Kindergarten

My baby is heading to Kindergarten tomorrow.  

My baby who used to empty the plastic bowl cabinet in the kitchen until we locked it up.

  He can open it by himself now.

My baby who used to ride a tricycle.

Now he wants to ride his bike to school each day.

Not sure that this will happen, perhaps a Friday only treat. 

This is my baby boy and his very first backpack.

He used to carry his own diapers in it.

Now he will carry a notebook with notes from school in a bigger blue backpack.

My baby is heading to school tomorrow.

My baby who likes to take tons of pictures of himself on my phone.  

My baby boy who is 100% mischief.  

He comes up with the zaniest ideas that tend to always involve boy things, 

like ninjas, superheros or an animal eating something or someone. 

My baby boy who still begs to sleep in Mommy's bed at night when his Daddy isn't home.  

That baby boy is off to Kindergarten tomorrow morning, 

he was so excited about it tonight he wanted to skip bedtime and just go on to school.

My baby boy who chooses to watch TV standing on his head on the couch

 is going off to Kindergarten tomorrow.

He won't be able to stand on his head during class tomorrow.

 My baby boy.

My Joshua.

 A big kid kindergartner.

I am so nervous.

I am so proud.

conversations with joshua

Another catch-up post.

A few weeks back while my mother was on vacation we were borrowing her truck. Her truck is bigger than mine and somewhat easier to use that our "family car", a.k.a. the Camero. Plus the Friday that she left with my sister's family, I had some break problems with my truck.

Now, my truck has been a Trusty Old Lass. She has been good to me, primarily because I have been good to her. She never gives me grief.....well at least not until recently. But then she is about 10 years old. I give her gas, oil, coolant, air for her tires and really anything else she asks for but a bath. And she is okay with that....she claims that because she is a truck she feels she should be dirty and that a clean truck is not a well loved truck. I say whatever and slam the door shut with my hip. I am saddened to think about getting ready of her next year. I worry that she won't go to someone who will care for her as I have.

But anyways.........
I had my mom's truck and we had gone to kinda have dinner with my brother and sister-in-law. Now, my sister-in-law, Mandy, is pregnant (and I am so freakin' excited!) and she had my son were getting in on the passenger side of my mother's truck. The truck has doors that open against each other. They had opened them and were trying to squeeze around them since the vehicle next to us was parked a little close. My son, being 3, squeezed right through, but Mandy's belly would fit without a little squishing and no one wants a squished pregnant belly so she told my son that she needed to close to the door a little to get by. We all got in the truck and my son announced that he fit through the door and that Mandy didn't because she has a baby in her tummy. Fine.

Later that night, we were at my house and I was poking Mandy's belly trying to get a kick out of my soon-to-be niece. My son walked in and looked at me funny for poking at his Aunt Mandy. I told him again that Aunt Mandy had a baby in her tummy. He touched her tummy for a quick second. And again announced that Aunt Mandy had a baby in there. Fine. But I knew he wasn't done with this whole idea.

Saturday, the next morning, we were in Plano for a friend of mine's fitness show. We had watched the show and were back out at the truck ready to leave. I had opened the doors to get him in and he was telling me about how he could fit past the door cause he is little and Aunt Mandy couldn't because she has a baby in her tummy. I agreed and told him that in a couple of more months Aunt Mandy would have her baby. Without missing a beat he said, "Yup, Aunt Mandy's baby is going to come out of her tummy and say 'Surprise'". I laughed so hard.

february snow

First of my catch-up posts.

We had a "snowstorm" back in February. We got 8 inches of snow at our house. It was a lot of snow. That morning before the people on my street got up, and before I got my son up, I went out and took pictures. It was very pretty and calm on our street. And white. Very, very white.

The day of most of the snowfall, I stayed at work too long because I knew that I would have to miss the next day. Joshua's school was already closed for sure the next day. By the time we got home it was late...really late. My truck couldn't make it up the driveway. I slide back to this spot and left it. Later the next day, we shoveled the snow and ice underneath and got it up out of the street.

