Just bragging. . .

I skipped town and headed to Cabo San Lucas with the girls for a few days last week. I was blown away by the beauty of the resort and the beaches. We had a wonderfully relaxing time and I ate tons of yummy authentic mexican food!

This was our building. We were on the first floor, the first two sections on the right in a large suite. It comfortably fit nine of us!

More shots around the resort. . .

The water & sky are sooo blue!

We were close to the rich people--this hill just down the beach from us is where all the celebrities own houses.

The Moore's in July

I started this post a while ago and have just now found the time to come back and complete it. This is the rest of our July.

We headed out to Tyler, Texas one Saturday to attend Gene's family reunion at Gene's Grandfather's house. Luke had a good time introducing himself to everyone and sampling whatever it was they had on their plate. This is a picture of Luke with his daddy and his Great-Grandfather Bob. We were happy to be able to take Luke out there.



For two weeks in July, Luke and I took mommy & me swimming lessons at the Hurst city pool. He did good most days, although he was more interested in getting out of the pool than getting in. It was fun to hang out with other kids his age, and he looked cute running around in his suit and flip-flops.

Luke has been playing independently for longer periods lately. Things were quiet one afternoon and I went to check on him. This is what I found--snuggled on his blanket, revving his truck back & forth--very grown up.

This is one of Luke's favorite toys these days. He climbs on and off, hides toys under the seat, and pushes it around the house. He can ride it backwards but can't quite figure out how to go forwards yet.

Talulah did the what???

I read this story in the paper this morning. . .

From the AP
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A family court judge in New Zealand has had enough with parents giving their children bizarre names here, and did something about it.
Just ask Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. He had her renamed.
Judge Rob Murfitt made the 9-year-old girl a ward of the court so that her name could be changed, he said in a ruling made public Thursday. The girl was involved in a custody battle, he said.
The new name was not made public to protect the girl's privacy.
"The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgment which this child's parents have shown in choosing this name," he wrote. "It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily."
The girl had been so embarrassed at the name that she had never told her closest friends what it was. She told people to call her "K" instead, the girl's lawyer, Colleen MacLeod, told the court.
In his ruling, Murfitt cited a list of the unfortunate names.
Registration officials blocked some names, including Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit, he said. But others were allowed, including Number 16 Bus Shelter "and tragically, Violence," he said.
New Zealand law does not allow names that would cause offense to a reasonable person, among other conditions, said Brian Clarke, the registrar general of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
Clarke said officials usually talked to parents who proposed unusual names to convince them about the potential for embarrassment.

Then i got curious and started doing some playing on the internet and found this. . . .

Some parents are apparently naming their children after returning from the supermarket. Among the 200,000 who have signed up at Global Name Registry — the company in charge of handling registrations for the new Internet domain extension ".name" — are people with first names such as "Gouda," "Almond," "Cappuccino," "Veal," and "Bologna."

Topping this trend is Jamie Oliver, better known on TV as "The Naked Chef." His wife Jools gave birth March 18 in London to a 7-pound, 14-ounce girl named Poppy Honey.

'My Name Is Canon, as in Camera'
It's tempting to think "Cappuccino" and other names are fabricated. However, the dot-name domain requires registrants prove their identities. And an expert who analyses census and Social Security Administration records is not surprised such names exist.
"Anything is possible, when you consider that last year alone, 298 girls were named Armani and another 10 boys were named Halston," says Cleveland Evans of Bellevue University.
"Every year, the list gets stranger and stranger. It's as if parents think they're guilty of abuse if there is another kid in the classroom with the same name as theirs."

About 2 million boys and 2 million girls were born in the United States in 2000, the last complete year for which records are available. The Social Security Administration reports that 33,957 boys were named Jacob and 25,714 girls were named Emily, making them the most common baby names for the year.
But the number of strange names on the Social Security Administration's list is getting longer. There were 17 boys named Ventura (as in Jesse), six boys named Timberland (as in the boot), 49 named Canon (spelled like the camera), and 27 Blue (as in little boy).

The girls' names were equally bizarre. Thirty-five were named Vanity. Another 29 were named Whisper, while 54 sported the name Sincere. And 24 were positively Unique.

Imagine two mothers meeting in a mall: "Hi," one says. "This is my daughter, Unique."
"Well," says the other mother, her competitive fire sparked, "my daughter is also Unique."

