Exciting day!

And to think that two days ago, we were playing baseball in shorts! Can't wait for the kids to come home early from school!

Viva Las Vegas!

We are back from our whirlwind tour of Las Vegas! Here are a few thoughts on our trip:

*To be truthful, I really am not a Las Vegas fan. However, when given the opportunity to go away with Bryon for a few nights, I would happily travel anywhere! Bryon had a conference there, so we spent Thursday together and Friday mostly apart. He went to the conference, I had an hour long massage, pedicure and long nap!

*We watched Avatar on the IMAX theatre on Thursday. It was an absolutely beautiful movie. Some weird tree worshipping things went on, but if you are on the fence about watching it, you need to see it in 3D on the big screen!

*Thursday night, we saw O, by Cirque du Soleil. What a stunning show! I recommend it to anyone going to Las Vegas.

*O was in the Bellagio hotel. Also in the hotel that night was Obama. We had to walk by bomb sniffing dogs, secret service, and metal detectors to get to our show. Any resident Las Vegan we talked to had very strong negative feelings about Obama. It turns out, Obama can't stop talking badly about the town. Harry Reid asked him to come to Las Vegas on a reputation building mission. He spoke at the City Center next to our hotel. Obama stood up and said, "Don't get me wrong. I love Las Vegas!" Everyone cheered. Sometimes I worry about the Lemming quality of our citizens.

*Again, we just had a great time together. It was wonderful for a few days to have conversations with Bryon where we didn't hear, "Mommy!", every few minutes. Oh, and I need to mention that the weather could not have been more beautiful on our day to walk the strip. It was in the 70s, desert sun shining, not a cloud in sight or drop of moisture in the air. I love cold winter weather, but I really think I needed a day of sunshiny weather!

*Meanwhile, back at the ranch....the kids had a great time with my family! Aunt Lauren and her boys came over after school and bridged the gap between end of school and Mom getting off work. Aunt Lauren is like a second mom to my kids, and they had a great time with their cousins.

Its funny, but since we live in the same town as my parents, my mom had never slept over at my house! The kids enjoyed lots of good quality grandparent time with my parents. For years, I found it very difficult to leave the kids because of their young ages. Now that the kids are in school and very self sufficient, I feel better about leaving for a few days during the winter. I still can't hand off our crazy Spring and Fall sports schedule to anyone I love. ;)

*As much fun as we had, it was nice coming home to Mayberry. Looking forward to a normal week!

My trip to Alabama

When I came home, the life waiting for me was extremely busy! I am just now able to sit down and write about my weekend.

I love being with Tesney and Karen! Bryon encouraged me this fall to pick a weekend in January or February, when our schedule is traditionally less hectic, to spend the weekend with my sweet friends. He also encouraged me to fly. Generally speaking, I hate to fly, and I love the drive to Alabama so much, that I finally got my way on that one!

Friday morning, I woke up before dawn and started heading east. After we moved away from Tuscaloosa when I was in elementary school, we made the drive from Abilene to Birmingham several times a year to visit my grandparents. They were our closest relatives living a mere 15 hours away! The drive on I-20 east is very special to me. It was always filled with excitement to see our grandmother. I loved hitting each milestone: Shreveport, Monroe, the Mississippi River, Vicksburg, seeing signs for Yazoo City, which I always wanted to see, Meridian, the Welcome to Alabama rest stop, Tuscaloosa, then finally, Birmingham. I loved watching the scenery change from the plains of Texas, the swamp land of Louisiana, to finally the loblolly pines on each side of the interstate.

Alabama is my happy place. I wouldn't trade the life I have in Texas for anything, but still, there is a very special, happy place in my heart for Alabama. It smells like pine trees, azaleas, and sweet gum balls. It looks like red clay, rolling hills, and pine needles (which I braided endlessly as a child). It tastes like Buffalo Rock ginger ale and cornbread. It reminds me of visiting Grandma, eating her delicious meals, and playing in her jewelry. It reminds me of walks with my Dad exploring the woods around his childhood house and looking for Buffalo Rock. Yes, Alabama is my happy place.

And what a blessing that I have gotten to be such good friends with two sweet girls from Tuscaloosa! We laugh that we met each other on the internet through blogging. Over the years, Karen and Tesney have become so dear to me, and I have enjoyed not only blogging and facebooking (is that a word?) with them, but also visiting face to face with them over the past few years. After my grandmother moved to Waco to be closer to our family, I am sad to say that I hadn't visited Alabama from 1995-2008. In fact, the last time I was there when she lived there, I was touring the Masters program at UA where I had hoped to go to graduate school. Two months later, I started dating Bryon which made that dream not quite as sweet! I vowed never to go that long without being in Bama, and have gotten to go 4 times in the last 1 1/2 years.

