Looky, looky

Emily and Jacob ready for church a few weeks ago. Emily got this dress for her birthday from Memaw. She loves it so much that she wears it everyweek to church. Sh e always gets lots of compliments on it. I think people still like this look, but not many dress making people make it. Oh well, Emily LOVES it. Plus, Jacob's clothes fit, which is more of a challenge these days.

Jacob's Adventure

Recently Jacob and Emily have been spending quite a bit of time on their bikes, riding and falling and having a great time of doing it. On Sunday Josh's mom and I went to Walmart to finish up our Christmas shopping and as we were coming home about a half mile from our house we are stopped at a stop sign and a little boy comes trucking along on a bike. Josh's mom says,"That looks like Jacob." I say, "That IS Jacob!!" He had ridden his bike over half a mile, crossed half a dozen streets and was head to the "Lake Park" He was in the process of getyting lost, as he had pasted the turn to the Lake Park. Thank God a lady had seen him trucking along alone and had gotten in her car to follow him to make sure he did not get hit or worse. I am SO thankful to her. Josh had gone to the bathroom and Jacob decided he wanted to go to the park. ARGH!! At least we happen to run into him and he made it home safely without and police station being involved, as we have already picked Emily up from the police station. We are hoping to not have to pick either of them up from the cops for a very long while, if ever.

Gingerbread House

This year we bought the kit for a gingerbread house. Last year we tried to make a train, and for anyone who saw it remembers it was more of a train wreck than a gingerbread train. But Mommy followed the directions and we created a fantastic gingerbread house that the kiddos are very proud of. They decorated it just like the one on the box. So we don’t have much imagination, but they were happy it stood upright rather than in a pile on the kitchen table. Also you can see the new table we purchased in the background. They are not allowed to eat at it yet, until I can get a plastic tablecloth to help protect it from the creatures that are my children. We only bought the table, so the chairs look ridiculous with the table, but it is a process. We bought the table outright, not on credit!!! So chairs will come. It says it can seat 8, but I think it could sit 10. It has 2 leafs and I am SO excited about it. Now we can actually feed everyone that is coming for Christmas at a table. Yeah!

The kids like photography

A little Jacob for a Tuesday morning

The mother load

Can you see the excitment on my child's face?

We love KIDS BOP 8

Opening Presents

Opening presents

A Barbie for her collection.

Emily and her cake

Emily and Chelsa

Birthday

Emily turned 7 on December 2nd and we party hardy for a week. On Sat. we had her little party and she loved every minute if it. We started by having her new best friend come over and we all went out to the movies to see Chicken Little. It was a great movie. Did not expect there to be aliens, but maybe I misunderstood the previews. Oh well, we still enjoyed it. We came back and her friend got sick, but we had Jose, Kylee, Deanna, Grandpa Ken and his new wife and all the parents to enjoy a PARTY!! So we cut cake and opened presents. Life seems to be going well for Emily. She LOVED everything she received and cannot wait until Christmas to open more presents. Jacob had a few problems letting Emily have her day and had a chronic stomach ache all week, that I believe to be and attention getting device, but he seems to be doing better.
She had a great party. Lots of photos to follow.

Face Painting at Girl Scout Event

Do I need to say anything?

Face Painting at Girl Scout Event

Choo Choo!!!

Dancing

So my work Christmas party is tomarrow night and there will be dancing. Josh has only danced with me less than a half a dozen times. He dances with the dog on a weekly basis, I wonder if he will dance with me tomarrow night. I hope he enjoys dancing with me more than the dog, but w shall see.

Birthday Time

Tomarrow is Emily's 7th birthday. She is about to bust with excitment. She is truely thrilled to be 7. Of course she was thrilled to eat turkey onThanksgiving, so, I take it with a grain of salt. We are having her birthday on Saturday. We had to have quite a talk with her about the necessety to have it on Saturday because more of her friends could come, we would not have to be out late and Mommy's work Christmas party is on Friday night, so we had a minor conflict. She is on board, fianlly. I think she realized that while the 2nd is her birthday, she will get to wear her new outfit and wear a ribbon saying she is the birthday girl and we get to take cupcakes for her class AND on Saturday we are going to the movies with her new BEST FRIEND EVER!!!! and having some other folks over for a cake and ice cream party. She gets two birthdays this way. I think she finally figured it out and is happy to follow our lead. So anyhow I should have updates next week as to the fantastic party time we had this weekend. I am sure I will need to come back to work on Monday to rest and recuperate after this weekend.

