Second Year in a Row - 30 Posts in 30 Days!!

DONE!!!! I did it again - what an accomplishment. Thank God for auto-post! :) I'm glad I participated again this year and it has gotten me back in the blogging mood and habit. I really hope to keep it up, but probably not every day. Thank you for coming back and visiting and please keep coming - you are always welcome!

Cats - Volume 2

Here is random post #2. In case I'm not able to post from Maui, this will be my post for the day. This time, some pictures of Bella. She's really grown! First part of December she will be six months old.

Saturday Photo Hunt - Technology

I set this post to auto-post before we left on our trip. I knew I would not get a chance to blog this day because this is our trip to Oahu day! We leave around 6:30am to fly over to Oahu. In the morning we plan to tour Pearl Harbor and in the afternoon we are taking a five hour Lost Tour in a Hummer! We love the show LOST and cannot wait to see tons of places where the TV show has filmed. I'm sure I will have a lot to write about afterwards! We won't be flying back to Maui until around 9:30pm tonight. So, on to the technology...

We got this new washer and dryer set when we moved into our new house. I L-O-V-E these things. I am happy technology is where it is when it comes to washing and drying clothes. Technology - thanks from me for not having to use a washboard!! :)


I just thought this photo of Rachel is funny. This was the first Nintendo DS we owned. It was the style right before they released the DS Lite. Rachel loved it from the beginning and found a great new way to play it - upside down! We now have three DS Lites in the house. Technology - ain't it grand?!?!?


This is another photo that makes me laugh. This was after Jon Paul got his first Smart Phone. Here he is, playing on the Smart Phone, with his laptop in his lap, all while sitting at the desk with our desktop computer right next to him. Technology - what would we do without it?

Here is Jon Paul and a baby Rachel (only 18 days old!). This was our first laptop! I won't tell you how many we have had since then, which was only seven years ago! Technology - gotta start 'em young!

Here is Jon Paul with one of his MANY computers. He says this was somewhere between 1991 and 1994. He was running a BBS (Bulletin Board System) at this time. Technology - without it, I would never have met Jon Paul!

And yet another photo of Jon Paul in his early years. He said he got this computer his senior year in high school - 1990. I asked him, "Was that a color monitor?" He said, "Yes, it had 16 colors." Today, color monitors have 16,777,216 colors!! Technology - you've come a long way baby!

Cats - Volume 1

Well, I had two more posts to come up with. Both are while we're in Maui. I am really hoping to blog from there, but in case I'm not able to, I wanted to have posts set to autopost so I can fulfill my NaBloPoMo quota. So, here is random cat post #1. I thought I would share some pictures of both cats this time - Kathy and Bella.

Bella wants Kathy to like her so much. Kathy still isn't real fond of Bella. She hisses at her many times a day. But Bella just keeps trying. She watches Kathy, follows her around and picks on her any chance she can get. But when Kathy is sleeping, Bella watches, with a wish in her eye that she wants to snuggle with her.


Sorry for the glare, but they sat very close this time and Kathy never hissed at her. She did growl under her breath, but they even touched noses!

Jon Paul couldn't eat in peace. Both cats wanted a bite of his lunch.

You can't really see Kathy in this photo, but she is in the chair. Bella wanted in the chair with her, but Kathy was swiping and hissing at her. So, Bella got on the desk and watched her from above. And as soon as Kathy got out of the chair, Bella got down and chased her!


God knew exactly what kind of kitten this house needed. One that was brave and had a strong will. To put up with Kathy, she needs it! Bella is tough and will one day make Kathy love her, whether Kathy wants to or not!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wordless Wednesday (with a few words...)

Early one morning, when I opened the blinds in our bedroom, this greeted me. A praying mantis. He (I'm guessing it's a he...) has been back several times since this morning. A nice reminder as to what I need to do every morning as I start my day - PRAY!

I know there are words here, but I had a hard time just putting the photo here without any explanation. I may post again today, if I get a chance. We will be in Maui, but I wrote this post ahead of time and set it to auto-post in case I wasn't able to upload anything! Hopefully I will be able to and you will see some sights from Maui!

Pictures from 11/24

Escalator pics for Rachel and Rebekah...







Ice crystals...












- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

We're Gone!!

Jon Paul and I left today for our 10th Anniversary getaway to here:

We will be landing on the island around 8:45 p.m. CST, but it will only be 3:45 p.m. in Maui! We will have flown on a long nine hour flight direct from Dallas to Maui. We're going to try to blog from the island - we're supposed to have complimentary wireless internet at our condo. Hopefully it will all work out!

Can't wait to see some of these:


And I really hope to see at least one of these:


Watch for more to come from Maui!!

New Moon Anyone?

So, I went and saw New Moon at midnight on opening day. Part of our group met at Mimi's Cafe for dinner. We had a great time visiting, despite our bad waiter. Guess this should have been a sign to us as to how the night is going to happen. He just didn't care about us at all, even though he walked by our table at least 100 times that night. We asked multiple times for refills, never got them until we asked a different waiter. At least the food was good!!

We got to the theater around 9:15pm and found out we had to wait in a line that started right outside our theater door. There weren't too many in line, maybe about 20 when we got there. After being there for almost an hour, we were told that they were showing Twilight in the theater that we were waiting to go inside to watch New Moon. We were a little upset that after purchasing out tickets two months ago and arriving almost three hours before the start time, that we would not get good seats. It just didn't seem fair. But sometimes life isn't fair, is it?!? Well, as we suspected, there weren't any good seats left and definitely there wasn't anywhere in the theater that we could all sit together. I think we split into three or four groups all over the theater. I was on the end of an aisle. Finally, it was time and the movie started. In the middle of the previews, it stopped. Something had broke. They claimed it was just a fuse, but I can't see it taking 30 minutes to change a fuse. Oh well, they did finally fix it and restarted the movie.

