Back at it

We are back at gymnastics this week. We haven't been since before Christmas break. Gymnastics was closed throughout Christmas and then we forgot to go a few times and then with Covid it's just been alot. This past Monday we headed into gymnastics, and you could tell she was definitely back in her element. 

She had told me and Justin that she wants to win an award for being the best gymnast! I told her if she sticks to it, she could win the ultimate gold metal award at the Olympics! 

She was front and center the entire time really paying attention to her coach and you could tell she was really trying her little heart out.

They practiced crab walks, the trampoline, tumbles and even the balance beam. All while having a big smile on her face, having fun and making sure I was watching her :)

An Adventureful Day

 Sunday Jolee, Jewell and I walked around the neighborhood selling Girl Scout cookies. Jolee was SO excited. We packed up the wagon with all the cookies and headed out. While we were selling cookies, Jaina had went to a sleep over at her friend's Kristin's house. Kristin's mom took them to go shopping for Valentine dresses for the upcoming Valentine's dance at school.

We went door to door and sold a bunch of cookies. She told each customer all about the brand new cookie called the Adventurefuls, how much they were for each box and what the money was going towards. This year part of the money will go towards their end of the year trip to Seaworld. Jewell rode in her red push car and told everyone Hi and Merry Christmas! LOL

We had alot of fun and (I think she enjoyed selling by herself without her older sister being there)

The neighbors were all so excited to see her and buy. We made it to the end of our road before she got tired and wanted to come back home. 

She Shoots, She Scores!

Jolee has really been enjoying basketball this season. She has improved greatly since the last time she played which was a few years ago. At practice she works hard and is always having fun. She's always got a big smile on her face. During her games she gets nervous and sometimes is a little lost but still looks like she's having a great time.

Last weekend they had a game and only 5 girls showed up which meant she had to play the entire time. She actually did really good, and they only lost by one point. The best part was someone passed her the ball and she went for it and made a goal! We were all so excited for her! Even the other parents were excited for her. After the game was over, I told her how proud I was of her and she said "Mom, I didn't know what to do so I just went for it and threw the basketball in the hoop". She has one more game left next weekend and then the season will be over. I'm so glad she chose to play something that she wanted to and has had a lot of fun at it this year. Way to go Jolee!

Future Eagle right here!

Hyundai Santa Fe

So, this happened! I finally got a car.

Let's start from the beginning with my GMC Acadia. I bought the Acadia back in 2016 when my Trailblazer transmission was fixing to go out. I loved my Trailblazer and had it for 10 years. It was a great suv for having a family of 4 at the time. I had it paid off and had no car payment for 5 years. It was great. Then in 2016 I was pretty much forced to move on and get something new, I had my eyes on the Acadia. I got pretty much everything in this SUV that I wanted. It's been a great car. It's taken us on many, many out of state road trips and even brought Jewell home in this car. But this summer Arizona broke her. She couldn't go any further after that trip. She had 150,000 miles and too many problems to get fixed. It was time to move on. I really didn't want to. I was so disappointed. I only had a few months left to pay on it and this is the absolute worst time in history to buy a vehicle. Once I made my mind up, I started looking. But the problem was new cars are hard to come by because no one has them on their lots and used vehicles are at an all-time high of atleast 28,000. So, I was kinda stuck and in a bind. On top of it having to be 3 rows and an SUV since we have 3 kids it was hard to find something.

Before we ended up sick, I did go to several car dealerships looking at cars. Every time I went, I wasn't impressed, it cost too much, or the dealership was being shady. I did my homework and knew better then to get trapped into some salesman's pitch. So, I started looking online, I thought about Carvana but that was a disaster and found out later that they do shady business. Then I ended up finding something along the lines of what I wanted at Carmax but it was in North Houston, so I ended up having them transfer it up here before I got sick. 

After my quarantine time was over I went over to the dealership and picked it up for an overnight test drive.

It is a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe. It seats 6. Has bucket seats and leather seats. I found over the years having leather seats with 3 kids is the only way to go. 

I will also have to say this vehicle is ALOT smaller and way narrower than my Acadia and there is basically no trunk space but given the situation this was really the best that I could find because my car was on its last leg.

At first, I was sad about the change but over the last week of driving it I have really learned to like it. It has so many bells and whistles on it that I don't even know what half of them mean. The space is fine. The girls actually have lots of leg room and I keep the third-row seats down when there not being used so I have more trunk space. 

Overall, I think it will be just fine to get us through the next few years and who knows it might end up being Jaina's first car when she starts driving and then I can end up getting something different. 

At first Jaina was calling it a grandma car because it was a "basic white old lady car".

But after she found out what all the bells and whistles were about, she said she really likes it now, lol. Whatever, LOL. 

And Carmax was awesome. The people that work there are not salesman. They work on hourly wages not commission so there was no pressure at all. It was just signing paperwork, trading in my Acadia and driving my new car off the lot. Overall, I'm glad this experience is done and over with! 

School's..... out for....Omicron

I returned back to work today, and the girls headed back to school. It's great to be back out in the real world even if that means wearing a mask for 8 hours. I'm ok with that. Actually, we only have to wear them if customers come in, the customers in the back don't count LOL.

Jewell is masking up at home as well, ha! She's trying to dodge all the Omicron that's going around, lol.

She's such a hoot!

