I havent been on the blog much lately. I've been creeping around adding more and more GT blogs to the list of blogs I am following. I have been thinking that I probably need to come up with a theme since I don't think random counts. LIfe is pretty good right now. Brian had a clean scan so we get to pretend to be normal until his next treatment in March/scan in April. Can't beat that. It gives us a few months to get some medical bills paid off before we aquire some more. I really should go back to work full time or pick up some more work to get us out of debt, but so far I haven't found the time nor the energy.

The kids are doing well. Let's devote a paragraph to each one. lol.

Angie is growing up and such a good kid. I'd like to brag that its because I'm such a great mom, but really its just her. She is very in tune to other's emotions and feelings. When I was in Vegas she competed in the 4H food challenge competition and her team got second. This semester she completed a whole year of theory work in voice, so when she goes back in January, she will be at grade level. She did awesome at her UIL meet this year. 1st in ready writing, 1st in music memory, 1st in artsmart, and 2nd in listening.

My sweet Tony is an avid reader. So far he is the top reader for his grade. It took some trickery on my part. He's always read a lot, but he wasn't testing on his books. Last year their school went to a web-based instead of a school based testing program. So, every book we have in our house so far has had a test, but he wouldn't take them unless the book was also in their library, which was true under the old system. So, i broke the ice by buying the library a copy of the book he was reading at the time. Lol. I just want him to read what he's interested in, and continue to love it. He did UIL music memory and got 1st place. T doesn't do pressure too well.Can't remember if I've blogged about the fact theat he's developed a tic. The ped says that its stress related and that he should grow out of it. So, house rules are one event. I'm hoping that healthy pressure in small quantities will help him in the long run. Same with piano. He has a wonderful teacher. I'm thankful that she understands him and is focused on making it fun with just small amts. of pressure. She says that I don't have to enter him in the competitions in the Spring, so we will see.

Zac has made huge strides in school this year. I'm so proud of him. Parenting him is always a challenge, but I love that kid. Hopefully I do right by him. He is really really bright. He may actually end up passing up his siblings, but he doesn't want anyone to know he's bright. And I have to leave him the heck alone. He's made a great deal of progress with his reading mainly because he loves to read to his brother and sister. ANother thing he doesn't want anyone to know, he is very caring and tender hearted. Today we drove by the old Santa Anna hospital. Zac says there's that creepy ass old hospital. Funny. I should be more upset by this. But, he's not calling anyone names and he knows knows not to talk this way around others.

Aiden is enjoying pre-K and often asks to 'do school' at home. I could teach him to read and he would have no trouble learning, but I have debated the semester away. He knows all the letters and sounds and Zac has taught him some words. He often asks to spell 3 letter words. I just don't know if it's better to teach them to read early or to fill them up with facts. What I'm saying is, I just want it to be fun. If there's a mistake, I've made it. Aiden still loves me lots which is nice.

Emi is growing like crazy. She is a smart one too. Super girly and she knows how to manipulate us. Right now we are trying to teach her that crying won't get her way. I think that's just part of being Three. Sadly, she has all her siblings wrapped around her finger too. This week we've had several conversations about them staying out of it when we are parenting her and she is crying. LOL. Funny when you have more kids, you worry that they aren't getting what your older kids got. When Angie and Tony, and even Zac to some extent, were younger, we holed up at home, played with them, read to them etc. So, this fall I've made a big effort to try not to drag the younger kids to every football game etc, but funny thing is, Emi WANTS to be at the older kids events. She wants to do things with them.

Brian finished up his last radiation treatment today. Tomorrow will be his last rituxan. He has done awesome with it this time. His counts have held, and he hasn't had as many side affects as he usually does. I am finally getting over the worst cold I've had in a long time. I've been super stressed and kind of in a funk. Let's talk about the kids instead.

Zac finished up his football season. Overall, it was a good experience. I definately recommend flag football. It has been great for Zac. I have to tell you, people are serious about their pee-wee football though. The first game we went to they had a tent set up with tables. I told the kids "I don't know what they are selling but do not make eye contact". Lol. I learned the next game that they were selling tickets to get in. Haha.

