{This Past Week's Activities}

I have a lot of pictures to share, so here we go...

First, We are so proud of Gavin. He is such a HARD worker. He was one of the TOP THREE kids in his class to reach the TOP READER goal. And because he was a TOP READER, he gets to have a spaghetti lunch on Tuesday with his principal and the other TWO top readers in his class. They have a dress code at school, but he is allowed to wear this shirt every Friday. They determine TOP READERS by sending specific books home with the kids, sent by the teacher. Gavin reads the book to me at home. Then he goes to school and he reads the book to his teacher and then takes a quiz on his comprehension of the book. And he passed each quiz and reached the TOP READER goal. So exciting! There is nothing more exciting as a parent than to see your child learn something new or to see them excel, or work hard at something. It's exciting for me to watch. I am pretty sure shane took this picture of the boys while i was gone for my Weekend getaway last weekend. He probably came out of his room from studying and found them sitting on our Papasan chair that my dad bought for us. They love to sit on this chair, but i usually have to watch closely b/c when Jaydon or Tanner tries to get out they usually flip the chair over and they are always stuck underneath. They don't really hurt themselves, and it is funny to watch.

When Tanner and Jaydon take a bath, this is what they do every single time. Jaydon started it. Surprisingly. Tanner and Gavin have always been very cautious in the tub or pool. They never really liked their ears under the water. Jaydon is very different. He gets sooooooo excited about the bath. He splashes constantly and completely SOAKS the floor. AND he gets on his back b/c he likes his ears under the water. He doesn't get nervous that the water is nearly covering his nose and mouth. Usually the water will splash into his mouth and nose and so he drinks probably a cup of bath water everytime he bathes. Gross. He is a little thrill seeker and loves taking on anything. But he keeps going back for more! He is our little swimmer. Thank goodness for his little webbed feet. :)

Tanner and I went outside to take some silly pictures. I don't get much practice with the camera like i used to, so i wanted to get outside with him and just snap away. And that i did.

I told him to keep his eyes opened when he smiles...but it was kind of hard on this day b/c the sun was glaring so bad. So, this picture shows what he did to keep his eyes open....haha

I really love this picture. It wasn't a pose, it was just him. The wind was blowing hard that day and the fence door started banging open and close and when it banged SHUT it scared both of us. Well, i captured the look on his face when it shut....he instantly looked over at the fence with concern.

Tanner and Gavin ran into the grocery store with Shane. I stayed in the car with Jaydon and he wasn't happy about staying. My husband's friend from church calls Jaydon "grumpy". Not b/c he thinks he is grumpy but b/c he is the opposite. Jaydon really is a smiley boy. And whenever i bring him to young women on wed. nights he loves it. And this guy loves to play with jaydon. He asks me "Does he ever cry or get grumpy?" Here is your answer.

We went out and washed our cars yesterday. The kids had fun letting shane spray them with the hose.Here's Gavin RUNNING like crazy from the water that is quickly catching up to him. :)

Jaydon joined in the fun by running with the boys until he got sprayed. He DID NOT like it. He loves the bath, but doesn't like being sprayed i guess. haha! So, here he is not wanting to come back b/c he knows he will get sprayed. The whole rest of the hour he found a spot in the garage by the door and stayed there while the hose was on, just watching. It was so funny.

Gavin trying to dry off after getting soaked...

Tanner is playing on the puddle of water at the end of our driveway....

Tanner drying off....

And Gavin. He likes me to take pictures of him doing silly things with his arms and hands. :)

Here they are being silly again....

Tanner and Gavin ran in a 1/2 mile race at Sheppard Air Force Base last night. It was free and they got t-shirts and medals. They did AWESOME! This was their first race. In this picture you can see they have on their registration tags.

Before the race they had a nice warm-up.

And then they ran the race! I still need to check Tanner's time, BUT Gavin did it in 4 1/2 minutes! We were so proud. I think Tanner did it in about 5 1/2 to 6 minutes, which is great! He really likes to run. He has been asking me everyday, recently, if we can go running. He has little legs, but he is very determined and he is the type that will practice and practice until he is as good as the rest. :) They are both such hard workers. In this picture you can see they are wearing their new shirts and their medals.

