Royal Treatment

Okay - I'm going to try to get back on track (or was I ever on it?) with this posting thing. So much happens in between my posts that I forget some of the details.

The boys have started their football games, have actually played 4 games... lost all of them :( But they're having fun! I guess that's what is important. Their coach may be a little scattered in his thoughts, not on the same page with his assistant coaches, but he is funny, positive, and nice. I love seeing the boys in their uniforms -- it's the cutest thing EVER!

Mr. and I FINALLY had our trip to ATL!!! It was postponed a year thanks to Hurricane Rita. I was still very nervous and a little worried about causing another major devastation in this world - since every time we've had plans made with ETK, something awful happens (#1 - 9/11, #2 Rita). I guess 3rd times a charm :o)

We had the best time with ETK & hubby! It was great to completely leave our life-style behind for a while and live on the other side. A more grown-up side, a fancy side, a city side. Their condo was fabulous -- incredible views & looked like a magazine. Mr. loved watching the people outside on the street. Walking everywhere was fantastic! Considering that we have to drive everywhere we go - impossible to avoid the HWY in our neck-o woods. We were treated to all kinds of restaurants and new kinds of food - everything was delicious!

We did the campy-tourist stuff like "World of Coke" which was very interesting and I got a fabulous Coke can ornament for our tree! Of course I found it ironic when ETK and I both said, "I don't even like Coke. I'm more of a Dr. Pepper fan".

Turner Field was absolutely gorgeous! I loved the open-air concept. Much more enjoyable a game than at Enron. Cubbies lost :( but that's okay. We're used to it.

Discovered my new favorite drink too! COCO MOJITO! Had to run out and buy the stuff to make them. And hubby just likes to say the word :o)

Then our fairty tale vacation came to an end :( The clock stuck and our carriage turned back into a pumpkin. Back to our lives of kids and chaos.... just the way I like it :o)

Thank you, again, from the bottom of our hearts for inviting us to stay with you and treating us like royalty while we were there. We had the best time. And yes, although we live totally different live-styles now, it's great that after 19 years we can just pick up where we leave off and still be the very best of friends. And even though I could never live the life you do, I am proud of you and your accomplishments, am happy for you and your life, and will always love you like a sister. Without a doubt we each found our roles in life and are very happy with our choices. I love my Mom-World as much as you love your Business-World... and that's what makes the world go round :o)

Will I Survive?

Oh my goodness! I am a walking zombie! It's the end of the first week of school, meaning the end of the first week of getting up at 5:30-5:45, and I'm DEAD! I'm really not going to like this. D1 and I wait outside for the bus in the dark! I think it's cruel and unusual punishment. I started caculating how many years I was going to have to wake before the sun.... I originally figured 6 grueling years. Then I remembered I have two others who will go to the same schools... and they will enter Junior High before D1 leaves.... so it's an 11-year torture chamber for me :( It will be the year 2017 before I can sleep in again... is that not a scary thought! By then I'm sure my body will have attrophied into waking at 5:30 and I will never ever sleep in again. Aaaaarrrrrggghhhh!

Can I look forward to sleeping in just a little bit tomorrow... noooo. The boys have football opening day ceremonies and we have to be there at 7:45. In parent terms, that translates into "be there at 7:20 in order to beat all the other families and be able to find a parking place."

D1 got her back tuck at tumbling on this week! Amazing, seeing how she had never even attempted a back tuck! This must be some coach! We are so proud of her

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

Oh my goodness! I never thought it would get here! It has finally arrived, it's MY DAY, almost better than my birthday... the first day of school. When the kids, who have been bored out of their minds for 5-6 weeks, finally get something to do!!!

and it's only been 2 weeks since my last post... still not bad, right? :o) Now that the kids are back in school, I will have more time, so hopefully I will be able to post more often. Plus, it's when school is in that there's more drama. (I'll have to fill you in on the awful details of last year later!)

The last two weeks have been "blow and go"... D1 had church camp, which takes a full day to get everything packed just so, hide the little messages from mom and dad for surprise hugs while she's gone, and lots of fret wondering if she's okay while she's gone. And the boys started football practice the week before she left.

Not to mention the junior high had schedule pickup while her and her friends were at camp. That presented another problem in itself. How were they supposed to compare schedules and find out if they were in any of the same classes or lunch if they were out in the woods of Texas with NO CELL PHONE! (yes, that's right, they actually survived without their cells for one whole week... 5 days actually. And no, D1 doesn't have one, but many of her friends do; I can't figure that one out... D1 doesn't even like to talk on the phone) But the girls made arrangements to use a sponsor's phone to call one mom, who had all of the schedules written down - it worked out quite well and relieved some serious pre-teen stress while they were away. Of course my baby, being in all honors classes, didn't have a single class with any of her close circle of friends! Remember how horrifying that was. Not to worry, D1 is really loved by all (no exaggeration here) so she'll be fine, but it would have been nice to be with those she hangs out with most.

