Monday, February 23, 2009

Friday, February 20, 2009

Short & Sweet

"Banging" when we were knocking out the wall. Of course naked.

At the ranch...

Will you be my V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E?






Eating a "snackle" bar...











Saturday, December 20, 2008

Christmas @ the Howells :)








Merry Christmas Everybody! Ashley & Blaine- Wish you were here!!!





Sunday, December 14, 2008

It's me - Mimi

Robin hasn't posted in so long I decided to take advantage of her blog. I have experienced some extreme sadness in the last couple of weeks.

My mail, as well as my neighbors mail, is delivered to a little mail station. In the little station are twelve normal size mail slots and two large boxes for packages. Whoever gets a package gets the key to the large box placed in their slot.

Every day I go out to get my mail and I'm so excited - I can't wait to see what I received from my numerous online shopping expeditions. First I look to see if the keys are in the large mailboxes. If the keys are there, no one received a package. If the keys are gone - well, that means they are in SOMEONE's mail slot. Oh I get SO excited if one of the keys is gone. Then I open my mail slot expecting the key to be there. Some days it is, I use it to open the big mail box and retrieve my package. But some days the key isn't there. It must be in someone else's mail slot. I immediately go into a deep depression. Someone else received a package. It wasn't me. Oh the sadness I experience. I hope I get some grief counseling for Christmas.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Reegan's 2 Year Pictures

Great Expectations has taken our pictures since I was pregnant! Our pictures have always turned out extraordinary and these are no exception! Annette catches the TRUE Reegan in all of her 2 year old glory!

BTW when Ree is in her ballerina outfit she is not a 'balle-rina'... I was corrected by her one day and she told me "I not a balle-rina mommy I'm a 'balle-reegan' " :) Ya gotta love her!!!

http://greatexpectationstx.blogspot.com/2008/10/reagans-2-year-portraits.html

Monday, October 20, 2008

'Pickards' from Aug-October

It's been a while since I've uploaded pictures. I wish i had a good reason....but i really don't! Maybe this post will catch me up a little :)

I love this picture. It was the first day of school. Ree has KILLER bed head in the mornings!
Ree LOVES to be naked. One min you look at her and she is fully clothed shoes and all...I swear 10 seconds later she is naked as a jay bird and so proud of herself !!!She was insistent that she help 'Bang'.(and yes....naked...hopefully she will grow out of this stage!)

Kob and Ree's new toy....


Ree's B-day! Playing her new piano from Aunt Kim, while chillin with G-Gdad. I can't believe my baby girl is 2. She is so much fun and has a killer personality! She has an incredible since of humor!
Can we watch this new movie now? WOO-HOO!!! I'm Driving!!!!
Ree got her first hair cut at 2 years old! Her Daddy watched VERY closely to make sure Martha didn't cut too much!



Heather and the kids came down for Columbus day weekend! It's always fun when they come visit!






:)

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Uuuuggg

Is it possible to love my new job and hate it at the same time? I love my school, principal, co teachers....but the work load is so insane! I want everything to be perfect....new lesson plans because I've never taught 6th grade history....i grade everything...i give the kids a million chances to make up work even though i preach to them that i wont...and grading...uuuuggggg...AND I took on the yearbook...by myself, I'm insane!

We had administrator walk throughs today. These are walk thru's from very high up peeps at the admin building. I know that i do my job well but it seriously stressed me out! I haven't REALLY been observed in ATLEAST 4 years...really 5 or 6. I am always paranoid that i'll screw up! I did well and got "exceeds expectations". After i was so excited that they were gone, i found out they do this atleast 4 times a year....on top of PDAS! HOLY MOLY!

Our house is looking good, they say they'll be finished by Friday...we'll see!

I will post pictures....really!

I'm with Mere, i would be a better wife, mom and teacher if i could work part time....but i'd be broke!

Next post: dedication to Reegan....she turned two on the 18th....wow...shes two!!!! How fast time flies...

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

What we've been up to....

There have been lots of things going on in the Howell house. you've heard of some of it but now you can see some pics!

This is how it all started. We wanted to redo our extra bath and tile the 2 hallways...

and then this happened.... Furniture on the driveway before the sun was even up....On a better note. Why does Reegan have a diaper on her head? Because she doesn't need it on her hiney!!! SHES POTTY TRAINED!!!!!! Remember the pic of the front door earlier? red floor...gone....wall to the left of the door ...gone...and the other wall is down to the studs and will be gone soon!

this was a week or so ago. there is tile down in the living and dining area. the studs are still in the wall. we are waiting on it to quit raining so they can brace the wall in the attic.
We made ree's closet bigger! the left hand 3ft of her closet use to be a desk! Now its all closet! can you see the new carpet in there too??


I'll have to download the pics from this week in the morning. Pictures coming up: new kitchen cabinet doors and drawers, enlarged master closet, and completed extra bathroom!

Did i mention that the 'guys' as reegan calls them have been here for 10 weeks. 2 weeks before the flood and 8 weeks after!

