Kids at Memorial Park

Right before the cold front blew in last Tuesday we went to Memorial Park with some moms. We are all YMCA junkies, so our kids get to play in the nursery together as well while their mothers are off sweating in another room.

Ava, Isabel, Justin, Lucy, & Chance


Kind of flipped on smiles - Justin is the only smiley in the previous photo and everyone looks cheerful in this one.


We played with another little boy and his ball for a bit.

And just as we were leaving, Justin spotted some 5th grade girls and a jump rope. For the most part they were great sports about letting a toddler attempt to jump. One little girl kept bossing him around saying, 'Little boy, you are just too small to do this.' I asked politely if I could just take a quick photo and then we would let them get on their merry way. Justin was entranced with the whole thing. He actually made it over one time.

This and that

I send myself ideas and blog posts when I run into them. Every so often I realize how many have accumulated when I am going through my email and deleting excess emails. Here are some things that caught my attention.


Too fun Target dot collection in the bathroom department. Wish I had a reason or color scheme to get some of these for a guest bathroom or something.



Where was this last time I was pregnant? I had to share this since everyone I know is fertile mertile right now. I am a stomach sleeper and this would have been great! Check out the belly pod that would have helped my comfort level last go 'round.













A fun crafty idea to hold supplies for your child who is into art. Look at this art table storage holder.



I have always wanted a mud room. Right now my piano serves as this as it is the first empty space you get to when you walk in my house. This is a fun idea on a mini mud room from The Shabby Nest. Just take off a closet door and there it is.


Since I workout everyday, I am always up for a good suggestion on an article of clothing to help me out. I was reading about this bra a few weeks ago and it popped up again. Though it is pricey, I wear pretty much the same one or two everyday. Worth the purchase when it gets that much use, Check out the Helena sports bra.












Look at these fun soap and hand sanitizer redos to give as teacher gifts from Just a Girl. Would take time but a cheap gift idea.



I read a blog by the Nester. She had some fun ideas on how to organize your kids rooms and family rooms. It helped me since I will be turning Justin's nursery into a big boy room in the next few months. Luckily I was on the right track with the things I had already purchased.




I know I have mentioned to several of you Houston ladies about my first photography class that I took. 6 hours on a Saturday through Leisure Learning for only $50! Fantastic class - especially for anyone with a digital SLR camera that takes their photos on automatic. Learn how to take fun new photos by signing up for Kathy Adams Clark classes. I've taken 4 classes through Kathy and she is fabulous. You can also sign up on Leisure Learning's website.

If you don't ever want to have quite the love or passion for photography like I do, a fun free software to download to help play with your photos is Picasa. I used this for about 5 months on my Dell laptop. It's no far superior than iPhoto on my Mac, so I only use it now to upload photos to share with others. The plus on this is anyone can save any photo onto their own computer, unlike Snapfish who no longer allows you to do this. I always sent my photos to Picasa over My Pictures on my PC since it was a better organizer and post-processor.


Another freebie that I read about on a blog is Picnik.
Just another fun way to play with your photos and make them look different.


For those that have Photoshop CS2 or higher, then you must download the free actions from MCP Actions blog - just go to the Try Me section and download all of them for free. I really like the Touch of Darkness/Touch of Light as well as the Magic Blog It Board. Tutorials come with each one, so it's pretty self explanatory.





That's all for now, folks.....

Bowling Alley

We decided to try out the refurbished bowling alley on Bunker Hill and I-10. It was amazing - probably the nicest blowing alley I have ever been to. At first all the chaos startled Justin. That was until he saw the balls.


Justin was so intense watching the ball.

Analyzing that ball.

They had 6 pound balls for toddlers (and shoe sizes start at toddler size 6), so it was perfect for our little boy.

Ready to go get his ball back - doesn't even have time to give his father a high five.

No matter how few pins he would hit, he would watch that ball the entire way and then jump up and down clapping afterwards. Here we are getting ready for a high five (it's fuzzy, but I love the expressions).

Another clapping photo.

I am a weakling in my upper body. I like an 8 pound ball but the thumb hole is always too small. No need to fear at the AMF 300 - they have a ball fitting where you fit your thumb and they give you your ball with the desired weight and the correct thumb hole width.

