Day 390

Caleb spent the afternoon running around like Indiana Jones!

Day 389

Today we had Caleb's awards ceremony. Let me just say...as much as I hate the time it takes away from the family, this is the most fun I have had with one of the kids sports. Caleb has amazing potential and can be really really good. It was a good experience and just so fun to watch. I think a great coaching staff helped tremendously. Yes, I know I said they were a bunch of Bubba's, but they were really great with the kids. It was all about having fun, yet still getting to win some. We have had some really really bad teams in the past with coaches yelling at the kids, parents not liking how the coaches were coaching...or not, kids not getting instruction, I could go on!!!! Anyway, the first picture is of Caleb running to get his trophy. The boys got second place in our division. The first place team was undefeated (those are the coaches in the pic as Caleb was running). We were the only team in both divisions that came close to beating them, not once...but twice. I didn't blog about our first game with them, but we only lost by 2. It was just at the beginning of the season, so it wasn't a big deal at the time. 

Here are the 2nd place Indians!!!!

Day 388

I have a couple of pics today. The first is of my son who so proudly dressed himself this morning. The clothes he picked out...a pair of bright dingy looking yellow pants. I quickly nixed those and gave him jeans. I didn't see his choice of shirt until he was heading out for the bus. It is a pj top with a reindeer on it. LOL Oh well....he had his heart set and sometimes you just have to pick your battles. 

The next is of the kids "posing" for a pic. The best pose was taken without the flash, so it was too blurry to use. You will have to excuse Hannah's disheveled look. She was so sick yesterday and is still in recovery mode today. 

After this last one can you see why my new Mac is confused over the facial recognition???

This last pic was outside with my phone. Can you see how cleared up Caleb's face is? I am just loving rubbing and stroking on it. :)

Day 387

The first picture is of what yesterday's pic replaced! I have given up trying to get info off of it. I am going to need to borrow a monitor or pay someone who actually knows what they are doing. I know how to transfer pics and documents. My problem is transferring the iTunes library. I am not worried about mine because it is on my laptop. Marc's and all the kids are on that big box right there...sigh. 

This is a picture of my little Miss sicky. :(

Day 386

For those of you that don't know, my monitor on our pc went out. My plan was to go to Best Buy and get the 20 in widescreen that was on sale for $99.95. Best laid plans always go awry when Marc goes anywhere with me. LOL I have said for a while that our next computer will be a Mac. I was beyond fed up with everything about our pc's. While Marc was taking Caleb potty I was looking at Mac's. Now...I had no intention of buying a new computer; after all I did go there for only a monitor. Needless to say Marc talked me into this. In his defense it wasn't too hard. We did pay cash AND I did make him ask for a discount. He was shocked that they gave us one since it was already on sale. LOL Here it is!!! I am still trying to get info off my pc, but without a working monitor I am having no luck. I plan on putting all of my photos and videos from my laptop here too. There is just so much more I can do with them on the Mac. 

Day 385

Today was filled with a lot of things to do. The biggest thing today was Samantha's awards day at school. This is the activity I will focus on in today's blog, so it is ALL Samantha :) She was the Judge for the class, so she got the Judge award. She also got the Honor Roll and Conduct award. My proud mommy moment came when she was chosen for the Citizenship Award. Her teacher clued me in earlier when I was at the school (one of my other errands/activities of the day) that I "needed" to be at the awards and it was followed by a wink. I am so super proud of her. I have some pictures from the awards. Forgive me if I don't post one with all of her stuff, but it has her last name, school, and school district name on it. That picture will be on facebook. The last picture is of her jumping rope. The kids don't have recess this year because of construction, so her teacher has had the kids jumping rope in the room to use some of the energy. After the awards each kid got to do a jump rope "trick", it was fun to watch.

Day 384

Our Memorial Day was very relaxing. We did our chores, then went outside to see if we could light a fire. It was too wet, but the kids were happy we tried. Then we kicked back and watched some movies. Not sure how Samantha can watch a movie like this. LOL

Day 383

Meema stayed over this weekend. She shares the girls bed. So here is my question of the day...why is it the smallest girl in the bed takes up the most space? Marc and I also have this problem with itty bitty Hannah. We have a king size bed, but when Hannah is between us we are both hanging on to the edge by morning. LOL

Day 382

Today was supposed to be the day of our family reunion, but my uncle had open heart surgury and we postponed it. It would be great if you could keep him in your prayers. Recovery will be a long road. Well, no reunion meant Samantha (and everyone else) got to go to a friends birthday party. She was very not happy when I originally told her she couldn't go, so she was thrilled to be able to go. Here is a photo of Josh and Samantha going down the waterslide. At this point Caleb was inside sleeping....yeah really! Hannah was sitting down eating.

