Texas Aggies in Florida

It's been so long...

2009-09-01T21:07:00.002-04:00

I forgot my blogger password!

Is anyone still reading out there? Well, in case you are, here's an update that should cover the last 2 months. Let's see, the girls and I went to Texas for 2 weeks this summer. It was a whirlwind trip, hitting all the major cities and seeing lots of friends and family! It was VERY hard to come back to FL, I must say! When I'm here (in FL), I'm fine. It's when I'm there (in TX) that I become discontent. Why is that?

Lexi started first grade last week! I can't believe it! She seems to have another wonderful teacher, no surprises there! She's young, but very sweet and she is also a pastor's daughter, like Lexi! Ashton started her final year of preK and is loving it. She actually entered the classroom all on her own the other day WITHOUT them having to remove her surgically from my leg, which is quite a big step! I just finished filling out the book of an application to get her in speech services through the public school system. She needs some help before she starts kindergarten next year!

Other than a fast, busy summer full of traveling and trips to the ER and swimming, not much is new! I must confess there are 2 reasons I rarely blog these days...#1)Facebook! It's so much easier to post my thoughts in a sentence or two rather than typing a book on blogger! #2)My PHONE has replaced my computer! After getting one of those high techy phones that does EVERYTHING, I rarely turn on my computer these days. But to type a whole blog entry on a phone would give me carpal tunnel thumbs! But it's true, I'm having to dust off the computer these days to use it. And it's so much slower than my neat little phone! Plus I've sorta quit reading blogs, not because I don't care about people, but because I can keep up with everyone all in one spot on facebook!

So now you know....

I'll try not to go 2 months without another post! But in the meantime, you can keep up with every detail of life on facebook!

I'm taking up permanent residence at the E.R.

2009-07-14T16:22:00.003-04:00

I knew it would happen eventually. Kids and E.R.'s just go hand in hand. When you have a child, you're always aware of the closest E.R. I don't do well with poop. Or vomit. Or blood for that matter. Come to think of it, I now realize why God gave me girls. And ONLY two of them. In fact, sometimes I see it as a miracle of all miracles that He gave me children at all, seeing as how I don't do well with poop. Or vomit. Or blood. But today at swimming lessons, Lexi was getting out of the water and while climbing up the steps and holding onto the metal rails, she lost her footing and fell and hit her chin on the concrete. The result was yet ANOTHER trip to the E.R....our 2nd in a week! The first trip was when Nanny fell. I said to someone, I'm probably going to be investigated soon. My grandmother comes in with broken ribs and my child with a big open gash on her chin! Lexi's chin was cut so deep, the bone was exposed. I was pretty weak in the knees just looking at it. She ended up with FIVE stitches! She handled it like a pro! Not a single tear! Me, on the other hand, I had spaghetti legs the whole time and the nurse kept coming in checking on ME, not her! Thank God daddy arrived in the knick of time! He's good at that kind of stuff. So no more swimming for a while! $100 bucks and 5 stitches later, we headed out to Dairy Queen for some lunch and ice cream! What a week!

What to do when your kids don't want to go to church and your husband is the children's pastor...hmmm...

2009-07-13T15:35:00.002-04:00

I'm going to be a bit transparent here and don't act like you can't identify with what I'm talkin about! I think every mom, at some point, feels some pressure of living up to other mothers' standards or expectations. Because women can be brutal. Really. We can! Not me. But you know. ;-) But can I just be honest for a minute and tell you there's not any pressure in child rearing quite like having a husband who is a CHILDREN'S pastor of all things? Aren't my children supposed to be perfect? And quote scripture as freely as a 12 yr old girl sings Hannah Montana songs??? Aren't my kids supposed to be "issue free" if you know what I'm sayin? Don't our family nights consist of memorizing scriptures and singing Kum-Bi-Yah around the fire? Aren't I supposed to have all the answers when it comes to child rearing, because I must, after all, have the entire Bible memorized. Isn't that a prerequisite to marry a pastor? (I'm sorry, that one makes me laugh!) Let me amuse you by blowing all stereotypes OUT of the water right this second.

But what does the Children's Pastor do when his own kids don't want to attend church??? My children have never really enjoyed church since we moved here to FL. And I know it's in large part just due to their ages. And personalities. But I, like every other mom, have wracked my brain trying to figure out WHY they don't like to go. And I don't think there's any one particular reason, other than that stinky ol devil tries REALLY hard to mess with pastors' families in a multitude of ways! This being one of them.

But this past Sunday during the weekly, ritualistic, ugly, outright WAR of getting the girls ready for church, (I'm telling you, they REALLY don't want to go!) I approached things from a different perspective. Rather than saying my usual, "You know you don't have a choice, it's where daddy works for Heaven's sake!" I changed my tune. And some of you are going to be thinking, "Duh...Heather...this would be the common sense thing to do" Well, I'm a little slow! I explained to the girls that church really isn't about having fun or seeing friends or eating a yummy snack or playing outside on the playground. It's about worshipping God. God tells us in His word to reserve this day as our Holy day. And church is not about US, it's about HIM. We don't go to get something for US or to make US happy, we do this to honor God and to show Him of our love for Him. It's a sacrifice. And we don't always FEEL like going, but we have to do things in life we don't FEEL like doing.

I wish I could say they were all smiles and frolicked like gazelles happily into the bathtub singing How Great Thou Art. It wasn't THAT magical of a transformation. But I could see that FINALLY I had given them a reason they understood for WHY we go to church every week. Not to say I won't have to have the same exact conversation with them next Sunday morning. But eventually one day, maybe all this head knowledge I keep pumping into them will really be a heart decision.

The Texas Aggie is BACK

2009-07-12T20:53:00.004-04:00

Okay, really, I promise, no more bloggity breaks. I'm jumping back into this blogging thing, starting NOW! I don't really care if I only have one faithful follower these days. It's therapuetic!

So now that I'm back, what can we talk about? Well, my grandmother, who is 87 and has diabetes, COPD, and osteoperosis came to visit this past week and to help babysit so I could work. Her first night here, she fell and fractured 7 ribs and spent the next 4 days in the hospital. She's home now, in a lot of pain still, but home and doing remarkably well. So instead of babysitting, the girls have been doctoring her. I think she's still sort of enjoying her visit with us, despite the accident.

And in just 4 short days, I'll be headed to the Lone Star State! Me and the girls and Nanny. Cary is staying home with the animals and to work, and he's going to Peru for a week while we're gone. The girls have always been VERY excited about going to Texas until this trip. Lexi has been crying about it for 2 weeks ever since we told her. She's sad about leaving Daddy. :-( I guess she considers Florida her home now. Understandably. But I certainly won't let her forget her Texas roots! Aggie football starts in just a few short weeks!!!! That will definitely re-acclimate her to Texas culture! Dontcha think??? I'm hoping to make it back to a few games this year. Especially the Texas game and the Arkansas game which will be held in the new Cowboys stadium. Super excited about that one!

Well, time for family movie night...Kung Fu Panda! HI YAH!

Busy Summer Days

2009-06-23T23:55:00.002-04:00

That had to be the longest bloggin break I've ever taken! Not on purpose, we're just so busy I rarely have time to gather my thoughts in paragraph form. I do, however, gather my thoughts in sentence form and update my facebook status daily!

We have been so busy though. The fist week of summer was spent going to waterparks mostly and swimming a lot. The second week of summer was spent in dance camp. The girls had a BLAST! It was at the church and taught by a youth in our church who has been taking dance all her life and is very talented and loves kids. They were so adorable! Lexi enjoyed wearing her hair in a bun every day and on the last day they got to dress up in recital costumes and perform for us all the things they learned throughout the week. It was just precious. Ashton did SO good! Well, they both did, but Ashton just surprised me b/c I thought she would be too shy to do it, but she was a little stage ham!

Lexi is continuing in gymnastics this summer. And this week has been Adventure Week at our church. Adventure Week is like vacation Bible school on steroids! I am serving my 2nd year as the coordinator of Adventure Week. Why, I do not know. It's very stressful. I think this will be my last year to do this job. We had over 280 kids the first night and about 260 tonight, even in inclement weather. And over 120 volunteers. It's fun, but very stressful.

In a few weeks, Cary will be going on a mission trip to Peru. And I'm hoping to go to Texas for 2 weeks. That plan is not final, but I'm hoping! And before we know it, school will be back in full swing. So far, we haven't had any relaxation time to enjoy summer yet. But hopefully after Adventure Week is over with, that will all change. I need some beach and disney days!

I Know This for Sure...

2009-06-01T00:32:00.003-04:00

We've had a ROCKIN school year! Last year, I remember blogging about my hefty decision of whether or not to put Lexi in public school or keep her at the private school where she and Ashton had been attending pre-k, mainly for convenience and because I thought she wasn't ready to leave the nest. Boy was I wrong! I was the one not ready, she did JUST FINE! And I'm so glad my fears of releasing her didn't stand in the way of her getting some of the best life experiences ever! The Pre-k did start that kindergarten program, and guess what? I think it was in February or March...they dissolved the program and all those kids had to go to other schools. I'm so thankful, knowing what I know now, that I didn't put her in that school because she would have been so behind entering kindergarten in the public school mid year like that. They were rockin and rollin and doing things most kids don't learn till 1st grade by mid year. So she probably would have had a very difficult adjustment. She is leaving this school year doing so many new things. She has made the best little friends, all from wonderful families. I just could not be happier with our free public education! I don't think it's any secret that I'm a huge advocate of public schools. I attended them. I taught at them. And one day, I hope to go back to them as a teacher or administrator. I think they're wonderful! I get very offended when people talk down about public schools and I can't stand to hear a person say, "I would never send my kids to public schools." It's highly offensive to me because I'm so passionate about them. I know God will use my passion for public schools for His glory. I know not every family wants their children to attend a public school, but it has definitely been the best place for Lexi. It has been what was right for our family.

But I wanted to chronicle some of the amazing things Lexi has learned this year because I'm so proud of her:

She can READ! Today, she read 5 books to me. And I'm not talking those little 5 pager books, I'm talking REAL children's books with lots of pages. And needed help on very few words.

She can count to...well...the other day I stopped her at 500! Because it was kinda annoying! In the car! Really annoying actually! But WOW, 500??? This time last year she was only counting to 20!

She can add and subtract single digits...sometimes using her fingers, but mostly in her head.

She can identify pennies, quarters, nickels, and dimes.

She can sorta read a clock, but mainly just on the hour and half past the hour.

She can write a 3-5 sentence story with proper capitalization, punctuation, and phonetic spelling. The spelling is at least close enough that I can make out what she meant. And I have saved stories from the beginning of the year till the end of the year and what an amazing amount of progress she has made in this skill!

She can read cursive! She can't write it, but she can read it. I don't know how. I don't think they learned that in school!

She knows all sorts of interesting facts about dinosaurs, butterflies and other insects, outer space, weather, George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, and all sorts of other people, animals, and holidays!

She has learned some of those intangible skills like working quickly and staying focused to complete an assignment in a timely manner (this is HUGE!) At the beginning of the year, she wasn't completing her work and was just too slow and was bringing home so many unfinished assignments but slowly her teacher worked her magic on her and now Lexi can stay focused and complete things quickly and accurately. One of those skills that helps you be very successful in school!

She has learned how to study and memorize things and has shown such self discipline and determination in accomplishing personal goals. She was so determined to complete her 300 words to win a pizza party and wouldn't get up from the table each night until she learned those words. She got all 300 too!!! (And they weren't site words! They were HARD!)

She learned all her site words and made a 100 on EVERY SINGLE SPELLING TEST all year long!

She learned how to make friends and how to survive....THE PLAYGROUND...this is a very big deal. There are bullies out there. Lots of them. And those kid bullies grow up to be adult bullies! It's so great to learn this survival skill as a child!

She learned how to tie her shoes!

She learned how to ride her bike with no training wheels. Well, she didn't learn that at school.

She learned how to be much more assertive with other adults and ask for help when needed or ask questions. She was so shy before kindergarten. Now she will actually talk to waiters and waitresses at restaurants. I know this may not seem like a big deal to you, but for Lexi it's a big deal!

She learned how to take care of herself! She goes through the lunch line and buys her lunch, she cleans up after herself at lunch. She packs her own backpack to come home and remembers to tell me what I need to sign or look at in her backpack each night. She remembers to wear her belt every day and how to get dressed quickly in the morning to be ON TIME! She is learning to be responsible.

I'm sure there's more. I'm blown away at all she has learned! She blew that kindergarten testing out of the water. I am SOOOO proud of my girl! I'm thankful for a wonderful teacher, a wonderful school, wonderful friends, and all the wonderful new experiences she has gained. I can't wait to see what 1st Grade holds!!!

Missy the Navigator

2009-05-29T00:17:00.003-04:00

Cary and I both have these high tech phones that we thoroughly enjoy and don't know how we ever lived without them. Our phones have voice activated searches along with voice activated navigation systems. So for example, I can search for the closest Starbucks by hitting a button and saying "Starbucks" into my phone. It calculates my GPS and then gives me a map and driving directions that I can either read or "SHE" will read them to me as I drive along, just like any regular navigation system. It's a nifty feature, except for one thing..."SHE" has a bit of an attitude, especially when we don't exactly follow her route. And "SHE" can get a little testy. It's quite entertaining. Sometimes I take a wrong turn just to make "HER" mad. Heeeheeeeheeee. Today, Ashton asked, "What's HER name?" And I was like, "Who are you talking about?" And she said, "Her, the lady talking on your phone." And it occured to me that we haven't given "HER" a name. But tonight as we were listening to "her" get agitated with us yet again, Cary said, "Oh hush up Missy!" And that's when it occured to me that her name should be Missy. Missy is kind of a sassy name and she is a sassy kinda voice! So here is a conversation that took place tonight between Me, Cary, and "Missy":

Picture us driving in a part of town we've never been in before...

Me: Honey, I think you should turn right at that light, I just really think that's the direction you need to head in.

Cary: Well, let's see what Missy has to say....pause....Missy says we should go left, not right.

Me: (At this point, he's getting the raised eye brow, slow head turn from me b/c how dare he not trust my sense of direction!) Well, are you going to listen to the woman who has never walked on this planet, or ME who just drove us here and feels like we should go back in sorta the direction we came in?

Cary: Missy gets her cues from satellites.

Me: FINE! Listen to Missy. But she's WRONG! I think you should turn around now.

A few minutes later....

Cary: Missy froze up. pause. Missy says we are off track and should take a U-Turn at this light and go back the other direction.

Me: That's what I tried to tell you 10 minutes ago! Now turn that thing off and listen to your wife!

Cary: But you don't have a satellite.

Me: No, but I have a BRAIN!!!!!

Lexi & Ashton isms

2009-05-15T19:57:00.002-04:00

Tonight after dinner, we sat outside and enjoyed the nice weather while the girls played and ate ice cream. I said to Ashton (who suits up for soccer each Saturday but refuses to enter the field unless attached like glue to Daddy's leg) "So, Ashy, are you going to actually PLAY at your soccer game tomorrow?" And she replied, "Nope." And I said, "Why not?" And she said, "It's scary." I asked, "What's so scary about it?" And she said...no lie..."My team." Cary and I had a good laugh. They are all boys, so I guess that's why they're so scary!

At Lexi's school, apparently they've been talking a lot about safety. Today Lexi said, "You should always THINK before you leave." I was a little puzzled. Later on at the park, Daddy was pretending to "dig a hole to China" and Lexi said, "Daddy, you should really THINK before you do that."

Kids are SO funny!

Oh and just for a quick brag, Lexi got her DIBELS test results back. She BLEW that test right out of the water. On her letter naming, she was expected to name 40 letters correctly in one minute, she got 70! On the Phoneme Segmentation (they say cat and the child has to say all the sounds they hear in the word) and get as many as they can in one minute. She was supposed to get at least 35, she got 57! And on the nonsense words where they have to correctly sound out unfamiliar nonsense words like baf, ral, jup (made up words) she was supposed to get at least 25 and she got 65 in one minute. I'm soooo proud of her! But we worked really hard to get this far! Trust me...LOTS of homework! She also said her third 100 words today. They had 300 words to say for a contest, some were site words, but really most were not site words. There were some tough words like yesterday, because, round, might, once..those are hard! She has said all 300 now so she gets her pizza party. I'm so proud of her! 1st grade here we come!!!!

Field Day & Her Royal Highness

2009-05-14T09:36:00.004-04:00

Lexi and Daddy are both at Field Day today. I hope to have plenty of exciting pictures to post later today! She got to wear her swimsuit under her uniform and her aqua socks so she was feeling like big stuff today. And Ashton was highly jealous! Which means I'll be taking Ash to the waterpark this afternoon so that she feels like she had as exciting of a day as sister. But for now, I'm just home cleaning house and meeting the demands of my 4 yr old queen! "Mommy, I don't like this show, I want new show. Mommy, I thirsty. No, not that kind of drink. I want BIG drink. Mommy, I cold. Mommy, I hungee. I don't like this snack. I want new snack. Mommy, you don't cut it right. I cut it myself. Mommy, I go waterpark NOW!" AAAAAGH!!!! Lord, help me when her vocabulary catches up to her will! I don't have the slightest clue where she gets royal nature from! No clue! Couldn't be from me, I mean, I would never...!

4 Generation Mother Daughter Tea Party

2009-05-09T18:21:00.003-04:00

My sweet husband gave me a wonderful Mother's Day gift, a beautiful tea party to enjoy with my mother, grandmother, and 2 beautiful girls! It was so magical! He had the music playing, the decorations were all so beautiful, the food was delicious, he even bought hats for us all to wear. He did all of this himself. I didn't do a thing! I didn't even tell him where to find table cloths or tea pots. He rummaged through the house and found everything and did all the shopping and everything. What a man! And he's not even gay! I told him if this whole pastor thing doesn't work out, he can go into the catering business.

The Menu: Cucumber sandwhiches made with fresh cucumbers from our garden, chicken salad sandwhiches, cookies, mixed nuts, cheese and crackers, chocolate candies, and three different assortments of tea, all of which were his own creation. He used regular tea bags and flavored them with things we had like apple/banana juice and juice from the cherry jar and such. They were all so yummy! This was my grandmother's first tea party, and she's 87 yrs old. It was such a special treat for us all. Thank you Cary for such a wonderful Mother's Day treat! Now I have to get busy planning something equally fabulous for Father's Day!

The girls wore their princess clothes.

FOUR generations of fabulousness!

The flowers in the pink tissue paper were made by Ashton at school yesterday. They were made from her hand prints.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

2009-05-05T23:13:00.002-04:00

Wow! Two blog posts in one day...what is happening to me? Lots of people have asked what I decided to do about my Teacher Appreciation gifts so I will share:

For Lexi's teacher, who is an older lady and loves coffee, I got her a Starbucks gift card, along with a bag of Starbucks coffee, and a personalized coffee tumbler. I made the insert for the tumbler on photoshop and it had her name on it with a sweet teacher poem and it was on a cute blue printed background with blingy embellishments, turned out very cute. The poem read, "You've probably tied a million shoes, dried a million tears, given a million hugs throughout your teaching years. In my child's life the role you've played has been a priceless part. And you must know the special place you hold in my child's heart." And then under the poem it had "To the BEST teacher in the world, Mrs. F...Love Lexi." It was really really cute. I tied it all up in cellophane wrapping and put some cute ribbons at the top. I'm also taking her lunch from this very yummy cafe here in town that just as very unique, gourmet-ish food. She'll love that!

For Ashton's teacher, who is a country girl and has young children and she is the SWEETEST thing on Earth, oh we just LOVE her...I got her a tub of unpopped popcorn from Blockbuster and put inside the tub sodas and a variety of movie popcorn and a Blockbuster gift card. I tied it all up in cellophane wrapping and put cute ribbons on top. And I'm taking breakfast to her school in the morning for all the teachers. It's a small staff, only 7 of them, so that was easily doable. I bought some yummy pretty muffins at Target today, cut up fruit and put it on a platter with cheese cubes, orange juice, and bottles of water and voila! Less than $20 bucks but the thought goes a long way with teachers!

I had bigger and better ideas involving painting pottery and personalizing it, but the funds just weren't there this month with Mother's Day gifts and still recovering from 4 family member birthdays last month! But I think they will appreciate the thought, no matter what it is and I do secretly think they will both LOVE their gifts! Don't forget to thank your teachers. They work so hard for little pay and little to no appreciation! We love our teachers and I think it's important for our kids to see us show that appreciation because it instills in them that we honor and respect those in authority and that we as parents are partnered with their teachers in a supportive role. Don't ever let your children hear you say something negative about their teacher, it totally undermines them in their role. And that's my soapbox for today!!!

