My tired runner

Here's a picture of Macie after running cross country today. She was not overly thrilled to have her picture taken. It was hard for her to try to get back into the swing of things at practice. She has a meet on Sat. and is no where near ready for it. Oh well. (By the way, she was limping again after practice...is not a good sign.) It's now 8:08 pm and I'm off to pick up Holley from the gym. Poor little Allie just started throwing up so she won't be going to school tomorrow. She complained all afternoon about her tummy hurting because she was "hungry" and then during dinner she started saying that her tummy was really hurting bad. I half-heartedly believed her thinking she was being her typical finicky self and trying to get out of eating dinner. Poor baby. Now I know for sure that she's not faking it. She's thrown up at least 5 times now. Please pray that this illness will be short lived and not travel through everyone in the house. This is one time that I do not want her to share

Same ol', same ol'

Hello friends! Several of you have emailed me with questions and concern over why I have not updated the blog in a week. Sorry to have disappointed any of you!! There is only so much gymnastics and football I want to force you to hear about!!J/K. Seriously though, we have literally been doing the same things day in and day out. Holley's still going to the gym all of the time to work out and Scott is still having football practice and games. The Buccaneers (his team) won their second game this past Sat! (Thanks Meme for taking him.). Macie will be going to her first cross country workout in a week and a half today so that is something new to report. Hopefully her knee (tendonitis) is much better. Allie is still going to her various "schools" four days a week and loving every minute of it. She is usually dragging by Thursday because she is so tired from waking up early . I figure she better get used to it now because next year she'll be going to kindergarten five days a week. I worked all weekend Fri-Sun so have not seen them in a few days. Ok, technically I've "seen" them, but I haven't really gotten to talk to them since last Thurs. Actually, they spent Thurs evening with their Dad and I spent it watching the premiers of Gray's Anatomy (great!) and ER (awesome-last season-I'm so sad) so I haven't really talked with them since last Wed. After I get home from work I pop my head into their rooms to say hello and tell them goodnight. (I try to be home by 8pm- but if I'm in surgery at the change of shift I have to stay and finish the case.) I work again tomorrow but will be off Wed and Thurs. Holley went to the orthodontist last Wed. and will have to have an extra tooth removed, but he said we should be able to wait until next summer to have it done and that is good news. On Wed. Macie is going to have some baby teeth extracted so that will be interesting. That's it for now, literally nothing to report!!!

Fun at the library

Allie reading her Halloween story to her "friend"

Allie is very proud of her library book.

Today was Allie's first visit to the public library. Her preschool,"SHEEP", took them on a field trip to the Boerne Public Library. Ms. Constance read the kids a story and then, the best thing of all, they got to check out their very own books!! Yipee!! We had previously applied for library cards back when school started in Aug. so all the kiddos already had cards and were allowed to check out a book.Allie came home with all sorts of stories about what she can and cannot do with her library book. She said to me "Mom, did you know that it is NOT ok to take my library book into the bathtub with me?" I said,"Really, why?" She said "because that would be inappropriate." I did not even know that "inappropriate" was in her vocabulary. I asked her what "inappropriate" meant and she said "I think it means that it is not good for me to do it. " Pretty close. She picked out a Halloween story. She told me later that she was a little afraid of parts of it, but that seems to have been resolved. On that note, I must state that HEB (our local grocery store) infuriated me today. Why in the world do they have to put three HUGE life-sized mummies and corpse-looking things right at the front entrance of the store? I've had enough problems lately just walking past the Halloween aisle with Allie, and now these monstrosities are looming in the doorway and the poor baby is terrified to go in the store. The people who decide where to place the displays must not have young children!! So sorry for my ranting and raving but I think it is truly ridiculous. For whatever reason, Allie is more aware (I guess) of all of the costumes, esp the scary ones. It also does not help that Scott takes great delight in putting on his "freaky-looking"(Allie's words) skeleton mask from last year and chasing her around the house screaming and hissing- I'm going to get you Allie! Poor thing!! Next year she'll probably be the one jumping out from behind doors and around corners scaring everyone else so I guess I'll enjoy the times when she buries her face into me and grabs my hands for protection when we're at the store. It's going to be a long month until Halloween is over. One thing to look forward to though is Oct.30th her 5th birthday!!

