Seven Things Sunday

**Yay!! I'm actually posting for the second week in a row!  Let's see how long I can keep this up. 

1.  Today is the last day of Spring Break.  I accomplished nothing on my mental to-do list.  Ugh.

2.  I can't believe I'm actually saying this but while it was nice to sleep
late(r) every day, I'm ready for a routine again.

3.  I hate the last day of a break.  Ask any teacher and they will tell you about the Sunday blues.

4.  I know it is irrational but this day last year I got food poisoning.  I am afraid that I am going to get it again.  Needless to say, I am going NO WHERE near the place I ate at last year.

5.  I have all of the ideas for blog posts tumbling around in my brain.  Yay!

6.  I can't believe Easter is two weeks away.

7. Meagan competed in her Bible Drill competition last Sunday at the Church Level Drill and received a Superior Rating. She will compete at the next level in a couple of weeks. We are so proud of her.

And now, random pictures:

 Texas Public Schools Week was last week and one day was dress up as your future career.  I'm here with my future police officer/CSI.

This was taken on the beach in Pensacola, FL right after sunrise.  We were only there briefly and it was really cold but it was BEAUTIFUL.  I want to go back there someday and spend some time there.

Meagan at Garrett's 10th birthday party.  This is a local party place that you rent.  It is full of those huge inflatables that the kids jump on/run through obstacle courses, etc. 

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!)

Corpus Christi Science and History Museum

Yesterday I had to drop some work off at the college and buy my book for Summer Session II so the kids went with me.  I think it is important for them to see where I spend so much extra time right now.  They know I am going to college but I don't think either one of them realized what the college looked like or exactly how big it was. 

After we ran my errands I took the kids to the museum.  I think they really enjoyed it.  They especially liked looking at all of the rocks from around Texas.  They were creeped out by the boa constrictor skin and unimpressed by the replica ships of Christopher Columbus.  (So was I for the record.)

I hope that we can do a few more day trips to Corpus this summer to explore some more of what it has to offer!

Run for your lives!!

A couple of weekends ago we took the kids to Corpus to do some shopping and spend some time together as a family.  We went to GattiTown and these vampire teeth were some of the prizes Garrett bought.

Be afraid, be very afraid!

All ready for church

I look at pictures like these and I wonder where did the time go?

I'm already off to a better start

 Garrett got a motorized crane from Santa, along with a stocking full of goodies.

 Meagan got an iPod Touch from Santa, along with a stocking full of goodies.

This is Jules, our new family member.  She, too, received a stocking full of goodies from Santa.

How was your Christmas?  What did Santa bring you or put into your stocking?

Garrett's sayings

The day after Christmas he asked me where his crazy dough was. When I asked him what he was talking about he said, "You know - that stuff in the egg." He was talking about Silly Putty!

Just tonight he asked me if owls were awake at night and slept during the day. I told him yes that was true and that was called being nocturnal. His comment? Just like Santa!

I love the connections his brain makes - they crack me up!

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.

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?

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 . . .

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!

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.

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!

Garrett's PTA Program

In Februrary the kinder and first grade studnets performed at the school's monthly PTA program.

Here's a picture of Garrett at our house before the program. I got some really cute ones during the program but there were too many other kids in them to post them on the internet.

The kids sang three songs. Garrett's favorite was the Groundhog Hop. It's a really cute song about the groundhog seeing his shadow.

Garrett LOVES music and Miss Y. Thanks for all of your hard work!

Playtime at the park

At the end of January we had a beautiful weekend. Meagan was gone to Bible Drill so Jimmy and I took Garrett to an elementary school near our house. We went to practice shooting baskets for basketball but when we got there we discovered that the school removes their rims during the weekend. (Bigger kids will come along and hang off of the rims and ruin them.)

We walked a couple of laps (all of our elementary schools have 1/4 mile tracks) and then played on the playground equipment. This is the school where Garrett went to prekindergarten so these are his old stomping grounds so to speak.

I played around with my new camera some more. I'm getting better with it but I'm still no where near where I would like to be with it. I have learned to be more patient between pictures so I'm getting better pictures now.

These pictures turned out nice because of the bright sunlight. (Well, in my opinion anyway.)

The Young Scientist

I mentioned in a previous post that Garrett had won at his school's science fair. Well, I finally found the cord to the camera so here are the pictures.

If it hadn't have been for Garrett constantly nagging me, I probably wouldn't even have done a science fair project with him. At his school entering the science fair isn't required until you get to second grade.

Anyway, he kept nagging me and so the week before the science fair we put together a project. He made a ramp out of a piece of wood and two different boxes. We measured how far his toy car traveled with both ramps. He had said the higher ramp would make the car go farther and he was right.

It was so cute to watch how serious he was during the actual experiment. He got a piece of paper and wrote down the numbers off of the measuring stick after he let each car go down the ramp.

His project will go to the district science fair at the end of March. All six of the elementary schools in our town send projects to the district science fair. Winners from the district science fair go on to compete in the Coastal Bend Science Fair which takes places in a large city about 45 minutes from us.

We will just have to wait and see what happens!

Best Christmas Present EVER!

I work with the best people in the world. Seriously. When I went to work there 10 years ago (in the middle of the school year) everyone welcomed me with open arms.

Our school secretary is the nicest, most kind hearted person you will ever meet.

She spoils my kids rotten! Even Meagan, who no longer goes to my school.

Before Garrett started kindergarten he knew he could always count on Ms. M. for a treat and a carton of chocolate milk.

Ms. M. bought the Garrett this gift for Christmas. It a full of little sticks and marbles that are magnetized.

Even though it was Garrett's gift, both kids have played with it non-stop since he opened it.

Garrett makes letters with the sticks, reins for his Webkinz reindeer, a racetrack for his car to follow - you name it and he's made it.

He practices patterning, his colors, counting, and he doesn't even know it!

Thank you so much Ms. M! We love you!

(She bought Meagan a really cute purse but I can't find the picture I took of it right now. Oops!)

If you can read this, thank a teacher

I know these pictures aren't the best but I just had to have proof of what Garrett is able to do. Ignore my upside down name in black. He wrote his name and dog and log. Earlier in the evening he made dog with the magnetic letters on our refrigerator. I then asked him about making log. I was wondering if he could make the word family connection. He is doing great with rhyming so I want him to know that by finding rhyming words you have more words you can write.

He then wrote Go Go Go Fast. After he wrote it, he read it to me several times. Each time he read it to me he pointed to the word he was saying - moving his finger with each word he said. The rectangle is a period that got a little big as he was drawing it.

He wrote fast by saying the word slowly and stretching out the sounds. He did the same with dog while he was using the magnetic letters. He mixed the letters up and then respelled it without stretching the sounds out.
He then flipped the box over and wrote his sentence again.

Not bad at all for a kid who didn't know any of his sounds at the beginning year - not bad at all!

So, thank you Ms. P. Garrett loves you and learns so much every day. I can't even begin to tell you what a difference you are making in his life.

Earlier in the evening he pointed out commas that he saw on the TV. (They were showing a printed poster of some sort. I can't remember what for now.)

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!)