Christmas Cookies

Just showing off some Christmas cookies I made for Regan's Girl Scout Troop's Christmas party. I thought they turned out pretty cute! They are melted snowman cookies!

Christmas Picture

I always like to take pictures of the kids with the church's decorations cause they decorate so much nicer than we do! But of course, the kids don't exactly cooperate!

Gingerbread Houses

It has become a yearly tradition that we go with our Girl Scout troop to our co-leaders church and build Gingerbread Houses. It's a lot of fun, they feed us and provide the houses already assembled, and if you ask me, that's the hard part! We split the house right down the middle, one kid gets the front and a side, one kid gets the back and a side. Riley decided to pay homage to Eminem and so his side is a lot of MM and "legit" stuff (whatever). Both kids were pretty minimalist this year, we normally have so much stuff on the house you can barely carry it out of there! But, it's a fun tradition, and one we look forward to every year. This was the church's 16th year of hosting this event, so who knows, maybe one day we will be like a lot of the people we see there, and be assembling houses with our own grandkids!

Regan's Surgery

Regan finally had her surgery, tonsils and adenoids out, and tubes in. We had to be at the hospital by 7:30, so I took her while dad got Riley to school, and I was surprised that we were in and out pretty quick. We did sit in the room for a bit, but they took her back around 9:30, and she was out by 10:15, and we waited in recovery for a while and then were home around 1. She had a fair amount of pain, but even the night after surgery she ate 2 bowls of rice with coconut milk, and on day 3 she ate a couple of bean and cheese burritos from Taco Cabana. She was never too content with just the ice cream. So, we were able to find her some soft foods that she was okay with.

Here are a few pictures of the patient while she recovered. She got bored after a couple of days, I had gotten her a cute book from Costco that we colored in, and she wanted to make a cake, a rainbow cake, and I let her mix the colors herself, and we ended up with a Mardi Gras cake! She wants to go to Louisiana so bad, so she was so happy to have that cake!

Happy Halloween

Halloween

Our neighbors put on an awesome little Halloween party every year, the Saturday before Halloween, and I missed it last year since I was in Romania, but this year I got to go and it was so much fun. They totally transform their backyard into a Halloween carnival. They had a "haunted jump" and scary trail behind their shed, complete with fog machine, bobbing for apples, face paint, ring toss, and a ton of cute foods to munch on. All of Regan's neighborhood pals were there and it was a lot of fun for the grown ups sitting around the deck talking (and freezing) late into the night!

Then on Halloween we all went out with the neighbors and trick or treated together. Riley wasn't as into it this year, he didn't even want to wear a costume, but I told him no costume, no candy, so he settled on a scary clown mask. About halfway through, he and I went back to the house to give out candy (he really just wanted to scare some little kids). Regan had fun with her friends though, she was a Monster High Egyptian Princess and I guess we got our moneys worth out of the costume, she wore it plenty of times! Oh, and I decided to be a Zombie, so that was fun too!

School Halloween

Regan's school had a Halloween party and I brought cupcakes for the kids and they painted pumpkins and ate a bunch of cookies and cupcakes and left on a big time sugar rush. It was cute though.

Neighborhood Fall Fest

One thing I like a lot about our neighborhood (and it's not the ridiculously priced water that we're trying to fight) but our neighborhood often puts on parties for the kids. Back to school party, movie at the pool, Fall Fest, etc.

Tonight was Fall Fest, and the kids had a great time. They had sandwiches, chips and drinks and cupcakes for the kids to decorate, pumpkins to paint or carve, scary rings to decorate and a cake walk where both kids won candy!!

Then at the end of the night, they gave out awards. Regan won for "Scariest Pumpkin" (hers is the big one on the left) and Riley won for "Grossest Pumpkin" (his is the small one that is puking his guts out). And then they had 4 pumpkins lined up for "Best Overall Pumpkin" and the one that Regan painted was in line to win that prize also. They did an applause-o-meter and sure enough, she won (she said it was because I was so loud) but since the runner up hadn't gotten any candy, she gladly gave her prize to him. So, she technically won, but was sweet about giving it up. I think they did a great job, and I now have a cute collection of pumpkins by my front door, and I didn't have to mess up my kitchen to get them!

