"Cash for Clunkers""

Great news to all of us who own older gas guzzlers like my 1999 Chevy Suburban. The congress just passed a new bill which will help us out tremendously. Check out some of the details.

Under the proposal, car owners could get a voucher worth $3,500 if they traded in a vehicle getting 18 miles per gallon or less for one getting at least 22 mpg. The value of the voucher would grow to $4,500 if the mileage of the new car was 10 mpg higher than the old vehicle.

Owners of

sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks or minivans that get 18 mpg or less could receive a voucher for $3,500 if their new truck or SUV got at least 2 mpg higher than their old vehicle. The voucher would increase to $4,500 if the mileage of the new truck or SUV was at least 5 mpg higher than the older vehicle.

Dealers participating in the program would receive an electronic voucher from the government for the trade-in to apply to the purchase or lease of a qualifying vehicle. The bill directs dealers to ensure that the older vehicles are crushed or shredded to get the clunkers off the road.

The program was intended to help replace older vehicles -- built in model year 1984 or later -- and would not make financial sense for consumers owning an older car with a trade-in value greater than $3,500 or $4,500.

Any of you who drive or know someone who drives an older gas guzzler, this could be your chance. It's funny because we've been planning for like 2 years to buy another car around September this year. If everything goes through as planned for the bill, that will be perfect timing for us! Yippie! Now I don't have to try and sell my old tank with the messed up paint and I don't have to worry about getting screwed on a trade-in with the dealer!

Thank you Obama administration!

Happy 8th Birthday Logan!!

It was a Monday, 8 years ago today that I was at work and still 4 long weeks away from my due date. Stuart and I decided to go eat dinner. Of all places, we went to Taco Bell. It's not one of my favorite places, but when you're pregnant, you get REALLY hungry. Stuart was at the counter ordering and I went to sit down at the table. When what do you know? I felt a small, warm gush. I thought to myself, "Oh no, I just wet myself!" I had read that that happened sometimes later in pregnancy. I went to the bathroom and looked and discovered that it didn't seem to be pee in my underwear. But they weren't that wet? I didn't feel anything else coming out then. Could it be... Was it... No, it couldn't have been... my water breaking? I went back to the table and told Stuart what had happened.

(about 3 months)

Keep in mind that this was my first baby. No one I knew had had any babies. We were in uncharted waters. So we weren't sure what to do. I called my mom (who was in Michigan at the time) who told me to go to the hospital immediately. I of course thought she was over-reacting as usual. I was worried that we'd go to the hospital and they'd say, No you just wet yourself. How embarrassing! We went ahead and ate, then drove home to pack my bag. Yes, it wasn't packed yet, being that I was only 36 weeks 1 day pregnant. I discovered by this time that a little more fluid seemed to be coming out, so I was pretty sure it was my water that had broken.

(about 6 months)

I had just found out the Wednesday before that Logan was breech and I would need a C-section, but at least I had a few days to digest this fact. We got to the hospital around 8 pm and had our baby boy by c-section at 10:42 pm. As you can ask all the people who were there that night, (Erica, Ray, Becky, my Dad) I was pretty much in shock the entire night and probably for the next few days. I just couldn't grasp how this could be happening. I wasn't ready yet. I was supposed to have weeks left!! The car seat wasn't installed, nothing was ready! But there he was. Pink and perfect!

( about12 months)

None of it mattered in the end of course. We all as new pregnant moms worry so about the state of the nursery and all that goes along with it, only to find out that you never actually use a baby quilt for anything but putting on the floor or the wall. And most of the things we stress over are so not important. Actually Logan never really slept in his room at all. He did take a few naps in his crib, but we moved out of that house when he was about 22 months, and he was still sleeping with us at that time. I know that my last statement is fodder for another blog, so I digress.

(about 3 1/2)

Of course we managed to get through those first difficult few weeks, and months. Now I look back on that time when it was just me and him home alone together all day with such fondness. He was a good, happy baby. I loved being his mommy more than anything in the world and of course I still do.

(taken last week)

To Logan,

My energetic, happy, talented, funny, handsome boy:

I'm so happy that God decided to entrust your beautiful soul to me to love and guide through this crazy world. You are an amazing child and I only hope that I am doing everything I can to help you become a happy and successful man. I can't believe that you're 8 years old today! I love you and am so proud you!

Love,
Mom

(also taken last week right after the one above. Presenting the Faux-hawk.)

Happy 5th Birthday Ellie!

Five years ago, right now I was pushing out my beautiful baby girl! I still can't believe that God blessed me with two such miraculous beings!

Every year since Logan turned 2, I've made the kids a number cake for their birthday. I have every number if you ever are in need. This year was no exception. I managed to make it without her knowing. So this morning I got it out and she was so surprised. She also had to have a little piece with breakfast. Oh well, you only turn 5 once, right!


Tonight she got to choose where to eat. She chose Gattiland. Not exactly my first choice for a birthday dinner, but it could have been worse (wait until you hear where Logan wants to eat on his birthday). We had a great time. She got to drive the bumper cars for the first time tonight. She LOVED it!! She did it 3 times!

