Soccer party and TV Shows...

Last night was our end of the season soccer party for the Butterflies. We decided to have it at Mr. Gatti's this year. We reserved a room, ate lots of pizza and cupcakes, and James did the "trophy presentation." I think the girls had a real fun time! Kaitlyn had a blast handing each girl their trophy. She was just as excited as they were, and she didn't even get one!

Okay - so my TV shows:

American Idol - What is going on with the judges?! Paula, seriously. Stop crying. I really want to know what is in her "Coke" cup. I still LOVED Katherine last night and they totally bashed her. And I still don't think Chris is all that. I just feel like the judges are trying to set him up to win. Paris is just annoying, and I still like Taylor a lot. Pickler was pretty harsh last night too.

Grey's - When will we see a new episode?!?!? I was so excited for Sunday and it was a dang clip show. I'm so ready for this to start back up.

Alias - I LOVED last weeks episode. Some may disagree with me, and that's fine. I just thought it was great. (Other than the 10 minute birthing process) Vaughn is a total hottie and I'm so glad that he is back for the last few episodes.

Mavericks - This one's for you Brenna. I love playoff basketball. Bring on round 2 so we can knock the Spurs out already!!

Let's just face it. I love TV. I love Tivo.

Still Recovering...

Well, we are all still recovering from such an emotional weekend. My dad is feeling a lot better, but according to my mom he is looking worse. All of the bruises are starting to show up now, and he is a little more swollen. But he is okay, and home and that is the most important thing!

It's just the phone call you NEVER want to get. Mom checked her voice mail as we were leaving Sams on Saturday morning and it was the nurse from the hospital. All we knew for about 30 min to an hour was that he was in a car accident, unconscious, careflighted with head trauma. Mom and I hurried back to my house, threw stuff in our bags and headed to Ft. Worth. Kaitlyn was a little unsure of everything - she could tell something was wrong and started to get a little upset. I tried to calm down a little bit and just told her that Pappy wasn't feeling good and we were going to help him feel better. She just said, "Oh no! We have to go rescue him!" Sweet girl. She LOVES her Pappy.

Once we were on the road, we started calling people. My dad's brother was on his way - he lives in Ft. Worth, so we were ready for him to get there and give us more information. My mom's sister got there pretty quickly too. Every phone call we got after that got better. The cat scan came back clear, and he was starting to wake up and become more alert.

We were pretty nervous about seeing him once we finally got there. And while it could have been much worse, it was SO hard to see my dad like that. No one had bothered to "clean him up", and he still had not received stitches in his head. You can just picture what that looked like. When he saw mom and I, he just started crying. That's also something I'm not used to seeing.

I was VERY much surprised that they released him from the hospital that same night. I really wanted them to keep him overnight for observation, but they didn't think it was necessary. So, we all checked into a hotel. He got pretty sick once we got there, and that was scary. But it was just from taking the pain medication on an empty stomach.

So.. it was pretty much the longest day of my life. I've always thought my dad was invincible. Nothing can ever happen to him. This just really woke me up.

The next day he wanted to go back to the scene of the accident - that was weird. We also went to see the car so that he could try and get his things out of it. That was also a strange experience. All of the CD's were scattered around the car, they had put all of the wreckage in the back seat, you could see on the windshield where his head hit, we found a T-shirt of someone who had apparently stopped to help and wrap it around his head. The car was a total disaster, except for his Sonic cup that was still in the cup holder, and his glasses that didn't have a scratch on them and were still folded in the seat. Crazy!

Here is a picture of the front of the car:
















So, he is a lucky guy! He had a follow up appointment yesterday with his doctor back home. Things are looking better for him. Thanks for keeping him in your prayers!

Update

Well, what a day yesterday was. I will tell the whole story at another time, I just wanted to thank ya'll for praying for him. He was actually released from the hospital last night! Only my dad could be careflighted and released all in the same day. He is really beat up and swollen, but praise God his head injuries weren't that severe. Yesterday was a day I don't want to ever relive, and it really put things into perspective for me.