This picture was taken with my cellphone which explains the poor quality. Moments after I took this picture, Joshua plucked one of the snowman's eyes out, knocking him down. I set him back up and called him our pirate snowman. I didn't get a good picture of this. Oh yes, it is a real pipe in the snowman's face, I used one of my dad's old pipes. It didn't stay out there long.

Joshua was so excited about the snow. He didn't really understand what it was but knew that it was fun. It had also snowed some on Christmas Eve giving the feel of a White Christmas 2009. Behind Joshua are our bushes. They suffered. It was probably a month before they bounced all the way back up, they still drop in a couple spots but we are fixing that with trimming.

Hope this helps you feel cooler with the 100° weather we are expecting all weekend.

happy birthday

This past weekend we celebrated my 33rd birthday. As a combined Mother's Day & Happy Birthday gift, I got to go shopping. I scored some great new clothes and new shoes. WhooHoo for me!!

We also went to Adam's Birthday party on Sunday. Adam is 8 days older than Joshua and it is so funny how they can go a month without seeing one another and pick up playing like they just seen each other yesterday.

Wednesday is Joshua's 3rd Birthday. It is hard to believe that he is 3. That means that we have been in our house for 4 years. Wow, where did the time go?!?
Joshua loves SuperWhy. This SuperWhy toy is what got him convinced that he could put more in the potty. He had a fit over not getting this SuperWhy. And once he got the reward of SuperWhy, if he had an accident, he wouldn't touch SuperWhy. It was like he knew that he wasn't supposed to play with him. Joshua is getting more and more into Super Heroes like Batman, Superman, Spiderman, but his favorite is still SuperWhy. And if you ask Joshua what his superpower is, he says, 'my super power is the power to help'. And then he shows you his muscles.

This weekend we are having a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party at the park. Joshua is getting more and more excited about it. He had to wait through a whole string of birthday's before his got here. The only thing he loves as much as SuperWhy is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
I am proud to report that Joshua is 97% potty trained. It finally clicked with him about a week and half ago. Honestly, you could nearly see the light bulb shining above his head when he suddenly got "it" (the potty). This summer we are moving him to a twin size bed. And he starts swim lessons next month. He never sits still and repeats anything and everything whenever and where ever he feels it is needed. He talks constantly, sometimes I even swear that he talks in his sleep. He likes to help with dinner and setting the table, but does not like to help put his toys away. He likes getting himself dressed but not undressed. He keeps me on my toes 24/7. Joshua eats most everything, I even tricked him into some spinach a couple of weeks ago. He would eat tomatoes with every meal if I'd let him, and, he'd make it a Mac-n-Cheese meal too! Joshua has quite a group of friends at school and he talks about them all the time. He's the peacemaker amoung all the boys, his teacher says he makes sure that all of the toys are fairly shared. Joshua has an imagination that seems to have no limits. I have taught him to draw smiley faces in the last few months. He's a ball of energy and I couldn't imagine my life without him.

potty training adventures

Potty training. Sounds easy enough. Yea right. It should called it 'THE IMPOSSIBLE formerly known as Potty Training'. That sounds better. He is getting better. But, with training comes lots of conversations.

A couple weeks back, we had been out to dinner and I drank several glasses of tea and by the time we got home, I had to go. Now! I was rushing Joshua along, get out of the truck, c'mon let's go, Mommy's gotta go. We got in the house and I dropped my purse and jacket and ran to the bathroom. In a few seconds I hear, "Mommyeeeee, Mommyeeee" as I hear little feet running towards the bathroom. I am thinking that there was something out of place and he is just wanting to let me know. He gets to the bathroom door and says, "Make sure your pp is in the hole.". I bust out laughing. At least he is getting the concept, right??

Then in the last week, he was arguing about going to bed. He had had a late nap and didn't want to go to sleep. We had argued back and forth and finally left him in his bed to cry it out. Suddenly, he was calling Mommy and it wasn't in a cry it out kinda way. I opened his door and he was laying on his bed with his hand in his pants saying "I think I pp'd on my on my pillow". "No, baby, those are your tears that have gotten your pillow all wet". Again, at least he is getting the concept, right??

better late than never right?