Holley's level 5 floor routine.

As promised, I'm trying again to post Holley's floor routine. She did a great job!! This is the level 5 routine she did at her meet last night 9-19-08.

Are we ready for some football????

Well friends, football (flag) season has arrived. Scott had his first game of the season today ! He plays for the Buccaneers. He has the same coaches this year that he had last year and many of the same kiddos are returning as well. They were pretty good today. I was sure one proud Mama standing out there watching him!! He got a bunch of flags, and apparently sacked the quarterback twice (yes you read correctly, my son who is playing FLAG football, managed to sack the quarterback twice!) I however, was so busy talking to some of the other moms that I missed seeing the sacks. From how it sounds, he did not mean to actually sack the quarterback, he just pulled so hard on the flag that he just kind of pulled the quarterback down to the ground. He did not fall on them or anything, so no penalties were involved.. Anyway, he pulled a bunch of the other teams flags. I lost count. It was a good game and our team won 12-6 Go Buccs!!. I'm going to try to put a video clip in of one of the times he pulled a flag, he is #14 on the red team. I'm thrilled that his teams colors are red and black. As a former Red Raider (Go Texas Tech) we have plenty of red and black around! I'm very proud of your hard work today Scott!! I love you! You did awesome.

Last night 9-19-08 Holley had a gymnastics meet at Aerial Athletics in San Antonio. The meet ran so long that I got off work at the usual time and was able to make it to the gym in time to see the second half of the meet. Luckily, Meme had taken Holley and sweet Deedee Sawyer (Hannah's mom) had fixed Holley's hair for her. She did really well, much better than the last meet. Her whole team did tons better. All of us (the parents) were extremely proud of the improvements the girls have made. I missed seeing her balance beam and floor exercise. I did get to see her vault and her bar routine. I'm going to post her beam and floor routine for you to enjoy, thank you Meme for videoing for me. You did awesome Holley-girl, I'm so proud of you!! Love you tons!!

Well friends, I have not been able to post Holley's floor routine. Perhaps I've used the max video space or something. I'l try to post it later. Stay tuned....

And it begins....

Well all, we have the first sports injury of the season. No, Holley didn't fly off the bars and crack her head open and Scotty did not break something important in football. No, this time it is Macie. She has been having increasing difficulty with her right knee since she started cross country. Last night when I saw her after I got home from work, I knew something was really wrong.I took her to her Dr. this afternoon and he diagnosed her with patellar tendonitis. Meaning tendonitis around her knee cap. She is starting to feel better because she did not run today. He gave her some stretching exercises as well as some strengthening exercises to do every day and no running for 1-1 1/2 weeks. She is a little bummed. For the past week or so, I thought she was complaining about her knee because she really secretly wanted out of cross country. Even today on the way to the Dr. I told her, it's ok, you can stop if it's not for you. Her eyes got watery and she said, "Mom, I REALLY like running. " Now I feel bad because I didn't listen to her earlier. Oh well, never said I'd win the mother of the year award. Anyway, today Scott had a scrimmage with another team preparing for his first game on Sat. and Macie went to her flute lesson. Tomorrow, Holley has a gymnastics meet. Meme is going to take her since I will be working. I worked Tues and Wed. this week which is why I haven't posted any updates in the last couple of days. Gotta run, need to get the kids to bed so I can get some shut-eye. 5 am comes VERY early. Stay tuned....

