Happy Birthday, Dad !!!

Today is my dad's birthday. He doesn't read my blog, but obviously today he is on my mind. My dad is awesome. For almost as long as I can remember he has had two full time jobs, not because he has to, but because he wants to. He works for the Federal Government in Anti-trust. He is an Economist. I know, no wonder I am so smart, good genes. (kidding) But his real love is teaching. So 30 years ago he made this deal with my mom that if he could make enough money teaching to pay for the second car that he would need to make the second job work for the family, he could teach and so he applied. He has become one of the favorites at the private liberal arts college he teaches at. I am always amazed when I am with him in California how many times we see his former students. They always stop and talk to him and he always knows their names. They almost always turn to me and say, "Your dad's class was so hard, but I learned so much." He is one of those lucky people who has found a way to love his work.

My dad is the kind of person who knows a lot about a lot. My sister and I used to always tell him to go on Jeopardy. I think we secretly hoped that we would go on and win big. When we were younger we discussed vocabulary words at dinner and even had quizzes. Needless to say, my sister and I scored pretty high on the verbal part of the SAT. Thanks, dad. I could go on and on, don't worry I won't. The bottom line is my dad is pretty amazing and if you asked him he would say, "not that amazing just doing my job, taking care of my family."

April Catch Up Girls

Saturdays in April means soccer games. Cam and J played on the same team in the neighborhood league. Our cul de sac opens on to the fields. It is fun to see a bunch of our friends and neighbors heading to and from games on Saturday mornings. I felt like a should open a donut stand (and charge a quarter to use the bathroom). Honestly, though I love it. It makes me feel like we live in a small town instead of just outside one of the biggest cities in the US.

C spent April teaching her puppy tricks. Olive can lay down, jump through a hula hoop, beg, dance, sit, oh and love her three little girls all on command. There is just something about having a dog to love and love you back. If you are rolling your eyes you must be a cat person. How are we friends? (Geez, I am kidding.)

April Catch Up Taxes

Why are you posting a picture of your shredder dumped out on your bedroom floor? Well just for fun the Hub decided to shred some tax documents on April 14th BEFORE we filed our taxes. So we literally pieced them together. Consider this a public service announcement: diamond cut shredders really protect your privacy. However, if you put your document in the shredder sideways you can almost piece it back together. . .almost and in taxes almost is good enough, right?

More to come. . .

So apparently my blog actually has readers. This is a shout out to those of you diligently check my blog only to find pics from January. Forgive me. I have every intention of blogging and then I look to my left and there is my dirty dark hard wood floors and I think to myself. I should not blog I should clean and then cleaning leads to more cleaning and well you have all been there. Or I sit down to blog and my computer is having some kind of connectivity issue. Lately it can see the network, but does not want to get on the network. Why? Who knows? This means I cannot get to pics or the Internet or whatever. Today I sat down to blog, actually to finish and publish a post I am working on only to hear a scream from upstairs and have Cam running down the stairs with blood streaming from her mouth. Her sister yelling, "it was an accident." Anyway, the point, there is more to come, but in the meantime the life that I am supposedly blogging about keeps getting in the way.

April at the Beach

One of the advantages of living in Texas is that spring comes early, so while many of our friends and family were still looking at snow we decided to head to the beach. It was a great 3 day weekend (Good Friday is a holiday in Texas). The hub had the day off so we loaded up and headed to the beach. This time we decided to take our blow up rafts and let the girls paddle around in the waves. They had a blast. If you look in the background of this pic you can see CB riding the waves wishing that her Coleman raft was a sea kayak. As for me, I sat with my toes in the sand, book in my lap, diet coke in my hand and listened to my children laugh and play. Peace.

Ready for School

Now that I have more than one follower I feel a certain amount of responsibility to entertain and make you smile, think, laugh, cry, whatever. (thanks Dr.J) My blog reminds me of Seinfeld. I remember that is was billed as being the show about nothing. I read some blogs that are self help, DIY guides, craft project resources, recipes, considering I am an expert at nothing my blog has just become these spotty posts about nothing. So with that in mind. . .

This morning I was getting the 3 ready for school. We were on track this morning and had about 5 minutes before we needed to leave. So I did my final plea, "Get your backpacks and jackets we need to head out soon." J walks in to the bathroom and says, "OK, mom, I'm ready." I am still finishing hair and teeth and getting myself ready as well. When I see this over my shoulder. Made me laugh. Made me love that blank-ity-blank puppy (who pooped in cage while I was gone today).

Olive

So for the 2 blog followers that I have, I think you already know that I gave my girls and the hub a puppy for Christmas. My good friend graciously offered/was coerced into keeping the puppy and delivering her on Christmas morning. She even stuck her in a box and tied it up with a candy cane bow. Anyway, said puppy was a HUGE hit. I don't think that her feet hit the floor for the first 2 weeks we had her between the girls, the hub and my dad. She was held and babied and loved nonstop. AND then the girls went back to school and the little she-devil emerged. Olive has learned to do business outside--awesome and inside and in her cage and in the laundry room and in the kitchen and on the outside rug. She had learned to steal socks. Rip paper and terrorize Ox. BUT last night it was all worth it. Walking down stairs after tucking in the angels. I heard these sweet words, "Thanks mom for getting us Olive. We really love her and she makes me happy." My heart melted. I had a good mom moment and then the she-devil aka Olive started crying at 4am. Let's just say it was not pretty and today she cried all day. ugh!!! The things we do for our kids.