Brownie

We have a Brownie in our house now. She is so excited about selling cookies. Which is good becasue I voluntered to be Cookie Coordinator or as Josh calls it Cookie Nazi. I am basically in charge of her troops cookie sells. All up to little ole me. She is so excited to start getting patches and involved. We have meetings 2 times a month and she loves it. She loves earning her money for dues and paying her own way. I can hardly beleive she is old enough to be a Brownie.

And extra special thianks to those her bought from her fall product sell. She will be getting her first patch soon and her little froggy. I think I am more excited about it than she is.

Halloween a little bit late

We had a really good Halloween. The kiddos dressed up as Tinkerbell and Capt. Hook. They loved their costumes (Thanks MeMaw)!! We have more candy that any one family should ever have. I finally gave up after a week of them sneeking it and last Friday after school Josh dumped it all on the cabinet and said go for it. They were SO crazy!!! But we let them stay up a little late and put them to bed right before the sugar high went DOWN. So they went down easily and haven't asked for candy since. Only one problem, we still have a pumkin full of candy. They only made it throuigh half the candy. I think it might just have to disappear this weekend. I don't think they would even notice.

scooby scooby DOO!!!

We went to a dog show a few weeks ago and the reason that Jacob and Emily were SO excited to go was to see Scooby Doo and the gangf with the mystery machine. Well we went and the first thing we did was run over to the them. Only once we got there Jacob was to scared to take his picture with the crew, which I don't blame him. They are just a little bit scary. Emily did not care, she was just disapointed that Scooby Doo was a doll and not a real dog. She still thinks cartoons are real people. She understands that they are just pretending, but she seems to beleive they are real people, that just look a bit different than we do. She even wore her Scooby Doo shirt to have her picture made.

JacobArt

Here is a little bit of Jacob's Art. It seems he enjoys the art of photography, especailly if I am not looking. These are a few of my favorites. I especially like the cat food bowl and the iron.

NINE YEARS!!!!

I can hardly believe it myself, but it will be nine years on October 30 that Josh and I have been “more than friends.” I am so excited because we have gotten a babysitter for the evening and plan to party all night long…or as long as people with young children who wake up early and have colds can do it. We plan to go to eat at PF Changs. We both really like Chinese food, but rarely get to eat it. And when we do it is usually just from the little place down the street. This will be good stuff tonight. Plus we are going to go to a movie. Can you believe it? And it is a grown-up movie with no cartoon characters in sight. And what makes this even sweeter is I just happened to stop by the old La Quinta yesterday and saw my good buddy Frank the valet and he gave me $20 in movie money!! So now we can get dessert at dinner and not blow our budget for our night out! I am excited and trying desperately to figure out what I am going to wear, as I have no nice going on dates clothes anymore.
On a side note we have a busy weekend planned. Tomorrow we have Girl Scouts and Emily gets pinned. We have been working on the promise all week so she can get her pin. She is so excited. I am also proud to say to got her patches on her vest. Notice I didn’t say sewed the patches on, but they are iron-on and I did it with out any help. May sound silly to you, but I was proud of myself. Then tomorrow night we plan to go to a fall/Halloween festival that the YMCA is doing with free carnival stuff and free Bar b que (that’s how I got Josh to go J/K). And then we have church on Sunday and I have to go grocery shopping and all that whatnot at some point. Busy time for the Sumpters, but sure have fun doing it.

Money men??

