Cool Pond Pics

This morning on my way home from taking Tim to school, I noticed how pretty the pond looked - just like a mirror. So I made the big kids jump out into the freezing cold for a few cool pics!

this is the original picture... notice their feet at the very top edge of the pic - this is right side up. I was shooting the water's reflection.

... and this is flipped upside down! So, that "sky" is really the water!

again, original picture, shooting the reflection in the water...

... and upside down! "Sky" is the water. SO COOL!!!

The sweetest e-mail we've received this year!

FORNEY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
E-Mail Message sent - 1/28/2009
School Closing Jan. 28

All Forney ISD schools are closed today, Wednesday, Jan. 28, due to icy road conditions.

Remember when you were a kid and would sit by the radio or t.v. waiting for your school to be announced? Well, times have changed and now the message is sent out by e-mail and telephone too!
Our phone rang at 6:00a.m. Maggie and I answered at the same time and listened to the sweet, sweet words...

"All Forney ISD schools are closed today, Wednesday, Jan. 28, due to icy road conditions."

The next thing I heard was Maggie's hurried footsteps as she headed to my room to snuggle in my bed! She slept until about 9:00 - that is late for her. Tim came into my room in a panic at about 8:30 thinking I had overslept. He was super excited to learn that school was canceled!
Unlike Maggie, Tim wasn't interested in going back to sleep. He watched a movie with Maggie and then spent a few hours working on a painting. I'm sure I'll post a picture of it when he is finished.

Maggie intended to take her free day to clean (I know, it's weird, but she loves to clean - deep clean and organize!) She only got a couple of rooms done when all of her friends started showing up - 9 of them in all. They baked some yummy peanut butter crisscross cookies. The boys even washed their hands before they got started! Hard to believe, isn't it?!

Mag, Jociel, Trey and Josh

Tim and background cookie balls

They got a little distracted when a good song came on and took a break from the cookies to dance!

Yes, they really are cleaning up their mess!

First hand washing, then sweeping, what's next?!!

Amber and Trey

Tim had a few friends show up too - they jumped and wrestled on the trampoline in the freezing weather. They'll probably all be sick tomorrow!

Tim, Emma and John Matthew

Tommy came home early -about 3:00! He wanted to go see a movie with the kids, but thought better of it when he walked in to find the whole neighborhood in the house!So, he decided to nurse his cold a bit, and just relax upstairs in front of the t.v.
Now Tim is at a friends house and Maggie is down to only one friend over, so I have a moment of quiet to blog in! It is too bad that everyone has to go back to normal life tomorrow.

A cold, soupy day calls for a warm, soupy night!

Today was such a dreary, cold, nasty day! The temperatures hovered around freezing and we had light showers all day long. It was one of those days, where we all watched the weather man closely, waiting for him to tell us school was going to be cancelled - but it never was.

I felt like the evening called for some warm comfort food that all of us could agree on, so I turned to an old stand-by, GRILLED CHEESE & TOMATO SOUP! Yum!

(I promise, I really do cook decent meals occasionally - it's not all Campbells and Chef Boyardee!)

Tommy makes it the best, so he got right to work!

The butter on the bread got a bit smokey, so Tim tried to wave it off!

When Tommy asked me how much soup I would like, I sarcastically said - "all of it". This is what I found at my place when I got to the table!

Maggie likes the sandwiches the best

Ahh, Yummy, Yummy sandwiches!

And since we were all together anyway, I skipped kitchen clean up and gathered everyone in the living room after dinner to read to the kids. I was given this book by a friend, Kathi Martin, and it is my new fave! Tim must have liked it too, because he started out on a different couch than I was on, and by the third page, he was on me twirling my hair - quiet as a mouse! (as a side note, Tim used to always sit in my lap with his arm around my neck to twirl my hair. It has been a long time since my big boy has done that and I could not have been happier tonight!) When the book was finished, we talked about what the parable meant and Tim and Maggie proved to us that they really were listening with their take on the story! This is an AMAZING book!

So, this dreary day turned out to be a great day after all! I love when we can spend some quiet alone time with the kids.

Now I have to go clean the kitchen by myself!

If that is the price I have to pay for a simple evening - I'm OK with that!

"Go get ready - I wanna take some pictures!"

"Go get ready - I wanna take some pictures!" Those are the words that Maggie hates the most! But, she usually goes along with me anyway. I think she secretly likes to have her picture taken!
OK, that is not at all true - but I like to pretend.

These are some shots from last weekend. My friend Stefanie and I took our girls out for a day of photo torture! Nothing real great, but I liked several of them.

