MY REVELATION

About 2 years ago, me and 2 friends were driving down the Westpark Tollway when we suddenly ran out of gas. We were on our way to pick up another friend and then off to San Antonio for the weekend. I was driving my friends car and knew in Conroe that we needed to get gas but forgot to tell her when I picked her up in her car that I had been driving all day. So 45 miles later when we ran out of gas, I panicked. My friend was calm instructing me to get off at the next exit, thinking we still had 30 more miles before we'd really run out of gas. But you see we were on empty in Conroe. I was driving the car and could feel that we weren't going anywhere because her car that once said low fuel was now screaming no fuel. So, I pull over to the side of the road in rush hour traffic, cars going past us at 70 miles an hour as I'm frantically screaming over her "It's okay" statements that "No, we are REALLY out of gas". Assessing the situation we think how are we going to get fuel? Even if someone brought us gas, how would we stand out on the shoulder that is barely big enough for our car and fill it up with gas? We're gonna die...or starve...or never make it to San Antonio. At that time my friend accused me of panicing and calmy thought of a plan to get us safe and back on the road. A really good plan I might ad that entails calling the number on the back of your Driver's License. And it worked.

I also remembered a time when Colson was about 5 months old and I set him on the recliner next to me and he flipped over backwards. I panicked! I didn't even pick up my own son. I jumped up and began screaming and praying and pleading to God as loud as I could (like God couldn't hear my normal voice) for him to be ok....and he was.

So with last weeks event, I realized that I have a panic mode! I wish I didn't and I'm not really sure that there is any way to overcome a panic mode as it's a reaction. But I'm admitting it. Colson had a friend over and they were outside (with me supervising) and hitting golf balls into the woods with real kid size golf clubs. When all of a sudden an innocent swing by my all boy son turned into an agonizing scream for his adorable little friend. It was a total accident but I've never felt panic like this. To make a long story short, he got smacked in the eye and the little boy had surgery the next day, his parents are amazingly understanding, he's going to be okay and he still wants to be Colson's friend. He even told his mom that he needed to go see Colson to tell him that he was still his friend because Colson might think he's mad at him. And for those that give me a hard time for never shedding a tears...I cried for 2 days over this one. This was not a broken arm, it was his vision....but God is good and he definately watched over this sweet little boy and carried me and Wes through those few days. We obviously still pray for him every night for complete healing.

This is Colson and his friend, it's hard to tell but it's his right eye. How cute is he?

So, those are just 3 examples (and I'm sure there are more) that confirmed my friend Robyn's proclamation that I do panic. She's reading this thinking 'and you doubted me?'

Stay tuned tomorrow because my little baby boy turns big as he heads to Kindergarten!

LIFE AT SEA

About mid summer, we ventured to Galveston to board a boat at 7 am (yes folks this means I got up at 5 am). Much to my dismay this boat wasn't a cruise boat like I had wished but instead a deep sea fishing boat.

Let me rewind....Wes goes every year with a client. This year I got voted in to go. My sweet, adorable, gentle husband DEMANDED that I go. Don't let this little nap picture fool you...he can be demanding :)I made up several excuses and then played the ignoring the request game but in the end, I succumbed to the pressure. The reason for my lack of excitement was because I was really nervous about getting sick. Every time someone talks about going deep sea fishing, they talk about who got sick. There is one on every boat....I didn't want to be the one! Once again, modern medicine came to my rescue and the patch was placed neatly behind my ear so I didn't have to worry about getting sick. Then I was just worried if it would work.

As you can see it did. I caught lots of fish that day! Mostly red snapper and a few angel fish. I became best friends with the deck hands who came to my rescue to get the fish off the hook for me. Let it be know that I did bait my own hook though with dead, slimy bait fish.

