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!!!

The 1st Football Games

Prayer Among Friends

To my Prayer Warrior Friends!
I have two requests that I would like for you to lift up.
My best friend Kelley has had yet another death in her family. That makes three trips to the same cemetery in the last year. This time her cousin's young daughter has lost her battle with brain cancer. She is a local celebrity around here. Her name was Krista and she was only 11 years old. My heart is breaking for her family! I can not imagine the pain they are feeling right now. Please lift them up in your prayers tomorrow as they lay her to rest. Maybe you can wear pink in her honor, I will! I am also asking that you continue your prayer for my dear friend Kelley. She is such an awesome person and has had such a rough year with the loss of her grandmother, mother and now a child in the family. I no God will never give us more than we can handle, but we begin to question our own strength at times like this. Kell, may the family of your past be the angels of your future! I love you!

Krista's web page- http://www.kristabrewer.com/

Yikes Ike is coming!

So for the last seven days we having been closely watching the Gulf of Mexico in hopes that Hurricane Ike will fizzle out and not run smack dab into our Texas coast. As of today it does not appear that the Lone Star State can out run this bad boy. Ike is packing a punch and is categorized as a level 2 hurricane with winds topping out at 105 mph. Americans are so funny, I don't know maybe it is the human race (Kristen you can be the judge), we love to see disasters. We thrive on the fact that something terrible might happen! Isn't that awful! We have all become Ambulance Chasers just looking for something to talk/blog about. Our close friends Chad and Samantha live in North Houston and our hunkering down hoping that the wind and rain does not knock out power for too long. Sam's parents live in Bay City and are under an evacuation warning, but have decided to stay. Our prayers are with all of them! AS the storm travels up I-45 we are hoping that it gets as bored as I do on that road and take a detour to Louisiana, rather than heading right towards the metroplex. Time will tell! You can bet that we will be watching the weather channel most of the day tomorrow.


Stay dry! and Pray for my friends!

Football Begins!

We are now officially the proud parents of a Texas Longhorn and a Dallas Cowboy! Yes that's right the boys have been drafted on to their little league teams and the fun is about to begin. Tyler begins his practice tomorrow, they practice 6 hours a week. Someone want to tell me how I fit that into my schedule, times two? Luckily they practice at the same park, unfortunately Tyler practices on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday and Travis on Tuesday. That leaves Wednesday for church and Friday for the Wylie game. I should be free for some "girl time" some time in December.

This is only half of the fun. We have season tickets again for the Baylor games in Waco, which is two hours away. So just to give you an idea of how full of football we are right now let me explain our weekend to you. Friday we went to the Wylie Pirate game and watched them win 51-12, AHMO. Saturday Bill and Dad took the boys to the park at 10:30 to be evaluated by their coaches. This lasted until 3:00! We quickly rushed home, grabbed a bite to eat, picked up my dad and drove to Waco to watch the Baylor Bears win 51-6 (sound familiar?). Finally today after sleeping way too late and missing church we watched our Cowboys win, no they did not score 51 points, too bad! Of course we listened to the UT-UTEP game all the way home last night.

I am again reminded that I am the mother of BOYS and I'm loving every moment of it!

Facebook Anyone?

Ok, I admit it I am a Facebook Junkie. It started with the blog and now it has moved to all out networking. I love it! I have found people that I went to grade school with, people I went to college with and of course those I teach with now. It is amazing how easy it is. I challenge you to feed your thirst for networking knowledge and join. You will be amazed!

Funny Comments from the Boys!

So I have been reluctant to write a blog like this because my boys are older now and the comments are generally only funny in context. However, after reading through other posts I can not resist keeping some record of the funny things the boys say. Feel free to stop reading now if these things bore you.

Tyler- (at Linens and Things)Mommy this box has a bad word on it. He is shocked! I just blow it off, I'm shopping, and tell him to just move on. When we get in the car he is clearly disturbed by the word and asks why they would put such a thing on a box to sell. Now I am intrigued as to what "bad" word this is. I ask what the word was and he said the B word. To me it is butt, but then before I can comment he says it ends in an S. HMM! I'm stumped! I asked if it was butt and he said it had that word in it. HMM! Still stumped! I asked for other letters and he said CKS! WHAT?!?! Thinking fast, I said BUTTOCKS! Laughter fills my car, Travis is in on the conversation now. Yes! That's the one! Isn't it terrible? Now Travis thinks it is BUTT-Talks and tries to use it all the time.

Travis- Mommy at what time will we reach our destination? (no more GPS for him)

Tyler- (listening to me tell Bill what to get at the store) I tell Bill we need two cans of biscuits and no nuts. At the same time Bill and Tyler say "You need a toucan with no nuts?" Oh-My! Then Bill adds it mus be a girl toucan! More Laughing!

Travis- (limping into the kitchen from outside) Mommy if I rode my scooter off of the ramp and fell into the street without asking would I be in trouble? When it is clear that this is what he has just done!

I am sure there are more, but that is all I can remember for now! The rest you can read in Family Circus!

Farewell Good Friend!

