what happens when it's sunny....

What happens when it's sunny out, very few clouds in the sky, and NONE of them look like a rain cloud?

Why, it pours!!

see how blue the sky is??

Every single day this week, we've had these weird mini showers every afternoon. Sky is bright blue, beautiful white clouds are in the sky, and none of them are dark gray indicating rain.

The smell of rain is an intoxicating smell to me. I love it. Wish I could bottle it up. In fact, every single time it starts to rain, I rush outside and take a giant big whiff. I miss a good old midwestern thunderstorm. THOSE are the best!

I think I need to clean

A few days ago, I was folding clothes in my room. Someone turned on the light, and lo & behold I did a double take on my ceiling fan. A spider has been busy at work! I've NEVER seen it like this before!

I might leave it..... Halloween is coming up, and spiderwebs do fit the scene perfectly...

volleyball... the road to learning how to serve

One thing most members in my family share a love of... it's volleyball. Or at least, we did share a love of it when we were younger! I loved volleyball. REALLY loved it. When Katie started 6th grade, she took P.E., and learned how to play volleyball for the first time, and LOVED it. Her P.E. teacher even told her she was a natural at it, and had she ever played before?! Nah, must be in the genes!

When the news came that she could play volleyball in 7th grade, she jumped at the opportunity. Every morning that first week of school, I took her in at **yawn** 6:15 a.m. for her to play volleyball, and really, to try out to see which team she would make for that season. It was either the A/B team, or the Go team (the C team....). She was hoping for the B team, b/c there were several girls who have been playing for years already on a recreational team.... and they were pretty good. She was told over & over again how great she was... how awesome of a setter she was... but she made the Go team. She said the main coach came over immediately after she dismissed them all, and said "Katie, it was a CLOSE decision, as I had to pick between either you or another girl." Katie said "well, that made me feel just a little bit better."

There were over 80 girls who wanted to play, and ALL of them get to be on a team. Which, I'm not totally against, as I think it's a great opportunity for all girls to get some exercise, and learn how to work together and create a talent!

However, there were so many girls on the Go team, they had to create 3 teams. Which means, Katie only gets to play 3 times out of 9 games they play each week. Big bummer.... Plus she only gets to practice once a week, except for the week she plays, then she gets two practices that week. So, in reality, they don't learn THAT much. However, when I met her coach, she was so excited to tell Katie that she was chosen as a setter for her team... I was proud. Katie's a much better setter than I ever was!

Last week, she finally got to play! What was so funny was watching the girls practice their serves. They all lined up at the line, and just went at it. Both sides. Balls flying everywhere. Chaos, really!

Katie was the first one up to serve... talk about pressure for this already nervous gal!

We have been working on her serve for WEEKS!! Her Highland dance teacher used to be a P.E. teacher, so she helped one night, which helped immensely. Another friend who is in 8th grade in our neighborhood has helped her out on the tennis court in the neighborhood... and her tips helped her out as well.

and it went over!!

Sadly her second serve missed the net by a few inches.

Sadly, both teams really don't know how to serve. What confused me was the rules. If one team didn't make it over, the other team got the point, and vice versa. So, if Katie's serve didn't make it over the net, other team scored. If she did make it over, and the other team bumped it back, and our team let it go to the ground in bounds, then the other team got the point. Kind of confusing. We didn't see a whole lot of action of the ball going over the net. Guess it all needs to be baby steps...

here the ball actually came Katie's way, but hit the net and didn't make it over, but still a great "get the ball" shot!

In all, her team won all three rounds they played! They have to win by 2 points though, and it's called a game. We also found out that several players on the B team are getting cut to the Go team soon, so Katie's crossing everything crossable on her body that she'll be able to go to the B team and practice more (translation... 4 early morning practices a week!).

Here is a small video of Katie serving... notice she bounces the ball. A LOT!!!

whose children are these?

When I take my girls to Target (aka, my happy place), they turn into children I don't know.

Actually, they turn into children I don't want to know.

They embarrass me. To death.

Payback's a b.... b.... butt..... kids....

See for yourself.








Funniest thing Katie said tonight? "Man, that is harder than I thought it would be! It used to be so easy!" Yeah, you're only.... 9 years older than the maximum age limit.

calling all barbie lovers!

