Signing in from the OC

We are on our last day here in California, it has not been sunny so we have not been wearing our daisy dukes bikinis on top...not even Jonathan! But we have had a stupendous time! We have spent two days at Disneyland, gone to the beach, visited the San Diego zoo. We have done some serious work Laine and Bowen have been troopers they woke up early stayed up late and were happy 95% of the time. It was great to spend time with Jonathan's' family. We were hosted by his Dad's cousin Cathy (who I just found out reads this blog HI CATHY) she and her husband Don are wonderful gracious hosts! I will be back later with pictures!

House update, it has a frame and a roof and insulation!

Hello Summer

I am typing this at a Mc Donalds in Mansfield for 2 reasons:

1. We live in Mansfield right now
2. We have to no internet connection along with no cable and no home phone

We closed on our house and moved into a rent house given to us at a very good deal by some friends from SCS days. It is in Mansfield, way far awayville if you're used to Fort Worth stomping grounds. Right now I have no oven or garbage disposal because the people are flipping this house and it isn't quite flipped yet. We're making it though!

We have a home that is being built in Benbrook, I am really excited about it, and will be even more so after spending the summer away from Fort worth! We love where we live!

Here is a Bowen story:

He was at my friend Julie's house and a fire truck came blaring down the street and he said "what the hell?" Only Laine heard she chastised him. Then everyone had the goggles at the pool and he couldn't find any "what the hell??" this time the adults heard. Later they told me how impressed they were that he used the phrase in the right context and everything! I had gotten on to him earlier in the week for saying it just mumbling to himself in the car. He tried to cover it up but he said it! My word! It has been used quite a lot in our circle of friends!

We are looking forward to a great summer of swimming, a trip to Cali, a nephew, and a new home!

The big 3-5

I went and got my hair did...
I needed a change! I haven't had my hair this short since Bowen was born, I love it! 35 is great so far I always say my life is getting better the older I get, God has truly blessed me! Halfway to 40 is looking good...

We have a contract,

we have a contract, we have a contract, hey, hey, hey! I'm cautiously excited, we still have the inspection and all the financing to get through but if everything goes well we will close in May! Thank You God! Now the search is on for a great house for us, and it would be awesome if we could do it by April 30th and get to take advantage of the tax credit for home buyers. Keep you posted...

Happy Birthday Jonboy!

Happy,
Scottish,

Creepy,

or with teacher face

I love and hope 37 is a great year for you ( and won't rub it in that it's only 35 for me)!

Facts:

I have not read blogs in about three weeks.

Our house is on the market.

Jonathan and I may die before it is sold. (because one of us might kill the other)

Keeping a house clean everyday is easier than I thought, you just have to pack lots of your shit up in boxes and take it away!

Oh and tell your kids they can't play with toys. Ever again.

I am compiling a list of things I will miss when we move. I am afraid of revealing the list, lest it jinx the selling of the house. Maybe if I just do it a little at a time it will be OK.

Bowen really does not prefer me right now and if I do something he doesn't like he will turn to Jonathan and say "Daddy you make the best chocolate milk"...WTH!

My 35th birthday is coming up. 3. 5.

We are going to see the Black Eyed Peas on the 19th! Fergie Ferg!

So, life is a little stressful at the Williams house, it could be worse. It will get better, as soon as we finish all the things on our house TO DO list. Oh, and sell our house.

300

It's my 300th post but I don't really feel like celebrating tonight.

If you are connected with ACU friends on Facebook or prayer groups in your church you might have been praying for a mom named Jenny. She was so sick. So many people were praying for her and tonight her husband, daughter, mom, dad and sibling are grieving. She died even though we prayed. God will be glorified. He is so much bigger and more amazing than we can imagine. But tonight I think of her daughter, without a mom. Her husband, without a wife. Her parents, without a daughter. That hurts.

I'd like to thank the Academy...

Really, I'd like to thank Leslie for honoring me with the Beautiful Blogger award!

Here are the rules:

Thank the person who nominated you for this award.


Copy the award & place it on your blog.


Link to the person who nominated you for this award.


Tell us 7 interesting things about yourself.


Nominate 7 bloggers


Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.





7 interesting things about myself:



1. I get up at 5:00 three times a week to go workout before school. I never thought I would be able to do it, the weird part is i am considering adding more days because I feel better on the days I get up early.



2. My New Year's Resolution was to eat more vegetables, because I really don't like preparing them. So, now I lots more fresh raw veggies. Yay for me, not so much for my tummy.



3. I used to think praise music was the cheesiest thing I had ever heard in my life (like the kind with instruments). I was just listening to the wrong kind. Praise and worship music has completely changed my relationship with the Lord. Awesome.



