Anna Claire

The other day at church, one of our close friends was giving a talk. This happened to be our young women's president, who was also Anna's fourth grade teacher, a co-worker and dear friend of mine, and the mother of one of Anna's best friends. As she talked, she went through and spoke about each of the young women and what characteristics she loved most about them. Listening to her describe each girl, it was obvious she loves each of them very much. I waited to hear what she would say about my Anna girl. She explained that as she had gotten to know Anna, she felt like she had such a sweet spirit that her body almost couldn't contain it. This was one of the sweetest things I've ever heard about one of my children. 

Anna is so sweet. That being said, she is my daughter, and is more like me than my other kids. In fact, my mom likes to refer to her as Jen Jr. My mom once referred to me as being like an M & M. Hard on the outside but sweet in the middle. That's my Anna too. 

Anna is 12 and going in to the 7th grade. She's excited about moving up to the intermediate school. She's in the band and shuffles up and down from 2nd to 4th chair most all the time. Although she claims to not be any good, I can assure you she plays the flute very well. Her piano skills have continued to improve as well. This spring she decided to play soccer. I'm sad to say she didn't enjoy it very much, but I certainly enjoyed watching her play. It's fun to see her interact with other girls her age.  Up until December of this past year, Anna wasn't much of a reader. She read only when it was forced upon her. This is not to say she's not a good reader though. For Christmas, she received a Kindle. Since then, she's become a reading fiend. I didn't know how expensive that little gift was going to be! Now reading is one of her favorite things to do. 

Anna is happy as a clam hanging out with friends or sitting in her room, listening to music, drawing or reading on her Kindle while eating Dove chocolate. 

 First day of 6th grade

 After piano recital in May 

 Isn't she cute in her glasses?

 Anna turns 12!

 Catching a ride with Chelbo at Cheyenne's wedding

 Anna as the "Mad Hatter"

 Enduring family pictures at the pumpkin patch

Boys' Campout

Mike and Brennan went to Lake Texana for a little father/son campout. They left Friday afternoon and came back Saturday afternoon. Can you tell what Brennan enjoyed the most?

I'm going to have Mike explain what they did and all that jazz...he'll be my guest writer on this post. Just can't promise when we'll get around to that.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to Me!

Dear Mrs. Greene-Uppencamp,

You are the most exciting teacher that I've ever had. Through out the year you have taught me so many fabulous things that sometimes I even dream about what you are teaching me! I especially loved Social Studies today.

Love,
Francisco (alias)

No Rest for the Wicked

If that phrase is true, that there's "no rest for the wicked", Mike and I must be terribly wicked. For about 3 weeks now we have been working on getting our yard looking better and believe me when I say, there was only one direction for it to go. This began with hiring a cowboy tree cutter to cut down a huge Oak tree in our back yard along with many branches on most all the other trees in our front and back yard. The weekend after that was done, there was more than a weekend's worth of raking leaves and cleaning up the front and backyards. Kids did their part, all the while whining and arguing and being generally normal kids. Thankfully, Nana saved the two little ones for awhile and Anna had a friend over which kept her out of our hair while we could continue to work. Poor Mike busted his nose and got a terrible case of poison ivy. There's another phrase that rings true after the first weekend we worked on the yard...it's got to look worse before it looks better. Unfortunately, I only took pictures AFTER the clean up.

This in only half of the leaves, trash and such we left for big pick up.

Front yard after clean up.

Another view of the front yard after clean up.

Part of the back yard after clean up.

Other half of backyard after clean up.

By Monday, Mike and I were moaning and groaning with every step we took, but truly enjoyed how the yard was looking, even if it still looked pretty bad. That next weekend we went camping and left the yard is it was.

This past weekend, we were at it again. Talk about dropping some cash! While focusing on the flower beds around the front yard trees, we bought at least 14 bags of soil and about 8 bags of miracle grow soild and about 8 bags of mulch (honestly I lost count). The kids helped us at Lowe's while we chose flowers and plants to use. Purslane, heather, dusty miller, and pentas were chosen to start off with.

Anna fell in love with some of the cactus plants. We didn't tell her, but Mike and I had just been discussing how much we dislike cacti in flower beds. However, we did buy her a pot that had several really good looking cacti in a nice looking planter. Anna's going to find a place in the backyard to keep her cactus plants.

Oh, I almost forgot my favorite...we got a lemon tree! This coming weekend it will be planted in the backyard.

We are grateful and ungrateful for the previous owners. For whatever reason, they filled their flower beds (surrounding the trees in the front yard) with small pieces of busted up bricks/rocks. It left like we had to dig to China to get to all of it, yet we never actually got all of it!! Finally, we said, "Let's just plant the flowers!!"

We are grateful that the previous owners left so many landscaping blocks and bricks that we were able to use those instead of having to buy new ones right now. Later we want some other type rocks around the flower beds, but that will come after we recover financially from what's already been done. Here are two of the flower beds we actually got done last weekend. What you won't see is the second pile of trash (similar to the first one) set out for heavy trash pick up. I'm sure that our garbage men LOVE us!

One of the front yard flower beds.

Ella helping with planting the flowers.

The other flower bed we finished.

