...caution! enter at your own risk

My sister in law Marcie started something... yep, this year she turned Katie into a

teeny-bopper-poster-loving- tween

Aunt Marcie sent Katie a magazine for Teens/Tweens (Teen Bop... Teen Beat?.. I think?). I used to read Teen Bop! That was like AGES ago! With Kirk Cameron on the cover!

I was shocked they were still in business.

Well, inside of the magazines are posters. Katie went out and bought another magazine this summer...and turned their bedroom into a tween's room. Literally.

I didn't even know she liked the Jonas Brothers. She doesn't.

She just wanted posters on her wall.

Oh, she did splurge for the Taylor Swift poster. Oh, and can't forget that steamy scene in Twilight. THAT'S a must for any girl to dream about.

My poor parents & father in law... they had to sleep in this room full of posters. Kind of creepy when you think of all those eyes staring at you...

I still remember MY posters when I was a teen... gorgeous men in a tuxedo (yes, fully dressed). I was so proud of that poster. Sadly, I had one more poster, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was.

...enchanted rock, the finale of portraits

Johnny Scott took binoculars with him.

I imagine he wanted to view the world up close.

See the beauty.

.....or not.

I was taking so many pictures by now, his binoculars turned into a camera.

He just took a picture of me.

This is Mandi & her cute blondies.

Then Johnny Scott said "I take picture of you"

and he did.

With his binoculars.

I posed... of course.

These are my two cute blondies.

and finally, me with my two cute blondies.

They get it from their father.

He's a blonde.

But Maddie gets her nose from me.

THE END!!

... enchanted rock... KING OF THE WORLD!

This is Johnny Scott.

This is Johnny Scott on top of Enchanted Rock.

Isn't he perfect?

On top of Enchanted Rock, it is rather flat, and it has lots of "holes" in which becomes little mini ponds. We just had a huge rainfall the day before, so there were a ton of little "ponds" on the top. There were tadpoles in one of them!!

"Hey Maddie... I'm taking your picture, so be still"

...or not.
Fine... don't be still.
Go off and explore.
I don't want to get a cute picture of you.

This is Brian. He is also a major sweetheart.

He's also got the biggest smile that will melt your heart.

Brian was facinated with the tadpoles.

He's trying to catch one.

He finally did catch one, a teeny tiny little baby frog.

I didn't get a picture of it.

These two gals are very close friends.

Too cute!

YAY!!

We are KINGS {QUEENS} of the WORLD!!

WAHOOOOOO!

We DID it!!

...enchanted rock, THE climb of our life

This is in the middle of our journey.

We're only halfway to the top.

We're also huffing & puffing.

Stopping every 100 feet to try to get a breath, or to let our ears pop.

Even though it's colder on top, we're sweating. So, our jackets come OFF!

But our cheeks are rosy.

Love this picture of Katie.

Looks like she's contemplating the beauty of this earth.

All that God has given to her.....

....or not.

She's probably just exhausted.

In fact, she was exhausted.

She wasn't contemplating nothing.

Only the fact that "wow.. this is a MAJOR hike Mom!"

Yes, I'm aware of how it looks like it's a cliff (and it's only halfway!)... it really is kind of scary when you think someone could stumble and just roll down. But no one fell. Thank goodness!

Some people needed some help, and got it in a form of a piggyback ride.

It lasted 5 seconds though.

Poor Mandi had to carry a backpack full of our water AND Johnny Scott!

Maddie felt bad for her.

...enchanted rock, the beginning

Mike left town this weekend. I had no plans. I wanted to go to this famous "rock" here in Texas called "Enchanted Rock". {you can click on that word link, to explain the neat story behind why it's called Enchanted Rock.... it's got to do w/ the Indians}. So, I called my friend Mandi! Mandi's husband is a doctor and he's sometimes working on the weekends. She didn't have any plans either, so we planned the day to hit this amazing place! So... when the husband's are away, the wives will... go hiking.

{Isn't this a pretty flower? I love him, I love him not.... I don't think it's a daisy though}

Since I have so many awesome pictures, and neat stories to tell,

I will be breaking our adventure up over the next few days.

THIS is Enchanted Rock. See those little figurines up there on the top of that rock?

Those aren't ants... those are PEOPLE! Immediately, I gulped, thinking "what in the world did we get ourselves into... and with KIDS on top of it?!" It is 435 feet high, basically .6 of a mile that we have to climb, and it's steep... VERY steep.

