Fishing with Grandpa Mike

The kids went fishing with Grandpa Mike. First time fishers got lucky. Chip caught a 6.5lb bass. The largest ever caught in that stock pond. Chip liked to catch it, but not touch it.

KayLyn caught a couple smaller ones as well.

And how did that tie breaker thing work for ya?

SO, just a few thoughts..
1. When can the Cowboys sign Tim Tebow?
2. Big 12 teams in bowl games this year 1 - 3. Who won?
3. What is that now 5 straight BCS games that ou has lost now?
4. It is great to see Barry sit and try to wiggle and may ou out to be better then they played. What was jerry jones thinking?
5. NCAA needs a playoff.
6. The big 12 needs a new tie breaker.
7. And the answer to #2 is the same team that beat ou in the regular season....

Texas Longhorns!!!
HOOK 'EM HORNS!!!!!

Texas Staduim Tour

We had big Chip and his family in from Houston. Since this is the final season for Texas Stadium big Chip wanted to go take a tour. It was a great idea!!! These pics are of the kids standing on the star on the 50 yard line.

Is he the next Cowboys QB?

At the Texas Stadium tour we got to see Tony Romo's game day locker. It was loaded with a set of equipment like Romo would have. Someone we all know got to put it on.

Have you ever seen such a big smile on his face?

KayLyn is a Junior Girl Scout

She had her official induction last week. Here she is getting pinned.

Who wants cookies?

Reds Season Wrap Up

So here is the break down on the post season tournament for Chips base ball team. They played hard and played well and won the first two games and made it to the championship game on Saturday.

They played the Cubs in the championship game and played well. Chip had 2 solid hits but there was no one on for either one to be of much help. The Cubs hit well and fielded well and ended up winning the game and the championship.

The Reds were disappointed, but they played very well. They were 7-1 in the season and 12-2 overall. Both losses were to the Cubs. Overall we very proud of the team and especially of Chip. His play has incredibly improved. His fielding and catching looks great and his bat scares many a pitcher.

This picture is of his team after the game. You can tell that they are a bit disappointed.

Reds win the fall league!!!

Chip's team the Reds has locked up first place in the fall league. They won the preseason tournament. Now they have locked up the regular season with a 7-1 record. We have a bye week this weekend then the post-season starts on Thur 11/6. It is a single elimination tournament, win and keep playing, lose and go home.

Chip has really started to look sharp. He has made some great plays in the field as well as behind the plate. His throwing has improved as well.

At the plate he is looking great. He is very intimidating up there. His strike outs are way down (only 2 or 3 all season), his walks are way up, and he has 3 doubles. One of those doubles rolled all the way to the fence (270+ feet to left field).

Longhorns Win 45-35!

Why we are where we are

Take 10 minutes to watch this. It is a bit one sided, but from what I can tell the picture it paints is very accurate on why we are in the mess that we are now on Wall St.

Thanks Jimmy!! Thanks Bill!! Thanks Janet!!

The Girls

Just so the girls don't feel left out.









THE END!!!!

Camping Part Deux

I will agree that the boys had a blast. However being responsible for 8 very active 10 and 11 year olds is not my idea of fun.



Here is some more pictures of Chip (or Warren as I had to call him all week). He loved the horses best, but despite the look on his face, he liked the zip-line almost as much.

Pine Cove Camp for Dad and Son!

Well Warren would never admit it, but he had a blast at Camp! He was in a cabin and in charge of 8 5th grade boys for 3 days. They rode horses, canoed, ziplined, looked at bugs, and generally had an awesome time. Here are some great pictures!

The picture below is one of Chip's teachers as she has some difficulty getting the courage up to leave the zipline platform.

Chip was a great "canoer" when he finally got the hang of it and got off the bank!

The bird eating out of his had was facinating to Chip! Yet there was no way he was touching the bugs and tadpoles, like the ones here.

In general Warren and Chip had a fabulous time bonding. Like you can not tell from Chip's facial expressions! KayLyn is chomping at the bit for her turn next year! What a great school district we live in that provides these opportunities for children!

How many Warrens in the USA?

I got this off on the the Dallas Morning News Websites. Nice to know that my name is pretty obscure. Of course this uses 1990 census data and since then there is at least one more of them. :)

Try your name and see.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 23 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

KayLyn has a shiner!!!

She ran into one of the neighborhood boys. It looks better in the pictures than it did when she first came in bawling.

Add this to the pictures of Mimi, Granddad and Howie and you kinda have to wonder what it is that runs in this family.

It is DONE!!

Michelle has now finished all her work. She sent in the last project now.

She is done. Do we now have to bow and scrape and call her Master?

Almost Done!

