Some layouts...

You know, I really wanted to have a great spiritual & uplifting blog post today b/c it's been awhile since I've laid one on ya...but it's not gonna happen. I'm a week behind in my bible study, the computer time I've had has been focused on actual work, no play. And I haven't been able to spend 30 min. to go re-listen (is that a word? well, I guess it is now!) to last week's sermon (at http://www.cwbc.org/), which was AMAZING, and write what really touched my spirit because I've been tired of staring at the screen once I'm finally off the computer :(



So, in hopes of reminding myself to spend some time after supper tonight on the computer for some fun...digi-scrappin'...here are a few layouts I did back in early June before work took over! (no, they aren't project 365 pages...I'm only what...3 months behind on those! That's what I plan on working on tonight...to start catching up)

The "face bleep" circles on these pages are b/c these are the files I posted in my gallery on www.hummiesworld.com just for security of friends. Family membersmdon't get the face bleep privilege, ha! You can visit the gallery anytime to see a few more pages I have uploaded :) And for you digi-scrappers, http://www.hummiesworld.com/ is an AWESOME resource. Lots of tutorials, pages to view, etc... These are pages I made through her Template Challenges.

Hope you have a WONDERFUL weekend!!

Anti-Procrastination Day!

Hopefully you are thinking of things now each week that you have been putting off and need to finish! Today, I finally scanned some old photos to send in for our upcoming 20 year reunion (they've only been requesting pics for um...4 months now?....maybe 5?). Weren't we just so cute? And the HAIR!

yea, I'm the short one! Homecoming duchesses 1988-89

My man! I used to love wearing that jacket! :)

Me & Lor, we were pretty much inseparable all through high school...we were at a SADD conference

J also helped with APDay today. He and his friend Josh crushed the cans we had been recycling. We'll be heading to the business down the road that pays for cans to see how much they have earned. J says "This is a much better way to make money than doing chores!" Guess crushing cans doesn't count as a chore :)

The Valley (& prayer request!)

Just some pics from our few days w/dad in the valley.

Our annual "end of camp trip" tradition now...we stopped at the Krispy Kreme off of I-10 in SA before heading to Weslaco in the valley. I was introduced to these delightful treats when I was in grad school, lived close to a Papa John's (first intro to their breadsticks) and a Krispy Kreme...it's a wonder I stayed a size 8 while in Tennessee! T & I have done our duty as parents by converting our son to a KKreme lover as well :)

The palm & grapefruit trees...a sure sign you're not in Central or East TX anymore!

The International Museum of Arts and Sciences in McAllen. This was WAY cool. It's called Science on a Sphere. It's a huge ball hanging in a dark room used as a movie screen. You can actually walk around the ball and it's like you are an arms length away from Venus, Mars, etc...very cool. Here is the website if you get to the area...J & I encourage you to visit!http://www.imasonline.org/

This was J's favorite part of the Grossology exhibit...making toot noises! (not mention getting to smell "armpit, anus, foot and mouth" smells as well as walking into a giant nose and being "blown" on as it sneezes!)

watching food go from your throat to your...well, you know...

We saved the best for last...dinner at Los Asados. This is one of the best Mexican restaurants (in Harlingen) and no trip to the valley is complete without it. We picked up a gallon of their amazing sweet tea (with lime...it's really good!) to bring back for Grandma & T.

oops...forgot the prayer request almost! Please keep Dad in your prayers. He still has the catheter because of the blood clot. They won't take out the catheter until they are sure the blood clot is gone, which should be in 3 to 4 weeks...atleast they'll do a scan then to check. Once the clot is gone, the catheter can go. Once the catheter goes, his gout should subside. Pray this will be the case, that all will be gone in August!

(and just a funny visual for you...we were quite the trio last week...Dad hobbling around w/his gout, J in his wheelchair and me slightly limping w/a broken toe...it was like bizzarro world 3 Stooges!)

Mom! I found a Gordon!

