Housefull of Testosterone

Book Peddler is now ONLINE

2009-09-09T20:23:00.001-05:00

Come check us out. http://www.texasbookpeddler.com

Some things just never change

2009-07-19T17:03:00.002-05:00

Ya know how in high school there are clicks and some people for whatever reason just make others feel uncomfortable? Like they think they are better than you? Of course you do!

Well you would think that after 15 years of being out in the real world people would get over themselves and actually act like grown ups where social status and money aren't everything. I may not have money or social status but I have not done anything to anyone where I deserve to be treated like I am less of a person. I put on my britches one leg at time like everyone else. Even if you are well off, does your money make you such a snob that you have to be downright rude and not even speak to someone.

I guess my instincts in high school were right on. I just needed to be nice to that crowd but never really desired to be in that crowd. I am glad now that I wasn't because I really would hate to think that people thought of me as a stuck up snob who thinks that I am better than everyone else.

Book Peddler

2009-07-09T12:04:00.001-05:00

If you are in East Texas you should go to Tatum and check the Book Peddler located right off Hwy 149. You can check out an assortment of their used and rare books at http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?quserid=BOOK1422&cm_sp=detail*sellerinfo*sellername

Give them a call today 903-947-2243

Mac N Cheese

2009-06-03T21:04:00.001-05:00

Want to win a year's supply of Kraft Mac N Cheese? Go to http://www.thisfullhouse.com/reviews/ and find her Kraft Mac N Cheese post.

Want to win a Flip Mino Digital Camera?

2009-06-03T20:59:00.001-05:00

If so go to http://www.thisfullhouse.com/reviews/2009/05/how-ford-flex-took-my-family-for-a-ride-or-six.html and leave a comment before 10:00 a.m. on Friday, June 5th.

Chance to Win

2009-06-03T20:49:00.002-05:00

Going green isn't always easy. Trust me, I know. But, for families (like ours) I believe that "going green" is an ongoing process of educating ourselves, as best we can.

That's why, I'm excited to share with you some very useful information and also a terrific family of green products, that makes it a little easier for families (like mine) to turn over a new leaf, courtesy of the earth-friendly folks at SCOTT Naturals™.

SCOTT Naturals™ has teamed up with Kahi Lee to produce several vignettes illustrating easy ways to green your own home - go ahead and grab a warm (or, cool) beverage and take a few minutes for yourself, I'll wait:

Here's the really cool part.

To celebrate the nationwide availability of these products, we've teamed up with SCOTT Naturals™ to offer one (1) lucky reader a Green Gift Bag, including:

Reusable tote filled with SCOTT Naturals product coupons
Reusable water bottle
Green light bulbs
Cleaning products from Clorox Green Works.

FIND IT HERE: Scott Naturals http://www.scottnaturals.com/

Enter Here: http://www.thisfullhouse.com/reviews/2009/06/take-a-green-step-at-home-with-scott-naturals.html

New pictures ... Yeah

2009-03-21T21:01:00.003-05:00

A giveaway

2009-03-02T18:59:00.001-06:00

So, here's how it works: the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (or copy and paste like I did). Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift!

I'm Invisible

2009-02-08T08:23:00.002-06:00

I found this on The Daily Digi and felt it was really worth sharing with everyone.

_____

This is long, but worth reading and saving for a rainy day - you know, those days when you doubt if all the work you put into being a great mom is ever going to be noticed. The days where you think, “Oh, I used to be brilliant and cute and I used to look really good in jeans!” Save it for that day. Or if you’re having that day today, get your hankie out before you read on…

This is to all moms - and moms to be ———

“Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible”

I’M INVISIBLE

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I’m on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I’m thinking, ‘Can’t you see I’m on the phone?’ Obviously not; no one can see if I’m on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I’m invisible. The invisible Mom.

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this?

Some days I’m not a pair of hands; I’m not even a human being. I’m a clock to ask, ‘What time is it?’ I’m a satellite guide to answer, ‘What number is the Disney Channel?’ I’m a car to order, ‘Right around 5:30, please.’

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She’s going, she’s going, she’s gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style dress; it was the only thing I could find that was clean. My unwashed hair was pulled up in a hair clip and I was afraid I could actually smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, ‘I brought you this.’ It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn’t exactly sure why she’d given it to me until I read her inscription:

‘To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.’

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, ‘Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.’ And the workman replied, ‘Because God sees.’

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, ‘I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you’ve done, no sequin you’ve sewn on, no cupcake you’ve baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can’t see right now what it will become.’

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don’t want my son to tell the friend he’s bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, ‘My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.’ That would mean I’d built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, ‘You’re gonna love it there.’

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we’re doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

_____

Springtime and other various stuff

2009-02-07T22:31:00.003-06:00

I have some goofy kitties. Marbles decided to get a drink of my tea. Problem is ... it was almost gone. Notice she has the glass tipped over to get a drink. She almost got her head stuck.
Gracie is the calmer kitty. She thinks she is queen of the house. She perches on pillows and blankets to take her naps in style.

And Adam....he can be sweet to the kitties when he wants to. See the photo for proof. Today I went to take pictures of the newly bloomed daffodils and buttercups and he decided to tag along. Of course, you know he had to pick some of the flowers. So we picked enough to make a fairly decent bouquet. Isn't it so nice to see the first signs of spring blooming? I hope to catch a few birds in the near future.

Another Giveaway

2009-02-07T21:32:00.002-06:00

This giveaway is for Oso* Fresh™ Food Storage Containers. Two lucky winners will get to try these. Just visit Jane's $800 Annual Budget to enter before Monday, February 9 at noon CST.

Giveaways

2009-02-07T19:33:00.003-06:00

There are a few giveaways that I thought I would share with you today.

1) Liz @ This Full House is giving away the Samsung Propel. You can find out more about the giveaway here. Be sure to enter before 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, February 11th.

2) Dawn @ Because I Said So Reviews is giving away an HP Photosmart C6300 All-in-One printer! To enter the giveaway go here and leave a comment including your email address. The contest will begin at 12:00 a.m. (PST) on Wednesday, February 4th, and will end Tuesday, February 10th at 11:59 p.m (PST). Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

Good luck.

I'm so excited

2009-01-25T13:48:00.001-06:00

John Grisham's new book, The Associate, comes out on Tuesday!! I will be there to get my copy first thing. John Grisham is one of the few authors that I just can't put down. I have read everyone of his books. His books are also the only ones that I will buy in hardback. Yeah!!

We even decorated the office

2008-12-01T22:50:00.004-06:00

Left Window

Right Window

More from the parade....

Melanie's Group around the heater....they know how to watch a parade...with heat.

Here is Adam, all the boys (including Damon acting crazy) and me.

And there is Macy, Maddy & Sarah with their church float.

Our Typical Hometown Christmas Parade

2008-12-01T21:24:00.013-06:00

Most Christmas parades have Christmas floats, but not ours...we have horses, four wheelers, trucks jacked way up for muddin', shriner's, tracters, hot rods, tow trucks, oil rig trucks and of course the Santa on the firetruck at the end. I'll take you through our parade...

We start with the flags

Then the grand marshall

And of course the high school band

And what's a parade without Smoky the Bear and his owl sidekick

The theme of our parade was Santa's Toyland. Devon seemed to have gotten close the theme.

Now in no particular order but plenty of commentary.

The Cloggers are a yearly float and they are festive and entertaining.

What's a parade without lots of advertising? We had cellphones, towing trucks, drilling rigs, mexican restuarant, radio station, port-o-pottys, taxi, & bail bonds (seriously!! Do we need to advertise bail bonds at a parade?).

Of course, no parade is complete without our local cheerleaders & Butch. Thought their minivan was rather cute & original.

And what kind of local parade would it be without horses, lawnmowers, and tracters? Here we have the Rodeo Queens, The Antique Tracters Assn., and not real sure about the mini horse and lawn tracter.

Can't remember what this van was for but heck lets all put a van in the parade, add a christmas stuffed animal as a hood ornament and call it decorated for the parade.

Naturally we have to have the kids from Rowe's Performing Arts.

I believe we had a ballerina and toy soldiers from their Nutcracker Performance.

What's a parade without the Shriner's and the cool cars that they drive super fast?

Now here is the kicker....where else but my hometown in Rural America would you see jacked up trucks that are used for entertainment aka muddin'? We had not 1 or 2 of these trucks but 8. Actually I think there were more than 8 but I didn't get pictures of them all.

