Go Pirates!

It had been a couple of years since Trey had played football so he was really excited to get to play school ball this year. His 7th grade year started at 6:30am on the first day of school and continues to start that early almost every day. The boys have to be dressed out and on the field by 7:00. The coach's motto - to be early is to be on time, to be on time is late. He does not ever complain about the early mornings and is still functioning until about 9:30 on those nights.

Here are some pictures from a couple of games. He started out on the "A" team, not getting much playing time. He has since been moved to the "B" team as a starter with a lot more playing time. Trey enjoys this opportunity so much more.

Trey makes me proud both on and off the football field. He is full of dedication and loyalty - to his team, to his friends and to his family. He truly has a heart of gold.

you live and you learn

As I was creating my weekend to-do list, I added blogging to that list. And then it hit me that it could be the longest blog entry ever - so much has happened in the past eight weeks. Here we are in October and starting the second six weeks of school. I can't believe it. Seriously. Where has this year gone? With five kiddos, two summer vacations, sports and activities  - it's no wonder that the days and weeks and months have flown past us. And, have we really been back in school for an entire six weeks? Obviously we have, report cards are coming out to prove it.

I'll first blog about Clayson. Boys will be boys. Boys will jump off of roofs. Boys will have broken bones. This boy experienced his second arm injury, his second cast and his second surgery all just before school started.

Clayson is a highly motivated child, especially when it comes to money. He has hopes and dreams of getting a truck and some new guns for hunting. He loves to work with my dad and with his dad.  He had gone to work on a carport with Jared one Monday. I was on the phone trying to find a place that had shorts his size and Clayson beeped in... once, twice and on the third time I knew that I needed to hang up from being on hold because I knew at this point, something was wrong. Clayson tells me that he is on the way to the hospital and that he thinks his wrist is broken. I head out to the hospital, Medical City Children's, in Dallas. In the meantime, I find out how this injury has occured: he chose to jump off of the nine foot roof instead of using the available ladder. In his mind, it's a nine foot roof, he is six foot tall, so it's just a three foot fall... until his size 14 foot catches the guttering and he plunges the entire nine foot and lands on his wrist. You live...and you learn.

After an x-ray and a quick visit with a doctor, we find out that it is broken and surgery may or may not needed. We follow up with an orthopedic surgeon several days later and learn that he has fractured his growth plate, has another vertical break and the only way to fix this is to place pins in his wrist to push and keep the bones in place.

On August 23rd, Clayson had the necessary surgery. He did not seem nervous at all. I had taken care of his one fear, the I.V., and they were going to start this in the operating room after he was able to breathe in some gas. (He comes by his fear of needles naturally. I hate needles and in all my 14 3/4 years of being a mom, I have never seen my kids get a shot or get blood drawn. I can't handle it.) The surgery lasted about an hour and a half, everything went as well as the doctor had hoped. I did not pass out during this recovery visit with him. (After his last surgery I did.) He came around slowly and was able to eat a couple of crackers and drink enough Dr. Pepper to go home and completely recover.

I had to rush home from all of this excitement and prepare for 5th grade 'Meet The Teacher' night. Talk about a whirlwind of a day, I was never so glad for this stressful day to end.

Here are some pictures of his journey through the ER, to surgery, to the pin removal. (Warning: the last pictures are kind of gross...)



At the ER, still able to text...



This is at the surgery center, his brother and sister were there for moral support.
These pictures are all before surgery.



This is after surgery, it took him a while to come to and be able to eat and drink enough to go home. The picture in the bottom corner is the pins. They were kept covered with a cast, thank goodness.

Sorry this is so graphic. This is his final visit in which the pins were removed. Ewwwww.

Clayson was a real trooper. He started high school just four days after surgery. He is thankful to have his cast off so that he can enjoy golf and go hunting. I am thankful that it is off so that he can take normal showers.



Stay tuned for more blogging. Still to come, school stuff and Trey's football pictures.

For now, I am signing off and going to bed. It's Friday night and if I had not taken a short nap earlier, I would have already crashed out.

