Mattie's Field Trip

Mattie's field trip was off to the Houston Livestock Show, on Friday the 13th. We had a good time walking around checking things out. Of course some of our highlights were the baby pigs, just a few hours old, the LONGHORN, and sitting on the tractors.

We walked around and saw a few other aninmals, like the rabbits and the chicks. We also watched a milking presentation. Andrew & Mattie seemed to really have a fun time! We ended up staying longer than I had expected!

When we were done, we drove home in Sally!!! :)

Sally is the name of our new van! Edd was able to pick up Sally the night before! Just in time for our Spring Break trip!!!

Once we got home from the fieldtrip, we loaded up the van and headed out to New Orleans! Because of the rain and tons of traffic, we didn't make it to New Orleans until about 9pm. We left the house before 2, so that was a long drive!!!

It was fun to drive over the big bridge in Baton Rouge that crosses the Mississippi. I didn't realize the Mississippi went through Baton Rouge! Thomas thought the bridge had a monster under it! I think that was the hightlight of the drive out. :)

When we finally got to the hotel, Thomas was so excited that they had a pool! He wanted to go swimming. So we quickly changed and went swimming! Then it was off to bed.

Saturday morning, we went to look at houses and tried to figure out which area we liked the best. Turns out we liked the Madisonville area and also the Mandeville area. (They are on the north shore of Lake Ponchatrain. sp??? I guess I'll know for sure in a few months. :)

After looking at houses, we drove into New Orleans and walked around with the kids and saw the big cathedral next to Jackson Square. There was a couple who'd just gotten married, so we got to see them leave. They left in a parade of friends. I guess that's the tradition down there. Sounds pretty fun. Luckily it just sprinkled a bit while we were walking around the French Quarter.

We stayed the night with the Schofields, Kelly and Jo, who we knew from Kingwood. Kelly is the guy who Edd is replacing at the refinery. So they talked about work stuff. We went to church with Kelly and Jo, then drove home. It didn't take as long to get home, which was nice. We got home in 5 1/2 hours.

Tears of Joy or Sadness???

Well, our saga with Stu wasn't as long as I had thought. We were starting to get used to "Stu" when one day, it came to an abrupt end.

It all started one Saturday morning a few weeks ago...Edd was letting our friend, Perry, borrow the truck. Perry got to our house right before we were heading out the door for soccer so Edd took the keys to "Stu" and backed out so Perry could back the truck out. Then Edd pulled "Stu" back into the driveway. A couple minutes later I came outside to get into van so we could head off to soccer.

Well, Edd was quite perplexed...he'd left the keys in the ignition, at least that's what he'd remembered doing...but they weren't there!!! We hunted for the keys for about 10 minutes, then we had to leave to get the girls to soccer.

I ran inside and grabbed the keys to Earl, our white van, and we threw all the chairs and soccer gear into the back of Earl and rushed off to soccer. When we got back home, we continued to look for the keys. We looked all weekend. No keys.

Monday morning, I went to the rental place where we got "Stu" to see if they had an extra key. There was no extra key anywhere. So I told them I'd go back home and keep looking. I looked and looked and looked and looked...they were gone.

Thursday afternoon, I called the rental place and told them we couldn't find the keys and they'd have to come tow the van. The told me that call the dealership to find out how much the key was. We'd have to pay for that and the towing too. Turns out the key was $240 + towing. OUCH!!!!!!!!!

When the tow truck driver came, it was raining. It had been raining pretty much all day really. He got "Stu" loaded up and started pulling away just as Bethany got home. She was ecstatic to see "Stu" leave. I had mixed feelings...I was glad to be done with that part of my life, but so frustrated that we couldn't find the key and would have to pay a fortune to get the key replaced.

As I watched "Stu" drive away, I had a few tears come to my eyes. Tears of joy or sadness...a little of both.

Thomas the Shark

For a few weeks this spring, Thomas took swimming lessons at the YMCA. This was his last day of lessons. He just told me that he doesn't like swimming lessons because, "it has blue yucky water."

Swimming lessons for Thomas was quite a test in his life. When I signed him up, we were supposed to do a mother & child class, but at the last minute, it got changed to a regular class with just the instructor. Of course Thomas struggled not being right next to me the first day. The lesson went ok for the first 15-20 minutes, but after that Thomas lost it. He started to cry and the teacher dismissed him a few minutes early.

His next lesson, the teacher told me that I had to watch from the other room so Thomas wouldn't cry. That helped a little. So I was banned to watch from the other room for a few lessons.

