Some of my best college girlfriends--Stephanie, Andrea, and Ann-- and I went to Fredericksburg last weekend for a little shopping and R&R.


For the past several years, we have gotten together for a weekend in the spring to visit, laugh, eat, shop, and just get away from everything. This is always a weekend I look forward to and wish we could do it once a month! Usually, there are 8 of us, but four girls couldn't make it this year due to work for one, a cross-country move for one, kids' activities for one, and a new baby for one. It's a lot harder to get 8 of us together than it was a few years ago!


In the past, we have gone to Salado and Granbury, but this year we decided to go to Fredericksburg. It was so much fun, and we were blessed with perfect weather!


I'm already looking forward to girls' weekend 2010!

This is the B&B we stayed in. This house was built in 1910 and was a Sears & Roebuck kit house.

BEST. SANDWICH. EVER. PUT. IN. MY. MOUTH.

Happy Birthday!!

Today is my sweet sister's 27th birthday!

Happy Birthday, Lindsay!!

One more thing about Baxter......

Of course this is just my opinion, but....


for those of you mommas who know your kids are going to bug you TO DEATH until you finally get a dog, get a small dog.


Small dogs have small poop.


Small poop is better than big poop.


I added the caveat that this was just my opinion, because this is not Jeff's opinion.


You see....Jeff had to pick Baxter up from the kennel last Monday after we came back from Easter weekend. Apparently, he showed up about the same time a bunch of policemen were there picking up their dogs from a training. Their German shepherds and labradors. Their tough dogs.


Needless to say, I think Jeff felt a little sissy picking up his six pound, white, fluffy, bandana- donning lap dog.


But, who cares? Small poop is better than big poop.

Baxter

Since a couple of you have asked, I thought I would write an update on life with Baxter.


Elizabeth, I'm not much of a dog person either, but as far as dogs go, Baxter has been pretty easy.


I can't speak for all malteses because Baxter is the first Maltese we have ever had, but here are some pros and cons.

PROS
*He's small (although he's still a puppy, he's held steady for several weeks at just barely over 6 lbs).

*He doesn't shed much. We used to have a dog whose hair would fly all over the place when he so much as rolled over from one side to the other. Not Baxter. Really, his hair only comes out when he's brushed.

*Since he's so small, he doesn't eat much.

*He likes to play. He loves to fetch, and loves to be chased.

*However, he likes to rest a lot, too. He plays really hard for a few minutes then takes a long nap.

*He's pretty smart. He stops bad behavior as soon as he's told not to do it. He doesn't scratch, chew on things other than his toys, bark, or whine when he's in his crate.

*He's cute! I mean, really, his little face is just precious!

CONS
*He's still not completely potty trained. He sleeps in his crate at night and hasn't had an accident in a long time. However, occasionally he will potty in the house if he's not being watched carefully.

*Because he's SO WHITE he gets dirty easily. He'll go out and play with dirt in the flowerbed and be filthy.

*His breed requires regular grooming. His fur gets matted and tangled fairly easily. I brush him at least every other day, but try to brush him everyday. He gets groomed about every 3 weeks. (Note--I don't think we'd have to groom him as often if we got his hair cut shorter, but I like the way it looks right now. It makes him still look like a puppy.)

*This isn't necessarily a con, but definitely something to keep in mind if you're thinking of a maltese. They LOVE to be with people and don't really like to be by themselves. So, if you don't think you'll have a lot of time to spend fussing over your dog, you might want to not get a maltese.

*Even though your child has begged you for years to get a dog and promises that they'll feed it, brush it, take care of it, etc--they won't. Trust me. If you (the mom) are not ready to get a dog, then don't--because YOU, momma, will be the dog's sole care-taker!

Oh Hail!

People, I promise I'm not trying to turn this into a weather blog. But, it seems like that is what it's becoming.

Next thing you know, I'll be eating at Luby's at 4:30, joining a bridge club, and stop using my turn signal.

However, once again, we got some pretty incredible weather here today.

Landry and I got in the car to go to gymnastics this afternoon and it wasn't even raining. But before we were even out of the neighborhood it had starting hailing. I made the decision to skip gymnastics and go back home. By the time I had pulled into the garage we were already getting quarter-sized hail. And, within a few minutes we were getting hail bigger than golf ball size.

I seriously thought our windows in our living room were going to break. The hail was coming in sideways and banging against the windows.

The blurry white things is hail coming down. If you click on the pictures you can see it in larger detail.

We hunkered down in the basement waiting on the "red" to pass!

I mean, I wasn't implying you untied him from the tracks as the train was quickly approaching....

