Saturday, September 7th

Went to Kohls today. After the lovely experience of trying on clothes, I checked out and the lovely teenage checker girl was kind enough to tell me that the inside of my purse looks like her mother's except her mother just throws her change inside. Thank you teenage girl. Any 34 year old loves to be told their purse looks like your mother's.

Can you tell I wasn't in a great mood???

Blogger Makeover

I'm sure as most of you have noticed I'm attempting to redo the blog look again. For those of you with Photoshop experience, please let me know what I'm doing wrong to have the white show up behind the frame with the family picture and the "Links" tab. I bought the blog kit and so when you open those files in Photoshop to move your picture into the frame or add text it has the checkerboard look around the frame/tab button as well and those are the places that show up white on the blog. UGH! Anyway, any help given is much appreciated!

This week has been a pretty good week though busy. As Patrick stated in his blog, I did show up for jury duty on Monday. We had an orientation time that morning and were divided into 4 groups of possible jury pools. Each group is supposed to call in on different days of the week for the next 4 months to see if they need to show up the following days or if the cases have settled. I'm really hoping the one on Monday settles because I"m supposed to attend our first "official" PTA meeting of the year along with the girls dance lessons. We'll see I guess. The good news is that several from the church were also called to jury duty so I'll know some folks in my group which should be fun.

I do have a couple of good stories from Alli. First I'll give you some background and let you know that the big "word" with Meredith and Alli lately is "bored" or "boring." They often call random things "bored or "boring." So, while Alli was going to the bathroom today she said that going poo poo was boring. I've never really thought of it that way so I offered her a book to read in the process to make it more "exciting" but she refused. Imagine that. Also last night, Michael was going through Alli's new "Cubbie" book for Awanas at church with her and it asked her to think of things that are beautiful. She said hula girls. I thought that was a very interesting choice of all the things in the world she could name that she said hula girls. You never know with 3 year olds I guess.

Baby Celebration in BA

Me and the girls headed to Broken Arrow on Friday after Meredith got out of school.  On Friday night a bunch of the family met at Ricardo's to eat Mexican food which was yummy.  However, the service was quite slow this time which is unusual for that restaurant which, of course, makes it trying with my little ones and my two nieces.  Nevertheless, we survived it and headed back to my parents' house.  On Saturday the girls and I all met Aunt Carrie at the beauty shop so she could cut all of our hair.  Bless her heart for being our personal "stylist" because we certainly needed help in that area.  Carrie, my mom and I then took all of the girls to the feed store to visit the little petting area they have their with the miniature horses/donkeys, goats, bunnies, etc.  There was also a little kitty that Carrie's parents have adopted at the store and for some peculiar reason, it kept running away from the girls when they tried to attack, I mean pet it.  Anyway, it was a good day for the little cousins.  Also, I wanted to let you know that my sister-in-law, Carrie, has started a blog and I have added it to my blog list on the right.  Enjoy!

That evening I then headed to the Cheesecake Factory to meet my high school/college friends for my friend, Christy's, second baby celebration.  It's always so great to see all of my sweet friends again.  Shannon flew up from Houston, Beth drove from Memphis, Emily and I drove in from the great state of Arkansas and then the rest are from the Tulsa area.  How lucky am I to have such a strong group of Christian women I can count on for anything.  Needless to say, we had a super time eating at the restaurant and we all then headed over to Ida's beautiful house to eat yummy cake and she relax and talk and laugh together.  Christy already has a handsome little boy and now she is welcoming a little girl in October.  Congratulations Christy!

First Day of Preschool & new van

Alli had a great first day of preschool and her class mascot is the monkey.  She enjoyed staying for "lunch bunch" and playing with her cousin Will who is in kindergarten at the same school.  Last night she when Michael was taking her to bed she thanked him for letting her be a "monkey" so I think that's a good sign.  Granted, she has been exhausted all day today and has been a bear so hopefully she'll get used to the new busy school schedule and will adjust.  We really need to get the girls to bed earlier but that's not easy either as most of you already know.  

