Shelby

So, Mason named our cat Shelby. She is a full time outdoor "barn" cat, but she gets cat food (and occasionally table scraps) every morning and evening. She also owns a toy that she has no clue what to do with. She loves to sleep on our patio chairs. Luckily for her she hasn't scratched on them. She loves to be brushed, but only by Mason (the only one in our family who is allergic to cats!). Last night she brought us her first trophy. She killed a gopher and brought it up onto the patio to show us. I was so proud of her! She is doing her job! Scotty still tries to chase her off. But she isn't scared of him in the least. Last night she was sitting by our patio door and Scotty saw her so he wanted to go out. I opened the door and he started chasing her. She ran a little ways and then moved off into a shadow and he ran right past her without realizing. Smart cat or blind dog or both! She's a sweet cat though. I think we will keep her around!

Yard work = still sore

Andy and I spent THE ENTIRE weekend last weekend doing yard work. We are hosting a baby shower at our house Oct 9th (for some very important people!) and we needed to make the yard look presentable. It was the perfect weekend to be outside since the weather was beautiful. Even Alex played outside most of the weekend, and he is not an outdoors man! We took a walk around our property Sunday evening and explored. Here are a couple of pictures taken from the back yard.

Andy told us that deer love to eat these purple berries. Maybe that's why we see them in our yard occasionally!

Scarecrows

Each year downtown Brenham has a scarecrow contest. Krause and St. Paul's participate in hopes of winning some cash for the classrooms! This year Mason's class did an Alvin and the Chipmunks display starring Mrs. Koehler and Mrs. Dixon's super stars. Each child made a scarecrow and attached their picture for the face. Their display is in front of the Doll Hospital. Go by and check it out. And while you are out, vote for them!

St. Paul's did "Fruit of the Spirit". His class (Pre-K) is "sponsoring" the Patience sign (which he is standing in front of!). Their display is in front of Tres Chic. You can vote for more than one display. So if you are voting, add this one to your vote!

Happy Fall Y'all!

My 500th post!!! Fair 2010

Howdy family and friends! I have been so busy lately I haven't had a chance to update my blog. Bare with me, I am going to try to get a couple of posts out this week! A couple of weeks ago the Fair was in town. I am not a huge fan of the fair, but I sure did manage to go EVERYDAY! Alex's class took a field trip to the fair on "kid's day". Here are some pictures from the field trip.

There are lots of things to do at the fair. You can pet animals in the petting zoo. 

You can shuck corn (Noble got to go to the field trip with us that day. He was so good and had a lot of fun!).

You can even watch a video on someone's iphone!

Here is Alex between his best buddy Blake and sweet Lillie.

I had to include these last two pictures for Missy. Apparently something was making a loud noise, or someone was telling Blake something he didn't want to hear!

Check out Blake and Noble. Whatever Missy was telling them must have been VERY interesting and/or important!

Our new outdoor addition

I have been wanting an outdoor cat since last year when we ended up having 5 snakes in our yard! We have "almost" had a cat several times. We tried to catch one we saw in the Walmart parking lot. Not successful. We were going to go look at some kittens that some friends had. Never did. We were going to go to the animal shelter to pick one out. Never happened. Wednesday evening Mason went outside on the patio and heard a noise. He came back in and said he thought he heard a meow. A few minutes later we looked out the window and a cat was laying in one of our patio chairs. There are wild cats around our neighborhood but they would never come close to your house. I figured if we opened the door this cat would run. We tried it and she just looked at us. She let me pet her too. I gave her some food and water and she ate it like she was starving. The next day she was back again. I have been feeding her once a day. She comes up on the porch in the morning and at night. Who knows where she is the rest of the day. Scotty has already tried to attack her more times than I can count. But she still comes back. Mason wants to name her Shelby. Alex doesn't know what to name her. I just call her Kitty. So, we will see what sticks! Feel free to pass on your cat name suggestions! Andy thinks she is about 6 months old. She is so sweet. We thought we would see if she stuck around before we took her to the vet to get her shots and get her fixed. Looks like she may be sticking around!

Del Rio: Just the boys

Apologies in advance for the rambling post! Last weekend Andy, his dad, Mason and Alex went to Del Rio for some hunting, working on the ranch, and guy time. I went to Austin and did some shopping with my mom. We had great girl time! I needed to get some clothes that looked half way professional because I start my field observations this week. Also, I will be taking a short term sub assignment at Alex's school co-teaching the Kindergarten class. I am very excited to be working with this Kinder teacher. She is amazing! I am thrilled to have this experience in general. It couldn't have come at a more perfect time considering I just started school to get my teaching certificate. The only downfall is that I will miss HOSTS, MOPS, bible study and watching Noble for the 6 weeks I am subbing. But, I think in the long run it will all be worth it!

Here are a couple of pictures of Mason in Del Rio. I sent my camera along and told the boys they could take pictures, but the camera only came back with a few pictures and none were blog worthy of Alex (they didn't show his face). To me, that means everyone was having so much fun they didn't have time to grab the camera. I am very lucky to have a husband that looks forward to driving 5 hours one way with a 7 year old and a 4 year old. Then takes care of them all weekend and makes that 5 hour drive back. And without a single complaint! Thank you honey! I know the boys cherish that time with Andy too.

