Fall Festivals and Fun

And what's the best thing you could possibly get in the mail?? Bubble wrap!! Thanks, MeMe and RonRon!!

Looking just like the ghost cookie in his hand, Kanton is proud of his "Boo!" face!!

The kids had a great time Sunday afternoon going to a local fall festival. The kids looked great in their costumes as the trunk or treated. They decided it was too hot for helmets, so Ricky and I toted them in our hands along with three sacks of candy and a camera. Fun, fun. The kids had a blast riding the ponies which Kanton kept doing with no hands. This would have made the overly-protective mom I am a little nervous, except for the fact that he was strapped to the saddle. Ashton must have ridden the ponies 4 or 5 times. He told us every color of pony he rode. Kanton and Ashton won cupcakes and cookies on the cake walk. Braden played until they ran out of cakes. He didn't win, but his brothers shared. He enjoyed doing the rock climbing wall in 5 seconds, jumping in the bounce house, and doing the bungee run. Kanton had his face painted and requested a blue ribbon with a #1 for first place. The girl asked if it was for first place in the costume contest, and he said "No, just because." Silly kid! Ashton was the hit of the festival in his Aggie costume. Everybody kept doing thumbs up to him, which he loved. The kids had a great time, and the weather was awesome. Hot at first, then cooler, and then when it was nearly dark and almost too cool, it was over. We had a great time. Wish you were here!!

Stopping for a quick "Hi Mom!" as he makes his way to the top!

Running on the bungee run.

Braden "flying" backwards on the bungee run.

Ashton looking down from the TOP of the rock wall. He just turned 3! No fear!

Guess who thought it would be funny to ride with no hands. Kanton on the pony at a church fall festival.

Braden without the mask so we can see how cute he is!

Looking sweet and innocent if only for a minute, Mr. Kanton in his Transformers costume.

Gig 'em Aggies! Ashton wants to be an Aggie Football player when he grows up.

Jango Fett (from Star Wars), Optimus Prime (Transformers) and an Aggie Football player (said Addie Pitball if you ask Ashton).

Preschool Barnyard

Braden standing by the wheel of the John Deere. He was on Fall Break from his private school, so he got to go along with us.


So, Kanton had his first field trip ever. He was so excited, since his brother has had several field trips. It just so happened that this field trip fell during the week that Braden had Fall Break with his Christian school. We were all able to go on the field trip. We saw sheep, dairy cows, pigs, a tractor, beef cows, a sheep dog, a horse, and chicks. It was really fun. The kids learned that pigs are turned into bacon, cows make milk, other cows are turned into hamburgers and steaks, and sheep make wool. This was a hands-on experience, and some kids had never seen these animals. I know that we have seen them from a distance, but there's just something about petting that soft spot on a horse's nose that just doesn't get old. My boys were thrilled to touch the baby chicks. My camera's memory card was full, so I missed them. Kanton's teacher snapped a pic of him with his mouth wide open in awe of those chicks. It was a lot of fun. Ashton was so excited to touch a tractor. He's pretty much obsessed with tractors.

At the old house in Wall, he would ride up and down the grass in the yard next to a big chain-link fence that bordered the property line by the highway. He would ride up and down acting like he was mowing next to a real tractor mowing for the county on the other side. He loved it!

Ashton is loving this! He is fascinated with tractors and trailers!

Kanton up on the John Deere.

Here Piggy, Piggy, Piggy! Oh, aren't they cute?? Wilbur, Miss Piggy, Ham, and Bacon.

I have always wanted a pet pig. After reading Charlotte's Web, who could not want a pet pig?? I always thought I wanted a miniature pot-bellied pig. Pink would be good. Did anyone else imagine themselves rescuing a runt and having him as your very own baby? This was something I have always secretly wanted. I think that Ricky has been warned of this, and he tries to keep me away from pigs as much as possible. I think that he must think I would be tempted to bring one home. Well, after smelling the pen of Amy's pig, Phillip, last year. I decided that I would only love pigs in my heart and not in my home. Sorry Phillip.

Kanton checking out the cows.

Kanton's class at the annual Preschool Barnyard at Texas A&M. This is a bad picture, because all the tall moms were in front. Tall moms, please squat down and take a picture so the short moms can have a picture of something besides your heads and arms. I was raising my camera up over the tall moms heads, and I had no idea what I was snapping until I saw my LCD screen. Next time, I should just squeeze in and move to the front. What do you think? Okay, so I don't want to hurt my tall friends feelings...well, all my friends would be my tall friends, because all are taller than me. Oh, Amy, are you? No, I think I'm taller than someone besides my kids. Woo-Hoo. (There were a couple of typos in there I had to fix. Thanks, Nat. I saw them later, but I was too lazy to fix 'em til now. I sounded like a pirate talking about "me kids." LOL or should I say "Argh, argh, argh." Okay. Enough of that mateys.)

