Long time, no blog!

I haven't written in so long...I feel out of the loop! We have been so incredibly busy lately. I remember when Mark and I first moved to Decatur, and we heard all the families at church talking about how busy their lives are with work, their kids, sports, etc. We were never able to understand that life...until we had kids, of course. Man, they take up a lot of my time! Of course, I wouldn't want it any other way. Haleigh's basketball season is finally over! I am so thankful, Mark is really thankful...Haleigh is not. She has such a good time playing, and she can't wait until next year. That is when all the fun begins for her because she can steal the ball!! Mark has been playing on a church volleyball league for the past 2 months or so. I thought last week was their last game, but they have a tournament that starts tonight. So, we will be doing that tonight. The Decatur High School basketball teams are both (boys/girls) out of the playoffs now, so no more basketball nights at the gym. I am hoping that we will be back to normal for a while, but I doubt it. Morgan is about to start volleyball, and that will be another night! The lady organizing the league called to see if Mark would coach - he said NO! Anyway, here are a few pictures from Haleigh's last game...she did so awesome this year...we are really proud of her.


Mark was out of town for 4 days last week to Tulsa. He had a very informative conference, and hopefully it will keep him educated on things in the gas measurement business! Yesterday he celebrated his 35th birthday. We were glad to have Mark's dad and his wife, Twala, join us at church and then take us out to lunch! Happy birthday to my wonderful husband! Speaking of my wonderful husband...this is what was delivered to me on valentine's day...

These were the flowers we had in our wedding. The lily is called a Star Gazer Lily and the roses are Fire & Ice roses. Aren't they lovely...how sweet of him to send me the flowers from our wedding. Of course, he was the one to select them in the first place, so it is easy for him to remember what kind we had.

On a more serious note, please pray for my friends Jerry and Anna Nicholas. Jerry is struggling with cancer. The treatment is not helping, and his cancer has continued to grow. Their doctor has recommended trying to seek treatment at MD Anderson. Just keep them both in your prayers, please.

I have so much more I want to talk about, but I have so much to do right now...more to come...soon.

Answered Prayers

I love that song by Garth Brooks 'Unanswered Prayers', but I don't like that it implies that God doesn't answer our prayers - he always answers, but sometimes it is not the answer we want. Well, I am very thankful when God answers the way I want Him to! Only a few of you know that Jacob had a urinary tract infection a few weeks ago. This is something VERY RARE for little boys, especially boys under 5. The doctor was obviously concerned about it and wanted to monitor it very closely. He put him on an antibiotic for 10 days and hoped that the infection was just a result of his body having a virus that it didn't fight off all the way and turned to his kidneys. If the infection was gone, he felt good about it. If the infection was still there, he wanted to do a sonogram of his kidneys to see if there were any cysts on them. The antibiotic cleared the infection, but there was still a trace of protien, so we went ahead and did the sonogram (just for me basically - so that I could be at peace). The sonogram went great, and there is absolutely nothing there to be concerned about! That was a major relief for us - I guess it was just a fluke thing. The next prayer that has been answered (the way we hoped) was that I finally got my Texas certification. At this point it is only a one year certificate, but it is a certificate none the less! They are now "giving me permission" to take the necessary tests in Texas so that I can get my permanent certificate. So, this means that I can get a job - or at least start looking for one! Anyway, those were two really big things to us, so I just wanted to share the joy!

Now...basketball! Morgan's team made it 3 games in the tourn. last weekend. We got killed by a Springtown team in our third game, but they played really well. So, her season is over, but we still have Haleigh. Today her team played a double header, and she scored 18 points in the first game and 10 points in the second game. She is a good ball handler and a great defensive player! She is doing really well, and she loves it a lot. This is a big change from last year when she said that she didn't even want to play anymore. She is also doing ballet - which she just loves too. She is going to be a rabbit in the upcoming program they have. This year they are doing Pocahontas. Her ballet class is also tap dancing, and today was their first time to tap. She had a lot of fun.

There's not really anything else going on right now, and no new pictures....sorry. Have a great weekend.

Parenting!

