Marvelous Monday Morning

It is a beautiful sunny morning in East Texas. The sun was just blinding coming in the bedroom windows as I woke up this AM. It is cool out, we had a freeze last night but the temperature is supposed to get up into the mid 60's today and the sky's are blue and bright. Richard is back to work after being off since Christmas day. Kirstin and Kali are in their room playing Polly Pockets. They have played for hours since adding more to their collection as they each received some for Christmas from Mimi and Papaw. Alex is playing baseball on the Wii. We got it as our family gift from mimi and papaw. It is so fun. I have bowled two games already this morning. We had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. The house is within about two weeks of completion. The wood floors are being started today, the driveway is being layed out and will be poured by Wednesday, the electricians are almost done, the plumber is scheduled to finish on the following Monday and then finally the painter will come in and finish the touch ups. We had the permanent power turned on Saturday and Richard and I just kept walking through and turning switches on and off and doing the "ohhhh" and "awhhh" each time we would turn a switch on. It was awesome. Moving day should be in two weekends barring no more delays with weather or contractors. Today is a mellow hang around the house kind of day. We have been busy since before Christmas so today I am going to just hang around and do some packing and organizing and cleaning. We have a pile of gifts to exchange. Santa had a hard time on sizes this year so we need to head to town, but I think I will do that tomorrow. I am adding some pictures from the Country Tavern in Kilgore. We went with Mimi and Papaw while they were in town.

Yum, these ribs are awesome, does any one have a napkin?

I just can't get enough!

Waiting on our food.....hurry I need some barbaque!

Richard, his mom and his girls.

Picking out some tunes from the jukebox. Shucks, it ended up taking our money.

Christmas Day

Micheal and the pizza cutter we got for him.

Uncle Ben and Kirstin

Alex and me acting silly

Frying the turkey.

Dropping the turkey in...

Micheal and Kristy and notice Gus, their Dog, trying to get in the picture.

Ben, Andrea, Aubrey and Jacob

Andrea and Me

The cousins that were here

My very beautiful family

I love......

I have been given an award called the "Honest Award". It was given to me by my sister Rebecca. With this award I am to write 10 honest things about me and then pass the award on to five other honest bloggers. I have had the "assignment" for a few days and finally have some quiet time so I am going to work on my list tonight. Richard is working late and the girls are chilling in the bed watching a movie. I also am going to write honestly about 10 "things" I love.

1. I LOVE......being a mom to three girls. All three of my daughters have completely different personalities and yet we blend so beautifully as a family. I always wanted daughters and feel that every day with them is a blessing. I watched a movie this weekend where the mom lost her children to a car accident, I can not imagine that happening to me. It tears me up just thinking about that.

2. I LOVE......hot chocolate with marsh mellow cream and then dipping my toast, (with only real butter) in it. This is a favorite breakfast of mine. It takes me back to camping as a child and having it warm me up when we would get up on cold mornings.

3. I LOVE.....shopping. Anyone who keeps up with my blog can clue into this. I don't have to necessarily buy anything, I just love walking through different store and shops and browsing. Don't get me wrong, I do also like to buy things. I especially love finding that certain something that is just perfect and buying it and surprising someone who is not expecting to receive anything.

4. I LOVE....memories. I love to sit back with a group of people and laugh and reminisce about "old" times. Memories are something that we can never lose we just make more that replace the old ones.

5. I LOVE......watching "House Hunters" on HGTV. There is just something about watching a family shop for and purchase their dream home that is so intriguing to me. It is a great show and if you don't watch it, I recommend catching an episode. It's great to watch the different styles of homes across the country and the different prices.

6. I LOVE.....taking pictures. Again, by checking out my blog, you can clue into this. One thing I am most excited about moving in my permanent house, is being able to get all my old photo albums out of storage and go through them. This kinda co-insides with the memories. The pictures bring back the memories and takes you back to a time in history whether that be good or bad.

7. I LOVE....praise and worship music. It has the ability to bring me to my knees crying, thanking God, feeling blessed, and wanting to jump for joy. There is one song that I can just scream at the top of my lungs and dance too. Well actually there are a few many that can do that.

8. I LOVE.....Willow Tree Figurines. I don't have many, but the few I have each have a special meaning and remind me of something or someone.

9. I LOVE.....tulips. These are my favorite flowers to see and receive. Someday I am going to run through a tulip field. I am so excited to finally have a home where I will be able to plant them and watch them grow in the spring.

10. I LOVE......Richard. He is such a strong man with such a great work ethic both in his job and in life. He loves to give me what I want yet does it in such a sweet kind and surprising way. He is genuine, funny, and forgiving. He has done the most amazing job building this house and taking care of the financial side, dealing with contractors, and yet seeing "my vision" to give me what I want also. He gets more handsome as he gets older and just continues to give me that "first date flutter" feeling many times a week.

