Dish Scoop and More

So, the guy came and installed Dish. Yes it took 5 HOURS to do, but it IS in. He had to cement some poles in the ground for the satellite dishes to stand on because he couldn't find a place on our house. I guess that took longer than expected or at least I expected.

After he got them installed, he started to tell me how to do the DVR. YA'LL!! I started giggling I was so excited, which made me embarrassed for being to excited. Anyhoo - It's working and I can't wait to tape(Is that even the word you use with DVR?) 24 OR Heroes tonight and get to watch which one I don't tape. YEAH!! You would think it was Christmas or something around here. So silly I guess when you think about it.

*UPDATE* - So everyone asked about Avery and the TAKS test. We won't know the results for a few months, BUT she came out with a smile on her face which speaks VOLUMES!! She even finished BEFORE lunchtime which was another GREAT sign. So thank you for the prayers. I cannot tell you how much that meant to me.

I am fixing to go work my first Dittos For Kiddos sale this afternoon. Those of you who don't know about it, it is our local top of the line children's consignment sale. When you work it, you get to be one of the first ones to shop. So, I am going today to help people get their stuff in the sale. It is SO organized. I just hope that they have some really great stuff in Avery's size. We don't get ANY hand-me-downs for her since she is the oldest. She just needs so many Spring and Summer clothes. We'll see.

I'll leave you with a couple of funny things that Parker has said in the last week or so.

We are riding in the car and out of the blue she says, "Mom, Jesus is NOT a number".

I was jumping up cleaning the walls with a wipe and she starts laughing and says," Mom, your bottom is shaking". Nothing like the honesty of a child!!

Rockin It with Dish

So after all the comments about me having to miss Survivor when Jude made that HUGE spaghetti mess, we have decided to try Dish with DVR instead of cable. I am kind of nervous even though I know TONS of people with it and heard LOTS of good things. I have just had regular old cable for so long and am scared that a big storm will come and knock the satellite dish off of the house. Storm season IS coming ya know?

But I decided to get it for Glen's birthday. (ya know, one of those I-really-want-it-so-I'm-giving-it-to-YOU-as-a-gift kind of thing) They are coming Sunday to install it. Why is it that they always schedule it during nap time???

I am SO excited about the DVR though. I have been told that I am going to wonder why I didn't change to Dish sooner. So here's to hoping that I feel like that next week!!

What does everyone else have? Dish or cable or neither?

Happy Birthday Glen!!

Glen is turning 29 today. He is the sweetest man that I have ever met in my LIFE. He takes such great care of our family and deserves WAY more than I could ever give him as a birthday gift.

Happy 29th Birthday Glen!! I love you!

Next year, you better WATCH OUT! Hee Hee.

Picture of Mom / Avery's Big Day

This is going to be a double post. First, I am going to post a picture of my Momma for my friend Stephanie. I just think this is the cutest idea. Sadly I don't have a scanner, so I am using a recent picture. This picture was taken a few months ago with my precious Avery. (Whom the second part of this post is about anyway)
My momma is one of my best friends. I tell her pretty much everything without holding back. She is a great listener and one of the most generous people I know. She loves to give gifts to people. She loves the element of surprise on their faces and the joy in their smiles.

I want to be a mom like her. I want to love my kids the way she loves me and my brother. I have cried many tears thinking about just that. The story that she has told over and over again to me is that when we were little, she would lay in bed and cry because her heart hurt with so much love for us. She would give up ANYTHING for me. (Except the treadmill that she says she is going to start using THIS week. HA!! Love you momma!)

THEN there is Avery. She is in the 4th grade and tomorrow she is taking the TAKS test. It is a standardized test and Avery is taking the writing test tomorrow. She did not do well on the practice test a week ago, so she is VERY nervous for the test. PLEASE say a quick prayer for her to do well. She is such a smart girl and I know she can do it if she will relax and concentrate.

So there you have it. My 2 girls for the day. My Momma and my Avery.

Anyone still there???

Addictive personality, table for one please!! MAN. This week I have not been on the computer hardly at all. I mean I either I am blogging every hour or I just don't do it at all. There is no in between for me it seems.

I am like that in life in general also. With friends, with exercising, with food, with anything good, anything bad, I just am either addicted or I'm not. There is NO IN BETWEEN!!!! I have known that I am like that for a LONG while. I hate that little tid bit about myself, but have come to realize that it is a really hard thing to change.

This week I made it down to the J's in my bloglines ONCE, so if your blog starts with a letter past the J's, I did NOT come to your blog this week. I know. I can hear the loser comments already. You have that right. I have NOT been a good blogging friend. I didn't even go to my Bestie's blog. THAT is bad!!

