Wow! I actually remembered my password!

I know it has been forever since I've posted.

Hopefully I'll start posting again - at least every now and then!

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and that everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!

Elizabeth

Absolutely Adorable

I walked down the hall the other night and peeked into Meagan's room to see why it was so quiet in there.

This is why:

This makes me so happy.

I need an intervention y'all

Earlier in the summer I went to Facebook on a whim. Jimmy's sisters were always talking about it and I was bored one day so I thought . . . What the heck? I'll give it a try.

Guys, I am addicted. My name is Elizabeth and I am addicted to Facebook.

I am admitting I have a problem!

(Hangs her head in shame) Facebook is the reason that this blog has suffered this summer. Summer, the time of year when I actually have time to post, had been stolen by Facebook.

Today Jimmy is gone to a softball tournament. Softball?? you ask. Yes, Jimmy is playing softbal.. (See you didn't know that because I haven't been blogging!)

I have GOT to clean house this morning while he is gone and I hope to be back in the blogging saddle tonight.

See you soon! (I hope - if Facebook doesn't call to me too loudly!)

Isn't that the same thing?

The kids and I had a little picnic this evening just to get out of the house. (We didn't go very far. We have a cement picnic table in our backyard.)

After we ate, the kids wanted s'mores. I got everything out to make them and Garrett told me that he just wanted chocolate. I said ok and handed him his piece of chocolate instead of getting it ready to microwave. (Yes, I said microwave. We don't have fires around here. We do it the quick and easy way.)

Meagan got out the marshmallows and he told her he wanted one. She gave him one and he got ready to go back outside. That's when he asked for his crackers.

When I asked him what crackers he was talking about, he told me the ones like Meagan got.

Let me think about this - I thought you didn't want a s'more.

His answer? I want all of the parts. I just didn't want it hot.

Why didn't you just say so son?

Do you think she gets it from me?

There's just no denying that she's mine. You want proof?

This exchange proves it:

Me: Meagan, will you please come here?

Meagan: sighing . . . Yes, mom?

Me: Will you please go check the mail for me?

Meagan: sighing . . . I guess (slipping on my shoes) I just wish that was really a question that I could answer.

She then heads out the door.

Total smarta**.

She's mine all right.

Meagan's New Haircut

I finally had a chance to take Meagan to get her hair cut. Mari didn't cut too much off length wise but she added long layers to help the curl look better. (Wearing it pulled up into a pony tail all during the school year is hard on the curl.)

She then blow dried it with a diffuser. I love how it looks and so does Meagan.

I think it makes her look so grown up!

Eleven years ago . . .

Here are some pictures from the family party we had for Meagan. Grandma Blair cooked fried chicken for everyone and then made homemade ice cream for Meagan.

Here's Meagan opening a gift from Nana Mary, Carlos, Crystal, and Bee and Larry. Lots of goodies inside!

Still pulling more stuff out . . .

Webkinz from Jimmy and I.

Meagan with Grandpa (my dad)

Happy Birthday Baby!

DARE to be a beautiful, smart kid

Meagan's school had an awards assembly at the end of the year. Here she is receiving an award. She was the third top reader in A.R. in the fifth grade, was the Top Lanugage Arts student, she made all A's all year, and she was recognized again for being in the Lone Star Challenge.
Fifth grade students also participate in the DARE program all year though their social studies class so they wear their graduation t-shirts to awards. DARE stands for Drug Awareness and Resistance Education. A local police officer comes into the schools and does lessons on drug awareness and resistance.

Meagan we are so proud of you!

A Little Survey

Updated to show my answers. (and Yes, I know it took me more than a few days. Sorry Cindi! You can see my friend Cindi's answers on her blog here. Thanks to Krissy who answered in my comments! I have been so busy with kickball - haven't I said that before? - but hopefully I'll be posting on a more regular basis now!)

I found this over at A is for Beautiful and thought it would be fun to answer.

