New Header

All right Grandparents, I know you don't actually go to the blog and instead you read it through email. Just wanted to let you know I changed the blog header. For the rest of you, that's one item checked off my two week to do list.

2009 Goals

Okay so normally I'm not one to do resolutions and certainly not in a public setting. I usually plan on losing weight and that usually doesn't happen or doesn't stick so I'm not doing that one this year. You'll probably find this boring but I'm putting it on here so that in a few months I'll be able to look back and see if I have accomplished any of it. So here we go with this years goals

• STOP procrastinating. I put everything off to the last minute. I'm then running around like a chicken with my head cut off, staying up late, aggravating my husband, letting other things go while I'm trying to get that project done, and then getting it finished at the last absolute minute where I'm usually not happy with whatever it is with no time to fix it.
• Embrace being a Homemaker- Ouch I hate that word. I recently read an article titled, "Is the Art of Homemaking Lost?" If I would have read that two years ago before we moved, I would have snorted and said something about what the hell kind of art is it to clean, straighten up, clean faces and butts, and cook. Well now that I'm here I realize it is in an art or a skill that I am sorely lacking. So my goal is to figure out a family/household schedule on how to get all that needs to be accomplished done during the day and not hold it all until right before someone comes over. I think I'm seeing a repeat of that whole procrastination thing again.
• Organized- Okay so you're seeing a general theme here of needing to get my butt in gear. I have crap all over this house that I have only lived in a year and a half. I saw some show on being organized and it said everything needs to have a place and it dawned on me this is half my problem. The first half, I have too much crap and the second half- not all my crap has a place.
• No/Yes- I need to tell people outside my house Yes less and No more and tell the people inside my house Yes more and No less.
• Family/Movie Game night with the girls each week. We are always together but I want to make it more of a tradition so that we continue it.

Okay so that's what I've got for now. What are some of yours? I might need to add them to my list.

Yes I was Late

So all of you that have finally gotten a Christmas card and wondered, "Was I an after thought? Did they only send me one because I sent them one? or Surely she didn't send out her cards this late?" No, No, and Yes. Yep my cards didn't get mailed until two days before Christmas this year. If I would have realized it was going to take me that long to get them out I would have made Happy New Year Cards instead.

So those joining us for the first time, yes I blog on here about the family- no not as much as I want to and yes I plan to do more in the new year. No your eyes are not deceiving you, Brian did drop 90 pounds in the last year or so not by surgery but by pure sweat and maybe even some tears and a little weight watchers- go down in a previous post and you can see his Marathon pictures. That is is the reason you are getting a Christmas Card with us on it this year and not just our kids. Brian declared several months ago that he was going to be on the card this year and I decided I better drop some weight too. Yeah well as you can see that didn't happen either- I'm working on that too. In our unbiased (hehe) opinion our girls are great and yes their pictures speak volumes about their personalities. Peyton is our little sassy mouth who thinks she is a princess and is growing up too fast as a Kindergartner. Landree is just as fun loving and mischievous as she looks in her pictures- life is never dull with her in the picture.

So in the next two weeks- yes I'm putting a deadline, I plan to update you on our

Thanksgiving week- yes I know- PITIFUL

Christmas break

My first workout with a trainer- you can now pick your jaw up I went and did return

and for my beloved mother- Cruise reports from October- again I know I am pitiful

Also I have a new blog header to get up there since those pictures are from last Winter/Spring

Hell Might Be Freezing

Not really but it is sleeting in San Antonio. Not going to do anything but I can't believe I am actually seeing sleet in San Antonio. It was 78 degrees today this afternoon and Peyton was asking for the air conditioner and now it's 40 degrees. Landree has pink eye and of course I now have pink eye so we're just a crusty pair here. I owe you some updates but I've been working on Christmas cards so I'm getting to ya. Well the sleet has already stopped- knew it wasn't freezing over. Marcus says we might need to get milk and bread because ya know if they freaked out in Little Rock over winter weather, they will lose their ever loving mind here.

Budman

Over 9 years ago Brian and I decided we needed a dog. We got our first puppy, Buddy. It was love at first sight and we let him sleep with us, carried him around, dressed him in sweaters, and treated him like a child. Even though he got put on the back burner when Peyton was born, he still loved us and jumped for joy when we walked through the door. He adjusted well and Peyton called him her brother and hounded us until we let him sleep in her room. When Landree gets upset or in trouble she calls and cries for him and calls herself, "Buddy's Girl."

On Wednesday we said good-bye to a member of our family- the Budman. During this week of thanks we are thankful for all the many blessings God has given us including over 9 years of faithful companionship of our dog.

For our girls he was a playmate

A constant shadow always in the background keeping watch

The guardian and Hoover of all crumbs

A two year old's Best Friend

During the last year and a half I have been home and spent everyday with Buddy. We knew this day would come but as I type this, I am still unprepared to look down and not see him at my feet.

Please Forgive Me

Those of you who have sent me emails and I have not responded- please be patient with me. Since Monday night, I have tea dyed 24 t-shirts, cut fringe on the bottom and both sleeves of 22 of them, put pony beads on every few strips (they got farther between the more I did- especially at 3:30 this or maybe yesterday morning), got home at 10 tonight from a church meeting knowing that I still had to make Cocoa Krispy Turkeys (I'll show you a pic later) for Landree's class, and cut and bead two more shirts since one got painted wrong and one has mysteriously disappeared. Tomorrow I have a PTA meeting in the morning then work at the school book fair for the afternoon and tomorrow night design and make a crystal shirt with the local high school's mascot for the silent auction on Friday. Friday I am spending the entire day at Peyton's school to help with the Rennaisance Fair and get them ready for the Big Pow-Wow. Brian took the day off to help some. So it should be a fun and exhausting day. I might be asleep by supper on Friday and then Saturday I need to evaluate my time management skills and scrub the "sucker" and "newbie" off my head. So all of you that are waiting for me to respond- look for me Saturday.

HE DID IT!!!!

Today is one of my proudest days ever. Brian ran the San Antonio Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon- 13.1 miles in 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 19 seconds. Brian left the house this morning at 5:20. The girls and I left at 6:20 and it was 38 degrees. I talked to Brian a few times and knew he was cold and anxious. The girls and I met up with our friend Gerald whose wife Kentonine was running the race also. We waited at the 2 Mile Marker and we finally caught our first glimpse.

After hearing, "Go Daddy Go," he saw us.

USAA did a lottery and sponsored some employees and paid their marathon fees and gave them a shirt. Can you tell he likes attention?

We hurried up and went to the 8 mile marker and then did potty breaks and Gerald got a snack. We then realized he had picked up his pace and almost missed him- you can see the 8 mile marker in the background.

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of him ever. How does a man who has run 8 miles look this good? Even after all this, the daddy he is came out and he was waving to Landree.

After we saw Kentonine race by, we hoofed it to the finish line. And I mean hoofed it because at one point we were running. We saw Brian less than one hundred feet from the finish line here.

We then began the search to find him. Gerald kept Landree and Peyton and I went to find him. I of course was so excited that I literally cried all the way to him. Bless is heart he was tired and cold. He walked around with the metal blankets they were passing out. Peyton kept calling it his cape.

Here are our two runners.

Brian started his weight loss story August of 2007 and today was maybe not his final chapter but one of the last ones.

And for the first time ever since I became a Mom, I had a camera in my hands for almost 3 hours with my children and never took a picture of them. Today was all about Daddy.