Happy Campers

I can definately say that the kids...and myself...are happy campers. We were all spoiled quite nicely this christmas. My sweet hubby got me some beautiful pearl earrings to match my new pearl necklace from my parents. I also got a chimanea (sp?), the Christmas with the Cranks DVD (funny stuff!), the 8th season of Friends (a MUST have), and Bath and Body Works stuff (the best)! I'd really love to fire up the chimanea every night, but with a state wide burn ban...and 2 grass fire's within view in the past 2 days...I'm a little leary.

Our Christmas holidays will wrap up this weekend with Kay and James on Friday, Gary, Kim and kids on Friday night, and my family on Saturday. We are really looking forward to getting to see everyone.

It has been a wonderful holiday season for us and we are so blessed.

Sorry it's short, but some one is NOT a happy camper being placed int he play pen while I try to type this. I'll try to write more later. Hope you all had a GREAT Christmas and have a very fun New Year!

Wow!

Well I was floored today! As I mentioned a few blogs back, I do contract work on the side for some guys that I used to work with that started their own business. My blog at that time was mostly complaining about how I don't have enough hours in the day to try to do it all. But it's good, quick money..hell what money isn't good, right? Anyway, I just finished a very time consuming project and was really looking forward to this check. As I opened it I saw a sticky note on it...and it was covering the amount. The note says that they really appreciate all that I've done for them and that this check was for the hours I worked + a bouns!! I was stunned! I didn't expect this at all. It was such a wonderful suprise.

So...guess I'll contime to find the hours I need to get er done :)

Christmas tree and Brayden's 1st snow

Here's a few pics of the kids decorating the Christmas tree.
















This was Matt's year to get to put the angel on the tree.
















Yesterday we had our first ice/snow storm. The kids begged me to let them go outside...how could I say no?!?














This is a shot out Brayden's window (looking East).















Brayden didn't get to partake in the snow adventure with the big kids. But he did get to stay inside and be all cute :)

Uh-oh...

As you all know, I get to work from home and keep Brayden with me all day. 99% of the time this a pure joy. 1% (some days more) of the time it is kinda difficult..especially since he became mobile. Its worked out really well because I have him fenced off to only go into the living room and my office. I have been really concerned how the Christmas tree arrangement would work since it goes behind the couch. Well I bought this HUGE baby "corral" and I can fence off the tree. I was so focused on keeping him fenced off from the tree this morning that I forgot to close 2 doors...the one to his room and the one to Matt's bathroom. How did I come to discover this??? Well I could hear him oohhing and aahhing and being completely pleased. I "thought" that he was watching his favorite show Blue's Clues. Those are the typical sounds that he makes when he watches his show. But then...there was splashing... It took a second for that sound to process in my mind and sink in before I screamed..."OH NO..." Yup, he was playing in the toilet water! Ugh! All I can say is thank goodness it was flushed. He was having the time of his life and I was mortified! He's all scrubbed down now and I learned my lesson :)

Now on to a short update... Brayden is now waving bye-bye. He doesn't actually do it to anyone or on cue. He does it while he's eating. I guess it's bye-bye to the grub?!? He took a step to me on Saturday night, but nothing since then. It's getting close.

Natalie is just going out of her mind since we STILL haven't gone to see the new Harry Potter. I've promised her that we will go, just not exactly sure when yet. Still no sports yet. Sign ups for softball will be in January sometime. For now it's art only and she's just loving it!

Matthew is counting the days till his next b-ball practice. He told me last night "Mom, just 2 more days..." This being out of the blue I said "just 2 more days till what buddy?". He replied quite enthused "Just 2 more days till practice!"

Gotta run. Hope you all have a great week!

My big fat Pollock mouth

I have a dear friend that put up a post that she has since had to delete. I hate that this had to happen and I really hate that she might have had to delete it cause of me. It was about how many retailers are going to discontinue with "Merry Christmas" and go with "Happy Holidays". Kim was very sweet in saying that she first got upset cause "he's the reason for the season" and that is seemed like we slowly but surely are getting away from that year by year. She then stated that she put some thought into and started thinking that we (Christians) aren't the only ones celebrating a holiday this time of year and that other religions are getting "left out" but saying the term "Merry Christmas". So she then felt bad by having her first negative feeling about this whole retailer ordeal.

Well...me and my big mouth felt we need to give her some backing. I probably didn't say things as eloquently as I should of, but I was a little fired up by a comment someone left her (that I took as negative towards her and Christians). I stated that "facts are facts and Christ was born and that's why we have this holiday...Period". Welll....yeah...I know...we're "supposed" to try to stay away from religion and politics..yadda-yadda. But, you know what?? It's just gotten to when almost everytime you turn around someone's trying to take out another reference of/to God from our schools, government,...MONEY! It's just getting nuts and I truly feel that this is gonna lead to a major downfall for our country.

Nothing I've mentioned is "News". And people have gotten fired up over religion (or lack there of) for ages. But today it involved my friend. A genuinely GREAT, LOVING person and that really hit home. She was just trying sweetly to touch on a topic and it backfired...possibly, probably because of me. And sweetie, I'm sorry. Most of the time when I think I'm doing what's best by "defending" a loved one...what I'm really doing is making an ass out of myself...Oops :0 This was not my intent.

Nat's tree/Matt's Robot/Big Baby Standing

Here's a quick blog to display just a few of my children's talents.



Matt worked a very long time on this robot. He said he's been working on it since my birthday. He (and we) are very proud of it :)




I told you about Nat starting her tree...well here it is. This is just amazing! I cannot believe MY child is this talented!!




