Clearly Vocal

My friends from Clearly Vocal sang tonight for a crowd of more than 50. I have seen Clearly Vocal perform many times, but tonight was especially good. First of all, they were at Glenwood - home field advantage. Second, they had their best sound guy - Bill. And most important, they offered free dessert. YUM! If you've never heard Clearly Vocal, go see them. You can find their next performance date and location on their website.

Good fitting pants

Why is it so hard to find pants that fit right? Jeff can order pants from anywhere (as long as they sell 38 long) and they fit perfect - loose fit, slim fit, regular fit - it doesn't matter, they all fit him. When I was younger (aka before babies), I could walk into any store, try on my size and most pants fit - some better than others but they all went on.

Now I go in and try on 12 pairs of pants to find one that is acceptable. Is there no way to make a pair of pants for post-pregnancy women who refuse to loose their pregancy weight but desire to look like they wear a size 8? How hard can that be? UUGGGHHH!!

Nona

My mom goes by "Nona" - the greek word for grandmother. Her older sister (my aunt) lived in Greece for a number of years, on the island of Mykonos. She had one of her children in Athens (my cousin, Selene) who then had three children, each several years before I started having kids. They call their grandmother "Nona" and my mom liked the name as well.

So...Jeff and I got married in 2000. My brother and his wife got married in 2002. At that time, I only had Emma. My mom said "I would like to have 5 grandchildren in 5 years". Amber and I went to work and we accomplished the goal. HAHA! We gave birth to grandchildren #4 and #5 in the last 10 weeks of 2006. Ask and ye shall receive...

Family Fun Night

Last night was "Family Fun Night" at Rice (where Emma attends). It is two hours of games, activities and food held each year for the students and their families. My mom went with us and we had my brother's children - Payton and Carter.

Abby really liked the duck game - pick a duck and get a prize

Silas entered the donut eating contest

The highlight of the evening was when Silas rode the horse - dressed as a cowboy

Photo shuffle

I take no credit for this...I stole this idea from my friend Kim. Here's the deal - I am going to post 10 pictures in this order: the first picture from my first photo file, the second picture from my second photo file, the third picture from my third photo file, etc. up to the tenth picture from the tenth file (no edits, no cheating):

Abigail at 4 weeks (#1 from the "Abigail" file)

Bret Raymond with his daughter, Anna (#2 from my "Anna" file)

Emma (#3 from my "April 2006" file)

Abby (#4 from "April 2007")

Abby and our neighbor's cat, Lovable (#5 from "April 2008")

Silas wearing Emma's hat (#6 from "August 2006")

Silas jumping to Emma's bed (#7 from "August 2007")

The Hodges family - John, Kim, Johnathan, Kalleigh, Jonas and Kim's mom, Carol (#8 from my "August 2008" file)

Silas at 3 years old (#9 in my "Birthdays 2006" file)

Emma at the Lufkin Zoo this summer (#10 in my "blog" file)

Nominated

Kim "nominated" my blog for an "I Love Your Blog" award. As a result of the nomination, I will answer the following questions with one word answers...

1. Where is your cell phone? van
2. Where is your significant other? meeting
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? close
5. Your father? far
6. Your favorite thing? chocolate
7. Your dream last night? forgotten
8. Your dream/goal? trust
9. The room you're in? living
10. Your hobby? photography
11. Your fear? injury
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Tyler
13. Where were you last night? Winery
14. What you're not? patient
15. One of your wish-list items? job
16. Where you grew up? Farmington
17. The last thing you did? laundry
18. What are you wearing? pink
19. Your TV? on
20. Your pet? cat
21. Your computer? laptop
22. Your mood? stressed
23. Missing someone? Johnna
24. Your car? mini-van
25. Something you're not wearing? socks
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? hot
28. Love someone? Jeff
29. Your favorite color? red
30. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Wednesday

40, 34, 8, 7, 5, 2

Lucky lotto numbers? No! Strange body measurements? No! This is my life in numbers...

My husband is 40 (last month), I am 34 (yesterday), we've been married 8 years (last month), Emma is 7 (next week), Silas is 5 (next month), Abby is 2 (last week).

Do you remember when only "old" people were 40 or 34 or married 8 years or had 7 year olds or 3 kids? I remember it clearly and thought it would be a long time until I got there. But here I am....

First day of school

Abby started school today. She is going to Little People's School - where Emma went and where Silas currently attends. We had to wait until after her second birthday to start...so today was her first day. She went from 9:00 to 11:00 then came home and went straight down for her nap. What an exciting chapter for Abigail...the first of so many days of school.

Abby's Birthday Party...

This year I made Abby's cake -

she loves Little Einsteins so I ordered a customized icing sheet. It was so easy to use and actally tasted very good.

Abby had no idea what to do with candles, but she had lots of help...

Abby's best friend, Kalleigh and her brother Johnathan came to our little party. We could not have a birthday party without Kalleigh - the girls have been together from the very beginning.

Abby's cousins - Carter and Payton came from Dallas.What a treat to have cousins that are the same age and live so close

Happy Birthday, Abigail!

My baby is 2 years old today!

It's hard to believe that it has been 2 years since she was born...

A proud daddy - 3 times over


First days home from the hospital


Dedication day at Glenwood Church


Emma and "her baby"


Even Silas seems excited

Pumpkin Patch

We had a family outing to the pumpkin patch today. I drove Silas' class to Moore Farms in Bullard so Jeff took the morning off and went with us.

