Shelly's Blog

Fireworks! Happy New Years, everyone!!! The girls and I went to the movies this afternoon to see "Marley and Me".........great movie! Of course, I boohoo'd at the end and then Alyssa turned around and said, "Mom! Why are you crying?" My kids, just don't get it. Although Alyssa did say that she thought it was very sad......AND why do people have to make such sad movies. I think she was looking for a happy ending. My kind of gal! This evening, the girls and I met Nana, Donna & Bri, and Jane, Cailin & Katy at Tokyo One. I almost felt guilty for only paying the kids price for the kids since I think they ate as much food as I did. I don't know how it happened but somewhere along the way both of my kids have acquired a liking for shrimp. Doesn't matter how it's cooked, they just really like shrimp. I think we made three trips to the hibachi station for steak and shrimp, just for Alyssa. I also tried some different kinds of sushi that I have ne

Well, it's not New Years yet, but I might not get around to posting tomorrow so I wanted to get a jump on it. Glenn has to work today and tonight. He worked from home last night updating seating charts and other things for his New Years party tonight. I guess each year the Omni does a different theme for their New Years parties so this year it was "A Night in Paris".....at least I think that was what it was called. I know it had something to do with Paris because he had to find many mini Eiffel Towers to rent for each table. He was outside on Sunday touching up their paint. I think he only found 15 so the other tables had a different centerpiece that he had to go out and find the weekend after Christmas. Anyhow, I won't see him until near midnight tonight.....hopefully before. The girls and I are going to the movies in a little bit to see "Marley and Me". We couldn't talk Nana into going with us since she went to the movies last night to see "Seven

This is the video of Jessica performing her Christmas dance with her Cheer Squad at the Downtown Aquarium before Christmas. This is the video of Ethan with his dinosaur on Christmas Day.

Lauren, Jessica, Alyssa and Brandon Jessica and her pogo stick Jessica and her faux fur Our beautiful house! Alyssa's "A" pillow

The Gang Alyssa, Skyler, Maggie and Nana Donna, Katy and Jane Lauren, Jess, Bri and Cailin Christmas morning Nana and Ryan Glenn putting the race track together for Ethan Brianna Josh - My "guitar" hero, *sigh* We celebrated Christmas Eve at our house with family from both my side and Glenn's side. We had lots of food and drink and I hope everyone had a wonderful time - I know I did! We got to bed kind of late and never made it to Midnight Mass like we had wanted to do. Christmas Day was spent at Donna's house. Brian is in Chicago so he missed out on the festivities and Donna and Bri are heading that way tomorrow afternoon. They'll be back on New Years Eve and we'll have dinner with them and Jane and Cailin when they return.

We have mostly been shopping during the days to get all of our christmas shopping done. During the evenings everyone looks for something to entertain them. Luckily (I guess!), the girls have Glenn to help them figure out how to pass the time. Here are a few pictures of how they have passed their time.............. Glenn and his Posse Santa Glenn and Santa Alyssa I have nothing to say about this one! Homeys

Chelsey, Jessica, and Ashley Alyssa and Mrs. Velez The 3rd grade shepherds Today was the kids Christmas parties and program at school. Alyssa was a shepherd, looking for a king. Jess, being in the 6th grade was too "old" to participate in the program. Actually, I think that once the kids get to the 6th grade that they're too COOL to participate in the Christmas program! It was a little touch and go there for awhile, though. Two kids in the choir threw up in the middle of church. I was sitting towards the back of the church and the smell was almost enough to make me get up and leave before mass was over. School was let out at 11:30 so we went to visit Nana and Papa for an hour before we left to go to our hair appointments with Judi. Jess and I got our hair cut and Alyssa got her bangs trimmed. We're ready for Christmas now!

I am so tired of the heavy fog that has been hanging around here.....this is the third day of it! It's going to be warmer today, too. Cold weather will be back on Sunday, though. I went to MD Anderson yesterday for my monthly bloodwork and doctor's appointment. Dr. Faderl said my counts are all great and I'll have the molecular test done next month. AND he says that I'll only have to go every month for another 6 months! YEA!!!! Jessica is almost finished with her mid-terms.....only science left today. Alyssa has dress rehearsal today for her Christmas program. Tomorrow are the kids Christmas parties and Christmas program at school for Alyssa. I will be going to help out with the parties and so starts MY Christmas vacation. More tomorrow!

