Best Weekend Family Day Trip, in awhile!!!

Okay so we had the best time in Johnson City last weekend. Of course going to my official hometown is always interesting. Jesse arranged to surprise Katie with a weekend day trip to Johnson City to go to the neatest Art Gallery / Sculpture Ranch. And he invited us to go along. Katie's face as we drove up to the Gallery was priceless!!! I highly recommend this for all ages and interest. Of course we have always dragged our kids to museum and stuff. So it is great to see as adults they still enjoy the beauty of things that people make. You can check out the place we went at www.Benini.com And of course when in Johnson City, don't forget to stop on your way out of town and get Beef Jerky or if summer Peaches!! Enjoy the Photos.

Weekend with Both my Big Kids!!

Yeap you read correctly. Lil Michael is back home again. Well he is staying with his sister. We went down for the weekend to attend the Shady Grove Reunion. And we all had a nice visit. We also stopped by my Nanny's to have a quick visit. She is 81, but is still very quick witted and full of Jokes! Not always very politically correct jokes. But we love her anyway. In fact Katie asked if she knew who the current President was of the US. Her response was "Well of course, We wont hold that against the man." So Jesse, his neighbor and Michael are working out together in the evenings. Michael used the last 6 months to work out every day and get "pecks" and arm muscles. So he was thrilled to hear that Jesse was working out! And Katie is just having a blast going through all her Mary Kay, she is a new consultant. And is thankful that i taught her the value of good make up. Funny thing is that when she started wearing make up, i called up my consultant and had her help Katie get started on not only with make up but a good cleaning habit! And for those that may not have heard my soap box. MOISTURIZE, MOISTURIZE, MOISTURIZE AND ALWAYS SPF 15 OR MORE ON THE FACE!!!!!

Michael's Friday Night...

So Michael is the luckiest guy ever!!! He got to spend his Friday night with some of my favorite family members. Who is that you may ask? Well of course it is Katie, Jesse, Zach, Sierra, and Levi!!!!! He had a meeting in Austin at TEA. Afterwards he went to Katie and Jesse's house. They were keeping the 3 kids last night (i think just for fun). And so they all went to Gatti Land in Round Rock. And my sweet husband who knows that i miss this group all the time, took photos with his cell phone. There not that great but you can tell they are having a great time. And when i spoke to all of them on the phone later that night they were still wired! Poor Katie and Jesse.

Got A New Job!!!!!

Okay so i got a new job today!!! It is the Campus Principals Secretary. I will still be at the same GREAT campus that i have been, just moving up the hall into an office, and major change in responsibilities. As soon as i get the office decorated i will post some photos.

Other big news around here is that there has been this wet stuff falling from the sky!!!! Everyone is super excited, except when it is 7:30am and you are walking through a parking lot that really looks more like a river. But i of course must think of the shoes!! I just took them off and quickly walked very carefully into the school. It was good to get my ankles washed on the way into work!

Oh one more thing i strongly recommend that if you have not seen "Taken Chance", go rent it. We watched it on our day off last Monday and it was amazing.

That is about it for this week!

August in Review...

Well I think it is safe to say that with me working you can expect monthly updates. We actually had a pretty busy August, alot of working but some fun time with family also. So the first weekend of August we were busy all that day with church obligations. Later that night we were scheduled to have a group of friends over for Game Night at 6:00. Needless to say i had a small mountain of dishes to do when we got home around 4:30. So as I dragged my tired body into the house, I quickly realized that the dishes were done!!! And only two people have keys to our house Katie and Emily. We had been "Maid Burglarized", by Katie and Jesse. They are just the greatess! (Sadly our good friend Emily did the same thing later in the month when they stopped by to borrow the lawn mower.) Which one would think that i never do the dishes anymore. But they both happened to catch my house on an off couple of days!!!!

The weekend of the 8th my school had a Meet and Greet to welcome students and parents. Michael ended up BBQing about 400 burgers!!! He is such a good sport.

The next weekend we and the Parks ventured down to a cafe in downtown San Antonio called Lu Lu's. We had heard about it from a co-worker, they are famous for their very large and good chicken fried steaks and 3 pound cinnamon rolls. We did not realize that the restaurant had just been visited and aired on the Food network's show Man vs Food show!!!! So the wait was super long, luckily it was well worth it!!! So if you find yourself in San Antonio hungry for chicken fried steak, go to Lu Lu's.

The following weekend we went to Waco to visit my parents. The boys had a boys day. Michael and Jesse helped my dad mow and weed their couple of acres. Then they hooked up the fishing boat and headed to Mexia Lake. They had a little excitement with boat kinda coming loose on the way there and then the motor starting giving them some trouble on their way back to the dock! Later they rounded out the man day by shooting some bow and arrows and pistols. We were so warn out watching that we decided that dinner a Chilli's sounded great!!!

Needless to say that this weekend we have done nothing. We had a relaxing morning around the house on Saturday morning. Went to lunch with Jon and Emily at Longhorn's. They have great burgers. Then i went a long shopping trip looking to add a specific type of color and design of a blouse for work. After 3 hours at the mall i gave up and went to Wal Mart to buy groceries, which was very successful!

