RR does in deed now have everything

We went to RR Rockin' River today. We finally saw a sign for what they are building in the parking lot of Dell Diamond - THE SALT LICK. We were very excited as this is our fave bbq dive and now we do not have to drive all the way to Driftwood to eat or impress friends and family! We are hoping it is laid back and not like the upscale one on 360!!

day 1

L.A. traffic is a s bad as they say

view from our seat in restaraunt

We had a really great time on our get away last week. Day 1 was spent mostly traveling. We had a big delay in LAX, did not see Britney or Posh, but lots of interesting people. When we arrived in San Fran we had to take the BART (underground railway) into the city. Our hotel was great (forgot to take pics), very Victorian and fancified. Then, we took the bus to Pier 39. Pier 39 is a big tourist trap, but I had been once 15 years ago and wanted to see it again. It is where you get one of the best views of Alcatraz and the sea lions. We ate at an awesome crab restaurant and then had to go shopping for a jacket for Ben. Weather.com was accurate, it was cold, the entire time. After dinner, we took a bus to Coit Tower to overlook the city.

vacation has begun

We are flying to San Fran this a.m. We are going to try to post pics every day for our girls. Let us know of anything we need to see while we are there. Love our girls for us if you see them!

are you kidding me?

Just checked the temperature for San Francisco for this weekend...the high is 68, the high. The low here in RR is not even that low! I am going to have to pack jeans and boots, not shorts and flip flops. Going shopping at Outlet tonight!

http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/USCA0987?from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_undeclared

how do you know?

Thursday night, my sweet friend, James (son of Blue Yonder blog) invited me to his first guitar recital. It was so sweet watching all of these little ones strumming their guitars. As I sat there watching these 5 & 6 year olds, girls and boys I wondered how in the world did they discover the acoustic guitar. Stefani's oldest plays fiddle and James, 6, plays guitar. She said it was b/c of the music they are always playing in the house. So, then last week Erica asked if I planned to enroll the girls into any dance programs this fall. Then, today I spent the morning at my friend Julie's, whose daughter is actively involved in competitive cheer almost year-round. I mean the greatest golfer on the planet began playing golf at age 2. So, my thought is what do I do, if anything to encourage our girls to pursue? There are so many options for them and I DON'T ever want to push them into anything, but at this point I almost feel like I control their destiny, I can expose them to anything right now and encourage them to be anything, but WHAT? I desperately want my children to play some instrument, but yet I also want them to be active in sports, but when do I begin to encourage it? LE LOVES to sing and she is always singing, Bella on the other hand is so active and would probably be amazing at athletics just given the opportunity. And then that is other thing, how do you support both children in ventures and not be at soccer on Monday and Thursday, games Saturday, Music lessons on Tuesday and Friday, recitals the first Saturday of the month, church Wednesday & Sunday? How do you Super Moms do it and keep sanity in your home. That is rule # I don't know, but it is a rule that we eat dinner as a family, TV off together. I don't know maybe I am just rambling, but I do want to encourage my girls to do and be anything they want to be, but just don't want to push them into anything, but also don't want to neglect them from things b/c I am not exposing them to- something they could be amazing at?

Happy Belated Birthday Paw-Paw

Landry made PawPaw a birthday card, she picked everything out for it, colors, stamps and star punches. She did a good job! He loved it (or maybe it was the gift card to the Harley store or could have been both.)

5th grade P.E. all over again

Today, Erica and I took circuit (flashback to the very first group class I took at the Y). Our friend, Tina was subbing in the class, so I was excited when she walked in the door. Until, the first words out of her mouth was "today is going to be h-e-double hockey sticks." So after running around b-ball court 3 or 4x, first exercise ~ push-ups (on toes), then a suicide, 9 push-ups then a suicide...I remember these quite well from Coach Knipp in elementary school, run down 1/4 court, touch floor, run back, run down 1/2 court, touch, run back, 3/4 court, back, then full court and back. I was already hurting, ego and all, I came in last place, just like elementary school. We did this rotation all the way from 10 push-ups down to 1 push-up. Next exercise, toss medicine ball to partner as you run side step down basketball court & back, then lay down on floor with partner and do an ab exercise (4x). Next, station exercise was really awesome, but it was 15 minutes of core work. Now, Run around b-ball court 3x. Next, big killer of ego and body, PLEASE Jill, do not do this to your poor Jr. high kiddos this fall - Step onto risers, kick alternating knee up while holding a 6 lb weight...I am 4'10, a basketball riser is tough for the avg. height person, but this kicked my butt. 10x each leg, then do alternating side squats across the gym, come back do 9x, squats, 8x...5 reps. THEN, she asks do you have anything left, should have kept my mouth shut - I actually said yes...suicides again, while your partner did wall sits, "run Erica, for the love of God, run fast!" Poor thing, had the girl w/ the shortest legs in class to be her partner! I am so tired today, my heart rate was good the whole time, but man I am feeling the burn today! I did reward myself with a small sweet tea (needed the caffeine). I am announcing today, my new fitness goal...I want to run the 1/2 marathon in November in San Antonio, full marathon by age 40. I hate to run, the only time I run now is to get out of the rain, but I want one of those Marcus' medals on my office wall.

visiting family

The girls and I spent a week at mine and Ben's parents. Here are some of my favorite pics. I am not sure if I ever shared on here, but Ben's parents bought a place about 1/4 mile from where my great-grandmother lived. I spent countless hours throwing rocks into this same creek.

