4, already?

Four years ago today we welcomed our little Grady Logan into our family.  It's amazing to me to think that it's been that long, and I know everyone says that about their babies, but it's true.  Time flies.  I took this pictures in the front yard of our house in Keller.  In fact, all the children look so holy because I couldn't get them to look at the camera with normal looking faces, so I just told them to look at the baby-ta-da!  Little holy sweet children.  :)  They are precious though-look at little Father Tanner there...it almost looks like he is blessing Grady.

By the time Grady turned one we'd made the big move to Decatur, and were living with my parents-trying to figure out how to find a builder, and build our "dream home."  Before long, we abandoned the idea of a dream home, and just wanted a home.  Nevertheless...it was a dream to finally be living back home, near family, and part of our new community.

The year of two.  Grady recovered from his stay at Children's.  Tanner started kindergarten, so it was just Grady and I at home.  He missed them both everyday when they went to school, and had so many hardships learning how to go to his own school.  He still tries to work me with some of that, and I think he just loves being home-loves his siblings-and loves to be cozy.  Who wouldn't?

We hung on to that highchair probably longer than we should have, huh?  I loved the highchair.  I'm not sure I'll ever part with it or the crib.  Grady turned into all boy for the year of 3.  ALL BOY.  He's loud.  He's fast.  He love cars.  Especially cars with doors that open.  My God, he loves those things.

And today, here's my little guy with his breakfast cupcake, excited about his fun day ahead.  This was the first birthday he really relished, celebrated, and explored.  He took advantage of our "anything goes on your birthday" philosophy, and had a pajama day at his Gran's, played in a really big box while he was at it, jumped with his brother and sister, blew out some candles on his birthday cake, and opened some AWESOME presents.  Right now he's snuggling with his big brother, exhausted from celebrating his four years-four years of adding that little something to make our little family complete.

wow

I forgot my cellphone today.  When I got home, I had 46 text messages and 10 missed calls.  No lie.  It was the deadline for Wise Hoops, but still.

wow.

And no, I'm not that popular.  I just have that much crap taking up space in my brain.

Happy 90th Grandmama!

The Reynolds, Sroggins, and Tucker families gathered this afternoon at Times Forgotten in Nocona to celebrate Laverne's 90th birthday.  There were cards, gifts, and a beautiful three tier cake that all the little grandgirls decided they needed for their next birthdays.  From the glow on Grandmama's face though-I think she loved having her whole family in one place, even for just these few hours.  Many kisses and hugs later we napped this picture of the entire clan-cousins, cousins, and more cousins!

my day off...

Chrissy and I were lounging in bed, me trying to write something fantastic, her taking a, as luck would have it, catnap, when the world exploded.

Really just a few oil tanks across the street, but it pretty much sounded like the whole world.  I walked outside to find black smoke filling the yard, and orange flames peeking out over the hill.  So, as any self-respecting blogger would, I grabbed my phone to do a little texting, and my camera to capture the moment.  Not long after the explosion, we were officially surrounded by the paparazzi of two news helicopters and one careflight helicopter.  Two were injured in the explosion, although I think with only minor burns.  Apparently, they were welding and a spark went somewhere it shouldn't.  I made a few friends as we watched from the road, submitted some pics to The Messenger and went about my business of my day off...but ya, a little excitement that I wasn't anticipating in little ol' Decatur.

Edit:

