Wild ride of the McCaslin/Schlieker family

The things children say...

2011-07-28T11:14:00.000-05:00

I decided to start curling my hair because it's getting longer and when it's straight it looks like a mop on my head by the end of the day in this crazy heat!! So yesterday this was the conversation....

Will - are you going to work with your hair like that?
Me - yes, why?
Will - looks like bedhead!!!

I just love kids!!

Another quote:
Will: I think Caroline is more Mexican than American
Christian: Will's right we should sell her to the Mexicans

Gary Golson

2011-07-20T15:43:00.000-05:00

My good friend Gary Golson passed away July 7, 2011. He fought a two year long courageous battle with skin cancer, before he was welcomed to heaven with open arms. Gary was 54 years old, with a beautiful loving wife Gaby, that is one of my best friends and two young sons, Gabe 7 and Gavin 2. Gary asked me to speak at his memorial service, and the following is what I wrote to remember him and celebrate his life.

Gary would tell you that he lived his life in the reverse order of most people. He traveled the world, made friends everywhere he went, but didn't meet the love of his life until he was 44 years old. Gaby and Gary have the most beautiful love story. It was truly a "love boat" moment when they met. Neither one of them spoke the other's language very well, but somehow they had a very real connection. I remember Gary telling me the story of their meeting on the cruise ship and he said, he knew right away that she was the one. It's not hard to see why Gaby loves him so, and is evidenced by this sanctuary filled with friends and family today. Though he said he lived his life in reverse order, I'm sure he would tell you that the last 11 years have been the best of his life.

I love hearing the stories about Gary during college, and in his single days of his 20's and 30's, and you can tell that he didn't miss a beat and was living every moment to the fullest. But the guy that was the first one ready to party back then, and the last to drag in, in the wee hours of the morning is not the man I know. I know him as a family man, completely devoted to his wife and two boys.

I'll never forget the day that we met...We were at Primrose school, a local preschool, that both our boys attended. It was a party day in their classroom, and as was typical a bunch of mom's come with snacks and treats for the kids and here comes Gary. Big smile on his face, party favors in hand. All the boys were sitting around one table having their snacks, except Gabe. Gary asked Gabe, "don't you want to sit with your friends"?

Gabe said a very matter of fact, "no". Gary asked again trying to persuade him to join in the fun, and Gabe wasn't moving. So, Gary picks up the chair with Gabe in it, while he's kicking and screaming saying, "put me down, I don't want to"....Gary's fighting him the whole way, he cannot believe he has a kid that isn't as much a social butterfly as he is. When he puts the chair down, Gabe gets up and walks back to the other table and Gary throws his hands up in frustration. That was the moment that I knew we would be fast friends!!

We have a tight group of friends that blossomed out of friendships formed by little boys from their preschool days, but the glue that holds us all together is the love we have for our kids. Gary was a big part of that group and certainly always brought the party spirit into everything. I have a little saying that I use for Gary...have cooler will travel. The rest of us were carrying diaper bags and juice boxes, Gary brought the adult beverages. He was very popular!!

Gary had an entrepreneurial spirit that was unmatched. He used to call me, very serious, and ask me to meet with him the next day. Gaby told him to stop calling all mysterious, makes it sound like their getting a divorce or something. I knew better, he had an idea and he wanted to share.

He'd come by my office and he would tell me about a new business venture and ask me what I thought. I enjoyed those visits, talking shop with him, and I always appreciated his never ending thirst for adventure and the chase. I believe you either have that gambling spirit in your blood, or you don't. Gary and I share that trait, big time.

I feel a little cheated really that I only knew Gary for the last 7 years of his life. The outpouring of love and support that came his way in the last two years is nothing short of amazing. He had friends and family from all over this country, Mexico, Italy, and as far back as elementary school sending him well wishes. The thing that has always struck me the most is his unselfishness. If you asked him how he was feeling he would answer, but then always redirect and ask about you and your family. In his last days, he summoned up all his strength to say goodbye to as many people as he could. He said he would be our guardian angel and would watch over all of us and our kids. He had many jobs during his life, but I believe that is the job he will keep until we see him again in heaven.

I miss him already.....

Disney Cruise

2011-06-26T13:36:00.002-05:00

We had such a good time two years ago on a 3 day Disney cruise we decided to try a longer one this time, to Alaska!! All aboard.......

Christian didn't want to take this picture, bet you can't tell... We decided to let him board the ship anyway. It was all good as soon as he found the sports court on deck 10.

Deck 10 was FREEZING, but he didn't seem to mind. He played on the sports deck every chance he got.

Look who I found while he was playing.....

Christian never even noticed!! He's going to be tough to be married to.

First morning aboard we went to the character breakfast, styling with napkin hats.

First stop, Tracy Arm, which is a fjord that you sail through. It's technically a stop on the cruise, but you don't get off the ship. Thankfully we had a verandah off of our stateroom, so we could enjoy the scenery without fighting the crowd with all of the other guests who had parked themselves on a lounge chair beginning at 6am that morning!! It reminded me of all the people who rush to the beach early in the morning to secure the best chairs and umbrella's at the crack of dawn.

The scenery was just beautiful......

These mountains in the fjords are 7000 feet tall. Just to give you some perscpective to the size the

next picture is of a large boat going through the fjord, and it looks tiny.

There were icebergs all thoughout the fjord. The captain explained that you can only see 10% of the iceberg above water. Some of these things were huge as we sailed by, I can only imagine how large they really are.

The water was full of pieces of iceberg that had broken off from the main one. As we were moving very slowly through, this was the view.

The coolest thing we saw in the fjord was the Twin Sawyer glacier.

This is a stock photo from Disney, but I thought it was a great shot of the glacier and the ship.

Next stop, Skagway.

Skagway is a very poor little town, but our excursions were great!! First stop Liarsville, for a little gold panning. This area earned the name Liarsville back in the gold rush days of Alaska. Apparently, the mountain terrain was very difficult to travel through, so the reporters would just make up the stories for the paper rather than make the treacherous trip up the mountain to get first had accounting of the mining going on. The people and the surroundings were exactly what I had pictured for Alaska.

We brought home a few specs of gold. I hope the kids don't ask me for it, because I'm not sure where I put it!!

Next excusion in Skagway, dog sledding. If you're reading this blog you probably know that I really don't love animals like the rest of my family. So, when I was told there were 250 sled dogs on this mountain, I told Randy NOT to leave my side. Turns out it was my most favorite excursion of the entire trip.

We took a bus to the base of a mountain probably about 35 miles ouside of Skagway. Then we boarded a German Mercedes military troop mover to head up the mountainside. It was like something out of a movie. We went way up the mountain until we came to the summer camp for these dogs. A lot of these dogs either have run or are still running the iditarod race in Alaska.

16 dogs were pulling our sleigh. Since this was the summer camp for the dogs they outfitted the slegh's with tires to pull through the mountain. The sleigh itself was 600 pounds not to mention all 4 of us and our musher. There was an excursion to go to the top of the mountain to the snow, but the minimum age was 8. I think this was just as good. After the ride, we went back to base camp and the kids got to play with the 3 week old puppies.

These pups were ADORABLE!! So glad they were in Alaska, or I could have caved in and gotten one that day. Believe me there was plenty of begging going on.

Juneau - Bald Eagles, Sea Lions, and Whale watching...

I really regret that I didn't take my telescopic lens for the camera. The picture of him sitting on the rocks could really have been good!

We came upon these sea lions while we were whale watching. They were fighting with each other and playing, it was just incredible.

Miss Muffett had a little attitude problem..

The humpback whales were fascinating. At one point there were three of them together. They never raised their backs and flipped their tails at one time, but it was really cool to see. The kids lost interest in this excursion after the first whale sighting. They turned into "those" kids on the catamaran, we tried to pretend that we didn't know them. It would be convenient if they didn't look so much like me.

Meet Cruise Director Christian...

Next stop Ketchikan and the Lumberjacks...

When Randy first told me that he booked a lumberjack show for us to go to, I must say I wasn't all that thrilled. In fact, I got online and started looking for other alternatives. However, I quickly discovered that there really isn't all that much to do in Ketchikan, so off we went to the show.

When they saw the wood in circles like above, they call the pieces that come off "cookies". They came up into the stands and gave Christian a cookie. I must say that was our most unique souveneir and definately put us over the 50 lbs. luggage limit! It is now on our back porch.

The lumberjacks were very entertaining and really BUFF!! It was really fun.

The last day on the ship, Caroline and I went to a princess tea. It was charming and I'm not sure which one of us enjoyed it more. Caroline decided she would dress as Jasmine for the festivities. Adorable!

Last night of the cruise and Caroline participated in a performance of Friendship Rocks, put on by the Oceaneer's Club and Oceaneer's Lab. They are the kids clubs on board. Caroline wanted to go everyday for hours, and Christian wanted to go some of the time, when he wasn't participating in sports on Deck 10. Only Caroline did the show, and I just love her get in there and have fun attitude.

The cruise was amazing, Disney just does it right!! I have tons and tons of character photos with the kids, but here are some of the best ones.

This is Caroline's BFF that she made on the trip, Maddie. Maddie is almost 9 years old and she and Caroline played all the time. I am always so amazed that these older girls love to play with someone so much younger, but they always do.

This was so spontaneous of Christian. He asked Jack Sparrow for his autograph, and while he wasn't looking he said "stick em up"! Everyone was rolling laughing.

Definately one of our best vacations as a family.

Quote

2011-04-06T13:12:00.000-05:00

My friend Peggy finds the most fascinating blogs online. Occasionally, I click the links on her blog and today I found the best quote, from this fabulous blog http://simplygoodstuff.tumblr.com/archive.

"Don't prepare the path for the child, prepare the child for the path"

I am guilty of preparing the path....

What year are you?

2011-02-23T14:25:00.000-06:00

An Aggie can spot another Aggie from across the room in the blink of an eye. It's crazy how fast they can spot an Aggie ring, and the conversation always begins the same, "what year are you". Over the last 10 years I have become accostomed to the question, and then the inevitable bonding that occurs. However, the bonding is sometimes skewed depending on what the year is. Randy has accepted that many times lately their year is substantially later than his 1988, but the best one happened last week.

The question came, "what year are you", Randy said "88", to which the kid replied, "oh, that's the year I was born"!!! I almost spewed my drink all over the guy, it was the best one yet!!

Another Ice Day!

2011-02-09T11:42:00.000-06:00

The alarm went off at 6AM, I turned on the TV to see if the arctic blast had landed and school is closed. Sure enough, another day off from school, so I rolled back over and went to sleep. 8:00 AM, we are awoken by screaming children. Screaming at each other, I should say. It went something like this.....

Christian: Caroline get off me
Caroline: I'm stretching
Christian: I was here first
Caroline: I'm stretching
Christian: Get your legs off of me, I was here first
Caroline: I'm stretching
Christian: Shut up....
Caroline: Screaming louder, Daddy, Christian said Shut up
Randy: I guess I will go referee
Randy: guys we are going to be couped up again today, so we are going to have to get along..
Christian: I was here first
Caroline: I was stretching
Christian: Get off me
Caroline: I was stretching
Randy: Both of you back to your rooms
Christian: See what you did Caroline!

Joy, Joy, Joy, I'm looking forward to the day!!

Happy Birthday Randy

2011-02-09T11:36:00.000-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RANDY

The festivities began with birthday waffles

Presents after school...

then off to Dave & Busters for dinner and games. Have you been to D&B lately? It's like walking into a casino in Vegas. We hadn't been in years and it has changed a lot and I must say for the better. Full bar, adult games, seating for dinner in the game room, and everything is bright, shiny and new. Now all we have to do is convince the kids that it is WAY BETTER than Chuck E Cheese!! Happy Birthday honey, I love you!!

100 Years Old

2011-02-09T11:29:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was the 100th day of school, so first grade got to dress up like they were 100 years old.

He was absolutely hilarious, all hunched over with his hand on his back and leaning onto his cane. He walked all the way from the car to the classroom in that position. He was the best dressed old man for sure!

It's Snowing!!

2011-02-04T18:17:00.002-06:00

Ice, ice go away, but this fluffy white stuff is pretty cool!!

Christian prepared for a snowball fight.... He lined up all his snowballs in preparation for the assault he had planned for Randy.

If you're wondering about the football pants....It is because today at school they were supposed to have football Friday, tailgating and all. He came downstairs this morning dressed in his Aggie jersey and football pants asking for his shoulder pads. He wasn't about to miss football Friday, school or not!! I sure hope this boy makes A LOT of money one day playing sports, because if he doesn't make a career out of his passion, he's going to be TOUGH to be married to. I can just hear it now, umm, excuse me could you move your head, I can't see the score. Wanna know why I think that, because he's done it to me!

Anyway, back to the snow...

It was beautiful, but the forecast calls for 40 degrees tomorrow. I feel like celebrating!! I don't know where I'm going to go, but I assure you I won't be home!!

Happy New Year!!

2011-02-03T07:40:00.001-06:00

I know it's February already, but since I haven't posted since October , yikes, I thought I would wish you all a Happy New Year and welcome you to the 2011 edition of the blog. Now, I'm not making any New Year's resolutions this year, because quite frankly, I am apparantly unable to keep them!! However, I have been up since 4am this morning working on my blog, couldn't sleep, and I do plan on resuming some postings this year.

