Hail, not Hell, but Hail.

This is a piece of hail that I got out of our front yard last night.

Play Ball!

Monday night Ethan had a t-ball game. He loves sports! On the way to the game I said I would give him $5.00 or a pack of Pokemon cards if he hits a home run. He is a really good player, but had not hit a home run, so I thought I was safe with my bet. Ethan gets up to bat, and wham, he hits a great fly ball that goes into the outfield and that was his first home run. Then his second hit is a repeat of the first hit. I guess I will be buying two packs of Pokemon cards. I did not see that one coming. Well, the game continued. Ethan plays pitcher and a boy from the other team hits a fly, Ethan catches it, so that is one out, then he throws the ball to 1st and gets the player out on first who was running to 2nd. Double play! Wow, what a game. GO ETHAN!!!! Why did I not have my camera for that one??

Diet, exercise, and early mornings.

If you know me well, you know that I am absolutely not a morning person by any means. Well, tomorrow I am going to start attending a boot camp that my neighbor Ember is doing. She is an instructor at a local gym and is going to teach some classes at her house. This does not seem too bad, but it starts at 5:45 am on MWF. I have been exercising on my own,(at about 10am) trying to shed some of my pounds. I have been running/walking about 3 miles a few days a week then I also ride my bike or use my elliptical. I feel good, but I am not getting the desired results, so this is why I chose boot camp. My friend took my measurements today and tomorrow the quest begins. The boot camp runs for a month. I will let you all know the results when I am done. Wish me luck!!!

UTAH-- Here we come??????????????

OK, there is a new position opening up in Salt Lake City, Utah for a pilot. At first we were not going to put in for it, but the day before the opening closed we had a change of mind, and yes, Chad applied for the transfer. This is the pro's and con's list the kids and I came up with regarding whether or not to move. A government career board has to meet and they make the final decision on who gets to move, so it could be months until we know. Chad has a very good chance of getting the position. We figure that if we are suppose to go we will get the transfer, if the answer is no, then I guess we will stay in Texas until the kids graduate. It is in the Lords hands now.

Utah pro's
Seminary not early (this is Jordan's and mine)
No birthday parties on Sunday ( the kids miss a lot of parties because they are scheduled on Sunday)
Good kids with good standards
No sport games or meets on Sunday
California vacations are more probable (this is Alex's)
Less driving time. Stores, church, temple, schools closer ( this should count as 3, I just can not do the driving thing anymore)
Mountains ( this is what the kids said)
Faster speed limits (mine, the speed limit on move hwys is 60-65 here)
Good boss for Chad
School day shorter
BYU is close (kids came up with this one, because they want to attend college there)
Other cousins close
Utah Con's
Make new friends
Shaun and Holly's family/ Addy's family / Julie and Steve far
Snow (I do not know what the kids are going to do when winter last longer than a few months)
Texas Pro's
Good friends in Texas
Big house
weather
Texas Cons
No mountains
Football obsession
humid
bugs/ ants
I deleted this one because it was a little to mean to post.
kids do not really like Texas.
Something about Chads work that I should not write.

Alex Gymnastics-- Tyler Meet 3-09

Alex had a meet a few weeks ago in Tyler, TX. Here is the video that I took with the camera. It is a little fuzzy. For the vault video, she will be in the very back and it will be hard to see her. She did great on all events, except for the bars, which is usually her best event. I do not know what happened, she got nervous or something, because it is not like her to goof on bars. Her scores were Bars 8.4 Beam 9.425 Vault 9.550 Floor 9.625 AA 37.00. It was her lowest AA score, mainly because of the whole point that got deducted on bars. But all in all she did great!! We are very proud of her. It was an all day event. We left home around 11 am and got home around 11 pm, what a day!

Coupons

Yesterday I went to Walgreens and got 3 bottles of Fructis shampoo, 3 bottles of Fructis conditioner, two boxes of Garnier hair coloring, 2 nail polishes (12 day, Hard as Nails), two 40 load laundry soap(cheap brand, but I do not care), a bag of Halls cough drops, and a giant size Butterfinger for Jordan. This came to a total of 6.42. I got all the the shampoo and conditioner for free. Why do I write about coupons? Well, I guess I just want to spread the word that there are ways to save money in these hard economic times. It was hard for me to get started, because I thought it was a little embarrassing carrying around this binder of coupons, but I got over it. It does take time, but is a great way to stock up on items for food storage.

GO JORDAN

Jordan is on the middle school tennis team and had a match today. Jordan's team won. ---GO JORDAN----

Fans looking on.
An the winner is............

TAKS TESTING

Wednesday was TAKS day at several of the schools in our area. I have strong opinions regarding this test. The following is just a portion of something I wrote the day of TAKS, because I was so frustrated with the darn test and the amount of wieght in puts on our children, parents, teachers, schools, etc. If you want to read my entire complaint let me know and I will e-mail it to you. Actually my children do not mind the test. They finish in just a few hours and instead of spending the rest of the day (4+ hours) reading or taking a nap, I pick them up from school early. This is a big no, no and I get not so happy looks when I arrive to pick up my kids.

Here is a portion of what I wrote; e-mail me if you want my full opinion.

---There is a series of tests that all 3-12 graders in Texas must take every year. This test is called the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills). I HATE this test!!! This test is how the schools, teachers, children, and districts are rated. I dislike this test because; First it takes time away from our children learning. There are several practice TASKS tests and practice worksheets students do in order to do well on the test, all teaching evolves around it. Second, it puts undo pressure on our children. Students are reminded constantly about how important the test is. Third, one single test should not have so much input on the schools ratings. If a school gets a high rating it is solely because the students did well on the TAKS.

Is This My Left???

Yesterday was Alex's 11th Birthday. Since we do not do big birthday parties for friends every single year, we let the kids pick an activity to do as a family and let them invite one friend. Alex chose to go to a place called Summit Climbing Gym. It is an indoor rock climbing facility. Alex invited her best friend Addy to come along. Alex was climbing one wall and when she was half way up the wall, she got stuck. When Chad told her grab the hand hold on her left, Alex replied "Is this my left?" Hence, the title of this blog. We all teased her the rest of the day for not knowing right from left. We climbed for about 3 hours, then Alex picked Subway as her dinner spot, no fancy resturants for her. It was great to spend time as a family doing something really fun. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!!

More coupons

Thursday I went to Tom Thumb Market. I am excited because for 28.oo I got----a 24 pack of bottled water, 2 gallons of milk, three containers of Grands biscuts, a pound of real butter, 6 cans of Rosarita refried beans, 10 lbs of Chuck Roast beef at 1.99 a lb and 3 liters of sprite. I used coupons and had a 10.00 off store coupon for a purchase of 50.00 or more. My purchase came to over 50.00 before the coupons, so I was able to use the 10.00 coupon. I also had a bunch of other coupons, so I got the beans for .50 each and the soda was free. I love deals like this, and get so excited when I save a bunch of money!!!!!