Halloween Festivities

The Fab Four ready for trick-or-treating!!

Calling Dr. Browning, Dr. Browning to Radiology STAT


Cinderella, Cinderella, night and day it's Cinderella.....



My computer whiz!!




Holley, up close and personal!

This was the first year EVER, that I actually helped (more like did all by myself)the kiddies costumes, (except Allie's Cinderella). Boy did these kiddos end up with alot of candy!!! Gee Whiz!!!! Of course Mom has to check it (I.E. Steal some) and taste test to make sure it's ok!:)

Happy Birthday Rachie Reindeer....

Rachel the Reindeer Harlow 6 weeks old


Rachel and Aunt Perry (P.P.) and Aunt Stacey Xmas 2006


Rachel Harlow, prettiest 15 year old I know.


My sweet, precious , niece Rachel is (according to her mother, who I think has been fibbing all of these years)15, yes 15!!!! years old today!!! A little pumpkin girl!!! Man, I'm getting OLD!!! Love you Rachel!! I love this cute picture of your first Christmas when you were 6 weeks old and dressed as a reindeer (hence the Rachie Reindeer!!) Good luck at your marching contest tomorrow!!! Love Aunt Stacey and the gang.

Happy Fifth Birthday Sweet Allie-Girl

Make a Smilebox slideshow

you may want to pause the mixpod player to the left when you watch this... My baby girl is 5 today!!! Love you so much Allie!!!

Wordless Wednesday

I don't have much to report today....yes it's Wed. ,one of the busiest days in our week.I worked today so Meme and Poppy jumped in and taxied the kiddies around. H and A had gymnastics, M went to youth group and S, well, he played. Tomorrow is A's big 5th b-day. She is very excited. Will post pics as soon as I can. Lots to do, present wrapping, finishing Halloween costumes, and preparing for our busy weekend with the gymnastics level 5 district championships at our gym. Holley competes first thing (8 am) on Sat., but we will be working at the meet until 930 pm and working the sessions on Sun. too until 330. The other kiddos will be having fun at Dad's. S has his first playoff game at noon on Sat. Unfortunately, I won't be able to see the game. I think he is getting sick of gymnastics, (by this time in the season, so am I.)Take care.....

didn't realize how small the video of Holley's dance performance was going to be or that it would come across blurry. oops. She is the 2nd one in the second row from the right. She is shorter than her partner. Her partner in one move bends over and Holley swings her poms over the girl. Most of the time she is in the middle of the screen. She has a long ponytail. Hope you can pick her out. S

One more activity to add to our list....

Holley 10-25-06

As if we did not have enough to do in our already crazy, hectic lives, Holley decided this year that she really, really, really had to be on the Fabra Elementary Dance Team. They practice once a week on Thursdays. They had their very first performance on Saturday at the annual Fabra Family Fall Festival. So after we had recovered for about 1 1/2 hours after Allie's birthday party on Sat., we were off to the festival. This was an experience!! I had signed up to work at a booth for Scott's class. Robert was supposed to meet me up there at 445 so he could take the kids around to the different booths and games etc. Well, he never made it. So after standing next to me for almost an hour, they couldn't stand it anymore and I let them go off on their own to play some games (Allie stayed with me). HUGE, GIGANTIC MISTAKE. The next thing I know they are coming towards me with huge smiles on their faces, as if to say, "Look what a good job we did". They were holding plastic bags. Inside those plastic bags were 9, (yes 9!!!!) goldfish! Good grief! Like I have a place for 9 goldfish!! When we were leaving, we walked past the principal, Mrs. Light. She smiled and waved, and I stopped in my tracks, held up the goldfish and just stared at her. She looked at the bags and started laughing, hysterically!!! Ha-Ha so funny! I told her that next year I vote for a STRICT policy of one goldfish MAX for each household. She was laughing too hard to answer. I tried to pawn those fish off on every person I saw. We ran into the rector from our church and his family and I begged him to have mercy and take some. He just smiled sweetly and said, "Not hardly!" Anyway, when I finally reached Robert, I told him he owed me and so he came and picked up the fish and took them home where there is a big tank with a filter. I tried to sneak Jake (the gerbil) in with the group of fish but he didn't fall for it. Had to try!!HA! Here is a video of part of Holley's dance routine. They will be performing at a Spurs half-time show in November. They are pretty good for only practicing once a week. Was supposed to work today but was put on call and got to stay home, we started making our Halloween costumes!.....I am scheduled Tues and Wed. Luckily I have Thursday, Allie's "official" birthday, off. Then I'm off all next weekend for the level 5 district championships (gymnastics). Our gym is hosting the event so all of the parents and the girls are working at the meet. Will post pics of Allie's big day....and the meet.....Stay tuned.....P.S. Scott's football team had their last regular season game Saturday (also the day of the party (at the same time actually). Thanks Poppy for taking him. They finished in 2nd place and we are getting ready for the playoffs....go Buccs!!! And Go Red Raiders!!! Beat those Longhorns!!(just for you MA!!HA)

