Briana's Life's Little Moments

1/29–Day 2 lens practice and my favorite photo shoot yet

2012-01-29T22:58:00.000-06:00

Anyone ever see Joe pitch? This is exactly how Joe used to pitch. It’s freaky watching the same thing come from Joey.

I had to make use of the lens I rented! I took these photos of Joey.

Classic, Silly Joey

The boys had the best time just hanging in the trees.

My WONDERFUL son Joey agreed to let me take him downtown to do a photo shoot with my lens before I had to take it back.

He was so cooperative, and he was even a bit goofy. He would often stick his tongue out at me and start to giggle. He is such a nut.

Joey insisted on sitting on the frog!!

Then started to stick out his tongue and made himself laugh. I love this photo of him!

This is his, “I’m so cool”, look.

This was my favorite photo, and probably one of my all time favorite photos.

Earlier that day Joey had to count all the money in coins he had gotten out to donate to school for the Leukemia Society. He had $9.87 so I gave him .13 to make ten dollars even. He was so very excited to help the kids who were sick that he gave them every silver coin he could find. I’m so glad he’s caring like that!

Let me go off on a tangent here. Notice Joey is without a shirt in the photo above? Him and Justin have been going shirtless in the house. I think they are crazy because I’m almost always freezing.

A older neighbor girl came to the door to look for Justin to play. I made Joey answer the door and he peeked ONLY his head around the door and would not let her see him without a shirt. My little 8 year old boy is becoming self conscious around girls!

My kitchen needs to be cleaned…

Joe trying to nap at the park!

Joey and I went out for ice cream after I took photos of him!

1/28–I’m in love…

2012-01-28T22:38:00.000-06:00

With this camera lens. Oh my GAWD! This lens is normally $2500!! I rented it for two days, and wanted to test out the lens with two basketball game photo shoots I had.

The lens is a canon 70-200 2.8 IIS lens version 1. It is a beautiful lens. It is very heavy and I had a monopod to stabilize it but I felt it restricted me too much so I didn’t use it long.

The lens did a beautiful job capturing these fast shots indoors where lighting is usually poor. See my favorites below.

I would do just about anything for this lens. It is AMAZING.

The lens… (drool)….

My new Airwalk shoes. I think I’m an Airwalk shoe addict now. They have really wild plaid ones that I want to get. These are black and white with black lace. I love them and they are laceless so they slip on and are so comfortable!!

Here are some of my favorite shots I took at the game!!

1/27–Stuff

2012-01-27T22:33:00.000-06:00

Alex, this reminds me of the big headed cat pictures with a small body!

Needed a drink that evening. This was my drink, Joe had beer. We sat and watched the first season of the Office. I really wasn’t a fan of the show.

Before the drinking started, had to get the boys to bed. Joey and Justin read with mom. Above Joey is being a goofball. Below Justin is reading with us, too.

1/25–Flooding

2012-01-25T22:27:00.000-06:00

On 1/24 and 1/25 it rained non-stop for over a day. I loved all the rain but since we haven’t had rain in so long, the ground just could not handle it.

When I drove Justin to school the next day, I couldn’t believe the flooding I passed. This field is usually bare and dry. It was a lake as far as you could see. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been here for four years and never seen it flood like this.

1/22–Sunday

2012-01-22T22:32:00.001-06:00

Don’t get the wrong idea – I made this!! This was one of Joey’s new lego sets. He tried to put it together and screwed up somewhere, so I told him I would do it. It was actually fun. Isn’t this cabin cute?

Today Joe was going grocery shopping. I asked the kids if they wanted to go with dad and they told me no. I told the kids while dad was going shopping we were cleaning the house. A little later, just as Joe was going to leave, Justin yells, ‘Dad, I’m going with you!’

I asked Justin why he all of a sudden wants to go with dad.

He says, ‘If I go with dad, I don’t have to clean the house!’

Seriously, he’s SHARP for a 5 year old kid!!! Joe and I were laughing hysterically. Poor Joey and I cleaned while they were gone. Most of the stuff was Joey’s new lego sets anyhow!

Today we had soccer practice for Joey at Celebration Park in Allen. It was a gorgeous day. It was nearly 70 degrees for January 22nd, which is unheard of! Joe and I were in short and short sleeves. We walked around the park to get some exercise. It was about a 2 mile walk. Then Joe and I played football. It was awesome to get outside and enjoy the warm weather. I had the entire house opened up today to get fresh air inside. I love warm weather in the winter. I can definitely get use to it!

Other than that, we came home, ate lunch and I took a nap. When I woke, I cleaned again. Today was a big cleaning day. We finally took down all the Christmas stuff and put it away (mostly). There are still some bins upstairs that need to go in the closet. I’m glad that is done.

1/21–Joey’s birthday party

2012-01-22T22:22:00.001-06:00

We had Joey’s birthday party at Dr. Pepper Star Center, which included ice skating and the party room. He invited his friends and had 7 RSVP, which was the perfect amount!

Joey, who hasn’t skated before, figured it out in minutes and was skating the entire time and didn’t want to come off the ice. He had an absolute blast.

I, unfortunately, don’t have photos of Joey ice skating because I was trying to make sure everyone was having a good time and it’s hard to bring your camera on the ice when you are worried about slipping yourself!

This is Joey’s best friend, Alex. He was terrified to go onto the ice. I helped him on, pretty much yanked him on and promised him I would NOT let go and let him fall. He finally got the hang of it and was skating by a champ by the end of the party.

Alex and Justin were playing on my phone, waiting for the others to finish skating.

The gifts

Party blowers

Our neighbor, Brenden.

Our neighbor, Braxton.

Justin (duh!)

Joey picked out a military cake from Target.

Jayden, a classmate

Clayton, he plays soccer with Joey

Evan K, classmate and played soccer with Joey.

Evan G, goes to school with Joey and plays soccer with him

Joey excited to blow out the candle

Yes, I finally got the tank off the cake!!

All the kids signed this at the end of the party.

Party favors – each kid went home with a lego set!

Opening gifts

Kids watching Joey open gifts

Lego star wars!

Adults were having fun just chatting

Birthday boy!

Kids watching Jayden play his DS

Joey couldn’t wait to start building!

Joey’s gifts – pretty much EVERYTHING was legos. The party helper that helped take care of the room said she’s never seen a party where a boy got so many legos!

1/20–Sweetness

2012-01-22T22:05:00.001-06:00

I’ve been updating my photo challenge blog. I used these two photos on it.

I saw the boys sitting on the couch together and had to record this moment. It made my heart jump it was so sweet.

1/16–Random pics

2012-01-22T22:03:00.001-06:00

1/16 was MLK day and so the kids and Joe and I had the day off. I made a hair appointment to get my hair colored red again. Beth mostly does it a dark brown/red. You can see it here. The nice thing about this hair coloring is it doesn’t hurt your hair. It’s a conditioner – not a stripping agent.

This photo I took of me by accident but I love it.

New hair color

My favorite Christmas ornament. I love Nature’s Sketchbook by Hallmark. It’s my favorite line.

Quiet but busy

2012-01-20T21:41:00.000-06:00

I've been really busy this past week. Monday we had the day off. Tuesday evening I went over to a friend's house. Wednesday I stayed home with Joe and watched American Idol. Thursday I went to another friend's house and today I'm finally home.

The biggest thing this week was I was asked to quote a wedding portrait package. I have just started my business and cater more towards kids and family style photo shoots so the wedding package took me by surprise. I had to figure out a good price to charge, which included photos being printed and albums being purchased. I then had to think about a deposit, lenses to rent and a bunch of other things. It consumed me this week. We'll see if she decides to go with my quote or not. Either way, I signed up for a 5 week wedding photography course that is on every Sunday from 2-6 starting Feb 26th. I'm very excited about this class. It teaches you contracts, posing, equipment and pretty much everything you need to do wedding photography. It also includes two photo sessions (engagement and bridal) so you can learn how to pose and I can take photos with my camera to add to my portfolio. I'm excited about this class. If anything, it will expose me to wedding photography and if I really want to do this in the future.

Joey is getting so big. He told me the other day he didn't need a 'character' backpack anymore and I bought him a Jansport. Sigh.

Tomorrow we have his birthday party at Dr. Pepper Star Center in McKinney. It's an ice arena and we have 7 boys coming to ice skate with him. I hope it is a good time. Not many know how to ice skate so I hope it will be fun for everyone and not frustrating.

I finally took down the Christmas stuff today. It was sad. I love the Christmas trees and decorations but it is January 21st and I guess it's time to take them down. It was a big job. It's so much easier going up, than coming down.

I also finally cleaned the house. Alex has been puking everywhere in the house and I had it today. We went through the entire house vacuuming and Joey wet vacuuming the carpets. The tree came down, the Christmas decorations came down and everything is finally back to 'normal'. I even had the boys wash the toilet in the guest bathroom because their aim STINKS!! Which literally makes the bathroom stink. You would walk by and it would smell like pee. If the boys are going to screw up that bathroom that badly, then they can clean it up. I'm done with it.

