Last Day of School!

I always like to compare pictures from the first day and the last day of school. See how much the kids have grown (or not!). Riley doesn't feel like he's grown much, but I got his physical form from the beginning of the year, and he's grown 4 inches and gained 20 pounds! He's not a little boy anymore, that's for sure!

Regan's school has a "5th Grade Walk" where they line up all the kids and teachers and then have the 5th graders walk through the school for one last time and everyone waves and high fives them. They played the song "The Best Day of our Lives" and there wasn't many dry eyes in the place. I was surprised at all the little girls bawling their eyes out, but I was almost one of them when I saw my baby walk through that curtain. Of course, she wasn't crying, she and her BFF Piper were calmly walking through (last ones too) and laughing at all the people who were crying!

Anyway, another year in the books. Next year is the beginning of middle school for Regan and Riley will be a sophomore.  Oh, and Regan won a reader award and A and B honor roll for the year! So proud of my girl!!

Updates...

Well, it's been busy the past few weeks.

For starters, Riley was bench pressing and dropped a barbell on his nose and broke it. Got a call from the school trainer, so we rush him down to Dell Children's to find out there's not much they can do, but for us to wait for the swelling to go down and go to an ENT. So we've done that, and they tried to straighten his nose back out but it didn't work so now he will need surgery. His nose is still pretty crooked, but he can't breathe as well right now, and there's still a lot of pain, so as soon as school is out, he will have to have surgery to try and fix it. Boys, they sure keep you on your toes!

David had a class to take in Houston, so I went with him and we left the kids in the very capable hands of Uncle Matt!! It was fun to get away for a few days and not have to worry about feeding dogs or feeding kids. I dropped David off at his class at Rice University and went to the Holocaust Museum, to the movies, the bookstore, a cafe, just had some fun alone in my home town. Then at night we would take advantage of the hotel hot tub, and got to eat at some great restaurants. We stayed over and extra day too, and found and awesome chocolate shop in the Galleria where David bought my mother's day gift! He knows me so well!

Now it's the end of school rush, with awards and parties and tests every time we turn around. I am more than ready for school to be over. Riley had his AP Human Geography test, and they've both had STAAR tests and end of course exams, and Riley still has finals coming up. I'm DONE! I am ready for summer, and I know they are too!

Color Guard

We had an interesting evening in downtown Austin! Riley was supposed to do Color Guard for "Speaker of the House". That was pretty much all the information we had. He was supposed to be at a hotel at 5. We weren't even sure what hotel, just had general directions. We thought he would do the Colors, and then leave, and we didn't even know what the event was.

So, we get him out of school a little early to beat traffic, and bring Regan with us so she's not home alone for who knows how long. We get to the hotel right at 5 (the Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental Hotel) and did I mention we were all in shorts, t-shirts, etc. NOT dressed up, in any way.

Well, it turns out, it was an awards banquet for Speaker Joe Straus. He was receiving an award for Mental Health Achievement and it was a fancy dinner in the ballroom. Color Guard practice was at 5, then the Sea Cadets were getting pictures made with the Senators at 6, then the banquet was at 7, and Riley seated at a table with his fellow Sea Cadets, and served a fancy ballroom dinner, and then a photo with the Speaker afterward. So David, Regan and I waited around in the lobby (after a quick dinner at the Athenian Grill that Regan was super excited about, she loves her Greek food!). Talk about feeling awkward sitting there waiting. We had no idea what was going on, so we didn't want to leave. It was strange. But then they came out, got their pictures, and we left.

Riley told us on the way home, that the food was okay, he got this big chunk of lettuce (a wedge salad) and he was almost done eating the thing when someone came around with the dressing! Also, he didn't care for the chicken that was covered in "green stuff" but he did eat 3 creme brulee desserts. I wish I had known he was supposed to be at a fancy dinner, I would have done a crash course on manners for him!! He did say at least he knew what fork to use.

Awards and More Awards!!