Update so far.....School has been out three days due to freezing temperatures and ice. Apparently, more snow is forecasted for tonight. You know all those days that I complain about the weather man missing the forecast....I'd like to retract all complaints and have him miss this next arctic blast that is scheduled for tonight. I really want the kids to return to school, immediately!!! I turned 41 a couple of days ago. I cannot believe it's been a year since my big 40 extravaganza in LA. We rang in 41 more relaxed this year. I'd like that to be my forecast for this year.

Christian also had a birthday in early January, he turned 7. My boy is growing up. We started the day with our Schlieker family birthday tradition of cupcakes for breakfast.

The party this year was a flag football game. The Aggies vs. Longhorns! Very cool, if I do say so myself.
Caroline participated as our one and only cheerleader!!

16 boys came out to celebrate Christian's special day, it was awesome.

Tooth Fairy

2010-10-20T17:16:00.000-05:00

Christian got a little more than he bargained for at a recent baseball practice. He took a ball in the face and it knocked out one of his teeth. Once the drama of the incident was over, he was super excited because that means the tooth fairy is coming with cash!

I wasn't at practice so he carefully saved the tooth until I got home to see it. Sometime in the very few minutes from the time I got home and time to put the tooth under the pillow.....he lost it. Have you ever searched the floor of your house for something so small and same color as your tile???? We did, for about an hour. I don't know what happened to that thing, but he was melting down, and we had to think of something. A letter to the tooth fairy.

He was so afraid that the tooth fairy wouldn't believe him!! The next morning I was about to be worst mom

of the year for sure. Randy woke me up at 6AM to ask if I had switched the note for some money. I

have never flown out of bed so fast, luckily he was still sound asleep.

Classic Christian

2010-09-10T20:08:00.001-05:00

Each classroom in the upper school at CU is located in a habitat. This year Christian's class is located in the Europe habitat. As a means to have some control over the wild Indians of Europe, Mrs. Reyna has developed a reward/punishment system. Each student has the opportunity to earn German francs throughout the week for following directions, using good manners, playing nice with the other Indians, you get the idea, and conversely loses them for behaviors that are less than desirable.

We have just completed the third week of school and already Christian has figured out how to "work" the system. I've never said the child isn't bright!! Wednesday of this week he announces that he has earned six francs for the week already. Apparently he had earned an extra one for being patient. Really??? Patient, we were dumbfounded the child is the exact opposite of patient. I really don't know where he gets that
from. :) He is delighted in his accomplishment, and he announces that means he can be "bad" one time Thursday and still have the required five francs on Friday that is required in order to go to the treasure box. Sure enough, this morning he tells us that he lost a franc on Thursday and that all he has to do is be good enough not to lose any more francs, and he's golden for the treasure box. Now does the kid know how to work it or what? I know the day is coming, all to fast, where he will stop telling on himself, but for now it's really pretty fascinating to hear how his mind works.

Megan our guest blogger

2010-09-02T13:32:00.001-05:00

Please give a warm welcome to our guest blogger, my niece, Megan!!!!! I needed to attend the parent meeting for first grade this week, but Randy is in Connecticut, Roxanne was sick, grandma and grandpa in Colorado, Pop and Mimi in New Mexico, GrandMary and Pop Schlieker in Temple, and our friends have kids they need to put to bed in their own beds, so........what's a girl to do, but call in the most loved cousin Megan!!!!!

When I got home she had some of the best little tidbits from her night with the little darlings, especially Miss Muffett. So, here is her guest blog....... Thank you Megan!!!

I want to start this blog with a confession....I am the worst babysitter on earth! Complete pushover from the word go, and I was a little bit nervous starting my venture with my two favorite children, Christian and Caroline. I walked in knowing if they could smell fear, it would be a very long night.

We started the adventure off by eating dinner. Everything was going great except for a particular green vegetable (broccoli) that the kids weren't too interested in. Not one second after Mom left they started hitting me up for dessert. Caroline begins this request saying "ummmm Meg, we already had ice cream today, but sometimes Mom will let us have dessert if we eat all of our macaroni". Christian supported this statement, and I proceeded to call Mom to see if this was ok. Kim answered the phone with a chuckle probably thinking "I haven't even gotten out of the driveway yet"! She agreed, but said they must eat all of their broccoli before dessert is given. I threw out my best lines of "Christian, broccoli will give you strong muscles" and "Caroline, broccoli makes your hair long and beautiful, don't you want that"? They agreed and suffered through it to get their dessert.

I would also like to make a special shout out to Christian who was the ultimate dream child! I hardly knew he was there unless I had to ask one of the many questions about Caroline. He decided he wanted to shower early so he could watch a movie while I got little C ready for bed. He was gone in a flash and back down showered, teeth brushed and pajamas on. While Christian was doing this Caroline decided she wanted to play horsey where she proceeded to whip chocolate chip cookie and sugar cookie (stuffed dogs) with a belt (as well as me a few times) so they would giddy up, as I pounded on the floor making running sounds. Next was the bath time, although she decided to take a shower and wanted to "play" a little bit. I didn't know play meant washing her arms probably around 20 times as I pleaded that she wash the rest of her body so we could wash her hair and proceed on to story time. After many, many minutes I finally convinced her to hurry up!

I rounded up the troops and told them to pick out books. Christian decided he just wanted to go to bed without a story, which prompted Caroline to say "Meg, Mom reads me two books if brother goes to bed early". I thought ohhh of course she does! We started to read, and she made sure to correct me of how to say "Poodlelina" and "Goldilicious" the proper way. We finished the first book, and she was already hitting me up for more..."Meg, can we maybe ready these books twice"? And of course who gave in immediately? ME!

Finally, it was bedtime. I climbed in bed with little C, by request, as she talked and talked about everything she could think of, fighting her heavy eyes. I decided to pretend that I was sleeping so I closed my eyes and stopped responding to her. As I laid there I got this feeling that someone was staring at me. I open my eyes to find two crystal blue eyes three inches from my face. I started laughing, as did she, and finally she gave up the fight and fell asleep.

I had an absolute blast with the little angels. I hope that when they grow up and read this entry they will be filled with as much laughter as I have. Love you C&C!!

Lost post from Tello this summer

2010-08-26T14:36:00.001-05:00

Better Late than Never…

It’s time to play catch up! Whew…its week 5 of summer fun with Christian, Caroline, and Will

and everyone is still accounted for! We have had some fun.

Week 2 of summer was full of camps for all three kids! Will and Christian had Camp Thurman

and loved it! Miss C had Princess Dance Camp every morning, and almost every afternoon

she had a play date with Nina, her best friend who was also in camp with her. Let me tell you

those two little ladies together are a force to be reckoned with. I would give the options of

activities to do and they would say we want to do it all, of course we have time to have lunch,

play dress up, play at the park, swim, go to Chuck E Cheese, and play with puppies in all of 3

hours time before it was time to pick the boys up from Camp Thurman. All in all a busy week!

Week 3 Vacation Bible Camp for Everyone! There were smiles and tears this week. Everyone

enjoyed it but had their own ways of showing it. The boys would walk in go straight to their

teacher, Caroline on the other hand would hold on to me for dear life and cry a little but every

afternoon when I would pick her up she would have a big smile on her face and show me all of

her art work she done for the day! The boys enjoyed it, every afternoon when I picked them up

them would be soaked with water because they were sooo hot outside their class would have a

water fight. Yeah for VBC!

Week 4 Boys have basketball camp! Camp wasn’t great the first day but got better as the week

went on. The boys weren’t sure about camp because there were some older big boys who

weren’t so nice but everything got better. I do believe the highlight of camp was going to the

snack stand and getting snacks. I would ask how basketball was and I would hear “I got pizza

and skittles” or “I need more money for snacks”.

On Wednesday after camp we went on an adventure to Fossil Rim and the kids LOVED it and

I on the other hand would not use that as my word of description. As we went through the

scenic trail the rain came down but it didn’t stop us or the animals. The kids fed and touched

every animal. I was a little freaked when I could feel the deer breath down my neck from the

back seat. I mistakenly said aloud “I don’t like this” and a voice from the back seat says “well

Ms. Botello you chose this, so maybe you made a bad choice of coming” thanks Christian!

All that matters is that the kids loved it, and I would take them again and I feel like I overcame

some fears too!

Quotes from the Kids

Christian to Will “Will always ask your dad for money because dads give more money then

moms”

Will to Ms.Botello “Ms, Botello when a man smiles at you he thinks you’re pretty”

Week 5 more to come….

Back to School

2010-08-25T21:09:00.000-05:00

My little boy, isn't so little anymore, weighing in at 70 lbs., measuring 4' 5" tall, wearing a size 10 shorts and size 3.5 shoe as he begins first grade. I'd try to keep him from growing so fast, but he's too big to hold anymore.

Miss Muffett is no small fry herself. Weighing in at 50 lbs., measuring 3'6" tall, wearing a size 5 dress and size 13 shoe as she begins pre-K. We don't grow them small in the Schlieker house.

Christian is over the moon because his buddy Erik is in his class this year. Lots of new faces, mostly boys, in Caroline's class. She's thrilled, as she is unbelievably boy crazy.

Christian's First grade teacher, Mrs. Reyna

Caroline's Pre-K teacher, Mrs. Powell

It's going to be a great year!!

Schlieker Summer Recap

2010-08-25T20:50:00.001-05:00

Whew.......summer is over and I'm tired!!!! We attended dance camp, baseball camp, basketball camp, camp Thurman, vacation bible camp, took swimming lessons, went to Cancun, and "adopted" a brother for the summer. Like I said, I'm tired!!!! Grab yourself an adult beverage and settle in for a long read, my friends, this is the Schlieker summer recap!!!

Our adopted brother, Will Graygor, and Christian attended week two of Camp Thurman. You might remember the saga last summer with Camp Thurman. Mom and Dad out of town, Christine taking Christian to Cook's Children's, etc... ring any bells. Well, I thought that can't POSSIBLY happen again this year. Surely, Christian will listen to my preaching about drinking all of his Gatorade and water. Surely, the camp counselor will listen when I tell him what happened last year, in my nicest don't you dare let this kid get dehydrated voice!!!!! All is good days 1 and 2, then I get the call on day 3. Roxanne is picking the boys up from camp, thankfully I'm in town this time, and Christian's crying, saying he has a headache and TOLD THE CAMP COUNSELORS THAT HE DIDN'T FEEL WELL AND WANTED TO GO TO THE NURSE!!!!!!!! Did they send him, NO, did they call me, NO. Was I beyond pissed off, YES!!!!!!

I'm telling you I could have taken out an entire army that afternoon. I rushed home, and thankfully had some Tylenol with codeine left over from the last round, gave it to him and he bounced back quickly this time. Crisis avoided, but really, I'm not sure I will ever send him back to that camp. It makes me crazy that this happened two summers in a row.

The same week that the boys were in Camp Thurman, Caroline attended princess dance camp. It is as girly as you imagine, complete with a visit from Snow White.

How cute is that?? This was from their little show they did for the parents at the end of the week. To look that cute in a tutu!!

Next on the agenda, was Aggie Baseball Camp. Will and Christian went together and we rented a house in Bryan for our stay, which happened to have a pool. This is how Caroline and I spent our days....

While Caroline and I were kicked back enjoying the pool, the boys were roaming the halls of the Callaway House. The Callaway house is the most amazing dorm I have ever seen. Let me tell you it is a far cry from Griffith Hall at SFA!! Big screen TVs, game room, swimming pool, movie theatre, cafeteria with REAL chefs. I mean what exactly would be the motivation to get out of College. That's better than I lived even after I had a degree!!

All checked in new baseball t-shirts and hats, we leave them in the capable hands of their baseball coaches.

First day is Noon - 9pm and a wiffle ball game to wrap up the first day.

Second day, Randy, Caroline and I go to visit Dottie, Randy's grandmother. She lives in Bryan in a retirement home. I did take some pictures of our visit with Dottie, but I can't find them now. That's what I get for not posting more diligently over the summer. Anyway, it was about time for the boy's lunch break when we finished our visit with Dottie. We decide to go over and check on them, because the second day was from 8am - 9pm with two hour breaks at lunch and dinner. We arrive just in time to see the boys about to get on the elevator at the Callaway House. We ask them, where they were going. Christian is just about in tears at this point. They said they were finished with lunch and one of the boys said they could come up to his room. Really????? Random boy, they don't know the room number, they don't know the floor, have no idea where they are going or how to get back, but they were on their way. At this point we are sure that they didn't listen and follow the instructions from their coach, because who in their right mind would let 6 year olds roam around the campus unsupervised??? We quizzed both of them together and separately, their stories matched up. So, that's when we realized that our first year of Aggie baseball camp, was going to be an "education" for us all. From that point on, we showed up at the lunch and dinner break, to intercept them before they got lost or got into trouble. We spent the breaks like this instead....

A little big buck game hunter

Coldstone ice cream

Each day when we returned with them during the breaks, I expected the coach's to be looking for them, but they never were. I've told that story now probably 5 times and I'm still amazed as I write it again. Highlights from baseball camp.

Our "adopted" brother Will

Slide Christian's safe!

Morning exercises. Not Christian's favorite.

Hey batter batter!

Big brother's biggest fan!

Of course, Reveille needed in on the action.

The boys had a great time and despite the lack of supervision was a great experience for them. Christian learned a lot of new skills and I was very pleased when the coach told me that Christian was a pleasure to have. The most exciting thing that happened was that he was clocked throwing a 39mph baseball.

We also had some awesome food in College Station. The Hullabaloo Diner was on the food network on Diners, drive-ins and Dives. It is a restaurant that truly fits the definition of dive. It's in a converted airstream bus. They are famous for their Philly cheese steak sandwich. I tried it, and it was delicious!

