Diners, Drive-ins and Dives!!

Went to Dallas today to get something fixed on Carl. I don't think Carl will be with us much longer because he is kind of sickly and I want him gone before we can't get rid of him!! I love driving it, but it seems to have way too many maintenance problems and I don't know that I want a 16 year old driving a car like that.

After we got the car taken care of we went to get a burger at this place we saw on the food channel the other night. We were NOT disappointed!! I ate every last bite of my messy juicy burger...

Here's the website for the place...and omg it was good!! http://www.twistedrootburgerco.com/

Very lazy day...

I did pretty much nothing today...didn't even take a shower....EWWW GROSS! Only time I left the house was to go get some hay. Only got 5 bales because John wasn't here to help me unload it.

Kacie was pretty excited though because she got to go to the feed store with me!! WOO HOO!!

Tuesday night at the Van Winkle's....

Went to my group this morning and had a nice time as always. The drive to and from was back because I gave Valerie my Israeli Jewish Friend a ride to group since she doesn't have a car. She cracks me up. She also makes me thank the Lord that I was born in America since she is from Israel and heard bombings and missiles almost daily and almost got killed when a bomb hit her house!!! She heard thunder yesterday morning and thought it was a bomb!!!

Came home...took a nap, cleaned up the kitchen and took the dogs out to play. Oh yeah...made some Gumbo for dinner and it was yummy....tortured Taira by text telling her how good the Gumbo was and that she should be here!!

Anyway....here's the pic for the day....a glimpse inside the exciting Van Winkle house!!! I know you are excited to see what goes on in here....

Meet Jonas

He has a name now....Jonas Toby Van Winkle!! I love him already and have only seen him twice, I can't wait for him to come home to us!!!

Had a few scary moments tonight, Kacie had a weird reaction to the Frontline. She is still breathing a little fast, but seems to be ok. I know I will never never never ever put it on her again.

I need to go to bed tomorrow because tomorrow is Tuesday and that means GATEWAY GROUP DAY!! I love my group, there are the nicest ladies in there!

Ivan's first show!!

It was a small schooling show, but you gotta start somewhere!! Ivan had some wide eyes for awhile, but he calmed down and did great!! They did 4 flat classes and got 4 ribbons!! She got 3rd place in a class of 10 and 5th in a class of 14!! WOO HOO!! She got 3rd out of 4 in another class and 5th out of 6 in her last class.

My goal was for him to behave and hopefully get one ribbon, and he got 4!! The arena was crazy though..IT WASN'T FLAT!! They had to go up and down hills as they went around the rail...it was nuts...I've never seen anything like it. I would be happy for an arena like that at home (since I have none) but good lord if you're going to have shows you should have a flat arena!!

Call me crazy...

But here's our new puppy.....he's coming home in 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. His mom is a corgi and Dad is sneaky neighbor dog. The girls are thinking about calling him Toby...but not for sure yet. I need to yell it across the yard a few times to decide if I like it!! John thinks I have lost my mind, and I tend to agree...but it's too late now...I want him...

Oh yeah...Allison asked to be cropped out of the picture because her eyes were closed and she looked like a dork!

My new fence

Someday it will be done....I hope. John's friends have been working on it since the middle of March....I'm getting tired of these people in my house. The barn/camper/white fence is not mine, they all belong to the people across the street. I wish it was all mine....but it's not. The half done unpainted fence is mine.....

Carl and the Jonas Brothers!!

Drove into Southlake today to meet up with John between his jobs. He had an errand to run and then we went to see a movie. We saw 17 Again, and since I've already seen it, I saw 17 Again again!!

The fun part of the day was my drive into Southlake since I took Alyssa's car. His name is Carl...why?? I have no idea, but apparently it's his name and who am I to question it. Carl is very fun to drive....He's a 2004 Mazda RX-8 and fast and fun!! I had the sun roof open and the Jonas Brothers blasting along the way!! Fun fun drive!!

Please don't make me go there...

Happy Earth Day!!! In celebration of Earth Day, I saddled up Skippy this morning and took a little trail ride. It's not very exciting where I can ride around my house, but it beats not riding at all! So we headed down the street and went riding for a bit.

Skippy was pretty good considering all the bugs that were flying up his nose!! And yes.....he did have to step his feet in the water before we left the lake!!

Homework....

Apparently Alyssa had a rotten day...you know teenage angst! So she took her homework outside and was reading 1984 on the back porch. She likes it, but I thought it was a horrible book. Too depressing for me.

