Excited....

I shouldn’t be this excited but I just ordered Erin’s school supplies for next year!

It’s a program run by the PTO.  They contract with a service that bundles the school supplies together and sells them by grade level.  You just go online and order from your school and your grade!  They deliver all the packets on the first day of school so when you walk in your stuff is there waiting. 

How awesome is this?

Luckily Steph and my friend Sharon had both told me about this service.  I think I paid a little more because it’s a PTO fundraiser too, but I probably would have paid that in gas driving from store to store trying to find everything on the list.  I would have paid double that price just because it would reduce stress in my life!

It’s a little sad that we don’t get to pick out her pencils and etcetera but we’ll pick out a backpack and lunchbox so I think we’re good.  I have very fond memories of buying schools supplies.  It was so exciting at the time.  We would go and buy them then they would sit and I would want to get them out and use them.  Momma wouldn’t let us and they would sit there taunting me.  I still remember school clothes shopping and buying those new clothes you couldn’t wear until school started.  The fun and stress of picking out the perfect first day of school outfit!

I’m already looking forward to going school shopping with Erin.  It just sounds fun.  I know she’ll wear a lot of her summer clothes to school because today they let kids pretty much wear anything to school, but we’ll still get to pick out some new stuff.  She loves to pick out clothes.  Especially the sparkly ones.  Anything with sequins is our friend.  I’m wondering if she will ever get over her aversion to jeans.  She WILL NOT wear anything with snaps or buttons.  She said they are boy jeans or that only boys have shirts with buttons.  Thank God our school doesn’t wear uniforms.  I would never be able to get her to wear those polo's.

All in all, I’m having a very exciting morning!

Tahoe Update...

The Tahoe has a more serious problem.  It wasn't just the plugs and wire, some spring somewhere deep in the engine broke.  They basically had to take the whole thing apart to get it fixed.

I blog about this because that poor old truck is like a member of the family!  LOL

The Aged and Infirmed...

The Tahoe broke down on me and Erin the other night and left us stranded. It started acting crazy and the oil and engine lights came on. I immediately pulled over and called Tommy. We had it towed to the shop and $1000 later, it’s the spark plugs and wires. They are the originals so there is little doubt they needed to be changed.

 It’s an 8 year old truck with only 120,000 on it. That’s not high mileage for a truck of that year. Of course while it’s in the shop I started assuming the worst and went on line to price a new Suburban. Tommy told me that it wouldn’t be something major wrong with it, but he thought whatever it was would be expensive. He was right.

I wouldn’t say I have a terrible case of New Car Fever, but the spark is there (pun intended)! The new Suburbans, Tahoes and Expedition XLs are really nice. I’ve pretty much talked myself out of another Tahoe. I think I want something a little bigger. So, it would come down to the Suburban and the Expedition XL. I never thought the Ford would be in the running but our friend Bridgette got one and she loves it. (And they were a Tahoe family too!) They have most of the same features but they’re a lot less expensive.

So, maybe sometime before Christmas we’ll put our plan in motion and get me something new. I think we’ll finally sell Old Blue and Tommy will get the Tahoe. Who knows. We have time since there isn’t a pressing need to go in debt to the tune of $60K! It’s funny when I say it’s 8 years old because it really doesn’t seem like I’ve been driving it for that long, but I have! We need another 8 and 120,000 out of him. Anyone that knows Tommy knows that he demands at least 250,000 miles and 20 years out of a vehicle. He keeps his trucks forever!

Family Picture Day…

We did it!  We survived!

We had 17 people up to the Mize Ranch to take pictures.  It was a Mother’s Day present to the Grandmas.  My favorite photographers came up to make the photo shoot there.  (Shout out to Hard2Hold Photography!)  Love, love, love them!

Roll Call:

Louis,Jimmie, JD, Sandy, Bonnie, David, Lois, Amy, Matthew, William, Mark, Steph, Jake, Luke, Tommy, Erin and me.

It always amazes me how Keelie and Jessica can look at an ordinary pasture and see beautiful pictures.  We had 3 different spots for everyone.  One by the driveway, one in the backyard and one in the pasture behind the house.  They see things that I’ve looked at 1,000 times and see them differently.  I love that they shoot everything outside and on location in the natural light.

