The Frans Clan

threesixfive, week 4

2012-01-28T13:59:00.001-08:00

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

2012-01-21T19:03:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-14T19:58:00.001-08:00

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

2012-01-07T15:34:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-05T13:52:00.000-08:00

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???

2012-01-01T14:08:00.000-08:00

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!

threesixfive, days 348 thru 354

2011-12-24T21:37:00.000-08:00

its 6 minutes to christmas and i'm exhausted. gifts are wrapped, stockings stuffed, breakfast casserole is in the crockpot, and my pillow is calling. so straight to the main event....

sunday, day 348

we woke up to find that ace had turned our milk green. we never know what he's going to do next! ;-)

monday, day 349

a last minute grocery store purchase of window crayons kept them busy for awhile.

tuesday, day 350

every year the seniors adopt a family in need and go christmas shopping for them, then deliver the presents as a group. i heard about a single mom that just moved to the area who was in need of pretty much everything, and got her information to the senior sunday school teacher. i was able to go with them to make the delivery. 18 students donated just under $1000 and were able to bless this lady and her daughter beyond anything they could have thought. this is the line of students as we knocked on her door and waited to go in.

wednesday, day 351

for the last wednesday night youth meeting of this year, and the last one before christmas, allen did a movie theme night. they watched elf and had an eating contest. if you're familiar with the movie, you'll know what this is. it was a tie between two girls. they out-ate the boys way too easy.

thursday, day 352

ace replaced colby and mollys stockings with their underwear!! thankfully he left mine and allens alone. :-)

friday, day 353

for the 6th year in a row, we spent an evening with shayne and kristin and they prayed over molly and colby as we approach a new year.

saturday, day 354

we went to my parents house after christmas eve service for dinner. my mom bought fuzzy fabric baseballs and pulled all the red thread out of them to make them look like snowballs, so we had a "snowball" fight and played different games with them out in their gameroom.

have a merry christmas!!!!

brought to you by the letter L

2011-12-22T13:29:00.000-08:00

the youth worker christmas party was a week and a half ago, and we went to a pottery place here in town where everyone got to paint either a mug or an ornament. i painted an ornament with red and lime green stripes, then painted the word 'noel' on it in black letters. you havent seen a picture, because its not that great. :-/
anyway, the other day allen picked them up from the shop and brought them to our house, and i had mine sitting on the kitchen counter when colby asked
colby: does that say noel?
allen: yes it does.
colby: what does that mean?
allen: it means mommy doesnt like the letter L. no L.
colby: what?! mommy, you dont like the letter L?
me: nope.
colby: why??
me: its worthless. i dont like it at all.
allen: mommys jealous because we all have L's in our name and she doesnt.
colby: really, mommy? is that why you dont like L?
me: (pretending to cry) its true. L doesnt like me. i just want an L like you guys have.
molly: (hugging me) mommy, please dont cry! i LOVE you!! its ok, mommy!
me: hey! i know! molly, you can give me one of your L's! you have two! can i have one of your L's and then we'll all have one?
molly: (long pause...thinking....)no, i dont think so. i like both of my L's. but daddy has two. maybe he'll give you one of his.

the conversation kind of died after that. she did tell my later that she'd trade me an L for my M, but that didnt seem like a very good deal to me, so we're all leaving our names as they are.

threesixfive, days 341 thru 347

2011-12-17T18:23:00.001-08:00

merry 1 week till christmas!! i was feeling pretty crummy all week, but realize after some review that my pictures dont reflect that at all, which i guess is a good thing. i feel much better today, but i'm coughing like crazy and my voice will probably be gone by tomorrow. i'm looking into taking a temp job as a 1-900 operator. ;-) kidding, kidding.
my sweet momma was rushed to the ER early thursday morning after about a day and a half of what we thought was a stomach bug. it turns out her appendix had ruptered and they did an emergency appendectomy. shes still in the hospital recovering, but we're hoping she'll be sent home tomorrow. please pray for a quick recovery for her! the good thing is things have slowed down for now so she can rest, but what a bummer time of year to be laid up post-op. makes me think right about this time last year colby was having his adnoids and tonsils out. molly may be next; we'll revisit that in the spring.
i'm rambling.
on to pictures....

sunday, day 341
i snagged this platter at world market, and i love it!!!! i've been wanting a pretty christmas platter, but nothings grabbed my attention like this one did. now i need to make something yummy to break it in.

monday, day 342
they had this cut out next to a very santa-esque chair at the grocery store today. i'm thinking santa made a visit over the weekend and they hadnt taken the "set" down yet.

tuesday, day 343
i ventured into the land of homemade laundry detergent today. i saw a thing on pinterest where a lady made some (the same recipe i used) and it cost her $20 and lasted over 9 months! i had to shred 2 large bars of zote soap with my cheese grater, but other than that it was pretty painless.

wednesday, day 344
the parents were invited into dance class today to watch a christmas performance. they each got to take a candy cane home at the end. molly did a great job.

thursday, day 345
allen needed to change our a.c. filter, but my dad had borrowed our ladder to use up at church. a couple of kitchen chairs and a stepstool later, he had it taken care of. i was a nervouse wreck in the meantime.

friday, day 346
we woke up this morning to find that ace had toilet papered the guest bathroom!! what a troublemaker. the good thing is he always cleans up after himself. ;-)

saturday, day 347
christmas morning at mimis. molly got a doll that was customized and ordered to look just like her, complete with matching dresses. molly named her jessie.

have a fantastic week!!! enjoy the countdown, and time with your loved ones!

i'll see you all back here on christmas eve!!

threesixfive, days 334 thru 340

2011-12-10T19:04:00.001-08:00

baby its cold outside!! of course, i suppose thats relative. you northerners would probably be out swimmin' or something, but the sweaters and wool peacoats made their first appearance this week. there was even a sheet of ice (a very very thin sheet, but ice is ice) on my windshield one morning!! most days we had stripped down to one layer by the afternoon, but beggars cants be choosers i suppose. i'll take what i can get.

sunday, day 334
i'm working on more projects, the results of which you'll see later in the week!!

monday, day 335
ace decided to keep watch from colbys light chain today. :-)

tuesday, day 336
tonight after dinner we went to look at christmas lights. theres a neighborhood of gorgeous homes near us with several cul-de-sacs in a row, and most of them are decorated beautifully. this one had its lights set to music. we sat there for 20 minutes and watched the whole show.

wednesday, day 337
i scavenged pinecones from my inlaws' yard in houston last week and spray painted them orange and teal. the orange doesnt pop as much as i'd like, but i still like them.

thursday, day 338
every year my friends lauren and april and i exchange gifts. april (whos an art teacher) has always been, well, artsy. lauren and i just jumped on the crafty artsy bandwagon a couple years ago, and so its kind of become "the thing" to make something for each other. i got this idea off pinterest. they're earring holders; you just hook them thru the burlap. i dont have pierced ears, though, so when i get around to making one for myself, it will be art on the mantle.

friday, day 339

tonight was the church staff christmas party. this is the white elephant gift pile.

saturday, day 340

allen and i took the kids to the mall to see santa.

this week we have a 2 christmas parties, then we're going to my inlaws to celebrate with them for a couple days. will you be traveling or staying put this year?

threesixfive, days 327 thru 333

2011-12-04T08:02:00.000-08:00

hello everyone! we are on our third day of rain here in round rock, but i am absolutely not complaining! we've needed it for quite sometime. i was feeling crummy all week in the evenings. i'd be fine till about 4 oclock, and then id get a pounding headache and just be exhausted. all that to say, my pictures arent terribly exciting, because most of the week was spent at home.

sunday, day 327
my jewelry was out of control, so i reorganized! i saw the paper towel holder for bracelets idea on pinterest. i tried putting all my headbands around an oatmeal canister (also a pinterest idea), but either the one i saw a picture of was a really big oatmeal container, or i have a very large head, because they all just slid right down. i had this basket in my closet, though, so its working for now. my necklaces are on a little board with hooks in it (something youd use for bathtowels, or maybe jackets). i like the way its all working...for now.

monday, day 328

at the grocery store, the kids saw a barrel of nuts, and i was telling them what the different kinds were. we went ahead and bought a small sack full (and a nutcracker), so i could show them how nuts actually look before we buy them already shelled. they had fun with it.

tuesday, day 329

allen and i spent the evening wrapping presents. i'm done with all my shopping; even the stockings! how about you??

wednesday, day 330
colbys been reading these frog and toad books as part of his schoolwork, and loves them! hes actually wanting to read now (most of the time).

thursday, day 331

we had a birthday party this evening at a bowling alley. i only bowled a couple of frames, but i think molly and colby would have both beaten me if i had played a full game. even with the bumpers up i'm just awful.

friday, day 332

allens mom had her christmas party for the kids on friday. shes done halloween the past couple years, but this year the kids asked for christmas. our friends the ogradys went with us, and we spent all afternoon doing crafts, and playing games. she does such a great job.

saturday, day 333

ace is back! he showed up thursday evening and will be with us until he has to go back to the north pole on christmas eve. the kids were so excited to see him.

as i said earlier, i'm officially done with all my christmas shopping. i'm still doing some craft stuff. i have one more set of coasters to make, and i'm hopefully going to finally make my own christmas wreath this week. i also collected a sack of pine cones at my mother in laws house when we were there friday, and i'm going to spray paint those and put them in a bowl or a glass vase somewhere.

on a side note, we went and saw arthur christmas last saturday, and it was a very very good christmas movie if youre looking for something to see with your family.

have a blessed week!!

threesixfive, days 320 thru 326

2011-11-26T14:20:00.000-08:00

i hope everyone had a pleasant thanksgiving with their families!
this week my mom and i got two days away in a town about two hours from us, called boerne. we ate and shopped and had "girl time". it was fabulous!
then we ate more on thursday. :-/ needless to say i'm looking forward to getting to the gym on monday. i have a bit of catching up to do.

sunday, day 320
our church held its annual thanksgiving dinner. it was packed. and delicious!

monday, day 321

this is our room at the bed and breakfast. each room had a theme. we were in the 'garden room.'

tuesday, day 322

this was a display at one of the shops we went in. i love the old doors as a headboard, and all the same color. i could never have that much white in my house. well, i could, but it wouldnt stay white for very long.

wednesday, day 323
i told colby to go get ready for bed and he came out in this getup. of course molly had to pose with him for a picture.

thursday, day 324
happy thanksgiving!! we went to allens aunts house in waco and celebrated with about 25 of his relatives. this is how most of the guys and kids passed the time.

friday, day 325

every year we decorate the house for christmas on friday after thanksgiving. the tall santa on the left of the mantle is a new addition. i love him.

saturday, day 326
every year the kids each pick a new ornament to add to the tree. colby picked batman (his latest obsession ) and molly picked some irish angel somethingerather. i dont know what it is, but its not the 'campus sweetheart' barbie ornament she picked first, so im good with the irish chick.

after a hectic routineless week, i will welcome monday with open arms. stay warm and dry (we've had lots of sporadic rain this week) if that applies to you. have a blessed week!!

threesixfive, days 313 thru 319

2011-11-20T13:16:00.000-08:00

it was a very emotional week for us. if youre out of the loop you can go back two posts and read about our dog fiasco.

i'll get right to the pictures.

sunday, day 313

we got a puppy! a 6-week-old schnauzer. meet roxy.

monday, day 314

we had to get rid of the puppy. very sad. again, to get the full story, click here.

this is colby holding her and singing to her (she's passed out asleep from them playing with her for a solid two hours) right before her new family came to pick her up.

tuesday, day 315

our friends aaron and justine came over for dinner and games. they were welcome company after the monday we had!

wednesday, day 316

allen brought this home to cheer colby up. molly got a cinderella mask.

thursday, day 317
i worked all day making coasters to give to the moms at the homeschool co-op we're a part of for teacher appreciation. they turned out great!!

friday, day 318

my kids have perfectly nice, big rooms to play in, but they prefer dragging all their stuff into the living room!! i dont mind too much; its all put away before bed!

saturday, day 319

i had to laugh when i noticed allens dry cleaning pile-- three different shirts, all orange. can you tell he's getting on board with the "think orange" strategy our church is adopting?

allen preached again this morning. part two of the sermon he started last week. i posted a video of last weeks message here if youre interested. you can find out what all the gumballs were for. :-) i think they did a video of todays sermon too. i'll post it as soon as its ready.

tomorrow i leave for a two day getaway to boerne with my mom. we're staying at a little bed and breakfast, and shopping for a couple days. it was my gift to her for her 50th back in june, but we're just now getting around to going. i'm really looking forward to it. boerne is a cute little town and my mom is pretty awesome, so i figure i cant go wrong with the two in combination with each other.

i hope you have a fantastic thanksgiving! we're making a day trip to waco to spend it with all of allens extended family. stay safe and warm (if that applies to you. its 80 degrees and muggy here today. blah.)!!

allens sermon

2011-11-18T20:02:00.000-08:00

here's allens sermon from Sunday morning. it was his first time to speak to the church as the family pastor and he shared a new strategy our church will be implementing. we're so excited about where the Lord is taking us. also, you kind find out what the gum balls are for. :-)

Why Orange? 11/13/11 from Central Round Rock on Vimeo.

epic fail

2011-11-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

if there was a mother of the year award, I would definitely be out of the running.

approximately 48 hours ago we picked up our cute, fluffy, adorable new schnauzer puppy, who we christened 'roxy'. we brought her home and played with her and quickly became attached. not long after her joyous arrival, I started itching. all over,but mostly my face and neck. I didn't really pay attention until later that night when I was still itching. suddenly it dawned on me that it might be the puppy.
'I'm not allergic to dogs!' I thought to myself. however, as a child I actually did test positive to dog and cat allergies among a myriad of other things. we had just always had animals around, and I was on allergy medicine pretty much all the time, so either that was doing the job well enough that I didn't notice any kind of adverse reaction, OR my body adjusted to having animals in the house (which I've read can most definitely happen).

we haven't had an animal (with hair) in the house for 7 years, though, so at this point I'm wondering if I really do have a mild allergy, and having a puppy right up in my face aggravated that allergy.
I sat there on my living room floor Sunday night, wondering what I should do. I decided to give it some time and hopefully it either wasn't actually the dog, or I would adjust like I did as a kid.
fast forward to Monday morning.
wait, let me back up first.....
7 years ago,when Colby was one,we had him allergy tested because he had a mild reaction to eggs, and was just generally a congested kid. we found out at that time that he was indeed allergic to eggs as well as cats and dogs. they cant test for seasonal allergies that young, but I figured he probably had a healthy dose of that as well, just like his momma.

we had a cat at the time; mine from when I was about 13 years old. I hated to get rid of her, but as soon as we did, Colby showed a marked difference. (my mom took her, and although very old, she's still alive so I get to see her often. yay!) as he's grown it's very obvious that he can't be around cats or dogs without benadryl coursing through his body.
over the years we've heard about different hypo-allergenic dogs, and have even 'test-driven' schnauzers at different pet stores, always with very mild but still clear reactions from Colby. a family in our church had a litter of schnauzer puppies 6 weeks ago and while Allen and I were in Maine, my mom took the kids over to visit and play with them. they were there for about 45 minutes, and Colby didnt have a reaction! I took them back last weekend (on Friday) to see for myself, with the intent to buy the last one left, a little girl. Colby once again came away hive free, so we happily made plans to come back and get her on Sunday when she was officially 6 weeks old, and clear to go to a new home.
now fast forward to Monday morning.

