Growing up...

So in less than a month my little boy is going to be 13 :( This is killing me... Not to mention he is full on acting like a 12 yr old about to be 13. He's still one of the sweetest boys i've ever met, you just have to catch him at the right time now :) He's sleeping in, and playing games all summer. I would be bored, but he seems to be loving it. He's taken on a new job though. Rather than paying the yard guy 40 bucks a week to mow, we've now bought a lawn mower and are paying him 25 dollars a week. He doesn't complain one bit, and he's doing a fabulous job! I'm just so proud of him. Dad is watching, making sure we lose no toes. And i have to say kudos to my husband, for being supportive and biting his tongue on the few "spots" that got missed. :) \ Sunday was father's day. We got dad a few gifts, and enjoyed doing the yard with him. I think he actually did enjoy it as we were all out there together. Midget even sweeped up the grass, now that's teamwork. And by the end of the day monkey was back in his comfy spot, in his favorite robe. But he added a new partner, they were playing Minecraft together :)

Oh Pinterest...

How I love thee.... but how you are a blackhole of time!! I can sit down to look up one thing, and then find something else and then an hour later.... I think my hubby thinks it's a bit odd. I can go on there looking for the recipe for dinner, and then i'm calling him over to show him a watch he might like :) Well, see honey the lady who pinned the enchiladas also had a pin for these shoes, and that one had a pin for birthday ideas and then that one had a neat picture of a beach scene, and well they happen to have a whole board of watches... geez it's simple ;) I've been finding all kinds of neat stuff though. One is these handmade wands. Midget is loving harry potter since we read it recently. She had a wand from her bday my mom got her, but it's not something fun she made. So i think we will be doing this. http://browse.deviantart.com/artisan/?q=tutorial#/d389bn0 We've found all kinds of fun things to do. Plus i found some really cute things for monkey's bday to make him feel special :)

Loving my little man...

So with monkey being 12, going on 25 he is wanting to hang with his friends more, and play games. I get that. So the moments when he sits and chats are so much more special. I do have to admit we've been crazy busy, and every time i take the time and sit and talk, he wants to talk. So it's neglect on my part too. But sometimes he amazes me, and i just want to hug him and squeeze him and put him in a jar to keep him like this forever. That sounds creepy, i don't mean it in a creepy way :) I love, love, love poetry and reading. I've always been a book nerd, and poems were really the first things i remember reading and thinking wow, that is so beautiful. So i remember in 3rd grade memorizing Emily Dickenson's poem this is my letter to the world. He had read it in school, so he wanted to talk about it. So then he says they were reading Edgar Allen Poe. I think, dark but I love him too. So I just had seen a play of the tell-tale heart. It was the neatest thing, but so creepy. They had it dark with red lights, and the heart beat throughout the whole theater. He wants to see it :) Can you tell we were looking for papers today and came across baby pictures? I'm just a wee-bit sappy.... Not to mention field day for him. None of the kids wanted to go??!! There was a line to pick them up early? What's up with that? Granted it was hot, and didn't look all that fun, but it's field day....

Field day, jeeps and parks

So hubby is on a nature kick. It's fun, but the mosquito's are out in full force in Texas. And for some reason, they are obsessed with me! They chased me all through the trails we went on this weekend. Hubby says it's my sweet blood. Right... I don't run too often, but I was moving quickly through those bushes :) The kids had fun on the hike though, and it was nice out there. Could someone please enclose it though so there aren't bugs. Between the spider bite I had and the mosquitoes I'm getting a complex! We got hubby his new car, and it's a jeep. Lot's of fun for the weekends and for hubby. He's nearing the mid-life crisis age. And this is the gift, a car to tinker with:) Plus we get to have fun with it too! We have field day tomorrow, wish us luck.. I got assigned the snow cones, a cush job i hope! Here is crazy cat enjoying the sun, asleep and upside down:)

The positive people on the hike.. Monkey and I were slapping bugs :)

Monkey and his friend having some fun.

My baby still likes to swing, i so love that..

My roses, so pretty.

The Jeep

Uncle Joel's biggest fan!

How cute are they?!

Catching up....

