It was just a simple trip to the store.

Well, that is what it was supposed to be anyways.

Me and Anthony had to make a quick trip to Ross to return a car that he got a couple of days ago that didn't work and then to Braum's for a gallon of milk. Sounds easy, right...wrong.

I load Anthony into the car and head off down the road. A couple of minutes into our trip Anthony screams "Mom!! Stop the car!!" from the backseat. I freak and quickly ask WHAT!?! He tells me that Clifford (yeah, the big red dog) has wiggled out of his seat belt and he didn't want to get a ticket. Aggghhh! Really?

Okay, nerves back to normal and we pull in to Ross. I make the 'okay, we're just running in and returning this and then we're out' speech and we head in the store. We stand in line for a bit...apparently a bit to long, because now Anthony is itching to go and see if they have another car to replace the one that we are returning. "Just real quick mommy, pretty please" (insert puppy dog eyes here). Okay, how do I say no to that? Alright. But just real quick. Return was finally made and we head to the back of the store where they keep the toys. After ENTIRELY too long, Anthony finally sets his sights on a truck that is pulling a trailer with a four wheeler on the back. Yay, we get to leave. Nope. He has bow discovered that they actually have three similar trucks, one white with a green four wheeler, one grey with a red four wheeler and one yellow with a tractor. Now to decide on color. I think I want the white one...no the grey one...no maybe the red one (of course all of these decisions are made as we are making our way back to the front of the store with the current decision). Okay, finally he decided on the white one with the green four wheeler and I decided that I have had enough so this decision was final. We check out and head out to the car. I get Anthony strapped in (and anyone with a toddler knows this can be a big task in itself!) and I go around to get in the car, seat belt on, car started and Anthony says, 'Oh no! Clifford!! I left him in the store.' Arrghh!! I turn off the car, unbuckle Anthony and back in the store we go. Luckily we found Clifford hiding under the two unpicked trucks and head on out again. Now off to Braum's for some milk.

We get to Braum's and as always, Anthony wanted to be my 'big helper', so he ran to the cooler, grabbed a gallon of milk and we head up to the register to check out. We get to the counter and I watched as Anthony hoists the milk above his head (to put it on the counter) and then behind his head because he has now lost control and then in horror, I watch the explosion as it hits the floor. Clean up on Aisle 1! He totally soaked an older gentleman who I probably apologized 100 times to and there was milk on everything within a 50 feet radius.

I was mortified, but as the saying goes, don't cry over spilled (or exploded) milk.

:)

Ch-Ch-Changes.....

Things seem like they have gone a mile a minute around here lately! As most everyone knows our Winnie Winnie the Wonder Kitty passed away a couple of months ago which seemed to open the door for all kinds of doom. Soon after that our dog Sadie was hit by a car and because of the accident, we had to amputate her right front leg. In the midst of all of that, my uncle passed away from a very untimely stroke and Brian's uncle passed away after a long battle with cancer. I joked (as I often do at the most inappropriate times) that it wasn't a good time to be related to us. Terrible, I know...

On a bit of a happier note, Brian is doing well with his company. I have just started a new job, J-Bug only has 5 weeks of school left until she becomes a mighty 7th grader (insert vomit sound here) and Anthony has started in an in home preschool program. On an even better note, after years (no seriously, years!) of searching, we have finally found a church home. Thank you Jesus!!

I know it's not much, and if you follow me on Facebook (the main reason for the slow impending death of my blog) you've probably already read most of this, but for those who don't, now you're all caught up on the going ons around here.

Love you all!

3 Already!

Last weekend we celebrated Anthony's 3rd birthday. He was quite excited about his birthday and in fact, the first words that came out of his mouth were, 'Do we get to eat cupcakes today?' Aww.

Gracie made some of the yummiest cupcakes ever for the party (THANK YOU GRACIE!!) and Anthony scored big time on gifts! His absolute favorite was his motorcycle which he asks to sleep with every night, but because we have to get a battery charger and some training wheels put on the motorcycle first, he has gone with his next favorite present, his bicycle. This is ridden everyday, all day. He wakes up in the morning and jumps on his bike, and as soon as we get home from the sitters, he's right back on it. He has ridden at least 1,000 laps around the living room on it and would eat dinner on it if I let him (but I don't...the line has to be drawn somewhere, jeeze!)

