An A-MAZE-ing Weekend!

I'm combining 2 weekends into one blog so I can play catch up on my blog habit (that I'm having a hard time finding time to do sometimes!). Yet again, we had some more action packed weekend fun! On Friday evening, we all 3 went to the Fall Festival at our church. Mom and Dad met us there and got to see the new children's building that our church has - it is SOOOO colorful, and I can already picture all of the fun that T.J. will have in that building. Some of my best memories are of times at church and friends that I met there, I can't wait to see T.J. on that journey!! You will notice that there are no pictures of T.J. in his costume. That would be because Mommy did not take pictures the first 4 minutes we were there, and that was the length of time that our costume was on. However, T.J. was a very cute Thomas the Train (yes, he picked out his own costume, that definitely would not have been Mommy's first choice!)

On Saturday, we had a relaxing weekend at home. It's been a long time since we got to do that!! Then, on Sunday we went to church and then met some of our friends at the Corn Maze here in Lubbock. They had hay rides, a little cow train, a petting zoo, and then we went through a big corn maze. Every time you came to a fork in the road, there was a numbered sign and you had to look on a little card to answer the questions to know which way to go. It was REALLY fun, and T.J. has a pretty good little sense of direction (he must have learned that from his mom - ha, ha!!) The maze was in the shape of Raider Red (shown on the picture). What a fun day with good friends!!



The following weekend, we went to San Angelo for Halloween. When we first got there, we went over to meet my sweet little niece, Sophie, for the first time. She is almost a year old, and this was the first time I've seen her in person - she's TOO cute!! T.J. didn't really know what to think of her at first, but he warmed up after a little while. It was really nice to get to see everyone. We actually went for my grandfather's birthday, and he loved having all "his girls" there to visit. It was a good time!



We went to "Trunk or Treat" at Southland and saw some good old friends. Then we went with Shelly, Drew, Riley, and Kaylin to go trick-or-treating. Some of their friends had a little trailer that we took a TON of kids on to go to houses. Jeff and I got the good end of that deal - we stayed with T.J. and Kaylin (and they are not the fastest kids ever!) while the other parents were trying to manage about 15 five-year-olds - Sounds fun huh? All in all, it was a great Halloween.

What a Ride!!

During the week, we do not get to do a lot of extra activities, but on the weekends we try to cram in as much fun as possible. Boy, did we ever last weekend!! So much so, that I haven't even had time to get caught up to blog about it until just now (the weekend after, so be on the lookout for 2 blog entries today). On Friday, Jeff called to say that he and his old college roommate, Joel, were going to go out hunting. So, Joel's wife and my good friend, Sara, called to see if T.J. and I wanted to go on a mother/son date night with she and her boys, Mason (who is just a few weeks younger than T.J. and that he LOVES to play with) and Miles (who is not even a year old yet, but will soon be getting into all kinds of trouble with his brother and T.J.) T.J. has never been to Chuck E. Cheese so we decided to go there. He LOVED it!! We had such a great time. We have been to Mr.Daddy's (Mr.Gatti's for those of you that don't speak T.J.) but that is really geared more towards older kids. Not Chuck E., he's all about the younger kids. T.J. was fascinated with Chuck E. and LOVED all of the games. They had one ride that was a simulated roller coaster for the little guys, but it was pretty intense. I thought T.J. and Mason would get scared, but they ended up riding it more than once because they loved it so much. What fun!!

Then, Saturday morning T.J. and I got up and headed up to Home Depot for a building project. We had never been before, but on the first Saturday of every month, they have a free kid's project. We built a bank that looks like a firehouse. They also had some firemen and a real fire truck up there for kids to get in and explore. You know that's right up T.J.'s alley, so that was a great time!



From there, we went back home to get ready for the Texas Tech vs. New Mexico football game. Martin Miller (the Edward Jones agent Jeff works with) and his wife, Patti, were out of town and let us have their tickets. We went early to go to Raider Alley and hear some live music and get a picture with the masked rider. That part was fun, but I was concerned about how T.J. would do at the football game because it was a pretty chilly day and that's an awfully long time for a two-year-old to sit still. However, he really outdid himself. Luckily, there were some people that usually sit by my parents that weren't there so T.J. got his own chair instead of having to sit in one of our laps. I have a feeling we would not have stayed long if we hadn't had that open seat. We stayed until the 3rd quarter, and then it started to rain so we headed on home.


