What we have done so far....

The first week of school off goes like this...

buying last minute sister gifts....
baking 8 doz. cookies....
pumping gas till after Christmas at $1.36 p/g
sleeping soundly till whenever the eyes open....
caroling to our neighbors.....
wrapping gifts so all ready for Christmas
watching Christmas holiday movies on dvd and reg. t.v.
looking at all the well decorated homes in our area...WOW!!!
And it's just Tuesday!

The week continues.........

You know the song from Sonny and Cher... "The beat goes on....? Well that is how the week is acting up. Monday was rushing around to finalize Stephanie's birthday shopping...last gift- reserved parking spot!!! Cool. Going to preschool teacher party...packing and shipping gifts to relatives and friends part 1 and spending a little time with Mike...he was off. The rest of evening was getting Kayla to winterguard and picking up Gretchen from basketball game. Tuesday worked.... and fussed around for Thursday events at school. Went to band concert for Gretchen -neat. helped with studying for twin cities test for Kayla in late evening. Wednesday hussle, hussle, hussle..... returned items not giving as gifts, cleaned house and did laundry, called friend to check on her status in life...final load of gifts shipped off and deliver children to appropriate functions at 6-7 pm-ish!!!! Laughing all the way with a little Sonny and Cher!!!

Yikes! -Been tagged

8 Fav. TV Shows

Old Lucy SHows

Fringe

Dancing with the Stars

Bones

HGTV--house remodeling

Ghost Whisperer

What NOT TO WEAR

CSI_Miami



8 Fav. Restaurants

Cebolla's -Fort Wayne

Riscky's - Fort Worth

Chophouse- Fort Worth

Salt Grass- Grapevine

Panera- wherever

Bistro- Southlake

McCallisters Deli- Southlake

some mexican rest. in Keller cannot think of



8 Fav. things that happened yesterday

took back lots of presents y-day to save money

watched the sunset in Flower Mound while Kayla was riding

ate lunch with a friend

got 2 big hugs from Gretchen

woke up in the a.m.....

??????????

got to bed early

??????????



8 Things looking forward to

always Friday!

going somewhere carribean like with my main squeeze

being out of debt!!!!!

looking for new vehicle in 1-2 years

Stephanie getting accepted to BYU and going there

SEX! (LOL)

Christmas and New years Eve

Sleeping in....


8 things on wishlist

friends from Indiana coming to visit!!! HINT

Mike's job would be less stressful

Susan could find better job on off days from preschool

the other 5???????

Thanksgiving-- Skeans Style

Here goes our day....woke up at 6:40 am to rescue roll dough that left out all night -oops. Hurried to punch it down and refrig. for 1 1/2 hrs.. Then started organizing Turkey day when what was going in oven etc.. Whew! Now watch the macy's parade because that is what you do ...at least Kayla and me. yeah us. While cooking, baking, and watching parade better organize Christmas lights and trees etc.. Cause you know... gotta get the lights up. Kayla and gretchen took the task of checking lights while I scrimmaged for stuff and con't cooking and baking and not over doing it!!! LOL--are you with me???? Stephanie is learning how to dress a table mom style or maybe Martha Stewart way...but not liking what I had in mind and did it Stephanie style...ehh okay. I gave in. Gretchen learned how to make green bean casserole for her dad and prepare the ham for her dad too. Then learned learned about cranbery sauce yummo !!! - for mom of course. Okay, 4 dozen rolls are ready to bake... lemon for meringue pie is waiting ...turkey looks fabulous... oh no sweet potatoes oh well less to work off!!! The corn made it...the mashed potatoes were warm but not hot... and nothing was overcooked or whatever could possibly go wrong in this chaos I created and generated. All the light swere up out side with Kayla's help and creativity...MOm help too!!!! Is it nap time??? Nope...time to make chocolate pie and meringue. LOL-really now. Then we went to our friends the Polings for dessert. Oh that was good fixins!!!! The guys and 2 of my daughters went outside to pay basketball cause you knwo...its 68 degrees or something like that!!! Oh did I say Mike and Stephanie played church friendly footabll in am with mr. Poling??? No injuries ---yes!!!! Okay--now back to basketball...Mike got injured by falling to ground on POlings stone/pebbled driveway...he tripped ober big foot Stephanie...LOL -are you with me now??? he came into house needing medical attention...luckily I could help with that and tened his hand wounds...now I just have to fix the hole in his pants!!!!!