we wake up, have breakfast, and the kids play with the puppy for about an hour. then it happened. sneezing, eye rubbing, and it wasn't me like the night before (but I was still having some kind of reaction). it was Colby. my heart dropped. were we going to have to get rid of this puppy? the puppy my kids have been wanting since forever??
I very gently told Colby what I saw happening and that I was reacting as well, and that we might have to find her a new home. we all cried, then I made some phone calls. I thought about and talked through the options, namely if we should wait a week or two and see if we would in fact adjust. we decided that if there was any chance that we would have to pull the plug it was better to do it sooner rather than later. I would hate to have the kids get even more attached, the dog gets trained, learns her name, and the after all that we still have to find her another home. id probably rather stick nails in my eyeballs.
a family in our church that we know well and love was able to come pick her up last night and give her a new home. we'll be able to visit and take her on the occasional walk. they renamed her Zoe, which was our second name choice. it was a very long, very emotional couple of days here at our house. we took the kids the gattiland for pizza and games last night, and let them stay up past their bedtime. today we made a trip to target where they each bought two new toys with their birthday money from great-grandma. so I guess it's safe to say that we're getting through it with junk food and, well, junk. :-)
there's talk of a hamster, but I know allergies to those are possible, too, and not altogether uncommon. I'd hate to have to do this again. I think for the time being we're unfortunately going to have to stick to animals of the scaly variety.
they're just not very good cuddlers.

even though shes not ours anymore, here she is. cute little thing.

for those of you waiting for allens sermon, i'll have a link up tomorrow.

threesixfive, day 306 thru 312

2011-11-12T19:31:00.000-08:00

we had a very full week, starting with a trip to great wolf lodge for colby and mollys birthdays. allens preaching tomorrow, so we brainstormed some ideas for that, and we made a pretty last minute decision to get a puppy. we dont pick her up till tomorrow, so no pictures yet. she'll get her own post this week i'm sure. :-)
heres what we did this week...

sunday, day 306
molly got a haul of squinkies for her birthday. what are squinkies you ask? teenie tiny little toys that will inevitably get sucked up in my vaccum cleaner. allen and i are taking bets on how long it will be before they've all disappeared. but i have to admit, they are kinda cute.

monday, day 307

we spent the morning in the car and the afternoon swimming and riding water slides at the resort (no pictures of it, though. sorry.). it was a great trip because colby was big enough to ride everything on his own, and there were only two slides molly couldnt go on, although she certainly would have if they'd let her. i definitely have two thrill seekers on my hands. we went to dinner at the rainforest cafe (one of the kids favorite places to go if theres one where we are) and ordered the volcano for dessert. that thing didnt stand a chance.

tuesday, day 308 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOLLY!!!)

theres a game at the GWL called magiquest. the kids begged and begged to play last time, but its pricey, so we didnt. this time since we were celebrating birthdays, we splurged. it was really really cool. they each got a magic wand and you have to go all over the 8 floors of the building to find clues and get points to free the pixies and fight the dragon. the wands are synched up to everything so you just wave it at something and it will come to life and give you your next "task" or whatever. allen and i had just as much fun with it as they did.

wednesday, day 309

my big 5-year-old girl at lunch with my family. i love when she wears her hair down, which is pretty much never (she lives in a headband).

thursday, day 310

i made this hair clip!! between the spray adhesive, hot glue, and felt backing, im not sure my fingers will ever be the same, but im pleased with how it turned out.

friday, day 311

we went to a coffee house to hear the band that leads our youth worship on wednesday nights. this is the drummers wife, mandy, and colby, wearing his new and somewhat obnoxious but adorable hat over bright pink earphones (they belong to mandys daughter ramona who typically wears them at the concerts, unless a handsome 7 year old wants to try them out).

saturday, day 312

we went up to the church this morning to set the stage up for allens sermon tomorrow. 3,000 red gumballs and 40 yellow. i'll post a link to his sermon this week so you can go find out what they're for if you want to. ;-) hows that for incentive?

as i said earlier, tomorrow we will be the proud new owners of a schnauzer puppy. i'll share pictures of her later this week. looks like between that and posting the sermon, i'll be on here at least twice between now and saturday...between potty training our new addition of course. i thought i was past those days.

have a blessed week!!

threesixfive, days 299 thru 305

2011-11-06T13:28:00.001-08:00

just another week here. mimi and papa visited from houston mid-week to deliver birthday presents, so it was great to see them. other than that, everything was pretty standard.
heres what we did...

sunday, day 299
i'm working on a wreath for my memaws birthday coming up in another week and a half. these are the fabrics i chose. her house is mostly blue with little splashes of pinks and purples.

monday, day 300

day 300?!? that means only 65 days left this year. crazy.

heres my little candy corn and pizza slice all dressed up to go trick or treating.

tuesday, day 301
we had a playdate at a friends house, and colby found this headband that i guess is supposed to be pumpkin-esque in nature. he put his head on the coffee table next to the other pumpkin and tried to blend in.

wednesday, day 302
im in the process of unpackaging and hanging up all the costumes i purchased for the co-op christmas skit. colby and molly wanted to test a couple of them out for me.

thursday, day 303

new haircuts!!

friday, day 304

this was colbys main bday gift from mimi and papa. he hasnt stopped playing with it since thursday.

saturday, day 305

this is the barner family. theyre the ones whos baby girl passed away last week. if you didnt watch the video last week check it out on the previous post. their story is touching. the celebration service in honor of caroline was saturday morning, and to wrap up the service, they did a dove release. such a cool thing to see and be a part of.

mollys birthday is tuesday (she'll be 5), and we're heading out tomorrow morning for a dual birthday celebration trip. each year we've had one party for colby and molly together, since their birthdays are only 10 days apart. this year they werent as keen on that idea, so instead of having a party (or parties as it were...or wouldve been), we talked them into taking a trip. the four of us are spending 2 days and a night at the great wolf lodge in grapevine. its an indoor waterpark, plus some other pretty cool things. we went a couple years ago, but theyre taller now, so they'll be able to do more this time. it should be a lot of fun!

have a blessed week!

threesixfive, days 292 thru 298

2011-10-30T17:06:00.000-07:00

we had quite a week, full of ups and downs, and finally some fall weather. sunday it was announced to the church that allen will be stepping into a new position as family pastor, and will be overseeing babies thru 12th grade. its an exciting but somewhat daunting step to take. they're looking to hire a youth associate and soon after that a childrens director. please keep us and our church in your prayers.
pictures....

sunday, day 292
i watched the youth workers' kids for allens meeting, and was happy to get this shot of colby with tate. he loves babies.

monday, day 293
i finally took some of my feathers out. these are the ones i had put in back in march!! MARCH! they were way grown out, obviously. i still have the others from june. i'll leave them in a bit longer.

tuesday, day 294
i was at the hospital for a lot of the day with our dear friends the barners. lauren found out about 16 weeks into her pregnancy that their baby had a terminal condition and would not live outside the womb. knowing that life is a gift from God, they chose to carry their baby to term and love her for as long as the Lord would allow them to here on this earth. caroline joy was born tuesday afternoon, and lived for 66 minutes before going to be with her heavenly father. they have an incredible story you can watch below. they are truly incredible people.

Parent Commitment for Caroline Joy Barner. from Central Round Rock on Vimeo.

wednesday, day 295
i posted this painting to craigslist. it was in our formal dining room, which is no more. i hate to see it go, but if it doesnt sell it will wait in the attic until i have another room to put it in.

thursday, day 296

molly graduated from level one swim school!! she started in june and progressed beautifully! next week she'll be in level two with colby.

friday, day 297

happy 7th birthday to me sweet boy. you can read his thoughts about the day here. (click on it.)

saturday, day 298

we spent the morning at our churches fall festival. our friends the farrells have triplets, and played on that for their halloween costumes. they were adorable.

whew, i'm tired from reliving all that through my words and pictures just now.

i hope you have a fabulous week!!

happy birthday colby!!

2011-10-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

my little man turns 7 today! well, actually not officially until 9:35 tonight...or maybe its 9:37, but you get the idea.

we had co-op this morning, and i let him wear a "birthday boy" pin on his shirt i'd kept from last year. he made sure to point it out to anyone and everyone who happened to be in the room with him. or walking by....or within earshot.

after co-op he picked chick-fil-a for lunch, praise the Lord. i was dreading, er, i mean anticipating a trip to mcdonalds.

when we got to chick-fil-a i immediately took them to the restroom to get that little adventure out of the way and get their hands washed. i sent colby into the mens room and waited outside the door. when he came out he had a big wet spot on his pants and informed me he had pee'd on himself, offering a demonstration of how it happened. i passed.

at first i thought, no big deal, we'll eat, they'll play, it'll dry. but walking behind him thru the restaraunt i could smell him, and people were looking. i didnt want to be the mom that let her kid play in the playscape with pee all over his pants. on his birthday.

so we went home (about a 10 minute drive), changed his pants, and went back up there.
from there we went to meet allen, and parents, and my grandparents for fro-yo and presents.

after that we made a quick stop at the grocery store to get stuff for dinner. colby wanted me to make him a pepperoni pizza. we came home, he and molly played with his new toys (after i spent a good twenty minutes opening the boxes and untwisting all those infuriating twisty tie things), and now the pizza is being consumed as they watch a movie before bed (madagascar; his choice). i'd say it was a successful day. mollys birthday is in 10 days, so we get to do it all again pretty soon.

i asked colby earlier

me: colby are you enjoying your birthday? has it been a great day?

colby: YES!! well, except the part where i pee'd on myself.

is it bad that my first thought was 'hmm...i wonder if we'll have this same conversation in another 50 or so years, only the other way around'?

colby in 50ish years: mom, are you enjoying your birthday? has it been a great day?

me at about 85 years old: YES!! well, except the part where i pee'd on myself.

threesixfive, days 286 thru 291

2011-10-22T15:41:00.000-07:00

we spent most of the week in maine for our 10th wedding anniversary. we arrived late saturday night, and flew home thursday. i posted several pictures from the trip friday afternoon--its the previous post if you want to check them out. we had a fabulous time and everything was beautiful! these pictures are different from the ones i posted yesterday--except saturdays pic because its the only one i took.

sunday, day 286
we slept in on sunday and spent the afternoon exploring the little town we stayed in. there were hundreds of gorgeous houses, but something about this one hit me and i had to take a picture. sigh....i have house envy.

monday, day 286
walking down to the beach was this fence with ropes and pieces of net tied to it. different things that had washed up on the beach. people removed it so it wouldnt get pulled back out to sea.

tuesday, day 287
i kept seeing these trees--yellow birch i think. they were shedding and the bark looked a goldish silvery color when the light hit it. i was fascinated.

wednesday, day 288

another house picture. this one is more because of the halloween decor. we noticed houses overall really get in to decorating for halloween; ghots, spiders, witches, orange lights, etc. i love that the porch steps are covered in pumpkins and flowers.

thursday, day 289

i mentioned in the previous post how much i love food network. before we flew out thursday (from boston), we found roxys gourmet grilled cheese truck (from food truck race) and had truffle fries and two delicious sandwiches.

friday, day 290
we had to bring a little bit of maine home with us. if youve never had a whoopie pie, you must! we stopped wedensday night at the grocery store and loaded up on these little beauties. delish.

saturday, day 291

we hit a few fall festivals in the area saturday morning and afternoon. one of them had a mobile butterfly house. pretty stinkin cool. definitely the best thing we saw all day.

i think we've recovered from the vacation and caught up on everything that needed catching up on (pet care, laundry, bills, all that glamorous stuff). tomorrow starts another week. i hope its a fabulous one for you!

the maine event

2011-10-21T05:47:00.000-07:00

allen and i rolled in last night from an absolutely amazing 4 days in maine, celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. we slept in, shopped, hiked, drove around a lot, ate a lot, and had a blast hanging out together. we were told the leaves arent near as vibrant right now as they usually are this time of year, but i have no point of reference, so i thought it was gorgeous, especially considering that everything in texas is brown right now.
we stayed in a friends vacation home in the town of saco, about 25 miles south of portland. everything shut down at 5pm, and i mean everything. we were coming back one evening from shopping at an outlet mall about an hour away and as we drove down the main street i noticed both a tattoo parlor and a pub that were closed for the night (this was at about 630pm). really?!? the two establishments that should practically be required to stay open late had closed up shop. i had to laugh to myself. sorry citizens of saco, if youre going to drink too much and make bad decisions you're going to have to do it before 5pm...or go to portland.
and now i will bore you with a ridiculous amount of pictures. :-)

this is the house we stayed in. we were a 5 minute bike ride from the (very cold) beach.

monday we drove over to new hampshire and went to the franconia notch state park where we walked thru the flume gorge, one of the most beautiful and fascinating things ive ever seen.
this first picture is one i took from a 'scenic overlook' stop on the way there. i couldnt tell if that was a house or a little chapel out on that island.

the flume gorge

this waterfall is called the cascade. unbelievable.

new hampshire is famous for its covered bridges. there were two along the trail we were hiking. this one was my favorite.

see? arent the leaves beautiful??

tuesday we went on a self guided tour of 6 lighthouses in the portland area. this is portland head light, the most photographed lighthouse in the country.

allen and i in front of the spring point ledge light

im a food network junkie, and this place was on diners, drive-ins, and dives for its award winning seafood chowder among other things. there was quite a wait, even at 130pm, but we were willing to sit at the counter, so we waited only about 10 minutes. allen and i had a big late breakfast, so we split a lobster roll and a cup of the seafood chowder. oh. my. word. i couldve eaten a gallon of that stuff. allen is absolutely not a fan of any form of soup, but even he thought it was really really good!

