Ms. Clean

I went into my bedroom to find Mattie cleaning the fan with clorox wipes. I asked what she was doing and she responded... with attitude... "This fan is disgusting and needed cleaned!" Well, okay then I am glad that someone wants to clean around here.

Smiling Eggs!

Every year Alison and I get together and bake, bake, bake all day for our neighbors. We love to do this and it has become an annual tradition. This year we were tired and a little reluctant to get started so needless to say we were grumbly. Ali cracked some eggs in a bowl for us to use in the pumpkin rolls. I wasn't paying much attention as she is pretty proficient in the kitchen these days and she went to the sink to throw out the eggshells and this is what we found when she returned a few seconds later. Totally not planned by us but how awesome is it that we found this. Ali and I agreed it could only be God. We then had a great day of baking.

Let the Craziness Begin!

As if our schedule wasn't crazy enough the kids started basketball and cheer on top of all their other activities. So here we go with a few crazy months beginning today... What were we thinking? It is hard to get one kid somewhere and now we have 3 active kids and sometimes they all three need to be somewhere different at the same time - Thank God for carpools.

Our schedule this morning:

730-830 Ali basketball practice at Goodson
845-1000 Austin basketball game
945-1100 Mattie cheerleading (thank goodness it is at the same place as Austin's game)
1200 Alison has a basketball scrimmage

Luckily, we haven't thrown any birthday parties and such in there. Our schedule pretty much looks like this every Saturday from now until April except in February we have a 3 week overlap with Mattie's soccer too - not sure how we will swing that one.

And this Wednesday night should be fun:
Mattie dance 445-630
Austin Taekwondo 530-615
Alison dance 630-800 which she won't make because she has
Alison basketball game 6-7 (rush to ballet by 715, maybe)

Problem all of these activities are 15 mins apart... not sure how we are going to swing this one as I don't have carpools for these activities... hmmm

Okay, this really is just the tip of the iceberg and I won't bore you with more of my rant. Besides I can't decide if getting this out helped or hurt. :0

OU - the National Championship

OU plays Florida for the National Title tomorrow night. Woohoo! Go OU! We are the underdogs in this one but I think this year we might surprise. And to all my obnoxious Longhorn people who make me suffer -- stuff it! We are there, YOU are NOT! So bleck! Even if we "lay an egg" as I was not so graciously told today at the bus stop you still don't deserve it. Again, we are there, YOU ARE NOT! Don't care what happened in the Cotton Bowl - Love Texas Tech right now! And I even rooted for hubby's team Ohio State the other night. They played them good but I really wish the last 20 seconds of that game didn't exist so my favorite Longhorn people wouldn't have their chests puffed out! UGH! ICK! Burnt Orange! Living in Texas is hard.

Tick Tock

Austin said yesterday upon returning home from his first day back at school....

MOM!! Look at this paper (it was full of clock faces)!!! I learned to tell time today!!! The Old Fashioned Way like with a clock that is from 1999 and says Tick Tock Tick Tock!

Texas Tech Basketball Coach Brings on 12 year old

I really liked this story.

Pat Knight uses small boy to teach team valuable lesson

By Eamonn Brennan

If that headline sounds like something out of a Dickens story, well, it isn't. It's more the story of a goofy coach using a gimmick on his players -- and probably embarrassing them in the process -- in order to teach them a lesson about missed layups. But it is funny, and maybe a little poignant, all the same.

See, Texas Tech coach Pat Knight needed to get his point across. Stop missing layups, you idiots. Ah, but how to do so? Layup drills? Sprints? Taking a small child into the huddle during the middle of a game? Would you be surprised if I told you it was the last one? Yes, in the middle of a game against Stephen F. Austin, Knight reacted to his players' missed layups by grabbing a 12-year-old out of the stands and asking him if he could hit layups. And so our story begins:

After Texas Tech botched as many as 15 layups, Knight scoured the stands near the bench and invited a youngster to join a team huddle. Knight asked the boy whether he could make layups. The boy said he could. “I was just tired of having 18- or 21-year-olds miss layups that a 12-year-old could hit, so I brought a 12-year-old in to let them know that he could hit layups,” Knight said. “He’s 12, and he can hit layups, so why can’t you when you’re 18 to 21?”

