Evan's Spring Concert

Today Evan participated in the spring concert at his school. He still doesn't want me to put his photo on the blog, so no pics with this post. I was so proud of his performance in the concert. Typically, since he has started school in fact, he has pretty much just stood there, barely moving his lips during any type of singing performance. Today, he actually sung and even did a duet with another boy in his class. It was awesome to see him singing so confidently in front of a packed room of parents and teachers. Way to go Evan!

Laid Back Sunday

The weather was really gorgeous on Sunday. Todd worked in the yard and the boys were great about helping him.

We played a little basketball and I ended up knocking Evan in the face with my elbow. He recovered after a little ice. He is tied to Todd at the hip and helped him cook some pork chops on the grill. They were very tasty!







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Ready, Set, Action!

Every few months the Sunday school class at our church makes a movie. The students decide on a theme, write the script and play all of the roles (under the direction of their awesome teacher, Mrs Jennifer). After months of preparation, today was finally the day of the shoot. The whole group met at our house about 9:00 this morning and the work began. We had planned on having lunch about 11:30, but by 10:00 the children were starving, so we put the food out early. It was pretty much gone in about 30 minutes.

After the filming was done, it was play time. The boys played Madden football, jumped on the trampoline and threw the football in the yard. The girls did some playing outside, but it was really humid, so they finally ended up playing some games on the Wii. It was a great time for everyone and we can't wait to see the final result.

Mrs. Jennifer shooting some of the action.

 "I'm ready for my close-up."

Movie making made everyone really hungry!

The boys playing Madden football.

Look who else likes watching the Madden video game.

Thanks to the chief cook and bottle washer!

Muddie Gets a New Habitat

As you can tell from my updates on Muddie, she is growing like crazy. Since the day that Evan brought her home, he knew that she would one day outgrow the original habitat that he bought for her. He has been saving his money and finally got enough to buy a larger tank for her.

Yesterday after school, he, Chad and I headed off to the pet store to see what we could find. We got the largest reptile tank that they had and it should be the last one that she needs. Evan was so proud opening up his wallet and giving his hard earned (and saved) money to the cashier.

We decided since the tank is heavy and glass, that it would be best to wait until Todd got home from work to help us get it in and set it up. Evan and Todd used a cart from my office and between the two of them, were able to get the tank in without any mishaps. Now, with all the room that Muddie has, she almost looks small. I am proud of Evan and the great job that he is doing taking care of his pet.

Be careful, we don't want it to fall off!

Getting this thing in takes teamwork.

Evan can't wait to get the new habitat set up.

Now she has lots of room!

Evan's photo of me and Muddie.

Have you ever seen a happier lizard?

Busy Saturday

Todd woke up yesterday and noticed that his clock was not illuminated. He went and checked our electric panel and saw that one of our breakers had tripped. To make a long story short, it turned out that there was a short in our septic tank pump and that it had bitten the dust.

Todd is very good at mechanical things, so we started calling plumbing stores to see if we could find a replacement pump. After instructions to use as little water as possible to avoid a backup into the house, Todd was off on his quest. One trip to the plumbing store, two trips to Lowe's and several hours later, Todd had the pump changed out and we were up and running again.

In addition to that project, we also had our friend with the tractor return and do more leveling of the dirt in our backyard. Who knew that owing a house was so much work!

Septic crisis of the day.

More backyard work.

The boys played outside a lot since the weather was beautiful. Evan has insisted that I don't put any more photos of him on my blog, so it may be a while before you see him again.

Chad throwing the baseball.

"We love to play catch!"

Muddie

Friends have been asking how big Muddie is getting. Here is the answer. She's not a baby anymore.


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New Monitor Setup

My awesome husband set up my work area with two monitors. I just have to use my one mouse to go back and forth between the two screens. It is pretty sweet. Thanks, babe. Now, let's see if I can get twice as much work done!