{Mariama Kallon}

This lady was AMAZING. She was one of the speakers at Time Out for Women. The Spirit was so strong with her. Her story is amazing. She was raised in Sierra Leone, where war was prevalent. As a young girl was witness to the violent murders of her parents and siblings. She spent most of her youth running from rebels.

She shared incredible story's of faith. The first one she shared was when rebels came into their little village where they lived. The rebels grabbed about ten of the women, and lined them up and one by one was going to chop off their legs and arms. She witnessed this happening to her poor dear sister. The memory of it for her is as real as it was the day it happened. She has tears streaming down her face. I suddenly felt so blessed and thankful for my life. I mean, i already was, but hearing her story made my life seem like peaches and cream. She said that her and a couple women got down on their knees, and she offered a prayer and said "God i know you are real and i know you can save us from these terrible men." Just then, soldiers came rushing into their village and rescued the few, including her, that hadn't become victims of this torture yet.

She served a mission for the Church in Salt Lake City on the Temple Grounds.
She didn't sleep on a bed until she was 18 years old.
She made her own shoes from cardboard. She showed us a pair she made.
She now speaks for Time Out for Women and has attended LDS Business College.

One other story of hers that displayed incredible FAITH and an answer to that prayer...She was serving on Temple Square, as i already said. One Elder, which i don't remember who it was...maybe her mission president. Anyway, he ran into her on the Temple Square. He wanted to talk with her and she said "I am sorry, i have an appointment that i must go to." He said, "Okay. Great. With who?" She said "A black man!" She was all excited b/c she said "there are no black people there, so i was so excited to meet a black man!" :) It was funny with her telling it. Later, the Mission President ran into her again and he asked her who had set the appointment for her. He said that she acted kind of embarrassed and she said "Well, nobody set the appointment for me." And so he was like "Well, how did you know to have an appointment then?" She then said, "Well, i really was wanting to run into a black man(haha!) and wanted to teach him about the gospel. So, before i went out on the Square, i found a closet, went and kneeled down and said a prayer to God. I told him that i want to spread his word. And i told him that i want to teach a black man the gospel. And i knew the Lord would provide. So, i told him `Lord, i know you will provide, so i am going to the South Gate and will wait until this man comes so that i can teach him the Gospel.' So, as she was rushing to the South Gate, that's when she ran into the Mission President. Remember? She rushed to the South Gate and she onnly had to wait about five minutes before a black man from Ghana came to the south gate and she taught him and he ended up getting baptized.

Her's was a story of incredible faith. It gave me goosebumps. And the spirit was so strong with her. I was amazed by her incredible faith. She cried and said of course she has days where she feels down and depressed, lonely, etc. still from the past....but immersing herself in the Lord's work helps her get through those times. The Message of the Gospel has brought peace and comfort into her life and helps her feel like she can go on because she knows the purpose of this life. She has learned what God can do in our lives when we give our lives to him.

Truly, she was amazing. Her story really made me put my life into perspective. I could listen to her all day long.