Part of this assignment was for me to pick 5 others to give this blog too and ask them to blog honestly also. However, I would simply like to request any reader who wants to do this, take the time to do so. It is so enlightening to read other posts and I would love to read each of the readers I follow. I know each person is honest so everyone qualifies.

Our Shopping Trip 2008

We have an annual tradition in our family to go shopping the weekend after Thanksgiving. Due to scheduling conflicts we have not been able to go for the past few years. We usually get up early Saturday after Thanksgiving and head to Grapevine Mills in Dallas. This year we had family in Katy Texas so we decided to head that way. And it was not the weekend after Thanksgiving, it was this past weekend. We had a long trip down there Saturday afternoon. The traffic was HEAVY to say the least. We arrived in Katy around 7 that evening and ate, visited and watched a girly movie. We went to bed with many giggles and finally feel asleep around midnight. We were up at 6AM ready to shop. We ate breakfast, cleaned our selves up and headed to town by 8:15. We shopped til we dropped. We arrived home last night around 10. It was a trip of memories and good times. Here are a few pics from the weekend.

Mom is dutifully mapping out the route for the day. Andrea is ready to hit the shops.

This is taken as we were leaving the house. I think the men were ready for us to go. We were a tad bit obnoxious for them.

Andrea trying out a new doo for the weekend. What do you think?

Dee, some weirdo, and Kristy. This is when we arrived in Katy.

The shrimp Christmas tree appetizer made by Jody. It was delicious.

I've been tagged!

My Sister-in-law Amanda tagged me earlier in the week and I have been so busy, I haven't stopped to blog, but I am now doing the "tagging" assignment that I was challenged to do.

These were the directions:

1. choose the 4th picture folder on my computer

2. choose the 4th picture

3. explain the picture

4. and tag 4 more people to do the same

The picture I added was from the Oak Forest Montessori School's, in Longview, Fall Festival. This is a picture of Kirstin, Kali and Aubrey, best cousins and best friends riding the train. We had a fun time that day. Notice Jacob in the background, he was going to sit up front on the train as the girls hogged the seat they were in.....I am tagging, my sister Rebecca, My cousin Brittney, and my daughter Alex to do the same also. I will ask Alex to do her's on the other computer so she can post a different picture.

Reindeer Brownies

I just love this recipe so I wanted to share it on my blog. I made three batches of these for all three parties tomorrow. They are so cute and SO easy, my kind of recipe! Merry Christmas.

Christmas FUN

This is really a fun time of year. There are so many parties, activities, and get-togethers that go on during the holiday season. Kirstin's class has been working on a mini program for the past few weeks and did it for the parents yesterday. One of the students in the play was absent so Kali was able to come over to Kirstins class and fill in. So I was able to see them both perform and get pictures of them both. Then last night was the hospital Christmas party. I was sick and not feeling well, but had taken some medicine and once I got there was glad I went. I love to see Richard in "his" environment and to meet the people he works with on a daily basis. It is awesome to listen to the "O.R" stories and hear all the medical jargon. They have to keep a sense of humor about it all. Today is the girls last full day. Both tomorrow and Friday are half days and Friday is mainly just parties. I will go to Alex's first as hers is at 9:15 and then Kirstin and Kali's is at 9:45. We will be sweeted out by 11AM. The house is looking amazing but we will not be in by Christmas. It will probably be the week after New Years. Yesterday so many people were out there working. It is quite exciting to see all the lose ends get tied up. Have I mentioned before, how much I LOVE my house. ??? ha ha ah

We took this picture before we left for the party. We were standing in front of the tree. But what is so funny, since we got such a small tree this year so it wouldn't overtake the living room, you can't even see the tree.

You can see a few needles poking through and of course the ever so famous living room furniture!

The girls playing their bells. This was the best part of the whole program.

Kirstin is in the green and Kali is in the white. They are dressed as little elves..... Too cute.

Marjistmas Party 2008

Here are a few pictures from the Marjistmas Party we went to on Friday evening. We all had a fun and festive time. It was a nice break as we have been busy and stressed with the house. We had a night to just escape and hang out with friends and family.
I was so ready to get these boots off at the end of the evening.

Becca and Jason

Billy and Barbara

Mandi and Kembe

A bunch of giggling girls- Andrea, Kendra, Barbara, Becca and me!

Andrea, Dee and Me

My very handsome man and me!

Justin and Dee, the newest Texans. They just moved here from Indiana. We just keep on recruiting those Hoosiers.

