My Life...

Blackmail

2009-07-28T14:29:00.003-05:00

When Alexis is older and brings over a boyfriend for me to meet, I plan on having this picture hanging on the living room. I think I'll get it enlarged first of course! Like the size of a poster. She's going to love me so much!!!

Alexis

2009-07-23T10:59:00.002-05:00

Clyde Junior High here we come! I just got off the phone with a lady from the school and Alexis passed her Reading TAKS test! With a commendation. Which just means she did super good! My baby is officially a 6th grader. I'm crying tears of happiness, sadness, excitement, fear, and a bunch of other stuff! My baby so isn't a baby anymore. She's growing up.

Hello

2009-07-13T09:31:00.002-05:00

It's been almost two months since my last post. I can't believe it's been that long, but then again I can. There's been lots of stuff going on, I just haven't felt like getting on here. Just dealing with regular life stuff. Then I got sick. I've had this cough for 3 weeks and 3 days. When I first started coughing (Friday at work) I didn't think much of it. It got worse over the weekend so I went ahead and went in to the minor emergency clinic on Tuesday. The doctor said it was allergies and sinus stuff. Gave me a prescription and sent me on my way. Almost two weeks later I went back to the minor emergency clinic because I wasn't any better. I was actually worse. I would cough so much I couldn't breathe afterwards. There was a couple of times that I actually started seeing bright dots I was coughing so hard and couldn't breathe. The second time I went in to the doctor she said it was Bronchitis. They gave me a breathing treatment and a shot. She also gave me a prescription for steroids, a different antibiotic, and some syrup to help me sleep at night. That was last Monday morning. I'm still sick!!! I have an appointment with my regular doctor tomorrow morning. Hopefully she'll be able to figure out what is going on. Or at least make it where I can breathe after I cough. It gets a little scary at times.

This past weekend Alexis Girl Scout troop (I'm the Leader in this troop) went on their annual trip. We went to Grapevine and spent the day at the Grapevine Mills Mall. It was so much fun!! After we ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe we took the girls ice skating. It was every one's first time to ever go ice skating, they all had a blast. Alexis was the first one to let go of the wall and actually get out there to skate. By the time we left, two more girls were skating without holding on to the wall the whole time. Two other girls never did let go of the wall. One girl didn't get to skate because she was in a wheelchair, one of the other leaders took her to go play golf while the other girls were skating. I'll try to remember to email myself the pictures so I can post them later.

Alexis re-took the Reading TAKS test on July 1st. We'll know by the end of the month if she passed or not. I wish they would hurry up and send the results! I have most of Anoe's school supplies already, but I don't know what to get Alexis. I don't want to buy the stuff on the 6th grade list just in case, and I don't want to buy the stuff on the 5th grade list because I'm praying so much she'll go on to 6th grade. I so do not like being in this limbo. I just want to know what to do!

I signed Alexis up for cheerleading again. Anoe said she wanted to do football, then she wanted to do cheerleading, now she has decided she wants to do gymnastics. I just want her to make up her mind.

I can't think of anything else that has been going on. I'll try to get better about posting stuff. I always think of really good stuff to post, but by the time I get to the computer I forget until really late at night.

My friend Sarah

2009-05-26T08:43:00.003-05:00

My friend Sarah from California tagged me in her blog last week. Since I have actually been busy at work and haven't had a lot of free time, I haven't been able to post the top 5 things I love about being a mom.

1. Hearing Anoe laugh when she really thinks something is so funny she almost pees on herself! I totally don't like it when she does pee on herself of course, but her laugh can end any bad mood!

2. The look Alexis gets when she learns something new and is proud of herself. (I've seen that look a lot since she started going to the tutor afterschool!!!)

3. Every once in a while my kids will surprise me and wake up super early and get totally ready for school before my alarm even goes off. They'll turn off my alarm and come snuggle me until I wake up.

4. I love all the homemade art I have decorating my house. I even have a poster Alexis made hanging in my living room. It doesn't exactly match the decor, but it shows how much she loves her family.

5. I love, love, love that Anoe will still tell me she loves me right after she gets a pop or gets grounded. Even if she's still upset, she'll tell me how much she loves me. I seriously have a weak spot for that kid.

This next part has nothing to do with the above post, if anyone knows of anyone that would be interested in buying season passes to Hawaiian Falls please let me know. I bought 3 season passes back in February, and as it turns out I'm working every other weekend in Sweetwater at my mom's mini golf course so I won't be able to go this summer afterall. :(

Going on a trip

2009-03-30T15:23:00.002-05:00

This past weekend Jennifer, her two kids, my two kids, and I all went on a little adventure! It was a last minute type thing, but so much fun. We were going to seeing someone, didn't get to see them after all but we had a total blast! OK, so some parts were not so fun. Like the kids asking over and over again if we were in Clyde, Are we in Abilene, Look there's a hotel, we can stay there......that part was not so fun. But the overall trip was great. It had been a really long time since Jennifer and I had been on a trip together. Alexis even managed to keep her teenage angst to a minimum! I was very impressed with that. On our way down, we stopped in Hico (pronounced Hi Co, not heeco like we thought) to eat dinner. The restaurant was super cute. Hico's claim to fame is that Billy the Kid died on a sidewalk. They have this little cute museum and stuff. This Saturday they're evening having Billy the Kid Day. How cool is that? We stayed the night at a hotel in Salado then drove the last little bit Sunday morning. After we found out we would be unable to visit the person we had gone to visit we started back home. I was really scared Jennifer was going to be mad because we wasted all that time, but she was really super sweet and supportive. She said she knew I was upset, so there was no need in being mean. I'm so glad I have a nice sister. On the way back we stopped and ate in Clifton. We ate a little Mexican food place. It was OK, they were doing some fundraiser for "Darcy" on 3/31/09. I really want to know who Darcy is. In the next little town, they had "Pray for Darcy" up on a marque. Which made me want to know who Darcy is even more!!! I wish I would of been brave and asked the waitress. Oh well, I guess it'll just have to be an unsolved mystery for me. I was so happy to be home last night though. I was even happier when I walked into my house. We found out we were leaving, and were packed to go within an hour! And when I got home my house was clean! Because it was clean when we left. I love coming home to a clean house. I love that most of the time (except when people come over to pick up a movie) it's clean and presentable. Have I mentioned that I love my house? Well, in case you forgot, I do love it.

Tonight we're going to Abilene to eat dinner with my Mom to celebrate her birthday. Then tomorrow I have to pack everything for my kids to be gone for the next 5 days and for me to be in the hospital. I can't wait for my kids to see what little treasures I got for them. They're going to love them!!!

In the know

2009-03-27T13:17:00.003-05:00

Alexis stayed with a friend last night so it was just Anoe and me this morning. We went to the doughnut shop for breakfast. While we were eating Anoe was telling me ALL about the 1st drama that has been going on. She made me promise that I wouldn't tell anyone. This kind of info is highly classified. So, what I'm about to do is serious. I could receive several dirty looks and maybe even a cold shoulder or two for what I'm about to do! So brace yourselves. I'm going to tell you one of the secrets Anoe told me. I know you're wondering right now, how in the world can I live with myself if I actually do this. It'll be rough, but I'm sure I'll make it. If not.........well I don't know. But seeing how Anoe doesn't even know I have a blog, I doubt she'll ever know I told this secret. Unless someone tells her. I'm willing to take that chance though.

To protect some of the people in this story that are not related to me, I will only use initials. Anoe was telling that this girl, K, who is having her birthday party this Saturday at the local Dirty Queen oh wait I meant Dairy Queen. My bad. Anyways, this little girl has a huge crush on my nephew, Xander! Anoe told me that K asks Anoe everyday what Xander is wearing, does he have his glasses on, did he bring his backpack. Anoe also told me that K said hi to Xander once and Xander didn't pay attention to her. Typical Xander. I can just hear Xander now if we were to tell him that K has a crush on him "Besides she's a girl" or something cute like that. He cracks me up! I'm definitely not allowed to tell Xander K has a crush on him. That would definitely break all the rules then. Anoe said that it irritates her that K likes Xander though. That's all K wants to talk about. Poor Anoe, she doesn't realize how cute Xander is. To Anoe he's just her best friend.

Of course there was other stuff she told me about, but I just thought this was cute. The other stuff was kind of hard to follow too. I wasn't really paying attention the entire time. I just kind of nod and say yeah every so often. If you've ever spent time with Anoe, then you know how much that child loves to talk!

Happiness

2009-03-26T16:26:00.003-05:00

There are so many different things in life that make us happy! Cars, homes, food, movies..........the list goes on and on. This morning when Alexis was about to get out of the car she slipped me a little note and hurried out before I could read it. I had tears in my eyes the whole way home. She is such a great kid!!! I've posted a picture of the note she left me. Below the picture I also wrote what she said. In case you can't read it.

Mom we all Love you

You are more then we can ask for

You ROCK the houes!!

Love
Alexis Anoe
and the holl famile

All of the misspelled words are straight from the paper. I love this letter. I'm going to frame it and put it next to my bed. Every time I feel like Alexis hates me or that I'm a bad Mom, I'll look at this and know how much she loves me.

Decisions

2009-03-25T11:26:00.002-05:00

The other day I saw a trampoline on sale. I thought "Oh my goodness! The girls would love a trampoline!" Just to make sure, I made sure Alexis was with me when we walked by it again and she asked if we could please buy one. I of course said, but inside I was secretly high fiving myself. I was so pumped. But the more I think about it, should I get a trampoline or a swimming pool? Trampolines can be used pretty much year round, where as a swimming pool can only be used during the summer. And a swimming pool requires lots and lots of upkeep. The girls won't be allowed to use either one when I'm not home of course, but with a swimming pool I'll have to be outside the whole time. On the other hand, it would be so awesome to be able to go swimming at home and not have to drive to Abilene every time we want to go swimming. And we could have swim parties too. Of course it won't be a huge pool or anything, but it would be so much fun! Every time I think I've talked my self into one or the other, I think of different reasons I should get the other one. If it was up to you, which would you choose? If I bought a trampoline now I could always buy a pool at the end of the summer when they're on sale. Ugh! I'm so not good at making decisions!!! Please help me!!!!

TAKS test

2009-03-24T08:34:00.003-05:00

Alexis brought home her TAKS test results for the reading portion Monday afternoon. She was so excited when she gave it to me. She said she just knew she did good on it. She didn't though. It broke my heart to have to tell her she didn't pass any of the sections. She'll have to retake it on April 29th. If she doesn't pass the TAKS test, she'll have to repeat 5th grade. I seriously almost hate TAKS tests. And I don't think anyone should hate anything. But the TAKS test comes very close. I think the worst part is knowing she tried her best and she honestly thought she did great.

Twilight

2009-03-21T08:37:00.004-05:00

This past Friday, Twilight was released on DVD. There were a couple of places having release parties, and I though Wal-Mart would be the most kid friendly one. So at 10:30 PM my girls, two friends of Alexis' and I all got in my car and drove to Wal-Mart. We were in line by 11:00 PM and there was already a huge line in front of us. Below is a picture I took with my phone of the people that were in front of us. Up at the front, where you might think the line ends, well it doesn't. It actually turns to the left there and goes down about the same distance and then turns again. It's really hard to explain. There were about 100 people in front of me in the line though. The girls that were in line first actually got there at 8:00 PM!!!!

This is Alexis waiting in line with me. She took her "I heart boys who sparkle" tote in with her. In case you don't know, Edward (the main male character who is a vampire) sparkles in the sunlight. I took a picture of Anoe, but she had just gotten in trouble for touching something so she looks really mad. So I'm not going to post that one.

This was seriously the most fun I've ever had! It was such a blast. Up on the TVs there were clips from the movie, songs from the movie, and interviews with the director and different actors playing. When it was 10 minutes till time for the movie to be released, a timer came up on the screen. It was so exciting seeing how much long it was until the movie would be sold. Then at the 10 second mark everyone started yelling 10, 9, 8, 7, 6..... then at 1 everyone started screaming. The kids loved that part! Below is the picture of my receipt showing that I bought 2 Twilight movies at 12:23:04.

On November 20, 2009 New Moon should be in theatres! I'm so going to the midnight showing of it too! Again, in case you don't know, New Moon is the second book in the Twilight series.

Memories

2009-03-20T11:31:00.002-05:00

This post isn't really about something cool my kids did. Although they did do some cool stuff that I will use for a post at a later date.

Yesterday I was talking to Jennifer about some stuff I remembered from when we were kids. Usually anything I remember from my childhood I try super hard to block it and tuck it back into the little dark corner it came out of it. But not this one! I remember when I was around 4 or 5 my mom had to be in the hospital. After talking to my mom it was when she was in the hospital giving birth to my little brother. Which explains why I can't remember him in my memories. Anyways, I remember when we went up to see my mom she whispered a secret in my ear that I needed to check in dryer when I got home. I was so excited! I remember thinking at first maybe she was going to let me help her do laundry! (I was only like 4, so laundry was still fun!) Well when I got home I ran to the dryer and inside was a little make up set and a baby doll. I assumed the make up was for me and the baby doll for Jennifer. She was only 2 at the time, so what did she need make up for? Well, as I was about to rip open the make up, I noticed that it had Jennifer's name on it. I was so mad!!! I did not want a baby doll. What did they think? I was still a kid or something? So of course being the brat that I was, I started throwing a fit telling my Papa that I didn't want the baby doll. The whole time Jennifer was just standing there staring at my swinging the baby doll around. She was so not into the make up! Papa told me that my mom must of made a mistake and wrote the wrong names on the presents. He said I could switch with Jennifer if I wanted to. I was so happy after that. I also remember the writing being my Papa's not my Mom's handwriting. But whatever. I just know that when I found the presents she left for us it always made me so happy and made me feel special.

I'm having surgery on April 1st and I'll be in the hospital until the 3rd. I really want to create these kind of memories for my kids too. Thursday night my friend Laura, that lives in Abilene, is going to come stay at my house with my kids and take them to school Friday morning before leaving to take her kids to school in Abilene and go to work. So Thursday night when they get to my house I'm going to have an envelope taped to each of their doors with a little love note and someplace for them to look for their little treasure! The only hard part is thinking of something to give them! I'm so not good at thinking of stuff they like or want. At Christmas time and birthday time they have to literally tell or show me specifically what they want. I know what the like, I'm around them all the time, but I have such a hard time shopping for them.

Trying something new

2009-03-19T11:42:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I blogged about nothing going on in my world. Well, that's not entirely true. Every day my kids do something that makes me smile, laugh, or wonder what I did to deserve them. They're so awesome! So for the next 2 weeks my personal goal will be to blog something cool that they did or said everyday. I may not blog on the weekends though.

Last night Alexis was in charge of cleaning up the living room. We alternate chores so nobody gets stuck doing the same thing all the time. Well, she was trying to vacuum but dirt was going everywhere. We live on a dirt road so there's lots of dust! And with the recent rain there has been lots and lots of mud tracked in. Alexis was not happy with what was happening. She got down on floor and took the vacuum apart. She figured out where the filters were and everything. She cleaned all of them, put it back together and finished vacuuming. She even made a little chart of when each of the filters is supposed to be cleaned. When I told her I thought it was so awesome she was able to take the vacuum apart and put it back together, and it work properly she just shrugged her shoulders and was like "It's no big deal". She is really good with mechanical stuff like that. She even fixed the toilet in her bathroom when I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. She amazes me! One minute she's all frilly and girly wanting to straighten her hair and putting on lip gloss and the next minute she's fixing the toilet or vacuum. I'm so blessed to have a child that can work on stuff.

Update

2009-03-18T15:52:00.002-05:00

So it's been over a month since my last post and I have nothing to blog about! Everything has just been so boring lately. Which believe me, I'm not complaining about! I'll way take boring life to drama filled life any day. My kids are great, not so happy to be back at school from Spring Break but they'll be OK. Other than that I can't think of anything else to talk about. I'm just tired of seeing Famous Dave's. I'll try to blog again when something cool or exciting happens.

Famous Daves

2009-02-12T08:28:00.001-06:00

Tuesday night Jennifer took me out for dinner at Famous Daves! It was so good. Our meal was actually served on a metal trash can lid!!! It was the best! I think it's called the All American Feast or something like that. The food was super good. But the best part was the food being served on a trash can lid! I loved it!!! I'm seriously thinking of buying one for at home. Wouldn't that be so cool? Maybe next week for Life Group I can make something to take on my new trash can lid. Hmmmmmmm.......I'm gonna see what I can do to accomplish this!!!!!!!!!

OH! I almost forgot! This Friday my troop is having their last Cookie Booth Sale! Which means after Monday the only cookies that should be in my house are ones that my family have bought for our own personal consumption!!!! I'm so sick of having cases and cases of Girl Scout cookies in my living room!!! I can't wait to be done with the whole thing!

Being Blessed

2009-02-10T16:38:00.003-06:00

Lately I have really been struggling with some stuff. It's been pretty bad. I've even been questioning why I attend church and a bunch of other stuff. In the end I always know God is good and loves me! Sometimes it just doesn't seem that way. When I start feeling super down and start asking why did God forget me, I think of other people and their situations and realize that God has not forgotten me. There are so many worse situations that I could be in! For example, I could still be with Anoe's dad. Yes that would mean that I am not single, but that would also mean I am in a horribly ugly relationship. I know it's better to be single than in that type of relationship, but dang it right now I just want a freakin' boyfriend! It doesn't even have to be serious, just someone to hang out with.

So, like I said I'm dealing with a lot of emotional stuff right now. A couple of weeks ago I realized that I had not even held hands with a man even once during the last year. Yes I held hands with a couple of different men while praying, but I mean I haven't held a man's hand in an intimate way in over a year!!!! That was really messing with me. Instead of being upset about it, I prayed that God would help me and be my strength through all this. One night I cried for at least an hour telling God how much I loved him and how much I needed him. It was actually so freeing! It was amazing.

Today is the day I have been dreading for a few weeks, it's my birthday. I just knew it was going to be a horrible day. But I woke up in a pretty good mood. As good of a mood that can be accomplished at 5:40 in the morning after having a restless nights sleep anyways. As soon as I woke the girls up this morning, they ran into the living to get my presents that they wrapped for me last night. Anoe have me a 4 pack of Trident gum and a box of Sweetheart candies (she picked out her gifts all by herself), and Alexis gave me a black wire bowl I told her I wanted for my coffee table! It was awesome. I received 2 text messages this morning wishing me a happy birthday then when I got to work, Roy (my boss) gave me a card full of post its!!!! It was perfect. I love post its! He got me 6 pads! And they're all cool colors and some of them have cute little flowers!

At lunch Jennifer and I went to Abilene to meet up with Cherry, Brandi, and Rachel for lunch. We ate at Jason's Deli, which was amazing! Cherry bought me a lemon cake (one of my favorite deserts) and wrought iron cross, and gave me 2 CD's. Brandi gave me a card that made me cry! I felt so blessed! And loved!

This has seriously been the best birthday ever! I think the only thing that could of made this birthday any better would be if it were cloudy and rainy! Oh wait! Clouds are starting to build up around Clyde! I even just heard some thunder! I'm so God's favorite today!!!

Zune

2009-01-15T09:45:00.002-06:00

In 2007 my Mom and Symantha got me a Zune. I was super pumped! I didn't find out until later how difficult it would be for me to get songs on it. My Mom tried to show me, but she's not very good at working computers. And she didn't have anything I would want to listen to. If you've ever met my Mom you know how weird she can be. Her taste in music in just as weird. She actually likes the Ink Spots. I have no clue who they are, but she's into them. Anyways, so I needed a computer with Internet access to put songs on the Zune. At the time (and even now) I didn't have a computer at home. I gave my Zune to my brother Joey so he could put songs on it for me. I think I gave it to him in late January early February 2008. It just sat in his car! He never even took it inside his house to attempt putting songs on it. He finally gave it back to my on December 26, 2008. Actually he was a punk and put it up on top of my cabinets so I couldn't reach it. He's super tall, that punk. I took it over to Jennifer and she totally set it up for me! Actually as I am typing this I am listening to Bella's Lullabye on my Zune! I'm so happy! My sister definitely rocks the house!!!!!

Cookie Time!

2009-01-13T13:16:00.002-06:00

It's that time of year again! Girl Scout cookies!!! They're $3.50 a box and I will have them this weekend. Our council is using a different baker this year, so some of the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Caramel deLites-Delicate vanilla cookies drenched in caramel, sprinkled with toasted coconut and laced with cocoa stripes. (formerly Samoas)

Peanut Butter Patties-Crispy vanilla cookies layered with real peanut better and blanketed with a chocolate coating.

Shortbread-Traditional favorite with a buttery, light flavor. (formerly Trefoils)

Thin Mints-The chocolate wafers dipped in a rich chocolaty coating with a burst of pure peppermint.

Peanut Butter Sandwich-Deliciously smooth peanut butter sandwiched between crunchy oatmeal cookies.

Thanks-A-Lot-Heart-warming shortbread cookies dipped in rich fudge and topped with an embossed Thank You message in one of five languages. (Girls Scouts is so educational! You'll know how to say thank you five different ways!)

