Picking Up

     I started this blog as a record of my kiddos life and their childhood. I wanted them to be able to go back and read things that I wrote. Now 3 years have passed. I forgot passwords. Life got busy. But none of that matters because here we are and I am ready. I looked at my last entry and I was complaining about work due to all the claims I was dealing with because of hurricane Harvey. Tonight we are waiting on a category 4 hurricane, Laura. I don’t particularly care for her presence or her name...a hurricane named after our precious Nana. It’s not going to hit Houston directly, but there will be some affects felt here. 

     In 3 years Jaxon has made it to 6 years old and Kenley to 13. They have started kindergarten and 8th grade respectively during a worldwide pandemic. I never believed I would live through a pandemic, much less guide my children through one. Spring Break began last year like normal. It was preceded my birthday and an extremely busy time of year. Rodeo rolls around during spring break and I am always juggling volunteer shifts at rodeo and caring for the kids. Kenley has gotten to the age where her and her friends want to attend concerts. Jax wants to go and see the animals and the rodeo. I was petrified of the schedule when we returned from the break. Jax had soccer and swim. Kenley was playing basketball at 2 leagues and was running track. She was preparing for the State Tournament in Valparaiso, IN. We were smack in the middle of confirmation with the service approaching in April. I was planning the party. Garrett works out of town in Austin full time. At this time I am a single mom and Norma retired fully. I choose to believe that God intervenes. There was no way I was going to be able to handle that schedule. I had asked my mother-in-law to come and help full time. However, with less than 5 days notice, the United States shut down. Everyone, with the exception of essential workers were quarantined to there homes. This lasted until July. This was due to the Coronavirus. The rodeo was cancelled, school, the tournament, soccer, swim and confirmation-all cancelled. 

I posted this to Facebook today. I have really been struggling with what everyone posts to their Facebook accounts. Most of it is not a true account of themselves and they are portraying an image that they want people to perceive. I do my best to put my true self on Facebook and an adequate image of our family. I mean really who are they trying to fool? They're 589 friends? I have 298 friends. I see most of them or talk to them regularly. I know this because I started a new account and was very picky about who I let on to my new one. I didn't want anyone who was on the new account to be shocked at what they saw. I could post using words I commonly use in conversation, I could mention casually political views, I could use my form of sarcasm and humor and nobody would be offended.

Every morning we wake up at about 5:45 am Garrett rushes out the door to work, there is usually no kiss and just a hurried I love you as he is trying to beat the traffic and is already in work mode. He does make my coffee every single morning and I love him each day more and more for that. This gives me 1 hour and fifteen minutes before I see Jax come downstairs demanding something. I usually smoke and drink my coffee and make lunches. Yes, you see I smoke. Judge if you want...I don't really care, because you see I am honest. I also check Facebook, Instagram and delete any spam crap emails. 7 am comes and I make sure Kenley is up and moving. She either has jogging club or choir depending on the day. I make sure she has some kind of breakfast and has on deodorant (I am really against her being the smelly kid), This leaves me one hour to get myself and Jaxon ready for school. I do his hair every morning, he eats his breakfast, which can range from oatmeal to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and again I don't care...at least he eats. We also take a picture every morning for Garrett's mom who is currently living in Montana, we have only forgotten 1 time! I send it to my parents too, because they are usually out of town at the lake.


I drop him off at school, and I am really "astonished" by all the mom's there that are dragging in strollers clogging up the hallways just to drop off a kid that takes about 3 minutes or less. Carry the baby! Somebody seems to always stop and say how handsome Jaxon is, this is also weird because they don't seem to do their kids hair or much less get it cut. I find this whole situation very odd. But none the less, I bolt and I am on the way to work. I usually call a friend on the way to work. Let's be honest we gossip.

Work is work...right now its a bit frustrating because I am dealing with a lot of claims from Hurricane Harvey and nobody is happy. I can't make them happy so I just get yelled at. I like my new work environment, I am around people and that is awesome! I usually leave between 4:30 and 5 depending. Wednesdays I do carpool for cheer, which is long and annoying. I wish the kids could Uber, but apparently that might be illegal.


Personally I am dealing with a lot of weight gain. They finally figured out it is linked to a medication that I am taking due to some depression I was experiencing 6-8 months ago. We are working on a solution and hopefully it will start coming off with a little hard work. Again, honesty. I struggled with depression and now with my weight. I am very upset about the weight gain, as y'all know I lost over 100 pounds and I have gained about 50 pounds back. It's not good and I have a mighty challenge ahead of me. I haven't been spinning either, because I just couldn't find the time. With Garrett working in the med center his hours are longer due to the traffic. However, he is committed to being home so I can go to spin.