YUM, LOBSTER!

i didnt take a picture, but we also ate at the kennebunk in, which was featured on food networks 'best thing i ever ate' for its lobster pie (cat cora's choice). it was delicious, mostly because the puff pastry topping should be illegal.

thursday we flew home, but not before having lunch in boston. i google searched anything in the area that might fit my food network criteria, and lo and behold we found roxy's gourmet grilled cheese food truck from food truck race. it just happened to be parked 6 short miles from the airport. allen had a 'green muenster' (muenster cheese, guacamole, bacon) and i regrettably had 'the rookie', which although very tasty was nothing more than cheese and tomatoes. i wish i had been more adventurous with my grilled cheese sandwich selection. go big or go home.

now we're back home and doing the typical 'ive been gone for a week and now i have to catch up on life' thing. i have so many more pictures, but i suppose this is enough for now.

i'll try to post different ones tomorrow for the 365project.

until then.....

threesixfive, days 279 thru 285

2011-10-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

it was a pretty standard week around here. the weather is cooling off a little bit, but its usually burned off by about noon. no major happenings to speak of, so i'll get right to pictures.

sunday, day 279
heres our little pumpkin patch in the front yard. the metal scarecrows are a new addition this year. the kids named them sally and kevin, although i have no idea why.

monday, day 280

i couldnt get this picture to turn the right direction, so please tilt your head to thr right. hot dog mummies! this was our lunch monday afternoon. they were pretty yummy!

tuesday, day 281

i walked into the schoolroom tuesday morning to find this. colby told me (from under the chair) that he couldnt do school becuase he was dead.

wednesday, day 282

i finished my christmas wreath for the craft fair on saturday. i'm taking orders for mainly fall and christmas wreaths, but can do pretty much anything, really. i'm hoping i come home from maine next week to many orders to fill.

thursday, day 283

we went to my parents house for dinner, and the kids played mario kart on the wii. we dont have a gaming system, and i didnt have one growing up, either, so we're all a tiny bit "into it" when we play. its like we're all 10 again...except colby and molly. theyre definitely still 4 and 6 and not at all ready to drive. :-/

friday, day 284
today colbys young explorers class at co-op got to make ice cream. they had such a good time, except for the part where you get mild frostbite and your hands might fall off. but hey, the ice cream was great!

saturday, day 285
packed and ready to go! we leave in 2 hours! yay!!

i'm soooo excited to finally get to go to maine and see the lighthouses, eat lobster, and (gasp) see leaves changing colors?!? what? that actually happens?
i'll know soon enough!

i'm sure i'll have loads of pictures to share, so i apologize in advance for the overload you'll all get when we return.

have a great week! i know i will!!!

threesixfive...late, days 272 thru 278

2011-10-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

so this is a couple days late...im not sure where my week went! saturday was super full, and then molly came down with 102 fever saturday evening keeping us home from church on sunday. im not sure why i didnt post sunday afternoon. but i'm doing it now!!

sunday, day 272
we got our fall decorations put up. i dont have many, but i like the way my mantle looks every year.

monday, day 273

we took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch to make our selections. we usually do pictures, but as you can probably see from what the kids are wearing, it was too warm to dress for fall, so we'll have to go back when it cools off.

tuesday, day 274
my friend april gave me a pretty leaf platter. i filled it with mini pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, although i could have gone with 2 or 3 more.

wednesday, day 275
silly glasses night at awanas

thursday, day 276
the church craft fair is saturday, and i'm trying to finish up this christmas fabric wreath. i'll be taking orders for both fall and christmas.

friday, day 277

my theatre class at the co-op started working on the christmas skit today. we read thru it a couple times, and next week i'll assign parts.

saturday, day 278
after a birthday party this morning we headed to fredericksburg for the log cabin days festival at the pioneer museum. we went last year and loved it, so i made a point for us to go back this year. here the kids are sitting in desks of the original school house in fresericksburg, dating back to the 1800's.

as i said earlier, molly started feeling bad on saturday evening. on our way home she was kind of cranky and tired (more than i would expect from a full day and long car ride). as i was helping her get her pajamas on i noticed she felt pretty hot, and sure enough she had a temp of 102. we stayed in all day sunday and today (monday) she seems to be back to herself. allen and i leave saturday afternoon for our belated anniversary trip to maine!! i'm hoping a) that we all stay healthy! and b) to get my pictures up saturday morning before we leave. i can link up from my ipad later, but i'll need to get the post up before we're gone.

have a great week! i'll be doing laundry and packing. :-)

threesixfive, days 265 thru 271

2011-10-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

i hope everyone has had a great week. ours was pretty routine with a few scheduled adventures; we had our first co-op field trip on tuesday, and spent a fabulous saturday at the lake with some friends from church. i cant believe its october!! the weather seems to be getting with the program, although only slightly, as we had a couple of days in the 80s this week, and saturday morning was borderline cool. my long sleeved shirts are taunting me from the tippy top rack in my closet. they cant come down soon enough!
here are some of the weeks pictures....

sunday, day 265
the restaraunt where we had lunch provided the kids with balloons (before the meal...huh? what are we supposed to do with them while we eat?). i noticed on the way to the car the color showed on the pavement. i thought it looked cool next to their shadows.

monday, day 266

a good day of school. colbys working hard, and getting really good at spelling and handwriting.

tuesday, day 267

the elementary group from our homeschool co-op took a tour of the acme brick company. we walked the assembly line, saw the (huge) kiln, and got a ball of clay to make our own creation at the end. as you can see, molly was thrilled about the hard hat and safety glasses.

wednesday, day 268

we traced our shadows this afternoon, and were going to come trace them again a couple hours later to see how the suns position affects the shadow. shortly after our first tracing, the sky darkened with the promise of rain and the sun never came back out....the rain changed its mind as well. :-/

thursday, day 269
a trip to the library resulted in yet another barbie movie. mollys not into barbies in and of themselves (inwardly i'm thrilled), but she really likes the videos. colby was so kind to endure the fashion princess spectacle.

friday, day 270

colbys young explorers class is learning all about water and the different things it does. friday they learned about water levels and solutions.

saturday, day 271

the parents of one of our seniors have a camper they keeped parked out at the lake thru november. saturday they invited us to come out and spend the day, ride the seadoo, eat fajitas, and swim. we had so. much. fun. i got some great pictures, but these are a couple of my favorites.

tonight we're going to see the new movie 'Courageous'. im super excited, and plan on taking my kleenex with me. i teared up watching the trailer for it in church this morning. that does not bode well. i think i'll probably 'ugly cry.'

have a blessed week!!

threesixfive, days 258 thru 264

2011-09-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

hope you had a great week! we certainly did. i'll get right to the pictures.

sunday, day 258
as many of you know we redid mollys room a few months ago. i just got around to putting something above her window. her naked curtain rod has been mocking me for several weeks, so i tied several different ribbons to it and called it a day. i think it turned out pretty good.

monday, day 259
i got a call from my friend emily monday afternoon. she was supposed to go take a test that evening and her babysitter backed out at the very last minute, so she brought her girls over (her older daughter is mollys best friend) for a few hours. colby was SO good with katie (18 months). he loves babies, and i loved watching him love on her. he found little things to let her help him with and was so patient. im hoping thats a foreshadowing of the excellent daddy he'll be someday.

tuesday, day 260
i laid out all my ingredients for dinner and was proud of how fabulously healthy it all looked. unfortunately it also tasted very healthy. :-/ not a huge hit.

wednesday, day 261
allen preached today in church, and we've recently started filming promo videos to put on the churches facebook page a few days before. zach came over to film it in our front yard; colby and molly got to be in it.

thursday, day 262
happy 10th anniversary to us! allen blindfolded me as soon as we got in the car (not a bad picture for not being able to see anything!) and we ended up at the same exact spot he proposed. he recreated our proposal and got down on his knee again and everything. :-) it was a sweet night, and i'm looking forward to 50 more years with that man.

friday, day 263

i walked into colbys room to put some laundry away, and found him (after several seconds) sitting just like this on his bed. i guess he was pretending to be a stuffed animal...or hiding...whatever it was it worked. i really didnt notice him sitting there at first. goofy kid.

saturday, day 264

we went to dinner tonight with a big group to celebrate our friend chris's 40th birthday. a fun way to wrap up the week.

hope you have a fabulous last week of september! im looking forward to cooler weather and hopefully some more rain soon enough. if nothing else i'll get a taste of fall when we go to maine in a couple weeks. that cant get here fast enough!

be blessed!

threesixfive, days 251 thru 257

2011-09-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

we had a pretty normal week. i've recently become addicted to pinterest. its like crack for a crafty person, or even a wannabe, which is more what i am. so many things on there make me think i can actually do some pretty cool stuff. case in point: see saturdays picture....but not yet! you have to look at sunday thru friday first!

sunday, day 251
i finished my fabric wreath sunday afternoon, and hung it on the front door. im pretty pleased with it.

monday, day 252
today was my pawpaws 86th birthday. the kids and i took him to lunch, and downtown to the lyndon b. johnson presidential museum. we had a fun afternoon, and everyone was sufficiently worn out.

tuesday, day 253
after we finished up school, we made a last minute trip to the pool; perhaps the last of the year. not becuase its not still hot enough (it definitely is!), but because we dont really have the time now that we're back into our school routine.

wednesday, day 254

awanas started back up tonight, so the verses went up on the board. colby didnt finish his book last year, so he has a bit of catching up to do before hes on pace with the other kids. :-/

thursday, day 255

colby wasnt feeling very good thursday morning, and was just kind of icky off and on all day. i think its his allergies. anyway, at one point he crawled under the covers in my bed, and molly curled up next to him to make him feel better. i love moments like these.

friday, day 256

it rained!!! finally after 4 months it rained!! it was a light rain, and only lasted about ten minutes, but it was glorious! youd have thought it was snowing unicorns or something from the way we all reacted.

saturday, day 257

drumroll...........

my melted crayon art!!! i got the idea off pinterest, and it worked fabulously. its now hanging on the wall in the schoolroom. hooray!

i hope everyone has a great week! allen and i celebrate our 10th anniversary on thursday, but other than that it will be a standard week around here.

be blessed!

threesixfive, days 244 thru 250

2011-09-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

we had another busy but super fun week. i'll get straight to the pictures!

sunday, day 244
we got to swim in the pool at the dell diamond during the game, and allen invited all the youth workers. this is our friend justine. shes awesome!

monday, day 245
happy labor day! it was a beautiful day here--didnt get above 100 and stayed in the 80's till about noon. we spent the morning outside flying kites, playing with sidewalk chalk, etc. fall is so close i can almost smell it!

tuesday, day 246
my mom invited us for a last minute trip to the zoo, so we did school in the car on the way there (its about an hour and a half drive) and spent the rest of the day with the animals. they were really vocal and active! i think they can smell fall coming, too. :-) the first picture is molly and my mom swinging like monkeys. the second one is a meerkat. i couldve sat there and watched those things all day.

wednesday, day 247

allen and i have been putting spare change in a jar for ten years with the idea of cashing it in for our tenth anniversary, which is in a couple weeks. i spent a few hours counting and rolling coins, then took them to the bank for our prize. we'll have plenty of spending money on our trip to maine!

thursday, day 248

i found a recipe on pinterest and happened to have the ingredients to make it. broccoli cheese bites. yum! 16oz frozed chopped broccoli thawed (i used fresh steamed), 2 eggs, 1 cup bread crumbs, 1 & 1/2 cups shredded cheese, salt to taste. mix it all together and make patties, then cook them on a wax paper baking sheet at 375 for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through. theyre delicious.

friday, day 249

im making a fabric wreath. after much deliberation and time at the fabric store, i finally commited to the method and fabic choices. its coming along nicely, although my fingers hate me for picking burlap. :-/ i'll share a picture of it when its done and hanging on my front door.

saturday, day 250
last week i saw these acorn treats on one of your blogs (sarahs maybe?). i, along with the help of allen and the kids, made a tray of them to take to a football party tonight. i hope they'll be a hit.

i hope everyone is enjoying the slightly cooler weather, or much cooler depending on where you're at. we've been keeping up with all the wildfires in the news this week; thats all happening right around us, although we havent been directly affected we know people that have. we continue to pray for rain daily, and that no one else will be harmed by the drought and fires that are so rampant down here.

have a blessed week!!

threesixfive, days 237 thru 243

2011-09-05T15:11:00.001-07:00

the first part of this week wrapped up camp mimi, where each kiddo got to spend 3 days with my mother in law all to themselves. we exchanged colby for molly on monday, and by thursday morning everyone was back home safe if not completely sound. ;-) but seriously, they love their time down there and we enjoy having each of them solo for a few days, too. my pictures are a bit off this week. i know i got wednesday and thursday switched, but i upload the pics first for a faster layout, and its too difficult to go back and change it, so we'll have to deal.

sunday, day 237
i watched the youth worker kids for allens meeting sunday night and one of the girls made a baby hotel.

monday, day 238
allen and i finished our second puzzle, and i glued it all together. i'm going to have to figure out where to put them!

tuesday, day 239

yes, its a picture of jake eating. sorry. i was desperate this week. :-/

wednesday, day 240

(this is actually thursday) i took the kids back to that tea house (ive mentioned before) after a trip to the library. i love that they play while i sit and read. get a clue starbucks.

thursday, day 241
back in may i did an entire post about a particular word (pictured here) that i wont even bother to mention, except to say that i still say it exactly the way it looks, even in my head when i read. to read the post click here.

friday, day 242

gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches are "the thing" right now, so i decided to try one of my own. i made a pesto tomato grilled cheese sandwich and used white cheddar. oh. my. word. heaven between two slices of white bread. i'm actually making them for dinner again tonight. try it. please.

saturday, day 243

for ten years allen and i have been having the same....discussion, about the toothpaste tube. i squeeze it right in the middle which drives him halfway crazy. my hands arent big enough to squeeze from the bottom unless i use both hands, requiring me to lay my toothbrush on the counter, which would be ludicrous. the other night, much to my demise, i noticed this little tidbit on the tube. how dare you aquafresh?!? youve lost my business. i will be making further toothpaste purchases from a company thats not prejudice against people with small hands.

this week molly starts dance, and co-op kicks back up on friday. fun times will be had by all.

be blessed!!

threesixfive, days 230 thru 236

2011-08-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

we officially started school this week and it went really well. i love the curriculum we're using, and colby, for the most part, has been very cooperative and agreeable with all the reading and writing 1st grade has required of him so far. mollys jumping right in, too. i think i'm going to order the kindergarden workbooks for her that colby did last year, because what i have for her is way too easy. shes been eavesdropping on colbys lessons and answering a bunch of his questions for him, so i'm thinking something to keep her a bit more occupied would be helpful for me, although maybe not for colby. ;-)
here are the pictures for the week.....

sunday, day 230
we got home from church and had nothing to do the rest of the day. it was glorious. we broke out into spontaneous wrestling mid-afternoon.

monday, day 231
allen took the kids to the ballpark before dinner to participate in the city-wide rain dance. thats why spike (the mascot) is holding the umbrella and wearing a poncho. unfortunately it didnt work. :-(

tuesday, day 232

molly had me put together a tea party for her and colby. she doesnt like tea, though, so she had sunny d. colby had (cold) tea....and i didnt have tea biscuits or whatever youre supposed to have with tea, so fig newtons had to do.

wedensday, day 233

my birds arent near as pretty as the bugs birds, but there they are...actually theyre not pretty at all...but we have a rabbit!

thursday, day 234

random train. i liked the different colored cars.

friday, day 235

today we met mimi halfway and she took molly for a few days. tomorrow we meet again and she and colby will switch. friday night colby got to pick what he wanted to do. we went to gattiland for dinner, played some games, then as an added bonus, we met up with some friends for bowling. it was a fun evening.

saturday, day 236

a mid afternoon snack. nutritious, yes? anything that turns your tongue blue must be good for you. that means theres blueberries in it.

like i said, tomorrow we meet to exchange the kids out, and i'll have molly by herself for a few days. i've enjoyed my concentrated time with colby, and i'm looking forward to the same thing with mo. then next week its back to our fabulous, predictable rountine! :-)

have a blessed week!

my kids are so hip

2011-08-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

i dont know if its being around teenagers a lot, or because i'm so awesome (note the sarcasm), but my kids are pretty stinkin cool.
in the years since colby started talking, the students have enjoyed teaching both molly and colby things to say that they think would be hilarious to hear out of the mouths of small people.
for example, we came back from senior trip one year, and i had to listen to my three year old, for the next several weeks, say things like "i'm spicy!" (thanks to the old taco bell commercial), and "i'm a balla," which is admitedly funny.

anyway, so two things have happened in the last twenty four hours that make me think to myself, 'seriously? where are you getting this, kid?'