I told you the baby was standing... well, here he is in all his cuteness. And I attached a couple more just to display his talent of being cute :)






Hope you all have a great weekend!

I need more hours in the day...

Ack...sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day. It has just been really busy at my 8-5 job (S&S) since we are so shorthanded. I have been doing the job of 4-5 people for months now since we have had such a horrible turnover lately. They hire 3 people and it's like 2-3 weeks later they are gone for one reason or another. So my "light" days are a thing of the past. And the 2 guys that left S&S to start their own business have been really doing awesome, but since there's only the 2 of them they are really needing help...so I've been doing contract for them also. It's quick easy money, but I typically can't work on that stuff till after 5. Plus the daily chores that need to be done around the house. Needless to say that's the reason for me not blogging so much. Right now I "should" be working on a house plan that I'm doing on the side...but, I really need some chill time.

And things are just gonna continue to get crazier. Matt will be starting Little Dribblers soon and he and Jim will be gone 1-2 times a week + we'll all be going to games. And there's all the fun of Christmas travel coming up. That will all start on Dec. 10 - the 1st of the year. Don't get me wrong...I love Christmas time and I LOVE spending time with all my family. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I just want so hard to try to make time for all that I need to do and again...there's just not enough hours in the day. But you know what? I bet I could make myself this nuts even if I didn't work. I think that this is all self inflicted. I want to have time to chill, but most of the time when I do get the time...I find laundry to do or floors to sweep..yadda, yadda. And Jim helps...don't get me wrong there either.

I know I have been blessed with a wonderful life and I wouldn't want things any other way....well except winning the lotto :) Sorry if this came off as b-tching. I guess I was just explaining my blog absence lately. I'll do better..later gators...

Friday

Boring title I know, but I really don't have much to report. I actually should be working, but I have the "don't wannas".

Took the baby back for his 3 month check up on his drifting eye problem. Things look good enough that we can still put off putting him in glasses, THANK GOD! The doctor still isn't sure what direction his eyes are gonna take and he said that's just how it is with baby's. Their little bodies are constantly changing and they can't tell ya much ..yet :) But things are good and I just have a felling he'll out grow it. His milestone for the week is standing on his own (without holding on to anything)! He's in to Stage 3 foods & loves biter bisquits(sp?)

Well Matt has once again had a good week at school and got the A/B honor roll. We are very proud of him and how much his behavior has changed at school! Him and Nat have been playing everyday afterschool with Bobby's old GI Joe stuff. It's so nice that they have something they can play and get along! Matt made Jim's day ysterday when he decided to start throwing around the football. Jim has waited a long time for this and was adament not to push the kids into any sport! So happy day for Dad :)

Nat's also doing great in school. She's also on the A/B honor roll. She's currently working on a tree in art class and I'm very anxious to see it! She said that this artwork will go to Granny Berryman. Nat has (for the time being) changed her mind about getting a horse and has really taken an interest in riding Matt's old 4-wheeler. So those to have a fun time riding back and forth to the pond most every day.

I will be heading out this weekend to to the first of many shopping trips for Christmas. I hope to be a little more organized and a little less frazzeled(sp?) We'll see...it's my goal :)

Oh my...

I've always known that I am truely blessed to have the parents I have. ANY of my siblings will say the same. These are two remarkable people. And for anyone who knows their story, their background, their up bringing...you know that my parents should NOT be the awesome people that they are. My Dad should be a "leaver" and my Mom should be an "alchie". Niether one should be the openly loving, caring, generous people that they are. I mean they'll just floor you...they just floor me. And I realize this as I get older and can truely appreciate what they have done/continue to do. I (like so many of us) went thru an awful stage where I didn't think that they knew much and thought I was pulling the wool over their eyes. OH NO...they knew! And you know what?? They still love me after that horrible stage in my life. Heck, Mom tries to tell me that she doesn't even remember that. I do! And I will forever kick myself in my butt for being like that.

What prompted me to put this "down on paper" was the unbelieveable thing that they recently did for me. As you all know, we were robbed and and most all of you know (cause I think I've mentioned it over a zillion times now), the bastard took my pearls. This just levelled me! As most of you know, it was my b-day on Friday. My parents came and stayed the weekend with us. Which that in itself is a gift! I really is. Well, they thought it necessary to bring me a gift. They handed me a large box and as I unwrap and open it ...ugh...tring to hold back the tears here....there is a smaller box inside that says Grader Jewelers...oh shit (any one of you by now knows by know where this is going). Yeah, the box contains a FULL stand of pearls. I AM FLOORED. ABOLUTELY FLOORED!! I just absolutely could not hold back the tears. You can't find the words to say at that moment...hell, I'm having a hard time with it now. All I could say was "thank you, thank you, thank you" and "this was too much".

These are my parents. The most unbelievable people I know. I love you guys...not cause of the gift(s), just you...I just love you! You guys are just unreal and I'm just so freaking blessed. I wish I could've put this into better, more eloquent words..but you just take my breath away! I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Birthday Loot

I wanted to share the gifts that my sweet family got for my birthday. You've seent he picture to the left already, but you haven't seen it framed. Jim did all by himself! And the new picture to the right! The pictures are awesome and so is the framework!! Matt also had some art work that I framed up and gave to myself :) I love them all!! I also got the dvd of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Bo Bice's single cd, Gwenn Stephani's new cd, and the 1st season of The Amazing Race...which will be a gift to all members of my family :)

I was also presented with a funny card and a rice crispy square with a candle. It was a very sweet presentation and I am very blessed to have sucha a terrific and loving little family!

