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.
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!
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!!!
