Character of the month~Initiative

Jacob always asks me if he can put things away or erase the board or run to get something I forgot. He sees things to do I do not see! I love having Jacob in my room.


This is what Mrs. Smith said about Jacob and why is was nominated for Character of the Month. He was SO excited. I got to take him lunch and enjoy eating Taco Bell at a special luncheon where they had table cloths and flowers on the tables. We enjoyed our time together. After the luncheon, he took me back to his room where he showed me everything. With nobody else in the room he really took me around and gave me the grand tour. It was really neat to enjoy some one on one time with him and see that he really enjoys school.

Tuesday January 30

So I know all three people who read this blog are tired of looking at K-fed and his little wanna be.

Today is the 100th day of school. Hard to beleive it has already been 100 days. For the celebration Jacob had to make a shirt with 100 items on it. It could be buttons, bows, beads, whatever. We choose stamps, becasue, well, it was easy and could be completed in 2 nights. He is very excited to wear his shirt to school today and show Mrs. Smith.



So there is my little man, almost all grown up.

Here is a picture I captured of Emily this morning when we went in to wake her up for school:



Such a sneaky dog. He is not supposed to be on the bed. But he sure is proud of himself.

I suppose I have lots more to report. I got a hair cut. Not just a trim, but a CUT. You can see the back of my neck if you look at me from behind. I will try to post a picture soon, none of the ones I have tried to do myself have turned out at all! I can't think of anything else. My life is SO fun of cookies right now I can't hardly think straight!

Decision 2007

Here is my post showing our Japenese Steakhouse Chef compaired to K-fed. You be the judge.






























Whats your vote?

On Friday night I had planned on having a nice, quiet dinner for 2 with my husband. He told me about a week ago where he wanted to take me and almost told me but I quickly stopped him and told him to keep it a secret. So up until this point I have no idea where we are going. Well we finally pull up to Tokyo and I was pleased. I love this restaurant. I have even blogged about it before. Well we have a hard time finding a place to park, and I am SO glad we have a reservation. We walk in and the nice Asian lady at the front desk tells us that our party is over by the bar. Our party? What? We walk over and there is Amy, Sarah, Kara, Rob and Brandon. Three more of my friends from work were supposed to come, but all had minor emergencies come up at the last minute on Friday night. I was so happy, excited pleased to see everyone! I was totally surprised. I had no idea. And let me tell you, Josh can rarely pull off a surprise on me. I usually can figure stuff out, but I had no idea! I had such a great time visiting and laughing with my friends! It was the best night I have had in a long time and the best birthday I can remember- (well besides the sleep over I had when I was like 9 or 10). And on a side note, wouldn’t you know it that the chef we got was the one who looks like K-fed? Again! But this time we got photographic proof! Sarah brought her camera and we took shameless pictures of the guy while he was cooking, hopefully she will post them soon!

My birthday

My birthday was fabulous. The best birthday present was the kids got to go back to school.

When I got off work I met Josh and the kids for dinner out at what had become our Birthday place: Cracker Barrel. I think everyone in our family picks it for their birthday dinner. When I got home I came home to these lovely flowers sent by my dad, left on our porch!



And when I walked in I found the kids birthday present to me:



I LOVE IT!!! It was ll theri idea, Josh just helped them a little bit. They are so precious those kids of mine. Being away from them for a few hours yesterday made me appriciate them even more!

Josh is taking me out tonight for a nice dinner alone. It is a suprise, so who knows what he has planned. The kids are staying at the MIL's and then it is COOKIE time!

January 18

I can hardly believe it is already Thursday. The "vacation" has been nice, but I need to get out of this house! Well, we are finally going to get back to normal. I am not at work yet, but will be in a few hours. School is only delayed for 2 hours. The kids and I are sitting here just waiting for time to pastso we can get going. I was just outside putting stuff in the car, without a jacket, and i survived. It is chilly, but nothing like it has been. I am glad the cold is finally moving on a bit, I mean we have lots and lots of Girl Scout Cookies to sell this weekend.

"Snow day" Again!

