Silly Putty Home Remedy

Rubbing alcohol wins. It took the silly putty out of Aaron's new jeans. Just in case anyone ever needs to know.

King Ranch

(This barn is rumored to have been used in a Ford and Toby Keith commercial.Supposedly, the Running W was removed and the Ford Oval was placed on the barn. )

On Friday after Christmas, we went to the King Ranch in Kingsville. It was really a great day trip and well worth the drive, at least we thought it was. They offer a couple of different tours, one of which was the historical tour which is what we did. the other tour is a nature and wildlife tour, but we saw plenty of wildlife on the tour we took so no need to pay for the other tour unless you are interested in birding. Anyhoo, the tour was on a 20 or so passenger bus/van and was very comfortable. The driver/tour guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. On the first part of the tour we saw the quarter horses. We saw breed mares in the pasture, stallions in another, your horses near the stables. What beautiful creatures. Does anyone know why they are called Quarter Horses? Take the tour for the answer!

We also saw two different breds of cattle, the two the ranch are known for, the Santa Cruz and the Santa Gertrudis. I forget the specs of the the two, but I know one was larger with bigger bone structure, and the other was darker in color which came from one cow named Monkey. I'm not sure which is which or which one is in this picture, but I thought it was neat that you can see the King Ranch Running W brand on this cow. There are a couple of stories as to how they came up with the Running W brand. One says it resembles a rattlesnake, another was that the people Capt King bought the either the ranch from or the cows from used a Running M and he just turned it over to make it a W, the last was that it represented the Rio Grande River on which Capt King was the captain of a riverboat.

We also saw long horns. Typically the ranch doesn't bred them for profit. They are more for novelty, and are just really cool to see. I know that since we moved to Texas I've been wanting to see some up close. I got better pictures of the front and faces of some but this one just had really massive horns. As I mentioned earlier we also saw our share of wildlife. We saw lots of deeer, does and bucks, we saw a scrawny little fox, some turkey vultures, and several osprey. Oh yeah, some wild turkeys, too. All-in-all it was a great day and a pretty good tour. The highlight for most of the guests on the tour was the Big House, the King Family home. I wasn't able to get any good pictures of it but you can visit the King Ranch website to see more and learn more about the ranch and the tours that are offered.

The Trouble with Santa

The trouble with Santa is that the only one you can blame is yourself. "Santa" thought it would be a good idea to give my 4 year old Silly Putty in his stocking this year. Aaron thought it was great fun "decorating his toys with it, which is fine, Silly putty cleans off of plastic fine. It's the silly putty that is ground into his jeans that's the problem. Brand new jeans...aaagggghhhhh. I've Googled how to get it out and I've seen GooGone and rubbing alcohol. Has anyone tried these remedies and if you have which one works? Boy, I sure would love to have a talk with Santa, but I'm sure they'd lock me up for that conversation!

Mamo's Here!

Just wanted to give a quick, Reader's Digest version of what all we've done while Karleene's been here. This way I won't forget anything.

Friday.. Karleene arrived approx 9:00 PM so we didn't do much that evening; just rested and visited.
Saturday..Another lazy day. We watched Christmas movies and the boys did theit gingerbread project for this year, which by-the-way was Santa's sleigh
Sunday..Church, lunch at Chili's, and grocery shopping.
Monday..Yet another lazy day.
Tuesday..library, Dr's appointment for me, to the dreaded mall to visit the Build-a-Bear workshop, then home to rest.
Wednesday..Christmas Eve. Baking and watching Christmas movies.
Thursday..Christmas Day. Santa presents in early morning. Daddy had to work today, so we did the rest of Christmas presents in PM. Then Christmas Dinner and rest while kids played with new toys.
Friday..We went to Kingsville to visit the historic King Ranch. On the way home we stopped at the outlet mall to shop.
Saturday.. Karleene and Richard went to shooting range and to do some shopping, then in PM Richard and I had DATE NIGHT! YEAH!!!
Sunday..started off as a lazy day. Then in afternoon we went on a riverboat tour of the Rio Grande River near where we live. Then out to eat at Cracker Barrel.
Monday.. Karleene leaves in the morning around 10:30 or so. Wish her safe travel back home to NC. I only wish we were getting to go home with her to visit.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy and joyous Merry Christmas. Love to all and may God bless you today.

