Soccer Photos

Seriously, I don't know what is UP with blogger today... This is my 4th attempt to load these photos today!  The first time, it would only load one of them.  The second time, none would load.  The third time, it loaded each photo twice.  This time, each photo loaded FOUR TIMES!!!  I finally just erased all the extras... I hope it worked!

And, now, on to my post...

We are half way through with soccer season.  Our team has not fared too well the last two weeks, but hopefully this week will be better!  Enjoy the pictures!  Go Lime Slime!!

Abs loses a tooth

I love this stage.  The "snaggle-toothed" look is definitely one of my favorite.

Today, Abs lost one of her front teeth.

Just look how cute she is!
I'm pretty excited, because this upcoming Friday is school picture day!  She'll be missing a tooth for the 1st grade photo!!  Yay!!  

The other front tooth is really loose... maybe it will fall out before Friday!!  :-)

Tri, Tri Again!!

Today I completed my second triathlon!!!  I ran the Cleburne Ironhorse Triathlon.  It was actually fun.  It was a 300 yd. swim, a 15.2 mile bike, and a 3.2 mile run.  I did better on this one than on the first one a few months ago.  My goals were not too lofty, but I achieved all of them.  I wanted to finish (I did), I wanted to not be last (I wasn't), and I wanted to run the entire time (I did.)  I feel pretty good about it!

Hubby, of course, finished WAY ahead of me, so he was waiting at the finish with his camera.  Here I am running up to the finish line.
And here I am going across the finish mat.

Our friends Will and Shelley also ran, and Shelley's family was there with their camera, as well, so hopefully they got some pictures of Hubby that I can post later.  Our other friends, Jennifer and Michelle, also ran, so our little home town was well-represented.  

I can't wait to TRI again!!!

Hummingbirds

I always keep a couple of hummingbird feeders around on our porch, as I like to watch them out the windows, especially when doing those "fun" chores like washing dishes.  My kitchen window looks right out to the porch.

Usually I fill them about once a week or so.  However, I think the hummers must be migrating through or something, because lately I'm having to fill the feeders once every day or once every two days!  Just look how many are hovering around this feeder!This was right at dusk, and I just walked out to the porch and took the picture.  They weren't scared of me at all... they kept right on eating and fighting with each other over spots on the feeder.

This is the kind of thing you get excited about when you live in the middle of nowhere.  We have no crazy neighbors to talk about, so we talk about the animals!!

Pictures for Thursday...

Just a few more photos from the b-day...

One of my buddies gave me this very cool head covering to wear while biking on a cool morning.  You can change it from a hat to a neck warmer to a face cover, all on the way you wear it.  It is called "Mental" head gear, and it is pink camo.  So cute!  Gracie loves it.  She has worn it non-stop for two days now.  She says it keeps her hair warm.

Here's a little visual for you...

Sweet hubby sent me flowers.  Really, really beautiful "fall" looking flowers.  Here's what they look like!  (I took this photo with my new cell phone... amazing.  I am so hip and techy these days! ha ha)  Imagine that there is not a water bottle in the side of the photo.  I didn't notice it until I got the picture taken, downloaded, and loaded to the blog.  Too much trouble to go back and re-do all of that.)
Have a fabulous Thursday!!!

Thanks A LOT, Shelley!!!

Yes, thanks to Shelley "hi-jacking" my blog yesterday, now the world knows that it was my birthday.  I will proudly admit to 37 years, as I have earned every wrinkle.

Here is a picture of me blowing out the match that was used to light the candles.  (Luckily, I talked the girls into just 3 candles, one for each decade, instead of 37 candles... the top of the cake would have been ON FIRE!! ha ha!!)And here is a photo of my lovely cake.  My Mom surprised me and ordered me a cake from a local bakery.  Italian Cream... my favorite!  Thanks, Mom!

I have lots more funny photos (mostly of the girls as they "helped" me celebrate! ha ha)  I would love to post them all, but blogger is a bit slow today... mix that in with my country-fried internet service, and it is SO SLOW!!!  Maybe I'll save them for a faster day!!