Thank you guys. Thank you Jim!! I love you :)

Also, thank you Billy for being so sweet to do a blog for me. You are a super-d-duper big brother and I love you too!! Thank you Mom and Dad for calling and singing me Happy Birthday...I loved it! Beth thank you for the funny b-day ecard. Karen - thank you for the very sweet ecard! I love you all so much and again..I'm just so blessed.

Happy Halloween

Here's some pictures of the kids dressed up in their costumes. I hope to eventually send them out via Shutterfly, but I tried to load them last night and this morning and it locks up. Guess there are lots of people wanting to share Halloween pictures.





Brayden is not really any one thing (except CUTE), he's just sporting his Thor jersey.



Nat is an Army Diva/Brat?? Her uniform says "Mjr. Flirt". She was just so happy to have something to wear her Go-go boots with!



Matt is none other than Darth Vader! He was very happy to get this costume. We really only lacked one part of it and that was the voice changer, but it was almost $30!! Sorry...not happening :)


They have a really good time and got a TON of candy in a very short time. We stopped by the fire station, went to a ritzy neighborhood, and went to the First Baptist Chruch's "Truch-or-Treat". Tons of people filled the parking lot with their trucks, SUVs, and a few cars. They decorated the backs of them and the kids just went tail gate to tail gate and loaded up. It was pretty neat and quick..which was good cause it was pretty chilly. Brayden camped out with Dad in the truck. No need to get him sick again. We ended the night with a wonderful dinner from good ole Sonic.

My funny baby

How does a Pollock (sp?) baby use a walker???....









I'm a pretty funny little guy!

Nat's Art and the Pumpkin Patch

First things first... I must display my daughter's art.





The fish was her first project and this is not kiddie modeling clay. This is the real deal and I think she did a remarkable job with it.








The flower/butterfly picture was started while her fish was drying/cureing(sp?). This is INCREDIBLE and WILL be framed and put on display in our home for everyone to see!






We wook the kids to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday. A little let down, but...hey...it's Decatur and what can you expect? The kids had fun doing a hay maze and checking out all the animals they had on display: donkey, chicks, ducklings, gold fish??, and a shetland pony.




Braden wasn't altogether thrilled that he couldn't crawl around and check stuff out himself.



But he got a pumpkin, so he was happier :)



Matt had to show his strength...instead of just pose ;)~



And, then there's my beauty queen (or drama queen...depends on the day) ;p














Not too much news to report. Brayden's 9 months old today!! And Has another tooth. He's now up to 7 teeth. Everyone's seeming heathly for now. Matt's mouth's all healed and his mysterious rash is gone. Nat has a touch of a stomach bug, but she's already back to her bouncy self. Hope you all have a GREAT week!

Armadillos and Super Glue

Interesting title ...eh? They just happen to be the annoyances (is that a word?...Jim?!?) in my life right now. There is (what I assume to be) an armadillo rooting up my flower beds. He got into my monkey grass first, then rooted up some nice patches of bermuda, and he's now crossed the line and uprooted my sage and a mum! I think I've successfully replanted everything. Now I'm just waiting to see if the replanting "took". Does anyone have any helpful hints as to how to discourge the armadillo from getting into my flower beds? Any old wives tales...anything?

Now on to "super" glue. What's so freaking super?? From what I've experienced, it likes to adhere to everything EXCEPT for what it's supposed to! I broke a nose piece off my glasses several weeks ago. I thought I could fix it by putting a few drops of super glue on the nose piece and just stick it in place. Well I attempted this with out my contacts in and got super glue all over my lenses...and none on the nose piece. The crap sets up in no time at all and needless to say it's still on there..I just try to look around it! You'd think I'd take this as a hint that I should just go to the eye doctor and let them fix it. HECK no! Gotta try it again..and yes...without my contacts in. Well little did I know that the tube I grabbed had a hole in the end of it cause Jim couldn't get the top screwed off of it when he tried to open it. So here I am trying like heck to get the top off...paying so much attention to the lid that I don't notice or feel the glue running down my hands, onto my counter. Damn! What a mess!! My fingers were glued together on my left hand and the crap was all over my right hand, the crap was all over the counter and already set up!! ACK! And at about this very time is when the baby (who now has a BAD case of crup and is back on breathing treatments) wants me to hold him and I can't so he goes into a fit which causes him to start labored breathing and starts panicing cause he can't get air and I can't get the crap off my hands to pick him up...things were really sucking about now and my hands looked like Danny DeVito playing the Penguin in Batman! Once the glue set up and dried on my hands I picked him up. Got him calmed down after my panicked call to the nurse. And guess what...those damn glasses are STILL not fixed! I think maybe NOW I will take them to the eye doctor...maybe!

Nice Weekend..

