Happy Birthday, Brad!

It is finally Thanksgiving break! Things have been a little crazy over the past week, and I couldn't ever seem to find the time to post. We decided to have a garage sale last weekend to finally clear out the huge mounds of junk that had accumulated in the garage over the past couple of years. It was about time considering we started cleaning out closets and making these piles over a year ago when we decided to have the garage sale. But for some reason, it never happened . . . and the piles just continued to grow . . . They are gone now! Yippee! Special thanks to Donna and Steve for braving the cold with us as we sat all day peddling our goods to the crazies that come out for a garage sale.

In the midst of the garage sale prep (wow it is a LOT of work to get one ready) we celebrated Brad's birthday. He's only one year away from the BIG 40! So Happy Belated Birthday, Brad!

I thought that in celebration for his 39th birthday, I would share 39 things that make Brad special. Here goes:

1. He is a strong spiritual leader in our house. When I would rather sleep in or lay around on the couch, he is the one that insists we get dressed and go to church . . . or the Bible study . . . or our small group.
2. He is an excellent dad. He doesn't mind taking the girls so that I can have time without them. He loves to spend time with them and has a special bond with both of our girls.
3. He has a kind and servant heart. If anyone needs help with anything, Brad is always willing to step in and lend a hand.
4. He loves me unconditionally. I know that most of you will be surprised, but I can be a pain at times . . . and he loves me anyway.
5. He is a great example to others. Brad is not perfect. But people tend to admire his honesty and the way that he puts himself out there - he is "real".
6. He is generous. He never thinks twice about giving to others who are in need.
7. He loves God. I have really seen him grow over the past few years. His love and devotion to the Lord has deepened and affected every aspect of his life.
8. He is a helper. He doesn't get mad when I volunteer him to help cook hot dogs for Gracie's second grade class or to pick up a trailer full of student desks from TCU to haul to my school.
9. He is kind to my family. Brad takes the heat that he gets from my dad and my brother in stride. He is kind and accepting to my entire family.
10. He is funny. As much as his humor sometimes drives me crazy, I am usually laughing as I roll my eyes.
11. He is willing to stay up after working a crazy shift and miss out on needed hours of sleep in order to make it to church with us on Sunday mornings or spend time with us during the week.
12. He volunteered to teach the teenage boys at church.
13. He saved our family from certain death on the jeep ride from hell last summer. And he didn't even yell back as I frantically screamed and cussed at him in the midst of the trauma.
14. He is fun to be around.
15. He has no rhythm, which can be quite entertaining when he decides to dance or try to rock out on Guitar Hero.
16. He surprises me with chocolate.
17. He is a great friend to me and others.
18. He loves it that we have two girls and has never pouted about not having a little boy.
19. He supports me in my career.
20. He encourages others to spend more time in prayer.
21. He is always downloading sermons to listen to.
22. He doesn't blare his headbanging / screaming music (too often)
23. He loves his dad. Brad still calls him almost every day to check on him.
24. He loves to fish and doesn't mind that I think it is boring and stinky.
25. He surprises me every once in a while by doing the dishes, making the bed, or washing a load of laundry.
26. He always takes care of filling my car up with gas when I need it.
27. He will buy groceries when I am too stressed or busy to take care of it.
28. He is complementary of my cooking . . . and I don't cook that well.
29. He works hard to help support our family financially.
30. He agreed to hang his stuffed fish in the garage.
31. Even though he hates public speaking, he has volunteered several times to take care of the sermon / discussion time at church.
32. He has been my rock through some very "rocky" times over the past few years - leaving our church (the one that I grew up in), my mom's cancer, etc.
33. If I don't feel like cooking, he never complains about eating cereal or going out to pick up take-out for us.
34. He takes care of me when I am sick - going to the store to buy four different kinds of medicine, soup, crackers, Sprite . . . whatever I might need.
35. He puts up with my moods and ever unpredictable hormones.
36. He chose me and has never looked back.
37. He agrees to go on trips and travel because he knows that I love it . . . even though he would prefer to stay closer to home.
38. He sleeps in the back bedroom on the uncomfortable trundle bed during the day if we are at home so that we can have full run of the house.
39. He is the love of my life!

Beads, Baubles, and . . . Ammo?