Birth Certificates Need Spell Checkers
The strangest names aren't even on the list. The Social Security Administration only releases names chosen five or more times, in order to protect the privacy of parents with bad judgment.
You have to worry about the ramifications of such parenting. Do the 13 girls named Wisdom feel even worse when they screw up? What happens when the 10 guys named Truth lie?
Then there's the issue of spelling. Are the 15 kids named Ruddy really that rosy-cheeked — or are they really just Rudys?

We also had 72 kids named Sky, but also 85 named Skye (a Scottish island) and Skyy ( a premium vodka). How do you tell your child, "Daddy wanted to name you after the heavens above, but he can't spell a three-letter word."

Name Your Kid After Your Favorite Station
If you're really looking for parents who make sport of their children, consider that at least two children were named Espn, after the ESPN cable sports network.
Jason Curiel of Texas told the Dallas Morning News that he thought his wife was kidding when she made the suggestion. But the Corpus Christi couple loves sports.
"I thought she was pulling my chain and was going to suggest other names," he said. "But then he came and she was still for it. Even though the nurses would give me dirty looks and turn to my wife and say, 'His name, please?'"
Espn (pronounced "Espen") Curiel was born Sept. 24. His birth follows that in January 2000 of Espen Blondeel of Newaygo, Mich., whose parents were also sports fans but decided to go phonetic.

My Boy Morpheus — The Matrix of Naming
In another case of life imitating art, five boys were named Morpheus, apparently after the hero of the sci-fi blockbuster The Matrix, portrayed by Laurence Fishburne. "I don't think there's a trace of that name existing before the film," Evans says (except for the Greek God of Dreams). "But now it's on the map."
The lead female character, Trinity, is faring even better. Between 1999 and 2000, the number of Trinitys tripled to 4,553, making it one of the fastest-growing girls' names.
Neo, the name of Keanu Reeves' character, scored only 113 names. "It's really not fair to compare," Evans says. "The movie obviously had an impact on naming. Trinity just started out as a real name, whereas Morpheus and Neo didn't really exist."
Reeves is so popular that he actually caused a naming controversy in Austria, where parents aren't allowed to invent names. Instead, they must prove that the name they give their child once belonged to another person.
When one Austrian couple wanted to name their son after the actor, officials objected, thinking Keanu was just a stage name. But, after doing some research, they discovered the name relates to the actor's Hawaiian ancestry.

Now, we Americans must debate the virtues of allowing parents to name children anything they want. Just imagine the playground torment some children must suffer.
"Hey, can you smell it? I guess Gouda must be coming."
"Don't listen to Bologna. She's full of it."

UNUSUAL NAMES
Unusual Names for children named in 2000. Source: Social Security Administraion
FOR GIRLS
Chianti (9) Dung (5) Rayon (5) Reality (16) Sincere (54) Sincerity (5) Sonny (11) Sunshine (93) Unique (24) Vanity (35) Whisper (29) Sparkle (23) Special (11)
FOR BOYS
Atom (11) Adonis (244) Cannon (117) Canon (49) Casanova (6) Cashmere (6) Champion (7) Coal (8) Cotton (5) Doc (5) Famous (6) Gator (5) Halston (10) Hutch (7) Legend (30) Magic (9) Maverick (211) Morpheus (5) Nature (5) Ruddy (15) Sincere (187) Starsky (6) Timberland (6) Trust (5) Truth (10) Tuff (8) Ventura (17) Wisdom (16) Lucky (48) Blue (27) Denim (7)

Curiosity growing. . .I shifted over to the top names 2000-Feb 2008
Popular Names for Boys (rank #)
Aidan-54
Jayden-62
Aiden-66
Hayden-88
Jaden-94
Brayden--102
Caden-116
Kayden-123
Braden-167
Ayden-189
Cayden-272
Jaiden-277
Kayden-315
Kaiden-330
Aden-333
Braeden-345
Adan-348
Jadon-424
Caiden-447
Braydon-449
Jaydon-492
Kadin-604
Braiden-677
Jaeden-700
Braedon-771
Aydon-808
Jadyn-819
Bradyn-837
Haden-886
Kaeden-921
Aydin-960
Jaydin-995
I knew the "Ay-din" sounding names were popular, but who knew there were so many spellings?? Since 1990 the name Aidan has gone from ranking 889 to 54. In 2007, Aiden was ranked #30 for Texas in popular names, and Jayden #18.