Lemonades-Savory slices of shortbread with a refreshing tangy lemon icing. (My new favorite! They're almost better than the thin mints!)

Reduced Fat Daisy Go Rounds-Crispy cinnamon flowers blooming with flavor in every bite!

Wants

2009-01-12T16:40:00.004-06:00

Saturday evening I was sitting at home watching a movie with my friend Laura when Jennifer called to see if I was home. She said she had something for me and would be there in a few minutes. I really thought she was bringing me my Christmas present that just barely came in the mail. Which I am super pumped about. Oh no! She bought me a microwave. Now I know to some that may seem strange, but I didn't have one. I had told her last week I really wanted to get one. I didn't realize how much I needed one until we moved. Of course a microwave is way low on the necessities of life list, so I still haven't bought one. Jennifer could not believe I didn't have one. So she bought one. And what's even better is that she paid attention to my wants and got me the color I really wanted. Tony & Jennifer came over to eat dinner Sunday and she was surprised that it was still in the box. I told her that I just been lazy all day. I hadn't even cleaned house! Tony unpacked it so he could use. Then during lunch on Monday when Jennifer and I were talking I told her that I wasn't used to having a microwave so Sunday after church instead of unpacking my new microwave and using it to reheat leftovers, I heated them up in the oven. We both laughed at how silly I am. It's going to take some getting used, that's for sure. I am just so grateful! God so gave me one of my wants, just because he's cool like that.

Basketball practice

2009-01-07T08:26:00.004-06:00

Anoe is finally in basketball! She's only had one practice so far, but she loved it! The other girls on her team are all in 2nd grade, but she's just as tall or taller than all of them. I can way tell a big difference in her maturity though. The other girls talk to each a bunch and Anoe just stands off by herself. Of course talking to herself. That girl loves to talk! She did so good too! She actually made a shot when they were practicing. The first picture is of her preparing to make a shot. She's the one in all black standing next to the lady in the white shirt and black pants. I took these with my phone, so they're not very good. I'll make sure to get a better camera before her first game. The second picture is of her dribbling the ball. She was so excited at first that the coach had to tell her twice not to dribble so high. She would let the ball go way over her head. After the coach got her attention she did much better. She was running up and down the court like a pro after that. Seeing the smile on her face made all the nagging she had done the past 6 months so worth it!

Family projects

2008-12-23T13:37:00.007-06:00

As you know the girls and I moved mid-October. In case you do not already know, it is the perfect house for us! All three of us love it. I have only found 3 things wrong with the house.

1. It's on a dirt road. Which means my car is forever dirty and I have to dust a lot. No biggie.

2. I get horrible reception inside my house. I could be sitting on my couch talking away and all of a sudden I'll lose a call. Or if I move just a little bit, it'll get super static-y. A little irritating but again, no biggie.

3. The mirrors in my kitchen.

It doesn't matter where Alexis sits, she can see herself eating. Well, actually there are two places she can sit at the table and not see herself, but she doesn't like either of them. This past weekend I finally came up with something we could do so Alexis could sit where she wants and not watch herself! I know it's nothing compared to how creative some of you are, but for me this was a brilliant plan.

This is what the counter looked like before. Imagine Alexis sitting on the far side watching herself constantly.

To keep Alexis from looking at herself I propped two of the Girl Scout sacks and a Girl Scout envelope I had up against the mirror. It always looked messy and cluttered. That almost irritated me more than Alexis staring at herself.

Last week I ordered something online and it came in this great big box. Inside of the box was a bunch of brown paper. It kind of looks like butcher paper but not as heavy duty. I was about to throw it away when I had a great idea! I measured out a piece of the paper and let the kids draw on it.

When they were done I taped it up on the wall to cover the mirrors!

Anoe drew a Christmas tree on the left hand side (can't really see it, but it's there) and Alexis drew a wreath on the right hand side. I no longer have a mess on my counter, Alexis can't watch herself, and my wall is covered in wonderful art!! How much better does it get?

Being sick part 2

2008-12-12T10:18:00.002-06:00

I feel so much better! Tuesday was bad again, my boss even sent me home earlier. That was two days in a row he had to stay until closing. He does not prefer being at work past 4:00, but he stayed so I could go home. He's such an awesome boss. Today I feel great! I really think something good is going to happen today. I look super cute, my hair is awesome, make up is good. Something good is happening today! I just know it. And I'm back on track with my weight loss!

Being sick

2008-12-10T08:46:00.002-06:00

Can I just say that I do not prefer being sick? OK, I hate being sick. And hate is such a strong word! But I do!!!!! Thankfully I'm actually starting to feel better now. It was a little rocky Monday night, but I'm doing much better this morning.

Holding Out

2008-12-03T13:55:00.002-06:00

It's been almost a month since my last post. So much has been going on, yet so little has been going on. I've been dealing with a bunch of emotional garbage lately. None of which I can post about. But, let me say that Brandi is amazing! I've been talking to her about everything and she is just absolutely amazing!! Beyond words amazing.

A couple of months ago my sister-in-law told me how much she was into the Twilight series and she really wanted the books. She only had the first book at the time. I belong to an online book club, so I thought it would be perfect for me to buy the last three books for her. Jennifer saw that I had Twilight and asked if she could read it. I didn't care. I was so not about to read it, and it was just sitting there. I accidentally ordered all four books instead of just the last three. Anyways, after she read it, she said that I had to read it too. She said I would totally be into them. She took the second book New Moon, and I started Twilight. Let me just say this now, I AM ADDICTED. That's all there is to it. I read all four books in two weeks. I'm a pretty slow reader, it usually takes me at least a week sometimes two to finish just one book! I've even started the series all over again. I read them so fast the first time around I think I missed a few things here and there. On November 21st, Twilight opened in theatres!!! I was so excited. I bought my tickets early Monday morning. I went with two friends and Jennifer & Tony. We got there about 6:15 for the 7:00 showing and there was a super long line. They were sold out for the entire weekend. My friend Laura asked the people at the front of the line what time they had gotten there and they said they got there at 5:00. Wow, they were hardcore! Alexis and I went to watch it again the day after Thanksgiving. Alexis is reading Twilight now. Anoe really likes it too. I've been reading them to her out loud. She actually lays down and listens the entire time I'm reading out loud to her. Which if you know my Anoe, that is amazing!

I had a really good Thanksgiving! I went with Cherry to her sister-in-laws house for a little while then I headed out to my Mom's in Sweetwater.

I still love my new house. I love being at home. I think of reasons not to go places just so I can stay home!

Cheerleading

2008-11-05T09:55:00.003-06:00

Last week Alexis started practicing for the Exhibition this coming up Sunday with her Cheerleader Squad. She's been so excited about it. Sunday morning on our way to church one of the other Mom's called and was discussing the song the girls were going to dance/cheer to. It's "When I Grow Up" by the Pussycat Dolls. The other Mom (who I'll call "M" from here on out) said the chorus went as following:
When I grow up
I wanna be famous
I wanna be a star..........
I wanna have boobies

I totally do not want my child dancing or cheering that! I was really upset when she told me. I know my kids are exposed to a lot of stuff at school that I do not find appropriate. Believe me, I know this. But I did not pay all this money for her to dance/cheer to something like this! I want her to aspire to be somebody important, not have a good figure! There's already enough pressure on girls to look good. So, I talked to Alexis about the whole thing. I asked her if it was more important to her for her to participate in the Exhibition or for her to live a live honoring God. She agreed living a live honoring God was much more important. I told her that I was going to have to talk to Margo (her coach) on Tuesday and let her know that I would not allow Alexis to participate if that was the song they would perform to. Alexis wasn't ecstatic about that, but she agreed. (Like she had a choice really.) Monday at work I looked up the lyrics to the song so I could take them with me to talk to Margo on Tuesday. The song says "I wanna have GROUPIES" not boobies!!! "M" was mistaken. This made me feel a little better. Margo has agreed to "splice" that part out though.

I was really proud of Alexis for how she dealt with the whole thing. She really does enjoy cheerleading. And she's really good at it.

The Date part 2

2008-11-05T09:46:00.002-06:00

Last night while the girls and I were watching the election coverage, Ely (blind date guy) called. We actually talked for quite awhile. He really is nice. He kept asking me questions about Jennifer's wedding and what not. He finally said he would be honored to attend the wedding with me. I didn't really know how to tell him that I already had a date for the wedding. I did tell him. I tried to do it as nicely as possible too. Here's the thing, with my current date for the wedding, I don't feel any pressure at all! We're friends. And I won't feel like I have to be around him all evening. He'll know other people there so I won't be the only person he knows. Really Taylor is more of an escort than a date. Except I'm not paying him. He's just doing me a favor. But Ely did say that he would call me next week again so we could still go out to dinner. I told him after this Sunday, my schedule would become a lot less hectic.

The Date

2008-10-30T14:49:00.005-05:00

Cyndi requested an update on the date.

He hasn't called.

Therefore there has not been a date.

There that was fast. Jennifer says that I probably scared him, but I don't think so. I tried really hard to be nice to him. But whatever.

I'm going to my Mom's tomorrow to take the girls Trick or Treating, so knowing my Mom she'll invite him or someone else. Nothing compares to the feeling of knowing your Mom thinks you can't find your own date.

Voting

2008-10-24T10:12:00.002-05:00

Early Voting is being held in my office this week and next. We have had such a good turn out! I'm registered to vote in Taylor County, but I moved to Callahan County after the "register to vote deadline", so I wasn't sure how or where I would be able to vote. As it turns out, I could vote in Taylor County still because I do still have stuff at my old address or I could vote here in Callahan County during early voting. But I could only vote on a "limited ballot". I could only vote on that pertained to both Taylor and Callahan Counties. Which is fine with me, I was really only worried about voting for the President. Anyways, at Life Group Brandi had said how she likes to wait until Election Day to vote. She likes all the excitement in the air and all. I prefer to go during Early Voting, I do not like long lines and big crowds of people. So, I was just wondering what everyone else prefers. Are you an Early Voter, or an Election Day voter?

For your reading enjoyment, I have included a conversation Anoe and I had the other when she was praying.

Anoe: Mom, who's the guy we want to win?

Me: What are you talking about? Just get done praying Anoe, we'll talk after you're done.

Anoe: No! The guy that we want to be Prisoner! (she can't say President very well)

Me: Oh, John McCain.

Anoe: Thanks. (back to praying) Lord please let The Cane win. I really like him. Thank you. Please let The Cane win! And the girl with him. My Mom likes her hair.

Dating

2008-10-23T09:34:00.003-05:00

Monday before last (Oct. 13th) my Mom and her significant other (Symantha) met me in Abilene after my eye doctor appointment so we could get the rest of my stuff from my brothers garage and move it to my new house. We met about 1:00 pm and started moving everything right away. It was a nice cloudy cool day, but still moving stuff is hard work so I was getting a little hot. We loaded everything up in Symantha's truck and started on our way to Clyde. We unloaded everything and headed over to Jennifer's house so I could get my other couch that was in her living room/dining room taking up a lot of room she did not have to spare. By this time I'm really hot and sweaty! We got a bunch of stuff out of her storage building also. So now I'm hot, sweaty, and dirty! All of the stuff I hate!!! We unloaded everything and started putting everything together at my house. Symantha had been insistent that we go eat dinner at 5:00 in Abilene at Towne Crier. She said it was because she wanted to "beat the rush", I didn't care when we went. I was just hungry! Before going to Towne Crier we had to make a stop at United. So finally we're on our way to Towne Crier. We're sitting in the back dining area enjoying our salad when a guy that works with my Mom walks in. She says "Oh hi Ely, do you want to sit with us?" He's alone, I don't think anything of it. It's my Mom, she's weird.

On Monday nights at Towne Crier they have an all you can eat shrimp thing. So of course that's what I got. Well, there I am sitting next to some guy, not paying attention to him eating shrimp like it was nothing at all. I got a big ol' plate of boiled shrimp and was peeling the clear skin stuff and legs off. Totally unattractive like. OH! And don't forget that I'm still dirty and nasty from moving all day. My hair is up in a pony tail. I didn't even brush it before putting it up. It's just all matted looking. So when dinner is over, my Mom says she going to take the girls outside with her. Still nothing unusual going on. My Mom smokes and she always takes the kids outside with her when we go out to eat. Symantha says she has to go the bathroom, still nothing unusual. So it's just me and this guy at the table. I get up to leave, and say "It was nice to meet you", you know that polite I don't really care who you are thing. Well, as I'm leaving Symantha is coming out of the bathroom and motions for me to come in there. As soon as I walk in she says "You do realized we just blind dated you right?" I was like, No, with who? I didn't even pay attention to this guy! Symantha made me promise I wouldn't yell at my Mom. So we walk outside, and my Mom can tell right away that I know. She just starts acting all cute and trying to change the subject.

We still had to go to Bed Bath & Beyond to look for some cookware. My Mom and Symantha invited Ely (the blind date guy) to go with us. I was just like whatever. So while we're there, I see a bunch of candles and I go over to smell them. I love candles! And especially now that I live in a place that I can actually have candles, it's just great. So he comes over there and starts smelling them with me and tells me which ones he likes. It was a little awkward, but whatever. I wanted to go down to Ross to see if they had anything else that I would want instead of the stuff at Bed Bath & Beyond. On the walk down, I played a game with Anoe so I couldn't walk next to him. So he had to walk with my Mom & Symantha. While at Ross I never even saw him. I picked up an outfit for both of my girls for Jennifer's wedding but didn't find any cookware I wanted. Symantha went back down to Bed Bath & Beyond to get the other cookware I wanted. She said she would give the kids a ride over to my car (which was parked over by BB&B) so that Ely & I could walk back by ourselves. I swear he asked me like 5 different times about working in Clyde. "So you work in Clyde and just moved there?" which is fine to ask. But not 5 freakin' times in one conversation!!!!

Anyways, we say bye and it was nice to meet you again. A couple of days later Jennifer told me that my Mom told her that Ely said I was beautiful and asked for my number. My Mom of course gave it to him. Now remember when he met me, I was looking pretty bad! I had been moving all day. I was dusty, dirty, had matted hair up in a pony tail, and I'm sure I smelled pretty bad. I had been sweating most of the day. But for some crazy reason, he still thought I was beautiful and wanted my number. Maybe he needs better glasses.

This past Friday when I was at the Single Adults Conference he called, I told him I was at the conference and if he could call me back. He did call back Sunday while I was shopping with my friend Christy. He asked if he could take me out to dinner sometime. I said yes. I don't know how to nicely say no. Jennifer thinks I should go ahead and go out with him. You know to get practice. I haven't been on a date in almost 5 years. And let me tell you, those dates were not very good. But that's a story for another time. On the last date I went on 5 years ago, I was ready to call the police just because the guy wanted to hold my hand! I'll have to tell you this story sometime, but not today.

Why does my Mother feel the need to set me up with people? It makes me so angry!!! Really, I'm not that desperate yet. I still have 12 years before Anoe can even move out. If I'm still single in 12 years, then I'll entertain the idea of settling with someone I totally do not feel attracted to, until then why can't she just stop?!?!?!?!

update on the move

2008-10-22T14:18:00.002-05:00

So as you know, I moved week before last. Every time I go home, I fall more and more in love with my new house! It's just great. I have almost everything unpacked and put up too. Really the only thing left is my room. I have a few clothes left at our old house in Abilene, but I'm planning on getting all of it this weekend. I cooked for the first time this past Sunday too. Well, I really just heated up a store bought pizza. But on Monday night I really cooked. Jennifer made spaghetti a couple of months back for my kids one night, but she didn't use regular old spaghetti noodles. She used penne pasta. My kids fell in LOVE with the stuff. So for our first official meal I made "Nennie Spaghetti". It's actually a little ridiculous how much Anoe loves the stuff. Whenever I ask her what she wants for dinner she always says "Nennie Spaghetti". I'm totally glad she likes something Jennifer made, but hello! I'm a really good cook too. Oh well, at least she's wanting something healthy instead of just junk food.

Alexis decorated our front porch the second day we were there. She did a really good job. She wasn't supposed to decorate until everything was unpacked though. But again, oh well.

The weather is getting so awesome! I love this cooler weather.

I have officially started counting down the days until Jennifer gets married. This has been a pretty hard journey for me. I've really struggled, but I am extremely happy that she is getting married to such a wonderful guy. Tony really is great for her and the kids. One of the best things in my life right now, is seeing Kalista and Xander run up to Tony to give him hugs! You can tell he's just as fond of them.

Brandi let me borrow a book "Wilderness Skills For Women" by Marian Jordan. It is such an awesome book! I really love it. I think the girls are going to get me this book for Christmas this year. It is just so good! I think every woman should read it, especially single ones.

This past weekend I went to a single adults conference at Pioneer Baptist Drive in Abilene. It was amazing! I really learned a lot and took a lot away from the conference. Dave Edwards is a really awesome speaker. He's funny and still gets the point across.

There you have it! An update in my crazy busy little life.

Moving

2008-10-10T15:50:00.003-05:00

I found out this morning that I am for sure moving this Sunday! I'm so pumped I can hardly contain myself. I have so much to do! We're decorating a trailer for the Pecan Fest right after work. Well, I'm going to go decorate a float for Girl Scouts while Alexis is helping decorate a float for the cheerleaders. She won't even be on the float that I'm riding on. I'm going to try and get as much packed tonight as possible. Of course I'll be packing up a storm tomorrow after the parade until Alexis' game at 3:30. Then we'll go back to Abilene to pack as much more as possible. After church on Sunday, Cherry and Mike are going to come to my house so we can load everything up on their trailer and move me out here to beautiful Clyde! So needless to say this weekend is going to be pretty hectic! But it'll all be worth it.

Where does the time go?

2008-10-01T09:24:00.002-05:00

Sometimes when I think about Alexis and Anoe, I still picture them as babies. Well not babies, but younger than what they really are. Especially since I know ALL of their quirks! It's hard for me to accept that Alexis is 11 and Anoe is 6! Then all of a sudden Alexis will show me that she really is getting older and more mature. For example: It's totally OK with Anoe if we hold hands while we're walking around at her school, Alexis on the other hand, might let me walk next to her. Depending on how many of her friends happen to be around at the moment. Don't get me wrong, they're both super kids, Alexis just doesn't think I'm as cool as I once was. Little does she know that I really am a cool Mom. Or at least I like to think I am. Anoe totally thinks I am too.

When I drop Anoe off at school, she always gives me a kiss and says I love you. I don't even have to bribe her to kiss me! When dropping off Alexis, she sometimes blows a kiss to me, not very often though. She does wave good-bye as she walks away from the car though. Oh, and when I say I love you, she says I love you too. Even when her friends are with us. That makes my heart happy.

Friday night (Homecoming) I dropped Alexis off at the football game with one of her friends. When she got out of the car, she automatically said I love you. Before I even said it. Her friend was super sweet and said, "Thanks for the ride, Mrs. Chavez" All I could think was that I'm old! Mrs. Chavez? I'm not even married. Poor girl, I think she was just trying to be sweet. Anyways, back to my baby. I called her twice to check in and make sure she was doing OK. Every time she sounded fine and said she was having the "best night of her life!" Secretly I kept hoping she would ask me to come up there to be with her. Maybe she didn't have anyone to talk to. That never happened though. The child has more friends than she needs! It's actually a little ridiculous how popular she is. She isn't one of those popular girls that is rude and hateful to the unpopular girls either. She's really sweet to everyone. I've met a lot of her friends, so I know she's not only friends with the "popular crowd". Which is awesome. That just shows that she a good girl.

This past Saturday when I was at the Pee Wee football game (only there to cheer on Alexis of course - but our team is pretty darn good!!) I received the picture posted below. I couldn't stop looking at it. At first I wasn't sure if it was really my child. My precious child that not too long ago still needed me to help her fix her hair, brush her teeth, wash her hair, and on occasion pick out her school clothes! I'm pretty sure it is the same child though. As sad as it is.

Don't tell Alexis I told you, but she let me help her straighten her hair for this picture! See, she does still need me!! Just don't let her know.

Anoe-ism part 2

2008-09-26T08:31:00.002-05:00

The day before yesterday Anoe and I were walking down the hall to get something out of the kitchen before we left for school/work. She kept coughing/clearing her throat/sounding disgusting! Me being the comedian that I am, I asked her if she had been smoking. She just looked at me like I was a complete idiot. (I actually get this look a lot from Alexis) I said "You know, you keep coughing and clearing your throat. So you sound like a smoker in the mornings." Still with that same look, she said so matter-of-factly "No I don't smoke. Oma would kick me in my throat if I ever did. And I need my throat to talk!" Then she just walked off shaking her head. I told her I was just kidding, but she didn't get the joke.

*Disclaimer: My Mom is always saying she'll kick someone or something in their throat. She has never really done such a thing to either of my children.

Anniversary

2008-09-26T08:26:00.002-05:00

I really should of blogged about this yesterday, but I was too excited about finding out that I am for sure moving soon! So anyways, yesterday was my two year anniversary at my work! My boss left town early Thursday morning, so we had to celebrate Wednesday. Instead of having a delicious chocolate cake, we had La Popular burritos. I'm sure they're just as fattening, but I didn't have to feel quite as guilty for eating one.

