Seven Things Sunday

**Disclaimer - I just made that title up.  I'm sorry if someone already uses it and I didn't link to you. : )

I've been trying to get back into regular posting on this blog and just keep forgetting.  I think I'm going to try this Seven Things Sunday and see if that helps!

So here goes:
1.  We are coaching 3!! kickball teams this year.  Why? Because we are insane.  Once games start we will have a game every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evening for one team or another from March 25 - June 7.  Insane I said.

2.  It is SPRING BREAK!!! Woo hoo!!  We might take a little trip to do some touristy stuff but I am just looking forward to sleeping late and getting my house cleaned up.  (After typing out #1 I realized that this may be the last time the house is cleaned until June.)

3.  I went to a work conference a few weeks ago and I came back SO MOTIVATED!  (This doesn't always happen so it is really exciting when it does!) I have really changed my outlook and schedule and I am so much happier for it. 

4.  My daughter had to get glasses recently.  Actually, she begged me to call and make an appointment for her to get her eyes checked.  Needless to say, she needs glasses and is wearing them nonstop.  This makes me feel like a terrible mother.  I should have had her eyes checked much sooner. 

5.  My mom's birthday was a couple of weeks ago and I didn't fall apart.  It helped that we had kickball stuff to do all day.  I was sad but it was nothing like how horrible my birthday was.

6.  Laundry sucks.  (Maybe it would suck less if I would actually try to keep up with it but that never happens in my house.)

7.  After trying to clean this weekend I have a question:  Where in the heck does all of the paper come from????  I swear that there are several trees worth of paper in my house right now.  Ugh!

And now some random pictures of us:

Jimmy and I at the kickball fields early one Saturday morning for registration.

Meagan, who is 14 and growing up more and more every day.

Garrett, with a stick on moustache courtesy of his sister who weirdly has a thing for moustches. (Terrible puntuation I know, and I don't even think moustaches is a word!)

What I did on my Thanksgiving Vacation

Jimmy, my mom, and I went to Dallas to see the Cowboys play against the Miami Dolphins.

Other than it being really cold, we had a GREAT time!

The stadium is beautiful and the Jumbotron screen is ENORMOUS!!

Sadly, the Dolphins lost in the last minute of the game.

The drive to and from Dallas wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and we even did some Christmas shopping on the way home.

2011 All Stars Opening Ceremonies

This past weekend our team competed in the 2011 All Star tournament that was held in Calallen.  We are so proud of our girls!

Happy Father's Day!

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

We love you!

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.)

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??)

Happy Birthday to Me

On Wednesday there was much whispering and giggling between Meagan and Garrett and much shushing by Jimmy. At 7:00, after asking the location of any glue sticks in our house, Jimmy and the kids disappeared into Meagan's room. Not one but two doors were closed in an effort to prevent me from seeing or hearing any goings on.

When I awoke Thursday morning and stumbled into the living room this is what I found:

My husband is truly wonderful. The gift means more to me than he will ever know. The fact that he took the time (over an hour) to make all of these letters with our kids and then stay up late to put them all in place means more to me than any gift he could have bought.

Jimmy, I love you and thank you so much for the banner. He also gave me a beautiful Willow Tree angel. My picture of it was too bright so it looks like a big blur. Digital photography hints anyone??

Here is Jimmy and I at my mom and dad's house on Thursday evening.

Here is me with my mom and Meagan and Garrett. Garrett was obviously not happy about having to stop playing with his friend and pose for the picture. Meagan, on the other hand, is a total ham.

Here is me with Nana Mary. If you read this blog regularly you know that Nana is the mom of my best friend from when I was a kid. She is a big part of our lives. Love you Mary!

Here is my with my friend Elice. We have known each 0ther since we were kids but in the last few years have become close friends. We scrapbook together and our kids are about the same age.

Here I am with the German Chocolate cake my mom made for me.

Despite feeling ill, my mom also made me a wonderful dinner. She made homemade roast with carrots and potatoes and gravy. YUM! Thank you so much Mom! One of these days I am actually going to learn how to make it myself. Garrett even asked me the next day if I knew how to make chicken like grandma did. I was puzzled by his question. He said, "You know, what we ate for dinner last night at Grandma's." I told him no, I don't know how to make chicken like that yet. (Especially since it was roast!)

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was also really good at our house.

Meagan woke us up at 6:59. "Mom, it's seven! Can we please get up now??" (She was under strict orders to wake us up before she went into the living room to see what Santa left her. A few years ago she woke up, took all of her stuff to her room, and was getting toys out of their boxes before we woke up!)

Garrett was still asleep so we left him alone and went with Meagan into the living room.

She was thrilled with her gift from Santa. (I would be too for that matter!) She received an iPod Nano and an iTunes gift card. Her stocking was also full of goodies. She got a High School Musical 3 game for her DS, some bangle bracelets, socks, some candy, and lots of other little things.

In his stocking Jimmy got a new equipment bag for kickball, some duplicate line-up sheets for kickball, Reece's Peanut Butter cups, and other odds and ends.

In my stocking I got new socks, the new David Cook CD (which is awesome!), some new pens, an iTunes gift card, some candy, and various items.