The next day we got up and went to church. Then, we went out to lunch with some friends from Sunday School. Then, Jeff and T.J. went home and I went back up to the church to help with a baby shower. On Monday after school, T.J. and I met Sara, Mason, and Miles at the pumpkin patch. We really did it to get some cute pictures, but that was not happening. Mason and T.J. were really neither in the mood to take pictures so we just stayed and played for a little while and then left. It was quite an action packed weekend!!

Happy Birthday to Kaylin!!

We went to San Angelo this weekend for Kaylin's 3rd birthday. So, we have now seen Granna, Pa, Shelly, Drew, Mikey, and all of the cousins for three weeks in a row. Apparently, we all just can't get enough of each other! We stopped off at the Red Raider Outfitter before we left town to get new Texas Tech shirts for all of the kiddos to wear on Saturday for the big Tech vs. UT game, so we didn't get to Mikey's house until almost 10:00 that night. We went to bed right after we got there since we had such a packed day the next day.

We began our Saturday going to the soccer field for an 8a.m. game. We lucked out that Megan and Riley were playing at the same time, so we just went back and forth between the 2 games. They both played awesome and both won their games (even though the San Angelo Soccer League doesn't keep score - all the kids and families still do!)

After that, we came back to Mikey's house to attempt to get T.J. a nap before the birthday party - attempt not taken!! So, we headed off to Mr.Gatti's for a hoppin' birthday party! The kids had a blast playing little games. The big hit was the game where the kids were each given a part of a "noodle" (you know, the ones you play with in the swimming pool) and had to keep a big balloon up in the air. The little Tinkerbell high schooler who was our party entertainer could hardly get them to stop that game. Although, we did lose touch with what the object of the game was, and it quickly turned into who can hit the other party goers with the noodle.

They also played "Duck, Duck, Goose" and T.J. was so cute playing that. They play it at his daycare so he actually knows the rules and played pretty well. I just love to see how big and independent he is playing games with other kids.

After the birthday girl opened up her presents and the kids finished their delicious pizza, they each got more tokens than they could possibly spend and tore off in the play room. T.J. loved the "Whack-a-Mole" game and played it several times. He got a bunch of tickets and was very excited to spend them on a very impressive plastic snake that was confiscated many times after that for putting it in various cousin's hair and harrassing them with it - Such a boy!!

We then went and watched the football game (that Tech actually did much better than I was afraid they were going to). Shelly and Drew have this awesome cabin out by their house where we watched the game on the big screen t.v. while the kids ran around having a big time outside. It was really fun!! We all always have so much fun together!!

Then today, Sunday, we headed back home - that would be myself, Jeff, T.J., and another important part of our married lives - the Scout. For those who aren't familiar, let me give you the short version of the story of how the Scout came into our lives. Every marriage has a few areas where couples have to agree to disagree - ours is the Scout. It is a 1974 International Scout II - any of you like myself - who don't understand male lingo - apparently, this is quite a prize that men dream of getting a car, fixing it up, and driving it around town to show it off. Now, that is a great habit for a RICH person, or a person with lots of time on their hands to have - Unfortunately my husband is not either of those things. So, he has sadly given up the fight, and decided to bring it back to Lubbock to try and sell it. Such a sweet hubby! Anyway, on the way back home, we had a blow out on the trailer we are hauling this thing back on. I think it was just the Scout's last attempt to show me that it is not going away without a fight - ha, ha! Anyway, I'll keep you posted on what happens with our dear friend!

5 Cousins and a Funeral

Well, the Nelson clan has gotten to hang out more in the past week than we have in a while! Granna, Pa, Shelly, Drew, Mikey, and all the cousins came for the Labor Day weekend to go hunting. We had a great time! Shelly and I took the 2 little kids - T.J. and Kaylin - to Mr.Daddy's (translation: Mr.Gatti's). They had a blast! It's actually really nice to take the little kids because they're pretty cheap dates. Since they're under 3 (for at least a few more weeks) their buffet is free, and then when you go back to the play room, they just like to sit on the rides. Without putting a cent in, they think they are really doing the game - they're pretty funny to watch together. They are really interacting and talking to each other and it is just so funny to watch the way they play together.

The next night we went out to Uncle Donnie's house (where Jeff, Drew, Mike, Pa, Riley, Megan, and Matthew) went out hunting. T.J. took his play gun out there and was SOOO funny - he would squint his eyes and put the gun right on his eye (like he was lining it up) and then (quite loudly) say, "Pow, pow!" Now, I have to tell you Uncle Donnie has every critter imaginable out at his house. So, I was a nervous wreck with T.J. walking around out there. He, however, was completely entertained and had a GREAT time even with Mommy trailing behind him continually saying, "Don't touch that", "No, T.J., that is not a nice puppy", "T.J. Nelson, do not pick up that poo-poo" (Yes, those words actually came out of my mouth) But, Donnie does have this AWESOME (as far as snakes go!!) albino python. That is honestly the closest I've ever gotten to a snake - especially one that big!! T.J. was completely enthralled in that and all the kids posed for that cute picture.