Well exciting news in the Sumpter house, we got our dryer fixed!!! Our builder finally got the job done. Once they pulled the cover off they found $2 in change and a pebble keeping the dryer from working. So we (when I say we, I mean Josh because I NEVER have change) learned to clean out our pockets before we do the laundry. This is extremely exciting news, as the laundry was beginning to mount. We usually do a load a day, and with Jacob and I being sick earlier in the week, we had mounds of it. I would not send my children to school in dirty underwear so we hit the washateria last weekend.
Now we had the $2 in change laying in the floor of the laundry room and Jacob found it. I was impressed because he only took a penny and a dime. But he carried the penny and dime around all evening looking at them thinking he had hit the jackpot. During dinner we were sitting at the table and he picked them up and asked "Mommy, are these the money men?" I did not have the power in me to not chuckle as I began to answer his so sweet and innocent question. Of course, Emily being a first grader now had all the answers, told him that they were Abe Lincoln, the first President of our country. Oh well...We are still learning. When we corrected her by saying, "No Emily the first President was George Washington." She just looked up at me and said, "No Mommy, he was the second one." Now I know at one time I thought France was a city in Paris and that a knuckle was a nickel but I am 27 years old and I know our first president was George Washington.
But Jacob now knows that the people who are the money men are not on the money, they just have a lot of it.

ROLLERS!!!!!

Emily decided she wanted try rolleing her hair into sponge rollers. So we went out to Walmart and bought two packages and this is what we got.

Picture of Josh, the kids and Biscuit

The hurricane

Well "Rita" is coming and we have had Multiple telephone calls from family asking about us and if are going to br affected. On Wednesday it looked as though we would be hit with heavy rain and strong winds, but then the storm moved tracks and now it looks like we are not going to get hit. This news did not stop Austin from going CRAZY!!!!! Full on nutty. The city has no water, no bread, and many places are running out of gas. Now, keep in mind the news of the storm changing directions came yesterday early morning. I had to go to the grocery, or we would not have had food...and we all now how rugrats like to eat so I ventured to the local Round Rock HEB not knowing quite what to expect. As I drive in I see people walking out with water in the baskets so I figure it can not be that bad so I park and go inside. I start my shopping by the paper towels and butter (don't ask me, HEB's design, not mine) and there is NO papergoods left. No papertowels, no toilet paper, no napkins. I do not know what people think a hurricane will bring, but I think we will be ok without papertowels. So I move along and shelves are empty. I personally do not ever remember a grocery store looking quite like this one looked today. I walked down the animal care row. I need cat food, Poor Oreo has no whiskers, but we should still be well feed. NO cat food. How weird is that. I mean, I am glad people are thinking of their pets, but does Austin think that we are not going to be able to leave our homes for weeks? So I move on and make a mental note to go to Walmart. So I move on to the milk. There is milk, but not much. So I search and find 2%. Unfortunately I still have to buy more because we forgot to bring in into thehouse last night, I could not figure out where it was until Emily found it in the back seat of the van. I sent it down the drain. Next I get yogurt. Normally I have to have someone help me get the kind Josh likes, because it is high on the shelf and usually well picked over. not today, Fully stocked. So people want milk, but no yogurt. Now there is water, and I go ahead Just in case and buy some bottles. But I buy the kind I know we will drink, with or without a hurricane. Next I go to the bread row. I am not exaggerating when I say there was NO bread. I was truly shocked. No bread? No taco shells? Just a few tortillas, and not the kind I like. And we all know how I feel about tortillas. So I truck right along to the cracker, popcorn isle. NO MICROWAVE popcorn. Okay people, if there is no electricity why, oh why are you buying the store out of a product that you HAVE to have electricity for. I mean the ramen and macaroni you COULD cook over a fire if it came to that, but microwave popcorn was shocking to say the least. There was plenty of fruit as well. I thought it would be gone, if everything else is gone, fruit would be the next to go. But no, people are only eating bread on their papertowels and I got the pick of the apples, lettuce and grapes. The lines were long and I got behind someone who was throwing a fit over a dollar. The guy was wrong and HEB was right and if I had a dollar bill in my purse I would have given it to him, just to get him to leave. But I was paying with a check. I still need to get gas, not beaus I am in panic mode, unless running out of gas on the wasy home from work would fill one with panic. Of course I could be wrong. We could get hit by the storm and I may eat my words in a week when we finally get electricity back, but somehow I doubt it.