I'm smiling...really :-)

2009-05-05T10:00:00.004-04:00

I'm a miserable excuse for a blogger lately, aren't I? I guess facebook has kind of taken the place of my online verbal diarrhea. So if you're not on facebook, you should get on it! So we can be "friends". And then you'll know way more about me and my family than you ever wanted to know!

What's been going on here? Not much honestly. A whole lotta single mommin' it! We rarely see Daddy these days. Even when he's home, he stays outside watering the grass and pulling weeds for hours upon end. We haven't had rain in weeks, but you'd never know it because there are actually mushrooms growing in my yard. :-) I'm smiling. Really. Maybe I should find an outside addiction. It would probably get me out of cleaning house, doing laundry, and wiping bottoms too! Come to think of it, my husband is a genius. See, still smiling... :-) (I bet he won't be smiling when the water bill comes!)

Lexi has an obsession with flipping, twisting, rolling, and sliding on anything and everything she can, including the kitchen counter tops. I'm still smiling! :-) I'm thinking one day a week of gymnastics is really not enough. When we go to the park, she finds bars that are NOT meant to be flipped over (like the uneven bars at gymnastics) and she flips over them anyways. She says she does it at school too, probably giving her teacher a near heart attack every day. Yesterday, I caught her standing on her head on one of my dining room chairs, legs STRAIGHT UP in the air. Still smiling. :-) And later using my kitchen island as a vault! Smiling smiling smiling.

Ashton is just doing what she's best at...being Ashton. If she were any higher maintenance...I'd have to charge her a daily maintenance fee. She's a puzzle to us. So shy at soccer that she won't even step foot out of on the soccer field without being wrapped around one of our legs. But yet take her to her friend's house or a swimming pool or the jumping place or the water park...she knows NO fear and meets NO strangers and is just as big as sister! I don't get it. At school and church, she has to be surgically removed from our legs, but yet in other settings as soon as we hit the door, man she's GONE, out there making friends, talking to everyone, and doing her thing. I'm not sure I'll ever understand. But I'm smiling! :-)

All this smiling is making my face hurt. Must go finish chores (and keep smiling.)

So I went swimsuit shopping today...

2009-04-23T17:32:00.003-04:00

Does any woman in her right mind REALLY enjoy swimsuit shopping? Really? I don't care if you're skinny or fat or tall or short or round or flat or young or old, this is an annual dreaded chore among women. And the only thing worse than swimsuit shopping alone (where at least you can drown in self pity in private) is swimsuit shopping with your children, who are not afraid to point out that your tummy is big or your thighs are massive or your butt has sinkholes, I mean dimples...Oh I LOVE swimsuit shopping! And I can't buy just one. No, my children are part fish, which means we swim EVERY day during the summer therefore I have to buy one for each day of the week. Well, not really, I try to keep three on hand. My girls have one for each day of the week though. Did I mention they are part fish? Actually Ashton thinks she's a mermaid. A mermaid princess I mean. And so two hours and 20 swimsuits later, I had narrowed down my choice to the lesser of the evils and made my way to the register, coupon in hand, cause there's just really no excuse to shop without a coupon these days with all the coupon websites galore and the hundreds of coupons littering my inbox daily. And the sales associate said, "Ma'am, um, this is an online coupon only." And I said, "Well, surely you have a coupon you could let me use right?" Thinking this is one of the stores that is the WORST about littering my inbox with coupons, surely she had one on hand somewhere behind that register! And she flipped through her coupon code book and said, "I'm sorry, I can't seem to match up this coupon to any of my codes." To which I replied, "You work on commission right? BIG mistake!" I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman at this point, you know, when she goes shopping on Rodeo Drive and the ladies wouldn't help her the first day in her prostitute clothes and then she came back the next day all dressed to the T and they wanted her business...except I wasn't wearing prostitute clothes. Nor was I dressed to the T. I said, "I guess I'll take my business online and buy these exact same suits on your website so I can use my coupon!" And I did just that. I came home and I think I got the better end of this deal. I found the suit I REALLY wanted that they didn't have in the store in my size, plus the two others. I got free shipping PLUS my $20 off. And in, oh about 3 months or so, when swimming season is over, my swimsuits should be arriving!

My Little Gymnast

2009-04-13T22:41:00.003-04:00

Lexi loves the rings on the play set. We bought them a few weeks ago because every time we would go to the park, that's all she wanted to play with. Sorry this video is sideways, but you'll still get the idea. Just turn your head! She does take gymanstics, but they don't do the rings there. I'm amazed by her strength at age 6! Amazed and a bit jealous!

Staycation

2009-04-13T18:54:00.002-04:00

So we had a "staycation" at home last week. Ever heard of that term? A stay at home vacation? You can totally do that in Orlando! We went to Disney's Animal Kingdom one day and Hollywood Studios one day. We went to Blizzard Beach Water one day and to St. Pete Beach one day. My mom gave us Disney passes for our birthdays (thank you Granny) so it was fun to put them to use! The parks were SOOOOO crowded! You would never guess we're in a recession or that Disney had to lay off 1500 employees a few weeks ago! But despite the Spring Break crowds, we had a great time! Cary and I really enjoyed "sleeping in", you know, till 7:30/8:00! It's a sad day when 7:30 is "sleeping in". That's when you know you're getting old! On Friday morning, the girls busted in our room at 8 AM wearing their swimsuits begging to go to the beach. Who could say no to that? The weather last week was INCREDIBLE! Cool nights, perfect days! Not too hot, not too cold. Lots of Florida sunshine! I didn't even break a sweat at Disney! And of course today was back to reality. Daddy went back to school and had a test today. The girls both went back to school today. I went back to work today. My house is back to being a wreck today! It stayed so clean last week!!!! Anyways, fun times!

Must go unglue Lexi from the rings on the play equipment to do homework! That little monkey does flips over and over. It's like an addiction. (An addiction I'm highly jealous of...I could never do that!)

It's Spring Break!!!

2009-04-06T21:22:00.002-04:00

We are FINALLY on Spring Break! I've been highly envious of all my facebook friends who have been flaunting their Spring Break statuses the last month or so. And finally, my week has arrived! It hasn't been much of a break yet, although the girls did sleep till 9 this morning. Of course one of them had been in my bed since 4 a.m. so not like I slept till 9! So far, I've spent the weekend working so that I could enjoy the week. Which meant my house went to pots, because if I don't clean, no one cleans. So I spent the day cleaning and getting caught up on laundry and about 4 hours of my day finishing up all the work related stuff I didn't finish this weekend. Today we took Ashton to the doctor. She was diagnosed with asthma about 3 months ago and so far the inhalers and nebulizer meds haven't phased her. She's also on Singulair, like sister. And that doesn't seem to phase her either. So the doctor said, let's tackle the congestion and then the inhaler will be effective. Made sense. So she attempted to change her to Allegra and Nasonex today, but the insurance company wouldn't approve it b/c we just got her Singulair refilled on Friday! Grrrrrr.....So unless we want to pay out of pocket (we don't), we'll have to wait about 25 more days to change her over to the new stuff and see if it works. Her lungs sounded clear the dr. said. So that was good. She hasn't had any fever. She just can't stop coughing, poor girl! I'm hoping to spend the rest of the week not working and cleaning and going to the doctor. Is that too much to ask? We're going to go to Disney's Animal Kingdom one day, St Pete beach one day, and I don't know what else we'll do this week. RELAX I hope! I always thought Spring Break was for the students and teachers, but I'm telling you it's just as much for the parents! It's a whippin to get them up and bathed and dressed and backpacks packed, lunches packed, homework in the folder, hair done and all out the door by 8:15. Not to mention the homework when Lexi gets home! So I was all over this little break! I can't wait for summer!

So the Proverbs 31 lady could sew...

2009-03-31T09:01:00.003-04:00

But she didn't know squat about operating a computer! I've been sewing lately. Correction. I've been attempting to sew lately. First time. Curtains. Not just your average curtains. No. Fancy curtains. I like to start out with a bang! My mom saw the pattern and said, "You don't start out simple do you?" Well, the pattern said, "Simplicity". I thought that was a clue. But apparently not so. McCalls sounded...complicated. Simplicity sounded...simple. Who knew! So my curtains are so complex that each night I sew just ONE PART, I'm made 4 parts and by my calculations I should be done in 13 more days! Unless I like do something crazy and sew TWO parts in one day. I'm not really the domestic type. I'm not one who really likes to cook or try new things in the kitchen. My husband has decorated my home, not me. Until last week, I didn't know how to thread a needle. Now cleaning, I can do! But last night, it occured to me, all these domesticated women who like sew all of their children's clothing and make all their curtains, and their dog's bed, and their purses, and their toaster covers and their seat cushions and on and on I could go, I bet they don't know SQUAT about the computer! Last night, in between stitches, I was texting and facebooking and working on some graphics in photoshop for work. And it occured to me...I'm kinda like...the NEW Proverbs 31 woman. The Proverbs 31 woman of 2009. I can live with that!

My "Babies" Are 4 & 6!

2009-03-28T21:50:00.002-04:00

I know some moms say "time flies" and "it seems like yesterday I gave birth to you"...WHATEVER! It doesn't seem like yesterday. It seems like a lifetime ago! I can't believe Ashton is only 4! Don't get me wrong, I'm loving every minute of it, well, not EVERY minute, but 99.9% of them, but I feel like such a different person in a different world than the lady who gave birth to Ashton 4 yrs ago and the lady who gave birth to Lexi 6 yrs ago! That was, let's see, FOUR houses ago, yes FOUR, in a different state, working in a different career (full time I might add) with a husband in a different career, actually that was 3 jobs ago for Cary, and I felt about 20 yrs younger than I feel today! About the only thing that has stayed constant over the past 6 yrs has been my PETS...Candice and Mr. Baloo! They've stuck with us through it all! But this week we celebrated both girls' birthdays. Ashton was 37 minutes from crashing sister's party four years ago! So March 25th and 26th we celebrate! My mom's birthday is also on the 25th, which worked out fabulously as far as Disney is concerned b/c you get in free on your birthday and we recently got annual passes from Granny for our birthdays so we all went to Disney on the 25th (after school of course). And turns out, if you're a pass holder, you can get $75 Disney Bucks on your birthday rather than the free ticket, so we got our Disney Bucks and headed to the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique for Princess makeovers. It's located in the Magic Kingdom castle. Lexi wanted to be Jasmine and Ashton wanted to be the Little Mermaid. Then we had dinner with Pluto and Goofy.

Then on Thursday, the birthday festivities continued with Ashton's birthday. We had her party at the Lakefront with her classmates from school and then that night had Lexi's party, which she insisted that she just wanted her two best buds from school to spend the night with her as her "party". We ate ice cream and learned how to dance like Hannah Montana with a "how to" video (I'm not kidding), we painted pillow cases as party favors, we played dress up, we slept in a tent in the living room, it really was great fun and Lexi kept saying, "This is the best birthday party ever!" And all I could think of was, "You mean all these years of killing myself with these over the top, lavishly creative parties and all I really had to do was invite a couple of friends over and build them some ice cream sundaes and a tent??? Now that I'm getting this whole parenting thing down pat, it's a darn shame I don't intend to have another one! Which by the way, I know I was tossing that idea around, but let me just tell you, I realized the other day that I would be the 40 yr old mom dropping off my 4 yr old at preschool. Something about that thought drove me to reality and I realized...two's good!

Pet Blessings

2009-03-23T17:42:00.002-04:00

Today we were the recipients of yet another amazing blessing. Without going into too much detail, let's just say an AMAZING vet who wants to bless pastors treated our dog, Candice, to some much needed services which probably equaled a month's salary for me. We were blown away! We had every intention of paying, we weren't looking for free services. So it was indeed a surprising and wonderful blessing by an awesome man! (And if you're in need of a great Christian vet in the area, email me and I'll send you his info. If he won't take my money, I can at least send new patients his way and help build his business!) Candice is home from the "hospital" and is recovering beautifully! She's quite perky actually.

On another note, Lexi said the funniest thing today. This morning, we were going through our normal torture rituals. You know...bathing, brushing teeth, brushing hair...pure torture. And while Daddy was brushing the tangles out of her hair, she looked up at him and said, "Daddy, you're so lucky you don't have hair!" (He shaves his head bald.) We both just laughed and laughed. I asked her if she wanted me to shave her head like Daddy's. She declined that option.

2 more days till the birthday fun begins. Lexi will be 6 on Wednesday. Mom will be...I won't tell! Ashton will be 4 on Thursday. It's a busy busy week!

You're a Daddy AND a Son???

2009-03-19T08:18:00.002-04:00

Ashton is so funny! Cary was on the phone with his mom the other day and Ashton asked who he was talking to and he said, "I'm talking to my mommy...Mimi." And she thought and thought and you could tell she was processing this carefully. Then she said, "So you're a Daddy AND a son?"

Speaking of Ashton, she is OFFICIALLY paci-free! YEA! The paci fairy came to our house last Friday night. We left them all in a bag under the palm tree in our front yard. The paci fairy left her a new pink baby doll stroller, an Abby Cadabby (Sesame Street) DVD, and a lovie (pink furry and silky blanket). We still can't believe she fell for it, knowing how good and attached she was to her paci. But it really could have been on Super Nanny, it was THAT smooth! The next day, she was like a drug addict going through withdrawal. That day was tough. She was not herself at all. She really acted drunk. I kid you not. She would thrash herself around on the bed screaming for her paci. It was kind of freaky. But we didn't give in. Instead, we gave her a ring pop! Way to be strong huh? Hey, it worked! And this week, she has had more than her share of candy. I guess it's like when a smoker gives up their cigarette and they gain weight b/c they eat more? She's definitely eating more this week. Candy, that is! But she hasn't asked for her paci since that first day. I found one when I was cleaning up the playroom the other day. I snuck it into my pocket and headed straight for the trash can. That would have been tragic if she had seen it. I mean, I literally took trash out of the trash can so I could bury the thing way down at the bottom.

Ashton and Lexi both have birthdays next week, so we're gearing up for that. We have lots and lots of surprises up our sleeves! More to come on that next week!

Holy Cow

2009-03-12T16:18:00.002-04:00

We were blessed with a holy cow yesterday. Okay, so I should explain that statement. Cause I know you're going, "huh, wha, Heather did you bring home a COW too?" There's a veternarian in our church, actually there are 2 or 3, but this one man, who just continually blesses our church in so many ways, came to Cary about a week ago and said he was going to have a cow slaughtered and that he would like to bring some meat up for the pastors. So yesterday, he actually came up to the church with three huge coolers packed full of all different cuts of meat. There was so much meat, not only the pastors were blessed, but everyone in the church office was able to partake in the holy cow! I got sirloin steaks, round steaks, flank steaks, lots of ground beef, pot roasts, ribs, stew meat, I can't even remember what all I got. And I know what you're thinking...veternarian....slaughtered cow...mad cow disease???? Actually, this was a PRIZE WINNING STEER at the local rodeo and he bought it and had it slaughtered. So sadly, this was someone's pet, very well cared for pet, but I'm choosing not to think about that. Rather, this was a blessing, a HOLY COW that I'll be eating for FREE for the next month or so! We're very thankful for Dr. Porter (who also offered to clean our pets' teeth for free!) We're praying HEAPS of blessings return to him!

Princess Sparkles

2009-03-10T09:56:00.003-04:00

We found the cutest, most precious pooch at church on Sunday. She was roaming the courtyard from 7 AM until 11 AM when I saw her and sent Cary over to check her out and see if she had any tags on. She did not, but she was very friendly and it was obvious that she had been well cared for and definitely belonged to someone. So we brought her home and gave her a bath. Lexi named her Princess Sparkles. She was a shitzu. Very cute. White with light brown patches and black ears. She was a lap dog and great with my girls. We fell in love with her. But all the while, we told the girls we were just babyistting until we could find her mommy because, after all, isn't that what we would want someone to do if Candice ever ran away? They understood and were happy to partake in the babysitting job! Over the course of 36 hours, we all fell head over heals in love with this dog. She was just so dern sweet! We put some signs up around the church neighborhood and knocked on a few doors Sunday afternoon trying to find her owner, but no one claimed her. I even called Animal Control and left a description with them in case the owner called there. Last night around 7 PM, the phone rang. It was a man from our church asking if I had taken the dog on Sunday. I said, "Yes, she's here." He said, "I think her owner is here looking for her." I spoke the woman and sure enough Princess Sparkles was really "Chloe". She had been searching the neighborhood and a man told her, "Oh, yes, one of the pastors up at the church took her home. He knocked on my door yesterday asking if it was my dog." So the woman ran to the church and that's how she tracked us down. We took "Chloe" up to the church and said our goodbyes. The girls were sad. I was sad. Her mommy was weeping uncontrollably. She thought her baby was gone forever! We assured her that we took very good care of her and gave her lots of love. When we were driving away Lexi said, "Mommy, I'm kinda happy now. We did the right thing. It was nice that we took care of that dog for her mommy." I think the girls learned some valuable lessons from this experience. They learned that we take care of all God's creatures. They learned that it's best to do the right thing, even if it hurts a little. They learned that God blesses us when we do the right thing and it makes Him very happy. Maybe one day we'll have our own Princess Sparkles!

I'm Alive!

2009-03-04T21:33:00.002-05:00

I think the last 10 days has been the longest I've gone without blogging! It's not been due to a lack of words. Or a lack of time. Or a lack of bloggity topics that really are REAL LIFE in this house. I couldn't make this stuff up, trust me! I guess it's been mostly due to a lack of motivation. There's so much on my mind and on my heart these days, none of which I can share on a public forum! One of my favorite speakers at the conference said, "Everyone's entitled to their opinions. You're just not always entitled to SHARE your opinions!" So true! I have lots of opinions lately. But it's not the time or the place to share them. Ministry life is brutiful! What can I say?

On another note, my favorite subject...the girls, my beautiful, precious, sweet girls...THANK GOD for the girls. If it weren't for them, I'm not sure I would have wanted to get out of bed lately! Lexi continues to blow us away with all she's learning in school. Tonight, she read me a book! Like a REAL book. Not a 4 pager that her teacher sent home. A REAL book. I can't get over how far she's come in such a few short months. This whole public school thing...I HIGHLY recommend it! It has truly been the best thing for Lexi and we couldn't be having a better experience. Although I'd be lying if I said I weren't already praying for next year's most awesome teacher, who already has big shoes to fill! Mrs. F will be hard to top! And I'm secretly praying Mrs. F doesn't retire before Ashton gets to kindergarten!

The girls both have birthdays coming up. I had big party plans, as usual, and then Lexi informed me that she really just wants her 2 best buds from school (who are both precious girls from awesome families) to have a slumber party with her for her birthday. Two phone calls later, the slumber party was set! And I thought of the red, Staples button..."That was easy"! I think I'm just going to do a simple play day at the park with pizza and cupcakes for Ashton's birthday on her actual birthday which falls on a Thursday. Don't you love it as a parent when someone gives their child's party on a non-weekend day? I don't know about you, but our weekends are insanely busy. Ashton just wants her best bud from school, "Bibell" (Isabel), to come to her house for her birthday. So hopefully Isabel will make it to the park! She loves her "Bibell"! When these girls were tiny, I busted my chops to make sure they had the biggest and the grandest birthdays with off the charts creativity. Now that they're getting older and can actually voice their opinions, I'm learning less is more (for them anyways). I still like things over the top myself!

I can't believe it's already March! Where is this year going to already???

We're back...

2009-02-23T10:43:00.002-05:00

We spent Wednesday-Saturday in Dallas at the C3 conference (Creative Church Conference) at our former church, Fellowship Church. It was INCREDIBLE!!! I think I took 100 pages of notes! My mom came in town and stayed with our girls so they wouldn't miss school. Lexi's asthma got a little out of control while we were gone so last night I took her to the pediatric urgent care place for them to listen to her chest. I was worried it had turned into pneumonia and she was running a low grade fever as well. She couldn't lay down without coughing so hard that she would throw up. So I took her in and guess what? What do I know??? Nothing apparently! The doctor said her chest sounded clear and she wasn't wheezing (I have news for him...she's going to her regular dr today for that one) and low and behold, she had STREP THROAT and a DOUBLE EAR INFECTION! She has been playing like normal, hasn't complained of anything hurting. The doctor even asked her if her throat or ears hurt and she said, "No". He showed me her throat. I don't know how it couldn't hurt. Her tonsils were so huge and swollen and there was this awful looking red patchy rash back there. Isn't that scary? I know a girl from college who recently died from the strep bacteria. They thought she had the flu so they sent her home with an anti-viral drug. Turns out, she didn't have the flu, she had strep. And if it goes untreated for even just a few days, it gets into your bloodstream and organs and it can kill you. So today, I'm thanking GOD for that annoying cough last night which is what took us to the urgent care place which is where we found out she had strep! So once again, THANK YOU LORD for saving my rear and saving my child!

