In line at Starbucks....

when I heard the news Sept. 11, 2001. I am certain you remember the day as clearly as I. This day is a day that makes me reflect and re-evaluate. What is important? Where are your priorities? Do you truly appreciate what you have? Most importantly...where is your relationship with God? Live each day as it is the last, love openly, laugh often...

A poem of reflection on this day:

On Monday We E-mailed Jokes (Author Unknown)

On Monday we emailed jokes.
On Tuesday we did not.
On Monday we thought that we were secure.
On Tuesday we learned better.
On Monday we were talking about heroes as being athletes.
On Tuesday we relearned who our heroes are.
On Monday we were irritated that our rebate checks had not arrived.
On Tuesday we gave money away to people we had never met.
On Monday there were people fighting against praying in schools.
On Tuesday you would have been hard pressed to find a school where someone was not praying. On Monday people argued with their kids about picking up their room.
On Tuesday the same people could not get home fast enough to hug their kids.
On Monday people were upset that they had to wait 6 minutes in a fast food drive through line.
On Tuesday people didn't care about waiting up to 6 hours to give blood for the dying.
On Monday we waved our flags signifying our cultural diversity.
On Tuesday we waved only the American flag.
On Monday there were people trying to separate each other by race, sex, color and creed.
On Tuesday they were all holding hands.
On Monday we were men or women, black or white, old or young, rich or poor, gay or straight, Christian or non-Christian.
On Tuesday we were Americans.
On Monday politicians argued about budget surpluses.
On Tuesday grief stricken they sang 'God Bless America'.
On Monday the President was going to Florida to read to children.
On Tuesday he returned to Washington to protect our children.
On Monday we had families.
On Tuesday we had orphans.
On Monday people went to work as usual,
On Tuesday they died.
On Monday people were fighting the 10 commandments on government property.
On Tuesday the same people all said 'God help us all' while thinking 'Thou shall not kill'.

It is sadly ironic how it takes horrific events to place things into perspective, but it has. The lessons learned this week, the things we have taken for granted, the things that have been forgotten or overlooked, hopefully will never be forgotten again.
Author Unknown


Love you all!!! (stand by for a lighter blog this weekend....:) )

No big surprise...

Well, you know that there is never a "normal" event around here. I let you see Rhett's party. Now for the rest of the story... Throughout the party, we kept hearing what we thought was a baby bird crying loudly for it's mother up high in the tree above our back porch. We figured out at the end of the day when my mom, sisters and I were relaxing out back that it indeed was not a bird, but a very tiny baby squirrel hanging on for dear life. What to do? Courtney panicked and said we should call Diego. We mothers should really get out more... We went in to tell the guys about our finding. Dad, whom I will not reveal his actual age...but let's just say OVER 60, proceeds to shimmy himself up the tree. It is about 50 feet at least. He gets the squirrel and climbs higher and puts it back in what we think is his nest. Yeahh! The squirrel is saved...or so we think.

An hour goes by. Reid, Madison and I are playing croquet in the backyard when what falls from the sky? You got it...the baby squirrel. We then decided we would care for him until nighttime and leave him out for his mother to find. She didn't... I woke and went directly outside to find we still had our little "rat". I googled "what do I do with a baby squirrel that I found" and God willing in this crazy technological world we live in, I found a "Squirrel Lady" . After a lengthy conversation with Reid about how Alvin (yes he already had a name) would have a better life with an actual squirrel expert than with us, we drove him into Austin and delivered him to his new home. God bless Alvin...God bless the Squirrel Lady...and God bless this crazy life that we love...

Choo Choo Choo Rhett turned 2 !!!

Last Saturday, August 29 was Rhett's 2nd Birthday. We had a Thomas the Train party. He spent a great portion of the day running around saying "Choo Choo!". We had a great time with our family and friends. Man how time flies...

Rhett with Thomas

The Boys...they obviously were tired of mom's camera...

Cupcake time!!!

Our sweaty little monster.

Rhett thought this little cake for him was awesome!

Look Mom No Hands!

Today was a big step. Reid's first day of school. He looked so cute and immediately a bit older today. He was ready to go and excited. No nerves here... So I am not usually a super emotional person, but I knew as soon as the backpack was zipped that my heartstrings were being tugged. I swallowed hard on the walk in and kind of looked up a lot to keep the tears back. After putting Reid's things away and making sure he found his seat, we could tell he was ready for us to go. And this is where the tears began. I tried to play it off, but my nose does this bright red thing that cannot be camouflaged! This proceeded on until I pulled up to my office and trust me...there's no crying there. Not compromising his man card or anything, but either the sun was bright in that school hallway or Brian needed to put those sunglasses on for another reason! What a great dad, holding Reid's hand the whole way... We are excited for a fun year.

Below are a few pictures of Reid's big day.

Reid and his teacher (Mrs. Macias)

Dad and Reid (his mini-me)

Looking good...

Blackland Prairie Wildcat!

I give...

Those of you who know me well are probably shocked that I have "gone to the other side" and started a blog! I managed to fight off my space and facebook, but I must say that I have really enjoyed being able to keep up with some of my family and friends by viewing their blogs.

I wish the same for you as I update what is going on with our family.

What a great way to get started. Reid starts Kindergarten tomorrow. We are all so excited. The school is huge and I probably have more anxiety than he does. I just pray that he gets on the correct bus after school! I am sure I will be a nervous wreck until I know this happened.
I will update tomorrow with pics of his first day.

A quick "first post" update on our family for those of you we have not spoken to in some time: We are still in Round Rock. Brian is teaching World History and coaching the Varsity Boys Basketball team at Stony Point High School. I believe this starts his 10th year at SPHS. I still work at Enterprise...it has been 11 years. Reid Cooper is 5 years old and Rhett Cason turns 2 this weekend. We have a dog, Bo and 2 hermit crabs, Gripper and Grabber. We are truly blessed...