Christmas morn....(I'm doing this live...then going back to edit it)
We made them open one at a time. Kiley opened her perfume and Rich his cologne. Impressed!! Next was a shirt for Kiley that she loves. Next she opened jeans. She said ,"I love getting jeans!". Rich opened slippers. Whew, he liked them. Kiley thinks it is "awkward" that Santa used so many boxes. And Kiley gets "oh my gosh'. Slipper flip flops!". Ohh ahhh Rich opens his basketball shoes!! Kiley's turn. "A box again! Who uses so many boxes. Oh my gosh a jacket.". And Rich opens an Aeropastle jacket!! Kiley freezes while opening Twister Hopscotch. She can't wait to play it with Emma. Now back to Rich. A pair of Levis. Kiley..."My turn! This ones heavy. No way! Ok. I'm buying. Who is it from? Love 'em". The black boots she wanted. She thinks the insides are cute. Mike asks her if she will need help zippering it. "Apparently!" was her response. Rich opens a shirt. Not so impressed. He had an Aeropastle Christmas (hoodie, cologne, and shirt)!!! Now on to her guitar. She looks just like Taylor Swift. Uh oh....Rich just said 'lucky'. Guess he isn't impressed she got a guitar and he didn't. Rich opens the Wii Fit! Pretty much success. They still don't know about the bikes in the garage!! :) the plan is to let them stumble on them!! OH and stockings...well Santa and her helper have temporarily misplaced the stocking fillers besides the fruit. So Kiley was a bit sad that she had no chocolate! Fortunately they were found mid afternoon in the garage. He must have left them there when leaving the bikes! ;)

Kids are both finished with school!!! Kiley keeps telling everyone she got promoted! I love it!
Today is my mom's heart catheterization. We are here waiting for the procedure.
Rich is off camping with Tricia and family.

UPDATE: Mom's catheterization went well. Shows only 30% blockage (dr not worried about that). Still aren't sure why the weak heart muscle. He'll change her meds and check her in December.

Kiley and I rode with Reda and Billy to the hospital. We always enjoy our time with them!

School is nearly out! Lotsa updates!!

Friday, 29-May
Well...today I let Rich know...IT IS HIS LAST FRIDAY TO BE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!!! (Lord willing...). He got his official paper saying he recieved COMMENDED on his Science TAKS test. He has worked hard all year studying his science. We would copy his book by chapter so he didnt have to wag it home everynight. He totally deserved it and we are so happy for him. He actually found out 18-May, I think, but we got the paper today!!!
Kiley's little face is starting to peel. That nasty, thick dark peel. Lucky for her, she is still as tan underneath so she won't be spotty!

Thursday, 28-May
Mike took the day off to go to Rich's field day...since it is his last one we'll be allowed to go to. Mike had fun and got to visit with Kiley a little bit as well. At one point Rich's teacher let Mike know he needed to go to the cafeteria to check on her. Can you say DRAMA QUEEN!?!?!?!
WE PAID OUR LAST YMCA $55 for the school year!!! We get to save $220 for 2 1/2 months.
At work today An called to let me know mom's angiogram/catheterization is set up for next Friday morning.
Rich had a game tonight. They played awesome. He was in on some GREAT plays as well! Very fun to watch when you are winning.
Afterwards we met up with Tricia and family for dinner at Jimmy's! YUM-O!

Wednesday, 27-May
Today was Kiley's field day. Since they split field day up among the grades, I took Kiley's day off and Mike is taking Rich's day off work. First graders still wear you out! Rich and most of the 5th graders came and helped out during field day so we go to see Rich, too. After the festivities were over, Kiley and I snuck out of school and came home to nap (me) / watch tv (Ki).
We had 'Pa's Special' for dinner tonight. Kiley out of NOWHERE proclaimed that Pa had been gone 8 weeks and he has to come back NOW! We have missed him being around here since he is working out of town. I think we are all ready for him to come back!

Tuesday, 26-May
Back to school and work with our sunburns! OUCH!!! We were all slow moving. We are all ready for school to be out. A break from the hustle and bustle we have done the last 9 months.
Kiley is looking forward to field day tomorrow.
She had a game tonight. I didn't get to see all of it, but we ended up losing in the end. Bummer! It is a team we have beaten once already....double bummer.

