My New Car!

I get to pick up my new car today!! We decided that friends really shouldn't let friends drive a Chevy and are trading the Yukon in.

I'm happy to be getting another Ford. We still have my diesel pickup (to pull the camper), and Jeff's to work out of. This will be the family's car.

It's an Expedition EL. Seats 8 in nice leather seats, with a DVD player, a sun roof and Sirius Radio. Four wheel drive, of course. Our dealership didn't have any instock exactly how we wanted it, so they found one 450 miles away in Oklahoma. The guy should be delivering it this morning and we are supposed to pick it up this afternoon. Sweeeeet!

We test drove a couple. The thing I hate about my Yukon (other than the fact it's made by GM) is that it drives like a car. A car that makes horrible road noise down any road, but especially a dirt road. My new one drives like a truck. Not a big truck, but certainly not a car. And it's quiet. Now, I like my trucks loud, but not on the inside.

Can't wait to bring it home!

Growing up

Signs your child is growing up:

• You have her kill the wasps in the house for you (because you are too scared to do it yourself)
• She unloaded the dishwasher by herself, without prompting from me
• She figured out how to sign herself up for a Yahoo account (by lying about her age). This also got her a grounding from computer for a month
• She can pop her own popcorn
• She is begging to watch Nightmare on Elm Street (which I of course told her absolutely NOT!)
• She can reach the pedals on the pickup and still see over the steering wheel (she can also start it, which is very helpful on cold mornings)
• And she can drive the front-end loader in the field to help daddy stack hay
• She is talking to her friends on the phone now.
• She borrowed some of my clothes for her Halloween costume
• I go thru her friend's hand-me-downs first for myself before passing them on to her
• I go shoe shopping with her, because she is already trying to raid my closet

sniff, sniff. Yes, she is growing up. Picture is Shelby, age 10, this past Halloween. Dressed up as Hermoine Granger from Harry Potter.

Happy Birthday, Drew!!

Well, his birthday was yesterday, but we were busy all day. So, here is his birthday announcement.

I haven't downloaded the pictures from his party last night, so here are some pictures looking back at him over these last two years:

My lumpy headed child. 9lb, 3oz. This picture was taken at 4am. I had finally gotten him to sleep when the nurse bounded in all happy, flipped on the lights, and declared, "It's time for baby's picture!!". I almost strangled her.

3 weeks old. The lumpy head was better now. Not too traumatized after we were evacuated from our home the week before when our big fire happened.

Happy and 1!!!

Age 2.

Family pictures, 2007

Finally got our church directory pictures back from Olan Mills. I'm pretty happy about the way they turned out. Everyone has a decent smile, even me. And especially Chance and Shelby. Chance's is usually a stiff closed mouth grin, Shelby likes to be goofy for the camera. Drew just takes the cake though. He LOVES to have his pictures taken! Guess he's just used to it since his mother takes it all the time! LOL!

Ice and snow Storms, 2007

My Mother-in-law has asked me for pictures on CD for her collection, so I was going through some pictures from last year to delete the really blurry ones, or the ones of the carpet that somehow are taken, etc.

And I came across pictures from our snow storm last year. Well, first it was an ice storm. Then a few days later the snow came. Thought I would share them.

It doesn't seem possible that we get that kind of weather here. Especially since the last few days have been close to 80. We have seen Christmas day in the 70's one year, then with a foot of snow the next. Then with a foot of SAND another. You never know what the weather in New Mexico will be like the next day. LOL!

Click on pictures for a larger one.

My pecan trees covered in ice

It LOOKS like a winter wonderland. But this is only ice. The temp was around 10F. Yes, it was COLD!

More ice

Here is the beginning of the snow a few days later. That's the kids four-wheeler

Snow the next morning

And that afternoon when it finally quit.

Late October Pictures

Time for some pictures, again. At least there are some good subjects to look at.

Here is skinned up Drew. The day before we were at our school's Varsity football game (we won, BTW). I was coaching cheerleaders and told him to get down off the rail of the bleachers. Well, he did, but not the way he intended. He fell 4 feet to the ground below and landed on his feet, then fell over onto the track. Got a good knot on his head and a few scrapes, but within about 15 minutes, he was after a lady's Cheetos.

This is how we usually see Jeff anymore: on the cell phone taking care of business.

Drew trying to start my four-wheeler

Then he decided the kids' one would be a better fit.

Halloween night. That's Spiderman, a witch, Hermione Granger (from Harry Potter), and a giraffe.

I know this isn't one of my kids, but I had to post a pic of a kid in Ch'ree's class. His parents usually keep his hair pretty short. But this year it has been a bit on the long side. Well, Halloween he showed up to school with the top of his head BALD. He said he was an old man, but I thought he looked like Ron Howard with all that red hair. Ch'ree said on Thursday they shaved the rest of his head. When I mean shaved, I don't mean buzzed. I mean, NO HAIR AT ALL. LOL!

Halloween was fun. After partying at school all day, we came home to drop off bookbags and get into costumes if they weren't already. Then we met Jeff in town at 5:15 for some Pizza Hut buffet. This year, we decided to try a different neighborhood. One thing about living in the country is that there isn't a place to go door-to-door trick or treating. So we invade a neighborhood. In the past we have parked at the ENMU dorms and walked across the street to the houses there, then go back to the dorms and attend a haunted house and trick or treating in there. But the last couple of years the haunted house was really lame, and candy not that great (the only chocolate they got last year was a mini snickers each).

So this year, we invaded Cannon Meadows, aka base housing. I thought the people were much nicer, and the candy was better (that is, more chocolate!). It was really neat, and I thank the servicemen and their families who hopefully didn't mind us country folk invading them. After that we went to the nursing home, where the residents there handed out candy in the hall. They were happy to have us there. Jeff saw his Aunt Maggie there and chatted with her for a bit. Chance's teacher was there visiting her parents, so we visited with her and her family as well.

And of course on the way home we have to stop by the inlaws and get homemade popcorn balls and more snickers. It was a late night getting home and the kids weren't too happy about going to school in the morning. LOL!