Third Grade and Play-Doh

Dropped our Poodle off for the first day of third grade this morning. My mommy heart hurts a little bit every time I walk away from the school and leave him there. As we were walking, Boochie took my hand with her tiny little hand and asked me if I was sad. Love that girl.

Here he is walking in....happy for him, sad for me.

At his desk :)

So, instead of moping around the house all day we've decided to play Play-Doh (And watch the clock...it's only 9:19. What time can we get in line to pick him up?)

Anxiety

There have been lots of things on my mind as of late and I’m having a hard time controlling my tendencies towards anxiety…lots of decisions to be made and possibly some big changes for our little family. Anyways, thanks to Kathleen I had the biggest laugh I’ve had in ages yesterday. I cried off all of my mascara and every time I think of our situation, I laugh again. I won’t disclose the details of the “incident” but will share that it produced this kind of picture.

Bluebonnets and Baseball....

Just two of the many reasons Spring is my favorite time of the year.

Every spring I get little butterflies in my stomach when the Bluebonnets start to pop up on the side of the road. The anticipation…how will the pictures turn out? What should the kids wear? Will Boochie cooperate? Poodle has been raised from day one knowing that he will be out in a field and I will take as many pictures as necessary. He understands that if he smiles willingly the whole process is quick. Booch doesn’t get it yet, which makes Poodle a little cranky with her. Brad and I learned a lot this year about dealing with a spirited 2 year old in a field full of flowers. A full tummy and some M&Ms make everyone more cooperative.

P&B share a sweet moment.

For these two, this is as good as it gets.

Poodle’s baseball season started a few weeks ago and the Angel’s are sporting a 2-2 record so far. Boochie and I are enjoying cheering on our boyfriends (Daddy is the pitcher) but really missing them since they spend most Saturdays at practice. Poodle explains the sacrifices with “baseball is the game that I love". Me too.

My foxy husband pitching.

My sweet boy "pitching".

The boys that make my heart go pitter-patter. Check out the dimples on that Poodle!!!

The Rangers have started the season out with an awesome record and have been so much fun to watch. Brad tried his hardest to get Poodle opening day tickets, but with no success. He had to wait until game #3 (and that’s a LONG wait for a little guy) to see some baseball action in person. The three of us had a blast at the game and P even got to run the bases afterwards.

Poodle shows off his guns at the game.

Running the bases :)

Happy Anniversary to Me!

Really to Brad too….but whatever. Today is the anniversary of the day I became a mommy. I wish I could say it started out fantastic, but that just wouldn’t be true. I didn’t get to hold my poodle for several hours after he was born. And I can honestly say those were the longest hours of my life. I was scared to death we wouldn’t be able to bond, that he wouldn’t know I was his mommy, and that he’d never nurse. The situation went from bad to worse as he was later admitted to the NICU for being (wait for it)….too BIG! I remember feeling guilty as I’d sit with him. Guilty for being sad when my biggest problem in life was a baby that couldn’t control his blood sugar or temperature. All around us there were tiny babies who had been hospitalized for months. Our stay was short, only a few days, but it left me feeling anxious about motherhood. Luckily, I overcame all of my fears and poured my heart and soul into raising my wee one. And it all turned out exactly as it should. He loves me more than anyone else in the world and always has. We’re attached at the hip and I dread the day he outgrows me. So, Happy Anniversary to me and Happy 8th Birthday to the sweet little boy that made me who I am today, the only thing I ever really wanted to be….a mommy!

Here he is fresh from the oven!

It's Baseball Season

Growing up, I always felt like my dad was secretly disappointed not to have a son, but two girls instead. He dragged us to countless Rangers games, made us watch it on tv, and if we were in the car we had to listen to it on the radio (I despised this!). But somewhere along the way I learned to love the sport and the Rangers and now I’m glad I do. If I hadn’t, I don’t know how I’d survive my super obsessed Poodle, or even carry on a conversation with him. This is a small thing I know, but I believe God was preparing me to be Poodle’s mom and probably Brad’s wife too. That being said, I was just as excited as my boys were to head out to Rangers Fanfest last weekend. There were games and activities for poodles, present and former Rangers to meet, and a chance to see the ALCS trophy up close and in person.

