Mission: SS

My volunteer job in our church is Activity Day leader. Basically I teach/have loads of fun with the girls in our ward aged 8-11. They are some of the most amazing girls and I am having such a blast getting to know them!! Our activity last week was Secret Service and we bombarded my street with hearts!! Here are some fun pics:

We were selective in our heart placement, as you can clearly see! ;)

Sidewalk chalk, a must in heart-attacking!!

There should ALWAYS be a victims chalk outline!  Just not a CA style heart attack without one! 

My daughter posed so beautifully, don't you think?! ;)

My crazy girls, all in black, being "secretive" as they yell across the yards at each other!! ;)

Some girls brought ski masks!!  LOVE IT!!!!

Anyhow, that was our activity last week!  I've heard from some of the parents that the girls are doing well with their homework (secret service for the next two weeks!  If they get caught-in-the-act it doesn't 'count' towards our secret service goals!).  I'm having so much fun with them!! 

Missing my Cali Activity Days girls though! :(



I'm Baaaack!!!!!!

So it's seriously been two months since my last post.  Sorry people - I got really busy!! ;-)  A lot has obviously happened in two months so here is the Readers Digest version with a few pics!  Enjoy!
First off, I missed my mom's birthday.  I missed making the cake, singing loudly and off-key with my nephews and I missed giving her a great big birthday hug.  That is the first time I have not been there for a family birthday party except for when I was in college. :(  It was really depressing.  We did Skype, so that eased the pain a bit, but it was so hard not being there.  And just a few days after that was Thanksgiving.  WIERD not being there with my family.  So strange.  Luckily the Singers, a family in our  ward, invited us over for dinner and games.  That was a lot of fun and so great not to be alone!!

For those of you who have been in our "inner-circle" for a while, you know we have had the money to buy a flat screen TV 2 or 3 times and have had to spend the money on repairing the car, buying a new fridge, etc... it seemed like anything and everything that would prevent my hubby from getting that TV happened!! Finally, this Black Friday, we jumped!!  Best Buy LOVED us this year!!! 

Before: The TV/VCR combo we got as a wedding gift from my parents almost 12 years ago!! 

For informational purposes, the VCR player has not worked for at least 3 years thanks to the munchkin.  At my last check, I saw a plastic hotdog, 2 pens, a few crayons and a Barbie head inside the VCR!  Wonder why the thing doesn't work, huh?!?

After: Isn't she lovely?!?  LG 47" HD LCD TV.  Hanging above the mantle even!!!  My first mantle EVER!!!  I was annoyed in the beginning that my very first mantle was completely overtaken by this monstrosity, but how can you be angry at something so beautiful?  We also bought our first Blueray player!! :-)   (On a side note, yes, that is Yoda on top of our tree.  No, that is not sacrilegious!)

The day after our life-altering, mantle-stealing day was SUPER FUN!!! The short story: Ken and I were replacing the toilet in our master bathroom. We put it in the tub to drain out water so we didn't get our gorgeous new carpet toilety, Ken tipped it to drain even more water, the lid from the tank fell, it hit the floor and shattered into lots of sharp pieces, one of which flew at my foot and sliced the top-side clean open. It happened sooooo fast. If you can stomache it, here are some lovely pictures! 

Yes, that is a flour-sack towel and painters tape. We couldn't find the duct tape! ;)

All cleaned up and ready for stitching.  Isn't it a beauty?  Frickin' toilet...

The stitches - really funky looking, huh??  It's called a "mattress stitch" and it allows for the pulling of the skin without creating a divet when it's completely healed!  So glad she did it that way!!  Life got a little crazy after that.  Getting munchkin to and from school was only made possible thanks to the hubs, neighbors and crutches!!  I couldn't wear a shoe because of where the stitches were so it made things 'interesting'.  But luckily, I have AWESOME neighbors and friends!! 