A few friends and I went to a jewelry and bead expo today. There were aisles and aisles of beads, pendents, and pre-made jewelry. It was amazing and a bit overwhelming looking at all of the options and trying to decide which beads had the best potential. I came home with a bag full of choices and am looking forward to a beading party tonight so that I can throw a few things together.

The strangest thing was the expo across the hall from the bead extravaganza. It was a gun show. Apparently the bead people and the gun people have it all figured out. They can book their shows at the same time to provide fun for the whole family.

It was just so WEIRD to be in a public place with people EVERYWHERE carrying all kinds of guns. People must come out of the woodworks for a gun show. There were no parking spaces available anywhere and a long line at the door of people waiting to get into that section. (And even the people waiting in line to get in were carrying guns.) Like I said - strange!

I admit . . . I don't get it. I can't imagine fighting that crowd to walk around and look at guns. Although, I am sure that one of them could be at home right now blogging about the amazing deal on ammo they found today at the gun show and the crazy women accross the hall at the redicoulous bead show.

Twilight

I love to read. It is one of my favorite things to do when the laundry is done and the house is quiet. And that is the problem. When is the laundry EVER complete and the house quiet? So, finding the time to relax with a good book has been nearly impossible for the past several years. There was also the problem of the boycott after grad school. After putting my entire family through two and a half years of torture while I worked full time, had a new baby, and attended grad school, I swore off reading . . . anything. I was so sick of doing research and reading chapter after chapter in textbooks that I had lost my love of reading. Until now . . .

A couple of the teachers at my school kept talking about the Twilight series and how good the books were. I decided to give it a try. I figured that it would be perfect. Totally fiction . . . no deep meanings . . . just a story to read and enjoy. I finished the first book (all 500 pages) within a couple of days. In fact, I finished it on the way to meet up with the rest of my family who were spending the weekend at the lake camping. As soon as we were in the middle of nowhere, it was over and I tried to convince Brad to turn around and find a bookstore because I NEEDED the next book. I was hooked. I have now finished the fourth book, and the next day it was sad . . . I kept thinking to myself, "I don't have anything else to read now." Talk about addicting!

If you like to read, check it out . . . just don't say I didn't warn you! If you don't like to read, they are coming out with the movie this month. Of course, you never know what you are gonna get when someone in Hollywood takes a great book and tries to recreate it on the big screen. I'll let you know. A group of us from school are already making plans to go and see the movie when it comes out.

Happy Halloween!

The second graders performed their Fall musical this week - "ROCTOBER". They did a great job! Gracie's job was to open the show with the first lines of the night. She was fabulous!

(This is my first try at adding video to my blog . . . and our computer is malfunctioning right now, we have no sound. So hopefully the video works.)

Halloween is usually unpredictable for our family. It never fails that something happens to interrupt our family plans. This year - pink eye. Gracie woke up yesterday morning with a swollen, bloodshot, crusty eye. NICE!

We ended up taking her to a couple of houses to trick or treat and then Brad and I took turns staying home with her while the other took Lily to the Cooks for a Halloween dinner and party. Not quite what we had planned. Although Gracie's main concern was, "Will I still get to get candy?" So I guess (for her) the night was a success. Somehow, although we only went to a couple of houses, we ended up with a bucketful of candy. I'm not quite sure HOW MUCH my dad and Kenneth and Gwen shoveled into their pumpkins.

My mom just "loved" my lip ring, nose ring, and funky lashes . . . Happy Halloween!

Life Is Sweet . . .

Sometimes a little too sweet!

I'm not sure who the guilty party is who took the pictures. But they are out there, so I might as well share . . .


We had our Fall Festival at school last weekend and (for some reason) I thought that the pie in the face booth would be a better choice than the dunk tank. Looking back it may have not been the wisest decision that I ever made. When all was said and done I had whipped cream in every nook and cranny imaginable. In my ears . . . down my shirt . . . so far up my nose that the rest of the day all I could smell was that nasty sweet smell. I don't know if I will ever eat whipped cream again.

The carnival turned out great, though. We had a big turnout and the kids seemed to have a blast. And I must say that we have some teachers who are real troopers. They volunteered to have pies thrown in their faces and to sit in the dunk tank. Overall, I think it was a real success.

Brad's family also came into town for the weekend. The girls had a great time playing with Nathan and Daniel. And it was nice to get to spend time with Brad's dad, sister, and brother-in-law.

