Pics Of The Day

I can't even express my love for this boy.

This is what pure joy looks like. HE, is pure joy.

Babysitting Preparation

As many of you know, I work for a group of amazing general surgeons. Well, one of the surgeons, Dr. Lucchese and his wife have asked if I would babysit their 3 kids for 5 days while they go to a medical conference in Chicago.  I, being a mother of 3 myself didn't hesitate and accepted that challenge head on. I think it will be good for me to keep other children and learn from them. I can compare my mothering techniques with those of their mother. How do they behave? Do they have chores like my kiddos? Are my kids really just being normal kids when they are driving me crazy and I want to sell them(Not really, but ya get the point)?

Sam is 13. Cobi is 11 and Katie is 8. Two boys and a baby girl. Just like our family! I went over to meet the kids this afternoon and get a rundown of their daily schedules. Tennis, soccer, school and chores. Sounds very familiar. I can do this. I got this. No sweat.

Friday night his kids and I will get to know each other and have a quiet night at home(home being their house). Saturday morning they have a soccer game bright and early followed by chores. Their family motto: No fun until the work is done. I kinda like that myself. Saturday afternoon my little darlin's will join us and maybe I'll get some alone time being that all the kids are playing lovely together(huge dream, I know).

I'm a little nervous to take this on but very excited at the same time. I get to live in a huge house, have a swimming pool at my fingertips, and an exercise house and a guest house right in my backyard. Very cool.

Wish me luck. Should have a lot to write about in the coming weeks. Stay tuned...

My Tomcats

We have only been in school for 3 weeks and we already have big things happening!

Ethan(my writer in training) was to write a story. It is titled "My best day of school". It's as cute as can be. The little mind and imagination of an 11 yr old is priceless. The thought. The detail. The reality. Priceless.

His teacher was impressed with the detail as well. He got a check+.

(Check out his penmanship)

Moving on to Mr. Corbin. I am SO proud to say that he is a JUNIOR TOMCAT for this month! That means out of ALL of the kids in each 4th grade class, he is the bestest in his class(of course he is, he's my boy)!

Little Miss Taya. She is learning to write her name properly, count in the correct sequence, color in the lines(her fave!) and how to identify letters with their matching sounds. Today, she took part in Dr. Seuss and played with her hands.





(Cutest hands I ever did see!)

 

I absolutely can't wait to see what the rest of the year holds. I LOVE my TOMCATS!

 



Meet Roscoe

Ten weeks ago, our precious little family dog, Maci, gave birth to 7 puppies! 4 girls and 3 boys. 5 white and 2 black. This has been the most we've had and if I might say so myself, the cutest bunch too!

Maci nursed them, cleaned them and protected them. She is one truly amazing little mama. No one better mess with her puppies! That is until they were about a month old and were old enough to become independent. Maci, all the while, still cleaning and nursing them(grossly enough, this involves eat and drinking their output), then turning to you wanting kisses :-/

At about 6 weeks in we decided we had loved them long enough to get them started off in life and it was now time to send them on their way to new people, new families and new little kiddos to love. And make smile.

This was Maci's third litter in 15 months! Every time she graced our lives with more pups we kept telling our kids that we would keep one of the little dudes. But...by the time we were ready to give the pups new homes, Matt and I had had enough of taking care of puppies that we never included one into our family. We decided that since this was Maci's LAST litter we would keep our word this time and keep a puppy. Before Maci delivered, I told the kids we would keep a black male(if there was one) and name him Diesel. That was that. The first born was a black male. We had our Diesel. As time went on, I started noticing that this little guy was NOT a "Diesel". But more like a "Bear". This was his new name. Bear. I decided I really wasn't in love with this guy so I opted to see if he would tickle anyone else's fancy. I took a couple pups to gymnastics one night and I lady there let her 2 kids pick a pup. Low and behold they picked Bear. They even kept his name. As for the others, we're getting to that.

We all had our very own favorites(of course no one wanted the same one). I think I changed my mind at least 4 times. I decided to save all the conflict and decided we would keep which ever pup was left. So...I put these little babies on Craigslist and away they went. Like hotcakes.

This brings us to our new addition. Our new little gem. My precious little man.

Meet Roscoe...

 

 

I'm pretty confident we made the right pick. He's a welcomed addition to our family ;-)

Girls Day Out

A couple weekends ago my little niece, Nikki, came to town. My brother, Brian, flew to CT to get her then turned right around and came back. The same night.

The weekend started with Friday night at my folk's house. Taya and I helped my mom clean and get her house in order. We ate dinner, showered, played beauty shop(burned my thumb as soon as I touched the straightener. Wasn't used to her stupid one.) then hit the sack kinda early at 10:30. Reason being...we had to wake up at 1:45AM and be OUT of the house by 2:00AM to have Brian at the airport by 3:15AM for his 5:15AM flight. Taya, my mom, Brian and his girlfriend, Ashlie, loaded up and hit the road. IN THE POUR DOWN RAIN. Pour downs suck but at 2AM, they REALLY suck. We were only going to drop Brian off at the departure gate but by the time we got there, all us gal's had to potty. So we park, enter the airport and walk ALL the way down to the OTHER side of the place and relieved ourselves. We said our goodbyes. I thought the clan was following behind me and hopped on the escalator going down. As soon as I got on, I turned around and realized that I was alone and mom, Taya and Ashlie were still at the top talking to Brian. Keep in mind it's 3:30 in the morning and I've had 2 hours sleep! So instead of wasting time and riding the escalator down then coming back up, bright eyed me decides it's a good idea to to just try to climb back UP the darned thing. I was trying with all my might(those things are tricky if used improperly), hunched over climbing the best I could. Oh, I forgot to mention that since my plan was to stay in the car, all I was wearing was under draws, dingy shorts and a tank top. Nothing to hold the "bowling balls" in. As I was hunched over making my way to the top, my bowling balls were being exposed...to everyone. Luckily the only peeps that saw this were the peeps I was with(Sorry Brian, you're scared for life). Although the other dozen of people heard all the commotion and by the time I was successful and made it back to the top, we were all laughing so hard, we were crying...everyone looking on as if we were foreign.