Allie's big day

Allie's 5th B-Day Cake

Today we celebrated Allie's 5th birthday with a fun party at Boerne Gymnastics Center. She and her friends had a wonderful time. It was a fabulous party. Here are a few video clips from the party....enjoy....

Singing to Allie

Swinging from the rafters....

It was a great day. I love you Allie!! Happy Birthday!!!

Lady Holley

Lady Holley October, 2008

Holley had the distinct honor of being chosen as the student from her class to be "knighted" at school on Thurs. Each month the Rotary Club here in Boerne sponsors a ceremony to honor students who exemplify certain character traits. This months trait was discipline. Holley's teacher chose her as the student who most exemplifies this trait. I'm very proud of my munchkin.... She was knighted last year too. (can't remember the discipline). You can be knighted each year and you are supposed to wear each medal you earn to each subsequent ceremony. Once a knight, always a knight. It apparently is considered a very cool thing at the school. There is a fancy ceremony and they get a medal. It's always a secret and parents are notified several weeks in advance so they can attend. From now on, at each subsequent ceremony, the previous winners get to sit in "the gallery of champions" which is a fancy way of saying reserved seating up front. Anyway, Holley was thrilled. I'm so glad I happened to be off and was able to go to the ceremony. Life is good.....what good kids I have been blessed with. Not perfect, but pretty darn good!!!Tomorrow is Allie's big B-Day party. Pictures to come....Stay tuned....

First Band Concert of 2008

Macie had her first band concert of the year on Monday night. They were great. She plays flute and is sitting in the second seat from the right. She is currently second chair. She and her friend Kelly keep flip-flopping the first chair spot. She did a great job. I'm a proud mama. I know you can't really see her face behind the music stand but oh well....also sorry about the shaky hand. I was videoing with my digital camera not the video camera with image stabilization. Guess I'll never be a surgeon ....stay tuned....

workin' wednesday...

have been meeting myself coming and going the past several days....am exhausted from a long, and very stressful day at work, almost lost a baby and a mama at work today. Thankfully, by the grace of God, we didn't, but it was much too close for (my) comfort. Am ready to sack out but my adrenaline is still going so strongly that I'm finding my brain unable to rest.....hopefully will have some fun things to tell you about tomorrow...(or later today as the case may be)....take care....

Just another manic Monday....

Hello everyone, it's Monday...again...and boy does it feel like one today. Yikes. Crazy day...following a CRAZY weekend. To start things off, Holley had The Judges Cup gymnastics meet on Friday night. It started at 6pm and we didn't leave the gym until around 1015 or so. It was at Alamo Gymnastics Center in San Antonio so it was about 40 minutes away from home. Holley had not eaten and the other natives were hungry as well (yes, everyone went to the meet) so we grabbed a bite at Denny's in Boerne before heading home. Allie actually did pretty well the first three hours of the meet but then things got rough. Just to let you know... I am not above bribery in those situations. She had drinks, sweets, etc. But all in all, it was an ok adventure. Holley did pretty well, tough time still on bars...and the judges were way tougher than they had been, scores were much lower on routines that seemed (to my untrained eye) to be improving. Oh well. We made it home and crawled into bed by 1120pm.

Picture of Holley and some of her teammates. from left to right: Kaitlyn, Amanda Holley, Hannah and Ashton

Boerne Middle School North Cross Country Team 7th and 8th grade boys and girls teams. Macie is in the exact midle of the front row.

