Thanks for Thanksgiving

My Thanksgiving was wonderful this year. I got to spend it with my family and Roland's parents. I do wish that Grandmother was here this year, but she couldn't make. Doctor's appt.
Well Roland, Me, the kids and Nana and Poppy spent it over at my sisters house. It was fun, my kids just running around. Andrew checking out Steven's new puppy, Sasha and having fun going up and down the stairs. Alexis just was running back in forth from the living room to the kitchen. She was wearing her sandals which make noise on the kitchen floor. She loves wearing my black flats in kitchen, since their so big on her feet. They go "clack, clack, clack, clack" really loud. If she's wearing them in the kitchen, and I'm in master bedroom, I know where she is. She really loves to do that in the morning when I'm still sleeping.

Here are some pictures:

Left to Right:
Cathy, my sister friend, my big brother Danny, Nana

My mother, Lucille and Alexis. She's getting a present from my mother, early this year.

(Yes, my mother's name is Lucille. As well as Roland's mother. Alexis's middle name is after both grandmothers and it's spelled like nana's name.)

Left to Right:

Steven, my nephew, Andrew (showing off his gift from my mother) and my mother.

The head in the picture is of Beth. She is my mother's caretaker. And my family just sort of adopted Beth and she's mom's favorite daughter. Me and Dee don't mind a one bit =)

Of course, I can't forget to have a picture of Miss Alexis smiling at me with a camera. Would you believe that when I want her to pose for me, she tells me "NO!" and runs away or pouts at me.

This is Peleon. This is Beth's pit bull mix. She has two other pit bull mixes at mom's house, but this one is a mamma's girl. Yes she has pit bull mixes at my mother house and they are the sweetest dogs you could come across. I trust Peleon with my children, Peleon loves to lick to the kids, hmmmm sounds like Nana and Poppy's dog, Annie.
Peleon as a had a litter of puppies at Mom's house. Beth kept only one puppy. WE thought about keeping one, but Roland didn't like the one I chose and Roland wanted the one Beth kept. I call her Cinnie, short for Cinnamon, but her name is in Spanish, but I have no idea what it is or how to pronounce it. (I don't even know if I'm spelling Peleon right)
The other is Homer, would you believe he is the only dog I know that doesn't eat human food. Not even a french fry! Sometimes I don't think he's a dog at all.
Yes Peleon is wearing a Longhorn shirt. My family likes and roots for the Longhorns. Don't worry Blackwell Family. I could care less who likes who, but I do sometimes egg Roland on about maybe the kids going to UT, but not much, since Roland has told Andrew that he doesn't get to decide on which college he's going to. It's Aggie's all the way.

Nana using Alexis's puppy to kiss Alexis.

Alexis just thought that was funny. So did everyone else watching.

Left to Right:

Steven, Dee, my sister and Danny.

Just the family sitting outside watching the kids and the dogs play.

That is Steven's puppy Sasha.
She just wants some attention and food.

Peleon and Sasha playing. Goofy dogs.
Would you believe that Sasha didn't like Danny at ALL. She'd just bark and bark at Danny. Guess Sasha knew that Danny is a cat person.

Cathy playing one of Alexis's favorite game: "Tickle me if you can"

The only family you don't see is my other brother, Ken and his wife Patty. Patty is allergic to cats and we all have cats in our houses, but we will see them at Christmas Time. Can't wait to see them.

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!! Andrew and Alexis had a blast trick or treating. We only did two streets, but if we push Alexis to hard, she just wants to be carried. She is so heavy. I'm afraid I might re-fracture my wrist if I keep on carrying her. (She only wants to be carried to certain spots and certain times of the day) Everybody said Andrew's costume was scary and Alexis was just so CUTE! Here are some pictures:

Sorry, we couldn't get Alexis to stand next to Andrew, every time he tried, she would get a little upset. (Do you blame her?), but she wasn't as scared as I thought she'd be. She didn't freak out when Andrew had the costume on, she just didn't get close to him.

SUPER GIRL
Look we got her to smile. Want to know how we did it? We tickled Andrew.
Any torcher we inflict on her brother always makes her smile. =)

Just the kids playing.

Just the boys, I couldn't get any of the girls to get in the pictures.
Alan is the one in the other mask, he was GhostRider.
(I can't remember the names of the other one's)

UP, UP and AWAY!!!

OR MAYBE NOT! FOOLED YOU!!