{Quite possibly the BEST weekend EVER}

I was invited to join my best friend, Lauri, and her mom for a trip to OKC to attend Time-Out for Women, which is put on by Deseret Books. It started Friday night and ended Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
I arrived to the Renaissance Hotel, which was connected onto the convention center where the Time-Out for Women was held. Ummm...valet parking. haha! I pulled up and they took my car for me. Whenever we left the hotel they pulled our car up for us and opened our doors for us. I felt like a celebrity or something! haha! I don't do valet parking people, so this was definitely exciting for me! :) As soon as i got there on Friday evening we headed to the Time-Out and watched singing and uplifting speakers. It was awesome. After that was over at 9:30 we went to eat at the Hotel grill. It was very yummy food. We were one of the only people in there and had fun chatting, talking and laughing. We did run into some ladies we knew from Tulsa, where we grew up. That was fun!
The next day(Saturday) Time-Out started at 9:00 a.m. BUT first, we ordered room service! We had our breakfast delivered to our room! It was 30 minutes late, but still, i loved it. :) On our way into Time-Out for Women we each got cute tote bags! There were occasional 20 minute breaks and a lunch break. It ended at 3:30 p.m. The speakers were awesome and the music was GREAT. Hillary Weeks was one of the singers and she is so fun to listen to and such a funny lady. It was such an uplifting and motivating experience. The speakers were so impressive and the Spirit was wonderful there. If you ever have an opportunity to attend one of these, you must.
When it ended at 3:30 we decided to go watch more uplifting stuff, so Lauri's mom took us to see the movie Soul Surfer. It was truly a great movie. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to buy it for my family. It was done by the people who created FireProof and a few other movies like it that we have seen, but i can't remember the names right now. After the movie, her mom took us to Cheesecake Factory for some GREAT dinner and yummy dessert!!! Then we headed back to our room and hung out til we fell asleep.
Sunday(no judging allowed) morning we slept in until 8:30 a.m. Then we laid in bed for about an hour and a half and started reading one of our many books that Lauri's mom bought for us at the Time-Out for Women. She seriously spoiled us. We then headed down to eat a light lunch, before heading to our SPA treatment that Lauri's mom set up for us at 12:30. We received a ONE hour full body massage and then a 45 minute Facial. Seriously, amazing. It was the best thing ever. I was so relaxed. We loved it. Then from there we drove to my house where shane had made dinner for us and he made the house so clean. He is so wonderful. I am so grateful he took charge of the house for the weekend so that i could have a girl get-away. He is amazing. We ate dinner and then us girls headed out again. We went to a concert. CELTIC WOMAN. It was awesome!! If you haven't see them perform, you must!!! We had FRONT row seats that Lauri's mom bought for us. It was amazing!!!! We felt like being in the front made us feel like we had our own private concert with them. They were always looking down and smiling at the people in the front row and you just felt like you were the only one there. They have amazing voices and they are such great performers. It was great. The music is great! I can't wait to watch them in concert again. If you live in Houston or San Antonio, they are coming to your city in a few days! You must go! You will really enjoy it and i have no doubt that guys can get into it as well. After that we headed to Braum's and got ice cream and french fries, in remembrance of past times. We used to eat ice cream and dip our fries in them. It was good. :) They dropped me off at home after that and went to their hotel.
This morning they came over and brought some yummy breakfast for us all. We sat and ate together and then chatted for a little while and then sadly, they had to leave. OUR awesome girl's weekend of being completely SPOILED was over. :(
I can't tell you how grateful i am that i had the opportunity to go with them and be completely spoiled. Lauri's mom AND lauri were answers to my prayers....i mean, this was way MORE than i ever prayed for or ever expected. Man, it exceeded any expectation i ever had. :) The Lord will answer prayers and often times he sends loved one's to help. :) It was definitely so needed and it was such a blessing to be able to do that with them. I feel so motivated and ready for life again. It was such a relaxing, uplifting, energy picker-upper for me. I learned so much and have a different perspective on life. And to do that with my best friend and second mom...makes it even better. And the fact that my husband was so willing to help me out so that i could enjoy it is so wonderful. He seriously held down the fort amazingly well. :) I am so grateful. Seriously. For everything. I will be posting things on here that i learned from it.

You want to know what my upcoming summer is like?!?! Craziness. Good thing i had this last weekend get-away b/c my summer is going to be busy and tiring, but fun.

