Happy Anniversary to me and Josh. It has been 9 years since we walked into this thing called marriage. We have had good and bad times, and we seem to be on an upswing right now. Hopefully it stays up for a while.

On another note- I have been looking into that whole teachers certificate thing again. I never did anything with it before, well because I am stupid. I could be teaching now, but I think I got scared and nervous about the whole idea. So I have been researching it quite a bit these last 2 days, after thinking about it for about a month. I have actually taken a step in the right direction as well. I have ordered my transcripts and started filling out the applications. So, progress is being made. After looking into it, I think that a Career and Technical Certification is going to be the best bet for me. I would focus on Family and Consumer Science. Funny if you think about it. I am going to an information session on June 12th. If once I apply and am accepted into this program I could actually be student teaching next spring, while going to school while I continue working at my current job.
I am going to go to the info session and find out more information and hopefully start this thing up for real this year.

Lubbock

We had a blast in Lubbock this weekend. It was great to see everybody again. It had been 9 years since we had all been together. We have added 3 kids to the family since then. Here are the "best" serious pose and my favorite: the crazy one.

Lauren, Uncle Tim, Uncle John, Josh, Me, Mom, Grandma, Dad, Grandpa, Lucas, Aunt Deb, Aunt Michelle, Trevor, jacob, Hannah and Emily.

Two boys and a tree

Last night when I got home Jacob was outside with his new little friend Cameron. They were playing with the pirates and having a grand time. I went inside and was talking with Josh when I heard the water come on outside. As you may or may not know my son loves to turn the hose on. I don’t know why, but the boy loves him some water. So I go outside and fuss in a fun, cool mother way. I grab my camera and take a few shots of the tow of them, thinking, oh, what a fun little fluffy blog this will be for tomorrow.




About an hour later we send Jacob home with Cameron to pick up Emily, who was hanging with Cameron’s older sister. Emily hits the door and says, “Do you know what those boys did?” We assume she means the mess in the garage- pirates and matchbox cars were everywhere. We tell her yes and tell her to get inside and get to eating her dinner. I certainly cannot even remember why Josh went outside, but I hear him yell “Susan!” and I jump up and run outside. This is what I found.





What possesses two 5 year olds to mangle a tree like that? Why? I just don’t understand why they did it. Jacob is in the biggest trouble of his life- he has lost his beloved pirates until school is out- which is only 2 days, but he was very ashamed. We had a chat about it, and I had to explain to Emily why I didn’t march over to Cameron’s house and tell on him. So all sorts of lessons were learned last night and out poor tree looks so, so sad.

We had a fantastic weekend. The best part was hanging out with Amy almost all afternoon on Saturday. Here is the "proof"

We had a great time, while Amy gave her dog a bath and the kids played with Legos and dirt- little friendships were forming.

On Sunday afternoon Emily did her own make up.



And then we had a little lesson on make-up.

Josh and I are prepairing for a trip to Lubbock this weekend. Lots of funt o ensue I am sure of it. The kids are excited to swim and I am excited to see family.

Bullets

Today is a day for bullets:

• I was called on Tuesday morning at 7:57am to pick up Jacob, he had been throwing up at school. We got to hang out and watch Scooby Doo all day together. He only threw up 2 more times that day.
• Emily was so wonderful this morning. She got up, got dressed, did her own hair, brushed her teeth and asked nicely for breakfast-all without having to be asked. I live for those moments.
• Josh got the dishwasher fixed yesterday! It has been 6 months, and he finally decided after I broke glass number 476 while washing dishes on Tuesday that he would call someone. Two pumpkin seeds. That is what was causing the problem. Almost as bad as when 2 pebbles caused the dryer to stop working. I think we need to work on cleaning things properly before loading them into the machines made to make our lives “easier.”
• Josh put up the pool yesterday. The kids are so excited they are about to pee themselves. It was all we could do yesterday to keep Jacob out of the water. Emily has already invited the entire neighborhood over for swimming after school today. Let’s just say this is one day I am happy to be at work.
• Our first free lawn mower finally died about a month ago. We had been borrowing random neighbors mowers until we could get our own. On Monday Josh and I decided with all the rain we have been getting we had to break down and buy a lawn mower. We had looked on-line and were going to look at Wal-Mart (the evil empire) this weekend for a refurbished one. But the wonderful, lovely Mrs. Ann gave us hers that afternoon! They are getting their lawn cared for professionally and have no use for a lawn mower anymore, so they gave us theirs! It was amazing the timing on the situation.
• School is almost out and the kids are READY! They are super excited that we are traveling so much this summer. And they are traveling more than Josh and I are. Emily is super duper excited about going to Lubbock to see all of her cousins that she didn’t even know she had and a few that she does know. Jacob is thrilled that he gets to have a “destination birthday”- even if the destination is Mayfield, Kentucky, population 10,000.
• However, I think my kids are most excited about hanging out with Amy this Saturday- seriously Amy, I hope it ok. It is all they have talked about this week. Jacob wanted to go over when he was sent home from school sick. He just wanted to share. What a mess. But we plan on being there this Saturday- be ready to play!
• Emily finally asked about taking dance lessons yesterday. I have been waiting for this moment since she went to the dance recital with Chelsa on Saturday. I am thinking about letting her do it. It might teach her some grace, focus and discipline . I need to look into it.

