Bye Bye Grandma

I have been up in Ohio for the last week for my Grandmother's funeral. Funerals are never an exciting thing. However the upside to them is that we get to see family that we otherwise would not. That was the case with us. I have not been to Ohio in over 20 years. So I have not had the chance to have a relationship with Aunts and Uncles and Cousins. Well now I do. I spent the week with them and even stayed an extra day with my Uncle Jim and Aunt Cathy and cousin Josh. I am so glad I did that. Here are some pics from the week.
My sister, Natalie, Cousin Josh, Me, Mom, and Shane

All the boy cousins carrying the coffin.

Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Cathy, Cousin Jimmy, and second cousin Robin.

Aunt Mary with her two sons, Nathan and Brandon

Frank, Mom, Shane, me, and Natalie.

Caldwell Zoo

This was a cute little zoo in Tyler, TX. It is very small compared to the San Diego Wild Animal Park we are used to. But it was fun none the less! Adult admin was $8.50 and kids were $5! Another great day of cheap entertainment.

Marcus and Bailey acting like they have never seen a big fish before!

All four boys for a great photo opp.

The boys are having fun on the steps outside the Zoo while Terri and I bought the tickets.

My battery for the camera died and these were the only pics I got. I was sad but at least I got these! The zoo was fun, but Zac was bored. He wanted to go back to the water park.... Still another successful day for me and boys! :-)

The Waterpark at the Villages

My friend Terri knew of this indoor water park in Tyler, TX. She wanted to go and invited the boys and I to go with her! It was so much fun. The drive was only about 2.5 hours south and it was a tree lined drive the whole way, absolutely gorgeous. It was only $20 for general adm. and $17 for Zachery (kids). cant beat that for some fun!
This is Parker coming out of one of the "body" slides. all smiles, all day, such a happy kid!

Parker on the lazy river.

Me on the lazy river! The water was so warm, it was perfect!

Bailey in front of the sigh and the play area. There is a BIG bucket at the top of this play structure that dumps every 10 minutes or so. It was so loud and so much water falling!

Marcus coming out of the slide.

Marcus and Bailey racing down the slides!

Zachery coming out of the slide! This was the first time that he got to ride "big" slides and he was so happy!

Parker and I racing down the slides and I won!!

Marcus and Bailey hamming for the camera! Happy boys = happy moms!

We all cant wait to go back here! It is a time share resort that has the water park. I plan to arrange for a "tour" so we can stay here for free for the weekend and come back and play some more! Don't you think that is a good plan? Me and free= perfect!

Chuck E Cheese's

Where kids can be a kid!! And mine did! And had a great time!

Marcus, Zachery, and Dayton!

Marcus and Dayton playing around, having a playful time!

Zachery smiling! mmmmm cake and ice cream!

Birthday girl, Dayna, blowing out her candle on her Dora cake!

Boys having fun with the camera!
I even got 30 free tockens for taking in their report cards! 15 each! I love free stuff :-) Did you get somthing for free today?

WARNING!!!!!!! GGGRROOOOOSSSSSSS

This is what one of the dogs threw up on my living room carpet! They got loose, jumped the fence, ran around the neighborhood, came home, and gave us this gift! It is the insides of a small animal. GGRROOOSSSSSSSS!!! It stunk so bad! This is the grossest thing I have ever had to deal with. Good thing Mark was home to handle it. I did have to hold open the bag but he picked it up. We talked to the vet and she said it was the best thing the dog could have done, throwing it up....but really???? on my carpet??? needless to say they stay on the chain now. No more running loose around the back yard. We need to get a big kennel area for them so they can not be on a chain but for now it is what it is.....

Trial Mix

You know that feeling when you want some trail mix and when you go to get it, you look to see what is in it and there is always something you really don't like? Well I got tired of that and decided to make my own. When I made my monthly shopping trip I picked up all the ingredients and made two bags, one for me and one for Mark. You see his bad has alot more dark stuff in it and that dark stuff is CHOCOLATE!!! I don't like chocolate. So I made mine with peanut butter chips. Yummy stuff and a nice snack to have when I get the munchies. There are Cashews, honey roasted nuts, craisins, peanut M&Ms, peanut butter chips, and raisins. hhhmmmmm

Need more freeways

so I can drive faster and not get another DANG ticket. I got one last week for driving 56 in a 45. The bad thing is that I got a ticket back in CA for running a red light so I am not elegible to take the defensive driving class. The good news is, this is the south, and I can request to see the judge and ask her to put me on probation for 90 days. If I am a good girl then the ticket will not be reported to the DMV or to my insurance company. FOR SURE....I will be doing this. :-) OH! the ticket is $210! WOW that was not in my budget for this month...or the next...... Please pray for my lead food. Lesson learned.

Enchiladas

Maria made some yesterday and today. They are delicious. I cant stop myself from eating them. Mark told Maria she is fattening me up. He said that was not a good thing. My wonderful Z said, "Fat mommies are good cause then you can jump on their bellies!" uuhhmmm I don't think that is a good idea at all. But it was funny!

News Boys!!

On Thursday the 5th we were treated to a NewsBoys, Vota, December Radio, and Bread of Stone concert. It was so awesome! We love going to concerts, love it when they are local and love it even more when every seat in house is a good seat! We got lucky and got front row balcony. Next in concert is Big Daddy Weave and then it is Todd Agnew (sp?) Cant wait!

Watch out below!!!!!

Final cut, they laid down the bulk of the tree. Amazing how they are able to measure the length and know where it will fit. Look how close it came to the next tree. This portion was 27 feel long.