So way back a couple months ago, it was Halloween. This was Joshua's first real year to go trick-or-treating. We planned to only hit the houses on our street, head to my brother's for a minute and call it a night. Joshua dressed up as a green skeleton and was so cute. He got compliments all up and down our street. One lady told him he was too cute for the regular candy and went and got him a goodie bag full of candy and colors and a coloring book. Hitting only the houses on our street gave him 10-12 houses resulting in a decent amount of candy for a 2 year old. He had fun and was even saying "trick-or-treat" when we would go up to houses.

Trick-or-Treating on our street.

Quick family picture at Uncle J's & Aunt Mandy's.

God is in trouble but not for unlocking doors

The other day when I picked Joshua up from school it was dark out, thanks to our recent time change. I personally don't like the time change, I like it to be daylight until nearly 8:30...just my personal preference. Anyway, it was dark when I picked Joshua up from school around 6:30 and our conversation went something like this:

"It's dark out here", Joshua said.
"Yes. It is dark", said Mommy.
"Somebody turn the light off"
"Yes, God turned the light off"
"God turn the light off"
"Yes" said Mommy.
"He's is trouble. He need a time out"
"God needs a time out?"
"Yes. We need to go get him and put him in time out. He turn the light off"

I explained that we can't get God and that we can't put God in time out. I don't think he understood. But he was pretty adamant that God needed a time-out for turning off the light.
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Tonight, I am on the phone with Jeff, who is in El Paso. I hear something in the background and it took me what seemed like minutes to figure out what the sound was. It was the front door unlocking. And opening and then shutting. Once I realized what the noise was, I initially thought that Jeff was joking and was home early, but there were no legs/feet to be seen through the window. I jumped up and found my son closing the door. He hadn't gone out, but he had unlocked both locks and opened and then shut the front door. So our newly established rules are:
1. Little boys do not unlock the front door for any reason.
2. Little boys do not open the front door or any door for any reason.

But then, I wonder about fires and have I led Joshua to believe that in case of a fire that he can not open the door. But then he is 2 1/2 years old. I am not sure that he would get the difference. He already knows to not come out of his bedroom until Mommy or Daddy come and get him. So, he will play in his room until we go in there in the mornings.

This weekend we will be exploring options to help with the newly found front door situation.
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Joshua's recent growth spurt has also given him the "I don't know how to shut-up" syndrome. The kid talks constantly. He talks to Mommy. He talks to Daddy. He talks to Mickey Mouse. He talks to himself. He talks to the dog. He talks to my truck. He talks to everything about everything. Constantly. Talking. He never shuts-up. Never.

And along with the "I don't know how to shut-up" syndrome came the "Wiggle 'til I fall out of the chair" syndrome. He is constantly moving. He watches Mickey Mouse while standing on his head on the couch, while laying on the couch, while hanging off the couch, while falling off the couch. Then he wiggles in the floor towards his couch-bed thing. Then he gets up and climbs back on the couch and it starts all over again.

He doesn't be still and he doesn't be quiet. Ever. Well, except for the 25 minutes that he watches Mickey Mouse...then he is quiet, but not still. And when he is sleeping, he doesn't talk, but he doesn't really be still then either.

Welcome to the 2 1/2 years old stage. Welcome. On the right we have wiggle worm and on the left we have talk until your tongue falls out. Welcome. Come on in.

pumpkin patch 2009

We went to the pumpkin patch in mid October. Up to Flower Mound, TX to the pumpkin patch. We knew it would be a fun year with Joshua - all Holiday's this 2 year old year have been! He kissed or attempted to kiss everything that we took pictures by, Cookie Monster, Sponge Bob, Nemo, 101 Dalmatians, Mickey & Minnie....we kept telling him to stop kissing stuff, but it is hard to explain the flu/H1N1/germs to a 2 1/2 year old. We had a great time!

My favorite picture of the day.

WhooHoo...everyone is looking the same direction!
A corny smile!

Just after this picture, he says, "these my best friends". (They apparently become fast friends.)

With Uncle J & the surfing penguins.