School is zipping along. The first semester will be done before you know it. The kids are enjoying the papa and nita book club. Once a month they sent an email with their book requests. Then they send them in the mail. The kids are loving this!! They are so excited when that package arrives. This has been especially great for my reluctant reader.

MOndys I get two whole hours to myself. So, today I am spending the first part blogging. Then I'm going to read a little. Yeah, yeah. I know there are dishes to be done, laundry to wash, etc, but that stuff is always there. It NEVER goes away.

Things are still not finalized with Brian's treatments. As you know, his biopsy was positive for lymphoma. We can look at this lots of ways. We can say the transplant cured everywhere but that spot, or we can say the transplant now has this cancer behaving in a usual way. Brian has an indolent for of non hodgkins lymphoma. B-cell follicular to be exact. These cancers are supposed to be slow growing, you wait and watch and treat when necessary. But they are persistant little weeds and are hard to cure. Boo, but the good news is there are lots of treatment options.

In the past, Brian's cancer has not behaved this way. It has been very aggressive. The first time he was diagnosed, it was in his neck, chest, abdomen and pelvis and very large. He had fluid in his lungs and a blocked off kidney. The second time, 18 monts later, it was very large in his chest and wrapped around his spine.

This time, 18 months after transplant, it was about quarter sized and in his groin. He had surgery to remove it, and he will continue his Rituxan and do radiation as well. He needs at least another week for the incision to heal, and the radiation oncologist is waiting on the cd of the PET scan to arrive by courier before she can make treatment recommendations. I would really like to know, but that is just because of my constant compulsion to plan. I need to plan my work schedule, someone watching the kids etc.

The kids have finished up their 4th week of school, and I still don't have a routine down yet. That's the goal for this week. Missing a whole week and then having a whole week of make-up work threw me off. Ok, to be fair it threw us all off. We started out last week pretty well, and then Brian and I spent the end of the week in Dallas. Not sure if we will get results this week or next, so maybe my plans for getting a routine down will be shot this week too.

Brian did pretty well with his biopsy. He was really sore Saturday so we went ahead and took Sunday off from work, but he went this morning. He incision is neat and clean so I don't anticipate any problems there. Not sure if I will have to miss work this week to go with him. That part isnt too big an issue for me, but I will have to coordinate someone watching the kids.

Bragging a little, the kids havent had a tardy yet. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, but I'm not waking Aiden and Emi up in the mornings. They are sleeping in and then i just carry them sleeping to the car, pjs, blankies and all. I can focus on the older kids, and not have to fight with the little ones who aren't ready to eat, get dressed etc. Angie has to be there in time to turn in her homework to ALL her teachers before the bell rings. Interesting. Is this so they can't cheat or work on it in earlier classes? Hmmm. Tonight is open house. I have no idea how I'm going to see all their teachers. Brian is going to meet me there, and we will divide and conquer.

Meal planning and budgeting again. I signed up for some extra shifts next week and the week after. Ok, maybe its pointless to even be thinking about a routine, but it will help us get back on track after our trip and Brian's treatments.

Looks like it will be into the second six weeks before I start working with Aiden on reading. I have mixed feeling about it anyway. He seems ready, but I'm not sure that being an early reader does a kid any favors. I've focused on reading alot with Zac, I think because he doesn't really like it, and I want him to. Maybe I should have been focusing on filling him with facts, math skills etc? So, that's what I'm doing this year. We are doing required reading and spelling etc, but then its just fun learning after that. Overall, I think he is doing well with that.

Cooler weather

We are getting into the swing of things after missing a full week of school. The kids had tons of make-up work otherwise I would have blogged about our trip sooner. Really content with the direction of my kids education right now. They are happy, healthy, and well adjusted. Aiden is doing well with pre-k, and Emi seems to love Tuesday school. Going full force with activities as usual. Zac is playing flag football and they won their first game 20-12. All the kids are in gymnastics on Wednesdays, and Angie and Tony are taking music lessons at Howard Payne. Angie is continuing with voice, and Tony is taking piano. Tony's teacher says that he has good natural rhythm. Lol. His whole world is a musical. Angie is in 4H this year, and she is doing the food and nutrition because they have a team event similar to Chopped or Iron Chef.