My boy...I tell you, sometimes T & I wish more kids his age "understood" his humor more often. Maybe adults understand it better because he's an only child and converses with us most of the time (and let's face it, we're funny people...or is that dorky people...I get them confused!). Maybe it's b/c of what he watches. Maybe it's because he's just incredibly witty (I tend to lean towards that one! Hey, I'm the mom, I can do that!). Regardless of any of that, J & I crack ourselves up constantly, praise eachother with "Good one, mom!" or "Good one, J!" quite often and yes, occasionally we are sarcastic with eachother (in a nice way)...T just shakes his head at us :)



Anywho...I just wanted to pass on a few funny things from this past week, I think this first one could sweep the nation...it's a funny/clever thing. I am not even sure what we were doing, but while in the valley this week, I was apparently asking him to do something on his own (I know, I'm a taskmaster)...and without missing a beat, he looked at me and said "Mom, get a knife and cut. me. some. slack". Now you must also visualize his sweet CP hand making a cutting motion as he said the "cut- me- some- slack" part. I cracked up, couldn't stop myself.



Now, if your kids have seen the new show on DisneyXD called Zeke & Luther, you'll get this next one, it's a funny/ha-ha thing. They have an episode where one of the boys grows his first underarm hair...yes, it's gross, but it's funny b/c he names it Gordon. Well, as always, T & J have picked up on this and use it whenever they can. In fact, last night, I hear "Mom! Come look! I have a Gordon!" Now, I won't pass on any details, just know that T & I couldn't quit laughing. I'm not really ready for my boy to have "Gordon's" yet and he's not ready either...however, I couldn't burst his bubble. What's even funnier is about an hour later, while he is in his room...playing a video game, or so we thought...we hear a giggle. "Whatcha laughin' at in there?" T asks. J replies, "Just checkin' out my Gordon!". What I have to live with! Thanks a lot Luther...



This one is the funny/ironic thing he did this week. He called Grandad "overprotective" of me. I guess b/c I'm his MOM, no one should be worried about me...except him, of course. See, my dad still worries about me going out after dark, being in a parking lot alone, etc...and J told him he was being overprotective, to which my dad replied "Well, she's still my little girl". The funny/ironic part of this, is the boy calling dad "overprotective" is the same boy who calls out to "check" on me 5 times a day, even when I obviously haven't left the house. The same boy who worries about me when I'm out late with friends. The same boy who panics when his Grandad wasn't back at the hotel RIGHT AT 9pm, when he said he'd be back. Yea...and Grandad is the overprotective one in the family, ha! Such a turkey, but I love him.



So in honor of my funny kid, here's the recipe for J's new favorite cookies - Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies

Ok, this is an easy one, it's pretty much off of the Nestle bag...but it's good!!

2 1/4 c flour

1/2 c baking cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks butter, softened

1 c brown sugar

3/4 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

semi-sweet choc. chips

*peanut butter chips



Heat oven to 375. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda an salt. In separate bowl, mix butter, both sugars and vanilla with beater/mixer until creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time for about 2 min until mixture is fluffy. Add in flour gradually. Stir in chips and drop spoonfuls onto baking sheet. Bake 8-10 min or until cookies are puffed up.

* I prefer my cookies with peanut butter chips, so I usually do 1/2 w/choc and 1/2 w/pbutter. You can also mix both chips into the whole batch, or try heath bar pieces, etc...

YUMMY and quick!

Listening to the giggles

My boy had a "sleep over" w/his Grandaddy in the hotel room. We are in a suite so I told J he could sleep w/Grandad in the big king bed for one night (Grandad still has his catheter on and I'm afraid J will roll over and kick it) so they could chat. Well, this means Storytime.

When I was growing up, my Dad would tell my brother & I the silliest bedtime stories...I most vividly recall the ones involving 2 flies (with our names) as the main characters.

