me and ak

snow day #4

2011-02-04T04:24:00.001-08:00

It's been 3 days of "ice" and we haven't had school all week except Monday. Alex has been in Austin all week, so except for a few visits, it's just been Oscar and I. I am not complaining. It's been actually really peaceful. I only wish Alex could have been here all week. Alex came home Thursday afternoon to beat the next storm coming. YAY! I sure do miss him when session is going on.

About 11pm or so, looked out my back door and it is snowing! You would think that I would be tired of this... I am not!! I love it! SO, day 4 is a big gift! Such a day I can be so thankful for.

Alex made it home safely! I still love my best friend. I am so thankful that God has blessed me with such an awesome man to share my life with. He has been such a great father, an example that both of our kids admire and love. He has integrity and wisdom and I do not deserve such a great guy.

Another thing I am thankful for on this beautiful morning of snow day #4 is my family. Lindsey and Carr, Brady, Mom and Dad, Denise and her family and DeeAnn , her kids and new love, Mike. we all talk "frequently!" We have fun together. We share in the good and the bad and there is a true "family" bond that we share. It is a bond that extends to the Digby and the Higginbotham side of our little clan.

I am also thankful for my friends. My friends that are there always, my anytime friends, the ones that have endured through the years, through kids growing up, through different phases of our lives and through the storms. We are not always lucky enough to meet people and they are "true friends." We do get hurt, we do get disappointed sometimes that someone might not be who they appear, but it always shines through. I have some really sincere friends that are there through it all.

Ok, it's time to wake up Alex and Oscar. Time for Alex's favorite thing to do on a Friday morning. He loves to go see friends early at What-a-Burger. I think I might just get to join him on this snowy morning off!

tech camp 2010!!

2010-08-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

ok... didn't really want to go to tech camp... but it was actually very informational for me! I now know all about MANY new "techy" things! I have a new igoogle page, can do voki, mimio, cps and some more. Did NOT like the "geocaching!" not fun, didn't work! But, have had fun with Lindsey and Stephanie! Ann Witherspoon, Melissa and Krista did a good job! AND!! learning all about Picnik!

I love summer Mondays....

2010-07-14T10:17:00.000-07:00

I love summer Mondays, summer Tuesdays, summer Wednesdays.... I love summer! I really like that I don't have a schedule. I like that I can stay in my pjs if I want to... all day. I like to go eat lunch with Alex, or my friends or in my pjs! I like that I can REALLY keep up with my friends and not just "touch base" with them as our schedules allows!! I like to read. I like to read whatever I want, whenever I want and wherever I want. I like to do projects. I like to organize (and leave it if I get tired of it and come back to it later!!), create, decorate and work in the flowerbeds! I like to paint my furniture if I get tired of what color it is. I like to change my rooms around. I like to frame pictures. I like to watch any show or movie I want that I have saved for just the right time. I like to drink as much coffee in the morning that I want. I like to swing on my front porch, as I drink my coffee (in my pjs!). I like to play words with friends. I like to stay up late at night (and play wwf, read, watch shows or movies or rearrange my house!) I like to see old friends and make new friends. I like to work out in the mornings and not at night. I like to plan what I am going to fix for supper in my new kitchen. I like to make last minute plans and go shopping with a friend and not come home for hours! I like to sit at Starbucks with a friend and talk for hours. I like to wear my too big, baggy, faded, stained and probably too short cut offs! I like to not wear makeup... (for days!!) I like to put my hair in a ponytail. I like to travel around with Alex, sometimes preplanned and sometimes last minute! I like to sleep late and get up when no one is awake (except Oscar... he follows me everywhere!)

SO, here is a couple of pictures of my summer, and what I like...

Brady is doing a "study abroad" in Spain! Got to watch Spain win the world cup in Spain!! Got to experience all the hoop-la with the craziness!! I love getting to talk with him on skype! He loves to show me all the crazy things he can do with all his "techno skills!"

