Hey Dude!

That's the salutation I got from CJ after getting my hair done. Thanks Sweetie. Really he's not a fan of short hair but he said he likes it OK. Here it is:

And, here's the cake I made for Beth's baby shower today...

That's all I got time for - gotta run!!

Looking forward to tomorrow.

I had to reschedule my hair appointment so that CJ could go work at Brian and Beth's house tonight. That's OK. I'm going at 4:00 tomorrow. I have a little apprehension but overall I'm very excited. I'll try to post pics but don't be mad if they don't show up 'til sunday. I'm getting ready for Beth's baby shower which is Saturday morning and Opening Day for baseball is that afternoon - pictures, festivities and a game. It will be a busy couple of days but I'll do my best.

Here's a funny for you - Grace's latest thing is to run around hollaring "It's my money and I need it now!" hahahahahahahaha Wasn't someone else's kid doing that recently too? If they were shooting for something that would stick in your brain they hit that commercial right on the nose.

A new commitment

to my personal appearance. Being a stay-at-home mom with 3 little ones and a million other things to do makes it easy for me to not pay any attention to my personal appearance. It is my mission to make a habit out of doing my hair and putting on at least a little make-up each day.
Speaking of hair the vote right now is 6-3 in favor of the shorter cut. CJ about fell out of the chair when I showed him and then he said, "whatever. What you got going on right now isn't working so whatever you need to do is fine. Just do me a favor and if you don't like it grow it out long again." Consider it done baby. I have just been so unhappy with my hair for years it seems like that I feel like I need to do something totally out of my box and hairdo #2 is totally IN my box. So, you'll get pictures later this week of the new look. Hope I don't cry and regret it.

A new do

I'm going to get my haircut next thursday and I'm contemplating a totally new do. I tried one of those virtual stylers websites which I always think look a little freaky. I've never in my life had a REALLY short haircut but it might just be cute. I have had similar haircuts to the second one....give me your opinion:

Lots going on

but nothing real exciting. I'm getting things ready for my sister-in-laws baby shower next week. I don't feel like I have tons to do but I'm sure it'll sneak up on me. I have a special project that I'm working on for her gift, I'm doing to the party favors, and of course the cake.

We're nearing the end on getting their house done and I'm stressed to the max afraid that she's going to have that baby before we can get them moved in. Cross you fingers. (and toes!)

Some of my peeps are coming down for a little impromptu playgroup tomorrow and I can't wait! Seems like it's been forever since the kids have all played together.

Tanner woke up this morning and informed me he has a loose tooth - woo hoo! He's so excited! His first loose tooth. I wonder what the tooth fairy brings these days? He asked about it, but he didn't mention money which I think is funny. He just said, "the tooth fairy will come and leave me a treat right?" Of course!

I signed up for GASC (scrapbookers heaven for those of you non-scrappers who read this) yesterday!!!! I'm so excited I almost can't hold it in! The convention always comes to Arlington right around my birthday which makes it easy for CJ - "what do you want for your birthday?" For you not to be mad at me no matter how much money I spend this weekend! hahahaha
I get to shop, crop and take classes. Usually it's a dawn to dusk event for me but this year I'm going on friday and spending the night and staying until midnight saturday. Yeah for me!

Well, the dishes and laundry are calling my name so I guess I better go for now. Have a GREAT day!

A Nightmare

it was good, it was bad, it was good, it was bad, and now it's exactly what I should have expected.

The kindergarden program was last night. They had the elementary Open House from 5:00-6:30 then the kindergardeners performed at 6:45. It was a jungle theme. Tanner wanted to be an elephant. Most of you know that this was torture for me trying to make a respectable elephant costume. Don't want him to look like a dork, don't own a sewing maching, can't find any place that sells elephant costumes, I have a needle and thread, some foam, felt, super glue and hot glue. Let's see what we can do. Well, I think I got the job done so now it's time. I'm getting Tanner ready, dressed in his grey shirt and sweatpants, and I start to paint his face. Obstacle number one: The face paint that I bought was not grey - it was black. Crap! Good thing it was a multipack which also included white so we mixed and it's turning out OK. Tanner is excited at this point. We're getting ready to go and I'm moving the dogs up to the house. Tanner volunteers to move Cookie, which is great, but when he takes her rope off the pole to bring her up to the house she takes off running, knocking Tanner down and dragging him behind her. Tanner is now upset, filthy dirty, and crying. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!


