So much to be thankful for...

I am thankful for many things. I am thankful for my health and my families health. I am thankful my husband and I are able to provide shelter and food for our children..when many are struggling too. I am thankful for my family and friends love and their important part in my life. I am thankful to live in this country. I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving and are reminded everyday of all the things that are truly important in life!


We have been busy as usual, but with this time of year we get even busier..if that is possible. Dan is working many long days. Getting up early and working at his full steam speed. I swear he never slows down. I only ask him to PLEASE take his lunch and at least take those few minutes to eat to recharge. Of course, he will tell me, "I eat, but it only takes me 10 mins". ugghh!! He is now working 6 days a week and only off on Tues. So it is very hard on the kids. He gets very little time with them and very little down time in general. I think he needs a massage day for Christmas. :-)

Our Thanksgiving was a bit unusual this year. Dan had to work. It was the 1st time Michaels has ever been open for Thanksgiving. He had to leave the house by 4pm and work until 10pm. Lucky for him he wasn't too busy so he got out at a decent time. Of course, Wed night he didn't leave until Thursday morning around 1 am. He worked Friday and his store has been doing awesome ever since. He is suppose to be off for Christmas Eve, since he worked on Thanksgiving, BUT we will see if that actually happens!
Our Thanksgiving was just us and I cooked our own little feast. Caitlin was very sad not to have family around, but with all of our Family out of state it was very hard. We went around the table telling what we were thankful for and it was cute what they said. Austin said he was thankful for his cat Hook and food!! Caitlin said she was thankful for Jesus and mom, and dad. It was sooo sweet. Dan said he was thankful for us all being together even if it was for just part of the day and I was thankful for my above list. All my family!
On Friday, the kids and I ventured the hour drive over to Dan's work (it has been about 3-4 months since we have been over there) and shopped in his store a little and then went to one of the near by malls. OO was that a mistake. It was insane. I didn't do any of that black Friday shopping. It has never been too appealing to me. I went to Best Buy and bought Dan's gift at 8am with the sale price and waited in NO lines. Then I went to Sam's found a better one for the same price, so later I returned the item to Best Buy. I just think it is funny people will go wait in lines (some for a full day) for something they may not even get. I guess that is where my lack of patience comes into factor. I could NEVER stand in those lines. haha
The kids have been getting very excited for Christmas time. We got the Christmas stuff all down from the attic yesterday and Dan set the lights up. (on his only day off) We have been slowly converting over to using LED lights. Dan loves the house to GLOW...so we have a lot of lights. :-) I wrapped a bunch of our pictures on the walls to add to some house decor. The tree will go up sometime this week. The kids have theirs in their rooms and they can't wait for the ornaments to be brought in. They get to decorate their own tree. I have non-breakable ornaments for them and they get to make their own creation. They just think it is soo cool and Santa always brings a special gift to put under 'their' tree. :-) aka Nutcracker for Austin and Caitlin's starting snow globes (but she wants non-breakable/squishy ones ones right now.) hahaha
I am in full on Holiday mode for the kids school. I have planned the party for both of their classes and made outlines..sent out list on items needed to the rest of the class. I am spending a lot of time on the computer and that is partial why I haven't blogged. I am exhausted and try to get other things done. The kids are going to have great parties. :-) I have the crafts all planned and I think the kids will love it.
I also have Sunday school going on. Caitlin is in my class this year..so she loves having mommy as her teacher. We only have 2 more classes until we are done for this year and will start back in Jan. Of course, we are in full prep mode for the Christmas program the kids put on. I am thankful that we have an awesome team planning it this year and the work load for us as teachers is much less. :-)
It is hard to believe Christmas is just a few short weeks away. I am pretty much ready for it. I am done shopping for everyone, but my brother! He is a hard one for me.
Well I think that is about it for now. My mind is overload mode currently. :-) I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving and are preparing for the joy for the Christmas season. Reminder...it is not in receiving that you find joy, but to give of yourself, your time to others in need is when you will feel true JOY!