I guess that is it. We are boring but exciting. Yeah us!

Weekend Update-with pictures

Another full weekend at our house. On Saturday we had final games of Soccer and Volleyball and a Girl Scout meeting. Emily’s team lost and Jacobs team won. After Jacob’s game his team had a party at the YMCA which included pizza, cake and playtime in the huge play area.


After the Girl Scout meeting Emily went with Chelsa to her dance recital and Jacob and I got to hang out.

It was really, really fun just hanging out with Jacob. We needed to go to the Girl Scout shop and to HEB. And because I was thrilled to be hanging out with him alone we went to Dairy Queen to full ourselves for our long journey ahead of us. After the Girl Scout shop and before HEB we went to the Party Pig to search for Scooby Doo birthday stuff for his party. Since his birthday will take place while he is in Kentucky with ALL the grandparents and Mayfield, KY is a small town, I wasn’t sure we could find a Scooby Doo cake topper at the Wal-Mart or Dollar General so we went a hunting. While we were walking up to the store he asked what the name of the store was. I told him, “Party Pig”- well you would have thought I farted, burped and spit water out my nose he laughed so hard. He thought it was HILARIOUS! After finding what we needed and a few things we didn’t need at the Party Pig we headed to HEB for my prescription and then to Mrs. Amy’s mom and dad’s house.

We posed Jacob and Ian for a few cute Americana shots and then got a few more with Kenzie in them by chance.

Jacob had a great time- truth be told, I think because Emily wasn’t there they all got along better. I think she is turning into a bit of a bully and I am not sure how to stop it.

But the kids had a great time digging and playing in the dirt and I think Jacob asked about 12 times on Sunday if we could go over to their house again. I kept telling him, next Saturday, honey, next Saturday. (I hope that you have no plans Amy, because we will be there.)

Sunday was nice. I got some very sweet presents from the kids and they both melted down to hysterical tears at least 12 times each. It was a fabulous mothers day. I think the best part was when they went to play outside with their friends and I got to watch ER uninterrupted.

Over all a very good weekend. I am already ready for the next one.

Pictures

Well the weekend went almost as planned. Girl Scouts were postponed until next weekend, becasue so many girls were not going to be there. We didn't watch Fantasia, but Hoodwinked instead. I got very little sleep thanks to the wonderful children I have being excited for the weekend. But Amy and I had a fabulous chat, the kids had fun and when we left her kids were about to be dunked in the bath and mine needed it badly-from the mud they created and played with.

As promised here are pictures of the dog.


Brownie before the grooming.

Brownie after the grooming. Look at his pretty stripes. Brownie wasn't the only one who lost some ahir over the weekedn. Emily wanted a haircut- and needed one, so off we went to Snip-Its. It is a little shorter than I wanted and she looks a little too grown-up for my taste, but she LOVES it so much.

My big weekend plans.

What a weekend we have planned. Tonight we are skipping volleyball because soccer has been cancelled due to the rain. We are going to do some Girl Scout shopping that needs to be done and get a take and bake pizza and watch the movie Fantasia that I bought at a garage sale for $1! Jacob’s choice for the movie, he is very excited, and I think he will be a little disappointed. Jacob has a soccer game in the morning, barring any rain that Grandma is hopefully going to take him to play in and Emily and I have a Girl Scout meeting. But after Girl Scouts in the morning I am most excited to have my dear friend Amy over for the afternoon. We are going to hang and let the kids run around and just chat. I am most looking forward to that. So, Amy, I hope your ready for a fun filled day of nothing tomorrow afternoon. It should be great.

On a side note, we got Brownie groomed- thanks to a referral to a non-expensive vet that grooms from our wonderful babysitter Mrs. Ann. He looks like a new dog. I took pictures, but left the camera at home. I am kicking myself for that now. I will post pictures of the crazy naked dog on Monday- so stay tuned.

Weekend in Pictures

Emily and Jacob in front of the Texas star. Look Memaw, we found a barnstar for you!

Jacob and the enormous Chick-fil-A cow we won as part of a raffle.

Jacob "helping" daddy change the oil. He dropped a pencil in the engine and is trying to fish it out.