I felt like a giddy little school girl as I watched Poodle participate in a fielding clinic with Steve Buechele. Steve Buechele!!! I loved him as a child mostly because of the way the crowd booed when ever his name was announced. Steve Booooooooooochelle!!! OMG! Poodle is learning from Steve Booooooooooooooochelle! I got even more out of control when they posed for a picture together. But wait! Then he autographed a ball for us!

Brad had a similar moment of silliness when we met Chuck Greenburg, the Rangers new owner, who is changing the course of Rangers history. Alright, he wasn’t quite as bad as I was, but he got about as excited as he gets (that one’s a cool guy).

We ate some hot dogs, stalked Josh Hamilton (to no avail), took lots of pictures, played, and enjoyed some time just the three of us. All in all it was a fabulous day that ended in a quick visit with my dad. We had to show him all of our pictures and tell him all about everything we had just seen and done. And now we’re all geared up to see what this season will hold for our Texas Rangers. Even Booch is getting ready…I just ordered her new Rangers bows for her pigtails!!!


Poodle with Steve Buechele


My boys with Chuck Greenburg


Poodle with the trophy


Giving us the antlers

My Worries

So it’s different being the mom of a girl. To be really honest, when we found out Boochie was a girl, I cried for a few minutes. I had my heart set on another boy that would love me just the way Poodle does (and that’s a lot). I wasn’t sure I knew how to mother a girl. I’m good at watching baseball and playing pirates and Star Wars. To be honest, I had to learn how to do those things so I’m not sure why I thought it would be harder with a girl. After all, I am a girlie girl. I know how to play girl games. After I got over the initial shock, I was really excited to start buying girlie things for what I was sure was going to be my girlie girl (the jury’s still out on that one—she’s surrounded by 7 year old boys all of the time). That excitement hasn’t worn off yet. Every time I leave the house I can find hundreds of things she “has” to have. I’m learning to manage my expectations for her and who she will really turn out to be.

The things that worry me now are so much more serious than tea parties and dresses. It’s hard to grow up in the world as a girl. The pressure is so much greater than that of a boy. Little girls now aren’t little girls for long. I’m stunned when I go to Poodle’s elementary school at the way some of them are dressed. Where are their mothers? More importantly, where are their fathers? My parents wouldn’t have let us out of the house looking the way these little girls look in a million years. We wouldn’t have had the guts to try. So now I worry about how we’re going to handle it when Boochie comes home from school and is devastated because we won’t let her dress like a teenager when she’s 7. I don’t want her to be the nerdy kid in school, but I do want her to remain true to her beliefs and values. There’s nothing wrong with being a nice girl. But it seems to me that increasingly it’s getting harder and harder to be the nice girl in school and not be an outcast. Carrie and I were always the nice girls…our mom wouldn’t let us treat anyone ugly. EVER. I’m sure we both had some questionable moments, but for the most part, we were both kind and polite while managing to not fall down into the abyss of un-coolness.

And while we’re on the topic of nice girls, true friends are hard to find. Even as an adult girl, jealousy and ugliness still rear their ugly little heads. I pray that I’ll be able to convey to Boochie how valuable true girl friends are. The kind that you love unconditionally and that love you back. The ones you can cry and laugh with. The ones that are with you when you get married, have a baby, lose a family member. The ones that know the best moment of your life and the ones that know your worst. Several of my true friends, I never would have seen coming. I thought we didn’t have enough in common or that our personalities were too different to form a lasting bond. I’m glad I was wrong. I long for Boochie to have a sister someday (imagine what that child’s nickname might be) because I believe with my whole heart that having a sister changes the way you relate to other girls. And I want that for her. Really, I want that for every little girl in the world.
So, I’ll work diligently to raise a kind, polite, lovely little girl who knows how to treat others and how to stand up for what she believes in, no matter the cost. And hopefully she’ll enjoy a good tea party now and then too!