Tag...I am it!!..who is NEXT??

OK I have been TAGGED by Amber http://charlieandamber.blogspot.com/

Here are the rules:
*Link to the person who tagged you.
*Post the rules on your blog.
*Write 6 random things about yourself
*Tag 6-ish people at the end of your post
*Let each person know he/she has been tagged
*Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Okay, coming up with 6 random things about me may be difficult, but here it goes!

1. I am a volunteer freak..I can't say "NO"...or have a real hard time at it. if I do say "NO" I feel guilty afterwards...maybe that is also known as being a control freak. :-)

2. I have a soft spot for those who are ill, hurt, or terminally ill and will do all I can to help put a smile on their face....even those I have never met. This is a very rewarding thing for me.

3. I am a card person. I LOVE cards!! I love sending them and getting them. It takes me a long time to find the perfect card, but I find it! Even if I read 30 of them to find it. So if you get a card from me know it is truly from ME and not some generic meaning. I also have my own lil Hallmark in a drawer. Lots of cards ready to be sent out...ones I bought just cause they were so cute or sweet.

4. I have A.D.D. YES, I admit it and as an adult I am realizing it more so. I, of course, call it multi-tasking instead of ADD. I can do so many things at once and it seems in perfect harmony to me..to others it seems just crazy! Plus I function better and get more done this way! :-D

5. I have a weird thing about not buying the thing on the front of the shelf. You know they saw the newer stuff is always at the back. BUT I will also not buy something that looks like it has been opened or flipped through (book/magazine) Books have to all the pages just right..I can tell if they have been flipped through. hahaha I will pull many things off the shelf and look at the box that is not messed up. Dan just laughs at me and at times asks me, "are you sure you want THAT one?" I do it without completely being aware of it, but he never lets me forget. LOL I am sure this is some weird "~ism" in the pycho books! :-)

6. I drive everywhere. Short or long trips..it is rare for Dan to ever drive when we are together. hahaha I guess that is part of my control nature again...I get it from my dad...blame him..he is the same way! But I have driven to WI, AZ, MN and many other places and he may drive an hour..if that!! I just feel weird sitting in the passenger seat in any car, but the other reason is..I can NOT sleep in the car..never have in all the years we drove cross country for my brothers races. I would stay up most of the way with my dad and only slept when I passed out and couldn't fight it anymore. I guess I am stubborn too. :-)

Let's see who to tag. I do not know many bloggers on here that have not already been tagged. So if you read this tag yourself. hahaha Cindy, Danielle, Dad the Dude....ummm if you read this you are TAGGED! Man that was hard..I need more friends. :-)

Time to slow down and catch up!!

I have been very busy would be a simple way to put it. And I have not taken the time to blog....sooooooo Here we go!! You may want to grab a drink and get comfy!

**I did add pictures to Caitlin's 1st field trip below...so check them out!**

OK Lets see...we will go back to Sept.

Grandparents day!
My parents got early and drove 3 hours to come have some homemade muffins with the kids.

A 30 min total in a very crowded cafeteria. They were troopers and the kids loved it! Here are a few pictures. Now if you know my dad...he is very difficult to get a picture of. I ususally do the SUPRISE attack. Have camera ready and yell "DAD" and as he turns the flash goes off. So needless to say they are not the best of pictures. He was on his best behavior this day! Posed for LOTS of pictures and it didn't kill him. But I am sure it stung a bit. :-)

Caitlin with Grammie

The kids with Grammie and Bobo at school

Later we went back up to school and had lunch with Austin. We wanted to give Grammie and Bobo the full effect of spending a day with the kids. Everyone loved it. Especially the kids. They loved having special guests come to school.
Austin went back to class and we took Caitlin home. This is what she did with Bobo the rest of the afternoon.