As with any new job, when I first started I was always so confused. It seemed like I was having to call the other JP Clerk constantly to ask questions. But now, two years later, I have a clerk calling me to ask questions! And so far, I've been able to answer all of questions correctly. That is so cool.

The Big News

2008-09-25T15:01:00.002-05:00

OK, so in my last post I said I had some big news to tell everyone. Well, I found out today that I am for sure moving to Clyde within the next month! I'm super excited as well as scared. I'll be saving so much in gas it's ridiculous! And I'll be able to sleep in a little bit in the mornings too. The house is in a pretty good neighborhood, with lots of kids nearby that my kids already know from school. Actually, my assistant troop leader from Girl Scouts lives right behind the house I'm moving into. So that's really cool. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath and has a separate area for the laundry room. Well, it's connected to the kitchen, but it's separated at the same time. It's hard to explain, but it's super awesome. My lease starts on October 15th, but the landlord said I could move in as soon as he gets everything from the previous person all cleaned up. I talked to my brother about making me 2 bookcases to hold all my DVD's and he said he would do it. All I have to pay for is the actual material. Today on abilenefreecycle, a man that lives out in Sylvester (small town like 40 miles north of Abilene) was giving away an electric dryer. I talked to him and my mom is going out to Sylvester to get it for me tonight!

Everything is coming together so smoothly! It's almost crazy how smoothly everything is working out. I can't wait to cook my first meal in my new home!!! I'll post pictures of it as soon I I get the keys. Maybe if I'm really on top of my game, I'll post before and after photos.

Anoe-isms

2008-09-23T16:41:00.002-05:00

Today after school Anoe and Kalista were at my office talking to me. Kalista told me that when she grows up she wants to move to India. I just kind of looked at her weird and said no way! She just giggled and said (all shy like) "I like elephants". So Anoe said that when she grows up she wants to be Mexican. I looked at her with an even crazier look, and said "You already are Mexican", so she said "No, I want to live somewhere Mexican." Shaking my head, I asked her if she meant she wanted to live in Mexico. She just shrugged her shoulders and said "yeah". This little girl is so funny sometimes. I really need to write down all the crazy stuff she does and blog about it more often.

Coming up soon is an update! A lot has happened since I last blogged. Mostly good! Well, actually all of it so good that I can think of. Hopefully I won't be so busy at work tomorrow and I'll have time to actually blog!! :)

Insurance

2008-08-20T13:58:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I got a bill in the mail for the surgery I had back in June. The bill said I owed $898.68. At first I didn't know what to do, I thought my surgery was going to take care of it all. I called and spoke with someone with my insurance company and they said that part of the procedure was elective, so my insurance didn't cover it. I was like what? How could it be elective? It was part of the procedure. But I was like, OK. This will be OK, it'll all work out. I was of course really stressing out about it because I really can not afford another bill right now.

This Sunday I was blessed at church. I calling my doctor's office to see if they would allow me to make payments if I was able to pay a large portion up front. The nurse at Dr. Harrison's gave me the billing departments number so I could talk to them to see why my insurance didn't cover my procedure and to see about what payment arrangements could be set up. The lady I talked to was super nice. She took down my info and said she would call me back after she was able to pull my file and check into what my insurance allows and everything. I didn't hear back from her yesterday so I called her back this morning. She said that she had forgotten to call me back, but she did call the ladies in Oklahoma that are in charge of actually entering the money but they were having issues with their phones yesterday so she wasn't able to talk to them. She said she would call them again and call me right back. She called back about 10 minutes later and said the lady in Oklahoma was at lunch but she would call me after lunch to let me know what could be done.

I was really praying they would lower the amount to what I actually had, and let me settle for that. Well, she called me back this afternoon about 1:30 and said that I only owe $8.72!!!! I paid that while we were on the phone. So now I have a $0.00 balance! This was such a blessing for me!

Monday I was blessed with a really cool black table for when I move and kitchen stuff! I love it when God shows off! What Brandon said is true, it's impossible to out give God!

Fashion model

2008-08-18T14:49:00.010-05:00

Last Friday I was a fashion model for Hendrick Home for Children! It was a blast! I wore a super cute outfit from Stein Mart with the most awesome purse ever! We had the oppurtunity of buying the outfit for 25% off if we wanted it. I did not buy the outfit. The skirt I wore was a little loose, and with me losing weight I didn't see the point in spending all that money on a skirt I could only wear for a little bit. But I did go and buy the purse Friday evening after Alexis and I were done shopping for her school clothes. I absolutely LOVE this purse. It just makes me feel more confident. I know that sounds weird or whatever, but it does make me feel more confident and pretty. I really wanted to take it with me to church yesterday but I didn't want it to get messed up with the rain. And I was lazy and I didn't switch everything over from my other purse. Actually to be honest, Anoe switched everything for me last night. She got to have my old purse and I was taking too long to empty it out.

This is actually my 100th post and I really was planning on posting some type of list of 100 things, but the purse is way better than any ol' silly list about a whole bunch of stuff about me.

I am for sure moving out to Clyde in January. A little scary but it'll be OK, I think. I've already started getting everything I'll need to furnish my new house. All I need to get now are a dresser for Alexis and myself, a kitchen table, and some kitchen supplies to cook with! I bought a couch and love seat earlier this summer, a bed for me earlier this year, a headboard for the bed I have now that Alexis will have when we move, and a twin size bed for Anoe! Anoe's bed came with a comforter and rug and curtain. They're all girlly, so I talked to my Mom and she's going to make Anoe a canopy for her new bed out of basketball material. Anoe loves anything to do with basketball, so she'll just love it! We're also going to make her a comforter out of basketball material. I'll probably just try to find some orange or black sheets to match the comforter. I'm totally pumped about Anoe having her own room when we move. The girls have always had to share, or Anoe sleeps in my room. I'm really hoping we're able to get a 3 bedroom house when we move so they don't have to share anymore!

If you happen to know of anyone that is getting rid of any dressers or kitchen stuff at a reasonable price, please let me know! I'm storing as much as I can in Jennifer storage unit for now. I just know it's going to be so expensive to move in January, the more I can get now the less I'll have to stress about then!

Checks in the mail!

2008-07-31T11:30:00.002-05:00

Anoe's dad (Scott) has only paid child support 3 maybe 4 times since we went to court around the time that she was 6 months old or so. He tells me all the time that the Attorney General has taken money out of his paycheck so I should be receiving a check soon. I never ever hold my breath for the these checks. I have a better chance of winning the lottery (and I don't play the lottery!) than actually receiving a check from him. Well, last night when I was going through my mail I did receive a check from him! It's in the amount of $86.54! I'm super pumped about this. I'm going to use it to buy the girls some shoes before school starts.

I also received a bill from the Doctor yesterday for almost $800 from when I had surgery. My insurance was supposed to pay for my surgery, so please pray that the whole doctor bill works itself out! I'm really praying there was just a mess up somewhere. I paid my 10% before the surgery like I was supposed to. And the Doctor's office checked with my insurance company to make sure the procedure would be covered. I did get a statement from my insurance company showing they had paid a portion of it, but the statement said that I would not be responsible for the portion the insurance company did not pay.

Lots of stuff

2008-07-30T10:36:00.002-05:00

I have a couple of different things I've been wanting to blog about. I've just been so busy at work lately. It's really weird, we haven't had very many tickets but on the Civil side I've been swamped! Anoe got an extremely cute hair cut. I of course still don't have any pictures because that's how I roll. Alexis got her nails done. They're kind of like a french manicure except the tips are green instead of white. I think I'm going to let her get them filled once before she has to take them off for schoo. This past Saturday Jennifer found a dress for Alexis to wear to her wedding that matches the colors of Jennifer's dress! The best part is that the dress was only $4.99!!! Alexis looks super cute in it too. I didn't even think to take a picture of her in it when she tried it on Sunday.

I joined Weight Watchers on July 8th. That first week I lost an eighth of a pound, but the next week I gained 1.6 pounds! I pretty much knew I gained that week before I even went in to weight though. I totally cheated that weekend and ate right before going to the WW meeting. But, yesterday when I went in I lost 4.6 pounds! That's just in one week! Eating all those Boca burgers and Special K are really paying off! I lost 4.6 pounds even with going to Olive Garden and the movies Friday night. At Olive Garden I had the Apricot Chicken. It was so good! And only cost me 7 points. And I only had 1 bread stick with my meal. Talk about self control. Christy and I went to see The Dark Knight. I had a junior size popcorn with no butter and water. The movie was so good. I usually do not like the whole Batman thing, but this one was different. I definitely want to go see it again! It was just so intense.

The church picnic on Sunday was pretty awesome. I made some potato salad for the picnic. A little secret about my potato salad - it was a weight watchers recipe! And it tasted pretty good. I'm actually having a lot of fun with Weight Watchers and all the different recipes.

Besides work, everything has been super boring in my life lately. Oh! I did buy some super cheap tickets to Hawaiian Falls in Mansfield.

My 4th of July celebrations

2008-07-08T10:46:00.004-05:00

I know I'm a few days late, but I've been super busy lately at work and I don't usually blog from home because I try to spend that time with my kids. OK, so usually that means I'm cooking or cleaning up after my kids. But either way I just don't have the time to spend lots of time on the computer once I get home. Anyways! Back to my 4th of July.

Cherry invited the girls and me to go over to her sister-in-laws house with her to have a BBQ and let the kids swim. I made 3 Fourth of July cakes! I only took pictures of two of them though. The two that I did take pictures of were made with cherries for the red stripes! I've seen some cakes that use blueberries for the blue area and raspberries for the red stripes but I don't really prefer either of those fruits so I switched it up to fit my tastes. I took just regular white frosting and added food coloring to make it a nice shade of blue and then I put 50 white dots to represent the stars on the American flag. And there are 7 rows of cherries and 6 rows of white icing, which is also the way the American flag is set up. It took a little bit longer than I thought it would to decorate all 3 cakes but it was a lot of fun! The girls really enjoyed helping me make it too. On the third cake I used sliced strawberries for the red stripes. (That's the one I didn't take a picture of) I spread white icing on the entire cake first, then marked off where the blue icing was going to go, then I spread whip cream over the rest of the cake. It was super good! I took the strawberry cake with me to Jennifer's Friday evening.

Jennifer, her family and my family all went to watch the fireworks at Nelson Park. It was really good. After the fireworks were done, my brother called to see what we were doing and said the girls and I could come over if we wanted. A neighbor of theirs that lives across the street were having a party and they were watching them to see how long it took for the police to come. Alexis and I thought it would be a lot of fun, so we went over there. It was so much fun watching them. They were lighting fire works, which is illegal in the city limits, then at one point they were shooting some kind of firework at each other. They didn't really look old enough to be drinking, but they were.

I spent the rest of the weekend in Sweetwater working at my Mom's miniature golf course. All in all it was a great weekend though. This Saturday we're going to NRH2O again! Went twice last year and it was so much fun!

Post Surgery update

2008-06-25T10:37:00.003-05:00

I had my surgery last Wednesday. Everything went really good. I was planning on returning to work on Friday, but that so didn't happen. I kind of sort of over did it Thursday when I was feeling good, so I paid dearly Thursday afternoon and Friday. But that's OK now.

Brandi offered to keep my kids for me Tuesday night because the original plan was for me to be at the hospital before 6:00 am. Well when I went to pre-register Tuesday afternoon I was told I didn't have to come in until 11:30! So I called Brandi and told her she didn't have to keep the girls after all. She was like, no that's not an option. Her kids were super excited about my kids coming over. My kids were super excited too. So we decided the girls could go ahead and stay the night with them after all and I would just pick them up in the morning to take them to the rec center before going to the hospital. Well, Tuesday evening after work Randy called and said they wanted to treat us to dinner. We all met at El Chico's inside the mall. Alexis was so excited that we were going to the mall. I am so anti-mall it is crazy! She only gets to go to the mall when she used to stay the night with her friend Shaq and one time when we went to get earrings from Claires. Anyways, after eating we walked around the mall for a little bit letting the kids choose different stores to go into. Brandi blessed me again with a room freshener thing from Bath & Body Works and a little pink rubber ducky! When all the mall excitement was done and we were leaving Anoe wanted to ride with Randy & Brandi and Joey and Jocie wanted to ride with me. We stopped at a little store that sells purses on our way out and bought a purse for my Mom that has a picture of The Wizard of Oz on it. When we got to Randy & Brandi's house I went to say good-bye to the kids and give them all kisses. Well Brandi walked out with me and told me that her and Randy had some money put aside because they wanted to help me with the cost of my surgery! I was so blessed the entire evening! Just spending time with Brandi is always fun, but then throw in all the other cool stuff we did at the mall, it was such a blast. I've even agreed to take the kids back to the mall one day soon.

Wednesday morning my Mom got to my house about 9:30. She worked the night before so she was going to take a nap while I took a shower and went to Wal-Mart. I needed to pick up a few things I thought I might need after the surgery and get my prescription for pain medicine filled. While I was in the shower the hospital called to see if I could come in early. Of course I said yes! So my poor Mom only got to sleep for about 30 minutes. She was super nice to me though. And didn't make me feel guilty at all! We got up there and they got my IV started and everything was going great. The anestiologist came in and was going to give me something to help me relax before they actually took me back. He was super nice! The last thing I remember is being wheeled into the OR and being told to think of sitting on the beach with the warm sun hitting my shoulders. (My favorite place to be) The next thing I know, I'm waking up in another room in a lot of pain! My abdomen was hurting so much and my legs felt like I had just had 50 charley horses! It was crazy. I tried asking the nurse why my legs hurt but I couldn't talk very well. I guess I finally got my point across because she came over and gave me some morphine and said my legs were sore because they had been up in the stir ups for so long. That made sense, I guess. I just wanted to make sure they didn't perform the wrong surgery and do something to my legs they weren't supposed to. Unless of course they wanted to perform some liposuction. I would totally be OK with that! OK anyways, lets stay focused here. A while later they took me back to the Pre Op area so I could be monitored or whatever. I had to eat some crackers before they would give me some more pain medicine. All I wanted was water but the nurse kept asking if I wanted some soda. I told her twice I didn't drink soda because I was on a diet and she said they had diet soda. I was like, dang! I don't prefer to drink carbonated drinks! I just want some flippin' water!!! (I didn't say the flippin' part of course. That would of been rude.) When I was finally able to leave I thought I was hungry so I asked if we could go get something to eat. Symantha went and picked up my kids and my mom took me to Albertson's to get my prescription filled. I told her I could walk and I would go in with her. She said no it's OK, well I tried to get out of the car but I fell asleep with my hand on the door handle! At the restaurant it took me forever to walk inside. My Mom kept having to remind me to open my eyes! How many people do you know that fall asleep walking? Yeah I'm a dork! I should of just listened and gone home to rest. Inside the restaurant (5 hours later--just kidding of course) My Mom fixed me a plate of food but I fell asleep again. I thought we had only been there for like 10-15 minutes when they said we were leaving but they said we had really been there for almost an hour. I kind of remember the ride home, but not really. I totally don't remember walking up to my room! Ms. Judy said she was there when they brought me in but I don't remember seeing her. After lots of fighting with my Mom, they finally decided to leave me there but take Anoe with them for the night. Ms. Judy promised she would help keep an eye on me.

That first night was pretty uneventful. Early Thursday I woke up and felt really good. Except for all the sore muscles of course and throat issue. So I thought I would go ahead and straighten up a little since there were a few things out of place. Well, I kind of over did it. I started hurting really bad and started throwing up. I think I got nauseous because I took one of my pain pills with out eating first. I learn the hard way I guess. At lunch time Cherry came and took Alexis and me to McDonald's then she took us to HEB to get some easy to fix stuff for the kids. I pretty much slept the rest of the day until Anoe got home. Even then all I did really was sit in the living room and make sure she didn't make any messes. My sister-in-law Katie came and picked up both girls so I could take a nap. Poor Anoe wanted to sleep with me that night to "take care" of me, but she just moves too much so she had to sleep by herself.

I went ahead and took Friday off of work since I wasn't feeling all that great like I thought I would be. I didn't really do anything except watch a lot of TV with the kids. My brother picked a pizza for the girls and me and we snuggled up and watched Camp Rock. I totally didn't like the movie but Alexis did. Saturday I was able to do some light housework and felt fine afterwards. Then Saturday afternoon I took the girls to the YMCA so they could swim for awhile. We got there about 2:00 and I was planning on letting them swim until 5:00 but I started cramping a bit and there was a super annoying lady there whose daughter was friends with Alexis when Alexis went to Taylor. It wasn't that she was annoying but she was so prejudice! So we went ahead and left about 30 minutes early. All in all we had a really fun day of just hanging out together.

Now I'm back at work and everything is going great! I'm of course counting down the days till I'm off next Friday for the Fourth of July though! Who doesn't enjoy time off of work?

Fun, Fun, Fun in the summer sun!

2008-06-16T11:49:00.025-05:00

Our vacation was amazing! Now that we're back and settled back into everything I can say that. While we were actually there, I couldn't say that. I got hurt while swimming one day and a water bug touched my foot. Now I know you're probably thinking so what! It's just a water bug! You're at the beach, it'll be OK. And for most people it is OK. Except for the fact that I have an irrational fear of the bloomin' things! And why of all people did I have to be the one to find it and have it drop on my foot? I screamed as soon as I saw it! Jennifer (who was in the living room) knew as soon as I screamed what was going on. I don't know how she knew, but she did. So I went outside while Tony tried to find it and kill it. I came back in after a while and told Jennifer that I wanted to go home. This was only Wednesday morning. And we were supposed to be there until Sunday! As soon as I said it she looked at Tony and said "I told you". Jennifer did a great job of calming me down. Right when I thought everything was going to be OK, there goes another water bug running across the floor towards my room from the kitchen. I literally started crying this time. I'm not really sure why I'm so scared of water bugs, but I am. I just totally freeze up and start panicking. By the way I act you'd think some huge shark was about to attack my children or something. All this to say, I did make it through the rest of the week, but I did sleep in the living room on a very uncomfortable futon with a minimum of 2 children usually 3 with me the rest of the week. I don't really have any pictures of being at the beach. So instead I'm going to post some pictures of when we went to Galveston in May. I had to be down there Tuesday - Friday for a training seminar, so Jennifer and her kids came down for the weekend and Cherry and her family brought my kids with them on Thursday.

This is a picture I took of Alexis sitting in a gorillas lap at the Rainforest Cafe in Galveston. The restaurant was so cool! Every so often there was a "thunderstorm" that came through the rainforest and the gorillas and elephants came to life! The kids absolutely loved it!!!

This Lura and Anoe with the gorilla. Lura is Cherry's granddaughter.

This is Alexis in a "Space Car" at Johnson Space Center. We took the kids to NASA on Friday. It was so awesome!!!

Here is my Anoe in the Space car!

This is Anoe on the Sunday that we got back from the beach swimming at the pool at our house. Doesn't she just have the cutest smile ever?

This is Alexis swimming in the same pool as Anoe above. The only difference is that I took this one yesterday (Father's Day).

These next few are of the girls playing in the pool at my Mom's house this past weekend.

These are the only pictures I have right now of our time at the beach. You see those sheets in the background? Well those are the same sheets that the infamous water bug fell out of and onto my foot! I've washed them 3 times in super hot water. I still don't know if I'll be able to use them ever again though. I really like them too! :(

Ramblings...

2008-05-29T13:50:00.002-05:00

This past weekend the girls and I went out to Sweetwater to work at my Mom's mini golf course because she had to work at her real job. It was super easy!! There was a group of 15 kids and two adults from a church down the street that come every Sunday night, but that was it! And we were there from 5:30 - 9:00! So needless to say I was pretty bored most of the time.

We had a Memorial Day cookout and swim party at my Mom's. We also did some major wedding planning stuff! It was a lot of fun. Jennifer and I are going to look at different dresses this Saturday. Then Jennifer and Tony are going to go look at tuxedos.

Tuesday was the kids last day of school. Tuesday morning I was a little upset about it all. Next year Anoe will be in 1st grade! That means she won't be a "baby" anymore! (And yes Erica I totally know I'm whining! Talk to me again in 7yrs when you have a child entering 1st grade.) When Alexis was in Kindergarten I went and had lunch with her, went to her party's, and was able to help out more in her class. I didn't get to go to any of Anoe's class stuff except her graduation of course. It makes me sad that I wasn't able to do more with Anoe.

Last year (2007) at the BFW God showed me Alexis reading a book under a tree. The book she was reading was at a 5th grade level and God told me that she was reading at the level she was supposed to be reading at. I want Alexis to be able to read at her level more than I want anything else! It's truly the desire of my heart! Well, Tuesday I picked the girls up a few minutes early from school because I got off of work early and Alexis gave me her TAKS test results. They were all marked that she's "at risk" of not being able to read on her level next year. Usually I get upset whenever I see these test results. But not this time. I just felt like it didn't really matter. Then that night and the next morning when I was praying, God reminded me about Alexis reading the book under a tree. And I was so happy! Next year Alexis is going to be in 5th grade! Next year is going to be the year that she catches up and shows everyone that she really can do it! I'm so pumped about this. Then to just reaffirm it all, Alexis brought home a certificate stating she made the Honor Roll for the 6th six weeks this year. I don't think she's ever made the honor roll before! I just can't wait to see all the God is going to do in her this coming year.

