Memorial Day Water Fight

Serious taunting going on here...

We had a great Memorial Day, and I hope you did also!

More Fun with my Zoom Lens

OK, so I am so inspired by a few other blogging ladies who take beautiful pictures! I'm just a newbie, but I did get a new zoom lens for Mother's Day, and I'm having fun with it. We went to the zoo today, and I kept stopping to take close ups of flowers. People would be walking up, looking into the greenery, wondering if there was an animal! It was funny. I was faking people out.

So, here I was trying to learn how to manually focus in on an object with the zoom lens, and blur everything else out behind it. I think it looks cool.

Even just a leaf makes a beautiful picture if I do say so myself!

OK, it's a little too late for Mother's Day, but look at this! AWWWWW!!!

PPPFFFFTTTTTT!!!!

OK, so this grasshopper walks into a bar...AH Ha Ha!

That cracks me up. It totally looks like he's telling the other one a joke.

OK, well, I took over a hundred pictures. Like a ton more flowers, and a ton of the bird sanctuary, with the boys feeding the birds, but I just can't bore you in that way.

I'll close with this picture. I think it would be a great entry for the Father's Day picture contest, but I am entirely sure I won't be able to figure out the "Mr. Linky" and "link back to here" and post this button process. I'm just such a newbie!

So, here it is. I think it shows the true nature of my boys. Number one, not following the rules, by climbing on the fence. Don't worry, this wasn't the lion display or anything. I actually think they were watching a ground squirrel. Number two, it's shows how daddy is just joining in. Lastly, I love it. After a year of doing all these things without him, I love it!!! I love it that they can have these daddy moments now.

Plus, he's a good husband also, because if you look closely, he's carrying my Diet Dr. Peppers in his backpack! Now, that's love.

Finally...a post!

Sorry, I have heard from someone...uh hmmm...that I haven't posted in a while. It's quite true. This week was another tough week of commuting the kids. It really is hard when you don't have a house to go to during the day! Luckily Wendy has been nice enough to let me go to her house.

But more importantly, what happened on Lost? I am so Lost. I can't figure out that show. I suppose that's the point. I truly believe the name of the show is Lost, not because the people are lost on an island, I believe it's a sick cruel joke that we're always lost! But, I loved seeing Apollo Anton Ohno with Dancing with the Stars. He was really good.

So, I'll post some pics now for the fun of it. Here we are at Wendy's b-day party...First picture of the both of us in quite some time...I usually don't like to get my picture taken...

Here I am feeling a little "sheepish" and Shane is a cow, and Collin is a pig. Theron refused, which is why he took the picture.
Here we are helping Thomas Jefferson with the Declaration of Independance. Don't look directly into Theron's eyes. It's a little creepy. Not sure why he did that with his eyes!

So, I got a zoom lens for my camera, and I've been trying it out. I'm not very good yet, but I'm trying. Here's my first attempt to get Collin on a see-saw from across the park...

Well, I was going to post some pictures from field day this week, but I think I'll do it tomorrow, just to give you something to look forward to...

Hope everybody has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Two by Two...About Me

Liza from Liza's Eyeview tagged me to do this! I really enjoy reading her posts! Thanks for tagging me so I could take time out from my cleaning to do a post. Hey, at least I can tell D I had to do it!

Two Names You Go By:

1. Kristen to friends, or K to D
2. Mommy

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:

1. Exercise Pants (though I have not exercised today)
2. Purple T-Shirt

Two Things You Want in a Relationship:

1. love
2. honesty

Two of Your Favorite Things to do:

1. Napping
2. Watching movies

Two Things You Want Very Badly At The Moment:

1. A nap
2. A glass of wine

What 2 pets you had/have:

1. Bandit - a black lab
2. Brandee - a yellow lab (naughty dog)

Two people who will fill this out first: I'll tag...

1. Stacy - Bowl Full of Wishes - new blogger, go check her out!
2. Susie - The Solo Family - because she gives good answers to questions

Two things you did last night:

1. Went to a dinner for my friend Wendy's birthday
2. Watched an episode of 24

Two people who live at your house:

1. D
2. Boys (there's three of them, but I can't leave one out...there will be mass chaos)

Two things you ate today:

1. Rice Krispie Treat at a reception to honor active duty military at my possible new church
2. Hot Dog for lunch (hey, D made lunch...I'm lucky it wasn't beenie weenies)

Two people you talked to last:

1. Shane - "do your homework that's due tomorrow"
2. Collin - "pick this up..."

Two things you're doing tomorrow:

1. Driving my kids to school
2. Sitting on Wendy's sofa possibly

Two Favorite Holidays:

1. Thanksgiving (love, love, love fall)
2. Christmas

Two favorite beverages:

1. Diet Dr. Pepper
2. Regular Dr. Pepper (what can I say? I'm a pepper. Are you a pepper? I know you'd like to be one. I can show you how...)

That was fun. Does anybody know me any better?