I slept most of the ride out to sea in sleeping accomodations much like Wes had above. Fished hard at the first two spots and then the rest of the day slept off and on in between little spurts of fishing. By 1:00 I was thinking 'I think I've had enough'. When you pull out of the port at 7 am and pull back in at 7 pm...that makes for a LONG day! The guy next to me, who became my new best friend, found out this was my first trip and asked "Why didn't you take a short trip to start with?" I was asking myself the same question. Didn't know there were short trips! The time would have passed ALOT faster had I brought my IPhone but Wes made it sound like I would be soaking wet and there would be no place to store it. For those of you that know me, an hour without my IPhone usually sends me over the edge. I went a WHOLE day and felt great accomplishment. I also didn't have my real camera for fear that it would get wet which is why I'm just now blogging about this trip. I had one of those disposable cameras and just now used up all the film.

I told Wes that while I enjoyed myself for the day, I won't be planning my own trip.

4TH GRADER IN THE HOUSE!

Regretfully my summer is over. No more sleeping in until 9 am....shucks! From the picture above you'll see that Colson needs his beauty sleep like I do. It took him until noon before he got in a good mood. On a positive note, we're gonna have a great year! We have some awesome teachers guiding our sweet lil....I mean big girl and some cool friends hanging with her. She wasn't excited until last night when we went to meet the teacher. When we left she talked the whole way to cheer about that much anticipated 1st day and all of the kids in her class. Then after cheer she got in the car and said, "I am kinda excited about tomorrow." Really? Who would of thought?

Mrs. Novak teaching Science, Math, Writing

Mrs. Gray teaching Reading, Spelling, Social Studies, Art

Rise and shine wasn't too hard for her although I don't expect that to last long. She had a great first day she says. And in honor of 4th grade here is the top 4 things she's looking forward to this year:

1. TOMORROW....that's a good sign huh? The reason is because she gets to switch. Today she just stayed with her homeroom teacher. Tomorrow they start the whole switching for different subjects.

2. PROJECTS....projects started in 3rd grade and she always wanted to do them the day she came home with them. Apparantly Mrs. Novak told them they do a lot of projects in 4th grade too and she's pumped about that. Note: I do not do her projects for her.

3. FRIENDS....she has a large group of her friends in her class. Hopefully this won't mean frequent notes home about talking too much.

4. THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL....what can I say?

Michaela, Calli, Kenzi

Here's the 3 musketeers who actually spent all day yesterday together swimming and dressing up as they enjoyed their last day of summer at our house. Michaela's mom is the counselor at Calli's school and Kenzi's mom is a 4th grade teacher...OUR 4th grade teacher. Mrs. Novak told them they could pick wherever they wanted to sit. Just pick a desk and put your stuff there. I made a sassy comment saying something like "Oooohhh well aren't you the nice teacher?" Mrs. Novak replied with "well I like for them to like me at first". So I laughed saying "for the first week?" and she said "Oh no, more like the first day". So they all sat together today....I'm pretty sure that tomorrow they'll be moved.

Colson has another week before he starts back. He was bummed because his best buddy started Kindergarten at Calli's school today and he wanted to be with Jake. I told him he'll be enjoying much shorter days and no Friday's for one more year which will be much better than being with Jake. He doesn't believe me....of course! After he woke up so grumpy, my point was made.

WORLD'S WORST RELATIVE

I can't believe that I failed to honor my sweet sister yesterday on her birthday!!! Before you gasp, I did call her and wish her a happy birthday and took the kids by her office so they could enjoy a piece of her cake and give her a birthday squeeze but I had every intention of shouting out a happy birthday to her on this hip and happenin' (ha!) blog.

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUPERSTAR STINA!!! You are an awesome sister, sister in law, aunt and friend. We love having you so close and am so glad you share Hudson with us! Thanks for your playfulness, your love for all of us, your Godly example to all those you encounter and your support of me over the last (how old are you?) years!!!

We love you!

Not only did I forget to highlight my sisters birthday yesterday but I forgot to acknowledge my mom's on Monday. Again, I made the call to remind her of her big day, but forgot to let my readership of 5 (3 of them being family) know about it!