Kenley switched schools this year and is in public school. She begged us to let her switch, she wasn't connecting with the kids at the private school, she begged for 2 years. We finally gave in. She is very happy and has already met a wonderful friend. Spencer, our neighbor, goes with her too now. They ride their bikes to school which is awesome! She seems extremely happy at her new school. She is still doing cheer, she's at Woodlands Elite and is on Delta Force a Senior 4 Coed team. Reese is on the team with her and her other friend Taylor's brother Javen is with her too. The other teammates are mostly in High School, which is kind of scary. We felt comfortable with her being on the team because she at least had two people she knew. Kenley is very mature and tender hearted. She is learning how to navigate through life and friends. She easily forgets to do things she's told, but is so helpful. She is dedicated and loyal and honors her commitments. She will do well in life.


We switched Jaxon to a different preschool. I wasn't happy with the one he attended last year. They didn't have the structure we believe he needs to be successful. He is very happy at his new school and didn't cry on the first day and begs to go each day. He goes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We are looking into a soccer program for him to start in the Spring. He can sometimes be challenging, but I see his maturity sometimes. He says bad words, which I have no idea where he gets from? We are working on that. So far he hasn't used them at school, thank God! He is very independent and wants to do everything himself, Garrett has a hard time letting him exercise these skills. I struggle with him talking so much. He is also very demanding. On the other hand he is extremely loving, he is sweet hearted and very smart. I just love him to pieces.

Garrett is busy. He is just busy and inundated with work. He is building Memorial Herman a new building, I don't know what it is and I don't ask. He is also busy with Cranes. He and his phone have a special relationship. LOL! He is considering the possibility of perusing his masters degree. It could start as early as this spring or next fall. We discussed it and think it is better now than when Jaxon gets older and is involved heavily into a sport. We sometimes struggle with all his work responsibilities, but we work through it. He is a hard worker and we are so thankful for that.

An attribute that Garrett and I have is that we can get ourselves into some "stupid shit". Well, we did it again. We went and adopted a dog last weekend. Bentley died this summer from lung cancer, within 30 days of his diagnosis he was gone. We have missed having a big dog, so we decided it was time. We found a dog, the ladies told us that he had been hit by a car during Hurricane Harvey and was healed, but had a follow up appointment with the surgeon. Fast forward to the follow up appointment...and he wasn't "healed". Turns out he was suppose to be kenneled for 6 weeks after surgery and not running, jumping or playing...which he had done with the kids for the week we had him already. I was in total shock! The ladies we adopted him from had not been honest! He had 2 pins put in his leg and they could come out! Dear Lord! Why did we pick the "hit by a car dog"?
We are trying to keep him chilled out and not running, jumping or playing for the next 2 weeks until his x-rays. Please pray for good results!

All about Kenley....

Well she's 9....

So this article is more than appropriate. I've tried to teach her "Please" and "Thank You" and some other common manners and I am quite sure I have failed. One thing I know she knows is that I love her to death and that she is saved by Jesus Christ and she will go to heaven, and what more can I ask for at this point? She's a great big sister. She has several close and dear friends. She's a hard worker and she gives 100% at cheer, at school...well, she puts forth an effort and thank God Garrett and I are smart and it comes pretty easily. This article came across my path last year and it rings so true, please take a moment and read it. No, my job won't be done in 9 years, but in 9 years she'll be setting herself on a path I won't have very much control over. I pray for my blonde everyday. I pray we make the right decisions for her and I pray that her life will be full of love and joy and all the happiness that she could ever wish for! God's blessings to you Kenley on this your first day of your second half! 

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/to-my-daughter-at-halftime_b_6580468.html

School has started!

School is BACK!

Can you imagine? Summer was nice and slow, and we loved it! We spent a week in Montana. We spent a week in Florida. Kenley went to Vacation Bible School and had sleepovers galore. She spent days at Splashtown. Cheer continued on for two days a week. She is on J3 this year and is a flyer again. 

Third grade is REAL school and Kenley is definitely learning to budget her time. She will for sure learn organization and time management this year. Her schedule between cheer, Girl Scouts, and now CHOIR will keep us all on our toes. 

Jax has been going to swim 3 days a week. He is taking his test on Monday, they will be throwing him the pool with all his clothes on to see if he can swim. I will be going, but he won't know I am there. He has been doing really well since Norma starting taking him. He will also start Mothers Day Out two days a week after Labor Day. Hopefully he will enjoy time to play with other kids his age for a couple days a week. 

