Learner's Permit

It is always a monumental day when one of your offspring gets behind the wheel of a car.  We have entered that time with Kelsey.  She still has not made it behind the wheel or our car, but now she can legally do so.

We trudged up to the DPS at 7 am to stand in line and wait for her turn to take her test and fill out paperwork.  She passed, and now we can spend the next six to twelve months working on her driving skills.

I am not sure why, but the cross section of humanity at the DPS always shocks me.  Are there really this many weird/crazy/messed up people in the world?  Notice the woman in the photo - just seemed to be living right there on the ledge outside the DPS.  And don't get me started about the crazy man who shows up every day and preaches hell fire and damnation LOUDLY prior to the DPS opening.....  It is always such a lovely trip.

So, watch out Houston - Kelsey is driving.

Summer Time Pearson Style

School is out.  Soccer try-outs for next year are done.  Cross Country summer workouts don't start until Monday.  Do you know what that means?  No "extra" stuff to mess with for all of five days!  And then, we just have summer cc Monday Wednesday and Friday nights.

Summer means swimming when you live in Houston.  Some pictures of what goes on around here while I am in my office working...

Kelsey's friend have come by and used the pool - which is great.  The two boys here, Brian and Quinton have made great use of our pool since school ended (before all the rain...)  They are very nice and they play with the twins which is nice.  The twins have missed some "brother" type playing and it is nice of those teen-aged boys to play with two nine year old girls!

That is all from Tomball - swimming, sleeping, eating and chillin.  Nice start to summer.

One and Half Days

And counting....  I think we might actually make it this year.  School will be out - then they will all be here on top of me while I am trying to work.  Why was I excited about this?

We had a nice relaxing holiday weekend.  Complete with swimming and not doing much of anything.  I think that sets the proper groundwork for the summer - don't you?

I missed festival season in my extended family.  What is festival season you ask?  I have a friend who had 6 kids.  All of them, with maybe one exception, have summer birthdays - both she and her husband have summer birthdays.  She would refer to it as festival season.

Over the last week, there were 5 birthdays in my family!  Crazy but true.  So, here is my shout out to all the Quigley/Linford/Heningers who had a birthday.

First up was Josh. 

Josh at the Stockyards December 2008

Josh is just a couple of months younger than the twins, so they have always had fun playing with him.  Josh had kind of a rough start on life - he cried A LOT.  And remember I had Sophie.  Josh's problem was he was a momma's boy to the extreme.  If Julie was not holding him, he was crying.  He is a fabulous kid now and the girls love to play with him - especially Allie.

Allie and Josh Easter 2010.

Then it was Megan's birthday. 

Laurie, Megan and Michelle - Go Cougars!

Megan is my sister - my daughter Sophie is very much like Megan.  I would say it is genetics, but since Sophie is not Megan's daughter it is a little funny.  She is smart, funny, beautiful and just an all around great sister.

Megan and Blake Quigley August 2008

Jordyn was our next celebrant. 

Kelsey, Jordyn and Sophie Easter 2010.

 My brother Matt and his wife Julie have taken Jordyn into their home and they are raising her.  She has been with us about two years (on a funny note, when Steven got off the plane from his mission in Brazil he kept looking at Jordyn, then someone told him who she was.  He said to me, no one told me we had a new family member!)  Jordyn is funny, sweet and a good example to my girls. I have not seen her roll her eyes to Julie once!

Our little Jonah, or donut as I call him, was our next birthday boy. 

The Heningers - Jonah is in the cowboy hat!

I have no reason to call him donut, I just do.  He lives in California - so I don't get to see him as much as I would like.  He is funny and a crazy boy.  I submit the next photo as proof of his craziness.

Our last participant is my brother Michael's wife, Erika. 

Michael and Erika August 2008.

She and Michael just celebrated their first anniversary in April, so I guess she is the newest member of the family.  She is wonderful - she is smart, funny, and very thoughtful.  She and Michael were the hosts of this year's easter egg hunt.

The Pearson kids with Michael and Erika - Easter 2010

That wraps up festival season.  All those birthdays and I did not get ONE single piece of cake.  What is up with that???  I hope everyone had a great birthday.

Sports Banquet

Since Kelsey lettered in Cross Country this last fall, she was invited to the Sports Banquet tonight.  She suckered me to the mall saying she needed a new dress, but when we arrived she did not want one too dressy.  I think she just wanted a new outfit - but finding something modest was a bit of a struggle.  Jeesh.  You would think all teens wanted to look like ho's (which if truth be told Kelsey would not mind).  I was not so excited for my 14 year old to look like a ho.

