JACK'S BACK!

And not with a new hot melted cheese covered in bacon sandwich but with little eyes and ears to hear and see with and report back to Santa. The kids squealed with delight as they spotted Jack for the first time this season. Colson even ran across the floor and fell to his knees sliding like you'd see in Grease.

I guess since he returned this year, that means they've been good enough to receive presents. I guess I won't fill Santa in on what he missed throughout the year....the good outweighs the bad right? Of course it does!!

THE REVEAL

For the last couple of months I have been revamping both Calli and Colson's room. I started with Calli's with a full paint job one weekend and then listened to Colson ask me over and over when I was painting his room. So the next available weekend I painted his....I don't have pictures ready on his because I haven't finished one very important detail that I needed Wes' help with and he says won't work. That just means I'll have to do it all on my own and make it work :)

Put your sunglasses on for this updated 8 year old spunky girls room....

I had the curtains made from a purchased curtain that needed some length to which we added with a fur throw from Target. The embellishments were from a sham I gave her to tie everything together. I painted the flower and name over the bed using my trusty overhead projector.

I used more cut up shams to cover these magnetic bulletin boards that I had found on clearance at Lowes....clever huh?

This I saw at Canton and decided to make my own. If I wasn't too nervous to paint on them, I would paint a whimsical daisy or some kind of artsy design. But at this point, I'm a little nervouse so I'll leave them as is (canvas with scrapbook paper modge podged on there in different patterns)

WHERE HAS THE YEAR GONE?

Are we really already to Black Friday, which by the way I just learned today what that means, and did we really already celebrate Thanksgiving? You know that means that the next 4 weeks will be a flurry of activity which will all peak on that 25th day of December and then we can freak out that 2008 is OVER and 2009 is upon us. My how time flies....whether you are having fun or not :)

Yesterday was a day of overeating. I will say though that I usually don't overeat if I can refrain from all of the deserts. See, I'm a fairly picky eater so all of the "good stuff" that people pull out to impress at Thanksgiving is usually too fancy for me to enjoy so I eat very little. We usually do two Thanksgiving's on Turkey day and this year was no different. Even though I tried to get my in-laws to come to our house to do one big one with both families. Usually this isn't doable because my aunt and cousins come and it gets to be too big but this year they went to the A&M game...Texas game to them :) which meant less people. Mr. Schubert said he wanted to have it at his house because it might be his last Thanksgiving. I told him that people start that at 70 and at 90 they are still saying "This could be my last Thanksgiving" but I honored their wishes and we went there at noon.

My neices on Wes' side and in-laws.

Then about 3, my side of the family arrived at our house along with my brother in laws mom and brother. We ate again, watched a little football, played the Wii and spoons. Then I embarked on the task of getting my kids to bed early so that Calli could get up at the crack of dawn to go shopping with me and Colson could get up to go hunting with Wes.

Calli feeding Hudson

Christina got in a little Wii time with Colson.....

While Calli got Hudson duty :)

At 3:55 this morning Calli perked up quickly. I pondered why that doesn't happen on a school day when it's 3.5 hours later? None the less we headed out with lists in hand and stopped at JC Penney first. After our quick spree there we headed to Kohl's. As we turned into the strip center there were NO cars in the parts of the the strip center where the stores weren't open. Calli gasped and said "Those people from JC Penney should come here...there's noone at Kohl's" I explained to her that Kohl's was further down and that these stores weren't open yet that is why the parking lot was empty. She thoughtfully said "Well that's good that they aren't open. It gives those workers lots more sleep because it's so early in the morning." I questioned "Then what are we doing here?" She quickly rebutted with "I don't know what I'm doing here. That's a good question." I remindered her that she was the one that wanted to go. In my head I was thinking the same thing. I can do without the early rising or even some of the great deals. I really just like getting a big chunk of my Christmas done in a matter of 3 or 4 hours.

One last thing...as I was browsing through a magazine yesterday, I saw that wrapping presents will burn 107 calories. So for those of you that tend to overbuy this time of year, use that as your excuse...you wanted to burn more calories so you had to buy more presents to wrap :)

LESSON NOT LEARNED

GOT A STORY FOR YOU....

AGS!

So we've got two dogs. Lucy is a pomeranian that Calli got on her 4th birthday and Jax is a miniature Schnauzer that we got last year around Christmas for Colson. Because Jax is still kind of in that puppy stage where he's a little hyper, they both love Lucy. The problem is both dogs, particularly Lucy loves Calli....for obvious reasons. Several times a week (it used to be every night), Colson will ask if Lucy can sleep with him. Every time I tell him she can but that he'll need to close his door if he wants her to stay because he always jumps out and runs to Calli's room....again for obvious reasons. He still wants to try and sure enough Lucy lays in his bed for about 30 seconds then hops out and runs into Calli's room. Colson is too chicken to close his door so he's okay with Lucy leaving.