SO HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO US!!!! Here are some pics.....

And more...

More Ice!!

More pics...

Note... if you click on picture you get better view. I just found that out!!! LOL. SO the one of me sliding on ice slide...COOL!!!! really.

More adventure at the Gaylord

This is a wine bottle Christmas Tree. Kind of different --yes? We were thinking about going to dinner here but the Hickory Inn was way out of our pocket range. Maybe next time.........

Happy Anniversay to us---23 years....

What a long day this was........................ The usual chores of Saturday and thensome. No big shopping since that was done friday at 5 am... Yes!!! Mike and I got up and hit Best Buy and Academy Athletics. What did we get??? Goodies for most of us and a new GPS for my car just in case the car and driver decide to get lost. LOL!!!! No seriously, not funny.

Later that Saturday we deicded to hit the ICE show at the Texan Gaylord. What a magnificent ice sculpture event that was and... the lights and scenery at the Gaylord. Amazing!!!! The temperature in the room of the ice sculptures was 9 degrees. So, it ddin't feel too bad to Mike and me since we are NORTHERNERS still. There was polar bears, Santa. a Nativity scene. and angel, a super cool slide which both of us went down---wheeeeeee--- also many other amazing sites. 33 men come in from china and work on these pieces of art from id October to when they open...umm-- ealry November I think. Anyway... it was pricey to see but totally worth it. After that event we toured the gaylord with lights and trains and sleighs and many places to take your picture. Aaahhh. After that we left and went to THE BBQ Feedstore. YUMMMMMOOOO!!! Best buck for our money. Plus, we were starving...well okay really hungry. It is a shack amongst mansions and thensome. Very quaint and homey. We'll be back.

Life

We have finished so many activities and so many more to go!! Since our last blog gretchen has made the 7th grade girls basketball team!!! Did we doubt that she wouldn't ? Noway!!! That girl has awesome Indiana skills!! She fears no one and no height is too grande for her to conquer. First basketball game was last Wednesday...against Coppell North. Ugly it was.... those girls have been playing since school started. Our team just got accomplished and established. Oh well...first loss. gretchen ran hard and figured out no scoring for her but steals and many asissts were her game. She was extremely whooped by the time the game was done. Yeah Gretchen.

On another note , Stephanie and her drumline drew competed in the Lonestar Competitions and varsity came in second of ??? 50 ??/ The JV came in 16 out of 26. Cool!!! All were very pleased ..now onto sectional competition for soloists. That is Dec. 6th!!! ALl is well with that. Now onto college discussions. What!!!!!??? yes. SHe has changed her thoughts of what she was going into for school. Her original idea a vet... but now is changed to an elementary teacher. Here is discussion... Mom...Yes... I have had so many non=teaching teachers...I want to make a difference somewhere in the system that I will be in. I had great 4 and 5th grade teachers that if it wasn't for them who knows what ... Well, you know they don't make as much as vets.... Yes.. But mom...I can do so much with teaching. Okay GO FOR IT. Now we have had counselor talks already...letting us know all the requirements etc.. what college TX has... Oh we won't be going here...Stephanie wants to go to UTAH. Oh...the counselor says. BYU? Yes...says Stephanie. Good for you she says. Now she is going to study for SAT tests for Jan. Yeah!!! Mom is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited.

Meanwhile Kayla has been realxing and getting ready for the start of December through the following year Winterguard. She decided that she was going to learn how to "twirl" a saber!!! Yikes!!! She came home with a few cuts and bruises but all is good. cannot wait for that excitement in our lives!!! LOL


Did I mention that life is on energerizer bunny mode????? Ok/thought so.

OUR WARD HAS SPLIT

Sunday was a wonderful 75 degree day with loads of sunshine. AT 2:30 we went to church and eventually found out who our new bishop was and our new ward. Before all of that excitement the rumors has flurished. Since we have moved into the Keller 1st ward we have have to 620 members. Obviously that is a lot to handle. A new ward was made west of the RR tracks of me and that area will grow again and need to be split but for now we all have moved on. The east side of the tracks (me) will stay in Keller 1st with some members of the K2 ward joining us. Apparently these ppl. went to K1 a couple of years ago. As you can see I live in highly growing member area or we have lots of move-ins or both. The girls and I tried to figure out how youth K1lost...we thought about 22 girls. We clearly have that many still in our ward. So there you have it!!! We were excited and din't cry like others did since we have been here for 1 1/2 yrs.. it didn't matter a whole lot! -YET!! Came home and ate spaghetti and meatballs since Stephanie was experiencing brace and teeth pain. AWWWW. The end.

