Fun Days

Thursday was my Dr. appointment in Lubbock. Yes, my very wonderful arthritis doctor is 2 hours away. Good thing I only go see him every 12 weeks. However, I have a wonderful friend in Lubbock that I usually get to see while I'm there. Yesterday we met at the mall, shopped and had lunch then met back up after my appointment for more shopping(window shopping - we mostly looked!) We had such a fun time! She use to live in Odessa and our kids are the same age, so we were very sad they moved. It has been great to keep up our friendship over the miles. I can't wait for summer when they come see us and swim the day away in our new pool! Luv ya Laurie!!
Today was FUN DAY at the kids school. They had a carnival in the gym during their PE. time. The dress up theme was Masquerade Ball / Story Book character. We looked and looked for Zach something, but never found anything that he liked. He still had fun, just wearing black! (Today is Black Out Day in Lubbock for the big Tech/Texas game tomorrow. So he wore black in honor of that!! Go Tech!)

Here's a few pics of the boys having fun with their friends. I helped out all day too - what a fun time!!!

Drew dressed up as a knight. :)

He had fun at the games.
Oh, I just knew Drew could beat this kid at arm wrestling. Drew said he squeezed his hand really tight, so it hurt pretty bad.

We are excited to dress up tonight and do some trick or treating around our new neighborhood.

Happy Halloween everybody. Stay safe!

Staining

Dan and I got busy this weekend. We made a trip to our new Lowes Home Improvement center and picked out our stain for the french doors. So far we like it - but if in the end, we don't end up liking the stain, we'll just paint the door white. Our next project is painting over that horrible green!! We think we found some nice colors. I'll post pics of the finished project when we're done. (if it turned out okay! LOL)
I was suppose to finish staining the other door today, but got a call to substitute at the boys school! I was thrilled! It was only half a day and I'll tell you, they were the best kindergartners I have ever been around! :)

Friends

Today my friend Jana and her daughter Grace came by to see the house and have lunch. Grace is in 9th grade and goes to the Jr. High just 3 doors away. Jana has been praying with me over the years for another home, so she was thrilled to come by and see what God has done!
(when I downloaded the pictures, they came onto the blog - in the wrong order!!)
Here I am with the gifts they brought. Sweet!!
Here I am with Grace. We've been friends over the years. It is fun to watch her grow up. She is a sweetie!!!

I am so excited to have my friends over to eat on our new table. What a blessing!

Today

Today was a great day! My good friend (and she was our realtor) came by to see the house and have lunch with me!! Bless her heart, she wasn't even feeling that well, but we were both glad she came. We had a great lunch and great conversation. She liked walking through the house again, now that it is ours.
Then this afternoon when the boys finished homework, we went to the field to see some of Dan's game! He was the "white hat" tonight. The score was really close and he was afraid some of the parents might be "out to get him" when the game was over.
Thankfully it was just us that wanted to talk to him!!

Our New Home

Pluto found a comfortable spot to sit!!! (I've been wanting to get that picture hung too!!)
Hi everybody! Welcome to my new kitchen!! It seems I've cooked almost every night since we moved in!! I love this kitchen!!!

We've been in our new home for a few weeks now and all I have to say is "We Love it!!" God is so good and answered my long time prayer for a bigger home. Truly, it is a gift from God and I like to say it was built just for us, way back in 1972.

Thankfully, there had been some updates to it recently. New tile in the bathrooms and kitchen and some new paint. The paint color is very similar to our old home, so we would like to change it, at some point. The office is a horrible green that will never work and the stripes in the dining room remind Zach of 'banana pudding' so we will work on that one day too. :)

Our family has been so generous to us in many ways. By helping us move and gift cards and money to help us decorate. We are so thankful. We've been able to get a few things we've needed and wanted. Thank you family!!

The boys each had some friends come over this weekend and I feel like we really "broke the house in" - with what the future will hold - lots of boys and lots of friends!!

The dogs even like their new space. Goldy, our big yellow lab, got a proper introduction to the neighborhood and new front yard this weekend. We have a beautiful park with a huge pond and walking trail at the end of our street that the boys got to enjoy a walk there this past week too!!

And right before we moved in, I found beautiful bunk beds for the boys. My mom has always wanted the boys to have bunk beds so she was thrilled that I finally found some! Sleeping has become so much more fun for the boys now! And having friends over is much more comfortable now!! You're right mom!! The bunk beds are the greatest things!! Thanks Grammy!!!

Thanks for stopping by and hearing about our new home. We can't wait to have you here to visit!!!

Some good things

Here is Zach with his birthday present! We all love the aquarium and the fish. Some days I find the boys trying to catch the fish with the net, just for fun. They crack me up.
Here are some other gifts. The lamp was a very practical gift from me, and the cool sweatshirt was from his grandparents. :) He also got a fun Nerf gun set, that, um, I had to put away because the boys were playing with it before school and then were almost late!!!
Drew has a spider project due tomorrow at school. Here is his brown recluse spider that we made. EEKS! A spider!

(you might notice the patio table in the background. It is the one I got the from the garage sale for $50. And you might also notice I have not ever got around to spray painting it. (I still hope to at some point.) The chair covers really make it look good. I paid more for them than I did the whole table!! )

Like Candy?

You might think I like candy or something with my candy backgrounds! ha ha

While I do have a sweet tooth, these candy backgrounds just seem to "fit" somehow.
If you have today off, Enjoy your free time!!!

Happy Birthday Zach! October 6th

Happy 11th birthday Zachary!! I took this picture, even though he didn't want me too.
Birthday cake and family among the unpacking...
Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you!!!
Make a wish!!

It has been a crazy past couple of days. Packing and moving was pretty painful. Where did we get all this stuff and why???? That was the painful part, not leaving our old house. Drew was pretty sad, but the rest of us were ready!!! Thankfully we were able to celebrate Zach's birthday even with all the craziness around us.

It's hard for us to believe that Zach is 11 years old. He is such a fun son and can be very strong willed at times. He is very caring and has a soft heart. He amazes me with his smarts and he takes time to enjoy the things that really matter in life. He loves his friends. He loves to play!! He even jumped in the pool the very first day in our "new" house! Who cares if it was cold!!! We still remember the day he was born and are thankful for his life with us!! Thank you God for Zachary!!!

Neighbors

These were a gift to us from our neighbors, the Cottons; They are what we will miss the most.

We met Mr. Cotton the day we got this house, almost 9 years ago. Once we moved in, I really came to love Mr. Cotton....I took over the yard work when we moved here. Dan taught me how to use the mower, but I never could use the edger. Well, when Mr. Cotton mowed and edged his yard, he would come over to our yard and edge it for me. Then one winter, after a lot of snow, the weeds in the alley came up really tall. Mr. Cotton to the rescue. He would weed eat our side of the alley for me. Wow, what a neighbor!! He also owned a little snack business and every once in a while he would bring a case of grape juice over for Zachary (who was 2). It is easy to love someone like that.

Over the years, they've watched Zach and Drew grow up. Mrs. Cotton would bring the boys neat treats every holiday, usually with money inside! The other night Zachary said he would miss the Cotton's too.

In our new home, we pray for nice neighbors; but it's doubtful we will ever have any like the Cotton's. They have taught me how to be a good neighbor and I'm soooo thankful for them!!