I like getting to spend time with my family! Lindsey and I have had fun "hanging out!" My sister Denise just got a new puppy Paco! We have had fun laying out in her new pool, out door dinners, lunches spur of the moment in my kitchen and playing with our puppies!

I like getting to reconnect with my college Chi-Os! I love that we can be apart for 30 years and pick right back up like it has been just a summer!

I like my new kitchen. We finally remodeled! I will post before and after pictures.

Vacations with friends! Got to spend early June in California with friends! We spent 4 days in Monterrey area and then 4 days in Napa!
And most of all! I like that summer is only half over! I have LOTS more to do!

things I like (& love...)

2010-03-03T19:11:00.000-08:00

I just love my friends! Can't put all their pictures here!... but I love their loyalty, their encouragement and their companionship! Old friends, anyway friends and new friends!
I love my job! Teaching Kindergarten is the best! Laughing, seeing that light go on... hearing them say, "I think I am terrific, do you Mrs. Vaughn?"
I love my school... "JAV is definitely the place to be!!"
I love hugs. Hugs from kids, hugs from friends and family, hugs from my kids and especially hugs from Alex.
I love to go places. I love to go places I've never been. I want to go to the Greek Islands!
I want to go back to places that are special to my heart... Machu Picchu, Haiti, New York.
I love to play games... words with friends, bejeweled, apples to apples and gin...
I love my dog. My most loyal friend that probably cherishes me the most, my puppy Oscar!

I love my family. My sisters, my neices and nephews. My mom and dad! aunts and uncles and cousins and in-laws... families are the best!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my best friend, anyway friend and soul mate!!!

Love my daughter! Love her new hubby! I love to hang out and get to teach with my daughter. How lucky am I? I love Lindsey and Carr!

Love that Brady Vaughn... makes me laugh! He is a great son. He loves to the fullest!

I love my church, my friends from church, my small group and my God!

Our God is an awesome God!

I love my house. It is cozy, old, unique, quirky and "ours!"

I love to take baths... hot, hot baths and either read or watch tv.

I even like to fall asleep taking a good bath.

I especially love that God takes care of me. I love that he gives me hope & a future.

I like the verse he has for us... Jeremiah 29:11!

snow, snow, snow!! 2010!

2010-02-24T03:43:00.000-08:00

It started off at school! WOW!! It snowed ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT!!! This is at 4:30 in the after noon!! We got another 8 inches after this picture!!! I had so much fun hanging out with Alex in the snowstorm of 2010! Oscar HATED the snow! Our cat. Wallie tolerated it and Sugar LOVED it! She slept in the heated greenhouse and then would run wild all through the snow! Had a blast with my kindergarteners... but probably shouldn't post those pictures! But what a cool way to say good bye to the Winter of 2010! Sure does make for fun memories!!!

This was our back yard, absolutely beautiful! We didn't know another 6 inches would fall!! It just kept coming and coming!! The ironic thing here is the most snowfall on record was the winter of 78! My freshman year of highschool! I went to Canyon's WTSU, right south of Amarillo! WOW! It was SNOW heaven for me!! But in Dallas, lots of snow that year too!! I invited my new "boyfriend" to our house to meet my family! Alex Vaughn came and met the whole crew!! That week, we got snow and ICE!! LOTS OF ICE!!! My sweet daddy drove in the worst ice storm of the decade to downtown Dallas to drop my boyfriend off to meet up with his friends for the "Cottonbowl" now deemed the "ice bowl!!" We on the other hand had lost power for several days at our house! FUN memories!! We all 5 lived in the den, with all the windows and doors closed off and ate, played and slept under tons of blankets and kept warm by the fire. Awesome memory for our family and Alex and I!! Meeting my "new boyfriend" that winter turned into a wedding 4 years later and here we are... 32 years after that really special winter in history! Was a pretty special winter for me too!

The total was 15 plus inches! ALMOST as much as that "other" winter!!