You can leave your answers in the comments section or do a post on your blog. (Who I am lying to? I have no readers who are going to be bored enough to actually do this in writing! :)

1. summer television: waste of time or guilty pleasure? Umm, I watch TV all year long. I consider it cheap therapy!
2. baked potatoes: butter, sour cream, bacon bits, chives, cheese? any or all? Everything but sour cream
3. Facebook: must-do or proud resister? I have an account but am not addicted or anything.
4. coupon clipping: yes or no? Yes. When people buy the paper and give me coupons.
5. babyback ribs or key lime pie? Both, of course!
6. Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune? Jeopardy. It comes on at 1:30 here so I Tivo it and watch it when I get home from work.
7. ocean waves or lazy river? Lazy river
8. pickles: dill or sweet? Depends on what I'm using them for.
9. the economy: still ick or rebounding? Who knows?
10. eBay or Craigslist? eBay
11. Mexican food or sushi? Mexican Food
12. Edward, Jacob, or who cares? I'm obviously out of the loop. Who are these people??
13. pregnancy dreams: annoying or humorous? Humorous, it's the only time in my life that I could remember by dreams - because they were so weird!
14. summer thunderstorms: music to your ears or pain in the rear? Music to my ears!
15. online games: good way to pass the time at work on a Friday or who has the time? Fun way to avoid housework - no access to them at work.
16. So You Think You Can Dance: addicting entertainment or yawn? I've never seen an episode.
17. beach or mountains? Mountains
18. hardback or paperback? Paperback
19. Pepsi or Coke? Coke
20. Ellie or Josh? any bets? Again - who??


I'll post my answers in a day or two.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Jimmy! You are the best father that we could ever ask for.

We love you!

A new summer do . . .

Garrett's hair had gotten pretty long (well, for him anyway) and he had fun making it into a mohawk in the bathtub. Jimmy and I had decided that he could have a mohawk for the summer. (Not a complete mohawk - we were just going to leave the center longer and the sides pretty short.)

However, when I took Garrett to get his hair cut he had changed his mind. He decided he just wanted the front of his hair to stand up.

So here he is with his new do for summer.

I should have taken a picture of him standing sideways so you would really be able to see the front of his hair spiked up.

***Hair update: Garrett let me put gel in his hair and spike the front of it for only one day. After that he refused to let me touch it. Sigh . . .

Taking a deep breath . . . .

Here's why I haven't been blogging:

• Friday was the last day of school for kids and Saturday was the last workday for teachers for the 2008-2009 school year
• Reading Specialists are in charge of organizing summer school for all of the elementary schools in town
• Meagan finished her first year of middle school
• Meagan's birthday is coming up in just a couple of weeks
• Garrett finished kinder - sob, sob
• I helped to make a scrapbook for a staff member who left our school after 8 years
• I finally moved all of my stuff out of my old classroom
• I spent about $2500 (not my money!) on books/supplies for next year
• our kickball team had 5 or 6 games in last three weeks
• our kickball team won the last 10 games they played
• our kickball team won their 10th straight game in the bottom of the sixth inning to become the JUNIOR CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I've been a little busy. I have kept up (well, a little anyway) with my Twitter posts so I will have to reread them to work on blogging all of the things that have been going on around here the last couple of weeks.

All I've done the last couple of weeks in my house is the bare minimum. You know, washing spoons as we need them, making sure we have a clean uniform for both kids for the next day, making sure people have socks and underwear, and washing our kickball uniforms repeatedly.

Today I am cleaning house and then going to a meeting with Jimmy to pick the ALL STAR JUNIOR TEAM! Because, as the coaches of the team who won FIRST PLACE! we get to coach the All Star team and take them to the state tournament in Austin, Texas over the Fourth of July weekend. But, I promise, I will try to start blogging with some sort of regularity (is that even a word?) soon.

(I'm a little excited about winning first place in kickball - just in case you can't tell.)

Mmm, Mmm, Good

I found this new granola mix at Wal-Mart a while back and it is terrific!