This would be Tanner now pouting and refusing to talk to me and CJ. Great. I try and console him and tell him every elephant is dirty, that's how they cool themselves by throwing dirt on their back. It's not really working. But we're off anyway. When we get to the school he perks up a bit. He sees the other kids dressed up and we go to his classroom and look at all his stuff. The world is right now. It's time to meet in the music room. We take him there, help him get his costume on, and go find a seat. When they bring them out there's Tanner - front row, center stage!!!! I'm so excited. I'm trying to take pictures and I notice that Tanner is not doing any of the moves the rest of the kids are doing. He's just standing there with his head down, hands in his pockets, and he keeps messing with his costume. (Mind you at home he was singing and dancing and he was SO excited) His ears keep sliding down because he's hanging his head and the headband is falling forward. Now, I'm about to have a meltdown because I think Tanner is embarrassed because his costume isn't staying on right. I'm dying inside because I feel like I didn't do a good enough job on his costume to make sure it fit right and was secure and now I've caused him to be embarrassed in front of his friends.

After a few more minutes Tanner is crying, taking off his stuff and leaving the stage. Oh, my gosh! I go to him. I give him a hug tell him it's OK, we can fix it and he can go back. He doesn't want to. Another teacher and myself are trying to console him and encourage him but there is no way he is going back on that stage. He won't talk to me, nothing.

Eventually he tells me that he was embarrassed because of all the people. Then the light clicks in my head - duh. What was I thinking? Tanner - my I wanna do it, no I don't, yes I do, no I don't, leary of all things new son - was placed at center stage in the front row. What were they thinking? I'll tell you what they were thinking, the teacher told me they put him there on purpose because he was so CUTE! (validation for me that I did an OK job on his costume, but they obviously didn't know what they were doing to him) We sat through the rest of the performance - by the way, this all happened during the first song. And, at least Morgan got to enjoy the costume too.

He did say again this morning that he only likes regular stages. I guess that means ones without people sitting in front of them. I'm again relieved that it wasn't me that caused the problem. I did still have a mini meltdown last night after he went to bed. I certainly don't ever want something I did or didn't do to be the cause of failure or embarrassment for my children. That was the worst feeling of all. To think that I was the cause of it.

A friend.

I would like to turn everyone's attention to a very good friend of mine, Debbi Robertson. Some of you know her, some of you don't. She has been a very dear friend and mentor to me since I moved to Texas. PartyLite brought us together and I'm so thankful for that. Over the years she has tought me so much - about friendship, about life, about business and so much more. She's the kind of person you're just drawn to. She's full of life, she's inspiring, she's motivating, she's the kind of person that makes you want to be a better person.

A little over a year ago (I think) she started a new venture called No More Weighting. A program to help you through all the things that keep you from losing weight. Not a diet, a motivational program. She is a true testiment. Check out her website and see her before and after pictures as well as a complete overview of the program. She also has a blog that you can go to and see a little more of who she really is. She is a PHENOMINAL motivator and a true inspiration. She is a great deal of the reason why I had so much success with Partylite, and I know if she can do that for me she can do that for you. If you are trying to lose some weight - 10 lbs, 50 lbs, 100 lbs, whatever - she can help you get on the way to a happier, healthier you!! Check her out - she just might change your life as much as she's changed mine!

I love you Debbi!

Some fun stuff.

I've actually been up to some fun things recently. I'm participating in a page swap with a "movie quote" theme. This proved to be pretty challenging for me for two reasons: 1) I don't remember stuff like that (seriously when I tried to think of quotes from movies only two popped into my head - "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" and "Take me to bed or lose me forever" - and I thought who would do scrapbook pages with either of those two quotes?; and 2) I build my pages around my pictures and to build a page with no pictures was really hard! I shall not post a picture of my pages yet, because the swap isn't until the end of the month and I don't want to spoil the fun for those participating who might be reading this blog but I will give you the quote:



"You're not in trouble. You're dead where you stand!" Do you know the movie?



I've also started working on Morgan's album. I'm really trying to use the pages that were given to me for the shower. Here's the sonogram pages:

I actually have that exact paper so after adding a few touches to make it a little more "me" I used my scraps and made a few cards:

On a totally different note, Tanner's teacher sent home a note this week that Tanner was chosen by the Kiwanis Club as a "Terrific Kid" and they were going to have a ceremony on friday at 1:45 so we went (yes, I said "we" - even CJ was there). It was cute. I imagine that they honor all the kids at some point during the school year, but afterwards Tanner said, "Mom, that was cool! I want to be a Terrific Kid again!" Yeah!