We left on Tuesday the 30th and spent the night in a hotel close to the airport. Our flight left at 7:50 in the morning. Mom and Pam had to hightail it home because Pam forgot her passport. They got back to the hotel in time to shower and head to the airport. It was funny because Pam kept telling everyone not to forget theirs, and she brought her fancy passport book, but not her passport. The kids did great on the plane. Aiden and Zac sat next to each other and played and giggled. Pam was super grumpy, but they weren't bad. We did separate them on the way home, and they both slept. Tony was terrified to fly, and I was seriously wondering if I was going to have to sedate him. He kept saying things like "I'd rather crash and burn up after I graduate from High school," and "if we make it to seattle" As we took off, he said "remember that time you tricked me into going on the roadrunner at fiesta texas? well, its like that only not as scary. I bet I've matured enough to try that ride again".

We got to Seattle about 10:30 in the morning, so we headed over to the Experience Music Project, EMP. This place is just cool. Brian was super excited because they had a battlestar gallactica exhibit. Brian and my mom used to have a date every Friday for sci fi Friday to watch it. The exhibit talked about how playing different music with the same scene invokes a different emotion. Since we had already paid for parking, and the Space needle was next door, we went up. Really, its not a big deal, and doesn't take very long, but my kids were super excited about it. After that we drove to Bellingham, Wa and stayed the night. The kids swam in the pool, then we bought a few groceries to take across the border, and went out to eat with John and Kristi. We went to some restaurant called Billy Mchales. The food was delicious. Angie wanted the seafood chowder. I normally am not a fan, but it was super tasty. It had salmon, scallops, shrimp, potatoes, and the ingredient that makes anything taste good....bacon.
The next morning we ate breakfast outside on the patio. Seriously, I could have sat there forever. It was in the 60's, there were birds, flowers and these big huge trees.

But, we had a border to cross. It wasn't far to the border at all. Less than half an hour. The peace arch is no longer there, but that border crossing is beautiful. We drove to tswassen and boarded the ferry. It was about an hour and a half to the island. John and Kristi were 2 cars behind us. We had reservations for the ferry, but they put us in an overflow line, and said that we might get on an earlier one. Well, we were the last car on. The ferry was literally pulling out before we even got out of the rented 12 passenger van, leaving our friends to catch the next one. The ferry really is a neat experience. its very comfortable and you can sit inside or outside. There are cafes, arcades, a play area for small kids etc.

We got the the island and the drive to Tofino was longer than we expected. The island is wild. Dense trees, mountains, lakes, streams...amazing. You really get the feel that maybe there are things yet to discover and explore. We stopped and walked around this place called cathedral grove. It was breathtaking walking around 800 year old Douglas fir trees. We drove onto our house we rented. It is definately the way to go. We had a hot tub, three bedrooms and 2 baths plus a full kitchen. Tofino is a tourist place, but they weren't overly friendly. Most places were cash only, but took American money.

Friday we went to our friends wedding on Chesterman beach. Brian and John went over early to hang out with Jack and Kristi and I walked around town and went to lunch. Everyone wore thin strapped dresses to the wedding. It was 60 degrees that day on the beach, I wore pants:) Kristi and I arrived to see John and Brian sweeping the beach and arranging chairs. It was nice even if I thought it was comical. There reception was at their rented house and it was nice. They had a brunch the next day and said we could bring the kids. We stayed maybe and hour and a half and then walked down to the tide pools and looked at starfish, anemones and hermit crabs etc. Then we went to some ladies house and bought fresh live dungeoness crabs. She killed them for us and removed the lungs. My kids were super curious about that and wanted to watch. I went outside at the first crunch. But we took them home and had a huge crab boil.

Sunday we went out on a boat and went whale watching. We saw an eagle, puffins, Stellar sea lions, which are the largest in the world. I'm talking massive. Then we saw a humpback and grey whales as well as a few harbor dolphins. The boat took us to the hot springs and we hiked through the forest maybe a mile and a half of boardwalk, lots of stairs. The hot springs were beautiful. THe hot water bubbled out of the rocks and mixed with the cold ocean water, plus the view! Well, may legs were jello walking back, and Emi was super tired but it was so worth it. On the way back we saw Orcas! Mommas and babies. One even breached for us! Not something they normally do in the wild, and they are transient, so they are only there every few weeks. Such a lucky day.