Our handy-man came by today to look at the damage to the trampoline and determine if it could be salvaged and repaired, or if we were going to have to trash it.


As we were in the backyard, Baxter was freaking out and jumping all over the guy. He finally stopped looking at the damage Hurricane Dirt left behind for a moment to play with Baxter--which sparked the following conversation.


Me: Sorry he's jumping all over you. He's still a puppy and happy that he's getting attention.

Him: That's okay. I love dogs. Is he a maltese?

Me: Yes, he is.

Him: We actually have one of these.

Me: You have a maltese?!?

Him: No. We have a dog.

Me (in my head): No kidding? That's amazing!! You AND I BOTH have a dog!!

Me: Oh.

Him: Yeah, I love animals. Our dog is a German Shepherd. My wife had me take this quiz on the internet the other night that told you how sensitive you were to animals. There was a question that asked what you would do if you ran across a stray dog-- Would you take it in? Take it to a shelter? Ignore it and leave it there?

Me: Hmmmm. So, did y'all rescue your dog?

Him: No. We just adopted him from a shelter.

And this, folks, is the guy I'm entrusting to fix the apparatus that will catapult my children high into the air.

This Blows

Y'all. IT. IS. WINDY. HERE!!!!!!!

I lived here for over four years in college and I don't ever remember the winds being this bad.

I don't know what happened in the last 10 years, (I'm assuming it's the Bush Administration's fault!) but somehow spring-time in Lubbock has gotten windier.

You know it's going to be a bad day when the news forecast just "browns out" the whole day. And, for added emphasis, they increase the font size to the word "windy".

We came back from our Easter weekend to half our trampoline hanging over our fence. This is how the girls reacted to the "tragedy" when they saw the trampoline after school yesterday. (In all honesty, this is just Landry's reaction--Korley was copy-catting.)

Easter Weekend

We spent Easter weekend in Arlington at my parents' house. I've got a lot of pictures, so I'll keep the writing short!


We colored Easter eggs.....







We went to a local strawberry patch.....


Korley refused to walk in the dirt and get her feet dirty, so she spent the whole time on Jeff's shoulders.








Then, Saturday afternoon, we had a family birthday party for Korley since they didn't get to celebrate with her on her actual birthday. She had an AMAZING cake!!

Then, Sunday morning the girls hunted Easter eggs inside (it was raining outside...bummer!) FYI, Korley refused to wear her dress. Teenage years are going to be fun!

Mike

Sports Center was on as I was combing Landry's hair after she got out of the tub this evening. They were doing a piece on Michael Jordan being inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame. Landry and I had the following conversation......

Landry: Michael Jordan????

Me: Yeah, do you know who Michael Jordan is?

Landry: No, but I know who Michael Phelps is. Lots of people know who Michael Phelps is, but not many people know who Michael Jordan is.

Perhaps we need to have Sports Center on more often.

Korley's Birthday Weekend

Korley's third birthday was Friday. Although she didn't have a "formal" party, we did do a lot of celebrating!

Friday afternoon we took cupcakes to her school and had a little party with her class. Korley had just moved up to a new class two days before, so bringing cupcakes the first week in her new class scored her some points with her new friends. :)

After we brought the girls home from school, Korley opened her presents. She got a bike, some new clothes, and a bunch of stuff to play with outside.

Also, on a whim, as I was standing in line at the grocery store the other day I picked up a pack of chap-stick ("make up" as she calls it) for $1.39 and threw it in a sack with one of her birthday presents. Guess which present she was most excited about?

Landry made a card and a puppet for Korley's birthday and then decorated the box she wrapped it in. She is such a sweet big sister!

Most Friday evenings our girls go to "Friday Fun Nite" (aka Parents' Night Out) at the place that Landry takes gymnastics (and also the place Landry had her 7th birthday party). They both wanted to go on Friday, and although I felt kind of guilty taking Korley there on her birthday, she loves it and always has a blast. Plus, they made a big deal about it being her birthday and had all of the kids sing "Happy Birthday" to her--so, it was almost like her birthday party!

To top off the birthday weekend, on Saturday Jeff took the girls to a rodeo. Korley had a great time, and I probably don't have to tell you that Landry had a blast! She even got to go into the arena with some other kids and chase calves! Later that evening, we all went to Chuck E Cheese to wrap up the birthday celebration!

THREE!!!

Today is Korley's THIRD birthday!

I know this is cliche--everyone says it. I say it all the time when one of my kids reaches a birthday or milestone, but I can't believe it's possible that Korley is already three. Where has my baby gone?

More about her birthday tomorrow!

Here is the picture I took when I woke her up this morning. Needless to say, she was excited it was her birthday but still sleepy!