Last night, Colson got out of his bed to go and find Lucy who was snuggling up with Wes in our bed. He hussles back to his room with Lucy in tote and I give him the "If you don't shut your door, Lucy is going to jump out" speech. He just nods and continues on to his room.

About an hour later, I walk by Colson's room, look in and see Lucy peak her head up over Colson and I think "Wow, I can't believe Lucy is laying with Colson". Then about midnight before I head to bed, I do like I do every night and find both dogs and put them in their room for the night. So, I go into Colson's room where Lucy is still laying and here is what I found.....

Aha! Now it makes perfect sense. Lucy was not there by choice! Her half owner was torturing her (again)! He had taken the tie from his robe and tied it around her collar (not her neck thank goodness) and then tied the other end to his bed. I did have a talk with him this afternoon and discussed the reasons we don't tie up the dog. Then this evening I was discreetly trying to tell Wes but wasn't that discreet because after I finished the story, Colson added "I was just being smart daddy!"

ACROSTIC

Yesterday Calli & Colson spent the day with their Grandma and Grandpa Schubert while I was a way on a girls outing (I'll blog about later) and Wes was on a whirlwind excursion. So tonight as I was picking up the house, I came across some papers that came home from the Schubert's house and briefly thumbed through them when this one caught my attention.

Calli had made acrostics with the names Grandpa, Mary (Wes' mom's name) and John (Wes' dad's name also known as Grandpa so she must have done two for him.) I thought they were very funny and even funnier if you know them.

G odly
R ight
A ged
N ice
D emented (Grandma had to have helped her on this because I really doubt Calli knows this word on her own. The fact that Grandma gave her the word is quite funny to me.
P udgy (He's about 325 lbs and very round so pudgy is definatly appropriate)
A wesome

**************
M ean (If Grandma helped her on demented, maybe Grandpa helped her on this one)
A wesome
R eady
Y oung

**************
J olly
O ld
H andsome
N uttie

COLSON CATCH UP

Colson is much less involved in extra curricular activities at the ripe old age of 5 than Calli is at the present time and rightly so. We just do a lot of playing. We head down to the pond some, ride his 4 wheeler some, harrass the dogs, catch bugs and then of course he does have to drive Calli around the world most days but he's a really good sport.

As I've posted before, he did start baseball this year and was improving as the games went on. By the end of the series, he was making contact with the ball in coach pitch. He's still not great at catching or knowing what to do with the ball when he gets it depending on where he's standing in the field but I'm sure we'll get there.

This picture was the game where he had won the game ball. Of course it was one of the games where Wes was out of town. After every game the kids all huddle around in the dugout and the coach would tell them how well they did and praise them for different plays in the game but the kids really weren't listening. They would talk over him and ask over and over "Who gets the game ball?" At this game when Colson's name was called, his eyes lit up and the biggest smile came across his face as he DARTED towards the coach to get the ball. He then turned and made eye contact with me and you could see the pride in his eyes.

At our last game last week, they gave out trophies for the season. Whatever sport we play for the season, Colson is so concerned about the trophy and will he get one, what will it look like, when will they get them, will he still get one if he misses a game...and on and on and on. So needless to say, the little man was excited to receive this trophy! Within 5 minutes, I take it to the car with me as I'm going to get something else and drop it. Of course it breaks because it's cheap, cheap, cheap! Colson wasn't with me so I hid it. Colson kept telling everyone he was going to show them his trophy but luckily he forgot by the time we got to the car. I just took it in yesterday and got the trophy people to fix it and represented it to him. He was thrilled!

A couple of weeks ago, Colson and I were at the mall in Dillards and I was looking at some shirts when Colson would come by and slap my bottom. I've kind of developed some bad habits with him because I play rough with him and allow him to play rough with me. So, after 2 times I ask him to stop and tell him that this really isn't a good time to be playing that kind of game. He pauses and says "Mom, remember that Bible verse that says when someone hits you, you should hit them back?" What?!?!?! Of course I kind of chuckle and said "No, Colson that is not what the Bible verse says". You see a few days earlier we were reading the golden rule verse from the Bible that says Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In this Bible reading, I specifically used the example of hitting others so I knew exactly where these thoughts were coming from. I think he knew exactly what the Bible verse said, he was just trying to be funny and get me going. So he proceeds to plead his case that the Bible really did say that if someone hits you, you should hit them back. As this is going on I hear some chuckling in the background but I'm really more focused on Colson and our conversation than the people behind me. I then tell him that maybe that is what his Daddy says but I'm certain that the Bible does not say that. With that, the man behind me and the lady checking bust out in a full laugh. The man said, "young man, maybe you should get your mom to read that verse to you and your daddy!" It was quite funny!