Monday we drove back to Seattle. As we were leaving we saw a bear and some otters swimming on the lake. It took us the whole day to get there. We stayed at the Comfort Suites in Tukwila and it was lovely. We had two queens, a king and a sleeper sofa. Plenty of room, and mom, dad and pam had their own room. They had a really nice indoor pool, good breakfast, and they had an afternoon snack from 5-7, salad, fruit, wings, and muffins. There is so much to do in Seattle, but we got to see the aquarium. Highlight for me, the kids got to ask a diver questions and Aiden asked her how an anemone eats. She said "here I'll show you," and she fed it a fish! It slurped it right in. They had several touch tanks which was cool. We had a delicious lunch at the waterfront and walked around some. There are lots of people there and my anxiety was building, so we didn't get to see Pikes market. Another time we will have to see them throw the fish. But, we went to the museum of flight. Man, this is a must. We didn't get to see nearly half of it. I should have alloted more time. They have Johnson's Airforce one, a concorde, and countless other planes. They have a space exhibit, a full WW1, WW2 exhibit, and a control tower.

Our week zipped by. This was a huge vacation for us that required alot of thought and planning. We now know that we can do it. Next big vacation will have to be someplace tropical, but I can't tell you what a blessing it was to escape the heat for a little while.

Scan update.

Well, I have so much to blog about, lets start with the not so cheery stuff first...

Brian had his routine PET scan and check up this past Friday. We were both super excited that he was able to fight off a cold for the first time since he started treatments on his own without meds. You may recall that he wasn't producing blood back in March and April and had to have a bone marrow biopsy. Well, his lab work is beautiful, right where it needs to be. He also had some esophageal inflammation on his last PET that is no longer there. Praise God. But....there's always a but. They've been watching a lymph node in his groin for a while. The lymph system empties into the groin, so they didn't want to unnecessarily poke around there for remove this node if they didn't have to. There are risks, mainly, lymphedema. But, this node is larger and its glowing more intensely on the PET. So, Thursday and Friday we will be in Dallas meeting with a surgeon. Thankful that my husband has such a kind hearted, pro-active oncologist. He made it very clear to the surgeon that he doens't want to wait, that we need these results because it will determine the next course of treatment. Praying its nothing, but as always, its not in our hands.

Thankful for my family, specifically my mom, who has taken off work to be with our children. Thankful for my job, and the people there who are so understanding. My boss is having a particularly hard time. Continued prayers for her. A few years ago, her brother was murdered at a bank while he was making a delivery. The trial has been going on and the sentencing is next week. Her baby sister has been battling breast cancer. Her sister slipped into a coma this weekend and its a matter of time until she passes into the next life. Her family will more than likely be planning a funeral next week. So much for one family to deal with.

I'm sure this biopsy result will take a week or so, but that works out perfectly with my blogging schedule.

Beginning of school and Canada trip to follow.

Brian and Zac are out tossing the pigskin. Zac is a natural. He starts practicing with his flag football team this Thursday. When we signed Zac up he wasn't too happy about it. He says that he is more of a sitting on the couch eating chips watching footbal kind of guy. I hope that he enjoys it. He seriously needs a physical outlet. I've seen a huge change in him this summer and I can't wait to see what this school year brings. I ran into his teacher for the upcoming year at the technology institute last week. Soo excited that he has Mrs. Lee. Actually I would have been happy with either first grade teacher, but I think she will be good. She actually taught kindergarten and GT at our school and then left for 2 years and is back now. Her daughter will be in Aiden's pre-k class.

Aiden will be going to school from 12:30-3:30. Not too bad. That means that we can do the toddler class at the zoo for one more year. I plan on working with him with the book Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Emi will be spending Tuesdays at Joy Station Tuesday school. And both the little ones will be continuing gymnastics.

Tony will be entering the 4th grade. He will have the same teacher that he had for second grade. She gives alot of homework, but I do like her as a person. She scores points for her husband. She's married to my friend Phillip's brother, Michael. I know that Tony will do fine, I'm hoping that he and I can work on some personal goals. He's never had a friend.

