Free Market Foundation

I will admit I am a political junkie. I drive my husband crazy because I would much rather watch the news channels than just about anything else. My favorite channels on the radio are am talk radio. I have been depressed the last two days b/c my fav Lara Ingram got taken off the Dallas channel. She was my friend, I have never met her but I felt like I knew her. I have some back ups but she was my favorite. When we moved here a few years ago I signed up for Free Market Foundation newsletter so I could get their voting pamphlet. I would get their emails and hear some about them. They do lots of very important work in and out of the court room preserving conservative Christian values here in Texas. Anyway at Jakes FB game a week ago one of the moms was talking about how her husband was at the RNC and she didn't want to go b/c she has went before but then when Sarah Palin was chosen she really wanted to go. Anyway we started talking about Sarah and how exciting this has all become. She asked me if I knew what her husband did, after telling me I knew why his name was familiar. He is one of the driving forces behind Free Market Foundation(actually the President and general counsel). She invited me to this luncheon. I was really glad I went. I know I need to do my part to stand up for families, marriage between a man and a women, life, and everything else that has made our counntry great. I really appreciate people like the Shackelfords who really give their life fighting for Christian values. I know that I can't do much but I have to admit that Sarah Palin has made me think that I can make a difference. We have to start in our community. I am thankful for Grandpa Hartley watching Nightline and all those other news shows even though I was bored at the time. I remember just wanting to understand what they were talking about. I think some of it rubbed off. I am afraid it is happening to my children as well. Allie loved to debate kids about Romney last Spring. She even wrote a mock newspaper article for TAKS pretesting about Romney getting elected. I think my Aunt June would have been proud of me for attending and if she lived in Dallas would have been there too.

The Bus

This year my kids ride the bus and I LOVE IT. The reason I love it is because I do not have to wake up Evie and Nielie to take them to school. It is really nice because my girls will sleep to at least 8 or later. When the kids leave for school the girls are asleep and 90% of the time Nielie is asleep when they get home. I feel like they so much happier not getting woke up in the morning and afternoon picking up kids. It is nice to be able to focus on the big kids in the morning and get them out the door. They seem to think it is pretty neat too. This is a funny side note, another reason I love this town. One of my friends, who has a kids in college and some that ride the bus with my kids grew up here. She told me the bus driver is the same bus driver she had. It reminded me of Mr. Walker and how he drove Troys kids after driving us all those years. Remember all those mornings he waited for us? What about Sarge, and how Mom thought that really was her name? She really was nice to us though and was such a good lady but she could really scare us. I still remember when she would sometimes ask to use our bathroom, that was so weird but it was an awful long bus ride. It was a good thing that she drove in the afternoon, we would have missed alot of school if she would have been the driver in the morning, she would have never waited like Mr. Walker did.

Back to School !!!!!

The kids have been back in school for a few weeks and are loving it. Jake was so excited four boys from his FB team are in his class. Chase loves his teacher, I don't know what she is doing but she is really motivating him. It is really fun to see him excited to go to school. He loves bringing me home his folder and showing me what he has done. Allie has some some nice teachers too. She is having fun playing FB with boys at recess. She told me the girls play tag and that is kinda boring. In fact Friday after school she got invited with Jake to over to friends house and play FB with the boys. I asked her how it felt to be the only girl with 11 boys, she didn't answer me. She knows how to make her Daddy proud!

Supermom Blogger

I saw this on the Today show today.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26620845/

Her sister continues to write about how she is doing. Her sisters blog has some pretty neat thoughts into tragedy and life. Anyway it has inspired me to enjoy each day. Besides the fact that she shares the same religious belief as me, she is a mother, a mother who knows what really is important.
http://nieniedialogues.com/

Our Pet Turtle

This is our best picture of the turtle-


When Adam was coming home the other night he saw this turtle on the road so he picked it up. It was the best entertainment! I was surprised that they didn't kill it because of all their playing with it. It lasted over week till Allie let it out of its home/rubbermaid box and it crawled off. A few week later I learned from Pam that turtles can carry salamonella so they aren't good pets for little kids. They had fun feeding it anything they could think of (including a hot dog) and cleaning its shell.

Shantae's Wedding

We drove to Utah to go my niece Shantae's wedding. Me, Jenni and Hayley and I think about 9 kids. It was so much fun and I am so glad we got to go. We missed Mom and Dad but it was great to see everyone that we did. The wedding was beautiful. Those little girls (Shantae and Shayla) are all grown up. I had alot of fun spending time with Pam. When I was in college she always had the little kids and crazy life. Now she gets watch me and my crazy kids. I am sure glad she had Jayden though. My boys had so much fun staying at their house out in the tent trailer.

Summer Pics

Since Summer is offically over I thought I should post some pic from what we did this year. Going to Grandma and Grandpas is always the BIG EVENT of the Summer. It was weird this year with them gone, We are so glad they are on a Mission but we did miss Grandpa on the couch taking a nap, his dirt from his boots on the floor, Grandma in the kitchen and just their presence. I will admit I was a little teary when I first got there and they weren't there. We sure love them and I am glad for their example. Luckily we all stayed safe and there were not accidents.



Meg, Evie, and Nielie driving circles.

Mom I wanted you to see where the kids spent alot of time in the dirt, right along BH-9.


Evie, Kate and Meg coloring with sidewalk chalk


Jake and Cooper, Cooper was just playing with the big boys. He would drive the gator to wherever the boys were. It was pretty funny watching the little man drive that thing everywhere.


Chase helped Walt one day by picking up all "treasures" ( screws, pieces of metal, etc.)in front of the shop. He isn't looking to happy here because he wanted to take them all home and you guess it, I said no.


Jake, Tayden, Carsen and Chase spent an afternoon working on this jump. They were so proud of it. This is Jake taking his turn.