Well it is amazing how time flies and life changes! In January 2007, I decided it was time to step up the pace and get my Master's Degree. At the time I was an Assistant Principal at Universal Academy Charter School and hated working under someone who was not educated and had no clue how to lead a school. I knew if I was ever going to be able to move up I needed to get my Masters. Well as of this week I am done! It has been so much fun and I have learned so much. I have also made some incredible friends who have walked with me through this journey. Thanks Tara, Ves, Jessica, and Serita! Texas Woman's University has been amazing and I am so glad to have chosen them for my degree, even though they are extremely liberal. My professors have been awesome! Thanks Dr. Barbour, Dr. Casey, Dr. McClellan, and Dr. Keller!
Through my journey I have change school districts, gone back to teaching, moved to Frisco, and become the leader I know I was intended to be. Hopefully this will be my last year of teaching. I will participate in Frisco's Growing Our Administrative Leaders (GOAL) program and begin interviewing for assistant principal jobs next spring. I have to thank Warren and the kids also as I end this blog! I could not have done it without them. They allowed me to be gone two nights a week, miss games and programs, and study many nights! They rarely complained and I hope if anything I have imparted the ethics of being a lifelong learner and the importance of an education to my children. Warren is just praying I do not decide to go and get a Doctorate for a while, but the time will come I am sure!

Snow daze...In TEXAS?!?!?

Again, a few months overdue, but rewind back to the first week in March. We had, not one, but two snowstorms in one week. We had over 3" of snow in each one. The first picture is the first storm the day after. This storm started after dark. It all melted the day after.

The second two are from the second storm. Remember all snow was gone from the first storm. This one started during school and was still going strong after school was out.

This was all gone after second day as well. It was fun to watch from my office as this snow fell. It got me ready for skiing. Which will be dicussed in the next blog.

Painted Faces

We went to the kids school for Spagetti night. Part of the evening included bounce houses and face painting.

Chip could not decide if he wanted a football or baseball, so he went half and half. KayLyn went with the kitty.

Krisi on the other hand when with honey and nuts.

Long Overdue Post

Michelle referenced that I had a new years gift. I think most of you know that I started a new job with CVSCaremark. I am a Manager in Information Systems.

Incredible Husband

Well I have to tell you how wonderful Warren is to me! For the past 2 weeks I have been trying to stay caught up on my work at school because I thought Krisi and I were going to Memphis for a relaxing girls weekend. When I arrived home on Friday I was told that it was all a rouse and Warren was taking me away for the weekend. My wonderful mom came down and watched the kids and we went off. He had set up for us to stay at the Embassy Suites and we did everything I wanted to do all weekend. It was great I slept everyday! We went to the movie, we ate at great restaunts and we did lots of shopping! Thank you Warren for being so wonderful to me!

Michelle

Christmas at our New Home!

Well, we got moved into our new house on December 8th and had 2 weeks to unpack, decorate, finish finals (for Michelle), start a new school, and Christmas shop! All this and I was sick with Acute Bronchitis and on some heafty medication! We did it though! What a blessing to have such a wonderful family! We were so blessed to have BJ, Wendy, Lilyanah, and Ethne here this year! It had been 5 long Christmases without them! Thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to join us and get some extra needed sleep in BJ's case!
It was very also wonderful to be able to visit with Dad and Ann! They have blessed our children so much this year and I know they enjoyed the visit as much as we did. Our house was such a blessing! We were able to have BJ, Wendy, Lilyanah, Ethne, Mom, Granddad, Eve, Steve, Kyra, Tim, Julia, and our special friend, Kristina (who is family in our hearts) here with us. We were also excited that Max got to join us for one night of the season! He is a great little boy! We had so much fun playing games and fellowshiping for 4 days! Can you image 16 people celebrating the birth of Christ and Santa Claus together?! I have to admit I was under the weather most of the season and so Warren picked up a lot of slack and was an incredible host! This year we have learned some very hard lessons about the value of family! We lost some incredible men to disease and miss them terribly. We tried really hard to embrace the joys of the season, but there was a tremendous void without Howie and Jacky. There is also always a void where Mimi should be. Our joy comes from knowing they were all with us in spirit and looking down on all of us. They were probably all laughing and saying,"they have lost their minds to all be staying together like that!" We also were very saddened that Jim was not with us this year. He is stationed in Iraq. We sure do miss him and pray that he is staying safe. We learn from him each year that the freedom we have is possible because of the the sevicemen that defend us throughout the year! We do not like that he is gone, but we are grateful for his and all the other servicemen's willingness to go. I want to also say how blessed we were this year to have our friend Kristina with us! She has had a really rough year and it warmed our hearts so much to be able to open our home to her! If there is ever a lesson that I learned from my wonderful grandparents it is to always open your home and share with others the blessings and love that we have in our family! It is our prayer that she will have a much better year in 2008 and she will continue to spend Christmas with us in the future. I will let Warren post about the exciting New Year's gift he has gotten. Let's just say, "I love him and am so honored to have an incredible husband that loves and supports me!"


Michelle