LE on the lookout for red birds

fun in the sprinkler

I am sorry for so few posts lately, trying to get caught up on unpacking, laundry, and downloading pics. Here are some from a couple of weeks ago. We were trying to water the yard/have family time at same time. Can you notice LE is jumping in a couple of the pics? She has white girl syndrome and does not get very high off the ground. I love those tiny hiney pics!!

she does love animals...just not elevators

Today, we had to make a stop at the RR Parks Dept. to get our pool passes. Unfortunately, it was on the 2nd floor so we had to ride the "elephant". Bell HATES to ride "elephants". On the way down, it was now being called an alligator. Bell REALLY hates riding the "alligators" down and she was crying very loudly & crawling up my leg. When the doors opened a RR police officer greeted me to see if everything was ok.

to the best Daddy

Anyone can be a Father, but it takes someone extra special to be a Daddy!

Happy Daddy's Day!

Happy Father's Day Paw- Paw and PopPops!

bedtime prayers by LE

Dear Jesus,
Thank you for this day.
Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Landry and Bella.
Help Mommy feel better (did not know I was sick, but ok).
Help Mommy to live Happily Ever After.
Amen.

Does this mean we watch too much Disney?

VACATION

VACATION, ALL I EVER WANTED....(dating myself) The girls and I are on vacation, vacation from housework and chores. We are visiting family and will be stopping in on friends all week. (Mrs. Petty, if you still read we will be popping in one evening, but cannot find your #, Belinda, you too, but I can call you). I cannot wait to see so many people that weekend time limits ever allow me to stop and see. I have already taken an access of 100 photos, but I have no cord to upload the photos, so I will be signing off and vacationing from blogging this week as well. Look for lots of photos next week including me playing horseshoes (we'll see how good photos of me actually turned out). Enjoy your week!!

my super reader

LE and I are stamping (Bell is napping). We have been making cards for birthdays. She had been stamping "her" which is a little boy and girl set. She asked me where Bell's stamp was. "I did not know I had a Bell stamp" was my reply. She walked over to my 7 foot tall stamp tower and replied "how am I going to find Bell in all this mess? This is a really big problem and a really big problem needs the super readers. CALLING ALL SUPER READERS!" - PBS, 9:00 a.m.

I did it~

I did it, I finished my class tonight!! I read all of the New Testament twice in 5 months, memorized scripture out the wazoo, took my final exam tonight, which I feel fairly confident I aced and I am done!! I really enjoyed the class, but man I am so glad to have another helping off my plate!! My sweet friend, who I came to know in the class was (one of the 4) valedictorian, yeah Susan Jones!! I highly recommend taking this class if you are capable, you will learn the Bible like never before!

an elementary teacher's kind of joke

From my mom...too cute
My five-year old students are learning to read.
Yesterday one of them pointed at a picture in a zoo book and said,
'Look at this! It's a frickin' elephant!'
I took a deep breath, then asked...'What did you call it?'
'It's a frickin' elephant! It says so on the picture!'
And so it does...

' A f r i c a n Elephant '

weekend at the grandparents

The girls recently spent the weekend at their grandparents, Gigi and PopPop's (Ben's parents) and Mimi and PawPaw's(my parents). LE found Gigi's lipstick one day and put her "make-up on". I had been waiting for this day and I am kind of sad I was not there to see it, but glad I did not have to clean it off! Bell is having fun driving the big car on the back porch.

eating my words

OK, I am eating my words on the RRPD. Today, when I came home from the gym my neighbor greeted me in the yard and said someone had been in the backyard while I was gone. So, I called the landlord to see if she had anyone here, nope. So, called Ben to ask him, nope, but he informs me he found a small metal piece in the car (after yesterday's post) that turned out to be part of our ignition/starter thing-a-ma-jig. So, the person was not just crashing in our car, they tried to steal it. So, after the person being in the backyard and possibly someone trying to steal the Civic, I called them, the RRPD. The officer could not get any finger prints off of the Civic, Ben had used it. And, he could not explain the circling helicopter as he was not working Friday night. And there was no reason for anyone to be in our backyard b/c all of the meters are on the side of the house in the front yard/ Needless to say, I have no desire to be home alone today!! Want to hang out at the outlet mall, anyone?

weird feeling

This morning when Ben went to the car, it was obvious someone had been in the car over the weekend. We parked it on the street b/c of all our company for the weekend. The seat was reclined all of the way back and there were beer bottle caps in the floor board. Remember Friday's post? Helicopter buzzing the neighborhood for hours - so we are thinking the fugitive could have been hiding in our car!!!!
Oh yeah, and I do not think RRPD is crazy any more!!

weekend full of fun

This past weekend was full of fun! When the girls woke up Saturday a.m., Bryan and Susan were sleeping on the living room floor with Violet. They came into town so Susan could do my card class on Sat. They are celebrating their 0ne year anniversary this weekend. Daddy and Uncle Bryan took the girls to the park while Susan and I were crafty with other friends from RR. Then, Mimi and Paw-Paw surprised the girls on their way home from Dallas and took us to Fuddruckers for lunch. Then, Mommy and Daddy went to Volente Beach for our friend's renewal of their vows. We had BBQ and cruised the lake and docked on an island for a 4 hour-tour. That evening Mimi and Paw-Paw had to leave and LE's Sunday School teacher came to play with the girls until we got home. After church Sunday we tried the Cotton Patch in G'town and sat on the patio for an early lunch. Afterwards we surprised the girls again and went to our fave summer destination - the Sprinkler Park. LE took a little longer this year getting comfortable, but Bell jumped right in. By the end of our afternoon they both were LOVING it! Then, home for a long nap - till 7:30 p.m. to be exact, so movies for dinner and a 10:00 bed time for all!!