He love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and was beyond excited to see Mickey & Minnie!!

water park from 8-2009

Back in late August we took a family stay-cation. On the last weekend, we went and checked out a new water park in Hurst. City owned and managed. It had a great toddler water area, 1 ft 6 in, which was just enough water for Joshua. With water slides made for toddlers. And the lifeguards in that area kept kids that were older out so the toddlers didn't get hurt. Parents were allowed with their toddlers. Overall, it was a good experience and we look forward to going again next summer.

Toddler area right. There is a spiral slide on the other side on this area. You can control most all of the water spray areas with kid friendly levers.

Toddler area left & big kid/adult slides in background. This was Joshua's favorite slide!

Playing in the water.

On the stairs with Mommy. That is a fun having face!

Down the slide. I thought we had gotten better pictures, but no such luck.

school pictures are in

I got Joshua's Fall pictures back from school!! Isn't he a cutie!

Everything has been pretty to him lately. The trees, family, friends, chicken nuggets...everything. The other day my mother, Nana, asked Joshua if he was pretty...his response, "No, I cute!". 2 years 4 months old.

Grazin'

On the way home today, when we passed by the field of horses.
Joshua says, "Mama, look, they are grazin'".
"What did you say?", I ask.
"They grazin'. They eatin' grass".
I say, "hahahahahahaha. That is a big word".

It was funny. That is a pretty big 'Z' word. And he used it in the right context.

When we were nearly home he started counting in Spanish, then English, then sang his ABC's and then clapped, "yea, we all done".

He was full of himself on our nearly 30 minute trip home today.

Mega Block chair

A few weeks ago, while we were on vacation, Jeff & Joshua built a Mega Block chair. Joshua was so proud of this 'breakable' chair. He would fuss at Jeff & I if we tried to sit in "his"Mega Block chair.

A day or two later, we put in a dinosaur movie, Land Before Time...which, by the way, is not a dinosaur movie he is super interested in. (Cars and Happy Feet work much better!) Anyway, we put in the movie so we could work on other things around the house. Joshua got really quiet, the kinda quiet you get when you are up to no good! When I went to check on him, he was sitting in his Mega Block chair watching the movie. The picture is grainy because there was not good light in the living.

Stay tuned for more vacation pictures..........

ducks in a row

Joshua loves the water. I think the only reason he asks for a bath each day is so he can play in the water. Today was a swim day at school. He class wound up not swimming because it actually wasn't a swim day...if that makes no sense then you are following along.

On the way home we were talking about that he didn't get to swim today. He asked where Nefi was. I told him Nefi (my sister, Stephanie) is at home. To which he stated, very matter of fact, "I go see Nefi, I go swim". He still hasn't forgotten this and asked about it again at bedtime amongst our good nights. We will have to work in some swimming this weekend.

Joshua in the bath the other night.

One of his favorite bath time activities is lining his ducks up in a row on the edge of the bathtub. He always makes sure that all of the ducks are facing the same direction.

He also in the last month or so discovered that all of his ducks had eyes. He had them all facing inside the bathtub, so they were looking at him and suddenly he exclaimed, "Has eyes! All has eyes, mama". The light bulb above his head shone so bright that I was blinded by his silly-ness!!

After he lines the ducks up, he does this....

Speaking of getting ducks in a row, Jeff and I have been waiting on a deal from HUD and it finally came through. It has been nearly a year since the process was started. It is a relief and a huge headache we hope to never again expierence. This next week we are on vacation. Not do much of anything. Just a few things around town and around the house. We are hoping to get the shed in the backyard down and the sunroom emptied so that it can be torn down.

I also start permamnet on Monday at my work. I had been helping out with refunds since February and they finally decided that they needed another full-time refund person. That is me!! A promotion of sorts, more money and awesome benefits.

cheeri-uh-oh

Today on the way home from school Joshua was finishing off his Cheerios from this morning. We got home and had been home about 10 minutes and he comes to me, with his finger up his nose and our conversation goes like this:

"Mommy get it"
"Get your finger out of your nose."
"Get it, in there"...he sticks his finger back in there.
"Get what, a booger?"
"Snack."
"A snack in your nose? There is a snack in your nose???", I am very confused.
"Yea, in there"...his finger goes back up his nose.

