151/365

Today I went and picked up the kids.  They had a great time but are SO TIRED.  They played hard all weekend long and it shows.  Tyler was ready for bed at 7:45 tonight.

We had a early supper, bathes and the kids settled in for the night with a movie.  It is nice to have them home.

Jackson had a sad moment tonight.  He just broke down in tears after supper.  I think he was coming off of a high this weekend and coming home to the reality of this little house got to him.  He is also missing his friends in Lockhart.  I gave him a copy of our house plans and let him figure out his room and that really cheered him up.  I know how he feels.  It is hard to come back to this house after a great weekend away.  Hopefully this summer we can stay busy and won't have to be cooped up in this little house too much. 

150/365

Dinner for 2 and a clean house! 

Today we worked hard but got a lot accomplished.  We cleaned and organized the house from top to bottom and then rewarded ourselves with a nice steak dinner and a cold beer.  It was a great way to end the day.

The kids come home tomorrow.  From what I understand they are having a fabulous time at the ranch.

Hope you are all having a great Memorial Day weekend!

149/365

We just walked in from an afternoon in Abilene with a ton of groceries.  It is 11:00 PM and it is 85 degrees in this house.  We have groceries to put away, still haven't had supper and it is way too hot in here to do any of it.  Oh...and I am still feeling like I have been hit by a truck.  I am not in the best mood so I am going to leave it at that. 

148/365

Today we took it easy.  I woke up at 4am feeling really bad and have been up ever since then.  I have been running a fever all day and just generally feeling terrible.  I was glad that the kids were good and let me take care of the things I needed to without being too crazy.

This afternoon we loaded up the kids and drove to Snyder to meet my mom.  She is having surgery on June 9th and won't be able to really have the kids this summer so she wanted one last fun weekend with the kids before she is down and out for the summer.  They are headed to Loyd's ranch for a weekend of fun.  Loyd is getting his son Sam and they are so excited to see him.  They LOVE going up there and quite frankly think it is one of the greatest places around.  I am so glad they are able to go and enjoy it.

We are looking forward to a quiet weekend.  If I feel OK we are going to head to Abilene and do some looking around for our house.  Hopefully we can get the majority of our fixtures and appliances picked out so we can kind of know where we stand on our budget and where we need to cut.  I really wanted to get this done before we start building so I at least have a good idea of prices in my mind.  I am a big bargain shopper and I need to know what I can do with the money I have.  :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  I won't have any pictures of the kids but mom took my camera and is supposed to take pictures of them this weekend.

147/365 Today was for the birds!

      

This morning bright and early we discovered this little bird that had fallen out of it's nest onto our driveway.  Poor thing could barely walk along so we moved it out of the way and over to the tree where there was some protection.  The kids loved it. 

Tyler quickly went and located a worm for the bird and like a good daddy went and attempted to feed the bird.  They LOVED that part!

Then they went to work trying to find more worms so the baby wouldn't get hungry.

Poor Mama and Daddy Bird watched the whole thing.

I finally convinced the kids it was time to head in hoping that mama bird would come in and feed the baby the worm Ty had found.  Later in the day Jacob put the bird back in the nest.  I hope it isn't rejected because it had people loving on it today.

This young man was so thrilled that today was his last day of school!  Summer is officially here.

Sadly the day was kind of ruined by me not feeling well and taking a trip (via ambulance) to the ER because my heart was acting up.  I had a bad EKG at the doctor here in Albany (along with numbness in my left arm and tightness in my chest and high blood pressure which I almost never have).  As it turns out I have pneumonia (which is odd because I have no cough etc.).  My white blood count was really high, I was running a fever and my chest x-ray showed pneumonia.  Go figure.  That along with my previously diagnosed tachycardia and heart murmur kind must have threw things off at the doctor in Albany.  I was put on antibiotics, steroids, and breathing treatments and scolded for stopping my heart meds without talking to my doctor.  Apparently I really do need them when my resting heart rate is still over 100 spiking to 134-140.  I am going to call my cardiologist and get back on them tomorrow.  I am still feeling crummy but I am so happy to be home.  At least I didn't have a heart attack at age 30.  Talk about being scared!

This day should have been fun but really it was for the birds...

146/365

Today was Jackson's awards assembly at school.  He came in 2nd in points this six weeks for AR reading and was on the A/B honor Roll.  The sad thing is that a lot of the awards other kids were getting he didn't get because of the move.  He would have been on the honor roll all year long.  He should have been recognized for the six flags reading program because we did that at Lockhart.  He should have been awarded for perfect behavior all year long which is a HUGE thing.  Very few kids get that.  In fact, I have to brag a bit on my boy because he has NEVER been off of green in 2 full years of school.  He has never even had to be warned about his behavior.  I know that it a difficult thing for a boy to manage.  I hated that he wasn't recognized on those things that I know he should have been recognized for.  I am going do something special for him because this year has been tough and he has had to deal with so many changes.  He has worked so hard and has behaved so well and I don't think that should be overlooked.

After the awards assembly I let the little ones play at the little playground.  They enjoyed it.  While there another parent came up to me and was asking me about Jackson's peanut allergy.  Her twin daughters have it so it was nice to have another parent to talk to and get information on pediatric allergists.  Looks like we will have to go Ft Worth for all pediatric specialists.  I kind of figured it would be this way.  While there another mom who I have spoken with several times came up and was talking to me about working out and our housing situation.  The 2 of them are good friends and were so sweet.  It was great to have a friendly face to talk to.

It was a pretty nice day overall!

