EASTER

We are now well stocked with chocolate. The family get together was wonderful as usual. My mom cooked an A+ meal with the help of some of my sisters and nieces. Being not such a great cook, I get clean up duty afterwards....wash wash wash.



We went to the school where my sister teaches and saw the garden they they now have. My sister Chris applied for a grant, the largest the school district ever gave out, and won it. Each grade level, K-5 & Special Ed, have a garden bed and they kid plant, water, weed, and eat what comes out of the garden. They have magnifying glasses to see the bugs, or butterfly cocoons. Now the kids actually see and work on the cycle of seed to either flower or food.





We played croquet in the back yard.....I lost. This is my niece Megan, she came in second.













We did the Easter egg hunt, now with more money than chocolate. This time we did NOT let my girls have a head start because last year they were toooooo good and got tooooo much more than everyone else. You may notice that the window behind the kids is still covered with plywood...courtesy of Hurricane Ike last summer.




The girls also helped my dad in his vegetable garden. He always has one and we help him eat the wonderful vegetables he grown.





Our dog Cooper came along and enjoyed sleeping on Jeff's pillow in the car---spoiled dog!





Sara has a huge bunny pillow and Easter is her birthday, so Sara had a birthday party for Hannah, even having an ice cream sandwich birthday cake for her.

getting ready for Easter

We have the Easter baskets down and ready....and little furry bunnies all over the house. AT THE SAME TIME, we tell the girls about the real meaning of Easter, which does not involve the bunnies, baskets, or egge, though we are not sure what bunnies and eggs have to do with each other. We will be leaving for my parents house for the big family get together and egg hunt, yes, though all but ours is out of college, we still love this tradition.

SISTERS

Sara decided to "help" do her hair in a fashion style. NOW, understand that Ruth's fashion style is to barley spend one second with the brush and out the door she goes. Sara's fashion style is to do something intricate.....so Ruth got Sara's style thrust upon her and IMMIDIATELY upon snapping this photo, it was out of her hair!

FASHION DIVA

Today Sara was in her usual fashionable style so I decided to snap some pics.

BAND COMPETITION

Today was Sara's band competition. She competed with an ensemble consisting of flutes, bassoon and oboes. They got a 1-top placement.

Next was her solo competition. She has been practicing this to the point that I find myself humming the tune. She got a 1-top placement again.

Sara began with a private flute teacher about 1 1/2 months ago and I think this helped. Ms. Kidd stayed during the competition and commented that Sara played beautifully. This is a district wide competition and was judged, I believe, by the upper grade band directors of the district.

They will get their medals this coming week at school.

HAPPY 11TH B-DAY RUTH

Today our little girl Ruth turns 11. She is almot as tall as I am and we do share shoes! She had blossomed into a beautiful young lady with a wonderful sense of humor, but still shy around others. She is smart and easy going and we love her so much. Her favorite color is blue and she is now into frogs.

I still recall the first time we saw her when she was only 10 days old. She was so very small!

soccer camp-Spring Break

This week is spring break and I decided that for once, I was NOT going to listen to a full week of "I'm board....let's go shopping and spend some money..pleeeeease", so I enrolled the girls in a week long soccer camp. 1-they might get worn out 2-they might learn something 3- they will NOT be bored.

WELL, the camp was a success. All of my above objectives were achieved!

This is Steve, he held the soccer camp. He is from Brazil and kept making the kids laugh by breaking into Portuguese and totally confusing them. . . he did this on purpose.

I NEED MY QUIET SPACE TOO

Recently, I was noting that everywhere in the house I go, the girls seem to follow me. I try reading in the family room~ there they are, TALKING. I go to the living room, they turn up there, TALKING.

I tell them that the only quiet room in the house is the bathroom, with the door closed and the tub would make a relaxing place to read......BUT....Ruth takes this to heart and is immediately in my tub, chilling with pillows, etc.~reading quietly. NOW......where can I put Sara :)

more remodeling

I finally finished redoing the game room upstairs. I now have my office in the room, by the window which is very nice. The horse motif is gone and I have gone more neutral. We do have a few movie themed item and I will look for a few more.

Note the paint job. This is what you do instead of buying a new gallon to finish the dark color, you use up other similar colors....I love the effect.

