Dallas

I'm in Dallas now....nothing exciting to report from here! Definately nothing exciting from Oklahoma last week....we were actually in Norman the whole time, so ugh! I'll be back Thursday....and I'm looking forward to a pool weekend this weekend! Now that the house is finished and on the market, I'm going to avoid being in it to keep it clean, so we'll be at the pool from open to close:)

BUY ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know you want to!! :) Our house is FINALLY on the market, after about 6 weeks of working on it. Here are some pictures...I'm so ready to be able to sell it and start building something!!

The Living Room:


The Dining Room:


The Kitchen:

Master Bedroom:

Office:

Bathroom:

I Must Have Trouble on my Hands!!!

I'll let the picture speak for itself.........................

No I won't......WHAT????? I walked in and Caroline was tying up her baby doll by the neck to her bed post!! I asked what she was doing and she said "tying up my baby like a present," which in my opinion was better than her saying "I'm hanging my baby, Mom" or anything else that it could have looked like she was doing!! She proceeded to play with the jumprope and baby for about a half an hour....oh goodness!!!!!!

Cyndi's BDay Crawfish Boil

In honor of my sister-in-law (Cyndi's) BD, we had a crawfish boil at my dad's house. Cyndi is from Texas City (on the coast south of Houston) and her family does these much more often than ours (since this was definately the FIRST time I've ever particpated in a crawfish boil.......and possibly the last!). My dad had a ton of crawfish, shrimp and crab legs shipped in that morning, and then we all got together that evening. Caroline was a bit freaked out at first, but then she warmed up to the little guys! There was no way she was eating them, but she became a big fan of the one who escaped and was crawling all over the back yard! She did try one bite of shrimp, but after the look on her face while eating it, I knew she wasn't faking the "I don't like it" thing.....she hated it!! I ate a little bit of crawfish, but honestly I don't want to work that hard for a little tiny morcel of food that isn't as good as the shrimp or crab legs I could eat instead!! Cyndi, on the other hand, had a ton:):):)

Happy Birthday Cyndi (and Jace.....his was just a few days before)!!!!!!!

Even Pop came over for the festivities!!

Houston

I'm going to try to start updating every week about where I travel for work....sometimes I guess its not that interesting, but maybe it will at least make me remember to post!! I went to Houston this week, and Dale joined me for one day. He went down there to take a test for a new job he's applying for (with TSA........hopefully he gets it and it will be more flexible around school schedules and he will be able to finish his degree!!!!!). We wen't to BJ's Pizza for dinner, because it is a scary obsession of Dale's. The cheesy smile on his face was rediculous when we just pulled up in the parking lot, so I told him I was going to post some pictures of him and his darn pizza!!

(I must admit, though, its probably the best pizza I've ever had too!!)

And, really, like I haven't seen enough paint lately.....when we get to our hotel room, this is whats right outside the door!!!

And last but not least (its not a good picture because it is from my phone, and yes, taken in traffic)......Houston traffic. I HATE IT!!!!! When I get stuck in Houston (or DFW, or Austin, or anywhere) traffic, it really makes me appreciate Lubbock even more!

So......I'll post again next week from the big facinating city of Oklahoma City (also my birth city.....but I don't really claim it).

Swim Lessons

Swim lessons have begun!! Caroline was a little fish last year in the Mommy & Me lessons, so we really expected her to just jump right in.....well, it didn't quite start off that way!!! All the kids were gathering and there were like 3 different teachers over there calling out different names, to get them into their groups. Mr. Danny, Caroline's teacher, called her name, and she started freaking out!! She was saying "but I want the girl teacher, not the boy teacher!!!" loud enough for everyone to hear...embarassing!! I finally told her that she could go with her "boy teacher" or we would go home instead, and after standing there silently for about 15 seconds (she was REALLY contimplating this decision), she decided to go with the rest of the class. THEN, she had no desire to stay in the water. She'd get in to do whatever they were doing at the time, but when he took her back to the wall, she was out of the water to sit on the side and watch (remember.....my kiddo is the one who loves "laying out", so maybe its too much to ask for her to stay in the water for 30 mintues!). She never really went under, but she was ok to put her face in the water. So all in all, I think it will get better througout the summer.......just as long as she also gets her laying out time:):)

After swim lessons, she got to play in the water fountain that they have at the new leisure pool at Tech. She really had more fun doing this than the lessons.......so bribe time!! We told her that next time she could only play in the fountain if she stayed in the water the whole time with her swim class. Sure enough, Wednesday night, Co Co said she stayed in the whole time (Dale & I were in Houston, so Co Co took her).