Not today, because I'm overwhelmed with things to do right now, but another day, I really want to share with all of you what one of the conference speaker spoke about last week. Her name was Christine Cain from Hillsong Church in Australia and her message was just INSANELY wonderful and what so many of us need to hear. I will share it later this week b/c it just really spoke to me in such a profound way. That's my teazer. You'll have to wait for the good stuff!

Good as Jesus

2009-02-17T20:45:00.002-05:00

Lexi and the girls are staying with Granny and Nanny while Cary and I head out to Dallas in the morning for the greatest church conference EVER...the C3 Conference at our old church, Fellowship. Cary was talking to Lexi tonight, telling her bedtime stories and asked her, "Are you going to be good for Granny and Nanny while we're gone?" And she replied, "I'm going to be as good as Jesus!"

A Disney Day

2009-02-13T23:45:00.003-05:00

We took the girls out of school early today and surprised them with a trip to DisneyWorld! It was a magical day! Incredible weather, not a cloud in the sky, high of 82, breezy, the girls were so well behaved, Daddy was well behaved, it just couldn't have been any better! Here are some pics from our day. Click on the link, no password needed.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=216992&id=834995365&l=1cc5e

Teacher Valentine's

2009-02-11T22:25:00.004-05:00

I made these adorable candy bar wrappers for my teacher gifts this year. They go on the huge, jumbo Hersey bars and what teacher doesn't love chocolate? Even if she doesn't love the candy, this little personalized special made wrapper is sure to make her smile and be a small token of our gratitude for all she does! You kind of need to be a digital scrapper or a photoshopper to do something like this. I had a little help from Shabby Miss Jenn's Designs. Or if you bribe me with compliments or...ummm...chocolate, I may just make one for you! It says, "To Ms ____, A sweet treat for a sweet teacher! Be mine...Love, Lexi". I made one for Ashton's teacher too. So cute and so sweet and costs less than $2 bucks!

Last year I made these adorable valentines for the girls to give out to their friends, but I thought that may just be a little too babyish for Lexi now that she's in kindergarten. The bar is high I tell you! So I got the fun dip valentines at Target today. What kid doesn't love fun dip?

Click on these to enlarge the images!

Sorry, the first one's not the best pic, but you get the idea. It's just been printed out, cut, wrapped around the candy bar and I used double sided tape to make it stick. I printed it on cardstock.

All Aboard the Vomit Train...

2009-02-10T17:16:00.003-05:00

Chuga Chuga Chu Chu!!! Would you like to come on board too? Come on, the more the merrier! Misery loves company! Okay, so I told you we had company all week last week and that they came with a terrible virus! I really think it's the flu! Oh I felt so awful for my friend Jenny! As if she didn't have enough on her plate right now re-locating from Mexico suddenly and unexpectedly, her husband and her three kids all had the flu and then, she, herself, went down in flames too after a week long struggle and determination to NOT succumb to this awful germ, at least not until she could get her family well. Our houseguests left yesterday and I thought surely our family had survived the fall! Not one of us had gotten sick, miracle of all miracles! I just knew the Lord had so graciously protected my family from this monster germ as a result of my...uh um..."kind and generous hospitality". Ha! That's what I get for thinking I had God all figured out! I wonder if he's saying, "Mwa ha ha, next year GET A FLU SHOT!" Okay, just kidding Lord, no lightening bolts, please!

Last night, the big man himself, Daddy-o, fell and he fell hard. They're dropping like flies around here I tell you! I wish I could tell you that my nurturing, compassionate maternal side kicked in and that I held the trash can while he puked in it! But I would be telling a big fat lie! No, quite the opposite occured. The selfish germaphobe Heather peeked her ugly monster head out, pulled the sheets over my head and slid UNDER the pillow and said, "Hey, can you at least go throw up in the already contaminated side of the house??? And while you're at it, sleep in there too just in case this thing is airborne!" Okay, well, I didn't say it quite like that. I did add a little sugary sweet "Please" to my request. You see, the girls were still sleeping on the floor in our room since I hadn't had time yet to strip their bed linens. So I mean, logically speaking, if this was airborne, we would ALL be going down in just a matter of time, right?

Today, Daddy has been very week and still tied to the bathroom all day. I have at least been able to clean and bleach and sanitize one half of the house, the half he's NOT in, so we can at least have one germ free side at all times I guess! The girls are, so far, flu free. My hands are so dry, they're peeling from all the germ ex I've used the past week. No lie! I've been cleaning like a mad woman all day because my tummy has been making some strange and peculiar sounds this afternoon and I'm a little worried that the Queen B herself is about to get run over by the vomit train! Chuga chuga chu chu! All aboard!

Genius Things Lexi Said Today

2009-02-09T20:41:00.002-05:00

Tonight at dinner, Lexi informed me that when I was her age, she was in Heaven waiting on me to get older so that God could put her in my tummy. And then she said, "But he forgot to give me some clothes when he sent me down to Earth cause I was born naked."

She saw some old photographs (in black and white) on the wall at Dairy Queen and asked, "Why did the people back then have grey skin?"

On the way home from dinner she asked, "Why do we have to have a moon?" And I stumbled, "Uh, duh, uhm...hmmm....I think that sounds like a daddy question!" Obviously she didn't get her geniusness from me!

Soccer Tryouts

2009-02-07T13:26:00.002-05:00

Today was the girls' first time to try out for soccer. Come to think of it, today was the girls' first time to TOUCH a soccer ball! Ever! Lexi is about half way through basketball season and we decided we would just try every sport and see where her talents are. She also takes gymanstics and has done ballet (but the girl had a little too much rhythem in her groove for ballet). We know she is very musically inclined and are on the hunt for a piano! As long as she's having fun at it, what's the harm? We never push her, but just to go out there and give great effort and have a great time! Today at soccer tryouts, Ashton kept begging to try out too. I thought she was too young, but turns out, they have teams for 3 and 4 yr olds. So I thought, what the heck! I turned and looked at the coach and asked, "Have you ever had a kid try out with a paci in their mouth?" And he said, "Nope." And I said, "Well, there's a first time for everything." Ashton TORE IT UP on the soccer field. OMG! She scored higher than Lexi. She's so little and fast. So I'm excited to see what April and May will hold for us on the soccer field with 2 little soccer players.

A Friend Returns!

2009-02-06T21:59:00.004-05:00

You may remember in August or June or July or some time a while back, I mentioned that Lexi's best friend, Caroline, was moving to Mexico as her family was going into the mission field with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Sadly for them, but greatly for us, they are back! Their visa situation did not work out with Mexico's immigration office and they could no longer stay in Mexico. So they returned on Sunday and have been staying with us since then. We were all so excited about their return, especially Lexi. Unfortunately, the kids have not had much play time this week because their entire family has been ill. They have three children and all three have been running fever, vomiting, and now have the congestion part so they haven't much felt like playing. But we're just so glad to have them back, we know there will be plenty of play time in the coming weeks and months! Fortunately, so far, knock on wood, the Lord has shielded my family from the illness. And I hope it continues b/c I just got them all well about 2 weeks ago after 2 months of being sick! So we've had a very full and busy week with our houseguests. They are house hunting and school hunting. Have I mentioned how excited we are to have them back? Oh and in case you missed it on facebook, Jenny, my houseguest, caught Cary and I having a lovefest in the kitchen last night. Just a weee bit embarrassing!

Tummy Ache

2009-02-03T10:52:00.002-05:00

Yesterday after school, I brought Ashton home and made us some hot roast beef with swiss sandwhiches with homemade guacamole and we sat at the kitchen table together to eat and watch the rain. When it's just the two of us eating lunch at home during the day, Ashton likes to scoot her chair up as close to me as possible and while she's struggling to move her chair she always remarks, "I like you Mommy." Everyday! So sweet! And I say, "I like you too." And we eat and eat and drink and drink and snuggle and snuggle. Heavenly! Yesterday while we were eating together and snuggling together over homemade guacamole, Ashton said, "I want a baby sister." And I said, "Well if Mommy had a baby, then I couldn't hold you all the time." And Ashton said, "No, I just want the baby sister to be in your tummy." And I said, "Well, eventually the baby would have to come out and play." And she said, "Cause why, you have tummy ache?" To say the least!

Potties and Fire Drills Don't Mix

2009-01-30T21:22:00.003-05:00

Poor Lex! How many times can this possibly happen to one child? Last year in preschool, the restroom was on the other side of the building from her classroom. One day towards the beginning of the school year, Lexi was in the restroom and the fire alarm went off. Can you imagine? She was FOUR! Oh how awful! She was so traumatized that she would not go potty at school for the rest of the year, even with an adult! She wouldn't even go with me when I would try to take her to that restroom! For the two months that followed, she went through a horrible separation anxiety phase and every time one of us would leave the house or leave her anywhere she would go into these uncontrollable kicking screaming hysterical fits. It was so awful! As time went by, it passed but she still wouldn't use the restroom at school. When she started kindergarten this past fall, I thought "Oh good, now she can potty at school again" thinking it was a new school, the restroom was in the classroom, no problem right?

Tuesday morning on the announcements, the Principal announced they would be having a fire drill that day. So an alarm must have gone off in Lexi's head...MUST NOT GO POTTY TODAY! Because she had an accident in her pants! The teacher sent her to the nurse for a change of clothes and guess what happened when she went into the bathroom to change clothes...you guessed it...FIRE DRILL! Bless her heart! How many times can this happen to one child? Have I already said that? The following day, I volunteered at the school all day so I went by to visit with her teacher during my break. I told her that Lexi had a history with fire drills and restrooms. She's the sweetest little lady. She comforted me and said, "It's okay, Mommy! She will be fine! I will make sure she goes potty!" The next day at the dinner table, Lexi announced that Mrs. F had been taking her to the Lu (that's what her teacher calls the potty, spelling???). She said, "She stands right outside of the door while I potty and she even lets me wash my hands in the classroom so I don't have to stay in the bathroom for very long." And today she told us that Mrs. F even flushes the toilet for her because she doesn't like the loud noise the flushing makes. I wanted to cry!

Mrs. F is so sweet and nurturing and caring and she truly takes care of these babies! She's a special teacher! For all the bad press public schools and teachers get these days, let me assure you, there are some WONDERFUL teachers out there that truly go to the ends of the earth to help their students succeed, even if it's just to succeed at getting over the fear of a fire drill on the potty! We love Mrs. F!!!! Thank you Lord for a special teacher that takes such good care of my baby!

Can you say TORTILLAS?

2009-01-29T17:07:00.003-05:00

And yet another fabulously wonderful meal has emerged from my kitchen today, two fabulous meals in one day. What's gotten into me? I'm not a fan of chicken & dumplins but they are my husband's favorite! So when my mom told me about this trick of using tortillas instead of dumplins, I was all over it! The dumplins are the part I don't like about chicken & dumplins. So now we have chicken & dumplins or should I say Heather's rendition of "Chicken Tortilla Soup". It's FABULOUS!

-boil some chicks with some cut up celery, I shaved some carrots in there, onion, and seasoned with salt and a pack of ranch dressing mix.
-Cut up your chicken and put the slices back in the same pot.
-I added a can of cream of chicken soup just to thicken a little and for flavor.
-cut up tortillas into fourths and put them in the pot to simmer for a few minutes.

That's it! Easy Schmeasy! I serve it with salad and sourdough bread and we dip our sourdough bread in balsamic vinegar/oil with herbs. YUM! Wanna come over? Sorry, it's all gone....heeheee!

Yummmmmm....

2009-01-29T12:10:00.003-05:00

I had the BEST dinner last night. It was SO good that I had to have it for "lunch" today too. Well, I guess you would call it "lunch"...at 10:30 a.m.! I couldn't even wait till noon to enjoy this one! And don't laugh when I tell you what it was. It's something you can order off of just about every restaurant menu (and probably for less than it cost me to make it!) But, I added a few of my own little ingredients to make it JUST RIGHT! And I'm gonna share my special blend with you.

HEATHER'S TACO SALAD...this is NOT weight watcher's approved!

-Ground beef browned and taco seasoning pack added
-All your favorite salad stuff (I used bagged lettuce, tomato, cucumber)
-1 whole avacado sliced..YUM...I was having to fight Ashton for all the avacado slices
-canned kernal corn
-refried beans (I had actually made bean/cheese burritos the night before so I used my leftover beans in the salad...yum)
-tortilla chips
-My dressing of choice: velveeta queso (I use milk, salsa, and velveeta to make mine...takes 2 min and it's SO good)

There was not a bowl in my house big enough to hold this salad. I ended up using a big mixing bowl! I just layered everything and poured the queso on top instead of salad dressing (I never said this was a low cal salad!) It was DEEEEEEEELISH! My kids ate it too. Actually they both ate 2 bowls of it. And I had to cut them off. They were still asking for more after 2 bowls. But if your kids don't eat salad, you could just make them nachos with these ingredients.

Just some thoughts...

2009-01-27T19:20:00.002-05:00

What's up with that creepy music on every show on the History Channel? Ofcourse this is Cary's favorite channel and sometimes I'll walk through the house and every t.v. in the house will be tuned into the History Channel and it just freaks me out! I like history, but is the music necessary, really?

Should you be offended when someone deletes you from their facebook friend list for no given or apparent reason and what is this, like high school or something? Who does that???

We're on day #2 of a semester long new schedule of Daddy not getting home from work/school till after 8 p.m. three nights a week. Day 2 I said! A whole semester. I need Calgon! Call me crazy, but when I said "I DO" I thought that meant I was married and had a spouse! A helper! 7 days a week!

Speaking of "I DO" today is my 8 yr anniversary. We've had 6 yrs of wedded bliss and 2 yrs of wedded miss! Thankfully, we're back to bliss! As much bliss as you can have with small children and a crazy schedule!

I got a CRAZY whacked out phone for my anniversary today! It's the Samsung version of the iphone and wowsers! Who knew a phone could do so much. It's a camera/phone/computer/ipod/navigation all in one! It will take me till next year to learn how to use it and by then I'll be ready for a new phone. But hey, it's PINK! I love it!

Momma Brag Time!

2009-01-23T22:31:00.004-05:00

Today was Lexi's 2nd report card day. I'm so proud of her!!! They don't really get grades in kindergarten, but she did not have any areas that needed improvement. She had all S's and O's (outstanding) and has made significant progress on counting to 100. Last six weeks she could only count to 16 and today's report card says she can count to 59, although I know she can go all the way to 100 b/c she does it for me in the car all the time! And the teacher's comment reads: "Lexi has been consistantly progressing. She is enjoying her friends in school and is a good citizen. Keep up the good work Lexi. I am proud of you! XOXO!" Her teacher is so sweet! We just love her! She's very grandmotherly. She also received "Outstanding/exceeds expectations" in Math, Science and Reading. Way to go Mrs. F!!! Well, I shouldn't give away all the credit. We do a LOT of homework to make this happen! She also took her 10th spelling test today and she has gotten a 100 on EVERY SINGLE TEST! Her words this week were "seven, eight, nine, ten". I think those are not the easiest words for a child who didn't even know all her letters and sounds 4 months ago! It's so amazing to watch her progress so quickly. We are very thankful for our awesome school and wonderful kindergarten teacher! We could not have hand picked a better environment for Lexi or better friends or a better teacher. Oh and have I mentioned that she takes gymnastics? She LOVES it! She's been taking gymnastics since Sept and I can't believe how strong that girl is and what an amazing athlete she's becoming. Her gymnastics teacher said a few weeks ago that she thinks Lexi could teach the class and this past week she said that she's so proud of Lexi. All of the girls in her gymnastics class have been taking there for 2-3 yrs and this is Lexi's first ever gymnastics experience and she just seems to absorb everything and do it immediately. She also plays basketball. Last Saturday, she scored the "winning" points. Well, they don't really keep score, but I keep score and she scored the winning points. I'm so proud of her! I would be proud of her even if she stunk at gymnastics and basketball!

With all that bragging, I should let you know, just so you'll feel better, that my house is an absolute WRECK at this very moment! And Lexi, as much of a superstar as she is, slept walk to the living room last week and peed on the floor! Seriously! Even superstars have lackluster days!

Thoughts on Obama's Inauguration

2009-01-20T16:03:00.002-05:00

I don't agree with his policies and I certainly didn't vote for the man but despite my ill feelings towards our new president, there was so much about today's Inauguration that made me swell with pride as an American.

1. For starters, the fact that citizens of the United States were able to see past race when electing this president says so much about how far we've come in the past 50 yrs. God created us all equal and the color of one's skin is just that....color! So witnessing the first African American President take the Oath of Office I felt was such a turning point in our nation's civil rights history.

2. There are very few countries in this world that can have such a peaceful transition of power from one leader to the next. To watch all the former living presidents and their wives take part in today's ceremony was so special. To hear of how the Bush family has done so much to make the transition into the White House so smooth for the Obama's made me so proud. To see the million and a half PEACEFUL spectators there watching made me so thankful to live in this great land.

3. I loved how Rick Warren, during his prayer, called out the God he was praying to by name, Jesus! Because many people of the world pray to A God, but he made sure people knew he was praying to THE God! And there was a definite emphasis on God throughout the day. We don't know much about Obama's relationship with the Lord, but from the church service this morning led by The Bishop TD Jakes (one of my all time FAVORITE preachers of the gospel), to the two ministers who prayed during the ceremony, the fact that Obama was not sworn in on the Koran like had been rumored but on an actual Holy Bible, it all gave me hope that we are still one nation under God.

4. There were several references made to our forefathers and the freedom they fought for. It's something we so often take for granted and it's a thought that we simply just don't think about enough. I pray that we never forget the price they paid for our freedom so that we could live in a democracy, a country that allows us to go out and exercise our right to vote for a new leader every 4 yrs.

No matter your feelings towards Barack Obama, today was a patriotic day for all Americans. The world watched as history unfolded, the first African American took the reigns as the leader of the free world. The world watched as millions stood peacefully watching this great transition of power. The world watched as democracy became reality, this being the result of a totally free election, something that citizens of many countries can only dream of. I'm choosing to concentrate on this great pride I have in my country today rather than focusing on the things about Obama that made me NOT vote for him. Is it arrogant to say we live in the greatest land? If so, I'll be arrogant for a moment. God has so richly blessed America!

I have absolutely NOTHING to blog about

2009-01-14T15:20:00.002-05:00

Really! Sorry to disappoint you faithful internets. Things have been relatively boring around here. Well, I say "boring" but boring is really a relative term and when you're talking about a household with a 5 yr old and a 3 yr old, I guess it woulnd't be so boring to some folks.

I mean, yesterday within a 6 hr time frame, I did clean up a mess of nail polish, made a flying LEAP into the kitchen and snatched up the cough syrup just as Ashton had removed the "child proof" lid and was in the process of pouring herself a nice little cocktail, then while cooking dinner which involved boiling water, a basketball was thrown on the stove as the water was boiling. It knocked over the pot of boiling water and rolled across to the glass canister of sugar and that is when I made yet another flying LEAP into the kitchen to grab the sugar cannister just before it fell off the edge of the counter landing in the boiling water which was all over the floor and stove! Nice! Two flying leaps in one day! Oh but wait I forgot, when Ashton was getting into the shower yesterday morning, she just dropped her diaper and got naked right there on the bathroom floor and poop rolled out of the diaper and just as I saw it, she walked over to pick up to SHOW ME (oh yes she did). Oh Lord. That's how the day STARTED! Mind you she had just gotten a BIG spanking the day before for picking up dog pooh in the backyard and putting it on the trampoline while sister was ON the trampoline. She laughed. Ashton. Not sister. Nor me.

Oh but the day was not over. Ashton also likes to wash her hands in the bathtub rather than at the sink. It's just easier for her to get to. I saw her washing her hands before we left for gymnastics but I left the room before she was finished. Big mistake. The water was left on the entire time we were at gymnastics. When we got hom, I noticed water on the bathroom floor and heard water running. Apparently she had also closed the tub drain so it filled up the tub and then drained out to the floor. AND WAIT...there's more...There was a small piece of chocolate cake on the countertop that Ashton wanted for breakfast. And why not! So I let her have a few bites and oh she made the biggest mess I've ever seen. So I threw the cake away. A few hours later I noticed that she was walking around the house with chocolate cake spread across her face. She had gotten it OUT of the GARBAGE can and finished it off! In like 30 seconds because that's really about how long it had been since she had been playing happily in the playroom and then went into "hiding". But that's not all.