I love my children dearly - more than I can even express in words, but sometimes they are just really challenging. I am living what my parents must have lived raising me - every parents dream for their child I am sure! Haleigh is a real challenge for me. She is so much like me that we constantly butt heads. Mark claims that he uses "creative parenting" with her, and that I need to get more creative with her in the form of punishments. Haleigh just really likes for things to go HER way, and I really like for things to go MY way. So...what do we do about that? She behaves beautifully for everyone else, and people just can't believe that I struggle with her. I see so much of me in her - good and bad. I just want her to have all the good and leave the bad. What I need to do is stop modeling the bad, huh?!

Morgan - well, she is entering puberty. What joy. She is starting to test the waters a little bit on how she can speak to me. She got a quick lesson in how not to talk to me when she decided to mouth off to me on Saturday. Of course, she is the drama queen, so I got a tearful rendition from her about how she thinks that she is "the worst person in this family". I just love those hormones!

Jacob - he still sleeps with us almost every night. Not all night, but at some point he comes to our bed. He doesn't just come to our bed - he takes over our bed. We are just too stinking lazy to take him back to his bed, so I guess we have to pay the price.

The funny thing about all of this - I complain about some of the things they do that get under my skin, but I will miss it terribly when they are no longer in my home. I will miss butting heads with Haleigh, I will miss Morgan's drama, and I will miss Jacob sleeping with me. Someday they will be doing those things will someone else. The journey of parenting is full of twists and turns, ups and downs, and it goes by too fast. I think I will enjoy the journey while I have it!

Basketball

Well, we are apparently on a winning streak! Morgan's team pulled off another victory. We played Springtown, and it was quite eventful. The coach from Springtown got thrown out of the game because he got 2 technicals. I was so embarrassed for the girls on his team. Anyway, Morgan's team is now 3-2. We have one more game this Saturday. I guess they will be in the tourney too since will be at least 3-3 (minimum record to make the tourney). Haleigh's team pulled off a substantial victory against Slidell. Haleigh scored 30 points. She was on a roll! Slidell didn't even have 30 points for the whole game! She was really proud of herself, but she doesn't follow all the 1st and 2nd grade rules. She is not supposed to steal or block shots, but she forgets! She got called on it twice - especially the time she tackled her opponent to the ground and took her ball! She is ready for those 3rd and 4th grade rules! We had to remind her of the rules and encourage her to play nicely:)

On another note, we got a very pleasant surprise this morning at church. I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked up to see Jaymie (Spencer) Phillips and Mary Beard (I don't know what her married name is). They were in town for a girls weekend with their college friends. They are friends with Kayci Ross, our preachers daughter in law, and they were all staying at Rick and Beverly's house. We were so surprised and so excited to see them. What a blessing! It was a great weekend!

8 Wonderful Years of Haleigh

Today (January 15th) is Haleigh's birthday. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from her life so far! Here is Morgan meeting her for the first time - back when there was still great love between them. Now it is more and more rare!

Here she is with my little sister Becky - she was 5 months old in this picture. Wasn't she just the prettiest little baby?

Here is her first trip to the water park - she was tired and needed that paci!

I just adore this picture of her - she is like snow white with that fair face and dark, dark hair.

Here are a few pictures from Rocky Mountain National Park - she is so cute!

When Haleigh was four she had to have her tonsils taken out and a cyst removed from her neck. This is a picture of her the night of her surgery after we got home and took a bath. She doesn't look too happy, but the surgery was well worth it! She tries to use that pouty lip still, but it doesn't work too well on me!

Haleigh in true form here at the Ranger game!

Haleigh's first day of kinder.

Haleigh in Port Aransas two years ago. She loves the water!

This summer in Colorado. She has grown so much and turned into such a...well, a mini me! Enough said...Happy birthday Haleigh!

more basketball and a birthday celebration

We started the weekend with some exciting basketball! Haleigh had her first game, and it is quite enjoyable to watch 1st and 2nd graders play ball - they are just beginning to learn the game. It is fun. Haleigh did fantastic. She scored 12 points for the team in her 2 quarters of play. Mark's dad and his wife were able to spend the day with us to watch some b-ball and celebrate Haleigh's special day. Here is Morgan and Twala (Grammie) at Haleigh's game.

