The big homecoming!

Last night Beau got home, FINALLY!!!! He was traveling for over 24 hours, had a 7 hour lay-over in Baltimore and had a small delay in Dallas. I think they got here at like 9:45 last night, pretty late!

Zoey was so unbelievable excited to see him. She kept hugging him and would NOT let go, it was soooo sweet! She knew him right away and yelled Daddy and ran right up to him. It was really cute.

A lot of people showed up, his supervisor Greg, the Chief, and a few others. It was really nice to see everybody and Beau said he was shocked to see everybody there.

Zoey had a lot of fun helping him get his bags off the luggage thing. She kept telling him that he was sooo strong because he was lifting the heavy bags off of it.

We visited for a little while and then came home. He's in-processing right now and then he's gonna work on his car, it's so nice he's back to take care of these things!!!!! He finds out how much time off he'll get, it's gonna be nice to have a little time to get things done. Next week I get my wisdom teeth out, ugh, so I'm glad he'll be off for that!

Here's us waiting for Daddy to come... Zoey kept saying she was done and she wanted to go home, it was past her bedtime! She was dancing and telling me a story while we waited.

A couple days ago I made Zoey a shirt to wear to pick him up, it turned out better than I thought it would. The front is the green one and the yellow picture is on the back of it. She was excited to wear it!

We made a sign too, I can't believe I gave her glitter glue, she finger-painted over the letters with it... Oh well, she had fun! She would only put purple stars on it and she really wanted to keep the rhinestones to herself... It was fun to make though!

Well, I'm making pork chops and potato salad for supper tonight, it'll be nice for things to get back to normal!! Beau is like in awe of everything... he couldn't wait to go outside this morning to see the grass and trees. He said the sun sets at 6:00 in the evening and rises at 4:30 in the morning in Iraq so it was weird for the sun not to be up at 7:00. He seems glad to be back, and we are sure glad he's home!!!!

Yay for the Zoo!

Yesterday Zoey and I joined the whole Miller bunch for a quick breakfast, then a trip to the zoo! We had a really good time and got to see the new white tiger and the ocelots. The ocelots are a little bigger than a domestic cat and have colorings like a leopard. Their handler was in the place with them and they were running around and playing and being just super adorable. It was kinda rainy and then got super humid but the animals seemed to be out a little bit and the male lion even roared a little for us! That was exciting!

Here's Zoey looking at the "Mingos"...

I curled her hair in spongies again, she asks me almost every night to put them in for her!

When we got to the monkeys, I don't remember which ones, there was one sitting right by the glass and was like "talking" and rubbing his nose on the glass with the kids. It was really cool!

After the zoo we went to Nicole's house and the kids layed down for a nap and I went to get my nails done. Priscilla ended up meeting me and I got a pedicure too! It felt soooo good. Beau's worried I'm going to start getting them all the time too, haha...

It was Nicole's dad's birthday so they went to some fancy place in Buffalo Gap and I watched Jackson. We had a good time playing and I had them go camping in the living room and they watched Peter Pan. It was fun and Zoey always likes it when she has a friend over to play.

Well I hope everyone has a great weekend, I work early tomorrow, I have a consult appointment for my wisdom teeth... I'm so nervous!!!

Luau!

Today was the end of the summer bash, the Luau at the CDC. I took Zoey in early and her class made her a t-shirt to wear. We got out of the car and she saw all the decorations up and heard the music and said, "Oh mama, look, it's a surprise party for me!" I said no it's the Luau, she kept telling me no, it's her birthday party! She's a silly girl...

They had fun stuff, face painting, snacks, a ball toss, fishing, and some Hula Dancers that came last year. They're pretty entertaining.

She had a good time and I liked being there for one of the events, usually I'm working so I don't get down her way to see what they're doing. The flower barrette in her hair is actually one of the ones I wore at my wedding, and she absolutely loved her flower!

Zoey and a couple other kids wanted to swing on the tire swing so Priscilla was pushing them. Oh my goodness, that thing makes me so nervous! I just kept hoping she held on really tight and didn't let go! It made me realize how big she's getting... That kid has no fear!

Wow I sound really bossy on that video!

I made sloppy joes, mashed potatoes, and watermelon for supper tonight. I can't remember the last time I made home-made mashed potatoes and for some reason the ones I made tonight totally hit the spot, they were soooo good! I made Chocolate Malt Cookies for a lunch at work today and they turned out pretty good. I found them on the Betty Crocker website and it was my first time making them. I think the glaze made them a little too sweet but the cookie part was really good. Nothing can beat those sinful cookie bars of Tanna's though!!!

