Almost three years later.....

So much can change in a few years!  I am still in school and will be graduating with my bachelors degree in University Studies in May. My two majors are Family & Consumer Sciences and Psychology.  I work three-quarter time as a nutrition educator and love my job.  I'm still trying to decide if I want to continue with school and get my masters degree or stop for now.

My daughter, Kinsey, is in 7th grade.  She plays trombone in the band and is in 4-H.  She loves cats and drawing.  She is amazing at drawin using computer graphics.  She still draws with pencil and paper as well.

Neal and I have been married for almost 14 years and still live in New Mexico. He works at the local Ford dealership. It was a huge change from the work he did before but he is enjoying it.

I guess this will be my update for now. I would like to keep updating when I have time...

Day 5--a picture of your favorite memory

the day Kinsey was born

I bet you thought I forgot....

It's NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month)--you know the month where I try to post every day. I may just post a picture or a quick story but I will try to do something every day so check back.

On Friday Kinsey carved a pumpkin at Girl Scouts and entered it into the Smokey Bear Museum and Park pumpkin Carving contest. She won 3rd place!! Here is a picture of her with her winning pumpkin.

Spring school pictures

Since I haven't posted anything in forever I thought I would at least put up Kinsey's spring school picture.

Guess who's wearing glasses now?

Kinsey has been having trouble copying things from the board and seeing in the distance. I finally got off my butt and got her an appointment at the local eye doctor. Guess what? She did need glasses! I let her look at all of the frames and pick out the ones she wanted (with the help of the girl working there). She picked out these cute blue rectangle frames. She is supposed to wear them all day and has done quite well with them already. She was amazed at the difference they make when she wears them. The doctor said she may grow and her eyes might change. We were hoping she would get her Daddy's eyes instead of mine.

Kinsey and Annabelle....who really didn't want to be in this picture ;-)

Who says you can't make a gingerbread house in January?

Kinsey and I went to Walmart today and they had gingerbread house kits marked down to $2 so we bought one and assembled it when we got home. Here are a few pictures

It takes a lot of concentration to put the candy on.
A little taste test of the frosting had happened just before this picture.This is what she wanted to do as soon as it was done but I convinced her to let it harden a bit and let Daddy see it before we ate it.A fun afternoon activity!

Glitter glitter every where!

If you know me you know I am not a big fan of glitter. I loathe it. Working in a daycare/preschool I see my fair share of it and always seem to find something else to do when it comes out. Kinsey has been wanting to make some ornaments for our Christmas trees--the big one in the living room and the little one in her room. When I was getting the decorations out last week I came across a package of "stained glass" ornaments and told her she could do those. The first thing she did was say "Oh look there is glitter in here!!"....UGH...she saw it! I told her we could put some glitter on them but I would be holding the glitter at all times. The ornaments turned out really cute and will be for her little tree! Mine are the ones without glitter ;-)

Sunday Neal wanted to go gather wood for our fireplace. We went to one area and got some smaller logs and branches. I had planned to pick up pine cones but there weren't any where we were at so I convinced him to drive to a nearby lake where there are tons of pine trees. Kinsey and I picked up 4 grocery sacks full of pine cones! We are making ornaments out of some, taking some to the daycare to make ornaments there, and the rest will be used for fire starters. I took a few pictures of some we decorated.

These will be put on our bigger tree and shared with family. Now we can put the glitter up and be done with it for a very long time........

Old toys bring back memories

Early last week Kinsey and I were talking about her PE class and she said they used a thing you put around your ankle and jump over it. I asked if it was a Skip-It or something like that and she wasn't sure what it was called. When we got to my parents I went to the outside storage closet and pulled out my old Lemon Twist--it was similar what she used! My sister and I each had one and mine had a bee drawn on it since my name starts with a "B". We also found an old hula-hoop for her to play with. Everyone that went out into the backyard had to show her how to roll the hula-hoop forward and make it come back to you. Kinsey was finally able to do it a few times before we left. I'm so glad we were able to find some 30-something year old toys to entertain her. I have many fond memories of my sister and I playing with those toys for hours on end. The next thing I need to get Kinsey is roller skates to use there. My sister and I spend countless hours skating up and down the sidewalk.

Kinsey and my parent's dog Goldie (aka Red).

Sorry about the quality of these pictures. I'm still learning how to use all the setting on my camera. I need to work on taking pictures at dusk.

Magic Cookie Bars

Kinsey has a pen pal who lives in Canada. Her mother and I have belonged to the same online mommy group since the girls were born (Hi Kim!). Recently they posted pictures on their blog where Scarlett made Magic Cookie bars. Kinsey and I were looking at the pictures and Kinsey said she would like to make them too. We finally made them tonight.

The ingredients.

Adding the chocolate chips....some how a few made it into her mouth...hmmmm.

Ready to go in the oven.

Done! They are cooling on the counter now waiting to be sliced and put in a container. Kinsey had to go to bed so she will miss that part. I may have to sample them to make sure they turned out ok ;-)

The Party's over....