4. I am a pretty good cook but ever since I've had to change my diet because of Migraine, I have hit a wall and have not completely recovered. I really get tired of reading ingredient lists so I buy the things that I know for sure work in my diet. If I could I would just shop at Central Market all the time, that would solve everything except my checkbook!



5. Someday I'm going to have Lasik and a boob job I'm not sure what order those will be in.



6. I need alone time to be a good wife and Mom. I have no problem whatsoever telling Jonathan that I need an hour, two hours, an afternoon, to myself to rejuvenate. He does an awesome job giving me that, especially since he is rejuvenated by being around people. It feels selfish sometimes, but when I get snappy and all it takes is 30 minutes of reading in my room to be happy again I realize it's just who I am.



7. I get trip anxiety. I can be going on the most exciting trip ever and I will dread it. Especially if my children are going. And if it involves tickets, and/or major transportation. Is it ridiculous? Hell yes! Does that stop it? No way! It's not that I'm afraid we'll crash or something like that. It's: Do we have everything packed? Do we have tickets, ID, etc...What if the kids don't have fun? What if someone gets sick? I mean seriously it's stupid. But I end up having a blast on every trip. Sure there is always the departure both ways anxiety but besides that, fun times galore!







My nominees:



1.Meredith

2. Robin

3. Kristin

4. Holly

5. Annalee

6. Nie Nie

7. Mighty Girl

The last two bloggers on my list are famous! But, I wanted you to read their blogs for two separate reasons. Nie Nie is a blogger who is a Latter Day Saint. She and her husband were in a fiery plane crash and were lucky to make it out alive. Hers is a beautiful blog of hope, pain, belief, and lots of cute stuff. I love it, I love her honesty. Mighty Girl, Maggie Mason I would like you to check out because of her life list. She has made a list of things she wants to accomplish (do) during her life, some of them simple, some fascinating, some would not be on my list. It has challenged me to make a life list and I would like to challenge you to make a life list. I'm going to start working on mine.

Whew!

Random Thoughts:

Laine lost her second front tooth today, that means she will be obtaining the chiclet-sized adult front teeth soon. This is why we got family pictures taken a few months ago. Wow. She does look super cute with her two front teeth missing!

I have been wearing my glasses way to much lately, not by choice. I always feel like I'm headed for bed when I have my glasses on, worthless.

We ordered Bowen a big boy seat this weekend. That means nothing. He still can't buckle himself in, I will still have a job. At least he will be able to undo it and climb out of his seat in less than 5 minutes.

Wow! I sound really sarcastic in all those thoughts above! Sorry.

Laine has started piano lessons, she loves it!

Bowen is creepy smart, the other night he spelled is name backwards. I called my mom to tell her and I spelled his name backwards wrong...

We are getting our house ready to put on the market. It is scary. I hate painting.

I have searched all over the whole house for one of Laine's DS games. I gave up. While ago I walked into Bowen's room and it was on the floor almost in the middle of the room. No one had been in there playing. Weirdo.

Tomorrow is Stephanie Day, I'm doing a dance because I'll come home and my house will be clean.

And most importantly Leslie awarded me with the Beautiful Blogger award! Thanks Leslie! I'll get to that tomorrow. Right now I need to finish cleaning up so that Stephanie can really clean!

Alert! I'm actually doing something cool...

I am going to be a part of another blog...I know, I know you guys (or guy, maybe only one person still reads this thing) are thinking that I can't even keep up with one blog, how am I going to keep up with two? Well, hopefully I am going to get jump started on both because of:

Recipes Between Friends

It's exactly what it says it is! Leslie is heading it up, she's so cool and a few of us girls are going to be posting recipes that are quick, easy and yummy for your family to enjoy. I'm really excited about this because I've been in a kitchen rut. Boring. I'm ready to try someone elses food for a change!

So, head on over to the new blog and check it out, I've already posted a recipe!


PS:
I really need a blog makeover. And I'm not smart enough to figure out those free websites, or something. Anyone who wants to practice their skillz or wants to advertise on my blog ...HOLLA...I'm in a blog rut too and I can't pay big bucks for a design.

PPS:
Someday I'll give you some pictures of what we did over Christmas, but I'll tell you right now:

went skiing
opened presents
had a flat tire
went to see Sherlock Holmes
opened presents
opened presents
ate food
ate food
made room for new toys

You know the usual stuff...

Super Speed!

That's a Bowen term for when you need to move really fast, and that is the way I feel like the last few weeks have gone, super speed! We leave to go skiing in Telluride Colorado on Friday morning so I have to have all Christmas things attended to to by then, I'm pretty close but still so far away! I love this time of year so I'm trying not to make it all about lists and errands.