The weather this week has been crazy. We've been in the 20s all the way to the 70s - close to 80. I think we hit 77 today. It was amazing outside. I can't believe it this year. January is normally very cold here. It's been almost 50-70 the entire month. I can't believe 77 today! I had all the windows open airing the house out. I was so happy. The warm weather makes me so happy.

1/13–Joey is growing up

2012-01-13T23:13:00.001-06:00

This morning we had a neighbor girl, who’s 10, over at 6:30am after her sister went to school because her parents went out of town with their oldest son looking at colleges and we were to watch her after her sister got on the bus to go to school at 6:30.

Long story, short – She was hanging with the boys as they got through their morning routine. At one point Joey was taking his miralax and she asked what it was. I told her it helps keep the poop soft, and Joey gave me this terribly embarrassed, oh my gosh, did you really say that mom?, look. It is the FIRST time I have ever seen him get self-conscious around a girl.

Then somehow she said all boys like potty talk and she said something like fart, and I probably said something to Justin, and Joey rolled his eyes and looked at me like, seriously mom?

My little boy is growing up and actually starting to care what others think. What a developmental milestone.

My mom made this doll for me when I was a kid. If you check out my photography challenge blog you will see other photos I took. I did categories childhood, close-up, where I sleep and in my bag.

I finished my photography website today – Life’s Little Moments Photography by Briana. It goes with my blog theme. If I haven’t been blogging lately, it’s because this past week I’ve completely overhauled my scrapbook website AND created a new website just for my photography. I had to find the perfect design and then get all the photos ready. I am very particular when it comes to web design AND photography, so my mind was wrapped around this project every spare second I had.

1/9–I want to be a cat

2012-01-09T21:42:00.000-06:00

I could curl up in a ball in a mesh bin (the same one I use for clean socks that I haven’t paired up yet) and fall asleep with my paws over my face. Rough life!

1/8–Joey’s birthday

2012-01-08T23:27:00.001-06:00

I will update my blog tomorrow. I’m pretty tired tonight. I had a lot of cleaning to do this evening and we were running around all day. I’ll blog tomorrow about today and I took a lot of photos. Some of them you can see below, as I accidentally posted them here and then realized it and then posted them on my photo blog as well.

Day 8–Sky

2012-01-08T23:18:00.001-06:00

The sky through the winter branches.

The sky glows through the branches.

The sky with brilliant colors through the branches of barren trees.

An overcast day made the pole look brilliant with texture. This is what the sky looks like if you look up from the bottom of a light pole.

Confession – I love overcast or rainy days more than sunny days.

Day 7–Favorite

2012-01-08T23:12:00.001-06:00

I wasn’t inspired on Friday with anything that struck me as a ‘favorite’. I went with Joey to practice today and saw his ‘favorite’ – soccer! I had this idea to pose him right after his practice and he posed this way by himself. I love how this turned out.

Confession – I wish I had cool shoes like his.

1/8–Happy 8th birthday Joey!

2012-01-08T21:37:00.000-06:00

Random photo of me.

After we had breakfast Justin insisted that Joey open his birthday gift that he got him. Justin got Joey a dino lego set.

Joey loved the gift so much, this is what happened after. I am so glad I got this photo. It is probably one of my most favorite photos of emotion that I’ve ever taken. Joey thanked Justin so many times Justin said, “Joey! You have already told me that FIVE times now!”

Joey got Joey a cookie cake and it was soooo good.

Later that day Joey had soccer practice. Here is his coach after practice talking to the boys.

I had a great idea of a photo after practice and this is exactly how I wanted it to come out.

Joey then wanted to play on the playground for awhile that was nearby practice. We also had fun throwing the football to each other. Afterwards we stopped at Toys R Us and told Joey our gift to him was a new bike. His existing bike was pretty worn – the tires were worn and the chain was worn. It was almost too dangerous to ride. He picked out this Lime Mongoose Overt Bike.

Justin was feeling left out of the attention and asked for a photo too. What a cutie.

Gosh, doesn’t he look old now? My baby is EIGHT!

1/7–Soccer

2012-01-07T22:59:00.001-06:00

We had to be up with the birds this morning because Joey had a game at 7:45am. We trudged out of bed and Joe woke the boys up and we got them dressed.

As we get outside into the garage I noticed our neighbor’s trees are wrapped with toilet paper. This is the second time this week and they are filing a police report because the people who did it also egg’d the house.

We drove to Allen, Texas which is about 30 minutes away and got Joey into the indoor soccer place.

Joey played awesome defense the entire game. If Joey and another kid got into a scuffle over who had the ball, Joey’s foot would hit it, and the other kid would dead stop and fall. It seems whenever Joey gets possession of the ball and another kid is involved, the other kid always hits the ground because he’s so strong.

Joey sat out a very short time and then they put him back in. I was confused because he always plays in the back and defends the goal. Today he got the ball and I said to Joe, ‘Holy crap. They have him in as midfield or striker. They have two defense guys on the field right now.’ As I saw that Joey gets possession of the ball and runs up the field with it. No one is even close to him. He hugs the ball close to him, gets up in front of the goalie and drills the ball into the net. GOAL! I’m screaming and going YEAHHHHH!!! I was so proud of Joey! This was the first time they ever put Joey in striker position for soccer and he ROCKED it! WTG Joey on his awesome game!

I came back home, took a nap, and then got up at 1pm for work (Yes on a Saturday - this the only time no one is on the system). We had to test some changes.

The boys are across the street, I’m working and Joe is upstairs sleeping. Something moves across the driveway in front of our window and it is Alex, OUR cat, and he is NOT an outdoor cat. He got out the other day as well because the boys left the door open and it took me 15 minutes to get him back inside.

I open the front door and Alex is looking panicked and I tell him to get in the house and the cat slinks in quickly. I walk outside and look inside the garage, and low and behold the garage door is open and Kali (the other cat) is about to get outside.

I call across the street to Joey that I’m very upset about the fact that they left the door open again. I told him that he NEEDS to shut the door and Alex got out AGAIN.

I went back inside and Joey comes in. I’m still working at this point and on a teleconference on mute. I lit into Joey again, you NEED to shut the garage door. I’m close to yelling. I’m mad and upset. The kids don’t live in a barn. They know how to shut the door.

Then I hear people on the conference call talking about closing the garage door. OMG I never put mute on!! I was so mad about the cat getting outside I never checked the phone. I got on the phone and I said, ‘OMG did you hear that? I am so sorry.” I explained that the kids did this the other day and my NOT outdoor cat got outside and it took me 15 minutes to bring him in and that he got outside again because the kids left the door open AGAIN.

At this point the people on the conference call are laughing and I’m still apologizing, totally mortified that all of this was overheard. They almost all have children and told me it was no problem and laughed it off.

Lesson learned – do not chew your kids out if you are on a teleconference with work – or at least check the mute button! Luckily there were probably only 4 others on the phone and they have kids and understand the whole leaving the door open deal, but I still felt terrible. I’m glad people at work are understanding.

1/7–Aren’t they sooo cute?

2012-01-07T21:26:00.000-06:00

That is exactly what Joey said when he saw these little guys. Grandma Char and Grandma Norma sent them for Joey’s birthday. Joey loved to roll them. Said they always ended head up when he rolled them. I told him it’s because their butt end is heavier, it will always end up down. He didn’t really care, he just thought it was really neat.

Little cute thing!

1/6–Lots of fun outside

2012-01-07T00:10:00.001-06:00

Yesterday’s decluttering task was to go through and throw out the expired spices. I think I tossed 3/4 of the spices I had – and that was a good 25+ jars. Some were from 2004! I feel better without them! The spice racks were getting too full anyhow. If we need them in a future recipe, we’ll buy a new container.

The other task was to organize all the canned food onto one shelf. That was pretty much done already so I skipped that task.

Today was a busy day. I think most of them are anymore. I’m so busy at work that I feel overwhelmed most of the time.

After the kids were out of school today I took the boys outside into the cul-de-sac across the street and let them run around. Everyone was clamoring to ride the kid’s rip rider 360 bikes that the kids actually almost fight over them. I have to be the police out there and make sure people are taking turns.

I took these photos while I was outside today with Justin and Joey. Joey isn’t in these photos because he didn’t stay outside long.

Check my photo challenge blog to the left (see the link).

Today’s photo was something that makes you smile. When I saw Justin walking our neighbor’s dog, Mia, I knew this was the moment I was waiting for.

Everyone was gathered on Justin’s Rip Rider 360. Sam was holding the dog and Justin was bent over Sam holding onto the handlebars. I love how this photo turned out. Everyone is happy and having fun. That is how childhood should be!