Have a great weekend :)

then and now

Three weeks ago I had good intentions of writing my end of summer/back to school blog. Like many other ideas that I come up with, this blog lost it's place on my priority list. There were other priorities like getting my classroom organized and ready, getting Clayson through surgery and making it home in time for meet the teacher night, washing new school clothes and still trying to find shorts to fit the boys, sorting all of the supplies and being first day ready. My rough draft of this blog, (because I always write them first), became tossed aside, covered in Gatorade and forgotten about...until tonight when I wanted to write a newer one.

The original blog started like this...

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. (That's always my end of summer motto, it keeps me positive.) I don't really feel like my summer flew by - we enjoyed every day, took some great trips and made a bunch of new memories. We definitely made the most of it and it'll go down in history as one of the best ever.

And then there was the part about it being exciting to start a new school year. The aisles filled with school supplies, a new calendar for my desk, gaining new students and meeting new parents - it's all so much fun to be a part of. I love my job. Along with the start of school comes routines, getting back onto a schedule and, as Texans, we always look forward to cooler weather.

This brings me to the current...

The first two weeks of school have been more than successful. All of the kids seem to be enjoying their new adventures in the classroom - we haven't heard any complaints. Clayson and Matt started high school and have a couple of classes together. So far, we haven't heard any "fish" stories from our freshmen. Trey is in 7th grade. He has to be at school every morning at 6:30 for football practice. He seems to be staying on top of things, maybe middle school was just what he needed to "force" him into having some organizational skills. Kayla is in 6th grade and really likes all of her classes and her teachers. She's had one incident, in which she was bitten by another student. Yikes! Thank goodness the skin was not broken. Ashlyn loves 4th grade and getting to switch classes three times. She still waves at me and hugs me every time that she sees me, which is often, and I love it. I have three awesome groups of 5th graders and know that this is going to be such a fun year. On the school front, things are going great!

On the homefront, things are also going good. We have spent a weekend at the deer lease and a weekend at the Cotton Festival. Joey has been traveling a lot for work so he's usually only home 2-4 days a week. He has been extremely busy, which is good, I just miss him...a lot. This weekend we had a chance to get away for the night so we took advantage. I told him that I needed a "mental health break" and he looked at me like I was crazy... literally. Haha! I guess he has never heard that. I just needed some time away from the house and the constant demands and I wanted to get him away from distractions, too. It was a perfect 21 hours together and I definitely feel like my mental health has been restored :) It's amazing what a little down time can do for the heart and soul.

It's back to reality for week three. Joey is traveling to San Antonio, back to work and school, Trey's first football game and Matt's 15th birthday. Our lives are busy but we are blessed by the things that keep us busy and the special people that we are busy with. Busy is good.

been there, done that

Summer 2012.
We have big getaways planned - a trip to Mexico in July and a bunch vacation to Destin in August. June has kind of been left open to save money for those trips and we had hoped to squeeze in a deep sea fishing trip. This past weekend we were scheduled to play tournament ball but our team did not get put into the bracket. (They may have been a little frightened of our championship Yankee team, we really don't know why they didn't include us). So, because he is better at planning spontaneously, I told Joey that we needed to think of something fun to do with the kids. He did not let me down. He decided that we should take them to float the river.

Friday night we googled places to stay along the river, all were very expensive and most required a two night stay. Instead of making reservations ahead of time, we decided to do that when we got there depending on what we found to do and what time it was when we were ready to settle down. We left the house at 10:09 Saturday morning and headed south. We stopped for gas and we stopped for lunch. Our final stop, five hours later, was at the river. The kids had very different ideas of what "riding down the river in a tube" meant. Kayla thought it was the tubing that you did behind a boat and all Ashlyn said is that she didn't think this is what it would be like (as we started our float).

Joey checked on all the rates and details. My momma instinct was to get a room, mill around and then float on Sunday. Joey's spontaneous reaction was to go ahead and do it today, worry about everything else later. He won. We rented tubes, loaded up in a truck, unloaded and started our three and a half our journey back to our destination. The river was moving slowly; Ashlyn, Kayla and Trey did not stay in their tubes much. They preferred swimming in attempt to speed up the process. Matt and Clayson trudged on ahead and then would stop and wait.Probably three hours into this, I was ready to get out. The bridge that signaled the end was finally in sight but I could not take it any longer. It was cooling off and I wanted out. Apparently, I wasn't the only one - Ashlyn, Kayla and Clayson climbed out and walked the rest of the way with me. We had about a 15 minute walk and then about an hour wait while Joey, Matt and Trey floated their way to the finish. The girls took a tube and rode down a waterfall over and over, Clayson and I had the perfect seats for watching people slip and fall either flat on their back or face plant on this slippery rock five different times. And, yes, we laughed every time. It was so funny.