At dinner last night, Cary and Lexi and myself were sitting at the table eating and talking and Ashton had already asked to be excused and we thought she was playing in the playroom until we heard this strange sound coming from the kitchen cabinets. Cary got up and walked over to see what the sound was. It was Ashton sitting on the floor spraying bleach on her barbies. "They were dirty." He snatched her and ran with her to the bathroom to wash her hands and get her clothes off quickly and in the washing machine just in case anything got on them (and should I mention it was my FAVORITE outfit?) And in case you're wondering WHY I would leave cough syrup and nail polish within reach, well I didn't! It was up high. She's a climber! A climber with skills! The bleach was within reach, but for Heaven's sake, she's almost 4 and totally knows better. We've never had any issues with our kids getting into the cleaning products. We used those baby clasps on the cabinets when they were little and were crawling and learning to walk but enough is enough, you know? And she's so quick to get into trouble, literally the cough syrup issue happened in the minute and a half that I went to the potty! The nail polish happened while I was just making up the bed! AAAGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

See, totally boring! Nothing to blog about!

Busy Bees

2009-01-12T00:19:00.002-05:00

It was a busy busy weekend! It all started on Friday when I went to work and Cary stayed home to clean house and do laundry and take Ashton to the doctor (where she was diagnosed with Asthma as well!) That's a whole other blog entry! Then a cousin from Texas came over for a visit, and Lexi's new best friend came home from school with her, and Daddy needed a vegetable side dish to take to a deacon/elder/pastor dinner. I stayed home and entertained guests while he went to the dinner. Saturday morning, we were up at 6 getting ready for Lexi's FIRST BASKETBALL GAME! (And daddy's first game to coach!) It was quite a hoot! Not sure which was cuter, daddy coaching or Lexi in her tomboy basketball clothes on the court! After basketball, we went out for breakfast at McDonald's and came home to do some work on the house. Cary worked in the yard all day and put together the girls' Christmas toys so they could FINALLY play with them, while I snuck a nap (shhh, don't tell him) and then spent the ENTIRE afternoon organizing and cleaning out the toy room and cleaning out dresser drawers and closets. Finally, around 8 pm we called it a day and all took showers and ordered a pizza. Ashton fell asleep before the pizza arrived and Lexi nearly fell asleep at the dinner table. Then, I got to work studying my Sunday School lesson and getting ready to teach this morning. Cary was in charge of a reception for his former preschool director who resigned last month, so he got to church extra early this morning to get things in order before kidzchurch, then after church and the reception we went to pizza hut and all came home and crashed! But we couldn't let this GORGEOUS weekend get away without doing something fun as a family, so this evening we went on a family bikeride to the park and rode around the neighborhood until little Ashton's legs just couldn't pedal any more. She reminds me of Dennis the Menace on that tricycle! I long for a weekend when we have NOTHING to do! But tonight Cary and I relaxed with a movie after we put the kids to bed...Prince Caspian...SO good, if you haven't seen it...highly recommend it! Now it's time to get geared up for next weekend. I'm the wedding coordinator at our church and I have a wedding this weekend, as well as hosting people at our house all weekend for Disciple Now weekend! CRAZY times!

I am SOOOO excited...

2009-01-09T20:51:00.003-05:00

Go ahead and ask me, "Heather, why are you SOOOO excited?" Well, I'll tell you. Two reasons! #1)Lexi is going to be a flower girl in my cousin's wedding!!!! We have a whole year to practice! The wedding is not till next January. But no fear of the happy couple breaking up or anything, they've been together for 8 and a half years!!! They've been dating for longer than I've been married. The wedding is in downtown Fort Worth which is truly one of my FAVORITE places on earth! I'm so excited! Mother of the flower girl. Sigh...... and reason #2 for my giddiness...remember how excited I was about Lexi's best friend at school that she just adores and talks about all the time? I've been praying for two long years for a best friend for that sweet girl! Well, I called the little girl's mom and invited her daughter to come home from school with us today to have a little playdate and when her mom came to pick her up tonight, we had the sweetest conversation about the Lord and about church and how God brought us both here to Orlando and so on and the whole conversation was initiated by her as she began sharing with me about how faithful God had been in providing for her family. Mind you, she didn't know we were believers or that my husband was a pastor or anything. So she was truly sharing with me on faith that I wouldn't think she was crazy. It was just SO awesome to see how God has truly answered my prayers in providing a sweet friend for Lexi from a Christian family. Not that I don't want her to be friends with non-believers too, but I want her best and closest friends to be from families that share our values and morals and beliefs. It was just so incredible to see how God has totally provided that for Lexi. Her other best friend at school is also from a wonderful Christian family as well. I'm just tickled pink that she finally has some good friends that she gets to be with every day and that she really seems to click with. They're all just super sweet and innocent and there's no competition. It's just all pure sweetness when they get together. I love it! YEA GOD! He is so faithful!!!

The Romantic Getaway That Wasn't

2009-01-07T21:40:00.006-05:00

Cary and I have wanted to get away for a while now, just the two of us. We had saved up a little money and decided our trip to Texas would be the perfect opportunity because we would have built in babysitters! We honeymooned in Fredericksburg, TX almost 8 yrs ago and it was such a neat town, we knew that's where we wanted to go. Only an hour and a half from my mom's house, it was the perfect place for our romantic getaway! Hahaha! We tried to stay at the BEST place on Earth, Palo Alto Creek Farms, where we honeymooned, but it was all booked. So we settled for this place, listed as one of the top 10 most romantic places, called Settler's Crossing, owned by the aunt and uncle of my good friend, Audra, which I didn't know until like 2 days ago! Small world! When we first arrived, our receipt was sent to our cabin in a basket of apple turnovers. I nearly TURNED OVER myself at the receipt. They charged us double! We called them immediately and they credited back our account for the mess up.

The property is made up of like 7 or 8 private houses or cottages. This was ours. It's called the Pioneer Cabin, which should have been my first clue! A pioneer, I am not!

Oh look, it's Little Bear's house! Thanks for the candy little bear!

Upon entering our cabin, we were greeted by a REAL bird and a stuffed bear. The bird was flying around and we had to get him out. But wait...the windows wouldn't open! So we chased him down with a stick. The owners laughed when we called for help and told us "good luck". The bird pooped all over the cabin. I would have to! But finally he found his way OUT the front door. We joked that the bear was real and when we walked in he probably grabbed a burger king hat and a tray of candy in an attempt to blend in to the decor!

Our bedroom! Very cozy by the fire. Probably not the best thing for pneumonia lungs. This should have been the room of LOVE but Cary was DYING of pneumonia all night.

I couldn't stay away from the bear. I kept thinking of how the girls would get the biggest kick out of him. I was also a little sad at the thought that he was once alive and a hunter shot him dead and now he's a candy statue at a bed and breakfast.

Isn't it cute? And very pioneery? A little too pioneery if you ask me! I had to walk gently because with each step I was afraid the floor would sink in or something would rattle off the wall.

Cozy little kitchen.

There was an old lady who swallowed a cat to catch the bird...how absurd! This little guy came in our cabin while the door was open while we were trying to get the bird out. Didn't think we would ever get rid of him. Apparently he LIVES there. We found cat food in the kitchen.

And in case you're wondering...what's up with the water hose...

Well, when I was taking a bath in the claw foot tub on our first night there, I heard a loud pop from the bathroom wall and then water was pouring out of a pipe behind the tub! I called for Cary who came in and quickly turned off the main water source from the wall. It was the hot water, how convenient. Talk about PIONEERS? The next morning, we called the owners, certain they would come right out and fix it so we could get our showers before checking out and they said, "Well, it's a good thing you got a bath last night! We won't be able to get out there to fix it today." WHAT??? So my handy husband went outside and found this waterhose and cut it to the length to reach from the sink to the tub and filled up the tub with hot water from the sink so we could bathe. He said, "I dare him to make me pay for the $10 hose!"

There were lots of sheep, a donkey, and a whole slew of dear. But they all seemed to follow THIS guy. He must have been the G/T one of the bunch. Me with the leader of the clan!

Hey, wait, come back, I bathed...really...with a water hose!

All in all, still a fun place despite pneumonia, double charges, a bird, and a make shift shower! Oh and shopping ALONE. I had visions of us strolling through the streets together hand in hand, my husband romantically going to EACH AND EVERY last store with me, maybe even carrying my purse cause it's SO heavy. Well, that didn't happen. My sick husband slept in the car while I shopped all day! I shopped. He dropped.

WARNING....X RATED PHOTOS

2009-01-07T20:33:00.003-05:00

Santa brought my girls a Playboy Mansion, I mean a Barbie Dreamhouse for Christmas...home of NIGHTLY wild wild parties as you can see...

After the party, this pretty lady lay naked on the front lawn, apparently run over by the corvette which smashed through the living room wall.

See, Corvette smashed through living room wall. Ken apparently was thrown from the driver's seat and lay unconscious on the kitchen floor.
I'm not even sure what to say about this one...playing footsies maybe?

After a rough night of partying, the bed is broken, the lamp has been knocked over and it appears as though someone has literally been swinging from the chandeliers.

Okay, now in all seriousness, my children do not really know why they prefer their barbies naked, but I assure you it's not for inappropriate reasons. In all honesty, it's probably due more to the fact that they have trouble getting those tight clothes on them. They've never made Ken and Barbie kiss or lay next to or on top of each other. They have bathed together, but only because "Mom, there was only one bathtub in the house...DUH"! Ken did take a dump one day on the potty, but "Mommy, he had to go potty!" So, you see, pure innocence! Only an adult could find adult humor in the state of our Barbie house. My children think I'm taking pictures of it "because it's pretty!"

Back to the grind

2009-01-07T09:04:00.002-05:00

Well we're on day #3 of the reality of the real world NOT on vacation. So far only 1 tardy, 7 time outs, 2 spankings, and a very well rested mommy after 11.5 hours of sleep last night. I think we're doing pretty good! I was SOOOOOOO tired yesterday and the day before that and the day before that and the day before that....anyhoo, I went to bed at 8:30 last night and slept till 7 this morning. So did the kids and Cary! It's like we all got bit by the teetsy fly or something. I have good intentions of posting lots of Christmas pictures. One day. Oh funniest thing...our little "romantic getaway" that wasn't so romantic because Cary was buried under a pile of blankets with 104 fever hacking his lungs up with pnuemonia, well, I never really posted on the ol blog all of the "adventures" we faced at the "pioneer" cabin and I will...with pictures! But turns out, one of my bestest friends in the whole world knows the owners of the cabin. She doesn't just know them, they are her aunt and uncle! More to come on that story later. I'm off to get my hair cut and then, I don't know, take a nap??? I need a cure for the sleepies. (I think they call that SUMMER.) This whole lack of daylight hours is killing me.

Home again Home again jiggidy jig

2009-01-03T19:38:00.002-05:00

My mom used to always say that every time we pulled into the driveway. Home again home again jiggidy jig. We pulled into the driveway at about 11:30 pm yesterday. I wish I could say I got all unpacked today and got my Christmas decorations put away, but neither of those happened. I slept in and then got up and went into the office and worked for a few hours this afternoon then came home and am about to work for a few more hours, study my Sunday School lesson and get to bed. I have SO much to do! I feel like I can't unpack until I clean out the girls' dresser drawers and their playroom to make space for all the new stuff. It will get done...eventually. I have lots to get caught up on at work this week so my house chores will probably have to wait! The price we pay for a vacation right? It's good to be home, even if it's not Texas. I LOVE my bed! And my bathtub! And my warm flip flop weather.

Lexi was so eager to get home yesterday. She kept talking about all of her friends from school that she missed so much while we were gone and how she missed her teacher and couldn't wait to get to school on Monday and give everyone big hugs! That made me smile! It's nice to know that your kids are happy! She has a little friend in her class that she is just smitten with and talks about non stop and I'm so excited that she finally seems to have a "best friend" here in FL. The little girl's mom volunteers in their classroom a lot and she took some pictures of Lexi with her daughter over the last few weeks every time she would go up to the school to volunteer and she sent them home in Lexi's backpack the day before Christmas break. They were so cute! She said her daughter never stops talking about Lexi. I guess it's mutual!

On the way home yesterday Lexi said, "Do you know what I don't like about Texas?" And before I could respond I had to pick my jaw up off the floor and pop my eyes back into their sockets because what's there not to like about Texas????!!!!! She said, "It's so far away and as soon as we get there, we have to leave again." I can accept that response! And I agree! Oh well, bloom where you're planted right? When in Rome...go to DisneyWorld!

New Year's Resolutions Anyone?

2009-01-01T21:14:00.002-05:00

Would anyone like to share their New Year's Resolution? I'm not sure I really have one, but I would like to spend more time in God's word. I read God's word daily, but I mean REALLY STUDYing God's word. I'm not sure if that's a resolution or just being obedient. But either way it's what I need to do more of this year. Losing weight would be nice, but who am I kidding? I told my husband tonight I would like to resolve to volunteer LESS! Most people resolve to volunteer more, I need to volunteer less! Maybe that will be my resolution! I resolve to say NO! So what about you? What do you resolve to do in 2009?

On the road again...I just cain't wait to get on the road again...

2008-12-30T22:41:00.003-05:00

No I did not misspell can't. It's cain't when you sing like Willie. Speaking of Willie...Did I mention I went to Luckenbach on Saturday? It's just a stone's throw from here. Pics to come! But come tomorrow morning we'll be on the road again. We're leaving my mom's around 6 a.m. to head to Mobile, AL to see Cary's folks and have our Christmas with them. Then it will be back to the swamp on Friday! I mean, the tropical paradise called Florida! Swamp, tropical paradise...same thing really. Actually I should just call it "family vacation mecca" where many families make their annual pilgrimage to worship the almighty mouse. I'm not sure what I'm going to miss the most from this vacation. The sleep and rest and relaxation. The great food. Oh and how could I forget visiting with family! Free babysitters! Shopping shopping and more shopping! Free babysitters! Heeheee! Our car is already packed. The dog, I mean the spotted girl is sitting up front in the passenger seat because we needed every ounce of space in the back to bring home an entire Santa's sleigh worth of goodies. One of us will have to sit in the back with the girls since Candice will be riding shotgun, which means I'll be driving the WHOLE WAY! I'm way too claustrophobic to sit in the back. How on earth will I get my nails painted??? That's what I did on the way here. A road trip is the PERFECT time and place to paint your nails. It's not like you can do anything else but sit still for 20 hours and hold your nails in the A/C to dry! See? Perfect!

I must get rested! Cary is giving me the evil eye because the bedroom light is still on and my clickity fingernails on the keyboard are keeping him awake. I cain't wait to get on the road again.

Please God don't let it end...

2008-12-28T13:07:00.004-05:00

Can I just stay here forever? In Texas? At my mom's house? The plethora of FOOD, very yummy food, the huge fenced in backyard that does not require me to take my dog out on a leash, Granny's big long driveway which is just perfect for riding bikes...and speaking of...LEXI CAN RIDE A BIKE...NO TRAINING WHEELS! YEA!!!! She was so determined to learn all on her own so when we all get tired of running behind her holding her up, she just went out there and did it all on her own. Unbelievable! She's like a master at it...already...after only one day! I'm so proud of her!

My mom is cooking my favorite feast of the year today. There's just nothing like Mama's cookin! We're having turkey and dressing and all the fixins. I can't wait!

Cary and I went on our "romantic" getaway which wasn't very romantic unfortunately because how can you snuggle up next to a man who is hacking his lungs up while wrapped up in a blanket with fever? But it was still fun. I have LOTS to tell about that and many pictures to come. It was memorable. I'll just leave it at that. And we, I mean, I shopped all day in Fredricksburg which was WONDERFUL. Cary slept in the car. He was still sick. And on the way home, we stopped by Luckenbach, TX. That was a hoot. It was memorable. I'll just leave it at that.

Many pictures to come! I'm going to go indulge in the feast! Mmmmmmmm...... and then sleep, watch the Cowboys game, and maybe shop some more! This trip has been EXACTLY what this momma needed! Please God don't let it end!

So far...

2008-12-25T15:31:00.003-05:00

I've wet my pants about 32 times on this trip with all the coughing. You gotta love a post pregnancy bladder. Just don't work like it used to!

We visited a town called "big tits". Okay, not really, but it's called Grosse Tete which is French for big tit! Only in Louisiana.

We've discovered that the Barbie Dream House should have actually been called The Barbie Playboy Mansion. Everyone is NAKED! And they're all in the tub together. Two girls and a guy. I think there's a name for that...

Ashton has given me a new nickname: Shamu! There's two things you never want to be called: "killer" and "whale". But being the good sport that I am, my response to her was, "Oh well, I guess that makes me the top predator in the ocean and you know what that means little Ashy-poo? I can gobble you up!"

Since when did Barbie clothes come with a cocktail? Okay, I already threw it away or else I would post a picture, but REALLY. It was a martini glass!

You know you're old when you get REALLY REALLY REALLY excited about opening a new iron on Christmas morning. Really excited!

You know you're getting old when you really don't care if there's anything for you at all under the tree but instead are just as excited about watching your children enjoy the experience.

It's been a great trip so far. We arrived in the Lone Star State yesterday evening. The girls were FABULOUS in the car. We had a lot of fun singing Christmas carols. We even changed our voices and sang like dogs, cats, donkeys, I sang like an old man, you get really creative when you're trying to occupy small children for 23 hours. Creative or crazy, not sure which. Cary has been sick the whole time, running fever that no drug seems to cure. So he's been kind of a grump o' rump (that's my new word) but other than that, things couldn't be going more smoothly. We stopped in Houston at 2nd Baptist Church for Christmas Eve services and played in the "snow" after the service. It's such a neat place. 45,000 members. Crazy huge! The pastor is the father of our pastor in Dallas. Ed Young Sr and Ed Young Jr, both remarkable in their own right and yet with totally different styles all their own. Their service was called "Christmas for all Ages" and afterwards they had snow machines outside and the kids got to play in the snow. It was a nice break from the car ride. Today has been very relaxing and wonderful. We're about to eat lasagna and SLEEP. Tomorrow, Cary and I leave for our getaway to the Texas Hill Country. Let's pray that we are both healthy by then. I normally like to stay home for Christmas, but this trip was exactly what I needed. I needed to get away from everything and be nurtured a little like only your mother can do!

Merry Christmas everyone! And remember the birth of our savior! Thank you Lord for coming down the stairsteps of Heaven to Earth with a baby in your arms...such a beautiful image of divinity becoming humanity.

Teacher Gifts

2008-12-19T21:25:00.002-05:00

Today was the last day of school for two whole weeks! YEA!!! I don't know who is more excited, me or Lexi! No homework, no packing lunch or ironing ugly uniform clothes or racking my brain to figure out how many different combinations of outfits I can make with 2 pairs of khaki bottoms, 2 pairs of navy bottoms, 2 pairs of jeans, 2 white shirts, 2 pink shirts, and 2 navy shirts. Yawn yawn, boring boring. (Have I mentioned how much I HATE uniforms???) No more natzi mom in the mornings trying to herd everyone out the door by 8:15 and sounding like a broken record: "YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO PLAY!" Well, at least for 2 weeks. Then it's back to reality for 5 months! The school life is hard work for parents. But it's been worth it.

I bought the girls' teachers Brighton key chains. They were so beautiful, I almost didn't want to give them away! But they were very affordable, yet classy gifts. The best kind! None of my students gave me a Brighton key chain. Ever. I got a used library book one year with the barcode marked through. Lots of used stuffed animals and roses with plastic dew on them. It's the thought I guess.

The girls both got ADORABLE gifts from their teachers. Lexi's teacher gave her a Christmas book called "If You Take a Mouse To the Movies" and she wrapped up a bag of microwave popcorn with it and the Christmas card was in the shape of a movie ticket. SO clever and thoughtful! The book is too cute and a very easy read that Lexi can actually sort of get through on her own. Ashton's teacher gave her a snowman cup with hot cocoa, marshmallows, a candy cane, and some chocolates in it and it had a little poem attached about "This is snowman soup...complete with a stirring stick..." it was such a cute poem that went with the contents of the cup. Both teachers have sent home the cutest, most clever little Christmas crafts the last few weeks but the one Ashton got today just about made me cry. The teacher made this cute bag and decorated it so neat and in it was an angel made out of doilies and it had Ashton's picture as the head. And there was also a Santa ornament that was made out of her handprint. Too cute! Lexi's teacher made the cutest little scrapbooks of all the kids and sent them home a few weeks ago of all their fun Fall crafts and activities and special events they have had. And today she sent home pictures of Lexi from pajama day. She set up this really cute winter scene in her classroom and took everyone's picture there. She also took pictures with each student so I have a picture of her and her teacher from pajama day. So fun! So many memories being made.