When we arrived, we had to pay $6 an adult.... kids 12 & under are free. Yippee! We parked, and shivered immediately at how cold it was. It read 54 degrees. San Antonio was supposed to be 78 that day, so we were a little underdressed. We crossed a little concrete bridge that fortunately, was not covered with water. I love this picture of Katie helping out Mandi's little boy Johnny Scott. He's such a cutie. Love him to death. He loves Katie though.

The "1-2-3 EVERYONE JUMP" didn't reach Maddie in time.

I think she jumped on count 5 or something.

Mandi & Johnny Scott stayed a little behind the rest of us.

Y'know how 2 year olds are... they think they can do anything anyone else can.

The kids aren't even fazed one bit. Mandi & I at first said "well, we'll do what we can do." Then, Mandi turned to me and said "oh, we're SO doing this!" gulp "uh.. OK Mandi!"

I'm seriously hoping no one falls off this big round rock. It looks a little dangerous.

Can you see how steep this is? I'm not lying on the ground to get this picture! It's STEEP!

and this is the final picture you're going to get today, to hold you off until the next day.

Yes, we're THAT high!

...the climb

A few weeks ago, Mike & I took the girls {and two boys who we were watching} to the big Bass Pro Shop. We dumped about $10 worth of quarters and let the kids try to shoot their hearts out by laser (or whatever it is...). After spending all our quarters, we walked some more. Katie & Brennan found the rock wall. Immediately, ALL four kids HAD to climb that wall. However, the two youngest ones were not ALLOWED because they had flip flops on. Ooh, let me tell you. The waterworks started and the "huffing & puffing" came.... and Mike had to take both Maddie & Kaedan away. So, I paid $4 each for Katie & Brennan to climb this wall.

It was Katie's first time. Ever. I'm thinking it might be the last too. But, she constantly amazes me with her determination. We might have to make another trip back.

Katie watched Brennan climb first. He had an area he had difficulty in. He finally made it up to the top to ring the bell. Then it's Katie's turn. She gets going, starts the climb {cue Miley Cyrus's "The Climb"}. Uh-oh. She's stuck. In the same area that B got stuck in.

Pretty soon, there's a huge crowd watching her. Her arms are trembling. I mean, they're REALLY trembling. Pretty soon, a voice calls out "put your right foot about 5 inches up" and "now, put your LEFT foot... no, that's your RIGHT foot.... don't you know which foot is which?" and finally...."KATIE! LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER! SHE'LL NEVER LEAD YOU ASTRAY!!" ....and..... to which she gave up and quit. Guess I should've kept my mouth shut. In her defense, she tried for over 5 minutes to get over this area, and just couldn't.

Way to go Katie! You constantly amaze me! I'm proud of you! Now, let's reread your favorite Dr. Seuss book from when you were a toddler: "The Foot Book". It goes: "left foot, right foot. feet feet feet! How many many feet we meet!" {I canNOT believe I can remember this entire book in my sleep! She wanted to read it in the morning! She wanted to read it in the afternoon! At night! An now... 10 years later I can recall it so easily?!}

...when in doubt, wing it

Tonight I looked over Maddie's homework. As far as I can understand it (and trust me, some of the 2nd grade homework is a bit difficult to understand!), she's supposed to write a word, and find a word that sounds like it. For example: bat & hat

Well, this is her list tonight, including the misspellings:

name lame

line fine

krite write

was mas

mate late

fuss because

five blive

nine mine

made kade

side fide

ate bate

fine bine

same mame (or name, can't read it)

hide mide

OK... help me out here. What is mide? Blive? Fide? Bine? Mas? Krite? Kade is a name.... I figured it out, so I had to sit her down, and write down words that SOUNDED alike vs writing just another letter to go in front of the rest of the word just doesn't work. Now, I'll write the teacher a note just in case I made her redo it all wrong. However, Maddie ensures me that the teacher doesn't care if it's a word that's made up. Suuuurrree. I've heard that story before, from her big sister.

Side note: what rhymes with because? I need to repeat elementary school, apparently.

...once bitten, twice....SCRATCH THAT!

Sunday night, I went to visit one of my childhood best friends, Malonda. She's here with her family for their annual church convention. So I packed the girls up in the car, drove 40 minutes to bond with my girl Malonda. They were in a resort, in a wooded area, surrounded by a river that was swollen with water. It had the perfect makings for swamp things {monsters!}... and mosquitos.