And the movie didn't disappoint! It was SO good. It was much better than Twilight. You can tell the directing was MUCH better. They stayed true to the book. It was really good and I hated to see it end. Oh, and the ending? Very, very good. Frustrating, but exciting - especially since we only have to wait until June 30, 2010, to see Eclipse!!

After the movie, we headed over the IHOP to discuss the movie and eat an early breakfast. Again, we had a waitress that wasn't so good. In her defense, the place got slammed - we weren't the only New Moonites that had that idea. But, the service was extremely slow. It took almost an hour just to get our food. By that time we all were just about asleep at the table. So, once our food came, we ate and headed for home. I got home around 5:15am - just in time for Jon Paul to get up and get ready for work. We talked until he left and I slept for 15 minutes before it was time to get the girls up and ready for school!

Very fun night, but I am glad it only happens once or twice a year!! Lots of fun and great memories!!

Gross Food

For Halloween, Jon Paul's office had a scary/gross food contest. Jon Paul was really excited about it and we prepared for a week what we were going to do. Jon Paul had something scary he wanted to do. I had something gross I wanted to do. We decided to do both! here is the turnout:

I made a disgusting kitty litter cake. The girls thought it was so hilarious. It really did turn out gross. Most of it was eaten, Jon Paul came home with a little bit - just enough for the girls to have some. Of course, they thought it was so funny to be eating "poop!"


And here is Jon Paul's scary food. Yeah, he got really creative. Snakes, eyeballs, maggots, severed fingers, etc. Definitely a winner!


Well, Jon Paul ended up being the only one that went all out and brought something truly scary or disgusting. He won the prizes!

Jon Paul thought this was so funny - a skeleton head in the refrigerator. I posted this on Facebook and my witty brother-in-law asked, "What did Jon Paul do to deserve that?" Ha ha, great comment!!

Saturday Photo Hunt - Birds

Birds! I wasn't sure what I was going to post for this theme. I went through my photos and found several random bird photos and originally had them all set to autopost. But that was before the black birds came to our house. The first time, I snapped a few photos with my iPhone - none really great. I thought at that time there were a bunch of birds - and there were. But it was nothing compared to the number of birds that came the second time. Again, I took the pictures with my iPhone, but these turned out better. So, here is the short second visit from the thousands of black birds. Be sure to look past the fence line, those black spots are all birds!

First Fish

One Sunday afternoon in September, our power went off for some reason or another. It ended up being off for five or six hours. The girls wanted to ride their bikes, so we rode up to our neighbors house up the street - Mr. Doug and Mrs. Sandy's house! The girls love to go see them! Mr. Doug and Mrs. Sandy's house backs up to the "lake" and Mr. Doug fishes in it all the time. He invited the girls to go fishing with him and they were so excited. Mr. Doug guaranteed that they would catch a fish - and they did! Rachel was so excited and she couldn't wait to show us - until she saw it wiggle on the line and she jumped about three feet in the air! I got a few pictures on my iPhone. I think Rachel ended up catching five fish and Rebekah caught three.

Guess Where I Am Tonight?

Yes! It's finally here. The second movie in the Twilight Series. We bought tickets back in September for the first, midnight showing of the movie. I'll be gone until the wee, wee hours of the morning. So, I'll catch up with you tomorrow!

Wordless Wednesday...

Community Field Trip

On October 7th, Rebekah's class went on a Community Field Trip. This was Rebekah's first field trip and school bus ride. She was so excited to get to ride a school bus! I was able to ride on the bus with her and help chaperon the trip. The first stop was just down the street from the school - Knights Grocery Store. They were able to tour the store and learn more about our community helpers within the store. Rebekah's first stop was in the produce department. They got to see and name all the vegetables and even got to taste some grapes! The next stop on the tour was the bakery. We got to talk to some of the bakers and they had a table set up where everyone got to decorate their own cupcake and then eat it! The last stop was the floral department. Each student received a red carnation and made a card to attach to the flower. Here are some photos from the bus ride and Knights.

Here is Rebekah with one of her good friends, Jenna. We met Jenna this summer in gymnastics. They were so excited to be in the same pre-K class. I like it because I've made a great new friend and we've been able to help each other out several times this year! Don't they look happy?



After we left Knights, we headed over to one of the Cabot Fire Stations. The kids were so excited. First, every kid got a chance to spray the water hose like they were putting out a fire. Next, everyone piled on the firetruck for a class photo. After climbing all over it, everyone was able to sit in the drivers seat and pretend to race to a fire! After listening to the loud sirens, we took a VIP tour of the firehouse to see where the firemen eat, sleep, workout and shower! Lastly, the kids were able to practice what to do if there was fire in their own house - all in the Fire Safety House. We ended our time at the fire station with lunch and then headed back to school. What a fun trip and here are some pictures from the fire station.

Rebekah was first to spray the hose. I wasn't quite ready with the camera, so I missed the shot with the water spraying.


It's not easy to get 20 four and five year olds all posed for a picture!




I almost forgot. When we were done with the Fire Safety House and went back into the garage, we saw that an ambulance had arrived for the kids to tour. Our class then toured the ambulance and got to talk to the paramedics.