So, If you will forgive me, I am going to try a new technique this week. You'll have to bear with me though because I am going to have to split up my comments to every other day. I know that makes people not want to comment on mine, and I TOTALLY understand!!! It is just that if I comment in EVERYONE'S blog everyday, then it would take me 2 hours. SERIOUSLY. I guess it just takes me a long time to comment. I never have been a fast typer.

I guess the main reason I am cutting back is because I feel like I am not seeing my kids and spending the time I need to with them OR Glen. Am I the only one that feels that? How does everyone do it? Do you just comment on the days that you post. And what if you post everyday???

I am just trying to figure this all out, STILL!! You would think after so many months that I would have this down. HA. Not so much. :)

THE Movie

Well, since several of you asked, I thought I would go ahead and get this movie thing out of the way. Some of you know this story and I am sorry to bore you with it, but I figured I would write about it one day and that day has arrived.

When I was in middle school, my dad was the head coach at Permian High School on Odessa Texas. We didn't win for several seasons when a guy named Buzz Bissinger came and asked if he could write a book about the team. He told everyone that he was going to write a book a lot like the movie Hoosiers. So of course every one thought that would be cool.

That year Mr. Bissinger went EVERYWHERE with the team. He spent time with the family's of the coaches and players ALL THE TIME. Then he left to write Friday Night Lights. When the book came out, it was a shock to everyone in Odessa. It was NOT the book that he SAID that he was going to write.

The book was about my dad, his team, there were even a few things about me which at the time I thought was cool. THEN, I found out what the book was really about. There were so many tears and hurt feelings because everyone just felt betrayed. If you've read the book or if you've heard of it, you probably know that it was a lot about racism. That was SO far from anything that I ever knew and still don't believe half of what was written.

THEN, 15 years later, they make the MOVIE Friday Night Lights. Billy Bob Thornton played my dad (don't ask me why, my daddy is SO handsome and BB, not so much) and an actress named Connie Britton played my mom. We got to go to Hollywood to the premiere and meet all the stars. Faith Hill was PRECIOUS!! It was her and Tim McGraw's anniversary that day and they were just so nice. ( I would post pictures, but I'd had Jude 3 months earlier and I gained so much weight with him, there is NO way anyone is seeing THOSE pictures!! Sorry!) I also LOVED meeting Bryce Dallas Howard (she was awesome) and just SEEING Jimmy Kimmel. I LOVE his show. He caught me staring too. Sorry Jimmy!

The movie was OK. Lots of people ask me if that is how it really was and there are few things that were like that, but not everything. We did have for sale signs in our front yard after losing games. AND I didn't want to go to school because of kids being mean and people talking bad about my dad. So from MY point of view, those were accurate. ANYWAY. That is the movie story.

We Went

Well, against about 60% of the vote of whether to go or not, we chose to go to my niece's party. We had called about 11:00AM on Saturday and my mom said that she was up and about AND that no one else had come down with the virus. SO, after TONS of discussion, the hubs and I decided to go and brave the storm.

The party was great. We had a really good time all weekend. I hadn't seen my parents for over a month and my brother since Christmas. So the visit was nice.

Before leaving my brother's house, my mom gave all of us our Valentine gifts. The kids all got great stuff, I got some really pretty breast cancer silver bracelets, and Glen got the DVD Facing the Giants.

NOW! For anyone that is a Christian or even if you are not, you need to see this movie. We watched it in the car on the way home and I cried about half of the time because it was so touching. It is a Christian Faith based movie and it is GREAT for kids. I will warn you that it is about 2 hours long, but for kids 5 and up, it rocks!! The acting isn't the best, but the message is AMAZING. I am not a big sports movie fan (yes, I realize how ironic this is since there IS a sports movie made about us). This though is a terrific movie that is MORE than a sports movie.

So, go rent Facing the Giants and tell me what you think!! It changed my life. (As cheezy as that sounds)

PS. We are all feeling fine. WOO - HOO!!!

To go or NOT to go.....

TOMORROW (Saturday) is my niece Ainsley's 4th birthday and the party is tomorrow also. She is my brother's only child and 1 of our only 2 nieces. We have been planning on going to her town this weekend for the big party. The party is suppose to be at the coolest place. LOTS of stuff for the kids to do.

Today I call my mom (Her and my dad are already there) and she is at my brother's house and HAS THE STOMACH BUG!!! I am still debating on whether to go. I do NOT want to bring that stuff home. She started throwing up last night and says this evening that she feels a little better, but still. If I brought that bug home to MY house with 4 kids, let's just say NOT GOOD THINGS GOING THROUGH MY HEAD about that. We have not been sick in SO long and I just don't want to "go there".

So my question is what you would do. Would you go and brave it out OR would you be better safe than sorry? I need help on this one. I am going to feel so bad if I don't go. We've got the gifts ready, we have been talking about it for WEEKS and my kids are SO excited. But then, I am a MOMMA. I am the protector of my children. That is MY job and if I don't do it, no one will. I am just at a loss for what to do.