This is a 1st for her. She has always been slightly shy around my dad. She was teaching him how to play Mario bros. He probably couldn't see the screen, but he sat there for an hour with her as she explained everything. My heart just smiled at this huge break in her defense. When they left that evening..she was hugging him and not wanting to let go. :-D
Of course we picked Austin up from school. He loved having my parents there for that. I was kind of invisible to them that day! :-) We went to dinner once Dan got home from work and they had to leave to drive back. But this is what I snapped at a red light.

He has Caitlin's scout hat on and acting all the part of a 5 yr old. He was completely obnoxious and getting the kids wound up. I guess it shouldn't surprise me. He turned 53 this past month (Oct. 28th) but he is very much a big kid at heart still! And I am glad for that!

OK now my Race for the Cure in Dallas Oct 18th.
Yes I did 2 of them in 2 weeks. A total of 6.5 miles in 2 weeks. Not bad for my out of shape body! I did manage about the same time at both races..so that was good!
This one Dan and the kids got to go too. They didn't complain too much about getting up at 4:45am and heading to Dallas before there was any sign of the sun. Here are a few pictures:



Caitlin would NOT take a picture with Ronald McDonald....she was excited to see him, but didn't want to go near him. She has always had a fear for "humans" with mask or painted faces. BUT she is ok with the stuffed animals dressed ones. Who knows!!


Teacher Birthday's...
yes both Teachers had birthdays 10 days apart. So I planned and gathered money and we did an awesome group gift for both teachers from their classes.

Austin is giving his teacher 'bunny ears'



Red Ribbon week
Which is a week spent to promoting drug awareness to kids and reminding them to JUST SAY NO!! Well Dan and I had a lot of ties with this at the kids school. We hung red crepe paper zig zag down all the halls in the school and placed red bows on every pillar on the outside of the school and a few on our school sign. It was perfect and more like I remember Red Ribbon week being at school when I was a kid. We also created the posters for our kids class. THe kids colored the things I brought in and Dan and I made the posters at home. THey turned out AWESOME!! Here is a picture of both of them.

Kindergarten

2nd grade
We did not win the poster competition. Dan was sad! :-( He truely did a lot of work on these. The tree was all him. I just had the plan and he created it. I lvoe when we work on projects together...even if there is a bit of arguing about the fact that you should measure and calculate before drawing lines :-D. I pulled out the calculator and told him the exact spaces we needed and we had to erase all his lines he already drew. haha

TWILIGHT

OK I am now a Twilight person..hahah I have had a girlfriend trying to talk me into reading these books for a few months. They are 2 inches thick and all I kept thinking is I have NO time to read that. And wasn't sure I would even enjoy reading something about Vampires. Well I was wrong!
I picked up the book the Sunday before Halloween and didn't put it down. Things were slowing down a bit for me...so I figured I could spend a little time reading here and there. Well I didn't anticipate the addiciting nature of these books (there are 4 or them in the series and an unfinished book online...so 4 1/2 books). I finished the 1st book Monday evening and bought the 2nd book, New Moon . I finsihed that one on Wed evening. I bought the 3rd book (Eclipse) and finished it right as everyone was trick or treating. I made a book run Halloween night for the 4th book, Breaking Dawn (purple hair and all..ooo you will see. The last book is the thickest. It is about 3 inches. I was completely absorbed into this series. I was getting sick..so it was good I did very little and just laid around all day. It is a very easy read and a page turner. I finished the last book on Sunday. So I read the entire series in a week! My house showed it. I am still trying to catch up! :-)
Now my girlfriend, Katy who got me addicited, has also talked me into going to the midnight showing when Twilight comes out in thearters on Nov 21st. I have never been to a midnight show..so this will be a new thing for me. Not sure what the hype is about on seeing a movie before anyone else..but I have to do it at least ONCE! :-)

HALLOWEEN
We love Halloween..it is soo much fun to dress up. Caitlin was a Devil Queen (I got it for $4.50..so I can not complain) and Austin was Commander Cody a Storn trooper from Star Wars. I was a diva witch again! I had purple hair. It was fun!