Hope everyone is trying to stay dry. It has been RAINING here. We are SO thankful. Monday Andy mowed and fertilized. Then Tuesday and today it has poured. We are so thankful we didn't have to run our sprinkler system these last two days!

Oh, and incase anyone is wondering how class #2 went for me....not any better. My professor didn't say "ain't" this time, but she did talk about herself for a solid hour. She mentioned 3 things that we may possibly need in the future that were covered in 5 minutes. I spent the rest of the time coming to the realization this was 2 hours of my life I would never get back. Here's to hoping class #3 is better!

Enjoy the pics of my big guy LOVING every minute of Del Rio! I was told he was awake at the crack of dawn (literally) fully dressed, telling Grandpa to get up and get going!

8 Questions- Part 1

Stacey tagged me on Wednesday (I'm a slacker!) for a game of 8 Questions. I love these games, thanks Stacey! The rules are simple: Answer the 8 questions, come up with 8 new questions, tag 8 people. Easy.


Here are Stacey's eight questions along with my answers:
1. What brand of toilet paper do you use? Charmin or Angel soft. Why does TP have to be so expensive anyway?!


2. Who is the celebrity you are most embarrassed to admit you have a crush on? Keith Urban, but I am not embarrassed to admit it!

3. What is your all time favorite movie? Dirty Dancing

4. What store do you spend most of your paycheck? When I had a paycheck it was Target. Now I spend most of Andy's paycheck at HEB or Walmart since that is what we have in Brenham!

5. What is your favorite restaurant? Chuy's

6. What is your most favorite thing to do in the town where you live? Since I live in Brenham I guess I should say eat Blue Bell ice cream, huh?! But really my most favorite thing to do is spend time with my family and friends which is usually at home, at a friends house, or a park. This summer our most favorite thing to do was swim at the country club!!

7. Where is the best place you have ever been on vacation? My best vacation so far was the trip Andy and I took to Chicago for our 5th anniversary. It was so much fun.

8. What is the most distant place you have visited? Barcelona, Spain

Here are my 8 Questions for these 8 bloggers:
1. How much time do you spend on your blog or viewing other blogs daily?
2. What would is your dream job?
3. What is your hobby?
4. What is one bad habit you have?
5. What is one thing on your bucket list?
6. Do you prefer the lake or the ocean?
7. What TV show are you embarrassed to admit you watch?
8. Do you have a phobia? If so, what?

Tracye
Dez
Alisa
Kristi
Missy
Jennie
Nicole
Jennifer 

Shelly, I'm going to answer your 8 questions on my next blog post!

Hi, My name is Alex

and I may or may not be addicted to Nintendo DS!

My treasures

Dee and I went garage sale hopping today. Dee is the queen of garage sales. She knew everyone that was having garage sales today and could tell you what she bought from them the last time they had a garage sale! Check out my treasures below. Two dresses with the tags still on them, two Cranium games for kids, a wrought iron stand that holds a bottle of wine, two wine glasses and plates and a package of Easter bubbles that have never been opened. All of these for the grand total of $4.25!! This would have easily been $90 in the stores! I am so excited! I might have a new hobby on Friday mornings!

One of the boys

This picture was taken 9/7/09 of Mason and Alex watching TV from under the coffee table!

Now Noble watches TV from under the coffee table. This picture was taken 9/1/10. Too cute!

Quotes from a Dr. in Education

"Panty hose are optional for the ladies."
"Don't dress like you are going to chop cotton."

I'll keep those in mind! Y'all do the same!

Thoughts on my first day of class

I had great expectations yesterday walking into my 1st college classroom since 1998. I couldn't wait to meet my fellow future colleagues and be inspired by my professor. It didn't go exactly like that. I walked into the building and was told our class was meeting in a different room then originally announced. This new room was a video conference room. There were 2 people already in the room and 3 others arrived that me (one lady brought her spouse. Weird?!). That would end up being our class on the "Brenham side". I wasn't aware that our professor was actually at Blinn in Bryan with 16 others students. We were watching her on the video screen (when she actually remembered to turn it on, or reconnect us after the connection was lost). I was actually counted absent for a few minutes because as she was calling roll our connection lost (little did she know).
Here are some of the highlights from last night. In the words of our professor, "There ain't going to be any homework." and "There ain't going to be any tests." That is correct, she said AIN'T. She actually said it 4 different times. We heard more about her and her many certifications and degrees then we did about the actual course we are enrolled in. I don't even know the name of the course!
She did make sure to pound into our head that we aren't going to get paid much, we are going to have to work REALLY hard and teaching will be the hardest job we have ever done. Sounds inviting huh?! I'm glad I had a different vision in my head when deciding to enroll in this program.
After 1.5 hours of skipping around from one meaningless subject to another we were dismissed with no guidance on what we should be doing between now and our next class.
I'm looking forward to next Tuesday. My blog has been really dull lately. This is just what I needed to spice it up!! Ain't that right?!