Jones...

I love this picture of Jonah. First of all, I think it looks very Rockwell. Secondly, it really shows the excitement of the moment (he's the super excited one second from the left; his car was winning the race). We don't get to see that too much in Jonah. Only in little stolen glances do you see it much. He's shy like the male Roots' kids tend to be and possesses this nonchalant attitude. Cool as a cucumber and man of few words is Jonah. But, believe me it's there. He is the most competitive of the Amy Roots kids. He not only likes to win, he has a bit of a compulsion. In kindergarten it took the whole family to convince him that a 90 was still an "A". It's not pride necessarily, he just wants proof he did his best. He never makes fun of others and he keeps it to himself. I love that about him. He's not yet jaded by cynicism like his teenage siblings. (Although, Jennifer always, always works really hard, she is "ok" with not always making "100") Noah takes after his Mom. Neither of us needs some "authority" to "grade" us and "label" us good or bad. (she says sneering her best bad girl sneer) You just have to love a guy that still possesses the desire to work hard and do his best. And we do.

Some Things We've Been Up To.....

I know I know, it's been a long time since my last post. What can I say? We've been busy, I mean really, really busy.

But, if the truth be told......Hello, my name is Amy, I'm a Facebook addict. It's true. I'm completely addicted. But, I have realized the error of my ways. So here is a sampling of what we've been doing.

Let's see, Jennifer Ann continues her abuse of our dear Jack Russell Terrier, Jack. Here, she fancies him a bunny. (No animals were "hurt" in the above picture, unless you count his ego.)

Christmas was good. Noah received seriously the LOUDEST present ever. The LOUDEST present EVER! Am I a sucker or what? Like, I knew the drums were loud, but they are REALLY REALLY LOUD. Like, knock stuff off shelves loud. But he loves them and is very good at drums. At least his Mommy thinks so, of course I'm deaf now, but I feel the rhythm with my feet.

Jonah had a totally awesome birthday (that's him in the space shirt). We had all the neighborhood kids over for pizza and cake and even had some teenager friend types of the older siblings. Party at the Roots place!

George decided to enjoy the hospitality of Midland Memorial Hospital for 10 days with another infection in his hand. Boy that was some fun let me tell you. The best part was the look of panic on the doctors faces as they came in day after day to see no results. But science prevailed! This time. The picture above was in the early stages, believe me it got worse, much worse before it got better. We are so very grateful that he is much improved and doing much better. Very, very grateful.

The last picture is of our photodysfunctional family at Jonah's baptism. The best we got. Apparently we aren't meant for the red carpet as we can't all look at the camera at the same time with our eyes open. And no, I'm not an amazon nor the tallest in our family. I had on my big girl heels and many others were barefoot. This picture reminds me of being in the third grade and being placed at the top, dead center in the class picture. *shudder* Not great for a girl's ego, not great at all. And please, why didn't someone have mercy on me and fix my hair??? Jeesh you'd think it was someone else's "special" day or something. Anywho, despite the photographs it was a wonderful day. We're so proud of Jonah.

Well, three months of Roots' family goings on. You all can rest easy now.

The Marathon!

Well it finally arrived. The marathon George has been training for. All the early mornings. All the aches and pains. All the long Saturday runs. It was here. I'm certain George was excited too.

We decided save a little bank and drive the 6 hours and get two hotel rooms. Sounded good at the time. (It was now in retrospect a great idea...)

So the 6 hour drive. First the DVD player died and then the ipods. Seems we were technically blighted. What's left but to travel "old school" with the kids? That's right, that's how we roll, "old school"! You know, no electronic games, no personal music, no personal space. Crammed in a mini van with no one/thing to look at or communicate with but each other.

When we were kids, way back in the day, my family would venture out most summers to Missouri to visit my Mom's folks. Can you say 15 hours, with no air conditioning and a sister who vomits (every single trip) about 6 hours in so all you can smell is puke, and a pencil and paper to play all the tic tac toe you can stand? Now that's family togetherness. Its what bonded us, in some sort of Co-dependent, walked through the shadow of darkness together and somehow survived kind of way.

