Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Holding Back No Longer

In the July issue of Oprah...

'What you perceive as prudent social caution is likely limiting your life to about half of its natural capacity.'

I am so happy to say that I am working on experiencing as much as possible. I will not sit on the sidelines and watch others have fun. I will get out and play with my kids/dH and have new adventures everyday. Life is just too short.

Kookabura

Can't get the Kookabura song outta my head!

Kookabura sits on an old gum tree
Merry merry king of the bush is he
Laugh kookabura
Laugh kookabura
Gay your life must be
ha ha ha

Did you sing songs like that as a kids?
I feel bad cause my kids don't know these songs...
Summer plan is to teach all of these songs to my kids...
*******************
Amster Amster
Dam Dam Dam
Somebody said that naughty word
******************
There once was a man named Michael Finnigan
He poured some whiskey on his chin again
something something
something something
poor Michael Finnigan
Again Again
********************
I like to eat
I like to eat
I like to eat eat
Apples and Banannas

O loke to oat
O loke to oat
O loke to oat oat
Opples and Bononnos

U luke tu uke
U luke tu uke
U luke tu uke uke
upples and bunnunus
**********************
#3's BFF was teaching them one in the car again about 6 pences.

Yep - that's what we're gonna do...learn these songs...

Got any to add to the list?

Monday, June 18, 2007

Malls and Such

I had a first last Friday night. #1's best buddy was over spending the night. We had done a little shopping for Father's day and I had promised them that we could stop by a skate shop to check things out. Naturally, we ran outta time and the youngers were both losing steam. So after dH got home, I took the big kids (#1, #2 and the BFF) to the mall. How weird. We had a fun time. Went to the Vans store, to the Fast Forward (now called Zumies) and a few other random stores. I overheard a conversation about some cute girls. And I learned that we are pre-pre-teens and that going to the mall is what we do! Kinda of funny since we had never gone to the mall for no reason before and it will prolly be a bit of a long time before we do it again!

I am glad to report that a great time was had by all!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Peace of Mind

Well, I just got off the phone with the Austin Parks and Rec. Department. They said that the child lived. The child was transported to the hospital. Also of interest, the kid was not at the pool with parents.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

So Upset

Oh I am so upset right now. Trying to cook supper and keep it together. Jeff is reading with the kids.

I took the kids to Garrison pool, which we do on a regular basis. Sure enough, a baby was pulled from the pool. We heard the loud whistle. Everyone was evacuated from the pool. We saw them doing chest compressions and the blowing in the mouth. Then they asked everyone to leave the pool area. Sam noticed that they were doing the 1-2-3 clear thing. (I didn't actually see it because I was trying to get our stuff together.) As we were driving away we saw them putting the child on the stretcher. The kids are all upset. I am very upset. Called Jeff and told him he needed to come home from work.

We always watch our kids like hawks when we are in the water. Things like this can happen so easily - no matter what the age or the swimming ability. I'm pretty shaken up tonight. We can never take each other for granted.

I'll keep you posted if we hear what happened.

Smile

This morning I was thinking about how happy I am. I feel such a great sense of peace. I know I am loved. I know that I can face whatever comes my way. I am so blessed in this life. I LOVE my husband and I LOVE my kids and I LOVE my people. We are all so lucky to have each other.

It is very unusual for me to say these things - but I know now that it is true.

So anyhow - I was having a hardy laugh at myself this morning because in previous years the only way that I could express my love or receive love is if I had been drinking. There was an on-going joke amongst our friends that they knew I had consumed a few if I was telling them that I love them and giving hugs. That made me think of these two pictures. Surely one of my favorite memories and one of my very best NYE's (next to the one in Dallas with Nakajima).





Ha ha - and the other joke within our group of friends is that they know I am pregnant again if I am not drinking! :)

Monday, June 11, 2007

Mo Ranch

This weekend we had another family adventure! We had our 2nd annual trip to the beautiful Mo Ranch. The Lewisville Janik's came to Austin on Thursday night. Friday morning we got up, got the cars loaded up with our gear and the kids and got on the road. All of the kids were SO excited. One of them even asked if we get to do this together every year for the rest of our lives.

The Mo Ranch is located outside of Hunt, Texas on the beautiful Guadalupe River. The whole drive I was reminded of how much I LOVE TEXAS. The girl car got to stop in Fredericksburg and eat fresh picked peaches and blackberries from Vogels and run around the Wal-Mart trying on cute (but unnecessary) flip flops. We laughed and listened to music and talked about all of the things that girlfriends talk about. It is so nice to have a grown-up woman relationship that our daughters can see and understand (but that is a whole 'nother post).

Once we got to the ranch we took some time to get settled into our cabins. As is customary, there was a girl cabin and a boy cabin. This year, the girl cabin was affectionately referred to as "SHANIQUA" and the boys were staying in "ANTWON".




Mo Ranch Girls with Shaniqua


Mo Ranch Boys with Antwon.

We were so lucky to be joined by the Johnson Family, the Round Rock Janik's, the Cunningham ladies and Sam's good buddy Alex. What a wonderful group of people to spend the very best weekend with! We spent Friday evening, all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday in the beautiful Guadalupe River. We body surfed the rapids, canoed, rode the giant slide, swung off the rope swing (thousands of times) and laid on the floating dock. By Sunday afternoon, we were all wishing that we could just float on the Guadalupe river for the rest of our lives.