She wouldn't share any of her cake with Daddy.

She did love Alan's swing, it's just her size, she could get up on to the swing all by herself, HOWEVER she just didn't like me taking a picture of her.

This couple thought Alexis was so adorable. She went to them twice to get comforted when she got upset. Alexis was upset since we told her it was time to get off the swing and time to go home. This couple had the little boy in the blue costume, he kept telling his wife they needed to try for another one: a girl, just like Alexis.

OH and here is Andrew and Alexis without their costumes on, just in Halloween shirts:

AND if you're wondering about Andrew's hair, it was crazy hair day at school:

He wanted it spiky, so the night before I put some mousse in his hair and at first he wanted his hair in rubber bands, just two of them. I told him he'd look like a girl, but he didn't care until he went to the mirror and saw his hair. He comes back screaming "I look like a girl!", pulling out the rubber bands. I just laughed and said "I told you so."

Don't YOU sit in my Spot!!

HA, HA stole mommy's sitting spot. That is a favorite game to play in this house. If you get up from where you are sitting, you'll lose it. The game is that if you were sitting in your "spot" or just where you happen to be sitting at the time and get up, you just might happen to lose it. Sometimes I'm in the master bedroom watching TV on my couch, and I get up to go the kitchen for a drink. Well the kids happen to be in the living room and they see me going in the kitchen. Andrew and Alexis won't do anything until I walk out of the kitchen but as soon as I do, they start running (and giggling along the way) in front of me and RUN to the bedroom. I know where they are going, my couch, (my SPOT on the couch, you know, a favorite spot- like where you want to sit or what side of the bed you want to sleep on). Along the way to the bedroom, I keep saying, "You better not sit in my spot" over and over again. Both the kids are screaming (like something or someone is chasing them), laughing or just taunting you saying, "I'm going to sit in your spot" (Just Andrew since Miss Alexis can't speak very well, but you know what her little scream means). That is one of the favorite game is in the house is. Here are a couple of picture of the kid's in my spot:

Can't you tell they're just excited about being in my spot!!

Let's just say I think I have the GOOFIEST kids in the world, BUT man do I love it!!!!!

Catching up...

This blog is for catching up for the last blog I posted. I know I said I would have pictures of the kids in Halloween costumes, but I didn't even dress the kids up on our neighbor hood national night out. Miss Alexis was just the GRUMPIEST little girl in the world that day. Every time I tried to take a picture of her, she just starting screaming at me. She didn't even want to hit the pinata that was hanging in tree. (See below)

But Andrew had a blast playing with all the other kids that were there. Here is Andrew:

This was after Roland and I threw the candy up in the air from the pinata. The stick that came with the pinata broke three times to where you couldn't use it anymore, so I went home and got a plastic PVC pipe, and that didn't even put a dent in the pinata. (What do they make pinatas out of; wall plaster?) Roland even tried it and he broke the PVC pipe, so we just decided to tear it apart and throw the candy into the air.
Alexis did like searching for candy, every time she found some and some of her favorites (Smarties) she'd going running to daddy and give them to him and come back and search for more, but she still didn't want her picture taken (below):

Another good news is that we had a parent-teacher conference last Friday and that went really well. Andrew is where he should be in everything except rhyming, but that was expected. Andrew doesn't get as frustrated and shut down like he use to and if he does, it's only for about 5 minutes and he doesn't shut down either. :) He is still in speech therapy, there are two others in his class that go as well. His teacher says that Andrew has a little girlfriend and her name is Maddie. They both work together in the little groups they have in class, and his teacher thinks that Maddie is a good motivator for Andrew to work well and vice a verse. They even ride the same bus. Isn't that just cute!!

Here is Miss Alexis in a good mood and being goofy:


She was the one that put the sticker on her mouth and she thought is funny to try to talk at the same time with it on her mouth.

Here is one of a new pet that Andrew wanted to keep, but I wouldn't let him:


I would have no idea what to feed a preying mantis. If it would eat all the ants in kitchen, then all means "Welcome to Family!!" Not like it would live long with the cats in the house. The biggest thing they have caught was a squirrel. I was very shocked and sadden by that. Shocked that a squirrel got caught and sadden by it's death because I love to watch the squirrels tease the cats. It's just to funny to watch! (They're were only two cats outside that day, Candy and Phathom. I'm pretty sure Candy is the one that caught it, which I'm not surprised, she is the hunter out of all of them and if Phathom did it, I would have to see it to believe it.)