When it was all said and done, we turned in our tubes and hit the road in search of two things: food and shelter. Our first stop was a La Quinta - they had no vacancies and neither did anything else for that matter. Joey and I had both of our phones going making phone calls from San Marcos to San Antonio and everywhere in between. Nothing. The farther we got down the road, the less entertainment possibilities we found. So, we decided to just head home. Ashlyn was upset about not getting to stay in a hotel, Clayson said he was okay with it, he loved riding in the car. The other three did not have an opinion. Joey said he never dreamed that he would be able to drive back after floating.Since we weren't beat down by the sun and he was able to relax - the driving wasn't so bad. And, by the sounds of things in the back seats - singing, fighting, burping and laughing - the kids were not too tired or worn out either.

We pulled in about 12:45, everyone went straight to bed satisfied with the road trip and their first floating experience. It was a great day together. Ten hours in the car is always good for family bonding...

happenings

So we have been busy. Real busy. Story of our lives. Despite all of the busyness, we have been able to plan two summer vacations. That gives some incentive to being busy - we have to work hard to pay for the vacations and when we finally get to go on vacation, all of that hard work will pay off. Joey and I are going to Playa with my brother and his wife in July and then we are taking the bunch to Destin in August. That's two very exciting things to look forward to. And, it gives me something to plan, a reason to budget and an excuse for buying new clothes.

Here are our latest happenings:

* The boys (Clayson, Trey, Matt and Joey) have been playing a lot of Yankee baseball. It's been such an exciting season. They have won all (13) games except one and we still have five to play. This seems to be the sport of choice for Clayson and Matt. Trey still wants to give middle school football a try but the other two are saying they don't want to play next year. As bad as I would love to see them play on a high school team, it's their choice to make. Maybe between now and August they will have a change of heart.

* The girls are just busy playing. Kayla is involved in karate and dance. Both girls are involved with friends. There are several girls in our neighborhood so Ashlyn and Kayla are here, there and everywhere when we have them. I am trying to teach Ashlyn the concept of coming in on time by the glow of the street light.

* Our garden is full of big, giant weeds but it is producing tomatoes, squash, radishes, jalapenos, onions and beans. My dad accidentally mowed over the watermelon and cantaloupe vines. Oopsie!

* The flower beds have gone to being a weed bed. I don't mind mowing all day long but I am not a weed puller. That makes me crazy. I'm looking for Round Up because I think the mulch will look better alone than with the grass growing in there. I never promised to be a landscaper/ gardener. Everyone will have clean clothes, clean dishes, dinner and a clean house but there will also be weeds among the flowers.

* Joey went to classes and became a certified open water scuba diver. He has been out of town quite a bit for work.  I have been taking baseball team pictures for local teams. Our schedule has not included much free time lately but we did manage to get away for several hours and take a Sunset Cruise on Lake Ray Hubbard. This settled us both down from being so wound tight. We still cherish our date nights and quality time together.


* We've had shrimp boils, four -wheeling afternoons, a movie and pizza night, we celebrated our moms for Mother's Day, hunted eggs for Easter and enjoyed other random outings. Wherever we are, whatever we do -it's always fun.



With summer on the horizon, we look forward to a lot more fun where this came from.

two years ago...

Some days it seems crazy that it's already been two years since our first date and other days it seems crazy that it's only been two years since our first date. As the old saying goes, "time flies when you are having fun". We can honestly find a lot of truth in that cliche.

Two years ago I was in an extreme condition - fighting many emotional battles, knowing that I had no choice but to get on with my life. I knew that more than anything I needed to find myself again. I didn't know what made me happy, I didn't know what it would take to make me find confidence in an uncertain future. I knew what I had always wanted but never had. I knew what I had hoped for but had given up on. I knew what obstacles had to be overcome but was not sure how. When life as you know it is completely turned upside down, all at once, nothing seems clear anymore.The crossroads become confusing but the journey is inevitable.