Caitlin thought I needed a little pet, since I was a witch!

And Austin thought I needed protecting from Michael Phelps (one of our teen age neighbors)

neighborhood kids in front of our house!

Now we have Thanksgiving and Christmas a head of us. It will be an even busier time for me. I will be planning 2 class parties, 2 class field trips, Sunday school, and a sunday school program. I am sure there is more I am missing right now. Dan has to work on Thanksgiving this year for a few hours..so no quick trip to OKC to spend with my family, but we will make the most of it here. I think my mom is coming down, since my brother, Ashley, and dad will be gone.
May your Holiday season be filled with all the things that are important to you. Christ, your family, friends and health.

I will try hard to update more often!! ;-)

Time to brag!!!

I have to say I am so proud of Austin. He got a 103 on his spelling test today. As most of you know Austin has a hearing loss. We have to work extra hard with him to get the words down..cause sometime sounding out just doesn't work!! He does a lot of memorizing. He has 20 spelling words and 3 bonus words every week. He has been doing well and had a few in the 90's, but never a 100!! Until today!
We had a deal. He wanted the storm trooper gun that went with his Halloween costume, but we decided if we were buying a costume he would have to earn the gun or buy it himself. We decided on him making a 100 on the spelling test would earn him the gun. He didn't believe in himself and said he never made a 100 and would never make one. :-( It almost made me cry, but I gave him my best pep/I believe in you talks! I was teary eyed by the end of it. I told him he could do it!! I just knew it..well he did!!
After school today, I was standing outside the school waiting for him and he comes walking up with his paper held to his chest. I knew he did great..just by the look on his face. He turns it around and shows me the paper and yells, "I got a 100" I said, "NO, you got a 103!! :-) Yes he got the 3 bonus words right too. This week those words were: magnetism, electromagnet, and poles. He was perfect! Of course as I went to hug him he literally jumped into my arms and wrapped his legs around my legs and I got the full body bear hug!! I had to go show it off to a few of my friends. I was soo proud of him. See hard work pays off!
I called Dan and handed Austin the phone and he told Daddy the good news. :-) Then I called my mom and and Dan's mom to tell them. I guess I was excited!! :-)
So yea for Austin on his 1st (of many) 100's on a spelling test. Now off to find that storm trooper gun and then cub scouts tonight!

I am running my 2nd race for the Cure tomorrow. I am running in the Dallas one! :-)

Caitlin's 1st Kinder field trip....KINDA

Well today Caitlin and her class...along with the the other am/pm kindergartens were suppose to go on a field trip to Green Meadows Farm/petting zoo. Well they went...KINDA! hahaha

Getting excited!!


The bus pulled out of the school at 9am and off they went. 2 of my friends loaded up with me and we headed out. BUT not before stopping at one house for a change of shoes and another for a forgotten camera and then a stop for soft drinks for the trip. So we are off!!
I figured we would catch and pass the bus, but never did. It was a good 25-30 mile drive...so I was surprised. We get there and there are NO buses yet. OK so we go and stand with the other parents and one of the other mom's say.."one of the buses broke down." GREAT!!! And yes...it was the one with Caitlin on it. But they also took an odd way of getting there...so no one passed them on the way. The bus pulled off the highway and waited for another one to come. They switched the kids and were on their way. Right before they got there..it started sprinkling and that sprinkle increased until the skies just let loose and it was down pouring. Did I mention we were going to a farm aka outside!!

