More Kilpatricks to Come....

Okay. My bud Katie has a blog that had an AWESOME post about friends and mommydom, and I just HAD to share... (Katie and Ash, I hope this is okay! :) ) It could not have been better said.... Just click on the link and it will explain itself.... More Kilpatricks to Come

And Ash, you HAVE to start a blog telling about your jet-setting adventures! (Like Julia and Stacey!)

November is Racing By.....

I can't believe it has been around one year now since I have started our family blog. Time has flown---my kiddo is growing--he'll be 3 next month, we've lived here in Marble Falls for a year and a half now, and we've almost been married 5 years. WOW. Life is indeed the blink of an eye. I can't believe all of these things. The past few weeks have had their highs and lows. Many good things have happened, but many tragic things have also happened, not only in our nation, but with people whom we are friends with--several families. Please keep them in your prayers.

We've been continually busy every weekend. This past weekend was Team Karen, a 5K that benefits a rare form of breast cancer our LifeGroup teacher, Karen Cottrell, is battling so courageously. Please check out Team Karen to learn just a bit about Karen and David, who Logan and I (and everyone else that knows them!) love dearly. Karen and David teach our class, the Encouragers, together, and Karen leads a Mom to Mom Bible study group that I am in. The 5K went very well; around $30,000 went to MD Anderson for her specific type of cancer research, and $60,000 was raised for the First Baptist Church School and Preschool. These totals were over and above any goals set. God is good---All the time!

Later last Saturday, I had the opportunity to see Katie, Bo, and Cameron Kilpatrick, along with Ashley Higley in San Antonio. Ashley flew in from Oklahoma, or "Joke-la-homa," as she kindly refers to it.... (You have to understand---she is a Native Texan who is temporarily displaced...) I had not seen Ashley, Katie and Bo for over a year and a half, but I had never met Miss Cameron! I had the best time with them catching up on each other's lives and having alot of massive belly laughs... (My abs were sore when I got home....hehe!) And all of you, we have to get together sooner this time!!!! Here are some pictures of us girls... (Thanks Katie and Ash for the pics that I "stole" from Facebook....haha!) Katie is in the yellow and Ashley is in the red, Bo is self-explanatory because he's the only guy in the pictures, and Cameron is that precious little girl!!!

Weiss has the potty thing down....I am sooo proud of him! We haven't had any situations were we are away from the potty for prolonged periods of time, but I just keep his "frog potty" with me in the car and everywhere I go. He is growing so fast and I can't believe it. He is a big helper and I feel I can delegate some more responsibilities to him. He LOVES to read and he has a newfound interest in the "I Spy" books... He loves to search for the hidden objects in the pictures. He also enjoys singing, and I think after Christmas, we are going to embark on learning the books of the Bible via a WeeSing song... (We'll see how that goes... I may change my mind on that one this early...) He is very excited about Christmas and I think he will have a blast this year!

Logan is also doing well; he is busy with work, and it just keeps getting busier! He and his father are practicing in a temporary building right now, which is very nice, but the new Stanley Dental building will be open in January. (I will post pictures soon!) We are very excited; this is my father-in-law's dream office, and Logan has the privilege of being his son to also work there! Cinda (my mom-in-law) has spent countless hours pouring over every last detail, and so she is looking forward to it, as well. (We are fortunate--she is an interior designer.) Each operatory has a large window with a panoramic lake view so the patients will not feel "claustrophobic" in the dental chair, all of the equipment is state-of-the-art, and there is even a workout facility upstairs for the staff, complete with a shower! You can sip on an in-house latte before your exam or surgery and bring your iPod or favorite DVD to listen/watch in the chair. There's even a massage and aromatherapy room for the patients who need extra care, along with an outdoor courtyard as a waiting area for those seeking fresh air. I am super excited for Dickey and Logan; however, it may be hard pulling them away from the office it will be so much fun for them!

I am beginning to see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel with school; I am taking two classes together at the moment, which is a challenge, because I am wanting to finish some time next year. I go to Virginia again in January to take another class and a mandatory exam for all students prior to graduation. I feel I am ready, but it is still intimidating, so please send a prayer up to God for me!

3 Weeks Have Come and Gone....

WOW! Can I just say this year has flown? I cannot believe we are almost finished with October, and I haven't even blogged yet!!!! We have been very busy!!!! The past three weekends have been my parents coming over, a half marathon with Lexy and Mackenzie at San Antonio, a day out with Thomas the Train (and a ride, too!), dinner with Mia, Grappa and our friend John Shao, and last weekend I worked the music team on a Walk to Emmaus with Kim Edwards, so I was gone Thursday through Sunday. The boys hung out and had some quality bonding time! Since I have had some time off school (I start back Monday, however), I have really been enjoying myself. I've done a lot of leisure reading and spending some good playtime with Weiss.

