In the Mullens House, Fall =Football

This year Davo jumped on the bandwagon and joined foolsball.

He plays on the little league as a Sr. Cougar with Quentin and Joely cheers.

David also plays for Middle School.

Apparently league coaches are much nicer LOL

David, Like Marcia Brady, has joined another Athletic team..

Cross Country-

No big surprise because that's "his thing" but it does mean that on

Tuesday, Thursday and Friday he runs before school, then has athletics (football practice) first period, and then about two hours of practice after school. He tries to make two practices a week for the league.

His league Coach is real nice and subs him in, so he gets plenty of playing time.

He understands he can't start since he isn't able to make all the practices and due to his race schedule he can't make all the games.

Everyone of his coaches describe him as "all heart"

So here is Joely cheering in 111 degree weather, yes that is surface of the sun hot. 

Her favorite cheer goes like this-

"The Thunder can't rock the house!

The Lightening can't rock the house!

But you can rock the house,

But you can rock the house!"

She has declared, after three games, that

"Being a Cheerio is Boring"

She's right, it is.

And here is my defensive tackle! He's been stuck on the O-Line and he hates not being able to throw people down.  However by the third quarter the coach has let him back on the D-line and he gets some aggression out.  And he has a lot of it, because they have not yet won a game.  Quentin, like me, is learning how to lose with style. His last team did lose some games, but they were always really close, like by one point in triple overtime, so it never stung quite so bad.

It's a building year.

They have new coaches and its' been a very positive experience for the boys. 

Alice and I spent a September  weekend in Conroe at a Girl Scout camp with five other girls and my co-leader Jenny. It was a lot of fun for us and we came back tired and very happy to see our beds.

We stayed in the treehouse cabins and it was a lot of fun.

The troop near us didn't appreciate that the girls had to go to the bathroom all night long and then there was a crazed racoon on the prowl, it was a night to be awake, but we had fun.

I don't remember sleeping much at camp when I was a girl.

We have a few more Saturdays of football and then  I'll miss it until next year.

To keep us occupied we are on a fantasy league.

David opted out once he found out there wouldn't be wizards and dwarvs, he's content with reality football.

This is Quentin on draft night, he's wearing his lucky hat! It's lucky because the great and powerful Mason Boys signed it. It's blessed. I beleive Q is tied for first, I may be wrong, but I know I'm dead last. Even with my mad drafting skills, I'm plagued. Robert says the NFL Players Union will request that I no longer draft players as they inevitably get injured, some season ending, some career ending. Not even selling my soul and drafting Michael Vick has given me a winning season.

Last but not Least, our sweet Alice

She's busy working on some dish towels, she started the joy of needlework this year! I love passing down this tradition. She's in third grade, taking jazz and rocking it at Girl Scouts. 

 This is her at the high school football game. She was in a dance and cheer clinic so it was a magical night. During the first quarter she cheered and between the third and 4th quarter she learned a drill team dance. This is by far my favorite fund raiser the school does.  For 20.00 you can cheer and 30.00 you can dance.  All the money goes to the cheer and dance squad and the little girls love it.

Seminary is back in full swing and I am enjoying the early morning Old Testament Lessons.  I love the boys in my class, they are amazing and such great examples. I keep forgetting to take new pictures of them, but I will.   I'm continually humbled to be their teacher. I've enjoyed discussing various principles and stories from the Old testament with Robert. There is so much to learn about the Blessings that come from Keeping our Covenants. I'm grateful for the wonderful women of the Old Testament and their faith and courage. 

And Visions of Sugar Plums Danced in their heads...

Well maybe not Sugar Plums...

Maybe Visions of the Big Yellow Bus

Tomorrow school starts.

Everyone has their new outfits ready..

Backpacks are packed

and

The Back to School Brownies are baked...

Now just waiting for the alarm clock.

Davo will leave at 6:30 and won't be home until almost six with FOOLSBALL practice.

Quentonius will be gone by 7:30, home at 4:00 and then back to his Foolsball from 6:30-8:30 two or three nights a week.

Alice will be dropped off by 8:30 and home by about 3:45, she's going to take Dance this year and not do Art --I'm happy she'll be at Mrs. Carols, but I'll miss her art show

The Boys will squeeze in Boy Scouts and youth meetings at church.

Alice will have Girl Scouts and her activities at church.

The best part of their schedules is that each person gets up and leaves before the next person gets up.

Nobody will be breathing too loud at the breakfast table.

Nobody will be brushing their teeth too long.

Nobody will be using all the hot water.

This will be a dream year.