The other little treat we had was one of Christine's favorites when she lived in College Station. The Cafe Eccel strawberry tart. Heavenly!

When we returned from College Station, Caroline had green hair from all the chlorine. I had told her that we really needed to get a haircut, but she was not having any of that. So, what do I do when I really need one of my kids to do something and they are refusing?? Call in Roxy!!!

She has supernatural powers and can get them to do anything. Sure enough, haircut is scheduled and next thing I know, Roxy is texting me saying they cut 2.5 inches off Miss Muffett's hair and it looks like this...

I could have passed her on the street, she looks so different. I have to say that I have always thought that I have a love hate relationship with those curls, but after seeing her hair flat ironed, I realize I only have love for those curls. Caroline loved her straight hair. She couldn't stop touching it. The new look was short lived and we've only straightened it once since then.

This summer was by far the worst stretch of problems I have had in 13 years in my business. It was like a domino effect and I just couldn't get ahead of it. However, I had a couple of days to escape in late August. Randy was working in Connecticut, most of the summer, so I grabbed the kids and of course, my left arm, Roxy and we headed to Cancun. I literally booked the trip on a Tuesday and we left on Thursday. Like all trips when traveling with children, it had its stressful moments but all in all I needed a break and I got one, with one itty bitty exception.........I lost my wedding ring!!!! Yes, you read that right. I actually think it was stolen, because I was missing some cash from my wallet as well, but I can't prove it. Thankfully, it was insured and recently reappraised so we are covered, but man that really sucked.

On a happier note, here's some highlights from our trip.

This is the view from our patio of our room. The kids could go out onto the beach anytime they wanted and I could see them from our very comfortable lounge chairs.

Making friends wherever he goes, especially when football is involved!

Can you believe I got that shot!! Score!!

This little girl turned into a fish this summer. We've got a swimmer on our hands!!

The hammock was on our patio looking out to the ocean. I have to admit that I wasn't brave enough to try it, but fear of falling didn't stop C&C.

That about wraps it up. We had an action packed, fun filled summer. Back to the grind.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-25T14:13:00.001-05:00

Father's day weekend was a blast!!! We went out to Lake Whitney with the Graygor's. Rented condos in White Bluff and Saturday rented a boat on Lake Whitney. We had too much fun.

Blonde, beautifully bronzed and couldn't be happier, now that's the life!!

The boys tubed together until Christian fell off. I think it scared him that we had to leave him in the water while we circled to come get him. He thought we were leaving him. He tried another time, but bit the dust again, and that was the end of tubing for Christian. Will however, was the tubing king!!

I got on the tube, well let me clarify, I tried 3 times to get on the tube, so that Caroline and I could go together. I embarrassed myself completely, but on the third time I did make it, and she would have tubed all day!! Thankfully, the camera card was full and we couldn't get any pictures of my embarrassing acts!!! Yeah!!

Happy Father's Day to my sweet husband!! Our kids could not have a better daddy!! We love you!

Tello

2010-06-10T16:30:00.001-05:00

For starters, I feel a little anxiety being a “guest” blogger, but I guess I should get over it since every Thursday I will be venting…I mean enlightening everyone with the tails of Christian, Caroline, and Will’s Summer Fun . So, we are coming to the end of Summer Fun week 1, and we started the journey with 1 Adult and 3 children, and I just did a head count and everyone is accounted for and alive.

Monday was the first day and it was a smooth day full of giggles and excitement. I sat down with the kids gave the speech of rules, expectations, and consequences, you know the good stuff, everyone said “Yes Tello we understand”. I feel great about our talk so know it's time to start the fun stuff. We all go swimming at my place, and I had to throw out some pool rules and Caroline looks at me assuming she is in trouble and says “Tello please don’t take away my bread”. I laugh, and remember the earlier conversation about consequences when I told them that if they didn’t follow directions or behave something they like or an activity they were doing would be taken away. Little C thought taking away her bread would be the worst consequence for her.

Tuesday was a super breezy day as I have only one child which is Will. They are right about “one is like none, and two is like ten”. It’s surprising how much you can get accomplished with just one child during the day. Will did give me some words of wisdom “girls are nothing but trouble”.

Wednesday, or better known as Wet Wednesday, was a splash…literally! Three children in tow to the Dallas Zoo, fun and hot day saw many animals, boys talked about killing the big animals and eating them for dinner, had a sno-cone, saw some more animals, had lunch, and then the splashing began! It was pouring rain on us, and the boys loved it. We were on our way to the car which was parked in the furthest lot from the zoo, of course because I wouldn’t have it any other way. As we are walking I just start to laugh because we are soaked to the bone and Caroline says to me “Tello this isn’t a funny matter” because she is so angry she is wet. We make it to the car and everyone is buckled in, and it feels like my car is a pool with all the water that is in it. The boys and I are still laughing and thinking this is the funniest thing ever and then Caroline, still mad, chimes in “don’t look at me anyone I'm not pretty!” This, of course, leads to the boys mocking her and the longest car ride ever!

Today we played it safe and only did indoor activities. This morning was reading and school work and then we went to the Science and History Museum, and then lunch at Papas Burgers. We get home and Christian says “Tello can we please rest before we go to another activity” and Caroline seconds that. Now my two friends are awake and downstairs in their pajamas asking where are we going next…..more Summer Fun to cont…

First Day of Summer Vacation

2010-06-08T16:30:00.001-05:00

The kids have been counting down the days until school was over and summer vacation can begin. Well, we finally made it. Every summer until this one, the kids just continued on at whatever school they had been attending. This one will be a little bit different. I'm working 3 days a week and taking Tuesday's and Friday's off to play with the kids. Our fabulous babysitter, Roxanne is watching our two kids, plus one, Christian's buddy Will Graygor, on the days that Will's mom and I work.

My goal for my two days off is to #1 not work, #2 spend the whole day playing with the kids, #3 keep them busy and wear them out!! First day, we went to the gym and worked out, came home played games, ate lunch, went to Creative Hands and painted ceramics. One the way home from Creative Hands I look in the back seat to find.....

Mission Accomplished!!

Today is the second day of summer vacation. Went to the gym, came home rode bikes down to the park and played. Came home, had lunch, everyone got a shower, 30 minute timeout in their rooms for arguing all morning. Next thing I know, they are out. As I'm blogging this, they have been asleep for 3 hours!!!

I'm loving this summer vacation.

Stay tuned for our guest blogger, Roxy, as she tells the tale of her adventures with two six year olds, and one 4 year old in the next 11 weeks.

Kindergarten Graduation

2010-06-08T16:08:00.000-05:00

It's official, we have a graduate!! Kindergarten that is.. It was a big day, all the grandparents were in attendance. Christian got to lead the procession of all three classes. They had white lines on the floor so that the kids knew exactly where to walk, but they were walking that line like it was a prison lineup. Don't cross the white line!!!

He takes his duties as the procession leader very seriously!! Mrs. Grant told the class that if they goofed around during the ceremony, their mom's would be embarrassed.

We absolutely loved Mrs. Grant. She runs a tight ship, and she expects a lot from these kids. When she thinks the parents are doing a little too much for them, she doesn't hesitate to let you know that they are completely capable of, carrying their own backpacks, lunch boxes, and walking themselves to class. Unlike my son, I didn't need to be told twice!! Reminds me of growing up with my brother, only now he's my son!!

Lazy Sunday

2010-06-08T15:08:00.000-05:00

We needed a little family time with no schedule and nowhere to be, on a lazy Sunday afternoon. So, what would we do....... paint, on the back fence.

Washable paint of course!!

Randy got in on the action too...

I mean is this straight out of Leave it Beaver or what???

What's a little painting without some paint ball....

An hours worth of painting for two hours worth of clean up. Who's idea was this anyway??

My boy

2010-06-01T11:39:00.001-05:00

Pretty much everyone that reads my blog is aware of Christian's potty issue. I know that one day he is going to read this entry and be upset with me for writing it, but I just don't ever want to forget it, so I'm blogging it. This whole thing started out as a medical problem, chronic constipation, but now it really is just a confidence problem. He just doesn't think he can do it, and this is how I know.

We took his underwear away about six weeks ago and he can earn them back by staying clean all day. That decision was really hard for me, but ultimately it has made the whole problem easier to deal with. Of course, it's getting pretty dang hot lately and chaffing is happening. He's walking around saddle soar with a pretty good rash. One night he was very soar, and I told him it was happening because he wasn't staying dry, and that it would just continue to get worse over the summer. He melted down, but this time to himself. He was crying and talking to himself, basically beating himself up over not being like other kids. I went into his room to check on him and he asked me to leave. I closed the door but listened from the outside. He was praying asking God to help him be like other kids and pay attention to his body. When he came out of his room, I was still lingering pretending to busy myself in his bathroom, I asked him if he prayed, and he said yes. When I tucked him into bed, he was still crying off and on. I asked him if he believed that God would help him and he said yes. I told him to just listen to his body, believe that he can do it, and make the right choice. Then he said, but what if I have the ball? You see, that is the problem right there. He doesn't want to stop what he's doing and he waits so long that he has accidents. I told him he either has to make the choice to wear a diaper or stop playing for a minute to take care of it. It's simply a bad habit at this point, but I do think we are finally making some progress, but watching him struggle is really tough.

We all have our own issues in our own lives, this is Christian's. I sometimes think that he was sent to me to teach me lessons, one after another. I have my own issues with my weight and sometimes I think I have a confidence issue also, thinking that I need a pill, weight loss surgery or specific diet plan, when really I just have a bad habit and I need to believe in myself, and make a better choice. Sometimes I wish that the apple fell a little further from the tree.

Birthday girl

2010-05-26T16:09:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Miss Muffett!!!! Caroline has been counting down the days to her birthday, because the rest of us already had ours this year. She was more excited to have her turn and become a big 4 years old, than all of us put together. So, in pure Schlieker children fashion her birthday celebration lasted for a week. Here's the story.....

Birthday waffles for breakfast and a big wish....

She wouldn't tell me what she wished for but I have a idea that it had a little something to do with this...

Oh yes friends, that is a super tricked out, all the bells and whistles Disney princess bicycle. She needed a horn and a bell so that the whole neighborhood will know she's riding down the street. Oh, and I failed to mention the purse on the front, so that she can take her animals for a ride.

Lunchtime, we celebrated with her class in high style. Now don't be jealous that you missed out on this fine cuisine, McDonald's and cupcakes.

Her actual birthday was on Tuesday, but we had her Princess tea-party on Saturday at Chelsea's. This is the ultimate in girly girl parties, so it was right up her alley.

Each guest got their nails and makeup done....

Next, they dressed in party dresses with accessories of course...

Caroline declared that this should be a girls only, no boys allowed party, with one exception...

Christian was just watching patiently and overseeing the nails and makeup with the girls

until his cousin Knox, otherwise known as, partner in crime arrived.

Then they decided to get in on the action....

Each princess was crowned and appointed to the royal court...

After the crowning ceremony, it was time for the tea party...

Then, because we hadn't quite had enough sugar.. Princess Caroline said, "let there be cake", and so it was.

What would a princess party be without a parade, lead by the birthday girl herself....

I had as much fun as she did!! It was the perfect end to a perfect birthday week for my sweet Caroline!!

Caroline your sweet spirit and gentle nature are contagious. You have this big personality, and yet just enough timidness to keep you innocent and sweet. You are so beautiful and have an inner confidence that runs deep. I have grown to love your hair, though I must admit it was touch and go for me, but it makes your look so unique and unforgettable. I know that letting you spread your wings will be much harder for me with you, than with your brother. Your future is bright, baby girl and I'm ready for the ride!!

I love you, Mommy.

The Delivery

2010-05-22T21:23:00.001-05:00

We've been keeping a watchful eye out waiting for the eggs to hatch, but apparently not close enough, because the next thing we know we hear chirping and this is what we found....

Two little doves. They must have hatched a week or so before, because there is no way those two little things came out of those tiny eggs. I think I remember saying something like that about the two little humans that came out of me!! Caroline is distressed, she said "are they gone forever", with her bottom lip quivering. She would be scarred for life if she knew what her father and brother do to little precious doves. We better keep that one a secret. Shhhhhhh......

Little visitor

2010-05-01T23:29:00.000-05:00

We have a little friend that comes to see us for a short stay every spring. This year I got her on film.

She is working on a very important project. Two projects in fact.....

She sits and carefully guards her eggs. When she thinks we are getting too close she flies away and watches from a eave of the house behind us. It really is fascinating to watch and the kids feel like little mother hens.

Just a little bit of nature for your spring enjoyment!

Busy day

2010-05-01T23:16:00.000-05:00

Saturday's are NOT a day of rest for us!!! The day started out just as I had suspected, the kids slept in on a day when we had to be out of the house by 9:15!!! Caroline had a dance performance at Mayfest and we had to do "dance hair and makeup".

She loves doing makeup, only problem is she thinks she can actually "do" it!!! I swear it takes longer to get her hair and makeup ready than it does mine!! The song they danced too was called, "take my picture", so I did.

This is Caroline's best girlfriend Nina

My Favorite picture of all!! Randy loving on her and letting her know what a good job she did! This one's gonna get framed.

It was a beautiful day for Mayfest and we were able to stay and play for a little while....

but not for long. Christian's allergies were eating him up. We had to leave and get him home for some allergy medicine, because we still had a baseball game to play. Here's the highlights.....