Naturally, Tech went on to win the game, surely the product of an ingenious coaching strategy by this modern-day Lombardi the fact that Texas Tech, missed layups or not, should never lose to Stephen F. Austin. Fortunately for Knight, this isn't the most egregious display of recruiting activity this year -- Billy Donovan was seen holding a jersey to a woman's pregnant stomach at halftime of Florida's win over N.C. State Saturday. "Can you see yourself in this jersey, unnamed child? I can't, because I don't know what you will look like. But if you get your mother's stare-down, I'm sure we have a spot for you at point guard. Call me!"

Twilight!

I have avoided this series of books like the plague. I had picked it up long before anyone ever mentioned it to me or before there was a movie... hit the word vampire and was DONE! Not reading it, zero interest. Well now this is all everyone is talking about (even some of my friends that don't read) I have told them I am NOT reading it, zero interest, vampires yuck, retarded, stupid, dumb, etc. BORING! Well, I keep hearing about it and told I should read it that it isn't the normal vampire book and is really good. Fine, I relented to see the movie instead but was met with NO, you have to read the book first! UGH! Well, yesterday I was looking around for a book to read and didn't feel like going to the store so I called around and found the book (way too easily I think) I sent Jon to go get it for me and I think I started reading it about 4 p.m. and was done by 1 a.m. So, I now (since I was challenged and I promised) I have to publicly admit that I read the book and didn't hate it. It wasn't the best book I ever read but it was not what I expected, it was entertaining, and I am right now waiting on the 2nd book to arrive (HOLD: it is here right now I just heard the knock). I will, YES, read the entire series and I am not doing so under any time of coercion or force inflicted upon my by my friends. THERE I SAID IT!

Happy New Year!!!

It has been a tradition that I cannot stay awake on New Year's Eve -- normally not even to the ball drop at 11 p.m. This year was different. We had a party at our house with 6 other families from the neighborhood. Kids were invited. It turned out really well and we had a great time. The adults divided up into teams and we had 3 rounds of game playing (Julie B, Geoff, and Myself were the winning team - YAHOO). We played Pictureka, Wii Bowling, Catchphrase, Wii Wack-A-Mole, and Wii Darts. It was a lot of fun. At about 8:30 we did a New Year's Countdown for the kids with a balloon drop, sparking juice, hats, horns, and more. Then we went outside for fireworks. The kids finally settled in for a movie a little after 10 p.m. in three different rooms. Austin was the first to fall asleep around 11 p.m. but all other kids were up to countdown with us at midnight!!! It was probably one of the most fun parties we have thrown in a long, long time.

New Year's Balloon Drop!!!

Todd & Julie -- Jason & Jennifer

Kirk & KarenKreg & Julie -- Kyle & Bonnie
Geoff & Natalie

All of the kids (minus baby Jack he was in bed).

Wine Family 365

I created a new blog for a project that I have wanted to do for a long, long time. Check it out. The new Wine Family 365 - Photo journal.

www.winefamily365.blogspot.com

My Girls In Mexico!

I have put off writing about my experiences in Mexico at the Casa de Misericordia (House of Mercy) for some reason. I can't seem to share my feelings, probably because they are so overwhelming and so full of love that I am not sure the words I use can really express what I feel. Talk to me about it though and I am sure you will see the glimmer in my eye. But I did want to share my two girls there. They are awesome and I am not getting to talk to them on email and get to know them better. YEAH ME!! Having some language issues but I found a great online translator and it is working very well. Now if I can just pick up some Spanish along the way.

Anyway, Meet Sandra.... I really connected to her on my first trip there in September and again in December. She is soooo very smart, likes to joke a little bit but is shy at the same time. She nicknamed Jon "Chicken Little" It was funny!



and Lupita.... she is also very smart, funny, and loving she is alot of fun to be around.