The boys football has been interesting. They are awfully cute! Not that I'm professing to be a football expert, but it looks to me like our team kinda sucks. We are allowed 3 practices a week, but our coach decided parents didn't want to come out for practice on Friday nights (I would agree with that once school started, but for the first few weeks why not? We need the practice) So for the first few weeks we only had practice on Tuesday and Thursday, which was great because D1's cheer practice is on Mondays and Wednesdays. THEN we had our first scrimmage... against the team who practices next to us on the field. They've been running plays and catching throws since practices started. Turns out the coach of that team was the star quarterback for our little town back in the day, then went on to SHSU and graduated with a coaching degree! Talk about a team being "stacked". Our coach decided we needed to call a 3rd practice during the week, so now we have Wed. night football as well.

It wasn't bad when the kids weren't in school, but now I'm having a hard time figuring a Wed. schedule.... the boys get off the bus at 3:45, and we have to leave here by 4:45 to drop them at hubbies office and then make it to cheer at 5:30. Where in the world do I fit in eating?!! I think 4:00 is a little early for dinner and we don't have time after all of our practices because by then it's definitely BEDTIME. There's no way the kids can go to bed any later... the boys have always been a 7:30 bedtime, we are trying an 8:00 this year (the rule is they have to be able to get up at 6:30 or else we move bedtime back the same number of minutes they sleep in) And the Junior High starts at 7:20am (is that not the crulest thing you've ever heard of?) So D1 and I are up at 5:30 in the morning!!! I DON'T LIKE IT!! I've only done it for 2 days now, and I'm dragging butt. So she has to get in bed by 9:00 so she can get enough sleep. I guess I'll figure it out, I just hate being so harried.

Last week was especially busy - although I was hoping to have a very mild and easy week-before-school. D1 had choreography at cheer on Wed., Thur, and Fri from 1-4:30 so we'd leave from there and go straight to the fields for the boys football. Then there were back-to-school haircuts (even though the boys are growing theirs out into that shaggy-boy look. yuck.) and 2 PTO meetings. We had a church camp afterparty right after cheer on Friday night, and then I dropped everyone at home and headed over to a friends for a Pampered Chef party ( I really hate those things, any of them, I just don't like going). Saturday morning was a couple of hours at Meet the Teacher for the boys (which I got the teacher I really really wanted! YEAH!) followed by the varsity football teams' Meet the Bears. Phew! I really didn't think I would survive, but alas, I did. Thank goodness, cause I don't think there is anyone else who could keep up with it!

On a good note, the Junior High accepted D1's cheer company for private PE... which means she doesn't have to take PE at school! How I wish they'd had that when I was in school. I absolutely hated PE -- not the exercise, it was the PE uniforms and dressing out... wearing the awful uniform everyday for a week and only getting to wash it once. There has got to be some health code violation there. Well, things haven't changed much at junior high, they still only wash the uniform once a week, but I don't think it's as prison uniform looking as what we wore. In having private PE, D1 got put into a second elective. Unfortunately, she didn't really get to choose, the school just put her into an elective that was during 4th period when she was scheduled for PE. This semester is pretty good, she'll have Modern Technology. But next semester they have her in keyboarding... which is bad. She's been typing since 2nd grade, she types about 60 words a minute (which without a doubt is the fastest typer in 7th grade), and completed the entire Mavis Beacon typing program last year in record time. Why in the world would she need to bother with a keyboarding class? Guess I'm going to have to talk to the school about that one.

Well, seems like I've rambled long enough. Just trying to catch you up on the going's-on. I will try to be better so I don't have to post such terribly long ones in the future!

That's my Girl!

Okay, only 2 weeks in between posts.... that's not too bad is it?

It's just been crazy crazy around here, and it's only getting crazier! Why does gas have to be soooo expensive right now!

D1 had her annual Cheer Camp the 3rd week of July.... and once again came home with "Most Explosive All-Around Cheerleader" for her group! Woohoo! That's 8 years in a row... think we've found her niche?! Her competition team performed at the camp awards that Saturday. Hubby and I were positioned in the upstairs viewing room.... all of a sudden I see D1's head through the window! I'm thinking "Okay, I'm on the 2nd floor. Why can I see my tiny little daughter's head level with the 2nd floor?" Not certain that I really wanted to know, I bent over through the window (very cautiously I might add) and there is her coach (a buff, college boy) holding her over his head, his arms completely extended, holding her tiny little size 4 feet in his hands. AAARRRRGGGHHHH! I think what scares me more is how he gets her there..... it's just tossing her up and catching her feet in his hands! Gosh how I wish I was so fearless!