Joey was what I considered a "risky" relationship. I had to make a choice which direction to go because I wasn't good at playing two decks of cards. In one hand I had safety and in the other hand I found risk. I'm always up for a challenge so I chose to take the risk. After all, I wasn't looking to get serious, just wanted to have fun. He seemed nice enough, cool enough and funny enough to bring this fun into my life. (He was also very persistent.) It was like being in high school again but with grown up knowledge. I was being given a second chance at living a happy life and I have never looked back. Our relationship has become more than I ever dreamed of. (You know life is good when reality is finally better than your dreams.)


Two years ago today...
Saturday: May 1st, 2010 - all baseball games canceled. Yay! This meant that I could sleep in a bit and get back to the grind of packing and moving, which had become part of my daily routine. My mom, dad and grandparents all came over to help me try to find the light at the end of this long, dark tunnel.
For the past month, Joey and I had been texting, talking and had even been seen in public together a few times (baseball games, Fat Dawgs, Braums) but tonight we were going to make it an official date, the kind where the boy picks the girl up and brings her home. (Home, by the way, would be at my mom and dad's house starting tonight.) Joey stopped by Saturday afternoon in the midst of blood, sweat and tears offering to help and bring me goodies (a refrigerator for my classroom, trash bags, and stickers for my students - all via Blockbuster clean out jobs). I was nervous for him to be there, around my family. I knew that this kind of change may be unwelcoming so I kept him at a distance (and outside). He graciously offered to help do anything that needed done. I just couldn't get past the "wall" that I was putting up. This wall was put up with the intentions of protecting my feelings and to prevent me from forgetting that I was ready to have fun, nothing more. He stuck around for a bit. When he left I told my Mamaw that we were going to be hanging out tonight and she said, "you just got rid of one". Ha! I would not have expected any other reaction. The day drug on with no end in sight. I finally just quit so that I could get ready for the night.

A friend was having a birthday party at one of her friend's houses. Thank goodness the forecasted rain stayed away and that the party wasn't canceled. Joey picked me up about 7:00 and we headed to Crandall. It had been many years since either of us had been on a date. I think we were both nervous and excited. He wouldn't know anyone at the party and I was looking forward to him meeting many of my friends.

We got there, got some crazy glances (some did not even know I was divorced). Joey fit right in and was probably more comfortable than I was. (Talk about me going from one extreme to the other - the ex never talked to anyone or even tried to have fun. Joey tends to bring the fun.) By the end of the night I could feel my "wall" slowly losing strength. I wanted to have fun and he was definitely someone that I could have fun with. Later I told him that he had gotten "two thumbs up" from all the friends. He said, that's cool, but what about you? That's what really matters. My response - of course I like you.

So, this is where our journey began. Two years later we are still deeply in love,  we still have so much fun together, love to spend time together and get along as best friends/ people in love should. Our future is as bright as our past and we look forward to making many more great memories together and together with our kids. Within the past six months we have learned how to function as a family with five kids and we enjoy every minute. He makes me happier than I have ever been, my kids love him and laugh at him and I will always be thankful for the broken roads that led us to each other. Many people thought it was crazy, that we were complete opposites and that it wouldn't last. But, we couldn't be more perfect for each other and by keeping it real, keeping it simple and keeping it fun - we've built a relationship made to last.

I'll end by saying thank you to Joey for allowing me to get on with my life, making me happy, building my confidence in the future, being all I had ever hoped of having, helping me to overcome many obstacles and turning my world right side up. We are right where we need to be with an amazing past and a promising future. I love you, Joey Smith!

brought to you by the letter B

This blog is brought to you by the letter "B".

B is for bunch.

Every other weekend, we have our kiddos from Wednesday until Monday. Wednesdays are usually situational, getting everyone back in the groove. Thursday nights are filled with baseball and soccer practice. This has normally been our family game night but with two practices sneaking into the schedule, this may need to be moved to Wednesdays. Our current favorites are Farkle (a dice game) and dance off (random music and random dancing around the living room). Friday nights, there is no agenda to follow. It's sometimes nice to grab dinner and find an activity that everyone enjoys but with the start up of 8:00 Saturday morning baseball practices, I have a feeling this may turn into another semi-early night. That's okay with me, by this time I can barely function and the kids are tired, too. Saturdays include the early baseball practice and Ashlyn's soccer games. It is so great to have all three boys on the same baseball team and even better that Joey is the coach. I let him run the morning show while the girls and I get our beauty sleep. Sundays are currently becoming 'Sunday Fundays'. The only requirement is that everyone is in bed by 10:00. Usually, that is not a problem. -we have worn ourselves out by then.