Reegan was listing the people that live in our house today the list was: mommy, daddy, reegan, and 'guys'!!! Well...they pretty much live here!

BTW I LOVE my new job!!!! More on that later....it's 10pm and my bed is calling me!

Thursday, August 07, 2008

wow I'm a bad blogger!

Ok so I left you hanging last time about our flood. It happened on July 9....it is now Aug 7 and we still have at least 2 weeks to go on getting our house back to normal! I do have pictures, but there at home. We are at Mimi's so Ree can take a nap at Mimi's because they are tiling our den today. For some reason it is difficult for her to take a nap at home with 6 workers and a tile saw going!

While we're at it we are enlarging Reegan's closet and the closet in the master bedroom! I'm more excited about that than i am the new carpet (when you've lived with concrete and carpet tacks for 4 weeks getting carpet is pretty amazing!). They put carpet in Ree's room and the back bedroom on Friday. Our room might be later in the week...or next week! At this point it doesn't even matter! We're also knocking out the wall between the living room and the den. When you walk in the front door the entry hall, living room, dining area, kitchen, and den will all be one big room!! I think it will be cool!

I think my new school is going to be great! I love my new principal and my room is coming along. Did i mention that it has baby blue tile half way up the wall, and a really bad tropical mural. Amy and I are repainting on Saturday! OH and btw.... My principal asked me if i would teach reading...YUCK! But what do you say "No, I'm sorry, I realize English was my minor but I would rather teach 6th grade history because it isn't a TAKS tested class." ...I don't think that would go over too well....but it IS what WANTED to say :) She is suppose to make her decision by the end of the week.

Monday, July 14, 2008

We're still alive...I think! (pics to come)

Wow i cant believe my last post was almost a moth ago! Well lets see...what has happened in the last month

1. Thought hooking up the water softener would be a great summer project. Called the Culligan Man to start her up and make sure nothing blew up in the process (it hadn't been hooked up since we lived here). CM got it hooked up and 30 min later the ceiling in the office fell in and water was everywhere!!!

2. Culligan somehow thinks that this is not there fault...hhhmmmmm

3. Thought this was a good opportunity to do a small remodel. Tile in office, hall, entry way, and extra bathroom. New countertop and shower tile in extra bathroom.

4. Decided i should apply for a new job

5. Got a new job

6. New camera got stolen (kob bought me a new one since it was cheaper than filing on insurance!)

7. Contractors start on small remodel

8. Water line busts under extra bathroom sink in the middle of the night (contractors had nothing to do with it...just an old water line). ALL but 150 sqft of our 2300 sqft house were DRENCHED. We had 1 1/2 inches of water all over the house. Found it at 3:30AM

9. Call the emergency cleanup ppl at 4:30am

10. by 6:00am all of our carpet and hardwood floors are being removed from the house

11. 6:15 am, the sun comes up, the Pettys go get us breakfast and we sit on the driveway in our wet furniture.(Thanks mimi and petty's for coming to our rescue!)

12.The three of us move in with my mom for 5 days

13. Content adjuster pops in (5 days later) and assesses the damage of our 'things'

14. Contractor discovers that the tile that was already laid....has to come up!

15. we're back in our house with only cement floors, piles of damaged furniture, and boxes of decor. The contractor was nice enough to cut up our old carpet and cover the carpet tacks so ree wont accidentally step on them. We all still wear shoes inside!

16. Structural adjuster comes tomorrow...

I'll post pictures soon!!!

:)

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Monday, June 09, 2008

Linda's Best Gift EVER








Is this not the coolest gift ever? It is the bottle tree Jonathan and Heather gave me. Jonathan made it and it has SO much personality! It could be my neighbors think I'm weird. Oh wait, they already think that. They have nice little red geraniums in their front yard. Not me - nope - I have a bottle tree! I would appreciate it if you would all go to the liquor store and pick out something in a bright colored bottle, go home and drink it, send me the bottle.
Oh yeah, here is a picture of Reegan learning to brush her teeth without a toothbrush. She didn't get it - just rubbed the toothpaste on her face.



Friday, May 30, 2008

Midnight Movie!

Gotta give a shout out to the Williams family who introduced me to midnight movies last year!

You guessed it some girl friends and I went to the FIRST showing of Sex in the City!

We got home at 3 AM....I left my house this morning for work at 7:10, am giving finals all morning, have graduation tonight, and a full work day tomorrow .... I am exhausted...AND IT WAS ALL WORTH IT!! I would go back again today and watch it if I had time! This is my new FAVORITE movie of all time!

On another note...I'm officially 30. It wasn't painful...no blood or tears....so i think it will be fine.


Ohhh-ohhh!!! We got a new camera! I think I'm in LOVE! Rebel XTI. It is SO much better than my little pocket size digital camera(ya know the kind that has a stupid delay between when you push the button and when it actually takes the pic). Now i can get decent shots of Reegan at the exact moment i push the button.

(disregard the non matching pajamas!)