Nancy's album

Rich's sister, Nancy, has Downs Syndrome and has gone into hospice care. I am putting together an album of memories for her funeral service. Nancy has had a good life for 58 years and we want to remember all of the joy she brings into our life!

Number One

We spent Dec. 8-10 in cold wet LaPorte, Texas, playing for the State Championship! We won! We are number one, undefeated for the season! The girls had an incentive to win, they got to shave their coaches head after the game if they won! He was a good sport and promptly sat down in a chair on the field and the girls shaved away!
Teysha received a mild concussion Saturday but managed to play the winning game on Sunday! Always nice to come home a winner! 

Block Toy Tree

I made this block tree full of tiny toys many years ago. Each year the grandkids loved turning it and finding special toys on the blocks. Last year our puppy pulled the tablecloth out from under the blocks and they crashed to the ground!! Since the holidays were almost over I put it in a sack to be put together this year. I had to get the directions on how the blocks are stacked from my sister and I went to work this week reassembling it! Sadly our puppy chewed a few blocks and I can't find anymore this size, so the block tree is downsized but back together to join us in our holiday celebration once again! 

From Start to Finish

For me the hardest part of decorating for Christmas is getting the boxes out of the attic and sorting through them.The boxes are all labeled Christmas but that is as far as it goes! I always say this year I will label them better but I never do. After a day of unpacking the boxes Teysha and I ended up with a home ready for the holidays! 

Salado Road Trip

We took a road trip to beautiful downtown Salado. This small quaint town is algow with beautiful Christmas lights! We toured some of the shops, enjoyed the beautiful lights and saw a play at the Silver Spur Theater! At first Teysha was sure this would be no fun, but about 10 minutes into the vaudville fun she was loving it! We met the cast after the show and this was a great way to spend a holiday night in Salado!
 

Baby It's Cold Outside

We don't have snow but we do have cold weather! It is about 35 degrees and the wind is howling out of the North! A perfect day to get our Christmas tree! Teysha had a dentist appointment so she got out of school early. We drove the 30 miles to the Elgin Tree Farm and rode on a trailer to pick out our tree!! Believe me in the cold wind it did not take long to find the perfect tree! Teysha cut it down and it was loaded up on the trailer for the drive back to the farm!! It is so much fun to go pick out and cut down our own Christmas tree!!

Alligator Walk

Still working on some old pictures!! I think you can read the journaling on the layout, but it tells about how much she hated this costume after I worked weeks sewing on it!

More old bad photos

I am still struggling my way through Rich's family's old pics. I was struggling with these pics and my friend, Janet, the heritage expert, helped me out! Love the Cosmo Cricket papers! Used the Cricut Base Camp and QK! Thanks Missy!!

Where has the time gone?

It has been a while since I have posted, I think life just got in the way! We are still in first place in soccer and will go to State playoffs in December, in Houston!
Teysha has managed to survive the first 9 weeks of school, just barely, her grades need improving and she had her camera stolen out of the soccer gym! It seems to have been the week of stealing,they got her camera and 4 Ipods!
On a lighter note I have made a mini album that was so much fun! Used all SEI papers, Autum leaves arrow stamps (thanks Ruth),TT flower stamps.

Sunday Soccer

Lovely weather for a soccer game. The pictures are not blurry, it was raining cats and dogs!Teysha loves playing in the rain and the dirtier she gets, the happier she is! We carry plastic bags to put all the muddy, soaking wet, stinky soccer clothes in after games like this! We tied 1-1 so that is better than a loss!

Old Pictures but Fun Memories

Trying to work my way through all the old pictures, some not very good!
The Wildlife Park layout, my parents came to visit and we thought they would like the walk through the park. They did enjoy looking at the wildlife up close, but once they discovered the rocks they were really excited. They were "rock hounds" and made beautiful jewelry, so this was a wonderful day when they could walk around finding just the right rocks! The bottom layout was on their farm. My oldest son loved to fish and hunt snakes. They loved taking him with them to their farm and "camp". These old pictures bring back such fun memories of my parents and their grandkids.

Soccer Season

Once more soccer season is in full force. I am determined to keep up with this seasons layouts, hopefully having the album done by the end of the season:)I am trying to get action shots of all 18 girls in the black uniforms and try again for white. So far I am halfway there!!I was lucky enough to play with the new EK Succes circle cutter. Cuts up to 12 inch circles and I love those circles!! This cuts like butter and so much fun!!

IHOP Manners

We work hard to teach our children table manners, right? Right! We teach them how to chew with their mouth closed, keep your hand in your lap, don't reach for something, and the list goes on. By 15 we were proud she knew all the correct "Miss Manners", we thought! A group of teenagers stopped by IHOP after a football game and after seeing the pictures from the night, I realized I totally was remiss in teaching Teysha what to do with her spoon!