My mom was able to have her chemo treatment today. Her blood count is finally up and, hopefully, we will be able to see her sometime this week. It has been a long two weeks of seclusion and the kids and I are ready for a Mimi visit!

Much Ado About Nothing

Not much has been going on . . . actually, that's not entirely true . . . I guess that a whole lot has been going on, just not much to blog about. I feel like I have been running a race lately, yet somehow, no matter how hard I run, I can't seem to get anywhere. Work has been very busy. It seems like there is no catching up. Which is actually part of the reason that I love my job so much - there is never a dull moment. I actually spent a couple of days this week in Austin serving on a TAKS standards review committee. (For those of you who are non-educators, I'll just say that it was two very LONG and intense days looking at numbers and data to help make a recommendation to the Texas Education Agency as to some changes that need to be made.) It was both frustrating and informative at the same time. I didn't get home until Tuesday night in time to kiss the girls goodnight, unpack, and crash for the night.

Brad is still working crazy shifts. Honestly, I'm not sure when he is coming and going. It seems that as soon as I have it figured out, they change it for the next week. Needless to say, it hasn't helped the craziness of work and me being out of town. It is funny that I had to catch up on a little of what Brad has been up to by reading Matt and Keely's blog. If you are not a regular reader, it is worth checking out. The link is in my list of favorite blogs, and the post is titled "haircuts". It was quite entertaining!

Our school is having a fall festival this Saturday with hayrides, face painting, and even a dunking booth. Somehow I managed to avoid the dunking booth, but was convinced to participate in the pie in the face booth - can't wait! Hopefully there will NOT be pictures for me to post next week. Brad's family is also planning on coming down for a visit this weekend, so it will be crazy around here with all of our house guests and the carnival.

My mom is doing well. She has not been able to have her chemo treatments for the past two weeks, though, because her blood count was too low. Good news - no nausea, bad news - no exposure to germs, which means the rugrats and I are off limits (after all, I am around LOTS of germ carriers all day long). She and my dad were getting a bit of cabin fever this week, though, so they have actually packed up the trailer and gone camping for a few days.

Other than that, I have no real news. Life is good. God continues to amaze us daily as He works in our lives and through the people that he puts us in contact with. I feel blessed. Blessed to be a part of two precious little girls' lives. Blessed to have such an amazing husband who is a super dad and an amazing spiritual leader in our house. Blessed to have friends who have touched my life in so many unexpected ways. Blessed to have a great job that I love where I am able to impact the lives of children and adults in ways that I never expected. Blessed.

The Incredible Edible Car Derby

An exciting thing happens when you are a second grader at our school - The Incredible Edible Car Derby.

Apparently, along with a unit of study over force and motion, second graders are all asked to create a car entirely out of edible items. They are allowed to use any kind of food, toothpicks, skewers, and glue. Everyone brings their cars on the same day and there is a competition to see whose car will travel the furthest when released on a ramp.

When we received the directions a few days ago, I was instantly struck with a brilliant idea. This was the perfect project for Gracie to create with her Paw Paw. It seemed like a perfect bonding experience. Plus, this is right up my dad's alley. After all, he loves to build things and figure out how to make them work(perfectly). So, I dropped her off Wednesday night so that they could work their magic together. Two hours later, when I picked her up, I asked my dad if they had finished. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Well no, we have been working on our prototype. She'll have to come back tomorrow so that we can make the final product. I still need to work on the axles to make sure that it drives straight."

The next night, when I picked her up, not only had they perfected the "prototype", they had also decorated it with headlights, taillights, and a driver all made out of candy. My dad explained that he had created his own hub caps by filling a small tube with hot glue, pulling it out, and poking a hole in the center. Then as we were leaving he told me to make sure that I didn't let Gracie eat the lifesaver wheels when she was finished with her race. When I asked why he explained, "Well, because I sprayed them with silicone spray so that they would roll better, of course."

So, the incredible edible derby was today. Gracie's car made it all the way down the ramp and across part of the floor without falling apart, which is better than a lot of the other cars. It was hilarious, though, to see all of the different creations - a gourd with onion halves as wheels (that one smelled up the entire hallway), a chili pepper with limes as wheels, soggy bananas with who knows what as wheels . . .

Gracie didn't win a ribbon, but I think that the experience was a huge success. She had a great time working on a special project with Paw Paw, and she had many compliments on how cute her car turned out.

Thanks, Paw Paw!