Thanks for the b-day wishes, everyone!!  It was a great one!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, BETSY!!!

Gotcha Good Friend...

I have a memory like an elephant. I never forget a thing. Not even blogger passwords :)

Hope you have a wonderful birthday!

If I were not working we would DEFINITELY be doing lunch at the China Buffet!

(Wish I had a CUTE picture of you to post for your birthday.)

FireStar

Not that it should surprise anyone, but Miss Grace was "blog-worthy" in her antics again last night.  She is just a WEALTH of good material! ha ha

She went upstairs dressed in her pajamas, and when she came downstairs, she had transformed herself into "FireStar".  It was so funny!  She was wearing an old pair of swim goggles (that are crab-shaped), and Abby's fairy wings from last Halloween, and a cape that was from an old witch costume.  

And not much else. 

 Luckily in these photos she is holding the cape closed!

She made her Daddy and Abby play with her.  Dad had to be "AquaMan", and Abs had to play "BatGirl".  The Amazing "FireStar" had a whole little scenario in which she swooped around the living room and saved it from the "Bad Guys".  She was "Super".  She could "swish" her cape around like a true hero.

Once "AquaMan" deemed it to be bed time, he redressed her in her PJ's and tucked her into bed.  As he was turning out the lights, he said, "Good night, FireStar."  She looked at him like he was NUTS and said, "Dad!  I'm Gracie!"  Oh!  Of course!  A SuperHero can only save the world if she is wearing her Super-Suit!  PJ's don't cut it!

Not to worry... the universe is safe, my friends.  FireStar HAS a Super-Suit, and she is not afraid to use it.

The Weekend Drama...

We've had a bit of "drama" at our house this weekend.

It all started Friday evening.  We had the children of some of our dear friends over to spend the night, because their mom was out of town and their dad (who is one of Luke's partners) was working at the ER for the weekend.

Luke was being "superdad", and took all 5 kids out with him to feed the cows.  Somehow, when he was bending forward to fill the bucket with cubes, Katie was coming up with her hand to throw some cubes, and her hand collided with Luke's eye.  Let's just say her hand won.  Luke stumbled back up to the house, and really, at first, I thought he was being kinda wimpy, because I just thought he just got poked in the eye.  But, when he finally opened his eye and let me look at it, I knew something was wrong.  It was the blood that gave it away.  I told him he should go up and let our friend at the ER look at it.  He said OK, and went to get his keys LIKE I WOULD LET HIM DRIVE HIMSELF UP THERE!  He couldn't even see!  Finally I convinced him to "phone a friend", and our friend Will came over to drive him up to the ER, which was so nice... it kept us from having to truck all 5 kids up to the hospital!   One look at his eye in the ER, and the good doctor told him he needed to see an opthomologist.  Joy!  So, at 10:00 at night, Luke and Will headed off to Temple to see the on-call opthomologist guy.  They didn't get back until about 12:30, and the eye doctor told Luke what we had suspected... he had a tear in his cornea that was pretty severe.  Just a little bit worse and they would have had to SEW IT SHUT.  (I didn't even know they could SEW your eye ball, but I guess they can!)  Instead of sewing it, Luke has had to put special drops in his eyes EVERY HOUR, round the clock, for 48 hours.

All of this would be bad enough, but to make things even worse, Luke was supposed to run in a triathlon today, for which he had been training for some time.  We were scheduled to go camping with two other families on Saturday, and then Sunday Luke was to run with Will and Lee Ann.  I suggested we stay at home, but over Luke's dead body was that happening!  If there was a chance that he could run, he was going to be there.  So, we packed up the RV and took off.  Luckily, Will came to the rescue again and volunteered to drive the RV for us (as there is NO WAY I am towing that bad boy! ha ha)  Once this morning rolled around, Luke made the smart decision to NOT run... he couldn't put in a contact, and having lake water in the cut on his eye would REALLY have not been too good.  He was very bummed.   

