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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Why Amy is absent....

Well, my poor blog is really being neglected!!  I have so many pictures to share.. stories to tell.... and I don't want to let too much time lapse, but we do have busy happenings going on over here!

The first one is that we are buying a house!  After four years of renting here in San Antonio (we just got too comfortable staying in the same home, and after moving TWICE in ONE year, moving isn't really our favorite thing to do ...  we even tried to buy the house we are living in, but the owner wants too much money for it...), we are MOVING again!  We kind of had major stipulations when we started looking (which the decision to buy a house and find a house all happened in 4 days, literally).  We had to stay in our church ward (we're near the dividing lines), we had to stay in the school district (again, we're on the dividing lines there too).... so we found a house in our neighborhood, which we love anyways.  The area that we live in is a really super nice part of San Antonio, and we have mega million dollar homes surrounding us all over, so our property is a little high.  We could go to other parts of SA and get a much bigger home for the same amount of money, but we love this area & we promised the girls we wouldn't take them out of their comfort zone ... this is THEIR time.  SO....we sign on our house this week, and demolition begins!

I say demolition b/c it is very outdated... and since Mike is a pretty handy guy, we will have hardwood floors in some rooms, an updated kitchen, new toilets... etc etc etc.  The girls have already picked out their colors for their rooms, (Katie pale light blue/teal and Maddie hot pink -- yikes!), and I'm looking forward to my walk in closet!

Funny enough, we're only moving two blocks away.  So, the girls and I will be moving every night == load up my SUV, take it to the new house, and unpack. Repeat. 

We're so excited to see my dad come into town to help Mike out for the week after we close!  He offered to come down to help Mike, and we are so grateful for the extra help.  There is only so much I can do ..... (can't you tell I'm no help when it comes to the cabin?)!  I am a superb "bring the man his water or lemonade" girl!  The girls are super excited Papa Rod will be here as well! 

Another big news in our life is that I got a job!  Wahoo!  So far I'm enjoying it, and I love the people I work with.  I kind of wished it didn't start until the girls started school, but oh well.. we had a fantastic summer!

School starts tomorrow ... Maddie has her teacher that she wanted.  She was in the deaf/hard of hearing class last year (her elementary school is the one that all the deaf kids in the district attend so all the kids are in one school).  She absolutely LOVED being in this class last year, and has learned sign language.  She wanted to continue in fifth grade, and I requested that she get in this class again, and she got it!  Probably doesn't hurt that one of her BFF's is also in this class too!  This is her final year in elementary school, and I'm wondering if I should shed tears that this is her final year?  Nah... I will probably shed tears on her last day of elementary school! 

Katie starts high school tomorrrow.  Maybe I should be shedding tears then?  I tell you.... they're not kidding when they say "don't blink b/c your babies will grow up so fast before your eyes!"  It's TOTALLY TRUE!!  But, she is nervous & excited at the same time.  She has all the classes she wanted, and a great lunch period (not at the end of the day or at the beginning of the day!).  She has all the colors of the rainbow pants (I'm serious... cobalt blue, nectarine, mint green, sea green/blue, white ... and I'm sure I'm missing some colors), so she's dying to get this party started! 

Katie has decided she wants to become a nurse after high school, which I totally am for.  I wanted to be a nurse, but didn't.  I love that the school here offers classes that she can take that will help go towards her nursing degree and give her a head start, and her first class that she is able to take she got!  If she chooses, when she is either a Junior or a Senior, she can take classes to become a licensed pharmacy technician.. and they get paid good!  Good side job money for a teenager/college kid! 

Anyways, life is busy over here... but I'll keep taking my pictures and eventually one day my blog will be up to date!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Smile! You're on camera!

I found these pictures on our Game Cam SD card from the property .... so here is an idea of some of the animals we see when we go to the property!

We have our raccoons.....

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and our sleeping hogs ....

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and either a mountain lion or a wild dog... (Mike has spotted a mountain lion on our property before!)

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a human..... 

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another big hog ...

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Bambi ...

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a huge litter of pigs!

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and this one literally freaks me out ... a razorback?  YIKES!  I've never seen a hog so big, so not sure if it's a razorback or if it's just a big .. pig!

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Friday, August 10, 2012

A very late 4th of July post....

Fourth of July was so much fun this year!!  Katie was away at Girls Camp, so we were without Katie this year for the 4th.  Mike had just had his kidney blasted for the second time for stones, so he was a bit out of it .....

Our church ward had a breakfast early that morning.  So Maddie and I loaded up (after I woke up literally 5 minutes before I was supposed to be there to set up!) the SUV and headed to the place.  Since I am in the Primary Presidency, we were putting on games for the kids to play.  Here are some pictures of Maddie in the games.

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We had a pinata...
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and bobbed for apples!

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had face painting as well...

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and a children's parade was done to show off all the kids on their decorated bikes, wagons & anything else.... Maddie decorated herself... she made the tie dye shirt the week before.