Good Bye Summer!
You were a good friend! Faithful to bring sunshine to my days and entertainment through my nights. I loved the feel of the warm summer breeze as I left the pool knowing that I could rest on my couch for an hour or so because with you, dear friend, dinner can wait until seven. Thank you for that, it will be missed. Farewell to the schedule-less days and the ability to sleep in. With you I never felt judgement over staying in my jammies, because I know my close friends do it too, and you love it. With you Rachel Ray, Dr. Phil, Soaps, Oprah, and Tori and Dean became my topics of conversation. Now I must focus on test scores, abilities, parents, schedules, and little league.
Don't worry I will be here next year when your time comes again. For now, I will treasure your memories down deep in my heart and hope that I can create even better memories next year! Farewell good friend, see you soon!

Back to School Pictures

The boys and I had our last "fun day" of summer today. We started a tradition of buying school shoes, taking a yearly back to school picture, and having a nice lunch. Ok, so the fun day is more for me, but they did have a good time. We ate at Cheesecake Factory which we all love and bought some new shoes. I have loved this summer more than any other so far. The boys and I had such a good time just hanging out together.

Olympics 2008

I must admit it we are Olympic Junkies! All of us! The last week we have watched more TV together than we have in years. Travis just thinks it is awesome that he can watch random sports on TV and then turn on the Wii and play them for himself on Mario Olympics. The spirit of these games are so amazing! The other night Bill and I were laying in bed watching the Men's Swimming Relay and literally jumped out of bed when they won. It was awesome! Micheal Phelps is a household name now. Travis can not wait to go swimming and practice his turns in the pool. HA! If only it was just the turns that were holding him back. I just wondered if anyone else had a junkie in their house.

Funny!

What does a robot dance, ten push-ups, three sexy poses, and a belly flop have in common?

What do you mean, you don't know... I thought news in the US traveled faster than the speed of sound!

Ok, I will tell you! those are a few of the qualifications needed to be crowned Macho Man of the pool. Yes, ladies and gents my husband is the official Macho Man 2008!!

Monday afternoon we were heading back from lunch and they were looking for volunteers for this contest. By looking I mean dragging men out of the pool. Bill could not run away! The Activities Team pulled him up to the chairs placed at the front of the pool. They began describing the rules of the contest and I began to blush beyond belief. You see my husband is quite the character, DUH!, but when there is no one around that knows him he is QUITE THE CHARACTER!! A few men get up and do their dance, push-ups, sexy poses, and then their not so impressive belly flops! I know that in order to win, because we have to win, he must successfully complete the belly flop. Remember we have just left lunch, hee hee! Bill is the only man fully dressed, a mistake we never made a again. It was his turn and the music started. It was all I could do to watch! The dance was somewhere between Justin Timberlake and Max Hedrom (if you do not know who that is you are too young to read my blog!) The robotic arm was a big player and then he fell to the floor and yes, attempted the worm! Oh My! It was more like a crotch cruncher. After what seemed like an eternity the music stopped. Everyone around the pool was cheering for him! He did the push ups with ease, and then the sexy poses. Finally the belly flop! Well the Justin Timberlake portion of his dance required him to rip his shirt off! So now he is in his shorts and flip flops. He takes his belt off and the announcer says, "You're doing it naked?" Oh My, NO! He steps up dressed thank goodness and spreads him arms, jumps and flies in the air. KERSPLAT! SLAP! OHHHH! were the sounds we heard. Then the crown went wild! He ended up tying for first place with show-off of sorts kind of 20 something! A tie was acceptable, we walked back to the room victorious! He was forever known around the pool as Billy the Macho Man!! (I am so proud!)

Mexico Trip

Cancun, Mexico

The Lamberts have returned, well half of us have. The boys left last Saturday for El Paso to spend a week with my grandmothers, their great-grandmothers (Amazing! I know). The trip started off a bit rocky with CRYPTO virus consuming their life, but it sounds like it was a blast. We pick them up this afternoon so I am sure I will need to make additions to this blog. More to come on them...
Bill and I left Sunday morning bright and early, 6:00am, for Cancun/Play del Carmen, Mexico. Before leaving, however we stayed at the Grand Hyatt Hotel that is connected to the new international terminal at DFW. WOW! It is five star all the way! Our room was upgraded for our anniversary, it was awesome! Unfortunately we could not stay and enjoy the view. We were off to see the Caribbean Sea. We walked through security at 4:15 am Sunday morning. Ouch! Isn't it funny how time does not matter when you are leaving for vacation?? Just in case you were wondering the stores in this terminal open at 5 am so no real reason to get there before that. Ha! So off we went!
As we arrived at our hotel we were in awe! The Royal in Playa del Carmen is more than amazing it is exquisite. We were greeted by the friendliest people who by the way all spoke English.
Sidebar on that...why is it that I saw more Spanish billboards driving through Garland, Texas than I did driving in Mexico?? AND Why do the people in Mexico strive to speak English and we change things here to meet the need of the Spanish speakers?? (soapbox moment) Back to the trip!
We were greeted by our own personal concierge who showed us around and gave us the keys to our room. Again beautiful, marble floors, huge bed with lots of pillows, a jacuzzi in our room, and the list goes on! The pictures will tell the rest of the story.
Bill and I met some great people, most from Canada, and ate some very tasty food. Ok, too much of the latter. Every meal was gourmet, beautifully presented and tasted great. We had caviar, escargot, foire goir (sp?), lobster bisque (more than once), steak, crab, sushi, and guacamole at every meal even breakfast. It was heaven! Right up until Wednesday.
Wednesday night Bill started feel ill and by Thursday I was calling his dad to figure out what prescription strength drugs I could buy at the pharmacia to help him. He could barely move his head and felt like an alien was growing inside is belly. It was terrible! We transferred to the same resort in Cancun to be closer to the airport on Friday morning. Bill slept the remainder of the day and night and I did a little shopping. I hope the pictures will tell the story of how much fun we had until Wednesday.
More to come on the vacations and illnesses...

