ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO!

Friday afternoon, I received a really exciting call from a friend. He had two Aggie tickets for Saturday night's game and wanted to know if I wanted them. I think you know my answer....OF COURSE!!! The question wasn't would I go but who would I take. Wes was fishing a two day tournament and while he really wanted to go, I knew he would be tired on Saturday night from getting up early and fishing all day and then MAY not be any fun as he anticipated his early rise for Sunday as well. So, after some discusssion, I chose.....(drum role please) CALLI!!!

This was her first game ever and honestly I hadn't been in a LONG time! She got her first experience with the Aggie War Hymn and the lock arms and sway routine, she got the play by play of not only that game but of the sport of football in general, she got the full on waving the 12th man towel experience, the yell leader run down and most importantly THE FIGHTIN' TEXAS AGGIE BAND! We won the game, 56 to 19, so she experienced ATM at its finest and I will say she's hooked!
She spent the whole ride home (at 10:00 at night) reading about all of the Aggie traditions that she had just experienced and then some as we had bought a traditions book at the bookstore. I had this fear that maybe I wasn't getting all of the traditions right. How good would that be for her to grow up learning the tradition the wrong way? She then spent the next day telling Colson all about her first Aggie experience. How sweet it was! Colson says he's a Longhorn so my next goal is to get him to a game....no doubt he'll fall in love the same way that I did so many years ago and that my 9 year old did 4 days ago.

And can I tell you how fun it was to be back in that small little college town I called home so many years ago. I LOVE that place! My job allows me to go on campus twice a year for recruiting purposes and I get like a little kid at Christmas at those times. This amazing feeling comes over me as I walk through campus. Who cares that I'm 16 years older....it feels like just yesterday! If those times feel like Christmas, last Saturday felt like I had won the lottery. I was electrified! I had so many amazing memories flash before me and a twinge of remorse as I realized those days have come and gone. I now look forward to the next time I can enter Kyle Field with that grin from ear to ear and even more so to when the time that my own kids walk hand in hand with me as students....okay so maybe hand in hand won't really be the cool thing when they are of student age but it will still be a sweet, sweet moment.

I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO THIS....

DONUTS WITH DAD

Can I tell you the excitement that exuded from Colson this morning as he opened his eyes...and even last night as the evening was winding down? Today was DONUTS WITH DAD! There really is no needed explanation to this event is there?

Here is what Colson had to say about his daddy....

My dad's name is Wesley. My dad weighs 64 pounds. He is 4 feet tall. His favorite thing to do is fishing tournaments and to ride horses. He likes to eat tacos. The thing I like to do most with my dad is play in the pool. I love when my dad comes home to hug me. My daddy's job is work all the time. This is a picture of my dad.

Colson's daddy must have turned into a spider overnight....lucky for me, he lost the other 6 legs before he arrived home tonight.

WE THINK DEEP HERE

Tonight Colson and I were hanging out in the car as we drove around The Woodlands waiting to pick up Calli from cheer (a common occurance with us). As we drove Colson is pondering in the backseat.

He finally inquires: Do boys have girl cars sometimes? Like do some boys have girl cars like yours ? (I drive a Suburban)

ME: Well yes Colson. My car isn't really a girl car. There are lots of boys who have my car.

COLSON: Well that's kind of silly. Because if the boy doesn't have a wife than he only has one car. And this car won't work for the deer lease so how would they get to go and pull the trailer. Yea, that's silly. They need a boy car!

How simple life is for the average 6 year old. His biggest concern is having the right car to go to the deer lease.

CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES!

This past Saturday, the day after my 36th birthday, all the family got together to celebrate me turning another year wiser-HA! We enjoyed ourselves as always and indulged in some tummy filling food and the best looking cake ever! Okay, so the person who made it should not go in the cake business but it did taste delicious and it had my favorite ice cream in it...MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP!
I teach by example (see my face)

We enjoyed some time by the pool after dinner where apparantly it was very cold. Hudson didn't seem to care but Scott and Christina had blue lips. Scott got himself a roping lesson from my husband who has a new found love. Neither one should join the pro rodeo circuit but should Scott choose to, he needs to find a new get up as he looked like he was naked from where we were sitting.


