Finally a Party

My sweet Andrew turned 5. Can you even believe it? It happened back at the beginning of December, so one would think I'd be a bit more able to grasp the fact than I am. Crazy...just crazy how time flies. His party was on the 6th of February and I was actually our 2nd attempt at his birthday party. We had originally scheduled it in December, had invitations out, family coming down from the Panhandle, everything in order...right up until the Friday before his party on Saturday when he decides to run 104 fever. Bummer! We canceled and tried it again.

One can never tell what the weather will be doing in February. We have had LOTS of cold and rain, so scheduling a party a the park seemed doomed from the beginning. Well, my little family prayed the sun to come out and it did...for 1 day, the party day. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Our sweet friends and family gathered at the park to help us celebrate!

Andrew wanted a Scooby Doo party. So we Scooby Doo'd, complete with a mystery! To kick it off, the kids made a set of Scooby Doo ears. While they were working, someone stole the birthday cake!!! Thankfully, they left a clue. To find the cake, the kids had to drop Scooby Snacks into a jar until they came across the next clue. While dropping his Scooby Snacks, Elan found us the next clue hidden in his bone!

After the Scooby Snack drop, we got a clue about mummies. The kids had to wrap Caleb and Jasmine into toilet paper mummies in search for our next clue! After wrapping, and wrappping, and wrapping, Andrew found our next clue!

The mummy wrap led us to the body parts laboratory! The kids had to reach into a sack and decided what each "body part" really was. We had witch's fingers, werewolf intestines, bat brains, eye balls, and a Frankenstein's brain. They ended up being carrots, spaghetti, raisins, pelled grapes, and cauliflower! Luke found our next clue hidden in the bat brains.

After the body parts laboratory, we headed off for a scavenger hunt. Each kiddo was responsible for finding 2 ghosts, a bat, and a Frankenstein. Emily saved the day by finding a ghost that revealed that cake was hidden in the trunk of our car!

Sure enough...these meddling kids solved the mystery and everyone enjoyed some Scooby Doo cake. What a fun time we had and what beautiful weather to go with it!

Happy Birthday Little Man. (2 months after the fact)

The Game the Wasn't!

Gammie and Poppy came to visit. They wanted to see Andrew in action on the basketball court. They arrived on a Sunday, the game wasn't until Tuesday, so we had some time to play.

Monday we ran some errands. Gammie has 2 weddings she is planning, so we helped with some wedding shopping! After errands, we decided to play Putt-Putt (I bet you can guess whose idea that was...Mr. Andrew). College Station has an indoor, black-lighted, western-themed course that Andrew just LOVES. Well, who knew the dark horse of the group would be Gammie. She gave Little Man a run for his money, with Poppy close on their heals. Ainsley was purely along for cheating purposes. She was kind enough to help your ball in if she deemed it close enough to the hole!

While on our wedding errands, we went by Hobby Lobby. Andrew does not care for Hobby Lobby...he says they have "borrrring" stuff. Poppy told Andrew they would go look for the young men's aisle. Look for and found! Poppy treated Andrew to his first model care kit. A Lamborghini...Poppy informed us Andrew has expensive taste! Here is the final product:

On Tuesday, Josh took off work and we all took the trip 45 miles south of here to Brenham...the home of Blue Bell ice cream!!!! No one had ever been, so we decided to take a tour of the factory. What a neat experience. We would recommend it. You get a cool hat like Andrew has on in the snowy picture, plus you get a huge scoop of your choice at the end. On the way home from Blue Bell, it started to snow. Let me say that again...It started to snow. It is February, in College Station, and it is snowing big cotton ball flakes. Well, it didn't take long and everything in College Station was canceled for Tuesday evening...including the ball game Gammie and Poppy had come to see! BITTER, but we did get some good snowy pictures out of the deal!

You can't be in the Shield's house long without one or both children bringing you a book to read. Andrew has started reading some on his own! There is a series called Bob Books. They are great for beginning readers. Here Andrew is reading TO Poppy! And little Miss Ainsley has stacked her spot at Gammie's feet, looking at an I Spy book!

Game or no game, we sure had a good visit! Being 8 hours away, we do not get to see them that often, so we treasure the time we do get! Thanks for coming Gammie and Poppy!

Beg, Steal, and Borrow!

I am, by definition, a teacher...through and through. There is no mistaking it, despite the fact I am on sabbatical from the classroom! Now, teacher friends, please call me on this if I am mistaken, but a true teacher is one who can beg, steal, and borrow from the best of them. Of course after the begging, stealing, or borrowing has taken place, you always have to tweak it a little to officially call it your own.

