Current Obsessions: On the Cusp
1 hour ago
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Halloween has come and gone already and with that Jordan and Emma's first Homecoming dance. Some not to bright school board bureaucrat decided that it would be a good idea to have it on Oct. 31st. Ugh!!
Jordan really did NOT want to give up trick-or-treating with his friends but I kindly explained that going to dances is just one of the things boyfriends do for their ladies. Besides his
girlfriend, Hannah, is a freshman and this was her first high school dance and her daddy was doing it up right with a hummer limo and everything.
They were supposed to go trick-or-treating from the limo but the limo driver nixed that, saying they couldn't have food in it, including candy.
Emma wasn't going to go and had already bought her halloween costume. One day Hannah was over hanging out with Jordan and convinced Emma that she should go to the dance with them. She told Emma that the limo was going to come pick her up whether she was dressed to go or not. I was so glad that Hannah was insistent!
That was Tuesday and I had been sick all week but Homecoming waits for no one so Thursday I had to drag myself to the store to dress shop. People were keeping their distance from the red eyed, hacking lady!! But an adorable dress was found. It is short with a red sheaf underneath and black lace over the top with a cute tailored bow. We didn't have to buy shoes as she fits into Chelsea's and luck would have it that Chelsea left a cute pair of jeweled silver high heels behind.
Everyone had a good time and are even already talking about Snowball coming up! Ladies ask the guys to that one, so Jordan better be sweet to Hannah until then, otherwise she might decide that going door to door begging for candy sounds more fun to her =)
While the kids were cutting the rug at the dance, James, Brandt and I were home doing the Halloween thing. Brandt decided to go as the Mask, I was a hippie (seemed low effort this year) and James went as the dad (he wins the award for the least effort costume).
Since I was still running a fever I opted to stay home and pass the candy out while James braved the cold. No buddies this year for Brandt but he was good natured about it. I however worry constantly about him needing friends and have vowed to wande
r the streets finding him some ~ what could go wrong with that plan???
Anyway, we had a fair amount of trick-or-treaters come by mostly little ones. There were a few too scared of our pumpkin to come to the door! My favorite trick-or-treater of the night was the little girl who saw me coming to the door through the glass. She started jumping up and down excitedly, screaming "A hippie is coming, a hippie is going to answer the door, yes a hippie!!" She got one of our special big bars of candy =) Think she has th
is Halloween schmoozing thing figured out already or just a huge fan of dred locks??
Thursday, June 18, 2009
May 29th was a busy day at our house! First we started with Brandt's 5th grade Graduation. Only James and I attended because Emma and Chelsea both had their graduation practice that morning. (Jordan decided that since it was his first day to sleep in he was NOT going to get up at 8 am.) It was all going well until they started showing the video of the 5th graders over all their school years. Brandt looked so little in all the pictures! He has been attending Cedar Creek since 1st grade and it was very touching to see him with all his buddies growing up together. Suddenly he was looking way to grown up for his mom who ended up having to leave the ceremony so as not to embarrass her son with her crying!
Brandt receiving his diploma.
Brandt using his diploma as a gun to shoot his dad.
Brandt and Mrs. Browning (his 4th and 5th grade teacher) ~ she is truly the perfect teacher for Brandt. We will miss her!!
Brandt enjoying his favorite part of the whole ceremony ~ Chocolate Cake!!
Next was Emma's 8th Grade Graduation. Hers started after lunch so everyone was forced to attend. Being 13 we got one picture chance! (good job James for capturing this). They had speakers, performers, awards, diplomas and even Dr. Wellman (the principle from WHS) came to welcome them into high school. Where have all my babies gone??
Emma walking in blissfully unaware of the camera.
And then it was on to dinner and Chelsea's graduation. First we went to her favorite restaurant The Melting Pot. Unfortunately she was so nervous that she hardly ate and really seemed stressed. Finally James left dinner early to just go ahead and take her to the Austin Convention Center where graduation was going to be held. Can you spot the 13 year old in this picture??!!
(that is steam obscuring James and I ~ we look a little magical!)
Chelsea getting a hug from Al Bennett the girls athletic director.
He genuinely seemed to appreciate Chelsea despite the fact that he could not convince her to tryout for volleyball!
Finally all her hard work paid off and she has that diploma in her hand!
We are so proud of her.
Brandt's opinion on the length of the ceremony.
There was over 500 kids graduating, several speakers from the school board and the high school, the usual valedictorian and salutatorian, plus the class president and the school president and then a few kid favorites. They would break up the actual walks across the stage ~ do a hundred then have a speaker.