Louis had the golf cart out toting Momma and Jimmie from spot to spot.  It was a lot of hiking around.  The weather cooperated and it didn’t start to sprinkle until we were wrapping up and even then it was only for a few minutes.  Perfect light for the pictures but I would have done with a little less humidity.  My hair kept getting bigger and bigger!

We took each family picture, a big Wistner, a big Mize, little Wistner pics, little Mize pics, etc.  Amy and I took pictures together.  Erin and I got a picture.  And the girls got pictures of the kids in action on the ranch when we were done.  Steph took pictures with Bonnie and Amy and Matt got a family pic with Lois.

Amy told William to get careful and not to get dirty.  Right.  That lasted literally 5 minutes before he was covered in dirt.  He immediately got down on the ground and played smack in the middle of the driveway dirt.  All the kids were running around when it wasn’t their turn to be in front of the camera.  By far Erin was the least cooperative of the group.  She would refuse to smile at times and make weird faces, but she eventually came around.  Keelie and Jessica have a way of getting the best behavior out of the kids. 

I’m really proud of everyone.  No one complained about getting up so early to get there.  I was afraid the Mize Men would start acting up and put up a fuss about how long it was taking.  We started around 8:00 and kept on shooting until about 10:30.  We ended the shoot with a group photo of all of us.  One on the tractor and one out in the pasture.  I know we’re not all technically family to each other in name but we are a big family in love! 

I can’t wait to see what they look like!

Mission Accomplished…

We have ourselves a Pre-K graduate.

After almost five years at Gateway to Learning Erin and Luke graduated Pre-K last night.  The program was great.  The whole school went class by class singing a little song.  The Pre-K class sang 2. 

The cap and gown march was funny because they’re so short and the pews were so packed that we didn’t get to see them come in.  We were told to sit on the left but Erin’s group came in on the right.  We saw her cross the stage, but didn’t really get to see Luke much. 

They also have a hand full of the Pre-K stay on the stage since they had been there since they were babies.  Erin and Luke got to stay and Erin was beaming.  Of course, Luke had his hands in his pockets the whole time doing some crazy walk and dip.  It was hilarious.

The last official day before summer starts is next Friday.  It’s sort of strange for Erin.  She just keeps on going after graduation!  Since we work, she will have to go this summer too.  I guess we’ll call this summer her first college summer session.

 

 

 

Wild Horses…

It's no secret that my sister and I love the horse races. When we were younger we would go stay with my Grandma Mary and her husband for a week every summer in New Orleans.  My Pepaw John used to talk about going out to pick up the paper.  This meant he was going to buy the racing form.  Other kid's grandparents took them to the zoo and other attractions in the Big Easy.  Ours took us to the Fairgrounds Track for a little pari-mutuel betting.  None of my friends can brag that their grandparents had a bookie.  And I'm 99% sure his name was Bootsie.

Back in the 70's it was no big deal for a kid to go to The Track and buy a ticket.  I remember Pepaw John explaining how to bet to win, place or show.  I remember the longshot really is a sucker bet and that every once in a while you can hit a Trifecta.  I remember taking my money up to the window and having the lady print me out the ticket.

When we were younger, Amy was the picker of the winners.  We sat for a full day of racing one day and Amy picked several winners.  I remember Pepaw John betting on some of her predictions.  I've never been lucky at the ponies.  Although I understand most of the stats related to horseracing, I still base most of my decisions on the horse's name.  Crazy, huh?

To this day, my sister and I still love the horse races.  I love the pomp, costumes and splendor they bring out for the Derby.  Being at Churchill Downs that first Saturday in May is on my Bucket List for sure.  I even like the excitement of the Preakness.  The singing of Maryland, My Maryland by the military choir.  It's the "middle child" of the racing world, but we all watch it to see if we have a Triple Crown contender. 

My sister and I have been known to call each other if we can't be together in person on race days.  We both take a similar position when watching the race.  You have to pace while they're in the paddock and you have to stand to watch the race.  You cannot sit down.  It's impossible.  You have to stand in place and bounce around and pace.  It's the law.