So, thanks again for praying, and please just keep him in your prayers for a few days as the soreness will be around for a good while.

Prayer Requests

Today we found out that Leslie's father was in a verey bad car accident while driving back from Granbury. He was flown to the hospital and has since been recovering.

At this time his condition is stable but we ask for prayers for him and all of our family

ARE YOU KIDDING?!!?!?!

MY STUPID DVR DID NOT RECORD ALIAS LAST NIGHT. I AM BEYOND MAD. I'M WAITING FOR ITUNES TO PUT IT UP. IF ANYONE ELSE KNOWS WHERE I CAN GET IT ONLINE, I WOULD APPRECIATE IT.

SORRY THIS IN ALL CAPS, BUT I COULD NOT BE MORE UPSET!!

This and That...

Alias starts back up tonight. That is all I have to say about that.

ACU now has a legit Starbucks in the library. Very cool.

Yesterday when I was leaving for work, Kaitlyn ran after me, and with a very concerned look on her face she said, "MOMMY. I forgot to tell you something. Look out for the Bad Knight and Swiper the Fox." (From Little Einsteins and Dora)

I think Katherine should win American Idol. Paris' talking voice is so annoying, and I guess I'm the only one - but I'm not a huge fan of Chris.

I guess that's all for now!

Have a good Wednesday!

Photo Blog

I couldn't get blogger to download the pics from my previous post, so scroll down if you want to read about it. Here's the recap in pictures: WARNING - there is a lot of them! I'm tired of Flickr right now, so I'm posting the good ones here. There are more, but I'll post those later.

Easter Highlights

Here are a few pictures/highlights from our fun, busy Easter weekend!

* We were able to stop in Ft. Worth and see my Papa. He has been in the hospital/rehab for a couple of months now, and we've only been able to see him one other time. He was having a very good day - up and walking around and talkative. He even ate a huge cupcake (or pupcake as Kaitlyn calls them) that the Easter bunny brought him.

* Friday afternoon/evening we hung out with Nana and Papaw - James' parents. Kaitlyn played outside and had fun chasing their cats around the house. We watched Chronicles of Narnia which was wonderful!

*Saturday we went up to McKinney to spend some time with Jan. The Easter bunny had left Kaitlyn a swimsuit over there, so we heated up the hot tub and let her swim around. Oh yeah - and Kaitlyn fell in the pool. I definitely jumped in with my clothes on to get her out. She had fallen backwards over the hot tub into the deep pool. I was shaking for so long! Swim lessons - here we come. This did not scare her too much b/c she was back in the water in no time!

* Sat. afternoon we took Kaitlyn to see the Easter bunny. He was in the neighborhood just hanging out at a neighbors house! You could take your own camera and snap a picture or two with him. Kaitlyn acted all shy, but we got a cute picture anyway!

* That evening we had a birthday party for Jennifer - James' sister, and Lofton - James' niece. We had a big game of wiffle ball - which our team won - a pinata, and cooked out hamburgers. We had blast. The kids put on their swimsuits an played in the sprinkler.

* Sunday we got up early and made it for early service at PC. It was good seeing friends that we haven't seen in a long time. Kaitlyn got to catch up with Hannah - they sat together during church and enjoyed each others books, stickers, magnets, and snacks. Can't tell you one word that Prentice said.

* The Easter Egg hunt was fun when we got back. Kaitlyn, Lofton and Graham got after it! When it was all said and done, K had lots of chocolate, a few quarters, and even 2 whole dollars. She was so excited.

* After her nap we ventured over to an awesome "water park" in Allen. We had taken her there last summer, but I have to say she had a LOT more fun this time. She had a blast splashing around. Even Daddy got in on the fun (see the picture below.)

* We didn't get home until after 10:00 last night. We were wiped out! But it was a really fun Easter!

Here are more pics:

Whatever. I hate blogger. I'll post pics later. Sorry!

Events from the weekend...