My week away from home

What a week it was. I had my first experience traveling with my new job. The travel to Amarillo was not very exciting. Nothing fantastic to talk about. I left in the morning just like I would have if I was going into the office, but I went to the airport instead, after a “brief” stop at the bank. I say “brief” because it took them 20 minutes to figure out what I wanted and get me my money. I was so frustrated, but I need the cash, or I would have no way to pay for anything while I was gone. So we arrived in Amarillo and the hotel was very nice. I now know why my dad is a Hilton snob. It was very nice. Plus I like having the cable. So we went to the first review, and I found it interesting how nervous these poor Managers are. I understand they want to do well, but the more nervous they are the more I am apt to think they do not know what they are doing. The lady on the last day nearly wet herself when we walked in. And they know that we are coming. But what can I do, but be patient and hope they know what they are doing. The three properties that we went to this week were all elderly properties. No horrible details to tell you, except that the managers add and subtract as well as I do. Division really seems to give them a run for their money. All the older people were so nice and they had their homes SO clean. I only wish my home was as clean as theirs. I really did learn so much. I am anxious to start learning how to right the reports and go on the next review. I am thinking I will really enjoy this job. I like meeting the people, and helping them learn how to do what they need to do to be in compliance with HUD. I feel like I am helping the residence in a way, we are ensuring they have a clean, safe home to live in, and they are paying the correct amount of rent and they are told of their rights and responsibilities. It is rather fulfilling, but also VERY tiring. My plane was delayed on the way home. My bag got to Austin before I did. But I made it and was home in my bed just after midnight. Only three hours late. At least I did not have to sleep in the airport and catch a flight this morning.

Poor Oreo

I recieved a call from Josh while traveling to Amarillo about somethign "YOUR SON" had done. Jacob was being to quiet for his own good so Josh decided to check on him. Josh peaks his head around the corner and expects to see Jacob playing with his trains or playing with a puzzel as he often is doing when he is quiet. But what Josh saw was Jacob holding down the cat. He had taken the scissors from the kitchen and had already cut his whiskers off and was working on his fur. I feel so bad for MY kitty. He is such a good cat. He allows any kid to pick him up and drag him all over the neighborhood without scratching them. He allows the dog to nibble on his neck. He loves to sit on my lap while a pet him. And now he has no way to see at night. Jacob has all but blinded the poor kitty.
I love my Oreo.

"Mom, I want to be baptized"

Last Sunday was the first Sunday in Emily's life that she did not have Youth Worship, Kids 2 Praise or Praise camp to go to. As she is now a first grader and the church we are attending cuts them off at the end of kindergarten. So she is sitting there behaving as good, if not better than one can expect from a first grader listening to her first sermon that she could ever remember, and it is time for communion. She has sat through communion before but we usually have two kids rolling all over us and this week they did communion after the sermon. She usually asks for crackers and I always have just told her no without any explanation. This week I figured if she is old enough to sit so nicely during the sermon and she has shown signs of actual intelligence lately so I lean over and whisper in her ear, "Only those people who have been baptized can have the crackers." She sits back and thinks for a minute. After the "wine" has passed she looks up at me and says, "Mom, I want to be baptized." As I know deep down where this is going, I lean down and ask her "Emily, why do you want to be baptized?" She looks up at me with all the innocence of a child and says, "So that I can have the crackers." I hold back the urge to giggle and tell her that is not the reason that one decides to get baptized, but that we could talk more about it after church if she liked. Of course, after church all she was concerned about was if we could go to the local pizza place The Rockin Tomato for lunch.

Wow, out of the mouths of my children.