So the buses finally arrive and they decide to have us all huddle on the bus and eat lunch with the kids. So we ate lunch and watched the rain come down. After an hour, it was time to call the field trip a failure!! KINDA!! The kids did get to ride a school bus on a really long trip. :-)

Do you see the rain coming down :-)

Before leaving, they pulled the bus over to the bathroom and let the kids go potty and then loaded them back on the bus. So they took a field trip to a 2 stall bathroom in Grand Prairie, TX on Joe Pool Lake. HAHA!
The rain did not let up until we got back to the school..where it barely rained! Of course, the teacher told us that she was there until 3pm..so we could leave our kids at school and they would do fun stuff in class..if we had errands to do or something else. I took this opportunity to FINALLY finish my book I have been slowly working on over the past month.
They are hoping to reschedule the trip, but not sure if that will happen. Since the school buses will have to be paid for again. But we will do another fun field trip later. So hopefully it turns out better then this one....even though it wasn't sooo bad...they got to ride a bus!!! :-)

Race for a Cure weekend

It was AWESOME!!! Our team raised $15,800! We won the top donations for a team. Believe in Boobs in 1st place hahaha we rocked!! We will all get plaques for our awesome job as a team.

My shoe :laugh:

I drove up on Friday. I had a ton of stuff to do. I met my friend Shantel, her friend Shawna and her mom Carol for dinner and we put together goodie bags. It was wonderful to see her again. We knew each other when we were little girls from the motorcycle races. She is now in treatment for Breast Cancer and just turned 32yrs old 2 weeks ago. She had 5 radiation treatments before we did the Race for a Cure event. She and her family are the reason we won top team. They mad very generous contributions to our team in Shantel's honor!

Our morning on Saturday started at 5am. My mom, cousin, Michele and I stayed in a hotel near our meeting place so there was no 45min to hour drive. :-) We got up had a small bite to eat and then headed to my friend Shantel's house. That was our meeting place. They rented a bus limo for us to ride in to downtown. It was amazing...and we took lots of photos inside. It was very nice of them.

Here is a pic of our team

Then we got down town after a few detours with traffic and blocked roads. There was only 3 of us doing the 5K...Michele (my cousin), Connie (my friend) and me...so we met at the start and started our run. I was sooooo excited. I felt ready to take on the world! The start was insane with that many people. I felt like a sardine. :-) Once everyone spaced out it was much nicer. I did not run the entire race. I walked some...much more then I planned. But I finished in 41 mins. So now I have a goal for my next one. ;-)
After the race they had a survivor ceremony. It was very emotional and inspiring. They had all the women fighting or who survived the disease go around the bases at the baseball stadium. So it was all pink shirts and hat on the field. The number of women out there was just shocking. I cried!


Shantel was our reason this weekend. She is truly an amazing person! Please keep her in your continued prayers as she endures treatments and fatigue that will happen in the coming weeks.
We had lunch after leaving the closing ceremonies. One of the waiters, said we had the "best damn mission statement ever" :laugh:
Our MISSION!!! Save the Boobies

AND we did just that! :-)
Later that night I went out and had a girls night out with my two cousins, Michele and Whitney. In honor of our weekend and our cousin bond...we got 'Believe' tattoos and had lots of fun.
Cousins
before the race...

before our night out..

Sunday I spent most of the day with my brother, Robbie and Ashely at his house. He hurt his hand at the Pro challenge in Tyler, TX. He ended up dislocating a bone in the hand and fractured the head of the bone. But they said he can race still if he wants or feel like he can. BUT he decided it would be best to get a cast and let it heal.

I guess that is my weekend in a nut shell! HAHA Thanks to everyone for the support! I highly recommend you supporting this great event and jump in and participate in it!! I did and can't wait for my next one.


***an update to that last statement....I am signed up to do the Dallas Race for a Cure on Oct. 18th. Yes another 5K..man I better start losing some weight..haha! I also plan on doing the one in Ft. Worth which is typically held in April. So check out my site and feel free to make a donation. It is tax deductible and a wonderful cause.
www.komen-dallas.org/goto/cherie

I will tell you about Dan's camping trip with the kids later!