we were sitting on the couch yesterday. i was reading a book, and molly was playing with her dolls. out of nowhere she starts singing the thermos song from the classic steve martin movie 'the jerk'. now, this is absolutely one of my top 5 favorite movies (which probably says a lot about me and my bizarre sense of humor), however i havent seen it in quite a few years and molly certainly hasnt seen it. at any rate, it pretty much made my day. if you have no idea what i'm talking about, heres a sound clip. i couldnt find the movie clip on youtube, unfortunately.

today i was doing school with colby, and i was looking over his spelling list he'd just finished. on one of his words, he wrote the 'c' backwards, which is weird for him. he gets b's and d's confused, and the occasional g or other random letter, but never c's. thats what his name starts with for crying out loud!
me: colby, your c is backwards! what happened?
colby: i just thought i'd write it that way. it looks better in the word.
me: well, you cant just pick which way you want it to face. c's always look the same.
colby: thats just how i roll.
end of conversation. i was laughing too hard to say anything else about it.

and just for grins, because now i'm really wanting to watch it, another clip from the jerk. :-)

threesixfive, days 223 thru 229

2011-08-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

we're gearing up for school around here. i did three days with colby this week and we'll probably stick to that till september. we've been doing pretty much phonics only, a little math here and there. i finally opened and went thru the box of curriculum for this year. it looks pretty great. i'm excited about it.
heres the week...

sunday, day 223
i took this of molly playing on colbys bed. shes a cutie.

monday, day 224

allen and molly havent had a 5D (daddy daughter dunkin donut day) since may, so he was going to take her monday morning, and take colby tuesday morning. when he asked molly about it sunday evening, though, she wanted colby and i to go with them and make it a family event. so breakfast was at dunkin donuts monday morning. i was trying to get a picture of colby eating his donut, but this is the best he would give me. always a comedian.

tuesday, day 225
the 1st grade curriculum! hooray!!

wedensday, day 226

after a ridiculous fiasco, way too long to go into on here, i got a new phone! its a samsung replenish. i love it!

thursday, day 227

allens cousin justin was in town this week, and stayed with us a few nights. the kids loved getting to spend some time with him in the mornings before he headed out for the day.

friday, day 228

i had a picture of molly with, like, 4 headbands on, but it wouldnt upload. :-(

just know the girls hair is out of control.

saturday, day 229

we went to a 1 year old bday party today, and this was the cake for him to devour in his highchair. there was another one that was equally as cool that looked like a big dr seuss book. brandon (the dad) made them. like, rolled the fondant and cut out the shapes, and the whole shootin' match. crazy good.

try to keep cool! we've been hovering around 104, give or take, and no rain in a few months at least. maybe longer. :-/

have a fantastic week!

bad timing

2011-08-17T16:12:00.000-07:00

its been several weeks since this happened, but its a story i have to share, or i risk forgetting it someday.
colby and i were in the bathroom together. he was peeing, i was hanging some towels up or something like that.
colby: i have two balls.
me: (long pause) well....yes you do. God made you that way.
colby: what?
me: you were born that way....with two....balls. (really? why are we even talking about this?)
colby: no i wasnt. i got them from mimi.
me: what? wait, what are you talking about?
colby: my bouncy balls that light up. mimi gave me two of them.
me: oh.
colby: what are you talking about?
me: nevermind.
sure enough he had just spent a week with mimi and came home with two rubber balls that light up when you bounce them. he just picked a terribly awkward and ironic time to talk about them.

not to be out done though, molly was with my mom the other day and apparently she wasnt eating much at dinner. unusual for her; she usually eats very very well.
my mom: molly why arent you eating a good dinner? are you not hungry?
molly: my eating arm is tired.
colby: just use your other one! you have two!
not sure how that ended, but it got some good laughs. my mom said molly was completely serious. her "eating arm" was worn out, so dinner was just not going to be an option for her.
she cracks me up.

threesixfive, days 216 thru 222

2011-08-15T08:06:00.000-07:00

this week flew by. we had a 6th grade event at church monday thru wednesday to more or less promote them into the youth ministry and i was in charge of the event on tuesday (hiking). my mother in law has been looking for a couple days to come down to take the kids shopping for their new bedspreads (her contribution to their room re-dos), and we needed someone to watch the kids tuesday so i could lead the hike, so we killed two birds with one stone and she was here to do all of the above monday thru wednesday.

sorry im just now getting this up. allen and i were at a marriage retreat friday thru sunday. we were in town (so we got to sleep in our own bed), but i just havent had a chance to get this done till now.

pictures...

sunday, day 216

although colby has two perfectly good beds in his room, his sleeping spot of choice for the past several days has been his beanbag chair. a couple weeks ago he slept on his floor for three or four nights "because he likes it".

monday, day 217

i finished this book in about 8 days. SO GOOD! i cant wait to see the movie!

tuesday, day 218

we took a group of seventeen 6th graders, plus sponsors (25 in all) for a 5 mile hike. it was HOT.

wednesday, day 219

mimi bought the kids a craft activity to do while she was here with them all day tuesday. they picked out these little bead things. i used to make magnets out of these when i was a kid....i think i know what the kids will be making for christmas presents this year. :-)

thursday, day 220

mollys new bedspread. im kind of jealous.

friday, day 221
colbys new bedspread with a molly in the way. you cant really tell, but it has rocket ships and planets on it, and all the white lines glow in the dark.

saturday, day 222

i came home and this little guy was in our yard. the kids have been talking to him; trying to find out where he came from. im sure he'll get a name at some point.

we're starting school this week....i think. :-/

it will probably be another couple weeks before we're back into the 'school every day' routine.

i have to take baby steps.

when does school start for ya'll?

have a blessed week!

threesixfive, days 209 thru 215

2011-08-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

it was a very hot, sweaty week. we need rain!!!
we stayed indoors unless we were in a pool, which we were several times.
pictures!....

sunday, day 209
this is what sunday afternoons were made for.

monday, day 210

push pops on a 108 degree day? yes, please!

tuesday, day 211

i got this dessert recipe off another blog. its basically smores in a pan. oh. my. goodness. it was warm and gooey and delicious!

wednesday, day 212

ah, the spoils of being the youth pastors kids; leftover youth event food. these should last us a few days.

thursday, day 213
lunchtime at the pool. not sure what that look on his face is about.

friday, day 214

we had a double date friday evening with our friends jeff and melissa. the two of them and myself have seen labyrinth (its melissas favorite), but allen never had, so jeff decided there needed to be an intervention. if allen was going to continue being their friend, labyrinth needed to be on his list of "movies ive seen". nothing like a jim henson movie with david bowie, bad acting, and horrible CGI effects. a true cult classic.

saturday, day 215

two of my very favorite people. :-)

we're going to be out of town next weekend, so i wont get to post till sunday evening next week.
stay safe and dont melt!!!
have a blessed week!

threesixfive, days 202 thru 208

2011-07-30T13:18:00.001-07:00

warning, warning: mouth watering food pictures ahead!!
i dont why i have so many this week; well, three, but thats a lot for me. i usually dont have any.
its been a great week! i'll get right to it!

sunday, day 202
sorry the second picture is sideways. i dont have the brain capacity to wrestle with it right now.
sunday we drove half an hour to south austin for donuts from gordoughs. so worth it!! id heard about them, but never had one. let me just say, that was dinner. go to their website and checkout the menu. you'll see what i mean. ridiculous.
i had the funky monkey (roasted bananas, cream cheese icing, and brown sugar).
allen had the flying pig (maple syrup icing, and bacon. yes, bacon)
molly had the miss shortcake. exactly what it sounds like.
colby had mamas cake, which was basically just a donut with chocolate icing.
if youre ever in austin you MUST go eat one of these. seriously.

monday, day 203

dinner was flank steak with roasted mushrooms and asparagus. these two veggies roasted together in a little olive oil and some salt is my ultimate favorite thing to eat right now. to die for.

tuesday, day 204

loved this outfit, but she wouldnt cooperate for a picture, so this is the best i could do. later, she cut a hole in the shirt with a pair of scissors, so this is the only documentation i have of the adorableness that was molly in her 80s punk look. you cant tell from the picture, but the hightops are glittery pink, and her hot pink and turquiose hair feathers were so appropriate. :-)

wednesday, day 205

colby was getting ready for bed, and this is how he came in to tell me goodnight. he slept in exactly this outfit, and wore the jacket all day the next day. did i mention its been about 109 down here? :-/

thursday, day 206

i dropped my favorite eyeshadow and it busted all over the floor. i swept it into a pile with my hand, and kind of made a mess of myself...but my hand sure looked nice.

friday, day 207

allen took me on a surprise date. we went to a restaraunt in austin we'd never been to before called woodland. oh. my. goodness. it was SO good! i had the stuffed tomato. it was filled with creamy risotto, spinach, and crimini mushrooms. i unfortunately couldnt finish it. we'll definitely eat there again.

after that allen took me to see urinetown:the musical, which i didnt even know was running in austin, so that was fantastic! then we went and got crepes from a food trailor for dessert. a very "austin-y" evening. right up my alley!

saturday, day 208

tonight we're going to dinner with some friends, then coming back to our house to play this new game we picked up at target today. looks pretty fun!!

have a fantastic week!

how many of you will be back to school shopping in the next few days??

threesixfive, days 195 thru 201

2011-07-23T15:30:00.000-07:00

so...i didnt do a midweek post like i said i might, but theres always next week. :-/
we've been super busy! we missed allen while he was in new orleans on mission trip, but we did plenty of things to keep us busy. lots of pictures this week; i couldnt pick just one for each day. if you hang in till the end, you get extra brownie points! :-)

sunday, day 195
i started colbys room saturday, and did pretty much nothing but paint thru monday, with the exception of church. but i got it done! it looks great!!

monday, day 196
the finished product...
my mom painted three canvases of colbys choice (he couldnt decide on one theme, so we settled on this idea); batman and angry birds, and aliens. the alien canvas is all drawings that colby did, and then my mom painted them, except the flying saucer. that ones from a library book. can you believe she did those just by looking at a picture?!? especially the angry birds one. shes awesome.

tuesday, day 197
we spent the day in austin doing "austin-y" things.

molly got feathers, and i actually got more myself. the ones i got back in march are still in, and i had some light blue and lavender ones put a little further back.

then we decided we'd go check out the capital. the kids had a great time walking around, looking at pictures, and seeing all the different rooms. this is the committee room, whatever that is. colby looks good behind that podium.

wednesday, day 198

we met april, tate, and adler at a new splash park about 15 minutes away that i didnt know about!! we will definitely be going back!!

thursday, day 199

the dell diamond (the texas rangers triple a team, where allen is chaplain) hosted a vow renewal ceremony at the stadium before the game. it was sponsored and organized by intimate life ministries, and they asked allen to officiate it. he told them he would if theyd fly him in from new orleans and back out there friday morning, and they agreed! so allen got to 're-marry' 225 couples. my parents and grandparents participated, as did allens mom and step-dad. i couldnt get a picture of allen parents, though, because they were at the end on the back row. i didnt get a good picture of allen either, because i was standing right behind him. but here are a few of my parents and grandparents.

friday, day 200

my mom and i took the kids to san antonio on kind of a whim. i was teaching colby about the alamo earlier in the week, and i figured, 'lets just go see it!' so we did!!

i had a hard time getting both of them to look even halfway decent for a picture. here are a few attempts...

the sun was in colbys eyes, and molly i guess is too good to even look at the camera

molly was just about to pick her nose in this one. too bad i missed it....

colby had just tried to put his arm around her, and she protested.

hes drunk on starbucks vanilla milk. im just sweaty.

finally, a silly one on purpose.

we had dinner at the magic time machine. molly had her picture taken with several of the waitresses, i mean....princesses. this one was her favorite. its rapunzel in case youre wondering.

colby flagged the riddler down and asked him if batman was working. he wasnt, so the riddler had to do for colbys picture.

saturday, day 201

when molly saw the bright new colors in colbys room, she decided she needed a room makeover, too. we're almost done. my mom will paint a few canvases for her room as well, and i'll post pictures when its all put together. the walls were green (with that little strip of pink on top). she wanted a 'rainbow room', and i managed to talk her into that meaning only two more colors besides the pink, which will stay. she picked light blue and a lilac purple.

allen is done traveling for the summer! hooray!!

i look forward to routine and eating dinner together again this week!

hope your week is blessed!

threesixfive, days 188 thru 194

2011-07-16T16:09:00.001-07:00

ok, im starting to feel completely lame again at the fact that im only posting my 365 project pictures and nothing else during the week. this happens every year, and i'll hopefully snap out of it eventually. i actually have a couple pretty good stories to share, but i dont want to combine them with my pictures this week. maybe i'll get around to coming back later in the week and posting them...if i still remember them at that point.

we had a great week. allens birthday was thursday, and it happened to coincide with his day off, so we had a great family day together. the kids both moved up a level at swim school, and the kids spent a night away in waco where they went to the circus with their mimi and great aunt, so allen and i got a date night!

here are the pictures:

sunday, day 188

colby picked this up out at camp when we were there a couple weeks ago, and wears it at least 4 days a week. its usually around his neck like a cowboy, but he put it up around his face for the picture.

monday, day 189

we went to the library to see dino george. he was fantastic; very funny and entertaining, and i actually learned some stuff about dinosaurs i didnt know. the kids loved him.

tuesday, day 190

spent the afternoon at the pool.

wednesday, day 191

molly had been resisting bedtime, to say the least. she usually ends up sitting at her door, or just inside where we cant really see here from the couch. this is how i found her before i went to bed wednesday night.

thursday, day 192

happy birthday, allen! a trip to the fro-yo shop was of course on the agenda.

friday, day 193

i've been taking golf lessons (you may have read that last week), so for our date night we went to dinner, then to the driving range where he got to see me hit for the first time. it was a fun thing to do together, especially because i know he really enjoys it, too.

saturday, day 194

i started painting colbys room this weekend. he picked turquoise and yellow. Lord, have mercy.

allen leaves early tomorrow morning for a week in new orleans with 40 youth and sponsors. they'll be serving there all week, and doing some katrina relief projects.

i'm hanging out here with the kids, and have some stuff to keep me busy. i know i'll be ready for him to come home, though!

have a fantastic week!!

threesixfive, days 181 thru 187

2011-07-10T07:10:00.001-07:00

it was soooo nice to have a somewhat normal week, and just be home!

we were still pretty busy, but thats not terribly out of the ordinary for us.

heres the week!

sunday, 181

we're home to the rangers triple a team (the round rock express), and i was asked to sing God Bless America at the ballgame during the 7th inning stretch. it was a lot of fun!

monday, 182
happy 4th of july! we did our usual 4th festivities. it was a great day.

tuesday, 183

the kids and i went to the library, then walked up the street to a tea house to sit and read some of our books, and have a snack. two pictures, because my kids are so darn cute.

wednesday, 184

i had my first golf lesson! my mom bought me a few lessons for my birthday back in may, but we've been gone so much, im just now getting a chance to take them. i think im going to really like it!

thursday, 185

the kids had an impromptu afternoon in the sprinkler.

friday, 186

speaking of sprinklers, i've watering like crazy. we put some sod down a couple months ago and have to water it so it will grow into the other grass. that spot in the picture was just dirt up until may.