It is the perfect mix of granola bunches, dried golden raisins, dried cranberries, sweet slivered almonds, and roasted whole almonds.

The only problem? The packages are kind of small and there are only five packages in a box.

Planters, in case you are listening, I would like to buy this stuff in a big bag!

Dirt . . . It does a body good

Nana Mary bought this outfit for Garrett and boy did she hit the nail on the head!

Garrett has not wanted to take the outfit off since she gave it to him.

Lucky for him, he met his A.R. goal last week and was able to wear regular clothes to school on Friday.

Nana also bought him another cute pair of khaki shorts and a striped shirt that will be perfect for this summer.

Thanks Nana!

Bronze, Silver, Silver

Please excuse the cookie - competing makes a kid hungry!
For most of the school year Meagan has been studying for the Lone Star Challenge. If you are familiar with Academic Decathlon or Pentathlon, it is very similar. It is the comperable activity for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students.

If you are new to all of this - think athletic decathlon but with academics instead. Students study information on a given theme and then compete by testing in several subjects: math, science, social studies, reading, and essay. To complete the whole contest there is the Super Quiz event. This is a relay race of sorts but instead of running laps, students are answering questions.

The theme this year was Pop Culture of the 60's and 70's. Cool - in my opinion anyway.

Meagan won three medals: Bronze in essay, Silver in Individual Super Quiz (she got four out of her five questions correct), and Silver in Team Super Quiz.

We are so proud of you Meagan! Keep up the great work!

Water Balloon Fight

Have I mentioned that Jimmy and I are coaching kickball again this season? We coached last year and finished the season in 6th place. (Out of 9 teams - not great but not awful either. We were new to the whole coaching thing and we had some issues with the girls working together as a team.)

Anyway, we are called The Rockers this year. To start off the season we beat the Stingrayz. It came down to the bottom of the sixth inning. We had a two run lead . . . and we let a runner score. A few tense moments later we got the last out and were 1 -0. We were on top of the world because the Stingrayz were in 2nd place last year.

In the next two games our team did not fair as well. We lost to the Cyclones by one run. Even though we lost we were happy with how the game went. Our girls played really well and didn't make any major mistakes. Considering that the Cyclones were in first place last year (they only lost one game the whole season) we were happy.

The third game - our girls just gave up. They were down by three early in the game and never rallied back. We were disappointed in how they lost - not that they lost.

The fourth game was a tie. We played hard to the bitter end but just couldn't score another run to win the game. Even though we tied, our girls were back!

Game 5 - we were set to play the Heartbreakers - who are now 4-0. A good friend of ours coaches the team so it was going to be especially interesting to see who would win.

Jimmy promised the girls a water balloon fight if we won the game. (Can you finally see where this post it going??) Needless to say, WE WON!!!!!!!! and the score was 14-3. Our girls took an early lead and never looked back.

It took Jimmy and I over an hour to fill up the balloons with water. Needless to say, the kitchen floor is pretty clean now from all of the accidents that we had filling them up. I am sad to say that it only took minutes for all of the balloons to be history! However, the girls had a great time.

Just for the record, we won our next game so our record is now 4-2-1.

On Monday we start all over again with the Stingrayz. I know we can beat them again!

GO ROCKERS!!!!!!!!!

Surfin' U.S.A.

On Tuesday night Meagan performed at her school's P.T.A. program. They sang four songs: Let It Be, Surfin' U.S.A., a song in spanish, and another song that I can't remember right now.

I took this picture before we left the house.

This one was taken in between songs.

And here's one of Garrett. He did well during the meeting. I let him look through the pictures I have saved on my camera. That kept him quiet for, oh, two minutes or so. He watched the kids sing and stayed near his seat the rest of the time so I was happy.

I just wish he would lose this fake smile thing he has going on lately.

Little Bunny Foo Foo

Well I don't know if that's his name or not but this little guy was in my yard on Saturday night. We've seen rabbits before, especially in the spring time. I took pictures of this one because Garrett has been on a rabbit kick ever since Easter.

