Beautiful

I love to garden & I wish I was better at it but the previous owner had some nice landscape in and we've added some of our own.

At our last home I bought a Camellia bush and sadly it didn't make it. There are two here that are thin but pretty well established. I took some pictures of the beautiful blooms.

(Still practicing with this whole camera thing.)

I got the next two pictures from Wikipedia for the new trees we bought for the front landscape.

I LOVE the Japanese Maple tree. Ours is much larger than this one but right now the leaves are green. But, in the fall the leaves will change to a beautiful golden before going red. I love it!
The other tree we bought for the front is a Saucer Magnolia. We had quite a few blooms like this on our growing little tree. It blooms twice a year; in early spring and late fall (I think). It is very beautiful.

Mailman Josh

I've been trying to take more pictures and learn more about how to improve. Luckily, I have some (mostly) cooperative adorable models!
I took Josh out front to play a bit and let him roam while I snapped a few shots.

I caught him in mid thought: "Airplane, Mom. I see the airplane!"
(Yes, we still need to do something with that door. I want it painted black & it needs a new door handle & new glass where the dog broke it almost a year ago!)

This was fun! I tucked my little man into our mailbox. He was a great sport and stayed there for a while.

It was almost like his private secret hiding place. There's NO way the other kids would fit inside this hideout!

I saved my favorite for last. It made me a bit nervous with him poking out so much but he's adorable and I love my little mailman Josh.

Kids & Smores

I try to think of fun times and experiences that I had growing up and doing them with my kids so they can enjoy it too!

Smores are classic. Nothing like a roasted marshmallow and chocolate squished between graham crackers. What kid wouldn't love that?

So the kids and I went to get the ingredients and they were so excited to get started. It was a nice night out although it was still light... well, we really improvised too. We roasted the marshmallows on our tiny camp stove. Not the campfire experience it should have been, but oh well.

The anticipation was building up here. Jake biting toy he put together...

Toothless Jake waiting for Dad to get our camp stove ready. Hurry up Dad!!

Emily wanting a picture too. (For some reason she almost always brings her ear to her shoulder when I take a picture of her. She must have been taught that at Pre-K.--- that's when it started.)

Roasting the marshmallows. Spencer and I being the paranoid parents made the kids take turns. The kids enjoyed cooking the marshmallows but when it came down to eating them...
Emily: "They were too gooey. And the chocolate was messy."
Avery: "I didn't like the marshmallows. Or the graham crackers with the chocolate on it."
Jake: "They were too sticky!"

Mom: "REALLY?! What a bunch of stinkers! So much for a good Smores experience...."

Arbitration Update

The Arbitrator finally ruled on February 24th and HFD won against the City of Houston. He ruled that the 3 wrongfully terminated firefighters should be fully reinstated with FULL back pay immediately. Here's the news coverage of it:

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=7981654

And the interview the Three Firefighters did:

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=7986572

Well, not surprisingly enough, the City of Houston appealed the Arbitrator's decision. So, the city is suing the 3 Firefighters. Bottom line, the city didn't want to pay them back pay. So since the three were still in a lawsuit and couldn't speak out about it, us wives and supporters contacted the media and did a few interviews ourselves.

http://www.click2houston.com/video/27314737/index.html

The whole ordeal was and is such a nightmare. It's still hard for me to watch those videos. The nightmare is NOT over.

The City and HFD Union has been working on an agreement for a while now. The city wants to layoff nearly 140 Firefighters if HFD doesn't give the City control of HFD Pension Funds. So our case has taken a back burner for a while but have recently brought it back up to the front to get it all over with so we can move on with our lives.

Time. Can I get some extra?

I'm so embarrassed that the last post was in January!

I'm going to do my best while recovering to update things here.

I can't believe it's been nearly 6 months!!! So much has happened and I'm kinda done with Facebook which I look on occasionally but seems like I'm "checking statuses" far too frequently and before I know it 15 minutes are gone--- wasted on looking to see what others are "doing" instead of taking that time with my kids or something else. Anything else seems more productive.

So here's to much less Facebook and being more productive. (I will admit that I enjoy learning about sales or discounts at stores and fun crafts from other blogs or fun websites.)

I enjoy blogging so much more than FB!

Fire Museum

I don't know how long it's been since we did something fun as a family- I know we haven't gone anywhere since moving in the house 6 months ago. I seriously think it's been over a year! Anyways, with arbitration over and the holidays over but still no closure we had to do something inexpensive but still fun for the kids. They had a day off of school so we went to the Fire Museum.

Before we left Josh had to have his nap. I caught a few pictures of him playing with his firetruck.



"Whooowoooo! Whooowoo!"

Is it just me or does his face say, "Really Mom? Another picture? Can't I just play with my firetruck?"

And so I suppose this was the result- an abandoned fireman and his firetruck. Poor fireman!

The Fire Museum is really small and I suppose it doesn't help that one side was closed. At least the kids area was open! We spent most of our time there anyway!

I took this picture of Avery in front of this old firetruck. I can't remember what year it was.

This was their oldest firetruck 1890 I think. The year is printed on the back but my beautiful daughter was standing in front of it.

This was part of the upstairs. It was a firehouse back in the day and this was the locker room/ bathroom.

At the kids area, there was a fire pole that the kids loved to take turns sliding down.

Fireman Jake

Firefighter Emily

Fireman Josh

Yup, I even took a slide down the pole.

Fireman Josh was in control of the driver's seat. He let us all know that was his seat and he didn't want to share.

Firefighter Avery

I love how she kicks her feet out and around the pole.

Fireman Jake in his bunker gear ready to put out the fire and save some lives.

Down the slide and off for the truck!

Firefighter Emily needed a little help getting on her mask.

This wonderful Fireman needs to get back to the station. It's been too long with this STUPID decision of Chief Flanagan. YES I said Stupid!!! After his testimony in arbitration, that's all I can say. I suppose I can add that I've lost all respect for the man.

Fireman Josh in the driver's seat- AGAIN!

The Allred firefighters in the firetruck ready to go with the lights and all.

And off they go.

It was a fun time even if it was just for a little while. I love these crazy Allred kids.