An Ice Cream Trip

Not too much to talk about this week. Just driving back and forth, and sleeping on Wendy's couch.

Oh, wait...my 15th wedding anniversary was this week. My wonderful husband took us out to a swank restaurant, and it was great fun, and great food. Hard to believe I've been married 15 years! I'm getting old. Yikes.

We went to Dairy Queen last week with Wendy and her kids. Of course, since Wendy and I were there...pictures were taken!!!!

Collin giving the "thumbs up" to the wonderful Dairy Queen lunch.

Elaina is soooo cute!

Wendy took this one, because of course she is better at taking pictures than I am.

And, yet another picture that Wendy took of Connor.

I love the look on Julia's face. Like, what are you talking about?

Too cute...still trying to get what's left on the stick.

Um...Julia, dude, you got somethin' right here...

So, I hope that was enough pictures for you!

The Boy Turns 10

Hope everybody out there had a good Mother's Day! Mine was ok. I unpacked the whole day, which wasn't fun. However, I got a great gift from my boys, and D made me a steak dinner. I had a yellowjacket in my bedroom. What is it with me and animals (or insects as the case may be) coming into my house?

Yesterday we spent the day back up north. Shane had his birthday party. Wait, let me back up. Collin had a birthday party for someone in his class at the bowling alley. Then, we had two hours to kill before Shane's party (and with our house an hour away and all) we went put-putting. Then, Shane's party was at the skating rink. OK, so back in the day, I was good. I mean, I had the white roller skates, with the orange wheels, and the big orange pom-pom thingies on top. Any chance I went, I was there. Well, that was a long...long...long time ago. I stink now. I was trying my best to roll along, but these little kids were speeding past me. I thought to myself...OK, back in the 80's I would have skated circles around you, little kid. Oh, wait a minute, you weren't even born yet!

D was a little better than me, however, he had a wipe out, and now his wrist is killing him. He went and bought a brace for it today. I told him to go back to work and tell everybody that he hurt it while mountain biking up the mountain, when a mountain lion attacked...but he said he was going to tell them it was from roller skating! I can no longer be responsible for the chuckles he'll get. He's been forewarned. So, it was a fun filled day of hopping from party to party, eating pizza, cake and ice cream...and being slightly sore when I woke up this morning. Here's some pictures.

So, here's Shane doing the Limbo on roller skates. Luckily D didn't do that, he would have thrown his back out! He He

OOhhh...fire! Cool!

Cute picture here. Staring at the one candle that didn't go out!

Gee, thanks mom...books.

OK, so once again, Collin doesn't fail in giving me a good laugh! There was an arcade there. He said mommy, can I go play. I said no sweetie, I don't have any of the tokens (thinking I can outsmart my 5 year old here...seriously). He said, no, look over there. There's a machine over there. If you put a dollar in mommy, you get a WHOLE 100 pennies! OK, how can I resist that? Here's a dollar. He went over to try to put the bill in. BZZZ..in the dollar goes...BZZZ out it comes. We've all been there. Well, this was his first experience with it. This picture is him saying, "The dollar's no good, mommy!"

Have a good week!

My Good Friend Wendy

Well, I haven't blogged much lately. Too busy trying to move in, all the while driving the kids an hour each way to school. On Monday, we were almost there, but I was running low on gas, and we were early. So, I stopped and got gas. As we were pulling away, I said, "What is that sound?" Theron said, "It sounds like we're pulling a trailer." Which of course we weren't. Then he said, "Wait a second, I feel like I'm getting lower, and you guys are up higher than me. Pull over mommy!" So, I pulled over, and my tire was flat, flat, flat. All the way down to the rim. Luckily, my friend Wendy was able to come and get Theron to school on time, because he had a field trip.

In the military, with all the moving we do, each time you move, it's both an exciting thing, and a sad thing. Obviously I am very happy that my husband is home, and that we're embarking on a new adventure. However, this also means that we are moving away from Wendy! She is the whole reason we moved here when D was leaving. She was a friend when I needed one. I just wanted to say thank you to Wendy for being such a good friend. I will miss sitting with you and eating candy. I'll miss watching movies with you while criticizing the plot lines and eating popcorn! I hope that since we're only an hour away, we'll still be able to find the time to get together and go see movies or something! Thank you God for sending me such a wonderful friend!

By the way...Wendy's birthday is this month. I won't give away an exact date, for privacy purposes, but I hope she won't mind if I say it's this month, so if you read her blog too, please go over there and wish my great friend Wendy Happy Birthday! (She's going to be so proud of me for putting a hyperlink on my blog. I hope it works).
I'll still post pictures of Shane's birthday soon.

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!!!

OK, so there's a bird outside my new window. I love nature. I love birds. But, they've been a little too close for comfort lately.

