a house renewed...

man, the day has come to force ourselves to spend money on our house. we knew if we didn't, the roof was going to blow off with the next hurricane that rolls thru. we had a list of priority items; new roof, replace the two sets of french doors that have been nailed shut due to falling apart at the seams and tile. our carpet was put in when we bought the house 14 yrs ago. we've had three kids grow up on that carpet. dirty shoes, spilt drinks, just all around dirt. it was time.

so, for the last week, we've had almost everything we own jam packed in the garage. we have one tv tray and a couple of plastic chairs between the five of us. it has been nothin but chaos. we aren't tiling all the bedrooms. this means our bedroom has also become a temporary catch all for everything from the big screen to the ten-ton safe. heaven forbid if i have to go to the bathroom during the night. it means shimming sideways, stepping over loose items, dodging a bookshelf and groping for a light...

as of today, the tile is complete. it's awesome. i cringe at the thought of moving our 'garage sale' style of furniture back in on that beautiful tile. oh well, one thing at a time, right?!

maybe i can post a pretty picture of the completed project for ya!

x 

kyle doing what he loves... 

Gotta love em..

God knew what he was doing when he decided I needed to be a mother to boys. Especially in the teenage years. I am guessing I probably would not have been very good at the hairspray, fingernails and accessories when it comes to teenage girls. This weekend, our middle son had his 8th grade formal dance. It was on Saturday night. It was already going to be a busy weekend and this big event would also be taking place in the middle of participating in an out-of-town baseball tournament.
Other than the money spent on ordering a tux and a corsage and the time it took to take him to be measured for the tux, we were pretty much prepared for the dance. On the other hand, I noticed that a whole heck of alot more went into preparing for the daughters.
They had to have spent many hours shopping for the perfect formal dress and shoes ($) and then the trip to the salon for the nails and the up-do ($, $). It would have been a much bigger ordeal getting a girl ready. I can only imagine the stress that would be flying around my house. Luckily, I just had to send him to the shower, help him into his monkey suit and off he went!
Being a mother to three boys....$priceless!

Travis, 8th grade dance... 

Travis, 14yrs old @ 8th grade formal... 

no book

Oh, forgot to mention.
I didn't get the book off ebay.
It ended up going for like 86.50

whoosh.

oh well..

mother's day in bed...

i made the mistake the other day of saying, "boy, i haven't been sick in a long time".
then "bam"!! it hit me.
i woke up mother's day morning and could hardly swallow. my throat hurt, head hurt and to top it off i had poison ivy!
i had been doing a little yard work the day before and darned if i didn't pull at some good ol poison ivy barehanded.
so, needless to say, i spent all but mother's day lunch, in the bed...

i have to say, my hubby and boys really took care of me....breakfast, a big balloon, two dozen roses and two sweet, sweet cards....

they must love me!

Weigh In...

Ok. I need a little weight loss help now!

We are taking a little family trip in exactly 51 days from today. I cannot reveal my starting weight because it is just a little too humilitating. I need to lose about 50 lbs, but no way is that going to happen in that short of time. If I could at least lose 1/2 of that before our trip, i'd be happy.
Any inspiration out there? I'd love to hear it.

I realize i'm too far past every being a "eye catcher" again. But, honestly, i'd just like to be able to get out there and do all the fun stuff there is to do with my boys and not be embarrassed to be in shorts.

So, here I start. I'm planning on cutting back on my servings at mealtimes. And I do intend on getting over to the track and walking as much as possible between now and then....

Help, anyone who might have a few great ideas....! Hit me...

Big Pink Book

I'm bidding on Ebay right now. It's for a children's book that was my favorite when I was a kid.

Being from a "traveling family", it seemed like every time we moved growing up, my mom would throw stuff away as she packed. I'm sure it makes sense to do that. But in the meantime, alot of the remnants of my youth disappeared. I do still have a few stuffed animals but that's about it.

Anyway, I had this alltime favorite little book when I was about 6 or 7 years old. It was called "The Big Tidy-Up". It was this really big pink book. I happened to locate a few on ebay but my gosh, they want like a couple hundred bucks. That's crazy. Some of them still have the $1 sticker still on the cover.

I'm holding steady on my bid of $40.
We'll see what happens.

Not Friday yet....

We went to a special mass at church last night. It was a memorial celebration for Pope John Paul II. Brandon was one of over thirty alter servers. They had the lights dimmed and lots of candles and flowers around a framed portrait. It was a very special tribute to a wonderful human being.

