Mal's first lesson

Yep. Mallorie started lessons today with Ms. Jean. She taught my sister & I when we were kids. Mallorie seemed to really enjoy the lesson. She listened to every word Ms. Jean said. Mallorie normally hangs on to about 3 or 4 words anyone has to say and that's about all she can handle, so you can guess we have never been more proud of this kid than we were this morning. She did everything she was asked to do to a "T". (What is a T anyways?).

Here she is leading Smokey to the cross ties:


Learning to groom:


Saddling:


Up we go!


Today was just grooming and saddling. Next week she will start riding.



And this is what I looked like when Ms. Jean taught me:


Toodles, Karla

Happy Thanksgiving

Lee had to work this fine day of thanks. The families were invited to the station. We went. We ate. It was nice to be able to spend the time with him. I love that guy.

Yikes! Bikes!

Yep, we finally got some. Our butts are sore, but we are happy. Its the perfect time of year for it! Although we only get a short while in the evenings to enjoy them before the sun goes down. Daylight Savings is like a slap in the face to Floridians, I always say. As soon as the weather is bearable enough to go out of doors, its too dark to enjoy it!!

Halloweenie Beanie Jeanie Boo

The title? I dunno, let's not talk about that.

The kids had fun. That's what matters, right??? Anyways, they did. Basically nothing out of the ordinary, we ate a lot of candy and went bed a little later than normal and woke up with candy hangovers.

So here's a pic from last night. Mallorie the 50's rocker and Gillian the "regular ole alive" cheerlearder... To explain: She wanted to be a "dead" cheerleader. We tried to do the make up and she did not like it. It was pretty bad. She decided to wipe it off and just be a regular cheerleader. She was super cute anyways. Its too bad. She would have been the only 5 year old dead cheerleader out there. What an imagination! Love it!

Other than that, not too much exciting has been going on. Lee is almost done with Haz Mat school and we are thrilled its almost over. Mallorie is now in the chorus at school and on the Media Crew (they do the morning news at school). Gillian is still bad to the bone, but she behaves at school, which is most important and surprising.

Love, Us

My birfday treasures

For those of you that don't "do" MySpace, I've reposted this here. Just basically wanted to share a few items that were wonderfully, lovingly handmade for me for ma big bday. In no particular order they are as follows:

A portrait of Bernadette by: Kimberley

A beautiful handbag by: Crystal

I just had to show them off. I'm sorry about the aweful photographs. Thank you guys so, so much!!!!! You make getting old pretty damn great.

We went to Disney, I wrote a blog about it, wanna read it? Here it goes.

Yes, it's true. We went to Disney yesterday. I'm not a Disney freak or anything, but I do have to admit that I love the Magic Kingdom. I do. I said it. I don't care what any of you think. It is Magical damn it! Well, except the bathrooms, they are not so magical.

We make it a point to go at the most tolerable time of year when the crowds aren't so bad and the weather is not so life threateningly hot. Normally we will skip a day of school/work to go and the crowds are even less, but this year we didn't think Mallorie, being in 5th grade could afford to miss a day. It was a tad busier than we are used to, but we have no complaints. The longest we waited in line was 20 mintues I think. Not bad at all! The average wait for anything was 10 minutes. Plenty of time to just reflect upon the differences that human beings have. Lee & I enjoyed hours of silent stares & telepathically saying to each other - WHAT THE HELL IS THAT PERSON THINKING! OR, LOOK AT THAT FREAK!! Again it was silent so the kids didn't know what we were saying or thinking. Teehehe!!!

Here is some imagery of the day for ya!

Typical entrance shot.

I don't think I've ever been at Halloween time. It

was pretty cool.

Minnie's house.

She has her own studio, just like you Kim!!

In a cage, just the way I like 'em.

Getting ready to ram me & Gilli. Lee was in charge of the pedal....

It's a small world. It really is a small world! We ran into my brother's girlfriend Kathy & her kids. How crazy is that? How do you run into someone you know at Disney for cryin out loud??? Weird.

The tiki guys.

I love that they do this now. Love it!

Gillian was tall enough to ride on Space Mountain this year!! It was so exciting! She loved it. I was freaking out the whole time with her sitting in her own seat. But she loved it. She was petrified in the Haunted Mansion even though she's been in it more than 3 times now. Poor thing. Mallorie & I ran to get back onto Splash Mountain one more time before closing and got SOAKED!

It was a great day. Comment at will or not, whatever.

Love, Us.

Dave Matthews concert

We took a trek across the state last weekend to see Dave Matthews in concert with our friends Nicole and Charlie.

Here they are:
Lookin cute.

Here we are:
Cute as well.

Those boys:


And us girls:

The concert was good (I think. teehee)

This is a random shot, but isn't it the cutest picture you've ever seen??? C'mon people you know it is.


That's about it. Not too much new is happening. Bernie is getting big. I'll post newer pics soon.

Love, Us

Poor little bunny...

