Following a girls dream

Tiffany is my child that is very athletic.  As much as I would like to say I am surprised, I am not.  Her father, Joey played basketball and baseball in high school and was fairly good at it. I played volleyball and softball in high school as was fairly good as well.  It is nice that Tiffany was blessed with her own athletic ability.  She is the type of person that no matter what it seems to be if it is a sport or art work and you take the time to teach her the basics of it she takes that and runs with it in no time flat.

Tiffany started playing volleyball three years ago when her sister showed and interest and played in school.  At the time Tiffany really wanted to play, but her school did not have a team for sixth grade.  So Tiffany practiced with her sister a few times and then asked me if I would coach her since I used to play.  So began Tiffany's start in Volleyball. I would spend at least 3 days a week coaching both Heather and Tiffany and although both girls can play Volleyball, Heather would rather do cheer-leading and dance than to play volleyball.  Heather can play volleyball, but it is not her strongest sport. Tiffany on the other hand really took to the sport.  After working with me for a year, she decided to go out for the 7th grade team.  I was really happy to see that all the time I spent working with her really paid off when she was chosen for the varsity team in her 7th grade year. Tiffany did really well in the 7th grade and was given more training and encouragement by Coach Begley.  This past year we missed the try-outs for the Copperas Cove Jr High 8th grade team, but this did not discourage Tiffany.  She kept practicing on her own and did not let that stop her at all.  In February she went out for the Copperas Cove Spring League and again made the team.

We are now nearing the end of the Spring League and she has been doing so well.  Not only is she playing spring league Volleyball, but she is also made the Copperas Cove Jr High Tennis team as well.  It seems like there is not a day that goes by that we aren't at either Volleyball tournaments, Volleyball practice, Tennis practice or Tennis Tournaments.  Tiffany even has most of her Tennis Tournaments on Saturdays, which means for her that Saturday morning start for her at about 530am and she doesnt normally get home until about 6pm from the tournaments.  She really has been working hard.  To top it all off she is playing two sports at the same time and is still keeping her grades at A's and B's.  I have been really impressed with her.

Last week while we were at a volleyball tournament I was told that the High School Coaches had been watching Tiffany during the games.  I did not think much about it until tonight.  Tonight Tiffany's team was the last team to play tonight and half way through the team I saw all four of the high school coaches come to the side of the court that she was on and start watching the game. Again, I tried not to think about it and kept on cheering for Tiffany and giving her encouragement and guidance.  Towards the end of the game Tiffany was up to serve and she had been doing well all night then she missed her serve.  I could tell that it really upset her.  The head coach for Copperas Cove High yelled out to her and said,"No biggy Tiff, next time just toss the ball a little higher."  I saw this smile come across her face as she shook her head yes at the coach.

Later, after the game, I asked Tiffany about this, she told me that she was upset because she knew the coaches were watching her and she muffed up her serve.  I asked her how she knew that they were watching her and she told me that last week and today during UIL the Jr High Volleyball Coach had pulled her aside and told her that she really wanted Tiffany to make sure she did well at the games and to really pay attention to her techiques because the Head Coach at the high school was asking about her and really watching her for one of the teams next year.  Rumors are now comfirmed. 

This all really means a lot to Tiffany because she really wants to go to college on a scholarship.  Even though we are no longer in the Copperas Cove School district, I have decided to keep Tiffany in this district for several reasons.  Copperas Cove ISD is a one high school town, therefore, there is a larger opportunity for Tiffany to shine when it comes to her abilities in sports.  Next, CCISD has a fantastic Volleyball and Football program.  It is the only school in the area that offers Volleyball and Football training and practices all year long for the members that make the program, meaning that there will be a lot of opporunity for her to really get good at her sport.   CCISD also is not as large as the schools in Killeen and really has the ability to focus on education and sports.  Tiffany has a better chance at getting a sports or art scholarship in the CCISD system then she would in KISD.  So even though that means I have to drive her back and forth to school daily it is all going to be worth it in the end as she is working towards that dream of getting a scholarship to Harvard.  Next week I will have pictures of Tiffany playing volleball for everyone.