May 26-31: Bob and Janet are coming.
May 31-june 5: Holly is flying in to stay here for 6 days.
June 10-17: my parents are coming and staying for a week.
June 19th-24:Lauri and Jocelyn are coming.
June 30th-July 11th: We are flying to Idaho. Shane only gets to be there for 5 of those days.
July 11th-26 Then from Idaho, i am flying to straight to MInnesota, where i will spend 2 weeks. We will head home just in time for shane to be in his last week of work here and to start packing our house.
July 26th- Go back to home in Texas.
July 26th- August 10th: Packing and preparing for move.
Mid-August: Moving to Japan

{Another Weekend, come and gone...}

We had soccer games on saturday, like usual. Next weekend the boys have their last game. So, Tanner's team took pictures on Saturday. One of the ladies on the team likes photography, so she took the picture...suddenly all the other mom's, including myself, ran up behind the photographer with their DSLR's and started snapping pictures too. It was really funny. Who needs a photographer anymore these days?! sheesh.

I decided i want to start a tradition with the boys. Every first Saturday of each month i am going to make donuts! YUM! Here are the donuts i made on Saturday morning....Some have chocolate sprinkles , which the boys loved!

Saturday the boys played out in the backyard after their games. They like to ride their scooter's and they played in the pool. I didn't get pictures of them in their pool. BUT it's hot here. Today it's supposed to get ove 100 degrees! Crazy! WITH 90% humidity. That's hot people.

Captured a shot of Jaydon right in the middle of him yelling out my name..."mmaaaahhhh"! haha!

In other updates:

I am going on a strict diet starting tomorrow. I am seriously so tired of the constant bloating and sharp pains in my stomach. I have attempted to figure this out before by cutting certain things out of my eating, but it didn't last long. This time i am so ready to really get to the nitty gritty of the problem. I wonder if i have a gallbladder issue...so i am cutting out things that can make the gallbladder act up. That includes...Eggs, Gluten, Corn, Beans, Soy, Dairy, peanuts, shellfish, nuts, fish, onions, oranges, turkey and chicken, spicy foods, chocolate, ice cream, cabbage, cauliflower, red meats, broccoli, margarine, bitter greens. What's left for me to eat, you say? GOOD question. Things that are helpful are beets, coconut, garlic, cucumbers, green beans, sweet potato, artichokes, okra, avocados, vinegars, lemon, apples, grapes, berries, ripe tomatoes, organic food, and lots of water, most veggies and fruits. I can also eat quinoa, and brown rice. And i am supposed to use hemp or flax oil or cold-pressed evoo. ? Hhhmmm, sounds yummy huh?! haha! I am supposed to eat like this for three weeks and THEN start to introduce one thing back into my eating diet every three days. That way i can figure out what it is that i am eating that is causing such a problem for me. Let's hope i can stick to this! It's going to be so hard. Really, it's my only option in figuring this out, right?!

My boys and husband took really good care of me on Mother's Day. If i had a day like that once a week, i would gladly get through my whole week, knowing i had a relaxing day like that waiting for me. :)

Mother's Day

Well we boys got together and just wanted to post a little something for Ashlee on Mother's day. We made a bed for Ash on the couch with a nice quilt and a pillow and she fell asleep watching "The Testaments". We then cleaned the kitchen and dining room up for her and now had just a few minutes before she wakes up to tell her how we feel. Ash, there is not a lot of words to describe how much you mean to me and all of us. You truly are and have always been a precious gift from our Father in Heaven. I have never felt like I deserved a girl as amazing as you. But I will try to live the rest of my life to make up for it. You're awesome. Here are just a couple pictures from the past year that we found that were good memories from each of us that we wanted you to remember. As usual, Jaydon (aka- the sherriff) insisted on being better than the rest of us so he got two pictures of himself.


First off is this one good lookin bunch of boys or what?

Well Ash, this is a memory but one i hope never happens again...sheesh that was a lot of work to clean up.

"mah....mah....maaa....gum!!!"- Jaydon. The translation...."Cupcakes anyone?"

"Goo goo gah gah" Jaydon. The translation......"bring on the mac and cheese baby!"

Gavin- "I lost a tooth. Mommy I love you"

Tanner- "I love you mommy...will you let me play with scissors again? Please!!!"

I had to put this picture in as a confession. Some of you may not know that Ashlee actually had a missionary that she had been waiting to get married to before she met me. Both of them were going to BYU-Idaho to seal the deal. Well that's where I came into the picture. And shortly thereafter monkey boy (aka- her missionary) decided to take a hike ... forever! She thinks its because she told him that she was in love with somebody else... In reality its because I sent him a scary email with this next picture in it. Needless to say...he took the hint. And we all lived happily ever after.

