Thanksgiving

The kids and I went to my sister's house for Thanksgiving this year! It was a very enjoyable time! I love my sister and her family, and I'm not good enough at making sure that our kids spend enough time together! I remember how fun it was to spend so much time with our cousins as we were growing up . . . and I need to get better at making that happen for my kids and Kailey! We missed Rusty, though: he had to stay home because of work! But I cooked a simple Thanksgiving dinner for him Sunday night . . . never tire of turkey and all the fixin's!

Theresa and Kamyn checking the turkey

Theresa -- such the good cook and hostess! Really!

Robert carving the turkey

Everyone before dinner

Kailey hogging the pies! heheh!

Apparently Kailey and Reba ate so much they slid down in their chairs! Funny!

Reba -- supposed to be helping with kitchen clean-up! uh huh! Meanwhile Aunt Theresa is actually working! typical! hahah!

The kids and I went to dad's gravesite on Friday! It looks great with the poinsettias!

Anthony, Kamyn, and Kyle at Papa's grave (Reba stayed back at the house with Kailey)

Reba after she found out she was going on an Alaskan cruise next summer with my sister and her family! She's always wanted to go to Alaska!

The boys on the couches watching TV. Notice they're not in any of the "kitchen" pictures! hahah! ugh!

the kids watching tv. Anthony was upstairs playing the Wii

Theresa, Robert, and Anthony in the hot tub watching the Longhorns whoop up on the Aggies! (the little white blip in the far back is a little tv!)

Sophomore Class Duchess

Reba was elected Sophomore Class Homecoming Duchess! (was duchess last year, too, but I didn't have this blog then!) Cool!

Reba in front of the Homecoming Court stage where they have to sit until halftime. Reba said she felt like "Barbie in a box"! Cute!

Reba with the Sophomore Class Duke, whoever he is! hahah!

My beautiful girls: Kamyn (former Homecoming Queen nominee!) and Reba (hopefully future Homecoming Queen nominee!)

Hooray!

Reba FINALLY got her permit to drive! She completed driver's ed several months ago, but because of a misplaced social security card issue, she has just now gotten her permit! Annnddd, more good news: she was elected Sophomore Class Homecoming Duchess! Homecoming is November 6th, so I'll post pictures after that!

Halloween

Well, Halloween was pretty uneventful here! The boys were both grounded due to grades, so we all just stuck around the house! We carved pumpkins just in time for them to be lit right at dusk, and we handed out candy to the FEW trick-or-treaters we had! Good food, though! Rusty bbq'd dove, shrimp, and chicken!

The girls and Kristian, though, went to a Halloween party in Calallen! woohooo!

Kamyn and Kristian dressed as "Sandy and Danny" from Grease

"Queen Reba" with her friend Shelby

FB

Okay, so facebook has stolen my time and pictures and text! hahha!

Meanwhile, not much has really been going on -- just the normal day-to-day stuff! I have to explain the lack of lake/birthday pictures: we got Reba a digital camera for her birthday, but I wrongly assumed it came with a memory card. So I just gave her the memory card out of my camera. Needless to say, all the birthday pictures are stored on that memory card, and despite my relentless begging for her to post them to FB so I could rob them for this blog ... there are still no pictures for this blog! UGH!

Two Beautiful Girls . . .

. . . with candy letters stuck to their foreheads! Hah! My neice Kailey surprised Reba by showing up at the lake for her birthday party! I wish I could've gotten Reba's reaction on video! So cute! She loves her cousin and was so happy to see her again! (More birthday lake pictures to come . . . )

Opening Weekend

It's opening weekend of dove season . . . and as usual Rusty has drill. Darn! But I took the boys to our friend Darrell's house/property to hunt so they could at least have some fun. (I didn't hunt because I haven't gotten my license for this year yet! yikes!) Lots of 12 gauge shells spent . . . only 2 dove on the ground! Not much to chew on! Maybe better luck during this next week and on throughout the season! But really looking forward to deer season . . . need meat in the freezer!