Here is a float that I thought was neat. Had a really moving picture on it.

And of course, the grand finale....Santa on the firetruck.

Update

2008-11-25T18:34:00.004-06:00

We are still waiting in limbo to close on our house. It has been one delay after another. We finally got the papers to the finance company November 17th. Now we are waiting on the appraiser. Ugh!! We just want to close and get moved. Hopefully at this point we will be all moved in before Christmas. We have missed the original promise of Oct.31st and now we are about to surpass the 2nd promised date of Nov 28th.

Not only were we promised to have already been in our house, we were promised several remodels. We were told we could have a side by side refrigerator. We were told it won't happen they will only put a regular fridge in there. We were told they would paint all walls and the kitchen cabinets. We found out they won't paint one bathroom and the kitchen/dining/utility room. We were told they would paint the kitchen cabinets brown and now we find out they won't. Supposed they have to repaint them the original color of white. We were also told we could get a ceramic flat top stove

So now I will have to paint once we move in. The bathroom and kitchen/dining/utility room are a hideous pink flower wallpaper. Well I guess I could pick out my own wallpaper now.

Doesn't this look delicious?

2008-11-02T17:56:00.003-06:00

Cool Whip Chocolate One Bowl Bliss Cake

Prep Time: 10 min
Total Time: 2 hr 20 min
Makes: 16 servings

Ingredients

1 pkg. (2-layer size) devil's food cake mix
5 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, divided
1 tub (8 oz.) plus 1-1/2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, divided
1 Tbsp. powdered sugar

Directions

HEAT oven 350F. Prepare cake batter, in 2-1/2-qt. ovenproof bowl, as directed on package; scrape side of bowl. Bake 1 hour 5 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake 10 min.; loosen from side of bowl with knife. Invert onto wire rack; remove bowl. Cool cake completely; cut into 3 layers.

MICROWAVE 4 chocolate squares in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min., stirring after 1 min. Cool. Add 1 tub COOL WHIP; whisk until blended. Stack and fill layers with chocolate mixture. Frost with remaining COOL WHIP.

MAKE curls from remaining chocolate square. (See Tip.) Arrange on cake; sprinkle with sugar. Keep refrigerated.

Kraft Kitchens Tips

Size-Wise
Sweets can be part of a balanced diet but remember to keep tabs on portions.

Source: KraftFoods
Found here

What is going on?

2008-10-31T00:28:00.008-05:00

There has been so many tragedies effect the young families in Panola County in the last month. It started with a boy from Gary ISD being diagnosed with Leukemia, then Oct 9th, an 8th grader in Carthage was diagnosed with AML. A week later Cody B. (whose wife is a teacher at CJHS) was diagnosed with APL which is a form of AML. I heard two days ago that Rusty E. had a heart attack and this morning had a triple bypass. And just now I found out that Valerie Ritter, who graduated the year before me, passed away due to a long battle with Cancer.

Cancer is rampant in Panola County. I know it is everywhere but there are so many people that have had cancer from Panola County or the spouses of a Panola County resident has cancer. We have got to find a cure. Be sure to support the American Cancer Society and the Relay for Life. RFL is the largest fundraiser that ACS has each year.

Please respond to my blog with a small note of who you know has cancer and what kind of cancer.

These are the people that I know of that have either had cancer or have succomed to cancer.

Sandra Weaver Hudson -- pancreatic cancer -- passed away in 2005
Minnie Weaver -- melanoma --removed and in remission
Leigh Anna Shubert -- AML -- in remission
Mary Jo Shubert -- Ovarian Cancer -- removed and in remission
Rebeka Shubert -- melanoma -- removed and in remission
Alisha Shubert -- melanoma -- removed and in remission
Tripp Penner -- AML -- in remission
Cody Baldree -- APL (a form of AML) -- receiving treatment
Jacob Boniol -- AML -- receiving treatment
Mandy Davis' husband -- receiving treatment
Ginger Gates' husband -- unsure of his status
Valerie Ritter -- passed away due to a long battle with cancer -- 2008
Roger Brightwell -- pancreatic cancer -- passed away due to cancer -- 2005 or 2006
Macy Isbell -- AML -- considered cured 5 yrs in remission
Gertie Denton -- ovarian cancer -- passed away due to cancer
Allen Joe Hicks -- passed away due to long battle with cancer -- 2008
Mozelle Bixler -- aggressive breast cancer -- passed away due to cancer -- 2006
Ted Leach -- Liver Cancer --passed away due to cancer -- 2008
Kenneth Owens -- lung cancer -- passed away due to cancer -- 2004
Wanda Hanzen -- breast cancer -- receiving treatment
Sallie Lipsey -- breast cancer -- receiving treatment
Joni Reed -- breast cancer -- in remission
Nicole Coleman -- in remission
Shannon Ramage Knight -- thyroid cancer -- in remission/cured thyroid removed -- 1991
Linda Murphy -- breast cancer -- receiving treatment

I know there are many more that I am forgetting. Please feel free to share your family or friends that have cancer currently or have passed on and I will add them so that others can pray for their family and them during treatments.

Ugh....my car

2008-10-29T22:41:00.004-05:00

My car is messed up now because a college kid rear-ended me since a dumb shit was sitting still at a green light in front of me. I had already blew my horn at the man and eased up a bit before she hit me. She hit me hard enough to mess up my bumper and then push me into the car in front of me. Her car had to be towed because it messed up her front bumper and busted her radiator and crushed a hood like an accordian. My car probably had $600-$800 in damage. Her car probably has $4000 worth of damage. The car I bumped shouldn't have any damage at all because it just dented my license plate on the front.

Of course, I am now starting to get sore. Hopefully Adam won't be feeling any effects from it. He was rather upset that his Sonic drink spilled in the floor board. If I am too sore tomorrow I will go to the doc because there is no way I can work when my back is killing me.

New giveaway on Frugalmom.com

2008-10-29T21:57:00.001-05:00

All you have to do is visit her blog for instructions on how to enter. She is giving away a $50 gift card to Coffeeforless.com. To enter, visit the Frugal Mom blog .

Wade's party

2008-10-29T21:28:00.008-05:00

<----Here is a picture of the birthday boy.

We make it a tradition to let the boys choose where they want to eat or what they want me to fix for supper on their birthday. Wade chose Jalapeno Tree, which is a local Mexican restaurant. We weren't too satisfied with our service because our waitress was so busy that she kept forgetting us and she forgot that we told her it Wade's birthday so he didn't get his "treat" and they didn't sing to him. Needless to say, she didn't get a great tip.

We came home and Wade got his birthday cake and his gift. We only give the boys one gift on their actual birthday and hold the rest until their party. We are going to hold off on his party until we get moved into our new house, which should be within the next two weeks. Wade got money from my mom and the movie, Journey to the Center of the Earth with Brendan Frasier. Here is a picture of Wade's Bass fishing cake. I think The Bake Shoppe did a pretty awesome job with it. Definitely a better job that any cake I have ever received from Brookshire's or Wal-mart.

Of course, I can't leave off my other two boys....here is a picture them from tonight too.

Wade is 10 today

2008-10-29T05:15:00.004-05:00

10 years ago today, I was on my way to the hospital. I had been scheduled for a c/s just a mere two days earlier. You see, the doc was concerned about Wade's size because I was only 38 weeks and was measuring 45 weeks. The doc decided to have an u/s done to check his size. It was discovered that the cord was floating below his head which could have been very dangerous for both of us had my water broke. It was also discovered that Wade weighed a whooping 10 lbs +/- 1/2 lb.

So on Thursday, Oct. 29th, 1998, I went into surgery with Damon by side at 7:30am and at 8:02 am, Derrick Wade was born. He weighed in at 9lbs 9oz and 21 inches long. His head was larger than the 10cm incision so the doc had to use the vacuum extractor to get him out. He had a bruise on his forehead for a few days.

We got to come home 2 days later on Halloween. I had been give a santa clause outfit by my Nov 98 cybershower buddy. Unfortunately, since Wade was large, the SC outfit would not fit by the time Christmas rolled around, so Wade was Santa Clause for his first Halloween. Yes just two days after a c/s I took my "santa clause" and "Darth Vader" trick-or-treating. Of course ,we only went to see family but Brian was only 3 so he didn't know the difference.

Wade is 10 today and he is active playing soccer and struggling through the 4th grade. We are holding off on his party until we get moved into our new house. I will post pictures later.

