Kids with the Rangers

Yesterday, our small group went to watch the Rangers vs. the A's. We surprised our kids and went early for some pictures with some of our closest friends...





Brooke and MacKenzee








Cute Little Callie











The boys and Kevin Millwood



The Tami



Chris Shelton



Ramon Vasquez



Jaime Wright


Michael Young and his biggest fans. Look at Blake's eyes...he was trying to look at Michael. He said that he has "never had a famous millionaire touch his shoulder".



Ian Kinsler










Brady making an awesome catch!










Yes...the Rangers' mascot is touching Blake and he is letting him!!!!



Frank Catalanotto



Joaquin Benoit



Marlon Byrd






It was their dream come true!

You won't believe this...

OK, so it has been awhile since my last post. I really don't have a good excuse - except for the fact that YOU will be soooo shocked when you hear what happened...

A couple of weeks ago, I was driving home from baseball practice in Saginaw. I was on McElroy, which is very dark at night. I stopped at the stop light of Blue Mound Rd and McElroy and waited for the light to turn green. Trey wasn't with me, just me and the kids, talking about school and baseball. While we were waiting for the light to turn green, we felt a not so friendly bump from behind. Since we were in our "newer" used van that only has bike handle bar scratches up and down the sides, I was pretty mad. I got out of the van and went to the car behind me and told the other driver to follow me across the intersection to the gas station. When I got out to talk to the driver at the gas station, you will NEVER guess who it was...

THE WALLET WACKO!!!!

See, I told you that you wouldn't believe it!! She rear-ended me! Of course, I haven't talked to her since the alleged incident. The cops "told" me that they would take care of it. The damage to the van is hardly noticeable. We made minor chit-chat about it - then I let her have it. Now, I know that she might not have taken the wallet, but I'm 90% sure that she did. She denied it, of course, but didn't seem shocked that I had her police record sitting on my desk and could rattle it off to her. I tried to keep my cool and change my approach - I told her that if she didn't do it, then she needs to help me find who did. I also told her about how hurtful it is for a wallet to have your wallet stolen and what a nightmare it is to change everything. I even told her about how my kids were scared to go home for a few days because they thought that who ever did it would come after them. I tried to play on her "motherly" emotions. She said that there are 3 things that she doesn't do...lie, steal, and steal someone else's man. :)

Since the damage wasn't very bad, we let her off the hook. I have a feeling that God gave me a chance to get my point across and give me a little bit of closure. It is very hard to see someone at least once a week when you think they have stolen from you. I have a feeling she won't be messing with us anymore. Maybe the next time I see her, I can have part 2 of the conversation with her. I really would like to talk to her about God, and hopefully, our little van incident can start that conversation.

Now - for my pride and joy...


Blake, Brady, and Brooke took the Bible Bowl test last Saturday. Brooke has been going to class and taking the test each week. She only missed 10 out of 180 questions on the big test. She almost won a trophy! Brady didn't decide to take the test until about 2 hours before they started. He only missed about 20. Blake only missed 2!! He won a trophy for 3rd place.



Our Heritage team won 1st place overall. They were AWESOME. I'm so proud of everyone!!

Finally, Tami and others tagged me...

1. Who is your man? Trey
2. How long have you been married? A bizzillion years or 14 years.
3. How long did you date? 3 years
4. How old is your man? 35
5. Who eats more? We both eat the same amount...looks better on someone who is 6'3".
6. Who said "I love you" first? He did
7. Who is taller? Me...if I'm standing on top of the kitchen table.
8. Who sings better? Tami
9. Who is smarter? Me
10. Whose temper is worse? Me
11. Who does the laundry? Trey. He got tired of me not doing it, so he took it over totally :)
12. Who takes out the trash? Brady
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Trey
14. Who pays the bills? Me
15. Who is better on the computer? Me
16. Who mows the lawn? Trey
17. Who cooks dinner? Ronald...just kidding...me
18. Who drives when you are together? Trey
19. Who pays when you go out? We usually have to wash dishes.
20. Who is more stubborn? me
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Me
22. Whose families do you see most? Mine
23. Who kissed who first? Trey kissed me
24. Who asked who out first? It was a mutual asking
25. Who proposed? Trey
26. Who is more sensitive? Me
27. Who has more friends? Both are the same
28. Who has more siblings? Same
29. Who wears the pants in the family? Me
30. Who is the biggest pushover with the kids? Trey

Sorry so long!!

