The treasure box

In Jacob’s kindergarten class everyday one person gets chosen to pick from the treasure chest. He has gotten to be the lucky winner twice this year. The winner is chosen based on how well they behave during rest time. If you are quiet and don’t wiggle and squirm you get to be the winner.

Jacob was the winner on Monday. He was so tired he slept through rest time, so of course he didn’t talk, wiggle or squirm at all. Poor guy wasn’t used to school after 6 days off.

When we all get home I have started making dinner, spaghetti (an all time fav around here) and Emily says, “ Jacob, show mom what you got from the treasure chest!” I turn around from my browning meat and addition of Girl Scout money on the counter to ask him, “Jacob, what did you choose?” He runs to his backpack and runs back to me with
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a button.



“A button, wow, um, that’s nice.”

He just grins at me.

“Well, Jacob, what do you want to do with your button?” “When we go to the store we can buy some yarn and put it on there and swing it around and it will make noise.” he says with more excitement than I could ever muster over a button. “What other stuff was in the treasure box?” I ask, thinking maybe the pickings were slim; it is near the end of the first semester, maybe Mrs. Smith needs to restock. He tells me he skipped over kaleidoscopes and cool sunglasses and pencils. For a button. Now the button rests in a very special spot in my jewelry box, safe from all things evil. He is a special boy; I wouldn’t have him any other way.

Two posts in one day!

My last week and half as told by Susan:

• Monday: Make appointment with Doctor regarding pain in breast and lack of sleep. Attempt to get work done, but am to consumed researching the internet about breast cancer.
• Tuesday: Go to work for half a day, at noon head to doctors appointment. Doctor feels something, recommends an ultrasound. Leave doctors office, call Radiology Center and schedule appointment for 2 hours later. Return to work for 45 minutes to inform bosses what is going on, finally call parents to inform them what is going on and head back into Round Rock for ultrasound appointment. Arrive at appointment and get forgotten. Finally get called back 30 minutes later and get goop put on. They proceed to tell you that you are the lucky winner and get a mammogram as well. Stick around for that, head home and worry yourself sick.
• Wednesday: Half day at work means no work actually gets done. It is now 1 full week after visiting properties and no work on reports have been started. Deadline looms ahead.
• Thursday: Turkey Day! Sleep in! Get turkey started with help from the hubs, cook all sides I am responsible for. MIL shows up with uncooked sides and seems bitter about it. Claims she has the flu and hasn’t worked all week. (She is a temp) Look at ads and plan following days shopping adventure.
• Friday: Rise before the chickens and get my shop on!!! Have a great time shopping. Come home to cranky kids and crankier husband. Receive call that I have been referred to a surgeon for the boob. Make appointment for that “consultation” and begin worrying again. Worry myself sick, literally, halfway through the night.
• Saturday: Continue worrying, try to have a decent day with the kids. Josh goes off to play Santa, for Brown Santa, has time of his life, but hurts his foot somehow. He can hardly stand now.
• Sunday: Too sick for words-No church today. By mid-afternoon feel okay enough to take kids to movie. Jacob asks to leave every five minutes, where is my peace and quiet? Attempt to ready self for school/work again. It has been a while.
• Monday: Go to work, actually make headway in reports. But not enough. It is going to be a long week. Get home from work and have to chase down Girl Scout money and turn in financial reports to peoples houses in the dark with kids in the car. Not fun!
• Tuesday: Go to work, Attempt to make more headway. Get one report first dratft done! Receive call that MIL has been taken by ambulance to hospital. Leave work, with plenty to do and head to hospital. Then there is the whole missing children fiasco.
• Wednesday: Get one report turned into big boss! Yeah, one down, two to go, by Friday. Get call at lunch from husband, MIL admitted to hospital, and dogs out loose in neighborhood. Josh also waiting to hear about an assignment change in the jail. Josh calls to tell me dogs were swimming in the lake! That is 5 miles from my house! –I still don’t know what is up with MIL, he hasn’t made it to the hospital yet, but I am sure this is only going to get better.
  
• Friday to come: DEADLINES!! All three reports due to big boss by this day. Work Christmas Party…thinking about asking good friend Amy to be my back up babysitter since MIL will probably not make it.
• Saturday to come: Girl Scout meeting I still haven’t planned and its Emily’s birthday.
• Sunday: Emily’s party.
  

Of all weeks, this is not the one where I need so much drama!! I need calm, well behaved, no issue filled days! I got enough without all this other junk!!!