It was a great day, everybody was hungry, tired and dirty!! After dinner the kids got their jammies on and laid down for a movie in our bed. Next thing I know, this is what I see....

that's approximately 120 pounds of dead weight to carry upstairs. No thank you, I think I'll sleep upstairs instead. Besides looks like they drooled on my pillow!! Night night little monkey's!!

Blastin Blue

2010-04-22T16:53:00.001-05:00

Caroline is playing in the Mansfield girls softball Association this Spring season. It is a modified version of
t-ball, called blastball. Basically, the batter only runs to one base and the object of the game is to get to the base before one of the girls in the field gets to the ball, holds it up and yells out "blast". There isn't a coach per say, so somehow I have become our girls "coach". I say that very loosely, as I don't have an athletic bone in my body, but I have gained a lot of respect for Randy coaching the Astro's. It is really hard to get and keep their attention. That said, they are the cutest team!!

Our team is called blastin blue, hence the blue shirts. Caroline had a MAJOR meltdown when they passed out the shirts and she was on the blue team and not the pink team. Needless to say, we made a great first impression on our teammates and their parents!!!

Growing up too fast

2010-02-25T17:38:00.001-06:00

This story is going to require a little background information: Caroline has been completely obsessed with a pre-kindergarten boy named Alex Martin for the entire school year. Literally every pre-school and preK teacher knows about her little "boyfriend", and she chases this boy down on the playground everyday. The biggest reason that this one sided "relationship" gets so much attention is because Alex is a bit of a dork, okay not a bit, majorly!!! Caroline's little girlfriend, Nina even told her that Alex isn't cute, and Caroline was not dissuaded and just said, "yes he is". Anyway, she is in hot pursuit of her "boyfriend" daily, hugging him, trying to hold his hand, talking his ear off, and he is not giving her the time of day! I feel like I need to change her bedtime story to, He's just not that into you.

So, today out of the clear blue, she says, "I need a boyfriend that likes me, I'm just going to give up on Alex". Now, I knew the day would come when she would have this little reality check with herself, but I didn't think it would be at 3!! I'm so scared of 13!

Choices

2010-02-18T14:37:00.001-06:00

Christian had to make a very important decision at school yesterday, ball or girl. Seems that he and his friends were playing football, tackle football that is, and he threw the ball and it hit his "girlfriend" in the back. She started to cry and I asked Christian, "did you go over to see if she was okay and tell her you were sorry"? He replied, "no, I had to get the ball". You should have seen his face, like the thought of checking on her had not even crossed his mind for a second. He said, "it's okay, she's still my girlfriend". I'm thinking this "relationship" will be short lived!!

Big compliment

2010-02-10T17:33:00.000-06:00

Homework with our precious little kindergarten is a full on whippin!!!! I don't want to, I can't do it, I want to play, I never get to do anything. Just add those little comments to the very best whine you can muster while sliding out of your chair like a limp noodle and you have a picture of homework time. Randy and I would assume that he performs a little bit better for his teacher, but probably does just the bare minimum to get by so that he can go to the gym or recess and play some sort of sport.

So, I was in the pick up line yesterday and Mrs. Grant comes over for a chat. I immediately think great, he's in trouble, but no. She says, ya know he's so interesting and much more mature in his thinking than most of my kids. I can't hide my amazement. She goes on to tell me that they are working on their business unit and identifying types of jobs, like service for example. She says that she could call on him to answer everytime and he would get it right. I was so impressed, maybe one day he will do that for me at homework time..... nay, probably not!

Little Mouths, Loud Voices

2010-02-10T17:13:00.001-06:00

One of the reason's that I started the blog was to write down all the little cute, funny and sometimes horrifying things C & C have to say, but lately I've only really blogged about big events. Well, let's get back to the basics, starting with Christian's big mouth. We were in the dentist's office this morning and all of a sudden Christian blurts out in his loudest voice, Mommy that boy only has one leg!!!! I will give him credit for knowing how to get my attention!! From where I'm sitting, I can't tell if the boy is missing a leg or not, but I'm really not wanting to debate it right here either. I call him over and am speaking very softly and very close to him, explaining that we shouldn't stare and we wouldn't want to hurt that boys's feelings by making a scene about it. Then all of a sudden he gets this horrible look on his face and starts backing up waving his hand in front of his face, clearly not interested in what I have to say. Then in his even louder voice says, "mom, did you brush your teeth this morning". I just want to say for the record, I did brush my teeth but clearly I needed a little more freshening this morning, and now the entire waiting room at Dr. Sullivan's office knew it.

To add insult to injury, two cavities for Big C, and one forming for little C.

Happy birthday to me

2010-02-07T21:22:00.001-06:00

I'm 40, holy crap, how did that happen????? I don't feel 40, I don't think I look like I'm 40, although the guy at the grocery store who asked me if my kids were my GRANDCHILDREN obviously thinks I do. I swear that actually happened!! It really does seem like the last ten years have absolutely flown by and if my birthday party was any indication of how my 40's are going to be, then let's get started because my birthday weekend was nothing short of FABULOUS!!!

My sweet husband planned an amazing girls weekend. Here's the rundown....... It all started Friday morning when we were picked up by a car and whisked away to the airport to catch our flight to LA. Roxanne, my niece Megan, and Christine were all in attendance. When we arrived in LA, we had just enough time to throw our bags in our room and then we met with a celebrity stylist who took us to some boutiques in Beverly Hills. One of the places we stopped was the Betsey Johnson boutique, Meg's favorite.

The girls found some fabulous new dresses. I can't wait to take Caroline to this store when she's older. It is so fun and so girly. I found a great new handbag and some beauitful clothes, but I was so busy trying them on that I have no pictures. Trust me the shopping trip was a success. Friday night we just grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed for the hot tub, to soothe some tired feet. Saturday we started our day in the spa. Hot stone massages and facials for everyone. I got a little extra special treatment with an aromatherapy bath. It was like heaven on this earth, I didn't want to move!! Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, a little tray appears with a card and a jewelry box. You ask what could be in the box??????

A beautiful diamond tennis bracelet!! It doesn't phograph that well, but trust me it is beautiful and it matches my ring perfectly. The girls and I toasted with champagne and strawberries and were off for more shopping adventures. Now first let me say, I would have preferred to wash the massage oil out of my hair before heading to the most famous street in California, but we had no time. We did a very quick get ready and then headed out to Rodeo Drive.

Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Chanel, Dior, Tiffany's, you name it and we did it. No time to waste, we had exactly one hour before our car picked us up for dinner and this time we had to wash our hair!!!

We spent a lot of this trip with bad hair because the whole trip was a sprint from start to finish, but we made up for it Saturday night.

Dinner at Maestro's, it was divine. Gorganzola mac n cheese, filet, creamed spinach and heavenly cosmopolitan's, yum!!!! When we were leaving we heard the host say that two of the grammy nominees were coming for dinner, bummer that we had to leave, but the night was young. Meg and Roxanne planned the rest of the evening, and all I can say is it ended at 4AM. If you want pictures, you'll have to take a look at my birthday book!! Don't ya wanna see?????

Randy, you planned the perfect birthday bash. I was surrounded by great friends, I went shopping, was pampered and absolutely spoiled rotten. Thank you honey, I couldn't have asked for more. I love you.

Miss Muffett the Escapee

2010-01-28T09:20:00.000-06:00

Caroline, you know the one with the cute curls that everybody just gushes over??? Saying that they would love to have one just like her. Well, let me pull off your blinders to reveal the REAL Miss Muffett. Last night she went across the street to our neighbors and played for a little while. I explained, before I left them, that dinner would be ready in 15 minutes and they were to come home. Next thing I know, the door bell rings. I'm thinking wow, they really listened to my instructions. NO, NO, NO, what was I thinking. It's Caroline, and she darts upstairs saying that she needs something from her room. I inquire, she explains that she needs to take her animals back to the neighbors. Now you have to understand, this child thinks she needs to take her animals, oh sorry zoo, absolutely everywhere she goes. Her teacher at school, finally told her that she could only bring two each day, but she conveniently forgot to tell me that for two weeks!! Anyway, I explain to her that she cannot take the zoo to the neighbors and that dinner was almost ready so she needed to stay home. Hell hath no fury like Carolines screams!! She's ticked and is letting me know about it. When she realizes that I'm not giving in she devises her plan. I had the back door open to the patio while I was cooking. She very quietly walks out the back door, and for about 30 seconds I think she's going to go play. NO, NO,NO, the little chick has walked herself around to the side gate and is half way down the driveway headed across the street before I catch her. She then realized hell hath no fury like her Mama!! OMG, I couldn't believe it and this is coming from the well behaved child!!

Happy Birthday Christian

2010-01-10T21:51:00.000-06:00

Six years ago our lives changed forever when this once little guy, turned big guy, came out kicking and screaming. Not much has changed, as far as the kicking and screaming goes, but he's sure not little anymore.

He started his birthday week on Monday with grandma picking him up from school, playing games, eating pizza and receiving his most favorite gift of the week.

an ipod.

Tuesday was his actual birthday and it went something like this. Cake for breakfast, while little sister had a bit of an attitude problem, because of course, the birthday boy was getting way too much attention for the little princess's liking.

She had cake too, but not exactly the same, hence the tude!! Tuesday's festivities continued with a little celebration at school.

and presents at home.

quiver for his arrows and

a case to hold his bow and arrows

Have I mentioned lately that he is 200% boy? The official birthday party was on Saturday at Lifetime fitness. It was a soccer game party, green lighting vs. purple poodles. Each child pulled either a green square or a purple square out of a hat, and that determined which team they would play on. Green is Christian's favorite color, so of course he was on the green lighting team. Purple is Caroline's favorite color, so that's how the colors and names were chosen.

I have the MOST fabulous neices and nephews ever!!! Justin was captain of the green lighting team and Megan was captain of the purple poodles team. They ROCK, and I love them for making my boy feel so special. Here's the highlights.

Next up was scooter races

last but not least, rock climbing

mission accomplished, 25 worn out kids!!!

What's not to love a whole week of birthday celebration. Christian's favorite things at 6 years old:

sports, sports, oh, did I mention sports?? He also loves, rough housing with his dad, being tickled, learning how to spell, playing with his buddies, and protecting his sister (from everyone else, but she's fair game to him).

Things I love and admire about him: he's a good friend, he takes up for kids that are being picked on and befriends those that need one, he's sensitive, he is a good helper, he loves to be my sous-chef, he loves snuggling with me, he has a fantastic personality, and he's a great big brother. Happy birthday, Christian. I love you!!

Welcome to 2010

2010-01-02T22:40:00.002-06:00

2010, did someone say it was 2010???? Remember the year 2000, when the whole world's computer systems were supposed to crash and basically the world as we knew it was going to be OVER?? Well, its been a decade since then, and I feel like it was yesterday. Did I mention, that I turn the big 40 this year!! What the ........I got married and had two kids in the last decade, let's see the next ten years top that.

We spent New Years Day at the ranch shooting bows & arrows and shooting clays. I got a pink bow for Christmas and it was so fun.

Christian

Will Graygor

Christian was so proud, they caught a raccoon in the traps

I got a couple of clays, girl power!!

Christine Graygor

Randy

New Years Eve

2010-01-02T19:48:00.004-06:00

We rang in the New Year an hour early this year, because we couldn't quite make it to midnight. We celebrated this year at the ranch with some of our friends.

The Graygor's

Roxanne & Johnny

The Julius's, The Armstrong's and

a bunch of kids

We usually leave the kids at home for our New Year's Eve festivities, but this year was a family affair. Here's to a fantastic 2010!!!

Merry Christmas

2010-01-02T19:17:00.002-06:00

Merry belated Christmas to everyone. We had 4 jammed packed days of Christmas goodies, gifts and family!!! After opening the very last present under the tree Christmas morning, Christian declared that we were out of presents and said, "that's okay, let's just go get some from under Daddy's tree." Well, Daddy's tree holds all of the presents for his side of the family, which wasn't happening until later Christmas day. He tried, let's give him that!! Santa must be very forgiving because he overlooked many an attitude this year and still delivered the goods.

Yes, that is a turkey!! No that's not a joke!!

It is a target for his new bow and arrow that Santa

delivered with night vision goggles, R2D2,

clone trooper gun and a new baseball bat.

Santa sure knows how to make a girl squeal,

her very own pink Barbie car!!!

Santa brings big boys gifts too, a crossbow.

Just when we thought all the Christmas surprises were over we looked outside and found.....

It was so fun to have a white Christmas!!! The kids loved it, and wanted to know why we can't have snow all the time. Of course in true Texas fashion, it was all gone by noon. I hope that you and your family had a very merry Christmas!!

Special Gift

2009-12-29T01:48:00.007-06:00

You may remember me talking about a great family that we met last season in the RV lot at one of the Aggie games, Kelli and Jimmy Thompson and their son Jesse. Jesse is in the Corp. at ATM, and is a Sophomore this year. Last season Christian named Jesse and his friends the "bandsters", because they play in the band at ATM. Well, we kept in touch and saw them again in November at the one and only game we could attend this season. The Graygor's were there also, and of course, Christian and Will talked the "bandsters" into playing football in the lot. Everything was going great, up until a pickup truck ran over Christian's favorite Aggie football, then the meltdown came. The guy driving the truck wasn't even sorry, which is very unusual for that crowd. Anyway, Kelli, Jimmy and Jesse felt so sorry for Christian that they sent him the SWEETEST gift!! Take a look at the video of him opening his present. I can't figure out how to rotate the video, but it's still good none the less. Take a look ...

