Spooooooky.

Well, gone are the days of dressing up as ducks, Thomas the Tank engine and anything Mom may decide is cute. Now, I have children of some darkness of death. From left to right: Sullivan the NINJA, Eli the Skulzor and Fisher the GRIM REAPER. Next to them are Fisher's best friend Aston the SOMETHIN OF DEATH and Taylor (remember, my future daughter-in-law?), she's dressed as a DEAD ZOMBIE COWGIRL...here's a closer look:

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the boys to stay still long enough to get a better picture of each of them. Costumes on, they were raring to go. I usually am not a fan of Halloween, but this year was SOOOO much better since it was on a Friday, I actually enjoyed it!!

Little Ole Me?

My sweet friend, Lavender Chick, sent me TWO awards. Ain't she the sweetest darn thing ever? She is a pretty amazing person and one of the most sincere and gracious and hilarious women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. When you meet her, you instantly feel as if you have known her all of your life...which brings me to the first award she gave me:

This is called the Perfect Blend of Friendship Award and along with it, comes these answers which you must answer:

Do you have the same friends since childhood? I most certainly do!! Shauna, Christa and Deanna I have known since they accepted me into their circle in the 1st grade. They all went to the same school in Kindergarten so their friendships had already been formed, while I wasted my time in some dumb private Kindergarten. These ladies have been my backbone throughout my life and I still see Shauna and Christa at LEAST once a month, if not more. They are in my Bunco group that I've been in for 8 years!! I don't get to see Deanna near as much as I would like, but we still remain close and I know that she would be there for me in the blink of an eye.

Missy is my best friend and has been since the 7th grade. I can't say enough about her and how she has helped to shape my life. We may not talk daily like we did for so many years, but we sure don't let it go too long. You can read a little about her here.

Mandy is my cousin, but also a best friend. I guess you could say she's been my friend since childhood since I've known and loved her since the day she was born. There is no reason why we couldn't have been twins...if only we were the same age and had the same mother and father. (That one was for my uncle!!) Mandy is this ball of completely special that you just won't ever understand unless you meet her. She and I are so alike. We love the same things and both have a handful of crazy kids and one crazy husband each. I don't think there is anything new that one of us can pick up that the other one doesn't want to automatically do too. If I ever in the world had a sister, I would have picked her...but since I couldn't do that, I will settle for a cousin and a best friend!

What do you value most about your friends? The thing I value most about my friends is their kindness and loyalty. They always, every one of them, pull together within seconds to help each other out. They are miracles, they are my sisters.

Are your friends sounding boards? Uh. Yeah. Especially since I'm the most opinionated, non-quiet, on-your-soapbox person you'll ever meet. My friends, they have much patience.

To which I shall pass this award along to my life-time friends Missy and Mandy and Christa...I would pass it along to Shauna too...but we can't convince her to blog!!

The second award is the Blogging Friends Forever Gold Card Award.

This one has to be given to the following sweet friends of mine:

A Day in the Life How in the world can I explain Rachael to make you understand? I have known Rachael for quite a while. She came to be my friend because she is best friends with Shauna (one of those childhood friends of mine I talked about above). I have gotten closer to her over the years and have always loved her dearly. BUT, this past year she came to me from what I thought of as a pretty close friendship to alter into a forever friendship that has captured this incredibly special place in my heart. Rach stepped into my heart when I needed her the very most. I think she knew how much I was hurting and she was able to help me see things about myself that I was not able to see. She has been a breath of fresh air for me and a confidant that I can turn to any day, at any time. Love you lady.

Under the Stars and Dreaming. I met this wonderful friend about 8 years ago when we used to work together over in hell (just kidding). But anyway, you know those friends when you leave a job and yeah, they were great friends while you worked there, but you'll never see them again...well Susie is SOOO not that friend. She's a friend that I will hang onto forever. Without her, my life just wouldn't be quite right. Although we are different in many ways, we also have so many of the same loves and we can talk for 4 hours straight and still not be done. We have remained friends over the years, to which I cannot be thankful enough. She is one of the smartest, most clever and funny people ever in the world of me. I am so glad I have her in my life.

I shall end my post with the most wonderful quote about friends that I have ever read:

"A friend is someone who knows the song of your heart and can sing it back to you, even when you have forgotten the words."