We had another nice weekend in West Texas. We left for Abilene around 11am on Saturday since Jim's new co-worker started on Saturday (?) and he needed to make his boss happy and put in about 2-3 hours with him. As we came thru Weatherford I finally got to stop at this shop that I've been wanting to check out for at least a year. He sells all kinds of New Mexico iron work stuff, chinineas (sp?), clay pots, ect. It was neat, but we only got 2 sun faces. It was one of those places that's neat to look at. We got to Abilene about 3ish and went straight to the track. Jim went to help sell fuel and I went to visit for a bit before heading to Kim and Gary's. I'd hoped to get to see Dad race, but he did so well in the qualifing on Friday..that he wasn't up to race again till Sunday. (I had palnned to go into more detail about Dad and Moms set up at the track and how Dad ended up doing...but I'm hoping that Dad will become inspired to put this info in his Blog...hint...hint :)

Me and the kids headed to K&G's about 5:30 and came in at the end of her crop party (scrapbooking). I got to see so really talented ladies at work. I'm still pretty sure that it's not for me, but I sure do enjoy looking at what Kim and all scrapbookers create. We had a really nice visit talking about everything under the sun. We aleays end up covering so many different topics that I hardly ever remember waht we talked about. The kids (of course) had a great time together. Matt and Brandon are like two peas in a pod (which is humorous if you know Matt's feeling about peas ;)

Jim got it about 11-11:30 and we'd all just went to bed. So Jim didn't get to do any visiting until the morning. K&G put on one heck of a spead for breakfast too!! Pancakes w/ chocolate gravy was the big hit with the kids. We just hung out for a while, went to lunch, and then we all headed out to the track. Kim's Mom and Step-Dad were meeting them out at the track. They all enjoy watching racing also. When we got the the track Dad was doing pretty well on the outside, but I knew (and Mom knew :) that he was a ball of nerves on the inside. We hung out in hopes that he'd get to race around 5pm. Unfortunately we found out that it's be much later than that, so we had to head home. Dad called me with his results about 8:30-9pm just as we were heading into Decatur. (Again, I won't post the results in hopes that Dad will :)

It was a busy weekend, but fun. Always nice to go back home.

On a side note.. Wes - it's always so good to hear from you. Don't stop blogging. You'll always (at least) get a comment from me :)

Billy - the jokes were great...but, you've YET to post pictures LIKE YOU PROMISED!!

Dad - I hope my hints were too subtle (sp?)

Beth - Don't get too carried away with that construction and do anything to damage your fingers..got have those to blog :)

Gary - thanks a ton for the blog teaser. You saw that you had fans...but you just blew us off ;)~~

Jim - people need to hear more about the dunes.

Kim - thanks for having us this weekend and sorry if we are the ones who made you guys sick :(

I'm still here...

Thank you to those of you who expressed concern since you hadn't seen me blog in a while. #1 - I'm been so sinking busy I honestly hadn't had a chance, and #2 - I didn't get the response I'd hoped for on my last blog...and it even had picutres. So as any of you know (who blog), you lose the will to blog when you feel no one reading it.

Now to catch up on current events...
Last weekend me, Nat, and Brayden went to stay the extended weekend with my Mom and Dad while Jim and Matt went to the dunes. We all had a wonderful visit as always. We got to eat fish on Friday at the Cafe, we got to see 2 of my sisters, nat go tto see her cousins Jordan and Lorrin, I got to visit with Wesley on the phone, got to go shopping with Mom (and visit extensively), and go to have a great time with Dad watching Brayden cruise all over the carport. Natalie also go to go on cat patrol in the barn with Karen. Dad thought there were kittens up there, but wasn't sure. They had no luck and went over to visit Deb. Right after they leave...2 kittens emereged Which didn't please the stray momma cat and she promptly moved her babies the next day. But these kittens were quickly replaced (the same day) with another set of kittens from their other cat. Nat was pleased!! Dad took her to see them, but that momma wasn't ready for visitors yet.

While there we got to go and have a very nice visit with Kay (Jim's Mom). Natalie had a big time there. She found a duck egg and wnated to be it's adopted mother. She was not going to listen to any of us when we told her that you can't hatch one that you find on the ground. Oh no, she had high hopes that she could hold it to her for the 28 day incubation period. OR possibly speed up the process and put it on a heating pad or just pop it in the microwave. Well she finally gave up on hte idea and went back outside to find a batch of baby bunnies. She came inside to show me one of them and to OF COURSE ask if we could keep it. I told her that was just coyote bait. After a fun time at Grandma Roanie's (Kay's) we headed to Karen and Mark's for a quick stop off. They have a really nicely landscaped home and Nat loves to see the animals there too. She got to visit with the goats and the jenny...along with Karen and Mark.

We headed to Big Spring that night to meet up with Jim and Matt so I could take Matt back with me. We stopped and ate at a pretty good chinese resturant, visitied for about an hour and got to hear about Matt's adventures at the dunes. All in all he had a good time. Even though he had a wreck and his tooth punctures right below his bottom lip. Upon furthur inspection I found several other blisters which I later learned were where a few other teeth tried to come thru! His poor litle lip looked like he had a dip in it cause it was pooched out so far. When he woke up the next day I was concerned cause he was makeing green oozy scabs in his mouth. So after our 3 hour ride home I took him to the after hours clinic in Decatur and the doctor said it was infected.

After the doctor's office and our hour wait for meds at Wally World we headed to the house with Bobby and family. They stayed with us since both Bailey and Delaynee had check ups with their doctors at Cook's the next day. We didn't get to visit much, but it was nice to have them over. They left before 8am the next day.

Yesterday was also eventful... I had to take the baby to the doctor. He's gotten his first cold of the season. Sad to say its a virus and I can't make him better right away with some antibiotics. When I got home from the doctors, I got a call from Bill (Jim's cousin). He called to say that Lisa's water broke a week and a day before her due date and they'd be having Jolie today! I called to tell Jim..who was on his way home from the dunes. Not too long after I told jim, Bill called back and they'd had her at 4:09pm and she was 8lbs 11 oz. and 20 inches long with long hair. We can't wait to get to see her!! This is the same cousin that just UPSed us 71 pounds of clothes for Brayden (sizes 18 mos - 3T). UNREAL! I've never seen so many baby clothes. I'm on my 5th X-tra large load of baby clothes and have at least one more to do. Needless to say..we are set till he's out of 3t's!!