But then Colson has some pretty funny things to say. I always say I need to write everything down and then I count on my memory and of course that doesn't always pull through for me. His teacher told me the other day that Colson had the whole class circled around his frog that he caught from home the day before and had brought in to show his friends. As everyone was looking he piped up and said "Yea, we got this frog from the museum. They let us borrow it. Isn't it cool?"

Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving with a Pre-K Feast up at PDS. the kids did a little program of some songs and then we all ate some turkey together. Here is a picture of Colson and his best bud Jake. If you look closely, you can see them holding hands.

After the feast, Wes took him on his first hunt of the season. Something he had been asking and asking to do. They ended up shooting a hog. Not really my thing but Colson thought it was cool so I did too!

SPIRIT EXPLOSION

My sister uploaded the video she took of Calli's team at competition last weekend to You Tube. She's the very blonde that she zooms in on. Thanks Stina! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze-1BN6WqrI

CALLI CATCH UP

Okay so over the past several weeks (maybe even months) there has been alot that I haven't blogged about because I just haven't had time so I've decided to spend today catching up with what's been going on with Calli and in the next day or two, I'll do the same for Colson.

Calli and her good friend Carson!

Let me start out with the event in Calli's life that consumes her free time...CHEER! She is on a competitive cheer team which practices for 4 hours a week and then has a tumbling class to go with that for an hour each week. So, three nights a week she is at the gym. And not once has she EVER complained. So I guess that is an indicator that she likes it huh? Good thing because I was very leery about allowing her to do this and had she begun complaining....mean mama would have come out. So last weekend was her first competition and she was introduced to the competitive side of cheer and I was introduced to cheer in general. You see I was exposed to the drill team side of competition. And the Conroe Golden Girls were a tough team to beat back in my day. But you see, cheer and drill team are two different sports. VERY, VERY different! I digress....so Calli was VERY excited. She woke up about an hour earlier than I had planned on waking her up and was ready to get all cheerleadered up...hair, make up, uniform...she was ready! As I was fixing her hair that morning, she was talking NON STOP. In between sentences/stories/words, I noticed she was breathing kind of heavy. You know when you are at that point when you are so excited that it's hard to take a deep breath and settle yourself down. That is where she was. I had to coach her down so she wouldn't hyperventalate on me (although my Golden Girl years taught me what to do when a person hyperventalates).

Her team did really well Saturday and were .07 away from first. But this particular competition was a 2 day one and they had to go back Sunday to do it all over again. The scores from both days were combined to form a total score for each team. Sunday didn't go quite as well. They dropped two stunts and just had an off day. They got 7th out of 9th which we were still proud of! And besides, the girls had fun and that's what really counts!

What is really funny/disturbing/annoying, depending on what kind of mood I am in, is that she not only spends 5 hours a week at the gym doing flips, jumps, chants, dances, etc, but then she comes home and CONSTANTLY walks around doing the same thing. Yesterday I asked her to go brush her teeth and I hear her in the bathroom counting "5-6-7-8" followed by thumps and claps which meant she was watching herself perform her cheers in the mirror. Tonight I walk in to tuck her into bed and she's doing jumps in her room. She does cartwheels everywhere there is room to do one....to answer the door, to get a fork from the kitchen, on her way to the bathroom...there is constant flipping in our house. But she comes by it honestly. I remember as a pre-teen and teenager doing somersaults from point A to B in my house. Not that I couldn't do cartwheels but my mom is somewhat of a packrat and if I did flips in my house, I would hit something. So, I chose wisely and performed somersaults anywhere there was carpet. And even before that I used to do flips on my bed. One time I did a flip and knocked a hole in my wall. I covered it up with pillows (aren't I sneaky?) but of course my mom found it that night when she tucked me into bed. Not a fun conversation! I haven't received a note home from the teacher saying she's doing cartwheels down the hall so somehow she controls the impulse at school thank goodness!

As for the tumbling part that comes along with cheer, her coach just moved her up to level 4 tonight where she'll begin working on her back tuck....I'm impressed but I'm her mom :)

Last week I went with her on her 3rd grade field trip to the Museum of Natural Science in Houston. Of course any kind of outing like that is a blast for the kids but pretty stressful for the teachers! We didn't lose a child, the weather was great and the kids had fun! I count that a success!

Here were my 5 kids I was "in charge" of. Thankfully I didn't have any "problem kids" so my day was good! Gabe, the little boy on the left is one of Calli's best little friends. He's a sweet kid.

She's also done great in school. At her pep rally a couple of weeks ago she received the Super Star award compete with a medal. Not quite sure what warranted her that award but each class had one recipient so we were proud of her!