Then the following week the boys started football practice! HOW CUTE!!! They get to dress in full pads for the first time tomorrow. I can't wait for the games to start. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's hard to believe how big they've gotten... they'll be in 2nd grade this year!

So now between Cheer and Football.... I've got practices all week long, every night. And on top of that PTO stuff is starting! Meetings and schedule pick-ups, dance planning, etc. etc. I LOVE MY LIFE!!!

Woohoo! Score!

We made it to Hallmark just in time to buy some of the limited ornaments they had available! Mind you, it was only 10 minutes after they openend!!! I managed to get a handful of ornament gifts for Christmas presents, and racked up a bunch of Hallmark points at the same time!

Oh!... and I won a $25 gift certificate in their drawing! Double BAM! That means more ornaments!

I got the kids their usual ornament series...
D1 - Pony for Christmas
D2 - Nick & Christopher "Speedy Delivery"
D3 - Snoopy Legal Beagle
Hubby - Happy Haulers
myself - Pansy Fairy

and others: Bananas for You, Peppermint Pals, Stars & Stripes Santa, Bunny Hug, Oh What a Grill, Taz (for Pops), Belle (for niece), Lighnin McQueen & Mater (for niece), Christmas Belle (for Big Mama) and some others I can't say :o)

And not all the ornaments are out yet! October is the 2nd premier :o)

Christmas in July!

The day I live for, yearn for, wait for AAALLLL 1/2 a year..... the first sign of Christmas! It's Hallmark Ornament Premier today. D1 and I are off with Big Mama to seek out the most coveted ornaments. Our Hallmark store sends out special invitations to their best customers (read here: the top % of spenders) to come shopping early. I should have bought stock in Hallmark years ago... if only I'd known!

It just get me thinking about what to buy for the kids, how I am going to set up my Snow Village this year, and how amazing our tree will look. A couple of weeks ago when the kids and I were shopping for a village piece for Big Mama, it got them in the spirit, and they asked if we could go home and put up the Snow Village. I can't tell you how happy I am that my kids enjoy Christmas and the season just as much as I do!

Hubby took D2 and D3 to football evaluations this morning. They are so excited to get to play. The way they tackle each other and clothesline each other in the living room, they should be good at football. Now let's just hope they don't get scared about other kids doing it to them. I've told them they better not turn-tail and run the other way!

Then the kids are going to stay the night at Big Mama's house tonight! Woo-hoo! Don't know what hubby and I will do. All he said was that he didn't want to go Christmas shopping :( You have to know, that anytime we are alone after July, we always seem to end up at the mall picking up gifts. Of course I'm thinking we need to go by Toys R Us because Darienne found "THE PERFECT" bike and that's what we plan on getting her. Afterall, she is still riding her Queen Amidala bike she got when she was in Kindergarten! Think it's about time?!

Well, my ride's here! We're off!

Dog-gone-it!

Delta called.... ETK, I'm believing what you say about them.... our flight to ATL has some changes. The flight out is just a time change; instead of leaving at 2:20, we now leave at 2:00 and arrive at 5:07. No big deal.

Then the girl starts in on the flight back... departure time change from 4:50 to 5:05 (again, no big deal). All I heard next was "the flight has been picked up by our blah blah blah blah blah." It was greek to me. So I asked if that was one of those little hopper planes, and she didn't say ANYTHING for the longest time! Finally she spoke up and said, "It's a 70 passenger". "Yeah," I said, "one of those little hopper planes!"

So now I'm trying to figure out if I want to fly on one of those. I'm thinking not. I'm already so terrified to fly, I get car sick driving just a few hours away, and the motion of the bathtub is enough to make me puke. Isn't that little plane going to bounce / rock / move around a whole lot more than a larger plane? Isn't it going to fly lower in the sky? Isn't it going to go slower? HELP! What should I do?

I asked my "o-so-smart" representative if I could change my flight without penalty and she did say yes. So I can choose between an earlier flight.... leaving at around 3:00, but that means we won't have as much time to hang out on Sunday before we leave. Or a later flight.... leaving at around 6:00-ish, but that means we won't get home until 10:00 or so and it will be a school night.

So how is traveling on one of those little hopper planes (that seem to always be the ones who have crashed / fallen out of the sky / have problems)? Let me know what you think!