I Know I am a Grown Up

I had a moment today that made me realize that I might be a grown up. We got trees planted in the backyard. For those of you who do not live in the south, these are little gem magnolia trees. They have dark green leaves with purple undersides and bloom these amazing white flowers. When I think of the south I picture red brick houses, big porches, ice cold mint juleps (who knows what that is) and magnolias. Anyway, I am so excited to plant trees and put down roots. I never thought two little trees could mean so much to me, but when they were being planted today I couldn't stop grinning. We are putting down roots. We are officially southerners. I hope to be here long enough to see these little guys grow up. Who knows maybe I will even sit in their shade and drink a mint julep or at least a lemonade.

Sunday Night

What is it about Sunday nights? They seem to be the odd mix of happy and sad. Sad that the weekend or in this case vacation is over and happy almost excited to start back at it again. This is our hallway. Each school night backpacks are readied and shoes (with socks) are laid out. In this picture I see little things about my girls. I notice things like J's unlaced shoes. She has yet to master tying and C's perfectly parallel shoes and cleaned out bag. Cam's are laid out too, first in line, bright pink, and ready. Not to be left behind by her older sisters. So I sit here this Sunday night looking at those bags and shoes. Happy that tomorrow is Monday and that the lovelies are off to school and I can finally be alone and sad because I know the day will soon come that there will be no bags and shoes in my house. I am sad because yet another year with them has gone by. They are growing up so fast. Everyone said it would happen, but I must admit in the throws of it I didn't really believe them. I am happy too though because they are amazing and honestly even though motherhood is one insanity after another, ultimately I am better for it.

(this post was inspired by Dr.SBJ who took the pic and is a great example of one who stops to find the joy and beauty in the everyday)

Snowing Y'all

(I am having issues with blogger so forgive the pictureless post.) It snowed today in Cypress. It was very cold and very windy all day--in the 30s. I don't care who you are, that is cold. I came home to meet the girls and was shocked to see snow falling. It was beautiful and peaceful and melting almost before it hit the ground. There are rumors of school closures and work delays because of road conditions. Having lived in Utah and Idaho I find it all a little silly as do my girls. I asked them if they wanted to get on their coats and run around in it like all of the neighborhood seemed to be doing and they said almost in unison, "We have seen snow before, mom." But I will say it brought the Christmas spirit today and made me think that it is possible to get all of the things done on my list. See, for all of you who think you know Texas and it's big hair, bugs and bad weather, you have not been to Cypress in December.

Giving Thanks

I know, I know, I know, I am not very consistent at blogging. I hope to post once a week, but I really like posts with photos and I am struggling with my photos. Maybe after a visit from Santa and several hours with my soon to be friend Adobe I will be a better blogger, until then be patient.

This Thanksgiving holiday was a lot of fun and hard work. We kicked off our vacation with some turkeys. We had a great time making plates of cupcakes and delivering them to a few friends and thanking them for being so special to us. We feel extremely blessed have made such great friends in such a short amount of time. I guess what you here about Texans and their southern hospitality is true.

Then we decided to lay three pallets of sod in our backyard. It took us 5 hours, but we got all of it laid and it sure looks great. I am thankful for a strong healthy husband who is not afraid of hard work. We had a fun time as a family and it was very satisfying to see a completed lawn. Ox, hub's bulldog, loved the new grass. He spent most of the day rolling all over it. It was an early Christmas present for him.

We also spent a lot of time having fun. We were invited to our friends family diner and it was a great time. We went to the drive-in, played the Wii, watched a bunch of movies, made lots of goodies, and felt thankful for each other and the many blessings we have.

Ode to the Negative

I remember my mom used to have this book that was titled, "If life is a bowl of cherries, why I am always in the pits?" As a child I just thought it was funny. As an adult I must say I have wondered about this myself. It seems that especially on the blog or in the scrapbook it is all about the positive when really much of life is spent in the negative. So here is my ode to the negative or in other words I am going to vent:
My mom is sick, my dad is sad
My messy house just makes me mad
My kids all whine and moan and fight
I worry, can I raise them right?
The dog just sheds and sheds some more
could there be more dog hair on the floor?
The yard needs plants and rocks and trees
all in and done before the freeze.
My skinny jeans are still too tight
that @#$^* scale just can't be right.
Christmas is coming what a joy
I have to find the perfect toy
and do the cards and bake the food
and clean the house, then be in a good mood.
The state of the nation has got me down
the election, the market all make me frown.
Where are the cherries in all of these pits?
like you've never thrown one of these fits.
I know, I know my life is good
I should be grateful, I should, I should
But sometimes you need to vent
and then you can go back to being content.

Halloween

I know I am a big blog slacker. It has been several months since my last post and really a lot has happened so here is the quick list: school started for the girls, there was a big, bad hurricane, there were a few families emergencies, I got older (much older) and then it was fall. It is hard to believe that fall is here. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. People who say the weather is bad in Texas have not been to Cypress in October. We have had a great month of playing in the cul de sac, riding bikes, doing yard projects, and watching soccer games. The girls had a great Halloween. It was a fun day at school with a PE sponsored carnival and then trick-or-treating and dinner with friends.

School

Why is it easier to borrow money than register your kids in school? Honestly do we really need all of these forms. Crazy. So to beat the system I arrived at school at promptly 8 with all of my forms already filled out. For some reason I actually thought this may save time. Wrong!! There were even more forms plus all forms needed to be copied and sorted and alphabetized and translated in to Latin. No not really, but it was a little crazy. The registrar seemed awfully suspicious when I presented birth certificates from 3 different states and immunization record from a few more. Oh well. At least I had all of my records and utility bills in triplicate. A few hours later we were finally officially registered. YEA!!! I guess it is really going to happen. All three of my girls will be in school full day next year. I never thought I would make it and now look. I guess I shoud go buy some bon-bons to fill the time. Do they still make those?