It's A First

It's official. Melissa is the first Linford to earn a master's degree. She graduated this weekend from BYU with her masters in education. It is a great accomplishment, and one in which the Pearson clan is very proud.

I myself have never had any desire for education beyond my bachelor's degree. I figure I have been educated in the school of hard knocks (or the school of too many children, you take your pick). I am always in awe of those who willingly submit themselves to ongoing torture to get some more learnin.

Of course, like all hypocrits I do expect my children to do more than I did. Maybe it is not hypocritical, just a motherly desire for my children to achieve more than I did. After all, they have the best mother in the world!

Louisiana Landscape and Crawfish

I have spent the week going from one end of Louisiana to the other. I was with two collegues, and visited three prospects. It was a great week work wise. I met with one library who LOVED what we had to show. It was so fun to be in an environment which was so positive. It was fun, fun, fun.

I went out with one of the prospects on Wednesday night, and we had crawfish. I had always avoided crawfish since it seemed a little weird. After eating them, I can say they are tasty. The only problem? They are a LOT of work for a little bit of meat. All in all it was tasty food and fun times.

I will now be home for 10 whole days. It is a festivus miracle.

Crazy Life

Do you ever feel like your life is spinning out of control, and the best you can do is hold on tight and hope not to fall off? Welcome to my world. With all the travel, big projects for work, and a weekend trip to Dallas for a baptism, life is just crazy.

We ended up driving to Dallas on Saturday morning - in time to make the 10:00 AM baptism which meant a 5:30 departure, and a 4:30 AM wake up call. It was a fun weekend with family and friends. We drove back yesterday at 2:00 PM. (No pics because I forgot the camera!!!)

Eric has this love for the road trip. Me, not so much. It was OK until the last hour when the four girls decided they were not going to watch any more movies, but were going to be loud and crazy. I don't care how big your car is, four girls+loud noise=headache for mom. We made it home in time for Ryan to watch the Mavericks lose their first game. The boy's mood seems to revolve around how his teams do. The Stars won over the weekend, so that kind of evened things out.

Off to the great state of Louisianna this week. I leave tonight and will return Friday afternoon. It will be a long week with driving from one end of the state to the other. Oh well, as everyone knows my job and the travel is glamorous, right????

My goal this week is NOT to let the blog die down all week. We will see how that works out.

I Am An Old Woman

When I was in college, my roomates and I would comment on how old woman would talk about stupid things. How firm the peas are, how the azaleas are in bloom. We made a pact never to become weird old woman.

I am here today to break that pact. I have spent many hours driving across Texas the last few days. This is wildflower time. Right now the

wildflowers are BEAUTIFUL!! The contrast of the bluebonnets, indian paintbrush, green grass and blue sky is amazing. I liked to just look at the flowers and be amazed at the beauty which is Texas (Ok so that is going over the top, but oh well).

So, I will embrace my age. I will own that I am a weird old woman. I will enjoy the fact I can wax poetic about flowers at a time I should be working on a big proposal I need to get done. Anything to keep procrastinating....

Take a drive, look around and enjoy the flowers because they will be gone in a few weeks.

The Beginning of the next 30 Days of My Glamorous Life

My husband let me in on a secret. I will be gone 20 of the next 30 days. Then, we will be gone on vacation for a week. I know you are all jealous of my exciting life. It was at a high yesterday, when I had pulled up the carpet in our booth, on my hands and knees pushing an extension cord under the carpet so we could have power where we need it.

My ever so supportive husband called me on Tuesday night and asked what I was doing. Here is a playback of our conversation:

Eric: What are you doing:

Me: Folding laundry, getting the kids ready for bed.

Eric: Well, lucky you to tomorrow you get to go on vacation.

Me: Excuse me? Working 13 hours a day, standing in the booth real vacation!

Come on now. He was kidding (wasn't he?). I am leaving my room at 8:o0 am and I will not be back until 9:30 pm or 10:00 pm at which point I need to write a cover letter and do an executive summary for an RFP I am doing. This is after standing in a booth with NO CARPET PAD (pad costs more money you know) on the concrete floor for 7 hours, taking clients out to dinner, and going to a TLA bash. Vacation??? I don't think so.

What I Hate About Easter

There I said it. I HATE the aftermath of Easter. The eggs strewn all over. And the grass. Who invented this stuff? It had to be someone who was trying to torture moms everywhere. It does not help that the people who live here are slobs. They throw their candy wrappers, and any garbage, right on the floor.

This causes me to wonder where I went wrong as a mother. Are there not children out there who will all clean up their own messes? Are there not children out there who would not think of throwing the wrapper to their Reeses Egg on the floor? There sure seem to be some moms who tell me their children are very responsible. They would never do such a thing. So, where did I go wrong?

