Fall Break, Week 1

We've had a pretty uneventful Fall Break so far, knock on wood! There was a birthday party on Saturday, we slept in on Sunday and went to the late service, and wow, that was different. We usually go to the early service, so it just seemed like the day was gone before we even got to lunch! On Monday I took the kids to Gattiland for Mom's Eat Free day.

Tuesday was a lazy day. We stayed in our pj's most of the day, I did some laundry, and started watching Heroes, Season 1 on DVD so I can jump right in to season two. I got a new Roomba that I can't wait to try out, but my kids didn't believe me when I said it's a robot that will permanently destroy and dispose of any toys that are left laying around. They just said "COOL!" and tried to turn it on so they could watch the carnage.

Yesterday we went to Ready, Set, Play, an indoor jumpy-thing place. I brought my computer and Heroes, and watched while the kids played. The good thing about Fall Break, since public school is still in, most of these places are pretty empty. So I got to enjoy some uninterrupted TV watching while the kids got to enjoy some uninterrupted playing! (You know, "stop playing that game and come pick up these toys!") David's uncle is in from Brazil, so we went to dinner with the in-laws to Threadgill's, which we normally enjoy, but this time was not great. Bad service, bad food. Very odd.

Today was the Cans Food Festival, where local theaters take cans of food for the local food bank in exchange for a free movie pass and a free popcorn. So we went to see Underdog, which was great, one of those movies the kids and mom equally enjoyed! Hit some sales at The Children's Place, and home in time for Riley to go to practice and me and Regan to have a fashion show. She's just getting to that age where she is really into what she wants to wear.

Tomorrow I will spend doing laundry and packing for our road trip, we leave on Saturday. I need to freeze some food for David, or he will either starve while I'm gone, or spend tons of money eating out. I also need to leave him a map to our mailbox, or he won't ever check it while I'm gone. And maybe a map of the kitchen too, so he will know where to find a plate or cup. Is it weird that I worry more about leaving him home alone, than I did about sending my son to sleep away camp??

Manic Monday Meme

You’ve won $100,000 – but have to give it all away. To which charity or institution would you donate it?
Well, I would give most of it to our awesome church, Celebration Church. And I would give a big chunk to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, for breast cancer research.

What do you think is the most soothing sound?
The ocean, which is why we have several sound machines on at night, all tuned in to the ocean! It's so relaxing and makes me remember all our fun trips to the beach.

Does time heal all wounds?
No, I wouldn't say heal, I would say lessen the pain, but not completely heal. My mom died on Thanksgiving of 1999, almost 8 years ago, and not a day goes by that I don't miss her terribly. It's not as painful as the day she died, but it will never completely heal.

Speedy and Mr. Yum Yums

We have house-guests!! Riley has been doing really good in school lately, and his reward (if you can call it that) was to get to bring the hamsters home for fall break. David fails to see how this qualifies as a reward. Riley has wanted hamsters for a long time now, and I had a hamster when I was about his age, so I'm game (of course) and you KNOW Regan's on board, but Dad is the lone hold out. Of course, I can't say as I blame him, they are rodents, they do smell like pee, and I would be the one taking care of them after the first week or two. The things we would do for our kids though, right?

So, we have Speedy and Mr. Yum Yums for the next 3.5 weeks for fall break. One of those weeks we will be in Ohio, so I had to find another foster home for that week. But tonight was quite the adventure. First of all, I should state that we are also dog sitting for my in-laws who (and I'm so superman jealous) are in San Francisco right now. Their dog, Sasha is old and frail and persnickety. She has special medication that must be rolled in peanut butter and licked off one's finger. She needs mineral oil mixed with chicken broth to get the bowels moving, and a special kidney diet of soft food mixed with crunchy kibble to keep the kidney's from working overtime, if you know what I'm saying...