Like Renee I too have gotten into a show a little late in the season "Grey's Anatomy" I only watch one show from Season 2 and was hooked, BUT now it's Season 5, and I'm only on Season 3 and this weeks episode looks REALLY GOOD, I make just skip the season premier of season 5 that is saved on my TiVo and watch it. I was really upset that I watched a commercial preview of it because I was going to save all the shows of Season 5 shows on my TiVo until I got threw all the Seasons 3-4 that I'm ordering from Blockbuster Total Access. I'll see if I can be good and wait until I catch up, but I doubt that.

Slacker....Lazy.....Tired.....Sloth......

That is what you could call me for the month of September. I was just right down lazy and tired. Roland worked the whole month of September doing overtime at work. 7am to 7pm, 7 days a week. Even though he worked all the overtime, I felt like a single parent. I'm glad I'm not but I give high praise to the men and women that are single parents. I told Roland, he couldn't leave or die on me. Roland told me that he wouldn't and that I can't do the same. At least we agree on that.
Other than that, Miss Alexis has finally got use to Andrew going to school. Now when the bus pulls up, she's says bye bye and starts playing with the window. She can make it go up and down with her foot. She loves it. Her and Andrew have window races when they're together, but I have the last laugh since I can lock the windows from up front. Andrew is doing really well in school. Roland and I have a teacher conference on Oct. 10th and I've gotten a report that Andrew's English and math are right on track. I guess holding him back a year was a good thing.

In other news:
Roland no longer has to work overtime anymore :)!! The kids and I are so happy.
I'm still working at Alderson & Associates, It will be one year in November. What a shock to me and I'm sure to my family that I've kept it for so long. Last couple of years, I only held a job for about three months, but I guess finally getting the hours I want to work helps as well.
My allergies have been extremely bad the last couple of months. My eyes are the worse. They itch, then turn red and then I look the "red eye monster" I've been double dosing on my over the counter allergy medicine and that isn't even working anymore. My doctor has referred me to an allergist, and I had an appointment today, but had to cancel that because he was running late and I had Miss Alexis with me and she was getting upset the there at the office. So I rescheduled for a later date. I'll have to go another three days without any allergy pills (not like they were working in the first place.)

Other news:
Roland and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on September 30th. (Boy it's been that long? Where has the time gone?) Roland bought me some flowers and a card (which was hilarious, I'm sure my neighbor thought I was losing my mind or going bonkers in the car, that is where I reading it.)

Here are the flowers:

Here is the card (If you can't read it, read the at the bottom of the picture)

"It's our anniversary and I don't where to begin to tell you how much I love you."

".....but I've narrowed it down to either the bedroom or the shower! Happy Anniversary!!"

Now you see why I was laughing in my car.

Here was Roland and I eight years ago:

And here we are now:

and of course Andrew wasn't smiling, even though we told him to smile!

OH by the way.....
We did receive your postcards, Nana and Poppy. Andrew loves getting mail in the mailbox, Alexis doesn't quite understand, but she will when she older. I did get the kids costumes this year. At least Andrew decided not to go as a paper bag this year (even though that would have been the easiest and cheapest costume ever!) Andrew is going be a green skeleton and Miss Alexis is going to be Supergirl. Andrew already wants to wear his costume, but I won't let him, I don't want little girl be freaked out. The kids will be able to wear their costume on Oct. 7th. That is "National Night Out" and it's on our street this year. I will be providing a BBQ pit and a table and maybe some food, but I was told that kids are welcome to wear their costumes, I'll let every one know how that goes and how little girl takes to Andrew's costume.

So What Does Everyone Think?

So what do you think? I wanted something different. It only took me three or was it four days to find what I wanted. I really wanted want some dragons or wolves or even some roses for the back round, but I couldn't really find any I really like and I wanted some that did 3 columns but I couldn't find a back round that would let me do that. Actually I'm sure there is a way to do it, but I'm tired of trying things out and sitting at my laptop on my couch (oh wait it's a futon, which is more than a recliner than anything with about 10 pillows on it, just so I can sit up and that way my butt doesn't hurt as well), plus it's been a long weekend.