Jim's home now and things are a little less chaotic(sp?) for me. The baby is still in a very "hold me" mood..but he's sleeping now and that's why I decided to wirte (rather than work). Things will get crazy (and fun) again this weekend when we head to Abilene to stay with our DEAR friends Gary and Kim and family. we are headed back not only ot get to visit with them, but Jim will be helping my parents with fuel sales at the racetrack. It's the Southern Challenge...the biggest race of the year. The total purse is $72,000! So it'll be an action packed weekend for sure. Plus I'll have the opportunity to sit in on Kim's Crop Party (scrapbooking) and I'll get ot se and hopefully learn some cool things.

Ok, that was a ton of writing and I can honestly say that I probably won't post anything else till next week....especially if I don't get hardly any comments this time ;)~~~ Just playing. I know I'm not the only one who's busy! Have a great week!

My kids and our special guests

I am so proud of my kids. They both made all A honor rolls and had perfect attendance this 6 weeks. It's such a nice feeling to know that your kids are smarter than you were in school. I love it! Natalie got a free meal certificate to go to Chili's (which he kindly gave to her friend Daniella since she didn't get to make all A's..so sweet) and Matt got a sticker to put on my truck. I will proudly display it too!!

I'm also very proud of Brayden, he can hold his bottle now...when he wants to :) And he's doing more of a "real" crawl now...especially when he's wanting to "ham" it up for the camera! Also, I took him to the doctor for a 8mo. checkup. For anyone who's picked him up lately & wondered "good grief what does this baby weigh??" 23.5lbs.!! I knew he was a chunk...well, my back knows, but that was crazy to hear cause Matt (my biggest @ birth) didn't weigh that until 18 mos!!!


It is so sweet how my big kids love the baby. They can't resist stopping to play or kiss on him. Don't get me wrong...they DO hole up in their rooms and play games and watch TV for most of their free time, but when they come out, they always stop to love on him.



In other news... we had some special guests this past week. Carrie, Guy, and Olivia stayed with us while they were looking for a place to live here in the metroplex. It was a nice visit. We got to see Olivia for the first time in person...MAN what a cutie!!

Here's a sweet picture of Brayden and Olivia chilling on the bed after baths.
We also got to meet Guy for the first time. He's a really nice guy and him and Carrie look very happy together, even with all that they've had to go thru lately! The very next night my parents arrived back safely for their 2 week vacation to Conn. They got in late, but me and the kids got to visit with them the next morning before they left.

Last, but not least...Matt got his new 4-wheeler. HAD to have it for the dunes trip set for next weekend. He's on cloud 9! I tried it out and think it's entirely too fast for him, but he and his Dad seem to think otherwise. Here's him and his new ride.


Now, if any of you have the chance...check out the photos that my nephew posted from Germany and Paris (his name is Wesley, see the link on the right side if this page). He took some really good pictures. And if you feel so inclined, post a comment. ESPECIALLY if you're a Brzezinski, Horton, or Boggs :)!!

Hope you're having a nice weekend!

Interesting ride home...

From the mouths of babes...

I never really took this phase to mean much. But I get it now. ESPECIALLY with my children. Today Matt informed me that he is the 3rd boss. My response..."HUH?!?" It appears that my child is in the 2nd grade mofia of some sort. He's the 3rd boss of this. Apparently if the 2 other bosses get bumped off (or change schools, get sick, ect...) he is 1st boss. ..ok... Then he tells me that people give him their quarters and he gets them cookies. At first I was afraid that he was taking the quarters by force (mafia style) and keeping the cookies for himself. Then he tells me "no" he gets the money and gets the cookies for them. I asked why he does this and he said that he's their server. I asked why he would want to do this, cause to me it sounds like he's getting used. He said he liked to to this and it gives him exercise...and it's like a massage for his feet....??? Okey dokey.

Then Nat get's in and we are headed home. Matt then starts a new topic...do criminals get fed...even if they are sentanced to death? Well Nat takes on this answer and tells him that if you didn't feed them that would be like committing murder and then the guards/police are no different than the criminals. Then Matt looks to me to verify that she's not B.S.ing him and I say that this is true. He asks "why, if they are really bad, and sentanced to die anyway, should we waste food on them?" Hummm... good point. I thought about trying to explain that prisoners have the same (and sometimes more) rights than we do and we can't treat them with cruel and unusual punishment....but I didn't, and we changed subjects again.

Matt now asks if Hurricane Rita's gone. I say yes. We talk about how they are calling Rita the "little sister" of Katrina. Then he asks if a hurricane can pull you up in it. I say (with my limited knowledge) that a hurricanes wind will blow you down and tornados pull things into it. Nat then jumps in with her explaination (now keep in mind she says the following with complete innocence)..she tells Matt "Hurricanes blow and tornandos suck.." as tears well up in my eyes and I try so hard not to laugh...I say "that's true baby...so true!"

