Proud Moments

I am always proud to be Andrew's Mommy, but there are times that I am nearly bursting with pride that I have to share!

Doug and I were so proud of Andrew at Thanksgiving because he said Grace before our meal. He has been saying prayers at school and home for a while, but he is often shy about performing in front of a larger audience, but he said it perfectly at dinner!

He also knows a morning and afternoon prayer and can say the Pledge of Allegiance. I have to say, I am really happy with his new school. I can't remember if I shared on the blog that we changed Andrew from the Pre-K class to the Early Pre-K class so now he is the oldest in his class instead of the youngest and I think that is going to serve him well over time (there are several other kids with late summer birthdays who opted to do the same thing). He is constantly learning new things at school and coming home and teaching us what he learned.

He loves to learn, although Andrew can be super stubborn. I wonder where he gets that? :) Seriously though, we have been working on identifying letters and helping him sound out words. For example, Train starts with the letter T, etc. There are a handful of letters that Andrew doesn't seem to want to admit that he knows (no idea why), but to help him overcome this I put up the letters around the house and he has to tell us a letter before he can get juice, watch tv, etc.

So yesterday he declared that he didn't want to watch any TV all day. Doug and I were fairly certain it was because he didn't want to tell us what letter was on the TV. So, about 30 minutes later Andrew announced that the letter on the TV box was an "H" and that he wanted to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I guess he finally realized we weren't going to give in and turn it on unless he fessed up that he knew the letter. The only person more stubborn than Andrew is Andrew's mommy!

Last night we rented Fred Claus and the boys loved it, but the best part was during the credits when Ludacris' Here Comes Santa Claus came on (a hip hop twist to the classic song) and Andrew started dancing and doing a little break dancing as well! I so wish I had the video camera to capture his dancing! Tyler ended up joining in on the fun too.

This morning we were playing outside and Andrew came running to tell me that Tyler was playing in a puddle - sure enough, I turned around and found Tyler sitting next to a mud puddle splashing away in the mud!

Ah, to be the mother of boys! :)

I feel so violated ...

In the grand scheme of things I feel very lucky, but right now I feel pretty crappy about it. Saturday around lunch we were loading up Doug's car so that we could go see our friends Mikey and Paige and their new little boy, William. As usual, I was grabbing 100 things on the way out the door. Snacks and juice for the boys. Slings to show Paige. My camera and camera bag. My make-up ... wait, where is my make-up bag?

This question started a 15 minute search for my make-up bag which is normally in my car or gym bag. I knew I saw it in my car Friday afternoon because I grabbed it to put on some moisturizer (cold weather dries out my skin!) but I had not seen it since then. I searched high and low and could not find it. As I was looking in my car for the third time, I realized that a shopping bag was missing. We had unloaded the car Friday afternoon, but I had purposely left one of the bags because it had stuff for Doug. Maybe Doug had grabbed it by mistake, or perhaps my mom had taken it with her stuff. Well, after searching high and low at our house and having my mom do the same at hers we were at a stand still. Where had these things gone?

It wasn't until today when I was loading the boys in the car to head home from Walgreens that I realized someone must have taken them out of my car. Why is that my conclusion ... because my diaper bag is missing too. We NEVER take my diaper bag out of my car and in fact, it hardly gets used at all these days. I have a small diaper pouch that I grab instead that holds the diapers and wipes and that is really all we need. After calling Doug to make sure the had not seen the diaper bag and checking the house yet again, I have come to the conclusion that we must have left the hatch to my car up on Friday evening when we were taking in the rest of the packages and someone took those things from the back of my car.

What is strange is that they didn't take my $300 stroller or my radar detector, although the radar detector was in the front of my car which may have been locked and not easily reached for a grab and go. All in all, I probably lost $300 or so worth of stuff, so it could have been worse. I think coming to this conclusion has helped our sanity somewhat because we were making ourselves crazy looking for everything. I just feel violated that if that is indeed what happened, it happened in our driveway.

