The Zell Life

Dancing with the Stingrays in the Pale Sunrise...

2008-10-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

Several weeks back David and I went to the Texas coast with our BFF and neighbors Julie and Mark. We rented a house in Palacios, which is in between Galveston and Corpus Cristi. Luckily, the hurricane didn't blow down our rental house so we were able to still make our trip. Another couple was going to go too but they couldn't make it so it was just the four of us, which was very comfortable because we hang out together every day. The picture above was after the most awesome fishing experience I've ever had. (I haven't really had any. ha) This was our guide, Ray Sexton. If you are ever in the market for a fishing guide on the Texas coast, look him up. He is a good Christian man and he is a blast to fish with. He's a natural teacher. He took me on personally and taught me how to "pop the croaker" and "look for bait jumping." He was so funny. He would tell me where to cast and say that I was in the "trout motel." He was right!!! Not only did I catch a few fish, I caught 11! I came back with 10 trout, 1 redfish and I outfished the boys...including him! I did have to wake up at 5 am, go across the ocean in the dark (a little freaky) and scoot my feet while wading so that I didn't get stung by a stingray (really freaky... ) Oh yeah...I didn't see any sharks either if you were wondering.

David and Mark went out with Ray the first day while Julie and I stayed at the house and crabbed and puttered around the little town where we were staying. This is David holding the biggest fish that was caught on their trip...a 27 inch redfish. Let me tell you...those little fishing towns have some interesting characters living in them. We saw one old (crusty) man with a sign on his truck saying that he was being followed by the FBI. ha We bought live bait from another crusty character who lived at the end of a trailor park. We laughed so much. You know they all knew we were "city-folk."
Ahh...watching the sunset with a fishing pole in my hand. It was so nice and peaceful. Did I mention the fact that we took this trip sans kids?We were really renewed when we came back. We also ate some delicious Mexican food at a restaurant there in Palacios on Sat. night. Yummmmmy!!!!My first crab catch...He was tasty!!

And this would be my big catch of the day...a 25 in. redfish. He was tasty too. We came home with almost 50 lbs of filets. We had a big fish fry not too long ago for the Cowboys game. (one of the ones they won..) It was such a fun trip. We are going to do it again next year and I can't WAIT!!

The Energizer Bunny

2008-09-18T15:43:00.000-07:00

This is exactly what I have felt like these past few weeks! I just keep going and going...

Not, that I am complaining...I'm really not. I just feel like at the end of each day I can't believe that I can fit all of that in! If you have read any of my summer posts about how relaxing my summer is, you can completely contrast it to this one. Let me just give you my typical day:

5:00- Get up and get on the treadmill (unless I am too exhausted from the previous day and I am getting a little extra shut eye.)

5:45- Get ready for work, get kids up and ready, drop off daughter at daycare and go to work.

7:30-3:00 Show up at work and teach 17 2nd graders. This in itself if like a whirlwhind. Think "multi-tasking."

If Tuesday- Leave school, drive 1 & 1/2 hours to Commerce for my graduate school class.

7:30 drive 1 & 1/2 hours home, then spend about an hour working on my online statistics class.

If any other day- After school, grade papers, watch kids play outside while working on the laptop on that same statistics class, bathe kids, put them in bed, work longer on my class. Then, I just crash into bed because my brain hurts and all of the energy is drained from my body.

If weekend- clean house, do laundry, work on homework for my classes, and maybe grade some more papers. Try to do at least a little something relaxing...then crash into bed sunday night and get ready to do it all again.

Whew, I'm tired!

Over the Hill...I turned 30!

2008-08-31T12:53:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was my 30th birthday and my family and friends were so awesome to come celebrate with me!! I've heard a lot of people say that it was hard to turn 30, but I haven't had any trouble with it so far. I am right where I wanted to be at 30...if not more so. I feel so blessed with my family, friends, career, not to mention that I am going for my dream to be a psychologist and I am actually getting closer to it. I have the best family and friends a girl could wish for. Thank you everyone.

Little Mommy Camryn gave Cortni's daughter Avery her bottle while Mommy got to enjoy the festivities.
We all had a good time sitting around talking and laughing amongst the tiki torches. They were an added affect that turned out really neat.
The boys cooked up some of Mark's famous fajitas for everyone. I saw lots of people going back for seconds!

Tina, from across the street surprised me with this beautiful and delicious cake. Didn't she do a great job?
Ha ha...need I say more? My friends are so fun. I love you girls!
My best friend Amanda came to celebrate with me too!! Camryn just loves Amanda!

