Where have the last 4 weeks gone?!

I don't think I've ever been so busy or behind in my life, and frankly, I don't like it. I've got to find a way to catch up. I don't mind being busy, but I hate being behind. Frazzled is not a good feeling. Where do I begin? I'm sure I won't remember all the little things from the last month, but the big thing was we went home to Indiana. Finally - after almost a year and a half. CJ had to work Mon, Tues, and Wed of Thanksgiving week so on the friday before the kids and I loaded into the truck for our drive home. I have such awesome kids! They were great. Morgan slept most of the way because he didn't feel good. He was throwing up until about midnight before we left at 4:30 am. Am I a bad mom for throwing him in the truck for 16 hrs? I wondered. CJ concluded that he could lay in his bed all day or sit in his carseat all day so we opted to drive. Stopping for gas, potty breaks and food proved to be a little time consuming all by myself with three kids but we still made it in 16 hrs 15 minutes - YEAH ME!!
We started the week at my mom and dad's farm. I love it there. So peaceful and relaxing. We raked up some leaves in their yard and had a blast. My kids have never jumped in leaves before - weird huh? But in Texas we've never had enough trees to have leaves to play in.

Dad took the kids on a tractor ride, which even Morgan loved for a couple of minutes. He took them on walks out to the barn and the woods. Grandpa loves the outdoors and so do my kids - it's a great match.
We baked cookies, read stories, and had lots of fun! My mom had pneumonia (can you believe it?) but she was a trooper and we still had a great time!
One of the greatest things was I got to meet my nephew for the first time: Meet Evan Jude...he's so stinkin' cute it's unbelievable! I also got to meet Laura (my brother's girlfriend) and Natalie (her 2 yr old) and they are sweet to. It was so nice meeting everyone!
On tuesday afternoon we went to CJ's mom and dad's. I have far fewer pictures of these days because Grace and I got terribly sick with a nasty stomach virus. Grace started about 4:30am on Wednesday and I started at 10:30pm that night. CJ's flight got in about 11pm - welcome to Indiana Honey, I can't come get you becuase I'm puking. Nice huh? It was really terrible. I felt bad almost the whole time we were there and so did Grace. But there was still fun to be had by all. Morgan decided that he could get on this riding toy in the kitchen, push off real hard and kick his feet up as he transitioned from the kitchen tile to the living room carpet and that was GREAT fun! It was hysterical to watch.
Papa Dave and Tanner made some building blocks to build bridges with. Which was a total hit! Jan had all kinds of craft projects for the kids. They made gingerbread men, pinecone ornaments, bells, a log cabin, and I can't even remember what else. Tanner got to enjoy it a little more because he wasn't sick but Grace would muster up a little energy every day and ask to do something.
On friday Grace and I both managed to get moving enough to go to the tree farm and cut down our own Christmas tree. It's such a fun experience to walk through all the rows and pick out your favorite one. They will cut it down for you or you can cut it down yourself - we opted for the latter. Tanner got to help and it was so much fun!
We ended the week on saturday having Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family. I haven't seen many of them in over two years. Everyone is growing and changing and we have a whole new generation running around now. I remember when I was the little one, and now me and my cousins are grown (almost - my Aunt Esta still has school age kids but she's the only one)and there were 7 great-grandkids running around and one more on the way. We got to take this picture of Grace, Me, my mom, and my grandma - what a great opportunity. By the way - can you tell we're related? HA! Makes me so frustrated the Grace is not smiling. She refused. "I don't want to smile." Fine.
We left there to come home on saturday afternoon. About 10:30 saturday night while I'm driving through Missouri Morgan starts puking in the back seat and about 1 hour later CJ is too. OMG! I stopped at the first hotel I could find and we waited it out until CJ and Morgan could get back in the truck. Can you believe it? It really was terrible. A stomach virus is bad to begin with and then to be sick at a hotel? YUCK! I felt really sorry for the hotel people because I kept having to ask for more towels and linens. What a nasty mess. It was so bad I actually threw Morgan's car seat in the dumpster and bought a new one. Nothing like cleaning vomit out of a truck in a hotel parking lot while it's 30 degrees and snowing. Oh, well. We survived and made it home about 9:30 sunday night.

Last weekend we got lights up on the house. So, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our house to yours! I'll try to blog more :-) Love you all and thanks for reading!

I know it's been forever!

The desktop computer took a nose dive last wednesday and I've spent the last week trying to fix it. I think I've about got it working again - sort of. I hate computers when they don't work, mainly because I have no clue how to fix them. If it weren't for the help of Kelly and Kevin I probably would have chunked it in the trash. Thanks guys! It's been a pain in my you-know-what but it's functioning again.
I'm hanging out today with my DF Angel!! They came down just for the day. Got in about 2am and are leaving after dinner. Way too short of a visit but I'm thankful for every minute. And I get to see the baby!! He's only two weeks old and SO SWEET!
Gotta go get some work done, but have a great weekend!!