So I finished my semester of school, and wow it all seemed to pile on at the end! I had projects and papers to do.. I did it though! I think my mom had a point, it sounded more like an arts and crafts class than a college course. I thought that was funny. But then realized, well yes, that is why i want to be a teacher and not an accountant :) I'd rather read Dr. Zeuss all day with 7 yr olds than work in an office on a computer. The kids have 3 more weeks of school. All the standardized tests are done, thank goodness. It was midgets first experience with them, and she did pretty well. The reading was harder than she expected, but she was more worried with the math, so i think that's why. It was easy she said. Monkey did great, and said the test was easy also. I don't know where he gets it, but test don't phase him. Me, I completely freak out :) So we are waiting the end of the school year, and recitals to end so we can relax. Until then we have ballet 3 times a week. Midget is doing a feature dance with a friend, so she needs some extra help. She's so excited though. Her friend has her toe shoes also, so she is obssesing on that. It's sweet, such a little girl rite of passage :) Monkey has plans for the summer, no camps he says, just sitting around sleeping and playing games. Yes, sniff sniff, my little baby is growing up too fast! If someone can stop him please do so!! Hubby is home now, and the kids are all excited. Of course that means no more eating at the coffee table and watching movies, or sneaking food upstairs :) Someone let them be a little more sneaky. It's nice to have him back though! We missed him while he was gone. So life is back to normal! Here's my little man cashing in his tickets. He won the ball out of a machine. It was so great, don't know how he did it!

So my brother is still running for sheriff, and a nice family hosted a fundraiser for him. They have the most beautiful historical home! I'd never been in a home like this. It was built in the 1800's. I wanted to take pictures, but I didn't want to embaress my brother by gawking and saying the "oh my gawd, did you see that?" that was constantly going through my mind. Does that make me a little classier, the fact i didn't say it outloud? Here is my proud mommy...

There are midget's little chics from her class. They raised the eggs in the incubator until they hatched. What a life lesson! They had birth defects, unborn chics, some died. It was tragic! But here are the survivors. Luckily her's made it, her name is Alice :)

Poodles

Well, not poodles, cool kitties on skrits. Today is Sock Hop night at midgets school. This is something Monkey and his friend are running, and very fast from. So he is sleeping over at his friends, so they don't have to go :) He still loves us though, i know it, I got a text :)
Here is the child who still thinks school functions are fun....

We made her poodle/kitty skirt together. She said today her friends asked her if we got the wrong thing, since she had a cat and not a poodle :) It turned out pretty cute, and man does it swirl when she spins. So tonight she will be singing with her friends to sock hop music. We have already bid on teacher time, the auction to raise money. We went for the music teacher, hopefully the bids don't go to high. Then she can teach music class all day! The principal is usually the highest, and we can't go there...

Sheldon loves her skirt too!

This i can get behind!

Just heard this on the Today show, and this is research I can really get into :)

Cake for breakfast. Best discovery ever, ever, ever: doctors have sanctioned eating dessert first thing in the morning. (We do this anyway, but it's nice to have science on our side.) Adding a treat to a 600-calorie balanced breakfast helps dieters lose more weight in the long run, found research out of the Tel Aviv University. And, it gets better. The research found that cutting carbs in the morning hindered long-term weight loss. "But the group that consumed a bigger breakfast, including dessert, experienced few if any cravings for these foods later in the day," said researcher Daniela Jakubowicz. Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast every day, doctor's orders. [Tel Aviv University]

Back to school...

