Our Last Trike-a-Thon 2015…

 

Erin was able to raise almost $400 dollars in the St. Jude’s Trike-a-Thon this year when the donations and raffle tickets were added up.  Thanks to all that donated.  It’s such a great cause and I’m thankful everyday for my happy healthy kiddo.

She did so great.  I practically had to pull her kicking and screaming from her bike.  The rest of her class had stopped riding to eat lunch but Erin just kept on going.  I finally made her stop so Gram and Pawpaw could take her to get something to eat and go home.  Bless her heart, she rode for like an hour and a half straight.

You can tell the kids that really love to ride from the novices like Erin.  Erin has never shown much interest in riding her bike.  She ask her all the time if she wants to ride and she usually says no.  She’s been “practicing” at Gram and Pawpaw’s house, so she had it down for the ride.  I think she thought it was an endurance test!

Here are a couple of shots.  When I saw Luke in that pink shirt I nearly laughed my head off.  I saw him in the hall before it started and he told me first thing that he had on a “girl’s” shirt.  I told him real men wear pink, but I don’t think he was convinced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out With the Old…

 

It’s Spring Fever around here.  Erin wants to play outside.  Tommy is totally into the Rockets playoffs.  Pollen is in the air and I am cleaning house!  Let me preface this by saying we have a housekeeper that does a fantastic job and our house isn’t dirty.  It was just very cluttered.  We had stuff everywhere and it was all unorganized.

I took yesterday and today off of work to get the job done.  It wasn’t how I wanted to spend my vacation days, but I didn’t want to take a whole weekend on it either.  Right after I dropped Erin off I got to work.  We’ve already loaded up 2 truck loads of stuff and taken it to GoodWill.  By the time I”m finished I want those workers at GoodWill to know my truck! I want them salivating over the great crap I’m bringing them.

I’m not sure who invented totes but the dude is a genius.  I bought 2 cute metal shelves and $150 bucks worth of totes for my project.  When I’m done, it will be the best $250 I’ve spent all year.  I put the shelves together and put one of them in my “Harry Potter” closet under the stairs and the other in the attic.  If you’ve seen the Harry Potter closet then you know, it’s a very deep closet with crap piled everywhere.  All the stuff in there was folded and in totes already but there was no place to put it.  It just got stacked on top of each other on the floor.  Not anymore!  The shelf in there was a brilliant idea.

My one regret is not taking before and after pictures.  I was too embarrassed by the before to take them!  The after looks terrific, but geez, we were living like wanna be hoarders.  It wasn’t so bad that a TV crew was going to show up, but it was certainly more disorganized than I could handle.

So far I’ve tackled Erin’s room, the upstairs guest room, the downstairs guest room, the dining room and part of the kitchen.  I am going to skip the pantry this time because I think I’ll run out of time, but it’s on my list this weekend.  I only stopped working yesterday because even though I was off, I had a 2:00 conference call that I had to take.  It lasted 45 minutes and I was too pooped to get started again.  I called it a day, took a walk around the neighborhood and grabbed a shower all before Erin got home.

Today’s project is our closet, our room, the laundry room and to finish up in the kitchen.  I have a lot to do because our closet is a complete mess.  For someone as OCD as I am, I really let the closet get away from me.  I am going to give away a bunch of clothes and shoes and purses today.  That closet will never know what hit it.

I keep looking at the dining room when I walk by it.  I had put all my stuff from my job there and taken over the dining room table.  It was convenient when I was doing my on-line training 8 hours a day and wasn’t that messy.  I just never moved it once I started going out in the field.  It looked like a Sanford and Son junk yard.  I moved it all upstairs to the spare room up there.  I put up a folding table and this is now my home office.

The only room I’m going to spare in all of this is the game room upstairs with the computer niche.  We both consider this Tommy’s area.  He’s in charge of getting it straightened out.  He took off yesterday too but spent most of the day listing the bigger ticket items on Ebay and our community on-line classifieds.  He’s made some deals and about $100 bucks off of crap I was willing to give away.

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure… come get your share of our treasure before I throw it out or Tommy sells it!

Easter in the Country 2015…

 

We spent the day yesterday in the Country for Easter.  We were a week late this year, but I don’t think the kids minded!

Uncle Mark grilled hamburgers and we had a great lunch.  It was fun sitting around the table.  Erin was holding court and never stopped talking the whole time.  She chatted about everything and Pepaw just sat beside her soaking it in.  Luke joined in but only when Erin was taking a breath.  Man, that little girl can talk and that’s saying something coming from me!

It was time to hunt eggs so they loaded up in the back of the ranch truck and Pepaw took them to the back while we hid the eggs.  There were bags of corn in the back of the truck and they made the perfect place to sit.  I’m sure we were breaking about 50 laws by letting them ride back there, but they had a blast and Pepaw was going super slow.  We hid 105 eggs this year and I think they found them all.  No one counted them in the end.  If not I guess some varmint up there will have a nice treat.

Here are some of the pics from the day.  They’re mostly action shots because the kids were getting tire of me following them around trying to get them to pose.  I gave up.

I was trying to get Erin to stay still in the ones where she’s laughing.  I was sitting in the chair and she was running up to me.  I actually got a couple of good ones.

 

Anything But That…

 

I’m all about boosting Erin’s confidence like my parents did with me.  I am always hugging and kissing her and tell her how smart and pretty she is.  I want her to grow up confident and self-assured.  My mom was always telling us that girls can do anything boys can do and telling us how smart and pretty we were.  I am carrying on the Wistner family tradition by trying to raise a smart, independent young lady.

Last night she slept with me since Tommy was at the Rockets game.  We woke up and she was so warm and snuggly that I took advantage of it.  I was hugging her and snuggling and told her she was smart and pretty and could be anything in the world she wanted to be.

She very calmly told me she wanted to be a sister when she grows up.

Epic parental fail!  How can I dash her dreams by telling her that’s the one thing she will never be!!!  LOL  I just got finished telling her she can be anything and she totally stumped me with that one. 

She’s at the age now where she’s obsessed with baby pictures and babies.  She doesn’t play with dolls or anything like that but most of her friends at school either have older sibs or their moms are having babies.  Sorry Charlie.  You’re out of luck if you’re wanting me to have another kid!  Even though there was a little Mommy guilt this morning, I WILL NOT be having any more children just to satisfy my 4 year old!

Tommy and I are great with our choice to have one.  There will be times when she wants brothers and sisters, but I know there will be times when she’s glad she gets undivided attention and most anything she wants and is happy to be the one and only.

Life is good for Erin, even if I’m raising her to have a big head about her smarts and looks and we’re dashing her dreams. 

We Cut Our Hair…

 

Erin came home on Monday wanting to cut her hair like Taylor’s.  I have no idea who Taylor is and thought it was just a passing thing. 

She told me again on Tuesday and then again yesterday morning.  So, I took her last night to get it cut.  She told me she wanted it really short.  I was a little bit afraid that she would regret it because she loves to play with her long hair in the mirror.  She climbed up in the chair and told the lady what she wanted.  The lady and I decided on a short length but not too short.  I didn’t want her to really regret it if she decided she wanted it long again.

Hopefully this will stop the morning drama.  Erin’s hair tangles so badly that we have a fight on our hands when it’s time to blow dry her hair and when we go to brush it in the morning. 

I think we’ll go shorter when school starts but this little cut turned out super cute on her.