Happy Birthday to Me!!!

On Friday I celebrated the 3rd anniversary of my 30th birthday. It was so much fun. I have lots of great friends and the best boyfriend and family in the world. I must say the biggest surprise of the day was when I got flowers from Mike. While I know he loves me very much, he's never been one to send flowers. So it was such a great way to start my day. My mom and sister also sent me flowers in the cutest little birthday bowl that I have ever seen. And don't let me forget to mention the girls (and Jake) at work had a great potluck for me. I love birthdays because I get to have one whole day focused on me. I've always tried to make birthdays a big deal for Alex, so it was very nice to be on the other end of that this year. Thank you Mike and Alex for making my birthday the best day of this year! Alex got me the Rick Ankiel t-shirt that I have been wanting desperatley wanting and Mike got me this great North Face Jacket. I am such a lucky girl. We also went to the St. Joseph Bizaar Friday night and then I had dinner with Mike, Courtney and Alex. What a great day! Thanks to everyone for all my birthday wishes!

Pearly Whites

Well, today was a much anticipated day for little Alex. After almost 2 1/2 years of having a mouthful of braces, Alex has gotten his braces off!!!! I honestly think I was a little more excited than he was. But just for fun, i'm posting some before and after pictures. He sure has grown alot over the past two year. I will forever be grateful to Dr. Barry Quick and his entire office staff. They have been so sweet and so helpful during the braces processes.

Happy Birthday Alex

Well, today my baby boy turned 14. It's hard to believe that he and I have both made it through all these years with each other. Alex is absolutely one of the best kids ever. While he has his normal 14 year old moments, for the most part he is very mild mannered and usually minds and makes good decisions. It's always hard to have birthday parties for him because his birthday is actually on the 4th of July, so this year we just had a family weekend and it was absolutely amazing. We started the weekend early with a traveler's game on Thursday night, Friday night he got to have Cody over for awhile while Mike, Courtney and me went to dinner and fireworks, and then Saturday we rode go-karts, opened presents, had a cookout and watched fireworks that night. He also got to have Cody and Christian spend the night. Then on Sunday the family went to the Discovery Museum in Little Rock. I hope he had a great birthday. I love you Alex! You are the best son ever!

Take me out to the ballgame......buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks

I had his name and birthday put on the score board!

us at the game!

us at the brewery!

the arch from Lacleads Landings

the view of Busch Stadium from our room.

Since Mike turned 40 a couple of weeks ago, I knew I had to do something special for his birthday. After all, I will be 40 one day and will want something fabulous for my big day. Mike loves the St. Louis Cardinals, so I thought why not surprise him with a trip to St. Louis. So for his birthday, I made all these fabulous plans for him and I must say, it was the best 3 day vacation we have ever had. We watched 2 games, toured the brewery, went up in the arch, visited Union Station and Laclead's Landing. I must St. Louis is a great vacation get away. We plan to go back later this summer and take the kids. There is still so much stuff we wanted to do that we weren't able. We stayed at the Hilton Ball Park while we there. We had the SWEETEST girl check us in. Her name was Tier (love the name). She really gave us the hook up. The view of Busch Stadium from our room was priceless. When Tier found out Mike was fireman and it was his birthday she really pulled out all the stops. We were treated like royalty. She had wine and chocolates sent to our room, we had access to the conceirge lounge and a fabulous breakfast buffet. Her husband just happened to be a St. Louis firefighter, so we exchanged shirts. She was really the sweetest thing ever. We exchanged contact information and we hope that she looks us up when she comes to Arkansas to visit her neice at UAPB. Take a peak at some of our pictures. And since I haven't mentioned it lately, have I told you all just how much I love this man? He is absolutely one of the greatest people I know! I hope this birthday was definitely one that he will never forget! I love you Mike, I hope this is the first of many birthday's that we will celebrate together!

And the party continues

Since the kids weren't with us the night of us birthday, we had another little party at his house the next night. I think his favorite present of all was the pictures that the kids gave him! I've never seen a man love his kids the way Mike cherishes his. I am so grateful to have him be a part of Alex's life too.

Lordy Lordy, the boy turned 40

This has been such an exciting month for me and Mike. The boy turned 4o on June 10th. I tell you what, 40 never looked so good. He definitely doesn't act 40 and by no means does he look 40. For his birthday, I had a little gathering for him at Mike's Place. I'm not exactly sure how I was able to keep it a surprise, but I'd like to give a shout out to all the peeps who kept tight lips about the party until it happened. He was so surprised and everything worked out perfectly!!! Here are a few pictures from that night!