Well that is about it for the month of August. September should be interesting!!

Quick Update on July

Okay so as you may have noticed not a lot of updates last month. In early July, like the Monday after the big July 4 Family Gathering at my house, i had to have an hysterectomy to remove a tumor. So the recovery took a little longer than i thought. I could not walk up the stairs for 2 weeks. I also spent most of the 2 weeks in bed trying to be very still. And then my dad had a pacemaker put in during the 3rd week of my recovery, so i went to Waco to be with him while he recovered. That was great, a mini vacation for both of us. My dad loves to watch the outdoor channel. You know the one with hours and hours of deer hunting, turkey hunting, fishing, gold mining, etc. So i told him that was fine while he was in the hospital but once he was out we were going to find something where people actually talked more than 4 sentences in one hour!!! So we spent four great days watching old movies on the TCM channel. And other dvd's that i had not seen yet. So then the last week of July I started work at the school. Of course our building had no desk, so we have kinda sat around a temp office, looking for anything to do. But Friday we were able to move into the new high school. How fun. Oh, some may be wondering what i am doing. I am the new Registrar and Counselor Sec of the New, Judson Early Collage Academy! Very exciting!!!! That is all July went by fast, considering all the laying around i did!!!!!

July 4th blow out of fun!!!

Our day started very very very early on Saturday with the Church's July 4 Pancake Celebration. Everyone had a great time. Pancakes, games, play scape, face painting! So that finished around 10 AM. Then just before lunch Katie and Jesse and the dogs arrived at the house. You will see in the slides the afternoon was a puzzling, slip n slide, and great BBQ. My parents and Chris and JJ arrived just before dinner. (Which i did not take any other photos that night!) But after dinner we played a quick game of group Taboo. And then set out for Schertz to watch the fireworks. After driving around for about 30 mins. We just pulled into a parking lot, pulled up behind the parked cars and just stood by the vans to watch. (That way we could make a quick exit) Turned out to be a great location. they were right on top of us! The kids loved it!!! And we all agreed that was the best show we had ever seen!

The slide show is long but there are great snapshots!!

Okay the slip n slide fun night really deserves its own entry. After it cooled down to a nice 91 or so and the back yard was shaded for the most part. We set up the slip n slide for the kids. They had a blast. It was interesting we were sweating, they were freezing!!! Enjoy and Sierra is in charge, just in case there was ever a doubt. She appointed herself the regularator of when it was time for each one to have their turn. (i tried the slide show, hope it works)

Day Three...

So the kids were super excited to go to IHOP for breakfast this morning. Our friends Jon and Emily went along with us. And you would think they were the kids aunt and uncle also! Jon as you can see in the photo is just like all the men in our family, crazy with a funny sense of humor!!! (ok so growning up my older brother and cousin always joked about me and chris being adopted and/ or the sibling that was no longer there because they were lost, died, left on the boat, left at the nut hospital, etc, etc. So maybe Jon is a long lost bother!!! Just kidding) The kids had the perfect table manners! After we ran over to Sams club to get a few things. Jon decided to just go home and so Emily got in the van. Levi was so funny, he said "why is that girl coming with us?" And Uncle Michael rode in the very back of the van with Sierra and Zack. Needless to say i kept having to get onto the back row for being loud!!!

After our quick errands we need to do a little "company is coming sprucing up"!! So of course all this free help was totally used! Uncle Michael said that Aunt Tina needs to be reported for Child Labor Laws!!!! But they all did a great job. And we got everything done while Michael mowed the grass. So here are the kids doing their jobs. And yes that is a real vacuum that Levi has!

So after a good job cleaning everyone got to watch TV with uncle Michael. They had a hard time understanding that you watch what he wants. But they did watch a program about training a dogs.

Later we realized that we had kinda lost Emma. But we found her! Sweet as can be sleeping in the guest room. And Zack really was into his book that after story/quiet time he just kept on reading!

And then Uncle Michael and Levi made Tuna salad for lunch. Which tasted great. And as a special treat they got root beer and bugles. And Sierra is so much like me, we love tuna salad. I remember when i was young, i thought that was the best stuff.


Then after lunch time Uncle Michael had a few errands to do so the kids got to have Music time. Who knows maybe someday they will be famous singer, pianist, or something!

All that and it is just now 5:00 Pm. No wonder i am so tired at night this week. But it is all worth it. They are only young once. And they can be so sweet. I absolutely love these times that i get to spend with them. Thanks JJ, Chris, and Michael for letting me spend time like this with them. I will update if there is more later tonight.

Summer Fun Day Two

Day Two packed full of exciting things like...

So today started out with a round of cereal for all. Today was Story time at the Library, and they were all very excited to go. So they passed the time with coloring pages again. And playing lego's.

While we are all upstairs watching a little disney tv. We realized that Emma had gone downstairs. (I had played the piano and sang songs with them on the first day.) So there sat Emma with a book on the stand and pretending to play while she sang!!! So Cute!!

