MEMORIES...

This past weekend, I enjoyed another visit with my great friend, Brandi. We have been friends since our early teenage years and I'm grateful to still have her in my life after all this time. I flew to Denver and although I do love Texas; Colorado will always be home to me and I miss it more each time I return.

After scouring the mall for the best deals...Brandi is much better at this that I....we sat through the Twilight Movie, New Moon along with at least a hundred 5 & 6 year old girls, their mothers and only 20 or so men....yeah, who takes girls that young to a love story/vampire movie? Although the movie could have been better, the little girls kept quiet and the shirtless scenes weren't that bad either!

We ended a perfect weekend in our pajama's, watching TV and looking through all our old yearbooks. We laughed so hard at times we were actually crying. It's amazing how one can be sooooo ugly at the age of 13-14 but really turn it around by the age of 16-17. What a difference 3 years makes!

The weather was perfect and even the flight home was quite relaxing. The kids were excited to see me and the house was clean....

oh, let me repeat that.....

THE HOUSE WAS CLEAN!! Another great memory! :)

Technology...It Makes Spying On Your Kids So Much Fun

I love technology! And to go one step further, I love the fact that it sucked when I was a kid!

This past weekend, I secretly installed a "locator" on my daughters cell phone. She hasn't done anything (yet) to arouse my suspicions, but she is my only daughter and do I need to remind you that she is 16 years old? I was 16 once and lets just say that for the most part, I was a good kid. However, I was not always where I was supposed to be and not doing what I was supposed to be doing.

Yeah, we'll just leave it at that!

Anyway, for precaution sake, I thought the Verizon Family Locator was a good investment for a small $10 a month. I have only "located" her a few times, mostly for my own entertainment, and so far so good. In fact, yesterday was the first time she drove into Austin, alone, for a dentist appointment. Yes, I was nervous, but tracked her location every few minutes until she arrived safely. It also lets me know how fast she is driving, which would have been a great thing to know when Josh was 16!

So far she is unaware of the application on her phone and I plan to keep it quiet as long as possible. When and if she ever notices it, I have already decided to tell her that its for her safety. Should she ever be in an accident and unconscious, I will know exactly where she is. Although that reason is true, I will admit that it's also to check up on her and to spare my own worry.

After all....I'm afraid that once all the hair on my head is white it will migrate to other places on my body! Yikes!

2009 Christmas Game

Just released.....it's the newest version of our family's annual Christmas game. Those who know me, know that each Christmas I create a game with our gifts. I started this many years ago when I realized that the kids were peaking in their gifts and/or getting too good at guessing what they got.

What? Peaking?

Of course, we all did it. I remember when I was 12 or 13 years old, I carefully unwrapped all my gifts one year to see what was inside. Then I wrapped them back putting tape exactly over the old tape....and wal-lah, good as new! Although my parents never knew, Christmas just wasn't as much fun that year.

Anyway....in previous years I have numbered gifts (assigning 1-10 to one child 11-20 to another and so on), I have assigned a different group of animals to each person (birds, water animals, zoo animals and so on) and last year was states and capitals. Half the gifts were addressed to a state and half were addressed to a state capital. They each got an answer sheet and had to keep track of all the gifts and come up with the correct answers. The one with the most right and spelled correctly won a bonus $100. There is always a bonus for who ever can correctly guess the theme. Since Carter and Samuel are too young to understand, Tommy always plays for them and if he wins, the boys split the bonus. So far....Amanda has won every year.

Since I am confident that my children don't read my blog, I am sharing with you what this years game entails. For those of you who are my friend on Facebook you may have noticed that I posted a status update yesterday that said, "26 Christmas presents.....finally have 9 bought and only 17 more to go and only 45 more days to do it!" What a big hint and neither Josh or Amanda picked up on it. How would I know that I will have 26 presents before they are even bought? Well, the gifts are named for a word that represents each letter of the alphabet. For example, Samuel has A-E, Carter has F-J and so on. As we open our gifts in random order they will have to recognize the pattern that develops...first one name the theme wins $50. And the bonus to the bonus is that each word is the first word in our dictionary for each letter. That extra bonus is worth another $50.

I love doing this because it adds an extra amount of fun on Christmas morning, and will be a tradition that I hope they will pass down to my grandchildren someday. It also keeps the kids from knowing what gifts are theirs and also from peaking. Of course they love that extra bonus money too. I may need to solicit ideas in the future because I am sure I will run out of them eventually.

First Date....Oh my!

Well, I guess I should have predicted it....she turns 16 years old (the age where dating officially begins) and it took Amanda exactly 1 month to have her first "official" date. Last night was the 1 month anniversary, yes I dad say 1 month, that Amanda and Bailey have been "going out". They went to dinner at a nice Italian place here in town, just to text me frantically wondering how much of a tip to leave.

Awww....to be young and in love! I have to admit it was super cute and the two were so excited to be celebrating such a milestone! I'm sure there will be many more first dates in the upcoming years, but I couldn't resist snapping this picture of the very first, first date!

Lesson in Fender Benders

I didn't realize how relaxed I have become with just one teenage driver. With Josh almost being 19, It's taken me 3 years for me to not freak out every time he calls. Well, now that Amanda is driving, I have to admit that I am back to square one. Every time she calls I can't help but wonder if something is wrong.

Yesterday, was the day that I had been dreading and knew eventually would happen. You know it's not going to be good when before you say hello, you hear your daughter yelling "OH MY GOD!" Apparently while leaving school, she was stopped in the long line of cars going slow over the speed bumps when the guy in front of her rolled backwards and hit her. It was very minor and only dented the license plate frame and license plate, but still enough to scare the bejesus out of both of us.

I know it could have been a lot worse so I'm just thankful that her first lesson in fender benders was a small one. She was scared to drive to school this morning, but hopefully that fear will translate to her being more careful and cautious of her surroundings. All of this however, will not ease the stress on my heart!