Houston Zoo Party!

On saturday of our trip we went to the Zoo. My aunt's friend Diane threw a surprise party for my Aunt Wilene. We met early and checked out the Zoo and then headed to the childrens area for the party. My Aunt was suprised to see us there (YEA for not posting about being in Houston! Sorry again to all my facebook friends). Lola fell asleep right before the party. I got the cutest picture of her hugging her party hat in her sleep!
It was a lot of fun. We got to hang out with Grandma Darlene and Trish and Annabelle made the drive down with the Dallas crew.
After the party Heather, the kids and I got to have dinner with the birthday girl. What a fun time!

NASA

On our second day in Houston we went to the NASA Space center. It was really neat. The kids liked playing with all the fun hands on stuff they had and I enjoyed all the information.
Sophy had a rough day and spent most of it throwing fits. Not our best day, but we survived it. Someday I'll be able to go to NASA and actually hear what they say, but until then I'll just remember the screaming....
The next thing we did was drive down to the shore and look for dinner.
We found a great little pizza place that threw the pizzas and it was YUMMY! I think I liked that part of the day the most!

Trip to Houston

So as many of you now know we just got back from a trip to Houston. Customarily I like to post each night that I am gone with an update from the day so I don't forget and everyone can share in our vacation. This time I was prevented from doing that. We had traveled down for my aunts surprise party. Since she didn't know I was in town we weren't able to post on here or facebook or anything! I felt so cut off from the world! I did take lots of pictures and saved my posts though so you could see it now!
Our trip started on Monday when my sister and her three kids arrived at my house in OKC. I took them out to POPS for dinner. It wasn't much, but we didn't have too much time. The rest of the night was spent finishing the packing for the next day. On Tuesday we loaded up my kids, her kids and ourselves in her minivan and took off. Our first official stop was going to be Dallas to visit a little with my grandmother. We did mosey on down taking time out for the gainsville outlet mall and IKEA before actually meeting up with grandma.
We spent the night in Dallas and headed out after breakfast for Longveiw Tx to see my grandad. Once again we were moseying along and stopped at the Outlet mall in Tyler along the way.
We spent the night Wednesday in Longveiw and headed out the next day after breakfast for Houston. As soon as we got to Houston we headed to the Children's Muesuem. Since we have a Science Center membership here in OKC we were able to get all of us intot he children's museum for free! We like free!
The mesuem was awesome! The kids favorite part was a town built for kids. They were all given an atm card and had to work jobs in the town to get their paychecks. They deposited their paychecks in the atm machines and could get out money to pay for things in town. Sophy liked being a chef inthe restaurant the most and Lola liked being a cop.
There was much more on our trip, but you'll have to check back to see it all!

A book update:

As most of you know I had two big resolutions this year. I'm not big on making resolutions as much as I like to have goals. There is a huge difference in my opinion between the two. For example, if I have a resolution to not eat sweets this year I will feel like I have failed it in January when I break and eat a tiny cookie (followed by a bigger cookie, who are we kidding here, I LOVE sweets!). However if I have a goal not to eat sweets I don't feel I've failed after eating a cookie, I just shake it off and try harder. A goal is a challenge, if at first you don't succeed try try again....and all that. With a resolution I feel I have to stay true or fail.
So this year I made resolutions. I wanted to read 100 books this year, hopefully they would be 75% or more new books (as in never read by me, not brand new). I also wanted to make sure my makeup and hair were done every time I left the house.
Funny how my resolutions quickly turned into goals in my head. I think I made it until March before necessity had me running out the door sans makeup. And I found 100 books a daunting endeavor. I like my book goal though because if I fail I can still try again next year. Someday I WILL read 100 books in one year. It just may not be this year.
Part of my book goal required me to write down what I read so I wouldn't forget. I'm glad I did too, because I'm pretty sure I left something off the list already even though I can't remember what it is ( I'm pretty sure I borrowed a few books from you mom, so can you remember what it was I read that's not on the list?). This is a habit I hope to continue forever. I like having a list of my year's reading. It's a nice reference.
I did a little math yesterday (shocking I know!) and found that I was far from my planned path to 100 books. I knew that was coming though. I haven't found near enough time to read this year as I had hoped. Pesky life keeps getting in the way. I have now set a much more achievable goal of 50 books this year hoping to work my way to 100 in the future, however I will not truly give up on the 100 book goal. So 50 I am resolved to hit and 100 is my goal.
With that said here is the list of books I have read thus far:
Books I've read in 2009:
1. The Warrior Heir by: Cinda Williams Chima
2. The Wizard Heir by: Cinda Williams Chima
3. The Dragon Heir by: Cinda Williams Chima
4. Pride and Prejudice by: Jane Austin
5. Mansfield Park by: Jane Austin
6. The Hunger Games by: Suzanne Collins
7. Confessions of a Shopaholic by: Sophie Kinsella
8. Shopaholic takes Manhattan by: Sophie Kinsella
9. Shopaholic Ties the Knot by: Sophie Kinsella
10. Shopaholic and Sister by: Sophie Kinsella
11. Shopaholic and Baby by: Sophie Kinsella
12. Persuasion by: Jane Austin
13. The Princess Academy by: Shannon Hale
14. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by: E. L. Konigsburg
15. Shadow Spinner by: Susan Fletcher
16. The House of the Scorpion by: Nancy Farmer
17. (Placeholder for book I borrowed from mom (about a girl who's parents turn into pigs...)
18. Leven Thumps: The gateway to Foo by: Obert Skye
19. Leven Thumps: The whispered secret by: Obert Skye
20. Leven Thumps: The eyes of the want by: Obert Skye
21. Leven Thumps: The wrath of Ezra by: Obert Skye
22. God's Tomorrow by: Aaron Pogue
23. Ghost Targets- Expectations by: Aaron Pogue
24. The Mysterious Benedict Society by: Trenton Lee Stewart
25. Strange Happenings by: Avi
26. The Shakespeare Stealer by: Gary Blackwood

For those wanting reading suggestions I HIGHLY recommend a few on this list: #1-3, #6, #13, #16, and #22&23. #26 is a cute story, but the writing is poor. I liked many of the others, but am hard put to recommend anyone pay money to read them. If you would like you are welcome to borrow my copies.
I have several books on deck:
The lightning Thief by: Riordan (and it's fellows)
Fairest by: Levine
The Dark is Rising by: Cooper
The Tapestry By: Neff
The Catalogue of the Universe by:Mahy
The Puppeteer's Apprentice By: Love
The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio By: Alexander
The Return of Calico Bright by: Winkler

There are of course many books I plan to re-read this year, but for now that's the list. Have any of you read any of these? Any suggestions of which I should read next? I'm waiting on The Lightening Thief until after I can get the sequels from my mom so I don't have to buy them. Also if you know of a great book or series that I haven't listed please speak up. I LOVE hearing about new books!

My new skills...

Look what I learned to do!