Eat All we can, Sell the rest

For some time now we have wanted to visit the Blue Bell Factory in Brenham, TX. But it was never a good day. Especially since the tours are only given on week days. The factory is closed on the weekends. So, this past Friday was a Teacher inservice day and the kids were off school. We took a drive out to the Blue Bell Factory. (it's about 2 hours from our house) Cameras weren't allowed on the tour so I don't have any behind the scenes photos. We got to see 2 rooms where they were making the ice cream and then filling the containers. It was an awesome sight to see how fast they can fill each of the 1/2 gallon containers. Each production line can make 54 1/2 gallons a minute. We saw Sugar Free Vanilla Bean, Strawberry banana and Strawberry in one room. Blue Bell usues the milk from 500,000 cows every day. All the cows are withing a 200 mile radius of the factory. Probably the most fascinating for me was seeing the ice cream sandwiches being made. They can make 120 sandwiches a minute. They load cookies in 2 different areas and then squirt the ice cream between the 2 and wrap it and it's in a box within seconds. I'll never look at an ice cream sandwich the same again.
After the tour we were treated to a sample of ice cream. We could pick from 24 different flavors. I chose home made vanilla, Zane had Choc. Chip cookie dough, Mia chose Banana Pudding and I don't remember the others. This may have been the highlight portion of the tour.
(Kaylee spent the weekend with Nana and Paw Paw)
And YES the workers are allowed to eat as much ice cream as they want. We took a peak in the break room and saw people mostly eating chips but there was one guy reading the paper and having a mini-moo bar.

Costume Party

David's sister Darla invited all the family over for a Costume Party. The instructions were that EVERYONE dress up. Including the adults. So not only did I have to get 4 costumes the correct size we had to come up with ones of our own. Now I am not opposed to dressing up and enjoy it somewhat but the choices for adult women are downright scary. I am not into witches, and mystical stuff so my choices became even more scarce. After deciding that even though your family is suppose to love you no matter what, I just didn't feel comfortable showing up in the french maid or catholic school girl costume. So, I opted for a cheap but effective butterfly costume with matching metallic blue eyelashes. (see pic)David's costume was equally as challenging. I located a cheap Sumo Wrestler costume and finally had him talked into wearing it. The kind that has the motor and blower inside, but by the time I checked again it had already been sold, and I wasn't paying the big bucks at party city for a new one. So he sported the ever fashionable pirate costume (hand made by moi)
Zane wanted to be a Dallas Cowboy football player. Easy enough and he looked pretty good in the uniform. A little scary for me seeing my ten year old "baby" looking so mature.
Kaylee opted for the classic Snow White. No dwarfs behind her, even though I tried to convice Zane we could each be one. But he and I fought over Sneezy so we knew it was a moot point.
Trent wanted Batman. His costume was so cute, even had the fiber optic light show on his chest. He loved it and wore the whole costume most of the night.
I asked Mia what character she would like to be. I tried to talk her in to being Dora. But she thought a minute and said "I be Elmo." The child had never even seen an Elmo costume but apparently she understood the concept well enough to make an informed decision. So we found the cute little Elmo costume.
We had a great time at Aunt Darla's costume party. The kids looked forward to it for weeks. Kaylee was the most excited about bobbing for apples. We also had a cake walk and there were tons of treats and food for everyone to enjoy. The popcorn balls were a big hit with kids young and old.

She's B A C K

So technically the cat never left. But during the three week stomach flu ailment we realized the cat had a severe flea problem. I couldn't handle all the stomach stuff and the fleas at the same time so the cat was banished to the outdoors. I tried using some flea spray and liquid medicine from Petsmart but we could not get it under control. Kaylee has really wanted Molly back inside with her so I asked around and found out you can have a cat flea dipped. When I talked with the groomer she said this is an option but only after the cat has a bath. I thought, " I am NOT giving the cat a bath." She informed me that she gives the cat a bath. "Whew!" So off we went to the groomer for a bath and flea dip. She smelled much nicer afterward and even felt a little softer. We started her on Advantage flea medicine the next day. So far so good.... Haven't seen a flea yet. And Kaylee is ecstatically happy to have Molly back in the house.

