101 things about me.

This is actually my 101st post (oops!). I goofed it up, so I added 1 more. Can you believe it took me this long to get here (loser!)


1. I was born in Dallas, but moved to Canyon Lake when I was 9 months old.

2. My Dad still lives in that same house.

3. My parents divorced when I was 14.

4. I don't have any "child of divorced parents" issues (at least that I'm aware of).

5. I have 2 sisters and 2 brothers.

6. My parents were both married before. And my mom's remarried.

7. I went to Smithson Valley High School.

8. There were about 200 people in my graduating class.

9. I was number 16.

10. I graduated when I was 17.

11. I moved to Austin to go to UT before my 18th birthday.

12. I never lived in a dorm. Erica and I shared an apartment during my first 2 1/2 years of college.

13. I majored in Geography and minored in Geology. I was a double major for a while until I discovered that it would take me an extra semester to graduate.

14. I graduated from UT in 4 years.

15. Stuart and I had our first date in October of 1993 when I was a freshman in college.

16. We were married about a week after my college graduation in May 1997.

17. We had a small wedding at my sister's house.

18. We went to Puerto Rico for our honeymoon.

19. It was Stuart's first time to fly.

20. My first job out of college was as a teller at Randolph-Brooks FCU.

21. I worked there for 2 years before going to DFS.

22. After about 2 years at DFS, I had Logan in June 2001.

23. I just realized that I've been "not working" for almost twice as long as I worked after college!!

24. It took us about a year to get pregnant with Logan.

25. I've been pregnant 3 times.

26. I had 1 c-section, 1 miscarriage, and 1 vaginal birth.

27. I dance around the house while I'm cleaning.

28. I need complete silence and darkness to sleep.

29. I have to wear earplugs in order to sleep. I guess all those years of listening for babies has made me too light a sleeper!

30. I cry easily- commercials, movies, total strangers singing...

31. I don't personally own any CD's- nor do I feel the need to.

32. I like listening to the radio in the car and sometimes at home ( thru the satellite).

33. I love movies! Going to the movies especially. Before we had kids we saw a lot of movies. Now we've just been able to start seeing more.

34. I always wanted a trampoline growing up and I finally found an excuse to get one now that my kids are big enough!

35. People letting their kids sit in no car seat or seat belt infuriates me. Especially when they are wearing one themselves.

36. People/businesses watering their grass in the middle of the day or clearly over watering is one of my biggest pet peeves!

