My Household Musts

1. Apple Peeler/ Corer/ Slicer

We eat more apples in our house than ever. It is fast and easy to use. I can get Molly to eat more fruit this way! I bought mine at Linens n Things.

2. CLR

CLR is calcium, lime and rust remover. My dishes have the worst residue living in this small town. I just started using this stuff and it makes my dishes look great! I have I am actually not embarrassed to let guests use them.

3. Kitchen Aid Coffee Grinder

Joel has really turned me into a coffee drinker. We started grinding our coffee a few years ago and man it makes a difference. I start everyday with at least one cup of coffee!

4. Slow Cooker Liners

I make slow cooker meals to make my life easier, and who wants to clean the slow cooker after you have committed to an easy meal, not me!

5. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser

Wow is this amazing. I don't ever have to get mad a Mo for getting crayons or markers on the table. It all comes up!

Seven Random Things About Me

1. I love chips!
I know I could pick some other junk food to eat all the time, but every since I can remember this has been my weakness. When I went off to college my dad said it was the first time chip ever went stale in their house. No favorite kind, I like them all (corn, potato, plain, flavored).

2. I have OCD tendencies, but constantly fail my efforts.
I love having a clean house. I love being organized, but I quickly become lazy or distracted and have to start my cleaning and organizing schedule all over again. Just pick up after yourself and stay focused Ker!

3. Until recently hated cinnamon.
All my life I have despised the smell and taste of cinnamon. I don’t love it by any means now, but don’t hate it. I have read that cinnamon is good for metabolism and it is always good to test your taste buds because they change and mature and all that. Well since I have had Troy, cinnamon doesn’t make me cringe.

4. “Hear me roar!" Women
I am a huge fan of strong women, but they are killing chivalry. I love to have my door opened and chair pulled out by a man. I like being referred to as ma’am. I have heard it from more than one man that they don’t do that a lot because they don’t want to offend a woman. My husband is very chivalrous and my son will be too.

5. Don’t touch a baby’s hands!
With Troy being so little, he sticks his fingers in his mouth all the time. It is what all babies do. Nearly everyone that reaches to touch him, go for his hand. “Go for his sock-covered feet or tickle his belly, but keep your germs off his hands.”

6. I don’t know how to sit still when I hear a good song!
Joel can attest to this. I love to dance, bust a jig, stomp a foot, cut a rug…call it what you want…I love to dance! Who would have thought I would marry a man that didn’t. He does bust a move around the house on occasion, but not as often as I do!

7. I get nervous at cafeteria style restaurants
They go to fast, there are too many choices and I hate to hold up the line. The first time I met Joel’s parents we met at Furr’s. Panic attack for me! I can tell you I have gone to Furr’s for many years now and I rarely stray from my usual choices (baked fish, okra, mac and cheese, roll, chocolate silk pie and water).

I tag...Michelle & Brooke

Hello Again!

I have to confess, I use myspace now so my blog has suffered. I have two kids now! Troy is 4 1/2 months old. Molly is 2 1/2 now. They are great. They keep me busy, but I am loving every moment.

My little 2 Year Old

Molly turned 2 on June 28th. I am a little late posting this news, but here it is. We had a carnival birthday party for her and it was so much fun. We has a few different booths and tickets to win at each. At the end of the party the kids to turn their tickets in for prizes.
Her Paw Paw made her a kitchen for her room and is loving it so much. We have her in her big girl room in her big girl bed (a queen size bed), she looks so small.
The closer I get to my due date I do so much reflecting on how much Molly has grown and I am so amazed at her. She is doing so great with potty training and this makes me and her daddy very happy. Less diapers to buy come September.
Yesterday my in-laws came for the day to babysit Molly while Joel and I went on our first date in months and months. We went to watch Bourne Ultimatum and ate at Chili's. It was wonderful. I haven't been to the movies since Christmas. And before kids Joel and I went to the movies all the time (it was our thing). We really had a blast. We rarely have a babysitter for Molly so when Gramma gave such a great report on Molly I was very pleased. You just never know how your child will act when you are not around. It was a relief that she used her manners for someone else.
I have been trying to get Troy's room ready. I sewed most of last week doing curtains, a bed skirt and some pillows. My sewing branched into other rooms of the house (pillows for my room and kitchen stuff for Molly). I guess I feel good about what I accomplished considering the mess I made.
My garden has had quite the harvest. We have been eating lots of squash, zucchini and cucumbers. The tomatoes are all turning red now and we are loving it. My favorite thing that I started this summer was my zinnia flower bed. I have had 3-4 vases of cut flowers every week. Molly loves to pick flowers with me. It is so fun.


