gardening

It was a nice day so we took advantage of it! We repotted some of our pots on the patio, ripped out all the dead stuff from the latest freeze and was able to plant some tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and broccoli.

1st volleyball game

Maggie had an amazing start to this volleyball season! Only 3 of the 8 girls on her team was able to make it to the 1st game...and they beat the socks of the other team 3 games in a row! They did a great job. Well done, girls!

Go Texan Day

Today was Go Texan Day...we had to go get new boots! Of course, what this photo is missing is a cowgirl hat!

Love Thursday

wonderful day spent in Galveston with Jennifer

Starry Night Takes Flight

This was a last minute idea for our annual silent auction school fundraiser. This children painted origami peace cranes in "Starry Night" colors and I attached them to a upclose star from Van Gogh's famous Starry Night. Each peace crane represents one of my students this year and the silver crane is supposed to be me. I hope this goes over well...

curls?

Somebody is gonna have curly hair tomorrow!

flowers

Beautiful weather means pretty flowers! I pulled weeds and dead stuff from the freeze from the flower garden and added just a few bits of color until we can really get started in the spring.

library

Today started out rainy and dreary but ended up being a wonderful day. It was a great day to walk the park and to the library to check a few books out!

friends

Clementine and Rosie

cookie booth

It was a perfect day for Girl Scouts to sell cookies at a cookie booth! Can you believe they sold $500 worth of cookies? Wow.

cookie time!!

We are finally down to delivering the last few boxes of 200 cookies Maggie sold this year! Whew.

Chinese New Year...again

Maggie celebrated Chinese New Year with friends...lion dancers and all! I'm sure she's in it for her favorite dumplings!

Love Thursday

shells found on our last Galveston trip

Sanibel or bust

I finally bit the bullet and made reservations for airfare, cottage and car rental for a week in May to visit Sanibel Island. Yikes...it's so far from now! We are very excited and I visit a fun shelling blog and beach web cam daily!

ears pierced

After literally years, Maggie finally decided to get her ears pierced! It was such a hard decision...she was so scared! I had no rule about when she could get it done. I figured the right time would be when she could get past the pain factor. Her sweet piercer was so patient and kind...she rewarded Maggie with a ring to match for her bravery!

Happy Valentine's Day

We celebrated by having a wonderful breakfast feast prepared by Ian and exchanged our own sweet valentines.

GS camp out

Maggie had a Girl Scout camp out this weekend. I was sad about not going...until it got really cold! OK, I was still a little sad about not going. Note that Maggie is using my hiking backpack. I was really pleased that she got so into it and even wanted to use my hiking sleeping bag!

principal's club

Maggie is set to receive all A's and E's on her report card again this grading cycle and was rewarded with a little celebration and certificate today. :-)

Rosie & Mags

We never seem to have a shortage of pictures of Maggie and Rosie!

Love Thursday

almost time...

I love the innocence at this age. Maggie happily made valentines and put together treat boxes for everyone in her class.

Greg Mortenson

I took Maggie and Ben to see Greg Mortenson speak. All three of us have read 3 Cups of Tea and have each been inspired to help his cause to raise money one penny at a time!

birthday pictures

I finally got around to framing and hanging up pictures I got for my birthday. Kelly Rae Roberts is my favorite artist right now and I love all her work! The picture on the lower left corn is from Ian and has my trademark 3 hearts in the lower right corner. :-)

Love Thursday

When I don't feel well, all I want to eat are oranges, Clementine tangerines and canned mandarin oranges!

update...

Monica got home from MDACC this afternoon. She is just laying low and resting now. She sounds good but tired. As she said, don't know if the exhaustion is just from 2 nights in the hospital or from the chemo - probably both. Thank you, as always, for the strength of your thoughts and prayers! - Jennifer

update...

Just wanted to let y'all know, chemo went okay yesterday, although got off to a late start. I just heard from Ian, and it sounds like the nausea and vomiting have hit now. They decided to keep her in the hospital another night. If you recall, the last time she received both chemo drugs (the week of Christmas), she ended up right back in the ER just hours after she was released. They're trying to avoid that this time. I know all the Phillips hate for her to have to do that, but I also am sure they feel more comfortable with Monica under the watchful eyes of the nurses. I'll let you know when I hear she's settled in at home - hopefully sometime tomorrow! - Jennifer