Day 381

First a pic of my favorite flower the gardenia. I haven't had much luck growing them though. At one point I had planted 4 bushes, they all died, so I bought one more. It lives, but is still the same size as it was when I planted it. Oh well....still makes these beautiful sweet smelling flowers. I picked this one and put it in the airvent of the car....I have 4 kids, shouldn't have to explain that one. :) More excitement at the ballpark. Shesh, what should have been an easy win nearly didn't happen. I think all the kids made some boneheaded plays, but Caleb's was the worst. Really, we don't know what was going through his head. During the previous at bat he hit and made it to first. His hit scored the 5th run, so end of inning. We don't know if he thought this was the case again, or if he thought he was out. Then again, he is really itchy today and not really able to focus on what people are saying to him. He hit and ran to first. He made it, then got off the base to go near the coach. He made it back to base AND the first baseman faced him off. The ump should have called "time", but he didn't. Caleb got off again, and headed back to the coach. Out number 3! sigh.... We had some bad calls today too. I thought one of the coaches was going to get tossed. After yesterday's entry, let me clarify the coach was NOT yelling at the kids! He was frustrated because 3 calls in a row were wrong. Even the other team parents were confused. Anyway, we won and have clinched 2nd place...behind the undefeated team we almost beat last night. Praise God we only have one more game! Hannah was extra restless tonight...can you tell in this pic she is in a mischevious mood?

Day 380

Caleb had a game today...luckily it wasn't the late game. At least that is what I thought until I saw who we were playing. We were playing the undefeated team in our division...last I checked we were in 2nd place. I am thinking "great, I could have just stayed home" LOL Anyway, at the end of the first inning the score was 1 to 5...not us! The second inning was 6 to 8...still not us. The third inning ended with the score 11 to 13. The fourth 15 to 13! Too bad we couldn't end there! Caleb had a great game. His first hit was a hard grounder that got past the third baseman into the outfield. You know, our coaches really try to focus on the fun of the game and OMG these other coaches were just all over their boys. We were the home team and going into our at bat with the score 15 to 18. I saw where we were in the line-up and didn't have much hope...I know that is horrible! The first batter got out. The next two managed to score. One poor little boy isn't on base a lot. He got confused by all of the yelling of the other coaches and started to run from 2nd to 3rd and he ended up getting out. That was after our best hitter hit. The score was now 17 to 18. The best guy was on 2nd and Caleb was up. He doesn't normally get out at first, but this infield was top notch. There were 6 of the other teams coaches lined up along their dugout YELLING at all their boys and telling them what they had to do. Poor Caleb..... Pretty much the game was on the line when my baby came up. We had a real chance to score because the runner on base was fast. All it would take was a bad throw to first. Our coach (the one working with Caleb at bat) was feeling the pressure. All we could hear were the other coaches. Our coach let out a sigh and then told us to make lots of noise for Caleb. We did and he had a good hit. Just half a step faster and he would have made it on base AND the tie runner would have made it home. Poor little guy got out, but you know what? As the other teams coaches ran to the field to lift up the players they were just yelling at, our coaches ran to our players and told them how great they played! We came sooooo close and the boys played a really good game. Final score 17 to 18, not us....but game well played.

Day 379

This is what the boys and Marc did today while Samantha watched a movie.
I took Hannah and went to church. This is what I did...well ok not quite! We are getting ready for a Night of Worship next month, so we sang and worshipped with the band tonight. It was great!

Day 378

Last night was the Astros game with Caleb's little league team. It was a great time even though we had the cheap seats and I mean really cheap seats. LOL Samantha protested the whole way there because she wouldn't be able to see anything since we were so high up. She wanted no part of those seats, whose child is this? We met up with the coach to get the tickets then headed off. We watched part of the Brewers batting practice. Josh went head first over the wall to pick up a foul ball out of the dirt. Hannah also got a ball. The kids had a great time even though the Astros lost. The only bad thing was the train didn't work or at least they didn't use it when the pitcher hit a homerun in the 5th inning. Hannah would have loved that...especially since we were sitting so close to it. Caleb didn't realize the game had started because the train didn't move.
Here are a bunch of little Indians

Day 377

Samantha brought home a huge bag of all of her old test papers. She didn't know what to do with them and well...I quit becoming a pack rat a few years ago. Ya' know, you just can't keep every little paper. Instead of just throwing them in the garbage she looked each on over and the rolled it up in a ball and threw it in the firepit. Of course Josh protested that she was only doing that so she could stay up later...LOL My reply was "so!"

Here is Hannah checking out Josh's garden.

