Goose

My cat has had several names over her little lifetime. Her real name is Bella Bean. Have we ever called her that? Umm.. maybe like 4 times when we first got her. I really thought that was a good cat name and something that would stick. Yeah...no. I never call her Bella. I have this thing where everything has a nickname (Cody has millions), and just like everything else, as soon as the cat came to live with us, she got nicknames! My mom still calls her Bella or Bella Button.. haha.

Most of the time she's Kitty. Then it transformed into Kitty Boo. Then just Boo. Then there are others that just come out of my mouth like Kit Kat, Kiky, Kiky Boo, Boo Boo, Girly and there are lots more I can't think of right now. As she got older, she started doing really crazy stuff, and I would say she was being a silly goose or that she was loosey goosey. And that's when we (I) started calling her Goose. Somehow, that name is sticking more than any other name.. and it's a name of another animal! I asked Cody if we could officially change her name at the vet (like having her name on the vet file makes it official), and he said no. Oh well... she'll probably do something else to make us have a new nickname for her soon anyway..

And this is what she thinks about me and all of the names I have for her.

Out With the Old, In With the New

At the end of August, I said goodbye to the old mustang. I got this car in the summer of 2004, and had it paid off for a year before we started looking for something new. For most of the time that I drove this car, the driver's side window wasn't able to be rolled down without popping out of place. I went for years without rolling it down and not going through drive thrus for years!! I finally got it fixed this past summer, and was able to put the convertible top down again. Now that's it's gone, I sort of miss it... but not that much!

Hugging my car goodbye right before I handed over the keys at the dealership....

About a year ago, Cody and I started talking about getting a new, bigger car for me to drive. We wanted something family friendly, but not a van, and something that would last for a long time. We talked about several different midsize SUV's but we finally found the perfect one! I had this desire for a long time to get a Tahoe, but it was just a little too big. I really wanted that 3rd row that the Tahoe had to offer because I picture myself being that mom that carts my kids and their friends around... I know.. that's way in the future.. but it was in the back of my mind! After talking about it for a while, we just decided to get an SUV with 2 rows. Well after looking around and test driving some, I drove the Toyota Highlander. One of my main wants in my new car was to ride super smooth. The Highlander not only ran perfectly, but it had a 3rd row!!!! : ) I was thrilled! I knew instantly it was the car I'd be getting. It's perfect, I love it, and I'm so thankful Cody loved it too! Every time I get in it, I get excited! I even picked something up out of the back seat the other day and got so happy about how much space there was back there and about how I didn't have to turn sideways and duck under a seatbelt to reach the back floorboard (like in my Mustang). So I got upgraded to my perfect car - my Highlander!

Ain't she pretty??

Can you see my 3rd row back there.. haha.. it really is one of my favorite parts of this car! : )

Southern Sudan with the Lewis Family and Toposa People

One month from today, I will begin my journey to Southern Sudan. With 7 other people from church, I am headed to Sudan to meet up with the Lewis Family who moved from Beaumont to Sudan to be missionaries to the Toposa tribe. Shannon Lewis used to be our missions minister at Calvary, and his wife, Carrie, was a nurse at St. Elizabeth. While he was on mission trips and she worked nights, I would babysit for them every now and then. I'm really excited to see the boys again!! In preparation for this trip, I've have to take an oral typhoid vaccine and get 3 shots (Hep A & B, Tetanus and Yellow Fever). I'm also going to have to learn how to pack everything I will need for 10 days in 1 suitcase and 1 backpack and it all can't weigh more than 44 pounds.... that's a little scary if you know me.. I'm a heavy packer usually taking 10 outfits to choose from for even a 2 day trip! : ) We'll see how I do!

While I'm there, I get to do some homeschooling with the boys while the group goes out to the villages in the morning. In the afternoon, I will be going out with the teams to the villages to tell stories from the bible using the story cloth. The story cloth goes from creation to the resurrection in 42 stories.
I'm SUPER excited to go!!! I'm also extremely nervous, too! I've never been out of the country, and to have Sudan be my first trip is a little scary - but I'm ready for the challenge! God is going to do great things while I'm there... I can't wait to see that family too... I miss them a lot!!!