NOTE: my favorite sign at my work desk...

CHESS CHAMP

Sara had her second chess tournament yesterday and she came in first! She brought home another large trophy which will be going to school with her on Wednesday to show the teachers, friends, and her chess club. After the tournament, she played a Grand Master which was at the tournament. Of course Sara lost all 4 games with him, but she had a great time and did give him a run for his money.

SOCCER PRACTICES

Last night we went to an open soccer practice where any of the players can come out and scrimmage with their age group for a few hours with a professional coach overlooking them all and giving them tips. Coach Steve told me that Sara is VERY good and he would like to scout her for a competitive select team. I forgot my coat and FROZE in the cool evening temps and 30+ mph winds....I had to come home to a very HOT shower to thaw.

Ruth did not go because she had another migraine....she really hates these and has been having them for over a year. The pediatrician does not know why, but I am sure it is hormone related since she is going into puberty and this is when I had mine.

Their first game is tomorrow and neither of them will make it-Sara to an all day chess tournament and Ruth to her best friend's birthday party....

Happy 50th little sister

Today my LITTLE sister turns 50, interesting since I am still 30ish :) I still think of her as the little girl as we play riding our bikes and climbing trees........where does the time go?

Spring is BLOWING in

A sure sign of spring, the small buds on the trees, the 30+mph winds, and the haircuts, beginning with the dog Cooper.

Today Ruth and I also sport a shorter do. Sara is growing hers out to donate in the fall, and Jeff, holding on to the last of the black as the gray marches in (I know how to fix this and I will tomorrow for me LOL )

Not doing much else right now. My Camellia bush suddenly burst into bloom overnight!

NEW VAN

We have been watching the auto situation, with the bailouts, etc. and decided it was a good idea to trade in our 00 Honda Odyssey. We traded in for an 05 Honda Odyssey touring van....loaded with so much that I still can not figure out some of them, unfortunately for the girls this included the headphones for the DVD player...really need to figure this out before we go on a trip...I can not drive and listen to a movie. We are enjoying the moon roof, but are sure it will stay closed during the hot summer. The girls also like the windows in the back that roll down,,,,,so do I. It is a light slate green, to me it looks like a very light sky blue.

The smartest things that we did were-I had the van we were trading in spotless-inside, out and under the hood.
NEXT-we left the girls at home....much easier to negotiate when not being constantly interrupted (bugged) by the kids.

WE'RE MOVING

Not exactly what you think though. Over the last 4 days, we moved Sara's stuff out of her room into the game room-now no where to game. I painter her room from lime green/purple/pink to a MUCH more neutral taupe. Then we moved Jeff's office and his "important" junk into that room. Them, once empty, we moved Sara's stuff into her new room, then I had to paint only one wall-a very pale pink with a few polka dots.

THE REASON FOR ALL OF THIS: if you have a girl, you will TOTALLY understand!!!!

CLOSET SPACE! Need I say more?

SO, what was Jeff's office-messy-is now Sara's princess room. What was Sara's purple/green room with wavs is now the office...still in the process of being presentable.

RUTH also got stripes added to her green and blue room.

Engagement Party & Super Bowl

Saturday afternoon we drove to Houston for my niece Jennifer and her fiance Marc's engagement party. My sister was hoping that we would be there early to help with the set up, but we got there just in time for the party....sorry Kathy. It was a beautiful party and my sister Kathy, along with the help of my mom and other sister Chris who lives there. One brother-in-law did the sound system. Luckily, when it was time for the party to end, everyone pitched in with the clean up. Then we drove back home early Sunday because Ruth had a birthday party and of course....SUPER BOWL. Jeff and I wanted the Cardinals, and the girls wanted the Steelers, so there was great cheering and boo ing going on in the house. So our team lost, so quickly off to bed for the girls!~

ICE-again!

The city and all surrounding cities were shut down due to ice....again. It would be so much nicer if it was snow.....a little bit of snow, right Erin? We mostly just stayed in so no one would slip and break anything. Sara ventured out, but Ruth stayed in because she was not feeling so great.

Happy New Year

We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant, Sara decked out to the nines. The dragon dance celebration was cancelled due to COLD weather....good thing because we were NOT going out in that cold.