The tradition has continued with Grandad and J. J likes to tell Grandad stories sometimes too, but usually he's just in there giggling at one of Grandad's stories. This time...it was about CCC, the nickname they have for one of Grandaddy's most detested places..."Cr_ _ _y Chucke Cheese's" (and no...there are no "e's" in the blanks...I'm sure you can figure it out!). I could hear him in there telling J about the nickel size pizza he got for $20, and on...and on it goes :) They are 2 peas in a pod, I tell you..and I get to smile as I hear the giggles, nothin' better!!

Here are a few pics from our weekend after camp was over. We spent Sat. with Batgirl and her family just chillin (well...Batgirl's hubby & I clobbered Batgirl & T in Spades...not that he & I were surprised that's how it went down...uh-huh!). And Sunday we spent at Fiesta Texas, home of the RoadRunner roller coaster (which J only rode 5 times this year...well, he was also busy riding the Tony Hawk coaster, the Scooby Doo ride, eating funnel cake, buying Looney Tunes and Joker gear...!)

T getting attacked by Batgirl's cute kiddos!

We stopped for an ice cream snack during the afternoon...this picture is proof that I have now tried the "infamous" Culver's Concrete Malt with Caramel substitute Chocolate Custard...when I ordered, the girl looked at me and immediately said "I know who told you about that!" (a friend of mine who craves these occasionally, and she's famous at the restaurant apparently!...I had to see what the fuss was about :) )

Sunday, at Fiesta Texas, the roller coastering and game playing began. And this year, J was able to score photos with almost every character in the park...it couldn't have started better than with the Joker. We weren't in the park 2 minutes when we saw him...J doesn't look all that excited in the pic, but trust me, that's just my photography skills not capturing the moment...he is STILL talking about getting his picture taken with the Joker character!

Love this face...he's playing the game to win a Batman cape. And yes...it's in his suitcase now :) Amazingly, he and T are not wearing it around town yet, ha!

Not sure where I've gone wrong raising this kid...he was more excited to get his picture taken w/creepy "Mr. Six" than he was Taz or Sylvester!

While J was away....

...I got to play :)

Now, if you ask T, that's not unusual for me...but we just ignore that comment! When J goes to camp, as I've mentioned in a previous post, I get to visit friends too...friends I really only see once or so a year, old camp friends. The bonds we made at camp are hard ones to break. Even after being apart for a year, we tend to pick up as usual...(course 1/2 of us blog or facebook so I guess that helps keep us updated too, ha!)

Ok...Wednesday, Batgirl and I visited a couple of friends for a few minutes before heading to find her a new computer (see her story HERE). That planned short trip turned into a 5 hour trip b/c the BBuy stores in town made it ridiculous. BUT...she got her computer...granted, it's not the "brand" she's usually chosen, but I (and the knowledgeable computer guy she talked to for an hour) helped her step out of her comfort zone to choose the HP. It's shiny and nice and loaded with ram and memory, etc...a digi-scrapper's dream...and it's shiny...can you tell that impressed me? Easily pleased :) So this day didn't go as planned (did I mention we didn't get to eat until 6pm that day? We were thriving on early morning coffee) but we made it back just in time to pick up J and then I kept my neices & J Wed. night so my brother and his wife could have a night out.

Thursday, we hung out in town w/friends and I spent a few minutes watching my adorable neices sweat in a non-air conditioned gym for gymnastics (the little one gave up after 30 min...poor thing's cheeks were so red! I quickly saw why my sis-in-law hadn't taken them much this summer) That night, my brother kept the kids while my sis-in-law & I went to see Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince with my camp friends. This had been planned for weeks! See...2 years ago, when HP#5 came out, we happened to be in town for camp and 4 of us girls were able to go together during the day while J was at camp. So we HAD to do #6 together when we found out it started this week! It was perfect, but this time we went at night so we also had dinner out at the usual Mexican restaurant.

