Visiting Daddy

Today we visited Daddy at work. He was surprised to say the least. It was a bit overwhelming to see all those kids (big kids) watch you as you walk in! I felt so nervous at first, but they were good! :) (I am used to the little ones that love their teachers and hug them still!)

Anyhow, we hung out for awhile and left to get lunch and came back to eat with Daddy! It was fun! (It's Halloween, so it's okay to visit on those crazy days!) ;)

Rachel wanted to do the warm-up assignment too!

Rachel telling Daddy where to sit!

(Soon she realized that Daddy's in charge when he's at work!--

"something tell's me we're not in Kansas anymore!?")Daddy working hard to teach the kids about the Water Cycle!

(I was even clueless at what the answers were!)Rachel sitting down quietly while the kids worked on their assignments- she wanted to do exactly what the big kids did. She even would get off her chair, but as soon as she heard Daddy's booming voice, she'd run back to her spot!) :)

La Cantera for lunch

We (Lala, Rachel and I) went to La Cantera to eat lunch yesterday after bible study/bible class. :) It was so nice out we walked and walked and .... SANG ("lalalalallalalallalalaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!")
and DANCED
and touched the water of the water fountain...
and watched and listened to the soothing water...
and posed for a picture for mommy! :)

We had a blast. Mom was just mentioning yesterday what a blessing it is to just be able to have a lunch date like that and be able to walk around afterwards and enjoy the beautiful day and not have to worry about rushing back to work AND at the same time bonding with my daughter and mom. :) God is blessing me so much. He is AWESOME! :) Thank you Lord!!! :)

Bible Class Fun!

I wanted to upload some pics of Rachel's Bible Class Carnival (so-to-speak). :) She had a blast dressing up as an A&M cheerleader (eventhough, they don't really have cheerleaders, but yell boys.) Oh well, it's all for Daddy! :)

Here goes...

Rachel is carrying her "goodie basket" of treats to give to her class. She has her jacket on b/c it was quite cool this morning. :) She really looks like a cheerleader before her performance. :)She is walking to class to see Ms. Judy (her teacher) and get ready for the fun times ahead!

I snuck in to take some pics of the fun, but she was too distracted to play once I was there, so I left in a hurry after I took a few pics only.

Here she caught me behind the door when they were playing the "Cake Walk" game. :) She was walking off instead of staying on the colored squares. When we picked her up, she wanted to show us her classes booth. It was a fishing booth and it was too cute! Here she is pointing to the fish. (Do you see our little artist's masterpiece around her neck!? She made that jack-o-lantern all by herself- well, with some help!) ;)

Overall, it seemed like she had tons of fun. :) She was really tired yesterday, but happy to have had the chance to participate in such an entertaining activity. :) I need to post some more pics of what we did afterwards later! :)

Pumpkin Patch Visit

Waiting for Lala to come and pic us up to go to the Pumpkin Patch. :) She was so excited and she was so happy that I let her wear her sunglasses! :) Too cute!

Mommy the Scarecrow & Rachel the friendly ghost! :) She looks so enthused about posing for mommy (not really, she was wanting to go play with the boys).

A friend that Rachel found at the pumpkin patch! She went up to him at first and wanted to kiss him on the cheek right-off-the-bat! Good thing Daddy wasn't around, he would have been "taking names and numbers". ;)

Busy, busy, busy...

Hello there again. I have not had much luck with posting pics on blogger this last week. I have some that I took last week and blogger just wasn't working with me. I'm trying again today, hopefully it will work so I can post about Rachel.

First off... my director for Gigglebytes (my part-time job) came over to drop some supplies off last Wed. and she gave Rachel a Gigglebytes shirt. Rachel wanted to put it on as soon as they left and here she is sporting her new shirt. Thanks Donna!! (BTW, she and her son Jesse came by this Wed. to load some software on my computer and I took some pics of the kids playing, but I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet.)