TEXAS ice

Well, the kids are back to school-YEA!!!-and now the weather changes drastically. On Saturday it was 84, and today, well, we had an ice storm. Luckily Jeff was able to work from home, and the kids were at school before it got bad, and it ended just before they got home. I was sure that their heavy bus had better traction then my van. Besides, the ground was still so warm from a few days ago, the the ice was mostly on thing besides the ground. Our neighbor lost a large branch from one of their trees. I was outside propping up my bushes....burr!

2009

When Ruth was small and she wanted to stay up to watch the new year come in, I was very smart and we watched the new year come in on the other side of the world, then she was in bed by 9. BUT, now that they are older and gratefully smarter, mom is now obliged to actually stay up until midnight. We enjoyed our bubbly sprite upon the strike of midnight.

We played one of our favorite games, UNO attack until midnight.

Sara's actual birthday

OH, the joys of having your birthday just two days after Christmas. Since we were still at my parent's house, we did have family there. We had a wonderful ice cream cake from Kroger. Sara loved her Hannah Montana calender. She got many great things.

The next day, we went to my friend Ruth's house for a visit. Another long time friend Joe was visiting too, also a friend from HS, so it was old time reunion.I have know Ruth since 10th grade, and that was a LONG time. Ruth and I decided to go get something for dinner, while the rest of the gang went to play at some tennis. As soon as us moms got back to the house, we got a call about an accident that had occurred. Joe went to the back of the court to hit a ball, not noticing that due to ground subsidence, it was no longer level.....he broke his leg. Did I mention that Joe was in town watching his father in a nursing home while his sister was out of the country. SO, Joe did a lot of hopping around until he made it back to Chicago area to see his Dr. Way to be tough Joe.

CHRISTMAS #2

As soon as our Christmas was over, we cleaned up some and loaded the car and headed off for my parent's house...5 hours away. As usual, we had so much fun just being together, but the gifts were great too. I enjoy looking out for special things for everyone in my family through out the year.

Of course, after the presents, we had another fabulous dinner prepared by my mother. Then, the card games began! Sara also challenged so to chess, and actually lost 2 games to my BIL Rick.

My niece Jennifer's fiance Marc's parents flew in from VA to meet my sister and her DH, along with all of us, so they came to Christmas also. They are so very nice.

OH YEA++++ notice the shorts on Sara. Sorry to those up north, but, well, this is Texas.

CHRISTMAS #1

The girls were so very excited about Christmas. They are questioning about Santa, so this may be the last year for this. It took forever for them to get to sleep. The next thing we knew, there was a knock at our door at 6 am. They were giggling and jumping up and down. Sara said that she got up at 2 am and then she got her sister up at 5 am and they were being nice to let us sleep until 6!

The girls loved the feather pillows from Santa and now, I do not have to share mine when they are sick!

VERY COLD

Today was a very cold day, so we decided to start up the fireplace and enjoy it with hot chocolate. Sara said it was the first fire that she every had seen and loved it.

Notice that Ruth has my mug, and Sara has her from China.

Sara's 12th Birthday party

This evening we had Sara's birthday party sleepover. We did crafts, had cake and ice cream, watched movies, and the girls were in bed before me! The next morning it was donuts and Sara's one friend stayed until 5:30 pm. They, including Ruth, had a fun time. The next day the girls did "poppers" outside. These are usually for celebrations, such as new years....the girls love them.

Band Concert

This afternoon Sara's 6th grade bank had their first concert. I was amazed, that though it was not of symphonic level, it was good for kids who had not play until 4 months ag0. Of course I think that Sara's flute section's song was wonderful. They played a number of songs. Sara was disgusted that a number of boys told her that she was pretty " yuck!"

The movie is of Sara's flute section olaying. You can not see Sara, but she is there.

Happy Birthday MOM

Today was my birthday. I am....older :) The girls both made me a beautiful card and Jeff gave me red roses and CHOCOLATE! We will go out to celebrate the day when things slow down a bit.

NASA

Sara's 6th grade class took a trip to NASA just south of Houston. They spent the night in a hotel that was still under repair from hurricane IKE. The best thing was that they got to actually see the astraunauts training in their huge pool.