Wife to Garrett, Mommy to Kenley & Jax, Aunt to Julie, Friend to who wants me, Daughter to Henry & Laura & Gary & Cassi, God-Mother to some of the cutest cuties Blakely and Casey. Insurance Agent to my lovely clients. I am working hard to raise my children to be all they can be, full of life, full of confidence, full of manners, full of love, showing God's love to others, being more than I am or can be...striving everyday to be a better person and it's not always easy!!
KENLEY PATRICIA BENSON started second grade this year at Trinity-Klein. She continues to cheer at Texas Lonestar Cheer and is in her fourth competitive year, she is on the Youth level 3 team. She has competitions all over the state this year and in Louisiana and California. Cheer practice and tumbling takes up a majority of her time, however she loves to spend time with her friends. She is enjoying Girl Scouts and all her friends. She still loves to ride in the golf cart, do her hair, she really like to play with her brother and Blakely. She enjoys traveling and got to go to Disney World this year, Montana, Louisiana, and had a great summer.
I can't imagine my life without her. She makes me laugh, she fills my heart with a joy I have never known and I enjoy watching her grow up. She is growing into such a beautiful soul.
Garrett graduated from the University of Houston in 2007 with a degree in Construction Management. He currently works at Baker Concrete as a Project Manager.
He is a sports fanatic. However, his love is Texans football and this takes up the majority of our fall and winter. He is an avid Texans tailgater. Every weekend there is a home game he is cooking and preparing for his time in the parking lot at Reliant Stadium. Fajitas, beer, washers, music and sausage are a few items you would find hanging out of the bed of his truck. He loves to hunt and is still continuing to fill our walls and our freezer.
Garrett finished up his job at EXXON in the Woodlands and is working in Midland, TX on a job for Chevron. Hopefully he'll be back home by November.
He is so happy to finally have a son. We welcomed Jaxon David into our family on March 31, 2014 and we, all three of us, are absolutely IN LOVE. ESPECIALLY DADDY!! He has his own personal Little Texan, who will grow into a big Texan.
Garrett loves his work and is a wonderful father and I could not ask for more. He works hard and his dedicated to our family. Being away is hard, but we are doing great, not to say it is without its hardships, but life isn't easy.
He reads stories to Kenley, takes and active role in her cheerleading, and helps in me in so many ways with her. I value his role as a father so much and I could not ask for a better partner in life or a father for her. They love each other dearly and that is so beautiful. He is so good with Jaxon and is such a great help. He has been on quite a few "man trips" lately...so he does owe me one or two...soon.
The problem began when we got home...Kenley had went to her friends about 30 minutes before we got home. We arrived and said goodbye to Grammy. She was leaving for Montana on Monday. We went into our bedroom and began preparing Jaxon for his bath. Garrett was undressing him and he had a bad diaper and so I changed our bed linens. We put Jaxon to bed and we went to bed. I was watching TV in bed and Garrett was sound to sleep. As many know he is working rough hours. I got up at about 9:30 to smoke. I know, I know. NO I have not quit. Yes, I quit while I was pregnant with both children...yes...I know how horrible it is....Just leave it alone. When I went in to kitchen I saw the laundry room was flooded with water. At first, I thought it was just the laundry room. However, I noticed it was A TON of water. The washing machine was powered off and throwing some error code. I ran immediately to get Garrett, as I couldn't physically move it to shut off the water. He was in a state of sleep and wasn't immediately responding. After about 3 times of me telling him the house was flooding he looks at me and says, "it's not raining"...I said "I know, it's the washing machine". The water had not only flooded the laundry room but the living room, dining room, pantry and the formal living room. Thankfully our neighbor had a wet vac, and we spent 3 hours getting water out of the house. It was pouring from the weep holes. The carpet in the formal was soaked. Wilmer came over and helped get the machine out. I filed the claim at about 4:30 or 5 in the morning and sent an email requesting the adjuster at 7. He was here at 9. The water restoration company was here at 9:30 or 10. Baseboards were removed, holes were punched in the walls, carpet is pulled back the furniture is all in a square and the company set up huge fans and dehumidifiers. These machines were here for 3 days. A long LOUD 3 days. The laundry is piling up! Thankfully my sweet neighbor washed all my towels before she left for Illinois. In the first minutes I just started throwing all my towels at the water...which did nothing when you have 3 inches of water in your house....
