Back to School!

Well sort of back to school! I have been getting ready for next year, and I was told that one of my duties is to decorate the trophy cases outside of the gym! So thanks to my Mom and Husband we got it done, and not without a little blood shed...let's just say I don't get along with staplers, and Mom had a fight with the exacto knife! I also got to meet one of the other girls I will be coaching with and she was VERY informative, and so nice! I have also realized that there is no way that I will live up the the FABULOUS lady that I am replacing! I am sure she was awesome, but so far I feel as though there is alot to live up to, and I am not ready to take over a motherly position (she was the "mom" of the group, I mean she was here for 30YEARS!!! She should have been the "grandma" ha), but I will have to be on the ball because everything is set a certain way and has a spot!! Very serious business up here let me tell you, don't you think about taking a t-shirt without checking it out!!! But all jokes aside I am SUPER excited to get to know everybody, and get going with this school year!! So I better get busy with lesson plans (no Madeline Hunter though, for you teacher people, such a waste of time, but don't tell Stutler hehe)!! Love you all!!

Leaving Sunny California

Well sad day, we are signing off from sunny California!!  Today is our last day with Brian's family and we are so sad.  For the last day of our trip we had breakfast at Sweet Bean (only the best sugar-free IBM) and the girls took a trip to Victoria Gardens (an outdoor mall with anything you could ever want), and are finishing up with dinner and our last trip to White Lime frozen yogurt for this trip.  It is so funny how different the food really is in Southern California than it is in West Texas, so that has been our agenda....to hit up all of Brian's favorite places to eat, and I think we got to everything, and some places more than once!!!  We really did have a great trip between beach trips, Hollywood, and spending time with Bobs (Brian's Grandma in Downey, we were building her a new gate....long story, literally) we had so much fun!!  You should probably expect us to bring home a few new phrases from spending time with the California Cole's, our own little Malibu Barbie seems to pick up new phrases.  So if you hear people referred to as "Silly Little Clowns"  or anything referring to Clowns, that is from our very own Jennifer!!  The other new phrase you will have to figure out on your own, "Pretty Phyllis" will surely be used in Lubbock and we will let you decide what you think it means!!!  Well, we are so excited to get home to see all of you and I personally am excited for our girls (and some boys) trip!!!!  So see you back in "God's Country" according to Courtney!!  Love you all!!!

More Vaycay!!

Well, it has been a while since I have posted some pictures so I kind of have a random assortment!  There are some pics of the chicken, because she is so funny and wierd, some pictures are from a swimming trip to one of the Jen's house sitting houses, and we also have some pictures of Wicked.  Brian's aunt bought us all tickets to go and see Wicked in Hollywood at the Pantageus Theatre.  It was so exciting, and we all had such a great time.  We are having a great time out here, but miss you all very much!!  Sorry the pics are out of order....just deal!!

All of us kids at one of the pools, we love Jen's summer job!!

Brian and I at Wicked!!  Everybody needs to go and see this show!!!  AMAZING!

Here we are again outside of the musical!!  Isnt he cute!!!

This was when Brian and I were waking the girls up with Phyllis the bird.  Katie didnt much like it once she woke up.

This was all that was left of my birthday dinner at Oscars!!  Katie was the artist, a few pepperonies, some smeared pizza sauce and a rib!  I love Oscars....notice there arent any breadsticks left!!!

Phyllis the bird is a little unpredictable about pooping and so Jen had an idea to put a diaper on her.  So we got a paper towel and tried to staple it on her....she didnt really like the idea, and a few seconds after she stepped out of her diaper she pooped on the floor!!  Big mess!!!

Phyllis loves Denver!!  I dont think Denver likes her very much!! But arent they cute!

Here is Amanda at the pool, looking throught the waterfall!  She is very sneaky, sneaky!!!

"Vaycay"

Vaycay is the Malibu lingo for vacation, so Brian and I are on Vaycay and having a blast!!  