Surely Not

Is this the face of someone that would pick up a rock on the playground at school?

And is this the face of someone that would pick up said rock and CHUNK it at the door of the school and shatter the entire door?

No, surely not.

Happy Birthday Ladybug!!

Happy Birthday to you, faithful friend of mine.

You have known me for 24 years and still love me.

You have been a light in my life through good times and bad.

You know more about me than most...and again, you still love me!

You have been through all my big moments holding my hand along the way, my marriage, the births of my children and deaths that were too hard to bear on my own.

I wish you the best day today for it's not even close to what you have given me.

You are a treasure that I am so proud I can share with others.

I love you, not for 24 more years, but forevermore.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!

Fisher's Taylor

Fisher and Taylor have been friends since they were 18 months old and she lived across the street with her grandma and grandpa. They share the same birthday - the very same. Same age and everything.

This year is the first year they've been in the same class at school. They sit directly across from each other, which makes me very happy because she is one of the most kind and sweet and caring little girls I have ever met. Every minute that she spends with Fisher just makes me smile, because I know she is, without realizing it, showing Fisher how to be a good friend.

She has been to dinner with us several times and every time she's over at her grandparents house she is across the street in minutes to play with Fisher. They never fight and argue like when his "guy" friends come over. I love it. Every year on her birthday Fisher is the only friend she invites to join them. I know this will change when they get a little older and strictly do the "girl/guy" thing for a while, but for now I cherish it.

The other day Taylor was over playing and I went across the street to ask Ken if she could come to dinner with us and take some pictures here and there. He said absolutely. Well, I got the above pictures and a BUNCH more...but the best part of the day was when we were sitting down to dinner and they were talking about their class and how glad they will be when Ms. Williams is back from her honeymoon. I asked him about this little girl named Haley in his class because I heard a rumor that she had a crush on him. When I asked him, he got all flushed and silly. Taylor said, "It's true, she told me." And then she said, "Do you know what Haley told me? She said that she has known Fisher for FOUR years. And I just had to tell her, well oh yeah, we've known each other since we were babies!!" Maybe a little hint of jealousy at such a young age? :o) And you know, I know you can never pick for your children who you want them to end up with in life...but a mom can hope, right?

Sunday Photo Favorites #14

As If...

As if I need ONE more addiction to take me away from housework.


As if my habits I already have are not enough. As if Gardening and Reading and Movie-going and Scrapbooking and Photography and TV Watching and Blogging and now Facebook and Cooking and Bunco and all of these things and more are not enough wonderful habits to have...I must add ANOTHER...



THIS is Mancala, Y'all. The boys have been playing it in after-school for years and I always thought to myself, "Now how much fun can that really be? All they're doing is moving a buncha flattened marbles around a board." Well. Well. Hmpf. Fisher got the game from my Aunt Sandy and Uncle Ernie (otherwise known to my kids as Granny and Pop) for his birthday. I have played it a bazillion times and have been beat everytime and I could play about 899 more times just today and not get tired of it. WHY? It's so simple, but yet so fun. Another fun-filled way to hang out with your kiddos. But BEWARE...they'll try to make it where they want to play instead of you...you just hold your ground...you just tell them who's boss. But all joking aside, it is so much fun. Crazy little game.

A Speedy Quick Fast Recipe

That is OH SO GOOD!!!

I got it from my sister-in-law (Joan). She calls it Taco Soup, but I didn't get that same feeling...so I'm calling it:

Can of This, Can of That

1 lb ground beef
1 can hominy
1 can chopped or sliced black olives
1 can ranch style beans
1 can regular corn
1 can stewed diced tomatoes (I used Rotel instead)
1 pkg dried ranch dressing
Shredded Cheese
Frito's
1 cup water

Optional: diced red onions, Sour Cream

Brown ground beef in large pot. Add stewed tomatoes and boil for approx. 5 minutes. Add can of hominy, ranch style beans, olives, reg corn DO NOT DRAIN JUICES. Mix well then add dried pkg of ranch dressing. Let simmer for approx. 10 minutes. Add cup of water to "soup" and let simmer for a couple more minutes. Serve over Frito's with diced tomatoes, cheese and sour cream on top (All Optional...you can just eat like a soup).