Angie will be starting a new adventure. The 5th grade changes classes, so he will have different teachers for different subjects. And for the first time, her grade will be divided. She has some bright kids in her class, so I'm expecting it to be a good year.

well, someone forwarded me an interesting link. I'll write more later.

Back on the budget, meal planning in summer months is a challenge when nothing sounds good. Last night I made quiche for the kids for the first time. General consensus was positive. Zac made me laugh because he said "just pretend its pizza, just pretend its pizza." He closed his eyes and took a bite going pizza, pizza, pizza. Hahahaha.

Brian and I spent the last two days up at the school at the summer technology institute. This is actually a continuing education event for teachers, but its open to the public, so Brian and I spent the last to days building rockets. It was awesome. Ok, so we know nothing about physics, but we learned. Can't wait to build them with the kids.

Pam was so good to watch the kids for us. I just have to pay her in Pioneer woman cinnamon rolls that she can take to her sunday school class. Well worth it!

Summer scorcher.

Well, its hot here. Duh, you say? I'm longing for the days of the train when a drought would send me and the kids packing to the relatives back east and Brian would be stuck here tending the ranch until the rains came again. But, its not to be. Sigh.

We are rationing water here. One minute showers. Wet, turn off water. Lather, rinse. Paper plates, paper cups. And, saddest of all, the pool is now turned off. I know its materialistic, but I can't help it. I am a daughter of Poseidon. Water is comforting to me, lack of it is heartbreaking.

Our trip to Seattle and Canada is next week. I suspect we will freeze in the 70 degree weather. So nice to have something to look forward to. I told Brian that we may have to plan all of our summer vacations for August so that we can escape the heat.

Angie and I are working through the Love Comes Softly dvds. I'm sure that the books are fabulous, but we are really enjoying the movies. She is watching on me so that we can watch #5. More on that later.

Summer camps

This week will be the last of the summer camps. Yeah. You should know that I'm a little neurotic when it comes to this venture in parenting. I start in March planning our summer including reading lists, workbooks and other educational items, and yes, summer camps. Every summer, I come away with a few more things to add to the list of things that just don't work for us. Hopefully, along the way I have given the kids a good memory or two.

I posted pictures of Threshold, the GT camp at Hardin Simmons. THis mom gives it two thumbs up! What a great experience for the kids. They get to spend the whole week with other kids who love to learn.

Last week, Angie, Bella, and Angie's friend Marin spent the week at The Grace Museum Culinary camp. Wow, it was amazing. I was more than a bit jealous. TSTC provided the instructors and they spent the week cooking healthy versions of kids favorites. For example, they made pizza with honey instead of sugar in the dough, and ranch dressing with yogart instead of mayo. Each day there was a drink of the day, watermelon lemonade, coconut smoothies, old fashioned low fat chocolate malts. Yum. They got a cookbook and a t-shirt as well that they decorated during camp. Angie was really excited to learn that their instructor won the very first episode of chopped. We even pulled it up and watched it on youtube.

Tony and my nephew Landen spent the week at a drama camp at the Methodist church. They did a musical version of the jungle book. It was so good. My son was definately in his element this his microphone and killer dance moves! Gosh I love that kid.

Tony spent this week at zoo camp. This is his third year, and probably last, at least at the Abilene zoo anyway. The boy knows alot about animals! Thankfully, midweek I decided to pay for the after care program. T stayed at the zoo and Katie picked him up when she got off work. It was his favorite part!! He helped feed animals and then played zoo tycoon. And, I saved a ton of money on gas!!

I picked up a book called Parenting Gifted Kids, by james Delisle. In between other "fun" mindless escape reading, I've been reading this book here and there. I have to say, its a great read, and not just for parents of kids who are "gifted". Over the last year I have read several snoozers in this area, and this book has really been speaking to me. Maybe, its because I believe in his messages. It talks about teaching your children that "better at" does not mean "better than". Amen preach it to the choir!! Seriously though. Everyone wants their kids to be smart and successful, but its kind of a waste if we don't teach them to be good people.

In a few weeks it will be back to school time. Not a major transition in our house. I bought the Target boxes from the school, so I just have to go pick them up. We reuse backpacks and I have a few in the closet I bought on clearance should anyone need a "new" one. I will make sure everyone has tennies that fit, and that's about it. They can usually wear shorts into October, so I will usually buy jeans later after the back to school hoopla wears down. A friend at work gave me a list of a couple of consignment type places to try. We'll see.