Lizard and Spider

Our friendly lizard that lives in our backyard was extremely hungry! We spotted him on the side of our house with this big spider clamped tightly in his mouth! He clung to the wall and munched on a tasty meal of live spider! It took him a few minutes to finish his meal but he looked like a happy lizard!

The Finals

We made it to the finals and once again had to get up at 5:15 to be at the fields at 6:45. It was almost cool this morning and the girls played super. We won that one and moved to the finals. We played the finals at noon and it was so hot and humid we all looked like we had been in the water! They came in 2nd and got great trophies, so I guess the heat and early mornings were worth it. This picture shows the group,but if you look at the foreground you can see brown spots in the grass. These are cracks! Some are at least 3-4 feet deep and everywhere except on the actual playing fields ( I think the grass holds the ground together) This just tells you how badly we need rain!!!

Sophmore

School started and its hard to believe that Teysha is a Sophmore, time certainly flies.She is excited about this big high school year, but of course has to moan and groan about school starting. Of course along with school starting all the activities start up also. She is studying to get her drivers permit, and I don't know if we are glad or sad!Soccer starts this weekend with the Labor Day Cup and hopefully we can make it through this weekend without a serious injury. It seems as if every Labor Day Cup there is some time of injury!
A quick layout from a sketch and kit at scrapaddict

New Toy

I got a Cricut for my birthday! I have been looking at it for a few months and then it popped up at my house. Love it!! It is so user friendly and fun to play with. I have been scrappin with a friend and she bought a cartridge so we share! Here is a sneak peek of an upcoming layout at ScrapAddict using the Cricut!
Soccer is starting in full force even though it is still 100+, I don't know how those kids do it on the field for 80 minutes, I melt sitting under a tent. We travel to Houston next weekend for our first tournament. It either rains or is an oven every time we go there!

Batty Birthday

Since the kids and grandkids were here for the baseball tournament we celebrated our birthday a day early. Since Rich and I share the same birthday we have no problem remembering each others birthday! All of us went out to eat for our birthday and then for a special treat for the kids we went to see the bats fly at sundown. If you have never see over a million bats leaving at sunset you have missed an awesome experience. The Mexican freetail bats live under a overpass and there are over a million female bats living there(the males live somewhere else).Reports say that in the Central Texas area there are over 100 million bats and they eat at least 1,000 tons of insects nightly. Each mother bat gives birth to one baby bat per year, called a pup, in June, and the babies can fly and hunt on their own in six weeks. Interesting facts about these bats and an amazing sight to see the bats fly!

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Keyton is playing a baseball tournament in Round Rock this weekend. The 3 boys have been here for a week and today was opening day. The heat was intense, the only saving graces were the tent and the wind blowing. All those people from Lubbock who are not used to the high humidity were melting! The games were great, I love baseball! They won one and lost one so they go on to the finals tomorrow!!Soccer boot camp starts at 8am Sunday morning, the baseball games start at noon, a busy hot day!

Pool Time

Just kickin' back and enjoying the cool water and hot summer days!

Road Trip

We arrived at A&M about 7:45 am to watch the final scrimmages after a week at soccer camp. Even that eary it was so hot and muggy. We sat on the fields until 10:30 watching soccer and drinking Gatorade, trying to keep cool. We went to closing ceremonies in the softball stadium with about 1500 other people and it was even hotter! After the ceremony we walked back to the dorm, Tucker and Keyton wanted to see her dorm. We had to wait while Teysha took a shower and finished packing, finally we were on the road around noon. We stopped at McDonalds for lunch and headed home with 4 tired and sleepy kids. Of course a road trip with 4 kids had its fun moments and we survived, arriving home to go jump in the pool!!

No Power and it is HOT

We picked up the 3 boys on Saturday to spend a few days with us! We arrived home about 8:30pm to be greeted by no power! A storm passed through, breaking tree limbs and knocking out power from 4 until 11. We scrambled around to get lanterns for some light when it got dark! By 9:30 it was so hot and muggy inside and outside!We sprayed with bug spray and sat out on the patio eating smores by lantern light!! By 11:00 we had to go to bed because we had to get up at 5am to drive to A&M to pick Teysha up at camp by 8 am. We pulled and tugged a mattress from upstairs down to the family room so it would be a little cooler downstairs.Just as we settled in for a long hot night,it would do no good to open the windows,there was no breeze outside, just humidity,the power came back on. We were a happy group of indoor campers!

Movin' In

To soccer camp at A&M for a week. Teysha rode to College Station with Julie and Stephanie and we went in our car,just to check her in.We had to park in a parking garage on the 2nd floor and haul everything down all the stairs. This is her first time away at camp and she is so excited. There are 8 girls in a room, with 4 bedrooms,2 girls to a room. The room has a small kitchen,with a fridge and microwave.The girls brought snacks to eat inbetween meals. We talked to her last night and she is settling right in, enjoying 7 other roomies!

15 and Bling!