Argh! No school again today. I may just go crazy! I know I want to be a stay at home mom, but I want to be able to at the very least leave my house! I am a prisioner! I now know what Amy must feel like everyday, except that she can throw her kids outside (when the weather permits!) so even this that I am doing is more crazy! I think all parents are going crazy! Not that I haven't enjoyed my time at home this week, I have SCRUBBED my kitchen! It is spotless! At least until the dogs drag something in or we use a dish, but for now....ahhhh I will enjoy it! I have done 4 loads of laundry with another 3 or 4 calling my name today. We have made cookies, Magic Rocks, forts, played with their kitchen, played school and played in the snow! But now Emily is sick, so today should be REAL fun! She was going to spend the night at her friend Chelsa's house last night. With no school I said, "Sure! Have fun!" We got a call at 1am that she was puking! Fun! So she is home and sick. In fact she is still asleep. That never happens. We, or Josh, are going to have to brave it out in the cold today, we are out of dog food. The one thing I didn't make certain that we had before all this hit. They ate the last of it this morning. So I will need to get back out, but luckily the snow they predicted did not come and now it is all slushy and icy. With more to come...or so they say. Here are some pictures with my children and their pathetic "snowface" from yesterday: Enjoy!

yes that is a hotdog. We didn't have any carrots and it worked for them. Plus, think of the memory that will be when they are teenagers!

And now look what my life is about to be: Cookies! The Girl Scout cookie sale starts on Saturday morning and my life is officially over for 4 weeks. I am already looking forward to being done with it!For now, my living room is filled with cookies!!! I guess it is not a bad thing that I don't even want any of them. So not even one box has been opened! But if Jacob had his way, he would eat a whole case of Caramel deLites. He is holding off until Saturday, but I am not sure what we will do after that!

Ice

Here are some pictures of the ice. And now its snowing!!


Ice on the car.




Front porch




Ice on the car.




After Josh "punched" the car- to break the ice.




Front area of house.




Josh pulling the ice off the car.

Revenge of the Chow

Because of the cold weather of late the dogs have been spending quite a bit of time in the garge, drying of after they have been outside, another place to be so that they don't drive me crazy! and a place that I will be less likely to be angry if they poop.

Josh keeps his little (big) collection of the Star Wars figures out in the garage (I won't let him display them in my house) on a shelf. Well the following is a re-enactment of what must have happened sometime in the previous night.


Commander Cody is manning his post.






The enemy approaches...





Watch out Commander, they are getting closer!!!





Oh NO!!!! Commander, you lost your valient battle!





Lord Brownie stands over the poor limp corpse of his vicitm, satisfied with his work.





You put up a good fight Commander Cody, but you were no match for Lord Brownie in Revenge of the Chow.

Ice

We are holed up in our house due to the ice storm. The kids and the dogs are officially stir crazy. I am trying to keep them occupied with stuff to do, but we are on day 3 of not leaving the house and they are tired of TV and computer games. We have Easy Bake ovened about as much as I can, I have Play Dough EVERYWHERE in my kitchen and the dogs are barking. They don't bark. So I know its bad. I hope school is cancelled tomorrow, because the ice is only supposed to get worse as the day/night comes- with tomorrow being the worst. I am already off today because of the holiday- but I hope school is cancelled, because I don't want to drive in this mess. There was an 8 car pile up this morning, and that is with holiday traffic. What a mess. I wish I knew now if school was going to be cancelled, but we will have to wait till the morning. Josh just left for work with a change of clothes and enough food to feed an army. The guy on the radio this morning said- if you go to work today don't expect to come home tonight. I hate that he works in a prison. They can't close like a school can. Ugh.

So I am off to watch the Rescuers on the Disney channel with my kids. Should be fun.

Movies, Movies, Movies

I am currently in Little Rock, Ar for work and while I am away from my family the one perk is that I see movies. Lots of movies. Movies my husband has no desire to see. So in the last 36 hours I have seen 3 movies. I thought I would give a mini-review of these films, well because my opinions matter so much to the like 4 people who read this. Yeah, right.

1. Dreamgirls: I saw this yesterday afternoon in the ONE theater in Little Rock which is showing it. I had a hard time believing it was only showing on one screen, but whatever. The movie was ok. I didn't leave a changed person. It was an enjoyable time, but Beyince was trying WAY to hard to be a star. Way to hard. Jennifer Hudson is totally the leading lady. She did wonderful and her voice is AMAZING. The story is a bit, ok alot, predictable. And I have a hard time prediciting movies. I am way gullable in what they want you to believe right before the big reveal in the end. I saw this one coming a mile away. I have seen better movies this year. Plus, Beyonce was trying to lead the group even when she wasn't supposed to be. Way overacted. Eddie Murphy and Jamie Fox where both excellent. I really liked Eddie Murphy.