Man, we have some great kids. I know I'm biased, but really, when half of spring is spent going to awards ceremonies, it's hard not to be a little proud!!  First was Riley's HHS MCJROTC Awards Ceremony. Yes, that's a mouthful! He was awarded ribbons for Arts and Academics, Athletics, and Physical Fitness Achievement. We were very proud, and it was an incredible awards ceremony. This is only Hendrickson's 4th year to have an ROTC program, and the awards these kids received, it was amazing to see. They have some very dedicated, motivated kids at this school.

Next up was Regan's Girl Scouts of Central Texas awards. This was for everyone in our council area, which is most of Texas. Regan was a top seller, so she got an award and her picture taken with the CEO of Girl Scouts! She also got to pick up her big prize, her Kindle! She was most excited about that.

Then it was Regan's Girl Scout local service unit awards. She was the 4th highest cookie seller in our service unit, so she got a cute little cookie booth trophy.

Riley also got a few more ribbons for Sea Cadets, and Regan got a few more awards at school, so they have been pretty busy.

Updates...

I haven't posted much lately, we've been pretty busy. Thought I would do a big update post.

Riley is nearing the end of his 9th grade year. He's in Sylvan for some extra help 2 nights a week. So far it seems to be working well, he's learning to study better and take good notes, and we are hoping it will help him with his AP Human Geography test that he has coming up. He is in study sessions 2 or 3 times a week, before or after school, for that, and ROTC keeps him busy with PT tests and different drill and marksmanship challenges. Add in football, and a pretty rigorous AP biology and AP English class, and then Sea Cadets, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and church, he's a busy guy. But he's a good kid, and has a great attitude, and he keeps us laughing.

Regan is nearing the end of 5th grade, elementary school, my baby!! She's in the middle of the dreaded STAAR testing and so afraid that she won't pass the STAAR tests and they will hold her back! I hate the fear they put in these kids. She makes all A's and B's so she has nothing to worry about, but she's also been in tutoring at 7am every morning for about a month, to work on math. They have one more to go, and then we might just have to take a mental health day! She's getting excited to go to middle school though, even if I'm not. I just can't believe my baby will be going to middle school.

And other than that, we've just been getting stuff done around the house. Finally worked on the downstairs bathroom, needed to fix the light in there and change out the curtain, then decided to switch out the toilet, but hey, why don't we change the floor too, it just kind of snowballed on us! But, now that it's done, it looks great, and we're ready to tackle other parts of the house now. It seems like every room needs SOMETHING. I guess that's the price of being a homeowner! No complaints here though.

David and I are great. In fact, our church asked us to go to Africa on a missions trip in December, and David said yes! He's never had any desire to go to Africa, but he knows I have always wanted to go. Our church has a campus in Xai-Xai, Mozambique, and in December, they host Christmas parties for the kids there, and we will be going with a team of mostly married couples to help with the Christmas parties. I can't wait, I'm so incredibly excited about it! Just have to get those dreaded shots first, ugh!!!

So, we would appreciate your prayers as we get ready, and of course, I will be updating along the way, and I'm sure I am going to have tons of pictures when we get back. I can't wait!!

 

Yee-haw! The Rodeo is in town!

David took Thursday and Friday of Spring Break off, and we took the kids (+1) to the rodeo carnival. We didn't get to go last year because of Regan's broken arms, so she was really wanting to go this year! This was David's first time to go with us, so it was nice. We got the kids wristbands and sent them on their way. David and I went to the other side of the fairgrounds and got to spend time together walking around and checking things out, and a friend of mine's daughter is doing a Flat Stanley project, so we took a bunch of pictures of Flat Stanley with Texas Longhorns, and all the rodeo animals. It was a lot of fun just being goofy! The weather was great, nice and cool, until we got home and realized we got sunburned!

Juan in a Million

This is one of our favorite places to eat breakfast! And, I had a Groupon that was about to expire, AND we got to beat the SXSW crowds, and celebrate the (near) end of cookie season.

We always get the "Don Juan" and Riley has never before finished it, even though he always talks smack about how he can eat 2 or 3 of them if he wanted. Well, he finally was able to finish one, but it looks like he's about to hurl it up!

So after breakfast, Regan and I headed back out to finish up our cookie selling!

Cold Selling!