What a week

The cake, which is Whale Island, from Pirates Past Noon by Mary Pope Osborne.

My little pirate, Braden, ready for his pirate party at school.

How do I turn this sideways?? Kanton and his R2D2 laptop, all he wanted for his birthday!

Kanton and his Pre-K teacher, Miss Bruce, with his cookie.

Kanton requested a cookie cake for his birthday. He shared it with his class at Pre-K.

This is a picture of the water heater spilling onto the floor. You can see all our furniture pushed around in the living room. The white chunks are calcium buildup.

Well, starting with Ricky's car being broken into on the 28th, the week was pretty much a mess. Our washer started leaking from the drain, and the carpet was flooded. Who in their right mind would put carpet in a laundry room? Well, someone here thought it would work, and it didn't. For those who don't know, we're renting an apartment until we can figure out where to live or what God has planned for us as far as staying here or going back to San Angelo. Anyway, so the laundry room flooded. The maintenance guy came twice to unclog the drain. Then, we noticed over the weekend that the hot water was slowly disappearing. Well, the hot water heater went out. It only took 4 days of cold showers before they decided to come and replace it. When the man was draining it, he sprayed 5 to 10 gallons of water on the new carpet in the dining room. So, now we have the wet laundry room, some wet carpet in the living room, and now the dining room. 9 days of wet carpet in the laundry room was really gross. Finally, they had someone come and bring us 3 huge fans to dry the carpet. Supposedly they were coming back today. Wrong. It is strange to me how our inconvenience does not matter to anyone here, and we have just had to sit in the wet, stinky, and cold shower house until they decided to get around to it. We did get the water heater fixed. Yeah, the primitive cold baths are gone! We are now living with half torn out padding and unattached carpet. Oh, and the laundry room is down to bare cement, glue, and carpet tack strips! I hope that next week proves more productive.

On a good note, Kanton turned 5 on Wednesday. He woke up in a wonderful mood. He was smiling and told me "Guess what? I'm taller." It was so cute. Well, being five, he informed me that he no longer needed the chair to brush his teeth. He can now reach the sink. Tuesday he could not do it, because he was just four! He could reach his toothbrush way back at the back of the counter. He also informed me that he doesn't cry anymore. Well, I did tell him that I think it's okay to cry, and that sometimes even daddies cry. I told him I didn't care if he was 5 or 25, he could still cry. There are certain times when it's just okay to cry.

I have been watching the show "Biggest Loser," and trying to motivate myself to lose some baby weight. The kids have seen me watching the show, and I explained to them that the people are trying to eat healthy, exercise, and drink water. I cheer for people when they lose weight (I am still a cheerleader in my mind). Well, Ricky was giving Kanton and Ashton a bath, and I walked into the bathroom and stepped on the scale. Kanton, giving me what he thought was a great compliment exclaimed, "Mom, you could be on Big Fat Loser! You could!" I smiled all the way down to my heart! He thought he was giving me this great compliment, but what a way to say it!! If that's not motivation for working out, I don't know what is.

Well, we have been trying to get the house in order. All the furniture is pushed into the middle of the living room. Braden told me that it feels like we're moving. He had a pirate party at school on Friday. The class read the Magic Treehouse book Pirates Past Noon by Mary Pope Osborne. I will have to post pictures of the whale island cake I made. Pictures will have to be added later, because I should be in bed sleeping and resting before church tomorrow.

I think the weekend is a nice break from the chaos that has been going on around here. I hope everyone has a blessed day tomorrow.

Houston and back

This one's out of order. I forgot to post it! Driving down the HOV lane! Crazy!

Ricky's car after the break in.

Ashton playing with a stingray.

Pretending to be screaming on the ferris wheel.

The Great White that got out of the tank!!

Sharks on the shark train tour.

A very big snake!! (300-pound reticulated python)

Kanton and Ashton looking at fish in the aquarium.

The Houston skyline

Leaving in the early morning fog. We're supposed to be following the van in front of this car, which we can't see.

Well, we took our first trip to Houston for Braden's class field trip. I am so glad that my mom convinced me that I could not drive there. We took the HOV lane (high occupancy vehicle). Our van was driving down the freeway with no lights and no traffic at 65 mph between the two other lanes. It was pretty scary. I am glad I was not driving. We saw the Houston skyline which was pretty impressive to a girl from West Texas. The biggest town I had been to was Dallas, and I think Houston was way more hectic.

