Crazy Days!

Hello Everybody!  Today is a rainy Tuesday, and John Stephen and I are drying off from a few errands in the rain!  Just thought I'd catch up the blog and try to stay in the swing of things around here! 

I had my Pre-Christmas Nervous Breakdown this morning, and Shew! I feel better already!  Do you ever hold yourself together through a stressful situation, and the when it is over just fall apart over nothing?  

Here are Sydney and John Stephen making homemade pizza rolls last Friday night!  It was John Stephen's first attempt at cooking, and he LOVED it!  Sydney let him wear her butterfly apron, which was hysterical!  These tasted terrible, but the kids loved them.  I guess it was a nice activity for the little maniacs! 

And speaking of cooking...I sent Don to the grocery store on Saturday night with very little direction.  I just said," Get a steak or whatever looks good"...Here is what "looked good" to Don...

Yep, that is a 7 lb standing Rib Roast!  What most normal people reserve for Christmas dinner, we have on a humdrum Saturday night around here!  Ha!  It took two big meals to polish that thing off, which is saying a lot considering how much Pax and Don can eat! 

I've got Emeril's Red Beans and Rice started on the stove right now.  If you haven't tried it, you should!  I have to cook meals that can simmer on the stove top while we are waiting for Basketball or Football games to be over.  This one has been a crowd pleaser, and it is pretty easy!  You can find it on the food network website...


And, I guess most people are looking towards Christmas about now.  I sure have been planning and plotting about the season ahead.  When they put the Christmas decor out at Walmart a few weeks ago, I had to take a spin through.  I am sort of a Decor snob, but I thought the ornaments were pretty cute this year! These vintage style wreaths were like $2- pretty cute!  Gitcha Some! 

  Can't beat that!  I refrained from throwing about 10 of them in my cart and moved along...

In other news...
*football season is over, and we have now moved to basketball!  Pax is doing well  and may get to play on the 9th grade team as well as the 8th grade team!
*I'm helping with the Hospitality Suite for an upcoming convention that Don has to go to each year.  And trying to come up with ideas for snacks that can sit out for a few hours at a time. The goal is to NOT be TACKY!  Hard for a hospitality suite!
*Don's side of the family is coming to my house for Christmas this year!  Gotta get to work on some menu ideas.
*Christmas list done, not much shopping done...next week? maybe? 

Toodle Loo, I've got to go back out in the rain- forgot Toilet Paper at the store- and we are OUT.  So guess I'm heading back to Walmart!  Have a good day!

Puppies!

Hello Blog Readers!  I guess I've been a stranger lately.  We've been busy, BLAH BLAH BLAH!  It is October and the fall is here!  My Dad has a new litter of puppies!  He is an avid hunter who likes hunting mainly because of the dogs!  At any given time my Dad will have 3 or 4 Labs of his own, and he has a litter of pups each year to sell (and for fun)!  Have you ever heard of Field Trials?  It is where hunting dogs compete in a series of hunting trials out in the woods/water to see how well trained they are for duck hunting (and I guess any wing shooting).  Well, that is my Dad's main hobby.  He trains the dogs and works with them every day. He sends them to live with his trainer.  He sends them to summer in South Dakota or Aspen.  It is safe to say that some of the dogs have more expensive educations than I do!  But, he LOVES it!  We do not want a new puppy, but it is fun to take John Stephen over to play with these cuties! 

I think there are 11 or 12 of the fat and fine little rascals!  John Stephen loved them until their little shark bites started nipping at his ankles!

I am sure my Stepmom was thrilled when these little fur balls were moved off of her fabulous screened porch out into a pen in the yard!  They are cute, but they can make quite a mess!  We have been keeping our mess makers in the yard a lot, too!

These three boys could make your head spin with the messes they make!  I am sooooooo sick of laundry!  I feel bad for complaining, but I am sure that this is a major theme in my life right now that needs to be recorded in the blog!  LAUNDRY STINKS!  And I do it all of the time! This pic is an every afternoon routine. After football practice Don throws the ball to pax while John Stephen darts between them and risks his little two year old life by getting under the feet of the two giants! 

He wants to be just like Pax, and that is OK with me!  They are cute together!  Also, I'm not sure if you can tell, but there is a Bible verse on Paxton's practice tshirt from school!  I love that and I am sure that we live in one of the last places in the US where that could happen in a public school without somebody having a problem with it. 