Longhorn Cavern

Regan's class went on a field trip to Longhorn Cavern. She was very excited about it, we packed a lunch and I met them out there. We had never been, and I'm of the opinion that "if you've seen one cave, you've seen them all." And well, I'm still of that opinion. But, it was fun getting to know her new friends and their parents.

And this cave does have a lot of history. It was supposed to be the hide out for LBJ when he was President if anything (like bombs) broke out while he was in Texas. The man who owned the cave in the early 1900's ran a Speak-Easy out of it, where they had food, drinks, and gambling (I can't imagine walking around that rocky cave floor in high heels. I could barely do it in tennis shoes!) And before that, it was the hide out for the notorious Sam Bass gang and even a place for the Indians to hold their council meetings.

So, all in all, it was a good field trip. I took Regan with me afterward since we wouldn't make it back to school in time to do anything, we stopped for lunch at a little place in Burnet, and then killed some time "antiquing". It was a fun afternoon, and then we had to get back to the school to get Riley. The last picture is Regan showing off her new wolf necklace we got in the gift shop. She told me sometimes she wishes she could be a wolf.

Gateway Fall Fest

Well, it was nice to attend a Fall Fest where I wasn't running myself crazy working at booths and setting/cleaning up! I did volunteer for Book Fair though, can't seem to escape the Book Fair! I don't mind though, I get the good books before they're sold out. But, it was the first annual Gateway Fall Fest, I turned the kids lose with wristbands and tickets and they came back hyped up on cotton candy, kettle corn and snow cones. They had a good time, although it hardly felt like a fall fest since we all ended up nearly sunburned afterward. It was HOT! But the kids had a great time, and here are pictures of them doing the "eat the donut on the string" game and Regan bobbing for apples, and let me just say, she would NOT have done this if we hadn't JSUT finished a round of antibiotics! That water was nasty.

A Month Later...

Can't believe it's been a month since I posted. I think it's because there's not much going on, but then when I look back at it, I have had a lot going on. I'll try to do better!!

So, the past month or so...I started a Bible Study at church, Lisa Bevere's Lioness Arising, and so far, I highly recommend it. It's been a little difficult to read at times (for me personally) but as usual with her studies, exactly what I need, when I need it. David and I joined 24 Hour Fitness. I go most mornings with a friend of mine. Monday and Friday is Zumba, Tuesday and Saturday is Aqua Zumba or Water Aerobics and Wednesday is the worst, Kickboxing. One day they had a substitute teacher and that was Nightclub Cardio and it made me realize just how long it's been since I've been in a nightclub. It was fun though, but I'm glad no one was video taping. Or maybe they should...I KNOW I could win that grand prize on America's Funniest Home Videos!!

I've been having a lot of hormone imbalance issues lately, and I went to my doctor, and she wanted me to go to an endocrinologist but there was a 6 month wait, and I finally told David one night, you know who I would *love* to go see, but he probably has an even longer wait list, is Dr. Glenn from church. He says, oh, yeah, I have coffee with him every Sunday. Uh, WHAT?! He sees him at Starbucks before church every Sunday and they talk. So he asked Dr. Glenn about me and he said sure, for me to come on in, he would see me before hours in 2 weeks. Talk about favor!!

So, I went to see Dr. Glenn and that was the most interesting, eye opening appointment I've had in my life! This guy is a medical genius. But, he put me on some supplements, and told me to try a low glycemic diet and started some preventative things since I have a pretty high cancer risk in my family. He even wants me to start Regan on it, to get her hormones off on the right foot.

In the midst of all of this, Regan has had strep again, and a stomach virus that she passed to Riley who passed it to David. I'm not going near anyone till it's gone, I absolutely hate to be sick.

I also had a consultation with Regan's teacher and principal and we decided it would be best for Regan to move her back to 3rd grade. She was pretty upset about it at first, but I can already see a big difference in her. She had pretty much shut down before and was getting so confused and upset that she couldn't keep up. But now, she's learning, she's involved, she's writing chapter books! She has made friends, another girl in her class also came from 4th grade, so they don't feel so alone now. She was a very young 4th grader, so age wise she fits right in, and her teacher is really nice. I like her a lot and she seems very loving, which Regan responds well to.

