Don't Feed the Animals

Yes, you read the title right and no we didn't listen.

We woke up Friday and headed out to the zoo first thing in the morning to make it by 9am. We were joined by Travis, Tyler, and Cooper. Three adults, three kids under 3, definitely manageable. It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day to go to the zoo and it was not crowded which made it even more fantastic. We saw lots of different animals and probably Shelby's favorite part of the day was going into the petting zoo, which was all goats. The goats looked beyond disgusted about being constantly petted and one goat was lucky enough to get a kiss from Shelby. Oh and yes, Shelby had to reach down and pick up a handful of goat poop. Thank goodness for the hand washing station at the entrance to the petting zoo. She also really liked the sea lions. They would jump out of the water and make a big splash and she thought it was great. We also had a hard time getting her away from where the elephants were getting a bath. It was behind glass so Shelby got a great view. I think Tyler's favorite part of the zoo was asking me if we could go see another animal. I lost count of how many times he asked me that :). And Cooper liked to tell each set of animals bye and wave. I did see Tyler slip one of the monkeys a goldfish cracker. The monkey really enjoyed it. We also had a squirrel beg for some goldfish so we fed him too. We ended the zoo trip with lunch and the rest of the afternoon everyone was wiped out. These pictures are a little out of order, but I'm super tired and this is the best I have tonight!!!

The best view!

All three monkeys checking out the sea otters.

Hopefully lazy and hairy is not her type. She was trying extra hard to plant that kiss just right. She also pawed in the dirt just like the goat.

I love me some goats!!!

Here little goat....

Is this goat night night?

Papas if you all are reading this, I would like one of these please.

This is what was on the glass on the monkey enclosure where Tyler slipped a goldfish cracker thru the separation in the crack.

Cooper feeding Mr. squirrel.

Ross feeding the squirrel.

Travis was the first to feed the squirrel.

This one is for Sarah.

I've doubted evolution all along, but the resemblance is a little scary.

Checking out the animals.

Sweet Tyler giving his little cousin Shelby a hug.

Shelby was fascinated by lots of the animals.

The stay at home moms at the zoo.....they only wish!

Hills and Valleys

The last week or so has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. First, I have been following the health of my former high school volleyball coach via mass emails that her sons have been sending out. She has been battling cancer and sadly passed away this week. There is a memorial service on Saturday in Katy for her. I plan on attending. She was a really sweet woman and an awesome volleyball coach. She was the kind that you played your heart out for because you didn't want to disappoint her. She retired to lake LBJ before I graduated and would come back, track me down in the hall and give me some words of encouragement. The coach that replaced her was TERRIBLE and Coach Beck knew that I struggled for motivation to play for such a coach. She even, on one trip to Katy, stopped at my dad's office and dropped off an inspirational card for me. She was the best!!! She was at Katy High for over 35 years and has a junior high named after her and her husband who was a counselor.

Then for a hill....I cover weekends occasionally for my grandparents real estate company and this weekend, specifically Sunday was extremely busy. I showed two different tracts of property to, ironically, two couples from old Katy. And I have written my first offer. I had to seriously bite my tongue as we walked all over the 69 acres. The man wants to venture into having cattle of his own. If I wasn't the agent I would have run down the list of why this is not a good idea and what to expect when you have cattle. I have said many times that hamburger is just too cheap at the grocery store! (Linda, I know you got a chuckle out of that) We are hashing out legal issues with the minerals, royalties, etc. Hopefully, we make it thru closing!!!

Now for another valley.....A couple of weeks ago my father and grandfather went hunting. They ended up coming home early because my grandfather had a terrible cold. The cold was pretty bad so he went on into the emergency room. The doctor let him know that he had bronchitis. There has been a lot of this going around. I'm not sure if it was at the er or a follow up visit, but at some point they drew blood and discovered that something was not right. He ended up having bone marrow taken and tested. Grandpa was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic syndrome, which is also known as pre leukemia. He is undergoing shots right now that have a 30% chance of completely correcting this and keeping the syndrome from turning into leukemia. He will also be undergoing chemotherapy. The doctors told him that there is an unusually high amount of cases in his area. I am sure there is some sort of chemical exposure to blame. I ask that you keep him in your prayers.

