Last Friday was Texas Day…or something like that. I have videos to upload but meanwhile, check out the pics on our Flickr account.

It’s a little gnome army. Cute, huh?!?

Jack’s showing off his candy sweetheart ipod box. Both ideas are from Family Fun online, except I modified the gnomes by sewing the hats instead of gluing them with fabric glue.

Just last week, we had the Fruity Pebbles incident. After this Cheerios incident, we might have to give up on cereal altogether and start eating more oatmeal! I came out of the shower to find Ben had tried to get himself more Cheerios. When I saw him he had a glass shard the size of a pencil in his hand, rolling it around, so I calmly asked, “Where did you get that???” and then I saw the broom. He was barefoot and had tried to clean it up himself. I could hardly be mad at such a sweet effort. It was a miracle we weren’t in the ER that day! He had not a cut, bruise, or drop of blood on him anywhere. We were headed to the church that day to put on a luncheon and I think the good Lord must have wanted us there instead of the ER.

Book club at my home was approaching. All the other book club ladies have such nice homes and nice furniture to go with them. I was aching for a coffee table and perhaps an end table or two so that people wouldn’t have to put plates on their laps. It is a tight week for us this week so I also wanted to make nice things to eat without going to the store. Which meant no fresh fruit. Hmmm. I made a blackberry coffee cake streusel and a bundt cinnamon coffee cake as well as a hash brown bake. No going to the store also meant no paper plates (at least not sturdy enough ones to use)…no problem, I don’t mind doing dishes, and using real plates is always nicer than paper.

I was trying to clean stains off the couches, stains off the carpet and feeling bad for myself that I didn’t have all new-matching-beautiful-perfect furniture. I could quickly see everywhere the dog has been…but would I give up the dog? Definitely not. She is worth the stains and hair. Then, I quickly got a grip and realized none of those things are important.

The house looked so nice from midnight to about 10 minutes AFTER book club was over. I was very thankful for Cole - one of the BEST KIDS EVER - who was more than willing to stay up and help me clean. He even manually picked out leftover red M&Ms from the Christmas bags I stocked up on after the holiday when they went on sale (he did the same thing with candy DOTS! What a kid!). The red looked so cute in my valentine heart dishes and nobody knew how frugal I really was.

I had been at Kohl’s earlier that day and had a clearance banquet tablecloth in my hand for $19.99. Mind you, I have two white banquet tablecloths that I can’t seem to locate since our move. I searched. Don searched. No such luck. I put the purchase back on the shelf at Kohl’s and walked out empty handed. Even though I felt like I desperately needed that tablecloth. So, I went home and took a cream colored fabric shower curtain and washed it and laid it out on half the table. Then, I took another cream colored tablecloth I had (smaller than banquet) and put it over the other half. Then, I took a small square tablecloth my mother made for me and put it over the seam. I can honestly say that I doubt anybody even noticed and it looked so good! I really AM learning how to make do and it felt pretty good! Give it about 3 days and I’ll find my white banquet tablecloths somewhere…isn’t that how it always goes?!

When all was said and done, I was so happy with how everything looked and tasted and the company was the best of all. I learned a couple of things: 1) if you refrain from the impulse to buy something just because you think you need it, DON’T DO IT!!. You’ll feel better in the long run. You and your home can shine with what you already are or have. 2) Women who don’t care about those things, anyway, are the best friends to have. If anybody would have cared in the least, I really wouldn’t want to have them as a friend, anyway!!!

Jackson’s flag football league actually started at the end of January. It was 63° F and only a touch windy - a perfect day for flag football. Just enough wet grass to get a little muddy. We had fun at the game but I think we had even more fun as a family playing catch at Meyer Park earlier this morning. Then we hit up the Bush library for our library card and everybody checked out some goodies…now the only problem is returning them on time. We are notorious for buying books instead of going to a library because we are so very bad at returning them. Here goes! I’ll let you know how responsible we’ve become this time next week. Plus, I cannot say enough great things about this i9 football league - it’s a national franchise and just brilliant. Same time, same location, fair play…so much better than our Farm League experience last season. I highly recommend it!