How do you get 4 cops and a home searched?

I was going to talk about Jacob and his button (that will have to wait until tomorrow), but we had some excitement at our house/neighborhood last night.

Josh’s mother was taken to the hospital yesterday, no worries, NOTHING was wrong with her. But I was called out of work early to make sure nothing was wrong. So I left the office yesterday about 2:30 and headed to the hospital. I arrived and stayed with her until 5:30 at which point I had to leave to pick up the children from the sitter. When I arrived at Mrs. Ann’s house, she asked if Emily could go with her and her cub scouts to a performance at UT in regards to medieval times. They should return around 8:30ish. No problem I say. It is a little late for Emily, as her bedtime is 7:30 but I think, “I am going to be the good, cool mom and let her go” So off Jacob and I went to have dinner and hang out until Josh gets off work at 7:00 so we can worry with how to deal with the whole MIL’s car in a different city situation. Josh gets off work at 7:00, and my MIL calls at 7:11 to say they will be releasing her in about a half an hour. So as soon as Josh comes home we are off to the hospital. We pick her up, drive up to Georgetown to pick up her car, drive her home, and head home ourselves. As we are heading home, I am worried because it is like 8:40 and I hope that Emily is not waiting for us. Even though I explained to Mrs. Ann that we might be out dealing with this I still wanted to be home when they returned.

We drove up to the house, and Mrs. Ann’s garage door is open. I even commented to Josh, “Hmmm, they must have left the garage door open, that’s odd.” But we didn’t think anything of it and took my poor, tired baby into his room and down for the night.

At about 9:00 we started to worry and decided to call Mrs. Ann and ask, hey, what’s up? But her phone was not working. Hmmm. So we wait and watch a little TV and at 9:30 we really start to worry and called to make sure no accidents had been reported on the highway and none had, so Josh went outside and started looking at the garage door that was opened and noticed that the inside door to the house was opened. So now we are worried, calls to police are made and 4 cop cars and lots of interested neighbors later they “sweep” the house. We see the flashlights through the windows and guns are cocked and they tell Josh that if we hear anything there is a rifle in the trunk, come in after. (I secretly think Josh wishes there was a bit of trouble, just so he could cock a rifle, but he would never admit to it) The cops found nothing unusual, just a home that looked as though it had left in a rush, with about 10 kids under the age of 10. And that is was. The kids drove up at about 10:30, safe and sound and tired.

I am glad they are safe, but man-o-man was Emily cranky this morning. I think she will appreciate it when we put her to bed tonight.

A big fat pain in the breast--Edited at the bottom

I have had a bit of sharp pain in my left breast for about a week. Along with my more frequent that not insomnia that I seemed to have developed over the last couple of months. On Monday I made an appointment with my Doctor for the following day. Prior to arriving for my appointment I have researched the tar out of breast cancer, breast pain and anything breast related. Everything said most cases of breast cancer do not begin with pain in the breast. Well Josh thought he felt something and the doctor agreed to having felt something. I am not sure I have yet to actually feel what everybody is feeling. But I am ready to feel a golf ball sized lump, like I had while in high school and this one appears to be much smaller. She said it was probably a cyst and that I would need to have a breast ultrasound. Which I really ok with, I had to have one for the breast in high school and several with my babies.

But, imagine walking into a cool room, the last one of these you walked into was to take pictures of the baby inside of you. You could hardly walk because all the liquid they make you drink before peering into a mass of wiggly black and white lines until you see the precious face that will become you child. That was not the feeling I encountered once I walked into the room, I laid down and they put the goop on me, (at least it was warm) and started looking. I was scared. My very first mammogram from my youth did not show the very obvious lump that could be felt, but the ultrasound confirmed its existence. This time it seemed to me at the time that they were to just skip the mammogram and head straight to what would diagnoses what could be my greatest fear in live. Josh said he thought he saw something back that looked like a bean. But he said he could not see much more than that. I was just trying to keep my composure, and not be THAT lady. Of course the technician leaves, and then comes back to do some more, leaves again and decide to take a mammogram, even though my PCP didn’t order one. They squeeze me into (literally and figuratively) their schedule and 10 years after the first, I get my second mammogram. It did hurt more than I remembered, but more of just an unpleasant pulling that knife wielding pain. They told me not to change back into my clothes yet; they had to look at the images. The nice little nurse came back and said it looks good, you can get dressed now. My only confusion is: do the pictures look good because they are clear and readable or good because they can’t see anything on them. They tell me to follow up with my doctor, but give me no indication of when. How soon is too soon. So as the risk of being THAT lady I call my doctor and state, “ I had these procedures done today and was wondering when I could expect results? “You just did them TODAY?” I say, “Yes, I know they are not ready today, I am not THAT person, I was told to follow up with the doctor, but they didn’t give me time frame, two days, two weeks, two months? So I am simply curious, when should I start to call you if I haven’t been called?” “OK, they should have told you… By next Monday at noon, give us a call if you haven’t heard from us.” That I can deal with. Sort-Of. Now I wait. And wait. And wait. And worry.


