Pictures

Here are the pics I was promising. The ones of Katie in her dress are of the Saturday her dad got married but that is also the dress she wore on Thanksgiving.

World of Warcraft

I love it. Micau downloaded the free trial for me becasue he thought I would like playing it. Well I do. I am a Level 6 priest. I chose to be a pries; Micau says that a wussy being but I really didn't care for any of the others. Anyone else play? I like the fact that the realm I chose I don't have to fight other players unless I want to. I just go on my quests. My second time playing I was having some trouble playing so another player actually joined me and helped me out; then last night I was doing a quest and kept dying; I had helped a player kill a beast earlier; turns out he is doing the same quest I am so we join forces and kill a ton of the webcrawlers to get the egg. I know it probably seems dumb or whatever but I do enjoy the hour to 1 1/2 hours I get to play every other night. I trade off with playing that and reading.

Thanksgiving Break

Two days before Thanksgiving was doing laundry and the carpet was cleaned. The day before Thanksgiving was spent cleaning with three very fussy children. Thursday morning was spent waiting for Micau's parents to arrive at our home (they were stuck in traffic as a result of an accident ((an rig caught fire after a car going the wrong way on the interstate hit him..and no one died)). It took them about 45 minutes to get here once they were in Austin. Yikes. Then we visited for about 20 minutes before heading over to the Main Street Grill. Hubby's Aunt and Grandma were already there; his son came in about 10 min. after we sat down. All in all it was really yummy. I had the prime rib meal. Micau had the pork loin meal. Everyone else ate the traditional turkey dinner. Oh, Katie had the hamburger with fries..of course. Then we came back here and played Dominoes. Yea. His parents left for Beeville at 5.00. It was a very nice meal and family time.
On Friday, we decided to go to Starbucks for 2 soy chai lattes and one regular chai latte. Yummy tea. (By the way it was 83 on Wednesday and then on TD it dropped to 50, friday was 45). On the way we asked Katie what she wanted for her birthday..her choice was a bike or MP3 player..she choose the MP3 player. We found a nice one for her at Target, along with new sippy cups for the kids. We didn't really want to spend alot of money so we didn't..we also got Scattergories because it was on sale. Other than that we spend the day playing games and watching tv and reading.
Saturday was Katie's birthday. She is officially 11 years old. Where does the time go? It seems just like yesterday she was just a baby (and believe me sometimes she still acts that way..LOL). It makes me sad to think she is growing up but happy at the same time because she still amazes me with things that she says or wants to talk about. We took her out for breakfast tacos, then I took her to go see Enchanted (really cute movie), then when we came home put the babies to sleep and we played Scattergories. Her dad picked her up at 3 to take her shopping. We ate dinner and played another round of S (her fav. game now). She had red velvet cake with vanilla frosting and then blue frosting saying Happy Birthday Katie. Okay I am no Martha Stewert but it having been the first time doing the lettering I have to say I did pretty good (will post pics later today..then you all can laugh at me). I think she had a really good birthday. Tuesday is her birthday party. It is Hello Kitty themed.
Sunday was mostly spent at church, reading, watching football and playing Uno Attack.
All in all it was a good turkey break.

Katherine

Went to her dad's wedding on Saturday. When you see the picture try to imagine a very pretty smile on her face. For some reason she refused to smile but this is the first time she got all dressed up with her hair done. Okay tried to download the picture but it came out sideways so now I have to figure out how to rotate it. Oh well.

On a positive note...we got our double stroller yesterday and I love it.