My baby got glasses today

2008-10-27T21:33:00.004-05:00

Last week I received a letter from the school nurse stating Adam had failed his vision test and needed to be examined by an eye doctor. I called on Tuesday and the nurse stated that she had examined him twice (once in Sept. and once in Oct.) and he failed both times with 20/200 eyesight. I was really hoping he was having an off day.

I called to make an appointment with the local eye dr and explained the situation. They got us in on Thursday afternoon. We saw one of the new eye dr's, Dr. C. He was awesome. He had lots of patience with Adam which is a big plus because that made Adam tolerate the exam so much more. He did determine that Adam needed -3.75 in one eye and -3.50 in the other. So we found some cheap glasses and they said it would be Monday afternoon before we could pick them up. I went ahead and paid the extra to make sure they were shatterproof.

So after school today, Adam went and picked up his glasses. He wasn't too thrilled to have to wear them all the time. He is finding any excuse to take them off.

Here is my little ham in his new glasses.

Frugal Mom Giveaway

2008-10-25T00:36:00.006-05:00

If you go to http://www.frugalmom.net/blog/ you will find all sorts of giveaways. Friday's giveaway is a $100 GC to Amazon.com and The Dotty Blossom Bag from Artsy-crafty Babe. So for your chance to win, please visit http://www.frugalmom.net/blog/.

The Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-23T04:59:00.009-05:00

Adam's class went on their first field trip yesterday to the Pumpkin Patch. He was completely excited to pick out his "baby" pumpkin as the lady from FUMC called it. Adam was happy as a lark playing on the playground before hand but then he was less than thrilled when I offered to take individual pictures of the kids sitting on the hay bales with the scarecrow. His pictures tell it all. To the left is while playing on the playground. Notice he is happy because I am not paying attention to other children. To the right is his individual picture just like the other children. Now below is a picture of his baby pumpkin.

While he was there, every child received a bag with goodies in it and a flyer to tell how to keep their pumpkin's fresh. I never knew their was a way to keep them fresh so I will share the tip with you.

Keeping Jack Fresh

You can either purchase an anti-browning solution from the store of make your own. To make your own, you will need:

2 Tablespoons of Vinegar
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 quart of water

Now just mix ingredients together and brush over the carved areas.

Face Paint

1 teaspoon of cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon of cold cream
food coloring
small paintbrush or cotton swab

In small containers or a muffin tin, stir together the cornstarch and cold cream until thoroughly mixed. Add water and stir. Add food coloring one drop at a time until you get the color desired. Paint simple designs on face. Keep out of eyes. Remove with soap and water. Color mixing tips can be found on the food coloring box.

We're moving!!

2008-10-04T22:18:00.004-05:00

Yeah!! We signed a contract on a house today. We are excited. We will close on it around the end of October beginning of November. So between working, soccer practice and games, I have to find time to start packing.

For those that have my sbcglobal email address please change that part to gmail.com and my email will continue to work once we get moved.

Dr's Offices

2008-09-02T22:06:00.004-05:00

Ugh...what is the point of having an appointment? Seriously!! Lately, all I have done is wait when I go to see a dr. Today we had two appts. I had one at 10:10. I was there from 10am until 11:20 before they even took me to a room. I finally saw the dr about 11:45 and left at noon. Then that after noon Damon had an appt at 2:15 and it was 3:30 or 3:45 before he saw his dr. To make matters worse, we had Adam with us and he was antsy sitting in the small room. However, we did find a way to keep him entertained. The back of a guidepost had an advertisement for Aleve. See below:

Adam started trying to mimic these people. This kept him entertained for a good 30 minutes and of course on the two people letters I had to help out. I was so wishing I had my camera. LOL,

A Day at the Park

2008-09-01T16:28:00.013-05:00

We went to park with my friend's kids today. I snapped a few shots of all the kids. I didn't really care for the pictures of my boys so I took some more of them when we got to the house.

These two pictures are Cody & Alyssa. Alyssa wasn't feeling too well but I think it still turned out pretty good. She is such a pretty girl. I'm going to try to do an actual photo shoot with her some time this fall.

Here are the pictures of Adam at the park. My focus was off so they aren't as sharp as they should have been.

Here are the pictures of my boys in there true element...the oldest and youngest avoiding the camera flash and Wade being the ham.

Sadie & Adam

2008-08-31T18:00:00.003-05:00

Trying to catch Sadie in a decent photo is rare. She is a very spastic dog unless she is sleeping. So of course I caught her still while she was sleeping.

Of course, Adam is almost the same way. You practically have to bribe the child or catch him when he is not paying attention. I caught him while he was completely enthralled in a computer game.

Evacuees

2008-08-31T17:26:00.004-05:00

The biggest problem evacuees are having in Carthage is finding shelter for their pets. I ran into these nice folks on the square today as they waited for Pretty Paws to open so that they could go check into their hotel room since the hotels would not allow pets.

These nice people were from Jasper and Hamshire, TX. They were only able to secure a room until Tuesday. Hopefully the hotel will allow them to stay longer.

Hurricane Gustav

2008-08-30T17:00:00.004-05:00

Carthage is gearing up to help evacuee's that travel through our town. They have set up a refueling station for the buses that are transporting the evacuee's from down south. At around 12:30 today, the trucks were ready along with the National Guard and Sheriff's Office.

Troops line up for their orders.

Troops trying to find some shade.

Troops consult with Chief Bauske and Judge Anderson

The soccer field parking has turned into a make-shift evacuee area while the buses are refueling.

The truck is ready to refuel the first buses to arrive.

New pictures

2008-08-29T21:17:00.003-05:00

So I decided to go take some random pictures this evening.

Here we have the old diving board or what used to be a diving board at the old swimming pool.

Then we have some fungus growing on a dead tree. It was actually really pretty.

And here we have a sink hole with caution tape around it.

And this...is thousands of tadpoles. It won't be long and we will have thousand of little frogs everywhere behind house. Oh boy, my boys will have a field day.

First day of school

2008-08-25T22:35:00.005-05:00

Today was the first day of school. Everyone was up and dressed by 7:15am. So out the door we went to take the obligatory first day of school pictures.

1st pic...not quite what I had in mind.

Again...Ok guys...be serious.

And again, a little better but seriously Brian. One more time.

That is much better.

So off we go. We dropped Brian off. Then loop back around to drop Wade off. We finally made it to Adam's first day of Kindergarten. I think it was about 7:50 by the time we got to class. Of course we took a few pictures but Adam was being shy and didn't want to stay. We tried to get him to interact and he stuck to us like glue. He told me he wanted to go home. :( I almost cried at that point. Damon had to just get stern with him and tell him we had to go and he had to stay. He sat down and put his head on his desk.

Adam & Daddy Adam & Mama

He has yet to really say what he did today. I think he is mad at us for making him stay. He said he made two friends but he can't remember one of their names. So, we get to fight the horrible traffic again. Damon got in line at 2:30pm and he didn't get home until 3:30pm and we only live 5 minutes from the school. Thankfully, Brian and Wade walked home from school so we don't have to fight that traffic. Wade said he had fun. Brian said he is liking 8th grade already.

The Results are in

2008-08-15T14:53:00.002-05:00

It is Benign!!!

I cannot tell you have relieved I am to hear that word. I go back in 6 months to have it reevaluated and to see if it has grown or if it is bothering me. If it is, then he will take it out.

Gotta love hormones and the crazy things you will do

2008-08-12T19:06:00.005-05:00

As most know, I had a total hysterectomy last year. Well, the lack of hormones is wreaking havoc on me. I am having the constant hot/cold flashes. Well I have been so tired of being hot lately that I had my hair cut off. I don't regret it, it is just really different.

This is before and after.

Oh well, my hair will grow out.

What would you do?

2008-07-19T22:29:00.002-05:00

I had an mri done back in March. A week after it was done I called and the nurse said the results were normal. I went for my 4 month follow up and the first thing the Dr. H says is that he wants to check my thyroid because my mri showed a cyst on my thyroid. He could feel it in my neck.

When I got back to work the ladies said that I should have requested a copy of the results. I was in such shock that I didn't ask any questions. I called back and had them fax me the copy of the report. Not only does the report say I have a cyst but the dr that read the results recommended that I have an u/s to investigate it further. WTF? The dr didn't feel it was important enough to call me or forward the results to my family physician?

