Change

Bout to take the blog to a whole new level! Big changes coming!

What a waste!

I am so sick and tired of looking back with regrets. Folks say no regrets, but when your mistakes hurt your children then it's time to start taking a look at what's going on in your life and try to change some things. I think I seriously lack character judgment. Going to Family Camp way down in Texas today and man do I need it. I need to be around good people who remind me of the standards I used to have for myself. I am done wasting precious days of my life on people who are nothing more than selfish takers.

Summertime

It has been a lazy summer at the Haest house. The kids have been sleeping in almost every day, sometimes til 11 a.m. Fine by me, I measured them at the beginning of summer, we will see how much they grow after all the sleep and constant snacking! They can go through a container of ice cream in a day! Ok maybe I help a little with that. They have been playing with their friends quite a lot. It seems I am always running them to or from somebody's house. I decided not to join the country club this summer, to save moolah. It hasn't rocked their world the way I was scared it would. We have been to the water park a couple times, and Creekmore once, although that's not our fave because it's so crowded. And of course, there was the beach...!

We went to Treasure Island, near Tampa FL, for 4th of July with the Haest family. I had planned to drive down there, I like road trips especially now that the kids are older. But my mother-in-law Letty insisted we let her fly us down. My driving makes her nervous, and especially that long of a drive, with nobody to share the driving. I was actually glad we flew, it was so much easier and quicker. I wasn't sure what all was planned for the trip, and I was pleasantly surprised to realize it was to be a simple, relaxing, beach trip. No Busch Gardens, which would have been fun but hectic, no water parks, just the sand and the water! I never get tired of the beach. I got up early every morning, got some coffee and headed down to the beach for some quiet time, then to the hotel gym for a nice little workout (and I do mean little, I get bored by myself and give up after about 30 mins). There was a huge complimentary breakfast every morning, where the family converged and said our good mornings and pigged out together. Then on with the swimsuits and goggles and out to the beach for a day of sun and water. The water temp was perfect. The company was wonderful, hadn't spent any time with any of the Haests since Christmas. Everybody always remains very well-hydrated during the Haest vacations ;) I drink more on a single vacation with them than I do the rest of the time combined! The kids had a blast catching up with each other, and playing Sharks and Minnows and Marco Polo in the hotel pool. Three of the five nights we cooked dinner in our suite kitchens, and twice we went out, the last night it was just the adults and we went to an amazing restaurant called The Salt Rock Grill. Fabuloso. I have never had such fresh oysters, calamari, and shrimp. Yum. And the wine was so good but I do not remember what it was called. I will be going back to that restaurant one day! Oh, and I did make an attempt at some beach pics but it was sprinkling on us and I picked a really unflattering outfit for myself, which I only noticed afterwards, so I'm not really happy with the results but here are a couple pics.

We have another week or so til we travel again, to Oklahoma for a family reunion, then a couple weeks after that we will head down to New Braunfels, TX. First we will spend a day or two at Schlitterbahn water park, I think it's the largest in the world, then we will report to T Bar M for Family Camp, this will be our 4th year in a row to go! Cannot wait. And just a couple days after we return from Texas, it'll be time for the kiddos to go back to school! SO our summer is just about over. We have enjoyed every minute of it. I have been focusing lately on not wishing life away, no more "I can't wait till...", just enjoying each day and each season as I have the pleasure and privilege of living it.

Summer Fever!!

I am tired. In an effort to get rid of the "insulation" I put on over the winter and Holidays, I have been working out twice a day at the gym. Yesterday I did over 200 squats and 200 lunges, I don't know, I totally lost count at some point. My body is screaming at me this morning, and the shin splints are awful. BUT it's working. The little muffin top that had crept upon me is gone, and there just seems to be less of me. Yay! I have not only been working hard in the gym lately, but it's been Finals week and I've been studying hard. Yesterday was my last final and I rewarded myself with a child-size chocolate almond milkshake at Braum's. I savored every sip (had to sip it, if I had gulped, it would've been gone in one gulp). There was about an inch-thick layer of almonds on the bottom, they were so yummy and made me feel better about the whole thing since almonds are the good kind of fat. I can justify anything.
I'm not sure if it's the exhaustion from working out or what, but I have been having terrible dreams this week about people close to me dying. Then I got a call Tuesday night, which I ignored because I was studying, from my mother. I totally forgot to listen to her voicemail until Wed morning, and when I did, I heard her crying and panicking, and telling me she and her husband had just had a car accident and she just wanted to talk to me and hear my voice. I immediately called her, of course. She and her husband were ok, car is most likely totalled. They had hydroplaned. Stupid rain. Geez I feel like the world's worst daughter for ignoring and forgetting phone calls from my mother, especially in her time of major need. I will have to do something extra special for Mother's Day to make up for it. Eek.
My Summer break is here and I should be happy and carefree but I am a tad bit stressed and down. Probably has a little bit to do with the nonstop rain. Or the fact that my almost 5th-grader son is growing way up before my very eyes. He has to have the smell-good squirty-squirt every morning before school, and the hair has to be just so, looking very similar to that Zac Efron guy's, which I don't love because how can a person see with their hair all in their eyes? I dunno. In the next couple of years, he is going to start noticing girls and then I will be officially freaked. In any case, I am ready for the kids to be out of school so we can start enjoying our summer together. I am ready for trips to the lake and endless days at the pool. Better mood next time I swear!

