Cookies, kittens, and Christmas

We had another successful Christmas with once again our kids getting too much. Brad seems to over do it with the boys. I am not a whole lot better. That just means our boys get spoiled. Brad mentioned on Christmas eve as I was telling him that we had over done it again, that he remembers a Christmas where all he got was a model of the space shuttle. I asked him if he was sad and he said yes. I guess he doesn't ever want our boys to feel the same way he did that Christmas.

Tanner got a kitten for Christmas. Penny isn't real sure how to feel about her. She keeps hissing at Penny and she just turns her head. I told the boy that is what you do when a bully is picking on you. Our new little family member is a bully, but very cute. She is perfect for Tanner. He said, "She plays with me and she lays in my lap when I play video games." Who could ask for more.

I spent one whole day baking cookies. It was fun. The boys didn't help me this year and I had picked out a cute recipe for some snowman cookies. They enjoyed eating them though. We have one more Christmas today with my mom and sister. Then we will be going shopping so the boys can spend their Christmas money. I am not looking forward to the malls.


We got to talk to Kyle on Christmas day. He sounded really good. It is crazy that he isn't able to talk to his family but once a year. It was nice hearing from him and he seemed happy. He will be gone for another year and a half. That is a really long time to go with out seeing your family. I don't think I could do it.

Whiz Kids

This six weeks has been a very trying time for my boys. Their grades are not real good. Tanner went a week with no ADD medication, so I can kind of explain that. In fact last week was the week with no meds. We practiced his spelling words during the week and he knew them. I got his test back yesterday and he made a 45 on the test. He didn't even do that bad the first time I quizzed him. I asked him what happened and he said, "I don't know I guess the words just fell out of my head." No joke buddy!

Mason is failing math at the moment. I talked to his teacher and she said he doesn't understand adding and subtracting mixed fractions with and without regrouping. She asked me if I know how to do this. Well, let's see, the last time I did this was ummmmm........6th grade!!! I don't know. The good news is school has come a long way. All the textbooks are online. I got online and there is a man that walks you through how to do the problems step by step. I did the tutorial and then took the online quiz. I will have you know I made a 100. I then had Mason take the quiz and walked him through it step by step and he seemed to understand much better. He then took a quiz and made a 25. This was better than the 0 he made before the tutoring. Last night we spent the night redoing the two quizzes and I tried to make sure he really understood. He had a test today. When he got home I asked him how he did and he said he didn't finish. I asked how he thought it was and he said some were easy and some weren't. He is just so full of details! The results of this test will determine if he stays in preAP math or if he needs to change classes. In the meantime if you need any help adding or subtracting mixed fractions just give me a call!

Snow in Katy

Christmas is fast approaching. Last Friday it actually snowed in Houston. It was so much fun. As I was on my way to work I noticed snow flurries mixed with the rain. As the morning went on it really began to snow, big flakes too. I have lived in the Houston area my entire life. I can only remember it snowing once when I was a child. I was spending the night with a friend and when we woke up it was snowing. Her mom wouldn't let us go outside and play so I decided it was time to go home. I went home and played in the snow with my brother and sister. The first year I taught in 92 it snowed. The school had a fire drill so everyone would go out and see it. I actually had a little girl cry because she didn't understand what was coming out of the sky. Christmas eve when Tanner was 3 it snowed. It was so nice and a very nice Christmas gift. The boys were so excited. Last year it snowed but didn't really stick. Then it snowed this year. So here I am 40 years old and I have only seen snow a handful of times. This is why we get so excited around here when it does snow. I don't think I would like living where it snows all the time, but it is fun for a short time. When I say a short time I mean a short time. It snowed enough to cover the roofs and ground. We got out of school about 2 hours early. I was so excited to get home and take some pictures of the boys in the snow, but when I drove up it had already melted. Bummer!

Thanksgiving

This year I have a lot to be thankful for. First and foremost is my family. I have a wonderful husband, awesome kids, and great parents and siblings. We don't get together too much, but when we do we always have a good time and enjoy each others company. Mom cooked a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner for all of us.

I am also thankful for our health. All of us have had a great year health wise. Mason stayed out of the hospital and has not spilled protein the entire year. He has lost all of the prednisone weight and looks and acts like our old Mason again. We have had several people in our life that have come down with some serious illnesses and have fought hard and have beat the problem. For that we are thankful.

We are thankful to have good jobs. With the economy struggling we know we are lucky to have a steady income. Brad changed jobs last week and we are hoping this new job opens the door to some new opportunities for him.