It's been SO cold lately, and we've missed a lot of booths due to bad weather, so we are really trying to make up the time. We did a booth after school, and it was SO COLD! We couldn't feel our nose or fingers about halfway in. And the bad part was, we only sold 11 boxes! We had a really cute customer though. Although, this is NOT the "Cookies for the Troops" program!

Guess Who?

Pam found these two old pictures of David and realized how much they looked like Riley! So I had to look and find some to match. Can't believe how much they look alike!

One Big Update!

It's been busy lately, haven't had much chance to update things.

Riley's been doing PT for his knee injury. We got the all-clear this week so he's really enjoying being back on full workouts at school. He can run and lift weights again, so he's happy.  He got an invitation to a Naval Academy Admissions Forum in Houston last weekend, so he and David went for Friday night, spent the night with David's cousin Jimmy, and did the admissions forum on Saturday. It sounded like they got a lot of good information, and Riley came home with a renewed determination to keep those grades up!!

For Regan and I, cookie season is on in full force. I have done the big cookie lottery, the cookie mega-drop, and we've completed our first week of cookie sales. I think we've sold around 300 boxes so far, but I need to do a good count.  Her science fair is over, and I couldn't be happier. I hate science fairs almost as much as I hate spiders. There's no need for either, really.

Today we had a SNOW DAY! Really, an ice day. It's been hilarious watching everyone on Facebook make fun of us wussy Austinites, but really, there were over 250 car accidents in the last 2 days with all the ice on the roads. So, we've just stayed home, eaten soup, and slept in. Can't complain! (Well, I can, because David keeps the house so cold, I have taken to wearing my jacket and scarf, and ear wrap, and gloves, INSIDE!) I'm a true Texan. I am ready for summer!

Tonight, David is at a men's conference at church, Riley is at Sea Cadets, Regan has 2 friends over, I have people coming to pick up cookies, Hunter ate a bag of powdered sugar, and it looks like a cocaine bust gone bad in my living room!!

Finally!

Riley and David's gifts finally came (a day late). Riley got a new G Shock watch, it can do a bunch of cool things, but I don't remember. It's glow in the dark, and it's some fancy schmancy military type watch. He likes it a lot. David of course, got his favorite pears. I get these for him every year because he loves them so much. And Regan got a crimper from Santa, and so we had to play around with it.

Merry Christmas!

I won't bore you with all the Christmas pictures, but here are a few. I don't know how it happened, but it looks like I only took pictures of the kids when they opened  clothes! They really did get more than clothes. First, I made my cinnamon rolls that I make every year, they are so yummy! Then we opened presents upstairs so Hunter wouldn't drive us nuts. Instead he just sat on the other side of the baby gate and whined the whole time! Riley got Beats headphones, some Navy Gear (sweatshirt and t-shirts and a guidebook to the Naval Academy), some paracord, and some stuff from Old Navy. Regan got a One Direction gift basket filled with 1D pencils, pens, stickers, magnets, AND...TICKETS to see 1D in September at the Alamodome in San Antonio! She was super excited to open that one. We will be going with some friends, and making a whole girl's trip out of it. She also got a new iPhone 4s (and a 1D case for it). Her phone has been messed up for a while, so she really needed a new one anyway.

I got David a Fitbit Flex, and he got me a new tea cup and some Christmas tea that I love. And I had to throw in pictures of Elise too, she had a great Christmas! She is such a doll!  The only bad part, was one of David's and Riley's MAIN gift was caught up in UPS hold. Thankfully Riley is old enough to understand! After we opened presents, we went to a friend's house for some appetizers. The kids (and guys) played a bean bag game and we just sat around and visited and had appetizers and sangria! It was a great day.

Riley and Jingle

I took the opportunity to sleep in for the first day of Christmas break, so Riley took care of Jingle, and so that means Jingle TPed the bathroom!

Christmas #1

After church on Sunday, we had first Christmas with Mimi and Papa. The kids were very excited to finally get to open a present! Riley got a notebook (for school!) and Regan got One Direction perfume and poster! Then we went to dinner at Magnolia and then to Mozart's to check out their light show. It was neat, and very "Austin". Thankfully we got there just in time, and were able to come and go pretty quick, they were SO crowded, so we didn't bother with getting coffee or anything. Came home, and David and Riley were up late getting his notebook all set up.