Well, well well

So I sent THE email and heard nothing for quite a few hours. I did have an email waiting for me from our HR person at corporate about doing an exit interview. So I emailed her back and set up a time for 11:00am. So she calls and I tell her how I feel unappreciated and that he doesn't rust me and all of that stuff. So She asks if I told the Regional boss, and I said I had actually just emailed him my thoughts the night before. She was glad to hear that. So I don't hear anything until about three when I had to email the boss about something completely unrelated and he responds and also asks if I will be in on Monday, he would like to discuss the email. I reply that I can be anytime after noon. So we have a meeting set up for Monday afternoon.

In my email I mentioned that I wanted the open property in Austin. I don't know what will happen. I am sure I will have a lot to say Monday night, also our score is the theirs highest in the company all year long. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I am NOT a loser Part II

Okay, so we all are aware that i am not a loser, and that I can spell it correctly now, BUT I have news. At my property we were audited today. I have managed to miss every audit that comes through by a few weeks in all my years with La Quinta. But I did great. I say I becasue the ausdit consists of all of my work. We got a 93.16%!!! The highest in the region. I certainly hope that the big Boss recognizes the hard work that I do...we shall see as I am going to send him an email detainling how wonderful I am and how I really do not enjoy working with my boss.

But a 93.16% is unheard of in our region and in the company for a while. So I hope he reads my letter, which Amy is proof reading for me as I write this and we shall see what happens.

Good grief!

So I put in my two week notice to La Quinta yesterday and it was received as well as I thought it would be. I really did not expect much hoopla. It was posted on the JOB report that goes out all over the company as an open position today. So...I guess they are ready to be rid of me. Oh well. My boss keeps saying little things, like you are going to miss you and I hope I get another AGM with your knowledge. I really think he is doing it to make me feel better, he just doesn't realize how not bad I feel. Now I say good grief in my title line because gosh darn it my parents instilled work ethic in me. I was planning on taking today off, but I heard from someone who has not been audited, as we have not been audited as well that they were at her property today. So I pack my kids up and send them away and come into work because I know we would fail if they came in and I did not fix some things before they got here. So here I am at work, instead of being off with my two beautiful kids. Thanks a lot Mom and Dad, you instilled work ethic, the value of a job done right and dedication to your work in me. I really do not know what I would do without it all. I know that it is because of these things that I was offered the new job, So really... Thanks!!!

I am NOT a loser!!!

I am NOT a loser, I AM a daughter of THE KING and that makes me a pretty, pretty princess. A special thank you to Amy for these inspiring words that I almost chanted on my way to my second interview with SHCC on Tuesday. They called me back in the afternoon and offered me the job!!! I am excited and nervous. Nervous at the thought of telling my boss. So I come in to work this morning to talk to him and the A/C's in all the public areas of the building, including the office, are down. Mind you it is almost, if not 100 degrees out side. So I finally get to talk to him in his office after we have put out a half dozen fires and he is either a truly good actor or he had no idea. He asked what it would take to keep me here, to which I had no answer. Because I truly do not know. But today in that office was the first time in months that I have spoken with him and he seemed to be truly appreciative of my knowledge and hard work. I do not know what will come of it all, but it will be an interesting time for me in the upcoming days.

I am NOT a loser, I AM a daughter of THE KING and that makes me a pretty, pretty princess.

Baseball and Emily's return

The Wednesday before Emily was to return home to Austin I received free tickets to the minor league baseball team, the Round Rock Express. We thought it would be fun, we had only been once before and that was when we first moved to the area. Josh really enjoyed getting to take his son to the game, because Jacob actually watched it for about two innings before he lost interest and wanted to go climb on the Rainbow playscapes. We only stayed for 5 innings, but had a great time all the same. Jacob especially enjoyed the cotton candy and all the soda he could take in. It is a wonder that we got him to sleep that night.

Emily has returned. It was great to see her. She has grown so much and I can hardly believe how grown up she is. That is until about 3 o'clock today when everything came crashing down. She was awoken by her brother this morning and thus blamed her "crankiness" on the fact that Jacob rose her from her beauty sleep. And then it was stormy and we would not allow her to roam the neighborhood when a lightning filled storm was about to hit. I guess I am a bad parent. Her brother was really jealous of her and all the attention she was getting last night, but seems to have mellowed out today.