As I went to post these pictures, I realized I never posted the pictures from the celebration we had last month. In August, we celebrate Scott, my mom and my sister's birthday within 1 week. And at this celebration we celebrated my Dad's 60th birthday which was back in MAY. He's been out of town though hence the late celebration....better late than never. Of course everyone gets their own cake.

Colson was SO excited about his gift for Grandpa. For some reason, the only person Colson likes to make gifts for or even buy gifts for is Grandpa Murdock. Colson decided that for this present he would wrap up all his spare change in the wrapping paper and then he taped boxes of jello onto that to make this little tower. Calli, being the nice sister she is, was telling him that everyone would laugh at his gift. Of course, I told him that everyone would love it so I had to put the bug in everyones ear to not laugh when Colson gave Grandpa his present. As you can tell he was so proud! As he was wrapping it all up, he would say "Grandpa loves Jello, right mama?" Who knows where he got that idea from.

Christina found her long lost love for legos! Thankfully she wasn't selfish enough to steal all the good pieces and helped make cars and buildings for Calli & Colson.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (YESTERDAY)

Thanks to my thoughtful friend Robyn, I had an excuse to be dressed and out the door on my birthday before noon! She took me to lunch at Pie in the Sky with our boys tagging along. The food was delicious and the fellowship delightful.

Colson snuck these funny pictures in of Cline while we weren't looking...enjoy Robyn!

Later that afternoon, Wes and I picked up Calli from school and went to drop her off at Grandma Schubert's on our way out of town to College Station. Colson was already there as he had been with Grandma shopping to pick out a present because his Daddy wouldn't take him (or that's what Colson says and Wes denies). No need to mediate that argument. When we pulled up in the driveway, Colson came out with the biggest grin on his face carrying my present. I don't think I can put into words how proud he was of what he was toting....a dozen roses! It literally brought tears to my eyes (and you know I don't cry often) to see how excited he was.

After I oohed and awed over the flowers and of course took a picture, I asked Colson if we could leave them with him at Grandma's because it would be really hard to transport them to College Station and back with us without them getting too hot and wilting or the water spilling out. He told me that Grandma put special food in them to make them live longer. I still suggested my idea of leaving them there and he agreed. With his head hung down, he turned and walked towards the house with them. He tried so hard not to cry. But soon his lip trembling overcame him and he burst into tears. I BROKE HIS HEART!!! And I felt so bad! So I agreed to take them with me and he perked up a little. On our way to College Station we just dropped them off at the house (why didn't I think of that) and then all was good. Wes and I went out in College Station to hear a band and spent the night there. Can I tell you how nice it is to wake up at 10 am by the sunlight instead of kids at your bedside saying "when are you gonna get up?" Just on occasion it can be nice!

Tuesday of last week Wes asked me if Calli and I (Colson and him were already going) wanted to come to our land in Oklahoma for Labor Day weekend to help him and Scott get ready for deer season. He prefaced the inquiry with “I know you’re going to say you can’t or don’t want to go but I really want you to”….so what was I supposed to say. In all reality, I really wasn’t opposed to going and thought it could be fun. I had planned on staying home and having some friends over to swim, but that could wait. I was in the adventurous mood and agreed without hesitation. My sister and Hudson got talked into going as well so it was a family affair.

So, all week, I was planning on finding things to do because I was sure that I wouldn’t last at the land, nor would Hudson, ALL DAY both days. Wes had no expectation of me staying out there very long so all was good. I talked to him throughout the week about how we could maybe go to Oklahoma City one day and shop or see a movie or something. “Sure”, Wes replied. “It’s a little over an hour to Oklahoma City. But Alva (where we were staying) is a college town so I’m sure there is a movie theatre there” Oh great I thought! A college town! This trip could be okay!