Justin

Neighbor’s daughter walking Mia

Neighbor on the Rip Rider

Justin trying out this board called the ‘Spooner’

Grandma Char sent a package for the boys and it included these two cute little guys. Joey thought they were ‘sooo cute'.

Have I mentioned how warm it has been lately? I love this pic above because it shows the sun shining down. I love the warmth.

I heard on the weather channel yesterday 22 locations smashed their all time high records, including Dallas. I assume Dallas smashed ours for today, too. Our high got to be 73 according to my Radio. See below?? Top middle, says 73 degrees!

I love this new song – See no More by Joe Jonas. Now hell may freeze over because I never thought I would like the ‘Jonas Brothers’ but I like this song a lot, and so do the boys.

Went to Vicki’s tonight to watch the Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle. These are two of my two favorite shows and they just came back on this week.

1/5–Busy, Tiring day

2012-01-05T23:25:00.001-06:00

It was a busy day at work. Meetings, phone calls and requests. Constant emails. Figuring out problems. A day where you turn off your pc and wonder what the hell sucked your brain out of your head.

After school today the boys were all sitting on Alex’s sidewalk. As soon as I whipped out my camera they started acted super goofy. Alex sported his butt in the air, Joey couldn’t stop laughing, Justin got into it. It was just a big mess.

This was the ONLY decent photo I got.

They are happy kids and that is all that matters!

Justin posed for me. What a sweetie.

I updated my photo blog today with yesterday’s and today’s challenge. http://dbb-photochallenge.blogspot.com/

Yesterday the challenge was letterbox, which is Australian for mailbox. Here is mine. Our mailbox is actually the leaning tower of mailboxes because this summer the ground go so dry in Texas that the ground under the mailbox SANK and the mailbox inside the brick encasement is leaning to the right.

Here’s another take on the mailbox photo. I like both versions.

Our house, Joe coming home from work and I loved the angle of the stop sign with the house in the back. It adds interest.

Today’s challenge is something you wore. My old shoes, the awesome socks my mom knit me and my worn pants from freecycle. COMFORT!

One of the kids favorite gifts for Christmas this year is the Rip Rider 360 by Razor Scooters. You ride it like a big wheel, turn the wheel and it spins a 360. The neighborhood kids were FIGHTING over who got to ride Joey’s since he wasn’t outside. Every child under 10 needs one of these. You get exercise and you have FUN!

Tonight I was talking to my neighbor, Abby, and noticed a cat ran in front of me. Somehow our oldest cat, Alex, got out of the house. It took me, Joe, Abby and Joey to finally catch him. He ended up calming down and coming up to me. This is like the 4th time he’s gotten out. Thank GOODNESS I was talking to Abby outside otherwise I never would have known he was outside until tonight when I went to go feed the cats. I am not sure which child left the door open but they almost gave me a heart attack when I couldn’t catch Alex. Alex ticks me off, especially last night at 5am he’s hacking up a huge hairball and wakes me up from a dead sleep. We’ve had him 14 years and he’s family so of course we put up with his hairball messes and crazy antics.

Recently we replaced the honeycomb blind on the back door with a wooden blind. We brought it home, installed it, and realized it was a foot too short.

This little opening at the bottom of the door has delighted many cats in the neighborhood as they love to sit outside the window and torment my cats.

Today I had enough of it and taped copy paper over the bottom of the window so they couldn’t see in anymore.

Joe realized that we need to solve this issue, and that my paper solution looked pretty ghetto, so we went to two Lowe’s stores until we found the size blind that was long enough for our door. We installed it tonight and it looks so much better. The cats already seem a lot calmer.

1/4–Back on routine

2012-01-04T23:10:00.001-06:00

I think we are all finally back on a routine. Do you hear me exhaling a deep breath all the way from here?

I’m really fortunate. I have Joey on a pretty tight schedule in the morning. I’ve noticed Joey does really well with lists. So this is Joey’s morning routine.

Joey

1. Eat Breakfast by 7:25

2. Get Dressed

3. Shoes and socks are on

4. Miralax

5. Vitamins and Fiber Gummy

6. Fill water bottle and put in bag

7. Dishwasher

8. Go to the bathroom

9. Recycles

10. Put away breakfast and juice

11. Put away dirty laundry

No, I am not kidding. He does everything on this list every single morning by the time it is time to leave. For the dishwasher he is responsible for putting away all the kids cups and plates. For the recycles he has to take the dishpan I use for recycles out to the garage and dump it into the recycle bin.

Some of these are his chores and he is paid for them. Don’t think he has it rough for a second. He gets $7/week for doing all his chores. These aren’t even his list of chores! His chore list is as follows:

Unload dishwasher daily (kids cups and plates)
Recycles (take recycles out to bin in garage)
Take trash for all rooms and empty in main trash
Wash table
Clear or set table
vacuum
sometimes mop though Justin does this too
Clean up toys and put them away
Fold socks (this earns extra money)

If they ask for extra work, I have plenty for them to do and they earn extra. I have them washing baseboards, Outside yard work and other things.

The best thing about an allowance – it has banished the gimmes. When the kids ask for a toy, I ask them if they have any money (allowance). If they say no, I tell them then they have to wait until payday (they are paid every two weeks when we are). Problem solved. There is never any arguing. It has also taught the kids how to save money in order to buy something more than what they earn.

I took the photo above for my neighbor. She just gave us a bunch of clothes for Joey and the shirt was one of them.

Is there a special pill you can give little boys so they stop growing up? My little man is going to be 8 on Sunday. He’s been in size 10 clothes for months now. I have a few size 8 clothes I still have sitting in his closet (again denial). Recently he’s been wearing these shirts and bending over and his entire back is peeking out. I guess it is really time to put those clothes in storage for when Justin’s ready to wear them. Doesn’t he look so much older here?!

Joey had soccer practice today from 5:45 – 7. It was pretty chilly (it said around 54 but I swear it was colder) and I came lugging a chair and blanket. As we walk up to the field the alarm for the water tower was going off and the lights on the field had gone off. The boys were practicing soccer at dusk.

Then the fire department came. Luckily they were able to turn off the squawking alarm and the lights came on slightly before that so we could practice.

THEN the police came and starting writing tickets to those parked in the fire lane. He gave people the chance to move their vehicles and then yelled, ‘You better move your vehicles or you will get a $300 ticket'.’ Can you believe a ticket is $300 for parking in the fire lane. Two cars got tickets. I bet it ruined their day. I never park in the fire lane so I don’t need to worry about that!

Tonight it was spaghetti for dinner. Joey has announced that it is his favorite dinner ever. Justin agreed with him. I guess we should make spaghetti a little more often.

I’m not able to update the photo of the day because I wasn’t able to do it before the sun went down. I’ll work on it tomorrow.

Today’s challenge for the organization challenge was to clean a high up shelf. I pulled all the clothes down from my closet shelf and donated some, organized the rest and then pulled a few that are too small to put in the attic.

Yesterday’s challenge was to dust and clean on top of the cabinets. I dusted and cleaned on top of all the kitchen cabinets and the fridge. It was nasty and all caked with dust. I decided to throw away all the empty wine bottle I had displayed on top of the shelves. It looks so much less cluttered. I’m glad I did that.

1/3–Back to the grind

2012-01-03T22:01:00.001-06:00

Today was the day that every one went back. Joe went back to work. Joey went back to 2nd grade. Justin went back to preschool. I went back to work. Sigh….normal schedule again.

I am a firm believer in schedules. Everyone needs to have one. Kids behave better with schedules because they know what to expect. Holidays are nice but they are too unstructured. Both boys had a great day at school today and Justin was the star student so he got to bring his show and tell to school. He chose a snowball puffle and a penguin from his favorite website called club penguin.

Today I had an orthodontist appointment during lunch and got new bands – green and blue (see below). My teeth are a little achy tonight..

Afterwards I went and got my bushy eyebrows waxed. Ok, they probably weren’t that bad, and the lady who arched them didn’t run from the room screaming, but they were bad to me. I complain about them now and then and Joe says he doesn’t notice. I show him the stray hairs here and there and he searched my eyebrow line, declares that I am crazy and leaves the room shaking his head. He probably thinks the whole eyebrow arching business is a conspiracy to spend money. I can tell you this – even after the woman is done RIPPING hairs off my eyebrow line, trimming and then PLUCKING (another word for yanking with pain) the hairs by shaping my brows, I walk out of that room feeling like a new woman who took care of herself. Isn’t it weird how something so uncomfortable can make you feel so good? Yeah, I don’t get it either.

Tonight the boys each had a friend over for a playdate. Joey had his friend Alex over and Justin had Mason over. Four boys in the house at once. Yes, I am crazy. Honestly, besides the fact they were super loud, they played really well together.

