Happy Birthday, Holland!

Her Birth Day 12-23-02
1 Year Old

2 Years Old

3 Years Old

(Are you seeing a pattern?)

4 Years Old

5 Years Old

6 Years Old

7 Years Old

I find it hard to believe my baby girl is 7 years old and in the first grade. She has such a sweet spirit. She gets along with everybody. I can't think of a time when I have heard her fight with her friends. (Grey would be the exception.) She is forgiving of others. (Once again, Grey would be the exception.) She loves being home. She'd rather be inside than outside. She doesn't like dogs....she really doesn't care for pets in general. She and Texas have an unspoken understanding to leave each other alone. She loves to read, write stories and songs, draw, sing, and dance. If I hadn't seen otherwise, I would say she came out of the womb with a microphone in her hand. She's not really into video games. She'd much rather play with her Barbies and use her imagination, and she's got quite an imagination. Don't ask her to tell you about her dreams unless you have about 3 hours to listen. She's our precious girl and we love her beyond what words can express!

Happy Birthday, Holland Layne!

The Christmas Card Dilemma

Once again I find myself in the Christmas card crunch. I have to say last year's card (as seen above) turned out to be one of my favorites. If a giant, angry snowman about to eat the cat doesn't make you giggle a little, I'm not sure why we're friends. I'm kidding. Sort of.

If I could have gotten away with it, I would have just reused it. I know Emily Post would roll over in her grave if I did such a thing. And being southern, etiquette is tres important. (Look Ma, I used a French word. All those semesters weren't a total waste.)

Anyway, if you are looking for a similar card, you will be disappointed. This year's card is a normal card. (Sigh)

Here are a few of the runner-up cards.

"We double-dog dare you to have a Merry Christmas!"

Santa Hats: $6.00

Plaid Duct Tape: $3.00

Silent Night: Priceless

Merry Christmas, We Beat Ole Miss

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 12th anniversary!

Thanksgiving Feast

So, just before the Thanksgiving break, the kids had their school Thanksgiving Feast. That could be considered false advertising, because any food served on a styrofoam tray with a spork (spoon + fork... yes, they make such a creature) can by no means be considered a feast. But for $4, what do you expect. I expected mashed potatos served with an ice cream scoop, and that's what I got.



Holland and her good friend, Tiffany. (You can see from her vest that she is a direct descendant of the Kroger tribe.) Tiffany is my source of info about what's going on in the class. Tele-phone, tell a friend, tell a Tiffany. She's always in the know.

Me and my Native American first grader.


Holland and Faith. They've been friends since they were 18 months old, as much as you can be friends at 18 months. Anyway, it was also Faith's birthday. Note the hat.

Word to the pilgrims.

The teacher had to come over and ask him to behave.

Let's take a closer look at those light, fluffy, mashed potatos.........

See how the spork is firmly set in those potatos. Those aren't going down your throat without a fight.

Moving on......

Despite the expression on his face, he wanted us there.

Mac ate with him, yes, he ate the feast twice. They sat with Grey's "girlfriend", her mom, stepdad, and grandmother. The grandmother told Grey that they had heard many "charrrming" things about him around the house.

Mac said Grey dropped his spork and was speechless.

I hate I missed it.

I couldn't eat with Grey and Mac, because I was called to the front lines......

First Grade Computer Duty.

Not for the faint of heart or those who don't speak first grade nonsense.
I happen to be fluent in nonsense.

Freedom and Flouride

There is not much my kids won't do to get out of school for a couple of hours.

Oh, I suppose I could just keep them out for the rest of the day.....

Like that's going to happen......

The Massage

Back in April, I got Mac a gift certificate for an hour long, massage for his birthday. That was back when we were like, "oh, the recession isn't affecting us too much..." We've since moved back in with reality.
Anyway..... Mac decided to give it to me, especially with all my back issues, cause even though the leg/nerve pain is gone, I still have lower back issues from time to time. So, after a game of verbal tug-of-war,
"you take it.."
"no, you take it. I bought it for you"
"it's okay, I want you to have it"
"okay, if you reeeeaaalllly want me to......"
(insert happy dance)

So, I am just now getting around to getting the massage, mainly because it expires on the 31st and I wanted to make sure there wasn't going to be any Native American giving from Mac.

I was pretty excited about the massage. I was hoping for the strong, manly woman who has a faint smell of cigarette mixed with spearmint gum. She's low on chit chat and high on brute force strength. Knots don't get past her without a fight.

