over the river & through the woods

Joey and I had talked about taking the kids somewhere for spring break for a couple of months but just couldn't come up with any plans until all of the kid scheduling was finalized. So, at the last minute, (the day before), we made tent site reservations at an RV park in Glen Rose. We enjoyed my birthday weekend there and knew that the kids would definitely enjoy the area.

It was my kids first camping trip and I hadn't been in 14 years (I had to take camping to get the two P.E. credits that I needed to graduate from college.) I am just not an "outdoorsy/roughin' it" kind of girl, or at least I didn't think I was. Spending weekends at the deer lease was a good start to making me come around and try new things. I enjoyed those weekends and I truly enjoyed this weekend. And, I have to say, I look forward to more camping trips - next time we hope to go beach camping. I think yes.

We loaded the truck up Sanford and Son style on Friday night and headed out around 8:00. (Please note that Joey wanted to leave around 6 ... Joey time is always the hour plus two.) We made it to Glen Rose just before 10:00, backed the truck in, unloaded, set up tents and about 11:00 we were airing up air mattresses. As if the kids running around playing wasn't enough to make the neighbors angry, this process brought them and their dog out of the tent. They sat around in their chairs, giving up on sleep at this point. Everything was finally calm and we were settled into our tents by midnight. It was a sleepless night - my feet felt like they were buried in an ice chest, had to pee all night until we finally got up around 3:45 and went. It was then that Joey turned on the heater and we fell fast asleep until the birds started singing at 6:45 on Saturday morning. I guess camping is not the kind of vacation that you go on in order to get some rest.


Here we are on Saturday morning: cooking breakfast and the kids playing.

We spent the first half of the day at Big Rocks park where we journeyed a mile down the river - through slime, rocks and grossness. I made it safely there and back with my camera and my phone. Lisa, not so much. She slipped and her and her iPhone4 went into the river. (It started working again the next day, thankfully.) The kids played in the water, tried to catch fish, explored and had such a good time.

Saturday afternoon we made sandwiches for lunch and headed to Dinosaur Valley State Park to spend the rest of the day. The girls took off one way and the boys another. We eventually got everyone together and decided to take a hike up the "mountain". The injury report for this would include: Ashlyn - stickers in the foot (twice), scraped up knee; Trey - stickers in both feet; Kayla - a huge blister and a cut on the bottom of her foot. The hike was slow going at times, until we finally convinced all of the kids to stay on the main trail. It was quite a journey but had some great scenery along the way.
Here is Trey chasing the deer ... because Billy said he could.

We left the state park and went to eat BBQ for dinner - ten very tired and hungry campers.

We got to camp to find a huge fiesta going on and on and on until 3:45 a.m.

(our friends - The Posey's: Billy, Lisa and Dawson)

Sunday morning we let the kids go back to Big Rocks Park, loaded up and headed back to Crandall for showers and a good night's sleep.

a camping we will go

We kicked off our spring break with a camping trip in Glen Rose, Texas. This first blog is pictures of our bunch while on this memorable weekend trip.



Matt (13 years)


Ashlyn (7 years)


Kayla (10 years)

Clayson (13 years)

Trey (11 years)

We had a great time together. The kids are starting to act like brothers and sisters , bickering and picking at each other but that's okay, it's just part of it.

I plan to add more collages and more words soon but I get so bogged down with details that I am breaking the blog up into parts. Stay tuned for part 2.

thank goodness there were only 28 days

February was just plain crazy. Theres nothing like four ice days and two late starts in just ten school days to throw you off balance. It made for a hectic month at school. You can only coop kids up inside with no recess, because it's too cold, for so long. Then, throw in a full moon the third week of the month and you have been granted three weeks of chaos - controlled chaos, of course. And, it's the time of year, we teachers refer to as "crunch time" - how many days until the TAKS test, what concepts do I still need to teach and how are we going to get it all done. You take away four days and that disrupts the timing that was all perfectly, well almost perfectly, planned out. It is time to step up our game.