I started a new website. It’s a 365 days photo challenge but it’s almost like an ‘all about me’ photo challenge. I’m having a really fun time doing it. Click here if you want to follow along: http://dbb-photochallenge.blogspot.com/

Tonight I saw an email on freecycle for clothes from a woman who gave me a lot of really nice clothes, some with tags on them, earlier this year. She told me I could have them and I went and picked up two garbage bags chuck full of pajamas and workout clothing. I’m so thankful. I was seriously low on both. I never have had an issue taking something used from someone. Growing up my parents didn’t have a lot of extra money to spend on clothes for me so I often got by on hand me downs. I’m not ashamed at all!

Tonight I took these photos of my boys to go with the photo challenge theme of ‘something I adore’. I adore my boys.

Justin all wrapped up in my electric blanket and Joey playing games on the computer. These are my boys in every day life around here. I want to capture these moments because they pass in the blink of an eye.

1/2–A much needed day off

2012-01-02T23:02:00.001-06:00

There is something to be said about having a three day weekend. I’m super fortunate because this is the second three day weekend I’ve had. This year Christmas and New Years fell on a Sunday, which means we got off Monday as a holiday. While Joe took off the 27th and the 28th as well, I worked.

I haven’t taken a day off in as long as I can remember. I think the last day I had off was after my sinus surgery in September. I switched jobs right at the same exact time I had my surgery. Once I came back to work we were thrown into heavy deadlines for completing a project, on top of me learning everything from scratch and pretty much told not to take any vacation.

What I would give to take a day off and just sleep, or surf the internet, or anything just to have some alone me time. Maybe I can convince my boss for a day off in the near future. We’ll see.

The next few photos are of Joey. School starts back up tomorrow and both boys have been out since Dec 17th. I decided bedtime was at 8pm tonight and they needed to have showers and some reading time.

There are a few ways you know your kids are growing up…

One of them is when they ask to take showers by themselves. Up until now Joe, Joey and Justin would all take a shower so Joe could wash their hair, and make sure they were getting clean.

Joey now insists on taking his own shower, and so does Justin. They wash their own hair and use the soap to clean themselves. I make sure to tell them to ‘clean their butt crack’ which sends them into laughing hysterics. Anything about farting, butts or the like makes them laugh uncontrollably. I hope this stage passes soon. It gets old most days.

The other thing that made me think that Joey is growing up so fast is he is really getting good at reading. He was right on the border during mid-year reports and so his teacher suggested he do tutoring before school called iStation. The only bad thing about this is the tutoring starts at 7:15. That means we are up at 6:30am. That is much too early for me. It makes for a long day for Joey and I.

I recently was reading with him and noticed he was reading a lot of the harder words accurately. After talking to his teacher recently, she said his reading level is where it should be at the end of 2nd grade. So he went from being right on the border of needing help to where he needs to be at the end of the year. I’m so happy the reading has clicked and the morning tutoring and him reading with me each evening has helped his reading level.

Saturday we went to the library to get new books. This is the first time I had to tell Joey that some of the books were too easy. He had to find ones with more words and a little more challenge. It made me a little sad.

So tonight I asked him to pick up one of the library books we picked from the library on Saturday. He got one called Pirate Joe. I told him to sit on my bed and he could snuggle under my new electric blanket. He loved that idea. He snuggled on down under the blanket and started to read.

He sat there laughing because the Pirate called his pets the same names as Santa’s reindeer. He got the correlation and laughed hysterically. This was the first time he read a book, was able to get a joke like that and laughed. Just the little things like that show me how much older he is getting. My little boy will be 8 on Sunday. I can’t believe he will be eight already.

Joey snuggled down under my electric blanket reading

Laughing at a funny part of the book

Joey showing dad the funny part.

Joey sat and read the entire book tonight and it had a lot of words and pages. He’s growing up so fast.

Even though Joey is growing so fast, he still loves to cuddle with me, and he still loves his butterfly kisses with me at night. I want to hold onto that as long as I can.

1/1–Welcome 2012

2012-01-02T00:51:00.001-06:00

My goal for 2011 was to finally catch up and finish 2011 blogging. I was MONTHS behind. I hardly wrote anything and mostly just showcased photos. I missed doing my journaling. I love to pour my heart and thoughts out here. I needed to finally catch up.

I think one of the reasons I got behind was it was such a pain to get the photos off my phone to add to my blog posts. I found a new application called DROPSYNC which will sync your photos to a website called dropbox, and then you can setup dropbox on your home pc and it will download the photos from their website to your own hard drive. I never have to pop my sd card out of my photo to transfer photos anymore. It is done all automatically. I LOVE THIS!

For instance, today I pulled down my blog books from our book shelf. I used blurb.com to create a book for the years 2005 and 2006 from this blog and had them bound into a book.

These photos I took this afternoon and already are on my home pc so I can add them to my blog. Anyhow, one of my goals this year is to make 2007, and maybe 2008 books to add to my collection.

For instance, I was looking through the 2006 book and we were announcing our pregnancy this time in 2006 as I was pregnant with Justin. Crazy how time flies!

So this year I really would like to get those books done. I really like the two books I did already. It’s good to have our lives documented. I can’t believe how fast I forget the small details. I love knowing I have it documented. Like, for instance, this time in 2006 Joey had this thing about boxes. He loved to sit in them. I would have forgotten that!

So…New Year’s Resolutions…

Eat healthier. NOT necessarily lose weight, though I’d love to lose about 15-20 lbs. I want to stick with eating beans, veggies, fruits, and nuts.
BLOG!! I want to stay caught up on my blog!! I saw this every year but this is really important to me this year!

Yeah that’s about all the goals I have. Nothing too exciting but nothing too outlandish that I won’t be able to do it.

Today Joe and I were lazy almost the entire day. I sat around in my pjs playing Bakery Story on my nook, and Joe was upstairs yelling at the tv (football was on). I took a short nap and then woke up and finally decided I should do SOMETHING today and cleaned the kitchen. After it was clean I made a bean soup that had a lot of veggies and homemade tomato soup and fresh squeezed carrot juice (I told you it was healthy!) and then made Joe and the kids Chicken Piccata (link is from my recipe website that I’ve been lacking on updating!) for dinner with mashed potatoes on the side. I also cut up an apple, peeled two oranges and added a bunch of grapes to have as dessert. Dinner was good and my soup was really good, too.

Tonight I finally finished updating all my 2011 blog posts and I plan to stay current on 2012.

Tonight I ran out and got a few things from freeycle – a pressure cooker, a ds case with styluses and some tupperwear type containers. The pressure cooker isn’t as fancy as mine so I probably won’t keep it. The containers we can definitely use, especially as much as I’m cooking. I have somewhere to put leftovers now. The ds case is nice and it has multiple styluses so the boys will enjoy that. It was nice to get out of the house for a change.

This weekend we got a new vacuum. Our other one is over 6 years old and started to spit back out pieces it was sucking up. I bought the Eureka Endeavor for $79 and it actually does a great job. It boasts it never loses suction. I was NOT able to shell out $500 for a dyson, especially since I used the neighbor’s dyson before and I didn’t think it did as good of a job as my current bissel. I used my new Eureka vacuum and it did a great job picking up junk from the carpet. I’m a fan. It has good reviews on walmart.com, too.

12/31–Good-bye 2011

2012-01-02T00:27:00.001-06:00

Let’s say goodbye to 2011 and bring in 2012!!

12/30–Bird houses

2012-01-02T00:20:00.001-06:00

Joey was so excited to get his Lego Kingdom Horse and Carriage in the mail. He bought it with his own allowance money. Doesn’t he look so old here? He will be 8 in a few weeks!

Shirtless Justin. In his defense he did have a shirt on this one time. I made the boys take them off since they were getting ready to paint their bird houses.

Justin and his paint colors.

Joey painting

Joey’s bird house.

Justin very intently painting.

Joey was very proud of his red, white and blue star.

12/30–The finished Lego table and their lego creations

2012-01-02T00:13:00.001-06:00

Here are photos of the finished Lego table. There are three pieces of plywood as the top, and then it’s wrapped tightly with felt, which has been sewn together, to be land and water. This table is a huge 6 feet long and four feet wide and about 4 feet tall. It’s huge! Joe reinforced the table all around with wood to make sure it was very sturdy.

We decided against using the lego tiles as the base of the table because 1. they are $15/piece, 2. some of the pieces wouldn’t far well on the tiles. If they want the lego tiles, they can get some and use it to mount their city buildings or people by just putting them on the table.

Here are some cool photos of the kid’s lego city they built on the table:

12/29–Lego Table, more gifts and every day photos

2012-01-02T00:06:00.001-06:00

This is my mess called and office! Luckily Diana, our maid, was coming so I had to clean it up!

Joe making sure the legs are sturdy.

Almost done

The felt is on the top – land and water! The boys couldn’t wait to put all their lego creations on it!

Santa brought this for Joey

Thank you Nani, Poppa, and Grandma Elaine!