The second week, Thomas really wanted me to watch him by the pool. I told him that I would if he didn't cry. We also made a deal that if he was really good and didn't cry, he could pick a treat after lessons from the snack machine. He was perfect that day, even happy! Don't know if it was because his regular teacher wasn't there (she's kindof the firm/stern personality), or if he had goggles on, or if he knew he'd get a treat if he was good. What ever the reason, it was nice to see him enjoy his swimming lessons.

From then on, Thomas didn't cry and I could watch from the side of the pool. He also got a treat after each class. We had class every Tues & Thurs for a month so I thought that was a good deal!

By the 3rd week, Thomas was really getting into lessons! He'd kick his legs really hard. He'd do his arms too! He didn't like to blow bubbles in the water because he didn't like to get water in his eyes. I kept telling Thomas that the water wouldn't get in his eyes if he'd wear his goggles!

Our last week of swimming went really well! Thomas seemed to really enjoy it and did so well! I thought about signing him up again, but decided that we'd wait since our life is so busy right now!

A "Fun" Springtime Activity

This was one of the most exciting weekends for Thomas!!! We had some mulch delivered on a Friday afternoon. It was fun to see how excited Thomas was as he watched the big truck dump the mulch! He especially loved climbing on the mountain of mulch!

Edd only had a few weekends to help around the house before he leaves for New Orleans. So we had the minimum amount of mulch delivered so we could finish up the flower beds, even though I'd already ordered some bags of mulch from the boy scouts which were supposed to be delivered that same weekend.

Turns out we had WAY TOO MUCH MULCH. Edd spread the mulch around the flower beds, I think 3 times, trying to use up the mulch that was delivered. He still had quite a bit left when the scouts showed up with our 5 bags of mulch. Wow, we were drowning in mulch!!! Our mulch from the scouts didn't show up until around 4pm on Saturday. So it was a good thing that we went ahead and got the mulch delivered.

Edd's sister, Sara, was the lucky person who benefited from our misfortune. Edd loaded up the mulch into the truck and delivered it to her the next day when we went to her house for dinner!

Springtime :)

Spring comes early here in Kingwood, which I really like! We've been blessed with BEAUTIFUL weather all month! Mattie collected these wild flowers after a walk on the bayou with the Edd and Missy. They are beautiful! I will miss seeing all the Texas wildflowers! Maybe there will be some around our new house, if not, we will plant some! :)

One of the kids, it was probably Aimee, informed me that it wasn't officially Spring until March 20th.

We had some pretty windy days and I was sad that we didn't have time to go fly any kites. We've been busy trying to get the house ready to sell. Hopefully next year we'll be able to get some good kite flying days!

Is Thomas Sleeping???

One afternoon, while I was inside cleaning, Thomas went out to play. After a while, I didn't hear him anymore. When I went outside to check on him, this is what I found!!! At first, I thought Thomas was playing/hiding in the turtle, but when I called his name, he didn't move! So I went closer and realized he'd fallen asleep! Wow!!! I was pretty amazed since my kids don't like to just lay down and go to sleep! Thomas was a little sick, maybe allergies so maybe that had something to do with it!

March comes in like a lion and out like a ...sheep???

Happy March!!

We are excited to move into a new month! Today Aimee told us that the March saying is that it comes in like a lion and out like a sheep. I tried to tell her that the saying is actually says lamb, but she insisted that it be sheep because they are the same thing.

We survived a crazy week, which was a great ending to our crazy month of February. Lately, I've been the family taxi driver, which has it's interesting moments in "STU"

INTRODUCING "STU"

Aimee affectionately named the van "STU," which is short for STUPENDO. Aimee really wanted to name the van, "STUPID," but I wouldn't let her. One day, at the beginning of the week, Thomas kept saying , STUPENDO, over and over and over again. It was pretty funny! Driving Stu has been an adventure for sure. It took us about a week to figure out that the button with the snowflake was how you made the A/C turn on! :) I also learned that even though the dash is lit up at night, it doesn't mean your lights are on! :) I'm used to "EARL," our old van, whose lights would turn on automatically when it got dark outside.

STU aka: "the blue bullet" or "Bertha, the big blue whale" is an ok van, but we'll be glad when "SALLY" is finally fixed.

Stu has been pretty good at hauling soccer stuff around to practice and games, he took Missy to her obedience class Thurs night, he has taken Thomas to and from swimming lessons, he's been to Wal-Mart several times, to the church quite a bit, and other places around the neighborhood.

What does March hold is store for STU??? Check back later for more adventures! :)