Ode to Debbie

I have a friend in Las Vegas named Debbie. Her son, Grant, and Zane were best friends there. Several days a week we would walk across the street to her apartment and let the boys play on the playground. Every time she would bring a big tub of birdseed. She had all kinds of little toys to play with in the birdseed. If they spilled the seed it didn't matter and it was much easier to get off the kids than sand. The kids thought it was a grand idea. Fast forward six years, I was walking through Wal-Mart and saw a huge bag of birdseed so I purchased it for the kids. It has been a big hit for the past few weeks. And the squirrels have enjoyed the sunflower seeds out of it as well.

Soccer Star

Trent started his first "official" sport this season. And yes you can call Soccer a sport. He is having such a great time kicking and trying to get to the ball. We've noticed he's become increasingly aggressive but at least he's not afraid to "get in the mix." His team name is the Marlins and his coach is his biggest fan. Of course it's, David.

The Grocery Game

Some friends of mine told me because I am so frugal(I know they meant cheap) I should be doing the grocery game. So I tried it. At first I didn't see many results but after some planning the game is really starting to "pay off" The game works like this. There is an on-line listing of the week's specials for each area's local supermarkets. The game pairs the items on sale with coupons that have been in past newspapers. Sometimes two months ago. So you have to start by collecting multiple sets of coupon booklets and then save them until needed. The web-site makes a weekly list and tells you when the coupon ran, how much the item is on sale for and your final price. Sometimes the item ends up being free. Two weeks ago was my best value yet. But I didn't think to take a picture of it so it's not as much fun to see. So I will tell you how I did this week.
6 bags of Bugles .50 each
6 Listerine Breath fresheners FREE
2 cans of Manwich sauce .40 each
3 Schick Quattro Razors with 4 refills 1.74 each
2 rolls of Scott Paper towels .60 each
4 Campbells soup at hand .25 each
4 Campbells soup bowls .25 each
1 box of Totinos Pizza Rolls FREE
4 Tubes of Aqua Fresh Tooth paste .25 each
Zatarains Jamabalya FREE
2 Cans of Peanuts 1.00 each
5 12 packs of A&W 2.00 each
Softsoap FREE

Grand Total $25.22 Considering I spent $10 on Rootbeer, I think I did pretty well. Not every week has such treasures but it's fun to hunt for them. If you are considering trying the grocery game make sure to tell them I referred you. I use the email sew4me1973@yahoo.com
www.thegrocerygame.com You can get a 4 week free trial. But I recommend saving coupons for at least 4 weeks before you try the free trial. It works much better that way and you will see results. Good Luck and let me know if you become a fellow Gamer!

LOL (Laugh Out Loud)

Who needs a "Tickle me Elmo" when you can have a real live "Tickle me Rocket?"

Crabs Anyone?

This summer we went crabbing not once but twice. The most recent being this past labor day weekend. For those of you who don't know the crabbing technique it can be really tricky. There are several crucial steps to take in order to make crabbing a success.

1. Drive to the grocery store and find the cheapest pieces of raw meat. (This usually turns out to be Chicken necks. Yes, in Louisiana they sell a whole pack of just chicken necks)
2. Pile in the car at 6:00 a.m. Drive to designated crabbing spot. (Literally the side of a road where you just pull over, Sometimes you see other people and say," Hey they look like they're catching something let's stop here)
3. Tie chicken necks to a long piece of cotton string. Throw the neck into the ditch, I mean body of water.
4. Wait, Wait, Wait...... Feel something nibbling..... Pull in the line
S L O W
5. Gain the assistance of fellow crabber to help with the net. (This step can be done solo but if you have help they get to share in the victory as well)
6. Pull the net up and HOLLER "I GOT ONE" or two if you're extra lucky.....

Now this may seem a little primitive and I guess it is. It's one of those things you can actually see your forefathers doing in order to survive. However they probably didn't drive the kids an hour south in the car with a DVD player and pull up in the swap in a SUV.