Am I not mean enough? I tend to think I am pretty mean, but maybe I need to be meaner? How do you instill a sense of responsibility in a six year old? Especially one who is the baby of the family, and is "too little" to do much of ANY work. If it were only the babies, it would be one thing. This conspiracy goes deeper than that -right up to the top.

Oh well. I have confiscated the easter baskets, the grass and most of the candy is gone. So, I guess I will call it a wrap on another easter.

On to the next mess.

Easter - 45 Degrees?

What? Is this Houston? Why was it so cold? The low on the night before Easter was in the 30's. What is going on? It is supposed to be nice at Easter, not freezing. It snowed just north of us. Crazy weather.

We had a nice easter. The kids enjoyed their baskets and candy - that is unless you are a teenager (or a wanna be) and you thought you were too cool. All in all, a great day.

Crazy week ahead - travel and lots of work.

Have a great Monday.

Oil Ranch

There is a place just north of us, the Oil Ranch. It is a field trip dream. They have a train, a cow you can milk, a pony you can ride, a petting zoo, etc. You get the idea.

All of the kindergarten classes go to the Oil Ranch. Many of the preschool classes go to the Oil Ranch. Till now, I had avoided going to the Oil Ranch. Since the elementary school will not allow younger siblings to go on field trips, I never had the chance. I always had younger ones.

Well, that ended this year. I was lucky enough to just go - not be an "official" chaperone. This allowed me to go, spend some time with Allie and Caroline, and then get home and get some work done! Win/Win for everyone.

Here are the city gals, remember they really want to live downtown by Uncle Mark, showing their country side.

Thank Goodness!

We went to see Wicked last night, and it was WONDERFUL. If you ever get the chance to go and see it, do it. It was Kelsey, Sohphie, Rachel, Becky and me. We went out and got some dinner, and then saw the show. Our tickets were great. The show was great.

After the show we had to pass backstage to get to the car. The girls got the autographs for the Wizard, Galinda and Elphaba.

Everyone is tired today, but it was worth it. Now I am off to the Oil Ranch with the twins. The being a mom thing really gets in the way of me having fun!

Fashion By Caroline

Caroline marches to the beat of her own drummer. We know this. She is now, even more, expressing herself in her fashion choices.

This outfit is one she put together and is one of her favorites. She added the belt the other day. She decided she needed this belt - Kelsey did not use it enough so it was now Caroline's. Sophie was mortified that I let her go to school like that. What is wrong with me? In the grand scheme of things, what is a silvery, sparkly belt?

She has also announced to me that she does not like pants. "That is just not my fashion." She likes shorts, skirts, dresses and short pants (capris).

So, there you go. Fashion by Caroline. When she is a great designer some day, that can be her label!

From Mud to India - a Great Saturday

Yesterday was the Lakewood Elementary Carnival. This the big fundraiser for the school, and the kids get all hopped up to go and play and spend mom and dad's money.

A few weeks ago, the PTO president asked Eric and Ryan to come and be clowns and do balloon animals. Eric said sure, then he let Ryan know. Ryan, being a good sport, said OK. Fast forward to two weeks ago when Eric decided to go to Utah. He talked Ryan into still being a clown, and decided we would work and make a ton of balloon animals to bring up there, which Kelsey and Sophie did, and Ryan could just hand them out.

When we arrived, we found out there was another clown - a "profesional" clown who was paid by the carnival committee to make balloon animals. Ryan was a good sport, stood there and pretty much did nothing because the "professional" clown was handling it. And as for the animals the Pearson Family contributed, no one wanted them. The "professional" clown made what you wanted onsite. That was more appealing than the ones Kelsey and Sophie had made.

Ryan proved he would follow through when he made a committment, and I was proud of him. I am much more bitter than he is, but isn't that how I am? Bitter old woman?

Add to that the fact it had been raining alll day and the playground at the school was a MUD PIT. No, really. Before Caroline even got on one ride, she fell, was stuck in the mud and I had to take her home,clean her up, and go back and try to get our monies worth of our ride bands (another source of bitterness since the prices were set high assuming each family had two children. What about all those mormon families with a ton of kids. Well, one official was heard to say, "You should not have had so many kids." Bitter, Bitter, Bitter.)

I tried to swallow my bitterness, and the kids had a ball. Allie thanked me this morning for a great time yesterday. So, I guess it was worth it if the kids had fun. Of course, I did not volunteer my time to go and plan and put this party on, so I should just keep my bitterness to myself (and anyone who reads this blog).

After the carnival, I went to see The Namesake with Sarah. It was only playing in one theater in Houston, the River Oaks Theater, so off we went. It was a great book and I was hoping the movie would be as good. It was. We had a really good time, and were very proud for getting out of our comfort zone.

At the end of the day, we all had a great day. Busy, crazy, muddy, a little bitter, but fun.