{I'm dreaming of...}

RATTLESNAKES!! Yes! Rattlesnakes!

Thanks to Mike's ingenious idea to show me some cool sites around his temporary apartment place, I am now constantly thinking of rattlesnakes.

Story number one: While coming back from lunch on Friday, Mike slowed down to show me a cave, right before the entrance to the apartments. It was a cool cave, until he told me the STORY that went along with it. He drove to the garbage bin. He said "OK, about a year or so ago, a tenant was taking her trash here, climbed up the stairs to dump her trash inside, and looked inside and saw a HUGE mountain lion eating the garbage. She freaked, of course (who wouldn't?), and the mountain lion was captured." Turns out the mountain lion had been living in this cave, which stretched under the property all the way to the end of the other side. ::shuddering::

Story number two: The city paved a new road to the side of the complex a year ago. While drilling and cutting through all the rock to make a road, they came across a den of rattlesnakes (aka, a den houses a TON of snakes). He said to this day, they frequently see rattlesnakes still around the area that it was found, which is near the car wash at this complex, the most recent a few days ago. ::shuddering::

Story number three: A year ago, a rattlesnake decided to pay a few tenants a visit, and coiled itself up on the first step of one complex, and wouldn't let anyone pass (well, who would pass a rattlesnake in the FIRST place?). ::shuddering::

So, last night, I had sweet dreams all FREAKING night long about rattlesnakes. In fact, I felt something brush my blanket, and I could've sworn my mind went directly to "oh no! There's a snake here!"

I am officially losing my mind. I'm scared to DEATH of snakes. Literally. What gets me even more afraid is the fact my husband doesn't seem to mind them, and is quite at ease with killing these reptiles as if it were no different than mowing the grass. Uh, HELLO! It can STRIKE at you! Course, he rolled his eyes at me when I suggested he pack his snake guards in his truck at ALL times.

I thought about posting a picture of a rattlesnake from google images, but I decided I would probably never come back to my blog if I constantly saw a picture of one of the things I feared greatly. That would be a travesty, right? :)

{oh, she loves her bling!}

Last weekend my mom, Katie & I went through my jewelry box looking for the earrings that MY mom gave me when I was Katie's age. She ordered a package of something like 100 pairs of earrings for $5 (I'm sure I'm way off, but you get the point), and amazingly, I saved a bunch of these earrings. Katie knew I had them, and so she wanted to sort them out and look at them.

Maddie found the biggest pair of earrings I had.... the earrings I wore to church prom years ago (and I mean YEARS)... I showed her they were clip on earrings, and I have YET to get them back. They sit on her bathroom counter every single day, and she wears them every chance she gets. My only rule is that she can't leave the house with them, so she wears them IN the house. She wore these on our trip to the airport to take Papa & Grandma back home.

My baby loves her bling. Mom ... you have a better picture, please send it on!

{Marble Reward System}

I decided it was time to go back to the marble system again, for rewards, privileges and punishments. I did this a long time ago, but didn't keep up with it at all. Now that we've moved, hopefully I can restart this and this will be a success. Here's what I'm doing.

Every morning the girls have things they're expected to do: make bed, clean up their room, clean up their bathroom, brush teeth, clean face, etc. For all this, they get one marble. When they come home, they have chores they do (depending on what needs to be done), and for that they get one marble for each chore they do. These chores aren't just little piggly wiggly stuff either... it's "sweep the entire floor in the kitchen, living room, dining room and hall way", or "clean the bathroom" type of chores. Katie made a salad yesterday for one marble, for example. When they want to play on the computer for the Webkinz stuff, they have to pay ME a marble, and one marble equals 20 minutes. When they fight with me, or with each other, or just flat out disobeys, they lose marbles. When they go to bed, again they have things that must be done: clean their room, pick up their bathroom, pick up their clothes, wash their faces, brush their teeth, etc. They get another marble for that as well. And, to top it off, they get an extra marble from me if they were on GREAT behavior all day long, no fighting whatsoever, and was willing to help out wherever & whenever. Some chores they don't get a marble... but the harder jobs get marbles.

So, what do they get when they have a ton of marbles? Not 100% sure yet... Katie is wanting $$ extremely badly, so I need to figure out if 25 marbles = $5, or if it's 30 marbles = $5, etc. Either way, the opportunity to earn 5 marbles a day is very easily & attainable, so I have to make sure I'm not always forking over $$ each week too, so I may raise the amount of marbles. Yesterday the girls wanted to play Webkinz, so they paid me a marble each. Course, I do have a rewards bucket too, w/ little prizes inside (that I pick up at Target's $1 bin), so many marbles will equal a treat in the bucket. They can also choose to get a Sonic's treat after school for so many marbles. Again, I need to figure out my pricing system for them as well, b/c I don't want to make it too hard for them to obtain a reward.

