We're Still Here!!!

I know it's been forever since there has been an update, but they're not nearly as much fun when it's just "Everybody is busy doing their own thing." But, we have managed to do a few things in the OVER A YEAR since I last updated. It really is all on me. I've had a lot of people try to get me off of lazy and update here. Sooooo, here goes:

Wyatt is still busy with school. He's finishing up his junior year right now.

Abigail is still working as a flight attendant and enjoying it.

Kirsten has come to work with Dax and I. We'll make an accountant of her yet. Her resistance is futile!

Addison is still working in a preschool and enjoying the kids.

Wyatt drug invited us to a symphony performance on campus.

 

I think Dax and I get invited so that we'll pay for the tickets. I don't have any solid proof, but I'm pretty sure I'm onto something here.

Addison bought her first car last summer. After much looking around and test driving, she settled on a Volkswagen Tiguan. She's happy with her choice.

After all of the excitement (read: stress) of car shopping, Dax and I got away for a long weekend in New Orleans. We visited some neat places in the Quarter and found some great places to eat. But, really, how can you not in New Orleans.

Dax found this pearl in some oysters he was eating. Should have made him keep eating until I had enough for a bracelet. Ha!

We had our annual trip to the Texas Renaissance Festival. It's always a good time and makes for some great people watching.

 

Then, just like that and with no warning at all, the kids turned 21 in November. TWENTY ONE!! 

We took them out to dinner on their actual birthday. 

Those 'first' drinks at 21 probably cost more than the meal. LOL It was all good and we had a great evening together. It gets more and more difficult to get everyone together as they get older and have their own things going on.

But, dinner out for their birthday wasn't enough celebrating of 21. So when Dax and I were out in Las Vegas for our annual conference, we had the kids come out over the weekend to celebrate. I think a good time was had by all.

 

A good time and food. Lots and lots of food. These are from my favorite place while we're out there. Hash House A Go Go. Do yourself a favor and eat there if you are near one. You can thank me later.

 

 Oh, and you'll probably want to share. The servings are huge. Just the pancakes are 14 inches.

 

We felt like we barely got back home, before Christmas was already upon us. We had a good time with everyone and had our annual gingerbread house decorating contest.

 I have to say, we're getting better at it.

We didn't even have time to recover from Thanksgiving, birthdays in Vegas, and right into Christmas before we headed up to Dallas to the hockey Winter Classic.

It was crowded and cold, but it was fun. And the Dallas Stars won, which made it even better.

So now Dax and I are back into tax season and it may actually feel like rest after the busy holiday season.

So that's pretty much the fun stuff we've been up to. We've had all of the not fun stuff to deal with, too. One of our dogs has signs of dimentia and has lost his hearing. We hate to touch him when he's sleeping because it scares him, but that's the only way to get his attention.

In October, another one of our dogs had a stroke. She's been slow to recover, but still gets better every day. She started out not being able to do anything but blink her eyes, but she's recovered all the way back to her back legs. She still can't stand up, but is trying and continues to get more movement in her legs. We've gotten her a doggie wheel chair, but that takes a whole lot of work on its own.

.........and on it goes.

I know I say it every time, but I'll try not to go quite so long without at least some kind of update.

A long overdue update

It has gotten to be the new routine around here that I post, apologize for having been so long in between posts, think I'm going to be better, and then don't post in forever.

So here goes................

Sorry it's been so long.

I'll try to do better.

Wyatt has finished his first semester in college. He did quite well, As and Bs. And because of that he received a substantial amount of funds from the Texas State Guard. That makes all of us quite happy. being a part of the State Guard has been a really great thing all the way around. It's been a terrific confidence builder as he learns leadership, a time for Dax and Wyatt to do things together, and has now helped fund his education.

At the end of his first semester, he decided that sports medicine was not going to be the right choice for him. He's now switched his major to History with thoughts of law school later. Truthfully, I think after growing up with three sisters and finding himself outnumbered in most disagreements, he's looking to use all those pent up arguments. What better way to do that than as an attorney? At least that's my theory.

Abigail got her braces removed at the end of November. She's the last one so we are DONE! Now that's cause for celebrating!

At the beginning of December she headed off to spend the holidays in Canada. At the same time Dax and I headed off for our annual continuing education classes in Las Vegas.

Playing Catch Up.....Again

I know!!!

I'm behind yet again. It's amazing how quickly time passes.

The kids all got to graduate from high school. Family was able to make it to the ceremony and we were all quite proud of them.

Fast Forward.......Prom

OK. I have no idea what all has happened that I'm leaving out. Maybe I can add it as I remember, but don't anyone hold your breath on that.

So this year was senior prom. After the cost and stress of the dresses, make up, nails, etc., I've told the girls that they need to just head to the court house when they decide to get married. Oh My Word is it crazy!

