Trip!

Tim & I are going to Europe!

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Fall Fun

Peanut turned 8!!

We recently (and by recently, I mean I am way behind in posting this b/c it's been over two weeks) celebrated Peanut's 8th birthday. Crazy, I know! We came up with a "Survivor" theme, you know the TV show? We usually watch that as a family and really enjoy all of the challenges they compete in. So, we thought at MeMe & PaPa's we could come up with a few challenges between the playscape and the swimming pool. It was a lot of fun and I think everything went well. Of course, we ended up with a few activities we could have skipped out on b/c the kids wanted to spend more time in the pool. By the time I get things just right (# of activities, when to eat, etc.) she will no longer be interested in me planning her parties. Anyway for now, I'll try to have as much fun as possible.

Hello out there!

Just wanted to say HI to anyone still checking in on me (us). We've been very busy as you might have guessed since I haven't posted since Easter.

We are no longer residents of beautiful Austin. BUT, we are much closer to family and I think we are going to love our new city just as much. If not, we'll be spending all our vacation time in Austin.

Well, I think that's all for now. There's a lot coming up & I am going to try to start posting regularly again so ... stay tuned!

XOXO

Hoppy Easter, Everybunny!

When knees collide:

A little knee on knee action from my last soccer game. I'm going to work on my bruise photography, because this picture does very little justice to the actual bruise. For some weird, creepy, freako reason I really like my bruises. Only the really good ones though. So I decided I'd start taking pictures for those of you who don't get to see my battle wounds in person. No, you don't have to thank me ... there are no strings attached. Just enjoy.

They're always after me lucky charms!

Here's wishing everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A lot of things!

We have been pretty busy for the past month.

We went to OK for Christmas Break.

While we were there our nephew Jacob turned two. We went to his birthday party in the freezing icy weather.

Of course we were shopping up until Christmas Eve. Though, we still managed to get everything we needed.

We had Christmas at Tim's parents and at my Mom's.

We left Peanut visiting family and we headed back home.

Tim & I took a train New Year's Eve to San Antonio. We walked over to the River Walk, ate dinner & listened to the fireworks at midnight. It was too darn cold to wander down to watch them. After we ate, we decided to just hurry back to the train b/c it was sooo cold. Our train ride would continue for another 22 hours until we arrived in Maricopa, AZ. We met up with Tim's parents and sister for the Fiesta Bowl. Unfortunately, the game didn't quite go our way. And to top it off, or maybe the game topped this off ... Tim got to leave the game in an ambulance so he could get 8 stitches to his eyebrow. Apparently, his red mowhawk drew him some unwanted attention and one right cross to the sunglasses. I also got my first ambulance ride as a passenger for this special occasion. Oh, and we were at the hospital past midnight so the date was now Jan 3rd ... my birthday! Luckily, it really could have been worse and it kind of took the edge off that final score. We flew home the next day and that was uneventful.

My Mom closed on her house. Peanut & I helped pick paint colors with her. Then Tim & Jason did lots of heavy lifting. She'll be completely moved in by the end of the month and I'm sure will be busy decorating for a while. I really love her new place. It has lots more room so visiting in the future ought to be more comfortable for everyone.

Well, I think that about wraps up our last month or so ... I'll post some pics of our winter fun.

They won the TROPHY!

When Peanut was younger like 3 or 4 and she'd win a game or finish something first she would always say I win/won the trophy! Well, she played her first season of basketball this fall and they actually won a trophy (okay, every team gets a trophy). She was very excited and likes showing it off. She's proud of her first real trophy. Basketball was great, she really progressed through the quick season. She made several baskets and is a great dribbler. Basketball was always my favorite sport growing up & I'm really enjoying watching her play. I'm thinking of soccer for the spring, just to let her try another sport and see how she likes it. Just b/c b-ball was my fave doesn't mean it's going to be hers nor do I want to force it on her. But I have to say, I really like watching her play! Although, I have been playing soccer now for a whole year (spring, summer & fall seasons) and I love it. I was kind of disappointed I never gave it a shot as a kid. Although, now that I think about it I don't think they had a lot of soccer for girls when I was real young. I just want Peanut to try some sports and hopefully she'll find one that she likes and wants to stick with for a while. Go Purple Fireballs!

Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus

Last weekend Peanut was presented with tickets to the hottest concert tour this year, the Best of Both Worlds tour. Meme & Papa (Tim's parents) bought three tickets and wanted to surprise Peanut with them. So we went to OKC for the weekend and Meme gave Peanut the envelope as Tim & Papa drove us to the arena. She was very surprised & it took her a minute to let it soak in. Once it did she said "Just a moment." as she held out one finger and then said "Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!" It was pretty funny. She had a really good time & Meme and I had just as good a time watching her. Hannah/Miley rocked!

Fun Photos

What a weekend!

We had a really nice weekend. We made great time on the drive to my Mom's, 7 hours exactly. The way back was another story, more like 8.5 hours, but even so ... it was a good trip. On Thursday we went to the movies and saw Enchanted. It was very cute. And we went to the small movie theater near my Mom's & it was only $2.50 per person! Isn't that amazing? The three of us got in for the price of one at any other theater. Then we did some work on my Grandma's scrapbook. Friday I had dinner & a drink with one of my best friends. We don't see each other often but after the quick run down of what is going on we pick up right where we left off. It's always great to get together with her. Then Saturday we had a family thing at my cousins house. It was our Thanksgiving dinner. Everything was delicious. It was great to see everyone & Peanut had lots of fun with the cousins. We showed Grandma the progress on the book ... and then we told her to give it back so we can work on it some more. Maybe we'll have it done for Christmas. We worked on it some more Saturday evening. It's coming together quite nicely. It was cold in OK ... the one thing I don't miss! That left us both with sore throats and runny noses. Aside from that the trip couldn't have been better. Now back to our everyday life.

Turkey Cookie

It's Tuesday, so Peanut & went to Chick-fil-A for their Family Night. She decorated this cute little turkey cookie.
We are getting ready for a trip to visit my Mom and family & friends in that area. I've got tons of laundry to get to and our packing to be done. Yuck! What's really bad is I have to break out the sweaters & stuff as a cold front is coming to town when we get there.
I'm pretty excited to get to see everyone, but there will have to be good planning to get everything accomplished. The number one priority will be for my Mom & I to finish Grandma's scrapbook we "gave her" for her birthday. What's funny is, I think the only part of the book to be finished are the pages about our family. We got all the other aunts, uncles & cousins pages taken care of & ran out of time & ideas for ours. So, several months later hopefully we'll be ready to take care of business. We both really love to scrap so that will be fun ... but it is time consuming. Then of course, there's the visiting. We'll have lots of visiting to do. It'd be fun to squeeze in some shopping & maybe that new Disney movie, Enchanted (Peanut has told me several times it release date; 11/21).
Okay, well, I just thought I'd take a minute & give today's scoop ... now we've got to tackle that laundry! We?!? HA! I'm sooo funny.

Halloween

So, I'm a little slow (by now you know this!) but here we are in our Halloween costumes. Hannah Montana and Jentar the Fortune Teller. I made my costume like a madwoman the night before Halloween ... for some reason my best ideas come at crunch time. I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby for some fabric & paint, used a box I got from work and several hours later I was pretty pleased with the result. Hope everyone had a fun Halloween.

Boomer ... Sooner!

I went to my first OU vs. TX football game and it was awesome! Peanut spent the night with cousins on Tim's side of the family & had a good time. She loves getting to spend time with the older girls. We stayed at a hotel with Tim's parents. It was a very nice room w/a separate living and bedroom. The living room had a hide-a-bed couch that Tim & I slept on. We got rained on a little but Tim's Mom was prepared with ponchos to keep us dry. It wasn't too terribly hot, a little humid but it could have been worse. The clouds helped to keep it somewhat cool. And the best part of all .... OU 28 TX 21!! Go big RED!

We flew an OU flag on our car for the drive home ... that was pretty fun too.

Something Sweet!

My thoughtful husband surprised me with this camera. We have a big, fancy digital camera, but I wanted a small one that I could put in my pocket (or purse) and take with me anywhere. I had been talking about wanting a new small one for a couple months and we had recently talked about getting it. Then the other day he told me he ordered me something from Starbucks (I don't drink coffee) and so I had spent a couple days wondering what he ordered from there. Then the night before the package arrived he said "You're seed is coming tomorrow." Then he tried to cover up that he said "seed". The next day when I asked about the seed arriving he said, "Well, maybe bean is the right word." The box arrived and I started to look at the label & he told me to just open it up. I did and inside was my pretty, pink camera. I had no clue!