And then this morning, I took Regan in for a consultation to see about having her tonsils removed. With this last bout of strep, I had them check her records and she's had it 5 times in the past 12 months, so we got the referral and went in this morning. Before the doctor would even look at her throat though, he had some serious issues with her ears and sent us to audiology to do a hearing test. We had one done last year, so it was nice to have a baseline, and they could see that she's having some hearing loss. Her ear drums are retracting, from a negative pressure that is building up behind her ears. He said the ear drums are supposed to be taut, and hers are caving in and causing her bones to be misshapen. So, he wants her tonsils and adenoids out and tubes put in ASAP. The next available surgery, no waiting until a school holiday which is what I was hoping for.

So, on Friday November 4th, we will be having that done. He's hoping by removing the adenoids, that will reduce the pressure and she won't need tubes for long, the tubes he's putting in will last about 8-12 months and hopefully that will be all. But, I'm glad that I pushed for an ENT consult, and I'm glad we're getting this done now! We did all the pre-addmissions and they gave her a blanket from the Linus Project, a charity that makes blankets for kids who have surgery and it's adorable and she loves it!



And Riley, he's loving school, but he didn't get a great first report card. He's still having some issues with everything being on the tablet and so he's forgotten to log in and do some work, so we're working on that. He broke the screen on his tablet and the screen on his phone, and I can't believe he'll be 13 in just a few weeks. A bonafide teenager. God help us! Not really, he's a good kid, but man, I always thought it was an expression, beat the girls off with a stick, but not so in his case. He has girls lining up already. I'm scared!! He's too cute for his own good!!

Well, I guess that's about it. Next time I won't wait a month and then the update won't be as long. Hopefully!

My Birthday Miracle!

Around the weekend July 4th, Monte got out of the house. He had done this quite a bit, he would go out for a bit, explore the backyard, but wouldn't venture out too far cause he's a big scaredy cat. Well, for whatever reason, when he got out over the holiday weekend, he never came home. We have a big deck in our backyard and sometimes he would go under it, but we could never see him under there. We also live next to a greenbelt where there are racoons, rabbits, coyotes, and even a mountain lion has been spotted. So, we prayed about it, the kids prayed for him to come home, but honestly, as the days wore on, I gave him up as eaten by a coyote.

Then about a week or two ago, David and I were watching TV late one night, and heard a cat fight. Hissing, scratching, screaming, so we grabbed a flashlight and ran outside in time to see our little Monte run up under the deck. We called, we stomped on the deck, we set out food and water, but we could never get him to come in. David did almost grab a possum thinking it was Monte though, that was pretty funny, and gross, those things are really ugly!!

Then again, a night or two later, heard the cat fight, and saw Monte run across the yard. I don't know why he wouldn't come to us or come meow at the back door like he used to. But, we prayed for him to be safe and have food and water, and come home soon.

Then, on my 40th birthday (or, the 1st anniversary of my 39th birthday, as I prefer to think of it) David let Princess out, and when I opened the back door to let her in, who is standing there but Mr. Monte?! He was meowing and I gently walked up and grabbed him and got him inside ASAP, got him some food and water and sure enough, he walked right over to the dog food and started chowing down. He always did prefer dog food (he's a little special).

So, wow, after over 2 months living on the street, he's skinny, he's scrawny, he's dirty, and roughed up around the edges, but he's SUPER lovey, doesn't want us to put him down, he just sits on our lap all day if we let him. The kids are SO happy to have their Mont-ster home!!

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day Weekend

My cousin Christina and her 2 youngest kids, Jeremiah and Joy, came to visit us for Labor Day weekend! We were so excited. They came in Friday night, and so Saturday morning we got up and hit the road. We went to Chuy's for lunch (a must for any visiting guests) and especially during Hatch Green Chili Festival! I feel like a drug dealer, I got another one hooked on the Creamy Jalepeno (mwah ha ha!)

Then we went to the Capitol Building and took a ton of pictures. There were about 10 different Quinceneras there for photos also, so the girls loved checking out all the frilly dresses. Then we went to Big Top Candy Shop and got some good old fashioned candy, and an Italian Creme Soda (yum).

