Viking Fooball

We are playing our first year of tackle football.  Well, Chase is actually the one playing.  It's been a little difficult on the moms, but we're hanging in there! :)

Go #27!!!

The boys are doing great!  It must be difficult to try and learn all these different rules!  I'm not sure I'll ever get it!  I have realized that you have to know numbers (like be good at math) in order to understand the plays.  Otherwise, they make NO sense!  Ray C. and Chase were having fun explaining their plays to me last week!  I'm just glad I don't have to figure out what they mean!

"Wing Left, 33 Lead"

"Go Vikings" 

Chase loves "his" cheerleaders!

 Mommy's not so sure that she loves them, though!  They are super cute, but I don't like the way the 7 year olds watch them!  Aren't they too young to be acting that way?  I mean, I'm glad he likes girls, but it makes me uncomfortable to watch him watching them cheer!

 "Yes Sir"

Break it down...Huh!

 We may not be the Superbowl Champs this year, but we have a lot of heart!  

Big and Bad...

Don't Mess With Me

Princess Lea showing off her beard!

Squirm...the Musical

Chase and Mary Frances performed in a musical at church tonight.  Miss Whitney and all the the other volunteers did a wonderful job directing and preparing for it!

The kids were great, too!  I think every child had a part.

 

 The kids in gray were bats.  The ones in green were snakes, and the pink were earthworms!

 Look at my little earthworm!  Pretty cute, huh!?!

• 

My bat is pretty cute, too!  

"Mom stays in the picture!"

Guitar Lessons

Thomas started guitar lessons at the beginning of the summer.  He loves learning to play, but I have a hard time getting him to practice amidst all of the distractions of daily life.  So, Tquan told him he would let him play the electric guitar if he could tell he'd practiced this week.

Needless to say, Thomas was thrilled to play the guitar this week!  He rocked Mary Had a Little Lamb like nobody's business!  :)  He played another "boogie" they've been working on, too!  His goal is to play the electric guitar, but we've told him he has to show us he is serious about learning to play before we spend any more money (or let him spend his own money) on more guitar stuff!  He's really doing great!

Double Digits

Thomas turned 10 this year!!! We have more pictures somewhere, but I'm not quite sure where!?!  Anyhow...he wanted a basketball party in the church gym.  So, we invited some friends, and the boys played basketball for over an hour.  Then we ate some pizza and cake!  It was a perfect night...topped off with a few boys sleeping over.  Needless to say, we were sleepy the next day!

Working Mommy

Having a full time job on top of my most important full-time job (mommy) has been an adjustment for my family.  We have done really well.  I would even say that we've done better than I expected!  Ray C. has been amazing.  I have really felt like we are working as a team since I started work, and that has been really fun!

But today, I did not like being a working mommy!  This week, Chase has been staying home with my mom because he has a severe case of infantigo which is highly contagious.  (I would have been staying home with him before!)

Today, Ray C. took him to school even though we'd decided not to send him since his face still looked so bad.  I got a text during third period about that.

Then, during my planning period, I got a text from my mom saying that Thomas was not feeling well this morning and she was concerned about him and thought she should go pick him up. (If I wasn't working, I would have known he wasn't feeling well earlier than anyone else and would have been on the ball with making him better.)  Instead, my mom called the doctor and waited for the call back to figure out what to do.  They called me, but I told them they'd have to call my mom since my students were about to come back in class and I wouldn't be able to talk!

Then, just before my last bell rang, I got a message from the kids' school saying the kids thought they were supposed to be walkers today but no one had a note.  I wrote the note before I left this morning and asked Mary Frances to take it to school.  She forgot.  (If I'd been home, I would have seen it earlier and would have taken it to school in the morning!)

So, I had to leave my school before I finished everything to walk over to the kids school and pull them out early.  It was too late for a note.  So, they would have gone home on the bus and no one would have been there.  They came back to my school for a little while so I could finish my work.

Then, we went back to their school so Ray C. and I could meet with Thomas' teachers.  He is doing very well in school, but he is still have some problems making new friends.  I cried in the meeting just because I want him to be happy!

Ray C. had to leave early with Chase so they could get to Chase's football game.  Then, I felt guilty because I had to skip his game.  I have too much going on and can't catch up with everything that needs to be done.  He cried after the game when he realized I wasn't there -- even though I'd told him I wasn't going to be able to make it!

I got a lot accomplished tonight, and amazingly, I don't really feel upset.  BUT, I did feel guilty today for not being the ONE in charge of all my children's needs!  I love having my family help, but there is something inside of me that says mommy should be the one to take the kids to the doctor, give all the medicine, kiss all the boo-boos, and give the hugs when you had a bad day!  That alone made my day a little difficult! But, as I told my mom earlier, thank goodness that each day is new!

It's time for me to go to sleep in my clean sheets!  I do love clean sheet day......even if it wasn't supposed to be clean sheet day and that added to my stress!!  Another story for another day! :)

New Pet

Mary Frances had $10 burning a hole in her pocket yesterday as we were visiting a few stores.  So, when we stopped at PetSmart to get crickets and worms to feed the dragons, she had a great idea!!  She realized she had enough money to buy a fish.

So, we left the store with a beta fish!  She was so worried about taking care of it that she wouldn't even carry it.  The thing I like about the fish is that it can stay in the container we bought it in!  I told her that this is one pet that I will not take care of. She is solely responsible for it, and if she doesn't feed it, he will die because I am not going to!!

So, this morning I just asked if she had checked on him when she woke up, and she said she forgot.  So, Thomas ran into her room and said, "Well, at least he isn't floating!"  Mary Frances' response..."Yes!  I kept a pet alive for a day!"

Ah....it's the little victories that matter!