Speaking of game, Dallas (Arlington) hosted the Super Bowl this year and we tried to give the kids a little taste of Super Bowl fever. Joey and I took our kids to the NFL experience one night; my kids and I went with my parents to Cowboys Stadium the day before the Super Bowl to try to "get in the game" a little bit - just being amongst fans, tourists, security and the stadium in all its glory; and then (apparently I got wrapped up in the hoopla) date night with Joey was spent cruising around it again. We wrapped up the NFL season by watching the game and eating some good grub at Sharon and Brian's house with lots of friends.

It was a month filled with basketball practice two nights a week and Saturdays revolved around three games. Ashlyn and Trey both enjoy this sport a lot. Clayson's baseball season started with Saturday practices. We are thankful that his elbow has healed nicely from surgery and that he is back in the game. Between all three of my kids and Matt playing and Joey coaching, life as we know it is about to get crazy busy(er). We wouldn't have it any other way. Batters up!

Joey spent nine days of the month out of town - two trips to Austin and a trip to Houston - for work. I was reminded that "absence makes the heart grow fonder" each time. It wasn't so bad on days that I had my kids but days without all of my loves were long and lonely. (I know, I am such a sap these days.) We did manage to have some fun when he was home - we had a Poker night with friends; a night out at Pete's Piano Bar with Jason, Megan and another couple; and dinner and a quick shopping trip after school one Friday. We spent Valentine's weekend and the day together - he made it one I will never forget. It's these times together that I am reminded how blessed that I am.

My weekends with the kids were filled with fun. We saw two movies, they had friends over and went to play with friends. We spent an afternoon with Mamaw and Papaw and they spent time with their Mimi and Pawpaw. All is well in their little worlds. A month later, I can see that the new schedule has improved their stability and consistency and it has created a lot less drama in the family. I miss them when they are gone but since I work where they spend their days, I still see them often.

February was a rough month, glad to see it become a part of history. I am glad it wasn't a month with 30 or 31 days.

Another six weeks has come and gone, now we're down to two. Another sports season has ended, now we are all involved. Another month has ended, now we are approaching spring. Bring on the sunshine.

how sweet it is

Valentine's Day. 2011. Not just my normal hearts day. I've always just considered this holiday to be Hallmark created and have just gone through the motions of helping the kids fill out their cards and preparing for school parties. It was just another day for me to love my kids. This year, I loved my kids but I had a bit of a different perspective in my own love life.

We had made planned to do something for Valentine's Day. The "where and what" were not finalized until the day before. We go and we do things all the time so today we decided to do something different. We went out to White Rock Lake, threw out a blanket and enjoyed our Arby's sandwiches and fries. (We even shared a little with the ducks.) Of course, I had to set the self-timer on the camera and capture a couple of pictures of this memorable day. After lunch, pictures and talking we decided to take a little walk. We walked, talked and stopped to sit on a bench to talk some more. It was such a relaxing afternoon - the sun had come back out after many days of experiencing the Ice Age, the wind had died down and I had gotten a pedicure because the weather was perfect for my new flip-flops. We enjoyed the walk back to the car and headed home. I am so thankful that he is willing to give me one of the most important things in any relationship - time.

The day before Valentine's, I came "home" to his house to find these beautiful roses, balloon and a card that melted my heart.

He even got single roses for Ashlyn and Kayla. I shared my gift and a photo montage put to music with him.



I've always heard it said that love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning. Joey has given it meaning. He's given new meaning to my life. It means so much to have someone that I truly enjoy being with every single day. Every day I realize how blessed that I am.

On this "holiday", I didn't love him any more than yesterday or any less than tomorrow. We love each other every single day. How sweet it is to be loved by him.

our team

the coaches:

4 outta 6 team players: (not pictured: Justin Smith and Clayson Davis)

SCORE!