Oh and by the way, we're leaving Sunday to spend an entire week at the beach! Have I mentioned how much I love the beach?

Jennifer's wedding

2008-05-22T09:13:00.003-05:00

I have a super HOT date for Jennifer's date!!!!!!!!!!

Susan King

2008-05-12T16:28:00.002-05:00

Friday night I worked for Joel. It was at a really nice house on Sayles Blvd. The lady that actually lived in the house wasn't hosting the party, but she was super nice! Later in the evening when everyone put on their name tags, I found out that the lady was Susan King! The Susan King, as in our state representative! I LOVE Susan King! I voted for her. OK, so the reason I voted for her wasn't exactly politically correct, but still I voted for her. I believe I know that you're probably going to think that I'm shallow when I tell you why I voted for her, but you know what this is my blog so it's OK! Anyways, first of all, she wears lots of red! It's kind of her signature thing I think. And secondly, I heard her name the most, and thirdly, she's a woman. So yeah, that's why I voted for her. But now after meeting her, I really think she's even better. She was super nice!

And in case I haven't mentioned this yet, I'm leaving for Galveston Tuesday! (tomorrow) It won't be all play though :( I do have to be at school Wednesday afternoon, all day Thursday and Friday morning. But after that I'm totally spending ALL my time at the beach!

So, anyways I'm leaving tomorrow and won't be back until late Sunday! Please pray for safe traveling!

And Erica, I will so think of you the whole time! And bring you back a magnet!! :)

Graduation

2008-05-08T09:45:00.003-05:00

Tonight at 7:00, my sweet beautiful Anoe will be graduating Kindergarten. Yesterday Anoe brought home the cap and gown she's supposed to wear tonight. She tried it on for me, and I almost started crying! I just can not believe my sweet baby is graduating Kindergarten already. Where has the time gone? It seems like she was just starting school a few weeks ago. The whole time I was ironing her gown last night I kept thinking about all the cool stuff she's brought home from school this year, and all the neat stuff she's learned. I'm almost positive I'm going to cry tonight when they call her name. If not before then. It almost feels like my heart is breaking, but in a good way. If that's even possible.

June 18, 2008

2008-05-06T10:45:00.002-05:00

I went to see Dr. Harrison yesterday. He was super nice, as always! His nurse gave me pamplet to read and then when he came in he gave me another pamplet to read. The whole meeting took about 20 minutes! He said I could schedule the surgery at my convenience! So on June 18th at 7:30 in the morning I'll be in surgery! I'm so excited about this. I really think this is going to help me so much.

Consultation

2008-05-02T10:17:00.002-05:00

Next Monday, May 5th, I have a consultation appointment with Dr. Harrison. I'm going in so we can discuss endometrial ablation. I would really like to have this procedure soon! Without going into ugly details, I just really need this. Please pray I will have favor with Dr. Harrison and he will agree that this is something that I need. Last time I went in he put me on birth control pills and it was horrible! I was so emotional! And they just didn't help.

Mason!

2008-05-02T09:53:00.008-05:00

Right after my nephew was born I promised pictures. Have I put any on here? No, of course not. But today I am!

This is Mason and my brother Joey. Except everyone calls him Armando. He started going by Armando back in the 8th grade. I really don't think it's going to catch on though. I'm holding out for him to start going by Joey again.

Who doesn't love a sleeping baby?

Now I usually think Girls Rule!, but for this little guy boys rule for the day. And he has smurf paraphernalia! How cool is that? I love the smurfs! In fact I may try to find some smurf stuff on eBay!

This little smile just melts my heart! He looks just a little mischievous. He must get that from his dad, because his mom is just way to sweet to be mischievous!

This is Katie (the best sister-in-law ever!) and Mason. Look at him smile!

Drivers License

2008-04-28T09:41:00.005-05:00

Pretty much everyone that reads my blog knows that I work for the Justice of the Peace. So we kind of have a little insight on some stuff. My boss sent me this email and I checked to see if it was true. It's really crazy what people can find on the Internet now! One of the sheriff's deputies sent this to the Judge.

I definitely removed mine. I suggest you all do the same. Now you can see any one's Driver's License on the Internet, including your own! I just searched for mine and there it was...picture and all!

Go to the web site, and check it out. It's unbelievable!!! Just enter your name, city and state to see if yours is on file. After your license comes on the screen, click the box marked 'Please Remove'. This will remove it from public viewing, but not from law enforcement. Please notify all your friends so they can protect themselves, too. Believe me they will thank you for it.

Online Drivers License

My baby isn't a baby anymore!

2008-04-22T16:30:00.003-05:00

Alexis brought the following note home today:

April 2008

Dear Parent,

A film will be shown to all 4th grade girls on Monday, May 12. This film will provide your daughter with basic facts and reassurances about her growth and development. Topics that will be covered at school are female stages of development, female reproductive anatomy, the menstrual cycle, and personal care such as diet, exercise and hygiene. This film is designed to be a basic overview, with the puberty file in 5th grade expanding on the above topics.

Please sign the permission slip below and return it to your child's homeroom teacher as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call me at the school.

Sincerely,

Clare Nickel, RN
Clyde Intermediate School Nurse

***************************************************************
April 2008

My daughter, _______________________, has permission to view the 4th grade girls' film and participate in the class.

Parent/Guardian Signature _______________________

My Alexis is only 10 years old! This so can not be happening! Alexis and I had a little talk about it:

Me: Alexis do you want to go to watch this movie?
Alexis: What movie?
Me: The one this note is about.
Alexis: Oh, yeah sure of course.
Me: Do you know what it's about?
Alexis: My period.
Me: And what's a period?
Alexis: I don't know, that's why I need to go. And plus Hayley's going and I want to sit with her so we can talk.
Me: (with a crazy look on my face) Please go finish your homework!

Crazy week!

2008-04-21T14:41:00.002-05:00

So of course Tuesday was a pretty crazy/bad day for me. But it got even crazier! Friday night I worked for Joel. I told my babysitter I would be back to get the girls around 10:00 or 11:00. We usually work for 4-5 hours. Oh no! Not this time. Erica and I were leaving at 8:30!!! It was a super fast little thing. I decided since I didn't have the girls with me I would go and talk to Heather and Jason. I prayed, Jennifer prayed, and Cherry prayed for me! Everything went pretty smooth. I was able to tell them my feelings about a lot of stuff, I was totally honest and did not cry in front of them! I didn't really get the response I was wanting from Jason, but that's okay. I felt a lot better when I left.

The girls were invited to go to a birthday party on Saturday at the YMCA for Bailey. It was a swimming party and the girls were so excited about being able to go swimming. When we got out to the car I noticed that the jacket that was covering up my purse on the floor board was no longer covering up my purse. We went inside to make sure I didn't just forget it inside at the party. I was almost positive that I didn't take it in, but I just wanted to make sure. As it turned out I didn't take it in with me. While we were inside the YMCA someone opened my car door and stole my purse! At first I actually thought it was kind of funny. When we were walking in, something told me to get my wallet. (God) So they didn't get my wallet which is very good! All they really got was my make-up, some Girl Scout patches, pay check stubs, and my work keys. There was other stuff in there but nothing really important. I had to call the police so I could find out what to do since they now had my social security number which is on my pay check stubs. And I called my boss to let him know about my work keys. We're getting new locks Wednesday at work and the lock on the post office box is also being changed. But the worst part is that ALL my makeup is gone! The only thing I did not have in my purse is my foundation. Sunday morning I went over to Jennifer's so I could use some of her make up. On the plus side though, I got to go get new make up Sunday evening! And I love to shop!

Sunday morning after I took Alexis and Paige to church I went by the donut shop to get Anoe a donut. While we were in line, my check engine light came on. I was so frustrated! I was like come on! I need a break here! I went to Jennifer's and did my make up then Anoe and I went to church. I was seriously thinking about not going to church though. I just wasn't in the mood to smile and act like everything was OK. I was feeling a little better about the whole Jason thing, and I thought I was OK with my purse being stolen, but then the car thing just sent me over the edge! When we pulled up at the Junior High, I just started feeling better. David gave me a big huge like he does every Sunday, OK really like he does every time he sees me. I went in got Anoe signed in and went to find Cherry. She gave me this really awesome book that she got while she was at a Joyce Meyer's conference over the weekend! Worship started and everything was all better. After church the check engine light was still on and Mike (Cherry's husband) told me that I could take it down to Auto Zone and they could hook my car up to some kind of machine that would tell me what was wrong with it and I could call him to see if he could fix it. I knew it needed an oil change, so I just went ahead and took it to Avis Lube. They said the system was too lean?!?!?!? Yeah I have no idea about that kind of stuff. He said it could be because I have been getting gas from a different place and my car wasn't used to it. So anyways, I got my oil changed and a new fuel filter, and they did something to make the light go off. And now my car's back to normal! Nice and beautiful with it's pink hearts on the seats and steering wheel.

My week was pretty crazy and frustrating but God took care of everything. Like he always does. And today I'm in such a good mood! I'm almost giddy! The girls and I are going to another one of Mason's baseball games Tuesday, so I'm looking forward to that. Oh and not that I'm excited or anything, but I'm leaving for Galveston in 3 weeks and 1 day!

Emotions

2008-04-17T13:51:00.003-05:00

Tuesday I had to go to Sweetwater for a child support hearing with Alexis' dad, Jason. They haven't seen her since May 5, 2007! At her birthday party!!! And they've only called her three times in the past year. All three time have been in the past month and a half since he's been served with the papers saying we have court in April. Monday night when we were still at Girl Scouts Heather (Jason's girlfriend) called and said there was no way they could make it to the hearing the next day because their jeep is acting up and if I would give them a ride there. The last two times we've gone to Sweetwater for child support hearings I have given them rides. It hasn't been a big deal until now. They were making an effort to be involved in Alexis' life then, and I didn't mind taking them with me. Jason has only been in Alexis' life since June 2004. He dropped out of the picture for about 7 or 8 months after they met and started building a relationship. When they did decide they wanted to be a part of her life I told them that I wanted them to be a part of her life all the time and not just when it was convenient for them. That's not how it works when you have a child! And I totally understand how hard everything is for them. Jennifer would make all kinds of excuses for them and why I should be more understanding. And in the end I always was. They both agreed that they would stay involved with Alexis and apologized and I thought everything would be OK. Then after her birthday party last year they took her with them so she could stay the night. They brought her home Sunday evening and we never heard from them again until last month. I was furious with them! Jason figured out a way to go to Sweetwater at least twice a month when he was living in Dallas to see his son with another woman before they finally got Jayton to go live with them in Dallas. Granted Jayton needed them in his life way more than Alexis. His Mom was really into drugs and very abusive. Alexis doesn't have to deal with any of that thankfully. But twice a month at the LEAST they would figure out a way to go to Sweetwater from Dallas. And they couldn't call Alexis even once a month? And they live in Abilene! And I found out at the hearing that they have made more than one trip to Sweetwater to see Xavier. He's another child of his from a previous relationship. OK, so I'm really upset about all of this.

Well, when Heather called I told her I was at a Girl Scouts meeting and couldn't talk. I told her to call me back later. She never did. I went out to Sweetwater for the hearing and I saw that their vehicle was there. As soon as I walked in she got up and walked over to me and said she needed to talk to me outside. I was like OK, can I check in first? She just started talking! She kept saying she was sorry and that Jason had been in the hospital and he's having to take medication every day now and they've just really had a bad year. She said they've been evicted twice in the past year and have a $897.00 electric bill. And a couple of months ago she noticed a couple of bumps in her right breast, she has a doctors appointment to get it checked out but she's scared about it. And she doesn't have anyone but Jason so if he goes to jail she doesn't know what she'll do. She was crying and telling all this over and over again. I do feel bad for them! I know it's hard for them. They have 3 kids they're taking care of, and she doesn't work. He's supposed to be paying child support for Alexis, Xavier and for Jayton (even though Jayton lives with them, it's a big huge mess!). I don't want you to think I'm being heartless, but I'm not asking them for money! God has always taken care of us! I just want him to be in Alexis' life! A phone call a month would be OK with me. Is that so much to ask? She's an awesome kid.

So, Heather finally starts to calm down and she tries to hug me. I'm so not into hugging people. I'm OK with it if I'm used to you, but I wasn't really comfortable hugging her. She could tell I guess so she just kept talking and telling me the same stuff over and over. Finally she did hug me and we started walking back down the hall so we could wait to be called to the back. They were sitting right next to some people that I knew from when I used to live in Sweetwater. So I started talking to them until they went in.

After my friend went in I was sitting there doing my little sudoku game book that Jennifer gave me when I overheard Jason and Heather talking about this girl Tammy that was down at the other end of the hall. Tammy and I used to be friends before I moved to Abilene. Scott (Anoe's dad) and I had broken up because of his drug problem which is a whole other blog for another time! My grandma died a few weeks after we had broken up and the girls and I went up to Colorado for the funeral. While I was there I did a lot of thinking and decided that I didn't want Anoe to grow up away from her dad, so when we got back to Sweetwater I would talk to him and finally agree to try to work it out. Well when I got back, I found out that Tammy and Scott had been dating (for lack of a better word) and were now living together. I was only gone to Colorado for like a week! It's not like I left for 6 months or anything. So obviously Tammy and I aren't friends anymore. This last year at the BFW I finally was freed of all my anger towards them both. (*Believe me I know this sounds like some sort of trashy soap opera! But I'm so not that person anymore!*) Even though I was no longer angry about everything it was still awkward seeing her again.

My friend came out and sat back down beside me. Tammy walked by and stopped to talk to my friend then started talking to Jason and Heather. Misty, my friend, asked me if I was still mad or whatever about everything and I told her "No, I totally feel indifferent about the whole thing. God totally took away all those feelings last year!" Tammy was standing right there and I know she was listening to what we were saying but she didn't say anything to me. I'm not angry with her but I don't feel I need to try to be friends with her either.

OK, so back to Jason and the child support hearing. They finally called me back. Jason owes me like over $15,000 in back child support. He's paid a total of $723.01 in the past 10 years! The lady said that I could forgive him the $15,000 and start over fresh if I wanted to. The last time we were there, they said if he didn't start making regular payments he would have to go to jail. I asked her about his signing over his rights and what that would do. She said that I would have to hire an attorney, but that he wouldn't have to pay back the money he owes me. He would still have to pay back the State of Texas the $2,100 he owes them though. The lady called for Jason to come in. She told him exactly how much he owed and started asking all the usual questions about how much he makes, where he works, why he hasn't been paying. She told him that I was willing to forgive the full $15,000 if he would sign over his parental rights. He said and I quote "Yeah that's fine. I was thinking about that anyways." Believe me I know what a financial burden this is for them. But isn't she worth the freakin' fight? The lady said I could sign some papers and the back child support would be forgiven with out him signing over his rights. He said he didn't think he would be able to ever pay the full amount of $114.00 a month that he's ordered to pay.

I know what it's like to struggle! I do this on my own every flippin' day! Heather chooses not to work. If they're so broke why doesn't she get a part time job in the evening when Jason is home so he can watch the kids while she's at work? I'm trying to be sympathetic but they need to help themselves too! I know I'm the one that asked about it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. I have so many emotions about this it's crazy. I'm mad because he won't be apart of her life, forget the money just have something to do with her. The park is free! He could just take her there, I know he takes his other kids there. I'm sad because he already had it in his mind that this is what he wanted before we even mentioned it. And I'm happy because I know this is relieving so much pressure off of them, and this is a blessing for them! And I'm mad because Heather is the one that keeps apologizing. Why can't Jason be a man and apologize? He's the one that has the responsibility to Alexis, not Heather.

After the hearing my Mom and Symantha showed up at the Courthouse. I was supposed to go over to their house when I was done, but my Mom said that she felt that she was supposed to come up there to see me. I'm really glad she did! I probably would of just come straight back to Abilene instead of going to see her. She let me cry and took me out to eat for lunch. I had a 1:15 appointment with an attorney to see what I needed to do to start the process of him relinquishing his paternal rights. The lawyer was really nice and took a bunch of notes. He said it's going to cost $1,400 to $1,800 to do this as long as Jason doesn't fight anything. Wednesday morning I faxed over the last Child Support Order I had from February 2007. So in 4-6 weeks this whole process will be done.

Tuesday night the girls and I had to go to the grocery store to get some basic stuff. While we were there I decided that I wanted some ice cream. I thought "Heck with the diet! I need something to comfort me!" We walked towards the ice cream aisle and I decided that I was not going to give in to my flesh. But then what's the next thing I see? Limited Edition Girl Scout Thin Mind Ice Cream! Only my favorite Girl Scout cookie mixed with ice cream! I ended up not getting the ice cream, but I did stop and stare it for awhile.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was really hard for me. I just have so many conflicting emotions right now. I keeping praying about everything and I just can't stop feeling so depressed! When I talked to Ms. Judy about it she said that I need to grieve. This is kind of like a death that I need to grieve. I've decided not to tell Alexis what we're doing. I told him he could still see her if he wanted to. I know one day I'll have to tell her, but hopefully not anytime soon. I don't want her to ever feel unloved or that he didn't want her.

Last night when I was praying for peace, I realized that I should be praying for Jason and his family. If this is hard for me, I can't even imagine what it's like for them. I have also decided that I'm going to go over there one day next week when I have some free time to talk to them. I want to invite them to church. They need God in their lives a lot right now. I know this is what God wants me to do, but I need to be able to go over there and not be angry with them or break down and cry. I cried the entire 15 minutes that I was tanning yesterday. Being at church last night to invite people to our church on the 27th really helped though. So many people were requesting prayers for cancer and it made me think about everything. These people are praying to live! And I'm whining because Jason wants to sign over his rights. What the heck is wrong with me? Today has been a lot better, but I don't think I'm ready to face them yet. If you think about it, please pray for Jason and his family!

Baseball

2008-04-14T10:39:00.002-05:00

Friday night the girls and I went to watch Mason play baseball. His team did awesome! They won! After the game we had to go over to Cherry's house because I forgot to get an ice chest from her that she was going to let me borrow. Well when we got there, I thought I would just go up and get it. Anoe and Alexis had other plans though. They weren't about to let me go inside and see Cherry, Mason, or Mike without them being able to see them too. (My kids love them!) So anyways, we all go in and Mike and his nephew Taylor are talking to Mason about stuff he needs to work on when he's playing and stuff. I'm really not sure what exactly they were saying, I wasn't really paying attention. After we left the Alexis told me that she felt bad for Mason because they were being mean to him. I tried to explain to her that they weren't being mean, that's just the way guys do stuff. I'm more the type that's like woo-hoo you did awesome. (Even if they lose) So she really had a hard time understanding what was going on. I don't think in any way that Mike was being mean to Mason! They were just more in to the whole thing.

Saturday we went to a Third Day concert before the Rangers game. It was so awesome. They did a couple of new songs that are coming out on their new CD July 29th and some old school stuff. It was just amazing! I really liked it.

The Rangers game was way awesome too. Anoe and I sat with Rachel and the kids from the ESC yellow team. I really like talking with Rachel so that was a lot of fun. I'm usually not really into the whole spending lots of time with kids thing. But I had a blast with the yellow team. I do have to say that Joey was the best though. He was just so happy and content with his peanuts! Rachel got up to take him to go get something and he had peanut shells ALL OVER HIMSELF!!! It was awesome. I got Anoe a frozen ice treat thing that she wanted. We asked Joey if he wanted some and he was like "sure yeah OK". I told him that I didn't have an extra spoon, so would he mind sharing with Anoe. He just shrugged his shoulders and said that it was fine. Anoe ended up moving to sit next to him so they could share better. He was just so sweet with her. Some of the older kids (not necessarily any that were present at the game)are kind of mean to Anoe. I'm sure it's because she looks bigger than 6, but she way acts like she's 6. And she can be hard to understand at times. But Joey was super sweet to her. He even shared some of his peanuts with her. But anyways, back to the game. We did the wave a whole bunch of times. And we got to sing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game"! The ESC team left during the 7th inning so I moved over closer to Jennifer and Tony. Jennifer is so not into baseball! She enjoys all the commotion more than anything. I was really into yelling and screaming at the umpires. My throat was pretty sore Sunday morning. The Rangers lost though. But it was still a lot of fun!

Sunday after church the girls and I laid down for some quiet time, but I ended up sleeping for 3 hours! I really thought Anoe would have fallen asleep and taken a nap but she never did. She was super cranky Sunday morning at church.

In one month I'll be in Galveston! I'm so counting down (in case you couldn't tell)!

BEACH NEWS!!!

2008-04-09T15:45:00.005-05:00

So of course everyone knows how much I LOVE the beach! Well, yesterday I booked the beach house that we'll be staying in for one whole week in June! June 2nd through the 8th to be exact! We even paid for the deposit! I'm so totally pumped! Oh and in one month seven days, I'll be at the beach for the weekend! OK so really I'll be in Galveston starting Wednesday, May 13th. But Jennifer will be there the 16th with the kids so we can have a mini vacation! And my super awesome friend Cherry will also be there!