Good Looking Kids

Here's my favorite picture from our little photo shoot at Bobby and Chanda's on Sunday. I must say...those are some GOOD LOOKING kiddos :)


Here's a family portrait Matthew style :)


If you will recall a few blogs ago I posted a picture of Matthew doing this exact same thing. What's funny is we had no clue that Bailey was a monkey also!! I was just scrolling thru some of their old pictures and came across this one and just started laughing! Yes, I realize that these are not the 1st kids to ever do this...but it's funny that we both had pictures of our kids doing this. I thought Matt was the only monkey in the family :)

As far as "news" goes...I got a delightful call from Carrie (mentioned in last post and on all of Beth's posts...look at her blog sometime. The link is on the right side of my blog). Her and her family are moving to the Dallas area within the next 2 weeks. Her hubby will work in either the Plano or Galleria store. She'll work the Dallas area. We are just so happy to have them coming our way!

The latest hurricane has effected (or affected, I need a grammer lesson) another one of my family members. My sister Karen is just now getting to take her summer vacation at Port Aransas. She and Mark headed down this past Saturday and had to evacuate yesterday. She did at least get to have a few days down there...but she's a lot like me...she could stay there a month and still want more :) I tried to get her "reasonable" tickets to Vegas (for the remained of her days off), but that's not gonna happen on such short notice. She hopes that they'll maybe get to go in October. And, Chanda's Aunt and cousins that live in Galveston were all evacuating yesterday also. She said some of them might come her way...and let me tell you...you are SAFE from a hurricane in Midland, TX!!

Kids are all still just doing great! Nat had a rough night last night. She had to write 100 (2 line!!) sentances cause some boys in her class acted up in the library. Now I'm not one of those Mom's that thinks my kid is a total angel, but Nat is a good kid and is equally great at school! AND she was testing on the computer while this whole thing happened. She cried quite a bit and I was torn. I really wanted to go tell the librarian to stick it...and I still might. But I know that crap like this happens to all of our kids and it happened to me in shcool too. The bad thing was that she had to finish a project for Social Studies and still do her nightly 30 mins of reading. She didn't finish writing the sentences till 7:30 (and that was with only a 30 min supper break). I felt bad for her so I let her listen to Harry Potter on CD while she soaked in my tub. How do you explain or justify such an unfair thing to a kid...when you think the teacher/librarian was totally wrong?? HELP!

Matt's doing better towards the end of the week. He got a yellow at school on Monday...which it not that big of a deal, but he lied and said he got green and then erased..or tried to erase the teachers note. So, a week grounded from TV and video games. But he's been working really hard, cleaned his room (which was a MAJOR chore), and being respectful...so early release for good behavior.

Brayden's just doing something new everyday. Yesterday I found another bottom tooth. He's pulling up and anything he can and he's started to do a semi-bear crawl. VERY FUNNY to watch him hike that little bootie up in the air! And I've added a new daily chore for my self...find the hidden spit up in the floor!! Not such and easy chore when you have spit-up colored carpet :) I just stay barefoot and hope that it's only me that steps in it.

Well that's my updates for now. Hope you all are having a good week!

Another Great Family Weekend

Well we wrapped up another great family weekend. We went to Midland to celebrate Delaynee Mae's birthday. It is actually on the 3rd (same as Matt) but Bobby and Chanda were just getting moved in and getting everything painted that weekend, so they postponed it to give themselves a chance to finish up. They have a beautiful home!

We left out on Friday (later that usual...go figure) and along the way Jim got a delightful call from Carrie (his cousin that has been made "homeless" due to Hurricane Katrina). She told Jim that her and her family will be moving to the Metroplex. We are so excited. This will really be great. She'll also end up being a little bit closer to her Mom and Sister AND this will get her away from any coastline!! The next day me, Nat, and Brayden got to go to Bailey and Chloe's soccer games. Both girls did just great. Bailey is really an incredible player...and VERY aggressive! Chloe was very fun to watch...very entertaining! I encourage anyone who can to go watch these girls play, to do it:) That evening we went to Delaynee's birthday party at good ole Chukie Cheese's. It was a fun party for the kids and the adults had a nice time visiting. When it was time for cake Chloe was sitting next to me. When it's cake time Chuckie comes out..this was NOT cool with Chloe...or several of the kids. Chloe starts leaning really close to me and whispers "Chuckie's kinda scary"...this was so cute, but she was SERIOUS! So I told her that it was ok and that we'd keep that rat on the far end of the table!! When I look up again I notice that all the kids (pretty much 5 and under) were slowly moving towards the opposite end of the table as Chukie. Just why'd they had to bring that rat out!!?? Then Chuckie went away and all was good again!

That evening we watched Napolean (sp?) Dynomite. OH MY!?! There are parts in that movie that will make you laugh so hard you cry and other parts that leave yuo saying ..."What the.." Everyone should watch it at some point. It's "SWEET" :) Oh man... The sleeping arrangment that night was Me, Jim, and Brayden in the guest room. Nat and Bailey in Bailey/Chloe's room, and Bobby, Chanda, Delaynee, Chloe, and Matt in Bobby and Chanda's ginormous room!! The next morning Bobby and Chanda said the woke to Matt telling Chloe some TALL tales. Like the time he was bit by a rattlesnake...but only with one fang and that's how he's alive today!! There were many others, but we just don't have that kinda time. If you know Matt, you get the jist.

Before heading home the kids and Jim went to visit James and they got to ride in his jeep and make braclets. We ran and got a bite to eat and then did a quick photo shoot of the kids. When I get the pics from Bobby and Chanda I'll share some.

We finally got home about 8:30. We showered and headed to bed. We were drained, but it was a fun weekend!