If you need a fall outing, I would highly recommend Moore Farms. We got to hear a story about how pumpkins grow, go on a hayride to a pumpkin patch, choose a pumpkin to take home, pull a 100 year old plow and feel the "guts" of a pumpkin. After a pumpkin carving demonstration, we got to bring the jack-o-lantern back to the class.

My headache has a first name, it's S-I-L-A-S...

Just kidding...but every time the weather starts to get bad, I get a headache. It lasts until the front passes through. I realize that I am starting to sound like my grandfather talking about his knees predicting rain, but I am serious. The rain is pouring outside (like "gathering wood for an ark" pouring) and my head is killing me. I'm on to sing tonight so I have to find a solution. If any of you have this same problem, would you let me know how you solve it? I am not opposed to strange suggestions and I have no problem taking pills.

Tyler Rose Garden

I took the kids to the Tyler Rose Garden this afternoon and got some pictures. This weekend is the annual Rose Festival so the garden was busier than usual. Even with the crowd, the kids did great and I got a few good shots.

Tagged

My sister-in-law tagged me so here I go...

1. Where was I ten years ago?
In October, 1998 I was in my 5th quarter of law school at Baylor. I was in the middle of a divorce and living in the worst-ever apartment in a terrible part of town. Thank God for grace...

2. What was on my to-do list today?
Finish painting the trim in the master bathroom, take a nap, make home-made pizza crust, make cookies.

3. What would I do if I were a billionaire?
Pay off all our debt, fully fund the kid's college accounts, be the sole support for a missionary family, give generously at church, buy a Godiva store.

4. Five places I have lived:
Beaumont, Texas
Farmington, NM
Abilene, TX
Waco, TX
Tyler, TX

5. Bad habits:
I eat way too much
I hate to exercise
I watch "Will and Grace" re-runs while I pick up the house in the morning.

"TAG, YOU'RE IT": Kim, Reagan, Trisha

Silas and Abigail

This morning was so beautiful that we just had to open the windows. Because of Silas' previous antics, we do not have screens on some of our windows (another post, another day). So when we open the windows, the kids feel that it is their obligation to crawl in an out of them. This morning was particularly peaceful because Emma was at a sleepover - so Silas and Abby were actually playing together.

Halloween

As the costumes arrive, I'll try to get shots of the kids trying them on. I think the first wearing is when they are most excited. By Halloween, they are tired of the costume and only care about the candy! Abby's costume arrived today - a kitty ballerina - chosen because her two favorite things are kittens and dancing.

Where the wild things are!

What a busy day today. Nanne Sue (Jeff's mom) came to town to eat lunch with Emma at school. It is "Grand Friends" week at Rice Elementary where grandparents are welcome to come and eat. Emma went to bed talking about it and woke up talking about it. She had a great lunch and trip to the book fair. Silas also got some special time with Nanne Sue today. They went to the Discovery Science Place after he got out of school. He came home pumped up and tired out. Abby stuck with me today...she is my super napper lately. After all of that, we were very tired and a little crazy...

Will summer ever end?

We have had some cool mornings lately, but by 9:00 a.m. it is warm around here. My kids are so confused because they talk about the seasons changing at school but then see no change in our seasons whatsoever. It's not global warming...it's East Texas!

Last week when I was at Wal-Mart, I noticed that they had play sand on sale. It caught my eye because there were some very vibrant colors including purple. Several thoughts went through my mind..."my kids would love purple sand", "how do they make purple sand?", "will this make more of a mess than regular sand?"...and I decided to go for it. 120 pounds of purple sand now live in a one-eyed turtle in my back yard.

By the way, I grossly underestimated the mess of purple sand....

Finally done!

I am finally done with the bathroom (except for the minor touch-ups around the baseboards and ceilings that will not happen for another 6 months). Jeff and I chose the primary color - "Pony Tail" from Olympic and Emma chose the accent color - "Gooseberry" from Olympic that graces the walls of the potty room. YEAH!!!

Ketchup in the eye (and other Silasisms)

Silas is a mess. He has been a mess since the day he was born - nearly 11 pounds through my birth canal. He is very smart, very physically adept and gets into everything. When he was a baby and toddler, he got into stuff just for the purpose of making a mess. Now that he is almost 5, he gets into things to find out what they are and how they work. He is the most curious and brave of all my three.

Jeff and I have recently considered that there should be a term for that amount of time that it takes a child to get into whatever you do not want them to get into and do the worst possible thing they can do. In our house, and if Silas is involved, it is usually about 4.6 seconds shorter than I expect - the exact amount of time it takes me to get from one end of the house to the other when I realize that I cannot hear Silas anymore.

So after school today, Silas decided he wanted a "happy meal". We brought the food home and he sat down to eat - 20 minutes before my carpool started. He got the ketchup bottle and commented on how it was "brand spanking new". He popped open the lid and took a close look to figure out how the cap worked (one of those "no spill" kinds that sucks the last drop back in so there is no spilling). When he was unable to determine the method by which the kectchup comes out, he squeezed the bottle to get a first hand demonstration. The next thing I know, there is ketchup in his eye. Unfortunately, no picture of the incident but here are a few of my favorite of Silas: