Our House!

Here are the before pictures of our new house. The painting will start on Monday. The new carpet will go in the following week and the hardwoods will be refinished, too.

Relay for Life 2011

This year's relay is coming up fast and this is my last year as team captain for my school's team. As team captain for our school's team we have raised over $10,000 over the last 3 years! I've set my goal again at $1000. The link to my website is to the right. I did update it tonight and it is now working. Thanks!!!

SOCCER!!!!!

William signed Mary up for spring soccer. She was picked to be on the WATERMELONS. She has had a couple of practices and loves the girls on her team. 2 others go to her school. Saturday was their first game. Granny came up for the weekend to be there for her first game. It was cold and VERY windy, but was a blast to watch. They don't keep score, but we did! The watermelons won! Although Mary did not have any goals this game, she made some really good plays and helped her team. After the game she picked Dickey's to go for supper and celebrate.

Ice days

Well, we are on day 2 of ice. The neighborhood streets are still solid ice and the main town streets are spotty and slushy. The highways are mostly clear. Not sure if we'll have school tomorrow or not, since the temp won't get above freezing until later on Friday. Since the house is pretty much clean, I thought I'd upload some pictures, since I hadn't even posted Christmas pics!
Christmas pics

2 weekends ago we went to New York for our neices baptism. We left Friday after work and returned Monday evening. It was sooooo cold up there! I guess that just prepared us for this week! The only "tourist" thing we did was go to the MET. Mary had a blast and really enjoyed looking at all of the art and scultures. She really liked the Vincent Van Gohs. She had been reading a book at school about him and was disappointed she didn't get to see her favorite, Starry Night. She did get a collection of post cards that has a lot of paintings. She was excited to show them to her art teacher.

Last weekend Granny came up for a short weekend visit. William rode the Harley down to the farm and Granny brought him back.

2010 Pearland Football State Champs

On Saturday, Dec 18 Granny stayed with the girls while William and I went to the 5A State Championship game at the Dallas Cowboy Stadium. The Pearland Oilers were making their very first state appearance vs the Trinity Trojans who were ranked #1 in the nation! It was a late game, but were very excited to cheer them on. William gradutated from Pearland and I taught 1st grade there for 2 1/2 years. I took a look at the roster before the game and found that 2 of my former students were playing on the team! The game was EXTREMELY exciting and one of the best football games I had ever watched. Right up there with the UT win at the Rose Bowl a few years ago. Way to go Pearland on your first Championship!! My two former students were #44 and #48. Both saw playing time and had some good plays!

One Sick Household

Well, the sicknesses all started when Amy woke up with a fever on Dec 6. William stayed home with her Monday morning and took her to the doctor. He said just a cold, it will run it's course. I came home at noon and took over. She was fine for the rest of the day. So she went back to school on Tuesday. At about 3:30 I get a call that she has a 103 fever and need to pick her up. Unfortunately, I was at the dentist with Mary getting 2 cavities filled, so I couldn't leave until she was done. We went to pick her up and gave her Motrin. William stayed at home with her the next day and she was fine. I had off of work on Thursday and decided to keep her with me until we had lunch with Mary at 10:15. She was fine the rest of the day at school and went back on Friday. At about 10:00 I get call from the school telling me she has a 101 fever. So I go to pick her up and spend the rest of the day at home with her. Over the weekend she had a fever off and on, but felt pretty good overall. On Monday, she had another fever, so I stayed at home with her and got an appointment. This time they found she had an ear infection and possible bronchitis, sinus infection, and/or pneumonia! They gave her 2 prescriptions. I stayed at home with her again on Tuesday and the antibiotics were kicking in and she was doing much better. She was able to go to school for the rest of the week. However, she still had a nagging cough that wouldn't go away even with the cough medicine. So the Dr refilled it over the weekend. All during the week before Christmas, she still had the cough and no other symptoms. On the Thursday before Christmas I started feeling a little sluggish and run down, but nothing major. By Christmas morning, my whole body was sore and achy. And on Sunday morning, I couldn't get out of bed. William took me to the urgent care in Sealy. They found I had an ear infection and possible bronchitis and/or pneumonia. So 2 prescriptions for me. I felt a little better on Monday, but still tired. On Monday, I took Amy back to the doctor for her cough since it had been going on for almost 4 weeks. He sent us over for chest xrays, which showed pneumonia. So back to the doctor for 2 new prescriptions. By the next day her cough was nearly gone and she was back to full energy! However, I was still not feeling well and had LOST my antibiotic. So I made an appointment with my doctor on Wednesday. She gave me a new stronger antibiotic and 2 more prescriptions, and sent me for chest xrays. I had pneumonia in my right lung. After the new meds kicked in with the other new meds, I was feeling really good by the weekend. Sunday night (the night before we go back to school) I wake up in the middle of the night very sick! I tried to make it in to work but when I had to pull over and ask Mary for her handy plastic bag, I had to call in a sub. I went home and slept until 1:30 and for the rest of the day I felt weak. After a good night's rest I felt much better this morning. And somewhere in between Amy and I being sick William also went to primacare and his doctor for congestion and sinus problems. He also was on several prescriptions. Luckily we had healthy Mary to take care of all of us! So now, I think we can finally say that our house is finally healthy again! I'll be posting Christmas stuff soon!

