Basketti Boy

I was going through some stuff on my computer at work today and I came across this picture of Luke. It is one of my all time favorites! He was about 11months old and was at First Baptist Early Childhood Center. He had just eaten some spaghetti for lunch and his teacher took this pic before cleaning him up. To this day "basketti" is his favorite food, his daddy's is the best he says! We are missing him so much and I thought I'd just put this up to show how fast time goes, he starts kindergarten next Monday. Have a great week!

Schlitterbaun and YES... Houston again!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAULA!

Paula and Rileigh were gracious enough to invite Luke and me on a short little vacation to New Braunsfels last weekend! We left on Sat. afternoon and arrived in San Marcus by late afternoon. We talked the kids into a little shopping at the outlets and did a little swimming at the hotel that night! On Sunday we headed out to Schlitterbaun! It was as great as I remembered it was WAY BACK when I was in high school! The kids had a lot of fun and Paula and I were reminded we aren't 18 anymore. I won't go into detail to save our pride but, we did get on one ride known as the Rapid Chute or something stupid like that. Paula and I thought it was the lazy river well......... I have renamed it the T's and A ride, ask me to tell you about it later. Needless to say we were a lot more careful from that ride on about our choices! All in all we had a great time and the kids had a ball!

Here they are after Shlitterbaun and extra swimming that night at the hotel pool! They had some popcorn and watched Air Buddies! We had left the water park and ate at Rudy's for dinner. If you have never been their GO! They have great Barbecue and VERY cold beer:) After the T and A ride we needed it! We had an eight hour trip back on Monday thanks to I35 being shut down due to a fire, but everyone handled it pretty well and we arrived home about 6:30pm. Just enough time for me to unpack and pack again because Luke and I flew out on Tuesday at 11 am for Houston! Needless to say it was a busy couple of days!

Here is Luke ready to take off on the airplane, he LOVES to fly! I don't share that love especially after the hellacious ride Matt and I had to LasVegas back in May! I was sure we were going to die! Anyway Luke likes when the plane goes bump, I smiled at him and wondered if 11am is too soon to ask for alcohol. We made it fine and have been enjoying a much needed vacation of lounging by the pool and visiting our favorite people!

My dad and sister Sally. FYI, my dad won the Star award from his company and was sent to Florida to see the Shuttle launch last week! My sister has been offered a promotion and it is well deserved. She works WAY too hard. With all this good fortune I just know that us teachers must be in for some BIG MONEY this year.........hahahahahha! I'm very proud of both of them, yeah!

Here are the "boys" following Granpa's command to fall backwards into the pool. They had a great time swimming at Nonna's!

We had dinner tonight with Granma and Granpa at Crackerbarrel. Luke loves to eat there with his Granpa, it is their special place. We went to visit Nan later that night. We got to spend the whole day with her yesterday because of some bad weather here. I missed having lunch with my good friend Carol, but we will get together soon I'm sure!

I'll be flying home on Sunday to start work on Monday! Luke is staying behind until Thursday because he and his cousin Cameron won awards from sister's company for a safety contest. More on that later.........

One last note, as Hurricane Dean closes in on the Gulf please keep my family in your prayers. We don't know were it will go but there is always a chance it could hit here. Luke will still be down so I'm sure I'll be a basket case! Thanks for taking time to catch up with "Our Crazy Life"!

Build a Bear and Uncle Julio's

Happy Birthday Rileigh! Today was Rileigh Grimes'6th birthday and party at Build A Bear at Grapevine Mills Mall, or as my friend Paula calls it "Bilk Another Buck"! It is expensive to go in there with your child, I'm glad Luke is happy with "naked" animals. As you an see from the photo all the girls had sparkly shirts, beds and leashes for their pets. Luke is holding his naked penguin and he was happy to get it! They had a great time and it was a lot of fun.

The kids had fun "waking up" their pet before stuffing it full of "cotton". They did really well waiting their turn to push the foot pedal and bring their pet to life.

Here is Luke bringing Cody to life, his heart felt out onto the floor but Luke just picked it up and stuffed it back in:) Lucky us it already had a sound chip in the foot so we got to hear Cody talk all the way home, it was a 45 minute drive YEAH!

We ended with a cookie and present opening and fun was had by all. Luke and I stopped and watched the big boys ride skateboards at the indoor park before we left. He can't wait to be old enough to do those moves. I can wait, boy can I wait!

Luke was in awe of how fast those big boys went and how hard they fell. I told him he needed to practice at home before he comes to skate here. He told me his Daddy was right that they did not have couches to hold onto at the skate park like he has at home:) You'll have to take my word how great he is on carpet and holding onto the couch working his "moves".