My excitement dwindled slightly when I found out 6 hours before we were leaving that the trip would take 10 hours (WHAT?!?!) and that we weren’t leaving until 4:00 pm (SERIOUSLY?!?!). Let’s just say the drive was brutal. At 2:06 AM just when I thought surely we are almost there, I see a sign that says Alva 51 miles (OH MY GOODNESS!?!?!) The kids did great though both coming and going in that very long car drive, especially considering that we had no DVD, couldn’t find Colson’s DS and Calli’s quit working before we even made it to I-45. So we did it old school, just plain natural car riding fun. This is what Colson thought of the drive not 15 minutes into the trip.

The guys let us sleep in on Saturday and they got up early to go start working. Colson was very upset when he woke up and found them gone. He has gone everytime they have and loves to ride his 4 wheeler until the blister on his finger hurts too bad or he floods it from driving it so much. Never the less, we headed out at lunch time and spent the afternoon riding 4 wheelers.

Sunday we did the same only by then the guys had plowed a few more trails for us so we really felt adventuresome. Neither of the kids 4 wheelers worked that day so the 5 of us (Christina and I and our kids including Hudson) hopped on the Mule and rode and rode and rode. Both kids became skilled at driving and our insides were shaken all about. We named the mule the adventure bus and even had a chant “Power to the grasshoppers”…inspired by my new Bucee’s Power to the Beaver shirt that was purchased at our first (and best…did I say that?) stop on this road trip. And oh my goodness there were hundreds of grasshoppers the size of the width of my hand and they hurt when they collided with us. And we had a bus song “Oh Mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind Hey Mickey!”.

Christina and the kids headed back to the hotel after a few hours so Hudson could get a nap and I stayed and WORKED! I drove the mule about 2 miles an hour around and around in circles while Scott threw out some kind of seed to grow clover and Wes went behind us with the tractor to stir it all into the dirt. Between me and the fence post (and any blog readers), I really am not confident that we did anything that will cause something to grow.

As you can read, there was no movie to see, nor was there even a nail salon. Wes was a little off on his travel agent skills. We toured the town and found that the funnest thing to do was cruise the 24 hour Walmart and on the 3rd trip, that wasn’t so fun anymore. This picture depicts the true spirit of Alva.

Doesn’t it look like it should be in an OLD Western. The idea was to take a group photo in front of this bank but that didn’t happen. This picture was taken on the way out of town at 5 am which is why it’s so dark. So the moral of this long post for you should be to mark Alva, Oklahoma off of your travel sites to see list.

KINDERGARTEN ROCKS

Ok so yesterday I ventured into the school that I have grown to love to leave my sweet baby boy for his FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN. A mix of emotions came over me although no tears. Colson was SOOOOO excited! He couldn't sleep the night before and he was VERY frustrated that I was delaying his entrance into the classroom with picture after picture. He was star of the week which means he was the line leader this week, he brought pictures of his family and shared them with the class and he thought he was really cool. Not only was he excited to go the first day but he was equally excited to go back today...always a good sign. Although I did get a SUPER long hug today when I dropped him off today.
Working hard writing the date, September 2, 2009. Too bad they couldn't start school in May so they could have a shorter word. With a teacher like Mrs. Arnold, how could you not have a great day! She is so sweet and gentle and loving....amazing patience! His good friend Karson (that he nailed in the eye) is in the other class but Colson's okay with that. They still do a lot together at recess and lunch, etc.


Anyways, I'm looking forward to a great year of watching my son transform into a big boy kid but I'm NOT looking forward to experiencing my last year at PDS. I've said it before and I'll say it again....the thought has crossed my mind to have another kid so I can stay at PDS. But that's what I have a younger sister for. Hudson started PDS today with Mrs. King and Colson thinks it's really cool to have him there. Hudson was clueless but I'm sure will be loving school. There are milestones all around us...I'm just trying to savor the memories.