Rest in Peace Gus

In Febuary 2004 we adopted a SWEET bassett hound named Gus from the McKinney SPCA. He was the very first kennel and just looked at us with his big brown eyes and long ears and a wagging tail. We took him home that day! He had heartworms and bad teeth when we adopted him. We got his heartworm taken care of and his teeth pulled and cleaned up. After these were taken care of he was like a new dog. He loved being played with and pet. You could pet him for an hour, stop, and he would start whining for you to pet him some more. Or he would nudge your hand or leg. The girls loved him too. They would "pet" him, pull on his ears and tail, and try to ride him like a horse. In the spring, we moved him out to the farm to live with Granny and Doc. He loved being a farm dog. He would play with Doc and bark at night with him. We were always so excited to so him each time we made the trip to Bellville. On our last trip on for Thanksgiving, we noticed he wasn't feeling well. So I took him in for an appointment on Monday afternoon. He was really sick by the time we got in. After some blood work, the vet decided it would be best if he stay overnight and be monitored. I gave him a hug and kiss and told him to be a good dog. The vet left at 10pm that night and Gus was wagging his tail. When he came in the next morning, he found that Gus had passed away during the night. We miss him so much, but we know he's running around with his old pal, Tuff! Here's a few pictures of him over that last 7 years that we had him in our family.

Update for my bloggers!

Life has been super busy trying to keep our house clean and be "show ready" every day. Here are some pics of what we have been doing lately. I forgot my camera when we went to the state fair and county fair. So, I got a few from my sister. I still need to get the one's from my mom.
This weekend we went to the Heard Museum to see the bug exhbit and go on the dinosaur trail. Once again, Mary was scared for the first part, but was braver as we continued along the trail.

Last weekend we went home to celebrate Granny's birtday!

For Halloween Mary was a heavenly angel and Amy was a ladybug. They didn't want to go trick or treating very long. Mary wanted to get home and pass out the candy!


We had a lot of fun at the fair this year. We made it there early Friday evening, just in time to have some fair food for supper! On Saturday Mary had fun riding carnival rides and checking out all of the animals. On Sunday, we celebrated my birthday with a fair food buffet. Then had funnel cake for my birthday cake.

Alpha Wolf!

At our school each teacher chooses a student who has made good choices all week. On Fridays we have an assembly called Good Morning Slaughter and these students are announced and receive a certificate! The kids love it. Mary has been trying since the first day of school to be the Alpha Wolf for her class. Well, last week was her lucky week. She had no idea that she was going to be it. When her name was called she was surprised and soooo excited. We are so proud of her.

With her teacher, Mrs. Tillett

New home

We are so excited to be moving back near family and childhood friends. We knew we wanted to move to the Katy area. William has been reseaching neighborhoods, taxes, floor plans, etc for over 2 years. All that time has paid off. He found a great deal and got a realtor to show it to him a couple of weeks ago. We found out it was a short sale and they were taking bids. Since I had not seen the place yet I had to trust his instinct and he put in an extremely LOW bid on Friday, Oct 15 and were told they would make a choice on Monday. Well....we got it! It is perfect! Well, almost! The people that lived there before trashed the place and it will need a lot of work. Luckily we won't be moving until June, so as soon as we close on it we can start making the repairs and getting it move in ready. It is 4 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, 3 car garage, study, formal dining, family room, and play room. It is on a horseshoe drive. The backyard is big and lots of landscaping out front. Now we just need to sell our house in Florida and McKinney and we'll be good to go!