Of course y'all know me and I added some more "spices" to the meat when it was browning and a can of HOT green chilies. I was fully prepared for my boys to say "YUCK" and eat a bowl of cereal instead....Y'ALL, they ate it UP!!!!

Enjoy.

**CORRECTION** I have been informed that was one of my other sister-in-law's (June's) recipe. I stand corrected. Whoever it was...DAMN it's good!!

Happy Birthday CC!!!

Just a Few...

Our bunco group has been together heading into our ninth year. We have ourselves a little bunco fiesta once a month to get together with our best girlfriends and we try to get together once a year to include our husbands and once a year to include all of our families. Today we were missing quite a few, but here are just a few pics of a couple of the precious kiddos that were in attendance.

Beck

Lindsey

Reed

Fisher

Gage

Sullivan

Amelia

Hayden

Eli

Hope everyone can make it next year. We sure missed Y'all!!!

Happy Birthday #9 Tootah!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Flight of Time

Nine years ago tonight will forever be on my mind as one of my most memorable. I couldn't sleep, we had tons of company and my anxiety was through the roof. We were living in a great big farm house in Plano, Texas and tending to the little Shetland Ponies for our landlord. We had quite the life. Pretty laid back, pretty easy.

As soon as Mac and I got married we (mostly me) decided it was time to start trying to have a baby. Almost 2 1/2 years to the day our dream came true. This is the birth story of Fisher. My first born. My sweet baby.

As I said, we were all cozied up with a house full of family anxiously awaiting his arrival. Two weeks prior I had been diagnosed with Preeclampsia so I knew the exact date of induction and was so excited yet so nervous at the same time. It was decided that Mac and Mom would go to the hospital with me and that my step-dad and my brother would soon follow. This was at 5:00 in the morning folks. It was a chilly chilly morning in the Dallas area, but I didn't mind. I got dressed in my shorts and sandals while Mom and Mac wore jeans and jackets. The cold didn't bother me a bit. (Mac had actually been wearing coats inside our house for the past few months because of how cold I wanted it. Funny Stuff.)

We walked into the hospital, signed in, got all the paperwork filled out and got settled into our birthing suite. My sister-in-law was head nurse of the labor and delivery unit, so I got all kind of special treatment...which later would be to my demise at the births of my other two children. When you know how it CAN be to be a rockstar when having your baby and then to find out how it really is in real life...ugh. Everyone should get special treatment. Anyway, after we got all settled in I soon got started on the dreadful drug named PITOCIN! You know it, don't you? After about 30 minutes on that mean drug I felt like I was being ripped apart from the inside.

I will never forget when it was time for the L&D nurses to "check" my dilatation for the first time, I told Mom and Charlie and Tony that it was time to leave. Charlie replied, "What, I'M supposed to leave? I don't have to, right?" Now, we all know that he was present when welcoming Mandy's first child into the world (the first time he met her she had her legs spread with a baby coming out), BUT....we all also know how modest I am, so I wasn't having any part of that sort of participation. I think he got over it fairly quickly???

After I was at approximately 4 cm dilated, Dr. Umholtz came to check me and told me it was okay to start the epidural. An hour or so after that, I met the most wonderful Anesthesiologist. For the life of me, I can't remember his name...but at the time, I thought I was going to french kiss him when it was all over. As you all know, the price to pay for the ease of pain is the actual slow-down of contractions and dilatation...but that was okay by me. Within 30 minutes I was back to feeling like a normal-ish human being instead of an alien.

Around 4:30 in the afternoon, I gave birth to the most precious baby on earth. He was everything I ever dreamed of. The most magical part of it all was how MUCH I was filled with love...not only for this brand new gift of mine, but for my husband too. It was far beyond anything I'd ever felt in the world. It's not an emotion I can explain...I just knew I had wished I could grab onto it forever.

I have since gone on to have 2 more wonderful, precious beautiful sons and there births were beautiful and miraculous also...but there's something about the birth of your first child that you just can't seem to explain. Amazing, truly and utterly amazing.

You CAN Cry on Celexa...

Apparently all you have to do is go see Nights in Rodanthe. And really, if you feel snot pouring out of your nose, it's okay...because the lady in front of you will be sobbing so hard she'll be snorting.