In case you were wondering, we are playing tons of football around here, but it is not bugging me as bad as baseball did!  There aren't any cheerleaders in baseball- that might make me like it a little more.  And we are doing it 3 nights a week- yep-3 nights, but I'm not feeling like I need to go to every game! 

AHHH!  I love this. 

And just in case you were wondering where Syd was...Here she is with her friend last Friday night.  They made rice crispie treat pumpkins and had a sleepover!  I found the idea on Pintrest.  Have you joined yet?  I LOVE it!  It is addictive and I have gotten so many great ideas from other people's postings! 
Hope you are having a great fall so far!  I bought 3 Christmas presents today and feel like I am going to ROCK IT THIS YEAR!!  YAY!  Be back soon!

The Terrible Two's and a Trip to the Fair

Well, we have officially entered the TERRIBLE TWO'S!  As you can see, we celebrated in a small way at the lake!  Our nephew-in- law, Bryan, was turning twenty nine (again) and we had cake and ice cream to mark the occasion!

The next day we floated around the lake and had a perfect day at the lake!  John Stephen is very happy to float around for hours in the water, and that makes us very happy, too!

Then the next week we took a little family jaunt to the County Fair!  Let me tell you, I love the Fair!  This is just about the most quaint event I've been too since I moved back to the Delta!  The fairgrounds are surrounded by mature oak trees, there is livestock, good food, and fun rides!  It was really fun, and I am sure we will go back next year!

John Stephen in the Chicken Exhibit!

Checking out a Horsey!

Sydney's drawing got a second place ribbon!

There was a beauty pageant going on!  Not exactly Toddlers and Tiaras, huh!  I think Sydney wants to compete next year!  Looks like fun!  The winner is named THE FAIREST OF THE FAIR!  How Fabulous! 

And, since I have Martha Stewart fantasies- look at the fluffy chickens!  They are hilarious!  If I was going to have my own coop- I would have to include this breed of hen! 

Not much else going- just fighting mosquitos annd anticipating fall!!  Have a good weekend!

Lake-N-Bake and a little decorating...

YooHoo!  Have you been squeezing every last ounce of fun out of the summer before it is over?  We have, and for a few weeks there -shew, I was BUSY!  John Stephen and I joined my sister and her kiddos at our good friend Cortney's house in Heber Springs for a night!  All of the kids played, we went to the lake, we got a couple of very brave babysitters to watch the kids so that we could go to dinner, and we had fun!  It was really hot on the water, but the kids didn't mind!

Wilson learned how to Knee Board!  Steph has decided now that he is old enough for water sports we might be able to convince my brother-in-law to buy a big, nice ski boat!  Ha! It would be fun though! 
So we have been cooking out, going to the lake, practicing football, and getting school supplies!  I have managed to squeeze in a little work- here are some "almost after" shots of a job I worked on this summer...

Yep, my fraternity clients sure are good to me!  We did new carpet throughout the downstairs, added a little new furniture and a few accessories.  And we did a major overhaul of the House Mother's apartment!  It isn't ready to photograph, but I'll post some pics when we get them! 

Hope you are getting into the Back to School Swing of Things!  Have a good weekend!

Howdy!

We are just back from the second of our Whirlwind Adventures this summer!  After staying home for two years we have certainly been on the go this year!  Farm Bureau had a trip to San Antonio this summer that we went on with a bunch of our Farm Bureau friends, and it was tons of fun!

The Pool was the main attraction!  And that is a good thing because it was HOT! 

The resort where we stayed had pools,  a lazy river, and several water slides! 

We loved the JW Marriott resort!  Only ate at one place that I would recommend- Boudros in the Riverwalk area.

We spent one day in HELL ON EARTH  SeaWorld.  The pic says it all.  It was 104*, John Stephen was not the easiest to deal with, and I really don't like amusement parks.  The best thing was that Sydney and Don rode two REALLY scary rides!  We did feel like it was a good EYE OPENER about what to expect/plan for if we ever go to Disneyworld.  Let me just say that we will plan way ahead if we ever head to Florida to see Mickey!  I felt so overwhelmed at SeaWorld.  I didn't know which rides and shows we wanted to see, I didn't know what rides John Stephen could go on, I didn't know much.  There were lots of tattooed people, and we were aimlessly wandering around rubbing elbows with them all- not my favorite way to spend a day!   