12/28–Creation of the Lego Table

2012-01-02T00:02:00.001-06:00

Joe decided to make the kids their own Lego table. We went to Ikea the day after Christmas but didn’t see any table that would fit our needs and so he decided to build one. Here are photos of the building stages.

Currently all the Legos are on the pool table!

12/27–An apology

2012-01-01T23:59:00.001-06:00

At one in the morning on Christmas morning our neighbor’s dog started to bark. And he barked…and barked. I tried to go next door and bang on the door to get him to hear me and come inside and bark at me, but he’s going deaf and never heard me.

He barked for an hour. I left a note on the neighbor’s door that said:

“Zeus won’t stop barking and it’s 1am!!!”

I was tired and the constant barking was about to make me snap.

I played on pinterest until about 2am when he stopped. As I was about to go to sleep he came back outside and started barking again! This time it was only about 5 minutes and then he went back inside.

I saw the neighbor a few days later and they apologized profusely. I guess their other dog knocked into the locked doggie door a few times and knocked the door free.

Our neighbor brought me a cookie basket as an apology. That was so nice of them, but I told them they didn’t have to do that. I said if they needed to leave town and wanted me to let their dogs out, I could do it for them. I do it for a few other neighbors anyway since I’m always home.

Did you see the cookie bouquet below? It’s all dog cookies and a heart cookie says ‘Sorry for the barking’.

12/26–Me…

2012-01-01T23:54:00.001-06:00

The day after Christmas…it was so nice to have the day after off. Since Christmas fell on a Sunday, we got Monday off of work. We took the boys shopping to use their gift cards and then went to Applebees for lunch to use our gift certificate.

Joe forgot to wrap one of my presents and remembered the day after Christmas. He got my the parrot pillow pet. I love birds!

12/25 - Christmas part 2

2012-01-01T23:51:00.001-06:00

What Grandma Norma got Joey – a Lego Mobile Police unit and a Razor RipRider 360

What Grandma Norma got Justin – a Imaginext Airport and a Razor RipRider 360

Grandma Char got Justin the Lego City Boat and Truck

Grandma Char also got Justin a drum set

After Christmas is over…

What Grandma Char got Joey – a Lego City Police Station

Grandma Char also got Joey the Wii Ghostbusters game

The Dziekan side (My parents) got Justin the Ninjago Ice Dragon

The Dziekan side also got Justin the Ninjago Lego Fire Template

This is the completed Boat and truck

The Dziekan’s got Joey the Pokemon White game

The Dziekan’s also got Joey the Lego City Bank

The Dziekan’s also got Joey the Lego City Police Boat

He’s the police boat box

The Ice Dragon is put together

Everyone is putting together Legos… Santa brought Joey the Lego City Airport and Justin the Hot Wheels track.

12/25–Christmas part 1

2012-01-01T23:40:00.001-06:00

We woke up about 7:30am with the kids squealing and couldn’t wait to open their gifts. I called my mom and asked her if she could download skype. The kids were not very patient so we let them open one present. My mom finally got the signup and we connected and she was able to watch the entire present unwrapping happen at our house in Texas, from her house in Michigan.

This was the first Christmas I have not spent in Michigan, let alone with my parents. A few days before I took it pretty hard because it came up so quickly and I needed to just cry it out. I sent my mom a text telling her I missed her and this Christmas wouldn’t be the same and she sent me one right back saying she missed me too and she knows. It was so nice to have her write me back after I was missing them.

Joe, on the other hand, was so super excited to be home this year. I’ve never seen him so happy. Let me say he did miss our families. He did not miss the stress of driving to Michigan and driving to six different Christmas parties. Having to tell the kids not to open their gifts and then jam it into our vehicle and drive home for two days.

This was also the first year we bought each other gifts and I had gifts for him under the tree that he had no idea about. This made him super excited to open gifts this year. About a month before Christmas he would say, ‘I can’t wait until Christmas Day’, and he’d say it more frequently closer to Christmas Day.

The boys said this was their best Christmas ever. I’m glad they liked their gifts that everyone got them. All the grandparents sent money so we took their money and bought gifts for the boys – mostly all legos this year.

The boys first gift – Joey Pokemon White DS and Justin a angry bird!

Justin and Joey unwrapping their Lego City sets

Haha! I got Joe a really cool Lions banner to hang in his game room and he had no idea I bought it for him. He loved it!

Justin got the Ninjago Fire Temple

Joey got the Lego City Police Station and was very happy about it.

Most likely daddy got some socks. He needed new white socks, and dress socks, or these were new boxer shorts. The joke is to buy the craziest boxer shorts. I found some really good, crazy ones this year. One that has a bullseye on the front, with a target and says ‘You’ll shoot your eye out’ (Christmas Story), Family Guy Boxers, Batman Boxers and a few others I can’t remember.

Justin got an 8 foot Hot Wheels racing track!

He obviously loves this. You can race 6 cars at once and it tells you which lane won.

Joey putting his Lego City Police Boat together.

Grandma Char got him a really nice drum set.

I got a Keurig Coffee Maker and these are the coffees above, some pjs, a parrot pillow pet, and an electric blanket. My mom got me a calendar and a pair of socks and Joe’s mom got me a few really nice bracelets.

My Coffee Maker with our crazy family mug lol

Justin made me this adorable ornament at school!

12/24–Making cookies for Santa

2012-01-01T23:14:00.001-06:00

I love Pinterest. I pinned (it’s like bookmarked) a recipe for Thick, Soft Sugar Cookies and I have to say, these cookies were the best sugar cookies I’ve ever eaten. They were so good that Joe asked me if we really hard to wait until next Christmas to make them again! We had to add a little extra flour to what the recipe called for so the dough wasn’t sticky. Otherwise it was perfect. They were soft cookies – NOT hard cookies! Mmmmmmm!

I have a cookie sprinkle obsession. If I find a new sprinkle that I don’t have, I have to buy it. I have snowflakes, buses, leaves, cows, pigs, stars and moons, flowers, your normal colored dots and sugar sprinkles, football themed, and tons more. I’m obsessed.

Joey helps Joe roll the dough and cut the shapes.

The recipe also tells how to make frosting. So I made the frosting, and then used the food colorings that my friend, Dawn, sent me from Watkins (she’s a rep). We made yellow, blue, red/orange, green, then I tried to make purple but it came out almost black, and then we also had white.

Here’s my cookie decorators!! Joe frosted them for the kids and then they had to put the sprinkles on them!

Joey’s creations.

Joe was very serious about frosting the cookies just right.

Justin ready to put sprinkles on his cookie!

I had to teach him how to shake it from side to side to get just a little on the cookie, not half the bottle!

The cookies! See Joe’s snowman creation!

Joe doing his cookie decorating again…another snowman.

Why are the boys laughing? Look below…

Look at the face on that snowman!

mmmmm goodness!

Justin picked his favorite two for Santa!

Santa’s cookies!

Guess who gets to clean this mess? Hint – it wasn’t Joe…

Our creations!!

Santa stopped by!!

12/24–Christmas Stockings

2012-01-01T22:53:00.001-06:00

Our new tradition is we let the boys open their stockings on Christmas Eve morning. This is fun and lets them play with a few things early. They could not wait to open their stockings. The only rule was that all their toys had to be picked up.

Joey unwrapping his first gift.

Justin getting into his stocking

Joey and Justin both got Ninjagos (Ninja legos)

Justin got his Ninjago keychain to hang on his backpack!

Joey and Justin both got ‘mystery’ lego men. You had a chance to get 16 different guys. Some of them are cool and some are funny. Justin ended up getting Jane Fonda workout Lego! There was a tarzan with a monkey and banana, a woman caveman and other cool ones.

Lego City Legos!

Both Joey and Justin got a Pocket Droid from ChinaVasion. I am NOT a fan of ChinaVasion. They delete all bad comments on their products and only keep the good ones. This is not even close to a nice droid. It touches really hard, you can hardly download anything off the Android Market. The only things it’s good for is a few games and playing music – and adding music to it is a PAIN. I’m extremely technical so I knew what folder to put it in. Luckily the boys really liked them. If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t buy them…but luckily they work out for just what the kids need and they were only $60 so if they trash it, it’s not like it’s a $350 ipod touch!

Justin got a puffle keychain for his backpack!!

Justin also got Mystery Lego guys.

Both kids got Christmas pencils. Seems like we go through a lot of pencils nowadays!

Both boys got flarp – you take it out of the container and when you put it back in, it makes noises like farting. The boys LOVE it. They played with it all day long and it’s only $1 a container.

Both boys got nerf gun refills. Their nerf darts aren’t looking so good anymore so they got new ones.

Justin’s pocket droid.

Joey and Justin both got flying screaming monkey’s from Grandma Char (Joe’s mom). They were funny.

The kids comparing what they got!

Joey and his ‘loot’.

Joe opened his baseball cards he got from his Uncle Ron for their Christmas exchange – I suggested the gift idea. He absolutely loved opening them.