I am registered for my second triathlon next weekend.  Our original plan was for Luke to run today, and I would watch the girls, and then I would run next weekend while he watched the girls.  After a little juggling, we quickly registered Luke to run with me next weekend, and the fabulous Ju-Ju has agreed to baby sit for us.  That way, Luke will still get to run, and it won't QUITE feel like all his training was in vain.

Even with all the "drama", we still had a great weekend camping with some wonderful friends.  I wish I had photos, but (you guessed it) I forgot my camera.  Shelley brought her camera, but you can just go here to her fabulous blog and look at them, instead of me copying them all! ha ha!

Thanks, Will and Shelley, for all you did to make our weekend possible, from driving Luke all over creation to different hospitals to hauling our RV to the campground and back for us!!  We REALLY couldn't have done it without you!!!

Sneaky Snake

It is "snake season" here in Central Texas, which means that the snakes are on the move. The cooler weather is making them look for a place to hibernate for the winter.

I am sure you are wondering how I know all of this information, since I am so NOT the "snake expert" or anything.

I know all of this information becasue... just look at who I met the other night! Hmmm... he's a nice copper color. He must be a DEADLY, POISONOUS, COPPERHEAD SNAKE!!!

Yes, friends, he is all of that and more!

I went out to my car at night looking for some mail that I had thrown in my front seat. I was barefooteed (of course). I walked around my car to the passenger side and dug around. Then walked on around and back up to the house. When I got to the house I remembered that I had left my purse in the car, and I needed the checkbook to pay the bills. So, I went back outside, and Mr. Copperhead snake was crawling out from under my car, right by the driver side door.

I am sure you do not want me to describe my reaction... I consider myself pretty tough, for the most part, but I squealed like a little girl! I ran back into the house, scared Luke and the dog, and finally got out the word "SNAKE!"

Luke went and got a gun and went outside to look for it. It had already crawled into the grass, so he had to go "hunting" for it. Luckily, he found it, and killed it. Then he put it up inside the bed of his truck to show the girls the next day. They are NOTORIOUS for running around barefooted.

They haven't taken off their shoes since then!!

Grace and the Fried Rats

OK, really the kid is hilarious.  And I'm not just saying that because she is MY kid (although I am sure I think she is funnier than anyone else does... oh, well.)

So, this morning we have dropped off the "big" girls at school and we are on our way out Highway 22 to drop Miss Gracie off at preschool.  She didn't have such a great time last week - she would have MUCH rather stayed at home with Mom, and she cried both days at drop off.  (Side note: VERY hard on ole' Mom... Mom almost called to check on her and almost went and picked her up early, but I held out, and both days by pick up time, she was having fun.  Whew!)

But I digress... So, we are driving to preschool and I'm talking to her about school and asking her what she thinks they will do today.  The conversation went something like this:

MOM:  Do you think you will paint today?

GRACE:  I don't know.

MOM:  Do you think you all will get to play outside?

GRACE:  Maybe.

MOM:  Do you think you will read books today?

GRACE:  I don't know.

MOM:  What do you think you will have for snack today?

GRACE:  Fried Rats.

What?!?!?!?  Fried rats?!?!?!?  And, seriously y'all, she said it with a straight face and without giggling.  I died laughing, and then she did too.  It was so funny.  I asked her if she thought they would have boiled octopuses (or is it octopi???), and she giggled so much... so funny.

And, F.Y.I., she did GREAT at drop-off today.  No tears (and only a few fried rats in the back pack for snack!!) 

A Rare "Funny" from Miss Kate...

For those of you who know Miss Katie, I'm sure that you would agree that she is very precise.  She rarely gets things mixed up, because she has a memory that is AMAZING.  All of that being said, the other day she got her words mixed up and said something pretty funny.  At the request of my fellow bloggy friend, Shelley, I'll share it with you.

We had shepherd's pie for dinner the other night.  It was pretty good, and Kate enjoyed it.  A few nights later I was pondering that age-old question that plagues Moms everywhere: "What's for dinner?"  Kate piped up and said, "Hey, Mom!  Why don't you make one of those Joseph's Pies?"  

I just looked at her with a blank look... and then it hit me.  

Joseph.  

He's a SHEPHERD.  

In the Bible.  