37. I never want to live anywhere but Texas.

38. I do however want to visit anywhere and everywhere!

39. I'm proud to have graduated from the University of TX, and it has nothing to do with their sports teams!

40. I'm really emotional/sentimental about my kids old clothes and toys.

41. Stuart and I love to quote lines from movies and TV shows.

42. I love to watch TV.

43. My first job was as a tour guide at Natural Bridge Caverns outside of San Antonio.

44. I've never had a job I loved.

45. I don't feel as old as I am.

46. Sometimes it's still weird to realize I'm some one's Mom.

47. I am simultaneously excited, sad, scared, and elated about my children growing up.

48. I am amazed at how all at once I see love, pride and awe on my husbands face when he's looking at our children.

49. I love 80's music.

50. I am not an organized person by nature. (although I'm trying much harder to be one!)

51. I like helping my Dad fix things and work on our cars. (Change belts, spark plugs, etc.)

52. I pride myself on being handy around the house.

53. We started going to church regularly about a year and a half ago. We love it at Gateway!!

54. I wish I'd thought more about a career in college and not just about which classes I enjoyed.

55. I've sewn all the curtains in my house.

56. I grew up about a mile from a lake and I've never been water skiing.

57. I've also never been snow skiing.

58. I would love to jump out of an airplane or bungee jump one day.

59. I gained 45 lbs with Logan and 50 lbs with Ellie.

60. I like to paint and draw.

61. I was named after my Grandmother.

62. My brother just became a grandfather.

63. My Dad just became a Great-Grandfather!!

64. I guess I'm a Great-Aunt (in more ways than one! hahaha)

65. I first became an Aunt when I was 4.

66. I love to bake.

67. I never think to check the mail.

68. I've been in 5 car accidents in my life.

69. I wasn't driving in any of them.

70. My sister's were both seriously hurt (broken neck, head injury causing a coma) in 1 of them.

71. Stuart was hurt in another, Logan was a baby (just turned 1), but was fine. The car was totaled.

72. Now you know why I'm such a "careful" driver.

73. I hardly ever take baths. Just showers.

74. I was a "girly" girly and I love it that Ellie is too!

75. I wasn't really sure what I'd do with a boy when I found out I was having one, but it's been great.

76. I feel really lucky to have a boy and a girl.

77. I can't believe I'm about to have a kid in 2nd grade and one in Pre-K.

78. Can't live without chocolate.

79. I'm about 5 years behind on my filing! No joke.

80. I'm totally addicted to DVR and can't stand watching live TV.

81. I love Disney World and can't wait to take my kids!!

82. I just got my first pair of "real" crocs (Mary Janes) and Love them.

83. I've had 1 root canal.

84. I cannot sleep without a pillow between my knees and I like one between my feet too.

85. I pretty much always sleep on my side.

86. One of the things I loved about Geology was knowing that certain rocks have been there for millions of years, since the time of the dinosaurs and even before. And now here I am standing on them. It makes one feel very small and insignificant.

87. Sometimes the weight of the responsibility I feel to raise good and decent human beings in enormous.

88. I look forward to a day when something I clean stays clean for more than a few hours!

89. I'm not a "beach person". I like to go, but only for a little while.

90. I don't like to go on "drives". My parents did this a lot when we were little.

91. It's hard to think up 100 things about yourself.

92. When I was little, I loved to make mud pies.

93. I couldn't survive without a calendar on my fridge.

94. I love the tollway!!

95. My sister shot me in the finger with a pellet gun when I was 5. I still have a scar.

96. My kids amaze me.

97. My kids also infuriate me.

98. I've always wanted to be a mom.

99. I feel like I'm ready for a new chapter in my life.

100. I will be voting for a Democrat for the first time this presidential election.

101. I hope you enjoyed my 101 things about me!

Black Apple dolls

These are dolls that Erica introduced us to. She found them in Martha Stewart Living magazine and decided that we all needed to make some. So we did so at a few girls night get-togethers. It was fun. I made 2 dolls, a "Logan and Ellie".
I picked out the material for Ellie's doll. I also decided to give her pig tails.
Logan came with Erica and I to pick out fabric and supplies so he picked out his dolls outfit. He wanted the shirt plain white so he could draw a design on it. I had to do a few modifications to the boy doll so that his legs looked like pants and not tights. I also gave him spiky hair and open eyes upon request. Of course once Ellie saw that Logan's doll's eyes were open she wanted hers open too, so I had to do that after I'd already drawn on closed eyes. I think they both look cute though.

Erica has become quite the black apple doll junkie. I'm not sure what her count is up to now, but I'd guess it's around 10 or so. She just loves making them. Good for her. It's nice to find a hobby you really enjoy.

Here are a few of the dolls Erica made. I think these are the first 3 she did. By the way, Grace drew the face on the one on the left in case you were wondering. Not bad for a 4 year old!

Here's a shot of her sewing at one of our get-togethers. Good times. I do have to say that all of this sewing made us feel a little old and "fuddy- duddy". But, who cares right? We had fun. We have to let our creative juices flow sometime.

Young Rembrandts

That's the name of the program that Logan's been taking his "cartooning" class through. He's been enjoying it and we've been delighted with his work. Here are just a few examples.

They do Young Rembrandts classes all over the country if you know anyone interested. http://www.youngrembrandts.com/

Pretty cool, huh?

Fun in the rain!

I think the kids may have forgotten what rain was after this long, hot dry-spell we've been going through. Today when it rained they wanted to go out and play in it, so they put on rain ponchos and jumped on the trampoline. They had fun, although by the time they got all their gear on the rain had pretty much stopped and the sun came out! At least it wasn't broiling hot for once!

In good health

This news is a little old, but in keeping with my new blogging trend (not everything has to be fancy), I thought I would include a little blurb about Logan and Ellie's 7 and 4 year well checks. They actually had them last week. I always schedule them together since we all have to go at the same time anyway and since their birthdays are 2 days apart.

