threesixfive, week 4

january has flown by! can you believe it?
we had a good week. the kids got to go to all their classes and events, and school was even finished each day!
bacon (our pet pig you can read about in the previous post if you missed it last week) was picked up monday and taken back to where he came from to be sold to someone else. and yes we got our money back. he wasnt a bad pet; just not the right pet for us. this may sound bizarre, but i'm good with snakes and frogs. i imagine theres a lizard in our future, but not for awhile.


sunday
we were given a dutch oven a couple weeks ago and i've used it a few times. its fabulous, and makes delicious stews and roasts. the best part for me? its red!

monday
we went to dunkin donuts for "dessert" after dinner. this is what the kids wore.

tuesday
we got the call tuesday afternoon that our friends had their third baby. after thinking about it for a couple days settled on the name mason. they'll call him ace. we went to the hospital that night to visit. so cute!!



wednesday
on the way home from mollys dance class i saw something sticking up out of the back of the truck in front of me. i kept laughing because it reminded me so much of the robot from short circut (one of my favorite movies when i was a kid--1986 to be exact). the first picture is one i pulled from the internet so you could see the comparison if youve never seen the movie. the second is the picture i took.

thursday

we had some friends over for dinner, and towards the end of the evening we got to talking about food. they had never been to gordoughs (a gourmet donut food trailer in austin), so we got one of the college students from church to come over so we could take them for dessert. i might add it was almost 11pm by the time we got down there. we felt like a group of college students ourselves. it was as delicious as ever.

friday

it was crazy hat day at co-op (just explaining colbys attire). the young explorers class did a lesson about taste and tastebuds. colby tasted coffee grounds, lemon juice, sugar, pretzels, and ate pink mashed potatoes and green eggs. it was a fun morning.

saturday

remember all those strips of cut up tshirts i posted a picture of a couple weeks ago? heres that project finally taking shape. can you guess what its going to be?

we have disciple now next weekend, so we'll be gearing up for that this week. the kids will be going to mimis house on friday, and i'll be helping with a group of our girls at a home somewhere in the city! i'll find out at the meeting tomorrow where allens putting me.
have a great week!!

threesixfive, week 3

another week of sickness misxed in with a little adventure.
molly woke up in the middle of the night monday with an ear infection and what turned out to be some kind of throat infection (???). so now, on saturday night, colbys got one dose of antibiotic left, and molly is about half way thru her rounds of two different antibiotics. crazy. i'm hoping we'll finally be done with all this after next week.
also...we got a pig. with colbys allergies, i started looking into teacup pigs, and mini pot bellies, etc, but theyre very very expensive. we found out a friends uncle had one they were wanting to sell because their daughter, who they bought it for in october for her birthday, wasnt interested in it anymore. bacon came to live with us (yes thats his name) friday afternoon, but the excitement was short lived. colby and molly loved him for about an hour, but then realized that, although hes super cool (i mean, its a pig, right?!?), hes not exactly soft and cuddly and playful. the kids spent all saturday morning in their rooms with their doors shut because they didnt want the pig coming in, and then later in the day colby said. "hes not that great. i cant hold him and love on him like i could roxy." roxy was the puppy we had to give back after having her for only a day because colby and i both reacted to her. that made sense, but its still a bummer. the good thing is im not having to get rid of it and break my kids' heart, theyre completely willing to give him back. when the guy we bought him from brought him over yesterday, i had asked him if we could take him on a "trial basis" in case it wasnt a good fit, and he said yes. so thats a good thing too. the lesson ive learned thru all this, between the puppy and the dog, is that we're probably just not pet people. not big pets anyway. snakes and frogs i can do. and maybe lizards. but anything not requiring a small cage should probably be off limits to the frans clan.
here are the pictures for the week.

sunday
we went to chuck-e-cheese for adlers birthday.

monday

we went to a church strategy conference in houston on tuesday, so we drove up monday night so my mother in law could keep the kids at her house while we were gone for the day. colby didnt finish his school monday, and had to bring it with him to mimis house. i took a picture of him finishing up his work, and he did not appreciate it.

tuesday

this is the stage at the conference. so cool! i want this in my house!!

wednesday

we stayed home wednesday and rested from the long day tuesday and molly not feeling well. colby dressed up and performed for my entertainment.

thursday

colby and mo acting silly in the car while we were waiting for swim school to start.

