Creatures

Meet Katie's newest friend. Not another turtle. We have too many creatures already.




Cutest little baby frog. I don't know how she found it.


First night there Jesse comes in with the biggest frog I've ever seen.

Amy licks her lips in anticipation. Mmmm, frog legs!

And Jacob just chomps down on the head. Yuck!




Jacob's catch. He actually cooked and ate these tiny fish.

Lake Caddo

We decided to run away for Easter weekend. We found a great swamp house for rent and made the plans. Jacob drove up to spend the weekend with us too. We went to a place called Uncertain, TX and stayed on a river leading into Caddo Lake. The house we rented had canoes and was in an ideal location. The weather was perfect! Jesse hunted alligators both nights and found one each time. He was able to find the alligator because of his mating call. He is quite the alligator hunter. Fortunately, the alligator ran away and we didn't bring one home. In fact, he didn't get near this alligator. I stayed behind in the house just in case Jesse got crazy and I had to raise the kids alone. Luckily it his adventured didn't come to this morbid end, this time. He had the time of his life fishing, canoing, hunting creatures, etc., etc, etc. This was definitely a vacation for Jesse. Me... not so much. But I didn't get to relax and thanks to my absent-mindness, I didn't study the entire time. I took the wrong text book and couldn't work on my study guide. Oh well, life goes on.

The wisteria was in full bloom. It climbs up the trees and takes over. Beautiful to behold.


The trees grow in the water. It's very strange but fun to canoe through. It was like playing bumper cars with the trees trying to get the canoe through.

Meeting Baby Maggie

On our way to Lake Caddo we stopped in Tyler to visit Sam and Annette and meet their new baby girl. It was a lot of fun. What a beautiful little family.

Sheesh, I need a vacation!

It's been crazy around here. Every once in a while I hit a small window of time when there is not too much going on. The house starts staying cleaner, the meals are a little better quality, the laundry is folded and put away, and I'm getting decent sleep. And then.... Boom, it hits me and I am spiraling out of control again. It's mostly self-induced so I really shouldn't complain but when it's happening I just feel like I'm drowning. Lately has been that way around our house. Things always seem to hit us at once too. It can't be spread out over periods of time making life more manageable, it all has to happen at the same time. Crazy how that works. So here's an update on our happenings lately. (I use this blog for journaling, so bear with me).
Katie is doing great. Nothing new to report. Reading up a storm. She is preparing for Kindergarten graduation on May 19th. Yea!!! Weep:( I was a little worried when I found out the day and time because I start my externship on May 10th and I will be in a hospital M-W-F all summer long. We don't get to take time off or get vacation from this. I told Katie I didn't know what I was going to do. She said "That's okay Mom, you can go to my next Kindergarten graduation". I cried. Not a happy mom that day. But all is well. I talked to my supervisor and she said that it won't be a problem, especially letting them know at the very beginning and I will just make it up at the end of the summer. I was very relieved. I went back to school and decided I wanted a career for many reasons. One of those was so I didn't just waste away all day at home while the kids are in school. I had no intention of missing important moments of their lives though. Sometimes this truly is a challenge and I feel very pulled between my two worlds.
Jack's just being Jack. I don't have much to say because he doesn't really talk to me much. He went on his first scout campout last weekend. Jesse went with him. They had a lot of fun. He's also getting ready to register for Middle School. CRAZY!! I can't believe he's already this big. What am I gonna do???
Sydney didn't get into FWAFA (as I already reported) but I called and it turns out she's 5th on the waiting list and the woman I spoke with said she would not be surprised at all if she didn't get a call this summer. 5th is a great place to be. So we are hopeful. She just auditioned for the school musical and landed the lead female role. Yea!!! But we found out today she has to kiss a boy in the play. Ugh! Not good. She's not quite sure what she's going to do. Also, we finally allowed her to have her first boy friend. She's so excited. He's a very nice kid too. He came to dinner the other night per his request. She asked if he could have dinner with anyone in the world who would it be. He responded "you and your family". Smart boy. So we had him over for dinner Tuesday night. He was respectful from the moment he entered. Yes Ma'am, no sir, can I help with dinner, let me clear those plates, do you need help with the dishes? All night he was like this. I have to say, I am very proud of Sydney for choosing a nice boy. But it's also very hard to accept that she is getting to this stage.
That's all for now. I hope to have pictures from our upcoming trip to Caddo Lake. I'm so excited to go somewhere new.

Watergardens

We decided to grab a pizza and meet Jesse downtown at the Watergardens on Friday. It's always a nice place to stop and have lunch. Jacob had never been, either. We took a few pictures while we were there. It was midday, very sunny, but I think some of them turned out. I love having so many great subjects to photograph all the time. Jack does call me the papparazzi, though. He's not nearly as cooperative as the girls.


It's so good to have Jacob back. Jack has missed being strangled.





These days all you see Sydney doing is texting, texting, texting, even when there are beautiful things all around us.

Botanic Garden with Sydney

Today Sydney and I had a fabulous day seeing some of the wonderful sights around Fort Worth. It's great when the city you live in has enough to do that you don't feel like you have to go away to see fun things. We decided on a girlie lunch at wonderful McKinley's Bakery. Afterward we headed the the Botanic Gardens because I was in the mood to take pictures. I haven't had time since school started so this was super fun for me. We really lucked out because the butterfly exhibit is going on right now. They have a huge arboretum filled with trees, flowers, a waterfall and tons of butterflies flying all around. It was so cool. After going through the exhibit, we walked around the gardens. There aren't a lot of blooms yet, but it's still a beautiful place to visit. I can't wait to come back in a few weeks. Sydney was so patient to take me take pictures of her all day. She doesn't love having her picture taken, but she's such a beautiful subject. What a wonderful day!

