Tis the season

Christmas is officially here....well at least in my book. The presence of the oh so wonderful red cup at Starbuck's marks the beginning of the greatest time of the year!

Soccer Party TIme

Soccer season has finally come to an end and just in time with all the rain we have been getting. The team gathered for the party at none other the HomeTown Buffet. Not really what I was thinking for an end of the year party. I think every party I ever had for a sports team was always held at a pizza parlor. But like I find myself saying many times, we do live in Tracy. Believe it or not in my 31 years I have never been to the HTB as we now refer to it. Let me tell ya, I was not missing anything.

I am gad Bryan was able to be there with me because like always he made it interesting. First off I had to laugh that for kids you pay by the year; 60 cents a year. So for Dani since she is 2 so we only had to pay $1.20. When we were at the register Bryan asked the lady if they had an anniversary specials. I don't think she realized that he was kidding, Bryan knows better to EVER take me there for any special occasion. But we took it all in good stride and the kids had fun. I did about died of laughter when the HTB Bee mascot came out and was saying hi to the kids.

Our team mom had a great cake, the kids got to play and then they all got their cool trophies. I never realized how excited these kids get about their first trophies. i guess looking back to my sports days it was a pretty big deal. We had a great time this year with soccer and we were very lucky to have a great coach.

Coach Alex and the boysChris was so proud of his trophyChris's first trophyDani loved her ice creamCoach Alex, Jacob and Chris

Me and the HTB Bee......I could not even stop laughing long enough for Bryan to take the picture. I never even knew that they had a mascot. Fun times

She is my daughter!

Nothing like a nice scooter ride in between rain showers on a brisk fall afternoon. Dani is picking up on a habit that was one of my moms favorite's.....dressing myself. This is what she chose post nap. What can I say the girl has my fashion sense.

Power Ranger and Hot Dog!

Halloween was about a two week event this year, we got our monies worth out of the costumes. First we hit the Tracy downtown parade with our neighbors.....can we say ghetto. But it was Tracy so it is kind of what we expect :) This this week we went to the Livermore Downtown Trick or Treat. This was a little nicer but there were way too many people there. On Halloween Chris had a parade at the school for all the kids. It was fun to see him and all the kids in his class all dressed up. By the time that night came around I was Halloween-ed out but I still took the kids to CandyZone at our church. With food, bounce houses, plasma cars and candy....who could ask for more. Well I could have. This is not an event you bring 2 kids to with only one parent. But the kids had fun so my massive head ache by the end of the night was worth it.

My little hot dog and power ranger......so cute!

Chris waiting to play some games in Livermore

Chris and Logan at the school parade

Dani LOVED the big slide at CandyZone

7-up goes great with hot dogs

****my kids were not to pleased this morning to find that I had thrown out all their candy from Halloween. The last thing my kids is sugar to give them any more energy. I mean heck it was not like I was going to get Mother of the Year anyways.

All in a days work

This is what we did at work yesterday. Quite the productive day if you ask me. Sara'is te cool fae on the left and mine was the spider web on the right.

Trash Day Results

Sorry for the delay in posting the results from last weeks glorious day. This year Bryan and I did not do a contest because honestly we did not have too much to put out there. I think we have gone overboard the last few years.

Now believe it or not there is trash etiquette if you can call it that (especially in Tracy) The picture below is what you do not do. We drive by this house on the way to school and everyday the pile grew. It seriously looked like someone sat in the front door and chucked things to the curb. By the day of pick up there were actually 2 mannequins in the pile.

I was shocked that the trash guys actually picked this up.....technically everything has to be bagged.

Now who said you can't find some good stuff on these days. I drove by and took the picture and 30 minutes later when I drove by again they were gone, hey these are hard times.

This was a pretty classic scene for trash piles. I think the number one item that you usually seen are broken book helves and old TV stands. The funny thing is that half way through the night a piece of this bed was in our pile. Classic "trashers remorse" syndrome.

I think we need to start our cleaning a little earlier for the spring pick up. I was not impressed with our 4 garbage bags of items. Until March '09

It is one of the best weeks of the YEAR!

