See Ya Monday!

Saturday is Jes and my 6th wedding anniversary, so we are shipping the kiddo off to his grandparents and high tailing it south to Austin. We are so excited and when we get back we will have lots of pictures to post chronicaling our trip. See you then!

A Walk Down Memory Lane

I saw this fun high school memory list at It Coulda Been Worse and thought I would participate too!! It sounded like fun!

1. Who was your best friend? I had a group of friends from my school that I hung out with that included my best girl friends, Paige, Sarah and Christie, along with my boyfriend at the time and some other guys that I didn't really know that well. I don't keep up with any of them except for Paige who I recently was able to get into contact with again. We will forever be linked as our grandparents are long time friends!
2. Did you play any sports? No way! I was in the band and that took up every waking moment if I wasn't actually in class. I couldn't have survived anyway...
3. What kind of car did you drive? I had a 1985 Chevrolet Cavalier that shook violently at every stop light and had the check engine light permanently on, but the thing never died on me and even went to college with me!
4. It’s Friday night. Where were you? Well, if not at a football game with the band, then hanging out with the boyfriend or at a church or other band function.
5. Were you a party animal? I didn't have time. See number 2.
6. Were you considered a flirt? Not really. I had a few boyfriends, some real psychos, but flirt was not something that I think I was ever called.
7. Were you in the band, orchestra or choir? Again, band. I was one of the only freshmen in the top band, was squad leader, section leader, etc. Everything you could be, I was. I LOVED band and miss it to this day!
9. Were you ever suspended or expelled? I never even went to the principal's office. I'm still not entirely sure where it was located in our school...
10. Can you sing the fight song? Sadly, yes. After 4 years of teaching it to other people in band, it's one of those things permanently cemented in my memory.
11. Who was your favorite teacher? I wasn't the best student, so I would be more likely to pick my least favorites. Let's see, there would be the english teacher who tried to kick me out of her class for having mono, the academic decathalon teacher who tried to get me to forfeit my band trip to Orlando just to go to a local competition, or maybe the chemistry teacher who tried to convince our class that one of the elements was named after him. Sigh... The joys of public school systems! Yet another reason I will homeschool my kiddos!
12. What was your school mascot? We were the South Garland Colonels!!!
13. Did you go to the Prom? Oh you bet! And so did my mom and dad!
14. If you could go back, would you? No way!
15. What do you remember most about graduation? Just being so busy and having to clean up toilet paper from our trees of our house the next morning before church. I still don't know who did that.
16. Where were you on Senior Skip Day? In class. I was a good girl.
17. Did you have a job your senior year? Well, I worked with my mom at the company she worked at. I also had a short stint as a pizza girl at Papa John's when they were still pretty new in the area.
18. Where did you go most often for lunch? The cafeteria. See number 16.
19. Have you gained weight since then? Well, I had mono as a senior, so I gained weight that year. I have also had a child and aged over 10 years. I weighed just over a hundred pounds soaking wet when I graduated. You tell me.
20. What did you do after graduation? I went to East Texas Baptist University for my Bachelor's in Biology. Then on the UT Tyler for my Master's in Clinical Exercise Physiology. I have worked in the clinical field and have finally settled into academics and mommyhood.
21. What year did you graduate? 1996. Doesn't really seem like that long ago...
22. Who was your Senior Prom Date? His name was Bill. Not the guy I wanted to go to prom with, but the guy I wanted to attend with was too slow in asking me and had broken my heart earlier in the year, so my friend Bill took me. Sweet guy, just not my type.
23. Are you going/did you go to your 10 year reunion? No, they were charging like $160 to attend. Are they crazy??? Why would I pay that to see a group of people that I don't either remember or want to remember? Anyway, I'll probably go to the 20 year. Maybe it will be better than some of the 10 years I've heard about!

Most Recent ENT Update

Today, Caleb and I returned to the ENT's office to, once again, check out his ears for fluid. Unfortunately, Caleb has inherited my tendency to have wax in his ears. Granted, it drains well, but today there was just enough that the doctor couldn't see well if there was fluid. They did, however, determine that there was no redness or infection. Another tympanogram was done to measure the movement of his ear drum. The good news is that the right ear is moving normally now, however the left is still abnormal. He doesn't have any hearing loss and still isn't really a candidate for tubes as he has never had an infection or any other issues, so we're just in a holding pattern. They are supposed to call us Monday and let us know where to go from here. I just wanted to update you on the news from this doctor.

Our New Addition

While I would love to be posting right now about a new pregnancy in my house, human is not the species of the newest Mathis family member. Our new addition is of the more furry variety in the form of our new puppy, Jaq, pronounced Jack. Why the strange spelling for a normal sounding name? We have named all our animals after Disney characters and there was absolutely no reason to stop now.
