Galveston Trip

This is going to be a long post. . . but it will be mostly pictures.

For the Fourth of July the three of us loaded up the car and headed on down to the beach, Galveston, for a few days. We stayed in a condo right on the beach. We all had so much fun, and Luke came back as the most spoiled toddler in Fort Worth. He got both his parents attention 24 hours a day and got to do pretty much anything he wanted.

We left at 5am on the 3rd--in hopes that Luke would sleep a good portion of the trip. Luckily for us he did! However this put us in Galveston around noon and we could not check in to the condo until 3. We had to kill three hours. We decided to grab a light lunch (we had gorged ourselves at IHOP around 8am), so we stopped by a Subway which turned out to be the oddest Subway ever. First, the family in front of us had three kids all ordering kids sandwiches and when the "sandwich artist" only put one slice of meat on each sandwich they asked for more. I agree that the sandwiches looked pretty bare. The artist refused, so the family asked if they could buy more meat to put on the sandwich. The artist again refused. The family pointed out on the menu where meat is available to purchase but the employee said that it was only for 6 in or 12 in. Finally the family gave up the arguement and it was our turn. We had no problems ordering, however, when we got to the end to pay somehow my sandwich had mysteriously disappeared. Smarty pants sandwich artist finally located my sandwich on the previous family's table. She snatched it up and tried to hand it to me. I politely refused and asked for another to be made (Gene observed to ensure that they didn't just rewrap it.) Luke wasn't too hungry and proceeded to fling his sandwich around the restaurant but at least he ate his yogurt. He was antsy from sitting in the car all morning. We ate quickly and prepared to bolt. Gene ran to the restroom, and while he was in there, out of nowhere this music came blaring over the speakers. Loud, explicit rap. The sandwich artists did not seem surprised to hear it and made no effort to turn it off or at least decrease the volume. It was so loud that when Gene came back to the table I felt like I was screaming at him. We left soon after, but this establishment will forever to us be known as ClubSub. With 2 1/2 hours to burn, we drove around town a bit and then found a park so Luke could burn some energy. It was huge! A really cool wooden park similar to Kids Castle. It was a nice break for all of us.

After about an hour, we loaded back up and headed to Wal-Mart. I hate Wal-Mart. I hate Wal-Mart worse on weekends. Even more on holidays. The most on holidays at the beach. There were a thousand people at Wal-Mart. We just wanted to grab our groceries and get out of there as fast as we could without being trampled. Wal-Mart was so busy that there were only four empty grocery carts at the front door. There were people lined up outside with carts full of stuff they had purchased waiting for who-knows-what. A shuttle? A bus? Just hanging out? It was a madhouse. We made it out and went to our condo. It was a good size and nice if a little bare. We opted for a condo with two bedrooms so that Luke could be in his room alone for sleeping. It had a wonderful view of the ocean from the balcony, but no chairs to sit on. We cooled off, unpacked, and made dinner. The fact that it was furnished with our same furniture made it feel more homey--they had the same barstools as we do (and they are of the same craftmanship--wobbly, a bit lopsided, and dropping screws) and the breakfast table was the cafe version of ours. This is Luke getting stuck under the barstool.

The next morning was the 4th so we all got up early to head downtown for the parade. It didn't capture Luke's attention right away, but he eventually got into it. We had to all be aware for flying candy and beads. Luke got a flag and waved it for a bit.

After the parade, we walked around downtown for a bit and then had some lunch at this place. It had great burgers and a good atmosphere. It was cool and shady with a waterfall fountain.After lunch we went back to the condo and all had a nap while it rained lightly outside. As the weather cleared and we were refreshed, we had a snack, suited up and headed for the beach. At first Luke wasn't quite sure what to do, but he soon learned to love the sand, followed by searching for shells, and on the second day he learned to love the water. We only stayed at the beach for about an hour as we needed to get dinner started. Then on Saturday we had an easy, slow morning and after lunch headed back to the beach. These pictures are from both our trips to the beach. Sunday we spent all morning packing up. Luke knew something was up, so he was bit cranky, but once we got on the road he fell asleep. We got home without any snags--tired but happy.

Here's Luke with his FAVORITE toy--piggy and the coins. Piggy came with us on vacation and Luke was practicing depositing his money while I was cooking supper one evening.

i AM lucky!

