Fall Daycare program...

What can I say, Conor is not much for the stage. Today was his second program at school. The kids have been practicing for weeks to get up on stage and sing two songs. "Let a Little Love in Your Hear" and "Walking on Sunshine" were the two songs. The program is held at Frenship Junior High Auditorium. We arrived shortly before 2pm and I walked Conor to the back to prepare with his class. It took some bribing and help from the Director to get him to stay back. I took my seat with Craig and my parents and patiently awaited the curtains to pull back.... I just knew in my heart this would not be good. Trying to be optimistic, I tried to make myself believe that he was just going to follow along with his class and sing the two songs. Nothing prepared us for what we saw when the curtains pulled back.

My poor son, is standing at the end of his class row, apart from the group, crying hysterically. So, I have two options. 1) Look like this asshole parent and leave him up there. 2) Run up and get him because leaving him up there only makes it worse. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a softie. I ran up and got him. He was crying so hard he could barely breath. So skipping nap today didn't help, but he absolutely does not like to be on stage. That is ok with me, that just means he is destined for other things. As long as he gets over his fear before he is presented the Heisman, he will be fine.

On a happier note, Craig and I celebrated our 4th Year anniversary. Our actual anniversary is on 10/12, but Craig is going to be out of town on business that day. So we decided to celebrate early. We went to O'Hana for some Japanese cuisine. Then we took in a movie. It was a nice night. We haven't been able to just be the two of us in quite a while.

Finally, we visited the new Target today. Holy Mackeral, that thing is huge. There were so many people, that you bascially had to find your own basket in the parking lot before going inside. I will give it another month or two before I go back. Too many people for me.

Short post I know, but I have a little bit more homework before I finish up my class. Talk to you all next week.

Family Reunion!

This weekend was the 41st Annual Sanders Family reunion. You know, when I was kid I was a brat. Of course, some my argue I still am a brat. Anyhow, I used to think family reunions were so boring and a waste of time. What the hell was wrong with me? I love my family and my extended family. There are so many of us. Attendance each year is over 100 and still growing. What is not to love about a family that big? As the years have gone by, especially recently, the old veterans of the group have passed on. Now it is what you make of it. They will never be the same, but we will have many more memories made. Now my kid(s) will have the same memories that I had when I was kid. Only this time around, I will make sure they appreciate it more than I did at that age. There is something comforting when you learn about your family history. It makes you so proud. Finding out where you came from and knowing the stories behind it, is so exciting to me. Especially, when you get to the age where you are really interested. Just recently, when Craig and I were driving back from Thanksgiving in Tennessee, we stopped in New Boston, Texas. That is where my Paw-paw was born. I got instant chills when we drove into the little town. I even cried. Just knowing that I was in the same town where he lived made me feel happy inside. I wish we had had more time to look around to learn more, but we were right smack in the middle of a 15 hour drive and home was the only thing on my mind. Maybe next time. Anyway, I got off the subject....Here are some pictures from our family reunion. Cheers to another great year. I love you all :-)

Conor with the some of the cousins..

This has to be one of the most awesome family trees I have ever seen.... The night before. Aren't we cute! Aunt Ashie and Conor acting up.... And people say we are related....Here is the 'ol Beal clan. There is a whole lot more of us, but they didn't get to make it. The terrible trio Another terrible trio! More family... The biggest group of them all!!So anyway, Blogger is probably upset with the size of this blog so I better stop. Let's all raise a glass.... Here is to family reunions. If you don't have family, you ain't got nothin'

So, fire me. It has been two weeks since my last confession..um I mean post :-)

Hello Everyone!

I know, I know. It has been two weeks since I posted last. I somehow developed a bad attitude towards my posting because I thought that no one ever reads it anyway. I mean I can't tell who if anyone is reading up on the McMahans. Then I got to thinking about how neat this will be when Conor gets older to see a week by week journal of our family....