But on the plus side the doctor gave me ambian to sleep, I did sleep all. Night. Long.
It was amazing. I am having some time in the morning shaking it off, I am not dopey-like hung over but like my mind is sharp but body is still a few feet back. It is interesting; hopefully my Dr. Pepper will help fix that.

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The doctor's nurse called me the day after Thanksgiving, to inform me that I have been refered to another doctor. So I now have an appointment on December 12th with a surgon. Not sure why, they wouldn't say anything more to me.

I have turned in my leave request for the doctors appt. and now will do my best not to even think about this for the next week, I think I have made myself sick over it all. Literally.

Plus, Ambian does not work for me. It worked the first night like a dream (ha ha) but the next two nights it felt like my head was being squished, but I could never actually fall asleep. PLus, I was tired all the next day becasue I did not sleep. Yuck.

The bird

Thanksgiving

A time to stuff yourself so full you can’t hardly think. This will be the first year in my 8 years of marriage that I have been responsible for the turkey. In previous years, when we still lived near my parents or Josh’s parents we would go to their house for Thanksgiving and I would bring a dessert, because that is what I am good at. I am not a terrific chef. At. All. But I try and I enjoy it, I just haven’t had the opportunity to practice enough. Last year, when Josh’s mom was not living here in Texas we were invited to my dear friend Amy’s house. She made the turkey and I made all the side dishes. I was extremely proud of myself, because as I mentioned before, I am not a cook. Well this year Josh’s mom is living here, but I have become responsible for the turkey. And most (all but 2) side dishes. I am a bit scared, mostly about the turkey. I purchased a turkey on Sunday, a butterball at my mother-in-laws request and after frantically calling several people to find out where to put the darn thing placed it gently in my refrigerator. Now, I felt the darn thing yesterday and it is still frozen solid. I am glad I have chicken breast frozen in my freezer, just in case. Last night I call my mother to ask her how to cook a turkey. She is my mom, and I call her for cooking tips from time to time. She promptly replies, “I don’t know, I have only cooked a turkey once, and really Daddy Grand did it because they were here visiting.” Great. Now what. She suggests calling her dear friend, wife of the man who married Josh and I eight years ago, Sandy. So I fully intend to call Sandy tonight, last night was way to hectic with Girl Scout stuff, and no time was available. But just for fun I am also making the green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, strawberry cream pie and pumpkin cheese cake. All from scratch. Yeah. For. Me.

I am still worried about that silly frozen bird.

Weekend Arranging

The re-arrange is semi-completed. We moved both beds into one room and sorted through books. My children had every book they had ever owned, including the ones from Chick-fil-a that were junk. So we sorted into good, torn-ripped and babyish. We got rid of over half of the books, mosted ripped and torn! But we moved in a "new" bookshelf (one that was in the other room, but will complement the whole room once we have painted) and filled it nicely with books the correct way. Hopefully we can get the other two bookshelves into the garage -for use out there and get their pplay room worked on this weekend.

And the Christmas mess is here in full swing. But I have to pat myself on the back. We are having a hard time giving gift ideas to everybody who asks, becasue my wonderful children only have three or four things each that they want--and Emily has a birthday to take from the gift pull as well! They seem to understand that if they ask for a few good quality items that they might actually get them rather than a bunch of junk that they won't get. It is wonderful.