On Sunday, Yaya and Papa Richard dropped off this cute Rachel sized table and 2 chairs, along with a wonderful set of Little People toys (they got her the farm set and the circus set). I am letting her play with the farm set for now. She just loves the animals and she loves singing "Old MacDonald" too! Everyday, since Sunday, Rachel has been rushing to her room to play with her new toys on her new table. It's so cute!!! Thanks Yaya and Papa Richard. :)

On Monday night, Rachel and I got creative and started to paint with her new paints and paintbrush that we bought for her. She loves to paint and is doing so well. Here she is showing her new stroke that she's most comfortable with. :)

(Sorry about the blurry pictures, I am trying some other buttons and settings on my camera- that's your doing Angie! ;)

Poor Puffy Fishy

I have been trying to blog about this for a week now, but just haven't had the time. Well, right now Rachel is playing so nicely by herself, that I am gonna explain.
As you may have read from previous posts, we received an aquarium from Yaya and Papa Richard over Easter. It was so great to have some kind of pet in the home. I've really enjoyed having it in our home, especially when I wash dishes. I watch them swim around and "play" or "hide" from each other. They can be very calming to watch at the end of a long day.

Well, about a week and a half ago... I was noticing that one of our older fish had gotten kind of "puffy". It was bigger than the other fish, but slim when you looked at him straight on. Not anymore, I could see him straight on and his sides were puffed out. It was not too bad at first, so I just ignored it. A few days later I am looking at him more closely and notice that he is (not only) puffed up, but now his scales are flared out (like a pine cone). If you are a fish person, right off the bat, you're gonna say..."Help the poor fish! He's sick!"
I didn't do anything, though, because I am not a fish person and I thought he was like me, just a bit chubby and we don't want to bring that up now do we? Well, after being fascinated by his body change, I finally researched a bit online and found out that he was indeed sick (dropsy). It was already too late for this poor "Puffy" fish. :( I just couldn't stop watching him and wanted to help, but couldn't. He died a few days after taking these pics. (Note: Ben thinks that I get a little too attached to these fish, but it's hard not to when they are your companions while you wash the dishes.) ;) Well, that is all I have to say about that! :)

October- Fall Fun

Well, I've not been keeping my blogging up lately, so I have a wide variety of pics to post. Here goes...

It's that time again when Lala has her pumpkin patch up for Rachel to enjoy. When I took this pic, she hadn't put the scarecrow out yet or the real pumpkin too. :) Rachel loves her very own pumpkin patch that she can visit anytime. :)

Rachel loves to put our shoes on and now she can actually walk in them too! Here she is wearing my shoes and having a blast acting like mommy. ;)

She look like a big girl, not a baby anymore... these little overalls reminded me of when I used to wear the comfy things when I was in college! I just loved them (I know they weren't a fashion statement even in those days, but I LOVED them!)

I am delivered!

Psalms 34:4-5
I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

This is such a wonderful, powerful scripture. I am so thankful the God has delivered me from ALL of my fears. I will not cover my face with shame, but I will hold my head up high b/c my Lord is my answer! :)

Rachel

We're all doing well. Right now I have Rachel moving our DVD's to a table to keep her busy so I can update you all on our happenings... I'm a bad mother, I know. But for real, she LOVES to help in any way she can, and that's what she's doing now! :) Well, we had a good restful weekend. On Sat. we went to the store and had lunch and came home to watch the A&M game and nap. (Well, Ben watched the game, Rachel napped and I read The Confessions of a Pioneer Woman's blog- thank you very much Angie, I'm hooked!) Anyhow, I need to stop myself from reading her blog so much b/c I don't blog myself. I am neglecting my blog. :( Well, here I am. :) I've gotta run, though, since I do have to continue playing with Rachel and all. :)
God bless you all and TTYL.

:)

Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

I Peter 3:18 (NIV)

Rachel and her baby dinosaur

Rachel loves watching the Backyardigans now. It's great b/c it comes out at 4:30 on Noggin. That's when I cook dinner, so it works out perfectly. :) Here she is watching it, her eyes are glued on the tv, just like her daddy! ;)

The "ferret" is a toy that she got from one of her happy meals. I thought it was a dinosaur when I pulled it out of the bag and now she calls it her baby dinosaur. I keep trying to tell her it's a ferret, but oh well. (Now we don't even know where the ferret is!) I need to remember to put them away and give them to a teacher who can put them in their treat box. These can be so annoying all over the house, at least we can put them to good use.

"BABY DINOSAUR!"

Game Night

Hello all! I wanted to post some pics of the HS football game that we went to on Sat. night. We saw my cousin, Matthew, play a solo for the marching band. It was so cool! He did FABULOUS!!! He's so talented. He plays the bassoon, but he marches the saxophone (he had to learn a whole new instrument to march- now that's dedication). :) Well, he's done so many wonderful things with his bassoon. He is in YOSA (and he went to Russia last summer with that group! He's gonna be a musical star... I can see it! :)

(Matt's next to the drum major podium on the left)

(Here he's playing his solo.)

