It's Monday!

This weekend I received my first massage from a real massage person. And it hurt! Apparently I had a lot of knots and tension that needed to get worked out of my neck and back. The lady told me that it wouldn't hurt so bad the 2nd and 3rd times I came to get one. I'm not sure that there will be a second or third time. A new time killer that I have gotten into is facebook. I like it a trillion times better than myspace. There are all kinds of quizzes to take and lots of flair buttons to look through. I have found some great flair on there. I think my favorite one is the texas shaped waffle. I have a waffle maker that makes texas shaped waffles and it's one of my favorite things on this earth! I got it for christmas from my brother and I was so happy I cried. I don't think I have ever cried over a present before, but that did it! I had wanted it real bad, but guess I didn't realize just how bad until I opened it. Anyways, that piece of flair happens to be titled, "Only in Texas". I forget that other states probably don't have their own waffle maker. Somehow, I just don't think a Florida shaped waffle would taste quite as good.
Sleep is starting to take over so I better hit the pillow!

MMMM....Cake

My last baby finally turned one year old! She is only about 5 inches shorter and 5 lbs lighter than her 2 1/2 yr old sister, Charlotte. I just know she's going to start walking any day now. She can stand up, but hasn't taken any steps yet. She had a blast eating up her little baby cake. I wasn't sure what she was going to think of it, but it was a big hit. Later that evening she had her first trip to the county fair. I don't think she was that impressed with it, but she enjoyed the animals.

Famous Allens

We had a wonderful spring break! Leslie had a friend over for a couple of nights and then we went to visit one of my good friends from Cracker Barrel. After that it was time to head out to San Antonio to see the sights and visit another best friend and her family. This is the first time our kids have been able to get together for an extended amount of time and play. They all had a blast and are counting the days until they get to see each other again. Leslie said her favorite part of the trip was the jumpity jump place and getting to go out to eat. My friend took us driving around in the hill country and it was beautiful up there. I was a little nervous on some of the curvy roads going down through the hills, but I was with a good driver so we had nothing to worry about. One time, we were driving through Arkansas and some of the roads there were very steep and very curvy and I thought I was going to have to sedate myself to be able to ride in the car with out freaking out. Anyways, we really enjoyed getting to spend time with friends and being able to relax. Michael had also took a side trip up to a town called Paint Rock. In that town, there are some rock paintings done by indians. They are all very well preserved. He took a ton of pictures, but i'm not sure what the link is to them at the moment or I would add that on. On our way home, we took a bit of a scenic route. We ended up going through New Braunsfels, then through Austin, then to Brenham and then to Navasota and then to Huntsville. It took a little longer, but we got to see some nifty things. And I had heard that near Brenham was the best place to see bluebonnets. I have never seen so many of them! Fields and fields of them all over the place. It was so pretty. If the children hadn't looked so ragged by that point, I would have pulled over to take their picture by them. I still plan on doing that, but I have a place in Huntsville picked out. I forgot to mention that when we were going past navasota and into Anderson, we made sure to try to take a picture of Chuck Norris' house! Can't forget that! Now we are back to the daily grind. Tomorrow, Leslie is starting her art class at the Wynne Home. I can't wait to see what kind of wonderful things made of clay she will come home with!

Happy Spring Break!

