Ten Years Ago...

I was awakened in the early morning hours by a frantic phone call from my parents. "Where are you?! Are you alright?! Have you seen the news?" Confused and bleary-eyed I stumbled to my TV and turned it on. My roommates and I gathered and watched in sorrow and disbelief as we learned of the tragedy of Bonfire '99. The stack had fallen and 12 lives were lost. That day is still etched in my memory and as I sit here typing this my emotions of that time are flooding back and tears are streaming down my face. My second home, the school I love, was so deeply wounded by the events that happened in the early morning hours of November 18, 1999. Wounded, scarred, and healed by togetherness. You see, we, as Aggies, are a family. No matter what we look out for each other. That day, we came together again. We cried together, prayed together, worked together, and will always remember together, our brothers and sisters that died that day. I will never forget how I felt when I learned of the collapse. I will never forget how Reed Arena looked with thousands of candles glowing within. I will never forget how much I cried on the night Bonfire '99 would've burned. I will never forget how bittersweet the victory over the Longhorns was just days later. I will never forget how moved I was when I visited the Bonfire Memorial. I will never forget the day I discovered what it truly, truly means to be an Aggie. God bless those lives affected by the collapse of Bonfire '99. I will never forget. Ever.

I hate to brag...

Ok, not really but still. I have to pat myself on the back a little bit. I've been on and off Weight Watchers since Caroline was born. Mostly off but now I'm back ON! After our vacation in Mexico and all the gluttony that comes with an all-inclusive resort I was mortified to see our pictures! I decided then that it was time to get into gear and lose the weight. Seriously. Well I'm not at goal yet but I'm well on my way. Here's a "before" and a "not quite after"...

Picture? Perfect!

We had a great photo shoot a couple of weeks ago with my good friend Katie. She does AMAZING work and we had so much fun! Here are the sneak peeks on her blog... Honey Grove Photography.

Career Climber

She got up there all by herself. We're in trouble.


-- Posted from my iPhone

Boo at the Zoo!

Our kids were graced with a late bedtime on Thursday so we could enjoy the animals (and candy) at Boo at the Zoo in Fort Worth. We packed sandwiches and snacks and the kids really enjoyed seeing all the animals at a time of day they aren't used to being at the zoo. There were trick or treat stations and lights and decorations everywhere. So fun! I'm sure we'll make this a yearly tradition. It was a hit!

Loaded up and ready to go! The train engineer, butterfly (sans wings - they wouldn't fit in the stroller) and me, as myself ;)

Jack and the elephantsAnd me, again, with the kids on the carouselSleepyjoyShe was having fun... promise!A tired little engineer at the end of the night

Phone photos

I've got lots if fun pics on my phone that are worth posting here. They're all from the past few months.

Jack, on the TRE

Froyo at Pure Bliss... blissful!

She really has a sense of style, no? Nightgown, tutu, skirt. Perfect

Flowery dress and a witch's hat. Another knockout outfit!

Sicky Caroline in the ER with croup. Not a fun way to spend a Saturday night.

And a couple of days later feeling much better. She LOVES coloring outside!

Jackie in the outdoors.

Sure Mom. Whatever.

And now Jack's sick in this one. Poor guy, look at his eyes!

Swingin'! I love this park!

Had to wear the tutu to Chik-fil-a~!

Passed out after the car ride home!

Rainy days call for carousel rides at the mall. They had a blast!

This is what you call "ice cream drunk". She was a happy girl. We can't drive past Braum's without her yelling "ICE CREAM" now. Silly girl!

They love the swings. They could be out there all day long.

So happy!

"Let's get this one, Mom!" He really meant it too.

-- Posted from my iPhone

Erin's Terrible, Horrible...

no good, very bad day! Wow. My best friend Erin had a doozie of a day on Friday and since I was involved I thought I'd share the story. It's worth sharing for sure!

Erin's husband, Terry (Jason's BFF, if guys have BFFs) left early Friday morning on his second trip to China. That already made the day difficult. I know it's no fun seeing your husband off for an extended period of time and knowing you'll be a "single" parent to your two kids for 2 1/2 weeks. It's daunting, I'm sure. Well, Erin decided to head to Oklahoma (where her family is) for about half the time Terry would be gone. She headed home from the airport, loaded up her car to the gills with everything she'd need for herself, two kids and two dogs for nine days and headed to Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, in Maurice-world, my mom and I, along with Caroline were heading to Fort Worth to do some shopping at the Christmas in Cowtown show. I'm about half-way there when I get a call from Erin... who is sobbing on the other line. "Kippy, I'm north of Fort Worth and I had a blow out. I'm stuck on the side of the highway and don't know what to do!" Scary. I immediately called Jason and had him take Jack in his car and head Erin's way. Thank the Lord he was off on Friday! I steered my car northward and we went to rescue Erin.

