UIL

JellyBean was asked to be part of UIL (University Interscholastic League)  She had to got to extra practices after school and was chosen for Creative Writing.  That is where you have to write a creative story in a certain amount of time while keeping grammatical and spelling errors to a minimum.  One week before the multi-district competition someone on the Story Telling team couldn't do it and they asked her if she would fill in.  With Story Telling one must listen to a story and repeat it back with as much detail and expression as possible.

My darling girl took 1st in Creative Writing and 2nd in Story Telling!!!!!  Just think what she would have gotten has she been able to practice the whole time!!!  We are so proud of her and all her hard work!

The whole team did well and swept both categories!  So awesome!

Here she is getting honored at the school board meeting.

These are the coaches.  They are both wonderful ladies and  really great to work with!

We have such a smart little girl  and we are so proud of all her accomplishments!  We can't wait to see what else she has in store for us!

My 4 year old Monkey

So my Monkey turned 4!!!  How insane is that?!?!

What is great is how much fun his sibling had picking out his presents!

So. Adorable.

He was so excited about everything he got!

He asked for 'ligh pupule isee an wed speenkle'

Weird, but ok!  It is his day!

And of course he loved it.

4 Reason as to why we love Monkey so much

1- His over all adorable-ness.  He firmly believes if he smiles big, asks pretty please, and bats his eyes at you, you will cave.

2- He is never short of giving affection.

3- He is very creative.

4- His determination level is not lacking!

He came into our lives at such the right time.  We love this little man so much and so glad he is with us!

10 YEARS!!!!!!!!!

We have been married a whole decade!!!  How did that happen?!?!

Last year we went to Magic Springs and we were busy the whole time.  It was fantastic, but as we left there more tired than when we left home, we decided the next one need to be a very relaxing trip of nothing.  So we booked a beach.  Miami's South Beach to be exact.  It was an earned trip I tell you.  HoneyBuns was gone for most of April.  When I say most, I mean he was was gone for 3/4 of the month.  It was rough on him, and it was rough on me.  We earned this vacation together in that month alone let alone celebrating 10 years together!  My mommy was sweet enough to come visit and let us leave during the visit so we could go.

Here we are just before we left.  Our flight out was a later flight.  We didn't even get to Miami until about 1:30 am.  Harsh.  But we got a shuttle to the hotel, slept, shuttled back to the air port to get the rental and then headed to our real hotel.

While we were waiting for check in we decided to do some shopping and eat and stuff, we ended up finding this AMAZING Peruvian restaurant.  I think it was better than what I ate while in Peru!  It was so heavenly.

The view everywhere you looked was just amazing.  I can definitely see the appeal as to why you would want to live there. 

After dinner we took our nighttime stroll along the beach.  As we were strolling we saw the Despicable Me 2 blimp.  We thought of our angels and took the picture.  We knew they would like it.  We also liked that we were there to enjoy it without them.  =) 

The next morning we woke up to this.  How great is that.  We literally  walked out of our hotel and then to the beach.

It was so happy to wake up to the sound of the waves and the sun.  Talk about relaxing and rejuvenating! 

I had to capture us on with the beach to our back.  The water is gorgeous! 

Our consolation/bribe to the kids was to bring home sea shells and sand.  We took our job very seriously. 

*sigh* 

The fact that I get to wake up to this handsome man makes me so happy.  It is so cliche of me to say, but I really do love him more every day and every year that we are together.  He is such a good friend, he balances me, helps me, encourages me, and makes me so happy.

This is what I loved.  I laid back and  relaxed.  I meditated.  I let myself stop thinking about everything for just a few minutes and I let myself be.  It was so nice to be in the moment.

The walk back we realized that he was a bit lobster-like.  It made me think of Phoebe from Friends and he really was my 'lobster'.  (See the show then you will get the reference.) 

That night we changed swimsuits and swimsuit covers and went and ate at Kitchen 305.  It was named one of the top places in Miami to eat while you are there.  They also had all you can eat crab.  It was really good!  The creme brule was to die for.

The next day we donned  our swimwear one last time and checked out for more beaches and more shopping.

The shopping area we found was awesome.  We found some great things for people and had a great time. 

As we were driving to the airport I was so sad to see it all go!  It was such a great trip and I really loved every second away.  I was so glad to be able to strengthen the connection we have and fall even more in love. 

We were happy to be home.  They were happy we were home, mom was probably happiest we were back.  But I honestly loved every second away with my man. 

Happy 10 years and Thanks for making me so happy!!

Tournament 2013

So the dojo here where Chunk takes karate decided to hold a tournament.  I was asked to help a lot with it, and Chunk was super excited about it.  There 3 different schools, ours was the biggest attended but there were still about 50 students there.  It was so smoothly run it was kind of awesome.  I heard many veteran competitors comment on how well it was run and what a great environment it was.  This was our first so I have nothing to compare it too, but I thought it was awesomely done.