So this week we all went to school. Wow, has it been a long time! The last time i was at school was standing in the line debating on whether i could go with a 3 year old and pregnant. Standing in the line i started to throw up, and that decided that. So that little bundle of joy is 9 :)
My gosh how things have changed!!! Everything is almost done online, you upload your homework, and everything is on smartboards, and how many acronym's can there be in this world?! I think i'm a bit tech savvy and i'm lost. I can't imaging someone who didn't use computers would do. It's good to be using my brain again though :) Classes are a lot more fun when they are involving your desired career. I mean, one if my assignments is to make a children's book. That i can do :)
Now figuring out an online blackboard, clueless!
Midget is moving onto dividing, and i feel so sorry for her. I can see her struggling with it, and i know how important these years are for her whole math future. So we are working hard, and trying all the different ways. I had a great tutor in college, who was the first one to help me get through college algebra, and i found her as a math professor. So if things don't improve i may give her a call. She's a bundle of positive energy, and would click with my little bundle of energy.
Monkey is taking the SAT in a couple weeks. It is so hard to explain to him that this isn't like any test he's ever taken. Luckily we signed him up for a seminar for 7th graders taking it at the college. I don't want him to get discouraged and give up. Plus this will give him a chance to meet some kids, and learn some testing skills. He's googled and found out that he isn't going to score perfect, Mit wants 2200, and the average 7th grader gets a 300 or 400. That was a bit of a heads up :) But i'm glad he's thinking ahead, and we should start buying our lottery tickets now so we can pay for it .

Christmas pics and Aunt Patty and Julie

I finally got around to downloading, or is it uploading? my pictures from Xmas. I had forgotten that hubby was running around like the paparazzi at my mom's house too :) He got some nice pics though, but this one is my absolute favorite...
That man, he still melts my heart. Look at the look on his face... He was so happy to give her the sweetest heart necklace he picked out for her.

And this, this was monkey's big present... ugh.

Here is my super-cool bike the kids and hubby got me... it's so neat. My mom had one almost identical when I was a kid. :)

This on his shirt is Nyan cat.... a pop-tart rainbow pooting internet sensation... and just so you all know.. I am awesome for getting him that shirt!

This is my brother, and our 18 yr old cat Rodney

Here's the kids educating Aunt Patty and the grandparents on Maru the cat :)

The family :)

The family, rotate uncle J out and add dad :)

Now Sheldon is one SPOILED cat! Yes, that is monkey holding the neck massager on him, and he absolutely loves it!

Aunt Patty, and i really want to know what skin products she uses... because she has some amazing skin!

Catching up..

So Christmas is over, New Years is over, hubby's vacay is over.... is it too late to say bah-humbug? We had a great, relaxing christmas. We got to see some family we haven't seen in forever. That was nice, except all the kids, i remembered as kids, somehow grew up and had kids? That can't be, because that would mean i'm really old.. :)
The kids had a great Christmas. Monkey got his airsoft gun, a bb-like gun that shoots little plastic balls. Not metal bb's. He thinks he's the coolest kid ever. He even got to have his friend sleep over, and he brought his too. So they were playing in the back yard, rolling around being Rambo. IT was quite funny. :) Safety goggles were worn by all!
Midget got her Calico Critter trailer, cutbacks and all, Santa couldn't do the mansion. Besides i hear they like to be mobile. Hubby went with her to ballet class several times, and she loved that. He got so into it with her, he talked to the teacher and they added a day, so now she's up to 2 times a week... and wait for it... The angels are making that "AAAAHHHH" sound, her teacher said if she keeps up the hard work.... (it's every little girls dream), she can MAYBE get her toe shoes next fall. That little girl was giddy... So her dad built her her very own ballet bar to practice with. He even went and priced toe shoes. Not sure why he thought they were so pricey, but it was funny :)
We also made some decisions on my future, i'm about a year away of my degree, so we went to the school and talked to the advisor. I am now the world's oldest college student :) Even scarier is i have enrolled in an online class, one of them wasn't offered at a time i could do, so since it's a tech class, it's offered lots online. Not sure how that will work?! I've got two on campus. Monkey just wants me to finish before he starts :) Seeing how much it is, i think we better get in shape so our organs are worth selling, because i don't know how we are affording two in college! Especially with their choices. It's coincidentally college week at monkey's school this coming week. So what are my sweet boys choices.... not Texas A and M, or University of Texas, where i can just grab the shirts at target or wal mart. No, my boy chooses MIT and The Naval Academy... I love that he dreams big. :) I hate that i found out at the last minute and had to order online. But, who can't support those dreams, and he researched them and all. He's going to be a nvay seal, join the CIA get kidnapped, not harmed, and write a novel about it. :) Oddly enough, with that boy, i can see it!
Midget makes my life easy, she likes Texas A&M. She's going to live in a mansion and build a nature reserve to provide a home for the animals she is going to rescue. I so <3 her.