I will be much happier when our house is renovated and the garage is available again so that I can park inside the garage instead of in the driveway. The good news is that our contractor and insurance company came to an agreement of about $35,000 in damages so the work should be able to start soon! The contractor and super are coming over tomorrow at lunch to start scheduling the work!

Happy Thanksgiving

This year, as always, I am thankful for so much and feel so blessed for the wonderful things I have in my life.

I am thankful for:

- My amazing and wonderful boys who bring me joy each and every day. I am so lucky to be a mother and wife to such incredible, fun and loving children and such a supportive, giving and thoughtful husband.

- My mom who reminds me that the love I have for my boys is the same love she has for me - it never ends

- My mother-in-law who has taken me in as her own and spends lots of quality time with my boys when we have other commitments. I love the special mother-son relationship she has with Doug because it shows me that a mother and son can have a close relationship like I have with my mom -- and since I have boys, that is very important to me.

- The rest of my family who is always there for me, even from afar

- Allie, for always remembering every special day in my life and being there whenever I need to vent and for not judging me when I do!

- My friends and co-workers who have laughed with me, helped me, given me advice, shared their stories with me and who have been there for me over the last year

- My health - I feel so fortunate that I am able to pursue my own athletic dreams and that my body is able to go along for the ride

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Brothers, Best Friends

My boys have been playing together so well lately that it just makes me smile to think about it. They make each other laugh like no one else can and Tyler clearly wants to be just like his big brother which is obvious when you watch him copy his every move!

A couple of cute stories to share:

*We were watching a Texas football game and Douglas gave me a fist bump after a Texas touchdown and Andrew wanted one too, so of course we gave him a fist bump as well. Well, Tyler felt left out and he came over to get his fist bump as well! It was too cute - plus, when Tyler gives his fist bumps he makes this cute noise. Next time you see him, give him a fist bump and you can see what I am talking about.

*During dinner the other night I gave Tyler a tortilla that was folded in half and he took a bite which made a circular hole in the tortilla. After he made the hole, he covered his face with the tortilla and looked out at us through the hole - he thought he was so clever and it was a pretty cute sight to see!

Here they are -- brothers and best friends:

Yacht Spotting

"Our yacht" has made its way from Tahiti to Panama, Grand Cayman, Cuba, the Bahamas, Spain, Greece and Siciliy and now back to Spain. Such world travelers!

http://www.yachtspotter.com/ysp2_ycard.php?foo=20061225

Blue Tarps

We are one of those houses, you know what I am talking about -- the ones with the 'Hurricane Ike came through over 2 months ago and destroyed my roof but my insurance company is dragging its feet so I still have this tarp on my roof -- houses. If you have the pleasure of flying into Houston, look out the window and you will see how many homes and businesses fall in this category.

We have made some headway through the insurance process but I have come to the realization that our house will not be back to normal for Christmas and that stinks! We have received the first estimate from the insurance company and our first check but before any work can begin, the contractor and insurance company have to agree on the price of the work to be done and right now, they don't agree. Our contractor is negotiating with them right now and hopefully we will have some feedback this week. Our contractor does this full time (they specialize in restoration work and deal with insurance companies all of the time, not just with natural disasters like hurricanes). We are confident that they are going to get things done for us, it is just a matter of when.

For those of you who do not know, the roof damage allowed extensive water damage in our home so there is lots of work do be done in several rooms, including ceiling, sheet rock, insulation, new molding, new flooring, etc. Plus all of this work will require painting most of the downstairs on top of the new roof and partial new fence.
Cross your fingers for us!

Andrew keeps asking when they are going to come and fix our house ... I told him that I want to know the same thing and then I just promise it will be done soon. So, Allstate -- don't make me a liar! The contractor says it will take 3 weeks to do everything once we get the green light from the insurance company, I am not sure what the over/under is on that quote, but I would take the over ...