Here's our tomboy in training. Picture taken by the always fabulous Alyssa Maisano. You can find her work here.

Basketball Superstar!!

Last night Poodle had the opportunity to perform a basketball routine at what will some day be his high school. He loved every second of it and we all thought he was the best one on the court. His sissy chanted his name the whole time :)Brad and I thought it reminded us quite a bit of High School Musical, what with all of the dancing with a basketball and all! I've been trying to upload the video with no success, so a picture will just have to do.

5.2 Seconds....

Is exactly how long it takes for Poodle and Booch, from the moment they walk into a hotel room, to completely destroy said room. It starts with B picking up the phone and dialing. That prompts us to unplug the phone. Next she starts taking off her clothes to get changed. Into what, you ask? Why, jammies of course. While she's running around like a naked maniac looking for her jammies, Poodle has emptied the contents of his bag and suitcase all over the floor looking for who knows what. Then one or the other of them will start begging for a snack. Which reminds the other one that they are hungry too. Snacks come out. There are crumbs everywhere. Someone spills a drink. And like every other trip we've taken, this is how our weekend getaway to Austin began. If only this was the worst of it. But it's not. Not by a long shot.

Warning...this post is not for the faint of heart. It is graphic, disgusting, sad and funny all wrapped into one. Plus, it's really long. You've been warned.

This trip was presented to me as kind of an early birthday celebration. Lots of mommy activities…the scrapbook store, some outlet shopping, etc. One of my Sweet’s high school buddies owns a baseball training facility in Austin so he and Poodle wanted to get some baseball time in as well, but I was assured that it would be minimal. No biggie. I love watching my Poodle play ball. But, as luck would have it, Austin was cold and rainy all weekend. We decided it best if Boochie and I stay back at the hotel so she wouldn’t be subjected to the elements. Again, no biggie. The boys would be gone for an hour or two, tops. FIVE hours later they returned. The hours alone in the hotel room with my tiny friend may have been the longest of my life. Let me explain. The three of us adore Boochie, but she is extremely spirited. High maintenance, you might say. When the baseball lovers returned, we headed out for some scrapbook time (YAY!) and a nice dinner. By the time we got to the scrapbook store, B was fast asleep so I headed in alone while everyone else waited in the car. When I returned, we found a cute little Mexican restaurant to try for dinner. We got seated, ordered our drinks and that’s when it began. The spirited one was up and down and all over the place. Her daddy attempted to restrain her and a hissy fit ensued the likes of which I have never seen before. Obviously, she was escorted to the car while Poodle and I waited for our waiter to come back. We paid for our drinks and made a beeline for the door. My Sweet, not one to give up hope, drove to the closest shopping spot. We parked, got our girl situated in her stroller and headed towards the stores. At which point it started raining again. Not a deal breaker, right? Wrong. The stores were all out doors. I begged him to give up, to call it a day, and to admit defeat. He finally conceded. We came up with a plan to make a quick trip to the grocery store to find something to feed our wee ones. Luckily, he had booked a suite, so we had a kitchen and table back at the hotel. What could go wrong at the grocery store? To all of the innocent shoppers at the Randall’s in Austin this weekend that were subjected to hissy fit #2, we apologize. Booch was again quickly escorted out. We headed back to the hotel where we dined on a gourmet meal of soup (it was really yummy) and Chef Boyardee. I can basically skip the details of the rest of the weekend and just say that I lost count of all of the places Boochie had to be dragged out of kicking and screaming.