Then we went home, where David had been smoking a brisket all day, and had that for dinner. Sunday we went to church, and I had a Groupon for Texas Jumping Beans, so we took them there for a while to blow off some steam. And Kenzie and Eli joined us there so Tina could meet her newest baby cousin!

Then Tina's oldest son Josh, who is in the Air Force and stationed in San Antonio, came up for the afternoon. We went to Mighty Fine since we took Jeremiah there when he came to visit and couldn't stop talking about the "automatic hand washers" and the two-way mirror in the boy's bathroom! So we sat on the patio so the kids could play on the playground and eat their burgers and we ate Cajun food from Razzoo's!

It was over too quick, as Monday morning they had to get back to Houston. Especially with half of Texas on fire, they ended up in a lot of traffic and smoke was everywhere by this point. It was a good trip though, our kids love getting together, and I'm so glad they have cousins close by to play with.

Updates

I know, I know, it's been a while since I've updated this thing, again. I will just post some updates and hopefully be able to keep up better now that the kids are in school.

First, that's the big thing, the kids started back to school at a college prep school in Georgetown. So far so good. Riley came home with a girlfriend, and several more girls that want to be girlfriends. That boy is a player already. I'm scared for the teenage years that are just-around-the-corner!! He is liking his new school, not sure if it's because of the girls, but I'm just glad he's liking it right now! He has a block schedule, starting with PE (they take a bus to the Georgetown Rec Center for PE) and he has to wear a PE uniform and all, it's cute. Then he has Science, Spanish and English, and the next day he has a Leadership class, History, Music Ensemble (he plays piano) and Math. He has a couple of teachers he's not thrilled with, but overall, he's enjoying it. He has a Galaxy Tablet that all the kids use for school, so that's kind of nice, no heavy backpacks and all their work is done on their tablet.

Regan on the other hand...well, it's been a bit more of a transition for her. But, being that it's a brand new elementary, they do have some growing pains right now. They hired 2 teachers, but really needed 3, so until they could hire another teacher, they crammed all the 4th graders into 2 classes, so they are huge right now. She got shuffled to another teacher and was sad because she really liked the teacher she started off with originally. But, we had a meeting with the elementary principal and counselor about Regan's learning issues and we had a very good meeting. We will have an ARD meeting soon and get a plan together for her to begin speech therapy at school for the stutter and they will pull her out to work on reading and writing and they also will start some math tutoring. Since she's been diagnosed with dyslexia, dysgraphia and discalculia, she qualifies to have a "504" plan, which basically means she will get some extra, much needed help! I am very happy about that, she's a very smart girl, she just lacks some confidence after struggling with her reading and writing for so long.

Next week their school will start their after school clubs, and basically, they have a bunch of clubs that the kids can choose to go to after school. I'm torn since I don't work, there's no reason for the kids to stay at school till 4:30 or 5:00, but 2 days of the week is dance practice and Regan decided she wants to join dance. I'm all for it, I hope she enjoys it, and I think she will be great at it! Then one day they have Zumba, which she isn't thrilled about, but I told her to try it out, she may really love it. And one day is Girl Start, which I'm very excited about, it's "empowering girls in science, math and technology"! I think it will be great for my future vet! Riley will be in Robotics and not sure what else yet, they haven't given us the middle school club options yet.

And now...the good stuff! My kids don't ever check this blog, and I'm no good at keeping secrets, but we decided this year to surprise the kids for Christmas and take them to...DISNEY WORLD!! I'm so excited. I was thinking about Christmas, and how I am so tired of buying stuff they don't need, or things that end up laying around on the floor for ME to pick up, and really, my kids do NOT need one more electronic item! So, a friend recommended a Disney planner, which I was hesitant to use since I've planned our trips myself and did just fine thankyouverymuch. But, I thought, we will see what she can do for us.

And wow, I'm sold! She was awesome. There's a free dining plan during when we want to go, so all our food will be free (with the exception of one meal since we are having breakfast with the Princesses and that counts as 2 meals. It better be worth it!) The planner took our dates, booked our hotel (and since food is free, we could get a nicer hotel!) and booked all our dinner and lunch reservations! And, she got us tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, where we get to have cookies and cocoa and watch it snow on Main Street!