Friday, Batgirl and I spent a fun day shopping in a nearby town with one of our close camp friends. We had a wonderfully relaxing day...found some fun items, had a nice lunch and even better desserts from the bakery we all love. That night, (after that AWESOME awards ceremony I mentioned in a previous post), Aunt L and KK, J & I, Batgirl & her girls and mother-in-law & my friend Janette & her 2 girls went to see Beauty and the Beast at the outdoor theater. It was really good. J hadn't been too excited about it, well, you know...b/c it's girly. But...he changed his mind quickly, he loved it. Gaston was his favorite character, ofcourse! Cracked us up.

So, that's just some of the fun that went on...hope you have a great Wednesday! And even though I'm not home yet, don't forget it's Anti-Procrastination Day!!! Find something you've been putting off and DO IT! Get it finished or atleast work on it, you'll feel great about it.

A few more camp pics...

These are from J's camera:

Oh yea...my boy in a dress...atleast it's blue!

(and sparkly gold...it was a fashion show, people!)

A self-taken pic...I think it's pretty good ;)

T loves this one...he lead Shooting Sports the summer he worked at camp

Ok...if you look really closely on his right leg, you will see a brown spot...yea, it came from the rat...nice....this was my old activity stompin' grounds, Nature Crafts (although I think it has a new name now)

Just a few pics...

Camp was AWESOME...in both J's and my words :) We had a Day Camp Awards ceremony for the first time ever (THANKS Mr. P!!!!!!) and the kids loved it! (And yes...the parents did also...I was so excited all day Friday I could hardly stand it!)

1st Day, he was a bit nervous because he didn't recognize many counselors or campers, but by the end of the day, he was as excited as ever to be there.

My boy receiving the Bravest Camper award...he also won the Adventure Programming activity award! (That's ropes stuff, don't ya know!)

Here is the coolest...because of the awards ceremony, Uncle P, Aunt L, KK and Kam were able to come watch and celebrate the end of camp with us. And best of all...Grandaddy had just arrived in town, he drove over just in time to watch too!

More to come.....(from J's camp camera!!) :) Hope you all have a great week!

Camp here we come...

Well, we have finally made it to our normal summer destination...summer camp for J! This is his 5th summer to attend the 3 day Day Camp, not quite ready for overnight yet (neither one of us is, ha!)

This is exciting in so many ways:

1. He is going to the place that stole my heart so many years ago, the place I worked for 6 summers and even talked T into working 1 summer.

2. He gets to try things he hasn't tried at home (such as ropes course elements...although now we CAN do those at home once it cools off, woo hoo!)

3. He sees other kids with disabilities, realizes he's not the only one sometimes asking "why do I have this?" and learns a little more every summer that the possibilities really are becoming endless if you just try...

4. We get to visit with family.

5. I get to see my "old" (not age, mind you...watch it out there!) camp friends...the ones I worked with back in the day who are still around this area.

6. Best of all...he is slowly learning why my "old" camp friends are still some of my closest friends...b/c of the things we did together at camp, the things we learned, the fun we shared. He's starting to experience these same feelings from a wonderful place.

He is a bit bummed that his favorite counselor won't be there this summer, Mr. Paul. Mr. Paul worked there when I did, so he finally decided to take a summer off, well deserved! But we will miss him. We also wish T could be here all week with us, but we are always happy to see him on Friday!!!

So...I most likely will not blog again for a few days, but I will post when I get the chance to show you some pics! After these 3 days of camp, we (T comes in Friday to meet us!) get to spend a day playing w/Batgirl and her family and then head to one of J's new favorite amusements parks, then J & I are heading to the valley w/Grandad to chill at a hotel for a few days (and to make sure Grandad stops every so often on his way home to walk around for his clot...since Grandma can't go, we're taking over! ha!) Whew!! But it will be an awesome 10 days :)

I also have a prayer request for you all...Sunday evening, I was walking out to get an old Wally World recycle bag out of my car. I had a recycle bag I had washed with a Mexican blanket (that's what we call them...cuz we get them in Mexico)...so it isn't the prettiest of shopping bags, lots of fuzzies all over it. Anyway, I noticed some smoke coming from across the street, then noticed flames. The flames didn't look intentional, plus we have a burn ban currently (and we had 5 separate fires on the highway by our home just the day before!). I called T out to take a look and he ran over to check with the neighbor. Sure enough, he & his wife had been napping and he had no idea. It was a small shed that had some old paint cans, something sparked apparently with the hot dry weather. They got it under control and watered down well.

