Book Report

Christian has an assignment to read a non-fiction book and write a book report.  The report is more of a reporting of facts than an actual story, as it is more of an outline form on poster board.  I started with him, with full intentions of helping him complete it.  However, about 30 minutes in, I gave up and sent him to Randy.  When he doesn't want to do something, he can D R A GGGGGGGG it out like a pro.  I have no patience for this, Randy is better, but about 1.5 hours in, he tells me to jump in anytime!!  God forbid you tell him that he needs at least 6 facts about the story, and to write 2 or 3 sentences about his opinion of the book.  By God, that is ALL your're going to get.  When I prompted him to write a couple more thoughts, he quoted me verbatim that I said 2 or 3 sentences, as he had already written three.  Same thing happened on the "at least 6 facts", he had written six, never mind that we had only covered up to Chapter 3!!!!!  Let me tell you that going above and beyond, is completely BEYOND  his comprehension.  Lordy, Lordy, please let him play ball for a living or else he is NEVER going to leave my house!!! 

The really sad part is, once he got past the fact that Babe Ruth's parents abandoned him at a reform school, and got to the baseball facts, he really liked reading the book.  But, hell would freeze over before he admitted it!

The teacher said that parents could help with the report, but it needed to be a true reflection of the child's work.  I can assure you, she certainly won't think we did it for him.  Three excrutiatingly painful hours later, the finished product

Randy said he feels like someone with turrets syndrome that has been holding it in.  He thinks he should go into a closet and should just scream every expletive imagineable as loud as possible to release the frustration.  Thankfully he had the patience of Jobe, which I certainly didn't have.  God gives you two parents for a reason, and today I am most thankful that I had a partner in this journey!!

Bluebonnets

It's Springtime and the bluebonnets are everywhere.  I have never taken the kids picture in the bluebonnets before, so today on the way to Easter services, we made a little stop.

Astro's take first place

Congratulations to the amazing 8UAA Astro's!!!!!!!!

Randy decided to sign the boys up for their first tournament this season.  The schedule was a little weird, two games on Friday night, none on Saturday, then play on Sunday until you lose.  First game Friday night, they looked pretty good, but we were playing the Braves.  A team with a good win record, but they won 12 to 4.  Second game Friday night, playing the Cubs a team that we should be able to beat, but it was their second game of the night, back to back, so who knows.  They killed it 12 to 8.  Saturday night we get the word that we're seeded 3rd even though we had won both games. 

First game Sunday, 13 to 3 against the Cubs.  The boys are feeling pumped up, and we have an hour break until the next game.  Second game, complete shut out of the Riverdogs 13 to 0.  All the boys were working together so well on defense, and their bats were on fire.  We realize pretty early on that unless they just layed down in the field and surrendered, they were going to the championship game.  In a back to back game, and 12 tired boys and coaches, they finished off the tournament with a victory win against the Rangers 12 to 4. 

It was so exciting for them!!  This is the best I have ever seen them play, consistently.  Randy is a great coach.  He is patient with them and just stays after the basic principles.  Even if they hadn't won, if they played like that, noone could fault them.  I think the boys probably could have played another one, at least they thought so,  but the parents and coaches were toast.  Christian had a fantastic final game.  Way to go Astro's!!!!!

Happy 19th Trace!!!

Happy, Happy birthday my little grown up nephew!!!!  Ohhhhh, to be 19 years young with all possibilities laying at your feet waiting for you to capture them........and this is what he chooses

Oh Tracey, Tracey what will we do with you and your stache!!!!  The secret Stache that is....his ever popular radio show on UTD Radio!!  I was a DJ back in my college days in Nacogdoches.  One of the coolest jobs I ever had.  Just think had I stuck with it, I could be Oprah by now.  No pressure Trace, but the family is counting on you!!!

Christian wanted in on the "stache" action, more like half  "stache".

We munched on some good grub at Texas De Brazil.  The kids had never been there before, so Caroline decided to put on her cutest Justice look, and I must say she was FABULOUS!!

Meg brought a date to the dinner.  I didn't capture a picture, but I will next time for sure!!
Happy Happy Birthday Tracey!!!  I love you!!!!

It's Springtime

I'm not EVEN going to acknowledge the fact that I have been MIA from the blog since.........eek.........July!!!  For shame, what was I thinking.  So instead, what do you think about all the new pictures?  I know you have missed me, and I have missed sharing all of the gory details of my crazy life.  Let's start with the most important detail, and the one that is consuming my life right now.  Selling our house!!!  Yes, yes, it's true, I have lost all sense of my life as a City girl and we are moving to the country.  See what having kids does to you, makes you do things you would NEVER have thought you would do.  We bought 1.5 acres in a beautiful subdivision in the country, well outside Mansfield anyway.  Our house is listed for sale, so needless to say keeping things picked up and constantly organized with two kids and a husband, is like sweeping back the ocean, multiple times a day!!  Really, I like living so organized and tidy, but I am alone in the ocean on this one.  Let's all pray for a sale before the next school year starts in August.