Life Begins part 2......

Here we have Gretchen's last volleyball game against KMS, went into overtime and lost by 1!!! Gretchen was named top server, top vocal voice, and most likely to lose her voice!!! The week of the 10th will be basketball tryouts. Guess who is gonna tryout?? The other band picture is the ending of our theme Magnetism. Band of America was amazing....many interesting bands. In case you hadn't heard, we placed 9th of 53 bands. We participated in state which was for the 5a and 1a (i think) ...31 bands....the top ten played in the evening. We didn't go on to the evening part. There are sooooooooooooo many bands in this state, it is hard to compare to Indiana. That is the end of band competition. Now on to drumline competition and winterguard. Yeah us................

Life Begins....Again.....

The Symphonic and Ensemble band play for ISMS football game...here Gretchen is doing her snare part. This weekend she has percussion sectional competition. Go girl!!

Birdville Band Competition

Kayla in action..............Isn't she or they awesome? I know...I am her mom.

Texas Football and Band go together...

The indianettes are waving their poms, the band is huddles together to play the fight song and off we go!!! After shots of both Kayla and Stephanie that night of the 16th. We won!!!

Random pictures from Texas fair

Mike's parents were here the week of the 13th so we went to Texas Fair. A very rattley ride with mom and the girls. And.. Kayla and Mike went to see the "small" animals at the fair.

Can you imagine getting stuck on this huge, huge ferris wheel??? Not me!! No way, no way.

OCTOBER BLURRRRS BY!

How events happened this past weekend............. Stephanie and Kayla went to ODessa with the band to perform for state qualifications they left 10 am friday (due to no school ) and came back four am. Sunday...whooped. results... they came in first place out of 18 bands. In prelims...they came in 3rd with the final show ...FIRST!!! SO this will be our first state experience with the band since we have moved here and also because they go every other year. Reason..........way too many bands out here!!! What else happened that weekend? Gretchen had a velleyball tournament and their team came in second place. Yeah them!! Gretchen powered the bal across many times... the coach calls her the "element of surprise". YEh...baby. Then later Mike , Gretchen and I went to a friend's company picnic...beautiful 83 degree day. We had to go in the shade to cool off! Mike and Gretchen raced through blow-up race course and guess who won???? Gretchen. But, Mike did survived and we didn't have to give mouth to mouth!!! After that...
Gretchen went babysitting and we watched awful Michigan game. BOOOOO-hooooo.
BUT HEY!!!!! MY PHILLIES ARE WINNING!!!!!!! woop, woop, give me another one!!!! WHoop!!! Just in case you have no clue who I am talking about--- baseball.

Homecoming Parade and game time!!

Gretchen and the Indian Spring Eagles Volleyball

Gretchen's job is setter and server. She currently has been their top server for every weekly game. She usually scores between 7-12 points. Never look at her size!!! Just her power!!!!

First day School Pics!!!

bright and early pics...6:30 am.. Oh mom!!!

Summer pics and.........

Found some fun lake pic from July...gretchen and Stephanie tubbing and Kayla by herself. Funny!

Catch up Time!

Cannot believe October is here. what fun we have had trying to get school schedules correct, people in right math classes, and actual teaching teachers. Glad September is over due to that mess. In between school we have had volleyball practices and games, loads of dance classes, and competition dance practice,colorguard practice and football nights, band practice and drumline competition. And of course................ sleep!

Mike has been traveling between ananda and Missouri for pasdt few weeks and look forward to November when we hope he will be around more. With him gone Susan picks up her heels and works with preschoolers Tuesda and Thursday and tries to keep everyone's schedule straight and maybe help out with Algebra, Physics, English etc.. Get the pretty picture....... It is fun in an odd way. Try it........... maybe you'll like it too. LOL!