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! Thanks for all that you do for us now and for what you've done for me from birth to maturity (I know the maturity thing is questionable). You have always been a great example for us and you always have words of wisdom for so many. You are irreplacable!

We love you too!

IT'LL BE A LONG ROAD

Here's our conversation last night in the car:

Me: Thank you Carson (Calli's friend) for obeying. That's great

Colson: hmmm. We don't know how to do that.

I could have a long road ahead.

SPLISH SPLASH

Earlier this summer I introduced you to a new obsession of my husbands….Peppy our horse. We have since gotten a second horse Gator and the kids and Wes have really had a lot of fun riding, brushing and tending to these horses. I haven’t enjoyed it so much because I come home sneezing for 3 days after I hang out around them. I’m working on getting that changed but in the meantime it’s good bonding time with daddy. I was not in favor of obtaining horses and for the first time that I remember said absolutely not (instead of I don’t care or I’m not sure that is a good idea but it’s your call-wives we all know what that means). I had a good case but my case is really a moot point at this stage in the game so I won’t even go into that. What I will go into is my smooth and sassy negotiating skills that arose from this plea from Wes.

So in exchange for him getting a horse, I got a pool and last Friday night, we spent 19 hours fillilng up our pool so that the kids could take their first dive in on Saturday morning. I was VERY nervous about the whole thing prior to the first dig but I am so thrilled with the way it turned out. I was worried about the size…it’s perfect. I was worried about the location…perfect. I was worried about the inside color…great. I should say though that my worrying is most people’s passing thoughts. I didn’t really worry.

Here was their first swim

Just yesterday they came and completed the outside, hooked up the fountains and cleaned up around the outside. Now we’ll have to do some landscaping but I really think we’re going to love it!

I should give a shout out to my AWESOME brother in law as he is celebrating a birthday today! What a great catch this guy was for my sister. He's a great brother in law and an even better uncle! We love you Scott! Happy Birthday!

SO LONG COUCH

This week I made one of those spur of the moment, can't pass up a deal purchases that came to bite me in the rear. I bought a much needed new couch for our game room at a furniture place that was going out of business. The biting came when it wouldn't fit through the game room door. Luckily the place took it back. But as a result of the purchase, we went ahead and kicked the old couch to the curb which gave me the chance to tell Colson one of his classic "I'll never forget this" moments. Since this event occurred pre-blog, I thought I'd document it here as we say farewell to the couch.

When Colson was about 18 months old, I walked into the game room only to find black marker written on top of the table that we have in the room. I immediately gasp as I run to get a rag and cleaner to see if it will come off. It did with some scrubbing which kept me somewhat calm for the "talk" that I was about to have with my sweet, too cute for words, get into EVERYTHING son! So, here is how it went down....

Me: Colson, you need to come in the game room now please

Colson: (pitter patter pitter patter of feet as he runs to my side with no idea of what was going on)

Me: Colson, did you color on the table?

Colson: yes (with a grin from ear to ear. He was thinking isn't it pretty?)

Me: Colson we do not color on the table, we only color on paper.

Colson: Color couch? (again grinning from ear to ear)

Me: No Colson we do not color the couch, we only color on paper.

Colson: Color couch? (still grinning)

Me: No! We don't color on the couch, or the chairs or the table or any piece of furniture! We only color on paper.

Colson: color couch? (you guessed it...still grinning)

Me: (lightbulb goes off...I am a little slow) Did you color the couch?

Colson: Yes (now he's really grinning because he knows I'm going to finally see his beautiful drawing and be so proud of his accomplishments).

Me: (Round the corner to see my new "decorated" couch) NO!!!! You don't color the couch!

Colson: TEARS!

So, thankfully we could flip the cushions on this one. When I told him that story this week he laughed for 15 minutes all the while asking if everyone he knew had heard the story.