I have to say, in the past 3 days of doing this, this has been working out FANTASTIC! Hopefully I'll keep up with it. :)

{Monkey Bread}

A few weeks ago I was at my friend Jenni's house, and she was making Monkey Bread (or bubble bread to some people). She gave me the recipe to make it, and so last night for dinner I tried it out! It was SO incredibly easy and very yummy!

Monkey Bread

Cream together:

2 T butter
2 T sugar

1 egg

1 t salt

1-2 T yeast

All alternatively:

3-3 1/2 c flour

1 cup water

Let rise 20-25 minutes, then roll into a rectangle, and cut into 1 1/2 - 2 inch squares (I used a pizza cutter), dip it in 1/3 c melted butter. I put these in a bundt pan (you'll lay these sporadically all over the pan) and let rise again. Bake 20-25 minutes at 350.

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I'm so inexperienced when it comes to letting dough rise, and I didn't use the type of yeast that doesn't need proofing, so if this turned out great, then I know this is a dummy's guide for great dinner rolls! Thankfully, the Texas heat really does a great job at letting dough rise (if I set it on the grill outside and NOT on the ground, it rises!!).



I have seen monkey bread also made where you cut them in circles, and line them up in a bundt pan standing up (circles standing up), then you can just pull them off.



Course, one friend used to dip hers in butterscotch pudding (the dry mix) then line them up circle wise. You can also dip these in butter, then dip again in cinnamon sugar, for a yummy breakfast treat!

{1st Day of School}

Much to Katie's excitement, I made the girls stand together, across from their school, to take the traditional 1st day of school picture. ::giggling:: Oh, how I love to torment her! She's getting old enough where this is probably driving her up the wall, but it's MY tradition to take a picture of her & Madison on their first day! I will continue this until she leaves for college! ::laughing wickedly::

I had to laugh inside when they picked out their outfits for the first day. Usually, the first day of school outfits are something *cutesy* and something they just LOVE.... not my girls. Well, they loved what they wore, but Maddie was OK wearing jeans (on a day that was 97 degrees). I made her change clothes. She ended up wearing a not-new outfit, but it was still cute. Katie's starting to want to go into that "tomgirl" look. She does have some cutesy outfits, so hopefully she'll turn around a bit and go back to dressing cute again. :) I can still get Maddie to wear cute stuff (well, stuff that is cute to ME!). If only I can get Katie to break away from the traditional ponytail hairstyle every single day. She can really do amazing things w/ her hair, when she wants to. Today, she did wear it in a bun, so maybe things are changing?

Oh, back to school topic.... both girls did great at the end of the day. At the beginning of the day, Katie went her way, and I took Maddie to her classroom. The minute we walked in the doors, she started bawling her head off. Poor kid. After they said the Pledge of Allegiance, then the Pledge to the Texas flag (which is new to us), she's over in the corner trying so hard to be quiet while crying... then the moment of silence, which wasn't so silent in the classroom when Maddie let loose all her sobs. :( That's when I finally let my tears flow too... it wasn't because she was going into first grade, it was because I had a hard time seeing my baby have a difficult time with this new scenario in our life.... new friends, new location, new home.... everything! But, after a few gags and threating to throw up (she tends to throw up when she cries sometimes), I left her w/ her teacher. She did amazing the rest of the day, and came to me that afternoon full of smiles!

{The Beach}

Friday morning we pulled away to go to Corpus Christie for the day at the beach. Prior to leaving, both Dad & I looked at the weather report to make sure it wasn't going to rain, and they said it wouldn't, at least not until 4:00 that afternoon. We get halfway there, and it starts pouring. Darn. We didn't have a clue where to go in Corpus Christie, just head in a direction that faces the beach, and eventually we'll get there. We found a place to go, and the big dark clouds hung over us threatening to drop rain at any second. Thankfully, we had enough time to play in the ocean as we could see where the rain was exactly.

The last time Madison had been to the beach, she was 6 months old. Katie was 4 years old. So, Katie remembers it a little, but for Madison this was a whole new world. She was so hesitant about the water and just soaked all the glory & beauty a beach has to offer inside herself. You could see in her eyes & expressions her awe of it all. I find the beach the most beautiful, relaxing place to be (with the exception of what lies in the ocean... I can push that out of my mind as long as no one is in the ocean deep). I love to walk the beach and find shells (here we found crappy broken shells, but Dad did manage to find a huge shell complete w/ a crab inside).