Not only was there a cyst on my thyroid but there is also a cyst or polyp in my sinus cavity. Did he not feel that this could be a source of headaches? I have migraines all the time and that is why I even see Dr. H. I have decided not to see this dr anymore since he has had such disregard for my health.

I go Monday to see my family physician and Tuesday for an u/s of my thyroid. Pray that it is nothing or that it can be easily taken care of.

Awards Night

2008-07-14T23:36:00.006-05:00

l to r: Marliese, Tanya, me, Nancy (our director) and Becky

Mary Kay has been very rewarding. Where else can you have an excuse to get together with your girlfriends and have fun with makeup? You also get prizes and recognition.

Tonight we had a lovely dinner at Celebrations on Crosslake in Shreveport, LA. We got to dress up fancy and have lots of fun with our Mary Kay family.

Update on Damon

2008-07-13T14:45:00.002-05:00

Here is a follow up to this post. Damon is still off work. He has had lots of tests run and has seen 5 different physicians and no one can figure out what is wrong with him. He is now going to go to the VA so we will not have to pay for anything.

He still has the chest pain and extreme fatigue especially upon exertion.

Austin

2008-07-13T13:44:00.019-05:00

I recently made a trip to Austin and overall it was a good trip. I went with a friend to attend a seminar with the TCFV (Texas Counsel on Family Violence) Survivor's Caucus. I went as a Mary Kay Consultant to help pamper the ladies that have been victims of domestic violence.

The TCFV put us up in the Marriott which was really nice. We went down on Friday evening. On our way, we stopped to visit with Stacie and to see her beautiful home and her new son. He is so precious. He was unhappy when we got there and only his mama could make him happy. This is a picture of Blake. He looks scared to death.

On Saturday after the seminar, we decided to go eat at the Texas Land & Cattle. If you have never eaten there, be warned that it is pricey. It was good and the service was great but man for an appetizer, iced tea, meal and dessert it was $35 for one person.

On Sunday, we made our way to the Capital. On the drive down Congress Ave., we saw quite a few interesting sites. I think the funniest site had to of been the Superman on the side of the road. We stopped to take a picture and realized that it wasn't a statue but rather a person. I told Shawn to wave at him to see if he would wave back and he did. It wasn't long before the public transportation arrived and Superman got on the bus.

Where we stopped to take a picture of superman just happened to be a really cool plant nursery. There was a beautiful water wheel with the name The Great Outdoors on it. We decided to go look around because it just looked so inviting and beautiful. Inside we found lots of interesting things. There were huge windchimes, metal sculptures, beautiful plants, and a huge elephant made out of fertilizer.

After we spent about an hour of explore The Great Outdoors, we decided to head on down to the capital. We explored the capital and grounds for about two hours and decided it was time to head home. If you have never been, I highly recommend it. Books really do not do it justice. The is so much intricate detail in the design of the capital right down to the hinges. Here are pictures from the Capital.
This was the view walking up to the capital.

This was the few from the 2nd floor looking up towards the dome.

Here was a waste of taxpayer's money. This chandelier's light bulbs
spelled T-E-X-A-S. There were two of them in the Senate.

Notice the detail on the doorknobs.

And all of the hinges looked like this.

Here was one of the many gorgeous fountains out front.

4th of July

2008-07-13T13:29:00.005-05:00

We spent the 4th with Mary Jo and her family. It was nice to see Mary Jo and her family again. Tootie was especially cute and she and Adam quickly became buddies. Josh was so friendly to all of my boys by showing them around and letting them play his Wii and just overall watching over them so that Mary Jo and I could catch up and cook.

After dark, we had fireworks which were very interesting when you think you have a fountain and you set it off up close and it turns out to be an aerial and catches the tree on fire. Her are a few photos from the night.

Tootie posing for a picture

Tootie playing with a sparkler

Another sparkler picture

One of the many aerial blast.
Another aerial blast towards the end.

The last shot fired. So beautiful.

It's been a while....

2008-07-12T22:12:00.004-05:00

I got the most fantastic news tonight from my friend, Mary Jo. Her granddaughter has been fighting ALL for over 2 yrs. In June they were told that "Tootie" was in remission and that her last chemo treatment would be around Thanksgiving. Well I got word tonight that they have moved her last treatment date to August 1st. Prayers have been answered for this child and her family.

This is a recent picture of "Tootie". Isn't she so cute?

Mary Kay

2008-06-01T20:20:00.001-05:00

I have decided to start selling Mary Kay to help supplement our income while Damon is not working. If anyone is interested in buying Mary Kay or having a party, please email me at aweaver2007@gmail.com

You can check out my site at http://www.marykay.com/aweaver74

Pictures from the weekend

2008-04-27T19:04:00.005-05:00

I had a busy weekend this weekend. Friday evening I went to a beauticontrol spa night. Saturday morning we had soccer from 9am until about 12:15pm. Then we had Kolby's birthday party at 2pm. Then on Sunday I had a Mary Kay party to go to.

Here are few pictures from Saturday's events.

Miss Gracie was jammin' to some tunes on the cd player and was not happy when anyone tried to help her with it. Oh the joys of an almost 2 yr old that wants to be so independent.

Gracie spyed me taking pictures of her and she decided to give me a grin.

This is Gracie's sister that was deep in thought watching "Bubba" play soccer. "Bubba" is on Brian's soccer team.
Meet the newest member of the Dragoo family. His older brother, Joel, plays on Adam's soccer team. He is only 11 days old and this was his second soccer game to attend. His first one he was only 4 days old.
This is Mario. He is one of our best soccer players on Adam's team. He was deep in thought while concentrating on the ball.

Here is Brian getting ready to kick the ball with an opponent close by ready to take the ball away.

Matthew enjoying a tasty chip with dip at Kolby's party.

After the chip and dip. You can see some of the dip on his mouth.

Kolby opening his first gift from his parents. He got a bb gun which is exactly what he wanted. You can tell by the look on his face that he was excited. And last but certainly not least, below is Kolby trying out his new mini skateboard that I gave him.

Relay for Life

2008-04-27T11:54:00.002-05:00

I've added a counter to the right for a countdown to Relay for Life. Panola County's first Relay for Life will be June 6th to June 7th.

I am still taking donations for the Relay if anyone would like to donate. It is tax deductible. For those that do not know, Relay for Life is the American Cancer Society's largest fundraiser each year. ACS provides all sorts of resources for victims of cancer to help them during their battle and recovery with cancer.

....

2008-04-27T11:48:00.002-05:00

Damon is still off work and from the Short Term Disability papers that the doc filled out. He expects him to be off for an additional 5-6 weeks. He is still hurting and his BP has been boucing around. Yesterday it was 140 something over 112 with his pulse 114. We will make another call to the cardiologist tomorrow to see if he received the results from the heart cath yet.

Finally home!!

2008-04-15T21:56:00.002-05:00

After being in the hospital for 5 days, Damon is finally home. The doc didn't believe the minor blockages he saw were the source of the pain. However, Damon has not had any chest pain since the procedure. We can't help but think that the doc knocked something loose when he put the catheter in and injected the dye.

Of course, the stay would not have been complete without Damon scaring the crap out of me and nurse. About 7:30 this morning, Damon woke up and felt fine other than being a little sore. He went to roll over and all hell broke loose. He was in excruciating pain where his cath was put in. We aren't sure what caused the pain but it put him into shock for about 15 minutes. The shock is what scared us so bad because his BP dropped to 90/57 and his pulse was really low. They did a CT scan and EKG almost immediately after his BP came back up. They wanted to make sure he wasn't bleeding out at the procedure site on the inside. Once the doc got the results, he ordered an ultrasound of the area just to be certain that everything was fine in the area.

All turned out well and Damon did fine the rest of the day other than a little dizziness and getting winded when he walks too far. Of course those are probably just from being in the bed all weekend.

update on heart cath

2008-04-14T19:16:00.003-05:00

The doc came out around 5:30 saying they were done. He saw a few minor blockages but nothing he wanted to do anything about. He said he would run a fasting cholesterol test in the morning and then we could go home.

So we have no answers on what is causing the pain. Damon has already stated he is less likely to go to the dr now because they never seem to find anything wrong with him. He did just state that the dr suggested that he get his gallbladder checked because that can apparently cause the same symptoms that he was experiencing.

Who knows if we will get that done. After a 50k hospital bill I'm sure Damon won't go see a doc for several years now.