I made it to Tuscaloosa in a little less than 10 hours. I enjoyed listening to a book on cd, listening to my music, and enjoying a peaceful drive. When I got to T-town I was thrilled to see my sweet friends and eat at Dreamland! What a great night! Saturday, Tesney and I hit all the Alabama t-shirt and gift shops. I love being in Tuscaloosa where almost everyone is a fanatical Crimson Tide fan! I have never seen a town with more school spirit! After doing lots of retail damage, Karen, Tesney, and I made our way to Birmingham. We enjoyed lots of shopping and then went to P.F. Changs for dinner.

Karen recognized him first. This is pretty impressive as Karen is an Auburn girl. Yes, Greg McElroy, Alabama's National Championship quarterback, was also at the restaurant with his girlfriend. He sat down to wait and we sat right next to him. I let him know that I was also a Crimson Tide fan in Texas (he is from Southlake, 1 1/2 hours north of me). He was as nice as he could be and introduced us to his girlfriend. Sadly, I chickened out of asking for a picture with him, but I will always have the mental picture! Also sitting near us was Bart Starr, an Alabama quarterback in the 60s and the quarterback of the winning first two Super Bowl teams. It was quite a night!

Sunday was great. I love going to the University church in Tuscaloosa. I also enjoyed going to Tesney's small group Superbowl party. It was funny being there while knowing that my own small group was meeting at my house!

After a fun filled friend weekend, I hit the road early Monday morning and got home 5 minutes after the kids did on Monday. Had it not been for the torrential hydroplaning downpour the last three hours of the trip, I would have made it home sooner! I love my sweet friends in Tuscaloosa dearly, and can't wait to go back!

The past week

Well, lots has happened since last I blogged!

Last Wednesday, I woke up to get ready for a trip to Dallas with my sister. The first thing I noticed was that I had a stuffy nose. This was slightly annoying to me, because stuffy noses end up being sinus infections. Ugh. Lauren and I had a great day in Dallas and enjoyed seeing Michael, Jilinda, and Lydia. We got home just in time for the kids to get off the bus. Right around this time, I started feeling horrible. Achy, congestion in my face and chest, shaky. I realize that this sinus infection came on strong and I would need to go to the doctor to get an antibiotic. Bryon came home from work and took the three kids to the Baylor game.

When I woke up Thursday, I realized rather quickly that this was no sinus infection. My doctor did a test and, sho enough, I had the flu. After a terrible first day at home, I went back to the doctor to find out I had pneumonia on top of the flu. I don't think I have ever had the flu, and I hadn't even had a fever in 5 years. I was shocked! My doctor told me that I needed to be quaranteened away from the rest of the family. This is not the best news for a Type A CEO of a busy family! Fortunately, my darling husband came home from work before the kids got home and did so both Thursday and Friday. It was such a blessing knowing that the kids were taken care of and I didn't lift a finger for 4 days! Very few things were enjoyable about the weekend, but I did get a kick out of watching Bryon take Mary Beth to ballet and then taking her church shoes shopping. She was in desperate need of church shoes and came home with church shoes, tennis shoes, a houndstooth coat, and several Hello Kitty necklaces! Mary Beth has now decided that she would rather Bryon do the bulk of the clothes shopping!

Another strange thing this weekend, Matthew went for a jump ball in his basketball game, fell the the floor and hyperextended his elbow. Bryon and the kids spent Saturday afternoon getting x-rays, and eventually getting a soft cast and sling. It was quite an adjustment for us for 4 days helping our extremely independent child tie his shoes and take baths! By Tuesday, his arm was much better and he is enjoying the use of both of his arms again!

Also, by Tuesday, I took a turn for the better, and really began to feel like myself again. I have said that I will never take for granted breathing out of my nose again! I was so thrilled to start feeling better mainly because I am driving to Tuscaloosa tomorrow for some Karen and Tesney time! It's been a year since I was in Alabama, and I am anxious to cross the Black Warrior River, eat Dreamland bar b que, laugh and talk to two of my favorite girls, and help stimulate the economy by buying National Championship gear!

Bryon is definitely filling my love bank being the single parent two weekends in a row! Fortunately, all he has to do is coach 2 games, take Matthew to a birthday party, take the boys to their piano theory tests at Baylor, take Matthew to baseball tryouts, participate in the Crestview Dodgeball tournament, and host our small group's Super Bowl party at our house! Yikes! When we planned our Bama trip, I didn't realize that this weekend was the perfect storm of activities! He handles these things remarkably well, and I am sure it will be great.

Looking forward to a fun weekend and one of my favorite drives in the world!

Our backyard

One of my favorite things about where we live is that there is a cow pasture behind our house. There are no neighborhoods in sight from the back, and we can almost feel like we are living in the country... with Starbucks 1 minute away! Talk about the best of both worlds!

