Perils of Puberty

Since so many of my friends were revealing their innermost puberty secrets, I didn't want to leave them out there all alone.
On this fated night, my journey into womanhood began. It was the Christmas party my eighth grade year. My friend and I were both joking that we should sit on Santa's lap- I'm not exactly sure why we thought it would be funny- but I did.
When I got home that night, much to my dismay, I found out that I was the cause for Santa's RED pants!!! Note the classy sweatshirt tied around my waist, which was actually a little blessing from heaven that no one saw the evidence of my first 'visitor'!

The beauty continues on into my ninth grade year. Note the cowboy style button up, collar turned up, permed hair, ultra oily face, and large white scrunchie! I am pretty sure I made that scrunchie myself- just one of the many I had made.

When I was a 10th grader, we did a ballet dance to "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid. Notice my dance partner, Jared Clontz, and his hunky mullet. I'm not sure if it was the mullet or the shadow mustache that made me like him more. My Dad used to make fun of the way that the beautiful scallop design on the top of my unitard framed my mosquito bites. Thanks Dad!

When I was a 11th grader, I had moved from the bangs and scrunchie stage to what my Mom called my lions mane! Such an awkward time of life- you couldn't pay me to do it again.
Stay tuned.... I don't want Adam to feel left out of the Ode to Puberty!

Tagged by Nicole...

Here are the rules:
Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Here are my six quirky things:

1. When I am cutting up vegetables, I count. I don't mean to, I just suddenly realize that I am counting how many times I have chopped. When I start a new piece, I start counting over. I know- it's a little Rain Man!

2. Every night, and I mean EVERY NIGHT, I put Vicks Vapo rub on my lips and up my nose. Yes, that's right- up my nose. Why? you might ask? When I was young, I used to get very bad bloody noses. I have had my nose cauterized seven times. The Dr told me I needed to put Vaseline, or some other moisturizing cream in my nose at night so it would not dry out, or else I would wake up with a bloody nose. Vaseline made me feel like I was suffocating, so one day when I was sick with a cold, I put Vicks up there, and it has stuck ever since! (I know, that was WAAAAAAY to much info!!) Isn't Adam a lucky man to get to go to bed with Vicks EVERY night?

3. I can do the splits on both my right and left side without stretching. A product of a lot of years dancing and stretching while growing up and a less than hard muscular physique!

4. Since the year 2000, I have lived in the following places-
-South Ogden, Utah
-Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts (a suburb of Boston)
-Vandenberg AFB, California (on the central coast)
-Minot AFB, North Dakota (can you say, almost Canada? beauty eh?)
-Pflugerville, Texas (a suburb of Austin)
-Corpus Christi, Texas
-and some as of yet undisclosed location not in Corpus Christi.
It's the year 2008- would anyone like to calculate our moving average???

5. I drink Diet Coke like it's water. I can drink a Diet Coke right before bed and not loose an ounce of sleep for it.

6. The only TV shows I watch are reality shows. I know it's kind of nerdy, but for some reason, they are the ones I like the best. I still watch Survivor, the Amazing Race, American Idol, and So You Think You Can Dance. My other favorite thing on TV is the Fox News Channel. I watch it while I am cleaning the kitchen, folding laundry, eating my lunch, making dinner, and anything else I can do to pass by the TV in the afternoon. Shepard Smith and I are tight!

I am tagging-
Taryn C.
Megan D.
Chelsie T.
Ericka J.
Shawna M.
Jeanette M.

Blog Award

My friend Patty gave me this blog award. Thanks- even though my blog is quite Low Tech!
Here are the rules:
I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others! This award comes with a list of questions:



1. Where is your cell phone? POCKET
2. Where is your significant other? VIRGINIA
3. Your hair color? BROWN
4. Your mother? VERDON
5. Your father? KENT
6. Your favorite thing? FAMILY
7. Your dream last night? NONE
8. Your dream/goal? ENDURE
9. The room you're in? BEDROOM
10. Your hobby? EXERCISE
11. Your fear? SADNESS
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? ANYWHEREWITHMYFAMILY!! (i know i cheated)
13. Where were you last night? RECLINER
14. What you're not? GRACEFUL
15. One of your wish-list items? CRUISE
16. Where you grew up? UTAH
17. The last thing you did? ERRANDS
18. What are you wearing? JEANS
19. Your TV? OFF!!
20. Your pet? CHLOE (better known as, "THE Chloesters"
21. Your computer? COMPAQ
22. Your mood? LONELY
23. Missing someone? YES!!
24. Your car? ODYSSEY
25. Something you're not wearing? JACKET
26. Favorite store? TARGET
27. Your summer? OVER
28.Love someone? MANY
29. Your favorite color? BLUE
30. When is the last time you laughed? LUNCH
31. Last time you cried? LASTNIGHT

Those who I think are deserving of this Brillante WeBlog Award are:

Ericka J.
Carly-Q
Kelly B.
Shawna M.
Pookieville
Valancy B.
Jocelyn P.