As a little girl, I loved Barbies. Never mind, make that Barbie. I only had one. But, it was the most loved Barbie of all time. My mom made dresses for Barbie and I wished for Ken to be by her side. But then Cabbage Patch Kids came to the scene, and there went my love for Barbie. Darn those Cabbage Patch Kids!

Then I had two little girls. I grabbed my Barbie doll that fit into its case along with all the outfits my mom made for it. And I introduced her to Katie... when she was little. She fell in love. Birthdays & Christmases later, she had about .... oh... I'd say ... about 30 Barbie dolls? Yeah, that little butt. Spoiled rotten butt.

Miss K fell out of love with Barbies, and that is when Miss M fell in love with Barbies!! Oh my! She had (and still has) an intense love for all things Barbie! and Ken! and Skipper! In fact, she stopped playing with them a few years ago, so I bagged them up and took them back to my mom's house. She found them ... and started playing with them again.

When the movies of Barbie came out years ago, I bought them for my girls. I loved them. Loved them all!! I loved how the music was classical music, and the storylines were traditional folk stories..... and Barbie herself was just a sweet little gal. My girls were in LOVE!

Then one day I get an email in my inbox from MomSelect. "Hey Amy..... you interested in watching & reviewing this new Barbie movie?" ((OK, totally paraphrasing, and they didn't use my name)), but I jumped on it and said "YES!"

The movie was sent to us, we watched... and sighed. Big smiles all around on Maddie's face. We loved it. Miss M is a total die hard Fashion Diva. This movie was perfect for her!

What did I love? I love that it was set in Paris! I loved the theme of the movie: to NEVER give up... and hard work always pay off! Basically, the story is about Barbie helping her aunt, whose fashion house is about to be shut down by someone evil.... and with the help of special friends, they work together and find ways to save her aunt's fashion house!

Maddie's review: "My funniest part was when Ken split his underwear.... with hearts on it." So there, you have it from the mouth of an 8 year old! Wanna see Ken's underwear?! See this movie!

Many thanks MomSelect!!! Also, Maddie LOVES playing on Barbie's website, they have tons of games to play! Check it out!

Love Notes

Katie received her first "love note" from a boy when she was in third grade. She got a broken necklace with her love note. It was so sweet! Nothing says love like a broken necklace!

Last week, Maddie got her first love note as well! I picked Maddie & her friend Tressa up from school one day. Tressa was SO excited! She blurted out "Maddie got a love note!" I looked at Maddie, who was nodding her head with the most horrific expression on her face. She said "yes, and I DON'T like him!"

Here is what he said:

"I like you. Do you like me? I was too afraid to tell you."

then he signed his name, and erased it. AWWW! I love it! I love this little boy!



So what did Maddie do when she came home? Promptly ripped her beautiful letter up.... to which I grabbed the pieces and told her "oh sweetie... don't you know we have to SAVE this?!" So, she taped pieces of it back together.

What did daddy do? Laughed and reminded Maddie she couldn't have a boyfriend until she was 25. Or was it 42? Nah... she has to wait until she's 16 before she can date.

pictures on canvas

My newest project I am going to be working on is an amazing one!! I saw on a blog (somewhere) how this gal took a ton of her little pictures and mod podge'd it all to canvas. I thought... I CAN DO THAT!!

So I did!

I used the cute pictures I snapped of the girls a few weeks ago (since I finally was agreeing they were worthy to be enlarged & hung on our wall... I'm such a picture snob).

::front view::

I painted the outside edges in front, on the side, and in the back the color I wanted to coordinate with what room that picture is going to. ::total sidetrack story:: The color pictures, were free, from Walgreens.... but I used too much saturation among other things that I totally goofed on (like not uploading the larger file, and uploaded the small file so it's not as nice)... anyways, THOSE pictures are going in the girls room, which is a lime green & pinkish color. I practiced on those first before I went on to the larger sizes. ::end of sidetrack story::

After I painted the edges, I took matte Mod Podge and liberally applied it all over the front of the canvas. Then, I turned my picture so it's facing down, and applied more on the back of the picture. Then, I laid it down on my canvas (so the picture is where it's supposed to be). I made sure all bubbles were out of the way, and it was lined up perfectly.