So, we will be taking the kids out of school for a week, and we are going to surprise them. Not sure how yet. David wants to just show up at the airport and not say a word about where we are going, but I say that's bo-ring. I want to have presents wrapped with little hints, or do a scavenger hunt around the house and they have to guess. Something anyway. We still have some time to work on that part.

As you can tell, I'm excited. I can't wait. I'm counting down the days!! But if you see the kids...don't say anything!!

I guess that's it around here. Not much going on outside of school and work and laundry. Now you know why I haven't posted more often!

Cousin Camp

After Regan's big Girl Scout weekend in Houston, I traded kids with my cousin Christina. Regan stayed in Houston for the week and Jeremiah came to Austin with me. We had a good time with him. He and Riley get along so well, and they played Xbox and computer games most of the week. When they weren't killing something, I took them to Jump Street (a new indoor trampoline place) where Jeremiah got to ride the mechanical bull! They spent one whole day at Austin's Park and Pizza (and I mean, the WHOLE day! Open to close, they were exhausted after that). We saw Cowboys & Aliens at the new dinner theater in Round Rock, and went swimming to beat the heat.

Then we went to Houston to switch back and spent the night down there. I sure missed Regan, the house was much quieter with her gone! But she had a great time too, and she wasn't even really ready to come home. I hope we can continue Cousin Camp every summer, the kids had such a great time. I know some of my fondest memories growing up were summers spent with my cousins!!

Girl Scout Trip

Time for our end of year, cookie reward trip! We had a nice, big trip planned since our troop was the highest cookie seller in our service unit! Riley had gone to church camp at the beginning of the week, and then on Wednesday, Rgan switched and went to church camp, so on Friday morning, I had to drive out to Burnet to pick her up from church camp and meet at our Girl Scout Leaders house by 10am! It was a busy morning!

We loaded up the cars and headed to Brenham, for a picnic lunch and a tour of the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. The girls loved it, and we got some good group pictures and all got a free scoop of yummy ice cream!


Then we loaded back up for the rest of the way to Houston. We checked into our hotel, and then went down the street to Prince's Hamburgers for dinner. They had the best root beer, which of course, when you have 12 nine year old girls, root beer is a must! Then we headed back to the hotel for a swim at the pool.




The girls all wanted to sleep in the same bed, so they looked so cute laying longways with their little blankets!!

Then we got up, had breakfast in the hotel lobby, and then headed out to the Children's Museum. We split into our groups of one adult/three kids to make life more manageable and had a great day exploring the museum. I had Regan, Hailey and Azure, and we had a great time. We played in the Kidtropolis, played on the giant indoor playscape, and then braved the outdoors to play in the water area a little while.

Children's Museum

Then after the museum, we loaded up and headed to NASA. We got there and unloaded our bags, and went to dinner, and then after dinner, we spent the next 4 hours or so doing badgework for the girls to earn a cool badge for their new Junior vest! They were so tired but we were up till after midnight working on badges. Then we got our assigned sleeping area and it was in the spaceship gallery. It was very cool, we got to sleep right underneath models of the spaceships and an astronaut walking in space, but they don't turn all the lights off, so it was very hard sleeping in the super bright room, and it got VERY cold overnight there!

So the next morning, we got up (no showers, grumble) and loaded our vehicles, had breakfast, and then took the tram tour to see mission control and an Apollo rocket. Then we spent some time back at the space center, letting the girls play on the giant playscape and then touching an actual moon rock. Then it was time to make the long, traffic filled drive back to Austin!

NASA

But first, I met up with my cousin Christina and traded kids. Regan stayed in Houston for the week with her cousin Joy, and Jeremiah got to come home with me in a truck filled with Girl Scouts. I don't think he appreciated being the only boy on the ride home, the girls were really giving him a run for his money! It was cute though.

So, the trip was a success, no typical girl fights, or frumpy moods, even with so little sleep! But, I vote for next years trip to be somewhere where we have a shower every morning, at least!