We were able to fly to Cali for Christmas with family and friends.  It was unbelievably awesome to see our family and friends again!! Peyten has missed her cousins so much it was almost heart-breaking.  To say that we had fun visiting and giving as many hugs as we could is an understatement!  We got to hang with a few friends while we were there as well - so good to see them again!  Here's just a very few pics of our trip, can't possibly post them all!!

Peyten's Christmas dress!!  She's just such a beautiful little girl!!!

My brother giving her a great big bear hug!!!  This pic serously makes me cry every time!

This is the ornament that my parents bought for Peyten's first Christmas! 

Look at those beautiful blue eyes!!!  She is growing up so darn fast. :(

The 3 Amigos at Bass Pro Shop with Santa! Tristan, Talon and Peyten!  We miss those crazy cousins!

The Oakland LDS Temple with their Christmas lights.  I wish my camera didn't suck, it's so beautiful and you really can't see anything in this picture.  Just know- it's heaven with palm trees and a view!! ;)

That's the clan!  Freezing our tooshes off at the top of the temple!! 

Not the best pic ever, but it's the one I have so it's awesome!!!

This is my parents tree!!  So one side of the tree was facing the window, another side had a chair right next to it, so the two remaining sdes were inundated with ornaments by the kid-o's!!  It was perfect!!

Before we knew it our Christams trip was over and we were home in time for a very LOUD New Years, Texas-style.  Man, these Texans know how to do fireworks!!!  I realize the laws in TX and CA are very different when it comes to fireworks, but DANG!!!  From about 8:00 pm until maybe 2:00 am it was non-stop fireworks.  And not the cheap kind that pop - I'm talking the BIG ones that shoot up in the air and boom!  It was some serious business!!  Despite that, we had a relaxing New Years!! 

That's about it!  I think we're all caught up.  Peyten is continuing to adjust in school, the new ward, etc.  She is making friends quickly which is awesome - now we just need to set up play-dates with these kids!!  Ken is less stressed here and his commute is half the time it was in Cali, so he's doing great!!  He is the Varsity scout leader for the ward so he's learning the ins and outs of scouting, basketball, merit badges, basketball, projects and basketball!! ;-)  I joined a book club and am doing storytime for P's class every week.  I'm also the Activity Days leader at church, which means I work with the 8-11 year old girls!  It's the best job in the whole church and I love it!  My partner is a little nuts, but she's "ok"!!! ;-)  (Did you catch that Darla???) ;-) 

Until next time - which I promise will not be in two months!!! :)

The Grandparents came to visit!!! ;)

It's taken forever because I am getting horribly sidetracked - but here is the report on the visit from my parental units and all the fun and laundry they bring!!!  I have never met two people who require more laundry!! :)  Most especially the towels!  Holy moly let me tell ya!! ;)  Love you mom and dad! ;)  Besides the laundry, we seriously had a blast. 
Mom arrived on Tuesday and after the grand tour we just chillaxed!  It was really nice.  I have been on 'GO GO GO' mode since getting here, feverishly unpacking and getting things moved, organized, moved again and re-organized... I have decided I SUCK at organizing my own house.  I can rock someone else's house with ideas and suggestions and projects but if it's my house - forget about it! :)  On Thursday we picked up my dad (he had to come a day later b/c of a meeting at work) and braved the Houston going-home traffic.  Can I just say the idea of an HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane is brilliant!!  But there is only ONE place to get on and that's from downtown.  So even if your car is full, not an empty seat to be found, you can't get in the frickin' HOV lane if you don't know where the entrance is.  There are no other entrances on the freeway.  Not even ONE!!!!  Completely ridonculous.  So it took seriously forever to get home.  Ken left the day before for a company retreat (such a hard life!) so I was really grateful we planned mom and dad's visit while he would be gone.  This house is ginormous and I can't imagine I would have slept very well if they hadn't been here. :)

While they were here we visited the Johnson Space Center!  When I tell you it has been my dream to visit anything NASA-related since I was about 10 that is a bit of an understatement!  I wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger; not just because they got to float in space and walk on the moon, but because of the physics, all the exploring, the mysteries of the universe, putting together puzzles of our galaxy... SOOOOO interesting to me!! :)  So this was literally a dream come true - and the fact that my bff/love of my life, parents and offspring were there made it 5,000 times mo' betta!  Here are picture hilights!!

