Ok, so this will be a pictureless post but tomorrow I plan on a post that is only pictures...

I've been gone a while from here and decided to catch you up for our month of January. First..the kids were sick...forever! They first had a stomach bug that was vicious for the first 5 days and then seemed to linger for 9 or 10 days. That finally finished and we were blessed with two nieces and a nephew staying with us for a few days (fri-mon). It was FABULOUS! I loved having them around. They are just such great kids and we have so much fun just being together. :0)
As soon as we finished with that, the kids went to school ONCE and Georgia started to run a fever. Her fever was off and on at first, dr. couldn't find a cause. Then it got stronger and was accompanied by lots of boogers. She was pretty puny but still ok. Then Caleb started. His grew MUCH worse. His turned into the flu and lasted over a week. NO FUN.
So we are all finally back at school and it feels like the cloud has lifted. :0)

I want to say that my hubby was amazing. The kids stayed home with him on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with me on Mondays and Wednesdays. That way, I didn't have to miss every day of work. It was GREAT! All in all, I think Caleb went to school for a total of 3 days for the entire month of January. Nice. Gotta love payin' the money but not being there. Ahhh well...

Within that time we also had some great things...
we babysat a baby pug for 4 days and had a blast!
I had my outing with Sis and PapaLou and loved it.
I took Eli to a trainer for a private lesson and found out "he doesn't have a mean bone in his body and isn't aggressive to other dogs, just his "motor runs a little high". With some more intensive obedience and training, he should be a little calmer." I have to start getting him around other dogs though.
I painted and completely redecorated our guest bathroom and it is GORGEOUS! It went from not having " a look" at all to a very beautiful one.
I have fallen WAY behind in my digital scrapbooking.
....
hmmm...that's all I can come up with right now!

Just wanted to touch base and apologize for the lack of posts!
:0)
be back tomorrow with pics!

So today was our day to celebrate and remember my fabulous Mom.
And we did.
It was wonderful!
We shopped and walked
walked and shopped.
Chico's was my mom's favorite store so we headed there.
My Sis and I both got something. (I got a super cute sweater coat and a nice red top)
then the mission was SHOES.
Man, that was tough!
I am NOT a shoe gal...when your best size is around a girl's 3...it's hard to find shoes.
SOME 5s fit but not most, or they fit good enough and I wear them anyway... couldn't find any of those.
Seemed like the shoe mission was going to be unattainable.
BUT then at Macy's, in the kids department, we found the furry Crocs HALF OFF!
I got another pair and PapaLou bought pairs for both my kiddos for next year.
YEA!
Then when the stores closed at 6 we headed to a neat little restaurant.
I finished off "My Mom Day" with more thoughts of her and enjoyed a margarita in her honor (it's one of her favorite drinks and mine too!...we didn't have the shoe obsession in common but we both love(d) margaritas!)

So...
I bought something at Chico's
I got a pair of shoes
AND
I had a margarita!

The best part...doing all of it with my Sis and PapaLou.
I don't know that we have ever spent time like that with just the three of us, it really was very special.
I look forward to it in years to come (although I'm not sure PapaLou wants to do that much walking and shopping again!)

perfect day and one that my mom would have enjoyed immensely.
YEA!

(this is a direct post that I copied from my Sister's blog...she gave permission) :0)

In seven days it will be the one year anniversary of my mom's "Graduation Day". The day she entered heaven and the Presence of the Lord. I have been dreading the day. It has loomed on the horizon of time like a black hole.

So, I've decided to do a little something to make the day hold some laughter and fun. I knew I wanted to be with my sister and Papalou on January 25th, but wasn't sure of what exactly to do. Papalou came up with the perfect idea. The three of us will go shopping at my mom's favorite shopping mall. A stop in Chico's will be a necessity. And, in my mind, buying a pair of shoes will be a necessity too.

In true blogger fashion, I'm declaring next Sunday "If the Shoe Fits, Buy It!" Day. I would love for you to buy a pair of shoes for yourself January 25th or in honor of January 25th. From Payless to Prada, it's all a go. Whatever you like. Whatever strikes your fancy. Whatever makes you think, "Hey, I should buy an outfit to go with these shoes!" I'm giving you an excuse.

If you have a blog, post a photo of your shoes that day. If you don't have a blog, email me a photo of the shoes and I'll make a slide show. I'd also love it if you passed this idea on to anyone who might want to honor my mom/have a great reason to justify buying a pair of shoes. Feel free to copy and paste the little photo on the right (with my mom's actual shoes) to your blog. Spread the word.