saturday, 187

sorry. another yard picture. with all the watering, we're having to mow a lot, too. i've been the one mowing for the past 3 or 4 weeks. allen does the edging and weed-eating while i mow, and the yard gets done in half the time. and i feel super productive. :-)

we get another glorious week home! allens birthday is thursday, and then he leaves next sunday for mission trip. we have a lot going on this week, too, but im not complaining. at least i get to sleep in my own bed every night!

have a blessed week!

threesixfive, days 167 thru 180

2011-07-02T12:38:00.001-07:00

another two week post! sorry. this will be the last one like this i think.

allen and i left two weeks ago on sunday to go down to a small town about an hour north of corpus christi where he directs two weeks of youth camps down there. this is his third year to be their camp director. last year i took the kids and went for one week, and had a great time.

this year, allens mom watched the kids the first week so i was down there with allen and was able to do some things around the camp to help allen and the staff. it was really cool to be a part of the team in that capacity and see what goes on behind the scenes. its a lot of work! the second week the kids joined us, so i wasnt near as much help, but we had a fun time swimming and hunting for bugs.

heres some of what i got...

sunday, day 167

we had to take jake to the snake sitters for the two weeks we would be gone. i think he enjoyed the car ride.

monday, day 168

my home away from home for the next two weeks!

tuesday, day 169

the camps not terribly spread out compared to some others ive been to, but we did a lot of running back and forth and it was pretty darn hot, so it was nice to have this to scoot around in.

wednesday, day 170

love to see teenagers worship!

thursday, day 171

thursday night we do something called extended worship. there are stations spread around the cafeteria that give the students different ways to express their worship to the Lord. butcher paper with markers laid out, and play-doh are a couple. its amazing to see what they come up with.

friday, day 172

allen and i rigged up a ghetto sun shade so we could sleep in saturday and sunday morning. duct tape+foil=complete and awesome darkness.

saturday, day 173

over the weekend, allen did a wedding about 30 minutes away from the camp (convenient!). it was one of the prettiest wedding ive been to. this is gaby, the flower girl. instead of throwing petals, she and the ring barer carried this sign. i love this idea!!

sunday, day 174

super cool old truck

monday, day 175

allen and i took a walk around camp and found some of these crazy thorn bushes on some back trails. made me think of the crown of thorns.

tuesday, day 176

one of the camp staffers has this nest in his front yard, on the ground! ive never seen anything like this before. if you got too close while the momma bird was around, she would try to lead you away and flop around on the ground like she was hurt.

wednesday, day 177

colby and molly helping collin out with the tape measurer

thursday, day 178

extended worship again tonight. i thought this was absolutely beautiful. this picture doesnt do it justice. one of the summer staff cut it out at the end of the night, and is going to frame it.

friday, day 179

on the way home friday we stopped at a cute cafe in new braunfels. they had lots of antiques and other cool stuff. i cant resist an elvis statue.

saturday, day 180

another wedding today! the grooms cake was a drumset! again, the picture doesnt do it justice. it was really cool.

we get to slow down a little bit this week. we're home for a couple weeks, then allen heads to new orleans for mission trip on the 17th. we've got a few things going on between now and then (allens birthday is the 14th!) but thankfully they're all in town and low key!

have a great week!

threesixfive, days 153 thru 166

2011-06-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

two weeks of stuff! eek! i didnt get to post last week because we were at youth camp from friday to tuesday. rather than post late when we got back and not have anyone see it really, i decided to hold off and post the last two weeks as one entry. so this will be a long one!

sunday, day 153

we went to homefield grill for lunch after church. its a local place thats fast becoming one of our favorites.

monday, day 154

VBS week at church. monday night we went out in groups and hung hangers on doors in the surrounding neighborhoods to invite everyone.

tuesday, day 155

colby lost his other middle tooth. it wasnt quite ready to come out, but he was determined. lucky me, i got to be the one to do the dirty work. ick.

wednesday, day 156

i took the kids to the pool for a couple hours. no they are not laying out. theyre drying.

thursday, day 157

katie and i went to party city to get stuff for our rec team at camp. we had to try on a few masks while we were there. molly looks a little creepy in this one.

friday, day 158

me, april, and katie at dinner friday night. our first meal at youth camp!

saturday, day 159

kayaking during free time. i love it!!

sunday, day 160

representing the green team!!

monday, day 161

its our youth groups tradition to pray over the rec team, worship band, and speaker on the last night of camp each year. they give and give for weeks, and we want to be able to give back to them a little bit.

tuesday, day 162

about to head home! on the left is the cabin our group of girls stayed in. isnt it pretty! the view....not the cabin.

wednesday, day 163

i just realized i have a picture of each of my kids with a mask on. colbys is homemade, though. and he wore it all. day.

thursday, day 164

i took colby to the dr on thursday because hes been having frequent episodes of coughing and wheezing. they started him on asthma meds (daily inhaler and rescure inhaler for attacks). the kids were laying on the floor looking under the door while we were waiting for the dr to come in.

friday, day 165

molly and colby spent a lot of thursday and friday working on allens fathers day present. it involoved many colored pencils. thats all i can disclose at this time. :-)

saturday, day 166

we went to intimate life ministries family day this afternoon. the kids got to make fathers day trophies for allen, jump in a bounce house, get 'tattoos', and have a balloon creation made. molly chose a hat.

we leave tomorrow for two weeks down at a camp near corpus. allen is the director for their two youth camps they do each year, and the weekend between the camps hes officiating a wedding (that, thankfully, happens to be in corpus, so we wont have to go far). all that said, i'll probably have to post two weeks together again, as i dont think i'll be able to post my entry next weekend.

hope youre enjoying your summer. we'll be back july 2nd, and allen has one more week away for mission trip mid-july, which i'm staying home for that one. junes been crazy. its been great, but i'm looking forward to being home for more than 4 days!

threesixfive, days 146 thru 152

2011-06-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

we had a great week at the beach!! each year we offer the senior trip to those who have 80% attendance or better in sunday school. this year 14 qualified, and 9 went, plus the 12th grade sunday school teachers, and the frans clan. colby and molly had a great time, and allen and i enjoyed watching them soak up the experience. you get a few extra pictures on our "beach days" this week.

sunday, day 146
we went to a graduation party for one of our seniors, who was in the tenor line in the marching band. he brought his set out and let colby play on them.

monday, day 147
we left for the beach around 1 and got there shortly after 5. after some dinner and a trip down to the water just to make sure it hadn't gone anywhere since last year, we went to play putt-putt.

tuesday, day 148
after a full day on the beach, we went for a sunset dolphin watching cruise. there was a touch tank on the boat where colby got to hold a stingray. we saw probably 20 dolphins, and the kids made friends with the captain, who let them drive the boat! molly spent most of the ride right there with him, and he put her to work. she loved it!

wednesday, day 149
another full day down by the water. can't wait to back next year!

thursday, day 150
on the way home from the beach we got a call that my dad was in the e.r. waiting to hear if he might have to have his appendix removed! he had surgery that evening, so we went to visit him and were able to spend about 10 minutes with him before we had to head home to get the kids in bed. even coming out of anesthesia he was just as goofy as ever. I love my dad.

friday, day 151
as if we weren't in the water enough this week, we met some friends at the pool for a couple hours. this is molly and her buddy, addie.

saturday, day 152
this picture isn't very exciting. but it's the only one I have. molly went to a birthday party at chuck e cheese for a friend of hers from school. she, addie, and wynter discovered the screen that makes it look like they're on tv, and they were hooked.

this week we have vbs in the evenings, then we leave friday morning for youth camp where we'll be till tuesday, so I'll have to post my week a few days late unfortunately. or maybe I'll make it one long post the following weekend. to be determined....

have a good one!!

threesixfive, days 139 thru 145

2011-05-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

this week wrapped up the birthday festivities. sunday i spent the afternoon shopping and eating with my best girlfriends. my mother-in-law was here visiting for a few days,so we did some fun things with her. we had some college kiddos over for game night after youth group on wednesday, and then allen and i left thursday morning for a few days away together (what i asked for from him for my 30th). it was a fabulous week! lots of pictures, so you get multiples on some days.

sunday,day 139
this is the drink I had at brunch. soda water, apple juice, mint leaves, and lemons. so yummy and pretty enough to take a picture of!

me and katie. love her.

monday, day 140
not very excitng, but it's the only picture I have from monday. i took it while we were out shopping. she sure is cute.

tuesday, day 141
we took the kids to a childrens museum, and molly got all her messy out in the art room.

wednesday, day 142
wrapping up game night. this is a tradition we've been doing with this particular group since they were seniors in high school 4 years ago. when they're home for christmas and summer break, they still use our house as a meet up. we love it!

thursday, day 143
the place allen and I stayed had a lot of, well, dead animals. the wolf was the first thing I saw when I opened the door to the lodge. I almost peed my pants.

the cave pool. yes we swam in it!! ok, so i only got in up to my knees; that water was cold!

the door into our room. so pretty.

friday, day 144
we were about half a mile down from enchanted rock, a huge and very popular hiking area. we hiked thursday evening, as well as friday and saturday mornings.

saturday, day 145
i spotted this taxi limo on our last day at the resort, and had to grab a picture of it.

we get the kids back from mimi tomorrow (they went back with her while we were away), then leave monday morning for senior trip to the beach. im ready for some sun and sand!

things I don't do

2011-05-23T17:11:00.000-07:00

today the kids and I took my mother in law (visiting from houston) to the domain, a cool shopping area ive mentioned on here before. there are only a couple stores down there I actually shop at, because it's mostly very high end, and the further down the strip you go the more expensive the stores get. at any rate, I drove down the strip just so mom could see all the stores and get a feel for the place. as we're driving....
me: down here it just gets fancier and fancier. michael kors, tiffany & co, louis vuitton. I don't ever come down to this end.
colby: you also don't ever talk in a british accent.
me: yeah.....that's true. colby, when have you ever heard me talk in a british accent?
colby: I haven't. that's why I said that.
me: hmm. ok.

I guess he was just taking note of things I don't do, and speaking in a british accent is clearly one of them.

later in the day, they wanted to get out and run in the sprinkler, so I told them to go get their swimsuits on.
I don't make a deal out of them seeing each other naked. maybe I should, I don't know. it's usually not even an issue, because they get dressed in their rooms and shower separately, etc. but with mimi being in town they both just want to be with her all the time, so colby brought his swimsuit into the living room to change.
colby: no one look at me. I'm changing into my swimsuit......(seconds pass) mommy, mollys looking at me! molly don't look at me!
me: colby, if you don't want her to see you, then go to your room. youre the one who chose to change in the living room.
he didn't. he stood right there by the couch and put his swimsuit on. then a few minutes later molly was ready to get hers on.
molly: mommy, will you help me?
me: sure. bring it here.
molly: no, come in my room. (as we're walking away) i dont want colby to see my vagina.
colby: and i definitely would have looked. you totally just saw my penis.

i just left that one alone. my mother-in-law on the other hand, laughed hysterically, which made me think, 'i probably need to blog about this.' :-)

threesixfive, days 132 thru 138

2011-05-21T18:23:00.000-07:00

its been quite a week! my 30th birthday was monday, so there was much celebrating that day, then thursday colby completed the 10th and final step of swim school. he'll move on to the next level in june, and when he completes those 10 steps, he'll be able to be on the swim team. mollys first dance recital was this afternoon. SO. CUTE. we went to gattiland to celebrate the week we had. my in laws drove in from houston for the recital and my mother in law is staying with us for a few days.

heres some of the week...

sunday, day 132

saw this license plate at church, which was weirdly funny to me.

monday, day 133

my bestie katie took me for a birthday pedicure. me and my feet were super grateful.

tuesday, day 134

colby saw something that scared him today, and wouldnt sleep in his room. we finally talked him into sleeping on the floor in mollys room.

wednesday, day 135

colby learned about thomas edison today, and he painted this lightbulb as part of the lesson.

thursday, day 136

colby was given this shirt when he graduated to the next level. so proud of him!

friday, day 137

my new favorite band! they were at the conference allen and i went to last weekend. great lyrics, great sound, and theyre super cool. how could you not love a band that uses a melodica?

saturday, day 138

alright, i couldnt pick just one. here are a few of molly in her dance costumes and at the recital.

tomorrow is my annual birthday celebration with my girlfriends. we go to brunch and do a little shopping. im really looking forward to it. then allen and i leave thursday for a few days away for my birthday! we're going to a spa resort in the hill country. hiking and massages? yes please.

have a great week!!

threesixfive, days 125 thru 131

2011-05-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

we had a great week! i hope you did too!!

allen and i were able to get away for a couple days to attend the catalyst conference in dallas. we heard from some amazing speakers and were really challenged in some areas. i also had a rude awakening and further sealed my frusteration with the english language on the drive home. you can read about it here.

heres the week...

sunday, day 125

happy mothers day! me and my momma.

monday, day 126

allens the chaplain for the round rock express, the rangers triple a team. monday they had an afternoon game, so one of the players, brad nelson, came over for dinner monday night. he brought me this bat as a thank you. its his bat from the breast cancer awareness game. it will be hung up next to a couple other autographed bats we have in our new guest room! :-)

tuesday, day 127

the newly redecorated guest bathroom! i couldnt get it all in one picture, but you get the idea.

wednesday, day 128

a sampling of the graduation invitations we've recieved. tis the season.

thursday, day 129

a group of street artists, i think they were called, were 'creating' in the foyer at the conference. i thought this one was really cool. they just had pieces of cardboard and some wire and a little paint.

friday, day 130

the theme of catalyst was 'take courage'. this wall was available for people to share a verse that gives them courage. some of my favorite quotes from the conference are...

"do you want to be safe, or do you want to be brave?"

"the purpose of life is not to arrive at death safely."

"why do we live a risk averse life, if we truly believe that death has lost its sting?"

saturday, day 131

molly was practicing safe jumping.

another full week is upon us! tomorrow is senior recognition sunday. all the graduates will be recognized in the 2nd service tomorrow morning, then theres a big banquet tomorrow night for the seniors and their families. monday is my birthday! yay! well, maybe not yay. i'm hitting the big 3-0...eek.

thursday the kids and i are spending the day with my mom because allen and my dad will be gone on a church staff day retreat, and saturday is mollys dance recital and my mother in law is coming and staying for 5 days.

we keep right on truckin!

have a blessed week!

