Monday, October 25, 2010

Par-tay!

This weekend was great fun! It flew by way too fast, but it was great for sure. Dave and I went to a costume/scavenger hunt party with our Bible study class on Saturday. The costumes were awesome, and the scavenger hunt was fun and challenging. Below, you can see Rainbow Brite, Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Rain, and Napoleon Dynamite.
 The scavenger hunt list was about a mile long. One of the challenges was to ask a stranger to take a picture of your entire group hanging spoons from their noses. There was definitely some cheaters in this shot (Dave, and Jeremy) but I noticed when we got back that we were really the only group who actually asked real strangers to take pictures of us. Hmmm...interesting.
 Below you'll see a facebook comment page, a baker, a hippie chick, Deb (from Napoleon Dynamite) and Napoleon himself. We are doing that beatles walk thing. What is it called? I, Deb, am trying to be funny in this shot, while pretending I know what in the world this walk thing is. (I understand now....I looked it up.)
 This is me, I mean Deb, "sneezing" onto a deck of cards.
 There were four groups playing the scavenger hunt, but the one that decided to do there own thing is pictured below. Can you guess what they did instead of wracking up scavenger hunt points?
They call it "wrapping" a house here in Houston. I am used to it being called "t.p.ing". But, either way, when their pictures came up, there was a lot of laughter. They ended up wrapping five houses, I think, and even though they probably had the least amount of points, this team won the game due to their abundant amount of creativity.
After the hunt, we went back to the Hill's house, where our kiddos where being watched, and Josh was making us an amazingly delicious dinner. We packed our kids up right after the last picture was shown, and headed home so that we could all crash. Whew.
Sunday night, we got to meet and fellowship with some people who used to attend Houston's First. They live in our neighborhood as well, and go to another church here in Missouri City now. But, it was a joy to get to know this great couple and their adorable son. We hope to get together with them more often. (Shannon's cooking was delicious as well.) 
Tonight, the four of us got to go out and celebrate by eating at P.F. Chang's and then Piccomolo's Italian Ice Cream. It was delicious. (I think I'm gonna have to run every day this week.) But, do you wanna' know what we were celebrating? I got a part-time job! I am so excited. God has given me peace about this job since I first interviewed for it in August. It's been a long time coming, but I know that God's timing is perfect, and I am praising Him for that. I am praying about Childcare/Mother's Day out programs for my kiddos. But, I know that God will smooth these details out as well. Life isn't easy, but it's so much better with Christ on your side!
Anywho, that was our wild and crazy weekend and week-beginning. How was yours? Thanks for reading my blog! I have enjoyed writing it, and I hope that you have enjoyed reading as well! Love, Amber

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Weekend in Port O'Connor

On Friday, Dave, the girls and I loaded into our mini van and headed to Port O'Connor TX to visit family and have tons of fun! Dave's Uncle Erny lives in Port O'Connor, but all of his aunts and uncles joined the fun as well. We also got to see Dave's grandpa, and great uncle. As well as, some of Dave's cousins. But, the persons of the most import, especially to our girls, were Granny Ruth (Dave's mom) and Papa Don (Dave's step-dad). We didn't have much time, but we packed in as many exciting activities and delightful family events as we possibly could.

On Friday, after we arrived, we barely had time to say hello to family before it was time to get our wired girls to bed. After we got the girls to stop jumping on their beds (and bouncing of the walls) and lay down, Dave and I couldn't help but snooze ourselves. Getting to bed slightly early on Friday night proved to be a very good idea for us. We had no idea at that time that the next day would be loaded with great things to do.
After waking up and eating a delicious breakfast, the four of us, and Granny Ruth went shopping for a little while.

After we got back from shopping, the five of us headed to the beach to walk on the pier and visit the ocean. We stopped at the swing set nicely positioned by the pier before we actually went for our walk. Here's a picture of the girls and Dave on the swings:

And then the same three cuties walking on the pier:

This next photo is the view from the swing set. I know that the gulf isn't as perfect as some other beaches, but it's still the ocean, and I enjoy delighting in it's beauty.
Below is a picture of me and my girls right before it was time to head back to Uncle Erny's for lunch.
After lunch, we headed back to ocean (it's about 2 blocks from Uncle Erny's) to see if we could spot a few dolphins with our girls. But all we saw on this trip was this fella':
It was about time for the girls to take a nap, and Dave and I were about to hop onto a boat! ---Thursday night before we left for our trip, Ruth asked Dave if he'd like to go sea fishing. Dave wasn't sure at that point whether or not he wanted to go. It wasn't until Saturday that this rare opportunity to fish in the sea was also presented to me. We decided it would be best not to pass the opportunity up!

