Our last hurrah before school

This was Logan's last weekend of "summer". School starts tomorrow for him. It seems like it's been a long time since he was in school and at the same time I can't believe this day is here. Maybe it's just because I've been dreaming of it all summer! (hahaha) I know that as much as I want him back in school because he's driving me crazy all summer, that I will also miss these carefree days in no time. Especially since I'll be working 5 days a week now too. I'm sure things will be so busy that I'll be saying to myself, remember how nice it was not to have to do anything all day. We'll see.

This picture of Ellie shows my true feelings about school starting again! Woohoo!

Friday, Stuart decided to take the day off so we went to the SA Zoo. We have a season pass, so we like to go as often as we can. We also like the train ride they have outside the zoo. It's a nice long trip with pretty scenery. If you're ever there, I think it's worth the ticket price. (It was $10 for the 4 of us).

I think we stayed at the zoo a little too long this time and were waiting to eat lunch somewhere else, so by the time we left things were a little hairy. The kids were both breaking down crying and whining, yuck! Right after we left we got stuck in a traffic jam too. Thank goodness for goldfish in the car or things might have gotten ugly!

Now that I look at it, we did a lot of posing by statues this time. Oh well, whatever it takes to get them to smile in a picture, right?

After we got thru the traffic jam, which by the way, turned out to be some ridiculous construction (I couldn't even tell what they were supposed to be doing?) that made the lanes go from 3 to 1 on a Friday afternoon( I digress), we ate and headed back to Austin. While we were driving we decided to stop in at Cabellas and let the kids look at all the animals.

The kids love it there, so it was a welcome stop to help wait out the rain.

For those of you who've been to Cabellas you'll be familiar with the "robotic" man in the room with all the deer. You push a button and he starts talking. He's eerily real looking. You can see him in the pictures above behind Logan and Ellie. I'll never forget the first time we went there. We were with Erica and her kids. Logan pushed the button and he started talking and moving and it just about scared Ellie to death. It was so funny, but I couldn't laugh because she was terrified. She's still a little leery of going in there and asks me over and over if he's real or not. She did get up the courage to push the button herself this time though. Too funny.

Then on Saturday we went to our friend Tye's birthday party and Ellie had her face painted by "Minnie Mouse" the clown. It was beautiful, so I had to include a picture of it. You can't really tell in the picture, but it had sparkles on it and see the jewel on her forehead? Awesome. I didn't bring my camera to the party so this was taken afterwards at home. What a little ham!

It was a good weekend, but as I'm sure you've picked up on from my earlier blog entries, I am soooo ready for school to start again. I'm excited and a little anxious as always happens when new things are beginning. I just want us to get in our routine. That way we all know what to expect and things are easier for all of us.

Friday, I start up at the preschool. I'm super excited and a little nervous about this too. I just want to get up there and get started. The anticipation and wondering how everything is going to go has been killing me! Again, I know once the ball is rolling it will be much less nerve wracking than it is now. By the way, after much debate, my classroom theme is "Bugs". I'll take some pictures as soon as I get things set up. I'm sure you're all dying of anticipation. (That was supposed to be sarcastic).

Today we went to "Meet the Teacher" for Logan. His teacher seems really nice. I think she's new. I kind of like that because at least you know they're not burnt out or in a rut yet! She sent home a form for us to fill out with info about us and Logan. There was a blank for occupation for Stuart and I. I wrote down "Preschool Teacher". It's the first time in 7 years I've had something to write other than "homemaker, mom or NA". It felt good and a little strange at the same time. It felt like a new beginning. Of what exactly, I'm not quite sure. But it's definitely something different. And as scary as change can be sometimes, I know I'm ready.

Privo Lovin' Mommas

Just a quick shout out to all you Privo Lovin' Mommas out there. For those of you not familiar with Privos, they are super comfortable shoes that are normally pretty pricey ($80). I just got some at Marshalls today for $15! They were on clearance, but even their regular price is good at $35. I hadn't been to Marshalls in a while so I didn't know about their awesome shoe dept. It's got a lot of name brand shoes for a lot less (sounds like I'm doing a commercial for them or something!). Check it out next time you have a few minutes!

The Patch

Erica and I have discovered something amazing. It's called the Jen Fe Power Patch. Erica first learned about it at Grace and Carter's preschool. Carter's teacher, Lorena, was wearing a patch on her arm. Erica knew she wasn't a smoker, so she asked her about it. She told her that it was an all natural, herbal patch to help promote energy and weight loss. Lorena was not an overweight person, so this intrigued Erica, who like most Mom's would do anything for more energy to help get through the day.

Lorena invited Erica to an information session to learn more about the patch. There she met another teacher from the school named Kare (pronounced Carrie). Kare was a size 12/14 and started using the patch in December and by April she had lost 40 lbs and is a 4/6! Kare had always tried to watch her diet and exercise (like the rest of us), but had difficulty losing much weight. The patch helped her achieve her goals. Kare also sells the patch and since she started selling them in April, she has made over $10,000.

Erica called me up that night so excited about the patch and the prospect of selling it. She got me excited too, so we decided to go into business together as distributors. There is no other product like this on the market. It has been clinically tested in a double-blind study and proven to work!

Last weekend Erica and I attended a training session in Houston. It was amazing the number of people with stories similar to Kare's. It was very inspiring.

I have been wearing a patch for 12 days and have lost almost 3 lbs. It's not just about the weight loss though since the ingredients in the patch also help you to keep and build lean muscle, which weighs more than fat. It's also about losing inches. Lorena started out a size 8 and within about 3 weeks was wearing a 6 and was even able to wear one of her size 4's that she hadn't fit into since before she had kids!