So I thought we had mice or a rather large cockroach spreading the Fruity Pebbles cereal all over the pantry…until I saw the spoon. Even a large cockroach can’t use a spoon! The guilty party was someone who had never had sugar cereal before and certainly took a liking to them. So much for a treat! More shots on our flickr account. The guilty one is holding a football, how cute is that?! How could anyone get mad at that face?!?

Parents gone. So sad! But I did NOT cry. I just kept telling myself I’d see them this summer. It helped that it is Cole’s 14th birthday and he went with me to take them to the airport. Tonight as I was tucking Gabe in, I thought he was holding Tinkerbell but it was only his stuffed black cat. It won’t feel like they’re gone, just yet. Will probably hit in a day or two. It has been so nice having them here!!! They are less trouble than the kids. I kept joking I’d send the kids back and keep the parents. I’ll have to write up a tribute to Cole for his birthday a day late. I just can’t do it today!!!

Pretty self explanatory. We only have 4 more days with the parents…we are so sad it is almost time for them to go!

Today we went to Galveston. We were chilly. Not negative 7° F chilly, but cold nonetheless. When the wind blows off the ocean and it is 45° F, it gets pretty cold into your bones! We wandered and the kids found seashells. My Dad really seems to enjoy the ocean while my Mom stays as far away from the water as possible! The poodle even hit the sand for awhile but they quickly headed back to the car. Then we drove down Seawall Blvd. and ate for the 2nd time at Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant. We love eating there and looking out over the gulf. It is fun to watch huge ships pass by. We heard if you try the ferry (which is free), you can see dolphins swim along side - really?! Can’t wait to find out. We will definitely go back when it’s slightly warmer. We drove down the Strand but it was really getting rainy so we headed toward home.

On Saturday, we spent some time at the San Jacinto Monument and touring Battleship Texas and we thoroughly enjoyed that, too. The boys thought it was a gigantic jungle gym. I think it brought back Navy memories for my Dad. We are so glad we found out that if you buy a state park pass, it gets you a tour of the Battleship and into the monument area for free - otherwise an adult is $10 per ticket. It also gets you into any state park for a year - what a deal! We can also bring up to 15 friends for free each time we go. Afterwards, we drove to Joe’s Crab Shack in Kemah on the Boardwalk to celebrate Donnie’s birthday. What a fun, carnival, Coney Island type atmosphere! We plan to head back there on a sunnier day later this week. I’ll try to post more pics but I’m actual living faster than blogging, so it’s all good. Lots of catch-up to do once the parents head home. If you’d like to see more pics, you can click on any of the pics above and it should take you to our flickr account. If I don’t post again before January 1st - HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!!!

All I can think of when I see this picture from HMNS Sugar Land is “Man! Those nostrils are HUGE!”

The boys had quite the time. We liked it so much we bought memberships so we could go and visit the Houston HMNS the next weekend. We liked that, too, as well as the Faberge egg exhibit but I think we actually preferred this little version over in Sugar Land with the dino dig and small planetarium. Don’t the boys look cute? I mean, scary?

I have been swamped with work.  And church stuff.  But I couldn’t resist putting up this great picture of Gabe - he’s skinny as a toothpick but at this rate, that won’t last long.  He was dying to try the Mel Burger from Mega Mel’s Cafe in Tomball.  Great place!  If you finish a Mega Mel (which is even bigger than his) within 2 hours (and the Mega Mel costs $19.95 - 2 lbs of beef, 1 lb of bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, etc.) you get your name written on the wall.  Fun family night at a greasy spoon.

I was on the phone with Donnie this morning making reservations for a little weekend getaway when Bennie came into my office this morning asking if he could play horse checkers. I said, “You mean chess?” He said, “No. Horse checkers.” Very cute kid. He’s getting too big too fast.

Gabe: Hey, Mom, I’m the 2nd newest kid in my class.

Mom: Oh? Who is the newest kid?

Gabe: Dakota.

Mom: Where is he from? Is he white, black, hispanic, oriental?

Gabe: He’s American.

Mom: {smirk} Gabe, I love you!

Gabe: You know, cocker spaniel. He’s our color.

Mom: You mean caucasian? White?

Gabe: Oh yeah, that’s it.