When there are this many involved, it's trial and error, go with the flow, be spontaneous and don't sweat the small stuff. I like to plan and organize but I have also learned that it is okay to venture away from routine, and that is just keepin' it real.

B is for bowling.

A couple of weekends ago, we went to Ennis for bowling and pizza. I have to share our good deals with you because when you take this many out to entertain, B for budgeting, is a must. Pizza Hut offers box meals for $9.99 - this includes a large rectangle pizza, 5 breadsticks and 5 cinnamon sticks. We ordered two of these and had leftovers. Pizza Hut total for seven = $26. From there we went to the bowling alley. They had a special that we could play until 1:00am closing for $50 and this included shoes. We had two lanes for four hours. The girls were on one lane with bumpers and, because I am competitive, I played with the guys. By the end of the night, Ashlyn was sound asleep across two chairs and the boys were playing in her place- the bumpers gave them self-confidence. Most of them crashed out on the way home. We were excited about all of the fun that we had, especially the kids, and the fact that it only cost us $80. I am all about having fun and saving money. If only I could learn to be a couponer...

B is for baseball.

I have already mentioned the boys and their baseball but this baseball pertains to our most recent outing. Sunday morning, Joey cooked breakfast, we ate and then we all got busy doing different things. The girls printed off smoothie recipes and made them (they were good), Joey and I worked on organizing the garage, Clayson and Matt milled around - hoping not to be asked to do anything and Trey was with Mimi and Pawpaw. Around 4:15, we halted all activities, walked away from messes and loaded up in the vehicles for some family and friends baseball. We went up to the ball field for two hours of fun. The girls enjoyed batting, the boys, Joey, Billy, Lisa and I got in a little fielding and batting while my dad was the all-time pitcher. We had so much fun! It was great exercise for the grown ups, big fun for the kids and great bonding for the family.


Back at the house, we showered, chowed on some ramen noodles/ frozen pizza/ leftover Genghis Grill and played our third game of Farkle.

B is for blessed.

away we went

The only thing I can compare this entry to is The Notebook. My blog is my online diary for clinging onto detailed memories of our life. Read at your own will:)

For Christmas, along with my heart necklace, Joey told me that I could choose anywhere that I wanted to go for a weekend retreat. Since I love to plan (and I love to travel with him), I ran with this idea. My first stop was the calendar. The weekend was going to need to be planned around two things - hunting weekends and our weekends with the kids. The more I thought about dates, I came up with the notion that it would be sweet to combine this gift with Valentine's Day. After choosing the dates, the next stop was to get approval from my principal to take a Monday off. (I had to wait a week until we went back to school to get this. And, for those that know me, I am not a patient planner.) I chose these days because I found it to be much more affordable to stay on a Saturday/ Sunday night vs. a Friday/ Saturday. After the final approval to get a sub, tne next stop was finding the "perfect" location. I had one requirement - a fireplace. My favorite place that we have been to so far is Granbury and I would have loved to have gone back, but there is something adventurous about going somewhere new. After facebook status "polls", I decided on Fredricksburg. (I had to resort to the opinions of friends because Joey is sweet enough to always say - wherever you want to go is fine with me. He has some input but his main concern is always wanting me to be happy. How did I ever get so lucky?!) Thanks to absolutecharm.com, I found a bed & breakfast that looked and sounded like a fabulous place to retreat to...

Our adventure goes a little something like this...

Saturday, February 11th: We left around 11:15, just an hour later than "planned". Our first stop was for food, thirty minutes down the road. After that, it was nothing but highway for the next three and a half hours. I have to say, one of my favorite parts of any trip with Joey is our time cooped up in the car. "Are we there yet?" never even crosses my mind. I love the time that we have to just sit and talk about everything - it's this communication that continues to strengthen our relationship and the strong bond that we have between us. The conversation, no matter what the topic, is always lighthearted because of his sense of humor. There's always laughter and a million smiles between us. When I get old and have laugh lines, they will be the story of our relationship.