Pretty Mommy ... awww

Last night we went to the social event of the year at Andrew's school, a cocktail party with silent and live auction to benefit the school. I wore my favorite black dress and Douglas wore his black suit. When we were saying goodbye to the boys as we were leaving them with Mom Mom, Andrew called me back to tell me how pretty I looked and how much he loved his pretty mommy. Awww ... it made my heart melt on the spot! He should have just asked for his car when he turns 16 right then and there.

Through the eyes of a child

Sometimes I look at Andrew and I am taken back in time in that instant to elementary school as his mannerisms and his behavior remind me so much of myself at that age. What is the number one thing we seem to have in common? Getting in trouble in class! :) It seems like Andrew may be a bit of a chatter box like his Mommy. He often tries to explain why he didn't do what we asked and I remember doing that a lot growing up. It always makes me smile when he does it because I understand now what my parents and teachers must have thought!

They have introduced the green light, yellow light and red light concept as school and each day we find out how he behaved at school that day depending on what color his light was for the day. Andrew is usually yellow with the occasional red and the rare green. I distinctly remember this same concept from first grade, except the teacher actually had all of our names on a board and she would change the paper next to our name from one color to the other so the entire class knew who was which color that day. You guessed it, I was often yellow! I keep reminding myself that I turned out ok and was a good student so I try not to be too hard on Andrew while still instilling the importance of good behavior at school.

Big News on Iron Dreams

Check it out at www.annesirondream.blogspot.com

Babies, babies, everywhere!

I am so excited that so many of my friends are having babies!

*Laura (a friend from work) had a baby girl about 2 weeks ago.

*Jeanne (another friend from work) had a baby girl last week.

*Paige (a friend from high school)and her husband Mikey (a friend from preschool!) are having a baby boy on Friday! -- note, I am happy to see someone else is having boys! Good luck on Friday!

*Allie (a friend from college) is having a baby girl in February. Her daughter will be two years younger than Tyler -- I see a budding romance possibility here!

*Tara (a friend from elementary school on) is having a baby girl this Spring.

No baby fever yet ... my boys keep me too busy for that, but we'll see how I feel when all of these babies arrive! :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

What a great birthday!

I started the day off with a 13 mile run. Felt strong - it was a great way to start a new year. I came home from my run to a house of surprises. I love surprises (good ones at least!). There were 29 red balloons waiting for my in the utility room (which is the house entry from the garage, which is how I come in the house) and posters and streamers all around the house wishing me a happy day. As soon as I walked in the boys sang me Happy Birthday. It all just made me melt!

Douglas made pancakes and eggs and then we just laid low all day. It was such a wonderful, relaxing day. The boys stayed up late watching the Texas vs Tech game (we finally put them to bed at the end of the 3rd quarter). They were both in such a good mood and were being so playful -- it was just a wonderful, wonderful evening! While I was not happy with the outcome of the Texas game, it didn't put a damper on my special day.

Douglas and the boys gave me a Garmin running watch for my birthday, which I used on my run this morning and it was awesome! Plus, Doug made me my favorite birthday cake -- hmmm, I think I will go have another taste now! I was spoiled rotten today -I have the best boys ever!

I also got some great cards in the mail, text messages, emails and phone calls from friends and family which truly helped round out my fantastic day - thank you!

Happy Halloween!

In keeping with tradition, my boys coordinated for Halloween. Last year they were Super Heroes and this year they were Woody (Tyler) and Buzz Lightyear (Andrew) from the movie Toy Story. For those of you who have not seen the movies, while adversaries at first, Woody and Buzz end up as best friends.

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch this week to pick our pumpkin for carving and to take our pumpkin pictures. The boys loved the pumpkin patch and were running around having a blast. Lots of other children approached them to ask about their costumes and Andrew took great pride in telling everyone who they were. Andrew even asked me how to fly with his costume on! :)

Here are the best photos from the pumpkin patch, seriously, how cute are my boys?