What's for dinner?

Not fish! That's for sure.

I can't believe that my dish (I think it might actually be yours Mom--sorry) did this last night while I was baking fish.

I went to check on it and found it like this.

Talk about scrambling to make something else.

Has that ever happened to anyone else?

What rest?

The weekend came and went with no rest. What's up with that?


As if making it through the first week back at school and on that schedule wasn't exhausting enough, Addison had a soccer tournament! It was quite a trek from home so Addison and I stayed in Helotes.


As luck would have it, it was also the hottest weekend of the year. Yippee!


They played two games on Saturday and two on Sunday. It was at least 110 for the afternoon games on both days. I don't know how the girls even did it.

 I'm really proud of how our team played. A couple of the other teams were pretty aggressive. I know Addison took a couple of really hard hits but got back up and kept playing. Well, she did for the most part. One of the hits knocked her breath out so that took a little more time. She's a little banged up and quite sore.


The last game of the tournament was a nail biter. They were playing for the title and it was tied. It went into a shoot out at the end. Both teams get 5 shots alternating teams with each shot. Well, each time one team scored, the other did too. So then they had to just start going down the line until there was a winner. It was nerve wracking!!! It ended with the other team winning, so our team came in second. It was really too bad because they had been undefeated -- they had already beat this team once. The way this tournament worked, once they got to this game none of the other stats counted. Whoever won this one game got first place. The girls were dissapointed, but I think they were even more tired. lol

Here's the best picture I got of Addison getting her medal.

Then, on our way home, I got a text from Abigail that Addison's bunny had died. She was, of course, pretty upset about it. But sweet Abigail, bless her heart, had brought the bunny into the house to try to help her. The bunny was very old (she outlived the others by several years) and I think between her age and the heat it was just too much for her.

And goodness knows we need some rain here desperately. I mean, should Dax have needed to use this in order to dig a grave for the bunny?

Cheer practice starts up again this week, with the football games kicking in next week. And Addison has another soccer tournament this weekend. So, there's no rest in the forcast. BUT, the temp is supposed to be ONLY 91 or so this weekend!! Who thought we'd get excited for it to cool down to the 90's?

Back to school!

We went to the school last week to pick up schedules. I think everyone is happy with their classes and how they're laid out.

All four kids were put in all honors classes this year. (Pardon the bragging.) They knew they were in honors English because they were given copies of Alice in Wonder Land that they had to read over the summer. Kirsten is the most thrilled with her classes because her best friend Grace is in every class but one. Life is good!!

Wyatt has recovered from his fall and the knot on his head had cleared up in time for school to start. I was a little concerned because as of Friday it was in that ugly yellow-green phase. Bleck!!!

Anyway, of course going back to school for them means a lot of paperwork for me.

I felt like I was applying for a mortgage with all that paperwork.

Oh, wait.....I don't think our last mortgage even required this much paperwork.

So everybody got their backpacks ready last night and woke up easily this morning (we'll see if that happens tomorrow too) and was ready to go before it was even time to leave. As a matter of fact, they went and sat in the car before I even had all my stuff together.

They tried to get out of the house without a first day of school picture, but you know that didn't fly.

I still can't believe they're in 7th grade!

A Catch Up Post

Let's see......where did I leave off?


I think we've gotten the scorpion problem under control. At least for now. It would certainly help if we could get some rain.


My birthday was weekend before last. We didn't do anything special. Just went out to eat and did a little shopping at the mall. It was wonderful not to feel like anything needed to be taken care of!


Kirsten drew a card for me. She knows how much I like Snoopy so she decided on this:

How cute is that?! She does love to color and kudos for attempting something so challenging. I think she did a great job on it.

Abigail made this for me:

Isn't that cute? In case you can't see the antena, it's a t.v. to go with my initials. And there's that cute little girl again! Now she's wearing make-up. It's just not right.

The kids had to get shots in order to attend the 7th grade. It turns our that each one of them needed four shots!! That's a lot for one visit.

Addison is the only one that wanted to play in the children's area at the clinic. I told her that this looked like she was on some kids' show.

Our trip to the clinic started off fine. Addison and Abigail both got their shots with no problem. Then Wyatt went back to get his shots. He did fine, was talking to the nurses, and then passed out cold. He was sitting in a chair and fell forward. He stopped the fall with his forhead on the hard tile floor. That hit caused him to have a seizure. I was beside myself!! It took everything I had in me not to shove the nurses out of the way to get to my baby. It was such a helpless feeling knowing I couldn't do anything to make it stop.