Speaking of Tattooed People...Look what Sydney got at the resort!  A colorful, butterfly, airbrushed tattoo!  Temporary, of course!  She loved it!

When we got home Sydney continued with her cowgirl theme for the summer and went to Equestrian Camp!  It was super fun, and she learned everything from how to saddle a horse, to how to ride him! 

The local college has such neat children's programs for the summer, and I was so happy to see her learn something new!  I am having a busy Monday, and have been writing this over a period of 5 hours on and off between loads of laundry and other chores around here.  Glad to be home for a while, and planning on enjoying the last little bit of the summer!! 

Reunion and R & R

Hello Blogosphere!  I've been missing you! 

I've been around the world in 8 days!  Let me catch you up...Last Friday I went to Fayetteville for my Sorority Reunion at the University of Arkansas!  My travelling companions were John Stephen and Sydney.  I dropped them off in Bentonville with Don and Paxton for the State Championship Baseball Tournament.  Don was totally pumped about having all three kids in a hotel room and at the ballfield for the big tournamet by himself!  Ha!  It went ok- I did spend the day on Saturday with John Stephen at the hotel to give Don a break. 

My  Kappa Sisters were just as Fabulous as ever, and we had a blast!  We spent the weekend in the sorority house and pretty much pretended we were young again!  On Sunday morning my real sister, Stephanie (who is also my Kappa sister) and I packed up early and got John Stephen from the hotel.  We then headed to LR to pick up my neice and nephew, Wilson and Liza.  Then, we rolled out to the beach to meet my mother (aka Nana).  Let's do bullets from here:

* Drove Steph's SUV with a "turtle" strapped to the top.  Kids were wedged in anywhere they would fit around the luggage.  We only made it about 10 minutes out of town before a "good ole boy" flagged us down on the interstate to tell us that our "turtle" was blowing off of the top of our car!!  Luckily, good ole boy had a tupperware container full of bungee cords and donated a few to our cause! 
*The kids took a little while to get settled in to travel mode- we stopped 3 times in the first 2 hours of the trip, and Steph and I thought we were NEVER going to make it to Florida!
*I learned that DVD players are a blessing and a curse.  My job was to keep everyone happy in their movie lineup (not very easy), and Steph drove.  Of course, noone would wear their headphones.  So we ended up listening to the movies the WHOLE WAY!
*Google maps sent us on a different route through Mobile than we have ever taken.  It took us through the older part of town, and through a sketchy neighboorhood.  It was so late at night and we had to slow down because of the speed bumps and street gangs that were in the middle of the road.  We knew with our turtle and loaded down car we must have looked like sitting ducks!  Hysterical laughing ensued!
*The route through Mobile ended up in a lovely old neighborhood with live oaks arching over fabulous homes- it ended up being my favorite part of the drive!
*Once the kids were asleep we decided to press on rather than unload everybody to spend the night on the way.  At Midnight we rolled in to Seagrove Beach!

*We ate at our condo most meals, but we did venture to Seaside for dinner one night.  We went to Great Southern, and sat on the patio.  I had Shrimp and Grits a Ya Ya.  Fun time!

*Do yourself a favor and google "Beach Shrimp" from Southern Living.  We made it- it was easy, and DELISH!! 

*John Stephen loved the beach.  I loved the time with my family!  We were all just full of love! 

*Came back from the Beach and headed straight to the Lake to meet Don and the big kids!  We had a fun night and headed back to our house and a LIFETIME of Dirty Laundry!  Glad to be home!  Happy Independence Day! 

I Ain't Gonna Lie...

Well, I ain't gonna lie, this baseball season has been pretty.rough.on.us! 

I want to write about it because it has been such a part of our lives this year, and there is a happy ending to the story- this blog is where I record "our stuff"- so here goes.   Last year, Pax was on a local city league baseball team.  He was the starting pitcher, and played every inning- either as pitcher or first base or third base.  A couple of times a week we went down to the local ballpark and watched the game.  These were mostly on weeknights, and it was a fun outing for the family.  I also loved the fact that I didn't have to cook supper on game nights!  Fast forward to this year.  Our team had disbanded, and we were anxious to find a team for our little star!  Don made a few calls and found a team in our new town that is a traveling team.  Now, I was pretty worried about the whole "traveling team" thing.  I had heard that those teams spent every weekend at motels away from home, and that the baseball team became your social life, etc...But, Don told me that our team never went far enough that we would need to spend the night, and there were lots of reasons why we thought that this team would be right for Pax!  We still feel like this team is right for Pax, but LORD HAVE MERCY, we have had Blood, Sweat, and Tears to get to where we are today!

