On Vacation

I forgot to post that we were leaving Houston for a 5 day vacation to South Padre Island! We're here now and while I have a little bit of time, I thought I would post the working titles of a few of my upcoming posts:

Stuck in a Storm and I'm Going to Die!

These should keep you guessing for a few days while we hope to enjoy a few more days of sun & surf here on the coast. Suffice it to say we've had loads of fun and my camera is getting a great work out while we build some fun family memories :)

I'll be back in a few days!

The Angels are Singing!!!

Notice the profile picture? It only took me what, a week, to get it to upload?!? Good grief!!! And, for anyone that cares, it's not the pic that I had intended to upload, but it works for now :) It's my own little Ziggy. The original picture looked a little distorted and my second choice didn't work very well for several reasons, so until I can get a more recent family picture, this will have to do - my little Ian being super-shy. Again, not that you care, but I'm just so darned excited that I was finally able to upload a new photo!!!

*walking away from the computer at 11:45PM, heading to bed while patting myself on the back*

Help

Can someone remind me how to go about changing the picture on my profile? For the life of me, I cannot remember how to do it, and everything I've tried has not worked....HELP!!!


P.S. To Amy - It's still not working! That's what I've been doing, but the problem is that when I paste the new URL into the field, then click on save, it just reverts back to the old URL and picture - it won't actually change to the new URL and save it! This is super frustrating because I all I want to do is to post a newer pic of the family....I think I'm going to have to contact Blogger's Help :( This should be fun!

My Ballerina Girl

These were taken last Thursday, right before Morgann's very first ballet class. She was sooooo excited, she could hardly stand still enough for me to get these pictures!

Up to my eyeballs in MOPS!

I'm still underneath about a foot of MOPS paperwork, preparing for our upcoming summer retreat. It is at this retreat that we will plan an entire year in just 1 1/2 short days (Friday night through Sunday at noon). It's a busy, semi-stressful retreat, rather than being the typical fun-get-away retreat that most of you might be more familiar with. But, by the time we say our goodbyes to each other that Sunday afternoon, the year is planned.

But my work will just be getting underway at that point. I am the Finance/Membership coordinator, so it is my job to keep our budget updated (something that will go under a full over-haul during the weekend), and our membership database as current as it can be. Our first meeting in August or September will find me sitting at a table all by myself, making sure that every smiling face that enters our doors receives the Member Handbook, a packet of forms that they need to fill out and return to me, and a bank bag full of dues payments. As you can imagine, I will be really busy for a few weeks getting membership info updated or added into our database, but once that is completed, I'm hoping that my life will slow down for a while - well, until January rolls around and we have new members join us, existing members leave us, and everyone has to pay their Spring dues.

So, it is until the time that I find myself well into our MOPS year, that my blogging will be rather sporadic. I will not completely disappear and will definitely make a point of reading my favorite blogs as often as I can find the time. But, unless something that is really blog-worthy happens in my house, I will probably only post every so often. Please promise me that you will not stop checking back often, as I love to get the occasional comment from my friends :)

Ian's Disappearing Act

As I go about preparing my notes and such for our upcoming MOPS summer retreat, I find myself a little tight for time. So, the first thing to go is my blog, unfortunately. I hope to return a little later on with funny stories, but for now, you're going to have to make due with my latest horror story:

Today, amidst the joy of running errands with all 3 kiddos this morning, I decided to take them all to the mall for lunch and play time on the indoor playground. When we arrived, Morgann started to complain about not feeling well. I chalked it up to her blood-sugar being a bit low (cereal with marshmallows doesn't exactly fit the description of a healthy breakfast, but it worked into my busy morning schedule beautifully!), and insisted that she eat at least a few bites of her Taco Hell taco. Once we finished up our meal, and Morgann took the bare minimum of 3 bites, we cleaned up our table and headed down to the playground area. I had intended to stop into a shoe store to see about getting Morgann some new tennies, but she said that she preferred to just go play.

When we arrived, the boys stripped their feet of shoes and socks and headed off into playground heaven. Meanwhile, my sweet little girl decided to curl up onto the bench, lay her head in my lap, and quickly pass out. She took a good 30 minute nap while the boys played and we waited for daddy to show up. It was only when he arrived that Morgann woke up; but she proceeded to lay her head on Michael's shoulder while we walked back to the food court. It was when I asked Morgann, my little sugar fiend, if she wanted a cookie, and she said NO, that I knew something was definitely wrong.

After the boys finished their cookies and Michael completed his meal, I decided to stop by one of the hamburger places to get a re-fill on my drink. I stood at one end of the counter while Michael stood with the kiddos at the other, waiting for me. After about 2-3 minutes of standing there, I finally got my refill and went back to where Michael and the kids were supposed to be. It only took a second to realize that we were 1 kiddo short - Michael & I just looked at each and in harmony said, "Where is Ian. I thought he was with you!".

And we were off - in different directions - searching under tables, the nearby ride-station (filled with coin operated toys that the kids love to climb on), every corner and cranny we could find - but with no luck. Ian wasn't anywhere to be found! About the time my heart climbed into my throat, Michael got my attention and said that he just heard an older man talking with a security guard about finding a little boy...standing alone in the parking lot. At about that same moment, I saw Ian sitting in someone else's arms, sucking his fingers looking not even a bit concerned that a stranger had him, and not his mommy or daddy!

I immediately ran over to the man and grabbed my son, thankful that someone had found him and brought him back into the mall. The guy looks at me and says, "I swear to God, he was just standing out there in the middle of the parking lot, looking around". I felt like the worst mommy in the world, but was so grateful that an honest man had found my child!

Really, I could have kissed him at that exact moment, I was so thankful.

As we all walked back out to the van, I looked and Michael and informed him that I would be purchasing one of those leash/harness things for Ian tonight. Yes, I'm going to put a leash on my child....for his safety and my sanity. Don't judge...I now understand what would possess a parent to harness their child...shear terror!!!

Thank God Ian's angels were working overtime today :)

Rainy Days and Mondays...

Well, the title says it all! Yes, it is in fact raining here again today - or it did for most of the day. Thankfully, at 10:18PM, the raining has stopped. But, the forecast for tomorrow? Isolated Thunderstorms. The forecast for Wednesday? Scattered Thunderstorms. Thursday? Isolated/Scattered Thunderstorms. And so it goes for the entire 10-day forecast.

My first question is this: Can someone please explain the difference between 'scattered' and 'isolated'? A thunderstorm is a thunderstorm as far as I'm concerned. And it definitely concerns me when it's thunderstorming on my house each & every day! For the last 3 months it's been nothing but rain -sometimes only a drizzle, sometimes it's coming down by buckets. But, it literally precipitates every day. Can I tell you how sick I am of rain???? Can you tell???? Do I have a bad attitude???? Can I tell you that I'm really worried about whether or not we will ever see the sun again????

And, here I was thinking that I had planned the perfect summer-fun this year! Right in our own backyard, a trampoline and a pool! How much more fun could it get? What reason could we possibly have to stay inside of the house when so much outdoor fun awaits? Oh wait! I forgot...it's raining...again!!!!

And, just to prove that I am indeed doing my best to find the positive, at least the electric bill won't get up to $675 again this year! With all of the rain, it's keeping things cool, if not a bit soggy, so the A/C isn't running constantly like it did this time last year. So far, we're still in the high $200's so I'm trying to be thankful for the savings.

That's about all of the positive I can muster for now.