(This picture was taken after T said they had it under control, I promise I didn't start snapping pics until I knew the fire dept. wasn't needed!!)

We are just thankful. Thankful that we saw the fire, thankful that T's forestry training included controlling fires, thankful that the wind was not blowing towards the rest of the tree line by Mr. L's house and so thankful for that old WMart bag of which I had become a bit embarrassed to take into stores! Never again will I be ashamed of my poorly washed shopping bags! My request is more for Mr. L, not just the land or fires. From what I remember, he has had heart problems in the past and he's in his 80's. T tried to get him to go in and rest but he wanted to help. Just pray that he recovers well from this. He seemed a bit shaken up after they finished Sunday evening.

Now, here are just some pics from the last week for you to enjoy :) Hopefully next week, I can finally blog a bit about the amazing bible study I've been doing w/ LPM blog. It's been so perfect for this season in my life...learning to speak truth in my "thought closet". More on that later...but check out their blog if you want to hear Beth Moore every other week. And this week in Flylady...the main bathroom and laundry room. I actually did the missions all yesterday since I knew I'd be gone, just to make myself feel better. I now have 3 daily "habits" set up that I do everyday...Make the bed, Swish & Swipe (which is July's "habit" to learn) and shiny sink (ok...that last one happens 5 out of 7 days but that's way better than it used to be!). Check out flylady.com to see what I'm yappin' about :)

My poor boy has not ever tried a Twinkie...he begged me to buy one, so I finally sucumbed, and unfortunately, he loved it!

Getting fitted for new braces..he's decided on yellow ones this time, with blue velcro. They wrap his legs in wet sticky tape that hardens, much like a cast, mold it to his feet, then cut it off. This is the mold they use to create the rubber braces. We'll go back in a few weeks to get the finished products! And how cool is God...the man who did his legs this time, has a grandson w/cystic fibrosis so we got to tell him about Texas Outdoor Child, the group that took J hunting...now they are hooked up via e-mail!!

SEE??? Anti-procrastination day last week...I really did work on a quilt...it wasn't J's but I worked in piecing the one for mine & T's bed. Now I'm in the groove again to get it together :)

Hope you all have a great week!

Gettin' a Little Warm in Here...

Well...as I was taking a photo of our outdoor thermometer last Thursday (which read 106 degrees, granted it's under the porch so that's probably a degree off...but close enough!!!), I realized the temperature in the house was becoming a bit warmer. Walking over to the thermostat, I watched as the numbers climbed from 78 to 79...then to 80...T happened to call while I was checking on this and he didn't sound optomistic. As I waited for him to get home from work, I continued to watch it climb to 81...then to 82. Yea, something was definitely wrong.

Our capacitor quit working (no, much my surprise, not a flux capacitor...come on, someone out there's gotta know what I'm talking about..."Doc", Delorean... or are T & I the only ones that thought of that right away? ha!). So, 2 days after driving home from my parents, J & I headed back to crash at their house again (of course, this is AFTER I maimed by pinky toe on J's video chair while packing his clothes...and as of today, it's officially broken per x-ray by the doc! Just hate it when the doctor gives you an official reason not to do any strenuous exercise for 4 weeks...LOL!). T had to stay in case the service guy called, which did happen Fri. morning! Quite a surprise, especially on a holiday weekend.

Air was fixed on Friday, but since J & I had just driven back to Grandma & Grandad's, we decided not to turn around and drive right back home. We were able to spend more time with my brother and his family at mom & dad's house. We were also able to meet Aunt C and her 2 kiddos at Ice Age 3 on Friday, which made seeing the movie even more special.