Now some may think it was no big deal since our kids are older. We did have air conditioning and all. I mean they aren't toddlers anymore they should be able to entertain each other/themselves without mortally wounding anyone emotionally.

Nay, I say, Nay!! It only gets nastier when they are older. Here's what Mom looked like when we got to the hotel...

Can you say medication? Somebody needed it; either me or them. I'm telling you boarding school is under rated! Severly under rated.

We did eventually kiss and make up. We had a great time with my sister and her family. We headed out to the Dallas Zoo. I Hadn't been there in a while and it was a nice change from the Ft Worth Zoo.

After that, left the kids with Auntie Jenn and I raced back to the hotel to get ready for some adult time. Most of my friends back in Dallas are still single or married with no kids. Talk about switching gears....but it's great.

Reggie always shows me a good time and its so great to reconnect with everyone. I miss them all already....my peeps, Reggie, Belinda, Rich, Chad, Traci, Valerie....Thanks for the great food, great conversation and basically just letting me peek in and out of your wonderful lives. Belinda, your house looks straight out of a "Pottery Barn" catalog; I couldn't be more jealous!

Race day came and the weather did not bode well; not well at all. Just ask the unfortunate 29 year old woman who died 3 miles from the finish line! It was too warm and the wind was blowing with 35 mile an hour gusts. It was fun to arrive there early and watch all the runners cross the finish line. What an accomplishment, 26 miles! I got to witness two people ages 71 and 73 cross.


Over all it turned out to be a great experience. I'm so proud of George and all the training and determination it took to get there. Even if he did have to pass some corpses...

Oh and one last thing.....

Suck it Avis Rental car! You can take your $25 coupon "for next time" and shove it straight up your ***BLEEP!!!!!***** But that's a whole other blog!

Noah

What can I say about Noah? He's just Noah I guess and we love him.

Last week we were worried that we lost all our pictures due to a hard drive crash. Noah assured me all was well and told me that we had most of the pictures still on the camera and that he downloaded them already.

He's always saving me with his technical prowess. Anywho, when I went to check to see which pictures he had saved, I found this...






You just have to love a kid who does this.

It's that time of year.....already?

4 hours

3 fights....er discussions with my husband

2 trips to Walmart

Priceless?

I don't know about you, but my kids are duds. I love them and all, but they just don't really "get" into the holidays.

Halloween, my favorite holiday, they go to all of 3 houses and they are ready to go back home. I mean really. I think that tells me they get WAY too much candy throughout the year.

So do ya think I had any help from the kids on the tree? Yeah, no. Completely not interested. Jonah put up a few of his own personal ornaments, as for the rest of 'em...heck NO! Truthfully, if it weren't for those anklebiters I wouldn't even put up a tree. And then there will be the grandkids. I'm doomed I tell ya.

Anyone up for next year at my house? You will have to put up with my incessant yelling and moving of every ornament you place on the tree, but it's all in the name of a very Merry Christmas, right?

Ahhhh! Family Togetherness!

Ahhhhh! Family Togetherness!

You know there just isn't anything like spending time with family is there? This summer my wonderful sister decided to come to visit us and bring the kiddos. What fun we had. I had to work a few of the days she was here, so she decided to do something with all the kids while I was gone. What a loving Aunt!

Being this is Midland, and there really isn't much to do here, we told her about the sand dunes. So off she went with all five kids in tow.

Now who doesn't like a little friendly family competition? I know I do. You?

Poor Jonah! (Is that choking I see, on sand?) We like to call him Crash. A few years ago he actually had stitches twice in the month of February. He came through this one just fine folks. Eventually sand does work its way out of your ears. Just so you know.

And yes, that's his big brother Noah. Notice the fear and concern in his eyes for his beautiful baby brother? Anyone?

Yeah, me either.

And really Jennifer, my sister, Auntie to my children...."Wave!" That's it?

(PS it's windy here in West Texas? Can you hear it?)

We love Jennifer

We love Jennifer, we really do, for many reasons. For one, she is creative. Very creative. To a fault. It gets her into trouble sometimes. I came home from work to find this. This is Jack. He is a super model. At least this is how Jennifer fancies him.