This year is no disappointment.  We have a Triple Crown contender and the first person I tried to get a hold of is my sister.  I need to know if they'll be coming to my house so we can watch history be made.  There have been others win the Triple Crown but we were small kids and didn't know what was going on.  We both want to see it happen in our lifetime.

So, you can bet that come June 6th I'll be geared up to watch the race.  We'll be singing along as the bad Frank Sinatra wannabe sings New York,  New York at the Belmont.  I can hear the Rat Pack singing along now.

I want to hear them say that American Pharaoh wins in a photo finish!  I want it to be a good race.  I want it to be one I'll remember for years to come. 

Riders Up!

Change of Plans…

There’s been a change of plans on the change of plans.

I was able to incorporate the blog into my new webpage so I don’t have to completely stop the way I’ve been doing it. 

You’ll still want to log onto my new site because it rocks, but you can still find us this way if you want.  Boo!

www.threemizes.com

I hate to admit the hours I’ve spent working on this project.  I am such a Polly Perfectionist that it drove me crazy until I got it exactly like I wanted it.  (And I’m still not completely done!)

I hope you enjoy!

Changes, Changes, Changes…

 

I’ve reconstructed the blog and am working on the Mize website. 

The blog will move to that website, I think!  I’m attempting to do this with my limited programming skills. 

When I’m done you should be able to log into www.threemizes.com and see the blog and new family webpage.

It’s still under construction so please be patient.

Busy, Busy, Busy…

 

It’s been non-stop here lately. 

I’ve been working 50 to 60 hour weeks and Tommy has been going to Rockets Playoff games.  We’ve had to totally rearrange our schedules and shuffling Erin to and from school.  It’s been a logistical battle.

I actually enjoy my job more because I’m truly helping people with legitimate damage.  We’ve had some really bad hail storms in my territory.  It’s too rural for our Catastrophe team to pick up so even though that’s what they do, they don’t go to my territory.  The guys on my team with the Houston and the suburbs have it made.  The CAT team is sucking up all their claims and they are doing like 1 or 2 appointments a week!  Some of them have stepped up to the plate and helped me out, but not all of them….

The Paycheck Paid Off…

 

I’ve been super busy at work with all the hail storms we’ve had here in my territory.  Because my area is 2 hours away I have racked up some serious OT in the last couple of weeks.  It takes me 4 hours roundtrip and that doesn’t count the time it takes on the appointments.

As a treat to us, I socked most of the money away but decided to splurge on a new TV.  I was going to get a small TV to mount on the bedroom wall and hook an Apple TV to it.  Next thing you know, I’m on BestBuy.com ordering a 40 inch smart TV.  In my defense the TV we have in the bedroom now is over 13 years old.  We tend to keep our electronics a while.  I decided to splurge and get what I wanted.  Tommy thinks it will be too big for the bedroom but obviously Erin and I disagree.

During prime time hours I never have time to actually watch TV so I watch everything on demand or on Hulu or Netflix.  Like everyone else, I love the freedom of watching my shows on my time.  So, now I can lay in bed and watch my shows instead of watching them on my iPad!  This redneck is moving on up!

Now the hard part will be hanging the TV on the wall without killing each other!

Creeper…

 

This is really odd.  I logged onto Facebook yesterday and there was a message on there telling me that my ex-husband’s wife wanted to tag some random dude in a picture of me and Erin. 

My first thought was that it was some kind of mistake.  Then I got a little ticked.  She was obviously snooping on my page and accidentally tagged some guy.  Busted!  My page is private but some photos show up anyway. 

He and I got divorced 15 years ago!  Why in the world would she be stalking me?  It’s just strange.  Unless the chickens are coming home to roost and she was looking at my page to commiserate???  Could it be that the cheaters and cheating?

Being the timid person that I am… I couldn’t resist the urge to send her a message telling her that there must have been some weird mistake because I got this message about tagging some guy in my picture.  No response yet!  LOL  I was nice in my message but got my point across.

Moral of the story is that you never know who’s creeping on your online!  So, ex-wife, if you’re reading this…get a life!  PSA over.