Kate "TRI's" Hard

Today Katie completed her first triathlon.  She ran in the "Trick-or-Treat Tri" up in the DFW area.  She did great!  I was just so proud of her... she didn't let anything stop her.  It wasn't always smooth, because the chain fell off her bike and she had to get some help to get it back on.  But, that's just how things go sometimes, and she didn't let it get her down.

Because blogger is crazy, it loaded these photos in TOTALLY random order... oh, well.  I'll try to explain what is going on in each picture.

Here she is, crossing the finish line under the balloon arch.
Here she is running toward the track to complete the last loop of the run.  (Notice how she's carrying her visor... it kept falling off, so she just carried it.  When she saw us waiting on the track, she just threw it over to us!)

Here she is in the transition area after the swim, getting ready for the bike portion.  We didn't get any pictures of her during the bike, because she was out on the course for awhile (because of the chain problems).  By the time we realized she had been gone for too long and went out looking for her, she rode up.  Oh well... 
Ready to swim... Note the body marking there... she's #129!
Here she is, taking a deep breath on that swim portion!!
Jumping in, ready to swim.
I thin this picture is so cute... Kate's friend, Lauren, did the Tri with her, and they were so excited, so excited, and then as the "start time" inched ever-so close, the began to get really nervous.  You can just SEE the nerves on their little faces!!!
Here they are before the race, showing off their body markings.
A big congrats to Kate and Lauren for completing their first Tri!!  They both said they just can't WAIT to do another one!!  Way to go girls.  I am just so proud of you!!

The pure neglect is just astonishing

My poor blog is feeling a little neglected this week.  Despite the fact that I have been busier than I can remember in recent history, I also continue to have a raging case of "blogger block".  I just can't think of a single thing to share, friends, and even if I COULD come up with something interesting or clever, I haven't had time to take a picture of it or write it down!

Kate is running in her first little kid's triathlon this weekend.  I will try and take a lot of pictures and perhaps even post them when we return!  Good luck to her and her friend, Lauren!

Happy Weekend!

The "teacher" emerges...

Today I got to substitute teach for a friend of mine in First Grade Reading.  I even got to have Miss Abby and her BFF, Miss Lainey in class for a few hours.

And it was really fun.

Yet also very tiring.

I almost remember when I used to do that kind of thing for a living!!

It's like riding a bike, friends.  You just never forget.

Happy Tuesday!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

My friend, Amy, asked all her readers to show off their Fall Decor a few days ago in this post.

Well, it has taken me a few days, and I've only gotten around to snapping photos of my front porch, but here it is (so far).

Here's a wide shot of the whole porch.
Here's a close-up picture of the right side of the porch.  All of the squashes and pumpkins in the wagon, as well as the watermelons, came out of our own little garden!  Impressive, right?
And, here is the left side, all close up. We DID grow the little pumpkins there, as well as the squash, but the rest of it was purchased.  
If you recall, last year I attempted to decorate my porch, but my cows came up and tore it all up.  The ate the hay, destroyed the pumpkins, knocked down my scarecrows, and pooped on my porch.  (You can go back in my archives right HERE and read all about it.)  This year they are safely fenced away from my yard.  BUT, we do have Trixie, the puppy... Trixie is really bothered by those scarecrows... I HAD two mini-scarecrows in the display, as well, but Trixie has eaten those.  So far, she has left the big ones alone.  I guess maybe she doesn't want to pick on somebody bigger than her! ha ha!

Happy Fall!  Hope you are all enjoying this fabulous weather!  We are loving it!

I got...

...nothing.

I'm having a most severe case of blogger "block".

I can't come up with anything to write about.

Hopefully this, too, will pass, and I'll be back in the "groove" soon...

TAG!!!

I'm playing along with Amy, Shelley, and Kristi, who all challenged their readers to post the 6th photo from the 6th file on their computer.  So, here it is!!This is Miss Abby at the Circle T horse show last January.  She's getting ready to eat lunch.

I'd challenge my readers to do the same, but I don't think I have any more (other than Amy, Shelley, and Kristi! ha ha!!)  

Pumpkin Patch 2009

Every year our local Hospital Auxillary hosts a pumpkin patch.  The have a great Scarecrow and a cute backdrop where your kids can have their photo taken.  Luckily, they have a "semi-professional" photographer present, with a really nice camera, because, you know me, I forgot the camera.  Luckily, I now have a really cool phone with a camera on it!  Love it!  Unfortunately, it is not a GREAT camera.  But, hey, a photo is a photo, right? :-)Happy Fall from the Killian Gals!

********UPDATE!!!  I went back in my "archives", and YES!!!  I found the Pumpkin Patch Photo from 2008!  You can just click right HERE to go and see how much my little darlins' have grown!!!! ***************************

We have bagged our limit.

A few months ago, in May, to be exact, I hit a deer in my car.  It was pretty scary (especially since I had a child in my car who was not MY child.)  Anyway, it messed up my car pretty badly.  It had to go into the body shop for about a week, but it came out looking good as new.

On this past Friday night, we went out to Luke's parents house to celebrate his Dad's 70th birthday.  Happy occasion.  We all had fun, but we had to drive back home after dark.  They live out in the country, much like we do, on the other side of H-town.  As we were driving back, a deer darted out in front of us.  But, we missed it.  Whew!   Unfortunately, her cousin came running into the road after her, and we did NOT miss that one.  Bummer.  My car looks... not so good.  Thankfully, no one was hurt... unless you count the deer.

Here is a visual of how my car looks.

