Another Meme from Mim... HAVE YOU EVER....

Have You Ever??  (items I've done are in bold)

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland~ (if Disney World counts)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise ~ Not yet, but am going at the end of January!! :)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied 
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant 
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted ~ (from a picture)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

So, I've done 37% of things on the list ~ Interesting.  How do you fare?

Happy belated Birthday to my Mal-Gal

I can't believe my baby is 8.  She's growing up way too fast.

I love it when she thinks she has things all figured out but we're still able to befuddle her...

After family festivities Mallory and I went out for some Mom-and-Me time... we got pedicures/manicures, went to Barnes & Noble, then out to eat...  can you say Pizzookie?

Los Odoms Band de Rock...

Kevin's new toy for Christmas was his souped-up new RockBand drumset.  This is the mega-version for the "serious" RockBand junkies...

Lucia (my MIL) even tried them out.... don't think it wasn't amusing.

Leslie finding it hard to concentrate....

Ben gets his groove on...

And saving the best for last... an actual performance by the Odom Band....  with a disclaimer that this is not for the weak-hearted or for those with any bladder-control issues:

I'm thinking they shouldn't quit their day jobs just yet...

Long time, no blogging..

I know, I'm a slacker.  It's been forever since I posted anything to the blog.  But, my busy season is behind me now, and hopefully things will return to some semblance of order around here. 

Aside from being crazy with holiday photos at work, several eventful things

 happened around here.

My sister-in-law, who has been in college ever since I've known her (15 years now), received her doctorate this month.  It's such an awesome achievement and we were so glad to be there for her graduation and so proud of all she's accomplished.

Another thing... it SNOWED in Pearland.  Big fat chunky flakes of snow.  Very exciting for us southern gals.  This is literally the first time I've seen snow fall like this.  It even stuck on the ground for a little while!

We had a wonderful Christmas with extended family.  My mom's sister is married to my dad's brother, so my brother and I have three "double cousins" - we all have the same grandparents on both sides.  Anyway, typically we're all spread out, but the 5 of us were able to make it to Tyler for Christmas this year (where my Dad's family is from), and it was nice to see everyone and catch up.  The girls had a great time playing outside in non-jacket weather, and my poor uncle got stuck raking leaves over and over again making piles for them to jump into.   Here is me (the oldest of the 5 cousins) with Karen (the youngest)... we were the two girls of the group, with our girls.  

In other news, our house is still awaiting hurricane Ike repairs.  Apparently the shingles we ordered were on backorder or something of the sort, so they haven't gotten them in yet.  We were told today it should be next week... but we've heard that before, so who knows.  After the new roof we will also have to have sheetrock, floors & ceilings replaced.  Hopefully that will take place soon as well. 

Our grocery bill has dramatically increased since learning of Clara's allergies.  All that "special" food is so expensive!  Fortunately, feeding her is getting easier now that I've become more accustomed to what she can and can't have and what allergen-free substitutes are out there. 

Kevin and I have enjoyed our time off.  He's doing his typical "make the most of it" night-time video-game marathons and I've been on a cleaning frenzy.  I've gotten 5.5 out of 8 rooms in pretty good shape.  There's still plenty to do, but I'm making large strides!   Hopefully I'll be able to go back to work next week with things in a little bit better order... which those of you who know me know that makes ALL the difference in my well-being!!

I'm Glad I'm not a Turkey

I meant to post this on Thanksgiving day, but it just didn't happen.  I'm hoping to get caught up on blogging over the break...  :)

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

One more...

Family shot from last night.

I surely should get some kind of medal for these...

I am SO not crafty, so these teddy bear sandwiches were a tad out of my comfort zone.  I was so proud of myself!  They were for Lila's Teddy Bear Party at school.  Here's a shot of her with her teacher who we LOVE!

Our big girl!

Is spending her first night away from home (well, except for Nana or Lita's house) tonight.

And thus begins the holiday season...

And we wonder why Americans are overweight. 

Boo to You!

Late night ramblings of an overextended mom.

So, I'm not really sure where to start...

Could it be the $16K damage to the house from Ike?  Nah.  It's fixable and hasn't really caused too much grief.  We haven't started renovations yet, but they will come soon enough.

The van?  It was finally totaled, meaning we went from having no payment on a vehicle to now having a new van payment.  Bleh.  However, I do like my new van and am so loving the ride after driving the little bright blue PT Cruiser rental car.  It rides so smooth (the new Odyssey), and the girls love the fact that it has a built-in dvd player.  Rules to soon follow.

Kevin?  He's still in school.  15 hours this semester, which means M-W we don't see much of him.  He's stressed, tired, and overextended.  Having a few health issues too, which I don't need to get into, but I can say we will ALL be happy when he is finished with school in May!

