Well back to hectic life. Hubby had to go back to Phoenix til the new guy starts which is next Monday. He left Sunday evening and will be back late on Friday night. I hate his traveling but understand it. We had a good weekend. They had their ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, which is several months late, but better late than never :o) He was late getting home due to everything. A couple of the guys from out of town flew in to be here for everything. So they went ahead and had a committee meeting. Saturday we spent it as a family getting things done. Went shopping, got hubby some new clothes, which was needed. Had dinner at Bandanas and that was about the extent of our Saturday... OH, other than I got 576 pictures printed!!!! Which is more than I have ever done, but if you take em to Walgreens and use their 19 cents a copy, its not too bad. Still ended up about $115 but not bad for 576 pics :o) Then on Sunday finished up getting hubby packed, went out to Robs for a bbq and the football game and took hubby to the airport for him to fly out to Phoenix. Oh, yeah, we also went to a wine shop that sells one brand of wine and bought several more bottles of wine... I think we are up to about 100 bottles... someone better start drinking!!!
The Rams WON!!!! That was an awesome game, we got screwed outta a call, but whatever, we still won that is all that matters. In other things, we have heard from our friends in TX, they are doing ok, back at home. Said its strange to see soooo few ppl in Houston, but they had very few problems. As for M, not quite sure how she faired, hopefully will talk to her soon to see how her house is. They live by Beaumont so they were closer to all that happened... they know they have no electricity and are thinking it will be about 2 weeks before they get it back. OK, well off to feed the kiddos...

A poem that Laura sent me that I thought was beautiful....


UnFolding the Rosebud
It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of God's design;
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.
The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
God opens this flower so sweetly,
In my hands it will fade and die.
If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of God's design,
Then how can I think I have wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?
So I'll trust in Him for His leading
Each moment of every day.
I will look to him for His guidance
Each step of the pilgrim way.
The pathway that lies before me,
Only my Heavenly Father knows.
I'll trust Him to unfold the moments,
Just as He unfolds the rose.
- Helen Steiner Rice

We took over 800 pictures on our trip to Memphis....So its slow going on the upload and hubby is doing it. HERE is the link to the pics we have up so far, oh and hubby posts them ALL so there will be some screw ups in there. Also, one of our memory cards is corrupted or something and we had to recover pics from it, so there are a few screwed up pics that I noticed. I am hoping to get those cleaned up and usable since a lot of them were really good.