Teaching

I made it through my first week as a teacher, and I love it!  What a fun week.  I am loving these kids.  They say the funniest things, and everyday they say something that makes me feel good about what I'm doing.  I can already tell I'm making a difference, and that is worth every bit of my effort!

Today, one of my precious girls was kind enough to let me know that I had a HUGE hole in my pants! I seriously think she was the only one that saw it because no one else made any comments, and I never heard any snickering, but the hole was big!  My pants ripped from the pocket straight down.  I mean, you could see my butt!  Luckily, I had on a long t-shirt.  So, I was pulling my shirt over my rear end all afternoon!  What a great way to END the week!!! :)

Go Texans!

I experience my very first NFL game last night!  Some friends of ours gave us four tickets to the Houston Texans game against the Vikings.  So, we invited Pam and Gary to go along with us.  They are die-hard Packers fans.  So, they were thrilled to root against the Vikings for the home team!  It was a lot of fun, but I still have a hard time keeping up with that ball!

I love the thrill of the crowd and the excitement, but I think I prefer watching the game on TV where the cameraman does the hard work for me -- keeping my eye on the man who actually has the ball!  And, I love that yellow line!  They should really figure out how to have that on the field!  Those yard marker guys just don't cut it for me!

Oh...another cool fact...we got to see the 1st female ref in NFL who just made her debut last week!  It's always fun to be a part of history...no matter how small!

1st Day of School

We made it through another 1st day of school.  It was fairly non-eventful!  Chase started 1st grade, Mary Frances started 3rd and Thomas started 4th.  Jacqueline started 6th grade....teaching that is!  I'm teaching World Cultures, and I think I am really going to love it.  I have a great team of teachers, and I am learning every day!  I am looking forward to getting through this first week!

The kids all had a good day.  No one had anything special to report.  They all have classes with mostly new friends in them.  So, they will have plenty of opportunities to meet new people.  (Some of them are more excited about that than others!)

All in all...it was a good day, but I am tired and really need to get some sleep before we do it all again tomorrow!!

Do I HAVE to take a shower?

I've always heard how dirty boys are and how difficult it can be to get them to shower.  You would think I was torturing them every night just by saying, "Go take a shower!".  

The dermatologist recommended a cream for some sun spots on Thomas' face the other day, but after realizing they will go away on their own anyway, I refused the cream.  I explained to him that it was hard enough to get him in the shower.  And, if I'm lucky enough to get him in the shower, I have a hard time getting him to actually use the soap!  A cream needing to be used daily was not about to happen!

There are MANY nights that I have to send Thomas back to the shower to actually use soap. A sniff test is not an abnormal thing in our house!  (And, I might add, it isn't only a boy problem!)

We gave some women a good laugh yesterday in Target when we were passing the shampoo aisle.  I asked the kids if everyone had shampoo.  Mary Frances replied, "yes" (only to not wash her hair in the shower last night because she didn't have any shampoo)!??!  The boys said, "We don't use shampoo!" which brought a smile to everyone standing around us as I rolled my eyes and smiled with them!  What can I do other than stand there with them?  Oh well..."this too shall pass!"

Church in a Movie Theatre

Here's what we do, from a child's perspective...

Nothing Like a Great-Grandad

It's little opportunities like lunch dates that remind me how thankful I am to have my family here in Texas with me!  I have loved getting to see my granddad on such a regular basis, but I am ecstatic that my children have gotten to know him so much better!  They just love being with Papa G.

Chase is 7!

We celebrated Chase's birthday at the bowling alley.  It was fun to watch the kids!

 (Gavin, Wojo, and Chase)

 (Mary Frances and Jessie)

 Happy Birthday to you...

 we love Jessie....

 Chase requested a bowling lane cake.  It was fun and easy to make!  The hardest part was getting the small bowling pins.  I finally just wound up printing some and putting toothpicks on the back!

My Birthday Party

I don't remember the last time I had a birthday party, but my parents wanted to throw me one this year!  It was so hard to decide who to invite, but we had a great time!  

My mother loves to throw a party, and she is good at it!  The food was delicious, everything was beautiful, and we all had a lot of fun!

Of course, no birthday party is complete without a cake.  I requested he most delicious...Italian Cream Cake!  Yummm.....

So happy to have my hubby celebrate with me!  We've been together for more than half of my life!!! Isn't that amazing!  I love having so much of my history with him!

Friends make a party complete!  Check out this fun group of girls!  

And the guys had fun too!!!  I'm glad they were all able to come and have fun!

Happy Birthday, Mommy

The kids made my birthday a super special event!  It was such a fun day!

 Mary Frances conspired with my mom, sister, and Ray C. to surprise me with a little family party.  Even Papa G. came!  It was so much fun for me to have my whole family here for my birthday!  I can't say when that last happened!

 Here are some pictures taken by one of the kids of my surprise party!

 I got a new bike!  I didn't know Ray C. had thrown out my old bike, but apparently he knew! :)  My new one is awesome.  It's more like a beach bike with a big seat and taller handles!  Ahh... comfort!  I really don't enjoy those tiny seats and leaning over to grab the handles!  now, I can enjoy a nice bike ride!

My sweet family!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

In case you haven't noticed, baseball is a big part of the Hughes family life...  So, for Father's Day, the kids told daddy they wanted to have a family outing to a baseball game.  They suggested the Astros, but daddy requested we go to a minor league game which he assured them would be much more fun for everyone!  

So, a few weeks later, we hauled everyone down to Sugarland to see the Sugarland Skeeters play!

 Daddy wanted to sit in the outfield so the kids could play at the splash pad and on the huge playground!  The kids didn't really care much about the game, but they did have a lot of fun! 

 And daddy was happy because he got to watch the game!

We even got to watch a fireworks show at the end!