I think it's safe to tell this part of the story now, it's all pretty much old news.  So, Friday afternoon the Fox 4 newscrew showed up at my front door wanting to INTERVIEW ME ON CAMERA about the whole explosion thing.  I politely declined, citing my lack of make up and yucky hair as definite negatives for them and for me, but the girl begged and begged.  I stood firm though, and sent them off in the direction of other neighbors I knew had been home during the excitement.  I just knew Mrs. Hlavek across the street would be a great interview and could add some local color.  :)  I had no-kid plans Friday evening, so I began primping for that event, which, as luck would have it, was an excellent plan on my part since the news crew returned not 15 minutes after I had sent them away.  The cute pregnant girl begged and begged telling me "I was her only hope."  I'm still having heart palpitations at the thought, but I agreed to her interview, but asked that they mention the Messenger in their story, since our local paper was out on the scene within seconds of the explosion.  She asked if I worked at the paper, and I explained the Mommy Blog, but that I wasn't a real-life reporter or anything.  She was gone quickly after that, and I began stressing of my 15 seconds of fame.  I told only Todd, who then went on to tell the free world, and then I had to admit to frinds that night I had been "on camera" that afternoon.  I finally put it behind me, but Tanner wanted me to watch it Saturday, which I did.  Ugh.  Nothing worse than seeing yourself on camera, and I was annoyed that the reporter got her facts a little mixed up by saying I worked for the Messenger and began "blogging about the incident immediately"-which wasn't true, but oh well-it's over.  I can rest easy knowing my 15 seconds are up, and I didn't run out in my pjs and rollers claiming we were ALL GONNA DIE...as one of my friends suggested I might should have done.  :)

Celebrating Green

Per tradition, we celebrated everything Irish on St. Patrick's Day.  We started by preparing for the leprechauns-they did a number on the kids' rooms.  We also baked some shamrock cookies.  Grady still needs to work on his rolling and cutting out skills. 

And keeping the mouth out of the icing skills.

We invited a few friends over to help us celebrate, and I made official cornbeef and cabbage with soda bread on the side.  To everyone's surprise (including mine) it was a big hit!  People went back for seconds even!  of cornbeef!  Who knew?  Of course, we dabbled in the Irish beers a little, too-it just wouldn't be complete without that.

Spring Break Fun in Houston

This weekend we adventured to Houston for a Spring Break getaway.  We started the Fun by visiting Patti in her fancy new high rise apartment in downtown Houston.  Grady was so impressed with the 'big city' we were headed to, when we stopped in Waxahachie at a fancy gas station his immediate response was "wow...is this where Aunt Patti lives?"  Perhaps we should take him out and about more?  The kids and I were asleep as we pulled into the parking garage, and stumbled into Aunt Patti walking Tini.  Shocking, but true.  Roadtrip Part I down. 

Saturday, we woke up to breakfast casserole and the plan of a St. Patrick's Day Parade!  After finally finding the parade route, we settled in for quite the show-including some crazy art cars and many, many former parade marshals.  Aunt Patti is working on securing her own float for next year's parade, and if that happens, we'll all be there to ride on it!

After the parade, we walked to a nearby park for some adult beverages, sliding, and sailboat driving-not real sailboats, but some superfun remote control sailboats.  $10 very well spent!  After the sailboats, we splurged on a new book each, and headed back to Patti's apartment for relaxing, napping, dinner, and more sleeping.  We were tired.

Sunday, Todd made a plan to meet his sister to watch Cameron play volleyball-she was in Houston playing in a tournament, which was a very nice coincidence.  We both found it funny that we had to drive all the way to Houston to finally have the chance to see her numchuck volleyball skills. 

While Todd was at the tourney, Patti, the kids and I headed to the Houston Livestock Show.  We walked through the horsebarn, and of course the "Agventure" for the kids to pet a few of those livestock type animals.  Tanner was enthralled in the bee hive and demonstration, and while he was asking the beekeeper question after question, Madison made friends with a rodeo clown.

All of Houston was at the Rodeo grounds that day, which was the only negative.  Otherwise, it was superfun to hang with Patti, have ice cream, and wander through the carnival.  She had to work her rodeo shift at 2 though, so we said our goodbyes and headed to the train to meet Todd downtown, but not before stopping to get an awesome picture by a rodeo barrel.  My mom has one of us going over Niagra Falls, and now I have this one to add to the collection.  :)

I have to admit-mass transit with three kids and a stroller felt a little odd...but we managed, and the boys thought the train was AWESOME.