The Killer Bees Sting the Scorpions

Where we live, not only do we have players for the minor league basketball team, the Vipers, we also have members of the minor league hockey team, the Killer Bees. Last week Richard register in the front office to win tickets to Friday's hockey game. Guess what? WE WON!!!
We received 4 tickets to the game. What fun. It was my first hockey game ever and what a blast. The mascot was great. It looks like he's getting ready to open fire on the crowd with a machine gun, but it's actually a gun that launches t-shirts into the crowd.

We all received Thunder sticks that when clapped together really hard are really noisey. The only thing Aaron managed to do with his is hit me repeatedly in the head. I eventually made him move down the row a little to spread us out and to save my head.

We all had a great time and I'm sure we'll go back to more games. My friend, Candice, says they are very addictive, and I can see where they could be. enjoy the pictures.

Conversations with Aaron

Early this evening Aaron was in the bathroom sitting on the potty so i stopped to see if he needed help "cleaning up."
He said, "Look, Mommy, I have one wipy and toilet paper." Then he proceeds to wipe himself. Then he holds up the wipy and toilet paper and asks me, "Would you like to smell it?" My repsonse was immediate. "NO! Not after you put poo-poo on it!" "But, Mommy," he says, "it smells like something very special."


All I could do was laugh!!!!

Deck the Halls

I'm finally getting some decoraations up. I'm slow getting to it this year, but I think we finally finished tonight.I just wanted to share a few of my favorite things to put out each year. If we had a bigger place with shelves to display things, some of these things I would leave out year round.
This is my Nativity. It's by Willow Creek which I love. There are a few pieces I still need to complete the scene like the three Wise men and the cache, but I just love this. This is the first thing I would leave out year round. It reminds me of God's gift to us and of how much He loves us.


My next favorite thing about Christmas is Santa. This is called the Kneeling Santa. He's kneeling by baby Jesus praying. Once again, this reminds us that Jesus is the real reason we celebrate Christmas, even Santa knows this. I like to think he's praying to God, thanking Him for the ultimate and first Christmas Gift, His Son.


This piece I got last year for Christmas. If you look closely at the book Santa is holding it's the Bible. Yet another reminder not to get caught up in the commercial aspect of Christmas, but to slow down and listen to the Bible, even Santa does.


This last thing is just funa and makes me smile. Santa in a hula-skirt should make anyone smile. You can't see it in this picture, but behind Santa is a small radio and if you push the antenae it plays Jingle Bells in Hawaii-sounding tunes. Santa is supposed to sway back and forth at the hips but I think I pushed the radio antenae a few too many times.

Hope this brings a few smiles to a few faces. And I pray that everyone will just remember and try to keep in their hearts the true meaning of Christmas, even Santa does.

Night-Night Zoey

We felt bad that Zoey was having to use this chair for a pillow so we bought her a new bed. Jus t kidding, although she really does use the chair to hold her head up sometimes, she's so lazy. For the past year our mattress and boxspring has been on the floor and Zoey has been able to get in the bed with us and sleep. We FINALLY have a headboard and frame and the mattress set is off the floor, YEAH!!! But poor old Zoey can't get in the bed any more. So we bought her a new bed to go in our room. She's so happy!!!

I'm free at last!!!!

This is my precious kitty cat Pete. Richard wouldn't call him precious, but i think he is. He is a sweet cat and he's a lover when it comes to me. Up until we moved to Texas he was an indoor-outdoor cat, mostly outdoor except in the winter. He was not to fond of the cold, much like me! Anyway, we moved to TX in October of 2007 that means we've been here a little over a year. Pete has been an indoor cat since then and the only contact with the outside he's had was when we were in NC for a month this summer and I let him out there and sitting in an open window here. Anyway, the weather was so nice yesterday and he was sitting by the door so i opened the door to see what he would do. He was so happy to get out. He spent most of the afternoon on the porch basking in the sun and sometime out in the grass grazing (I guess it's been a while since he's had any grass to eat).