Pray for the team that's going with me! They are Don Bush, Justin Edgerly, Gordon Fontenot, Clay Jones, Eliot Pages, Giles Sigler, and a mystery woman! The mystery woman can't be named until Carrie finds out who she is.. it's a surprise to her. : )

Don't you love on my map it says "Somewhere in Southern Sudan?" I don't even know where I'm going.. haha!! I just know I'm staying with the Lewis family... wherever they may be in the bush.

Yes, I Do Remember How to Write on My Blog

I'm back... it's been a while! I just never had anything fun to write about, so I've been such a slacker! I posted 2 blogs below... maybe I'll keep up with the blogging... we'll see!

Lamar Football

For the first time in 21 years, Lamar is playing football again! We got season tickets along with Carrie & Justin and Chris & Theresa. We went to Lamar's first game at McNeese last night, and we had a great time! I personally was totally pumped and excited at the beginning, and after halftime, I was soooo sleepy! It was still so much fun though, and we hope that there is that much energy for the whole season! We didn't end up winning though. McNeese beat us 30-27.. SO CLOSE! Next week is the first home game.. should be exciting!

Walking to the stadium...

We finally made it to the stadium, and we were super pumped to watch the game!

LU football players coming on the field..

TOUCHDOWN!

The Cards playing foosball

Chris & Theresa

Cody and me

Carrie and Justin

Final score - we did pretty good for our first game!

Put up your LU fingers!

ha...Carrie and I got pictures with the mascot!

Fair 2010

So.... this is about 6 months late, but that's alright! In March, I went to the fair with Cody, Carrie, Justin, Katelyn, and Michelle! Since we are all old now, we go just to eat, and the fair has some of the best bad for you foods!!! I found my new favorite meal there - steak kabobs! Cody and I used to always get a slice of pizza and a pork kabob, but I found this other place that has steak kabobs, and OMG they were amazing!!! We always eat so much food, but it's once a year so we figure it's alright! The best thing to eat at the fair are the fried oreos! We discovered those a few years back and we get them every time!

This year, we had Katelyn with us to experience her first Southeast Texas State Fair... she was so young back then, but she seemed to enjoy what she could and slept through some of it. It was fun to go with her - especially around the animals! And.. since this is from 6 months ago, that's about all I remember from it... so here are some pictures! : )

The BEST part of the fair - Fried Oreos!!!! The bad thing is I learned how to make these at home... so dangerous because they are SO good!

Katelyn's first fair!! If you don't see Justin in this child, then you're just crazy! She's like a miniature Justin!

Me and Katelyn at the fair!

Katelyn visited the petting zoo - she seemed to enjoy looking at the animals!

Katelyn getting a good look at the cow

Katelyn's first pony ride... she seemed to like it until the very end.

So cute!! Justin played a game to win Katelyn a prize

He won a giant banana!

Don't think she liked it very much.. haha!!

Weight Loss Update

Well... it's not been 4 months since I've started the B-12 injections, and I'm down 25.5 pounds and 10.5 inches! It's weird to think that I've lost that much! I mean... last fall I wasn't able to see the need for losing weight. I just kept gaining weight. I definitely knew it was happening, but I just didn't care to make it stop. I never really got on the scale to see how much I weighed because I honestly didn't want to know. Now that I've lost the 25 lbs. it's almost weird to think I had that much to lose and then some!! It just shows me how unhealthy I had been in the last year to let myself get that huge!

I'm getting to the point where people notice that I've lost weight and they don't know all I've been doing to try to lose it. It makes me feel accomplished when other people notice my efforts.. and this is a huge effort! I feel wonderful!!

My favorite thing about losing the weight these days is the clothes! Because I'm lazy, I never took a bag of clothes to Goodwill. They must have been sitting in my closet for about 4 months now. Back then I had cleaned out my drawers of all the small pants that I knew would never fit me again. I'm so glad I never took those clothes in! I dug through that bag last week and found a practically brand new pair of Express jeans that FIT!!!!!!!!! And... they are 2 sizes smaller than the jeans I got for Christmas!! I found about 4 pairs of pants that I can fit into again in that bag... I was super happy that night! About 1 1/2 years ago I bought some black Express pants (the best black pants I've found that fit me good), but very soon after I bought them I grew out of them. I just found them at the bottom of my drawer the other night, and they are actually a little baggy on me! It's a great feeling to fit into old clothes again! Tonight I bought a plastic bin to put all of my "fat clothes" into. I'm not throwing them away just in case... not that I plan on gaining the weight back, but you never know what kids will do to your body...