Father Time

Christmas? That was the last time I posted? Yikes! Father Time ran away with 5 months! 

We have been so incredibly busy. We spent New Years in the Bahamas. It was so relaxing and Jaxon enjoyed his first out of the U.S. vacation. Well, he didn't tell us he did, but I am assuming he did! 

As soon as we returned we spent every weekend of January at a cheer competition. Kenley won many first place jackets this year. Her team was quite successful. They were an extremely talented group of girls. The most thrilling part of competition season was winning in San Antonio, it was Jaxon's one and only out of town cheer competition. Not only did he do fantastic, but Kenley's team was invited to an invitational only cheer competition at Disney World that we competed at May 1-4. They won 3rd place. The first 3 teams had .25 difference between them, which is unheard of! It was amazing! This year cheer took us to New Orleans, San Antonio, Dallas, Disneyland, and Disney World. We returned from Disney World had one day rest and Kenley had tryouts. 

Jaxon is an amazing baby! He turned one! He is mostly...well, let's be real, only speaking Spanish. He started walking, he hasn't mastered it, but in a week or two, he will be off and running. He starts his Infant Swim Rescue classes next week! He already seems to love the pool, so I am excited!

Garrett is finishing up his job at Philips 66 and heading to the Medical Center to build an expansion of the Methodist Hospital. He has also taken a bigger role in the operation of the crane division at Baker Concrete. He's a busy guy. 

I'm still enjoying working and being a full time Mommy. 

Kenley gets out of school next week. I'm not to sure what we have planned for summer. I know we will be going to Montana for a week. I want to spend a week or so with my parents in the country. 

The thing about this year...is that Kenley has been to Disneyland and Disney World and its not even the end of May! We need to rest this summer! 

Here is Kenley and I in the Atlantis Hotel in the Bahamas!

Jax turning 9 months in the Bahmas.

Jax in the pool in the Bahamas!

Jaxon also went to the Galveston competition! 

 

March brought the Rodeo and a busy time for Mommy!! 

Then it brought a trip to L.A. And Jaxon's birthday!

April Kenley turned 8!!

May-Disney World and a huge competition and accomplishment in Kenleys Cheer career! So proud of this girl! 

Jax Walks and Kenley tries out!

"Life ain't always beautiful, but it's a but its a beautiful ride"

We are so blessed by this little blonde headed cuties! 

CHRISTMAS

Christmas came and went...and now so has the New Year. 2015 here we are. We have just stepped our feet back into the U.S. and let me tell you it was a long day of travel. Take my advice, don't travel with a 9 month old. Just don't do it. He wants to "crawl" he wants to walk...he wants to jump, he wants to do anything except SIT on a plane for 1 hour and 45 minutes twice plus a layover, and this wasn't his first or second time flying, oh and lets not mention his teething!
We moved out of our house so the remodel could start 2 days before school was out, so we haven't been home for a while. This was my first year as room mom and my first Christmas party went off without a hitch I'd say....lol, wonder what the other Moms would say!
Santa brought everybody everything their little heart could ever desire! It is so much fun to share Christmas with children! We do have a "missing" American Girl baby doll....it was delivered to my house....but somehow didn't end up under the tree...
Kenley had a sleepover with all her Grandparents and one with her cousins. She saw the Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rocketts.
Two days after Christmas we headed to the Bahamas. We needed this vacation. You'll remember Garrett spent MONTHS away from us and we haven't been alone, and by ALONE, I mean his cell phone isn't ringing with work ALL THE TIME! We laughed with Grammy and Grampa. Jax put his feet in the white sand of the beaches and swam almost every day. Kenley did a deep water dolphin adventure where they pushed her through the water and she rode around with the windows down singing Katy Perry with her Aunt Kendra. Garrett and I had 2 lovely evenings in the casino...our favorite pastime, we LOST.
Now its January. Now its the beginning of competition season and for the next 3 weekends we are on the road again...Galveston, New Orleans, one weekend off, then a Houston competition. February brings San Antonio and then comes California....it honestly feels like there is no end in sight. The house still has 3 rooms to be completed, but we will be able to live there, the dogs can't come back for 3-4 more weeks, GOD bless my mother-in-law. God bless her soul. I live and die by a calendar...a schedule of PSIA tutoring for Kenley's academic competition and her cheer competition schedule and Mr. Jax starts infant swimming. Somehow I'll fit a strict diet in there to knock off my last 15 or so pounds by April 1 and my work and my sleep and managing to get my house back beautiful and 2 birthdays.
When they say it takes a village, it does....and I use every member of our village and I love every member. I am grateful for every member and I couldn't do it without them.