Rearrange-Again

Jacob will not sleep in his own bed. Only twice in the last 2 months as he sleep for a full night in his room. So we are getting drastic here. I am tired on legs in my back and being crawled on at 3:14 am for his to get snuggly in the bed with Josh and I. We are rearranging. We have already rearranged his room once; after that was the 2 nights he slept in his room. But he got scared again and is back in our bed or in Emily’s bed. This weekend, we are going to begin the big move. We are going to move Jacob’s bed and dresser into Emily’s room. This will be the sleeping room. They will keep their beds, dressers and books in this room. Everything else will be in the playroom. We are going to repaint the rooms, we are not quite sure what yet, but we are going to start with the sleeping room and get it set up, hopefully this weekend, in order to eliminate anymore bed sharing. The kids want to paint the playroom orange with longhorns. I am not sure about that! But I do want to put up some chalkboard paint and have it be a fun room, where they can keep their cool Christmas present from my parents. Plus, I hope that they can keep the sleeping room “clean” and the playroom can be destroyed and cleaned together, faster. That is my hope anyway! They are excited about it and can’t wait to get started. I plan to get busy this weekend-and hopefully have most of the project done by Emily’s birthday.

Fashion Emily

It’s started. For the longest time Emily has only cared about her appearance if I made her care. I would be the one to tell her that while both pieces of clothing are pink, they don’t necessarily match and stripes and floral prints in clashing colors are not appropriate for leaving the house. This morning she wanted her hair straightened with a hair thingy placed in it and a cute outfit that she chose all on her own. BUT WAIT!!! The shoes, her pink sneaks don’t match, she is wearing blue and white. What to do? “Mom, can I wear my cheer shoes? They are all white and MATCH!!” Yes, Emily, you can wear your cheer shoes in order to match. I thought I had a few more years, but my nearly eight-year-old daughter has chosen to become a bit of a fashion diva. I hope this hasn’t happened because we watch Ugly Betty together; it is our new favorite show to watch together. Hmmmm. But I was a quick enough mother to grab the camera and mark the day my daughter figured out how to be “fashionable.”

The fog

Have you ever felt like you stopped living? Not died entirely, but stopped enjoying your children and your family and just went about your life a day at a time with not much though about much of it. Like you’ve been living in a fog for a while and your not sure when it started, but you are ready for it to end? I am ready for my fog to lift. I want to be outside with the kids and watch them grow into wonderful beings that will help cure cancer or prosecute a bad guy or check your groceries out pleasantly at the local HEB. I am tired of the fog, and I feel like I don’t allow myself to enjoy life like I should, and I want to enjoy it more than anybody can imagine! I want to say home and watch my children flourish in a clean home and loving atmosphere. I want them to be able to play with their friends after school and get all the homework done before 4pm. I want to be able to take off for a month in the summer to the hills of Kentucky and let them enjoy their ailing grandparents and learn to appreciate homegrown tomatoes. I feel like I may be in a fog until I can give a little bit of this to my family. I hope that it can happen, and we can enjoy ourselves, laughing and learning about life together.


Taken two summers ago at my Mamgrands house. The kids loved ridding the tracter and spending time with their grnadparents.

A little test

A little personality quiz because I have nothing to say today.

UPDATED BELOW************************************************************************

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations. A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you. You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people. Conscientiousness: You have high conscientiousness. Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life. Most things in your life are organized and planned well. But you borderline on being a total perfectionist. Agreeableness: You have medium agreeableness. You're generally a friendly and trusting person. But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism. You get along well with others, as long as they play fair. Neuroticism: You have high neuroticism. It's easy for you to feel shaken, worried, or depressed. You often worry, and your worries prevent you from living life fully. You tend to be emotionally reactive and moody. Your either flying very high or feeling very low. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is medium. You are generally broad minded when it come to new things. But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it. You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

The Five Factor Personality Test

UPDATED******************************************************************************

Per my fathers request:
Extroversion: Nothing new there. I know I am shy in social settings. This was one of the hardest things for me to do in the hotel business: talk to stangers. I have a few very good friends and they have been my friends for years and the friendships grow stronger with time (Amy, Serina)

Conscientiousness:
I think this is sort of right on. I like to beleive I am reliable. If asked to do something I can't say no-but since I am so shy I rarely get asked. I try so hard ro be a perfectionist, but I fail at it on a daily basis.

Agreeableness:
I agree completly with this statement. I think I am very agreeable with a spice of sacasim-thanks mom and dad.

Neuroticism:
I also agree with these statements. I think I am a bit crazy-but I don't know many peopl ewho are not. I do worry, all the time. Usually about stuff I can't change, however, I don't worry about certain things like my kids playing at the neighbors, I worry about big ticket things like money and my craziness.