OH!!!!!  I died laughing.  She had a puzzled look on her face.  Once I finally quit laughing, I explained her little blunder.  She was embarrassed, and would just DIE if she knew I was blogging about it! ha ha!

Soccer Season Begins...

Katie's soccer team began their season today with an awesome win.  (I think the score was 6-2, but that was my score-keeping, and not the "official" numbers... but pretty close!)

Her team has lime green uniforms, so their team name is "The Lime Slime."  (Then they like to say, "Feel the Ooze".  It's pretty cute!)  They are an all-girl team in a co-ed league, and they did GREAT.  They only have 7 players, and it takes 7 to play, so they ALL played the entire game.  And, to top it all off, they played in a messy, drizzly rain.  I was so proud of them all!  They never complained about being wet or tired or anything.  I do not have pictures, as I refused to take my lovely camera out in the rain, but I'll try and do better next weekend.

GO SLIME!!!

Gracie's latest "funny"

A few days ago Miss Grace was outside playing on the play set.  She was up on the "fort" section, and luckily Luke was outside and heard her screaming.  He ran to her and found her being stung by yellow jackets.  He got them off of her quickly, and brought her inside to me.  We put ice on the stings, and then Luke went back outside to kill the yellow jackets.  He found two nests and killed all the bugs and tore down their nests.  I was inside holding Grace and trying to make her feel better.  I told her not to worry, that her Daddy was outside and he was killing those bad bugs. She said, "Do I have to eat them?"

In her experience, every time her Daddy kills something, whether it be deer or quail or turkey, she has had it for dinner!!

Tee-hee.  I love that kid!

Here I am... Rock you like a HURRICANE!!

Here is a satellite photo of Hurricane Ike, raging in the Gulf.

Scary. 

(although I have no idea why it posted the picture so small... curse you, blogger!)
Two scary hurricane posts from me in less than two weeks?!?!?!?  What is UP with that?

Ike is bearing down on us here in Texas, and we are a bit nervous.

Luke's sister, Sarah, her husband, Mike, and their 3 kids are riding out the storm in Houston.  Mike's dad had brain surgery today in Houston, so they do not want to leave him (understandably so.)  

Luke's brother, Matt, is planning on leaving to Baton Rouge, but he is ADAMANT that he is not evacuating... he says he is "vacationing".

Luke's other brother, Sam, is in the Reliant Center with FEMA, waiting for Ike to make landfall so he can go where he is most needed.

Our church here in H-town already has evacuees and has been turned into a make shift shelter.

Like I said, Ike is coming, and we are nervous.  Pray for safety.

Works for me Wednesday!!

It has been a long time since I have participated in "WFMW" over at Rocks in my Dryer!  It hasn't been intentional... and it hasn't been a lack of things that are working, either!  Maybe a lack of time????  Who knows... anyway, I am back!

What is working for me today?

It has to be prepping EVERYTHING for school for my kids the night before.  I do mean everything.  We bathe the night before, we pick out our clothes the night before, and we even lay out our clothes, shoes, and socks in the bathroom where we are getting ready. We pack our backpacks the night before, and I even pack the lunch boxes the night before.  If I know what the kids intend to eat for breakfast, I even get it ready (as much as possible) the night before.  For example, if we are having Eggo waffles, I have the toaster out and ready on the counter.  If it is oatmeal, I have the oatmeal, the bowls, and a measuring cup for water laid out.

This makes our morning go so much smoother.  Nobody has to "think" too hard when they first get up (and for my bunch of sleepyheads, that is a real bonus!!)

Happy mornings to you!  I hope there is a lot that is "working" for you!! :-)

And the nomination goes to.....

I have a nominee for the MOST annoying children's TV show on the ole' tube.

YO GABBA GABBA!!!!!

By a mile, more annoying than Barney ever DREAMED of being.  It is worse than Barney on STEROIDS!  

Gracie is insisting on me sitting on the couch with her right now, and guess what she wants to watch?

I'm thinking of stabbing myself in the eye just to be able to get up off the couch!  It is painful here!  

