7 years ago...I do!

It all started with this...the perfect storybook proposal...set in a beautiful Renaissance wedding chapel with tons of our Renaissance friends secretly in the back to share in the moment.

8 months later, here was the happy couple.  June 26, 2004 All my dreams of my princess wedding came true.  Even looking back now, I wouldn't change a thing about it.

Now here we are 7 years later.

A little older, few more pounds, 2 beautiful children, a house with one acre of land, still working at the same school and same construction company.  If you had asked us 7 years ago, where we thought we would be today, I'm pretty sure my answer would have been pretty close to right where we I am.  Considering I am someone that doesn't accept change too easily, that makes me happy. 
    Don't get me wrong, there are still days I want to kill my husband, who doesn't.  But then there are also days when he can be the best!  That was pretty much my answer 7 years ago to why I was marrying, Randy.  He made me madder than anyone in the world, and made me love him more than anyone in the world. 
   Take last night for example.  I arranged for my parents to keep the kids overnight.  My plan was dinner at PF Chang's (my favorite) and a movie.  His plan was Winstar.  I had never been, so I went along with his plan.  Now fast forward to 5:00.  I start getting ready and now he doesn't want to go and I waited too late in the day.  We went and spent all of dinner (Toby Keith's restaurant) still mad at each other.  Finally after a little gambling, losing on Randy's part and winning on mine, he got over it and I remembered why I loved him so much.
   I guess some things never change, he still makes me soooo mad, and still makes me love him so fiercely!   But then again, I said I don't like change....

Happy Anniversary Honey!

VBS- Shake it Up Cafe!!

Well it has taken me a few days to finally have life slow down enough to post about what has consumed ALL of my time the last few weeks.  This year I was assistant director for VBS at our church.  I had NO IDEA just how much time that meant.  We have 2 directors and 2 asst directors for our church's VBS.  This year we had 295 kids and 140 volunteers that needed guidance.  

Let me start by explaining my schedule for the first week of summer.  We did not have a decorator coordinator this year, so all 4 of us plus our 2 fabulous children's directors (paid staff) took on the job.  We were up at church everyday from 9-12 in the morning, grabbed lunch, took a quick nap, and headed back to church every night from 6-9pm. Then all day Saturday & Sunday to complete all the decorations after the wedding, and church services.  My poor kids spent a ridiculous amount of time in the church's nursery.  Luckily they had lots of fun playing with all the other kids, but still, not exactly what every kid wants to do their first week of summer. 

Then just as we survived decorating & prep week, it was time for the real thing.  VBS with all the kids and everything we had prepared for.  Sunday night had the worst trouble sleeping, I even had the typical nightmares like I do before the first day of school.  Monday was everything I worried about and more.  Ok actually it wasn't that bad.  With the exception of the registration table that I was running, everything else went really smoothly.  The registration table was another story.  We had about 30 people that had registered online that did not show up in our system.  So I was trying to assign groups at last second, as well as apease parents who were having to fill out a really long form for a second time.  It was totally chaotic and really stressed me out. 

After each day of class, we had a director's meeting to go over everything and prepare for the next day. Somehow that always kept me at church until about 3:00.  Luckily my mom & dad were there to help out and take the kids out to lunch and just get them out of the church. 

 Our theme was Shake it Up Cafe.  So everything was food related.  Here are two adorable little chefs in front of Matt's Muffins table.  Believe it or not these were all made out of spray insulation and painted.  Barbara did an awesome job!  They looked so real, that we even had to put up signs stating they were for VBS & not real food. 

 This was the first time I had to face my baby boy being in 1st grade!!!  But it was all ok, because Nana was his shepherd.  Yes my parents had to put in some serious time decorating & working VBS, when they weren't watching my kids so that I could be in meetings.   

Some really big spaghetti!!

 My dad even shephered for one of the 4th grade groups!

My size cookies & milk!!!