So,I get there and run into a friend of mine, 'J'. Not a really close friend, but a friend I know from church, whose oldest is the same age as Grey and her middle daughter is the same age as Holland and in the same cheer/tumbling class as Holland. We run into each other frequently at church or at the cheer class and chat.

I was like, "Hey, how are you doing? Whatcha' doing here?"
She said, " Oh, I work here."
(Danger, Will Robinson, Danger)
The lady at the counter says, "Are you Gayla?....J is your massage therapist"

AWKWARD

I immediately nix the idea of asking for a back scratch at the end.
We are both like,"Oh, this is great and not the least bit awkward."

But it totally is.

Off we go, but not before she asks me if I need to go "potty" first. Sweet mercy.
But I did go, 'cause I figured I better not take any chances. My luck is already running thin.

So she goes into professional mode, and I say a quick prayer of thanks that I shaved my legs this morning.

She asks if there are any areas that I was having any problems with. I didn't say shoulder, left calf, or right pinky, oh, nooo I had to go with " my lower back" At which point I wanted to repeatedly kick myself because where did we spend most of the massage focus.

Yes, my lower back.

Which is dangerously close to my gluteous maximus and also where I have been storing all the Thanksgiving/holiday treats I have been eating. And I have eaten quite a few.

I don't care what anyone says or how professional someone is, it is AWKWARD when someone is rubbing down your back and glutes and all you're thinking is, "We worked Vacation Bible School together."

After a few minutes, I relaxed slightly and kind of basked in the quiet. Nice.
Then it was time to roll over and I'm thinking I can do this......

J says, " So are you helping out with AWANA this year?"
No, no, no, no, please don't go there when all I have on is a blanket.

(AWANA is the Wed. night kids' programs at church.)

She went there, yes she did.

Insert another round of awkwardness with a side of uh-oh did I just expose a boob?

I tried to relax, honestly I did, and came close a couple of times but when she went to massage my ears I began frantically trying to remember the last time I ran a Q-tip through them...1 day..2 days...a week? Good grief, why haven't I paid more attention to my ears?

And then it was over. J remained unfazed because, well, she is a total professional.

And I left there marinated in massage oil and with the firm decision that next year, Mac is getting a gift certificate for golf lessons for his birthday.

Egg Bowl Moment

It just never gets old.

Snow Flurries, No Worries

It is ALWAYS big news when we get snow in Houston. ALWAYS. It rolled in in our little corner of the city around noon. The kids got out of school early, in a frenzy to get out in it and play. And that is just what we did. We had ourselves an all out cul-de-sac snowball war. Of course, we get the wet snow which makes for the best snowballs. They hit hard and leave their cold, wet sting. It's awesome! I was pegging kids and adults right and left, and they were pegging me back. Woe unto the poor neighbor who decided to go get his mail during the war. He'll not make that mistake twice.

We had a blast and finally went in with runny noses, wet feet, frozen hands, and out of breath. The start of the snow.
We don't own proper snow attire. Can you tell?

Snow stopped and a truce was reached.
More importantly, hot chocolate was served.

And....We're Back.

I know, I know, the blog has been neglected, but this time it was not due to my relationship with Facebook. I have totally neglected it, too. Actually, my laptop has been having some issues. It has been traveling the Internet highway at pioneer speed. Sometimes, when I am trying to download something, it circles the wagons and camps out. I have been able to get a lot of laundry done while waiting for web pages to appear. So, anyway, our good friend, Gary, who is the master of all things computer was kind of enough to take my baby and clean some of the viruses, (I highly suspect swine flu), and miscellaneous junk that was slowing her down. She'll never be as fast as she once was because, let's face it, a 4 year old laptop is like 110 in human years, but I still love her. Of course, if I was offered a free new laptop, I'd drop her like a bad habit. I believe in being honest with you..
Anyway, I'll be gettin' some fresh posts out there real soon. Thank you for your patience....as if you had a choice.

Team Holland vs Team Hungary x 8

Mercifully, the soccer season, or rather the 8 game playoff series between Team Holland and Team Hungary is over. At one point, we had the series tied up 2 games each. But it went downhill from there and Team Holland lost the last 4 games.
I think Mac enjoyed being assistant coach even though he had to miss some practices and games for work, and I know he enjoyed working with Coach Patrick.
During the halftime peptalk, Coach Patrick would say stuff like, "You guys are doing great; keep working hard......blah blah....." and then he would turn to Mac and say, "Would you like to add anything, Coach Mac?"
And Mac would say, " YOU GUYS NEED TO BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!" He might have even thrown a chair or two if there had been any out there.
It was like good coach/ bad coach. But to no avail.