Weekend with Papa

Last Thursday, my Dad was able to get away and come visit us in Texas. He flew in Thursday evening and then went home Tuesday morning. It was so nice to have him come and get to know the kids a little better.

While he was here, we also had the start to the Fall Soccer season.

Bekah is playing with the same group of girls from the last two seasons and they are awesome (their Coach is pretty awesome too!!!)

Coop is also on a team with a lot of the same boys from last year, but this is his first season playing boys only and 4 on 4. One of our good friends, who is also the mother of a boy on the team, is coaching his team and she rocks. Cooper loves her and is really growing!


Papa's sight is getting worse, therefore, he has numerous pairs of reading glasses, which the kids thought were quite funny. It turned into a hilarious moment as each kid tried on the glasses and did their best "Papa" face!!



Nice one Brayd!


On another side note, Adam flew to Virginia Sunday, then back LATE Monday night. Left to Virginia again Wednesday morning at 6am and is still there. He has had numerous interviews, both in the DC area and Baltimore, and has another scheduled in Long Island, NY on Monday and possibly another in Philadelphia either tomorrow or Tuesday. The kids and I miss him terribly, but this is a big move for our family and we want to make sure he is accepting the BEST possible job for his career and more importantly, for our family. Do we want our kids to have Southern accents or sound like New Yorkers?????

The Primary Program

Today at church we had our yearly Primary Program, where all the kids ages 3-11 sit up on the stand, sing songs they have learned, and each take a turn speaking. Adam had to fly out to Virginia today for a job interview tomorrow morning, so he wasn't able to be there. My Dad was here and it was nice for him to see the kids in the program. They all did a really cute job. Bekah knew her part very well and spoke confidently. She also sang in a special musical number with the other girls her age. When it was Coopers turn, he looked like he was about to cry at first. He read his part and then the Primary president asked him to read another, which he did very well. Coop is becoming a great reader- but... he still reads in the characteristic monotone voice of a beginning reader and his chubby cheeks sometimes make it sound like he's got marbles in his mouth. With my "mothers ears", I understood him perfectly, I'm just not sure anyone else could! Emma was SO excited to get her turn, which came toward the very end. When she got up to the microphone, the line the Primary President was prompting her to say was different from the one we had been given and practiced. I could tell right away that Emma recognized that and I just felt relieved that she didn't argue and just said what she was told. Brayden was the last to go, from our family and from the entire primary. He had been asked to give a talk, "Because I believe in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, I will..." Brayden chose to finish that sentence with "make and keep sacred covenants." He did such a great job and I couldn't be more pleased. He spoke clearly and slowly, and made a special effort to look up into the audience as he spoke. He even bore a sweet testimony at the end. I'm very proud of all my kiddos today! It's so amazing to see them grow and learn and gain the confidence to speak in public- even at a very young age! Way to go guys!

For more information about the Primary Program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please click on the post title!

While my blog was sleeping....

It's been quite a while since I blogged and here's why-

Mini Golf with Mini Coop

Have you ever seen such cute Coopers????

Boarding up the house for Hurricane Ike

Evacuating our family to Dallas to avoid the storm

Finding out that the storm had turned....

Staying in Dallas for some family fun, anyway




A special Sunday meeting in Dallas with President Uchdorf speaking!!! Very cool!
Driving home and spending 3 days undoing the work we put in for the hurricane

Get me off the coast ASAP!!!

Great Expectations....

Tonight we had our PTA open house at our elementary school, Mireles. When I was in school, we would have called it back to school night. It started with a PTA meeting in the gym/cafeteria and then we had a chance to go to each child's classroom and talk with their teacher about expectations and how they are doing. When we got to Cooper's classroom, his teacher had a cute poem they had done on the first day of school and a little booklet titled, "All about Cooper". Coop had completed different pages about his favorite food, his family, his pet and several others. Imagine the feelings of pride when I turned to this page....

(For those of you who don't live in Texas, H.E.B. is a big supermarket chain in TX. Here in Corpus Christi, it is the ONLY grocery store chain in town.)
We've got Great Expectations for you Coop!