Girl's Birthdays

Ellen and Genevieve had birthdays recently. Genevieve turned 7 on August 29th and Ellen 15 on September 1st.

Genevieve had friends over and had a great time. She told everyone who would listen the next week EVERY present she got. We also had our friends Glen and Janette's girls for the weekend so she had a lot of fun.

Birthday "Panacakes", a family tradtion, on her birthday morning.

The dress I made her. She was so proud of it and so grateful!

The cutest piggy bank from her friend Ben!

All the friends at the party!

Ellen had some friends over Saturday night for pizza and Wii playing. It was Labor Day weekend so she did not have very many that could come, but those here had a good time.

Taylor, Ian, Ellen, Emma, and Alex in the sunglasses Ellen got from Emma.

First Day of School 2009

Today is the first day of school. They are all so excited. I'm glad they are happy to go back to school but I miss them. I hope they all have a great day and a great school year.

My boys

Ian and Ellen are ready to fight the evil forces of HIGH SCHOOL!!!

Genevieve is in the 2nd grade this year. She was a little grumpy this morning (as usual) even though it was the first day of school. The girl likes her sleep! But she perked right up by breakfast time. She will be 7 on Saturday!

Abigail is in the 4th grade this year. She has two teachers this year, about which she is very excited. Each teacher will teach half of the subjects each day. Something new. She was so excited to see friends at "meet the teacher" night so I'm sure she will have a great day with her friends. She was the first one up today and ready to go!

Ethan is in 6th grade this year. He will start band on the French Horn. He also loves choir and drama. He thought he did a good job with his wardrobe today, saying that he had a bit of "fashion sense" this year. I guess that is more important in 6th grade, since last year he didn't really seem to care if what he wore was clean! We still can't get him to use any hair product though. :) Cute boy!

Ellen is a Sophomore this year and will 15 a week from tomorrow. She plays flute in the band. She is excited about her 2nd year of French and bummed she didn't get into the Creative Writing class. She writes ALL of the time!

Ian will be 17 in December and is a Junior this year. He has a busy year with AP Physics, Spanish, and Engineering classes, to name a few. He plays the Tenor and Baritone Saxophone in the band. He made sure to dress nice "for the ladies" today.

Eighteen Wonderful Years

Last Friday was our 18th Wedding anniversary! Where does it go? We went to Houston for the weekend for a friends wedding and to get away. We stayed a great hotel, very "green" and modern, but a nice place. I LOVE Southwest Airlines discounts!!! It was so nice to relax for a couple of days and not hear, "can I have..." every other minute. I managed to go the whole weekend without taking one picture, I guess I took a vacation from everything. But we had a great time and I am so grateful for the this good man I get to spend eternity with.

A BIG "Thank You!" to Glen and Jeanette who stayed with our 5 and their 3 girls Friday and Saturday night!!! We have great friends!

Trip to Utah

We took the Alpine Loop to Cascade Springs and back. It was beautiful! My ears started popping on the way down. Its way up there!

Tired of climbing.

Check out Ethan's face. He just noticed there were some yellow jackets on the tree next to him.

Ian with the biggest dandelion I've ever seen.

Steve giving Oscar an airplane ride. I wish I had been quick enough to video him evading his mom and Uncle Scott after he climbed on top of the hot tub. He's pretty quick! :)

Cute Luke!!!

Kim giving Scott a neck rub...where do I sign up!

Uncle Mike giving Nick and Isaac some pointers--all they need now is a deer!

At the temple...the wind got my hair in every shot.


Two weeks ago we spent a week in Utah visiting my family. We had a great time with my parents and my sisters and their families. The kids had lots of sleepovers with cousins and got very little sleep all week. I had a great time garage sale-ing with Mom and Kim. Kim scored!!! Michael and Ian went water skiing with brother-in-law, Deven and Ian almost drove off a mountain (not my favorite story). One of our favorite parts was our drive through the canyon, just Michael and I and the kids. It was so beautiful! We stopped a place called Cascade Springs. We saw a fawn and watched it climb the rocks from the road. And we almost ran over two chipmunks! We also had a fun barbecue at my sister Kim's house with everyone there. The weather was so nice and such a break from the Texas heat! We went on our last day to the open house of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in South Jordan. It was beautiful and the children really enjoyed it.

