Friday, April 26, 2013

Play Ball

I admire Pooker so much.  She is back at Lone Star community college because they have a fantastic nursing school.  She realized that paying a ton of money for school might not be the best approach.  She has regrouped and found her fit again.  The only probalby with this college choice is that it isn't known for building a cumminity spirit.  She wants college friends along with an education so she helped the school form a co-ed softball team.   
In true T-Family fassion, when she didn't have enough players to even have a practice she made her sibling join in to help fillout the team.  Goobers, Bear and Sugar enjoyed meeting new people as well. 
Go Pooker!
In the end Goobers and Pooker could play and had fun.  They invited us all to come cheer them on. 
We may have been the only family there to cheer on our college aged kiddos but the kids all loved the chance and begged to go each week.
The team mates were very gracious to all the younger kiddos.
I think some people like going because they liked getting snacks from concession stand.
I don't think that their record was that great in the end.

To me that didn't matter.  When you feel like you want something more from life, you can sit around and wait for it to happen or . . .
 
You can follow Pooker's example and do something to make changes.  This might not be a group of friends that loast forever but they did have fun together and learned some skills.  They didn't just sit and wait for life to happen they did a little something to enjoy life where they were today.
 

 
 

This is just one of the ways that Pooker is my hero. Good job girl. 

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Goobers Gets Glasses

Goobers has bad headaches.  She has for years.  We had her eyes tested a long long time ago.  We had some blood work done to make sure it wasn't the big C.  She kind of learned to live with the pain.  As bad as that sounds it is what happened and years went by.  Recently the head aches grew worse.  We started picking apart her diet and she would experiment with removing things and then adding them back in with no relief.  We then tested for allergies and were shocked that wasn't the case.   That lead us to the eye doctor.  Were were almost relieved to learn that the doctor found an issue that might find relief with glasses. 
 
 Because of the nature of the issue she had to have her eyes dilated.  This drove her nuts.  Dad and I giggled with her as she reacted to what she was seeing. 
As her eyes looked like they grew we teased that she reminded us of Bugsy from the movie Bedtime Stories. 
 
 
 Do you see the resemblance!  Just teasing Goobers, you are so much prettier.
Later the next week Goobers wanted to order her glasses but not all by herself.  In true T-Family fashion this became a family event.  Each sibling given a say in to which pair of glasses worked best for her. 
 I am not sure if the Sam's Eye Department people were thrilled but they took great care of us. 
 In the end she found what she needed. 
After a week we went back to pick up the glasses.  The employees wondered where the rest of the kiddos were.  I love it!
They made a wise choice.  Goobers looks fantastic, and glasses compliment her nicely. 
(Health update:  It took about two and a half weeks but her head aches have gotten a little better.  They are not gone completely but she can function again.) 

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

New Cuda

Another new swim year has begun.  It was a cool day when Jumba had to get in the water for the first day.  They let all the new kiddos swim for three days without the rest of the team.  We have over 300 kids so it can get overwhelming for newbies. 
 
Jumba wasn't sure at about what was happening.  I think he was born pool side, he swims all the time but this organized stuff was a lot for him.  You would think that he would just do this without any issues considering his sister Goobers is one of the coaches, that is at the pool every day.  Bear, Sugar, Possible and Pickle are all in the pool as Jr. Coaches to help the little ones.
He still cries every time he is asked to swim across the pool.  He can do it but it is a lot.  We hope he gets there soon.


These pictures signify that we are embarking on one of our families favorite.  Swim team is a blast. 
We might not be the best swimmers but we add the spirit.  There is coach Goobers helping the kids into the pool for the first time.
This is such a great family sport.  Even Pooker stopped by from work and school to encourage her baby brother on his first day.
At least we see a little smile.
Look at all those fantastic Jr. Coaches:  Sugar
Possible
Kat
Bear
Pickle
It is going to be a great swim season (hopefully it warms up a tad!)
Go Cudas!!

Jump Up Fun

 
 
In these pictures Twin Beautiful is in the green jump up and Twin Adorable is in the pink one.  The twins will jump for the longest times.  They also like to swing until they fall asleep.  We all enjoy hearing the non stop giggles when they are in these toys.





 
Kiss - Kiss

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Bye Bye Books Bye Bye

The involvement with Book Are Fun was a great experience that has reached an end. 
 
It started as a part time way to have a side source of income and involve the kiddos. That was not what happened due to poor choices and unforeseen circumstances. Sadly we ended up with a full time pain.
 It was almost therapeutic boxing up our inventory and returning it to the company. The project lasted longer and was more difficult that we expected. It was such a wonderful feeling to sit down at the end of all that work with some pizza and conversation with the kids. So in the goal of helping our family to grow closer together worked in spite of the obstacles.

There have been so many heart aches with this adventure. (Please offer a prayer that we can settle the accounting situation without needing to hire an attorney.) I will only say that I am extremely proud of my husband. J has an incredible drive to forgive and to do things for others even when they don't see it.
 

One individual is saying nasty things about J implying he isn't trust worthy. He wanted J to quit his real full time job. This is SHOCKING considering we know how little money was actually made. It isn't/wasn't nearly enough to cover anything like a full time position for two individuals plus the part time work of the young ones.
 

My children could not continue to work for pennies as they need to pay for college. We are most thankful for the four months of their "volunteering" with a little allowance and I mean little, the math was done and it was around $.40 per hour! Even if we had just "hired" one of our kids they would have worked many many hours with still no pay.  Really the income is too minimal, hopefully J's departure will allow others to earn enough to make ends meet. It really is sad. It is amazing how differently people can see the same situation.
  We wish all well and will continue to search for the business adventure that will fit us better.   For now it is bye bye. 

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Changes at Church

 
At the start of Holy Week the red sash was added to the cross behind the alter.  I also see a platform under the statue that was not there the day before.  Changes are coming so I took some pictures to show them off to friends as they happened.   3/26
This is where the Tabernacle is at the beginning of Holy Week at Sts. Simon and Jude Parish.  This chapel sits opposite end of the building as the current alter in main sanctuary.  This means that as people enter the building they turn opposite the main sanctuary to genuflect to our Lord and then turn around to enter main church. 

We were so excited to see the holder for the sanctuary candle hanging on the wall. 
I loved seeing the other changes too.  A stone stand was now in place behind the alter table.
On Holy Thursday the alter was taken out of this small chapel and then put in a temporary place for adoration (in the garden) until Good Friday. 
 
This was a beautifully done ceremony.  I love how respectful it was to the true presents of Christ in the Eucharist.  I love the devotion that I see from the people of this parish.   Then the fun was to be found on Easter morning when the old Tabernacle had found a new home. 
 
 
I don't love all the art work of this parish.  The design is so late 70's but the parish has a feel of love that I have not found in the surrounding places.  I mistakenly thought that the people were very  non traditional based on the style.  When I have grown to realize is that is not the case.  The original parishioners are more than willing to make changes and I love the the priest has been incredibly respectful of blending the original style with more traditional features.  Making the a place that really is the Church on Earth.   I am thrilled that we have been told that the cross will soon have a corpus.