I didn't get great pics, but it shows him getting ready to play his bassoon. He marches off the field, then he get's his reed and bassoon and waits for his part. He did great!!!! I was so proud of him.

Another fun thing about the game was that it was O'Connor (my cousin's school) vs. Clark (our old HS). It was fun to see what they are doing too. To hear the drum line and all was neat (Ben was a base drummer and quint player, I played cymbals and the "other" percussion instruments). It brought back ALOT of old memories! I think I was getting on Ben's nerves when I kept asking him about the old days and what he did and how he felt (we were friends back then, but we didn't talk as much as we do now, so I had to get his take on things). Well,it was fun. I do remember the games being fun and tiring at the same time! You can sit with your friends and just laugh and play music and just be a kid. Well, it was super to go back down memory lane again. And now that I think about it... I LOVE THAT BEN AND I HAD THE SAME EXPERIENCES LIKE THAT B/C WE WERE REALLY ABLE TO ENJOY TOGETHER (15 yrs. later). That's another thing... i felt soooooooooooooooo old. The kids are so young! They are carefree and just full of energy. Matt (my cousin who we saw play that night) was only 18 mos. - 2 yrs. old when I was in the HS marching band!!!! augh!!! Time does fly!!! Now I told him that Rachel is like he was to me and when she's in marching band, he'll have a little one to watch her! ;) The circle of life! :)

God's Boxes

God's Boxes

I have in my hands two boxes,
Which God gave me to hold. He said, "Put all your sorrows in the black box, And all your joys in the gold."
I heeded His words , and in the two boxes,
Both my joys and sorrows I stored, But though the gold became heavier each day,The black was as light as before.
With curiosity, I opened the black, I wanted to find out why, And I saw, in the base of the box, a hole, Which my sorrows had fallen out by.
I showed the hole to God, and mused,"I wonder where my sorrows could be!" He smiled a gentle smile and said,"My child, they're all here with me.."
I asked God, why He gave me the boxes, Why the gold and the black with the hole? "My child, the gold is for you to count your blessings,>The black is for you to let go."

My sweet sister- in- law, Heather, sent this to me in early August and I kept it so that I could post it. It's so wonderful to remember to give our burdens to God. He can and will handle our problems. We must have to give them up and trust in Him. I'm learning how to do that. God bless you! :)

Long time no post!

We've had a busy week. I have started to sub again. Only doing it for 1 day a week. This week, I subbed for my aunt on Wednesday. It was only a half day and boy was I tired! I was back at my old school and I just felt at home again. It was great. I just don't know how I did it back then! It's SOOOOOOO much work..... well, I plan on subbing once a week with NISD. Hopefully I'll get some more calls.

I am also working on Thursdays at Castle Hill First Baptist Church- daycare and preschool. I am the Gigglebytes teacher (I teach basic computer skills to 2-5 yr. olds.) It's fun! I enjoy working in small groups with these kiddos. They learn so fast and really do quite well on the computer! (To think, I was like 12 before I got to use one in school!)

Well, I've gotta run! :) I pray that you are doing well. Drop me a line or comment! :)

Play time!

Rachel loves to play with my, I mean HER, Barbies! ;)

Playing by herself. Some days Rachel can just play and play and play all by herself. She's doing so well with that! She does it on Mondays, especially, because that's when I try to do the cleaning and laundry (fun stuff). :)

Hey Mommy! what are you doing? If you have time to take pics, you have time to play with me! ;)

Recent Pictures

This picture was taken before we went to church 2 Sat. ago.
Rachel was playing with her brushes (the big one is me and the little brush is her). :) She looks like she's singing with the brush as her microphone. She's not, but it looks like it! Kelly (my befri) & I used to do that in the car! ;) Of course, we had to buy a plastic one at the dollar store and use it too!

Mommy & Rachel waiting for Lala in the car. We were all together to go to Las Palapas to celebrate my Grandmother's & Aunt's b-day.

Top row (l-r): Uncle Rene, Aunt Gloria, Rachel & Mom
Bottom row (l-r): Aunt Lilia & Grandma Moran (See the crown on her head? Mom likes to have fun with her mom-in-law and gave it to her to wear and she did!) -The Birthday girls! :)