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Sad News

I got the sad news that a school friend of mine, Keith Hogan, passed away yesterday. It was really a shock as we had a brief communication on Facebook just two days ago. Keith had muscular dystrophy and had been in a wheel chair for as long as I had known him. He was always upbeat, was very smart and never let anything hold him back.

Below is a short documentary video about his daily life. The group black and white photo that is shown one minute into the video was a class picture that we took in 8th grade when we went on a field trip to the state capitol in Austin. I am in the last row (of course) directly behind Keith.

My sympathies and thoughts go out to Keith's family and friends.

Coin Show & Geode

Todd has collected coins for many years and Evan has taken after him and started his own collection. Thus, when Todd heard that there was a coin show going on this weekend, he knew that he and Evan had a date.

In addition to all of the coin collecting, there were also booths with geodes. They bought one with the promise that the plain looking rock had beautiful crystals inside. Once home, we couldn't wait to crack it open and see what was inside.

Evan looking at some of the coins that he got at the show.

The geode in one piece.

Todd breaking the geode.

Wow, it is full of gorgeous crystals!

Evan's Spring Break

Evan has been off of school this week for spring break. Since the public schools were out last week, that is when the gym he usually attends had day camp. Thus, he has been stuck at home all week. It has not been a problem as he is very good at keeping busy.

Todd plays a game on Facebook called Farmville. It involves setting up a farm, planting different crops and then harvesting the crops for coins. Todd logged Evan into his account a couple of days ago and Evan has been very diligent in keeping the farm growing, montoring when it is time to harvest and generally keeping everything going. Impressive farming, Evan!

Evan had taken over Todd's Farmville game.

In addition to virtual farming, Evan has been having a lot of fun hoeing in all of the dirt that we have outside. He was so excited about wanting to plant something that Todd agreed to get some plants and help Evan do a "patio garden." Todd came home with a few things and he and Evan transplanted them into some larger plastic container. I think these will take longer to grow than the virtual ones.

Todd transplanting some tomatoes, jalepenos and cilantro.

Helping dad with real plants.

Today, Evan got a little bored and decided to dig into some of the materials that we have to use in science experiments. He found some food coloring and thought that it would be a great idea to have a green hand. The results are below:

Evan thinks that having a green hand is very cool!

The result after Evan tried to wash the food coloring off.

I helped him wash again and this is the best we could get it. I guess it will just have to wear off!

Easter 2010

Now that the boys have gotten older and know that there is no Easter Bunny, I tried to come up with a way to make the day fun. The result was a treasure hunt. This is the way that it worked: Todd and I came up with clues that led each of them from one location in our house to another with their Easter present awaiting them at the last stop. We came up with the clues the night before; I did Evan's and Todd did Chad's. Of course mine had to rhyme and make Evan use his imagination. Todd thought that was way too much effort and made his a little more straightforward.

The boys were both up early and ready to go on their hunt. It went pretty well. There were a couple of clues that we had to help them out on, but they pretty much found all of the clues on their own and had a fun time searching the house. Evan ended up with a new Pokemon game, Soul Silver and Chad got a cap that he had been wanting.

After church we went to Monique and Andre's for a family lunch. We had bar-b-que with all the trimmings and some traditional Lebanese food that we only get on holidays. It was sooooo good. Luckily, we got some leftovers and will be enjoying those for a couple of days.

Chad with his clues and new cap.

"I followed all of the clues and found my present!"

"Boy, these packages are really hard to open!"

Muddie on her new rock. The guinea pigs were jealous because the Easter Bunny forgot about them!

Fun Friday

We had a nice family day on Friday. We took a little drive to N. O. and ate at our favorite Indian food restaurant. Evan loves the chicken and naan (flat bread). He turned into a bottomless pit.

After lunch we went shopping at some furniture stores. Our favorite was an unfinished wood store. They had a neat saddle stool that Evan could't resist trying. Chad wasn't too interested in taking a turn.

Ride 'em cowboy!

Evan trying out a bench.

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