Purpose

After having 5 days sans husband and children, I've spent a lot of time laughing, revisiting old memories and thinking.

Coming home to a clean quiet house was great on Sunday, but as Monday rolled around, I began to feel like I didn't know what to do with myself. Luckily, I had dinner planned with Brea so that occupied my night. We went through boxes of college pictures...cracking up all the way through. For some reason, we thought we had to take a picture (or 6) with food stuffed in our mouths...why, I'm just not sure. Last night, we were just 2 silly college girls again reliving toga parties, white trash prom, lake days and more.

Today, I went to the pool by myself. I took a book and my iPod and just floated for hours. It was a nice, but strange feeling - like I didn't have a purpose. I almost felt hallow without my two sweet girls hanging on to me, asking questions and shouting "Look at me, Mommy!"

I honestly didn't know I could miss them so much! It makes me realize that I was meant to be a mom and a wife, and how blessed to have them all healthy and safe at home with me. I hope that I never take for granted how lucky I am to have them. As school and football nears, I want to cherish each and every moment we have together.

A Necessary Thank You (or two)

I just got home a few hours ago from the 2nd Annual Huffman Scrapbook Retreat. Sweet Kara invited 13 people into her home for the weekend for a 48 hour scrap-a-thon. Not only was she kind enough to have us take over her house for the weekend, she flew her parents in to serve us and pamper us too! Her dad served as our valet parker and unloaded all of our scrapbook stuff (A TON of stuff) and her mom was the chef for the weekend. We all felt so lucky to be taken care of for the weekend rather than doing the caring ourselves. It was a huge success! I finished 55 pages and am 10 pages from being current on my scrapbook. I can't belive it.

My second shout-out goes to Lamar. When I came home from the retreat, I walked in to a quiet and clean house. The kitchen was clean, the laundry was done and he and the girls were out of town. I feel extra special because I had the retreat, plus 2 days to recover from the retreat without cleaning up cheerios, turning on moomee's for Karsyn and Cartoon Neckwork for Landrie. Don't get me wrong, I am missing them like crazy, but I am thrilled for some alone time...especially as football season and school starts up.

So, Thank You Kara & Lamar! You made my weekend!!!

Celebrating Lamar

As our friends have turned 30 (and one turned 40!), they have thrown parties from the simple to elaborate. It can be overwhelming trying to keep up the tradition, but we definitely tried last weekend.

We invited a few friends to Downtown Fort Worth for dinner and then we went to Pete's Dueling Pianos. It was so much fun! It has a very lively atmosphere, entertaining music and tons of people watching (my favorite). We had a great night!!

For Lamar's birthday, the girls and I gave him Guitar Hero for his Playstation 2. It is SO much fun! It's become a family thing for us to do. The girls love to pretend to play and to watch us compete against each other.

I also gave Lamar one other gift... He told me a while back that if he could have any car it would be a Corvette. Obviously that isn't practical for our family, so I gave him a mini-Corvette to admire in the mean time.

Picture Post

I haven't updated in a while, so I thought I would just post some pictures of the last few weeks. Summer is winding down quickly, so instead of spending time on the computer, I'm trying to enjoy time doing things with Lamar and the girls. Football is quickly approaching - 2 weeks - and then our family time will be few and far between.

The girls are little fish at our local water park.

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Landrie went to Adventure Weekend last week for the first time. The theme was Backstage Blast and they helped make a movie, create sound effects and lots of other fun activities. She had so much fun!

Silly Karsyn watching TV with her sunglasses on

Happy Birthday Lamar!

Today Lamar is 30 years old!! It's hard to believe that we've been together since he was 20! He is a wonderful husband, father, coach and friend. We are all blessed to have him in our lives.

Here's to 30 more wonderful years!

Happy Birthday Lamar! I love you!!

Fantastic Fourth!

We had a great 4th of July! It was very low-key compared to the last few years and it was one of our most enjoyable. We had a pool party during the day and then walked to the Boys Ranch for Fireworks. The girls were so much fun--dancing to the live music, playing with friends and watching the fireworks with complete awe!

Family picture - even Lamar is smiling! :)

Dancing Girls!

Channing & Landrie

Fabulous Fireworks

Patriotic Landrie

Bad Luck Dress

Have you ever worn something that always seemed to bring bad luck when you wore it?

For my sister Jordan, it was her bathing suit. The summer she was 5 years old it was rarely off of her body. Unfortunately though, bad things seemed to happen when she wore it. We used to go to Wet 'N Wild (now Hurricane Harbor) 3-4 times a week. Somehow she got lost one day and of course she was wearing the bad luck bathing suit. During the same summer, she was playing outside with tons of other kids and a neighbor came around the corner too fast and hit Jordan with her car. Again, she was wearing the bad luck bathing suit. She was fine thankfully - just bumps and bruises. I'm pretty sure my mom burned the suit after that though.

The girls have had bad luck lately in their 4th of July dresses. First, Landrie puked in our rental car after our Conroe trip wearing her dress and then 10 days later Karsyn did the same. I still can't believe the virus lasted in our house for that long!

Unfortunately, the bad luck traveled to Salado. The girls went down on Tuesday to spend the week with Gigi & Grandpa. Karsyn got sick the night before, but it seemed like a one time deal. She woke up the next morning feeling fine...evidently not. On the way from Hillsboro to Salado, she got sick, but quickly got over it. Gigi came down with it last night though. I feel terrible! I don't think she was planning to have the stomach bug on her week off. So, the girls' trip was cut short and I picked up the girls today. I sure was glad to see them, but I hated the circumstances for which they came home early.

Feel better Gigi!! Thanks for watching the girls! I hope we didn't scare you from doing it again!

Hopefully we'll have good luck in their dresses tomorrow. Happy 4th Everyone!

Happy Birthday Justin!

Today my one and only brother is 26!! Justin and I have a love/hate relationship, but mostly love! :) He is a great uncle to the girls - who love to be picked on by him. He is head over heels for his neices, just as they are for him. We love you Bubba!!

Hope you have a GREAT DAY today Justin! I'm looking forward to a good dinner tonight!