I know feel it is time to pay it forward...to pass on what treasures have been shared with me:

Here are 2 fabulous blogs that are AWESOME for finding coupons and great deals. They both have multiple posts a day, so you want to check them frequently...sometimes the deals are time or quantity sensitive and you don't know what you might be missing! One is called Steals and Deals and the other is called Freebies 4 Moms.

In addition to Pioneer Woman that my wonderful, intelligent, beautiful, glamorous, fabulous sister-on-law showed me, another fellow blogger posted about Annie's Eats. It seems very good and comes highly recommended!

Do you have anything I could beg, steal, or borrow to make my sweet families life better? Please share!!!

Right of Passage!

There was just some sort of nostalgia that came over me when I saw Andrew ride his "big boy bike" for the first time. A new found freedom for him. Such a right of passage. This is a skill he worked so hard to learn...one that he will have for the rest of his life. As the cliche says, "Its just like riding a bike..." The grin on his face says it all. He is so proud of himself!

He has been able to do this for a while now...as you can see the Santa Clause in the neighbors yard. I forgot I had not blogged about it. So, once again...for the grandparents to whom I promised the video. With no further ado:

The Run!

The Armadillo Dash's Half-Marathon! In the beginning, I referred to this event as a race. Andrew eventually asked me who I was racing. That got me to thinking. I told him I wasn't racing anyone, I just wanted to finish. From that moment on, I referred to this event as a run. March 7, 2010 has loomed in my mind since before Christmas. It was there in the same way a due date is there...exciting, but with a bit of dread because you know its going to hurt. :)

God so blessed me through this process! While training for my run, I followed a schedule I found on the internet. It had you do one long run a week...I choose Sundays. Each long run went up a mile from week to week. On my 8 mile day, there was a 26 mile an hour wind. To put it nicely, that run stunk and I had to walk part of it. In theory, walking is not a bad thing, but personally, I was way disappointed. I prayed and prayed that God would calm the winds on Run Day...and He did. We had perfect weather...cool, overcast, and just a slight cool breeze!

I was at the back of the back. Like I told Andrew, I was not racing, I just wanted to finish and not be in anyone else's way! Once the air gun sounded signifying the start of my run, it took me a minute to actually cross the starting line. (or as seen in this picture...the finish line)!

My legs really only have one speed...slow. I took off at a comfortable pace, not really looking at my watch. My goal was to run somewhere in the 10 minute mile range...not any kind of land speed record, but I could live with it. This has taken some adjustment for me. I used to run in high school. Back in the day, I ran somewhere in the 6 minute mile range. I have had some issues of aging to overcome and accept I am not a spring chicken anymore.

Once past all that and I started doing longer runs, 10 minute miles sounded good. I got to the 1st mile marker and saw that I was at 10:44. Whoops, too slow. From that moment on, I picked up the pace. By starting slow, I was at the back with lots of people in front of me. Many of them started faster and lost speed as they went. I, by accident, did the opposite. I picked up speed and got to pass people the rest of the race. Instead of slowing down and getting passed, I was speeding up and doing the passing...which proved to be a huge confidence boost for me! Another key to the race was a good play list on my ipod!

Up to this day, the longest run I had done was 10 miles. When the 10 mile marker came and went, I was surprised at how good I felt. I had no aches or pains during the race, well a few here and there, but nothing substantial! I rounded the last corner and had less than a mile to go. Two boys passed me...that irritated me, so I sped up and continued to speed up until the finish line! The last mile was actually my fastest! Here I am at the finish. I ran the 13.1 miles in 2 hrs and 12 minutes...an average of 10:06 per mile!

I crossed to find my sweet little family waiting for me with my chocolate milk. A professor of kinesiology at Texas A&M said they had found drinking chocolate milk after physical activity has the same benefits of any sports drink...and no one can argue that Promised Land chocolate milk tastes much better than any ole Gatorade!

With it all said and done...it was an awesome experience, one that truly blessed me. God showed me that through Him, I can do anything...even run 13.1 miles!

Another Home Season Comes to Close!

Gotta love you some Aggie Women's basketball...well, the Shields family does anyway. We were devoted season ticket holders, yet again this year, to see our Ags in action. This year our tickets were right in front of a section (in the cheap seats of course), so we had lots of room between our seats and the railing in front of us. Also, our seats were right by the band, which the kiddos enjoyed dancing to, and dance they did...so much so that we only missed being on the big screen 3 of the games.