Vanilla Wafer Water

Yesterday after Lauren's nap (Kyle was still asleep) she and I had some snacks. We ate poptarts, popcorn, and vanilla wafers (I know not a good thing but it was yummy). I always put my cup of water on the ledge of the couch. Thought nothing of it. Hubby comes home at 3.30 and we leave to go look at double strollers.
SIDENOTES: DOUBLE STROLLERS
How is it that they cost the same as on craiglist and at consignment shops as they do new? I mean c'mon folks. We looked at several ads on craigslist and people were selling their Graco Duo Gliders for 150...brand new you can get one for $100-160. Yes there were some that were about 40 or 50 but I am being a snob. Our last one was only $50 and it was ugly, stained and weathered. I should mention here that our double stroller was free because a friend was nice enough to get it for us; I am not trying to be ungrateful as it was a most welcome gift. But it was pretty used. It broke after only having it for about a year. I wanted something gently used. We went to the Pumpkin Patch and Kid to Kid. Kid to Kid had a nice Graco for 80. My husband and I discussed getting another Graco but ultimaletly felt the time had come to get a side by side; Graco Duo Glide is for younger children. So we went to Pumpkin Patch and they had the Instep...179.99. Umm, I can pay $15 more and get a new one. So we came home and looked on Ebay and at Amazon. We finally decided to get one off Amazon. It is new and it set us back 189. We are getting the Instep Safari.
BACK TO STORY:
Okay so after putting the kids to bed and ordering our new stroller, we went into the living room to just hang out. I went to take a drink of water..I did about two gulps when I thought I saw something in the cup. There was a bunch of white stuff swimming around in my water. Micau looked at it and was like what is in there. "I don't know." Then he sees the vanilla wafer on the floor; he says, 'Lauren had some wafers." "Yes." Then that is what is in the cup. She put all her wafers in my water cup and I drank like two big gulps of vanilla wafer water. I don't recommend it. Now I have to remember to look into my water before drinking.

Squirrel Fun

I took the kids to the Wells Branch Park today. It was a nice morning with a nice breeze blowing. We fed the ducks old hamburger buns (although Lauren did more eating than feeding). Then we went for a walk. There are alot of trees and just moments after starting our walk Kyle stops and watches a squirrel. He keeps pointing at it. The squirrel scurries here and there and stops a few times and gets on its hind legs. Lauren sees it and starts chasing after it. The squirrel runs up the tree; after a few moments it comes down and starts scurrying in the grass again. Off the kids take after it..chasing it up another tree. Its so funny to watch. The squirrel doesn't come back down and Lauren starts wanting in the tree to go after it. Kyle is just wanting to hold it; I told him they bite but he didn't seem to understand that. It was really cute to see them laughing and chasing it. They didn't want to leave the tree but they got tired of waiting for it to come down. We continued our walk.

Some Pics To Share

Pecans/Anniversary

Saturday we went to visit Micau's grandmother, mother and aunt in Temple. His mom went to visit her sister and mother who live in Temple. Micau's grandma was put in a nursing home recently and his mother makes the trip one weekend a month to visit. Turns out his grandma has a pecan tree in the backyard and we found a ton of pecans. Now we have about half a garbage full of them to go through. So we have to buy a nutcracker, and then inspect the pecans to make sure there are no bad ones. It was alot of fun. Kyle and Lauren kept picking them up and throwing them. After that we went to McD's and the kids played on the playscape and we ate and chatted with everyone.
Yesterday was our one year anniversary. We went and had doughnuts in the morning then went for a short walk which made us late for church but that was okay. After that we just chilled at home until 5.00. Now you would think Austin would have some nice restraunts open on Sunday but the ones that we wanted to go to were all closed. We chose to go to the Cheesecake Factory. It was nice. I had two typhoon drinks. They were yummy. They were out of the Asian wraps so I got a BLT salad (no dressing of course). Our server was really good and we were sure to tell the manager that. It really was the best service we've had in a long time. After that we went to Barnes and Noble and Micau bought me a cook book (i know you are probably thinking..why?). I am a cookbook junkie what can I say. It was a nice evening. Too bad he had to go to work today.

