And so it goes...

I received this text the other day from my friend Laci: I've accepted you're not a blogger anymore.  That's ok.  Just tell me you're doing well and happy...miss knowing you're close.

My immediate response: Oh those r fightin words! I just don't have much to blog about.  I am bored out of my mind! No vacation or remodeling done and kids r disappointed in my entertaining skills too.  Dare I say I'm depressed??? Probably not.  Just unmotivated.  So wishing I could meet u at 7 peaks or Cafe Rio:(

The truth is starting over is hard.  It takes a while before you feel totally comfortable and your kids feel at home and you get into a rhythm.  Every summer I struggle to find things to do that are cost effective with the kids and find myself a little bored.  The park used to cut it.  Not so much anymore.  Every time I leave the house with all four I can count on at least $100 being deducted from my checking account.  Kids meals are a thing of the past for them.  It's me that gets the kids meal now.

We have managed to fit a few things in the past month but nothing too exciting.

We discovered the Friendswood Library.

Leighton brought home a little infection from his chigger bites at scout camp.

Jackson's idea of art.  He came out of the bedroom with this drawn on his stomach and I asked him "why?"  With that he responded, "just using my creative juices."

We've attended a couple baseball tournaments that Boston played in.  He's on a great tournament team.

He loves being goofy with his teammates and having fun.

He hit a home run out of the park at this tournament in Sugar Land.  He was beaming.

Our first snow cone of the summer for FHE.  They said it didn't hold a candle to Purple Penguin in Henderson.

Paul and Laura had us over for dinner one Sunday and Paul whipped together Minute to Win it Games.  From these pictures, you can tell who the winners and losers were.

 After 7 months, Eric said goodbye to his goatee.  He trimmed it in sections to see what the kids thought of each look.

 I am so glad it's gone.  Eric has the softest cheeks and that goatee makes it all scruffy.

The boys rigged up a gun range in our back yard (air soft).  My favorite part of this was that all the boys got a long.  Jackson said his prayers were answered because him and Boston were hanging out and not fighting.

 We made cookies for our new neighbors and delivered them with this message in honor of #harpersday2014.

Every Tuesday the kids and missionaries and any able body, play scatter ball at the church.  It's a great work out for them and they have fun.  And the best part, it's FREE!

 Boston moves so quick you can't even get a still picture of him.

 This is what the twins do while I am shopping at Home Goods.

We've experienced rain like never before.  It will pour like this for 30 minutes and I swear the water is going to come in my back door then minutes later the water is gone and the sun is shining.  Weird.

Inspired by Paul's Minute to Win It game night, Kennedy hosted one for all her friends.  She put her heart and soul into this party and recruited our neighbor Alina to help her.  They researched games and gathered supplies and put me to work with dessert (homemade ice cream cookie sandwiches).  They played all sorts of games like pictionary, eating donuts off the string, stacking chocolate donuts, something with nylons, cotton balls with Vaseline, ping pong balls inside Kleenex boxes, cup stacking, etc.  By the time the kids left, she said "well that was exhausting!"  The boys wouldn't focus.  Surprise, surprise.  Good to know 16 and 17 year old boys can't focus either.

And Boston couldn't resist breaking out his morph suit.  He likes to be the life of the party.

This is a first - Eric cleaning a toilet/urinal.  It was our turn to clean the church a couple Saturdays ago and he held his own.  When it came time to leave, we couldn't find Jackson.  Guess where he was?  Sitting on the clean toilet taking care of business:)

I bought this table on Craig's List for $15.  I was so excited to get it home and try out this chalk paint that I had heard so much about.  As the twins were helping me load it into the van, Jackson freaked out when a cockroach crawled out of it.  I just figured it was no big deal as it was stored in this persons garage.  I get this table home and start cleaning it and families of cockroaches literally come out of the wood work.  I try killing them off with 409 and smashing them and they just keep coming.  They are living in the particle board. I make an executive decision to haul the table to the curb.  There is no way in hell I'm bringing this table into my house to eat dinner off of.

 About a week later I found this table on Craig's List.  I asked a few more questions before I drove the hour to pick it up (no pets, no smoking, where is it stored) and Eric helps me pick it up.  I paint it with the chalk paint and feel pretty good about the outcome.  Eric says it doesn't fit the banquet as well as the round.  (Side note: I bought a round table of Craig's List when we first moved here that had already been painted.  This whole time I've felt like it was too small.  That's why I'm getting a different table.)  

The finished gray table

The round table that used to be there.  What do you think? (people that still read my lame blog)  Need honest opinion here.

 I'm still drinking up a storm.

And I've taken to eating Blue Bell ice cream straight out of the carton in bed while watching dumb shows like "Untold Stores of the ER."

 The twins have a couple weeks before football starts (all done through jr. high) so I am working them out.  I sent this to Eric to prove I was doing it.

Jackson tried on his jeans that fit him before we moved.  He was going to wear them to scouts.  I marched him right back in his room (after taking a few pics) and told him he wouldn't be wearing those jeans ever again.  

The following pics are of Boston's baseball tournament this last weekend in Richmond, TX.  They got 2nd place and played 5 games in 2 days.  Boston loved every minute of it.  He's die hard.  One of the moms on the team is an awesome photographer and she captured all these great shots.

I include this picture because if you look behind the batter you can see Boston's biggest fans...eating.

This cute girl tried out for the high school volleyball team this week.  She went to a volleyball camp last week that lasted from 11 am - 6 pm, Monday - Friday (and had to make the hard decision to stay home from girls camp to attend it).  She's been working out all summer at a high school camp and playing volleyball with friends a couple times a week at the church.  She's been as focused as I've seen her.  I couldn't be prouder of the effort she put forth.  She didn't make the team but I'd rather focus on the fact that she gave it her all and did her best.  That's all you can ask for.  Of course she was disappointed but has decided to focus on what she learned and is considering being the team manager or doing another sport like swimming or diving.  We did a little shopping therapy today at Target and Gap and ate a lovely meal at Chick Fila to ease things over.  

I sealed the deal with this Texas thing by getting my drivers license and license plate.  I was a little disappointed in the lack of color on the license plate.  I was expecting a flag or a colorful star.  I couldn't let go of our piece of Henderson.  I only went to the dmv three times and the county annex building two times to complete this process.  I don't follow directions very well.

I hope this post takes me off the lazy blogger list.  I am still alive and kicking and from the size of this post, there has been plenty going on.  I just didn't realize it.  So thanks Laci, for the reminder to keep it up:)  It's all worth it.