Catching up

Well it's time to catch up again. Not a whole lot has happened, but I figure some cute pictures will make up for it :)


Natalie's been doing GREAT. Her math teacher told her she's doing the best out of ALL the 5th graders. She's now getting to decorate her fish that she's made at art school. We are very ready to get to see it. She's been in TOTAL control anytime she's had any "break thru" episodes...she's really a remarkable kid. And she's just as beautiful as ever!! The photo shown above was taken by the very talented Kim Halfmann..thanks Kim :) (Sorry it's so small...don't know why...)


Matt is now 8. He had a great time at his party and it was hard to get him and Nat to want to leave. He had a good turn out of friends and that was fun for him...especially since his kindergarten girlfriend (who still lives in Justin) came. Hanna is still the "apple of his eye". His face was priceless when he heard her mom on the anwering machine saying that she could come. He said "REALLY?? She came come?" Then he got to talk to her when I returned her Mom's call and they were both on cloud 9! Here's a picture of him performing his new talent....


Brayden can now pull up, as you can see here. He's very pleased with himself. He's also been saying Da-da for about a week now. This really make Jim's day:) He also says "yeah-yeah" which I think might be his way of saying "Na-na". I told Nat to just keep saying Na-na and I bet that's what it turns into. He's just as funny as ever and is getting more curious by the day. I've found that my house (my floor) is no where near as clean as I thought it was. Sweeping and vaccuming (sp?) are now becoming daily chores instead of weekly or bi-weekly.


I'll end with this picture. Kim also took this one and it's just precious!!

Hope you are all having a good week - Angie

Well Matthew said...

"Well Matthew said..." - This comes from a convestation that my sister Cheryl had with my Dad. Can't remember the topic, but Matthew had convinced my sister Cheryl (of something a little far fetched) and when my Dad questioned her, she replied with "well Matthew said..."

Anyone who knows Matthew, knows that he is one good story teller. A good majority of the time these stories can quickly become TALL tales. Especially if you show real interest and act as if you truely believe that YES he did indeed encounter wild panthers on his last 4-wheeler outing with his Dad. Lucky for him Dad had up-ed the speed of his 4-wheeler so that he was able to escape near death!!!

And as we are nearing his 8th birthday (Sept. 3rd) he is learning to refine his stories a little better each day and he's getting more and more heartfelt! In the short ride in between his and Nat's school he tells me in his "whispering" voice (not much softer than his normal voice...due to Brayden sleeping) that it is just TERRIBLE what happened to Daddy's cousin (Carrie, her husband Guy, and baby Olivia...mentioned on Jim and Beth's blog). He says that he definately wants to become a billionaire and not a police man now. (I mentioned this conversation many blogs ago) He basically told me that is a true testament as to way he should be a billionaire. He said that when people like Carrie had bad things happen to them, he's just gonna give then a million dollars to help them get their stuff back. And if they wanted to they could all come live with him in his mansion (in London). And he wants me to help him build it so that there's enough room for all his family! Does this kid have a heart or what!!!

Now as sweet as that topic was, we obviously needed to move on and he wanted to know if his friend was right about the number: 1,000million. I tried to explain that that's not exactly a number. Matt has a thing about trying to come up with the biggest number imaginable. It can be quite mind rattleing trying to explain "infinity" to him....so I typically turn this over to Jim.

The last topic he needed address before we got to Nat's school was about my speedometer. He asked "where is it ok to do 120?" I said "Not really anywhere". Matt says "well why is there 120 on there if you aren't supposed to do that?". Uhhh...anyone whant to help me here??? All I say is "I'm not sure buddy." He says that they need to just stop speedometers at 90 or what ever the fastest speed is that you can go on the autobaughn. Wes, Kim, Gary...what would that speed be?

Well that was it for our daily chat since he promptly must run out ot Nat's playground and look for his friend that he plays with till Nat comes to the car. I didn't talk about my other 2 sweet babaies this time cause this was dedicated just to Matt in honor of his birthday. If any of you have any funny/bizarre stories about my Matt, I'd love to hear them...heck we all would.

10 things I loved about the 80's

These are in no particular order...just my random thoughts...

1) The Music!! By far the best music I've ever listened to. Tears for Fears, Depeshe (sp?) Mode, Thompson Twins, Spandau Ballet, The Go-Go's, The Police, Cyndi, Madonna, The Pet Shop Boys, The Hooters, Soft Cell, Loverboy, Brian Adams, Huey Lweis and the News, Bon Jovi, Def Lepard, Cinderella, Poison, U2 (the Joshua Tree, that was the bomb)... on man...the list could go on forever!

2) The Clothes!! Madonna and Cyndi enter the music world and they were great (then Madonna went in another direction...) They gave me such fashion inspiration. I couldn't wear enough lace, big earrings, and rubber bracelets and bangles. By far the most "expression" I EVER had in my clothes.

3) The Movies!! Sixteen Candles (of course) tops my 80's chart, Pretty in Pink, The Pick-up Artist, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmos Fire, For Keeps, Fresh Horses, Can't Buy Me Love, Loverboy, Wierd Science, Working Girl, Desperately Seeking Susan, and Shanghi Suprise

4) Molly Ringwald...for the reasons listed above :)

5) The Hair!! The HUGE 80's hair. I had it and loved it. I feel that I helped keep Aqua Net stock value up.

6) The cartoons!! The cartoons of the 80's are way better than the stuff today. My daughter even thinks so. She recently started watching the Boomarang (sp?) channel. They show the good stuff. My fav's were the Smurfs, He-Man (I was always Teila), Captian Caveman and the hot chicks, the one with the Grape Ape, the one with the arrogant white panther that was an actor...or something. They were all great!