She will randomly pick up things around the house like this and put it on and come show us. She thinks she's cute! Well, I think she's cute too :)

And continuing with Omicron Salado ISD shut down all three schools today for the rest of the week. I got a notification while I was a work. Over 100 kids have tested positive in the last week at school and there are so many teachers and other staffing out because of Covid the schools can't keep up. So, they are out of school for another week. I swear these kids get more time off from school then I do at work, ha! It's supposed to get really cold on Thursday. Good thing I am off from work cause we will all be snuggled in for the day. 

The girls painting rocks. Jolee got a rock painting kit for Christmas and got it down tonight and went to town painting with Jewell. I love seeing them play together. 

Omicron

 Jewell says yay for 2022!

Update I was going to post this last week but decided I would wait. I didn't want anyone to panic.

We are all at home sick. I can't really tell if it's the new Omicron covid or not. All the testing sites are booked until atleast the 18th and by that time we will have started feeling better. Justin was sick last week but tested negative. Then when I came home from work last Sunday night Jaina and Jolee were complaining of a sore throat and Jaina had a temp. Even though I was feeling fine we all stayed home from work and school Monday. Good thing I stayed home, I felt terrible Monday, I had body aches, heart racing, breathing fast, major fatigue, major headache and a sore throat. Jolee seemed to be fine and Jewell never acted sick. Jaina was still running a temp and felt pretty crummy. So we are socially distancing ourselves for a few days and not going anywhere. Omicron is running in full swing here and a ton of kids have it at school. Tuesday Jaina and I stayed home and were feeling all the signs of a common cold. But something inside me told me we needed to go get tested but of course all the testing sites were full so Justin told us to come by the fire station. We tested and mine came back positive and Jaina's came back inconclusive. So I made that phone to my boss. He then told me to stay home the rest of the week. The CDC recommends 5 days of isolation. So that's what we did. We canceled all activities for the week and didn't go anywhere. By Wednesday Jaina was completely fine and I was feeling much better. The test did not tell us whether we had the new Omicron it just tells you if you are positive or not. But I have a feeling it was the new strand because this really was like a normal cold not like Covid from last year. Today we made a trip back to the fire station and I tested negative. So all is good. I can return back to work this week. No Covid, no symptoms and we are back to normal. Whatever we had sure did come on quick and left as quickly as it came. And this is why January is my least favorite month. We always get sick this time of year and my allergies are out of control. Let's hurry on to March!

Cheers to 2022 starting off on the right foot! LOL

Daddy hugs are the best especially when you’re not feeling good!

Things Last Week

This one always keeps everyone especially the adult entertained during Girl Scouts. All the parents just thinks she's sooooooo cute! 

And this cutie too!

The girls wanted Whataburger after Scouts last week. We are gearing up for cookie season. It will be here in just s few days so they definitely need to fuel up with all those carbs for all the door to door knocking they are going to be doing.  

Last week I started taking down some of my stuff at my desk at our Temple office. Since I won't be there as much and will be working at other locations it's only right to give up my desk to other Directors. Guess I'll be a nomad.

I took down my inspirational quotes. These all about me, to keep me going, that fits my personality and something to reflect on when having a bad day. 

Rusty is such a sweet cat. I never hear him growl or hiss. His every even tempered and when he doesn't want to be bothered he just walks away. He likes to sleep between me and Justin or on the girls bed. 

See he's annoyed but usually just takes it, lol

We love Rusty :)

Sledding into 71

 For Allie’s birthday this year we had decided to go to a small  town about an hour and a half away called Hico. We were going to explore the town, go shopping and eat at their pie restaurant. But as we were on our way my car was making some really bad noises and I didn’t feel very comfortable driving all the way there with a bad transmission.So we decided to turn around and headed back towards Lampasas. Lampasas is about 45 minutes away from home so I felt a lot better being closer to home in case my car broke down. We were starving so we went to the nearest restaurant as soon as we got into town.

We stopped and tried a new place called Bill’s Burgers

Y’all this is one of the best burgers I think I’ve ever had. They were so good, like amazingly good.

After we were done eating we headed to the downtown area and walked the square and went into a couple of shops.

We had fun looking around at the shops.

They still had all of their Christmas decorations up in their square so we stopped and took some photos

Then we headed to Putters and Gutters for a round of mini golf.

I kept score while Allie and the girls played

Even Jewell played a little bit but really just wanted to throw her ball in the water

Halfway through the game I had to call it quits on the scorekeeping and go inside because my allergies were so bad I couldn’t even breathe. It was terrible. I hate this time of the year because the cedar is so bad.

Jaina tallied up the score once they were done and of course Allie won the game and came in first then Jaina then Jolee. Jewell crying when she found out she came in last place LOL!

After a round of mini golf I was feeling so bad from my allergy attack we decided to leave and go get ice cream. 

We made one more pit stop at the city park to take some pictures with their Christmas display Before leaving town.

Allie sledding into 71 like it’s no big deal! 

Hope I’m still this active at 71! 

Then we headed over to Freezing Milk in Killeen. It is one of our favorite ice cream places. But we only go here on special occasions because they are a little bit expensive. It is sweet cream rolled into ice cream. You can get different dessert toppings rolled into the ice cream. It’s a pretty cool experience because you can watch them make your ice cream too and it’s really good. 

They had a claw machine there and Allie gave Jewell a quarter to stick in the machine and she won a stuffed animal cow!! We were shocked and excited for her. No one ever wins out of those machines. 

She loves that little stuffed cow she sleeps with it every night.

Then once we got home Allie opened up his gifts. We gave him a couple of gift cards and the new Beatles book that just came out. He was really excited. He said it was a good birthday well spent.