As we were moving out of the old house, a huge mourning dove flew into our house. I screamed, Collin screamed, the dog hid in a corner. He kept wacking himself up against the big window and we just kept screaming. Then, he made a swoop through the kitchen where we were, and me and Collin hit the deck! My husband thought I was a nut! It's only a bird he said. Yea, only a bird about to attack me! Collin said that he was afraid he was going to land on his head and poop!

So, now, back to the bird outside my new window. Look, I'm a Christian, I love nature! I love all of it. God's creation...it's magnificent. However, I am still a human sinner, and this bird is really pressing his luck! He starts singing at 4:30 a.m.! My husband who can sleep through anything just keeps on sleeping. I just lay there awake. I've heard the early bird gets the worm, and I'm thinking this bird must be the fattest bird in the city then. It has reminded me of a scene in the movie Failure to Launch. I love that movie, because of the animal scenes in it. There's a story line where the girl has the same problem as me. And, she asks her boyfriend if he has a BB gun. So, he lets her borrow his "Red Rider BB Gun". You know, from the Christmas Story movie a million years ago? So, I'm laying in bed one morning, and I ask my husband if he has a BB gun. He asks...why? I say, nevermind, I'll just shoot my eye out anyway!

Naughty Dog!!!

OK, so those of you have read my post, you know that I have said that I have a naughty dog! She's just naughty! The only problem is, I love her to death. Almost two years ago now, we lost our beloved black lab Bandit. He was very ill, and we had to put him to sleep. He was our first "kid" when we were married. I had never really seen my husband cry until that time. We were driving home, after we put him to sleep, which was a long way. We lived in Del Rio at the time, and the nearest place to have him put to sleep and cremated was a little bit away (sorry AK, Del Rio is in the middle of nowhere, but you'll make great friends!) So, on the way back down the little two lane highway back to Del Rio, my husband cried. I did too, and we said, we never wanted to go through that again. Wendy will remember this...a month later, I was doing some serious yellow lab shopping on the internet. Nobody could replace Bandit, but I had to have another dog! I got her on the same day I found out that D was going to Qatar for a year. We got her in Houston, which was another long drive. I went with just the boys, we got her, stayed in a hotel, and then went back home the next day. That first night, she slept through the entire night! Well, that was the only time she did that!So, we're in our new house, but we're still commuting the kids to school every day so they can finish out the school year. It's an hour drive. D was going to drive them this morning, and it was 7:00 a.m. They were about to leave when I came down and said, where's Brandee? Um..she's outside. I went out to the backyard, and saw that the wind had blown open our gate. OK, something's gotta be done about that gate, but that'll have to be dealt with later. I ran back into the house screaming..."My dog's gone...My dog's gone." I found the first shoes I could find and ran out the door and got in the car. Yes, I was indeed in my jammies, wearing brown dress shoes! Well, I also had no time to put on my glasses or contacts, so here I am driving through our new neighborhood, which I don't know very well to begin with, squinting, calling for my dang dog! So, I pray really hard..."God...please...please...she's my dog! Please let me find her." I turned down a street that I know God must have led me down, because there she was. I jumped out, saying, "Brandee...Brandee...oh my gosh, you scared me...oh, thank you God." She got in the car, and I looked up at the house in front of me, and there was a man watching the whole ordeal. There I was, hair messed up, in my jammies, and dress shoes! Well, later my husband said that that man must have called the number on her tag, which was still the old house, because someone called and said that they had our dog. So, it had to be him, and he was probably thinking...geez...ungrateful woman. She didn't even say thank you! Only, I didn't know at the time that he was trying to help me! Teeny bit emberassing! So, I'm driving back, and I find two of my boys walking down the street. I ask, what are you doing? We're looking for Brandee they say. Where's Shane? I ask. Somewhere loooking for Brandee they say. Oh great, now my 10 year old son is missing. That dude can run fast too! So, I start praying again, "Please God, now please let me find Shane!" That little rascal was like 10 blocks away! He loves that dog so much, and boy, can he run!

Here he is running a marathon...well, he only ran one mile, but he was one of the fastest kids! He turned 10 yesterday, and I'll post pictures of that hopefully this weekend!

So, everybody is safe and sound now. I keep telling her "Do you know what you put mommy through this morning?" But she just stares at me blankly and licks herself. Her paw of course! What were you thinking?

Check this out, over at www.5minutesformom.com! They're giving away great prizes for Mother's Day.

Ronald McDonald Finally Exposed!!!

Setting: In line at Kinkos waiting to send a fax. There is candy at the counter. Why, I have no idea. Can I not even send a fax without my kid asking for candy?

Collin: mommy, can I have some candy?

Me: no baby, because I'll probably be getting you McDonalds for lunch.

Collin: (after a pause) McDonalds is a stupid name!

Me: Well, I think it's named after somebody.

Collin: Well, yea, but it's fake!

Me: How do you know?

Collin: Hello...have you ever seen a guy walking around with a white head and big feet? He's fake!

Me: you're a genius, Collin!

Collin: I know!