We began the season with the harsh realization that our boy was not going to get to play as much as we were used to.  Don was totally prepared for this, but I can't say that I was.  The truth was that he was going to have to EARN his spot on the field.  We were in "a different league" now, and if Pax was going to succeed he would have to WORK HARD!  So, off to practice he went.  Once a week he had practice for a few hours on Tuesday night. Then on Wednesday night he would have private hitting lessons.  Followed by private pitching lessons on Thursday nights.  Don, being supportive, went to EVERY practice and lesson.  I have to say that I was not supportive of his being supportive!  After staying home with a toddler all day, I usually watched the clock until Don got home from work.  It was so deflating to see him walk back out on the way to practice! 

So, I became increasingly cranky.  The game schedule was usually a Friday night game at 7:30 or 8:30 and two daytime games on Saturday, and then one or two games on Sunday.  Not exactly a schedule that works for John Stephen in his stroller.  I usually made it to one game in a tournament weekend. I had hoped that when we were playing in Memphis (most of the tournaments) that I could take John Stephen, and that we could run around at Target and the Mall when he got tired of the ballpark.  That just wasn't realistic, and Sydney didn't want to be stuck at the ballpark every weekend either! And, many weekends were bitterly cold and wet!  So then, I was stuck at home with John Stephen and Sydney ALL DAMN WEEKEND, EVERY DAMN WEEKEND! Mama wasn't happy!  And, the rest of the family wasn't happy either.  Despite all of the hard work, Pax was still sitting on the bench.

Paxton was so strong, but it was breaking our hearts to see how hard he was trying, and not getting to play very much. He was very upset that he wasn't seeing results!  Don's mood was directly related to how well the game went.  There were some depressing weekends.  This was not the lifestyle I wanted for our family!   But, a couple of weeks ago, our team had run out of pitchers in the championship game of a tournament.  They really didn't have much choice but to let Pax pitch.  This is where his talent and interest is, so it was a BIG deal for him!  Of course, we were soooo nervous as he stepped up on the mound.  Anyway, he was INCREDIBLE!  Striking people out left and right!  The coaches were surprised, I think, to see how well he could throw!  We all felt that this was the breakthrough we had been waiting for! 

And, we were right, he pitched all of the innings he is allowed to pitch last weekend, and did great- AGAIN! Looks like we will wrap up the last two tournaments of the season getting to pitch!  It was such a victory for Pax to see the fruits of his labors, finally!  Of course, this has been a wonderful lesson for Pax (and me) about persistence and hard work.  And, despite my bad attitude, no one has been prouder than me to see him finally make it!  I'll be honest and tell you that I am still not sure if the "traveling team" lifestyle is for me.  I want to go to the lake for the weekend, have friends over to cook out, plant a garden, and spend time with my husband on the weekends!  I didn't grow up in a sporty family, so this is totally foreign to me!  And, I just don't have the slightest idea what to wear to the ballfield when it is 100 degrees outside!  But, this is a small town in the south, and most teenage boys play sports constantly.  It is a wholesome family entertainment that keeps them occupied and out of trouble.  And, Paxton is a pretty good pitcher- I hate to think that we would limit his progress by making him play on a less competitive team.  So, I guess I am trying to find a way to be excited about travelling baseball.  It looks like this is what we will do until Pax can play on the high school team.  And, now that we have had the "breakthrough moment", I am optimistic that Don will not have to attend every practice and in the future.  And, maybe we can miss a tournament here and there.  I know Pax is greatful for all that Don has done for him this season.  He has dedicated every moment of free time to helping Pax get better, and he has sat in the rain, wind, and scorching heat for every. single. game. By the end of the season the team will have played about 60 games! I know he takes partial ownership of Paxton's accomplishments this season. And he should!  We all do, in fact!  You could say we have all taken one for the team!

So, I am glad to put this little chapter behind us, and move on to the next one...Football practice started today:)!  The good news...Field down the street from my house, games on Tuesday nights, Don can't go to every practice unless he wants to quit his job!  Toodle loo!  If you are still reading, you are a loyal friend!!