Building a mother in laws quarter part 1

Since we bought a piece of land last spring in eastern Texas, Mike and I (I use the term I loosely, since he's doing most of the word) have been working on the land to prepare for a cabin.  But first, we needed a small garage/mother in law quarters in order to house our materials, and a place to stay in while we (he) builds the cabin.  The building of the cabin, I predict, will take years.  MANY years. 

You can read about the start of our journey here and here .

Back in December we enjoyed New Years at the property.  Mike also took a huge log in which the electricity is hooked up to, and between Mike, Katie & I, we managed to place it in a hole.  Let me tell you, this job is not meant to be done between a married couple.  I repeat.. if you want to preserve your marriage, do NOT place an electric pole in a hole.  Let's say that it is very VERY heavy.  It took us FOREVER to get the stinking pole to go in the hole! We backed the trailer up, moved it around, tried everything.  I was also praying very very hard that I wouldn't have to drive Mike to the ER.  I had no clue where the hospital was.  But, all ended well, and Mike ended up with huge bruises on his shoulder from where the log crashed down on him -- but, happy to say the electricity is hooked up now!

Last week Mike & Katie took a 3-4 day trip back to the property, and worked some more.  Mike went previously without us, and set up pillars (I am sure I am not even saying it right, but there's concrete pillars in the ground, or above the ground b/c the ground is so sandy, it has to be built that way).  So, he went to start the plumbing so it was ready, and to start building the frame.  {{this is where Mike would come in really handy in describing the journey, but since he doesn't blog, I will have to narrate what I think is happening in the pictures, whether it's correct or not!}}

Katie did a great job in capturing the events that transpired. 

See Mike dig.

Dig Mike dig!!

and we pause for a second to admire the beautiful self portrait Katie took of herself. 

and this is what it looked like when Mike & Katie left to come home.  He needs to finish going around....

The next time Mike goes up, he is going to place plywood down, stain it (paint it?  varnish it?) so the wood won't rot, and then start working on getting the little garage/mother in laws quarters framed.  The goal is to get it done by the end of this year.  Then, we will have a small kitchenette, place to sleep and bathroom with storage space!

I was kissed... by a beluga whale!

My sister in law Tiffany & her family came down to San Antonio for spring break.  We've loved having them here!  While they were here, we made a trip to Sea World.... and since I have a dear friend who is one of the animal trainers at Sea World (specifically the beluga whales & dolphins), I was able to score a backstage view of these gorgeous animals!! 

You can see Valerie in action here:

Then afterwards, we went backstage and managed to touch or even KISS the beluga whale!!

Thanks SO much Valerie for the sneak peak!  Trust me, it was THE highlight of everyone's day!!

For the record, Katie was being a .... teenager..... and wasn't all that sure about the whole scenario of kissing a beluga whale.

and of course... I was not afraid to kiss a beautiful beluga whale!!

Katie & Tiff waiting to watch the 4D show

Maddie & I getting ready to watch the show....

This next set of pictures cracks me UP!  See how sad and bored all the kids look...

Now see them!  Once the ride goes down, they all smile & laugh!

Highs & low's in my life this week

This week has been a difficult week for me. 

I haven't felt very well (thank you Mr. Sore Throat, Ms. Tickle Down Your Throat, Mr. Ear Pressure, and Mrs. Snot -- you really are a snot!). 

I got news from Katie that she might not be interested in taking Highland Dance anymore. There goes 7 years of training.... :( I am OK with her stopping, but since this was the first I heard about it, I'm kind of have mixed feelings. So, we might be taking a few months off of dancing for a break.


I didn't exercise like I wanted to this week due to activities every single night this week (thank you Katie's Track practice every day, dance lesson on Monday, monthly dance lesson Tuesday night, Young Women on Wednesday night, and Primary Meeting & Book Club on Thursday night). 

Oh, my schedule??  Wanna know how my schedule went this week?