For such a pretty girl...Ash sure has a hard time getting people to take pictures of her... So needless to say, she just takes them of herself. I can't tell you how many of these kinds of pictures I find whenever I am going through old photos.

Love you Ash... you ROCK!!!!

{Early Mother's Day post for my mother}

I want to write about my Mother for this Mother's Day. My mom is a strong strong woman. In our growing up years she went through 13 years of being nearly a single mom as my dad went through Medical School, not to mention with 4 kids! My dad went through medical school and for lots of that he even had random jobs he did to help bring in money. I can't imagine. That had to of been extremely TOUGH for her and i know it was. Some fun facts about my mom... She was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She moved to California at the age of 3 where she lived her whole life, until she served a mission in Chicago , Illinois. On her mission she met my dad! She ended up converting him! Cool, huh?! From there they moved all over the place while my dad went through Medical school and residency. I think they have lived in at least 15 different houses since they've been married and have lived in Oklahoma twice, South Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and California. Through it all she gave us a wonderful childhood with tons of good memories. Some memories that i have that i will always remember....

1. We would have model shows, Holly and i would model clothes, which she captured on video so i can look back and watch them. We would walk down the stairs and act like runway models. It was so funny.

2. She put a small stereo in the window. The window was open and we would go outside and dance to that music. BUT we danced to it in the sprinklers on a hot day! She video taped us as we danced to the music through the sprinklers . She would also put a big blue tarp on our steep driveway, let the water run down it and we would slide down that thing over and over again. She got that on video too.

3. She made a cake for us EVERY friday. We would come home from school and that cake would be there waiting for us. I always ate an enormous piece of cake.

4. She would let us each, on our own day miss a day of school around the Holiday season. WHY? Well, she would take us, one on one, to go have a day of shopping for christmas. I would pick out christmas gifts for each family member. Then she would take me out to lunch. That was always soooo fun.

5. She would take us clothes shopping before every school year started. She would walk around with us for hours upon hours while we shopped, on her dime. Now that i think about it mom, why don't we do that again some time soon?!?! For memories sake? ;)

6. She loved to laugh. And the thing that made her laugh the most was teasing us. She would find ways to tease or embarrass us out in public. Maybe at the time it was embarrassing, but thinking about it now it's sooooo funny. I love looking back at those times.

7. She loves my dad. And my dad loves her. That is one of the greatest gifts she gave me. I remember watching her and my dad, down by the fire, slow dancing in the dark to anne murray. We were all supposed to be in bed, but we would sneek and watch them from the upper balcony. They knew we were watching, but pretended they didn't know. Then they would sometimes let us go down and join them. We would all dance around. And we would pick up our dog, Odie, and someone always danced with the dog. It was so fun.

8. My mom always had this particular dance she would do. I can't describe the dance, but she always did it when music was on. I can imitate it really well.

9. She loves to sing and loves music. She would sing to every song that was on. And if she wasn't doing her dance to it then she would DIRECT the music. She directed music everywhere we went!!!! hahahah! We would be in the car and she would just sit there directing it...you know how the ladies direct the music up in sacrament meeting? It was so funny and i am sure people in other cars around us wondered what the heck she was doing. But it is too funny. I haven't seen her do that in a long long time.

10. If we were going out to eat, she always had to go to a place that SERVED us. She liked sit-down restaurants. She would ask us where we wanted to go, but in the end that didn't matter b/c she knew where she wanted to go and we would end up there! hahha!

11. She LOVED her daily 32 oz. diet coke. Most of the time she was at a Quik Trip getting it herself, but if she ever went through a drive-thru and they didn't fill it to the tippy top she would hand it back to them and say " could you please fill this to the very top for me?" hahaha! It drove us nuts and we always gave her a hard time about it, but it's sooooo funny. I mean, there could've been a half inch space from the top of the cup and she made sure it was overflowing AND usually they did make it overflow when she told them to fill it to the top.