Monday, 25-May Memorial Day 2009
The last few years we have gone over to Aunt Reda's and Uncle Billy's and cooked out and swam. This year was no different...except An and her family joined us with Kae bringing a friend and Storri, too. Jason and Erin and the girls joined us. Bertie loves her Aunt Jenny and let me take her around the pool. Belle wasn't so in to the water. Levi didn't like it until Aunt Ninny jumped in and then he wanted to. At least it got him in the water. It was a great day and we all had fun. It was nice and warm out, pool was cool, and we all got our 1st sunburns of the year. :) Grand!

Sunday, 24-May
More painting on the house. Finished all he could reach...I think. Not sure! I ended up leaving and going to Tricia's to visit since Andy and family were up.

Saturday, 23-May
Mike started painting the trim on the house. Hopefully it will last a few years!!! Now we need to get that deck top cut off and the storage building painted. Erin, the girls, and I set out for shopping. I forgot what it was like to shop with 2 little ones. Erin is such a trooper! I had a great day spending it with them. Even though we didn't really find what we were looking for...bottle caps! Erin bought or was given some cute frames with the girls' names on them. I'd love to duplicate them and give as gifts. Just gotta find those caps!

Friday, 22-May
He lugged his big project into school this morning, but didn't have time to make his presentation on PA. He'll have to wait til Tuesday.

Thursday, 21-May
Met Tricia and family in town for some good ole Mexican food! Rich has a game AND Kiley has a game........same start time! Lucky for us Kiley's started right on time and Rich's started about 20 minutes late! Kiley's team won and I flew over to the baseball fields (not literally...I drove the posted speed limit...you know I'm on probation for my speeding ticket....). Rich's team WON! Gotta love a double win! Rich played a great game defensively! He has got to get that bat going!!!

Tuesday, 19-May
Today is the day of the Math retest. He seems so confident he did well on it. Makes me feel a little better..but I won't feel good until I get the results of 'met standard'.

Monday, 18-May
Rich found out (not officially on paper!) from his science teacher he made COMMENDED on his TAKS test!! (Later we found out he missed only 3 out of 40 questions!!!).
He has a game tonight, but won't be playing. It is a late game and he has his Math TAKS retest tomorrow. I am praying the Commended on his science will boost his self esteem and really get him to score great on his math TAKS. I'm praying anyway!!!!
His team ended up loosing the game. It was against the 1st place team. Fortunately (being the WANNA WIN MOM I am...) we won't play them again...unless we meet up in the championship game in the end of season tournaments!!!

Sunday, 17-May
Gotta head back home. Rich and Mike have a report, presentation, and visual to finish about Pennsylvania for his Social Studies class.

Saturday, 16-May
We were supposed to have a baseball game.......but the rain came! So we decided to load up and Road Trip! We drove in the rain to Waco. We visited the Dr. Pepper museum and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Both were great places. We packed clothes for overnighting somewhere and ended up at Ma and Pa's house. We enjoyed dinner with them and Bill, Shana, and Weston. The kids were disappointed when we told them we weren't going to hotel, but they sure seemed to forget about it once we got to Hico.

Been a Busy Week!

Had great intentions of updating before now....but I'm really needing to figure out posting pictures!

Monday......Back to school! Kids were tired...mom was tired....and even the ole dad was tired! But we survived AND both kids had ball practice.

Tuesday......NOTHING! No games and no practice, just some homework.

Wednesday......NOTHING! Again, no games nor practice. This time we just worked in the yard and did a little ball practice in the yard. Great weather. Kiley and I went for a quick trip around the block.

Thursday........2 games! Kiley PLAYED second (notice the heavy PLAYED....that is what she mostly did at second.......no plays were made there, but she had some great circles drawn in the dirt). She got 1 hit driving the 4th run of the inning in which is all they allow per inning. I think we were scoreless the first 2 innings, then we started getting our 4 then 4 more. We may have scored another time or two, but ended up losing. Rich...I missed most of his game and we were down when I showed up. Then Ronnie got a HR and a few more runs were scored. Then when our boys took the field, they made some really NOT METS/MUSTANG type plays that literally cost them the game. Ended up losing 5-4, I believe. Either way UGLY! We were staying for the next game, but Rich had homework to finish (subtracting fractions by borrowing from the whole number......I basically had to teach him from home as he didn't get it at school. It takes so long to get the answer, he forgets some major steps like bring down and calculating the whole numbers ~ you know, the easy part!) plus there was some pretty major lightening cancelling the Astros/Cardinals game.