There were quite a few things that happened this week that I haven't gotten to blog about yet and a few that I have but bear with me while I mention them again. This post will be a kind of pictorial......our week in pictures! Alyssa's girl scout troop delivered the cookies that they baked last Friday to an Assisted Living Facility for the elderly. I think both the girls and the older people all enjoyed it VERY much. Each person living there received a bag of cookies on their doorknob, made with love! On Wednesday, it snowed for the first time in 4 years and the kids got to play in what little fell at our house but they got to play in a little more while they were still at their Nana and Papa's house right after school. On Thurs day, Jessica got her Letterman's jacket for being in cheerleading. She will also get a patch for being in BETA and she wants to try out for the volleyball team next year and she will be able to get a patch for that too. She'll have that jac

Around 3:00 this afternoon we had quite a few snow flurries coming down! They are still coming but not as much as this afternoon. They are expected to continue through this evening. I tried to take some pictures, but it was so dark that I wasn't able to capture it on the camera. We're really excited because we don't get much snow in the Houston area. The last time it snowed here was on Christmas Eve about 3 or 4 years ago. Never enough to stick on the ground but still fun for the kids to run around in. The winter weather won't stick around for long, though. It's expected to get back up to the 70's this weekend! Talk about extremes.

We attended the 50th anniversary celebration mass at St. Ambrose this evening. All I can say is, "Wow!". His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo (I guess that's his "official" title!) performed the mass. He said some parts in Latin, lots of incense, the Knights of Columbus in their ceremonial uniforms with their swords drawn..................It was a very elaborate ceremony that I don't think I will probably ever get to see again..........if I sound like I'm gushing, I probably am. Afterwards, we had our "Italian" dinner of Spaghetti from Fornos. Poor Alyssa just ate the salad and roll since she doesn't like spaghetti......at least the spaghetti sauce, anyway. The rest of us ate our fill and then headed for home and didn't get home until 9:00 pm. Glenn had to work tonight since it's the Christmas season and very busy for him at the hotel, so he missed the mass. I think he would have really enjoyed it.

I thought for sure that since we had so much time off last week, that this week would have just dragged on forever. I was wrong. This week has flown by. It's been really busy at work and I am working on 21 cases, all at once, that have to be completed before the holidays. Lucky me. Since Jess is in Jr. High now, she is getting ready to start taking her mid-terms next week. Alyssa won't have to worry about that for a few years. All she has to worry about is making a good grade on multiplication tests. She made a 90 on the last one.......much better than the one before. Cardinal DiNardo will be performing mass at St. Ambrose on Saturday evening to celebrate their 50th year. We will be going with Mom, Donna, Brianna, myself and my girls. We're also having dinner at the church later that evening. I have to go back to the church on Sunday to pick up my wreath from the Boy Scouts. We have also pretty much finished our Christmas decorations but I still haven't gotten

Jess & Maggie Alyssa and Maggie I tried to take some videos of the kids having fun last night and since my memory card in my camera is only 256K I kept having to download the videos into the computer after each one. Someone PLEASE remind me to get a larger memory card before Christmas!!! I just keep forgetting everytime I'm at the Wal-Mart. :0) We're in the process of putting up the Christmas tree and decorations today. I can't believe that Monday will already be December 1st! Hopefully, I can get the Christmas card picture taken by the tree this evening and get them developed and ready for the cards to go out.....or not. I think that might be a little too much positive thinking, even for me!

Today we celebrated Granny Laine's 71st birthday.........Happy Birthday Granny Laine!!!!! Glenn made fajitas, rice and beans and we had cheesecake for dessert. All the kids went in on a new computer for her. Now we just have to figure out how to transfer all of her files to her new computer. I gave her my flash drive so hopefully that will make it a little easier. I pulled out all of our old pictures (28 years of them!) and we laughed at old times and younger bodies! Not sure how this will turn out, but my scanner is broken and so I just took a picture of the picture from my senior prom.......Don't Glenn and I look cute?? Glenn and Shelly at the Scarborough Senior Prom 1984

The carrots were a little limp but the horses didn't care! Jessica feeding Penny a carrot - Penny's expecting a baby in the spring! Alyssa feeding Pecos his grain Alyssa and Jess with Lily I know this is a day late, but I didn't have time to sit down with my computer yesterday..........so as they say, Better Late Than Never! We had a great time out at "Little House". I brought green beans, mashed potatoes, and key lime pie (at my kids resquest) and everyone else brought lots of food, too.......it was all delicious! Jess and Alyssa were a little bummed that Lauren and Brandon weren't going to be here this year but they made the best of it.......they made sure that I remembered to take the apples and carrots to feed Aunt Vicki's horses. I think the horses had as good a time as Jess and Alyssa! When the blue bag was empty, Lily kept trying to take it away from me thinking that there were still some treats in it. Next time, we'll bring more, at least for