Each February, the Aggies do a pink out where the proceeds of the t-shirts sales are donated to breast cancer. Here we are in our pink...well, all except Andrew. He doesn't own much pink and the t-shirts the Aggies sold were only adult sizes.

The kids got more into the games this season. I think it helped that our seats were closer to the action this year. When one of the Aggies is shooting free-throws, the students all quietly hold there arms up. Well, our two wanted in on the action and would hold there arms up as well. Ainsley would even turn to me with her finger up to her mouth and shhhh me before holding up her arms. It was pretty cute!

When the Aggies get the ball back after a turnover or an out-of-bounds, the announcer always yells "Aggie's Ball!" very enthusiastically and then the crowd echos it back. Here is Ainsley, up on the railing, yelling "Aggie's Ball" along with the rest of the 12th Man.

Here we are down on the floor after the last home game! Such fun times...always a bit sad to see the home season come to an end. We just love those girls!

The Lakers in Action!

To all the grandparents out there to whom I promised this video.
So sorry for the delay, but your wait is over.

Here is our Little Man and his teammates in action. Please notice a couple of things as you watch: (Andrew is #5!)
1. After one of Andrew's teammates gets his own rebound, Andrew steals the ball from him! We have discussed this with him and SHOWN him the video of it...he will work on being more of a team player!

2. Our one and only girl, who makes a shot in the video, was our team MVP at the end of the season! She carried the team. :)

3. One of my favorite moments is #4's celebratory cartwheel. Every team needs a cheerleader/player like him!

4. I love how proud Andrew is of himself after making his shot...even though his Daddy snubbed his effort to get a high five afterwards. Poor Josh, he was busy getting them back to play defense. After seeing the video, he feels pretty bad!

(So sorry for the grainy video...I had to edit it a bit to make it small enough in memory size to upload!!)

Now that the season is over, we sure had a good time! Andrew really enjoyed playing and his team seemed to improved greatly as the season went on. The Lakers ended up 2-4-1, with our 2 wins coming at the last two games. We just ran out of games to win...

2 Simple Dinners I Just Love!

OK...I don't know about you all, but I am a huge fan of quick and easy recipes that don't taste like quick and easy recipes! I like to cook, don't get me wrong. What I don't like is recipes that require one random ingredient that I will never use, but in that recipe. A few simple ingredients, a bit of time in preparation, and then lets sit down and enjoy. It should not take me longer to eat or clean-up, then it did to prepare.

If you are at all like me, then you will love these 2 recipes. One we used for a progressive dinner our Sunday school class did several Christmases ago and one is from Paula Deen. Enjoy!!!

Sausage and Cream Cheese Manicotti

1 pkg. manicotti noodles
1 8oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 lb. Italian sausage (or sage sausage)
1 jar Alfredo sauce

1. Boil noodles. Drain and run under cold water.
2. While noodles are cooking, brown the sausage. Drain and add cream cheese. Put sausage/cream cheese mixture into a sandwich size Ziploc baggie. Snip the bottom corner off.

3. Spray a 9 x 13 dish. Coat the bottom with about 1/3 of your Alfredo sauce.
4. Squeeze the baggie into the manicotti noodles to fill them. Place them in the dish. Pour the remaining sauce over the noodles.

5. Bake at 350 covered for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 15 more minutes.

Lady and Son's Chicken in Wine Sauce

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (I use 2)
4 tablespoons butter, melted
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
6 oz. (about 8 slices) Swiss cheese (or however many to cover your chicken breasts)
1 can cream of chicken soup
¼ cup white wine (or chicken broth)
1 cup herb-flavored stuffing mixed, crushed up

1. Add chicken to a shallow buttered (or sprayed) casserole dish (size depends on how many chicken breasts you have: 11 x 7 or 9 x 13). Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Layer cheese slices on top.
2. In a medium bowl, mix soup and wine, season with salt and pepper, and then pour over cheese. Sprinkle stuffing mix on top and drizzle with melted butter. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Andrew the Laker

What fun, what fun! Andrew is now old enough to participate in the city league sports...and participating he is!!! What started out as a pretty slow season for him has turned into a wild fire. The boy is catching on. It took him until the 3rd game to score a basket, but in that game he made 6 (that would be the bottom, right-hand corner picture)! He can bring the ball down for his team (bottom, left-hand corner picture). He is quite the cheerleader, getting so excited when he or his teammates do something good (middle, left picture). One thing that has really clicked is playing defense (middle picture). He gets his arms up and is certainly not afraid to go after the ball...which led to him fouling out this past game. We just need to work on getting his aggressive streak under control! (To all those who grip at me about small pictures, to see them bigger, just click on the collage.) :)