 On Thursday morning, I decided to sneak down the hall and check out what our preschoolers were doing.  Here is Alex in morning assembly.  All week she had seen me pass by her classroom, and just commented there is my mommy.  But I think by Thursday morning, she was just plain tired.  Because she just started crying and wanted me to take her with me.  So I had to quickly sneak out and leave her to her teacher's to stop crying.  Sorry guys!!

Our star of the week, Scraps!

 God has a recipe for ME!

 Extra large pizza, please!  Notice Alex's lunch box- On Wednesday I was beginning to feel bad about my parents having the kids so much, so I packed a lunch for both kids to eat in the nursery after VBS.  I cannot even begin to tell you how excited Alex was about having a big girl lunch in a lunchbox like Riley takes to school.  It was so cute!  Too bad she didn't eat more of it...

 This one of our cute tables set up around the hallways.  Plus I had to have at least one picture of all 3 of us in our matching VBS shirts that I was in charge of ordering! :)

 Group 1B- Or Shepherd Nana with Little Chef, Riley

Shepherd Greg preparing for the last day!

By the end of the week, I was exhausted but happy.  We changed alot of things up this year, but all in all I think there were lots of good change.  We will have to tweak things for next year, but when do we ever not make changes, in efforts to make things better!

Kindergarten Program

              Friday morning was Riley's kindergarten program.  I can hardly believe my little boy is about to be in first grade.  This year has just flown by.  I know all parents say it, but it truly seems like just yesterday that he was that little 5lbs 7oz baby that fit in the palm of my hand.  Now he is this tall, handsome little boy who is learning to read and fascinated with the world around him. 

   Thursday night as I was preparing everyone clothes for the next morning, I asked Riley how he was supposed to dress for the program.  He looked at me seriously and answered, "handome!"  Love it!  Well I decided on one of his new pair of shorts with a brown polo shirt.  I could have dressed him in his church pants, but frankly they are all getting a little short and don't look too good.  Plus I didn't want him to have to change clothes the next day.  Friday morning, Michelle Rayburn was going to cover my class, but I was still worried about finding somewhere to sit.  I remember last year the parents lined up around the outside of the school and the cafeteria being packed.  So I told my parents to get there early.  They got there really early.  I think they got to school about 8:00am for the 9:00 program.  That would have been great, except that I forgot that I had purchased front row seats at the carnival.  So my parents got there super early to already have saved seats.  Oh well!!  Now the cafeteria was packed by showtime, but not at 8:00am. 

Riley's class performed, "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head!"  It was so cute!  I did just fine during that song.  Then at the end, all the classes, sang, "Its a Wonderful World."  That made me cry.  It was the line about how they were just babies and now growing and learning just reminded me of how much he has changed and grown.

After the program, each class went back to their homeroom and received their certificates marking the end of Kindergarten. 

Riley with his fabulous teacher, Mrs. Adams.  He absolutely loves her!

Mrs. Adams' Kindergarten Class 2010-2011

I had planned to have Riley stay in school after the program, but then I quickly realized that almost all the kids were going home.  Luckily Randy didn't have any big plans for the day since he had taken off for the program, so Riley spent the day with daddy.  I'm glad he went home because it ended up there were only 19 kindergarteners left after 6 classes worth of kids went home.  Mrs. Adams originally only had 1 but 2 girls felt sorry for her, so they stayed behind to keep her company. 

Plus Riley had a great day with daddy.  They had lunch at Wendy's, complete with a frosty, went to the parts store, picked up Alex, went to get sno-cones, Kroger for dinner preparations, and then home to play on the swingset.  A great day for everyone!

A Ranger Birthday Party

On Sunday, in spite of the unseasonally cold & rainy weather, we went to a birthday party at the Ballpark in Arlington. 

The birthday party started off with cake and ice cream and then we headed to start the tour of the stadium.  While I have been to several games, I have never taken a tour or seen the behind the scenes parts.  I have to admit that I think I was way more excited than Riley was.  The kids & very interested parents got to see the City of Arlington suite (very plain & boring) and the working underneath the ballpark.

 After checking out a suite we headed downstairs to the behind the scenes parts.  Here was the indoor batting cages with the american league pennants of the past & some extra motivation.