Okay, so coming from the Round Rock/Georgetown Area where Story time draws the crowds of stay at home moms. It is nothing to have 30- 40 children at each story time there. So i was a little surprised by the turn out here in Universal City!!! Yes you counted correctly, only 6 children.

They learned about flowers and then got to decorate a cup to plant some sunflower seeds in.

Then after we came home and had our hour of reading and laying on the couch. They all helped fold laundry. Why not it is their clothes!! And they seemed to know how to do it. Great job JJ and Chris ( I am sure it was JJ that has taught them this skill, after all i grew up with Chris and he never even folded wash rags!) Although Sierra says that he does know how to fold them now!!

I had a few papers that i needed shredded. So while i have free help that thinks it is fun to separate and put paper in the machine. I totally put them to work!!! So here is how the assembly line went:

Levi and Emma were in charge of riping old checks out of the books.Zack was in charge of putting the papers in stack of 4 sheets.
Sierra was in charge of feeding the papers into the machine to shred.

After a fun afternoon all the office work and laundry was done. Love free help!!

After dinner we did two exciting things. We played science experiment with little capsules that when put in warm water turn to sponge animals. They still have not opened up yet all the way. We are hopeful that the morning will bring exciting animal sponges.

And then we went to Mc Donalds for ice cream cones and to play on the jungle gym.

Summer Time Fun As Uncle and Aunt!!!

Well i had been promising my nieces and nephews that they could come down and stay a week with us in SA. So on Tuesday i picked them up and we drove back to SA, with a stop over at McDonald's for lunch of course! And a stop at the gas station for gas and a quick car wash. And as i pull into the drive way Emma finally falls to sleep after asking me a million times where my house was at?

So this is how Wednesday morning started out as Peaceful day!!!! When i got back from my morning walk Michael was having a discussion with Levi about not waking the others up by hitting them and screaming in their ears. So it did not stay this way to long!

After a great breakfast of waffles and Welch's Passion Fruit Juice. I was giving instructions for getting ready for the day and this is the response i got! Looks hopeful that they heard every word, yes? So after getting everyone dressed and realizing that Emma's tops got left at home. We hurried to Walmart to buy a few shirts and Coke Zero for Uncle Michael. Then we stopped by the library to check out a few books and find out when the story hour is on Thursday.

For dessert we made Treasure Hunt Cupcakes. They are fun, easy and good. And while they waited they worked on one of the coloring pages for the 4th of July. And painted our nails!

And of course tonight was pizza night. They all enjoyed making their very own pizza with as little or as many pepperoni on them. Sierra was the main Chef tonight. By the way Emma required a total outfit change after her cupcake.

Then after dinner we went to the park to play and get good and sandy before bath time! Uncle Michael sat off to the side reading his book for a little while. But he did try and get the kids to play on the see saw with him. But they still needed my help getting him up in the air! They are very skinny kids. At least compared to Uncle Michael!!

Well that was the end of our first full day. After baths and stories they were all ready for bed. Emma and Levi had to be carried upstairs because they fell asleep during the bedtime stories. Thank goodness Michael was home! I will update tommorrow events hopefully right after they go to bed tommorrow!!

Birthday Time For ME

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY AND I HAVE GREAT FAMILY AND FRIENDS. SO MANY HAVE A CALLED EMAILED OR BLOGGED OR SENT CARDS. THANKS TO ALL.

So my great new friend Raquel insited on giving me a little birthday party Saturday night at her house. So Katie and Jesse drove down, and our other friends Jon and Emily went also. Raquel and her husband Randy made a great Mexican dinner. And then we played a few games. It was wonderful to get together and laugh and simply enjoy everyones company. Thanks Raquel.

Katie brought me chocolate pie. It was super good. And they sang just about every birthday song know to man!! So check out their cat. She has her own chair!!!! That was so cute and funny!! I thought at first it was a time out chair. (I Most certainly was in daycare bus. too long)And here is Katie, Raquel, Emily discussing all the worlds issue that can be solved be just a little Love!! Emily is 5 months with baby. I think she is still very tiny. We are super excited for them!
So on Birthday Day. Which was today (23rd) i had to drive to Austin for a doctors visit. Emily went with me. Then after we meet Katie at her work and went to Mongonlian Grill. Super yummy. I even had enough for dinner tonight. So my wonderful husband surpised me with the new apple ipod shuffle. He also had it engraved!! It is great, now i dont have to borrow his ipod. And i already have 266 songs.
c+022.jpg" border=0> So as far as my forvarite birthday cake. It is strawberry cake with strawberry icing. This is one of my childhood favorites that has stuck with me, in more ways than one!!! And of course like Andy will tell you (the greatess kid ever, yes there is only one cute red head with a great big smile and witty sayings!!! Love and miss ya) cupcakes have to have sprinkles. So here is to you Andy. So if anyone wants a cupcake and you are in the SA area tomorrow come on by!!! I think i may take some next door to the nieghbors, if they stay here i will eat them. And then have to walk even faster and longer for a few days!!

So i am older than the number of cupcakes here, but younger than all the sprinkes added togeather!!