Thanks Crosby for having so many schools-

And thank you Joely for staying home with me one more year..

This time next year, find me in the fetal position, or lobbying Robert for Home School!

Sunrise/Sunset

This is the most excited David could look Monday night, on his way to
MIDDLE SCHOOL ORIENTATION

I tried to not get weepy, but it's hard.

I know I've blogged about this before but every first thing with David is hard on me!

I can't beleive it's been almost 13 years since he first came into this world,

and now my little guy is going to Middle School.

He has athletics first period and football after school, he'll have fun in his theater arts class and science. I am sure his English class will be filled with fun books, the summer reading assignment was great, (David, Robert and I all enjoyed it) and he's always good in Math. This year Crosby decided to do a two hour block for math, way to go Crosby, No Math Student Left Behind!

I know it will be a great year for him, but each year gets him that much closer to college, his mission and then just coming home for a weekend visit here and there.

Perhaps I'm being dramatic.

This is David doing his best Lucas Mason interpretation of Cool.

I took him on Tuesday to get his Equipment checked out.

This picture is actually deep inside the boys locker room.

My first visit in the boys locker room.
Scratch that from my bucket list!

They gave the boys their football gear and a locker. David's combo was wrong, but I couldn't help myself, I had to help a bunch of other boys I knew from Quentin's football team or Boy Scouts. None of them knew how to do a combination.

And they were all sooo nervous.

David, however, knew very well, it was just they gave him the wrong numbers

On the way home I asked him if he was embarrassed that I was helping the other kids.

And he said, "Mom that's just you being you, I can't stop you from being you"

He CRACKS me up.

I can't wait to sit in the cougar bleachers with all my bling bling, rooting him on and also his teammates, that I helped on that first day.

And if you wonder why it's hard for me to cut the cord

at the mean streets of Crosby Middle School,

it's because I think of him like these above pictures, somewhere between two and three.

A Week at Surfside

Heaven on Earth!

We spent a delightful week hanging out at the beach. It was amazing.

The weather was perfect and our little town home was perfect.

Pictured above is the view from one of the four balconies.
We had our own private walkover to the beach and at the end was another deck.

Sometimes I have genius ideas, this was one of them.

We only took flip flops.

6 people 6 flip flops.
It was easy to keep up with everything.

Another genius idea,(robert's) no phones and no schedule!

Robert's work was wonderful, no calls or texts.

I loved the little clock, it really expresses our sentiments.

On Wednesday, we stayed inside during the day, we slept late, ate a late breakfast and played a bunch of board games, ate a late lunch and then hit the beach.

We finally broke out Settlers of Cataan. But imagine my dismay when the instructions were taken out and not put back in!

Fortunately, I had my phone, with Internet access and we found an online tutorial.

We are hooked. Sadly I didn't take any pictures during the games, as it's too competitive.

Bathing Beauty! This is on the deck.

The other favorite activity-

Creating sand civilizations.

We had enough time, that we didn't need to just stop with castles.

This was Rob's favorite part.

Watching the moonrise, on the back porch while sitting in the rocker.

It was sooo peaceful.

And the moon was full all week.

One night it looked like Cosmo's moon, but I couldn't capture it, It's just in my memory bank.

Robert wasn't homesick at all, because there was a laundry room.

We only had six towels too, so we'd rinse the towels and suits and dry them.

It was nice to keep the sand away. Not pictured is the below deck showers. WONDERFUL

After the beach, everyone showered off the sun and salt.

No sand was allowed at the house.

Another one of my brilliant ideas! We each had only one cup, each a different color.

Couple that with paper plates and utensils and we weren't spending much time in the kitchen

David and Quentin enjoying some beach time.

Everyone had a hat, but not everyone wore theirs.

Hands down everyone loved Boogie boarding.

Nobody was sunburnt.

And contrary to popular belief, when we got back the boys were able to play their video games just fine, they didn't forget how.

I can't wait for next year's vacation.

I'm thinking this needs to be a family tradition.

Mason Combine 2011

In order to keep up the momentum of Aggie Camp

We hired the boys a personal trainer

Lucas Mason

Lucas is kind of a hero around here-

He plays High school football, and if you listen to Quentin and David, you'll beleive that he is the BEST PLAYER THE CROSBY COUGARS HAVE EVER SEEN.

He's also a baseball star.

And he's also one of my three favorite Seminary Students.

So to have him over a couple of hours a day is FANTASTIC

He's working on strength, agility and football skills and drills.

When they are through, Quentin always feels like he's going to puke.