Mom and Dad stuck with us as long as they could. I'm so glad they came. I love my parents.
Donna and I posed for a shot. Immediately afterwards I dropped her...hee hee. I didn't put that one on here though.
The lovebirds, Donna and Dave. They make such a great couple. We really like Dave for her. He makes her so happy!!

Well, that's about it. I didn't get a shot of everyone who came but I sure did enjoy my party and I thank everyone for coming. Now I get to start thinking about what kind of party I can give my husband when he turns 40 in a few years. Does anyone have any black balloons I can borrow? ha ha

Cody and Camryn Get Older

2008-08-31T12:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was BU-SY! First of all, both of my kids and I all have our birthday during the same week. (Yes, I am crazy because my kids are only a week and 7 days apart. I don't even remember the first year because it was like having a set of twins.) Anyway, we always have one party for both of them and since this year I turned ahhem...30, I got the big party. So, since all the family was already here we had their party in the afternoon and then mine that evening. Here are some pictures from theirs.

Camryn loves music and wanted a radio of her very own. She's gotten a lot of use out of it already and I think she's heard, "Turn it down!" more times than I can count.
Cupcakes anyone? The kids got them all over them but they sure did enjoy eating them.

Poor Julie. She got volunteered by Camryn to put together the highchair for her babies that Aunt Donna got her.
Gotta love opening all of those kids' toys. Man, they could make them easier to open, couldn't they?
There was a common theme with Cody's presents...Anything that shoots. The kids had a ball NERFing each other.

Goodbye Summer.

2008-08-31T12:10:00.000-07:00

Sadly I say "goodbye" to the best summer that I have had in years. The kids and I did so many fun things together and my sister Donna came to see us too. I tried to make the most of this summer by not taking any classes and just soaking it up because I have to work in the counseling clinic in Commerce for my practicum for the next two summers. As much as I know I will LOVE that and the fact that I am actually going to be able to practice what I have been learning for the past few years, it will take me away from my kids more than I would prefer.

I ended my summer with a few activities, not to mention my birthday which I will post separately. Below are some pics from that last week:

Aunt Donna and Camryn at Hawaiian Falls.

Me and my babies enjoying some much needed shade (and sweets!)

Cody trying to teach his sister how to ride her bike without the training wheels. He was more patient than she was.

I whipped up some cutains for my classroom. I decided to go "Wild" this year and do a theme with animal patterns. I made a tree in my room and have vines hanging from the ceiling. It's my favorite classroom set up yet.

Here is Cody standing proudly in front of the scariest ride at the water park. He actually liked free falling...I am worried!

I'm sure I won't be able to post as often now. School's back in and I am taking two graduate classes...one of which is statistics online and from the first week I can tell that he is going to be working us hard in that one. Oh well, it's a means to an end, right?

Family

2008-08-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my family celebrated my Grandmother's 80th birthday party. It was very nice and I also got some good family pictures.

This is my sister Donna and her better half (ha), Dave. Don't they look cute together? We love Dave!!
My cousin Anthony joked, "Let's go play hide and seek." That's because we use to always play that at Nannie's and look at us now all grown up. From the left: Donna, Anthony, Me, and Zach. It was so nice to visit with my favorite cousins again. We don't see nearly as much of each other as we should. Maybe we had better change that!

Of course there had to be a picture of me and Camryn. There always it. The bandaid you see on her forehead is covering the stitches she received Thursday night. Poor baby...she tripped and hit the entertainment center and gashed her head. We spent several hours in the ER where she had to get 2 stitches under the skin and 5 on top. She was very tough though. Cody was more upset that she was about it.

This is me and my much taller (yet younger) sister Donna. She is also my friend. I love you Donna!

1st Visit from the Tooth Fairy!!

2008-08-10T07:39:00.001-07:00

Last night Cody had his 1st visit ever from the tooth fairy! Here he is minus one baby tooth.

Somewhere Under the Rainbow....

2008-08-06T20:19:00.000-07:00

Last night I went outside to see the most beautiful rainbow. It was a complete one and a picture cannot really portray what it looked like. Rainbows always remind me of my wedding day. On the way to our hotel on the night of our wedding there was also a beautiful rainbow in the sky. I remember thinking that God was sending us a special promise on that perfect day and now I am reminded of that promise each time a rainbow spreads across the sky.

Look who I found at the end of that rainbow......