On a happier note, Ross is taking off Friday and we are headed to the zoo. I can't wait to see Shelby's crazy reactions to all the animals!!! I will post pictures!!!

Going Back to Christmas

Christmas, round 5, was spent with Ross' family. The whole family was together from the Stockers from California to the Hortons from Florida. The Hortons came into town to surprise Ross' parents. We don't get to see them very often so it was a nice surprise. The kids had a great time and of course got a ton of stuff. I think Grandma Johnson just can't help herself. While they were here Ross and I went to a New Year's eve party and Shelby stayed with Grandma and Grandpa at Uncle Travis' and Aunt Sarah's house. It was nice to get out and even nicer to sleep in. We were told that Shelby was a good girl!

The same weekend Ross' aunt Sherry, cousin Katie, and myself threw Kelsey a baby shower. Our niece, Callie Dianne Stocker, is due in early April. After the festivities and everyone heading home in 4 different directions I thought I would be getting some rest!! It had all been a blur since Thanksgiving! Ross and Shelby had another round of colds after everyone left. I still have not gotten my rest.....

Real Estate has been keeping me super busy. I have been doing mini appraisals for banks. Most of them are on properties that are about to be foreclosed on. I have to take a picture of the front of the property. Shelby, obviously comes along, as I don't even have to get out of the car to take the picture and the rest I do from my computer. I do this while Shelby takes her nap and after she goes to bed. I thought maybe I would get to do one every once and awhile....I was wrong. Last week alone I did seven. At least one of these I will be listing once it is foreclosed and the present owners move out. It feels pretty nice to be contributing financially to the family once again.

As for Ross, he just got back from hunting with his family. Since we were out of venison Ross shot a doe and made a gourmet venison dinner for us last night. If I have not told you all already, Ross is an excellent cook!!! Ross is still busy building houses and amid all the builders laying off and going out of business he is still hanging in there. He is still waiting on his day to be a stay at home dad.

And little Shelby is growing smarter and funnier by the day. She obviously gets her goofiness from her daddy. She is really into kicking up her leg right now. She stands in front of my dressing mirror and does it. She was sitting on the stairs today and kicked her leg up and kicked herself in the head. To be so flexible.... She has grown quite attached to her stuffed kitty, whose name is "kitty kitty". She sleeps with it. Ross told us when she opened it at grandma's that it was a snow leopard and ironically we turned on the discovery channel last night to a show about snow leopards. I now can confirm that Kitty Kitty is in fact a snow leopard.

I am uploading some pictures but I still need to get some from aunt Kristen from all the Christmas celebrations.

Shelby opening Kitty Kitty with Aunt Kristen.

Playing with Kitty Kitty.

Shelby checking out all the animals on Noah's ark.

Shelby showing off her unwrapping skills.

Shelby getting on her new tricycle that looks like a little bike with training wheels.

Speed mama!!!

Aunt Kristen and Shelby on the carousel inside Katy Mills Mall. Shelby LOVED it and did not want to get off.

Shelby checking herself out in her first hoodie. She loves this mirror and is quite vain. She can stare, talk, and dance with herself for a long time.

Yup, I look goooood.

Ah, busted....I didn't know you were back there.

Christmas!

I will post the pictures shortly.............

Where to begin? Christmas has been chaos as usual. We have had 4 rounds and the 5th will be January 1st with the Johnson side of the family. I feel like all I have done is eat for a month and I can assure you we have wiped out a small flock of turkeys in our family.

So lets start....we started off the weekend before Christmas at my dad's mother's house. We ate and ate and opened presents. One turkey down......Shelby got some cute little miniature pans and a spatula that are actually real from my grandma. She is a typical child in that she likes to play with pot and pans. The big hit of that Christmas, for Shelby, was my cousin's stuffed bob cat that was at grandma's house. She hugged it, petted it, showed us where the nose is, etc.

Ross' parents had come up to eat with part of the extended Johnson family that were flying out to Kansas City for Christmas. Ross' cousin Karyn and her husband Steve recently moved there from DC. Karyn is due in June with a little girl. We got to eat with Ross' grandparents, and quite a few aunts, uncles, and cousins. No turkeys were harmed in that gathering.