Maggie - January 17, 2009

Maggie & Amber - my favorite photo from that day!

Maggie just can't be serious!

I rest my case!

Pretty Amber - my fave of her!

Finally, Maggie letting me get a nice shot! I think she was really just ready to go home!

History Made

What a historic day we had this past Tuesday! Our new President, Barack Obama, was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America!

I have heard many people convey lots of different opinions about him - good and bad - but as for me - I just hope and really pray that he will make good, moral decisions for our country, and for our future. However, I am sad to see the republicans go.



In thinking about this election, I am so grateful that my son was taught a bit of politics in school. He became very interested in both candidates and learned a lot about each one. In fact, I was proud of him when I overheard him talking to his doctor one day about the election, swing states, the candidates backgrounds, electoral votes, etc. I was thrilled to see his excitement as he went with me to cast my vote. (although his school wasn't thrilled that I pulled him from school to do it!) He was super excited to watch the inauguration at school - i only wish that I could have watched it along side of him.


Maggie was also able to watch at her school - she came home and told me everything that she liked about it, and even pulled up his speech on the computer and read to me the parts that she was moved by. I was surprised at the passion she conveyed!


I love that my kids are open minded - I love that neither one of them understand what the color of a persons skin has to do with their character - I love that they are optimistic about the way our country will go with a new president at the helm. I realize that they don't fully understand how worried most of us are with the economy, and I hope that it will get better soon and they will never understand what "really hard times" means.


I also wanted to share an e-mail that was sent home from Maggie's principal on Tuesday in regards to a dress code change for the following day. It made me feel good. Knowing full well how badly 8th graders can behave, I was happy to see that they do take important things seriously - after all, they are our future!

***We are allowing students this break from the dress code in appreciation for their collective efforts this morning during our assembly. At 11am we were able to have a live web feed for our students during the presidential inauguration. Over 600 students filled our gym and sat at attention for the entire address. This type of behavior from an entire student body was overwhelming. The poise and maturity exhibited from your children during this event truly reflects the families of Forney ISD.

At the commencement of this program I stood before your children humbled by their behavior and told them that I felt compelled to offer them this opportunity tomorrow as recognition for what they had done. I realize wearing jeans to school isn’t much and it should be much more but please take a moment to thank them for me again. Let them know how proud we are of them all and thank you for being such great parents. Have wonderful evening. Mr. Pierce ***

I am grateful to live in this free country and to be raising my beautiful children in the United States. God Bless America.

Blessings #2

I am grateful for...

Tommy -still having a job, good health - for not getting the stomach virus everyone else is getting


Jenni - a fast computer, lotion in this skin drying weather, DVR and American Idol, Sadie Flaishans for making me laugh SO hard, Laughter (I know, redundant... but I mean the kind that makes you feel liberated or like you are a kid with no responsibilities -head back, sore tummy muscles, can't stop, giggle again hours after the moment is over kind of laughter - that is the kind Sadie made me feel!) the political open mindedness of my children, my mom, sunshine today - 79 degrees!, photography and a friend who loves to do it with me, my stay-at-home mom status


Maggie - a fresh haircut and an awesome hairdresser, friends, texting, coloring books


Tim -MLK day (no school), Webkinz, Lego's, friends, gamestop, getting to watch the inauguration

M.L.K day?

M.L.K day - or Let's go Play day?
My kids are just happy to have a day off from school. The reason doesn't matter at all!
We decided to go check out some of the antique malls in town. Forney is, after all, the Antique Capitol of Texas!
We have lived here for 6 years and never ventured into one of those stores. Wow! We were sure missing out! The kids had a great time seeing all of the crazy things - from cabinets full of naked mannequin parts to 20' tall porcelain chicken dressed as waiters!
Then we stopped by the park for a minute to play, came home and played CLUE, and just hung out around the house. Sometimes, simply waisting the day away together is the best kind of fun!
We missed you Tommy - thanks for going to work everyday for us. We love you.

remember Rikki, from 'Girls just wanna have fun'?

Tim's favorite number!

Bye! We're going to Narnia!

Even with all of the WAY COOL props at our disposal,

I did manage to snap one good picture of each of the kids!

P.S. In trying to get a book put together of my 2008 blogs, I realized that I had to go back and find all of my slide pictures if I wanted them included in the book. I don't know why I didn't think of that before - dumb, i guess! So from now on my posts will be long, as I am not really going to use the slide feature anymore. Now i will put all of my pics in the actual post. Bear with me!