This would not be a banner season.

September/October 2009 Upwards Soccer Season

Happy Birthday!

I am not too old to wear a silly hat on my birthday.

However, I am too old to not be wearing lipstick for a picture.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and gifts!

Happy Halloween '09

The pink Detective, Nancy Drew and the Astronaut. Originally, Grey had created his own Halloween costume and it looked like Grey had created his own Halloween costume. Fortunately, my friend Amy loaned us the Astronaut Flight Suit. (thank goodness.)

Grey's friend and soccer teammate spent most of the day with us, and he had this impressive Werewolf costume which they used to terrorize Nancy Drew.

After our chruch's fall festival, which was a blast but yet I have no pictures from the event. I may have to fire my photographer. She can be a bit of a slacker. The kids played with the neighbor kids, and then one of our neighbors got a trailer and the cadillac of 4 wheelers and we roamed the neighborhood in a restless pursuit of candy. The trailer would stop every 10 houses or so and the kids would jump off and pillage and plunder any house with a front porch light on.

Kate, Holland, Faith, and Nick

Mission Candy

Then we followed up the evening with a marshmallow and smores roast. I have to say I was exhausted by the end of the evening. Either that or I was in a coma from all the sugar.

Hope you had a great Halloween, too!

Official School Pictures (with commentary, of course)

This is Grey's official 4th grade picture. This one will grace the pages of the annual. He's pleased and I'm pleased. Thank goodness.
We don't have an official school picture from last year because they were taken on the scheduled retake days because of Ike, and he forgot to take the money in on the day. Then for Spring pics, he had the flu, and nobody wants a picture of that. So, now I can never have one of those 12 year photo frames that documents each school year, not that I have kept anything for 12 years or even that I wanted one, but it's kind of sad knowing the option is no longer on the table for Grey.

Like I was saying, here's Grey's 4th grade picture.

He will autograph for free.

Holland's picture came out pretty good, too. She always gives me a smile. We had a "not our best" kind of hair day. I actually took her to get a haircut a couple of days before, but a small, possible tornado actually came through our area, when I say area, I mean my neighborhood. It's never a good sign when news helicopters are circling above your house. Anyway, the storm blew some trees down, lightning set one house on fire, and knocked power out for about 6 hours. Undeterred, I headed to the mall to get her hair cut, but alas their power was out, too. I should have known that when I got a great covered parking spot. Long story short, (where's the entertainment value in that?) No haircut.

Also, she had a VERY loose tooth that day. I asked her when she got home from school holding it, if she lost it before or after her picture was taken and she said after. I was so relieved. We needed all the teeth we could hold onto for the picture. But if you enlarge the picture or look closely, you can see a very bloody tooth and even some blood on her lip. Only Holland loses a tooth ON picture day.

But I still like the picture and even more 'cause it captures a neat moment, bloody tooth and all.

The Day Before Halloween

Every year the school has a Halloween parade for the K-2nd grade classes at the school. That plus a costume birthday party plus Halloween always make me feel like I get my money's worth out of a costume for Holland. This year, we went with a costume that totally suits her. She is a private detective, (Nancy Drew) 'cause, let me tell you, this girl asks at least a million questions every hour. Questions that are important, questions that are sometimes too deep for me to go wading in, then questions she already knows the answers to, questions that have no answer, questions about questions. Sweet mercy, it is like living with Columbo minus the cigar...."And one more thing.." AAAHHHHHH! So that's why we went with the detective, even though she did have a couple of questions about it.

Grey's age group doesn't participate in the School Halloween costume portion, probably because their costumes are too scary or the girls can get a little inappropriate, (yes, even at this age). So 3rd - 5th grade got to have Wacky Wardrobe Day. I think that is self-explanatory. If not, check out his picture below.

Yes, he picked it out ALL on his own. I TAKE ABSOULTELY NO CREDIT FOR THIS ENSEMBLE. Just wanted to put that out there.

I really don't think a costume company could make anything as scary as this.

Happy 10th Birthday, Grey!

1 year old

Terrible.....I mean terribly cute...2 years old.

3 years old

4 years old

Feelin' 5 years old

6 years old

7 years old

8 years old

9 and forming his own SEC loyalties.

Happy 10th Birthday!

Because I love him so I agreed to eat Chinese on his birthday. The picture is proof.

I also agreed to eat Chinese every year his birthday falls on a Sunday. Thank goodness, that's only every 6 years...it would have been every 7 years.....darn that leap year.

WE LOVE YOU, GREY!