Teysha is finally 15!! Her day started with 7:30 conditioning camp, then to the lake with friends for a little wakeboarding fun!We celebrated her big day with a cookie cake at home and dinner out at our favorite Mexican food restaurant. We decorated the kitchen and the decorations included 2 tiaras complete with flashing bling. To our surprise she decided to wear them to dinner. The waitstaff put a sombero on her and sang happy birthday! She got a fried icecream dessert that we all enjoyed.
We got her a digital camera that she is putting to good use.
Now we get to get that long awaited driving permit!!

Our Mr. Dodger

Our backyard turtle, Dodger, is so tame, he comes to the back door when he is hungry.
Loves corn on the cob, apples, and green grapes! Teysha can feed Dodger out of her hand. She usually opts to hold the corn in her fingers, his mouth looks like it would hurt!

Old Pictures but Fun Memories

Hope that everyone had a great holiday! The fireworks were rained out, but we enjoyed the BBQ with ribs, brisket, and sausage. The highlight of the meal was the Mudpie cake from Catherine's receipe. Delicious but so rich! We watched World Cup Soccer and were so happy Italy won!!
I did work on some old pictures for my 8.5x11 scrapbook. Fun memories from way back then!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Click!

For a lot of reasons this week has been so not good! Last night we were at the store and decided we would go see Click's was our first time to go to the Alamo Draft House. They serve dinner and drinks while you watch a movie. We settled into our seats and put in our order. The food, chips and queso, hamburger and pizza,arrived and the movie began! Click is a great movie, funny,yet reminding you of the value of your family time! After a great movie and dinner we all felt better!!

Cell Phone Addiction

Is it possible to be addicted to a cell phone? In our business we have a rule no cell phones in the building, mainly because a manager was attached to her cell phone.Monday a friend dropped something by our store and I was gone. I asked her to check and see if the cell phone was on a table in my office or at the front desk. Sure enough it was in the office.
Tuesday I put on my "dective" hat, met my fiend at a restaurant down from us. I could sit on a bench and see our store. Not 10 minutes after I leave I see her going to her car, retrieving her cell phone. Took off my "dective" hat, put on my "owner" hat and we walked back to our store. I walked in and she ignored me, pretending to be busy. I could not find the phone anywhere, but I knew she brought it in. By now she is out on the circuit, and buzz, buzz goes the cell phone. She had hidden it behind a stapler and the pc tower. I called her in the office and asked her why and her response was "I wanted to see who called". Until I told her to go put the phone in the car she made no effort to do it. Her response was "sorry"!She had about an hour and a half until we closed but she couldn't wait. I asked her about Monday night and she denied it. Then she spotted my friend in my office. Busted again. Lying and breaking rules all for a cell phone. A cell phone is going to cost her a job. Amazing the theory that rules are made for everyone but me!

She Made it Up!

We have been to the lake almost every day the last 2 weeks and Teysha has been trying to get up on the wakebaord! She has had very little succes and a lot of lake water in her system.We went back out Sunday and were lucky enough to have some nice young man show her a few tricks, she popped out of the water grinning!!Needless to say after being on the lake for a few hours she was starving and worn out!!Next adventure to jump those wakes!

Happy Pops Day

What a fun and relaxing day yesterday!!
Teysha made a German Chocolate cake (from a mix, but still yummy), and delicious Chocolate Chip cookies!
We had a late lunch at Fudruckers and then to the movies to see The Break Up. The ending was not was I expected but it was still a good movie!
We cooked ribs on the grill. We added potato salad and red beans for a great Fathers Day dinner.
Finished off the day by watching a dvd, "The New World". An ok movie, moved slowly but the scenery was beautiful!

Look! She Can Scrapbook

Teysha made Pops a pull tab can to put his gift certificate for a massage in. She decided she wanted to do a collage, and went to work pulling out paper!! She has so much creativity and the gift can turned out great !!She even cleaned up her mess !!

After the Rain

It rained Saturday and Sunday morning. Luckily we got about 3 inches of much needed rain. The rain only cooled things off for a few hours,then the humidity climbed back up!
We did have our hummingbirds visiting our feeder all morning! They are such brave little birds, they have no fear of us sitting just a few feet away. Next came the lizards out to catch bugs! I love watching them scurry along the fence, down the bird house pole and jump into the Oleanders!

Fun Things on Saturday!

How nice it is to have a nice, quiet, rainy Saturday with no soccer. This gave me a chance to finish some scrapbooking projects. I made an altered journal with an old ScrapAddict kit that I love. I am using this journal to enter some mini album instructions, doodling, layout ideas, just about anything I want to keep in one place. I finished a mini album bound with skewers, fun and easy. I used some old SEI paper but it still turned out cute! I also finished a 6x6 album of old not so great pictures but too good to throw away. I practiced my doodling skills, or lack of, on the last page of the album. This doodling is so much fun to do!

Longhorns and Sunflowers

The awesome Texas Longhorns enjoy this sunflower field only a few miles from our house. There are about 50 of these Longhorns along with their calves. They are a magnificent sight grazing among the sunflowers!