Losing a Kid

I didn't actually lose her for good (gosh darn it) but for more like 5 min. Here is what happened. We had to go to her school to pick some items that we ordered from her fund drive like two months ago. I wasn't sure which door to go through so I just parked in the back. Well as we are walking in the hallway I tell her "Okay I'm going to go pick up the car while you play with the babies on the playground so you don't have to carry the heavy box all the way to the car." So we head out to the doors and I stop before we go out (next to the library) and I was about to say something to her when I didn't see her. So I walk back to the cafeteria (nope), gym (nope), office (nope), go down a couple of hallways when a teacher says hi to me (she goes to our church)..I ask her if saw Katie. Nope. So another teacher makes a call to the office to page her to come meet me at the library. She doesn't come. We walk outside to the playground. Nope. We go back in and there is Katie by the library. I was frantic. I yelled where were you (which don't do b/c it just makes her cry and Kyle cry). She said she heard me say to wait by the park which is next to the school. I don't know why she would think that since the park is further. I'm like why would I say park..I said playground. Her 10 yr old mind thought a different playground. I tell her I was worried about her and that I lover her and I'm not mad;next time just follow me instead of leaving to go on your own path. So after I calm down we go outside to the Playground. I let them play for about 10 minutes. I then tell Katie to wait there so I can bring the car around. I jog to the car. One problem. There is a fence and I didn't feel like walking all the way back around. So I climb the fence (try to picture my 5'4 160 lb frame climbing this fence the whole time thinking i'm going to rip my pants and show my ass to the grass). It wasn't very tall fence..about the height of Kyle. I made it over and bring the car around to the playground where I find my daughter going "wow I can't believe you climbed the fence. Aren't you kinda old?" Lovely. So now I'm an old hag who can't seem to remember where her kids are at all times.

Peeing in the Tub

Last night the kids were being very fussy so I decided to give them a bath at 5 instead of their normal 6.30 bath time. They have 3 boats to play with, one of them being a diego rescue boat. When dunked under water and the lifted back up, water leaks out of all the holes. No surprise. Well as my son did this, he said, "Boat goes pee pee in the tub."
Lauren laughed. I said, 'yes boat goes pee pee."
My son did this and repeated this phrase about three more times. My daughter kept laughing and then started touching her vagina (my son has learned the word vagina and penis) when he points out that baby is touching her vagina. He then lifts the boat up and says, "Baby vagina go pee pee." (It could have been just baby go pee pee and then he said vagina); Not quite sure but it was one of the two. It was so funny I nearly peed my pants.

Cooking 101

Lately I have been letting Kyle help me with the cooking..well him and Katie both. I was hoping by letting him help out that he would want to try the food; nope. He just like to help. Well last night we were making cornbread and I gave him the cup of milk to pour into the bowl and he just dumps the milk everywhere. Some got into the bowl but alot of it went all over the counter, the floor, and the cabinet doors. It was kinda funny but also frustrating. Didn't need to waste all that milk ah but my boy laughed so hard as did the other two kids. The cornbread finally did get made and it was yummy..all with the help of my boy.

Out of Debt

Yep...in about 2 years for us. I have been reading a few books but this was this one really good one that was practical for people like us. So I have started following some advice from it. I don't know if anyone knows this but I work in the nursery at my church on Sundays and one Wed. a month. Its not much but I decided to put that money into a savings account at a different bank than what we use for our normal checking and savings account. Also, I have been paying all our medical bills ($5 at a time) for the past 2 months. We have been skipping on one of the car payments and I'm not sure if at this point its better to just let go of it or try to keep it. I think we are going to try to keep it. We have a few credit card balances (which we are cutting up or putting away and not using until there is no balance on them) and a few payday loans. Yes I know they are bad but at the time they came in handy. Once we get all that stuff paid off then we will double up on our vehicle payments to get those paid off. In the meantime, we put money into savings and retirement. I am hoping that in 5 years we can have enough money to put a downpayment on a house.
The book I am reading is by Elizabeth warren and her daughter. You all should read it..it really helped hubby and I put things into perspective.

Strip Club

Strip Club
We got to go out Saturday night so we decided to go have a bite to eat for dinner. Then we didn't really know what we wanted to do so I suggested a strip club. I thought it would be fun. It wasn't too bad. We actually got there at 7.30 and stayed until 10.30. I really wanted to see my hubby get a lap dance; I thought it would be neat. Well we really didn't see anyone that struck a fancy with us that we would be willing to pay for a lap dance. At about 9.45 we saw a girl (T.). She sat down with us and all though she was a ding a ling...she had a nice body. So I got a lap dance (b/c hubby wouldn't do it unless I did one) and so did he. It was funny to me. May I say that I really love my man..I got to touch another woman's boobs and I know there is no way I will ever turn gay. Nope. Nada. Not me. It was a hoot seeing her with hubby. Damn, I wish I had the camera. All in all it was a fun time. Oh and I got to drink 5 schmernoff ice (okay i know that isn't how you spell it but who cares) we had fun.