So the plan is for me to find a boyfriend in May while I'm there, then in 2 weeks later when I'm there for my week long vacation he'll propose! And instead of moving to Clyde this August I'll just move down by the beach! OK so that really won't happen because that would only give us two weeks to get to know each other, but if he has a beach house down there I can just go to visit him once a month until next summer then we really can get married! Except I don't want him to live down there, just close by so that we can go to the beach whenever we want but not so close that it's not as amazing every time we go! And of course ya'll can come visit me any time you need to get away for some nice beach relaxing fun!

*Seriously, I'm just kidding about this whole thing, but I would love to live closer to the beach so I didn't have to drive so far!

Answers

2008-04-08T09:31:00.004-05:00

You know how sometimes you pray and pray and pray for something? And then when God gives you the answer you've been seeking it's totally not what you thought it would be? I know God has the perfect plan for me and my life, but dang I would be lieing if I said I didn't get frustrated that the answer wasn't what I was hoping for!

On to other stuff in the wonderful world of Amanda...
I have officially fallen in love with jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon! They are so bloomin' good it's almost ridiculous. I bought a deep fryer a couple of weeks ago, and I am planning on finally using it for the first time this week. I'm going to attempt to make an awesome blossom! And make some jalapenos in the oven. Not exactly the healthiest of meals, but I'll just walk a little extra or something.

I've been walking 3-4 nights a week. My usual routine is to walk around the playground, up by the pool, over around the basketball/tennis courts, and then back around to the playground again. I do this little route four times, which I think maybe hopefully comes to about one mile. I'm really not sure, but I'm going to say that it's super close to a mile. Anyways, Sunday I did 6 laps instead of my usual 4! Then Sunday evening I thought the girls could play at the park for a little bit and I could walk 4 more laps. Well, Anoe is totally into basketball right now. So she went straight for the basketball court and started bouncing her ball. I asked her if she wanted to play for a little bit and she got really excited about it. Alexis decided that she wanted to play too, and this other little girl "T" wanted to play too. So it was Alexis and Anoe against me and "T". It was so much fun! We weren't just throwing the ball either, we were actually running up and down the court! Nothing like the NBA of course, but still I was running! Anoe started feeling bad for me because "T" and I were losing. "T" didn't really like the whole running thing so she would just walk back and forth, and she couldn't quiet make the ball go into the basket and I was of course trying to let Anoe and Alexis win. (I'm a good Mom like that. OK fine Alexis was just really good! Dang there's no need to badger me!) So anyways, Anoe was feeling bad for me, so her and "T" traded teams so Anoe could help me win. Anoe's really good at dribbling, and traveling, but not so good with making baskets. And Alexis was like full force not letting me make a basket without her trying to steal the ball away. Anoe and I lost the game. And my sweet Anoe was so upset. I told her we would call her Uncle to see if he would come and play with us sometime this week. He could be on her team and Alexis and I would be on a team. I'm pretty sure Anoe and Joey will win that game. Joey's tall and skinny and has lots of energy so it'll be nothing for him to take on Alexis. And Anoe I will just dribble the ball whenever we make them give us a turn.

Last night Jennifer came to town with us, and we all went to watch Mason's game. It was so much fun! Xander started dancing for us during a little break. It was so flippin' awesome! I really wish I would have had my phone with me so I could have recorded it. He does some break dancing mixed with robot dancing, it's just awesome.

So if you read Jennifer's blog then you know that the New Kids on the Block are having a reunion tour. I just can not tell you how pumped I am about this! I have Hangin' Tough as a ringer on my phone! And I plan on getting The Right Stuff on my phone today! Oh! I also have the theme song from Saved By The Bell! I know everyone's going to be asking me where I got such cool ringers at. But I just can't share my secret right now. If I did, then everyone would have the same ringers, and what fun would that be? OK, maybe with a select few I'll share my secret.

Last subject! This past Saturday Alexis' Girl Scout troop went on a trip to Primetime to spend some of the money they earned from selling cookies this year. I was a little weary about taking 8 girls to Primetime for 3 hours. It ended up being awesome! They have this all day package, that included 33 attractions for $99.95. We got one of those, then some of the girls wanted to bowl and some wanted to golf, so we spent about 45 minutes doing that, each girl got a card with $5.00 on it so the could play arcade games, then we bought 6 more rides on the go karts. We were supposed to be back at the Girl Scout Hut at 3:30, but we didn't even leave Primetime until 3:30! Thankfully I didn't have to come back to Clyde. There were enough seats in the other leaders car that all the girls were able to ride back with her. So Alexis and I went back inside and went to the 3D Theatre thing. It was so much fun. We also played a few more games in the arcade and shared a hamburger. I would so recommend going to Primetime for a treat! It was just so much fun! They also have this package where you can have 3 hours of unlimited fun for $25.00. You have to have at least 10 in your party though for that.

I think that's everything that has been happening in my life for the past 2 weeks. We're going to a Rangers game this Saturday, so I'm sure I'll have stuff to blog about next week. Anoe and I have been practicing on our "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" song too!

Life

2008-03-25T14:07:00.002-05:00

I recently finished reading two really good books. The first one I finished Saturday evening and the second one I just finished this morning. They're both written by Khaled Hosseini. The first was The Kite Runner and the second was A Thousand Splendid Suns. They were both extremely good, but extremely hard to read. Not in the sense that the words were hard, but emotionally hard. The Kite Runner was a lot easier to read, but really opened my eyes to what the Afghanistan people have had to go through over the last 30 years. I always thought that all Afghans hated Americans. Like they were taught to hate us from the time they were babies. And they were all in favor of the Taliban. I know this is so untrue now. There's innocent men, women, and children dieing over there. And some of the people that joined the Taliban really didn't believe in what they were doing, but joining the Taliban when they first took over Afghanistan was the only way for many of them to feed their families. I know it's horrible for me to say that I thought they were all anti-America, but I really had never thought about all the innocent lives that were being lost over there. A Thousand Splendid Suns was so extremely hard for me. I can't even tell you how many times I cried while reading it. What these women have had to endure, saddens me so much. It really helps put into perspective just how great we have it here in America! I get upset/depressed because I'm struggling to make ends meet, but these women are struggling to stay alive. Their husbands beat them, starve them, lock them in rooms, just whatever the basically want. So many women were giving their children to orphanages just so their kids could have food and clothes. So many take for granted the freedoms we have. We are so lucky to live in such a great country. I know our country has it's faults, but we(women) don't have to fear for our lives if we have an abusive husband and want to leave. We're just so lucky!

Kids are my weakness! I'm totally not a "kid" person, but I hate seeing or hearing about a child that is hungry or mistreated. I just want to take them home with me and show them that life is not supposed to be that way. They're supposed to worry about stuff at such an early age. I've felt for awhile now that my calling in life is to one day be a foster parent for these kids that need love. I've never really wanted to tell anyone about it because I'm afraid people will think or say that I'm crazy. I'm struggling so much right now with just my two kids. But I really think that if this is God's plan for me, then it will totally happen. Maybe not within the next couple of years, but eventually. Every child needs to know that they're loved, and feel that they're protected.

Doctor's visit

2008-03-21T17:17:00.003-05:00

I had a doctor's appointment today. I kept thinking of all kinds of reasons to cancel! I found out a couple of weeks ago that Trish wouldn't be the one to see me today. She's on vacation this week, and she's leaving this particular doctor at the begining of next month anyways. I so do not like change! So of course having to see the other doctor instead of Trish was freaking me out. And I wasn't losing as much weight as I thought I should have been this past month. The first month I lost 15 pounds. And I kept checking myself at Jennifer's and I had only lost 5 pounds this month. I was really upset about this! I was like what's the point here? I'm hungry all the blooming time, I don't really get to eat what I want. And for what? 5 measly pounds? I thought I should be losing 15-20 pounds a month! Well I went in today for my appointment and I have lost another 9 pounds. I was like well OK, I really need to try harder next month. When the doctor came in he told me that my goal should be to lose 4-5 pounds a month so I am doing great! That made me so happy. I'm going to have to come up with a better eating schedule though. There's been a few times that I've only eaten once a day and I went 2 days without eating once. So my new plan is to still eat whatever I want for breakfast, a moderate healthy lunch and either a salad or some fruit at night if I'm hungry. I'm going to buy a whole bunch of healthy snacks to keep at work with me, so when I'm feeling hungry I will have something healthy to snack on instead of gorging on a cheeseburger and fries from Sonic instead of waiting to eat a salad at home. Yes I know Sonic has salads, but seriously why get a salad when a juicy cheeseburger and an order of salty crispy fries could just as easily be ordered? I so don't have that kind of self control. I also plan to start cooking more at home so I don't have to eat out as much during the week. Monday night will still probably we "easy" night. Like the kids will have pizza rolls or kid cuisines after girl scouts, but then hopefully on Wednesday when I get home from Life Group I'll be able to cook something easy and fast for lunch the next day. And make enough so the girls can eat it Thursday night before Anoe goes to girl scouts. Since it's starting to get dark later, Alexis can play at the playground and I'll be able to walk around the makeshift track at the elementary. The real test will be when I'm out at my Mom's house. For some reason I have the hardest time sticking to anything when I'm out there! It's not that they're constantly pushing food on me or anything, I really don't know what it is. No, I think I do actually. My Mom and Symantha are constantly snacking on something. And not healthy stuff. There's always some kind goody laying around. Of course a major reason my kids love being out there! There's always plenty of chocolate.

One more thing I want to work on is my attitude towards Anoe's eating habits. Any time she sees someone else eating or even thinks it's more than an hour since she's eaten she wants to eat! This is totally a bad habit I have taught her. When she was a baby anytime she would cry I would just give her a bottle instead of trying to see if she needed/wanted anything else. And now it's a horrible habit! I'm totally not going to put her on a diet or anything, but I am going to start limiting the amount of food she is allowed to have. It's not the she's really overweight or anything, but I don't want her to have to deal with it later.

OK so if you would please pray for me that I'm able to actually make all these changes in my life that would be great! I don't want these changes to be temporary either, I want this to be a total life change. This is the longest I have ever stuck to a diet plan, and I know it's going to get easier with time! Hopefully anyways.

Anoe for President

2008-03-05T11:35:00.003-06:00

This morning when we were watching the news Anoe and I had the funniest conversation!

Anoe: Mom, I wish I could be a prisoner when I grow up.

Me: A prisoner? (I pronounced it slow so she could understand what I was saying)

Anoe: Yes, a prisoner!

Me: A prisoner is someone who has done something wrong, and they have to spend time in prison because they're bad.

Anoe: No! I want to be a prisoner!

Me: Anoe prisoners are usually bad people that live in prison or jail.

Anoe: Then why do vote for them?

Me: Oh! You want to be a President?

Anoe: Yes, that's what I said!

Me: Oh OK, I'm sorry.
Anoe: The only rule I'll make is that everyone can do whatever they want, as long as they aren't bad and kill anyone. And they don't eat a lot of candy because it's not healthy and Mrs. Caffey says you have to eat healthy food.

I told her I would definetly vote for her if she runs for President when she grows up. Eating healthy food is very important, and hey as long as you don't kill anyone you'll do just fine!

Good and bad news

2008-02-22T09:12:00.004-06:00

When I was a kid my Mom would always ask if I wanted to hear the bad news or good news first. I always chose the bad news first so that the good news would make things seem better. So in continuing that tradition, let me tell you the bad news first. About a month ago Joel told me that he was going to be doing a large party on February 23 and wanted to know if I would be interested in working. I said yes right away. After I said yes I realized that Katie's (my sister-in-law) baby shower was on the 23rd. Jennifer and I are the hostess's so I of course wanted to be there. Well we moved the shower to the 24th and Katie and Joey said they would watch my girls for me on the 23rd so I could work. Well, something happened and they won't be able to watch my girls after all. (I'll tell you more about that later!) Jennifer said that she wasn't planning on going to San Angelo this weekend so she would be able to watch the kids for me after all. On Wednesday I started feeling run down and achy all over. Thursday morning I woke up with a really bad ear ache and my throat was really hurting. I seriously thought of calling in to work, but we had a court hearing scheduled so I really couldn't call in. I took some Advil and started feeling better. After lunch I started feeling all achy again and my cheeks were really flushed. I just felt horrible! So after work I went to a walk in clinic in Abilene. They tested me for strep throat and it came back positive. I called Trish to see if I would be OK to work on Saturday since I would have already been on antibiotics for 3 days. She said that it would be cutting it really close so I should just sit this one out.

When I talked to Trish she said next time I'm sick and can't come in until after 5:00 just call her and tell the nurse or whoever makes the appointment that I'm friends with Trish and she'll see me after 5! That is so sweet of her! The people at the walk in clinic were not very friendly and it really wasn't that clean. I'm totally spoiled with Trish and her nurse. They're both so nice to me. I'm sure they're nice to all their patients, but it makes me feel good when they're nice to me and actually talk to me instead of just saying "So what's wrong?".

So that's my bad news, I don't get to work for TruBlu Catering after all this Saturday. :(

So now my good news. My sister-in-law gave birth to a beautiful baby boy Monday morning at 7:27! She wasn't due until March 17th, but her water broke Sunday morning about 8:00. She ended up having to have a C-Section because he was stuck. They're both doing awesome and they both went home Wednesday. His name is Mason Price Daniel Chavez and he weighted 5 lbs. 8 oz. He's so tiny! And just as cute as can be!! Hopefully I (Jennifer) will be able to figure out how to get his pictures off my phone and post them on here. (My phone and I have a love/hate relationship right now.)

And for my last bit of good news. On Monday I went to the doctor (Trish my awesome friend), well last month she prescribed some medicine to help suppress my appetite and she also gave me a B12 shot to give me more energy. I lost 15 lbs.!!! I'm so excited about this. I can tell a little bit when I get dressed because my pants aren't as snug. I of course have a long way to go but I'm excited. I had only been taking the medicine for 3 weeks. So that's 5 pounds a week. Hopefully next month I'll be able to report 20 pounds or more have been lost!!!

Until I can get Mason's picture on here, I'll share one of my babies that makes me smile.

My kids are some serious snuggle bugs!

A week in review

2008-02-14T13:43:00.003-06:00

Last weekend I went out to Sweetwater again to help my Mom with the mini-golf stuff. I'm actually getting a pretty good tan! And I'm getting better and better with the brick work. My brother came out and helped, which was awesome! A lot more gets accomplished when he's there. My Mom has a really bad habit of getting side tracked. My Mom's friend, Thersea, came out to help clean up. Her boyfriend came with her as well as her 3 daughters. Daughter "N" and I used to be friends but about 5 or 6 years ago we got in a huge fight because she said something and I got really mad and cussed at her. It was really bad, and stupid. This was way before I changed my life and started living for Christ! Anyways, when they first got there I was a little nervous because "N" and I hadn't spoke since then. She was attending TSTC at the same time as me, but I was still rude and ignored her. "N" and her sisters, "C" & "P" had no idea that I am a totally different person now. So anyways, like I said I was really nervous about the whole thing. Oh and I guess I should have said this first, these girls are pretty rough! "P" just got out of prison within the last year or so for trying to kill her mom and sisters! OK so back to me being nervous. "C" was the first to talk to me. She was really nice and everything was fine. After awhile "N" and I started talking about little things, like where do these bricks need to go and stuff like that. My Mom came up to me and asked if I was OK with them all being there. I told her of course I was, they're her friends and they all came to help. My Mom said that she would ask them to leave if I wanted her to because she knows they don't exactly live the the life I do. I told my Mom it was really OK, and besides I'm supposed to bring the kingdom of God to everyone I meet. This made my Mom really proud of me. It was a little awkward, but whatever. They only stayed for about 2 hours. The rest of the day was spent with me and Joey figuring stuff out. OK so it was more like me going and getting stuff while Joey figured out how much wood was needed or at what angle to cut whatever. But still, I was helping. Then around 7:30 I left my kids with my Mom so I could go get a tattoo! I got Alexis' name tattooed on me when she was just a year or so. So of course Anoe asks all the time about why I don't have her name. So I had finally decided to do it. It's really cute! I love it!

Sunday morning I woke up before everyone else and thought it would be a great time for me to take shower before Anoe gets up and starts messing with stuff. Well when I walked out of the bathroom my Mom, Symantha, and Anoe were sitting right there and started singing Happy Birthday to me. It was really funny. For my birthday they gave me 3 baskets full of bath stuff. I really like to decorate my bathroom with the cut soaps and stuff, but 3 baskets? I was like WOW! Do I smell or something? Anyways, we all got up and went out to the lot. About 10:00 Theresea showed up with her boyfriend again. Her kids weren't with her this time. A couple of hours later "N" came too. We ended up talking a lot on Sunday. It was really good. She just got out of prison a month ago. But she had a baby 8 months ago when she was still in prison. So she's really struggling to get used to life with a baby and not going back to using drugs and stuff. I'm really glad we got to talk so much Sunday. I told her I would go to church with her on the weekends I'm out in Sweetwater. When it was lunch time we had a roast with vegetables. Roast is one of my favorite things to eat, so that worked out really well for me. I had already talked to my Mom and Symantha about not making a big deal about my birthday because I've been having a really hard time with it this year. Well, the did a really good job considering they ususally make a huge deal of everything. Theresea and Mark (the boyfriend) had brought an ice cream cake with them when they came. (Which was a secret to me.) And they all sang Happy Birthday to me again. It was really nice. I've more or less come to terms with being 30 and still not having a husband or even a prospective boyfriend. It's not so bad really. I've been super blessed with two amazing kids! Sunday afternoon I noticed that I had a tan line on my wrist where the my gloves stopped! So I was trying to work without them but I kept cutting myself so I decided that it was better to have a tan line than ugly hands.

Monday was pretty darn boring. Alexis started runnig a fever so she could go to shcool. I found out Monday afternoon that another little girl at HHC had tested positive for the flu, so I figured that's what was wrong with Alexis. I was really not wanting to spend a lot of money on medicine and doctors visit though. I told Alexis that if she was still sick and running a fever on Tuesday we would go ahead and go to the doctor though. We prayed that God would just take care of it and she would start feeling better! When we went to bed she still wasn't feeling to good though. In the morning when she got up she felt better though! She wanted to go to school, I told her she couldn't because it hadn't been 24 hours since her fever had been gone. (I'm a stickler about that rule.)

Tuesday was a lot of fun. The Judge married a couple at 9:00 then we had small claims hearing at 10:00 and one at 10:30. The defendants for both cases actually showed up. Usually the only people that show up are the plaintiffs. So it was exciting to have so many people in my office.

Then on Wednesday Alexis had an ARD meeting. I got the letter on Monday telling me she had the ARD meeting, so I asked if I could take time off to go to it. Well when I got to the Intermediate school, they had no idea what I was talking about. They called the Abilene office to see what had happened, but couldn't figure out what was going on. They did have a paper they wanted me to sign, they were going to mail it to me but since I was already there I just went ahead and signed it. While I was there I received a call but didn't answer it because I was trying to figure out what was going on. When I left I went ahead and checked my voicemail, which I usually only do once every two weeks. As it turns out the ARD meeting was for Anoe! I felt so silly! I hurried and rushed over to the Elementary. Sometimes I can be such a dork!

And now Thursday. It's Valentines day and I'm so glad it's over! I'm really not into the whole Valentines day thing. I don't think I would be even if I did have a boyfriend though. It just kind of seems pointless. We're having our Girl Scout Cookie Booth sale tomorrow night from 5:30 to 7:00. It's supposed to be super cold! Hopefully they'll let us set up inside instead of having to sit out in the freezing cold.

New phone!!

2008-02-08T13:01:00.000-06:00

Last March Jennifer and I got new phones. I had to pay full price for mine because of some reason that I can't remember. I so don't understand the point in paying a lot of money for a phone! But I did it. It was somewhere around $350.00! Way to much for a phone in my opinion. But it was pink and I really needed a new one. Anyways, this year Jennifer wanted to get new phones again. I was totally against it because I didn't think I would get any kind of discount again. Jennifer finally talked me into. She said that I would be able to get a $75.00 discount. So I was pretty happy about that. I finally picked out a phone that would only be $94.99 with my discount. It was a S1 by Sanyo. (Pictured below)

Now the phone I really wanted is called Rumor! The only reason I really want it is because McDreamy (Grey's Anatomy) has a Sidekick and the Rumor is the closest that Sprint comes to having a Sidekick. Everytime I watch Grey's Anatomy I want a Sidekick! For no reason other than McDreamy has one! OK I know that is a crazy reason to want something, but that's my reason. So lets move on, shall we? (Pictured below is a Rumor)

After I had finally made my decision to get the S1 by Sanyo Jennifer told me that I was actually getting a $300.00 discount! We were both so happy! Jennifer knows how much I hate spending a lot of money on phones. So the phone I am actually getting is a Centro by Palm. And it's pink!!! The best part of course. It does all kinds of cool stuff, but that doesn't matter to me. All I care about is the fact that it is pink and I didn't have to pay full price for it! After tax and everything, my phone came to $107.20! I think I'm definatly God's favorite these days!!! And just so everyone can see what my new beautiful phone will look like, there's a picture below.