Kiley hasn't had her stick pulled yet this week and has even earned some stars. I have no idea what the stars mean, but this is the first I've heard about them. Should she go all day today (which is a long stretch for her, but she has done well all week!) with leaving her stick in the holder, she'll get a treat. Not sure what it will be, but I've told her it will be something. We have tickets to take the kids to the Sock Hop tonight at school. (Fundraiser of some sort...of course!) Kiley is looking forward to it as she WAS going on a double date (more on that in a minute) and Rich for some reason now WANTS to go. I had already bought him a ticket in case he changed his mind. He was all for going when he thought it was a 5th grade 'dance' and not a school wide family event. Then he wanted nothing to do with it. Now if it is a bust and people see him there, he can say his parents made him come since they were taking his little 1st grade sister!

KILEY SAYS....
OK, on to Kiley's double date. One day this week when I picked her up she was all excited because she had a date for the dance. I was EXTREMELY shocked to say the least! I asked WHO was taking her to the dance. She told me Nicky / Picky was. This is a boy that she calls Picky because he pics at and on her all the time. I reminded her she had just asked the teacher to be moved AWAY from Picky recently. She said, she knows, but now she likes him and he wants to go to the dance with her. So I go along with it. I asked her if he was picking her up and do we even need to go along. She said we HAD to come because parents HAVE to bring their kids and stay. But as soon as we got in the building she would go find Nicky and Hannah. I asked HANNAH? She said that she was going on a DOUBLE DATE. Who knew she knew what a double date was???? She assured me I would love Hannah, she is a nice girl, really smart, blah blah blah. I'm still floored by the double date situation. So, I said who are YOU double dating with. She said (ARE YOU READY FOR THIS....) "Oh, I'm not double dating. Nicky is double dating. He is taking Hannah AND me!" Whew! THAT kind of double dating. I didn't think it was the right time to explain 'two-timing', we'll just leave it at double dating for now.
But it gets better....
Thursday when I picked her up she let me know the double date was off. So, I'm thinking NOW WHAT? I asked her why. Her reply, "Oh, Nicky SO dumped Hannah today. I don't know why, but she is so dumped!". I told her she (Kiley) must be so sad because Hannah is a great girl, blah blah blah and they're friends and she is probably crushed Nicky would DUMP her right before the Sock Hop. Kiley said it was no big deal because she is still going with Nicky!

Should be fun tonight at the Sock Hop! I'll report back with updates after the big Hop! With the whole date situation, I'm sure Daddy is looking forward to it, too!

Had A Cold One....and I don't mean an adult beverage 'one'

Monday brought on another baseball game. And Kiley was supposed to have practice...but I made the decision she would miss softball practice since it was so cold so she could go run around and stay warm at the baseball fields. Oh, and I could watch Rich's game. And honestly they both had to be different places at 6.
BUT before I report about the game...I should report on the kids' day at school. Rich...boring and MORE review for math TAKS Tuesday. He also had his last day of after school tutoring (hopefully!!!!). Kiley had to 'sign the book' for either not following directions or playing around. Her reply..."I had a partner!". Yes, she is taking Spencer down with her! I asked her if it was the 1st time he had to sign the book and she said, "No! Trust me he has signed the book more times than me." Now, Kiley and Spencer are two of the smartest kids in the class (I think...since they were in the same reading group...just the 2 of them reading 2nd grade level material at the beginning of 1st grade...must be the awesome Kindergarten teacher they both had!). Kiley likes to have a good time and it seems Spencer is easily led. Poor kid!
Now on to the game! Very boring. They were ahead by 4 runs for awhile. We got 1 here and there and then 4 runs in an inning putting us up. Top of the 6th inning came (we were visitors) and their team was out of decent pitchers. So we ended up with 17 runs in 1 inning. Most of those walked or stole home on passed balls from bad pitches. And most of them came with 2 outs already in the inning. The other team was so beat down. They finally put in another kid to pitch and got the 3rd out to get us to bottom of the 6th. Fortunately for us they were at the bottom of their line up and it was 3 up, 3 down, go home winners!!! And all that came AFTER the other team's coach wanted silence during pitches in the game! NO CHATTER? WHAT THE HECK??? AREN'T WE AT A BASEBALL GAME???

OK...today is Tuesday.........MATH TAKS!!!! We are praying for you Rich!!!! GOOD LUCK!

We'll see what exciting happnes in Kiley's softball game tonight. She might be benched for missing practice. I am just hoping to stay on both feet all night...hmmm...did I blog about that for Saturday????