Six Years Old

The last birthday celebration ending last night, Laine can now officially be 6. She is following in the footsteps of her Aunt and drawing out her birthday for as long as possible. We had a grand weekend starting with a birthday lunch at Mellow Mushroom on Friday and Ice Cream at Central Market on Friday night. That was followed by a rockin' party at McDonald's where the kids had Happy Meals, Ice Cream, Cake and plenty of play time. Then, we had Mere, Ryan, and Blake over for dinner and Laine opened her last present and magically turned 6!

Five was a great year for Laine! She learned to read, swim, ride her bike, and has become a great helper to her mom! She has the sweetest spirit and the kindest heart, she really just wants everyone to be happy. I am so proud to be her mom.

I haven't disappeared, I just went on vacation

WHEW! Today I finally got back home for good and it feels great! 10 days ago I left with the kids and my Mom and went to Ruidoso where Mere, Ryan and Blake met up with us. Then, I came home by myself (9 hour drive, mind you) with the kids so Jonathan and I could go on a couples float trip on the Comal River. Both trips were really fun. I'll focus on Ruidoso in this post. First of all, two very important family members couldn't go and that totally changed the trip, not for the better guys, Dad and Jonathan had to stay put and do adult things, like work. We went to the horse races, I lost money, we went to the Casino, we all lost money, we played in the river and looked for jewels, we shopped, ate, played, laughed, all the things you're supposed to do on a trip. We even went to the Flying J Ranch one evening, that is not something we would normally do as my Dad shys away from anything in Ruidoso that does not include hiking, hiking or hiking and maybe some biking. It was fun, especially for the kids, and the shows before and after dinner were really entertaining. Our friends the Bixby's treated all of us, so thanks a bunch to them for an excellent night!

Horse races, no horse pictures though.

The hike Dad would have hated, don't laugh at my hat, but it was a good one for little legs.The Ware family at the Flying JThis last picture is a snapshot of my sister doing something that made me laugh really hard. She was on a type of bungee apparatus and was attempting to do a flip, she wasn't successful but it wasn't because she didn't try. I'll have to let her give the details from her perspective, I'm sure we'll all be able to laugh right along at her.

Girls and Guns

Yesterday Laine and I got to have a Girls' Day! First, we went to have our toes done. I had a pedicure and Laine was going to have her toes painted with a cute design. She got to do the big girl thing and go off by herself to have them done. I'll have to say I was a little anxious while she was off getting pampered, that kind of surprised me. When she came back to where I was she had her fingers an toes done with designs and the bonus was when I went to pay, hers was only $10!!!! What a great deal, I think I've found my salon. Then we went and had lunch at Jason's Deli, we ate inside and then went out to sit on the patio to eat our ice cream.
After we got home Jonathan and Bowen told us about their Boy Day at the Gun Show! Jonathan said Bowen was in awe of all the cool stuff, especially the binoculars. We all had rest time and then went swimming later in the afternoon. It was a great day!

Hopefully, I will have some excellent pictures to post later today. Some of us are going to try out for a game show. I'll give you a clue: "We surveyed 100 people..."

Hello? Yes, I'm cool. How's it going?

If I call you and the caller ID says "A girl with a really awesome phone is calling you", it's probably me.

Yes, I stood in line yesterday morning to get the new iphone, and yes that probably makes me a nerd, but remember I was already a nerd for standing in line for various Harry Potter releases, so nerdiness is not new to me. The only difference is waiting for Harry Potter and waiting for the iphone is yesterday no one was dressed up like an iphone.

I still haven't read any of the instructions so I probably know only about 5% of what the phone can actually do, but it's still totally cool.

Test, Test, 1...2..3...Mic check, mic check

Ok, can everyone hear me? Good. Hold on let me step up on my soap box, alright I'm ready.

I just watched a segment on the Today show that made me laugh out loud, not because it was funny but because it was absurd. The segment was on cutting your budget in half during our hard economic times. I was interested because I'm always interested in money saving tips. The segment started and it was about a family in Texas who spends $660 a week. So the challenge was to cut that in half.

Here are the things they cut out: getting the car washed, Starbucks, pedicures and manicures, eating out, trips to the mall, having the house cleaned, lawn service.

They were successful, they cut the budget almost 80%, great for them. However, what about the people who never even did any of those things? What about people who couldn't afford groceries before they became more expensive? What about the families who can't afford gas to get to and home from work?

Or, what about middle income families? Who splurge to eat out once a week, who now have to budget gas, who already mow their own lawns, clean their own houses and make their own coffee? WHAT ABOUT THE NORMAL PEOPLE? Come on Today show, give a sister some help!

While I'm on my soap box, let me something else off my chest. This may seem out of left field but, whatever, it's on my mind. Let's discuss the Dixie Chicks. I read a blog the other day where the blogger had been to see Charlie Robison and she stated that he was married to one of the Dixie Chicks and made the comment that that wasn't something to be proud of. I'll have to say I was shocked. I mean wasn't that whole thing a long time ago? My love for the Dixie Chicks never wavered through the whole "George Bush sucks for taking us to war" stuff. I think they are talented artists, perhaps Natalie said too much, but we are a narrow-minded people if we hold that grudge for long. And aren't most of us somewhere in the back of our heads thinking that maybe it's time to bring our sons and daughters home? That maybe it's time for this war to be over? Time for George to hit the road...

I think I'm going to sing extra loud while I listen to my Dixie Chicks CD today.

My kids need a playdate

They aren't playing very well together and a playdate always makes that better.

I'm not even going to talk about 4th of July because I can't get my pictures to load on blogger.

This morning I went to Discount Tire to have my tires rotated and left 10 minutes later because I need 2 new tires instead, aaack. Tires are not fun money spending.

I've got to be the applier of sunscreen this week so I can be not -so- tan for my dermatologist appointment. I don't want to get a hard time.

Bowen has earned two G.I. Joes for pooping on the potty, we're making progress.

Friday the new iphone is launching and I really want one. Jonathan is going out of town so if I want to be in line to get one Friday I have to take the kids with me. Anyone want to babysit at the crack of dawn on Friday?

The summer is flying by all of a sudden. I'm really feeling wary of my new job. Maybe that's why things are going fast, because I'm nervous.

Opinions and Pictures

OK I need some opinions:

First: Is it time for me to get my roots done? Some stylists I've asked have said to wait until my roots are an inch long. That seems pretty long for someone with short hair. But what they are telling me would save me some money. What do you think, how do the roots look?

Second: How do you get a three year old to poop in the potty? I've said before that I'm not the most patient potty trainer there ever was so the pooping thing is getting old real fast. Bowen can tee tee any time we put him on the potty. He's pooped at both his grandparents' houses but not ours. Grrr...Any suggestions? He better be glad he's cute.

Here are some pictures from our visit to Abilene and the train ride Mimi, Bowen, Blake and I took today:

I know my Mom won't love the picture above but it shows the hard work we have to do to actually get Bowen to look at the camera these days.