My sweet second grader

Well...these days I only have one thing to be irritated with. My Ankle. It's pretty much keeping me from the C25K program that I started. I just can't run on it. I've tried. Running hates me. So...what I need to do is keep my hiney walking.

Now, on to more important things. My sweet Sydney Ellen is now a second grader. I can't hardly believe it.  That's just amazing to me. Seems like yesterday that her life was just beginning. Now, here it is, almost 8 years later...and going in to second grade. Wow, time sure does go by fast. Congrats, Sydney Ellen!

The next pic isn't great, but she's not a fan of having her pic taken. This is her getting the TOP COWBOY award. Six kids per class get this a year. (1 a six weeks)

She's so cute!  She kept asking me if I was going to pack her lunch today for school. It took a few times explaining it to her, but I think she finally gets it now...SUMMER VACATION MEANS NO LUNCH PACKING! Well, I guess if it weren't 120 degrees outside we could pack it for a picnic, but Mommy doesn't picnic in the heat!

This is Sydney with her sweet teacher!

Graci is getting very excited now. She'll be in kindergarten next year and that's just about all she and Sydney talk about. I don't know what she's more excited about though when it comes to school...getting picked up daily by Mamaw or riding in the police car with Sydney and Daddy every Friday morning to the donut shop before he drops them off! Wow...then it'll just be me and little A-Ro! (that's Audrey's street name) What ever will we do, just the two of us!?

There's really not much more going on around here. I have a few cakes over the next few weeks and we're taking a trip to see family in West Virginia, but that's about it! I guess it's TTFN!

Waving At God

Ugh...I've been kinda frustrated lately. I've not been able to do my C25K for the last week and a half or so. (probably longer, I've lost track) First, my ankle started swelling. Then, my neck went out of whack and NOW....now I have a cold. I sound like an old lady that has smoked for 90 of her 70 years of life, (yes, I know that doesn't add up) and that's just when I have a voice. This morning I woke up and had zero voice. My husband then joked and said it was going to be the quietest day in our house ever, to which I said that could only happen if me AND ALL THE GIRLS all lost our voices at the same time. He humored me and agreed.

Despite not having a voice at all, I still had a pretty good day. We went to Starbucks, did our grocery shopping, ate at Don Juan's and then swapped out kids at my parents house. Do you know that I've not been to Don Juan's since high school? How sad is that? While I was sitting in there at the counter by the built in water fountain, I was reminded just how much I do NOT like change! Well, at least not drastic change. I'd love to have our quaint, little downtown back. I think I'll lobby this year to drag out the old tinsel covered Christmas decorations they used to put up on the light poles. Whatcha think about that?

On a totally unrelated topic...
Audrey was standing in the kitchen this evening when she looked up at the skylight and started waving. I asked her what she was doing and she told me, "I wavin' at God." So I said, "Really?" To which she instructed me to pick her up so she could see better and then pointed up and said, "Look...there He is. Wave mommy, wave." So, we waved at God, I tucked her sweet little self in to bed and that is how she ended her evening. I love those moments God gives to me. Like when Sydney hears thunder and asks if that's God making that noise. Or like the night when Graci and I were were watching a lightning show from the front porch and she asked me where God was. Was he here with us? Did He even go to other places like West Virginia? I assured her that He was here and everywhere else all the time. Right beside us. All. The. Time.

Letters Home

As I was cleaning up around the bakers rack in the breakfast nook a few minutes ago I found two letters. One from me to my mom, postmarked McAllen, TX, June of '86 and the other from my dad to my mom, postmarked Las Vegas, November of '83. I got a little misty eyed reading the one from my dad to my mom. It was short, but very sweet. The one I wrote her just made me giggle. My spelling is horrible (some things never change) and it must have taken me quite a while to mail it since I wrote it in Oxnard, CA, and didn't mail it until we got to McAllen, TX.

Below is the letter from me, complete with misspelled words.

Dear Mom,

How are you? I am O.K..

I have been swiming 5 or 6 times so far. Have you been swiming? Danny got a sun burn. I just got a tan. Daddy hardly got anything. We are in Oxnard Ca. Daddy said he loves you just enough to get him into trouble.

Love,
Nicole

Saturday Evening

Well, it's an exciting evening here at the Hansen house. Eric is working overtime right now, and if my calculations are correct, I should see him some time toward the end of September. Ha! I know that's a bit extreme, but with summer approaching there is much OT to be had in Greater Grand Prairie. Just this weekend he'll have around 25 hrs. Crazy, right? With Lone Star Park, The Airhogs and Verizon (I still can't used to the name change) he stays pretty busy during the summer.