$1.92

Your eyes are not deceiving you that's a "1" in the dollar position, and that's how much I paid for GAS yesterday!! Somebody do a little happy dance!

I'm getting Grace ready for school and then I'm going to go VOTE. Don't forget to let your voice be heard today!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween. We had a blast! Thursday night we carved pumpkins - well, a pumpkin. My DF Nonya gave me this great idea that those carving kits were fun and easy so I decided that was the ticket. OMG! It took forever. The kids were so excited until I cut the tops off and told them to dig out the stuff. WHAT? YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING RIGHT? YOU WANT ME TO STICK MY HAND IN THERE? Even my sweet little girl who is not scared or grossed out by anything wouldn't touch it. So here are Tanner and Grace with spoons, the little carving knives and whatever else they could get a hold of trying to get the goo out without it actually coming in contact with their skin. It was fairly comical. I had to fling some on them a couple of times just to hear them scream. Mean, I know. CJ finished when he got home that night and it turned out pretty good.
We went to Shaunery's house for trick or treating. It's an annual tradition. She lives in a neighborhood that has only one street in and out and they block it off about 6pm. Our normal group - Wharton's, Blann's, Lobsinger's, Nonya & Co (just didn't seem right to put Burnette's?), Eric and Jayla (because Jen and Wes were at the track - lucky you!), Sylvia, Jane, a couple other people I did not know, Us, and Brian, Beth, Lily and Rye! WHEW! We had FUN, FUN, FUN! Can't wait until next year!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so stinkin' excited! CJ landed his first commercial job yesterday! WOOHOO! With the help of a friend of a friend, but still - it never hurts to throw names around when you can right? It's a community of quadplex's in Weatherford - 40 units, clubhouse, pool, blah blah. Anyway we're the new grounds crew!! Yeah us! And the manager there told our "connection" that we weren't the lowest bid, but she liked CJ the best. :-) That's what I'm talking about! I've always thought that CJ's biggest asset besides the fact that he won't tolerate people doing a half-a** job, is his people skills. He has a real knack for dealing with people. It's like you know instantly that you can trust him. So.........Yeah CJ! I'm finishing up a proposal for our bank this weekend and CJ's going to turn that in on Monday. Cross your fingers we get that job too. The big man at the bank actually approached CJ about it when he was in there doing our loan papers last week and asked him to turn in a bid - do a little happy dance!

Guess what? Grace and Tanner went to their first sleepover last night. They were SO excited. It was a lock in at GymKats. Apparently, GymKats has been doing an annual Halloween lock in for 18 years now. There is no age limit - as young as they'll stay to as old as they want to come, like 90% of the kids are 4-10. I did see several little ones there when I dropped off the kids, like maybe young 3's. She said last year they had 85 kids and that was definately a handful so this year they set the limit at 60. Two people were in charge of signing everyone up. Only due to a communication error they both thought the other one was writing everyone down on the official list and when they compiled it - 80 kids, not including the children of the ladies working there last night! C-R-A-Z-Y I tell ya. But they are SO good with the kids. They let them have free time in the gym, then they separated them into age groups and did some structured activities, snacks, a G-rated movie for all those who were interested, crafts, fun, fun, fun. I can't wait to pick them up this morning and hear all the fun stories.

Well, I'm gonna run. Have a GREAT weekend.

Rudolph

Yesterday Tanner says 'who's the reindeer with the shiny nose?' Rudolph, sweetie. 'Do you know the song Mom?' Yes, so we sing a round. Then a second round. Then a third round. After a few seconds he says, 'I would never be mean to Rudolph. He seems like a nice guy.'

I love my kids.

Did you think the snake came back and got me?

hehe. Truly I'm just so busy. I know, I know - no excuses. Usually what happens to me is I get up in the morning and pour my cup of coffee, check everyone else's blogs and then it's time to get the kids ready for school and I don't get around to updating my own.
I really haven't felt like I had anything to say lately, but I know that's not entirely true either. The real problem is what ever it was that I thought you all would enjoy reading - I can't remember now - HA!
So I guess for today I'll update with the mundane. We're all good. The business is managable now but we've definately got to find some more work for the winter. Most people are moving to an every other week mow now. Great that CJ is home at a more reasonable hour, not so great that we're only making about half what we really need to be. Hhhhmmmmm.
The kids are great. Tanner is reading so well. I'm so proud of him. Grace is definately blonde. I can say that because she's my daughter. Truly she just flits around giggling and I don't think she really cares about learning anything. She just smiles and does her own thing. Morgan, well he's Morgan. The smallest of three children. Fending for himself. Fighting for things if he has too. Trying to charm you with the cutest of all faces - chin tucked, eyes squinted, biggest smile ever. He makes me laugh out loud!
Nothing's really new with me. I did sit down and scrap a couple of pages yesterday. Yeah me! I wish I had some more time but not right now. Well it's about time to get the kids up so gotta go.

