Playdate for Daniel

I was lucky enough to have a half day before the winter break, without Ian and Alex. Daniel got to go to a playdate... How cute are they?

Can he ham it up?

Visit to New Braunfels

Nice visit to New Braunfels

Here are the boys with Meme

Alex with his creations

Jody and Darren's parents took the boys and their cousins to see the Lion King. A big success and huge hit for the trip. Thanks.

Six Flags

Here are a few photos from our six flags evening. Lots of fun. Nice to see the entire family.

Left to Right:

Darren, Jody, Jack, Esther, Bernie, Harrison, Michela, Me, Alex, Ian, Jacob, Barbara, Trent, Daniel, Marlon, Mark.

Dude ranch

We had such a great time at the dude ranch...


Our first night we went on a wagon ride to view deer.


And we roasted marshmallows...

We ate delicious meals followed by fun entertainment..

Daniel got to ride the pony,

And they all got to shoot a bow and arrow.

They even got to shoot a bb gun.

Ian's form isn't the best :)

There was a trick ropper who was hysterical. And good.

Ian and Alex went for horse rides. Darren and I did too, in the snow (what there was of it).

I don't know these kids but... we all went hiking together and all the kids found animal bones. I didn't allow my kids to bring them home, so we had to take a picture to remember it by.

Our last night we stayed up extra late to watch the fireworks .

Then a quick trip to the ghost town on our way out.

Reflection

Sometimes when I post things it is not for commentary but for my own personal reflection. THIS is one of those times...

Today as I am sitting in a crowded, noisy, laid back restaurant I am watching a family of four in front of me eat. You could see the mother was stressed as she walked in. I know, all too well, the difficulty of eating out with your family. She has two young children, I would guess 9 months and 2 yrs old. Well the 2 yr old was being well a 2 yr old. This stressed the mother out tremendously. She was threatening to leave and creating a commotion. I might add more commotion than the 2 yr. old. This could serve as a reminder to me to relax a little too.

I try. Maybe once my kids have grown and gone and had their own children I will be able to relax!

Swine Flu

We are highly concerned in our house, as you should be!!!

Too old

I now realize that I am too old to study for hours on end. I used to be able to spend entire evenings, many days in fact, studying. When did I lose that ability. Now I take hourly breaks. I walk around. I get distracted. I mentally exhausted and I am only 2 hours into my evening. Does this make me too old to be returning to school?

I am lucky that my husband is watching the boys, even took them all to a cub scout meeting tonight, in order to help me finish up my final paper for one more class. If only I could finish up early enough to go home and cuddle with him and tell him how much I appreciate him. Hopefully I won't be out so late that he is already in bed, surely not.

That having been said... I must get back to work or I will be out all evening.
How are you doing?

My Life in Pictures

Well, it is 8:45 and some how miraculously this week I am ahead of the game. I finished my assignments that aren't due until tomorrow. I am finished with my assessments for work and staying on task. I am, for now, on top of things. Therefore, this post. Our last two months in pictures. Sorry it has been so long!


Night at the Rodeo. Me and my sweetheart. I love him so much.



My mom's birthday party. Great to have the entire family together.


Ian and his best friend Adam. They are so much alike they are missing the same teeth :)

My friend Cyndy invited me to go see Grease and that was awesome. Sometimes you need to go hang with a girlfriend.

Owner's box at the Texans game. I was too embarrassed to walk around taking pictures of the buffet, etc. but it was cool!

TAMU Football! Darren and his buddies who decided to tailgate. If by tailgate you mean screwdrivers and run out of orange juice leaving just vodka at 11:30 in the morning...

My boys. Can't get enough of them.

My sister. Super excited to see the band Cowboy Mouth (at least I think that is what they were called).

Here we are. Rock on!!

Feeling Great

I am finally starting to get back to my old self. Today I woke up feeling great. No coffee necessary. Hope I don't regreat that decision at 10 this morning. Excited about the future and enjoying planning Ian's president birthday party. What to do???

Halloween

Our Halloween preparations are In full swing now. Alex has his vampire attire, Daniel has his Thomas outfit and ian has changed his mind from Eisenhower to Bush as a friend of mine found him a flight suit. This has caused drastic reactions from friends and family. This surprised me as the man WAS president. Ian does dress up as presidents. I would let him dress up as any of the presidents. Why not? As ian put it "he made some bad choices but did the best he could." glad we have taught him well. Darren and I are going as hippies. Full out with gogo boots and dress ( and that is just darren, jj) we have wigs, fringe vests and glasses to top it off.

School is good for all of us. I am exhausted. The boys love their sports. Cub scouts is great. Work is good for both of us.

Health is improving for me. as I said, I am just tired.
I owe you photos.

Ian's reading habits

Tonight my dad stopped by and during his visit he asked Ian what he is reading. The answer...
Harry Potter
Political Profiles- John McCain
A Pocket Thesaurus
Jonathon Livingston Seagull
A Time for Freedom by Lynne Cheney

Isn't that hysterical? What 7 year old reads this stuff? And doesn't his neck hurt from having all these books crammed under his pillow?

Obama's Speech

If your child hasn't watched Obama's speech they really should. It isn't politically based. It is motivational. It is such a huge step to have a president truly understand the importance of our youth.

Even when I disagree with President Obama, I am proud to have him as our president. He is definitely trying his best. His priorities are amazing and he is able to do what is necessary to accomplish his goals.

Labor Day 2

This weekend has been an emotional roller coaster. It began with such a nice night out with my sister, followed by a very nice day on Saturday. Darren and I slept in, while the boys watched television. We got a little frisky, while the boys watched television (I know this is tmi for many of you but hey we are married and some day when the boys read this they should know we did those things too). Then Darren took the boys to the A&M football game while I stayed home to paint and do homework. I rented some movies and got to business.

Sunday was nice in the morning followed up by a horrible afternoon. What changed? Well, Darren went out of town. There was a lot of crying (mostly Daniel) and it really through the house into a different frame of mind. A wonderful friend took Ian to his soccer game so that Daniel could nap. Of course Daniel didn't nap for most of the time as he was busy screaming for Darren.

Sunday afternoon was nice as my sister and the gang came over to visit. We went to dinner, where I had the worst experience of trying to get the guy to take a simple order while Daniel ran around wigging out (remember he is low on sleep by now). Sunday evening was the worst with hourly wake ups from Daniel screaming for Darren. The picture he went to sleep with didn't help much.

Today we were just dragging thanks to Daniel last night. We did go to Chick-Fil-A because they were offering free sandwiches if you were wearing your favorite sports team shirts. So we dressed up and went out for lunch. This was a treat as a bunch of friends were there. One even took Ian and Alex home to play while Daniel and I went home to nap. Now back to the down swing, Daniel woke up after 20 minutes running a fever.

So no school tomorrow and hopefully we didn't infect the world at Chick-Fil-A. I am also guilt ridden that I may have gotten my friend's kids sick.

On top of this, I have been really tired lately. They are messing with my medicines which is good in that I can now eat and have stopped most of my shaking but bad because I have no motivation to do anything.

We are surviving though and as the boys are sleeping now I am cautiously optimistic that I will sleep better tonight.