Anyway, this is what we agreed on...

Now, we only have 3 million things left to do until school is out....

In Case It Is Still Snowing Where You Live

We are swimming.....

But don't worry, come August and September I will be cussing the heat, and you in your cooler climate can say I'm glad I don't live there!

My Babies Are Growing Up

One of the rites of passage when you are a Pearson girl is getting your ears pierced.  This is done at the ripe old age of 9.  Funny, I thought Kelsey was so grown up at 9 - and the twins still seem too young.  Maybe still referring to them as the babies is not such a good thing?  My brother Patrick recently said the following to me, "The twins, while it pains me to say so, are no longer babies. You need to reexamine that paradigm and perhaps in a way that will fit with you still seeing yourself as 34..."  Thanks Patrick.

Back to Allie and Caroline.  Their birthday fell during soccer season this year.  If you have newly pierced ears and you play soccer you need to put band aids on them and it is kind of a pain.  So, I convinced them to wait until the end of the season.

Well, they are done and they were ready for the piercing to begin!  We went to Claire's at the mall - the same place both Kelsey and Sophie had their ears pierced.  Here are the pictures.

Allie had to go first because she is the brave one.  This is while she is waiting for it to be done:

You can see she is a little nervous, but not much.

All smiles - see it did not hurt at all!

Caroline practicing her breathing techniques.

All smiles when it is done.

I was really proud of both of them.  Neither one cried, although Caroline did have herself pretty psyched out.  Once it was done, they were both very happy.  Now I am hoping we have better luck with them than we did with Sophie.  She had a mess and it got infected etc.  She did admit she was not really good about taking care of them.  The twins seem to be on top of it.

11 1/2 days of school left - will we survive??

Life Pearson Style

In case you have forgotten, I HATE this time of year.  The end of school kicks my butt each and every year.  I think all the teachers wake up one day and say, "Hey lets torture not only our students but their families as well and give them 18 projects between now and the end of the year."  If you add in my crazier than usual travel schedule, end of  the year band and choir concerts, athletic banquet (which in case you did not know REQUIRES a new dress),  you will get a family hanging on for dear life.  I know we can make it - just 3.5 weeks to go....

A sample from Sophie's biology project.  She had a to write a children's book on the digestive system.

You have got to love a project that has a potty on the last page!

Allie not happy with something during her game...

Of course, we still have soccer during this.  Soccer does seem a constant in our life.  Allie and Caroline are done with their season, but Sophie (who pretty much plays year round) is still going strong.

We have also done some fun things.  There is a restaurant in Tomball named Mel's.  It is classic small town cooking, and clientèle I might add.  They are famous for their Mega Mel burger.

If you eat this thing within two hours, and don't throw up, you get your picture on the wall, and your name on the wall.  The wall is filled with Elder _____.  It is known throughout the mission.  One of our Elders was being transferred to another area, so we took the missionaries to Mel's.  Only one made the attempt on the Mega Mel - he did not make it....

Our pool is open for business for the summer.  We had some issues with it about a month ago...

But now it is all better.  Thank you Cypress Pool Service.

It is cold, but the twins have used it a couple of times....

You are now up-to-date with the Pearson clan.  Remind me when the summer is dragging on and I am ready to kill some kids that this is worse.

I Love Technology

Kelsey, Sophie and Allie chatting with Elder Pearson

(ignore the messy office around them)

There are two times a year you get to talk to your missionary.  Christmas Day and Mother's Day.  This year for Mother's Day we not only got to talk, but Ryan got permission to skype.  It was really cool to see him as a missionary.

Elder Pearson caught mid sentence

We only had under an hour, but it was fun to talk to him.  It was great to see him smile and see that same little dimple in his cheek I remember he had as a baby.  He has cut his hair short and he looks good.  To listen to him talk about his mission, the people they are teaching, and to feel his love for them was pretty amazing.  I have heard to be a successful missionary you need to love the people you are serving.  I think that is the case with him.  He really loves what he is doing.  And we are pretty proud of him.

My Hero

Love this clip with Julie Bowen, who plays Claire.  I aspire to be like this...



Gotta love it - mom's revenge!