The first piece of evidence.

Yup, that's a snakeskin. Where? In the floorboard of the truck. In the floorboard of the truck that I am driving with all three kids in it. Here's the story from the begining: It was a normal thursday morning. Everybody was getting ready for school. We pile in the truck and go drop Tanner off. He gets out of the truck, picks up his backpack, and the attendent at the school says "oh my gosh! Did you find that on your property?" What? As I look down to see what she was talking about. Hmmm. Maybe. So I call CJ, Hey, where did you get this snake skin? What snake skin? The one that is on the passengerside front floorboard of your truck. Honey, I just cleaned out the truck last night so you could use it and it wasn't there then. (to his crew: "Hey did you pick up a snake skin yesterday while we were working? - Apparently not.) I'm sorry Baby, but I don't have any idea what you're talking about. We drive back home, I get out of the truck, walk around and get the snake skin out and hold it up and the tail is touching the ground and the head is at my chest. I promptly relay this information to CJ. Surely there's no way there's a snake hiding somewhere in your truck, is there? Nah.
For the rest of the day I'm 10 kinds of paranoid. Checking under every seat and in every crevice I can find making sure there's not a snake napping somewhere because if he decides to come visit while I'm driving me and kids will surely die because I will wreck the truck. The day goes without incident. CJ comes home that night, pulls the carseats looks everywhere in and around the truck - no snake. Still kind of freaky but OK. That's just weird.
Friday morning comes, I check the truck again, but no signs of the snake. I drop Tanner off at school. Come home. Work around the house a little. It's starting to get a little warm so I go to open the front door to let the air in and there on the threshold all curled up is the snake. Aaaaahhhhh! Slam the door back as fast as I can. Call CJ - I can barely breathe. What's the matter? I found the snake. What? I FOUND THE SNAKE AND IT'S ALMOST IN THE HOUSE! I explain to him what happened and that it is between the front storm door and the screen door and he says Catch it! I wanna see it! WHAT?!?! So, being the good sport that I am, I lock the storm door, run around to the front of the house gently push the screen door shut (it doesn't close all the way unless you really pull on it which is how the snake came to be there) and use a big rock to hold it in place. I carefully and emphaticly explain to the kids why they cannot open the front door until Daddy gets home and they are so excited they can hardly contain themselves. CJ gets home and we go around to the front door to see it. He's shining a flashlight down there and I tell him I don't think he'll be able to see it because Tanner has been trying to see it all day. Well I can see the threshold and I'm thinking it's gone. When I look up to tell CJ I think it's gone somehow I see it. Resting on the bottom trim of the window in our door! How in the world did it get up there?! Anyway, Clinton is coming down and CJ decides to wait on Clinton to open the door and catch it. When it's time the snake is now here:

He eventually falls to the ground and we open the door to get a good look at him:
CJ has a stick (a stick that I think is entirely too short mind you) that he is trying to move him around so he can catch him. WHAT?! Just pick him up with the stick, put him in the bucket and take him away. Nope. He wants to catch him. The snake is M-A-D mad! He's hissing and attacking the stick. I mean mad! The snake finally chills out a little and CJ gets a hold of him. Truly it was everything I could do to keep the kids back at what I felt was a safe distance while all of this is going on and now they want to pet it.


So we let the kids torture the snake for a little while and CJ decides to take it over to the woods and let it go. Can't we drive that thing about 20 miles away and let it go in a woods somewhere else. You don't think it will come back if it's only 50 yards from our house? To which Clinton says "I'm pretty sure after his experience at the Thompson house he'll not be coming back." HAHAHAHAHA!

Oh and friday CJ caught 4 lizards at work and brought them home for the kids.
Welcome to my jungle.

The washing machine died yesterday.

Trying to decide if I should laugh or cry.

Boring is good.

I guess. That's why I haven't blogged lately. Seems like it's just the same ol' same ol'. Tanner is doing well in school. We had to address some behavior issues last week but really just typical 6 year old boy stuff. He does very well on his school work and he's starting to read much better. I'm very proud of him.

I went to pick Grace up from pre-school yesterday and was greeted with the funniest sight - Grace CRASHED OUT in the middle of the floor. Lights on, kids playing, adults stepping over her CRASHED. hahahaha I walked in and said "is she sleeping?" The teacher said, "yeah, she's really crashed and I didn't have the heart to wake her up." So, I did. When she opened her eyes she gave me a big hug and explained to me she was not sleeping she was taking a rest. hehe.

Morgan is gaining words by the day I think: drink, milk, nose, dada mow (my favorite as he points to anyone mowing the grass), cereal, shower, fish (goldfish - the snack), outside, bye bye, ear, shoe, eat - I'm sure there's more but those pop into my head right off the bat. He loves to go outside. He is a little stinker though. He has definately learned to fend for himself. I guess that's to be expected.