My baby has grown up

Not alot has been going on in my world. Alex is playing baseball this summer and we are getting ready to wrap that up. Other than that, he's not up to much. Just enjoying school being out and going to the pool. I recently noticed something different about Alex. At first I thought there is no way I can be seeing what I am really seeing. So you know me, the skeptical mom, I just keep looking. And i'm thinking...."no way"......But yes way....it's true......my child is officiall taller than I am. He's as tall as my refrigerator. Just to get somewhat of a measure, my friend Micaela (who happens to be about 5"8) was here the other day and he's just a tad bit shorter than her. I could not believe my eyes. He is such a good kid and it has been so much fun being his mom. I can harldy believe that he is going to be in the 9th grade this year. I just can't believe that after all the hard times we had when he was a toddler that things are finally working out for us and we are slowly but surely having the family that we both deserve. I'll have to look and see if I have any recent photos of him to post. I'm not the best at taking pictures. I should get better at that. I'm gonna wish I had those pictures later!

Crawl, Drag and Squirt the Honor Guard Commander

Recently during Toad Suck Daze, Courtney was asked to participate in Crawl Drag and Squirt on Daybreak for KATV. She did such a great job. Here are few pictures from that morning. A few days after that, Mike was given the honor of being the Commander of the Honor Guard for the fire department. This was also the same night that they had the formal promotion ceremony and he let Courtney pin him with his new Captain badge! It was such a fabulous evening!

Great Friends, Great times

Mike's sister recently turned 50. Here are a few pictures from that night. Mike's best friend Brad happened to be in town that night. We had so much fun and are so glad that Brad could stay with us and just hang out.

This little piggy went to the market

I know a piggy bank is not that exciting, but the fact that it might be going to New York City for charity is just way more than exciting. I'm not exactly sure what the story is, but my friend Shelly has a designer friend named Brad Ford in New York City (http://www.bradfordid.com/). He is currently working on a coffee table that is made out of piggy banks that are actually pigs. Why Shelly thought I might have a real pig, I'm not sure. But I am so glad that she thought of me, because who would have known that I have been holding this little treasure for all these years. I wasn't sure how to load photos through facebook, so I'm posting the pictures of my little pig here so that Brad can take a look at them. I hope he finds my little pig just as charming as I do!!! By the way, check out Brad's web page. Best I can tell, he does amazing work!

What a weekend......

Well, my weekend started off kinda slow. Alex spent the night with a friend, so I was able to do a few thing around the house and catch up on some things. I also got to go to Station 7 and have dinner with Mike. It's always so much fun to be able to stop by and see what really goes on the fire stations. Before long, I won't have that opportunity. Not only has he recently been promoted to Captain, but he has also just gotten a day job! No more 24 hour shifts! I am so thankful for that! Saturday was a busy day. Alex had a soccer game at 2:00 which just happened to be the same time as my dear friend Jessica's baby shower. Alex was kind enough to let me miss the majority of his soccer game so that I could and enjoy such an exciting time in Jessica's life. I left early so that I catch the last 15 minutes of the game. The Hobo's won! Alex is quite the little soccer player~ if I must say so myself. Then Saturday night, Mike brought the kids over and we had a little Wii bowling tournament. What fun that was. Let's just say, I won't be making the professional bowling tour anytime soon, but hey, I'm getting there! Today too we played soccer and once again the Hobo's kicked some soccer butt! So as you can see, there is always something going on around here and I wouldn't have it any other way!!!!!!!

Captain, Captain!!!!!

In a previous post, I mentioned that Mike had passed the written part of the Captain's test. That was just the first part of the promotion process. After the written test, they had to take a verbal test. After that, they were ranked and so forth. Needless to say, it's not an easy process. After another interview with the higher ups at the department---it's official! As of Friday afternoon Mike was promoted to Captain. This has been a long time coming for him. He loves his job and all that goes with it! So with all the excitement going on this weekend, we decided we needed to celebrate. On Friday night, my friend Kim helped me get a few folks together for a celebration gathering at Old Chicago! Thanks again Kim for helping me out. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, so there aren't any photos! :o(

The celebrations continuted on Saturday night! I found a firetruck cake mold and Mike's sister Lisa whipped this little cake up for me. So we had a little party at his other sister's house. Then we took his mom and the kids to dinner that night! I tell you, I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend my weekend! While Mike will act like this is no big deal (he is very modest), I must say that I am so proud of him and I am so excited that he has allowed me to be a part of such important times in his life! Congratulations!!

More of Mattison

I couldn't figure out how to get all the pictures lined up that I wanted to post, from the previous blog, so here are a couple more!

