I'm Baaa-ack!

Are you ready to catch up on the last 11 weeks?
Katie and Jackson have played well together. These 2 are SO much alike!

We watched Dad perform with THE Wes McKinzie of AVB fame.

We cheered on Dad as he sang about studying history to college students.

(Matt's fan bus)

Jackson had his 2nd first day of school in the Starburst Baby class. He was needing to repeat the class.

Miss Kate had her first day of PreK.

Katie played an entire season of soccer.

This is what we saw every Saturday. Katie loves the freedom of running that a soccer field affords.

Jackson had a photo shoot for the ACU Today. Oh darn...his hand is blurry!

Collin lost tooth #1! Finally!

This guy has learned to get into just about everything!

Collin lost tooth #2 at Frontier City. He did not get to give it to the tooth fairy because he threw it on the ground thinking it was something strange in his granola bar. The tooth fairy still came though.

I enjoyed a fun-filled day at Frontier City with Collin and Katie.

Jackson has learned to climb our very steep staircase...causing me great anxiety about WHY in the world we purchased a house with STAIRS!!! What were we thinking??

Collin had his 2nd grade program..."HOW I BECAME A PIRATE". He did a great job!

We attended Matt's 15 year reunion at ACU and met up with some wonderful friends!

Matt and life-long friend Ryan.

While attending Matt's reunion dinner, a college student who was checking everyone into the dinner said, "Mrs. McCook? Did you use to teach science at Northland Christian School?" Oh my. Little Patrick with the blond hair and glasses is now tall Patrick an ACU sophomore!

While in Abilene, we ran by Matt's Grandpa's store. We really didn't think the store was still open since he had sold it in 2000. It was neat to see that it is still there in the same location.

Dad and Katie had fun at Dads and Donuts.

Collin was the first Star Student in his class. Here he is with his fabulous teacher!

We celebrated cousin Chandler's 3rd birthday in Texas.

Forced all our Okie babies to pose with the Texas sign. Jackson was not happy about it. I guess he really likes Oklahoma and wishes our Texas pride to simmer down.

We discovered Katie had snuck out of bed, took some toys to the bathroom and played until she fell asleep.

Had some fun at our church's Trunk or Treat. Katie is Peter Pan, Jackson a pumpkin and Collin is Harry Potter. Collin WON a costume contest at our Bible class' Halloween party! He was so excited! He received 3 boxes of Nerds for winning.

Here is teary-eyed me at work celebrating Jackson's 1st birthday with a hug from Ralph the dog.

Collin had a Storybook Parade at his school.

Had our DOUBLE birthday party. Jackson turned 1 on October 26 and 8 days later on November 3, Katie turned 5. We had a soccer cake for Katie and Jackson had a lovely pumpkin muffin minus the eggs adding applesauce. He ate it! Yea! Success!

I have become quite the recipe adapter since Jackson is allergic to milk, eggs, soy, peanuts and peas (which include all legumes). He still is having a meal made separately from the rest of us, which is not what I prefer but maybe by his 2nd birthday he will grow out of some of these allergies. I'm praying about it.

Collin and Katie helped Jackson open his birthday presents.

Poppa and Grammy came up to celebrate our double birthdays. Katie got some Twinkle Toes!! She loves them. Thank you Grammy and Poppa.

They gave Jackson his baby scrapbook. Time for me to get busy working on that.

We visited the Dinosaur Museum. Later this evening Jackson would pull one of his all-time best stunts. He dumped an entire bowl of queso on Dad. Dad rode home pantless trusting that the tinting in our van was sufficient.

We all crammed in the back of the Honda while the tinting was adjusted on the van.

Jackson got his first haircut. Sniff...sniff.

Katie was Star Student in the PreK Pond.

Collin played the role of Jester...the best Jester ever...in the Frog Prince.

We purchased a membership to the science museum. Here Collin and Katie are riding in the Mercury capsule.

And lastly, Collin read some of the announcments at his school's weekly assembly. He did a great job!

Well, in a nutshell....I'm back to blogging. I will make another post on what I learned in my study "Becoming a Woman of Simplicity." I'm looking forward to catching up on all my favorite blogs now...what have you guys been up to?

I'm going on an 11 week blog hiatus

Forced discipline. It's the only time I've really been successful at doing something hard....when I'm forced to.

