Random Post

K is going to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz for Halloween - I'm still working on it. We purchased one at the Halloween store but sadly with K's long legs it was quite a hootchy little number so we returned that and I undertook the task of making my girl a costume. I did most of the work last Sunday but I still need to hem it and put in the zipper (silently screaming inside). It will have to happen one day this week... probably Friday night.

A is taking dance class and she LOVES it - although in classic Jason's Clan girl style she got a run in her panty hose by the second day of class. Grr! She is very excited about playing T-ball next fall. She has been watching Z play and has been going out with the boys to practice throwing and hitting and she likes what she sees. I'm very excited that she wants to participate in a sport and the boys love that she wants to play with them.

B finished the football season and then his team finished 1st in their division in cross country! I was able to make it to San Antonio for the last meet last Monday and watched my son come in 7th overall with a time of 13 minutes 53 second - running a 2 miler!! I was so excited and impressed. He is now playing basketball and we are excited about the upcoming basketball games to go and watch.

Baseball is the sport this fall!! Z has been playing T-ball for the first time and he LOVES it! We love to watch him and on top of it the Cardinals (our hometown team) has made it into the World Series! Z has been watching some games with us - when he can stay awake. In addition to T-ball Z is still taking gymnastics and he really enjoys that too and is becoming very flexible.

Not a lot has been done on the family research. I recently purchased the Family Tree Maker again and would love to get to a place where I can incorporate all the rich history I've inherited, soon, hopefully soon! I'm still getting up and exercising several days a week but I've slid off the weight watchers wagon - I'm conscious of what I'm eating more than before but our schedule has made it extremely difficult for me to track my points.

That's the scoop - hope there is something in there that was newsworthy for you. Hugs to all my faithful fans, sorry I've become so bad at sharing!

Some OLD pictures!!

On the back of this picture: Ray on the job just before he was killed. I'm not 100% sure which one is Ray, but this picture brings tears to my eyes - he died when my grandfather was 5 years old!

The Hollar Family in 1942 - I had no idea we had so many great pictures & lists of this side of my family!

My grandpa - LOVE!

My grandpa - LOVE!

My grandpa during WWII - second from the left back row (the handsome one - tee hee)

There are so many things that pull my attention and my time but this project keeps gravitating me to it, it is heart-wrenching but heart-warming at the same time. I'm SO thankful for these amazing treasures that my grandparents (Jess & Lora) left for our family. I miss them and it doesn't seem that a day goes by that I don't think of them or remember something that they taught me. I know that this isn't what I would usually put on this blog but I have 1000's of photos, letters and memories and I wish I could share them all with you. B&K have already started looking at and asking questions about our history, can't wait for Z&A to benefit from them too. My personal goal is to be able to take them home at Thanksgiving and Christmas to share with our families in the hopes of adding information, identities and simply sharing this inheritance.

San Diego (finally)

My friend, Joy, K and I had a wonderful time in San Diego but due to numerous things I haven't been able to post pictures... until NOW. We'll make this the first installment of pictures - stay tuned!

The view from our hotel! Gorgeous!

BEACH!

How's the water feel K?

Hard Rock Cafe - for lunch. When we saw this I said, "I bet Jason knows who Chris Cornell is. If he breaks a guitar then Jason will know him." Sure enough we texted and Jason's response - YES, one of my favorites! HA!!

While we were there we went to watch a Padre's game! They lost and we got COLD in July! But it was lots of fun!

Labor of Love

After my grandfather passed away last year I willingly agreed to accept the job of family historian. I have been working on this "job" ever since. I brought home about 13 huge tubs of 'stuff' - letters, cards, obits, death notices, birth notices, insurance paperwork, warranty pamphlets, buttons, false teeth, war medals, letters from WWI and WWII soldiers.... the list is extensive. From all of that I now have 1 big box, 2 small boxes and 5 two inch binders and I have now begun the very tedious job of scanning all of this information into my computer to be able to share with my family. Tonight I scanned about 15 letters, including my Great-grandfather's honorable discharge paperwork. This job will take a LOT of time but every time I discover a FIND I'm more encouraged, intrigued and excited to continue.

Scotty Watty Poopy Potty and His Lovely Bride Jen

It has been brought to may attention via several harassing emails (not from Bon-Mom or Mom) but from a rotten younger sibling that I have woefully neglected my blogging community. To all who have been effected (except Scoot) I am deeply apologetic!
Let's get the scoop - shall we?
San Diego - phone cord went whack so I was unable to upload ALL of my SD photos. Returned via VERY late flights on Wednesday very EARLY. My sweet soon to be sister-in-law, Jen and her obnoxious groom came for a visit and graciously took my children and I to Schlitterbahn. While there I had the pants scared off of me - actually just some some skin scrapped off of my butt however you can see how I might have those two things confused! HA! The following week was catch up before.... you guessed it I returned to the grind! Work, hectic schedule, call it what you will but my time is limited and it just hurts my heart deeply that Scoot can't appreciate how much time, energy and commitment I put into doing simple things like getting up at 4:30am to exercise, eating, breathing, eating, sleeping, hugging (in a vain attempt to nap on someones shoulder), eating and then doing it all over again. Um.. wait.. teaching fits in there somewhere too, along with taxi driving 4 or 14 kids around (I have begun to have a difficult time counting).
SO... here is the infamous picture! Thank you Jen for coming to play with us and I look forward to many more experiences with you (and Scoot) - I'll even try to be on top of my blogging then too.