The Dolphins say hello

On Friday I went with kinder to the Texas State Aquarium.

Perk number 723 about my new job - no field trip to take every year.

All good time was had by all but boy do field trips wear you out.

Hoppy Easter!

On Saturday night we colored eggs as a family. Thanks Grandma Silly for boiling the eggs and buying the coloring kit! (I was really lazy so there are no pictures of us coloring eggs.)

The kids went to bed anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Easter Bunny.

Meagan woke me up at 7:55 on Sunday morning. "Mom! Can we see what the Easter Bunny left us?"

The bunny left Meagan a horse Webkinz and the High School Musical 3 DVD. He left Garrett a horse Webkinz and a play set with an airplane and a boat.

After all of the Easter basket excitement, we went to church. We were joined by Grandma Silly, Grandma Blair, Darla, Ashley, and Joey.

After church, Grandma Silly came back to our house.


These are the baskets that she made for the kids. Aren't they cute?? Each one had a Webkin in it along with some eggs, some candy, and some other goodies. The kids were really excited about the chalk. It came with 3D glasses and other tools to help you draw. (Garrett's "smile" is driving me crazy.)

Grandma Silly and the kids
After that we went to Grandma Blair's and had an Easter egg hunt.

I love the look on his face in this picture. He had just found a prize egg with money in it.

While the kids were hunting eggs, Grandma Blair was making lunch. We had homemade fried chicken and all of the trimmings. Yum!

Las Vegas Day Three

On our third day in Las Vegas we went over to the New York New York. Tina was determined to ride the roller coaster that is on top of the building. I wasn't so sure about it and Jimmy certainly wasn't going to ride the thing.

My indecisiveness about the roller coaster didn't matter after all because it was only 9:30 in the morning and rides didn't start until 11:00.
We decided to do some more sightseeing and you know . . . walk some more. As we were leaving the New York New York Jimmy decided that he had walked enough and went back to our hotel to hang out.

Tina and I set off to explore.

We walked down to a CVS because I already needed water and chap stick. (How come I can never remember to bring all of the little things like chap stick with me??) When we were paying for our water this lady walked up behind me. Me, being the wary traveler that I am, glanced back to see who had walked up behind us. I thought in my head that wow, that lady really looks like Juanita (my mother-in-law/Tina's mom) but I didn't say anything. Tina, not being shy at all, turns around and sees her and says, "Wow! You look just like my mom! Can I take your picture?" The lady pretends like she doesn't hear her and looks the other way. Tina continues to talk to her and the lady continues to ignore her. I finally finish paying for my purchases and get Tina to leave the store. I guess that old wive's tale about everyone having a twin is true. Juanita - your twin was in Las Vegas when we were!

We passed lots of hotels (they all start to blur together after a while) and finally end up at the Bellagio. We walked through the casino. I was looking for two of my friends who were in Vegas at the same time we were and staying there. I didn't see them. Tina then wanted to find the wedding chapel to see what it look like. Well, we obviously went the looooong way around. It took forever to find the wedding chapel. It was pretty but actually really small. (Tina says the one at the Luxor is actually lots fancier but I don't know because I didn't go into that one.)

We kept walking . . . . and walking . . . and walking . . . and came upon the most fabulous chocolate shop. They had this huge fountain of different types of chocolates running into the gorgeous pools. They also had a fabulous Easter scene set up - bunnies, eggs, etc. that was adorable. Tina and I couldn't resist the temptation so we bought chocolate dipped strawberries and various other goodies.

We walked some more and finally came to the Conservatory. (This is the whole reason I wanted to come to the Bellagio in the first place.)

It was breathtaking. See for yourself:

It also smelled heavenly. We spent almost half an hour in there looking at all of the different types of flowers.

We were exhausted by that point and so we took a cab back to the hotel. We had planned to walk down the strip some more and go eat at Margaritaville but the timing just didn't work out. Oh well, there's always next time right??