When we got there we found her on the side of I-35 just out of the heavy traffic. She'd called the police but they hadn't arrived yet so we didn't feel safe moving her kids and dogs to my car till we had police help. As soon as the officers showed up we moved Matthan (9 months) and Selah (3 years) and the dogs to my car. Again, good thing Jack wasn't with me because Selah just hopped in his seat instead of having to remove and re-install her carseat in my car. Mom and I then left Erin with her car to deal with the cops and the tire and wait on Jason to find her. Thankfully, we were right by Cabela's so we took the kids there to kill time till we knew what would happen next. Jason arrived on the scene and sent Erin in his car (with Jack) to meet up with me and mom at Cabela's and he stayed while the police changed the tire and then he came to meet up with the rest of our crew.

We decided to let the kids look around the store and the we all had lunch. After lunch we let the kiddos run off some energy and look at the animals before we took everyone for potty breaks and diaper changes. Finally, it was time to load up and head home. We got all the kids strapped in to their carseats (Caroline, Matthan, and Selah in my car and Jack in Jason's car) and were about to head back to Erin's when she reaches for her keys in her purse and... they aren't there. Seriously. So, we retrace our steps and look for the keys for roughly an hour while the kids wait in the cars (mom and I stayed with them the entire time). The keys are nowhere to be found. We'll have to leave Erin's car there, drive to our house and the spare key for their house, drive to their house and then drive back to Cabela's to get Erin's car. Wonderful. We all head south.

Jason and my mom took my car to our house to drop off mom and Caroline and get the Coursey's key. Erin and I head to her house with Jack to wait on Jason. We're in the car and I get a call from Jason. "We have the keys." WHAT???!!! My mom had them in her pocket! Oh no! Poor thing, she felt so bad. Apparently, Erin took them out of the cup holder on the stroller after lunch and set them on the table. My mom picked them up and put them in her pocket and completely forgot about them and didn't notice them till she was at my house. Crazy! We were so glad to have found them though!

Jason and I had plans to head to the Thompson's that evening for dinner. Jack and Caroline LOVE their kids and were so looking forward to our visit. Not wanting to miss out on that, we decided to load up our kids and Erin and head to Cabela's to get Erin's car (With everything from her clothes, to her computer, to Matthan's diapers in it. We HAD to get it that day.) and then we'd make the quick trip from there to Saginaw to Kim and Carey's house.

The traffic was terrible. It took us quite a while to reach Erin's car but we finally made it and could see the light at the end of the tunnel. We drop Erin off and get ready to head out. Till she looks at her spare... and it's FLAT. Flat, flat. Super. Jason and I get out and check it out and he decides we can probably take it to a gas station and air it up and she'd be fine to drive it home. Off we go again. We get to the gas station/truck stop and, of course, their air pump is broken. Thankfully, the one on the truck side is open so we head over there. There we were, in a canyon of huge trucks and here comes Jason in Erin's little Honda. We pulled up behind him in the Expedition and were still dwarfed by all the huge trucks around us. And then, right by us, pulls up a HUGE truck with an open trailer on the back filled with, what else, TIRES! Erin and I laughed forever at the irony of the situation. So much that I was crying from laughing. Best part of the day.

Well, once Jason got the tire aired up he still didn't trust it and he wasn't about to send his best friend's wife home not knowing if she'd make it okay. We had to cancel our plans and we all drove back to Erin's house, ready for the day to be DONE. Poor Jack, as soon as he realized we weren't going to Riley's house he launched into hysterics and he cried the whole way home. Seriously, the WHOLE WAY. For an hour and a half. So sad.

We finally made it back to Erin's house (where my mom was with Selah and Matthan) and were able to feed, bathe, and jammie four exhausted kids and then we took our two home where we all crashed. Hard.

What. A. Day. WHEW!

Testing, testing...

New blog app on the phone. Let's see how it works...


-- Posted from my iPhone

School's in session!

Jack headed back to school this morning. To say he was excited would be a huge understatement. We spent the day yesterday getting ready... washing his napmat, picking out a blanket and stuffed animal to take for rest time, picking out clothes, deciding what to have for lunch, packing the backpack. Jackie woke up extra early this morning and couldn't wait to get out the door to see his new class and teachers again (he got a sneak peek on Tuesday morning at meet the teacher). He was happy as a lark walking through the building this morning, pretending to be a "diesel electric locomotive engine" most of the time. When we got to class he walked right in (skirting the screaming child standing in the doorway) and headed off to play without looking back. I can't wait to pick him up this afternoon and hear what his day held for him.