Heart Cath

2008-04-14T17:06:00.002-05:00

Well, Damon has been in the hospital all weekend. He was admitted straight from the md's office to the hospital to get control of his pain and to watch him. We waited all weekend for a transfer from GSMC in Marshall to Longview Regional due to our insurance.

He is having constant chest pain that only subsides after taking a nitro pill. Within a couple of hours he is hurting again. The hospital has controlled the pain for the most part with nitro and nubain. We finally got our transfer to regional at about 2:30 pm. By the time I got here, Damon was already in his room so I got him registered and everything. I got up to the room only to find that he has to share a room with 75+ yr old man. And OMG the room reaks of old and stinks so bad. I decided to go down and try to get him moved to a private room. Well wouldn't you know they didn't have any available. When I talked to the nurse, she informed me that the cath lab nurses were waiting in his room for me.

So I get back in the room to find that they have him loaded up and ready to go to the cath lab. So I sit here alone waiting for an update on how things are going and if they will find anything wrong with my husband. I have no friends or family to sit with me because we had no idea they were going to be doing the heart cath this evening. We figured they wouldn't do it simply because Damon had eaten lunch at noon. So they just have him more nubain and are deadening the area with a local anesthetic and proceeding.

I'm really not sure how I am feeling at this moment. I am relieved that we were finally moved to Regional due to insurance issues. But then again I am nervous due to all the possibly things that could go wrong. I should be so worried since Brian has had two heart cath's in the last four years. I think I am just worried about the unknown. I am stressed because I have no one here with me to take my mind off of things.

So, to pass the time I am blogging about the occasion. I should be getting updates soon. I will update you all once I have some answers.

Ugh .. the hubby is stubborn

2008-04-08T20:16:00.002-05:00

Today, Damon calls me at 10am and tells me that he wants me to call the dr to see if they can see him today. I ask him why and he tells me he is having chest pains that radiate down his left arm and up his neck. I told him he needed to go to the ER but he would have no part of it. So I call the dr and they ask if he is having tightness in his chest or if he is feeling faint or nauseous.

I called him back to ask the questions the nurse had asked me. He tell me that he was feeling faint. He tells me he will just wait until 2:15 when he has a dr's appt. That just wasn't sitting well with me so I called him back and tried to convince him to go the ER. He finally agreed. Probably just to shut me up.

So I took off to Kilgore to get him and called him brother to tell him what was going on. He tells me he is closer than I am so he would go get him. Turns out he drove up like a minute before I did. I got Damon and headed to the ER. We get there and go to triage and they take him straight back.

They did a full cardiac work up on him. After 4 hours in the ER, they tell him that his cardiac tests came back fine and diagnosis him with unspecified chest pain and acute chest wall pain. They also scheduled him for a stress test on Thursday. Of course, all I am hearing is "see I told you I didn't need to go to the ER". I am trying to convince him that since his daddy died at 40 yrs old from a heart attack he needs to take these signs seriously because one day he going to think it is just another false alarm and then it is going to be too late.

Why do men have to be so stubborn? I have just got rid of my headache that I had all day long from worrying about him.

Check it out

2008-04-06T20:53:00.003-05:00

Kailani at An Island Life is hosting a giveaway. All you have to do it visit Babycakes Boutique and then come back and tell kailani which one if your favorite.

Pictures, pictures, pictures

2008-04-06T11:18:00.002-05:00

I've been taking a lot of pictures lately. I am trying to get them uploaded onto my website right now. I have taken senior pictures of my friend's son and I also took prom pictures of both her boys and their dates. That was all last weekend.

This weekend I went and took prom pictures for another friend's son at a different school. It was fun taking pictures of them but I could tell the girlfriend was getting tired of taking pictures. Have you ever seen a camo prom dress? If not, here is a picture of one.

Soccer

2008-04-06T11:07:00.004-05:00

Well, soccer season has started and is in full swing. We had our first games on Saturday. Adam and Wade both had a game at 9am and Brian wasn't until 11:30am. Adam's got started on time or maybe even a little early because we had a referee. Wade's, however, didn't get started on time. At Adam's halftime Damon and I switched so that he could watch Adam play. I got down to see Wade just as they were starting. By the time Wade's team got to half time, Adam's game was over and Damon got to watch Wade play too. Adam's team won and Wade's team lost. Of course, Wade's team had only gotten to practice one time due to all the rain last week. After Wade's game, we went home to put on warmer clothes since we froze during their games. Then we went back to the ball park to watch Brian play. Brian's team lost too. I think that was because the team they were playing had a lot of players that were returning from the Fall and they knew what they were doing. Brian's team only had 2 people that had played in the Fall.

Oh well, they had fun. All three boys got to play goalie and did very well. Wade has played before so he acted like he knew what to do. Brian acted as if he was scared of the ball. He didn't do much to go out of his way to stop the ball. Adam just wasn't too sure about it at all. He has been excited to play all week and then when it came down to it he just wasn't sure of what to make of it. Hopefully, next weekend it will be warmer for them.

Death

2008-03-20T21:18:00.004-05:00

Today we buried sweet, precious, tiny Ava Gail. She only lived for 3 hours on March 18th but she was so precious. I have to say that a baby's funeral is the worst of any funeral I have every been to. I felt so sorry and horrible for Andi and Robert. I wanted to hold Andi during the service but she was surrounded by Robert and Grandmother.

Poor Grandmother. She should not have to bury a son when he was just 3 days old, then her husband in 1980, then her other son in 1984, and her daughter is 2005. Now she had to bury her great grand daughter. She was so heartbroken.

How do you console someone that has buried that many of their children/great grandchild/husband? Not to mention all of her brothers and sisters and parents. How do you console a grieving parent that has lost not 1 infant but two and it has not even been 3 years since her mama passed away?

I hope that I can eventually give Andi a little comfort with the pictures of Ava for her to keep. She had expressed to me how much she wished she had pictures of her first baby, David. I hope Andi will want the pictures but I will not present them to her until she asks for them. She does know that someone took pictures of her but I'm not sure if she knows who.

Keep Andi and her family in your prayers please

2008-03-18T19:37:00.003-05:00

Andi went into labor this morning and delivered her baby girl. Unfortunately, the baby did not survive. This is the second baby that Andi and Robert have lost in the last year and half. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time in their lives.

Also please keep her sister, Holly, and her dad, Noble, in your prayers because they also lost the baby. The whole family needs to be remembered during this time.

Sandra (Andi & Holly's mom) has another grandbaby by her side in Heaven to watch over Andi, Holly and Noble.

Keep Andi in your prayers

2008-03-17T21:27:00.002-05:00

D's cousin, Andi, is 23 weeks (today) pregnant. She went in to preterm labor over the weekend. On Saturday, she was dilated to 2cm. This morning she was at 4 cm and tonight she is at 6 cm. They are trying to stop her labor but it doesn't sound promising. Please pray for her, Robert and the sweet baby girl. She needs all the prayers she can get to survive.

Andi & Robert needs prayers for strength. You see, they lost a baby at 16 weeks last year. Andi thought she was in the clear since she was over half way there.

New Job

2008-03-17T21:19:00.002-05:00

I am loving my new job. Sure I filed all day long but it was nice to not be blinded by fluorescent lights. It was nice to sit in a chair (when I could) that supported my back. It was nice to only have to deal with 4 people.

It was nice to not have to clean up behind someone's incompentence.

Corporate BS!!

2008-03-17T20:57:00.005-05:00

Let me just start with the fact that I am ecstatic that I no longer work for a huge corporation. A corporation that claims to be family friendly, but in reality they don't care about family. All they care about is making money and requiring the peons to work 5+ hours of overtime a week and every other Saturday. They are so involved with getting more business yet they have no desire to get more help. They expect the same 250-300 people to be able to handle 1+ million members and their claims.

Seriously, if they want to keep their employees, they need to focus on being more family oriented and trying to make the employees comfortable instead of them being miserable all day long from lights that are so blinding that the employees have to wear tinted glasses and/or prescription sunglasses just to make it through the day. Also, these same people are having to take thousands of dollars worth medicines and have thousands of dollars worth of tests run to figure out the headaches and to help prevent them.

Also, it is pretty crappy to require let 100+ people have their own chairs from home yet just because you get a new maintenance head honcho you want to suddenly not allow people to use their own chairs that are more comfortable and more ergonomic and support the back better. Seriously, doesn't it make more sense to let you employees be comfortable since they do spend 8+ hours a day there in front of computer.