Mallory?  She's doing well in school as usual.  She's the shining star.  We got her report card last week, and her lowest grade was a 97.  Most were 98s and 99s.  Her reading grade level equivalent score is a 5.5.  Not too shabby for a second grader.  Mallory is my sensitive child and has such a caring heart.  She's also such a responsible child.  I worry sometimes that I lean on her too much.

Lila?  She is thriving at her new school.  She is a delight and never misses a day of "getting green" and is so excited about that every day!  She's learning to read & loves to help me in the kitchen.  She's such a good little helper.  If for some reason I don't want her to help me with supper, she does NOT like that at all... and lets me know it.  Lila is my passionate child... whatever feeling she's feeling it's to the extreme.  Whether it be good or bad!

And then there's Clara... 

Clara marches to the beat of her own drum and three has been a bit of a challenge for us.  She has such a sweet spirit, but if you cross it, watch out!  She's learning her boundaries right now, and this too shall pass (I hope!!)  We've actually had a lot of health issues with Clara lately.  She recently has had several allergic reactions that have concerned us, which led us to taking her in for allergy testing.  The first blood test came back, and showed she had allergies to cashews, sesame seeds, almonds, peanuts, egg whites, coconut, wheat, and milk!  Talk about restrictive!  Some of the allergies are less severe than others, so our current plan is to limit everything completely for 3 weeks to see how it affects her (she's had excema since she was a baby and we're hoping it will clear up).  Then we may slowly add some of the lesser allergins back in and see how she reacts.  Here's all the "special" stuff we were able to find at Whole Foods.  

 

So, after that test, we went to the allergist, who felt like we needed to do the "prick" test to combine it with the other for a most accurate synopsis.  After that, he concluded that yes, her nut allergies were the worst, and confirmed that we needed to keep the epipen with us always.  We added a few more mild allergins to the list, but for the most part the major ones were the same.  He said nut allergies are not usually something you grow out of, so bummer on that one.  He did say that the plan of action we had to cut everything out and then add things back in one at a time was a good one.  So, we'll stick with that and see how it goes.  Here is her poor little back after the test... it looked like she had been attacked by bees, and it was SO hard to keep her from scratching!!

To top it all off, I've had a cold or severe allergies myself for the past 5 days, and it's been CRAZY at the studio.  Let's just say whomever developed the recipe for Claritin-D is my hero.

Kevin and I sometime last month on a much-needed date-night:  (Thanks Paul & April!)

Pumpkin Patch

It's been a while since I last posted.  Lots has been going on... more on that in a later post.  For now, just wanted to share the pictures of the girls from the pumpkin patch last week for those of you who are not on Facebook!

Random Pics from the Odom household...

The girls are enjoying Mommy's Mac.  Lila constantly wants to "take a picture" with the Photobooth application...

The joys of raising a three year old are magnified when it's your third... Here is Clara about an hour after she had been tucked in one night last week.  Note the green striped pjs underneath the nice Christmas dress complete with belt...  She slept in this, by the way:

Another of Clara's "moments"... this nice makeup (ie: MARKER) job was a joint effort between the younger two rugrats:

Mallory is learning to ride her bike without training wheels:

And she's finally missing her two front teeth!

I was tagged...

6 Random things about me:

Here are the tagging rules:

Post the rules on your blog

Write 6 random things about yourself

Tag 6 people at the end of your post

If you're tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag.

So.. 6 random things (okay, so they're not all about me per say, but random anyway)...

1.  We were awakened at 5:00 this morning by dogs barking in our back yard (most of the neighborhood still has missing fences), and found two dogs tearing up a cat.  :(  The cat did not make it, and Kevin found a phone number on his tags and called the owner this morning.  Sad.

2.  Mallory has informed me that I should withdraw her from school because "there are other ways to learn things."

3.  I have a housekeeper and I am not ashamed.  We LOVE Ms. Debbie and I would not be sane without her!

4.  I am sooooo frustrated with insurance companies right now!

5. We had 170 people at worship services Sunday morning in the Annex with NO POWER.  The singing in the cramped room was great, and I met someone who usually sits on the opposite side of the building who I did not know but who adores and looks for my children every Sunday.  :)  

6.  I fear Lila's passion.  

I have no idea who reads this blog that wasn't already tagged by Erin, but I'll try...  

Amanda, Mim, Melissa, Karyna, Kathy, Debbie

Fun with Friends

To look on the bright side... The aftermath of Ike has brought friends and neighbors closer together.  People are spending lots of time outside cleaning up and helping one another.  Friends who have power are hosting those who don't.  We had several friends over last night for a good game of Rock Band...

Let's just say we are serious about our Rock...

Especially Tracey and Paul... our lead singers...

April & Paul...

Me on drums... laundry aside as it should be.  We must have our priorities!

Derek and Kevin are the "serious" rockers...

Tracey is not... although she was concentrating very hard...

Singing from the bed...

The serious one again...

And don't get me started on the drummer...

April the Rock Star...

All in all a fun time had by all!  We even made it through most of the songs.  :)