They both did great. It was the best trip to the doctor we've ever had. Isn't it nice the perks that come with age? Anyway, Logan went first and of course everything checked out just great. He's 52 1/2 inches tall (that's 4 ft 4 1/2 in- crazy, huh? Did I mention he's 7?) which puts him in the 95th percentile in height and 56 lbs which is 75th %. He's been in these same percentiles for about the last 5 or 6 years, so that's good. He's maintaining a good "curve".

Ellie also had a great check-up. She is 43 3/4 inches tall which is 97th% for height and 46 lbs which is in the 95th% for weight. She's also been maintaining these % for quite sometime. Poor Ellie had to get 3 shots. :( Of course she did not appreciate this in the least. She cried a little bit, but calmed down quickly. Those nasty things left bruises on her little legs though. She was sore for a day or two, but no other reactions. She keeps telling me that she's not going to the doctor to get anymore shots! Thank goodness she won't have to have anything other than a flu shot (or mist if they have it) until she's like 12 or something. Yippie for her and for me!! No more bribing the kids with prizes for having to endure their vaccines!

Real Life Blogging

Today I decided that I'm going to start blogging more. But mostly more like a diary maybe. I realized that not all blog entries need to be some major extravaganza of pictures and fabulous events. It could just be a few sentences about what's happening in my life. So here goes...

Summer's been a little better than before. Mostly because my expectations are very low, so I'm not disappointed when things go badly. So that's a good thing I guess.

My 33rd Birthday is Friday! Eeeek! It really doesn't bother me though. I always forget how old I am anyway. In my mind I've been thinking I was 33 for a while now. I actually have to count sometimes in my head 2008 - 1975 = 33, but not until 7-25! What a freak! The other night my friends celebrated my birthday with me at Erica's. They even brought me some gifts! Thanks to all of you for that.

I'm still very excited/nervous about teaching at the preschool. I'm going to a training session on Saturday with some other teachers and I'm really excited about that!! It's been really hard waiting to see which classroom will be mine and when I can really get down to the nitty-gritty of what I'll be doing! Erica got me some awesome "teacher stuff" for my birthday and I can't wait to use it!! Some of the items included Alphabet wall hangings, name plaques, pencils, stamps, and ink pads, stickers and even a "teacher tote bag", which I've been informed is an essential for any teacher worth her salt.

OK, so I did decide to include 1 picture. Jack is even helping me to showcase my newly acquired goods. Sometimes I'm so used to looking at him that I forget what a beautiful cat he is. Now if I could just get him to quit shitting on the garage floor, that would be marvelous!

Have a happy day!

Carter's party

I know this is a little late, but that's how my life is going right now! Here are some pictures from the party! We had a great time!

I just noticed this one is blurry, but it's still a good shot!

All the kids had a great time with the slip and slide even after it broke and they had to squirt the hose by hand. Actually I think they liked that better!

Doesn't Erica and Ray's back yard look awesome! You can't even see all of it, but Ray's done a fantastic job landscaping.

Poor Carter, look at that sad face! He was fine once he got control over the hose again!

Happy Birthday Carter!!! We love you!!

Staying Alive

I just wanted to put up a quick note to you all that I'm hanging in there. Thanks for your support. This week has been going OK. Today the kids went to Nonnie's house for a sleep over (woo hoo!) so I'm planning on doing some stuff around the house that I can never do when they're here. Do I know how to live or what? Then I'm going to Erica's tonight for girls night and it doesn't matter when I leave or when I get home 'cause there are no kids here. You don't know what that means to me. Well, those of you with kids probably do know, but for those of you who don't know or don't remember, it's awesome.

Ellie's Gymnastics class plus the life of a summer mom.

Ellie's been taking a gymnastics class once a week for the past few weeks. She seems to really enjoy it. I don't think when we started out that she had much of an idea what was in store.
It's cute. They start out the class warming up by dancing around to a song about animals. They go around pretending to be bunnies or horsies, etc. Then they stretch and break up into 2 groups where they rotate between 3 areas: floor/trampoline, bars, and balance beam.
I couldn't get a good shot of her on the bars since the teacher was always in the way, but those are her legs flipping around the bar.
She insisted on wearing a really long skirt that day and it wasn't worth the fight to make her take it off. Don't judge my pictures, it's hard to get good ones in the gym.