This is picture of Stephanie from drum competition and they came in 6th. Not too bad. Room for improvement. The other is Kayla resting from flagging on field at halftime.

A JOB!!!!

YES!!! I finally did it! I am officially a two yr. old pre school teacher. I had applied to 2 schools and now I have a 2 day a week job. With my other days I will be subbing for KISD. I am soooooooooo excited. I have waited and patiently prayed and waited!!! YES!!!!
Hooray for me!!!! WAHOO!!!!!!!!!

RAIN!!! Lovely rain

We got rain and thunder and more rain this morning at 3 am... It was wonderful to hear. I mean the real rain that creates floods and really wets your grass and plants. Then....again at 8:30 am... WE GOT RAIN!!! It was so awesome to have. And guess what???? No humidity came with it. It is a lovely 92 degrees today. LOVING IT!!! AM I nuts...........yep.

Random thoughts..............

Okay.... I am sitting her waiting for bathtub to unclog since the previous owners used it for all their dogs to be bathed in... so it taking a while. yes...today is bathroom cleaning day ....all four of them. hahahaha.

I decided that I am going to take a photography class. My friend Liz has been taking amazing pics since she has taken a fresher course and maybe that will improve my eye. Of course I need to pinch my budget just a bit more for that!!

I also decide that I need to learn about quickbooks. It seems little companies that are hirng here want that...I don't have it. But am willing to learn.

I have signed myself up to sub in grades 1-12 around her and hopefully will be busy... my other job could have the potential of being a third shift worker at Kroger so I can go to an island or carribean adventure next year.

My biggest job is researching insurance companies to get the better deal on house and cars since I live in the metroplex. Any ideas???

So that is my random thought process for now. Tune in for more excitement!!!

Better yet........maybe take some classes and think about getting a masters degree in something. Alright ..this is enough!!

Insane Stephanie meyer fans!

Yes! A little late, but I am admitting to going to the big opening of Stephanie Meyer's new book., Breaking Dawn. Last friday at 8 p.m. Kayla and I went to the wedding party at Barnes and Noble. What a show that was.......wished we could of flown somewhere to get her signature but oh well. We dealed. The show was as follows......... K dressed as party of wedding party in lovely lavendar and black. Me...went as me. Many others dressed in wedding gowns, both beautiful and dark..theri version. Many came in t-shirts with all kinds of messages about Edward and Jacob. There was a Ma And Pa there dressed as Edwards parents..........they were very cool!!! I guess they have "real" fangs. Part of their shop advertisement. Anyway...I think they won first prize. Many other crazy dresses were scene. kayla saw a lot of her colorguard friends and friends from school...so she ditched me. Good...now I could sit and check out all the way cool people and sights!! Members of the party got to experience readings,lots of talking, chess, picture taken,waltzing and salsa dancing AND waiting for the book to be opened. We did not pre-order. Duh!! But we were encouraged to get a wrist sticker to acknowledge that we will buy a copy tonight. Sooooooooooooooo we waited and waited. By 11 ish I started to look around and realize that we weren't getting out till two am.... So I got Kayla and said we are outta here! She was disappointed.but...fear not... Walmart was on our way home and we waited 20 minutes for their opening of book and GOT IT!!!! Out the door we went 12:05 am.. Yeah us. Isn;t life grand when it goes the way you plan it????! LOL

A cloudy day!

I cannot believe it! We had a cloudy day from early am till 3 p.m. It was wonderful...my skin did not sizzle, I didn't break a monstrous glow of moisture... And the biggy........ the temperature was a very cool 96 degrees!! It is amazing what ten to twelve degrees can do for a person. So what did I do that day? I got new streaks in my hair...went to lunch at quaint Italian joint...and toured downtown Keller. There are a block or two of little shops that you go tour........... and of course spend money but since I was poor since Monday I ahd no money........ I window shopped. There was a shop that for very girly girls and a bakery there too givng frsh strawberry cupcakes away...didn't ea them though... went to very eccentric shop with a few items I could think to buy for myself or someone... another shop had lots of smeely soaps, lorions, jewrly and sand art. Went a little further and saw more eccentris itmes and weird that decided It was fun to visit but not for me. That... my friends... is the jist of my day till 4 pm.. The rest is horsy!!! Tah

July -- Horse Competition

Good things finally come to K. She finally decided to compete in horse jumping even though it is sooooooooooooo warm here. She was decked out in her grab...black velvet hat, tan breeches, white long sleeve shirt, whip, boots and horse--JJ. SHe arrived 7:30 am.. and waited her turn .... noon. ugh...........ugly heat way out in country. She was melting fast. The fun wore off and she needed to be done and out of her hot clothes... but wait she warmed the horse up AND fell off 2 times!!! Oh no! Alas, her instructor said, great K, now you can jump 3 feet over bar with no regrets!!! And ....... she did. She came in 10th place out of 22 girl jumpers.