The next round was Christmas eve at my dad's father's house. Shelby chased the barn cats around and did hold one for a little while. After that, she would walk up to them and stick her arms out as if she was saying jump in my arms. Aunt Kristen took her to see grandpa's turkeys and taught her to gobble. Now she gobbles at us. It's pretty cute! Shelby got some dvds, money for her college fund, and her step great grandmother's rocking chair that belonged to her as a child. We enjoyed a Christmas bonfire but had to leave to get Shelby to bed. One more turkey sacrificed for our consumption.

Christmas night we went to my parent's house. Shelby had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone including her cousin Tink. Tink and Shelby played all night and Shelby loved to get kisses from Tink! She even learned how to throw Tink's toys so that Tink would get them and bring them back. Shelby got more things than I remember....lots of clothes, cute Aggie sandals, a stuffed kitty that looks like a bob cat (although Ross tells us it is a snow leopard), a tricycle, dvds, etc. It's good to be the first grandchild :). She opened the presents from us as well. We got her a kitty (or in Shelby's words "itty") purse, some dvds, a plastic giraffe that you ride on, and a noah's ark toy. It was a white meat free night.....

This past weekend we went to my mom's parent's house. Shelby enjoyed being with everybody including Tink again. She spent some of the day outside and did her version of skipping in the leaves. The only way I can explain her skipping is she goes up on her tippy toes instead of getting her feet off the ground. It is pretty cute and grandma Leyendecker got a big kick out of it. Shelby got some more clothes, a couple of toys, and some money for college. We supported the turkey farmers once again.

And now I know why I am exhausted..............

48 HRS

Ross just came back from West Texas without a deer. He saw some bucks but didn't get to shoot any. While Ross was gone we were going to have time to Christmas shop, etc. Shelby decided otherwise. The morning that Ross left Shelby was sneezing and I knew what was coming. Ross had been terribly sick and lovingly passed it to Shelby. Lovingly because I am sure it had to do with the millions of kisses that he can't help but give her. Well, she got full blown, miserable sick as I posted last time and thankfully Grandma Leyendecker came to help us. For 48 hours Shelby was just absolutely miserable. She is much better now and just a little snotty. Before I post some pictures I do have to tell a little side story. It is a little off color so if you get offended easily stop here and just scroll down to the pictures. So the story goes that we were eating dinner tonight and Ross decided that he needed to burp (I know it's disgusting but it happens) and it was pretty loud. Immediately after it was over Shelby looked right at him and did her best impression of the burp she just heard. It was hilarious, at least I thought so. Enjoy the pictures.

This is sick Shelby. This is actually the second day of being sick and she was doing much better at this point. She is camped out on the playroom floor watching Elmo with her sippy cup of Dr. Pepper laced with Tylenol. Am I a bad mom? And then the day after that.....

She is back to climbing the walls or her horsey.

And yes she stands straight up and lets go with her hands. Trick riding must be from Ross' side of the family. My balance is not that good.

Our Bean Pole

Shelby had a checkup this week. She was 32 1/2 inches long (95th percentile) and 22 lbs. 3 ozs. (45th percentile). I told the dr. she eats all the time and he told me to continue feeding her as she is hungry because she is needing the calories to grow. He then looked at her chart and said she is on target for being 5'10. He did say +/- 3 inches but his best estimate was 5'10. She had two shots and was a trooper.

Ross has been terribly sick but decided to go to West Texas hunting anyways and left yesterday morning. I don't understand guys!!! This morning Shelby woke up with the same crude that Ross has and she is MISERABLE. She was crying and head butting me and just plain feeling bad! I called the nurse (aka Grandma Leyendecker) and she said to give her something cold and recommended coke. I gave Shelby some Dr. Pepper and she smiled thru her snot and nodded her head. She just started nodding her head yes and no this week.

Going Backwards....