Now, add in two neurotic hamsters and a cat that thinks we just got him the tastiest snack in the world, all he has to do is figure out how to get said snack. It's a conundrum, an enigma wrapped in a mystery, that he is bound and determined to figure out before they go back to school. So tonight, after all their begging and pleading and whining and crying, I decide to let the kids put a hamster in one of those plastic exercise balls so he can run around and heck, tease the cat a little. I thought the cat would get a big kick out of getting his lunch "to go"! We grab a random hamster (turns out it was Speedy) and put him in the ball. Hilarity ensues. Cat is mesmerized, doesn't even try to swat him around too much, old dog is shaking like an F5 tornado is bearing down on us at any minute, our dog Bailey is kinda checking things out, what the heck is all the ruckus about, you know. So after about 10 minutes in the ball it's time for Speedy to go home.

Well, me being the grown up, and with faster reflexes, my vast experience with the rodent family, I open the ball, dump little Speedy into my hands, and then learn how he got the name Speedy. That little thing flew out of my hand, hit the dining room chair, and took off like a rocket! And my first instinct is to grab the cat and get him out of the way before Speedy is Meow Mix. But before I can do that, Bailey, good ole trusty Border Collie Bailey, steps in and grabs Speedy with his mouth. All you could see was two back feet sticking out of Bailey's lips, running in place like a Scooby Doo cartoon. Riley has an INSTANT meltdown, crying and fearing for Speedy's life. I just yell at the top of my lungs, BAILEY DROP HIM! And David is yelling at us, I TOLD YOU TO PUT THEM IN THE BATHROOM (as he's on his computer playing armchair quarterback to my little dilemma) and thankfully Bailey spit him right out. After a tense few minutes of racing around the dining room and nearly knocking myself out on the table legs a few times, Riley managed to scoop him up, I took him to examine him for teeth marks, and other than being a little more moist than he was originally, he was still in tact. And oddly enough, Ricky just sat there and enjoyed the show.

So, who said my life isn't a zoo??

14 Years Ago...

Well, I guess if I was starting from the beginning, I would start a lot farther back than 14 years ago. David and I met through our parents, while we were still in high school. My parents pastored a church, his parents ran the sound room. He told me once that he saw me walk up to the front row and sit with my mom and said to himself, "That's the girl I'm gonna marry!" (Isn't that SWEET!)

Anyway, we were friends then, he took me out on a real "date" and it was a very interesting evening. We lived WAY out in Hutto and since he knew I didn't like the car he drove at the time, he borrowed his parents Mercedes, which was diesel. But he didn't realize just how far out we lived, so we ended up running out of diesel shortly after he picked me up, just as we were coasting into a gas station. But, for the rest of the night, air would get into the line (I don't know enough about cars to even pretend to know what I'm talking about) all I know is that the car would just die. In the middle of nowhere. And I thought it was just David trying to get me alone in the country so he could put his moves on me...

We went to the Hyatt downtown for fajitas, drove go-carts at Malibu, played putt-putt, and he gave me a red rose. He was very thoughtful and a perfect gentleman. We stayed friends while I finished high school, he went off to Marine boot camp, I graduated and moved to Hong Kong, he got injured at boot camp and moved back home, I came home from Hong Kong and moved to Tampa, etc.

One weekend, when I was visiting from Tampa, we went out again as friends, and when I went back to Tampa, something was different. This time, it just seemed more than buddies hanging out watching movies. I didn't know what to think, and tried not to think about it too much until I moved back from Tampa. The weekend I moved back, we went out again, to the Arboretum to see Fire in the Sky a movie about alien abductions (how romantic!) and we walked around the Arboretum, by the cows, over the bridge, we sat and looked over the fountain and we talked about the movie. I should say, David talked, I sat there wondering if I should make my move...you know how scary it can be to cross that "friend" line. Well, I worked up my courage and just about shocked his socks off when I leaned over and kissed him.

That was the beginning of March, we were pretty inseparable for a while there, and on Mother's Day weekend, May 9th, as we sat overlooking the city lights of Austin, he proposed. It seemed like a whirlwind then, we set the date for September 18, 1993. I compare it to the movie When Harry Met Sally when they ask how long they dated and they said, "Only 6 months! Well, 6 years and 6 months."