 Then we headed over to the media room where the postgame interviews are held.  The kids really enjoyed sitting at the big table.

After the media room, we headed to the dugout.  The kids were pretty excited about it, even though they were not allowed on the field.

 Finally came the kids favorite part.  We headed to Center Field for a little wiffle ball action.  The kids had so much fun hitting the ball and chasing them down.  A big yea to the birthday boy for getting the only out of the "park" homerun.  So cute!

Final soccer game of season

Saturday was Riley's final soccer game of the season.  I can't believe how fast the season has flown by.  I think part of it was this was the first season with no rainouts.  But I just can't believe it is already over.  Riley has gotten back to the point, that I truly enjoy watching every minute of his game.  His intensity is back and he is aggressive again.  He just made so many improvements this season.  He has so much better understanding of the positions and when to come up for defense or when to stay back. 

At first I complained alot about this coach because he wasn't much for extra reminder emails or just much for talking to the parents at all.  On top of all that he scheduled practices on Friday nights at 6:30.  Who does that?  Well I complained alot at first, but then I quickly realized that it wasn't that bad because I didn't have to rush home on a school night to get him ready for the next day.  Plus whatever they practiced the night before, I often saw them trying it out in the game the very next day.  Coach Luna did a great job of really pushing their soccer skills to the next level.  This adds to the reason that I am sad to see the season end.  I would really like to play another season with the exact players.  They all have something to offer and something to teach each other. 

 The YMCA also changed up their trophies this season.  It was kind of funny listening to the kids talk about how they wanted a trophy.  LOL!  Luckily my child was just happy with whatever he got!

Easter Weekend

Our Easter weekend started with a soccer game.  Riley is really progressing.  He is staying focused throughout the whole game and his skills are improving so much.  This game he played one quarter of offense, one of defense, and one at goalie.  Riley is not exceptionally great at catching, so I was super proud of his saves and no goals scored on him. 

 After the game, we headed to my parents to spend some quality time with the family, including my cousin Jamie, and the kids cousin Caleb.  This is the kids latest game, rolling down the yard in a laundry basket. 

 Then gampa was a human swing.  I was surprised he could even move this morning after swinging the kids around.  Who needs a swingset?

 Then we headed inside for some egg dying action.  We dyed 36 eggs and stuffed 3 dozen plastic eggs.  Lots & lots of eggs!

After dying the eggs, the younger two kids plus a few adults took a nap.  Then as soon as Daddy got home from turkey hunting, we did a little hunting of our own.  Egg hunting!

 Alex kept dropping the eggs out of her too small basket, so she just set her basket down and would go pick them up with her hands and just carry them back to the basket.

 Cousin Caleb may not like to share his toys, but he shared all the pink eggs with Alex.  So sweet!

After the egg hunt, we went inside to open our Easter baskets.  There was of course candy, but also some fun Cars & Princess stuff.

 Alex got an ice cream play doh set that has already been spread out & left a residue on my floor.  LOL!

Caleb got one too.  I hope he didn't make quite as much a mess!

After all the candy, it was time to make dinner.  We had our traditional meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, and homemade ice cream.  YUM!!! 

 Grandma Betty & Grandpa Bill

 As it got late, we knew we had to head home and get the kids to bed. I hated to leave. I really enjoy spending time with my family and watching the kids play together. But we knew we had church this morning and I had to teach Sunday School so it would be an early morning.

This morning our church did something new & really cool.  We gathered all the children & about 150 adults in the courtyard for a butterfly release.  Each child was given a yellow triangle with a butterfly inside.

 Then at the designated moment, they all opened their envelopes and released about 250 butterflies.  There were squeals of delight & a few screams of fear.

Despite counting heads a dozen times,because I was so afraid of losing one of our 19 PreK kids, I would say it was a really neat experience and something that would be lots of fun to do again next year. 

  The rest of our Easter involved lunch at Don Pablos and then just heading home to get some chores done.  It was completely backwards of our usual Easter weekends, but I kind of like not being exhausted tonight after doing sooo much today.  The exhaustion part was last night instead.