I'm glad it's finally here. Michael and Leslie both have needed a break from school. Leslie has done incredibly well this year in school. Not that I doubted she would, but she has has really excelled at everything. She came home with a 100 in math for the six weeks on a recent report card. I am so proud of her! And last week, Michael took his test, and passed, to become certified to teach jr high science. I feel a little left out in the achievements area, but i'll think of something wonderful that I have done lately. We had an awesome time at the rodeo earlier this month. Leslie, my mom and I met up with my sister there. We looked at all the amazing quilts that were there. Leslie went through the fake farm they had where kids learn about what goes on on a real farm. She got to milk a fake cow, feed fake chickens, pet a fake sheep and grow a fake carrot. They had real versions of these animals to look at there too. Leslie enjoyed the rodeo itself. It helped that we had really good seats on the end that the bull riding was on. The concert that day was Trace Adkins. I didn't recognize too many of the songs but I liked it anyway. Leslie was ready to go as soon as he started singing. It was loud and dark in there, but I managed to get her smiling and dancing during some of it. Afterwards, we went to the carnival and had a blast. We rode the tiltawhirl, which is my mom's favorite, and then we went on some kind of ride that goes in a circle over some humps and then goes backwards over the humps. My mom rode that with Leslie first and then I got on it with her. I couldn't stop myself from laughing and screaming the whole time. I hadn't had that much fun in a long time. Leslie also won a pretty good sized stuffed tiger from a game that involved throwing ping pong balls into lillypads. That made her night!
Today, she has a friend over for a couple of days and they went to the movies about an hour ago. Michael calls me when they get there and informed me that the movies didn't open until4pm. We had looked at the time that was for the weekends. So they are going to go rent a couple of movies instead. Later this week we are going on a short, but much needed vacation. We are heading to San Antonio! One of my best friends lives there and we are going to spend some time with her and her family and do some touristy stuff. Michael is going to Paint Rock, TX to go see some rocks that were painted on almost a thousand years ago. The things that were painted on them are what people back then were seeing in the sky. Some are of constellations, or astronomy events that were taking place at the time. It sounds pretty neat. He'll spend most of one day doing that. I'm just happy to be out and about. But ecstatic that I get to see my friend because I miss her a lot!
I'm going to go in the other room and catch up on some reading while the little ones are taking their nap!

It's Thursday!

I'm a little behind in my blogs. And it's not because I'm extremely busy or writing a book or anything fascinating like that either. When the last kid goes to bed, something in my head suddenly feels sleepier than I ever thought I could feel and all I can think about is going to bed. But, then that doesn't happen and two hours later I'm finally crawling into bed. I have been getting more sleep though. Sophie doesn't wake up as many times a night as she used to and more frequently now, she is sleeping through the night!! And when I say more frequently, I mean once a week instead of once a month. I take it when I can get it.
As for fun at the girl scout camp, we had lots of it. It was great!! I don't know who enjoyed it more between the three of us. We got to see a couple of horses that we remember from way back when that still have a little get up and go in them. On Saturday, my mom, my sister, Leslie and I are going to the rodeo to get our fill of livestock smells and ferris wheels. I absolutely love the houston rodeo. The people watching alone is worth going for. I was lucky enough to work in reliant stadium one year during the rodeo and I got to see all the concerts and meet all kinds of interesting people. I was at one of the little plastic stands selling beer. I really enjoyed that job, but it ended up being too far for me to drive.
I feel the sleepiness catching up with me. Must....go...to...bed....

Horses!

I can't wait for tomorrow! Leslie finally gets to go see the girl scout horse program in action. I spent so much time involved in this program from the time I was in 6th grade until a little while after high school. There are very few places where you can get such detailed hands on training for little or no money. I learned everything that I ever knew about horses from all the weekends and summers spent at that camp. My parents also spent a great deal of time in this program also, so my mom is going with us to reminisce. I need to locate my camera and my thumbtack that operates my camera so I can get some pictures of this momentous occasion.
I keep getting distracted with myspace at the moment, so this little bit has taken me half an hour to type. And now it's time to get some sleep!

again and again

I haven't blogged in a long while and I promise I have a good reason for it. When I think of it, I will add it in. But there are somethings that have gone on lately that have kept me from the computer. I thought I had the flu last week and it got bad enough that I ended up having to go the hospital by ambulance and had to spend a couple of days there. That wasn't real fun. The best diagnosis that I got was that I had some sort of viral infection that attacked me as hard as possible. During the hospital stay I started having these terrible headaches that made me want to stay in the dark as much as possible. They don't bother me much now except for when I'm at the computer. I have to wear sunglasses in order to sit her for more than five minutes. And I don't have any adult size sunglasses, so right now i'm wearing Sophie's pink butterfly glasses that velcro in the back. It's a great sight to see. And in the last week, we are having trouble keeping all of the children well also. As of this moment, Leslie has a fever and Sophie hopefully will keep her dinner down tonight. Last tuesday, Sophie had a double ear infection and then Charlotte started with the stomach bug.
I did manage to get a quick night out last night. I already had a ticket to see a comedy show in houston. I got to go see Joel McHale who hosts The Soup on the E channel. He is hilarious on the show and I thought he was even funnier in person. He had some great stories about his funny kids that I could relate to. And after the show he was signing autographs. I bought a tshirt before the show and had him sign that. And I made friends with the women in front of me in line so they would take a picture of me with him and then email it to me. If it is a decent picture, I might post it on here.
I'm heading to be extra early tonight. Gotta grab sleep when I can get it!