Right now I'm enjoying a peaceful house because my two lovely little children have not been the best best of friends. I think it's a byproduct of over stimulation of this time of year mixed with not enough sleep and I'm hoping it's going to pass because they are really hard to be around right now with all the bickering and whining. I've even had afternoons when they aren't allowed to play with each other! Aack!

Two stories for you:

One:
I lost my kids in Wal-Mart. Laine wanted to get some fruit snacks and I needed to get some almond bark. These two items are on separate isles about 25 feet away from each other. So I showed Laine where the fruit snacks are and showed her where the almond bark is. Physically took her to both places. Dropped them off at the FS, whet to do my thing. 60-90 seconds later I'm done I go and look for them...no where to be found. Gone. I stroll down the center aisle a few aisles each way, no kids. This is in the town I teach in so I had seen several people I knew so I wasn't too worried I thought someone would probably help me out. Then I heard my name on the intercom "Heather Williams please come to Customer Service your party is waiting" at least it didn't say "We will now hand out the Mother of the Year Award to Heather Williams for losing her kids in Wal Mart, Ms. Williams, please come claim your ham". When I got to CS there my children were not crying but smiling, a mom of a kid I taught at my former school was there with them saying what a great job they did knowing all their information...FYI if you get lost in Wal Mart you get all 3 boxes of fruit snacks you haves in your little hands! AND great big hugs!

Story Two:

words that came out of my mouth in 5th/6th PE the other day when asked a question about a game we were about to play:

No...you may not hold your balls with both hands.


yes I said that...then I stopped and laughed about it and acknowledged it, how can you not with that age group. So we all had a big laugh and then moved on. It is the best thing I've ever said in a PE class.

Feast

I asked Bowen to feed Pumkin Batman...

what more can I say?

Life at the WIlliams' house

Has been a whole lot of laying around folks. It's really bad. Medication is to blame. I had to increase my head medicine, which makes me tired, and at the same time my Thyroid was off, which makes me tired. I had to have a frigging fight with the Nurse Practitioner at my Dr. office to get her to increase my medication. Finally my Doctor looked at my labs and increased it, in 5 days I feel 50% better which is saying a lot, just ask Jonathan. Jonathan has also started a medicine that makes him tired, wow, aren't we a whole basket of fun times!!! Hopefully, things will be looking up around here real soon!

Halloween was fun! Mom, Meredith, Ryan, and Blake came to visit and we had a great time. On Friday night we went to see Paranormal Activity, don't worry we didn't take the kids. But there were little kids there, WTH people! That was just about the scariest movie I've seen, I could not wait for it to be over. I wore a scarf to the theatre and spent most of the movie with the scarf over my head with my hands over my face. That bad guys. We managed to eat our way through Babe's and Ol' South with Trick or Treating in between. I felt a need to exercise.

Laine, Bowen, Blake and our friends,Peyton and Logan.

This is a picture of the vampire after she bit the baby's head!

Laine looks scary in ALL of the Halloween pics! Blake is really cute though!

Today I am posting at home because Bowen is sick. I have two stories to share from this illness.

One:

Yesterday on the way home from school (60% home) Bowen coughed so much he barfed. We were on the Interstate, I had nothing to clean him up with. I handed him my sweatshirt to wipe his face, rolled down the windows, and drove like a bat out of hell to the house. What would you have done? Laine was over in her seat with her eyes shut and her ears plugged the entire time, I wish I could have done that.

Two:

Today I warned Bowen on the way to the Doctor that he would probably have to wear a Dr. mask in the waiting room since he had a cough. He cried. I told him no big deal, I'll wear one too. We get to the office, there's the sign that says coughers wear masks so I tell him he has to wear a mask and show it to him and put it on him and ask for one for myself. He freaks out. Heads for the door, yelling that he wants to go back home. So here I am in my mask, he's in his mask now crying, coughing, and gagging. We head to the trash can, he calms down a little but still gags every time I put the mask down. Then the lady at the window tells me forget the mask if its going to make him sick. Every time he coughs the people in the waiting room look at us funny. FYI it wasn't the Swine Flu just a sinus infection.

Sleepiest Vampire in the whole world!

Last night we braved the yucky weather (only because we love the Reinkes AND we forked out non-refundable dough) and went to BOO at the Zoo. It ended up to being a really great time, I dressed the kids in their thermal underwear under their costumes and away we went! It was great, no lines, no sweat like some years, no worries that we were going to lose the kids among the throngs of people...

we did forget the camera, maybe that was good because of the light mist but just look at this sleeping vampire we took a picture of after we arrived home:

Isn't she cute?

Just for Laughs!