Ice and snow didn't keep us from heading to downtown Dallas for the NFL experience. After all, it's not every year that the Super Bowl comes to town. We thought that the team players, especially the boys would enjoy it. Not so much. The girls had fun but got cranky when there was nothing to drink. After they refueled with a trial cup of Pepsi Zero, they were able to smile (instead of pout) again. The boys just weren't willing to be outgoing enough to "get in the game". They played a few football games but mainly just stood around complaining that they were ready to go and that their feet hurt.

As soon as we left and went outside to head to the car they noticed a hill covered in snow/ ice and spent twenty minutes going up and sliding down ... for free. The experience was expensive yet they enjoyed the bitter cold snowy hill that nature had to offer. One day they will think back and remember this experience and maybe even think it was fun :)

It was a memorable night for us and the snow that came falling down on the way home was amazing. All's well that ends well.

Arctic Blast Break '11

White out. It's taken on a new meaning. It's not something used to cover errors, it's what happened to our small town . The meteorologists were calling for a winter storm and they were right on. The first day was ice and flurries, the second day it was too cold to melt the ice but no flurries, the third day we were able to go to school and then the fourth day buried us in six inches of snow. I was iced in at Joey's house for two days and we enjoyed the slow down that it brought. On Thursday night, we took the kids to the NFL experience and by the time we got onto the highway that leads us home, it started snowing. It snowed harder and harder and would be what we Texans might consider a "blizzard". It was hard to see and the driving was slow. We eventually made it back to his house to drop him off and then I got my first "driving in snow" experience - I was a little nervous. The kids and I were snowed in at home on Friday and they played in it for a bit but apparently, they got their fill during our first snow storm in January. It was just a good reason to be out of school to them. Saturday, Joey, Matt and I went to a big hill and went sledding (on skim boards) for a little while - we had a lot of fun. My kids were at my mom's so if we get lucky/unlucky enough to get more snow, I will take them for some thrill rides next time.

Here are my picture collages that captured our memories.

Snowflakes are kisses from Heaven. (author unknown)

one year later...

One year ago on February 4th, I came to the end of a sixteen year journey. It was a journey filled with many emotions - happiness, sadness, anger, frustration and trying to find self-worth. But, along this journey I received three of the greatest gifts a mom can receive and for this I will always be thankful. I experienced life, as I knew it, at it's highest and lowest points. This journey made me a stronger person through all of the struggles. I won't say that the entire journey was miserable and I won't deny that some of the misery wasn't self created. It was an unhappy situation for many years but pride and my kids kept me there. It wasn't until I was able to let go of this pride, risk disappointing my family (for the sake of my own well-being) and pray that my children would be okay, that I was able to realize that I was at a crossroads and it was time to take a new path. I'll never regret the journey that I was on or the decisions that were made because all of this created who I am today.

They say the grass isn't always greener on the other side but I have been fortunate enough to find greener pastures. A couple of months after the divorce was final, Joey walked into my life. He came along at a time when I had reached a very low point - afraid that I would be by myself the rest of my life, worrying about growing old alone and all the fears of the future that a young girl might worry about. He was good for redirecting those thoughts. With him, I've realized what I had been missing for so long - true happiness. Sometimes we don't know what we're missing until we have what we have never had. He brought my smile back. Since then he has also eased the fear of being alone and fear of the future. He's my hero :)

As the year has progressed there have been many ups and downs with Jared, with his parents and with my family members but the one constant is that I have remained true to myself. No one knew of the many nights that I would cry alone or the anxiety and bitterness that had slowly overcome me - mainly because I cared too much about what everyone else might think. That was good for everyone but me. I was hurting and this, in turn, unintentionally hurt my children. By being true to myself and learning to live with choices that I choose to make has helped me overcome and be a "survivor" in my small world created by the journey's end.

I am happier than I have ever been. What a difference a year makes.