I panicked...I seen an ER trip with long tweezers in my very near future. I called my mom asking what I should do. I got a Kleenex, blocked one nostril and had him blow with the other....sure enough, out came a chunk of Cheerio.

The worst part was that then....he wanted to...eat it.

been busy

I've been either busy lately or so tired from being so busy lately that I haven't posted. So here goes.

My 60 Mile Mamas 3-Day team has had a few fundraisers. We have one final Pink Bra contest coming up on August 28. It will be at Papa G's in Bedford at 121 & Harwood. You should come out if you can!!! We had a Pink Bra contest at Baxter's in Hurst a couple of weeks back and I am excited to annouce that we raised nearly $1,000.00!!! It was by far our best Pink Bra contest yet with lots of super fun contestants!

My family has a vacation planned in two more weeks. It seems like an incredibly long two more weeks...like it is never going to get here. We are not doing much but are looking forward to what we do have planned.

One day last week when I picked Joshua up from school, he met me in the cafeteria with a backpack on. It was not his backpack so we headed back down to his class. His teacher said it was hanging on his hook and assumed it was his. It was a Cars backpack and she knows he loves Cars stuff. Turns out it belonged to a new kid in his class. Joshua was so heartbroken that he didn't get to keep the backpack. He asked/begged/cried/fussed/grumped about a backpack all the way home. I told him that he needed to talk to his Daddy about. When we got home he couldn't wait to get inside to tell Daddy that he needed a backpack. So this past weekend we got Joshua a backpack. On Sunday, before we went running around, I loaded up his backpack with diapers, wipes, changing pad, Magna Doodle, a book and snacks. He carried his backpack everywhere. He didn't like to have to take it off before he could get in his carseat but after a couple of times, he got the hang of it. Once he was buckled in his carseat, he just sat there holding his backpack waiting for the next stop so he could put it back on. It was really cool. And Mommy didn't have to carry the diaper bag...she could carry just her purse...it was so empowering for both Mommy & Joshua!

reunion and events

In the past week or so, I haven't really gotten the camera out much, if even at all. Life has been moving fast lately. Seems we have one event after another. This coming week is no different. Tuesday night, I am having a fundraiser at CiCi's in Bedford from 5-9pm. I will get 10% of all receipts placed in the bucket...if you are in the area you should come by. I will be there with balloons for the kids until about 8 (or until I run out of balloons).


On Friday, 7/31, my team is having another Pink Bra contest at Baxter's in Hurst. These are always fun. We have women's categories and men's categories, so you should come by if you can.


This past weekend we traveled to the fine town of Haskell, TX for the annual Lackey Reunion. It is always nice to see everyone and how much kids have grown in the last year. I volunteered my grandfather's branch of the family to handle invitations & entertainment for next year. My siblings and I have had some entertainment ideas brewing for a while now, and we can put them into action. Traveling to Haskell makes me realize that there is more to life than the hustle that tends to consume mine. At one point, I had taken Joshua outside because he was getting a little wild inside and we wondered over to see the horses. There is an arena and youngsters were practicing and qualifying for rodeo events.

conversations with josh

One night last week Jeff was giving Joshua his bath. The bath was done and Joshua needed to pull his plug. Jeff kept telling him to pull his plug. Finally Joshua says, "Hold on Daddy!". Jeff was speechless.

So today, I get to Joshua's room to pick him up and his teacher, Miss Izela tells me this...Today she was trying to get Joshua for potty time but he was busy playing. She said he finally looked at her and said, "Sela, hold on!". She said after another minute or so, he came over to do potty time.

potty training adventures

A few people had suggested putting Joshua in his big boy underwear and telling him that he couldn't mess them up. After much contemplating, I decided to give this a try. I cleared a good chunk of time that I knew that we would be at the house. We had been in his room, going through toys. Someone had sent me a text and I walked into the office to look at something else. I sat down at the computer and it had been about 7 minutes since I last asked if he needed to go potty.