Have a GREAT weekend!

Sulking and Pouting

that's what I have at my house. The kids are SO disappointed. There's snow everywhere down here, but at our house.

Not a single snowflake.

They did fall from the sky for a little while yesterday, but more rain came later and no more came overnight. I really was praying for some when I woke up this morning because I thought that would be a good excuse to bake cookies, let the kids play in the snow, and maybe do a little scrappin'.

No, luck. Not a single snowflake. So, Tanner's up and off to school and we're doing the same ol' same ol'.

Bummer.

Long time no blog.

All's quiet on the ranch. Nothing major going on so not much to blog about. Just everyday stuff. Morgan is swiched to whole milk (no more formula - yeah!). He's eating pretty much all people food these days though the menu is limited. We're working on that. He's still not even trying to walk. I hate to be impatient but it really would make my life easier if he would walk. Yes, I remember that first he will try to run away from me instead of walking with me when we are out, but still.
Tanner is winding down his last few months of Kindergarten. Can you believe it? We got a letter sent home about the kindergarten program coming up on March 11th. It's a jungle theme and Tanner wants to be an elephant. An elephant? Really. Why not a lion or a monkey? I can find those kind of costumes all over the place! Now how do I make an elephant costume? I don't own a sewing machine. I went to all the Halloween costume places I could find on the internet and the only costumes I could come up with were Dumbo costumes and they were all infant/toddler sizes. I picked my friend Shaunery's brain yesterday because she's the costume makin' queen and she had some ideas. I'm sure this is going to be a grand adventure for me - wish me luck.
Grace, well, she's just Grace. Sweet girl. I took her with me to the beauty salon last week and got her a real haircut. Since she's been born she's just been at the mercy of me and a pair of scissors. Poor thing. Just got a cute little bob. She's adorable.
We're all missing CJ terribly. These last 12 months have been taxing to say the least. At least we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. They should have Brian and Beth's house done in about 5-6 weeks. YEAH! Then he gets to finish the stuff that's not done around here, but at least he'll be home. We miss him and he misses us (and the lake- haha!!).
Gotta go for now. Have a GREAT weekend!

What a GREAT day!

I ran into Fort Worth yesterday morning to drop off our tax stuff at the accountant's office and Angel calls. Come to find out I'm only like 10 minutes from her house and she's HOME today. Didn't take too long to agree that I should drop by. We had a GREAT time. Makes me realize exactly how much I miss her!! (not that I had any doubts) We visited, watched Grace show off, laughed as Morgan and the cat ran circles around each other, and took some pics (check Angel's blog to see them - she hasn't sent them to me yet - hehe).

AND....Brian, Beth and Lily came down and we celebrated Morgan's First Birthday!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MORGAN!!

Creation

On the first day, God created the dog and said: 'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.' The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?' So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said: 'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.' The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did?' And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said: 'You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family For this, I will give you a life span of sixty Years.' The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?' And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created man and said: 'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years.' But man said: 'Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?' 'Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it.'

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone. Life has now been explained to you...

Let this be a sign.

WOW! Now that was FUN!

OMG! No kidding - that was a truly good time! Last night the other Thompson's, The Kennemur's, The Blann's, The Seilhant's, and The Lobsinger's joined us to celebrate Tanner's birthday. All in all, 11 adults and 12 kids - hehe! Man, did we have fun! First things first - here's the cake:

We actually had a small disaster. The truck came crashing down. I didn't actually see it happen, but Lily and Grace were chasing each other around in the vacinity of the table, and just seconds before I noticed the cake I saw Grace use the table for redirection (much like a racecar uses the wall). We reassembled and this picture was taken after reassembly. The cake board holding the body of the truck up is supposed to be completely hidden but I just couldn't make that happen. Still think it turned out pretty good.
Presents! Little monster trucks, Medium monster trucks, GIANT monster trucks, monster trucks that light up and make noise, a monster truck hauler, and a monster truck ramp thingy that spins around and makes noise. Tanner is in HEAVEN. And, let us not forget the GINORMOUS Tonka crane truck (which we discovered Tanner did already have, but no matter!). He's had both the cranes out in the sand pile this morning building all kinds of stuff!!
The Pinata!
The loot for every child. Which, much to my chagrin, instead of going for volume Tanner decides to try and pick through it and choose only the stuff he likes while everyone else is grabbing everything they can get their hands on. Only Tanner.
Morgan - hangin' with the big kids!
CJ - enjoying some much needed family time.

