Jason's 9th Birthday

So planning Jason's 9th was easier than normal. Only because I was limited on time and had NO other choice.
He knew he wanted a magic show party, it doesn't hurt that we know the most amazing magicians ever!
Our busy magicians were available for 2 dates only. First weekend in February Before his Bday or March 8th...After his Bday. March sounded good to me. Plenty of time to plan an awesome party! UNTIL Jason realized that the party wouldn't be in his birthday month. UGH, after many tears and lots of convincing on HIS part...the party was changed to February 1st and the busiest week of my life.

I had one day to get the invitations out before a busy workweek and a trip out of town with my daughters 5th grade class. Sadly because of my invitation delay and last minute changes half the kids he invited had already RSVP'd to another party. Lesson learned on getting invitations out early! He was so sad that half the kids couldn't come, but he was excited about the ones that were coming! After my busy week I had about 2 days total to get it all together. Thankfully for an early birthday present my mom got me a Silhouette Cameo...like a cricut but soooo much better!

We decided to rent out the movie theater room at our clubhouse to have plenty of room for the show. He knew he wanted a Magic hat cake with a rabbit in the hat, he wanted yoo-hoo's to drink and he wanted me to make oreo balls to eat. 
 I usually make my kids cakes but because I was Super busy that week I Had a baker in the neighborhood make the cake. I texted her a picture of what I wanted...note to self, clarify the color of the cake when ordering. I decorated with Red and black with the vision of a "Red Scarf" sticking out of the hat of the cake. The picture was not the best quality that I sent her and with no communication between the 2 of us the "Scarf" was orange. Hopefully she didn't see the disappointment in my face when I saw the cake. I fake smiled, told myself its just icing and got over it!
 So magicians were booked the room was reserved and nonstop cutting on my silhouette the party was ready to go!
 Wish I had more time because I had so much more planned...even the simple table setting bugs me, I planned on Magic top hats holding the food items and huge dice or cards , lol
Oh well, it was great with the Amazing Fred and Bobbie Becker performing! The kids laughed non-stop and so did the adults. I kept laughing really loud and noticed my husband and friends had huge smiles on their faces!  So with a great magician and great decorations the party was a huge success! In Jason's words "Best Birthday EVER!"Jason's 9th Birthday

Made this in Microsoft word with club symbol and text box'sWhite Cardstock paper, Super easy!!!

Too basic, lol

Goody Bags made out of black paper cups. Tied red ribbon around top and black cardstock circles cut out for the top 

Ordered Coin Trick from Oriental Trading and got Magic Svengali playing cards from Dollar Tree

Pick a card, any card! Took playing cards with double sided tape and stuck them on juice boxes

Rabbit in a hat Cake. Red would have looked MUCH better!

turning 9

Magic Pretzel Rings

Presto Popcorn

Magical Rabbit droppings! Oreo balls made small, Kids loved it!

School Bus Blues

So the time has come for my baby girl to officially ride the school bus. You would think she is turning 5 and its the first day of kindergarten! NOPE she's 14 and her high school is REALLY far away. We've arranged a ride for her every morning and sometimes after school but it looks like 3 days a week she will be riding the bus.
I remember when Jadyn was almost 5 and was starting Kindergarten, her Elementary was about 15-20 minutes on the other side of town. We chose to put her in a "Magnet" school that specialized in Math and Science. It offered more than a normal elementary school so it was worth the long drive. She was always begging me to PLEASE let her ride the bus. She learned early the saying "It's not fair" because her friends got to ride it. Well her friends moms weren't paranoid like me :)
She finally got to ride the bus on her first field trip, and then I realized I can use the excuse of her being able to ride the bus EVERY time they went on a field trip. (Like she was special and I made a deal with the school) LOL
It still didn't stop her from asking every year. When we moved to our small little city, there was no reason for her to ride the bus because her school was less than a mile away.  But now the times have changed and I don't like wasting gas and time on a long drive their and back.
I have to look back and think of WHY I have so much anxiety about the BUS?!?!
When I was in kindergarten I lived in New York and I rode the bus every day with my 2 older brothers. I met my best friend Amanda on the bus and we are STILL friends to this day!!! So why would it be such a bad thing? When we moved to Midland is where the trouble started. I was in Jr. High,  7th grade and I started a couple months into the school year. It was bad enough that I was in Jr. High, but to make it worse I was the "new girl" that didn't fit it.
On the way home is when a group of kids who had known each other for years decided to talk loud and make me miserable. I remember them sitting a few seats away and saying " I bet she lives in a run down shack" or "look at what she's wearing, its so ugly". They basically picked me apart from head to toe on my appearance and the assumption of my home" Since I lived so far out in the country our house was hidden behind a bunch of trees so they couldn't see it. But I wished they could've because it was a nice house,lol!
When I look back on it I think of  WOW, thats a classic case of being Bullied! I have always been terrified of my children being picked on the way I was. I also remember learning all sorts of stuff about sex from A-Z and the "real world" from the bus, I know I REALLY didn't want her learning all the WRONG and Nasty stuff at a young age the way I did, LOL! The weird thing about these kids is after a few months they quit picking on me, or I finally stood up with some smart comment and they finally shut up....I really can't remember. But we eventually became friends, and one day the bus took everyone home in reverse and they all lived in run down Trailers! I'm sure there is some twisted psychological reason for them to want me to live in the same poverty as they did!
I faced a lot of bullys in my life but have managed to push out the bad memories so it wouldn't hurt.
I remember some good memories of the bus and having to walk to the corner when the sun was rising. When I would get on, our 80 year old bus driver was listening to Earl Pitts and he would say..."Ya know what makes me sick...Wake up America!"  I would doze back to sleep and wake up just in time for the bus to stop at the Avery twins house... I would make sure the drool was not running down my chin and I looked nice and normal :) Once they passed my seat I would close my eyes again. As the years went by I made more friends and had fun riding the bus. But the anxiety of it all has stuck with me and I can't forget. So the natural thing to do is protect my kiddos against that same experience.
BUT I guess at 14 and the 9th grade she probably knows a lot more than I can imagine and is tough enough to handle it. She also has an advantage of starting out with knowing half the kids on her bus already. So I will take deep breaths and just allow my baby to grow up....even though I have the school bus blues!!!