Anyway, it was a great weekend with family members crammed into every corner of the house and no problems - that's a pretty amazing thing when there are 12 people piled into one house. Then, on Monday evening we got a phone call that Jeff's great aunt (Aunt Minnie, Memaw's sister-in-law) had passed away. Minnie lived next door to Memaw and she was a very sweet lady and a big part of our family. So, of course, we had to go to Burnet to be with all of the family to attend her funeral. So, we took off Wednesday afternoon after I got out of school and headed to San Angelo, spent the night, and got up early Thursday morning to head to Burnet. I was VERY worried about taking T.J. to a funeral - it was not open casket, but we did go to the funeral home before the service for a viewing. Jeff and I took turns staying with T.J. in the lobby. Then, we all went to the church for a family lunch. T.J. ate a ton and was then beginning to get cranky - as a Mom, I can see those "I'm about to need a nap" signs coming on, so I was worried. After we ate, we took all of the kids outside to get some energy out before they had to sit quietly through a rather lengthy service. There was a hill outside that the other cousins were having fun running up and down, but my little cautious fella spent his time sliding down the dirt hill on his bottom (so we looked very nice for the service but, hey, you pick your battles!!) T.J. did really well (he ate 4 of those little Dum Dum suckers during the service but, again, battle picking). He clapped for the soloist every time she finished a song which was really cute. Then, he had to go to the potty, so we quietly excused ourselves. Now, T.J. is going through a modest phase about going to the potty (which only kicks in at public restrooms) where he wants to go in by himself and close the stall door. So, I'm a mom who likes to encourage independence and let him do this. He doesn't know yet how to lock the door, so I hold the top of the door and peek in to make sure we're actually taking care of business and not just playing around. However, I usually assume that once we're sitting on the potty, we're in the clear - WRONG!! I looked away as he was on the potty, and all of a sudden I hear, "I catching Nemo." This causes me to look in thinking what on earth is he talking about and I see my precious child holding his belt in the potty like a fishing pole - that's my son, folks - fishing with his belt in his church clothes at a family funeral!!



The picture above of Riley and T.J. was taken about 10 minutes into our trip home - we were all exhausted after a long day of funeraling. So, we drove home beltless with dirt all over the bottom of our pants and a Dum Dum sucker stick stuck to the bottom of our pant leg. Oh, the life of a Mom with a little boy!!

Mission Organization

Well, as previously warned, I have fallen behind on updating my blog. The pictures above are the reason. School is officially back in session (even though the kids don't come back until Monday). The teachers have been working like crazy getting ready for another great year! These are pictures of my new office/classroom. I HAD to put a picture of my closet on here to show how organized I have it! Every year I organize a little better so I can keep all of my teaching junk in order. I now officially have everything labeled and can get you anything you might need to teach reading at a moment's notice.
I started a new job this year - Reading Interventionist, and so far I LOVE it!! There is still stress, but a totally different kind of stress. Instead of having a TON of small projects all going at the same time, I have just a few BIG projects going all the time. For some reason, that kind of stress seems to be much easier to handle. We had our "Meet the Teacher" Night on Thursday, and it really made me sad not to have my own new set of kids this school year. That's always so exciting to meet your newest group and get to know all of their personalities. There is so much about being in a classroom that I know I will miss, but I am also very excited about getting to look more at the "big picture" rather than just one grade level. It's amazing to look at the kindergarten class and the 5th graders and see how much they really change in the time they are in elementary school. It was also really nice to see my students from the past 2 years and see how much they have grown. It's amazing how fast that happens and just reminds you how short life really is. I'll keep everyone posted about the school year and do MY BEST to update more than once a month!!