2. Running With Scssors: This also qualifies as the last book I read. I read it on the plane here. When I saw it on the TV as a movie I could order, I did. It was bad. The book was extremly disturbing and wrong in so many ways that made it good, but the movie tried to hard to keep it main stream and left some of the crazy out of it (and it was all about crazy- whole concept is crazy) and let the movie deflates around it. It kept fairly close to the book, but then left enormous chunks of important stuff out. I did not enjoy it. I thought Annette Benning was horrible, and Evan Rachel Wood was too skinny for the role. Natalie was suppose to be over weight, she was a stick. And Gwewith Paltrow seemed as though she was too good to be in the movie. And looked WAY to old.

3. Babel: This was the best of the three movies I have seen this week. It was sad and crazy and well edited. The way they wove four completly differant story line together in 4 differant countries was amazing. It worked. Brad Pitt was Brad Pitt. He over acted and tried to look old. Who has the buzz cut with gray hair? Seriously. But the movie was excllent. Even if I had to sit in a crazy little art house theater to see it. Good stuff. You ache for the folks on the screen. You don't want it to end, even after 2 and a half hours.

I am debating seeing The Good Shepard tomarrow. I think it looks good, but Angelina? I don't know if I can stomache her. We shall see.

THE concert

The concert was last night and the fun that we had! It was loud and crowded and Emily had the best time ever! I have never seen so much cheetah print in one room before. There really isn't much to say, it was a concert for little girls and their mothers. So, here are some pictures from that fateful night.

The outfit



Ready to go!!!



Everlife- The opening act.



The look on Emily's face when The Cheetah Girls came out!



The Cheetah Girls!



Screaming!



And the trip home. She had a great time and was so happy that she got to go. She has been singing the songs all morning, and is about to drive me crazy!

The Cheetah Girls- Rrraarrr!!!

I haven’t written about Christmas because it seems so long ago. It was good. We had fun, everyone was generally well behaved and we were all happy. I got to make cookies with the kids and sing and dance to Christmas carols. I went shopping and enjoyed my parents being here. They may not come next year for Christmas, but that’s ok, we might be able to survive with out them-maybe.

My daughter received a CD and tickets from “Santa” for The Cheetah Girls. When she opened the CD she was happy, until she found the tickets. Then she was SO excited.

The funniest thing is the tickets were the last thing that was purchased for her and really an after thought. I thought she might like them, but I had no idea she would be this excited!
There has been a countdown to the concert since 9 days out. The concert is tomorrow night. We have even purchased a new shirt for the event and as every moment ticks by she gets more and more excited. She has been giddy and squeally for days and all she can talk about is The Cheetah Girls. It reminds me of when I was a young girl and totally into NKOTB. When I was in middle school and we lived in Germany the New Kids On The Block came to Europe. They were having 2 concerts within driving range of where we lived. After hours of calling (before the days of internet ticket buying) each of the separate numbers trying to just get through the line and not receive a busy signal my mom got through. She bought us tickets. At the time I didn’t realize that she had to buy 3 tickets, one for me, her and my poor, poor father. I don’t think I cared. I was so super excited that I was going to get to go to the concert. I have a few fuzzy memories of the concert. One is of the show itself. We were HIGH in the arena. I could barely see a thing, but the noise! I remember the volume of the girls. The other memory I have is after standing in line for what was probably hours for an over priced concert T-shirt the one I wanted was sold out. But not to my mother! She made them sell her the one that was stapled to the display. I had to wear a shirt under it because they must have used shingle staples to place it on the board and the holes where more than noticeable. I loved that shirt! I bet it is still in the closet at my parent’s house. I hope Emily gets some of the same memories of her first concert when we go tomorrow night.

Hold your breath and say a prayer for me as I venture into the land of Tween. I think we may have officially arrived at the Sumpter household.

Thirty by Thirty

I did something like this before, but with no real deadlines-just wishes to do before I die. Now with inspiration from a blog I have been ready lately I think I am going to try for thirty by thirty. It doesn’t give me much time- I only have 12 and a half months to go until I turn 30, but I want them to be fun filled and productive.