12. She loved listening to THE BEACH BOYS. And on our drives out to California that we made quite a few times...she would play the BEACH BOYS as soon as we entered california and we listend to it the rest of the way to grandma's house.

13. She loved a clean house. LOVED! And it seems nothing made her happier than when we would surprise her with a clean house after her and my dad got back from an evening date.

14. You would have to watch out for her because if you would bend over she was right there to goose you. No joke! I don't remember a time when i bent over and she wasn't there goosing me. It was her THING. She did it to her mother constantly, she did it to us constantly. It was her trademark(is that the word i am looking for?).

15. For our Birthdays, she made it a tradition to stuff one of the biggest roses in our mouth. She always bought a store bought cake. And you know how they put the big frosting roses on them? Well, before we dug into the cake she stuffed one of those in our mouths.

16. Holly and I liked to play "dress up". We liked to dress up in heels and fancy hats and fancy clothes. One year for Christmas she and my dad bought her and I tons of fancy stuff to dress up in, which she was able to buy at garage sales. I still remember it b/c it was so fun.

17. We didn't have much at all when i was little. We were poor. I didn't know the difference and didn't care. I was given what i needed and so i was happy. And she found ways to help us have fun as kids, even though we didn't have much.

18. My parents took us on all kinds of vacations. We went and did so many things and saw so many places. We never flew. We always drove. And we would drive straight through, if they were long drives...we never stopped at hotels. AND we always packed our large kooler in the back of the car. We ate all of our meals in the car. Even if it meant eating sandwiches for lunch and dinner. It was soooooooo FUN doing that. I loved it. We would make all the sandwiches in the car and serve everyone their food. We never stopped for anything! Unless we had to pee.

19. She always compared herself to Mary Poppins. She would always say "I am practically perfect in every way". Well, a year ago or so i found that quote on a tile and my dad and I had to get it for her b/c she said it so many times that there is no way we couldn't get it for her.

20. I didn't mind being sick. She would let me lay in her bed and watch tv. She would bring me food in bed and just took such good care of me. I loved it. I remember when i had Mono and she let me sleep in her room on the floor and she would be in there folding laundry, watching her Soaps and i would watch with her. She made some yummy vegetable soup and brought it in to me and let me eat it in her room.

My mom is such a fun woman. She has definitely made life for us FUN in many many different ways. I love her so much. And life without her just wouldn't be the same. She gave me life and gave me a good one. She has brought lots of spark into our lives. She has brought excitement and randomness and things that keep us on our toes. She is honest and tells us how it is. She doesn't beat around the bush. She is lots of fun to tease, and loves to be teased b/c she loves to tease back. She likes to act TOUGH , but is really soft and sweet underneath. I couldn't ask for a different or better mom. She would do weird(funny) things a lot and i always said "you are weird mom". SHe would always say , "but would you have me any different?" The answer is NO. I lover her just the way she is. I love you mom.

Sanctus Real - Lead Me

I love this song so much. It's a good one for anyone who has a family.

{Catch-up Monday}

1. My boys are growing so fast. Every day they surprise me with how they are growing. Gavin is reading chapter books and he amazes me with his reading. He reads through it with the greatest of ease. He is an excellent reader. He needs no help from me. Tannner knows a lot, but won't tell you if you ASK. He just likes to share it with you when he feels ready. Jaydon is a mini adult. He surprises me OFTEN with the things he wants to do. He is very different from his brothers at this age. He isn't afraid of trying and doing a lot of things his brothers were afraid of. He often acts like the ruler over his brothers.

