Caleb's Playoff Game

Saturday, November 1st was Caleb's last football game. It was the first "playoff" game. Although they quickly scored two touchdowns in the first quarter, they ended up losing the game. They definitely improved a lot over the season. I was happy to see that Caleb was finally starting to understand the concept of playing as a team. He also learned a lot about expressing emotions (frustration) properly. I'm so proud of my Lineman!!! Nana, Pop, Aunt Sarah and her "man-friend" (LOL) Steve came to watch the game. Check out the great pics Steve took!

My favorite part...the entire team went out as the "team captains" for the coin toss. Adorable.

So very behind

So, I just finished uploading a ton of pictures on the computer and it only reminded me how desperately behind I am in almost all aspects of my life. Blah.

Without all the wordiness (mostly because I need to get the boys bathed and in bed), enjoy my Halloween Superheroes...

Public Service Announcement and Thoughts on the Holidays

So, I'm at home alone with the boys today learning to walk again (yes, it's a slow healing process for my foot...sigh) and watching them play has reminded me. As the gift-giving season approaches, I feel the need to (once again) talk about how my children ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY DO NOT NEED ANY MORE TOYS. I know, I know. Cardboard boxes, paper towel tubes and other "unwanteds" do not seem like perfect gifts. BUT THEY ARE! My angels are currently repurposing our living room into their "office"...full with laundry basket desks with tupperware desk accessories. Guess I need to go fold the clothes that Caleb just dumped on my couch...

But, before I go...
Last Saturday, I mocked our friends down the street because they were pulling out Christmas decorations for their yard and their home. Yes. It was the day after Halloween. Okay, so I *do* have family members that have done this before, but I honestly don't think John and Mary Ann are pulling off the whole 12 different Christmas trees with coordinating full room decorations. Why, why, why were they doing this?

Anyway, why am I talking about this? Because every day since then, I have been OBSESSED with wanting to start my own Christmas decorating. I hobbled through Hobby Lobby AND Wal-Mart to hunt down a new Christmas tree. (Really, I NEEDED a third one because neither tree at home was pre-lit - GASP!) So now, I'm the proud owner of a 9-foot pre-lit tree. But I'm concerned that there still will not be enough lights on it. (I like my tree to SHINE y'all.) I also have the menu for our second annual Friend Christmas Party (I'm thinking I need a new name for this...leave your suggestions in the comment section) planned out. Not sure of the exact date yet, but at least the menu is planned. And I'm seriously thinking about breaking out the Paint Your Own Nativity set for the boys to decorate today. Chris (Mr.-hate-holidays-because-I-work-at-Wal-Mart) might strangle me when he gets home tonight.

Asheville, NC Pictures...finally.

October 11 was the beginning of our Second Annual Mother-Daughter Weekend. Mom and I got up at o'dark-stupid to meet the Edwards' ladies before we drove down to the airport. We had a lay-over in Atlanta, where we met up with Sarah. From there, we flew in to Charlotte, NC. The weather was so nice! We promptly picked up our luggage and jumped on the shuttle to pick up "Smurfette". You'll meet her later.

Our first stop was in Charlotte at the Billy Graham Library. We weren't really sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a fabulous stop! We had lunch, saw a singing cow and toured the museum/bookstore dedicated to Billy Graham. The whole place was just stunning. Check out the picture of the beams inside the barn-museum!



We then started our 2+ hour "Road-Trip" to Asheville. I say "road-trip" because NC includes some very misleading road signs, so we had a slight detour along the way. The drive was nice, though. "Smurfette" proved to be very reliable and accomodating to our comfort needs. I think we hit NC just prior to "peak" leaf-changing season, but, to us Texas girls, it was still pretty impressive. As we got closer to the mountains, you could definitely see more vivid color.

We got checked in to our hotel and quickly learned that we would be sharing space with an "Expo". It was for postcard and stamp collectors, though, so they were pretty tame as far as Expo-go'ers are. ;0) That evening, we made our way over to the Moose Cafe for some comforting Southern cooking. Yum.

Sunday morning, we readied ourselves for the all-day Biltmore extravaganza. Words cannot describe. They don't allow pictures inside the house (more like castle) itself, so enjoy the pictures I took from the outside, the gardens and the farm. Oh, and the electric blue minivan? That's Smurfette. Yep, we were cool.