Then Sat. started with an early bang. We were up and out of the house in time to have Macie to her cross country meet by 0830. Luckily it was in town so we didn't have to travel very far. After that ended about 0930, we ran to Taco Cabana for some b-fast tacos (we had been running too late to stop and eat), we scarfed them down and it was off to Fabra Elem to watch Scott play football. He had to be there for warm-up by 1015. They played the Eagles and after a hard fought battle the mighty Buccs prevailed. Go Buccs!! Sorry I don't have any pics of the game to post, I took some video, but didn't have the camera on either of he times that Scott got flags. Oops!! The best part of the game was afterwards when the coaches handed out ice cream bars and they were sweet enough to bring some for the players siblings too. So we hung around at the field 'till the ice cream was gone. I'm mean I guess, I didn't want fudge pop all over my car.

After the game, Scott hung out with his Dad leaving the girls to ourselves. Holley had a private lesson at the gym (trying to work the kinks out on her bar routine- didn't help) and then her sweet aunt Perry took her to see a movie and to eat dinner. It was her "special day" that she was given by her aunt on her last B-Day. They saw Beverly Hills Chiuahua. She told me it was "Awesome", so I guess she had fun. Thanks Aunt Perry. So Sat. night it was just Macie and Allie and me. Hmmmm...what to do with just two children??? Why...., Shop of course!! We went into San Antonio to pick up all of the stuff for Allie's birthday party next Sat. Then we ate at Red Robin, and boy, that was the BEST hamburger I've ever had!!! We had never eaten there before and probably won't again, it's expensive (for me) so unless I've just got one or two with me it's out of my league. Anyway, we got home about 915 pm (picked up Scott along the way) and Holley got home around 930. So we were off to bed....exhausted after the long day. We overslept Sunday morning and didn't make it to church and spent most of the day Sun, just playing around. Macie had her "special day" with Aunt Perry on Sun. They went to a movie "The city of Ember" and then to eat. She had a great time. Thanks again Aunt Perry. Each year (recently) Aunt Perry has given each of them a fun day for their B-Days. They get to pick what they want to do and where to go etc. (within reason of course) So as you can read... it was a jam packed weekend. Today, I'm picking Allie up from school early (130 pm) and then going to get Macie (145) to head to the dentist (again) for the permanent retainer to be placed. Then we will rush back to Boerne in time to pick Holley up and get her to the gym by 430 and then...Macie has a band concert at 7pm. Then pick Holley up at 830 and it will be bedtime, yeah... I'm already exhausted. Spent the morning shopping for Allie's presents. I realized this morning after I dropped her off at SHEEP that I've only got 3 days off between tomorrow and her birthday next Thurs. Yikes...so I got all of my shopping done and ordered her cake for her party. So I think that about covers things. We are as busy as ever. But are doing the same things so I'm sorry if it gets redundant.

I work Tues. Wed and Fri. this week. Sun. Tues and Wed. next week. I've got Thurs off this week, and Sat. (which is Allie's party and the fall festval at the elementary school- I'm signed up to work at a booth...ugh. and Holley performs with the dance team). Macie has a cross country meet after school on Wed. (what a crazy time)....and of course we've got the usual football practice and gymnastics....it's never ending...I'm grateful to have Meme and Poppy back from the lake (hope you had fun) to pinch hit for me this week. They get kids where they need to be for me while I'm working. I'm lucky...believe me...I know.

It's Wednesday....need I say more??