Bella & Fuzz - Johnson Space Center!!

Super duper excited about the tram tour!

DANG - that's cold!!!!

Simulators and practice pods - very cool!!

Zarya Module - Functional Cargo Block was the first component launched for the International Space Station. This module was designed to provide the station's initial propulsion and power. :)

Practice pod!

Iron Man was there too!! :)

My cute lil' fam at the rocket exhibit!!  Peyten is 'blasting off'

the stick she has in her hand! :)  SOOO my child!!

Saturn V Rocket - this puppy was HUUUGGEEE!!!!  Seriously - HUGE!!!!

LUV!!

Boosters on the Saturn V.  I really cannot describe the size accurately,

so just believe when I tell you this rocket was HUGE!!!

He he he!!!

Precious!!!

Well there you have!!  Dream come true!!!  Johnson Space Center was really the only BIg thing we did - everything else was just enjoying each other's company and making memories!!!  The Fun Run from P's school was that week too (see previous post) and little day trips around our fare city!!  And, of course, Halloween!!  That will be posted later.  I can't feel my fingers!! :)

Boosterthon Fun Run!!

It's been long enough between posts, don't ya think?!? ;-)  Well I do!  We have had a lot happen since the last post so I'm splitting events up into different posts!

First up - Peyten's Fun Run at school! This was so much fun!! I had never heard of this before and it was brilliant!! All the kids got as many pledges as they could per lap and just flat donations. They ran a maximum of 35 laps with the laps being about 1/16th of a mile. With her JIA we really were not sure what to expect but were preparing for maybe 20 or 25 laps?? Well this kid is AMAZING!!! She ran 34 laps!!!!!! Can you believe it?!? We are so proud of our munchkin! All in all she raised about $200 for her school! They are using the money to buy laptop carts, new picnic tables and with any monies leftover they're buying more library books! It was so much fun! The kids LOVED it - they each got a t-shirt and depending on their pledges they got prizes! And not only do they get the prize for the level they're at but they get all the prizes from the levels below them! So she got a sweet bouncy ball, a water bottle, a wristband and a pair of awesome sunglasses!!! Here are some of the pics from the run! Mommy and grandpa did a few laps with her for some motivation! It was a hot day...

Such focus!!

I felt so sorry for the kid next to us... he looked so exhausted!! 

Somebody get that kid some WATER!!!

Our little champion!!  She did such a fantastic job!!

Well that's it for the Fun Run!  To my friends who do fundraising at your schools - look these people up!!  www.funrun.com and see if they are in your area!  They're not in CA yet, which is why I had never  heard of them!  I don't know how much they take from the proceeds but it was so much fun!! :)  More posts to come later including Halloween and Johnson Space Center!!!

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!

So please don't feel I am exaggerating when I tell you that it is a COMPLETE miracle that we finally got our alarm system installed in the house!!  'Cuz I no jokey! ;-)   It has been utterly and completely ridiculous!  Our company we had in CA still had us for 11 months in our contract so we took all of the equipment from the CA house (painstakingly, I might add) and brought it here for their tech to reinstall here.  The tech gets here and tells us we'll need a cell back-up since we have Uverse (digital line instead of analog).  So the comapny tells us that will be an additional $199 for the back up.  TICKED.  This company has nickel and dimed us into bankruptcy practically... it has been ridonculous!  I don't even want to get into the whole story, 'cuz it's a really beautiful day and I don't want to ruin the mood! ;-)  Let's just say they SUCK at customer service and trying to actually RETAIN CUSTOMERS!!!  Long story short: we have a new contract through a dealer who's customer service is phenominal.  The tech came yesterday and installed evrything, including the cell back-up, for free.  We even got a free key-fob out of it!!  And they are helping us buy out of our previous contract!  OH HAPPY DAY!!!!