(All these pictures were taken today. This is the outfit she was going to wear to eat in, but then we went a bought a new shirt and skirt at Target beforehand, so she had to change of course. Also, check our her new crocs (click on it) she got for her birthday today. They're really cute!)

To Ellie,

My gorgeous, sassy, bright, funny, amazing girl:

I hope you know how much you changed my life and what an incredible gift you are! I can't believe that it's been 5 years already. I look back with delight at the memories and a little sadness for the loss of the baby you were, but also with incredible hope for the girl and one day the woman you will become. I hope you had an awesome birthday!! I love you more than words could ever describe.

Love,

Mom

Logan's 8th Birthday Party

We had Logan's party on 5-31 at Austin's Park. Yes, I know. Logan's party was almost 2 weeks before his birthday(6-11). Heck, it wasn't even in the same month, but there is a method to my madness! You see Logan has a "summer birthday". Any of you with summer birthday's can probably relate to this. Once school's out, everyone forgets about your birthday. It's a total gip. My birthday's July 25th and I never once had a birthday with friends from school because it was too hard to get everyone together in the summer and where we lived, it wasn't like everyone was down the block anyway. At least that was my parents lame excuse for never having a party for me other than the family party with my grandparents, aunt and cousins. If you can't tell I have a few issues with my childhood, but I digress.
From my own experience as a mother with Logan and Ellie's parties, I can tell you people definitely seem to forget to come to parties once school's out. Hence the early party for Logan this year. We had a good turn out, so I guess our theory seems to be correct.

Logan's been wanting to have his party at Austin's park for about 3 years now. I finally said yes and decided to have separate parties for Logan and Ellie for the first time since before she was born and Logan had to share his 3rd birthday with her baby shower. They haven't minded sharing. It was really all they ever knew. But I decided that Austin's park wasn't really appropriate for a 5th birthday and Ellie didn't really want hers there anyway. So Ellie's having a pool party at our neighborhood clubhouse on Friday afternoon.
For anyone thinking of having a party there, I did not like it at all! I think the kids had fun, which is what's important, but I didn't. For one thing, the party rooms are upstairs away from everything and we only had the room for an hour. So basically the kids got there, ate pizza (which was brought up with pitchers of soda, had cake (or in Logan's case donuts), and left the room to play downstairs. That was it for the party. We had to clear everything out of the room and I never saw several of the kids again. It was next to impossible to give them their goody bags because I couldn't do it before they left the room since they would have to carry them around the whole time they played and rode the rides . So what was I supposed to do with them? Carry them around the whole time and try and catch people on their way out? Quite frustrating. So I wound up asking the front desk to keep them for me and anytime I saw someone from our party leaving I would run up and get them one. Crazy.

Logan's not a huge fan of cake or cookies. So last year after his birthday, I decided that for this birthday we would do donuts. I told him we could get a bunch of donuts and make a donut tower! He thought this was a great idea. Then recently we found out that Round Rock donuts makes a giant donut. We decided that Logan would definitely need this, but he still wanted the tower too. So I got 2 giants (one glazed and one with chocolate) and 2 dozen regular size. The morning of the party I decided to put the 2 giants together and make an "8" for Logan's 8th birthday! Let me just say we had waaaay too many donuts. But Logan liked it.

It may not look like it, but they are actually having fun!

One fun thing I did was to take this picture (below) and make it into a thank you card using Walmart's one hour photo. I had them ready the next day to give out to the kid's in Logan's class. Much easier than writing thank you notes to everyone and this way they each have a picture of the party to remember!

Logan's party went pretty smoothly with just a few snags. Wish me luck with Ellie's on Friday! If any of you reading this are able to come to the party, let me know and of course you are welcome. I figured Friday at 11 would be hard for some of you to get to, but that's the only time I could get our pool reserved!!

Is there such a thing as too many flowers?

I never would have thought that I would say yes to that question. But after our last few rounds of rain, our flower beds were going berserk! I dug up the bushes the builder put in a 2-3 years ago and started putting in Texas native plants like lantana and skull caps so that we wouldn't have to water as much and because I liked the way they looked too! Not only are they drought tolerant and don't mind the heat, but they are annuals so after they die in the winter and have to be cut back, they come back bigger and better the next year! I love not having to plant flowers over and over every year. Particularly because our flower beds are so big! The layout of our house just has big areas in the front for flower beds and for some reason the builder made them even bigger by landscaping all the way down the side of the sidewalk that curves around to the drive way. None of the other houses in the neighborhood were done this way. I like it, but it's a lot to take care of.

Ellie was home with me and for some reason I decided to go out and do this around 11am which meant that it was already really hot and sunny. I guess I thought that it would be quicker than it was, but after I was out for a few minutes, I realized just how much I needed to cut back! I only had a pair of scissor like hedge trimmers, but I think I could have used an electric pair for this mess!

Here's the before. Wow, what a jungle!

And here's the after! Much improved I think!