Baseball

What a fun week! Besides the heat....blah, blah, blah. I got to go to a Rangers (baseball) game with Mike on Tuesday. What a neat looking stadium ...I hear George Bush had a hand in it. I was impressed for a stadium that was built maybe ten years ago ooked so good. But, this is Texas! The seats that we had were good...11th row from home plate. It was quite entertaining with the team doing well, and all the busy people and sellers to watch. Then how cool is this!!! A very mature lady and got up to beat her tom, tom for the Rangers to hit a home run!! She has been doing this for years and years and has her own seat now. next to her sits a very dressed up man in chaps and all that gear. I was hot wearing a t-shirt with shorts...cannot imagine how he was feeling. What a great fan. Also with us was the HR lady from Ca. that works with him and his boss. We did the usual food thing water, hot dogs, nachos, pop, and yes....cotton candy folks! Yummoo. All in all it was fun for smeone who doesn't enjoy baseball since it is slow and boring ...I think it helped being so close to the action...maybe I will go again. The rangers beat Seattle that night. Good job for them. I aslo got to the the vision of one billion dollars!!!! Yes..the Dallas Cowboy Stadium in the making. So far it looks alienish. I still cannot believe that it costs that much................ I know it's texas.............. can you imagine what you would do with one billion dollars?? I cannot imagine.......................

HOT!!!! HOT!!!!!!! HOT....

What a week we had. It has been 103-107 degrees and well...I want some doggone rain. Sun is totally boring now. Sun... lovely hot, hot sun. It makes your skin scream aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh
no more please!!! The girls and I have been hanging since this week the older are gone to band activities. We did the rent the movie thing.......10,000 B.C. not good. Good enough for a dollar though. We rented She's a Man. I didn't watch that but K and G said it was good. We want to rent Penelope but it is always out. We or I wanted to go to see Mama Mia but adult friends were gone on vacation...........ya know Florida, Mexican Riviera, Calif. Washington and such. We watched Mulan for fun because of the music. Oh and College Road trip ...I laughed till I needed to have a moment to put myself back together!!! Loved it!!!!! It kind of reminds me what will happen in less, less folks than 2 years............. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Yes, it's hot ...we have a pool.......... but certain temps. don't feel refreshing anymore.......... ummmm 90 degrees in pool??? No thanks. We went to a water park on friday called NRH2O. A blast that was. They had many slides of diff. sorts, a rollercoaster designed to get you wet baby!!! And, of course the wave ool and lazy river all for $22 pp.. I laid in river and wave pool.............nice! A friend of mine wa sthere with her younger kids and we had a blast catching up since the summer has arrived. One thing we forgot to do ...put sun lotion on our backs!!!!
Oooouchhh! All 4 of us were hot that night. It was a lot of fun...we enjoyed subway subs for dinner since we were so tired and exhausted from putting way to o much energy in sun bathing and getting wet! haha. So if anyone comes to visit ... in the warm months...really warm months we will go to NRH2O. After band camp and colorguard camp is done we hope to visit Six Flags which is 40 minutes from us and Hurricane harbor...another wet and wild adventure. The hopefully we will visit Ok. to go to waterfall and river with tubes!!! Yes. Sounds waterfuly delicious.

No pics of us at waterpark........... only memories!

What I like about Texas

Okay...after visitng the midwest I thought I woudl rearrange my thinking for now. I want to list some things I do like about here.

Here goes.......
i love the tex-mex food.....especially the steaks...yum-mo.

i enjoy the shopping...especialy for shoes and purses

i enjoy our neighbors/the close ones

i enjoy the warmth to an extent...not 100 plus.

i enjoy not havinf allergies and sinus pain

i love church being 5 min. away (although with 586 ppl. you need to get there earlier) and the stake ctr. 6-7 min. away

i enjoy the choir there because it is very organized and spiritual and fun

i love our pool because you can go in anytime or as much as you want as long as no major worms or spiders are there too!

i love the culture and free concerts at the parks and certain shop ctrs. I love free!!!

