Garrett's Kindergarten picture

Thank you Ethan!

Last weekend when Jimmy was gone to Houston to see the Miami Dolphins, a good friend of mine came over. (Well, several good friends came over - more about that later.) She brought her two kids. Her daughter is friends with Meagan and her son is friends with Garrett.

We are always looking for things to keep the kids busy so we can scrapbook. The girls have started scrapbooking so they were busy with that. I suggested she bring Ethan's train set. It is the type of toy that is more fun with two kids to get out all of the pieces and then run the train around the track.

After the boys had played for a while, Ethan told his mom he wanted Garrett to have his train set.

Ethan, you are such a thoughtful little boy! Thank you so much for the train set. Garrett loves it and is playing with it all of the time.

Fire Prevention Week

On Saturday I took the kids to the fire station. They were having their second annual block party to celebrate Fire Prevention Week. Garrett is just a little obsessed with fire trucks and firefighters, so needless to say, he was in heaven. Meagan thinks it's all pretty cool too.

The kids were allowed into the trucks and got to see them up close and climb on them. There were firefighters around to supervise and explain what various knobs and gadgets do. The firefighters went out of their way to make this an enjoyable experience for the kids.
Sparky the Firedog made an appearance.
E, one of the teachers I work with, was putting tattoos on children (okay, adults too) who wanted them.
Garrett didn't want to get out.
Here is Garrett with Sparky. Last year he didn't cry but didn't want to get near him. This year, before we even got to the fire station, he told me he would go stand by him and let me take his picture.
They had so many activities I can't even remember them all. Meagan is coloring a picture for the coloring contest.
Here she is throwing balls at the dunking booth.
There was a moonwalk, a cupcake walk, putt putt golf, a school supply give-away, take your picture with Sparky, lots and lots of information for kids and parents/adults on staying safe, demonstrations by the arson dog, free balloons, an ambulance for the kids to get into, Red Cross information, a crash simulator (to see the necessity of wearing your seat belt, free hot dogs and lemonade, and I'm sure I'm forgetting even more.

In the week prior to the block party the firefighters visited all the local elementary schools to explain what to do in the case of a house fire. They explained how to escape from a burning house safely, how the firefighters might look and sound a little scary, and how to make a plan to keep everyone safe after a house fire. Garrett came home reminding me to check the battery in my smoke alarm!

I would like to say THANK YOU! to all firefighters out there. You make our world a little safer to live in and you are not recognized enough for it in my opinion. Your willingness to go out into the community to share your message is a testament to how seriously you take your job and I thank you for it as a mom and as a teacher. You are all heroes in my book!

If you want to take 10 years off of my life . . .

come to my room while I am teaching and tell me the nurse from Meagan's school is calling. Tell me that she fell and hit her head.

Needless to say, I ran down the breezeway and was so out of breath (note to self - exercise more) that I could hardly hear the nurse over the sound of my huffing and puffing, um, breathing.

Then she took ten more years off of my life when she uttered the words "possible concussion." Thanks, I didn't want to collect Social Security anyway.
Meagan fell face first onto concrete and got a nasty bump on her head and a scrape on her knee. Her thumb also hurt where her head landed on it. The nurse said her bump would have been much worse had she not gotten her thumb up and in between her head and the concrete.

I had to watch her for several signs that she had a concussion. I also had to wake her up twice during the night to make sure she was okay.

When I was taking this picture (above) Meagan said, "You're going to put this on your blog aren't you?" My kids . . . they learn so quickly. She even suggested a title for me "Girl has baseball, no, softball on forehead."

Thank goodness she was fine and showed no symptoms of having a concussion.

And on a lighter note, I will leave you with this picuture:This is just a cute picture of the mouse puppet Garrett brought home from school on Friday. They read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff. It's a really cute book if you haven't read it yet.

EnDyn Family Picnic

Okay, okay, I know that I have been M.I.A. for a week or so, so I included lots of good pictures in this post to make up for it. I know you have all heard it before but I've been really, really busy. Life, you know, it just gets in the way of my free time sometimes. And that job thing Ihave, it really takes up a lot of my time!

The company that my dad works for had a Family Picnic last week. The kids went with my mom. My dad had to go out of town unfortunately. The kids had a BLAST! They were exhausted when they got home.

They got to ride horses,


go on a hayride,
and the activity to beat all activities (well, in Garrett's book anyway) GO FISHING! Mom and Dad bought him his very own rod and reel and tacklebox.

Garrett caught a one pound, 10 ounce catfish. "Mom, did you know that they have whiskers?" Garrett wanted to know. Yes, sweetie, I did.

Thanks Mom and Dad (and EnDyn) for making this a day that they will never forget.

Halloween is just around the corner!

I bought this cat last weekend when I bought Garrett's Halloween costume. I thought he was so cute, I just couldn't resist!
I am going to put him on top of an antique armoire that I have in my dining room. I am also going to put these really cute letters that my mom made me with the cat. They are wooden letters that spell out Boo. She decorated them in Halloween paper, ribbon, etc. I'll post another picture when I get it all put up.

Something New for ME!

Okay, I know that this isn't the best picture but here is a jacket that I bought for myself this weekend.

It is a deep brown corduroy (small cords) that is really soft. I love brown for things like jackets because I feel it is a very versatile color.

I think this jacket will look great with work clothes and will also look good with jeans on the weekend.

I saw it a few weeks ago and couldn't see spending $30.00 (I'm a cheapskate I know) on a jacket when it was still 100 degrees outside.

Now that we have actually had some fall weather, (well fall for us in south Texas - low 60s in the morning and mid 80s in the afternoons) I caved in and bought the jacket. It was also on sale for $24.00. I could no longer resist. I heard it calling my name and I succumbed to the temptation!