We'll be sitting outside and all of the trees and bushes behind our fence will shake violently and the sound of 50 cows mooing will fill the air! I also love hearing the coyotes at night, and we are woken up nearly every morning to the sound of our owl hooting. Yes, we claim the owl. We have no pets besides the birds in our yard! ;)

One of my favorite things in the winter are the winter sunsets. They are easier to see in our backyard with the leaves off the trees, and the clouds are much wispier. I was reading with Mary Beth yesterday and looked out the window and was blown away by the beautiful sunset. I talk to the kids a lot about the beautiful sunsets that God "paints" in the sky for us. What a beautiful painting last night! I had to take a few pictures.

Upwards Basketball

This is our fourth season to coach/play Upwards basketball. We are so happy that our church is involved with Upwards basketball. In many ways, it is my favorite sport the kids play because of the encouraging, supportive, Christ oriented, and laid back nature of it. Plus, most of my friends' kids play as well, so there is lots of parent socializing in the bleachers! Bryon started coaching Upwards when Matthew was in 1st grade, and he is coaching 3 teams this year!

I took pictures of the games on Saturday, but all my Upwards picture end up looking horrible. Oh well!

Matthew plays basketball like he plays every sport. He is very intense and I always hope that whoever he is guarding is equally intense! Last week, he scored 18 points. His goal this week was 20, and after he made his goal, he continued to pass the ball to the children on our team that were the smallest and least likely to score. He has really worked on his lay up this year, and is always so much fun to watch in action!

I caught one of his lay ups in action!


Thomas's favorite part of basketball is defense. He loves to block shots and steal balls. In fact, he spends a great deal of time on the floor of the gym wrestling the ball away from an opposing player! Here he is guarding his good buddy, Rhett.

I got ribbed for asking Thomas to smile immediately before throwing the ball in! Such is the life of the mamarazzi!
Thomas and Rhett wrestling for the ball! I find this amusing considering his laid back approach to life!



So, this is where we will be each Saturday from now until March. I'm looking forward to a fun season!

January

OK, you are just going to have to take my word on it that our Christmas break was great. I had big ideas about making a long blog about the holidays, but never did, and now it feels like a million miles away in the past. But, we had a wonderful break, great family time, busy holiday schedule, then a nice, quiet week in between Christmas and New Years. I posted pictures a few entries ago, and that is as good as it's going to get! ;)

So other than the holiday rush, here is what we have been up to. We have watched a lot of movies, Baylor basketball, and football. Here are pictures of my kids watching tv. Yes, fun and exciting things to blog about! My brother and SIL got the kids a lot of old school movies for Christmas, and we have enjoyed them.

Over the holiday, I read 2 really great books! I always appreciate a book that I can't put down, and when I do put down, I can't wait to pick it back up again. The Lost Hours and Firefly Lane were great. I am planning to chose one to do for book club and can't decide between the two.

I finished both books up by New Year's Eve. Speaking of that, does anyone else feel like it is crazy that we have started a new decade? That the 80s were 3 decades ago? We let the kids stay up until midnight that night. I remember holding our 6 week old, Matthew, at the stroke of midnight in the new millennium 10 years ago, and what a huge difference one decade made. Now, I am thinking that Matthew will be a sophomore in college at the turn of the next decade! How quickly life is passing by!

I absolutely love January! I love starting fresh. I love my house after it has been decorated to the hilt with Fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas decorations. Everything looks a little stark, but I appreciate that. I like the feeling of starting over. Reevaluating our lives and making changes. I tend to crave making big meals for the family and sit down for dinner more in January. After so many parties and events in December, it is nice to stay home. It's just too cold to go out at night! I also love that our activities slow down so much this time of year. School activities are at a minimum, and we are only involved with Upwards basketball through our church. I also enjoy the cold weather, and I haven't been disappointed this year! 8 degrees yesterday! It hasn't been in the single digits in Waco since 1989. It has been an unusually cold winter.

Here is Mary Beth starting up ballet again after a month off. She asked me what I was going to make her for breakfast tonight, and I realized for the first time, that she is no longer calling it "break tist". She is also stopped asking to put on her "nightdown". So many of her sweet baby expressions are fading away. She has grown up so much this year, I can hardly believe it. I will ask her questions, and she enjoys spelling out her answers. She reads everything in sight. Where did my baby go?

While watching our movies, basketball, and football, I still like to keep busy. Here is my latest project. Of course it isn't finished yet, but I am excited about how it is turning out. I have graduated into putting texture in a scarf, and I have learned to do cables. So much fun!
That's about all going on around our house right now. We are enjoying a slow paced start to the year!

New hobby

I plan to write about our holiday season soon, but I wanted to share with you a project that I completed that I am proud of.