Oh yeah, out with the old and in with the new!  While Alli and Meredith were in school yesterday we headed over to Tulsa to get our Hail damage repaired new minivan!  Yes, it's another white Odyssey but it's fully loaded (minus the TV) and we got it for the same price as we got our other Odyssey for in 2003!  We'll take the hail damage and all!  I really wanted a small SUV this time so I could be a cool mom but when you compare the same options you can get in a minivan and gas mileage it pays to be cool and I'm not willing to pay it (yet).  Just wait, my next vehicle in another 5 or so years is going to be so cool you all will be jealous and maybe I'll even get a red or black vehicle!  Talk about wild and crazy!  Anyway, old Betsy (other van) had over 100,000 miles so we invested in a new one and Michael's mom Patty is going to drive our old one when she and Tommy aren't going somewhere together.  The girls named our new van "Mini".  I guess they get their creativity from their parents, poor girls.  They first suggested "mini-van" and "white mini-van" and we then shortened it from there.

Chris' 30th Birthday

My little brother finally turned 30 on Saturday.  It's hard to believe.  Staci turned 20 in a month so it's easy to remember that they're a decade apart in age.  Me and the family headed over to Broken Arrow just for the day on Saturday to celebrate the big 30 with my family and with Carrie's parents at their house.  They were kind enough to host the event and let the girls all go swimming.  We were all about carried off by mosquitoes though so we didn't stay outside very long.  The rain beforehand must have really brought the bugs out and Carlee even got bit by her eye when she was in the pool.  We all had a great time at the party and Chris got some great gifts I must say.  Oh yeah, in case you're wondering why Alli appears to be blowing out the candles, Sandy (Carrie's mom) had to light Chris' candles 4 times so all of the girls had a chance to blow them out.

Alli was able to visit her new preschool class on Thursday to get a little preview before she starts on Tuesday.  She seemed to really enjoy her classroom and I know she'll love her teacher like Meredith did.  Here are some pictures of her playing in her new class.

Off to School for Meredith

I apologize for taking so long to post this time but you know how it is when school first starts up.  busy, busy, busy.  Meredith has had a great first week of school and loves the first grade as well as her teacher.  She wasn't crazy about her first day in PE because everyone was crazy and not listening.  She apparently likes order.  She also started soccer drills on Monday as well as dance (tap, ballet, and jazz).  I'm a little nervous about how all of these activities are going to pan bit the good news is that the soccer season is pretty short.  I started to regret taking her out of gymnastics this year as I was watching them on the Olympics because in another 4 years she would probably be eligible to compete if we lived in China (oops, did I put that in writing?).  Here's a picture of Meredith on her first day of school.

Alli has also started ballet and tap which I hope she enjoys.  Alli would just as soon not mess with any of it and just hang out with Mom which I completely don't understand.  She really likes the idea of a recital though so I guess that's what we're going to have to work for.  Alli starts preschool on Tuesday (I can't wait) and I think she's really going to enjoy it.  She will have the same teacher Meredith had as a 4 year old so it will be fun to hear her comparisons between Meredith and Alli's personalities.  Speaking of Alli, while we were at Sam's the other day buying an icee (bribery to get through the trip) she was sure to point out to me that the lady behind us had whiskers on her neck.  She didn't say it very loud so I'm praying the poor lady didn't hear her.  Of course, I never turned around so I wouldn't have to face her so I cannot attest to the whiskers or not.  I just pretended I wasn't there.  

Fishing & the Great Outdoors

Yesterday Michael came up with the idea to take the girls fishing out at Grammy and Papa's pond so we did.  For those of you that know me well, you know that I'm not a super fan of the great outdoors and pretty much enjoy the city life.  So, I took my camera and took pictures of Michael hooking the worms to the hooks and then taking the hooks out of the catfish and then throwing them back in the water.  The girls seemed to have a great time and lucky for us the fish were biting.  Keep in mind they weren't large fish but it didn't matter to the girls.  They were just happy that there was some action.  Michael's cousin Chris came in town for the weekend from Memphis so it was fun visiting with him.  Here are some pictures from the day and I've also included a couple of pictures of Tom & Patty's dobermans, Lizzy (red) and Beamer (black).