One year blog anniversary!

I've been blogging, somewhat faithfully, for a little over a year now! It started out as a mere log of our day to day activities - but it quickly erupted into Pulitzer prize-winning reading material for the masses!! ;) Pssh! Yeah right!! My blog has become nothing more than the long drawn out ramblings of a crazy person!! ;) I haven't gotten the hang of writing concise little blurbs with only a picture or two. No - not me! I like to write on and on and post way too many pictures! Oh well. I'm willing to accept that I don't have any real skill when it comes to writing (or getting to the point) and I'm okay with that. I'm just happy to have something to look back on when I start forgetting the little things - no matter how boring it may be. :)

You've probably been wondering where I've been this past month and a half - okay maybe you haven't, but I've definitely noticed my lack of entries for the past few weeks! For two weeks in September, my friend Laura (her husband went to medical school with Jason, we were neighbors and we had our first babies a week apart) and her two kiddies came to visit me and then two days after they left, we went to Houston to meet Jason. We just got back this past weekend. Jason had a Cardio Thoracic Anesthesiology rotation at one of the many hospitals down there for the past month. I didn't think I was going to end up spending most of the month down there with him, but he was all alone and he wanted us to stay with him while he was there. That comes as no surprise to me though. I mean - who wouldn't want me around to keep them company?? ;) He was staying in a furnished apartment in a gated community in a nice area, so I decided to bring the girls the girls down and stay with him.

I'm ashamed to admit that we didn't really get out a whole lot. I had to bring along all of my home school materials to continue schooling Kristin, so we spent most of our days just doing school (and watching too much cable - something we don't have at home) until Jason got home from work. Then we'd spend the rest of the day with him. I would have posted something while we were there, but we had NO Internet connection in the apartment...the WHOLE time we were there! I never realized how much I relied on the Internet until I couldn't use it!! That was the only drawback of being down there, but it definitely wasn't a big enough reason not to spend time with my hubcap, so I sucked it up. ;)

I know there's a lot to see in Houston (at least more than there is to see here in San Antonio), but we didn't really get around to it. That' okay though - because Jason has another rotation there in April, so I plan on getting out and doing some site-seeing then! Of course - I'll have a 3rd baby by then (which means more work for me), so I'm not sure why I didn't get the site-seeing over with this time around. Tisk tisk Tricia. Oh well.

So with all of that said, I'm of course way behind in my blogging. So to get caught up, I'll post a few pictures of some of the things we were up to before Laura came out to visit me - then I'll post separate entries for her visit and our stay in Houston. I'm exhausted already and I haven't even begun. Dang blast it!

So before Laura came to visit, we weren't up to a whole lot. Just school, gymnastics and more school. Kristin has been doing really well! I'm so proud of her! She makes home schooling pretty easy. It still takes time and effort on my part, but I'm glad she picks up the material quickly and easily. She hasn't had any real struggles up to this point and that's a relief! Yeah - it's only Kindergarten, but some kids struggle with a low attention span and I am grateful that she isn't one of them! I have yet to discover whether Katie will be one of those kids... I'm so nervous about home schooling more than one kid at a time - and Katie won't be starting school for another 2 years! Everyday I wonder, "How the heck does Jason's Mom do this with so many kids!!!!" These days she is home schooling only 5 kids, but back in the day - she was home schooling 7+ kids with toddlers and newborns to boot! I can't imagine not going completely insane! I always knew she was busy, but you don't really realize how difficult home schooling is on top of taking care of other babies, your husband and the house until you do it yourself!! She's definitely my inspiration when it comes to home schooling! That's for dang sure!!! :) If she can do it with that many kids - I should be able to do it with 3!! I hope...

Another day of school


Blowing bubbles on the trampoline during recess


Kristin enjoying her newest favorite outdoor activity - hopscotch!


After school cooking activity - Tangy Peppermints

Beating the egg white...

Rolling the mixture into little balls

Flattening balls with a fork

Crumbling the chocolate into pieces

Dipping peppermints into melted chocolate

Kristin is ready for taste-testing!!

Jason always outdoes me when it comes to playing princesses with the girls... ;)


Playing with Sleeping Beauty and Prince Eric dolls...Jason style. :)

Another cooking activity (not that there's much cooking involved) - Cheesy dip and veggies. She picked it - not me!


Mixing all the ingredients

Is she cheesy or what?! :)

I figured out later that the only reason she picked out this recipe - was because of the baby corn. Hmph! And I thought she was interested in eating ALL of the vegetables!!

School activity - making play dough

Katie is only excited because she thinks we're making a tasty snack...she was disappointed later when she found out that the play dough wasn't for eating. Poor little monster.

Pouring water into the flour and salt mixture

Using cookie cutters to cut ABCs


Well that's enough for this boring post. What? I told you we hadn't been up to much! Did you think I was joking?! I'm off to start working on my next post about Laura's visit, so be prepared for too many pictures!! :)