Still, there is great satisfaction in "catching" your own supper. We took the crabs back to Nana's House and boiled them that evening. The first time we went the crabs were much bigger than last weekend. Probably because it was earlier in the season. But the size doesn't matter it's the fun that counts. We had a couple of gator sightings along the way. They were actually right along the road both times unfortunatley (or fortunatley) they were dead. Victims of a hit and run. The alligators actually live in the ditches that you crab in. It seems like when I was a kid I saw a lot more gators there. Makes me wonder if it has something to do with the hurricanes.
We had a great time and I had not done this since I was a kid. During Labor Day we went crabbing with our Aunt Joyce, my cousin Amy and her son Gabe. Gabe is Kaylee's age and it was so fun to watch Kaylee and Gabe actually catch a crab together. Just the two of them. The other fun thing to watch was when Amy(who is my age) FELL into the water. She lost her flip flop in the mud but David came to the resuce with a net and found it. She provided much entertainment for the morning.

Adnoids, Flu and a not so royal Princess

This week was suppose to have played out totally different. Last week Trent saw an ENT doctor for his snoring. Zane and Kaylee kept telling me he snored "Really LOUD" But it wasn't until our summer vacation when we all slept in the same room together that I realized they were not exaggerating. He can really raise the roof. The doctor says that he needs his adnoids removed and his tonsils are large for his age so might as well remove those at the same time to avoid problems in the future. The surgery was set for Tuesday but due to some insurance issues I had to postpone the surgery for a couple weeks. It turned out to be a good thing...

About 30minutes after postponing the surgery I began to feel tired, achey and feverish. My temperature went from normal to 102 in an hour. I had horrible chills, uncontrollable shaking and had to crawl up the stairs. David arranged for our wonderful friend Emily to watch Mia and Trent while he took me to the doctor. But there was just one problem, I couldn't stand up. Finally the fever broke enough that I was able to get to the doctor's office. I was sure there was something VERY seriously wrong with me and he told me "You have the FLU" "Really? the FLU in August?" Apparently it happens. I was relieved but then disappointed because you just have to ride out the flu. OR so I thought......

He gave me a prescription for Tamiflu. It doesn't cure the flu but lessens the symptoms dramatically. This stuff is close to a miracle drug. But it only works if you catch it within the first 36 hours. So it's a good thing I went when I did.

The Grandmas arrived on the scene late that evening to help out with the kids. David had a presentation to do in San Antonio the next day so they took control of the situation. Which leads me to the princess portion. One of my wonderful friends informed me that to have this much help at such short notice entitles me to the title of a princess. At this moment I don't feel like so much of a princess and I can tell you I defintely have not been looking like a princess but I do have to agree that I have wonderful family and friends. And like Kaylee's T-shirt says... "Yes, I am a Princess, my father is the King of Kings."

Mia's Bear

Last year our friends the Davis' gave Mia a gift card to Build a Bear. I wanted to wait until she was old enough to pick out her own bear. So we took a trip to BAB last week. She picked out her bear and a cute little pink velour outfit for it to wear. The bear even got underwear..... 3 years ago while we were on vacation in San Antonio the other kids had gotten to experience "bear making." So, Kaylee and Trent had fun helping Mia get her bear ready to go home.

Introducing Molly the Kitten

Q: What happens when you take 4 kids to the feed store, when someone has just abandoned a bunch of kittens?
A: You end up bringing one home.

I have always been somewhat of a cat person. So when they all asked in unison, "Mommy can we please?" It wasn't a real hard sell. Of course it had to cleared by Dad. So they spent the next 24 hours in negotations with Dad. The real clencher was when Zane made a top 10 list of reasons we NEED a cat. #10 was, if we don't it will be homeless. So off we went the next day to pick up the kitten and all the needed supplies.
She really is cute and seems pretty durable. With 4 kids taking 15 minute turns holding her. I don't think she was put down for the first 3 days except to sleep. Rocket seems OK with her, just likes to smell her and she's OK with him. We couldn't come up with a name so we did an internet search and ran across the top 20 cat names. Zane read through them and liked Molly. It reminded me of the Black Molly tropical fish.

One year reunion

It's hard to believe it's been a year since we returned home from China. To mark the occassion we gathered in Tennessee with several of the other families to have a reunion. 7 families made it and there were 26 of us total. We rented an8 bedroom cabin and spent 3 days in the mountains.