After our Biltmore-marathon, we decided to try something "different"
for dinner, so we headed down to downtown Asheville. Our first stop was to load up on some chocolate at Kilwan's Chocolates (I think I bought Chris $26 worth of chocolate-peanut butter goodness). And then we made it over to Laughing Seed for dinner. Here's what Mom and I had:


Yes. We ate vegetarian.

On Monday morning, we ate a quick breakfast and then made a run-through at the Farmer's Market (you can see links to this from the Moose Cafe website that I linked above). We drove back to Charlotte, returned Smurfette and jumped on our flights back home. North Carolina was beautiful. I can't wait to see what the 3rd Annual Mother-Daughter weekend holds!

Kristi, why are you blogging at 7:30 am?

So, I have a free-standing dry erase board like the one above in my classroom. Yesterday, in all of my teacher-coolness, I was walking around the classroom passing back some graded work. Mind you, this was my LARGEST class of 28 students - many of which are Freshman boys...you know how they are. Anyway, I'm in the general vicinity of said dry erase board and, all of a sudden, my right foot got caught on one of the bars at the bottom. Yep. I busted it. Fell straight forward and bent my foot backwards on the way down. Lost every one of those "cool points" I ever had. Thankfully, none of my 28 students laughed at me. One jumped up to make me a bag of ice and another took the pass to get a wheelchair from the nurse. A couple offered to help get my fat butt off the ground (well, they didn't really say that), but I decided that had "Fiasco #2" written all over it. Thank Jesus I was wearing pants.

Eventually, I made it down to the nurse's office and got all of the workman's comp. paperwork filled out. (Big props to Ethan for not rolling me down to the Aquatics gym and pushing me off into the pool.) Thankfully, Chris was home yesterday (with Caleb who was fighting off a cold). He picked me up and took me to the doctor (who, by the way, had very Brady-Bunch-inspired office decor). Three x-rays and several hours later, I have a very banged up foot but no major damage. Unfortunately, I can't put any weight on it until I go see Dr. 1972 again on Monday.

Oh, and apparently standard pharmacies can't fill a prescription for crutches, so I'm stuck either hopping or rolling around my house in a desk chair until Chris goes by the medical supply store on the way home from work today. Fun times.

Please Pray.

While I was away in Asheville, I recieved some terrible news. Please pray for our dear friends Stefan and Nancy. This past weekend, their beautiful daughters were involved in a car accident and neither child survived.

Alyssa and Reagan....forever in our hearts...

Fall, Football and a new Favorite

I'm definitely starting to feel the change of the seasons this year. I'm not sure what it is since, here in Texas, we really don't see much of a transition from Summer to Fall. Maybe it's slightly cooler weather right now. Maybe it's the football games. But, I think it's mostly from the excitement building up to the 2nd annual Mother-Daughter weekend coming up in a few days! You may remember that last year our trip was to Savannah, Georgia. This year, we (me, Mom, Sarah, Mrs. Edwards, Kimberly and Elizabeth) are going to Asheville, North Carolina. I'm super excited about seeing trees with leaves that change colors and touring the Biltmore Estate. So excited that I made a special trip to Hobby Lobby to buy some Fall decorations for the house. I made this arrangement for the living room last night for less than $50. Feel free to oooohhh and aaaaahhh over it for a moment....

Yesterday also brought another flag football game. Caleb was somewhat frustrated last week, but after several discussions about playing as a team and trying your best, he did much better yesterday. Caleb was chosen to be one of the "team captains" for the day and Cole worked on perfecting his skills as Nana and Pop's personal water boy. Best of all, our team won! It was a very exciting game as we came from behind to win within the last few seconds 19-18!!! Go Broncos White! (We are all Broncos...each team wears a different version of the Denver Broncos jerseys)




And, in the last of my latest news, I think I've determined a new "favorite" in my life. After the storm, everyone's most favorite truck to see on their street was that of the electric company. This week brought our SECOND favorite truck...the large trash truck. Work is still in progress, but I'm hoping the large pile of dead fence currently killing my grass will soon be removed.