Speaking of pretty busy...I'm still working on cake and I'll still be working on cake tomorrow. I can't wait to see them finished. I'm a little upset with myself though. I forgot to take a pic of the one I delivered on Thursday. It was a copy of a previous one that I had done, so I guess it's really not that big of a deal. I should probably quit whining.

Graci took a little, mini road trip with my dad today. I just got off of the phone with her and she reassured me that she was a little lady while she was there. I confirmed with my dad. She was telling the truth. :-)

Well, off to decorate!

week of cake

This is proving to be a very busy week, cake wise. I have 4 due in the next 6 days. A baby shower, two birthday cakes and a cake for teacher appreciation week. I'm excited about all of them and I'll post pictures as I finish them.

Tomorrow is also W3D1 of Couch to 5K. This is something I'm NOT terribly excited about...well, that's not all together true. I am a little excited about it. I'm hoping I don't poop out in the middle of it. This week we start with the normal five minute walk, then 90 sec of jogging, 90 seconds of walking, 3 min of jogging, 3 min of walking (then repeat those two sets) and then end with another 5 minute walk to cool down. I have a feeling that half way through that first 3 min jog my legs will begin to feel like jello and I'll puddle right there on the treadmill. If that happens, it is NOT something that pictures of will be posted.

Something else that I've decided to try and do is to read the bible through. It's not anything that I've ever really done outside of church, camps and a few studies here and there. I'm about 2/3rds of the way through Genesis and even though it's a bit confusing, I'm enjoying it.

Ok...that's it for now. Time for this old girl to hit the hay!

Legs on Fire!!

Well, I did my day 2 of week 2 walk/run today. Yikes. I did all 6 of the 90 second runs, but it wasn't with out a little bit of pain. I envisioned myself falling off of the treadmill and going through the wall or window. Thankfully that didn't happen.

Ahhhhh...tomorrow is Friday!! Sydney and Audrey will go off to Mamaw and Papa's house for their Friday night visit, (with Graci to follow on Saturday)so it will just be me, G and E. (yes, I am a poet...) I think we'll stick close to the house tomorrow though and just relax. At least that's what I'd like to do. Besides, I need time to recover after my 'jog'. :-)

Next week should be relatively busy for me. I have four cakes to do. A baby shower cake, 2 birthday cakes and a teacher appreciation cake. I think I'll start baking Monday and just freeze the cake til decorating time. These are four very different cakes, so I'm excited to see how they all turn out!

Oh...we had family pics taken last night. The girls had a blast posing for the camera. I can't wait to see how they all turned out.

And, one last thing. Our dryer broke. The thing won't start...at all. Eric said this evening, "Gee, 13 years and it's never given us trouble." Well, honey...wouldn't you think after 13 years the chances of something going wrong go up a little? I'm just sayin'.

I ran yesterday and it nearly kicked my hiney. I don't know if I'll be cut out to be a runner or not, but I'll finish this program even if my legs fall off in the process. You'd be amazed at how much more difficult 90 seconds of running is from 60 seconds. They might as well have added an hour. I'm guessing that a lot more stretching will be in order for my walk/run tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

Sydney had her weekly OT session in Grapevine today. While she didn't want to cooperate there, she did have a good day at school. (or so her folder says) In fact, walking out the door of the school she was very quick to tell me that she had a "Really, Really good day" and that she was a "REALLLLLY good girl." My thought is...she had such a good day at school that she just couldn't help herself by the time we got to therapy. (plus, they're doing a social skills class, so it's not her normal 1 on 1 time. that alone causes her to be uneasy)

The other two girls are up to their same old shenanigans. She did this. She did that. I love you, Mommy. Please don't flush my mac and cheese. (ok, so I may have told G that if she didn't cut it out with the tattling AND the constant asking for the Mac and Cheese, that I may possibly flush her leftovers that she was looking forward to down the potty.) I know...mom of the year goes to me.

Time to finish up dinner, bathe kids, put kids in bed, watch American Idol and hit the hay...all by 10.

My first post...again.

I started a blog a couple of years ago, sure to keep up with it. Right? Let me tell you just how much I kept up with it. I kept up with it so much that my last post was in Oct of 2008 and I can't remember the login info to get in to the darn thing.

So...I've decided to start over. It's not like I don't have things to talk about or write down. I'm just not always the best at forming it in to coherent sentences. I'll do my best though. After all...I do have several comedic inspirations with these three kids running around here, a great husband and a fantastic job of a stay at home mom. If nothing else, it can give the ability to my family not on facebook to see pictures of my crazy life around here. (which, isn't really all that crazy).

This can also be another place document the following...
*My latest cake (I do love cake, you know...well making it, at least)
*My progress in my "couch to 5K" (which I just started)
*Any thing else that you may or may not care to read about.

I guess all that's left to say is...sit back, hold on and get ready to be mostly bored to tears.

Nicole