A boys adventure

Alex has really been having a blast here at our new house.  He has made some really good friends.  God knew that it was time for Alex to learn how to have more than one friend at a time and we had no idea when we purchased our new house how many boys there where on this street alone and that all of these boys that Alex would make friends with are good boys that he can really learn a lot from.

Thursday, Alex had an early release day from school and I went to get him from school as I now do everyday. (Alex is back at his very first school he attended when we moved here and for him this is yet another wonderful blessing and gift from Heavenly Father.  We all love Clear Creek Elementary School.)
Alex and his friend Glenn went to the field behind our house and clear on the other side of it is a canal that is full of water. Next thing I know Glenn and Alex are walking back with a white Styrofoam cooler really slow.
My Motherly instincts tell me to stop them at the edge of the yard and ask them what they have before they got any closer. (We have a lot of snakes here and the last thing I wanted was them to bring a snake into the yard.) They tell me that they have a baby turtle.  So Glenn and Alex take the turtle to Glenn's house.  The next day Glenn, Alex, Andrew, Kent, Shent and Alex and the aquirinum with the turtle come to the house.  All the boys ask me if I will let them all keep the turtle here.  After talking to each of them and having each of the sign a contract that their parents saw as well it was agreed that Alex could keep the community turtle at our house and the rest of the boys were responsible to make sure we have food to feed it.

First thing on the list was that they were to find out what type of turtle it was.  They had problems trying to find out the exact species, but Alex said from the beginning that it was an alligator snapping turtle.  I really need to start listening to him when it comes to the names of animals outside.  He loves to watch the animal channel and discovery channel on tv and I realized that he actually does learn a lot from them.  Which was proven today.  Jon went online early this morning when he got home from work to see what type of turtle this little guy was so that we could make sure that we had the right food for him.  Low and behold Alex was exactly right.  This turtle was in fact an alligator snapping turtle.  Now this was really neat to me.  We looked on the map and found out that this type of turtle was not even supposed to be in our region that it is mainly found in far eastern Texas.  That more than likely with all the rains we have had that it came here via the rivers and canals. 

Now the down side to all of this is that we also learned that this species of turtle is what is called a threatened species and it is highly illegal to own or capture this type of turtle unless you have a permit for this type of turtle.  This type of turtle has been known to get to be about 15" to 26" round and weigh up to 250 lbs.

When we read this we decided that we would wait for Alex to get up and explain this to both Glenn and him and then we would have them take the turtle back to where they found it so that no one gets into any trouble.

Tiffany decided that since Glenn could not go that she and Jirah would help Alex take the turtle back to its family.  Alex had told us that there were several of them where he got this and even a very large adult one as well. Although Alex was sad that he could not keep the turtle he said that the turtle really did need to go live with its Mom and was willing to take it back.  Jon and I talked and decided that if Alex really wants to have a turtle that we will be getting him one from the pet store for his birthday.  When we told Alex this he was very happy. 

Our NEW Home

I wanted to take a moment now that I have a few minutes to introduce you all to our new home.  We are so happy to have this home and it was something that truly was given to us by Heavenly Father.  We found the house early on the morning of my birthday.  Funny thing about this was that Jon had asked me about and hour before we found this house if there was anything that I really wanted for my birthday and I told him, "I have prayed for us to have our own house again."  After making breakfast for the kids I decided to get on CraigsList and just look around.  This house was just listed on the sight for sale by owner.  I called the gentleman about the house and Mom and I left a few minutes later to look at the house.  The next thing I know we are signing papers and were handed the keys.  We are so happy with this house.  No house is perfect unless you build it from the ground up yourself.  There are some things that we want to do with the house as time goes on, but we love it just like it is too.

We have four bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a two car garage, a large living room, kitchen, dining room, and most of all a good size backyard.  We need to put up a fence on the back side of the property and on each front side of the house, but that we are working on.  We actually have to wait for our shed to be delivered before we can put up the fence because it comes on a tractor and trailer and they have to place it in the back, but that is okay in the meantime we have the kennels for the dogs when we can not be right there to watch them.  Once the shed is here and we build the fence we will be building a kennel run area with concrete flooring. 