Monday:  Pick Maddie & her friend Tressa up from piano at 4:30 .... race to take Tressa home and pick up Katie 25 minutes late (she gets out at 4:30 also)... then force feed my girls a banana (for potassium according to my dad - when you sweat you eat a banana) and a small 100 calorie pack of Cheezits because that's all I had in my house for a snack  Cheese(its) and banana!  It's the perfect diet!  NOT!  But, oh well, whoever said I'm the perfect mother?  Not me!  Oh, back to my driving:  ....race down the street 4 miles following every single boneheaded slow driver to get the girls to dance (we're late since it starts at 5:00).  Go home, exercise on the elliptical for 30 minutes, then race back to pick them up.  Get home by 7:00 and start on dinner (chicken quesadilla, the gourmet dinner of the week, seriously!).  Fall asleep by 9:00.  Seriously!

tired yet?  Just wait...

Tuesday:  Pick up Katie at track at 4:30, race home in rush hour traffic to make dinner, and leave by 6:30 to get to their monthly dance class.  Stay until 8:30, leave and make it home by 9:00.  Whew... OH, I did manage to fold a few loads of laundry in between this time!  Dinner???... didn't make it.  Made the girls fend for themselves (please, nominations for Mother of the Year award this way!!). 

Wednesday:   I was supposed to have a Primary meeting tonight, but since I received a phone call from the Stake Young Women Presidency asking me to take pictures for their Fashion Show, and that they wanted Katie to be a "paparazzi" actress that night, we have to be at the church by 6:30.  No biggie....  My Primary meeting got cancelled b/c 3 of us are sick w/ sore throats/sinus infections, but I'm still expected to be at the church.  Leave church by 8:15 and get home by 8:45 (yes, we live a good 20 minute drive away from the chapel.  It sucks.)  Oh, in case you are dying for what we had for dinner, it was burritos. OH, my recipe?  So easy!  Open a can of refried beans, a can of green chiles, a can of roast beef, stir and slap on a flour tortilla... instant dinner!  Like I said, perfection at its finest!

Thursday:  Primary Meeting at 6:30 ... over by 8:15, dash over to Book Club (I really went there just for the food, I didn't even read the book.  Slacker, I know!  But, with a schedule like mine, who has time to read?  Anyone?!)   Leave Book Club by 9:00 since I have Maddie with me and she's making these "I'm DYING over here" looks with her face and it's really embarrassing me.  Dinner?  Subway... (not Subways like I'm always saying, it's SUBWAY! But seriously, SubwayS just sounds so much better).

Friday:  Take work off a little early and go sit at the RediClinic to see what in the heck is wrong with me.  Get a prescription (sinus infection), get it filled and walk around the grocery store like a zombie trying to figure out what in the world it is that I need in my refrigerator.  Unload at home, dash to get Maddie from Sign Club, go home.... clean up house.... order a pizza and refuse to pay the $2.20 fee to deliver the Papa John's pizza, so it's carryout for us tonight... pick up Maddie's BFF Tressa for a fun playdate..... dash to get the pizza (with the gas prices going up so high, I probably should've just had them deliver)... made brownies, and let the girls basically do whatever they want (makeovers, hair, and yes, they asked to give me a shoulder & foot massage, and really, who is going to refuse that?!)

If you think this week was bad, you should've heard about my week last week!  Ha!!  This week was easy peezy compared to last week!  (but I did have a major High that week, I went to Wicked!!!)
 
I realized that I placed "Highs and Low's in my life", and I'm currently struggling to figure out what was my high this week.  Hmm....  trying to think......

.....thinking.....

................thinking some more.............

I might have to change the title of this post to "Low's of my week" because I really can't think of anything positive that happened this week -- only that I'm exhausted and could use an entire weekend to stay in bed and eat bonbons (OK, totally kidding on the bon bons!  I meant fruit!!   Or rather, I meant chocolate with fruit!). 

Oh, I lost 1.6 pounds at Weight Watchers, but I had also gained 1.6 pounds the week before (thankyouverymuchAuntFlo) ..... so that kind of was a given, in my mind.

.... to be continued when I find a High!!

friendship pins

Maddie's 3rd grade had a Country Fair a few weeks ago.  We got a letter from the teacher telling us about this event, and that the kids needed to create crafts from home. NO problem!  I remember some of the stuff the girls came home with in the past two years from their fair: homemade slime (well, that's the only thing I can remember them coming home with).  I signed her up and said "we'll make washer necklaces!"