The Tree...An Update

We cleaned up our tree this week, finally. It took a couple of hours and then we had half a tree in our driveway! :) Anyone need any firewood??? The kids worked SO hard. I was very proud of them...especially our baby girl. She did not stop! I was very grateful, also, that there were no bugs, spiders, etc. living in it. You can see Ethan's opinion on the whole thing (thumbs down) but they all really had a good attitude and worked very hard.

The link below should take you to the slideshow of pictures. I took breaks often to document our day. :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/angel71ster/BloggerPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCK7y9K3AjpyA5gE&feat=directlink

Texas Sized Storm

They say everything is bigger in Texas, and last night's storm was no exception. Lightning struck the tree in our front yard...my favorite tree! I don't know if we can save it. It cut a pretty big hole in the branches so it does not look very nice. We were blessed, though, to have gotten home about five minutes before this happened.

Jury Duty

So, Tuesday I went to jury duty for the first time in my life. I've always had babies at home and so could claim the exemption. Out of 250 people, only 80 were going to be called so I figured I'd be heading home soon. Well, I did head home soon with an assignment to report back on Thursday at 9:00 at Judge Bridges court. Out of 20, only 6 would be kept for a misdemeanor trial. We were seated randomly and I was number 3 juror. So my chances of getting chosen were higher. We were told it was a DWI case. My thoughts went immediately to my brother, Michael. For those of you who don't know, he was his by a drunk driver 7 years ago and suffered a trumatic brain injury. He will be handicapped all of his life. So, eventually I had to share that with the Assistant District Attorney and then was questioned directly by the Defendant's attorney. It was very uncomfortable being asked if I could be impartial and how I felt about serving on this jury, given my experience. After both attorneys questioned all of us potential jurors, I was called back in alone to be questioned some more by the judge and the lawyers. It was SO intimidating!!! How do you say you can be impartial when you have had ANY type of experience with DWIs??? Of course, feelings are going to come up if the case is similar. So, long story shorter, the defense attorney struck me out. Each side gets to strike 3 jurors and I am CERTAIN I was at the top of his list! I think the state would have loved to have me on the jury. It was an interesting and educational experience, if an uncomfortable one. I learned a lot about our justice system and I am so grateful for it. I hope that the defendant gets a fair trial and that justice will be served. Most of all, I hope he makes the changes in his life so that his life or someone else's may be saved. It was a day to really think about the way I feel about things I haven't contemplated in a while. It is heartbreaking that my brother has had to go through the things that he has gone through. I am grateful for the strength my parents have had and continue to have as they still try to care for his needs. I do not and I believe have not ever had negative feelings toward those responsible. The choices they made were wrong and horrible consequences resulted, but I believe the Lord will make all things right in the end and we do not need to worry.

So, all in all, a very interesting day in jury duty. You never know what you're gonna get...

Oops!

Okay, so I guess my baby widget had you all trying to figure your out your own due date!
Sorry about that. I've changed and hopefully this one works. Wow!!! Thanks for letting me know, Manda! :)

Funny Stuff

So, I put up this widget with my countdown (see right side of blog)...seen others do the same and always thought that was fun. But now I'm a little depressed. I hadn't counted myself--197 days to go!!!! They might as well say you will deliver in FOREVER! I'm sure it will go by fast, that's just a big number! :)

A funny thing...last week Genevieve asked if I ate the whole bag of grapes, would the baby get here faster?

Also, Abby wanted to know if I knew if the baby would come day or night and exactly what day! And she prays for our baby "boy" in family prayer. She's convinced. And we don't find out boy or girl till birth day so "Sorry" for those who can't stand that! We love it!!!

SURPRISE!!!

Baby #6 is due to arrive at the Rogers early November! We were very surprised but are very excited! The kids are WAY excited and I can't believe Abby and Genevieve have kept our secret for the past 4 weeks! I didn't think they had it in them. I've been feeling good, except tired, but that is really nothing new. We're going to have to upgrade to a Suburban so if you see a good deal...

