The H man

Hunter's first soccer game was on Saturday. It was very exciting and he is so happy to be playing. I was VERY excited to watch and cheer him on. I managed to NOT embarrass anyone with my loud cheering. This year they are playing with a goalie and Hunter was able to have a turn at it. He did pretty good, but I was nervous for him. I was not only afraid he was going to get accidentally kicked in the face, but I didn't want anyone to score on him. Unfortunately the other team did score on him, but he was ok with it. He just turned to us and held up his fingers up to show us what the score was. We have decided that he is the unofficial score keeper. He will keep track throughout the entire game and update us frequently. I love to watch him play. He has so much fun playing!

Ike, rain boots and bffs

As they say here in Texas..."EVERYTHING is bigger in Texas". Well that sure held true this weekend with Hurricane Ike. It was almost as big as Texas and packed a heck of a punch. Even though we are several hours north of Galveston, where Ike hit the hardest, we still felt some effects of him. We experienced some wind with some pretty good gusts and rain, sometimes pretty heavy. It was definitely the kind of day were you have your bffs over and hang out....


...put your rain boots on and jump in puddles.

Soccer mom

Yes, I am the ultimate cheering soccer mom at my kids games. So much so that I don't even realize when the refs have blown their whistle and the game has stopped. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE watching my kids play and yelling for them. Of course it completely embarrasses my kids, especially when I am yelling for the wrong color of jersey or team name. Come on, I have three kids playing, it is a little hard for me to keep track of names and colors!
Today was Jakes first official game of the season and first game with the Jackals. THEY WON!!! It was just an exciting first game! So different from the previous two seasons. He has great coaches who are positive, encouraging and just simply know what they are doing. Jake is really thriving this season. Today he won the "heart of the game award". He wasn't backing down and gave his all for the entire game. I am so excited for the rest of the season. I'm not sure how many games I'll make once Taylor and Hunter start their season, but till then I will be at every one of Jakes cheering!
GO JACKALS!!!!!

Good morning class...

Well today, August 27, 2008 is the official starting date for school around these here parts. YIIIPPPPPEEEE!!! What a GREAT day here in Texas. I will say even though I was very happy to have everyone back at school, it was a bit sad. Amber has started her last year of high school. I recently came across a picture of her on her first day of kindergarten, August 27, 1996, so it is fitting that she should start her last year on the same date. The kids all had a good day and I think they secretly were happy to have something different going on and to see all their friends they didn't see thru the summer. Jake is at the new jr. high which is down the street and so he is able to ride his bike. Of course I took pictures, I could have taken more, but the kids were ready for me to leave so I will have to be happy with the few I took.
Here's to a GREAT year!

Dave was able to score free zoo tickets from his work and so we took the kids on Friday. It's definitely NOT the San Diego Zoo, but it is a nice zoo. They are doing some reconstruction on some of the exhibits so we weren't able to see the Lions and a few other animals. And of course because of the EXTREME heat and humidity some of the animals did not feel the need to come out and people watch. One of our first stops was at Sting Ray bay so the kids could touch a sting ray. The sting rays were very friendly and one in particular liked to show off by jumping up out of the water. It of course scared me to death and I would jump. The kids thought that was pretty funny. Because of Dave's work he gets to go the zoo often to inspect, he knew one of the workers there and they gave the kids some fish to feed the Sting Rays. It was pretty cool the way they took the food from your hand. Their mouths are underneath and they are like a vacuum, sucking the fish from your hands. Jake and Hunter wanted to go and see the snake exhibits. The only reason I went in was because it was an air conditioned building. I'm not a big snake fan. As we were looking at them all we came upon a HUGE Python who was just having lunch, a full grown rabbit! It was truly AMAZING!! I was totally grossed out and in awe at the same time. You know one of those things where you don't want to watch, but can't help yourself. Anyway, I thought the little kids would be freaked out, but they were just as amazed as I was. It was incredible. Glad I'm not a rabbit!
All in all it was a great day at the zoo.

So I can't get my slideshow to work on here...UGH! I will just have to post a couple of pictures from our day at the zoo till I can get Carlie over here to help me.

AAAHHHH!! Spider!!!

Yesterday as I was on one of many trips to taxi the kids around I saw all these bales of hay. Actually, we see them everywhere around here. I find them so interesting. As funny as it may sound but I guess I find them beautiful against the green (well now it's kinda brown, lack of rain) and the blue and sometimes cloudy skies. You will just be driving around and sometimes in the middle of a neighborhood there will just be all these round bales of hay. Well, yesterday I brought my camera with me and stopped to take a picture of them. It was on the side of the road where I thought I could get fairly close and get a good picture. Well....as I trudged thru all the knee or higher grass/weeds I stepped in an ant hill and was soon the tasty treat of many ants. So once I recovered from that I was trying to get closer and ignoring the "please do not tresspass" sign, when...AAAAAHHHHHH the BIGGEST spider I think I've ever seen, I think it could have eaten me, really! Ok that MIGHT be a tad bit dramatic, but really it scared the crap out of me. After the intial shock I took a few pictures of it to show the kids.

Humidity....ugh!

We lived in the desert before we came here and I thought it was hot there. 110plus is HOT!! But like my dad is fond of saying, it's not that bad it's a DRY heat. Ok what the heck did that mean?? I would politely smile at my aging father, surely the heat had gotten to him. He has no idea what he is saying! It is hotter than heck here. I think we really could have fried an egg on the sidewalk. I'm telling you it was HOT!

WELL!.....I now know what my dad meant. This humidity is UNBELIEVABLE! I haven't had a decent hair day since we moved here! I'm convinced that we have 99% humidity EVERYDAY! I no longer glisten I full on SWEAT! So dad I guess you really did know what you were talking about.....

I'm not sure, but I think this might be a side effect of all the humidity we had today....

The most incredible rainbow I've ever see. What an amazing site.