Once we got back to the Luxor Jimmy, Tina, and I went back to the New York New York so Tina could ride the roller coaster.

Long story short, I rode the roller coaster. And then I felt sick for about an hour.

We went back to the Luxor and rested for a while and then I went to the Bodies Exhibit. Neither Jimmy nor Tina had any desire to see the exhibit so I went by myself. It was horrifying and fascinating all at the same time. I highly recommend it. Jimmy went to the Titanic Exhibit which he said was really good too. I would have liked to see it too but we were running short on time.

By then it was time to get ready for the last show we were going to see. We went to see:

Not Fantasy!!! We went to see Carrot Top. The show was really funny.

This is Tina with Charlie. Charlie does an opening act before Carrot Top's show. It was neat to get to talk to him. Tina was looking for Carrot Top at the clubs in the casino and spotted Charlie instead so she went up to him and started talking to him. Again, never shy, that's Tina!

Early the next morning (although thankfully not as early as Monday morning) we flew home to Texas.

I can't wait to go on vacation again!

Las Vegas Day Two Contined

Here is a picture of me next to a giant coke bottle. This was outside the Coca-Cola store. As I said in my last post, I was so grateful to find a real coke in Las Vegas. I could have kissed the machine!
We walked farther down the strip sightseeing and having a good time people watching. It was St. Patrick's Day so there were plenty of crazy things to see. (Now that I think about it, there's probably always crazy things and people to see in Las Vegas - St. Patrick's Day or not.)

We ate lunch at P.F. Changs on the strip. These were crab won tons that were really good. The fried rice was also really good. It had lots of veggies in it that I really liked. My entree wasn't great but Tina's chicken was really good.

After eating lunch we walked around some more. (I know I keep typing that sentence out but if you go sightseeing in Las Vegas, plan on doing a lot of walking!)

We went into a Field of Dreams store (sports memorabilia) and went past the Sony store. There was a giant playstation portable on the front of the building.

We then walked back toward the hotel. We stopped at the MGM Grand to see the lion. He wasn't impressed with all of the people who were gathered around to watch him. He basically just layed there. I did buy a cute magnet for my fridge at home. It has a lion on it and the words Here human, human. I thought that it was really funny.

We played the slot machines for a little while and then headed back to the hotel.

We rested for a while and then got ready to go to our next show.

What show did we go to you ask?

(insert picture here)

We went to see Criss Angel.

It says insert picture here because you are not allowed to talk pictures during the show and I am too lazy to find a picture of Criss Angel on-line.

The show was called Believe and it was really cool. I had never seen any of his shows so I really enjoyed it. I know that some parts of the show have to be illusions but the execution of the show is flawless. You cannot tell how he is doing them. The show also had Cirque de Soliel elements in it.

After the show we went to eat at Dick's Last Resort. All I'm going to say about that is that you have to be in the right frame of mind to eat at Dick's or it is going to be a really frustrating experience for you. My burger was good though.

Las Vegas Day Two (Part I)

Update: For some of you who are wondering, Tina is one of Jimmy's four sisters. She went on the trip with us. She isn't pictured in this post but she was in the last post - the picture with the drinks.

Now for the next Vegas Vacation installment:

Jimmy and I were up early on Tuesday of our vacation due to our early bedtime the night before. (We are probably the only people who went to Vegas and were in bed before midnight.

Anyway, we got up early and went to the food court to eat breakfast. (Starbucks has really good oatmeal, by the way.)

After that Jimmy and I went down to the casino to gamble while Tina got ready for the day.

Jimmy sat down and played video poker and I wandered around until I found a slot machine that only took 50 cents to "fill up." (I don't know what the correct term for this is. My mom always told me to fill up the machine. In other words, play the maximum bet. She's been to Vegas lots so I followed her advice.)

Since it was so early there were hardly any people around. I picked a machine based on the fact that is was only 50 cents to play and that there were no smokers playing nearby. (I know that these are funny criteria for most people - but they worked for me ok?)