We got the company truck back yesterday and I got to pay for all the repairs for both trucks - all $7,000 worth. Yeah, I know. The sad thing is that's NOT ONE DOLLAR in labor. Yup, that's all parts. Thank goodness the mechanic is our friend and now we owe him BIG. Hope nothing else goes wrong because the company credit card is about maxed out and we've only been in business for 7 weeks. Who woulda saw that coming?

That's all for now. Have a good week!

A lazy day.

Yep, you heard it right. We've got nothing planned for today. I really want it to be a totally lazy day but at some point I'm sure I'm going to have to clean at least part of the house or do some laundry or something. We're awaiting Ike and the rain that I hope comes with it. Since we've moved to Texas I've learned that relaxing rainy days are to be cherished because they are so few and far between.

I'm finally getting a grip on the business and it doesn't consume every minute of my day. That's nice. I'm still very frustrated with Quickbooks - the actual bookkeeping/expense part of it. Oh well. I'm getting ready to give up and do my bookkeeping the old fashioned way.

My niece Lily turned 5 last weekend. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY! The batteries in my camera died before I could get any really good shots of her (sorry). They had the party at the jump place in Weatherford. I made a princess Barbie cake for her. I bought a tiara from the dress up section and put it on the cake but I forgot to take a picture after I got the tiara on. Ooops. Anyway, fun was had by all. Honestly I don't know who had more fun the big kids or the little kids. CJ and Brian played hard in the dodgeball arena!! It was a great time. I was happy CJ got to let off some steam - he needed it!






That's all for now! Have a wonderful weekend!

Grace goes to Pre-school!

Tuesday was Grace's first day of pre-school and she was SO excited. When I woke her up to get ready I said "Grace, do you know what you get to do today?" To which she replied, "I get to go to pre-school and I'm going to have sooooo much fun!" Yes, you are baby. And she did. She was so excited! She told me all about her day and all the fun things she did. She even saw her gymnastics instructor there. Every tuesday morning GymKats comes to preschool - cool! She has been waiting on this for a year. She was ready to do something last year but we just couldn't swing it. One of the things she was most excited about was that she got to stay the same amount of time as Tanner. She thinks she's pretty big now. I agree. She's getting too big too fast.

HAPPY LABOR DAY!

Hope all of you are enjoying your holiday weekend. I would be more if CJ was at home but he's working. I told him he could stay home and give the guys a day off. His response was "the grass is still growing, if I don't work today it's going to be mandatory work on saturday and we're probably going to get rained out a couple of days this week because of Gustof." Yeah, Yeah.

Well, it's been a rocky start to the business. I told you we bought a new (used) truck right? Well, when we bought it we took it straight to Clinton's shop. He looked it over changed all the fluids, whatever else and had the hood fixed (hail damage). Last thursday night he went to get the new truck and drop off the red one because it has a hole in the exhaust and something else. Well, as it turns out it is needing more repairs than we expected. We really strained some stuff on it pulling that monster trailer full of equipment for the last 3 weeks and the repairs are going to be pretty hefty. Then friday afternoon CJ calls me and tells me he's on his way to Brandon's shop to get his truck because the new on is blowing up. WHAT?!?! Yeah. The first day. Barely half way through the first day. No there's no warranty. I told you we bought it used. Yes we're screwed. As it turns out, we THINK it fixable and we don't have to replace the engine - yet. Clinton came down friday night and drove it from Brandon's shop to our house. CJ followed him. They put close to 10 gallons of water in it for the drive (about 1 hr). He said it's good news because it's only burning water and not oil. Whatever. All I know is - we bought a company (major debt - did I mention that before this we had been debt free for almost a year?), then we bought a new truck for the company, and now BOTH of our trucks are broke down and we haven't seen any money coming IN yet. Can I cry? I do still see the big picture. I try to remember that starting a business takes money and we're probably going to be in the red for a while. But...

It's been another 8 days.

I know, I know. Where has my blogging time gone? I think about it frequently but I have been SO busy it's crazy. Things are getting in order though. And, there has actually been a lot going on.

Last thursday we had meet the teacher night. Tanner was really excited to go see his new class room and even more excited that he actually has a desk this year! Last year they sat at tables. It's cool to be a first grader. Of course, I forgot to take my camera.



CJ worked all day on saturday because of last weeks rain during the week. On sunday we laid a bunch of sod and I got to see just how out of shape I really am! OMG! My legs and my back were killing me from all that bending over and carrying. I know, I am a sis. That night we decided to go out to dinner because we were both too tired to cook. The food was good but Morgan was a nightmare! We may have hit the terrible two's at 18ms!! I feel weird saying that because Tanner and Grace neither one really went through that but I am telling you what.....he was a piece of work! Fussing (not loud enough that we needed to leave, but...), swinging his arms and knocking everything off the table he could reach, throwing everything I handed to him, spitting out every piece of food we offered him. CJ and I were just staring at each other in disbelief - something has possessed our child.