I asked her to send me a pic of her on the bus and this is what she got :)

A year gone by!

Wow, I can't believe it has been Over a YEAR since I last posted!!!
Our Year has been filled with many ups and downs, a few more downs than ups but nothing we couldn't handle with God and a solid family :)

I will start with July 2011, Jeremy’s Grandpa Bill went home to Heaven. He was very ready to go. One of my fun memories of Grandpa Bill is when Jeremy and I were dating and they would go out of town for the weekend he would pay me $100 to watch their dog Mutt. All I had to do was feed him and sneak him some Advil in a banana, it was a fun way to make a quick buck! I lost my grandparents at a young age and him and grandma Dawna treated me just like one of their grandkids from the very beginning. He  always gave great hugs and was very encouraging over the years, he  is definitely missed! It’s sad when your loved ones leave but it is also a blessing to be able to catch up and spend time with your family that you haven’t seen in a long time.  And of coarse it makes you more appreciative of the wonderful family we have.

August 2011 we started our adventure in Foster Care. It was not the dream we thought it would be. Helping Children on their path in life with the beautiful goal of them finding a happy family to live happily ever after with.  I learned that the foster care system is rough and the people that try to help these kids unfortunately don’t always care who they hurt in the process. Our family learned some hard lessons through those 7 months. There are unfortunatly SO many kids in the system and they need help. Our family was not ready for the difficulties that came with other children in the home and our kids did not know how to adjust to the trials that us parents had to face to take care of them.  If I had it to do all over again I would have made much better choices. Having young kids and doing foster care did not work for us, but God is good and we have moved forward, and when the time is right and our kids are grown we will venture there again…maybe J

January 2012 my dad had a stroke, he was in the hospital for a few weeks and a couple months of therapy in an assisted living home.  We were very fortunate that he has only suffered short term memory loss and a little vision loss in his right eye.  In this process my brothers and I convinced my mom to move to Dallas with me J

So in April my dad moved in and my mom packed up her house and moved in shortly after.  It was a fun 4 months but our house just wasn’t made for 7 people,lol. They just recently closed on the purchase of a new house and moved in on Sunday. It is a great feeling knowing that my parents are just a couple blocks away and my kids can visit them any time they want!

In July 2012 we decided to start our adventure with snow cones! That will be a separate blog J

So that’s it for now, a year flown by with many ups and downs, we grow stronger and learn from every step.

Where our Season First Started

Last weekend we celebrated the 20 year reunion with Harvest Time Church in Midland. We saw SO many friends that we haven’t seen in YEARS! It was great. It almost seemed like a high school reunion except for the fact that I didn’t feel like I had to dress a certain way to be approved or worry about who was gonna be there. It was all just about love and unity.




Krista and Me when I was 14 at a HTC Valentine Banquet :)

  

 





Late Night Taco Villa Reunion :)



I started going to Harvest Time Church when I was 13 years old, I met this crazy youth group at youth camp & fell in love with them! After that summer I was hooked and begged my parents to let me go to their church. They agreed with conditions of Sunday nights & Wednesday nights. I took what I could get, some of my BEST memories I had was of my time at that church,  Including getting married & having all 3 of my children dedicated there.