Seven Months

It has been seven months since Ryan left us and entered the MTC.  We have enjoyed watching his growth - getting pictures like these:

And of course these:

(notice the ribbon from a basket can obviously lead to hours of enjoyment for the boy)

But, it is weird how this works for me - I will be going along fine and then all of a sudden I really miss him again.  It is funny things that set it off.  I made cookies the other night and I was putting two in little baggies to put in the kids lunches.  I made all the lunches and had an extra bag - of course thinking I had forgotten someone I looked again.  Nope, I just made up five bags.  That is what I was used to - five lunches, five treats, five kids.

I am not sure how much of this would be true if he was at school, as opposed to the mission, but as our family changes I am slower to accept the changes.  Although you want your children to grow up and be self sufficient, producing members of society, when they really leave it can be hard.

So, seven down 17 to go.....

Welcome Home Steven

My brother Steven has come home from his mission.  He had a medical release at 19 months, and we are still holding out hope he will be able to get back out before he was supposed to come home (AUG).  If not, he has an honorable release and we are proud of him.  Since the kids had a 4 day weekend with Easter, we used the chance to scoot up to Dallas and welcome him home.

I think this was at the airport, but it is still up in my mom's house now. 

This cracks me up - do you think he missed technology the last few years?  A Blackberry in one hand, an iPod Touch in the other - all while being able to be a good uncle to Allie!

It was good to see he hasn't changed - notice Blue Steel from Zoolander?

It was also his 21st birthday while we were there - there are pictures of him as a youth on the mantle - I really liked this one:

Yes the picture is of Ryan and Steven as young boys - they are only a year apart and in many ways grew up as brothers.

And what does a good uncle do?  Torture his nieces, that is what.

His best impression of The Thinker.

All in all it was a good weekend with a rocking Easter Egg hunt - more on that later.  It was great to see Steven.  If he ends up back out to finish the mission great.  If not, it will be fun to have him around for a few months until he leaves for BYU - Idaho!

District Track Meet

Sophie ran in the district track meet and placed 3rd in both the 1 and 1.5 mile.  She was behind these two girls the whole time.

Only in the world of Sophie is a 3rd place finish in the district meet a bad thing.  She won a  couple of the meets in her events, and her father is hoping it gave her the running bug!  He is hoping she will like it better than soccer - I am not holding my breath!

I Don't Heart Daylight Savings Time

Who is the early morning hating person who developed this whole spring forward thing???  I hate it.  I hate that it is still dark at 7:30 am.  I hate that it has made me so tired.  I hate that we only had 4 blessed months of NO daylight savings time.  I am thinking of moving to AZ.

There, now I feel better.  Maybe I am just in my "it is spring break and I have to work and the kids are bored and making me crazy mode."  Working at home can be trying in times like this!  OK, enough complaining.  Back to work...

What Have You Been Doing?

Nice of you to ask.  We have been doing life.  It keeps us running and busy.  We did have a few fun different things this last week.

(Sophie, Kelsey and Brooke (aka Brooklyn)

We were able to score tickets to see Tim McGraw at the Rodeo on Monday.  Now I love Tim McGraw - seriously there was only 1 song I did not know.  Here is the downside.  During the rodeo, the performers do not take the stage until 9:00 PM.  I am usually in bed by then.  I managed to stay awake, and was rewarded with an awesome concert.

This is Tim as he got down off the stage and walked around the entire arena (the part that was not roped off) and shook hands with fans WHILE HE WAS SINGING.  It was awesome to see.  He is a great entertainer. 

It did make me a little sad missing Ryan since Ryan is the one who introduced this family to Tim McGraw and country music (he started to get off the rap music band wagon and started listening to country and we were totally behind that move).  He would have loved the concert, but I think he loves where is he and what he is doing.

Then I had a quick trip to CA, and I was back in time for New Beginnings.  It was a wonderful evening - they did a program around the poem My Three White Dresses which discusses the three white dresses a YW will wear in her life - blessing dress, baptism dress and wedding dress.  The girls sang a sweet song, and of course I cried.  They did a slide show and showed all the girls in their blessing dresses and baptism dresses.  That made me cry as well.  Here are Kelsey and Sophie's pictures.

Sophie blessing day - yes she is crying

Sophie baptism - she had stopped crying by then

Kelsey blessing day

Kelsey baptism (and the whole family who was there - the twins were little and I don't have any pictures of just Kelsey in her dress...sorry Kels)

They grow up way too fast - and in case you are wondering we are not ready for the 3rd white dress yet!