On again, off again...

Hey everyone! Just jotting a quick post to let everyone know we came through the storm just fine. We evacuated to Wacky Waco and had a really great time at Carolyn's (my MIL). We came back to Crosby about 4 days after the storm and had 4 more days with no power. It was fun and I absolutely loved not having a TV, but I did miss the computer. My parents had some damage to their beach house, but nothing too major. They have been staying with us the last week or so and are heading up to stay with Roxanne in the hospital. Her stem cell transplant is tomorrow and we are all praying that everything will go smoothly and that those fresh new cells will revive and heal her body. It's been chaos, but I'm loving every exhausting minute of it! Thanks to everyone that called and emailed wondering about how we are.

Good times, Good times

Here are some pictures from the weekend I spent with Roxanne. First off, here is Delyla as I am leaving to go to Dallas. No remorse, no worries, excitement to have Daddy all to herself. We are always competing for his attention. She almost always wins and who could blame Jon for that? She is adorable. She was playing in the yard while the a/c man was removing our old unit. Quite the nature girl, like her mama... Here is a gorgeous picture of Roxanne and Kevin at the Pocket Sandwich. It was so nice to spend the weekend with them. I witnessed them constantly doing small, nice things for eachother. You could tell that they truly love eachother. I could cry (and have) in gratitude that my sweet deserving sister has finally found a guy that is sweet to her as well. Nobody's perfect, but we all deserve to be treated with kindness every day and they seem to genuinely try to do that. Gotta love 'em.
The Twisted Sisters...
On Sunday (yes, sunday... dad will shoot me for breaking the Sabbath...) Roxanne and I went to lunch and met up with my two oldest friends - (well almost oldest, I do have one friend that I've known since the 4th grade). Tanya (blondie on the right) and Alison (my redheaded step sister on the left). This is a different Alison than the infamous Allison Batchelder from NM. Tanya, Alison and I have such a long history. There is nothing as wonderful as a friend who has known you for so long, through good and bad choices, skinny, fat, happy, sad, pregnant, not pregnant, lonely or full of love. Any friend who could love you through middle school dorkiness and high school drama deserves a giant bear hug and a diamond ring. We joked about old boyfriends and friends and feuds. It was great! These two girls are so awesome and I love them so much. It was exciting to hear about their families and to know that we are still close enough be able to count on eachother. I'll have to dig up an old high school picture to post with this one some day. You know, all in all, except for Foxy Roxy being currently bald, we all look pretty much the same. Must be good genes.
Finally, I just had to post this picture. Delyla was in the living room alone for a second while Jon left the room. She was mesmerized by the Moday night foosball... I couldn't believe that she was so glued to the tube when it wasn't even Brett Favre the amazing playing. I guess we all have to start somewhere.

Can we say addict?????

I'm here at Roxanne's using her sweet Mac computer with a FIOS connection. Talk about fast! I am in absolute heaven. My computer is just deplorably slow in comparison. I'm going to have to find a way to upgrade. It took me longer to pick a new background than it did to change it. It would have been hours, days, weeks, months of utter tedium had I attempted it at home. Isn't it cute? I am not addicted to blogging yet, but man, if I had a fast computer and a fast connection, you guys would be super sick of me... Lucky for you all, I'm still a dinosaur in comparison to most. Oh well, we can all have a dream.

We're having so much fun here in Dallas! Last night we went to see a play called Moon Over Buffalo at a little dive theater called The Pocket Sandwich theater. We've always gone there off and on since I've was a teenager. It was a really funny, situational comedy where people were mistaken for others etc. I'll post pics when I get back home. Of course, we looked gorgeous!

Today we've been mostly lazy. We made some amazing sushi for lunch before Roxanne's boyfriend Kevin went to work. Ahi tuna, Salmon, Crab..... delicious! We followed the pig out session with a movie and 42 candy bars. We watched Juno and of course I cried so I'm all puffy and goofy looking. Overall, I think it was worth a one time watch. Anything that makes me cry isn't usually a preference for a second watch. Saddness sticks with me unfortunately. I work hard to be this perky person, people!

I do miss Jon and the kids so much, but am really enjoying just chilling out with my sister. She is a deep thinker and she loves music and movies and cross-stitching. She is such a hard worker and has strong opinions about things. We are like night and day in so many ways. We lucked out yesterday when we went to Baylor to meet her nurse for some testing. She didn't need to get the bone marrow biopsy after all - major relief, because evidentely it really hurts. Looks like she'll be heading to the hospital at the end of the month for the big stem cell transplant.