Abigail and Avery

Addison and Jacob

Kirsten and Wesley

Wyatt's date was running late so she missed getting to take pictures at our house before everyone headed to dinner.

Here's a group shout of our crew.

They clean up pretty good.

This year has just seemed like a whirlwind of activity. It's all gone by too fast.

Busy, busy, busy

It's just crazy that it seems like we're always so busy, but I doubt we're busy doing anything that people are interested in reading about here.

The kids are so busy with high school. They've spent the last couple of weeks in small groups writing plays for their English classes and there are plenty of other projects being worked on (all the time) it seems.

Addison was in another pageant last weekend. She won the title of Queen for her age division. But, I think she was most excited for winning the photo contest for 'Daddy & Me'.  She got a cute crown for that too.

Here's her entry.

(They don't look much alike, do they? Ha!)

 

Props to Abigail for her mad photography skills. She went to the pageant with us and was also thrilled that the picture she took was the winner.

 

Soccer practice continues. The first game is next weekend. Kind of looking forward to watching Addison out there playing again.

 

Kirsten has been busy painting a pair of sneakers. It's hard to see, but she zentangled them with a white paint pen. They turned out really cute and she spent hours doing it.

 

 

Besides her award winning photography, Abigail has also spent some time in the kitchen. She made some trail mix to take to school with her the other day.

 

 

 

I don't know what trail she's going to use that on. Did you notice that there isn't a single thing in there that's healthy? She didn't even bother to throw in one lonely peanut!

 

Wyatt has been busy mastering his gaming skills in his free time. Go figure! A teenage boy that likes to play video games. Who would have guessed that?

 

It's tax time so things have picked up at the office and that keeps Dax and I VERY busy.

More of the Same

I think we're finally starting to get into the routine of school.

The kids all have a lot of homework everyday. We've already gotten projects for science finished and turned in and books picked out for the papers due in December. We've even been geocaching for extra credit points.

We did get good news on Addison. She did not tear her meniscus. The doctor says that she sprained her LCL and has tendinitis. She's on a single crutch for now, doing a lot of rehab type exercises at school, and keeping it iced down as needed. She still has a lot of pain, but it is a wait-for-it-to-heal kind of injury.

Last Saturday she and I were supposed to work the merchandise stand during the football game (it was the soccer teams night to work) but it was raining and we were supposed to be selling shirts and such and they didn't have any awning to cover us so our services weren't needed. Instead, we sat in the rain and watched the first half of the game.

Addison got sick the first week of school and it has spread through the house and now all the kids have had it. Wyatt and Abigail are holding onto it longer than the other two did. Can't seem to shake those coughs yet. But, hopefully, this means we've taken care of sickness for the year. Hopefully.

Last weekend, Addison had to go to a mall in San Antonio as one of her duties as pageant queen to help out at a Disney Radio event. They were working with young (2-5 years old) kids showing them how to be royalty. It was cute. But because of her knee, the pageant director wouldn't let her do anything but sit at a table and take the raffle tickets that people turned in.

In other breaking news, Kirsten has signed up for show choir at school (think Glee) and is really excited about it. I don't know if they will just perform or if there will actually be competitions. I guess we'll wait and see.

It's been really busy and I'm kind of hoping for a quiet weekend. Since the science projects have been turned in, there shouldn't be a lot of extra kids at my house this weekend so maybe it will happen. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

They're back....again.

Picked the kids up yesterday.

Well, not all of them. They were in Houston last week and Kirsten decided to stay a little longer.


Guess she doesn't miss me yet.


Is this what I can expect from the teenage years?


I don't know whether to be hurt that she didn't want to come home yet or not. I guess I'll choose not.


We saw this when we were almost home.



But we didn't see any rain. Go figure.

Memorial Weekend

We had a nice Memorial Weekend. I hope everyone else did too.

The 4-H club here in town sponsors a rodeo every year on Memorial Weekend and we've gone the last two years. It's really a lot of fun to go and participate in the local activities (we just don't do it often.)

When we told the kids we were going Kirsten was beside herself because she didn't have any rodeo clothes to wear--a scary vision of what's coming. After much searching she came up with what she perceives to be the right thing for a rodeo:



I guess she's at least wearing denim and boots. God she loves those boots!!

Here's Addison's rodeo duds:



That skirt is so long I don't know how she managed to even get up into the bleachers. lol

By the jackets on the two you would think we lived someplace where it's cold. I mean, it was all the way down in the 80's but do you really think they need the jackets?

The rodeo was a lot of fun but we couldn't get the kids to participate in any of it. Last year they at least tried the calf scramble. At one part the clown was digging for treasure in the arena and found a bag full of gum and candy and this mob of kids runs out to steal it from him. So he keeps looking to find more treasure. He finds another bag and as he's opening it the kids all run out again. Only this time he drops a skunk out of it!! You should have seen those kids trying to stop and turn around. It was great.