1. Read a book a month.
2. Organize house. Figure out a way to keep it at least de-cluttered and almost clean most of the time.
3. Finish painting and decorate the living room.
4. Be doing a job I love, whether it be something different, or finally finding the love for the one I am in.
5. Purchase a new car.
6. Become a grown-up with our finances. We are off to a good start, but have a long way to go.
7. Have money saved in the bank.
8. Learn to cook 5 new dishes that my entire family likes in order to add some flavor to the menu each week.
9. Learn to crochet. (Mom, I may need your help with this one.)
10. Travel more for fun. I do it so often with my job I forget how much fun you can have traveling to see family and what-not. I traveled a lot with my parents growing up and want my kids to be able to say the same when they grow up. They may not see as much of Europe as I did, but, we don’t plan on moving over seas anytime soon. We have a few trips planned already, but I hope to add a few more.
11. Be less serious. Loosen up and have fun.
12. Catch up on my scrapbooks. I enjoy this SO much, but have but it off for SO long.
13. Loose some weight. Drink more water. Eat healthier.
14. Try yoga.
15. Read the Bible through entirely.
16. Take a class in something that intrests me.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.


I will add some more as I think of them.

It's been a while

I just wanted to go on record.

All the bills that were due in December and the first two weeks of January are paid. A little late or (gasp!) early. It's been a while-boy it sucks being a grown up.

Anyway- We are officially putting on our grown-up panties and doing it right. And it feels good. It sucks, but it feels good.

Three big payments left to make this month, with 4 more checks to go this month. We may even be able to save a few dollars. What a concept. We are trying to teach our children that idea. I purchased an incredibly cute piggy bank at the new Ikea and we are putting any loose change we find or receive as change into the piggy. They finding random change, which is all over my house for some strange reason, and running back to the pig and feeding him. When it is full we are going to roll it up and put it in the bank to save for a family fun vacation. Not that the vacations we have planned to see family aren't fun, but the ones with rides are fun- just in a different way. If I can earn enough frequent flier miles and with our loose change savings plan, we might be able to see Disney World before the kids leave for college. But heh, it's a goal, right?

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

All but one present is bought, all the presents are wrapped, the parents are on their way here, Josh has strep throat, I still have baking to do and it is FINALLY “cold” outside. We are down to about 59 degrees. It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Today is last day at work for a week, so I maybe MIA for a while. With the parents here, and staying for a while (YEAH!) and the kids out of school (darn) I will be busy with life.

Things I am looking forward to this next week:

• My parents arrival.
• My husband getting better.
• The kids NOT getting the gunk.
• Me NOT getting the gunk.
• Baking cookies with the kids.
• Opening presents, I haven’t peeked AT ALL this year, a first I do believe.
• Watching the kids open their gifts, because I haven’t peeked AT ALL this year.
• Watching my husband open his gift, hee hee. He is going to love it!
• Making a ham AND a turkey-although not at the same time for the same meal-thank goodness.
• Shopping-with mom of course, see previous entry.
• Having my parents meet Amy’s parents. It’s almost like we have been dating for years, and are going to “take the plunge” and now the parents have to meet. We truly believe that two sets of parents who have such decent kids must be able to get along, maybe even like each other. We also don’t know how 10 years have past and parents have never met. It may just be our Christmas miracle.
• Opening our gift to “baby Jesus”-After watching A Charlie Brown Christmas with Jacob he asked some questions and decided that because we are celebrating Jesus’ birthday that he should get a gift. He doesn’t even want to open it, but keep it forever and take it with him when he goes to heaven to meet God and Jesus. I told him I thought it was a fabulous idea to get Jesus a birthday gift, but I think we should open it and remember why we love Jesus and are happy he came to earth for us. He seems ok with that idea. So I think we maybe starting a new family tradition this year with a gift for Jesus and his birthday.
• Finding a really cool nativity scene after Christmas, maybe it will help facilitate some of Jacob’s questions next year.
• Just slowing down. This has been two of our most busy weeks in months.
• Not working.
• Finishing the play-room- It has the first coat of paint, but needs another.
• Singing Christmas Carols with my kids. They love Feliz Navidad.
• Enjoying the precious time that God has granted me with my family.

