Upwards Basketball

They boys are playing upwards basketball. It is a league put together with the churches in our area. Here is Zachery looking upwards and probably praying he makes a basket.

During half times there is a little devotional time where they learn a lesson from the Bible. It is so cute how they teach the kids these stories in little more than 5 minutes.

Before and after each game they pray together and ask the kids if there anything they need prayer for. They also ask if any of the players want to say the prayer. Pretty cool!

So tonight, Zachery had his third game of the season and he must have forgotten that we were playing basketball and not football because he fouled out with 5 fouls for TACKLING!!! Go figure. Next Friday night is another game and another shot at not fouling out! It sure is fun to watch....

Help? No thank you

Z said he was trying to help me so I would not have to do it for him. I said to him, if he is trying to help, then he can remind me to sign his paper.

I know it is kinda blurry but if look closely you will see that my 6 year old has decided to forge my signature on his homework calender. The only one I really signed was Monday. He signed the others and signed for a day that was just instructions, not even an assignment. So we had a talk about what can happen when you sign someone elses name to something. He said he would not do this again. Iwonder if his teacher even noticed? It is always interesting around here. :-)

Best meal of the week!

Every Sunday morning after church we always come home and cook the best breakfast! We always have good stuff. Today we cooked eggs, bacon, biscuits, and country gravy! It was delicious....could only have been better if we had some orange juice, but we drank it all.

Papa Meal

Son Meal

Mama meal. SSSSOOO Yummy. I could have breakfast for every meal of the day. How about you? What is your favorite meal?

Report Cards

You know you have an ADHD child when report cards come home and your child has straight A's in academics and straights F's in behaviors. Please say a prayer for my child. Thanks

Out with the old, In with the new: Set 6

New cook top stove!! So here is the deal on this nice new piece of kitchen equipment. We got the gift card from our Home Warranty comp for the new wall oven. Remember? Well since Mark can pick up our products we save on delivery and he can also install them so we save on installation. Well as it turned out, I got a great deal on the oven and saved so much on the Del and Inst. that we ended up with all but $25.00 of the money to buy this new cook top stove! That's right, it was not free but practically free, only $25.00 out of our pockets!

It matches the new oven and the new dishwasher! It was about an inch too wide for the hole so Mark shaved it a bit till it slid right in. Then he had to run an extension cord to the area cause the new stove has an electric igniter. These were the only two issues we had. Not too bad!!

This new one has sealed burners so the food wont collect under the burners. I like that part.

Here is what the old one looks like. I am telling you, this think is as old as I am. Half of the burners did not work all the time and the knobs were all melted and didn't turn the way they should have! It was time for an upgrade!

Ugly old white cook top! Bye Bye, see ya later, don't you come back no more no more no more no more!!

Doing for others

This last weekend we learned in church about being a blessing to others and using the gifts we have to bless others. It has been on my heart and mind about sending a little care package to our friends that are serving in East Africa. It is one of those things that you have to intentionally do, plan for, go to the PO and get the right envelopes. And lots of times I forget to get the stuff. So today I did it. I went to the PO got everything I needed. I went shopping and bought a few items, packaged it all up, and it is ready to go. I love the feeling I have when I get to do things for others like this. I cant wait until next time. BTW: It costs $12 to send up to 4 pounds in this envelope. I PACKED it FULL. 4 pounds worth. I'm not wasting an inch or an ounce.
If our friends are reading this...a package is coming your way!

I still got it!!!

Yummy!! I asked the family what was the first thing they wanted me to bake and they said Cinnamon Rolls. They came out PERFECT!!! and they were delicious.

Out with the Old...In with the New: Set 5

FINALLY!!! After three months of not having one....we have a new oven!

Out with the old white one.

Nice clean whole for the new one. Look how easy it is to install... one set of wires!! That's it, so don't ever pay for one of these to be installed.

My wonderful installation guy! Isn't he cute?? And he was FREE. Well kinda....

aaaahhhhh!! I nice shiny new black wall oven custom with our very own finger prints. :-) Off I go to bake something.

tomorrow is not promised

Please read here and then pray for this family. They need us and our prayers more now than ever.

Love the yard...

But the yard work that comes with it.....not so much!! We did all the yard work right at the start of fall. LOTS of it. Then we saw that the leaves and pine needles were STILL falling. So we decided that we were not going to do any more work till the trees were all empty. Well that was three months ago and now it is time to clean up. I started a few days ago before the rain and got 2/3 of 1/3 of the back yard done. Doesn't it look nice?
This is alot of yard in the picture.

This is the second section and I am almost half way there.