So.. this past weekend was lots of fun! Friday night my cousin Nathan came into town and we watched the Maverick game together with my other cousin Brenna that goes to school here. She is the most intense Mavs fan you will ever meet. We had fun watching the game - hanging out with both of them is hilarious. I laughed a LOT. And the Mavericks won - so everyone was happy.

Rise and Shine EARLY Saturday morning for the 5K run downtown. It was windy and cold, but we did it! It was really fun, I'm excited about doing more of those. One funny story about that: about 1.5 miles into it we saw a bucket full of ice with lots of bottles of Gatorade. We thought it was our drink stop, so we grabbed one out. Well, turns out it was some construction workers refreshments. They were working on one of the buildings downtown. Oops!

Here is a picture of some of the "Moms on the Move" girls that I wrote about a long time ago: (the little girl on the far left is 10 years old. she is a daughter of one of the moms. she finished in like 20 minutes. whatever.)















Saturday afternoon I got a surprise phone call from one of my friends from college that I had not seen since we graduated 5 years ago! Amanda was in town from Virginia with her two sweet girls visiting her grandparents. So, we decided to meet up downtown for all of the Founders Day festivities. It was so good seeing her, and letting Kaitlyn and Aiden play together.

They had so much fun going down the huge inflatable slide, playing in the jump house, eating a $5 funnel cake, watching a barbershop quartet sing (they were amazed by this), riding the train, and doing some little games they had set up. It was a fun afternoon! We were wiped out when we got home. We just got fast food for dinner, gave Kaitlyn a bath and just hung out before hitting the sack.

Sunday morning Kaitlyn got to wear her Easter dress to church. We won't be at Highland this Sunday, so she can wear it two weeks in a row. She looked SO cute, but was embarrassed for some reason, for me to take her picture. She refused to look at the camera.

Sunday afternoon we helped Lee and Stephanie with their house. James helped paint the outside of the house they are moving into, and I helped Steph pack up her dishes. Kaitlyn and Sophia enjoyed playing together. I'm going to have to get some before and after pics from Stephanie to post. It's amazing the work they have done! It's been neat to see it change from week to week. I'm so excited for them to get moved in and start this amazing ministry!

Have a good week! I'm going to get my hair chopped off during lunch. Wish me luck!

What's the matter with me?!

I'll write about our weekend this afternoon or tomorrow when I get my pictures downloaded, but here are the 3 dumbest things I did:

1. I was late to James' soccer game on Saturday, so poor Erica had to watch Kaitlyn for me until I got there. I whipped into my parking spot and saw Kaitlyn and Erica coming out of the bathroom. I got out of the car, picked her up and headed over to the fields. When I got back to the car about 45 minutes later, I realized that I had left the keys in the ignition, the car unlocked, and THE CAR WAS RUNNING. Nice Leslie.

2. When I sat down in the car - still in disbelief - my rear got completly soaking wet. I then realized that I had put my bottle of water down in my seat - without the lid on. What? Am I on drugs?

3. This morning I was running a little bit late for work, but I really wanted some cinnamon toast to go. So, I fixed it and ran out the door. I got in the car and took a big bite - only to gag on it. I had put chili powder on it instead of cinnamon.

Happy Monday!

A Contact Wearer's Worst Nightmare

I love everything about Abilene, except for the occasional dust storm. This is what it looked like yesterday afternoon.

It's FRIDAY!!!

How do you feel about that?!
















We've had a pretty good week this week. It's actually gone by really fast! James has been busy some in the evenings with a little part time job. He's getting to work for one of our friends at church, which is really a blessing. We are both thankful that it worked out.

Wednesday night we went to church and to McDonalds for ice cream with David and Amanda. Kaitlyn was nothing short of hyper while we were there. We sat outside, so she was fenced in - but the girl was just wild. The time change has really flipped her out I think.

Last night I had bible study at our house. It was good to catch up with the girls. We watched a video from the family retreat that Kara had made that was absolutely hilarious. Throw some brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and few funny stories in there - and you have a pretty fun evening! I am really thankful for Thursday nights and look forward to them each week. James and Kaitlyn passed the time at Chuck E. Cheese. Always a winner.