Oh, where to begin....the last two weeks, they have been a whirlwind. I am going to start with the most recent and go backwards. We just returned from Port Lavaca. Usually this is to just visit with the Hahn side of Ross' family. This time it was not so laid back and fun. Ross' grandpa Hahn passed away on Sunday. We were 30 minutes from being home from Thanksgiving when we got the call. We unpacked the truck, did 7 loads of laundry, and repacked. Tuesday morning we picked up Ross' sisters from the airport. Kelsey flew in from San Diego and Kristi from Jacksonville. It was good to see them but we wish it was under better circumstances. The viewing and funeral went as to be expected. Lots of tears and hugs. The consensus is that Grandpa Hahn is either fishing or flying right now in Heaven.

The memory that sticks out the most for me of Grandpa Hahn is this.....Ross' Uncle David brought Ross' Grandpa up to Columbus a couple of years ago to go fishing. Ross and his grandpa fished and fished and fished. My dad kept telling me, tell Grandpa Hahn he can come in and take a nap in the cabin and I've never seen anyone enjoy fishing so much, especially at his age. Grandpa Hahn was probably 83 or 84 at this time. The memory that sticks with me is Uncle David, my dad, my mom and myself were standing on the hill looking at them fish. Ross and his Grandpa were in one of those plastic paddle boats that we all love to ride in as kids. You know the kind where you feel like you are peddling a bike. They were facing away from us and I pointed out how the boat was really leaning Ross' way. Now you could take that the wrong way and think that I was making a comment about Ross size. Well I was. It dawned on me when I saw this, how cute it was to see Ross peddling his little Grandpa around the pond. It made me feel like even though it was obvious that Ross was not a kid anymore he still got joy out of simply going fishing with his grandpa. I wonder what the fishing is like in heaven?

Ross is now terribly sick. I'm sure it is due to the lack of sleep and stress.

Thanksgiving we headed to the ranch that Ross' grandma Hahn grew up on in Oakville. There were lots of family, food, and tents. Shelby decided that she would revisit the first week of her life and not sleep very well the first night. We were sleeping on the porch of the house and at 3am we moved into the tent with Ross. At this point she had already been up 5 times. I think she was cold. Needless to say, Sarah, Cooper, Shelby, Grandma Johnson, and myself spent the rest of the nights in the hotel. The guys enjoyed hunting and the girls enjoyed being with the kids.

We were at Oakville from Wednesday thru Sunday and these are the only pictures I took. Shelby decided that she would walk over, plop herself down by her daddy's truck and play in the dirt.

This is good quality dirt. See how easily it moves thru my fingers.

Come on mom, there is room for you down here.

Before we left for Thanksgiving, Grandma Leyendecker, Aunt Kristen, Shelby and I decided to go watch the tree lighting in downtown Katy. The parks department provided the snow. Shelby loved the snow and we couldn't get her away from it. We finally took her over to where they were going to light the tree and she made a mad dash back to the snow. I guess we will have to take her to New Mexico sledding when she gets a little older. Aunt Kristen and I enjoyed that as kids.

Taking Aunt Kristen for a walk in the snow.


Touching snow for the first time. Notice the short sleeves. It was really warm.

Ross and I experienced a first a couple of weeks ago. We went to a Quincenera. For those of you that do not know what this is the fifteenth birthday party for a girl in the Mexican culture. They are very extravagant and often cost more than their weddings. We had a good time and it was an experience to say the least. Out of the 300 or so people there, we and the couple that came with us were the only white people there. The birthday girl is the daughter of one of Ross' contractors. They were extremely nice to us and treated us like we were special. We have to give a shout out to Aunt Sherry for watching Shelby. We really appreciate it.

And back to two weeks ago. Ross took a couple of days off of work and we went to the North Zulch area to see Ross' sister Kelsey and husband Charlie. They were in from San Diego to go to a wedding and stayed over at Charlie's family's ranch for a couple extra days. We had a lot of fun with them riding four wheelers, playing speed scrabble, and watching elmo. Yes we watched elmo over and over again. Thanks to the Stockers for allowing us to come and crash the party.

Uncle Charlie and his motorcycle mama.


Aunt Kelsey, I can do this up and down the stairs stuff all day long. Kelsey is due in April with baby Callie. We can't wait!

Do we look alike?

Shelby loved the four wheelers. Now when our neighbors fire up their motorcycles Shelby starts whining to go along.

Shelby's very first four wheeler ride. It was freezing so we bundled her up.