You might have to squint at the screen to read the descriptions of poop but yes, there was or is a dude named Bristol who decided there are 7 types of poop. There you have it folks, I would think 1 and 7 would be the most unhealthy ones to have. I mean I say a guy named Bristol, that's usually how science works, this guy must have been the top scientist of feces, I bet he was the talk at all the parties. I'm going to Google it right now and find out for sure.

Edited to add: developed at the University of Bristol by a guy named Heaton. Numbers 3 and 4 are the ideal stools to have. Write that down in your big chief notebook

Skin, poop and costumes

Perhaps not in that order...

Tomorrow Bowen has an appointment with a GI specialist to examine his GI? Really he's been having transient diarrhea the only reason I know to call it that is the Internet. It comes and goes and we don't know why but 4 year olds aren't supposed to have the runs for days in a row. So, they will probably do all sorts of tests that will require prizes, I can't even imagine so I'm just not thinking about it. But what I hope the most is that is doesn't involve him drinking any barium fluid given Bowen's propensity for barfing. So, say a prayer for Bowen tomorrow!

Laine and Bowen received their costumes in the mail the other day and were TOTALLY exited about it! Laine actually wanted to be something scary this year and went for a vampire. Bowen, oh, Bowen. Jonathan and I kiddingly call him gamer, dungeon master etc...but when he requested to be Dan from Bakugan we just laughed and knew our fate was sealed! So here are some pictures of the Vampiress and Dan the Man:

My skin! It looks better! I wanted to show some before and after pictures and tell you guys what I have been using just in case you are interested. Some of it is Wal Mart cheap some of it is a Rx and some you need to get on Ebay so it is not so expensive.

This picture was taken right after I went to the dermatologist:

About 4 weeks after I started using all the stuff they told me to use:

Taken Last week:

Here is what I am using:

A face wash without any oil in it Regular Cetaphil not the one for oily skin, funny enough it has oil in it.

RX- Epiduo it has benzoil perozide and whatever Retin-A is in it. It's awesome!

At night I use a Glycolic acid face wash from Jan Marini. You can get it cheaper on ebay.

At night I also use an antioxidant face cream from Revale. It's expensive, but has won awards and every woman in my dermatologist's office uses it. Again, look on ebay to find it cheaper.

Oh and please excuse my right eye in those pictures, it had decided to go off and party the night before those pictures, and is actually still misbehaving and partying all night long! It looks terrible!

Eagerly awaiting the mail!

Because I knew that our picture CD from Now and Then Photography would be in my mailbox one day this week! Lisa is awesome as I have said before, here are a few more pictures that I love! I can't wait to put them in frames all over my house. They are beautiful, funny and bring out the best in each one of us! Thanks again Lisa!

Date Night!

We had a Mom/Bowen, Dad/Laine date night last Saturday! Jonathan had the idea and it was great! He said we needed to spend some alone time with each of the kids once in a while so we are starting a family tradition!

Bowen got to choose what he wanted to do, I know that's a little risky with a 4 year old but I thought he chose well. We went to eat at Chili's and the went bowling. His first choice was Putt-Putt but it was raining so we had to have a plan B. BTW, Bowen beat me.

Laine and Jonathan went with the surprise date. Jonathan took Laine to the Italian Inn and then they ventured over to the Miniature horse show at Will Rogers. Laine loved it and at one point I actually received video of mini horses pulling regular sized people in carts. Wow. They had a blast.

What's up???????

Friends I am tired. If you don't know my schedule, I get up at 5:00 on MWF to go and workout at the Y, on Thursday I get up at 5:30 and workout at home. Tuesday is my day to sleep in. I teach 44 children constantly from 9:40-3:40 on MWF with only a lunch break and no assistant. Now, if you think that is complaining, it's not! I cannot even begin to explain how much better I like my job this year! I might even love it sometimes (shhh don't tell anybody)! But it makes me tired to the BONE.

Today I received a note from a parent that went something like this:

Mrs Williams:

Please excuse Ann from PE today she is still trying to get over a couch. If you have any questions please call me.

Thanks,

Mrs. Ann

Yes, Mrs. Ann I have a question...is a couch so hard to get over that you kid can't play 4 square? I mean it's just cushions and stuff! HA! That one really cracked me up!

Laine and Bowen had their first soccer game on Saturday! Laine did a great job she even scored a goal! Bowen and his team basically chased the ball kicked a couple of times before it went out of bounds. They will improve but he sure was cute!

Family Pictures!

Lisa Woods of Now and Then Photography did an awesome photo shoot for us the other day in Fort Worth. We were near the ghetto which totally suits our style, check them out:

You will have to scroll down a bit to see a sneak peek!

http://www.nowandthenphotography.com/blog/

I can't say enough about the greatness of these pictures, Lisa captured the essence of our family!