I have a lot to talk about so I will get started and see how far I can get. Hubby decided that we were going to go to Memphis for my birthday. He got back from Phoenix on Wednesday, took off on Thursday, Friday and Monday. We got a lot of stuff done for the trip on Thursday and left around noon on Friday. Our friend Rob went with us to get away too. We got to Memphis around 5 that night. We stopped at an outlet mall that had a scrapbook store on our way down there, which was awesome. Once we got to Memphis we ate a restraunt called Houston's. It was INCREDIBLE. I had the BEST pan seared crabcakes I have ever had in my life. Hubby and Rob both had steak. Robs has bleu cheese slices on tomatoes that was delicious ( I had to try it) and hubbies was a hawaiian steak that was melt in your mouth yummy. The kids had chicken strips that they loved too. After that we dropped Rob off at his hotel for the evening and went to ours. Our hotel was booked by the time Rob decided he was going to go so there was not space at ours. Then we got to ours and just relaxed for the evening. Rented the movie Madagascar for the kids, which hubby and I thought was cute too.
Got up early on Saturday morning (which was my birthday!!) ate at the only frekain McDonalds we could find and headed to the zoo. We got to the zoo around 9:30 and headed to the panda bears!!! It is not that big of a zoo but is a pretty zoo. And for the first time in my life I saw panda bears. I was soo excited. The panda has been my favorite animal all my life and I absolutely adore them. So to see them for the first time was incredible. The boy, LeLe was outside in the play area and YaYa was up in a tree inside sleeping. We went around the zoo and managed to make it back to the pandas several time, along with seeing them being fed. LeLe was the only one that got down to eat. YaYa stayed up in her tree. It was really an awesome experience for me, and I have the best husband in the world to take me to see them. After the zoo Rob wanted to rest so we took him back to his hotel for a while then we went to Elmwood Cemetary to look around. It has a Confederate Soldiers area, a lot of ppl that had died from yellow fever, the first black millionaire is also there. It is a very interesting cemetary. There is also a section for Masons that is very interesting. Hubby and I got out by the Confederate area. There is a beautiful memorial there that hubby wanted to look at. Now, this part of the story gets interesting. I was walking around lookin at the graves, I cleaned a few off that had a lot of growth on them. I was reading the large memorial that had a bunch of stuff on it when I felt a drop in temp. I would say it was about 15 degrees. The sun was out, there was no breeze, it was a calm HOT day. As I was standing there it felt like an A/C was hitting me. It was that one spot. I had my hubby come over to me and he felt the same thing I did. It really was very strange. We left shortly after that and I guess all I can say about it was it made me feel calm. Maybe I am being over imaginitive, but in my mind I feel that it was a Confederate soldier there with me. I have always believed in OTHER things, not ghosts in particular, but spirits just other things other than the living. Hubby was disturbed by it, but I was at peace. It was just an awesome experience that I hope to never lose.
Anyways, that was our adventure to the cemetary. It was an experience I wont ever forget. We went to get Rob from his nap and went back to our hotel to get ready for our dinner. We went to a restraunt called The Pier. It is known for its seafood down by the river. It was a beautiful place with a great view of the river. I had lobster, hubby had another steak ( hes not a seafood eater) and Rob had seafood. The kids had a variety of things. Oh and a bottle of Clos Du Bos Merlot. Hubby got me a cybershot digital camera for my birthday. I wanted something smaller than the big one that he uses. Something more simple than our big one and SMALLER. Along with our trip to Memphis it was an almost perfect birthday. After dinner Rob watched the kids for us at our hotel so that hubby and I could go to Beale St and play. We went on a horse drawn carriage ride through downtown Memphis that was so incredibly romantic and sweet. Our driver was extremely knowledgable in the area and told us about the history of the place and interesting tidbits. We then wandered around Beale St for a while. It was awesome to feel the life in the area. Hubby is not a drinker and I did not drink, so it was awesome to just walk around. We went to a few of the gift shops and just enjoyed one another.
On Sunday we went to the Mud Island Museum out on an island on the Mississippi. We had to ride a monorail to get there. It was a really neat place. It was a small scale model of the Mississippi. They started it in Cairo, IL and ended it at the gulf. The kids had a blast playing in the water. Hubby also got rubber duckies for the kids and they raised em down the Mississippi. It was a lot of fun for everyone. There was also a museum that was a lot of fun. It had a small Ironsides from the civil war you could walk through, stuff on Elvis, the Blues and lots of other things that was a lot of fun to see. We also took the kids to Beale St to play around during the day and also took them on a carriage ride. Which they LOVED. We also had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. The kids had a wonderful time playing. We got back to the hotel that night and they passed out. On Monday we went to the Peabody to see the duck walk. The kids thought that was really neat too. And on our way out of town we drove by Elvis' place. I was not willing to pay the outrageous amount they wanted to see his stuff. So we took pics from the outside, signed his wall and went on our way home. We got home Monday evening, grabbed the dogs and that was our weekend :o)
We also got the kids disposable cameras for the trip. They each got 2. One for the zoo and then another at the Mud Island. They could do what they wanted with them. But once they used them up that is all they had. We got the pics developed and they did a lot better than I thought they would. They are going to do albums once I put some stuff together for them. It was a wonderful idea and they had a BLAST with them.
As for Rita the hurricane, I am so glad we do not live in Houston anymore. They evacuated the area that we lived in along with so many others. All of our friends are evacuating, some may end up this way. Which would be awesome. Our prayers and thoughts with all our friends. We love you guys!!!

OK, so I thought about blogging yesterday but decided to just do my little one and blog another time since I am in a bitchy mood, its going to be a bitchy post. And really, I should not have bitched yesterday since it really was a very sad day.
Now, for today, things have been hectic, not just hectic but REALLY hectic. Hubby is STILL in Phoenix and NOT happy about it. He has managed to take a few minutes to go take some pictures of the area. Our son requested some cactuses so he took some. HERE is the link for the pics that he has taken so far. He is going to try and go to Apache Junction and take pictures of the mountains there. He has been extremely busy and has not been enjoying it. He has worked all weekend and a bunch of other things that I will not get into detail with. As for me, I feel like a single parent and its very taxing, only difference is, I dont get to get rid of my kids on weekends. I have to deal with them 24/7 and it gets very stressful. Just 2 more days....
HERE are the pics that we took a couple weekends ago. I finally got them uploaded, well at least most of them, there are still a few more that I should put up but have not gotten to. I will eventually get to em.
This last weekend was ok, I went to my brothers football game against my old HS. My old HS won against his 12-7. My brother did not get to play, since they wanted their "seasoned" players in there. Regardless they lost. But my brother held down the sideline well. :o) It was a great game and I did enjoy it. Of course earlier that day was Bev's dads funeral, and the funeral went as any funeral goes. It was the same place my grandpa was buried so I went to visit him for a while after the funeral then went back to Bevs place for the refreshments. It was the first time I have been to my grandpas grave by myself. I thought I could handle it ok, but I really had a hard time, probably was not the best time to go, since I had just come from a funeral. I was already sad at that point. It was good for me though. It was something I needed to do.
The rest of my weekend was fairly quiet, the kids played outside and enjoyed the queit weekend. My oldest went to church with a good friend of his and we had to run to the store, other than that we have stayed in. It was nice to have a weekend in. I am sure there is a bunch more I could say, but its time to make dinner for the kiddos. Oh, and dont forget to check out my friend Rod's website. Its on my links bar.... OK, off to make kids dinner!