Family Reunion

What a crazy week it has been! Jeff was gone to Arizona to finish up some training, so T.J. and I got to spend the whole week together. We went to the Science Spectrum, the movies, the mall, and even out on a dinner date one of the nights. It was fun to have some alone time with the little man, but we were definitely ready for Daddy to come home. We went and picked up Jeff at the airport on Friday night. He brought T.J. back a little airplane souvenier that makes noise and lights up - Thanks for that, Daddy!! The next morning, T.J. and I got up and drove to San Angelo. Of course, he had to take his new toy, so it sounded like we were on the airport runway the ENTIRE way to San Angelo. You can only turn the radio up so loud!
I went to a Stella and Dot (jewelry) / Mary Kay party on Saturday afternoon while David Hendricks took T.J. out for ice cream. Then we had dinner over at Mimi & Granda's house. We had a great time! T.J. played with my cousin's baby, Kelton. They pushed each other around on this little gardening bench thing my grandmother has. Here is a video of them playing:


Then, we stayed the night out at Aunt Shelly and Uncle Drew's house. Shelly had worked so hard to set up their blow up swimming pool, and T.J. would just walk around in circles saying, "I swimming." Too funny! The next morning me, T.J., Shelly, Uncle Mikey, Kaylin, and Riley all drove to Abilene for a Phillips Family Reunion (Jeff's mom's side of the family). There were a LOT of people there, and as usual T.J. does not do well in crowds. I don't know why I always expect it to get better. He saves his biggest fits to throw in front of groups of people - Oh, motherhood!! It's like the saying, "Lord, please give me the strength to endure my blessings!!" Believe it or not, even with the major fits, Granna and Pa still took him home for the week. I have a training for 2 days this week, so Granna agreed to take T.J. back with them to Camp Kerrville (what the grandkids call Granna & Pa's house) and then Jeff and I will get him back when we all go to Meemaw's house this weekend. This is the longest I've been away from him in over 2 years, so I know I'll miss him like CRAZY, but I also have a list of things I plan on getting done (one of which was to update my blog, so check that one off the list!) so it will be nice! Today I got to sleep in, go tan, go to a few stores (just quickly run in and run out - long time since I've done that!!), go to a sappy movie, and then go to school and get by bookshelves set up. It was SO nice!! Then, Jeff and I are meeting for Happy Hour this evening (REALLY long time since we've done that!!). I plan on an equally relaxing day tomorrow!! Karen said T.J. is being very sweet, remembering to use the potty, and sleeping through the night. Oh, my sweet boy!! Karen's taking lots of pictures, so I'll keep everyone posted on all of the fun things he gets to do at Camp Kerrville!

The New Nelsons

Well, I am a big sucker for a cute little guy - who knew? Today, T.J. and I went and got his hair cut because he was getting a little shaggy. I told the lady to cut it a little shorter than last time because it grows so fast, and she sure did. He has quite the buzz cut. Good thing it grows fast!

Then, we went to the mall. I had to pick up my contact lenses, and we decided to make a whole event of it. We did not take the stroller (a first for us at the mall) and he was SO excited to have free roam. We went by the pet store to see the dogs and, little did I know, the pet store was having quite the hermit crab sale. There were kids all over the place looking at all these crazily painted hermit crabs. There were little stools all around and T.J. was lucky enough to get one, and I could hardly get him down from there when we finally had to leave. We were seriously standing there for about 45 minutes, and each minute was as fascinating as the next! The sucker that I am, I told him that if we could go get some lunch and finish our shopping, then we might come back and get a hermit crab. I figured with all of his progress with potty training, he deserved a treat. Plus, how could I not want to get him something that made his face light up like that?

So, we had lunch, picked up the contacts, and went into a few more stores.Then - as I was repeatedly reminded - we went back to pick out our own hermit crab ("Herman" crab as T.J. calls them). They had quite the deal on them (I'm pretty sure some worker went way overboard on the hermit crab bulk order!!) so we got all of the food, set-up, 2 "herman" crabs, 2 empty shells for them to crawl into, and a VERY big smile on a sweet boys face for a bargain price of $14.95!! Picking out just the right shells was quite the big decision, but T.J. decided on an Elmo shell, a Nemo shell, a Batman shell, and a shell that looks like a baseball.

He is completely fascinated with these things! I was a little nervous at first because they can pinch, but there is NO danger of that with our little cautious fella. He loves to look at them in their cage or for me to pick them up from a good distance away from him, but he will in NO way reach in and touch one. They're actually pretty cool little easy pets so we'll see how long the interest stays! When we were leaving the mall with the herman crabs in tow, anyone that even looked our way, T.J. would say, "T.J.'s herman crabs" as he pointed to them. He also wanted to hold the cage on the drive home, but settled for having them on the floorboard under his feet. The whole way home he kept talking to the cage, "You o.k. herman crabs?" At naptime he had to tell each one of them good-night. "Night, Night, Elmo crab." "Night, Night, Nemo crab." "Night, Night, Batman crab." "Night, Night, baseball crab." He doesn't quite understand yet that there are only 2 crabs, so we are also saying good-night to 2 empty shells - Oh the things we do for our kids!!