(That's Jesse on the left and one of the other bandsters on the right)

(Jesse and all of the other bandsters, playing football with the boys)

Randy and I are just blown away that they would think of Christian and go to so much trouble to have Jesse and his friends sign this football and send it to Christian. Needless to say he has a new FAVORITE Aggie football!! Thank you guys so much and we can't wait to see you again next season!!

Trick or Treat

2009-11-01T21:15:00.001-06:00

Remember only one year ago when my sweet little munchkins wanted to be a super hero and tinkerbell??? Well, not anymore......

The good witch turned ANGRY

and the Star Wars clone trooper was very serious!! He was scaring little kids

without even trying to.

They got painted up at the Lowe's Farm Fall Festival on Halloween afternoon. Caroline wanted hers off before trick or treating, because she said it made her look angry. We followed our usual tradition and went trick or treating with the Golson's. The boys ran way ahead with Randy and Gary following behind, while Gaby, baby Gavin, Caroline enjoyed a more leisurely pace. I wish I had a video of Caroline this year. She was in her own little world, walking up and down the sidewalks singing:

Happy Halloween, trick or treat, our costumes can't be beat!! She said she learned it at dance. I must say she got the best candy with her little charming self. Here are the highlights:

Man, there cute, if I must say so myself

You have no idea how many times I had to say, "you can't go trick or treating until I get my pictures"

trick or treating at the Golson's

baby Gavin wasn't even scared of the clone trooper

Randy wanted to get in on the action too

Caroline completely forgot about getting the candy when she saw the dog.

Halloween Party 09

2009-10-31T12:47:00.004-05:00

The 5th Annual Schlieker kids Halloween party was another smashing success. This year I recruited my nieces and nephews to help out....

Justin 15, Megan 21, Trace 16, and Kayla 13

Instead of a bounce house, the teenagers organized games for the little kids to play.

Bobbing for Apples

ring toss over the witches hat

pumpkin bowling and

cupcake decorating. Thanks to the "big" kids all the little ones had a great time!! I did have one little scrooge, who wouldn't wear his costume though......

he did however, find a gecko. The cutest little good witch made up for it.

In the end it's all about making memories with great families, good kids and skinny tini's!!!

I love my cousin, Justin

2009-10-27T16:04:00.000-05:00

News Flash

2009-10-18T10:45:00.000-05:00

Did you know that kindergartner's know EVERYTHING????? I was unaware, but was officially schooled by my very own kindergartner today! He feels the need to remind us, and to rub his sister's face into the fact that he is indeed a kindergartner, and the world and everyone in it should bow down to his greatness!!

His greatness had his first field trip Friday to the Green Meadows pumpkin patch. I tagged along with camera in tow. You might notice something new in our latest pictures.....Christian got glasses.

Turns out he is farsighted, apparently extremely farsighted. We had taken him to the eye doctor because his allergies had settled in his eyes one day and were really bothering him. The eye doctor gave him some drops to clear up the allergies and told us to bring him back for a full examination when his eyes were clear, because he suspected that he may be farsighted. The kid couldn't see a dang thing, no wonder he was struggling with school work, HE CAN'T SEE IT!!! I know, I know, mother of the year, slips away again!!

Pumpkin patch

2009-10-18T10:35:00.001-05:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Toothless Wonder

2009-10-15T10:55:00.000-05:00

May I introduce the toothless wonder!!!!

He has been dieing to lose a tooth, because many of his friends have already lost several. He went to school with the tooth hanging on by a thread and his teacher pulled it. I don't think I have ever seen him so excited. The tooth fairy came and brought him 5 one dollar bills and 4 quarters and sprinkled fairly dust from his window sill to his pillow. He loved it!!

Chivalry is not dead

2009-09-04T10:34:00.002-05:00

Parent orientation for Kindergarten was last night and I introduced myself to one of the other mothers, because apparently her daughter, Olivia and Christian have become pretty good friends. She told me a story about my little guy, that made me so proud. Apparently, Olivia was getting picked on by another child for wearing khaki shorts and a polo, like the boys wear, instead of the dress that a lot of the girls do. The child told Olivia that she was wearing boys clothes. Christian heard that and put his arm around Olivia and said it's okay and in his most mean voice, said to the other child, "girls wear these clothes too". Well, now Olivia wants to marry Christian.

I'm a Kindergartner

2009-08-25T10:15:00.004-05:00

Oh yes, the big day arrived and Christian is in kindergarten!!!!! He is soooooo excited!! Same school, but all new environment. The pre-school and pre-K kids are in separate buildings and the school age kids don't mix with the "babies", at least according to the kindergartners!! He looks so grown up in his uniform.

He also wanted to show you his new superhero's backpack

Everyone keeps asking me if it makes me sad to see him growing up, but it doesn't. I'm excited for him. There is a sea of opportunity and experiences out there for him and I can't wait to see him discover it.

As many of you know, we were so lucky to find 4 great boys and their parents when Christian was only a baby. These boys and all the parents have remained friends even though none of them go to the same school now. So here's to the best boys I know, Will, Gabe, Jack, and Bryce, cheers to growing up, lasting friendships, great parents, and new adventures!

Long time no Talk

2009-08-07T14:43:00.002-05:00

Hello, hello, hello!!!!! To quote, my dear friend Peggy, "what the crap, I know you've been on a cruise, post please". LOL!!!! I didn't even realize that it has been almost two months since I've posted, so let me start you out with a "torture mommy" story and then I'll give you the summer update.

Christian will start kindergarten in two weeks. His school requires uniforms, so off we go to Parker Uniforms to get the clothes. Now let me first start with saying, I warned him several times before we went that he will indeed have to try on the clothes, because there is no such thing as a last minute target run, if things don't fit. I made the critical mistake of taking both kids with me, my bad!!

We barely got in the door before both kids played me a like a fiddle. They started running in opposite directions, so that I couldn't easily catch them. Christian headed for the wall of belts and Caroline headed for the kiosk of hair bows. Big C decides to run his hand all the way down the wall touching every single belt there is and almost knocking every single one on the floor. Little C does manage to not only bring hair bows to the ground, but break the fixture as well. While I'm trying to pick up everything, they have apparently called my number, which I don't hear because steam was coming out of my ears. Another mother comes to me and says are you #21, they just called you. Great!!

Now it's time for the dressing room. Big C is complaining it's itchy, I don't like it, etc... Little C is laying on her stomach with her head out of the dressing room and singing as loud as possible. I am not only getting stares now, but I'm also being talked about. I have officially turned into that mom!!!! You know the one, the one that we have all talked about!!! I took away treats, all TV privileges, grounded them to their rooms for 45 minutes, spanked in the dressing room, and NOTHING worked. One mother said, "don't worry, they do eventually grow up"! They worked me like they had sat down and planned it to the very last detail.

Second deadly mistake, baths together!!!! They are playing in the bathtub and I am putting away laundry. Christian says mom come here we have something to show you. I go in their and the tile floor was a swimming pool and the bathmat was floating in it. I can honestly say, I lost my religion in that moment. Aren't you glad I blogged again???? Me too, good therapy. Stay tuned for a summer full of more uplifting updates!!

Wild Week

2009-06-14T20:39:00.002-05:00

The day finally arrived when Christian was old enough to go to Camp Thurman!!!! It is tailored made for a boy like mine. Rocking climbing walls, swimming, zip lines, prepaid snack shack, you name it, if it is for outdoor fun they have it. He and his buddy, Will Graygor went together and Monday thru Thursday couldn't have gone better. Then rolls around Friday......the next 24 hours went something like this:

Randy and I decide to head out to Horseshoe Bay for a quick weekend getaway. I have plans for the children. Ms. Botello has Miss Muffett and Christine (Will's mom ) has Christian overnight Friday night and will deliver him back to Ms. Botello mid morning on Saturday. All should be fine, right??? Wrong!!

About 15 minutes before our arrival in Horseshoe Bay, Christine calls, she's at camp picking up the boys and Christian is crying and very upset. Will tells her that he has been crying for a long time and that he didn't participate much today. She asks the counselor, "did you call his mother", let me tell you that he did NOT!!!! Christine says I think he's just hot and tired, let's get him home and see how he's doing.

Meanwhile, we go ahead and check into the hotel, but leave all the bags in car, just in case. Christian gets home, goes to sleep, gets some gatorade, etc... I'm on and off the phone with Roxanne and Christine trying to evaluate, from afar, and meanwhile feeling really crappy that I'm not there.

So, we are now in our room, been there about 10 minutes when Christine tells me that today was the big day at Camp Thurman where they got to shoot airsoft guns and bow and arrows and Will said that Christian just layed on the bench and didn't participate. Now I'm really concerned, something is terribly wrong with him, because that just isn't our son, AT ALL. I mulled that information over about five minutes and told Randy, I'm sorry but we have to go home, Christian's really sick.

A mothers instinct is right on. 7:45 Christian wakes up, vomitting. Proceeds to continually vomit for the next 45 minutes, and ends up lying on the tile floor in the kitchen, crying and saying that his head hurts. Roxanne is keeping us posted, but we are still a couple of hours away. My cell phone is running out of charge. Christine calls our pediatrian, gives him the whole story, and he says that he is worried about dehydration and we need to take him to Cooks Childrens Hospital. She runs to the house, picks Christian up and we meet her at Cooks. Thankfully, when I explain the details of why we are there, they see him next in the ER. Long story, but when the doctor comes in he doesn't think he is dehydrated but treats him with Tylenol with Codiene for the headache, and nausea medication.

2:30 AM, we get home with still a very sick Christian and two perscriptions. The doctor instructed that if he was still vomitting or had the headache in the morning to come back. 7:00 AM, Christian comes to our room still crying with the headache. I give him his 4th does of Tylenol with Codiene and at 8:30, I told Randy we have to go back to the hospital because the drugs are not working. I jump in the shower, thinking this is going to be a very long day and when I get out I checked on Christian and he said the most amazing thing. He has been learning in Sunday school that God is almighty. So he said, my headache is trying to breakthough because God is almighty and Jesus is God's son. I said, buddy do you want to pray and ask God to take your headache away, and he said yes. So we did, and within minutes he was much better. Within an hour he wanted something to eat and when I wasn't getting it fast enough, he yelled out from the bedroom, where's my biscuit!! It was absolutely amazing, once again, God sending a message to me through my son, but I think this time, he got the message as well.

I cannot thank Roxanne and Christine Graygor enough for the love and care they gave Christian when I was unable to. Christine stayed with us at the hospital until the wee hours of the morning and Roxanne got Caroline out of the house on Saturday morning, so that we could sleep a little bit, and care for Christian. They cared for him, like he was their own and I am eternally grateful.

He is 100% today and back to arguing with his sister. I never knew that I wanted normal so much until now!!

Dance Recital

2009-06-02T19:41:00.007-05:00

Caroline had her first dance recital and it was SOOOOOOOOOO cute!!! I'm not biased, even though she busted in on her mermaid tail in the middle of her tap number, she was definately the best!!! Well at least the cutest, and I can prove it.

Stop me when I'm lying!!

Thank you to Glenda Beckwith from Alexander Portrait Designers in Mansfield, http://www.alexanderportraitdesigners.com/ for giving me these beautiful images of Caroline to share on my blog. The night of the recital was just too crazy, and I couldn't get any good pictures of her and I really wanted you to see her. I love Glenda, she photographs our family so beautifully, and most importantly my kids do anything she asks!!

Another new addition

2009-05-29T20:50:00.005-05:00

Now this is the type of new addition, I could get used to!!! A stuffed animal dog that sits up and begs, chews on a plastic bone, barks,raises his paw for attention, and most importantly has an on and off switch. I love it!!! No pooping on my carpet, getting underneath my feet, and hiding from the children. Caroline sleeps with him in her bed, yet no pet hair or disgusting smell. This is REALLY my kind of dog.

I am sooooo white

2009-05-28T20:59:00.003-05:00

You know there are some things in life that you would think after 39 years, I would just get over. But no, not this one. We live in Texas and it's hot here already. Everyone is driving their convertibles (I had to give mine up when prego with Christian, I think I have probably mentioned that before, but I haven't gotten over it either.) Anyway, driving their convertibles, wearing super cute sleeveless sun dresses, eating on patio's, drinking margaritas, and sporting fabulous tans. Then there's me, Casper the friendly ghost!! I mean seriously, I could glow in the dark, in fact next to Randy, I DO!!!

Think back to Thanksgiving and that turkey that you were preparing for the family feast. Do you remember the way the turkey skin looks? Pale, slightly pink, sick really. Yeah, that's me. So every year about this time, I think I have GOT to get some color. I have tried every self tanner product on the market and I'm allergic to EVERY SINGLE ONE. Big, red, itchy whelps all over me. I have resorted to tanning beds. Yes, I know, save the lecture, but tan fat looks so much better than pasty white cellulite. You know you were thinking it!!!

So, for all of you fabulous tan bodies out there. I am supremely jealous and only hope that one day you have wrinkles!!! Much love!!

Happy birthday my sweet Caroline

2009-05-28T20:50:00.000-05:00

I CANNOT believe it, my baby is 3 years old!!! Caroline has been planning her birthday for months now. The morning of, Randy and I woke her up, (because it is a school day and our children ONLY want to sleep in on days that we HAVE TO get up for work and school.) Anyway, we woke her up singing the happy birthday song. She sprang from her and bed and said, "it's my birthday, I can eat cupcakes", and so she did.