The kids had a great time. Thanks to my friend Jeanne for taking charge of the camera or I would have no pictures of the event. You're the best! There were no fights, no one got hurt (at least not very bad-hehe), fun was had by all. After everyone left CJ said, "now those are the kind of friends we need." To which I replied, "I KNOW. Too bad we just moved an hour away from them." He sighed in acknowledgment. We're commited to Granbury for 2 years. Hopefully the friendships will prevail through the strain, and we'll be close again one day. WE LOVE YOU GUYS! Thanks for coming down and making Tanner's birthday very special!

Tell me he didn't lose weight.

I swore Morgan was a shell of a baby after the sickness and looking at these pictures I just proved it to myself. According to the Doc's scales it was a pound or less that he lost, but just look at his skinny little face now...
Morgan before the sickness

Morgan after the sickness

The good news is we're all happy and healthy right now and I have my beautiful smiling boy back. On to bigger news....

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY TANNER!!

That beautiful hat is his "birthday crown" that his teacher gave him. I took cupcakes in for his class, they sang happy birthday to him and he even wore his crown into the store after school.
The new birthday bike from Mommy and Daddy.
The new 18-wheeler - Papa Dave made it and Grammy Jan made it shiny. THANKS!! And thank you to everyone who called and sang to him, sent cards, and dollars (as Tanner calls it). Everything really made for a special day for him. We're having a few friends over tomorrow night for cake (which by the way ROCKS - I can't wait to post pics of it), and I promised him I would take him to the store this weekend so he could spend his dollars - he's stoked!

Beating my head against the wall.

We are still sick. Well, Morgan is still sick. I think Tanner and I have dodged the bullet, and Grace and CJ are definately better. Morgan was sick again last night. This is 8 days now. I swear he's half the baby he used to be. His face is so skinny. I've got another call in to the Dr office this morning. We'll see what they want me to do. This is completely ridiculous.

But I MUST blog about something other than the sickness for fear of losing my mind!

On a happy note:
WAY TO GO ELI! I have never been a Giants fan, and I still am not, but I'm glad for Eli. No matter what he says there has to be pressure being his father's son, and the younger brother of Peyton. Now, maybe that will lift and he can just be Eli.
I know Eli got the MVP, but did you see that Giants Defense??? Give 'em a little love now!! Share that trophy with the defensive front 7 because they rocked Tom's world last night!

And, did I mention that I'm going Fantasy Racing this year??? I'm so stoked! My friend Jennifer started a group and asked me to join and I'm SO excited. This NASCAR season is going to be so FUN! This coming saturday night is the Bud Shootout...
LET'S GO RACING!!

Waiting on the ball to drop.

That nasty stomach virus has moved to poor little Grace. I felt awful last night and I think it's because I was worrying myself sick thinking I'm next. CJ slept out in the living room with Grace. He's resting now and not going to work today. I'm keeping Tanner home from school. He's not sick - yet, but I'd hate for him to contaminate the rest of his class if that's possible. This is awful!!

He lives.

CJ is up and moving, though a little slow. I tried to tell him that the next time he wants me to clean the bathroom all he has to do is ask! There's really no need to go through all of that just to get me to scrub a toilet.

No Luck

Morgan was still sick yesterday. Only threw up once, but was not feeling well at all. He slept alot, which I'm thankful for, but when he was up he was miserable. I felt so bad for him. Then about 2:30 this morning CJ has got it. I feel so bad. He's resting now, but it was a long, awful night.
So let me say this little prayer: God, please protect the mama. If the mama gets sick we're all in trouble. Amen.

Not fun

Morgan has been sick with the vomit virus since last night. Yuck. It makes me so sad for him. And for all babies who get it. Mainly because you can't reason with them. You can't say, "I know you're hungry but you can't eat because you'll just throw it all back up," or "I know you like milk but you have to have little water until your stomach settles," or "I know you usually drink 8 oz but the Dr said only a couple of tablespoonfulls at a time until you can keep it down." They don't understand and all you get in return is screaming until they're tired enough to go back to sleep. *sigh* He hasn't been sick in several hours and he did keep 2 oz of water down this time so maybe we're on the way up....I hope.