Hello everybody, it's Wednesday, probably the craziest day of the week for us and I had a luncheon to attend on top of everything else. Several years ago, when I was going to LVN school at Schreiner University (2/05-2/06), I applied for and received tuition assistance with the Texas Workforce Commission (now, workforce solutions). Since then I have also qualified for child care assistance for the kids. Anyway, the lady who has been handling my case for the past several years nominated me for one of their annual awards, "Excellence through individual achievement", apparently actually finishing my stated goal of finishing RN school and earning my RN license, is noteworthy. I never really thought about it. I just needed to finish so I could support my kids. I guess I never thought about the other people who say they are going to do something and for whatever reason or obstacles, don't make it. Anyway, today there was an awards luncheon to honor the winners. It was at the historic Pearl Brewery Stables. That place is cool!! The lunch was very good. My mom went with me. The funniest thing that happened was that the dean of the Baptist School of Health Professions (school I graduated from in May), Dr. Karen Stiefel, was there. She is actually sitting on the board of a new school that will be opening at some point, I did not get all of the details. It was fun to get to talk with her. She is still the dean of my old school too. She was as surprised to see me as I was to see her. She was excited for me that I had won an award and then told me that she was going to go let everyone at the school and the president of the hospital where I work, (who was going to be at a meeting at the school with Dr. Stiefel later this afternoon) know about the award. How embarrassing. I know I should not really be embarrassed, but I am not the kind of person who loves the spotlight, I'd rather be behind the scenes. She told me once I finish up my degree that I should come back to the school and teach. I told her that was my dream and would love it! Anyway, I survived the luncheon. They gave several awards to businesses in the community, a volunteer award, and there were five awards given to people like me who have been clients of the services provided by Workforce Solutions, Alamo. All in all it was a good day. Allie had preschool at SHEEP, Macie went to youth group after school, Holley and Allie had gymnastics, and Scott went to play at his friend's Jack's house after school and then got to go with their family to the PTO fundraiser/ bar-b-que dinner and hay maze at the school. P.S. it is very difficult to take a picture of a solid glass and mirror award, sorry if you can't really see it. Take care....work tomorrow, will try to post Fri. but Holley has a meet Fri. night so it may be Sat. before you hear from me.

Meet Jake....

I promised an update on Macie's gerbil Jake......well today is the day to let it all hang out...Why today you ask?...because the stinky little thing kept me up most of last night and I had to be up at 5 am to get ready for work.

This is Macie's gerbil Jake. Jake and I have had a love/hate relationship for the past two years or so. The people at PetSmart told me I should consider a gerbil intead of a hamster because gerbils are less likely to bite (not true in our case), are more likely to be awake in the early to late afternoon so the kids could actually play with it (also not true), are just all around more sociable than hamsters (yet one more time...not true.) I'm wondering if they saw a sucker coming and told me anything to make the sale. (Those stinking liars..ha!)

Just wondering...after seeing the beady red eyes and the long tail, what makes a gerbil much different than your average mouse or rat other than the color?? His little red eyes give me the creeps but Macie wanted a white one.


This gerbil is a piece of work. He's had this "exercise ball" (in which he gets absolutely NO exercise) for the past two years. I thought that if he can figure out how to turn the wheel in his cage (which he does very well, esp at 2am...and it squeaks LOUDLY) that he should be able to figure out how to run in this thing but NO!!! He just sits in it....staring at us....Dumb gerbil. Whatever happened to the good ol' days when a gerbils life expectancy was 1 to 2 years?? I had hamsters growing up and they never lived more than 1 1/2 years or so. This thing is (almost) 2 and seems to be going strong. Macie will probably get very upset after reading this post and I apologize, but my goodness....He bites, he sleeps all day and is up ALLLLLL night, he pushes all of his shavings out of his cage onto the floor, he stinks....the list is endless. But in the end, Macie loves him. He bites her too, she can't even pick him up. I'm wondering if his fear has anything to do with his first few days at our home. The story is hilarious...until the pulling off the tail thing ; that part is not so funny. Flash back two years ago to late Oct. early Nov. My children and I are walking though PetSmart getting stuff for our then living hermit crabs (also a disaster...much more stinky than Jake- not good for kids) Macie sees the gerbils and wants one. I, being the good mother that I am (ha!), tell her to ask for one for Christmas. So I decide to get her one. Heck... I had hamsters as a kid....why can't she? Ha!! They spent Christmas that year with their Dad. They got out of school like on the 18th or something and went straight to his house for the holidays (through the 26th at noon ). I was working that day (the 18th)and drove from the hospital like a maniac to get to petSmart before they closed at 9pm. (I had already gotten the cage and all of the accessories and hid them in the attic weeks before.) The people at PetSmart had warned me that they tend to sell out of gerbils and hamsters early at Christmas time because they are such a popular gift (that's probably one more thing that is not true- what can I say? I'm a sucker with a capital S) So I got this red-eyed rat thing and drove home with him in the tiny box they gave me hoping the whole time that he wouldn't chew a hole through the box on the 40 min ride home. I get home and my mom and I set up the cage in the kitchen and it is time to put him in the cage. There was one problem... she and I were both terrified of him. To make a long story short, my very brave mom put on oven mitts and got Jake out of the box and into the cage. There was ALOT of screaming and laughing involved. I should have had Dad video it... we might have won $100,000 on America's Funniest Home Videos. Then I had to take care of this thing until the kids come home on Dec 26th. When she gets home, Macie of course wants to touch him, so trying to be brave... I try to get Jake out of his cage, there was more screaming and laughing and slamming the cage door on his head. After a while of this he seemed to become more afraid of us...wonder why??? So, I try to grab him by the tail...Big mistake, HUGE!!! The hair and skin on the tip of his tail came right off, and boy did it bleed. I almost threw up it was so gross, plus the knowledge of what I had just done to this poor animal was almost too much to bear. Then, the tip turned black over the next few days and eventually fell off. His hair grew back over the remainder of the tail eventually. Ughhhh...it was terrible, Merry Christmas Macie.... here is your tail-less, bloody gerbil. Anyway, back to Macie, present day, she has to trick him in to his ball to get him out of the cage. She does remember to feed him and water him which is probably why he has been healthy. Can't say I always remembered that about my hamsters! (Sad but true). I must admit that even I find myself going to check on the stinky little thing several times a week and adding food and water to his cage in spite of myself. Well, I think I've vented enough about Jake, It's off to bed, had a LONG day at work today. Take care....