Day 376

Oh how I LOVE Sunday's...even the crazy busy ones. Today was the pizza party for the Hi5 kids who learned all of the monthly hymns. So, Josh took off after church to Incredible Pizza and the rest of us drove around aimlessly trying to figure out what to eat. We are Cafe Adobe burned out! We ended up at Crave Cupcakes. I had heard so much about these cupcakes and so many blogging friends have raved about them. So what is a normally health conscience mom to do? Well, my crave took over! We had dessert before lunch...dessert cost more than lunch. LOL OMG! These cupcakes were to die for! Caleb got the breakfast cupcake and he didn't like it, but he is not a cupcake person. I thought it was good, but a little too sweet for me. Hannah wanted the vanilla over chocolate. She dug in!I did sneak in a little bite and she freaked, but it was so good!!!! I had the red velvet, but shared most of it. I am telling you, it just melted in my mouth. Samantha got the strawberry. It had the strawberry icing and chunks of strawberries inside!!!!It was so good! Much sweeter than we are used to, so none of us actually finished. Then we headed over to the Galleria for lunch. Samantha and Caleb were upset that I wouldn't let them go ice skating (we didn't have that much time). We watched the Zamboni and then watched the skaters for a while. Samantha got a kick out of adults not being able to skate. Then we headed back toward the church. Gas light on....UGH. Well, I finally found a gas station. It was only $0.10 more per gallon than near our house. I had to figure my way through the parking lot to the self serve pump. Really, I didn't even know they still have full service gas stations! As I am sitting there pumping gas I realize there is a rug AND hand sanitizer. I thought it was just too funny to NOT take a picture. I can't say I have ever seen either one of those at a gas station.

Next we headed back to church. The kids played in the Promised Land play area until the kids got back.

Caleb on the tube slide

Even Mommy had to try the twisty tube slide. LOL

Caleb is such a goof ball

Hannah was in the stoller eating lunch before she ventured in.

Samantha and Caleb at the top in the bubble thing

Then we went to see Robin Roewe's farwell concert. I was concerned about Caleb and Hannah being able to sit. Luckily there was other stuff going on, so I put Hannah in childcare. During our debate about whether to stay or not (this was overheard by some) Josh tried to convince me that Caleb would just fall asleep if he got still...yet the concert was 1.5 hours. Well, after several attempts at finding a seat that was not good enough for Caleb we found one...it was either that or leave. By the end of the second song he was OUT! He woke up during the ending prayer. LOL The concert was GREAT!!!! He is going to be missed! We went to the reception following, but didn't stay long. Did you read that Caleb slept for almost 1.5 hours. Needless to say, he was wired and ready to go. LOL We made a pretty hasty exit. Finally managed to get home almost 12 hours from the time I left...I am wiped out!

Day 375

Joshua, Joshua, how does your garden grow? Well, better than last year! If you check back on day 6ish you will see Josh watering last years garden. We got nothing from the stuff in the ground and about 15 tomatoes from the plants in the pot. We tried again this year. My close-ups are too blurry. We didn't have any peppers sprout, but we have lots of lettuce. The corn is cool. We can see where the little tiny cobs are. Three sqaush plants bloomed and one has a squash growing. We have some green beans. The carrots are doing well...as far as I can tell. Our third round of seeds finally gave up some watermelon plants...now they just have to produce something. The third round finally gave us a few tomato plants too. We recently transferred bell peppers from the pot, so we are not sure how those will do. The strawberries did nothing though. :( So far I have enough lettuce for some salad, sandwiches, and hamburgers.

Mommy and Hannah cuddling up for "Marley & Me"

Day 374

Friday night movie!!! YAY! I wanted to zoom in for the picture, but Samantha was on the other couch...sorry. We watched Bedtime Stories, I loved it. I took the 2 big kids to see it in the theather. They "got" a lot more of it this time. You can probably tell Caleb didn't make it through the whole movie...I took this pic about 15 minutes into it.

What is it with Hannah putting cream in her hair??? Seriously!!! This was this morning. We had washed her hair last night, but this morning she managed to get some cream and rub it in her hair. She was having so much fun in the tub she didn't want to get out. On that note, she had to have a shower later today because she got into the boys eczema cream/ointment and put it in her hair again. Of course that stuff will make her hair look oily for about a week....sigh. Isn't she cute though?

Day 373

HOT is the word of the day. I have not been feeling well today. Yes, I know it is out of character for me to feel ill 3 times in a matter of 2 months given that I am only sick about 3 times the whole year! I pretty much stayed in bed ALL day. Hannah and Caleb were happy about that because they were tired. We have had late nights every night this week. Samantha even came home from school and took a 2 hour nap before our game. Yes, once again we had a late game. It was HOT, not that I expected otherwise. Of course it didn't help that I was feeling somewhat feverish, but we got through. It was a quick game AND there were no snakes on the field today. The pics are of Hannah gulping her water and Josh drinking a slush.

Day 372

Tonight was the last night for kids stuff and dinner at church. I still have choir practice, but the kids don't. :( I have a few pics. The first is of the drums I am standing next to during rehearsal. I can't hear out of that ear now. Of course it doesn't help that I started to feel VERY VERY bad on the way home. The next pic is of Hannah and her purse. The last one is of Hannah hugging one of her SS teachers. She passed us in the hall and well, Miss Hannah is such a social butterfly. :) Oh yeah! I got the summer fun on a budget topic done on the other blog.