September Fun

Labor Day and Aunt Jean's 90th Birthday!

I can hear the tune to "The Andy Griffith Show" in the background!

The fish didn't bite as well with the drought.

All the Smith Family cousins

This girl loves the outdoors

Cousins relaxing with Babo

Ride with Daddy

Janie and Babo getting a spa treatment (Mary painting their feet with water)

My turn!!!

My my my Mary...

She will be trouble someday!!!  This was the conversation that occurred at breakfast the other day.  I did not witness it, because I was resting my eyes (see previous post on blindness), but Kevin swears he told it to me word for word. 

Mary:  Daddy, you need to listen to me.

Kevin:  I will always listen to what you have to say, but you also have to listen to Daddy. 

Mary: Daddy, you NEED to listen to ME.

Kevin:  Mary, I will always listen to what you have to say, but Daddy and Mommy are the bosses, and you have to listen to us and do what we say. 

Mary:  I can tell you are going to be a problem for me.



Really?!?!?!?  She is about to be 3 at the end of this month!  Where does she get this???

Gripefest and blindness

I really have a bunch of stuff I wanted to blog about, all the way back from labor day, but whenever I think my life is going to calm down, something stirs it back up!  The most recent stir was created by the quick temporary exit of a teacher, and the just as quick replacement of her, with me!  I won't get into details, but I did threaten to quit my job so that I could live in Las Vegas and be a professional gambler... Did I mention the first two weeks of my new gig, my kids both had the tummy bug and one had an ear infection.  Writing sub plans for a sub when you are the sub gets complicated!!!

Anyway, I am about to be finished with my "temporary" English teaching assignment.  But to complicate things even further, I broke my glasses.  My prescription was out of date.  My vision insurance basically sucks.  LASIKs is something that has been on my mind for a while.  I did some research, went in for an eye exam to find out about it and/or get a new prescription and new glasses.  Long story short.  I had epi-Lasik eye surgery last Friday!  So not only has teaching been challenging, just reading has been challenging.  Fortunately the procedure went great, and I no longer have to wear glasses.  This is good, because I feel muh cuter without them :) 

My sweet babies and books...

Mary's first word was book. At the age of 15 months, she used to stand under my feet while I was trying to cook dinner and say in her sweet voice, "book...book...book" until I would stop what I was doing and sit in the floor and read to her. She would want to listen to me read her books over and over.
I think her sister is following in her footsteps. Ashlin will be 16 months on the 5th of September and she is totally into books. The other night she actually threw a fit as I tried to put her in bed, and I could have sworn I heard her say, "wanna book" over and over! When I went and picked up goodnight moon, she quit crying and sat down in my lap. She can already turn the page and point to the pages in the book. Tonight, as I tucked her in, we read one of Karen Katz books called "Mommy Kisses." As I read the book, she kissed each page, and then turned it. Melted my heart!!!

I have to admit, as a reading teacher I feel like my life is complete if my children love to read :)

First Week of School

Mary started K3 this year!!!  She is technically not 3 just yet, but they made an exception for her since she will be 3 soon, and she has reached or exceeded all the developmental milestones they require for the preschool progam.  Also she cannot participate in the 2 year old program because it is only half-day and I work all day.  I love having her at school with me.  I love that I can peak in on her if I want, but I have restrained myself because I don't want to disrupt her class or distract her.  I have seen her in passing on a few instances and she seemed to be fitting in well with her classmates!  Here is her picture taken with her daddy on the first day of school:

Summer 2011 - time flies when you are having fun!

I cannot believe I haven't updated my blog in so long.  Actually I can.  This summer has flown by and we have been crazy busy!  I have worked at school quite a bit all summer, and we have taken a few small trips.  Here is what we have been up to since my last post! 

Fourth of July fun with the Chancellors and cousin Katie. 



Swinging in Janie and Babo's swing with cousins.

Mid-July, Kevin and I drove to Houston for a followup with his doctor to discuss how successful the radiation he had in February and March was.  According to their lab work and in the doctor's words, " Looks like we got it all!!!"  Those six words pretty much were the best words we have ever heard!!!  We will follow up on both the kidney and prostate cancer again in December, but as for now we are CANCER FREE!!!

 The first doctor we ever met at MD Anderson told us that we should hope for the best and that luckily in a year we could pop a bottle and celebrate.  So we did! (can't ignore medical advice)

We also had fun at home playing in the backyard, seeing Barney with good friends, learning how to ride a bike...

We attended Kevin's best friend's wedding in Vegas, where Kevin served as Best Man.  It was a great trip, we lost money, met good friends from Midland for dinner one night, and overall had a blast!!!

Brian and Kevin

The newlyweds

another happy couple :)

My big win!

We arrived home from Vegas Monday night, ready to see the kids.  However this week has been less than great.  After our presenter for teacher inservice this week canceled I was forced to scramble to come up with replacement material, Mary had strep throat, and Ashlin had an ear infection.  Both girls are on antibiotics now, and my mother helped me pull all my stuff together for inservice.  Excited about going back to work tomorrow, but wishing I could have a few more weeks at home!