Job Well Done Coach Mason

He's done' so good that they were able to crack this cinder block in three pieces. INCREDIBLE.

I hope they aren't juicing.

Lucas also has all the cool equipment too, pictured above the shake weight.

"It really hurts"

Each work out ends in a quick run to Newport Elementary and back, about 1.5 miles and then he rewards their efforts by playing a little Xbox 360 with them. He's the master on the Xbox too, he's legendary on EVERYTHING-

They've taken to calling him Chuck, as in Chuck Norris, because Like Chuck Norris, when Coach Mason does push ups, he doesn't push himself up, he pushes the world down.

Also, Coach Mason has already been to Mars, that's why there are no signs of life there .

Additionally like Chuck Norris, Coach Mason, doesn't sleep, he waits.

And he doesn't mow his grass, he stands outside and dares it to grow.

One more thing, like Chuck Norris, he has beat Halo 3 on legendary, with a guitar hero controller,

But I digress.

It's been a fun few days working out with the famous Lucas "chuck" Mason.

It will be a sad cruel day when he goes to California for his summer vacay, but until then the boys are hanging on his every word and doing EVERYTHING he says.

And for me, I'm thrilled they look up to him and that they are happy to be his minions.

Building Champions

On Sunday we skipped church and headed to

The University of Texas...

in College Station Texas

The great and powerful

Texas A&M University.

Not to be confused with the lesser t.u. found in Austin.

I digress.

We were taking the boys to Football Camp at the legendary home of

Quentin Coryatt, (remember him Ty Detmer?)

Dat Nguyen (original wrecking Crew)

More Recently the Second Overall Draft Pick and Butkus award Winner

Von Miller

And of course lesser known Twelfth Man

Robert Lee Mullens (check him out on facebook)

Here is the money shot- Future Wrecking Crew Nose Guard

Quentin -- he's putting on his cleats in the TINY Dorm Room,

This is the locker room, David is hanging in Reveille's locker space-

She's the mascot, and she's awesome!

Lore has it that if she's in your classroom and falls asleep,

the professor has to cancel the class.

Joely is ready to go home, she' can't walk anymore, she's tired, hungry and thirsty.

Joely was finally cooling off from our walking tour of campus and stroll down memory lane. She decided to chillax in the locker space of "JUDIE" we'll be watching for him on the field next year. GIGGEM

This is where we were engaged! Now look at us some 15 years later, with 4 kids a dog, a rat and a

mortgage!

This is the Poly Sci building, that was right by our engagement tree. Robert says he'd sit there and dream about the life he'd have with a wonderful wife and children.

I ask him, "What happens when your real life exceeds your dreams?"

And he just smiles.

Here is the 2011 season, look whose on the bottom? That's where they belong.

It's not really a road trip unless we eat at Chuy's.

Alice opted to stay with her grandma and grandpa Mullens.

Engaged. The boys are on electronics and Joely is coloring.

Peace.

I'll admit it was hard to leave them there.

But I KNOW they'll have fun .

I go pick them up in a few hours and I can't wait to hear how they did.

Their first stop?

They want to go to grandma's hot tub.

Funny how it's never grandpa's house or grandpa's things, it's always grandma's house!

Village Creek State Park

We finally went camping again as a family!

We've done the divide and conquer many times, either me or Robert with the Scouts

or all of us camping except Joely stays with Grandma

Or Me with the Girls Scouts-

Or on two ocassions with the cub scouts, the boys got sick and since I was already signed up as a leader, I took the girls with me!

CRAZY

But it's been well all of Joely's life time since we all camped together.

It was a blast!

We took 5 boy scouts with us (two were David and Quentin)

and they did all the cooking!

The boys stumbled upon a geocache and it was so exciting! They can't wait to find more.

The best part of Boy Scouts is they let you bring the "me toos"

And those two were delightful

The highlights were of course the leisure hike (1.13 miles) to the swimming hole and back. The Creek was low so it wasn't scary or dangerous. Just refreshing!

On Saturday Evening Dad and the girls went on an "Ice Run" that ended at Sonic for them.

The scouts and I ate spaghetti cooked by travis (david's brother from another mother)

and Chicken and Rice, cooked by David.

Ok So I didn't get any pictures of the whole family, and you have to look close to see Quentin, he's in the greenish shirt.

It was a lot of fun.

We plan to go to Livingston this summer and also camp in Galveston State Park.

I prefer the state parks because their bathrooms have flush toilets. I can handle a lot of things if the toilets flush!

They also have showers.

Quentin was the only scout who showered, he now has a testimony of showering at camp LOL.