This is the first time I have been able to see them viable fight for Josh and I's attention. We do our best to only reward good behavior with attention, but occasionally the bad warrants a good stern talking to and thus they get the attention. Oh well...nobody ever said being a parent was easy.

Need I say more?

This is my beautiful baby girl, who I miss
more than I ever thought I would.

She never was afraid of heights

We recieved some photos from my parents of Emily climbing on what my Dad said was a small rock wall for Emily. pparently the day before she had been climbing on one that was 24 feet high. This is just a small one at the local palyground. It made me start to think about how much Emily loved adventure and loved to play, and when she played she played hard. She has grown in the two weeks she has not been with us. I can see it in her face and in her presence. I can not beleive I have a child that will be in the first grade in three weeks.

FINALLY!!

So I have been with only one child for three weeks, with only one left to go and had yet to have a day with just me and Jacob. Where we did our thing. Everytime I had a "day off" something would come upand I would ahve to go into work. So Yesterday we fianlly had a 90% La Quinta free day (they only called 4 times, not bad for a weekend with an incident) and we made cookies!!! Jacob loves to cook, and he really loves to bake. He LOVES cookies and peanut butter cookies with reeses Peices in them is heaven to him, so we bought the stuff at the store and proceded to make the most ndelicious cookies ever. they were only so good becasue of the sweet time I finally got to spend with my one and only son.

My job

So I have been looking for another job kinda. You know how you look for one but you not actively looking? How you just kind of keep your eyes and ears open to anything that may come open. Well I have found something that I am actually going to apply for. I am really nervous about the entire situation. I am not sure about the entire thing, I don't know if I am even truly qualified for the job, but what's the worst that could happen? It is not like I have lost my job at La Quinta. I am going to take in my application tomorrow before I come into my job in the morning. I just don't think I can do the job I do, for what little money that I make anymore. I really feel that I am worth SO much more that I make. And I am starting to feel myself not want to do the best job that I know I can because I don't make squat for a salary and put in more hours that one should ever put in. BUT at the same time an Inns and Suites just came open and if someone in the region moves up into it, I may want to stay on and try to get an Inn. Which I know I am perfectly capable of running, because I practically do it by myself now, but I would get more money for my time and effort. I just want to feel appreciated and compensated for my efforts.

Look at my little lady

Emily is spending three weeks with my mother and father in New Mexico and they have turned her into a young lady. I don't think I like it very much. She got new shoes while in New Mexico and is showing them off before church last Sunday. She looks so grown up and is talking better than ever and is outgrowing all of her cute little girls clothes. She has sent Josh and I letters, which she sent on Thursday and expected us to recieve on Friday. We did finally receive them today and she was thrilled to peices when we told her that they had come in the mail today. She also has purchased two Barbie dolls, that I was informed are her new Barbie "Collection." She learned so much from her slightly older cousin Hannah in Kentucky. I know she imulates her and was so sad to leave her. While in Kentucky she had her very first sleepover with her cousin Hannah. She grew up so much while there.

I really do miss the little girl she was, not just when she was four and a wonderful little handful but even just three weeks ago before we left and she wanted to help pack our bags for the trip.

Bathtime with Jacob

Jacob enjoys bathtime with bubbles. He really enjoys having Scooby Doo's Mystery Machine riding in his pirate ship. He had a fabulous time playing with Daddy today, spending every minute outside that was not raining. But he got extra stinky and needed an extra spiffy bathtime to clean up. He had a great time getting clean and getting all the toys clean as well.

The boys watch baseball

Here are Josh and Jacob laying on the bed watching baseball together. Already they enjoy the time spent together watching silly games about bats and balls.

Fun with Mamagrand

We just returned home from Kentucky where Emily and Jacob loved riding in the trailer attached to the riding lawnmower at my grandparents house. Mamagrand would drive the kids around the lake in front of their house nearly every morning. I remeber doing stuff like this with Mamagrand when I was a kid, and was so pleased to get to see my kids enjoy her company as much as I do. They went to pick balckberries to make a pie and to see the field full of sunflowers in the trailer.