We learned that Conor is allergic to Cashews. So anyone who is reading this that comes in contact with our family, please please please DO NOT give Conor a cashew. Better yet, no nuts of any kind just to be safe. We were hanging out at my parents house on Wednesday. Craig was eating some Honey Roasted Cashews and Conor came up to get one. Within a few seconds he complained that his tongue was hot. He started scratching at his neck. Next thing we know, he lips started to swell. Then his left eye nearly swelled (sp??) shut. Whoa! Talk about scared to death. We gave him a dose of Benadryl and the swelling went down quite a bit. His eye was back to normal by the next day. Here is a picture...

Moving on....Conor came down with a terrible cold on Friday evening. I noticed he had a cough on Thursday, but he acted fine so I wasn't worried. By Friday, he broke out in fever and threw up and stopped eating. Thank goodness his Dr.'s office is opened on Saturday. I had the phone in hand waiting for 9am to call for an appointment. By 930 we were sitting in the office. Conor's regular Dr was out, so we saw the other one in the practice. Conor had an ear infection. She seems to think he had strep too. Since she was going to put him on antibiotic, she opted not to test him for Strep. He felt bad enough, I didn't want to make it worse. After 24 hours of antibiotic he feels so much better. I hate it when he is sick. I know how bad you can feel, especially with fever.

My Mom and Dad had to return the Superman Halloween costume for Conor. He absolutely would not wear it. If you don't already know, he is going through is Buzz Lightyear/Power Ranger phase. He decided on the Buzz Lightyear costume. He actually put it on so we should be good to go for Halloween. It is a littl big, but anything smaller would have been too short. Get a good look, this may be the only time you see him in it. :-)

That is all for now!

I think we can finally throw the pacis out...

This weekend Craig and I went to a wedding down in Midland. It was a nice get away. Funny thing is we went back to the hotel, I worked on homework and Craig watched ESPN. We are so routine!!

Anyhow, Conor stayed with my Mom and Dad this weekend. I had taken all of his stuff over that Saturday morning, but somehow left his paci in the car. Yes, for all you readers out there Conor still used his paci. Not much, but usually when he gets really tired. Anyway, Craig and I take off for Midland not knowing we left the paci in the car. When we get back my Mom told me in secret that Conor went the entire weekend without it. As soon as we got home this evening, I hid them all in the cabinet. He never asked for it and even went to sleep without it!!! Yea!!!

I remember last week watching Super Nanny tackle the paci. She put them all in a bag and tied them to a tree telling the little girl that the paci fairy was going to come and take the pacis to the babies who needed them. The next morning the little girl went outside to the tree and instead of the bag of pacis she found a new baby doll. I was just convinced I was going to have to do the same with Conor. We will see how the next few days go. Craig is going to be out of town on business from Tuesday night through Friday and I may give in before the week is over with. Let's hope not.

They finally started building the house next to us. The trenches are there for the footings. I can't quite figure out what it is going to look like. You know me, Craig calls me nosey but I call it well informed. We can't wait to have neighbors. Hopefully, they are cool people. Kids would be nice too.

I end the blog with a couple of pictures from the wedding.
Have a great week!

The last picture is from my Janelle and Jay's wedding back in July. I had not seen these guys in almost 10 years. What a great reunion.

Happy Birthday to Dad and myself!

WARNING: This is a really long entry. :0)

We are going to start this blog with Friday. I washed my cell phone in my jeans. I was on the phone when I got out of the car. My hands were full, so rather than throw my phone in my purse, I put it in my pocket. I do it alot at work, but generally I keep it in my purse. I was sitting in my chair and suddenly got a sinking feeling in my stomach. I jumped up and ran into the laundry room. Sure enough, I opened the washer in mid-cycle and there was the cell phone. This is the second expensive electronic item that I have managed to destroy in the last month. First the vacuum, now the cell phone. I made a comment about the dishwasher the other day and Craig said "watch it, don't break the diswasher". Hopefully, I am done breaking things. Then again, we have all heard the saying that things happen in three's.

We made it another year! For those of you who may not know, my Dad and I have the same birthday: September 4th is the Lucky Day!