When I was in eighth grade at Milliken Middle School, I can remember sitting in the small gym with a group of girls waiting for the class bell to ring. I was in that great time of life, called puberty, when you constantly feel fat and ugly, unpopular, unfunny, etc. On that day, a girl named Bonnie G. was sitting with us. While I would never refer to her as one of my great friends, I had been in the school system with her for years and we were amicable with each other. Although I have long forgotten who else was sitting with us, I will never forget something she said to me. She looked at me and said, "You are so lucky." I couldn't figure out what on earth she was talking about so I had to ask. "What do you mean?" Her reply were all things that I had taken for granted. She said she envied me because I could run the two mile run, I could do a toe-touch jump in cheerleading, I had made good grades, I had tons of friends. . . I can't remember all of her reasons. I do remember the feeling I had as I realized I did have it good. But to me SHE had it good. She could get her bangs to do that three-inch high feathery thing, she had a great spiral perm, expensive clothes with BIG hoop earrings, boyfriends. . .

I have been thinking on that day a lot lately, and now I am grateful for all the wonderful things in my life. Things are so good right now that I want to remember it this way for a long time. Our marriage is strong and better than ever. Luke is the apple of our eye. He is full of sunshine and energy (most days), and to me, he is the most beautiful child to ever be. (I think as a mom I am allowed to say that.) My dog drives me crazy during the day, but at night he is the best cuddler. I couldn't ask for a more loyal dog. My house isn't, and probably never will be, as clean as it once was, but thats okay. I judge each day by looking around and thinking. . ."should CPS show up on my doorstep today, would I lose my child?" The answer is usually no, so I just get down on the floor and read another round of Go, Dog, Go! with Luke. I try to find fun things for us to do every day that I am off. We can pay our mortgage. We can pay for gas. We eat dinner at home most days of the week. Every night, I soak and relax in the tub--even if it means that I don't get to bed until 1 am. I have job security. Even if Parkland should decide to give me the ol' heave-ho, I could find a job here with out having to move. I love my job. My family is here. I see my mom and dad at least once a week. They love my husband and my son. They puppy sit crazy Hank. I love my friends. They are the best friends ever. They are all so different from each other and they all have qualities to be admired. I could tell them "You are so lucky!" For what? For your free spirit, for your love of family, for your common sense, for your loyalty, because you know how to BE a friend, because you're a great nurse, because you're a great mom, because you don't care if you're skinny or not.

Couldn't wrap this up with out a photo of my pride and joy!

Fresh Summer Pics

This is a long post, but it is mostly pictures. This first one is Luke in his new favorite reading spot...Hank's bed. Appropriately enough, he is reading Go, Dog, Go!I just stepped around the corner for one minute to shut off the hose and when I came back I found this mess. I bought a plant with the intent to put it in a pot and grow pretty flowers. When I got home, I had no empty flower pot. When I got around to buying a flower pot two days later, my plant was already dead. I chucked the whole thing in the pot and set it out on the patio. Luke now thinks it is his toy. He grabs the whole plant--dead flowers and all--and slings it around. Well, the clod of dead plant is no longer a clod; its just a bunch of dirt.He got his shirt from Aunt Kimmie. It says "I STILL live with my parents." We had just gotten dressed and were getting ready to leave the house to run errands. He was covered in dirt. Needless to say, we had to change before we could go anywhere.
Luke & Daddy getting ready to go to Maddy's birthday party last weekend.
Why is this baby crying?? Look closely. . . he has a mouthful of dirt! He found a lump of dirt from our leftover dead plant and decided that today was the day to taste it. Gross! He didn't seem to enjoy it. I guess he won't be doing that again any time soon.

Sweet baby boy riding in the car with his blankie.
Acting silly with Grampa.

zoo day

A group of friends from work and I went to the Fort Worth zoo a few weeks ago and I am just now getting around to posting the pics from our trip. There was five kiddos and four mommies. I only took a few pics but I thought I'd share them since they are cute. This is Luke and two other boys. One is about 3 weeks older than Luke and the other is about 6 weeks younger, however, Lukes head is the biggest.

This is Luke and Brandon getting a good check of each other. Notice the expression on Brandon's face...Luke had just reached out and knocked Brandon's pacifier out.

The three boys lined up after lunch.

Luke and Matthew held hands every time their strollers were next to each other. awwwwww..