The crew (minus Aunt C and myself)...J, Aunt L and KK stayed in the 3D spirit even after the show!

That night, T drove in to the lake to meet J & I at Nana and Pop's. We always have a relaxing time there, something about being surrounded with water & being served Nana's pancakes in the morning makes you sleepy and content :)

We decided to go back to our home for fireworks Sat. night. T bought just a few and we enjoyed a quiet night at home...well, except for the 4 fireworks "shows" going on around our home...it's actually a fun part of living outside the city limits :) I love fireworks but I don't like spending a lot of money on them :~)

Yea, I actually took this one! Got a great "fireworks" setting on the old Canon!

he begs for fireworks every year, then sits like this as T shoots them off...and can't wait for them to be over! What's up w/that?

I am thankful we drove home because the message was awesome on Sunday. Mark was finishing up Daniel 9 and I'm going to have to pull out my old Beth Moore Daniel study b/c these are some interesting parts of the bible! (go to http://www.cwbc.org/ to see the message, it was REALLy good!) This part of Daniel is getting into prophecy, in which many different biblical scholars have many different opinions. The important thing to remember is (which Mark and Beth will tell you): We don't know when Christ will return, we don't need to know, but we need to be prepared....meaning to believe in Him, to be ready for Him, and do our best to show those around us, especially our loved ones, how much He loves them and wants them to believe. We can quit debating about when it will happen and be ok with the fact that it will....because it doesn't really matter when, it just matters that we are prepared to go with Him.


The one part of the message that really struck me was a passage from Matthew 25:1-13 about the 10 bridesmaids who took their lamps to meet the bridegroom. 5 of them took extra oil for their lamps, the other 5 didn't. When the bridegroom was delayed, the girls all fell asleep. At midnight, they were awakened by a notice that the bridegroom was coming! They began preparing their lamps. The 5 who had reserve oil refilled their lamps and were ready to meet the bridegroom. The 5 who didn't, begged for oil from those who had brought extra. They were told to go to town and get more, that they should have been more prepared. As they were gone, the 5 who were ready went with the bridegroom to the marriage feast and the door was locked. When the 5 who left for oil returned, they asked to be let in..."Lord, Lord, Open the door for us!" they called. But he called back "Believe me, I don't know you!". We must be prepared because we do NOT know when He will return and it shouldn't matter. I felt compelled to get home and start talking to J. While I know he has accepted Christ and was baptized as his outward showing of his decision, I just wanted to start working with him more in his bible. I want him to be prepared. I want T to be prepared, I want all of you to be prepared. I want us all to have extra oil for our lamps so we are not locked out.

All that said...Daniel is one of my favorite books in the bible because of the historical facts that were revealed to him centuries before they happened. The explanation he is given in Ch. 9 is given to him 500 years before it actually happened. The temple being rebuilt, Jerusalem torn down (Titus - Rome), etc...very cool! Again...I gotta pull out my old study for more of the historical details, but if you haven't ever studied this book, do it!! (GFG I'm trying not to get too far ahead of your pastor's messages but it's hard with Daniel, ha! Pretty cool our pastors are doing this at the same time!)

Tomorrow is Anti-Procrastination Day!!

What have you been putting off? Me? I'm pondering pulling out J's quilt that I started, um...6 years ago and working on it a bit. Either that or I might work on the quilt I bought fabric for 2 years ago for our bed. One way or another, my mom will probably pass out b/c I will be quilting for at least an hour. Oh yea...and I will probably start working on my Project 365 pages...I am still taking pics everyday but I'm weeks behind on layouts! This week on FlyLady, we are in the kitchen...www.flylady.com. Never to late to start, one babystep at a time :)

Sorry this was such a random post...ac going out, trips to grandparents, a little preaching and Anti-procrastination day...whew! I had to make up for missing some postings :) Have a great week!