Baseball is back in full swing and Miss Muffett has picked up horseback riding.  The Astro's crushed the other team in their first game, so their chests are puffed out BIG TIME.   Caroline is loving riding the horses.  I think she may have found her "thing".  I must say it's so peacful in the country.  I think I'm going to like it there and the stables are only five minutes away. 

More pictures to come friends, thanks for checking in.  Happy Spring!!

The things children say...

I decided to start curling my hair because it's getting longer and when it's straight it looks like a mop on my head by the end of the day in this crazy heat!!  So yesterday this was the conversation....

Will - are you going to work with your hair like that?
Me - yes, why?
Will - looks like bedhead!!!

I just love kids!!

Another quote:
Will: I think Caroline is more Mexican than American
Christian:  Will's right we should sell her to the Mexicans

Gary Golson

My good friend Gary Golson passed away July 7, 2011.  He fought a two year long courageous battle with skin cancer, before he was welcomed to heaven with open arms.  Gary was 54 years old, with a beautiful loving wife Gaby, that is one of my best friends and two young sons, Gabe 7 and Gavin 2.  Gary asked me to speak at his memorial service, and the following is what I wrote to remember him and celebrate his life. 

  Gary would tell you that he lived his life in the reverse order of most people.  He traveled the world, made friends everywhere he went, but didn't meet the love of his life until he was 44 years old.  Gaby and Gary have the most beautiful love story.  It was truly a "love boat" moment when they met.  Neither one of them spoke the other's language very well, but somehow they had a very real connection.  I remember Gary telling me the story of their meeting on the cruise ship and he said, he knew right away that she was the one.  It's not hard to see why Gaby loves him so, and is evidenced by this sanctuary filled with friends and family today.  Though he said he lived his life in reverse order, I'm sure he would tell you that the last 11 years have been the best of his life.

I love hearing the stories about Gary during college, and in his single days of his 20's and 30's, and you can tell that he didn't miss a beat and was living every moment to the fullest.  But the guy that was the first one ready to party back then, and the last to drag in, in the wee hours of the morning is not the man I know.  I know him as a family man, completely devoted to his wife and two boys.

I'll never forget the day that we met...We were at Primrose school, a local preschool, that both our boys attended.  It was a party day in their classroom, and as was typical a bunch of mom's come with snacks and treats for the kids and here comes Gary.  Big smile on his face, party favors in hand.  All the boys were sitting around one table having their snacks, except Gabe.  Gary asked Gabe, "don't you want to sit with your friends"?

Gabe said a very matter of fact, "no".  Gary asked again trying to persuade him to join in the fun, and Gabe wasn't moving.  So, Gary picks up the chair with Gabe in it, while he's kicking and screaming saying, "put me down, I don't want to"....Gary's fighting him the whole way, he cannot believe he has a kid that isn't as much a social butterfly as he is.  When he puts the chair down, Gabe gets up and walks back to the other table and Gary throws his hands up in frustration.  That was the moment that I knew we would be fast friends!!

We have a tight group of friends that blossomed out of friendships formed by little boys from their preschool days, but the glue that holds us all together is the love we have for our kids.  Gary was a big part of that group and certainly always brought the party spirit into everything.  I have a little saying that I use for Gary...have cooler will travel.  The rest of us were carrying diaper bags and juice boxes, Gary brought the adult beverages.  He was very popular!!

Gary had an entrepreneurial spirit that was unmatched.  He used to call me, very serious, and ask me to meet with him the next day.  Gaby told him to stop calling all mysterious, makes it sound like their getting a divorce or something.  I knew better, he had an idea and he wanted to share.

He'd come by my office and he would tell me about a new business venture and ask me what I thought.  I enjoyed those visits, talking shop with him, and I always appreciated his never ending thirst for adventure and the chase.  I believe you either have that gambling spirit in your blood, or you don't.  Gary and I share that trait, big time.

I feel a little cheated really that I only knew Gary for the last 7 years of his life.  The outpouring of love and support that came his way in the last two years is nothing short of amazing.  He had friends and family from all over this country, Mexico, Italy, and as far back as elementary school sending him well wishes.  The thing that has always struck me the most is his unselfishness.  If you asked him how he was feeling he would answer, but then always redirect and ask about you and your family.  In his last days, he summoned up all his strength to say goodbye to as many people as he could.  He said he would be our guardian angel and would watch over all of us and our kids.  He had many jobs during his life, but I believe that is the job he will keep until we see him again in heaven.

I miss him already.....

Disney Cruise

We had such a good time two years ago on a 3 day Disney cruise we decided to try a longer one this time, to Alaska!!  All aboard.......

Christian didn't want to take this picture, bet you can't tell...  We decided to let him board the ship anyway.  It was all good as soon as he found the sports court on deck 10.

Deck 10 was FREEZING, but he didn't seem to mind.  He played on the sports deck every chance he got. 

Look who I found while he was playing.....

Christian never even noticed!!  He's going to be tough to be married to.

First morning aboard we went to the character breakfast, styling with napkin hats.