We spent the rest of the weekend mostly being lazy. The kids had to go to school on Monday and the day was beyond beautiful so Dax & I took The Mistress out for a drive and had lunch and he even let me do a little shopping (without complaining even.) It was delightful.

The dumbest tattling ever!

We went into town earlier today. The kids had money and it was burning holes in their pockets. One of our MANY stops was at the pet store where they each bought things for their pets. (duh) Then we made the rest of our stops and headed home.

On the way home they started talking about the different treats they had bought for the pets. Addison was talking about how good the berry yogurt drops for the hamster smelled. Then the next thing I know Abigail is yelling at me 'He won't let me taste it but he licked it!! That's not FAIR!' Any guesses what she was talking about?


Wyatt had bough beef basted pigs ears for the dog. Abigail was all mad because he wouldn't let her taste the pigs ear!! Are you kidding me? They truly have lost their little minds....there's just no other explanation.

Westward Ho!

Today is Trails West for the kids. They dress in (sort of) period clothing and act out the trail rides west. They have been just about bouncing off the walls for the last week because they get so excited about this. All four of them just love doing this and everything about it.




Abigail didn't bring her costume home.


They have to earn points with good behavior in order to go. Then after they get their points, the classes draw to see who gets to be an Indian. As you can see, my blonde daughter is the only one that got to be an Indian. Since she looks nothing like the part she's devised a story to go with it. She told me this morning that her name is Mary and she was taken by the Indians when she was small. :0)

Can you guess?

Can you guess what these have in common?






What was your guess? Really. I want to know. Did you guess that we used dog treats to lure homeless dogs and shot them? Did you guess something worse?!





Well, they describe our weekend.

Saturday Addison & I made dog treats. She even insisted that we cut them out in shapes (I guess the dogs prefer them that way?)

On Sunday we took the to the closest animal shelter and fed them to the dogs there. Of course the kids wanted to bring another dog home and were not happy that the answer is NO!!! :0)

After the stop at the shelter we headed into Austin to the gun show. I found a little pistol that I really liked and it fit well in my hand but they wanted $875 for it. Yikes!! Needless to say, they can keep it for that price.


When we left the gun show we stopped and ate at Golden Corral on the way home. We haven't been there in ages and we certainly ate like it too. Everyone was misserable on the way home because we all ate far too much.

I hope your weekend was close to the excitement of ours.

Ugh!

So I had to go buy one of these for one of my daughters:







I'm so not ready for this. How do I stop it?



{cringing with my head in my hands}

Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a happy Mother's Day. Mine was nice. The family let me sleep in. Dax got up with the kids (and pets) to keep the noise level down and the arguments contained to the part of the house that isn't right outside our bedroom door. (That's where they usually like to fight.)

They usually make breakfast for me and yell at me if I get out of bed too soon. So... I laid there for quite awhile waiting. Finally someone came in to see if I was awake yet and to ask if we could go to the cafe' for breakfast. HA! Figures. So we all got dressed and went to the cafe' and it was nice. We went home and opened gifts.

I got lots of goodies.



From Kirsten I got a cute chicken print for my kitchen. I've looked at these about a hundred times but never wanted to spend the money (and they weren't even expensive.)





From Abigail, I got seasons 1 and 2 of Seinfeld. Woohoo!! (I'm pretty sure her Daddy had a little input on that one.)




Addison got me some Turtle Chex Mix. Love that stuff!! Chances are I won't share either. :0) She also got me a 2009 Debbie Mumm date book. It's very cute.



(Do you see the poor dog getting squished in there?)



And Wyatt got me the next book in the James Patterson series. I think he's come out with #8 so I'll have to be sure to remind them of that when my birthday rolls around.




The rest of the day was spent pretty leasurely and that's just the way I like it.

The good, the bad, and the ugly....

The good.

On Saturday we adopted a cat from the shelter. No, I absolutely do not need another cat. So, yes, I must be crazy. He's an older cat and I don't know why I was drawn to him but I had been in there at least three times before Saturday to look at him. I guess he was waiting for me...that's what Dax says anyway.

We've named him Gibbs. He's about 10 years old, very friendly and loving, and weighs about 20 pounds. He's huge!!





The bad.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning I had to have my dog put to sleep. His stomach had twisted and after trying different things to correct the problem, surgery was the only alternative left. Because of his age (13 years old) and severe arthritis in his hips I decided that it was best for him to have him put to sleep. I know it wasn't best for me because I'm heartbroken. He was a good dog and a good sport when the kids messed with him and I miss him terribly.




The ugly.

I don't really know if this qualifies as ugly or not, but it's the best I could do. Mostly, I guess it's a lesson on how not to sit when you're out in public. I was going to say that you shouldn't sit like this in a bikini, or by the pool, but then I realized that I couldn't really think of the time or place in public that it might be appropriate.




Besides, you never know who's got a camera and a blog. Mmmmwwwaaahhhaaahhhhaaaa!