Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everyone had a wonderful day. I woke up to Hubby trying to sneak out of the bedroom. He ended up taking the youngest child and running to the store for V Day presents, lol. I got roses, chocolates, a mug with a mini balloon and chocolate roses, a small stuffed frog that makes kissing noises and a stuffed dog. Several of these things were picked out by the 7 year old, lol.
Anyway, I gave Hubby a pocket watch and a card that my mother had found for me. He was very surprised and really likes his new watch.
We went to breakfast and then to Target where the boys each got to pick out a couple packs of collector's cards.
I also managed to go grocery shopping for the next couple of weeks. Not great on my checking account, but I did stay within the budget I'd set for myself. I'll have to go back for produce and milk, but I think we're set on meat and cheese and that kind of stuff.

Shoe Depression

I have extra wide feet.
I don't know if they are naturally that wide or if it is the result of several broken toes.
I do know that shopping for shoes with extra wide feet is a pain in the butt.
I don't shop for new shoes often because I have to shop online or at a store across town to find my size. The biggest issue with my feet is that while they are extra wide, they are only a size 6.
So, it seems that the stores think that if you have extra wide feet,
you want to wear grandma shoes.
Rounded toes and no heel.
BORING!!!!
And now, I'm going back to the search. Occasionally, I find the perfect pair at the perfect price.

Ramblings from a Redheaded Mama

Ok, so it's been awhile, I'm sorry. I've been waiting for Tall Dark and Goofy to do a write up for me on the East West Shrine Game that I could post with pictures of the clowns that I took that day. However, between his crazy work schedule and the amount of pain he's been in because of his stupid shoulder that the stupid doctors have refused to fix, it just hasn't happened yet.
I felt guilty and now am posting nonsense.
There are several things going on in our household, new things being purchased, which might include a new camera for TD&G since he hasn't had a new one in 5 or 6 years. I found a new doc for him this morning, and read an article from Johns Hopkins on labral tears that might be very helpful if this doctor ALSO tries to tell us that he can live with this pain (either that or I might just hurt him since this will be the 5th orthopaedic specialist we'll have been to). Since said article said that most labral tears should be treated with some sort of surgery, I think we're good to go.
It's bonus time and we're working on the things we need that we can't afford during the year. Of course, this also includes paying off the surgeon from my gall bladder removal. TD&G and the middle child both need to go to the eye doc. TD&G needs contact ('cause he's almost out) and middle child needs new glasses since he lost his at the lake.
We'll be setting some money aside so I can go to the PartyLite annual conference this summer in Atlanta.
We have a long list of things we want and things we need and we'll be very careful about where the money goes. I'm hoping that our tax refund can go into savings, but it might have to pay for surgery (one can hope anyway).

Armed Forces Bowl

So, my camera batteries died pretty much as soon as we got in the stadium. Here are a few I took before the game.

I took this one simply because I loved the wording.
The game took place at TCU, where the mascot is the Horned Frog.

This is my mother at the tailgating breakfast.
My father is the bearded man with the blue hat on.

This is the oldest child.
I'm not sure which of his brothers he's giving the annoyed look to, probably both.

The younger two children.
They were watching the marching band play on the staircase.

Mr. Goofy Gooberhead himself, my hubby.
We got the scarves as we went into the tailgating breakfast (woohoo FREEBIES!)
The sweatshirt was a present from my mother, Dad has one also.

No pictures of me because, as always, I was behind the camera.

I love packing...

We are getting ready to head up to Ft Worth this week. We'll only be gone for one night, but we're renting an RV and trying not to spend much money on food while we're there.
The University of Houston Cougars are playing the Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl on New Year's Eve. We're going up on Tuesday and will be heading back after the game.
I'll probably have pictures to share when we return.
Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve!!

Family Pictures

Saturday was piano recital day. Notice the well dressed children.
Also notice the silly faces.
They were allowed to have a silly face picture if they'd stand nicely through other pictures.

Hubby and I wanted one of just the two of us.
Thanks to my sister for taking it.

The nice one I got of all 5 of us.
Note that the older boys are getting to be as tall as I am *sigh*

The nice shot of the boys.
The oldest turned 13 on Sunday, he's in the green shirt
The youngest, in the snowman sweater, is 7
and the middle child is 11.
Middle child picked out his tie all on his own, even wanted a suit coat to wear, lol.

Doin' a happy dance

Hubby's off from work this week!!! We'll probably just spend that time hangin' out around the house and decorating, but it's SOOOO nice to have him home. He's already taken one load of stuff to storage, just to get it out of the house.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a great weekend spending time with family and friends.