Roland has volunteered at work for the ICU program. That stands for Internal CAT Unit. (CAT standing for Catastrophic) It's to take claims from the hurricane. For the next two weeks Roland will be working 7am-7pm 7 days a week. :( Sad for Roland, me and the kids, but GREAT for our budget and bills. And if the hurricanes keep up on what they are doing, Roland might be doing it for the next two months!! I don't know if I want the hurricanes to keep it up or pray we won't get another one after Hurricane Ike. That's just really sad isn't? Andrew has noticed that Roland isn't home as much and does ask if he's at work on the weekends and when he's getting home. Little girl on the other hand hasn't really notice except on the weekends.

I took the kids to church on Saturday, Andrew goes to service for children, then a bible study after wards. He seems to really enjoy it. Alexis is in the daycare and cried when I left her. Well Roland showed up for the adult bible study and when it was over, we went and got Andrew and was very excited to see daddy, then we went and got Alexis, she saw me first and just started to wine, but then she saw Roland and started screaming. I joked with the women watching Alexis and told them that "If Alexis could talk, she say that I left her there all by herself with no one to play with". Then when we were leaving Alexis didn't want to go in my truck, but Roland's. (Andrew went in my truck) We both stop at HEB to get some stuff and then Roland puts her in my truck without Andrew (he went in daddy's truck), and she screams at the top of her lungs. It's only five minutes to the house from HEB, but man that was the longest five minutes sitting at two lights just to get to the house. Seemed like about twenty to me.

My work has been slow, even with me picking up Hector's work that he did in the afternoon. Sometimes it's slow and some hours it's busy, but the busy hours don't last very long. I've got a new job of dropping off drawings, specs and submittals, but at least the locations I have to drive too are close by. It only takes me fifteen minutes going to and coming back from. I thought about walking, but it would help if I had a longer lunch, some tennis shoes and if it wasn't so hot, but hey at least I sometime get out of the office. The only thing I really want at work is a key, so I can into the office. Most of the guys get at the office about 7 am to 7:15, but not on Friday's. Friday's hours are from 8-12, but since I have to get Andrew at the bus stop by 6:55 am there is no point in me going back to house with little girl and waiting 10 to 15 minutes to leave, but then traffic sucks even more and I'd rather just skip that. Most of my co-workers tell me to just sit in my car a take a little nap. Take a little nap? Done that before, woke up late and been late for work and plus it's hot since I don't run the A/C in my truck (gas monster eater); I'd rather go into the office and sleep at my desk or surf the net until 8, that way I can have my fan on me, and cool off. Other than that, everything is A OK. It's
getting late so I'm not going to post any pictures (I don't think I have any new ones anyway) I really need to organize my pictures, but that mean sitting weird at the make shift desk I made for my laptop. My laptop is sitting on a foot stool that sits on top of the futon. Hey at least I'm not on the floor. =)

Excuse my mess!

As you can see, I'm playing around on my web-site, just like Renee but I want mine to look really different, so I'm trying things out. AS you can see my color are a little off.

I will do another post updating you on when I'm finished and what is going on with the family.

First Day of School...Hard for one.....

Today was Andrew's first day of school. I don't know if he was excited or not, but I do know that he has been bugging me for the last two weeks when school was going to start, and didn't like the answer of "in a few weeks or days". He just didn't want to go to Alexis's daycare at all, he wanted to go to school. BUT I don't think Miss Alexis wanted school to start. This was the scene today when we left the house for the bus stop:
We get to the bus stop, Andrew gets out of the car and so do I, just to make sure there aren't any cars coming, so Andrew can cross the street. Alexis starts crying. After a while, she settles down, because where she sits in my car, she can see the kids standing at the bus stop. So she is now happy to watch Andrew and the other kids wait for the bus, until the bus shows up. She starts crying again, I laugh and take off to drop her off. While at the light leading out of the neighborhood, there is another bus, (it's not Andrew's bus but Alexis doesn't know that). When the light turns green, the bus turns right, I go left, she starts crying again. I laugh again and tell her that everything is all right. I give her a pacifier to calm her. She is okay until we turn on the street to her babysitters. She starts crying again, and doesn't want to get out of the car. When I'm carrying her to the door, she is whimpering and has her face into my shoulder and doesn't want to go to Marixa, but Alexis finally goes to her, and I leave. When I picked her up from daycare, she was little sleepy from her nap, but everything was okay and she was fine at the daycare, didn't even notice that Andrew wasn't there. We get home, and we wait for Andrew's bus to show up. Big mistake on my part, since I forgot that it was the first day of school and buses will ALWAYS be late and will be late for the rest of the week. (WARNING FOR FUTURE PARENTS with kids riding the bus.) We waited out side for thirty minutes (well I did) Alexis was smart enough to go back inside and watch TV. (MAN-Texas weather is hot and it sucks, but hey at least it wasn't RAINING! :) )
Alexis was very happy when Andrew came in the door. They both started watching TV, while I did some chores, and now they are both back to their old self again. Do I hear fighting going on?
Got to go....I won't have any pictures this time, maybe next time.

