Happy Birthday Grandma & Great Grandma!

I'm a little behind in posting this but last weekend my parents, sister Staci and grandmother came to visit.  Since my mom and grandmother celebrated their birthday on January 14 and 21 I decided to pick up a cake and we would have a little party of our own since we weren't able to make it over there.  Meredith and Alli are all about birthday parties so they thought it was great and I'm all about cakes so I thought that part of it was great as well (not to mention the birthday girls).  It was a pretty lazy day for us all.  We ate Popeye's chicken (yummy) and then had the cake for dessert with Braum's ice cream.  

I am so blessed to have such a precious mom and grandma.  I know I can count on them in any situation.  I remember loving to spending the night with my grandparents when I was younger and playing lots and lots of board games and Bible trivia with my grandma.  I also remember her making me yummy doughnuts in their fryer which I loved.  We also had good times painting ceramics together.  I cherish so many of the beautiful ceramics that grandma painted throughout the years and am lucky enough to have some of them now.  My mom was always willing to sacrifice for the good of her children, especially when she went to work at TU so we could all get a good quality education.  Thank you Mom and Grandma!!  I love you both!!

I also wanted to mention to please keep my other grandmother in your prayers (she's the one that got married a couple of years ago).  She's in the hospital due to a touch of pneumonia along with a bleeding ulcer.  Hopefully the doctors will get the bleeding stopped soon and she'll be home in no time.  Thank you for your prayers.

Junie B. Jones

Last week the kind gentleman that does advertising for Michael's shop gave us 4 free tickets to see Junie B. Jones at the Alma PAC.  However, Michael elected to give up his ticket (he's so kind) so that Meredith's friend, Katie, could go with us.  For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Junie B. Jones book series, they are the most adorable little chapter book series and I think I enjoy them just as much as Meredith.  The books cover Junie's early elementary school days and she tends to get into a little bit of trouble with her quick witted personality.  This little play was based on the "Junie B. Jones, First Grader" book and it was a simple little production that was just an hour long (which I appreciated).  I don't know about you but sometimes I think we other larger children productions they tend to get a little long and it was a relief not to have a big intermission with gazillion dollar balloons being brought to the front as a temptation to buy.  Here's a cute picture I took with my phone of Meredith and Katie.  Alli elected not to be in the picture.

Great Job in First Grade

Meredith has had a great first grade year I must say.  She had her third awards assembly of the year at her school and she still has straight A's and made that honor roll and she also received November's Citizen award for her class.  I just hope that she and Alli both inherited Michael's test taking abilities, we need some scholarships!  

Expensive picture from WDW

Oh yeah, on my last post I forgot to put the two downloads I bought from the Walt Disney World photography studio yesterday.  If you haven't been to WDW lately, there are various photographers throughout the park and at character greetings that you give a photography pass to and then they take your picture and give you the card back.  Then, when you're back at home you can type in the number on their little website and look at all your neat pictures.  You then pay way to much for the pictures.  See how it works?  Anyway, I couldn't pass up the tinkerbell picture and the castle picture.  Oh well, just call me "sucker."

Boat Show, etc.

On this past lazy Sunday afternoon, we all decided we would go check out the Boat Show here in town and we had a fun time.  Michael got to visit with a bunch of guys he ran into and the girls and I wandered from pontoon boat to pontoon boat checking them out.  We went on a couple of deck (?) boats but the sales people weren't as crazy about us walking around on those.  I guess because the average price of those puppies were around $55,000.  YIKES!  I picked out a cool red one that said "Interceptor" on it and I thought it suit me quite well.  The girls also got to throw some lines out with a fishing pole (I have no idea how you phrase that) and they enjoyed it.  They actually had a contest for the kids but you have to be seven to participate so maybe Meredith can do it next year if we go.  

Also, I neglected to mention that a few weeks ago while Alli and Will were playing at Grammy's house they all spotted a bald eagle swooping down and getting a fish out of their pond.  Isn't that cool?  Patty said it stayed long enough for her to grab her binoculars and get a closer look since it dropped the first fish and had to come back for another one.

Poor Little Fishy

Well, you probably already guessed it but we lost one of our little neon tetra fish today.  I saw the little guy at the bottom of the aquarium today.  The other fish seemed to be handling it okay though, in case you were wondering.  To help them cope with their grief I gave them an extra serving of fish food and they seemed to appreciate it.  The good news is that I got them at Petco and they have a 15 day guarantee on their fish and this one right before the end of the wire.  So, the girls and I will be making a trip there tomorrow with our dead fish in the Ziploc body bag to get another fish or two. Oh yeah, did I mention that as I was scooping out the fish from the tank Michael was singing "I'll Fly Away" and then he started in with the "No More Pain" song by Point of Grace.  Oh, that boy.

