Fog and Frost

We've been having this weird weather. The other morning we woke up to a strange fog when the temps were below freezing. What resulted was a beautiful feathering of frost on everything. It was beautiful.

I'm Someboy's Hero

Carlie brought this aware home to me today. She was asked to make an aware for her Hero. I am her hero. "Grin". I asked her why she picked me and she said it was because I set up a facebook account for her. Hehehe.

Crazy Basketball Schedule

January 16, 2010
Frank 9am Remington Middle
Little Girls 3pm Benton
Libby 9am Towanda

January 23, 2010
Frank 11am Remington Middle
Little Girls 8am Towanda
Libby 2pm Towanda

January 30, 2010
Frank 8am Benton Grade Snack
Little Girls 2pm Whitewater
Little Girls 5pm Benton Grade Both
Libby 8am Douglas
Libby 10am Douglas

February 6, 2010
Frank 9am Towanda
Little Girls 1pm Towanda
Libby 9am Bluestem

February 13, 2010
Frank 12pm Augusta Middle
Frank 4pm Benton Grade
Libby 10am Towanda
Libby 5pm Towanda

February 20, 2010
Frank 1pm Bluestem Drink
Little Girls 10am Towanda
Libby 8am Remington Both

February 27, 2010
Frank 8am Benton Grade
Frank 12pm Augusta Middle
Little Girls 12pm Towanda Both
Libby 10am Benton Grade
Libby 2pm Towanda

March 6 2010
Frank 9am Towanda
Little Girls 1pm Towanda
Libby 10am Potwin

First Basket Ball Games

The kids had their first games of the year. Madi and Carlie are on the same team this year. They won their first game in double overtime. Frank and Libby both lost their games, but they played well.

Bugs

My first post of the year (and decade) and it's about sickness. We've had the stomach virus going through our family. Madi got it first. I was up with her all night, and finally about 8am she stopped throwing up. I stayed home from work with her and she seemed to be doing fine. She was quite the princess....laying on the couch sucking her thumbing and asking me to go get her this and go fetch her that!

Then in the afternoon, she started to look worse. Her face broke out in a rash and she had her face a scrunched up funny. I asked her what was wrong, and she said that when she opened both eyes she saw two of me. So she was keeping one eye closed. That really scared me. I called her doctor who said to take her to the Urgent Care Center or ER.

They wanted to put in an IV. Madi has always been allergic to pain, and to make matters worse, the first IV didn't work so they had to do it again.

She had to call Papaw and tell him all about it. She said "they hurt me so bad with that needle and then they put the left needle in the right arm and the right needle in the wrong arm!"

Now Libby has the stomach virus. I hope no one else gets it.

New Years with the Morgans

Wow. My last post of the decade!!! I remember when I was young thinking that when 2010 got here I'd be OLD. I guess I am. LOL. We had a great time. Granny taught the kids how to play spoons and we laughed and laughed. Granny had a pot of chocolate fixed and we dipped all kinds of goodies in there including fruit and marshmallows. The kids also played bingo for prizes. We brought 2010 in with lots of love and laughter...and okay...a little bit of kid squabbling....made a little bit of kid hitting, crying and name calling. But over all a good start to the New Year. LOL.

Crime Scene

I walked into the kitchen yesterday and discovered this ugly crime scene. Death by a Barrell of Monkeys how gruesome!!!


Carlie cracks me up.

Blizzard of 2009

We knew the bad weather was coming and we left a day early so we could get to Oklahoma before it hit. On Christmas Eve we were leaving the Pool's house to go to my Grandma Obie's. We'd only been there a short time when the blizzard hit. It's was only 40 miles back to the Pools so we headed back there. It was dark as pitch and white out conditions. The only way we could tell where the road was by following in other car tracks. What should have taken 40 miles took two hours. It was scary, but we made it there safely. On our way home we were shocked at the number of cars that were off in the ditches along I-40.

When we got home, the kids made a snow man.

Domestic Goddess - NOT

I have always said that I did not inherit the domestic gene. Nevertheless, I keep this house running, assigning chores out to each family member. Libby has been folding the laundry lately. This morning, I asked her to fold a load of clothes. She came and got the basket and was watching me load the washer, and she said "Mom, do you need me to explain to you how to use the washer?" I go "Libby, I wash clothes all the time....been washing them since before you were BORN." And she said "Well, I've just never seen you use it!!!!" Grrrrrr.