It's Been A LOOOOONNNNGGGG Time...

I know that it has been a long time since I have blogged about my not so exciting life...so I'll try to catch you up!

Let me start by saying thanks to my wonderful sister, Tami, and my good friend Pamela Anderson, for the blog award. I'm sure that all of you were just as surprised as I was! Tami and Pam - I promise that I will TRY to do better in the future!

I looked at the last thing that I posted and it was on June 22nd...so here is a brief synopsis of what has happened.

June -

23 - 30 - Still looking for the wallet wacko. They created awesome motorcycle checks with one of those check deals that you get in the mail. They used an Omni America Bank address and a bogus account number with Trey's name, our address, and our phone number. So far, we have been turned into collections 3 times. Most of the transactions are $1500 checks to Staples. I talked to Staples about their return policy - you guessed it - CASH back with a receipt.

23 - Blake turned 11. We went to Mountasia with a few fun friends. They seemed to have a great time! I guess this is what you get when you tell them to smile pretty for the picture :)






July -

10 - We went "camping" with the Nanny gang at each other's houses (since it was raining).













Yes, Mary IS painting Blake's toe nails...is that a problem???

14- Brady and my Dad, built an awesome club house in the backyard. My mom and dad are such wonderful grandparents! They like to spend time with each of their grandkids, making projects that will teach them skills.




28- Tami finally turned 30. I think we have ALL been waiting for her to turn 30. I would have posted a real nice picture of her, but I don't think she would approve.

August -

We have decided to sell our white 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan. It has rear air, captain's chairs in the middle row, good tires, and new brakes. We are trying to get $5,900 for it (minimum $5,500). If you know of know of anyone who needs a minivan, have them give us a call. We are even offering an internet special - anyone who sells our van can have whatever they get over $5,500 - that means if you sell it for $6,000, you make $500!










Who wouldn't want this SWEET ride?

12-Trauma happened at our house that sent us to Cook's downtown.

Picture this...It's 10:57 on a Saturday night. Brady is jumping on my bed - which, of course, is strictly forbidden unless I'm doing it too. Blake goes into our guest bathroom so that he can get a good running start and yells, "Brady watch this!!". (He was going to join Brady in the forbidden jump) Brooke comes out of my garage and is running full force to her bedroom. In an unfortunate matter of timing, Blake and Brooke collide at the blind intersection in the hall, sending Brooke flying into the corner. Brooke gets up and runs to her room screaming and Blake immediately starts telling her how sorry he is. Of course, I am in the kitchen and only HEAR the hallway happenings. I assume that Blake has hit his sister - since I just heard "Brady watch this", immediately followed by a scream. (I typically hear these words every 15 minutes or so) Four staples in the head later and Brooke is a fashion diva from Flashdance...


18 - Power Zone Prayer Adventure. Hopefully, by the time you click on this link, I will have the blog updated :)

27 - Back to school!



Brooke is in 1st grade, Brady is in 3rd grade, and Blake is in 6th grade. Can you believe I have a middle school kid?






This is Brady in Mr. Hrabal's class...right before he kicked me out.






Brooke in Mrs. Shawn's class. All three of my kids have had her as their 1st grade teacher :) Tanner is sitting across from her. He has healed nicely since my last post!!




Now, all of you are caught up on my summer haps!! Sorry this is so long... I promise to try to be a better blogger and actually earn my awards.

Alright Already!

I knew this would happen...you are PRESSURED into starting a blog, you make it so incredibly interesting :), then you are EXPECTED to keep it up. I don't know if I can deal with it.

Here is an update on my haps -

We still don't know who the thief is. There has been absolutely NO new developments.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to my wonderful GMF's house. She has the very best house I have ever seen. It is so great that I have decided to take pictures of it and put them here. I'm sure that Tami, Sara, and Mistee agree that GMF and her house are very special!