See everyone soon!

Peace and quiet.....sort of

Well, I sit alone in a dark apartment contemplating my navel (as dad would say). I'm in big D at Roxanne's unable to sleep past 7:00 am - maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow on that . I'm lucky to be here at all... Our Air Conditioner went out on Wednesday afternoon about 2 hours before 3 extra kids and 4 piano students were going to show up. By the time the kids got off the bus it was almost 90 degrees in the house. Yes, I looked and smelled beautiful. The first repairman we had over thought we needed an entirely new system - a mere $8,000 - pocket change, right? Well, Jon came home in a panic and got the lo-down on what was broken and began calling other repairmen. Thank you that my husband is a salesman. After a million phone calls, he had secured us a new condenser unit for outside, parts and labor for $2000. Yes, I think Jon rocks too...


When we realized that we weren't going to have to sell one of the children to afford air conditioning (you can imagine the logic... 3 year old, a/c, 3 year old, a/c...) Jon let me hop in the truck and head to Dallas. Only a few hours behind the original schedule. I got here around 3:00 yesterday, starving and in sore need of a potty - I just knew that if I stopped along the way, Jon would call, change his mind about dealing with utter chaos while I was gone, and beg me to come home. So, I bee lined it here. I talked to Jon around 8:30 last night and the house seemed to be cooling off, so I think life in Texas will continue uninterrupted while I am gone.


We went to Fry's electronics extravaganza and drooled at the amazing computers, gaming systems etc. We shopped for CD's and movies. We got massages. Talk about full service electronics shopping. Yes, I said massages... They had these amazing massage chairs that gave you a full body massage while you laid there and jiggled in the middle of the store. If you closed your eyes, you almost felt alone...that is, until you hear the bass thumping some P Diddy crap in the stereo department. It was really fun to shop with my sister and her boyfriend Kevin. They really know computers and they really love all kinds of music. We came home and watched football and then the Republican Convention. Go McCain! Gotta love Sarah Palin too!

Well on to a new fun day with my sister! I can't believe I have 3 more days - I actually ate lunch without a kids menu late yesterday - weird. Although, we did get the crayons... we colored in the chili peppers at Chili's to benefit cancer...


Thanks a million gazillion to My Big Hunk for letting me come to Dallas. Thanks to Sweet Mama K, the most considerate person ever, for keeping my kids so I could hang with Roxanne - I owe you guys, although payback will occur in extremely different ways... I guess we won't go there... hmmmm

Ahhh, Friends...

It has happened.... Dalton and Delyla are asleep at the same time and guess what??? I have no idea what to do with my time. Does that happen to anyone? I constantly feel like I don't get any time to myself and here it is, but I'm clueless what to do with it! Thank goodness that so many of my friends have cool blogs to check out. Although now that I have posted this, Jon will read it and know exactly why the laundry isn't done... oops again! I could read a book, but that would be lazy right? I could scrapbook, but we all know that by the time I get an idea together they will wake up. I could clean...but that is what I always do. I guess I'll just have to get the bon bons out of the freezer, prop up my feet and watch a cooking show. Eat your heart out Martha Stewart, I'm going to relax - well, atleast I'm going to try. Wish me luck!

Here's Darion! Big 3rd grader!!! I can't believe it. He is so much fun too. Workin' the camera like a pro... Darion started school last Monday and said that he likes his new teachers. He is riding the bus this year and informed me that it is not cool to have your mom waiting at the bus stop, so I watch out the window this year with a sad tear running down my face. Pretty soon he won't like me at all...

Well, while Darion has been at school, I have been putting Dalton to work. He has decided that he wants to be a Chef, so when we went to Target this week, we bought him some plastic food (tasty and realistic...) for his kitchen. He is hilarious! He will take your order and prepare you something entirely different from what you ordered. Here he is giving me an order of pizza and french fries. My dream lunch. Luckily, this food is all calorie free, because the set came with donuts and brownies too. Dalton will not let the meal be over until he gives you the check and you pay (thank heaven for monopoly money).

What a little charmer. He expects a tip too. Just like his dad...

I thought I would be really in for it when school started back, but Dalton, Delyla and I have had some great days so far.


I am headed to Dallas later this week to help out my sister. They have postponed her stem cell transplant due to some insurance junk, but she still needed help with other appointments. I am so excited to go! A couple of days with no kids and a rockin' cool sister! I am sooooo lucky!