Ouch!

Yesterday after I dropped the kids off at school and was heading to work I had an encounter with a red Ford F150 truck. I had just turned right and was aware of the truck turning left from oncoming traffic. We both went into our lanes and continued along our way...at least that's what I thought, until I heard that unforgettable sound of **SMACK**. I really didn't know what happened, except I had that slow motion feeling as my car started to swerve from the impact. I was able to keep control of my car and avoid a huge drainage ditch that wanted to swallow me up. Everyone seemed ok, her truck seemed fine, and my poor car suffered this:

Today I'm a little sore (yes, I'm going to the doctor Mom) but very thankful that I am ok. It could have been worse.

Now please tell me she has insurance.....

Good grades feast!!

Tonight we had a party to celebrate all the good grades our kids got last semester. We had 3 boys with straight A's and McKinley will all 3's and E's (which is the best!). Our kids work really hard to earn these grades. The older boys take all the AP and Pre-Ap classes they can and work hard to keep their grades up. We are so proud of them all!

Tonight we had pizza, cinnamon rolls, soda, and ice cream to celebrate...a big pig out to celebrate so much hard work! We couldn't be prouder!

Missing Girls: Elsa and Celia Fitch

Two sister's of one of Austin's friends are missing from our area. They have been missing for a week now and their family is devastated. I don't know what I can do to help other than spread their information here and pray that everything works out ok.

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=1141124&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US

Someone online encouraged them to run away and gave them help. They were picked up at the end of their driveway by an adult. They were heavily involved in an online role playing game and the authorities are in touch with an adult woman who helped them plan their run.

You can find out more information here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=332692670814&ref=mf

Keep your kids safe...know what they are doing online! This is a great reason to talk with them about the dangers...it sparked a great discussion at our house.

The party was a blast!!

For Ethan's birthday party he invited 8 boys to come and have a huge airsoft gun war on our property. Some of his friends (and he is) are really into airsoft and are decked out. Others were good sports and learned a few things about airsoft and "wars". All in all, everyone had a good time. The kids were really good and nobody got hurt.

Boy those boys could really eat though. I put out the 5 pizzas and they were gone, I popped 6 bags of popcorn and they were gone, I cooked 72 bagel bites and they were gone, 3 bags of chips...gone...4 2 liters of soda...gone! They were always hungry!

The best part of the whole party was watching Ethan and seeing his smiles. He was really happy...and that made me happy!!

12 years already??

Ethan had his 12th birthday on February 3rd...how did that happen so fast? While he is an old soul, he was still my baby only 12 years ago! He's grown into such a great young man. Ethan is kind, soft, thoughtful, helpful, witty, and wise!! I love him!

His birthday started bright and early at 6am...fitting for my morning guy. He's always been a morning kid and loved waking everyone up this morning to celebrate.


For his birthday dinner he chose burgers and his cake was a chocolate mint torte...yum!
So cool to pinch out the flames instead of blow...you rock Ethan.

Smokin'

Yesterday I ended up with a 16 pound brisket that I didn't know how to cook. After researching for a while we decided that almost all recipes required a meat smoker. Amazingly a smoker appeared in our driveway that very day and we were ready to begin our first Texas BBQ! It was an all day event, starting with soaking the wood at 5am and finally eating at 6:30pm. Of course the smoker did most of the work, but it required some babysitting and feeding! Here it is smoking away.

And 11 hours later we open the door, held our breath, and found this:


Which turned into this on the dinner table that night! Yum!

100th day!

Monday was the 100th day of school for our kids. McKinley's class had a celebration and did everything with 100's that day! Each child had made a poster with 100 things on it...100 different, 100 the same, 100 whatever. McKinley and I made a huge 100 and filled it in with 10 groups of 10 foam shapes. It was fun. She had a great day and made this crown to go with all the excitement. Only 90 more days to go...it goes so fast!