Mom and dad come next week for their visit!  I cannot wait for them to see the house and the pool!  The pool is freezing (like 63 degrees!) so I doubt we'll swim.  But it's sparkly and gorgeous!! :-)  I'd better go slave away so they have someplace to sleep!  Before and after pics to follow!!  :)

Manteca Monday AND Texas Tuesday

OK - I can already tell that writing a blog post every single day is not my cup 'o tea.  So this concludes one full week of themed posts and it ain't happenin'.  Sorry folks.  Too much to do.  Maybe when we're a little better settled in??  Maybe??  For now I'll just post stuff (projects, house pictures, updates on the fam, tidbits of knowledge!)... but here is the Manteca Monday and the Texas Tuesday:
Manteca Monday - OH HOW I MISS MY LIL' TOWN OF MAN-STINKA!!!  I love that the town is TINY and not spread out over a gazillion miles.  I love that on patriotic holidays they do Flags Over Manteca and line the streets with our US flag.  I love the weather - it's not humid or SUPER hot - it's just right.  I love that when I look out the window and see fog I know it's going to actually be chilly outside.  More than anything, I love the family and friends there - miss you guys terribly.

now...

Texas Tuesday -  Well, apparantly when you look out your window here and see tons of fog, it doesn't mean it's chilly outside.  It actually means it's HOTTER than HADES.  What the???  Did I miss something?  And then the next day when you look out your window and it's clear as day with a tiny little breeze barely moving the bushes outside it doesn't mean it's nice.  It means it's FREAKING COLD....???????  I am so confused here.  Seriously.  I am lost.  No more windows.  I am stepping outside before we get dressed now - cuz this is just ridonculous!

Besides the funky weather, the HUGE bugs and not really knowing anyone -- life is grand.  The house is slowly coming along.  Still haven't finished the master bathroom.  So if you read the post from last week's "This Old House Thursday" the project was the master bath.  Yup -- still not done!!  Almost though!!  I will continue to post pictures and updates and stuff, I just can't commit to the whole every day themed crap.  No ways.  For now, I gotta skitter and get ready for my activity this afternoon.  I am the activity days leader in our ward, which means I co-teach with another woman all of the girls aged 8 to 11.  We have an activity 2x a month and learn all sorts of fun things!  It's at my house since I don't have a car, so I'd better hit it.  Peace out!

Sabbath Sunday

Church was amazing!  We are slowly getting to know our ward and we are liking it!  They are sweet and inviting and very awesome!  Peyten's class is HUGE compared to her Manteca class.  Manteca had about 4 kids and here she has about 10 in her class that come regularly.  The primary is almost 4x's the size of our Manteca ward.  CRAZY!!!  And we have a Super Saturday event coming up with some cute crafts.  Mom and dad will be here then, so mom and I are planning on going together - that will be fun! :)

Something I thought of differently today was that while the Second-Coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, is mostly thought of as 'The Great and Terrible Day' I am realizing what a wonderful day it will be as well.  Yes the calamities and earthquakes and fires and scary stuff won't be 'fun' per-say, I'm excited because I'm hoping I'm living well and living righteously!!  I look forward to the time the Savior comes and we have 1,000 years of peace!!  Doesn't that sound so amazing?  1,000 years of peace!  I pray I am living worthy to live with my family for eternity!!!

We got to Skype with my family last night and see my Grandma Cleo and my parents.  Gran doesn't have a computer so we really enjoyed getting to see her with Skype!  Peyten was just a little crazy rowdy - but hey - they love her anyways!! ;-)