Conversations with my daughter

While out doing some more last minute shopping last night with my two kids, mostly to get out of the house and away from my strep infested husband, I look over at Emily who is sitting in her seat with her eyes rolled back into her head almost comatose.
“Sleepy?” I asked her knowing full well that the last two weeks have been go-go-go for her. She has been loving it, but by about 7pm she is wiped.
“No, no” She says, and tries to perk up, afraid she might miss something. I say to her, “Well, Emily starting on Saturday, Memaw and Pepaw will be here and we should slow things down. I will be off work and we sill just kinda chill-out for a while and catch our breath.”
“What about treasure hunts?” she demanded, “and shopping!”
“Shopping?” I say, thinking what a little brat, she just assumes that because I won’t be working that she will go shopping.
“Memaw loves to SHOP!” Emily exclaims and I chuckle to myself.
Yes mother, be prepared to shop, Emily expects it!

Kevin Federline (K-Fed) cooks us dinner

Josh took me out for a nice no kid dinner on Friday night to Tokyo Steakhouse. It is one of our favorite places to eat without kids. We tried taking the kids there once, but it just wasn’t happening. While we were waiting for our cook to come over and, well, cook we got to know some of the people we were sitting with. One “older” couple (and when I say older, I mean about the age of my parents) who had requested a specific cook. Now, when Josh and I go we prefer to have an actual Asian dude cook. Even if he is as American as they get, it’s better than the white dude. Well, this very nice couple had requested K-Fed come and cook our dinner. I swear to you as soon as I saw the guy it is what I thought. So he does his little thing and we eat and leave. AS we are walking out the door Josh says-wow, now I know what K-fed’s doing since Brittney dumped him! I just about died!

From my son after I have been sick for over 24 hours.

Eww, mom, the bathroom is smelly.

I love that kid.

My weekend recap

I realized with all the worry of late I totally forgot to talk about my trip “home” to Las Cruces. I got up early (earlier than I do for a work day) and caught a plane into El Paso Friday morning. My dad picked me up and took me to breakfast at Village Inn where I had strawberry crapes without spilling any on my white t-shirt. That’s a first. We went back to their house, but the maids where there so we went pooting around town for a while. When we did finally return to the house I just sat for a minute and then went shopping. I found the coat that Emily wanted from Old Navy, that we couldn’t find in any store in Austin in her size. They had about 40 of them in her size in all sorts of colors that were already sold out in central Texas. I was thrilled, as was she when I got home with the jacket. I also purchased a gift for the wedding I was attending the next day. I didn’t want to show up empty handed. That night I went out with my dear high-school friends Heather (and her husband) and Serina (and her husband and adorable little girl). We ate good Mexican food and I laughed harder than I have in ages. It is always so nice to reunite with old friends and catch up and just laugh. We closed the restaurant down that night and Serina’s little girl Samara (I’m sorry Serina, I know I butcher the spelling of her name, I just did it phonetically) was SOOO well behaved. She was playful and liked all the attention, but she was pleasant and fun to be around. The next day I went grocery shopping with my mom. Well, we “attempted” to get to Albertsons, but it never happened. My mother hates to go to the grocery. She would rather gouge her eyes out than go to the grocery store. I enjoy going to the grocery, but she doesn’t have a wonderful HEB in her neighborhood. We first went to Glenn Cutters Jewelry and that is were I fell in love with a $15,000 set of rings. They were beautiful, but probably not going to be seen on my hand anytime soon. Then off to Target and to lunch at a new restaurant in town that was so nice. Fast Italian food-that was good. We both had salads that were good and kept me filled all day long. I truly enjoyed it. It was wedding time next. It was a nice simple ceremony in which I saw many old friends that I haven’t seen in years! However, the most surprising bit to the whole thing was there was a dance! at the reception and champagne! drank for the toast. This is a Church of Christ! What?!?! They almost had issue when we drank milk at my wedding as part of a frat tradition.

Overall it was a good weekend, I got to see most everybody I wanted to and I enjoyed spending some time with my parents without the craziness of the kids. It also gave me some time to think about how I want to change my life. We have made some decisions and choices about the next year because of the quiet time I had on this trip. Josh is going to get his tclose license, which will open doors for him in the field he has chosen for a career. I am going to hang tight where I am and save up to open my own businesses. Yes, plural. I don’t want to talk to much about them, because I have some fabulous ideas I don’t want to have stolen from me-thanks to Amy and I’s constant email brain-storming yesterday. I am very excited, but have but some real time and financial plans in place in order to make it happen. We have other fish to fry first and then begin saving for a fantastic new life! By this time next year big changes will have been made! This is the year for the Sumpters!