2. Gavin is on a soccer team with a coach and parents who i would classify as classic uneducated, southern hicks. The coach is rude, lazy, and lippy. The parents on the team are just about the same way. I feel like the odd man out in that group! Every game the coach and the parents find something to complain about and whine about in their hick country accents. They are the type of people that need drama and if it isn't there, they will create it. I don't pay much attention to them, except when i hear the coach telling her son(who is on the team) to "hit that boy in the face if he pushes you again!" They whine and complain and i hear it sometimes. It can be embarrassing. I mean, come on! We are adults and this is little boys soccer! I try to stay outside of all that stupid stuff they create. She freaks out at the games, but does NOTHING at soccer practice to justify her "freaking out" attitude. She just stands there and talks with her friends. Well, the coach came to shane and I on saturday, at the game, and told us "you remember when we played that team that was mean?" I was thinking, "well, i thought every team we have played is mean(according to her), so i don't know." I guessed a certain team. I was wrong. She told me it was the team with the Mexican boys. OH i remember them. They were really GOOD. They actually kicked the ball correctly and looked like their coach practiced with them a lot. The only thing i remember from that game was the coach and a parent(on our team) going to the referee and complaining about something. Well, apparently the coach and a few parents on our team went to the soccer association and complained about that team. THEN the other team complained about OUR team, saying that our parents were cussing(yes. i can see that.), were sore losers(which they are), grabbed a boys arm on their team(hhmmm), etc. Now, they want our team and that team to go and have a "trial". Basically , we are supposed to tell our complaints about that team, and the other team is going to explain the rude things we did. And if our coach is found guilty of being a bad coach, then she could get put on probation. hahaha! I was like "seriously"? I don't want to go. I mean, it could be entertaining listening to the parents on our team whine and complain. They are very lippy. BUT i dont want to be there when some fights break out, which i can totally see happening with a few of the parents on our team. I mean, the coach called the mexican team a certain prejudice name...not only to the parents on our team, but she made that reference to the soccer association. They were shocked.yeah. ANYWAY, i don't know ANYTHING about what happened at that game. I must be in LA LA land b/c there was apparently lots of drama happening. ? I said to the coach, "I didn't know anything happened. What if we don't come to the meeting?" She said, "Well, the association told me to tell the parents that they have to come. The less parents that come, the less people i have to defend me." Honestly, i wouldn't defend her. She hasn't been a good coach, and is rude and lippy. This team has been a bad experience, not only for me, but also for Gavin. Gavin's team would hate me if i went and agreed with the opposing team. And he still has two more games. Hhhmmm, What to do?!

3.We all sat down and watched The Ten Commandments yesterday. We forgot to watch it on Easter. I SO LOVE that movie. The boys really liked it. They watched all three hours of it.

4.We have a FULL summer ahead of us. BUSY and fun.

5. We have 3 months until shane is done with his AEGD. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED. you have no idea. :) We are preparing, already, for our overseas assignment. Mainly paperwork preparations. I am starting to teach myself Japanese. I have learned 20 hiragana characters so far. Lots more to go. We found out we will have many opportunities to explore other places in that region...Australia, Guam, Hawaii, Tahiti(my all-time dream vacation), China, South Korea, New Zealand...for affordable traveling prices. :) You can bet that we will go and visit as many places as possible. I am more excited everyday that i realize time is getting closer to heading over there. I haven't heard ONE bad thing about Okinawa. Which HAS to be a good thing. :) Shane and I both are often saying "I cannot wait to get out of here!" Don't get me wrong. I really like texas. It's more of our circumstance/situation we are in that we can't wait to get out of. :) It's been TOUGH.

6.Can't believe Osama Bin Laden is "dead".

7. Loved the Royal Wedding. Real life princess story. I was told i looked like Kate Middleton's sister. ? I am told that a lot about certain people. I must have a common looking face. I have also been told i look like Reece Witherspoon(this is the one i hear most), Katie Holmes, and Wonder Woman. :)

8. I am going to TIME OUT FOR WOMEN in OKC with my best friend and her mom in a week and a half. It's for the whole weekend. Then we are going to see Celtic Woman that weekend as well. It's going to be a nice girl get away for the weekend! I cannot wait.

9. Anybody need a chevy trailblazer? We need to sell it. Thank goodness our other car is a lease. We just have to go turn it back in. :) I will miss the Prius. It's been perfect for us in every way.