Student of the Month

2008-02-08T10:58:00.000-06:00

My Anoe made Student of the Month! Kalista and Xander got it a couple of months ago and she really wanted to be the student of the month too. So now she is! Her picture is going to be in the Abilene Reporter in the "Say Cheese" section sometime soon and she'll be in the Clyde Journal soon. Actually she'll be in the Clyde Journal twice, once for Student of the Month and once for Girl Scouts. Wow, my baby is like almost famous!

I have a new skill!

2008-01-28T11:15:00.000-06:00

This past Friday my girls and I went to Red Robin to have dinner with my Mom, Step-Mom, brother and his wife. It was so much fun! My Mom and I shared a burger. And we asked the waiter if they would sing happy birthday to Anoe. I know her birthday was last week but we were kind of celebrating her birthday Friday with my parents. So anyways, Anoe loved it! She got a ice cream sundae with chocolate and had the biggest smile ever. At the table right behind us were some people from Clyde that Alexis knew. Well the boy she knew was Trenton Cauthen. I kind of sort of recognized his parents from church but not really. When school first started Alexis and Trenton became friends. She said they were boyfriend and girlfriend, but I quickly informed her she had no business having a boyfriend at her age. She could be friends with him but none of this boyfriend nonsense! Well a couple of weeks later he decided he didn't want to be "friends" with Alexis anymore because he liked some other girl. Well of course Alexis went into total 10 year old melt down and cried because she had a broken heart. I'm so not a nice sympathetic Mom when it comes to this kind of stuff. I wanted to tell her that's why she's not supposed to be worried about boys right now. But I tried really hard and told her what I thought Jennifer would say to her. It was really hard for me. I can't even remember what I said exactly. Of course with her only being 10 and having no idea what-so-ever about such things like boys and all she moved on quickly. I asked her if she still talked to Trenton awhile back when they were both on the same duty for Children's Church one day and she no. In fact her exact words were (and imagine them with a 10 year old attitude) "Ugh Mom! No!!! Gosh, don't you ever listen to me!?!?!" So I was like oh yeah I remember now. OK, so all of this to tell you the next part. We saw Trenton at the restaurant, but my back was to him and Alexis was facing him and my sister-in-law was sitting right next to Alexis so she was able to see the whole thing, and Trenton and two other little boys that were with him kept calling out Alexis' name to get her attention. Of course Alexis was putting on her perfect little smile and messing with her hair which I'm sure she thought was cute. I was like, seriously? I mean come on ya'll are in 4th freaking grade! So after that Alexis started acting right. Well when they got up to leave, Trenton made a little phone symbol with with his hand and said "Call me" to Alexis. I just looked at her and she said "No Mom I'm not going to call him, I don't have time for boys." I was glad she said that but, why in the world would she act so weird? I mean I'm trying super hard to raise her to be a good Christian little girl. Sometimes I wonder what I need to do so she'll understand that she is just way to young for all this stuff. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

But now on to my new skill! After dinner the girls and I went to Sweetwater to stay the night at my Mom's house so we could help them with the miniature golf course they're building. I made breakfast for us Saturday morning, and we were out at the lot by 9:00. I learned how to set bricks! Now of course I can't build a house or anything, but I can lay bricks around the edge of the putting green. It was such hard work! Moving all the bricks were we needed them, pulling out the weeds so the ground would be smooth so we could lay the runs down, making the mortar so the bricks would stick and not move, kneeling for hours on end on asphalt and of course there were still some pebbles. I have helped design a total of three runs, and designed design two all by myself. Like I said before it was super hard work, but it was so much fun! Sunday morning was no so fun though. I was hurting so bad! My hands are really weak and they hurt if I use them a lot. So of course they were hurting me pretty bad. I even have bruises on my knees from all the kneeling I did. I think we were all (except my freak of a brother who does manual labor all the time so it's no big deal to him) sore Sunday morning. My brother even said he was disappointed in the moral of everyone. After taking some ibuprofen we started feeling a little better but not much.We started the day by pouring concrete into two big holes that had big poles in them. It was kind of cool, I got to help use the level. And then the brick work started up again. At first I just couldn't do it. I wanted to cry I was so upset. My hand and wrist were hurting and me knees were hurting. I just went off by myself and sat down and Alexis came over to sit with me. She said she would pray for me if I wanted her to. Of course I wanted her to pray for me. She did and a little bit later I started feeling better. I was only able to brick 3 runs before I left to come home because of the slow start I had in the morning, but I'm really proud of myself for the work I did.

I almost forgot! My brother taught me how to use a skill saw too. He even let/made me cut a board for one of the runs he was making. And I did a good job. Or at least he said I did, and he didn't fix it after I was busy doing something else. On my way home I got to talk to my sister-in-law for almost 30 minutes which was really nice. She's eight months pregnant and having some problems so she could really use some prayers.

Girl Scout Cookies

2008-01-22T16:39:00.000-06:00

A couple of months I advertised Girl Scout Nuts that Alexis was selling. Well now it's time for us to sell Girl Scout Cookies! I'm super excited about this! I love Girl Scout cookies. (Who doesn't right?) Anyways, they're $3.00 a box and if you tell me your order by this Friday, January 25th, I should have them and be able to deliver them to you by February 14th! What a great Valentines present! I've listed the cookies that we are selling below. Just let me know if you want something!

Lemon Chalet Cremes - Luscious lemon sandwich cookies with a hint of cinnamon-ginger spice. Approximate count: 14 Net wt. 8 oz

Trefoils - Tender, delicate-tasting shortbread that melts in your mouth. Approximate count: 45 Net wt. 10 oz

Do-Si-Dos - Crisp, crunchy oatmeal cookies with creamy peanut butter filling. No artificial color or flavor. Approximate count: 22 Net wt. 9 oz

Samoas - Tender vanilla cookies covered with caramel on top and bottom, and then rolled in toasted coconut and striped with a rich, chocolaty coating. Approximate count: 15 Net wt. 8 oz

All Abouts - These beautifully=designed shortbread cookies have a series of Girl Scout messages embossed on top and a rich fudge coating on the bottom! No approximate count or weight given. Sorry.

Sugar Free Chocolate Chips - An explosion of chocolate flavor in a bite sized package! You won't believe this luscious, chewy treat is sugar-free. Diabetic friendly. Again no approximate count or weight given. It does sound good though even if it is sugar free!

Tagalongs - Tasty cookies topped with creamy peanut butter and covered with a luscious chocolaty coating. Approximate count: 15 Net wt. 7 oz

Thin Mints - (If you listen very closely you can almost hear the angels sing when you read about this cookie!) A thin wafer covered with a smooth chocolaty coating. EXTRA THIN! EXTRA CRISP! Made with natural peppermint. Approximate count: 40 Net wt. 10 oz

The girls are planning on making a trip to Primetime with the money they earn from selling. We're supposed to tell anyone that buys a box what we plan on doing with the money we earn. But seriously, after you see the words Thin Mint, who cares why you're selling them. All I can think of is the fact that in a few short weeks I'll be able to enjoy a nice beautiful cookie that is nowhere on my diet. Maybe I can skip lunch and dinner a couple of days so I can eat a couple of cookies everyday! Oh and you can freeze them and take them out later so you can enjoy wonderful cookies all year long.

OK, so I'm done pushing Girl Scout cookies now. Hopefully I'll be able to post all about our trip to the metroplex this past weekend!

Anoe

2008-01-18T08:26:00.001-06:00

My sweet baby girl is 6!!!!! Alexis and I woke her up singing Happy Birthday to you this morning. She had such a big smile on her face! She jumped up so we could see how much she had grown over night. We're having a little party tonight at my house for her. I'm going to make spaghetti and we'll have cake and ice cream afterwards. Then tomorrow the girls and I will leave to go to Dallas! We're going to go to The Dallas World Aquarium, then on Sunday we'll go to the Ft. Worth Zoo! I'm not sure if we're going to stay the night Sunday or not yet. We probably will though. I think it'll be so much fun! I'm sure we'll do other stuff too, I'm just not sure what exactly yet.

Anyways, I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of my sweet baby. These are all from a couple of years ago when she was 2 going on 3.

Love this picture! She's such a pretty girl.

Just look at that smile! How can you not fall in love her?

This is one of my favorite pictures of her. She looks so sweet and innocent. It just melts my heart every time I see it!

This last picture is of all three girls. Aren't they so cute?

UFO sighting

2008-01-15T14:41:00.000-06:00

Last week a whole bunch of people saw something flying in the sky. All of the people agree that it was too big and flying to fast to by an airplane. This happened in Stephenville which is only 1 hour and 32 minutes away. (According to Map Quest)I don't really think I believe in aliens, but could all of these people be mistaken? The article I read even quoted the Constable of Erath County as saying that he saw something in the sky. He did say that he didn't think it was a flying saucer though. He hoped it was just a military aircraft. At lunch when Jennifer and I were discussing the whole thing, she told me that she does believe in aliens. I told her I didn't because why would God want to create another life form. She said "Why does God do any of the stuff He does?" I said because he's great and Jennifer said because he can. But really other life forms? I don't know.

But anyways, this Friday my sweet beautiful loving Anoe turns 6! And I was planning on taking the girls out of town for the weekend, so I thought maybe we would go to Stephenville to check out all this nonsense. I'm still deliberating about it all though. What I really want to know though, what are your thoughts on extraterrestrial beings?

Bragging on my beautiful babies!

2008-01-04T16:09:00.001-06:00

Alexis brought home her report card yesterday. I was a little nervous to look at it (last time she had 2 failing grades) but not this time! She brought up all her grades! She's passing everything right now. I'm so very proud of her. She is so smart and awesome!

Today Anoe brought home a "Bulldog Bone" for the first time! A Bulldog Bone is a little not that the kids get when they do something extra good. Anoe received hers for cleaning her table and then cleaning up at another table. On Monday Anoe will get to take her Bulldog Bone to the principal and she gets two quarters for being so good! Which is very exciting for a little girl. I also just found out that after she gets her two quarters (not fifty cents) she can buy a pencil from the pencil dispenser up by the office. She's even more excited about the pencil than the two quarters or getting recongnized for her good behavior. She's so silly.

Anyways, I just wanted to let everyone know how awesome my babies are!

Happy New Years!

2008-01-01T10:53:00.000-06:00

Night before last I had a really awesome dream. I really don't want to share it, but I really feel like it was God promising me something that I really want. I did tell Alexis a little about the dream and she's agreed to have faith with me that the dream was from God!

I actually stayed up last night until after midnight. We had a little party here at our house. It was so much fun. We had a bunch of finger foods like hot wings, chicken strips, vegetables with dip, cheese sticks, jalapeno poppers and some other stuff. We set up little stations for the kids to play different games. The big kids were playing Twister in the hall, the smaller kids were playing Kitchen in the play room and some of the other kids were playing some other games that were age appropriate. The adults watched Harry Potter 1 & 2. Then at midnight we (who were still awake) had a glass of Sparkling White Grape Juice (bubbly). My kids didn't really like the taste of it. Alexis said it tasted like wine, I asked her how she knew what wine tasted like and she said she didn't really know, but she was sure it was nasty and the bubbly was nasty. She also told me that beer is even nastier! I told her she was right on that one. It was a really fun night.

Jennifer and I switched cars yesterday because she's going out of town today and my car gets much better gas mileage. I'm really pumped about this little arrangement. I LOVE driving Jennifer's car. It's so much fun.

I hope everyone had a great New Years!

Worship

2007-12-19T11:35:00.000-06:00

This past Sunday at church we didn't have a sermon. We only had worship time! I loved it so much. I love when Bryan preaches, but I really needed this extra worship time this week. I've been struggling with some emotional stuff this past week and all that extra worship on Sunday so helped.

It's really hard for me to open with people. Usually Jennifer is the only person that really and truelly knows what I'm feeling. It was even hard to open up to her about this.

My "girl" doctor put me on birth control pills to try to regulate some "girl" problems I've been having. I'm only supposed to have to take the pills for one month. I've been on the pills for 2 & 1/2 weeks now. My emotions are out of control! One minute I'm happy, the next I'm angry. It's just crazy. Well last week I started feeling like I didn't want anything to do with my children. Now if you know me, you know how much I love my kids. They're everything to me. But I was feeling like I didn't want them around me, I didn't want them talking to me. It was getting pretty bad. I was even thinking about calling their dad's and telling them they needed to take the girls for a couple of weeks. I needed a break! It's so unrealistic to think either of my kids could really go stay with their dads. The girls and I are always snuggling with each other, but I didn't even want them hugging me. Well Saturday I was talking to my Mom about how I was feeling and I totally had an emotional break down. My Mom is usually not very good with the "let me hug you and make you feel good thing", but she was awesome this time. She held me, let me cry all I wanted, and just listened to me. She even offered to take the girls for a while. I said no, but I really did not want the girls around me. I don't like being mean to them!

Well on the ride home from Sweetwater, I just started praying that God would help me with these emotions. I started feeling better right away! By the time we had gotten home, the girls and I had made plans to watch Santa Clause 1 & 2 together that night. We snuggled, tickled each other, and just had a lot of fun. I'm still struggling with my emotions being all out of whack, but I refuse to be mean or unhappy with my kids. They're both so awesome. And thanks to my wonderful sister, I had a night alone with Anoe last night, and I'm having a night alone with Alexis tonight.

Good Morning Baltimore

2007-12-13T13:03:00.000-06:00

There are times that I seriously wonder if Jennifer really does love me. I mean I know she does because we're sisters, but does she really CARE about me and what I feel? For example, she doesn't mind pointing out that I really don't know how to fix my hair very well. Or a couple of weeks ago when I was having a really stressful morning, she so nicely pointed out that I would look so much better if I were to put some make up on. All those doubts I had, are so out the window now! My ringer when I call Jennifer the song "Good Morning Baltimore" from the Hairspray soundtrack plays! I love that song. I'm always singing and dancing to it. OK well I do it a lot at home where no one can see me acting crazy. But anyways, Jennifer knows how much I enjoy the song. So at least for now I have no doubt that she loves me for how cool I am.

Nothing really

2007-12-12T15:39:00.000-06:00

I really don't have anything to blog about, but I'm in an extremely good mood! I love days like today. The weather is cold and it's cloudy and kind of dreary looking outside. I just love it. I finally got my check from BCRAC Monday. I am way pumped about that.

This past Monday at our Girl Scout meeting I talked to the girls about sending a care package to a soldier that has little to no support. The girls LOVED this idea. What's even better is that the parents LOVED the idea. Some of the parents actually talked in length to me about this. There have only been two of the mom's/grandmothers speak to me more than just to say hi, what does she need to bring, and bye. Everyone is excited about this. And this gets to count as our service project which is extremely awesome. Anyways, Monday night the girls made the soldier we're sending stuff to some cards. They're all awesome. And today I mailed them off along with a package of goodies for another soldier that my girls I are wanting to support while he is gone. I was told by Ann that they should be coming home in late January. I would really like our troop to take on another soldier to send packages to even after these soldiers are home safely.

Oh and yesterday was a day that could of put me in overload! (Please also notice the lack of exclamation marks in this post Jennifer) Anyways, 3 GOOD movies came out on DVD yesterday. Harry Potter, Lost Season 3, and High School Musical 2. I love them all. My girls are giving my Lost Season 3 for Christmas so I'll definitely have to go buy it this week while it's still on sale. Why do they have to release good movies so close to Christmas? I'm sure it's all in their evil plan to make us spend more money. But they're not going to make me. Oh no, I have self control.......until I get to the store and see the sale price anyways. I'll at least try not to buy them. OK well I'll try not to think about them. Oh who am I kidding? I'm so buying them. I'll just give Anoe High School Musical 2 for a Christmas present and Alexis Harry Potter. Now they're justifiable buys. Yay me!!!

Weird stuff

2007-12-10T13:14:00.000-06:00

Anoe has this really weird habit of saying good bye to inanimate objects when she has to leave them. Whatever little toy she brings in the morning for the drive to school, she literally has to kiss it good bye before she gets out of the car. Well this past weekend I was actually child free for awhile. I went to Target to get some laundry soap and stuff while the girls were gone. While there I decided I would go ahead and get us all new toothbrushes. Alexis needed a new one because she didn't like the one the dentist gave her and I've been a really bad Mom and haven't gone to the store to get her a new one. (OK so really I'm not a bad Mom, but it really is hard for me to remember to get a toothbrush for her when no one else needs one.) So anyways, I went ahead and just got all of us a new one because it's so much easier to remember to pick up three toothbrushes in March than to pick two up in February and one in March. Sunday when I told the girls they each have new toothbrushes Anoe was excited because her new one has Dora on it. (again) I took the old ones and was about to throw them in the trash when Anoe said "No wait! I have to say something first." I was like OK whatever. She laid them all down on the counter and picked up my toothbrush first and said "Good bye Mommy toothbrush" and gave it a kiss. Then she got Alexis' toothbrush and said "Good bye sissy toothbrush" gave it a kiss and did the same thing to hers. When she was done I just grabbed them and threw them in the bathroom trash can like it was no big deal. Anoe totally looked sad and told me she was sad that I threw them away. To make her happy I told her she could open her new toothbrush and brush her teeth if she wanted. She smiled really big and said OK. As far as I know she hasn't thought about the old toothbrushes again. This kid is so full of love, sometimes it's a little freaky.

Growing Up

2007-12-06T13:41:00.000-06:00

Everyone is talking about how much their kids are growing up. I'm trying super hard to ignore all the "signs" of Alexis getting older. Every time I turn around though it's being thrown in my face! Seriously can't she just be OK with being my little girl forever? Is that really so much to ask? I mean I did extremely well when we had to go buy some training bras. (Don't tell Alexis I told you about that. She gets embarrassed when I talk about that.) I even took it in stride when she was having friends call her and they would talk for long periods of time. And laugh over nothing. I was OK with all of this. Kind of anyways. Yesterday Alexis informed me that she was invited to go skating this Friday with her friend Hayley from school. Tuesday was Hayley's birthday and instead of a birthday party she wanted to go skating with some of her friends. I was totally OK with this. I called Hayley's Mom to confirm that Alexis would be allowed to go. Her Mom said Alexis could stay the night with them since we live in Abilene and it would be hard for me to come back out here to get Alexis when the were done skating. I asked her when she thought they would be done and the Mom said "I was planning on picking them up from the skating rink around 10." My little brain had a really hard time comprehending this statement. I just told the Mom that I would be able to pick her up but thank you for offering to let her stay the night. When we got off the phone it took me awhile to realize that Alexis had been invited to her first "girls night". The girls were going to be dropped off at the skating rink. As in the Mom's were not supposed to stay and make sure nothing bad happened to them. What if there was a horrible stampede accident and Alexis got ran over. Who would be there to make sure she was OK? Who would be able to dry her tears and give her hugs and kisses in case she got hurt?

After talking to Jennifer about this today, I'm pretty sure I will allow Alexis to go. And no I will not be hiding in the shadows watching her. Alexis really does deserve to have some big girl time without Anoe around. And since she's started school in Clyde she really hasn't been able to hang out with any of her friends. When she used to go to Taylor, she would stay the night with her friend Shaq and they would go walk around the mall or something fun like that.

Please pray that my heart is able to take Alexis pulling away from me and becoming a young lady instead of a little girl. I'm so blessed that she's being raised totally differently than Jennifer and I were. I don't have to worry about her doing any of the things I was doing at her age.

Stuff

2007-12-04T11:22:00.000-06:00

It's really been awhile since I last posted. Not that much has really been going on. I LOVED the snow we got for Thanksgiving. My kids and I went outside and had a snow ball fight Sunday afternoon. We had so much fun. I'll try to get the pictures posted as soon as possible.

This past Saturday Anoe and I went out to Sweetwater to help my Mom with the Gooney Golf Course they're making. I have to say this is one of the best memories I have of spending time with my Mom. Usually my Mom is kind of mean and I really don't like spending a lot of time around her. Especially if Symantha's not there to keep her under control. Anoe and I got there about noon and we went straight to the lot where my Mom was doing something. After about an hour or so Symantha called and asked if I would mind bringing Anoe over so Anoe could help her get all the Christmas decorations out of the attic. So I took Anoe over to Symantha and went back to the lot with my Mom ALL BY MYSELF! Yeah I was pretty nervous about how things would end up. At least with Anoe there I was able to be sidetracked most of the time so I couldn't get my feelings hurt or anything by my Mom. When I got back my Mom and I just started hanging the plywood and putting insulation up and all kinds of cool stuff. We had so much fun! It was great. We got A LOT of work done and had a good time. During our breaks we talked about all kinds of things. Nothing deep or life changing, but just about everyday stuff. I really feel like I know a whole other side of my Mom now. And I'm totally excited about this new side of her. I'm seriously looking forward to going back out there weekend after next. There's also a church in Sweetwater that my Mom wants to try out, and I'm going to go with her weekend after next.