This was an upper portion that they cut and just let it fall to the ground. Every time a big log fell it sounded like a bomb and felt like an earthquake. You can see some of the other chunks in the back round.

Look at him way up in the tree. He was having way too much fun up there!

As he is going up he is clearing away the branches. He started in the tree beside it to clear some of those branches and then swung across to the other tree. CRAZY! If you ask me.

We are so glad this tree is finally down. We can sleep a little better knowing that a good wind is not going to knock it over. We also got a really good quote from the guy to cut the other 6 trees in the back yard down. I will be saving to have this done in the next couple of months.

Big Ol' Rat

This little dog was in the parking lot when we got out of Bible Study on Wednesday. We didn't want to leave it there for fear it would get run over. We brought it home. Our BIG dogs had a fit and wanted to eat it for dinner. We had to keep them outside or her locked in a room. It was a mess. Well Friday AM when I opened the door to let the boys out to get on the bus the dang dog got out in between my legs. We tried to get it but it was like a rat and darted everywhere. We did not get it. We all left to school and work. I got a call from the shelter, they had it. I told them it was lost and that we picked it up. So now they are trying to find its owners! For now it is in a foster home and that is good for us. The lesson I learned from all this, goes along with my core sin, is stop being lazy and get tags for my dogs.

Big Rat! This is a reminder of why we chose BIG dogs! Aren't they so cute? Heart dog tags! Lesson learned. Amazing how He uses everything for good.

No More Basketball

The Green Machines
Here is the year end pic of Zachery's B-Ball team. He had so much fun. He looked forward to practice every week and then the games on Fridays. He was a happy boy! It was so fun to watch these boys learn the fundamentals of the game and how much they improved from the start of the season to the final game. They had the best coach that had so much patience with them. He gave every one of the players a Dallas Mavericks Jersey after the final game. He really was great. The final game was the best Zachery had and his couch gave him $5 for doing so well. Zachery's first question was can I spend it on candy? I said yes!

You never know....

What your kids are going to say to you.

A-Zachery, Are you dressed yet?
Z-No Mom I don't know what to wear.
A-OK here are some pants and a shirt.
Z-No Mom I don't like those pants.
A-OK I will get rid of them so they are not taking up space.

A few minutes later:

Z- Moooommmm, don't get rid of those, I want to save them for my kids when I grow up!!

HAHAHAH He is 6 years old and want to start saving stuff for his future kids!

Final Scouting Banquet

We came back from Houston on Monday because Marcus had his promotion banquet. It was a big special deal. Now he is in Second Year Weblows. For now we do not have the Monday night meetings which is nice so we can do other stuff or just not be rushing from place to place. Marcus will be going out on a couple of camping trips over the next couple months. He is still excited about Boy Scouts and I hope it stays like that! Zachery is also doing well in scouts but he is not old enough for the camp outs, so that makes him sad. Hopefully the next few years rush by for him!

Marcus getting his award!
These are the "Arrows of Light" that the scouts get when they promote from Weblows to Boy Scouts.

These are the tents that Marks Den made for the table decorations. Great food, fellowship, fun and awards!

R.I.P.

Mark's Dad pasted away on Feb. 17th, 2009. It was a little bit of a shock but not so much. We were down with him the weekend before Thanksgiving and again over the Thanksgiving Holiday. It was a good time for the family. We were all together and grew more as a family unit. This is the side of Mark's family that we just met 4 years ago. While we were there his dad got a call that he wife, who had been in a coma, had passed away. The blessing was that he was not alone getting this message. Since this time he has been very down and depressed and he is not healthy. When we got the call from Angela about his passing, it made sense. The blessing from this situation is that Mark finally got to meet the third sister from his dad. Her name is Pilar, her husband Marcus, and two boys Jailyn and Malik. They are all stationed in Germany and flew in the same day we got to Houston. We all meet at the viewing, and then went to dinner. It was so much fun to get to know this fabulous woman and her amazing family. Mark was so happy when we got home to finally know "all his sisters!" The joke while we were all together was, " do you think there are more of us out there somewhere?" Our boys and her boys are right around the same age so they played played and played the whole 4 days. It really was great! We only wish this all happened under better circumstances. We did make an agreement that we were going to get together more often and for good times! Mark and I and the boys are already excited about this vacation even though nothing has been planned. Here are some pics from the time we were down in Houston.

From Left to Right: Kim, Pilar, Angela, and Mark. Finally all together!

Zachery and his baby cousin, Liala (sp?)

Pilar, Malik, and Jailyn. Great Boys with a great Mom and Dad!

The boys having a final fun moment before we left to come back home! :-( We did not want to leave yet.

Its been a while....

So truth be told, I am addicted to the computer and whats worse is I am addicted to wanting people to love me and know what my every move is. I decided that I really should be a better steward of all this time I am spending on the Blog, Facebook, Myspace, Yahoo messenger, and Email. I think I am still dealing with not having many friends here and this is how I have been coping with it. But I have plenty of other stuff I should be doing. Like volunteering at the Pregnancy Center, cleaning my house, spending time with the kids and Mark, reading, doing my Bible Study. The list could go on and on. I have been working on this problem, so that is why I have not been blogging. I started it with all the wrong intentions. Moving forward my plan is to create a weeks worth of blog entries in one sitting and then schedule them to post daily. I am also cutting back my online time with all the other sites. I need to figure this out and get it under control. Thanks for reading and caring about us!