Wii had a fun day

Macie's gerbil, Jake

Wii had fun.

Hello everyone, today was a school holiday for the Fab Four and I have today off from work so...we had fun playing the Wii today. We had some rousing good games and we played until the typical fighting started then it was everyone to their separate corners. I wonder if there will ever be a day when the arguing will be set aside and we will be able to spend a day together just enjoying each others company......oh well....Leave it to Beaver we ain't.....Scott made us lunch today (sweet guy) and Macie had her gerbil, Jake, out of his cage in his "exercise ball" yeah right... that thing hasn't figured that ball out in two years! But that is another post... Anyway, she cleaned his cage, Yeah, the smell coming from it was staggering!!! Allie and Holley built a fort and the list goes on....It is funny to me that any two of the kids, and most of the time any three of them can play together very nicely. But watch out for the fireworks when all four of them try to do something together...Yikes....

Another Super Saturday

Holley and coach Kristin 10-11-08

Well friends, it has been another super Saturday around here for the Browning Bunch. Scott played a football game this afternoon and his team won. Yeah!! A great comeback from last week's loss. He tried his hand at quarterback for two plays today. He did pretty well according to Dad. He threw the ball directly to the receivers both times but the receivers did not catch it. This info is coming from Dad however, and we all know he is not biased or anything. He also told me that Scott played center and tight-end today too. All in all it was a good game. I wish I could have been there. I, on the other hand, took Holley to her gymnastics meet which of course was at the same exact time today. How many football games do you know of that don't start until 5 pm???? Anyway, Holley had a FANTASTIC meet. She scored high enough on the balance beam (9.0) and the floor (9.1) to earn blue ribbons. She scored an 8.2 on vault to earn a red ribbon, and her old nemesis the uneven bars proved too difficult once again. She scored a 6.8 earning a yellow ribbon. If only she could get one move, her kip, her score would dramatically change. There are two kips in her program, one on low bar and one on high bar and she can't do either one yet. That is the main new move that separates the level 4's from the level 5's. It is apparently a move that is difficult to get right but her coaches tell me that one day, all of a sudden, she will get it and then it will be easy for her. I hope they are right. Half of the girls have their kips and the other half don't, so I guess we will just have to wait until she figures it out. She's having fun anyway and that is the important part. Take care..... P.S. Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday Perry!!

Here's Holley's arch enemy, the uneven bars. Notice how her coach has to help her do each of her kips. The kip is the swing move to actually get on the bar. She does it on the low bar and on the high bar.

Starting them young

I believe in starting them young......enough said...

There is a boy under all that hair...