Big dent in front fender, and a lovely busted headlight to go with it.
Big dent on the door and front panel.  

Such a BIG dent, in fact, that you can scarcely open the driver's side door.  That's unfortunate, because REALLY, that's kind of a door you can't do without.  You CAN open it, but it has to bend the side metal on the panel there every time.  It makes a LOVELY noise.


To make Friday night EVEN better for my poor little car, Luke stopped at a road side stand and bought some fresh shrimp for his parents on our way out to their farm.  They put the shrimp in a Ziploc bag.  Because our luck is so good, the bag leaked on my seat.  Now my car smells like bad shrimp.  I used Febreeze on it, and now it smells like shrimp that died in a field of lilacs.

I'll bet we'd really get a lot of money for it if we traded it in right now, don't you think?  

Soccer Update

Just a little background on Kate's Soccer team this year...

They are an "all girl" team in a co-ed league.

They only have 7 players, which means no subs at any time.  All of them must play all game, every game.

Kate is the only 4th grader on their team.  All the other girls are 3rd graders.  And they are not "big" or "tall" girls.

All that being said, they played a team today who is mostly 4th graders, and has boys on their team.  The first time they played that team this season, they got beaten.  BADLY.  All of our girls except for Kate got hurt and cried at some point in the game.  They just acted scared of the other team.

Today they played them again.  And they came to WIN.  They just played "out of their minds" good.  One girl even got a ball kicked directly into her mouth, and she lost a tooth.  (Luckily, it was already loose.)  But, she got back up and finished the game.  What a trooper!

The other team was undefeated.

UNTIL TODAY!!!!!!!

Go Lime Slime!  You girls really showed everyone what you were made of today!

Grace strikes again.

Today, Grace was playing Polly Pockets with the Fabulous Ju-Ju, our wonderful babysitter.  Miss Grace wanted Ju-Ju to put new clothes on the Polly Doll.  She said, "Ju-Ju, can you dress this doll?  My hands are not functioning properly".

WHAT?!?!?  She's 3!!  Who uses words like "functioning properly" when you're 3!!

I think we may be in trouble...

TRI Pics

Sunday was my third triathlon, and, as promised, here are the photos.  Some of them are better than others, as they were taken on a camera phone, and some of them were taken by my 9 year old daughter. :-)  Also, they are in no particular order, as blogger IS NOT my friend!

This is me, super happy, after the race, ready to eat at IHOP!!Here I am crossing the finish line.

Here's me, mounting my bike for the biking portion.  
And, here I am swimming.  

Here I am after the race, loading up my stuff out of transition.  
That may have been a few more photos than you were ready for, but we really had fun.  Luke and Kate were a little "camera happy", but I guess it kept them entertained while I was racing!

Happy Tuesday!

Wild Weekend

Well, internets, we are back at home.  It was a wild, fast and furious weekend.  We had a soccer game on Saturday morning (We Won!!  Go Lime Slime!)  Then we took the youngest girls out to the farm to stay with Hubby's parents, as I decided to go and TRI another triathlon this weekend.  (I know, I know, that's a little crazy, but I just really wanted to see if I could better my time just a little bit, and the "season" for triathlons is quickly coming to an end.)  So, with encouragement from hubby, I signed up for the Benbrook All-Women's Tri.  It was really fun.  And, YES, I ran better than ever before.  I cut 6 minutes off of my run time alone!  For me, a huge accomplishment, since I really don't enjoy the run as much as the bike.  Kate decided to go along with us and watch, since she is considering doing a kid's triathlon here in a few weeks.  After the race, we ate THE BEST lunch EVER at IHOP (I know that sounds funny, but MAN, was I hungry! ha ha!)  Then we ran back to pick up Grace and Abby.  Then it was on to pick up the dogs from the boarders (my car was REALLY full!)  

I do have pictures of all of this, but am just too tired to wait for them to load right now.  Maybe tomorrow.  Hope your weekend was as fun as ours!!!

Random Things that Make Me HAPPY

As I was reading BooMama's blog this morning, I so enjoyed reading her list of things that made her happy!!  It inspired me to make my own little list.  (You can find BooMama's link over on my side bar under "Blog Pros"...  I'm too lazy to make another link right now!!

Any-hoo... on with thing that make me particularly happy today!!

1.  Watching Hubby make blueberry muffins with daughter #2.

2.  Going upstairs to tuck daughter #3 into bed, but finding her sprawled out among the books in her bed, fast asleep.

3.  Watching daughter #1 "evolve" into a little athlete who is learning to enjoy sports.

4.  Trixie Mae (the dog) playing with the cats.

5.  Getting a perfect Diet Coke from Sonic.

6.  The accomplishment of finishing a triathlon.

7.  Blogging.

8.  Warm popcorn.

9.  Spending the day in a comfy T-shirt and soft shorts.

10.  Crisp, clean sheets.

11. Gray's Anatomy.

Have a fantastic day!

The Little Fahionista...

Sometimes a girl just has style.

She knows what she likes, and she doesn't let society restrict her with any "expectations".

I myself do not have this particular type of style.  I tend to be very "vanilla" in my fashion choices.  Not a lot of variety exists in my closet.

However, I have a daughter who loves fashion.  She is constantly putting together new ensembles.

They are works of art.

Just look.An old dance costume (worn backwards), with an additional fringe skirt thrown on top to add flair.  One band-aid on the knee.  The outfit is really pulled together with hot pink cowgirl boots.

You just can't teach that kind of style... you're either born with it, or you're not.