Rock Band Night

2008-08-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

Back in the day, I used to think all of my teachers just went to the school and back home. That's who they were all of the time...just teachers. We'll, let me tell you- Teachers know how to have a good time just like anyone else. Last night the gang (We don't have a formal band name yet...more to come) got together at Cortni's house for a gig.

Our little apprentices had to warm up the instruments first... Check-one, two...
Yes, you do have to concentrate. It's serious stuff. You don't want to miss a beat!
Watch out...he's on a 300 note streak baby!
Coochie, Coochie, cooo....Dana and Avery looked soo cute!
Dana's husband Alex rocked out too!! Yeah baby.

We really enjoyed catching up since we haven't all been together since school let out in the spring. We may have to do this again after school starts and the kids start making us Crazy. :)
Thanks Cortni and Adam for hosting!

Rock band Night @ Cortni's

2008-08-03T14:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a video of some of the action. Isn't Barb rockin' on those drums. She's on Fi-ya!

Goin' to the Country

2008-07-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

David had to take another week of vacation time before he lost it so we decided that we would take the kids out to my Mom and Dad's to visit and we could enjoy a little R&R here at home alone. I grew up in the C-O-U-N-T-R-Y...Some people think Midlothian is country. ha No... The school bus had to drive 7 miles (part of the way on dirt roads) to pick us up. We had 100 acres of pasture, including cattle and now goats, 1 donkey, 1 mule, and 2 ponies. When I was a kid it was fun out there in ways that kids in the city would probably never experience. We invented things to do. I learned to drive out in the pasture in a little 4 speed hatchback. We drove it until we ran out of gas (or had a blow out-remember that Emma?) Once my friend and I were out driving in the pasture and we decided to tell my sister that we had a wreck because we ran into the bull. We made it fun. Emma lived a little ways down from me and we would go "exploring." We would spend hours and hours riding our bikes all over the dirt roads. We had a favorite bridge that we would go sit on and talk all about what we thought our futures would be like. It was a great way to grow up....

OOpps...I got distracted thinking about all of that. Okay, focus.

So David and I went out there last Sunday and spent some time before we left the kids there to spend time with "Oma and Opa." Here are some pictures that I took.

This is my Mom with Camryn.
This is my youngest (but no longer so young) sister Marie and her daughter Katelyn. Isn't she a cutie!
Camryn said she needed to be the lifegard.
Introducing "Crackerjack" the donkey.
I don't know this fella's name but he really liked my camera.

I'm sure they are having a great time out there. Cody's going fishing and Camryn is going to help take care of Katelyn, a job she takes very seriously. I'm sure David and I can manage to find SOMEthing to do. I'll have more to add after I hear how their little visit went.

Hangin out-- Outside

2008-07-29T14:06:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned yet that we spend a LOT of time outside? One of the things that the men have been doing has been grilling! Here you see Mark teaching the kids Grilling 101. Itwas so cute. They all had to have their aprons on...even if they weren't actually "touching" the grill. The fajitas were incredible Mark!
We were entertained by the local fairy-cheerleader-ballet dancer, Miss. Camryn. She loves to make up songs and dances. I think she may be a theatre girl though because her facial expressions are Oh-So Dramatic!!

My Men

2008-07-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

The neighbor pulled out this 30 year old car. With all of the bikes, scooters, etc around this is their favorite. See how much fun Cody and Aidan are having. Aidan spent the night with us last night for the first time. He was so good. He's like a brother to my kids. They all have a very special friendship. We love you Aidan!

This is my main man, David. He's such a wonderful husband, father and friend. I love you David!

Summertime..and the Livin is Easy

2008-07-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

It's been really stressful around here for these kids...Do I swim, then ride bikes? Do I layout and then play babies? Decisions, decisions. Man, I miss being a kid!! All I know is that I see smiles all of the time. That makes me smile. I hope my children are as happy as they are making me. I wouldn't trade these days for anything in the world!!!!

Camryn loves to bask in the sun after a dip in the pool with her friend, Abby.

Of course...she has to show me her goofy poses too. These are her favorite!

Here is her best friend Abby. They will start kinder together in another year. It will be so neat to watch them grow up together!

She got earrings!

2008-07-15T17:57:00.000-07:00

Camryn decided that today she was ready to pierce her ears. We went to Claire's in Cedar Hill and she picked out her favorite ones. She wasn't scared at all, in fact, she kept asking, "When am I going to get my ears pierced?" as the lady was getting everything ready. Without a flinch she got them done. Afterwards she said, "That didn't even hurt!" Since she's been showing them off to everyone around here, I guess I'll show them to everyone out there.