Here he is... His mom is a red Golden Retriever named Reba who wandered into Jes's hanger at work and dad is a deadbeat. We don't know who mom bred with, but we have our theories.
















As you can see, Caleb is just beside himself with excitement. He spent most of the evening jumping, literally, around the house saying "puppy" over and over again in octaves I have never heard come out of him! All day he talked about Daddy and Jaq and couldn't wait for them to get home.
I think the last time I lived in a house with a puppy I was 5 or 6 years old, so this will be a learning experience for me. Jes, however, seems to be the resident expert and I will defer all puppy raising duties to him!















So, here is our new family member. He is so sweet and calm and had already won us over! We just wanted to formally introduce our new baby!

Caleb's New Trick

Yesterday I discovered that Caleb can do something new and it totally surprised me. I got so loud about it that I actually scared Caleb. So get this... you can show Caleb a word and he knows what it is! Granted, they are words that he is very familiar with like motorcycle, veggie tales, Dora, Mama, Daddy, Blue's Clues, etc., but he recognizes them everytime and says what they are. Somehow I don't think that this is normal for a 2 year old. If I'm wrong then tell me, but I wanted to share (and brag just a little! :) ).

Happy Fourth!

Yesterday, the 4th, we decided that enough was enough and we were going to get out of the house and go somewhere, other than the mall and Wal-Mart, and have some fun as a family. Thus began the dreaded 'what do you want to do', 'where do you want to go' conversation. We eventually looked outside at yet another rainy day and decided to go downtown to the aquarium and then see fireworks at the Plano campus of my employer. Below are pictures from our day.
















Caleb was particularly silly this morning. I think he knew he was in store for some fine family entertainment! After all the rain and being cooped up in the house, the prospect of going anywhere other then Wal-Mart was exciting for him.

After getting the aquarium, and getting over the sticker shock of the entrance fee, Caleb promptly peed all over Jes and we had to change him right in the middle of the place. Luckily, I thought to pack some pull ups and we just slid it on and whisked his diaper off in one fail swoop. Here are father and son trying to locate the MIA otters. We think they were off having fun torturing birds or something!

The cutest picture of Caleb, but my precious husband just couldn't keep his tongue in his mouth for most of the pictures. I'm so proud. Sigh...

Caleb with the penguins. Ever since that Happy Feet movie came out and he saw the penguins everywhere, he has been able to acurately identify them as such and not just a bird or duck. I'm not sure if we confused him with these penguins, as they were not the same type as in the movie, but he did call them penguins.

I have been trying to make more of an effort to be on the other side of the camera as there are plenty of pictures of Caleb and Jes, but most of the time anyone would look through our photo albums and assume Caleb is motherless. Anyway, here we are on our way out of the aquarium to search for some decent food.

We managed to trudge down to the West End between rain showers, all the while wading through the puddles and the water in the air. Seriously, we were all wet when we made it the few blocks to the restaraunt, but it wasn't sweat. It was so humid! Jes decided that he wanted to eat at the Spaghetti Warehouse. Now, I've lived in the Metroplex my whole life, with the exception of the few years in East Texas for the necessary time called college and graduate school, so this place is just not as big of a deal for me as it is for Jes, not a native. I guess it is a landmark of Dallas as my mom tells me stories of going here when she was in high school and I grew up eating here. Jes loved it and said it was more than he expected. I guess we'll be going back!

We were full of carbs and decided that we wanted gum. I guess I had to have a picture of this so I'll share with you too. I get a little camera crazy at times!

After lunch, and about 232 million carbs, we decided that we should take advantage of the sunlight peaking out between 2 large black clouds and take a walk around downtown. We showed Caleb all the major monuments in the area and treked back to the car.

We killed a little time between leaving downtown and going to Plano by store hopping. When we did arrive in Plano to claim our spot for the fireworks show, Caleb had had a nap and we were exhausted but excited. The last time we saw fireworks were 3 years ago, the same day we got pregnant with our Caleb.

We brought our bubble blower to the festivities to give Caleb something to do and fill some time. As you can see it drew in other kiddos as well.

Caleb and Jes during the fireworks.

I finally got a smiling picture of Jes...

Caleb and I watching the show.

Caleb and I. We had a great time and made it out of the parking lot alive, no small feat. It's amazing how mean people get when they are trying to leave an event.

Anyway, we hope you all had a great 4th and can't wait for next year!

Yea For Caleb!!!

A few weeks back I posted about buying Caleb a potty. He's been very interested in it, but hadn't actually done anything. That all changed Saturday.
Big News: Saturday, my boy, peed in the potty! Today, my boy pooped in the potty!!!
He's growing up and I know he'll be mortified by this someday, but I wanted to share with our friends and family! Go Caleb!