Monday was the first day of school and I finally remembered my camera. We walked him in and I got a picture of him at his desk. Yeah me! He had a really great day. His buddy Brady is in his class again and he's pumped!

We go thursday morning to meet Grace's pre-school teacher. She's very excited to start school too. What a big change for me that will be. It's very exciting though.

I'll try to be better about updating - that's all for now.

So many things to do, so little time to do them.

We've actually got several things accomplished lately. I'm doing pretty well on getting all of the customers and jobs put into the software for the business. It will take some time to get all the kinks worked out but it's coming. CJ went and bought a new truck yesterday. He got the DBA done - we're officially Take 5 Cuts. And he got the business account at the bank opened. This week I'll be working on a logo, business cards and a face letter for the customers to introduce us.

Morgan's mouth is healing very nicely. He had his 18 month well check yesterday and the Dr said it looked just fine. I left my papers in the exam room so I have no idea what his measurements are except he is 21 lbs 13 oz. So his weight is evening out. I just looked in Tanner's book to see how big he was - 22lbs. Can you believe that? That's amazing to me given he was 2 1/2 lbs bigger than Tanner at birth!

Sunday we signed Tanner and Grace up for baseball. Yup, I said it, Grace too. At first she said she wanted to continue GymKats but when we got there she changed her mind. She'll be playing in the mini's (3&4 yr olds - t-ball), and Tanner moves up to coach pitch this year. Should be interesting. I'll keep you posted.

It's been raining here for two days now. Which we desperately needed and normally I would be happy because that would mean a short day for CJ. Now, all I think is "if they're not mowing we're not making any money and nobody's getting paid!" I'm a little stressed about the money situation right now because it seems like the numbers that were presented to us were a little inflated. Well, maybe not inflated, but he used the numbers from the last 12 months. Well, the business is very different now than it was 12 months ago. I have faith in CJ though. Together we'll get things straightened out and get more accounts if we need to. I'm just very anxious to see the actual numbers. September 1st I officially take over all office duties and I'm glad. (I'm a control freak you know!)

Enjoy your day!

So, How was your weekend?

Ours was pretty eventful. CJ got home at some ridiculous hour friday night from work, but the good news was he wasn't working on saturday. Well, sort of. He did have to go mow one yard here in Granbury. It was on the schedule for friday, but he was like 'no way are we driving a crew of 5 to granbury for one yard! I'll do it tomorrow'. So he did.

Saturday we went and opend a new bank account for the business. CJ went and mowed, then we went truck shopping. Yeah, I know. But his truck just doesn't have enough UMPH to pull that big honkin' trailer full of equipment. Well, long story short Morgan was not enjoying the shopping trip. So, finally at Jerry's in Weatherford we decide to let him run around a little bit. They have a nice sitting area around their sales building and he could safely wander. Well he was backing down some steps (which he had alread done several times) and when he got to the bottom he went to stand up and walk away only he wasn't on the bottom he was on the first step. Needless to say when he turned and started walking there was no ground and he went tumbling face first onto the sidewalk. The concrete scraped the outside of his bottom lip, he all but bit through it. The skin is still in tack but you can see the hole right through the skin. He busted his upper gum pretty bad and I'm fairly positive that his two front teeth used to be perfectly even and now they are not.


It was disasterous. Blood all over him and me, screaming, people staring, yadda yadda. And the end of our shopping trip.

Sunday we stayed home. Kept Morgan on a regular regimin of Motrin because I'm sure his mouth hurts like a mutha, and enjoyed the day.

Maybe we'll get CJ a new truck next weekend.

How's it going?

Here's how it's going: CJ hasn't seen the kids since Tuesday. He's out of the house before 5am and he has been home after 10pm the last two nights. He told me this morning that he'd be working until midnight (not really) again tonight and they would probably have a full day on saturday. Things really will be much better once he is not going to Brandon's shop every day. For instance last night their last job was right by lake Weatherford. Then he had to drive all the way to Brandon's shop (which is in far southeast Burleson - about 45 minutes the opposite direction from our house) to drop off the trailer and the guys and then drive over an hour home.