Knitting has been a hobby of at least 5 generations of women in my family. My great great grandmother, Elizabeth Ann, who I am named after, and who moved to America from England, taught my great grandmother, who taught my grandmother (whose husband called her Madame DeFarge, the knitter in A Tale of Two Cities), who taught my mother (and aunts), who taught me. Mom taught me when I was in 6th grade, but I just recently took it up again. My grandmother knitted my Christmas stocking before she passed away when I was a baby, and my aunts have taken over the responsibility of knitting Christmas stockings for all the newest members of our family.

I just completed my first scarf. I loved making the scarf, and am on to my next project! What a great hobby and a neat family tradition!

Wonderful Christmas!

Mid December Photo Blog

Well, two crazy weeks of living have come to a close! I took pictures of most of our events, but didn't bring my camera to our piano recital or Christmas parties. Here is a picture blog of a few of our recent activities.

Ballet Viewing Class: Last week, the parents were allowed in to watch a ballet class. Here is Mary Beth with her best bud, Whitney. I feel like I have as many pics of Whitney as I do my own children! The girls love to say that they have been best friends since they wore diapers and will be best friends until they die. Very morbid but sweet! I love watching these two together!

Matthew's Ornament: Our PTA takes pictures of every child and puts them in ornaments for the parents. These are my favorite things on our tree! I watched Matthew's 4th grade class last week while his teacher took a much needed 2 hour break, and took pics of his entire class. Here is Matthew's 4th grade picture:
Thomas's Class Party: Several room moms took a morning last week to make these cute reindeer shirts. The antlers are hands, and the face is a foot. The second graders switch rooms for their Christmas party, and I read Mr. Willoughby's Christmas tree 6 times that day!
Jack's 1st birthday party. I love being an aunt!
Thomas's 8th birthday. You just have to know this funny kid. One of my PTA responsibilities is to PAW birthday kids. That morning, after the signs were delivered, I asked Thomas to get the paper. He walked outside, got the paper, and came in.....never noticing these huge birthday signs in the yard! He gets so focused on a task that he doesn't let extraneous information in! He was very excited once I pointed them out!
Hanging out with sweet cousin, James.
Mary Beth's kindergarten party. I can't believe that half of kindergarten is over! What a great year so far!

Another of my huge PTA responsibilities this year was to organize the parent chaperones to the Gaylord Texan ICE exhibit/Rainforest Cafe' tour. It was a ton of fun!

Church family night. We painted a nativity scene, played games, watched a movie, and ate cookies. Thomas was thrilled to be painting a "presepio". I had no idea what he was talking about until he explained that the Italians have a Presepio, or nativity scene, in every town. He learned a lot in the 2nd grade Christmas Around The World!
We had a gorgeous 30 minute blizzard recently. I was the goofball taking pictures with my iPhone at stop lights! ;)
Mary Beth's kindergarten ornament picture.

Back to Jack's 1st birthday party.
Celebrating Thomas and Dad's birthday. This was also the SEC championship day. We were all THRILLED! Mainly to be celebrating the birthdays. Is that what I am supposed to say? ;)
Happy B-day/SEC championship!

Mary Beth doing her school work. I can't believe how much she has grown up these past few months!

Does anyone besides me hear the Hallelujah Chorus in surround sound?

1 year and 34,485 stitches later, I have completed Mary Beth's needlepoint name! I hope she cherishes it always and has it at the top of her list of what to run out of a burning building with.

There were many times during this year that I wished I had named my daughter, Jo.

Complicate kisses

This is a funny slice of the Barnhill family life that I feel like needs to be documented for posterity.

There was once a day when kisses occurred in our house with little fanfare. It was a simple time in our lives.

Then, about a year ago, Thomas decided that he wanted to have more kisses from me than Bryon did, so after Bryon and I would kiss, Thomas would squeal, "Erase!" This was very cute.

Then, over time, it was "Erase! Final!" then

"Erase! Final, Infinity and beyond!"

then, eventually...

"Erase!" and in order to keep the kiss, you had to say, "Final! Infinity beyond, no changes, and forever does it NOW!" before someone says, "Erase!" Thomas likes to give me a kiss when no one is looking and whisper the Final Infinity before Bryon or his older brother scream "Erase!"

Sometimes, he say it really fast, sometimes he sings it to the church hymn of "Yonder over the rolling river where the shining mansions rise".

Now, Mary Beth thought this was very sad that Bryon didn't get to keep any kisses from me, so she started screaming, "Lock!" after Bryon kissed me which would immediately negate the "Erase!" without having to do the Final Infinity. Matthew likes to join in on this to annoy Thomas.

So now, every time Bryon kisses me, we have three eager children ready to scream "Erase!" and "Lock!" after the kiss is over!

Never a dull moment!