One of the best parts for me has been how the patch has helped to control my cravings and helps me to feel fuller faster. I really feel like I've been eating less and snacking less. I was also really worried that something like this might make me feel jittery or have a racing heart. It's not like that at all. In fact the amount of caffeine in one patch is equivalent to a cup of tea that is released into your body over a 24 hour period. (If you want to learn more about the ingredients you can find them on the website at https://www.nexagenusa.com/guest/US/m_prod_jenfe.aspx. -scroll down to the Power Patch.)

We're very excited at the prospect of sharing this product and business with many of you who feel that you may benefit from it.

If you want to learn more about it you can visit our website at http://www.nexagenusa.com/fitandhappy or call or email us. We are also planning an information session next week. (We'll send out an evite for this.) It won't be like a Tupperware party or something. We won't be passing around order forms expecting people to buy something. It's just a way to get information to people who want to learn more. No pressure.

A Trip to the Waco Zoo

On Tuesday Erica, Ray, Grace, Carter, Logan, Ellie and I went to the zoo in Waco http://www.cameronparkzoo.com/. They have a lovely zoo there if you've never been. It's definitely worth the 1.5 hour drive. This trip was just me driving with the kids since Stuart had to work and it was a last minute thing for us, but the kids were really good and we had no problems driving up.

On the way home though Ellie decided she just had to pee. Of course we had just gotten on the tollway and there's not much of anything out there in the way of restrooms, so we had to pull over on the side of the road where she proceeded to squat and go! Wouldn't you know that I'd turn around and see a DPS car pulling up behind us. I guess he was just making sure we weren't having any car trouble because as soon as he saw what we were doing he waved and went on about his business. I guess letting your 4 year old pee on the side of the road isn't against the law, just in case you were wondering. Life with kids is always an adventure! They had this cool slide there that was a clear acrylic tube which went through the otter tank, so as you slid down the otters were swimming all around you.

Of course this was a huge hit with all the kids.See the otters going right on top?

Pretty Gracie and Ellie looking for the alligators.


Logan is king of the barrel.

Don't Erica and Grace look happy?

It was really hot, but we still saw lots of the animals out and about.


Here are the boys in the reptile house or Herpetarium, which we learned is the correct name for it.

We even saw a beautiful rainbow. It was a great day at the zoo. I just hope next time it isn't quite so hot!

On an unrelated but totally cute note, Ellie has just signed up for dance class which includes ballet, tap and some tumbling. This means of course that she needs ballet shoes and tap shoes. Once she found that out we had to go get them immediately. So we went today to the Capezio store and bought ballet and tap shoes. Up until now ballet has been the bomb for Ellie, but once she put on those tap shoes, that was it! She didn't want to take them off. She just walked around the house tapping as she went. We have tile everywhere but the bedrooms, so there's a lot of room to tap! I can't wait until her class starts. It will be soooo cute! And just so you know, she comes up with these poses all on her own!

Playing catch-up

Hi ya'll. I've been busy and out of town lately, so I just wanted to catch you all up on what's been going on. I had a few birthday pictures I wanted to share. I had a great 33rd Birthday. Stuart and the kids took me to lunch on my actual b-day at Olive Garden. It was great. We all loved it. Logan has declared it his new favorite restaurant. The kids tried calamari for the first time and were delighted by the news that it was actually squid they were eating. They also loved the salad and bread sticks. Overall it was a great day.
The night before I had baked myself a birthday cake. Stuart found this strange. I didn't think it was though. I love to bake and rarely get the chance. I had made this cake for Erica's birthday and loved it, so I made it again. Yumm!!!!! It's super simple, but really good.

Frank's dressed up and ready to party!

The next day I had my first ever teacher training workshop at a nearby church. It was wonderful. I learned a lot and met some of the other teachers. They were all great. They were the pre-K teachers and they're all highly qualified, certified teachers with years of experience. One even has a published book. Talk about feeling like a fish out of water. But they were very nice and supportive and I know they will be a great source of help whenever I need it. Also it's nice to know that Ellie will have one of them as her teacher. When I got home that afternoon the kids had baked me a birthday cake. For some reason Logan has it in his head that he wants to learn to cook. He decided he needed to make me this cake even though I had another one already. It was really sweet.

That night Stu's sister came over to watch the kids so we could go to dinner and a movie then to spend the night at a hotel. This was my surprise birthday present from Stu that I actually found out about a little early due to the need for planning with packing and the kids, but it was still a great present!

Sunday we slept in then went to brunch with Erica, Ray, my Dad and all the kids to Z' Tejas. It was delicious and a great way to end my birthday weekend.

This past weekend Erica and I went to Houston for a conference. We stayed with Stu's mom while we were there. Saturday night we went to see Stuart's Uncle Wade play with his band. They're called Driftwood and they're really good! We had a wonderful time. Stu's mom let loose a little, although she wouldn't dance. I got up once and did a line dance. Keep in mind it's been about 15 years since I've done that kind of thing. It was fun though.

That's Stuart's Uncle Wade. Cute, huh?

I also wanted to include a picture of the lovely plant and accessory Lisa got me. Isn't it nice?


Now I'm back home and working on some new things (more on that to come) and trying to get ready for school to start. Logan starts 3 weeks from tomorrow!! All of a sudden it's upon me. I have some meetings starting next week for preschool and I can't wait. I am trying to soak up all the laying around and sleeping in I can, because very soon it will be over!! My mornings are going to be drastically different, which means so will my evenings. Logan's school is starting earlier this year (7:40 vs. 7:55 last year and I have to be at work at 8), so that means waking up very early to get me, him and Ellie ready. I already told Stuart he's going to have to help me this year with all that. Planning is the key to success with that, I think. We'll see how it goes.


So that's pretty much it for right now. Now you all know what's new with me.