Today is a day of rememberance, of pausing and thinking of all those that have lost loved ones and those that are still here and fighting to keep us safe and free. I cannot believe that it has been 4 yrs already. God bless on this day of rememberance.

Bev's dad passed away on Friday at 4:01 in the morning. Which in a way was shocking, yet in another way not. He has fought a long and hard battle. He was in the rehab center, but was not improving. He was eating on his own, but was still not breathing on his own and could not get out of bed without help. It is really starting to hit me. I have known him all my life, he used to tell my parents when I was doing something I was not supposed to be doing (which was not often since I am a perfect angel, RIGHT) He had this god awful paper route that he did and us kids in the neighborhood used to help out. It was horrible, I remember helping, the early early times we had to be there, and the horrible feel of those newspapers on the hands. If my parents ever went out of town he would tell my parents who I had over, what we were doing, the whole nine yards. He has always been a pain in my ass, but he was always a good guy. I know now he was just looking out for me. He was also a good guy, as much as he was a pain, he was good to us too. I grew up with his kids, I know all 3 of them and the youngest has been a friend of mine all our lives. Which is saying something. To know someone all your life and still be in touch and close to them is amazing. I treasure the fact that Bev has always been there. I have always been able to call her and talk to her, she knows a lot about me, more than some. To think that she lost her dad at such a young age is devastating. She is handling it as well as anyone can expect. The wake is tonite and the funeral is on Friday at JB since he is going to be cremated. Its just so sad, he was still so young...
As far as the rest of life, its going, I spent Friday night with Bev at her place to be there for her, they had funeral arrangements to make on Saturday, and then Sunday was more prepping to get things taken care of for her.
We took care of our friends 3 Great Danes while they were in Dallas this weekend, so we did a lot of running around. We took the kids to see Lion King at the MegaScreen. Which they absolutely loved, as did hubby and I. We found some beauitful wild daisies and decided to stop and get some pics of them and of the kids, I will try and get them uploaded as soon as possible. We had to get some stuff for hubbies latest business trip. This time he went to Phoenix and will be there til late Friday night. The kids and I dropped him off at the airport at the gruesome hour of 6:30 this morning. Needless to say I have CRABBY kids that hate to be woke up so dang early. The rest of my week consists of going to a wake, taking care of kids, funeral on Friday, and if I am up to it a football game that my brother is going to be in. He is playing my old high school, so a girlfriend and I may go to that Friday night, then to pick up the hubby at the airport afterwards.
Ok, well I am off to get my clothes ready for tonite, to get other things taken care of before I have to leave, I will work on those pics and get them up as soon as I can. I am sure I will be posting again in the next couple of days...

OK, I decided it was time for a change, did not know it was going to be such a pain in the ass, but its done. Our puppy is now 80 pounds and growing. He is growing an average of a pound a day.
The devestation in LA, MS and AL is unbelievable. It is so sad to see all those people homeless and so much destruction. But the more I watch the news the more pissed off I get. I feel so bad for the families that have no where to go and those kids and old people that are without so much. Then you see the people looting, stealing anything and everything, whether it is useful or not. You hear about a brother shooting his sister in the back for a bag of ice, you hear about people committing suicide, people completely destroying the shelters that they are in, smearing shit and blood all over the place, kids sleeping in urine and I just get outraged. WHY destroy the place that is graciously housing you, protecting you from the outside elements? I am so sorry to those people that are just trying to make the best of a situation, trying to protect their children, people that cannot afford or have any place to go. Then there are the idiots that are SHOOTING at the helicopters and HURTING a guardsman in the process. The very people that are trying to help them and they are hurting them. What is wrong with ppl??? It is so very disappointing to see the way people are reacting.
Ok, done with the rant, since it is such an unfortunate event. Please make a donation to any of the places if you can. Here is a link to Salvation Army. God bless all those that are down there helping and risking their own lives to save those that are in need. To those that give, thank you and God bless you too