We had snow ice cream, chili, homemade red wine stew, cornbread, LOTS of hot chocolate, Tammie Kidd's baked oatmeal and one thing that was consistant was my hot coffee (from Haiti!!)

wow!! Lost some of my beautiful trees, but the 2 days were almost magical.

I will look back and never forget February 2010!!

snow.... snow....snow....

beautiful! 2010 I will never forget it!

2009, God always has a plan.

2010-02-19T14:54:00.000-08:00

Wow.... a year and a half has gone by. Many, many things have changed in my life since Thanksgiving 2008. Lots of family changes. Lots of job changes. Lots of changes in our world as well. 2009 was probably one of the best years in my life as well as the absolute worst year.

I am going to skip over January 2009 to July 2009 because without planning this wedding, it would have been a very hard time. God always has a plan. Let's talk about the good.

Lindsey and Carr got married! Wow! What a wonderful blessing! Lindsey was an absolute perfect daughter to plan a wedding with. It was fun planning and one of the best days of our lives on June 19th, 2009!! It was such a sweet time with our family, our new "Smith" family and our sweet friends! I will post about the wedding with pictures soon!! Welcome to our family! We love you Carr Smith!

My neice, Kristin married in August and became Mrs. Chad Haning at a beautiful wedding!

My nephew, Justin became engaged to Brandi soon after! We are waiting on that date for another wedding.

More of God's plan was for me to make a grade change from 3rd to Kindergarten! WOW!! What a perfect change! I didn't know what I was going to have! I absolutely love my job again. It is the best thing ever! I laugh again every day... most all the day! Today I was reading a book, Move Over Rover! One cutie pie who keeps me laughing said, "Holy Moly!! This is a crazy book!!" How can you not enjoy teaching with this kind of response??!! Like I said, God has a plan!

Brady is in his senior year at Oklahoma State! Yippeeeee! It has been a great time. He has been blessed with great friends. He went to Haiti this past November on the same mission trip that Lindsey and I went on. He has a new love for Haiti too! He was going back for Spring Break 2010! Then, the earthquake. WOW... the world now knows where Haiti is and our heart is with those precious people, especially the children. The trip was cancelled... and now it is back on. In 3 weeks, Brady will be back in Haiti and prayers will be needed. Alex and I are going on a trip the same week for a really unique mission trip in Mexico. I will be still praying for Brady across the gulf in Haiti.

Christmas came and went. Spent a wonderful holiday with my family, our new son-in-law and friends! Life is good. Don't understand the twists and turns. But I keep having to believe, God has a plan. While 2010 has turned out to be very unique with weather, earthquakes, friends, jobs and learning to trust... God has a plan. Got to keep looking at Jeremiah 29:11, "for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for hope and a future." I have had to look to Jesus many times through out 2009 and just ask so many questions. Don't know and understand the answers, but I guess just learning to trust. It is hard when others think one thing, and the Lord tells you to be quiet... don't say anything. I will take care of you. I know he will, just patience is not one of my best qualities. The lord gave me the best, most precious husband in the world, an even better family and the most loyal friends in the world. Thank you God for loyalty and trust, even when we don't understand what the heck this is all this about, and God tells you to be quiet. (never have been good at that!!)

I just know, life is good.

thanksgiving in Haiti...

2008-12-14T21:15:00.001-08:00

Lindsey and I decided to go on a mission trip
to Haiti over Thanksgiving. We got our shots,
we packed our bags and headed off with 6 other
teachers from Midlothian. It was an awesome
experience. I really did miss Alex and Brady
so much, but it was life changing!!
We worked with the 165 teachers of the New
Missions in Haiti at a teacher's conference. We
did rice feedings in the villages. We played with
the kids. It was worth it all. We don't realize
how fortunate we are.

RECESS in Haiti!! (kids love to play anywhere!)

We played with the kids!

We walked to the villages...

We prayed over the children!

We got to go to church and worship with the

Haitians!!

Anita with a little cutie pie!

didn't get to spend Thanksgiving with Alex

and Brady, but at least I was with Lindsey.