We made it to Fredricksburg, starving, around 4:30. I had a bucket list of things I wanted to do, well, eat, on this trip: pizza, candy apples, homemade ice cream and peach cobbler. (Granted, the last three came to me after passing signs advertising these gourmet items.) We crossed one thing off quickly with Mr. Gatti's pizza. Buffet heaven. From here, we went to Walmart because both of us forgot our toothbrushes. Yikes. Finally, we headed 15 miles to our b&b. It was a quaint little room with a jacuzzi tub and a fireplace. Perfect! We unloaded, read the guest book and headed back into town for some nightly entertainment. I had spotted a saloon with live music and dancing, that sounded like fun to me. We went in, looked around and quickly realized that it wasn't like the saloon that we are used to - down home country music with a big dance floor. Instead, it was a steak and shrimp restaurant with a bar area that didn't have much room for cuttin' the rug. We left there and went to the Rockbox Theater. This place had gotten rave reviews and the brochures were at every stop. We got there and got tickets 45 minutes prior to showtime. I enjoyed the complimentary chocolate covered strawberries (both of ours), Joey purchased a $2.00 can coke and we waited. The larger the crowd grew, the quicker we realized that we were the youngest ones there. Anyone young that came in (maybe four others) must've been with their grandparents. It was too late to change our minds, so we stayed ... and listened to a gig just like any you may find in Branson. There were love songs from the 50s and 60s, three cowboy brothers with striped pants, handlebar mustaches, tall cowboy hats and pants tucked into cowboy boots singing old western tunes (maily ones that they had written). Intermission came and we were the only ones to break out our cell phones. The rest just sat there and anxiously awaited the second half. We chose to Facebook, take pictures of ourselves and search Craigslist. Two hours and ten minutes after it started, it was finally over. The highlight of our night was deer spotting on the way back, we saw a field full of deer and some bedded down in yards. My spotting skills are sharpening up. Back in the room, we started a fire and turned the heater down low.

Sunday, February 12th: We woke up to a burned out fire and sleet. It was cold. The continental breakfast - breakfast burritos and fruit were good enough to get us ready and on the road back to town for a day full of  'where to go and what to do' decisions. Our bed and breakfast was located in Stonewall, which was 17 miles from Fredricksburg. We slid into Mamacita's mexican restaurant for lunch and then went and enjoyed some shopping. It's always fun to look at all of the overpriced items and get ideas. I had three missions.My first mission was to get a Fredricksburg Christmas ornament. There were none in the Christmas store, dadgum. Second mission was to get Joey's picture with the big M&M (because of an inside joke with the Superbowl commercial to the tune of  'I'm Sexy and I Know It'). That happened. Third, I thought surely the fudge and candy shop would have the candy apple I was craving. Not so much. Instead, they had chocolate covered pickles, bacon and jalapenos. One out of three missions accomplished wasn't a complete fail.

From the downtown shopping area, we got back on the road with no destination in mind,  until we decided to visit the Enchanted Rock. This was a 30 minute trek up and around cliffs - in the rain and sleet (thankfully, it was not sticking). We saw huge deer along the way that were first thought to be elk but turned out to possibly be red stag and groups of smaller deer - white tail and black bucks (for all of you hunters out there). This was the 'scenic route' for Joey. Since Enchanted Rock is a state park, we had to pay to get in. I could've just enjoyed the view but he wanted to drive around. It wasn't until after he paid that he learned there are only 2 very short roads and both lead you to the trails. What's not to love about hiking trails and rock climbing in 20 degree/ wet weather? (I'll tell you what is to love - him reaching out his hand to help me or to hold up low limbs for me to get under. He's so awesome.) It turned out to be fun and memorable as we watched for each other's cautious footing and leaping from one rock to the next. I was, of course, glad to find several flat enough rocks to set the camera and it's self-timer to capture a few memories throughout the adventure. After the adventurous day of braving the cold, sleet and rain we made another quick stop at Walmart for snacks and cokes. We ended up having dinner in the next town ... at Dairy Queen. Apparently, everything good shuts down on a Sunday night in a tourist town. We went deer scouting again, not seeing as many, and then back to the room to unwind by the fire.