And she came home and decided to be a cowgirl in a bathing suit. I asked her what a cowgirl said and she said "hee haw" and tipped her hat at me....so cute!!

We've Been BUSY!!!

We've been sooooooo busy lately (thus, my lack of posting!)!!! There are 8 postings today, so make sure to look at them all, cause there are some really cute pictures and videos!

We are almost done with the house...FINALLY! We should have it on the market next Monday (the 15th) and I am SOOOOOOO ready to just be done working on it! I know it gets hard to keep a house staged and perfectly clean, but it has to be easier than the work we've been doing on it! We have painted the ENTIRE inside...walls, ceilings, cabinets, EVERYTHING!!! We have painted the ENTIRE outside...including trim, concrete footer, and the porch will be done this week!!! We've taken half of the stuff out of our house and put it in storage so we can stage it. I really hope it sells fast....but we'll see!!!

Here are a couple pics of the outside. I like our little flower garden in the front...looks a lot better than the bare dirt that was there!!!

Summer Is Here

I love summer!!! I grew up going to a pool EVERY day of the summer...even the rainy ones! We would just sit at the clubhouse and order food and I'm sure get in the way...but I have always had the best memories of going to the pool in the summer. We joined The Falls here, and have only been able to get out there a couple times to go to the pool so far, but we are almost done with the house so should be able to enjoy the rest of the summer by the pool!

We ordered lunch on Memorial Day, and when I was bugging caroline about finishing her sandwich she said "Mom I can't...I'm laying out!!" The things she says CRACK ME UP!!!

Dance Recital

We had such an awesome year this year at Caroline's dance class! She takes a combo tap, ballet & tumbling class...and I can't figure out which is her favorite. She loves the tap shoes (of course, fashion diva), seems to do the best at ballet (her gracefulness takes after her mom!! NOT), but has been doing cartwheels (or her version of them) all over the house for the past two weeks. Her dance recital was a couple of weeks ago, and her class did a tap dance to "When I Grow Up"...its a cute song! I've posted some pictures, and I'll try to get a little video posted once I get it from my mom. Caroline is going to miss Ms. Chelsea for the summer!!!!

Getting ready....the dressing room was PACKED and crazy, so we settled for the hallway!

Saving her good smile for the stage, I guess!!

Second in from the right...

You can barely see it, but yes, my child is picking her nose on stage!!! At least we know she doesn't have stage fright!!

Caroline and Ms. Chelsea

She LOVED getting flowers afterwards. When she came off stage, she told me "Mom...all those people were clapping for ME!!!"

Our Little Performer!!

This was on Easter and I forgot to put it on the Easter post........what a little drama queen!! She loves to preform...even when no one is watching!!

Travel, Travel, Travel, Home

For my new job, I travel about 3 or 4 weeks in a row (2-3 days during the week), and then take a full week at home. Sometimes I feel like I'm even busier on my home weeks, because I have so much catch up work to do at the office, and so much laundry, cleaning, etc. that needs to be done at home....not to mention fun time with the kiddo!! I absolutely LOVE traveling for work, though! Here are some pics of some recent trips...

I had to go to Albuquerque, NM for a conference, and drove to Los Alamos the day before the conference started to meet with some alumni. These pics are from the drive...

A couple weeks ago I was in San Antonio and had lunch with an alumni on the Riverwalk....I forgot how pretty it is!

BUSTED

I walked into Caroline's room the other day and she looked back with this guilty face.....


Why you ask? Because she was applying "makeup" (glitter lip gloss) all over her face!!!!! I can't wait till she's 16....NOT!

School Picture

Ok....this is a really bad scan of this picture, but it just makes me laugh! Caroline is the second from the left on the front row. REALLY kiddo...do you have to be the most dramatic in your class? YES she does!

Easter

We had a fun Easter...Caroline had an Easter Egg Hunt at her school that Thursday and then we did an Easter Egg Hunt at Nana & Grampy's house that afternoon that the Evans family also came to!!

Here is Caroline before school on Easter Egg Hunt day...


The Cox side of the family cousins on Easter day...

Caroline's Easter basket...she got some goodies....

Zoe really just kinda wanted to look at the eggs, but she eventually got the hang of it!