Garrett finally woke up around 8:00 or so. Santa left him a silver Nintendo DS and a Mario game. In his stocking he got an M&M racing game for the DS, a cover for the DS, a small lego kit, and lots of other goodies.

I made homemade biscuits and bacon and eggs for breakfast. After we ate Jimmy broke out the Batman Lego game for the Wii that the kids got the night before and I spent a while on the computer figuring out how to download music into the iPods Meagan and I received. Meagan bought Taylor Swift and Jonas Brothers songs with her iTunes gift cards.

We went to Grandma and Pawpaw Blair's for Christmas lunch and enjoyed visiting with family. We also opened our stockings that Santa and Grandma Blair fill for us there.

Elaine came by and visited with us before she went back to Houston last night. (She is very busy with preparations for her show which opens on January 9th.

I also talked to Crystal who is in town for the holiday. We made plans to get together today.

All in all, Christmas was great!

I'll post pictures once I have a chance to download them from my mom's camera.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas day here at our house.

On Christmas Eve, we went to church for the evening service. Meagan was baptised along with another member of the church. It was a beautiful service and, of course, I cried. My mom and dad attended along with Jimmy's mom and two of his sisters and their families.

After church we went back to our house and opened gifts with Grandma Silly and Grandpa. Garrett received lots of Batman goodies and Meagan was thrilled the money that Grandma and Grandpa gave her. The money is for her to go shopping for clothes.

Mom and Dad gave me my very own mixer! (I guess Mom is tired of me always borrowing hers!) What I am very impressed about with the mixer is that Mom and Dad went to Wal-Mart on Black Friday to buy it. If you know my dad, you know how amazing that is!

Jimmy gave me a beautiful Willow Tree angel "Mother and Daughter." He said he felt it fit the theme of the evening.

After a dinner of assorted snacks/finger foods went went to Grandma and Pawpaw Blair's house. We opened gifts there (I got a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble :) Can't wait to go buy some new books!) Meagan and Garrett got lots of toys and Jimmy got an Astros t-shirt and Miami Dolphins salt and pepper shakers.

All of Jimmy's sisters and their husbands and Jimmy and I do a gift exchange. We call it White Elephant. Everyone draws a number and then you open gifts according to the number you drew. You can also "steal" other gifts that have been opened before yours. I came home with $20 in lottery tickets and Jimmy came home with a serving platter that can be kept warm. Of course, Jimmy and I agreed to trade gifts when we got home :) He won $14 off of the lottery tickets.

We got home really late and tucked our kiddos into bed. Garrett was feeling really miserable. He had sneezed and blown his nose ALL DAY and his eyes were almost swollen shut. Whatever blew in with the latest front REALLY bothered his allergies. Wait until you see the pictures - he looked terrible. He even took a nap during the day on Christmas Eve. When he fell asleep I knew he was feeling bad!

This post has nothing to do with Christmas

Jimmy recently coached winter kickball for the first time. He coached with another kickball friend of ours. (Neither one of them had enough girls for a full team so they combined the two teams.) I didn't do much coaching wise this time because I was busy taking Garrett to soccer practice and such.

This league is run by the Boys and Girls club - not the Little Miss Kickball organization. Each girl gets to kick no matter how many are on the team and you can sub players on the field every inning, not just at the 4th quarter. No official score was kept and there were no rules other than three strikes and you are out and three outs in each half of the inning. A total of five teams played in the junior division. All of the teams except one were coaches that we played with in the spring league.

Meagan had fun and even scored a few runs this year. It was very different playing in the winter instead of spring/summer. We actually wore sweats and jackets to the games for the most part! It's also more difficult to practice when it gets dark at 6:00!

These pictures were taken right before the last game of the season.

Happy Anniversary Jimmy!

Twelve years ago today I married the man of my dreams.

He was 21 and I was 19. I was a college sophomore, commuting one hour each way two days a week for college and working five nights a week at the local bowling alley. (Which incidentally, is where we met. My mom actually met Jimmy first and introduced us.) Jimmy was working six days a week for his dad at his service station.

We had been dating for four years. Our first date was on November 14, 1992. I was 15 and he was 17. We went to the movies.

During the movie we were shushed by the people in front of us for talking. After the movie, he took me home. We then talked on the phone for most of the night.

We were married in a baptist church surrounded my friends and family.

I know that many people thought it wouldn't last.

Nine months later when I was a college junior, I found out I was pregnant with Meagan.

When Meagan was 18 months old, I graduated from college with a Bachelor's Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. I took several tests and became a certified teacher.

The stars must have been aligned correctly because I had a full time teaching job lined up the day I crossed the stage to receive my diploma. I was the first person in either of our families to have earned a college degree. I like to think that my parents' (and a lot of other people of course) dream came true that day.

Two weeks later I began to work at the school where I still work today. A few weeks after that I started school once again. This time my goal was to earn a Master's Degree in reading.

On December 6, 2002 our son Garrett was born.

On December 14, 2002 I crossed that stage once again, this time earning that master's degree.

Two days ago I was promoted to Reading Specialist.