Trip to Dallas

Michael had a Carrier business meeting in Dallas this past weekend so I was able to enjoy a child free weekend with my husband.  Alli went to Grandma & Papa's house in Broken Arrow and Meredith stayed with Grammy and Papa in Van Buren and they both had a great time as well.  We arrived in Dallas on Friday a little after lunch and Michael headed to his meetings and I headed to the mall to kill some time.  We went to a giant mall with a 4 level Nieman Marcus and several other stores that were out of the ordinary for us.  I picked up a few things at Gymboree and a couple of Hannah Montana wigs that were half off for the girls.  For dinner, we hit the trade show at the convention at the hotel and we were good.

On Saturday morning I slept in (love it!) while Michael went to another meeting and after his meeting was over at noon we headed to PF Changs for lunch (yummy) and went to the Bass Pro Shop in Grapevine so Michael could get another pair of his favorite "Red Head" jeans. Saturday night was clearly the highlight of our trip.  We were able to get together with our Dallas friends, Jaron and Vicki.  I went to high school with Vicki and Michael and I both went to college with Jaron (one of Michael's roommates).  We had a steak dinner at the Hoffbrau (sp?) and then saw a group of comedians that Jaron & Vicki got us tickets for.  When I first heard that were going to hear comedians I thought, oh great, nasty comedians but boy, was I pleasantly surprised.  The only other comedians I have ever seen were Penn and Teller in Las Vegas and they were quite offensive.  We had no idea what were in for when we saw them and it was quite the eye opener.  However, these guys, in Ft. Worth, called 4 day weekend were hilarious.  I don't know if it was because we couldn't get tickets until the 10 p.m. show and I was delirious or what but I laughed so much I cried that night.  This was an improv show which made it different then just stand-up.  Prior to the show the audience could write down different random subjects and pin them to a bulletin board and throughout the show the comedians would pick out random papers from the bulletin board and work them into their act.  Also, audience members were not off limits by any means as well but thank goodness we were not picked on.  We knew that if that picked Jaron they would have had a hay day with the fact that he is a worship leader.  Anyway, if you want a good laugh, you should check them out!

New Aquarium & Spanish in Arkansas

Well, with some of my Christmas money I was planning on purchasing a new aquarium and give fish a try as pets. I just so happened to be in Petco when I called my friend Jennifer M. asking for advice since I knew that she had one. You're not going to believe this, but it just so happened that she and her husband Ryan were planning on cleaning their out that weekend and eventually sell it. So, as I'm sure you've figured out by now, she asked me if I wanted it. Needless to say, I was thrilled, and took her up on her offer. This aquarium is so much nicer then what I was going to buy. It is a 30 gallon tank with a stand! The girls and I were so excited (Michael, not so much) we headed to Petco and WalMart to pick out rocks and plant decor for out new tank. Jennifer then brought the tank over the next morning and helped me set it up and it looks fabulous. We let it run for a day and night and then we made the trip back to Petco for fish. Of course, I wanted hardier fish and some that weren't too expensive to start out so we picked out several types of tetras, a couple of guppies, and 2 barbs for a total of 10 fish. The girls were so proud when they walked out holding those bags of water and fish and believe, it or not, they are still alive!! Thank you so much Jennifer and Ryan for the beautiful tank! You're family is welcome to visit it any time! (Blogger's not letting me post pictures right now for some reason, but I'll try again tomorrow.)

Oh yeah, I have good story from New Year's Day. Our family went to the mall to go to Dairy Queen and beforehand I wanted to look in Dillard's real quick to check out their big sale that day. Well, as we were all looking in the children's shoes department, Meredith, out of the blue, askes "Why do people speak Spanish in Arkansas?" I, of course, laughed along with the lady next to me and later that day we explained to her that people with different cultures and languages also live in the US including Arkansas.

Teacher's Gift

I thought this little wall hanging turned out so cute for Meredith's teacher that I wanted put it on my blog. I think Mrs. Biggs really liked it too (I hope). Anyway, I thought it was a great buy as well from a girl in this area, if any of you are interested. I think it was $25 and it is a good size.

Christmas Day Pictures

Sorry I'm a little slow but here are the rest of my Christmas pictures from Christmas morning at our house along with pictures from my parents' house along with the rest of my family. I hope you and your family had a very merry Christmas and will have a super 2009!