Fortunately for us, Amy and Liz are both incredible photographers, so JC should be able to post lots of awesome pics. on our website for you guys!!! :)


This was one of the last pictures that Amy took. Liz told all of the kids to run directly at Amy and "wa-la!" it turned into this great pic. where you can clearly see all of the kids and their excitement over the weekend! And notice that they are all wearing their Mo Ranch t-shirts that they made Saturday morning during 'craft time with Val and Kathy'. We are already looking forward to next year and hoping we can talk everyone into adding one more day.

Bad Dreams

So my best buddy has a nightly adventures blog. I read it religiously. It is funny how a dream can make you feel. We were in a cabin with friends the other night and I woke up because one of the friends had gotten up. I asked her the next morning if she was okay - I was kinda of worried that she might have gotten up cause I was snoring too much. She said that she was up because she had a nightmare. Horrible nightmare where people were murdered and she was one of them.

Why do we have these dreams?

I am forever having bad dreams. When I was younger I had them almost nightly and it would leave the bad feeling with me ALL day long. Lately I do not have them as often, but they are with the same intense emotion. Why?

Last night in my dream we were at a party with some friends (parents from the kids preschool). We walk in and all of our preschool parent friends were already there. We say hi and the host says hello Susan and Bob. I lost it! I told her that it wasn't our name and that we had helped them and been friends with them for years and they still do not know our name. I went into this long speech about being worth more than what I was being given. All of the people we know from the preschool circle were there and looking at me. Jeff was just standing beside me holding on to me. I was screaming about how I had driven all of their kids all over the planet and how they still couldn't remember my name. The host of the party wasn't someone that I see very often anymore, but I still woke up this morning feeling a little rattled about it.

What causes this? I can't be what I ate for dinner, cause I didn't eat anything. Before I went to bed I watched the Sopranos finale - but I don't think that caused it. Sometimes what sucks most about the dreams that I have is that it is has to do with real people and things that could really happen.

UGH!!!!

South Padre

Well, seems like forever ago since I last made a post. So instead of going into all of the details of our AWESOME South Padre Island trip, I am posting a few of my favorite pictures. We had a great great time. It is always so nice when we can circle the Carr wagons and have some time with just the six of us. I know that we are making memories that our kids will carry with them for a long long time. They won't remember the specifics, but they will remember the love and the fun. Ok - I realize that I am getting too sappy...


You know - no matter where we go (or how many clothes we are wearing), I've gotta get a family picture. I really love this one! And you'll notice that we had Canella and Louise at the beach the whole time. Surprisingly, both of the dogs seemed to enjoy their first trip to the beach. And the kids loved having them there because they were like rock stars. :)


I am so grateful to have such a loving family!


This picture was taken at about 8am on Saturday morning. The kids wanted to be in the water every possible second. I am standing on the bottom step of the hotel deck taking this picture. The tide was so high that you literally walked down the steps into the water. It was SO beautiful.

We will definately go back to SPI. It was a wonderful weekend!

Friday, June 1, 2007

Who's Your Madre?

Well, here we are at the LaQuinta in beautiful South Padre Island. Why have we never been here before??? Someone forgot to tell us how beautiful this beach actually is!!!

I have a handful of things to post about, so this could get pretty long. First of all, lets start with the blessings! We were suppose to be in New Orleans this weekend with our friends Bill and Linda. Well, Bill just received his PHD and got a job offer on Wednesday and they asked him to start on Friday (today). I guess when you get super smart, they don't need to give you time before you start your new job! :) So anyhow, our New Orleans trip was cancelled. :( So that left us scrambling to figure out what we might do this weekend. Well, thank heavens JC does a lot of traveling for work (only time you'll EVER hear me say that) - because he has a gazillion points on his La Quinta frequent sleeper card. So, we decided we'd come to the beach. We didn't know if it would be Galveston or Corpus, but I got to checkin' and we ended up here in SPI. FOR FREE!!!! Woo hoo. The rooms are usually between $199-$249 per night! What a deal!!!! Yaye JC! And then to top off our super cheap trip, we have a cooler. There should be no NEED for us to purchase any food at any eating establishment for the next 3 days. We have plenty of stuff for sandwiches, snacks, and dinner! The room has a fridge and microwave! Wow, we are saving so much that we should do this every weekend. And to top it all off, the hotel is right on the beautiful beach. The room is perfect - 2 queen beds and 1 pull out couch - which means the boys are together, the girls are together and me and Jeff are together. AND...La Quinta welcomes pets. So, we have the six of us and our two dogs in the room - which sounds horrid to some of you, but it actually quite nice! Oh, and how about that I am typing this for free in the business center! :)

Ok - well, I want to tell you about something that is happening at our hotel. There is a camp happening here that is called Beach Week 2007. There are about 350 teens and grown-ups here from Abilene area churches (Baptist, Methodist, and Non-Denom). We walked in last night and thought we might have made a bad decision. Apparently, they have this camp here every year - and it is a time for them to worship and have fun together. The WHOLE pool area was taken over last night when they were having their praise and worship time and their 'ask Jesus into your heart' time. (Cannot remember what that is called for the life of me) They had the Christian pop kind of music, very vineyardish. And tons and tons of people crying and hugging and holding on to each other. They have t-shirts that say:

Who's your Padre? Romans 8:16

They are actually kind of cute. I am having many many emotions about this event. One is a fond rememberance of a day gone by. I have really great memories of church camp. The other is that it is kind of strange. Why do they all keep touching each other? That is the one thing that the kids and I talked about most last night. They sure do hug a lot. And keep in my, we are a very physical family, just not with other people. I pictured HB at this camp and I could see her out there comforting and counseling all of these kids.

ARGH!!! I gotta go - someone else is waiting to use the computer. I will finish all of these thoughts later. Someone tell me what Romans 8:16 says. Love you all tons!