Anyways, we had a great time at the party and although no kids showed :(, we maanged to make the best of the situation and partied out anyways! Thanks to everyone who came and made his birthday special! :)

P.S. I do have pictures to post, but my computer is being a total pain in the rompus right now, so I will get them up soon. :)

Where have you been??

I have come to realize that saying that I will do a better job to keep my blog updated is like blog suicide, so I won’t say it now but have the best intentions to do you know what. :)

Jaiden started middle school (WHAT!!) last week and so far so good. She has a fabulous schedule with all of her important classes at the beginning, then lunch, choir, PE, theatre arts and then she goes home. Awesome for her.

Anthony has slowly been driving us all crazy with the “Why?” question. Every statement made by anyone within his earshot is asked “Why?”. We keep telling ourselves, ‘it’s just a phase, it’s just a phase, it’s just a phase.’



Brian is still working (and kicking major butt) at at&t. The retail hours are about to kill us both, but we both know that right now we just have to be thankful that he has a job. I know there are still so many people out there who don’t.

And as for me, I’m still working at the same place, doing the same thing that I have done for the past 7 years. Good grief! I am also in the process of planning Anthony’s third birthday which will be at our house on the 18th of September. 3 already! I can’t believe it.

Until next time!

Remember Us? :)

Okay, so it has been forever since I have posted a Blog, so I decided with the New Year, comes a new post...

Brian has been working his tail off at AT&T selling cell phones. Not his ideal job, but it is paying the bills and he has sold to more than a couple of Dallas Cowboys (and anyone who knows my husband knows that alone is priceless). Here he is with one of his new buddies, Chad Hennings.

Jaiden is still my little spit-fire! She is in the fifth grade now and is doing really well. Much better than last year. Thank you Jesus! For Christmas, she received a total bedroom remodel where she was able to pick out the paint, furniture and all the decorations for her bedroom. To our surprise, she went with a soft blue green color on the walls but she picked a turquoise color for the closet and bedroom door. When she finally decided on the colors, I asked her if she was sure that is what she wanted and that we kind of thought she would go a bit crazier...she replied with 'Mom, I AM getting older now.' Good grief! I did paint her room and it really turned out nicely! The worst part about it though was when she decided that she wanted the bottom half of her room painted in the blue green color and the top half white. Since moving into our house three years ago, the ceiling in her room has never been painted and BOY did it show when I started the white on the walls. That then made it where I had to go ahead and paint the ceiling and as I told Brian, NEVER again will I paint a ceiling!! That was some work there!! Our house is a product of the 80's so popcorn ceilings throughout. If you have ever had to do this before, you will understand the pain I (and my right shoulder) went through. Sadly, now that her room is painted in the starkest most brilliant white that we could find, it really shows throughout the rest of the casa! Looks like more projects are heading our way!

Anthony is still running wild as you probably all witnessed first hand over the holidays. He definitely keeps us on our toes (and me in a size 0-2)! He hasn't damaged anything too considerably in the past week or so, so I am sure that a very colorful post regarding just that will soon follow. We did however find a large spot on the very top of his head the other night at dinner. I couldn't tell what it was exactly at first, but after a closer inspection, I found that it was dried blood a bit larger than a silver dollar. I was amazed for a couple of reasons. 1. I didn't remember him falling or hitting his head on anything; and 2. He NEVER complained about it, not a whimper or an 'oww', nothing. The cut wasn't as bad as it originally looked but it was still a cut....on his head! Again, Good grief!

and, yes. that is his underwear on his head. :)

I am still plugging away at the law office that I have now been at for 7 years. Sadly though, the attorney's that I work for are attempting to wrap things up and close shop simply because they have other things to do. I occasionally get a 'you're safe until...' speech and as of now, I am safe until April. Cross your fingers that things stay the same. I am a creature of habit and don't enjoy life to get jostled out of its original state. I am now in the process of getting the house back in order after what looked like a small tornado ran through it. Last weekend we started the remodel on Jaiden's room, the dryer broke (with a load of partially dried clothes in it, of course) and then the washer broke (full of wet, partially cleaned clothes in it...of course). Needless to say, my house resembled a college dorm room (or a 'hippie love pad' as my mom referred to it) complete with a full size mattress and box springs in my dining room, wet clothes hanging all over the house, a dresser in the hallway, the full sized bed frame leaned against my bedroom wall and Jaiden's clothes and personables strewn all about the house. It was a disaster, but thanks to help from mom, it is once again looking 'livable'.

So, that's us for now. I promise to do better at keeping this updated throughout the year!!