This house was such a blessing for us and we found out later that this really was a gift from God when we learned that one of the two people that we used as a reference happened to be the previous owners best friend. God truly does open a window even if it is just a crack for people you just have to look for it and squeeze through it.  Enjoy the pictures.

Researching the family

Several years ago I started doing genealogy for our family because I am really interested in our family heritage and where we all came from.  What our family is all about and who we really are.  When I started this grand adventure I thought that it would be something that was easy to do.  Not so much.

My Mom's side of the family seemed to be fairly easy and there are a few branches of her side of the family that I can take back to 1545.  Wow right! I remember when I did that and was amazed at how easy it really was to do.  It took me about 2 weeks and it was done.  Now there are some holes in it that need to be filled but not too bad for just starting.

I remember when I started this adventure.  We were living in Germany and I was tired of watching the same things on the only English speaking channel that we had that was also closely monitored by our military.  That channel was called AFN. (Armed Forces Network)  So I started researching on the internet and that was when I was first introduced to Ancestory.com.  When I first started working with this program they did not have all the things on it like they do now.  Now they have this little green leaf that comes up if something was located on a person that you have listed.  It is actually really cool and can make researching your family really easy.

Anyway, when I started on my Dad's side of the family, I thought it would be as easy as my Mom's side.  Yeah not so much.  I found that I did not know nearly as much about my Dad's side as I thought I did and well that is what parents and grandparents are for.  Hmmm, again not so easy.  My Grandma Sally was really closed about her past to include her family.  I was able to get her to tell me the names of her siblings, and her parents but when I asked for anymore information I was clearly shut down.  As a matter of fact she was very serious when she told me that I would have to wait for her to go to heaven to get any more information.  Sadly, my Grandma Sally passed away 20 Jan 2010.  Now two months later, I have decided that it is time for me to pick back up this task. I hope that in doing this I will be able to honor my family and my Grandma Sally.

Tonight I found something really interesting that I had never, ever seen before and I thought I would show you all. There is writing at the top and I can only translate so far that it starts out "Nothing to..." I have not been able to figure out the rest of the meaning yet. 

I hope that as I work on this I bring honor to our family line.  I hope to one day be able locate pictures of everyone or as many as I can find through the line and even add censis records, war cards or anything else that I find out there that I can attach to the family line.  I hope that one day I will be able to sit down with my family and show them all that I have found and learned about the Pullens, Capertons, and any other family lines that I find.  Who knows maybe we all will learn something new about that side of the family and where our family history falls within this great country of ours.

One interesting fact that I have learned so far.  I thought that when Dad and Liz moved to Winchester that it was a new place for my family to actually live.  I found that this was not the case at all.  I thought that Grandma Sally was the first of our family to be buried in Winchester, VA.  I now know that I have others buried there as well. Although, they are not tied to my Dad's side of the family.  They are tied to my Mom's side.  To be more accurate it goes from my Mom to my Grandma Ada and down her line. So okay here it goes count with me...my great-great-great-great-great-great Grandpa Aaron A Smith was Married in Winchester, Va on 1 Nov 1772 to Sarah Allen now her parents Joshua Allen died in Winchester, VA around 1751 and his wife Elizabeth Allen died in Winchester in 1752. By the way both Joshua and Elizabeth where married in Winchester, Va as well.  So part of my family history ties back to Winchester,VA well before any of us thought it did.  Interesting huh?

I think when we go back to Va early this summer I may take some time with the kids and see if we can locate their graves in Winchester and then get can start gathering at least pictures of their headstones for our family ancestory pages.

So below is our Pullen Family Crest.

Spring Break Dud!

Ok so this was supposed to be a fun filled week for the kids and I.  Well at least that is what I had planned.  First, Heather who is becoming her own person asked me if she could go over to her best friends house on Saturday for the night because it was Haylee's birthday.  No problem, I figured I would see her sometime on Sunday evening, so Saturday after cleaning the house, Tiffany, Heather and I get in the van and head to Nolvanville to drop Heather off.  We stayed for a bit and I visited with April, Haylee's Mom and Tiffany hung out with Haylee and Heather for a bit.  Those three together can be total trouble, but it is funny to watch them and hear them together. (Oh yes, when Heather gets home her and I will be sitting down and blogging about her adventure since from the pictures she has sent me she has a lot to tell.)