Tomorrow school lets out at noon!  Summer here we come!

145/365

I forgot to take pictures until about 15 minutes after I put the kids in bed tonight.  You would think that after 145 days of blogging that it would just be automatic.  As a result of the late picture taking the lighting was terrible and the shadows were awful and so you get edited black and white pictures.  You can make almost any bad picture look good by converting it to a black and white if you know how to adjust your settings and not make the picture too grey.

Jackson got his report card today and I was so proud of him.  He only had 2 B+ and everything else was an A.  I certainly don't think there is anything in his grades that would make us want to hold him back.  I am still confused by that.  We have worked so hard and will continue to work hard and he will be fine without repeating the 1st grade.  If you averaged out all of his grades for the year they all average out at a 95 or above.  I am PROUD of him.  It has been a tough year with a lot of change.

In other news we went to Dollar General today after school and that was the highlight of our day.  How sad is that?  We did at least get out of the house for some other reason than to ride bikes or go pick up Jackson from school.  The good news is by not making random trips to Wal-Mart or Sonic we are saving a ton of money.  It is amazing how quick little trips to Wal-Mart for 1 thing can really add up.  Oh...and happy hour at Sonic, although cheap, adds up when you do it 2-3 times a week.  Ok...I need to stop talking about Sonic because it just makes me crave it more.  I would give anything for a Sonic drink right now.  Oh the things you miss when you live in a small town.

144/365

Today Jackson had his school field day and track meet.  I was so impressed at how well it was put together.  Jackson did really well.  He took first in one of the events but we didn't hear which one it was (I think long jump).  He took 2nd in the softball throw, 3rd in both of his running events and 5th in the potato sac race.  It was a fun morning.  Just when I am feeling really down about where we are living I am reminded why we moved here and why I know this is where we should be.  The town is really cool and so perfect but the schools are just Amazing!

The little kids were less than impressed with the field day.  They wanted to leave about 20 minutes after we got there.

Jaci wouldn't even let me get a good picture of her.

We did get news that the lot we were really hoping to get was not going to work out the way we wanted.  We came back to them with another option and they raised the price by $1000 an acre.  That kind of made us mad so I'm not sure what we are going to do.  We are waiting to hear back from another person on our second choice lot but it technically isn't for sale (yet).  We will see what happens.  I do feel that we will have something settled by the end of the week...at least I hope so!

143/365

Today we accomplished 2 major things that needed to get done.  My car got washed and I finally went through everything and filled out our claim form from the moving company.  I have been putting that off but we have to have it in to them in about 10 days so I couldn't put it off any longer.  I hope we don't have any issues getting them to take care of our claims.  I could have picked things apart a lot worse but as it is I really just want my table replaced and a few other small things replaced like Tyler's drum.  I guess we will have to see what they say.

Tomorrow Jackson has his school track meet and field day.  He is SO excited!  I promise my pictures will not be taken in the front yard tomorrow!  I am just not really motivated to be overly creative lately but at least tomorrow we will be out doing something different.

Hard to believe that school is almost out.  Only 4 more days!  I am ready and I know the kids are as well.

142/365

Nothing to blog...not even going to try.  The kids spend most of their day outside and I spent most of my day doing laundry.  Blah!  It hasn't been the best day.

Maybe tomorrow will be more interesting. 

I'm just really missing my friends in Lockhart right now and this house is depressing me.

Not a good day at all...:(

141/365

I'm sorry for the boring posts lately.  We just haven't been doing much lately other than school, home, play outside.  Nothing worth writing about.

We did talk to our builder today about the lot we are hoping to purchase.  It is going to have to be a situation where we purchase a 10 acre lot and split it 5/5 with our builder.  He was going to have to check on the numbers to make sure it was worth him purchasing the other 5.  Today when we talked to him he said he had the numbers and was going to have to discuss them with his business partner.  We are hoping that it is a good sign that he didn't say no right up front.  This is the last major hurdle that we will have to cross before we start building.  I am so ready get this started!  We were hoping to be out of this house by October but right now I am not overly positive about that happening.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

140/365

Just another uneventful day here.  The kids were in the mood for something sweet this afternoon so we decided to roast marshmallows on our gas stove.  They think it is the coolest thing ever that we can do that inside the house.  I remember my mom doing it with Tiffany and I when we were young.  I love to burn them completely and then eat them.  The kids love them that way too.  Roasting marshmallows  just takes me back to quite peaceful summer nights and camping out.  Good memories.  I wish we were there now.

Not much else to report so I am going to keep this short.

139/365

We have been spending a lot of time reading around here.  I'm hoping it pays off!

We have also been spending a lot of time growing things.  Tyler is so proud of his corn.

And of course we have been spending a lot of time riding  bikes.

I have been spending all of my spare time researching everything imaginable regarding our house.  I love how I can just look up something online and get reviews instantly on something.  I went to Lowe's yesterday and looked at a lot of appliances and things for the house.  Today I researched them online and changed my mind on everything.  At least I won't be doing this at the last minute trying to make a decision without being informed.  I know what I am looking for.  It is just finding the best deal that is going to be reliable and not break a year down the road.  I think I at least have all of my appliances picked out and can start watching for them to go on sale.  :)

138/365

When you live in a little box of a house you have to get creative where you play.  Today the kids decided to take over the closet and use it as their hideout.  They played in there for over an hour.  I don't know how they did it because it was super hot in there. 

Can you tell that Tyler was super sweaty?

They had fun though.

It has been a busy couple of days so I am turning in early tonight.