The plan is for Troy to be induced on Sept. 6th so, less than a month now. I am excited, but not really in a hurry to rush to the hospital. I am feeling pretty good. My friend that lives literally less than a block away is letting us use their pool as much as we want. I told her today that she can count on us being there at 1pm everyday this week. Molly is so cute with her suit and floaties on.
This has been a great summer. Molly has kept me on my toes, but I wouldn't expect much else from her.

June Update!

Hello all! I have been a slacker. I actually intended on not blogging anymore, but here I am. So much has happened since February. Molly is just so smart. She is going to be such a great big sister to a little brother to be born in September. His name is Troy William.

Our big thing this summer is gardening. We have started a fairly large garden for our small family. We have tomatoes, jalapenos, spinach, strawberries, cucumbers, green beans, squash, zuccini and pumpkins. It has rained so much around here that the garden is getting huge. Molly is so funny because she wanted to water it all the time. Which is great until the water hose gets turned on me or Joel. She is also obsessed with ladybugs and catapillers. We are constantly hunting for them. Joel has really made our backyard such a great place to be. He put us a small patio in and we have a cedar swing that is just great.

Joel has left us girls home for the first time ever (seven full days). He is sponsoring a junior high trip to DC. I am so excited for him. I am sure he will be taking tons of pictures being the history buff he is.

I have also been working on my high school 10 year reunion that because of my pregnancy may not even be able to go to. I wasn't the biggest fan of high school anyway, but here I am planning the reunion. I guess being senior class pres wasn't the great decision (all I wanted was something else to put on my resume). Tell your kids to avoid this position in HS unless they are up for the 10 years down the road planning. Oh well.

This is what I know for now.

Catsup Queen!

Let it Snow!

Molly's daddy was so good to us Saturday afternoon. He built us a snow...girl. We planned on all being outside for the building of the snow girl, but Molly wasn't that keen on standing in the snow, so the girls went inside the house and watched from the window until it was time to help accessorize.

Santa Uncertainty

Joel's Work Party

Last night Joel and I went to his school Christmas party. It was nice to get out of the house without Molly, but that girl decided to show us a thing by not going to bed for the babysitter and then staying up till 11:30 pm (1 1/2 hours after we relieved the sitter). I just love this time of year!

Trick or Treat!

We went to see Joel's parents this weekend and suprised them at the door with this little scarecrow. She really brought a smile to Gramma and Pappa's faces.
The scarecrow idea was decided when we realized that she could wear her favorite hat as part of the costume.

Homecoming Parade

Looking good in royal blue. It is taking some adjusting switching from kelly green to royal, but we're managing. Molly was so excited at her first parade.
We took a different approach to her cheerleading outfit. I saw this type of skirt in the mall for $30 and thought, "when tule comes $.77/yard, I can do that myself." She was quite a sight.

She is all girl!

My girl loves shoes! She gets that from me. I don't know how many times I have put all my shoes up in their rightful places and, within no time she has the strung all over the house. It is really quite funny. Never a dull moment with Miss Molly!

My Child the Stripper

Well, today Molly started a new favorite thing, taking her shirt off. And the worse thing is that I laughed at her and now telling her to stop is, well, not working. She took her shirt off three times today. "Whew, who! somebody throw this girls some Mardi Gras beads!" She kept trying to take her pants and diaper off too, but she was trying for the diaper first and she had trouble. My fear is that is won't be long till she figure pants then diaper. But I can guarentee I won't laugh at that(well, I hope not).
It has started out to be a nice week. Lots of rain and that is good, right? Last week Molly and I recovered from traveling (Joel too, but he still had to go to work). Molly and I were at my parents for a week and the I flew to San Antonio to meet up with some friends to float the river in New Braunfels. It was the first time I left Molly overnight with anyone, but she was in good hands with my parents. Needless to say it was a much needed river vacations, we have the best friends ever!

I have no excuse...

I have just put this on the back burner these past few weeks. Molly is keeping me busy that is for sure. She is very fast and a little too smart for her britches. She has been going through this "throw everything off her highchair" phase. I repeatedly say, "Molly, no!" or "Stop!" Anyway, she thinks that it is funny when I am looking to wave her arm back and forth above her food like she is pretending to throw her food off either side of her tray or she will hold a piece of food over the side of her tray until I am looking and then slowly bring the food to her mouth. I can guarantee she gets that from her dad. All in all she is so much fun. She is really saying all her animal noises and saying "thank you" without being prompted when I give her a drink or food. She loves to dance, especially when we are in the car and she is trying not to fall asleep (that's my little head-banger).
Joel's school year is starting out great. He is a little bit exhausted from staying up late working on class stuff and he is also having trouble adjusting from his summer hours to his school hours. I try to make him get more sleep, but that is like talking to a brick wall sometimes.
Next week I am going to my folks for the whole week. I am excited about that. Not too much planned, I am thinking about antique shopping one day and Molly's Nonie wants to go to the zoo. I really think Molly will love that. There is a little train we can ride while we are there.
I am also interested to see my parents' barn because there was a storm last week that blew the roof off of it and really flooded the hay-loft apartment and more. Thank goodness for insurance.
That is all I have now. Talk to you soon.