We tried to get a group shot but we had exactly 2 seconds before the tears began to flow and they began bolting from the couch. Pictured above are: Christa, Rebekah, Mia, Juliana, Mia C, Grace, Tenley



One of our outings for the reunion was to an exotic petting zoo. The kids had fun holding and feeding the goats and animals. There were deer, camels, zebras, Zonkies, and peacocks .
We had a great time and even spent a few extra days in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. David and Zane rode the "Wild Wooly" It was a 3 story go cart track with Go-carts that go 40 mph. We also played a little Hillbilly Golf and went to the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg. We even saw a shark fight in one of the tanks. It was the highlight of the aquarium for the kids.

Bliss in the Bluebonnets

For some reason the sign of a good Texan parent is getting wonderful pictures of your children in the Bluebonnets that only bloom once a year in the spring. They will usually last a couple of weeks and then they are gone. Many times people travel miles to find the "perfect" spot. Luckily we found this patch in an empty field on the drive to church. You can see that I was only 50% successful in my picture quest. The sun was really bright so Zane and Kaylee's pictures have squinty eyes in them. The bummer about Bluebonnets is that it's against the law to pick the bluebonnets. A new fact that David informed us about only AFTER Kaylee had picked a huge bouquet for the kitchen table. Needless to say we dropped the flowers and left them to seed more of the field for next year's photo op.

Cruise

Ever since our 10th anniversary David had been "dying" to go on another cruise. The first time we had no idea a cruise would be so relaxing. I think this cruise may possibly have been even more relaxing than the last. We flew to Miami and cruised from there to the Bahamas. The food was great and the weather even better. Our 3 day cruise made 2 stops. The first was a private island owned by Royal Caribbean called Coco Cay. We were a little skeptical about the whole "private island" but it was wonderful. The only people on the island were from our cruise ship. They ferried lunch over to the island so you didn't have to leave to eat.
The objective of the day was to "relax" As you can see David mastered that quite quickly. We also walked in the water and found Conch shells, sea cucumbers, and sand dollars. The water was so clear you could see the bottom several feet deep. (Just like Galveston and Holly Beach, yeah right)

The second stop was in Nassau, Bahamas. We took an excursion to snorkel with the Manta Rays. There were 26 rays in the water. We were also able to feed them. What a neat experience.
That's not me in the bikini. (news flash!) I couldn't figure out how to photoshop my head on her body. Oh well, I had fun any way.
A street in Nassau Bahamas. There were lots of shops and places to spend money. The ship docked on Monday morning and our flight back did not leave until late that evening. Royal carribean offered an excursion to the Florida everglades. We thought it would be fun to ride an airboat and see the Everglades.


Our airboat guide. (Kind of a Salty lookin fella) But he was a great guide and had several of the animals trained to come up to the boat, even the alligators
Other than a few akwardly placed sunburn patches (you know you can't get the sunscreen everywhere) it was a wonderful and relaxing vacation . The kids had a great time at Nana and Paw Paw's. We may owe them a cruise now after watching the kids.

It's a Boy!!!

Saturday we welcomed in the newest member of the Walling Family. As an early Valentine's day gift to everyone I brought home a yellow lab as a surprise. No one knew he was coming except me. I can't believe I kept it a secret. Well I told lots of my friends, but none of the kids or David knew. David has been wanting a dog for quite some time. The plan for the last year or so was that when we returned from our China trip last summer we would get a dog. Well, life happened and we are just now feeling settled in again enough to take on this endeavor.

To say the kids were excited is an understatement. Zane keeps saying he just can't believe we really have a dog. He was pinching himself yesterday just to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

Kaylee thinks he's a baby and carries him most places. But he doesn't seem to mind and it probably won't be long until he will be heavier than her anyway. Trent and Mia are adjusting and are content to pet him when he's sleeping.

Zane named him Rocket and everyone likes the name and it just seems to fit him. Mia has even learned the phrase "No, Rocket" when he was trying to see what she was eating. He's a really cutie!

Picking Flowers

Mia is growing and changing so quickly. Her vocabulary is amazing. We were trying to count all the words she know and we couldn't keep track and she is only 19 months old. Kaylee took her doll from her and Mia said "NO!, My Baby" Maybe being the 4th child and smallest she has learned quickly to defend herself. But she is so sweet when she says "Thank You Mommy." Our friends the Salazars are in China right now adopting a little girl. Her name is Lan and she is one day younger than Mia. We can't wait to see her, they live very close to us as well. They set up a blog also www.lansadoption.blogspot.com In case you want to check it out.

