Mom, there's no crying in choir!

Today was a busy one, the big school festival is on Saturday, and today we distributed all the tickets and t-shirts to the students and teachers , it was also Zachery's first choir performance. I arrived at the school early to help with all the festival prep, I planned to skip his 8:30 AM performance, intended mainly for students, not parents, and attend his 1:45 and 7:00 PM ones. Well I had to drop off Zachery's choir attire before getting to work on festival stuff and, needless to say, if you find yourself in a room full of 10 year olds in formal wear you will end up buttoning a lot of collars and sleeves and fastening countless bowties! Eventually I managed to escape the dressing area, but I didn't get far enough because at 8:30 I caught a glimpse of Zachery up there on stage, front and center, singing his heart out with the rest of the choir! I was drawn to the room like a moth to a flame and found myself watching the performance anyway...and bawling through the whole thing! I don't know if it was the fact that Zach looked so grown up in his bow tie and tuxedo shirt, or because my once shy child was standing in the front row singing for a roomful of people, or maybe it was the touching songs they sang....but boy did I cry. Yep, I'm "that" mom...the weepy one who claps too loud and takes too many pictures. Here are some of them!

Dosey Doe and then some...

So I've been a little lax about updating this...but it's not because there hasn't been a lot going on! First off, a good friend of mine here in Texas just moved away...to Alaska of all places! I met Julie shortly after we moved into our home and will miss her a lot, but we will keep in touch through email and facebook for sure! They left for Anchorage this past Saturday, but unfortunately they only made it as far as Seattle. If you aren't aware, Mt. Redoubt is a volcano in Alaska which has been erupting for the past few weeks, it did so again on Saturday and has prevented Julie and her family from flying in, but hopefully they will be able to complete their journey soon! Here are some recent photos of me, Julie and the rest of the crew!

Here's Stephanie, Julie, and me at a going away hot tub bash!

This is baby Austin, Melissa, Carie, Julie, and me at our last lunch before Julie left :(

In other news, the kids are doing great, Zachery has been prepping for the TAKS (Texas Assesment of Knowledge and Skills) tests, he is waiting for the results of his writing test, he scored 95% on his Math simulation exam (the actual test is at the end of April). He has been struggling a bit with confidence this year but all this practice and the great score on the sim has definitely helped give him a boost! Riley is also doing terrific, he is an amazing reader, loves to write, and is currently doing some "research" on science and the planets on the computer upstairs! They are both still taking piano (Riley) and guitar (Zach) lessons and Riley is probably going to start drum lessons in the next few months. Zach also participates in the school choir, they practice two mornings a week before school, he has his first performance later this week so I will make sure to take some pictures!

Eric and I are both keeping busy, Eric is still designing for trade shows, he was in Vegas last week for a few days on "business"...or so he claims :). The school PTO is keeping me out of trouble, we have our big festival this Saturday. Carie and I have been planning it since December and it should be a great, but exhausting day--fingers crossed for sunshine! Next weekend will be filled with festival activities, we start distributing tickets and tshirts on Thursday, set up on Friday afternoon and evening, and then work from sun-up to sundown Saturday. It makes for a long couple of days, but it raises a lot of money for the school so it is well worth it! Because festival will swallow up all of next weekend, we decided to make the most of last weekend and have some non-school related fun! Carie, her husband Gene, Eric, and I went to the Dosey Doe to see Monte Montgomery on Saturday night. We had dinner first and then headed to the venue, which is basically a renovated rustic barn. Our seats were right next to the stage, it was a great time! Monte Montgomery is a guitarist/singer who plays rock and blues, he was rated as one of the top 25 guitarists by Guitar magazine, if you haven't heard of him you should check him out, he is amazing! Here are some photos of our night!

Carie says this looks like the last photo taken before we pass out...we did not pass out, just for the record!

Here's one of me and Eric...fyi, he didn't pass out either....

And there's Monte Montgomery...see how close we were?

Rodeo Day

Well today was Rodeo Day at the boys' school. This is a big thing in Texas, and over the years the kids have really enjoyed it, Riley was up at 6:40 AM wearing his cowboy gear and ready to go!! This is also one of the many days during the school year where I enter the school in the morning with the boys, and leave at 3:05 with them. Since I was in charge of the line dancing, I made sure to wear my best cowgirl duds, too, although halfway through the day I was definitely rethinking wearing the boots!

A good time was had by all, I'm pretty sure I did the Texas Macarena, Boot-Scoot Boogie, and the Chicken Dance about 500 times each, so I don't feel bad about skipping the gym today. The boys had lots of fun, they roped a "steer", raced stick horses, line danced, and played horseshoes! It's worth mentioning that it was 81 degrees here today, hard to believe it's February! Here's some photos from today!

This is me and my friend, Rachel, Rachel just had to one-up me and wear a bigger hat!

Here is Riley and his buddy, Dominic

Here's Riley racing a stick horse!

This is me and my friend, Michelle, my hat is crooked because I've been dancing for hours!

Zach line dancing, not his favorite activity!

First Post!

Well, here goes. All the cool kids seem to be blogging these days, so I've decided to give it a shot. I'm hoping it will serve as something of a public journal for myself, while also allowing friends and family to keep up with our daily lives here in the Lone Star State.

Currently, not much to report, Zachery is nursing a bad cut on his finger, but is healing nicely. He was trying to fix the kickstand on Riley's scooter for him and the spring slipped and sliced him pretty good, no stitches, but he's wearing a splint and will need to take a break from his guitar lessons, at least for this week. Poor Zach has had a rough winter, he hit his mouth on the playground at school back in December and lost part of his front tooth! Here is a recent photo of him at his guitar lesson, before the injury!

Speaking of front teeth, Riley has none! He lost them both in one night a few weeks ago! Sadly, the tooth fairy dropped the ball and didn't come the first night, but then Daddy remembered that there was a "two teeth" "two night" rule...sure enough, she left $2.00 the second night!!

Both boys are doing well in school, they just got their report cards and received "Ace Awards" for their grades! They have decided to stop taking gymnastics and concentrate on their piano (Riley) and guitar (Zach) lessons. Zachery has also joined the choir at school, they practice two mornings a week, and Riley is asking to take drum lessons...yikes. Here's a shot of him playing drums on the Wii.

Eric and I are both doing well, Eric is busy with work, for which we are grateful since so many are facing layoffs right now. I am V.P. of the school PTO, and in the midst of planning our Spring Festival which raises money for the school. Even with all this and running the kids to and fro, we still manage to get out and have fun as a couple, this past weekend we celebrated a friend's 40th birthday, we had a great time! Here are some pictures from that night!