friday

meet bacon. our temporary new addition.

saturday

bedtime for bacon.

have a great week everyone!!!

threesixfive, week 2

hello everyone!! we've been fighting a losing battle with allergies this week. colby woke up thursday with an ear infection, and was put on an antibiotic as well as a nasal spray because just the inhaler and zyrtec arent doing the trick. poor guy. he inhereted my "i hate pollen and mold" gene. mollys been pretty snotty, too, so they stayed home from co-op on friday. the jury is still out on church tomorrow. i'll have to see how theyre doing in the morning.
other than that little hiccup, it was so stinkin awesome to have a predictable, routine-filled week.
lets have a look....

sunday

we made a trek out to the waffle house for dinner with a group from church. youre looking at hashbrowns; scattered, smothered, covered, and topped. that means chili, onions, and cheese. they weren't bad, but i'll stick with waffles next time.

monday

my parents came by to say hi and ended up staying for dinner. my dad hates mushrooms (too late, i had already put them in), but just to show hes a good sport, he tried one. it was a no go. he ate around them.

tuesday

i made this! its a 5-strand tshirt headband. i even used my sewing machine! i made a really fat teal one too that broke my needle. :-/ they're great for wearing to workout! and cute, too. forgive the smattering of bath towels in the background. welcome to my bathroom, which will hopefully get decorated post tax-return.





wednesday

the conference room at church where i meet with my accountability partner every wednesday. this was our first week back in over a month with the holidays and grandpa passing away. it was so good to sit and visit with her! love you, girl!





thursday

one of my christmas presents and new favorite toys (besides my sewing machine which i'm still learning how to use). i'm drinking way too much tea and coffee because its just so darn convenient.

friday

i'm cutting about 40 tshirts into 1in X 4in strips. i'll show you why hopefully in a couple weeks. fingers crossed i can get it done in time for disciple now.

saturday

a few of the senior girls came over tonight to celebrate one of them turning 18. i made tacos and we had cupcakes. we also played quelf. if you've never heard of this game, then the picture will make no sense to you whatsoever. i'm wearing a homemade snorkel and a foil glove on my left hand in which i'm also holding a yankee candle because its not my turn and its also bigger than my fist, AND i'm hiding in a fort i had to construct until my next turn. out. of. control.

for those of you suffering from early spring allergies (booo to cedar fever!) i hope for both our sakes that it clears up soon! i heard the other day that theres talk of a bill being passed in austin forbidding the planting of cedar trees and mandating the cutting down of all those currently in the city limits because they use too much water, something thats a hot commodity around here lately. i love trees, but i think i would support that happening. my nose and eyes would be so grateful!

have a blessed week!

threesixfive, week 1

i can believe its a new year! 2011 flew by so quickly, of course that seems to be happening each year the older i get, or the older my kids get as it may be.
i'm sticking with project 365 again this year. even though the pictures get redundant or boring sometimes, i'm always glad i have something to look back on and remind me of what we did week in and week out. it also keeps me on here more consistently than i would be otherwise.

you get a few extra pictures this week. we got together with the barners and lamberts for NYE like we do every year. i believe this is the 8th year in a row. its so good to have friends like that.
we also drove to mt pleasant for grandpas funeral (he died in a hospital in tyler on friday the 30th. i blogged about it a few entries ago if youre interested in details). its unfortunate to need such circumstances to get together with family, but it was so good to see everyone, even friends of my parents and grandparents that i hadnt seen in probably 20 years!

here we go...

sunday, jan 1st
lambets, us, and barners at woodland in downtown austin. delicious!!! if youre ever in the austin area, i highly recommend it!

monday, jan 2nd

we drove 6 hours to mt pleasant. the viewing was monday night.

tuesday, jan 3rd

me and my dad at grandma and grandpas house, after the funeral

this is my uncle (hes in the back towards the left) and his eight kids, who i pretty much never get to see (they live in louisiana). grandma is with them on the front row, left side.

uncle scott, grandma, and dad




wednesday, jan 4th

colby and molly hanging out in grandpas chair

thursday, jan 5th

i started practicing with my new sewing maching. all i have is strips left over from the wreaths i made for christmas, so ive been sewing them together. im getting the hang of it....i think. :-/

friday, jan 6th

molly missed a friends birthday party over the new years weekend, so she brought molly a party hat to co-op today. so sweet.