Peace and love to all of you!!

Mistie

Just a little update. :)

I'm trying to think of all that has gone on since I posted last, but when you live in my house, you come to find that everyday seems to bring on a new exciting story...

Momma Duck hatched 4 or 5 of the eggs that were layed in our front flower bed. Honestly, we have no idea if the duck actually hatched them or if some animal got a hold of them, but we found remnants of several eggs, we haven't seen her since and we have just decided to take the happier ending. :)

Momma Robin hatched her eggs also and we are pretty sure that three of the four survived. It was amazing how quickly those little birds grew! Jaiden was never a fan of the baby birds...she thought they were UGLY, but I did manage to snap a couple of pictures of them before they flew the coop!

Brian started working at At&t last week. I can't say that he loves it, but it's a job and it gives a paycheck and unfortunately, we are just in those times right now. He's really being a trooper about it and I love him for it!

Jaiden is doing okay in school. She might have slacked off a bit here at the end, but hopefully with all of the hard work that she put in throughout the year, it will be okay (and we might even get to avoid summer school!!!) She has been pretty busy outside of school too. She is in her school play this morning and then tomorrow she does a performance for the parents at night. We're super excited about it. Next week she will perform in her very first piano recital. She is playing Oh Susannah that she has practiced and practiced. Her piano teacher is even going to let her use the banjo function on her keyboard, so she is stoked! Here is a picture of Jaiden and Daniela (a friend of ours) at Great Wolf Lodge a couple of weekends ago.

And then we come to Anthony...oh my. He is wild. I could write an entire book of insanely crazy things he has done already and I've only had the kid for 20 months! Since the last time I posted anything he has: (1) bitten through his bottom lip due to a fall into the side of the bathtub; (2) found the can of skittles that Daddy kept in the little fridge in the sunroom; (3) ate the skittles from the can in little fridge in the sunroom; (4) climbed onto the top of the bar to get the can of skittles after Mom and Dad realized that he was getting into the skittles; (5) got into a fight with the other kid at the sitters, had a scratch on his back and a shiner to prove it; (6) locked Mom and J-Bug out of the house via deadbolt (try explaining unlocking a deadbolt to a 20 month old); (7) freefallen off of the top (the very tippity top) of the couch after climbing to the top to turn the lamp on and off and on and off; (8) climbed into the dryer to hide from Mommy, got comfortable and decided to hang out for a while (all the while I couldn't find him) :); (9) cleaned the toilet with Mommy's toothbrush; (10) ...well you get the point. Always an adventure!

I can't imagine why it is so difficult for Brian and I to get a babysitter! If you would like to volunteer your time, just let me know! HA!

This weekend we are off to Houston to celebrate my nephew, Kai's birthday and to spend some much needed time with my brother's and thier families who we haven't seen in forever! Bad thing is I will have to spend 4+ hours in the car with my monster child and Jaiden...wish me luck!

Animal Kingdom

Have you ever seen Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty. Well, I do believe that God has decided to enlist Brian as the newest, yet he is keeping with the whole Evan Almighty theme. We still have momma duck, who I have to say is doing a MUCH better job of staying on the eggs than she did last year. She has a total of eleven eggs and if we have counted right, they should be hatching soon!

The other day, we found that our frogs are back. They haven't completely moved back in to the hole next to the front door, but I think that might have a bit to do with the duck who is perched nearby. Sorry no pictures of the frogs...use your imagination! :)

To top it all off, Brian found a robins nest with four bright blue eggs on top of a phone box on the outside of our garage. Luckily this wasn't discovered until after Easter, because that could have turned tragic! But now, every time that you walk out of the garage, momma robin flys off of the nest and sits on the fence and squawks at you. It's lovely.

Oh, and did I mention that we also have a family of aggressive squirrels living in our attic (and no Sean, they don't bark). I have complained about them for a while so Brian heard one the other day and decided to make his way into the attic to see where they were getting in at. He told me that he saw the squirrel sitting near a hole that is in the front of the house and instead of being afraid of Brian, which is what he expected, he said that the squirrel hissed at him and got angrier and angrier the closer Brian approached. Brian said that with the string of luck that we have had lately, he decided not to battle the squirrel. No pictures of the squirrels either, although I do have video of one of them stealing an entire corn cob off of the bird feeder (which I later found out, was actually a squirrel feeder and is no longer on the tree) : {

It really is a zoo around here!