We're Baaaaack!

Well, school started for us last Wednesday. Torrey is in high school. High School. Gag. I did take the most darling pictures of her on her first day of high school, but blogger is giving me fits when I try to upload them. Oh, blogger, why do you hate me so?

Torrey seems to like high school. Middle school, we will NOT miss you. She is playing volleyball. Or, should I say, WAS playing volleyball. She rolled her ankle during warmup yesterday and wound up with a sprain. The trainer is working with her and we are hopeful she will be back on the court quickly. She seemed to be the most upset about missing her game (she hurt her ankle less than 2 minutes before the game started) ... we will be investing in ankle guards!

My class. Oh, my class. Scrumptious. Again. Funny. Again. God is good. Again. I overheard one of my girls say on the playground, "Our devious plan has been foiled." Dean wanted to know what the devious plan was. Um, it was foiled, so I didn't really care. I had one cry because his mom gave him chocolate covered pretzels ... and, they weren't tears of joy. And, I had one singing the Staples jingle (that was easy) ... when I asked him why, he told me he just loved it. Guess who is valedictorian of my Kindergarten class?!

And, so, after a busy summer, we are back. And, it feels good!

And I Cried

So, tonight it happened. My blog makeover was finished. And, it is beautiful. And, I love it. And, when I saw it for the first time I cried.

For reals.

It's a Dog's Life

We are getting new furniture.  At the end of this month.  Oh, we can't wait.  But we have a small problem.


Actually two small problems of the canine kind.  How to keep the dogs off the furniture?  We have come up with several ideas ...


Covering the furniture in plastic covers (remember Marie's house in Everybody Loves Raymond? And her saying, "This is why we don't have nice things!" ... I can so relate!)


Crating the dogs during the day. Dean said it was too inhumane. I'm sure he's right.


Covering the furniture with old blankets.  Yes, we got beautiful new furniture and uglied it up with blankets.


And, then we decided to get them new beds in the hope that they would actually use them.


Dean picked them out today ...

this would be Zoey's cute little bed.  Please notice it is empty.  That is because it appears she would rather sleep here ...

so comfy! She has also been spotted by Zack's new bed ...

... key word was "by". Not on. And Zack?  Can you guess how much he loves his new bed?

Apparently not so much. Why am I not surprised?


Anyone know where we can get plastic slipcovers?

Because Jesus Wanted Us to Have Fun

Jennifer came to visit this week. And, it was fun from the beginning to the end. Well, not so much at the end because I was really sad she was leaving. Really sad. 


I think we mostly stayed around the house on Sunday. Torrey was still fighting the bug she brought home from Rush Week, so it was a blur. There were Sunday afternoon naps, I forced encouraged Jen to make over my blog, we decided that blog makeovers were beyond us and we resorted to finding someone to do it professionally, which then led to the renaming of my blog (just like the "Rush Week Bug", the renaming of the blog would live on and on and on ... it is harder than it looks!) I made kettle corn, the best corn chowder any of us had ever eaten and an actual dinner. It was a full day and we went to bed with the blog still unnamed and Torrey starting to feel better.


On Monday, Torrey was at two-a-days for volleyball and Jennifer and I hit the road early.  We had a lot to do. And, I do mean a lot. We got pedicures/manicures. Went to a scrapbook store ... while we were in the parking lot I got a call that my cabinets HAD to be cleaned out by Wednesday. I was not a happy camper. And, then we pulled on the door of the scrapbook store and realized it was closed. Forever. (I redeemed myself the next day.) We then went to Hobby Lobby. After that it was a visit to Harbor Freight Tools ... we were the only girls in there ... the price you will pay to be able to hammer words on washers. We had a quick lunch at Chick-Fil-A. And then we were off to see Dinner For Schmucks ... which just may be my funniest movie ever. But, as a disclaimer, you may need to be a fan of The Office to enjoy it. After that we ran by the school to see my cabinets and to measure for things and then we got Torrey and headed to the mall. Torrey got a makeover at Sephora, we picked up a ring at James Avery and I got pillows at Pottery Barn. We got dinner at Panera Bread and then hit up Target for organizational supplies. We dragged ourselves home around 9:00 and so ended our second day. With Torrey still well and my blog still unnamed.


And, then Tuesday came. And I took pictures (aaaaaaaaaaaah *in a singing voice*) We dropped Torrey at practice and went to Starbucks. Although, truthfully what we were about to attempt needed something stronger than Starbucks! 


And, then we headed to the school to face the dreaded cabinets. I had two cabinets still in my room and two filing cabinets and both had to be emptied ... before 11:30 when Torrey was going to appear in my room for lunch.


We are professionals. All I am going to say. 

Jen rocked the shoeboxes and shoeboxes and shoeboxes of doo-dads that teachers need. And, she barely mocked my need for a million rolls of masking tape. Barely.


Meanwhile, I was here ...

Trying to get these in a semblance of order. I like things to be just so. I do not like to search for hours to find something I know I have. Organization is my friend at school. My best friend. 


We were done by 11:15 ... it took us about 2 hours. It helped to have a plan before we set foot in the room and it helped that we were moving organized cabinets into organized cabinets

Torrey arrived and we were done (and a bit giddy) and we left for lunch at Escalantes. Best chips and queso ever. Ever.

 And since Jen had worked so hard in my classroom, we headed to Crave Cupcakes for what else ...

CUPCAKES! Strawberry for me. Peanut butter cup for Jen. Torrey got hers to go. Which posed a problem since we were running errands and it was 110 degrees out. Oh, Texas summers how I despise you.


We dropped Torrey off at volleyball practice and headed to a Scrapbook store ...

And, it was open for business. And we were glad. Very very glad.

Jen was in heaven. She is paper girl. I am fabric. At least that is what I keep saying.


We then went to Hobby Lobby and Lowes. And ran back to grab Torrey as fast as we could because we were making a run to Mamm's for the best snow cone ever.


All the while we were schlepping this in my purse ...

The things we will do to protect a delicious cupcake. And, just so you know ... it is totally natural to ask "Where is the cupcake?" and answer "In my purse." Jen barely mocked me. Barely.


Things started to go downhill from here because Torrey came out from practice sick sick sick. She still wanted to go to Mamm's though.


Because she is my girl.


When we got there, she decided she just wanted ice ... no flavoring. She was clearly sick. 


She made us laugh when she announced just plain ice isn't as good as the real thing. Of course not, silly goose!


After a movie Tuesday night ended. With Torrey sick and my blog still unnamed.


Wednesday was a low-key day. A trip to the farm stand and the grocery store. More cooking of meals to put in my freezer. A movie. Projects in the clean craft room. And Wednesday night ended with Torrey still sick and my blog still unnamed.


Jen had an early morning flight. And it was gross ... not because her flight was early, but because she was leaving me.


But, we knew we would have fun. Partly because Jen has the sight. But, mostly because Jesus wanted us to have fun. And we did.

International Superstar

Clearly I am an international superstar. I knew that as soon as I looked at my comment moderation page and it told me I had five comments to be moderated.


Five.


At one time. I have never had five comments to be moderated at one time. I will admit that I was a smidgen giddy as I opened the page.


Pride goes before a fall. All I'm sayin'.


Four of the five were written in Chinese. FOUR. Do I need to remind everyone of my stance on the Chinese comments? For the love of Pete.


So much for my five comments. At once. And, so much for my inflated head. But, shout out to Laurie for sending me some love ... my ego sure needed it today!