The end. (yes mom is crying again by this time!)
And then they loaded into buses (we weren't even allowed to approach them. They had them cordoned off with ropes and guards; we could just cheer from afar. One boy tried to run over and hug his mom and was almost thrown to the ground!). They were taken back to the high school for Project Graduation. They had to drop all their things off before graduation to be searched and then when they returned they were once again walked straight into the school, through ropes, and sent straight into the locker rooms to change. Chelsea forgot extra shoes and had to go barefoot all night as they were not allowed to go to their cars or receive anything from us! But it is really a great time that they look forward to all year. They are gambling tables set up and they are all given chips that they play with and can win money. There is also a money machine ~ it is a booth that blows money into the air and you try and grab all that you can in a 60 second time period. There was at least a 45 minute wait! There were also carnival games set up outside, a basketball game going on in the gym, lots of dancing, food, rock climbing, bungee jumping, and raffles all night (they gave you 5 tickets at the door to do with what you will). To claim your winnings you had to stay all night and if anyone left early they called your parents and told them you were on your way home. It ended at 5:30 am. Chelsea was exhausted and slept until 3 in the afternoon but came home with winnings! She got $60 for staying all night, won a gift card at the blackjack table and $500 in a raffle. Some kids won cameras, jewelry, purses, bikes and diamond earrings. She was pretty excited with her winnings since she only put 3 of her tickets in. Needless to say if we ever start playing the lottery she is buying all our tickets!!We are so proud of each of our graduates ~
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Another weekend finds me at home and Emma and James off to Houston for volleyball. But volleyball season is coming to an end as this is regionals and then we are finished. With the swine flu scare and schools closing &/or canceling all UIL events, we thought that
the tournament might be cancelled, but apparently nothing gets in the way of volleyball
! So off they went and here we sit!
Here is Emma playing ~ she is the one in the front middle. I am excited to watch her play in high school this next year!
I also am including some pictures of her fans this time. A side note; Brandt might be coming more for the food the the actual games but her grandparents are actually coming to watch her play (or so they claim!).
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Can't believe that it's a new month and a new year already! Where does all our time go???
The kids are back in school and are grinding hard at the mill.
Nicole has another new job. She is now a hostess at The Grove (a local restaurant). She says it's super boring but they pay $8 an hour so she is toughing it out. She has also been working out like a fiend, is back with her old boyfriend (Ken) and trying to work out a 12 week class schedule at our community college.
Chelsea has been busy trying to get all her college applications done. This is a tricky thing for her as she likes to do everything at the last minute. And I mean the very last minute!! Unfortunately because of her propensity for procrastination she missed the A & M deadline by mere minutes. It wasn't in her top three but it was a backup school that she wouldn't have minded attending. Live and learn...
Chelsea has also been busy with high school soccer this month. Every weekend she has had a soccer tournament. They leave school, usually, Thursday morning and get back Saturday night. This definitely makes school a challenge! But they have so much fun all staying in a hotel together that it is worth the makeup work she has to do for school.
Jordan hasn't played WOW in three weeks. This is a huge thing!! And because of all this extra free time he has now, he has been able to actually go do things with his friends ~ like in person and everything. They have been to movies, out to eat and to Bob Schneider concerts. It is hard for other non-kid-WOW-playing-parents to understand the joy this fills our hearts with! Of course it helps that all his friends now have their driver's license.
Emma's club volleyball, her homework and a love of reading has been taking up all her time. She really enjoys her club team and her coach says that he can really rely on her lively happy personality to lighten the mood and make everyone feel welcome. Since she is the silliest girl I know, this works out perfectly for both of them!
Somehow Emma has managed to read 6 books this last week and a half while still keeping up with her homework. I go to sleep before her and wake up after her. I have no idea how she functions all day!
Brandt's basketball has started up again. He is on a different team this year that doesn't seem nearly as intense. We only practice once a week with games every Saturday. Last year we practiced twice a week with an "optional" third practice. The difference in practicing time really shows in his games but it is nice for him to have more free time. Almost everyday Brandt and all his buddies are outside having air soft gun wars in the neighborhood or in our park (we have a park literally right behind our house). He comes wandering in at dark exhausted with everything he took with him either lost or broken, but as happy as a clam. If he's happy then we are too.
James has been working like a mad man trying to get our media room finished. The poor guy started two years ago but had to put it on hold for various reasons but now works like a man possessed on it. He has torn into walls and floors; taped, mudded, textured; installed double doors; prep the sub floor for carpet; chosen carpet and wood; and primed walls for painting. Next is the cabinetry. I'm a construction widow...