We all three played a round together. Only on Justin's turn would the bar come up on either side to act as bumpers. They would automatically go down when it was the adults' turn. Pretty fancy smancy.

If you can squint to see, they thought Derek had said Janet instead of Shannon. Oh well - after my first strike I only went downhill. The scoreboard would show you the miles per hour of each throw.

Apparently there is a happy hour for half off play and shoes if you get there during the week before five. The food was awesome (they had about 15 waiters at this place) but pricey. Fantastic place to bowl if you are ever looking for something different to do (and to be at a bowling alley that didn't smell smokey was a plus as well).

Basketball for shorties

Don't we all wish we can lower the basketball and then shoot hoops from inside a truck bed? Especially while using a dodgeball?

Justin wants to do this when daddy is at work and the truck is gone as well. After about 4 times mommy decides that she can't handle lifting her thick, solid son over her head any longer. So it's a treat when the truck is conveniently parked by the goal.

Justin does make a goal from time to time.

May your next basketball experience be just as creative....

School buds

On Saturday we had the Pines & Bethancourts over for dinner. Our three boys are all in school together for Mother's Day Out. We all met in line when we were waiting for sign-ups last year. We were the first three people there to make sure that we got a spot. John is normally a serious little guy, giving a stoic pose in photos. Somehow my camera and the constant repetition of the work "Cheese" got plenty of smiles. In fact, by the end of the night he was pointing to me and calling me cheese. I don't mind if any kids calls me cheese - it's fitting, don't you think?



I had taken a photography class a few days prior and all my settings on my camera were changed. So I wasn't paying attention to metering my light and came up with way underexposed photos. Thus the weird lighting in this photo.

Fun times with fun families!

Baby Levi

My buddy Megan had her baby on January 16th. No one knew what they were having, so my vote that it was a girl was very much incorrect when their sweet baby boy entered the world. He finally had to come out by C-section, so poor Megan was pretty exhausted when it was all said and done.


Levi Dominic Grotti weighed a whopping 8 lb. 13 oz. This little guy looked much older than he was since he was so big. He just stared at me the whole time I was snapping pictures.

Sweet little guy.

I took some photos yesterday for his birth announcement. He wasn't as big of a fan of the camera at that point. I think we got a winner though. Congrats Megan & Dom on your new little buddy!

Last Playdate with the Junods

I was able to host a playdate right before the Junods went back to Qatar. It happened to fall on a Thursday while Justin was at MDO, which was nice to host without a child running around me. It was pleasant since most of the oldest kids were at school that day - we actually got some face time with the middle children, who are used to living in older sibling's shadows.

Emily, Jenn, Jenise, Wendi, Tracy, me, Kim, & Katie posing in front of my new tripod and new flash. Glad to have both of them to take this photo!

I took Brooks with me to go pick up Justin from school. JT was so thrilled to have his buddy meet him at MDO. The two boys decided to jump in the crib with Barrett who had decided to take a nap in Justin's room. Lots of laughter during the jumping and romping around in a crib that is over 30 years old. Yes, this is Derek's old crib that Kaki and I painted red. Still holding up after all it's been through.

Brooks, Justin, & Major hanging out


We drove Wendi and the boys back to the in-laws for her to start packing for the flight home the next day. Here's our goodbye photo as we were leaving.


So sad that they are gone. I know the Lord is taking care of them in their new surroundings. At least their economy isn't crashing like ours it!

Three man band

Luke & Grace came over to play earlier this week. Looks like the threesome got into Justin's new instruments.

A very serious pose of the harmonica player, drummer, and maraca man

Ah, music to my ears...

Bush has landed

My dad works for the Chamber of Commerce in Waco and has usually been in charge of a lot of arrangements every time President Bush flew into Waco on his way to his ranch in Crawford, about 20 minutes away. It's a privilege as well as an honor to work so closely with the White House. So besides getting tours of Marine One, Air Force One, etc., the White House called him and asked him to MC the event for when Bush touches down in Waco as a civilian, not as a President. He was told to invite 1500 people, all needing to sign a form so that the Secret service could do background checks on everyone. Needless to say, it wasn't hard to find those 1500 people that wanted to be a part of the crowd welcoming a much-loved Christian man back home. This was the closest that any civilian had gotten to George W. since 9-11!