We got to go fishing with Uncle Erny's neighbor, Darryl (a great fishermen) and his Uncle Delfido.  No kids allowed- just adults. As we took off, with wind whipping through my hair, I looked at Dave and said, "Isn't this fun? We are on a date!"

 First order of business? Catch a live cabbage head jelly fish with your bare hands. This task was appropriately managed by Darryl. Dave and I got to touch it. Here's a pic:
After that, we got to fishing. Darryl doesn't like to stay put if the fish aren't biting, so we moved the boat around a few times before Dave and I caught our first fishes of the day. They were both grunt fish. They look just like perch, and apparently taste like them too.

After we moved again, we caught some sea robins, and Dave managed to reel in this beast of a grouper:
I wasn't really sure how he even felt this little guy tug on his line. Darryl said we would let him go and grow to be about 300 lbs. In ten years, Dave and I are definitely coming back to find him again!

After catching the little fish, Darryl moved us to a place where he knew we could catch some small sharks. I reeled in the first one. He was about 2.5 feet long, and probably around 10 lbs. It was so great! (Obviously I need to pack more clothes next time, because I did not even have a t-shirt along to throw on to go out on the boat in. Packing light is overrated.)
Dave reeled in the second shark. This little 2.5 footer got a little bloody, but we figured he'd just attract some bigger sharks.

 We got to reel in a few more little guys, and our biggest one was about 3 feet long, 12 lbs. Darryl said he usually doesn't keep these kind of shark unless they get to be 4 foot long. Otherwise, there just isn't much meat. We didn't catch any "reds" (I think these are red snappers) that day, which are "good for eatin' ", but don't worry, we invited ourselves back to fish another time. Darryl was so kind to accept our invitation. He even took us fishing this day after canceling his personal plans, as a favor to Dave's uncle. He won't accept any gifts or money in return. Isn't he a saint?

After fishing, Darryl cleaned his boat up and came back to Uncle Erny's to eat some steak, and boilin' pot style shrimp, potatoes, corn and sausage.  Of course there was also gads of desserts to be consumed, but we won't talk about how much food was actually eaten yesterday....now, will we?

I was also glad to have grabbed a shower before dinner, along with clean pants and undergarments, but unfortunately the same shirt. (My other one from yesterday was dirty as well.) --Don't look at me like that. I know it's disgusting, but what else was I going to do? That's right, I just decided to go on with life.

Then, we had some quick family photo ops before we loaded the girls up to get them in bed late, just to hall them to church this morning. I liked this one:
Granny Ruth doesn't like to take pictures, so I am so glad to have one of all of us. I'm gonna frame it.

As the sun went down, and our girls whined about leaving, we loaded everything up again. I noticed Darryl leaving his house, fishing pole in hand. He's a tournament fishermen, so he's got to practice, I guess.

Today we went to church, and then brought the girls back for some much needed rest. We went to the playgroud to let them play after naptime while we played volleyball in the very nearby sand volleyball court. We thought it would just be the two of us, but another couple joined us and we had a great time. It was fun... however, I think I will be soar and bruised tomorrow.

Anyway, that was our exciting weekend. It was a great time. Make sure you check back soon because next weekend, Dave and I are going to a costume party with our Sunday School class. We are gonna pull off some pretty awesome characters, so stayed tuned! Thanks for reading, Amber

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Hold Your Horses

While I was filling up the mini-van with gas the other day, Julia kept asking me if she could get out. I finally told her "no" in my stern voice, and added. "You may not get out, we will be done soon. Please be patient, just... hold your horses."
Julia replied in a whiney voice. "But, I don't have any horses."
Good times. -Amber

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Grocery Story

Some how, by default, Thursdays have become grocery shopping day. I have tried a few different time slots to see what works best for the girls since Thursday mornings can be very harry around here. The girls often get to bed late on Wednesday nights due to church, so they are very cranky on Thursday mornings. For a long time it didn't occur to me that if I just put them down for nap early on Thursdays that they would wake up as much happier little campers. (I think it finally sunk in at library time a few weeks ago when Julia and Lydia both went bonkers. I put them to bed early that Thursday, and it seemed to make the day much better.) So, with that thought it place, it became my plan to go to the store right after the girls' nap times.

