It's been kind of quiet

It's been kind of quiet around here.


Thankfully!



Dax was gone for several days last week to a conference. I got the impression that the kids were afraid I might get lonely without Dax around.

I really just wanted to go to sleep.

I keep telling myself that some day I'll miss this. Right?

On Sunday we headed to the river with Abigail and one of her friends. I don't know why the others didn't want to go. It was fun and relaxing, all at the same time.

We're almost to the time when the stuff for school starts to gear up again. Cheer practice starts again next week and then before we know it they'll be back in school. We need to soak up the rest of the summer as much as we can.

A little perspective

Yesterday I was stressed and getting more frustrated by the minute.

The kids had an orthodontist appointment. I left the office in plenty of time to pick them up and get there on time.

Then the car died on the way to the house. Dax & I rode together so he couldn't come help me. Not to mention that we just spent a small fortune on this car last month!!

I finally got the car started, but it sputtered all the way home.

By the time we were heading to the orthodontist's office there was no way we were going to be on time.....and of course every car in front of me was going at least 10mph under the speed limit.

I could feel it all starting to bubble up and even though I was telling myself to calm down, I could feel myself getting more and more irritated.

Then we drove past a funeral home. And it reminded me that yesterday a girl from my children's school (I think she was 13 or 14 - she's not a child that I knew) was being buried because she had been killed in a car wreck the week before. (Her mother is in a coma.)

At that moment it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was all upset over these things and the fact that I have no control over them, but Dear God I wasn't having to bury one of my children. I can't even begin to imagine the depths of her father's sorrow and I pray for her family that they can find their way through this.

It certainly made me feel small and put my problems (inconveniences really) into perspective.

Wyatt's first car

Wyatt got his first car!!


It's actually a truck and it arrived at our house earlier this week. We had to have it towed.


Or, I should say that the guys at my house have a new project.

Looks to me like this will be a long term project. What do you think?

I believe the truck's name is Buster. It was given to Wyatt by one of friends with a couple of stipulations. He's not allowed to try to do some kind of restoration to make it a show truck and he's not allowed to sell it. (In its current state, there's no problem with either one of those. lol) Our stipulation is that Wyatt has to earn the money to fix it up and he has to help work on it. Looks like he's going to be busy.


But, I can say this. The boy is excited!!

While the kids are away....

The kids have been gone to 'Camp Grandma' for the last couple of weeks. While they've been gone, Dax and I have taken the opportunity to go do some of the things that they likely wouldn't want to do.

Exciting stuff.


Like we went to The Pacific War Museum.


It's a really well done museum. Much more well done than I had expected for the small town that it's in. The museum is full of information and rather large so we spent two days going through it (and still didn't see everything.)


On Labor Day they're going to have a reenactment of a battle in the area these pictures were taken.

I think we're going to try to take the kids to that.

That was really the most exciting thing that we did. LOL


I think that maybe not having the kids around has thrown me off my game, though. Like last Sunday I almost didn't make it through getting dinner cooked.

I was emptying the dishwasher and managed to know a pitcher of tea over, spilling it all over the clean dishes. Then I splashed boiling water over my hand while draining the noodles. I ran into the dishwasher door and scraped my shin. Then I was getting the food out of the cast iron skillet that I just taken out of the oven and grabbed the handle with my bare hand to hold it still. What the heck?! I can tell you that I was relieved to finally sit down to eat and even more so when I finally got back into bed.

The kids will be home later today so maybe things can get back to our kind of normal.

But now I'm a little scared of what might happen when they all move out. LOL

Independence Celebration

I hope everyone had an enjoyable July 4th.

My parents were in town and the family went to enjoy the parade. Plus Addison & Abigail were in the parade. :0)

Who's the clown in the jeep?

The marching kazoo band.

Here are our two. Notice neither one of them are throwing candy...or even paying attention for that matter.

All in all, we had fun. Later that night we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in our fire pit. It's a good thing we did it then too because the next day the county passed a burn ban.