I went to Brandon's shop yesterday so Michelle could help me set up the software for the accounts. Torture. Pure Torture. Before we could get started I had to purchase and download a scheduling software program that they use. Easy. Get in the internet, pay for the software, download it and we're ready to rock and roll. NOT. Everything that could have gone wrong did. First I couldn't get connected to the internet on my laptop. No clue why. It said I was connected to their computers but I couldn't get out to the internet. We spent an hour and a half trying to figure that out with no success. They finally gave me a disc they had with an older version of the software to load up but I would have to call the software people to get an auth code, etc. Then Michelle just unplugged the main computer from the internet and plugged in my laptop. Solved my problem but if I was plugged in they weren't. Big problem for them. I downloaded the software from the website but it wasn't working properly. We uninstalled the older version that I had gotten from the disk and in the process jacked up the newer version even more. Had to uninstall EVERYTHING and start over. In the middle of downloading it again the battery on my laptop went kaput. Thank goodness I had thought to bring the power cord. I plugged it up but then it was stuck. So we had to reboot and start all over AGAIN. Finally worked and I got 4-5 entries in before I had to leave. What should have taken like 30 minutes took 4 1/2 hours. I almost pulled every hair in my head out. Not only did Michelle not really get to help me but she didn't get any of her real work done either. I felt really bad. And poor Becky had my kids for 7 hours. She survived (THANKS BECKY - I OWE YOU BIG!), but again I felt really bad.

Thanks for listening to me complain. I feel a little better and now I must end on a happy note....the kids are great. CJ bought Tanner a cowboy hat Monday night. Tuesday morning Tanner comes walking down the hallway in his boots, Wranglers, belt, t-shirt, button up shirt, and cowboy hat and proclaims "Look mom, I'm a real cowboy. Just like my dad." Aw.

This picture is from last week I think. Grace had just gotten out of the shower and Tanner was talking to Papa Dave (or maybe Grammy Jan). What you don't get to see is Morgan worming his way up there to be just like them and then throwing elbows because the other two are touching him. haha!

Wednesday night we had a POW. Grace comes running in shouting "there's a tortoise in the yard mom!" A what? A TORTOISE! I am screaming for her and Tanner to stay away from it until I determine whether it's a snapper or not. The last thing I need is to have to take one of the kids to the hospital for a severed finger now that we don't have any insurance! We managed to capture it so we could show CJ then we let him go. He was a big honkin' turtle though! I'm not sure you can tell by the picture but the rubbermaid tub he is in is one of those big million gallon ones that if you fill it all the way up you wish it had wheels but it doesn't. From head to tail his SHELL is as big or maybe a little bigger than a dinner plate!

I'm Crying.

I listened to all the QuickBooks tutorials today and decided to jump in and start setting up some info and accounts in the QuickBooks. All I can say is AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! Everytime I did something it would pop up a window telling some reason why I couldn't do that! (banging my head against the wall)

Hopefully after meeting with Michelle tomorrow I'll have a better understanding. For now I'm going to try and put the computer away and not think about it. (yeah, right)

We're on day 3.

Monday CJ called at 4:45 and said he was on his way home and I was so excited. Thinking to myself 'I could get used to this!'. Then last night he got home at 8:30 and informed me that would be closer to the norm until winter gets here. Oh. Yes he's still up between 4 and 4:30am they start at 6 and last night they worked until 7pm. The plus side of it is I guess it's better to be busy than not have any business when it's your business!

I'm still trying to learn. It's kind of slow going but I go to meet with one of the girls in Brandon's office tomorrow. I'm hoping to walk away with a wealth of knowledge! I'll keep you posted.

Today is the day.

The first official day of our new venture. CJ was up at 4:30am and out the door by 5:00. He had to meet his crew at Brandon's shop at 6am. I've been thinking of him all day. Hoping he's having a good day and that he likes the crew. We'll be keeping the equipment at Brandon's shop for a couple of weeks until we can get stuff rearranged over here so that we can move it. (Heaven forbid we have a trailer sitting in the driveway!) Man, I can't wait until we can sell this house and get out of this HOA. 16 months and counting...

I tried to get aquainted with the software I'll be using today but didn't make much progress. I can't figure out how to get the internet to my laptop. I got a router (Thanks Becky!), but I still can't make it work. Don't know if I have the wrong kind of cord or if there's something else I need to do. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out soon. Wish me luck!

Sorry.

I've been thinking about blogging the last 3 days but just didn't know what to say. There's so much going on and yet nothing. The kids are playing, CJ's working, I'm doing laundry - hehe.
We bought all the school supplies, backpacks and lunch boxes the other day. School starts on August 25th. Tanner and Grace are both excited. Grace will be attending a two day a week preschool at the United Methodist church that is right next door to Tanner's school. She's gonna love it.
We're waiting to hear when fall baseball signups are. Tanner has decided that's what he wants to do instead of football. He's having nothing to do with wearing the helmet and pads (are you surprised?).
Morgan is starting to communicate more. He's picked up a couple of more words. He says water now and if you ask him questions he will shake his head no if that's his answer.
I'm waiting on the software I need for the new business. I ordered it yesterday. I'm anxious to start learning. I really love new adventures!
I guess that's all for now. Happy Hump Day!

Well, it's been an interesting few days.

I can check a few things off my list for the new business although I have many more still to do.