I will give you a few hints as to why this is one of the greatest weeks of the year.

1. clean houses
2. large piles
3. creeping trucks
4. many good laughs

That's right folds it is TRACY TRASH WEEK! Our bi-annual event here in T-town, they should just make this a holiday. If you have been reading this blog for a while you know about our love for this week from previous posts. The next few days we are cleaning the house to create our pile for Thursday night. Meanwhile the piles in the neighborhood are starting to grow.

We love our little ghetto life!......oh did I mention we hung a fly swab in our kitchen yesterday. Laugh if you will but we got 22 flies on that thing.

Fun at the Bass Pro Shop

Well we have hit the big time....Manteca (the town right next to Tracy) is big time now. Just this week the opened the area's first and only Bass Pro Shop. We had some free time this morning so we packed up the family and headed down the road to the "BPS" as we refer to it.

I have never seen so many people in one place in the Central Valley before, the place was a zoo. Now before you all think that the Francis family has sold out and we have been turned into a fishing hick fam, just wait. This place is actually really cool. They have so many different things in this store it is overwhelming. From boats to guns, to clothes and bikes, they have everything that involves any outdoor sport you can think of. Including probably every piece of fishing equipment. Here are a few fun pics from our time there. I think this will be a place we will frequent, especially after the aquarium gets filled with the fish.

This is looking back at the crazy entrance to the store. You actually walk thru a redwood when you enter the store.

There is a waterfall that goes over the staircase as you walk upstairs. The aquarium at the bottom will eventually be filled with fish....they and not arrived yet.

Just a glimpse at the CRAZY amount of people here.

Dani had fun looking at all the animals. She loved this bear.

Chris and Bryan loved the shooting gallery they had in the back of the store. Although I think Bryan spent more quarters then Bryan.

Quick Trip to Chicago

I have been a travelin' fool for work lately. I spent a few days in the Carolina's two weeks ago and earlier in the week I headed to Chicago for a few days. This trip was a fun one since I got to go there with Sara and another great women from our church Caren.

If anyone has ever spent any time around Sara and I they would know that we have a tendency to wear the same thing every now and then. And when I say the same thing I me exactly, it is a gift. This can be kind of funny at times especially since we work together. So it really came to no surprise that on the first day of our trip we were sportin' the NF fleece and jeans (outfit of choice).

The conference we were at was for women in church leadership, "Gifted to Lead". Two of the most dynamic women I have heard speak on women's leadership, Nancy Beach and Nancy Ortberg gave the one day interactive conference for about 500 women from all over the states. In the first session we were talking about key points in our lives that we felt we were called to be leaders. My thoughts went directly to high school and the youth group at MVPC. I thought of all the great student leaders that I worked with. The totally WEIRD part of this was at the break I walk out in the courtyard and there I see my friend Jane Filkin that I went to high school with and was one of those student leaders with me. So crazy, especially since she and her family are in Colorado now working at a church in Boulder. It was such a fun time to reconnect with her. It was a great conference and I took away a ton from it.

That night Sara and I headed to downtown Chicago to get some food and take in the sights. It was a beautiful night and the weather was amazing.

Where we got our grub on

Gotta love the Sears Tower

Walking along the river and enjoying the view!

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Bryan and I took the kids over to Del Oso Family Farms for a quick trip to get some pumpkins before school started again. Chris tracked back on this Tuesday so we wanted to have a little fun. Note to self if you go on a Monday during the day.....no one is there. It was great the kids were able to run free and get dirty.

This was the best I could get of the two of them.....notice the bandaged forehead on Chris and the ragamuffin look on Dani. I think I may need to cut some bangs on that girl.

Chris and Bryan getting ready for pumpkin blaster

I think Chris would have stayed here all day if we let him. (Bryan too!!!)

Nothing like putting my 5 year old in jail.

Dani loved feeding all the animals once she realized they were not going to get her.

Chris had a fascination with the little chicks

Dani and the little piggy!

Cowboy Chris!

Seriously mom, cut me some bangs.....I can not see a thing!