Dreams really do come true for those that work hard and are willing to sacrifice things like free time and fancy cars and Jimmy was always there working (at work and at home) to make sure I was able to fulfill my dreams.

It hasn't always been easy but I always knew that I could do whatever I set out to because Jimmy was there behind me, standing just off stage, supporting me.

He is quiet to my constant chatter. He is patient and calm to my hot headedness. He puts clothes in the dryer for me and washes dishes and bathes kids and gives them medicine and brings me lunch and helps me grade papers (red pen only for him please!) and a million other things that I know I am forgetting here.

The point of all this? Jimmy, I love you and my life would not be complete without you. You are the reason I am who I am today and for that I will be forever grateful.

Thank you so much for being a wonderful husband and my best friend.

Where do I start?

We, as a family, have been SO busy the last few weeks!


Here is an update on each one of us:

Elizabeth - work is keeping me busy. We have begun after school tutorials, which are good, but make put me even further behind in getting home. At school we have begun switching classes. One person teaches Science and Social Studies and two of us teach math (one person teaches new concept and the other person reviews/reteaches previously taught material and problem solving.) This method has been very successful for us in the past. It is actually a relief to me because I don't leave every day thinking, "I didn't get to that lesson" or "I forgot to do that"

Right now the students are grouped by homeroom but last we will move kids around depending on their needs.
I am also coaching DI (Destination Imagination) so I meet with that group of kids on Mondays after school. They are a great group of kids, very self motivated and creative so it is a lot of fun working with them.

Garrett's soccer skills are really taking off! In the last three games he has scored at least once. He score three times in one game! Right now he is home sick. He had a fever last night and now has a rash all over his body. I took him to the doctor this morning and he said it was viral and could take 2 - 3 weeks for the rash to disappear. He also seems congested and is coughing some so we will have to see how it goes.

Meagan is also doing great. Yesterday she came home and told me that she made a 100 on her 2nd Six Weeks Math test, a 100 on her 2nd Six Weeks Social Studies test, and a 93 on her practice TAKS test in reading. She is juggling DI, Bible Drill, Kickball and Lone Star Challenge on top of all of the regular homework and reading that is required.

Jimmy is busy coaching kickball, picking up the kids, helping with homework, working with his dad, putting up with me . . . you know . . . all the usual stuff.

I think a bat flew in my house and bit Garrett

Calm down! NOT FOR REAL! He is suddenly obsessed with Batman, hence the title. He's actually obsessed with all superheros.

Jimmy bought this Lego set on vacation and Garrett bothered him daily until Jimmy opened the box and put the set together.

Here's Jimmy. You can see all of the Lego pieces on the table. The pieces are now sorted into the correct piles to assemble.

Garrett checks out the back of the box. He tells us that he wants ALL the other sets to finish his "collection." Once Garrett buys a toy that has other toys advertised on the back of the box he wants ALL of them!
Dad reads the instruction booklet and Garrett supervises.
My boys with the assembled Legos.

A closeup of the assembles Legos. The kit contained Robin and his car and The Penguin, his vehicle, and two tiny penguins. Garrett insists on calling Penguin Mr. Penguin, or Mr. Penguin Man.

Wii love to play!

We finally did it. We bought a Wii. Actually, we finally found one to buy. I have wanted a Wii for a while now but whenever our Wal-Mart had them in stock I was not ready to part with the $249.00 plus tax that would be required to make it mine. Plus, the cost of the extra remote, games, etc.

Well, while we were on vacation we played the Wii at Auntie Darla's and Uncle Chuck's and Jimmy was sold on the Wii. Meagan also ramped up her pleading for a Wii of our own. (She had already been asking for one for Christmas.) If you have read some of my other vacation posts you will know that Hurricane Dolly made landfall in Brownsville while we were on vacation. This brought lots of rain to the Houston area. Lots of rain meant some of our vacation activities had to be canceled.

Anyway, on our last day of vacation we stopped at Target and guess what?? They had Wiis (is that even a word???) in stock. Jimmy and I decided to buy one for the family due to our rainy vacation.
It came with the sports game which is a lot of fun all by itself. We also purchased an extra remote that came with an extra game Wii Play. (Well, the game came with it for $10.00 more - but it was still a great deal.) The Wii play has air hockey, ping pong, a shooting game, etc. There are ten mini games in all. Well worth the $10.00. Since then we have purchased Mario Galaxy which the kids and I enjoy. It has elements that are similar to the original Nintendo Mario (the only game system and game that I ever owned.) It is 3D (I don't know if that is the right description) and some sometimes you are walking upside down on planets. Once you get used to that it is a lot of fun. However, I have no friends to depend on to show me how to conquer the creatures and where all of the extra coins/free men/star bits are. You see, none of this stuff is in the instruction book. You just have to play the game and figure it out all by yourself. I used to rely heavily on my friends to show me where all of this secret stuff was.
We have also purchased Cooking Mama which Meagan has for her DS. We all like this game and it has totally different recipes from the DS version. Your arm does get tired from all of the "cooking" you do. Or maybe I'm just a wimp.
We have played the Wii every day since we brought it home. I know this will change as school/sports start but overall I think it was worth the money!