If management would care more for the employees and try to make them a little more comfortable and happy, they might get more production done. It is really asinine of them to preach to us about production and then take us away from doing our jobs 3 days a week for 30 min to an hour for a meeting about nonsense that could have been discussed in an email. And if quality was more the focus then their would be less cleaning up to do after people that are pushed to put out more production sacrificing their quality. If there were some repercussions to those that sacrifice quality then maybe they would slow down and do things right the first time.

And the management really needs to think logically about their new policy for PTO and Flex time. Come on now people....what is the point of flex time if you have to schedule it. And how in the work are 500+ people going to be allowed to take their PTO days if you are only allowing 3 people off at one time. There are not enough days in the year to allow everyone time to take their 15-20 days of time off that they have accrued each year.

I'm just thrilled that I no longer have to deal with this since I quit last Friday.

New website coming soon.

2008-02-29T15:31:00.000-06:00

Soon I will be posting my photos on my new blog located at my new website:
www.bluebonnet-photography.com
Look for this site to be up and running next week.

Photo Shoot

2008-02-23T22:49:00.002-06:00

Here is a link to the photo shoot I had today.

http://www.bluebonnetgreetings.com/webalbum/JPSeniorShoot/

JP is a senior at Carthage High School

Pets

2008-02-17T21:37:00.003-06:00

The boys found this incredibly adorable bunny today. It is obviously someone's pet that has managed to get away. We decided to bring it indoors and put it in a large box and put up fliers asking if anyone is missing a bunny and if so to call us. Hopefully they will come forward quickly.

Naturally, the boys all had to have their pictures made with the bunny. Adam loved it. As you can tell by the pictures, he loved it. He posed holding the bunny then he hugged it and then the bunny tried to get away so he is laughing because it was kicking its feet everywhere.

In the last picture, Damon was holding the bunny and apparently the bunny was tired because he was yawning. It was the cutest thing.

New York

2008-02-10T16:12:00.000-06:00

I'm so excited. Damon and I have decided that since we never got a true honeymoon, we are going to take a weekend excursion and go to NYC. Neither of us have ever been there and we think we will have a blast seeing the sites. We will fly out on a Friday night and and come back on Sunday afternoon. This way we will not have to take any vacation days at work. We will have a day and a half to see the sites in NYC. We may wait until this summer or early fall and make it a long weekend and take Friday and Monday off work so we have more time to spend there. We have to discuss it more and secure our sitter for the boys. If we can get a sitter for the weekend of March 7-9 we will go then. Otherwise, we will wait until probably September.

I know we want to see the Statue of Liberty, Sears Tower, Central Park, American Museum of Natural History, Madison Square Garden, and Ellis Island. I can't think of them now. Of course, it may be better if we put it off so we have more time to spend being a tourist.

Not only will this be like our honeymoon, but this will also be for our 15th anniversary that is coming up in December. I'll post more once we finalize our plans.

Did the Groundhog see his shadow?

2008-02-02T09:16:00.000-06:00

I sure hope not!! I am so sick of the cold. So according to the Reuters, "if the groundhog emerges from his burrow on February 2 and sees his shadow, he will be frightened back into his hole, presaging another six weeks of winter. A cloudy day -- and no shadow -- means winter will end early."

Well according to Punxsutawney Phil we will see six more weeks of winter. According to bloomberg.com, Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his burrow this morning and saw his shadow. :(

For those that didn't know, this was the 122nd annual weather predication and out of those 122 times, the groundhog has seen his shadow 97 times since 1887. I think those people need to leave "Phil" in his burrow and let him come out when he wants too. LOL.

So here is another Boo for Punxsutawney Phil!!

Relay for Life

2008-01-31T22:15:00.000-06:00

Panola County is finally going to have a Relay for Life. This will be the first year that we have had a Relay for Life. I went to the first meeting and it was very informative. I look forward to attending more meetings as a Team Captain. I hope we have a very successful walk. I will post more updates on this as I have them.

Comedy Central

2008-01-28T11:43:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we found ourselves sitting and watching Comedy Central all day as they did their top 20 comedian countdown in hopes of seeing Jeff Dunham. He is one of the best comedians out there. If you have never seen him just do a search on youtube for him.

We were in stitches all afternoon as we watched the various comedians. Some were better than others. If we didn't care for one comedian we would just flip the channel to something else and then at the half hour flip it back. Finally at 8pm they announced their #1 comedian Jeff Dunham. Once his show was over there was a one hour show with Dane Cook. He is pretty good too. Not something you want the kids to watch but pretty funny to say the least.

Do you ever wonder....

2008-01-20T14:26:00.000-06:00

Do you ever wonder if one day when you are gone if you will be forgotten? You hope you aren't but in reality overtime, your distant great-great-great grandchildren or other relatives will most likely not know much about you or where you are even buried.

As Damon and I drove around today looking for interesting things to "shoot", I remembered about this old abandoned cemetery with about 10 graves just right off the main highway. So we went to check it out even though it was 40 degrees outside. The oldest grave there was 111 years old. The newest was a Sergeant in the military that had passed in 40's. Most of the graves were between 1910-1920. This particular stone for Emma Young shows that she passed in Feb. 1899, that makes this stone 109 years old in Feb.

You can tell someone does somewhat maintain the area because it is no longer overgrown as it once was. But still it could use some major work.
As you can see by these two pictures, one is overgrown and the other is about to be taken over. In the spring, when the trees are in full grown and bloom, you will not be able to see these stones most likely. This is a shame. I am going to contact a local historian and see if she knows who maintains the old cemetery. If there is no one in particular, then I may go out there myself this spring and trim back the trees just so these stones can be seen and will not be forgotten. You can really learn a lot from a cemetery if you go and look at the dates and do a little research on the family.

Another interesting thing about this cemetery was the fact that there was a memorial for a member of the Woodsmen of the World. The stone is almost 95 years old but it still looks magnificent and the detail is extraordinary.

Look at the intricate details put into making the hammer and axe put on the stone that looks like an old tree. It is truly astounding that this stone was make 95 years ago in 1913. There is also amazing detail put into the sign that looks like it is hanging on the tree with Mr. Dukes details and the Woodsmen of the World logo. Here is a full shot of the memorial. You may notice that there is a grave located directly behind Mr. Duke. That was his wife's grave. I found that very interesting that his wife was buried behind him instead of beside him considering he died 17 years before she did.

Driving...

2008-01-14T18:41:00.001-06:00

I often wonder if some people get their license out of cracker jack box. Take this morning, for example, I am sitting at the exit of Sonic waiting to turn left. Of course, it was 7:50 am and at that particular time of the morning there is school traffic everywhere. Well on Adams Street, no one has an ounce of courtesy to let someone turn left in the line towards the red light while they are also waiting for the same light. Anyway, back to my original rant, I am sitting there waiting to turn left for about 5 minutes with no one letting me go and this woman pulls from behind me and just goes around me and turns right. I mean had I had the opportunity to go she would have completely messed it up. And the part that upset me was that she glared at me like I was the idiot.

Moving my Photo A Day Challenge

2008-01-13T20:49:00.000-06:00

Since my photo a day challenge will end up being rather large and will interfere with any other blogging I may decide to do I have decided to move it to the following:

http://my3texasboys.blogspot.com/

Dylan

2008-01-13T20:17:00.000-06:00

I have been following the care and progress of Dylan through his CaringBridge Journal that his mom updates daily. It just breaks my heart that a child so young had to endure such a horrible disease such as leukemia. Please pray for Dylan that his spinal tap will be clear tomorrow so that they can proceed with his treatment. You can follow Dylan's treatment here:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/dylanmayo

Dylan's mom has been using the following acronyms and I think they fit well:

Pray Until Something Happens
the
Fully Relying On God

College classes & more

2008-01-13T12:39:00.001-06:00

I ended up passing the two previous college classes that I posted about with a 4.0 GPA. However, the next two classes I had I had to drop because I because too overwhelmed with everyday life. The stress of worrying about my family got to me and I was unable to focus and that was effecting my classes. I chose to drop them. I will take them back up when I am better able to focus and manage my time.

The worry I was speaking of was my sister had a lump appear in her thyroid. When she was 16 she had thyroid cancer and they removed one side of her thyroid. So we were terrified that it had returned. We finally got results after the first of the year that it was benign. My uncle had to have a kidney removed due to a mass in his kidney. Turns out it was renal cell carcinoma. My grandfather passed away on Dec. 18th. My friend, Marie, that I have known since the first grade, her father passed away the very next morning. My husband's grandmother had congestive heart failure due to her aortic valve not working and had to have open heart surgery the Thursday before Christmas. Thankfully she came through with flying colors. I did find out last night that she was released from the hospital last Thursday. So as you can see, I have been under tremendous stress.