Wakey, wakey...

sleepy baby! Here's my Sweet Caroline, fresh from a nap. YAWN!

Another transformation...

Well, after doing Jack's room last weekend I've definitely been bitten by the decorating bug. I decided last night was the time to paint an accent wall in our bedroom. The color is called Lost Atlantis and I LOVE IT! I'll be painting our bathroom the same color this evening. I'm leaving the rest of the walls in the bedroom tan (harvest brown, actually) and my mom is going to make me some window treatments. I'm thinking something in the chocolate brown range, probably a Roman shade since we need something pretty but functional - our room gets so bright in the mornings because it faces East. I've got a few great photos to hang and need to head to Hobby Lobby to pick just the right frames. I may even grab a couple of stretched canvases and let the kids go to work to get some fine art up on the walls. Should be fun! Now, if I could only tackle this mess of an office...

Movin' on up...

Jack's room is officially converted to a "big boy" room. Jack loves, LOVES trains so he wanted a "new, big train bed". I searched and searched and finally found some bedding that wouldn't break the bank on Ebay. Yay Ebay! I picked a shade of red and a shade of blue that I'd like for the walls and let Jack pick one. He was so excited he got to make the decision and he chose blue. Jason and I spent this past Friday painting while my mom entertained the kids (after she brought us the bed - Thanks Yaya for the free bed!). We had everything set up by bedtime on Friday night and Jack was so, so excited! He and Caroline spend about half the day in there now reading books on the bed and playing legos on the floor. It turned out so cute! I have just a few more things to find and acquire for it to be completely finished but I love the way it looks!

view from the doorthe beddingthe bednext to the closetJack, after his first night in his "new" room.

Happy 3rd Birthday Selah!

Teapot cake! Yum!

Blow!

Bre's serious about cake.

Presents! Sweet birthday girl!

Colorado Trip 2009

Jason and I headed to Colorado for a little getaway and to attend the wedding of some friends, Corey and Katie Lemons. We drove and really enjoyed our road trip together, just the two of us. We spent our first night in Colorado Springs and visited the Air Force Academy the next day. It was fun but we were FREEZING. The high that day was 56 degrees! What a change from the 106 that we left in Texas. Thankfully, we'd check the forecast ahead of time and were prepared. We then headed to Littleton to meet up with the Thompson/Lemons family and then drove to Evergreen for the rehearsal. We enjoyed a nice pizza dinner and late night bowling and then went back to the hotel to hit the sack. We were worn out! The next day we took a little trip to Central City, which was kind of sad. It's a cute mountain town that's been completely taken over by casinos and bars. We spent the rest of the day getting ready for the wedding and then headed back to Evergreen that evening for the big event. The wedding was beautiful (once the rain stopped) and we had a great time. We left Colorado on Saturday morning but stopped off in Manitou Springs on the way home. Our trip there took a little longer than anticipated and we were a couple of hours behind schedule. We decided to stop over in Amarillo for the night so we could be a little more rested. We had dinner and went to see the new Harry Potter movie and then went back to the hotel for some snoozing. We were off early the next morning and were so happy to be home when our kids woke up from their afternoon naps. It was an interesting trip and we learned alot about travelling together. Fun times!

The view of Pike's Peak on our second day there. It was so rainy and cold!
Me and the Air Force Academy parking lot. Nice.View of the Air Force Academy Chapel coming up the trail.Gorgeous. Truly an amazing piece of architecture.The ceiling of the chapel's top floor.The cross above the altar in the Protestant portion of the chapel, located on the top floor.The amazing pipe organ in the Protestant chapel.The outside, bottom floor.The altar of the Catholic chapel, on the bottom floor.An amazing mosaic in the Catholic chapel.The synagogue.The buddhist meditation area.John and Patsy Lemons, dad and mom of the groom. I love this picture of them. What a legacy they're leaving their kiddos.Nice, Carey.Me and the lovely view at The Evergreen Lakehouse.And Jason.And some geese. An interesting character in Center City, COThe Thompsons on Lookout Mountain. I was up the hill on a rock feeling a little green from all the winding mountain roads.Victoria, conked out.Kim and Victoria at the weddding.Sweetest little flower girl!Me and Jas, all dressed up and FREEZING. Being silly. I'd marry this guy all over again!