Our next trip is less primitive, we are staying at Surfside Beach for a week in a rental house.

The Park is located in the National Thicket, so it was wooded and relativly cool.
As Robert kept saying, "It could be a whole lot worse" LOL

We spend an evening reminiscing about camping trips as kids.

I took for granted that camping was a normal part of family life.

I had no idea the preparation and work that went into it.

A big thanks to mom and dad.

Also I remember always being cold, we were in the Pacific Northwest and everything is frigid.

Even though we were cold it was always fun.

I remember one week where we stayed and it rained most of the time, but dad read to us from his novel, "jaws" LOL

We would camp for a week, how on earth mom and dad got provisions for our family in the car I'll never know.
Miracle Workers!

I will gladly take the bugs and the heat of Texas and enjoy swimming in warm refreshing water.

Zombies, the New Vampires

If you know me, you are quite aware of my absolute lack

of parental styles.

You can't really guess how I'm going to act or react to any given situation that requires

a repsonsible adult to give input, punish or establish order.

However, I'm happy to indulge in the obsessions of my children.

To that end I will explain to you in Cliff Notes form the many lessons

David Mullens has taught us about his obsession with

upcoming and inevitable,
ZOMBIE APOCOLYPSE

It's unclear, when he realized that it's not a question of if but when for the zombie apocolpse, but it was some time in this school year.

I beleive the inception was the little knows faction of the Nazi army that

employed Zombies as killing machines.

The problem with Zombies is that they infect 100% of the people they bite.

The incubation period is very short so it can wipe out nations really quick.

Fortunatly an elite group of Black Ops anihilated the Zombie Corp back in WW2.

But the disease called the Solanum Virus was not wiped out, and David is waiting for another outbreak.

Apparently there are evidences of Zombie outbreaks in ancient Egypt.

So now with the Groundbreaking Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks,

David is ready now more than ever for the impending Doom.

I'm happy to be in his family, as my survival goes up exponentially.

He now wants a crossbow, machete, scythe and a few good shovels.

Sure, he'll explain, Guns are effective, but they aren't silent.

And we all know that zombies are attracted to noise.

Each of his weapons of choice are 100% effective , if you can get rid of the head.

Also you don't need more ammo, they are all reusable.

Sure you may evenutally need more arrows, but you can always recycle them.

Another tip is to not be the slowest.

Perhaps that's why Davo can run three miles so readily.

Zombies have no need for oxygen and therefore they can survive underwater.

They can also climb, so trees won't help.

You need to be barricaded.

In addition you need to be constantly vigilant, sure you may become paranoid, but when the undead are seeking to consume your brains, a little paranoia is just what the doctor ordered, if survival is on your agenda.

David has a quick reference poster in his room that I beleive he will have committed to memory by Friday and he's half way through his survival book, that he received last night.

By summers end, I think he'll be able to quote it.

Happy Easter Happy Spring

Here in the south, Easter Celebrations begin on Good Friday.

Since I was raised in the Godless North I don't recall anything special that day or even being off of school, but here in the south we celebrate Christian Holidays.

As is the now custom, We had an EGGSTRAVAGANZA at

Ari's House. Her mom "aunt Connie" and Myriam are

quintesential hostesses. Being from Monterey Mexico means the party is

OVER THE TOP!!!

Well technically Connie was born and raised in Houston-

but was we say in Brazil. "com vivencia"

A delicious lunch, awesome punch and desserts

and then the HUNT!

I lost count of all the kiddos and older brothers and sisters but there were a lot.

Alice was doing a make up day for art with Alex, but we brought her home some eggs.

Saturday was glamour shots day (pictures to follow) but check out

Manti Photography (on my links to the left) for some of their magic!

Here is David hiding eggs at Grandma Dorothy's house on Easter Sunday.

He doesn't look like the sullen tweener that he's become, after all he heard

there was cold hard cash in some of the eggs.

And here is Joely finding all the loot.

Great Aunt Lisa looted the dollar store and Target and

"hid" all the goodies in the yard.

There were fairy wings, slippers, play dough, chocolate bubbles, bad teeth

kites, jewelry etc.

Anything that could be hung in trees, shoved in a bush or placed in a fence slat was purchased.

Alice in her over the top glam shades.

Joely and the bubbles, she declared,
"I got everything I ever wanted"

And so did Robert and I.

It was a wonderful day.

Again the family only asked us to bring drinks and we came home with

a brisket and a ham, plus desserts.

Being the only one with kids, I guess makes us look pathetic-

I know I won't be cooking today, tomorrow or probably until next Sunday!