1999-2002 We were forced to cut back our "do whatever we want, when we want" lifestyle when we went from 2 incomes to my income. We moved from Houston to Tallahassee. Matt was in grad school at FSU, I taught 2nd grade. Forced discipline. It was good for us. We didn't feel deprived, but we felt purposeful. Looking back now we had some of the best, frugal, fun times there. I think those 3 years living on my income really prepared us for years 2003-present, living on Matt's income, having 3 kiddos and still being frugal. Don't get me wrong, we always need a tune-up on finances, but having those 3 years where I was the breadwinner really led us to stay with that kind of lifestyle. And even though I do work (12 hours a week), I'm so thankful to get a paycheck and have my 2 out of 3 kids right down the hall from me. For me...it's the best of both worlds.

2004 - A friend of mine, leading an online Bible study group I was a part of, challenged us all to give up something that was taking up Bible study time or a negative habit, etc. and replace it with our Bible study. I chose to give up watching Days of Our Lives (something I had watched in college and began watching again while staying at home with Collin) and watching rated R movies (also a hard one to give up because I liked seeing the latest movies, the academy award winners, suspence, etc...most of which are rated R). And now...6 years later, neither of these are a temptation for me....forced discipline.

August 2010 - A horrible kidney infection hits me. I was told to cut out drinking Coke and OJ! What??? I drink OJ every morning and a Coke every day! I asked how long? How long do I go without either? Doctor: A long time. Me: A long time like a week? Doctor: A long time like a year. Me: A year? Doctor: You've got a sick kidney. You haven't treated it well. Give it a break and let it heal. Drink lots of water. So 3 weeks into this project...in fact 22 days...no coke, no OJ and I'm drinking lots of water. Do I feel better? Yes, no pain from the kidney. I've lost 5 pounds. But the Coke is still a temptation. Forced discipline.

September 2010 - I begin a Bible study called "Becoming a Woman of Simplicity". That is SO what I need right now. I'm excited about it. Now my group leader didn't ask me to cut out anything. But I've been thinking about what I spend time doing. My nightly routine involves checking email, facebook, reading blogs and maybe posting an update of my own. I LIKE knowing what others are doing. I know some of you blog friends better by blogging than by us just getting to know each other face to face. And there is certainly isn't anything wrong with that. I'm just going to use the next 11 weeks to NOT know people's FB status and to NOT know the latest fun thing going on with your kiddos via computer anyway. I'll probably ask you (in person), "How are you? What's going on in your life?" and really mean it! It's going to be hard. I like to know what's going on. But I feel cutting these 2 things out of my life (for 11 weeks anyway) will help me keep it simple. Some evenings both husband and I are sitting next to each other on the couch, each with a laptop, doing stuff on the computer - separately. Sometimes we say to each other...when did we become like this? When did it become OK for us to be in the same room for an hour but not speak to each other because we are so engaged in our laptop activities (me: FB, blogs; him: answering 50,000 student emails). It's not OK anymore. Forced discipline.

Based on my past experiences with "forced discipline" I feel I will only be blessed by this experiment. I'm excited about keeping things simple...or simpler at least. Blessings my blog friends. I'll see you in 11 weeks...maybe.

My homesick heart loves this post....

Go to www.brandonscottthomas.blogspot.com. Or scroll along my blog roll and go to BST's blog. Love it!

Bowling With the Boss Year 4

Katie and Collin played on an all kids lane against 3 other professor's kids and Katie won with a 108!
Dinner: pizza, cookies, Sprite - Collin and Katie say it's their favorite meal ever!

Collin got his first spare and didn't seem to care that Katie beat him for the 2nd year in a row.

Love.

Our other bowling ball - Jackson - was only interested in eating leftover pizza crust.

And I know you are wondering who won on the faculty/staff lane, right? Me. With a 158. Against husband and another male professor. I've already taken a Tylenol PM.

Jackson's 2nd Momma

Katie feeding Jackson applesauce.
Katie has even come up with his nickname: Chubba Chubba Choo Choo.

I am so thankful that Katie loves on Jackson so much. I am also thankful that he has slept through the night the past 3 nights! This is one happy and rested Momma.

Collin's First Day

Collin - all ready for the first day of second grade!
Dad and the kiddos walking up to school.

Wishing our "little one" a great first day.

Collin was quick to let go of my hand and head off to see his friends.

The line-up to Mrs. C's room. When I picked him up from school he said, "This was the best day ever!"