Water Days of Summer

2008-07-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

We had to relax for a while after spending some time in the wave pool...

Watch out!!! These kids are on a mission.

Well, we went back to Hawaiian Falls today because Cody got great news from the ear doctor. His tubes were out and finally he is able to put his ears under water!!! We had to celebrate so I took him along with his sister to the water park where he could try to swim under water for the first time! Guess What? He's a little FISH! He can swim...He can do flips under water....He was soooo happy. I remembered my camera this time and took some pictures of our afternoon.

Our Anniversary!!

2008-07-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

Today is our 7th wedding anniversary. Whoo-Hoo!! We celebrated over the weekend with a little trip along with Mark and Julie. (It was her b-day.) Here's how it went:

Sat: Take our babies to Aunt Donna's in Dallas for an overnight visit. Head to Cowtown a.k.a Ft. Worth to check in to our suite. After getting ready and the arrival and subsequent check-in of our neighbors (who ironically had the room right next door), we jumped into the shuttle bus and headed downtown. We stopped in at a little Irish Pub (Dirty Murphys) and started out our evening before entering the most AWESOME piano bar. Dueling Pete's Piano Bar in Ft. Worth is a fun place! You might go there thinking you are just going to hear some pianos playing...oh no... What you will get it more like a cross between a concert and a club. They had two other guys there with them and between the four guys, all with the drums, sax, fiddle, and more we got a lot more for our cover charge than we expected. If you go on a Sat...get there at 8:00!! It was packed and there was standing room only. Luckily, we got a table. We laughed and sang and danced all night. We didn't want to leave!!! Even though I didn't hit the pillow until 2 am and we were all suffering the whole next day, it was so freakin FUN!!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, my camera was not charged (poor proper prior planning), and I only got the first picture saved from the pub. It's too bad though because I took some really fun ones. :( Here's the one and only pic of Julie and Mark...

Playing with the Neighbors

2008-07-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

Above is Camryn doing an art project with the neighbors (they didn't make the picture)

These two hard working boys are my son Cody and Wiley from across the street.

The kids (and the adults too) have had a great time with the neighbors this summer. We love our street! We live on a circle and almost everyone has little kids. Every evening (and sometimes during the day when it isn't blazing hot) these 6-8 kids are out riding bikes, swimming in a little pool, hitting up Ms. Tina for popsicles, and generally having a BALL! We are great friends with our neighbors, especially Julie and Mark right next door. We share meals and stories every evening and just laugh a lot. It's been such a fantastic summer!!!! I don't look forward to it's end.

Water Babies

2008-07-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

Even though we have spent most of our "water" time at Hawaiian Falls in Mansfield, we started out with a trip to Splash Factory in Grand Prairie. This is part of the city parks for the city and it's only ONE dollar to get in. Holla!! You can bring your own food in a cooler and sit back and relax while your little ones splash around. *Discaimer* This is really more suitable for preschooler and below. There aren't any rides and pools...just splasy things. It's a really good place to take those itty bittys! Here are some pics from there. (Notice how Camryn likes to pose...A LOT!)

T-Ball Season

2008-07-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

Cody did t-ball for the first time this past spring. He was a pretty good little hitter too!! We enjoyed going to his games and some of his family even came to watch. One day we took some pictures of him in his uniform. Of course, Camryn had to jump in on

Busy Fun Summer

2008-07-10T20:50:00.001-07:00

I am not doing a good job at this blogging thing, am I??? I will try "harder" to post more often.

Last week David was on vacation. We enjoyed some great family time. Among other things, we went to "our" water park several times, did the Chuck E Cheese thing and then spent the 4th in Dennison with our neighbor's family. We did a hay ride and enjoyed the beautiful fireworks. Now we are looking forward to our "anniversary" weekend!!! Whoo-hoo. We are going to spend the night in Ft. Worth along with (in separate rooms of course!) our bff neighbors Mark and Julie for Julie's b-day. Besides visiting the Ft. Worth hot spots, we are planning on having a good old time sans kiddos! Watch out Cowtown...Here we come!!!!

Playing in the water

2008-06-23T16:53:00.001-07:00

We found a great new waterpark in Mansfield. It's called Hawaiian Falls. We've spent the last two days there and we love it! Cody went on the big rides and Camryn and Cody both liked the kids area. We are great friends with our neighbors Julie and Mark. They have a 3 year old too. We all went and spent the entire day there yesterday.