Ashton is STILL sick! She didn't go to school again today. But I took her up there this morning to deliver sandwhiches for her class party. They had their birthday party for Jesus today and it was also their pajama day. I'm so sad she missed out! Christmas vacation has OFFICIALLY begun!

Letters From Santa

2008-12-18T20:57:00.002-05:00

I believe Santa to be a perfectly harmless and wonderfully exciting part of childhood. Today my girls got letters from "Santa"...a.k.a. "Aunt Lynda". Heeheee. She did this last year too. She asks me what types of things "Santa" should address in his letters so that it's very personalized. So for example, Ashton's letter says, "Santa is sad when you don't use the potty like a big girl" and "on Christmas Eve Night I want you to put your pacifier in the little bag that Rudolph is sending you because I'm going to take it back to the North Pold and give it to one of the new babies that will be born soon." Ashton very quickly replied, "I don't want to" to both of those requests by Santa. And Lexi's letter says, "There is one thing that makes Santa sad and that is when you roll your eyes when Mommy tells you something and you don't listen to her. You must obey your parents and always respect them." And Lexi quickly said, "Okay, mommy, can you call Santa right now and tell him I promise not to roll my eyes any more?" And then she said, "How about I just say it out loud becasue Santa can hear me and he's watching me in that snowglobe (like in the Santa Claus movie)." So she said out loud, "Santa, I promise I won't do it any more!!!" And at the end of the letters it says, "We must celebrate Jesus's birthday more than anything else. All the presents are fun to get but we have to remember that Jesus was born on this day." And Santa included two packets of reindeer food too. We had fun reading our letters from Santa tonight while watching the Charlie Brown Christmas movie. Thank you Aunt Lynda for bringing some excitement into our house!!!!

Raise your hand if...

2008-12-17T21:34:00.003-05:00

you haven't bought one single Christmas present yet? Oh, just me? Wow, you people are really on the ball. I truly have not had one spare second for shopping, be it online or in a store! What have I been doing that is keeping me so busy, you ask? Well, how bout I tell you what I HAVEN'T been doing? I haven't been sending out Christmas cards or decorating my house for Christmas or taking the girls in for their annual Christmas pictures or baking holiday yummies, oh wait, I wouldn't be doing that anyways because I DON'T BAKE, I haven't been making reindeer food for the girls' classmates, I haven't been taking poinsettias to the neighbors, I haven't been watching holiday movies with the kids. SO WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING HEATHER? I've been working, non stop working! Around the clock. Till 2 in the morning. I have SO MUCH work to do. I'm not complaining. I have a job! Therefore I have income! Therefore we are blessed. But my work has been consuming me lately and I'm rarely even in the office. I work from home mostly. Other than work, not much has been happening around here. I have the holiday blues. Found out yesterday that a guy I went to school with passed away this week. Seems like someone I know always kicks the bucket around Christmas!

Ashton went to the dr today. After 5 weeks, she still has "the crud". I went to a new doctor today. I really liked her a lot. And she's MUCH closer to home. She didn't even prescribe antibiotics. I REALLY like her! Even though Ashton has dark green snot all day long and had gunk oozing out of her eyes this morning and her cough sounds awful, she still didn't give me antibiotics. I REALLY like her! I really don't like antibiotics. She did give her a steroid for the cough, but said she just has a lingering virus. Her lungs were clear. Her ears were infection free. She called everyone on staff in the examining room to see Ashton b/c she couldn't get over the fact that she had congenital CMV. She was so amazed at how perfectly normal she is. She kept saying, "Do you have any idea what a miracle this child is?" Yes, I know! She is certainly a miracle! She did her residency in the NICU at Arnold Palmer and said she saw many a CMV case and she couldn't get over how tragic they were. So I guess that's why she was so fascinated with Ashton. Just another opportunity for me to testify to the power of our amazing God, the Great Physician!

Amazon.com...

2008-12-14T19:21:00.003-05:00

is my new best friend! I went to Toys R Us today with the kids just to see what kinds of things they gravitated towards, what caught their eye, with the plan to come back this week without them to do some shopping. When I got home, I got on Amazon.com to order an Abbey (Sesame Street) doll b/c Toys R Us didn't carry them and WOW, I couldn't believe the price differences on the same toys we saw at Toys R Us. That Fisher Price Smart Cycle, the girls had a ball on that thing! It was $79.99 at Toys R Us and $59.99 on Amazon.com. The Inch Worm ride on toy was $69.99 at Toys R Us and $49.99 on Amazon. Those are HUGE savings and anything over $50 is free shipping on Amazon. You do have to make sure the price you're seeing on Amazon is for a "new" item rather than a "used" item, but I couldn't get over the price differences. Even some of the cheaper toys that were $11 and $12 at Toys R Us were like $8-9 on Amazon. Incredible savings!!! I don't think I'll be going back to Toys R Us this week after all!

That's my public service announcement y'all!

The Pink Eyed Monster

2008-12-14T07:59:00.002-05:00

Well, pink eye strikes again. I had NEVER EVER EVER had pink eye in my whole life until I had kids. What's up with that? It goes through our household at least once a year. I think this is our 2nd or 3rd bout this year. Lexi went to the disco party Friday night. When I picked her up, the mom told me that she and another little girl had bumped heads and Lexi got hit right in the eye so she had given her an ice pack. When we got home, the eye looked fine so I really didn't think much of it. In the middle of the night, Lexi came running to our room screaming b/c she couldn't open her eye. I turned on the bathroom light to look at it and it had all that crusty ooze coming out and it was matted shut. It was the same eye she had gotten hit in. I don't know if that was just coincidence or if during the irritation of getting hit she kept rubbing it and maybe spread something from her hands to her eye??? Help me out here, I'm not a dr! I just know that before she went to the party, her eye was fine. But then again pink eye comes up quickly and with no warnings. Fortunately, I had a whole bottle of drops from our last pink eye bout which was just about 3 months ago. So we've been doctoring her and germ exing our hands like crazy around here so it won't spread throughout the house. Pink eye is like the most contagious thing on the face of the earth! This morning, Cary is going to go do kidzchurch while I keep the girls at home. Then I'm going to hand them off to him while I go teach Sunday School to keep them out of the nursery. Ashton started coughing again. She just got rid of that cough about a week and a half ago and now it's starting all over again. I just LOVE this time of year!!! I think we're going to have to double up on the Flinstone's for the next few weeks!

I've Never...

2008-12-13T22:11:00.002-05:00

I've never...

- asked my kids what they want to eat (at home, at a drive-thru, or at a restaurant.) I just put the food in front of them and they eat it or they don't. But they always do. Sometimes they tell me what they want at a restaurant, but I never ask. Even Lexi will tell you my motto: "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!"

- watched an entire episode of anything on the history channel or discovery without feeling creepy or bored out of my mind!

- listened to a Michael W Smith song all the way through. His voice is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.

- Cut someone else's fingernails. That's so groady. Daddy is the fingernail person around here. I don't even cut my own fingernails come to think of it!

- Made a pot of coffee. I really don't know how! Honestly!

- Smoked

- Traveled to any other foreign country other than Mexico and that was just right at the Texas border. I have no desire to leave the good ol' USofA!

- liked Christmas

- liked pork

- gotten more than one speeding ticket. I got one about 12 years ago for going 42 in a 35.

- taken illegal drugs

- been really comfortable in large group settings. I'm outgoing, but not sociable, if that makes any sense.

Now it's your turn. Finish that statement...I've never...give me one "I've never" statement!

Fa La La La La

2008-12-12T16:47:00.003-05:00

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. And I like all my wrapping paper to be brown butcher paper with red or green raffia bows so it looks very westerny under my Texas themed tree. Cause I'm OCD like that!
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually a couple of weeks before Christmas but every year I vow to put it up the week of Thanksgiving so the kids can enjoy it longer.
4. When do you take the tree down? Right after Christmas FOR SURE!
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, with a little added ingredient...and I'm not talking about nutmeg!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My gucci purse. I think I was 12. No kidding.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Cary's family, only b/c I'm just not around them enough to really know what they like or what they need or what they already have.
8. Easiest person to buy for? My girls!!
9. What is your favorite Christmas television classic? A Christmas Story
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? a used library book..the library barcode had been scratched off. Seriously. It was from a student named Ava Hunter. Will never forget her!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Jingle all the way
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? December 22nd ish
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? no
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I'm about to eat a 3 yr old, does that count?
16. Lights on the tree? duh, do some people not have lights???
17. Favorite Christmas song? HATE Christmas music....GAG!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? Totally stay home for the kids but this year we're going to Texas b/c I need me some "home".
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? YES! And I put reindeer food on my lawn Christmas Eve to feed them all.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Cowboy hat
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? People who say "Happy Holidays" and children who tell my children there is no santa. Then I have to do damage control. THERE IS A SANTA people!!!! If you quit believing, he quits coming. I BELIEVE!
23. What theme or color are you using? Texas themed
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? We usually have fajitas or lasagna
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? The dreamer in me would say a car, the realist in me would say some new clothes. But I did already get a washer and dryer, which is FABULOUS!

You're turn!

Wanna Get Away

2008-12-11T16:45:00.002-05:00

I've been in dire need of a vacation for quite some time now. And I think it's finally gonna happen! Cary and I are going to Texas for Christmas and while we're there, I have booked us a little getaway in the town we honeymooned in almost 8 yrs ago, Fredricksburg, in the Texas Hill Country. It's just a few hours from my mom's house and she's going to keep the girls. You have NO IDEA how badly we need this! You can check out our incredible accommodations here. We're staying in the Pioneer Log Cabin, but don't worry, it does have a/c and heat! Heeheee. I'm not really much of a pioneer woman but this is my kind of place! Two more weeks!!!! And who knows...it could snow while we're there! A white Christmas perhaps!

spilled pee, Jesus, and disco parties

2008-12-10T00:44:00.004-05:00

I realize putting the name of Jesus in that subject line next to the words "pee" and "disco" seems a bit irreverant. But really, let me explain.

We have a potty in our car. Genius! Or so I thought. Until the potty spilled. And it was FULL. Of pee. I'm a bit of a germaphobe. Actually I don't know if I'm a germaphobe or just plain ol grossed out by public potties. And you know how little girls go potty. They touch everything. Their pants fall to the nasty floor when they sit down on the potty. Or their pants rest up against the side of the potty. It's just so EW! So about 3 years ago, I put a potty in the car. When my kids need to potty in public, we take a trip to the car. So far, it's been a genius idea. Until Saturday. When it got spilled all inside the back of my car. I dried it up, used all sorts of carpet cleaners and deodorizers. I went to the carwash and shampooed the carpet back there. But 80 degree heat and spilled pee in the carpet doesn't really mix. Will the smell ever go away? What else takes urine smells out of carpet?

And on a totally unrelated note, today, Daddy and Lexi had a nice long, sweet talk about Jesus. It was special. Lexi has been asking tons of questions about Heaven, baptism, and what it means to have Jesus in her heart. So Daddy picked her up from school today and they went on a date and he explained everything to her in 5 yr old terms and showed her a kids video that he shows at his Kidfaith Class which he teaches at church. It's a class designed to answer questions for kids about salvation and baptism. Today, Lexi trusted in Christ for her salvation. Only God knows how much she truly understands and grasps, but she definitely has all the head knowledge and knows the right answers. I'm sure this topic will come up over and over again during the next few years with her. But no matter the case, God's word does not return void. These seeds have been planted in her heart and she is truly a child of God. Praise the Lord!

And from Jesus to disco! Lexi was invited to a birthday party by one of her classmates, whom I do not know, but she is her best buddy at school. She loves this little girl and talks about her NONSTOP! But the party, 6-9 pm on FRIDAY NIGHT! It's a dico dance party. I was like, Uh, when did princess parties and Build a Bear parties on Saturday afternoons go out of style??? I resolved to let her go, but I'm going with her. I spoke with the mom and she said I was more than welcome to stay as long as I'd like. Whew! I'm very excited to meet the mom and learn more about this family since it appears as though our children are inseperable at school. But it's definitely a new chapter in our lives. Up till now, Lexi's friends have been children of my friends and now she's making her own friends. Kind of exciting!

SNAKE!

2008-12-06T18:24:00.002-05:00

We bought a Christmas tree yesterday. A beautiful tree! $80 bucks. The snake was free! The funny thing, I just warned Cary before he brought the tree inside, "Make sure to shake it really good and look for snakes." I remember a news story from last year about a family who found a HUGE snake in their Christmas tree. Cary just laughed at me..."Oh honey, I'm sure the ride home would have been enough to scare away any snakes." He cut some branches off the bottom in order to put the tree in the tree stand. Guess what? Snake!!! We caught it and put it in an ice tea pitcher. It flattened its head and struck at me. I put the lid back on the pitcher! We took it up to Reptile World, because what Florida town would be complete without a place called Reptile World. The "snake man" quickly identified it as a Florida brown snake. He said it was full grown. Are you impressed that we caught a full grown snake? Well, don't be. It was like a total of a foot long and about the thickness of my pinky finger, if that. We live about a block from a big lake and swampy area. I guess snakes are bound to appear at some point. Just didn't think I'd find one in my Christmas tree.

Sick and Tired

2008-12-04T12:36:00.002-05:00

You know you're sick when you have a dream about dying! I started coming down with something on Thanksgiving Day. And let me preface that by saying I NEVER GET SICK. I'm too mean to get sick! My kids can have sniffles and I purposefully will eat and drink after them just to test my immune system and I never get sick! I have my momma's genes! I can count on one hand the number of times my mom got sick during the 21 years I lived with her. But...I'm SICK! I took Tylenol PM last night which I had vowed to never take again unless I wanted to sleep through like a whole week or something. But my thought was it will help me fall asleep and I'll just sleep through the coughing right? Wrong! I coughed so hard I wet my pants 3 times! (The joys of a post pregancy bladder.) This morning after getting Lexi off to school, I went back to bed and woke up 2 hours later in a puddle of drool. I think I could go back to bed right now and sleep till tomorrow. But then who would pick up Lexi from school, keep Ashton from destroying the house today, do the 5 loads of laundry so that Daddy can once again wear undies under his dress slacks (ew), go grocery shopping because the pantry is literally bare, unload and load the dishwasher, do homework duty, and go buy slippers for Lexi's pajama day and a present for her student teacher whose last day is tomorrow??? WHO would do all of that??? Like TODAY. I need a wife. I'm going to go take some "sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, how did I wake up naked in the bathtub" medicine. Tis the season. Hachoo!

Lexi & Ashton...Dec '08

2008-12-01T18:31:00.004-05:00

I had this brainstorm tonight at dinner while I was watching the girls be their usual cute little selves. Ashton, in her big fluffy Sleeping Beauty pink princess dress, half way through dinner, got up and went over to Daddy and nuzzled her way into his arms. Lexi proudly showed off her day's worth of food accomplishments right there on her white shirt. "Look Mommy, I'm a mess. Chocolate ice cream and beans all over my shirt!" As she licked the macaroni off of her fingers. Listening to both girls snicker at me when I announced to Candice and the kitty cat that YES, mommy had made them a tuna patty tonight too. (I didn't want them to feel left out.) It occurred to me, as it does so often these days, that my children are growing like weeds and I have to treasure, absolutely treasure, each and every adorable little thing they do and say NOW, because in the blink of an eye the clock will strike twelve, and our little cinderellas will be gone. So, every few months, I want to take the time to record some things about them that I want to remember 20 years from now. Starting now!

Lexi, 5 yrs and 9 months old, Kindergarten:
Pets: Candice the dalmatian, Mr. Baloo the kitty cat, and a beta fish named Camryn
Favorite thing to play: Anything outdoors, loves to do cartwheels in the backyard and jump on the trampoline, indoors loves to play with odds and ends kind of toys (a paper bowl full of a ball of foil, a rock, a rubber band, and a colored piece of paper taped up like a kite). See...odds and ends I tell you! Loves to color and shows great artistic ability.
Other Notable Characteristics: Very physically gifted (does great at gymnastics and is starting basketball in Jan), a little short fused at times, okay all the time, has great compassion for people and animals, LOVES JESUS AND TEXAS A&M...WHOOP! I've trained her well. Always has a song in her heart, loves to make up songs and they're usually about Jesus, would rather be outdoors getting dirty than indoors playing dress up any day, wears anything I lay out for her and eats everything I put in front of her! Would drink milk all day long if I'd let her. Hates yogurt and cheese.

Ashton, 3 yrs and 9 months old, PreK3:
Favorite thing to play: Dress up!!! This child isn't in the house for more than 10 minutes before she's stripping down and putting on either her princess dresses or her swimsuit or ballet leotard. And her outfit is not complete without the high heal dress up shoes! Lately, she's had an affection for cars too.
Other Notable Characteristics: Very opinionated! Cries EVERY TIME I leave her at school or at church...EVERY TIME! Without fail. Would rather sit in my lap and watch t.v. than to play. Says, "Yap" instead of "Yes". Takes off her shoes every time she sits down at a restaurant or in the car...she hates real shoes....prefers the dress up kind I guess! Calls flip flops "pop pops" and they are the only shoes she will willingly put on when it's time to leave the house. Will not drink milk to save her life (unless it has chocolate or coffee mixed with it) but eats her weight in cheese. We call her our little rat. LOVES Abbey on Sesame Street! Says at least 100 times a day "I a pincess". Loves to sit in the front seat of the car with me in the carpool line and play, "I the mommy, you the daddy" (she's the mommy, I'm the daddy). Every time I get off the phone she asks, "What they say?" Cute as a button!

Bring on the man in the red suit!

2008-11-29T15:06:00.002-05:00

So Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas season has officially begun! Officially. I don't care what Walmart thinks. CHRISTMAS comes AFTER Thanksgiving, not before Halloween! Good grief! I'm so tired of seeing Christmas merchandise in the stores at the beginning of October!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. We drove 9 hours to Mobile, AL and spent the day with all of Cary's family: parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, grandad, aunts, uncles, cousins. Everyone was there. We had a wonderful feast, but you know how it's just not the same when it's not your mama's cookin and you don't get to eat the leftovers for a week until you feel l ike your gonna turn into a turkey? Well, that's where I'm at! I want to cook our own Thanksgiving feast here at home this week, like mama would make, except that it won't be nearly as good b/c I'm culinary challenged, unlike mama! And then we're gonna eat the leftovers till the next pay day! Because the cost of a GOOD Thanksgiving feast is like my WHOLE WEEK'S grocery budget! (But it's worth it!)

Cute story! Last week, as we were saying our prayers, I said "Let's ask God to help Mommy and Daddy find a new car." And Lexi chimed in, "Yes, a car just like Dora (that's the name of our Explorer, Dora the Explorer) but maybe in Aggie colors." A girl after my own heart! Ironically I had just been coveting, I mean looking at a maroon Explorer on Ebay. I don't want my kids to think that God is our geenie in a bottle. But I do think it's important for them to join us in prayer for our NEEDS and trust me, a new family vehicle is a big NEED right now! Because then they can witness God blessing their family and supplying for our needs when he answers those prayers. So the next day, Cary brought home the rental SUV that we used to for our trip to Alabama. And when he pulled up in the driveway, Lexi started screaming, "MOMMY, MOMMY, come quick, you gotta see this. God already gave you a new car! Look outside!!!" It was so sweet. I explained to her that yes, God had supplied our need for a safe vehicle to drive to Alabama in, but that we couldn't keep it. It was a rental car. But yes, that blessing was from God! So keep prayin honey!

And God also blessed us with another AMAZING blessing! My mom informed me that rather than giving me Christmas money that I could use towards a new washer and dryer (another big need in this household) that she bought us a washer and dryer instead! And it's HUGE, the biggest ones they make! 7.5 cubic feet! You can wash 23 towels at one time. YEEHAW! Not that I would ever be washing 23 towels at one time. And the dryer has that steam setting that gets the wrinkles out so you don't have to iron as much! I can't wait for them to be delivered. You know you're such a mom if you get excited about top of the line household appliances. Maybe we can have a laundry party! Okay, not really. I'm not sharing! I've served my time at the laundrymat!