I wanted a fun wedding, not anything stuffy. So our colors were black and white polka dots. The guys had polka dot vests and the girls had awesome black velvet and white satin dresses (it was early 90's cut me a break). The cake looked like wrapped presents stacked on top of each other, it was a mid-afternoon wedding and it was FUN! We went to the Driskell Hotel and then headed off to Galveston and Houston for our honeymoon (and the Space Center, again, how romantic!)

So here we are 14 years later. I can hardly believe it. Time flies. I can't believe how young we both were, and I feel blessed that we did find each other at such an early age and are able to spend the best years of our lives together. We had 5 years together before kids came along and we were able to travel together and get to know each other more. We now have two beautiful kids that round out our family and I could not have asked for a more perfect life!

Wascally Wabbit!

While David was mowing the backyard tonight, I heard the mower cut off and some banging on the door. I figured we were about to get a lecture about leaving some random toy in the yard or something, but when I opened the door, much to my surprise, David was holding a tiny baby bunny!! It was so cute. We've had so many rabbit problems with me trying to grow a garden, I had gotten to the point where I was sick and tired of rabbits, but this one was cute! So David took it to the side of our house, where there is an empty field, and they set it free. Riley was sad to see it go, but we explained that it needed to be with it's family. So, about 10 minutes later, when there was only about a 6 inch square patch of grass left to cut, out hops another baby bunny!! I grabbed my camera this time and got some pics of it, and of my little brother Pete's girlfriend's little girl, and the bunny. And Riley, setting it free again. I told the kids we would put out some veggies for them since my garden is no longer in existence (thanks to these rabbits).

Happy Birthday to Me!

David surprised me for my birthday, he took me to III Forks, a steakhouse I've heard a lot about and been wanting to go to for a while. He had arranged for his parents to watch the kids overnight, and we headed downtown. We never go downtown anymore, so it was just nice to go somewhere different. The food was awesome, they had the best mashed potatoes I've had in a LONG time! They had sugar snap peas that were wonderful, and these big tomatoes, yum! Everything was delicious.

We were both so tired, David had to go to work Thursday night at 8 PM and he worked all night and didn't get home until 1 in the afternoon. So, after dinner we went home to bed. We got up early this morning and went to Magnolia Cafe for breakfast, then hit some shops, REI, Whole Foods, In Step, Crate and Barrel, it was a great time looking around without worrying about the kids! The kids ended up having an awesome time too, they went to Austin's Park and Pizza, and Arby's (Riley's favorite) and made pancakes for breakfast.

Thanks to everyone for all the calls, emails and cards! It's been a nice, relaxing birthday

Jacksonville Texas

Jacksonville

Lake Jacksonville

We headed out for Jacksonville on Friday as soon as David got home from work, which was around 5, much later than we had wanted to leave. We got to Rockdale and the sky opened!! It was raining sideways, so we stopped and had some Mexican food and to kill some time. It turned out to be a great idea, it had pretty much stopped raining by the time we left and we made it the rest of the way in no time, getting in around 10. We visited some, then hit the sack to rest up for the next day at the lake.

Saturday we got up, went to Aunt Kathy's, had lunch while we waited for Chris to get off work, then headed for the lake. Chris had so much patience and taught Riley how to wake board. Riley did pretty good, he probably could have done it no problem with a smaller kid-size wake board, but he managed to get up and go several times. Regan and Kayla rode in the tube, Riley had a turn in the tube, David did the knee board, then Riley got up on that no problem and immediately wanted to start doing tricks on it! He looked so cute out there, the looks on his face when he would get up and when he would fall, were priceless!! The kids were exhausted after the busy day, Regan fell asleep in the boat on the way home.

On Sunday, we were getting ready to leave for home when we found out my brother Donnie was gonna come in after all! So we stayed around and got to visit with him and his girlfriend Gail and see my nephew, Little Donnie, whom I haven't seen since he was 4 days old!! He was so cute, and the cousins all had a great time playing together. It's a great place for kids, out in the country, all the animals, tractors, dirt, the wagon, they just had a blast, and did NOT want to leave!! We finally did leave around 5 and made it home around 8:30. Regan slept all the way home, I think this weekend just wiped her out!