saturday, jan 7th

a lazy day at home complete with brownie twists from the easy bake oven. all they did was make me want real brownies.

im SSOOOO ready to be back in a routine after the last few weeks we've had. the kids didnt do school at all this week, and i havent been to the gym since before christmas thanks to a stubborn case of bronchitis that im just now getting over. seriously, monday cant get here fast enough!

blessings to you all this first weekend of 2012!

country rocks

as many of you know, my grandpa passed away last friday morning.
we were in east texas the first half of the week for his funeral. my family out there lives on more acres than they can count, and most of it is beautiful undeveloped pasture and woods. there are cows and horses and ponds; its a kids dream.
molly and colby were playing out in a field right after the graveside (grandpa is buried there on the land in a family cemetary), and molly came up to allen and said
molly: daddy look at this cool rock!! it has swirls in it!
allen: molly, thats dried up poop.

she immediately dropped it and now that i think of it, i didnt hear that story until much later and im not sure she washed her hands for quite sometime after that incident. ew.

threesixfive, days 355 thru 361???

somehow i dont have enough days in my year.....not sure how that happened.

its been a very long very hard week. warning: long story ahead.

my parents headed to mt pleasant,tx christmas night to spend a few days with my grandparents (on dads side) and celebrate christmas with them.

i got a call tuesday late morning that they found grandpa laying in the driveway (only a minute or so after it had happened, thank the Lord), and it appeared as if he had fallen out of the car while reaching to close the door (he had gone out to start it up and wait for everyone to come load up to go to lunch). when the ambulance got him to the hospital they discovered a collapsed lung and his heart was extremely enlarged. it was hard to tell if something happened in his body that caused him to fall, or if the fall caused the lung to collapse, although they believe it had been collapsing slowly over the last couple of months based on information from my grandma. the enlarged heart was not caused by the fall, but could easily have caused him to pass out briefly. he was admitted to the ICU and put on a breathing tube and a pulse to keep his heart beating correctly. they also had to figure out what to do about his lung. i felt very compelled to go and be with my family, so i left wednesday afternoon after we received more information and got to mt pleasant wednesday night (about a 5 hour drive). thursday morning he was stable enough for them to do a CT scan and they found a spot in his brain that needed further exploration. theres not a neurologist at the hospital there, so they flew him an hour and a half away to tyler. the specialist in tyler said the spot on his brain was a stroke and they would have to run some more tests and see how he did over the weekend before any major decisions could be made (drs wait 3 days after diagnosing a stroke before they discuss treatment). thursday afternoon his heart started beating very irregularly, and after some discussion with the nurse, a lot of prayer, and some hard but necessary and very candid heart to heart talks with my grandma, we decided it was best to remove the breathing tube and everything else they had him hooked up to. they couldnt actually get a dr to come in and do that until 8:30 friday morning. grandpa breathed really well on his own for about 5 or 6 minutes, then it became more shallow and his heart rate slowed. he closed his eyes and went to be be with the Lord at 8:37. thursday night my parents, my grandma, and i, stood around his bed and sang to him and talked to him. he couldnt respond, but he could hear us and every once in awhile he'd squeeze our hand. when they took the breathing tube out he actually rasped out a 'thank you'. we knew he was ready to go.

my mom and i came home friday afternoon, while my dad stayed with grandma.

we're leaving in the morning to go back for the service on tuesday.

i appreciate thoughts and prayers for my grandma. shes the godliest woman i know, so i know she'll be ok, but theres of course a grieving process to go thru. they just celebrated 55 years of marriage. he was 79 years old.

on a lighter note, here are my pictures for the week.

sunday

merry christmas!!!! molly got a mrs potts tea set, and has been quite the waitress since.

monday

allen got me a sewing machine!! so far i can thread it and sew a crooked line, but i WILL learn!

tuesday

we took some friends and a trailer to belton and went thru a great trail of lights they have there. this is me and molly and my friend emily and her two girls addie (mollys best friend) and katie.

wednesday

my new bedspread!! i love it!

thursday

i very quickly got this picture of grandpa being loaded in the helicopter so they could transport him to tyler.

friday

this is my grandpa and grandma. this picture is about 25 years old, but its seriously the most recent one i could find hanging in their house. :-/ they're not picture takers.

saturday

happy new year!!!!!

again, i covet your prayers for my family as we travel this week and spend time celebrating the life of my grandpa.

have a blessed first week of 2012!