Big trip to Canada the last week of August/first week of September, and then its back to the Dave Ramsey attacking the debt plan.

More Bubbleology

Because I liked these pictures so much, I had to post more.





For more pics or info about their projects, See:
http://bubbleology.wikispaces.com/

Bubbleology

Bubbleology



I borrowed these photos From the Threshold wikispace site. This week the oldest three kids are at Hardin Simmons attending Threshold, a GT summer camp. Hopefully by the end of the week, I can get some pictures on here of Zachary. The theme is different every year, and as you can see, this year its all about Bubbles. What a wonderful fun opportunity to explore chemistry and physics.

Love this one, guess Ang isn't a fan of his bubble art.


Tony and unknown girl blowing bubbles.


Angie said they were trying to build the longest bubble chain aka the bubble caterpillar.


Artist at work.




look what we can do!


I cannot say enough good things about this camp. A whole week of embracing your inner nerd, what could be better?

Summertime!!

I really need to start blogging more. I guess I just haven't been feeling it lately as you can probably tell from the last few posts. Truth is I'm not feeling it now. My kids are growing like crazy and super cute so I should have lots to write about. Guess I have bloggers block :)

Summer is in full swing here. Every year I overplan, worrying that the kids are going to be bored and not have anything to do. Well, summer is flying by.

We picked up Landen and Bella on Tuesday and they will be here until the end of July. Bella and Angie are thick as theives and having a blast. She went to VBS with the kids this week, the library program and gymnastics. When I took the kids to open gym, Robert, the owner, let her do gymnastics too. She was over the moon. Landen is doing good, I just need to work on finding an older kid for him to hang out with. He's pretty content to hang out with Brian. We've been swimming the last 3 days, and today Brian let him drive the car down the road to take out the trash. Next week is swimming lessons.

I'm working on me. It sounds awful, but I've been having a tough time recently. I'm a wife, a mom, a daughter, but its so hard to be defined by what you mean to others, especially when you rarely feel appreciated. Now, I'm not trying to diminish the value of motherhood, its a job I take seriously. But, I need to start doing a few things for me. The kids are getting big enough that I don't have to hold then constantly so I get to actually swim some in the pool. My arms are sore, and I love it!! I joke that I am a daughter of poseidon. I've been trying to wean myself off of sugar, and am upping my fruit and veggie intake.

Brian bought me a NOOK and I am loving it. I have been checking out e-books from the library. I can't even begin to tell you how awesome it is to be able to download a book from home, read it, and then it just drops off after 21 days if you forget to return it. I throw my NOOK in my purse, or I can use the NOOK app on my phone and I can read anytime I want.

gearing up for summer

Summer will be here before we know it. Friday is the official last day of school, and then I will have a 5th grader, a 4th grader, a 1st grader and a pre-k'er. Emi will be going to Tuesday school this fall.

My niece and nephew are coming mid-June, and will stay 5 weeks with us. All the kids are excited. I am trying to plan for summer and will gladly take suggestions. Today, my goals are to meal plan and to shop for a dress shirt and slacks for Zach. He will graduate from kindergarten tomorrow evening.

Despite our recent scare, Brian is doing well. It was rough waiting, but really gave us an opportunity to evaluate what we want out of this life.

I can't believe that it has really been five weeks since I've posted anything. That is unheard of! My last post says that we were getting ready for Colorado, so lets start there. Colorado was awesome!! We got to spend lots of time with family and do some touristy things and it was not super crowded because their Spring Breaks are later. We went to Seven Falls, Garden of the Gods, and the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Center. I could have stayed all day at Garden of the Gods, but we had to leave to have lunch with Brian's mom. So, we promised ourselves another trip there. The Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Center has to be one of the best kept secrets of Colorado. It was amazing! Juanita had an interesting conversation about the fact that there was no mention of other theories such as the creationist theory and she wondered if I was offended. Truthfully, regardless of what you believe, being there really makes you think about the fact that we are just here for a blink. A theory is just an idea that someone twists concrete evidence to support. I find the concrete evidence, such as fossils fascinating by themselves. I have a mental list of the places I want to go next visit :)