Then, I completely forgot about it.  

Two days before her Country Fair, Maddie said "Mom!  I need to take a sample in on Wednesday (which was one day before the Fair) and show the teacher!"   ::gulp::  I forgot.

So that night, I ran around trying to find my washers that I had bought a LONG time ago, and couldn't find them.  So I grabbed three washer necklaces I made a year ago -- they were fancy.  I thought I was done.

Then.... I went to dropp off Maddie at her friend Tressa's house.  Tressa's mom Mandi said "whew!  We JUST got done w/ our project!"  I inquired about the whole "what did you do?  How many did you make?"  Well, we only made three, and we're supposed to make.... a lot.  Apparently.  I didn't get THAT memo! 

So, Katie and I brainstormed on what we had on hand that we could make (Maddie went rollerskating w/ Tressa that night).  I remembered we had a TON of beads.  Hmmm... what could we do w/ beads?  That kids might want to buy?

I had it!  Let's bring back FRIENDSHIP PINS!!  Yeah!  So, Katie and I spent over an hour making all kinds of pins out of the beads we had.  The next day, I bought more safety pins, and we spent even MORE time making friendship pins. 

Mike took Maddie to get two more boxes of safety pins and she worked all night on making more.  She wanted me to wake her up at 5:30 in the morning to finish making them.  She was going to charge .25 for 3 of them, and she was SURE it was going to sell like hotcakes!  They were AWESOME!   I mean, they were hot stuff when I was a kid!

at 5:30 a.m. .... yawn!!!

The final result!!

So, the day came of the Country Fair.  I came home, and saw Maddie sitting on my bed, with her container that she used to store her friendship pins.  I said "so, how many did you sell?"  She said "30", with a very sad face.  She made almost 200.  My heart broke for her.  She said one lady came to her out of pity and gave her a $5 bill.... and only took a few of the pins.  She said "she felt sorry for me".

She said other kids didn't earn any money at all -- and she said "I felt even more bad for them than for me!"

While the ending result was a sad one (they were making money for charity)... she (and I) had a wonderful time making these pins.  She even said she saw other girls at school who made their own and were wearing them on their shoelaces and shoes!!  I got to relive my elementary school days, so that was a plus for me!  I guess all her friends will be getting friendship pins for their birthdays now!  Bring back those friendship pins!!

when it comes to talking on the phone.....

My two girls have two very different personalities.  One is very laid back.  Go with the flow type of personality.  The other is also pretty laid back, but can also be a little emotional to all things, but is the sweetest little girl ever.

But, when it comes to them talking on the phone, their voices/attitude on the phone flips completely.  The one who is very laid back and mellow becomes very antsy.... very "can't think fast on my feet" type of personality.  Course, depends on who she's talking to.  If it's someone she doesn't know, she freaks out & stutters & stammers her way through the conversation. However, if you know her, she talks a mile a minute.

The one who is emotional to all things, is very laid back on the phone.  So laid back, you have to wonder if she's still on the phone.

Here is a conversation w/ Katie:

Katie:  "Hello?"
Other person:  "Hi, can I talk to your mom?"
Katie:  "uh... uh.... uh.... ummmmm....... she can't talk right now, ummm, ummmm...can she call you back?"

Or, when I'm on the phone w/ Katie, she talks like the Chipmunks and I can't understand a darn thing she says.  She talks SO fast "MomcanIgototheparkwithMissyandJuliaandcanwealsoridebikeswe'llbereallysafeIpromise"  

I go "say what?"

Now, when Maddie answers the phone, it's a long "Helllloooooooooooooooooooo?"  Her voice dips when she says the L sounds in Hello, and carries the O for a while.  Funniest thing ever.  Totally laid back.  In fact, once she was talking to my mom, she got so laid back while talking to her, she forgot my mom was on the phone, and she just hung up on my mom.  Apparently her TV show was on.  She said she got bored.... wicked child. 