That is a picture of the true Caroline before hair products, to tame the wild beast of her hair. I have to say that over the 3 years I have grown to love her crazy mane. I must confess it was, at first, a love hate relationship. I just kept saying what's wrong with her hair!!!

The day went something like this. Cupcakes for breakfast, mommy and daddy delivered cupcakes and pizza to her school for lunch, picked she and Christian up from school and headed to Chuck E Cheese for, of course, more pizza. Chuck E Cheese is by far, her favorite destination and she loves riding the horse.

This very big girl, partied like a rock star and was just too pooped to even open presents on her big day.

Like all Schlieker birthday's they are never just one day. Oh no, we have to drag it out for an entire week. Really just more excuse for everyone to eat cake!! Her actual birthday party with friends took place on Saturday. Her most favorite disney princess Aerial came to her party. Each party guest was asked to dress as their favorite princess or most noble knight!! She is a popular little thing, so about 12 of her closest 3 year old friends arrived in grand style. Enjoy!!

Princess Party

2009-05-28T20:46:00.001-05:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Here fishy, fishy

2009-05-24T21:30:00.000-05:00

At my office we are blessed to have beautiful grounds. Thanks to my brother's vision our conference room is completely glass looking out over a pond with a fountain, that is stocked with fish and a small putting green. People ask me all the time if I sit outside to work, enjoy the view and take in some of our beautiful Texas spring weather. The truthful answer is no, but I should. Truth is, my kids enjoy the pond and putting green FAR more than I.

Check out my new find, http://animoto.com/ You can create your own "rock star type" video. All my fellow bloggers need to check that one out. Here's another cool video. On this particular day they caught 14 fish!!!

Fishing

2009-05-24T21:25:00.001-05:00

Catch up Time

2009-05-23T22:25:00.000-05:00

I'm behind again, this seems to have become a theme with me these days!!! (no comments from the peanut gallery, please) Actually, speaking of commenting, where are you guys????? I type and type, tell stories about the the wild indians and nothing from you. I need more, I'm kind of an instant gratification kind of girl, so sign in and give me some of your best stuff, already!!!!

So, Christian had his first date, and I have to say, I TOTALLY approve. Although she did keep him out until almost midnight, they did call to let me know. Here's the happy couple, he has a thing for brunettes!!!

Ms. Botello asked him out to a Ranger game and he couldn't have been more thrilled!! His buddy, Dylan was there with his mom also.

First Date

2009-05-23T22:22:00.001-05:00

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T20:18:00.006-05:00

Happy Mother's day to all you fabulous moms out there!!! I love this kind of day, I get to sleep late. Does 8AM constitute late?????? I remember a day, about 5 1/2 years ago, that I would NEVER have thought that 8am was sleeping in. Fast forward 5 1/2 years and I'll take it!! I hear the door opening and Christian whispering very loudly at Caroline saying, "don't disturb mom". She ignored him anyway, and wanted to curl up in my bed to watch a movie. Very sweet, I must say. Then I smell something coming from the kitchen. Smells a lot like Starbucks, wonder why?????

Love it!!!! My very own Espresso maker. Even better, Randy found the recipe for a white chocolate mocha, my absolute favorite, and made it for me. Good job, honey.

With my espresso kicked in, we were off to a picnic in the park with my mom and sister. Hot dogs, hamburgers, playground, soccer, baseball, it was a fun time for everyone.

Mad Hatter Tea Party

2009-05-10T19:38:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned lately, that it just makes my day to have a little girl???? My favorite part of each day is getting to dress her up and fix her crazy curly hair with the biggest bow I can find. My second greatest joy is taking her to do girly girl things. Saturday, was just that kind of day. The country club hosted an Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter Tea Party!!! You were to wear a pretty dress and a hat, it just doesn't get any more girly than that!! Caroline wore her fancy nancy dress and we took the hat but she wanted a bow instead, no matter, it was fabulous.

Tea Party

2009-05-10T19:10:00.000-05:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Not as Advertised

2009-05-06T10:54:00.002-05:00

We have to stop reading brochures and internet websites!! We had a Schlieker family gathering this weekend in Bryan and the kids had Monday off for Cinco De Mayo. I know, we are not sure why either, but anyway. So, we wanted to find a camp ground that was within a reasonable drive to Bryan, but also had lots of amenities to entertain the children. We found a "deluxe" castaways RV Park & Campground on Lake Conroe. Sounded great, boat rental, fishing, clubhouse and activity center, playground, park store, miniature golf, baseball diamond, etc... You get the picture.

We drive up and we are so sure that can't actually be the location, we drive past it looking for the the "advertised" version. We drive down, end up in a mobile home neighborhood, can't get turned around because we are pulling the hummer behind the motorhome, have to unhook the hummer so we can't get out of these people's front yards. I'm not kidding. All the time, realizing that we did indeed pass the park we were going to.

Here's what we found. A playground that is rusted over with spider webs all over it, the clubhouse and activity center was the office for the park. I inquired about renting a boat and they suggested that I look in the yellow pages. We never did find the minature golf, but the baseball diamond was indeed available. If that was the "deluxe" park, I'd hate to see the "average" park.

It was a Good Friday

2009-04-12T09:11:00.005-05:00

Spring is in full swing and Good Friday is here. That, of course, means the kids are out of school. What shall we do with the little munchkins to entertain them and also wear them out for the day???????? Oh, I know, let's go swimming, in April!!

Yes, it was 70 degrees with a north wind and they didn't shiver a bit. Codie, put in a pool this winter, so she heated it up to 90 and off they went jumping, diving and generally acting like monkeys.

Didn't think about sunscreen, because it was cool and breezy. Christian got a really bad one on his arms, face and neck. Miss Muffett on the other hand, didn't get anything, but a beautiful tan color. Oh yes, my friends, she's going to be tan, with curly blonde locks, blue eyed, and tall. I'm in DEEP trouble, I think I should just go ahead and chain her to her room now!!!

Still here, I promise

2009-04-09T15:24:00.002-05:00

Christian the always outspoken and never boring child. We are at a t-ball game, he says, I need to go potty. You all know how happy I am when I hear those words from his mouth, so we sprint to the bathroom. (one day he is going to HATE me when he realizes I spent a lot of time on this blog talking about his potty issues, still I press on) He refuses to go into the girls bathroom anymore, so I stand outside the men's room hoping that he's okay and that there are no creepy men in there. He comes out half dressed, because he hasn't mastered the baseball belt quite yet. Then as loud as he can he says, mom I just saw a brown pee pee!!!! There are people EVERYWHERE, because the bathrooms are right beside the concession stand!!!! I can only imagine what he said while in the bathroom looking at the brown pee pee.

This morning we are on our way to school and both kids have an easter egg hunt scheduled today. The sky is a little dark and here come the sprinkles of rain. They start chanting, rain rain go away come again another day. Over and over for the 20 minute ride to school. Then Christian breaks out in prayer, "dear god and jesus, please don't let it rain today on our egg hunt, please please".

Memories

2009-03-26T23:02:00.003-05:00

When I had dreams of becoming a mom, I thought about the memories that I wanted to create with my children. I thought about the good talks we would have, the neat places we would visit together, the shopping trips that Caroline and I would take, where she would love everything that I do, you know like a Disney Land commercial on TV. About a week after we brought Christian home, I realized this isn't Disney Land!!

Example, an email went around a couple of weeks ago and children around the age of 5 were asked, what does love mean??? The answers were thought provoking, tender and amazingly mature for a child of that age. So, I sent out an email to my girlfriends and said let's all ask our boys what love means and share their answers with each other, again trying to believe in the fantasy. When I asked Christian, he made some sort of potty humor statement, which is his go to answer on just about anything these days. If it begins with "poop poop butt", he's all about it.

I have to say, that the reality of my day to day life slaps me in the face more than I would like to admit. However, occasionally a little piece of that fantasy comes to life. Unfortunately, I wasn't home for this one, but it is certainly worth sharing. When Christian and I were in Paris, I bought him an Eiffel Tower for his room, so that he could always remember our trip together. Well, tonight Ms. Botello is babysitting and she noticed the tower statue in his room and when she picked it up she saw a switch on the bottom, turned it on and it lit up just like the real Eiffel Tower in Paris. We could see the Tower shining brightly each night from Peggy's balcony and Christian loved it. When she flipped the switch tonight it lit up his whole room and he said, "now, I will always remember Paris."

I tell you, that boy takes me to the highest high's and the lowest low's, but I can't remember any low's right now, only that I adore his charm and loveable personality. I can't wait to make more memories with him!!

Miss you, Peggy, Jaylee, Aiden and Brandon!!

Willy the Dog

2009-03-24T12:26:00.002-05:00

Many of you have inquired lately about Willy, the dog. Well, we had to return Willy to Santa because he is scared to death of our kids. The only time he would go anywhere near C & C is if they had a treat for him. If they approached him he would run the other way. He took to hiding behind the couch and any other place that they couldn't get to . The final straw was when he starting hiding behind the dryer!!! Clearly, Willy was unhappy with us and needs to be in a family without children.

Randy returned Willy to the breeder one day while the kids were in school, and we broke the news to the kids. We thought that Caroline would just have a complete breakdown, but we were so wrong. Christian cried and cried and cried. His sorrow came from the gut and just about broke our hearts. He still talks about him every once in a while and we are getting the full court press to get another dog, so we probably will. Caroline never skipped a beat, that just goes to show you that Willy never warmed up to her, because she LOVES doggies. So, if you see the kids, DON'T ASK ABOUT WILLY!!!!

Bonjour

2009-03-18T19:37:00.003-05:00

Yes, I know I have broken my New Year's resolution to blog once per week. It's been about 4 weeks, but Christian and I went on a fabulous trip to Paris!!! We have some friends that used to live in Arlington and were transferred with Nestle to Paris, so we cashed in some of Randy's miles and off we went. Sometimes all that traveling he does, comes in handy. I was a little bit worried about taking Christian on a 10 hour flight, but let me just say, he was a ROCK STAR both ways. Honestly, I thought he must have been switched with a calm child during the security check at the airport, because he was THAT good.

I discovered a few things while away.
#1 Christian doesn't speak english, he speaks Texan, with a serious hick accent!!
#2 Disney land is NOT the "happiest place on earth"
#3 French wine is REALLY good, but only a second runner up to french bread and french butter with sea salt!!!
#4 I love going out to my garage and getting into my car and driving wherever I want to go
#5 I can survive without my cell phone
#6 Personal space took on a whole new meaning

The family we went to see is the Rice Family. Brandon, Peggy, Jaylee and Aiden

Peggy is awesome, Christian and Jaylee played beautifully together. Roxanne Botello went with us, she was the teacher that Christian and Jaylee had at CU together and we have become good friends.

We toured all the usual hot spots, the eiffel tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, Luxemburg Park, etc... but the absolute best was watching Christian attempt to speak french to various french people. Just image the most country bumpkin accent your've ever heard, add to that wild random moves of a five year old boy and you might come close to getting the picture. All that was missing were the overalls!!!

Everything in France is tiny. The tables, the elevators, the chairs, the apartments, the kitchens, the washers, I mean everything!!! Because the tables are very close together and you must move the table out in order to sit behind it, we had incidents!! I do not think we managed to have one meal without breaking something. Thankfully, Peggy cooked for us several times.

Here is a little glimpse of our trip:

Paris

2009-03-18T19:22:00.000-05:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy Birthday Randy

2009-02-08T09:06:00.004-06:00

Randy and I have birthday's exactly, 4 years and 7 days apart!!! I had planned a wine tasting tour of 4 wineries in the Grapevine area and an overnight stay at the Gaylord for his birthday, but then fever strikes with Caroline. This really isn't our year for birthdays!!! One dose of antibiotics, she was MUCH better.

The boys ended up having a "guys" day and Caroline and I had a "girls" day. On our girls day, we went to Chelsea's tea room for a tea party birthday. Soooooooo cute!!! I can't imagine a better place to have a girly girl birthday party. I definately see this in Miss Muffett's future:

Every girl gets to pick out a dress for the party. Boys get ties and a painted on mustache.

Next you have a tea party with your very own tea pot and tea cakes

You get your nails painted and makeup

Princess Caroline with Queen and birthday girl Peyton.

Our girls day wrapped up with Caroline picking out the BIGGEST most chocolaty cake for her Dada!! Happy Birthday, Randy

Big aspirations

2009-02-04T22:03:00.002-06:00

I had to work late tonight. I was trying to complete a year end report to get out to my tenants at my office condo project. Anyway, when I got home, I told Christian "sorry I had to work late, tonight". He said, "it's okay mom, but when I'm 11 can I go to work with you"? I'm sure he will forget it by the morning, so I said, "sure". He goes on to say that he want's to be in charge of "copying". He has become quite the expert at working the copy machine at my office, and he thinks he is all that plus some whenever he does it. So there you have it, Kinko's would be a BIG promotion. I feel really good about that high priced tuition we are paying for, don't you?

39 and Hold'n

2009-02-04T21:41:00.004-06:00

Well, Happy Birthday to me!!!! It is crazy to believe this is my last year in my
30's. Thank you to everyone for my birthday wishes, you really know how to make a girl feel special. The biggest thank you goes out to Randy. He planned a surprise birthday weekend trip, minus children. He told me what the temperature was going to be and that we were going to a spa, and that's it. I didn't know we were going to Pheonix, until I saw our boarding passes. He cashed in some miles, so we traveled first class. (sometimes I do get to benefit from all that travelling he does) In a short two hours, we landed in sunny Pheonix, Arizona, rented a convertible and were on our way to the Biltmore Resort and Spa. Absolutely Beautiful!!!!!