Saturday I went to scrapbook with a few friends and we had a really good time. I got several pages done and got a history lesson too. Shaunery and Jennifer are my history buffs and they took me to the Baker Hotel at twilight for some pics and stories. It's an empty, run-down, practically falling down building right now that legend says is haunted because several people died there. Back in the day though, it was a very upscale place. Interesting. Thanks for the lesson!

Sunday we spent doing odd jobs and hanging out as a family. I love that kind of day.

And, I almost forgot to announce: I'M AN AUNTIE AGAIN!

Please help me welcome to the world Evan Jude...

Born Thursday July 17th at 1:38pm at 7lbs 14oz to my brother Evan and his girlfriend Laura. CONGRATULATIONS!

My head is about to spin off!!

How did I go from just the everyday norm to my head is about to spin off? This is how...

Phone rings, it's CJ. Hey Honey! What's up? Well, I'm about to quit my job in 2-3 days and be 50% owner of a mowing company. (Picture me standing at the side of my bed now bent over with my head resting on it about to pass out, throw up and cry.)

CJ has wanted this opportunity for years. It's what he has always dreamed of. Owning his own company, being in lawn/landscape. I'm so excited for him and for us. And, after hours of talking and asking questions my fear and shock has turned to nervous excitement. Along with his new venture comes a new venture for me. You're now reading the blog of the person in charge of all things office related for Exstream Lawnscape.

I got a call this morning with my to-do list:
get a company gas card
get a company credit card
Set up a bank account in the company name
get CJ a cell phone
shop for health insurance for the family
find out how to learn how to do the bookkeeping/payroll/accounts receivable/etc for the company. We take over August 4th.

If you see my head rolling down the road will you please retrieve it for me?

Just normal.

Seems like nothing really has been going on. Just normal stuff. Tanner and Morgan were both runnin a mysterious fever last week. No other symptoms, just a lack of energy. Tanner's only lasted for a couple days. Morgan's lasted for a week. They're both better now.

Saturday we went and helped Jason and Angel load their stuff into a U-Haul to move to Kansas. It was a very sad day for me. I already miss her. But on the bright side I did figure out how to get back into shape! hehe

Sunday was Erin's birthday (Shaunery's oldest daughter). I took Tanner and Grace and CJ stayed home with Morgan since he was still crummy. That's really the first time we've split duties as a family. You know like - I'll do this with this kid and you do that with that kid. Seems weird but up until now we've really been an all or nothing family. Yeah, me and the kids have gone places without CJ but we've never really split the kids. If one of the kids were sick we just didn't go. That was going to be the case this weekend until CJ piped up and said "why don't you take Tanner and Grace and I'll watch Morgan". Really? That's an option? It truly didn't even cross my mind. I'm sure in the coming years we'll have MUCH more of "you go here and I'll go there" - it just seems kind of weird.

Monday was kind of normal. CJ went fishing after work and didn't catch much. Bummer.

Tuesday was the first night of "Scrapbook Keeno!!" (OK is there a right or wrong? is it keeno or pokeno? does it just depend on who you're talking to?) Yee Haw! I've been playing in a Pokeno group for two years now. Not too long ago Becky and I were there chatting about gifts and I said "you know all I really want is scrapbook stuff" and she said "wouldn't it be cool if there was a keeno where all the gifts were scrapbooking stuff?" and somehow the idea got around to the right person, she organized it and whala! We have Scrapbook Keeno! It was SO fun. I can't wait until next month!

The kids are going to their first dental appointment tomorrow. Pray for me that Tanner does OK. You know how he is with new stuff. I'll let you know if it turns out to be torture or not....

Until then - HAVE A HAPPY DAY!!

WHEW! What a weekend!

I really tried to get these posted yesterday but I just couldn't make it happen. We were so busy this weekend but it was all F-U-N! Friday night we went to Becky & Otis' for the second annual Blann Bash and was it! We had a wonderful time!! (as you will see by the slideshow). It was almost 12:30 by the time we got home. Woke the kids up at 7:30 to eat breakfast, shower and go to the square for the parade. Morgan did really well considering we were there for two and a half hours before the parade was over and we forgot to take snacks. What were we thinking? After the parade we went over to the carnival rides only to find out they didn't start running until 3pm. There were a couple of bounce houses going and a couple of games so we did that and went home for a nap. Then we decided on Applebee's for dinner, taped the race and watched it sunday morning. As if that wasn't enough Tanner had a birthday party to go to on Sunday afternoon. We had a really good time. I didn't want to go but I'm glad I did. Enjoy the pics!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

We're gearing up for a FUN weekend! We're going to df Becky's house tonight for BBQ and fireworks. Then we'll be attending the parade in Granbury tomorrow, riding rides, and eating funnel cakes - YUM. Plus Tanner has a birthday party to attend on sunday afternoon. I'm sure I'll have pics to post when it's all over. Until then...

Have a FUN and safe weekend!

Saturday

What an awesome day! I got to spend most of it with my DF Angel. YEAH! I was so happy to be able to throw a baby shower for her before she moves (yeah, you heard it right - tears, sad face, tears). Thanks for waiting and here's the cake....