Anyways, funny how my girls' personalities flip completely when it comes to the phone!

when you have an asthmatic child....

When Katie turned about 3 or 4, she began coughing a lot.  Especially at night.  She would cough SO hard, she would vomit.  We had to place a sand bucket by her bed just in case she vomited from coughing so hard before I could get there. It was a miserable time in our life.  We elevated her bed, her pillows, brought in a humidifier, applied Vicks to her chest, back, under her ears, under her throat.... anything to get the coughing to stop.  We gave her cough strips, cough medicine.... everything that we could think of to get her to stop coughing.

The doctor couldn't explain why she would cough so much.  Finally, they said "she has asthma."  (fyi, the doctors told me they tend to hold off diagnosing children with asthma until they get older, which is why they couldn't give me a diagnosis until she was over the age of 5).  I told the doctors that she didn't wheeze or struggle to breathe like I thought asthmatic people did, which causes them to puff on their inhaler.  Turns out, there was a different type of asthma.  That's what Katie had.  The coughing kind of asthma.  Her asthma is triggered by several things:  allergies, a cold, smoke (4th of July is a nightmare for us when people are shooting off fireworks around us), among other things. 

So, she was put on allergy medicines, nose drops, asthma medication, allergy testing several times (She's really allergic to pigweed.  What in the heck is pigweed?!  But other than that, she wasn't allergic to much!), allergy shots, nebulizers, airchambers.... you name it.  It was horrible.    She developed some kind of irritation around her nose two years ago from her nebulizer when she used it w/ her albuterol.  Turns out that steroids can do this to skin when it touches it.  Took forever to get rid of it, but we did get rid of it!

Finally, last year when Mike took Katie to the doctor for an asthma attack (prednisone turns my child into a monster, literally.... but also is a life saver for us and those who need to sleep in our family!  It's a pain that they can only prescribe this twice a year for a child, which can stunt their growth apparently), the doctor told Mike "Y'know..... did you know that caffeine also stops an asthma attack?"  Mike responded that we had not known that.  The doctor went on to say that if we give her some coffee when she's having an asthma attack, it will stop her coughing.  Well... problem #1 is that we don't drink coffee.  The doctor said "well, I'm not advocating for her to start drinking coffee, but if you can't give her that, give her the next best thing... Coke or Mountain Dew!" 

Thankfully, her asthma didn't act up much over the year.  I've been stressing the fact that Katie's old enough to watch for warning signs that her body is gearing up for an asthma attack, or problems w/ her asthma.  She's 13 now, and she can do this!!  So, we've been able to stop it a few times before it got out of hand.  However, this last weekend it came on really fast.  I told her if in the middle of the night she couldn't get her coughing to stop, and if albuterol didn't help her, to open a can of Coke and drink a few swallows of it.

The next morning, when we all woke up, I asked her how she slept.  She was ecstatic because she woke up at 4:00 coughing her head off and couldn't stop.  She said the Coke stopped it in its tracks, and she was able to go back to sleep.

For that, I am grateful for Coke, or rather, caffeine.  Finally, after 10 years, we have an answer!!

giddy on up to the rodeo!!

Last November I get an email from my friend Katie "hey y'all... rodeo is coming, do we want to do Josh Turner or Martina McBride?"  Hands down, the girls and I picked Martina.  We love Josh and his dreamy blue eyes, but Martina is THE one for us!

Well, Martina did NOT disappoint!  Last night was the rodeo, and we went with our friend, the Willden's.  We had a blast!  Here are a few pictures w/ my crappy point and shoot that will document that we did, in fact, went to the rodeo.

I said "hey y'all.... let's take a picture", and Greg posed.  I love it!

Before the rodeo started, we made a bathroom trip.  Ever see one of these in your state?

Speaking of bathrooms... these guys were working on these platforms, and I could NOT see a way for them to get out.  What if they had to go to the bathroom?  Katie W and I wondered if they had to use little cups....

Proof that I did, in fact, attend the rodeo with everyone.

Maddie & Ella

I don't know why, but I always get teary eyed when the National Anthem is being played.  This was a beautiful display of flags (Texas, USA, etc) .... the giant US Flag was flown at the end, and it was super cool.

