Orally disintegrating??

I prefer "dissolves in mouth".

Luke and Emory come to Texas

Yee Haw!

Jack, Caroline, and the Valente Kids met their new cousins for the first time last week.  It was great to have everyone under the same roof!!

We took family pics, celebrated Brian's 31st birthday, and enjoyed our time together!

Refund update

Not that you care, but I have accumulated almost $9 from my Walmart Savings Catcher app.

And I have a check for about $20 coming from ebates.

Woo hoo! :)

I'm obsessed...

With Trivia Crack.

Play me!!

I'm signed in under my Facebook ID.

Pure Barre randoms

My brother, his wife, and their twins visited last week. Pics to come.

While they were here, I went to Pure Barre with my sister-in-law.

Oh. My. Word.

It was hard! And confusing.   I did everything wrong and had no clue what was going on for the entire hour.

I mean, it's stuff like putting a small kick ball in between your thighs while standing on your tip toes with your heels glued together, your hips tucked under, your abs sucked in, and doing squats.

What???

So naturally I signed up for one month of unlimited work outs. :) I don't want to quit something when I stink at it. I'm determined to get good at it... then I'll quit.  ;)

I have done 7 days in a row now.  I'm getting better, and any day I'm sure I'll appear more toned... surely.  Right?


..........


My instructor for my first class was named Jennifer.  She recognized me when I walked in. She was Sarah's dance instructor when she was in Kindergarten!

I couldn't believe she remembered me.

She's now a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. So I kinda feel like I'm friends with a celebrity.

"Friends" and "celebrity" being relative terms.

..........

I enjoy group exercise.   There's something fun about doing something other than a Beachbody DVD in my living room.

So when I'm done with my month membership,  I need to join a gym and then do Barre classes here and there.

.........

Today I've spent 3 hours in my bathing suit in the backyard.

Three things I've noticed:

  *I'm getting sunburned.

  * I need to shave my legs above my knees. "Calves only" won't cut it if it's gonna be warm like this all week.

  * I need to spend more time at Pure Barre.


..........

Caroline's 5th Birthday

(That was 6 months ago.)  Oops.

So it seems I forgot to post about Caroline's birthday back in July.  I have a few excuses for that...

1. It was REMARKABLY similar to her 3rd birthday party. (Same place, just a little less afraid of Chuck E. this time.) It felt like I had posted about it already.

2.  The pictures were uploaded to Jason's computer so I forgot all about them.

And...

3. I think it's important to forget about each of my kids at different points in their lives so that they know I love them (and forget about them) equally.  I wouldn't want anyone to feel like that he/she is the sole target of my absentmindedness. ;)

With Sarah--  I forgot to get Sarah off the bus when she was in Kindergarten.  Because of that, she took a mini tour of Plano before the bus driver realized she was still on board and returned her to my house.  It was traumatic.

With Jack-- I forget his name all the time.  I call him "Jason" a lot. And I've called him "Sarah" a few times. He's the only kid who's never had an extra curricular activity.  He wanted to play basketball once, but I forgot to sign him up.

With Caroline-- She's been harder to forget since she's been my sidekick at home and at work her entire life until she started Kindergarten.  But I managed to forget to post about her 5th birthday on the blog. This may not seem like a big deal, but-- trust me!-- she'd notice later and give me a hard time about it.  She's a bit of a score keeper when it comes to things like this. ;)

Truthfully, I'd have never documented her birthday if it weren't for Stefani reminding me that I totally forgot!

So without further ado, here are pics from Caroline's 5th birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's.  (Or as I like to think of it "Her 3rd Birthday, Part 2".)

 

 

"24% of this cup has already served a purpose as something else."

I hope the part I put my mouth on is new.

In celebration of Caroline

I look at this girl and I'm in awe.  Mostly because I don't understand her.

Sarah and Jack (I'll do posts on them later) are so much like me. I wear their insecurities as my own because they were mine at their ages.  They internalize and over-analyze.  Especially Jack.  They are in their own heads so much.  I get it. 

But Caroline is fearless. She has always loved animals and will feed a horse from the palm of her hand.  She jumps on the trampoline higher than any five year old I know, probably higher than I did when I was in high school.  

I cried at her first kindergarten school conference. I never realized how much guilt I felt about being in grad school and working when she was in preschool.  When I got the news that she's on grade level and content to only do the minimum amount of work so that she can go back to socializing, I thought I failed her.  The other kids are highly academically competitive.   She's not. It must be my fault!

But I'm writing this as she's doing flips on the trampoline.   Flips! No one taught her. She just thought it'd be fun to have her feet fly over her head.

I don't get it. 

She's the person I had no idea how to be as a kid.  She's confident and coordinated.  She's social. She's never met a stranger.

I'm not sure if the athletes and the cheerleaders of the world wished they had worked harder in school.   But I wished I had been them.  Confident.  Fun.  A crowd pleaser. That's my Caroline.

While I know she comes with her unique challenges,  I am so grateful to parent the child I wasn't. I'm also grateful that her older siblings are enough like me that they'll help keep her in line. :)

Caroline Grace, I love you and can't wait to see how much you'll teach me! But go easy on me!!!!

Goodnight

I told her she could sleep with me tonight while Jason's out of town.

Sun bathing beauty... and me

Reese and I are enjoying this unseasonably warm, sunny day. 

 

It has been cold, and my sunglasses have had minimal use the past few weeks.  But today?  67 is the high, I think.  I'm tempted to put on a swimsuit.  ;) 

 

 

 

 

I'm enjoying a glass of wine and the "Mom" version of cheese/crackers... Goldfish. 

 

These are the rainbow-colored Goldfish, and they're not as good as the original. 

Trust me on this.  I'm a Goldfish connoisseur. 

But then again, once you go "Cheddar Blasted", there's really no going back.

 

 

Do you see the goosebumps?  60s aren't as warm as it sounds.  But-- dang it!-- I was committed to sun bathing! :)