After all that we finally left the airport and made it to my dad's apartment(he works  hours away from so he just got an apartment for the football season). By this time it's 4:30AM. We go in, make pallets on the floor and crash by 5:15. We then got a bit more sleep and woke up at 10:30. We got ready and headed out for our day.

First stop...Chik-Fil-A. After lunch we headed to the Fort Worth IMAX theater to see the Coral Reef film. Looking back it was pretty neat but being so tired, Taya and I weren't all to impressed at the time. In fact, as soon as it ended, I looked at my mom and told her that was 45 minutes of my life I would never get back. Mom, I take that back now.

 (Me and Taya at the IMAX)

 (Me, Ashlie and Taya at the IMAX)

 (Taya at the IMAX)

 (Ashlie and Taya at the IMAX)

(Mom and Ashlie at the IMAX)

(If you can't tell, these are mainly the only pictures I took all day)

 

 

After we left the IMAX we headed to Ridgmar Mall to all 4 get pedicures. I found a cosmetology school in the mall online and had the bright idea to go there instead of a reputable salon. After all, it was only $12 each. Looked like it too. But good enough for that day. After our toes were all gussied up we got a drink and came across a store called "Camo Cowgirl". OMG. Ashlie and I were in Heaven. Bought and Taya and Nikki some bows and myself some earrings. We left there and headed to Justice. We heard this is Nikki's favorite store. It's safe to say that now it's my favorite store...for Taya of course. ;-).

(I was in love with that little black hat)

 

After the mall we made a stop at Big Lots to get me and Ashlie a pair of fake Toms. Taya a pair of flip flops and I picked up a 6 pack of "Tap Out" socks for the boys(for only $4...we must go back and get more!).

 

Then, it was back to my dad's pad, grabbed him, unloaded our loot and off to dinner we were. We ended up at El Fenix. Nothing better.

 

(Only my Taya would want mac-n-cheese at a mexican joint)

 

With our bellies full, we drove around Sundance Square. It was beautiful with all the lights. My plan was to go to "The Cupcakery" but with the storms and having to park a mile from the place we opted to stay dry and go back another day. By this time it was about 8:45. we had to be BACK at the airport at 10:45 to get Brian and Nikki. We killed some time at target then made the drive to SEE MY NIECE! Got to the airport, waited a bit then I saw her! Such a pretty girl!

 

By 11:00 we were on our way home. Home by 1AM. Bed by 1:30. What a LONG day. But what a GREAT way to spend it. With my 4 FAVORITE gals!

Here We go Again

This past Monday marked the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year. And with it, a few changes. Changes, that I, as a mother, was not ready for.

Ethan, the eldest of 3, started MIDDLE SCHOOL(6th grade around these parts). He went from being a big fish in a small pond, to now being a small fish in a big pond. We all expected the move up to be an adjustment but the first day was tougher for Ethan than anticipated. Ya see, he has EIGHT different classes this year. With 5 minutes between periods. You can imagine it's tricky trying to get from 1st period to 2nd knowing where you're going(Ethan likes to chat). Just imagine if you left your schedule AT HOME. That's right, the morning was a bit nuts. Filled with butterflies and excitement. Walked straight out the door WITHOUT that ever important piece of paper. Your lifeline to the middle school realm.

 

 

Tuesday he remembered that schedule and all has been well ever since. He even has a bit of a crush on his reading teacher. What can I say? She is pretty cute.

 

Corbin has become one of those muchly anticipated big fish in the small pond. He is now a 4th grader! I swear, just the other day, we lived in Murphy and he was in Pre-K. Mrs. Klea was his teacher. He still talks about that year. Matt asked Corbin if he liked his new teacher. He said yes but he will have to wait until further in the school year to really decide if she's on his good list. He said that all the teachers are nice on the first day :-) This year is kinda neat in the fact that Corbin's teacher, Mrs. Ellis, was also Ethan's 4th grade teacher only 2 years ago. While we were at meet the teacher night the week before school started he stopped by to see his last years teacher, Mrs. Adams. He hugged her and she told us it meant a lot for him to stp by. We got home and asked if he was glad to see her. He said "Yes, I was one of her favorites.". I, in fact know that this is true. She told us so. I have a feeling he will always be his teachers favorite. No matter who the teacher is. He has that affect on people.

 

Little miss Taya is now, officially, a kindergartner! My BABY is finally in school. I still really have mixed emotions about this. We no longer have to pay for childcare but my itty bitty princess is growing up. WAY to fast. Her teacher is Mrs. Clarke. Saving grace here is that Mrs. Clarke's son has been on Corbin's baseball team the past 2 years so Taya was already very familiar with her. Taya's good friend from last year in home school, Grayson, is also in her class. Sits at her table in fact.

 

Taya is so excited to finally get to walk through the BIG hallways and go through the lunch line just like she's heard her brothers talk about for years. She also gets to ride the SCHOOL BUS home. And she gets to walk down the long sidewalk to our house. She's one proud little big girl.

 

In the craziness of the morning I COMPLETELY FORGOT to take pictures! These are the ONLY 3 shots I was able to snag.

 

 (Please notice Corbin's lunch money. Boy, he was excited!)

 

(Finally the BIG brother at school!)

 



(Pretty, pretty princess running ahead!)

 

 

Overall, the kids all 3 did great and adjusted well. Me, on the other hand, still coping with that.