In my pre-mommy days I had a cherry red BMW convertible that I just loved. Oh, how I miss that car. I traded it in for an SUV mom mobile to accomodate car seats, strollers and all the stuff that babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers require. Ohhhhh, I digress, back to my story.

Anyway, drinks on the verandah, dinner at a fabulous restaurant, unwrapped a new Prada handbag, everything was picture perfect

until...........Randy starts to look GREEN!! Oh yes, my friends the evil food poisoning took up residence in his body for the next, and final remaining 24hours of our trip. I had our couples massage alone, then drove into Scottsdale, in the convertible, did some shopping, ate lunch at the Pink Taco and rejoined a much less green Randy about 8pm Saturday night.

Thank you honey, for the fabulous trip and much needed relaxation!! We will have to go back for a repeat, but next time skip the steak!!

Stockshow

2009-01-19T19:45:00.002-06:00

What to do on a school holiday????? How about run around the Fort Worth Stockshow for about 5 hours!!! Good idea. Amazingly, it wasn't crowded, my little darlings stayed with me pretty good, no meltdowns, a little whining, but all in all a good day!! Christian did manage to win himself ANOTHER gun on the boardwalk, just what we needed!! I was a little surprised at all the looks we got with Christian carrying and pretending to shoot the gun. It is Fort Worth, right?

speaking of guns, Randy is in Laredo hunting, hope he gets a good one. Caroline asked if she could go hunting with him and his reply was, "I hope your mama will let you one day". As I am typing this I hear screaming upstairs, which could only mean the natives are restless and need to go to bed, so night night.

Fort Worth Stockshow and Rodeo

2009-01-19T19:44:00.000-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Big kid with big mouth

2009-01-14T20:34:00.002-06:00

The best story of the week came from the "big kid" himself. We went to the pediatrician for his 5 year well check. There were a lot of magazines spread out on the table and I happen to see one with a picture of Barack Obama.

Little background: At school they held a mock election and in his class, Christian and his buddy Eric were two of the kids that represented John McCain and several others were Barack Obama. Obviously, the McCain team lost at school as well. This week the school is holding an inauguration ball on Friday. As you might imagine, there is a lot of talk about the new President and the significance of the first African American, etc....It is also pretty clear parents views of the past election are coming out of the mouths of their children at school. Christian, I'm sure has overhead Randy and I discussing it and has shared our opinions as his own, and so are all the other kids. So back to the doctor's office...

I held up the magazine and I said, "Christian, do you know who this is"? He said, "no", so I told him that it is Barack Obama. In his loudest outside voice, he says, "I don't like him, he's mean. I didn't vote for him, did you mom"? I do a quick glance around the room, every parent in there has their face buried in a magazine trying to pretend they didn't just hear that, and waiting to see what I was going to say. I call him closer to me and say, "no, I didn't". Then he says, "yeah, we lost". I then try to explain that even though we might not agree with him, he is going to be the leader of our country and we should respect the office of the President of the United States. I tried to make examples that he could understand like being the line leader in his class or that he should respect his teacher even if he doesn't agree with her, but I lost him somewhere in my speech, but I felt like I at least got one good mom point for the whole respect lecture.

"I'm a big kid now"

2009-01-14T20:13:00.004-06:00

Christian's new motto these days is, "I'm a big kid now"!! He turned 5, one week ago, and let me tell you, he thinks he is all that!!! So, Randy and I decided that if he thinks he's a big kid now, then we are going to capitalize on it. Our new morning routine, is that we wake him up, and he is to get himself completely dressed and make his bed before coming downstairs. On a side note, I do layout his clothes the night before, because sometimes on the weekend he wants to pick out his own clothes, and let me just say, he needs to marry a girl with some good fashion sense, because he has none. Anyway, Monday and Tuesday he just pranced down the stairs all dressed and ready to go, he was so pround of himself. It was absolutely refreshing. Wednesday, he put up a little resistance, but we stayed the course, and he gave up in time for breakfast. The boy doesn't like to miss a meal, we don't know where he gets that from.

At nighttime he runs his own bath, dries himself off, gets himself dressed. No more running between bathrooms bathing one while the other one is calling my name. Blissful!! It's just the little things that can make a mommy so happy.

Comments

2009-01-11T17:43:00.002-06:00

You guys Rock!!!! Thank you for the comments, it just makes my day. Let me talk about the myth that this blogging thing is hard or that you need to be a computer whiz to do it. It's not, I swear, if it was, I would have already given up on it. I hate gadgits, much to my husband's dismay, I hate to read the directions to figure something out, I better keep Randy happy so he won't bail out on me, because I will be up a creek without a paddle. The smilebox that I use to create the photo books is as easy as it comes, just point and click and blogger is the same way. Give it a try!!

That said, I finally gave in to all of my friends that are on facebook and posted a profile with pictures. I attended my 20 year High School reunion last summer and apparently I am the only one NOT on facebook. One of the cheerleaders made fun of me for having a family blog. I don't care I like it!! From what I can tell, facebook is just quick emails between friends. Why not just use email, then, I ask?????

New Years Resolutions

2009-01-10T09:15:00.000-06:00

Some of you, and you know who you are, having been giving me serious grief about not posting often enough. I'M BUSY!!!!! and TIRED!!!!!! However, I do plan on making a few changes in 2009, so I know it is January 10th and I'm a little behind on New Year's resolutions, but here you go:

I will read at least two books this year
I will spend some one on one time with each child
I will learn to be a better listener and less of a talker
I will lose the last remaining 50 pounds
I will not judge other people by their cover
I will post on this blog at least once a week

So there you have it. Feel free to hold me accountable anytime you want. Oh, and by the way, I think each of your New Years resolutions should include making a comment on my blog when you read it!! I like to know that I'm not just typing in vein!!

Christian's Birthday

2009-01-06T00:47:00.000-06:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Birthday Boy

2009-01-05T21:20:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and mostly Happy Birthday to Mr. Christian who turned 5 years old today!! I have been MIA from blogging most recently, because I have been working on my 2008 digital scrapbook. As I mentioned on a previous blog, I have temporarily given up traditional scrapbooking and have turned digital. I will hopefully be able to post the book when I'm done.

For now, the highlights are: Christmas was really fun with the kids this year. They were both really into it. One of the exciting events was that "Pop" Santa payed a special visit to the house.
We invited three friends to come over for Christmas cookies and party juice, boy were they surprised when the big man walked through the door carrying presents!! Beautiful idea, thanks Pop Santa.

Santa wasn't finished with the big surprises this Christmas though, meet the new addition:

This is Willy, our 2 year old King Charles Cavalier.

His first few days were quite an adjustment for all of us, especially me. For some reason, he thinks I'm his best friend. We got this dog mostly for Caroline, but he runs away from her. He is beginning to warm up to Christian and he and Randy are taking dog training classes together. I hope that works!!! All in all, he's good. He doesn't bark, slobber, or climb on furniture, but he really could use some deodorant!!

Randy and I rang in the New Year at the ranch, while Ms. Botello watched the kids for us. They are always well entertained.

Lastly, today we wound up the birthday celebration for Christian. He decided that he didn't want a party this year. All he wanted was for his best buddies Eric and Will to come with us to the Great Wolf Lodge for a day of water park fun. Today, I took pizza and cupcakes to school for lunch and tonight we opened presents and had more cake!!! So much for New Years resolutions!!

Confession

2008-12-13T15:28:00.000-06:00

It is Saturday afternoon and I find myself sitting alone in a very quiet house. That is somewhat unheard of in my life, and it has caused me to pause, and to admit I have a confession. When we moved into this house in Lowe's Farm, there was a young family that lived across the street from us and they had two young boys. Christian was only 11 months old at the time, so not yet able to play with them. Two years ago, the husband lost his job and the new job he found was in Iowa, so off they went. I remember being very sad, that Christian had lost two really good potential playmates and me a friend in their mom.

Well, in comes the new neighbors, and the confession part. An indian family moved in across the street. Two sets of families and the grandparents as well. I noticed pretty quickly that one of the couples had a young son about the same age as Christian. Secretly, I was hoping that Chrisian wouldn't notice, and he didn't for about a year and a half.

As you know, Christian has never met a stranger, so one day he was outside on our side of the street on the sidewalk, and he saw this little boy. He yells across the street, "hey, what's your name"? "Do you want to be my friend"? Then without hesitation he runs across the street to make friends with this boy. Knowing my son, I knew that there was no turning back now.

I was afraid, I felt like a stalker watching him from across the street, pretending to busy myself with landscaping and garage cleaning, when really I was just checking to make sure he was okay at their house. At the time, I didn't know they were Indian, I assumed they were from the middle East somewhere and I just wasn't comfortable with their culture and are they hold any prejudice's with blonde headed, blue eyed, American boys?? Clearly, I was holding some against indians!

So, they had been playing for a few days, when I decided that I better go over and meet the mom. Turns out they relocated from California and she is a CPA and her husband is an engineer. I thought okay that is very normal. I have to admit it took me a while to warm up to the idea of Christian being out of my site and in their care, while at their house. I just knew that Christian was going to ask the men, "why are you wearing a dress, that's for girls". Maybe he has, but noone told me. He sees no color, race or religion, he just wants to play!!

That is why the house is so quiet. He and Eshan have been playing since about noon today, First at our house and now they are across the street. It is just what I had hoped for when moving into this neighborhood that he would make friends with the neighbor kids. As I watched the boys walk across the street, each had an ice cream in their hand, they were carrying on their own conversation and looked so grown up. My son has taught me an old, yet valuable lesson. Don't judge a book by its cover!! Thank you Christian.

Okay Mother

2008-11-21T12:51:00.000-06:00

When did I become MOTHER to my children instead of mommy or mama??? Christian lately refers to me as mother and I have to say it is beginning to irritate me. I'm really trying not to react, because if he knows it bugs me, I will forever be mother with a capital "M". I thought I had years before they decided that I was stupid and they didn't like me. He's not even 5, and he's got Miss Muffett saying it too!!

On another note, thank you to all the grandparents that attended Grandparents Day at CU!! I asked Chrisitan who came to see him and he said, "I'll give you a hint, two of them had big bellies and two of them had small ones". I about fell over with laughter. I'm telling you, if you are easily offended, don't have children!!

Daylight Savings Time

2008-11-02T07:25:00.001-06:00

Christian didn't get the memo about getting an extra hour sleep this morning. You know how I know????? Because he woke me up at 5:30AM telling me it was morning time. I said, it isn't morning time and he said, "yes it is, and I'm hungry, my tummy's growling". I tried to ignore him, but then I actually heard his tummy growl!! The mommy guilt, got me out of bed and into the kitchen to make pancakes. You can clearly see that he's malnourished!

He loves to help me in the kitchen. This morning he was helping to make the pancakes then accidentally touches the hot pan, now we have a pretty good burn on his pinkie finger, and he doesn't eat any of the pancakes!! He says, he can't eat because his finger hurts!!

Yesterday, I was in Canton trying to find accessories for the new Ranch house annex. For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about. My dad purchased a 540 acre hunting ranch about a year ago, that he shares with the family. We are in the process of building a new house on the ranch property and I am in the process of furnishing it. So, fast forward to the shopping trip to Canton yesterday. Let me just say, there is certainly no recession going on in Canton. You couldn't shake a stick at all the people, much less move around. The crap that people buy is astonishing!! I mean long lines, 30 people deep, to purchase a Christmas yard stick. Amazing!! Anyway, we did find some pretty neat things for the ranch. I should have the house ready by Thanksgiving, so I will post some pictures then.

Trick or Treat

2008-11-02T06:43:00.000-06:00

Double, double, toil and trouble....
Fires burn and caldrons bubble...
Calling all Power Rangers and Tinkerbells....
It's time to trick or treat.

Caroline would say, "do you have candy" then hold our her bag.

They trick or treated a couple of houses together and then Christian hooked up with Gabe and Eshan and they were off. Randy and Gary went with the boys, and Gaby, Mandy and I went with Caroline. We didn't see the boys again for an hour and a half. They came in the house dragging their bags, because they were so heavy.

Caroline's Halloween Party

2008-10-30T20:20:00.001-05:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Tinkerbell

2008-10-30T19:47:00.000-05:00

Miss Muffett had her Halloween party at school today. She is getting to be such a big girl. I must say watching other two year olds interact with their parents really gives me a lot of appreciation for Miss Muffett. She's really pretty good!!

Donuts, sausage rolls, fruit and candy, oh my!!! All at 9:30 AM!! Poor Ms. Botello had to take out her frustrations on the pinata!!

Halloween Candy is the Devil

2008-10-29T20:26:00.000-05:00

Stop the madness!!! I really need Friday to come, because my thighs cannot take all the Halloween candy laying around the house!! Clearly, I have no will power. Despite spin classes at 5:15 AM three days a week, I still have yet to shed the last 50 lbs. of pre-marriage, pre-baby, post baby, running out of excuses weight!!! Thank goodness for my girlfriends Codie and Gretchen that faithfully show up on Monday, Wednesday's and Friday's to endure pure torture at the ungodly hour of 5:15AM!!! I have to say I'm glad tomorrow is a Thursday!!

Tonight in the bathtub, that's where Christian gives me all his best stuff, he say's, "Why is Dad an Aggie, we should be Longhorn's because the Aggie's never win". Truth hurts!! I explained that Pop Schlieker is an Aggie, and Daddy's grandfather was an Aggie. Unfortunately, neither Christian, nor I, had the pleasure of meeting Mr. William Moore, Randy's grandfather. He passed on before Randy and I met. I wish I had known him, because Randy always speaks so fondly of him and he obviously has great memories of his time spent with his Grandfather as he grew up.