(ewww... our lovely Haiti hair!)

the rice feedings

2008-12-14T21:02:00.000-08:00

3 cans of rice will feed a family for

about a week.

bagging rice is hard, hard work!

we prayed over each person that received rice

But look who gets the rice!!

so happy!

Carrying rice back up the mountain to feed thier family.

That was worth it all...

welcome to Port au Prince, Haiti

2008-12-14T20:56:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Port au Prince

filth everywhere

a typical open air market

their homes

new friends

2008-12-14T20:45:00.000-08:00

We met new friends from our own group,

and we met new friends from Haiti.

me, my sponsored boy, his momma and
Lindsey!!

our north carolina friends!!

Our interpreters!!!

Sarah and Gregory

for the kids....

2008-12-14T20:35:00.000-08:00

We went for the kids...

in their new missions classrooms

in their yellow gingham uniforms...

it was all worth it for these absolutely,

beautiful kids. Look at that smile!

the beautiful part of Haiti...

2008-12-14T20:27:00.001-08:00

our "home away from home"
the new missions compound...

on the most beautiful beach

a view from the mountain

can't believe this is so beautiful in such a

torn, hard, desperate country...

fall fun times!!

2008-10-28T16:05:00.001-07:00

Sure have had some fun times so far this fall! I love
the cooler weather. We went to the Homecoming
game at OSU against Baylor and had a great time with
Brady and his buddies! We ate lunch and attended the
silent auction at the Phi Delt House, tailgated, went to
the game and cheered them to victory!! Ate dinner with
Brady and stayed in a cute little bed and breakfast in
Guthrie, Oklahoma. It was a great weekend!

We met Brady and some friends in Austin the next
weekend for the OSU/ UT game!! Such a disappointing
loss, but it was a great game!!!

My dad's 71st birthday fell on the "grandparent's to lunch
day" at JAV Elementary!! He got to eat lunch with Marissa,
Nena and me, pass out cookies to my class, Marissa's class
and his own grandaughter's class of 1st graders!! One kiddo
asked him if he was in WWII... eeeeekkkkk!!!

OSU Homecoming 08

lots of orange! Brady

OSU homecoming! big win over Baylor!

at the Texas State Fair!

aren't Lindsey and Carr cute!! ??

our friends anita & doug!

lindsey and carr's pumpkin!

my address pumpkin!

all our pumpkins!

Claire Lynn's new website!!

2008-10-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

Claire Lynn has a new website!!
You definitely need to go check
it out! Cute, cute, cute!!
Here is just a couple of the ones
on the website!

Cortni, Rachel and me!!!

"wild about JAV" spirit shirts!!

this is some of the JAV staff!! We got together
for a picture showing off our claire lynn
shirts!!

Brady, Miranda and Brandon
back in 1992!!!

GO Denise!!! really cute again!!! I am proud
of you!!!! Go Claire Lynn!! 20 years!!
Becky my cousin designed the website... more
artsy family members on the Digby side!!!
(that will have to be another blog!!)

photo booth!

2008-09-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

Well, our new computer is so much fun!!! It has photo booth!!! In class we are learning to pod cast, use garage band and then put the whole thing into i-tunes!! (I know all the younger ones can do this with no problems... but it is a big accomplishment for me!)

Here are some fun pictures we did this week!!!

Amy,

Rachel

& me!!!

Mr. G

here is

double

Rachel and

Dana

...didn't know computer was so much fun!!!

tulia's hs 30 year reunion!

2008-09-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

a few of alex's

high school

friends at the

reunion!!

on the

homecoming

float!!
class of 78

Lynn, Rhonda

and Alex

we went to AMERICAN IDOL!!

2008-09-08T06:20:00.000-07:00

American Idol!!
Yes, we made the concert!
Might say we loved every
minute of it!!!

Jason Castro!!
singing over the rainbow

denise up close and personal!

self portraits!
Rachel, me and Denise

wow!!! Laura, Shelly and Denise!

hear Jason for yourself!!