Christmas at our House

She's Not Tough Enough

Granny got JoLynn and I a set of pjs exactly the same color and a set of three different colored fuzzy sockes. We each put on our pjs and came out wearing the same set of socks. Our kids couldn't tell us apart. LOL. JoLynn finally said "Dang, I couldn't handle being you. Your kids keep stopping me every two seconds going Mom...Mom....Mom...Mom."

Funniest Picture of the Holidays

Charlie looks like he's growling, JoLynn looks like a blind girl, Libby looks like she's singing into a chocolate microphone and Frank is scowling at his cookie. LOL

The Two Divas

The Two Divas of the family. LOL.

Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter

It's weird how much Carlie and Morgan are alike. When their heads were together they have the same exact shade of hair color. They are both left handed with fair skin. They both talk like little adults and love to pretend. Morgan's new thing is to pretend to be a cat. She was a cat named chocolate Chip most of the weekend. And Carlie was her cat friend named Peanut Butter.




Morgan found the cat's bed and got in that when she needed a "cat nap". And of course every kitten needs her princess attire.

Just Like You Mom!

Libby and Madi and I were taking JB to his job at the Benton gas station. We were in the median of a busy highway, when Libby notices that there is a remote control car on the side of the road. She points it out, and I look. Sure enough that's what it is. Libby goes "Remember when we were little and acting ugly and sometimes you would roll down the window and through our toys out?? I bet that's what happened with that car!!!" LOL.

Christmas with the Morgan Family

We had a great time. Everyone was in a good mood and the kids all played so well together.










The little kids played Dirty Santa this year too. Since Morgan was a big young to play, but is sharp as a tack, we rigged it so that she had the last number and told the big kids to not pick her special present that she would like. She waited so patiently while the other kids had their turn. And she was so excited with her present she "won".

If it's not picked up I'll throw it away

We've been having a hard time getting the little girls to clean their room up. They both claim that the other one is not helping to clean, they fight, they play, they complain....pretty much everything EXCEPT clean. So last week, I'd had it. I went in there and picked up everything that was not put away and put it in trash bags, including Carlie's precious stuffed dog 'Trudy" and Madi's favorite stuffed monkey. They bawled and squalled. They said they couldn't survive without their favorite stuffed animals. so I told them if they kept it cleaned up for a week, they could earn back ONE toy. So far, they made it the first week and got a toy back. We'll see how long it lasts. They were absolutely shocked when I came in there with my trash bag. LOL.

Manic Monday

I was gone to Dallas last week, and this week I knew that I'd have to go to Corpus Christi on Monday. So all day Sunday I spent getting my presents wrapped up. They looked so pretty under the tree. Sunday night I packed for my trip, and I was really tired.

I woke up at 5am on Monday morning with four hysterical kids in my bed screaming something about presents. It took me a minute to get woke up enough to understand what they were telling me. During the night our cat had unwrapped half of the presents. Ugggggh!!!

I think he got mad because all of the presents I wrapped on Sunday covered the white cloth under the tree. He seemed to think that we put the tree up just for him.

I didn't have time to do anything about it then so I just piled the unwrapped presents in a corner of my room. Someone suggested that my kids might have done it. But I told them that if the kids had done it, they'd done a wonderful job of imitiating little cat bites and claw marks!

I'm flustered and running late, and Libby comes into the bathroom and says "Mom, you are a La Conata." And I go WHAT? And she said it again. I asked "What are you talking about....what does that mean?" And she says "It means pussy in Spanish." I said "WHERE did you hear that?!?!?!?" And she said Frank told her. So I go into the living room and he is looking up dirty words on the internet in SPANISH on an English to Spanish translation website. NICE!!!

So I checked in at the office for an hour or so before I headed to the airport. The flight was late, so we missed our connecting flight from Houston. But luckily we were able to get on another later flight and made it into Corpus Christi at a pretty decent hour.

Hopefully my traveling is done for a while. I got home today and the house was trashed!!!

When I got home today, Carlie said she had slept in my blanket while I was gone because it smelled like her Momma :0)

Faked Me Out!

