I almost forgot

This car must have been the smallest car I've ever seen. The license plate said "Dwarf". It even made Robert look like a big man standing next to it. Ha Ha.

Cars

Yesterday we went to a car show. Robert just loves looking at the oldies, I don't mind either. He really liked the T-bird and the Shevelle. He is always talking about getting an old car and fixing it up, then we would have a Sunday cruiser. Hopefully one day he will be able to that.

Homework

Here is Marrissa doing homework and of course Spike wanted to be next to her. I thought it was so cute. Here she is trying to keep him away from her book. He just loves to walk all over her books and papers. I guess he thinks he is the king around here, well he is sadly mistaken, He's Not!!!
Now he is loving the belly rub she is giving him. He could lay there all day. What a spoiled dog.

A sad week

When we returned to school on Monday, after being off last week, we got the news that one of our 2nd grade girls passed away over fall break. It is so hard to understand the death of a child. They say she had the flu and had been throwing up and went to sleep and never woke up. Is that soooo scary or what!!! It was very emotional for me because she was in my kindergarten class a few years ago. I would always see her outside at lunch time and she would run to give me a hug. She will be greatly missed. This makes the 2nd death at our school in 9 months. Most schools never have to deal with death, but we have had our share. I hope there are no more. I just don't think people could bear it. Please keep their family in your prayers. The little girl's name was Celeste Munuz.
I just can't imagine lossing a child.

I forgot to add this in last post

Notice in the picture of last post that Spike has his famous blue ring with him. The one he loves to eat with. We have bought him many other toys and this is still his favorite one of all. He could care less about all the others. I sure hope we never lose it, he will be a wreck.

Spike's favorite place

Can you guess where Spike's favorite place to be is? Out of the entire house it is under my bed!!! This dog is like my shadow. He's driving me crazy. Don't get me wrong, he is a very good dog, but loves to follow me everywhere. The past couple of weeks we've been training him not to jump on people and he finally got it. So now he will come and sit next to you and expects to get patted and be told what a good boy he is. That's great right? Well if you don't pay attention to him he starts to cry, like a little baby. I thought once he learned not to jump up on you he would be good and not need so much attention, boy was I wrong. He wants attention all day. It's like having another kid in the house. I sure wish he was Marrissa's or Robert's shadow,but no he always wants me instead. Go figure!!!

All about Ducks

Today Marrissa and I were out, because we are on fall break this week, and we saw some ducks at the lake. I wasn't sure if they would be nice or try to chase us. I've heard that geese will chase you down, but I didn't know about ducks.
This duck was really cool, he had a pretty color green on his head.

They are very loud.I have never been up this close to ducks. It was really cool!!!

We got a visitor!!!

Yesterday my brother was in town on business and we got to have dinner with him. It was so nice to see him. I wish we could have seen the kids and Cheryl too. I really miss my family, so when I get to see them it's great. The food was very good. We really enjoyed ourselves. We haven't had any visitors in a long time, I guess it's just tooooooo hot for everyone, It's even way toooooo hot for me!!! Anyway it looks like we've had a few drinks by the way we're smiling, but all we drank was tea and soda. How funny. I'm so glad we got a chance to see eachother, I only wish we could have had more time. I guess you can't have everything.

Soccer

Today Marrissa has soccer pictures instead of a game. She doesn't like her new jersey. She said it looks like a boys jersey. I told her who cares what it looks like, this is no fashion show, it's soccer. Girls!!!! After her pictures she wants to go shopping to spend her birthday money. She can't keep it too long or it will burn a hole in her pocket. Ha Ha.

Happy Birthday Roo!!!

Today is Marrissa's 12th birthday. I can't believe it. Time goes way too fast. When she was born was one of the best days of my life. It changed everything for the better. I thank God everyday for her.
Let me tell you how she got the name Roo. When she was first born my mom nicknamed her Rissy, then her sister would call her Rissy Roo and the Roo just stuck. So we mostly call her Roo, but also use Rissy. We tell her Rissy is a very special name because that was the name her grandma, who loved her very much, gave her. That always reminds her how special she was to her grandma. She can't remember her grandma, but she will always know how much she cared.
She tells me today she wishes she was 13 instead of 12. I told her to just slow down. I don't know why these kids want to grow up so darn fast!!! Here is her cake we had for her on Friday night. It is an oreo ice cream cake. It was yummy!!!
These are a couple of her friends that come over on Friday and we took them to an amusement park. Of course she wanted it to be a sleepover, she likes that every year.
These were some rides they went on. Marrissa was nervous to get on the sky diver, it lifts you up way high and just drops you. After the ride she loved it. She likes all those crazy rides. I'm just getting to old to get on them, they make me feel sick.
She tells me look mom I'm driving. OMG I'm definitly not ready for that.
Well we're off to dinner at outback steak house. We always let the kids pick where they want to eat for their birthdays and she always picks the same place. Can you guess what she orders??? Cheese fries and Macaroni and cheese. Can you believe it, that is what she orders at a steak place. Only my daughter!!!