Mr. Weiss, in the meantime, has been doing very well with potty training. We went 4 days with no accidents, and then he had an accident when he was at the church nursery this evening without us there (I think it could have been avoided if he was with us). However, things have been going well and his vocabulary is ever-expanding! He can count to 20 and identify most letters. (There are about 5 he does not know.) We've made an autumn gingerbread house with gumdrops and candy bats on the roof, and when I am not looking, Weiss will grab a kiddie chair, stand on it, reach the house up on the bar, and grab a licorice gumdrop! Of course, it's easy to spot the evidence in his teeth! YUCK!!!

I will have to update with some more current pictures, but I am just glad to be posting a short update. (I'll probably post more when school is back in session, because I'll find myself stalling on the computer!)

WHOA!!!!! It's been a LONG time......

WHOA!!! I can't believe it has been soooo long since my last post... I have really been negligent lately; however, now that things are more back to normal and I don't have any more exhausting weekends looming in the future, I should be able to post. I have just been drained from all of the traveling and packing.... I have felt until recently as though I live out of a suitcase! It's refreshing not to feel that way anymore!

After our Las Vegas weekend, Weiss resumed school and I don't know where that week went! We left the following Friday for the coast with our friends, Casey, Hannah, Sophia, and Gabriella Burns. We went to Port Aransas and stayed at the family friendly Port Royale.... We had a great time at the beach, in the sprawling pool, visiting the U.S.S. Lexington, and the State Aquarium (Weiss really loved the dolphins, petting the manta rays, and the bird show). Of course, we also enjoyed the company of our friends, and the kids had a great time together.

This past weekend, my parents came down to Marble Falls. Friday after picking Weiss up from school, we visited the pumpkin patch at Sweet Berry Farm. Weiss was really looking forward to stuffing a scarecrow and seeing the goats, but the scarecrow stuff wasn't ready yet and the goats weren't out. (I was looking forward to the homemade pumpkin ice cream, but it was still freezing....DRATS!) We picked out some pumpkins, got some pictures of Weiss posing, and pet the horses and the donkeys... The baby donkey was sooo cute! We all headed in to Austin to go to the Apple store for Dad and we ate some good food at Pei Wei! (It was my FAVORITE in San Antonio; there was one not too far from our house--I haven't eaten there in awhile because I am out here in the "boonies!" Haha!)

Saturday morning, we went to Sea World! It was Weiss's first time. We were all anticipating (and hoping for) cool weather, but that wasn't the case. However, we saw the Shamu show, the Viva! show (with acrobats, dolphins, and belugas), and the sea lion show. We also got to see the penguins, dolphin feeding tank (Weiss was too tired at that point to feed them), and shark reef. By that time (5 hours in the park), Weiss was zonked! We were, too. We came home and ate at the Bluebonnet and then retired to the house.

Anyway, I know I'm not too detailed in this post; I'm just glad I'm posting! I have some stuff to do here and dinner to tend with, so I've got to wrap up. Tata for now!

Viva Las Vegas!!!

Now that I have returned home from Virginia, it seems like I have been ultra busy!!!! (You probably all can relate; activities are never spaced out equally; they tend to fall together in clumps!) The last week home was a great week--I mainly spent it getting the house back to normal, doing laundry, and spending some overtime with husband and son... (I owed them BIG TIME for being gone!) I also tried to exercise each day because Chick-Fil-A and all of Liberty's goodies (free coffee, bagels, chips, cereal, cookies, you name it) had REALLY gotten me down....

Anyway, I aged one more year on Wednesday, which happened to feel more like a Monday (random things occurred to make my day a bit "out of whack" from the moment I woke up....). Weiss kept us up during the middle of the night, banging on our door, wanting to sleep in the bed with us (he knows he's not supposed to), I got two giant quarter-sized blisters on my arches for not wearing socks with my running shoes.... Aunt Flo came to visit--ON MY BIRTHDAY...BUMMER...., my car battery was beginning to give me trouble, so I had to go spend an hour and a half in Walmart Automotive... However, a visit with Kelley and little Brooks really helped get the day off to a better start!!!! (Thanks for the birthday cake, Homeyers!!!!! YUMMO!!!!)

I left the Homeyer's house to pick up Weiss from preschool at FBC, and found him in a totally different set of clothes. His teacher informed me that he pooped his pants first thing in the morning on the playground, took them off, and began to "play" in the mess..... (GAG...).... Weiss was put in time-out... Then at lunch, he began to "play" in his food without his utensils... I guess we have a little sculptor on our hands.... "Le artiste..."

Logan and I went to Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University on Wednesday night. I am super excited about the class, and I am glad we signed up! He loves anything about management or finance, and so we are both looking forward to it... That was a great finale to my big birthday....