The only sad part of the night was the fact that my mom was in charge of sign-ups for a huge revival coming into Waco in September with her all time favorite speaker, Ann Graham Lotts. So some of the women, including my mom, were hosting a full house for the revival, while my dad and 1500 others were welcoming our previous president. Blogger was messing up my order of photos, so I gave up and decided to go backwards instead.


In this first photo Pres. Bush is holding Elise's (sis-in-law) hand!

Gotta love Laura Bush and her amicable demeanor

The plane as it landed. The crew waiting to greet Bush as he stepped from the plane. My dad's head is the third on the right.

Aaron & Elise, Grandma & Grandpa with their "W" signs.

And here's a video that Aaron took. My dad is the man in the black suit between the woman in the camel coat and the woman in the red coat. Then he's the one with the red tie facing the crowd, giving a peace sign. Ole Snuf, loyal til the end!

Thanks Aaron for the photos! Wish we could have made it! Gonna miss that man in office. Must pray for our new president and the major role he is going to play in these next several years!

Girls' Weeekend

Wait a second. Is that a bunch of presents?

Are those peanut butter cupcakes with pink baby booties on the top?

Is that a girlie lunch plate with delicious pastas and salads? We must be at a baby shower! Shannon Michaelis at a baby shower? Yes, folks, it has happened again. Another friend has gone off and gotten herself pregnant again.

But this was more like a baby weekend versus a baby shower. The special mommy this time is my buddy, Shannon, whom I known since 4th grade. I had her mother as my 4th grade teacher, and we were equal rivals those first few months year - never meeting, just jealous that the other had the same name. Come to find out we lived in the same neighborhood and even were the two headed Shannon for Halloween one year (we fit into an XXL shirt - hard to imagine doing that now). The treat this time was that this was the first baby that we got to celebrate after I had Justin. Shannon has two kids older than Justin. Which translates that you just don't truly understand until you've gone through it just how special this really is. What a blessing, sweet miracle that God chose you to be this special child's mother, keeper, protector. We are all looking forward meeting sweet Payton in the next few weeks!

This group gets together at least once a year without kids and hubbies to enjoy spending a weekend of girl time. It seems to be more often that we meet each year because we always get together for each baby that comes along. And this group keeps popping out the babies. We had stayed up late the night before (it was our turn to be in Waco this year), so we tried to perk up for this photo. Lauren, Caryn, Shannon, Wendi, Katy, Ann, & SNM.

We went shopping all afternoon after our lunch at Amelia's in Sironia.

After shopping, it was too early for dinner but we all needed a pick me up. I voted for ice cream but got shot down that it would ruin our dinner, much less it wasn't the healthiest choice. Who were they kidding - ice cream never ruined this girl's appetite. So instead we went to Bahama Bucks, a snow cone joint that everyone raved about that I had never been to. There was a reason I had never been to it - and a reason I will never go back.

We waited for 30 minutes in line as two college kids made everyone's orders. I don't mind a place being busy and having to wait. But when 8 cars in the drive thru line are waited on first as well as people BEHIND us in line, I start to wonder if their tactics are a bit off. Not to mention that by the time I got my "fabulous" snow cone, it just wasn't that fabulous. Didn't quench the hunger nor did it even tingle my taste buds. It was rather bland, to be quite truthful. You might be wondering why I am even still writing about it - it's just that we laughed for forever at the absurdity of the entire event.


There's a reason why some people wash their hair everyday and don't attempt to wear "day after" hair. Because by the end of the day you just look like a grease ball (not mentioning names here). Especially when you have no tan and are wearing gray.

Each time this group gets together I think that this particular weekend was my favorite. Probably the combo of such true genuine, Christian fellowship with the sweetness of having a break from our kids. Our 24/7 jobs can come to a halt momentarily, long enough to have a conversation without interruption and taking a shower in peace. My prayer is that Justin can one day have lasting friendships such as these.