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!

Bloggers Block

Don't have a whole lot to say this week! It's been a pretty uneventful week filled with just work, school, and hanging out in the evenings!

We did go to church on Wednesday night. We are going to try and get in the habit of going on Wednesdays because in August we start leading our Huddle group - which consists of meeting every Wednesday night for 4 years! We are really excited about that...

The Butterflies had soccer pictures last night. Kaitlyn sure did wear her jersey and jump in the team picture, as well as a special picture with just her and her Daddy. It was pretty cute. We then took advantage of $1 chopped brisket sandwiches at Bette Roses with the Beards. Kaitlyn and Kaylee had fun running around.

We leave today for the Highland Family Retreat. We had such a blast in the Fall, and can not wait to go back! The weather is supposed to be beautiful! Hopefully we will have a fun weekend of fishing, hiking, wading in the "pebble beach", spending time with friends, sand volleyball, frisbee golf,canoeing and much more! It's absolutely beautiful there - sure doesn't look like Texas!


















Have a good weekend!

Where are people without Church?

Have you ever had "one of those Sundays?" Where you feel like God is saying, "Are you listening, (enter name here)? This is for you!!!!" Everything about church yesterday was great. The funny thing is, I almost didn't go. James was out of town, and I knew beforehand that we would be taking communion at the front of the auditorium. This is not something I usually enjoy doing. Especially by myself. A little out of my comfort zone. But, I sucked it up and went anyway. I took Kaitlyn to "her church," and listened to God. The songs we sang were great. I really tried to focus my attention on the words, which I don't do near as often as I should. Mike's sermon was on being "A Place of Non-Condemnation." Not judging others. Forgiveness.
It was just really convicting.

The Lord's Supper was wonderful. They didn't dismiss us by rows, but instead just said that the table was open - come share. I thought people would be more hesitant, but everyone just hopped out of their seats, eager to commune together. I really enjoyed watching everyone do this. It was neat to see families with young kids go down together, or an elderly couple hold hands as they walked down. I don't know the older couple who served me the bread and the cup. But the wisdom behind their eyes and the sincerity in their smiles was special. It was an awesome communion experience.

I love our class. I don't know why I was all sappy and emotional yesterday, but it seemed as though everything set me off. A couple that I had not yet met announced they are pregnant with their first baby. The wife started crying while her husband was announcing it.

I looked across the room and saw a friend who I know had a really hard week, and shocker - got teary eyed.

The leader of our class got really emotional talking about his daughter who has made tremendous strides in her life lately. Got me again.

How do people survive that don't have the love of Christ and the support of a church family? How can people not believe in God?

Our teacher in class taught about confession and prayer. Confession is another thing I am uncomfortable with, but need to do more. One question that was asked that I am still thinking about is, who do you confess to? How wide do you go? Confess only to God? To your best friend or spouse? To the person you sinned against? To your class as church? All of the above? Just something to ponder....

I am so thankful for my parents. I am thankful for the faith that they instilled in me. I am thankful that they started this path for me to follow. I hope that I can do as good of a job with Kaitlyn.

Sorry this post was so deep - again, not usually like me.

Farewell Mr. Purple!

Mr. Bob Hunter's office is a few doors down from mine at work. The sweetest man you will ever meet. He gave his secretary a purple fish 2 years ago to keep on her desk. His name was Mr. Purple. Since I started working here last June, Kaitlyn has loved going to see Mr. Purple. (Granted there was also a candy dish right next to him, but whatever)

I just went to rinse out my coffee cup, and I found a sad sight. In the break room was Mr. Purple's home for the last two years, next to the sink... completely empty. Poor little guy.

"All drains lead to the ocean" - or so Nemo has Kaitlyn convinced. So, I'm sure this will not phase her. The candy dish will still be there! But, I got a little sad! Mr. Bob Hunter is retiring soon, and I guess Mr. Purple just couldn't bear to see him go.

It's been awhile.....

It's been 7 days since I last posted. Yikes! I don't even know where to start! Let's just do a little play-by-play....

Friday: My mom was in town keeping Kaitlyn... it rained ALL day long, and Kaitlyn got a haircut. It was looking more and more like a mullet every day. It was almost to the middle of her back in the back, and a little past her chin in the front. Time for a change! She was SO excited to go get a hair cut, which made it really easy! Here's what it looks like now:



Saturday: Mom and I got up and went shopping in the rain. We got Kaitlyn lots of new clothes that she REALLY needed. At noon we went to a birthday for one of Kaitlyn's little friends, Sophia. Here, she had her first pinata experience! She smacked it pretty good 2 times! Check out her stance with the bat!

On Sunday it rained all day again.. so we just layed around all afternoon. James taught our class Sunday morning - his lesson was about silence and solitude. He talked about how we need to make an effort daily to spend quiet time alone with God. He did a really good job of stepping out of his comfort zone to lead class. It was so nice to have a long afternoon to listen to the rain and thunder, and just spend time with God.

Monday it was bright and sunny - but really cold. I was not expecting that! Here is our crazy story from Monday evening:

When I got home from work, James and Kaitlyn went to play in the backyard. About two minutes later James starts yelling at me, "Leslie, get your shoes on right now and come see this thing before it moves!!!" So, I put my shoes on and go out there and James said, "Just start walking towards the trash can and tell me what you see." I was like, ABSOLUTELY not!! You tell me what's out there, and I'll decide if I want to go see it or not. So, he pointed it out to me and said, "See that huge thing with it's head sticking up?" I saw it pretty quickly. Is it sad that the first thing I thought was, I have to take a picture of it - this is a good blog story!! I'm a huge dork, okay? So, I went in the house, grabbed my camera and climbed on top of Kaitlyn's playhouse. Here is what I saw:


I was freaking out. This whole time we are trying to keep Kaitlyn away from it. She wants to go touch it and hold it. Right. After I get a good look at it, this is James and I's conversation:

J: "Does it have teeth?"

L: "Yes it has teeth!! It's mouth is wide open. I think it's in attack mode. It's not shutting it's mouth."

J: "Okay. I'm gonna throw stuff at it to see if it will run away."

So, James starts throwing anything he can find at it. After a few failed attempts with throwing pecans, he grabs a plastic yellow bat and hits the thing right on it's back. It doesn't move. Which makes me look closer at it. I said, "James it's not even breathing or moving at all."

This story could have a totally dramatic ending, but Mr. Lizard man was FAKE. That's right. And when James realized this, he began beating the heck out of it with the plastic bat. Then Kaitlyn said, "Now can I hold it?" Hilarious.

Have a good day!

Date Night/Video

We had a fun date night last night! James agreed to go walk around Target with me - I could do this for hours. We had a good time, and I did good - I only bought new shampoo, conditioner and some make up. I didn't even go to the clothes section. I was pretty proud of myself! After Target we went to eat at Chilis. I could eat chips and hot sauce every single day and not get tired of it. Then we went to go see Failure to Launch. It was a pretty cute show. I do have to say that Sarah Jessica Parker just bugs me. Her tan was so fake and uneven, and she wore WAY too much make up. I think Rachel McAdams or Kate Hudson could have played that part better than she did. But Matthew McConauhay - that's a different story! Then we came home to a very quite house.. strange! We watched American Idol and went to bed!

Here is another video for you. This one is of Kaitlyn saying the Lord's Prayer. Pretty cute!



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