Reba is 16!

Wow! It's been 16 years since I had Reba! She was such a pretty baby . . .. and now she's such a pretty young lady! She loves life and is so much more a people-person than I could have ever imagined! This is going to sound bad, but seriously . . . when she was waaaayyy younger, I always said to people: "Reba is going to either do great things with her life or be institutionalized"! And she has proven that she can and will do GREAT things with her life! She loves God and strives to live for Him on a daily basis. She is such an inspiration! (although she still is a teenager with those frustrating teenage attitudes and quirks! haha! Love ya, Rebe, but c'mon now -- we've all been there!) She is my soul-mate. Happy Birthday Reba Layne!!! (September 6th)

These pictures are from Kristi -- the girls' stepmom! She's so good to the girls and for the girls. They are blessed to have her in their lives! Kirk and Kristi had a party at their house for Reba, and Rusty and I will have a party next weekend at the lake for her. I will post pictures of the "lake party" as soon we get home!!

Reba with a sign that Kamyn made for her!

Reba with her boyfriend Robin

Anthony and Clayton's Birthday

Anthony turned 17 on August 17th and Clayton turned 16 on August 18th, so we had a birthday party for both boys here at the house! School hadn't started for the kids, but I had inservice . . .. needless to say, the day after the party I was begging for some "alone-time" in my classroom where I might be able to put my head down on a desk or something for just a short period of time! hahha! No such luck, though! But that's okay . . . it was worth it. Had good friends, good food, and good margs!!! (thus the reason for my wanting to get some rest the next day! hah) Happy Birthday boys! We love you!!!

Clayton and Anthony (with Shawn and Brannon in the background)

Darrell and Chris trying to give Anthony some birthday swats!

my good friend Katie with birthday boy Clayton

cutie-pie Paul (Katie's other son!)

Yikes!

It would probably be in Rusty's best interest to not pass out while his friends from work are here! But the nail polish is pretty . . . .!

Clog from HELLLLL

Just got rid of the clog from HELLL in my bathtub. Nothing worked -- till I found the SULFURIC ACID!!! Yay! My kids at school will be happy that I had the clog because I found some "over-the-counter" concentrated sulfuric acid -- used by the normal person to unclog drains, but to a chemistry teacher, it's a cheap, quick way to do labs! hahah! Otherwise we have to order it from a catalog and wait forever for it to come! Hey! There's a reason for everything! And as much as I hated the CLOG, I'm grateful for the quick source of H2SO4!!

Have to add also, that as good as God was to turn a bad situation into a good one (the quick source of H2SO4), He was even more gracious in that He provided us safe travel on more than one occasion with a horrendously bad tire on the suburban. We knew we had a bad tire but were not aware of just how bad until Rusty changed it out last Thursday! There were several, several places on the tire where only metal showed! And we towed the boat --- and our KIDS -- with that bad tire. Praise God for His mercy. There are definitely angels watching over us!!!!

Swallow Casualty

Saw the not-so-coolest thing ever.

Apparently one swallow was not so good at skimming the pool water because I just found his tiny, wet, dead body floating in circles in the pool's skimmer. Poor little fella.

Swallows

Saw the coolest thing ever today!

Preface: We have swallows that nest under the eaves of the house. They raise at least 2 "sets" of babies each year, and they all skim the pool for water throughout the day/evening. Neat to watch.
Most awesome thing: I was lying on a float in the pool today and 7 - 8 swallows were flying all around me skimming the water, drinking, sooo close to me! It was great!

You've gotta be kidding me . . .

Have you ever seen in a movie where someone is driving and the hood flies up then the people are sticking their heads out the windows to see where they're going? Well, let me tell ya -- it doesn't just happen in the movies! It happened to US! And we looked just as idiotic as the people in the movies! Hah!

So we were towing the boat, going fishing, just Rusty and I. The hood flies open, the little hinge thingies BEND and we have to walk home to get some tools to bang them back in place! Thankfully we were only a mile from home! I couldn't stop laughing as we were walking. It was funny!