Joey putting together his legos

Justin putting together his legos.

Boys playing.

Kids laughing because the flarp was farting…

Joey stretched the flarp out into a huge rope.

Justin likes his Pocket Droid

12/22–Every day Random Photos

2012-01-01T22:25:00.001-06:00

I took this photo because McDonalds recently changed their Happy Meal menu. Now we get apple slices and a VERY SMALL serving of fries. Check out how small – It’s next to a package of bbq sauce and it’s not much bigger. Let me also add, last time I went here the fries and burger tasted nasty. I’m not sure if their oil was bad, or they changed something. I was NOT impressed. I wouldn’t even eat the fries.

Remember I posted the photos I took of the Howe’s Family? This was their Christmas card! I was so excited. I got another Christmas card from the Greene Family photo shoot I did earlier this year. It was SOO awesome to get TWO Christmas cards with the photos THAT I TOOK on them!!!!

Justin was so excited he made this really cool thing out of the blocks. The funny thing is these blocks are ‘awards’ we get from my work place for doing good things. I laugh when I see my kids playing with them!

12/21–A package from my parents

2012-01-01T22:20:00.001-06:00

My mom sent a large package to our house that had presents and had some candy for the boys. It also had some really pretty ornaments for our tree, including an ornament by a Hallmark Artist that does the Nature’s Sketchbook. I love her ornaments – most of them have birds on them.

Justin has a thing for wearing no shirt lately. He is shirtless most of the time. So if you are wondering why he is always shirtless, he says he’s too hot (yet I’m always freezing). Silly boy. Here he has a candy cane from Grandma.

Mom sent me a plate for Christmas cookies for Santa, and a bunch of ornaments. The Nature’s Sketchbook ornament is the white box on the back, right.

12/19–My super awesome helpers!

2012-01-01T22:15:00.001-06:00

The kids informed me that they wanted to rake the leaves in the backyard and I didn’t tell them no. I just asked that after they made a pile, if they could put it in a yard waste bag so we can get rid of them. They said they would – and they did!

We had a big enough (though still small) pile, and they enjoyed taking running leaps and jumping into them.

12/18–The sweater

2012-01-01T00:56:00.001-06:00

My mom made this gorgeous sweater and Justin loved it. Justin outgrew it so I took a photo of it to remember it.

12/17–A gorgeous day to play baseball

2012-01-01T00:55:00.001-06:00

Me!

Justin batting

Joey taking batting practice

This cracked me up!

12/16–Neighborhood Ornament Exchange

2012-01-01T00:47:00.001-06:00

Every year our neighborhood has an ornament exchange in which we draw numbers and pick a present and can steal – you know the game. We always have fun. I got a really nice ornament from Pier One.

12/11–Stylin…

2012-01-01T00:43:00.001-06:00

Of course, I’m styling in my kitty cat robe!!

12/9–Every day photos

2012-01-01T00:40:00.001-06:00

This is my new nasal nebulizer. Something I luckily acquired when I had bronchitis. I’m being sarcastic…though my ENT said this machine will come in handy next time I get sick. I’d prefer to wait to find out!

12/7–Boys Laundry

2012-01-01T00:32:00.001-06:00

A mom’s work is never done when there is laundry involved. I swear my kids go through clothes like crazy. Case in point:

This is just the kid’s clothes that I have washed and need to take upstairs to hang. Look at that basket!

12/4–Advent calendars–Lego style

2012-01-01T00:26:00.001-06:00

This was the first year we got the boys an advent calendar. We picked up two Lego City Advent Calendars and started on 11/30 instead of 12/1. This worked out perfect because we did the last one on 12/23 and then did stockings on 12/24. The kids LOVED getting a new lego figure, or building every day until 12/23!

Justin and daddy building the figure from the advent calendar.

Joey and I cuddling!

12/3–Scrapbook Page

2012-01-01T00:21:00.001-06:00

We had a scrapbooking night! This is the page I did. This shows our Christmas cards for 2011.

12/1–Captain Underpants…?

2012-01-01T00:18:00.001-06:00

Joey thought he was so funny to wear his boxers on his head.

11/30–Fall Colors

2011-12-31T23:57:00.001-06:00

This is the view from across Justin’s school. The sun was hitting the trees and making them glow golden. It was gorgeous, and much more beautiful in person.

11/28–My second photo shoot–the Howe’s family

2011-12-31T23:55:00.001-06:00

This is my second Christmas shoot for the year.

I loved the angle on this one.

I love how these turned out!

11/27–Legos threw up in my house…

2011-12-31T23:43:00.001-06:00

This is what my house looks like when legos throw up in my house…

The upstairs game room

Every single lego dumped on the floor. I’m glad I’m not cleaning that up.

11/26–RIP Sasha

2011-12-31T23:38:00.001-06:00

This was my baby on her last day. This was at least her fourth vet visit since 11/14. They did an upper gi on her, and found no blockage. Her blood work came back fine. they could not find anything wrong with her. I brought her in on 11/26 because the night before she was having a really hard time breathing. The vet said to make her comfortable and told me to take her to a specialist on Monday and try to up the food I’m syringe feeding her. I was feeding her catsure which is like a food replacement for cats.

We went to a soccer game and when I came home I didn’t see her. She wasn’t in her cat carrier, her cat house, on the cat blanket. I looked under my bed and she was there. I said her name with no response and I reached out to her and she was still. She had died under my bed while we were gone.

I called the vet to tell them she died and asked what I could do with her body. In our town, you can’t bury animals. We were able to get a hold of a creation business for pet that was right in McKinney called Platinum pets.

They told me to remove her from our carpet and put her in a bag and in a box and they’d come pick her up. They said after they pass they often how bowel movements and if we didn’t move her she’d probably go on the carpet.

We moved her to a small bag in a box and made the bag more like a blanket. I couldn’t just toss her into a bag. It was a Saturday and they still came and picked up her body. We chose what urn we wanted (a cedar box) and we had her name and date put on it.

They delivered her back to us on Monday.

She lived from 9/98 to 11/26/11. She was the most wonderful cat. I cried for awhile after she died. She was my cat that would lick me. The sound of it would drive Joe crazy. She liked to lay with me. She’d often race me down the stairs nearly making me slip and break my neck. She’d meow at me constantly until I fed her the wet food at night. She was a sweet cat, loved to cuddle with me. She will be missed terribly. She now sits on the shelf in my bedroom with my kitty TyTy, overlooking Joe and I.

11/25–Every day photos

2011-12-31T23:27:00.001-06:00

Justin’s cool lego creation

11/24– Happy Thanksgiving - Park date

2011-12-31T23:22:00.001-06:00

We had a fun at the park on Thanksgiving day, playing football, soccer and the kids playing on the playground.

We made a turkey and just did simple box potatoes and stuffing. It was just us.

My poor sick Kitty. awwwww

11/21–Every day photos

2011-12-31T23:12:00.001-06:00

Justin actually fell asleep like this. awww!

My new band colors – ready for Christmas – red and green.

11/20–Risk

2011-12-31T23:04:00.001-06:00

My sick kitty, Sasha, and I.

Joe taught the boys how to play risk.

Joey was not happy about that move.

Justin loves risk, too!

11/19–Twilight Breaking Dawn

2011-12-31T22:41:00.001-06:00

Vicki by the poster!

Our group of girls that went to see the movie. We loved the movie!!

11/18–Every day photos

2011-12-31T22:36:00.001-06:00

I was trying to print with my photo printer. It would not pull the paper in right, no matter what I tried. I happened to stick my hand in the paper feed and felt something spongy. I pulled out a nerf dart. Seriously boys?! In my printer?!

I love this – Justin gives thanks for Sofa beds. I obviously loved the one they slept on in the hotel in Austin! haha! His others were Going to swim, food to eat, my family.

11/17–Random Every day photos

2011-12-31T22:33:00.001-06:00

I am thankful for the socks my mother knits me. It keeps my toes warm.

Our beautiful Christmas tree.

Legos

Joey was so proud he built this.

11/15–Justin’s Thanksgiving Feast

2011-12-31T22:30:00.001-06:00

I took off a few hours from work to come to Justin’s Thanksgiving feast. I’m so glad I did. He was so happy to have his mommy there. He was showing me off to all of his friends!

The place setting.

This is so adorable.

The entire table set for all the kids and parents.

Justin’s turkey

The kids singing songs for the parents.

The kids saying a prayer.

Justin and his turkey hat!

11/14 - My girl, Sasha and Joey’s legos

2011-12-31T22:26:00.001-06:00

This was the ‘house’ cat at the vet. I guess he has a fetish for purses. This cracked me up.

My poor girl is so sick!

Joey playing with Legos.

11/13–Putting up tree #2, Sasha is sick!

2011-12-31T22:24:00.001-06:00

Justin helped me put up my Dicken’s Village houses on my mantle.