Lazy, Lazy, Lazy

I know, I know, I've been slacking too. As Roland put it "I've kinda in a funk." I have not been feeling well at all the last couple of weeks. I've been waking up with what it look like was pink eye (yuck!) and my allergies just messing with body. I finally went to the doctor when it looked like the pink eye spread to my other eye. Everyone at work just stayed away from me. (Yes, I went to work.) They doctor took a swab of my eye and give me some medicine. I didn't have pink eye, but the medicine did work (I only had to take the kind that was for five days) but that wore off in the middle of the week and my eyes were starting to get red again. Went to the doctor again. Let's just say when he asked a bunch of questions, I keep telling him "no" on everything, he tells me "stop throwing my theory's out the window". I laugh. He gave me some new medicine and some eye drops (which for some reason I have misplaced on my couch...GREAT! Don't you hate it when the couch eats something and won't give it back, our living room couch likes to eat the remotes), but the other medicine is working really well. I felt a lot better Saturday morning. As for everything else, my work is slow, so slow that I found out this past week that the person that comes in the afternoon, is quiting Aug. 27. Hector, (he comes in the afternoon) told me that his new school schedule just wouldn't let him work in the afternoon and Linda didn't want to work with that new schedule. Linda (the owner's wife) told me that it was because were just slowing down to much. (let's say Linda doesn't tell me anything and if I hear it from someone else in the office, that someone is always WRONG! I just try to keep my head down, do as I'm told and look busy and not to piss off Linda. Yes my work can be stressful, even if there is no work to do.)

Roland - He is still out at USAA and on some weekend's he works a little overtime. This Wednesday he'll take both the kids to his work, since Andrew will be starting school soon.

Andrew - He's ready to go back to school. Actually he gets upset that he's going to Alexis's daycare and not school. I have to keep reminding him that school will start soon.

Alexis - Ever heard the saying "Monkey see, Monkey do"? Well she is in that stage. Here is what she's been doing. Last night we watch Walt Disney's "Tarzan" In the movie the mother gorilla throws her baby up in the air and catches him, the next scene, it the human mother throwing her baby into the air. Well, Miss Alexis see a stuff animal on the back of my couch and wants it. I give it to her, thinking nothing of it. She turns to face the TV and she just throws the stuff animal in the air. It comes flying back to me. I catch it, she doesn't. I almost told her "No, don't throw" but then I start laughing realizing what she did, copying what she saw on TV. She starts getting upset, I think she got upset that she didn't catch the stuff animal. Then the next day, she sees me shaving my legs in the bathroom (dry shaving), well she see a little bristle brush that came with the razor and she grabs it and starts to act like she is shaving her legs. I just thought that was too cute.

Her new words:
Shh! quite. (only does that when Roland or I are laughing to loud.)
Rabble, Rabble, Rabble (She got that from a cartoon)
Wow!

I don't have any new pictures, but here are some old ones:

Miss Alexis and her new crown.

Just the kids posing.

AND to the parents with little ones have to look forward to when their children start to feed themselves:

That is what I get when I get up to go to the bathroom and come back. Roland thought it was funny, but I didn't.

P.S. I'm still haven't found my eye medicine, it's time to dismantle the couch. I WILL prevail and I'm sure the kids will love to help.

Venting....oh, and pictures too!

Going to vent a little, then I'll do some pictures, because I know that is what everybody really wants to see anyway.

Venting....

Ever heard of Beware of Greeks bearing gifts? Well here is a new one. Beware of Geek Squad of trying to rip you off. I took my computer in to get the CD Rom fixed, the did a free scan on my computer and found a bunch of cookies on it. The were going to charge me over $300 to remove the cookies. Well, I was going to let them do that but a co-worker said he could for less. Well, my computer is all fixed now and didn't cost me anything. HURRAY!!!!