Not to worry! Got it fixed, went fishing, and got to see at least an 8 foot alligator! It was really cool at first, watching that alligator just laze around about 100 yards from us! Really, it was cool! Then the STALKING comes in . "Let's move further into the cove to see if we can catch bigger fish," Rusty says. Move further in? Yeah -- move closer to the alligator at the same time!! I wasn't worried too much until the alligator SWAM TO OUR BOAT! Eyeballed us -- all the while touching the boat - swam under the boat -- eyeballed us from the other side of the boat -- all the while touching the boat -- HOLY MACARONI!!!!

My knight in slippery sunscreen wielded his trusty net and looked ready to POKE the thing until I adamantly protested! Good idea, Rusty! Let's POKE HIM and piss him off. Good one! Geez!

Finally he swam away and just lazed around, this time about 50 yards from us! Whew! That was scary to me! Cool but scary!

Meet Me In Montana

(for those of you who aren't as old as me -- that was a song a long time ago! Marie Osmond, I think? whoooaaaaa!)

Kristian is now in Montana! From Hella-hot Arizona to Helena Montana! Hah! He got to stay with us one night when he was home last week, so that was great! In Montana, he'll be staying with a host family, so I'm anxious to hear his stories about that!! All in all, he's excited to be there, and we know he'll do a great job! Go Kristian! Go Brewers!

The Lake

Finally made a trip to the lake! Rusty and I got one night by ourselves then we picked up the boys (including Tim) and stayed two more nights. We got a most awesome campsite with a not-so-treacherous path down to the water. We pretty much had our own private beach!

Anthony, Rusty, and Tim

Rusty and Kyle with a fish that Kyle found -- already dead! hahah! (he was planning on using it for cut-bait)

Rusty is holding this box because he ate the last snack cake and left the empty box on the table instead of throwing it away. Because he always gripes at the kids for the same thing, I told him we were recording that moment on this blog! Meanie!

Hot chicks

Hubba Hubba

Regionals

Well, after Regional track meets across the state were cancelled due to the Swine flu (or, as the girls call it -- the Swiner!), they were just as suddenly un-cancelled and rescheduled! So Reba had a fun trip -- not so productive . . . but fun! Oh, we're still proud that she made it to Regionals her freshman year, and we're looking forward to great things in the future!

Reba getting ready to run . . . then jump!

The whole picture -- that tiny person on the runway is Reba!

me and Reba

Cool picture!

The big One-Three

On May 13, Kyle turned 13! Happy Birthday Kyle!

We love you!

Kyle at dinner -- his choice -- Chinese food! Yummmm!

Anthony and Kyle at dinner

Weekend before last . . .

Weekend before last, we had all the kids, and it was cool! We went to Chris and Robert's graduation party Friday night, then hung out here at the house the rest of the time. The weather was nice, so the kids swam while I worked in the flower beds. Remember those seeds I told you I had sown -- well, they sprouted and some of them were blooming, but apparently to Rusty they looked like weeds because he annihilated them with the weed eater. I cried. A lot. Then I went and bought a lot of already-established plants and planted them! Rusty vowed to never go near the flower beds again. Let's see if he holds true to his word!!!

Reba made an awesome chocolate cake with homemade buttercream frosting -- a lot of which you see on her face after she and Rusty got in an icing fight! eeewwww! (or maybe, yummmm!)

Kamyn's margarita in a rain gauge! Funny!

Kamyn and Reba fighting over sunglasses while Jackie, Kyle, and Clayton watch! Looks like Clayton threw that little "basketball" at them to shut them up!

Kamyn goofing off, Reba coming up out of the water, Jackie sitting on the ladder, and Anthony watching from outside the pool!

Aaah, what a good seeester! Putting sunscreen on?

Kamyn, Reba, and Jackie

Clayton and Kyle playing basketball; Kamyn and Reba in the background