What a happy puddy-tat!!!!

One funny thing is that Petey has always been a rather slim cat, but since he's been inside with little exercise he's put on a little weight on he can barely fit through the bars on the porch. He has to go really slow or else he gets stuck around the hip area. I guess he forgot he can jump up and over the rail.

Later that evening I let him out again. This time he went off the porch and was gone for a long time. When he wasn't back before I went to bed I started worrying a little but i knew he's come back. I even told Richard it'll probably be 2:00AM when he does. And did i ever call that one~! At 1:47 Aaron came in my room with a bad dream so while I was up with him I decided to check on Pete. i opened the back door and called him quietly since it was as late as it was, and there he was, ready to come in. Whew! am I relieved that he came back. I think Richard was more relieved or else I'd be getting a kitten for Christmas!

In case you were wondering...

The picture at the top of my blog was taken in NC in the winter of 2005 off of the back porch of the house we were renting. the elderly lady that lived there before us always feed the birds so we had to keep up with her tradition and feed them as well. One of the perks was we always had Cardinals and the males are always so pretty in the white snow. This picture just seemed more appropriate for winter and Christmastime than palmtrees and sunsets. It helps put me in the Christmas spirit. Also, the Christmas music I've been listening to helps.

Being Thankful

I know Thanksgiving was a week ago, but this is something that inspired me today so i wanted to share. Today i had a MOPS meeting (that's Mother's Of Pre-Schoolers). Our guest speaker was the church's previous pastors wife. She spoke to us about how when she and her husband were first married all they wanted was children but later found out that she was unable to have children. They later were called into the ministry in Africa and assigned to the student ministry. They decided the children they helped lead to God through their ministry would be their "children" and had they had their own, the opportunity for going to Africa may not have been there. One of the things she said that was really profound was this, "If you can't thank God for everything in your life, even the bad stuff, then you don't understand the power of God's love for you." She says it wasn't until she grasped this and that she was thankful for all that God had or had not given her that her prayers of having children came true. After 12 or 13 years of marriage and ministry in Africa and not being able to have children, she finally became pregnant and is now the mother of 3 and the grandmother of two with more on the way. I was blessed once again by MOPS and am thankful for the message that was given to me today from God through MOPS. I hope that someday I can be as grateful for all the "stuff" in my life, good and bad, and trust that God allows us to go through times of sunshine and plenty as well as times of trouble and storms so that we can grow closer to Him. My prayer is that you are all as thankful as this lady is and can be as close to God as possible.

Texas State Aquarium, Corpus Christi

On Saturday of Marc's visit, we went to Corpus Christi which is about a two hour drive from where we are. We started at the State Aquarium. In the way of aquariums it was pretty good but not the best we've ever been to. Not only did they have the aquarium exhibits inside displaying water habitats of all kinds like coral reefs, the Amazon, fresh water and so on, they also had outdoor exhibts with dolphins, sea turtles, and river otters. The Texas Alligator exhibit is just being built so we missed out on the "crocagators" as Aaron calls them.

This was a cool picture with the light coming up illuminating the boys with the fish behind them.

The next picture was fun. In this one room the lights were aimed at the wall to make the walls look like water. Marc and the boys were pretending to swim.

Here was the touch pond. I was taking pictures, Richard was making videos, which left Marc to touch the hermit crabs with the boys. Andrew, of course, had no problem picking them up and looking at them, but Aaron was a little more leary. Finally, "Uncle" Marc put a crab in a large shell and Aaron was okay holding it that way.

Another cool thing they had was the "bubble" as we called it. It was a tank in the corner of the room with this doom in it. The boys had to crawl into it from underneath and stand up so they could be inside the aquarium. Really cool.

Here is my family outside the State Aquarium. Of course this picture was taken at the beginning of the day before I was tired and frazzled. We were there almost all day. At about 2:30, Richard and Marc decided to go over to the USS Lexington which is right next door to the aquarium. The boys and I stayed to shop at the gifr shop and play on the playground for a little bit. Later we headed over to the beach next to the Lexington to play in the sand and wait on Daddy and Uncle Marc.