My little project

So, this weekend I finally did something I had been planning on for at least a month.
Well, first I had to clean up our back room which has just been a catch all of miscellaneous stuff we don't have a place for. Initially this was going to be a media room (xbox, movies, musical instruments etc.)+ work area for school work & crafts, but last week Tim moved his Xbox to the living room because we don't have surround sound in the back. I decided that this was fine with me because I had plans of my own for the back room. When I am done with it, it will be a great craft and office space with a small love seat or couple of chairs so we'll still have our extra tv room. The great thing is now I'll have a space where I can just turn the tv on TLC or HGTV and go to town organizing or crafting or just catching up on my programs. We have a big couch back there that we are going to get rid of (sell to Tim's couchless friend) which will free up a lot of space. Once that happens I'll be able to move forward with my love seat or chair purchase. So, this weekend I did a little more cleaning in the back room and have been brainstorming & browsing IKEA for the best desk/workspace for my awesome room. Unfortunately, my local IKEA did not have the stuff I wanted in stock (according to their website), so I thought with my semi-clean room I'd do a little project I'd been wanting to do since I got my laptop. The idea is not mine at all, found it online, but I am quite proud of the end result. It is a laptop sleeve made from an old sweater. The sweater was one I so loved even though I had shrunk it a bit from washing it so much. I had finally decided to get rid of the sweater b/c it was too short & kind of snug. Then when I got my laptop I was looking for sleeves or cases online and then thought I'd google how to make one & came across the sweater idea. So, I'm feeling pretty productive & crafty after this weekend. Now the trick will be to keep it up. I think once I get the room whipped into shape it'll be very easy to work on projects and hopefully when everything has a space we can keep it clean!

Sea World Slide Show!

Sea World

Peanut and I recently went on the most awesome trip to Sea World. My work has a Bat Cave that we give tours of & the past couple of years we have taken a group of Sea World employees and given them a tour. This year to say Thank You they said we could have a group of up to 25 people come to SW and have a behind the scenes tour of the animals and then spend the day at the park for FREE! My department at work (we are the ones who give the tours of the cave) consist of 7 people, plus spouses and kids comes out pretty close to 25. So a couple of Saturdays ago was our day. Tim went to the football game instead (his parents have season tix). Plus, I think we both knew that a day at SW was not really his thing. No big deal, I'd rather him do something he'd enjoy and not have to worry if he was doing okay at the park all day long. We got up early and met w/my friend Sarah & her husband and rode with them to the park. We got to pet Beluga whales, sting rays (most freaky of all), sharks and a Killer whale. It was so awesome, the animals were such hams. They seemed to be loving every minute of attention they could get. We saw dolphin and beluga moms with their babies that were only 3 months old. The behind the scenes was a little trying on all the kids, it was a lot of walking and listening and not getting to do the fun stuff (the rides!!). Once our tour was over, they released us into the park to do the rides, shows & water park. Our first stop was The Journey to Atlantis. I was so nervous taking Peanut on her first big ride, she had not done anything like it but she was so excited. We loaded up. The height didn't seem to phase her, but the instant that we started to head down the big drop ... I saw complete horror on her face and thought, oh no! I'm such a horrible mother, this is going to be awful. The horrified look went away and I was trying to determine what was next. She screamed at the top of her lungs the whole way down. Then she laughed and laughed and said "That was awesome! Let's do it again!" WHEW! I laughed so hard I was crying. What fun! She had a blast. We rode a few other rides and she screamed at every dip, drop and turn but all the while was smiling and laughing. Every ride ended with "That was awesome!" or "Let's do it again." We ate lunch, did the water park and had some snacks. We didn't catch any shows (but we did get some sneak peaks at the acrobat guys backstage & of course got to see most of the stars up close). We got to the park at 10:30am and left at 6:30pm. She wanted to do more, but had enough fun that she was okay with leaving. We definitely need to make SW a two day trip next time. There were lots of rides we didn't do, shows we could have seen and then they have a kid play area that we passed as we were leaving. What a great way to end our summer! I'll post some pics soon.

August 2007