My cousin Audrey who I have posted about before got saved about a month ago and this past Sunday she was baptized at the church she attends in Sweetwater. Jennifer and I went church with my cousin and aunt Sunday so we could watch the baptism. It was so great! I'm so happy that my cousin has given her life to the Lord!

One other thing. I really need prayers! Before I got this job working for the J.P. here in Clyde, I was the admin assistant for Big Country Regional Advisory Council. Pretty much we handled federal money and divided it up between all the different counties in the Big Country. When I left BCRAC they asked if I would still do the website for $125 a month. I said yes and this past summer they raised the amount I get paid to $225 a month. I still have not received payment for the work I did in October though. I've emailed the Executive Coordinator several times, and he's left me a message on my phone saying he would get the check out right away. That was last Monday though. And I still haven't seen the check and he won't respond to my emails. I really don't know what to do. So if you could please pray that this situation resolves it self soon that would be great!

Embarrassing Moments

2007-11-15T15:27:00.000-06:00

This actually happened a really long time ago but it's pretty embarrassing! Some of the details are a little fuzzy but I remember enough to relay the funny part. This happened like 9 years ago!! OK so anyways, Jennifer and I were trying to follow her boyfriend. I was driving and we were in Sweetwater. Well he came to a stop sign, and stopped then went on across the street. Well, since we were trying to catch him I went through the stop sign. A few blocks later I got pulled over. When the officer came to the window to get all the usual information. He asked me if I knew why he had pulled me over. Me being the horrible criminal I am, told him because I ran the stop sign back there? He said no. So I tried again, because my registration is out. Again the answer was no. He finally asked "What is your sister doing that you're not doing?" I said looking in the glove compartment for the insurance. I'm pretty sure by this time he either thought I was retarded or seriously blonde! He kind of rolled his eyes and said no again! I was like dang what in the world is wrong with this guy?!?!?! So finally Jennifer says wearing a seat belt. So in turn I asked him if wearing a seat belt was what he meant. Finally I guessed the right answer. I can't remember for sure but I don't think he gave me a ticket for all the extra stuff I told him I had done wrong.

Something silly about me

2007-11-05T13:19:00.000-06:00

You know how something really small can make you feel just a little bit happier? Sometimes it's something that someone else doesn't even notice or care about. Well, I get these jokes e-mailed to me from Beliefnet. Well after you click on the link to read the actual joke there's this little face on the original e-mail that winks at you. I seriously wait for it to wink before I push the delete button. I mean I know it winks at everyone, but it makes me feel special. Like they sent me a special e-mail with a good clean joke. I know this sounds silly and weird but I really enjoy it. Some other people had posted a couple of weeks ago about some things they did that was a little weird. And I've been trying to think of something I'm not scared to let everyone know about. I don't want to scare off anyone with some of the things I say/think/do! Believe me Jennifer knows what I'm talking about. I seriously say/think/do some crazy weird stuff sometimes.

Nuts About Wildlife

2007-10-29T13:11:00.001-05:00

That is the "theme" for the Girl Scouts nut sale this year. We officially start selling nuts on Thursday the 1st. It's kind of exciting. So I'm going to list what we're selling and the price in case anybody wants to buy something. (And because I'm extremely bored!)

Honey Roasted Peanuts (30 oz) $8.00
Peanut Brittle (8 oz) $7.00*
Mint Trefoils (6 oz) $7.00*
Whole Cashews (8 oz) $6.00
Choc. Cvrd. Almonds (10 oz) $6.00
Deluxe Mixed Nuts (8 oz) $6.00
Pecan Supremes (5 oz) $5.00
Double Dipped Choc. Cvrd. Peanuts (10 oz) $5.00
Butter Toffee Peanuts (10 oz) $4.00
Peanut Squares (9 oz) $4.00
Malted Milk Balls (8.75 oz) $4.00
Spicy Cajun Mix (7 oz) $4.00

*The Peanut Brittle and Mint Trefoils (my favortie) come in cute little tins. The Peanut Brittle is in a tin with snowmen on the front and the Mint Trefoils are in a Limited Edition Collector's Tin to celebrate the 95th anniversary of Girl Scouts. OK so that's all the news I have on the Girl Scout front. Hope to have something exciting to tell you about soon.

Child Support

2007-10-26T14:26:00.000-05:00

Last Friday I was sitting at home watching Hannah Montana with the girls when Ms. Judy brought in the mail. She said I had a check. I was like what? A check? Who in the world could be sending me a check and how did she know. Well when I looked, it was a child support check! I was so excited! I was just thinking about some stuff I really needed but really didn't have the money for it all. I was trying to decide what we could do without and what we absolutely had to have. So here I am looking at this child support check, and I'm thanking God for sending me an answer to my prayer! Well I open it up to see how much it is. It is in the amount of $1.00! A freaking dollar. What the heck?!?! What is the point? I mean seriously, it cost more to print and send that check to me. I was so upset! I called Jennifer and told her about it and when we got off the phone I started praying again. I finally was just like whatever. If a dollar is all he (I had no idea if it was from Alexis or Anoe's dad) can afford to send that is fine. We'll be OK. I asked the girls if they wanted to go play at the playground so I could walk and of course they were excited about that. So here I am walking at a nice fast walk, my heart is beating fast, I'm starting to feel pretty good and Anoe's dad calls. He asked what I was doing and if I wanted to meet him at Target so he could buy Alexis a Halloween costume. I told him that the costume Alexis wanted was at Wal-Mart. So he said he would meet us there. She got to pick out the costume she really wanted but I wasn't willing to spend $20.00 on an outfit she would only wear a couple of times. He also got Anoe a new pair of shoes which she really needed! I was so happy he called and actually followed through with what he said he would do. Next Friday he's supposed to buy Alexis a jacket.

The Best Boss EVER!!!!

2007-10-18T15:34:00.000-05:00

OK so I know I've said plenty of times that I have the best boss ever. But let me reiterate this fact of life. A while back I mentioned that Chicken Express had the best sweet tea in all of Abilene. It's super sweet, just the way I like it. I mean you can practically feel the sugar going down. That's how sweet it is. I love it! Well today Roy had a doctor's appointment, he had some polyps removed from his nose. On his way back to Clyde, he stopped and got me a sweet tea from Chicken Express! I'm just so blessed to have such an awesome boss!

Lots and lots of stuff

2007-10-16T10:49:00.000-05:00

It seems like so much has happened since the last time I posted, but yet nothing has happened! So I'll just start naming things as they come to mind.

Last Wednesday (October 10)I went to the doctor for these headaches I had been having for about a week and a half. Let me tell you, they were making me a very mean person! My head was hurting so bad I was constantly irritated which of course meant the girls were in trouble ALL the time! Poor kids. Lucky for them I didn't even feel up to giving out pops. Seriously I'm glad I didn't. I was mad for stupid stuff, stuff that they're supposed to do. Like oh I don't know, asking me to help them with homework or washing their hair while they're in the shower. Yeah it was pretty bad. But Trish really helped. I got 3 shots and had some blood drawn. I didn't have a single headache yesterday! I was so happy!!! And I was in such a good mood. I also went to see Dr. Sloan for a foot problem on Wednesday. Nothing exciting there.

On Sunday the 7th, I was blessed at church by a really awesome friend with money to cover my co-pay at both doctor's appointments. That was awesome!

Girl Scouts are going pretty good. Jennifer and I have devised a plan for Thursdays! I'm super excited to start our new schedule. Anoe has Girl Scouts from 6:15 to 7:15 every Thursday. Instead of me having to stay in town until 7:15, Jennifer is going to pick up Anoe every Thursday and Anoe will stay the night with her. That will give me one night a week to spend alone with Alexis (or Rochelle as she is now known to all her friends at school). I have been so busy lately, this is really going to help!

I found out last week that next year I will be in Galveston for Court Clerk school in the middle of May. Which just so happens to be the week of Alexis' birthday. So I'm going to Galveston for school from May 13th to May 16th. I get out of school at noon on the 16th. Jennifer is going to bring all the kids down with her on the 16th and we're going to spend Alexis' birthday at the beach!!! In case you missed the post where I said I LOVED the beach, well I seriously loved it! I really think I need to move closer to the beach. I'm really hoping God will make a way for me to move closer to the beach instead of Clyde next summer.

We were in the parade for the Pecan Festival here in Clyde. It was actually a lot of fun. We got together Friday evening at Jennifer's to decorate the float. Almost all the girls in my troop showed up to help decorate. The girls really are sweet. I think I actually might learn some stuff from them as well as them learning from me.

The last thing I can think of is the best and most important! I seriously believe I'm God's favorite in the entire world!!! I love raining/foggy weather. This has been the year for rain and fog! It's almost 2:00 and it's still cloudy outside. It's not to hot, really it hasn't been that hot at all this year. I love this weather! So in my book, God is really loving on me this year!!!

Girl Scouts sell nuts?

2007-10-02T08:37:00.000-05:00

Yeah, who knew the girl scouts sell nuts? I sure didn't! Of course everyone knows about the most delicious cookies we will sell in January, but nuts? Come on!!! Anyways, last night was our weekly troop meeting. Three girls showed up last night that had not shown up the previous week. One of the little girls "A" was super awesome. She was helpful, she listened. She was just awesome. Girl "C" I think has a few problems. She was really hard to understand and very immature for her age. But she was super sweet too. She even made me a snowflake! Girl "M"....... well lets just say Girl "M" is the type of child that makes me not want to do this whole Troop Leader thing. But I am NOT a quitter, so by the end of the year I bet she'll be my favorite girl. (OK not really but I'm really trying hard to convince myself) OK, so back to the meeting. We split the girls up into two groups, I had one group of girls with me in the kitchen making blender drinks while the other group was with Rene making grilled cheese sandwiches. The first group to make their drinks, put ice cream, chocolate syrup, honey roasted nuts, whipped topping, and bananas in it. The second group put ice cream, chocolate syrup, honey, whipped topping, strawberries, and sprinkles in theirs. I didn't try either one but I'm pretty sure they were a little to sweet! But hey they're kids and I didn't have to keep them all night.

After the troop meeting, there was a Nut training and Area service meeting. We were supposed to be done by 8:00 which is OK, I'd still get home before 9:00 and be able to spend a little bit of time with Anoe before we went to bed. Oh no!!! I left the meeting at 9:00. They weren't done yet but I told them I had to go because my "babysitter" thought I would be there to pick up Anoe by 8:30. (Jennifer had Anoe and she didn't care how late it was. Anoe was really good for her.) Some of the meeting was really good and informative, but the last 30 - 45 minutes they were only talking about Girl "M" that is in my troop. They've had some other problems with her trying to take over the younger girls troop meeting. I just kept thinking to my self that I just repented the night before for thinking stuff that I should not think about people. This was so not helping. And Alexis was there with me so she heard everything that was said. I do know that Girl "M" was annoying last night during our meeting, but I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the way she is being brought up. Nobody raises their children the same way. We'll just have to work on teaching what type of behavior is allowed in the Girl Scout Hut.

So on November 1 we will start selling nuts. I have the brochure and all already. I'll post stuff about the actual sell when November 1 is a little closer. Oh and one other thing. Anybody that knows me very well, knows how much I LOVE order and organization. Well the Girl Scout Hut is the most unorganized and dirty place ever! I plan on spending one whole meeting on cleaning and organizing the place in the next couple of weeks! Oh how I love to organize! I'm super excited about this!!!

Love/Hate Relationships

2007-10-01T13:30:00.000-05:00

We all have Love/Hate relationships! You Love to Hate them and Hate to Love them. UGH!!! Why oh why do we have to have these types of relationships? Why can't everything just be beautiful and perfect with pink flowers everywhere? OK so that was a little much, but you get the idea. I have a Love/Hate relationship with repentance. I love it because I'm getting closer and closer to God and it feels so good to repent of something and start over with a new slate! But I hate it because I really don't prefer to admit when I'm wrong or when my thinking has been wrong.

Well, the sermon on Sunday showed me some stuff that was wrong in my thinking. I felt so convicted! And I have since repented to both of the people involved. Jennifer, my beautiful sister and Laura, a lady that lives across the hall from me. I felt really good after I repented to Laura! I now know my thinking was so wrong! And I have changed my thinking of the situtation.

Cheap Fun

2007-09-26T15:47:00.001-05:00

Last Friday when I was shopping for a birthday present for Kalista I saw some glow in the dark nail polish they had out for Halloween. I bought some so the girls could paint their nails on Halloween. Well last night Anoe found it and wanted her nails to be green. I tried to explain to her that her nails wouldn't be green, they would actually glow in the dark. She thought that would be the best thing ever. So I was like whatever, let's do this. So I painted both of the girls finger nails and their toe nails as well as my finger nails. We turned off all the lights in my room but it wasn't dark enough yet so we all got in my closet and wiggles our fingers at each other. After awhile it got a little cramped in the closet so we decided to go to the bathroom. It was so much fun. The girls would take turns dancing around while we watched their feet and hands glow in the dark. We would have to turn the lights on every once in awhile so polish could re-absorb some light. We stayed in there for almost an hour playing! The girls had so much fun! And it was a really cheap fun thing to do! The polish only cost $1.67 +tax! Clean, honest, cheap fun! How much better does it get?

One Year Anniversary

2007-09-25T13:14:00.000-05:00

Today is my one year anniversary for working as a Court Clerk in Callahan County! I'm so excited about this. Last night I was thinking about how much I have changed in the last year. One short year ago today I was scared and nervous and didn't really think I could do this job. Now I'm pretty confident in the answers I give and answering questions. Even dealing with the people that aren't very nice. I've learned to just pray for them and not to take it personal. They're really not mad at me, but I am the one they talk to, so I'm the one that has to hear it. I was constantly in Judge Chapman's office asking him questions. It seemed like I was having to ask the same questions over and over again. I still have to ask questions every once in awhile (especially since a whole bunch of new laws just went into effect) but I'm not asking as many as I was before. I didn't think I was going to like my boss, he seemed kind of mean. But now I totally love my boss and his wife! I quickly found out after the lady that was here before left, that my boss is absolutely awesome! He even sent me a rose today and the card read Happy Anniversary. I even called him by his first name instead of Judge Chapman three times today. This was the first time I've ever called him by his first name to his face and I've only called him Roy a couple of times when talking about him to other people. I am so blessed that my sister told me about this job! And my boss is super nice to my kids! Anoe loves him to death!

So, yay me for making it this first year! I'm so excited to see what this next year brings!

Osama bin Laden

2007-09-12T11:57:00.000-05:00

I tried to post my feelings about 9/11/01 around 5 or 6 times yesterday. I just couldn't do it. My heart breaks so much when I think what that one day has done to our Country! I remember that I was on my way back to work from dropping off Alexis at pre K. The DJ on the radio station I was on was cracking jokes about it. Of course as more light was shed on the situation all the jokes stopped. I was the manager at the Allsup's on 14th at the time. We were super busy that with everyone buying gas.

Every year I talk with the girls about what happened and why we're at war. And every year I get upset and cry a lot! Yesterday was no exception. Jennifer and I talked about it a little over lunch but she usually doesn't like to talk about that kind of stuff because of how upset I get. We were talking about what an awesome testimony it would be if Osama bin Laden came to knew God! Oh my goodness! I got so excited about the idea of bin Laden developing a relationship with God. How awesomely great would that be? So I decided that I would start praying for him. And not the usual prayer of God please show him what he is doing is wrong or for God to release a plague on him or anything. I mean I actually prayed that his eyes would be open to God and he would see that what he is doing is wrong. It was extremely hard for me to pray for him but I felt really good that I did. Of course I also prayed for all the families that lost loved ones, and the families that have lost loved ones in the war.

Being the leader I never knew I wanted to be

2007-09-07T11:33:00.000-05:00

Last night Jennifer and I registered the girls in Girl Scouts. I was thinking it'd be a lot of fun for the girls and a great hook up on some Girl Scout cookies. I wouldn't have to look for someone selling cookies anymore! They would be living in my house! How much better does it get? Oh yeah and they would build life long friendships and learned some stuff or whatever. You know it's really all about the cookies. Well as it turns out about 50% of the girls in Alexis troop are being raised by their grandparents. This makes me sad on two different levels. 1.) What in the heck happened to my generation? Why is it so hard for the men and women my age to grow up and take care of their children? It's not our parents job to raise our children.** Not only is it hurting the kids because they don't have their Mom or Dad, but it's hurting the grandparents as well. The best thing about being a grandparent is that you're supposed to be able to spoil your grandchild and then send them home to wreck havoc! Not have to raise them!!! 2.) I got suckered into being Alexis' troop leader. I know NOTHING about Girl Scouts. Other than the cookie thing. Oh and what I saw on that movie Troop Beverly Hills but I seriously doubt I'll have anything like that happening with my troop. The lady who was the Troop Leader last year was actually Troop Leader of 3 different troops. So needless to say she's cutting back this year. I so don't blame her. She has said she'll help me with whatever I need help with and she's "only a phone call away". We are in Clyde so she seriously could be at my rescue within 2 minutes tops. Please pray that God gives me strength and guidance! I don't want this to be known as the worst year or troop ever because I have no clue what is going on!

Alexis will be a "Junior", Anoe will be a "Brownie", and Kalista will be a "Daisy"! Everyone is excited! I think all in all this is going to be good for them as well as me. I really do want to get involved in the community more, so here's my first step. Just be prepared to buy some Girl Scout cookies whenever it's time!

**Disclaimer - If the parents have passed away or are in the military I totally understand why the grandparents are raising their grandchildren. I just don't understand the ones who think it's more important to get drunk or high than raising their children. But on the other hand it's probably better that they live with their grandparents instead of being abused. I have so many different feelings on this subject!

Labor Day weekend

2007-09-04T15:47:00.000-05:00

I was planning on the Labor Day weekend being full of rest and relaxation! I borrowed a book from Jennifer and was planning on reading the entire weekend. Yeah I only got to read a little bit Monday evening.

I woke up around 6:30 on Saturday for some crazy reason. Usually Anoe is up by 7:00 am on the weekends so I thought I would just stay up since she should be waking up soon. She didn't wake up until 9:00!!! That's amazing for Anoe. About 11 o'clock we went to Shoe Carnival so I could get the girls some shoes. There were so many crickets and beetles on the side of the building you couldn't even see the paint! It was the grossest thing ever. I do not like bugs at all. So of course I was seriously rethinking going inside the store. Alexis held one hand and Anoe held my other hand and they walked me in the store. Alexis had to let go of my hand at one point so she could open the door so I didn't have to stop walking at all. I was so freaked out! My friend Laura, that also lives at HHC met me at Shoe Carnival. When I was done we all went to Target. She needed to get her kids some long sleeve shirts and I wanted to get mine some more panties and socks. Target is just down the road from Shoe Carnival and there were NO crickets there. It was crazy. So for lunch we deciced to go to Chili's. I really felt bad for our waiter. He was really being over worked. Or at least that's my excuse for his poor waiting habits. Saturday afternoon I totally rearranged our rooms. I totally changed rooms with the girls! I really like the change so far. For dinner we made homemade pizzas. The girls loved it and it was actually a pretty cheap meal. And so much fun!

After church on Sunday I went and got some chicken and we had a picnic at my house. It was a lot of fun too. Everyone really liked it until the mosquitos came out. Jennifer helped me finish up my room and she took Anoe with her to Clyde for a little while. After I finished my laundry Alexis and I went out to Clyde to hang out with Jennifer and Kalista. (Xander was with his dad.) We came home around 11 o'clock. I thought we would go straight to bed, but Anoe put Are We Done Yet? on and I stayed up until it was over.

My Step-Mom called me pretty early Monday morning so I didn't really get to sleep in but that was ok. We ended up going out to Sweetwater for a little bit. I got to help my brother put trim up around the windows outside. It was pretty fun also.

All in all, we had a really awesome weekend! Hope everyone else did too!

First Week of School

2007-09-03T08:47:00.000-05:00

So this week has been an extremely busy week! The girls started school, I was really sick one day, and I've actually been having to do work at work. What the heck? Usually I do a little work, read some blogs, do a little work, do whatever, you know just work at my own pace so I don't run out of stuff to do. I was off Monday for the kids first day, so of course Tuesday was pretty busy. Then on Wednesday morning I started feeling a little nauseous. I felt that way all day. I started actually getting sick later in the day. It was the worse day ever. When I got home I fixed a plate of Pizza Rolls for the kids and when they were done I went to bed. I was asleep by 7:15 pm. I totally expected to wake up to some pretty horrible messes the next morning. But my sweet and kind Alexis picked up ALL the messes Anoe had made! Alexis is so sweet to me when I'm sick.

But on to the first week of school...