The field trip was to the Downtown Aquarium. The kids had a blast looking at jellyfish, alligator snapping turtles, a 300-pound reticulated python, and petting the sting rays and sharks. Yes, I did say petting the sharks! I touched them, too. They were so awesome. We saw a white bengal tiger, and there was a train that took us through a tunnel full of sharks! The audio tour mentioned that the 5-inch thick glass over our heads was holding 700,000 gallons of water, not to mention that there were several aggressive sharks in the tank. The front door closed, leaving us sitting in the train in the dimly lit tunnel surrounded by the sharks. As I smelled the gas from the train get stronger and stronger, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if we passed out in the tunnel and the door didn't open. I am a worrier like that. It did open, and we rode out of the tunnel. The audio guide mentioned a great white that escaped the tank, and we found it a few yards ahead when the great white jumped out of the water, sprayed us, and scared the kids on the train! They did ride the train again and still jumped when the shark sprayed water in the air and came up out of the water again.

There was a carousel, a fun little ride that went up in the air and down over and over so that you get that feeling in your stomach ...the one that only roller coaster enthusiasts would understand... called Sharky's Dive, and a ferris wheel. For a woman who is afraid of heights, I was proud of myself for braving the ride so Braden could ride. I must mention that there were no seat belts, which I freaked out about as we were leaving the safety of the ground. We did make it. We got lost from the group on the way home, but more people got lost following us. So, we had them lead us out after getting directions from the phone.

Last night, someone broke into Ricky's little car outside the apartment. They busted his window out and stole the front of his radio (because they couldn't get the rest out), his planner that had business appointments in it, and free phonebooks and cd's from Ricky's job. We had to buy a new window today, which we weren't planning for. Let me just tell you how upset I was with my husband when I found that he had left our van, parked next to the car, unlocked all night with our DVD player inside! We are not leaving that out there any more! I think I will be checking the van myself from now on! The police came and lifted prints. Hopefully, they will get a match. That is very scary when someone does this to you, and you just don't know why. I am thankful that it was only the window and not my van and DVD player for my kids. I hope that they are caught.

That's all that has happened the last two days. I think we are worn out from the excitement around here.

Encouragement

At our Mom's Day Out training, I won a door prize. I never win anything, and I was sitting there thinking to myself "I never win." So, imagine my surprise when I won. Yeah. I got a Women of Faith study guide series journal called Encouraging One Another with foreword by Nicole Johnson. I think that God knew I needed to read this. Here is an excerpt from the journal by Nicole Johnson:



"Sometimes we plod through life with our head down and our back bent under the weight of our load. We feel unimpressive, unkempt, unappreciated, and unneeded. We've put our hands to the plow, but the same theme song that runs through our mind is, "The old gray mare, she aint what she used to be." ... God doesn't want to leave us staggering under such weight of discouragement. It's quite the opposite, really. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much He does His best to cheer us up and cheer us on. Do you know God planned ahead for all of your gloomy days? He knows just when you'll need a little lift, and has arranged for encouragement to be right there, waiting for you to discover it!"



And here's what she says about encouragement:

"Encouragement is to a relationship what confetti is to a party. It's light, refreshing, and fun. It's cheer you can throw someone's way. But even deeper, it is the assurance you are there, that you are standing behind them and supporting them. The time it takes to gather little pieces of love, grace, strength, and hope is well worth it when you see what happens as you shower those gifts on someone else. It's like spiritual confetti, and it's the ultimate encouragement."



I read this and remembered how I would feel sad that we moved here, and a friend from back home would call and just see how we were doing. Even the simplest gestures sometimes lift your heart. My friend Kristi sent me the sweetest birthday gift, and it means so much that she took the time to do that for me even though I am not there to do things with her. It encouraged me that although I have not really had the chance to meet people here, I know that I am blessed with great friends I have made along the way. The friends that I have made will stay with me forever. New friendships cannot replace them, and I wouldn't want them to. God wants us to have a vertical relationship with him and a horizontal relationship with others. This horizontal and vertical picture that I imagine in my mind leads me to think of another symbol...the cross.

First time blogger's heart

I have been reading blogs the past few months. I have often thought that I have some fun, thoughtful, or just plain interesting things to share. This gives me an outlet to do that. I think that the purpose of this blog will be to stay in touch with friends and family and share things that are on my heart. I turned 30 last week, and I think that it really got me thinking about life and relationships. I always wonder if I am living my life as God has intended it to be. Am I serving to my fullest potential? I am so thankful for my family and the friends that I have grown up with. I thank God for the friendships growing up that I look back on with the fondest memories. I often wish I could see what God has planned for my life, because I often wonder what He is trying to teach me at a particular moment. We recently moved to a new town, and I am trying to find new friendships and a church home. It is frustrating that this is proving so difficult. I know God has a church here for us, but missing our old church really puts a strain on my heart. I pray that God will help us find it here. Our pastor told us that God already has a perfect church planned for us. I wish we could find it! What if we never do? We'll just go to every single church in town! That should keep us busy. At least we will meet a lot of new faces.

On another note, I am working at Mom's Day Out and taking care of babies. We have 6 babies and 2 teachers. Sometimes that is not enough! I enjoy this job more than I thought I would. I think the babies are beginning to like us, too.