And last but not least, classes have started back up for me too. This semester I have an Art History class that starts at 7:45 in the morning ~ ugh! I also have 3 other photography classes that are all 4 hours each twice a week. Only one of those am I doing any shooting in though, so that's kind of a bummer. One of my pictures that made it into the print show (the flower) the school kept for their permanent collection. Kind of exciting!
Fandango still has giardia. So far none of us has caught it but the vet trips are never ending!!! And it is hard for him to gain weight with constant diarrhea. But he is so sweet and loves to give kisses, not the greatest idea with giardia!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
For some crazy reason James and I decided that we should redo 
all the kids rooms a week before Christmas. Not the best timing on our part. James spent 3 straight days putting furniture together. Our house was covered in huge boxes, old furniture, new furniture and trash as we had to deep clean everything in the process. We were trying to get it done before the maids got there but didn't quite make it. They were cleaning the downstairs while we were trying to finish the boys room upstairs. It actually worked out pretty good though as one of our maids was happy to take all our old furniture. We loaded all we could in the back of her truck and she and her husband came back 
later that night for the rest.
So now Emma has a new loft bed, a sofa, a coffee table and two nice bookcases in her room. She is well pleased.
We didn't get rid of anything in Chelsea's room but an old bookcase. We rearranged her room and added a new leather chair with ottoman, 3 book shelves and a floor light. She really likes it too. Looks very grown-up. Jordan is already claiming it when Chelsea goes to college.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
“You know, madness is a lot like gravity… sometimes all you need is a little push.”
1 comments Posted by sheliplus5 at 10:11 AM
The Joker and some of his henchmen. Do you know which one is Brandt??
Emma wasn't really part of their crew but was kind enough to walk around with them. She had a long black dress on but it was hot so when she got home she changed out of it quickly.
I waited until the last minute to do all our decorating, of course, thinking that the kids that were home would happily help me. Nicole decided to carve her pumpkin instead and then needed hours to perfect her costume (don't ask). Brandt got out of school early and went to the park to play football with his buddies. The other three were still in school so that left poor James to be my helper. He helped me hang 7 scarecrows from the trees and light them so they were visible (their heads had lights in them also), then put up the giant spiders, the cobwebs and the headstones. Along with the candy we had a tub of drinks with dry ice boiling and brewing for all the trick-or-treaters. I was amazed at how fast the kids snatched the drinks up! The neighbors were amazed at how fast we transformed the house. They clearly don't know about our years of perfecting our procrastination skills.
Jordan decided to trick-or treat me. He had apparently decided that he was too old this year to dress up but didn't announce this to me until after his friends started showing up at our house. I kept calling upstairs for the boys to come down as it was getting later and later but they seemed to just want to eat and play video games. You would think I would have caught on earlier but one of the boys even brought a cotume with him as a decoy! Two days later they went home having eaten their fill of pizza and candy. Good thing Jordan's friends make me laugh so much...or maybe it's that they are all taller then me...
Thursday, September 25, 2008
How can two weeks have gone by already? Ugh!!! Clearly I'm getting to that age where your days fly by waaaay too fast.
Well school volleyball has started again for Emma. She has had two games and a tournament already. What a difference between 7th grade volleyball and 8th grade volleyball, thank goodness! How nice to see her teammates getting their serves over and volleying happening. Trust me, this is huge...and makes watching so much more exciting for us parents. Emma is doing great again. She loves to dive for balls regardless of the welfare of her knees. Emma still has a mean serve, long and hard; sometimes a little too hard ~ last week she hit a parent walking by in the head! And her new trick is spiking the ball. She is the 2nd tallest girl on her team (there is one who is just shy of 6 feet) so I think she is realizing that there is an expectation that she should be able to jump higher then the net. Not as much fun as sliding across the floor to save a ball and possibly knocking people over in the process!
Well school volleyball has started again for Emma. She has had two games and a tournament already. What a difference between 7th grade volleyball and 8th grade volleyball, thank goodness! How nice to see her teammates getting their serves over and volleying happening. Trust me, this is huge...and makes watching so much more exciting for us parents. Emma is doing great again. She loves to dive for balls regardless of the welfare of her knees. Emma still has a mean serve, long and hard; sometimes a little too hard ~ last week she hit a parent walking by in the head! And her new trick is spiking the ball. She is the 2nd tallest girl on her team (there is one who is just shy of 6 feet) so I think she is realizing that there is an expectation that she should be able to jump higher then the net. Not as much fun as sliding across the floor to save a ball and possibly knocking people over in the process!
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