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.

90210

I know that I'm the only 36-year-old mom of three children that still is obsessed with that zip code, you don't have to tell me. I still can't seem to get enough of Kelly, Brenda, Nat...and soon to be Dylan. The show's not even that great, but it's getting better and I'm already hooked. LIKE I NEEDED ANOTHER ADDICTION, right?

But just check it out...they aren't THAT much different, right?

Come on...join me...you know you want to. Tuesday nights on the CW. Don't be scared!

F's...There you are!!

Sorry for the delay. I've been all busy and stuff these days. Can't seem to slow down. It's either a sick kid or a school thing or soccer or what-have-you. I've only got a FEW "Fs" to share. Enjoy.

Fisher. Of course.

Friends. Jacob and Fisher on the playground at sunset.

Frustrated. Eli is tired of being a model today. Tomorrow will be different.

Fashionable. Sully gets a real mohawk.

Maybe I Have Crossed the Line?

I suppose growing up and living in Austin has given me some sort of wordly open mindedness that others in different areas of Texas or even our beloved country might not come by naturally.

I have always loved and been intrigued by different cultures and ways of living. I don't think one way is right and one way is wrong, just that we are all co-existing together in the best way we can and that it's okay to be different as long as you're not hurting anyone else.

That being said, I've never been surprised by cross-dressers or trans-sexuals. I don't know what it is, but I've never been offended or scared or felt out-of-place or uncomfortable. I think there's enough people in the world that give in to that, so the place in which I reside in my own little world, I've always been quite proud of. Heck, the first person to ever cut my hair (besides my mother) was a year into the required therapy for a sex change. She was the best hair stylist EVER. Miss you Blair!! Which brings me to why my open-mindedness might go a little overboard sometimes.

I pulled up to McDonald's the other day and there was this man that had very obviously adopted the feminine side of his persona. He was very well manicured, Had the most beautiful long hair pulled back in a headband, eyebrows had recently been waxed and his color of lip gloss was quite appealing. He was the most polite individual I have ever dealt with in the McDonald's drive-thru, heck any drive-thru as a matter of fact.

But MAYBE I crossed the line...you be the judge. As he was handing me my 800 happy meals that it requires to feed my ever-growing lot of boys I call my kiddos I leaned out of my window and asked, "So, how many people have told you that you look like America Ferrera?" He said, "No one. I don't know who that is." And without a second thought, I started to explain that she was the girl in "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." To which his eyes got as big around as saucers and he replied, "OH. Is that a GOOD thing?" I said, "Um, yes, she's very beautiful." He chuckled a bit. And while I don't think he was offended in the slightest, the size of his surprised eyes reminded me that sometimes maybe my "open-mindedness" should be hindered a bit because at the precise moment we were driving off Sullivan asked, "Mommy, why did you just tell that man he looked like a beautiful woman?"

Gracious Golly. Must learn to self-edit. Not everyone needs to know what I am thinking at all times.

A Short Little Funny From This Weekend

It's always been a habit I adopted of my parents to do the "counting" method when my kiddos get into trouble. "1. 2. 3." But, in the last year or so I've switched it up a bit and counted down from 5 to 1. This method of counting seems to get paid attention to so much better in the Russell household...that IS until last night. I asked Sullivan (you know, "Evil with a Smile")to pick a toy of his up in the living room. He said "Nope." I said "Excuse me Young Man, WHAT did you say?" He replied, "I said NOPE, I ain't gonna do it." I said, "FIVE. FOUR. THREE. TWO. ONE!!!" and as he was running away from my mad grasp, he shouted....."BLAST OFF".

Little Turd.

Amen Jon Stewart...Get 'Em!!

Don't have a LOT of "E"s this week...

"E"s are extremely hard!! Plus, I've been stuck with my head in the Twilight books. I'm on the very tail-end of the fourth book. GAWD I'm hooked.

ANYHOOOOO.....here are the only "E"s I could come up with in my non-creative state:

Eli...of course!!



Eager. That Austin...he's a jumper!



Embrace. Austin and Ady lovin' on each other.



El Jefe. The boss.

EEEEEEK!! That's not one of mine...'tho I'm SURE he learned it from them.

Easygoing. Austin and Ady take a walk.

Extremely....as in cute.

Do These Pants...

...make my butt look big?

Happy Grandparents Day at School!!!

Thanks Mom...for always going up to the school to read to the boys on Grandparent's Day. Next year there will be THREE to read to! Smooches.

Alright. Alright. Alright...

So, you ALL know what a terrible movie whore I am. I can go to the movies EVERY single day of my life and sometimes even twice (right, Kel?) Well, in all the years that I have loved the movies and Big Hollywood, I have never ever had the chance to go to a movie premiere. I tried to go to a Kevin Smith one once, but it was ALL sold out.

Well one of my lifelong best friends, Shauna, had a spot open up with her group of buddies and she was so incredibly sweet to ask me to go. We had a BLAST!! Her buddies were a HOOT.

It was so fun to see Matt McC and Woody Harrelson in person. Shauna couldn't get her camera to snap the pics at the right time and I FORGOT TO BRING MY CAMERA. I know!

Anyway, it was quite an experience and one I'm glad I go to share with Shauna! Love you.

**NOTE TO READERS** I, myself thought Surfer, Dude was pretty cute. All the other girls didn't agree. But then again, y'all know that I am not a movie snob, I like almost everything out there. Plus, it's fun to see Matt, Woody and Willie Nelson all smoking weed on the big screen, dontcha think?

Happy THIRTIETH Birthday Beautiful!!

HEY Cupcake!!

Went to see Mamma Mia on Sunday with some of my posse. LOVED the movie, we laughed and sang and cried (well, those of us that aren't on anti-depressants anyway...what's that about? I can't cry anymore!! :)

Well afterwards, Missy and Rach suggested "Hey Cupcake" for just a little snack 'em. Missy had been talking about this place for MONTHS, so we couldn't wait to see what all the hype was about.

I'd seen the cute little airstream trailer down on Congress for quite some time and always thought, "What a great little gimmick"...never DREAMING the damn things would taste so good and be so BIG!!



*PLUS* There's a little bonus plan, you see. Just LOOK how skinny you look after eating one of those moist little cakes of love!!! I will be going back. Oh yes I will!!!