So I told you the other day about Phyllis the chicken, the Cole's new pet.  She is so funny to watch, and when she doesnt get put in her cage when she wants to go to bed she sits on the highest point on the table outside and pouts, it is pretty cute.  She also likes to get up early so when Brian and I get back from our morning walk/jog we normally let her out.  On Tuesday morning we woke up really early (still on Texas time) and we went to visit Phyllis.  As soon as she steps out of her cage she makes this toot noise, and behind her was a huge pile of poopy!!  So after she got her morning poop out we decided to go and wake up the girls....with Phyllis!  Haha, we had so much fun trying to sneak the clucking chicken into the rooms and put the bird on the bed without them waking up before she was set.  Katie started pushing her off the bed and Phyllis threw a flapping fit!  I dont know how much the girls liked Phyllis waking them up, but Brian and I LOVED it!!  

This summer one of Brian's sisters is house sitting for all the fabulous Californians, so we are getting to go and swim at one of her houses today, I will publish some pictures later!!  

Our trip to the Cole's

Brian's family lives out in Southern California, so we drove out there to see them. Two days of driving makes me tired, and we smelled some funky smells on the way!  When we got here the Cole's had a suprise for us.  They informed us of a new pet they had and led us to the backyard.  Then we were introduced to Phyllis the chicken!!!  

The drive was making us crazy!!  Kingman to Barstow....torture!

A gallon of gas in Needles, CA was $5.19!!  

Here is Brian with Phyllis, she climbed up his arm, EEK!

My turn, I wasnt as calm as Brian, and shortly after the picture she flew up in my face and I screamed bloody murder!!!  But she is really sweet and has fun feathers on her head.

4th of July & Summer Fun!

Well last week was a busy week!  While I finished painting and getting ready for our vacation, Brian worked and we ended up wearing ourselves out before we could get out of town.  On our way to California we stopped in at my parents for the 4th of July.  This was also the celebration for our town's centennial so we had fun with that too. 

Brian and I at the Centennial/4th of July Parade

Courtney and I out at the park on the 4th!  

 My goofy husband!  We were watching the fire crackers on the 4th and we couldnt get him to take a normal picture, he always had some sort of silly face!  He makes me smile!!!

Shanna-Banna!  My bestest buddy!  Too bad she lives so far away!!

We went ahead and celebrated my birthday on July 5th because I am in California on my real birthday so my family had a party.  My parents were sweet enough to share their 28th Wedding Anniversary with me to have my party so we let them blow out candles too!!!  It was Gran's famous coconut cake!!!!

 

Babysitting Abbye Cate

I posted the other day about babysitting my baby cousin Abbye, so here are some pictures to document our experience together!! 

My feelings going into our babysitting adventure! Haha, not really I love to spend time with little Abbye!

Here is how Abbye started, so peaceful!!

This is Abbye's famous pose, hand behind the head!! A little "Diva-ish".  I just love it!

She really enjoyed her play mat....and looking in the mirror!

Abbye in the Bumbo...maybe starting to get tired! Although I don't know why, it is only the hundreth toy I put her in!!  Hehe!

And here is how we ended our day!!  Haha, I guess she got more tired playing in all her toys than I did.  She is so sweet and I figure we will have many more babysitting days!

Painting....Such a bad idea!!

Well maybe not a bad idea, but a very time consuming one!  We, I mean I, decided I wanted to remove wall paper and paint some rooms in our house, and when your husband says it is a bad idea, you should listen (sometimes).

  If you have ever removed wall paper then you know how unbelievably un-fun it is and that it takes so so so long to get all of it off!!!  But, it finally came off and we got the kitchen painted and are working on the living room.  I was so excited when we first started, but I didnt realize that I would get sore and be so tired (and I am not even that old)!  But the rooms look great and I am loving our new colors, and no more 80's wallpaper! 

Here are some pictures to document our fun painting experience.  Enjoy!!

Here is the kitchen in the middle of the border removal.  Tons of fun!!!

Painting the wall above the cabinets was not as easy as it looks! Ha, I had the crick in my neck to prove it!!!

Brian too!  (sorry blury, he was just too fast!)

Almost done with the kitchen!

The living room....what a mess, I didnt know we had so much wall to cover!