Teammates forever!!

2008-08-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

Well, it is a new year, and I

am with kinda a new team.

(but I am still w/ DeAnna

and Cortni... just a few yards

away!!)

Some have moved to new towns,

new schools and some to new grades.

We are going to LOOP with 2nd,

so Cortni and DeAnna went to 2nd.

Rachel and Jeanne came to 3rd.

We will call the 2nd & 3rd grade

team the "tweeners!"

But here is to past teammates!!

Here is the original team...

Baxter Sweethearts!!

Me and Elizabeth!!

Baxter and JAV!

At the WOW showcase!

JAV 3rd grade ROCKS!!

Teammates forever!!

at Kelly's going away

"moving to the Woodlands"

Ojeada's party!!

me, Barb and Cortni

(we are so scary!!)

Elizabeth and I coming back from

a conference in Austin....

eekkkkk.... had to ride with

the law....

we ran out of gas on the hw!!

Christmas at Barb's!

I've taught the longest w/

Barb!! She a 8th grade,

Walnut Grove Middle School

Science teacher now!!

You go Barb!!

2008-08-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

Lots of fun happenings this summer...
Callie Day graduated from high school.

Brady was here for the summer.
Brady's friend Jacob got engaged! Got to spend a lot of time with my good friend Lolo! Spent some great times with Lindsey's boyfriend, Carr and Brady's girlfriend, Katie.
We just had a great summer!

Here are some quick pictures of some of our fun!!

We had several family birthdays this summer.

Here is Denise (my sister) at David's Seafood at mom's party!

Brady turned 21, Marissa turned 8, Mckenna turned 8,

Mom turned 68 and Denise turns 46 on Sept 2!

(pretty cute for 46 huh??)

DeeAnn (my other sister!) had both her boys there and Marissa!

Everyone got to come and celebrate except for Brandon and Brady..

(and believe me, it is not the same without those 2!)

L to R:

Lynn ., Trent F, Alex

bottom row

Lisa L, Julie, me, Debra T,

and

Elizabeth Ann

My college roommate had a party for the Tulia HS graduates of 78 that could come down to the Dallas area at her beautiful home. Here is some of his friends that were able to come. (they let me sit in their picture even though I didn't graduate with them!!)

My friends and I went to Los Lupes for a fun girls night!

We just had a good time laughing and catching up!!

Me and Kim!

Vickie and Anita!

(the other side of the table!)

Summer is almost over :(

This summer we also had a "rock band" party at Cortni's!!

Here is Alex jammin!!

WICKED and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field!!

2008-08-04T20:43:00.001-07:00

At the Oriental Theatre for Wicked!!

Watching the Cubs!!!!

Look how cool! Skyboxes on top of houses for more bleachers!

We had so much fun!!!

busy...

2008-08-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

Lindsey and Kristin at the Will Rogers Follies.

It has been a busy, busy last couple of weeks!! We spent a couple of nights at the Gaylord Texan for Alex's department meetings. We had a super time! Got to spend the day at the pool with my friend Lori and went on a party boat cruising around Lake Grapevine. It was really nice, we ate on the boat, listened to music and danced. We spent Friday evening with our friend Sonya for her birthday and all went to the Movie Grill to watch MAMA MIA!!! The guys were not so excited, but we had a great time!!! Saturday night we went to the fanciest wedding we have EVER been to. Brady went back to OSU last week and Lindsey & Kristin moved to their new apartment!! We went to watch our friend DeAnne Driver dance in the Will Rogers Follies in Garland. Had a great dinner celebrating! THAT WAS JUST LAST WEEK!!

Then we traveled on to Chicago for the week!!! What fun!

We started off going to the Art Institute Museum!

We then found the city park and a great outdoor cafe!

The museum was great!!! Look at some of our finds!!

Trolly!