SHMILY

subtle hints

2011-05-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

allen and i just got home from two awesome days at Catalyst in dallas. its an event for church leadership and we got to hear from andy stanley, matt chandler, donald miller, just to name a few. the band gungor was also there, and theyre pretty stinkin awesome. i encourage you to check them out if you like the new wave of folk-type music thats steadily growing in popularity.

anyway, on our way home, i was reading to allen out of jon acuffs book, stuff christians like. super sarcastic, super funny, and super up my alley. i had read several points, and the title of this one in particular was "developing subtle signals to let people know youre a christian."
i read, and have always (not that its a word i have cause to read on a regular basis) read subtle with the B sound. i pronounced the B. suBtle.
allen: "um...just for future reference, the B is silent."
me: "what?"
allen: (points to the word, and says it correctly, as in [suttle]) "subtle"
me: "really? thats [suttle]? i thought it was suBtle. you say the B."
allen: "no, the b is silent. you said it that same way a few pages back, but i didnt think anything of it. then you just read it with the B again, and i realized, 'wow, she really thinks suBtle is a word.'"
me: "its not?"
allen: "no!"
me: "why is that B there? thats just confusing."
allen: "i dont know. im not webster."
me: "i thought [suttle] was s-u-t-t-l-e. and this word was suBtle. "
allen: "you know what that word, or those words in your case, mean?"
me: "yeah. i thought there were just two words."
allen: "that mean the exact same thing...."
me: "but one of them has a B. [suttle] and suBtle. but that really doesnt make sense, does it?"
allen: (laughing, at my expense, mind you) "no."
me: "thats just retarded."

and after further review, this book utilizes the word subtle (with a silent B) several more times. he even uses subtly a few times, which really throws me off. i'm having to rethink everything.
i mean, why do we have so many useless silent letters hanging around, really?
knife? gnat? gnome? knee?
at first i was going to blame the english language, which i do still believe is the most confusing thing ever, besides perhaps algebra II, but even the bible does it with psalm.
what about you? have you ever found after years that you had been pronouncing a word wrongly?

threesixfive, days 118 thru 124

2011-05-08T12:40:00.001-07:00

pretty good week around here. made some progress around the house with our updates we've been working on. molly got sent home from school with pink eye monday, so having to stay home all day tuesday gave me time to really get some good things done.

sunday, day 118

we got the kids an easel (chalkboard on one side, butcher paper on the other) and i walked in to see colby had written this. so sweet.

monday, day 119

when molly go sent home on suspicion of pink eye, i was in denial. i thought maybe it was just allergies. when her eye started oozing at 5pm, i called white gloves. its part of our insurance plan. they come to your house! from 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week theyre available for home visits, and they bring your prescription (if needed) to you! pretty awesome.

tuesday, day 120

i decided to redecorate the guest bathroom. it was 'ocean', so i had to paint over all the blue.

wednesday, day 121

race night at awanas. colbys car didnt win anything, and he was pretty upset, but he got a ribbon for participating, and some pointers for next year.

thursday, day 122

poupee? poopie? what? im confused.

friday, day 123

went to a birthday party for our friends caleb, jacob, and hannah (triplets!). each kiddo brought their favorite stuffed animal, and got to dress it up, and then 'show' it at the pet show. colby took timmy the turtle and made him into a super hero.

saturday, day 124

we had another birthday party this afternoon out at the city park. there were a few ponies and a full sized horse the kids (and some adults) got to ride. allen and chris gave molly and avery side by side rides.

i hope you have a blessed mothers day and week!!!

threesixfive, days 111 thru 117

2011-04-30T17:36:00.001-07:00

what a week!! thats all i can really say.

we were super crazy busy, having something every night to go to, which, believe it or not, was a good thing.

pictures.....

sunday, day 111

happy easter!!

monday, day 112

on a shopping excursion (still working on the room switch) colby and molly found these chairs. there were even signs attached to the top that said 'king' and 'queen'.

tuesday, day 113

we went to the ballpark with some friends and got to enjoy the pool! this is our best friends' oldest, adler. he loved colbys goggles.

wednesday, day 114

we have a family of cottontails under our deck and usually if we're coming home in the evenings or leaving really early in the morning, we'll catch glimpses of them.

thursday, day 115

this coming wednesday is the derby race at awanas. this will be colbys first year to participate. he and allen spent a good part of thursday afternoon working on his car.

friday, day 116

today was our last day to meet with our co-op friends. the last day of classes was two weeks ago. today we had a field day for the younger kids and an exhibit for anyone who had anything to share (art on display, drama skits, choir songs, etc).

saturday, day 117

still working on the rooms. allen is hanging the last pictures in the guest room as i type. we decided to go with a vintage sports theme. the new bookshelf for the schoolroom will hopefully be assembled tomorrow evening. i'd like to paint this room a khaki color eventually, but not in the immediate future.

have a blessed week!!!

dreams really dont come true

2011-04-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

this was the conversation between colby and molly in the car today.

molly: "colby, dreams dont really come true, you know."
colby: "why?"
molly: "they just dont. they just dont come true."
colby: "like what kind of dreams?"
molly: "well, my dream is to be a princess, but im not really."
colby: "why?"
molly: "im just not ever going to be a princess."
colby: "but youre kind and youre nice."
molly: "i just want to be nice!"
colby: "molly, kind and nice are the same thing."
molly: "oh, ok."
colby: "you kind and nice, and princesses are kind and nice.....and princesses can dance really good."
molly: "like a ballerina! like ballerina princesses!"
colby: "yeah, like a ballerina, and youre learning to dance like a ballerina, so youre working on that one."
molly: "yes, i am in my dance class."
colby: "so thats good."
molly: "but im not ever going to be a real princess. until we go to disney. thats where all your dreams come true. mommy, can we go to disney so i can learn to be a real princess?"

i dont know where they come up with this stuff. its hilarious.

threesixfive, days 104 thru 110

2011-04-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

its been a fun, fast, full week. i promise i didnt mean to use all those f's. it just worked out that way.
it was spiritual emphasis week at the academy at our church, and i was part of the worship team asked to lead.
i was up at the school each day from 12:30 to about 2:00. i love doing it, though, so it was a lot of fun.
allen is in charge of chapel services at the academy, so he got a friend of his whos a youth minister a couple hours away to come a speak this week. he stayed with us, and broke in our new guest bedroom.
theres still plenty that needs to be done to finish out the bedroom and whats now the school room/office (formerly the dining room), but we like the new setup.
allen left thursday afternoon when the last chapel service was over to drive about 4 (or 5) hours south where he was the speaker at a youth event down there.
he will get back late tonight (around 2am).
i've been flying solo with the kids for the past few days but we've had fun.
my week was much more exciting than my pictures are. im dissappointed in my lack of effort this week, but at any rate, here they are....

sunday, day 104
heres a shot of the new, not yet finished schoolroom. we decided to keep the dining room table and just take the leaves out, so its a great size for colby and molly to sit and do their work, if we ever get to that point. right now we do everything on the floor. BUT, i didnt have to get rid of my dining room set that i LOVE. we still need a big bookshelf so we can get rid of the white drawer things, and eventually we'll frame out the opening and add french doors.

monday, day 105
day 1 of spiritual emphasis week. we took bj (the speaker) to dinner at tokyo steakhouse. it one of those places where they cook the food at the table. super fun.

tuesday, day 106
i saw this liscense plate and had to get a picture. so many questions....

wednesday, day 107
time to feed the frog! we put 5 or 6 crickets in once a week.

thursday, day 108
while my parents had the kids, i went and got the stuff for their easter baskets.

friday, day 109
colby and molly opted for their matching round rock express nightshirts for bedtime and asked if i would take a picture of them together. so cute.

saturday, day 110
i just took this picture about ten minutes ago. its what i'll be tackling after i post this blog entry!!

have a blessed Easter sunday! we're having my family, and our friends the lamberts over for lunch and an egg hunt tomorrow after church. i hope you get some good time with your families as well!

make it easy

2011-04-22T13:17:00.000-07:00

just a couple of funny things that happened today with the kids...

I heard colby say
colby: im going to count to 100 from 10!
me: why are you starting at 10?
colby: it's just easier.

I've always thought the first 9 numbers were a hassle too. so overrated.

the kids made a pile of toys, and then decided to wrestle for them. whoever wins gets the toys. after about 5 solid minutes of wrestling, like rolling around on the floor, trying to pin each other, colby says.
colby: maybe we should just flip a coin. that would be a lot easier. this just isn't working.
then when they went to flip the coin, instead of heads or tails, it was president or bird. :-)

hope everyone is enjoying Good Friday! allens out of town at a speaking engagement until late Saturday night, or very very early Sunday morning, as it were, so the kids and I are trying to stay occupied.
so far today we've made a bird feeder, a fort in the living room, and (I've) cleaned the floors and done laundry. I think baking cookies is on the agenda as well.

have a blessed weekend!

bluebonnets

2011-04-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

here are a few of the pictures our friend zach took last week.

threesixfive, days 98 thru 103

2011-04-16T19:25:00.001-07:00

i'll get right to it!

sunday, day 98

youth guru jim burns was here to do an understanding your teenager conference. it was fantastic!! and we got to hang out with him sunday afternoon; hes such a nice man!

monday, day 99

i was baking all day in preparation for tuesday.....

tuesday, day 100

i hosted a coffee party for the co-op moms tuesday night. we had 6 different coffees from all over the world i had been collecting for the past several months from missionaries, or people at our church that travel. this is kimberly with her tasting cups. oh, and ethiopia was the favorite!

wednesday, day 101

i treated myself to some gerber daisies. so pretty!

thursday, day 102

bluebonnet pictures; a texas must! my friend zach took some great ones that i'll post when i get them!

friday, day 103

i went to the RRHS spring show to support some of our youth girls that participate in drill team and dance. i love going every year, but it makes me want to dance again!

saturday, day 104

we're doing an overhaul here at the house. the dining room is becoming the school room and the school room is becoming a guest bedroom. we've been running around all day to get the stuff we need for the transition. molly got buried under pillows at target!

this will be a very full and busy week! i'll be finishing up the room changes, we'll have a guest with us this week (the speaker for spiritual emphasis week at the academy at our church), and easter is a week away! have a blessed week! see you next time!

threesixfive, days 91 thru 97

2011-04-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

it was a great week here at the frans casa. allens first week back to work in a month went well for all involved. we missed him around here, but fell back into our routine pretty well for the most part. allergies kept us indoors a couple days (me and colby), but other than that it was a normal week.

sunday, day 91

molly was playing with my camera and decided she wanted a family picture. my camera has a timer, but it was so funny watching her push the button and try to run and get in the picture, that i didnt set it. there is a slight delay, so its possible. she finally got one, but i posted a few so you can see some of the 'no's'. you can also see where colby finally had enough with posing.

monday, day 92

my friend dawn gave these to me a couple of months ago, and i finally unboxed them and set them out. she has a set and she fills them with different things, usually seasonal. i love the way the jellybeans look, but its a challenge to not eat them!! just a couple more weeks.....

tuesday, day 93

we went to the park for a couple hours. colby made a friend and was playing hide and seek. hes 'whisper-yelling' at me to stop taking his picture or i'll give away his hiding spot.

wednesday, day 94

nothing like a new box of crayons.

thursday, day 95

my best guy friend from high school turns 30 on tuesday, and his wife is putting together a picture collage of all his friends doing something with the number 30. this is one of the pictures we took. we also did one with sidewalk chalk, and took one in front of a 30mph sign.

friday, day 96

spent a couple hours at the pool. i mentioned needing a picture for the day, and colby insisted on me posing with him in front of the water. then he didnt even look at the camera!! grrr.

saturday, day 97

this is one of my favorite movies; easily in my top 3. i watched is saturday for the first time in many years, and laughed just as hard as i ever have.

have a blessed week!!

silent screaming

2011-04-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

so, being a parent is awesome, right?
you have this precious child, who cuddles with you, gives free hugs and kisses, and thinks youre pretty much the greatest person on the planet. most of the time.
you get to experience their firsts. from the first time they roll over to their first lost tooth, and eventually first job, first date, first car, etc.
i love my kids with all my heart.
i'm so proud of them, and so proud to be colbys mommy and mollys mommy. i want to bless them. i want to take them for ice cream, and let them stay up late becuase we've had such a great day that i dont want it to end.
i want to take them to do something theyve never done before just so i can watch them experience it for the first time.

but sometimes they dont deserve it!
sometimes, im finding, i really want to do something nice, but i cant because theyve been acting like toots all day!
this has been the recent development at our house. we've been working on being thankful for what you have, or what youre given; not expecting more, or pouting becuase its not the color you wanted. hey, i'm sorry you're balloon is white, not red. but theres kids in china that dont have balloons.
be grateful!!!
this happens much more often with molly than with colby, and we've decided that we're going to have to start being more intentional in teaching her what it is to be grateful, which will mean times of her having some things taken away. such a hard lesson to learn, and a hard one to teach too!! they're also learning more and more how to really push each others buttons. they mess with each other just for the sake of irritating them! seriously?!?
i'm an only child, so all this sibling...ness, is completely over my head. i'm experiencing it fir the first time through my kids. and my mom just looks at me and shrugs, like, 'i got nuthin.'
so, we've had to start having talking time outs, specifically in the car. they'll get so worked up, and always when i'm driving it seems, that they just start screaming. literally. so i say, "ok, thats it. youve lost talking priviledges. no sound at all for 5 minutes." this happens on a very regular basis, but the other day i looked in my rearview mirror, and saw colby silent yelling. technically, he was following directions, but man, he was yelling in spirit. then molly joined in too, when i didnt say anything. i pulled out my camera and caught some of the action. they saw me filming, so it became kind of silly yelling, but you get the idea.

Lord, help me.

threesixfive, days 84 thru 90

2011-04-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

****blogger is not letting me space out my post and i dont know why!!! ive tried to fix it but i only make it worse. please excuse them and bear with me this week.**** this week wrapped up allens month long sabbatical. its been great having him around so much. the kids and i will definitely miss him when he heads back to work tomorrow!! we spent sunday thru wednesday in san antonio, staying in a hotel on the riverwalk. one of our 'couple friends' came down sunday evening and had dinner with us, then the next morning the guys played golf while emilie and i went shopping...and ate, and ate, and ate! the riverwalk is such a fun and beautiful place. its right in the heart of downtown san antonio, and its lined on both sides with fantastic restaraunts, and boutiques. tuesday allen and i slept in and after lunch went and walked thu the alamo, something i hadnt done since i was probably in middle school. i appreciated it much more this time! we also went to the rivercenter mall, did a little shopping, and squeezed in a movie. it was so good to get away without the kids, and just be with each other. we hadnt done that in a long time. the rest of the week played out as usual, with a few extras thrown in. i'll let the pictures show you that stuff, though.... sunday, day 84 dinner at the magic time machine. so. much. fun. this is emilie and i with our waitress, poison ivy. she was adorable! monday, day 85 emilie and i walked (much farther than we anticipated) to the guenther house for breakfast. its a historic home thats been turned into a museum and bakery. fabulous coffee, and i had the most delicious oatmeal pancakes. afterward i was thankful for all the walking we'd be doing! tuesday, day 86 i saw this place on diners, drive-ins, and dives (food network) about 3 weeks ago. i told allen we had to eat there while we were in S.A. it did not dissapoint! sandwiched between a car wash and a laundromat, their entire menu is organic and locally grown. we had spinach mushroom quesedillas (my favorite that day!); allen had the lamb burger; and i tried one of their fish tacos which was also fantastic. wednesday, day 87 the alamo!! very cool. thursday, day 88 i went today and got a feather hair extension. i've seen a few people with them and think they're so cool looking. one of the girls in the youth group, whos also our babysitter, has one and suggested that i go to the place she went. so thursday afternoon i drove down to south austin and got one! i love it!!! you can wash it, curl it, brush it; anything you'd do to normal hair. its supposed to last 2 to 3 months. i kept it pretty neutral this time. if i do it again, i think i'll add a little color. friday, day 89 allen took molly to the daddy/daughter dance. this was their second year to go, and they had a great time once again. saturday, day 90 our first pool day of the year! it got up to the low 90's today, but that water was still cold!! i'm so glad my kids are old enough that i dont have to get in with them!!!! have a blessed week!!