Monday, February 13th: Check-out time was 11:00 so we didn't have to be in a big rush. Joey enjoyed the egg casserole and fruit and I enjoyed the Chips Ahoy from Walmart. With the bags packed and the car loaded, we hit the road home around 10:30. I wanted to take a different route back home and go through Austin rather than Marble Falls. We wound our way around the drought stricken Lake Travis and then found the State Capitol. We took ourselves on a tour, which both of us remembered doing as young kids, and enjoyed a little Texas history. The older you get, the more you appreciate the history. I was hoping to catch Rick Perry on the fly but he was nowhere in sight. From here, we stopped in Round Rock for lunch at Salt Grass, the Czech Stop in West for dessert and our final destination was home.

It was such a fun trip and just what we needed. There's nothing better than roadtrips with my love. We never fight, fuss or argue - only play, tease and laugh. We truly enjoy going everywhere and doing everything together.

Happy Valentine's Day to us. The memories will be cherished in our hearts forever. And as the sign in our bathroom read, it's never too late to live happily ever after.

days gone by

Whoa!A month and a half has gone by since my last entry. Many exciting things have happened since then. (Well, I consider it exciting that deer season is over. Joey, not so much.) We celebrated Christmas and New Year's. We went deer hunting, baseball season has "unofficially" started and hunting season has "officially" ended. Life has been too busy to stop and blog. But, hey, that's a good thing. So, here is the past month and a half - in a nutshell.

*Christmas
Christmas was good for all of us. It wasn't as "normal" as I would have liked (only having my kids for a couple of hours) but we made the best of the situation and will look forward to this Christmas when all will be right in our little world. We celebrated early, late and enjoyed all of the time inbetween.

*New Year's
Joey and I went out to dinner on New Year's Eve with Jason and Megan (my brother and sister-in-law). That is always a good time and with Joey, you never know what to expect. He entertained us throughout dinner. After dinner, we went to hang out with friends, mainly just so we would stay up until midnight. (They say what you are doing at midnight on New Year's Eve is what you will spend the rest of the year doing. Last year we were on the road (dodging deer) and Joey spent a lot of time out of town for work (and hunting) throughout the year.This year we were with friends and other random people, we'll see how that works out.)

We enjoyed a New Year's Day lunch at mom and dad's with  Clayson, Trey, Ashlyn and Kayla and the fam. We all ate some black-eyed-peas for good measure. Joey wasn't feeling too hot, but we'll just leave it at that.

We started the year off right - with family, friends and each other. I'm hoping for great things to happen in 2012.

*Deer Lease
We spent a weekend in January at the deer lease. But, it wasn't just a typical hunting weekend. We brought my dad, Clayson and Trey along with us. They are all avid deer hunters, but never with me. It was my first time ever to hunt with my boys so I was excited about the adventure. (Truly, this is a blog in and of itself that has been started on paper but never transferred to this blog site. Hopefully soon with the pictures included.) It was a fun-filled weekend- full of memories, but no deer. (Clayson blames his missed opportunity on me for being "too loud". Um, if me turning my head is loud - this is not the "sport" for me. I can't sit THAT still or be THAT quiet.) We left for this trip on Friday afternoon and came home on Sunday evening with two trucks loaded down (with kids and supplies), bags full of laundry (not sure how when most of them chose to wear the same clothes for three days), all dirty and exhausted. It was one of those trips that we will never forget.

*Baseball
It's "unofficially" baseball season. All it took was the association meting to get Joey swinging on his coaching plans for the upcoming season. Due to numbers, he combined kids from three of our local teams to create his team for the year, three of the players are our own. Life is gonna be so much easier having Clayson, Trey and Matt on the same team. One practice schedule and one game schedule. One is way better than three. The calendar won't be near as colorful this spring. (We will be busy when it comes to my photography business - picking up teams from the three leagues from t-ball up to 14 years old. Joey says that he will help me. I wonder if he can edit...)

So, it's been busy. Seems like Christmas was ages ago. We move from one thing to another and there is NEVER a dull moment :)