On Monday, Alyssa got to dress up as the saint of her choice for school. We had a little bit of a rocky start when we got to school and her 3 friends had not dressed up. They were going to wait until later to put on their costumes so Alyssa yanked hers off so fast your head would have spun. As I was leaving, I saw one of her friends coming up dressed in her costume so I asked her and her mom to go in and talk some sense into the girls........which they did.......Thanks Michelle! .......Soooooo, Alyssa dressed up as St. Lucia (St. Lucy). She is the patron saint of people with blindness. She wore a crown of candles and carried a plate of eyes. They had a parade along with the Pre-K who dressed up as indians. On Tuesday, the 3rd grade had a "feast" and dressed up in indian costumes that they made the day before. They had a very fun, very short week. Jessica still had tests this week and so she didn't have such a fun week. :0( But whether or not she had fun, both kids get t

We just got back from a birthday party for my nephew, Brandon. He celebrated his big "8" today! Guy ordered BBQ from Hickory Hollow and as always, it was wonderful. We LOVE Hickory Hollow! The kids always really enjoy getting together and I don't think I heard a peep from any of them all afternoon. Jess and Lauren played outside and Alyssa and Brandon played with his nerf "laser" tag set and with the Game Cube. I am doing much better emotionally now, than I was when I posted yesterday. I broke down crying again and so we had a family meeting and discussed all the problems that we were all having. I think it helped.......at least it helped me and I feel better for having discussed it. Alyssa is going to make sure that she reads every day for at least 15 minutes because it is required for her reading class. She has to post every day that she reads - the book and how long she read it. Last month she didn't do well and brought home a really low grade. I told her

Friday finally made it to the "Milner House". I don't usually write about depressing things, but it's been a rough day, emotionally for me, and I have yet to actually figure out the exact reason. .......so just bear with me for this one post while I vent. It's probably a little bit of everything that has been happening over the past couple of weeks. My very good friend, Norma, lost her job last Friday and I found out yesterday that a family friend of Glenn's lost his job and has hit rock bottom, without any of us knowing about it. Alyssa is struggling with her multiplication tables and I am out of ideas for figuring a way of getting her to understand. I took Jessica out of math tutoring because I had to put Alyssa in tutoring and couldn't afford to put both in at the same time. Now, Jessica is having trouble with her math grades and I guess I'm just going to have to figure out how to put both into tutoring at the same time. I asked Jess to spea

It seems like I haven't written on this blog, in like, forever! Well, I guess a week is a really long time when I had gotten used to writing every day. It has been kind of hectic in our house with Alyssa trying to learn all of the multiplication tables and the state capitols. Jess has been having cheer practice twice a week because the squad will be doing a Christmas dance and cheer at the downtown Aquarium on December 14th. Alyssa has to dress up as a saint on Monday, so we're in the process of trying to come up with costume for St. Lucia, or St. Lucy. She was the patron saint of blindness, so Alyssa will dress up and carry a bowl of eyes, although she says she doesn't really want to do that. We have the crown already made, since Jessica was this same saint when she was in pre-k. We celebrated Donna M's birthday this past Saturday evening at Babin's. The food was great and I think the kids tried things they had never eaten before. I always like it when they

Well, I guess I missed blogging yesterday. Not to worry, though, because I didn't really have a lot to write about anyway! Today, Jessica had a dental appointment to get her teeth cleaned. While she was getting her teeth cleaned, I got my night guard adjusted and hopefully I won't ditch it during the night like the dentist says I might. Evidently, I also have to keep it away from the dog because dogs like to chew on night guards. Alyssa and I are still practicing on memorizing the multiplication tables. She still doesn't believe in my method, but I am on the way to getting her to understand it.

I sat down to write a few lines for Wednesday, when I realized that it's NOT Wednesday! It's only Tuesday.....blah! Well, anyway, I guess I'll just have to deal with it. Alyssa made a 95 on her first multiplication test.......We are so proud of her! She has her next multiplication test on Friday for the 3's and 6's and we have been practicing with flash cards for that one. She is supposed to go to a friends house in the evening on Friday and then she is going to the Museum of Natural Science on Saturday for girl scouts to work on a badge. Saturday evening, we are going to go and celebrate Donna's birthday but not sure yet where we will celebrate at.

Once again, it's Monday. I'm just glad that it's almost over. Today was one heck of a day. I was the only service rep in the office and the phones rang off the hook. I ended up taking a late lunch and did a little early Christmas shopping. I feel like I really accomplished something today just by doing that little bit of shopping. I think it must be therapy for me. :o) Once we got home, Glenn had home-made pizza ready for us and the girls got their studying done. Alyssa's got a religion test tomorrow and a multiplication test on Friday. We worked on the flash cards and I think she is well on her way to getting what it's all about. Last year she learned where all the states were and now she is learning what all of the state capitals are. She's going to one smart little cookie! Jessica will start practicing this week for the JV Cheer Christmas show at the Downtown Aquarium on December 14th. They have to learn 2 dances, one Christmas chant and one new cheer for the

Once again, it has been a really beautiful day. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature didn't get out of the 70's. Jessica worked on her school Social Studies project for most of the day and when she was finished, the whole family went on another bike ride. We rode down the greenbelt up to the elementary school. We rested while the kids played on the playground equipment. Then we took off again through the Willow Lake subdivision and then back to on to our Willow Point subdivision and then on home. When we got home, all four of us threw the football around in the front yard, so I think we all got much needed exercise today. Glenn worked all day on Saturday so he'll get the day off tomorrow. I'm jealous!