On a lighter note, I'm not getting any respect from my seventeen year old! man oh man, he's my first born and I must have done too much for him. He's helpless and unappreciative right now. OK, I'm thru venting....

Just one more day till the weekend...

not as pretty on the pic as in real life...sorry! 

texas bluebonnets 

Oh, the bluebonnets!

we went to brenham this weekend to a baseball tournament. if you've never been through the hills of brenham during april, you are really missing out! the bluebonnets and all the other wildflowers mixed in are just gorgeous!

there were many people stopped on the highway posing for pictures in the middle of the fields. so, of course, you know we had to do that too. although 5 fourteen year old boys, in uniform, don't get too excited about sitting amidst some flowers!

i pick up my pictures today, i hope at least one turns out ok! if so, i'll post it here!

spring break

it's spring break around here. beautiful weather too! but, guess who's stuck working....! always! travis went on a school field trip to keystone colorado for the whole week. he's been calling everynight to report in to us. he's having a great time! kyle has been home most of the week but got an invitation from the owner of Gulf Coast Connection magazine to go fishing at Port O'Conner. So, he left Thursday morning early and will be back Saturday. Poor Bam has pretty much been home all week. Catching up on cartoons! I did take off Wednesday at noon and he and i made a quick trip into houston to pick up the i-pod i won off the radio last month! it's great, i love it! he's been having some fun with it too! other than that, business as usual at our house. baseball is firing up and by the look of the weather, springtime is at our doorstep!

all in a day's work

i am just hanging out at work right now. wondering how to update my blog journal when my days lately have been pretty routine and normal. (not complaining!) just doesn't make for anything new to talk about! let me see...
i get up at 6:00am. try to exercise a bit. drank a few sips of coffee. take a shower. make breakfast for my boys. get dressed. distribute lunch money. leave the house at 7:30 for the school rounds. pick up a neighbor boy. pick up my niece. drop off two at the jr high then drop off two at elementary. run any errands i might have. grab my diet coke from sonic. be at work by 8:30.
are we bored yet? i can tell you i'm not. i guess i really don't mind the busy pace. i actually think i'd be lost without it! i get to chill out in the evenings for a little while with my family. after dinner we usually clean up the kitchen and spend a couple of hours visiting or watching a show on tv together. lately it's been "extreme makeover-home edition", which we all seem to really like or "american idol", that show cracks us up when they sift thru the no talents!
being together in the evenings gives us all time to talk about things going on in each of our lives. then we all commence to bed by around 9!
a day in the life...
it works for us!

my how you have grown...

man, i just realized i haven't posted a thing since the start of the new year. i guess i'm spending time trying to be organized (and my workload at the job is a little busier right now.) although, it's amazing how much time is spent just trying to run a functional household. it is very time consuming but the rewards are, oh, so worthwhile. i think that, the way that time gets away with you, it's so important to have a very basic, stable routine to keep everyone and everything in harmony. this way, when the out of the ordinary things pop up in between, everyone is able to handle them alot better. then before you know it, everyone is getting older and you realize wow, this is really paying off, our kids are turning out to be very respectable human beings. it makes you feel so proud of how hard you have worked. i know i am...

time to start anew...

once again, the year has come to an end. it's true what they say. the older you get, the faster time goes by. we've heard it all our lives, and now i can say how very true it is. a day feels like a minute, a week like a day, a month like a week and a year like a month. whoaaa, that's deep.

the year was wonderful for our family. we worked, played, prayed and grew together as a family. we are very lucky to have our home, our good health and each other. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

i think the beautiful white blanket of snow on Christmas eve capped the year off just right! we couldn't have asked for a better present...

happy new year to everyone!

Christmas 2004 

ho ho ho

I found out today that Christmas day will be held at our house this year! It is going to require alot of preparation if I want it to be nice. We are used to entertaining but it is normally a bunch of guys watching football and eating chicken wings. This will be a little different! I will have to take extra care in the "decorating" department. Maybe a new red table cloth or two! I'm sure it will all work out. I just need to start my planning now and do a little at a time!
It's time we start giving Mom and Dad a break from the holidays! They've been having it at their house the last few years and I think it's beginning to take its toll. This way they can enjoy everybody and not have too much to worry about (except the dressing, i haven't mastered that yet!)
Well, i'll be sure to let you know a month from today how i'm feeling....! Can you say red and green paper plates?!