New Family Photos

2008-11-26T00:11:00.002-05:00

Today we went to the local lakefront area to make an attempt at some Christmas card photos. We had a friend, Matt, who just got a killer camera and he offered to come with us and take pictures. Everyone should have a friend like that! He's 21 and single and reminded me today that I'm old enough to be his mother. In a nice way. Thanks! If I were 13 and pregnant maybe! COME ON! I'm not THAT old! But I definitely could have been his teacher! I have students older than him. Scary. Anyhoo, for those of you not of facebook, thought you may enjoy these. No password needed. Happy Thanksgiving! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=183596&l=00b56&id=834995365

Look Who Came Out To Play

2008-11-24T14:21:00.002-05:00

Today while the girls were outside enjoying this beautiful weather, the Sandhill Cranes flew in for a landing and hung out for a while. They're so beautiful! And yes, that's Ashton in her ballerina clothes with bedhead, and Lexi in her pajamas. At 2:30 p.m. A few months ago, the Sandhills came by for breakfast, remember? Click here for those shots.

Bye Bye Pathifers

2008-11-23T22:33:00.003-05:00

That's what Ashton calls her pacifier, a pathifer! But you have to say it really fast and put a country twang on the "fer" part. What's funny is that she named it that herself. We've always called it a paci. But tonight, may God have mercy on us, Ashton will sleep without her beloved pathifer. Oh, it's certainly PAST time for this blessed event. She'll be four in four short months! But it appears as though some time between nap time and bed time, we lost her last pathifer that did not have a hole in it. She likes to chew on them, thus the holes. So, here we go! "Baby crack" withdrawals. Pray for us! We will do our best to remain strong. (Or maybe I'll be haulin' butt to the closest store in the midnight hours!)

I need a weekend!

2008-11-22T22:44:00.003-05:00

Today was Saturday, but it seemed like a normal work day to me! Cary was out the door by 7 a.m. and headed to the church work day. I got the girls up and fed them, bathed them, dressed them, straightened up the house, and we all headed up to the church as well. I worked in my Sunday School room for a while organizing things while the girls unorganized them for me. It was fun. Lots and lots of fun! Then I worked for a while preparing for Sunday's lesson. I teach kindergarten on Sunday mornings. That's a hoot and a half! Then I took Ashton to a birthday party while Cary stayed at the church and worked until about 3 p.m. Then we met at the house and headed out the door again to take the girls to see Miss Patty Cake Christmas at FB Orlando. When we finished up there, we treated ourselves to a good dinner out after our hard day. Cary and I have so much work to get done before we leave town next week that after church tomorrow, I'll probably go to the office for the rest of the day while he puts the girls down for a nap and works at home on his big 25 page paper that's due next Monday. Oh my goodness, we need a weekend! My car is FILTHY and in big need of a good cleaning. My house needs a deep cleaning. My Fall decorations need to be taken down so I can get out the Christmas stuff. My carpets need to be steam cleaned. Oh and some sleep and relaxation would be nice!

Talking Walls and other crazy mommy tricks

2008-11-20T21:29:00.003-05:00

So as promised...the tale of talking walls.

Ashton. God love her. She is my warrior child. Spankings...she scoffs at spankings. (Actually she spits at me when I spank her. Seriously.) Strong willed is an understatement. I really should blog about her more often so that one day when she's all grown up and a wonderful, productive member of society, I can write a book about raising a warrior child. My challenge, of course is to channel her warrior mentality into (eventually one day) fighting for what's good, fighting for the Lord, fighting for truth in this world. But for now, I'd settle for not fighting with her sister, not fighting with me every time I ask her to pick up her toys, or brush her teeth, or leave her shoes on in the car, or not unbuckle her seatbelt until the engine has cut off. I could go on and on. Everything is a battle. I know she's three. BUT...I've raised a 3 yr old already. I'm telling you. She's different. Even my grandmother, mother of 6, shakes her head at Ashton and just says over and over,"You've got a mind of your own girl." To say the least! Fortunately, she saves all of her fights for me and daddy. She's an absolute angel at school and at church.

I've had to get really creative in disciplining Ashton. The goal is first time obedience, but when you're dealing with a 3 yr old warrior, you can't just simply be a dictator and expect immediate perfection. It ain't gonna happen. Threats don't work. The rod of correction (Rodney) doesn't work. Time outs don't work. I've had to get really creative, or crazy, one of the two. Probably more crazy than anything. I remembered when I was a teacher that the crazier you act, the more the children are intriqued by you and thus the quieter they get and then they simply obey b/c they realize you've gone over the deep end and they're afraid not to obey. So when I was teaching, I would do things like talk to the walls or the clock or the locker or the desk when I was trying to get the class's attention. For example, "Hey there Mr. Clock, are your arms tired yet? Mine sure are! You know what else is tired? Me! I'm tired of waiting for these kids to close their mouths so we can line up for lunch. What's that? You'll freeze time for me? Great. Let's try that..." You get the idea. At first, the kids would all be talking to one another and then they'd see their crazy teacher talking to a clock, so they'd stop long enough to listen and then voila, obedience. I thought, hey if it works on 4th-7th graders, it's BOUND to work on a 3 yr old.

So picture this. 45 Minutes of me hovering over my child who is on the floor asking her to please clean up the mess she's made of paper cuttings on the floor. She's whining, "I can't do it." And I'm saying, "You made the mess, you can clean it up!" Sound familiar? 45 minutes and a few swats from Rodney later....NOTHING. I left the room to re-gain my composure. I cheered myself on from the potty. You can do it Heather! You ARE stronger than a 3 yr old! You CAN win this battle. So I marched myself back into that kitchen and I said turned to look at the wall that Ashton had been leaning up against for 45 minutes and I said, "What's that wall? Ashton did you hear that? That wall is talking?" She slowly started to peak her head out of the ball she was curled up into. "What's that wall? You love holding Ashton up? I love to hold Ashton too. I wish she would let me hold her." Now granted, this was the love of Christ coming out b/c I certainly DID NOT FEEL like being sweet and nice and loving at this point. And I continued to talk to the wall and pretended as though the wall were talking back. I said things like, "I don't think she can pick up those papers either. What, you want to SEE her pick up the papers? Oh I don't know if she can. I sure wish she could though because I would hate for us to all go watch that Christmas movie and drink hot cocoa without her. What wall, you like hot cocoa too? Me too, it's soooooo yummy and with marshmallows and sprinkles on top? YES! Me too!" And then it happened, she started to laugh a little, she even smiled at me, and then she started to clean up her papers. One by one, she picked them up and put them in my hand. I was on the floor with her. Not compromising my expections, she had to do all the work, but I met her half way in that I was on her level, talking in a calm, loving, silly crazy mom way, and it totally worked! It did what 6 spankings and 45 minutes of time out couldn't do! After the papers were all picked up, I scooped her up and loved on her and explained why it was so important to obey mommy and daddy and how we love her too much to let her be disobedient. And then I prayed with her and we asked Jesus to forgive both of us...her for being disobedient and Mommy for losing her patience! I think it's so important that we admit our short comings to our children and that they witness us asking God for forgiveness. And then there was that time of sweet and tender love and affection afterwards to mend both of our broken hearts.

And since that incident, rather than resorting to what doesn't work with her (spankings and time outs) I've challenged myself to get more creative and loony tuny with her and do things like tickle her into submission or sing a crazy song that makes her WANT to do what I've asked her to do. And it has worked.

Last night, I was thinking back to when a guy in our church gave me a card with Ashton's name on it and he said while he was mowing the grass, God gave him this word on Ashton. It said, "God's mighty warrior". You can read about that blog post here. I cling to that promise during these toddler years that one day, all of this will and fight will be channeled the right way. But getting there, LORD help me!

What is the world coming to, part 2

2008-11-19T13:04:00.002-05:00

Today I had to...

1. Sign a consent form for Ashton's preschool to use germ-ex on her hands!

2. Sign a permission slip to allow Lexi to purchase whatever she wanted at her school's Book Fair.

Now obviously, there had to be complaints or else there would be no need for consent forms right?

Are you kidding me??? Germ ex? Who complains about Germ ex? It's a staple item in my house. I have it in the house, in the car, in the purse, in the diaper bag. I asked her teacher, "Okay, so did someone complain and that's why y'all had to send these consent forms out?" And she said that they had their annual inspection from DCF (same thing as CPS in Texas) and this was one thing they got busted on...using Germ ex!

And as for the Book Fair, I understand when you give a child $20 bucks to go to the Boof Fair, that they may not always make the wisest choices and they may come home with something you wished they hadn't purchased, but that's the fun of the Book Fair...getting to shop without your mom hovering over you! I LOVED THE BOOK FAIR when I was a kid. That's one of my favorite school memories. I was so excited for Lexi when she told me her class was going to the Book Fair today. I wanted to send her with plenty of money so she could buy whatever she wanted, knowing good and well that she would probably come home with something I would have never chosen for her. But when your kid comes home with an unwise purchase, make it a teachable moment and move on. You don't complain to the school! For Heaven's sake!

Whatever the world is coming to, I'm sure it's not good!

The "Gourd"ans, dr visit, chipmunks, and talking walls

2008-11-17T21:38:00.006-05:00

Ashton had a cold all week last week. I had to take her to the dr. last week while we were in Texas because of an awful cough. Turned out, she had a double ear infection...the day before our flight home. That made for a thrill a minute at 30,000ft. So, for only the 2nd time in her life, she took antibiotics. That child is rarely sick, but when she gets sick, SHE GETS SICK! Here we are a week later and SHE STILL HAS THAT COLD! The cold that never ends. But this weekend, Lexi started coughing. She has asthma, so a cold is never just a cold. It usually results in pneumonia rather quickly. So I took no chances and kept her home from school today to visit the dr. She's gonna live! But she is on mega steroids, 2 different types. And the doctor said she should stay home for a few days to have her breathing monitored. Great! The doctor said, "Oh it's just kindergarten!" She obviously does not have a kindergartener. I don't even want to think about how far behind she'll be!

So this morning while I was cleaning house, the girls were playing with our plethora of pumpkins. We have like 20,000 pumpkins in this house! Don't ask. You know your children have good imaginations when pumpkins suddenly become life-like and take on a personality of their own. I told them they should name their pumpkin family The Gourdans. Heeheee. They didn't get it. But Cary and I thought it was a knee slapper.

When we got home from the dr's office, I thought the girls may enjoy just cozyin up with mommy and daddy and watching a fun movie. We don't own a DVD player. Don't laugh. I know they're like $30 bucks these days but for some reason I can't bring myself to spend $30 bucks on entertainment. We've had like, I don't know, 4 or 5 portable DVD players for the car and they usually break after just one road trip, no matter how expensive they are. So in order to watch DVD's, we have to all huddle around my computer. I set us up in Granny's guest room. The girls love that bed! I guess it reminds them of Granny and how "cozy" she is. That's what Lexi says. I made homemade from scratch, on-the-stove-top hot cocoa...Mmmmmm, and popped some popcorn and we all watched Alvin & The Chipmunks together. It was sweet fun! You have no idea what a sacrifice this was for me! I HATE MOVIES. I can't sit still that long. There were about 10 loads of laundry calling my name. And how much more annoying does it get than chipmunks? I'll be singing that walla walla bing bang song for DAYS! But it was so worth it, just having some sweet family time together.

This post has already become so long, I think I'll save the "talking walls" for tomorrow. Cary FINALLY joined facebook today so I must go take some crazy hot and sexy pictures of my husband, the pastor, for his facebook profile. I'M KIDDING!

silk wraps are not my friend

2008-11-16T17:38:00.002-05:00

I have always had great nails. My whole life. Everyone has always complemented me on my nails. Well, except my piano teacher when I was a kid. She was always on me to cut them. I took piano lessons for 10 years. After my mom FINALLY let me quit my senior year in high school, the first thing I did was to grow my nails out as long as I wanted them. And I can grow me some nails. And they are hard as rocks. But with all of the motherly duties came ugly nails. I use my hands so much I guess. I can no longer keep polish on them for more than a couple of hours. If that! I used to go every Saturday and get my nails painted before I was married and had children. You know...back when I had time and money! Now, my left hand thumb and pointer break constantly as do my right hand thumb and middle finger. Go figure. I can't keep them even. I end up with ring finger and pinky nails so long I eventually have to cut them b/c they start curling under. Okay, maybe not that long. But it drives me crazy. I just want pretty hands. I've never had fake nails...EVER. Until last night! I did it! I finally talked my husband into letting me do this one thing for myself. I've been obsessed with it for months now. I did not want acrylic. So I settled on the silk wrap. Interesting concept. Costly and not many places will do it any more. They put on a tip with nail glue. Then they put a silk fingernail shaped fabric over your entire nail and then start layering the glue and some kind of powder, not acrylic though. So the only thing touching your actual fingernail is silk and nail glue. It's supposed to be better for you nails than acrylic. Okay...2 hours later...and beautifully painted french manicured nails...I HATE THEM! I can't wait for them to fall off. I can't do ANYTHING. I can't zip my pants. I can't unlock the sliding back door. I can't open a coke can. And wiping my bottom poses all sorts of new challenges. And my poor nails feel so clostherphobic under there. Seriously, I can't do this. What was I thinking???? But they're so pretty, they are! I think I've decided though that it's just better to live with my real nails, as uneven and unpainted as they are. Any suggestions for how to keep real nails polished without the polish chipping every time I bathe or wash dishes, which unfortantely for my nails is like...several times per day??? I've used that Sally Hansen no chip stuff. Doesn't work for me!

I'm about to clean house and do laundry. Maybe that will make them fall off faster!

They say everything's bigger in Texas...

2008-11-11T20:48:00.003-05:00

Check out this acorn we found on the ground right outside of Kyle Field at A&M. You think this is big, you should have seen the squirrel we had to fight for it. No, I'm kidding! A&M is known for their School of Agriculture. I'm thinkin that oak tree was genetically altered! Only in Texas.

Greetings From Texas

2008-11-09T11:14:00.003-05:00

We arrived in satan's city (Austin) on Friday afternoon. If you're not from Texas and know NOTHING about Austin, let me just tell you, it is home of that "other" university, the one we refer to as satan's children. Plus Austin is just a wierd place even without the university. So wierd in fact, that thier slogan is "keep Austin wierd". See? I didn't make it up! It's wierd. And the traffic! Lord! You don't know traffic until you've traveled down I35 in Austin during rush hour. Makes Houston and Dallas look like a ride at Disney World! So far we have eaten at Pappasito's, we atteneded HALF of the Aggie game (long story and I'm not just talking about the awful score), and we've eaten at my all time favorite place, "Wings N More" in College Station. After the first half of the game, Lexi walked around campus picking up rocks and a Texas-sized acorn. That sucker is HUGE! Like bigger than a squirrels head! Only in Texas. I told her we could put her rocks in a jar and label the jar, "Aggieland Rocks"...ba da bing! Today we are sort of relaxing. I "helped" mom fix her bed and I use the word "helped" lightly. Hammering and nailing is not my gift. Friday night when she and Lexi and Ashton all climbed into bed together, the bed collapsed. I don't know why that makes me laugh. Fortunately there were three other beds in the house to choose from. We have no official plans for the rest of our trip. The girls just love playing in Granny's huge backyard, which is fenced, like a backyard should be (Floridians don't fence their yards, isn't that strange???) And they love to ride their bikes on Granny's long long driveway. The weather is just perfect! Lows in the 40's, highs near 80. Beautiful! I might venture into town today to see if I can find me a few more Texas ornaments for our Texas Christmas tree. We've added to it every year for the past 7 years. It means even more to me now that I don't live in Texas. It's like a piece of home in my living room during the holiday season. This year we're adding a Florida tree. It's a lit palm tree with flamingo ornaments. Stop laughing. We bought it last year at an after Christmas sale. Now I just need me some lawn art...I'm picturing a cowboy santa on horseback being pulled by some pink flamingos!

Gonna Make Like a Baby and Head Out!

2008-11-07T00:02:00.003-05:00

I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for a long weekend trip to Texas, just me and the girls. Lexi is out of school on Tuesday, so we're going to play hookie on Monday and just make a long weekend out of it. We're going to the A&M/OU game on Saturday. I can't wait! Lots of good food and some Aggie football, doesn't get much better than that! I'll take lots of pictures so you can all feel like you were there with me. HA!

Tonight, I got to go on a shopping spree. A FREE shopping spree. Love those kind! My mom had given me a little somethin' somethin' to get the girls some warmer clothes so I headed out to the Gymboree Oulet, my favorite place to shop for children's clothing! I got like 9 complete outfits, I'm talking accessories and all, for $200! Why can Gymboree not carry adult sizes too??? And then Cary and I had been given a gift card to Olive Garden during Pastor Appreciation week (my favorite week of the year by the way) so after a long hard shopping trip, we had a feast at Olive Garden. And then Cary treated me to an early Christmas present. I have been wanting this certain pair of RayBan sunglasses for MONTHS. I've shopped around and I just knew I would not be happy until I had those sunglasses. They were actually one of the least expensive pairs of RayBan, but they are BEAUTIFUL and I just want to sleep in them. Like that song from the 80's...I wear my sunglasses at night! So I guess that part of my shopping spree wasn't free. But I deserved them. I haven't spent money on myself in AGES! Besides, it's been a hard week with this whole Obama thing and all.

Have a great weekend everyone! Watch for me Saturday on the T.V. at 2:30 CT on ABC. I'll be the screaming fan wearing maroon. KIDDING! Actually don't watch the game please. In case we get CREAMED! Which is highly likely.

What I Know

2008-11-04T23:08:00.004-05:00

America has just elected an African American President. What an AMAZINGLY historical event. And so wonderful (from a historical perspective).

I want desperately to like Obama. I'm sure he's a wonderful person. But when it comes to the moral and economic issues, I'm just not with him. I could not vote for him.

Black people can no longer claim the "race card". Cause we elected a freakin BLACK PRESIDENT people! (And I would bet that more white voters voted for him than black voters.)

Our country has always gone through cycles of conservatism and cycles of liberalism. I thought the world would end when Bill Clinton was elected. And then I was SURE it would end when he was elected AGAIN. But here we sit. 12 years later.

The liberal media never ceases to anger and frustrate me. But maybe our new president can get that under control since it appears as though we're headed towards socialism.

I LOVE GLENN BECK! The only voice of reason within the liberal media.

I'm sorry, but the story about Obama's grandmother dying yesterday, I'm not buying it. When I saw that on the news yesterday, I said, "PUH-LEASE!" I think they purposefully waited until the day before the election to release that statement or they pulled the plug yesterday strategically on that day to play on the sympathy vote. Call me crazy. Or a sicko!

I live in a blue state. For the first time in my life. Dark Blue, very very blue. Blue president. Blue house. Blue senate.

The sun will rise tomorrow and America will still be the most wonderful country in the world and there's no place I'd rather be.

God is in control.

Palin 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Politicked?

2008-11-03T17:16:00.004-05:00

Is anyone else as OVER this election as I am? Is it just me or has this election been exceptionally annoying on both sides and I'm not just talking about the presidential candidates. Everything from senate races, and even local races have become nothing more than a big giant mud slinging campaign. I'm so ready for this to be OVER! And in the words of my friend, Ryan Cox, I hope McCain does to Obama what Texas Tech did to Texas...beats him in the last few seconds of the game! Amen Ryan! I'm praying that the polls are off and that McCain has this one in the bag. I say we have a party tomorrow night no matter who wins just to celebrate the end of this craziness!

My Baby is 11 Years Old

2008-11-01T19:57:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday sweet Candice girl! You'll always be my first baby! I hope I have brought you as much love and joy as you've brought me. I can't imagine my life without you. You are truly a girl's best friend!

Today for Candice's birthday, we made her an egg sandwhich for breakfast. She's a vegetarian, so an egg sandwhich was on her diet and still a tasty treat. I don't know if vegetarians eat eggs, or does that make her a vegan? Hmmm... Oh well, she just can't eat meat. After breakfast, Cary put her up on the bed for some good ol' Mommy/Candice lovin! I had already planned to wash sheets today, so we rolled around under the covers and had some sweet birthday love. Right now, Daddy is making Candice a birthday cake...pumpkin bread! Mmmmmmm. And he's also playing her favorite game, Hide and Seek. I hope it was a fun day for my special girl.

Fall Fotos

2008-10-31T21:01:00.002-04:00

About half way through starts the pictures from today. Ashton had a costume parade at her school. Lexi had "On the Farm" day. And we also carved our pumpkin (in swimsuits and shorts...only in Florida!) Tonight we went Trick or Treating. Here are some Fall Fotos of the girls!

Trip to the Dentist & Fall Festival

2008-10-30T10:21:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was a very busy day. After the girls were both off to school, I helped Cary by running some last minute Fall Festival errands for him. Then after picking the girls up from school, they both had their 2nd dentist appointment. It went MUCH better than the first trip! They both practically RAN in the door and were fighting over who was going to go first. WOW! What a difference 6 months makes! We went to our family dentist in town, Dr. Colbern (if anyone is looking for a new dentist...he's wonderful!) Lexi does have her first cavity unfortunately. Daddy has a mouth full of lead. I hope she's not going to follow in his footsteps. I didn't have my first cavity until a year ago! But I was part of that "coat your teeth in flouride gell every night before going to bed" generation, before they knew that too much flouride was bad for you! But both girls did great. No one was the least bit frightened. Such big girls these days! After our dentist appt, we came home and transformed ourselves into some dern cute lil Texas cowgirls for the Fall Festival. The turnout was wonderful and it was such a fun event. The food was DEEEEELISH!