Spongies and sickies...

Monday night after bath I asked the Zomeister if she would sleep in spongies, as I spent half my childhood sleeping in spongies, I figured it's never too soon to start! She agreed, she's such a priss, I think she would do anything for beauty. I told her she had to sleep in them alllll night and not take them out, last time I put them in I checked on her 15 mins after I put her in bed and they were all in a pile on the floor. Needless to say, she kept them in all night and her hair actually stayed really curly! She looked at it in the mirror and said, "Oh mama, I look like Andrew!" I told her yeah, she kinda did.

I messed around with picnik.com and edited one of her pics. It's kinda fun!

At work yesterday I wasn't needed in my regular room so I was different parts of the building and I ended up helping at lunch in the 2 year old room across the hall from Zoey's room. She was throwing a wild-eyed fit, I had to go over there twice to calm her down and try to get her to lay on her mat. She wouldn't lay down, wouldn't listen, was like sobbing all over the place, it wasn't good. She wasn't acting right and she never did take a nap so I was getting pretty worried about her. At 3:15 my boss let me go ahead and leave and take her to the Dr. I took her to the Walk-In Clinic and her O2 stat was 86%!!!! The poor thing couldn't breathe! She has an upper respitory infection and they gave her an antibiotic and a decongestant. They didn't even seem concerned about her O2 and didn't tell me to give her a breathing treatment or anything! I gave her one anyway and ordered pizza and she said she felt much better.

This morning she was still pretty wheezy so I kept her home with me and she's been doing ok. She fought her nap pretty hard, but other than that hasn't been too mean or anything. I don't know why she gets so angry when she gets sick!!!! Hopefully she'll be a little nicer in school now. Well, I'm off to eat some Jell-O Beans and hang out, I think she's going to make me watch some Barbie movie, I can't wait haha!

Good times in Kansas

Zoey and I made it safe and sound back to good 'ol Texas! The trip wasn't too bad and I'm glad I got to visit with everyone! Hopefully I'll get time off in September and Beau will be able to go visit too.

We had such a good time at the Fair. Here's a pic from the top of the Ferris Wheel, which I hate!!! That thing makes me so nervous, but Zoey and the rest of the kids loved it!

The first couple of nights Zoey had fun riding the "kiddie" rides and then we took her on the Tilt-O-Whirl and she looooooved it!!!! She had so much fun and wanted to ride anything that was big or went fast... that girl has no fear!

This is my mom telling Zoey that she absolutely cannot get out of the boats or mess around! She made me nervous on that even! She liked them though...


On Saturday we had the Parade and it made me really miss Beau... last year Zoey and I got to ride with him in the Fire Truck during the parade and it was really special... There's always next year! Zoey had too much fun getting candy while GrannyC helped corral everybody. She made out with quite a bit!

We got all the kids to line up and then of course Meemaw, Nana Kriss, and GrannyC wanted to pose too!

Here's one with Grandpa Von, he handled all the commotion pretty well. Zoey is doing her "Princess" pose, too funny!


And finally one of my favorite pictures of the trip! She's growing up so fast!!!!!

Only a couple more weeks to go before Beau gets home, we are so stinking excited! I can't wait for everything to back to normal again... well, as normal as we ever were I guess!


I'm off to watch The Closer, I love love love that show, she's such a spit-fire...

Parks and Pigs, what fun!

Tuesday evening we had a get together at the South Park for my mom's birthday. It was a lot of fun, everyone came, a friend of my Aunt Cyndee's and a couple of family friends that grew up out by my grandparent's farm. It was so much fun chatting with Heidi and John. Heidi used to be a Fotopoulos and they lived just down the road from my Grandma and Grandpa's farm. I have good memories of her mom Lilly and I found out they all live in Dallas now! We definitely have to get to Dallas and visit everybody, they sure are nice people!

Heidi showed the kids some gymnastic moves, Zoey did a couple somersaults, it really impressed her!

Last night Zoey, Ellie, and Andrew had a slumber party with Cyndee and Dewey. Cyndee has this HUGE pig Susie that we rescued at a gas station in Goodland like 3 years ago. I was pregnant at the time, she was a little tiny baby pig, we think she fell off a pig truck. Well, Cyndee and Dewey kept her and made her a pen and now she is absolutely huge, and soooo cute! She seems to smile, it's weird, and we fed her lots of weeds, she loved them! Zoey didn't know what to think of Susie and she wouldn't get too close. I think she's big, I can't imagine how big she looked from Zoey's point of view!