After we met up with Todd, we headed to Natalie and Chad's house for the night.  They met us with beer and pizza on the back porch, and well...we just had a hard time leaving!  We wound up staying two nights because the weather was so amazing, the kids were having a blast playing outside, the beer was cold, and the company was just too fun! 

Mackenzie and Tanner really hit it off during this visit, to the point of holding hands and blushing, which had all of us laughing.  Chad joked that he needed to monitor the "movie night" situation for any "making out," but if he did that, we'd have to stop playing washers and making plans for a Fredricksburg Winery Field Trip.  Besides, wouldn't it be great if we went from friends to in-laws? 

Then just think of all the fun Spring Breaks we'd have in the future!

Goin' to the Chapel...

I went out with my Coppell Peeps this weekend to celebrate Shannon's upcoming wedding.  It's like going home to hang with them-and I realize how very spoiled I was those first years teaching.  So very very spoiled...all these years later, and we're still getting together to celebrate those big moments.

and then there's today...a wonderful, awesome, happy, great day

I was already having a great day, simply because I've been able to cross some things off my to do list, I had a great time with my girls and book club last night, and I've got a weekend STUFFED with potential.  But then Todd went and sent me flowers to congratulate me on my column...

and even though we have a general rule against sending flowers, there's something awesome about receiving something unexpected.  :)

a terrible, no good, very bad day.

ugh.

I know you might be tiring of hearing me complain, but isn't that the definition of blogging?  (in a way?)  Today was awful.  awful.  awful.  awful.  Everything that could go wrong, did.  I had technology issues.  I had redo-work-that-I-already-did-issues.  I had dicipline issues.  I made a kid cry-or rather he chose to cry when I called him out on his behavior and had him call his mother to explain the situation.  I had disorganization issues.  But on top of everything, I had kid issues, and I hate that the most.  Everything else can go wrong...the technology, the energy vampires, the parents, the "documentation"....everything, but when it comes down to me and my students-if that goes wrong, I just can't handle it.  I hated that I had to call a parent for dicipline today, and I hated that I had rude kids today.  Kids that made me feel that what I was doing just wasn't quite good enough, and it bothered me all dang day.

And then I log into all my stuff tonight, and read an email from a kid-not a parent, but a kid.  Another kid that I called out today for being rude, disrespectful, and downright condescending.  I explained that his demeanor, while maybe not intentional, left the wrong impression, and he might need to rethink that whole aspect of his conversational style.  In his email, he apologized for that, and hoped his comments did not ruin my day.

Well...fancy that. 

It still wasn't a great day, but that helped.  It helped a lot.

Edit:
Thank you ladies for the kudos.  I hope what I say and do makes a difference-even on these kind of days.  I reread that email again this morning, and it just makes me laugh.  Kids are so funny...see for yourself.  (and for the record, there was no detention with his name on it on my desk-the grapevine must have made that one up.)

Mrs Scroggins,


I'm sending you this email because I wanted to explain myself a little better about what I said in class and also because I heard through the grapevine that there was a detention with my name on it on your desk.
First of all I hope the detention is not for what I said - actually, I hope that there *isn't* a detention sitting on your desk with my name on it and I am sending you this email for nothing.

Anyway, I think prerogative was a bad choice of wording on my part and I also mentioned you specifically instead of teachers in general. I also don't think you completely understood what I was trying to ask. What I meant to ask was if there was an overarching rule that teachers weren't allowed to assign homework due the day of TAKS testing. (My question was answered when my social studies teacher did just that.)

I apologize if I sounded rude or came across as being questionative of your authority. I hope my comments didn't upset you or ruin your day, and  I'd also like to say that I have never been to detention and I hope to keep it that way - but whether I go or not is your prerogative. (Maybe I shouldn't use that word...)

ya, it helped a lot again.

Unfriend

Shouldn't you delete a friend off Facebook if, when you see them at the grocery store, you don't even acknowledge eachother?

I'm just sayin'.