Soccer season has begun!

Crash is finally old enough to play soccer this year. He has been wanting to play but we weren't sure he could handle all the "stuff" that went with playing soccer. My fears have been relieved. They had their first practice and I just felt like crying the whole time. A good cry.

It's not too long ago that this just didn't seem possible. For one thing, the league requires them to wear shin guards. Crash has some sensory issues so this was a big fear for me. We have been practicing tolerating them and he did it. He wore them the whole practice without complaint. I can't tell you the battles over shoes and socks we have had with this child. This was just amazing!

I love watching 4 year olds "stretch".


As soon as he arrived at practice, he ran over to the coach's son and said, "My name is "Crash". I 4 years old." I about fell on the floor. He did this unprompted by anyone. Four months ago that so would not have happened. God is just so good.



It was such a joy to watch him. He had fun practicing in 102 degree weather. Glad it was a short practice for everyone's sake. Looking forward to a great season.

The Wingman is just waiting for his turn to play.

First day of school 2009

The day I had been dreading finally arrived. It was time for the test pilot to go back to school. He was pretty non-chalant about the whole thing. At least I did not break down into sobs this year. First grade is much easier on the mom than Kindergarten.


He is so excited about 1st grade. We met his teacher and she seems very nice. His assigned seat is right next to one of his buddies from Kindergarten so he was pretty excited about that. He knew at least 2 other kids in his class. Crash is ready to go to school himself.

I was really proud of us. Me and all 3 boys were dressed and fed ready to leave the house by 7:30am. Yeah- now only 9 more months of that. I miss the summer.

I can not get over how tan my child is. I do not tan at all! I fry or I am ghostly white with some freckles. I am amazed he is my child.

Happy Anniversary!

It is our 10th Anniversary today! I can't believe it. Time really does fly.

I was going to post some of our wedding pictures but my scanner is currently not responding so that will have to be for another day. (The Captain looks so young.)

Around Christmas, we were thinking about planning and saving so we could do something special like a cruise or a trip, but then we came home from our Christmas trip and realized the Captain had been laid off. Oh well! The cruise will wait.

My parents took a cruise for their 30th Anniversary. Hopefully, we won't have to wait that long.

Some of my favorite memories from our wedding:

1. Lots of family from both sides flew in for the wedding and we had a fun bar-b-q in my parents back yard the day before the wedding. It was the first or second time I met most of the Captain's family so that a nice opprotunity to visit.

2. The groom's cake. Appropriately, it was a field of grass and flowers with an airplane on top. You have to see that picture.

3. I am normally a scheduled, obsessive compulsive type person. You would think I would be over the top on my wedding day. However, I was not. I can not explain it except a gift from the Lord. You could have told me my dog died and it would have have not been a big deal. I was just floating on cloud 9. (My dog did die while we were on the honeymoon.)

4. I was literally shaking as I walked down the aisle with my dad and as I got on the platform up front. (You can see my bouquet bouncing up and down in the video.) As soon as I latched on to the Captain I was totally calm. (I was not nervous about getting married as much as I was nervous walking and standing in front of hundreds of people. I don't like to be in front of big crowds.)

5. My bachelorette party the night before the wedding. It was all my female family as well as the Captain's plus the bridal party. I have never laughed so hard in my life. My cheeks hurt from so much laughing. It was a fun time (nothing sleazy) with lots of fun family and friends.

6. Our reception was a blast. It was just so much fun. We danced. We ate. We laughed. We mingled and visited with lots of family and friends whom we had not seen in a while. It was fun to watch others have fun.

It's been a fun and wild 10 years. Never even would have imagined the path that our lives have taken, but it's been great. Looking forward to many more.

One whole year

I realized that today we have been homeowners' (again) for one whole year. We had bought a house when we first married, but then had been renting for about 7 years due to moves and such. It was such a blessing to finally be in a house of our own.

I feeling a little nostalgic looking at these before pictures. The front looks basically the same except we have cleaned up the yard and had to remove a tree.


I love looking at this picture. Other than the fireplace, nothing is the same. We removed the acoustic ceiling, removed the panelling, and removed the nasty, dirty, smelly carpet.

This whole wall unit was taken down. The Captain stored all the wood in the enclosed porch until he found time to take it to the dump. The room started to smell really bad of cigarette smoke. The smell just got into everything.

Thank you God for bringing this house to us at just the right time and in the right place.

Love that lasts

Our church began a marriage enrichment class this summer using the book called "Love that Lasts- When Marriage meets Grace'' by Gary and Betsey Ricucci. (I know it's supposed to be underlined but couldn't figure that out. Sorry teachers!)

This book is awesome. This is not your typical marriage book. Everything they say is rooted in scripture. The first chapter examines what is marriage. Many people would say that marriage is path to personal happiness for them or their spouse. "All these views have the same fatal limitation: They are centered in man rather than in God." That was an eye opener for me.

It does make sense. I do try to do everything in my life for the glory of God so why not my marriage. I had just never thought of this.

After looking at several scripture passages the author states, "The relationship between a husband and a wife is meant to be a reflection of Christ's relationship with his church." "God intends to create and cultivate the same abundant, gracious love between a husband and a wife that he has for us." Whoa! Marriage belongs to God and exists for his glory!

That takes this to a whole new level. The book proceeds discussing topics such as love, communication, wisdom, and intimacy. Each chapter following Biblical principles with some practical advice on how to carry out the scriptures.

I can't encourage you enough to read this book. It has renewed our marriage but renewed our marriage with a new purpose. We are to glorify God with our marriage and not settle for anything less.

Super heroes

The "Super hero starter kit" was a gift given to Crash. It came with a cape and fun masks and wrist bands. Luckily, there is enough to share with your brother and friend. They love playing with this. We need to get another cape though. I may try and make one. (I think I can, I think I can.)

It's fun to watch them make up their imaginary stories which usually involve battles and sword fighting. They come up with some fairly complicated stuff. I am impressed they can keep up with their own storylines. Boys- who teaches them this stuff.

Please leave your sticks (swords) at the door has become my mantra lately.

The Boys are back in town

The Dallas Cowboys are holding their training camp at the Alamodome in San Antonio so we all headed down to go watch. We have never seen them live so we thought we would take advantage of the opportunity.

It was free to get in, but that is somewhat misleading. Sure it's technically free to enter the place but they charge you $10 to park. They don't allow you to bring in food and drinks but they will allow you to buy $3 bags of chips and $2.50 drinks to keep your children entertained. In spite of this it was quite fun.


We had really good seats. Here's Tony Romo warming up.



The practice began and about half the second string guys were out there. Slowly all the bigger name players began to trickle out like Tony Romo, Tiki Barber, etc. The crowd would erupt in applause for them. Occasionally, some dude came out that no one had a clue who he was or didn't care and nothing- no applause. We felt bad for those guys. We figured they only make $1 million a year instead of the zillion that Tony Romo makes.

We saw some stretching. The PT in me was still amazed that these guys are still doing the old school style of stretching that has been proven to be fairly ineffective at actually getting a stretch in the muscles. I guess some habits are hard to break, but I digress.

There was lots of scrimmaging. Lots of drills set up for the various positions that were interesting to watch. I had never been to a football practice before.

The kids lasted a little over an hour before the urge to jump on the field was too great to overcome. We left the practice but various sponsors had set up a sort of carnival around the dome so we partook of the festivities before leaving. It was a great family day!