God has truly blessed us this year!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

My 40th birthday is rapidly approaching. This year it falls on Thanksgiving day. My birthday falling the week of Thanksgiving is kind of a bummer. It is hard to get together with people because people are always with family at this time of year. A week or so ago my friend Susie told me she wanted to take me to dinner for my birthday. I thought we could do it the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, because we have the day off. She said she couldn't and said let's meet on Thursday the 19th. She said she would pick me up and we would all go, kids included. So yesterday after work Susie showed up and we began driving to Los Cucos. As we were driving I got a phone call from a coworker and she said, "Happy Birthday!" I was a little confused and told her it wasn't my birthday. She said, "Well were are you? Aren't you at Los Cucos?" This was strange because I hadn't told her I was going there. I told her we were driving down the road and she muttered something and then said goodbye. This made me think a little and I started wondering what was going on. When we got to Cucos we walked to the back room and my very dear friends were all waiting for me. It was still a surprise even though Susan let the cat slightly out of the bag. Alisha, Kathy, and Susie had planned the whole thing and invited lots of people from school. Everyone at school kept this a secret for almost a month. They had it decorated with Over the Hill balloons and big 40 balloons. I also got to wear my very own princess ti era. It was a wonderful surprise and reminded me what great friends I have. This Thanksgiving I am definitely thankful for great friends. Hopefully Susie will send me some pictures and I will post them when I get them.

Successful Parenting

I have reached another milestone in my parenting. Yesterday morning Mason had his last football game. Thank God! When I watched the news in the morning I saw the temperature was 47 degrees. As the boys were getting dressed I told Tanner to put on a pair of jeans. For some reason neither of my boys like to wear jeans. Tanner came down with out jeans on. I sent him back upstairs to change. He cried and yelled and complained that he didn't want to wear jeans. I calmly explained he would either wear jeans or he would not be allowed to go trick or treating. He told me he would run away then. I told him bye and he ran out the door. I finished getting ready and then decided I had better go and look for him. I opened the front door and he was sitting on the porch. I said, "Go inside and put some jeans on." He said, "Okay." and ran upstairs. He came down a little later. I glanced at him and thought he had something on other than jeans and I started to say something, but then realized what he had on. He said, "There you go judging me again! You are always judging me." I grabbed him and gave him a big hug and told him it was my job to judge him and make sure he was dressed properly. I then said the next time you decide to run away you might want to put on a pair of shoes. He said, "Yeah, I thought about that."

Finally something to post

Well, I finally have something good to post. Tanner's baseball team played a tournament in Brenham this weekend. His team won the tournament with a combined score for all three games being us 44 other teams 3. The boys looked great. Tanner got to pitch for the first time. He did great. One kid hit a pop up, he struck out the 2nd guy, walked the 3rd guy and then struck out the fourth batter. He was very excited he finally had the opportunity to pitch. They didn't get to play another inning, because we run ruled the other team. Of course I forgot my camera which brings me to my bad luck.

I have had a string of bad luck lately. In August I got a speeding ticket in the HOV lane going to a tournament across town. Apparently the speed limit is only 60 not 65 in the HOV. I was going 75. Then on the way to school two weeks ago I got a ticket in a school zone. I haven't figured out how I was speeding. I was about the third or fourth car in a string of cars. We had been stopped at a red light. We all began going and had gotten just a short distance when the cop stopped me. She said I was going 30 in a 20. I asked her how that was. I told her she must be wrong and she showed me the radar and said it was me because the person in front of me was going 22. How was I going faster than the guy in front of me?

Monday when I was coming home from school I was driving down Clay Rd. in a very country part and got a ticket for going 60 in a 45. I couldn't believe it and said a few curse words when I saw him turn around and get me. I haven't ever had something on my record. Now I am taking defensive driving for the first one. I am going to fight the second one and pay the third one. I guess I will be driving really slow the next year.

Mason's football team sucks this year. He has a couple of coaches that I know think they are doing well, but the boys are so confused. These coaches took over after basically kicking the coach out that had been with the team since they were in first grade. Last year we only lost 1 game. This year we have only won 2 games. Only two more games and we are finished with youth football. Mason is really not in to it and can't wait for the season to end.

Mason was sick for a week. He had the flu. We all had to take tamiflu which cost us $170. I didn't have that in the budget. He did get well and never relapsed. That is a good thing,

I am hoping for a little better luck. (shhhhhh........I am not telling Brad about the last ticket. He would never let me live it down. It's a good thing he never reads this.)