The kids are busy with activities. Angie is playing softball and Zach and Aiden are in tball. At practice on Tuesday, Angie's coaches talked to the girls about their attitude. Their name is extreme attitude and it fits. In the huddle up they are only allowed to say extreme because we don't want the attitude. LOL. I was so proud of Angie for not getting caught up in it. First game, even though they lost, she was the last batter and she went out and scored a run! It really broke the ice. And she wasn't even feeling well. She missed 4 days of school with some mystery illness that ended with a rash. But as soon as it showed up she finally felt better. The boys coach seems nice, and the boys are having fun. They won't have a game for a couple of weeks, so I will have more to say about them later.

Angie turned double digits. She had her first sleepover, five girls. I think it went pretty well. Crazy girls got in the pool. Angie got a ping pong table and a kayak for her birthday. They practiced kayaking in the pool which was so funny. We had homemade pizza, and I made chocolate fondue. Her birthday cake was brownies with vanilla icecream and marichino cherries. They always come up with something! We karaoked outside, and the next day I took them to home depot and we built a planter box. Who knew that they did free building projects with the kids the first saturday of each month? You get an apron and each month that you come you get a project pin. Cool!

Ok, Baby Evan, my nephew is stirring, I have lots more to post later.

Well, I finally got my camera back from my mom's house, so hopefully I will get some pictures on soon. The kids are growing like crazy. Tomorrow we are leaving for Colorado. We haven't been for over 3 years. The kids are excited, but am I too. Colorado Springs is beautiful and there is so much to do. Juanita and I have been emailing back and forth about ideas and activities. I think its going to be a nice visit. We have to be back for Brian's treatment on Wednesday and his PET scan on Friday.

Can you believe that March 17th will be one year? It hasn't been easy, but I can look back at the last year and see how blessed we have been. I'm looking forward to what the next year has to offer.

This week Brian started P90X. Funny, he's not just out of shape, he's deconditioned. He takes naps, has to rest, is the first one to go to bed last one up. Decides that he wants to get in shape, so Im thinking maybe start walking or riding a bike, and he comes home with P90X. Last night he was doing these pushups where you stick your butt up in the air and when you go down your head touches the ground. Emi was doing them with him and mimicking his every grunt and fall. Angie and Tony LOVED doing the pylometrics and tonight they asked to do the yoga with him. Me, I'm so overweight and out of shape, I'm sticking with the Jane Fonda workout for the more "mature set" that I'm doing with my mom. Brian was really impressed by how stong Angie and Tony are.

I was supposed to iron Kindergarten graduation gowns today, but they moved the picture day to next month. Darn, I was really looking forward to that.

Well, two stress ulcers later, we booked our trip to Tofino, British Columbia. I can't believe we are actually going to be there for Jack's wedding in September. Airline tickets for 9 are bought (including mom and dad). We wented a house and have secured a rental 12 passenger van. We had many discussions about skipping the trip and using the money to pay off debt. That's what Dave Ramsey would have us do. I justified going anyway by reminding Brian that if we weren't planning this trip, we wouldn't have the money to pay off debt because I would not be working extra. Over Spring Break we plan on getting passports. I still can't believe that we are actually going.

Well, I have no idea where this post will lead but onward I go. We went to do our taxes a couple of weeks ago, and our disc drive woudn't read the disc. SO, I say "time for a new one" and Brian says "I think I can fix it". So, he restores our computer. Strangely, the computer read the restore disc, but still wouldn't read discs, so we bought an external one and were able to do our taxes. So, since then its been one inconvenience after another. First, all my pictures are gone. I was very sad for a day, until I realized that most are still on the camera, phone etc. I did lose some from my fist iphone that crashed, but lets not think about that. Second, our itunes recognized that we have a "new computer", so all of our music that we downloaded and stored on there....you guessed it....gone. Then I learned that you can only have 5 computers before you have to get a new account....irritating since its not a new computer. So, eventually, I will get all the updates on here and I can start posting pictures again. In the meantime, they are on fb.