Tonight we don't have anything planned, which I am thankful for. Tomorrow morning I'm running with my friend Stephanie in a 5K downtown. Looking forward to that - seeing as I haven't run in like 3 weeks. That should be fun! After that, I will either go to James' soccer game, or go help Lee and Stephanie with their house that they are moving into in less than 3 weeks. Yikes! Then, we will probably take Kaitlyn for some fun activities downtown. Only in Small Town, West Texas does the whole city take part in something called Founders Day. Happy Birthday Abilene!

Sweet Baby Ryan

One of my absolute dearest friends had her baby this week. I just love newborn babies!! I can't wait to go visit little baby Ryan and smell his sweet head!! I am so glad she now knows what it feels like to become a mom and the overwhelming feeling of love that comes with it! Love you Julie!

Family Retreat

We had a wonderful weekend at the Highland Family Retreat. Kaitlyn remembered it right away when we got there - she was so excited. We got there Friday night and found that we were staying in a cabin with lots of people that we did not know. One family of four and another mom with 3 kids and a babysitter. Random! Kind of strange all sharing one bathroom... but it all worked out!

Friday night we unpacked and headed down to the "main room" to meet up with everyone and play some games. Kaitlyn had so much fun with "her best friend Jerry." Jerry is about my dad's age and Kaitlyn pretty much hung out with him all weekend. So cute.

Saturday morning we woke up to rain and it continuted to mist throughout the morning. But don't worry - that didn't stop anyone from playing outside! James and Kaitlyn took a little late morning nap while I went on a hike with some of the Sophomore girls, their huddle leaders, and some other friends. Listening to conversations from 15-16 year old girls is hilarious. They were awesome, and it was a really pretty hike. Here's a few pics from the top:

By the afternoon, it had warmed up enough for all the kids to go swimming in the river. The Frio river - it was pretty chilly, but the kids loved it. Next spring I will remember to bring Kaitlyn's swimsuit, but this year she just swam in her clothes and absolutely loved it. She made fast friends with a sweet girl named Hannah.

We did lots of looking at fish, playing sand volleyball (I broke so many blood vessels in my arm, it's pretty nasty), walking on big rocks - Kaitlyn's favorite, and swinging on a huge tree swing that Calvin set up for all the kids. He is the one swinging with Kaitlyn.


I think it is safe to say, that Kaitlyn is not shy. She is more social than anybody I know. She walked up to people that she has never met and sat on their laps and just started talking to them. During the talent show there were a couple of young girls dancing to some song and Kaitlyn just runs down there and starts dancing with them. Hilarious. She did not get her moves from her mommy that's for sure!

So many people told us how fun, wonderful, cute, funny she is. To most of these people, I responded with a "Thanks - you may rethink that if you lived with her all the time! She wears us out!" But, I was so proud of her and so thankful that she brought joy to so many people while we were there. She made lots of people smile - like she does for us all of the time. At one point during the weekend, James just said, "We are so blessed." There were so many people there that we got to know a little bit better.

So, to all of them - thanks for making us feel welcome, for teaching and leading us, and for showing love to Kaitlyn.

Here's a few more pictures:

I'm just a little annoyed...

2 Things that bother me:

1. We got new cell phones a couple of weeks ago, which I was very excited about. The only thing I didn't like about it was having to enter in all the phone numbers again. Yesterday, we got new phones again - we couldn't hear out of the other ones. So, we had to enter the numbers again. Does anyone else share in my annoyance with this?! It takes forever!!

2. Our dryer is about to kill over. The "heating element", I think it's called, has gone out again. This is the second time it's happened in the past few months. I really don't want to dish out money for a new dryer! But it is SUPER old. Now, I'm probably gonna have to go to the laundromat to finish up. Annoying!!!

I will post stories and pics from our awesome weekend tomorrow. We had a wonderful time!

Have a good Monday!