Openness to experience:
Also agree alomst completly. I think I want to try new things, but sometimes get scared and back out. I do find creativity a virtue, one that I don't have. As much as I wish I were creative-- I am just not.

So I think it was fairly spot on. I am not nearly as smart and successful as it says, but otherwise...

Weekend Update

Well our weekend got pooped out…we were to go to Amy’s twice this weekend, but had to reschedule both times due to sick kids and sick adults. Josh is nearly better I am getting worse and now Emily seems to have quite the hacking cough. We are a sight. Jacob had a soccer game on Sat, but the field was muddy and once he got a little muddy he didn’t want to play any more, Emily had Girl Scouts and Cheer, she got all ready for cheer and then chose to stay home at the Girl Scout meeting. I guess my safety quiz was more exciting than I thought.

We stayed home from church on Sunday and laid around doing a whole lot of nothing, getting sicker by the minute. I know Emily wasn’t feeling well when she only asked twice to play with friends and didn’t fight a nap.
We are quite pathetic. I hope whatever this crud is that it would hurry up and leave!

I was able to get some pictures off my camera so, here is a little bit of what's been going on:

Halloween:
Jacob was a fireman, Emily was Pocahontas.



I made my cake for my work's Thanksgiving Lunch, I won second prize!!!


I have been asked a half a dozen times about the cake today!!

And a picture of Jacob with his pumpkin, he was so very proud!!


That is our week in a nutshell. We have big plans for tonight and tomarrow, will post next week. Since I am without a computer until who knows when, it will have to wait until Monday when I return to work!!

Where did I go wrong? Why are my mistakes affecting her? It is not fair to her that I had her under the circumstances that I did. She is not to blame for my mistakes, yet she is the one who feels the pain and carries the burden, as we are learning how to parent. All of our mistakes with parenting have been with her, I want nothing more than to stay home with her and allow her to grow into the wonderful young lady that I know she can be. I want to grab my family and move to the country where hard work is required and fun is chasing lightening bugs. Where cable TV is a thing of the past and imagination grows with the fields. I hurt so much for her at this very moment, and I don’t know how to make things better. I need to be there for her more, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. I am trying desperately to make it through the end of the year, and then, maybe I can stay home with her and attempt to make up for the last 8 years and try to be the mommy that I can only hope and pray that I can be. I know we could do better, but I now know that we have to do better or we will be in a heap of hurt. I want nothing more that for her to have the most perfect childhood, and so far she has had an extremely difficult one. I hate myself for not doing better, for not being better and for failing to raise my daughter in the way I know she should be raised. I can only hope that the next two months can go by quickly and that changes can be made in our hearts and our minds to enable us to raise our children the way God wanted them to be raised. I want so much to be able to mold her into a lovely young lady that is pleasant to be around, who knows how to deal with her anger and is a pleasure. I don’t have time to raise her now. Sacrifices are going to have to be made in order to do things the way they need to be done. It may mean no more eating out and no more spur of the moment movie trips, but we can make fun and enjoy each other and learn to be a kid again before it is too late. We have to stop her in her tracks and ensure that what is best for her is happening. It may mean me leaving my job, being home when she gets home from school and reconnecting with her in a way that I haven’t been able to do for years. I don’t think I just want it anymore, I think our family needs it.

HELP!!!!!

I think my labtop crashed!

My pictures!!!!

UPDATE:
I think I may have most of my pictures emailed to myself just not in my flickr account, which will be great, but the home computer is dead, I do beleive.

It has been acting funny the last couple of days and I brought it to work today to download pictures from this weekend, and to start saving all my pic to a flash drive, but it appears that I will not be given the chance. I know I lost some Girl Scout pictures, and possibly some from a long time ago, but I can't remember when I bought the camera, so I don't know how long ago to look for. I have pictures from my trip to Kentucky summer of 2005, but not much before that.

Man oh Man.

10 years

It was a cool but sunny Wednesday afternoon in Lubbock, TX and I had accompanied Lori and Carmen to dinner in the cafeteria at Lubbock Christian University. Once we were finished eating we needed to head over to the boy’s dorm to pick up Lori’s boyfriend Allen (who was making some kind of health shake in his room) to go to church. As we were waiting, we were goofing off in the lobby of the boys dorm, talking about Halloween the next night. This guy that I knew from Pine Springs summer camp, Josh, was working the desk of the dorm and agreed to take Lori, Carmen and myself trick-or-treating the next night. After the Halloween plans were made I started playing “Speed” with Josh as we continued to wait. Allen was taking an incredibly long time to make that stupid shake. I remember being annoyed at first with the length of time he was taking. My goodness, it is a shake, how long does it take?!? When Allen finally came down from his room ready to leave for church I decided to stay and continue playing card with Josh. I had a class with him (Math-and he flirted with every girl in that class but me Thank you very much) and I knew him from camp at Pine Springs years ago. So we continued to play speed until we grew bored with the game and decide to watch “Young Guns II.” By the end of the movie we were smitten. We ended up holding hands and going for a walk around the campus. We made our way to the benches outside the Education building where we shared our first kiss.