The New Black Friday

Okay so does this bother anyone else like it does me? The fact that Christmas seems to be getting earlier and earlier? Last week, before Halloween mind you, I was walking at the mall and the Santa/North Pole area is already up and running. Now, today stores are treating this like the day after Thanksgiving. I hope this isn't a trend. I hear its because stores/markets are fearing a very slow year and that sales will be down. That may be so but when did Christmas become such a spending holiday? What happen to cheer and love and just being with family? I think the true meaning of Christmas has been lost and the new generation of children will be forever acting like a 2 yr old..whining and crying over toys they did not get instead of enjoying what was given to them...Jesus Christ and Salvation.
And yes, I will be out there shopping but not for gifts. Turns out we will be having a bunch of cold days next week and I still haven't bought the kids any winter clothes. So probably tomorrow I will be out getting clothes. I do hope the sales are still on.

Halloween

We started off the morning with Kyle eating 3 packets of instant oatmeal. Yummy. Old Settlers Park was doing a fall festival from 9-11.30 so we went there. Kyle and Lauren were a bit fussy at first. We waited in line to do a ring toss (first game) and neither one of them wanted to play. So we went to the next game. Nope. But finally on third one Kyle wanted to. Lauren just wanted to keep climbing in and out of the stroller. Sidenote: Kyle has offically moved to the back seat and Lauren moved into the first seat..I don't know why they chose to do this but each seem to be much happier that way so I just go with it. We made it through all but like 3 or 4 games; they were repeats. I am glad that most of the stations were giving out teddy grahams and animal crackers; those made great snacks for Lauren to eat (she ate 4 bags..she refused to eat breakfast). Kyle just had one. We didn't do the hayride and I tried to get them to go onto the fire engine but again neither one wanted to. They just wanted the candy.
After that, they were both ready for a nap so we came home and they slept for 4 hours. No kidding.
Katie got home from school and we went up to the Round Rock Outlet Mall to do some trick or treating before going to her best friends house. We do extra trick or treating because the dad always goes down the roads that don't seem to have alot of homes passing out candy; he does this to minimize the amount of candy in his home. But the kids don't have as much fun so I try to let Katie have more fun by doing some extra trick or treating. Anyways, I was surprised at how many stores were not giving out candy. We got there about 4.15 and did probably 1/4 of the stores in the mall before leaving at 5.20. We got alot of candy and one caramel apple. It was a bit disappointing since we had to actually go into the stores..last year they had people outside of each store passing out the candy to make it easier for the moms with strollers. Wouldn't you know it that Gymboree and another children's clothing store decided not to participate in giving out candy. Cheap. All the kids had fun.
We went to McD's to meet up with hubby (he had to go to Houston) and Kyle ate like 4 french fries. He was just too excited about everything I think (he had a ton of water and 3 sippie cups of milk but hadn't really eaten anything (no candy either)). We got to the house at about 6.30 and were the first in the neighborhood to be out getting candy. Y. was a renaissance vampire which kinda fit in with Katie's costume of being a renaissance queen..their dresses were almost exactly alike. I was surprised. S. was a pirate..her bandana kept falling over her eyes so Mr. Y had to keep fixing it. It was hard at times keeping everyone together. Lauren was so fussy and halfway through Kyle got tired and just stayed in the stroller. Katie was a good sister and continued to collect candy for them. I was going to take the babies back to the house but ended making a wrong turn and actually caught back up to them right before we got to the house. That was kinda funny. We got home at 8.45 only to realize that we were out of formula for Lauren. She had enough to put her to bed with. So after putting the kids into bed I ran to HEB to buy formula.
After sorting out the candy this is what we ended up with:
1 full bag of chocolate candy
1 pumpkin full of various candy
1/2 bag of tootsie rolls
1/2 bag of lollipops
Needless to say I will be trying to give out some of this candy. I hope everyone else had a wonderful Halloween.