OK I know people really here to see pictures so here you go.


Alexis is riding on a little motorized scooter thanks to the next door neighbor. Let's say she had a BLAST!!!! and I didn't mind it because I could just walk right behind her to make sure she didn't fall off. She screamed when I had to take her off.

Here is Andrew on the neighbors 4x4. I really don't like Andrew on it, but I do know that the 4x4 has two different speeds and Andrew was one slower one. Andrew and Alexis only had a few close calls of crashing into each other.

And here are a few of my favorites and these are old pictures......

Alexis at the play ground. She loves the slide, but she needs a little help sitting the right way and getting started, but if you help her too much she gets upset. She is little Miss Independent.

Andrew playing in the back yard on the slide.

That will be all for now.

First and hopefully the last one I ever see!!!

I saw a Tornado!! Well at least one trying to form on top of a building. I'm seeing this from the 7th floor of the building I work in. THIS IS NOT HELPING ME CALM MY NERVES!!!

Let's go back about 15 minutes:
I knew of the sighting of the tornado touch down around the downtown area, south side. When John (a co-worker) came back from lunch, he had heard of a tornado that was at Sea World (20 minutes away from my house), heading north to Helotes (five minutes from my house). Starting to get worried. I get on the internet and the tornado John was talking about is heading that way and to Pipe Creek, the tornado should reach Pipe Creek at 1:30. It's 1:25, and I call Mom and Dad. Not answering. I'm thinking good they're not home. Then I call the babysitter. She was just about to call me and warn my that there is a tornado warning issued for that area, especially around Marshall High School. Her house is right across the street from the high school and 10 minutes away from my house. Starting to panic, but still in control. Decided to call Roland at work and update him. He calls back and informs me that there was a tornado reported in the Medical Center. Guess what part of town I work? Right by the medical center. Really close (try 2 minutes). Now I'm panicking. Only thing calming me down is me taking off the cap of the highlighter and putting it back on really fast. (click, click, click, click)
Guess what I did next and that I shouldn't have done. I go and look out the window. THAT WAS A BIG MISTAKE, since that is where I saw a tornado trying to form on top of a building. (I think it was about five stories tall, it's shorter than mine.) I'm almost run out of the office yelling "Tornado", but I stopped myself and looked again. At first I see it spinning and slowly disappearing. I'm thinking maybe it was smoke or steam from the top of the building. I don't see anything coming from the top of the building. I WAS wrong about the smoke. Now I'm about ready to lose it. I go to my boss and ask him if was watching the weather outside his window. (His window looks out the same direction that I was looking out of). He says "no". I tell everything I saw out the window and told him what my husband and babysitter said. He ask if I'm worried about my kids. I said yes, while I'm trying to control my shaking hands. He says "go" I say "THANKS!" and bolt for my desk. While driving home, I notice that the clouds at work are starting to get lighter. That's a good sign. Driving to the babysitters and to my house, it's getting darker. That's not a good sign. I look for clouds that are a greenish color or starting to spin, don't see anything, but that does help calm my nerves. The kids and I get home right before it starts pouring rain. At least we didn't get that wet, but the kids wanted to stay out in the rain and play in the street. I guess I shouldn't have let them do that a couple weeks ago, oh well. After about an hour the clouds have lighten up and there is some wind. I think everything has calmed down (I know I have by this point). I'm now looking out the window to watch the two streams run down my street. My street turns into a river when it rains a lot. Why do you think the kids want to go and play out in the rain?

Now it's starting to rain again, the little rivers are starting to pick up speed, and the clouds are getting darker. There goes my nerves AGAIN!!!! When will it end?!?

Finally!!

I finally got my laptop back!! I'm SOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!, but this will be a short post since my computer needs to be updated by McAfee and it's 10 o'clock and it's time for the kids to start going to bed, but Andrew is hungry so I'll go and make him something. BRB (be right back). BACK!!
Well as soon as Andrew is done eating, I'm going to bed. I will be making a post tomorrow.

I want my laptop back!!

I'm writing this post from Roland's computer since my laptop is at Best Buy getting fixed.
For some reason the CD Rom Drive wasn't reading the CD's. Took it to Best Buy to get it fixed. Took it in Sunday, July 6th and went in on Sunday the 13th just to see if it had come in. The guy told me it should be here Monday (14th) or Tuesday (15th). I just called and they told me, that I wouldn't be getting it back until next week. I'm starting to get pissed off at Geek Squad. I really wish that they would get their story straight or date right. I'm still hoping it will come in sooner than that.