I read on a friends blog about a challenge to post a photo a day. I think I will try to do that. Of course I am already 12 days behind. So I will have to find 12 photos and post them. But as least you should get a post a day out of me.

Ack....I forgot what school was like

2007-09-03T21:25:00.000-05:00

Last Monday, I started college. Granted it only two online classes but geez it is kicking my butt. I have to be so dedicated and make sure to manage my time. I also really have to make sure to check my syllabus because man oh man one busy day can cause you to lose 10% of an assignment for being late. I found that out really quick last Wednesday when I had four appointments in one day.

I'm now a little more organized. I have printed off a butt load of stuff and have it organized but now my printer is out of one ink cartridge. This sucks because I can't print anything that requires black ink which is pretty much anything.

Anyway gonna run...I'll update more as I continue my studies.

I think I need some Calgon

2007-04-04T15:44:00.000-05:00

Being couped up in this house with Adam & Wade for 4 days straight is driving me insane. I am on day 5 of not getting to go to work due one of the boys having fever. If they still have fever tomorrow we go back for our 3rd trip to the dr for Wade and 2nd trip for Adam.

Adam is being a total and complete hellion. We should have known not to buy new furniture until he matured a bit. Wade came to tell on him and I see black marker on Wade and that scares me since the only black marker we have is a sharpie. I go check things out and I see black marks on the couch. Damon is going to flip. OMG I wanted to hurt that child.

I'll updated later.

New pictures

2006-08-19T14:01:00.000-05:00

Here is a slide show of sorts of the new pictures we took a couple of weeks ago.

Follow up Groin

2006-08-10T08:35:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the followup with the surgeon to get the results of the cat scratch fever test results. Damon went with us to hear what Dr. M had to say. We get in there and he tells us that the test results were negative and that normally he would biopsy the swollen lymph node but since Wade appears to be better he doesn't want to traumatize him like that and he would prefer to take a wait and see approach.

I had brought the pictures of his rash that had appeared the same day that he had started complaining of the groin with me to show him and I also asked him if it was possible that it could be possible that he might have Tularemia. I asked because he has a general not feeling well and headache and my dad had just been diagnosed with this since had been biten by a tick and Wade has been at their house and in the woods with my dad and it is very possible for him to have gotten a tick on him. The dr got very concerned and said just one moment and left the room and then come back and said ok Dr. H will see you downstair right now.

Dr. H is the pediatrician. We went down two floors to see Dr. H and I took her the pictures of the rash from 7/28 and 7/29 and she agreed that it didn't really look like poison oak and she wished I had just brought him in to see her that day. I told her that I called the phone nurse and she claimed to have not received the call on Friday. She told me in the future to not even bother calling the phone nurse if he has something weird like that to just call and tell appointments that I need an appointment immediately per Dr. H and bring him in that day.

So, back to the groin thing, the lymph node has gone down so we are taking a wait and see approach and if Wade starts to run a fever for no apparent reason then I am to bring him in or if he breaks out in another rash for no apparent reason. She spoke with the infection disease dr on staff and she agreed Dr. H decision to take the wait and see approach because giving Wade the antibiotics for Tularemia would be more harmful than good if he doesn't have it.

Painful Groins

2006-08-02T10:06:00.000-05:00

On Friday, Wade complained of pain in his groin area. When I tried to examine the area he just about jumped out of his skin. I had my husband look at it because he has had a hernia in the area before and that is what he figured it might be. So on Monday I called and scheduled an appt to get it looked at.

Tuesday morning we go in to get the groin pain checked on. The doc checks it out and can tell something is there but isn't sure if it is a hernia or swollen lymph node. So she schedules us with a surgeon for 1:15 that afternoon. Great... I have to kill almost 4 hrs in a town that I have nothing to do. FUN!!

We filled out the paperwork at the surgeon's office...that took all of 15 minutes....its now 9:30...hmm what to do now. Off to Hobby Lobby we go. We walk around slowly. Wade gets bored easily. He finds a cheap toy with two small wooden airplanes and 3 parachutes men in it. We get it and leave. Crap it is only 10am. We go to Old Navy since they just reopened. Look around a little bit, go next door to Office Depot to look at envelopes like Lisa suggested (what size did you get Lisa?), then we go next door to Books a Million...ah a place to kill some time. We stayed a little while then he got bored again and was ready to go. We leave....it is still only 11am. So we go eat lunch at Wendy's (his choice...I was going to choose a place with a playground). We are done by 11:30 so we go to a park type place that has track to walk on and we went and walked for 30 minutes. Then we just sat in the truck with the a/c for a while. Finally 1pm rolled around and we could go to the dr's office.

We saw Dr. M. This was the most redneck surgeon I have ever seen. He came in with scrubs on, his hospital white coat, and these rubber boots like you would see someone wearing fishing or hunting. He even had a dip in his mouth. LOL. He tells Wade he needs to see examine his parts and tells him he isn't sure what he calls them and then says "umm your gonads, nuts...what do you calls them?" So Wade says...my nuts" Of course Wade was nervous anyway so he didn't like having a man examining his parts. Dr. M thought his right testicle has gone back up in him so he sent us for an u/s at 2:30. Great more waiting.

Funny story: After the doc left the room, Wade stuck his hand down in his pants and I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I know it was there so I'm checking to see where it went?"

I told him ... "well son you are looking on the wrong side he said it was the right side"

He says, "oh yeah that's right" so he checks the right side and says "its there, I knew it was".

We go at 2:30 for the u/s. The lady was real nice but she scared the crap out of me at the end. It took about an hour of her doing the scan. She first did his scrotum to make sure his "nuts" were where they were supposed to be and they both were. So she goes up to the area where it was painful and you could definately see something there. She couldn't tell me if it was a lump/mass, whole or what. She took lots of pictures and then tells Wade to stay there while she goes to talk to the radiologist to see if he wants any more pictures or to see if he wants to look at it himself. Ten minutes later she comes back and says ok get dressed and go back up stairs to the surgeons office and he will give you the results the radiologist just talked to him.

So back upstairs we go. We found out it was not a hernia but a swollen lymph node. So he sends us downstairs for bloodwork to check for Cat Scratch Fever. Well he hasn't been around any cats so I know it isn't that but yet we have to wait the 3-5 days for the test results because they want to rule that out first.

So I'm a nervous wreck now that I have done internet searches on what it could be. Let's hope the nurse is right and it is just an infection somewhere.

Illness has taken hold of the household again

2006-08-02T09:53:00.000-05:00

Most of July was consumed with me recovering from surgery on June 30th and then a post op infection. Then on Friday July 28th the daycare calls to say that Wade has a rash on his hands and face and they wanted me to come get him. So I do and upon getting him I determine he has come in contact with something he is apparently allergic to and he has scratched and therefore spread it to his face and neck. I made a call to the dr's office on Friday because of the rash but also because of he was complaining of some pain in his groin area(will explain this in another post). They didn't bother to call me back...this made me angry. But we just kept up the Benadryl and hydrocortizone cream. Saturday morning rolls around his poor face was horrible.

After another call tot he dr's office, they finally called back and called him in some steriods. Within 2 hours his face was looking 75% better. We have decided it must have been poison oak from a tree that was cut down on Thursday that caused the break out.

I work in Antarctica

2006-07-11T14:01:00.000-05:00

Or so it seems lately. Even though it is a blistering 95 degrees outside it is a very chilly 65 degrees inside. Despite many protests and many pleas it seems it is either an all or nothing thing. We can either have it hotter than Hades inside or a meat locker...take your pick. Management apparently picked meat locker.

I am frequently going to the restroom to run my hands under warm water to warm them up and taking my breaks outside just to warm up because this is insane. I should not have to come dressed for winter in the middle of the summer. I am writing this sitting here with my fleece jacket on and my fleece blanket wrapped around me and wish I had some kind of snow boots on because my toes are like ice cubes.

Until next time...

Cross your fingers

2006-07-10T19:19:00.000-05:00

We are currently trying to sell our mobile home. Cross your fingers that the people accept our asking price and want to buy it soon because we could really use the money.

Non stop Fighting

2006-07-10T00:25:00.000-05:00

Does it ever stop?