Katie jumped right in the first second. She had so much fun. Papa & Grandma bought the girls some mini surf boards to play around with. Course, with the storms moving in so fast, the waves were a bit rough. Mike didn't wear his swimming trunks (aka, he lost them on purpose, I think), and I think he finally decided to go find some swimming trunks, so he left to go shop around. He came back in a swim shirt (only Mike would do this) & trunks, and proceeded to have as much fun as the girls did.

While Mike was gone, my mom got in the ocean w/ the girls. She loves the water as well. I waded up to my thighs as well, and stood by Katie as she waited for the waves. All of a sudden I saw a floating white "thing".... JELLYFISH! I made the girls get out of the water ASAP. After walking a ways, we finally found the jellyfish washed up on the beach, and the girls had fun poking at it and rolling it to Papa to show him their prize.

When Mike came out later, he went out pretty far to do some mini surfing as well, and he said there were jellyfish everywhere. Why he didn't come in is beyond me. He likes danger, I guess.

The rain finally came, and we had to hurry to the truck for protection, and so we ate our picnic lunch. After the rain had passed, we walked the beach some more, then decided to call it a day.

{The Beach}

{It's really true!!}

Everything IS bigger in Texas... very true!

I have found two HUGE gigantic cockroaches in my bathtub (came up in the drain)... each on separate nights. I've never seen a cockroach that big in my life. Thankfully, my knight in shining armor (aka Mike) came to my rescue and killed them for me. I can handle the little ones, but not the big ones. ::shuddering::

Anyways, after seeing billboard after billboard saying "everything is bigger in Texas", they really do stand by their words. :)

Girls started school this morning. Katie was nervous, as was Maddie. Maddie started crying as soon as we entered the school. Didn't stop for 15 minutes, and made me cry as well. Weird thing here... they do the Pledge of Allegiance, then they do a pledge to the TEXAS flag (that was odd), then they have a moment of silence (which I like). Finally had to leave Maddie... still crying. :(

Mom and Dad left last night, and so it's a crash back to reality for us now. We are truly alone in this big area..... The girls (and I) had bouts of crying spells all night long. This is going to take some getting used to being away from family. Hopefully this will make us a stronger family unit. :)

Will upload pics from our beach trip & first day of school as soon as I can get internet access going from INSIDE the house. Right now I'm sitting outside and being bit to death by mosquitoes and flies. Ick!

{Hey Y'all}

OK, for the record, I have to laugh and giggle everytime I hear someone say "y'all" here in Texas. They say it w/ a southern drawl. :D

OK .... things I've learned during this entire life change:

1) Expect to argue with your husband when he loads all HIS tools (aka crap) and then proceeds to tell me that MY stuff has to be tossed.... that is not a pretty picture. Thankfully, most of my stuff made it on the truck or somewhere in the vehicles.

2) Driving with a quiet 6 year old isn't as bad as I thought it would be!

3) Maddie loves classical music. She took over the radio controls, found a classical music station, and proceeded to make me fall asleep several times during our drive.

4) I memorized Penske's number... it's 1-800-G0-Penske. (I followed Mike the entire way). I think I can even give you his license plate number!

5) Dad & Katie really know how to party hardy in their vehicle. Dad had enough of Martina McBride after 30,000 times of listening to her music.

6) Chocolate is not good for a long drive. It makes a horrible mess.

7) Cheap MP3 players is just that... cheap. They only last an hour when fully charged. UGH! (that's why we had to listen to the radio, and how we ended up w/ classical music).

8) It's humid here in Texas. Not sure if it's b/c it's been raining, or if it's just humid. Either way, it still sucks b/c it feels worse here than in Missouri/Kansas.

9) I really miss my family & friends. :(

10) Gas is cheaper in Oklahoma. Like $3.23 cheaper!! Dang!

11) Okies in Muskogee's has the BEST chicken fried steak, and unfortunately, that's also where I was bitten to death by mosquitos. I can count 20 bites on my legs alone.

{More Homestead Pictures}

Here is the mining... they give you a huge bag full of sand & stones, and you have to wash it all away and sift for the stones... or what you *think* is stones

Katie finds a stone

Maddie tries to make corn meal

Our friends, Ally & Reese MacArthur, standing outside an Indian teepee

Here is another picture of Maddie petrified over the goats. Jenni is trying hard to get the goats out of Maddie's face.

This is a letter Maddie wrote to her friend Ainslea... Papa Rod finally told her to sound out her words with letters, and she wrote the rest of the letter on her own! (the only help she got was Dear B & A). Can you read it?! Amazingly we could the first time!