This was the first year where Joey helped put up the tree! He had a few branches in the wrong spots, but overall did an awesome job and the tree looked great!

Helping put up the branches.

Justin loves the ‘J’ ornament

The finished tree!

My girl, Sasha, didn’t come down one day for her wet food. I give the cats wet food after I put the boys to bed and she never came down. Sasha LOVES food. I call her ‘Sasha Kielbasa’ for a reason!

I couldn’t find her and then went walking upstairs and she’s sitting at the top of the stairs just looking at me. I picked her up and I thought Oh My Goodness. She’s so skinny.

I took her downstairs and told Joe to hold her. He picked her up, his eyes got wide and he said, “She’s lost a LOT of weight'.” I told him I was taking her to the vet the next day. She sits with me all the time. I have no idea where she suddenly lost so much weight.

When I took her to the vet she lost almost 2 lbs in 6 months. She went from 11 lbs to 9 lbs. She was a rack of bones. They couldn’t’ find anything wrong with her but sent her home with antibiotics. They said to try to get her to eat with baby food or tuna. I tried everything and she wouldn’t eat. I then had to start mixing baby food with water and syringe feeding her. I felt so bad for her. She was so sick and they had no idea why!

11/12 - Day 2–Mount Bonnell,The State Capital in Austin, Saltlick bbq

2011-12-31T22:14:00.001-06:00

First of all we went to Kerbey Lane for breakfast. We had a small wait and then sat down to breakfast. I think it was the best breakfast I’ve ever eaten. I got some really awesome omelet – The Portobello Omelet – Grilled portobello mushroom, red bell peppers and feta cheese. Topped with basil pesto.$8.05. It was soooo good.

They also had awesome pumpkin pancakes. If I lived in Austin I’d be here all the time. I’d totally recommend this place if you need a place to go to breakfast!

Then we went driving around just to sightsee, without a destination, and found this place by accident – Mount Bonnel. It’s a point that sits 775 feet above sea level. It took awhile to climb and I was tired by the time I made it, but the view was amazing. We couldn’t stay long because we had to check out of the hotel. We told the boys we had to leave and they cried. We told them we would come back.

We went and checked out and then came back. The boys hiked up and down the hill through the woods. They had a blast. Joe and I really enjoyed it as well. These are my favorite photos.

Overall we had a great trip and loved Austin. We loved the feel of the city and didn’t want to go back home!

Tells about the Mount (Hill)

This was the climb up

Love this one of the boys in the tree

One of my favorites – Joey up in the tree

Justin in the tree

This is another favorite.

The view from the top

This was the one I used for my Christmas cards.

Next – Trip to the state Capital. Notice – the Mount climbing and the State Capital trip were – FREE!!

This is the door hinge. It was huge.

The kids weren’t really interested in the senate rooms but loved the stairs. We had to tell them to stop running up and down the stairs.

The senate room

I liked seeing the board with all the names on it.

Joe thought the capital was so cool. He loved being in the Senate room.

The ceiling!! Can you see the spiral staircase near the top? I wonder who in their right mind would ever go up there? I got dizzy and a little afraid of heights just looking up.

This is what it looks like if you stand on the star at the bottom floor and look straight up at the dome. It’s GORGEOUS!

The boys in front of the capital.

This was the funniest story. The boys saw this squirrel and went chasing after it. The squirrel climbed the tree and the boys were like, ‘Where did the squirrel go?’ As they walked around the tree, the squirrel kept going around too, so they never saw the squirrel. Joe and I were laughing so hard, we almost fell over. See the squirrel on the other side of the tree?!

Justin, ‘Where that squirrel?’

We heard Saltlick was the best bbq in Austin. We drove quite a ways out in the country to get there. We had about a 45 min wait to get seated. We were given what you see here and it was unlimited. Joe and I thought the meat was good, the sides were ok…but it wasn’t amazing. Plus - THEY ONLY TAKE CASH!!! Seriously!?!?!? We didn’t have cash. We had to use their ATM, which charged fees, to pay the bill. RIDICULOUS! Who doesn’t take credit cards anymore?

The Dallas skyline at night, as photographed by the camera on my phone.

11/11–Austin Trip

2011-12-31T21:46:00.001-06:00

We took a spontaneous trip to Austin, Texas for one night, two days. The first day we got there we went to the Children’s museum. The boys had a blast. It was small but there was enough for them to do to keep them entertained for a few hours.

You know at the bank drive ins they have the lane where you put your money or deposit in the container and push the door down and it gets suctioned up and goes into the building and the teller processes it? They had the same exact thing at this children’s museum but with milk containers. The milk containers went up this pipe that sucked it up and into another room, where the child would take the milk containers and then send it down a conveyor belt type thing to be loaded again. The boys played with this almost an hour. They LOVED it. They loved the conveyor belt and they loved putting the milk containers up the vacuum tube.

Love this photo of the boys.

The rest of these photos are at the Children’s museum

I love this photo of Joey and the following photos of the boys. Once I saw this brick wall I knew I needed photos by it.

11/10–Crazy hair day, Good Hair day…

2011-12-31T21:36:00.001-06:00

Joey had crazy hair day at school and I stocked up on hair coloring when Halloween rolled around. His school colors are blue and orange so he had one part of his hair spiked with orange in it and the other side was down with blue in it. He LOVED it!

Good hair day!

My silly Justin drinking his nightly snack – a danimal drink.

11/09–My first paid photo shoot–Austin

2011-12-31T21:32:00.001-06:00

This was my favorite photo from the entire shoot.

Austin is such a fun kid. We’ve known the family since Joey and Austin played baseball last Spring. His mom asked if I’d do photos of him, and after thinking about it I thought I’d give it a shot. I’m really happy with the results!

I like this one because his school is in the background.

11/08–Everyday photos

2011-12-31T21:21:00.001-06:00

Justin is 3’8’’. Joey was about an inch or so taller around the same age.

Alex LOVES to sit on top of the clean laundry pile in my bathroom. Silly cat.

11/06–Christmas Trees and Soccer

2011-12-31T21:18:00.001-06:00

We decided to put up our Christmas tree today on 11/6! We always do it the beginning of November. Joey and Justin were great helpers!!

Joey is number 20. Watch the following photos of him playing soccer.

Joey is aggressive.

See the photo above? Down goes the kid.

Another kid down…

This kid running with Joey was tall and really good at playing.

Other teammates

11/04–Joey gets stitches

2011-12-31T21:07:00.001-06:00

Joey went with us to Justin’s T-ball game and right before the game started he came over to us with the area above his eye bleeding and said he cut it on the slide.

After analysis it was determined he probably needed it glued.

He was pretty nervous about it and finally calmed down and after they glued it, he said it really wasn’t a big deal. The two photos below are him being a goofball, including his eye roll.

We went to McKinney Methodist Hospital. I’m not a fan. Their billing got all screwed up. Their hospital takes BCBS but the doctor didn’t so we had to pay out of pocket. We never had issues at Craig Ranch ER, so I guess if we need ER again, we aren’t going back to McKinney Methodist. I have insurance for a reason. I think it’s ridiculous that I have to ask each doctor that looks at me if he takes BCBS, even though the facility takes it.

11/3–Baseball Photos–McKinney Coach Pitch White Sox

2011-12-31T21:02:00.001-06:00

Coach Mike having a team meeting

Some shots I did of the boys for Mike’s end of year coach’s gift. He wanted a snapfish album like I did for our soccer coach, Denise. Those photos turned out so nice!

Soren had a home run. This was his, ‘OH YEAH’ moment!

Joey swinging

Joey swinging.

Love this one of Joey. Joe said this is his favorite photo.

The Team

Goofy moment photo!

The coaches and team

Some highlights Joey had with his team this year:

Joey didn’t play baseball for a year, and decided he wanted to play again.
He seemed to really improve a lot since the last time he played and took more of an interest in it than previously.
He wanted to stay after practice to work on things like catching fly balls. His hard work helped because he would catch at least one or two fly balls each game. Joe said he was one of the only kids in the entire league who could catch a fly ball.
He was also one of the team’s best hitters and finished the year with 7 home runs.
Joey had a couple double plays. Joey fielded a ball in the outfield and threw another player out at second base.
Joey had a great year!

Facebook of October…

2011-12-31T20:20:00.001-06:00

Facebook of October:

10/1 - Just made myself a veggie/fruit smoothie (spinach, banana, blueberries, pineapple, flax) and asked Joey if he wanted one because he loves smoothies. He not only drank the entire glass but asked for seconds. I'm not telling him there is an entire blender of spinach in it :) It is sounds gross but it super good :)

10/4 - I will never understand why some people pimp their car's wheels and rims out to the point where it costs more in total than their entire car.

10/5 – Isn’t that the truth?

10/11 – Brothers

10/12 – Joey got a roar award – the only boy!

10/13 - This little guy was in my house...cats found him.