We toured the city by foot & by river boat!

spending time with family in Tulia

2008-07-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

Between reunion events, we got to spend time with Alex's family in Tulia. LOTS of brothers and their wifes, nephews and neices and all their families!!! It was fun!

Gary with Natalee and Kaylin. (Cherri and John's pretty girl!)

Natalee and me!! (Dwight and Andreia's one and only!)

Me and newest baby Sophia (Skyler and Crystal's.)

2 of my cutie pie great neices!!! WOW I'm old!!

4 of my cute nephews, Skyler and his son Andrew, John and his son, Christian! HANDSOME!

Another brother, Kelly and great neice Kiki.

Here is Alex and I with his brother Gary and wife Cheryl!

We got to spend time with family we don't get to see very much. We had a great time!

2008-07-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

Isn't my husband the cutest?!! This is our 30th year class reunion this year. We are leaving to go to Tulia/Canyon in the morning to celebrate!! I am excited to go back and see everyone. The next week we will be staying at the Gaylord Texan for a few days for a convention and then we are off to Chicago for a week! This picture is from last summer on our 25th wedding anniversary in Cayman.

Wow!!! summer is half over... good times go fast!

Lindsey and Kristin are moving again. They are moving from their cute loft apartment in downtown Dallas to Uptown. This apartment is in the cutest area!!!! I talk to Lindsey just about everyday, but I don't see her too often, maybe once a week. She is spending lots of time with her boyfriend, Carr. So, basicly when we see Lindsey, we see Carr! He is a sweetie!

Brady is turning 21 on Monday, the 21st of July and moving back to Stillwater on the 23rd. He had his girlfriend come and stay with us last night. She is a really sweet girl. We enjoyed her here.

workin' on the house

2008-07-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

Just a bit of an update on our house remodel...

This is one of the first things Alex built for me. Isn't my white fence and arbor pretty?

This is our breakfast porch!

This is our formal dining which is the latest remodel.

We have painted the walls, trim, floors and put in a black decorated ceiling tins. The ceiling is very high here and it is one of my favorite rooms. We can fit around 10 to eat in this room. The closet is a butler's pantry.

My bedroom is probably my favorite. It is chocolate brown and light teal. We had to completely start from scratch here. The original room was rough cedar walls with a franklin stove. We rebulit walls and a linen closet, took out the stove and put in new windows. Alex is an awesome handy-man. The ceilings are a very light shade of teal. They are also very high and are tin ceilings.

We also had to take out a very small bathroom and a closet to make us a larger master bath. The floor was coming up and we could see layers of wallpaper back to about the 1930's! We started all over and did the brown and teal colors, put in cork floors, crackled our tin ceilings and Alex did another awesome job!! We kept the original tub, but everything else was new!

MY CLOSET!!!!!!!!!!

2nd day of summer!

2008-06-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

ok, it is officially summer '08! Yipee! another school year accomplished. I just finished my 5th year of teaching at Midlothian and my 8th year overall. Sitting at the end of the year awards with my teammates, Cortni leaned over to me and whispered, I have "21" (or 23, something like that!!) years to teach until retirement. That means she can retire at approximately 50 or so years old.... So, I asked her to calculate when I can retire... 60 or 62! OH NO! that is a long time away!!

Brady is home for the summer. He is doing summer school at Navarro taking Spanish. He is doing ODD jobs, (pool boy, lawn boy, unloading misc. stuff for Pam, special project for MISD, dishwasher unloader... but working) and spending lots of time with us and his friend, Katie. This is Katie and Brady at the Ft. Worth Zoo!

Brady is LOVING college! He is enjoying all aspects of college life! I think the school spirit is definitely his favorite! "go pokes!" Anyway, Brady and John at a OSU game!

Lindsey is teaching summer school this summer and loving getting paid for hanging out all summer... that is the perks of teaching school! It has been a fun year! JAV Elementary had both of us teaching this year, me in 3rd and Lindsey in 1st! We all love JAV! and they must love both Mrs. and Ms. Vaughn!!! :) Here we are at our favorite "OJEDAS" hangout!