I think it will make me grin.
I'm confident it would have made my mom giggle.

There is a great blogsite where she is having a random chosen winner for one of these ADORABLE lunch totes! I think they are precious!
I think they are super stylin'!

The blog having the contest is $5 dinners...it's a great site (I'm doing a few of the recipes this week!). She's a wealth of information... check it out sometime (if you haven't already! :0)

I ALWAYS need help with dinner suggestions and keeping it cheap is good for me! (we're doing the beef goulash tomorrow night!)
:0)

Yep, tonight is THE NIGHT.

"24" starts tonight!

I am so excited! I will say that watching HOURS of it every night this past week was a bit exhausting so we took last night off. We will watch the two hour preview that was shown in Nov. tonight and then tonight's episode as well (YEA FOR DVR!).

I am very pumped.

Anxious to see who is still there (CHLOE AND MORRIS??? please! I guess with the little one around???) and who is not (NADIA can go in my opinion...or she'll just turn out bad..).

See any drama that will later unfold with Jack and Audrey.

What about Bill and his wife?

Who will be president now? Ya know, they seem to need a new one EVERY season lately!

I ended up liking Tom Lennox this past season...will he still be there?

Ahhh...so much to think about!

Are you ready?

The event takes place TONIGHT between the hours of 7 pm and 9 pm

:0)

We go to the nearby elementary school playground often.

Caleb loves it if other kids are there playing so he can find someone to play with.

Last Saturday there was a little boy named Chris at the park. Well, I say little but Chris was a pretty tall 5 year old, super long legs (and no, not just in comparison to ours!)
Anyway, Chris was a lot of fun to play with for Caleb and they got along great.
Then Chris did something fabulous...he walked over to a nearby bike and hopped on.

He had seen us arrive on our bikes so he asked Caleb if he wanted to ride bikes for a while.

Chris though, didn't have any training wheels on his bike!

He took off like a rocket! He and Caleb rode bikes together around the track, racing over and over.

Caleb lost every time.

I pointed out "Look, Chris doesn't have training wheels on his bike. You can go faster without training wheels."
Caleb must have pondered this for a while because when they were finished riding Caleb asked Chris "How old are you?"

Chris replied "5".

AHHH...the look on Caleb's face! He immediately ran to me and said "Momma, I want to take my training wheels off." :0)

I didn't have the tools there to do so AND we couldn't find Caleb's helmet.
So it had to wait.
The next day we woke up to dropping temperatures and lots of wind.

We postponed our biking adventure.

Yesterday evening we finally got the new helmet and headed for the park, knowing we didn't have much time before the sun went down.
Caleb was determined though.

And

He did it!

A couple of little distances and then one LOOOONG way...all by himself! It was so great! I was screaming and cheering like a crazy lady. :0)
He did a few more short bursts and before leaving, another really long stretch. By then, it was dark so we headed home, promising to go bike riding today.

Well, true to Texas weather lately...while yesterday hit 80 degrees, this morning it was 51 and forecasts showed the temps to continue to drop all day. So at 9:00 with a temp of 51, that was the warmest we are supposed to get all day. I asked Caleb if he wanted to go try out riding again.

I didn't need to ask.

We drove up to the park to try to get some ride time in.

Caleb did FANTASTIC! He got on and just took off!
He doesn't have the hang of turning yet, he slows down to much when he tries.
But he went really far and we were both super excited.

Problem was...the winds here are strong today (20-30 mph!) and after two long stretches, Caleb was finished.
"It's too cold and the wind is hard Momma, I want to go watch a movie."
(Yeah, my kids aren't real hip to cold weather!)

We're prayin' that God will work with us on the biking/weather combination sometime soon. Seems like lately the only great weather is when we are NOT available to go biking....
we have faith though.

So...here is my big boy on his bike!

I'm working on it.

You see, "24" starts its new season (FINALLY) in just 5 short days.

"24" hasn't been on in over a year and a half since last season never happened.

So I've been waiting a LOOOOOOOONG time for this.

Since my brain is NOT what it used to be, I knew it needed refreshing.

With that in mind, myself, my hubby, and a neighbor friend are all watching ALL of Season 6 this week.

In preparation for Sunday.

Because it's just not right to be unprepared.

Jack wouldn't like that.

...........................

It will take place
between the hours
of 7 pm and 9 pm

...........................


:0)