Catchup

I'll start out with a "thank you God" that my kids are still well, and a knock on wood...I was smacked down by the flu last Saturday and today, a full week later, is the first day I have felt like a normal person since. I have never been a person to get sick often, maybe once every few years, and I hope it is a looong time before it happens again. I have my normal voice back today...I think the kids enjoyed my not being able to yell at them! The only good parts of this story are that 1) I caught up on my movie-watching, I highly recommend Slumdog Millionaire, Marley and Me, and Seven Pounds, and 2) I lost some weight! Never a bad thing to not have to do my crazy dance to get into my jeans!
I am 33 now. Creeping up to that age that, when I was a kid, I deemed "old". I had a low-key birthday, did some shopping and some work in the flowerbeds, then my family had a little party for me at my grandparents' house with a pretty red velvet cake.
Spring Break with the kids gets more and more fun every year as they get a little older, more mature, and able to appreciate vacations. This year I kept it simple, and we drove to Dallas to spend a few days with my mother-in-law Letty. The kids adore their grandmother, and the Haest Homebase is a wonderland for the grandkids. Lots of toys to play with, a creek to explore, a park three lots down. I wasn't quite sure Sam was going to survive the lack of caffeine in the house though! Letty only has water, milk, oj, and wine! She is an extremely healthy eater and drinker! By the third day, we had to grab Sam a 2-liter of Dr Pepper to keep him from going over the edge! Poor kid. We went to the Dallas zoo while we were there, ice skating at the Galleria, where the kids had the entire rink to themselves for about a half and hour, until other people started arriving, then it still wasn't crowded at all. It was Sam's first time to ice-skate, and I don't think he had to grab the wall at all! He is a natural. Mariel had a lot of fun with it too. They skated for a full 2 hours, giving Letty and me plenty of time to visit. We took the kids mini-golfing, which is always fun. We played Parcheesi and spent lots of time out in the sun, it was lovely! The only downside to the trip was my discovery that my very favorite clothing store, La Mariposa, has been closed down. I had been so excited to go there and buy lots of new outfits for spring and summer and was so bummed! I made the kids endure a half-day at the outlet mall on the way home instead. They got some pretty good stuff out of it so not tooooo much complaining. My son has discovered labels. Suddenly he wants Hollister t-shirts, and everything else has got to be Puma or Nike. Oh boy, it starts. I am finally going to get paid back for my pre-teen obsessions with Pepe, Guess, and Lawson jeans and Dooney and Burke purses!! Yikes! I got myself some sweet new running shoes so I was pretty happy. I cannot wait to get back into the gym to try them out!
School is back in session and now Sam is counting the days till Summer vacation. Mariel loves school and being with all her friends so she doesn't care. I don't like getting up early these days so I am looking forward to Summer as well. I am thinking of ditching the country club here in Greenwood for Fianna. I want to play tennis and Mariel needs to learn too. We have a vacation planned at Clearwater Beach in July, I am sure I will never want to come home from there! I am a beach person, and it's a wonder I haven't packed it up and moved somewhere more near a beach by now!
Well it is Saturday, and I hope everybody has a fabulous weekend. Stay healthy and safe!

What's new with moi

Well "it has been a minute" as all my beauty school sistas would say...the holidays and computer issues have kept me away, plus this that and the other...
What is new in our world? Not a whole lot, but I have gone back to school. Doing hair is NOT for me, I probably could have told you that halfway through cosmo school. I don't like it, and I'm no good at it. If I were good at it, I would probably like it. And if I liked it, I would probably get much better at it. Maybe. But who cares, I don't want to do hair and that is that. I'm applying for the nursing program at UAFS, because that's what I've always wanted to do in the first place. I'm basically ready to apply, going to do so in the Spring. I have had to retake a couple of classes because it has been 5 years since I had them. THAT stinks because they are hard classes and I did well in them before. My brain is older now and Oh Lordy it's tough...So I am filling up all my spare moments with studying and homework, and you can tell by looking at my messy house. Oh well! I know my Dad will be so proud of me when I finally get my degree. He was the one who convinced me to go ahead back to school. He has always been right about everything, and I haven't taken his advice nearly enough, especially when it comes to the big stuff! Changing that now...

Nov 2

Everybody is doing so well in the aftermath of my Uncle Monty's death. There have been tons of visitors and phone calls so there haven't been many quiet moments for Aunt Susan to really reflect on what has happened, which is a blessing. I have been helping out with Monty's young grandson, took him trick-or-treating with us Friday night, he had the time of his life and has enough candy to last him til next Halloween.
TV Channel 40/29 came to the house and interviewed Susan yesterday and she was happy to have the opportunity to let people know how special a guy Monty was. The family is really pleased with the piece they did. Here is the link:

http://www.4029tv.com/video/17867116/