Lindsey's new friend is Carr Smith. (Carr is the nephew of my longtime best friend, Lori!) Here is Lindsey and Carr at the lake. (she wants me to tell you not to notice the "ugly lake hair!")

well... that is it for now...

and... "yippee for summer!!!!!!"

the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!

2008-05-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

My nephew, Brandon and son, Brady have had their shares of "mishaps!" Both Brandon and Brady are always playing every video game, basketball 'one on one' game, race, monopoly or whatever, like it was the Olympics. Each game was the "championship!!" Well, here is what has happened to both in the past year. Brady has dislocated and had surgery on BOTH shoulders! He was playing football in high school for the original injury. But intramural basketball, fraternity boxing, jumping off cliffs into a lake and throwing snowballs at an annoying kid has been the subsequent reasons for the need for surgery. Brandon is recovering from a broken nose which resulted in surgery a few weeks back and he was diving for the ball last week (in what I am sure was another Olympic championship sand volleyball game) in which he spent 7 hours in the ER and looks like the elephant man.

That led to the discussion of how many times we have visited the ER during their childhood.

Lindsey's were limited to a few breaks, falling out of trees, head butts in soccer and high fever.

But Brady... not counting the many visits for pneumonia when he was a baby, we had to visit often. He almost had his ear completely severed by a golf club by a 4th grade classmate, we found out he was highly allergic to penicillin and then again visited for a really bad reaction to ibuprofen. (I was detained for a bit while they questioned me for possible abuse! That was a scary one, his blood vessels burst all over his face he was swelling so quickly.) Then we have the knee injuries, bleeding head from wake boarding... shoulder dislocations and the other normal ER visits.

But as I sit here writing this blog, I am listening to the yells of triumph and the screams of defeat while some sort of game (I am sure it is for the championship!!) is being played in my living room. Brady is 3 weeks shy of turning 21 and Brandon is 7 months older. I have a feeling that this is going to be the norm for these 2 cousins that have had the worst fights ever, but love each other dearly. When they become married, grown men with their own kids... I doubt it will be any different.

"1st time to blog..."

2008-05-25T19:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I have always wanted to create my own blog, but never seemed to find the time. I love to read other friend's blogs, but here I go! Alex and I have been "empty nesters" for 2 years now. Our oldest, Lindsey graduated from SFA in 2007, and our youngest will start his 3rd year at OSU this next fall. We all 4 love to read, travel, ski and mexican food! We all 4 love Harry Potter, going to the movies and just hanging out! We all love Jesus and each other.

"Lindsey"
SFA graduate, AXO, 1st grade teacher
Lindsey and her cousin Kristin live in a loft in downtown Dallas. They are having a blast!!! Lindsey is an awesome little teacher and she has made us very proud!

"Brady"
Junior at OSU, Phi Delta Theta fraternity, living at home this summer...
Brady lives at the fraternity house at OSU. He has some really neat friends, Trevor, John and Rhett. Brady just loves life!

"OSCAR!!"
Oscar is my sweet puppy. He is a Malchi. He is the best dog we have ever had. He loves everybody and everybody loves him!! He minds us so good. I love my puppy!

OK, now Alex and I. We have been having a blast "empty nesting!!" But we always knew we would. We love to go to movies, out to eat, go with our friends and just hang out at the house. We spend a lot of time swinging on the porch. Oh, and we are slowly redoing an old house... built around 1892, we are just taking our time and redoing a room at a time. I will show some of our rooms later.

I am teaching 3rd grade (5 years back at teaching!) and Alex is a VP for Government Relations for a company in Ft. Worth. He is the best husband and my very best friend. We have been married 26 years this June, pretty awesome huh?

I am so lucky to have a wonderful family.

(I just read this to my sister, Denise, and she said...."hey, what about me!!!" I know, yes we are sisters... more about us later... lots!! about my family growing up, too! My parents and sisters, nephews and neices are great!)

Well, here's to my 1st blog....