Belated Birthday Post

Sorry for the delay on me saying, "Molly is 1!" My parents came to Whiteface and helped with some move in stuff and had a blast with Molly. After they were here we went to Huntsville for a little over a week and enjoyed the 4th with them, Joel and I went to a baseball game for our anniversary and we had a great birthday party for Molly. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Moving Moments

Well, Molly had fun with Mommy's hat. And since she had the hat, I had to add the boots. I guess she is getting ready to ride horses at Nonie & Papa's house. We should be moved to Whiteface by this weekend. I can't believe we have so much stuff. We made a run yesterday to unpack some boxes so we could refill the boxes. Lots of fun! I think we unpacked 16 boxes, I have almost filled those up again.
Saturday I had a bit of a breakdown. We had wall to wall boxes, the house was a reck, and Joel may have been a little bit scared of what I might do if the situation didn't change. He promised me that if I would smile more he would take 20 boxes to the tool shed in Whiteface. So I agreed and I now smile more.
Not much to say, but we have been moving and packing!

Trip to Albuquerque

On Memorial Day, we headed to New Mexico. Joel's brother and his family were making the trip too, so we thought it would just be more fun all together. We met at Joel's parent’s house in Tatum and started the caravan to Portales where Joel's dad's parents live. We had lunch and saw cousins and took family pictures. That afternoon we went on our way to Albuquerque and spent a few days with Joel's mom's parents, Nana and Dad Bill. The entire trip was so great. We turned the sprinkler on in the backyard and Molly experienced that for the first time. We also went to the zoo. Nana and Dad Bill are both 84 and they are just amazing; they went to the zoo and just kept up with our own little zoo. The trip was great.
When we got back home we have just kept going. Joel is now going to be working in Whiteface CISD which is about 45 minutes from Lubbock. Not too bad, Levelland is only 10 minutes from Whiteface which has a Wal-mart and United. This is a shorter trip that from Ropes to Lubbock for shopping. We are planning on still going to Green Lawn for church. We will see how it goes. We will be moving in about two weeks. I'm excited about that, but more excited about Joel having a little bit better schedule. He is going to be helping on the girls' side of sports and no football! He also only had two class preps. Whiteface has great people. The principal and superintendent used to be in Ropes till about four years ago. They are good Christian men. Well there is a lot to tell. Catch more info in the next blog post. It will be much sooner that the last.

That's My Girl!

33¢ Stamps

Well I finally used up all my 33¢ stamps and old glue-back penny stamps this weekend. It was pretty hard not to just put 66¢ worth of stamps on a card size piece of mail (2 stamps and be done), but I did it, I licked six 1¢ stamps for nearly every envelope I needed to send out (and there were quite a few).
Here’s a little car update for everyone. We got a decent settlement for my car and they had someone come and tow it on Thursday. It was a little sad to see it go, but no tears were shed. But here is the fun part, on Saturday our one vehicle, Joel’s truck started acting weird and was sounding so bad Joel said we don’t need to drive it until we get it looked at. I agree, it sounded like it was dying. So our dilemma for Sunday came into play; how do we get to church? After a little brain storming and a few phone calls we took the white 97 Ford school van with “Ropes ISD” printed on the side to church. It was kind of funny, well to me and Joel it was funny. As of this morning we are a no car family Joel and another coach took his truck to Wolfforth to be worked on…$$$$. I feel a little bit trapped in the house, not that I was planning on driving anywhere today, but it is always nice to have the option. Since the accident Joel has been walking to school; a little perk of living a block from the school. We have been looking at new cars, just haven’t found our match yet.
Molly is changing so much. Her little personality is really starting to shine. She has really made Joel and I laugh quite a bit lately. She is really set on saying da da for everything, especially when we try to get her to say mama. I truly think she is just playing a game with me. She loves being outside and if she isn’t outside she loves to stand at the screen door and look outside. If she is awake when Joel leaves she loves to follow him to the door and shout out the screen as he walks away. It really makes it hard for Joel to leave.
This past weekend was when my brother was supposed to get married. About three weeks ago the wedding was called off. Travis seems to be doing okay, he is staying really busy. My mom has been working hard to return wedding gifts. I think she is just about done. I think she will be relieved when that is done. I just pray that this is what is best for both Travis and Mandi. They were so strong to call it off now rather than to wait till after the marriage began to realize that it wouldn’t work.
There are 4 weeks of school left. I can’t wait for Joel to have some time off, maybe let him get a few rounds of golf in and who knows what else is in store for the summer. But first things first, finish the school year.
I guess that is all for now, I know it has been a while since I updated, but hey, I am trying.