Here is the largest section and it looks horrible. I saved this till last. When I am done in the back... I have to start the front. And it is three times the size of the back yard. Boy am I glad that we bought a house on only 1 acre. But I do love enjoying the yards when they are all clean! Have you started your fall clean up yet?

No more extra nice...

I was trying to be nice to the dogs and make them as comfortable as possible when they have to be outside. Mark and I washed out their new houses, bleached them to kill any left over dogie germs, and got them placed. Then I found our old blankets to put in them so they would have something soft to lay on. I even wrapped Chloe's blanket around an old pillow so it would be fluffy. I did all this yesterday. This is what I woke up to this morning.....
She decided it was funner to tear it all part than to lay on it! So now after cleaning all day, back hurting, and just plain ol tired, I have this to clean up. Maybe tomorrow...

Out with the old..In with the new: Set 4?

I love my husbands creativity! A few days before we left for our trip to Cal someone decided to run off the road and right over our mail box. We didn't have any time to take care of it, so the post master didn't deliver any of our mail while we gone. I called the next morning to see where our mail was and Mrs. Postmaster told us we MUST put up a new box to get our mail delivery back. So take a look at what my husband put together! All for under $20! He is awesome...

This is what we saw! Someone totally ran into it....HARD! This is a solid metal post that has been pushed over. Mark had to hook the chain to it and pull it straight with the truck.

Hanging on for dear life.

All better now. Straight up and down with two nice mail boxes on it!

Like the Kawasaki Green Flames?? We do... I hope our uppity neighbors do too. :-)

Mark did such a great job!

Out with the old...in with the new: Set 5 to come in 5 more days!!

My legacy

"character is what you do when nobody is looking, and I now think that friendship is what you do when nobody asks you. True friends just know, they just understand. Friends don’t have to be told, they sense it. They fill you up when you are empty, and they pick you up when you have fallen."

I read this over at this blog today and starting thinking, this is what I want people to think of when they think of/remember me. I love to love my friends, help them when I can, be there for them when I can. I always wonder to myself, have a done enough for this person? Have I met their needs? Have I been a good friend to them? I am sure the answer has been No, many times, but my desire is for the answer to always be YES, I have been the best friend I can be, doing all I can do.

Reading Michell's Blog for the last 5 months has really changed my outlook on life. I am reminded that tomorrow is never promised, to live as if this is your last day. I am reminded to spend more time with my boys, doing the things they want to do. So many times they ask me to play and I am preoccupied with this or that, really nothing important and I am loosing out on precious time with them.

I am reminded to share in Mark's hobbies because it brings him joy. So many times I just think I will be so bored, but I am learning how to find things we can share in because it means more time I get to spend with him. I am always being reminded that I am a piece of molding clay, being shaped, formed, reshaped, reformed, often, sometimes daily, with the goal of turning into the master piece I know He has planned for me. 1 day I will get there, while trying, I am learning to be the best friend I can be and hope to gain many friends like this along the way.

My Sister

One of the things I miss the most from California is my sister, Natalie. Over the last three years we really built a strong friendship. I longed for that my whole childhood. I was so happy to see her and we spent a lot of time together while at my brother Shane's house in AZ.

I would love to be able to fly her out here for a visit. This is one of my goals for the first half of the year. During our Christmas visit I was reminded how much I miss my family but I know we are here in TX for many reasons. I love you Nat!!

Christmas with Mark's Fam!

We stayed with Mark's mom, Ozell, while we were in California. This is Christmas morning when we opened presents there. This is also 4 hours after Mark and Michael brought their mom home from the ER! Needless to say we were so happy to just be together as a family and enjoy the time we had together before we left for AZ.

Uncle Mike and Marcus playing Chinese Checkers

All four of the "boys" are putting together the new Bionicle type transformers Uncle Mike got Zachery and Marcus for Christmas. Mike got his/Zachery's put together first! It was nice to see Mark and his brother spending time together. We hope he can make a visit out here soon. :-)

Guitar Hero....the new adiction

Christmas at Shane and Frank's house. Yes that is an arcade game in the backround that has over 300 games on it.
This was the scene the whole time we were at Shane's house. All the kids playing games...non-stop!
When we got home, Marcus and Zachery knew exactly what they were going to do with their Christmas money. Off we went to buy Guitar Hero games and accessories for the Wii. At first I was like, " you are not playing this 24 hours a day!" But now I am realizing that they are occupied, have not gotten into any fights, and I can read while they are playing!! I LOVE Guitar Hero!

In-N-Out!!

One of the first things we did when we got back to the west coast, was make a trip to In-N-Out!!

He cant believe he is really enjoying some in n out food!

Like father like son part 1

Like father like son part 2.

We stopped to eat here on our way in to California and on our way out!! It was so yummy!