And finally (at least for this post because it's getting long), she performed in her 3rd grade musical earlier this month where she had a duet with this little girl. She loves to sing so she was very excited to do this.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to do a Colson catchup because on Saturday I'm headed down for a girls shopping trip and slumber party in Houston....Fun Fun!

FLASHBACK

A few weeks ago, my friend Robyn called very excited at the news that Amy Grant was coming to town for a 20 year flashback Lead Me On concert. I'll admit I was not that pumped about the news that I had already heard on the radio. So, needless to say, I completely quenched her spirit when I told her that I really didn't want to go. As the weeks went on, and the hype about the concert became bigger, I actually got excited about the concert and mentioned casually to Robyn that maybe I did want to go if she didn't have someone else she wanted to take (I knew her husband had bought her 2 tickets and was pretty sure he didn't want to go).

So last week Robyn called and graciously offered AGAIN to take me to the concert if I really wanted to go. After all, it wouldn't be the same had she (or I) gone with anyone else. You see, growing up we listened, loved, admired and were just all around excited about Amy Grant! We would sing all of her songs at the top of our lungs imagining that we WERE her! We even did a song or two in one of those recording booths in the mall and if I knew a way to transfer it from tape to CD and upload it to here...you would have tears from laughing so hard....we were NOT very good! But we had fun!

We had a lot of fun last night too as we reminisced about the songs and who sang them where, which ones were our favorite and then WE had tears as we listened to Amy Grant sing "Angels Watching Over Me" and recalled how we had butchered it in the recording booth. We even ran into some old friends that also were Amy Grant fanatics. There was many a day/youth trip that we'd all be trying to outdo one another in Amy Grant sing alongs. What fun memories! What great times!

Thanks Robyn for the invite and for allowing me to share the evening with you. It was much needed (for both of us I think)

REUNITED

So, I had to go to Dallas this week for a quick trip and decided to plan a little mini reunion with some of my old Chi-O friends. We met Thursday night for a bite to eat and a chance to catch up on all our lives post A&M! It was so good to see each of them and I really do feel like there is no time lapsed when it's really been 16 years since we all met each other for the FIRST time! What an amazing experience to go away from your home at the age of 18 and leave all that you know including family and many friends only to be introduced to SO many other amazing people and create friends for life. No matter how often I see (or in this case don't see them) they will always be friends for life.

Here is my favorite thing about each of them (then and now) along with an old picture.

Betsy-Kind!!!! She is so sweet and doesn't have a mean bone in her body. She's an encourager and always ready to listen.

Lisa-Fun! This girl is the life of the party. Always so much fun to be around, loves to laugh and loves to make others laugh.

Ashley-Happy!! Smiley!! An eternal optimist! She always tries to throw a positive spin on everything (an amazing characteristic). She also runs a close race with my friend Shellie in her concern for others and being genuine in wanting to know everything going on in your life. She's also lots of fun!

Marci-Great Listener! Marci can be a really great ear and just a very loyal friend. Always has time for you and always interested in how things really are in your life. She's also got an infectious laugh once you get her going.

There were a couple of others that couldn't come at the last minute....maybe we'll catch you next time. I love you girls and am so glad I got to hang out with you this week even if it was only for a couple of hours! We'll have to do it again when I'm in Dallas next time. Maybe next time we can go out dancing for old times sake :) Thanks for making some pretty fantastic memories with me.....particularly those 4 years at A&M.

TRICK OR TREAT

Hudson, aka, Tigger 3 1/2 months

A fun night was had last night as we enjoyed friends and a good ole hayride. Honestly I felt the urge to sing Christmas Carols and fought it back with only one chorus of Jingle Bells. Calli came through as a fancy little Flapper Girl and Colson actually made me a liar from my last post. He almost backed out of his transformer costume and wanted to be a cowboy so he could bring a gun or a pirate (we didn't have a costume for that) so he could bring a sword. At the last minute I talked him into the transformer saying that they carried swords sometimes (in my world they do okay?)

Landon (Mario) and Colson

The McDonalds, Cokers, Smiths, Taylors and Christina and Hudson joined us (or we joined them) as we drove around 7 Coves with frequent stopping and starting. This whole hayride thing was Paul Smith's idea and I told him at the first stop that I had him figured out. Him and Mark sat in the truck the whole night with a radio, no screaming kids, no constant head counting, no breaking up sibling arguments, no walking from door to door, no screaming to watch for cars at the unloads....get the picture. Their primary "headache" came with the searching of porch lights to see where we could stop and the physical exercise was the raising and lowering of his foot on the gas and brake pedals. I'm no dumby....okay maybe he's no dummy!

Regardless, it was fun and a beautiful weather night. Thankfully we didn't get too much candy (or good candy anyways). Here are some pictures from the nights adventures.