MOSQUITOES?!!

Let me tell you about mosquitoes....

I have a HATE relationship with these critters.

I swell up at the THOUGHT of them.

they love me SO much, it's sickening

and apparently, they also love Maddie

Katie comes into my room this evening, telling me to look at Maddie's legs. I freaked out. Mike freaked out {in his own way}. She wore bermuda shorts last night. Bug repellant spray WAS applied. Apparently, it doesn't repel. We need to bathe in this stuff, I guess.

I stopped counting after 73....

Poor Maddie.

I hope she doesn't get some horrible disease.

Waiting on her to fall asleep from the Benadryl I gave her..... it's not working.

It's been two hours.

Apparently bug spray AND benadryl doesn't work on her.

... me 'n julie 'n a fabulous new do

I have a wonderful friend named Julie. When we moved into a new ward in Independence years ago, Mike went into the Young Men's program. He met this guy named Lopi. He's Tongan, and super awesome. Lopi has a wife named Julie. She's really tall. She's also a hairdresser, and every week she had a different hair color at church. Sometimes a different hairstyle too. She scared me to death... with all the self confidence. Mike & Lopi started hanging out more & more, so I got to know Julie. Turns out, she's a pretty nice person, and loves to laugh. Pretty soon, we were laughing ALL the time together, and she was someone I could totally be just myself with. She's one of my very best friends, now.

Well, Julie & Lopi came down to visit us! Mike, Lopi (pronounced low-pee... Julie had to demonstrate to me the "low" and "pee" so I could visualize it and remember) & Nate (their 18 year old son) went hog hunting {no hogs were hurt in this edition of "Mike attempts hog hunting part V"}. Julie & I went shopping.... got a pedicure... went shopping some more..... and had tons of fun. Julie also did my hair. It was late at night Thursday night. I asked her to put low lights in my hair to cover up some of the gray hair, so she did. When she got done, she said "hey, wanna cut your hair now?" It was now 11:00, and we were catching up on TIVO w/ Grey's Anatomy & Private Practice. I said very sleepily "suuuuurre". She said "watcha wanna do?" I said "I don't care.... just don't take me short yet". So she gets to cutting away, and before I knew it, she was done. I looked in the mirror. And went.... "oohhhhhh crap." She really layered my hair! And gave me some bangs! YIKES! She said immediately "hey, let's flat iron it so you'll see how it'll look!". I said "tomorrow... I'm tired" and went to bed.

So Friday morning comes, and she flat irons my hair. Turns out, it's a pretty awesome cut! She took some photos of me..... some turned out pretty OK! I hate having pictures of me taken.

And Julie's hair this time? Black & platinum blonde. Yep, she did it herself. My first words to her were "wow... a domino!" Later on I told her "nope, it reminds me of an oreo cookie". She loves her bling, her pink shades, manicures and flashy clothes. I love my friend Julie! She's awesome!

and how does my hair look when it's in its natural state of curly? Wow... it's curly. Definitely curlier. Will get back to you on that one later...

....mash

We've been enjoying our weekend with our friends Lopi & Julie from Independence. They brought along their 9 year old daughter Fiana to play with the girls. They're very good friends. Last night we left the girls home alone while we had a {quiet} adult dinner out. When we came home, it was quiet in the house. Katie was laying on the couch reading Eclipse. Maddie & Fiana were playing the game MASH.

Wait..... MASH? The same game that I played when I was a kid? Y'know the one that says "Mansion, Apartment, Shack, or House?!" The one that you write down 4-5 different people you could marry, how many kids you'd end up with, where you'll go on your honeymoon, what you're going to be for a career? Yep! That one! Ugh, I feel so old!

It's funny some of the games my girls play, are some of the stuff I played when I grew up. One of my favorite hand slapping games was "Miss Mary Mack". My mom taught me that one. She taught my girls that one too. I think Katie started learning all those girl hand songs when she was in 2nd grade, maybe 3rd. I remember thinking "whoa! this is stuff I used to do when I was a kid!" I do remember one song and it went something like "when Susie was a baby, a baby, a baby, when Susie was a baby, she went like this: WAHH, when Susie was a teenager a teenager a teenager, when Susie was a teenager she went like this ooh ahh i lost my bra ooh ahh i lost my bra". I thought that was like the most hilarious thing ever.

Ah, memories! What was YOUR favorite game as a kid?