Mandi, Becca, Barbara, Andrea, and I

My very cool brothers and me. I wish my sister could have been here.

This picture cracks me up, Steve looks like a peeping Tom. We laughed so hard at this picture!

Dad and Mom!!!

Marky Mark and Jessica Micheal enjoying a very good bite of food and Kristy rubbing his tummy! Kristy, Andrea, Mom and Me. Hopefully Kristy will be an official family member soon!

Friday Fun Day

I've said it many times before, I love Fridays. It is the best day of the week. It brings the week to and end and starts the weekend. This morning I started my day by doing some more observations hours that I need for school. I observed at Alex's school today, so we were able to walk in together. She walked me to the office to sign in and then went on to her class. I was then able to eat lunch with my oldest brother Steve, my younger brother Ben, my mother and my incrediably wonderful husband. I am now at home trying to do some cleaning up as Alex is having a friend come over after school today. Her mom is bringing her so she can meet me and I at least want it looking and smelling fresh in here. I now have started packing for yet another move so even though my living room is lacking furniture, it is filled with boxes and a very pretty Christmas tree. I'm embarrassed to say, but I do cringe when people come over. I do explain the reasoning of having lawn chairs for furniture and then hopefully people understand we're not complete hillbillies....:) It will be awesome when I can invite someone in to have a seat on a real sofa.

We have our newest family member that we adopted on Wednesday. Alex has a new pig she is raising for FFA. She is so excited. She is learning to care for it, clean the pen, feed it and has to do this all twice a day. We have to keep it at the stables at the high school so that means early morning trips to feed it before she goes to school. She is so cute and is already in love with U.B. She named it that after Uncle Ben, not saying he is a pig, but she just loves her Uncle Ben. Plus then she can say. "Awhhh U.B so cute" or "U.B so fat"......

The house is moving right along. The counter tops were installed this morning and the tile work is almost complete. The plumber and electrician should be in next week along with the stucco and septic. We have had a few weather delays lately and we are not sure if we will be sleeping there on Christmas Eve, but it not, it will be soon after.....

Oh Christmas Tree!

The girls in front of the tree
Kali "O'Malley"

Kirstin "Kirkin Gerkin Pickle"

Alex "Pooh Bear"

We finally decorated our tree. We got it Sunday afternoon but we were busy Monday night and Tuesday night and finally had some free time last night since there is not any Wednesday night services at church during the holidays.

Home Sick!

We have been looking forward for a month for todays field trip. Richard took the day off, we went and bought good lunch foods last night and Richard and I were chaperoning Kirstin and Kali's classes today to Palestine to ride the Polar Express train. It is a train ride that is completely transformed into the Polar Express. We were all excited as that is one of our favorite Christmas movies. The kids were even able to wear pajamas and Kirstin and Kali spent many minutes last night picking out the perfect pair to wear. We were sound asleep in bed and Kali comes in a wakes me up. I smell it before she says anything. Then it comes, "Momma, Kirstin threw up in the bed". Sure enough, Kirstin was sick. We cleaned it up, showered her and HOPED that she had just choked as she was coughing. We put them in our room and went back to sleep. It wasn't just choking on her cough, she threw up again and this morning woke up with fever. She shed one single tear when I told her she couldn't go today. I could tell she was sick because she just wanted to lay there and go back to sleep. Dear sweet Kali was more sad for Kirstin than Kirstin was for herself. So Richard and Kali are off to the Polar Express and I am home with Kirstin. We are hoping they will give us the tickets we have prepurchased and hopefully will take her next week. I have now pulled the mattress of off the bed and Kirstin is laying in the living room watching "Enchanted". I told her the nice thing about being sick is it always gives us a whole day with just the two of us. That made her smile, a little. Here is a picture of Kirstin this morning. I had just asked her why she is so pretty even when she is sick? She just smiled at me.

Crazily Posting Pics today!

The house is coming along great. We are still trying to get in by Christmas but it might be the week after and that will be fine also. Here are a few pictures that I took out there this afternoon.
This is the outside fireplace. The brick layer did an amazing job.

Here is the indoor fireplace. We are putting up a cedar mantle, just don't have it yet.

This is looking in the entryway walking through the front door. This is the color we put throughout the house first and it was supposed to be more silver than blue. We re-did the living area but left the color in the entry as I love it in there.

Here is one view of the dining room. I'm not sure why the picture turned out so dark...

My "farm sink" -this was one of those things I knew I wanted from day one. I absolutely love the sink, maybe I won't use the dishwasher, oh wait, I won't go that far....

My pantry door. Again, LOVE IT!

The brick bar. We decided to do this after seeing it in a magazine.

Uncle Ben hanging tile in Alex's shower.

Another view of the dining room.