Chunk was so excited about it.  But he was also so nervous that he didn't think he would do well so I had Bailey come and help him and review with him and he felt much better.

If you look closely in the center, you can see a bunch of flowers, holding those is his the lady in charge, she really is a great teacher and Master.  She truly cares about the kids and how they do in life more than karate.  It's really great to see how she has helped people. 

What happens is each group was divided up by age and division.  They preform different things in front of a panel of judges and scores are given and right there 1st, 2nd, and 3rd are given.  Depending on the size of your group (his generally had about 7 or 8 different kids) it would last about 10 minutes.  But I tell you what- those are the longest 10 minutes ever.  Here Chunk is doing his kata.  He got 2nd place!!!  We were beyond ecstatic about this.  Seeing as he has never competed and this was a first time to do it publicly.  Very awesome!!

Waiting to see how he did... 

Walking back with his medal!!!  Look at that happy face!! 

Next is chanbara.  Pretty close to sword fighting but the 'swords' are foam right now.  Here he ended up getting 3rd place.  The two boys he lost to were taller and older than him, I think arm reach had some play in there but I might be a bit biased.  He really did an amazing job here too.  I think next year he will do even better considering the amount of sword play he and his brother do! 

Here he is getting his medal.  The kid on the left (who looks shorter I know) took second I believe. 

Here I was actually able to get a picture of him on the podium!  That is one of the kids that kept beating him.  He is a few levels above Chunk, but the fact that he did so well against someone above him was great! 

Last was sparring.  I had JellyBean taking pictures of that and well....

she missed it, but we have some great pictures of those around us!  

But in sparring he got 2nd again!  How can we not be proud as punch with him?!  

Look how happy he was! 

We are so proud of all his hard work and all the practice that he did. 

I just hoped he was able to see that with hard work and practice great things can happen!  Also I hope it is a motivator to try hard for future things!

Way to go Chunk!!!

We love you!!

Manager's Meeting at the Ranch

Surprisingly we were invited to a big Managers Meeting for Mr. Manly's work.  I say surprisingly because it should have been someone else.  But after some work drama it was us that was invited!  So we had 3 weeks to get ready to leave for 5 days.  Our dear friend Ash brought her 2 kids ages 2 and 8 months to watch our 4 ages 8,7,4 and 3 for 5 days!  6 kids ages 8 and under- wow, how great is she?!?!  Serious brownie points in heaven for that!  She said it went rather well and it wasn't a big deal.  Like I said- brownie points.  We love her dearly before this, and even more afterwards!  It was crazy but so awesome!  We went to the White Stallion Ranch in Arizona.  So pretty!  The landscape was just breath taking and the accommodations were outstanding and the people and food even better!  I left my house with my clothes fitting normal and I left the Ranch wearing yoga pants!  So delicious!  I hope to someday soon go back!

One of the activities that they have is the team cattle penning the Mr and I were on the same team with one of the other wives, and we had never done it before.  It was fun and we didn't do too bad! 

I think these cacti are amazing things.  They only grow in this region and it takes one of them 75 years to grown one of those arms!!  Birds also hollow out a little hole to live in and it is fascinating to sit back and watch them!

One cold morning the Ranch had a breakfast ride.  We meet nice and early and ride to a place for breakfast.  I loved watching nature wake up.  It was such a treat to look up and see hot air balloons floating above us enjoying the same beauty from such a different way. 

Here is the handsome Mr Manly Cowboy

Can you see how cold I am?!  I have a hat, gloves, fingerless gloves, a coat, 2 long sleeved layers, and a tank on.  Yep- I was FREEZING but it was well worth it! 

While the men had their meetings, they had different activities for the wives.  This year happened to be gun safety and shooting practice.  I loved it.

I started the morning with my many layers.  Which was good since I started with the big guns and all the layers made for some good padding.  

But as the morning continued, and the temperatures climbed, I started shedding layers.

 

By the end our poor guy on the target was rather beat up!

I also must admit, I really liked the big guns!

While we were there I had to get some pictures of us.

Isn't he so handsome looking all cowboy-like?!?!

I am definitely a luck girl!

It was such a great trip and we hopefully will get to experience it again!  We really are so blessed to work for such a great company that cares about their employees and takes good care of them.  It was great getting to know new people and spending time experiencing fun things with such a great man that works so hard for his family!

29......

Who would have thought I would almost be 30!!!  But alas- I really did turn 29- as my daddy always says.  It's better than the alternative!  

I had a good day!

I was 'wined and dined' with the best company possible.

I was showered with love and affection and gifts with those how mean the world to me. 

It was all orchestrated by one of the most handsome men ever to grace this planet.

And who is too good to me. 

And then I was treated to one of the yummiest angle food cake with strawberries anyone could ever think to dream of.

(Do you like his 30-1?!?!  I laughed so hard at that.  He realized too late that we don't have need of a nine yet- so he improvised.  LOVED IT!!!!)

It was such a great day.  I was surround by those I love, and they were good to me!

Happy Birthday to me!!!!