This idea is much better than going before nap, but of course, when you're talking about planning things with preschoolers, there are always kinks in the system. So, the girls woke up early, and both needed a snack right away. The snack was packed and promised to be delivered as soon as the girls were securely strapped into their car seats. (This is why are car is disgusting.) There was a lot of whining about waiting to have snack, but they gave that up with a few reminders of the consequences for whining. Then Julia started in on what she can bring:

J: "Mom, can I bring pinkie bear to the store?"
Me: "No, I don't want her to get lost. She can come in the car."
J: "Well, can I have a drink?"
Me: "Yes."
J: "Can I bring it in the store?"
Me: "Yes, I guess I'll pack some water."
J: "Well, can I bring my stick-horse, named Matti into the store?"
Me: "No, Julia. Lydia, stop whining. I am getting you water too."
J: "Why, why? Why can't I? Why can't I bring her? Her name is Matti, Mom? She wants to come she'll be sad all alone here. Can I bring her? Why can't I?
Me: "Because, she is too big. She can't come to the store with us. You can play with her when you come back home..........."

So, we finally make it into the car. Julia wants her window down. Lydia freaks out because she thinks I might roll her window down. She does NOT like her window down.

And then, after arriving at the store, I open my grocery list and start the long hunt. I check and re-check the list hundreds of times, pass out samples to my girls, explain to my girls why running away isn't acceptable, try to let the girls help me put things in the cart without going crazy, fumble with coupons, try not to scream at the balloon that has hit me in the face billions of times, go by the seafood area to show the girls the lobster tank, and then finally I make it to the register to pay. I gasp at the price, and hope that my coupons are better than I remember. I pay, and then I feel "aaaaah" relief. I have successfully hunted bargains with my two wonderful and frustrating daughters with only a few melt-downs and a somewhat low number of "come to Jesus" meetings with them.

However, today it finally hit me as we were leaving. Usually I don't think about it until I pull into my drive way, but today, it hit me early. My job of grocery shopping is only half done when I leave the grocery store. I still have to load all the groceries in the car, take the cart back, buckle the kids, haul in all the groceries from my car to my house, keep the kids from running to play with neighbors, put the groceries away in their proper places, and come to the unhappy realization that there was still one or two things that we needed that was left off the list. I think I forget the ordeal from week to week due to God's goodness and grace in my life. By next week, hopefully I will have forgotten all about today, so that I can get up enough gumption to do it all again.....
So, that is my not so bad, but crazy as usual day. I'm sure it's not much different than all of yours. But, I hope that you enjoyed your's too! -Amber

Sunday, October 3, 2010

I'm so proud.

I'm watching the weather right now, and can you believe it? It is currently cooler in Houston than it is in parts of Canada! That is AWESOME. Next week's forcast has highs in the 80's. And, tomorrow's high is in the 70's. That makes me so happy! It feels like fall to me for the first time this year.

Besides feeling like fall in Houston, we had some other firsts in our little neck of the woods. For example, Julia had her first dentist appointment. She did not appreciate them taking x-rays of her teeth, so she fought and cried a little bit, but she got through and did great the rest of the time. I'm so proud. I watched the x-rays from the hallway, and was greatful that Lydia was keeping me too distracted to tear up very much while Julia was having a hard time. Julia was much calmer after the hygenist laid her back and she got to watch a princess movie.

Also on our list of firsts: Lydia sat on the potty chair long enough to tinkle in it. I don't think she acutally knew when it happened, but at least it did happen. I'm so proud. She's no where near potty trained, but I have confidence that she will learn quickly.
 Julia is getting really good at writing her letters. She has tried to copy letters before, but she usually gets frustrated and upset that the letters aren't turning out the way she expects them too. However, she has really improved the skill of manipulating a pen, and started drawing J's like crazy. This is also a first of sorts for her. I'm so proud.
Here is a close-up of the J's Julia drew.  Of course, I wrote the numbers at the top, and spelled her full name in the middle. I guess I'm doing a pretty good job manipulating the pen as well. Aren't you proud?
So, we had some new things happen last week, and I love that I have the oppurtunity to blog about them as a sort of a digital scrapbook. During these past few weeks, life seems sort of ho-hum during the week, and super packed and crazy during the weekend, but, big things are happening! My babies are growing before my eyes, and I love having the opportunity to watch them do just that. I don't know how things will change and develop for us in the next few weeks, months and years. But two things I know won't change. One: I'm so thankful that God has blessed me with such amazing kiddos. And two: I'm so proud. -Amber