Almost Famous

Well friends, today the fab four took a trip to the dentist. Since my hospital system switched insurance carriers this summer we have been able to go to a wonderful pediatric dentist. Holley and Scott actually saw her for the first time last Monday, when they had their cleanings and x-rays and the other first-visit type stuff done. Today they went back to have sealants put on their teeth. Dentistry has come a long way since I was a kid. I never had sealants put on my teeth to protect them. Anyway, Macie and Allie had their checkups and x-rays done today. Macie is an old pro at going to the dentist but Allie has no recollection of the lat time she went to the dentist which was in 2006. The insurance that we had through work (when I graduated and started working in 2006) did not allow for a pediatric dentist. They had to see a general dentist and their office refused to see children under 5 years old. Thankfully, with the new insurance, they can once again go back to an office that is tailored to meet their needs and developmental levels. It is sad that before I started working and they had Medicaid, that they saw an awesome pediatric dentist, but after all that hard work and graduating, and we finally had insurance, they had to give up seeing their dentist and go to a grumpy, old guy to clean their teeth. Anyway, this is a new dentist. Their old dentist still did not take our new insurance, but I found a wonderful one in San Antonio. They really like her and her staff. I am happy to report that no one had any cavities. Macie has to go back in a couple of weeks to have 3 teeth extracted. She has three remaining baby teeth that are stubbornly refusing to come out and you could see on the x-rays that her permanent teeth are growing sideways since they can't come in straight down. She will have the baby teeth removed and then they will put a spacer (permanent retainer) on to make sure to leave the spaces open so that hopefully, her permanent teeth will be able to come down into the right spots.

Today in the dentist's office was media day. They had a reporter there interviewing the staff and patients (and parents) and a photographer taking pictures for the local neighborhood paper. Apparently, this "little, local paper" circulates all around the North side of San Antonio. They asked me if they could include Allie in some pictures. They took a really cute one of the Dr. and Allie together and of Allie getting her teeth cleaned. Allie now thinks she is going to be famous since they told her the picture would be on the front page. The office promised to send me a copy, since we don't live there. Boerne is about 15-20 miles northwest of San Antonio. Anyway, she should be in the Oct. edition. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Holley has gym today and Macie has cross country this afternoon. A cold front came through the area yesterday. This morning and so far this afternoon have been absolutely glorious. There's a nice cool breeze, and the humidity is very low. Macie said to me, "Mom, I sure hope it is still this cool when I'm running this afternoon!". For her sake, I hope it is too. I absolutely ADORE this time of year, when it is cooling off. I'm sure that summer will be back with a vengance in a few days (it always is around here), but it is a hint of things to come, and a reminder to me that whether I like it or not, time is marching on. Sometimes I just wish I could hit "pause" for a little while. Oh well. Tonight is parent night at the middle school. I have to follow Macie's schedule and go to all of her classes and meet her teachers. It will be interesting to see how lost I get wandering around her campus. Should be interesting. Take care, and stay tuned....

An "Enchanted" Evening

Hello all, today has been what I consider a pretty close to perfect Sunday in our household. We went to church this morning, followed by Sunday school where the kids all had a blast. Then we hacked around Wal-Mart and got lunch at McD's and then we came home and just sat around most of the day. The kids did the things they like to do, Macie practiced her flute and did a little school work, and the other three played relatively well together. There were no major "incidents", we had a yummy dinner of grilled chicken (courtesy of Poppy) and corn on the cob, Scotty's favorite beans, and fresh cantaloupe. Then it was "hit the showers" time and then we had movie night. The movie of choice right now is "Enchanted". It has been our favorite for about the last month or two. That is why there are numerous songs on my song player that are from that movie. It is so cute, and hey, I want my kids to believe as long as possible in happy endings. They'll grow up soon enough. So tomorrow starts another week. Holley has a gymnastics meet next weekend and Scott will have his first football game of the season. It will be a busy one.

Praying for the victims

We are joining the rest of the multitude of people who are praying today for the people in the ravaged hurricane region. It makes me so sad to see the destruction that has taken place. It also scares me to know that so many people did not heed the warnings and chose to stay in the evacuated areas. We are praying for the safe and quick rescue of those who did not get out.
I am also extremely grateful that my family is safe and dry, (hot perhaps -since they are without electricity, but not in immediate danger. We will continue to watch the news unfold, and hope that there was not the large loss of life that the officials are fearing.

Trying some new things

Hello all, I'm playing around with some new templates today. Have managed to lose some of the things that were previously on the site. Sorry, hope to be able to find the things that are gone, but I make no promises.