Here are some pics from our busy day!

Pumpkin painting!

Daddy was Indiana Jones. And my costume...I went as Mother of Cowgirls and Wife of Indian Jones!

Fall Festival Tonight

2008-10-29T14:14:00.002-04:00

So if you live locally, PLEASE come! Our church is hosting its 2nd annual Treasure Quest Fest. It's going to ROCK! Hayrides with hot cocoa and our crazy youth worship leader playing kidz songs on the guitar on the hayride, lots of games and crafts for the kids to enjoy, lots of candy and prizes. I just went and picked up FOUR Toys R Us gift cards which will be door prizes! And Cary is going to perform an episode of Kidzchurch, which will kind of showcase what we do on Sunday mornings for visitors to see. It also goes along with the Treasure Quest theme. Everything is FREE! Even the yummy food...hot dogs, hamburgers, pulled pork BBQ sandwhiches, popcorn, cotton candy! It's gonna rock! The weather is AWESOME...sunny, clear, breezy, lows in the 40's tonight, a perfect night for an event like this. If you don't live locally, please pray for this even to be a total success from beginning to end. We only have a small handful of opportunities throughout the year to really reach out to our community in such a big way like this. For some folks, this is a chance to maybe find a church home. But for others, it's a chance for them to just see, "Hey, this place is not so bad after all." And maybe they'll come back and maybe they won't. And for some who already have a church home, this is just a fun family night to be blessed by a church that has been so richly blessed by the God we serve. So just pray that all goes well and if you're in my neck of the woods, the fun starts at 6!

I Heart Lasagna & Target

2008-10-28T16:12:00.002-04:00

I've been craving homemade lasagna for WEEKS but I really hate to cook. I figured out why I don't like to cook. It involves sweating and standing. Two of my least favorite things. But yesterday I finally made that special trip to the store just to buy homemade lasagna ingredients. I think a trip to the Olive Garden would have been cheaper. But not nearly as yummy! And last night, I made the mother of all lasagnas! It was NINE heavenly layers! Yes, NINE! It was absolutely divine. So good in fact that I had to have it for breakfast because the thought of waiting till dinner to eat leftovers was just not gonna do it. And guess what Lexi and I just had for an afternoon snack....lasagna! Once again, the thought of waiting till dinner to eat leftovers was just not gonna do it. I'll be glad when the pan is gone so I can stop eating. This is why I don't make homemade lasagna very often. Can anyone say "weight watchers"? On a side note, Lexi ate all of her broccoli but left some lasagna on her plate. Not sure which planet she's from.

And another love of mine...Target. Oh Target! Red dot bliss! I love that place. Walmart who? Today after Ashton's 6 month neurologist appt, since I was in Orlando, I decided why waste all that gasoline on just a trip to the doctor, let's make the most of it and do Target while we're here! Okay, back up, it's like a high of 63 here today???!!!! A windy, sunny, beautiful high of 63! BUT I'M FREEZING! And my Floridaized body owns nothing but flip flops and shorts and t-shirst. So we were in desperate need of some closed toe shoes, although I hate closed toe shoes. My feet feel all claustrophobic and whatnot. My toes are gasping in there, "Must have fresh air!!!! Top of shoe messing up beautifully pedicured toenails!!! LET ME OUT!!!!!" But anyways, I got stride rite caliber shoes, little mary jane's for Ashton in both brown and navy blue for...are you sitting down...$6.98! I ended up buying 5 pairs of children shoes and what deals I got! Of course I didn't buy myself any closed toe shoes because once again I hate closed toe shoes and this is Florida where you can wear flip flops every day of the year and no one will look at you strangely like you're breaking a cardinal rule of fashion. (This DOES happen in Dallas. I promise!)

Well, we're off to gymnastics in our new Target gymnastics outfit that I got for $9.98! And then back home for another plate of lasagna for dinner!

Finally, Some Fall and a Date Night

2008-10-27T11:03:00.003-04:00

This was a busy busy weekend with Granny in town. And thankfully some Fall weather has finally arrived! (Although after only 2 nights in the upper 50's, I'm ready for Summer again!) On Friday evening, we attended Ashton's Fall Festival at her school. On Saturday, we started out the day with breakfast at Cracker Barrell. More on that later. Then we went to the pumpkin patch in Celebration and to Seaworld for their "spooktacular" or whatever halloweeny name it had. It wasn't spooky. Very kid friendly. Then on Sunday after church we took the girls to the new indoor bounce house place that just opened in town. Cary picked me up from there and we went on a dinner date while my mom stayed the girls and got them fed, bathed, and put them in bed. YEA Granny! Cary and I had a nice dinner at Benihana's. We wanted to go some place nice that we wouldn't normally get to go for dinner and passing by the hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant on the way to Orlando made me hungry for some Asian cuisine. Cary calls it Benihaha's. Don't ask why. It was yummy. But here we are some 12+ hours later and I can't get that dipping sauce taste out of my mouth. I've brushed twice, used listerine twice, chewed gum...it's still there! One more reason I could never be Asian. But back to the Cracker Barrell story. My mom had bought these beautiful red suade western outfits for the girls for their halloween costumes at a western store near her house. They were SO cute, and about $60 a piece! She had also bought them matching red cowgirl hats. But when they tried them on, they were way too small. Even Lexi's size was too small for Ashton. My mom was just sick. So, we thought we would go to Sheppler's after breakfast on Saturday and see if we could find the girls something cute and westerny. BUT...low and behold...we walked in to Cracker Barrell and there were the two most darling little cowgirl outfits RIGHT THERE at Cracker Barrell, $23! So we snatched them up! But Ashton, who has a mind of her own, says, "I don't wanna be a cowgirl, I A PRINCESS!" So Granny bought her a pink princess costume too! In addition to her cowgirl outfit. I tried to convince her to be a cowgirl princess. I said, "Mommy can put make up on you and fix your hair real pretty and you can wear some big blingy jewelry. You'll look just like a Texas cowgirl!" But she was having no part of it. So it will be interesting to see which costume she ends up in this week. (My money is on the princess dress!) Every morning I have to fight with her about her clothing. I always lay out her school clothes and she wads them up (after all my ironing efforts) and puts them back in her drawer saying, "I don't wanna wear this..." and puts on a dress up dress and says, "I A PRINCESS!" Lord, help me!

It's a good thing she's so cute!

The Pumpkin Prayer

2008-10-23T00:21:00.003-04:00

As I was reading a friend's blog today about the Christian origins of Halloween, it caused me to think about my own feelings for the day. Though it may have had Christian origins, Satan has certainly distorted this day into a day that glorifies evil. The images are all around us. If I see another commercial during prime time television for Universal's Night of Horror, I'm going to lose my mind! But in our home, we have refused to allow Satan to steal the joy away from our children over something they don't even understand. And if I didn't let them participate, I may be just fueling the fire to rebellion later. To them, it's all about wearing a cool costume and getting candy. That's innocent enough. However we don't live under a rock, so I know they will be exposed to the evil images and the witches, ghosts, goblins, spiders, and the other eerie creepy visual reminders of how Satan has yet again taken away the glory from God on this holiday.

Because we can't escape the season, why not embrace it in your own way? You CAN focus on the God who has given you much to be thankful for during this season of thanksgiving and harvest. You may have seen this pumpkin carving illustration before, but I think my children are finally old enough to incorporate this tradition into our halloween plans, a little modified of course.

Being a Christian is just like a pumpkin! Let me try to explain, I brought this pumpkin here to help me illustrate what I mean. (Proceed to carve the pumpkin.)

First, God picks you from the pumpkin patch and brings you in from the field. The Bible says He selects us out of the world. We are in the world, but no longer of the world.

He then washes all the "dirt" off the outside that we received from being around all the other pumpkins. All the outside influences of our former life must be cleaned up. Old things are passed away and all things are become new.

Then, He carefully removes all the "yucky stuff" called "sin" out from the inside. Look at this! Yuk! Sin will not have such internal power.

He then changes us from the inside out by the Power of His Word. That's why it is important to go the church and learn about God's Word.He carefully removes all those seeds of doubt, hate, greed, and fear. He replaces them with the seeds of faith, hope and love.

After Jesus is invited inside, you begin to experience the changing power of God's love in your life.Then He carves a new smiling face. Our countenance is changed by the power of His presence in our life. We then become so grateful. It can even show on our face!

Now we are going to light this candle inside. Look! This pumpkin now reflects the light from inside out. So too, when Jesus, who is called the Son of Light, lives inside of us, He shines through our life for all to see. We can let His light reflect through us to reveal His presence. "Let your light so shine before men that they may be able to see your good works and glorify your Father, who is in heaven."

So you see, we Christians are really like this pumpkin! We will never be the same with Jesus inside of us. We can say like this jack-o-lantern, "Thy presence, my light!"

You can also use this prayer in conjunction with it. You can also have them draw pictures of their pumpkin and share the gospel with their friends. We love to do this each year after the pumpkins have outlived their outdoor decorating potential.

The Pumpkin Prayer
{cut off top of pumpkin}Lord, open my mind so I can learn new things about you.

{remove innards}Remove the things in my life that don’t please you.Forgive the wrong things I do and help me to forgive others.

{cut open eyes}Open my eyes to see the beauty you’ve made in the world around me.

{cut out nose}I’m sorry for the times I’ve turned my nose at the good food you provide.

{cut out mouth}Let everything I say please You.

{light the candle}Lord, help me show your light to others through the things I do.

Amen
By: Liz Curtis Higgs

The Queen Mum is Coming

2008-10-22T08:56:00.002-04:00

TOMORROW! That would be my mom...a.k.a. the Queen Mum, Irm the worm, Santa Claus....but most importantly....Granny! The girls are on fall break tomorrow and Friday so Granny is coming to spend the long weekend with them. And to cut their hair! My mom is a great hair cutter. She's never been to beauty school. She's not a professional hair cutter. In fact, I think her job title is something like Software Engineer Consultant or something of that nature. But she can cut a mean head of hair! So we've decided that Granny must see the girls once a month, if for no other reason than to cut their hair. It's a good excuse, don't you think? The girls are so excited. We're going to Ashton's fall festival at her school on Friday night. We're going to take the girls trick or treating at Seaworld some time this weekend. Granny has a season pass too! We might even see if we can talk Granny into the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom while Cary and I go on a date night to Blizzard Beach. Heeeheeee.

Off the subject, Lexi got a 100 on her first spelling test last week and she has another one today. Although, her teacher is far more gracious than I would be. She spelled the words correctly, but she wrote them in the wrong order. I don't get it. How does that happen? The teacher calls out the word, they write it down. How did she do that? Who knows. All that matters is that she got ice cream on Friday! Since this was a short week of studying, I hope she can do as well today.

This morning when Daddy was getting the girls in the car, Lexi said, "I eat breakfast at school EVERY morning. (this is news to me) It's my favorite...cereal and bananas and milk!" She said that her friends invited her so she started going. Uh....hello....HOW is this possible? She gets there like RIGHT on time, how does she have time to eat? And why am I just now hearing about it? So she's eating TWO breakfasts every day! Okay, this kind of explains why we've noticed she's been kind of beefin' up a little since school started. I've been making sure to pack really healthy lunches and snacks and Daddy has been taking them on bikerides and jogging and to the park to play soccer because we thought maybe being in school all day has made her more sedentary and she just needs more activitiy because God help her, she has my genes. Poor thing. Now please don't think I'm just being shallow for noticing when my child packs on a few pounds. There are things I am shallow about, but this is not one of them. It's just that I've had a weight issue my ENTIRE life so I'm very sensitive to the fact that I don't ever want my children to endure what I went through as an overweight child. I just want them to be healthy and fit!

Okay, so I'd better quit wasting time and get busy cleaning this house, which is what I was supposed to start doing an hour ago and it's still not happening. When will they invent a self cleaning house? I wish I had a magic wand.

So in case you missed it on facebook...

2008-10-20T13:11:00.002-04:00

I kind of sort of maybe just a little teeny tiny itty bitty bit perhaps maybe might be thinking that I want another baby. It all started about a month ago. Up till then, it was NO WAY, NO HOW, NO CHANCE, AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN! And then I don't know what happened, but all the sudden my heart began to change and there would just be these little longings here and there. It took me about 3 weeks to get up the guts to tell my husband. And he responded exactly like I knew he would...."WHAT are YOU smokin?" I guess I should explain that we always wanted three kids but somewhere during the midnight hours of sleeplessness and poop and wet sheets that needed to be changed at 3 a.m. and the thought that our bank account could nearly double if I went back to work full time we finally settled on the fact that maybe just 2 lil darlins wasn't such a bad plan after all. And that was that. It was settled. No more kids! In less than 2 years, I could go back to work and all would be well in the universe. But I can't help these feelings that have overcome me lately. And I will be 35 soon. "I ain't no spring chicken," as my grandmother would say. But my husband is still in denial that I ever even mentioned the hint of a possibility of another. Which means, God would have to do a heavy duty overhaulin of a work on his heart if this is meant to be. We do serve a God who is in the miracle business thankfully. And I am on the pill. I call it my happy pill. For a reason. If I stop taking it....um....I won't be happy if you catch my drift. It keeps me hormonally sane. Whew...those 4 days of placebo pills at the end of the month are just about enough to put me over the edge. And then when I think about the finances and how we are SO stinkin close to financial bliss, it just makes my head spin to think of starting over with a newborn and FIVE MORE YEARS of being at home! I do work part time. But my teaching salary in Texas was more than three times what I currently make.

However, I once heard a very wise woman whom I adore (Lisa Welchel) say, "When making a difficult decision, take finances and fear out of the equation." Because we do serve a mighty God who makes things happen in His way and if this is His will, He will continue to provide for us faithfully. And I guess this also means I should go back on Weight Watchers so I can LOSE weight BEFORE I gain it! Makes perfect sense doesn't it? Well, I mean, just in case. You know.

Ramblings

2008-10-18T11:23:00.002-04:00

Today is the first day in my Aggie life that I'm going to try not to care about the Aggie game (the game I'm missing that my mom is at and I can't even watch on t.v....boohooo!) Today, if the Aggies can just keep the game within a 40 point loss and put at least one touchdown on the board, I'll consider it an (emotional) victory. God help em!

This morning, Cary was in the girls' room playing "house" and when he came out he said Lexi was the mommy and he was the daddy and Ashton was one of their children (named Amy) and they had 8 other children, some of which were human and some of which were not human. Hmmmm. I told him the non human ones must take after their daddy!

The other night at the dinner table, Ashton took off all her clothes and announced she had to POOP. Yes, we were at home, not at a restaurant. Thank goodness. A few seconds later, Lexi yelled from the bathroom, "CAN SOMEONE PLEASE COME WIPE ME?" I quickly said, "1-2-3-not it!" When Cary got back from that chore and continued with his dinner, I said, "Did you ever think that one day you would be sitting at the dinner table with a naked girl talking about poop and eating all at the same time?" He said, "Nope, but for some reason it seems completely normal." I agreed. Awkwardly.

I must have woken up a thousand times last night, feeling the need to snuggle up to my honey while that t.v. song, "You're my best friend" played over and over and over in my mind. I can't for the life of me remember what show or commercial that song is from and that's the one and only line from the song I know...You're my best friend. Poor guy.

Good news...it has been reported from Seguin, Texas that my children now have a halloween costume! Yes! Western outfits...Red Suade cowgirl outfits. I can't wait to see them all dressed up!

Well, I'm going to continue cleaning house and pretend not to care that my Aggies kick off in 25 minutes. And I'm also going to pretend not to care that ESPN's College Gameday show was in Austin today and the people in the crowd were wearing long sleeves and sweatshirts while my kids are playing outside in their swimsuits. Happy Fall huh?

Farm Livin Is the Life for Me...NOT

2008-10-15T21:34:00.005-04:00

Ashton and I went on a school field trip today to Green Meadows Farms in Kissimmee. It was fun, dirty, but fun. Farms are dirty. I know. I don't really like dirt so much. Or salmonella bacteria. I caught a duck with my own 2 hands. Yup. I sure did. Took a picture of it too cause I knew no one would believe me! How does one catch a duck, you might ask? Very carefully. There were about 30 ducks in a pen. And there were about 15 children and parents lined up along the fence inside the pen. On the count of three, we all started walking very slowly towards the ducks. And all the ducks took off in the opposite direction until they were finally all cornered along the fence. And then I just scooped one up from behind. You have to put your hands over their wings and then you tuck it under your arms like a football. See, I'm a duck holdin' expert already!

She was awfully proud of her pumpkin and YES, that's a swimsuit she's wearing. Not a day goes by that Ashton doesn't put on her swimsuit! She would LIVE in her swimsuit if we would let her. This was on our way to pick up Lexi from school. She wanted to take her pumpkin with her everywhere.

SEE...I TOLD YOU I CAUGHT A DUCK!!!!!

Ashton's sweet little class and her teacher, Ms. Michele.

Okay, THIS is a REAL water buffalo! I didn't know there was such a thing. I just thought it was some make believe creature in a veggie tale's song! But what do ya know! His name is Elmer.

Got Gas?

2008-10-13T16:00:00.003-04:00

This is not about gasoline, the kind you put in your car. Although praise the Lord, the prices are coming down! $3.09/gallon right now! My mom said it's $2.68/gallon in her neck of the woods. Thank you Jesus! Something good has come from this economic crisis! But this post is really about the other kind of gas. You know, CO2, or something like that. I failed Chemistry. No, really.

Today when Lexi got home from school, she announced, "NOW, I can finally POOT!" and she let one rip!

I don't know why that's blog worthy, but I thought it was hillarious! She will not like me for this when she is 16 and comes across this post in our bloggity coffee table book!

I'm back...

2008-10-12T19:43:00.002-04:00

I've been MIA for a few days. I think 5 days between posts is a new record for me! We've been busy busy busy. Cary's family has been in town for the week, since last Saturday. They stayed in Orlando, so we spent our evenings and weekends over there visiting with them. Add to that school and work and homework and gymnastics and church and Seaworld and a visit to the after hours clinic and well, we just haven't spent much time at home this week. I've had a killer bladder infection this week...I know you will sleep better tonight now that you know that. So I was the one at the clinic yesterday. Thank God for antibiotics! I'm a new woman today. (A new woman developing a yeast infection from the miraculous antibiotics.) Was that too much info? You gotta love antibiotics. I've had 2 yogurts today and a gallon of water. Not helping. Okay, so moving on...we went to Seaworld on Thursday. I love Seaworld! My kids think Seaworld is better than Disney. Ashton went to a Build A Bear party yesterday and made a cute brown bear and named him "Little Bear". And Little Bear is wearing a Little Mermaid costume a red hair wig. Heeheee. We spent about 2 hours today working with Lexi on her school work, getting her ready for her 6 weeks tests this week. Oh the pressure these days in kindergarten! Still trying to figure out halloween, I mean, fall festival costumes. My Aggies are stinky this year. When does basketball season start??? Can we just forfeit the rest of the football season??? How does a school with the best facilities in the COUNTRY, and that's not comin from me, that's from a whole slew of sports writers, whose athletic's organization brings in more money than any other school in the conference, whose fans show up in 80,000+ masses week in and week out, who pays their coaching staff millions and millions of dollars, who is located in the football capitol of America...HOW DO THEY STINK SO BADLY? I don't get it. I still need a new car. Or two. Does McCain even have a prayer? Will Casey Anthony FINALLY go back to jail this week? Did Adriana on 90210 really die last week or was that just Hollywood trickery? The suspense is killing me. Does anyone else love Glenn Beck on CNN as much as me? He's the only person in the media with the slightest bit of common sense. Watch his show. Really. It's good stuff.

We use POSITIVE reinforcement, really we do...