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Later that afternoon we went to our dear friends Sarah & Justin's house for a BBQ and fireworks.  Cale is four years old and we absolutely LOVE Cale!  He was so used to Katie and Maddie being there, he was calling Maddie "Hey Katie-N-Maddie!"  His mom and I thought it was hilarious.  She is always telling him "Katie 'n Maddie will be here soon!"
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He is really into superheroes lately... and Maddie played along with him.
It was pretty windy out that afternoon, and we couldn't keep the sticks burning very well, so Sarah brought out this burner to light the fireworks... and boom!  It works!

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We had a great evening watching fireworks happening all around it.  The wind picked up that night, and it was such a perfect night!

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Thursday, August 9, 2012

Random thoughts from Amy ....

Boy ... ever since we got home life has been BUSY!  The day after we got home, a few unfortunate news hit us... and Mike decided it was time to buy a house!  So we did!  We were extremely limited in our choices though (we have to stay in our neighborhood or the neighborhood next to us b/c of schools) b/c we live in a very prime area in San Antonio, so choices are sort of slim picking ... and expensive!  But, we found one that will work for us!

Then, I found out that I'm 99% sure I'm going back to work.  Gah!  I'm so nervous!  and excited!  I'm so excited that it is still doing data entry work which I absolutely LOVE doing ... no phone work!!  Whew!

Smokey the hamster ate off part of my shopping bag that is lining my little wastebasket on the dryer.  Ever since, he has slept with that piece of bag like a blanket.  I tried to pull it out one day and boy did he move fast to grab it back with his teeth!  So, the bag stays....

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When we came home from our trip to the cabin, we see this larger than normal sized lizard on the side of our porch.  Normally they don't stay in one place, and scramble away after we see it.  This one just stayed and stayed ... I placed the cooler w/ the pig next to it, and it didn't move.  I came out an hour later to take a picture of it after the girls looked at it.  Still didn't move.  Finally I grabbed a stick and tried to see if it would run off.  It's dead.

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I had two photo shoots last Saturday.  One in the morning at San Jose Mission ... I love that mission!  So beautiful!  I had another shoot that night at my usual park I go to.  I wore flip flops.  I got bit by a flea.  A FLEA!!  Let me say.. those suckers have fangs!  They HURT!  He bit me TWICE!  In the SAME spot!  The next day my foot is swollen, and it itches like crazy.  I read up on it after church when someone told me that it was a flea that bit me.  Turns out, that you have to be really careful when you scratch it (well, it's best not to scratch really) because fleas desecrate when they bite.  So, they poop when they bite people/animals?!  Oh great!  Oh, and some people are hypersensitive to the flea's saliva!  Guess what?!  That was ME!  My foot swelled up for three days.  I couldn't even get my flip flops on!  It hurt, and ached, and it was swollen.  Gah.  Thankfully, the swelling has gone done now.

I have a favorite dinner that my mother in law makes... it's called Big Daddy.  You basically fry a piece of flour tortilla, and layer things on it like you would a tostada.  Refried beans, hamburger, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, sour cream, salsa, and pickles. (yes, pickles!).  When we went to a neighboring town next to where Mike grew up, I saw on the menu a Big Daddy.  YAY!  I ordered that sucker, and it came out the size of a medium sized PIZZA!!  I think I ate a quarter of it...

However, there's a tiny little problem when it comes to big daddies.... I can't fry.  I butcher everything that I fry.  It's either too hot, or not hot enough.  I can't fry.  But man alive I was hungry for these big daddies!  So I fried... and I botched it.  AGAIN. 

IMG_9823I get a text from a certain someone when he got home that may or may not have said basically to stick to what I know... and frying ain't what I know!  I agree .... but man do I love those big daddies!  Too bad I could only find them on a menu in Arizona.  All these Mexican restaurants should have them on their menu! 

Thankfully last night I made chimichangas and no one passed out when they saw the chimi's, so we're good....  that might be the ONLY thing I can fry.  Course, a little "someone" had to use a knife to cut through her chimi....
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Getting back into the groove of exercising after vacation has been hard.  But, I went back!!  I love where I go to the gym ... it's personal training in a group and I've been doing it since January.  The second day back was "full body" day, meaning we work on everything on the body and no concentrate on certain muscles like other days.  Well, my trainer wanted me to jump up on two boxes and jump back down.  Two boxes meaning those step boxes.  I did a few ... then tried another and my foot caught the back end of the top box, and man alive did I take a fall!  Fell flat on my knee and skinned my knee in the process.  My trainer came over, pulled me up and said "just do the jumping jacks and hop ... stay off the box."  I couldn't even WALK!  He wants me to do a jumping jack and hop and repeat?!"  I was sore for a few days... and my bruise is going finally almost going away.  But yesterday at my class I found out I still couldn't put a lot of pressure on my knee while on my knees.

I just now realized that I've posted about two dead animals complete with pictures... in a row.  Sorry about that. I promise my next post will not be about dead animals complete with pictures!
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