Scott's hair cut 10-08

Hello all, Scott is finally looking like the handsome ,clean cut, young man that he is. He had his hair cut after months of us being so busy it felt like we were living in a whirlwind. I never carved out a chunk of time to take him. I just had to brag about my little man, oops sorry, my young man. Scott is such an amazing guy. I hope one day he reads this and will know how very proud I am of him and how much I love him. He is truly an amazing young man. There are not many other young men who will let his sisters beat on him and not retaliate. Oh, he will threaten one of them every now and then but it is justly deserved when he does. The worst thing he does is scare Allie with his scary mask and that is usually when she has pushed him too far. He has amazing patience. I am so grateful that the Lord chose me to be this wonderful child's mom. Oh he is not perfect let me assure you. His room is often a mess and I have to remind him to take a shower and brush his teeth (several times before he does it), but his heart is pure gold. He truly cares about other people's feelings and I am convinced that living in a houseful of women will benefit him one day when he finds the precious woman that the Lord has in store for him as his wife.

Life in the fast lane...

Macie having 3 baby teeth extracted

Hello friends....it's been several days since I've found time to post...sorry about that...we've just been so darn busy. Let's see... where to begin... the last time I posted Macie was going to have her teeth extractions. She did very well. She was sore of course, but no major complications. This weekend Macie competed in her very first cross country meet. She finished the meet in a time of 16minutes 23 seconds. (a 2 mile course) which was pretty dang good considering that is the first time she has actually run the full two miles since she had tendonitis. She placed 26th out of 50 which is very good. Her coach was extremely pleased. Scott had a football game on Saturday and sadly, the mighty Bucs were handed their first loss of the season. Holley had gymnastics on Sat morning and then went to a slumber party for one of her gym buddies. They had a great time and went ice skating on Sunday. I am very happy to announce that she did not break, strain or sprain anything while ice skating. She did tell me that she spent quite a good bit of time on the ice (literally sitting on the ice, ha!) and that her bottom was pretty sore but no injuries. As for me, I worked all weekend, Fri., Sat. and Sun. So I participated in none of the activities. That is probably the one thing that bothers me the most about being a working mom. I miss not seeing all of the fun things the kids are doing. Luckily, Meme was able to see Scott's game, and their Dad handled everything else. His sister came into town for a friend's wedding in San Antonio, so the kids were excited about getting to see Aunt Brenda. This week, Nana and Grandpa and Great-Granny and Great-Grandpa are coming so they are very excited to see them and they will be gone with their Dad again. As for right now, it is homework time. Scott is at football practice until 730 pm, Macie had cross country this afternoon until 515, and Holley is working on homework. So it is a usual crazy, hectic day around here. I stayed home from work today. The dreaded stomach bug hit around 230am this morning so I called in. I'm feeling much better this afternoon and hopefully will be back to 100% by tomorrow so I can keep up with everything we've got going on on Wednesdays around here. Allie has school (as do the rest of the kids), Holley and Allie have gymnastics, Macie has cross country, I have a hair appt (finally, yeah!!) and poor Scott gets taken along for the ride tomorrow.

Cute Lil' Pumpkins

Allie at the pumpkin patch 2008

Allie and her cute little friend Nicole

Hello all, today Allie's class from SHEEP (St. Helena's Early Enrichment Program-Mon. & Wed.) went to the 'pumpkin patch'. The patch is sponsored every year by the Methodist Church. This is the earliest that she has ever visited the patch and we were amazed at all of the weird looking pumpkins that are out there. Some were white, some had "yucky bumps" (as Allie called them), and some were the hugest, most perfectly sized pumpkins for carving that I've ever seen. In previous years her classes at Mother's Day out (Methodist church Tues & Thurs) have always gone to the patch but it is usually much closer to Halloween and the supply has been diminished. This is the first day that they are opened this year. She will go again with her other school (Methodist MDO) but they go on Oct. 30th, just one day before Halloween and also Allie's 5th b-day, so I don't imagine there wil be much left to see. It was fun getting to go with her this year. The last two years Meme has gotten to go because I was either working or in school. She had a great time, but I could definitely tell that she is not 100% back to herself after being sick. She ended up being sick all night long (Mon.) and well into Tues. morning. Then she started running a fever so she did not get to go to MDO yesterday. Her fever broke late yesterday afternoon and by the time I got home from work last night around 9pm it was gone. So...I broke down and let her go to the patch this morning. I am a firm believer that kids should be fever free for 24 hrs before going back, so I did not let her stay for school, we came home immediately after the patch. She got to pick a movie 'Monsters Inc.' and we watched it together. Macie has her dental appt. today at 2pm. She's a little nervous about having her teeth extracted. I'll let you all know later how she does. I imagine she will hurt some tonight.