Tonight I went to Uncle Julio's in Ft. Worth with some of my girlfriends from school. Becca and Sam are moving on and so we all go together for dinner. The nice man who took the photo was kind of far away and it is hard to see us!

Here are Lisa, Sam, and Becca. You can't even tell Becca feels like yakking up her dinner can you? She has evening sickness, she always has to be different!

Here are Leslie, Stacy and yes that's Lisa again, she can't stay out of the lime light she likes to show off her cleavage. Now Stacy had her first beer in 10 months(just had a sweet little girl) we were pulling her off the rafters by the time we left!

Here is Tracie who after 12 years of teaching first grade has finally been promoted to second grade! We are so happy to have her, not as happy as when my second drink came but pretty happy! We had a great time and hope to make this a monthly occurrence. I'm not breaking that to Matt just yet! Have a great Friday and look for updates next week!

Good Bye Travis!

There is my "first" baby leaving on his first plane ride by himself. I had no idea that I would feel so helpless when they came and took him away. I could feel myself about to cry so I just kept saying,"I love you Trav", until he was gone. There is something about giving up control of your children to strangers that grabs you by the heart and squeezes. I've noticed this same feeling at the doctor,hospital and school. It is a feeling no one but a parent could truly understand, and it is scary. He did great and walked off to get on the plane smiling and waving. I waited until the plane took off, said a prayer and walked my lonely self out to the car and drove straight to Starbucks to fill that void inside with a shaken black ice tea:) We had a great time this week, a lot of it sans camera though! Friday we went to see Underdog it was great. Then we went to the waterpark that evening where the boys went on the "big" slide for the first time. I was so upset I didn't have my camera! Saturday Matt took the boys to the bowling alley and we just hung out last night so I could catch up on wash! This morning Trav and I left in what I thought would be PLENTY of time to get to the gate because we already had his boarding pass. FYI when flying an unaccompanied minor you have to wait in the BIG line to get a boarding pass for yourself. Needless to say I'm not so patient when I'm going to have to explain to my perfect sister why her baby is not on the plane! I was a little frantic when we reached the counter at 12pm for a 12:30 flight! Then the desk attendant didn't like how I had put Travis in one line and stood in the other, for heaven's sake I could see him the whole time I told her. Anyway, she finally gave me the pass and we RAN to the security check where FYI again, just because you are not flying doesn't mean you can bring your BRAND NEW Bath and Body Works lip gloss with you to the gate! Oh Yeah! they took my new lip gloss and my Berry Wonderful hand sanitizer! Had I not already been in a fit I would have let her have it with my very glossy lips, but lucky for her we were at the last gate possible so.............. we ran! Made it just in time to take a pic and have them rip my nephew from my panting arms and put him on that big plane! I had a great two weeks and now Luke, Matt and I will try to adjust to our very quiet house!

Retreat and a treat!

I don't know why it looks so yellow but here is my team this year! Well, Gary is not in the picture but this is most of my team. We had our retreat which was only a day this year at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine. It was very nice and I really enjoyed getting to see my friends again. My team is SO different this year. Becca and Sam are gone and my friend Tracie is moving up from first grade. Stacy is coming back and has had a baby girl and Lisa is back and I'm so glad for that. It will be different but change is good right? I'm not good with change but we will see! So..... Becca stayed with Travis and Luke for the day and they went swimming at a friend's house. They were good for her and I was glad for that! She has updated her blog with her first ultrasound so check it out if you get a chance.

Luke talked his Aunt Becca into reading the Sponge Bob book that makes sounds, Mommy always says no, so that was a treat! FYI, Half Price Books pays some good money for those books that make noise:) Travis was addicted to his Webkinz site and only got up to get a fudge round to eat. Found out later that Aunt Becca okayed an Oatmeal Creme Pie for breakfast Wed. she claims it does have oatmeal and counts as a breakfast food!

Here he is feeding his addiction, I feel guilty letting him play so much but he sure is quiet:) He did get off to watch TV and go to sleep!

He opted to sleep in Sponge Bob when Becca spent the night. The boys were so tired they went right to sleep.

Today we had lunch with Becca and went to the mall, so those were our treats. The boys had a good time at the mall, they take after me. Trav got some scull and cross bones for his crocs and we bought Rileigh Grimes a Webkin for her birthday next week, I want to pass that wonderful gift on to as many parents as I can. We ended the night at El Arroyo, that was my pick and a trip to Bruster's ice cream. It is the best! Thursday is bring your own banana and get a banana spit half off! No... I did not bring my own banana but......... I did get a banana split! We are going to see Under Dog in the morning so say a prayer for me. Have a great Friday!