  

Crystal, Amber & Me



Nettie, Rachel, Me and Amber

Jadyn, me and Mom at the Harvest Time  Reunion Brunch

Me, SheriLynn, Stacey, Kayla, Krista, and Amber

 

Ambers Girls & My Girls....Aren't they Pretty :)

 

You can't go to Midland without getting a Snowcone from Desert Snow!!!

  







Bryleigh, Maddie & Addie, Friends since the HTC Nursery :)



 



 It made me think of how the beginning of our Summers Family Season started. Our first church building had ugly brown walls and big gold pews that went nicely with the yellow brown carpet.  I was 15 years old and it was a Sunday evening service. I remember we were all standing up and singing praise and worship songs. A family walked in and all I saw was a guy in a black leather jacket, and he was SO “FINE”!  Haha, I thought the word “Fine” for a guy would never go out of style, but it sounds so corny now!  I literally turned to my friend and said, “Look at that guy that just walked in! He is SO FINE” I then let everyone around me know that I saw him first and they needed to back off, LOL.

After church we met the new family and I found out the “Fine” guys name was Jeremy. I made sure he knew I existed by inviting him to “Pinocchio’s Pizza” and to ALL the youth functions we had at church! We dated off and on for a couple years then finally he came to his senses and realized no one could compare to me and he proposed, LOL.
We couldn’t afford to get married right away so we waited a year. That gave my parents PLENTY of time to get everything they needed. Including a trip (without me) to Mexico with my aunt to get flowers and decorations. I remember thinking....shouldn't I be going too? But all I was asked is "What colors do you want for your wedding?" and they took care of the rest! I was a little worried, being the simple girl that I am. But, SURPRISINGLY it was all beautiful, nothing too fancy just simple enough making it a perfect day.









I remember the day Jeremy proposed to me. He was acting very strange & insisted that we went swimming. We got ready to go to the pool at his sister Misty’s apartment and when we got there, it was closed. He tried to convince me to sneak in and go swimming anyway….me being the rule follower said NO!

So he then insisted we go back to his house where he had a small kiddie pool for his niece and nephew. You know the kind you see at events that have little rubber ducks inside that you toss a ring around their neck? That’s the one!  I believe it was blue with little turtles on it; He climbed right inside and grabbed my hand trying very hard to get me to join him. I did not understand why on earth he would think it was fun to stick our ankles in a puddle of water! He must have been one smooth talker because

I stepped in, then he insisted I sit down. It took a little longer to convince me to do that but I eventually did. He kept fidgeting with his swim shorts & inside I noticed he had a little pocket. He reached in the pocket and with a HUGE cheesy smile he proposed. I honestly don’t remember his exact words… I think I was still trying to understand why on earth I was sitting in my swimsuit in the backyard in a little kiddie pool!!! The ring was BURNING a hole in his swim short pocket and he HAD to give it to me right then & there, LOL. I remember him telling me afterwards all these AWESOME ways he wanted to propose...like taking me to the movie & then having "Will you marry me Lisette" pop up on the screen!  Wow, why on earth would he want to do that when he could just jump in a kiddie pool & do it that way instead! LOL





Me and Jeremy when we were Dating





After the BIG day, We had a relaxing trouble-free honeymoon in SanAntonio.  We didn’t really plan much… our main goal was to go to Fiesta Texas, SeaWorld, and Schlitterbahn, WOW, how exciting!!!! I was 19 and he was 21, 2 kids going to play at the amusement parks,LOL.  After we went to San Antonio we ventured to the big D (Dallas) and went to Medieval Times. We were easily amused and didn't have a care in the world! We had so much fun on our honeymoon; even though we didn’t do much….just being together was all we really cared about.  

We also had our 14^th Anniversary last week, and to celebrate we went to 6flags water park Hurricane Harbor. And just like those 2 young kids 14 years ago we rode all the rides and had just as much fun!























The Season Of Blogging!

Well I have always wanted to do a Blog & have been told numerous times by my friend SheriLynn that I should, but I didn't think anyone would read it!
Recently I wrote a short facebook update on our family adventure to Midland & I had to delete SEVERAL things from it because it wouldn't fit on my Facebook comment space! I edited as best as I could to still keep it interesting & thought the usually few family members would comment, but suprisingly I got a lot more than normal. Then I had lots of people come up to me & ask me about the post, so I figured....What the Heck! I love to write, So I might as well share my crazy stories with everyone :)
So I hope you enjoy my blog as much as I enjoy writing it! :)

Here's the FaceBook version of our family adventure to Midland just in case you missed it...........
‎1st trip without our minivan..1st time for the kids to b crammed in a backseat!"She's looking at me,He won't get off my lap,He's talking too loud,etc.." Then Jason says he has to throwup!Jeremy slams on his breaks on the hwy & yells "GET OUT" Jason freaks out opens the door & stands there holding his mouth,Then Blagh!I kept repeating in my head Trace Adkins"You're Gonna Miss This"I'm not so sure about that Trace,LOL