My Little Elf

Today I finally decided it was time to start wrapping presents.

Here is what happens when Matt is your helper.

Are you jealous? You should be, we had a great time. Have a wondeful weekend.

Conversation

The following is from a conversation Matt and I had in the car this morning.

Matt- Mommy (said extra loud), I want a big boy tricycle.

Me- OK

Matt- A big boy tricycle with brakes.

Me- Wow! I didn't know you knew what brakes were.

Matt- Yeah, I want one with brakes.....(long pause)....and guns too!! That way I can shoot the police if they take my bike.

We have been working on police being heroes and our friends. Obviously it is not getting through.

Who Am I

On Sunday our church did this. The clip is not of our church but some random one off of You Tube. It is not the greatest clip but you get the idea.



Isn't it amazing?? Watching it in person gave me chills and, of course, made me a little teary. Enjoy!

Life at the moment

**I wrote this post about a week ago but I kept having technical difficulties. Every time I would try to post pics something would go wrong. Sorry it took so long**

Six months in our new home and two months after Ike, our life is pretty much back to normal.

Richard finally finished marching season on Saturday. Most bands compete in their region UIL contest in mid October, but because of Ike, Richard had his Saturday. This was tough on him and the students; it was the season that never ended. Anyways, they did great at their very first UIL appearance. The band received a 1,2,2 which is a two. I was amazed at the transformation of the band. You need to know it is a brand new high school, only 9, 10, and 11 grades, and the band has about 45 kids on the field. At the first game they didn't even have enough of the show to put on the field and you could barely hear them play. Now, they are a confident and great sounding marching band. It was a wonderful moment and I am so proud of my husband.

Matt only attended mother's day out that one time before the storm. I feel like we have finally fell into a routine and he is more excited about our "learning time" at home. I purchased a few different preschool books (Kumon and Abeka) and we work on those when we feel like it. I know, I should probably be more structured about it, but he is only three. We have also taken a few field trips into Houston with our neighbor to the zoo and children's museum. I feel like he is finally making friends between neighbors, church activities, and MOPs.

I think friendships are what occupy my mind most of the time. I am constantly praying and thinking about what I can do to make friends for me and my family and what our old friends are doing back home. I really need to get over all this and I will be glad when I move past this phase.

Anyways, I think I am settling in too. I've joined MOPs, gotten lost a few times, found new shopping destinations and restaurants, and baked a ton (that's why I have so much junk in my trunk now). We also joined a small group at our church over a month ago and I am enjoying the company immensely!

In regards to Ike, we are still waiting on our insurance company to tell us if we get any money. As a result, we have not repaired anything. At first glance everything looks OK but we need to replace our fence, gates, and chimney trim. I will be glad when we finally hear some news. I have had some request for after Ike photos and I will post the few I have. Nothing dramatic but there are a few interesting pics.

This is a pile of debris in front of the park in our subdivision.

This is the same pile but different view. Richard guessed that the pile stretched about 100 feet.Thankfully, this was one of two piles in front of our house. Much smaller huh? Do you see all the trees in our front yard. Not one was damaged.My husband, being the good man that he is, drove around the neighborhood and collected wood to split for our fireplace. Pretty smart huh? We've been enjoying our free wood lately. As you can see, he had a little helper.It's hard to see, but these boats are piled up on land. During the storm, these boats were washed from their marina and eventually ended up on land. This is mister on his first and only day of "school". Poor guy, I think he misses it.

Fall

Here are some recent pics from Halloween and a Pumpkin Patch. You should know that Matthew really wanted to be Batman but they wouldn't let him buy the costume at Wal-Mart. (They really wouldn't sell it to us, they said it had been recalled. Try explaining that to a three year old!) That's what he told everyone when they commented on his costume. He enjoyed dressing up as a fireman but his heart was still in Gotham City.

I love this picture. Aren't my guys the cutest??!

I'm sure he's thinking about Batman in this picture....

This was the only Pumpkin Patch that I knew of in our new town. By the time we went all the pumpkins were rotting. Matt got a great lesson in mold and flys. Needless to say, we went to HEB and bought a couple of pumpkins.

Thanks

I just wanted to give a big thanks to all of you who posted comments last week. You made my "mindless" blogging topic much more fun!

Also, don't forget (how could you??) that tomorrow is E-Day. If you haven't already, get out and vote. Matt and I went last week and he was very intrigued by the computer; I let him push the buttons. Uh-oh, I hope that doesn't disqualify my vote...

Whatever you do, just make sure you vote McCain/Palin. If you decide to vote the other way, I don't want to know. Well, I guess I'll let you claim temporary insanity. I'm kidding. Seriously, make sure you take time to vote tomorrow.

If that's what you want to call it

The other night we were at our small group meeting. Matt was eating a snack at the table while another child was having a little fit on the floor. It was more of a rolling on the floor making the weird noises kind of fit, not really screaming and crying. Matt was watching him all big eyed and finally looked at me and asked "is he speaking Spanish?"