Spaghetti Anyone?

My family loves Survivor. We love to sit down and watch it together every Thursday. Last night was the season premiere and so we were all excited. I had made some yummy spaghetti for dinner and we were going back during the commercials and cleaning the kitchen. While we were watching, I started wondering where our Little Man Jude was. I walked in the kitchen and found this:


He must like his left overs all mixed up together. HA. AND look at the serving dishes. Aren't those classy. Yep, out of pots. NICE.

I couldn't even enjoy the rest of Survivor. I had to get that mess cleaned up before it turned the wood of the table red. I wasn't mad at all. He looks like he is getting in trouble, but really it is more of a confusion on why I am taking pictures at this moment. Has he not figured out that I am going to blog about stuff like this??

Horsin' Around

To clarify, Anna didn't have any rude comments on HER blog, just me. You know how I bring out the freaks!! HA. BUT she got weirded out by the comments left on my blog. BUT when all is said and done, I think she will keep her blog going, right Anna?

I've heard just about all the stereotypes of Texans. One being that we all ride around on horses. I have always thought that was funny, because WE have never owned horses and I have lived here all my life.There ARE horses in the outskirts of town. (I am making my town sound so Poe-Dunk, it really isn't)

We had just finished taking Avery to her weekly Bible Study, driving past some horses.(7 total) Jude about threw a fit to see them, so I pulled over and rolled the window down. While sitting there I started wondering if they would eat out of our hands. I got out and grabbed a bunch of grass and held it out to these horses that were about 20-30 feet away. THEY STARTED WALKING TOWARDS ME!!! I immediately got the 3 other kids out of the car (Poor Avery missed the whole experience) and told them to grab some grass and feed them.

So we spent about 30 minutes feeding these horses on the side of a country road. IT was SO cool. Even Jude was brave enough (I mean these horses must look HUGE to him) to feed them. It was the highlight of my day. Just watching the kids feed these huge animals and pet them, SO AWESOME!!

Next week we are going to stop BEFORE Bible Study so that Avery can partake in the activity. I can't wait. AND next time I WILL have my camera ready!!

Weird & Rude Comments

Last night I had some weird and honestly quite rude comments left on my blog. That has never happened to me before. 2 of them were from "someone" that supposedly "has" a blog, but doesn't really post. And then 2 of them were left anonymously. They were from the same person though. I know this for a fact and it is a secret how I know.

Now my friend Anna is thinking more than likely she is not going to blog anymore. I totally understand her reasons and back her up ALL THE WAY. I am going to miss all her posts though if she does quit. She has a very unique blog and I always look forward to seeing what she is going to post. She has been leery of blogging in the past and I don't blame her for not wanting to anymore. There are security issues involved also. I just have a hard time letting someone ruining blogging for me, so I am not sure that I am ready to quit.

I just can't believe that there are people out there just trying to be rude and hurt people's feelings. So.... you will notice that I have made it to where you cannot leave anonymous comments & also I am moderating all the comments. So if you were wondering, that is why all of a sudden you can't access Anna's blog AND my comment section is different.

Fingernail Color & Debra Messing

So I finally took my Solar Nails off about a month ago. They were so fun and took NO effort, but it was time to let my nails have a break. I now have been painting my nails about once a week and they have stayed great. I've been keeping them really short and really am enjoying them.

That is always the issue, me spending time painting my nails and them chipping the next day. So I have found some colors that I think are AWESOME and actually stay on. The thing is they are not the normal red, pink, or orange tones. They are DARK. OOOHH. Don't be scared!!

When I went to meet Lindsay in Dallas, I took off my (Don't flip out!) BLACK nail polish because I knew I was wearing black that day and I didn't want it to look goth. So I went with a REALLY dark ALMOST black with glitters in it (Of course - nothing wrong with a little shimmer!).

I really am digging the dark colors, but wanted to know everyone's opinion. I am definitely not the average nail "color" lover, and these really dark colors are IT for me right now. What do you think? What do you wear?

BTW-Did I tell ya'll that Lindsay thought that I looked like Debra Messing from the show Will and Grace? I totally forgot about that until right now. So tell me what you think about that too!

Super Bowl Party

Tonight for the Super Bowl, we had our small group from church over. NOW, this group is HUGE on dressing up. They have had and 80's party, and goofy Christmas dressing up party, and I'm sure I'm leaving something out, but you get the drift.

We have been in this small group for several months and we didn't dress up for the Christmas party. When we walked in to that Christmas party, the disappointment on people's faces made me PROMISE myself to never NOT dress up for one of these "parties".

For tonight, we were suppose to dress up as ANYTHING having to do with football games. It didn't HAVE to be Bears or Colts, just football. I was SO close to calling my mom and having her send my twirling uniform, you know the one. It looks like an old one piece swimsuit with sequins all over it. I knew there would be food and I didn't want to ruin anyones appetite though, so I never made the call. That said, here are some pictures from out Super Bowl party tonight at our house.