Can you tell a differnce?

This picture is from August 2009.This is from April 2010.

The Gusher Half Marathon

On May 1st, I completed my first half marathon. That's 13.1 miles and , for me, 3 hours and 5 minutes of running. It was pretty much the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was a lot of fun!

I started running at the end of February just to get in shape. Not long after, we decided to follow the training schedule to get us ready for the half marathon. We didn't really commit to the marathon for a long time, but we used the training schedule to keep us on a regular running regimine. We ran 4 times a week. Our week day runs were either 3-4 miles each day, and our Saturday runs were the long runs. We started with 4 miles and added a mile each Saturday. It got pretty rough at times, but we all did really good and were very dedicated to accomplishing this! At the end of March, we all signed up for the race, and we were pumped!

May 1st finally came around. I woke up around 5:15 am to get some breakfast and get ready. When I drove over to meet up with my friends, it was drizziling.. and it drizzled until right before the race started. This wetness mixed with the heat made it MISERABLE to run in! The air was so thick that at some points it was hard for me to breathe. But depsite all of that.. I did finish the race! Now for some picture of the race:

My running buddies: Top Row - Lauren, Phyllis and Steven

Front Row - Me and Rebekah

We are all nice and clean here... didn't last long!
Ready to run!
Can you find me?

This is around mile 2...

Still around mile 2... looking pretty happy at this point. I was not so excited later on that day!

Me and Cindy running on (I don't run with Cindy during the week, but she's a church friend I met up with... I sort of left my running buddies in the dust!)

Running down MLK - that's one of Cindy's kids. They met up with us during the race to take pictures and cheer her on!

Crockett Street - maybe around mile 5 or 6

Back on MLK - mile 10. That guy next to us was the full marathon winner. While we were on mile 10, he was at mile 22 or so... he totally lapped us! He went twice as far in a WAY shorter amount of time...

One more lap around Lamar.... this is around mile 11.5 and this is around the time I thought my feet were going to fall off!!
Runing towards the finish line - my friends Heather and Cindy ran it in with me!!

And I'm DONE!!

Getting my medal

WOOHOO!

Me and Cody!
Finally found my running buddies! I lost them after mile 2. I never saw them again, but they made it to the end together!

Way to go guys!

I'm a marathon runner!!

I'm still not sure how I managed to run for 3 hours... I could definitely think of some better ways to spend three hours, but this was a fune experience! I can't wait until the next one!!

Fair 2010: Part One

Justin learned how to play the piano at the fair... he was really into it!

New Plants

We finally got rid of the ugly plants in our front yard! We have these tiny shrubs in the front of our azelia bush, and they are pretty much dead, and they weren't even lined up in a row. We decided Sunday afternoon to dig them up and plant something new. We made our first trip to Home Depot to get some top soil, 3 Chinese Privet plants, 3 gardenias, and some weed blocker stuff to lay out. We had a great time working in the yard, and it looks much better! We actually got home and starting digging up the plants and realized we need mulch for the top of the weed blocker. We made another trip to get 8 bags of mulch, but that wasn't even enough..... it sure does cost a lot to make your yard pretty!

This is a before shot of the front. We only took out the small plants in the front.

A close up of the dead shrub..... glad they are gone!

We stopped for snocones after our 2nd run to Home Depot! It was GOOOOOD!

I LOVE these little plants! I stole this idea from Carrie and Michelle.. they both have them, and I just love the color and how flowy they are! I hope they grow to get lots bigger!

Cody wanted to get these gardenias... they are his favorite because they smell so good! I really hope we don't kill them : )Our cute little plants!
A view of the whole thing from the front! It doesn't look like much, but we are hoping they grow a little... at least that's what it said on the little information tag on the plants : )

Now we have big dreams for the backyard! It's going to take a LONG time to get that completed!!! It's such a mess. The before and after pictures of the backyard are going to be fun to see... can't wait to start that!