7) The video games! Again, way better than the ones today. Galaga, Cenipede(sp?), Dig Dug, Moon Patrol, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Qbert, Tron, Pole Position... The list (again) could go on forever. I don't even know how to go about playing most of the games today!!

8) Cabbage Patch Dolls!! My Dad (Daddy :)) went and got me one of the first released Cabbage Patch Dolls (for my b-day I think..or just cause he & Mom are just that great) @ the Western Auto in Rotan, TX.

9) Wesley Preston Arnold!! The first boy grandchild (my nephew) was born on my side of the family (the Brzezinski's). He was a pure delight to everyone and I loved having someone to play with. He was more like a little brother than a nephew...and there were times when we fought more like brother and sister :) He was one cool kid and he's still a pretty dang cool guy. Miss ya buddy!

10) We were all at least 15 years younger!! Most of us were kids and having no cares in the world. And wasn't the world a much nice and better place back then? Or was I that sheltered? I'm not sure, but I do think that the 80's ruled and I hope that everyone got to enjoy them as much as I did :)

Sorry Kelsey

Sorry Kelsey...I thought I'd grabbed a better picture of you in the blog below. So I'll make this one just for you :)

Love ya sweetie!!


I was trying to catch the kids in the ackward psotions they get into coming down the slide. I finally caught her, but the dang picture blurred!


Kelsey's just a knockout! And Matt's just a nut (that's his face int he wall of water).


Kelsey loved the slide (of course everyone else did too). She was trying to find different ways to go down the slide. This just happened to be the traditional way :)


The rest of the weekend story's in the blog below.....

Wonderful Weekend

Well we have once again had another WONDERFUL weekend. Last weekend we got to enjoy having Jim's cousin Beth, Scott, and Mason stay with us and we all had a great time. This weekend we got to spend time with our AWESOME friends Gary, Kim, Kelsey, and Brandon. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful this family is and how blessed we a
are to have them as friends. We've been friends so long is just like thy are family (and they are Matt's god-parents). They are just such a joy to be around and it makes us sad that we can't be around them everyday like we once were able to. I used to work with Gary (at WTA) and that's where we all got to know each other. It's funny cause as annoying as I was when I first started at WTA (and...still am :)), it's a wonder that Gary even took the time to want to get to know me and then later on...Jim. Me, Gary, (and most days) Kim went to lunch together almost every day and spent most free weekends together. The real test of frienship came when we went to Possum Kingdom for Labor Day weekend (I think) and stayed in a little 10x10 shanty. I was possibly a little bigger, but not much. It had 1 bathroom, and if you had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night you had to watch your step as to not squash a kid. But we made it and no one was killed. That pretty much determined (to us anyway) that these would be friends for life. We love them dearly and hope that we never get any further (in distance or metaphorically(sp?)) apart!

Here's some pics from our weekend...


This is their son Brandon with Brayden...YES, that was a tounge twister for me this weekend!


Here's Gary with Brayden. They have quickly become good buds!


Beauty Queen Nat :)


Matt is such a good big brother. Last weekend he was so good with Mason and he continued on this weekend taking care of Brandon. They were just two peas in a pod!


This is the lovely Kim. She's once again trying to convince Brandon to keep the floaties on. (Sorry I didn't rotate the picture)


Kelsey, Matthew, and Brandon were the definate water-bugs this weekend. Nat tried to hang with them, but she gets cold and that does her in everytime.

Hope you all got to have a good weekend. We sure did. Check out Jim's blog for pics of the new shed. I hope to get to start painting it this week. He and Gary did some awesome work. I'm VERY proud.

Pleasant Suprise

Today Brayden and I had a pleasant suprise... Grandma and Grandpa Racecar (my parents for those who didn't know) stopped by for a while. It's ALWAYS a treat to get to see my parents, especially since we live so far from them. And especially in a world where we are all SO busy (and I'm just as guilty as anyone). I am blessed to have parents that can have the time (even if it means they got up @ 4:30am to do it) to drop in from time to time. It is such a treat to get visitors, but when it's your parents it's always a little more special. I may be a grown adult, but I still like to get to see my Mom and Dad (Mommy and Daddy if you want to know the truth)! I'm in no way discrediting anyone elses parents, it's just these are MY parents and I feel VERY, VERY lucky to have them and I know my bothers and sisters feel the same. CAN I GET AN AMEN!!! ;)~~

It was funny because last week Dad got to stop in for a bit and got to see Braden do his army crawl. Well he went home and told Mom and I think she was jealous :) So today when Dad made his DFW run, Mom came so she could see. I was afraid he would perform for her cause I'd kept him from him morning nap and he was barely holding on. But he pulled thru, got his 2nd wind, and gave Mom a show :) Promptly afterward fell asleep on Grandma.

I love you Mom & Dad. And thanks for making my day!

First Day of School

Tina (my sister-in-law) sent me some pictures of her kiddos first day of school, so I figured that posting pictures of mine would make for a good blog.



Here's Matt on the way into his school (running late).


This is the second day of school. Had to take a picutres of him sporting the camo!


Here's Nat heading into her school. There's no one else around cause we were way late!


Here she is at her hoomroom.


Here's Brayden on the his first day of not brother or sissy at home. He's sporting his Jeffin Gordon suit just for Grandpa Racecar!


I was trying to catch him crawling, but he was more interested in eating the camera!

Hope you have a GREAT rest of the week!