He almost passed out again a few minutes later, but they were finally able to give Kirsten her shots and helped me get Wyatt to the car. I kept a close eye on him for the rest of the day. It took about an hour for him to really get his wits about him again. Later he told me that when he passed out he dreamed he was having a seizure. I guess that means that he was somewhat aware of what was happening? I'm pretty sure that by the end of the day he was tired of me asking him if he was feeling alright, had double vision, etc. He's just lucky that I didn't sit and watch him sleep! lol

Addison took this picture with my phone on our way home. It was so that I could check on his color without having to turn around while I was driving. You can only see the knot on his head a little bit in this picture.


School starts next week and I'm hoping that we can get there without any further excitement. At least not that kind, anyway.

Why do they do that?

Keep growing, I mean.


This weekend I took the girls shopping.


For this:

Where did my babies go?

We picked out foundation, blush, eyeshadow, and mascara. They each got their own makeup totes too.

They'll spend a little time between now and when school starts practing putting it all on. *sigh* I'm really not on board with this growing up stuff. How come nobody asked me if it was alright with me?

The eyeshadow and blush tones that I picked out are all soft and muted. Abigail put on her makeup when we got home, complete with eyeshadow and mascara. I sent Dax a message (he's out of town) telling him that we're going to be in trouble. The eye makeup really shows off her pretty brown eyes. She'll drive the boys crazy......how do you think I hooked her Dad? lol

Oh, and if you have a minute, please pray for us to get some rain here. It's beyond dry around here and the insects are invading our house in a big way. We always have problems with spiders since we're in the country, but the ants and scorpions are fighting for room in the house now too.

Yesterday Kirsten put on a shirt and got stung by a scorpion. It fell out of the shirt after it stung her and she killed it. Then this morning Abigail put on a shirt that she had borrowed from Kirsten and got stung by a scorpion. But she couldn't get it out of the shirt. By the time she did it had stung her FIVE times!!! Poor baby! While all of that was going on, Addison was busy trying to kill one by their dresser. If these keeps up, they're going to be afraid to get dressed at all. We're all in the habit of checking our shoes, but I guess now we need to be checking everything! We need some rain big time to help keep them from coming into the house in search of water.

Taking it easy is over....

The kids are back from their grandparents' house and the end of summer is already here for us. I mean the fewer activities part of summer. The heat will be around for months still!

Cheerleading practice started for Addison and Abigail bright and early Monday morning. Soccer practice is already under way three nights a week and we have two tournaments coming up soon. I don't feel like we've even gotten to ease our way back into the routines. Just BOOM! August first and it's time to go.

If all of that isn't enough of a shock to the system, we had to call the a/c repairman to our house. It appears that our drip pan for the air handler in the attic is cracked and needs to be replaced. The good news is that they can fix it for the low, low price of only $1200. He told me it's a $50 part but they have to take the whole unit apart to get to it.

I almost fainted!!

Oh, and for ONLY $1500 more we could just get a whole new unit in the attic!! Isn't that swell?

I'm afraid he must have seen our money trees in full bloom on his way up the drive.


I honestly think that they cracked the pan the last time they were here when they did our spring check-up because not long after that is when the problem with the overflow pan filling with water started. But, like anyone that doesn't have that kind of money for a/c repairs would do, we headed to the hardware store to find another way to fix it. We looked around and decided to try some of that super putty that can seal anything even if it's under water. So far it seams to be working! Woohoo!!

We had to get the shop vac out and get all the water out of the overflow pan because it was tripping the breaker.

And this cat can't stay out of anything.....she's in the shop vac!

She certainly makes it hard to get things done sometimes.

Cross your fingers that our fix will hold.

Out in Luckenbach Texas

But we didn't see Willie or Waylon and The Boys.


The kids decided that they weren't through having fun with the grandparents so they still haven't come home. And, since that meant that Dax and I had the weekend to ourselves, we decided to do something different.


We headed out to Luckenbach to see what was going on.

There was a band playing (Shurman) so we decided to stick around for a bit.

They had the crowd tapping their feet to the rhythm, but this took me by surprise.

I guess now we've seen the real chicken dance, not just the wedding reception version.

You just never know what you'll see when you go to a town like Luckenbach.

We had fun, but it was H.O.T. hot since everything was outside.


We went out there and came home on different routes. Apparently, we took the long way around to get there because the route home was about half the distance.


Live and learn, I guess.


I think my kiddos are coming home this weekend. But, then again, that's what I thought last weekend too.