As I sit here looking at my barren blog I have to make a diversion. This started out being just about gymnastics, but I can't help but write about my life right now. It's been really hard, especially this last week. My summertime fears are being realized. I look ahead at the weeks to come with dread. Wow, that sounds awful I know, but right now that's how I feel. It's been so hard being with the kids ALL DAY, EVERYDAY with no breaks- not even 5 minutes to go to the bathroom. I can't wait for school to start just so we get a break from each other. I don't think any human beings were meant to spend so much time together without a way to get away for a while or some help.

These people that home school their kids, I just don't know how they do it. I would surely require medication. Is it just me? Am I nuts? I love my kids with all my heart, but after a while, the whining, fighting, mess-making... I just can't do it anymore. And they don't like it either, although they don't know it really. I know that they need more stimulation and variety than they can get from me at home. Even with all the activities we've been doing, it's still tough. June was not bad at all, but July's been rough and I'm really worried about August because all of our activities end by July 30th. Eeeek!!

Someone needs to seriously re-think this whole year round school thing. I know there must be some good reasons not to do it, but I don't know of any. The kids wind up spending the 1st 6 weeks catching up to where they left off at the end of the last school year anyway. I could definitely handle 1 month at a time, but almost 3 is rough.

Now I don't want anyone to worry about me or the kids. We'll be fine. I'm just blowing off steam. This is not a cry for help or some such. It's just reality.

I tried really hard to keep a positive attitude for the summer, so as not to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. I must admit however that my positive attitude is gone and in it's place is a haze of irritation, frustration and guilt. I am going to try and reverse that or at least start out each day with a good outlook. It's like AA or something, one day at a time!


I'm glad to have my new teaching job to look forward to. It's hard to have to wait so long to start it though. That gives me something to look forward to. I feel like I'm in a holding pattern right now, but I'm sure that soon enough it will have passed and we'll be gearing up to start school. Only 45 days until Logan starts school (not that I'm counting, hahaha) and 48 until I start my job, Woo hoo!!! 6 weeks, I can do that, right? I've already survived 5 1/2 weeks, so this shouldn't be so bad. Pray for me people!!

(I hate AT&T wireless DSL!!!!!!!!!!! It disconnects about every 5 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!) Run far, far away from it at all costs!

Happy 4th of July (a little late!)

We went to Houston last Thursday afternoon and stayed until Sunday. Stuart's whole family is from Houston so we go to visit as often as possible. This time we were able to spend time with all the Great Grandparents as well as Stuart's Mom and Dad. I keep telling him how lucky he is to have all his grandparents still around. Probably not too many 34 year-old's still do!

These are Stuart's mom's parents otherwise known as Memaw and Pawpaw. They love our kids (of course)! They'll be celebrating their 60th Anniversary next March and Pawpaw's 80th birthday! Way to go!! I've been volunteered to design invitations for their 60/80 party. More on that to come!This is Stuart's Grandpa (Logan's Great-Grandpa) otherwise known as Pops. Nana was there too, but I never had a chance to take a picture with her.

While we were at Stu's Dad's house we went for a walk and fed the ducks! We used almost a whole bag of bread (well fed ducks!).

I also wanted to include a picture of Logan's Lego creation he did at Grandma's house. It was like a whole space station or something. Very creative!

I'll probably be in trouble for putting Stuart on the blog, but I thought Daddy and daughter were cute on the swing.

Sorry this is such a short blog, but since the kids are home with me all day, everyday, I don't have a lot of time for blogging. Hope you all had a nice holiday weekend!! I heard a crash, so I better go!!!!

Swim Lessons

We are in our 4th year of swim lessons for Logan and 3rd for Ellie. We take them thru the local community rec center. They do a great job and I feel like the kids have learned a lot. Logan is becoming quite a competent swimmer learning different strokes like freestyle, backstroke, elementary backstroke and butterfly.

This is Logan's classmates and teacher before class. He's wearing the orange swim shirt and goggles.

Here he is swimming very intently as you can see from his tongue hanging out!

Ellie's in her first class by herself. For the past 2 summers as long as I've had to take Logan to class I decided Ellie may as well be in one too. So we did the Parent/Tot classes together. I really think they helped prepare her for this year's class.

This is Ellie with her classmates and 2 teachers before class began. Ellie's in the pink swimshirt.

Here she is learning to float on her back with airplane arms.

They love to swim and be in the water as I do, so teaching them to swim has always been a top priority for me. They are both doing great and I couldn't be more proud!!