Happy Halloween

I love Halloween in our neighborhood! As soon as the sun goes down everyone turns on their lights and heads outside. This year we are going to pull out our lawn chairs and sit in the driveway with neighbors as the trick or treaters come by. Tyler is more into picking out a costume and handing out candy than Travis is. He wants to be scared, look scary and get all the candy he can from every house in the neighborhood. So it works well for us! I hope you each have a fun night filled with chocolate and goblins!

The Letter says it all...

My Dad sent this letter out to all of his friends. I just had to post it to my blog. Isn't this the love we all want and the way we would love our men to express it!

Hi Everyone,

I just want to send out a message to all of you and let you know how much my wife has meant to me for all these years on her 50th birthday. Leeann will tell you the first time we met was at Album park in the 8th grade, but I will tell you I had a dream when I was younger that I would like a girl with blond hair and she would be swinging on the swing set (this is true). We actually fell in love at a football game our freshman year in high school. This was so cool to have your sweetheart, a Trooperette, ride home with you. Did I tell you she was “Most Beautiful?” How can a guy go wrong? You want to talk about scared, sit across from Mom and Dad Erwin and tell them you’re going to marry their daughter.

She then became the best MOM any daughter could ever have. She became the spiritual leader the three of us needed and her grandma Dona would be so proud of her (she sings Dona’s songs on the way to church). She has been so solid in that family is “everything” and she does not care what it takes to preserve this. This lady is solid.

We have had the blessing of our daughter marring a great guy and giving us two great grandsons. The days she has spend teaching them how to make cookies, paint on something weird or just go to the Dollar Store for a toy is unbelievable.

This last year has been pretty rough on her, but never has she not kept up her positive attitude to her family and her god. She has made us all understand that when your out of the game your still a player. She keeps all of us going.

I just want you all to know how much this woman has meant to me and how beautiful she is. At 50 she is still “Most Beautiful”. I love her and know this was a god thing. Seeing her on the stage this weekend just reminded me of that day she crowned the Most Beautiful Girl at Eastwood High School . That is an honor most of us will never have. I love her more than life itself, what a catch.

John

50 and Fabulous

On Thursday, October 23, 2008, my beautiful mom will turn 50. We had a blast today celebrating with her. If you follow my blog at all you will soon learn that birthDAY is not in our vocabulary it is more like birthWEEK. Today we took Mom to House of Blues Gospel Brunch. It was so much fun! They pulled her up on stage and sang happy birthday to her. She was a bit embarrassed, but hey that's my job.

My Mom is my confidant and very best friend. I can fight with her, cry with her and laugh my rear off with her. She is the best! I thank God for her every day, but this week I will hope to show her just how special she is to me and my family.

We love you LeeLee!!

Change!

Change is something that I usually handle pretty well, I even embrace it. I am not the type of person that likes to stay put for very long. I like growing and going, maybe I was raised like that maybe I just came that way. Hard to tell! Lately I have felt stuck in a rut. The rut is consuming me. Today I have tried to figure out what the rut is...I know sounds strange. I have not really come to a conclusion. Just that I am not happy the way "things" stand right now.
Our church has been in mild turmoil for the past two years. We lost our pastor and then replaced him, lost our youth minister (and good friend) and are waiting to replace him. In the mean time, I have lost the feeling of a good church home. I have lost good friends that made going to church feel like a close knit family. Today as I looked around I noticed that the close knit family consisted of two or three people now. I know that the people are not the reason why we go to church, but it is why we keep going and why we plug in to go more. I want so bad to have a church that I have others like me, working moms that feel the stress I feel and can meet me online or at Starbucks because they know that either is an acceptable meeting place. Right now I do not see that happening. So maybe my rut is spiritual, maybe I need that cup to be filled. Or Maybe that is just the beginning and the easiest to fix. The other causes are deeper and require much more...

Pizza Eating Contest

For 100 years University of Texas and Oklahoma University have played in the Red River Shootout. This year we have the privilege of being able to experience such a "shootout" firsthand. This weekend our Jr. League Tackle Longhorns will face off with the Sooners. This game has been the most hyped game of the entire year. Tonight we held a pizza eating contest between the tow teams to get them into the competitive mode even more, as if that was even possible. You see, the "big boys" have their eat off tomorrow at Lawry's Prime rib. We are all too cheap to buy steak so pizza will have to do. We descended on the local Double Dave's which just happens to be owned by one of our parents, and the game was on. Tyler and his lineman buddy made it through 4 rounds, by far the most, and we whooped up on the sorry Sooners! It was great to see the boys having so much fun! I am sure tomorrow night at practice Coach will make them run it off, but for tonight they are savoring sweet victory. (Along with a few Tums!)

Fried Anything!