Our DF Claudia who I have not seen in I don't know how long, seriously, couldn't make it but she took Angel out to lunch on friday and got her this....
Yeah, a Tony Romo jersey onsie!!!! How freakin' cute is that? It's really jersey material too. That's the cool thing about it. I've never seen one like that before so I had to post.

And one of the things I got her was a sleeper. Not just any sleeper. The PERFECT sleeper. Polka dots - yellow for me, orange for her, and blue and green because that's what she's doing the baby's room in. Cool huh? She can think of me everytime she puts it on him.
AND, as if it couldn't get better, I also got to spend some time with Diana and meet this cutie patootie little guy for the first time - Meet Alexander....
He's going to be one in July and I can't believe this is the first time I've ever seen him. Sad isn't it? I had a great time. Angel got LOTS of really cool stuff. She's so lucky to have such a wonderful group of friends and I count my blessings each day that I'm one of them. It's funny how things happen in your life. Thank God for PartyLite. That's how I met Angel 6 years ago. At a PartyLite show. Even though we haven't seen each other much in the last few years I can't imagine my life without her. I'll miss her dearly when she leaves for Kansas. They're loading the U-haul on the 12th (anybody want to come help? really). Thank goodness for blogs.

I love you Angel!!

*SMILE*

I just finished the cake for Angels baby shower. But there'll be no pictures today - that would ruin the surprise now wouldn't it? Sorry Sweetie! *wink*

Hmmmmm.

I've traded out the exercise bike for a treadmill. Let's see if this one works by just staring at it, the other one was definately a dud.

Sad and Pathetic

That would be words to describe the shape my body is in. I'm embarrassed to say it but we gutted the garage and the little barn this weekend to clean and organize and my muscles are sore. How completely pathetic is that?! The barn and the garage look GREAT though! WooHoo!

On a roll...

This is a photo from June 2006 - yes, that's how far behind I am on our family album. It's sad, I know. But I'm working on it! This layout was part of a class that I am doing with my DF Becky. So simple, yet TOTALLY out of the box for me. To do something this easy is so hard for me. I think it's a little heavy on the right side with the writing, the heart, and the flowers. Had I noticed it earlier I could have turned my patterened paper so the flowers were on the other side, but I didn't. Too late now.

This fabulous layout was done by my DF Shaunery. She also did the invitations for the baby shower (displayed on the left page). THANKS SHAUN!
(In case you were wondering those pictures do not really have all that glare. The glare is from me taking the picture of the layout. Apparently I need some tips.)

This layout was given to me by DF Jeanne. She totally rocks! A perfect match to display the birth announcements that I made and some pics of him in a great zoo themed outfit. I'm telling you - having these pages has made putting Morgan's album together a snap. I love everyone!
Taking a picture of this one was a challenge because it has a transparent overlay on it. Makes it look blurry and shadowy but it's really not. Blame it on the photographer. She needs some lessons.
This calendar page I'm not so crazy about but I had to just accept and move on. Ever have those pages? There's just too much white space on this one for me but I'm not taking it apart so I must accept and move on.
This beautiful layout was given to me by DF Angel. I love the papers! Thank you Thank you!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

Scrappin.

That's what I've been doin'. Not cleaning, not weeding, not watering, not anything else that needs done - scrappin'. Can't help it. I've got the bug bad and I can't think about anything else. All I want to do all day every day is sit in my office and scrap to my heart's content. Oh, but those pesky kids are always needing something (just kidding - about the pesky part I mean). Anyway, here's some stuff I've managed to get done in the past two days....

The kids playing last summer...

And I've finally started on Morgan's album. I started it at convention. I really thought I'd get alot done, and in 12 hours of alloted scrapbooking time I completed 4 pages. Yes, that's extremely slow, even for me. So not very productive at convention but now I'm inspired and on a roll. This first layout was given to me by my dear friend Becky. At Morgan's baby shower most of my friends made layouts for me and I have many of them slated for use asap. So, I hope as I post them I give the proper credits. I love you all! Thanks!

Yes, I know the ribbon it wrinkly. Yes, it drives me crazy. No, I'm not going to iron it. I don't even iron my clothes. I'm certainly not going to iron my scrappin' ribbon. I'm praying that as it gets squished in the book it will flatten out. A girl can pray right?

I'm actually very excited about Morgan's calendar pages. As I was gathering stuff I was a little worried because with everything that has gone on over the last year I didn't do a very good job writing stuff down. Or so I thought. Then my dear friend Jeanne popped into my head and I remember her saying "this blog isn't just for my friends and family, it's my online diary. So that I have a written account when I go back and scrap all these events." Hallelujah! I went back on my blog from last year and there it was. All my thoughts, everything that happened. I just copy and pasted and printed it out and it was so easy. THANK YOU JEANNE!