Take a Hike Ike

This is a slogan I saw (on tv). written on a boarded up window in the hurricane region. The Browning-Klingman clan (Klingman=Meme and Poppy) have spent the day glued to the TV watching the events in the gulf unfold. My sister and her family live in Friendswood,Tx which is certainly in the path of this destructive storm. The children (Rachel and Stephen (my niece and nephew) have gone inland to stay with their Dad near downtown but my sister and her husband John have decided to stay in Friendswood. Friendswood is in Galveston county. Actually, it is cut in half and half lies in Harris county, but she is in the Galveston County side. They are one block away from the area that had mandatory evacuation orders. This is the same sister who convinced us back in 1994 to evacuate from our vaction in Destin,Fla, for a tropical storm. I just can't imagine her thinking it would be fun to ride out this major hurricane At this moment, Ike is 110 mph, just 1 small mph from a category 3 storm. Yikes, not fun to me. We are praying for the safety of our family and I ask that if you read this, please join us in praying for the safety of all the people in the path of this storm. Stay tuned....my sister said she was going to try to post some pics of the storm and video clips on her blog site. There is a link to her site to the left, it says "MA's blog or Mary Austin's blog (I can't remember which. )

Wacky Wednesdays

Well friends, today is a typical "wacky" Wednesday in the Browning household. The day started with getting two sleepy elementary school kids out to the school bus on time (barely) closely followed by their middle school sister who barely made her bus as well. I'm beginning to see a pattern here. Perhaps the problem is not them, but is their mother who has to muster ever ounce of strength she has to get up at 6 am to get them going on time. At least days like today start at 6, on the days that I work I'm up at 5 am and walking out the door by 555 am to make it to downtown in time for change of shift report which starts at 640am. Speaking of work, I'm scheduled to work Thurs., Fri. and Sat. so I more than likely won't have the energy to post until Sun. On my workdays I'm lucky to get home by 830pm, which makes for a very long day, but most days it is worth it. I feel so blessed to be such a major part of my patient's lives. What better job is there than to be a witness to the miracle of a brand new life??
Anyway, back to today, Allie went to SHEEP where she had a "friends picnic". Each student brought their favorite doll and they had a picnic outside. She had a blast. While she was at school, Meme (aka. my mom) and I went to WalMart to stock up on water and batteries in case Ike decides to come in around Corpus Christi which is about 120 miles South of us. We hope to get some good rain totals for our very parched part of the Texas Hill Country. Then I picked Allie up and we drove into San Antonio to get a b-day present for one of Holley's friends whose party is on Sat. Once back to Boerne, we went to the bank (where she was so good that she got a lollipop) and then we picked up Holley and Scott. We got home, did homework for about 45 min and then we were off again. We dropped Holley off at the gym at 505 pm and then went to pick up Macie from cross country practice at 515 and were back to the gym for Allie's gymnastics class by 545pm. Macie and I watched Allie's lesson and then we came home to make a quick dinner at 7pm.
Luckily, Poppy and Meme were at home so we didn't have to drag Scott along to the gym, but sometimes he has to suffer through it with the rest of us. J/K. He was very happy kicking back on the couch watching 'Walker, Texas Ranger' with Poppy. The girls and I ate dinner (Scott had eaten with Meme and Poppy at 630 pm sharp) then we got their school stuff ready for tomorrow and then I headed back to the gym to pick up Holley at 830pm. It is now 945 pm and we are finally getting quieted down, hoping to get to sleep soon so we can start it all over again tomorrow.
Tomorrow wil be an even more hectic afternoon, but the kids Dad has to worry about getting them to the right place at the right time since I'm working. I sometimes joke with my co-workers that I'm glad to come to work so that I have a break from my life. But all in all, I love my jobs, as a mom and as a nurse. I feel so blessed that the Lord has orchestrated the events in my life to bring me to this exact moment in time. Sure, there are things that I would change if I could but there are also things that I wouldn't change (and that list may surprise you). Anyway, my kids are happy, healty and doing fabulously well in school and in their chosen activities and I am thriving in my career. I love being an L&D nurse. The way I see it, if I have to do something that is going to take me away from my precious children, then I want it to be something that I love. It scares the fool out of me ALOT but it is the most fulfilling job I can think of and I am thrilled with my career.
I hope to be able to post a couple of short video clips to this message. If not, I'll try again Sun. or Mon. One of the clips is Allie walking on the balance beam in the big gym. Usually her coach works out with her in the preschool gym, but every now and then she takes her down to the big gym (which Allie loves because big sister is there and can see her). The second is of Holley working out on the vault. Level 5 is the first year that the girls actually do a vault over the vault table. In years past, thy've been going off a springboard and landing flatback on mats. Take care, and stay tuned....