Tonight's the first night of the Fair. We're excited, Zoey's taking a good nap right now and we'll be ready for lot's of fun! Hope everyone has had a wonderful week!

Kansas fun!

Well, we made it to Kansas!!!! We had a super trip, we only stopped twice and made it in 8 hours and 5 minutes... Zoey and Cupid took the trip pretty well. Haha!

Zoey's having tons of fun with Nana and Papa, plus all of her cousins, Jessie, Chisum, Andrew, Ellie and Savannah! We went out and looked at Tanna's new house and Zoey helped Tanna measure her bathroom for something. Today they did a lot of the electrical work and put the stairs in. It's really an amazing process, I told Tanna she needs to be a master at this so in 20 years when Beau and I want to build a house they can be our mentors!

I lined the kids up, oldest to youngest. This is actually in Tanna's soon to be pantry off of her kitchen!

The girls went with Becky to a wedding so Andrew came over to play and we went to the new South Park. They have added some awesome equipment and put in a frisbee golf course too. I can't believe how nice it is, the whole community has done a lot of work!

Mom's eye is doing pretty good, she had her surgery on Wednesday. She had a Dacryocystorinostomy. Impressive, huh? They created a new tear drain, hers has been blocked for like 10 years. It's black and blue and she said every time she bends over her face might fall off, but not too bad!

She braided my hair the other day, I miss her doing my hair!!! I always had my hair in curlers or braids or something. It was just nice to have her brush it and mess with it... Zoey got some perm rods put in too, she took them out too soon so it didn't curl too much, but it did a little.

Today we got all gussied up for Sunday School and Church. It was really fun, Zoey had a blast singing songs and the sermon was really good. I think it's something we need to continue, we had a good time!

Well, I better go see what Zoey and Papa are up to, Mom just came in and said she was on the floor with the dogs and barking at Papa and he was feeding her chips! Really nice Papa!

Big G's

Last night Priscilla and Landon, Nicole and Jackson, and Zoey and I headed to Tuscola, TX, population 714, to eat the most amazing hamburgers ever! When Nicole was telling us about Big G's she said that when we got there we couldn't look around too much and we would forget how it looked when we got our food. Needless to say, I think Priscilla and I were like what the heck kind of place is this! It was packed, with a couple of window air conditioners to cool the place and we got a table waaaay in the back corner. Next thing we knew, the people sitting next to us started smoking!!!! I think this is like the last place in the United States that you can still smoke indoors! It was really hot and the smoke was getting bad so when I took Zoey to the potty I saw there was a big table up front out of the smoke, I asked the waitress if we could move and they said sure! It was sooo much better after that and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Jackson and I had to take a picture because we had matching shirts!

We had burgers and some really good pie, they looked so good I wanted to take them all home!

Here's a link from a newspaper article they did on it, it's a really cute place! I recommend it if anyone is in our neck of the woods!

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/nov/25/thats-good-eatin-1/

There was a shark hanging from the ceiling with a hand in it's mouth and Zoey wasn't really to sure what to think of it. She told me this morning that the shark shouldn't have had a hand in it's mouth it was mean... it's so funny what she remembers sometimes!

We headed back to good ol Abilene, it's only like 10 minutes away from Tuscola, and stopped at Priscilla's house and let the kids play on the swing set for a while then we headed home. After I got home my neighbor Ashley and I sat on the porch and visited and had a great time!

The other day I got Zoey a cheap princess set at K-Mart, came with a crown, necklace, clip-on earrings, and a ring. She looooves it! She's been wearing it all the time when we are at home and just acts like such a princess! I accidentally stepped on her ring the other day and broke it and she got very very upset with me! She huffed and puffed around and frowned at me and kept telling me, "Mommy, I'm very mad at you!" Then she'd walk out of the room and come back and huff and say, "Oh look at my ring, it's broken!" She was pretty ticked and she still talks to me about how I broke her ring. After a while I convinced her it was an accident and she's not mad anymore, but it was so hard not to laugh at her, she was really mad!

Well, we're going to maybe go swimming with the Hopper's again this afternoon and I've been working on Farmtown, my new addiction! It's so dumb, but so fun to play! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!