Ok, Seriously?!

I start this blog OK, Seriously, because that is what I have said about 20 times today. Enjoy the drama... Since my last blog I have paid two co-pays, filled three prescriptions, cleaned up vomit once, slept in the "new bedroom," and taken 3 vicodin. You pick which one I liked the best!! Why you ask? Well, we are putting the boys on a plane to El Paso in the morning and we are off to Mexico on Sunday. Enter drama...
On Tuesday I was diagnosed with Shingles. This required many Google searches to be sure I wasn't going to die! I have a small rash under my arm which began to hurt like the dickens, not itch just hurt! At first I thought it was sore muscles from a hard workout, but it did not go away. I decided to go have it checked out, hoping to get some cream to make it go away. I had no idea I would go on anti-viral meds, steroids, and pain killers. Apparently this is chicken pox the remake! They can not really determine why I got it normally people who are under a great deal of stress or fatigue are at risk. This does not really describe a teacher on summer vacation. so it remains a mystery! Luckily, today I am feeling better. WHEW!
If you know me at all you know it will take a lot more than that to slow me down. After all we have a vacation to prepare for. Yesterday, Tyler began complaining about a stomach ache. If you live in the DFW area you know that we are fighting the CRYPTO virus in a large majority of the public swimming areas. This virus is always present just more widespread and publicized this year. We have swam in numerous public pools in the last two weeks. Thus giving us the virus. It begins with cramping and diarrhea and then continues with lack of appetite for about a week. Nothing to horrible, right? I decided to take my little drama king in to the doctor just in case, hoping for the miraculous recovery that the waiting room so often brings. NO LUCK! Instead he vomits all over the bathroom and then we still had to wait for 30 minutes. OK Seriously?!?!? The doc suggests a bland diet and lots of liquids and does not think it is anything worse than a virus.
Then finally this morning we get a call from Bill's dad telling us that his Uncle Joel had been taken to the ER in El Paso for not feeling well. Come to find out he has a perforated colon. Ok Seriously!?! The boys are supposed to be staying with his aunt and uncle for two days while in El Paso. Clearly his aunt will need time to be with Joel so we will need to make other arrangements. Not too big a deal, thank goodness for a loving family! Prayers were answered and Joel made it through surgery. He is still critical and in ICU, so please remember him in your prayers.
I am hoping that the worst is over and we will need to just mop up the mess. Our plans to go to Mexico have not changed. Ok Seriously! This is a rough day!!

ME DAY!

Today I celebrated the annual ME DAY! Ok, so this is sometimes a semi-annual event, but none the less a very important day. My in-laws had given me a gift certificate for a massage, mani, and pedi for my birthday, so I figured what a better time than on ME DAY to use it! I took the boys to ASI gymnastics for the day, which is a blog in itself, and off I went.





SIDEBAR- I had signed the boys up for a day at ASI a few weeks ago and then changed my mind and canceled. All of this took place two days before they were to go. Apparently the moment you sign them up they charge you. If you cancel the only thing you get is credit to come again. FOR REAL!?! Oh well I knew I would use it at some point. They got me hook-line-and-sinker!





BACK TO ME DAY- My massage started at 10:00am! It was the best massage I have ever had in my life. I love Theresa at Firewheel!! As I rolled out relaxed as can be I had a few minutes to spare so I shopped the $7 racks at New York and Co. Massage and shopping, can the day get any better? About noon I headed north to my next stop...the OB/GYN! (screech...fun stops) I met my new doctor, Dr. Garner. He is quick witted and talks about 100mph. All and All it was pretty painless! Then I was back to Firewheel Salon for the rest of my gift certificate! Yes, sandwiched right in the middle of a nice relaxing soiled day was a PAP Smear! Man I can not understand why no one wants to come to my parties! ME DAY is so fun?!?!? I did the mani/pedi thing and that was very nice. I finished the day off with an eyebrow wax, OUCH! I did however, deny the upper lip wax. Have you ever done that? HOLY COW! That is worse than childbirth! Been there done that and will only do it with drugs, lots of them! As far as I know there is no epidural for your lip. (lol- that is making me giggle just to think about it!!)


Good Night ME DAY! See you in a year! By the way I would strongly recommend making a day out of your yearly exam, it really lightened the blow!

(Here are my pretty toes all ready for Mexico! We leave in 4 days!!)

(Yes, they are purple!)