So after a bit, Tiffany and I head back to Copperas Cove, which is about a 20 minute drive.  We get home cook dinner and hang out and then Tiffany comes running begging to go with her friends to see Alice in Wonderland.  So off she goes.  She is trying hard to grow up with her sister and at times it is cute to watch her, since she is still only 13 and you can still see that she is struggling with wanting to grow up and then at the same time stay a kid too.  Tiffany is the youngest in her class since she was able to skip a year of school a few years back when I decided to home school her.  Although she is 21 months younger than Heather and should be at least 2 years behind her in school she is only 1 year behind and I can totally see her passing Heather in the next few years.  (Here in Texas if I high school student has good grades they can go to the local community college and take classes for dual credits and actually graduate earlier.  This is something I see Tiffany doing since all of her classes right now are too easy for her.)  Sunday morning comes along and Tiffany comes to me and decides that she really wants to go spend the night at Abby's house.  Then Heather calls me and April has invited her to stay with them this week.  So now it is Sunday afternoon and I went from having 3 kids to only having 1.  No problem, change of plans and Alex and I decide to have a Star Wars date.  We watched all 6 movies.

In the mean time Mom has not been feeling well at all so we have not seen much of her.  Monday comes along and bang!  I wake with the most horrible headache and body aches.  Great!!  So Alex being a trooper heads out to play with his friends leaving the house quiet.  All I can think of is take meds, keep the house dark and in a few hours I will be fine.  Yeahhh right.  By the time Mom gets home from work, which was odd because she is rarely home before 7pm and she came in at 5, I still am not feeling well.  Thank goodness there were plenty of left overs in the frig because I really didn't want to cook.  I heated up something for Alex to eat and then Tiffany came in and I made sure she ate, woke Jon up for work and I went back to the couch.

Tiffany got up in the morning, made sure her chores were done and then off she went to another girlfriend's house for the night.  (My kids don't get to spend the night at friends very much because I am very strict with them so any chance they get they do.)  Alex now is not feeling well either.  So he and I curl up on the couches and nurse our headaches and I making sure he takes his asthma meds every four hours and we watch tv.  To our surprize again Mom comes home early only this time she is home at 430pm.  She came in said hi and off to bed she went.  Yep Mom is sick.  So I go in and make sure she has Theraflu, Nyquil and fluids and off I go to the couch again, not before taking some of the same stuff and again making sure Alex has his meds too.  Oh yeah and we all got a round of excedrin.

Wednesday, Alex seems to be feeling better, I do too.  Next, thing I know Mom calls at 1130, she says she is not feeling well and is on her way home, but she wants to go to Fort Hood to drop off some things first and for us to be ready.  Hmmm, I tell Alex and we talk about trying to go see some of the museums on Fort Hood while we are there since there is a ton.

 Well we got to go by one of the Memorials that is up that has names of two of our friends that died in Iraq

(Jon's Best Friend, SSG Bryant Mackey and CPT Inman) but that was about all we went to see since all three of us were really feeling crappy and had headaches.

Then today, well almost feeling better.  I finished Tiffany's blanket that I have been working on.  I think it looks great and it was something that my Grandma Sally taught me to do.




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I still have a headache but at least the body aches are starting to get better.  Mom is back to herself and since hers actually started over the weekend maybe Alex and I will be better this weekend.  Just in time to see Texas get more Snow!

Yes, that is S-N-O-W in Texas!

This post is late, but then again I just started blogging and saw all these great pictures to blog about so I decided that the next few posts I was going to go back in time a bit and blog about them and post them.

Now most of my family lives back east and although snow is no big deal to them, as ya'll get it every winter, it is something when it happens here.  This year has really been something for us here in Central Texas.  First, when the weatherman says we are going to get snow, everyone here in this house starts making jokes about it because snow is not something we see often and it really has never snowed enough for us to make anything out of it.