Sad news

She got the letter today and she didn't get in:( She is on the waiting list, but we don't know what that means. She is very sad. Thanks for all the good wishes. We will try again next year. She's incredible and will do well wherever she goes, but she really wanted to go to FWAFA.

Things that make me happy

It's important to concentrate on the little things sometimes. I am trying so hard to study right now, but my little Katie is in he room with me. She is waiting for her daddy to come out of the room and going running with her. She got new running shoes tonight and she decided she needs to go try them out. While waiting, she has picked up a book and is reading it the Salem, the cat. She reads a page and then shows her the pictures. She talks to her like a real person. The cat just sits and listens. What a good cat. What a wonderful daughter. I love being a mom. I only wish I could capture every wonderful moment of everyday since the day each of them were born. They are growing so fast and I can't seem to slow it down. How fun this life is.

Signs that you may be losing your mind

I have become a self-talker. I talk to myself all the time. I think that is probably pretty normal, but I do it in front of people. I feel like I'm losing it.
Also, I talk to our iRobot Roomba, AKA Robie on a very regular basis. In my defense, everyone in the family does it. Robie eats anything in his path and we find ourselves scolding him. It makes no sense, but we do it anyway. Sometimes he gets stuck and we talk him out of his stuckness. Sometimes he bothers us while we're doing the dishes or sitting at the table. We tell him to quit being a pest. It's truly ridiculous. We know it's a machine but we can't help ourselves.
Then there is the fact that Jesse's pet frog is the cutest dang thing on the planet. I baby talk little Job and study with hanging out on my chest. It's odd to say the least. I don't know what makes me do it, but I just love this frog.

Funny Katie Story

This morning Katie got dressed as she normally does. She put on a little skort and shirt. I left to take Sydney to school and then came back for the other two. When I came in, Katie had put on a pair of tights and shoes. I was so proud of her for finding tights, taking off and putting back on the skort (which would be necessary to put on the tights)and putting on her shoes. I told everyone to hop in the car so we could quickly get to school. When the kids got out I was watching Katie walk into the building and noticed she was walking kind of funny. As she rounded the corner, I understood why. She had not removed her skort to put on her tights, but had just pulled them up right above her knees and left them, impairing her walking and looking ridiculous from the back. I about died! It was too late to do anything, and I was in the carpool line so I couldn't get out. I drove home and emailed her teacher explaining so she wouldn't think I dressed her that way. How embarrassing! She is such a funny little girl.

I'm too busy to be interesting

But we have had several things around our house lately to report.

Sydney was in her middle school One-Act Play competition last weekend. They did a production of "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" and she played the part of Raggedy Ann. Not a huge part, but it was the part she auditioned for and wanted. She was fabulous! The play did not advance but I thought they did a nice job. She also had her final audition for FWAFA on the 19th and now we just wait. We are registering for High School (ugh, that one gets a little stuck in my throat) and proceeding as if there were no reason to do different. But we are both very anxious to hear one way or the other whether she was accepted. There were so many kids auditioning! I can't imagine how they will make their choice. She's excited about High School here, too. It's a new experience, not to mention all her friends are here. Oh, have I mentioned she's discovered texting and boys. Shoot me now! She texts constantly. It's out of control! At least now I have something to threaten her with when she won't get her room clean. And the boy thing, well it's still not too bad, but she's noticing them and they are noticing her. She's a good kid and doesn't seem to preoccupied with it. We'll just watch and wait, and hope she is smarter than her mama was at her age. And finally, the last exciting Sydney news...she got glasses. I need to take a picture to post, and I will do that tomorrow. Turns out, she's near sighted like brother and did the same thing he did when she got her glasses. She walks around saying "oh wow, I can read...." or "Oh, wow, there are leaves on that tree." We will look at getting contacts in about a week, but I don't know if she even wants them now. She's cute in her glasses.
Jack, well what can we say about Jack. He rarely comes out of his room, says hardly anything, always agreeable, very lovely boy. He's got plans every weekend, talks on the phone more than a teenage girl, and is constantly getting grounded from his laptop, computer and video games for going over his hour each day. This time I declared him grounded for the rest of the school year. The thing is, he doesn't argue. He just does wonderful little jobs around the house, quietly serving without ever revealing his agenda, until boom, he's got me and I cave in and let him have his technology back. Jesse says I'm a little soft on him, but how can I not be, he's so cute and sweet and my boy. Isn't that how it's supposed to be?
Katie is reading up a storm. She tells us all the time that she doesn't know how, but not true. I just don't think she always realizes what's she's doing is reading. I love when they just get it one day and it's not hard so they don't think they're doing it because they were expecting it to be more complicated. It's the funnest thing watching that part of their world open up.
Jesse is sick as a dog. Stayed home from work today and now he has pink eye, so he'll probably be working from home for the rest of the week. He's not complaining. I just hope some things can get done around here with him home for a few days. I mean, he can't be working all the time right, and the laundry is just sitting there, on the couch, getting pushed to the side and sat on by everyone, but put up by no one.
And me, I'm just busy.