And Jacob and Don (Popop) at the game as well. Jacob was a bit giddy all day since there was so much excitement - we had a long but fun day!

Haleigh is #3 (blue jersey). I have a hard time getting my camera to take a good picture inside a gym. This setting is the sunset setting, but it was the only one that would lighten up the shot. If anyone has a suggestion of what setting to use inside a gym with bad lighting please let me know. I have tried the sports one, the automatic one, the sunset one...no success so far. I thought it turned out kind of cool though. She played great, and so did her team.

Morgan's team played an awesome game too! They won, and they were so excited. They had two great practices this week, and they really did well on the things they practiced. Morgan didn't make any points, but she had some really critical defensive plays! She did great. We played in Springtown this week, and we will finally get a game in Decatur next weekend. Morgan is the blur at the top of the key in the blue jersey!

After the games, we had Haleigh's birthday party. She is turning 8 on Tuesday, and we celebrated a few days early. She had friends come to the church building to play in the youth room. There's an air hockey table, a pool table, a video gaming system, basketball, etc. She had a great time.

Here's the silly birthday girl!

She had a great time opening her gifts, but there was something that she was really wanting that she didn't get - well, Popop and Grammie pulled out an extra "surprise gift". She's trying to rip open the box to see what it is...it's tough work!

I guess you can tell by the look of delight on her face that she got exactly what she was hoping for...the raccoon webkinz. Haleigh is obsessed with webkinz, and she has had this raccoon on her "wish list" but we could never find it. Well, Popop and Grammie found it and really made her day! At this party she received 4 webkinz, so she was quite happy with her successful party!

Haleigh shares a birthday with our good friend Shelly, and Shelly's favorite place to have a birthday lunch is Red Lobster. So, after church today we all drove to Denton to have their birthday lunch together (just a couple days early). Here is our waitress letting the kids "play" with the lobsters in the tank. If you'll notice, Jacob is nowhere to be seen in this picture - he was frightened by the lobster once it was out of the water! It was funny to see him take off in the other direction when she lifted it out of the tank.

Haleigh loves crab legs, so that is what she ordered at Red Lobster. Well, the manager happened to be walking by our table and noticed that Haleigh was having trouble cracking her crab legs, so she stopped and helped her. She spent about 15 minutes at our table helping Haleigh get out her crab meat - as soon as she would get it out of the shell for her, she would gobble it up and be waiting for more. It was so sweet of her to do that - the manager is allergic to all shell fish, but she still helped her (with gloves on)!

She got a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and ice cream. Shelly got cheesecake! (I didn't take her picture though).

She has had a great weekend of birthday celebrations, and it's not even the actual day yet! Happy birthday anyway Haleigh! For her birthday (from us) she is getting ballet and tap lessons (they go together). She will be starting Tuesday, so I will hopefully get some pictures of that to post. She can't wait!

Basketball and Bowling

Morgan's 5th grade basketball team really stinks! They only scored 9 points during their game on Saturday, and 8 of them were scored in the first quarter. That's right - we only scored 1 point during the final three quarters. I didn't even know you could miss that many baskets - they are making about 1% of the shots that they take. They cannot make a basket! Here are a few pictures from her game on Saturday. Here they are warming up - Morgan is #2.

You can see Morgan on the left - wide open yelling "I'm open"! Hopefully we can pull off a win this Saturday. Haleigh's first game will be this Saturday too.

After the ball game we decided to go bowling in Denton. We had a good time. Morgan, my drama queen, had a minor breakdown because she thought she wasn't good enough. That lasted for a little, and then we all went on to have fun!

Here is Haleigh bowling - she had a great time - she loved it!

I thought this picture was funny - I don't think Jacob sat down the whole time - you can see him in the bottom right corner showing Mark how to bowl!

Here's Morgan - I thought this picture was cool with everything blurry in the background.

This was Jacob's approach to bowling - just walk up to the lane and chunk it. With the help of the gutter guards he actually did quite well!