This is my TOTALLY CUTE Grandma Freda.

Here is her guest bedroom...It has postcards and notes on the mirror that her family and friends have sent to her through the years. If you look really closely, you can see the Disney postcard. I gave her that years ago. She saves everything! Also, obviously, Trey still doesn't do well with wallets.

I know this is blurry...but the cousins and I were discussing what we think of when we think of GMF's house. I love the rainbow fish in front of the clock (that has loud bongs). Those fish have been swimming there for at least 30 years - probably more.

Here is her living room. She keeps the card table up so that we can have a game of Rummy-Q. She's got a couple of those macramae things (I don't even know how to spell it) that Sara's dad made. Sara - too bad I don't have a picture of skinny cat!!

Here she is in the kitchen. She makes the best breakfasts EVER in this kitchen. Her mash potatoes are the best in the world. Didn't I tell you how cute she is????

I can talk about GMF all day long...

As far as other stuff that has happened, you can read about our PZ Six Flags trip on Pamela Anderson's blog or See_Dub's. You sure can't read about it on the PZ blog, because I'm even slower at updating that one! (yak, yak, yak)

I am part of the "Heavenly Bodies" club at church. I have done pretty good so far - minus the big 11 point piece of fried chicken that I ate and regreted right off the bat. Never fear - I'm still in the lead :)

Signing off until next month...

My best WORST day ever!

Friday, June 1st was my best WORST day ever. It started off with Brooke's kindergarten class kidnapping their teach and bringing her over to our house for breakfast. The breakfast turned out great...since I cooked it :). We ended up serving between 35-40 kids and adults.

(Jenna - if you look closely, you can see my tile.)

After breakfast, we dropped the kids off for their last day of school. This was the last time they will ever be getting out of the car at the same school :( As you can tell, they are devastated to be out of school!

Brooke graduated from Kindergarten, Brady finished 2nd grade, and Blake is done with 5th grade. All three kids had all A's on their report cards! The hardest part of the day was watching all of the kids in the school clap out the 5th graders. The 5th graders walked through the halls for the last time while the rest of the kids in the school lined the halls and clapped for them. Talk about bawling like a baby. I thought I would never have enough kleenexes for Trey. My baby is going to middle school. How am I ever going to remember how to do the middle school homework?

When we were on the way to school, Trey realized that he was missing his wallet. We figured that it was probably at home in one of the many piles that we threw into our room while we were franticly house cleaning for the breakfast. I went to work for an hour and he stuck around and looked for it before he went to work, he didn't find it so we decided to continue looking after school was out at 12:00.

When we got home, we had a message from our Visa company...there were fradulent charges on our Visa card! Yep - someone stole his wallet. Don't worry - they didn't just get our Visa, they got his ATM card, social security card, a voided check, $2 (we are rich), and a small bonus check from his employer. We spent hours trying cancel accounts and stop any other charging that they were doing. We also had fun entertaining the police and standing in the DMV line for a new license.

At about 1:00 while we were on the phone trying to clean everything up, every kid in our neighboorhood was on our trampoline. Apparently, one of our neighbors pushed Blake and he landed on our 6 year old neighbor, Tanner. Poor Tanner now has a green cast and an arm that was broken in two places. He had to take a trip downtown to Cooks to be sedated so that they could re-assemble his arm in order to cast it. We have never felt to bad!

Luckily, things started to turn back around...

On Friday night, our church hosted around 1,000 - 1,200 Fossil Creek Little League players and parents for our annual closing ceremonies. It was so exciting to see the church at more than full capacity! We decided it would be a great way to get the Heritage community in our doors.

My proud mom moment was when Blake received an award for being the only pitcher in the minors to pitch a "no hitter". We found out later that he was the only pitcher in FCLL history to ever pitch a no hitter at the minor level (9 and 10 year olds). I taught him everything I know! Congrats to Blake, Brady, Braden, and all of the rest of our mighty Pirates!

Hopefully, my next best day ever won't have any bad moments mixed in!!

Alright,

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