Anoe- LOVES school! She's made some new friends and is really enjoying herself. The first couple of days were a little rough after school, but she's getting used to all the new rules and stuff. On the first day of school I picked Anoe up from school and took some pictures of her, then we went to Alexis school so we could pick her up. When Alexis came up we went up to her so I could take some pictures of her too. Anoe was so excited to see her she was hugging her so hard it was hurting Alexis. Alexis tried telling her to stop but Anoe wasn't stopping. So Alexis finally had to push her off and Anoe fell to the ground. Anoe got mad because Alexis had "choked" and pushed her. (Anoe really can be such a drama queen sometimes!) So Alexis wanted me to meet her new friend, but Anoe crossed her arms across her chest and took off running to the car. We parked in the parking lot on the school property but you have to cross the "street" to get to it. Instead of meeting Alexis new friend I had to chase down Anoe and scold her about running out in the street. The next day of after-school wasn't any easier! After the bus drops them off 1/2 a block away they come to my work for snacks and if I can remember to bring "play" clothes they change. On Tuesday after work we all go to the Library since they're open til 6 on Tuesdays. So when the 5 o'clock bells ring Anoe takes off and runs across the street again! Alexis and I are following her so that I can talk to Anoe again about why she shouldn't cross the street without looking and that stuff. Instead of going to the Library Anoe turns the corner to go to Jennifer's house. Alexis and I just keep going to the Library and Anoe follows us when she realizes we're not following her anymore. I make the girls take turns on who will be able to borrow a movie from the Library. The last two times Anoe had got the movie so I told her it was Alexis turn this time but she could get a book if she wanted. She got mad and yelled at me IN THE library! Can I tell you how much that upset me? So I take her outside and Jennifer and her kids are walking up to go to the Library so I ask Jennifer if Alexis can go in with her so she doesn't have to punished for Anoe. I grab Anoe by the hand and we start walking back to my work. By this time Anoe has earned 2 pops and she crying because she doesn't want them and she wants to get a movie. I'm just like whatever just get in the car. Well as I'm getting all of our stuff in the car Anoe goes up on the sidewalk and starts crying even louder. The police station is now located right next to my work, and all the police people on duty come out to see what is going on. I told them it was just my daughter throwing a fit. They thought someone had gotten hurt. I was thinking in my head, "Oh's she's going to be hurt" but of course I didn't say that to him. So anyways, back to the police officer. He's talking to Anoe and asks her if she wants to come in the police station to look at the drug dog. Anoe says yes and in we go. While we're in the police station the Police Chief is asking her questions like what grade is she in, how old is she, does she like school. You know all questions that she should be able to answer easily. Oh no not my Anoe! She keeps shrugging her shoulders and saying I don't know. She kept trying to touch stuff on the secretary's desk and I told her no. Then she yelled at me "You're going to make me mad!" The police officer asked her why she was going to get mad at her Mom and she said "Because she's mean!" I was so embarrassed! When we finally got in the car I was fuming! I drove to the library to see if Alexis was ready to leave yet. Jennifer said she could stay the night so Anoe and I left. Anoe cried the entire way home! I was so mad I couldn't even talk to her. I just kept praying God would help me. My step-mom called and wanted to know if we wanted to meet for dinner since she was in town. Anoe and I went, and my brother and his wife came also. It was fun. Symantha pretty much maintained Anoe so I didn't have to deal with her. When we did get home Anoe had to go to her room and I stayed out in the living room watching TV. I still couldn't bring myself to pop Anoe. I was still so mad with her.

The rest of the week went a ot better! I think she had to get used to all the new stuff. She's been going to the same daycare since she was two. So this whole starting school is a major thing in her world. At daycare the kids took a 2 1/2 to 3 hour nap every day and now at school they only have a 30 minute rest period. It takes Anoe at least 30 minutes to just calm down and get settled. So I know she's not taking a nap anymore. I'm really trying to take all this in consideration, but sometimes it's so hard!

Alexis- Loves her new school. Of course she has a lot of new friends. She is a social butterfly after all. Her teacher is super sweet and she really likes everything about her new school. On the first day of school as we were chasing Anoe across the street she said "This was the best day ever!" I was so happy to hear that. I've been so worried about how the whole move would affect her. (In retrospect I should have been worrying a little more about Anoe) Alexis made friends with a little boy that she kind of knew from church. His name is Trenton. (I'm not sure if I spelled his name right) They've talked on the phone everyday since Tuesday! He even sat with her during worship on Sunday. There's really not much to tell about Alexis first week of school. Pretty uneventful. She's really happy and everything is going good so far!

Meet the teacher...

2007-08-26T15:00:00.000-05:00

Thursday was meet the teacher in Clyde. The girls were totally pumped about this! Anoe absolutely detests the daycare. And Alexis doesn't care to much for it either. So we got to the Elementary about 5:40 and went in to meet Anoe's teacher. Anoe has Mrs. Caffey. She was really sweet! I found out later that she's a member of the Methodist church in Clyde. I love it when my kids have christian teachers! It makes things so much better. Last year Alexis' teacher was a Pastor in Hamby (I think that's the town). It was really awesome. She actually encouraged the kids to pray during the day. One time around Christmas this past year Alexis actually asked the whole class to stop so they could pray! I love that Alexis wasn't afraid to ask everyone to pray and I love that her teacher encouraged it! OK but anyways back to meet the teacher... Anoe really liked her teacher and she really liked her classroom. She even made a friend. She had the biggest smile ever on her face when she found her chair with her name on it. I really should have taken a camera but I forgot to bring one. After meeting Anoe's teacher, we went to the Intermediate school to meet Alexis' teacher. Alexis has Mrs. Volks. She's new to Clyde this year, but she was really sweet too. She even knew who Troy from High School Musical was. That's some major points in our family. We're major HSM fans! Alexis class was really neat looking too. Alexis likes her teacher also.

Earlier today Jennifer and I were talking about how much less stress I'm going to have this year since my kids are going to school in Clyde. I won't have to rush to Abilene to make sure I pick them up by 6:00. And on Tuesdays the library in Clyde is open until 6:00 so we'll be able to go to the library every Tuesday after work. And I'll be able to stay the night with Jennifer sometimes, so that'll help save some gas. I really hated feeling all rushed after work! I don't have to worry about that at all now.

I'm also going to start going back to Curves this Tuesday! I haven't been since we got back from vacation back in June. I know, I know, I know, there is no excuse! So I'm not even going to try and make one. I was just being lazy and didn't feel like going. But not anymore! I will NOT fail this time!

I'll post soon about their actual first days. Hopefully I'll have pictures to go with it!

Embarrassing Alexis

2007-08-22T11:34:00.000-05:00

When I was a little girl I always said to myself that when I had children I would never embarrass them like my Mom did to me. Well, as it turns out I was wrong. I embarrassed Alexis. I didn't mean to, but I did.

A couple of weeks ago the girls and I went out to dinner with my brother, Katie, Breanne (a friend of Katie and Joeys) and Breanne's 13 year old brother Blake. We went to Ta'Mollys and after we all ordered our drinks and a bowl of queso we were talking and whatever. When the waitress brought our drinks, she put Alexis and Anoe's drinks in styrofoam cups. Usually this is not a problem. Alexis doesn't really like it but if she gets a styrofoam cup it's not like the world is about to end or anything. This time was different. She whispered in my ear "Why did she give me a little kid cup. I'm a big girl!" We weren't ready to order so the waitress left for a minute. Katie asked what Alexis was so upset about and I told her. Katie said that she noticed that Alexis kept looking and smiling at Blake. Of course I then realized why Alexis wanted a "big girl" cup. So I asked Katie to ask the waitress for a "big girl" cup for Alexis. So when Katie asked the waitress she (the waitress) looked a little confused. So I thought I would help and tell the waitress that Alexis wanted a "big girl" cup tonight. Everyone at the table (even my brother who is usually clueless) just looked at me like I was crazy! Alexis yelled "Mom!!" and everyone started laughing at me. I didn't mean to embarrass her, I was just trying to explain why the styrofoam cup wasn't OK. I felt really bad for Alexis. She of course got over it, but that was a memory I'll cherish forever!

Oh and by the way, Blake really was a cute little boy. He plays football and track at I think so he was pretty buff for a little kid. He of course never really paid much attention to Alexis. She is only 10 after all. And he has a sister the same age, so he probably knows how 10 year old little girls are.

My first girls night out!

2007-08-14T14:03:00.000-05:00

This past Friday was my very first girls night out! When I first read on there that Francesca was wanting to have another girls night I thought it would be fun to go. But I usually don't get to go because of my babysitting issues. Well Jennifer said she would keep my kids so I could go. When I told my friend Cherry she said she would keep my kids if Jennifer and I both wanted to go. That was really awesome. But Jennifer kept the kids so I got to go all by myself. Which is way out of my comfort zone! We were meeting at Texas Roadhouse and I got there before everyone else. While I was sitting there waiting for everyone I started feeling nervous and anxious. I was way out of my comfort zone, I can be around new people if Jennifer's with me but not so much by myself. Francesca, Pam, Rachel, and Cherith were the first ones I saw. As soon as I saw Francesca my nerves were put to ease. I'm totally comfortable with Francesca, Pam, Rachel, and Cherith! Then came Ashley, Ginny, Kelly, and Christy. I already knew everyone except Christy. By the time we were leaving I was so glad that I got to go. I called Jennifer on my way back to her house and told her my face was hurting from smiling and laughing so much! It was so awesome.

Lots of stuff going on...

2007-08-13T08:54:00.000-05:00

This past Tuesday (7th) I registered my kids for school in Clyde. I was so nervous about it. I wasn't sure if I was making the right decision with Alexis. I would pray and feel OK about it then I would start feeling nervous again. Well when I got down there to the school to register her I totally felt at peace. I had to talk with the lady that is in charge of the Special Education program. As it turns out, Alexis is going to be mainstreamed this year! Everyone that attends Clyde Intermediate gets tested on their reading level at the begining of the school year! Everyone!! So that means if she's at a 3rd grade reading level then that's what she'll read at and if the kid next to her is at a 5th grade reading level that's where they'll read at. (Although I do have to say that Alexis and I have been praying that she is totally healed of ALL reading problems!) I'm so excited about her being totally mainstreamed! She is so funny and outgoing that she really doesn't have any problem making friends, but I know how mean kids can be. I remember how kids used to pick on other people in our grade just because the were in Special Ed. I don't want that for Alexis. She has lots and lots of self confidence and I don't want anyone to ruin that for her.

Registering Anoe was a little sadder (not sure if that's really a word) for me. This will be her first time in school. And she's my baby! It feels like she's growing up so fast but at the same time she's staying my cute cuddling baby. She is the most affectionate person I have ever met! I've even told Jennifer that sometimes it feels like I'm being molested by her! She's always touching, kissing, telling me how much she loves me, how beautiful my hair is, etc... I really do appreciate all of her compliments, but sometimes it'd be nice to just sit next to her without her touching me all the time. But anyways, she's starting school this year and she's really excited about it.

Saturday I went to the water park in North Richland Hills again. This time it was me, my kids, Jennifer, her kids, Cherry, Mike, Mason, Bridgett, Lura, and Bridgett's two step-kids. We all had a lot of fun!! I even got on a ride I refused to ride last time we were there. I didn't really get on it because I wanted to but more because I have a hard time saying no to Jennifer. I'm really glad Jennifer made me do it though. Anoe and I rode the ride together and the whole time we were on it I was screaming! Anoe just sat there smiling. Before we could even get off the raft she was asking to go on it again. It's crazy what a dare devil that little girl is.

We all got pretty good sunburns! Anoe's sunburn has already tanned over pretty much. I can not believe how well that little girl tans! Mason too! While at the water park Anoe was looking for Alexis and Jennifer said just look for the little boy who looks black but he's really not. Mason has the best tan ever. A lot of people sit out for hours trying to get his tan! It's pure craziness.

Strangers

2007-07-27T08:29:00.000-05:00

Last Friday the church Jennifer works at went to watch the Texas Rangers play in Arlington. When I first heard about the game and that anyone could go I was really excited. When we were kids living in El Paso we used to go to watch the Diablos play all the time. I loved it! I don't really like watching baseball on T.V., but I love it in person. I think it's the whole guy going up and down the aisles yelling "hot dog, get your hot dog!" and soda, cotton candy, ice cream just everything. The noise, the wave, singing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game", the billboard, you get it just everything about it! So anyways when Jennifer told me the price (only $15 a ticket) I was pumped. I thought I could afford $45 for us to go to the game. But then I started thinking about how much it would cost for food and drinks and stuff. So I was like never mind I don't really want to go. I gave Jennifer my usually excuse "Anoe will be to hard to control". I mean really, it's a baseball game, you're suppose to be acting wild. I just knew I couldn't afford it and if I told Jennifer that she would try to convince me otherwise. But that was my excuse. Then the Wednesday before the game Jennifer called me and said that a lady that attends the Methodist church was paying for my tickets to go to the game. I told Jennifer I really didn't want to go then she gave me this guilt trip so I finally said yes I'd go. I prayed about it and God told me that I shouldn't be acting this way. I'm being blessed with free tickets so I should go and enjoy myself. So I started getting totally excited about it. The whole way up there I kept saying how excited I was. (I think I was getting of Jennifer's nerves with my excitement but she should really be used to it by now) So anyways, the game was awesome. I had a hot dog and the girls had popcorn, a pretzel with cheese, and cotton candy. Jennifer got some garlic fries that were amazing! Even if I had a boyfriend/husband I don't think I would of been kissed all night! They were good though. So the other team was winning 3-0 but in the 9th inning the Rangers made to homeruns! It was so exciting. We were all jumping up and down screaming. I bought the girls foam fingers and they were waving them around. Oh my goodness it was so amazing! The Rangers lost by one point, but it was so much fun!

The girls and I sometimes do this little thing where we put our hands together and say "2, 4, 6, 8, who do we appreciate! ___________" We do Anoe first, the Alexis, then me or whatever we're excited about. Well Anoe kept wanting to do it for the Rangers. Except she kept calling them Strangers instead. It was so cute. She can't wait to go watch the "Strangers" again.

Pictures

2007-07-26T09:17:00.001-05:00

The first four are of Alexis getting baptized this past Sunday!

These are from our vacation. I still don't have all of them but here's a couple. Isn't the ocean just beautiful? (In case you didn't know, I loved it!)

Attacks

2007-07-17T09:02:00.000-05:00

So lately I've been feeling really attacked. For the past week and a half I have been super upset about some stuff that I usually don't care about. I mean I care, but not enough to get upset and cry about it. I've always felt that God will take care of it when the time is right. But lately I've been really feeling discouraged about a lot of different stuff. I know I'm kind of being evasive about what I'm upset about, but I'm not really sure I'm ready to admit this hurt out in the open yet. Well yesterday on my way to work I was thinking about how yucky I had been feeling about this and then all of a sudden I just realized it was an attack! It's not as bad as I was making out to be. God has a perfect plan for me that will happen at the most perfect time!

On another note- Update on Alexis:
She stayed with my Mom on Thursday and Friday. Thursday was pretty rough but she started feeling a lot better on Friday. My Mom and Symantha brought her to Abilene to do some shopping and go out to lunch and she did fine. Then Friday evening when I got there after work she was doing good. She was even "examining" me. I asked her where she had learned all the stuff she was doing and she said "Grey's Anatomy". Just as matter of fact as she could. It was really cute. She went outside for a little while to play with her sister and cousins. But then about an hour later she started feeling bad again. Her fever came back and she started coughing more. My Mom thought maybe she had done to much. So for the rest of the evening she rested. Saturday morning her fever was still there, so I called the doctor's office and they were able to get her in at 10:15. He took a urine sample but still couldn't figure out why her fever and cough were still present. (With 5th disease the fever should have subsided after 72 hours) He said to just keep giving her Motrin and Tylenol and he gave me something for the cough but said he didn't really want to suppress the cough unless he knew what was causing it. I was so frustrated it was crazy! I was able to get her fever to stay pretty low all day Saturday but she really wasn't doing much except laying in bed and sleeping. We didn't go to church on Sunday because I didn't think she would be able to make it through the whole sermon without getting cranky. And since she still did have a fever, I didn't want her infecting anyone else. Sunday evening she started feeling better though. She even got up and ate a little bit and played with Anoe for a little bit. Monday morning she didn't have a fever so I took her to daycare. The daycare called me at 11:30 to tell me she had a low grade fever. I went and got her and she slept all afternoon at my work. She was only awake for about an hour. I've talked to two different people that know quite a bit about 5th's disease and they both said that the fever should be gone. The only symptom at this point should be the rash that can last for up to 6 weeks. But there is no rash! Her cheeks get a little pink every once in awhile but nothing major. I'm so frustrated about the whole thing. It's been 5 days and she still has a fever and the doctor can't tell me anything. He said if she still has the fever on Wednesday then bring her back in. This way falls under being attacked! Nothing makes me feel worse than my kids not feeling well.

Monday night was pretty tough on Alexis. She had a really hard time sleeping because of all the coughing she was doing. But as of right now, no fever! Yay! She's had to come to work with me today because she can't go back to daycare until she has been fever free for 24hrs! Hopefully tomorrow she'll be able to go back to daycare. I know her sister will be very excited about that! Today makes one week since she's been there for a full day.

OK one more topic and I'll be done. Totally off the topic of being attacked though. At my work there is a small room in the back that is used for storing cleaning supplies, has some old filing cabinets that have stuff from back in 1991-1998, and a treadmill that the Judge uses. I'm going to clear it out and reorganize everything so we can have a break room! This way sometimes during lunch I can just sit back there and read a book or whatever. I'm really pumped about this!

I'm addicted!

2007-07-17T09:00:00.001-05:00

70%

Free Online Dating from Mingle²

My sick baby

2007-07-12T08:38:00.001-05:00

Tuesday morning Alexis had a pretty high fever and a little bit of a cough. So I gave her some Children's Motrin and let her go with me to work. I called her doctor when they opened at 9:00 a.m. They were able to see her at 10:30! So we went to the doctor and they tested her for strep but it came back negative. The doctor said that he couldn't find anything wrong with her. He said if she still had a fever on Friday to call and make an appointment for Saturday morning. But he didn't have a diagnosis for her. She was OK until around 4:00. Her fever started coming back and her cheeks were getting a little red. I went and bought a thermometer so I could see exactly how high her fever was. When we got home it was 100.6. I gave her some more Motrin and she took a cool bath. After awhile she started feeling better again. We watched a little Grey's Anatomy and went to sleep.

Then this morning at 3:30 Alexis woke me up again and told me she didn't feel good. She was coughing A LOT! I took her temp and it was 102.4. I gave her some more motrin and something for her cough. I checked her temp again about 20 minutes later and it was up to 103.2 so I called my Mom (who is a nurse in Sweetwater and works the night shift) and asked her if she thought I should go ahead and take Alexis to the ER. She said I should take her out to Sweetwater to go to their ER and then Symantha would keep her today for me. I got Anoe up and dressed and we left for Sweetwater. They drew blood since she had already had a strep test the day before. The doctor said there was a little fluid in her left ear but it wasn't infected. He diagnosed her with Fifth Disease. So there's really nothing that I can do for her except keep her fever down with Motrin.

Please pray that Alexis begins feeling better soon! And pray for me too, I'm pretty tired right now and I get really cranky when I'm tired. Maybe I'll try to take a nap during lunch.

Gold Digger

2007-07-09T11:36:00.001-05:00

I didn't really want to post this with my previous post because this is way to awesome to be put with any other post!

Yesterday at church during our service our pastor had us do an excercise called digging for gold. You look into someones eyes for a certain amount of time and look for the "gold" in them! Everyone has some gold they don't know about. I thought it was a little wierd but it wasn't that bad. The first excercise we had to get a partner and look into their eyes for 30 seconds. It wasn't that bad for me. I was with Dana Bell. I don't really know her that well but I have talked to her a couple of times. So anyways, we had to look into each others eyes, and be open to hear God. Then at the end of the 30 seconds, we told the other person what we saw or what God told us. It was good! Dana said that she saw me singing and that I was very compassionate with my singing. I've really struggled with the whole singing and dancing thing. I so do not have a pretty singing voice and have absolutely no rhythm at all! Something I learned at the BFW this year is that no one is paying attention or going to make fun of me if I'm off beat or sing like a dieing cow. It's beautiful to God and that's what matters!

Then the second time we had to find a partner that we did not know. That was pretty for me. I was partners with this lady that was totally awesome! I forgot her name already though. But she had an awesome word for me! The first thing she asked me was if I had children. (My kids were not at church with me, they had stayed with their Aunt Lisa and Uncle Chad.) I of course said yes. Well she said that she saw that I was a really good mom and a hard worker! That was so awesome for me! I'm constantly struggling with wether or not I'm a good mom or if I'm doing things right. And for her to say that, it was just amazing! I left church feeling really good!

And to think I almost didn't go to church yesterday because I was thinking that I really needed to save all the gas I could! This was way worth it! And I know everything will work out! I love my God!

Praise You In This Storm

2007-07-09T11:17:00.000-05:00

Saturday afternoon I started really thinking about this song Praise You In This Storm by Casting Crowns. It's one of my favorites! I have it on my phone for whenever Scott calls. Everytime I hear this song it makes me realize how much I have to be thankful for. I'm so glad God gives me storms to go through! See how much he trusts me! I've heard that saying "God doesn't give you more than you can handle" like a thousand times. It's so true! I know right now I'm struggling and not having very much fun with this whole thing, but I know God has a plan for me and He is going to make a way for us! But let me tell you, sometimes I wish God would let me in on His plans! It would cut back on the amount of tears and stress in my life! I'll just keep listening to this song though!