The kids and I met mom and dad at Port Aransas this weekend. This place is really special to us for some reason. Maybe because its one of the few times that we do nothing. We don't plan anything we just do whatever we feel like doing when we get up that day. The beach is alot different in the winter. Still nice, but alot different. I could sit and watch the dolphins jump all day. We rode the jetty boat out to St. Jo island and went shell hunting. I found some really nice ones. This island is really just a sandbar about a 10 minute boat ride from Port A. I don't recommend it in the summer, there is nothing there. And by nothing, I mean not even a port a potty. There was tons of trash there as well, and the kids looked at me like I was crazy when they had to pick theirs up after we had a snack. The kids didn't have school on Monday, so we stopped in San Antonio at the witte museum to stretch our legs. I liked this place. I just wish that we had more time there, but we left in time to beat rush hour traffic. I hope to take the kids back there. The HEB Tree house is really cool.

I've been working alot of extra, so my house is in shambles. Its very overwhelming, and I called in sick today because I don't feel well, and have had a headache all day. So, I didn't do anything today either. Emi and I napped. I work tomorrow, and then I will tackle it Thursday.

I have to go get the kids from detention. They have 5 tardies. Uggh. Another reminder as to why I went part time.

Kids and their Blue Chickens

I try to clean my pockets out before I come home from work,but sometimes I accidently bring home things like tape, alcohol swabs, and occasionally a stray glove or two. Zachary got a hold of these gloves blew them up and drew faces on them. Then he named his babies Chicky poo, fluff fluff, handy and little joey. Little Joey isn't pictured because Emi laid claim to him and colored him with markers. She slept with little joey every night for a week. Zachy then started hiding his other babies before he went to school so that they wouldn't suffer the same fate. I really found this whole thing hilarious, especially when they started taking them for walks in the baby doll stroller. So funny the things kids find to play with and I am wondering if I should rethink spending money on them at Christmas time.

Growing up too.

Here's a picture of baby girl on right before her first haircut. Her hair's always kind of crazy, just look at the pictures on the side of my blog. She's wearing a Rapunzel dress and sitting on her new bike that she got for Christmas. Just what every girl wears biking right? Such a mess.


The last three days she has been in underwear and using the potty. This is one part of growing up that I have to say I'm not sad about. She's the first kid that we've tried to train in the winter, so she's training a little later than the other kids, but she's still 4 months from her third birthday.

A while back, we were at Sam's, and Angie was shocked at the cost of pull ups. I promised the kids that I would put the pullup money in our vacation envelope. Since April 2001 I have had at least one kid, if not two, in diapers. Wow. that's almost 10 years straight. If we added up that cost would be astronomical. Maybe I'm better off not knowing. :)

Growing up:(

Angie got new bedding for Christmas. In the last year she has gone from sleeping in the bunks with her brothers to finally sleeping in her own bed. In the last couple of months she has started moving away from pink. For some reason I am noticing that the natural next step for girls is turquoise or aqua. In this case, aqua, brown and white. I chose this set because its polka dots, another obsession of hers, and because its a quilt and therefore washable. We haven't taken the flowers off the walls yet, but I'm sure its coming. Her sheets are magnenta! That's the set Pam got her for Christmas, and while it doesn't technically match, it still looks cool. While she will always be my little girl, my first baby, she's growing up on me, no matter how often I tell her to quit it. Thankfully she still loves her Panda pillow pet.

Proud mama 2011

Friday was the assembly for the first semester. Angie and Tony made all "A's" for the semester. Angie had an E+ folder for the semester. This means that she had no marks at all. Tony missed it by one mark. There are usually only a handful of kids had get this so the school will take them somewhere fun, skating, bowling, a movie, something. When you get either E+ folder or Top reader for the six weeks they get to go to DQ for lunch.



This first picture is of all the kids in their school who won either a medal or a ribbon. Looks like overall as a school they did pretty well. I was especially proud of Angie's 4th grade class. Someone from her class medaled in every single event.



The kids also got their UIL medals. I've blogged about this before, but heres the pictures to back it up. Angie's are: first in Art, first place team, 3rd in music, 1st place team.



Tony's are: 1st place Music memory, team 3rd. He was so proud, I especially like how his chest is all stuck out in this picture of him.



This is just a fun one of the two of them together. I'm sticking my tongue out making Angie laugh. She has a beautiful smile when she laughs. Brian and I were both very proud. They worked hard.