We are basically looking at having to replace all the wood floor...which is the entire first floor of the house. Replace the carpet in the formal living room. We will be replacing half the baseboards in the home. The only saving grace is it did not get the kitchen! Today I went and purchased a new washing machine and dryer...it will be here Saturday. I am going to wash all the clothes at my parents tomorrow. It is mostly Jaxon who is the problem. He is cutting teeth so he drools, he eats those teething biscuits which are gross and get all over him and he is changed at least 2 times a day and his bibs about 4 times per day. Also, he doesn't have many pants. He is a size 6 months, probably really a 3 months in waste but a 9 month in length so his pants are hard to come by so he really only has 3 nice pair. I live in my Lulu Lemon yoga pants...and they are quickly diminishing...I have to do laundry. We usually do 1 load a day. I have never in my life seen this much laundry, except for after a vacation. The disorganization of the house is making us all nuts! Garrett says it is making his skin crawl. He came in tonight and said "well at least it's quiet, but we are going to your parents immediately tomorrow, I can't stand it here!" Jaxon has been really upset that he hasn't been able to walk freely in his walker...the cords from the fans and dehumidifiers were fair game to chew on...to him not me! So he has spent 3 days locked in my room, and he is NOT happy. Kenley has been upstairs or outside, then Spencer left. Its all a little crazy. I am trying to look at the bright side and not be stressed and honestly I feel like I am doing pretty good. Usually when things are bad, my butt tingles. I don't have that feeling. I was totally uneasy at first because my Dad was gone hunting and unreachable. I wanted him here. I wanted him to tell me I was doing everything right! But, I am a big girl. I am an insurance agent! LOL. I can do this. But I wanted my DADDY! I guess that feeling will never go away.
I have found the positives of the situation...
We are getting a new floor. We are replacing and getting rid of that horrible white carpet that I have hated and battled to keep white for 3 years with 3 dogs. I got a new washer and dryer (we did NOT need)...we really intended on buying a new oven and microwave!!! By the way I bought a top loader so no more battling the smells that the front loader always brought.
So my 5 trees won't go up this year...just one and it will be upstairs....Jaxon has to have a tree this year, his first Christmas! Merry Christmas to us!! Ha! It will be a FUN month!
Garrett and I met at Lutheran High North in 1997. He came to North from Northwest Academy and I came from Our Savior. We started dating in in 1998 and the rest is history. We left Houston in 2001 after we graduted from Lutheran High North. Garrett went to University Texas and I went to Texas A&M. We spent many hours on the road between the two, to be fair it was Garrett who mostly did all the driving. We were married in September 2005 at the Fontenot Grand Mansion and welcomed Princess Kenley in April 2007 and Jaxon in March of 2014 (5 days shy of 7 years apart, by choice). We currently live in Klein, TX and will celebrate 9 years of marriage on the 10th of September.
Both Garrett and I grew up with dogs. Garrett had Boofer growing up and I had a host of dogs, one in particular was Autumn Marie, a Golden Retriever that went everywhere with my Dad. She could be found in the church parking lot, dropping me off at school or at a softball game.
In early 2005 I announced to Garrett that I wanted a Golden Retriever. He agreed and off to New Waverly we went and picked up a 3 month old pup, who shares my birthday of March 6. We chose her name while driving to pick her up, Brighton Marie. Yes, we got it from the home builder. She is very active and weighs around 80 pounds and firmly believes that she is a lap dog. She is very smart but many find it hard to love her. She is starting to calm down this days and is showing signs of her age. She has just a month and will beging a regime of "old lady" food. She is battling her skin lately it is not in agreement with all of the swimming she likes to do. She is aging around the eyes and after a long week at the lake with my parents her joints were worn out and she could barely get in the truck! Autumn lived to be in her teens...so I am hoping we have a long long life to live!!!