Now don’t think I just saw an opportunity and took it, he may have, but me? No, I had been eyeing him in the weeks prior to this, thinking that he was quite fetching and quite a ham.

The next day he took the three of us trick-or-treating. I dressed as a scarecrow, Lori as a mime, Josh as a werewolf and, well, I don’t remember what Carmen dressed up as. So we went trick or treating and had a great time. I don’t think I had been in a few years and had a great time. We got a few “looks” but had fun none the less. Now earlier in the day during our Math class I had been discussing “Romeo and Juliet” and how much I wanted to see the flick as it was opening that Friday night. Josh gave me a hard time about it in the classroom, but on the walk back to the dorm he asked if he could take me to see the movie. Of course, I said yes. The next night I dressed in my best jeans, a white shirt, my new kicking boots and a wonderful sweater (I owned that sweater for years, not allowing myself to part with it. I am not even sure I have parted with it.) I looked HOT! Now, Josh on the other hand, still needed some help in the “dress to impress” category. He wore white pants(!) and a white shirt and a green silk jacket with a zipper. Was it 1984? If he hadn’t been such a gentleman I probably would not have forgiven him for the outfit. He still sees nothing wrong with the clothes he chose to wear, but I got rid of that green silk jacket thing as soon as possible once we were married. We enjoyed the show and I don’t remember if we got dinner or not that night.

On Saturday we had signed up for Chap-A-Kid, a program where underprivileged kids got to come over to the campus and watch a movie and eat hotdogs. Before we went to pick up our “kid” we went to Fuddruckers and still consider this to be one of “our” restaurants. Especially the one in Lubbock. We ate at Fuddruckers dozens of times in the 2 years we lived there. Anyhow…We had the cutest little boy and enjoyed our time together watching the movie and eating cold hotdogs in the SUB. The poor child asked if we could pick him up a Burger King kids meal on the way home so that he could eat it for lunch the next day. Heartbreaking! He called Josh for a few weeks, then he stopped calling. I often wonder what happened to that young boy, he would have to be 17 or 18 by now.

So that is it, our story. How the Sumpters became the Sumpters.

I got nothing

We have had a fairly regular couple of days here. Emily got in trouble at school yesterday for hitting (twice in one month-UGH) and Jacob got in trouble for messing with the timer on the oven while it was on. Nobody had brownies last night.

This weekend, we have a very uneventful time planned; comp aired to the last couple. We have soccer, cheer, pumpkin patch and well, that’s it. Sunday we have the fall festival at church-but also, that’s it. So I am looking forward to catching up on laundry, cleaning out the summer clothes and weeding out the two small winter clothes, as it may have decided to become cold enough to at least wear pants to school. It is warm by 3, but the mornings are extra chilly.

Today is day 32 with no/limited tv time for the kids. They don’t seem to miss it too much, only on the weekends. We caved a little bit and they watched a movie last Friday and 1 hour of cartoons on Disney on Sunday. I think that maybe the compromise the come to. Choose a movie and that’s it or 2 half hour shows. Emily’s attitude is improving, she still has a hard time in the mornings, but we all do. She doesn’t want to take a bath when she wakes up, but she doesn’t want to take a bath at night either. And with her need to read 2o minutes a day for homework by the time I get home, cook dinner, clean up, bathe Jacob it is usually time fro bed. We are going to have to figure out a different system.

We are trying to save for a vacation to Disney World we want to try and go right before Christmas, BUT that may not happen. If not we are looking at Spring Break. There are a few factors that may keep us from going in December. One being flights. I will have two free tickets, but there are four people in our family. If I could get a $49 flight that would be ok, but I can’t. It will cost almost $1,000 extra just for 2 flights. That is the major one, second is we can’t book any of it until almost right before we would go. Timing and whatnot. So it maybe Spring before we go, but Josh and I are excited about the idea. We have not told the kids, as to not get them hyped about it if it doesn’t happen. Anyhow… I think the kids are old enough to enjoy it and Jacob can ride all but 1 ride!! The Rockin Roller Coaster, which I don’t know if I would like him to ride anyway! It is an AWESOME ride as an adult, I mean you go from 0-60 with the force of a super sonic F-14. Cool for me, not so much for my skinny little man.
So I guess I did have plenty to say and didn’t know it… who knew?

