously laugh. Like, wet-your-pants-laugh. Laugh laugh laugh. I'm laughing just thinking about how we laugh. Not really, but I could. A couple of weeks ago, I was driving down the road, talking to her on the phone, when she reminded me of a certain midget incident (sorry . . .little person) that happened when we were Christmas shopping last year. I had to pull over. I was laughing so hard I was crying.

4. She is one of those people in my life who I can communicate with--have entire coversations--with a look. We don't even need to talk. We can just look and KNOW.

5. We have a few unspoken rituals. When we sleep together, the last person in bed turns out the light. This goes way back to childhood. We once both jumped in bed at the same time because neither one of us wanted to be the last one in bed (the one to turn out the light). We were both so stubborn that we slept the entire night with the light ON. Another ritual is that we know that on our annual Christmas shopping trip, we'll be eating at Belle Isle and Pei Wei, and that we'll pick Pei Wei up and eat it in bed at the hotel.

6. Jennifer is a great mom. She has so much patience and love for the boys. Her husband, Justin, is the same way. They are a great family. They love to do things together, really spend quality time together as a family. They live in a beautiful home that they just built on a lake, with a fire pit for fun nights and cook-outs. They made big changes in their life to do raise their children the way that was important to them. I really admire this about her.

7. She's a great teacher. She teaches 1st grade and I know she's a great teacher. No, I've never seen her classroom or watched her with her students. BUT--I grew up playing school with her. She's probably the only 34 year old teacher that already has 31 years of experience. She doesn't just float through the year, doing what has to be done for her job. She's a true teacher. She takes teaching children to read very seriously. She does her assessments because it helps her know what her students need, not because it's part of her job. The parents of the kids in her classroom are very lucky to have her. And so are her students.

8. Jennifer can shop. She is serious about her shopping. When she comes to Dallas (or before we had kids), we would plan our shopping. When we go to OKC for our annual Christmas shopping trip, we go early on Saturday morning, we shop ALL day--close down the mall--get up, and shop some more. Shop. Shop. Shop. If the mall is closed, we go to Target and shop some more. Needless to say, it's a very productive shopping trip.

9. So many of my memories of Jenn include our family. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins--all of us. We're by no means a perfect family (those of you in my family reading this are probably laughin out loud at that statement), but we have always made the effort to be together and it's always fun. Christmas times, get-togethers, Beast feasts, going to the lake, playing games, or just sitting around talking. We've had some great times--and some not so great, but that we can laugh about in some way.

10. As I'm typing this, memories are flooding back. Memories of singing about our missing company during a rain storm, of finding sugar under Grandpa's bed, of hiding and listening to our Grandmother talk to herself and thinking it was hilarious, of hiding when our parents said it was time to go, of Grandma seperating us so we would finally go to sleep, of playing school, of hiding on the top bunk and scaring her, of the thousands of trips to the mall, family garage sales, of our after school micro-rave cake snacks (I'm kneading it!), of spitting corn all over her dad as I exploded in laughter at their dinner table, "laugh lower girls," of the tons of weekends spent at the hide-out, borrowing each other's clothes (I haven't tried those on this year), crying over a broken heart or two, wedding plans, a small amount of underage drinking, trips to Red River, skiing, San Francisco. . . and now how our relationship has grown. Our trips are weekends away to go Christmas shopping for our kids, or summer trips with the kids so that they can grow up knowing and loving each other as we do. Our conversations are revolve around house-decorating, new appliances, concerns about our children, plans for our next get-together, and laughing.

Love you, Jenn.