Today was a really beautiful day today and the girls and I got out and enjoyed it! Nana, the girls and I went to Old Town Spring for some shopping. We looked at mostly Christmas decorations and of course, stuff for the girls. They both took their money and so Alyssa bought herself a horse in a purse that makes horsie noises. (If anyone is looking for ideas for Alyssa for Christmas, then anything to do with horses will work) Jessica bought she and Alyssa some rock candy and I bought both of them some window gel clings for Christmas. They're really cute! After Old Town Spring, we took off to lunch at the TGI Friday's in the Woodlands, then to the Woodlands Mall for more shopping. Of course, we pretty much bought stuff just for the girls there, too. The good thing is that Jess bought 1/2 of her outfit so I wasn't out too very much money. We also found something for Nana that she was looking for, we bought Christmas stuff for Ethan and Ryan, and Nana bought some Christ

Nice title, but, well, I still got nothin'. Here's what I did today - I went to lunch with the J&G girls today to celebrate Michelle's birthday. We went to Uptown Park to eat at Cafe Express, then to Crave Cupcakes for the best cupcakes I've had in a long time. My kids thought so, too, since I brought some back for them. We cut them each in half so that we could share when we got to Nana's. They want to go back tomorrow to get some more, so we might go to the Galleria to shop, have lunch and then get cupcakes! Jessica was invited to join the BETA club at school. The only students invited to join are ones in the junior high that have a 90 or above over-all grade average. She had her first meeting after school today. The BETA clubs does service work and they usually take a trip to Dallas at the end of the school year. She is really looking forward to being in the BETA club. She is also going to do a dance routine with the cheer squad at the Downtown Aquarium

When I started blogging every day for National Blog Posting Month, I figured it would be easy to write a few lines every day. Well, I think I am running out of things to say. Nothing exciting has happened today. I ordered Ethan one of the shepherd's hats from Oriental Trading Company. (Josh and Rox - tell him it will be at Nana's house sometime next week. He can be happy again) I also went ahead and ordered the candy for the kids goodie bags that they'll give out at school at Christmas. Wow! ......What an exciting day!

I finally heard back from the doctor's office this morning and Alyssa has NO kidney problems! Yay! Her kidneys are all clear so I guess having the urinary tract infections so close together was just a fluke. We'll be keeping an eye on it from now on. I had a dentist's appointment this morning for the cleaning that I completely forgot about. I got a reminder call yesterday and had to tell the scheduler that I had completely forgotten about the appointment! I sure felt stupid. I even went back to my wallet to check to see if I had the appointment card that they usually give me, and guess what?? ......I found it. I AM stupid. Anyway, I went for my appointment and got my teeth all nice and shiny. I also had to fess up to the hole that was in the side of my tooth for the past few months. Dr. Perkins looked at it and said it didn't look all that bad and he didn't actually think it was a hole. It looked more like a chip that had gotten rough and my tongue had just found th

Today is Election Day. It's almost over and then I can breathe a *sigh* of relief. Actually, I'm really scared. I'm not particularly wild about either candidate. I guess my vote goes to who I can actually tolerate for the next four years.......which at this point would be neither. ..............And that's just plain SAD! Anyway, I cast my vote last week during early voting so now I just have to wait. *sigh* Still haven't heard from the doctor's office regarding Alyssa's test. I guess I'll have to call them and stir the pot a bit, but I'll have to wait until tomorrow 'cause it's too late to do it today. I have a dental appointment tomorrow that I completely forgot about. I guess I never wrote it on my calendar when I made it after my last appointment. Anyhow, I guess I'll have to fess up to having a tooth with a hole in the side of it but hopefully won't have to tell him how long I've had the tooth with the hole in it........si

This afternoon, I left work early so that I could pick the girls up from school to get Alyssa to her doctor's appointment. She was scheduled for her renal ultrasound at Texas Children's. We were given instructions to fill her up with up to 24 oz of fluid at least one hour before the appointment. Nothing with carbination and no milk. She was a little nervous but the technician was great and he put on a movie for her to watch while he did the ultrasound. He has already emailed the doctor's office with the pictures of her kidneys so now all we can do is wait for the phone call to tell us that everything is okay. I'll keep you posted.