I pick the girls up from their afterschool program. Sometimes if I don't have heels on, I'll race them to the car. They shout "Last one there is a rotten egg!!" Madi almost always beats Carlie. So a few days ago, I grabbed ahold of Madi and told Carlie to take off. She beat us both to the car, but I was still wrestling with Madi. So I pushed Madi behind me and took off running. I hear squalling back behind me, and I turn around to see Madi laying on the sidewalk bawling with tears streaming down her face. So I go back and put my hand out to help her up. As soon as she was on her feet she darted around me and beat me to the car. I'm going to take that child to hollywood. It's pretty hard to fake me out!!!

It's Basketball Time!!!!

Here are some of my fav pics of the High School. The little kids haven't started games yet. I've really enjoyed my sports photography this year, and I've gotten alot of compliments on my pictures.

Happy Pills

I get anxiety around noises and crowds, so when we were getting ready to go to Thankgsiving at my Mom and Dad's house, I had packed an anxiety med to take with me. We'd carefully gotten all the kids packed, made sure Madi had pull ups, made sure we had Frank's meds, made sure we had the food we were planning on bringing. We made sure that we had the two dogs and cat loaded up too. We got to Mom and Dad's house and discovered that we'd left Bob and I's full packed bag on the bed. I grumbled jokingly "well, that's a bad thing 'cause my happy pill was in that bag!!!"

Later on the next day the house was noisy and the kids were screaming. Carlie was belting out a Hannah Montana song. I go "Carlie, would you quit singing so I can hear what your Granny is telling me?" She looks at me and says "Well, I know you forgot to take YOUR happy pill today. But I remembered to take mine and it makes me feel like singing!!!" :-P~~~~~~~~

Telling Liars

When the kids were little and someone was lying, they'd say that they were "telling liars".

Well yesterday was a hectic day. I was running late getting home from work. Libby had to be picked up at basketball practice at 5pm, and the little girls had to be picked up from after school care. Then the little girls had basketball practice at 6:30pm, and the big kids had their Christmas concert at 7pm. So I was trying to get them fed and dressed appropriately and the phone rang.

It was Madolyn's teacher...you know Madi...the one who NEVER gets in trouble. And here is how the conversation went.

"Mrs Pool, I have a concern about Madolyn. The first thing I need to know is Have you lost any family members recently?"

"Ummm...No."

"Madi didn't have a grandmother who died last week?"

"Ummmm....No"

"Well she came into school before Thanksgiving and she was just crying so hysterically. She told a teacher in the lunch room that her Grandmother had been killed that morning. They asked her how her grandmother died and Madi said that a tree had fallen on her car and crushed her.

"ohhhh...my."

"So, that's not true?"

"Ummmmm....no."

She said that Madi had told a whole bunch of adults at school about it, and she'd even asked if she could tell her class about it at sharing time. The teacher told me that she was going to send me a sympathy card!!!

Then she says "Mrs Pool...does Madi have a pet snake?"

"Ummmm....no."

"Well she told us this week that her pet snake had bit her on the arm, and she showed me a red spot. I asked her if her parents were there when it happened and she told me that her Dad was there, but he didn't say anything. And again she told about this during sharing time."

Finally Madi got a little wild with it and told them that she had 10 puppies at home and one of them got in the neighbors yard.

The teacher confronted Madi and asked her if she was lying. She said Madi just looked her right in the eye with a blank look and said she wasn't. She finally got her to admit she was lying and made her tell the class that she had told them lies.

I was TOTALLY mortified. The longer we talked the more I wanted to slide under the desk!!!

We asked Madi why on earth she'd told such big whoppers. She didn't have a good answer. She cried such big crocadile tears the whole time we were talking to her. Bob spanked her just like he does the big kids. Hopefully we won't have any future problems. Maybe she'll grow up to be an actress!!!

All My Chicks At Home

JB asked me if I would come and pick him up from his grandparent's house on Sunday so he could watch football with us. He even offered to cook. It was nice to have all my "chicks" at home.

"The girls and I are watching the movie "A Dog Named Christmas" and the three boys are downstairs whooping and hollering over the Steelers game. And I am smiling."

Thankful

I am Thankful for my sweet 7 year old daughter who brought me this paper from school this morning.

I am most thankful for ......Happy Thanksgiving!! There are three things that I am thankful for. Our backyard is very fun. My family loves me. I am thankful for my Mom. Thanksgiving is almost here.