rv adventure/threesixfive, days 77 thru 83

2011-03-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

we spent the first half of the week a an rv park in an rv some sweet friends of ours let us use. it was a fun relaxing time away for all four of us. when we got there monday, we checked in and walked around some, then drove a few miles south to a drive thru safari ranch. we've been several times before, and ive shared pictures on here, so i wont post too many, but it was a great time as always. tuesday we stayed at the rv park all day, went swimming, walked around and took pictures of all the different license plates (i think we saw 15 different states), and grilled out. there was also a jumping pillow the kids loved, and as well as a trampoline and a game room.

wednesday, on our way home, we stopped in new braunfels at the childrens museum. i'd heard it was pretty amazing, and we were not disappointed!! it wasnt so much a museum, but more of an indoor educational mini city. there was a farm, a campsite, a grocery store, bank, hospital, news station, etc, etc. even though it was about an hour and fifteen minutes away, we will definitely be going back.

the rest of the week was normal, with dance lessons, swim school, co-op and the like. heres our week, in more pictures than usual. :-)

sunday, day 77

colby was in a puzzle mood on sunday. we did 3 or 4 that afternoon.

monday, day 78

checking out the rv park, and the drive thru safari

tuesday, day 79

a day at the rv park

wednesday, day 80

at the childrens museum in new braunfels

thursday, day 81

this is mollys favorite thing to do in the shower.

friday, day 82

this is the p.e. class i teach at the homeschool co-op we're a part of. the weather was so beautiful outside on friday, that i just let them enjoy it. they all ended up on the sand volleyball court.

saturday, day 83

we had yet another birthday party today, this one was a friend from mollys preschool. all the little girls dressed as princesses (right up mollys alley, because we all know she probably would have anyway), and cinderella was there to spend the couple of hours with them. molly was in awe.

allen and i leave this afternoon for 3 days and 3 nights at a hotel on the riverwalk in san antonio that we were given by a sweet family in our church. what a great way to wrap up his sabbatical!!

threesixfive, days 70 thru 76

2011-03-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

fun week here at the frans casa. allens still on his sabbatical, and we spent this week here in town just hanging out and doing a whole lot of nothing.

sunday, day 70

we went to eat after visiting a church here in the austin area. colby had a crazy long curly fry!!!

monday, day 71

i have a small part in an independent film, and had to go shoot a couple scenes monday night. the home we filmed at was in the hill country and was beautiful! this is the view from the deck off their kitchen. i was expericencing a tiny bit of envy.

tuesday, day 72

we met some friends at the carnival and had so much fun!! molly, as you can see, deemed her alice in wonderland halloween costume the appropriate choice for such an occasion.

wednesday, day 73

i love using my ipad as a cookbook!

thursday, day 74

this is my friend katie holding our newest pet, jake the snake. hes an albino corn snake. we love him!

friday, day 75

march madness has begun. i will be a basketball widow for the next couple weeks.

saturday, day 76

what a beautiful day! we met some friends for dinner and ate out on the deck at the restaraunt.

tomorrow we leave for a few days away. adventures will be had i'm sure! :-)

robbers and bad guys

2011-03-18T15:09:00.000-07:00

we went to dinner with my parents one evening last week. my dad had taken colby to swim school earlier that afternoon, and went into the restroom with colby while he changed back into his clothes. an older boy (upper elementary) approached my dad and told him that two little boys, who were playing in the the restroom at that time, pick on colby every week, and he just wanted to let him know.
so many things went thru my head when my dad told me this. i was upset that colby hadnt said anything. i was annoyed at the rule that doesnt allow boys over 4 to go into the womens' room (although i do understand it). i was angry at the boys that have been picking on my sweet son. we were talking about it at dinner that evening
me: what do they do to you?
colby: they try to make me get in a locker.
me: do they push you or grab you or touch you at all?
colby: no. they just tell me to get in, but i dont.
me: what do you do?
colby: i tell them to treat others how they want to be treated!!
me: well, thats good. if they ever try to do anything to you, you yell for help and i'll come in there myself if i have to.
colby: ok. why are some kids mean?
me: maybe because they dont know Jesus.
colby: but they will when they grow up and have kids?
me: not necessarily. just because you have kids doesnt mean you know Jesus. lots of adults dont know Jesus.
colby: like robbers?!?
me: yeah, maybe.

i couldnt help but laugh to myself. robbers? really?
on a side note, he is completely unfazed by those two boys, which i guess is why he's never said anything. im torn between being upset that, according to someone else, hes getting picked on, or being glad that he a)hasnt given into what theyre trying to get him to do, and b)he hasnt let it bother him in the least.

i took the kids hiking last weekend, and we passed a boy and his father. the boy had a very tall walking stick that fascinated molly.
molly: does he have that so he can beat up animals?
me: maybe.
molly: and bad guys?
me: yeah, maybe that too.
molly: or bad girls?
me: bad girls too?
molly: yes.
me: are there bad girls? or just bad guys?
molly: bad girls too. there has to be bad girls so the bad guys will have friends.

makes perfect sense. and then they'll have bad kids that will pick on my son at swim school!!
sorry, sorry.
i'm done ranting.

one more.....
same hiking trip....
molly: can i have a drink?
me: not yet. (i was not trying to be cruel. we were SO close to the car, i was just trying to get there.)
molly: i'm going to stop breathing if i dont have a drink! i'm running out of breathing!
me: water helps you breathe?
molly: yes. of course. (of course is used often and usually not in the right context. its very funny.)
me: how?
molly: the bubbles in it have air in them, and that gives me breathing of course.

of course.

threesixfive, days 63 thru 69

2011-03-12T18:52:00.000-08:00

we had a nice, relaxing family getaway at the beginning of the week as part of allens month-long sabbatical. hes been gone the last few days watching the UIL state basketball playoffs. he goes every year, and this year he didnt have to take off work to do it! :-) hes technically not gone. the playoffs are in austin, so hes still sleeping here, but hes come home after i'm asleep each night, and left before i'm awake each morning, so i really havent seen him since wednesday. i'll be glad to have him back tomorrow...or tonight if i can keep myself awake. time change. ick.

sunday, day 63

on our way to the camp (where we stayed earlier in the week) we stopped and met some friends for lunch in huntsville. this is molly and trinity, who just turned 3. they could be sisters! their appearance and personalities are so similar! which means together they're a hand.ful.

monday, day 64

we spent the day exploring the campgrounds. the kids found plenty to do.

tuesday, day 65

we got back in town late afternoon, and went to 'taste of round rock' with some friends. we go every year. restaraunts from all over the area set up tables and hand out food. there were, i think, 50 businesses represented. we were stuffed!!!

wednesday, day 66

we took advantage of the beautiful afternoon by washing the cars!

thursday, day 67

i go to zumba a few times a week at the gym. its so popular that they had to start handing out passes about a year ago, because more people were coming than could fit in the room. if you're not there at least 30 minutes before class, you dont get a pass. they go quick! today i was #1!!! that was definitely worth a picture!

friday, day 68

i took the kids to the library today. molly decided the outing was worth wearing a tiara.

saturday, day 69

my parents had some people over for dinner (the kids and i included). we roasted weenies and marshmallows at the fire pit. they said it was their fire farewell party. the above ground pool will be sitting there within a week or so.

its spring break here this week, which means we wont be doing much of anything because everyone else will be out doing it! enjoy your week if you have it off, or even if you dont!! :-)

threesixfive, days 56 thru 62

2011-03-05T14:10:00.000-08:00

its been a different week for us around here. allen started a one month sabbatical on tuesday. he will not be going back to work/church until april 3rd. crazy! so hes been around the house this week with us. a few drs appointments, and colby and i are still doing school in the mornings, but we're getting some good family time in. we leave tomorrow for a few days away. we're going to meet with a pastor and his wife, just to have them speak some wisdom to us in where we're at and where we're going as far as ministry and family. we're going to stay at a church encampment, so the kids should have some fun adventures out there in the woods looking for bugs and exploring. i'm looking forward to it.

heres our week

sunday, day 56

after church (our last day for 5 weeks!!!) we went to lunch with our friends the lamberts. molly loves their baby, tate.

monday, day 57

it was a beautiful day, so the kids and i got out in the backyard. their favorite thing is to pretend that the playscape is a castle, and i'm the dragon that has to chase them around. molly wanted to dress up for it this time.

tuesday, day 58

colby is way into angry birds (a game on the iphone/ipad). we really dont let him play that much, but hes just really latched onto it for some reason. allen bought stuffed angry birds off amazon, and a friend of his let us borrow an angry birds green pig hat that he has, so molly and colby take turns wearing the hat and nailing each other with the birds. its pretty funny. they were in the process of playing when i took this quick picture. thats why the hat isnt on her head very good; he'd just hit her with a bird!

wednesday, day 59

tragedy. we took the kids for haircuts, and the computer tells the stylist specifically what we do to colbys hair (what number guard to use on the back, top, etc). she was working on him, and asked me.

stylist: do you keep his bangs pretty short in the front?

me: yeah, we keep 'em short.

she proceeded to take the trimmer and run it right down the front of his head!

i gasped. loud. and put my hands over my mouth.

me: oh. o....k....

stylist: oh, im sorry. is that not what you do?

me: no, we trim it.

stylist: i'm sorry.

me: thats ok, it'll grow back.

at this point, colby has melted into a puddle of tears.

colby: its too short! i want my hair back!

me: its ok, buddy! youre so handsome! you really cant tell its any different from usual.

and you really cant. in fact, thats probably how we'll have them do it next time. but colby doesnt like change, and my initial reaction freaked him out. anyway, heres the picture i took right after it happened.

thursday, day 60

mollys dance class working on their recital performance.

friday, day 61

allen got to come to co-op with us for the first time! colby loved having him there! he took this picture in one of colbys classes. they were learning about bubbles.

saturday, day 62

another birthday party, another pinata. this time it was mollys sweet friend avery, and the kids had a blast. molly didnt hold her purse while she swung, but you can see she was making a fashion statment all the same.

have a fantastic week!!!

Jesus juked

2011-03-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

the Jesus juke is a new phenomena i am becoming increasingly familiar with. maybe its been around for, like, 20 years or something, i dont know. but i have only recently been educated in the ins and outs of the Jesus juke.
theres a very funny christian speaker/writer/blogger named jon acuff. he explains it beautifully. i would encourage you to check out his blog if you ever need a laugh with an occasional side of conviction. heres a definition off his blog entry 'The Jesus Juke'.

"Like a football player juking you at the last second and going a different direction, the Jesus Juke is when someone takes what is clearly a joke filled conversation and completely reverses direction into something serious and holy."

i showed the full article to allen earlier in the week and he made it his immediate goal to juke me as many times as he could that evening. then our friend ryan came over, and he too fell victim to the juking.
to his credit, allen got some really good ones in.

we were in the car last night, all four of us, going to get frozen yogurt, and we were talking about people coming to visit us, and molly said
molly: what if a tree came to visit us?!?
me: a tree??? you're silly.
molly: a tree!! hahaha.
and allen and i start laughing, like 'thats not actually funny, but you think youre being funny so we're going to humor you because youre four' laughing.
then colby, having no previous knowledge of the Jesus juke, says
colby: molly, Jesus died on a tree.
awkward silence.
allen: yes He did, colby. good job.
conversation over.

well played, colby. well played.

threesixfive, day 49 thru 55

2011-02-26T19:04:00.000-08:00

can you believe its about to be march??? it hit me the other day how fast this year is going by. i hear that happens once you have kids, though...and start getting old...er. i'll be 30 in 2 months. eek!!

our week was pretty mundane. nice considering how busy we've been, which i suppose directly relates to the year passing so quickly.

heres the week!

day 49

we went to zach and aprils house for an extreme home makeover watching party. zach, whos a fantastic photographer, was asked to be the photographer on set for the episode that aired sunday night (it was filmed in kileen, about 40 minutes north of us). pretty cool to see all the pictures he took on t.v., hanging in the new house! the picture here is zach, seeing his photographs on t.v.

day 50

i've been meaning to take a picture of this, but i guess have had plenty of other things to take pictures of instead (not complaining!!). this is my very first digital scrapbook. i used mixbook.com, and am very pleased with the results. i probably wont ever go back to doing it all by hand.

day 51

i made.....wait for it......bacon jalepeno mac n cheese for dinner. oh. my. goodness. i almost didnt post this picture, because it doesnt even begin to do it justice. i will soooo be making this again, but next time i'll amp it up and use more bacon and jalepenos. heres the recipe if youre interested.

day 52

wednesday colby and i went to the childrens hospital to visit allen second cousin who was there recovering from a torn spleen (ouch!!) and a little friend of colbys who has sickle cell anemia, and some other stuff going on. the courtyard there is so cool, i took colbys school books and we did school there. he wanted to pose for a picture. who am i to say no? :-) even when he wears socks with his crocs hes a cutie.

day 53

we went to chick-fil-a for lunch and happened to catch the cow walking around.

day 54

i had to run to the grocery store to grab a few things for dinner, and molly and colby both found this little mirror at the checkout fascinating.

day 55

we spent the morning at a birthday party. molly was standing in line to hit the pinata, and you can bet she did it with that purse on!

have a great week!! allen is taking a sabbatical for the month of march, so we'll hopefully have some fun adventures over the next few weeks.

threesixfive, day 42 thru 48

2011-02-20T11:46:00.000-08:00

this week was SO much nicer weather wise. we had some cloud cover and a little drizzle friday and saturday, but it was warm, and thats the main thing. although i realized that molly has literally no clothes to wear on the warmish days. she has some sleeveless dresses she 'inherited' from another little girl, but i guess i forgot that she had grown out of all her shorts last year, so we had to make a trip to kohls yesterday to pick up a few things. i'll be making a trip to the consignment store for her this week i'm sure. 2 pairs of shorts and a few short sleeve shirts does not a spring wardrobe make.

heres our week....

sunday, day 42

we got to go hiking today!! the weather was perfect for it! allen couldnt go; he had a meeting at church. my friend heather and her boys, jaxon and cannon, came along and kept us company.

monday, day 43

happy valentines day! allen and i dont really make a deal out of it. sometimes we'll use it as an excuse to go shopping or out for a nice dinner, but it varies year to year. this year we went on a family date. we had papa murphy's heart shaped pizza, then went to a chocolate festival at a market down in austin. the festival was a bust, becuase, well, there was no festival. i had read online that each department would have some kind of chocolate to sample, 'come experience chocolate from around the world!' we got there and had walked through 3 departments and seen nothing, so i stopped at the hot tea counter and said

me: excuse me, the chocolate festival......

tea lady: (shakes head as i'm asking)

me: no?

tea lady: well, yeah. but its over tomorrow.

me: (wanting to say something smart-alec, like, 'well, its not tomrrow yet') ....ok, so there isnt anything?

tea lady: not really. we were supposed to have a few vendors here, but they didnt show up. i think it was mostly during the day.

me: ok. thanks.

so we walked around, and did end up finding a display of choclate from white chocolate with coconut to dark chocolate with cherry bits mixed in. we each picked a treat (or two). i got a salt and cracked pepper dark chocolate car. SO good! allen got a chocolate bar with bacon in it. oddly gross. i thought i would like it. false. and we got my dad (who loves spicy anything) a bar with peanuts and jalepenos in it. the kids each picked a few little pieces as well.

tuesday, day 44

colby picked this hot cocoa mix out at the chocolate festival monday night. i've had several mugs of it this week while allen and i sit and watch our recorded shows after the kids have gone to bed. yummy!