Speaking of grandparents, I'd like to give a shout out to Pop Schlieker and Grand Mary, Grandma and Grandpa Trando, and Pop and Mimi McCaslin. Randy and I attended Christian's Halloween party at school today, and earlier this year each set of grandparents were sent a letter from Christian and asked to reply to Mrs. Powell's class about their lives. The letter asked them specific questions about where they live, what they do for a living, hobbies, etc. Randy and I read the letters today for the first time and we were so pleased that each set of grandparents took the time to respond. I'm sure Christian was ticked pink when the letters were read to the class.

I am the room mom for Christian's class again this year. We made a skeleton craft out of dried beans and pasta, ate pizza, and had a pinata. No surprise, Christian nailed the pinata!!

He's so serious, isn't he?? I asked the kids to line up behind me to take turns hitting the pinata. When I turned around, Christian was second in line. I told the other kids, better get your bags ready!! Anyway, Christian has a new BEST friend this year, Eric Higgins. He is a very sweet boy, and turns out his parents are Aggies!! I swear, they just find each other, it's like a private club with a secret password or something. Anyway, here's the dynamic duo.

Super hero's, of course. The boys said they needed these costumes, so they could run fast and chase girls. Oh, I fear the teenage years!!

Strike II

2008-10-27T18:41:00.001-05:00

It's a Monday!!! Who would know from this little picture that on the way out the door for school this morning we had Strike II of the vomit brigade!! Yes, this time it was Christian's turn. However, once he got it out of his system, he was good to go. We needed a little craft time this afternoon to break up the "mom, I'm couped up in the house all day" drama, so we created pirate pumpkins!! Notice that Christian wrote his own name on his. This is big for him, until recently he couldn't write any legible letters.

Green Goblin

2008-10-26T19:09:00.000-05:00

The Green Goblin has invaded!!! The Lowe's Farm annual Fall Festival was tonight. The festival has a petting farm, pony rides, bounce houses, balloon artist and yes a face painter. The only thing of real interest to Christian was to have his face painted like the Green Goblin. Yes, friends that means the whole face. He waited in line for an hour and this was the result.

You might be asking yourself, that's good, but why would she blog about that????? Very simple, trying to prevent the meltdown, as it is now time to take a bath and wash it off. Night night, friends!!!

Halloween Party

2008-10-26T15:09:00.000-05:00

Halloween Party

Last night we had the 4th Annual Schlieker kids costume party at our house. Randy and I started throwing this shindig 4 years ago when Christian was a mere 1 year old and Caroline wasn't even a real thought!! It has grown substanially in attendance, as both kids have their own friends now.

We are SO LUCKY that our kids have good friends with GREAT parents!!! We probably had 60 people at our house last night and it was so much fun!!! Christian asked me this morning if all of his friends kept our address, so they can come again today!!

Remember in an earlier blog that I told you about Caroline's "come here and give me a kiss baby" story??? Well, the object of her affection was here last night, Truett.

Her other boy toy Lincoln was here also, but a little camera shy. Just picuture the cutest red headed little gentle lion you have ever seen and that would be Lincoln. I have to say that I think Truett's mom is a little afraid of all the attention her little Thomas the train gets. Those big brown eyes are just too tempting to the ladies!!

As usual I was being the hostest with the mostest, so I have very few pictures. However, Christine Graygor is coming to the rescue with a download of all her pictures from the evening. Tune into the blog in a few days for the full Halloween Party experience.

As you can tell, Caroline was Tinkerbell and Christian was Peter Pan to start with and ended up a red power ranger. The reason for the change is that Peter Pan couldn't keep his sword in his belt, so he got it taken away within the first 30 minutes of the party. He said since he couldn't have his sword he wanted to change into his Power Ranger costume. Also, Will came in as Incredible Hulk and then changed as well into a power ranger. Will, Christian and their good buddy Eric all were power rangers!!

Crazy Week

2008-10-23T21:54:00.001-05:00

This week has been a rough one!! It started out just like any other week, with a T-ball game on Monday night. Christian has three great hits, jacks around with his friends instead of playing the outfield, snacks, bath, bed. Normal, completely.

Then, Tuesday comes. Randy leaves for New York to work on a project. The kids go to school, I go to work, all is well in our world. Tuesday afternoon, Christian has a follow up appointment with the Gastroenterologist (sp??), otherwise known to Christian as the poop doctor. I could have predicted what he would say even before we went, but instead, I drag both Christian and Caroline to a long drawn out appointment for the poop doctor to tell me to stay the course, increase his laxative, and he will eventually get it. I believe his exact words were, "I've never seen this fail". Clearly, he is not familiar with the saying, "never say never". Anyway, I hand over my credit card to pay for that very sound advice and trudge forward with our day.

Children's University was having a fundraiser at Cici's Pizza Tuesday night, so Christian wanted to go there for dinner. We went, we ate, visited with several classmates families, head home, bath, books, bed .........Midnight Vomit!!!
Oh yes, Miss Muffett vomited every 30 minutes until 4AM!! I used every towel in her bathroom, changed her sheets and pajamas 4 times. She and I finally fell asleep around 4:30 AM.

Good morning, it's 6:30AM Wednesday morning. Christian has pictures at school this morning, so we have to get going!! Yeah!! However, Christian's new laxative has kicked in!!! I am nearly knocked down by the smell in his room when I go to get him up. Detour to the shower. Everything and everyone stinks!! Job application anyone???

The morning is going pretty good considering all that has transpired in the last 12 hours, up until the point that Christian realizes that #1 he is going to school, but Caroline isn't, and #2 he has to wear picture clothes!! My Lord, you would have thought his world had come to an absolute end. We get him to school on time, despite the protest. Caroline lays around and watches Wiggles pretty much all day, except for a very nice 3 hour nap. Unfortunately, mommy isn't so lucky in the nap department!! Caroline never got sick again, and Christian and I seem to be fine, so perhaps she just had some food that didn't agree with her. Anyway, I was doing fine until I hit the wall about 6:30 PM. I was so tired that I made them both go to bed at 7:30PM. I was asleep by 8:00. Randy called sometime after that, and I'm sure I sounded completely incoherent, because I was!!! Randy was supposed to come home Thursday, but he's got a problem on the project and has to stay until it is finished. He sounds very frustrated and tired.

Thursday morning, everyone is well and rested!! The first cold front of the season rolled into town overnight and it is a crisp cool morning. I love this time of year. After school we went to the pumpkin patch, pictures to follow this entry. Just a quick note about Caroline's dress. She protested wearing that dress like you cannot believe this morning, but as any good fashion conscious mommy would do, I made her wear it knowing that it would be cute for the pumpkin patch pictures, and it is!!

Tonight, after I was finished reading to Caroline, she said, "Daddy on a trip?" and I said, "yes". She said "I love him". We all do honey, come home when you can!

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-23T21:53:00.001-05:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Tailgate Party

2008-10-20T18:10:00.000-05:00

It's football season and that means we load up the motorhome and head down to College Station to watch the Aggies get their butt's kicked!!! It is a beautiful thing each Fall season. After Randy wipes away his tears and yells at the Aggies for playing like girls, we have a really great time!! It's something of a tradition. I'm not really sure what we would do if we actually won a game.

Anyway, this tailgate party brought with it more fun than ever!! Our tailgating neighbors were from the Houston area, a small town called Alvin. Their son, Jesse, is a fish in the Corps of Cadets and also plays in the band. For those of you not very familiar with ATM, the Corps and the band is a REALLY big deal. Jimmy and Kelly, Jesse's parents, were just great!!

After the game we had a pretty big crowd. Our friends, Chris and Christine Graygor and their son Will came by for fajitas and margaritas. Jesse and about five of his corps. buddies came as well. The aggies played football and soccer with Christian and Will and everyone had a great time. The pictures that follow this blog entry are of all the boys playing. If I had been more on top of it, I would have taken some pictures of the rest of us tailgating, but I was just having too much fun!!

Christian and Will have been friends since they were babies. The first time we met the Graygor's the boys were still in their infant carriers. Will turns 5 in November and Christian in January. They look a lot alike and fight and play like brothers. It is a beautiful thing!! Thirteen years flashed before my eyes, knowing that in just that amount of time we will be Jesse's parents and Christian will be bringing over all his buddies after the game to be fed. Randy and I think that will be so FUN!!! Go Aggies!! Whoop!!

Texas ATM vs. Texas Tech

2008-10-20T18:09:00.000-05:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Long time no Talk

2008-10-04T08:21:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone, yes we are still here, but as my brother pointed out, I have delinquent in my blogging!! I honestly didn't realize that it has been a month since my last post. Oh, where to begin......

Life with Christian: He told Randy that he is going to marry Caroline. Randy tried to explain that you don't marry your sister, but you will meet another pretty girl and marry her. Christian said, "oh, like Jack's mom"!! This is the second time that Christian has expressed his crush on "Jack's mom, Gretchen". I just have to say he enjoys a brunette and has very good taste! He is really enjoying his new class and teacher at CU. Mrs. Powell has been fabulous for him. He has a new friend, Eric, and he must do everything that Eric does. In fact, I was just informed that Christian, Eric and Will are all going to be power rangers for Halloween at school, so they can chase and scare the girls!! T-ball is in full swing, and he loves it. He's playing with Will, Preston and Julie from our summer team.

Life with Caroline: I just thought Christian was going to be my challenge child, but I just had no idea what Miss Muffett had in store for us. She is so bossy, and boy does she know how to work her daddy. One day recently, Christian was being sent to timeout for not listening and she looks up at Randy, bats her pretty blue eyes and say's "I listening Daddy". There are two cutie pie little boys in her class, Lincoln and Truett. She likes their attention, so she says "come here and give me a kiss baby". She's 2, barely!!!!

Life with Randy: He's back to traveling quite a bit. Ohio, seems to be the destination lately. He's missing coaching a lot, so looks like we might try and reassemble our summer team for the spring season. He's so patient with the kids and we had a great group of kids and parents, and that combination is REALLY hard to find.

My life: I've been really busy at work trying to get a zoning case approved and rolling into a new limited partnership. Our zoning was approved, so we can check that one off the list. I'm attaching a link to my new website. If you've ever wondered what I do all day, this should give you a pretty good idea of what keeps me busy, outside C&C of course. http://www.mrdevelopment.net/
I've had no time for scrapbooking, so looks like I may be going digital with my hobby from now on. I'm hoping Santa will bring me a very large computer screen for my scrapbook room, so my almost 40 year old eyes can see my pictures better!! Stay tuned for scrapbooks online!

That's it in a nutshell kids. Talk soon.

The Daily Grind!

2008-09-04T21:12:00.000-05:00

Well, this is the end of our second week of the new school year. Christian is just doing great in Mrs. Powell's class. She's a no nonsense kind of teacher, and I think that is good for him. His potty issues have improved since entering her class, so as far as I'm concerned he could hang by the chandelier all day, as long as he makes it to the potty!! Miss Muffett is in Ms. Botello's class, otherwise known as babysitter extraordinaire!

My girl enjoys a routine, so every morning we get to school and she hangs up her backpack, goes into the potty and takes care of business, washes her hands. She then goes in to Ms. Botello gives her a hug and says, "I ready, Tello". Caroline loves her and that makes me one happy mama!! Caroline is also giving her brother a run for his money in the potty department. She is just doing FABULOUS!!! Clearly, God knew I needed an easy one, and he gave me one. I told my mom, that I guess this is how it typically goes, but I just had never experienced it with my big guy!!

I will leave you tonight with one funny from Mr. Christian. This morning he said he was cold in his short pajamas. He also was questioning why daddy only sleeps in his underwear. He said, "he must not get cold because he has long fur and I only have short fur"!!

Caroline in big girl panties!

2008-08-14T21:15:00.000-05:00

Today was a big day in our house, everyone went to school in underwear!!!! Christian could take a lesson from his sister, because she stayed dry ALL DAY!!!!! at school. Tonight, we had a few accidents but also a few successes. She is trying and we are so happy!!! I feel gun shy even writing this because of our challenges with Christian in this department, but hey, I'll take every bit of clean pants I can get!! Yippee!!!

I want to give a big thank you to Caroline's teacher Mrs. Campbell. I talked to her about trying to get Caroline trained and she said, "if you're ready, I'm ready". I just love that, let's get it done attitude. Caroline will be leaving Mrs. Campbell and Primrose in 6 more days. We will miss all of her teachers, and the entire Primrose staff as they have been wonderful to Caroline, and Chrsitian before her.

Mom, don't forget about my penis!

2008-08-08T18:41:00.000-05:00

We were sitting at the dinner table having some conversation and praising Christian for telling me that he needed to go poop and tee-tee BEFORE he had an accident!!! As many of you know this has been a point of contension for WAY to long to think about, and that kind of announcement from Christian gets as much attention as a tornado siren going off alerting us that within seconds our house is going to be blown away!!

Anyway, I failed to praise him for the tee-tee part of the above story to which he announces to everyone, "mom, don't forget about my penis". I just about choked on my food from laughing hysterically and I did mention that I am only 5 days out from a hysterectomy, it hurts to laugh that hard. He wants all the praise that is due him, believe me!! Then, Randy tells him that he needs to be careful what he says because that kind of stuff makes the blog these days!! I swear, you just can't make this stuff up!