    

and proof that we did see Martina.  I can't take pictures in the dark at all, but she was a little bitty thing!!



Girl Scout Cookies

When I was a Brownie many years ago, I sold cookies.  My Aunt Mary took me walking around the neighborhood of her parents house.  We sold a TON of cookies.  I remember going to St. Louis w/ my Girl Scout Troop with the proceeds of our sale.  I had a blast!  I remember going to Girl Scout Camp when I was a girl.  I lost my key to my storage chest, and bawled my eyes out.  My mom came out to bring me the spare key, and when I realized she came without me seeing her, I bawled even more.  I think I was in 4th grade then.  Obviously not old enough to be away from my mom for a week!  But, I remember the friends I made, the fun I had.

Now Maddie is in her first full year of being a Brownie.  She sold cookies for the first time.  I asked her "so, what's your goal that you want to sell?"  She said "10."  I said "perfect!".

What I didn't realize is how many girls are out there selling cookies!  TONS of them!  We were lucky to sell 30 boxes!  Kind of a bummer since her troop only gets .50 per box that is sold.  Kind of a rip off, if you ask me.  Plus the boxes got WAY smaller, and some of the cookies average out to be a quarter each.  But, oh well.....  Don't even get me started on the crappy prizes the girls get if you sell 100 boxes.  It's a little patch.  Oh yippy!  {{dripping in sarcasm}} 

Well, yesterday was our turn to sit in front of our grocery store and sell cookies.  Maddie was a true salesman just like her grandpa & her great grandpa.  She started saying "cookies for your sweetheart?" when the men came out of the store.  One man w/ his wife/girlfriend told the girls "sorry, I already bought 5 boxes!" then came back within minutes b/c the girls gave him a sad look, and his wife chastised him big time for not spending another $3.50.  So he came back.

Maddie had the time of her life.  Our time slots are only an hour long, but she LOVED it!  She wanted to stay longer and have fun w/ her friends, wear the cookie costume and display her cute smile.

Super Bowl .....

Yes, we had a Super Bowl get together.  It wasn't a party.  The guys weren't rowdy.  They were quiet.  We didn't have junk food... we had dinner (shish kabobs, chipotle rice, salad, wheat bread & fruit).  It was a nice, quiet, relaxing evening.

We've been inviting our friends over for the past 2 years, and this year they joined us again!

Good food.

Good friends.

Great conversation.

Unforgettable (and horrible) Half Time show..... 

I had more pictures, but I was playing around with my Manual setting, and I learned..... I still need to play around on my manual setting b/c they were just horrible and unfocuses.  So, no more pictures .... :( 

haircuts .... always a challenge!

My girls have always had long....long hair.  Their daddy tells them they can never cut it.  I predict when they turn 18, they will cut their hair short.  So, in our family, the hair is the one thing you never touch (OK, except to brush, wash and put up).  I learned this when I got Katie's hair cut when she was four up to her shoulders.  I was in the doghouse for a while. 

However, Maddie's hair was getting WAY too long (translate: too long to comb through and was causing tears every time I combed it), so it was time to cut it.  I told the Great Clips gal "up here only" (indicating the breast level).  Katie and I sat watching her with our mouths open as she kept getting higher and higher.  OH, and she framed the face, thus giving Maddie long bangs.  GRRR!  She no longer looks like my little girl!  She has a much more grown up look to her now!  :(  As you can see, she lost about 8 inches of hair.  She should've only lost about 4-5 inches.  ::sigh::  Does that look like the breast level to you?!!

Katie on the other hand,.....at first the stylist didn't cut ENOUGH hair (like only 1 inch).  So I told her "yeah, you need to cut more."  So she did, and she gave Katie long layers, which Katie loves.  Her hair was the perfect length, and she is now able to sport curls that last all day long instead of falling out due to the weight of her hair!!  Yay!!  Curls brought to you by the curling iron Katie bought at Sally's with the money for her birthday from Papa Rod and Grandma Debbie.  It's a very cool curling iron that is pink.

A couple more because she went to modeling away for me....