YEAH!!!

I figured it out ALL by myself!!! I'm so proud of myself I can hardly stand it!! I still have not been able to add any new pics but at least I got the photostream back!! Whoop-ee.

Bumps in the blogging road

Just to remind you , yesterday I stated that this whole "blog-thing" would be a work in progress. I did not lie. I'm having some technical difficulties in case you haven't noticed. Some of you checked out this blog yesterday and I had a phtostream of pictures of the fab four's first day of school. Well, today I tried to add a couple of more pictures and "poof ".... it's gone!! sniff-sniff. Have I mentioned how much I HATE stinking computers?? I know, I know, they are only as smart as the people who run them, UGH, that does NOT sound promising for my future as a blogger. Hopefully my super, computer-savy sister will be home tonight to help me get my pictures set back up, after all, she spent a good hour on the phone with me last night to get them up the first time! Maybe this time I should take some notes. Ya think? Stay tuned.....

School Days are here again!

Holley (4th gr) and Scott (3rd gr) 8-25-08

Well, we are getting back into the swing of school again!! Macie just started 7th grade this year. (Boy I feel older this year! A middle schooler!!) She attends Boerne Middle School North and is active in the band (flute) and has joined the cross country running team (UGH!! It's HOT!! )They practice after school four days a week until around 515 or so!! Good Grief!! Holley is a 4th grader at Fabra Elementary and is still a member of the Boerne Gymnastics competetive team. She is a level 5 gymnast this year and gives mom a mini-heart attack each time she swings up to the high bar!! Scott (no longer wishing to be called Scotty) is a third grader at Fabra. He plays baseball and flag football and as you can see in the first picture, towers over his older sister (Holley) by about 6 inches and could probably bench press her, he weighs a good 40 lbs more than she does too! He is actually standing downhill on the driveway in that picture and he still towers over her. (Can you guess who he takes after?)(LOL) Last but not least is little Allie or Allie-gallie as I call her. She is four now!!( She'll be 5 on Oct. 30th) My how the time flies!! She goes to two different schools this year. She attends SHEEP (St.Helena's Early Learning Program) on Mon. and Wed. (at our home church, St. Helena's Episcopal) and goes to the Methodist Church's Mother's Day Out (in our case it should be Meme's Day Out) on Tues. and Thurs. She loves school and is excited every day to see her teachers Ms. Viva Mae (SHEEP) and Ms. Betty (MDO). Time is going much too quickly!! I'm already thinking that next year I will have my last Kindergartener EVER!! BOO-HOO!! But I will wait 'till we're closer to freak out!!

School started Monday, August 25,2008. Here are pictures of the Fab Four on their first day! We are past the years of wanting Mom to walk us to our class the first day so I had to settle for grabbing a few quick pictures on the driveway while they waited for the bus. At least Allie still wanted me to walk with her for her first day of school!! She waits very excitedly in the morning at the end of the driveway for the bus to come to pick up "the big kids". She takes great delight in informing me that next year she will get get to ride the "big kid bus too!!" I just hope I'll be able to manage to convince her to let me take her in to her Kindergarten class the first day!! I"m off to play taxi-cab driver for now. Take care , Love, Stacey

Macie (7th gr) and Allie (pre-K) 8-25-08

Here we go

Ok friends, after much deliberation, I've decided to follow the lead of many family members and friends and create a blog for our family. Hopefully, this will be a fun way for us to keep in touch with what is going on in our hectic, crazy, fun, and always amazing lives. Stay tuned....I have no real idea how to do any of this so this will be a work in progress. With three digital cameras and a digital video recorder in this household, maybe between all of us, I will be able to figure out how to post pictures of our daily lives for you all to enjoy.