Can you believe I'm doing this all over again!!! WOW!!!

Ian Goes to the Prom

Our church had a prom for all the teens age 16 and up last weekend.
Ian invited this beautiful girl, Morgan, from Frisco. They had a great time and he was a perfect gentleman. We know, as Michael and I were his date/chaperones. We drove them to and from the dance and went to dinner and a movie while they were there. Can I be old enough to have a teenager dating? Don't answer that! :)

Abby's 9th Birthday

Abigail Grace turned 9 years old on Friday. She was so excited! She is always excited, however, and happy and fun and... She is a joy to be around. She LOVES to sing, dance, draw, paint, act, and everything she does she does all the way! She is a sweet girl who loves her family so much and we love her!!!

(She's blowing out candles on her birthday "panacakes", a family tradition).

This past weekend we went to visit friends in Tulsa, OK. I'll try to get that posted later. :)
So, I decided since it was Valentine's and we were out of town to step away from my sugar commitment. So I had what I wanted this weekend, and it was SO GOOD! But the ice cream I had Saturday left me feeling yucky. I did enjoy my favorite chocolate chip cookies on Sunday night then started over on Monday. So today is day 3--Again! I was REALLY grumpy Monday night, but its been fine since then. No definite deadline, probably until we take our trip over spring break so I can enjoy it. I'm hoping to reach the point where I can have something sweet every few days w/o going overboard. It is empowering to stop eating something specific. I am more focused on what I AM eating and trying to make healthier choices. Sorry if this is really boring to all of you...it helps me to know that you all know and will be asking how I'm doing. So keep asking--It keeps my going strong!!!

Oh, so sweet!

So today is NINE days off sugar and its been great! I don't use any artificial sweeteners. Just fresh fruit, honey (just a little) and stevia (when it gets here in the mail). I tried very hard to eat fruit every four hours the first couple of days and now just have some when I want, usually 3-4 times a day. That seems to have helped a lot this time. (I've done this before for a month and lost 20 lbs!) Sunday we had friends over and they passed a big bowl of assorted chocolate around and it wasn't even a temptation! I hope this willpower continues! It feels good to have a little more control over my eating habits. I still need to get rid of some extra carbs. A process, for sure.

Just Say No

Hello, my name is Angel, and I'm a SUGARHOLIC! I'm cutting myself off completely today from sugar. It seems the only way I can stay away. So I'm letting all of you know so that I'm accountable to someone besides myself and my husband. And of course, my children, who will suffer with no dessert this week as a consequence. Unless I make them some jello, which I have no problem staying away from. So, please, no treats passed my way and don't send me your new favorite recipe for cookies. I've just gotta say NO!

Another thought: A friend and I were talking the other day about blogs. They always have happy things to say, and everyone's life looks perfect. As you can see from my last two posts, that's not me. I'm putting it all out there...the good, the bad, and especially the ugly (see destist posting). :) Hope it all brings a smile at least, as your blogs do for me. But don't be afraid to put some "not-so-perfect" moments out there....I know we all have them. :)

A Laugh at My Expense

Okay, I've taken five days to decide whether to humiliate myself or not with this post. I went to the dentist last Wednesday and he did a number on me (I won't be going back to him). This is only my second time to ever have any work done, but are you supposed to be numb for four hours? So, have a laugh on me...

Things I learned while getting my heat pump replaced

1. Not everyone is honest. Just because they say the whole thing needs to be replaced, doesn't make it so.
2. 3-5 Business days=a week and a half
3. I have lots of friends willing to loan me a space heater.
4. You can get used to 60 degrees in your bedroom.
5. You CAN NOT get used to a 60 degree toilet seat.
6. You can ALWAYS ask for a lower price.
7. You can ALWAYS ask to do some of the work yourself (or in this case have a great friend who is willing to do it for you) to save money.
8. It IS worth it to have a home warranty most of the time.
9. $319.00 is a lot less than $758.00
10. Be patient, pray, trust, and things usually work out okay.