10/14 – Kids new favorite songs – Maroon 5 – Moves like Jagger and LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem

10/15 - I just told the boys I'm getting my hair done today and I plan to go red. Justin points at me and says, "Mom, you are going to be a HOT lady!" Thanks Justin!

10/17 - Check out the note at the top of the paper of Joey's pre-spelling test.

10/18 - I am FREEZING!!!

10/19 - I love the sound system and radio in my Ford Edge. SO glad to be out of the minivan. I love me some loud music...just saying :)

10/20 - I love the day when the maid comes!! There is no better feeling than after the house is sparkling clean!!

10/21 - Naive, Dramatic, Serve and Patient...lol

10/22 - About to scrapbook in my scrapbook room.

10/23 - Family movie night - kids picked zookeeper....

10/24 - Every day I'm shuffling...

10/26 - We are looking to go to Austin for a weekend next month. We've never been. Is there a nice place to stay around $100/night or so that you would recommend and also, what fun things are there to do with the kiddos, or great places to eat? Thanks :)

10/31 - Happy Halloween Everyone! What are you or your kids dressing up as for Halloween this year?
Justin is a knight (as you saw the pics I uploaded) and Joey is a ninja!
Stay safe, my friends!! Be careful, when driving, of all the little kiddos around!

10/31–Halloween FUN!

2011-12-31T20:10:00.001-06:00

Justin enjoying his candy apple.

Joey enjoying his candy apple. He LOVED them. Justin thought they were ok. Joey, on the other hand, inhaled them.

Sweet, Sticky and Delicious!

My brave knight in shining armor!

My ninja! I’m protected, for sure!

Justin isn’t sure what to think of these decorations…

Joey and his friend, Davis.

Joey’s candy loot!

Justin is very protective of his candy stash.

10/29–Random songs, facts, etc

2011-12-31T20:05:00.001-06:00

The kids new favorite song… The Wanted – Glad you came

I thought this was interesting. I believe I got it out of Real Simple magazine. Believe it or not – men utter “I love you” first!

My new XL Cropadile!! In case you have no idea what it is, it fastens eyelets with just a punch. Back in the day, we used to use a hammer and a setter!! We’ve come a long way!

A year of Freecycle 2011

2011-12-30T19:54:00.001-06:00

First of all – I LOVE freecycle!!!! I can get rid of things I don’t need and pick up things I do. And best of all – It’s FREE!!

See full post here.
So How to Freecycle or How to Join Freecycle:

Join a group – go to www.freecycle.org and find one nearest to you. You may have to provide your zip code or a profile in order to join but it’s free.
When you want an item, reply to the email. The message you send: let them know you would like the item, WHEN you can pick it up, and say thank you. Normally I see emails, and if they say just, ‘I want’ or ‘Let me know if this is available’ I will skim right past them. If I see a nice email that says, “I could really use this and can be by first thing tomorrow morning. Thank you” I am more willing to give this person the item than the other person with the short email. Sometimes it’s just first come, first serve. You will want to monitor the emails like a hawk. I get mine on my phone and it dings when I have a new email so I’m able to respond quickly to new posts for items.
To post an item to give away, you will have instructions when you join the freecycle on how to send an email to the group. Normally you will send an email to a specific email address. The subject will say: OFFER: (specify item) (zip code). In the subject, describe the item. Send the email. If it doesn’t post right away it’s most likely because the group is moderated and the group owner.
Next – to pickup or have someone come and get an item:

If someone writes you back and says you can have an item you inquired about, they may ask you what time you are coming by. Most are porch pickups and they will put the item on the porch and you go and pick it up. The person will give you their address to pick up the item.
To have someone pick up the item, tell them it’s porch pickup. If you have more than one item you posted, put post-its on the item with their names on the specific items that you promised the things to. Provide your address.

Wanted - If you NEED an item, you can send an email to the group. Put WANTED (item) in the subject. In the body: Put what you need. Keep in mind to keep is reasonable. You aren't going to ask for a new car or a new xbox and expect to get one. Also, usually if you post a wanted item, and someone responds, normally the protocol is you go get the item.
No shows – It happens often. Someone says they are pickup up an item and they never come. Normally if they say they are coming today, and it’s there tomorrow, I just offer it to the next person in line.
When the item is taken – Post an email to the same group you sent the email to in order to give away an item, and have the subject be: TAKEN (specify item) (zip code) or you will continue to get emails.
When posting an item to give away - I don’t reply to all the emails I get. I pick one person, tell them the item is theirs and then post a taken email so people stop emailing me.
NOTE - when you join a freecycle group you get ALL posts - for offers, and wanted. Sometimes you can get over 100 emails daily. I receive them on my phone and I have my own gmail account setup specifically for freecycle. I can go into the mailbox and, if I'm behind, I just delete all.

Common terms:

PPU – Porch Pickup – This can also mean pending pickup
NIB – New in box

And that’s it – that is how you post an item to give away or reply to one to receive.
This year in 2011 – this is what I got rid of and receive from other freecyclers in my area!
Gave away:

Misc bag of kitchen stuff, including a small food processor
Kids art supplies, including coloring books and stickers
Used cat food/Dog food feeder (the ones that you fill up and it keeps filling the bowl until empty)
Thomas the train take-along round house and three engines
A calendar
Large bag of Misc play cars and play animals like farm animals, zoo animals
Baby Einstein DVD
Misc McDonalds toys
2 cordless drills that don’t seem to charge well.
Alarm clock radio – the face was cracked but no chips
5 harness car seat
Coupons (that were extras and I already got what I needed out of them)
A leaking little green machine that still worked, just leaked
Zhu Zhu pets fun house
4 prints for a boys room – prints of vehicles like boats, dump truck, etc
2 Wireless infared headphones, in well used shape.
puzzles for a 3-5 yr old child
bakugan battle arena
Shark stick vac
Bag of boys socks
some cooking sherry and nutrisystem food
Old working desktop (it was old)
Bathroom scale
Used leapster and case
another calendar
a teen book
some misc toiletries
ww program materials
children thermometer
Car charger
Coffee Creamers
Calendar Stickers
Cookie Cutters

Received: – I am pretty sure there were more but I deleted the emails so I have no record of it!

Bag of Woman’s clothes at least 3x
Bag of size 8 boys clothes – shorts, pants and shirts
4 bags of kids clothing
A ton of woman’s clothes from this one woman who let me pick up from her at least 3 different times.
A really nice comforter

10/28–My handsome man!

2011-12-27T09:06:00.001-06:00

Joey is such a big kid anymore. He’s not really my ‘little boy’!

10/26–Baseball and Halloween

2011-12-22T23:13:00.001-06:00

Joey’s school photo for 2nd grade. I am not thrilled with his pursed smile, but it will do. He’s still handsome!

Took some photos of the boys playing ball. Keep in mind it was pitch black out. The only light was coming from the lights on the field so some of the pics are a little blurry due to low lighting.

Soren coming to first base

Joey swinging. Joe loves this photo.

Joey ready to throw someone out.

Joey in outfield sending it to short.

One of Joey’s teammates. He has such beautiful eyes!

Justin had to dress up for his school Halloween Parade. He was a knight!

10/25–Eggnog for you?

2011-12-22T22:24:00.001-06:00

I LOVE eggnog. We bought this one and I had Joey try it. I honestly did not think he would try it, but he finally agreed. He drank some, his eyes lit up and he says to me, ‘Mom, this tastes like PUMPKIN PIE!’

I then had Joe try it and Joe HATES eggnog. He reluctantly agreed and he also said it tastes just like pumpkin pie and said it tasted really good.

Eggnog and non-egg nog fans – run to your Kroger store and pick up some Kroger Pumpkin Egg Nog. It’s super yummo!

12/20 - Things Justin says...

2011-12-21T22:03:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we went to Chili's for dinner. It was just Joe, Justin and myself. Joey was at Braxton's house watching a movie and playing Legos.

We are sitting there waiting for our food and Justin asks to open his utensils, which are wrapped in a napkin. I tell him he can, but if there is a knife he has to give it right back to me.

He proceeds to unwrap his utensils, looks down at his lone fork, looks up and with a straight, serious face, says to me, 'Mom, I have no knife. How pathetic.'

Joe and I look at each other and burst out laughing. I had no idea he even know what pathetic meant!!

The other thing he did that was funny was when the waitress came to our table, she asked what we wanted for a drink. Justin was the first to speak and says, "I'd like a sprite, please." It was so funny because he then proceeded to order his own meal when she came back for ordering our meals. He's growing up so fast!

He said something else that was really funny, but I forgot what it was. I really need to start writing this stuff down!

10/24–My little helpers

2011-12-19T23:32:00.001-06:00

Whenever I fold laundry, Alex insists on sitting on one of the piles of towels. That is why I hate TWO piles of towels. Silly cat.

Joey wanted to earn extra money so I put him to work folding socks. He did a great job.