I do have to say that Andrew has the most amazing coach...his Daddy! Josh is so patient, so sweet, and so good to try and teach these kiddos the fundamentals of basketball. Our team is 0-4-1. Not a great record. But from where they started, they have come a long way. It has been fun to watch these 8 kiddos begin to catch on to what is going on during the game and see them get fired up about being part of that. What started out as a pretty passive, non-aggressive, sit back and watch the other team, has blossomed into a much more get in there and get after it team.

Just One Stop On the Blessing Train!

(I have started running again. And when you run, there is LOTS of time for your mind to wander. This is where my mind has wandered to lately.)

I have a truly blessed life. I have had a relatively easy life full of God's blessings. Yes, I have worked hard, but I am not naive enough to think that I have it rough. Let me share with you just one of those blessings. Bare with me...it a story now!

When I was in high school, I worked at a local grocery store named Randall's. Those of you from the Houston area may be familiar with it. When I went off to Texas A&M, I did not work my freshman year, but starting my sophomore year, I went to work at the Randall's in College Station.

While at work, a mom and her mother came through my line. The mom asked her mom, "How many hours is such-and-such (I do not remember the specific number) minutes?" Being the math minor, I quickly did the mental math and spoke up before her mother could answer. She thanked me and then asked me what my major was. I told her it was elementary education with a minor in math. She said, "You already have a job?" (which was obvious to the both of us.) I, in returned, asked her why she asked. She responded, "I hire elementary ed. students to babysit my kids." I went on to tell her that I would be interested in watching her kids if she so wished. We set up an interview. I went to there house, with the requested references, and met her 2 sweet girls. Margaret was 3 and Farrar was 5. They were dreams!

This lady's name is Tracy. She is an amazing lady who had her CPA's license, but was working on her CFP license through correspondence. I basically watched the girls while she studied. And then there was every Friday for date night. Her husband is Dr. Bob. They would go to dinner every Friday at 5:30 and be home early enough for me to still have plenty of time to go out that night. It was perfect!

Dr. Bob...for the first year and a half, he was the man who read the Wall Street Journal in the front room. He was an oceanography professor at Texas A&M AND he intimidated the fire out of me.

I never would have imagined that after one of those before mentioned date nights, my future would take a huge turn. The first time Dr. Bob ever really spoke to me, this is what he had to say:

Dr. Bob came home and asked if I would be interested in staying on after graduation to work with him on a NASA funded project. Now, before coming to Texas A&M, Dr. Bob worked for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he was the lead scientist working on a satellite. This satellite was name TOPEX/POSEIDON. Its job was to produce the first ever global maps of the ocean surface, which in turn gives scientists a map of the ocean's currents. (well, in my words...that's what it does. There is a much more scientific version, but I will spare you the details.). This had NEVER been possible before satellites. Prior to TOPEX/POSEIDON, scientist had to rely on buoys, tide gauges, boats, etc. All this to say, Dr. Bob is one smart cookie! See why I was intimidated. And now he wanted me to come work him?

He was a scientist who wanted to get all this real time data from the satellite into teachers hands for them to use in their classrooms. What a guy, huh? Anyway, I would work for him, while earning my Master's along the way. WOW! Of course I said yes...little did I know that the lady I would be working with was a Presidential Award (during the Clinton years) winning science teacher from Houston who was working on her Doctorate.

Here I am...little ole me working with a way smart Dr. science guy and an award winning veteran science teacher. Talk about marrying up... To show you just how amazing this man is, Dr. Bob heard that Margaret and I were having to get student loans, so he wrote our tuition and fees into the NASA grant. To accomplish Dr. Bob's goal, we decided to build a website. We named it Ocean World. Let me tell you, since its immature beginnings in 1998, Ocean World has come a long way!

When I say I have had a blessed life, I MEAN a blessed life...God is so good! Stay tuned for more blessings...I have a LOT of running to do getting ready for the big race in March.

I write all of this to tell you that we got a new computer. Well, not a brand new computer, but new to use. Dr. Bob has since retired and is now at home doing computer things. This is his 2 year old I-Mac that we bought so he could buy a bigger one! Yeah for us...just another one of the blessings his sweet family has brought me! (Yes Michelle, that is your blog up on my computer screen). Isn't it just pretty. I LOVE it!