This tiny little baby bunny was hidden in the grass and couldn't move fast enough out of the way when Lee was mowing Saturday morning. Without being too graphic, I'll tell you that she lost a leg and her tail. He ran her inside and we didn't know what to do. We were thinking of humane, quick and easy ways to put her out of her misery and then she started licking Lee's finger!! At that point we couldn't do it. We called around to a few local vets and no one was open. Lee took her to the Wildlife Refuge in Punta Gorda at Ponce De Leon Park and the nice lady said they would do what they can to help her. In a tragic end to the story, Lee called today and they were not able to save the poor girl. At least Lee feels better knowing he did all he could as well.

Well, the 4th day of school anyways......

So to remedy the 1st day picture debacle, the plan was to take 2nd day pics. Well, lazy & forgetful as I am, the 4th day will have to suffice. Still as cute, I must say.

Mallorie is doing well. She likes her teacher - says she's strict, but funny. You can't ask for more than that as a parent!! So far so good in 5th grade.

Kindergarten is going pretty good for Gilli. She had a rough 3rd morning with some tears and anxiety, once reality kicked in that this is how life is from now on! But she worked through it, realized her tears really don't get her what she wants - unfortunately :( And this morning went very well!! Lee & I walked her to the gym where they all gather & wait for the teacher, kissed & hugged goodbye and then went to the corner to hide and watch until she walked away in a line with her class. She did great! She was smiling and even talking to a friend while they waited. We were proud.....

Good day to you.

The sleepover...AND THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL PEOPLE!!

Mallorie's actual birthday was Saturday and she had a couple girlfriends sleep over. The girls had a blast. They swam, talked about boys & most importantly, they watched High School Musical 2. It was a 10 year old's dream.

This is them fighting over the tv when Troy Bolton came on to sing his solo. For those of you lucky enough NOT to know who that is, he is the modern day Danny Zuko on High School Musical 2.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

So, now we move on to the 2nd part of the blog title to the first day of school... I don't even want to talk about it, but I suppose I have to since this is a BLOG. Gillian was really excited and happy to start her first day of kindergarten! Mallorie too - 5th grade that is. I was balling my EYES OUT! It was terrible. My baby is gone - no longer a baby. Its a horrible feeling. I'm not going to sugar coat if for any of you that have little ones. I want to crawl into a hole and strap her to my chest so she cannot EVER grow up!! She's the baby! Next year I think will be worse with Mallorie going into middle school!! I'm fine with her this year, since she is still in elementary. But middle school?? C'mon!!! OK, enough of that. This is the part where I tell you you cannot see any pics of the first day of school because I'm so flustered that I ACCIDENTALY DELETED THEM. Terrible, I know. Don't fret, we'll stage the whole thing again and no one will ever know. Well I guess only the world wide web will know, but that's it!

Signing off, Weepy Mom...

A visit with the Metzgers

Last night we had an awesome visit with our good friends Nicole & Charlie². That's Big Charlie & Baby Charlie if you didn't catch my algebraic lingo. Anywho, there were chicken wings galore, spirits and laughter. Thanks guys for comming by!!

Nicoli Volkoff and the Bucket o'Pee himself.

Charlie²

Baby Charlie

I really wish this one wasn't so fuzzy. Don't know why it is, but I just love it and had to share!!

Oh and obviously I'm also expirimenting with a new layout here for the blog. You like? You care?? I think I like the left justified much better. Next time, Friends... next time.

Anyways, this is all for now. Enjoy your weekend!

-karla

Happy Birthday Mallorie!!!

Here she is, the birthday girl!!


May I suggest to those of you living down south, considering procreation - Don't plan for an August birth!! It makes birthday parties excruciatingly HOT! Thank god my mom has a pool!!




The kids had a blast. I think there were 10 kids in total. Lee's little sisters & brother were down from Ohio to add to the head count.

Cake time is the right time!!! I discovered that cupcakes are the same price, you don't have to cut them & they are less mess!!!





Lee grilled hot dogs & hamburers. He was brave to stand by the hot grill and sweat his... well it was hot.



There are so many other pics. Check them out at Flickr. Just create a free account to be able to view my pics. Just send me a message to add you to my contacts and you can see them all!! Ok? Do it.

-Karla

The kids got a hold of the camera...

Mallorie called me at work the other day, super excited, "Can I PLEASE take a picture??" Apparently she was playing fasion designer and tied Gillian's shall into a Mallorie Original Creation. Fashion shoot ensued:





Of course she then needed to put her signature on it by taking a shot of herself!

She got one of Bernie too. She's pretty good, that kid!

For those anxiously awaiting a post about the big bithday party, you'll have to wait a bit longer. Sorry folks!!

Let's see...

What can I blog about that won't be too boring for ya?

Here's a picture of us, that I don't hate.


Bernie has discovered Casey's bed and quite enjoys it. See:


This was cool. I was out at 5AM letting the dog pee and I looked up all blurry eyed and saw this:

I guess it was from the space shuttle or some kind of Mars probe thingy? I dunno. Lee told me, but I wasn't really listening. It was just cool to see.

This was cute. Pretty self-explanitory - a rare puppy moment. Good thing I got a shot of it because mouth kissing is definitely NOT something that we will allow in the future. Gross! Tongue directly on lips!


That's about it folks.

Love, karkar