wednesday, day 45

when i put molly in the shower this evening, these fell out of her underwear!! she had somehow accumulated them on the playground. i know they can get in your shoes, and maybe pockets, but underwear? good gracious.

thursday, day 46

allens day off. we went to chick fil a for lunch, and the kids traded their kids meal 'toy' in for an ice cream cone.

friday, day 47

my dad is one of the chaplains for the police department, and i've been asking him to come by when hes on a ride out so the kids can see the police car up close. they caught us just as we were heading out to grab some dinner. the kids thought that was 'so cool'!

saturday, day 48

major spring cleaning today. this is my spotless kitchen. i hadnt even put the chairs back at the table yet. i wonder how long until its dirty again.....

have a blessed week!!

threesixfive, days 37 thru 41

2011-02-12T19:40:00.000-08:00

i hope everyone had a great week!! ours was pretty low-key, so i'll get right to it.

sunday, day 37

this is a group picture from DNOW (the youth event at church last weekend).

monday, day 38

i didnt have to pick up the kids from my inlaws till tuesday, so monday night allen and i went out for a nice dinner. i had wolfed mine down before i even thought about taking a picture, but allen wasnt done with his yet. it doesnt look very appetizing here, but it was. he had pork tenderloin with a rasberry reduction and mashed potatoes. we will definitely be going back to that restaraunt.

tuesday, day 39

went to get the kids. colby learned about deciduous and evergreen trees a couple weeks ago, and i was able to point out a very clear difference to him while we were driving home.

wednesday, day 40

when i pick molly up from preschool (at our church), we always go upstairs to say hi to daddy and papaw (my husband is the youth pastor, and my dad is the worship pastor, for those that dont know). colby saw this odd fabric christmas tree in the childrens pastors office, and thought it was really cool, so pastor tom told him he could have it. thanks....a lot.

thursday, day 39

i noticed tuesday that there was some water pooling in our garage, but couldnt tell where it was coming from. our friend brandon came over thursday to take a look around. turns out our water heater went out, so he and allen spent all day installing a new one. the bad; we had to buy a new water heater. the good; brandon knows how to install them so we didnt have to pay for someone to do it. and we caught it just in time, if we had waited another day, it would have flooded our garage and probably mollys bedroom.

friday, day 40

we actually had a very busy day (a movie and lunch with friends, handing out homeless bags), but i didnt get pictures of any of it. molly has been suddenly obsessed with her color wonder book this week, so we spend quite a bit of time each day coloring together.

saturday, day 41

allen and i were given tickets to the UT vs Baylor game. we've been to several, but always on a weeknight and always a team from out of state. going on a saturday was awesome! it was packed and the game was close, so that made it pretty exciting.

our temperatures have been slowly climbing and tomorrow its supposed to be back up in the 70's hopefully we're done with the cold weather. it was nice for a couple weeks, but i'm a wimp.

stay warm my north-dwelling friends!!

threesixfive, days 30 thru 36

2011-02-07T08:57:00.000-08:00

it was a very cold week. molly was still recovering from pneumonia. i sent her to school monday, but ended up keeping her home wednesday because she just wasnt quite well enough to participate in recess and p.e.

they have an hour of recess!! thats nuts! after that and p.e. and lunch, i figured she was only getting a solid hour of 'school' anyway, and it wasnt worth it to make her have to sit out half of her day there.

it was freakishly cold all week. monday was actually ok, but something blew in monday night and it was in the 30's (and lower at night) until saturday. it even snowed overnight thursday!! we never have snow, so the 2 inches we woke up to friday morning were unbelievable. saturday it was back up to 75 degrees. typical central texas weather. i heard someone say that they loving living in texas because they get to wear their whole wardrobe all year long. so true.

disciple now weekend was incredible. my kids are in houston till tomorrow so we can recuperate. we had approx 160 students this year, and i was so blessed to be a part of the band that led worship. the theme was FANAt>iC. the message in the middle of the word is 'the cross is greater than i'. the kids really grabbed it and some hearts were changed. so cool to see God at work in the lives of students.

on with the week.....

sunday, day 30

heres the theme i was telling you about. this sign was put up in the worship center, and it was also on the tshirts for the weekend.

monday, day 31

the band, Seven Day Shout, had rehearsal monday night. i had to stop and get a hot tea beforehand. this is my favorite!

tuesday, day 32
i got out and ran a couple errands with the kids. molly fell asleep on the way home, a sure sign she wasnt feeling completely well yet. i just put her on the couch and left her to it.

wednesday, day 33

DNOW kickoff in the worship center. the students are broken into groups, so when they arrive they had to find their name on a cross and that would put them with their group for the weekend.

thursday, day 34

colby helped me make dinner.

friday, day 35

snow day!!! they loved it for about ten minutes, then decided they were too cold and wanted to go back inside.

saturday, day 36

in one of the small group sessions this weekend, the kids were given the opportunity to eat bugs (chocolate covered larva and crickets) in true john the baptist form; they studied his life and used him as the example of what a fanatic for Christ looks like. at the worship service saturday night, allen called a few kids up for a bug eating speed challenge (who could eat a whole box the fastest). the girl in the tye-dye shirt won, and her house got an ice cream party that night. the other girl got really close. the guy went outside and threw up.

have a great week! hopefully we'll all stay warm!!!

threesixfive, days 23 thru 29

2011-01-29T18:57:00.000-08:00

its been a looonnnggg week. molly had a cough sunday night that kept her from sleeping well, so i kept her home from preschool monday. monday night she spiked a high fever and the coughing started back up again. she was like that all week. sleeping a lot, not eating anything really. one of my best friends is a pediatric nurse practitioner and she said it sounded like the flu, but by tuesday when i talked to her, she said it was too late to treat it, and i would just have to ride it out. friday morning her fever was still high and she didnt seem to be getting any better. i called my friend again, and asked her what she would do. she said 5 days with fever is too long, and her fear was that it might have developed into something else. if it was wednesday or thursday she might wait another day, but heading into the weekend, she thought i should take her and let he dr listen to her chest and check her out.

i was at the drs office within the hour (praise the Lord we got in so quickly!!), and molly was sent home with a pneumonia diagnosis and two prescriptions. pneumonia?? really?!?!? the dr said it most likely started as the flu and the pneumonia was secondary. she literally slept the rest of the day with the exception of about 3 hours, and even those she spent on the couch.

this afternoon she perked up a little bit and ate a couple very small meals. hopefully by monday she'll be my healthy happy girl again.

i feel like a big blob. i've been sitting on the couch with her all week, sleeping and eating. i got out a little this afternoon to help with some stuff for our big disciple now youth event coming up next weekend, and allen and i had a double date thursday night with some friends. other than that, it was a pajama week. my pictures will reflect as such.

sunday, jan 23rd

molly wanted her bangs clipped back for church. she loves her forehead to show. she took one look at herself in the mirror and said, "the church will love me." so humble.

monday, jan 24th

we went to a middle school boys' basketball game, and colby, unbeknownst to us, used the bleachers for a drawing pad. you can read about how it all went down on my previous blog post. what a mess....but a fabulous learning experience for all of us.

tuesday, jan 25th

i made sardinian spaghetti for dinner. my kind of comfort food. this stuff is delicious, but i only make it every once in awhile because it calls for saffron, which is crazy expensive.

wednesday, jan 26th

all this time at home has allowed me to finish my very first digital scrapbook!! i used mixbook and found it very easy and fun! i cant wait to get it in the mail!!!

thursday, jan 27th

lots of this going on this week.

friday, jan 28th

every friday, allen takes molly to dunkin donuts before school. she obviously wasnt going to be going to school that day, but asked the night before if she would still have 5D day with daddy (daddy daughter dunkin donut day). he went and picked one up and brought it home to her.

saturday, jan 29th

mimi wanted molly to have some get well flowers, so she asked allen if he would pick some up for her, put them on the porch with a card, ring the doorbell, and run off. she was so happy with them. she carried them around the house with her all day.

as i mentioned earlier, we have a HUGE youth event at the church this weekend. if you think of it, please say a prayer for us. allen and i are both obviously deeply involved in the weekend, and the kids spend the weekend with mimi every year. we all need to be in good health! so far there are about 150 students signed up, and we'll get more this week (our group is notorious for last minute sign ups). they'll be staying at 24 different houses in the area, having worship services, small group sessions, and mission projects. i'll have pictures next week i'm sure! :-)

ugh....consequences

2011-01-25T13:47:00.000-08:00

last night the family went to watch one of the boys in the youth group play basketball. 7th grade basketball to be exact. not terribly riveting, but something we can do as a family and it supports one of the youth group kiddos.

being middle school boys, and both very small schools, it wasnt terribly crowded, so colby and mojo were able to walk the stands and keep themselves pretty well entertained.

i looked over at colby at one point and he was laying on his stomach next to allen,very quiet and very still. i assumed he was tired and really didnt think much about it.

when we got up to leave i looked down at where colby had been and say a bright red crayon drawing on the bleacher seat!! i almost didnt say anything because it was actually a really good drawing; good enough that ididnt think colby had done it.

but just to be sure

me: colby did you do that?

colby: (deer in headlights look; totally, undoubtedly busted)

allen: colby did you do that?

colby: (puts his hands up, as if to say 'i surrender', but kind of shakes his head no. verdict:still undetermined)

me: colby...?

colby: (nods head)

allen: lets go. we're not gonna deal with it here.

walking to the car a few minutes later

allen: colby, why did you do that? you destroyed property.

colby: i dont know.

allen: we're going to call the school tomorrow and tell tham what you did and you're going to have to come up here and apologize. and if they want you to clean it you're going to clean it.

colby: (nods head)

me: (aside to allen) i totally know he shouldnt have done it, but is it bad that i kind of want to compliment him on his drawing? that was really good!

we went to dinner, and talked a little more about it. allen addressed the fact that colbys first instinct had been to lie and when we got home he would get a swat as a consequence for lying (which he did), but that he still had to pay the consequence for his actions and that would be determined by the principal.

allen called the school this morning and spoke with the vice principal (the chief was out of the office today), and told him what happened.

allen said he seemed shocked that we would even bother to make the effort, but said he would be more than willing to speak to colby and let him clean it up.

when they got to the school, colby apologized to the v.p. and asked his forgiveness. he was very kind and told colby that he forgave him, and explained why it was so important that it get cleaned up. they have a game there tonight, and if some oter kid sees thedrawing, they'll think its ok if they draw on it too, etc.

it made sense to colby and the walked down to the gym, met the janitor, who colby also apologized to, and cleaned up the crayon.

it was a great learning experience for all of us.

i'm thankful the school allowed us to use the opportunity to use that as a teaching moment fr our little guy.

...and i did ask allen to take my camera and take a few pictures if he could do it without it being inappropriate. gotta keep the threesixfive in mind. :-)

the drawing

the offending crayon (someone had left it there in the bleachers. fail.)

colby and mr garza, the vice principal

after colby cleaned up the drawing, they went back to mr garzas office and he got to try on one of the football helmets. bonus.

threesixfive, days 16 thru 22

2011-01-22T18:41:00.001-08:00

we're officially back to our routine!! what can i say, i like consistency. at least in the day to day.

school is consistent, working out is consistent, awanas started back up; all is well.

we had a nice mellow week.

day16, sunday

i've been trying for months to finish up my 2009 scrapbook (yes, im THAT far behind). i'm going to start doing it on the computer so my stuff isnt spread out all over our dining room table. my photos from 2010 are uploading to mixbook as i type this! yay!

sunday i was able to wrap up the '09 book and pack it up.

day 17, monday

my clean dining room table! i havent seen this table without scrapbooking supplies all over it since febuary. and just in time, too. we had 20 people over for dinner monday night, so i needed that table to sit people at!

day 18, tuesday

as some of you know i collect red mugs. my friends, the kristens, bought this for me at starbucks last week. i love it, and was for some reason cold all day tuesday, so this got plenty of use. i also bought this creamer monday at the store. its sooooo yummy.

day 19, wednesday

i remembered at 10:30pm wednesday night that i didnt have a picture for the day. i was up at church in the youth building for band practice, so i took this picture of 'the wall'. everyone that ever comes into the youth building is asked to sign the wall under Jesus's name. allen started this about 2 years ago. i think its so cool.

day 20, thursday

colby had to use some of his consonant blends to write a story. this is what he came up with. i love seeing him grow and learn!!

day 21, friday

the kids and i went to the domain (a shopping area in austin) friday to keep my friend katie company while she spent her birthday money, and wrapped the trip up with a visit to starbucks. right outside is a firepit with rocking chairs and this little play area. its a great place to sit and hang out, and was a beautiful afternoon for it.

day 22, saturday

we had a birthday party to go to today at an inflatable play place. the kids wore themselves out. allen did too.

have a blessed week!!!

bedroom guest

2011-01-20T20:35:00.000-08:00

for the past several weeks, the kids have been ending up in our room during the night. molly has been ending up in our room since she moved into her big girl bed; not my ideal, but we figure she'll outgrow it eventually. we just keep a pallet on the floor in there, and she wanders in at some point during the night and lays down and goes back to sleep.
a couple months ago colby started coming in during the night too. he doesn't come in as early as molly does, but when we wake up in the morning there's a kid on the floor on either side of the bed.
allen was putting colby to bed tonight and he said
colby: I should just start in your room since that's where I'm going to end up.
allen: this is a great bed! we paid a lot of money for this.
colby: but you and mommy get to be together in your room and im in here by myself. it doesn't make sense.
allen: you have your own room, and that's mine and mommys bedroom cause we're married. one day when you get married you and your wife will have your own room.
colby: oh, now it makes sense!

but whether it makes sense or not, he will still wake up on our bedroom floor.

threesixfive,days 9 thru 15

2011-01-15T19:12:00.000-08:00

week 2 and going strong!

there are quite a few days this week where i'm having trouble deciding which picture to use; we've been busy!

day 9

this is brutus, my parents' dog. they've had him since he was a puppy and hes lived 15 (i think) good long years. hes really had a rough few months and a very quick decline this last week or so. mom called me saturday to tell me that they were going to have to have him put down monday morning, so i took the kids over sunday evening so we could say good bye to him. pretty sad, but we know its the best thing.

day 10

i go grocery shopping every monday, and this week was no different. however, my grocery store recently added curbside service and it was cold and drizzly enough this week that i took advantage of it!!

day 11

the kids had dentist appts this morning. colby was a champ. molly, not so much.

day 12

meet the newest member of the family; fred. some people in our church found him in one of their plants and brought him to us. allen went to the pet store and bought him some crickets. so far so good.

day 13

we woke up wednesday morning to find that one of my clothes rods had fallen off the wall in the middle of the night. our friend brandon came over thursday to help allen fix it, after which i got rid of some of the weight. ;-) brandon is a stay at home dad, so in order for him to hlp allen i had to watch his two boys, jaxon (4) and cannon (4 months). i got my baby fix!

day 14

allen left friday to go speak at an event in east texas, so my parents came over and hung out. mom and the kids put together some 'homeless bags' to keep in the car and hand out. we really want to be proactive this year about giving them opportunities to serve others.

day 15

today the kids went to their friends adlers birthday party. we got to take a tour of a fire station. the kids had a great time.

i dont know how the weather is where youre at, but its been cold and rainy here for a couple days. i wish we could just hole up and stay in our jammies, but life must go on.

stay warm and dry and have a blessed week!!