Happy Memorial Day

Sometimes we take for granted the liberty and freedom so many unknown fought for. We always think about our families and friends helping and fighting for us, but we never really think about those that we don't know and never meet fighting for us. They are fighting for our freedom to say what we want and believe in what we want, and allow us to protect ourselves. These are things we cannot physically see, hear, or touch...just things we feel in our heart. We don't realize how lucky we are until we don't have it and that's a feeling we never want to feel. Please make sure and take some time to think about and realize the freedoms we have and thank those who have served or are currently serving in our armed forced. THANK YOU

So Much to Say, So Little Time

Well, it has been a while since I had time to blog much, so I will be catching up on lost time with this one!

First, I was in Savannah, GA for several days for work.  I work with the Association for Paroling Authorities International, and their Annual Training Conference was in Savannah.  Savannah is a beautiful place; however, I did not have much time or energy to explore it.  Our hotel was on the river and so the view was wonderful.  I did have pictures; however, they were taken on my phone and I had a mild catastrophe with my phone there and lost all but one picture.

This picture was taken after a short shower one afternoon.  Throughout the day, it had rained off and on, but this was the first rainbow I had a chance to see.  So pretty!

Less than 24 hours after getting back from Savannah, we left for Dallas to see my wonderful future sis-in-law, Kaitlin, graduate from Northwood University.  Russell, Colleen, and I had the opportunity to meet Kaitlin's family and they may be a rowdy bunch, but they are very entertaining, and great to be around!  They are actually from the Kirbyville area and are owners/operators of a meat market in Jasper.

On our way to Dallas for the graduation, we ran into an awful hail storm that did some minor damage to my car with dings and cracked my bug shield.  We ended up pulling off on the shoulder along with around 10 or so other cars to minimize the impact of the hail.  After getting going again, Russell looked in the rearview more and we saw a nice big rainbow.

After the graduation on Friday, we drove to Tyler on Saturday, so Russell could shoot a field tournament.  While Russell was shooting, I got to meet up with an old neighbor and her two kids.  Brooke (Barrington) has two young kids, an almost 3 year old and a 5 year old.  Colleen had played with them a couple of times before and they always have a great time.  Brooke told me about a great place called Brookshire's World of Wildlife Museum.  They have lots of animal mounts and a nice playground for kids of all ages.  Colleen had a great time!  She climbed things very tall without fear and one woman commented on her determination to try and reach some monkey bars by finding a huge rock and moving it under the bars to step on to reach them.  I have always called her my "fearless wonder" and she continues to hold that nickname!

I will end this post with one more picture and comment.  I am lucky to have one of the best daycare teachers there could ever be in Ms. Patty.  She always takes great care of my Colleen and keeps me in the know of all she does.  Every once in a while, Ms. Patty finds time to take pictures and send them to me.  This past Thursday was the first water day at her school for the summer and Colleen LOVES water day, as you can tell (thank you Patty for this great pic!).

Mommy's Day Love

Mother's Day 2010 started off fantastic with the dedication of Colleen during the church service this morning.  Our church has two services - a contemporary service at 9 am and the traditional service at 11 am.  We have been going to the contemporary service since we started going and really enjoy it.  The band is wonderful and really loves what they do.  Well, usually Colleen is in the preschool area learning about the Lord with others her age during this time, but due to the dedication, she was with us for a little while.  I couldn't help but laugh while we sang b/c Colleen was just a dancing to the music.  There is no doubt Colleen has my love of music and dance as it doesn't matter what kind of music it is - she will dance!  Then it came time for the dedication portion of the service...After we had been called up to the front of the church with the other families dedicating their children, Brother Gary started going through our commitment to our child for the dedication, Colleen decides she needs to go POTTY!  Thank goodness the preschool director was near and Colleen knows her, she stepped out quickly to take her potty.  The church gave Colleen a wonderful children's bible and Colleen started looking through it as soon as we took our seat again.

Colleen has danced for me, sang for me, made my laugh by telling me daddy hurt her feelings, colored, practiced writing her letters - but also typical three year old stuff.  You know the doing the stuff you tell her not to do and not doing stuff you tell her to do!  OH the joys!

Start of Mother's Day Festivities

We are lucky to have Colleen in a preschool that loves putting on programs for the families of the children in the program - that preschool is Second Baptist Church. We were guided to this program almost 2 years ago and became members of the congregation of the church in February. We love every aspect of the preschool and church. Over the last couple of years, the school has done 2-3 programs each year ranging from a Thanksgiving and Christmas program, to Mother's Day this year. At each program, the kids from each class (including the infants) participate in one, sometimes two, songs and then enjoy lunch with the kids. Each program brings the mystery of "is my kid gonna be the kid that cries the entire time, sings as loud as they possibly can, shies away, runs away, and the many other thoughts that go through a parent's mind!

Colleen has always been kinda in between all these. She does look around for mom and dad and she has kinda sorta sang in the past - but we have been lucky and not had the one that feels the need to run with horror from the stage or cries during the entire performance! Today, I had my first "scare" that one of these things was gonna happen! She has been practicing her song in the car and at home for about two weeks now.



In the video, you will see her looking around and then spotting me and waving. I wave back thinking, she is comfy now b/c she knows I am there. THEN, she attempts to come to me. Thankfully, Colleen has the best teachers there are and Ms. Patty (who likes for people to think she is mean, but we all know is one of the sweetest people with the biggest hearts around) stops Colleen and gets her back on stage. AND just when you think Colleen is about to loose it on stage, Ms. Patty hugs her and says something very sweet to Colleen that keeps Colleen on the stage and not crying. She actually sings, but with her hands at her mouth the whole time. That's okay though...Later on, Colleen actually sang the song for me and I got it all on video!

The first video is from the program.


Now, this is the video we did at home later this evening of her singing the Mommy song...OMG, isn't it just precious!




Seems like I have a few things to update! One week ago I got an iPhone! YES, I LOVE it! Well, Colleen loves it too and has her own page of apps and games! She has figured out how to unlock it (thinking I may have to set a password for it) and how to get to her page of apps and get out of an app to pick another one! Scary, huh! I will leave this for now..watch for more to come soon!