After we all met up again, we ended a perfect sea-side day with a sea-food meal at Joe's Crab Shack on the Bay. The view was awesom! What a great day we had.

Go VIPERS!

In the apartments where we live, there are some players for the minor-league basketball team, the Vipers, next door to us. Andrew has befriended them and asked them if they could get him some tickets to a game. To our suprise one of they players brought him 3 tickets on Friday for Friday's game. Since Richard's friend Marc is here visiting us the three of them went to the game. I'm not even sure who they played. From what I understand they played a pretty good game and the guys had a real good time, especially with the mascots. Here's Andrew at the game.

Here's Marc, Andrew and Richard with the Chick-Fil-A cow. I'm sure the cow has a name, but does anyone know what it is?

One of the mascots that entertained for the evening was Clutch. He was a bear and also the favorite of the game. He went around and picked three kids who dressed up in bear costumes, followed Clutch around the court and had to mimic everything Clutch did. Comedy ensued as you can imagine. One of the things he did was pretend to pee on someone, then they had to shake their rear-ends at the players or the cheerleaders, I forget which one.

Anyway, the guys had a great time and Aaron and I spent a nice quiet evening at home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving day. Uncle Marc made it in from Miami okay. We are thankful for that. We are having our Thanksgiving meal tomorrow which is also Marc's birthday. So it'll be a very special day.
This is a Thanksgiving tree that Aaron made at Moppets while I was at Mops. Some of the things he listed that he was thankful for was food, his parents, home, God, AND his brother.

I just want to remind everyone to take a minute to reflect on their lives and all they have to be thankful for. Even when things are rough and life doesn't always seem fair, just knowing we have a heavenly father who loves us and gave His Son to die for our sins is all we really need to be thankful for. Love to all...

Fall Fun

Since we moved from the mountains and foothills of North Carolina and to a sub-tropical climate, we no longer get to experience the beauty of fall. I really miss the leaves changing and falling. But never fear...MAMO is here! In years past, she has sent a box of fall leaves to her grandchildren in Miami, Fl. Now she does the same for Andrew and Aaron. The had a blast playing in the leaves and having leaf fights. Here's what fall in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas is like. Don't miss the video that's in the middle of the pictures.

Lights, Cameras....Say Cheese

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Last week i took the boys to get some pictures taken. I still haven't had Aaron's 4 yr old picture taken and i was not happy with Drew's school picture so i wanted to have those redone. While we're at it, let's just have Christmas pictures taken too! Here's a preview of how it turned out. the boys did really good and despite how the usually get along, they really had fun and look like they really love each other.

Happy Halloween 2008

Happy Belated Halloween!
This year we skipped trick or treating and went to church festivals in the area. The first church festival we went to was at Baptist Temple which is where I attend MOPS. They had lots of blow-up rides and climbing slides, they had rock climbing wall, as well as food and candy.

Aaron of course came up with his own method for obtaining candy!
He was a clone trooper from Star Wars this year. Andrew didn't want to dress up this year so he just tagged along for the fun and games. He had a great time on the rock wall and the velcro jump.

we hope you all ahd a great halloween just as we did.

Happy FAll Ya'll

I'm still here. I just got a new computer! yeah i'm so excited. As soon aas i get the boys halloween pictures loaded, i'll get them on here. I just wanted to let you know that i miss everyone, and i miss the fall weather. I found some pictures of fall leaves from a couple of years back and i really started missing north carolina this time of year. Just wanted to post a quick hello and let everyone know i'm thinking of you.

Sue the Dinosaur

Today we went to see Sue the T-Rex. She's the largest, most complete t-rex skeleton ever found. She was found in south Dakota i think and her actual bones are in chicago. the display we saw today was a replica of the actual skeleton, well at least we think it is. I can't imagine the actual skeleton being on a traveling display. So anyway, Andrew was so excited to see it and aaron was more excited to play with the displays that were interactive. all-in-all we had a good time.