80's Flashback!!!

Today Marrissa had her first middle school dance. The theme was the 80's. I told her that was my generation. She told me how funny people dressed. She had a good time. I told her she better not have danced with any boys and she said the only time I wish I could have danced with one was when the slow songs came on. She said she was kidding, I guess she wants to give me a heart attack at a young age. OMG, I can't even believe she is already interested in boys!!!
She turned out so cute, she would have fit in perfect back then.

Here she was acting like she was working out. Don't you just love how I got the dog's head in the picture as he was walking by.
Of course she had to get Spike in one of the pictures. As you can see he wanted nothing to do with the picture taking.

Riding bikes

The other day we were riding our bikes and Marrissa feel down in the grass. Spike was just looking at her thinking what are you doing?. I had intended to try to get a picture of the sunset, but I was too late, it had already gone over the mountain.

Clouds

Yesterday afternoon I took these pictures of the dark clouds that I was hoping would bring us rain. You would think we would have got a lot of rain, but not a drop. Can you believe it, nothing. It rained all around us, but not here. It is always like that, the clouds roll in and we get a big dust storm,but no rain. I guess it just doesn't like to rain in Avondale!!! I love the rain. It is so relaxing . The good thing about it is that it cooled down.

My favorite children's book

I just love the children's book Love You Forever. It's about how a mother loves her son through all the stages of his life and in the end how he loves her in return. If you've never read it, you should. It has such great meaning about how we mother's really love our children. It has a song the mom would sing to the boy that says "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be." Now that is love!!! It reminds me of how my own mom loved me before she passed away and how I love Marrissa. There is nothing like a mother's love. This plaque hangs in Marrissa's room. I got the sticker at a scrapbooking convention that Bridgette and I went to last year. I could never find a plaque for it, so we asked Robert's mom and Tony if they could make us one. Didn't it come out beautiful!!! They are very talented you should see the stuff they have made. The only thing I did was put the sticker words on it. But anyway this is just a reminder for Marrissa how much I love her.

Jogging!!!

A few weeks ago I had this idea that maybe if I started jogging I would loss weight pretty fast. Ha Ha. Let me tell you I have never in my life liked to jog or run, so why I got this crazy idea I don't know. So Robert said he would do it too. The first time I jogged I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I'm really out of shape. I would jog one block then walk the next. I thought after I do this a few times I bet I'll be able to jog the whole way. Well it's been about a week and a half and I'm still jogging like the first day I started. I'm coming to the conclusion that maybe jogging isn't for me. I'm still going to keep it up another week or so. Even Marrissa can jog the whole way.
One day after we got back I told Robert to pose for me so I could get a picture of him as if he were jogging. He is such a good sport.

Playing Games

This weekend was a very relaxing weekend. We didn't do much of anything but lounge around the house. It was very nice. One day Marrissa and I decided to play games. I really like to play games. My favorite is scrabble, but my family doesn't like to play it that often, so it is rare that we play it. Here we are playing sorry. Of course Marrissa won 2 out of 3 games. She is very good at games. We also played yahtzee and I won 2 out of 3 on that one. Anyway now our weekend is almost over and it will be back to work and school. Today we are going to go bowling and of course Robert will beat the socks off of Marrissa and I. He is a very good bowler. I just keep thinking one day I will beat him. I just have to practice more. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

My baby girl sleeping

Here is Marrissa sleeping. No talking back and no attitude!!! These are the moments I love. It reminds me no matter how big she think she is, she will always be my baby. I told her I was going to post this picture and she said "I hope I wasn't drooling or anything". When she was laying on the couch she said I'm not tired and 5 mins later she was out. She can be exhausted with circles under her eyes and she will tell me I'm not tired. She has fought sleep her whole life.

Yeah!!!

Marrissa found out today that she made student council representative. I told her it's not all fun and games, it's hard work. She told me "I know mom!" Those are always her famous last words. Anyway we are proud of her.

Grilling!!!

Today Robert is grilling some steaks. We had been wanting a charcoal grill because steak comes out so good on them. So one day Robert comes home with this one he made at work. He did a really good job and it was stuff that he already had at work, so we didn't have to go out and buy one. I'm so glad my husband is so handy. It sure saves us a lot of money. Ha Ha. The steaks came out great!!!

Running for student council

Marrissa decided to run for student council. She had to get 5o signatures and tape a 30 second speech on why she would be a good 6th grade representative. Here she is making her posters to hang around the school. She made 6 of them. There are 11 people running for representative. They vote Friday, so she will have to wait all weekend to see if she made it. I really hope she gets it. I'm just so proud of her!!! I never did anything like that when I was her age. I just can't believe how outgoing she is. I just don't know where she got it. Robert and I were both too shy to do any of these things.