The Cake

I can’t believe I forgot to mention this:

I made a cake from scratch today!!! And it was good!!!

My office has its annual Thanksgiving Luncheon with a dessert contest. The prize is a one paid day off. So I am all about that!! Last year I entered my pumpkin cheesecake and didn’t crack the top three. Boooo!!!! So this year I am out to win! I attempted a new recipe on Saturday that was supposed to be THE best dessert recipe EVER! So I tried it. It had some flaws (too much vanilla in the icing and the pecans where too much for me, I may have to figure out how to get the flavor without the nut), some personal changes I will make, but over all it was good. So next time, with my changes made, it will be AWESOME!!!! I am so excited. So I had Josh take the rest of the cake to work, as we don’t need a two layer cake with frosting which has 2 sticks of butter in it sitting around our house.
But I made a cake AND icing from scratch!!! I may not be able to make a lasagna, but I can bake with the best of them. I only want to win this one contest. Just one. Banana pudding has won two years in a row. Lets hope my Hummingbird Cake can break the cycle!!!

Busy Weekend

This was a busy weekend for us.
Friday night my dear friend Amy and I went out for a night on the town. The plan was to go to a movie but Austin traffic decided that we should miss the movie and just hang out. We grabbed some dinner at Village Inn and spent her birthday gift certificate at Kohls. We had a great time. Our main goal was to get her mind off her big performance at The Cross Festival, as the comic and MC on the main stage. While we were out Josh watched all four kids. He is amazing. He completly set the whole evening up, offering to watch the kids. He took this picture of the kiddos, the one and only picture we have of all four kids together, it is a shame really...


Look how cute, Mackenzie is snuggling with Jacob. Awwwww!

On Saturday we had tons of stuff going on. Jacob had a soccer game at 8am on Saturday (they lost 6-2) and Emily had to cheer at a football game at 11am PLUS we had a girl scout meeting at 10am. So Josh "got" to run around alot Saturday morning. He even mowed and edged the front and back yard in between games.
Here is a picture of Emily doing her cheerleading stuff, Josh took video, but I have to figure all that out before I can post it. I am going to try--but no promises. The uniforms were not in yet, so they wore their practice shirts. Emily had fun, but didn't realize how much work was actually involved. Josh said she was asking every couple of minutes what time it was and how much time was left before they were done.



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Oreo went to the vet and had a horrible bladder infection. We have to give him medicine twice daily to help him. Thank goodness it is a liquid and he takes it better than a pill, but he still gets all crazy when he sees us coming at him with the dropper. He is still peeing everywhere, but he has been going more in the box again, which I take as a good sign. I just hate that he doesn't feel good, he is such a wonderful kitty.

Oreo the kitty

My kitty is sick. I am so sad. Josh is taking him to the vet this morning, but I am very scared. I love my Oreo and I hope he is ok. As you may remember he has not had an easy life, but he is SO good with the kids and is such as easy going kitty.

Ice Cream Sandwiches

On Monday night I was on the phone with my mom talking about nothing I can remember frantically putting the last minute touches onto Amy’s birthday present. I was home alone with Jacob as Emily was at cheer practice and Josh had gone straight from work to the YMCA to pick her up. When we arrived home I told Jacob he could have 1 ice cream sandwich, I got on the phone and went into the other room to “finish” my work. After about 15 minutes I realize that he is super quiet. Now the boy LOVES ice cream. He can eat an ice cream sandwich in about 3 minutes flat. So when I had not seen him in quite a bit more time than that I walked back into the kitchen to find him with ice cream in hand. Knowing full well that this was not his first I made him throw the remainder away ands go to his room. ARGH! But the next morning he gets up from bed in his little underwear and walks to the kitchen for some “breakfast” and helps himself to another ice cream sandwich. But he knows what he is doing this time. He stuffs it down his underwear and heads to his room!!

Josh saw him and removed the ice cream and sent him into the kitchen for some cereal.
Only my child would put ice cream down his underwear!