First stop, Tracy Arm, which is a fjord that you sail through.  It's technically a stop on the cruise, but you don't get off the ship.  Thankfully we had a verandah off of our stateroom, so we could enjoy the scenery without fighting the crowd with all of the other guests who had parked themselves on a lounge chair beginning at 6am that morning!!  It reminded me of all the people who rush to the beach early in the morning to secure the best chairs and umbrella's at the crack of dawn.

The scenery was just beautiful......

These mountains in the fjords are 7000 feet tall.  Just to give you some perscpective to the size the

next picture is of a large boat going through the fjord, and it looks tiny.

There were icebergs all thoughout the fjord.  The captain explained that you can only see 10% of the iceberg  above water.  Some of these things were huge as we sailed by, I can only imagine how large they really are.

The water was full of pieces of iceberg that had broken off from the main one.  As we were moving very slowly through, this was the view.

The coolest thing we saw in the fjord was the Twin Sawyer glacier.

This is a stock photo from Disney, but I thought it was a great shot of the glacier and the ship.

Next stop, Skagway.

Skagway is a very poor little town, but our excursions were great!!  First stop Liarsville, for a little gold panning.  This area earned the name Liarsville back in the gold rush days of Alaska.  Apparently, the mountain terrain was very difficult to travel through, so the reporters would just make up the stories for the paper rather than make the treacherous trip up the mountain to get first had accounting of the mining going on.  The people and the surroundings were exactly what I had pictured for Alaska.

We brought home a few specs of gold.  I hope the kids don't ask me for it, because I'm not sure where I put it!!

Next excusion in Skagway, dog sledding.  If you're reading this blog you probably know that I really don't love animals like the rest of my family.  So, when I was told there were 250 sled dogs on this mountain, I told Randy NOT to leave my side. Turns out it was my most favorite excursion of the entire trip.  

We took a bus to the base of a mountain probably about 35 miles ouside of Skagway.  Then we boarded a German Mercedes military troop mover to head up the mountainside.  It was like something out of a movie.  We went way up the mountain until we came to the summer camp for these dogs. A lot of these dogs either have run or are still running the iditarod race in Alaska. 

16 dogs were pulling our sleigh.  Since this was the summer camp for the dogs they outfitted the slegh's with tires to pull through the mountain. The sleigh itself was 600 pounds not to mention all 4 of us and our musher.   There was an excursion to go to the top of the mountain to the snow, but the minimum age was 8.  I think this was just as good.  After the ride, we went back to base camp and the kids got to play with the 3 week old puppies.

These pups were ADORABLE!!  So glad they were in Alaska, or I could have caved in and gotten one that day.  Believe me there was plenty of begging going on.

Juneau - Bald Eagles, Sea Lions, and Whale watching...

I really regret that I didn't take my telescopic lens for the camera.  The picture of him sitting on the rocks could really have been good!

We came upon these sea lions while we were whale watching.  They were fighting with each other and playing, it was just incredible.

 Miss Muffett had a little attitude problem..

The humpback whales were fascinating.  At one point there were three of them together.  They never raised their backs and flipped their tails at one time, but it was really cool to see.  The kids lost interest in this excursion after the first whale sighting.  They turned into "those" kids on the catamaran, we tried to pretend that we didn't know them.  It would be convenient if they didn't look so much like me.

Meet Cruise Director Christian...

Next stop Ketchikan and the Lumberjacks...

When Randy first told me that he booked a lumberjack show for us to go to, I must say I wasn't all that thrilled.  In fact, I got online and started looking for other alternatives.  However, I quickly discovered that there really isn't all that much to do in Ketchikan, so off we went to the show. 

When they saw the wood in circles like above, they call the pieces that come off "cookies".  They came up into the stands and gave Christian a cookie.  I must say that was our most unique souveneir and definately put us over the 50 lbs. luggage limit!  It is now on our back porch.

The lumberjacks were very entertaining and really BUFF!!  It was really fun.

The last day on the ship, Caroline and I went to a princess tea.  It was charming and I'm not sure which one of us enjoyed it more.  Caroline decided she would dress as Jasmine for the festivities.  Adorable!

Last night of the cruise and Caroline participated in a performance of Friendship Rocks, put on by the Oceaneer's Club and Oceaneer's Lab.  They are the kids clubs on board.  Caroline wanted to go everyday for hours, and Christian wanted to go some of the time, when he wasn't participating in sports on Deck 10.  Only Caroline did the show, and I just love her get in there and have fun attitude.

The cruise was amazing, Disney just does it right!!  I have tons and tons of character photos with the kids, but here are some of the best ones.

This is Caroline's BFF that she made on the trip, Maddie.  Maddie is almost 9 years old and she and Caroline played all the time.  I am always so amazed that these older girls love to play with someone so much younger, but they always do.

This was so spontaneous of Christian.  He asked Jack Sparrow for his autograph, and while he wasn't looking he said "stick em up"!  Everyone was rolling laughing.

Definately one of our best vacations as a family.