It was a weekend full of celebration. I love it when my birthday falls on a holiday. It lasts the whole weekend. I had the day off work on Friday. My mom was off too and we took Conor to the Dr. For his Hepatitis A booster shot. It is getting harder and harder for Conor for shots. I think I have discovered a trick, though. Here is my secret. I take someone with me. I do the holding, so I am the bad guy. Then after the shot is done and over, Conor goes to the person who didn't hold him down for some much needed TLC. He only screamed for a second or two. Then all he wanted to talk about was his "owie" and how much it hurt. To take his mind off things, we went to McDonald's for lunch, then to the mall to play and see the puppies.

Saturday, we spent most of the day at home. We visited Craig's cousin for a bit. Then we went out for our birthday dinner. My Dad and I chose Texas Roadhouse. Great steak, but hostess sat us in the crappiest place. The booth was too small for 8 of us, so we ended up at two tables across from eachother. After dinner we were all too full for cake. We saved it for Sunday.

Moving on to Sunday... We all went to breakfast that morning, then on to Target. Target had a sale on the boy's jeans and t-shirts and Conor needed some for the cooler weather. The rest of Sunday we just hung out and my Dad cooked dinner for us. Then we had birthday cake!!

I promise I am not tired in this picture.

On Monday, since it was a holiday, we all got to spend yet another day together. We decided to go ahead any buy Conor's Halloween costume. I am always afraid that we will wait too long and they will be out of what we want. This year he will be Superman. He tried it on today, but not long enough for pictures. That is ok, we will save the pictures of Halloween.

On to the weather. It has been raining here since Friday! It was much needed, much welcome rain. I don't know exactly how much it was something like 3-4 inches I think. It was a slow rain, not a downpour. It finally cleared up this evening. I am kinda sad to see it go, but at the same time I and feeling the need to some sunshine.

Finally, I told you all I would update you on my first week of school. I am glad that I have made it through the first week of grad school. But, I think this will be my only class with UPhxOnline. There are two reasons why I am dissatisfied. #1: I am unhappy with the format of the class, it seems very unorganized and confusing. I am generally comfortable in the online setting, so many of my classes at Wayland were online and I did fine in those. #2: I saw my bill. Holy mackerel!!! $1900 for ONE stinkin' class. I am fairly certain that my adviser discussed the cost with me, but I am also fairly certain it wasn't that much. I am smarter than that. At that rate, I can only take 2 classes a year before my tuition benefits are used up at work. If I only take 2 classes a year, then I won't finish my graduate degree for another 4 years! YEA RIGHT! I started looking into other options, and I going to call West Texas A&M Online and see what they have to offer. On the WTAMUOnline they have a tuition calculator, I can take 3 classes there vs. The one at UOP.

Back in school....

As some of you know, I decided to go to graduate school. I never thought that I would take the next step. After all, it took almost 10 years to get my undergrad degree. I chose to attend the University of Phoenix Online pursuing a MBA with emphasis in Marketing. I have had a lot of people ask me "Why UOPXOnline?". Here are my reasons....

1. I don't have to take the GRE. If I can get out of taking a test, believe me I will. Besides, that is one less thing I have to pay for and I don't have to worry about my scores.
2. I don't have time to attend a traditional University. I don't like to be away from my family and quite frankly, night school was a pain in my butt.
3. UOPX is quite pricey. Luckily, Wells Fargo hooks its employees up with a sweet tuition reimbursement program. Nothing like going to school for free.
4. I can be done in as little as a year and half with accelerated schedules. All this from the comfort of my home.
5. What do I plan to do with my additional education? I have no idea. I know it will come in handy one day. I thought about getting a teaching certificate a few years down the road so I can be off with the kids in the summer, but I haven't made up my mind about that one yet.

So, my class start Tuesday, and I am kinda nervous. I am not sure why. Maybe since I worked on my undergrad from the time I was 18-27, I had gotten comfortable. Maybe I am nervous since an MBA means business. Or I am simply nervous because I don't know what to expect. Anyway, I will follow-up sometime this week to let you all know how the first few days go.

Pictures of the new vacuum...