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday we woke up to the two little ones whispering loudly about what the Easter Bunny brought them. Mike and I laid in bed enjoying hearing them. Anna had crashed on the floor that night (see earlier post) so of course Ella and Brennan woke her up. Anna told them, not in a whisper, "You guys know Mom likes us to wake her up before we look at anything!" Dutifully, they all came and climbed in to bed and cuddled with us for a few minutes before we all ventured out to take a closer look and to search for those Easter eggs that were hidden.

Getting ready for church was as if it was a regular old Sunday...Satan sure does tempt me into staying home from church even on EASTER! Eventually, everyone was ready and we went to church. All three speakers' talks were centered around the true meaning of Easter.

When church was over, my sister, Melissa, and my neice came over to help me get some pictures of every one dressed in their Easter best. I've posted before about Easter pictures how they are like licking a tootsie roll pop...how many clicks does it take the get a good Easter picture?

The best part of the day was spending the afternoon and evening with my family. There was good food, kids played together (they love it when their cousins are all together), and I wouldn't have wanted to spend the day in any other way.

Easter Eggs

In our family, we haven't missed a year of dying Easter eggs. This year, I thought we would skip it. The kids didn't ask about it, but it kept nagging at me. Even though we had just gotten back from camping at around 5:30, we managed to continue our tradition late that evening. While I went to the store, Mike boiled the eggs and made sure kids were ready for bed before we started on the Easter eggs. All three kids helped with gathering 12 mugs and 12 spoons (which was quite the task because there were only about 5 clean spoons. We were making "marble magic" eggs. That means you add vinegar, water and vegetable oil to the dye tablets. As you can tell, Brennan is concentrating extremely hard on gently rolling his egg over and over in the mug to get that creative marble design.Everyone needs help...

every now and then. Except Miss Independence, but she got help whether she wanted it or not! (Or maybe was just being picked on)

The kids wanted to double dip their eggs to get a multicolor marble effect. Then Ella and Brennan decided to dip them three times must make them even better! Mike taught them that triple dipping in Spanish would be "tres dippios".

Earlier this week, the Easter bunny got a letter from me asking him to please not hide our dyed eggs this year. In the past the eggs have stained parts of my furniture, floors, etc. After 11 years, I guess I finally learned a lesson!

Easter Camp at Huntsville State Park

I can't even begin to tell you how much Mike and I were NOT looking forward to "Easter Camp". For those of you aren't sure what that is, Easter Camp is a tradition started at church. Over the Easter weekend, families join together in camping at Huntsville State Park.

This is an event that my mother took the kids to last year for the first time and, from what I can tell, will be something we do every year until kids are gone. Mike and I had never taken kids camping. I hadn't even been camping since I was in high school! Working and taking care of the house, kept Mike and I from preparing as well as we should. My mom was a huge encourager and helper when it came to preparing to go.

Anna missed school on Thursday to go up with her second (and maybe her favorite) family, the Scotts. After work, my mom, the two littles and I, packed up our remaining supplies and heading to Houston to pick Mike up from work. From there we were on our way to a fun filled weekend. Even though we got there earlier than I thought, we still got to camp around 10 p.m. It was about all we could do to unload and set up our bedding and such for the night...and those who know me...I was able to get the kids showered too!

We woke up the next day to a beautiful, sunny, warm but not too hot day. All three of the kids were on the go from the moment they got dressed till they fell into their air mattresses, tents or sleeping bags at night. Mike and I didn't prepare things for us to do, so we mostly visited, sat around and were spectators of all that was going on. The kids would touch base from time to time. Brennan would come down and tell us, "I went canoing!" or "Can I go fishing with Andrew?" Anna and her buddies would come by from time to time if they were hungry or thirsty. Ella was busy but would come to hi and to check it. She was very sweet to the other kids around our shelter. If one got hurt, she would check on them. One little girl was crying because she couldn't find either one of her parents. Ella went off on her bicycle with gentleman from church to help him find the little girl's parents.

When it was time to leave on Sunday after the Easter egg hunt, the kids were devestated that we couldn't stay longer. Anna even said she wished she could live there! As we left the park, there had to be a moment of silence....

All and all we had a great time. There were things Mike and I learned that will help us for next year. I'm sure it's like anything else. The more you do it, the better you become. No matter how much work it was for us, seeing the kids have so much fun without ipods, computers, game systems, etc. was worth all our efforts.


Early in the day on Friday morning, some men from church began teaching some boy scouts how to build a bridge. They had the attention of many of the kids, including all of my three. I rarely see mine sit that long. After it was put up, the kids had a fun time going across it over and over and over and over again.

Anna and her friend, Lainey, found a baby blue bird laying upside down and obviously injured on one of the roads. We were finally able to convince them that taking it to the park ranger would be the best thing for the bird. Anna was upset because they put the bird in a cold, wet, plastic container.

Brennan enjoying a smore (an Uncle Brad face if I ever saw one!)
Ella making smores.
Ella and Anna hunting for Easter eggs during the campout. Hunting for eggs is the last activity before people begin to take down tents and repack their vehicles to head home.

Ella having fun getting the air out of the mattress with Mike.