We have just returned from a fun day at the State Fair of Texas. This is a rare occurrence for the Lambert family, because I hate the crowds and the traffic so we rarely go. This year I decided to take a personal day and go during the week. Well, it was a great idea! The weather could not have been more perfect, it was in the mid 70's and a little breezy. The crowd was just right, never too many people in one area. I would strongly recommend going on a Tuesday to the Fair to beat the crowd!

There are a few things that everyone must see at the Fair. We have put together a list of our favorites.

1. Tyler loves the rides, something about the four bolts holding them to the ground while you spin upside down makes it more of a thrill ride!! (not with his momma!!)

2. Travis loves the Fun House! Where else can you find a room full of bubbles?

3. Fletcher's Corn Dogs; now you can get these all around the Fair, but we only eat them from the stand right by Big Tex. Eating a corn dog anywhere else is just another corn dog!

4. I love Jack Fries! These are fresh cut french fries with course salt and vinegar. YUMMMO!

5. Bill loves the Turkey Legs...basically from anywhere...

**The #1 thing that we all agree on is the Fried Options. you see the Fair has a contest every year to find the best fried item. Booth after booth have new and even more bizarre choices. this year the had Fried Diet Coke, Fried Banana Splits, Fried Oreos, Fried Moon Pies, Fried Cookie Dough, and Chicken Fried Bacon!! People come just to try the winner each year. We decided that Bill and I would each try an item this year. I tried the Fried Smores, WOW! If you can take your fry Daddy camping we would really have a new treat! Bill tried the Fire and Ice, this is a waffle cone filled with fried pineapple, frozen strawberries, and whip cream flash frozen. It was fine, but not as good as the smores. Here are a few other fried items I forgot: Fried grilled cheese, fried peanut butter and banana sandwich, and fried gator on a stick.

We are on a vegi only diet for the next few days.

One Word is all it takes...

How is it that one word can change a day that has gone so well up to that point? Today I went to pick the boys up from Art Class at school and Travis' teacher came up to me and said, "What is your problem? Where were you?" (insert dazed and confused look here) "Excuse me???" I have no idea what she is talking about. She goes on to explain that we had a conference today at 3:30. Say what?!?!? She goes on to explain that there was a note in his folder (insert bad mom feelings here). I did not check his folder all weekend, mainly because we were not here all weekend. We were at football games!! Now I feel like a terrible mother that has been reprimanded by the first grade teacher. She wanted no part of we are so busy speech. Frankly neither would I!!
It is just the fact that now I am in a bad mood because of it! I was having such a good day...why do I let the way other people think of me affect me so much. (should that be effect?? I never know) I know insert ADD moment here! I am going to go for a short walk and talk to God, I know He will bring me back. Thanks for letting me dump on you! I never feel like a bad mom when I blog...Maybe because no one talks back to me right away... HA!!

Feeling Sick!

So it is 8:15 am on a Friday and I am sitting here sipping hot tea and honey hoping that my throat will stop hurting. I have decided to stay home this morning and try to rest a bit before going back in this afternoon for a meeting. I really hate being sick, but I must say this quiet house is a little bit nice!

Over the last three weeks my family has spent EVERY single night watching, practicing, or playing football. By EVERY I really mean EVERY night. You see Monday Tyler practices, Tuesday and Wednesday Travis practices, and then Thursday is Tyler again. Of course Friday comes and the good old Wylie Pirates play, they are 5-0 so we can not miss that! It is also an opportunity for Tyler to wear his football jersey to a high school game, and after all isn't that half the fun? Saturday brings games of course little league and college and then Sunday is football day in America! This week we are actually attending games Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! Don't get me wrong I grew up with this same schedule, living at the football field and I love it. It just gets hard on the family when we are GOING so much! Believe it or not we are still making it to bed on time and reading a ton. I have even made dinner a few times during this busy week. I guess this is my life right now, take it as it is!

Funny Tyler story...

Last night at practice they were scrimmaging the Senior league (10-11 year olds) and Tyler learned what it felt like to be tackled by someone double your size. This big corn fed boy lined up in front of him and put him on his rear over and over again! You see Tyler is one of the big kids, shocker, and he does not really get laid out very often so this was a bit of a surprise. While he was playing defense he got taken down again and in his words he "felt his brain rattle around in his head." He got up and started crying saying that he could not feel his legs, I was not panicking because he did get up! He got some water and rearranged his brain cells and made it back to shake hands and run sprints. WOO HOO! I know he wished he was still hurting! The funny part came when he got in the car and started talking 90 mph. He had no idea you could have all of those sensations! I am laughing because I know he was ok, but I really wanted to throw up thinking about how my little boy had just bashed his head so hard into the ground that he felt dizzy and weak. Lord, help me be strong and supportive when really all I want to do is hold him close and never let him go!!!