At least they're having fun.

Save the drama

I know several people that thrive on drama in their lives. If there isn't any at the moment, then they create it themselves.


That is definitely not us!! We like for things to go along as drama free as possible and do our best to avoid it. Sometimes that means avoiding certain people or situations that bring it into our lives.


But then sometimes, we just find ourselves kind of stuck in it.


Like right now!


Last year, the coach for Addison's soccer team got in trouble for something that he had done on one of the boys' teams that he also coached. And he got suspended for a year. There were two fathers that stepped up and coached the girls. And, since they won second place in their division in the Spring, I'd say they did a bang up job.

Well, this weekend we found out that their old coach has been released from his suspension for the girls' team and can coach them again now. He sent out an email letting us know that he's back. That was immediately followed by an email from the acting head coach saying that he's not willing to just step down and that there may need to be a vote by the parents on who the coach should be.

I don't see this whole thing ending well. There doesn't seem to be a way out of this mess without someone getting their feelings hurt, and likely splitting the team up. I hate to see that happen because all of the girls get along. I think that says a lot when you're talking about a dozen or so pre-teen girls not bickering! The parents all get along well, too. If the team splits up, I don't think that either will be able to come up with enough girls to form other teams.

I was going to go turn in Addison's registration forms today. Since they're not due until the end of the month, though, I've decided to hold off until I have a better idea of how this is all gonna play out. *sigh* I can't stop worrying and fretting about it. I couldn't sleep last night because of this. I hate drama!!

Update:  The coaches met alone and hashed things out. They've all three agreed to work together for the good of the girls. What a relief!!

Birthday Celebration

Fortunately the powers-that-be for Dax's state guard regimen didn't have things well planned out so he got to come home on Saturday afternoon in plenty of time to celebrate his birthday. Woohoo for lack of planning on their part. lol


We celebrated with pineapple upside down cupcakes. (Trying to limit the portion sizes for Dax and I.) They turned out really well. Especially since I wasn't following any recipe. Just making it up as I went.


Wyatt, as usual, wrapped his gift in paper that didn't fit the occassion.

He's so goofy!! (Wyatt, that is.)

OK! Yes. Dax too.

 Nice picture,huh?

Addison used popsicle sticks to create this.

 She also got him this cute stapler for his desk. It's a little, fat, round dog.

 Abigail out-did herself with making gifts for his birthday.


She made this pop-up card.

This cute little camera made with construction paper. I suspect that the lens is a pan from the easy bake oven. But it's pretty cute with that picture of her and Dax from when the kids were probably about 3.

 *sigh* I do miss those babies. But these kiddos are pretty great too, so I guess we'll keep them.

And then she made this 'beer' for him.

The mug is filled with Lindt white chocolate truffles (his favorite) and the head on the beer is large marshmallows. She did a great job on all of them.

Kirsten created her own work of art. She drew this picture for her Dad. She was looking at a picture on her Ipod and drew this one and colored it in. She did a fantastic job!

My Dad is a great artist, and it evidentally has skipped a generation here because I certainly didn't get any of that talent. 

It was fun to see what the kids came up with and I hope Dax enjoyed his birthday.

On Sunday we packed the kids up and shipped them off for the week. Their grandparents met us at Wyatt's hockey game (they tied). After the game the grandparents left with the kids and Dax and I headed home to get ready for the work week ahead.

Finally the weekend

I'm so glad the weekend is finally here!!


First off, Happy Birthday Dax!! You're a wonderful husband and father and we're lucky to share our lives with you. I couldn't ask for a better husband and the kids couldn't ask for a better father.

Unfortunately, he's gone this weekend. He's off doing his monthly weekend with the guard.



Bertie tried to go with him but he wouldn't take her along.

I swear that cat got on the bag the second he set it down. Even after he pushed her off of it she was still trying to climb back on as he was picking it up to leave. She's so silly.

The kids are heading out tomorrow after Wyatt's hockey game. They're going to spend the week with their grandparents. I swear that this is the only week they had all summer when at least one of them wasn't involved in something.

Anyway, it's a good thing because even with their activities, I think they're getting bored at home. If building the dirt-castle-forts wasn't enough, now they've actually reverted  to playing with cars in their pajamas.

I don't think they've done this since they were 5!! It must be getting really tough coming up with something fun to do.

Although, it's not quite the same game as it was back then. TV has had it's influence because now there's a wrecker and cars are being repo-ed and sometimes (as I hear it) the cops even have to be called to difuse the situation. LOL