I won't be posting any pictures until I get my laptop back. Sorry!!! =(

Decided to do things this way!

I got this idea from Renee Blackwell (my sister in-law), I'm always looking forward to her post about Pierce, so I decided that I would give updates on Andrew and Alexis this way, since for some reason I can't go to Wal-Mart, get pictures printed, get the pictures sorted to all of Roland's and mine family members and mailed off, with some little note inside. (SORRY)!

Recent things on the kids:

Andrew:
He just finished summer school. For those who don't know Andrew is being kept back a year in school. Andrew is a little slow in math, reading and speech. He has been going to a speech therapist at his school. He is doing a wonderful job, but his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Daiberl thought it would be best to keep him back, plus they have standards to past Kinder, and Andrew didn't pass. I think now and in the future kids will have to past a college exam just to get out of High School.

Alexis:
Alexis is now 2 years old (May 30th). SHE is Miss Independence and doesn't want any help from anybody, and when she does let you help her, she just gets upset that you did. Right now, everything is hers and she loves telling Andrew: MINE! MINE! MINE! and then Andrew comes and tells me that he had it first. I have to tell him that Alexis doesn't understand that, and just to give it to her, she drops whatever Andrew had that she wanted in about five minutes anyway,
plus She's mommy's little helper: she helps me take out the garbage and recyclables (Andrew does too and he get the mail as well, which of course Alexis gets upset at that, she can't quiet reach the mailbox), helps feed the outdoor cats, put up the groceries (mostly she just hands them to me, while I put them up) and helps put the dishes in the dishwasher or takes them out when their done.

Both the kids will be going to Marixa's home daycare for the summer. That is where I have Alexis going. Andrew loves going there. Marixa has a 7 year old son that Andrew plays with and Andrew does love playing with the other kids there. There is a little girl that will ask me "Where's Andrew?" when I'd go and pick up Alexis if Andrew wasn't with me. I think Andrew has a girlfriend. Marixa will also be tutoring Andrew while the little one's are taking a nap. I don't think Roland and I have to worry about Alexis's speech, since she's talking already.

A few of Lexi's words: (That is what she is called there at the daycare since there is a little boy named Alex there)

What's this?
Where's Andrew?
Gizmo
Cat food
Mommy
Daddy
Bye bye (and is waving her hand at whatever she's saying it to)
YES!
Mine!

There are lots other, but I can't remember what they are.
And if your wondering about the word "No" she won't say it; she shakes her no and points her finger at you and gives you a sound that you know that it means "No"

Well I think I'm done for now, here are some pictures of the kids:

Alexis didn't really like our singing of Happy Birthday to her.

Both kids loved the Birthday Cake!

Andrew and Alexis enjoying our backyard pool

Andrew at a friends birthday pool party.

Andrew mostly stayed in the big pool with his friends.

Miss Alexis helping daddy put on sunscreen on his head

And here are a just a few of my favorites:

Andrew and Alexis trying to help Bear get out of Nana's pond. On a few occasion both kids almost joined Bear in the pond. (Bear finally got out by himself)

Well I think that is about it. I don't know if I'll have as many post as Renee or pictures but I will try.

PS- If your wondering about Roland and me, we're both doing fine. Roland is still out working at USAA and I'm still at my part-time job (7:30-2:30) (great for when Andrew is in school, I'm at the house when he gets off the bus) that I started in November. I work for Alderson & Associates, Inc. They're a consulting engineer company. I was hired to answer the phones, except for some reason I don't. They want me to leave the phones on night. Mostly I do a lot of editing on specs (specifications) on projects. And when I mean a lot of editing, I mean a lot. Think of a stack of papers that have about over 1000 pages that have mechanical , electrical and plumbing edits that I have to do. All the specs and drawings (which I don't have to worry about) have to go out on a certain day. Guess when I get the edits? Sometimes a week before they have to go out and then sometimes I get them 3 days before they out (talk about pressure), and sometimes I have specs on two different projects (now talk about not getting them confused) but at least there is someone there in the afternoon to help.

Well NOW I think I'm done. I've got some critters looking at me since it's past their dinnertime.
(AND I'm not talking about the kids.) =)