Oh no!

I haven't blogged in 10+ days! (Sorry Mom & Bon-Mom)

Honestly the reason I haven't blogged is because we've been kind of quiet. We got home from MO and began to chill. K has been to Six Flags, B went to College Station for a week to spend time with a friend, Z&A have been to the dentist, swimming and making up for all of our missing TV time.

This week K will go to Six Flags (again!) and then on Thursday K and I will be taking a mini vacation to San Diego with my friend, Joy. We've been looking forward to this for months and when asked what we are going to do we all giggle and say NOTHING! I can't wait to lay by a pool or at the beach and read a book (not worrying about the little people near by). Our plans are very simple - the zoo, the beach, the pool and a Padre's baseball game. Fun weekend!

Then... Uncle Scotty Watty is coming to town! Woo hoo! We can't wait to see him (and his lovely girlfriend) ... he's told us that he wants to come to town to take us for some summer fun in the sun at Schlitterbahn (yes that is right another trip to our FAV). I took that as he was wanting some exercise - carrying three tubes around (his, Z&A's) will give him all the exercise he needs. ba ha ha!

School starts soon and I am looking forward to all the new kids that we will meet and learn with, but let me say it now so you all can remind me later in the year, teaching is the best job - I love my summers off with BKZA!

Here's a couple of pictures of Z&A at the dentist - A's first time with the "blue" smile. Looks like Z should lose some teeth soon and from what I could see on his x-rays his smile is going to change a lot in the near future. It also looks like we will not escape braces with these two - those little mouths are little and the baby teeth are crowded, imagine when those BIG teeth try to move in - woo hoo!

Mexican Villa, Dancing & Putt-Putt

Um yum Mexican Villa!!! Z loves the white cheese - said he was going to marry it!

We went to Branson Landing and found out that the light posts were a huge amount of entertainment - musical light posts!

Putt-Putt - we didn't let A take score or she would have come in WAY under par! HA!

My kids ROCK!

We have been in Springfield, MO visiting with my mom and my friends. I have determined in a very scientific way that my children are water bugs and respond favorably to any type of water. Summer fun in a pool is not a new thing to me, my father while I was growing up always insisted that our hotels have pools - I now understand why! Nothing works as well at tuckering out the wee little people (and quite frankly the adults) as much as a large body of water. Since we have been in MO we have swam at the hotel, my friend Rae Ann's twice and today we went to Republic and swam a their over-sized local cement pond. Fun has been had by all and did I mention that Z&A are sound asleep?
Here's our pictures!!!




Okay folks now today it got a little scary! We went to the pool in Republic and suddenly the sky began to darken and I frantically tried to recall what that could mean (please folks don't forget that I now live in the barren dry land known as Texas)... I had vague rememberizations of these things called thunder storms but of course those don't happen anymore so surely the god, Zeus was just playing with his lightening bolts. We were booted from the pool and made to wait and wonder about this unusual phenomenon. K entertained Z&A making herself into a human jungle gym and B (as you can see) contemplated the sky with a curious eye. Finally Zeus put away his lightening bolts and we were allowed to re-enter the pool. Here's the cool thing - we were among the few idiots that stuck around so we had a nice time in a BIG pool almost by ourselves.

The little guy in the white shirt on the yellow & blue "lily pads" is our Z.
So brave. K close by to assist if needed.

Swimming with big sister.

Patiently waiting for mommy to finish taking pictures of the big kids.
See - I told you these kids rock!

That's B diving into the pool!

SchlitterbAAAHHHn

My children (all four of them it appears) LOVE Schlitterbahn - I've referred to this place before...
2008 Schlitterbahn trip.

Here is the scoop - with the help of my friend, lovingly referred to by my children as Youngie - I embarked on the most fantastic water park in the world with ALL four of my beautiful children. We had a wonderful time and have the sun burns to prove it. In addition to Youngie we were able to take this trip because of a friend Christy who blessed us with 1/2 price tickets. Thank you to both of these generous friends!

I was able to get a couple of pictures... you'll like these!

Right after this picture (above) was taken I noticed something shocking!

ALL four of my children were in the same area of the pool!
OMGoodness!
Of course getting them to cooperate is a different matter.