2008-10-08T22:33:00.003-04:00

I'm not quite sure where to draw the line between positive reinforcement and just plain ol' bribery! This morning, Cary and I were so groggy, I guess we hit the snooze button one too many times, or maybe Ashton had been playing with my alarm clock again, I'm not sure which. Sometimes when she secretly gets ahold of it during the day, she turns the volume all the way down or all the way up. Lovely. I know. This morning we both popped out of bed like someone had lit a fire under our mattress as we seemed to simultaneously realize it was 7:20 and we had already gotten a 20 minute late start to our day. It generally takes about 20 minutes to coral the girls into the tub in the mornings. But not today. You can call it bribery. We like to call it "positive reinforcement". Daddy said, "Good morning girls, the first one to the tub gets candy!" And MAN, they were OFF to the races! Lickity split! Ashton couldn't get her clothes off fast enough. WOW! That worked. Now once they get in the tub, which is only half the battle, you have to get them OUT of the tub, which is a chore in and of itself. Once they get to playin, they just aren't eager to get out. SO...daddy was just full of tricks this morning. He said, "Watch this girls...and he hit the button which turns on the jacuzzi jets!" WOW they couldn't get out fast enough. They were terrified by the loud noise the jets make. Okay, so that really shouldn't be so funny. But it was. Kind of. Now we know. Candy and jets.

Kindergarten is Kickin My Booty!

2008-10-07T20:38:00.002-04:00

Okay, be honest, show of hands if you thought kindergarten was for coloring, becoming proficient with scissors, learning your letters and numbers, and just learning how to "be in school". Well times have changed! Oh my stars. We are doing about AN HOUR of HOMEWORK every night and I still feel she's behind, or struggling I should say. And I know it's not because she's slow or lazy, it's because she's FIVE! I mean, like, they're past learning their letters and sounds. They've moved on to STORY WRITING, yes story writing, you didn't read that wrong, they're story writing. Can I say it again? Story writing. With a beginning, middle, and ending. Okay, at our house, we're still on "V says vuh". Forget about Heather, the mommy, for a minute. This is coming from Heather the teacher...UH HELLO...STATE LEGISLATURE or U.S. DEPT OF EDUCATION or whoever the h-e-double hockey sticks is coming up with this CRAP...WAKE UP AND SMELL THE FRENCH TOAST STICKS! I'm sorry, but 5 yr olds have no business writing stories. You cannot rush these first few years of reading and phonics instruction. It is the foundation for which the rest of their education will rely upon. Most 5 yr olds are not developmentally ready for the academic pressures that are being put on them in school these days. And you want to talk about pressure, Lexi is about to take her THIRD test! We're only 6 weeks into the school year. I recently read a book about Biblical Worldview that was bashing the public education system for "watering down the curriculum". Are you kidding? I wanted to ask that author, "What are you smokin?" I know her teacher is just as frustrated and annoyed as I am about the ridiculous pressures they put on these kids and when I say "they" I mean the government, not the schools. The schools are just doing what they have to do by government standards. I mean, if I wanted her to be face down in a book all day and not enjoy childhood, we would move to China!

But I do have to say, she is THE CUTEST girl in the class and the best dressed and she's THE BEST artist in the class, hands down, I know because I went to open house tonight and I saw everyone else's scarecrows and Johnny Appleseeds and granny apples and hers were WAY better than everyone else's. And that has to count for something. That's like way more important to me than what reading group she's in. Way.

Check These Out...

2008-10-06T16:24:00.004-04:00

My friend, Kristi (Ian & Elise's mommy on my blog list), worked some magic on my pictures from the Aggie game and made them look almost like oil paintings or chalk scetches. You have to click on each picture to get the full effect of how gorgeous they are. I think I want to wallpaper a room in one of these!

The Halloween Saga Continues

2008-10-05T21:42:00.002-04:00

Okay, first, we do Halloween at my house. I mean, not "DO" Halloween, but you know, we dress up and go trick or treating. We don't do the scary stuff. We don't tell scary stories. We don't take our kids to scary places (although we did go to the Walmart parking lot yesterday, talk about SCARY, the only thing scarier than Walmart is the Walmart parking lot!) So I guess what I'm trying to say is that we don't embrace Halloween in a worldly, evil sense, but I would never deprive my children of the joy, and it is a childhood joy, to get dressed up in a fun costume, and trick or treat to get TONS of candy that they will never be able to eat (because Daddy will hide most of it and eat it himself). And for the record, Halloween night is a GREAT way to meet your neighbors!

SO...the Halloween saga...what to be, what to be! At first, the girls wanted to be Tigger and Pooh. Okay, great. We live 30 minutes from downtown Disney. I'll just go sell one of my kidneys and then go to Disney and purchase 2 costumes. Right? Because that's about what a Tigger and Pooh costume would cost! Well, this weekend Ashton said she wanted to be a ballerina. FABULOUS. We have that! Costume done. I don't have to trade in an organ. Lexi wanted to be a mermaid. Okay, back to Disney for an Ariel costume. Will only have to sell half a kidney. Today, the girls got out their cowgirl boots and cowgirl hats which gave me another idea...how bout cowgirls? Kids will ask, "What are you?" And Lexi can say, "I'm Alexis from Texas!" So that's where I'm at. Halloween is like 3 weeks away and I got nuthin!

And by the way, WHY does Universal Studios feel the need to put their awful "Halloween Horror Nights" ads EVERYWHERE that small children go? They even advertise on TV during family programing. Their ads are disgusting. And oh their billboards. Awful. I think they should be illegal. I'm really more into the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party"myself.

Even the dog bleeds maroon

2008-10-04T09:57:00.003-04:00

Candice was laying on the couch last night, where she always lays, yes, she's the Queen, and Cary's A&M hat was laying right next to her head. And I said, "Oh look, Candice is trying to wear your Aggie hat." So we just stood the hat up a bit and snapped this picture of my lil sleeping beauty!

My Hair

2008-10-01T16:05:00.002-04:00

My hair has been a constant source of discussion on this here blog. There was this recent post. And this one. And this one is one of my all time favorites. And yet, here we go again. I kind of like my hair. Most days. Even if I do live in the humid subtropics. Today I got a hair cut. My hairstylist whom I LOVE LOVE LOVE, she's the cutest thing, I want to be "real friends" but is that wierd to be friends with your hair person, because what if one day you want to find a new hair person, anyways, she fixed my hair a little different today. I really liked it. It was cute and trendy and she worked some magic with the flat iron that I will never be able to reproduce on my own I'm quite sure. But when Lexi got home from school she said, "Mommy, why didn't you fix your hair today?"

My reply went a little like this: "But...I....uh....uh...I, oh nevermind. Sorry, honey, I'll do better tomorrow."

What can I say? You think your hair looks great and then your kids set you straight.

Aldi

2008-09-30T14:58:00.004-04:00

I don't know what Aldi means, maybe it's a person's name, or maybe it means "yummy food", but I'm hoping it means "dirt cheap". Aldi is the name of a new grocery store in town. I hear they're popping up all over the southestern U.S. People who know of this Aldi place from other such places as Tennessee and Georgia speak of it as being an absolute wonderland for cheap, frugal mommas like myself. Now, this cheap momma use to shop at Walmart strictly for the (falling) prices, NOT for the customer service if you know what I mean. But there came a point, I'm not sure if it was the profuse sweating every time I walked into the place, the fact that it took longer to get through the lines than it did to shop for everything on my list, perhaps it was the "overly friendly" employees who seemed to have just been released from the prison work program, or maybe it was the filthiness of the store which made me feel like I needed to bathe my entire family upon returning home, I can't remember which of these things put me over the edge. But I had finally had ENOUGH and decided to find myself a new cheap place to shop except that there wasn't another cheap place to shop. Oh sure, Cary occassionally stops at Sac N Save on the way home to pick up the staple items. And there are the buy one get one free items at Winn Dixie and Publix. But still, my grocery bills climbed drastically when I quit shopping at Walmart. However, it was a price I was willing to pay because that's how much I despise going to Walmart. My grandmother got a kick out of me when she was here because I drove to the opposite side of town to go to this one Winn Dixie, despite the fact that there is one about 4 miles down the road from me. But the one on the OTHER side of town has the best shopping carts, you know, the race car ones. Not the ones where the kids sit in the back of the cart and steer the wheel. No, not those. I mean the ones where it actually has a REAL double seater kid car attached to the front of the cart which is separate from the rest of the basket. And there was only ONE in the whole store. And every time I would go, I would pray that the grocery gods were on my side and that the "special cart" would be waiting for me in the parking lot. And low and behold, it always worked. Even though the last time I went, I had to clean an entire birthday cake that had been sat on, stepped on, and crumbled up in the car just so my kids could ride in it. Still, it's better than Walmart!

But today, friends, I am leaving the "special cart" behind to shop at the new place in town, Aldi. I have high expectations about this Aldi place. On the news this weekend, they had a typical family shopping list with items that most families with children would buy at the store each week. One shopper went to Aldi and one went to Walmart and if they didn't have the same brand as they did at Aldi, they bought the cheapest brand of that item at Walmart. At Aldi, the total was $50 and at Walmart, the total was $59. That's pretty amazing if you ask me because truly, until now, Walmart has always had the best grocery prices. So I'm kind of excited about my grocery shopping experience tonight. It's not often that I'm excited about grocery shopping. In fact, I don't think I've ever gotten excited about grocery shopping. I'll let you know what I think of Aldi when I return!

The Spirit of Aggieland

2008-09-29T20:08:00.005-04:00

"Some may boast of prowess bold, of the school they think so grand. But there's a spirit can ne'er be told. It's the spirit of Aggieland."

Thought my Aggie friends might enjoy some great pics taken during last week's Army game. I found these on Texags. SO GREAT! Click on them to get the full effect.

Mike Goodson being a good sport.

Aggie team singing the Spirit of Aggieland before the game.

We don't have cheer leaders. We have 5 male yell leaders. After an Aggie victory, the fish in the corps of cadets have to chase down and tackle the yell leaders and carry them all the way across campus to the fish pond where they have yell practice to prepare for the next Aggie game.

The Nationally Famous...Fightin Texas Aggie Band! WHOOP!

We NEVER lose at halftime!

Yeah, you better be prayin boy! Justin Brantley, the punter.

"After they've boosted all the rest, they will come and join the best. For we are the Aggies, the Aggies are we. We're from Texas AMC." (from the "Spirit of Aggieland")

Farmer's Fight!

Can you tell I'm homesick?

Gig'Em Ags.

My cell phone rang...during church

2008-09-28T22:40:00.004-04:00

It was around 9:30 this morning that my cell phone began playing "The Aggie War Hymn" at a very obnoxious volumn. Not exactly an inconspicuous tune. Especially during church. Okay, so I was in kidzchurch, not "big" church, but still, the room was quiet...until..."goodbye to texas university, so long to the orange and whi-i-ite. Good luck to dear ol' texas aggies, they are the boys who show the real ol' fight"....WHERE IS THAT DAD GUMMED PHONE??? I was searching every nook and cranny of my purse. The song went on and on and on and on. Heads were turning. Okay, so they were like 6 and 7 and 8 yr old heads, but still. WHO would be calling me during church? All I could think of was that it HAD to be bad news of some sort because everyone who knows my cell phone number knows I'm in church on Sunday mornings. Finally, I found the dern thing and picked it up. Andrea. Oh no, I hope everything is okay. Andrea was my next door neighbor briefly when we lived in Keller (near Fort Worth). Although we were only neighbors for a short year, our lives had been sewn together in so many ways and therefore we hadn't lost touch. I answered the phone nervously.

"Hi Heather, I just wanted to call and tell you that I'm getting baptized today!!!!"

"You're WHAT??? Wait, start over, where, how did this happen? What does your husband think? Tell me everything."

I guess I should give you some background knowledge. Andrea always knew she believed in a God, as in God the creator, and she even prayed to God for help every now and then, but as far as having a real relationship with Him that every aspect of her life was filtered through, not so much. Beyond creating the universe, God was kind of irrelevant to Andrea most of the time. She was in a miserable marriage, on the brink of divorce. Her relationship with her mother and siblings was scarred, to say the least. There was a feeling of hopelessness and desperation that wouldn't go away. And add to that her first child in July '06 with no help or support from her husband or mother, well, life was rough. Every so often, we would chat, mostly in the front yard. She was a great cook and often prepared tasty treats for us (and for my dog) and would surprise us with them. One night, she knew I had a busy work schedule so she surprised us with a home cooked dinner. We had dined with her and her husband a few times throughout the year. And occassionally talked on the phone here and there.

One day, Andrea asked me, "So why is it that you're so different than everyone else I know? You and your husband are actually nice to each other. You seem like you're really...in love. I watch you with your kids and you never lose your patience with them (yeah right). What's your secret?"

"Well, um, uh..." I didn't know what to say without it all sounding cheesy, like a rehearsed sales pitch. But is there any other way to say it? I love Jesus! He is the reason I'm different. He is the reason I love my husband the way I do. He is the reason I treat my children with love and respect. I am to be a reflection of Him in every aspect of my life. You should try it...the whole Jesus thing....it'll rock your world. I really did say that.

She kind of accepted my answer, and said that she had hoped one day to go to church and give this whole God thing a shot. She had been really burned by Christians during her teen years at a church and really never wanted to go back. But she had a baby and didn't want her baby to be in a church nursery even for an hour a week, so she guessed she wouldn't be trying this whole God thing any time soon. Her husband was raised catholic, and I use that term, "raised" loosly because it was mainly just the box he checked off on applications in the section that said, "religion". I loaded her up with some good reads and just kept being a good friend, never mentioning God unless she would ask me a direct question about spirtitual things.

When we moved away, she stood in my driveway and cried as we pulled out. I was really her only friend, or the only friend she trusted anyways. We kept in touch through email and phone calls. She and her family came to FL last summer and we had dinner one night.

But today when she called, there was something very different about Andrea. For the first time, I heard hope and peace and JOY in her voice. She said, "Heather, you were right. He has changed my life." She found a church in Fort Worth and the way she found it made us both giggle. They were advertising a divorce recovery group and she wanted to go, even though she's not divorced, but that's how much she despised her husband. She thought maybe she could get some confirmation that "God wanted her to divorce him". Well, she went. And quite the opposite happened. She discovered that divorce was not a part of God's plan. She said, "Heather, I read the whole new testament and started to get the picture....it was not God's plan for me to divorce Wayne." And then she said, "He's coming to church today for the first time since his childhood. He's coming to see me get baptized. And my mom and my brother are coming too. And I don't really care WHY they're coming. All I know is that they're coming to God's house, so something good is bound to happen."

Andrea said that when she found this church, she immediately felt like she had found a home. She felt so welcomed and so loved. She has joined several Bible Study groups and has made lots of new friends who are patiently teaching her God's word. She even took a parenting class there. She said every aspect of her life has changed.

I was so thrilled for her, but at the same time bummed that I couldn't be there on her special day. I told her I was just in TX last weekend and had I known, I would have swapped weekends so I could be there today. I encouraged her in her walk because there will be hard times. I explained to her that her husband may not be on board with this whole new lifestyle, but not to let that get her down. Just pray for him and be an example of God's love. And as I was trying to encourage her, she was an incredible encouragement to me.

She said, "Heather, I always wanted what you had and now I know I do. I want you to know what an impact you had on my life just by your lifestyle and the way you interacted with your family. I learned so much from you. You guys may be in FL, but God is STILL using you here in TX." AMEN! Thank you Jesus!

I kept wishing I could have recorded this conversation and played it back on those hard days when I feel like a worthless piece of crap. When I feel like I'm doing NOTHING for the Lord. You just never know what kind of impact you will have on someone's life just by being yourself and doing what you do. But doesn't it feel great when you know that God has used YOU to enlarge His kingdom?

Pictures from our Texas trip

2008-09-27T23:03:00.002-04:00

Click here to see all the pics from our weekend in Texas. There were too many cute ones to put in a blog post.

Watching the Aggie game on T.V. today made me so sad. I cried. And cried. And cried. I miss home desperately. And then my mom called. She was at the game and held up her cell phone so I could hear the Aggie band at halftime. And then I cried some more.

The fat cat sat on the mat.

2008-09-26T15:11:00.003-04:00

Time for me to toot my horn. Or actually I guess I'm tooting Lexi's horn. Or maybe I'm tooting Ms. Ferreri's horn, Lexi's awesome teacher. My child, who started kindergarten a little over a month ago, who didn't know all of her letters and sounds when she started IS READING! Okay, so she's reading sentences like this, "The fat cat sat on the mat." But she's reading! I am so amazed at how far she's come in such a short amount of time. Of course we spend about 45 minutes a night doing homework with her and reviewing what Ms. Ferreri has taught her, so I guess this reading thing is kind of a "group effort". She also read this sentence, "I love my fat cat." She now knows about 20 site words, she knows her number words up to five, she knows all her color words, and she knows all the "at" words like cat, bat, fat, pat, mat, etc. And she now knows all of her letters by recognition, upper and lower case, and the sounds they make and can recognize her numbers up to 13. I am just blown away. She's going to be reading novels by Christmas break! Last week, they had humpty dumpty day which I heard was just a hoot. I sent a hard boiled egg with her to school and they did all sorts of fun things with their eggs. She memorized a gazillion nursery rhymes last week too in preparation for humpty dumpty day. Today was Johnny Appleseed Day. They were MAKING APPLESAUCE! How cute and fun is that? I just love her school and her teacher so much. She is making wonderful memories and learning so much! We're very very thankful for Mrs. Ferreri!!!! She rocks!

The School Nurse Called...at 9:30 a.m.

2008-09-25T08:59:00.003-04:00

Lexi had been sent to the nurse's office complaining of ear pain. At 9:30 a.m. She hadn't even been there for a whole hour. I explained to the nurse that we had just flown on the airplane Friday and Monday and Lexi has very sensitive ears so perhaps her ears just hadn't gone back to "normal" yet and maybe she could have her blow her nose, drink some water and send her back to class. Because I'm just really not a sucker for pain and illness drama performed by the likes of my 5 yr old future academy award winning actress/drama queen! Listen, if you had spent as much time in the classroom with children as I have, you wouldn't fall for it either! I thought the school nurse would be THRILLED that finally a parent understands the "buck up" get tough mentality and would be excstatic that this mom supports her in sending my child back to class. I mean, she didn't even have a fever! She hasn't had a cold in ages so I knew she didn't have an ear infection. But I guess I should have figured. This IS, after all, 2008 where it probably wouldn't be politically correct to tell a child who visits the nurse, "You'll be fine, go on back to class!" She was insistent that I come get her, I was insistent that she not miss another day of school after being out Friday and Monday for our trip to Texas. 15 minutes later, I was standing in the attendance office signing her out. All that hard work of packing her lunch, getting her backpack together, getting her bathed and dressed, I even ironed the very difficult cotton shirt that morning....WITH SPRAY STARCH, it was all in vain! She wasn't even there long enough for anyone to notice how cute she looked! I called and scheduled her a dr. appt for the afternoon.

We arrived at the dr. office right on time. But is anyone else bothered by the fact that if you're 10 minutes late, they make you reschedule, yet I've never had to wait for LESS THAN an hour and a half? Is it just me? Is this a double standard or what? So they quickly ushered us back to the examining room. You know, the 6x6 holding cell, the room that has no toys or television (unlike the waiting room where it's toys and movies to the max), the room where there is nothing for a child to do other than jump off the examing table over and over and over again and ask a million times what that bio hazzard box on the wall is for, the room where there is a spinning doctor stool that children are a magnet to and will one day break a bone playing with while in the dr office waiting for hours for the doctor to see them??? Yes, that room. So the nurse took us to "that room" and then said, "There are several other patients ahead of you, so it may be a while." I'm quite sure she could see my blood boiling by that statement. Okay, then WHY would you take us OUT of the fun waiting room where there are actually TOYS and bring us HERE to wait forEVER??? Ahhhh, sigh, I love going to the doctor with children! So we waited and we waited and we waited and we waited and FINALLY about an hour and a half later, the doctor came in to see us. And just as I had predicted and told the school nurse, there was not a thing in the world wrong with Lexi's ears. No infections. No fluid. Nothing. The doctor said perhaps the pain was a result of flying...DUH...or that it could be a side effect from the Singulair that she takes every day for her ashtma. Ear pain is apparently a side effect of that drug. Figures. Don't all miracle pills have awful side effects?

So that was that. I wanted to make it clear to Lexi that if you get sent home by the nurse, you don't get to come home and play and have a day off. I made her lay down all day, I made her go to the doctor, and she had to miss church last night too. Oh, she was MISERABLE. About all of that, not about the ear pain (which was already gone by the time I signed her out of the attendance office!)

On another note, I'm thinking SERIOUSLY of taking my kids back to the family doctor rather than the pediatrician. At a family doctor's office when they see small children, they get a little uncomfortable and they do everything they can to get you in and out really fast so they don't have to deal with your kids. I learned this tactic when I once took Lexi to our family doctor in Fort Worth because I couldn't get an appt at the pediatrician's office. It was like as if they had a big red button back there...code red...small child alert...get doctor immediately! If only we could find a family doctor here that we like and trust.