Check it out for yourself!

Cody the Superboy

2008-06-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

Cody is my little man. He's my oldest at 5-almost six. Cody is Daddy's Mini-Me. If Cody could chose what to do on a perfect day it would go like this:

9:00 wake up, eat whatever he wanted watch cartoons
11:00 shoot something from behind a "fort" with a nerf gun...making lots of shooting noises
12:00 skip a real lunch...eat a bag of carrots
12:30 more cartoons while laying upside down and hanging off of the couch
1:00 take apart a broken radio in the garage. Put all of the parts into a can to use later.
2:00 It's later. Use string, the radio parts and some GI Joes to create some kind of trap in the loft that will keep out the bad guys (his sister)
4:00 Eat more carrots and then go ride his bike with the neighbors...saving the neighborhood from crime in his Spiderman costume complete with a cowboy hat, boots, a sword, two play guns, a stick and a few "perfect rocks."
7:00: (still outside) continue crime fighting
8:00: argue that he doesn't need to take a bath because he's not dirty (he's dirty)
8:15: crime fighting in the bath. Line up all of the toys and knock them off multiple times

You get the idea :) He's all boy and at the end of the day when I hug him and kiss him he becomes that sweet little boy that I fell in love with one the day that he was born.

Camryn the Princess

2008-06-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

Camryn is our 4 year old daughter. She is so precious to us. Camryn is so full of sugar and spice and a little dynamite! She keeps us cracking up constantly. Camryn loves pink, babies, talking, singing, dancing, and she is my little Mini-Me! A typical conversation with Camryn involves the word "why?" She wants to know why this is this way and why that is that way. She wondered the other day why we don't just fall off of the earth if we keep driving on one direction. She is a thinker!! She wants to read so badly. After I read to her she will try to "read" the book to me and she keeps saying "Was that what it said?"

She keeps us laughing with little things like this...

Camryn: "Daddy, can I have a piece of bread?"
Daddy: (thinking that's an easy one) "Sure, here you go." (handed her a piece of bread)
Camryn: "Can you put some peanut butter and jelly on it?"
Daddy: (laughing because she just tricked him into making her a sandwich) "You silly girl."
Camryn: (with that smile) "Thank you Daddy."

And another time...

Camryn was wearing this shirt that had a tree on it.

Daddy: "Camryn, are you a tree hugger?"
Camryn: "No, but I like leaves."

So as you can tell...Camryn is a crack up-The funny thing is, she's not even trying!!

David

2008-06-17T07:54:00.000-07:00

This is the man I married. He's a "very good man" I always tell people when they ask me about him. We will be married 7 years in July...whew time flies!! (It's amazing how having two kids speeds it up!) David works for a large school district in the technology department. He does stuff with computers that I don't understand when he tells me about it, but he likes what he does and he's good at it too! He's a wonderful man. He loves me and he loves his children. He is supporting me while I go back to school to follow my dream (even though sometimes he wishes I were at home instead of away.) I take that for granted sometimes and I shouldn't. From what I've been told by many other women with small children they say that their husbands wouldn't be willing to do that for them. That surprises me and seems so wrong... but then I think that's because I'm spoiled by David. I love him so much. He is my best friend.

DeAnna

2008-06-16T17:35:00.000-07:00

Let me introduce myself...hmm hmm

My name is DeAnna. I am allllllmost 30 years old. I have a few months left in my 20's. I am an elementary teacher/graduate student. I have taught 8 years and boy have those years taught me A LOT! Next year I will teach 2nd graders and I will "loop" with the same kids to teach them in 3rd grade as well. After that...I am retiring from teaching and will begin my career in psychology and professional counseling. Whoo-hoo!!

My dream has always been to be a psychologist. Always! Thanks to a sacrificing husband (who has the kids by himself 2 nights a week), I have been able to pursure my masters degree in psychology from A&M-Commerce University. When finished (I'm due to do my internship in 2 years) I will be a Liscenced School Psychologist and also a Liscenced Professional Counselor. I am so excited about all of this that if you ask me about it...you'll have to tell me to stop talking because I will go on and on about what I have learned since I have been in school. I absolutely LOVE the field of psychology.

I LOVE MY FAMILY!!! I will tell you more about each of them in separate posts. I thought I would introduce myself first and then you will hear and see more and more than you will ever want to know about the rest of my fantastic family!!!