We left on Thursday to come here to Las Vegas. Logan and Dickey (his co-worker and dad) had a conference here for the specialized medical/dental group they belong to, which is really focused around biological dentistry and overall physical and dental health. I'll discuss more on that, later.....

The conference is located at the JW Marriott, in Summerlin, Nevada, which is not far from the LV strip. The first night we all (Logan, Weiss, Dickey, Cinda, and I) went to the Caesar's Forum and ate at Wolfgang Puck's Spago... WONDERFUL!!!! Weiss was a great boy and ended up making friends with a couple from Vancouver sitting across from our table.... He made such good friends that they shared their dessert with him..... SUPER hilarious!!!

He really had a good time at Caesars, and he was great on the flight from San Antonio to Las Vegas.... (Buying a miniature Southwest plane really helped, I think!!!) Yesterday, Cinda, Weiss and I went to the pool (which is fabulous here) and spent all morning... Weiss had a blast, and enjoyed hanging out. We had a great lunch (caprese salad on focaccia bread....going to try that at home....DELISH!!!). We came up to the room so he could take a nap, and then Dickey and Cinda went to a banquet. Logan and I took Weiss back down to the strip and went to New York, New York. (I thought he would like the scenery in the boroughs.....It reminds me of Universal Studios....) We ate "outside" at a little Jewish Deli called Greenberg's... We had homemade chicken noodle soup, matzo balls, and a pastrami reuben.... Because it was 9/11 and we were at NYNY, they had a great, HUGE group of bagpipers and drummers in the traditional garb. They honored the miltary and the LV and NYC firemen and police officers, which was quite a sight. They had a "mini" parade in the casino.... Weiss enjoyed seeing the firetrucks.... He was impressed they came in red, white, AND yellow!!!

However, he began to ask if he could play the "games" as we were leaving.... (aka "the slot machines.....") AAHHH!!!!!! Funny, but NOT funny...... (We didn't even play ourselves..... He just saw everyone playing and all of the cool lights and sounds...)

We then took Weiss back to Caesar's forum, where we spent some time in FAO Schwarz.... Three stories of a child's fantasy!!!! He picked out "Colin the Crane" for his Thomas railroad set (go figure---he's obsessed with wooden trains) and has been playing with it all day! He also was loving the Playmobil toys in the store, and I'm glad about that, because I had already bought him some for this coming Christmas!!!

After the toy store, we went to see Caesar's fountain perform in front of the Cheesecake Factory.... He started out saying, "I'm not scared....." However, Weiss started getting scared when he saw the fire in the show. He didn't cry, but he said, "I'm scared..." However, that was only for a brief portion of the end, and then we redeemed ourselves by letting him watch the fish in the huge aquarium around the back of the fountain... He watched for about 30 minutes.... It had some great fish and lots of rays...

This morning, I heard some great speakers at Logan's conference. I decided to go because there are many topics that echo beyond dentistry, and quite frankly impact ALL of us, and these topics are near and dear to my heart. I have heard some GREAT speakers this morning, one being a top expert in his field, Dr. Boyd Haley. US Representative Dan Burton gave a compelling speech, as well. (If you want to know the content of their speeches, just ask me. Don't get me started on my blog because it is a HOT BUTTON for me....) One reason this group is controversial is because it does NOT agree with all the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), CDC (Center for Disease Control), ADA (American Dental Association), AMA (American Medical Association) and other big governmental agencies stand for. (This includes all of the big lobbying, big spending pharmaceutical industries....) Any entity that is denying individuals their right to know the FULL truth about health and its various components is what the IAOMT speaks out against. ANYWAY--Enough about that!

Now, I'm waiting for Weiss to wake up. (He stayed with Cinda in their hotel room while the guys and I went to the conference.) Cinda and I are going to head out again to the strip and go grab something at Serendipity 3 (ice cream)!!! We fly back tomorrow..... I'll chat again soon! I still have to update on my fun weekend with Logan in Virginia!!!

Something funny from class this week.....

Hey, all! I'll continue my blogging when I return home; I really can't focus because I am HERE:




Well, not really at Magic Kingdom..... I'm stuck in the airport with all of the fun of Orlando right outside.... And this was a LONG layover, people!!!! VERY BORING!!!! Anyway, just thought I would post this great clip from class.... (This is not what Christian counseling is all about, but it's hilarious anyway.....)

I'll Talk More Later...

I'll talk more later about the awesome weekend Logan and I had together this weekend and the fun things we did!!! Here's a preview of what we did last Thursday evening, the first evening he was here....... It just so happened it was opening week for Liberty SNOWFLEX and we got to go Thursday........... Fun, fun, FUN!!!!!!