It seems that since the summer has started there has been non stop fighting in this household amongst the boys. If it isn't Brian and Wade it is Wade and Adam. It drives me insane. And over nothing most of the time. Brian instigates a lot of the fights that start between him and Wade so I think Wade in turn thinks he has to start fights between him and Adam.

Take this weekend for example. Brian was supposed to have had a friend come over Saturday to stay the night. When it came time to go get him, Brian called to get exact directions to his house and he wasn't home. He continued to call until 8pm. Brian was hurt and upset. So instead of ranting and raving about it he just was a PITA and took it out on Wade instead. He wanted to be mean and hateful and turn off the tv. Not just turn it off on the tv...I mean turn it off, unplug it, unplug the satellite, everything so it takes Wade a good 15 minutes to hook it all back up just to watch TV. I'm telling you he was being a little PITA.

Wade in turn just takes stuff away from Adam since he is only 3. He won't let him follow him around, etc. Typical stuff that 7 year olds do and 3 year olds don't understand and then throw in a few random punchs and a few "oh I'm sorry I didn't mean it" with me saying "yeah right".

So here I sit at midnight night in the nice peace and quiet enjoying my alone time. I really should be sleeping since I have to get up in less than 6 hours to go to work. But for some reason I can't seem to unwind and go to sleep. I'm enjoying my alone time way to much after all the bickering and fighting today.

Argh...the life in a house full of testosterone....where's the calgon when you need it?

Punk Ass Thieves

2006-07-09T23:42:00.000-05:00

Transferred from Myspace, posted on July 4th 2006

Ok so we just moved to this house a month ago. We've be leary about bring the kids bikes over because we really don't have a place to store them outside. We finally went and got the kids bikes and brought them to the house on Saturday. Well we had them here all of 2 days and some punk ass theif stole my oldest son's bike out of our back yard. Naturally I can't afford to run out and buy him a new Mongoose bike like he had right now. He's distraught because he loved that bike. He got it for his birthday. We called the cops and made a police report but it is very unlikely they will ever recover it.

Just really sucks that some little $hit had to come take my baby's bike.

Update on my procedure

2006-07-09T23:41:00.000-05:00

Transferred from Myspace, posted on June 30th 2006

Turns out I was worried for nothing really. I mainly had scar tissue from my 2 previous c-sections and from my tubal that had attached itself in places that it didn't need to be. The doc detached those areas and then she drained 2 small cysts on my right ovary. Hopefully I'll be good to go in a few days because right now I hurt worse than I did after I had both c/s. This sucks because the pain meds aren't touching the pain. I guess it is just soreness from them moving stuff around but DAMN this sucks.

Anyway theres the update. At least it is over and hopefully I will feel better next week and not in constant pain.

Going under the knife

2006-07-09T23:40:00.000-05:00

Transferred from Myspace, posted on June 29th 2006

I can't tell my husband how scared I am right now because he tells me I am being silly and not to worry because they will not find anything tomorrow. I can't tell my mom or my any other family members because they will all tell me the same thing. I can't tell me friends inevitably they all tell me "don't worry everything will be fine".

But why don't I feel like everything will be fine? Why do I have this gut feeling they are going to go out and give my husband desvistating news tomorrow? The ironic thing is I'm not really worried about myself. I'm worried my husband and how he would handle the "bad" news if the doc the news that I just have this gut feeling she will find.

You see my husband do well with illness and the fear of losing family members and I am so afraid of how he will handle any potential bad news especially since he would be alone when he got the news. Maybe my gut is wrong this time but I've just had this bad feeling for the last few weeks and I can't seem to shake it.

Keep me in your thoughts tomorrow.

Pixel Perfect Signatures

2006-07-09T23:39:00.000-05:00

If you are ever looking for an awesome looking signature check out Pixel Perfect Signatures. The ladies there do gorgeous custom work and better yet they do it for free.

http://www.pixelperfectsignatures.com/

Over The Hedge

2006-07-09T23:35:00.000-05:00

Transferred from Myspace posted on May 29th 2006

This was a great movie. We laughed even though we didn't have our kids with us. It was just me, my husband, brother-in-law, and my friend Christie.

We originally went to Shreveport to go to the Mudbug festival. We found it to be boring so we left there and went ot the Boardwalk. This was the first time my husband and I had been over there. It was very impressive. We ate at the Buffalo Bar & Grill. From what I am told you should really try their Buffalo Zoo drink if you like to drink. We then walked around a bit more and decided we should kill some time by seeing a movie. We decided on Over the Hedge even though we had no kids with us. It was great.

Once the movie was over we killed some time by going to Bass Pro Shop. My husband was in heaven there. He would love to spent all his money there since he loves to fish. Around 9pm we decided to head back to the parking garage. This was a huge mistake. Apparently everyone was trying to leave at the exact same time. And whoever did the plans for that parking garage was an idiot. They only had one exit whole for all levels. We sat there for 2 freaking hours trying to get out of that damn place.

Other than the parking garage incident we had a wonderful time and it was so nice to spend a Saturday without kids. I just hope we can do it again sometime.

WTF is wrong with teachers nowadays

2006-07-09T23:34:00.000-05:00

Transferred from Myspace which was posted on May 22nd 2006

My middle son's teacher is such a witch.

I have had nothing but trouble out of this witch all year. If my child doesn't write perfectly the teacher counts off for it and you would think the damn world was going to end because his damn m's aren't touching the lines. He is in the damn first grade woman get a grip.

So last week she sends a little nasty gram home telling us that he just isn't performing at first grade level and she wants a parent teacher conference....umm school ends in 1 1/2 it's a little late bitch. Besides that we had already gotten all his standardized test scores and he had passed all the tests and didn't really good on them. After I got the little nasty gram I called the counselor and talked to her and she pulled his file and said "well I show here that he passed the required material and is passed the 2nd grade".

I had already commented to my husband last week that W was already doing harder work than B did in the 1st grade. I don't remember B reading that well and doing hard of math problems in 1st grade. And doing ABC order in 1st grade. But yet W isn't performing up to 1st grade level.

Here is the real kicker...W was so excited this weekend when he realized that he only had 4 days of school left. Then I made the comment that he would get to go to the new school next year when he goes to 2nd grade. He says "no I don't I have do stay in my school that I am at this year because Mrs. M says I am failing 1st grade". I told him no he wasn't. And he says yes I am just look at my work you can look at my papers and I have failing grades and I am going to fail first grade. Mrs M says I am going to fail first grade because I just can't do the work and I am not good enough to go to 2nd grade.

OMG I wanted to hunt the witch down and kick her ass right then. Thank god it was a Sunday and I don't know where she lives. I have calmed down a little bit and decided it might be best if I just talk to the principal and let them talk to the teacher because I might say something I regret but I refuse to let that witch get away with talking to my son that way and making him feel worthless and telling him he is failing when in fact he is passing and failing very few papers that he has brought home.

God I hate very few people and this woman is one of them.

Dr's office's are supposed to get it right

2006-07-09T23:32:00.000-05:00

Transferred from Myspace, posted on May 22nd 2006

A little back story here my oldest son got a rusty fish hook in his calf on Saturday and so we had go today to get a tetanus shot. I should have known it was going to be a bad afternoon when I got behind every single slow person possible. It took me nearly an hour to get there when it normally only takes 45 minutes.

Any way, we get there and the nurse gives him the tetanus shot and they go ahead and give him the other half of his hep A shot. B isn't happy about it but he does fine. He asks to go to Wal-Mart after we are done so we do. While we are there my cell phone rings. It is the dr's office. The nurse asks if I am still in town. I say that I am and ask why and she proceeds to tell me that she gave B the wrong shot and it won't hurt him but he must have the tetanus shot so I need to bring him back to the dr's office. She also assures me that I won't be charged for the MMR shot that they mistakenly gave him and the tetanus shot they are going to give him correctly when we return. Which I could care less if they are going to charge me for the tetanus shot since that is what I came for in the first place but I'll be damned if they are going to charge me for a damn shot he wasn't supposed to get in the first place.

The dr assures us that B will be fine with his SVT and he is just extra protected against MMR & chicken pox now. I know people make mistakes and all but damn what if my child had been allergic to that shot. What if it this somehow causes B to go into an SVT spell. I already stress enough worrying if my child is going have an SVT spell and I don't need to worry about the damn nurse screwing up and me wondering whether he is going to have a spell or not.