If you have never watched the ole' Yo Gabba Gabba, I suggest you go over and take a little peek.  It will drive you OVER THE EDGE!!!

Abby Rides a Bike!

Luke taught Abby how to ride her bike this weekend.  It's pretty cute - hopefully this video will post (seeing as how this is my first video EVER!)  If it does not work... oh, well.  Imagine this:  A cute little blond girl being chased by her Dad.  She's riding a tiny purple bike.  Ha Ha!

Startling Revelation...

Get ready, internets.

I am old.

That is my startling revelation for the day.

How did I come up with this idea, you might ask?

Well, as soon as I finish taking my Geritol tablets I'll tell you.

OK.  When my parents came for their last visit, they brought me several copies of my local hometown paper from Arkansas.  Because they have a subscription.  And, they rightly assumed that I might want to "catch up" on the ole' hometown news.

Today was the first time that I actually took time to sit down and read these newspapers, and just guess what was on the front page of one of them?  There was a photo of a few little HIGH SCHOOL VARSITY CHEERLEADERS, one of whom is the DAUGHTER of one of my old high school friends.  Yes, that's right.  One of my friends has a high school aged daughter.  And, said friend is YOUNGER than me.  Now, granted, she had her children young.  (WAY, WAY, too young for me, I can assure you.)  But, STILL!!!!  I could SO be the mother of a high-school aged child!!!!  AACK!!!  

But, instead, I have a pre-schooler.

Thus is the mystery of life...

I'd better go on to bed now.  Old people need lots of sleep, I've heard.

Gracie Update...

My girl had a great day at pre-school yesterday.  Her teacher said she was a "Very Good Girl".  And, she said it with a sincere smile.  I was so relieved!  Not that I didn't think she could do it, but Grace has her own mind, and if she made up her mind that she was not going to behave... well, I'm not sure exactly how we would handle that, to be quite honest!  She doesn't respond to typical time-outs and spankings and things like that... we were about to have to get creative!!  Hopefully she has decided that she likes school and that it is fun to behave!  She got to visit the treasure chest, and she picked a star fish as her prize, but she lost it before we made it to the car... oh, well!  We went and let her pick out another surprise at the store, and then we went out to lunch with Ju-Ju to celebrate a great first week of pre-school!

Gracie Begins Pre-School!

My "baby" started her journey into the world of formal education today.  Only she's not a baby anymore.  Just look at her posing like a big girl in front of the fireplace!  She has her backpack on.   (Look closely at this backpack... she picked it out all by herself.  It is pink with pirate skulls on it.  I have no explanation except to say she is an original.  She has her own mind.)My parents were here over the Labor Day weekend, so they were here to see her off on her first day.

Here's Grace with Nana...
...and here she is with PaPaw.
Once we got Grace to her school room, she was very excited and went right away to play with the toys on the shelves.
Then it was time to sit down and color a picture.  She looks so big!  
The day went pretty well...her teacher, Miss Lisa, said she did OK.  She didn't want to leave her shoes on her feet, which isn't too surprising, since she runs barefoot all day long here at home.  And then Lisa said, and I quote, "And she only hit ONE boy."  What?!?!?!?  I asked her what that meant, and she said Grace was hitting the boy next to her in circle time.  Lisa told her she could not hit, and then asked her why she was hitting.  Grace said "I was trying to make sure he was minding." Oh, my.  She is a one-of-a-kind little girl!  We had a talk when we got home, and now she understands that it is Miss Lisa's job to make sure the kids are minding.

At least I THINK she understands....

Hurricane Gustav

Wow.  Scary.I guess because it's Labor Day and Luke and I are at home, we have watched A LOT of the round-the-clock coverage of Hurricane Gustav.   Nature is very powerful.

And, I am really glad at this moment that I don't live on the Gulf Coast.

One of Luke's brothers has been vacationing in Destin this week, and is going to try and get home today.

Luke's other brother is a FEMA responder and is in Houston, waiting to be deployed on search and rescue teams into Louisiana as soon as it is safe.

Say a lot of prayers for them both, not to mention the residents of the Gulf Coast who are riding out Gustav today!