I like and love paying lower gas prices than midwest!!

I think for now that is enough......... I will work more on that subject as the months go by.

Time has passed.............

Here I sit ...thinking where did June go? Oh, and where did July go as well? June was as follows...school ended the second..Stephanie and Kayla had marching band for 3 days and gretchen went to softball camp. Weekend came and went. Oh yeah........it was 100-ish so we were in the pool. duh! Second week...Gretchen had volleyball and basketball camp the other two babysat and slept in. Lessons and drum challenges were in the process. What did Susan and Mike do? He worked and worked...no...went to Utah and California for work and little pleasure. She......... ran around like crazy person? Yes and tried to keep spiders (icky!) and big toads out of her garden that is trying to figure out where to go. Nasty spiders. Toads... okay can handle. Following week. Gretchen ..again..went to percusion camp with 3 other girls from her school. She was gone from 8-5 every day.... we missed her! SHe learned lots so it was worth it. The other two sleep, pool fun, sleep pool fun...out with friends or hung out with mom. yep... it was so.


So June pretty much escaped our family.............. now July snuck in and we dived in for our vacation to midwest. We drove to Ohio the evening of July 2nd and arrived in Ohio by dinner time cleaned up and went to a 4th of July party at friends house. Whata blast!!! Great fireworks and fab friends. We got home around midnight and slept hard. The next day the 4th we went to Coldwater, Michigan to visit old neighbors from Indiana... we hung at their lake cottage ...ate, drank. and jet skied (?) and laughed silly. Fireworks again........awesome!! Mike and I got romantic and slept in our expedition and let our girls hang in cottage...they watched Jaws 2. Partying was going on all around us but we crashed out! We had a few aches and pains the next day but survived. We then left to go see another group of friends further into Michigan at their lake place. Again lots of swimming and boating!!! We ate and laughed and told stories and ended the evening and went back to OHio to Mike's parents house. We enjoyed the day of Sunday..........rest!! Stephanie and Kayla went to EFY at EMU (Eastern Mi. Univ. ) and had a blast... from what I could tell from daily evening goodnights from Kayla. It was weird ...good weird not having them around. gretchen was affected because she was "bored" being with the grownups until her time came to be with Indiana friends. But, she did have some excitement... Tuesday she made 3 different fudges with her memie...then went to lunch and movie with her. I accompanied for fun only. Needless to say... good thing............. halfway through movie...it stopped...and theater people escorted us to Tornado tunnel in mall area. Well, g's eyes just popped and Mike's mom was hustling as well as she could. G was not very comfortbale with threat of Tornado lurking in area since last year in texas we experienced loads of fast storms and a crazy weather neighbor! Turned out... 1/2 hour later.......... all was good. We finished movie and came out to very wet conditions. Whew! I went shopping with great friend Lisa, from Mi, and had blast! We got same style of shoes but different color....just like back in "old" days!!! Loved it. Great fun and nice shopping. We caught up on just about everything! Thanks Lisa. Wish we were closer.........
Anyway...went out to dinner at favorite restaurant in Toledo...mancy's. Cannot remember last time went there..............maybe 15 or so years? Awesome food...had wonderful Halibut to eat.
We enjoyed the atmospere and dining with Liz and Dan Steele. Oh what fun we had! Nothing beats new and old memories............. and just plain fun.
Still geeting reports from daughters about how much fun they were having and guess what...a girl from Keller Tx was there!!! NO one we knew but funny ...hahahaha. ANd, another cool thing Stephanie got to room with a girl from Huntington, Ind that she kinda knew but couldn' commit to memory...Harmony Reed. What fun they had....... and what I might not too. Good for them!

Onward to our journey to Indiana for Gretchen.......... she stayed a couple of days with her friends the Stinson girls. OMG!!! Life was good for G. Bye mom...and dad...see ya!!!