I on the other hand had a really good day...went to hear a speaker at church with my Gateway Group and then we all went out to lunch. I had a yummy ham melt and was even a grown up and left the tomato on my sandwich!! I figure if tomato is good in salsa, then it might be good on a sandwich too and it wasn't bad!

Happy Happy Kacie...

Beautiful day and beautiful dog!! I tried to get pics of her sitting in the flowers looking pretty, but all she wanted to do was chase the stick!!

Hey!!! I just figured out that if you click on the picture you can see it bigger!!

Lucky you!!! Another Twofer!!!

Had a good day today!! Went to church which is always good!! Then headed to the movies to see 17 Again. It is such a cute movie!! We laughed and laughed and I would see it again in a heartbeat! Then it was off to Kohls to look for a graduation dress for Alyssa...then off to DSW shoes to find shoes for the dress....

So...the pics for today are the girls coming out of the shoe store and Alyssa's graduation dress...please try to ignore Alyssa's cheesy grin....it's a sickness, she can't help it. I was trying to get a candid shot of them leaving the store...but she sees the camera and HAS to smile...

Bonus Two Picture Day WOO HOO!!

Picture Number 1 is Ivan giving Pony rides. Hunter is autistic and LOVES animals and was excited beyond belief to see the horses. Ivan was soo good when the kids were on him and leading him around. Had to put a pony ride pic in today since I was so proud of Ivan!! In this picture Hunter is leading Ivan with Hannah riding and didn't want Dad to help at all! The kids had so much fun!!

Ok...here's the after picture of Alyssa's $100 haircut. She got about 6 or 7 inches cut off and highlights put in. The picture doesn't show the highlights so great, but they are there and it's pretty. Don't anyone freak about the beer because she is just holding it for me so I could take the picture and she doesn't like beer anyway!!

The Before Pic

Alyssa is getting a bunch of her hair loped off and highlights tonight so today's pic is the "Before" picture! It was near impossible to get a picture of her not smiling, because whenever the camera points her way she HAS to smile!! It's a sickness of hers...

When I got out the camera she said, "ew...I look like Poop" But duh.....all the people in the "before" pics look like Poop....they look unhappy and are never smiling. So stay tuned til tomorrow for her "After" picture!!

Apr 16-I GIVE UP!!

I give up.....Autumn will not stay off the counter so I am no longer going to try to keep her off of it!! The boys don't get up there often, but Autumn sits on the bar and counters every day all day....so that's it.....You win Autumn...it's all yours.

I've heard the spray her with water trick, but I think she might like that...she loves water!!

Kacie is weird

John worked last night so he was sleeping during the day today, for some reason Kacie feels the need to sleep UNDER the bed. She is a big dog, 60 pounds or so, so she has to lay on her stomach and crawl under there...but crawl she does!!! I think it's her "safe" spot......she's such a dork...

The Reason Behind Allison's Smile!

Had a good day today, went to my Gateway Group which is always fun, then came home and tried to think about what I was going to take pictures of today.....then I took about 50 pictures of the water faucet trying to get a cool picture of a water drop, but no such luck.

So, here's the picture of the day!! I took it out of the truck window when I was picking up Allison at school. Check out the boy in the Hollister shirt in the background, he is apparently what makes Allison's day meaningful!

Went riding today too, and thought about taking pics then...but since I went out on my own to a place Skippy has never been....I figured it would be safer to leave the camera at home!!

Bar Stools and Beer!

The agenda of the day was buying bar stools. We've needed bar stools since we moved in and John has invited friends over to watch a basketball game on Saturday so wanted something for his friends to sit on. So around 1 today we headed over to the base in Ft Worth and they didn't have anything we liked, so we bought some liquor for the yummy margaritas and beer and headed to Target. Found some nice bar stools that we could both live with, John got a wrench set and I got a nice picture frame and it was time to go home...

Headed home and had manwich and baked beans for dinner...yum yum!! I think I want John to make me a margarita now! :)

I think I took some better pictures today, but I'm trying to keep the pics relevant to the main theme of the day and today was a Quest for Bar Stools!!

April 12

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Quiet day on the homefront today. Went to church last night to avoid the crowds. Spent the day doing laundry, and playing with the computer. Kids went into town to see the Hannah Montana movie.

Here's Alyssa's Easter Basket on her messy bed!

April 11, 2009

I saw an idea somewhere for a daily photo blog, so although April 11th is an odd day to start one....it's as good a day as any!! So...here goes!!!

I'll start off the photo tour with a cute new foal at Allison's lesson barn!! Poor little thing had a rough start in life, but hopefully she is out of the woods now.