Hope your family had a great day too!

Another busy week

Time flies when you're having fun, right?

Or maybe time just flies.

Abigail gave us a little scare because she started seeing 'floaters' last week which is a warning sign that there might be problems associated with the ROP surgery she had when they were just a few weeks old. Even though we had just seen the eye doctor for their regular check ups in May, we went back on Wednesday for a closer look. He didn't see anything that was immediately alarming but sent her to the retinal specialist just to make sure. She saw him on Friday, and after a VERY long three hour appointment he said that everything looks good and for us not to worry.

Big sigh of relief!!

Addison competed in another pageant on Saturday. I wasn't thrilled with the pageant coordinators and some of their rules (there was a dress code for the audience for crying out loud) but she enjoyed herself and got 2nd place in her division.

 Sorry, I don't have any good pictures.

The theme was denim and diamonds and I can't begin to tell you how many glue sticks I went through getting those 'diamonds' on her boots and belt.

I'm really impressed with how much personality she puts out there when she gets in front of the judges. Even though she's nervous, she plays it up and isn't shy at all.

We're looking forward to the parade tomorrow and some time with the grandparents. Then on the kiddos will be heading off to Camp Grandparents again.

I must be crazy....

Meet the newest member of our family.

His name is Gunnie.

We found him last week in the middle of the road trying to catch bugs. He's so tiny (that's Addison's knee behind him) and nothing but a fur covered bag of bones. Not to worry though, we're all experts at fattening up the animals around here.

So far he's been extremely loveable and cuddly. I hope he stays that way.

We REALLY don't need another animal, but we couldn't leave him out on that busy road to get hit. I would have just hated myself. And he seems to be happy in his new home.

Weekend Review

It seems like it's been our usual kind of crazy around here.

Late last week I had gone to pick Wyatt up from a friends house and on the way home the car just died. I got it restarted and got the rest of the way home (some times at only 20 mph). I followed Dax to the mechanic. Long story short, the car will be with them for the next 2-3 weeks. Gaah!!!

Dax had guard duty over the weekend so I had to drop him off on Friday night and pick him up late Sunday morning.

I was lucky enough to get to see the newest Bucee's gas station. If you have never been to a Bucee's, it is a gas station like no other.

Yes, that giant building that looks like the entrance to a shopping mall is the store for the gas station. And yes, all of that parking lot you see is solely for this gas station. I wish I had taken pictures of the inside. They even have shopping carts for in the store. It's just crazy....I'm telling you.

Then on Saturday I met my parents to get Abigail. She had spent the week with them. I had the other kids with me and on the way back home we stopped and did a little shopping at an antique store I like. We couldn't find anything that we couldn't live without, but it's fun for us to look.

Sunday I picked Dax up, we stopped for lunch since all the kids were still asleep when I left, and then headed home. We had a relaxing afternoon and had a good time celebrating Father's Day. (The battery on my camera was dead so I used my phone to take pictures. I'll upload those later.) I hope all the other father's out there had a great day as well.

Wordless Wednesday

Important Lessons

Yesterday we helped with a dinner put on for a group of Sunshine Kids (these are all kids that have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses) that were in our area for the week. The sheriff's department has been hosting a bunch of activities this week. Dax is president of the citizen's academy alumni association and they've been helping out where they could.

Dax chaperoned a trip up to Austin to tour the capitol building. Then the kids came back to town to tube the river. Afterwards, they came to the park for a bbq dinner.

It was one girl's birthday yesterday, so Abigail, Addison, one of Addison's friends, and I got to the park a little early to put up some decorations. The deputies were busy cooking.

Here are two of the girls getting instruction (from Dax) on what to do next.

Once everyone arrived there was lots of eating and swimming.

A shot of Dax in action in the serving line.

All in all it was a good time. It was a great lesson for the girls because of the realization that these children were likely going to die soon. They felt good about what they had done to help them have a good day and especially for the decorations for the 'birthday girl'. It was good for all of us.