We had some great "outfits" in the guy section.

(LEFT TO RIGHT)
Brandon was the Referee. They put tape on his black shirt. VERY creative.

Chad is holding Ava. She was a little football player. He was the Team Doctor. Look how smart he looks!

The 2 sitting in the middle of the couch were just people watching a game on tv at home. They totally fit that part, huh?

Zach (standing) and his brother Landon (seated on the right of the couch) were the Trainers of the bunch. Glad they were there to make sure we had our cups of water!

And then there is Glen the one in the grey t-shirt. He had just played football with the guys today and stayed in his football playing garb. WOW!! He stretched it on that one huh?

The girls were SO creative I thought.

(LEFT TO RIGHT)
The one that left the bathroom with toilet paper hanging out of her pants and has mustard on her shirt, but no one wants to tell her - That's Kara!! Look at her face. WE laughed and laughed about that face that she is making. And she is holding the toilet paper, like she just found out!! SO FUNNY!

Sarah is the football going through the goal posts. How cute is that? I think she won the prize. I mean - She painted her FACE!!!

Can you guess what I am? HMM..... I bet nobody can guess it. I am the Cheerleading Boot Camp Sargaent!!! You know like the one on Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders show!! Come on guys!!

Next is Kate the drummer. She actually played these in High School and I was SO impressed at how she could rock it out on those things! She gave us a demonstration. VERY COOL!

Whitney is next. She is the cutest football player EVER!

And of course the other Sarah was a Bears fan. (Which was easy for her because she REALLY IS!!)

And of COURSE I sent my kids to bed before taking their pictures. What a good mom I am. The girls were cheerleaders. (Hello, my cadets!!) and Jude believe it or not was just a little boy in plain clothes. He woke up about 20 minutes before people started coming over and it was just too late. OH WELL!!

The Colts won. I'm bummed, but I still had fun.

Yogurt That's Good For You

So by now everyone knows I went to Walmart yesterday. So I am there and I am getting some yogurt. We love yogurt at my house. Now I have heard that yogurt has a LOT of sugar in it and should be considered a dessert, so I have been getting the Dora kind that has 20% less sugar. It also has NO Red 40 dye for Jude (he gets hyper with things that have Red 40 in it).

I went ahead and got the Dora kind for the kids, and saw this Soy kind that is suppose to be really healthy for you. I have gotten it before and it was SO gross, but I thought maybe this time it would taste better. Maybe my taste buds have changed.

I love trying to eat healthy. I think it is important for my kids to see us as adults trying to eat and live healthy too. So I bought this Soy yogurt and was really proud that I was buying something that I thought tasted gross and was willing to eat it no matter if it gagged me out or not.

Cut to today. Lunchtime. I gave the kids Dora yogurt and got my Soy healthy yogurt out. Opened the lid, stirred it up and took a small bite (A little gun shy). AND SPIT IT OUT!! That stuff is NASTY! So I went from proud of trying to be healthy to ashamed that I wasted $3.00 on yogurt that is now in the trash.

NOTE TO SELF: No matter how healthy Soy yogurt says it is, IT IS NOT FOR YOU!!!

Contest!!!

I want to win this contest. I love this jewelry!! I would LOVE TO WIN!! But if I don't and you do, let me know. I would love to at least "know" the person that wins. That would rock too! Good luck!

Hands Full

** UPDATE** My husband just read my post and told me that this man wasn't being mean, but instead making conversation. Well, that wasn't my point. MY point was WHO SAYS THAT???** Now for the original post:

The kids and I went grocery shopping today at the beloved Walmart. I would rather go to United (the local really nice grocery store), but Walmart has better deals and it really is hard to pass that up feeding a family of 6!!! So off we went and we rocked it out!!! My kids were like champs in there. We even got a birthday present for a party on Saturday. So we were set. We start to check out with the moodiest check-out lady in the building. Who am I to judge after yesterday though, right? I am loading the groceries BACK in my basket after she rings them up(the most dreaded part for me, besides unloading the whole load at home) and I notice an older man and lady behind us staring and whispering. I kind of felt a little awkward, but I was trying not to care OR look at them. While I was writing my check, the man says, "You sure do have your hands full." Hmm. What does that mean? Why do complete strangers feel compelled to say that to me? Why when my kids are acting WONDERFULLY, does someone have to ruin it with that comment??? AND how am I suppose to respond to that? I usually just say, "I sure do", but I just think it is an odd thing to say to someone. Am I the only one that thinks that comment is bizarre? How come noone says that to the moms that REALLY DO have there hands full? AKA: Out of control children? Anyone else feel like I do or get asked that question?? Anyone?......Anyone?......Bueller?.......Anyone?