After that was done, I had to apply Mod Podge again to the tops, and the sides of my picture & canvas. I let it dry for a bit (translation.... set aside and let dry for a day or so).

::side view::

I.LOVED.it!! I'm now planning on doing more for my living room, but in black & white pictures. I'm going through the pictures now that I just absolutely love when the girls were little & growing up....

However! Do not... I repeat... DO NOT place the canvas facing each other (like say if you want to take these pictures to show off to your co-workers.. and then realized "oh, they're stuck!" b/c they WILL get stuck!). So now, there are some white spots on my colored pictures. Bummer!

these pink shoes

These shoes have been the source of many arguments in our house.

I just bought these cute pink shoes for Maddie for school. A day after I bought them, she wrote with a Sharpie (black) marker: (heart) Taylor == on the left shoe, and (heart) Lautner == on the right shoe. On the top white part of her shoes. In big letters.

My poor dad saw me blow a fuse. I mean, I REALLY blew a fuse! So, I set out attempting to take the ink off with nail polish remover, which got a majority of it off, and my dad managed to somehow get the rest of it off by rubbing the white part.

That was fight #1.

Fight #2 was when Maddie wore her shoes (that same day as fight #1) and since they were big on her.... she now said "they're too small." GRR! I was so stinking mad! First she told me they were just right (I could push a full thumbprint in between her big toe & the end of her shoe), and now they were TOO small! And "can you take them back?" and "I don't want them anymore." Kill me now.

Well sweetheart, no, Mommy can't take them back because YOU WROTE HEART TAYLOR AND HEART LAUTNER ALL OVER IT!

Fight #3 was when we went to our property last weekend, and she conveniently "forgot" her regular tennis shoes. Brand new shoes... are now dirty new shoes. Dusty.

::sigh::

Wonder when fight #4 is going to happen with these shoes? I do love my Maddie Moo though...

becoming a hunter

As most everyone knows... there are only girls in our family. No boys. Mike said "NO MORE!" to my dismay years ago. Truth be known... I'd always known if we had ONE more baby, it would be a girl. I don't know how I know... I just do.

So, Mike decided to get a feel if the girls would like to go hunting. Now that we have a little slice of land six hours away, Mike's able to go hunting now! Seriously, you have to pay an arm and a leg, or know people who own bunches of land here in Texas if you want to hunt.

Mike simply asked Katie one day "hey... wanna go hunting with me this fall?"
Katie said "yup." He's a man of few words, and sometimes, so is she.

Away they went for a daddy/daughter date (of Mike's dreams, I'm sure) of looking at rifles for Katie to hold. Finally after searching all day, and talking to a bazillion people about their opinions, they settled on a size. I was so shocked it wasn't pink! Of course, Katie's not really into pink, but if Maddie was there, you can bet your britches it would've been pink!

Mike also bought his girls a special treat. Camo clothes: brown shirts with pink on it. And a hat... definitely camo hats... with pink on it. Very cute, I must say. Actually, we needed long sleeve shirts for the girls b/c there's NO way in H-E-double hockey sticks are we going to have a replay of "three out of four people in our family get something poisonous on their skin" like we had a month ago from our last trip .... that was NOT fun. It was expensive too.

A few years ago Mike got a feel for how Katie could shoot. Maddie is still too young at this point to even care (or even handle a gun, in my opinion). She shot with a .22 (I'm sure I'm butchering up the gun talk....), and did a fantastic job! She even managed to create an upside down K with her shots! Amazing!



This time? She did pretty amazing as well. Here she is shooting with a 243. I only have like 50 pictures of her shooting in all angles. I think I went a little extreme. Adjusting my exposure, adjusting my meters, etc. Then again, one can never have too many pictures.



She's gonna be a great hunter. She'll be able to hunt alongside Mike for the next 4 years, then she'll take the Hunter's Safety class.

How did I do? I did awesome. I'm sure I'll make my dad proud when he sees this target:



He's probably thinking "dang... should've taken her hunting when she was a kid too... we might've come home with a deer!" ::giggling:: OK, for the record, my dad came home w/ a deer a lot. I held the head while he butchered it. Finest moment in my life. Holding a deer's head.

I only shot 4 shots, and couldn't find the 4th shot, until Mike saw it. It was right next to one of them... so I shot twice in the same area! Ka-POW!