My Favorite Little Girl in the World

In addition to this being Valentine's weekend, it was also the first weekend in a really long time that my niece Mattison has gotten to come and spend the weekend with me without her mom (my sister). We had so much fun. We chilled at the Sonic, we went to visit Mr. Mike at the firestation, shopped and did all the girl stuff that I never get to do. This little girl is the closest thing I have to a daughter and she has my heart in the palm of her hands. I can't imagine having my own daughter, because I can't imagine loving a little girl, more than I love this one right here! I hope she always knows how muh her Aunt Leslie loves her!

Be My Valentine

Well, for starters this was a special Valentines Day. This was the first year in a very long time, that I have had someone very special to spend this day with. Valentine's Day has always been a big deal to me and for most of my life, I have been single, but my step-dad always remembered this and while he was living, he ALWAYS sent me flowers every year. Since his death a few years back, I have never received flowers again. Well...this year that changed. Take a look at these flowers! Mike sent these to me this year. I was so excited. These flowers meant the world to me and I just wanted to share them with everyone! Too bad the pictures aren't scratch and sniff, because they smelled great too. He also got me a box of my favorite chocolates (turtles) and the sweetest card I have ever read! THANK YOU Mike. You always know how to make me smile from the inside out!

They call him the fireman.....that's his name

Well, today was such an exciting day for Mike and me. Mike passed the promotional test at the fire department, so now he is in the running for the Captain's position! I am so excited for him. He is such an amazing person and I just couldn't imagine my life without him in it. He has worked so hard studying in order to pass this test. From what everyone says, this thing is a real hum-dinger....Well, not for my Mike....he passed with flying colors!! I am so proud of him. If anyone deserves something like this...it's him! Here's picture of him and the guys that he works with at his station. Are they not just the cutest things?

A Day at the Races!!!

Friday was opening day at Oaklawn. So me, Mike, his sisters and a couple of friends all took the day off and went to watch the horses! Man was it cold. It was a great time. I even got to spend the day with my mom's two sisters! I'm not much of a gambler, but it sure is fun to use pure luck to pick a horse and see if it wins or not. I did pretty good the first few races, but after about race 4 or 5, it was all down the track from there!

Houdini Satchitini

Ok, so for those of you who do not know about my famous little dog, let me fill you in on my little Houdini. His real name is Satch Mo (Satchie). But for all practical purposes his name may now be Houdini. Satchie is a small breed Yorkie. At best, he weighs 6 pounds. So just how much damage can he really do? Well, let me tell you. I've had him almost 2 years. When I first got him, he weighed rougly 3 pounds. I thought, he's got to be crated, so I buy a crate and here we go, crating Satchie when I'm not home. Well, Satchie didn't like to be crated so Satchie figured out how to open the crate by himself. He'd let him self out during the day and when he'd hear me come in the door he'd run back to the crate like I wouldn't notice the door was open. Next Satchie decided he would chew everything he could get his mouth on. He loved the corners of my coffee table and any kind of electrical cord. I'm surprised the little guy didn't fry him self biting into some the cords. So, since he won't stay in the crate and he chews everything in sight, I decide I'll put baby gates up and contain him to the kitchen. Yeah well that was short lived too. I got the monster baby gates. The kind that are made out of wood and stretch up to 5 feet. They bolt to the wall. Because did I mention, that when you leave him home by him self, he gets mad at you and he pees on the couch? The people at Kroger with the carpet cleaners know me by first name. I have to rent them often to clean up his mess. Very tempermental. I know this is a long post, but hang with me. I'm about to show you just what 6 pounds of temperment can do! So anyway, Mike installs the baby gates for me. That works for a few weeks until Satchie finally figures out to unhook one of them and get back into the living room. Again, he likes to pee on the couch when he gets mad at me. So now that the crate won't work and he has out smarted the baby gates, I think I'll close all the doors in the hall way and put one of the regular baby gates in the door leading into the hall way. What's he going to do to get out of that? Chew the doors down? WRONG! Take a look at what the rascal did Saturday morning. I leave the house around 10:00 to take Alex to basketball practice. Come home around 12 and this is what I see! Needless to say Satchie decided he really didn't want to stay in the hallway by him self. There just might be a Yorkie at the pound later this week!

It's my first time....

Well, the time has finally come. I have two very dear friends that are "bloggers" and each of them have encouraged me at different times to start my own blog. So, since I had a lack of better things to do tonight, I decided today was as good as ever to get started. So as I make my blog debut, please bear with me as I learn what this is all about, what I should and should not say and I'll try to figure out just how much you all really want to know about me. Rest assured, that with my Alex at the age that he is (13), this could definitely get interesting. I hope you all enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy reading yours!