By the time we started home, we were all exhausted and beat down. The first half of the drive was uneventful. B slept a lot of the way and P was happy and content. The kids aren’t allowed to eat a lot of McDonald’s so when we stopped for dinner there, it was a real treat. Both kids ate great, drank all their milk and enjoyed the break from driving. We started back on our way and that’s when the trip took a really ugly turn. B’s little tummy couldn’t take all of the yummy. We suddenly found ourselves with a really, really bad situation in the back seat. We pulled over onto a very dangerous shoulder and attempted to clean up the entire back seat which was now covered in the contents of her stomach. As soon as things were manageable we got going again and stopped at the first place we found, which happened to be a gas station out in the middle of nowhere with bars on the door and windows. I’m not brave about things like that. We did some more cleaning and arranging and said a quick prayer. The rest of the drive home was uneventful except for some tears (mine and Boochie’s).

Once at home, the four of us happily piled into our beds. I was so ready for a good night’s sleep. As happens a lot in our house, I ended up in bed with Boochie. I was ok with that; I’ve learned to sleep peacefully while cramped in a twin bed with a bed hogging two year old. I was dreaming sweet dreams when daddy came and woke me up with “We need you, he’s throwing up now”. And so it continued….

It wasn’t our best weekend to say the least. In fact, it was the kind of weekend that made us question ourselves as parents. It gave us a whole new perspective on the “should we have another baby” debate that is never ending between us. Our current answer: NO! But, we’re so happy and blessed to have the children that we do have…fits and all. Could we do with a little less clean up duty? Of course! But we wouldn’t trade these years with our kids for anything in the world.

A Snow Day! Sort of...

Anytime we get snow in our part of the world it's big news. And Poodle gets super excited because he's a boy that lives in a part of the world that doesn't see a lot of snow. And because he's a boy. And 7.

He's been hoping for snow for weeks so that we could take our weekly family football game outside (we usually play in the living room while we watch the Cowboys) and roll around in the snow a little bit. So, when the weatherman said 3 to 6 inches of snow, my boy was fired up. When we came out of church on Sunday morning big, beautiful snowflakes were falling and he was ready for some football! We all got bundled up and headed outside to find that the snow was already starting to melt. My Sweet, being the awesome daddy that he is, loaded us up and drove around until we found a spot that had more of the powdery white stuff than our front yard did. By the time we found our spot, Booch was fast asleep (probably due to all the sleepless nights), so she and I stayed in the warm car (YAY!). The boys played a quick game of football (shockingly, Poodle won ;) ) and came running back to the car declaring that it was too cold and too wet to play any longer. Every night since, Poodle's prayed for snow. And not just a little bit of snow...mountains of snow, snowy blizzards, enough snow to close school for at least a week. I don't share his deep love of the snow, but because I adore him I'm praying along with him and crossing my fingers that one of these days we get a REAL snow day...the kind of day with no school and no work. I did hop out of the car just long enough to snap a couple of pics of my boys playing in the snow, so I'll leave you with these cute faces.

Couponing 101

My sister is fantastic at sniffing out good deals. So, she graciously agreed to teach me and a friend of mine all of her tricks of the trade. She taught us how to clip and organize our coupons and how to find the very best deals in the circulars and online. We all had fun and learned a lot too! Here's the coupon diva in action.

The real test came a couple of days later when I headed to my local Walgreen's for some good deals. My shopping trip didn't exactly go as planned. They were sold out of everything I wanted to pick up! I ended up with three bottles of hand soap. I got them all for a steal...$1.92! Heehee. I learned a lesson about waiting until the last minute for the very best deals. I'm looking forward to trying again this week!

I'm In A Mood, Y'all

I don't know why. Nothing's wrong. I'm kind of tired and that tends to make me more emotional and irrational than I normally am.

My sweet and I decided it was time to move Booch into a big girl bed. Or more accurately, convert her crib into a toddler bed. We're having our good nights and our bad nights. And when our nights are bad, they're real bad. Super bad. 3 hours of sleep bad. Here she is on her first night. Which was a so-so kind of night.

Despite the lack of sleep, I have managed to keep up with my New Year's resolution to take a picture every day! Woohoo 6 days down, 359 to go! And even better, I've been taking pictures of a variety of subjects. When I have more time, I'll try to take a second and share some.