Now this year Mother Nature decided she was tired of us laughing and really decided to show us just what can happen here in when she decides we have laughed at her enough.  For all of us in this house this was not a lot of snow, but living here where it seems like no one knows what to do when it snows can be interesting.  First, the weatherman stays we are going to get upwards of 4 inches of snow.  Well we ended up getting 6 inches.  It had not started snowing when we sent the kids to school, but by 10am schools were starting to close and the roads were getting bad since Central Texas does not get snow often they are not as prepared for it as they are back east and we do not have salt trucks or things like that here.  So after it started snowing things started shutting down.  It snowed for several hours and then it stopped in the early afternoon.

As you can see the kids had a blast and at least our kids have not forgotten what it is like to play in the snow.  One thing that I did think about when looking at these pictures was just how creative Alex can be.  Here we do not have sleds and really no place to go to buy any since it does not ever snow in Texas.  The kids have this HUGE hill around the corner and they wanted to go sledding so since they did not have a sled to use they came home and asked if they could borrow some lids from my huge plastic storage containers.  LOL!  This pictures are priceless!

Just to let you know by the next afternoon, you could not even tell it had snowed 6 inches the day before.  That is Texas for ya!

My thoughts, and thanks

As I was sitting here I realized that I did not give credit where credit is really do.  I wanted to take a moment and thank my step Mom, Liz, for showing me the world of blogging and how easy it can be as well as a great way to keep family and friends included in our lives even though we are so far away.

Liz, thank you for what I see as a great hi tech gift.  I hope that my blogging can enlighten others from time to time as yours has for me.  I also hope that it becomes a way to reconnect with family and a way for me to include them in my lives, just as yours has.

I also wanted to thank my Dad. January was a very hard month for our family as a whole and yet in the worst part of it there was so much enlightenment and growth.  I am so grateful for my Dad having the ability to get me home when I needed to be there the most.  It was also a time for new beginnings.

I want to thank my Mom for her understanding and patience.  Heavenly Father, truly knows us all and he knew that when it came to patience boy was my Mom going to need it.  She spent her time raising her children and now she lives with me and is helping me to raise mine.  Heavenly Father knows that it does take a village to raise a child and on some days in my family it takes and army. (LOL.)

My step Dad Rob, thank you for your understanding.


I once heard that in our darkest hours there is always a light for us lit, it is just up to us to be willing to look for that light.  I believe I have finally learned what that meant in my own way.

I believe that most of us think about thanking our parents and most of us take the time to do so even if it is only on that one day a year that is put asside for Father's Day and Mother's Day.  I have had my fair share of taking my parents for granted as I think most people do.  As an adult child, I think we have grown up with our parents and just take it for granted that they know we love them, and are grateful for everything they have done, sacrificed and so on.  I can attest as a parent myself now that there are times that a parent just feels like their kids have no idea what life would be like if we weren't there to make sure the puzzle pieces fit so to speak.

I was one of those kids that had more than one set of parents.  Something that is all too common in the world today, but again there is light.  All four parents have brought different things and experiences into my life as well as the lives of my own children. I was told once that you know you are a good parent when you learn from your parents mistakes and set out to make your own.  I don't necessarily agree with this statement, but I can see what they were talking about.  I think as the oldest child in my family and the one that has the oldest children that I have made some of the same mistakes as my parents, but I have also made mistakes that are all my own as well.  It took me a long time to get my own footing in this world and like everyone else I have a lot of things that I can look back on that given another chance I may or may not have done again.  There is one thing that I learned from all my parents that I am so grateful for and I hope that I can pass on to my own children.  That is this: Each one of us is given life by our Heavenly Father, he entrusted us to those that raised and help to raise us.  We are only with those parental figures for a short time and they have a lot to teach us in that time.  Then it becomes our time to go out into the world and learn who we are, what we want in live and to begin to live our own lives.  No one is ever going to make everyone happy, but that is why Heavenly Father also gave us forgiveness and understanding.

I am sure that as the years go on each one of my brothers and sisters will agree with me that we each are grateful for our parents for many things.  The most important thing that they all have given to each one of us kids is their love and understanding even when we don't think we deserve it.  I hope that when my children grow up they look back with the same understanding, love and compassion that I have for each of my parents.  Heavenly Father must a thought I was very special to be given 4 parents! Thank you to each of you!  And know that I love each one of you even if I don't tell you enough as I know I don't.  I love you!