We had such a good time yesterday at my nephew's going away party. There was a lot of food, a lot of family and a lot of friends. There were toasts made, crying, and cake. Overall, a great time was had by all. He will be missed but we all know he will go on to better things! Good Luck Drew!

My Mom and I standing, my younger sister and brother are sitting.

Kinsey trying to fly with a whole bunch of balloons...lol!

Children of the World

The 2nd grade has been learning about all the continents and countries in them. Today they had a program where each child had a small speaking part and they sang several songs as a group. Kinsey dressed as a Brazilian woman. This is almost the same costume she wore to World Thinking Day for Girl Scouts.


We tied a scarf around her head and add a few more necklaces.

Kinsey and Mrs. Jones--her teacher.

Juliette Low Day Camp

Kinsey and I attended Girl Scout camp yesterday. We were celebrating Juliette Low Gordon's birthday--the founder of Girl Scouts. The girls learned about fire safety from a forest ranger and we went on a nature walk. They made a sit-upon (pillow) out of old jeans. The best part was learning to make a cake in a foil covered box and a peach cobbler in a dutch oven.

It was cold first thing in the morning but once the sun came up everyone warmed up. I think all the girls had a good time and learned a lot. Here is a picture of Kinsey and a few of her friends.

Halloween 2008

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

More pictures

Kinsey is enjoying Brownies this year. I'm a co-leader for our group and we are having a lot of fun. We have 4 different age groups so it is an interesting mix of girls. Here are a few pictures from activities we have done so far this school year.

Labor Day parade in Carrizozo, NM. There were several troops there but this is some of our girls. Silly Kinsey is in the middle with her hat over her eyes.


Last month, the Holloman Air Force Base Girl Scouts invited area troops to come bowl on their base. We had a lot of fun and got to meet a lot of other Girl Scouts.


Today we carved pumpkins, decorated small pumpkins and had a snack of caramel and apples. It was a wonderful fall day!


Next weekend we have a day camp at a local park. We are hoping for good sunny weather. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun for the girls.

Kinsey and her snack

I've been working with Kinsey on making her own snacks and breakfast. She is able to use the toaster now and learning to use a small knife. One day she wanted fruit with Cool Whip so I told her she had to cut up the fruit.


I helped her get out a pairing knife. We practiced keeping her finger back and slicing strawberries and banana. She also washed some grapes and added those.


Kinsey was very proud of herself when she was done.

Sharing a few pictures

Kinsey and Neal on a tractor mowing behind the house. Kinsey loved driving the tractor.

We've gone to a few football games this year. I just loved this banner from one of the games. Very cute! Sadly the Tigers aren't doing that great this year due to a few injures. We enjoy going to the games and seeing friends.

Neal and I went to see Trace Adkins on August 8, 2008 (08-08-08) and really enjoyed the concert. I entered a drawing from his fan club to go back stage for a meet and greet. I was able to get an autograph and quick picture. Wow! Trace is tall and muscular but very quite.

Back to School 2008

yes, I know it's been almost a month but hey at least I'm posting the pictures...lol! Kinsey's first few days of 2nd grade. She is in Mrs. Jones class and is enjoying it so far.

First day of school getting off the bus. Our pictures from that morning were not that great but this one turned out good.

This is the 2nd day before school and it turned out much better.

Capitan Cheer Camp 2008

Kinsey attended cheer camp this week with our local cheerleaders. She learned several cheers, dance steps, and lots of spirit! Here is a picture of her with my pom-poms that I use at football games. She recieved a small pair from the camp but she likes mine better.

Cheerleaders leading the girls in a cheer.

Kinsey after they got to play in the sprinklers on the last day. It was a hot day and the girls really enjoyed getting wet.

A little update

It's been a busy 2 weeks since I last posted. It's rained almost everyday which means we are in the "monsoon" season now. I'm hoping that all the rain helps with our serious drought conditions. As long as the lightening stays away we are good! Of course the rain has really messed up our home improvement projects. We have not been able to pour concrete for our new storage shed so that means we haven't put the shed up yet. I had rented a huge storage room when we weren't sure where we were going to move to this spring and only had about 1/4 of it full. This weekend we moved that stuff in to a tiny storage room until our new one is built at the house. It's not a lot of stuff but it's stuff we don't have room for here....Christmas decorations and trees, yard sale stuff, tools, camping/fishing stuff, and yard stuff. I can't wait to have the storage here to put it all in.

In other news, my camera died week before last. I've had that camera for about 4 1/2 years and was having a few minor problems with it. I hated to see it go but love it's replacement. I bought a Canon Powershot A950 IS this weekend. It has a lot of the features that a DSLR camera would have but in a small body. I will be able to add a telephoto and wide shot lens in the future with an an adaptor. I'm really happy with it so far and have had a blast taking pictures today. I can't wait to take it out and shoot some scenery and plants.

Kinsey and her silly cat Annabelle.