Of we went to visit former employment in Decatur. Then to lunch at Pizza Hut... nothing like that experience in Texas. We visited with Phil and Kindra George.......... life is fine. Lots of stuff to catch up in the hood and church wise. Then off we went to........... a movie for $1!!! Not in texas dear. Maybe $4. We saw Fool's Gold...okay for $1. Next off to where we were staying.... the Shumard's. Visited a bit and then went to fav. rest. as far as mexican .... Cebelloas! Yummo!!
We then visited with Joan Huber, the Poorman's, The Braun's, and the Shumard's. Great conversation there........... Off to home ...........temporary living .... we syaed up late and visited with Gayle and Larry...tlaked and shared lots. Exhausted.... slept well. Off to mall for Mike to do a little work...Gayle and I went shoe shopping!!! I have my groove about shoes........again! I love shoes. texas has awesome selections of shoes......... so now I am pickier than usual. Found a couple of pairs at decent price. The off to lunch with Alyson Braun and maybe another friend.......at panera. Can you see how much food I am eating!!!!! ugh... I think workouts wil be 2 hours now when I get back to TX. ANyway...........had great lunch.... returned to Shumard's for rest and dinner and more excitement. Left Saturday ...early 5 am ish to get girls from EMU...and retunred to OHio at Mike's parents. Whew........... loads of driving too. We then just hung out and enjoyed the cool whether because back in TX it was 100 104 degrees. We enjoyed many pleasures of fab. ice cream from around the corner...visitng with relatives... oh my dad cam down from traverse City MI to visit with my sister's family and us. Good to go there.

We then journeyed back to Indiana to visit with the Mockler family and any friends Kayla and Stephanie wanted to see. Aaahhhh.. what great weather.........cool in evening...great fod and wonderful visiting. Just like never left. Well...maybe a bit.
Are we "homesick"? In some ways. Maybe for the long term friendships we have made and aren't getting in TX. I know ...after being in Indiana for 19 plus years it is hard. But am glad we made those friendships.............. now we need to just find our link here in TX..... People are different in the south. Sorry...don't mean to offend. I received many pieces of advice before I left and thought I wouldn't need them. I think I do ............. Our journey came to an end 2pm.. on Monday the 14th. Home at last!!!! Mike passed out........... I did whatever to not have to work too hard. We plunged in our pool since it was 102 degrees that day. Welcome back Skeans!!!

What a week!!!

Thank goodness forMemorial Weekend to relax and sleep in from our long week at our home!! It all began with Stephanie's core tryouts for drumline...walking on egg shells till we find out if as a Jr. she will be a varsity or jv player. With that going for her, her last softball game was Monday....they lost but that was okay they beat this team the previous week by 15 points. After all that practice for the core she has not found out yet.... her team for softball came in third place... she got another award for most improved player. Friday was a benefit concert for money for the following year band. What a week plus finally getting all of her scripture mastery verses memorized and passed off before next week. She was behind by 12 and now is finished. Yes!!! Now she sleeps...... Gretchen's week had a lotof action as well...softball tournament games 2 times to get to complete championship. They won both games. Now next week is finals. During school there was action for band also...exams as far as thier knowledge of percussion. Yes all done and will find out results next week. Now that state test are done no more teaching is done. They have play days. Wrong I know...we are in Texas. Field day was this week and her team came in third. Not too happy about that but glad it was over b/c it was 101 degrees that day! Ended the week with sister's concert and a sleepover at friends house. Couldn't ask for better.
Kayla's week was full of colorguard tryouts for almost 2hours a day, plus dance class and orchestra. She had many tests that week and hope that all went well.
What are we doing this weekend??? No kid things!!! It is all about our family of five!!! Pool time, gardenng....sleeping...going to the movies...eating together at a la hacienda ranch... enjoying each other's company...mayne some rummy will be played and more pool action!!

Happy memorial Day!!!

Kayla's Banquet Picture

Too excited to meet all of her friends...and not sure what to expect. No big "graduation" for these kids.... but she was okay with that.

Kayla's 8th grade banquet

When Kayla is not jumping horses, or playing the violin, or trying out for color guard... she gets herself ready for the event of school .... the banquet. All of the kids enjoyed Olive garden food, a slideshow of the 8th graders, getting their yearbooks and signing them, then hanging and getting their pictures taken. Before all of this happened at 5:30 pm on Friday, she found out that she made the colorguard team for the band in high school for next school year!! Wahoo!!!!