I put in a $20.00 bill. (Do you know how hard it was for me to do that? It takes me an hour to make $20.00!) Before I knew it, all of my credits were gone.

I reluctantly put in another $20.00 bill. Once again, I was down to almost no credits very quickly.

I had $1.50 in the machine and had already decided that when that was gone so was I.

I pushed max bet and to my surprise this came up:

This was the top prize for the machine I was playing. I looked up and saw that I won but it really wasn't registering how much I had won.

Just then a drink girl came around. "I won!" I told her. At this point I thought I had won $400.00. Come to find out, 4000 quarters is a lot more than $400.00! (Yes, I'm a teacher. I obviously need to work on my mental math skills.)

The look on Jimmy's face when I told him how much I'd won was priceless. I wish I'd taken a picture of it.

I carefully filed away my voucher for my winnings and we went out to sight see.

Here we are in front of the MGM.
We spent over an hour in this store. It was four stories high. It had some museum type parts which told about the history of M&M's and how M&M's are made. It had tons of really cute merchandise to buy too.

(It was also next door to the Coke-a-Cola store so it contained a vending machine that sold Coke! The Luxor only sells Pepsi so I had been drinking Sierra Mist. I had a terrible headache from a lack of caffeine. About an hour after drinking my coke however, I was just fine!)

This was up in the museum area. As a teacher I couldn't resist taking a picture of this little diorama. In case you can't read it, it says "I will not melt in the hand." Adorable!Here's my picture with the big blue and red guys.

Las Vegas Day One

Here is a picture of me, Jimmy, and Tina. We flew out of the Houston International Airport. We had to get up at 3:00 in the morning so that we could get to the airport on time. Never again will I book a flight out at 7:00 a.m.

Since we left SO early, we arrived in Vegas at 8:20 a.m. We took a shuttle bus to the hotel but had to check our bags since it was too early to check in. We were starving but no one was serving lunch yet. We wound up eating a second breakfast at a restaurant inside the hotel.

We walked around a little, gambled a little, and were then able to check in. We went to our room and took a nap to recover from our early arrival time.

We stayed at the Luxor on the strip. Here's a shot from inside the hotel. We stayed in the pyramid portion of the hotel. It was very cool inside.

After a nap we were ready to go. Jimmy and I took a cab to Treasure Island (stop laughing - the two hotels are pretty far apart and we were still really tired!)

At Treasure Island we stood in line for almost an hour to pick up our tickets to Mystere, which is one of the shows that Cirque du Soleil performs.

We ate dinner at Kahunaville where Tina bought me a drink that was larger than my head!
This was a huge seafood appetizer that Tina and I shared for dinner. The grilled shrimp were fantastic
The waitress was sweet and took this picture for us. Tina wanted to have photographic proof that I actually had a drink.

We still had a little time before the show so we went to the casino and gambled a little. I won some quarters but the drink had obviously gone to my head because I was unable to convert the number of quarters I won into dollars. A text message to Veronica later and I knew that I won $18.00. However, by the time she got back to me I had already lost it! Oh well, easy come, easy go as they say.

Mystere was AWESOME! I had no idea what to expect out of it and it was breath taking. I am really glad that we went to see it.

After the show Tina persuaded us to walk back to the hotel. "It's not that far," she insisted. We walked by the Venetian and saw the gondolas and by the Mirage. The volcano was erupting but we were too late to get a spot up close enough to really see it.

We then started walking back to the hotel.

We walked . . .

and walked . . .

and walked . . .

An hour later we stopped for a bottle of water and I drank half of it in one drink.

We proceeded to walk some more.

A total of an hour and a half later we were back at the hotel.

So many people told me that the hotels were not as close to each other as they seemed, and you know what???

THEY WERE RIGHT!

Oh, well. It was really neat to see everything all lit up at night. However, due to some construction, you could only walk on one side of the street at some points so it was pretty crowded.

When we got back to the hotel we gambled a little and then turned in early. (Is it considered jet lag when you fly somewhere with a two hour time difference??)