Merry Christmas 2005

I usually do some type of newsletter for Christmas but this year I just couldn't get it together. So some people who despise those types of generic letters may be feeling relieved. I on the other hand LOVE those letters. It lets me feel connected with people I don't get to see as often as I would like. In fact, last night we returned home from a visit with the grandparents and after we opened presents and got the kids to bed I sat down to go through a week's worth of mail. I was so excited there were cards and letters to read, I sat for an hour looking at photos and catching up on friends around the country. (so if you write one of those letters, send it over, it will be appreciated here)
The kids had a great Christmas. Santa came through for everyone even for Kaylee at the 11th hour with her order of FLOAM. Then after opening the purple container she took one pinch out and said "uuhhh" and hasn't touched it since. Maybe she will feel differently in a few days.
Zane had a great run with new SPY toys. I guess he is beginning his career early in the CIA. He cannot have one of those jobs where he says," Mom I can't tell you exactly what I do, it's all classified. " I would go absolutley nuts. Trent had fun opening presents as well but kept saying, "Mom, can we keep it?" I'm wondering do I normally make him take things back? Mia loved all the presents and kept saying "open" any time she saw one. She loaded up on Dora toys that she calls "backpack" She can also say "Oh, MAN!" any time she swiper the fox.
OK my .02 about toys this year..... Is it just me or have toy makers gone over the top on trying to keep things in boxes. I cannot believe the amount of wire twist ties I've undone in the last 2 days. Plus Trent had a little $2 Dollar General car and it had to have 2 screws removed from the bottom of the cardboard. If they had left the screws off they could have marked the toy $1.50. So maybe they're not trying to keep all the parts together just keep things from getting stolen. I don't know?
Seriously though, our greatest present this year has been the opportunity to adopt. We have truly seen God work in our lives and in the lives of our children. He has blessed us beyond measure. Steven Curtis Chapman said in a concert we heard that "adoption is the heartbeat of God" I can testify that is Truth. Mia has melded into our family so perfectly that we know she was intended to be our child. Won't it be great one day to see God's full plan first hand? I can't wait!
We look forward to 2006 with great anticipation.
(Well, look at that I just wrote my letter anyway)

Here is Trent with A broken leg. Zane has bounced
him to high on the trampoline last last Friday.He came down funky and the minuete he landed and he screamed.

Posted by ZANE

Shark Tails

Pretty Pink Poodle

Ninja Power

Tricks and Treats

The Halloween that almost wasn't.... We couldn't decide what to do. The sky got pitch black and it began to rain and lighntning. But we have had these costumes for far to long to let them go unused. So we had dinner and then it finally quit raining enough to make a break for the car and try to get to the church around the corner where we heard they were having their carnival inside. Mia was so cute in her little lady bug costume. She was a big hit everywhere we went. But Trent's costume drew the most attention. He was the cutest little shark. His costume had it's own little fan and motor to keep him inflated. The kids had a great time at the carnival and scored lots of candy. The funniest moment all night happened early in the evening. Kaylee and Zane had finished eating dinner and began getting their costumes on. Trent was still in his clothes from pre-school so I said, "Trent, go ahead and take your clothes off." He stood there so serious and asked,"Are we going trick or treating NAKED?"

Check back soon and I will try to get pics of everyone else up soon.

Happy Halloween




This is my favorite picture ever (well, so far anyway)

Back Home

We returned home safely to find everything in tact except all our food from the deep freeze and refrigerator. Thankfully, I had not done my once a month cooking last month. Loosing that many meals could have sent me over the edge. Even though we are all alright I think a lot of people suffered from some strange Hurricane syndrome, including me. It seemed like it took forever to get back into the swing of things. Our parents fared about the same with only minor damage to their roofs. Everyone I have talked to in the Lake Charles area says it looks like a war zone there. Trees down everywhere. We think it was no coincidence though that not one tree fell on my parent's street. Right before we all evacuated one mom's neighbors told us that they were not evaucating and that she and her mom had walked their street and prayed over all the houses and people living in them. The power of prayer.