From behind me I hear, "Uh-oh, I pee-pee."
I turned around as Joshua was stepping back from the puddle on the floor.
"It's okay. Let's go -".
"I splash Mommy".
"No-".
SPLASH.
"We don't splash in our pee-pee. Go, let's go get a pull-up on.".
"Okay" which sounds more like oh-kaaay.

conversations with josh

Here is a funny conversation that I had with Joshua recently...

Heading home from school one day Joshua asked, "My daddy at work?"
Mommy: "No, your daddy is at home."
Joshua: "My daddy at home?"
Mommy: "Yes."
Joshua: "My daddy at home fixin' my dinner?"
Mommy: laughing "No."

5 years

Today my father has been gone for 5 years. So much has happened in 5 years, things that I planned to have happen and many things that I didn't plan. I can remember his last 6 weeks in great detail. I remember him being wheeled from the E.R. room he had been sent to singing "On the road again". They wheeled him everywhere that day doing tests. I remember the E.R. doc that told my Dad exactly what was wrong with him but he needed tests to show it. Those tests showed it all. Cancer. Cancer is a funny thing. It isn't prejudice in anyway, shape or form. It doesn't care what you have done or what you want to do. It doesn't care that you have plans three weekends from now. It doesn't care who you are, who you want to be or you will become. Cancer is horrible.

Looking back, I wish that I would have asked Dad what he wanted to do before he couldn't. I remember asking him once if there was anything I could get him and I can still see his face. Tan with age and steel blue eyes saying, "Time, sweet time". It was the one thing that I couldn't get him. That was the moment that his cancer hit me. It was the single moment in time when I had that 'this is it' feeling. The moment I realized there was no turning back.

I wish I had taken the time to go fishing on the coast with him. We had talked about it many times, but nothing ever came of our talks, there was also tomorrow and next year after all. I wish that I had taken the time to listen more to his stories about his time in the Reserves. I wish that I had taken his advice to heart more often, it was always good advice, but I am very stubborn. Stubborn just like him, probably more so. The advise he gave on the old green swing. In giving advice, especially if he knew I wasn't going to want to hear it, he would look over his glasses at me. I would have to look away because I thought his blue eyes were going to pierce me.

Here is picture dated 11-6-77 with my Mom & Dad, Grandma & Papa (my Dad's parents) & Granny Lackey (my Dad's grandmother). Taken in Haskell at the Lackey Reunion...we will travel out west next weekend for this reunion.
This picture is my dad & I at Queen Wilhelmina State Park. The caption says we are standing in from on the mini train, but it is very hard to see in the picture and it dated 5-28-78. The same mini train that my husband, son & I rode on July 4th of this year.

This picture is at Lake Palestine, I am not sure if it is on the property that we have down there or not. I would say it is, but the area has so many houses nowadays, that you can't just see the lake from the land.

Here are my siblings and I fishing at Sandy Lake in Arkansas. My father taught us the art of catching Perch. The thing about catching Perch is that it is easy. You can pull many out and it keeps impatient people happy cause they are pulling something out of the water. My father took this picture. My arm was in a cast because I broke my elbow rollerskating.

This is at the Texas sign and dated 7-1988. My brother was 5, I had a bad looking perm. But I always remember stopping at the sign for pictures. It is a tradition that I will continue to do with my son. My father was a Texas history buff. I credit him with my love of Texas history and my proud-ness to be a Texan.

This is my father's blue truck. The night before we sold it after his death. My father always drove Ford trucks. The blue-green one would be considered a classic nowadays, the silver one, he crashed into a gas station in and this blue one. I once drove this blue truck to take Dad to a dentist appointment, he didn't want to get into my little car. The truck shimmied and didn't drive like my car. And Dad made me a nervous wreck the entire trip home...a whole 2.5 miles. I miss the old truck and think of him every time I see one like it. The guy that bought the truck, I believe painted it a different color and took the tool box off.

This is the memorial plaque that we got after Dad's funeral. I always thought it was ironic that he died from Lung Cancer and his pipe is in his pocket in this picture.

Taken today at the cemetery. This is the first time I have ever gotten Joshua out of the car/truck at the cemetery. I tried to explain what we were doing, but my words were lost on my 2 year old. Someday he will understand more. I think my father would think that Joshua is a pretty cool kid.